is in some way
tethered or constrained to follow a certain course; that the storm-cloud
is a ravenous dragon; and that there are talismans which will
reveal hidden treasures. All these conceptions are so obvious to the
uncivilized intelligence, that stories founded upon them need not
be supposed to have a common origin, unless there turns out to be a
striking similarity among their minor details. On the other hand, the
numerous myths of an all-destroying deluge have doubtless arisen partly
from reminiscences of actually occurring local inundations, and partly
from the fact that the Scriptural account of a deluge has been carried
all over the world by Catholic and Protestant missionaries. [132]

By way of illustrating these principles, let us now cite a few of the
American myths so carefully collected by Dr. Brinton in his admirable
treatise. We shall not find in the mythology of the New World the wealth
of wit and imagination which has so long delighted us in the stories
of Herakles, Perseus, Hermes, Sigurd, and Indra. The mythic lore of
the American Indians is comparatively scanty and prosaic, as befits the
product of a lower grade of culture and a more meagre intellect. Not
only are the personages less characteristically pourtrayed, but there
is a continual tendency to extravagance, the sure index of an inferior
imagination. Nevertheless, after making due allowances for differences
in the artistic method of treatment, there is between the mythologies of
the Old and the New Worlds a fundamental resemblance. We come upon solar
myths and myths of the storm curiously blended with culture-myths, as in
the cases of Hermes, Prometheus, and Kadmos. The American parallels to
these are to be found in the stories of Michabo, Viracocha, Ioskeha, and
Quetzalcoatl. "As elsewhere the world over, so in America, many tribes
had to tell of.... an august character, who taught them what they
knew,--the tillage of the soil, the properties of plants, the art of
picture-writing, the secrets of magic; who founded their institutions
and established their religions; who governed them long with glory
abroad and peace at home; and finally did not die, but, like Frederic
Barbarossa, Charlemagne, King Arthur, and all great heroes, vanished
mysteriously, and still lives somewhere, ready at the right moment to
return to his beloved people and lead them to victory and happiness."
[133] Everyone is familiar with the numerous legends of white-skinned,