Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/81

Rh be found to be much nearer the truth than his opponents. We are aware that the Asiatic provenience of American civilization has enlisted some great names on its side. But the evidence as yet brought forward in support seems to us wholly inadequate, striking as some of it is; while the theory encounters enormous difficulties in the absence of any historical evidence, and in the purely indigenous character of the cereals and animals domesticated in the New World.

It is impossible in the space at our command to do more than thus barely allude to some of the subjects touched in this learned and eloquent work. It is by no means an exhaustive account of the religion of the American race. It does not aim at this. But so far as it goes, and with reserves as to the meaning of several prominent myths and beliefs, it retains, and must retain for some time to come, its position as the chief exponent of the mythology of the aborigines of the Western World.

contribution to the study of folktales of equal importance with this has been published for many years. It consists of a collection of stories obtained by Professor Boas, chiefly at first hand, from the Red Men of British Columbia, followed by an inquiry into the place of origin of two of the most prominent cycles—those of the Raven and the Minx—and finally a statistical inquiry into the number of sagas and saga-elements common to different tribes and races. The collection of stories alone would be indispensable alike to the student of the peoples of the North-west and to the student of folk-tales. But what constitutes the special value of the book is the chapter of inquiries. Their method and the statistics on which Professor Boas' conclusions are based deserve the most careful examination.

Professor Boas is concerned first of all with the problem of migration, and only ultimately and, as it were, indirectly with the problem of origin. He analyses some of the most important sagas into their incidents, and by means of tables exhibits their