The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketch of the Mythology of the North
American Indians, by John Wesley Powell

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Title: Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80,
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 17-56

Author: John Wesley Powell

Release Date: April 11, 2007 [EBook #21033]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION--BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

J. W. POWELL, DIRECTOR.

SKETCH

OF THE

MYTHOLOGY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

BY

J. W. POWELL.

SKETCH OF THE MYTHOLOGY

OF THE

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

BY J. W. POWELL.

_THE GENESIS OF PHILOSOPHY._

The wonders of the course of nature have ever challenged attention. In
savagery, in barbarism, and in civilization alike, the mind of man has
sought the explanation of things. The movements of the heavenly bodies,
the change of seasons, the succession of night and day, the powers of
the air, majestic mountains, ever-flowing rivers, perennial springs, the
flight of birds, the gliding of serpents, the growth of trees, the
blooming of flowers, the forms of storm-carved rocks, the mysteries of
life and death, the institutions of society--many are the things to be
explained. The yearning to know is universal. _How_ and _why_ are
everlasting interrogatories profoundly instinct in humanity. In the
evolution of the human mind, the in