The Indian's New Resurrection Myth

The legend goes on to relate how the Winter God, en-
vious of his brother's creation of man, began imitating his
handiwork, and produced the monkey, the ape, the great
horned owl, bats, toads, worms, and other creeping things.
When the Winter God refused to stop work along this line
the Life God compelled him to occupy the back part of the
bark-lodge where they both lived-the low-roofed part behind
the lodge-fire; and as the Winter God was made of crystal ice,
the poor fellow soon began to melt away. Thus, to the minds
of some of the first Americans, did summer triumph over
winter.
J. N. B. Hewitt, of the Smithsonian Institution, who has
spent some thirty-odd years in writing down old Indian
myths, recently met an aged Indian who furnished the follow-
ing conclusion to the story-a conclusion, the Ledger contribu-
tor declares, never before published.
"After the victory over the Winter God," Mr. Hewitt
said, "this old man told me that the Life God taught the
human beings he had made that he would make a path on
the earth. This, of course, did not mean such a path as im-
mediately suggests itself to our minds, but the meaning was
that they would have to follow the natural course of life,
governed by their customs and their culture.
"Over this path, according to the Life God's teachings,
two persons, a young man and a yoing woman at the flower-
ing of their lives, should be appointed to follow. At the end
of the path, they were told, they would find a mound of earth,
and on this mound they would see three plants growing-
the corn, the bean, and the squash (symbols of our life). The

woman was directed to stand on the west side of the mound,
because the flow of life is westward, and in order to receive
it she must face the current.
"The Life God in his instructions further added: 'Now
you see why there must be a mound of earth at the end of
your path, for each will know why he has to die, the growth
of the plants on the mound symbolizing that life, or immor-
tality, must come out of a mound also-the hope and the as-
surance of a resurrection.' "-The Literary Digest.

180