When we begin to examine the gods of MYTHOLOGY, savage or civilised, as distinct from deities contemplated, in devotion, as moral and creative guardians of ethics, we shall find that, with the general, though not invariable addition of immortality, they possess the very same accomplishments as the medicine-man, peay, tohunga, jossakeed, birraark, or whatever name for sorcerer we may choose. Among the Greeks, Zeus, mythically envisaged, enjoys in heaven all the attributes of the medicine-man; among the Iroquois, as Pere le Jeune, the old Jesuit missionary, observed,(1) the medicine-man enjoys on earth all the attributes of Zeus. Briefly, the miraculous and supernatural endowments of the gods of MYTH, whether these gods be zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, are exactly the magical properties with which the medicine-man is credited by his tribe. It does not at all follow, as Euemerus and Mr. Herbert Spencer might argue, that the god was once a real living medicine-man. But myth-making man confers on the deities of myth the magical powers which he claims for himself. (1) Relations (1636), p. 114. CHAPTER V. NATURE MYTHS. Savage fancy, curiosity and credulity illustrated in nature myths--In these all phenomena are explained by belief in the general animation of everything, combined with belief in metamorphosis--Sun myths, Asian, Australian, African, Melanesian, Indian, Californian, Brazilian, Maori, Samoan--Moon myths, Australian, Muysca, Mexican, Zulu, Macassar, Greenland, Piute, Malay--Thunder myths--Greek and Aryan sun and moon myths--Star myths--Myths, savage and civilised, of animals, accounting for their marks and habits--Examples of custom of claiming blood kinship with lower animals--Myths of various plants and trees--Myths of stones, and of metamorphosis into stones, Greek, Australian and American--The whole natural philosophy of savages expressed in myths, and survives in folk-lore and classical poetry; and legends of metamorphosis.