posterity. Archaeology is as yet in its very beginning; when the
Indians shall have departed it will grow to giant-like proportions, and
every scrap of information relative to them will be eagerly
investigated. And the man does not live who knows what may be made of
it all. I need not say that I should be grateful for such Indian lore
of any kind whatever which may be transmitted to me.

It may very naturally be asked by many how it came to pass that the
Indians of Maine and of the farther north have so much of the Edda in
their sagas; or, if it was derived through the Eskimo tribes, how these
got it from Norsemen, who were professedly Christians. I do not think
that the time has come for fully answering the first question. There is
some great mystery of mythology, as yet unsolved, regarding the origin
of the Edda and its relations with the faiths and folk-lore of the
elder Shamanic beliefs, such as Lapp, Finn, Samoyed, Eskimo, and
Tartar. This was the world's first religion; it is found in the
so-called Accadian Turanian beginning of Babylon, whence it possibly
came from the West. But what we have here to consider is whether the
Norsemen did directly influence the Eskimo and Indians. Let us first
consider that these latter were passionately fond of stories, and that
they had attained to a very high standard of culture as regards both
appreciation and invention. They were as fond of recitations as any
white man is of reading. Their memories were in this respect very
remarkable indeed. They have taken into their repertory during the past
two hundred years many French fairy tales, through the Canadians. Is it
not likely that they listened to the Northmen?

It is not generally noted among our learned men how long the Icelanders
remained in Greenland, how many stories are still told of them by the
Eskimo, or to what extent the Indians continue to mingle with the