of the documentary material.

The geographical features of the region to be treated are too well known
to require mention. Neither can folklore and tradition, notwithstanding
their decisive importance in a great many cases, be touched upon except
when alluded to in the sources themselves. I am fully aware, as I stated
in presenting the history of the Zuni tribe, that a history based
exclusively on documents, whether printed or written, must necessarily
be imperfect because it is not impartial, since it summarizes the views
of those who saw and understood but one side of the question, and judged
it only from their own standpoint. This defect cannot be remedied, as it
underlies the very nature of the task, and the greater therefore is the
necessity of carefully studying the folklore of the Indians in order to
check and complete as well as to correct the picture presented by people
acquainted with the art of writing.

In this Introduction I forego the employment of quotations, reserving
such for the main work. Quotations and footnotes are not, as it has been
imagined, a mere display of erudition--they are a duty towards the
source from which they are taken, and a duty to its author; moreover,
they are a duty towards the reader, who as far as possible should be
placed in a position himself to judge the value and nature of the
information presented, and, finally, they are a necessary indication of
the extent of the author's responsibility. If the sources are given
clearly and circumstantially, yet happen to be wrong, the author is
exonerated from blame for resting upon their authority, provided, as it
not infrequently happens, he has no way of correcting them by means of
other information.

In entering the field of documentary research the first task is to
become thoroughly acquainted with the languages in which the documents
are recorded. To be able to read cursorily a language in its present
form is not sufficient. Spanish, for example, has changed comparatively
less than German since the sixteenth century, yet there are locutions as
well as words found in early documents pertaining to America that have
fallen into disuse and hence are not commonly understood. Provincialisms
abound, hence the history of the author and the environment in which he
was reared should be taken into account, for sometimes there are phrases
that are unintelligible without a knowledge of the writer's early
surroundings. Translations as a rule sh