arnation of a god, but is a mere boar sans
phrase, like the creative coyote of the Papogas and Chinooks, or the
musk-rat of the Tacullies. This is a good example of the development
of myths. Savages begin, as we saw, by mythically regarding various
animals, spiders, grasshoppers, ravens, eagles, cockatoos, as the
creators or recoverers of the world. As civilisation advances, those
animals still perform their beneficent functions, but are looked on
as gods in disguise. In time the animals are often dropped altogether,
though they hold their place with great tenacity in the cosmogonic
traditions of the Aryans in India. When we find the Satapatha Brahmana
alleging(2) "that all creatures are descended from a tortoise," we seem
to be among the rude Indians of the Pacific Coast. But when the tortoise
is identified with Aditya, and when Adityas prove to be solar deities,
sons of Aditi, and when Aditi is recognised by Mr. Muller as the Dawn,
we see that the Aryan mind has not been idle, but has added a good deal
to the savage idea of the descent of men and beasts from a tortoise.(3)

(1) Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 52.

(2) Muir, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 54.

(3) See Ternaux Compans' Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, lxxxvi. p. 5.
For Mexican traditions, "Mexican and Australian Hurricane World's End,"
Bancroft, v. 64.

Another feature of savage myths of creation we found to be the
introduction of a crude theory of evolution. We saw that among the
Potoyante tribe of the Digger Indians, and among certain Australian
tribes, men and beasts were supposed to have been slowly evolved and
improved out of the forms first of reptiles and then of quadrupeds. In
the mythologies of the more civilised South American races, the idea
of the survival of the fittest was otherwise expressed. The gods made
several attempts at creation, and each set of created beings proving in
one way or other unsuited to its environment, was permitted to die out
or degenerated into apes, and was succeeded by a set better adapted for
survival.(1) In much the same way the Satapatha Brahmana(2) represents
mammals as the last result of a series of creative experiments.
"Prajapati created living beings, which perished for want of food. Birds
and serpents perished thus. Prajapati reflected, 'How is it that my
creatures perish after having been formed?' He perceived this: 'They
perish from want of food'. In his own presence he caused milk to be
supplied to breasts. He