The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-10

the branches and grass, making the giant
stumble. Afterward he watches the can
nibal, his wife and his children go tn
sleep, when he kills them with their own
knife and escapes.
In like manner many of the baskets.
poWs' spears, canoes, models Of under
ground houses which M Bogoras bae
brought from his tour and which ara
now the property Of the New York mus
cum OF natural history bear striking ra-
SemDlance to similar objects of Indian
origin The style Of carving is essential
~ the same. These and many other
points of similarity have convinced III
PoSoras that the Chukchee tribes and the
INDIANS of North America belonged TO the
same Asiatic stock; that the latter car,e
TO THIS continent from Asia, their line Of
emigration following the coast. and that
me Eskimo settled between these two
pranches of the same North Siberian peo-
PIE, Forcing them to remain apart.
NJ. Bogoras has written two volumes Of
snort stories, mostly laid in the home of
the primitive people who form the ca
Ject OF his scientific studies. but he has
also written stories Of civilized life and f.
quile Wei known to the magazine reading
puDnc OF his native country as a story
teller Of force and high literary merit. He
Is one OF the best-known younger writer's
OF russian fiction, in fact. He expects to
eonpIete his book on the ethnographical
oT1dge across the Bering sea by the end
Of this summer He will then ret,,r,, 10
Sc. petersburg, where he intends to de-
vote himself to fiction exclusively.
M BofgoraSs fiction stories of life
among prehistoric tribes have been hailed
by the leading Russian critics as MASTER
pieces OF realistic art while ethnologists
ueclare them a most original and vaIua-
Die contribution to our knowledge of
primitive humanity Being a vivid faith
1ul record Of life among the natives of
northeastern Siberia, these stories an
peal to the imagination Of the reader in
a way which is beyond the reach Of a
purely scientific report. The characters
ana scenes in these tales stand out in
hlgn rehaf, and the illusion they create
IN the mind of the reader is complete The
barbarians depicted live before him; he
seems to be in their company, to be ad-.
m1tted to the deepest recesses of their
souls. Some of these stories will be
translated into English
In his scientific research M. Bogoras
dWells at length on the raven myths re-
Ierred to. These myths occur most fire.
quently in the traditions of the North
American Indians, as well as of the
northeastern tribes of Siberia The raven
appears on both shores as a transformer.
but not as the creator of the world, and
at the same time as a foolish being the
object of general mockery and derision.
Some Of the episodes collected in Prof.
Boas's book on the folklore of the North
american appears also on the Asiatic
side. The raven steals the SIN and the
fresh water. He transforms himself into
small leaf and tries to induce a young
girl to swallow it while drinking. He Il
swallowed by whale and kills the
whale by pecl1ing at its heart. He fright
ems the people away under the pretense
that their enemy is approaching and then
steals their provisions.
Some American stories of the raven
are unknown on the Asiatic side. hut
there are many other myths about the
same bird which are conceived in the
same spirit.
The chukchee raven, for example pre-
tends to be dead and is put by his wife
into the grave together with two bags
one filled with meat and the other with
tat He is seen afterward by a fox while
stealthily cooking and is finally fright
ened away and goes home In another
story the raven carries off a seal which
mice have found on the beach. The mice
come to his house at night eat all the
cooked meat and then defile the dish.
On another occasion the mice luli the
raven to sleep and then sew red flaps 70
his eyes, so that the world appears all
red to him. They tattoo his face while
into the waters, whereupon he mistakes
his own shadow for young woman
whom he wishes to marry. He jumps
after her into the water and is carried
into the open sea.
The raven Is the same In the folklore or
all the tribes Of northeastern Asia. but
the Koryaks and Kamtchadales know
also not only his wife, his sons daughters
and even his grandsons and nephews
while Chukchee legends are confined to
the raven himself and his wife More
over in Chukchee folklore the raven myth
forms only part of the entire body of
traditional tales, there being other i'm
portant episodes, unconnected with that
bird, while In the case of Koryaks every
legend has the raven for It's central
figure, as the chief deity and the supreme
ruler of the earth
In the Kamtchadale tradition the raven
IL the common ancestor OF humanity. In
ancient times he wandered from rives to
river. founding settlements Cor his de-
scendants. Before leaving he taught his
children how to make nets of nettIe. tc
construct fish-weeds, to trap hares ana
foxes, etc. This notion as to q wander
ing ancestor founding settlements ard
finally leaving for another country or
else changing to stone IS also paraue.ed
IN The mythology OF North America