The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-27

ting the billet from some larger piece
This biiiet was petrlned when found
il would be rash 70 attempt 10 form any
conclusion whatever from this piece OF
fossil wood: but this much is evident.
namely. that within comparatively recent
times. Eeologically speaking. there have
been great changes In the surface geol-
ogy OF this coast OF this the proof IS
abundant. and the changes suggest GA
cial action IN brief, the geological con-
ditions Of the coast cOrroborate the IN
dian legends OF the occurrence OF a great
winter" not so very lons ago. as geolo-
gists reckon time.
on this point may add that a very
wen educated Norwegian, who has spent
about six years ia close intercourse with
the coast Indians, told me that all their
legends refer 20 the great winter, and that
many Of the totem poles. many OF the fam
lily names. and all The religious dances
and ceremonies are commemorative or
that period OF dire calamity. 1 asked a
very intelligent young American, who IS
familiar with the NEUROLOGICAL lore OF the
Washington Indians, II any OF the tribes
had preserved q tradition Of a great win
ter. and his answer was An OF them
have The preservation Of such ira
diton by a race OF men, who inhablt
a country where often the whole twelve
months pass without snos and with very
niue AE0sLs IS EeLldIhAbAts anu aFI-Aia ~
possess the value of a historical record
The Bella Coda Indians. above referred
TO, tell that before the great winter
came. q bird with a single eye, from which
flashed forth the fercest of flames, sat
upon the mountains and destroyed all
living creatures except such as were able
10 find shelter in caves.
This great bird appears in the legends
OF so many Indian tribes west of the
NTfoef-ufr,faF the
thunder-bird. that it may be regarded as
a typical feature OF aboriginal American
mythology. Most Of the explanations Of
the thunder-bird myth regard it as an at
tempt to explain the thunder, or at the
most as a personifcation of that phenome-
non While this may be accepted as an
adaptation Of the original myth, there
seems reason to believe its origin TO be in
the catastrophe which ushered in the
great winter"
Thus we find the Indians Of the Olympic
peninsula preserving the tradition of a
huge and shapeless monster, known as
Seatco, who brought desolation and sor-
row upon the people of that once happy
land. Year after year the tribes had been
accustomed to gather for long holiday
in a valley more beautiful than any other.
But at length one year when the games
and festivities were at their hight, Seatco
came and with him desolation and death.
Then followed the great winter May not
this monster whose description recalls
Nirgils description of the Cyclops, I'm
fame, ingens, cui lumen ademptum, have
been the same as the bird with the eye
of fire Of whom the Bella COolas tell? And
may not both be identical with the awful
being who the Quatsino Indians say drove
all living creatures, the animals on the
land. the birds of the air, and the fish of
the sea. into holes and caverns, in his
terrible wrath, because they would not
deliver up his truant son?
Let US now for a moment take glance
across the continent to the Mic Mac and
AIilicete Indians Of New Brunswick. These
preserve the legend of the Great Beaver
who is said to have damned up all the
rivers and destroyed all the corn fields.
Then winter came with untold suffering
for the people. At length Glooscap, the de-
liverer, pulled down the dams which the
beaver had erected, and drove the mon
ster away, but not until the latter had
torn the mountains asunder in his impo-
tent rage. Here again we have the mon
ster and the terrible winter.
1t is hardly worth while TO speculate as
to the nature of this monster. Ignatius
Donnelly's theory that it was a comet is
ingenious. but seems open to insurmount-
able objections. With our present infor-
nation we are hardly warranted in going
further than to suggest that the monster
is simply a personification of some cat
aclysm, some awful period of earthquake
and tempest, which fell upon mankind
uncounted centuries ago. That such a
catastrophe did befall the ancestors OF
the Indians of the Pacific Northwest seems
to be the inevitable conclusion from these
legends. This catastrophe involved the
overthrow of a prosperous and happy
people and was followed by a long period
of cold which ended in a partial restora-
ton of the primeval conditions of com.
fort.
1t is the story of Eden over again-an
era of happiness terminated by the wrath
of the Deity and the Punishment of the
race to a region where it was necessary ia
go in clad skins, by reason, we may be-
lieve, not of shame. but of cold. 1t is the
golden age of the Greek and Roman poets
1t is the far-off time of universal happi-
ness of which the mythology of India and
China speaks.
The northwest myths are cruder than
those of Europe and Asia. Our Indians
had no poet like the writers of Genesis
and Job to hand their myths down in
language whose simple beauty makes them
among the gems of literature; they had
no Hesiod or Homer to gather up the frag-
mentary tales OF the past and weave them
into fabric that shall endure as long as
literature itself; no Saemund to preserve
for us a weird series of Alaskan Sagas,
no Tennyson to collate their folklore and
transform them into the Idyls of the
Thunder Bird. Their myths are simply
quarry dressed" so to speak Their
harsh lines have not been fooled down.
They are not so pretty-in a literary sense
as those of the Old World, but it is posi-
BILE that they may be much truer to ma
ture and fact There has certainly been
no process of emascUlation praetised upon
them, so as to make them conform to a
more recent philosophy or be inoffensive
to a modern school Of religious thought.
THOSE NERVOUS HABITS.