332. “Similar conceptions,” observes Professor Bastian, “repeat
themselves, under fixed laws, in localities wide apart, in ages far
remote.”—_Grundzüge der Ethnologie_, p. 73.
[8] E. M. Curr, _The Australian Race_, vol. i., p. 50.
[9] W. P. Clark, U. S. A., _Indian Sign Language_, p. 241.
[10] This subject is fully discussed by Flügel, _Zeit. für.
Völkerpsychologie_, Bd. xi.; by Prof. James Sully in his _Studies of
Childhood_; and by Dr. Friedmann, _Centralblatt für Anthropologie_, Bd.
i. The last mentioned argues that the mind of the savage has more points
of resemblance to the insane than to the child mind. The higher emotional
susceptibility of savages can be illustrated by abundant examples.
[11] _Ethnography and Philology of the United States Exploring
Expedition_, p. 108.
[12] The case was not exceptional. Among several tribes it was an
established custom for a mother to kill and eat her first child, as
it was believed to strengthen her for later births. See examples in
_Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie_, Bd. xiv., pp. 460, _sq._
[13] Palmer in _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. xiii., pp. 294, 399.
[14] Professor Sayce believes that the Sumerian of ancient Babylonia was
genderless; and that the local gods were first endowed with sex on being
adopted by the Semites.—_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 176.
[15] Cuoq, _Lexique Algonquine_, p. 21, note.
[16] _The Golden Bough_, Preface.
[17] Ed. Clodd, _Myths and Dreams_, p. 168.
[18] Besides the general works on Egyptian religion, I may note R.
Pietschmann, “Aegypt. Fetischdienst und Götterglaube,” in _Zeitschrift
für Ethnologie_, Bd. x., s. 153, _sq._ He points out that there was no
unity in the ancient cults of Egypt, as the gods were those of the nomes
only. The worship of Osiris did not prevail generally till after the
sixth dynasty (p. 165).
[19] Some have explained superstition as “degenerate religion”; others
as “religious error”; others (Pfleiderer) as “a pathological condition
of normal belief”; but all such definitions depend on the view-point. As
Roskoff remarks: “The man who is plunged in superstition is sure to hold
it for the only true faith, and is contented with it so long as he is not
troubled with doubts.”—_Das Religionswesen der Naturvölker_, p. 17.
[20] See T. Rhys Davids, _Indian Buddhism_, p. 29 (Hibbert Lectures), and
in the first volume of the present series of lectures.
[21] Death was to the Roman the _somnum eternale_. Prof. Sayce remarks
of the ancient Chaldeans that they had no definite belief in an after
life.—_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 358.
[22] The question has been carefully examined by G. Roskoff in his
work _Das Religionswesen der Rohesten Naturvölker_ (Leipzig, 1880). He
conclusively refutes the assertions that tribes have been encountered
without religion.
[23] Calloway, _Religious System of the Amazulus_, p. 113.
[24] Rev. W. Y. Turner in _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_, vol. vii., p. 492.
[25] _Medicine Men of the Apache_, pp. 499, 500.
[26] The question is carefully discussed by Hoernes, _Urgeschichte des
Menschen_, p. 93, _sq._, who disputes Mortillet’s opinion. The latter is
given in his _Préhistorique Antiquité de l’Homme_, p. 603, _sq._
[27] _The Descent of Man_, p. 95.
[28] Quoted in _L’Anthropologie_, vol. viii., p. 334.
[29] Granger, _Religion of the Romans_, p. 21; Thiele, _Hist. of the
Egyptian Religion_, Introd.
[30] Dr. Schwaner, in H. Ling Roth, _The Natives of Sarawak_, vol. ii.,
App. p. clxii.
[31] H. Grimme, _Mohammed_, p. 38.
[32] In his Preface to _The Revolt of Islam_.
[33] O. Peschel, _Völkerkunde_, s. 255; F. Ratzel, _Ethnographie_, Bd.
i;—Schurtz, _Catechismus der Völkerkunde_, s. 88.
[34] The eminent anthropologist Broca denied that _religiosity_ is a
distinctive trait of humanity. See further in Hovelacque et Hervé,
_Précis d’Anthropologie_, pp. 634-636.
