AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

A STUDY IN THE NATIVE RELIGIONSOF THE WESTERN CONTINENT. 

BY

DANIEL G. BRINTON, M. D. , MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY; THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIANSOCIETY; THE NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF PHILA. , ETC. ; AUTHOR OF"THE MYTHS OF THE NEW WORLD;" "THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. " ETC. 

1882. 

TO

ELI K. PRICE, ESQ. , PRESIDENT OF THE NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, WHOSEENLIGHTENED INTEREST HAS FOR MANY YEARS, AND IN MANY WAYS, FURTHERED THEPROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THEAUTHOR. 

PREFACE. 

This little volume is a contribution to the comparative study ofreligions. It is an endeavor to present in a critically correct light someof the fundamental conceptions which are found in the native beliefs ofthe tribes of America. 

So little has heretofore been done in this field that it has yielded avery scanty harvest for purposes of general study. It has not yet evenpassed the stage where the distinction between myth and tradition has beenrecognized. Nearly all historians continue to write about some of theAmerican hero-gods as if they had been chiefs of tribes at someundetermined epoch, and the effort to trace the migrations andaffiliations of nations by similarities in such stories is of almost dailyoccurrence. How baseless and misleading all such arguments must be, it isone of my objects to set forth. 

At the same time I have endeavored to be temperate in applying theinterpretations of mythologists. I am aware of the risk one runs inlooking at every legend as a light or storm myth. My guiding principle hasbeen that when the same, and that a very extraordinary, story is told byseveral tribes wholly apart in language and location, then theprobabilities are enormous that it is not a legend but a myth, and must beexplained as such. It is a spontaneous production of the mind, not areminiscence of an historic event. 

The importance of the study of myths has been abundantly shown of recentyears, and the methods of analyzing them have been established withsatisfactory clearness. 

The time has long since passed, at least among thinking men, when thereligious legends of the lower races were looked upon as trivial fables, or as the inventions of the Father of Lies. They are neither the one northe other. They express, in image and incident, the opinions of theseraces on the mightiest topics of human thought, on the origin and destinyof man, his motives for duty and his grounds of hope, and the source, history and fate of all external nature. Certainly the sincere expressionson these subjects of even humble members of the human race deserve ourmost respectful heed, and it may be that we shall discover in their crudeor coarse narrations gleams of a mental light which their proud Aryanbrothers have been long in coming to, or have not yet reached. 

The prejudice against all the lower faiths inspired by the claim ofChristianity to a monopoly of religious truth--a claim nowise set up byits founder--has led to extreme injustice toward the so-called heathenreligions. Little effort has been made to distinguish between their goodand evil tendencies, or even to understand them. I do not know of a singleinstance on this continent of a thorough and intelligent study of a nativereligion made by a Protestant missionary. 

So little real work has been done in American mythology that very diverseopinions as to its interpretation prevail among writers. Too many of themapply to it facile generalizations, such as "heliolatry, " "animism, ""ancestral worship, " "primitive philosophizing, " and think that such asesame will unloose all its mysteries. The result has been that while eachsatisfies himself, he convinces no one else. 

I have tried to avoid any such bias, and have sought to discover thesource of the myths I have selected, by close attention to two points:first, that I should obtain the precise original form of the myth by arigid scrutiny of authorities; and, secondly, that I should bring to bearupon it modern methods of mythological and linguistic analysis. 

The first of these requirements has given me no small trouble. The sourcesof American history not only differ vastly in merit, but many of them arealmost inaccessible. I still have by me a list of books of the first orderof importance for these studies, which I have not been able to find in anypublic or private library in the United States. 

I have been free in giving references for the statements in the text. Thegrowing custom among historians of omitting to do this must be deplored inthe interests of sound learning. It is better to risk the charge ofpedantry than to leave at fault those who wish to test an author'saccuracy or follow up the line of investigation he indicates. 

On the other hand, I have exercised moderation in drawing comparisons withAryan, Semitic, Egyptian and other Old World mythologies. It would havebeen easy to have noted apparent similarities to a much greater extent. But I have preferred to leave this for those who write upon generalcomparative mythology. Such parallelisms, to reach satisfactory results, should be attempted only by those who have studied the Oriental religionsin their original sources, and thus are not to be deceived by superficialresemblances. 

The term "comparative mythology" reaches hardly far enough to cover allthat I have aimed at. The professional mythologist thinks he has completedhis task when he has traced a myth through its transformations in storyand language back to the natural phenomena of which it was the expression. This external history is essential. But deeper than that lies the study ofthe influence of the myth on the individual and national mind, on theprogress and destiny of those who believed it, in other words, its true_religious_ import. I have endeavored, also, to take some account of this. 

The usual statement is that tribes in the intellectual condition of thoseI am dealing with rest their religion on a worship of external phenomena. In contradiction to this, I advance various arguments to show that theirchief god was not identified with any objective natural process, but washuman in nature, benignant in character, loved rather than feared, andthat his worship carried with it the germs of the development ofbenevolent emotions and sound ethical principles. 

_Media, Pa. , Oct. , 1882. _

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Some Kind of Religion Found among all Men--Classifications ofReligions--The Purpose of Religions--Religions of Rite and of Creed--TheMyth Grows in the First of these--Intent and Meaning of the Myth. 

Processes of Myth Building in America--Personification, Paronyms andHomonyms--Otosis--Polyonomy--Henotheism--Borrowing--RhetoricalFigures--Abstract Expressions--Esoteric Teachings. 

Outlines of the Fundamental American Myth--The White Culture-hero and theFour Brothers--Interpretation of the Myth--Comparison with the AryanHermes Myth--With the Aryo-Semitic Cadmus Myth--With Osirian Myths--TheMyth of the Virgin Mother--The Interpretation thus Supported. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE ALGONKINS AND IROQUOIS. 

§1. _The Algonkin Myth of Michabo. _

The Myth of the Giant Rabbit--The Rabbit Creates the World--He Marries theMuskrat--Becomes the All-Father--Derivation of Michabo--of Wajashk, theMusk-rat--The Myth Explained--The Light-God as God of the East--The FourDivine Brothers--Myth of the Huarochiris--The Day-Makers--Michabo'sContests with His Father and Brother--Explanation of These--The SymbolicFlint Stone--Michabo Destroys the Serpent King--Meaning of thisMyth--Relations of the Light-God and Wind-God--Michabo as God of Watersand Fertility--Represented as a Bearded Man. 

§2. _The Iroquois Myth of Ioskeha. _

The Creation of the Earth--The Miraculous Birth of Ioskeha--He Overcomeshis Brother Tawiscara--Creates and Teaches Mankind--Visits his People--HisGrandmother Ataensic--Ioskeha as Father of his Mother--Similar Conceptionsin Egyptian Myths--Derivation of Ioskeha and Ataensic--Ioskeha asTharonhiawakon, the Sky Supporter--His Brother Tawiscara or TehotennhiaronIdentified--Similarity to Algonkin Myths. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE HERO-GOD OP THE AZTEC TRIBES. 

§1. _The Two Antagonists. _

The Contest of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca--Quetzalcoatl theLight-God--Derivation of His Name--Titles of Tezcatlipoca--Identified withDarkness, Night and Gloom. 

§2. _Quetzalcoatl the God. _

Myth of the Four Brothers--The Four Suns and the Elemental Conflict--Namesof the Four Brothers. 

§3. _Quetzalcoatl the Hero of Tula. _

Tula, the City of the Sun--Who were the Toltecs?--Tlapallan and Xalac--TheBirth of the Hero God--His Virgin Mother Chimalmatl--His MiraculousConception--Aztlan, the Land of Seven Caves, and Colhuacan, the BendedMount--The Maid Xochitl and the Rose Garden of the Gods--Quetzalcoatl asthe White and Bearded Stranger. 

The Glory of the Lord of Tula--The Subtlety of the SorcererTezcatlipoca--The Magic Mirror and the Mystic Draught--The MythExplained--The Promise of Rejuvenation--The Toveyo and the Maiden--TheJuggleries of Tezcatlipoca--Departure of Quetzalcoatl fromTula--Quetzalcoatl at Cholula--His Death or Departure--The Celestial Gameof Ball and Tiger Skin--Quetzalcoatl as the Planet Venus. 

§4. _Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Winds. _

The Lord of the Four Winds--His Symbols, the Wheel of the Winds, thePentagon and the Cross--Close Relation to the Gods of Rain andWaters--Inventor of the Calendar--God of Fertility andConception--Recommends Sexual Austerity--Phallic Symbols--God ofMerchants--The Patron of Thieves--His Pictographic Representations. 

§5. _The Return of Quetzalcoatl. _

His Expected Re-appearance--The Anxiety of Montezuma--His Address toCortes--The General Expectation--Explanation of his Predicted Return. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE MAYAS. 

Civilization of the Mayas--Whence it Originated--Duplicate Traditions

§1. _The Culture Hero Itzamna. _

Itzamna as Ruler, Priest and Teacher--As Chief God and Creator of theWorld--Las Casas' Supposed Christ Myth--The Four Bacabs--Itzamna as Lordof the Winds and Rains--The Symbol of the Cross--As Lord of the Light andDay--Derivation of his Various Names. 

§2. _The Culture Hero Kukulcan. _

Kukulcan as Connected with the Calendar--Meaning of the Name--The Myth ofthe Four Brothers--Kukulcan's Happy Rule and MiraculousDisappearance--Relation to Quetzalcoatl--Aztec and MayaMythology--Kukulcan a Maya Divinity--The Expected Return of theHero-god--The Maya Prophecies--Their Explanation. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE QQICHUA HERO-GOD VIRACOCHA. 

Viracocha as the First Cause--His name Illa Ticci--Qquichua Prayers--OtherNames and Titles of Viracocha--His Worship a True Monotheism--The Myth ofthe Four Brothers--Myth of the Twin Brothers. 

Viracocha as Tunapa, He who Perfects--Various Incidents in HisLife--Relation to Manco Capac--He Disappears in the West. 

Viracocha Rises from Lake Titicaca and Journeys to the West--Derivation ofHis Name--He was Represented as White and Bearded--The Myth of Con andPachacamac--Contice Viracocha--Prophecies of the Peruvian Seers The WhiteMen Called Viracochas--Similarities to Aztec Myths. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE EXTENSION AND INFLUENCE OP THE TYPICAL HERO-MYTH. 

The Typical Myth found in many parts of the Continent--Difficulties inTracing it--Religious Evolution in America Similar to that in the OldWorld--Failure of Christianity in the Red Race. 

The Culture Myth of the Tarascos of Mechoacan--That of the Kiches ofGuatemala. --The Votan Myth of the Tzendals of Chiapas--A Fragment of aMixe Myth--The Hero-God of the Muyscas of New Granada--Of theTupi-Guaranay Stem of Paraguay and Brazil--Myths of the Dènè of BritishAmerica. 

Sun Worship in America--Germs of Progress in American Religions--Relationof Religion and Morality--The Light-God A Moral and BeneficentCreation--His Worship was Elevating--Moral Condition of Native Societiesbefore the Conquest--Progress in the Definition of the Idea of God inPeru, Mexico and Yucatan--Erroneous Statements about the Morals of theNatives--Evolution of their Ethical Principles. 

INDEX. 

AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

SOME KIND OF RELIGION FOUND AMONG ALL MEN--CLASSIFICATIONS OFRELIGIONS--THE PURPOSE OF RELIGIONS--RELIGIONS OF RITE AND OF CREED--THEMYTH GROWS IN THE FIRST OF THESE--INTENT AND MEANING OF THE MYTH. 

PROCESSES OF MYTH-BUILDING IN AMERICA--PERSONIFICATION. PARONYMS ANDHOMONYMS--OTOSIS--POLYONOMY--HENOTHEISM--BORROWING--RHETORICALFIGURES--ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONS. ESOTERIC TEACHINGS. 

OUTLINES OF THE FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN MYTH--THE WHITE CULTURE-HERO AND THEFOUR BROTHERS--INTERPRETATION OF THE MYTH--COMPARISON WITH THE ARYANHERMES MYTH--WITH THE ARYO-SEMITIC CADMUS MYTH--WITH OSIRIAN MYTHS--THEMYTH OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER--THE INTERPRETATION THUS SUPPORTED. 

The time was, and that not so very long ago, when it was contended by somethat there are tribes of men without any sort of religion; nowadays theeffort is to show that the feeling which prompts to it is common, evenamong brutes. 

This change of opinion has come about partly through an extension of thedefinition of religion. It is now held to mean any kind of belief inspiritual or extra-natural agencies. Some learned men say that we hadbetter drop the word "religion, " lest we be misunderstood. They wouldrather use "daimonism, " or "supernaturalism, " or other such new term; butnone of these seems to me so wide and so exactly significant of what Imean as "religion. "

All now agree that in this very broad sense some kind of religion existsin every human community. [1]

[Footnote 1: I suppose I am not going too far in saying "all agree;" for Ithink that the latest study of this subject, by Gustav Roskoff, disposesof Sir John Lubbock's doubts, as well as the crude statements of theauthor of _Kraft und Stoff_, and such like compilations. Gustav Roskoff, _Das Religionswesen der Rohesten Naturvölker_, Leipzig, 1880. ]

The attempt has often been made to classify these various faiths undersome few general headings. The scheme of Auguste Comte still hassupporters. He taught that man begins with fetichism, advances topolytheism, and at last rises to monotheism. More in vogue at present isthe theory that the simplest and lowest form of religion is individual;above it are the national religions; and at the summit the universal orworld religions. 

Comte's scheme has not borne examination. It is artificial and sterile. Look at Christianity. It is the highest of all religions, but it is notmonotheism. Look at Buddhism. In its pure form it is not even theism. Thesecond classification is more fruitful for historical purposes. 

The psychologist, however, inquires as to the essence, the real purpose ofreligions. This has been differently defined by the two great schools ofthought. 

All religions, says the idealist, are the efforts, poor or noble, conscious or blind, to develop the Idea of God in the soul of man. 

No, replies the rationalist, it is simply the effort of the human mind toframe a Theory of Things; at first, religion is an early system of naturalphilosophy; later it becomes moral philosophy. Explain the Universe byphysical laws, point out that the origin and aim of ethics are therelations of men, and we shall have no more religions, nor need any. 

The first answer is too intangible, the second too narrow. The rude savagedoes not philosophize on phenomena; the enlightened student sees in thembut interacting forces: yet both may be profoundly religious. Nor canmorality be accepted as a criterion of religions. The bloody scenes in theMexican teocalli were merciful compared with those in the torture rooms ofthe Inquisition. Yet the religion of Jesus was far above that ofHuitzilopochtli. 

What I think is the essence, the principle of vitality, in religion, andin all religions, is _their supposed control over the destiny of theindividual_, his weal or woe, his good or bad hap, here or hereafter, asit may be. Rooted infinitely deep in the sense of personality, religionwas recognized at the beginning, it will be recognized at the end, as theone indestructible ally in the struggle for individual existence. Atheart, all prayers are for preservation, the burden of all litanies is abegging for Life. 

This end, these benefits, have been sought by the cults of the worldthrough one of two theories. 

The one, that which characterizes the earliest and the crudest religions, teaches that man escapes dangers and secures safety by the performance oravoidance of certain actions. He may credit this or that myth, he may holdto one or many gods; this is unimportant; but he must not fail in thepenance or the sacred dance, he must not touch that which is _taboo_, orhe is in peril. The life of these cults is the Deed, their expression isthe Rite. 

Higher religions discern the inefficacy of the mere Act. They rest theirclaim on Belief. They establish dogmas, the mental acceptance of which isthe one thing needful. In them mythology passes into theology; the act ismeasured by its motive, the formula by the faith back of it. Their life isthe Creed. 

The Myth finds vigorous and congenial growth only in the first of theseforms. There alone the imagination of the votary is free, there alone itis not fettered by a symbol already defined. 

To the student of religions the interest of the Myth is not that of aninfantile attempt to philosophize, but as it illustrates the intimate andimmediate relations which the religion in which it grew bore to theindividual life. Thus examined, it reveals the inevitable destinies of menand of nations as bound up with their forms of worship. 

These general considerations appear to me to be needed for the properunderstanding of the study I am about to make. It concerns itself withsome of the religions which were developed on the American continentbefore its discovery. My object is to present from them a series of mythscuriously similar in features, and to see if one simple and generalexplanation of them can be found. 

The processes of myth-building among American tribes were much the same aselsewhere. These are now too generally familiar to need specificationhere, beyond a few which I have found particularly noticeable. 

At the foundation of all myths lies the mental process of_personification_, which finds expression in the rhetorical figure of_prosopopeia_. The definition of this, however, must be extended from themere representation of inanimate things as animate, to include also therepresentation of irrational beings as rational, as in the "animal myths, "a most common form of religious story among primitive people. 

Some languages favor these forms of personification much more than others, and most of the American languages do so in a marked manner, by the broadgrammatical distinctions they draw between animate and inanimate objects, which distinctions must invariably be observed. They cannot say "the boatmoves" without specifying whether the boat is an animate object or not, orwhether it is to be considered animate, for rhetorical purposes, at thetime of speaking. 

The sounds of words have aided greatly in myth building. Names and wordswhich are somewhat alike in sound, _paronyms_, as they are called bygrammarians, may be taken or mistaken one for the other. Again, many mythsspring from _homonymy_, that is, the sameness in sound of words withdifference in signification. Thus _coatl_, in the Aztec tongue, is a wordfrequently appearing in the names of divinities. It has three entirelydifferent meanings, to wit, a serpent, a guest and twins. Now, whicheverone of these was originally meant, it would be quite certain to bemisunderstood, more or less, by later generations, and myths would ariseto explain the several possible interpretations of the word--as, in fact, we find was the case. 

Closely allied to this is what has been called _otosis_. This is thesubstitution of a familiar word for an archaic or foreign one of similarsound but wholly diverse meaning. This is a very common occurrence andeasily leads to myth making. For example, there is a cave, nearChattanooga, which has the Cherokee name Nik-a-jak. This the whitesettlers have transformed into Nigger Jack, and are prepared with anarrative of some runaway slave to explain the cognomen. It may also occurin the same language. In an Algonkin dialect _missi wabu_ means "the greatlight of the dawn;" and a common large rabbit was called _missabo_; atsome period the precise meaning of the former words was lost, and avariety of interesting myths of the daybreak were transferred to asupposed huge rabbit! Rarely does there occur a more striking example ofhow the deteriorations of language affect mythology. 

_Aztlan_, the mythical land whence the Aztec speaking tribes were said tohave come, and from which they derived their name, means "the place ofwhiteness;" but the word was similar to _Aztatlan_, which would mean "theplace of herons, " some spot where these birds would love to congregate, from _aztatl_, the heron, and in after ages, this latter, as the plainerand more concrete signification, came to prevail, and was adopted by themyth-makers. 

_Polyonomy_ is another procedure often seen in these myths. A divinity hasseveral or many titles; one or another of these becomes prominent, and atlast obscures in a particular myth or locality the original personality ofthe hero of the tale. In America this is most obvious in Peru. 

Akin to this is what Prof. Max Müller has termed _henotheism_. In thismental process one god or one form of a god is exalted beyond all others, and even addressed as the one, only, absolute and supreme deity. Suchexpressions are not to be construed literally as evidences of amonotheism, but simply that at that particular time the worshiper's mindwas so filled with the power and majesty of the divinity to whom heappealed, that he applied to him these superlatives, very much as he wouldto a great ruler. The next day he might apply them to another deity, without any hypocrisy or sense of logical contradiction. Instances of thisare common in the Aztec prayers which have been preserved. 

One difficulty encountered in Aryan mythology is extremely rare inAmerica, and that is, the adoption of foreign names. A proper name withouta definite concrete significance in the tongue of the people who used itis almost unexampled in the red race. A word without a meaning wassomething quite foreign to their mode of thought. One of our most eminentstudents[1] has justly said: "Every Indian synthesis--names of persons andplaces not excepted--must preserve the consciousness of its roots, andmust not only have a meaning, but be so framed as to convey that meaningwith precision, to all who speak the language to which it belongs. " Hence, the names of their divinities can nearly always be interpreted, though forthe reasons above given the most obvious and current interpretation is notin every case the correct one. 

[Footnote 1: J. Hammond Trumbull, _On the Composition of IndianGeographical Names_, p. 3 (Hartford, 1870). ]

As foreign names were not adopted, so the mythology of one tribe veryrarely influenced that of another. As a rule, all the religions weretribal or national, and their votaries had no desire to extend them. Therewas little of the proselytizing spirit among the red race. Some exceptionscan be pointed out to this statement, in the Aztec and Peruvianmonarchies. Some borrowing seems to have been done either by or from theMayas; and the hero-myth of the Iroquois has so many of the lineaments ofthat of the Algonkins that it is difficult to believe that it was whollyindependent of it. But, on the whole, the identities often found inAmerican myths are more justly attributable to a similarity ofsurroundings and impressions than to any other cause. 

The diversity and intricacy of American mythology have been greatlyfostered by the delight the more developed nations took in rhetoricalfigures, in metaphor and simile, and in expressions of amplification andhyperbole. Those who imagine that there was a poverty of resources inthese languages, or that their concrete form hemmed in the mind from thestudy of the abstract, speak without knowledge. One has but to look at theinexhaustible synonymy of the Aztec, as it is set forth by Olmos orSahagun, or at its power to render correctly the refinements of scholastictheology, to see how wide of the fact is any such opinion. And what istrue of the Aztec, is not less so of the Qquichua and other tongues. 

I will give an example, where the English language itself falls short ofthe nicety of the Qquichua in handling a metaphysical tenet. _Cay_ inQquichua expresses the real being of things, the _essentia_; as, _runapcaynin_, the being of the human race, humanity in the abstract; but toconvey the idea of actual being, the _existentia_ as united to the_essentia_, we must add the prefix _cascan_, and thus have_runap-cascan-caynin_, which strictly means "the essence of being ingeneral, as existent in humanity. "[1] I doubt if the dialect of Germanmetaphysics itself, after all its elaboration, could produce in equalcompass a term for this conception. In Qquichua, moreover, there isnothing strained and nothing foreign in this example; it is perfectlypure, and in thorough accord with the genius of the tongue. 

[Footnote 1: "El ser existente de hombre, que es el modo de estar elprimer ser que es la essentia que en Dios y los Angeles y el hombre esmodo personal. " Diego Gonzalez Holguin, _Vocabvlario de la Lengva Qqichua, o del Inca; sub voce, Cay_. (Ciudad de los Reyes, 1608. )]

I take some pains to impress this fact, for it is an important one inestimating the religious ideas of the race. We must not think we havegrounds for skepticism if we occasionally come across some that astonishus by their subtlety. Such are quite in keeping with the psychology andlanguages of the race we are studying. 

Yet, throughout America, as in most other parts of the world, the teachingof religious tenets was twofold, the one popular, the other for theinitiated, an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine. A difference in dialectwas assiduously cultivated, a sort of "sacred language" being employed toconceal while it conveyed the mysteries of faith. Some linguists thinkthat these dialects are archaic forms of the language, the memory of whichwas retained in ceremonial observances; others maintain that they weresimply affectations of expression, and form a sort of slang, based on theevery day language, and current among the initiated. I am inclined to thelatter as the correct opinion, in many cases. 

Whichever it was, such a sacred dialect is found in almost all tribes. There are fragments of it from the cultivated races of Mexico, Yucatan andPeru; and at the other end of the scale we may instance the Guaymis, ofDarien, naked savages, but whose "chiefs of the law, " we are told, taught"the doctrines of their religion in a peculiar idiom, invented for thepurpose, and very different from the common language. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Franco, _Noticia de los Indios Guaymies y de sus Costumbres_, p. 20, in Pinart, _Coleccion de Linguistica y Etnografia Americana_. Tom. Iv. ]

This becomes an added difficulty in the analysis of myths, as not onlywere the names of the divinities and of localities expressed in terms inthe highest degree metaphorical, but they were at times obscured by anaffected pronunciation, devised to conceal their exact derivation. 

The native tribes of this Continent had many myths, and among them therewas one which was so prominent, and recurred with such strangely similarfeatures in localities widely asunder, that it has for years attracted myattention, and I have been led to present it as it occurs among severalnations far apart, both geographically and in point of culture. This mythis that of the national hero, their mythical civilizer and teacher of thetribe, who, at the same time, was often identified with the supreme deityand the creator of the world. It is the fundamental myth of a very largenumber of American tribes, and on its recognition and interpretationdepends the correct understanding of most of their mythology and religiouslife. 

The outlines of this legend are to the effect that in some exceedinglyremote time this divinity took an active part in creating the world and infitting it to be the abode of man, and may himself have formed or calledforth the race. At any rate, his interest in its advancement was such thathe personally appeared among the ancestors of the nation, and taught themthe useful arts, gave them the maize or other food plants, initiated theminto the mysteries of their religious rites, framed the laws whichgoverned their social relations, and having thus started them on the roadto self development, he left them, not suffering death, but disappearingin some way from their view. Hence it was nigh universally expected thatat some time he would return. 

The circumstances attending the birth of these hero-gods have greatsimilarity. As a rule, each is a twin or one of four brothers born at onebirth; very generally at the cost of their mother's life, who is a virgin, or at least had never been impregnated by mortal man. The hero is apt tocome into conflict with his brother, or one of his brothers, and the longand desperate struggle resulting, which often involved the universe inrepeated destructions, constitutes one of the leading topics of themyth-makers. The duel is not generally--not at all, I believe, when we canget at the genuine native form of the myth--between a morally good and anevil spirit, though, undoubtedly, the one is more friendly and favorableto the welfare of man than the other. 

The better of the two, the true hero-god, is in the end triumphant, thoughthe national temperament represented this variously. At any rate, hispeople are not deserted by him, and though absent, and perhaps for a whiledriven away by his potent adversary, he is sure to come back some time orother. 

