The Myths of the North American Indians - Part 47
Library

Part 47

SMITH, JOHN: Works, 1608. Edited by Edward Arber. English Scholar's Library, No. 16. Birmingham, 1884.

SMITHSONIAN INSt.i.tUTION: _Annual Reports_, 1846-1908; Washington, 1847-1909. _Contributions to Knowledge_, vols. i.-xxiv.; Washington, 1848-1907. _Miscellaneous Collections_, vols. i.-iv.; Washington, 1862-1910.

SNELLING, WILLIAM J.: _Tales of the North-West: Sketches of Indian Life and Character_. Boston, 1830.

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STEVENSON, MATILDA C.: _The Zuni Indians; their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies_. (_Twenty-third Report_, Bureau of American Ethnology; Washington, 1904.)

SWANTOM, JOHN R.: _Haida Texts and Myths_. (_Bulletin 29_, Bureau of American Ethnology; Washington, 1905.)

---- _Tlingit Myths and Texts_. (_Bulletin 39_, Bureau of American Ethnology; Washington, 1909.)

THOMAS, CYRUS: _Introduction to the Study of North American Archaeology_. Cincinnati, 1903.

U.S. GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES, F. V.

Hayden in charge. _Bulletins_, vols. i.-vi.; Washington, 1874-82.

_Annual Reports_, vols. i.-ix.; Washington, 1867-78.

VIRCHOW, RUDOLF: _Crania ethnica americana_. Berlin, 1892.

VOTH, H. R.: _Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony_. (_Publications_ of the Field College Museum Anthropological Series, vol. iii., No. 4; Chicago, 1903.)

WAITZ, THEODOR: _Anthropologie der Naturvolker_. 4 Bd. Leipzig.

1859-64.

WARREN, WILLIAM W.: _History of the Ojibways, based upon Traditions and Oral Statements_. (_Collections_ of the Minnesota Historical Society, vol. v.; St. Paul, 1885.)

WHEELER, OLIN D.: _The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904_. 2 vols.

New York, 1904.

WILL, G. F., AND SPINDEN, H. J.: _The Mandans: Study of their Culture, Archaeology, and Language_. (_Papers_ of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. iii., No. 4; Cambridge, Ma.s.s., 1906.)

WINSOR, JUSTIN: _Narrative and Critical History of America_. 8 vols.

Boston and New York, 1884-89.

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NOTE ON p.r.o.nUNCIATION

Workers in Indian mythology and linguistics have in some instances created a phonology of their own for the several languages in which they wrought. But, generally speaking, the majority of Indian names, both of places and individuals, should be p.r.o.nounced as spelt, the spelling being that of persons used to transcribing native diction and as a rule representing the veritable Indian p.r.o.nunciation of the word.

Among the North American Indians we find languages both harsh and soft.

Harshness produced by a cl.u.s.tering of consonants is peculiar to the north-west coast of America, while the Mississippi basin and California possess languages rich in sonorous sounds. A slurring of terminal syllables is peculiar to many American tongues.

The vocabularies of American languages are by no means scanty, as is often mistakenly supposed, and their grammatical structure is intricate and systematic. The commonest traits in American languages are the vagueness of demarcation between the noun and verb, the use of the intransitive form of the verb for the adjective, and the compound character of independent p.r.o.nouns. A large number of ideas are expressed by means of either affixes or stem-modification. On account of the frequent occurrence of such elements American languages have been cla.s.sed as 'polysynthetic.'