[35] _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, vol. i., chap. xi.
[36] _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 328. Darwin has a parallel passage, _Descent
of Man_, p. 95.
[37] “Everything, animate or inanimate, which has an independent being,
or can be individualised, possesses a spirit, or, more properly, a shade
(_idahi_, a shadow, or reflection).” Washington Matthews, _Ethnog. of
the Hidatsa_, p. 48. This expresses the general _Weltanschauung_ of the
savage mind. Let it be remembered that it is also characteristic of the
poetic, or personifying representation of nature, and thus belongs to the
highest artistic expressions of the human mind as well as to its feeblest
utterances.
[38] This was the universal opinion of classical antiquity. See Payne
Knight, _Ancient Art_, p. 45. It was also the orthodox theory of the
early Church concerning the redeemed soul. It “will know all things
as God doth. Whatsoever is in Heaven and whatsoever is in earth,
everything will he see with that veritable knowledge which nothing
escapeth.”—_Select Works of St. Ephrem the Syrian_, translated by Rev. J.
B. Morris, p. 353.
[39] Ridley, in _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_, vol. ii., p. 269.
[40] Mr. A. E. Gough gives reasons for the opinion that the _yogin_,
who practises the _yoga_, is a lineal follower of the ancient local
shaman.—_Philosophy of the Upanishads_, p. 221.
[41] This curious recent development of most ancient experience is
described by Dr. M. Bucke in the work, _In Re Walt Whitman_.
[42] The phenomena of “demoniac possession” are so remarkable, and so
frequent in lower conditions of culture that they have been defended as
the actual influence of evil spirits by intelligent modern observers
(see the work of Rev. Dr. Nevins, _Demoniac Possession in China_, etc.).
Bishop Calloway says most of the negro converts in Natal have such
attacks after embracing Christianity (_Jour. Anthrop. Society_, vol.
i., p. 171). Brough Smith describes such attacks among the Australians.
Strong men are suddenly seized with violent convulsions. They dance
wildly, scream at the top of their voices, foam at the mouth, and
continue until utterly exhausted. They are homicidal when in this
condition, and their companions fear to approach them (_The Aborigines of
Victoria_, vol. i., p. 466).
[43] The most complete study of this subject in connection with the
development of religions is the work of Dr. Otto Stoll, _Suggestion und
Hypnotismus in der Völkerpsychologie_ (Leipzig, 1894).
[44] Bishop Calloway, in _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_, i., p. 177; and in
his _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 232. The Bushmen explain it
as “a kind of beating of the flesh,” which tells them the future, and
where lost things may be found. They add: “Those who are stupid do not
understand this teaching.”—Bleek, _Bushman Folk-lore_, p. 17.
[45] A. E. Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, p. 243.
[46] Klemm, _Allgemeine Culturgeschichte_, Bd. ii., s. 337; A. M. Curr,
_The Australian Race_, vol. i., p. 48.
[47] Curr notes this among the Australians, _ubi supra_, vol. i., p. 48;
and it is general among American Indians.
[48] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, p. 35.
[49] Middendorf, _Keshua Wörterbuch_, s. v.
[50] _Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science_, 1896. Sect. H.
[51] On the meaning of _huaca_ see von Tschudi, _Beiträge zur Kennt. des
alten Peru_, p. 156; Bertonio, _Vocab. de la Lengua Aymara_, s. v.
[52] The probable identity of Heb. _Iah_ with Chald. _Iah_ is
acknowledged by Pinches, Sayce, and other eminent Assyriologists (see
an article by the former, in the _Proc._ of the Victorian Institute for
1895). That the Greek Iachus is from the Chaldeo-Syrian (as his myth
claims, referring to him as “The Assyrian stranger,” etc., L. Dyer _The
Gods in Greece_, p. 165) was maintained by Herodotus, Macrobius, and
Plutarch, among the ancients, and by various modern authors. It can be
shown, however, that _Yah_ as a name of God was derived from a sacred
interjection or cry of the same phonetic value, which recurs repeatedly
in the cults of America, Polynesia, and Australia. This is also true of
_hua_ or _wa_, the radical of the English “God.” They are both what have
been called “universal” radicals.