The place of his birth is nearly always located in the East; from thatquarter he first came when he appeared as a man among men; toward thatpoint he returned when he disappeared; and there he still lives, awaitingthe appointed time for his reappearance. 

Whenever the personal appearance of this hero-god is described, it is, strangely enough, represented to be that of one of the white race, a manof fair complexion, with long, flowing beard, with abundant hair, andclothed in ample and loose robes. This extraordinary fact naturallysuggests the gravest suspicion that these stories were made up after thewhites had reached the American shores, and nearly all historians havesummarily rejected their authenticity, on this account. But a most carefulscrutiny of their sources positively refutes this opinion. There isirrefragable evidence that these myths and this ideal of the hero-god, were intimately known and widely current in America long before any one ofits millions of inhabitants had ever seen a white man. Nor is there anydifficulty in explaining this, when we divest these figures of thefanciful garbs in which they have been clothed by the religiousimagination, and recognize what are the phenomena on which they are based, and the physical processes whose histories they embody. To show this Iwill offer, in the most concise terms, my interpretation of their maindetails. 

The most important of all things to life is _Light_. This the primitivesavage felt, and, personifying it, he made Light his chief god. Thebeginning of the day served, by analogy, for the beginning of the world. Light comes before the sun, brings it forth, creates it, as it were. Hencethe Light-God is not the Sun-God, but his Antecedent and Creator. 

The light appears in the East, and thus defines that cardinal point, andby it the others are located. These points, as indispensable guides to thewandering hordes, became, from earliest times, personified as importantdeities, and were identified with the winds that blew from them, as windand rain gods. This explains the four brothers, who were nothing else thanthe four cardinal points, and their mother, who dies in producing them, isthe eastern light, which is soon lost in the growing day. The East, astheir leader, was also the supposed ruler of the winds, and thus god ofthe air and rain. As more immediately connected with the advent anddeparture of light, the East and West are twins, the one of which sendsforth the glorious day-orb, which the other lies in wait to conquer. Yetthe light-god is not slain. The sun shall rise again in undiminishedglory, and he lives, though absent. 

By sight and light we see and learn. Nothing, therefore, is more naturalthan to attribute to the light-god the early progress in the arts ofdomestic and social life. Thus light came to be personified as theembodiment of culture and knowledge, of wisdom, and of the peace andprosperity which are necessary for the growth of learning. 

The fair complexion of these heroes is nothing but a reference to thewhite light of the dawn. Their ample hair and beard are the rays of thesun that flow from his radiant visage. Their loose and large robes typifythe enfolding of the firmament by the light and the winds. 

This interpretation is nowise strained, but is simply that which, in Aryanmythology, is now universally accepted for similar mythological creations. Thus, in the Greek Phoebus and Perseus, in the Teutonic Lif, and in theNorse Baldur, we have also beneficent hero-gods, distinguished by theirfair complexion and ample golden locks. "Amongst the dark as well asamongst the fair races, amongst those who are marked by black hair anddark eyes, they exhibit the same unfailing type of blue-eyed heroes whosegolden locks flow over their shoulders, and whose faces gleam as with thelight of the new risen sun. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Sir George W. Cox, _An Introduction to the Science ofComparative Mythology and Folk-Lore_, p. 17. ]

Everywhere, too, the history of these heroes is that of a struggle againstsome potent enemy, some dark demon or dragon, but as often against somemember of their own household, a brother or a father. 

The identification of the Light-God with the deity of the winds is alsoseen in Aryan mythology. Hermes, to the Greek, was the inventor of thealphabet, music, the cultivation of the olive, weights and measures, andsuch humane arts. He was also the messenger of the gods, in other words, the breezes, the winds, the air in motion. His name Hermes, Hermeias, isbut a transliteration of the Sanscrit Sarameyas, under which he appears inthe Vedic songs, as the son of Sarama, the Dawn. Even his character as themaster thief and patron saint of the light-fingered gentry, drawn from theway the winds and breezes penetrate every crack and cranny of the house, is absolutely repeated in the Mexican hero-god Quetzalcoatl, who was alsothe patron of thieves. I might carry the comparison yet further, for asSarameyas is derived from the root _sar_, to creep, whence _serpo_, serpent, the creeper, so the name Quetzalcoatl can be accuratelytranslated, "the wonderful serpent. " In name, history and functions theparallelism is maintained throughout. 

Or we can find another familiar myth, partly Aryan, partly Semitic, wheremany of the same outlines present themselves. The Argive Thebansattributed the founding of their city and state to Cadmus. He collectedtheir ancestors into a community, gave them laws, invented the alphabet ofsixteen letters, taught them the art of smelting metals, establishedoracles, and introduced the Dyonisiac worship, or that of the reproductiveprinciple. He subsequently left them and lived for a time with othernations, and at last did not die, but was changed into a dragon andcarried by Zeus to Elysion. 

The birthplace of this culture hero was somewhere far to the eastward ofGreece, somewhere in "the purple land" (Phoenicia); his mother was "thefar gleaming one" (Telephassa); he was one of four children, and hissister was Europe, the Dawn, who was seized and carried westward by Zeus, in the shape of a white bull. Cadmus seeks to recover her, and sets out, following the westward course of the sun. "There can be no rest until thelost one is found again. The sun must journey westward until he sees againthe beautiful tints which greeted his eyes in the morning. "[1] ThereforeCadmus leaves the purple land to pursue his quest. It is one of toil andstruggle. He has to fight the dragon offspring of Ares and the bands ofarmed men who spring from the dragon's teeth which were sown, that is, theclouds and gloom of the overcast sky. He conquers, and is rewarded, butdoes not recover his sister. 

[Footnote 1: Sir George W. Cox, _Ibid. _, p. 76. ]

When we find that the name Cadmus is simply the Semitic word _kedem_, theeast, and notice all this mythical entourage, we see that this legend isbut a lightly veiled account of the local source and progress of the lightof day, and of the advantages men derive from it. Cadmus brings theletters of the alphabet from the east to Greece, for the same reason thatin ancient Maya myth Itzamna, "son of the mother of the morning, " broughtthe hieroglyphs of the Maya script also from the east to Yucatan--becauseboth represent the light by which we see and learn. 

Egyptian mythology offers quite as many analogies to support thisinterpretation of American myths as do the Aryan god-stories. 

The heavenly light impregnates the virgin from whom is born the sun-god, whose life is a long contest with his twin brother. The latter wins, buthis victory is transient, for the light, though conquered and banished bythe darkness, cannot be slain, and is sure to return with the dawn, to thegreat joy of the sons of men. This story the Egyptians delighted to repeatunder numberless disguises. The groundwork and meaning are the same, whether the actors are Osiris, Isis and Set, Ptah, Hapi and the VirginCow, or the many other actors of this drama. There, too, among a brownrace of men, the light-god was deemed to be not of their own hue, but"light colored, white or yellow, " of comely countenance, bright eyes andgolden hair. Again, he is the one who invented the calendar, taught thearts, established the rituals, revealed the medical virtues of plants, recommended peace, and again was identified as one of the brothers of thecardinal points. [1]

[Footnote 1: See Dr. C. P. Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, pp. 93, 95, 99, et al. ]

The story of the virgin-mother points, in America as it did in the oldworld, to the notion of the dawn bringing forth the sun. It was one of thecommonest myths in both continents, and in a period of human thought whenmiracles were supposed to be part of the order of things had in it nothingdifficult of credence. The Peruvians, for instance, had largeestablishments where were kept in rigid seclusion the "virgins of thesun. " Did one of these violate her vow of chastity, she and her fellowcriminal were at once put to death; but did she claim that the child shebore was of divine parentage, and the contrary could not be shown, thenshe was feted as a queen, and the product of her womb was classed amongprinces, as a son of the sun. So, in the inscription at Thebes, in thetemple of the virgin goddess Mat, we read where she says of herself: "Mygarment no man has lifted up; the fruit that I have borne was begotten ofthe sun. "[1]

[Footnote 1: "[Greek: Ton emon chitona oudeis apechaluphen on ego charponetechan, aelios egeneto. ]" Proclus, quoted by Tiele, ubi suprá, p. 204, note. ]

I do not venture too much in saying that it were easy to parallel everyevent in these American hero-myths, every phase of character of thepersonages they represent, with others drawn from Aryan and Egyptianlegends long familiar to students, and which now are fully recognized ashaving in them nothing of the substance of history, but as pure creationsof the religious imagination working on the processes of nature broughtinto relation to the hopes and fears of men. 

If this is so, is it not time that we dismiss, once for all, theseAmerican myths from the domain of historical traditions? Why should we tryto make a king of Itzamna, an enlightened ruler of Quetzalcoatl, acultured nation of the Toltecs, when the proof is of the strongest, thatevery one of these is an absolutely baseless fiction of mythology? Let itbe understood, hereafter, that whoever uses these names in an historicalsense betrays an ignorance of the subject he handles, which, were it inthe better known field of Aryan or Egyptian lore, would at once convicthim of not meriting the name of scholar. 

In European history the day has passed when it was allowable to constructprimitive chronicles out of fairy tales and nature myths. The science ofcomparative mythology has assigned to these venerable stories a different, though not less noble, interpretation. How much longer must we wait to seethe same canons of criticism applied to the products of the religiousfancy of the red race?

Furthermore, if the myths of the American nations are shown to be capableof a consistent interpretation by the principles of comparative mythology, let it be recognized that they are neither to be discarded because theyresemble some familiar to their European conquerors, nor does thatsimilarity mean that they are historically derived, the one from theother. Each is an independent growth, but as each is the reflex in acommon psychical nature of the same phenomena, the same forms ofexpression were adopted to convey them. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE ALGONKINS AND IROQUOIS. 

§1. _The Algonkin Myth of Michabo. _

THE MYTH OF THE GIANT RABBIT--THE RABBIT CREATES THE WORLD--HE MARRIES THEMUSKRAT--BECOMES THE ALL-FATHER--DERIVATION OF MICHABO--OF WAJASHK, THEMUSKRAT--THE MYTH EXPLAINED--THE LIGHT-GOD AS GOD OF THE EAST--THE FOURDIVINE BROTHERS--MYTH OF THE HUAROCHIRIS--THE DAY-MAKERS--MICHABO'SCONTESTS WITH HIS FATHER AND BROTHER--EXPLANATION OF THESE--THE SYMBOLICFLINT STONE--MICHABO DESTROYS THE SERPENT KING--MEANING OF THISMYTH--RELATIONS OF THE LIGHT-GOD AND WIND-GOD--MICHABO AS GOD OF WATERSAND FERTILITY--REPRESENTED AS A BEARDED MAN. 

§2. _The Iroquois Myth of Ioskeha. _

THE CREATION OF THE EARTH--THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH OF IOSKEHA--HE OVERCOMESHIS BROTHER, TAWISCARA--CREATES AND TEACHES MANKIND--VISITS HISPEOPLE--HIS GRANDMOTHER, ATAENSIC--IOSKEHA AS FATHER OF HISMOTHER--SIMILAR CONCEPTIONS IN EGYPTIAN MYTHS--DERIVATION OF IOSKEHA ANDATAENSIC--IOSKEHA AS THARONHIAWAKON, THE SKY SUPPORTER--HIS BROTHERTAWISCARA OR TEHOTENNHIARON IDENTIFIED--SIMILARITY TO ALGONKIN MYTHS. 

Nearly all that vast area which lies between Hudson Bay and the Savannahriver, and the Mississippi river and the Atlantic coast, was peopled atthe epoch of the discovery by the members of two linguistic families--theAlgonkins and the Iroquois. They were on about the same plane of culture, but differed much in temperament and radically in language. Yet theirreligious notions were not dissimilar. 

§1. _The Algonkin Myth of Michabo. _

Among all the Algonkin tribes whose myths have been preserved we find muchis said about a certain Giant Rabbit, to whom all sorts of powers wereattributed. He was the master of all animals; he was the teacher who firstinstructed men in the arts of fishing and hunting; he imparted to theAlgonkins the mysteries of their religious rites; he taught them picturewriting and the interpretation of dreams; nay, far more than that, he wasthe original ancestor, not only of their nation, but of the whole race ofman, and, in fact, was none other than the primal Creator himself, whofashioned the earth and gave life to all that thereon is. 

Hearing all this said about such an ignoble and weak animal as the rabbit, no wonder that the early missionaries and travelers spoke of such fableswith undisguised contempt, and never mentioned them without excuses forputting on record trivialities so utter. 

Yet it appears to me that under these seemingly weak stories lay aprofound truth, the appreciation of which was lost in great measure to thenatives themselves, but which can be shown to have been in its origin anoble myth, setting forth in not unworthy images the ceaseless and mightyrhythm of nature in the alternations of day and night, summer and winter, storm and sunshine. 

I shall quote a few of these stories as told by early authorities, notadding anything to relieve their crude simplicity, and then I will seewhether, when submitted to the test of linguistic analysis, thisunpromising ore does not yield the pure gold of genuine mythology. 

The beginning of things, according to the Ottawas and other northernAlgonkins, was at a period when boundless waters covered the face of theearth. On this infinite ocean floated a raft, upon which were many speciesof animals, the captain and chief of whom was Michabo, the Giant Rabbit. They ardently desired land on which to live, so this mighty rabbit orderedthe beaver to dive and bring him up ever so little a piece of mud. Thebeaver obeyed, and remained down long, even so that he came up utterlyexhausted, but reported that he had not reached bottom. Then the Rabbitsent down the otter, but he also returned nearly dead and without success. Great was the disappointment of the company on the raft, for what betterdivers had they than the beaver and the otter?

In the midst of their distress the (female) muskrat came forward andannounced her willingness to make the attempt. Her proposal was receivedwith derision, but as poor help is better than none in an emergency, theRabbit gave her permission, and down she dived. She too remained long, very long, a whole day and night, and they gave her up for lost. But atlength she floated to the surface, unconscious, her belly up, as if dead. They hastily hauled her on the raft and examined her paws one by one. Inthe last one of the four they found a small speck of mud. Victory! Thatwas all that was needed. The muskrat was soon restored, and the GiantRabbit, exerting his creative power, moulded the little fragment of soil, and as he moulded it, it grew and grew, into an island, into a mountain, into a country, into this great earth that we all dwell upon. As it grewthe Rabbit walked round and round it, to see how big it was; and the storyadded that he is not yet satisfied; still he continues his journey and hislabor, walking forever around and around the earth and ever increasing itmore and more. 

The animals on the raft soon found homes on the new earth. But it had yetto be covered with forests, and men were not born. The Giant Rabbit formedthe trees by shooting his arrows into the soil, which became tree trunks, and, transfixing them with other arrows, these became branches; and as formen, some said he formed them from the dead bodies of certain animals, which in time became the "totems" of the Algonkin tribes; but another andprobably an older and truer story was that he married the muskrat whichhad been of such service to him, and from this union were born theancestors of the various races of mankind which people the earth. 

Nor did he neglect the children he had thus brought into the world of hiscreation. Having closely studied how the spider spreads her web to catchflies, he invented the art of knitting nets for fish, and taught it to hisdescendants; the pieces of native copper found along the shores of LakeSuperior he took from his treasure house inside the earth, where hesometimes lives. It is he who is the Master of Life, and if he appears ina dream to a person in danger, it is a certain sign of a lucky escape. Heconfers fortune in the chase, and therefore the hunters invoke him, andoffer him tobacco and other dainties, placing them in the clefts of rocksor on isolated boulders. Though called the Giant Rabbit, he is alwaysreferred to as a man, a giant or demigod perhaps, but distinctly as ofhuman nature, the mighty father or elder brother of the race. [1]

[Footnote 1: The writers from whom I have taken this myth are NicolasPerrot, _Mémoire sur les Meurs, Coustumes et Relligion des Sauvages del'Amérique Septentrionale_, written by an intelligent layman who livedamong the natives from 1665 to 1699; and the various _Relations desJesuites_, especially for the years 1667 and 1670. ]

Such is the national myth of creation of the Algonkin tribes, as it hasbeen handed down to us in fragments by those who first heard it. Has itany meaning? Is it more than the puerile fable of savages?

Let us see whether some of those unconscious tricks of speech to which Ireferred in the introductory chapter have not disfigured a true naturemyth. Perhaps those common processes of language, personification andotosis, duly taken into account, will enable us to restore this narrativeto its original sense. 

In the Algonkin tongue the word for Giant Rabbit is _Missabos_, compoundedfrom _mitchi_ or _missi_, great, large, and _wabos_, a rabbit. But thereis a whole class of related words, referring to widely differentperceptions, which sound very much like _wabos_. They are from a generalroot _wab_, which goes to form such words of related signification as_wabi_, he sees, _waban_, the east, the Orient, _wabish_, white, _bidaban_(_bid-waban_), the dawn, _wában_, daylight, _wasseia_, the light, and manyothers. Here is where we are to look for the real meaning of the name_Missabos_. It originally meant the Great Light, the Mighty Seer, theOrient, the Dawn--which you please, as all distinctly refer to the oneoriginal idea, the Bringer of Light and Sight, of knowledge and life. Intime this meaning became obscured, and the idea of the rabbit, whose namewas drawn probably from the same root, as in the northern winters its furbecomes white, was substituted, and so the myth of light degenerated intoan animal fable. 

I believe that a similar analysis will explain the part which the muskratplays in the story. She it is who brings up the speck of mud from thebottom of the primal ocean, and from this speck the world is formed by himwhom we now see was the Lord of the Light and the Day, and subsequentlyshe becomes the mother of his sons. The word for muskrat in Algonkin is_wajashk_, the first letter of which often suffers elision, as in _ninnod-ajashkwe_, I hunt muskrats. But this is almost the word for mud, wetearth, soil, _ajishki_. There is no reasonable doubt but that here againotosis and personification came in and gave the form and name of an animalto the original simple statement. 

That statement was that from wet mud dried by the sunlight, the solidearth was formed; and again, that this damp soil was warmed and fertilizedby the sunlight, so that from it sprang organic life, even man himself, who in so many mythologies is "the earth born, " _homo ab humo, homochamaigenes_. [1]

[Footnote 1: Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull has pointed out that in Algonkin thewords for father, _osh_, mother, _okas_, and earth, _ohke_ (Narragansetdialect), can all be derived, according to the regular rules of Algonkingrammar, from the same verbal root, signifying "to come out of, or from. "(Note to Roger Williams' _Key into the Language of America_, p. 56). Thusthe earth was, in their language, the parent of the race, and what morenatural than that it should become so in the myth also?]

This, then, is the interpretation I have to offer of the cosmogonical mythof the Algonkins. Does some one object that it is too refined for thoserude savages, or that it smacks too much of reminiscences of old-worldteachings? My answer is that neither the early travelers who wrote itdown, nor probably the natives who told them, understood its meaning, andthat not until it is here approached by modern methods of analysis, has itever been explained. Therefore it is impossible to assign to it other thanan indigenous and spontaneous origin in some remote period of Algonkintribal history. 

After the darkness of the night, man first learns his whereabouts by thelight kindling in the Orient; wandering, as did the primitive man, throughpathless forests, without a guide, the East became to him the first andmost important of the fixed points in space; by it were located the West, the North, the South; from it spread the welcome dawn; in it was born theglorious sun; it was full of promise and of instruction; hence it becameto him the home of the gods of life and light and wisdom. 

As the four cardinal points are determined by fixed physical relations, common to man everywhere, and are closely associated with his dailymotions and well being, they became prominent figures in almost all earlymyths, and were personified as divinities. The winds were classified ascoming from them, and in many tongues the names of the cardinal points arethe same as those of the winds that blow from them. The East, however, has, in regard to the others, a pre-eminence, for it is not merely thehome of the east wind, but of the light and the dawn as well. Hence itattained a marked preponderance in the myths; it was either the greatest, wisest and oldest of the four brothers, who, by personification, represented the cardinal points and the four winds, or else the Light-Godwas separated from the quadruplet and appears as a fifth personagegoverning the other four, and being, in fact, the supreme ruler of boththe spiritual and human worlds. 

Such was the mental processes which took place in the Algonkin mind, andgave rise to two cycles of myths, the one representing Wabun or Michabo asone of four brothers, whose names are those of the cardinal points, thesecond placing him above them all. 

The four brothers are prominent characters in Algonkin legend, and weshall find that they recur with extraordinary frequency in the mythologyof all American nations. Indeed, I could easily point them out also in theearly religious conceptions of Egypt and India, Greece and China, and manyother old-world lands, but I leave these comparisons to those who wish totreat of the principles of general mythology. 

According to the most generally received legend these four brothers werequadruplets--born at one birth--and their mother died in bringing theminto life. Their names are given differently by the various tribes, butare usually identical with the four points of the compass, or somethingrelating to them. Wabun the East, Kabun the West, Kabibonokka the North, and Shawano the South, are, in the ordinary language of the interpreters, the names applied to them. Wabun was the chief and leader, and assigned tohis brothers their various duties, especially to blow the winds. 

These were the primitive and chief divinities of the Algonkin race in allparts of the territory they inhabited. When, as early as 1610, CaptainArgoll visited the tribes who then possessed the banks of the riverPotomac, and inquired concerning their religion, they replied, "We havefive gods in all; our chief god often appears to us in the form of amighty great hare; the other four have no visible shape, but are indeedthe four winds, which keep the four corners of the earth. "[1]

[Footnote 1: William Strachey, _Historie of Travaile into Virginia_, p. 98. ]

Here we see that Wabun, the East, was distinguished from Michabo(_missi-wabun_), and by a natural and transparent process, the easternlight being separated from the eastern wind, the original number four wasincreased to five. Precisely the same differentiation occurred, as I shallshow, in Mexico, in the case of Quetzalcoatl, as shown in his _Yoel_, orWheel of the Winds, which was his sacred pentagram. 

Or I will further illustrate this development by a myth of the HuarochiriIndians, of the coast of Peru. They related that in the beginning ofthings there were five eggs on the mountain Condorcoto. In due course oftime these eggs opened and from them came forth five falcons, who werenone other than the Creator of all things, Pariacaca, and his brothers, the four winds. By their magic power they transformed themselves into menand went about the world performing miracles, and in time became the godsof that people. [1]

[Footnote 1: Doctor Francisco de Avila, _Narrative of the Errors and FalseGods of the Indians of Huarochiri_ (1608). This interesting document hasbeen partly translated by Mr. C. B. Markham, and published in one of thevolumes of the Hackluyt Society's series. ]

These striking similarities show with what singular uniformity thereligious sense developes itself in localities the furthest asunder. 

Returning to Michabo, the duplicate nature thus assigned him as theLight-God, and also the God of the Winds and the storms and rains theybring, led to the production of two cycles of myths which present him inthese two different aspects. In the one he is, as the god of light, thepower that conquers the darkness, who brings warmth and sunlight to theearth and knowledge to men. He was the patron of hunters, as these requirethe light to guide them on their way, and must always direct their courseby the cardinal points. 

The morning star, which at certain seasons heralds the dawn, was sacred tohim, and its name in Ojibway is _Wabanang_, from _Waban_, the east. Therays of light are his servants and messengers. Seated at the extreme east, "at the place where the earth is cut off, " watching in his medicine lodge, or passing his time fishing in the endless ocean which on every sidesurrounds the land, Michabo sends forth these messengers, who, in themyth, are called _Gijigouai_, which means "those who make the day, " andthey light the world. He is never identified with the sun, nor was hesupposed to dwell in it, but he is distinctly the impersonation oflight. [1]

[Footnote 1: See H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, Vol. V, pp. 418, 419. _Relations des Jesuites_, 1634, p. 14, 1637, p. 46. ]

In one form of the myth he is the grandson of the Moon, his father is theWest Wind, and his mother, a maiden who has been fecundated miraculouslyby the passing breeze, dies at the moment of giving him birth. But he didnot need the fostering care of a parent, for he was born mighty of limband with all knowledge that it is possible to attain. [1] Immediately heattacked his father, and a long and desperate struggle took place. "Itbegan on the mountains. The West was forced to give ground. His son drovehim across rivers and over mountains and lakes, and at last, he came tothe brink of the world. 'Hold!' cried he, 'my son, you know my power, andthat it is impossible to kill me. '" The combat ceased, the Westacknowledging the Supremacy of his mighty son. [2]

[Footnote 1: In the Ojibway dialect of the Algonkins, the word for day, sky or heaven, is _gijig_. This same word as a verb means to be an adult, to be ripe (of fruits), to be finished, complete. Rev. Frederick Baraga, _A Dictionary of the Olchipwe Language_, Cincinnati, 1853. This seems tocorrespond with the statement in the myth. ]

[Footnote 2: H. E. Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, vol. I, pp. 135, etseq. ]

It is scarcely possible to err in recognizing under this thin veil ofimagery a description of the daily struggle between light and darkness, day and night. The maiden is the dawn from whose virgin womb rises the sunin the fullness of his glory and might, but with his advent the dawnitself disappears and dies. The battle lasts all day, beginning when theearliest rays gild the mountain tops, and continues until the West isdriven to the edge of the world. As the evening precedes the morning, sothe West, by a figure of speech, may be said to fertilize the Dawn. 

In another form of the story the West was typified as a flint stone, andthe twin brother of Michabo. The feud between them was bitter, and thecontest long and dreadful. The face of the land was seamed and torn by thewrestling of the mighty combatants, and the Indians pointed out the hugeboulders on the prairies as the weapons hurled at each other by theenraged brothers. At length Michabo mastered his fellow twin and broke himinto pieces. He scattered the fragments over the earth, and from them grewfruitful vines. 

