Introductory material
Reading edition
STORIES: Malayan story of the sun and moon.—Hymn to the mother of the gods (Mexican Indian, Brinton’s “Rig Veda Americanus”).—Hymn to Cihuacoatl (Mexican Indian, Brinton).—The children of heaven and earth (Sir George Grey, “Polynesian Mythology”).—Story of Demeter (Greek, from Hymn to Demeter, Callimachus).—The story of Demeter and Persephone (Greek, Gayley-Bulfinch, drawn from Ovid and Apollodorus).—Legend of Tu-tok-a-nu-la (Indian, Emerson).—Nezhik-e-wa-wa-sun, or the lone lightning (Odjibwa, Emerson).—Wasis, the baby (Penobscot, Leland).—Ojeeg Annung, or the summer-maker (Indian, Emerson).—The legend of Maui (Polynesian, Grey).—The infant Heracles (Greek, paraphrased from Lang’s translation of the Idyls of Theocritus).—The infant Hermes (Greek, paraphrased from Shelley’s translation of the Homeric Hymn to Mercury).