Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology

Abstract

THIS volume is the first to appear of a projected annual series under the general editorship of Dr. Franz Boas, and forms, with tales previously pub lished by him, a large mass of material for the study of the myths of the Kwakiutl, who live between River Inlet and Cape Madge, on the coast of British Colum bia. There are here many interesting parallels to legends of Japan, Australia, and other distant lands, as well as racial and local tales, often humorous, of culture-heroes and sorcerers, and naïve explanations of the origins of dances and ceremonies, and of animals and natural objects. The usefulness of the collection could have been much increased, especially for readers not familiar with American-Indian lore, by multiplying the footnotes, and by an introduction such ns Dr. Boas himself supplied to Teit's “Traditions of the Thompson River Indians,” for, as pointed out bv him elsewhere, the traditions and organisation of the tribe are mutually explanatory, and here we have the traditions only.

Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology.

Edited by Franz Boas. Vol. ii., Kwakiutl Tales. By Franz Boas. Pp. viii + 495. (New York: Columbia University Press; Leyden: E. J. Brill, Ltd., 1910.)