Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-03
INDIAN BOOK OF GENESIS
RECOVERED AFTER 80 YEARS
DR.. ]. N. B. Hewitt of Smith
Sonian Institution Complies
Epic of Iroquois Life.
Confusing Legends Trace
Creation of Earth and Man
by Mythical Beings.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

Recovery of an aboriginal American
epic, comparable in beauty and gran.
deur of imagery to the Morse sagas o.
to Beowulf, is announced by the Bureau
of American Ethnology of the Smith
sonian Institution.
This epic, recounting the Iroquoi!
| version of the creation of man. is be-
lieved to represent the high-water mark
of Indian literary genius While much
| of the imaginative Splendor of the
original is preserved in the bureaus
| literal translation, the lyric and emo
tional flights depend largely on the
Iroquois language for their effect. The
| work is literally the Indian Book Of
! Genesis"
The poem was recovered by DR.. J.
| N. B. Hewitt of the bureau staff, work.
| ing at intervals for nearly 80 years
! whose translation has just been pub
| lished. The original composition, pre-
| ceeding by centuries the coming Of the
white men, was passed on from genera
ton to generation by word of mouth
since the 1roquois had no written
| language.
The bulk increased by accretiops from
each generation, Mr.. Hewitt believes
Apparently after coming in contact with
white missionaries the Indians made an
effort to incorporate material from the
Bible, but they made such bungling
job of it that the collector has been
able to differentiate and discard most
such material.
Epic Deals With Hiawathas
The bulk of the epic concerns the
adventures of Dehaehiyawakho. He is
familiar to every Schoolboy as H1awatha,
but there is a very notable difference
between this work of aboriginal creative
A,aI Of 7
The New England poet had only trace
of the story with which to work and
he thought like a white man instead of
an Indian. Consequently his Hiawatha
became a. Messiah of the type common
in European mythologies.
Compared to the grandeur OF the
original Longfellow's poem is a weak
effort, but first reading of the original
is likely to leave any one not familiar
with the basic principles of Indian
thought confused. as the symbolic
figures shift into one another like dis
ordered dreams. For instance, accord
ing to the original. man created the
gods in his own image and then the
gods he had created turned around and
created man, who had not existed pre-
viously.
Deals With Three Periods.
The epic deals with three great
mythical coSmic periods. First, a race
of gigantic. man-like beings dwelt on
the upper surface Of the sky, regarded
as a solid plane.
In the sunless and moonleSS skyland,
lighted only by the snowy white flowers
of great tree of light, these creatures
dwelt in peace for countless genera
tons. The aged chief, in fulfllment RI
a vision, married a young wife, Earth.
Through the craft of the fire dragon
of the white body, a meteor, he was led
to suspect her of unfaithfulness. Re-
solving to cast her out of his dominions,
with all her relatives, he tore up Inc
tree of light, making a great hole in
the sky, through which the sun now
shines
He threw her and the others through
this abyss and then replanted the tree
of life. They came to earth in the
forms of plant and animal life. Thus
was the earth peopled. Then the great
chieftain replanted the tree of light.
The only ones left in the skyland were
the three elder brothers, mythical be-
ings, who recur again and again in the
cosmology.