[53] Codrington in _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. x., p. 279; Fornander,
_The Polynesian Race_, vol. iii., pp. 225-7. In some dialects _mana_ has
the special meanings, omen; the thunder; the breath; the belly (_i.e._,
the interior), etc. Hale gives the definition “power” as common to all
dialects (_Polynesian Lexicon_, s. v.). Fornander notes the similarity to
Sanscrit, _mana_, _manu_, mind, thought.
[54] I have dwelt on the absence of monotheism among the American tribes
in _Myths of the New World_, p. 75. Dr. Washington Matthews, a most
competent, authority, expresses the universally correct view, when,
speaking of Mahopa, the divine conception of the Hidatsa Indians, he
says: “It refers to an influence or power above all things, but not
attaching to it any ideas of personality.”—_Ethnography of the Hidatsa
Indians_, p. 48.
[55] Klemm, _Culturgeschichte_, Bd. ii., s. 338; L. M. Turner, _The
Hudson Bay Eskimos_, p. 272; von den Steinen, _Die Naturvölker
Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 340. Among the Australians, both men and women
become “doctors” or shamans by dreaming.—Curr, _The Australian Race_,
vol., ii., p. 74.
[56] These are called “hypnogogic hallucinations.” They have been studied
by Maury, _Annales Medico-psychologiques_, tome xi., p. 252, _sq._
[57] This point is discussed by Professor Granger, _Worship of the
Romans_, pp. 28, _sq._
[58] Bishop Calloway describes the regimen adopted to become inspired
among the Zulus, in _Jour. Anthrop. Soc._, vol. i., p. 175. Among the
Dyaks of Borneo the ceremony is called _nampok_, and its conditions are:
1. To be alone; 2. To pass the night on a mountain top; 3. To offer a
sacrifice and call for the god. Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, vol. i.,
p. 185.
[59] I have treated this question at some length in my _Myths of the New
World_, p. 314, and _Nagualism_, p. 7, _sq._
[60] I have given a translation of it in _Essays of an Americanist_, p.
293.
[61] A. E. Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, p. 237. The Mexican
adjurations referred to are given by Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva España_,
lib. x., cap. 29.
[62] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_, pp. 28, 34. The
concrete meaning of both words is pith, kernel, core, centre, etc.
[63] Hale, _Ethnography of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, p. 55; Klemm,
_Culturgeschichte_, Bd. ii., s. 315; after Stoll. The Algonkian myth
relates that the hero-god Nanabojou could converse with the spirits of
all things, with trees, flowers, butterflies, the thunder, etc. (Clark,
_Indian Sign Language_, p. 113).
[64] Elysée Reclus, _Le Primitif d’Australie_, p. 232.
[65] The Greeks had but vague notions of an after life, and Professor
Schrader remarks: “The cult of the dead has no place in the Homeric
world.” _Prehist. Antiqs. of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 424. The “indigetes
dii” of the Romans were rather heroes than divinities, though Arnobius,
_Adv. Gentes_, lib. i., cap. 64, asserts that they were worshipped.
[66] The most satisfactory recent study on the worship of ancestors and
of the dead, is that by Dr. S. R. Steinmetz in his _Ethnologische Studien
zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe_, Bd. i., ss. 141-287 (Leiden, 1894).
[67] Clark, _Indian Sign Language_, pp. 121, 165, 199, 207, etc.; Howitt
in _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_, vol. xiii., p. 186. If one wakes a sleeper
suddenly, he may die, as his vagrant soul may not get back in time. Von
den Steinen, _Naturvölker Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 510. In all these
primitive views the real soul is regarded as merely a tenant of the body
(not a function or the result of functions), as it is to-day in the
popular religions of civilised lands.
[68] The fear of ghosts in civilised countries is the survival of a
wide-spread, ancient belief in the malevolence of souls. I have found
no instance of this more striking than among the Finns. They believed
that the souls of the dead lie in wait for the living, in order to kill
and eat them, especially their hearts and lungs, so that the slain
could not live again. The ghosts did not spare their nearest relatives,
and the story is told of an old man, who warned his beloved young wife
not to follow his corpse to the grave, or his ghost would eat her. She
disobeyed, and saved herself only by pronouncing the name of God. _Cong.
