[23] Page 46. See also note [9].
[24] Similarly Dilthey, Erlebnis und Dichtung, 1906, p. 153 fol.;—“Ist so die Einbildungskraft in Mythos und Götterglauben, zunächst gebunden an das Bedürfnis des Lebens, so sondert sie sich doch allmählich im Verlauf der Kultur von den religiösen Zweckbeziehungen und erhebt jene zweite Welt zu einer unabhängigen Bedeutsamkeit”—like Homer, Dante, etc. See note [20], close, and Encyc. Brit., Lycanthropy:—“Insane delusions must reflect the usages and beliefs of contemporaneous society.”
[25] Notes [20], [21] and [27].
[27] Grinnell, Story of the indian, p. 54, says:—Traces of the fear in which buffalo “were held may still be discovered in the traditional stories of certain tribes, which set forth how, in those days,” [i. e. in the stone age] “before men were provided with arms, the buffalo used to chase, kill, and eat the people. Such tales show very clearly how greatly the buffalo were dreaded in ancient times, and such fear could hardly have arisen save as the result of actual experience of their power to inflict injury and death.” Pliny informs us how the Romans kept the wolf out of their fields, see Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, III. 1241. Whether the Indians lived on the steppes, in the woods, on the coast, or in the mountains, the animals were their whole study. They moved with the animals, followed them for food.
[29] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 122, note:—It seems that masks were occasionally used as decoys.... Next to the otter the most valuable animal in the estimation of the Kadiak men, is the species of seal or sea-dog called by the Russians nerpa. The easiest manner of taking it is to entice it toward the shore. A fisherman, concealing the lower part of his body among the rocks, puts on his head a wooden cap or rather casque resembling the head of a seal and makes a noise like that animal. The unsuspicious seal, imagining that he is about to meet a partner of his own species, hastens to the spot and is instantly killed. Compare note [57].
[30] Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 132:—Bering Strait Eskimo stuff rudely the skin of the bird called ptarmigan, and mount it upon a stick which holds the head outstretched, then imitate the call of the bird, which is trapped in the net attached to the decoy. Other decoys are made by molding soft snow into the form of a bird; for the ptarmigan, brown moss is put around the neck for plumage. The call then brought the real birds.
[31] Thus G. B. Grinnell, Story of the Indian, p. 61, in his description of the primitive Indians’ method of trapping buffalo, says: “Some men went forth naked, others carried a dress made of the entire skin of a buffalo, the head and horns arranged like a buffalo head, while the rest of the skin hung down over the wearer’s back,” etc. This “caller” went near to a herd of buffalo, got them in pursuit of him, then led them into the trap, a chute, or to a precipice, the fall from which often proved fatal to the entire herd. Again, in Ethn. Rep. 1884-85, p. 484, about Central Eskimo seal hunting, is stated: If a hunter is close to an animal he imitates its movements. Some utter sounds similar to those of a blowing seal. “The sealskin clothing makes man and seal look so extremely alike that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other at some distance.” And on p. 508, about deer hunting: In a plain the Central Eskimos carry guns on their shoulders, two men going together, so as to resemble the antlers of a deer. The men imitate their grunting. If they lie on the ground at some distance they greatly resemble the animals themselves. According to Ross the “inhabitants of Boothia imitate the appearance of the deer, the foremost of two men stalking a herd bearing a deer’s head upon his own.” Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 534:—“The old manner of hunting antelope and deer: the hunter would disguise himself by covering his head with the head and skin of an antelope, and so be enabled to approach the game near enough to use his bow and arrow. In a similar manner the Hidatsa would mask themselves with a wolfskin to enable them to approach buffalo.” Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 439;—Two of the party of hunters (Zuñi) out after deer “wear cotton shirts with sleeves to the elbow, the front and back of the shirt being painted to represent as nearly as possible the body of the deer; the hands and the arms to the elbow and also the sleeves are colored to represent the deer’s forelegs. Each wears the skin of a deer’s head over his head.... In this dress the two huntsmen imitate as closely as possible, even to the browsing, the game they would catch.”
[32] Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 352:—“Tradition says the Iroquois derived the music and action of the Buffalo dance while on an expedition against the Cherokee, from the bellowing and the movements of a herd of buffalo which they heard for the first time ‘singing their favorite songs,’ i. e. bellowing and snorting.” Also note [33].