A myth which, like this, introduces the flint stone as in some wayconnected with the early creative forces of nature, recurs at otherlocalities on the American continent very remote from the home of theAlgonkins. In the calendar of the Aztecs the day and god Tecpatl, theFlint-Stone, held a prominent position. According to their myths such astone fell from heaven at the beginning of things and broke into sixteenhundred pieces, each of which became a god. The Hun-pic-tok, EightThousand Flints, of the Mayas, and the Toh of the Kiches, point to thesame association. [1]

[Footnote 1: Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Dissertation sur les Mythes del'Antiquite Americaine_, §vii. ]

Probably the association of ideas was not with the flint as a fire-stone, though the fact that a piece of flint struck with a nodule of pyrites willemit a spark was not unknown. But the flint was everywhere employed forarrow and lance heads. The flashes of light, the lightning, anything thatdarted swiftly and struck violently, was compared to the hurtling arrow orthe whizzing lance. Especially did this apply to the phenomenon of thelightning. The belief that a stone is shot from the sky with eachthunderclap is shown in our word "thunderbolt, " and even yet the vulgar inmany countries point out certain forms of stones as derived from thissource. As the refreshing rain which accompanies the thunder gust instillsnew life into vegetation, and covers the ground parched by summer droughtswith leaves and grass, so the statement in the myth that the fragments ofthe flint-stone grew into fruitful vines is an obvious figure of speechwhich at first expressed the fertilizing effects of the summer showers. 

In this myth Michabo, the Light-God, was represented to the native mind asstill fighting with the powers of Darkness, not now the darkness of night, but that of the heavy and gloomy clouds which roll up the sky and blindthe eye of day. His weapons are the lightning and the thunderbolt, and thevictory he achieves is turned to the good of the world he has created. 

This is still more clearly set forth in an Ojibway myth. It relates thatin early days there was a mighty serpent, king of all serpents, whose homewas in the Great Lakes. Increasing the waters by his magic powers, hebegan to flood the land, and threatened its total submergence. ThenMichabo rose from his couch at the sun-rising, attacked the huge reptileand slew it by a cast of his dart. He stripped it of its skin, andclothing himself in this trophy of conquest, drove all the other serpentsto the south. [1] As it is in the south that, in the country of theOjibways, the lightning is last seen in the autumn, and as the Algonkins, both in their language and pictography, were accustomed to assimilate thelightning in its zigzag course to the sinuous motion of the serpent, [2]the meteorological character of this myth is very manifest. 

[Footnote 1: H. R. Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, Vol. I, p. 179, Vol. Ii, p. 117. The word _animikig_ in Ojibway means "it thunders andlightnings;" in their myths this tribe says that the West Wind is createdby Animiki, the Thunder. (Ibid. _Indian Tribes_, Vol. V, p. 420. )]

[Footnote 2: When Father Buteux was among the Algonkins, in 1637, theyexplained to him the lightning as "a great serpent which the Manito vomitsup. " (_Relation de la Nouvelle France_, An. 1637, p. 53. ) According toJohn Tanner, the symbol for the lightning in Ojibway pictography was arattlesnake. (_Narrative_, p. 351. )]

Thus we see that Michabo, the hero-god of the Algonkins, was both the godof light and day, of the winds and rains, and the creator, instructor andteacher of mankind. The derivation of his name shows unmistakably that theearliest form under which he was a mythological existence was as thelight-god. Later he became more familiar as god of the winds and storms, the hero of the celestial warfare of the air-currents. 

This is precisely the same change which we are enabled to trace in theearly transformations of Aryan religion. There, also, the older god of thesky and light, Dyâus, once common to all members of the Indo-Europeanfamily, gave way to the more active deities, Indra, Zeus and Odin, divinities of the storm and the wind, but which, after all, are merelyother aspects of the ancient deity, and occupied his place to thereligious sense. [1] It is essential, for the comprehension of earlymythology, to understand this twofold character, and to appreciate hownaturally the one merges into and springs out of the other. 

[Footnote 1: This transformation is well set forth in Mr. Charles FrancisKeary's _Outlines of Primitive Belief Among the Indo-European Races_(London, 1882), chaps, iv, vii. He observes: "The wind is a far morephysical and less abstract conception than the sky or heaven; it is also amore variable phenomenon; and by reason of both these recommendations thewind-god superseded the older Dyâus. * * * Just as the chief god ofGreece, having descended to be a divinity of storm, was not content toremain only that, but grew again to some likeness of the older Dyâus, soOdhinn came to absorb almost all the qualities which belong of right to ahigher god. Yet he did this without putting off his proper nature. He wasthe heaven as well as the wind; he was the All-father, embracing all theearth and looking down upon mankind. "]

In almost every known religion the _bird_ is taken as a symbol of the sky, the clouds and the winds. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that bythe Algonkins birds were considered, especially singing birds, aspeculiarly sacred to Michabo. He was their father and protector. Hehimself sent forth the east wind from his home at the sun-rising; but heappointed an owl to create the north wind, which blows from the realms ofdarkness and cold; while that which is wafted from the sunny south is sentby the butterfly. [1]

[Footnote 1: H. R. Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, Vol. I, p. 216. _IndianTribes_, Vol. V, p. 420. ]

Michabo was thus at times the god of light, at others of the winds, and asthese are the rain-bringers, he was also at times spoken of as the god ofwaters. He was said to have scooped out the basins of the lakes and tohave built the cataracts in the rivers, so that there should be fishpreserves and beaver dams. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Michabou, le Dieu des Eaux, " etc. Charlevoix, _JournalHistorique_, p. 281 (Paris, 1721). ]

In his capacity as teacher and instructor, it was he who had pointed outto the ancestors of the Indians the roots and plants which are fit forfood, and which are of value as medicine; he gave them fire, andrecommended them never to allow it to become wholly extinguished in theirvillages; the sacred rites of what is called the _meday_ or ordinaryreligious ceremonial were defined and taught by him; the maize was hisgift, and the pleasant art of smoking was his invention. [1]

[Footnote 1: John Tanner, _Narrative of Captivity and Adventure_, p. 351. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, Vol. V, p. 420, etc. ]

A curious addition to the story was told the early Swedish settlers on theriver Delaware by the Algonkin tribe which inhabited its shores. Theserelated that their various arts of domestic life and the chase were taughtthem long ago by a venerable and eloquent man who came to them from adistance, and having instructed them in what was desirable for them toknow, he departed, not to another region or by the natural course ofdeath, but by ascending into the sky. They added that this ancient andbeneficent teacher _wore a long beard_. [1] We might suspect that this lasttrait was thought of after the bearded Europeans had been seen, did it notoccur so often in myths elsewhere on the continent, and in relics of artfinished long before the discovery, that another explanation must be foundfor it. What this is I shall discuss when I come to speak of the moreSouthern myths, whose heroes were often "white and bearded men from theEast. "

[Footnote 1: Thomas Campanius (Holm), _Description of the Province of NewSweden_, book iii, ch. Xi. Campanius does not give the name of thehero-god, but there can be no doubt that it was the "Great Hare. "]

§2. _The Iroquois Myth of Ioskeha. _[1]

[Footnote 1: The sources from which I draw the elements of the Iroquoishero-myth of Ioskeha are mainly the following: _Relations de la NouvelleFrance_, 1636, 1640, 1671, etc. Sagard, _Histoire du Canada_, pp. 451, 452(Paris, 1636); David Cusick, _Ancient History of the Six Nations_, andmanuscript material kindly furnished me by Horatio Hale, Esq. , who hasmade a thorough study of the Iroquois history and dialects. ]

The most ancient myth of the Iroquois represents this earth as coveredwith water, in which dwelt aquatic animals and monsters of the deep. Farabove it were the heavens, peopled by supernatural beings. At a certaintime one of these, a woman, by name Ataensic, threw herself through a riftin the sky and fell toward the earth. What led her to this act wasvariously recorded. Some said that it was to recover her dog which hadfallen through while chasing a bear. Others related that those who dweltin the world above lived off the fruit of a certain tree; that the husbandof Ataensic, being sick, dreamed that to restore him this tree must be cutdown; and that when Ataensic dealt it a blow with her stone axe, the treesuddenly sank through the floor of the sky, and she precipitated herselfafter it. 

However the event occurred, she fell from heaven down to the primevalwaters. There a turtle offered her his broad back as a resting-placeuntil, from a little mud which was brought her, either by a frog, a beaveror some other animal, she, by magic power, formed dry land on which toreside. 

At the time she fell from the sky she was pregnant, and in due time wasdelivered of a daughter, whose name, unfortunately, the legend does notrecord. This daughter grew to womanhood and conceived without having seena man, for none was as yet created. The product of her womb was twins, andeven before birth one of them betrayed his restless and evil nature, byrefusing to be born in the usual manner, but insisting on breaking throughhis parent's side (or armpit). He did so, but it cost his mother her life. Her body was buried, and from it sprang the various vegetable productionswhich the new earth required to fit it for the habitation of man. From herhead grew the pumpkin vine; from her breast, the maize; from her limbs, the bean and other useful esculents. 

Meanwhile the two brothers grew up. The one was named Ioskeha. He wentabout the earth, which at that time was arid and waterless, and calledforth the springs and lakes, and formed the sparkling brooks and broadrivers. But his brother, the troublesome Tawiscara, he whose obstinacy hadcaused their mother's death, created an immense frog which swallowed allthe water and left the earth as dry as before. Ioskeha was informed ofthis by the partridge, and immediately set out for his brother's country, for they had divided the earth between them. 

Soon he came to the gigantic frog, and piercing it in the side (orarmpit), the waters flowed out once more in their accustomed ways. Then itwas revealed to Ioskeha by his mother's spirit that Tawiscara intended toslay him by treachery. Therefore, when the brothers met, as they soon did, it was evident that a mortal combat was to begin. 

Now, they were not men, but gods, whom it was impossible really to kill, nor even could either be seemingly slain, except by one particularsubstance, a secret which each had in his own keeping. As therefore acontest with ordinary weapons would have been vain and unavailing, theyagreed to tell each other what to each was the fatal implement of war. Ioskeha acknowledged that to him a branch of the wild rose (or, accordingto another version, a bag filled with maize) was more dangerous thananything else; and Tawiscara disclosed that the horn of a deer could alonereach his vital part. 

They laid off the lists, and Tawiscara, having the first chance, attackedhis brother violently with a branch of the wild rose, and beat him till helay as one dead; but quickly reviving, Ioskeha assaulted Tawiscara withthe antler of a deer, and dealing him a blow in the side, the blood flowedfrom the wound in streams. The unlucky combatant fled from the field, hastening toward the west, and as he ran the drops of his blood which fellupon the earth turned into flint stones. Ioskeha did not spare him, buthastening after, finally slew him. He did not, however, actually kill him, for, as I have said, these were beings who could not die; and, in fact, Tawiscara was merely driven from the earth and forced to reside in the farwest, where he became ruler of the spirits of the dead. These go there todwell when they leave the bodies behind them here. 

Ioskeha, returning, peaceably devoted himself to peopling the land. Heopened a cave which existed in the earth and allowed to come forth from itall the varieties of animals with which the woods and prairies arepeopled. In order that they might be more easily caught by men, he woundedevery one in the foot except the wolf, which dodged his blow; for thatreason this beast is one of the most difficult to catch. He then formedmen and gave them life, and instructed them in the art of making fire, which he himself had learned from the great tortoise. Furthermore hetaught them how to raise maize, and it is, in fact, Ioskeha himself whoimparts fertility to the soil, and through his bounty and kindness thegrain returns a hundred fold. 

Nor did they suppose that he was a distant, invisible, unapproachable god. No, he was ever at hand with instruction and assistance. Was there to be afailure in the harvest, he would be seen early in the season, thin withanxiety about his people, holding in his hand a blighted ear of corn. Dida hunter go out after game, he asked the aid of Ioskeha, who would put fatanimals in the way, were he so minded. At their village festivals he waspresent and partook of the cheer. 

Once, in 1640, when the smallpox was desolating the villages of theHurons, we are told by Father Lalemant that an Indian said there hadappeared to him a beautiful youth, of imposing stature, and addressed himwith these words: "Have no fear; I am the master of the earth, whom youHurons adore under the name _Ioskeha_. The French wrongly call me Jesus, because they do not know me. It grieves me to see the pestilence that isdestroying my people, and I come to teach you its cause and its remedy. Its cause is the presence of these strangers; and its remedy is to driveout these black robes (the missionaries), to drink of a certain waterwhich I shall tell you of, and to hold a festival in my honor, which mustbe kept up all night, until the dawn of day. "

The home of Ioskeha is in the far East, at that part of the horizon wherethe sun rises. There he has his cabin, and there he dwells with hisgrandmother, the wise Ataensic. She is a woman of marvelous magical power, and is capable of assuming any shape she pleases. In her hands is the fateof all men's lives, and while Ioskeha looks after the things of life, itis she who appoints the time of death, and concerns herself with all thatrelates to the close of existence. Hence she was feared, not exactly as amaleficent deity, but as one whose business is with what is most dreadedand gloomy. 

It was said that on a certain occasion four bold young men determined tojourney to the sun-rising and visit the great Ioskeha. They reached hiscabin and found him there alone. He received them affably and theyconversed pleasantly, but at a certain moment he bade them hide themselvesfor their life, as his grandmother was coming. They hastily concealedthemselves, and immediately Ataensic entered. Her magic insight had warnedher of the presence of guests, and she had assumed the form of a beautifulgirl, dressed in gay raiment, her neck and arms resplendent with collarsand bracelets of wampum. She inquired for the guests, but Ioskeha, anxiousto save them, dissembled, and replied that he knew not what she meant. Shewent forth to search for them, when he called them forth from their hidingplace and bade them flee, and thus they escaped. 

It was said of Ioskeha that he acted the part of husband to hisgrandmother. In other words, the myth presents the germ of that conceptionwhich the priests of ancient Egypt endeavored to express when they taughtthat Osiris was "his own father and his own son, " that he was the"self-generating one, " even that he was "the father of his own mother. "These are grossly materialistic expressions, but they are perfectly clearto the student of mythology. They are meant to convey to the mind theself-renewing power of life in nature, which is exemplified in the sowingand the seeding, the winter and the summer, the dry and the rainy seasons, and especially the sunset and sunrise. They are echoes in the soul of manof the ceaseless rhythm in the operations of nature, and they become theonly guarantors of his hopes for immortal life. [1]

[Footnote 1: Such epithets were common, in the Egyptian religion, to mostof the gods of fertility. Amun, called in some of the inscriptions "thesoul of Osiris, " derives his name from the root _men_, to impregnate, tobeget. In the Karnak inscriptions he is also termed "the husband of hismother. " This, too, was the favorite appellation of Chem, who was a formof Horos. See Dr. C. P. Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, pp. 124, 146. 149, 150, etc. ]

Let us look at the names in the myth before us, for confirmation of this. _Ioskeha_ is in the Oneida dialect of the Iroquois an impersonal verbalform of the third person singular, and means literally, "it is about togrow white, " that is, to become light, to dawn. _Ataensic_ is from theroot _aouen_, water, and means literally, "she who is in the water. "[1]Plainly expressed, the sense of the story is that the orb of light risesdaily out of the boundless waters which are supposed to surround the land, preceded by the dawn, which fades away as soon as the sun has risen. Eachday the sun disappears in these waters, to rise again from them thesucceeding morning. As the approach of the sun causes the dawn, it wasmerely a gross way of stating this to say that the solar god was thefather of his own mother, the husband of his grandmother. 

[Footnote 1: I have analyzed these words in a note to another work, andneed not repeat the matter here, the less so, as I am not aware that theetymology has been questioned. See _Myths of the New World_, 2d Ed. , p. 183, note. ]

The position of Ioskeha in mythology is also shown by the other name underwhich he was, perhaps, even more familiar to most of the Iroquois. This is_Tharonhiawakon_, which is also a verbal form of the third person, withthe dual sign, and literally means, "He holds (or holds up) the sky withhis two arms. "[1] In other words, he is nearly allied to the ancient AryanDyâus, the Sky, the Heavens, especially the Sky in the daytime. 

[Footnote 1: A careful analysis of this name is given by Father J. A. Cuoq, probably the best living authority on the Iroquois, in his _Lexique de laLangue Iroquoise_, p. 180 (Montreal, 1882). Here also the Iroquoisfollowed precisely the line of thought of the ancient Egyptians. Shu, inthe religion of Heliopolis, represented the cosmic light and warmth, thequickening, creative principle. It is he who, as it is stated in theinscriptions, "holds up the heavens, " and he is depicted on the monumentsas a man with uplifted arms who supports the vault of heaven, because itis the intermediate light that separates the earth from the sky. Shu wasalso god of the winds; in a passage of the Book of the Dead, he is made tosay: "I am Shu, who drives the winds onward to the confines of heaven, tothe confines of the earth, even to the confines of space. " Again, likeIoskeha, Shu is said to have begotten himself in the womb of his mother, Nu or Nun, who was, like Ataensic, the goddess of water, the heavenlyocean, the primal sea. Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, pp. 84-86. ]

The signification of the conflict with his twin brother is also clearlyseen in the two names which the latter likewise bears in the legends. Oneof these is that which I have given, _Tawiscara_, which, there is littledoubt, is allied to the root, _tiokaras_, it grows dark. The other is_Tehotennhiaron_, the root word of which is _kannhia_, the flint stone. This name he received because, in his battle with his brother, the dropsof blood which fell from his wounds were changed into flints. [1] Here theflint had the same meaning which I have already pointed out in Algonkinmyth, and we find, therefore, an absolute identity of mythologicalconception and symbolism between the two nations. 

[Footnote 1: Cuoq, _Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise_, p. 180, who gives afull analysis of the name. ]

Could these myths have been historically identical? It is hard todisbelieve it. Yet the nations were bitter enemies. Their languages aretotally unlike. These same similarities present themselves over such wideareas and between nations so remote and of such different culture, thatthe theory of a parallelism of development is after all the more credibleexplanation. 

The impressions which natural occurrences make on minds of equal stages ofculture are very much alike. The same thoughts are evoked, and the sameexpressions suggest themselves as appropriate to convey these thoughts inspoken language. This is often exhibited in the identity of expressionbetween master-poets of the same generation, and between cotemporaneousthinkers in all branches of knowledge. Still more likely is it to occur inprimitive and uncultivated conditions, where the most obvious forms ofexpression are at once adopted, and the resources of the mind arenecessarily limited. This is a simple and reasonable explanation for theremarkable sameness which prevails in the mental products of the lowerstages of civilization, and does away with the necessity of supposing ahistoric derivation one from the other or both from a common stock. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE HERO-GOD OF THE AZTEC TRIBES. 

§1. _The Two Antagonists. _

THE CONTEST OF QUETZALCOATL AND TEZCATLIPOCA--QUETZALCOATL THELIGHT-GOD--DERIVATION OF HIS NAME--TITLES OF TEZCATLIPOCA--IDENTIFIED WITHDARKNESS, NIGHT AND GLOOM. 

§2. _Quetzalcoatl the God. _

MYTH OF THE FOUR BROTHERS--THE FOUR SUNS AND THE ELEMENTAL CONFLICT--NAMESOF THE FOUR BROTHERS. 

§3. _Quetzalcoatl the Hero of Tula. _

TULA THE CITY OF THE SUN--WHO WERE THE TOLTECS?--TLAPALLAN AND XALAC--THEBIRTH OF THE HERO-GOD--HIS VIRGIN MOTHER, CHIMALMATL--HIS MIRACULOUSCONCEPTION--AZTLAN, THE LAND OF SEVEN CAVES, AND COLHUACAN, THE BENDEDMOUNT--THE MAID XOCHITL AND THE ROSE GARDEN OF THE GODS--QUETZALCOATL ASTHE WHITE AND BEARDED STRANGER. 

THE GLORY OF THE LORD OF TULA--THE SUBTLETY OF THE SORCERER, TEZCATLIPOCA--THE MAGIC MIRROR AND THE MYSTIC DRAUGHT--THE MYTHEXPLAINED--THE PROMISE OF REJUVENATION--THE TOVEYO AND THE MAIDEN--THEJUGGLERIES OF TEZCATLIPOCA--DEPARTURE OF QUETZALCOATL FROMTULA--QUETZALCOATL AT CHOLULA--HIS DEATH OR DEPARTURE--THE CELESTIAL GAMEOF BALL AND TIGER SKIN--QUETZALCOATL AS THE PLANET VENUS. 

§4. _Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Winds. _

THE LORD OF THE FOUR WINDS--HIS SYMBOLS THE WHEEL OF THE WINDS, THEPENTAGON AND THE CROSS--CLOSE RELATION TO THE GODS OF RAIN ANDWATERS--INVENTOR OF THE CALENDAR--GOD OF FERTILITY ANDCONCEPTION--RECOMMENDS SEXUAL AUSTERITY--PHALLIC SYMBOLS--GOD OFMERCHANTS--THE PATRON OF THIEVES--HIS PICTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS. 

§5. _The Return of Quetzalcoatl. _

HIS EXPECTED RE-APPEARANCE--THE ANXIETY OF MONTEZUMA--HIS ADDRESS TOCORTES--THE GENERAL EXPECTATION--EXPLANATION OF HIS PREDICTED RETURN. 

I now turn from the wild hunting tribes who peopled the shores of theGreat Lakes and the fastnesses of the northern forests to that cultivatedrace whose capital city was in the Valley of Mexico, and whose scatteredcolonies were found on the shores of both oceans from the mouths of theRio Grande and the Gila, south, almost to the Isthmus of Panama. They arefamiliarly known as Aztecs or Mexicans, and the language common to themall was the _Nahuatl_, a word of their own, meaning "the pleasantsounding. "

Their mythology has been preserved in greater fullness than that of anyother American people, and for this reason I am enabled to set forth inampler detail the elements of their hero-myth, which, indeed, may be takenas the most perfect type of those I have collected in this volume. 

§1. _The Two Antagonists. _

The culture hero of the Aztecs was Quetzalcoatl, and the leading drama, the central myth, in all the extensive and intricate theology of theNahuatl speaking tribes was his long contest with Tezcatlipoca, "acontest, " observes an eminent Mexican antiquary, "which came to be themain element in the Nahuatl religion and the cause of its modifications, and which materially influenced the destinies of that race from itsearliest epochs to the time of its destruction. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Alfredo Chavero, _La Piedra del Sol_, in the _Anales delMuseo Nacional de Mexico_, Tom. II, p. 247. ]

The explanations which have been offered of this struggle have varied withthe theories of the writers propounding them. It has been regarded as asimple historical fact; as a figure of speech to represent the strugglefor supremacy between two races; as an astronomical statement referring tothe relative positions of the planet Venus and the Moon; as a conflictbetween Christianity, introduced by Saint Thomas, and the nativeheathenism; and as having other meanings not less unsatisfactory orabsurd. 

Placing it side by side with other American hero-myths, we shall see thatit presents essentially the same traits, and undoubtedly must be explainedin the same manner. All of them are the transparent stories of a simplepeople, to express in intelligible terms the daily struggle that is evergoing on between Day and Night, between Light and Darkness, between Stormand Sunshine. 

Like all the heroes of light, Quetzalcoatl is identified with the East. Heis born there, and arrives from there, and hence Las Casas and othersspeak of him as from Yucatan, or as landing on the shores of the MexicanGulf from some unknown land. His day of birth was that called Ce Acatl, One Reed, and by this name he is often known. But this sign is that of theEast in Aztec symbolism. [1] In a myth of the formation of the sun andmoon, presented by Sahagun, [2] a voluntary victim springs into thesacrificial fire that the gods have built. They know that he will rise asthe sun, but they do not know in what part of the horizon that will be. Some look one way, some another, but Quetzalcoatl watches steadily theEast, and is the first to see and welcome the Orb of Light. He is fair incomplexion, with abundant hair and a full beard, bordering on the red, [3]as are all the dawn heroes, and like them he was an instructor in thearts, and favored peace and mild laws. 

[Footnote 1: Chavero, _Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico_, Tom. II, p. 14, 243. ]

[Footnote 2: _Historia de las Cosas de Nueva España_, Lib. VII, cap. II. ]

[Footnote 3: "La barba longa entre cana y roja; el cabello largo, muyllano. " Diego Duran, _Historia_, in Kingsborough, Vol. Viii, p. 260. ]

His name is symbolic, and is capable of several equally fair renderings. The first part of it, _quetzalli_, means literally a large, handsome greenfeather, such as were very highly prized by the natives. Hence it came tomean, in an adjective sense, precious, beautiful, beloved, admirable. Thebird from which these feathers were obtained was the _quetzal-tototl_(_tototl_, bird) and is called by ornithologists _Trogon splendens_. 

