The Myths of the North American Indians — Text and Context

I. Divisions, Customs, and History of the Race II. The Mythologies of the North American Indians III. Algonquian Myths and Legends IV. Iroquois Myths and Legends V. Sioux Myths and Legends VI. Myths and Legends of the Pawnees VII. Myths And Legends of the Northern and North-western Indians Bibliography Glossary and Index

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Sîñ takes the Form of a Woodpecker . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

An Elderly Omaha Beau

Omaha Woman's Costume

Adventure with a Totem

Indian Picture-writing: A Petroglyph in Nebraska

The Lenâpé come to the Place of Caves

"Glooskap brought all his magical resources to his aid"

"He descried a great _tepee_"

Algon carries the Captured Maiden Home to his Lodge

Moowis has melted in the Sun

"He rode down the wind"

"'Will you carry us over the river?' she asked"

"He poised his spear and struck the girdle"

"Gazing downward, she saw the camp of the Blackfeet"

"He suddenly assumed the shape of a gigantic porcupine"

"'I see thee! I see thee! Thou shalt die'"

"He lit the pipe and placed it in the mouth of the skeleton"

"'Grow larger, my kettle!'"

"She sang a strange, sweet song"

"Soon the dancing commenced"

"He jumped so high that every bone in his body was shaken"

The War-chief kills the Monster Rattlesnake

"He leaned his shoulder against the rock"

"With one great step he reached the distant headland"

"They arrived at the abode of the Water-god"

"He emerged in his own country"

"Everything happened as the Man of Wood had predicted"

"Once more the Rabbit entered, disguised as a man"

"He seized hold of the hair"

A Fishing Expedition in Shadowland

"The mists came down, and with them the Supernatural People"

MAP SHOWING THE LINGUISTIC STOCKS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS

CHAPTER I: DIVISIONS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY OF THE RACE

The First Indians in Europe

Almost immediately upon the discovery of the New World its inhabitants became a source of the greatest interest to all ranks and classes among the people of Europe. That this should have been so is not a little surprising when we remember the ignorance which prevailed regarding the discovery of the new hemisphere, and that in the popular imagination the people of the new-found lands were considered to be inhabitants of those eastern countries which European navigation had striven so long and so fruitlessly to reach. The very name 'Indian' bestowed upon the men from the islands of the far western ocean proves the ill-founded nature and falsity of the new conditions which through the discovery of Columbus were imposed upon the science of geography. Why all this intense and vivid interest in the strange beings whom the Genoese commander carried back with him as specimens of the population of the new-found isles? The Spaniards were accustomed to the presence and sight of Orientals. They had for centuries dwelt side by side with a nation of Eastern speech and origin, and the things of the East held little of novelty for them. Is it not possible that the people, by reason of some natural motive difficult of comprehension, did not credit in their hearts the scientific conclusions of the day? Something deeper and more primitive than science was at work in their minds, and some profound human instinct told them that the dusky and befeathered folk they beheld in the triumphal procession of the Discoverer were not the inhabitants of an Orient with which they were more or less familiar, but {2} erstwhile dwellers in a mystic continent which had been isolated from the rest of mankind for countless centuries.

There are not wanting circumstances which go far to prove that instinct, brushing aside the conclusions of science, felt that it had rightly come upon the truth. The motto on the arms granted to Columbus is eloquent of the popular feeling when it states,

To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world,

and the news was greeted in London with the pronouncement that it seemed "a thing more divine than human"--a conclusion which could scarcely have been arrived at if it was considered that the reaching of the farthest Orient point alone had been achieved.

The primitive and barbarous appearance of the Indians in the train of Columbus deeply impressed the people of Spain. The savage had before this event been merely "a legendary and heraldic animal like the griffin and the phoenix." In the person of the Indian he was presented for the first time to the astonished gaze of a European people, who were quick to distinguish the differences in feature and general appearance between the Red Man and the civilized Oriental--although his resemblance to the Tartar race was insisted upon by some early writers.