circulation of water from the heavens to the earth, and from the earth to the heavens—that orderly succession of events in which the waters travel by river, by sea, and by cloud.
Rainbow.—In Shoshone, the rainbow is a beautiful serpent that abrades the firmament of ice to give us snow and rain. In Norse, the rainbow is the bridge Bifrost spanning the space between heaven and earth. In the Iliad, the rainbow is the goddess Iris, the messenger of the King of Olympus. In Hebrew, the rainbow is the witness to a covenant. In science, the rainbow is an analysis of white light into its constituent colors by the refraction of rain-drops.
Falling Stars.—In Ute, falling stars are the excrements of dirty little star-gods. In science—well, I do not know what falling stars are in science. I think they are cinders from the furnaces where the worlds are forged. You may call this mythologic or scientific, as you please.
Migration of Birds.—The Algonquin philosopher explains the migration of birds by relating the myth of the combat between Ka-bibo-no-ke and Shingapis, the prototype or progenitor of the water-hen, one of their animal gods. A fierce battle raged between Ka-bi-bo-no-ke and Shingapis, but the latter could not be conquered. All the birds were driven from the land but Shingapis; and then was it established that whenever in the future Winter-maker should come with his cold winds, fierce snows, and frozen waters, all the birds should leave for the south except Shingapis and his friends. So the birds that spend their winters north are called by the Algonquin philosophers "the friends of Shingapis."
In contrast to this explanation of the flight of birds may be placed the explanation of the modern evolutionist, who says that the birds migrate in quest of abundance of food and a genial climate, guided by an instinct of migration, which is an accumulation of inherited memories.
Diversity of Languages.—The Kaibabit philosopher accounts for the diversity of languages in this manner: Si-chom-pa Ma-so-its, the grandmother goddess of the sea, brought up mankind from beneath the waves in a sack, which she delivered to the Shi-nau-av brothers, the great wolf-gods of his mythology, and told them to carry it from the shores of the sea to the Kaibab Plateau, and then to open it; but they were by no means to open the package ere their arrival, lest some great disaster should befall. The curiosity of the younger Shi-nau-av overcame him, and he untied the sack and the people swarmed out; but the elder Shi-nau-av, the wiser god, ran back and closed the sack while yet not all the people had escaped, and they carried the sack, with its remaining contents, to the plateau, and there opened it. Those that remained in the sack found a beautiful land—a great plateau covered with mighty forests, through which elk, deer, and antelope roamed in abundance, and many mountain-sheep were found on the
