tion of birds by relating the myth of the combat between
_Ka-bi-bo-no-ki_ and _Shingapis_, the prototype or progenitor of the
water-hen, one of their animal gods. A fierce battle raged between
_Ka-bi-bo-no-ki_ 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 _Algonkian_
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 _Kaibaebit_ philosopher accounts for
the diversity of languages in this manner: _Si-tcom'-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
_Cin-au-aev_ 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 _Cin-au-aev_ overcame him, and he untied the sack, and the
people swarmed out; but the elder _Cin-au-aev_, 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 bordering crags; _piv_, the nuts of the edible pine, they
found on the foot-hills, and _us_, the fruit of the yucca, in sunny
glades; and _naent_, the meschal crowns, for their feasts; and _tcu-ar_,
the cactus-apple, from which to make their wine; reeds grew about the
lakes for their arrow-shafts; the rocks were full of flints for their
barbs and knives, and away down, in the canon they found a pipe-stone
quarry, and on the hills they found _aer-a-um-piv_, their tobacco.
O, it was a beauti
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