Internat. d’Archéologie de Moscou_, Tom. ii., p. 316. In about one third
of known savage tribes, the ghosts are considered kind and friendly to
the survivors. See Steinmetz’s analysis in his _Entwicklung der Strafe_,
Bd. i., s. 142, _sq._
[69] Friedrich Freihold, _Die Lebensgeschichte der Menschheit_, Bd. i.,
s. 35.
[70] Baiame is from the verb bhai. _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_, vol.
viii., p. 242. The “Nurali” of the Murray River tribes is also an
embodiment of light. B. B. Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, vol. i., p.
423.
[71] Gill, _Myths and Songs_, p. 13; Fornander, _The Polynesian Race_,
vol. iii., p. 153.
[72] Gill, _ubi supra_, pp. 3, 17, 44.
[73] E. W. Man, in _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_, vol. xii., p. 166.
[74] Th. Hahn, _Tsuni ǁGoam_, pp. 124, 126.
[75] Clark, _Indian Sign Language_, p. 186; _Jour. Anthrop. Institute_,
vol. x., p. 285.
[76] _Myths of the New World_, pp. 97, 165, etc.
[77] Fornander, _Polynesian Race_, vol. i., p. 78; Gill, _Myths and
Songs_, p. 18.
[78] Musters, _Among the Patagonians_, ch. v.; Ling Roth, _Natives of
Sarawak_, vol. ii., App., p. clxx.; Hahn, _Tsuni ǁGoam_, p. 37.
[79] Clark, _Indian Sign Language_, p. 189.
[80] Castren observes: “Es hat innerhalb der weitgestreckten Gränzen
Asiens kaum ein einziges Volk gegeben, welches nicht den Himmel verehrt
hätte.”—_Finnische Mythologie_, p. 14. He might as well have said, “the
habitable globe” instead of Asia only.
[81] Matthew, v., 34.
[82] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp. 62, _seq._
[83] Gill, _ubi supra_, pp. 10-14; Sir George Grey, _Polynesian
Mythology_, ch. i.
[84] B. Brough Smith, _Aborigines of Victoria_, vol. i., p. 457.
[85] Notably by Prof. F. L. W. Schwartz in his numerous works, and in his
contributions to the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, etc.
[86] The Hebrew name Jahve (Jehovah) is derived by some from the verb “to
thunder.” In the Vedas, Parjanja, the Thunderer, is a conspicuous figure.
Mumpal, the Thunder, say the Australians, created all things. (_Reise der
Fregatte Novara_, Anthrop. Theil, s. ix.) Among the Bechuanas, “When it
thunders, every one trembles, and each asks the other, ‘Is there anyone
among us who has devoured the wealth of others?’” (Calloway, _Relig.
System of the Amazulu_, p. 117). Any number of other examples could be
added.
[87] Klemm, _Culturgeschichte_, Bd. i., s. 64; Honegger,
_Culturgeschichte_, Bd. i., s. 332.
[88] Castren, _Finnische Mythologie_, p. 17.
[89] Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, p. 17.
[90] I refer especially to the results of the physical investigations of
Helmholtz, and to their logical application to mental science, by George
J. Romanes, in his _Mind and Motion_; to the position of Prof. Paulsen
in his _Introduction to Philosophy_; and to such lines of thought as are
presented in Professor Dolbear’s _Matter, Ether, and Motion_.
[91] Related in Gill’s _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_. M. van
Ende, in his _Histoire Naturelle de la Croyance_, p. 83, sq., has some
suggestive remarks on sound as regarded by primitive nations as a mark of
life. Hence, their myths of brooks, trees, etc., as conscious beings.
[92] A Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 96.
[93] E. F. Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 60. “Nothing more colors
Hindu life,” writes Mr. Walhouse, “than the belief in the efficacy of
_mantras_—forms of prayer or powerful words, by which all the relations
of life may be influenced, and even the gods may be bound.”—_Jour.
Anthrop, Inst._, vol. xiv., p. 189.
[94] Curr, _The Australian Race_, vol. i., p. 48.
[95] _Report of Com. of N. South Wales to the Columbian Exposition_, p. 7.
[96] Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 309.
[97] Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 63.
[98] Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 318.
