tailieunhanh - THE MYTH OF HIAWATHA, AND OTHER ORAL LEGENDS, MYTHOLOGIC AND ALLEGORIC, OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS

Permit me to dedicate to you, this volume of Indian myths and legends, derived from the story-telling circle of the native wigwams. That they indicate the possession, by the Vesperic tribes, of mental resources of a very characteristic kind—furnishing, in fact, a new point from which to judge the race, and to excite intellectual sympathies, you have most felicitously shown in your poem of Hiawatha. Not only so, but you have demonstrated, by this pleasing series of pictures of Indian life, sentiment, and invention, that the theme of the native lore reveals one of the true sources of our. | THE MYTH OF HIAWATHA AND OTHER ORAL LEGENDS MYTHOLOGIC AND ALLEGORIC OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. By HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT . PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO. LONDON TRUBNER CO. 1856. Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1856 by HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. TO PROF. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. SIR Permit me to dedicate to you this volume of Indian myths and legends derived from the story-telling circle of the native wigwams. That they indicate the possession by the Vesperic tribes of mental resources of a very characteristic kind furnishing in fact a new point from which to judge the race and to excite intellectual sympathies you have most felicitously shown in your poem of Hiawatha. Not only so but you have demonstrated by this pleasing series of pictures of Indian life sentiment and invention that the theme of the native lore reveals one of the true sources of our literary independence. Greece and Rome England and Italy have so long furnished if they have not exhausted the field of poetic culture that it is at least refreshing to find both in theme and metre something new. Very truly yours HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. PREFACE. There is but one consideration of much moment necessary to be premised respecting these legends and myths. It is this they are versions of oral relations from the lips of the Indians and are transcripts of the thought and invention of the aboriginal mind. As such they furnish illustrations of Indian character and opinions on subjects which the ever-cautious and suspicious minds of this people have heretofore concealed. They place the man altogether in a new phasis. They reflect him as he is. They show us what he believes hopes fears wishes expects worships lives for dies for. They are always true to the Indian manners and customs opinions and theories. They never rise above them they never sink below them. Placing him in .