Concerning the primal mythical beings of the great hunter and warrior tribes of America, Algonkins, Hurons, and Iroquois, something has already been said in the chapter on "Myths of the Origin of Things." It is the peculiarity of such heroes or gods of myth as the opposing Red Indian good and evil deities that they take little part in the affairs of the world when once these have been started.[1] Ioskeha and Tawiscara, the good and bad primeval brothers, have had their wars, and are now, in the opinion of some, the sun and the moon.[2] The benefits of Ioskeha to mankind are mainly in the past; as, for example, when, like another Indra, he slew the great frog that had swallowed the waters, and gave them free course over earth.[3] Ioskeha is still so far serviceable that he "makes the pot boil," though this may only be a way of recalling the benefits conferred on man by him when he learned from the turtle how to make fire. Ioskeha, moreover, is thanked for success in the chase, because he let loose the animals from the cave in which they lived at the beginning. As they fled he spoiled their speed by wounding them
- ↑ Erminie Smith, in Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1880–81, publishes a full, but not very systematic, account of Iroquois gods of to-day. Thunder, the wind, and echo are the chief divine figures. The Titans or Jotuns, the opposed supernatural powers, are giants of stone. "Among the most ancient of the deities were their most remote ancestors, certain animals who later were transformed into human shapes, the name of the animals being preserved by their descendants, who have used them to designate their gentes or clans." The Iroquois have a strange and very touching version of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (op. cit., p. 104). It appears to be native and unborrowed; all the details are pure Iroquois.
- ↑ Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, p. 102.
- ↑ Relations, 1636, p. 103.
