Egerton Ryerson Young

Algonquin Indian Tales Egerton Ryerson Young

For thirty years or more we have been gathering up these myths and legends. Sometimes a brief sentence or two of one would be heard in somewigwam--just enough to excite curiosity--then years would elapse ere thewhole story could be secured. As the tribes had no written language, andthe Indians had to depend entirely upon their memory, it is not to bewondered at that there were, at times, great divergences in the recital ofeven the most familiar of their stories. We have heard the same legendgiven by several story-tellers and no two agreed in many particulars. Others, however, were told with very slight differences.