From germ of life sprang thought,
And God's own medium came:
Then bird and bloom; and life in space
Produced the worlds of night. - Maori lament
The best part of this book for me was the chapters of poems from non-Christian cultures: Maori, Ojibwa, Hawaiian, and so on. Also the proverbs and expressions collected from civiliations of the Masai, Maori, Samoan, and so on. This book was first published in 1927 and you have to forgive the use of the word "primitive", which was part of the European prejudice of that time. What the author has actually collected is more like evidence of sophisticated belief systems of non-European cultures: world creation and their origins, their belief in the sacredness of life, and their views of themselves in the universe - most of which non-Christians call "mythology". It's a pre-Joseph Campbell drawing together of diverse symbols and universal belief.
And God's own medium came:
Then bird and bloom; and life in space
Produced the worlds of night. - Maori lament
The best part of this book for me was the chapters of poems from non-Christian cultures: Maori, Ojibwa, Hawaiian, and so on. Also the proverbs and expressions collected from civiliations of the Masai, Maori, Samoan, and so on. This book was first published in 1927 and you have to forgive the use of the word "primitive", which was part of the European prejudice of that time. What the author has actually collected is more like evidence of sophisticated belief systems of non-European cultures: world creation and their origins, their belief in the sacredness of life, and their views of themselves in the universe - most of which non-Christians call "mythology". It's a pre-Joseph Campbell drawing together of diverse symbols and universal belief.