[99] The appropriate rite thus to destroy an enemy is described by Curr,
_The Australian Race_, vol. ii., p. 610.
[100] _Popol Vuh, le Livre Sacré des Quiches_, p. 10.
[101] _Polynesian Mythology_, p. 284.
[102] _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 413.
[103] The expression in the Algonkin tongue for a person of the same name
is _nind owiawina_, “He is another myself” (Cuoq, _Lexique Algonquine_,
p. 113).
[104] Curr, _ubi supra_, p. 246.
[105] Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, vol. i., p. 288.
[106] H. Hale, _Ethnography of the U. S. Exploring Expedition_, p. 288.
[107] Klemm, _Culturgeschichte_, Bd. ii., p. 329.
[108] This subject has been discussed by Andree, _Ethnographische
Parallelen_, pp. 165-184, and other writers. On the “name soul” among the
American Indians I have collected material in _Myths of the New World_,
p. 277, _sq._ Most American and Australian tribes would not name the
dead. On the other hand, in the robust religion of the ancient Germans,
the names of the loved departed and of great chiefs were shouted out at
the banquets, and a horn drained to their _minni_, affectionate memory.
J. Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, vol. i., p. 59.
[109] _Chaldean Magic_, p. 104.
[110] The original is in the Turin papyrus.
[111] Granger, _Worship of the Romans_, p. 277.
[112] Howitt, in _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, xiii., p. 192.
[113] James Adair, _Hist. of the North Am. Indians_, p. 54.
[114] Prof. Sayce in _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 305.
[115] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva España_, lib. i., _passim_; _Popol
Vuh_, cap. i.; Stoll, _Ethnographie der Rep. Guatemala_, p. 118.
[116] Gill, _Myths and Songs of the South Pacific_, p. 6.
[117] Comp. W. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 41.
[118] _Select Works of St. Ephrem_, p. 122. (Trans. by the Rev. J.
B. Morris.) The name of Jesus was regarded by the early church as
magical in itself. Arnobius says of him, “whose Name, when heard,
puts to flight evil spirits, imposes silence on soothsayers, prevents
men from consulting the augurs, and frustrates the efforts of
magicians.”—_Adversus Gentes_, lib. i., cap. 46.
[119] See Stoll, _Suggestion und Hypnotismus_, p. 14, _seq._
[120] The _pĕtara_ of the Borneans is at times used as a personal name
of the chief divine being, at others in the vague sense of “duty” or
“supernatural.” Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, vol. i., 179. Analogous
instances have already been mentioned.
[121] _Indian Sign Language_, p. 309.
[122] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, p. 164.
[123] Hyades et Deniker, _Mission Scientifique au Cap Horn_, p. 376.
Earlier voyagers write: “They certainly have ideas of a spiritual
existence.”—_Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle_, vol.
ii., p. 179.
[124] _Ancient Nahuatl Poetry_ (Philadelphia, 1890); _Rig Veda
Americanus_ (Philadelphia, 1890).
[125] Dr. W. Matthews, _The Mountain Chant of the Navahoes_, p. 465.
[126] Clark, _Indian Sign Language_, p. 309.
[127] Sahagun, _Hist. de Nueva España_, lib. vi. Other examples are given
by this writer.
[128] _Encyclopédie des Sciences Religieuses_, s. v. Prière.
[129] Other forms are _tapui_, to make sacred; _tabui_, to keep from;
_tabuaki_, to bless. Here, as elsewhere, there is a synonomy between
“sacred” or “holy” and “accursed,” because it is accursed to defile that
which is holy. Another, and less probable, derivation is given by Frazer,
in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, s. v. “Taboo.” He is perfectly right,
however, in saying that the original form of the _tabu_ is due, not to
its civil, but to its religious element.
[130] Klemm, _Culturgeschichte_, vol. ii., pp. 368, _sq._, after Steller,
who visited Kamschatka about 1740.
[131] Man, in _Jour. Anthrop. Society_, vol. xii., pp. 159, 173.
[132] Authorities above quoted, and Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 95.
[133] For abundant examples of the _tabu_ in various nations see Frazer’s
article in the _Encyc. Britannica_ above referred to.
[134] _Religion of the Semites_, p. 18.
