CONTENTS
| Page | ||
| Introduction | [1] | |
| I. | Cane | [4] |
| The narrator | [4] | |
| The Cane narrative | [4] | |
| Song scheme and narrative outline | [19] | |
| The Cane song scheme | [19] | |
| Movement of the narrative | [20] | |
| Apparent inconsistencies | [20] | |
| Handling of the plot | [21] | |
| Supplementary | [23] | |
| II. | Vinimulye-pātše | [24] |
| The tale | [24] | |
| III. | Nyohaiva | [27] |
| Circumstances and nature of the story | [27] | |
| The Nyohaiva tale | [28] | |
| The song scheme | [35] | |
| IV. | Raven | [37] |
| Narrator's statements | [37] | |
| Outline of song scheme | [37] | |
| The Raven story | [38] | |
| V. | Deer | [41] |
| Discussion | [41] | |
| Variations in song scheme | [42] | |
| Words of songs | [42] | |
| The Deer story | [42] | |
| VI. | Coyote | [46] |
| Circumstances of the recording | [46] | |
| The tales | [46] | |
| A: Dreamed | [46] | |
| B: Dreamed | [48] | |
| Children's stories: C, D, E | [48] | |
| More stories for children: F, G, H | [48] | |
| VII. | Mastamho | [50] |
| The informant | [50] | |
| Content of the myth | [50] | |
| Schematic outline | [51] | |
| Quality of the narrative | [52] | |
| Main narrative: Mastamho's instituting | [52] | |
| Supplement: Thrasher and Mockingbird institute sex life | [64] | |
| The lists of manufactured words | [67] | |
| Appendix I. Mohave Directional Circuits | [69] | |
| Appendix II. Mohave Names | [70] | |
| ILLUSTRATION | ||
| Interpreter and narrators | frontispiece, facing [v] | |
SEVEN MOHAVE MYTHS
BY
A. L. KROEBER
INTRODUCTION
This paper is an endeavor to make a beginning of payment on a scholarly debt long in arrears. Between 1900 and 1910, I spent considerable time with the Mohave Indians, both in the vicinity of Needles and with visitors from there to the University. Summaries of the data recorded, and some samples of concrete detail, have been published in one place or another, most coherently in two chapters of the Handbook of California Indians in 1925. But I kept deferring presentation of the fuller data, in particular of the mythological narratives, many of which run to unusual length. The tales offered herewith comprise in bulk about half of the Mohave narrative material in my notebooks. This is exclusive of the "Great Tale" of pseudo-historical moving about and fighting of clan-like groups, my unfinished recording of which runs to about the length of the seven tales presented herewith.[1]
[1] The fragmentary beginning of one of these clan or war legends is given in Handbook, pp. 772-775.