Abstract
“THE value of Indian myths lies in the fact that they represent the mental labour of men who lived ages before those who recorded their thoughts on papyrus, baked brick, or burnt cylinder” (p. 383). The author has supplied us with a valuable set of documents embodying the floating traditions of the Modocs, whose country lies on the borders of Oregon and California. “Man does not appear in any of these myths” (p. 383). In their non-human and non-moral elements the myths belong | to the same stratum as the oldest Irish and Welsh I tales, which are generally admitted to be pre-Celtic. In his too brief notes on the myths the author is evidently impressed with their obvious astronomical significance. The first he records “is evidently a sun myth.” Mr. Curtin obtained i the bulk of his information from “the oldest woman of the Klamath-Modoc tribe of Indians,” and from one who, in the prime of his life, xvas chief of his people.
Myths of the Modocs.
By Jeremiah Curtin. Pp. xii + 389. (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 12s. 6d. net.
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GRIFFITH, J. Myths of the Modocs . Nature 91, 370 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091370a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091370a0