The latter part of the name, _coatl_, has in Aztec three entirelydifferent meanings. It means a guest, also twins, and lastly, as asyncopated form of _cohuatl_, a serpent. Metaphorically, _cohuatl_ meantsomething mysterious, and hence a supernatural being, a god. ThusMontezuma, when he built a temple in the city of Mexico dedicated to thewhole body of divinities, a regular Pantheon, named it _Coatecalli_, theHouse of the Serpent. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Coatecalli, que quiere decir el _templo de la culebra_, quesin metáfora quiere decir _templo de diversos dioses_. " Duran, _Historiade las Indias de Nueva España_, cap. LVIII. ]

Through these various meanings a good defence can be made of severaldifferent translations of the name, and probably it bore even to thenatives different meanings at different times. I am inclined to believethat the original sense was that advocated by Becerra in the seventeenthcentury, and adopted by Veitia in the eighteenth, both competent Aztecscholars. [1] They translate Quetzalcoatl as "the admirable twin, " andthough their notion that this refers to Thomas Didymus, the Apostle, doesnot meet my views, I believe they were right in their etymology. Thereference is to the duplicate nature of the Light-God as seen in thesetting and rising sun, the sun of to-day and yesterday, the same yetdifferent. This has its parallels in many other mythologies. [2]

[Footnote 1: Becerra, _Felicidad de Méjico_, 1685, quoted in Veitia, _Historia del Origen de las Gentes que poblaron la América Septentrional_, cap. XIX. ]

[Footnote 2: In the Egyptian "Book of the Dead, " Ra, the Sun-God, says, "Iam a soul and its twins, " or, "My soul is becoming two twins. " "This meansthat the soul of the sun-god is one, but, now that it is born again, itdivides into two principal forms. Ra was worshipped at An, under his twoprominent manifestations, as Tum the primal god, or more definitely, godof the sun at evening, and as Harmachis, god of the new sun, the sun atdawn. " Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, p. 80. ]

The correctness of this supposition seems to be shown by a prevailingsuperstition among the Aztecs about twins, and which strikinglyillustrates the uniformity of mythological conceptions throughout theworld. All readers are familiar with the twins Romulus and Remus in Romanstory, one of whom was fated to destroy their grandfather Amulius; withEdipus and Telephos, whose father Laios, was warned that his death wouldbe by one of his children; with Theseus and Peirithoos, the formerdestined to cause the suicide of his father Aigeus; and with many moresuch myths. They can be traced, without room for doubt, back to simpleexpressions of the fact that the morning and the evening of the one daycan only come when the previous day is past and gone; expressedfiguratively by the statement that any one day must destroy itspredecessor. This led to the stories of "the fatal children, " which wefind so frequent in Aryan mythology. [1]

[Footnote 1: Sir George W. Cox, _The Science of Comparative Mythology andFolk Lore_, pp. 14, 83, 130, etc. ]

The Aztecs were a coarse and bloody race, and carried out theirsuperstitions without remorse. Based, no doubt, on this mythicalexpression of a natural occurrence, they had the belief that if twins wereallowed to live, one or the other of them would kill and eat his father ormother; therefore, it was their custom when such were brought into theworld to destroy one of them. [1]

[Footnote 1: Gerónimo de Mendieta, _Historia Eclesiastica Indiana_. Lib. II, cap. XIX. ]

We shall see that, as in Algonkin story Michabo strove to slay his father, the West Wind, so Quetzalcoatl was in constant warfare with his father, Tezcatlipoca-Camaxtli, the Spirit of Darkness. The effect of thisoft-repeated myth on the minds of the superstitious natives was to leadthem to the brutal child murder I have mentioned. 

It was, however, natural that the more ordinary meaning, "the feathered orbird-serpent, " should become popular, and in the picture writing somecombination of the serpent with feathers or other part of a bird was oftenemployed as the rebus of the name Quetzalcoatl. 

He was also known by other names, as, like all the prominent gods in earlymythologies, he had various titles according to the special attribute orfunction which was uppermost in the mind of the worshipper. One of thesewas _Papachtic_, He of the Flowing Locks, a word which the Spaniardsshortened to Papa, and thought was akin to their title of the Pope. It is, however, a pure Nahuatl word, [1] and refers to the abundant hair withwhich he was always credited, and which, like his ample beard, was, infact, the symbol of the sun's rays, the aureole or glory of light whichsurrounded his face. 

[Footnote 1: "_Papachtic_, guedejudo; _Papachtli_, guedeja o vedija decapellos, o de otra cosa assi. " Molina, _Vocabulario de la LenguaMexicana_. Sub voce. Juan de Tobar, in Kingsborough, Vol. Viii, p. 259, note. ]

His fair complexion was, as usual, significant of light. This associationof ideas was so familiar among the Mexicans that at the time of an eclipseof the sun they sought out the whitest men and women they could find, andsacrificed them, in order to pacify the sun. [1]

[Footnote 1: Mendieta, _Historia Eclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. Xvi. ]

His opponent, Tezcatlipoca, was the most sublime figure in the AztecPantheon. He towered above all other gods, as did Jove in Olympus. He wasappealed to as the creator of heaven and earth, as present in every place, as the sole ruler of the world, as invisible and omniscient. 

The numerous titles by which he was addressed illustrate the veneration inwhich he was held. His most common name in prayers was _Titlacauan_, Weare his Slaves. As believed to be eternally young, he was Telpochtli, theYouth; as potent and unpersuadable, he was _Moyocoyatzin_, the DeterminedDoer;[1] as exacting in worship, _Monenegui_, He who Demands Prayers; asthe master of the race, _Teyocoyani_, Creator of Men, and _Teimatini_, Disposer of Men. As he was jealous and terrible, the god who visited onmen plagues, and famines, and loathsome diseases, the dreadful deity whoincited wars and fomented discord, he was named _Yaotzin_, the Arch Enemy, _Yaotl necoc_, the Enemy of both Sides, _Moquequeloa_, the Mocker, _Nezaualpilli_, the Lord who Fasts, _Tlamatzincatl_, He who EnforcesPenitence; and as dark, invisible and inscrutable, he was _Yoalliehecatl_, the Night Wind. [2]

[Footnote 1: _Moyocoyatzin_, is the third person singular of _yocoya_, todo, to make, with the reverential termination _tzin_. Sahagun says thistitle was given him because he could do what he pleased, on earth or inheaven, and no one could prevent him. (Historia de Nueva España, Lib. III. Cap. II. ) It seems to me that it would rather refer to his demiurgic, creative power. ]

[Footnote 2: All these titles are to be found in Sahagun, _Historia deNueva España_. ]

He was said to be formed of thin air and darkness; and when he was seen ofmen it was as a shadow without substance. He alone of all the gods defiedthe assaults of time, was ever young and strong, and grew not old withyears. [1] Against such an enemy who could hope for victory?

[Footnote 1: The description of Clavigero is worth quoting: "TEZCATLIPOCA:Questo era il maggior Dio, che in que paesi si adorava, dopo il Dioinvisible, o Supremo Essere. Era il Dio della Providenza, l' anima delMondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed il Signor di tutle le cose. Rappresentavanlo tuttora giovane per significare, che non s' invecchiavamai, nè s' indeboliva cogli anni. " _Storia Antica di Messico_, Lib. Vi, p. 7. ]

The name "Tezcatlipoca" is one of odd significance. It means The SmokingMirror. This strange metaphor has received various explanations. Themirrors in use among the Aztecs were polished plates of obsidian, trimmedto a circular form. There was a variety of this black stone called_tezcapoctli_, smoky mirror stone, and from this his images were at timesmade. [1] This, however, seems too trivial an explanation. 

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Ii, cap. Xxxvii. ]

Others have contended that Tezcatlipoca, as undoubtedly the spirit ofdarkness and the night, refers, in its meaning, to the moon, which hangslike a bright round mirror in the sky, though partly dulled by what thenatives thought a smoke. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Anales del Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 257. ]

I am inclined to believe, however, that the mirror referred to is thatfirst and most familiar of all, the surface of water: and that the smokeis the mist which at night rises from lake and river, as actual smoke doesin the still air. 

As presiding over the darkness and the night, dreams and the phantoms ofthe gloom were supposed to be sent by Tezcatlipoca, and to him were sacredthose animals which prowl about at night, as the skunk and the coyote. [1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_. Lib. Vi, caps. Ix, xi, xii. ]

Thus his names, his various attributes, his sacred animals and his mythsunite in identifying this deity as a primitive personification of theDarkness, whether that of the storm or of the night. [1]

[Footnote 1: Señor Alfredo Chavero believes Tezcatlipoca to have beenoriginally the moon, and there is little doubt at times this was one ofhis symbols, as the ruler of the darkness. M. Girard de Rialle, on theother hand, claims him as a solar deity. "Il est la personnification dusoleil sous son aspect corrupteur et destructeur, ennemi des hommes et dela nature. " _La Mythologie Comparée_, p. 334 (Paris, 1878). A closer studyof the original authorities would, I am sure, have led M. De Rialle tochange this opinion. He is singularly far from the conclusion reached byM. Ternaux-Compans, who says: "Tezcatlipoca fût la personnification du bonprincipe. " _Essai sur la Théogonie Mexicaine_, p. 23 (Paris, 1840). Bothopinions are equally incomplete. Dr. Schultz-Sellack considers him the"Wassergott, " and assigns him to the North, in his essay, _DieAmerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, Bd. Xi, 1879. This approaches more closely to his true character. ]

This is further shown by the beliefs current as to his occasionalappearance on earth. This was always at night and in the gloom of theforest. The hunter would hear a sound like the crash of falling trees, which would be nothing else than the mighty breathings of the giant formof the god on his nocturnal rambles. Were the hunter timorous he would dieoutright on seeing the terrific presence of the god; but were he ofundaunted heart, and should rush upon him and seize him around the waist, the god was helpless and would grant him anything he wished. "Ask what youplease, " the captive deity would say, "and it is yours. Only fail not torelease me before the sun rises. For I must leave before it appears. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquía Indiana_, Lib. XIV, cap. XXII. ]

§2. _Quetzalcoatl the God. _

In the ancient and purely mythical narrative, Quetzalcoatl is one of fourdivine brothers, gods like himself, born in the uttermost or thirteenthheaven to the infinite and uncreated deity, which, in its malemanifestations, was known as _Tonaca tecutli_, Lord of our Existence, and_Tzin teotl_, God of the Beginning, and in its female expressions as_Tonaca cihuatl_, Queen of our Existence, _Xochiquetzal_, Beautiful Rose, _Citlallicue_, the Star-skirted or the Milky Way, _Citlalatonac_, the Starthat warms, or The Morning, and _Chicome coatl_, the Seven Serpents. [1]

[Footnote 1: The chief authorities on the birth of the god Quetzalcoatl, are Ramirez de Fuen-leal _Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas_, Cap. I, printed in the _Anales del Museo Nacional_; the _CodexTelleriano-Remensis_, and the _Codex Vaticanus_, both of which are inKingsborough's _Mexican Antiquities_. 

The usual translation of _Tonaca tecutli_ is "God of our Subsistence, "_to_, our, _naca_, flesh, _tecutli_, chief or lord. It really has a moresubtle meaning. _Naca_ is not applied to edible flesh--that is expressedby the word _nonoac_--but is the flesh of our own bodies, our life, existence. See _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, p. 18, note. ]

Of these four brothers, two were the black and the red Tezcatlipoca, andthe fourth was Huitzilopochtli, the Left handed, the deity adored beyondall others in the city of Mexico. Tezcatlipoca--for the two of the nameblend rapidly into one as the myth progresses--was wise beyond compute; heknew all thoughts and hearts, could see to all places, and wasdistinguished for power and forethought. 

At a certain time the four brothers gathered together and consultedconcerning the creation of things. The work was left to Quetzalcoatl andHuitzilopochtli. First they made fire, then half a sun, the heavens, thewaters and a certain great fish therein, called Cipactli, and from itsflesh the solid earth. The first mortals were the man, Cipactonal, and thewoman, Oxomuco, [1] and that the son born to them might have a wife, thefour gods made one for him out of a hair taken from the head of theirdivine mother, Xochiquetzal. 

[Footnote 1: The names Cipactli and Cipactonal have not beensatisfactorily analyzed. The derivation offered by Señor Chavero (_Analesdel Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 116), is merely fanciful; _tonal_ is nodoubt from _tona_, to shine, to warn; and I think _cipactli_ is a softenedform with the personal ending from _chipauac_, something beautiful orclear. Hence the meaning of the compound is The Beautiful Shining One. Oxomuco, which Chavero derives from _xomitl_, foot, is perhaps the same as_Xmukane_, the mother of the human race, according to the _Popol Vuh_, aname which, I have elsewhere shown, appears to be from a Maya root, meaning to conceal or bury in the ground. The hint is of the fertilizingaction of the warm light on the seed hidden in the soil. See _The Names ofthe Gods in the Kiche Myths, Trans. Of the Amer. Phil. Soc. _ 1881. ]

Now began the struggle between the two brothers, Tezcatlipoca andQuetzalcoatl, which was destined to destroy time after time the world, with all its inhabitants, and to plunge even the heavenly luminaries intoa common ruin. 

The half sun created by Quetzalcoatl lighted the world but poorly, and thefour gods came together to consult about adding another half to it. Notwaiting for their decision, Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into a sun, whereupon the other gods filled the world with great giants, who couldtear up trees with their hands. When an epoch of thirteen times fifty-twoyears had passed, Quetzalcoatl seized a great stick, and with a blow of itknocked Tezcatlipoca from the sky into the waters, and himself became sun. The fallen god transformed himself into a tiger, and emerged from thewaves to attack and devour the giants with which his brothers hadenviously filled the world which he had been lighting from the sky. Afterthis, he passed to the nocturnal heavens, and became the constellation ofthe Great Bear. 

For an epoch the earth flourished under Quetzalcoatl as sun, butTezcatlipoca was merely biding his time, and the epoch ended, he appearedas a tiger and gave Quetzalcoatl such a blow with his paw that it hurledhim from the skies. The overthrown god revenged himself by sweeping theearth with so violent a tornado that it destroyed all the inhabitants buta few, and these were changed into monkeys. His victorious brother thenplaced in the heavens, as sun, Tlaloc, the god of darkness, water andrains, but after half an epoch, Quetzalcoatl poured a flood of fire uponthe earth, drove Tlaloc from the sky, and placed in his stead, as sun, thegoddess Chalchiutlicue, the Emerald Skirted, wife of Tlaloc. In her timethe rains poured so upon the earth that all human beings were drowned orchanged into fishes, and at last the heavens themselves fell, and sun andstars were alike quenched. 

Then the two brothers whose strife had brought this ruin, united theirefforts and raised again the sky, resting it on two mighty trees, the Treeof the Mirror (_tezcaquahuitl_) and the Beautiful Great Rose Tree(_quetzalveixochitl_), on which the concave heavens have ever sincesecurely rested; though we know them better, perhaps, if we drop themetaphor and call them the "mirroring sea" and the "flowery earth, " on oneof which reposes the horizon, in whichever direction we may look. 

Again the four brothers met together to provide a sun for the now darkenedearth. They decided to make one, indeed, but such a one as would eat thehearts and drink the blood of victims, and there must be wars upon theearth, that these victims could be obtained for the sacrifice. ThenQuetzalcoatl builded a great fire and took his son--his son born of hisown flesh, without the aid of woman--and cast him into the flames, whencehe rose into the sky as the sun which lights the world. When the Light-Godkindles the flames of the dawn in the orient sky, shortly the sun emergesfrom below the horizon and ascends the heavens. Tlaloc, god of waters, followed, and into the glowing ashes of the pyre threw his son, who roseas the moon. 

Tezcatlipoca had it now in mind to people the earth, and he, therefore, smote a certain rock with a stick, and from it issued four hundredbarbarians (_chichimeca_). [1] Certain five goddesses, however, whom he hadalready created in the eighth heaven, descended and slew these fourhundred, all but three. These goddesses likewise died before the sunappeared, but came into being again from the garments they had leftbehind. So also did the four hundred Chichimecs, and these set about toburn one of the five goddesses, by name Coatlicue, the Serpent Skirted, because it was discovered that she was with child, though yet unmarried. But, in fact, she was a spotless virgin, and had known no man. She hadplaced some white plumes in her bosom, and through these the godHuitzilopochtli entered her body to be born again. When, therefore, thefour hundred had gathered together to burn her, the god came forth fullyarmed and slew them every one. 

[Footnote 1: The name Chichimeca has been a puzzle. The derivation appearsto be from _chichi_, a dog, _mecatl_, a rope. According to generaltradition the Chichimecs were a barbarous people who inhabited Mexicobefore the Aztecs came. Yet Sahagun says the Toltecs were the realChichimecs (Lib. X, cap. Xxix). In the myth we are now considering, theywere plainly the stars. ]

It is not hard to guess who are these four hundred youths slain before thesun rises, destined to be restored to life and yet again destroyed. Theveil of metaphor is thin which thus conceals to our mind the picture ofthe myriad stars quenched every morning by the growing light, butreturning every evening to their appointed places. And did any doubtremain, it is removed by the direct statement in the echo of thistradition preserved by the Kiches of Guatemala, wherein it is plainly saidthat the four hundred youths who were put to death by Zipacna, andrestored to life by Hunhun Ahpu, "rose into the sky and became the starsof heaven. "[1]

[Footnote 1: _Popol Vuh, Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, p. 193. ]

Indeed, these same ancient men whose explanations I have been followingadded that the four hundred men whom Tezcatlipoca created continued yet tolive in the third heaven, and were its guards and watchmen. They were offive colors, yellow, black, white, blue and red, which in the symbolism oftheir tongue meant that they were distributed around the zenith and toeach of the four cardinal points. [1]

[Footnote 1: See H. De Charencey, _Des Couleurs Considérées comme Symbolesdes Points de l'Horizon chez les Peuples du Nouveau Monde_, in the _Actesde la Société Philologiques_, Tome vi. No. 3. ]

Nor did these sages suppose that the struggle of the dark Tezcatlipoca tomaster the Light-God had ceased; no, they knew he was biding his time, with set purpose and a fixed certainty of success. They knew that in thesecond heaven there were certain frightful women, without flesh or bones, whose names were the Terrible, or the Thin Dart-Throwers, who were waitingthere until this world should end, when they would descend and eat up allmankind. [1] Asked concerning the time of this destruction, they repliedthat as to the day or season they knew it not, but it would be "whenTezcatlipoca should steal the sun from heaven for himself"; in otherwords, when eternal night should close in upon the Universe. [2]

[Footnote 1: These frightful beings were called the _Tzitzimime_, a wordwhich Molina in his Vocabulary renders "cosa espantosa ó cosa de aguero. "For a thorough discussion of their place in Mexican mythology, see _Analesdel Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, pp. 358-372. ]

[Footnote 2: The whole of this version of the myth is from the work ofRamirez de Fuen-leal, which I consider in some respects the most valuableauthority we possess. It was taken directly from the sacred books of theAztecs, as explained by the most competent survivors of the Conquest. ]

The myth which I have here given in brief is a prominent one in Azteccosmogony, and is known as that of the Ages of the World or the Suns. Theopinion was widely accepted that the present is the fifth age or period ofthe world's history; that it has already undergone four destructions byvarious causes, and that the present period is also to terminate inanother such catastrophe. The agents of such universal ruin have been agreat flood, a world-wide conflagration, frightful tornadoes and famine, earthquakes and wild beasts, and hence the Ages, Suns or Periods werecalled respectively, from their terminations, those of Water, Fire, Airand Earth. As we do not know the destiny of the fifth, the present one, ithas as yet no name. 

I shall not attempt to go into the details of this myth, the less so as ithas recently been analyzed with much minuteness by the Mexican antiquaryChavero. [1] I will merely point out that it is too closely identified witha great many similar myths for us to be allowed to seek an origin for itpeculiar to Mexican or even American soil. We can turn to the Tualati wholive in Oregon, and they will tell us of the four creations anddestructions of mankind; how at the end of the first Age all human beingswere changed into stars; at the end of the second they became stones; atthe end of the third into fishes; and at the close of the fourth theydisappeared, to give place to the tribes that now inhabit the world. [2] Orwe can read from the cuneiform inscriptions of ancient Babylon, and findthe four destructions of the race there specified, as by a flood, by wildbeasts, by famine and by pestilence. [3]

[Footnote 1: Alfredo Chavero, _La Piedra del Sol_, in the _Anales delMuseo Nacional_, Tom. I, p. 353, et seq. ]

[Footnote 2: A. S. Gatschet, _The Four Creations of Mankind_, a Tualatimyth, in _Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington_, Vol. I, p. 60 (1881). ]

[Footnote 3: Paul Haupt, _Der Keilinschriftliche Sintfluthbericht_, p. 17(Leipzig, 1881). ]

The explanation which I have to give of these coincidences--which couldeasily be increased--is that the number four was chosen as that of thefour cardinal points, and that the fifth or present age, that in which welive, is that which is ruled by the ruler of the four points, by theSpirit of Light, who was believed to govern them, as, in fact, the earlydawn does, by defining the relations of space, act as guide and governorof the motions of men. 

All through Aztec mythology, traditions and customs, we can discover thisancient myth of the four brothers, the four ancestors of their race, orthe four chieftains who led their progenitors to their respectivehabitations. The rude mountaineers of Meztitlan, who worshiped withparticular zeal Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, and had inscribed, ingigantic figures, the sacred five points, symbol of the latter, on theside of a vast precipice in their land, gave the symbolic titles to theprimeval quadruplet;--

_Ixcuin_, He who has four faces. 

_Hueytecpatl_, the ancient Flint-stone. 

_Tentetemic_, the Lip-stone that slays. 

_Nanacatltzatzi_, He who speaks when intoxicated with the poisonousmushroom, called _nanacatl_. 

These four brothers, according to the myth, were born of the goddess, Hueytonantzin, which means "our great, ancient mother, " and, with unfilialhands, turned against her and slew her, sacrificing her to the Sun andoffering her heart to that divinity. [1] In other words, it is the oldstory of the cardinal points, defined at daybreak by the Dawn, the easternAurora, which is lost in or sacrificed to the Sun on its appearance. 

[Footnote 1: Gabriel de Chaves, _Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan_, 1556, in the _Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias_, Tom. Iv, pp. 535 and 536. The translations of the names are not given byChaves, but I think they are correct, except, possibly, the third, whichmay be a compound of _tentetl_, lipstone, _temictli_, dream, instead ofwith _temicti_, slayer. ]

Of these four brothers I suspect the first, Ixcuin, "he who looks fourways, " or "has four faces, " is none other than Quetzalcoatl, [1] while theAncient Flint is probably Tezcatlipoca, thus bringing the myth intosingularly close relationship with that of the Iroquois, given on aprevious page. 

[Footnote 1: _Ixcuina_ was also the name of the goddess of pleasure. Thederivation is from _ixtli_, face, _cui_, to take, and _na_, four. See thenote of MM. Jourdanet and Simeon to their translation of Sahagun, _Historia_ p. 22. ]

Another myth of the Aztecs gave these four brothers or primitive heroes, as:--

Huitzilopochtli. Huitznahua. Itztlacoliuhqui. Pantecatl. 

Of these Dr. Schultz-Sellack advances plausible reasons for believing thatItztlacoliuhqui, which was the name of a certain form of head-dress, wasanother title of Quetzalcoatl; and that Pantecatl was one of the names ofTezcatlipoca. [1] If this is the case we have here another version of thesame myth. 

[Footnote 1: Dr. Schultz Sellack, _Die Amerikanischen Götter der VierWeltgegenden und ihre Tempel in Palenque_, in the _Zeitschrift fürEthnologie_, Bd. Xi, (1879). ]

§3. _Quetzalcoatl, the Hero of Tula. _

But it was not Quetzalcoatl the god, the mysterious creator of the visibleworld, on whom the thoughts of the Aztec race delighted to dwell, but onQuetzalcoatl, high priest in the glorious city of Tollan (Tula), theteacher of the arts, the wise lawgiver, the virtuous prince, the masterbuilder and the merciful judge. 

Here, again, though the scene is transferred from heaven to earth and fromthe cycles of other worlds to a date not extremely remote, the storycontinues to be of his contest with Tezcatlipoca, and of the wiles of thisenemy, now diminished to a potent magician and jealous rival, todispossess and drive him from famous Tollan. 

No one versed in the metaphors of mythology can be deceived by the thinveil of local color which surrounds the myth in this its terrestrial andhistoric form. Apart from its being but a repetition or continuation ofthe genuine ancient account of the conflict of day and night, light anddarkness, which I have already given, the name Tollan is enough to pointout the place and the powers with which the story deals. For this Tollan, where Quetzalcoatl reigned, is not by any means, as some have supposed, the little town of Tula, still alive, a dozen leagues or so northwest fromthe city of Mexico; nor was it, as the legend usually stated, in someundefined locality from six hundred to a thousand leagues northwest ofthat city; nor yet in Asia, as some antiquaries have maintained; nor, indeed, anywhere upon this weary world; but it was, as the name denotes, and as the native historian Tezozomoc long since translated it, where thebright sun lives, and where the god of light forever rules so long as thatorb is in the sky. Tollan is but a syncopated form of _Tonatlan_, thePlace of the Sun. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Tonalan, ô lugar del sol, " says Tezozomoc (_CronicaMexicana_, chap. I). The full form is _Tonatlan_, from _tona_, "hacersol, " and the place ending _tlan_. The derivation from _tollin_, a rush, is of no value, and it is nothing to the point that in the picture writingTollan was represented by a bundle of rushes (Kingsborough, vol. Vi, p. 177, note), as that was merely in accordance with the rules of the picturewriting, which represented names by rebuses. Still more worthless is thederivation given by Herrera (_Historia de las Indias Occidentals_, Dec. Iii, Lib. I, cap. Xi), that it means "Lugar de Tuna" or the place wherethe tuna (the fruit of the Opuntia) is found; inasmuch as the word _tuna_is not from the Aztec at all, but belongs to that dialect of the Arawackspoken by the natives of Cuba and Haiti. ]

It is worth while to examine the whereabouts and character of thismarvelous city of Tollan somewhat closely, for it is a place that we hearof in the oldest myths and legends of many and different races. Not onlythe Aztecs, but the Mayas of Yucatan and the Kiches and Cakchiquels ofGuatemala bewailed, in woful songs, the loss to them of that beautifulland, and counted its destruction as a common starting point in theirannals. [1] Well might they regret it, for not again would they find itslike. In that land the crop of maize never failed, and the ears grew aslong as a man's arm; the cotton burst its pods, not white only, butnaturally of all beautiful colors, scarlet, green, blue, orange, what youwould; the gourds could not be clasped in the arms; birds of beauteousplumage filled the air with melodious song. There was never any want norpoverty. All the riches of the world were there, houses built of silverand precious jade, of rosy mother of pearl and of azure turquoises. Theservants of the great king Quetzalcoatl were skilled in all manner ofarts; when he sent them forth they flew to any part of the world withinfinite speed; and his edicts were proclaimed from the summit of themountain Tzatzitepec, the Hill of Shouting, by criers of such mighty voicethat they could be heard a hundred leagues away. [2] His servants anddisciples were called "Sons of the Sun" and "Sons of the Clouds. "[3]

[Footnote 1: The _Books of Chilan Balam_, of the Mayas, the _Record fromTecpan Atitlan_, of the Cakchiquels, and the _Popol vuh_, National Book, of the Kiches, have much to say about Tulan. These works were all writtenat a very early date, by natives, and they have all been preserved in theoriginal tongues, though unfortunately only the last mentioned has beenpublished. ]

[Footnote 2: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Iii, cap. Iii. ]

[Footnote 3: Duran, _Historia de los Indios_, in Kingsborough, vol. Viii, p. 267. ]

Where, then, was this marvelous land and wondrous city? Where could it bebut where the Light-God is on his throne, where the life-giving sun isever present, where are the mansions of the day, and where all naturerejoices in the splendor of its rays?

