survival material in a tribal
mythology along with much that is relatively recent in origin. It is,
however, difficult to be sure of what is ancient and what recent,
because only the plot is preserved; rarely do we find mention of objects
and environments different from those of the immediate present."

[Footnote 14: Wissler, Clark, Op. cit, p. 255.]

A tale, to be generally understood, must often be given a contemporary
setting, and this the narrator instinctively knows, therefore the
introduction of modern material with that of undoubted age.

Stability, then, lies in the plot rather than in the culture setting;
the former may be ancient, while the latter sometimes reflects
contemporary life.

Boaz[15] argues that much may be learned of contemporary tribal culture
by a study of the mythology of a given people, since so much of the
setting of the ancient tale reflects the tribal life of the time of the
recording. He has made a test of the idea in his study of the Tsimshian
Indians. From this collection of 104 tales he concludes that: "In the
tales of a people those incidents of the everyday life that are of
importance to them will appear either incidentally or as the basis of a
plot. Most of the reference to the mode of life of the people will be an
accurate reflection of their habits. The development of the plot of the
story, further-more, will on the whole exhibit clearly what is
considered right and what wrong."

[Footnote 15: Boaz, Franz, Tsimshian Mythology: Bureau American
Ethnology, vol. 35, 1916, p. 393.]

=How and Why Myths Are Kept=

There are set times and seasons for story-telling among the various
Indian tribes, but the winter season, when there is likely to be most
leisure and most need of fireside entertainment, is a general favorite.
However, some tribes have myths that "can not be told in summer, others
only at night, etc."[16] Furthermore there are secret cults and
ceremonials rigidly excluding women and children, whose basic myths are
naturally restricted in their circulation, but in the main the body of
tribal myth is for the pleasure and profit of all.

[Footnote 16: Wissler, Clark, Op. cit., p. 256.]

Old people relate the stories to the children, not only because they
enjoy telling them and the children like listening to them, but because
of the feeling that every member of the tribe should know them as a part
of his education.

While all adults are supposed to know something of th