At sunrise on the following morning two women were seated on the ground, in the back part of a small flat-roofed house, situated in a very secluded spot amongst the hills, not a mi...
Ashochimi (Coast Indians, Cal.) Long ago there was a great flood which destroyed all the people in the world. Only Coyote was saved. When the waters subsided, the earth was empty....
Navajo (New Mexico) A man sat thinking. "Let me see. My songs are too short. I want more songs. Where shall I go to find them?" Hasjelti appeared and perceiving his thoughts, said,...
One of the forms that witches were supposed to change themselves into was that of a cat. In this metamorphosed state they were the more able to accomplish their designs. The follow...
This, too, was thought to foretell a death, but whose death, depended on the direction of the bird's head whilst crowing. As soon as the crowing was heard someone went to ascertain...
The sun was setting gloriously over the hills which encompass Jerusalem, pouring its streams of golden light on the valleys clothed with the vine, pomegranate, and olive, sparkling...
The stone that juts from one of the high banks of the Missouri, in South Dakota, gives its name to the Standing Rock Agency, which, by reason of many councils, treaties, fights, fe...
There was once a woman, who lived in the Camp-del-more of Strathavon, whose cattle were seized with a murrain, or some such fell disease, which ravaged the neighbourhood at the tim...
A peasant, named John Wilde, who lived in Rodenkirchen, found, one time, a little glass shoe on one of the hills, where the little people used to dance. He clapped it instantly in...
On a cloudy night in July, 1758, the people of Windham, Connecticut, were awakened by screams and shrill voices. Some sprang up and looked to the priming of their muskets, for they...
AFAR off upon a large level land, a summer sun was shining bright. Here and there over the rolling green were tall bunches of coarse gray weeds. Iktomi in his fringed buckskins wal...
It is a custom among us Santals that husband and wife do not mention each other's names; and even if a husband sometimes mentions his wife's name in a case of urgent necessity, the...
Dame Pridgett was a fat, comfortable, good-natured old body, and her business in life was to go about nursing sick folk and making them well again. One day she was sitting by the w...
On the rock platform where the Catskill Mountain House now stands, commanding one of the fairest views in the world, old chief Shandaken set his wigwam,--for it is a mistake to sup...
ONCE upon a time, two little Fairies went out into the world, to seek their fortune. Thistledown was as gay and gallant a little Elf as ever spread a wing. His purple mantle, and d...
This is a tale from Panay. It probably originated with the Spanish fathers, who wished to impress the doctrine of the Seven Deadly Sins on the natives. The islands are just off Ilo...
The snake was supposed to be able to understand what men said. A tale was told me by an aged man at Penrhos, Montgomeryshire, of an event which took place in the last century. His...
IT was a clear summer day. The blue, blue sky dropped low over the edge of the green level land. A large yellow sun hung directly overhead. The singing of birds filled the summer s...
Tossed backwards and forwards on a wild sea of doubt--a vessel without ballast, compass, or rudder--was the mind of the miserable Pollux. The courtier paced for hours up and down a...
Manabozho was so powerful that he began to think there was nothing he could not do. Very wonderful were many of his feats, and he grew more conceited day by day. Now it chanced tha...
AN OTTOWA MYTH. A long time ago, there lived an aged Odjibwa and his wife, on the Shores of Lake Huron. They had an only son, a very beautiful boy, whose name was O-na-wut-a-qut-o,...
The pleasant valley of Dalton, in the Berkshire Hills, had been under the rule of Miacomo for forty years when a Mohawk dignitary of fifty scalps and fifty winters came a-wooing hi...
Once upon a time a man had some money given to him, and was told to go and buy a foal with it. So he set out to search for one. After a time he came to a village, and going to a ho...
Birluri was of the Goala caste and Birbanta of the oilman's caste. And this is the story of their fight. Birluri was very rich, with great herds of cattle and buffaloes but Birbant...
It must have been a consolation to those who believed in the power of wicked Spirits to trouble people, that it was possible to lay these evil visitors in a pool of water, or to dr...
A gardener's ass complain'd to Destiny Of being made to rise before the dawn. "The cocks their matins have not sung," said he, "Ere I am up and gone. And all for what? To market he...
In the days of long ago the Great Spirit came down from the sky and talked with men. Once as he went up and down the earth, he came to the wigwam of a woman. He went into the wigwa...
"You have been on the mountain a long time," said the wife of the hunter. "Yes, wife, and I have seen the most marvelous sight in all the world," replied the hunter. "What was that...
By repeating the following doggerel lines the worst case of toothache could be cured-- Peter sat on a marble stone, Jesus came to him all alone. What's up, Peter? The toothache, my...
Loki, the son of Laufey, out of mischief cut off all the hair of Sif. When Thor discovered this he seized Loki, and would have broken every bone in his body, only he swore that he...