Native American tales

Father Bear, Mother Antelope, Little Fox and Father Coyote lived in an age when humans and animals were not yet separated from each other. Following the story of their migration, we can get to know the magical fairy tale world of the Californian Indian tribes, which was collected in a volume by the linguist-anthropologist Jaime de Angulo. Angulo - whom Ezra Pound called "the American Ovid" - drew on his long years of experience with the Pit River tribe to create this unique combination of fiction, folklore, fantasy, jokes, festive rites and adventures. He originally wrote the stories for the entertainment of his own children, freely borrowing from the beliefs of other indigenous tribes. Jaime de Angulo He does not strive for scientific accuracy, but neither does he paint a romantic, idealized picture of the lives and way of thinking of the Indians. He himself advises readers: "If you find yourself not understanding something and looking for a mechanical explanation for it, then invent one. And if you come across some inconsistency or wonderful improbability, remember what the ancient Indians said: "This is how they used to to tell this tale. I did not invent it!'" Jaime de Angulo was born in Paris in 1887 to Spanish parents. At the age of eighteen, he immigrated to the United States, where he worked as a helper on a large estate in the first years. He later studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University and served in a medical corps during World War I. He spent several decades with the Indian tribes living on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, where he could try his hand at various roles, from anthropologist to medicine man. He died in 1950 in Berkeley.