But this is more than in one spot. It may be in the uppermost heavens, where light is born and the fleecy clouds swim easily; or in the west, where the sun descends to his couch in sanguine glory; or in the east, beyond the purple rim of the sea, whence he rises refreshed as a giant torun his course; or in the underworld, where he passes the night. 

Therefore, in ancient Cakchiquel legend it is said: "Where the sun rises, there is one Tulan; another is in the underworld; yet another where thesun sets; and there is still another, and there dwells the God. Thus, O mychildren, there are four Tulans, as the ancient men have told us. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila, _Memorial de TecpanAtitlan_. MS. In Cakchiquel, in my possession. ]

The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them amigration from "Tollan in Zuyva. " "Thence came we forth together, " saysthe Kiche myth, "there was the common parent of our race, thence came we, from among the Yaqui men, whose god is Yolcuat Quetzalcoat. "[1] ThisTollan is certainly none other than the abode of Quetzalcoatl, named in anAztec manuscript as _Zivena vitzcatl_, a word of uncertain derivation, butapplied to the highest heaven. 

[Footnote 1: _Le Popol Vuh_, p. 247. The name _Yaqui_ means in Kichecivilized or polished, and was applied to the Aztecs, but it is, in itsorigin, from an Aztec root _yauh_, whence _yaque_, travelers, andespecially merchants. The Kiches recognizing in the Aztec merchants asuperior and cultivated class of men, adopted into their tongue the namewhich the merchants gave themselves, and used the word in the above sense. Compare Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva España_, Lib. Ix, cap. Xii. ]

Where Quetzalcoatl finally retired, and whence he was expected back, wasstill a Tollan--Tollan Tlapallan--and Montezuma, when he heard of thearrival of the Spaniards, exclaimed, "It is Quetzalcoatl, returned fromTula. "

The cities which selected him as their tutelary deity were named for thatwhich he was supposed to have ruled over. Thus we have Tollan andTollantzinco ("behind Tollan") in the Valley of Mexico, and the pyramidCholula was called "Tollan-Cholollan, " as well as many other Tollans andTulas among the Nahuatl colonies. 

The natives of the city of Tula were called, from its name, the _Tolteca_, which simply means "those who dwell in Tollan. " And who, let us ask, werethese Toltecs?

They have hovered about the dawn of American history long enough. To themhave been attributed not only the primitive culture of Central America andMexico, but of lands far to the north, and even the earthworks of the OhioValley. It is time they were assigned their proper place, and that isamong the purely fabulous creations of the imagination, among the giantsand fairies, the gnomes and sylphs, and other such fancied beings which inall ages and nations the popular mind has loved to create. 

Toltec, Toltecatl, [1] which in later days came to mean a skilled craftsmanor artificer, signifies, as I have said, an inhabitant of Tollan--of theCity of the Sun--in other words, a Child of Light. Without a metaphor, itmeant at first one of the far darting, bright shining rays of the sun. Notonly does the tenor of the whole myth show this, but specifically andclearly the powers attributed to the ancient Toltecs. As the immediatesubjects of the God of Light they were called "Those who fly the whole daywithout resting, "[2] and it was said of them that they had the power ofreaching instantly even a very distant place. When the Light-God himselfdeparts, they too disappear, and their city is left uninhabited anddesolate. 

[Footnote 1: Toltecatl, according to Molina, is "oficial de arte mecanicaò maestro, " (_Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana_, s. V. ). This is asecondary meaning. Veitia justly says, "Toltecatl quiere decir artifice, porque en Thollan comenzaron a enseñar, aunque a Thollan llamaron Tula, ypor decir Toltecatl dicen Tuloteca" (_Historia_, cap. Xv). ]

[Footnote 2: Their title was _Tlanqua cemilhuique_, compounded of_tlanqua_, to set the teeth, as with strong determination, and_cemilhuitia_, to run during a whole day. Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Iii, cap. Iii, and Lib. X, cap. Xxix; compare also the myth of Tezcatlipocadisguised as an old woman parching corn, the odor of which instantlyattracted the Toltecs, no matter how far off they were. When they came shekilled them. Id. Lib. Iii, cap. Xi. ]

In some, and these I consider the original versions of the myth, they donot constitute a nation at all, but are merely the disciples or servantsof Quetzalcoatl. [1] They have all the traits of beings of supernaturalpowers. They were astrologers and necromancers, marvelous poets andphilosophers, painters as were not to be found elsewhere in the world, andsuch builders that for a thousand leagues the remains of their cities, temples and fortresses strewed the land. "When it has happened to me, "says Father Duran, "to ask an Indian who cut this pass through themountains, or who opened that spring of water, or who built that old ruin, the answer was, 'The Toltecs, the disciples of Papa. '"[2]

[Footnote 1: "Discipulos, " Duran, _Historia_, in Kingsborough, vol. Vii, p. 260. ]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. ]

They were tall in stature, beyond the common race of men, and it wasnothing uncommon for them to live hundreds of years. Such was their energythat they allowed no lazy person to live among them, and like their masterthey were skilled in every art of life and virtuous beyond the power ofmortals. In complexion they are described as light in hue, as was theirleader, and as are usually the personifications of light, and not the lessso among the dark races of men. [1]

[Footnote 1: For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, seeIxtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, and Veitia, _Historia, passion_. ]

When Quetzalcoatl left Tollan most of the Toltecs had already perished bythe stratagems of Tezcatlipoca, and those that survived were said to havedisappeared on his departure. The city was left desolate, and what becameof its remaining inhabitants no one knew. But this very uncertaintyoffered a favorable opportunity for various nations, some speaking Nahuatland some other tongues, to claim descent from this mysterious, ancient andwondrous race. 

The question seems, indeed, a difficult one. When the Light-God disappearsfrom the sky, shorn of his beams and bereft of his glory, where are thebright rays, the darting gleams of light which erewhile bathed the earthin refulgence? Gone, gone, we know not whither. 

The original home of the Toltecs was said to have been in Tlapallan--thevery same Red Land to which Quetzalcoatl was fabled to have returned; onlythe former was distinguished as Old Tlapallan--Hue Tlapallan--as beingthat from which he and they had emerged. Other myths called it the Placeof Sand, Xalac, an evident reference to the sandy sea strand, the samespot where it was said that Quetzalcoatl was last seen, beyond which thesun rises and below which he sinks. Thither he returned when driven fromTollan, and reigned over his vassals many years in peace. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Se metió (Quetzalcoatl) la tierra adentro hasta Tlapallan ósegun otros Huey Xalac, antigua patria de sus antepasados, en donde viviómuchos años. " Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, p. 394, inKingsborough, vol. Ix. Xalac, is from _xalli_, sand, with the locativetermination. In Nahuatl _xalli aquia_, to enter the sand, means to die. ]

We cannot mistake this Tlapallan, new or old. Whether it is bathed in thepurple and gold of the rising sun or in the crimson and carnation of hissetting, it always was, as Sahagun tells us, with all needed distinctness, "the city of the Sun, " the home of light and color, whence their leader, Quetzalcoatl had come, and whither he was summoned to return. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Dicen que caminó acia el Oriente, y que se fué á la ciudaddel Sol, llamada Tlapallan, y fué llamado del sol. " Libro. Viii, Prologo. ]

The origin of the earthly Quetzalcoatl is variously given; one cycle oflegends narrates his birth in Tollan in some extraordinary manner; asecond cycle claims that he was not born in any country known to theAztecs, but came to them as a stranger. 

Of the former cycle probably one of the oldest versions is that he was ason or descendant of Tezcatlipoca himself, under his name Camaxtli. Thiswas the account given to the chancellor Ramirez, [1] and it is said byTorquemada to have been the canonical doctrine taught in the holy city ofCholollan, the centre of the worship of Quetzalcoatl. [2] It is atransparent metaphor, and could be paralleled by a hundred similarexpressions in the myths of other nations. The Night brings forth the Day, the darkness leads on to the light, and though thus standing in therelation of father and son, the struggle between them is forevercontinued. 

[Footnote 1: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, _Hist. De los Mexicanos_, cap. Viii. ]

[Footnote 2: _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxiv. _Camaxtli_ is alsofound in the form _Yoamaxtli_; this shows that it is a compound of_maxtli_, covering, clothing, and _ca_, the substantive verb, or in thelatter instance, _yoalli_, night; hence it is, "the Mantle, " or, "the garbof night" ("la faja nocturna, " _Anales del Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 363). ]

Another myth represents him as the immediate son of the All-Father Tonacatecutli, under his title Citlallatonac, the Morning, by an earth-bornmaiden in Tollan. In that city dwelt three sisters, one of whom, anunspotted virgin, was named Chimalman. One day, as they were together, thegod appeared to them. Chimalman's two sisters were struck to death byfright at his awful presence, but upon her he breathed the breath of life, and straightway she conceived. The son she bore cost her life, but it wasthe divine Quetzalcoatl, surnamed _Topiltcin_, Our Son, and, from the yearof his birth, _Ce Acatl_, One Reed. As soon as he was born he waspossessed of speech and reason and wisdom. As for his mother, havingperished on earth, she was transferred to the heavens, where she was giventhe honored name Chalchihuitzli, the Precious Stone of Sacrifice. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Codex Vaticanus_, Tab. X; _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, Pt. Ii, Lam. Ii. The name is from _chalchihuitl_, jade, and _vitztli_, thethorn used to pierce the tongue, ears and penis, in sacrifice. _Chimalman_, more correctly, _Chimalmatl_, is from _chimalli_, shield, andprobably, _matlalin_, green. ]

This, also, is evidently an ancient and simple figure of speech to expressthat the breath of Morning announces the dawn which brings forth the sunand disappears in the act. 

The virgin mother Chimalman, in another legend, is said to have beenbrought with child by swallowing a jade or precious green stone(_chalchihuitl_);[1] while another averred that she was not a virgin, butthe wife of Camaxtli (Tezcatlipoca);[2] or again, that she was the secondwife of that venerable old man who was the father of the seven sons fromwhom all tribes speaking the Nahuatl language, and several who did notspeak it (Otomies, Tarascos), were descended. [3] This latter will repayanalysis. 

[Footnote 1: Mendieta, _Historia Eclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. Vi. ]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. ]

[Footnote 3: Motolinia, _Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, EpistolaProemial_, p. 10. The first wife was Ilancueitl, from _ilantli_, oldwoman, and _cueitl_, skirt. Gomara, _Conquista de Méjico_, p. 432. ]

All through Mexico and Central America this legend of the Seven Sons, Seven Tribes, the Seven Caves whence they issued, or the Seven Citieswhere they dwelt, constantly crops out. To that land the Aztecs referredas their former dwelling place. It was located at some indefinite distanceto the north or northwest--in the same direction as Tollan. The name ofthat land was significant. It was called the White or Bright Land, _Aztlan_. [1] In its midst was situated the mountain or hill Colhuacan theDivine, _Teoculhuacan_. [2] In the base of this hill were the SevenCaverns, _Chicomoztoc_, whence the seven tribes with their respective godshad issued, those gods including Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and theTezcatlipocas. There continued to live their mother, awaiting theirreturn. 

[Footnote 1: The derivation of Aztlan from _aztatl_, a heron, has beenrejected by Buschmann and the best Aztec scholars. It is from the sameroot as _izlac_, white, with the local ending _tlan_, and means the Whiteor Bright Land. See the subject discussed in Buschmann, _Ueber dieAtzekischen Ortsnamen_. P. 612, and recently by Señor Orozco y Berra, in_Anales del Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 56. ]

[Footnote 2: Colhuacan, is a locative form. It is usually derived from_coloa_, to curve, to round. Father Duran says it is another name forAztlan: "Estas cuevas son en Teoculacan, _que por otro nombre_ se llamaAztlan. " _Historia de los Indios de Nueva España_, Lib. I, cap. I. ]

_Teo_ is from _teotl_, god, deity. The description in the text of therelations of land and water in this mythical land, is also from Duran'swork. 

The lord of this land and the father of the seven sons is variously andindistinctly named. One legend calls him the White Serpent of the Clouds, or the White Cloud Twin, _Iztac Mixcoatl_. [1] Whoever he was we can hardlymistake the mountain in which or upon which he dwelt. _Colhuacan_ meansthe bent or curved mountain. It is none other than the Hill of Heaven, curving down on all sides to the horizon; upon it in all times have dweltthe gods, and from it they have come to aid the men they favor. Absolutelythe same name was applied by the Choctaws to the mythical hill from whichthey say their ancestors first emerged into the light of day. They call it_Nane Waiyah_, the Bent or Curved Hill[2]. Such identity of metaphoricalexpression leaves little room for discussion. 

[Footnote 1: Mendieta, _Historia Eclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. Xxxiii. ]

[Footnote 2: See my work, _The Myths of the New World_, p. 242. ]

If it did, the other myths which surround the mystic mountain would seemto clear up doubt. Colhuacan, we are informed, continued to be theresidence of the great Mother of the Gods. On it she dwelt, awaiting theirreturn from earth. No one can entirely climb the mountain, for from itsmiddle distance to the summit it is of fine and slippery sand; but it hasthis magical virtue, that whoever ascends it, however old he is, growsyoung again, in proportion as he mounts, and is thus restored to pristinevigor. The happy dwellers around it have, however, no need of its youthrestoring power; for in that land no one grows old, nor knows the outrageof years. [1]

[Footnote 1: "En esta tierra nunca envejecen los hombres. * * * Este cerrotiene esta virtud, que el que ya viejo se quiere remozar, sube hasta dondele parece, y vuelve de la edad que quiere. " Duran, in Kingsborough, Vol. Viii, p. 201. ]

When Quetzalcoatl, therefore, was alleged to be the son of the Lord of theSeven Caves, it was nothing more than a variation of the legend that gavehim out as the son of the Lord of the High Heavens. They both mean thesame thing. Chimalman, who appears in both myths as his mother, binds thetwo together, and stamps them as identical, while Mixcoatl is only anothername for Tezcatlipoca. 

Such an interpretation, if correct, would lead to the dismissal fromhistory of the whole story of the Seven Cities or Caves, and the pretendedmigration from them. In fact, the repeated endeavors of the chroniclers toassign a location to these fabulous residences, have led to no resultother than most admired disorder and confusion. It is as vain to seektheir whereabouts, as it is that of the garden of Eden or the Isle ofAvalon. They have not, and never had a place on this sublunary sphere, butbelong in that ethereal world which the fancy creates and the imaginationpaints. 

A more prosaic account than any of the above, is given by the historian, Alva Ixtlilxochitl, so prosaic that it is possible that it has some grainsof actual fact in it. [1] He tells us that a King of Tollan, Tecpancaltzin, fell in love with the daughter of one of his subjects, a maiden by nameXochitl, the Rose. Her father was the first to collect honey from themaguey plant, and on pretence of buying this delicacy the king often sentfor Xochitl. He accomplished her seduction, and hid her in a rose gardenon a mountain, where she gave birth to an infant son, to the great angerof the father. Casting the horoscope of the infant, the court astrologerfound all the signs that he should be the last King of Tollan, and shouldwitness the destruction of the Toltec monarchy. He was named _Meconetzin_, the Son of the Maguey, and in due time became king, and the prediction wasaccomplished. [2]

[Footnote 1: Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, p. 330, inKingsborough, Vol. Ix. ]

[Footnote 2: In the work of Ramirez de Fuen-leal (cap. Viii), Tezcatlipocais said to have been the discoverer of pulque, the intoxicating wine ofthe Maguey. In Meztitlan he was associated with the gods of this beverageand of drunkenness. Hence it is probable that the name _Meconetzin_applied to Quetzalcoatl in this myth meant to convey that he was the sonof Tezcatlipoca. ]

In several points, however, this seemingly historic narrative has asuspicious resemblance to a genuine myth preserved to us in a certainAztec manuscript known as the _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_. This documenttells how Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and their brethren were at firstgods, and dwelt as stars in the heavens. They passed their time inParadise, in a Rose Garden, _Xochitlycacan_ ("where the roses are liftedup"); but on a time they began plucking the roses from the great Rose treein the centre of the garden, and Tonaca-tecutli, in his anger at theiraction, hurled them to the earth, where they lived as mortals. 

The significance of this myth, as applied to the daily descent of sun andstars from the zenith to the horizon, is too obvious to need specialcomment; and the coincidences of the rose garden on the mountain (in theone instance the Hill of Heaven, in the other a supposed terrestrialelevation) from which Quetzalcoatl issues, and the anger of the parent, seem to indicate that the supposed historical relation of Ixtlilxochitl isbut a myth dressed in historic garb. 

The second cycle of legends disclaimed any miraculous parentage for thehero of Tollan. Las Casas narrates his arrival from the East, from somepart of Yucatan, he thinks, with a few followers, [1] a tradition which isalso repeated with definitiveness by the native historian, AlvaIxtlilxochitl, but leaving the locality uncertain. [2] The historian, Veytia, on the other hand, describes him as arriving from the North, afull grown man, tall of stature, white of skin, and full-bearded, barefooted and bareheaded, clothed in a long white robe strewn with redcrosses, and carrying a staff in his hand. [3]

[Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxiv. This wasapparently the canonical doctrine in Cholula. Mendieta says: "El dios óidolo de Cholula, llamado Quetzalcoatl, fué el mas celebrado y tenido pormejor y mas digno sobre los otro dioses, segun la reputacion de todos. Este, segun sus historias (aunque algunos digan que de Tula) vino de laspartes de Yucatan á la ciudad de Cholula. " _Historia EclesiasticaIndiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. X. ]

[Footnote 2: _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. I. ]

[Footnote 3: _Historia_, cap. Xv. ]

Whatever the origin of Quetzalcoatl, whether the child of a miraculousconception, or whether as an adult stranger he came from some far-offland, all accounts agree as to the greatness and purity of his character, and the magnificence of Tollan under his reign. His temple was dividedinto four apartments, one toward the East, yellow with gold; one towardthe West, blue with turquoise and jade; one toward the South, white withpearls and shells, and one toward the North, red with bloodstones; thussymbolizing the four cardinal points and four quarters of the world overwhich the light holds sway. [1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Lib. Ix, cap. Xxix. ]

Through the midst of Tollan flowed a great river, and upon or over thisriver was the house of Quetzalcoatl. Every night at midnight he descendedinto this river to bathe, and the place of his bath was called, In thePainted Vase, or, In the Precious Waters. [1] For the Orb of Light dipsnightly into the waters of the World Stream, and the painted clouds of thesun-setting surround the spot of his ablutions. 

[Footnote 1: The name of the bath of Quetzalcoatl is variously given as_Xicàpoyan_, from _xicalli_, vases made from gourds, and _poyan_, to paint(Sahagun, Lib. Iii, cap. Iii); _Chalchiuhapan_, from _atl_, water _pan_, in, and _chalchiuitl_, precious, brilliant, the jade stone (_id. _, Lib. X, cap. Xxix); and _Atecpanamochco_, from _atl_, water, _tecpan_, royal, _amochtli_, any shining white metal, as tin, and the locative _co_, hence, In the Shining Royal Water (_Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, p. 21). These namesare interesting as illustrating the halo of symbolism which surrounded thehistory of the Light-God. ]

I have said that the history of Quetzalcoatl in Tollan is but acontinuation of the conflict of the two primal brother gods. It is stillthe implacable Tezcatlipoca who pursues and finally conquers him. Butthere is this significant difference, that whereas in the elementalwarfare portrayed in the older myth mutual violence and alternatedestruction prevail, in all these later myths Quetzalcoatl makes no effortat defence, scarcely remonstrates, but accepts his defeat as a decree ofFate which it is vain to resist. He sees his people fall about him, andthe beautiful city sink into destruction, but he knows it is the hand ofDestiny, and prepares himself to meet the inevitable with what stoicismand dignity he may. 

The one is the quenching of the light by the darkness of the tempest andthe night, represented as a struggle; in the other it is the gradual andcalm but certain and unavoidable extinction of the sun as it noiselesslysinks to the western horizon. 

The story of the subtlety of Tezcatlipoca is variously told. In what maywell be its oldest and simplest version it is said that in his form asCamaxtli he caught a deer with two heads, which, so long as he kept it, secured him luck in war; but falling in with one of five goddesses he hadcreated, he begat a son, and through this act he lost his good fortune. The son was Quetzalcoatl, surnamed Ce Acatl, and he became Lord of Tollan, and a famous warrior. For many years he ruled the city, and at last beganto build a very great temple. While engaged in its constructionTezcatlipoca came to him one day and told him that toward Honduras, in aplace called Tlapallan, a house was ready for him, and he must quit Tollanand go there to live and die. Quetzalcoatl replied that the heavens andstars had already warned him that after four years he must go hence, andthat he would obey. The time past, he took with him all the inhabitants ofTula, and some he left in Cholula, from whom its inhabitants aredescended, and some he placed in the province of Cuzcatan, and others inCempoal, and at last he reached Tlapallan, and on the very day he arrivedthere, he fell sick and died. As for Tula, it remained without aninhabitant for nine years. [1]

[Footnote 1: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, _Historia de los Mexicanos por susPinturas_, cap. Viii. ]

A more minute account is given by the author of the _Annals ofCuauhtitlan_, a work written at an early date, in the Aztec tongue. Heassures his readers that his narrative of these particular events isminutely and accurately recorded from the oldest and most authentictraditions. It is this:--

When those opposed to Quetzalcoatl did not succeed in their designs, theysummoned to their aid a demon or sorcerer, by name Tezcatlipoca, and hisassistants. He said: "We will give him a drink to dull his reason, andwill show him his own face in a mirror, and surely he will be lost. " ThenTezcatlipoca brewed an intoxicating beverage, the _pulque_, from themaguey, and taking a mirror he wrapped it in a rabbit skin, and went tothe house of Quetzalcoatl. 

"Go tell your master, " he said to the servants, "that I have come to showhim his own flesh. "

"What is this?" said Quetzalcoatl, when the message was delivered. "Whatdoes he call my own flesh? Go and ask him. "

But Tezcatlipoca refused. "I have not come to see you, but your master, "he said to the servants. Then he was admitted, and Quetzalcoatl said:--

"Welcome, youth, you have troubled yourself much. Whence come you? What isthis, my flesh, that you would show me?"

"My Lord and Priest, " replied the youth, "I come from the mountain-side ofNonoalco. Look, now, at your flesh; know yourself; see yourself as you areseen of others;" and with that he handed him the mirror. 

As soon as Quetzalcoatl saw his face in the mirror he exclaimed:--

"How is it possible my subjects can look on me without affright? Wellmight they flee from me. How can a man remain among them filled as I amwith foul sores, his face wrinkled and his aspect loathsome? I shall beseen no more; I shall no longer frighten my people. "

Then Tezcatlipoca went away to take counsel, and returning, said:--

"My lord and master, use the skill of your servant. I have come to consoleyou. Go forth to your people. I will conceal your defects by art. "

"Do what you please, " replied Quetzalcoatl. "I will see what my fate is tobe. "

Tezcatlipoca painted his cheeks green and dyed his lips red. The foreheadhe colored yellow, and taking feathers of the _quechol_ bird, he arrangedthem as a beard. Quetzalcoatl surveyed himself in the mirror, and rejoicedat his appearance, and forthwith sallied forth to see his people. 

Tezcatlipoca withdrew to concoct another scheme of disgrace. With hisattendants he took of the strong _pulque_ which he had brewed, and cameagain to the palace of the Lord of Tollan. They were refused admittanceand asked their country. They replied that they were from the Mountain ofthe Holy Priest, from the Hill of Tollan. When Quetzalcoatl heard this, heordered them to be admitted, and asked their business. They offered himthe _pulque_, but he refused, saying that he was sick, and, moreover, thatit would weaken his judgment and might cause his death. They urged him todip but the tip of his finger in it to taste it; he complied, but even solittle of the magic liquor overthrew his self control, and taking the bowlhe quaffed a full draught and was drunk. Then these perverse men ridiculedhim, and cried out:--

"You feel finely now, my son; sing us a song; sing, worthy priest. "

Thereupon Quetzalcoatl began to sing, as follows:--

"My pretty house, my coral house, I call it Zacuan by name;And must I leave it, do you say? Oh my, oh me, and ah for shame. "[1]

[Footnote 1: The original is--

Quetzal, quetzal, no calli, Zacuan, no callin tapachNo callin nic yacahuaz An ya, an ya, an quilmach. 

Literally--

Beautiful, beautiful (is) my house Zacuan, my house of coral;My house, I must leave it. Alas, alas, they say. 

