As my chief object has been simply to
collect and preserve valuable material, I have said little of the
labors of such critical writers as Brinton, Hale, Trumbull, Powers,
Morgan, Bancroft, and the many more who have so ably studied and set
forth red Indian ethnology. If I have rarely ventured on their field,
it is because I believe that when the Indian shall have passed away
there will come far better ethnologists than I am, who will be much
more obliged to me for collecting raw material than for cooking it.
Two or three subjects have, it is true, tempted me into occasional
commenting. The manifest, I may say the undeniable, affinity between
the myths and legends of the Northeastern Indians and those of the
Eskimo could hardly be passed over, nor at the same time the identity
of the latter and of the Shaman religion with those of the Finns,
Laplanders, and Samoyedes. I believe that I have contributed material
not devoid of value to those who are interested in the study of the
relations of the aborigines of America with the Mongoloid races of the
Old World. This is a subject which has been very little studied through
the relations of these Wabanaki with the Eskimo.
A far more hazardous venture has been the indicating points of
similarity between the myths or tales of the Algonquins and those of
the Norsemen, as set forth in the Eddas, the Sagas, and popular tales
of Scandinavia.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25