The Myths of the North American Indians Part 43

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"They do not seem in any of their various tribes to have a single expressed idea with regard to a supreme power. The Loucheux branch recognize a certain personage, resident in the moon, whom they supplicate for success in starting on a hunting expedition. This being once lived among them as a poor ragged boy that an old woman had found and was bringing up; and who made himself ridiculous to his fellows by making a pair of very large snow-shoes; for the people could not see what a starveling like him should want with shoes of such unusual size.

Times of great scarcity troubled the hunters, and they would often have fared badly had they not invariably on such occasions come across a new broad trail that led to a head or two of freshly killed game. They were glad enough to get the game and without scruples as to its appropriation; still they felt curious as to whence it came and how.

Suspicion at last pointing to the boy and his great shoes as being in some way implicated in the affair, he was watched. It soon became evident that he was indeed the benefactor of the Loucheux, and the secret hunter whose quarry had so often replenished their empty pots; yet the people were far from being adequately grateful, and continued to treat him with little kindness or respect. On one occasion they refused him a certain piece of fat--him who had so often saved their lives by his timely bounty! That night the lad disappeared, leaving only his clothes behind, hanging on a tree. He returned to them in a month, however, appearing as a man, and dressed as a man. He told them that he had taken up his home in the moon; that he would always look down with a kindly eye to their success in hunting; but he added that as a punishment for their shameless greed and ingrat.i.tude in refusing him the piece of fat, all animals {358} should be lean the long winter through, and fat only in summer; as has since been the case.

"According to Hearne, the Tinneh believe in a kind of spirits, or fairies, called _nantena_, which people the earth, the sea, and the air, and are instrumental for both good and evil. Some of them believe in a good spirit called Tihugun, 'my old friend,' supposed to reside in the sun and in the moon; they have also a bad spirit, Chutsain, apparently only a personification of death, and for this reason called bad.

"They have no regular order of _shamans_; any one when the spirit moves him may take upon himself their duties and pretensions, though some by happy chances, or peculiar cunning, are much more highly esteemed in this regard than others, and are supported by voluntary contributions.

The conjurer often shuts himself in his tent and abstains from food for days till his earthly grossness thins away, and the spirits and things unseen are constrained to appear at his behest. The young Tinneh care for none of these things; the strong limb and the keen eye, holding their own well in the jostle of life, mock at the terrors of the invisible; but as the pulses dwindle with disease or age, and the knees strike together in the shadow of impending death, the _shaman_ is hired to expel the evil things of which a patient is possessed. Among the Tacullies a confession is often resorted to at this stage, on the truth and accuracy of which depend the chances of a recovery."

Conclusion

In concluding this survey of representative myths of the Red Race of North America, the reader will probably be chiefly impressed with the circ.u.mstance that although many of these tales exhibit a striking {359} resemblance to the myths of European and Asiatic peoples they have yet an atmosphere of their own which strongly differentiates them from the folk-tales of all other races. It is a truism in mythology that although the tales and mythological systems of peoples dwelling widely apart may show much likeness to one another, such a resemblance cannot be advanced as a proof that the divergent races at some distant period possessed a common mythology. Certain tribes in Borneo live in huts built on piles driven into lake-beds and use blow-pipes; so do some Indians of Guiana and contiguous countries; yet no scientist of experience would be so rash as to advance the theory that these races possessed a common origin. It is the same with mythological processes, which may have been evolved separately at great distances, but yet exhibit a marked likeness. These resemblances arise from the circ.u.mstance that the mind of man, whether he be situated in China or Peru, works on surprisingly similar lines. But, as has been indicated, the best proof that the myths of North America have not been sophisticated by those of Europe and Asia is the circ.u.mstance that the aboriginal atmosphere they contain is so marked that even the most superficial observer could not fail to observe its presence. In the tales contained in this volume the facts of Indian life, peculiar and unique, enter into every description and are inalienably interwoven with the matter of the story.

In closing, the author desires to make a strong appeal for a reasoned and charitable consideration of the Indian character on the part of his readers. This n.o.ble, manly, and dignified race has in the past been grossly maligned, chiefly by persons themselves ignorant and inspired by hereditary dislike. The Red Man is neither a monster of inhumanity nor a marvel {360} of cunning, but a being with like feelings and aspirations to our own. Because his customs and habits of thought differ from ours he has been charged with all manner of crimes and offences with which he has, in general, nothing to do. We do not deny that he was, till very recent times, a savage, with the habits and outlook of a savage. But that he ever was a demon in human shape must be strenuously denied. In the march of progress Indian men and women are to-day taking places of honour and emolument side by side with their white fellow-citizens, and many gifted and cultured persons of Indian blood have done good work for the race. Let us hope that the ancient virtues of courage and endurance which have stood the Indian people in such good stead of old will a.s.sist their descendants in the even more strenuous tasks of civilization to which they are now called.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP TO ILl.u.s.tRATE LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS]

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

The annexed bibliography, although full, is far from being exhaustive, but it is hoped that readers who desire to follow up the whole or any separate department of study connected with the Red Race of North America will find in it reference to many useful volumes. It is claimed that the list represents the best of the literature upon the subject.

ADAIR, JAMES: _The History of the American Indians_. London, 1775.

AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY: _Transactions and Collections (Archaelogia Americana)_, vols. i.-vii.; Worcester, 1820-85. _Proceedings_, various numbers.

