Note 2 — NOTES AND PARALLELS TO MYTHS

Stories and story tellers (p. 229): Migration legend—In Buttrick’s Antiquities2 we find some notice of this migration legend, which, as given by the missionary, is unfortunately so badly mixed up with the Bible story that it is almost impossible to isolate the genuine. He starts them under the leadership of their “greatest prophet,” Wâsĭ—who is simply Moses—in search of a far distant country where they may be safe from their enemies. Who these enemies are, or in what quarter they live, is not stated. Soon after setting out they come to a great water, which Wâsĭ strikes with his staff; the water divides so that they pass through safely, and then rolls back and prevents pursuit by their enemies. They then enter a wilderness and come to a mountain, and we are treated to the Bible story of Sinai and the tables of stone. Here also they receive sacred fire from heaven, which thereafter they carry with them until the house in which it is kept is at last destroyed by a hostile invasion. This portion of the myth seems to be genuine Indian (see notes to number 111, “The Mounds and the Constant Fire”).