Page:Folklore1919.djvu/406

40 this omission, and certainly connected with it, is the new statement that the Indian has been wounded by an arrow. That is to say, a real, flesh wound is implied. The arrow is, in fact, transferred to this incident from another part of the story—a type of change which very frequently occurs—but it serves the purpose of making the wound appear less mysterious. The next reproduction remains much the same, save that a more dramatic form is adopted, but the arrow then drops out, and the Indian is simply said to be "sore wounded." This immediately changes into the statement that the Indian was "pierced through the heart by an arrow," the weapon coming back in again just as before. Moreover, it appears natural for the wounded man himself to ask to be taken home. It is still odd, however, that the Indian should carry on a conversation after being shot through the heart, and soon he becomes merely "mortally wounded." In this form the narrative of the wound remains to the end—in a form, that is, denuded of all mysterious elements, and able to be accepted as satisfactory by my subjects. At the beginning of the series, every person said that the whole business of the wound bothered him very much. At the end the narrative was simply taken without question. At no point in the whole series of changes did any actual specification of reasons occur, but all the time a gradual process was going on in the direction of familiarisation.

The death scene provides a yet more interesting series of changes. The original states: "When the sun rose, he (i.e. the Indian) fell down. Something black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried. He was dead."

Here are the series of reproductions:

It was near daybreak when he became weak, and when the sun rose he fell down. And he gave a cry, and as he opened his