THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Shannon News, 9 October 1928, Page 4

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

TREASURE CHEST OP LEGEND,

FIRESIDE TALES OF DWINDLING (TRIBES.

America has a vast treasure chest of untouched literature in its possession which will yield' rare material to future story-tellers if they approach anthropologists for the key. This treasure is the great mass of fable, myth, -.and legend which was the literature of the American Indian. At the present time anthropologists are .busy adding to, the store of material, making accurate translations, and seeking to read tribal history in tales of migrations, but the story-teller's work has hardly been touched. On the Pacific Coast, where there are still many descendants of the ancient '.ibes, there is one of the most extensive collections of Indian literature. It is housed in the University of California Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, and in the university's museum buildings in San Francisco. For more than twenty years Dr. A. L. Kroeber, noted anthropologist, and other members of the university staff have visited

Western Indian tribes, collecting song and story material on phonograph records, making dictionaries of Indian tongues, and saving the literature from oblivion by their efforts; for the Indians are scattering, the few descendants are losing their tribal lore, and whole tribes have disappeared since this work was begun. In a recent survey of material in the museum Dr. E. W. # Gifford, curator, Belocted more than 'thirty five stories which he declares challenge comparison with the best fairy tales and myths of European origin. These are tales that -wore told by Indian mothers to amuse their children in rainy weather, around the,camp fire or in the tepee. They wore stories told by professional storytellers, and were so intimately associated with the long winter evenings that many Indians became superstitious about repeating them at any other season.

Counterparts to Old World Legends. For the beautiful legend of Prometheus there is the Indian fire-bringer whose exploits are recounted in "The Theft of the Fire," "The Theft of the Sun," and the "Burning of the World." Fables like "How the Chip munk Got His Stripes," "How the Rbbin Got His Red Breast," "The Race Between the Deer and the Deer and the Antelope," "The Dove and the Falcon," and "The Fox's Hunting Trip" compares favourably wit! those of Aesop. Orpheus, who descended into the underworld to rescue Euridyce, has his

Indian counterpart. Most interesting of all Indian characters, however, is Hai-ni-mi, who visited strange lands,

met ud ventures, and despatched terrible animals somewhere in the high Sierras while making his way from Nevada to California. He had a whole repertoire of exciting songs which the ytorytellers would inject into their tale and sing with much gusto. Transcriptions of these songs are on phono graph records in the university muse um. Among many tales of this type are "The Rolling Skull," which is more hair-raising than the "Legend 0.. Sleepy Hollow," and "The Electric Meteor of M.t. San Jacinto."

Tie Indian hero always has supernatural powers and in a sense embodies the Indian ideal; for instance, by plae ing.'the raging bruins on the tip of a tall pine tree, bending it to the ground and letting it snap Thus he cleared them from his pp.th snd sent the first bears over the mountain to see what they could see. One of the most beautiful of myths

is the creation myth of the Washo Indians of Minden, Nov. This myth was obtained with several others from two

old Indians of Minden, Blind Mike and

Bill Fillmore, and was translated with the help of a young Washo, Henry Moscb Rupert Miss Grace Dangberg, who was then- a graduate student at

the University of California, gathered this' material in the summers of 1919 and 1920, and in addition data on structure and vocabulary of the little-known Washo language , * In publishing the myth in a series of. publications on American archaeology and ethnology, Miss Dangberg pla«ed the Indian version on one page and a literal, primitive English translation on the other Even in this form the myths have a charm and flavour that is easily appreciated; in.character they could be described best as rhythmic prose. 'Artless as they are. the Indian's stories have a simple beauty. With little effort their direct translations eould be rearranged, although to achieve in English the music and simple charm of the original would require more skill. It would be futile for a writer to write these tales for the plot alone, as many have done in the past; the story is the thing, but not the whole thing, if modern listeners aro to experience the pleasure of these first Americans as they gathered around the camp fire and listened to the skilled storyteller recount his store of tales; the writer must strive for the same musicaHJffects and the same simplieity of style. '