[135] Filling in manuscript, he says, seventy-seven quarto volumes, and
far from exhausting the supply! _Bushman Folk-lore_, p. 6. (London, 1875.)
[136] Man, _ubi supra_, p. 172.
[137] Morice, _Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada_, 1892, p. 125.
[138] This branch of the subject has been fully discussed by Keary,
_Outlines of Prim. Belief_, Preface and chapter i.; and Frazer, _The
Golden Bough_, _passim_.
[139] See _Myths of the New World_, chap. iii.; also, an article on
symbolism in ancient American art, by Prof. Putnam and Mr. Willoughby in
_Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Science_, vol. xliv., p. 302.
[140] I have presented this subject with greater detail in an article “On
the Origin of Sacred Numbers” in the _American Anthropologist_, April,
1894. The contrast of symbolism of the three and the four is familiar
to students. Such a popular text-book as Keil’s _Manual of Biblical
Archæology_ states that four was the predominating number in the temples,
altars, and rites of the ancient world, it being, “according to an idea
common to all antiquity, the symbol of the cosmos”; while the three was
“the mark of the Divine Being in His various manifestations” (pp. 127,
128).
[141] Westcott, _Symbolism of Numbers_, p. 7. I have given several
examples of triple or triune deities in America in _Myths of the New
World_, pp. 84, 187, 188. From other fields I may note the triad Kane,
Ku, and Lono of Hawaii (Fornander, _Polynesian Race_, vol. i., p.
61); that on the Marquesas objectively represented by three sticks
tied together (Dr. Tautain, in _L’Anthropologie_, tom. vii., p. 544);
the triad of Tangaloa, Creator, Maui, Sustainer, and Tiki, Revealer,
elsewhere in Polynesia (Hale, _Ethnog. and Philol._, p. 24).
[142] Numerous examples are collected in L. L. Conant, _The Number
Concept_, chap. ii.
[143] In the Quiche and Tzental dialects.
[144] From the verb _tumpa_, to forge. Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_,
vol. i., p. 165.
[145] The Tinné of British America have the word _Nayéweri_, he who
creates by thought (Petitot, _Les Dené Dindjie_, p. 63); the Algonquian
Kitché Manito created the world “by an act of his will” (Schoolcraft,
_Oneóta_, p. 342). For the Zuñians, see Cushing, _Zuñi Creation Myths_,
p. 379; for the Polynesians, Hale, _Ethnography of the U. S. Exploring
Expedition_, p. 399, and Fornander, _The Polynesian Race_, vol. i., p. 62.
There is no distinction between these opinions and that of the Christian
church, so beautifully expressed by St. Ephrem the Syrian: “At the nod of
His will, noiseless and gentle, out of nothing He created all.” (_Select
Works_, Translated by Rev. J. B. Morris, p. 185.)
[146] Fornander, _The Polynesian Race_, vol. i., p. 67; _Rel. de la Nouv.
France_, 1634, p. 13.
[147] In _Myths of the New World_, ch. vii. (first ed., 1868). Numerous
writers, Klee, Andree, Lucas, etc., have treated the deluge myth with
fulness. It is found even among the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands
(Man, _u. s._) and is quite common throughout Polynesia (Fornander, _u.
s._, vol. i., pp. 88, _sq._). Various Australian tribes record it in
detail, Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_, vol. i., p. 430.
[148] Fornander (_u. s._, vol. i., p. 79, _sq._) discusses it in
Polynesia. Their “tree of life” was a sacred “tabooed” bread-fruit tree.
For America, see _Myths of the New World_, pp. 103-106.
[149] For this reason the works of Delitsch, Haupt, etc., on the
question, _Wo lag das Paradies?_, are much less to the point than if
their writers had studied the comparative mythology of the subject.
[150] This mythical cycle, as it arose among the native tribes of
America, was made by me the special subject of a volume, _American
Hero-Myths_ (pp. 251, Philadelphia, 1882).
[151] See my _Essays of an Americanist_, pp. 135-147; J. Grimm, _Teutonic
Mythology_, vol. ii., p. 832; Schrader and Jevons, _Prehistoric
Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 424.
[152] Codrington in _Jour. Anthrop. Soc._, vol. x., p. 285.