AMERICAN INDIAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 October 1928, Page 8

AMERICAN INDIAN

TREASURE CHEST OF LEGEND. I i America lias 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 tribes, there is one of the most extensive collection of Indian literature. It is housed in the University of California Museum of Anthroplogy m Berkeley, and in the university s museum, building 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 m the museum Dr E. W. Gilford, curator, selected more than tjurty-five stories which he declares challenge comparison with the best fairy tales and myths of European origin. These are tales that were told by Indian mothers to amuse their children in rainy weather, around the camp fire or in the tepee. They were 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. For the beautiful legend of Prometheus there, is the Indian fire-bringer whose exploits are recounted in Jhe Theft of the Fire,” .“The Theft of the Sun,” and the “Burning of the World.” Fables like “How the Chipmunk Got His Stripes,” “How the Robin Got His Red Breast,’ ‘The RaceBetween the Deer and the Antelope, “The Dove and the Falcon,” and “The Fox’s Hunting Trip,” compares favourably with 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-nu, an Indian Ulysses or Sinbad the Sailor, who visited strange lands, met adventures, and despatched terrible animals somewhere iii the high Sierras while making his way from Nevada to California. He had a whole repertoire of exciting songs which the story tellers would inject into their tale and sing with much gusto. Transcriptions of these songs are on phonograph records in the university museum. Among many tales of this type are “The Rolling Skull,” which is more hair-raising than the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and “The Electric Meteor of Mt- Jan Jacinto.”

The Indian hero always has supernatural powers and in a sense embodies the Inidan .ideal; for instance, by placing the raging bruins on fihe tip of a tall pine tree, bending it to fTie ground and letting it snap. Thus he cleared them from his path and 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 JWasho Indians of Minden, Nev. This myth was obtained with several others from two old Indians of Minden, Blincj. Mike and Bill Fillmore, and was transl lated witih the help of a young Washo, Henry Moses Rupert. Miss Grace Dangberg, who was then a. graduate student of the University of California, gathered this material in the summers of 1919 and 1920, and in addition to recording the myths she obtained data on structure and vocabulary of the little-known Washo langauge. In publishing the myth in a series of- publications on. American archaeIcxgy .and ethnology, Miss Dangberg placed 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 could 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 t.o write these tales for the plot alone, as many have done in the past; the story is the thing, hut not the whole thing, if modern listeners are to experience the pleasure of these first Americans as they gathered round the camp fire and listened to the skilled storyteller recount his store of tales; the writer must strive for the same musical effects and the same simplicity of style.