North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other hand, coyote tales appear among the Pawnee, Arikara, and occasionally among the Dakota, but as the adventures of a minor character. Among the Omaha and some neighboring tribes, the rabbit is a secondary trickster. Since the rabbit is prominent in the myths of the Cherokee of the Southeastern area and the coyote among the Plateau tribes, it seems safe to explain their occasional presence in the Plains as due to borrowing. Thus, taking the trickster alone it is possible to form clearly defined cultural groups in the Plains. Animal tales are also common among the Indian tribes. Among these, as in most every part of the world, we find curious ways of explaining the structural peculiarities of animals as due to some accident; for example, the Blackfoot trickster in a rage tried to pull the lynx asunder whence that animal now has a long body and awkward legs. Such explanations abound in all classes of myths and are considered primary and secondary according to whether they directly explain the present phenomena as in the case of the lynx, or simply narrate an anecdote in which the transforma¬ tion is a mere incident. Occasionally, one meets with a tale at whose ending the listener is abruptly told that thenceforth things were ordered so and so, the logical connection not being apparent. Probably what hap¬ pens here is that the native author knowing it to be customary to explain similar phenomena by mythical occurrences, rather crudely adds the explanation to a current tale. However, not all the animal tales of the