AIR IN FACT AND FANCY

The suggestion of mental parallels is the main advantage of this presentation, which juxtaposes short mythic stories with modern scientific views of the same phenomena: the creation, the source of winds, the causes of rain, lightning and thunder. In most cases tile ""primitive"" version reflects sharp observations even if the causal relationships (e.g. between water currents and the winds) have been revised. One can see a resemblance between Newton's invention of a ""force of gravity"" and the construct of Rangi, the earth god. Assuming that readers recognize a difference between natural and scientific observation, this should not mislead but should intimate the fecundity of each approach. Imaginative but without support from the textbook prose.