n
folk-lore and classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis.

The intellectual condition of savages which has been presented and
established by the evidence both of observers and of institutions, may
now be studied in savage myths. These myths, indeed, would of themselves
demonstrate that the ideas which the lower races entertain about the
world correspond with our statement. If any one were to ask himself,
from what mental conditions do the following savage stories arise? he
would naturally answer that the minds which conceived the tales were
curious, indolent, credulous of magic and witchcraft, capable of drawing
no line between things and persons, capable of crediting all things
with human passions and resolutions. But, as myths analogous to those
of savages, when found among civilised peoples, have been ascribed to a
psychological condition produced by a disease of language acting after
civilisation had made considerable advances, we cannot take the savage
myths as proof of what savages think, believe and practice in the course
of daily life. To do so would be, perhaps, to argue in a circle. We must
therefore study the myths of the undeveloped races in themselves.

These myths form a composite whole, so complex and so nebulous that it
is hard indeed to array them in classes and categories. For example,
if we look at myths concerning the origin of various phenomena, we find
that some introduce the action of gods or extra-natural beings, while
others rest on a rude theory of capricious evolution; others, again,
invoke the aid of the magic of mortals, and most regard the great
natural forces, the heavenly bodies, and the animals, as so many
personal characters capable of voluntarily modifying themselves or of
being modified by the most trivial accidents. Some sort of arrangement,
however, must be attempted, only the student is to understand that the
lines are never drawn with definite fixity, that any category may glide
into any other category of myth.

We shall begin by considering some nature myths--myths, that is to say,
which explain the facts of the visible universe. These range from tales
about heaven, day, night, the sun and the stars, to tales accounting
for the red breast of the ousel, the habits of the quail, the spots and
stripes of wild beasts, the formation of rocks and stones, the foliage
of trees, the shapes of plants. In a sense these myths are the science
of savages; in a sense they are their sa