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.

A comparison of these tales with the folk-lore of neighboring tribes
would be of greatest value, but unfortunately very little material
for such a study is available. Under the circumstances it has seemed
best to defer the attempt and to call attention in the footnotes to
striking similarities with other fields.

In the main these tales are so closely associated with the religious
beliefs of the present day that it is unlikely they will be found,
in anything approaching their present form, outside the districts
dominated by this tribe. Nevertheless, isolated incidents corresponding
to those of neighboring peoples or even of distant lands occur
several times.

Observation has led me to the belief that the religious organization
and ceremonies of the Tinguian have reached a higher development
than is found among the neighboring tribes, and that this complexity