Zacuan, instead of being a proper name, may mean a rich yellow leatherfrom the bird called _zacuantototl_. ]

As the fumes of the liquor still further disordered his reason, he calledhis attendants and bade them hasten to his sister Quetzalpetlatl, whodwelt on the Mountain Nonoalco, and bring her, that she too might tastethe divine liquor. The attendants hurried off and said to his sister:--

"Noble lady, we have come for you. The high priest Quetzalcoatl awaitsyou. It is his wish that you come and live with him. "

She instantly obeyed and went with them. On her arrival Quetzalcoatlseated her beside him and gave her to drink of the magical pulque. Immediately she felt its influence, and Quetzalcoatl began to sing, indrunken fashion--

"Sister mine, beloved mine, Quetzal--petlatl--tzin, Come with me, drink with me, 'Tis no sin, sin, sin. "

Soon they were so drunken that all reason was forgotten; they said noprayers, they went not to the bath, and they sank asleep on the floor. [1]

[Footnote 1: It is not clear, at least in the translations, whether themyth intimates an incestuous relation between Quetzalcoatl and his sister. In the song he calls her "Nohueltiuh, " which means, strictly, "My eldersister;" but Mendoza translates it "Querida esposa mia. " _Quetzalpetlatl_means "the Beautiful Carpet, " _petlatl_ being the rug or mat used onfloors, etc. This would be a most appropriate figure of speech to describea rich tropical landscape, "carpeted with flowers, " as we say; and as theearth is, in primitive cosmogony, older than the sun, I suspect that thisstory of Quetzalcoatl and his sister refers to the sun sinking fromheaven, seemingly, into the earth. "Los Nahoas, " remarks Chavero, "figuraban la tierra en forma de un cuadrilátero dividido en pequeñosquatros, lo que semijaba una estera, _petlatl_" (_Anales del MuseoNacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 248). ]

Sad, indeed, was Quetzalcoatl the next morning. 

"I have sinned, " he said; "the stain on my name can never be erased. I amnot fit to rule this people. Let them build for me a habitation deep underground; let them bury my bright treasures in the earth; let them throw thegleaming gold and shining stones into the holy fountain where I take mydaily bath. "

All this was done, and Quetzalcoatl spent four days in his undergroundtomb. When he came forth he wept and told his followers that the time hadcome for him to depart for Tlapallan, the Red Land, Tlillan, the DarkLand, and Tlatlallan, the Fire Land, all names of one locality. 

He journeyed eastward until he came to a place where the sky, and land, and water meet together. [1] There his attendants built a funeral pile, andhe threw himself into the flames. As his body burned his heart rose toheaven, and after four days became the planet Venus. [2]

[Footnote 1: Designated in the Aztec original by the name _TeoapanIlhuicaatenco_, from _teotl_, divine, _atl_, water, _pan_, in or near, _ilhuicac_, heaven, _atenco_, the waterside: "Near the divine water, wherethe sky meets the strand. "]

[Footnote 2: The whole of this account is from the _Anales deCuauhtitlan_, pp. 16-22. ]

That there is a profound moral significance in this fiction all will see;but I am of opinion that it is accidental and adventitious. The means thatTezcatlipoca employs to remove Quetzalcoatl refer to the two events thatmark the decline of day. The sun is reflected by a long lane of beams inthe surface waters of lake or sea; it loses the strength of its rays andfails in vigor; while the evening mists, the dampness of approachingdewfall, and the gathering clouds obscure its power and foretell theextinction which will soon engulf the bright luminary. As Quetzalcoatlcast his shining gold and precious stones into the water where he took hisnightly bath, or buried them in underground hiding places, so the sunconceals his glories under the waters, or in the distant hills, into whichhe seems to sink. As he disappears at certain seasons, the Star of Eveningshines brightly forth amid the lingering and fading rays, rising, as itwere, from the dying fires of the sunset. 

To this it may be objected that the legend makes Quetzalcoatl journeytoward the East, and not toward the sunset. The explanation of thisapparent contradiction is easy. The Aztec sages had at some timepropounded to themselves the question of how the sun, which seems to setin the West, can rise the next morning in the East? Mungo Parke tells usthat when he asked the desert Arabs this conundrum, they replied that theinquiry was frivolous and childish, as being wholly beyond the capacitiesof the human mind. The Aztecs did not think so, and had framed a definitetheory which overcame the difficulty. It was that, in fact, the sun onlyadvances to the zenith, and then returns to the East, from whence itstarted. What we seem to see as the sun between the zenith and the westernhorizon is, in reality, not the orb itself, but only its _brightness_, oneof its accidents, not its substance, to use the terms of metaphysics. Hence to the Aztec astronomer and sage, the house of the sun is alwaystoward the East. [1]

[Footnote 1: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, _Historia_, cap. Xx, p. 102. ]

We need not have recourse even to this explanation. The sun, indeed, disappears in the West; but his journey must necessarily be to the East, for it is from that point that he always comes forth each morning. TheLight-God must necessarily daily return to the place whence he started. 

The symbols of the mirror and the mystic drink are perfectly familiar inAryan sun-myths. The best known of the stories referring to the former isthe transparent tale of Narcissus forced by Nemesis to fall in love withhis own image reflected in the waters, and to pine away throughunsatisfied longing; or, as Pausanias tells the story, having lost histwin sister (the morning twilight), he wasted his life in noting thelikeness of his own features to those of his beloved who had passed away. "The sun, as he looks down upon his own face reflected in a lake or sea, sinks or dies at last, still gazing on it. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Sir George A. Cox, _The Science of Mythology and Folk Lore_, p. 96. ]

Some later writers say that the drink which Quetzalcoatl quaffed was toconfer immortality. This is not stated in the earliest versions of themyth. The beverage is health-giving and intoxicating, and excites thedesire to seek Tlapallan, but not more. It does not, as the Soma of theVedas, endow with unending life. 

Nevertheless, there is another myth which countenances this view andexplains it. It was told in the province of Meztitlan, a mountainouscountry to the northwest of the province of Vera Cruz. Its inhabitantsspoke the Nahuatl tongue, but were never subject to the Montezumas. Theirchief god was Tezcatlipoca, and it was said of him that on one occasion heslew Ometochtli (Two Rabbits), the god of wine, at the latter's ownrequest, he believing that he thus would be rendered immortal, and thatall others who drank of the beverage he presided over would die. Hisdeath, they added, was indeed like the stupor of a drunkard, who, afterhis lethargy has passed, rises healthy and well. In this sense of renewinglife after death, he presided over the native calendar, the count of yearsbeginning with Tochtli, the Rabbit. [1] Thus we see that this is a myth ofthe returning seasons, and of nature waking to life again after the coldmonths ushered in by the chill rains of the late autumn. The principle offertility is alone perennial, while each individual must perish and die. The God of Wine in Mexico, as in Greece, is one with the mysterious forceof reproduction. 

[Footnote 1: Gabriel de Chaves, _Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan_, 1556, in the _Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias_, Tom. Iv, p. 536. ]

No writer has preserved such numerous traditions about the tricks ofTezcatlipoca in Tollan, as Father Sahagun. They are, no doubt, almostverbally reported as he was told them, and as he wrote his history firstin the Aztec tongue, they preserve all the quaintness of the originaltales. Some of them appear to be idle amplifications of story tellers, while others are transparent myths. I shall translate a few of them quiteliterally, beginning with that of the mystic beverage. 

The time came for the luck of Quetzalcoatl and the Toltecs to end; forthere appeared against them three sorcerers, named Vitzilopochtli, Titlacauan and Tlacauepan, [1] who practiced many villanies in the city ofTullan. Titlacauan began them, assuming the disguise of an old man ofsmall stature and white hairs. With this figure he approached the palaceof Quetzalcoatl and said to the servants:--

[Footnote 1: Titlacauan was the common name of Tezcatlipoca. The threesorcerers were really Quetzalcoatl's three brothers, representing thethree other cardinal points. ]

"I wish to see the King and speak to him. "

"Away with you, old man;" said the servants. "You cannot see him. He issick. You would only annoy him. "

"I must see him, " answered the old man. 

The servants said, "Wait, " and going in, they told Quetzalcoatl that anold man wished to see him, adding, "Sire, we put him out in vain; herefuses to leave, and says that he absolutely must see you. " Quetzalcoatlanswered:--

"Let him in. I have been waiting his coming for a long time. "

They admitted the old man and he entered the apartment of Quetzalcoatl, and said to him:--

"My lord and son, how are you? I have with me a medicine for you todrink. "

"You are welcome, old man, " replied Quetzalcoatl. "I have been looking foryour arrival for many days. "

"Tell me how you are, " asked the old man. "How is your body and yourhealth?"

"I am very ill, " answered Quetzalcoatl. "My whole body pains me, and Icannot move my hands or feet. "

Then the old man said:--

"Sire, look at this medicine which I bring you. It is good and healthful, and intoxicates him who drinks it. If you will drink it, it willintoxicate you, it will heal you, it will soothe your heart, it willprepare you for the labors and fatigues of death, or of your departure. "

"Whither, oh ancient man, " asked Quetzalcoatl, "Whither must I go?"

The old man answered:--

"You must without fail go to Tullan Tlapallan, where there is another oldman awaiting you; you and he will talk together, and at your return youwill be transformed into a youth, and you will regain the vigor of yourboyhood. "

When Quetzalcoatl heard these words, his heart was shaken with strongemotion, and the old man added:--

"My lord, drink this medicine. "

"Oh ancient man, " answered the king, "I do not want to drink it. "

"Drink it, my lord, " insisted the old man, "for if you do not drink itnow, later you will long for it; at least, lift it to your mouth and tastea single drop. "

Quetzalcoatl took the drop and tasted it, and then quaffed the liquor, exclaiming:--

"What is this? It seems something very healthful and well-flavored. I amno longer sick. It has cured me. I am well. "

"Drink again, " said the old man. "It is a good medicine, and you will behealthier than ever. "

Again did Quetzalcoatl drink, and soon he was intoxicated. He began toweep; his heart was stirred, and his mind turned toward the suggestion ofhis departure, nor did the deceit of the old sorcerer permit him toabandon the thought of it. The medicine which Quetzalcoatl drank was thewhite wine of the country, made of those magueys call _teometl_. [1]

[Footnote 1: From _teotl_, deity, divine, and _metl_, the maguey. Of thetwenty-nine varieties of the maguey, now described in Mexico, none bearsthis name; but Hernandez speaks of it, and says it was so called becausethere was a superstition that a person soon to die could not hold a branchof it; but if he was to recover, or escape an impending danger, he couldhold it with ease and feel the better for it. See Nieremberg, _HistoriaNaturae_, Lib. Xiv, cap. Xxxii. "Teomatl, vitae et mortis Index. "]

This was but the beginning of the guiles and juggleries of Tezcatlipoca. Transforming himself into the likeness of one of those Indians of the Mayarace, called _Toveyome_, [1] he appeared, completely nude, in the marketplace of Tollan, having green peppers to sell. Now Huemac, who wasassociated with Quetzalcoatl in the sovereignty of Tollan (although othermyths apply this name directly to Quetzalcoatl, and this seems the correctversion), [2] had an only daughter of surpassing beauty, whom many of theToltecs had vainly sought in marriage. This damsel looked forth on themarket where Tezcatlipoca stood in his nakedness, and her virginal eyesfell upon the sign of his manhood. Straightway an unconquerable longingseized her, a love so violent that she fell ill and seemed like to die. Her women told her father the reason, and he sent forth and had the falseToveyo brought before him. Huemac addressed him:--

[Footnote 1: _Toveyome_ is the plural of _toveyo_, which Molina, in hisdictionary, translates "foreigner, stranger. " Sahagun says that it wasapplied particularly to the Huastecs, a Maya tribe living in the provinceof Panuco. _Historia_, etc. , Lib. X, cap. Xxix, §8. ]

[Footnote 2: _Huemac_ is a compound of _uey_, great, and _maitl_, hand. Tezozomoc, Duran, and various other writers assign this name toQuetzalcoatl. ]

"Whence come you?"

"My lord, " replied the Toveyo, "I am a stranger, and I have come to sellgreen peppers. "

"Why, " asked the king "do you not wear a _maxtli_ (breech-cloth), andcover your nakedness with a garment?"

"My lord, " answered the stranger, "I follow the custom of my country. "

Then the king added:--

"You have inspired in my daughter a longing; she is sick with desire; youmust cure her. "

"Nay, my lord, " said the stranger, "this may not be. Rather slay me here;I wish to die; for I am not worthy to hear such words, poor as I am, andseeking only to gain my bread by selling green peppers. "

But the king insisted, and said:--

"Have no fear; you alone can restore my daughter; you must do so. "

Thereupon the attendants cut the sham Toveyo's hair; they led him to thebath, and colored his body black; they placed a _maxtli_ and a robe uponhim, and the king said:--

"Go in unto my daughter. "

Tezcatlipoca went in unto her, and she was healed from that hour. 

Thus did the naked stranger become the son-in-law of the great king ofTula. But the Toltecs were deeply angered that the maiden had given hisblack body the preference over their bright forms, and they plotted tohave him slain. He was placed in the front of battle, and then they lefthim alone to fight the enemy. But he destroyed the opposing hosts andreturned to Tula with a victory all the more brilliant for their desertionof him. 

Then he requited their treachery with another, and pursued his intendeddestruction of their race. He sent a herald to the top of the Hill ofShouting, and through him announced a magnificent festival to celebratehis victory and his marriage. The Toltecs swarmed in crowds, men, womenand children, to share in the joyous scene. Tezcatlipoca received themwith simulated friendship. Taking his drum, he began to beat upon it, accompanying the music with a song. As his listeners heard the magicmusic, they became intoxicated with the strains, and yielding themselvesto its seductive influence, they lost all thought for the future or carefor the present. The locality to which the crafty Tezcatlipoca had invitedthem was called, The Rock upon the Water. [1] It was the summit of a loftyrock at the base of which flowed the river called, By the Rock ofLight. [2] When the day had departed and midnight approached, the magician, still singing and dancing, led the intoxicated crowd to the brink of theriver, over which was a stone bridge. This he had secretly destroyed, andas they came to the spot where it should have been and sought to cross, the innumerable crowd pressing one upon the other, they all fell into thewater far below, where they sank out of sight and were changed intostones. 

[Footnote 1: _Texcalapan_, from _texcalli_, rock, and _apan_, upon or overthe water. ]

[Footnote 2: _Texcaltlauhco_, from _texcalli_, rock, _tlaulli_, light, andthe locative ending _co_, by, in or at. ]

Is it pushing symbolism too far to attempt an interpretation of thisfable, recounted with all the simplicity of the antique world, withgreater directness, indeed, than I have thought wise to follow?

I am strongly inclined to regard it as a true myth, which, inmaterialistic language, sets forth the close of the day and the extinctionof the light. May we not construe the maiden as the Evening Twilight, thechild of the Day at the close of its life? The black lover with whom sheis fatally enamored, is he not the Darkness, in which the twilight fadesaway? The countless crowds of Toltecs that come to the weddingfestivities, and are drowned before midnight in the waters of thestrangely named river, are they not the infinitely numerous light-rayswhich are quenched in the world-stream, when the sun has sunk, and thegloaming is lost in the night?

May we not go farther, and in this Rock of Light which stands hard by theriver, recognize the Heavenly Hill which rises beside the World Stream?The bright light of one day cannot extend to the next. The bridge isbroken by the intervening night, and the rays are lost in the dark waters. 

But whether this interpretation is too venturesome or not, we cannot denythe deep human interest in the story, and its poetic capacities. Theovermastering passion of love was evidently as present to the Indian mindas to that of the mediaeval Italian. In New as well as in Old Spain itcould break the barriers of rank and overcome the hesitations of maidenlymodesty. Love clouding the soul, as night obscures the day, is a figure ofspeech, used, I remember, by the most pathetic of Ireland's modernbards:--

"Love, the tyrant, evinces, Alas! an omnipotent might;He treads on the necks of princes, He darkens the mind, like night. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Clarence Mangan, _Poems_, "The Mariner's Bride. "]

I shall not detail the many other wiles with which Tezcatlipoca led theToltecs to their destruction. A mere reference to them must suffice. Hesummoned thousands to come to labor in the rose-garden of Quetzalcoatl, and when they had gathered together, he fell upon them and slew them witha hoe. Disguised with Huitzilopochtli, he irritated the people until theystoned the brother gods to death, and from the corrupting bodies spread apestilential odor, to which crowds of the Toltecs fell victims. He turnedthe thought of thousands into madness, so that they voluntarily offeredthemselves to be sacrificed. By his spells all articles of food soured, and many perished of famine. 

At length Quetzalcoatl, wearied with misfortune, gave orders to burn thebeautiful houses of Tollan, to bury his treasures, and to begin thejourney to Tlapallan. He transformed the cacao trees into plants of novalue, and ordered the birds of rich plumage to leave the land before him. 

The first station he arrived at was Quauhtitlan, where there was a loftyand spreading tree. Here he asked of his servants a mirror, and looking init said: "I am already old. " Gathering some stones, he cast them at thetree. They entered the wood and remained there. 

As he journeyed, he was preceded by boys playing the flute. Thus hereached a certain spot, where he sat upon a stone by the wayside, and weptfor the loss of Tollan. The marks of his hands remained upon the stone, and the tears he dropped pierced it through. To the day of the Conquestthese impressions on the solid rock were pointed out. 

At the fountain of Cozcapan, sorcerers met him, minded to prevent hisdeparture:--

"Where are you going?" they asked. "Why have you left your capital? Inwhose care is it? Who will perform the sacred rites?"

But Quetzalcoatl answered:--

"You can in no manner hinder my departure. I have no choice but to go. "

The sorcerers asked again: "Whither are you going?"

"I am going, " replied Quetzalcoatl, "to Tlapallan. I have been sent for. The Sun calls me. "

"Go, then, with good luck, " said they. "But leave with us the art ofsmelting silver, of working stone and wood, of painting, of weavingfeathers and other such arts. "

Thus they robbed him, and taking the rich jewels he carried with him hecast them into the fountain, whence it received its name _Cozcapan_, Jewels in the Water. 

Again, as he journeyed, a sorcerer met him, who asked him hisdestination:--

"I go, " said Quetzalcoatl, "to Tlallapan. "

"And luck go with you, " replied the sorcerer, "but first take a drink ofthis wine. "

"No, " replied Quetzalcoatl, "not so much as a sip. "

"You must taste a little of it, " said the sorcerer, "even if it is byforce. To no living person would I give to drink freely of it. Iintoxicate them all. Come and drink of it. "

Quetzalcoatl took the wine and drank of it through a reed, and as he drankhe grew drunken and fell in the road, where he slept and snored. 

Thus he passed from place to place, with various adventures. His servantswere all dwarfs or hunchbacks, and in crossing the Sierra Nevada theymostly froze to death. By drawing a line across the Sierra he split it intwo and thus made a passage. He plucked up a mighty tree and hurling itthrough another, thus formed a cross. At another spot he causedunderground houses to be built, which were called Mictlancalco, At theHouse of Darkness. 

At length he arrived at the sea coast where he constructed a raft ofserpents, and seating himself on it as in a canoe, he moved out to sea. Noone knows how or in what manner he reached Tlapallan. [1]

[Footnote 1: These myths are from the third book of Sahagun's _Historia delas Cosas de Nueva España_. They were taken down in the original Nahuatl, by him, from the mouth of the natives, and he gives them word for word, asthey were recounted. ]

The legend which appears to have been prevalent in Cholula was somewhatdifferent. According to that, Quetzalcoatl was for many years Lord ofTollan, ruling over a happy people. At length, Tezcatlipoca let himselfdown from heaven by a cord made of spider's web, and, coming to Tollan, challenged its ruler to play a game of ball. The challenge was accepted, and the people of the city gathered in thousands to witness the sport. Suddenly Tezcatlipoca changed himself into a tiger, which so frightenedthe populace that they fled in such confusion and panic that they rushedover the precipice and into the river, where nearly all were killed by thefall or drowned in the waters. 

Quetzalcoatl then forsook Tollan, and journeyed from city to city till hereached Cholula, where he lived twenty years. He was at that time of lightcomplexion, noble stature, his eyes large, his hair abundant, his beardample and cut rounding. In life he was most chaste and honest. Theyworshiped his memory, especially for three things: first, because hetaught them the art of working in metals, which previous to his coming wasunknown in that land; secondly, because he forbade the sacrifice either ofhuman beings or the lower animals, teaching that bread, and roses, andflowers, incense and perfumes, were all that the gods demanded; andlastly, because he forbade, and did his best to put a stop to, wars, fighting, robbery, and all deeds of violence. For these reasons he washeld in high esteem and affectionate veneration, not only by those ofCholula, but by the neighboring tribes as well, for many leagues around. Distant nations maintained temples in his honor in that city, and madepilgrimages to it, on which journeys they passed in safety through theirenemy's countries. 

The twenty years past, Quetzalcoatl resumed his journey, taking with himfour of the principal youths of the city. When he had reached a point inthe province of Guazacoalco, which is situated to the southeast ofCholula, he called the four youths to him, and told them they shouldreturn to their city; that he had to go further; but that they should goback and say that at some future day white and bearded men like himselfwould come from the east, who would possess the land. [1]

[Footnote 1: For this version of the myth, see Mendieta, _HistoriaEclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. Ii, caps, v and x. ]

Thus he disappeared, no one knew whither. But another legend said that hedied there, by the seashore, and they burned his body. Of this event someparticulars are given by Ixtlilxochitl, as follows:[1]--

[Footnote 1: Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, p. 388, inKingsborough, vol. Ix. ]

Quetzalcoatl, surnamed Topiltzin, was lord of Tula. At a certain time hewarned his subjects that he was obliged to go "to the place whence comesthe Sun, " but that after a term he would return to them, in that year oftheir calendar of the name _Ce Acatl_, One Reed, which returns everyfifty-two years. He went forth with many followers, some of whom he leftin each city he visited. At length he reached the town of Ma Tlapallan. Here he announced that he should soon die, and directed his followers toburn his body and all his treasures with him. They obeyed his orders, andfor four days burned his corpse, after which they gathered its ashes andplaced them in a sack made of the skin of a tiger. 

The introduction of the game of ball and the tiger into the story is notso childish as it seems. The game of ball was as important an amusementamong the natives of Mexico and Central America as were the jousts andtournaments in Europe in the Middle Ages. [1] Towns, nations and kings wereoften pitted against each other. In the great temple of Mexico two courtswere assigned to this game, over which a special deity was supposed topreside. [2] In or near the market place of each town there were wallserected for the sport. In the centre of these walls was an orifice alittle larger than the ball. The players were divided into two parties, and the ball having been thrown, each party tried to drive it through orover the wall. The hand was not used, but only the hip or shoulders. 

[Footnote 1: Torquemada gives a long but obscure description of it. _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Xiv, cap. Xii. ]

[Footnote 2: Nieremberg, "De septuaginta et octo partibus maximi templiMexicani, " in his _Historia Naturae_, Lib. Viii, cap. Xxii (Antwerpt, 1635). One of these was called "The Ball Court of the Mirror, " perhapswith special reference to this legend. "Trigesima secunda Tezcatlacho, locus erat ubi ludebatur pilâ ex gumi olli, inter templa. " The name isfrom _tezcatl_, mirror, _tlachtli_, the game of ball, and locative ending_co_. ]

From the earth the game was transferred to the heavens. As a ball, hit bya player, strikes the wall and then bounds back again, describing a curve, so the stars in the northern sky circle around the pole star and return tothe place they left. Hence their movement was called The Ball-play of theStars. [1]

[Footnote 1: "_Citlaltlachtli_, " from _citlalin_, star, and _tlachtli_, the game of ball. Alvarado Tezozomoc, _Cronica Mexicana_, cap. Lxxxii. Theobscure passage in which Tezozomoc refers to this is ingeniously analyzedin the _Anales del Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 388. ]

A recent writer asserts that the popular belief of the Aztecs extended thefigure to a greater game than this. [1] The Sun and Moon were huge ballswith which the gods played an unceasing game, now one, now the other, having the better of it. If this is so, then the game between Tezcatlipocaand Quetzalcoatl is again a transparent figure of speech for the contestbetween night and day. 

[Footnote 1: _Anales del Museo Nacional_, Tom. Ii, p. 367. ]

The Mexican tiger, the _ocelotl_, was a well recognized figure of speech, in the Aztec tongue, for the nocturnal heavens, dotted with stars, as isthe tiger skin with spots. [1] The tiger, therefore, which destroyed thesubjects of Quetzalcoatl--the swift-footed, happy inhabitants of Tula--wasnone other than the night extinguishing the rays of the orb of light. Inthe picture writings Tezcatlipoca appears dressed in a tiger's skin, thespots on which represent the stars, and thus symbolize him in hischaracter as the god of the sky at night. 

[Footnote 1: "Segun los Anales de Cuauhtitlan el _ocelotl_ es el cielomanchado de estrellas, como piel de tigre. " _Anales del Mus. Nac. _, ii, p. 254. ]

The apotheosis of Quetzalcoatl from the embers of his funeral pyre to theplanet Venus has led several distinguished students of Mexican mythologyto identify his whole history with the astronomical relations of thisbright star. Such an interpretation is, however, not only contrary toresults obtained by the general science of mythology, but it isspecifically in contradiction to the uniform statements of the oldwriters. All these agree that it was not till _after_ he had finished hiscareer, _after_ he had run his course and disappeared from the sight andknowledge of men, that he was translated and became the evening or morningstar. [1] This clearly signifies that he was represented by the planet inonly one, and that a subordinate, phase of his activity. We can readilysee that the relation of Venus to the sun, and the evening and morningtwilights, suggested the pleasing tale that as the light dies in the west, it is, in a certain way, preserved by the star which hangs so bright abovethe horizon. 

[Footnote 1: _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, plate xiv. ]

§4. _Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Winds. _

As I have shown in the introductory chapter, the Light-God, the Lord ofthe East, is also master of the cardinal points and of the winds whichblow from them, and therefore of the Air. 

