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Title : Annual report of the Bureau of American ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian institution
Author : Bureau of American ethnology (Washington, D.C.)
Publisher : Government printing office (Washington)
Date of publication : 1895-1964
Contributor : Powell, John Wesley (1834-1902). Directeur de publication
Type : texte,publication en série imprimée
Language : English
Format : application/pdf
Copyright : domaine public
Identifier : ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date
Identifier : ISSN 0097269X
Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Relation : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z
Description : Périodicité : Annuel
Description : Etat de collection : n. 1 (1879)-n. 48 (1931)
Provenance : bnf.fr
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The text below has been produced using a process called optical character recognition (O.C.R.). Since it is an automatic process, it is subject to errors you might find in this page.
The recognition rate for this document is 88.95 %.
19
SKETCH OF THE MYTHOLOGY
OFTHE
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
By J. W. POWELL.
THE GENESIS OF PHILOSOPHY.
The wonders of the course of nature have ever challenged attention.
In savagery, in barbarism, and -in civilization alike, the mind of man
has sought the explanation of things. The movements of the heavenly
bodies, the change of seasons, the succession of night and day, the
powers of the air, majestic mountains, ever-flowing rivers, perennial
springs, the night of birds, the gliding of serpents, the growth of trees,
the blooming of flowers, the forms of storm-carved rocks, the mysteries
of life and death, the institutions of society-many are the things to be
explained. The yearning to know is universal. ~OM) and wAy are ever-
lasting interrogatories profoundly instinct in humanity. In the evolu-
tion of the human mind, thé instinct of cosmic interrogation follows
hard upon the instinct of self-préservation.
In all the operations of nature, man's weal and woe are involved. A
cold wave sweeps from the north-rivers and lakes are frozen, forests
are buried under snows, and the fierce winds almost congeal the life-
nuids of man himself, and indeed man's sources of supply are buried
under the rocks of water. At another time the heavens are as brass,
and the clouds corne and go with mockery of uniulnlled promises of
rain, thé fierce midsununer sum pours its beams upon the sands, and
blasts heated in the furnace of the desert sear the végétation; and the
traits, which in more congenial seasons are subsistence and luxury,
shrivel before the eyes of famishing men. A river rages and destroys
the adjacent valley with its flood. A mountain bursts forth with its
rivers of fire, the land is buried and the people are swept away. Light-
ning shivers a tree and rends a skull. The silent, unseen powers of
nature, too, are at work bringing pain or joy, health or sickness, life or
death, to mankind. In like manner man's welfare is involved in all the
institutions of society. How and why are the questions asked about ail
these things-questions springing from the deepest instinct of self-
preservation.
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