INTRODUCTION. 23 
It was customary before the beginning of a tale to offer a sacrifice 
of smoke to all the gods as human beings, addressing them to the effect 
that the teller was about toirelate the story of their life; for these gods 
had said while human beings that if anyone should tell correctly the 
story of their life, such narrators would receive benefit, and that on 
the following day a sign would be given them if they had not mis- 
represented their life, the sign being a light fog early on the following 
‘morning. Should a night of story telling in winter be followed by a 
day of excessive cold it would be said that the story teller had not told 
his tale properly, or that he had told a tale which he should not have 
told. At the end of the story the narrator, especially should he have 
followed as nearly as may be in the footsteps of the hero whose life he 
is recounting, often weeps, and the young listeners strike their front 
teeth with the nail of the thumb, thus indicating their desire that their 
teeth may always be sound, and that, having heard the story, they may 
live happily and enjoy good luck and ‘live to old age and do wonderful 
deeds, such as were performed by the hero of the tale. Then followed 
the offering of food and smoke by the narrator to the heroes of the 
tales he had just recounted, the smoke offering being first made. Then, 
taking a pinch of food, he raised it aloft and asked Man-never-known- 
on-Earth to accept the offering. This he now placed at the foot of the 
fire crane. He then offered food to the east to the Morning-Star ; to the 
south to the South-Star, the protector of warriors; to the west, the 
home of the meteors; to the north to the Pole-Star and the Seven; and 
then to Mother-Earth. 
In general, it may be said that the object of relating stories of 
ancient times was that the listeners might have recalled for them the 
fact that evil creatures and monsters, and in general the evil spirits of 
the world no longer exist; that they were removed from the earth; 
that their destructive powers were taken from them by Wonderful- 
Man, who knew that the world was changing, so that human being's 
might be human beings and animals exist as animals, to serve as food 
for man. But above all, the value of the stories for the young, lay in 
the lesson taught by example that bravery and greatness were some- 
thing which depended upon individual effort, no matter how low or 
mean might have been his origin, and at the same time, that there 
might descend upon him the same longevity and good fortune as was 
possessed by the hero of the tale. 
