Page:IJAL vol 1.djvu/196

 1 88

��INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS

��VOL. I

��more versions from the widely separated bands of Micmac and from the Passama- quoddy and St. Francis Abenaki 1 are avail- able, we shall be in a position to discuss the problems of the culture-hero concept among the tribes of this group.

As regards the Gluskp'be myth, making due allowances for individual variations in the narrative, we may assume that in each tribe there is a more or less standard pattern which embraces the individual versions. These ver- sions may, however, show a considerable range in the sequence and choice of episodes form- ing the whole. Much seems to depend upon the personality of the narrator. In this region there are no organized cults to hold before the people a fixed version of any myth, no matter how important it may be. There is no attempt anywhere to correct tendencies toward divergence in narration, no tendency to eliminate intrusive features which may seem to fit the pattern, and there is no single personal source of authority for the stories. We must, in short, conceive the picture of life among these nomadic hunting-people to understand how myths are handed down, and how the versions are governed by individual tastes, individual memory, and local factors, such as interest, time, place, and like circum- stances. Individuals who may be gathered together in camps hear stories, which they may remember in whole or in part, the par- ticular features of which may be lost and ulti- mately forgotten through mere accident of circumstance. In small tribes we can thus appreciate how myth elements may be lost to the dialect if by chance through a genera- tion they do not happen to be repeated to hearers who may number all told not more than several hundred souls. Radin 2 discusses very clearly both sides of the question of the priority of fixed or correct versions of myths

1 It seems almost too late to hope to secure an Abe- naki version of the myth. The only reference so far to the hero in Abenaki was encountered by the writer in 1908 at Indian Lorette, P. Q. Jean Baptiste de Gon-

��over the fluctuating element-construction. On the whole, it would be difficult to find suffi- cient reason, in the existing material from these tribes, to assert the contrary to what has been assumed.

Briefly, in the Penobscot transformer cycle, Gluskp'be appears in the mixed role of a shaman, trickster, and a somewhat altruistic culture-hero. His benevolence grows as the story of his career progresses. Consecutive geographical transformations show considera- ble forethought for his 'descendants' by which are meant the Indians of the present era. In the animal kingdom, however, most trans- formations may be laid to more trivial causes, vengeance or rivalry. Other causations are found in first results, apparently accidental actions, becoming future fixed traits. In gen- eral the episodes in myths of the eastern region correspond well with those of the cen- tral and northern Algonkian, the common ele- ments being re-combined in various ways in different tribes.

My present object is, however, not to attempt a discussion of the eastern trans- former concept, but to offer carefully prepared objective material until we have sources suf- ficient to warrant conclusive comparisons.

As regards transformer characters, several other secondary personages may be noted in Penobscot mythology, Kwun - a'was ("Long- Hair"), Bi-"tes ("Froth"), and Gesi-'lat ("Fast- Runner"). The first two of these are included in this paper; others will be presented in a subsequent part. The "Froth" story is as remarkable for its contents as is the Gluskg/be cycle, in that it shows the virgin birth con- cept and the well-known Achillean conquest combined in the same tale. Discussion of these interesting phenomena is to form a sep- arate study, for our main concern at present

zague, an Abenaki married to a Huron woman, related several episodes in the career of Gluskpba', the Abenaki form of the name.

2 P. Radin, Literary Aspects of American Mythology (GSCan, Bull. 1611915]).

�� �