This was conspicuously so with Quetzalcoatl. As a divinity he is mostgenerally mentioned as the God of the Air and Winds. He was said to sweepthe roads before Tlaloc; god of the rains, because in that climate heavydown-pours are preceded by violent gusts. Torquemada names him as "God ofthe Air, " and states that in Cholula this function was looked upon as hischief attribute, [1] and the term was distinctly applied to him_Nanihe-hecatli_, Lord of the four Winds. 

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. I, cap. V. Torquemada, _MonarquiaIndiana_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxiv. ]

In one of the earliest myths he is called _Yahualli ehecatl_, meaning "theWheel of the Winds, "[1] the winds being portrayed in the picture writingas a circle or wheel, with a figure with five angles inscribed upon it, the sacred pentagram. His image carried in the left hand this wheel, andin the right a sceptre with the end recurved. 

[Footnote 1: "Queçalcoatl y por otro nombre yagualiecatl. " Ramirez deFuen-leal, _Historia_, cap. I. _Yahualli_ is from the root _yaual_ or_youal_, circular, rounding, and was applied to various objects of acircular form. The sign of Quetzalcoatl is called by Sahagun, using thenative word, "el _Yoel_ de los Vientos" (_Historia_, ubi supra). ]

Another reference to this wheel, or mariner's box, was in the shape of thetemples which were built in his honor as god of the winds. These, we areinformed, were completely circular, without an angle anywhere. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Se llaman (á Quetzalcoatl) Señor de el Viento * * * A estele hacian las yglesias redondas, sin esquina ninguna. " _CodexTelleriano-Remensis_. Parte ii, Lam. Ii. Describing the sacred edifices ofMexico, Motolinia says: "Habio en todos los mas de estos grandes patios unotro templo que despues de levantada aquella capa quadrada, hecho sualtar, cubrianlo con una pared redonda, alta y cubierta con su chapital. Este era del dios del aire, cual dijimos tener su principal sella enCholollan, y en toda esta provincia habia mucho de estos. A este dios delaire llamaban en su lengua Quetzalcoatl, " _Historia de los Indios_, Epistola Proemial. Compare also Herrera, _Historia de las IndiasOccidentals_, Dec. Ii, Lib. Vii, cap. Xvii, who describes the temple ofQuetzalcoatl, in the city of Mexico, and adds that it was circular, "porque asi como el Aire anda al rededor del Cielo, asi le hacian elTemplo redondo. "]

Still another symbol which was sacred to him as lord of the four winds wasthe Cross. It was not the Latin but the Greek cross, with four short armsof equal length. Several of these were painted on the mantle which he worein the picture writings, and they are occasionally found on the sacredjades, which bear other of his symbols. 

This has often been made use of by one set of writers to prove thatQuetzalcoatl was some Christian teacher; and by others as evidence thatthese native tales were of a date subsequent to the Conquest. But amoment's consideration of the meaning of this cruciform symbol as revealedin its native names shows where it belongs and what it refers to. Thesenames are three, and their significations are, "The Rain-God, " "The Treeof our Life, " "The God of Strength. "[1] As the rains fertilize the fieldsand ripen the food crops, so he who sends them is indeed the prop or treeof our subsistence, and thus becomes the giver of health and strength. Noother explanation is needed, or is, in fact, allowable. 

[Footnote 1: The Aztec words are _Quiahuitl teotl, quiahuitl_, rain, _teotl_, god; _Tonacaquahuitl_, from _to_, our, _naca_, flesh or life, _quahuitl_, tree; _Chicahualizteotl_, from _chicahualiztli_, strength orcourage, and _teotl_, god. These names are given by Ixtlilxochitl, _Historia chichimeca_, cap. I. ]

The winds and rains come from the four cardinal points. This fact wasfiguratively represented by a cruciform figure, the ends directed towardeach of these. The God of the Four Winds bore these crosses as one of hisemblems. The sign came to be connected with fertility, reproduction andlife, through its associations as a symbol of the rains which restore theparched fields and aid in the germination of seeds. Their influence inthis respect is most striking in those southern countries where a long dryseason is followed by heavy tropical showers, which in a few days changethe whole face of nature, from one of parched sterility to one of a wealthof vegetable growth. 

As there is a close connection, in meteorology, between the winds and therains, so in Aztec mythology, there was an equally near one betweenQuetzalcoatl, as the god of the winds, and the gods of rain, Tlaloc andhis sister, or wife, or mother, Chalchihuitlicue. According to one myth, these were created by the four primeval brother-gods, and placed in theheavens, where they occupy a large mansion divided into four apartments, with a court in the middle. In this court stand four enormous vases ofwater, and an infinite number of very small slaves (the rain drops) standready to dip out the water from one or the other vase and pour it on theearth in showers. [1]

[Footnote 1: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, _Historia de los Mexicanos_, cap. Ii. ]

_Tlaloc_ means, literally, "The wine of the Earth, "[1] the figure beingthat as man's heart is made glad, and his strength revived by the joyousspirit of wine, so is the soil refreshed and restored by the rains. _Tlaloc tecutli_, the Lord of the Wine of the Earth, was the proper titleof the male divinity, who sent the fertilizing showers, and thus causedthe seed to grow in barren places. It was he who gave abundant crops andsaved the parched and dying grain after times of drought. Therefore, hewas appealed to as the giver of good things, of corn and wine; and thename of his home, Tlalocan, became synonymous with that of the terrestrialparadise. 

[Footnote 1: _Tlalli_, earth, _oc_ from _octli_, the native wine made fromthe maguey, enormous quantities of which are consumed by the lower classesin Mexico at this day, and which was well known to the ancients. Anotherderivation of the name is from _tlalli_, and _onoc_, being, to be, hence, "resident on the earth. " This does not seem appropriate. ]

His wife or sister, Chalchihuitlicue, She of the Emerald Skirts, wasgoddess of flowing streams, brooks, lakes and rivers. Her name, probably, has reference to their limpid waters. [1] It is derived from_chalchihuitl_, a species of jade or precious green stone, very highlyesteemed by the natives of Mexico and Central America, and worked by theminto ornaments and talismans, often elaborately engraved and inscribedwith symbols, by an art now altogether lost. [2] According to one myth, Quetzalcoatl's mother took the name of _chalchiuitl_ "when she ascended toheaven;"[3] by another he was engendered by such a sacred stone;[4] and byall he was designated as the discoverer of the art of cutting andpolishing them, and the patron deity of workers in this branch. [5]

[Footnote 1: From _chalchihuitl_, jade, and _cueitl_, skirt or petticoat, with the possessive prefix, _i_, her. ]

[Footnote 2: See E. G. Squier, _Observations on a Collection ofChalchihuitls from Central America_, New York, 1869, and Heinrich Fischer, _Nephrit und Jadeit nach ihrer Urgeschichtlichen und EthnographischenBedeutung_, Stuttgart, 1880, for a full discussion of the subject. ]

[Footnote 3: _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, Pt. Ii, Lam. Ii. ]

[Footnote 4: See above, chapter iii, §3]

[Footnote 5: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxiv. ]

The association of this stone and its color, a bluish green of variousshades, with the God of Light and the Air, may have reference to the bluesky where he has his home, or to the blue and green waters where he makeshis bed. Whatever the connection was, it was so close that the festivalsof all three, Tlaloc, Chalchihuitlicue and Quetzalcoatl, were celebratedtogether on the same day, which was the first of the first month of theAztec calendar, in February. [1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Hisioria_, Lib. Ii, cap. I. A worthy but visionaryMexican antiquary, Don J. M. Melgar, has recognized in Aztec mythology thefrequency of the symbolism which expresses the fertilizing action of thesky (the sun and rains) upon the earth. He thinks that in some of themanuscripts, as the _Codex Borgia_, it is represented by the rabbitfecundating the frog. See his _Examen Comparativo entre los SignosSimbolicos de las Teogonias y Cosmogonias antiguas y los que existen enlos Manuscritos Mexicanos_, p. 21 (Vera Cruz, 1872). ]

In his character as god of days, the deity who brings back the diurnalsuns, and thus the seasons and years, Quetzalcoatl was the reputedinventor of the Mexican Calendar. He himself was said to have been born onCe Acatl, One Cane, which was the first day of the first month, thebeginning of the reckoning, and the name of the day was often added to hisown. [1] As the count of the days really began with the beginning, it wasadded that Heaven itself was created on this same day, Ce Acatl. [2]

[Footnote 1: _Codex Vaticanus_, Pl. Xv. ]

[Footnote 2: _Codex Telleriano Remensis_, Pl. Xxxiii. ]

In some myths Quetzalcoatl was the sole framer of the Calendar; in othershe was assisted by the first created pair, Cipactli and Oxomuco, who, as Ihave said, appear to represent the Sky and the Earth. A certain cave inthe province of Cuernava (Quauhnauac) was pointed out as the scene oftheir deliberations. Cipactonal chose the first name, Oxomuco the second, and Quetzalcoatl the third, and so on in turn. [1]

[Footnote 1: Mendieta, _Hist. Eclesiastia Indiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. Xiv. "Una tonta ficcion, " comments the worthy chronicler upon the narrative, "como son las demas que creian cerca de sus dioses. " This has been theuniversal opinion. My ambition in writing this book is, that it will beuniversal no longer. ]

In many mythologies the gods of light and warmth are, by a naturalanalogy, held to be also the deities which preside over plenty, fertilityand reproduction. This was quite markedly the case with Quetzalcoatl. Hisland and city were the homes of abundance; his people, the Toltecs, "wereskilled in all arts, all of which they had been taught by Quetzalcoatlhimself. They were, moreover, very rich; they lacked nothing; food wasnever scarce and crops never failed. They had no need to save the smallears of corn, so all the use they made of them was to burn them in heatingtheir baths. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Iii, cap. Iii. ]

As thus the promoter of fertility in the vegetable world, he was also thegenius of reproduction in the human race. The ceremonies of marriage whichwere in use among the Aztecs were attributed to him, [1] and when the wifefound she was with child it was to him that she was told to address herthanks. One of her relatives recited to her a formal exhortation, whichbegan as follows:--

[Footnote 1: Veitia, cap. Xvii, in Kingsborough. ]

"My beloved little daughter, precious as sapphire and jade, tender andgenerous! Our Lord, who dwells everywhere and rains his bounties on whomhe pleases, has remembered you. The God now wishes to give you the fruitof marriage, and has placed within you a jewel, a rich feather. Perhapsyou have watched, and swept, and offered incense; for such good works thekindness of the Lord has been made manifest, and it was decreed in Heavenand Hell, before the beginning of the World, that this grace should beaccorded you. For these reasons our Lord, Quetzalcoatl, who is the authorand creator of things, has shown you this favor; thus has resolved He inheaven, who is at once both man and woman, and is known under the namesTwice Master and Twice Mistress. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxv. The bisexual natureof the Mexican gods, referred to in this passage, is well marked in manyfeatures of their mythology. Quetzalcoatl is often addressed in theprayers as "father and mother, " just as, in the Egyptian ritual, Chnum wasappealed to as "father of fathers and mother of mothers" (Tiele, _Hist. Ofthe Egyptian Religion_, p. 134). I have endeavored to explain thiswidespread belief in hermaphroditic deities in my work entitled, _TheReligious Sentiment, Its Source and Aim_, pp. 65-68, (New York, 1876). ]

It is recorded in the old histories that the priests dedicated to hisservice wore a peculiar head-dress, imitating a snail shell, and for thatreason were called _Quateczizque_. [1] No one has explained this curiouslyshaped bonnet. But it was undoubtedly because Quetzalcoatl was the god ofreproduction, for among the Aztecs the snail was a well known symbol ofthe process of parturition. [2]

[Footnote 1: Duran, in Kingsborough, vol. Viii, p. 267. The word is from_quaitl_, head or top, and _tecziztli_, a snail shell. ]

[Footnote 2: "Mettevanli in testa una lumaca marina per dimostrare quesiccome il piscato esce dalle pieghe di quell'osso, o conca. Cosi vá edesce l'uomo _ab utero matris suae_. " _Codice Vaticana, Tavola XXVI. _]

Quetzalcoatl was that marvelous artist who fashions in the womb of themother the delicate limbs and tender organs of the unborn infant. Therefore, when a couple of high rank were blessed with a child, anofficial orator visited them, and the baby being placed naked before him, he addressed it beginning with these words:--

"My child and lord, precious gem, emerald, sapphire, beauteous feather, product of a noble union, you have been formed far above us, in the ninthheaven, where dwell the two highest divinities. His Divine Majesty hasfashioned you in a mould, as one fashions a ball of gold; you have beenchiseled as a precious stone, artistically dressed by your Father andMother, the great God and the great Goddess, assisted by their son, Quetzalcoatl. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxxiv. ]

As he was thus the god on whom depended the fertilization of the womb, sterile women made their vows to him, and invoked his aid to be relievedfrom the shame of barrenness. [1]

[Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Xi, cap. Xxiv. ]

In still another direction is this function of his godship shown. Theworship of the genesiac principle is as often characterized by anexcessive austerity as by indulgence in sexual acts. Here we have anexample. Nearly all the accounts tell us that Quetzalcoatl was nevermarried, and that he held himself aloof from all women, in absolutechastity. We are told that on one occasion his subjects urged upon him thepropriety of marriage, and to their importunities he returned the darkanswer that, Yes, he had determined to take a wife; but that it would bewhen the oak tree shall cast chestnuts, when the sun shall rise in thewest, when one can cross the sea dry-shod, and when nightingales growbeards. [1]

[Footnote 1: Duran, in Kingsborough, vol. Viii, p. 267. I believe AlvaIxtlilxochitl is the only author who specifically assigns a family toQuetzalcoatl. This author does not mention a wife, but names two sons, one, Xilotzin, who was killed in war, the other, Pochotl, who was educatedby his nurse, Toxcueye, and who, after the destruction of Tollan, collected the scattered Toltecs and settled with them around the Lake ofTezcuco (_Relaciones Historicas_, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol. Ix). Allthis is in contradiction to the reports of earlier and better authorities. For instance, Motolinia says pointedly, "no fué casado, ni se le conociómujer" (_Historia de los Indios, Epistola Proemial_). ]

Following the example of their Master, many of the priests of his cultrefrained from sexual relations, and as a mortification of the flesh theypracticed a painful rite by transfixing the tongue and male member withthe sharp thorns of the maguey plant, an austerity which, according totheir traditions, he was the first to institute. [1] There were also in thecities where his special worship was in vogue, houses of nuns, the inmatesof which had vowed perpetual virginity, and it was said that Quetzalcoatlhimself had founded these institutions. [2]

[Footnote 1: _Codex Vaticanus_, Tab. Xxii. ]

[Footnote 2: Veitia, _Historia_, cap. XVII. ]

His connection with the worship of the reproductive principle seems to befurther indicated by his surname, _Ce acatl_. This means One Reed, and isthe name of a day in the calendar. But in the Nahuatl language, the word_acatl_, reed, cornstalk, is also applied to the virile member; and it hasbeen suggested that this is the real signification of the word whenapplied to the hero-god. The suggestion is plausible, but the word doesnot seem to have been so construed by the early writers. If such anunderstanding had been current, it could scarcely have escaped theinquiries of such a close student and thorough master of the Nahuatltongue as Father Sahagun. 

On the other hand, it must be said, in corroboration of thisidentification, that the same idea appears to be conveyed by the symbol ofthe serpent. One correct translation of the name Quetzalcoatl is "thebeautiful serpent;" his temple in the city of Mexico, according toTorquemada, had a door in the form of a serpent's mouth; and in the _CodexVaticanus_, No. 3738, published by Lord Kingsborough, of which we have anexplanation by competent native authority, he is represented as a serpent;while in the same Codex, in the astrological signs which were supposed tocontrol the different parts of the human body, the serpent is pictured asthe sign of the male member. [1] This indicates the probability that in hisfunction as god of reproduction Quetzalcoatl may have stood in somerelation to phallic rites. 

[Footnote 1: Compare the _Codex Vaticanus_, No. 3738, plates 44 and 75, Kingsborough, _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. Ii. ]

This same sign, _Ce Coatl_, One Serpent, used in their astrology, was thatof one of the gods of the merchants, and apparently for this reason, somewriters have identified the chief god of traffic, Yacatecutli (God ofJourneying), with Quetzalcoatl. This seems the more likely as another nameof this divinity was _Yacacoliuhqui_, With the End Curved, a name whichappears to refer to the curved rod or stick which was both his sign andone of those of Quetzalcoatl. [1] The merchants also constantly associatedin their prayers this deity with Huitzilopochtli, which is another reasonfor supposing their patron was one of the four primeval brothers, and butanother manifestation of Quetzalcoatl. His character, as patron of arts, the model of orators, and the cultivator of peaceful intercourse amongmen, would naturally lend itself to this position. 

[Footnote 1: Compare Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxviiiand Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva España_, Lib. Ix, _passim_. 

_Yacatecutli_, is from _tecutli_, lord, and either _yaqui_, traveler, orelse _yacana_, to conduct. 

_Yacacoliuhqui_, is translated by Torquemada, "el que tiene la narizaquileña. " It is from _yaque_, a point or end, and hence, also, the nose, and _coliuhqui_, bent or curved. The translation in the text is quite asallowable as that of Torquemada, and more appropriate. I have alreadymentioned that this divinity was suspected, by Dr. Schultz-Sellack, to bemerely another form of Quetzalcoatl. See above, chapter iii, §2]

But Quetzalcoatl, as god of the violent wind-storms, which destroy thehouses and crops, and as one, who, in his own history, was driven from hiskingdom and lost his all, was not considered a deity of invariably goodaugury. His day and sign, _ce acatl_, One Reed, was of bad omen. A personborn on it would not succeed in life. [1] His plans and possessions wouldbe lost, blown away, as it were, by the wind, and dissipated into thinair. 

[Footnote 1: Sahagun. _Historia_, Lib. Iv, cap. Viii. ]

Through the association of his person with the prying winds he came, curiously enough, to be the patron saint of a certain class of thieves, who stupefied their victims before robbing them. They applied to him toexercise his maleficent power on those whom they planned to deprive oftheir goods. His image was borne at the head of the gang when they madetheir raids, and the preferred season was when his sign was in theascendant. [1] This is a singular parallelism to the Aryan Hermes myth, asI have previously observed (Chap. I). 

[Footnote 1: Ibid. Lib. IV, cap. XXXI. ]

The representation of Quetzalcoatl in the Aztec manuscripts, his imagesand the forms of his temples and altars, referred to his double functionsas Lord of the Light and the Winds. 

He was not represented with pleasing features. On the contrary, Sahaguntells us that his face, that is, that of his image, was "very ugly, with alarge head and a full beard. "[1] The beard, in this and similar instances, was to represent the rays of the sun. His hair at times was also shownrising straight from his forehead, for the same reason. [2]

[Footnote 1: "La cara que tenia era muy fea y la cabeza larga y barbuda. "_Historia_, Lib. III, cap. III. On the other hand Ixtlilxochitl speaks ofhim as "de bella figura. " _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. Viii. He wasoccasionally represented with his face painted black, probably expressingthe sun in its absence. ]

[Footnote 2: He is so portrayed in the Codex Vaticanus. And Ixtlilxochitlsays, "tubiese el cabello levantado desde la frente hasta la nuca como ámanera de penacho. " _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. Viii. ]

At times he was painted with a large hat and flowing robe, and was thencalled "Father of the Sons of the Clouds, " that is, of the rain drops. [1]

[Footnote 1: Diego Duran, _Historia_, in Kingsborough, viii, p. 267. ]

These various representations doubtless referred to him at different partsof his chequered career, and as a god under different manifestations ofhis divine nature. The religious art of the Aztecs did not demand anyuniformity in this respect. 

§5. _The Return of Quetzalcoatl. _

Quetzalcoatl was gone. 

Whether he had removed to the palace prepared for him in Tlapallan, whether he had floated out to sea on his wizard raft of serpent skins, orwhether his body had been burned on the sandy sea strand and his soul hadmounted to the morning star, the wise men were not agreed. But on onepoint there was unanimity. Quetzalcoatl was gone; but _he would return_. 

In his own good time, in the sign of his year, when the ages were ripe, once more he would come from the east, surrounded by his fair-facedretinue, and resume the sway of his people and their descendants. Tezcatlipoca had conquered, but not for aye. The immutable laws which hadfixed the destruction of Tollan assigned likewise its restoration. Suchwas the universal belief among the Aztec race. 

For this reason Quetzalcoatl's statue, or one of them, was in a recliningposition and covered with wrappings, signifying that he was absent, "as ofone who lays him down to sleep, and that when he should awake from thatdream of absence, he should rise to rule again the land. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxiv. So inEgyptian mythology Tum was called "the concealed or imprisoned god, in aphysical sense the Sun-god in the darkness of night, not revealinghimself, but alive, nevertheless. " Tiele, _History of the EgyptianReligion_, p. 77. ]

He was not dead. He had indeed built mansions underground, to the Lord ofMictlan, the abode of the dead, the place of darkness, but he himself didnot occupy them. [1] Where he passed his time was where the sun stays atnight. As this, too, is somewhere beneath the level of the earth, it wasoccasionally spoken of as _Tlillapa_, The Murky Land, [2] and alliedtherefore to Mictlan. Caverns led down to it, especially one south ofChapultepec, called _Cincalco_, "To the Abode of Abundance, " through whosegloomy corridors one could reach the habitation of the sun and the happyland still governed by Quetzalcoatl and his lieutenant Totec. [3]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Iii. Cap. Ult. ]

[Footnote 2: Mendieta, _Hist. Eclesiast. Indiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. V. Thename is from _tlilli_, something dark, obscure. ]

[Footnote 3: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Xii, cap. Ix; Duran, _Historia_, cap. Lxviii; Tezozomoc, _Cron. Mexicana_, cap. Ciii. Sahagun and Tezozomocgive the name _Cincalco_, To the House of Maize, _i. E. _, Fertility, Abundance, the Paradise. Duran gives _Cicalco_, and translates it "casa dela liebre, " _citli_, hare, _calli_, house, _co_ locative. But this is, nodoubt, an error, mistaking _citli_ for _cintli_, maize. ]

But the real and proper names of that land were Tlapallan, the Red Land, and Tizapan, the White Land, for either of these colors is that of thesun-light. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Tizapan_ from _tizatl_, white earth or other substance, and_pan_, in. Mendicta, Lib. Ii, cap. Iv. ]

It was generally understood to be the same land whence he and the Toltecshad come forth in ancient times; or if not actually the same, nevertheless, very similar to it. While the myth refers to the latter asTlapallan, it speaks of the former as Huey Tlapallan, Old Tlapallan, orthe first Tlapallan. But Old Tlapallan was usually located to the West, where the sun disappears at night;[1] while New Tlapallan, the goal ofQuetzalcoatl's journey, was in the East, where the day-orb rises in themorning. The relationship is obvious, and is based on the similarity ofthe morning and the evening skies, the heavens at sunset and at sunrise. 

[Footnote 1: "Huitlapalan, que es la que al presente llaman de Cortes, que por parecer vermeja le pusieron el nombre referido. " AlvaIxtlilxochitl, _Historia Chichimeca_, Cap. Ii. ]

In his capacity as master of arts, and, at the same time, ruler of theunderground realm, in other words, as representing in his absence the Sunat night, he was supposed to preside over the schools where the youth wereshut up and severely trained in ascetic lives, previous to coming forthinto the world. In this function he was addressed as _QuetzalcoatlTlilpotonqui_, the Dark or Black Plumed, and the child, on admittance, waspainted this color, and blood drawn from his ears and offered to thegod. [1] Probably for the same reason, in many picture writings, both hisface and body were blackened. 

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Lib. Iii, Append, cap. Vii. And cf. Lib. I, cap v. The surname is from _tlilli_, black, and _potonia_, "emplumar á otro. "]

It is at first sight singular to find his character and symbols thus in asense reversed, but it would not be difficult to quote similar instancesfrom Aryan and Egyptian mythology. The sun at night was often consideredto be the ruler of the realm of the dead, and became associated with itsgloomy symbolism. 

Wherever he was, Quetzalcoatl was expected to return and resume thesceptre of sovereignty, which he had laid down at the instigation ofTezcatlipoca. In what cycle he would appear the sages knew not, but theyear of the cycle was predicted by himself of old. 

Here appears an extraordinary coincidence. The sign of the year ofQuetzalcoatl was, as I have said, One Reed, Ce Acatl. In the Mexicancalendar this recurs only once in their cycle of fifty-two years. The mythran that on some recurrence of this year his arrival was to take place. The year 1519 of the Christian era was the year One Reed, and in that yearHernan Cortes landed his army on Mexican soil!

The approach of the year had, as usual, revived the old superstition, andpossibly some vague rumors from Yucatan or the Islands had intensified thedread with which the Mexican emperor contemplated the possible loss of hissovereignty. Omens were reported in the sky, on earth and in the waters. The sages and diviners were consulted, but their answers were darker thanthe ignorance they were asked to dispel. Yes, they agreed, a change is tocome, the present order of things will be swept away, perhaps byQuetzalcoatl, perhaps by hideous beings with faces of serpents, who walkwith one foot, whose heads are in their breasts, whose huge hands serve assun shades, and who can fold themselves in their immense ears. [1]

[Footnote 1: The names of these mysterious beings are given by Tezozomocas _Tezocuilyoxique, Zenteicxique_ and _Coayxaques. Cronica Mexicana_, caps, cviii and civ. ]

Little satisfied with these grotesque prophecies the monarch summoned hisdwarfs and hunchbacks--a class of dependents he maintained in imitation ofQuetzalcoatl--and ordered them to proceed to the sacred Cave of Cincalco. 

