Book Description

Excerpt from The Journal of American Folk-Lore, 1911, Vol. 23 The great bulk of our recorded myths, however, were evidently taken in good faith by those who repeated them, and constitute myths in the proper sense of that term. Nevertheless, from our present-day, more comprehensive, scientific standpoint, we know that the major part of these tales records, not objective fact, but subjective belief the popu lar conception Of what ought to have happened, the sense Of poetic jus tice as it existed in the tribe from which it was Obtained. It is true that many such myths, particularly those relating the origin of tribes or families, contain references to real historic events, and hints from which still others may be inferred. Among such references I may cite the north ward migration Oi part Of the Tlingit Indians of Alaska, the movement of the Tsimshian to the coast, of most Of the trans-mississippi Siouan tribes from the east, and Of the Muskhogean tribes the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creeks, and their allies from the west. Such, however, are very meagre, and appear only as occasional flashes of objective reality through a subjective haze. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.