_American Archaeologist_ (formerly _The Antiquarian_), vol. ii., Columbus. 1898.

AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY. _Transactions_, vols. i.-iii.; New York, 1845-53. _Publications_, vols. i.-ii.; Leyden, 1907-9.

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. _Minutes and Proceedings: Digest_, vol. i.; Philadelphia, 1744-1838. _Proceedings_, vols. i.-xliv.; Philadelphia, 1838-1905. _Transactions_, vols. i.-vi.; Philadelphia, 1759-1809. _Transactions_, New Series, vols. i.-xix.; Philadelphia, 1818-98.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. _Transactions_, vols. i.-iii.

Washington, 1881-85.

ARCHaeOLOGICAL INSt.i.tUTE OF AMERICA. _Papers_, American Series, vol.

i., Boston and London, 1881 (reprinted 1883); vol. iii., Cambridge, 1890; vol. iv., Cambridge, 1892; vol. v., Cambridge, 1890. _Annual Report_, first to eleventh; Cambridge, 1880-90. _Bulletin_, vol. i.; Boston, 1883.

ASHE, THOMAS: _Travels in America performed in 1806; for the purpose of exploring the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, and ascertaining the Produce and Condition of their Banks and Vicinity_.

London, 1808.

At.w.a.tER, CALEB: _Description of the Antiquities discovered in the State of Ohio and other Western States_. (In _Archaeologia Americana_, vol.

i., 1820.)

BACON, OLMER N.: _A History of Natick, from its First Settlement in 1651 to the Present Time_. Boston, 1856.

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BAEGERT, JACOB: _An Account of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the California Peninsula_. Translated by Charles Rau. (Smithsonian Report for 1863 and 1864; reprinted 1865 and 1875.)

BAKER, C. ALICE: _True Stories of New England Captives_. Cambridge, 1897.

BANCROFT, GEORGE: _History of the United States_. 9 vols. Boston, 1838-75.

BANCROFT, HUBERT HOWE: Works. 39 vols. San Francisco, 1886-90. (vols.

i.-v., _Native Races_; vi.-vii., _Central America_; ix.-xiv., _North Mexican States and Texas_; xvii., _Arizona and New Mexico_; xviii.-xxiv., _California_; xxv., _Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming_; xxvi., _Utah_; xxvii.-xxviii., _North-west Coast_; xxix.-x.x.x., _Oregon_; x.x.xi., _Washington, Idaho, Montana_; x.x.xii., _British Columbia_; x.x.xiii., _Alaska_; x.x.xiv., _California Pastoral_; x.x.xv., _California inter Pocula_; x.x.xvi.-x.x.xvii., _Popular Tribunals_; x.x.xviii., _Essays and Miscellany_; x.x.xix., _Literary Industries_.)

BANDELIER, ADOLF F.: _Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico_. (_Papers_ of the Archaeological Inst.i.tute of America, American Series, vol. i., Boston, 1881.)

---- _Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the South-western United States, carried on mainly in the Years from 1880 to 1885_. (_Papers_ of the Archaeological Inst.i.tute of America, American Series, vol. iii., Cambridge, 1890; vol. iv., Cambridge, 1892.)

BARRATT, JOSEPH: _The Indian of New England and the North-eastern Provinces: a Sketch of the Life of an Indian Hunter, Ancient Traditions relating to the Etchemin Tribe_, etc. Middletown, Conn., 1851.

BARTON, BENJAMIN S.: _New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America_. Philadelphia, 1797. _Ibid._, 1798.

BARTRAM, JOHN: _Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, and other Matters worthy of Notice made by Mr.

John Bartram, in his Travels from Pensilvania to Onondago, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario in Canada, to which is annexed a Curious Account of the Cataracts of Niagara, by Mr. Peter Kalm_. London, 1751.

BARTRAM, WILLIAM: _Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws_. Philadelphia, 1791. London, 1792.

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BATTEY, THOMAS C.: _Life and Adventures of a Quaker among the Indians_.

Boston and New York, 1875. _Ibid._, 1876.

BEACH, WILLIAM W.: _The Indian Miscellany: containing Papers on the History, Antiquities, Arts, Languages, Religions, Traditions, and Superst.i.tions of the American Aborigines_. Albany, 1877.

BEAUCHAMP, WILLIAM M.: _The Iroquois Trail; or, Footprints of the Six Nations_. Fayetteville, N.Y., 1892.

BELL, A. W.: _On the Native Races of New Mexico_. (_Journal_ of the Ethnological Society of London, New Series, vol. i., Session 1868-69; London, 1869.)

BELL, ROBERT: _The Medicine-man; or, Indian and Eskimo Notions of Medicine_. (_Canada Medical and Surgical Journal_, Montreal, March-April, 1886.)

BLISS, EUGENE F. (Editor): _Diary of David Zeisberger, a Moravian Missionary among the Indians of Ohio_. 2 vols. Cincinnati, 1885.

BOAS, FRANZ: _Songs and Dances of the Kwakiutl_. (_Journal of American Folk-lore_, vol. i.; Boston, 1888.)

---- _Chinook Texts_. (_Bulletin 20_, Bureau of American Ethnology; Washington, 1895.)

---- _The Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians_. (Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. ii., _Anthropology_, i.; New York, 1898.)