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changes of the moon ? are stars and constellations imagined to 
he living beings ? are there stories of rainbows, thunder and 
lightning, winds, whirlpools, rivers, volcanos, &c., as being ani¬ 
mate beings P 7. Are there any native riddles in connexion 
with such subjects? 
8. Are stories which seem myths told to account for events, 
such as peculiar customs, the invention of arts, the prevalence 
of certain plants or animals, &c. ? in short, are fanciful tales 
told to account for all sorts of things in nature and life ? 9. 
Are there eponymic heroes, i. e. names of a mythic chief or 
ancestor, devised to account for the names of tribes, like Danaos 
as the ancestor of the Danaoi or Greeks, or Albion of our own 
countrymen ? 10. Are stories told to explain etymologically 
the names of places or objects? 11. Are there geological 
myths accounting for large fossil bones, as relics of giants, or 
for shells on mountains by legends of a deluge, or other philo¬ 
sophical myths of this class ? 12. Are there stories of men 
being descended or developed from apes or apes from men, of 
transformation of men into animals, of monstrous tribes of men, 
one-eyed, great-eared, tailed, giants and dwarfs, &c. ? 13. If 
so, is there reason to suppose these stories told metaphorically 
or exaggeratively of real tribes of men ? 14. Are beast-fables 
told, i. e. stories of talking birds and beasts, and their adventures ? 
15. Are any stories, allegories, or parables told in order to teach 
some moral lesson ? 
16. Do any of the native stories contain episodes which seem 
as though they might have been learnt from modern Europeans, 
e. g. mentions of guns or of writing, stories of devils with horns, 
fragments of ^Esop’s fables, or other European notions, familiar 
Scripture stories, &c. ? 17. Are there any similar touches 
which betray contact with Mohammedans or Buddhists ? 18. 
Apart from these, are stories current which have a resemblance 
to well-known classical or folk-lore mythology, but may have 
a distinct or independent origin ? 19. Are there episodes which 
resemble ‘ Jack and the Beanstalk/ ‘ Bed Biding Hood/ &c. ? 
20. Are there traditions of a river of death, a bridge across the 
sky where souls pass, a universal deluge? 21. Is there any 
legend current of the origin of Man, the introduction of language, 
houses, war, civilization ? 22. Are the gods of old time related 
to have come on earth and had dealings with mankind ? 23. 
Do the legends of the people go back to a golden age or divine- 
human period, when wonders happened which have now ceased, 
and when the ancestors of men had knowledge, powers, and 
happiness now lost ? 
