and the interest is chiefly in the history of origins.
The Malayan and Khond figures are especially noteworthy, but are not
free from the suspicion of influence from higher religions.

+955+. True literary mythology is found only in civilized peoples, and
among these a gradation is recognizable. We have first the stage of
culture represented by the Japanese, the Finns, the Mexicans, and the
Peruvians, with fairly well-developed gods, who have emotions and
histories. In this group Japan takes the lowest place;[1743] it is
chiefly in the figures regarded as deified men that definiteness of
character and human warmth are found. Japanese theogony was depressed by
the interest of the people in family and State organization; the gods,
though civilized, are vague personalities. The Finnish literary mythical
material, given in the Kalevala, has a highly humanized coloring and is
worked up into a coherent story; the social system revealed in the myths
is superior in many regards to that of the Redmen, but the theistic
scheme is crude.[1744] The few Mexican myths that have come down to us
(probably only the remains out of a large mass) show reflection and
portray human experiences.[1745] Both in Mexico and in Peru the Spanish
conquest appears to have destroyed no little material that, if
preserved, would have illustrated the mythical constructions of these
lands. In Peru, further, it may be that the monotheistic tinge of the
State religion had the effect of banishing subordinate deities and the
stories connected with them. For whatever reason little is known of its
mythical material, but the little that is known shows a certain degree
of refinement. South America, excluding Peru, has no mythical
constructions of interest.[1746]

+956+. Of the great religions the Chinese may be passed by in the
present sketch; its form leaves no place for mythology; its virtual
monotheism excludes lesser supernatural figures as actors in the drama
of human life.[1747]

+957+. The Persian cosmogonic myths are merely statements of great facts
without biographical features. In the hands of late writers they shaded
into legendary accounts of the origin of the kingdom, and the whole was
colored by the developed Mazdaism. We thus have theological
constructions rather than true myths.[1748] The few mythical stories
that have survived play an insignificant part in the religious system--a
sort of result that is to be expected whenever a substantially def