to the conclusion that the religious organization and ceremonies of
this people have reached a higher development than is found among the
near-by tribes, and that this complexity decreases as we penetrate
toward the interior or to the south. In the main the folk-tales are
closely associated with the religious beliefs of the present day,
and hence it seems unlikely that they will be found, in anything
approaching their present form, far outside the districts dominated
by this tribe. Nevertheless, isolated incidents corresponding to those
of neighboring peoples, or even of distant lands, occur several times.

In the following pages an attempt has been made to bring together the
culture of this people, as it appears in the myths, and to contrast
it to present day conditions and beliefs. In this way we may hope to
gain a clearer insight into their mental life, and to secure a better
idea of the values they attach to certain of their activities than
is afforded us by actual observation or by direct inquiry. It is also
possible that the tales may give us a glimpse of the early conditions
under which this people developed, of their life and culture before
the advent of the European.

It should be noted at the outset that no attempt is here made to
reconstruct an actual historical period. As will appear later, a
part of the material is evidently very old; later introductions--to
which approximate dates may be assigned--have assumed places of great
importance; while the stories doubtless owe much to the creative
imaginations of successive story tellers.

For the purposes of our study, the tales have been roughly divided
into three parts. The first, which deals with the mythical period,
contains thirty-one tales of similar type in which the characters