File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18133607766).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo13amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Copyright by E. W. Deming One of the decorations in Mr. Frederic C. Walcott's summer home in the Berkshire Hills, Norfolk, Connecticut. In the murals of this country house Mr. Deming has used the landscape and mythology of the immediate locality — a bit of the old time looking back one hundred and flfty years In collecting Indian myths he knew the difference between the old and the transition myths. The Algonkin for instance have been under white influ- ence for a hundred and fifty years and their myths have been greatly changed. It is only a man who really understands the Indian that can translate Indian mythology to carry a true meaning in the languages of civilization. Working with this man for many years helped me to under- stand the religion and poetic spirit of the red man and to appreciate old Indian customs. But these old customs are practically gone. We cannot go out into the field to-day and study them. We find only transition customs. Neither are the oldtime customs obtained from books. All books on the Indian are narratives and histories written from the white man's standpoint, pre- senting but superficial ideas of ceremonial life. The Indian was in perfect harmony with his environment. The sun was his father, the earth his mother, the animal his brother. Over all, the Great Mystery ruled. The Indian's every move was influenced by his religion. From the time a child was conceived, the mother's only thought was of the coming warrior — living a pure and simple life, making her appeal often to the Great Mystery in his behalf. When in his cradle, she sang songs of his brothers, the birds and the animals, and by the time he was ten years old he was instilled with a reverence and belief in the all powerful Great Mystery. After this the boy never spoke of what was sacred to him, yet the Great Mystery was always with him. When the youth reached manhood after purifying himself in the sacred sweat lodge, he went away from all of his kind to some solitary place and fasted with the hope that the underground and underwater people would come to him, the 104

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