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Show 2 3 4 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ ETH. ANN. 19 Mexico, Washington, and southern Alaska- wherever, in fact, the pinon or the pine supplies enough gum to be molded into a ball for Indian uses- while the incident of the RaJ> bit dining the Bear is found with nearly every tribe from Nova Scotia to the Pacific. The idea that such stories are necessarily of negro origin is due largely to the common but mistaken notion that the Indian has no sense of humor. In many cases it is not necessary to assume borrowing from either side, the myths being such as would naturally spring up in any part of the world among primitive people accustomed to observe the characteristics of animals, which their religious system regarded as differing in no essential from human kind, save only in outward form. Thus in Europe and America the terrapin has been accepted as the type of plodding slowness, while the rabbit, with his sudden dash, or the deer with his bounding stride, is the type of speed. What more natural than that the story- teller should set one to race against the other, with the victory in favor of the patient striver against the self- confident boaster? The idea of a hungry wolf or other beast of prey luring his victims by the promise of a new song or dance, during which they must close their eyes, is also one that would easily occur among any primitive people whose chief pastime is dancing. 1 On the other hand, such a conception as that of Flint and the Rabbit could only be the outgrowth of a special cosmogonic theology, though now indeed broken and degraded, and it is probable that many myths told now only for amusement are really worn down fragments of ancient sacred traditions. Thus the story just noted appears in a different dress among the Iroquois as a part of their great creation myth. The Cherokee being a detached tribe of the Iroquois, we may expect to find among the latter, if it be not already too late, the explanation and more perfect statement of some things which are obscure in the Cherokee myths. It must not be forgotten, however, that the Indian, like other men, does some things for simple amusement, and it is useless to look for occult meanings where none exist. Except as to the local traditions and a few others which are obviously the direct outgrowth of Cherokee conditions, it is impossible to fix a definite starting point for the myths. It would be unwise to assert that even the majority of them originated within the tribe. The Cherokee have strains of Creek, Catawba, Uchee, Natchez, Iroquois, Osage, and Shawano blood, and such admixture implies contact more or less intimate and continued. Indians are great wanderers, and a 1 For a presentation of the African and European argument see Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus, introduction, 1883; and Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, introduction, 1886; Gerber, Uncle Remus Traced to the Old World, in Journal of American Folklore, vi, p. 28, October, 1893. In regard to tribal dissemination of myths see Boas, Dissemination of Tales among the Natives of North America, in Journal of American Folklore, IV. p. 12, January, 1891: TheGrowthof Indian Mythologies, in the same journal, ix, p. 32, January 1896; Northern Elements in the Mythology of the Navaho, in American Anthropologist, x, p. 11, November, 1897; introduction to Teit's Traditions of the Thompson River Indians. 18iW. Pr Boas has probably devoted more study to the subject than any other anthropologist, and his personal observations include tribes from the Arctic regions to* the Columbia. |