Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/383

 Record of American Folk-Lore. 5 1

RECORD OF AMERICAN FOLK-LORE.

NORTH AMERICA.

Algonkian. Cree. Dr. Frank Russell's " Explorations in the Far North," published by the Iowa University (Iowa City, 1898, ix+290 pp. 8vo), the record of explorations carried out during the years 1892-94 in the Arctic region of northwestern Canada, contains much of interest to the folk-lorist and the ethnologist. Among other things a chapter on the mythology of the Wood Crees.

Onomatology. In the " American Anthropologist " (vol. i. N. S. pp. 586, 587) for July, Mr. W. R. Gerard criticises some of the statements of Mr. Tooker, in the January number of the same peri- odical, concerning the etymology of poquosin and its cognates and derivatives.

Caddoan. In the " American Anthropologist " (vol. i. N. S. pp. 592-594) for July, F. F. Hilder publishes from the MS. of a Fran- ciscan friar, dating circa 1781, a myth of " the Tasinais or Texas Indians," concerning the origin of their supreme being, Caddi-Ayo. The legend is one of the hero-child variety, and some of the incidents recall the Bloodclots Boy myth of the Sioux and Blackfeet, others the birth of Manabozho. The Caddaja, or "Devil," also figures prominently in the story.

Eskimo. In a paper on " Southern Visits of the Eskimo," which appears in the "American Antiquarian" (vol. xxi. pp. 201-203) for July-August, 1899, Rev. W. M. Beauchamp finds "a suggestive re- semblance to northern articles in the modern wampum belts of the Iroquois." Other evidences of Eskimo-Iroquois contact are "the broad wooden spoons still found in Iroquois houses," and certain stone implements.

Haida. In the " Journ. Anthr. Inst." (vol. i. N. S.), of London, Dr. E. B. Tylor publishes three brief articles, " On the Totem-Post, from the Haida Village of Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands, now erected in the grounds of Fox Warren, near Wey bridge " (pp. 133— I 35)> "On two British Columbian House-Posts with Totemic Car- vings, in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford" (p. 136), and "Remarks on Totemism, with especial reference to some modern theories re- specting it" (pp. 138-149). The articles are illustrated by two plates. The first totem-pole discussed represents the "totemic myth " of an individual of the Bear clan, Raven tribe — the promi- nent figure in the others is that of the killer whale. In the third article, Dr. Tylor discusses the totemic theories of MacLennan, Frazer, Robertson Smith, Jevons, Wilken, etc. He objects to clas- sifying all theromorphic gods as totems, holding to the essential

�� �