PREFACE.

THE following series of Kwakiutl tales was collected by me on various journeys to British Columbia. In Volumes III and X of the Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition I have published a considerable number of myths written down by Mr. George Hunt of Fort Rupert, B. C., who speaks Kwakiutl as his native language. These tales were written under my direction, and the language was revised by me phonetically, the text being dictated to me in part by Mr. Hunt, in part by other natives.

Since all the texts contained in the Publications of the Jesup Expedition have been written down by the same individual, they present a certain uniformity of diction. In order to overcome this, I collected during the work of the Jesup Expedition, as well as at other times, tales from the lips of natives, and these present the necessary control material for checking the reliability of the language and form of the tales recorded by Mr. Hunt. The tales contained on pp. 1-243 of this volume were all dictated to me in this manner.

At the end of the volume a number of tales are given which were not obtained in the original.

FRANZ BOAS.

NEW YORK, June, 1910.