"Enter its darknes, " he said, "without fear. There you will find him whoages ago lived in Tula, who calls himself Huemac, the Great Hand. [1] Ifone enters, he dies indeed, but only to be born to an eternal life in aland where food and wine are in perennial plenty. It is shady with trees, filled with fruit, gay with flowers, and those who dwell there know noughtbut joy. Huemac is king of that land, and he who lives with him is everhappy. "

[Footnote 1: Huemac, as I have already said, is stated by Sahagun to havebeen the war chief of Tula, as Quetzalcoatl was the sacerdotal head (Lib. Iii, cap. V). But Duran and most writers state that it was simply anothername of Quetzalcoatl. ]

The dwarfs and hunchbacks departed on their mission, under the guidance ofthe priests. After a time they returned and reported that they had enteredthe cave and reached a place where four roads met. They chose that whichdescended most rapidly, and soon were accosted by an old man with a staffin his hand. This was Totec, who led them to his lord Huemac, to whom theystated the wish of Montezuma for definite information. The reply was vagueand threatening, and though twice afterwards the emperor sent otherembassies, only ominous and obscure announcements were returned by thepriests. [1]

Clearly they preferred to be prophets of evil, and quite possibly theythemselves were the slaves of gloomy forebodings. 

[Footnote 1: Tezozomoc, _Cronica Mexicana_, caps. Cviii, cix; Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Xii, cap. Ix. The four roads which met one on the journeyto the Under World are also described in the _Popol Vuh_, p. 83. Each isof a different color, and only one is safe to follow. ]

Dissatisfied with their reports, Montezuma determined to visit theunderground realm himself, and by penetrating through the cave of Cincalcoto reach the mysterious land where his attendants and priests professed tohave been. For obvious reasons such a suggestion was not palatable tothem, and they succeeded in persuading him to renounce the plan, and theirdeceptions remained undiscovered. 

Their idle tales brought no relief to the anxious monarch, and at length, when his artists showed him pictures of the bearded Spaniards and stringsof glittering beads from Cortes, the emperor could doubt no longer, andexclaimed: "Truly this is the Quetzalcoatl we expected, he who lived withus of old in Tula. Undoubtedly it is he, _Ce Acatl Inacuil_, the god ofOne Reed, who is journeying. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Tezozomoc, _Cronica Mexicana_, cap. Cviii. ]

On his very first interview with Cortes, he addressed him through theinterpreter Marina in remarkable words which have been preserved to us bythe Spanish conqueror himself. Cortes writes:--

"Having delivered me the presents, he seated himself next to me and spokeas follows:--

"'We have known for a long time, by the writings handed down by ourforefathers, that neither I nor any who inhabit this land are natives ofit, but foreigners who came here from remote parts. We also know that wewere led here by a ruler, whose subjects we all were, who returned to hiscountry, and after a long time came here again and wished to take hispeople away. But they had married wives and built houses, and they wouldneither go with him nor recognize him as their king; therefore he wentback. We have ever believed that those who were of his lineage would sometime come and claim this land as his, and us as his vassals. From thedirection whence you come, which is where the sun rises, and from what youtell me of this great lord who sent you, we believe and think it certainthat he is our natural ruler, especially since you say that for a longtime he has known about us. Therefore you may feel certain that we shallobey you, and shall respect you as holding the place of that great lord;and in all the land I rule you may give what orders you wish, and theyshall be obeyed, and everything we have shall be put at your service. Andsince you are thus in your own heritage and your own house, take your easeand rest from the fatigue of the journey and the wars you have had on theway. '"[1]

[Footnote 1: Cortes, _Carta Segunda_, October 30th, 1520. According toBernal Diaz Montezuma referred to the prediction several times. _HistoriaVerdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España_, cap. Lxxxix, xc. The wordsof Montezuma are also given by Father Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva España_, Lib. Xii, cap. Xvi. The statement of Montezuma that Quetzalcoatl _hadalready returned_, but had not been well received by the people, and had, therefore, left them again, is very interesting. It is a part of theQuetzalcoatl myth which I have not found in any other Aztec source. But itdistinctly appears in the Kiche which I shall quote on a later page, andis also in close parallelism with the hero-myths of Yucatan, Peru andelsewhere. It is, to my mind, a strong evidence of the accuracy ofMarina's translation of Montezuma's words, and the fidelity of Cortes'memory. ]

Such was the extraordinary address with which the Spaniard, with hishandful of men, was received by the most powerful war chief of theAmerican continent. It confessed complete submission, without a struggle. But it was the expression of a general sentiment. When the Spanish shipsfor the first time reached the Mexican shores the natives kissed theirsides and hailed the white and bearded strangers from the east as gods, sons and brothers of Quetzalcoatl, come back from their celestial home toclaim their own on earth and bring again the days of Paradise; [1] a hope, dryly observes Father Mendieta, which the poor Indians soon gave up whenthey came to feel the acts of their visitors. [2]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. Xii, cap. Ii. ]

[Footnote 2: "Los Indios siempre esperaron que se habia de cumplir aquellaprofecia y cuando vieron venir á los cristianos luego los llamaron dioses, hijos, y hermanos de Quetzalcoatl, aunque despues que conocieron yexperimentaron sus obras, no los tuvieron por celestiales. " _HistoriaEclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. Ii, cap. X. ]

Such presentiments were found scattered through America. They have excitedthe suspicion of historians and puzzled antiquaries to explain. But theirinterpretation is simple enough. The primitive myth of the sun which hadsunk but should rise again, had in the lapse of time lost its peculiarlyreligious sense, and had been in part taken to refer to past historicalevents. The Light-God had become merged in the divine culture hero. He itwas who was believed to have gone away, not to die, for he was immortal, but to dwell in the distant east, whence in the fullness of time he wouldreturn. 

This was why Montezuma and his subjects received the whites as expectedguests, and quoted to them prophecies of their coming. The Mayas ofYucatan, the Muyscas of Bogota, the Qquichuas of Peru, all did the same, and all on the same grounds--the confident hope of the return of theLight-God from the under world. 

This hope is an integral part of this great Myth of Light, in whateverpart of the world we find it. Osiris, though murdered, and his body castinto "the unclean sea, " will come again from the eastern shores. Balder, slain by the wiles of Loki, is not dead forever, but at the appointed timewill appear again in nobler majesty. So in her divine fury sings theprophetess of the Völuspa:--

"Shall arise a second time, Earth from ocean, green and fair, The waters ebb, the eagles fly, Snatch the fish from out the flood. 

"Once again the wondrous runes, Golden tablets, shall be found;Mystic runes by Aesir carved, Gods who ruled Fiolnir's line. 

"Then shall fields unseeded bear, Ill shall flee, and Balder come, Dwell in Odin's highest hall, He and all the happy gods. 

"Outshines the sun that mighty hall, Glitters gold on heaven's hill;There shall god-like princes dwell, And rule for aye a happy world. "

CHAPTER IV. 

THE HERO-GODS OF THE MAYAS. 

CIVILIZATION OF THE MAYAS--WHENCE IT ORIGINATED--DUPLICATE TRADITIONS. 

§1. _The Culture Hero Itzamna. _

ITZAMNA AS RULER, PRIEST AND TEACHER--AS CHIEF GOD AND CREATOR OF THEWORLD--LAS CASAS' SUPPOSED CHRIST MYTH--THE FOUR BACABS--ITZAMNA AS LORDOF THE WINDS AND RAINS--THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS--AS LORD OF THE LIGHT ANDDAY--DERIVATION OF HIS VARIOUS NAMES. 

§2. _The Culture Hero Kukulcan_. 

KUKULCAN AS CONNECTED WITH THE CALENDAR--MEANING OF THE NAME--THE MYTH OFTHE FOUR BROTHERS--KUKULCAN'S HAPPY RULE AND MIRACULOUSDISAPPEARANCE--RELATION TO QUETZALCOATL--AZTEC AND MAYAMYTHOLOGY--KUKULCAN A MAYA DIVINITY--THE EXPECTED RETURN OF THEHERO-GODS--THE MAYA PROPHECIES--THEIR EXPLANATION. 

The high-water mark of ancient American civilization was touched by theMayas, the race who inhabited the peninsula of Yucatan and vicinity. Itsmembers extended to the Pacific coast and included the tribes of Vera Paz, Guatemala, and parts of Chiapas and Honduras, and had an outlying branchin the hot lowlands watered by the River Panuco, north of Vera Cruz. Inall, it has been estimated that they numbered at the time of the Conquestperhaps two million souls. To them are due the vast structures of Copan, Palenque and Uxmal, and they alone possessed a mode of writing whichrested distinctly on a phonetic basis. 

The zenith of their prosperity had, however, been passed a century beforethe Spanish conquerors invaded their soil. A large part of the peninsulaof Yucatan had been for generations ruled in peace by a confederation ofseveral tribes, whose capital city was Mayapan, ten leagues south of whereMérida now stands, and whose ruins still cover many hundred acres of theplain. Somewhere about the year 1440 there was a general revolt of theeastern provinces; Mayapan itself was assaulted and destroyed, and thePeninsula was divided among a number of petty chieftains. 

Such was its political condition at the time of the discovery. There werenumerous populous cities, well built of stone and mortar, but theirinhabitants were at war with each other and devoid of unity of purpose. [1]Hence they fell a comparatively easy prey to the conquistadors. 

[Footnote 1: Francisco de Montejo, who was the first to explore Yucatan(1528), has left strong testimony to the majesty of its cities and theagricultural industry of its inhabitants. He writes to the King, in thereport of his expedition: "La tierra es muy poblada y de muy grandesciudades y villas muy frescas. Todos los pueblos son una huerta defrutales. " _Carta á su Magestad, 13 Abril, 1529_, in the _Coleccion deDocumentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias_, Tom. Xiii. ]

Whence came this civilization? Was it an offshoot of that of the Aztecs?Or did it produce the latter?

These interesting questions I cannot discuss in full at this time. Allthat concerns my present purpose is to treat of them so far as they areconnected with the mythology of the race. Incidentally, however, this willthrow some light on these obscure points, and at any rate enable us todismiss certain prevalent assumptions as erroneous. 

One of these is the notion that the Toltecs were the originators ofYucatan culture. I hope I have said enough in the previous chapter toexorcise permanently from ancient American history these purely imaginarybeings. They have served long enough as the last refuge of ignorance. 

Let us rather ask what accounts the Mayas themselves gave of the origin oftheir arts and their ancestors. 

Most unfortunately very meagre sources of information are open to us. Wehave no Sahagun to report to us the traditions and prayers of this strangepeople. Only fragments of their legends and hints of their history havebeen saved, almost by accident, from the general wreck of theircivilization. From these, however, it is possible to piece together enoughto give us a glimpse of their original form, and we shall find it notunlike those we have already reviewed. 

There appear to have been two distinct cycles of myths in Yucatan, themost ancient and general that relating to Itzamná, the second, of laterdate and different origin, referring to Kukulcan. It is barely possiblethat these may be different versions of the same; but certainly they wereregarded as distinct by the natives at and long before the time of theConquest. 

This is seen in the account they gave of their origin. They did notpretend to be autochthonous, but claimed that their ancestors came fromdistant regions, in two bands. The largest and most ancient immigrationwas from the East, across, or rather through, the ocean--for the gods hadopened twelve paths through it--and this was conducted by the mythicalcivilizer Itzamná. The second band, less in number and later in time, camein from the West, and with them was Kukulcan. The former was called theGreat Arrival; the latter, the Less Arrival[1]. 

[Footnote 1: Cogolludo contradicts himself in describing these events;saying first that the greater band came from the West, but later in thesame chapter corrects himself, and criticizes Father Lizana for havingcommitted the same error. Cogolludo's authority was the original MSS. OfGaspar Antonio, an educated native, of royal lineage, who wrote in 1582. _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. Iv, caps, iii, iv. Lizana gives the names ofthese arrivals as _Nohnial_ and _Cenial_. These words are badly mutilated. They should read _noh emel_ (_noh_, great, _emel_, descent, arrival) and_cec, emel_ (_cec_, small). Landa supports the position of Cogolludo. _Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 28. It is he who speaks of the"doce caminos por el mar. "]

§1. _The Culture Hero, Itzamná. _

To this ancient leader, Itzamná, the nation alluded as their guide, instructor and civilizer. It was he who gave names to all the rivers anddivisions of land; he was their first priest, and taught them the properrites wherewith to please the gods and appease their ill-will; he was thepatron of the healers and diviners, and had disclosed to them themysterious virtues of plants; in the month _Uo_ they assembled and madenew fire and burned to him incense, and having cleansed their books withwater drawn from a fountain from which no woman had ever drunk, the mostlearned of the sages opened the volumes to forecast the character of thecoming year. 

It was Itzamná who first invented the characters or letters in which theMayas wrote their numerous books, and which they carved in such profusionon the stone and wood of their edifices. He also devised their calendar, one more perfect even than that of the Mexicans, though in a general waysimilar to it[1]. 

[Footnote 1: The authorities on this phase of Itzamná's character areCogolludo, _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. Iv, cap. Iii; Landa, _Cosas deYucatan_, pp. 285, 289, and Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria, _Arte del IdiomaMaya_, p. 16. The latter has a particularly valuable extract from the nowlost Maya Dictionary of F. Gabriel de San Buenaventura. "El primero quehalló las letras de la lengua Maya é hizo el computo de los años, meses yedades, y lo enseño todo á los Indios de esta Provincia, fué un Indiollamado Kinchahau, y por otro nombre Tzamná. Noticia que debemos á dichoR. F. Gabriel, y trae en su Calepino, lit. K. Verb. Kinchahau, fol. 390, vuelt. "]

As city-builder and king, his history is intimately associated with thenoble edifices of Itzamal, which he laid out and constructed, and overwhich he ruled, enacting wise laws and extending the power and happinessof his people for an indefinite period. 

Thus Itzamna, regarded as ruler, priest and teacher, was, no doubt, spokenof as an historical personage, and is so put down by various historians, even to the most recent[1]. But another form in which he appears proveshim to have been an incarnation of deity, and carries his history fromearth to heaven. This is shown in the very earliest account we have of theMaya mythology. 

[Footnote 1: Crescencio Carrillo, _Historia Antigua de Yucatan_, p. 144, Mérida, 1881. Though obliged to differ on many points with thisindefatigable archaeologist, I must not omit to state my appreciation andrespect for his earnest interest in the language and antiquities of hiscountry. I know of no other Yucatecan who has equal enthusiasm or so justan estimate of the antiquarian riches of his native land. ]

For this account we are indebted to the celebrated Las Casas, the "Apostleof the Indians. " In 1545 he sent a certain priest, Francisco Hernandez byname, into the peninsula as a missionary. Hernandez had already traversedit as chaplain to Montejo's expedition, in 1528, and was to some degreefamiliar with the Maya tongue. After nearly a year spent among the nativeshe forwarded a report to Las Casas, in which, among other matters, henoted a resemblance which seemed to exist between the myths recounted bythe Maya priests and the Christian dogmas. They told him that the highestdeity they worshiped was Izona, who had made men and all things. To himwas born a son, named Bacab or Bacabab, by a virgin, Chibilias, whosemother was Ixchel. Bacab was slain by a certain Eopuco, on the day called_hemix_, but after three days rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The Holy Ghost was represented by Echuac, who furnished the world with allthings necessary to man's life and comfort. Asked what Bacab meant, theyreplied, "the Son of the Great Father, " and Echuac they translated by "themerchant. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Las Casas, _Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occidentales_, cap. Cxxiii. ]

This is the story that a modern writer says, "ought to be repudiatedwithout question. "[1] But I think not. It is not difficult to restorethese names to their correct forms, and then the fancied resemblance toChristian theology disappears, while the character of the original mythbecomes apparent. 

[Footnote 1: John T. Short, _The North Americans of Antiquity_, p. 231. ]

Cogolludo long since justly construed _Izona_ as a misreading for_Izamna_. _Bacabab_ is the plural form of _Bacab_, and shows that the sonswere several. We are well acquainted with the Bacabab. Bishop Landa tellsus all about them. They were four in number, four gigantic brothers, whosupported the four corners of the heavens, who blew the four winds fromthe four cardinal points, and who presided over the four Dominical signsof the Calendar. As each year in the Calendar was supposed to be under theinfluence of one or the other of these brothers, one Bacab was said to dieat the close of the year; and after the "nameless" or intercalary days hadpassed the next Bacab would live; and as each computation of the yearbegan on the day _Imix_, which was the third before the close of the Mayaweek, this was said figuratively to be the day of death of the Bacab ofthat year. And whereas three (or four) days later a new year began, withanother Bacab, the one was said to have died and risen again. 

The myth further relates that the Bacabs were sons of Ix-chel. She was theGoddess of the Rainbow, which her name signifies. She was likewisebelieved to be the guardian of women in childbirth, and one of the patronsof the art of medicine. The early historians, Roman and Landa, alsoassociate her with Itzamna[1], thus verifying the legend recorded byHernandez. 

[Footnote 1: Fray Hieronimo Roman, _De la Republica de las IndiasOccidentales_, Lib. Ii, cap. Xv; Diego de Landa, _Relacion de las Cosas deYucatan_, p. 288. Cogolludo also mentions _Ix chel_, _Historia deYucatan_, Lib. Iv, cap. Vi. The word in Maya for rainbow is _chel_ or_cheel_; _ix_ is the feminine prefix, which also changes the noun from theinanimate to the animate sense. ]

That the Rainbow should be personified as wife of the Light-God and motherof the rain-gods, is an idea strictly in accordance with the course ofmythological thought in the red race, and is founded on natural relationstoo evident to be misconstrued. The rainbow is never seen but during ashower, and while the sun is shining; hence it is always associated withthese two meteorological phenomena. 

I may quote in comparison the rainbow myth of the Moxos of South America. They held it to be the wife of Arama, their god of light, and her duty wasto pour the refreshing rains on the soil parched by the glaring eye of hermighty spouse. Hence they looked upon her as goddess of waters, of treesand plants, and of fertility in general. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Fabula, ridicula adspersam superstitione, habebant de iride. Ajebant illam esse Aramam feminam, solis conjugem, cujus officium sitterras a viro exustas imbrium beneficio recreare. Cum enim viderent arcumillum non nisi pluvio tempore in conspectu venire, et tunc arborumcacuminibus velut insidere, persuadebant sibi aquarum illum essePraesidem, arboresque proceras omnes sua in tutela habere. " Franc. Xav. , Eder, _Descriptio Provinciae Moxitarum in Regno Peruano_ p. 249 (Budae, 1791). ]

Or we may take the Muyscas, a cultivated and interesting nation who dwelton the lofty plateau where Bogota is situated. They worshiped the Rainbowunder the name _Cuchaviva_ and personified it as a goddess, who tookparticular care of those sick with fevers and of women in childbirth. Shewas also closely associated in their myth with their culture-hero Bochica, the story being that on one occasion, when an ill-natured divinity hadinundated the plain of Bogota, Bochica appeared to the distressedinhabitants in company with Cuchaviva, and cleaving the mountains with ablow of his golden sceptre, opened a passage for the waters into thevalley below. [1]

[Footnote 1: E. Uricoechea, _Gramatica de la Lengua Chibcha_, Introd. , p. Xx. The similarity of these to the Biblical account is not to beattributed to borrowing from the latter, but simply that it, as they, areboth the mythological expressions of the same natural phenomenon. In Norsemythology, Freya is the rainbow goddess. She wears the bow as a necklaceor girdle. It was hammered out for her by four dwarfs, the four winds fromthe cardinal points, and Odin seeks to get it from her. Schwartz, _Ursprung der Mythologie_, S. 117. ]

As goddess of the fertilizing showers, of growth and life, it is easilyseen how Ixchel came to be the deity both of women in childbirth and ofthe medical art, a Juno Sospita as well as a Juno Lucina. 

The statement is also significant, that the Bacabs were supposed to be thevictims of Ah-puchah, the Despoiler or Destroyer, [1] though the preciseimport of that character in the mythical drama is left uncertain. [2]

[Footnote 1: _Eopuco_ I take to be from the verb _puch_ or _puk_, to melt, to dissolve, to shell corn from the cob, to spoil; hence _puk_, spoiled, rotten, _podrida_, and possibly _ppuch_, to flog, to beat. The prefix_ah_, signifies one who practices or is skilled in the action which theverb denotes. ]

[Footnote 2: The mother of the Bacabs is given in the myth as _Chibilias_(or _Chibirias_, but there is no _r_ in the Maya alphabet). Cogolludomentions a goddess _Ix chebel yax_, one of whose functions was to presideover drawing and painting. The name is from _chebel_, the brush used inthese arts. But the connection is obscure. ]

The supposed Holy Ghost, Echuac, properly Ah-Kiuic, Master of the Market, was the god of the merchants and the cacao plantations. He formed a triadwith two other gods, Chac, one of the rain gods, and Hobnel, also a god ofthe food supply. To this triad travelers, on stopping for the night, seton end three stones and placed in front of them three flat stones, onwhich incense was burned. At their festival in the month _Muan_ preciselythree cups of native wine (mead) were drained by each person present. [1]

[Footnote 1: Landa, _Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_, pp. 156, 260. ]

The description of some such rites as these is, no doubt, what led theworthy Hernandez to suppose that the Mayas had Trinitarian doctrines. When they said that the god of the merchants and planters supplied thewants of men and furnished the world with desirable things, it was but aslightly figurative way of stating a simple truth. 

The four Bacabs are called by Cogolludo "the gods of the winds. " Each wasidentified with a particular color and a certain cardinal point. The firstwas that of the South. He was called Hobnil, the Belly; his color wasyellow, which, as that of the ripe ears, was regarded as a favorable andpromising hue; the augury of his year was propitious, and it was said ofhim, referring to some myth now lost, that he had never sinned as had hisbrothers. He answered to the day _Kan_. Which was the first of the Mayaweek of thirteen days. [1] The remaining Bacabs were the Red, assigned tothe East, the White, to the North, and the Black, to the West, and thewinds and rains from those directions were believed to be under the chargeof these giant caryatides. 

[Footnote 1: Landa, _Relacion_, pp. 208, -211, etc. _Hobnil_ is theordinary word for belly, stomach, from _hobol_, hollow. Figuratively, inthese dialects it meant subsistence, life, as we use in both these sensesthe word "vitals. " Among the Kiches of Guatemala, a tribe of Maya stock, we find, as terms applied to their highest divinity, _u pam uleu, u pamcah_, literally Belly of the Earth, Belly of the Sky, meaning that bywhich earth and sky exist. _Popol Vuh_, p. 332. ]

Their close relation with Itzamná is evidenced, not only in thefragmentary myth preserved by Hernandez, but quite amply in thedescriptions of the rites at the close of each year and in the variousfestivals during the year, as narrated by Bishop Landa. Thus at thetermination of the year, along with the sacrifices to the Bacab of theyear were others to Itzamná, either under his surname _Canil_, which hasvarious meanings, [1] or as _Kinich-ahau_, Lord of the Eye of the Day, [2]or _Yax-coc-ahmut_, the first to know and hear of events, [3] or finally as_Uac-mètun-ahau_, Lord of the Wheel of the Months. [4]

[Footnote 1: _Can_, of which the "determinative" form is _canil_, maymean a serpent, or the yellow one, or the strong one, or he who givesgifts, or the converser. ]

[Footnote 2: _Kin_, the day; _ich_, eye; _ahau_, lord. ]

[Footnote 3: _Yax_, first; _coc_, which means literally deaf, and henceto listen attentively (whence the name Cocomes, for the ancient royalfamily of Chichen Itza, an appellation correctly translated"escuchadores") and _ah-mut_, master of the news, _mut_ meaning news, goodor bad. ]

[Footnote 4: _Uac_, the months, is a rare and now obsolete form of theplural of _u_, month, "_Uac_, i. E. _u_, por meses y habla de tiempopasado. " _Diccionario Maya-Español del Convento de Motul_, MS. _Metun_(Landa, _mitun_) is from _met_, a wheel. The calendars, both in Yucatanand Mexico, were represented as a wheel. ]

The word _bacab_ means "erected, " "set up. "[1] It was applied to theBacabs because they were imagined to be enormous giants, standing likepillars at the four corners of the earth, supporting the heavens. In thissense they were also called _chac_, the giants, as the rain senders. Theywere also the gods of fertility and abundance, who watered the crops, andon whose favor depended the return of the harvests. They presided over thestreams and wells, and were the divinities whose might is manifested inthe thunder and lightning, gods of the storms, as well as of the gentleshowers. [2] The festival to these gods of the harvest was in the month_Mac_, which occurred in the early spring. In this ceremony, Itzamná wasalso worshiped as the leader of the Bacabs, and an important rite called"the extinction of the fire" was performed. "The object of thesesacrifices and this festival, " writes Bishop Landa, "was to secure anabundance of water for their crops. "[3]

[Footnote 1: The _Diccionario Maya del Convento de Motul_, MS. , the onlydictionary in which I find the exact word, translates _bacab_ by"representante, juglar, bufon. " This is no doubt a late meaning taken fromthe scenic representations of the supposed doings of the gods in theritual ceremonies. The proper form of the word is _uacab_ or _vacab_, which the dictionary mentioned renders "cosa que esta en pié ó enhiestadelante de otra. " The change from the initial _v_ to _b_ is quite common, as may be seen by comparing the two letters in Pio Perez's _Diccionario dela Lengua Maya_, e. G. _balak_, the revolution of a wheel, from _ualak_, toturn, to revolve. ]

[Footnote 2: The entries in the _Diccionario Maya-Español del Convento deMotul_, MS. , are as follows:--

"_Chaac_: gigante, hombre de grande estatura. 

"_Chaac_: fué un hombre asi grande que enseño la agricultura, al cualtuvieron despues por Dios de los panes, del agua, de los truenos yrelámpagos. Y asi se dice, _hac chaac_, el rayo: _u lemba chaac_ elrelámpago; _u pec chaac_, el trueno, " etc. ]

[Footnote 3: _Relacion, etc. _, p. 255. ]

These four Chac or Bacabab were worshiped under the symbol of the cross, the four arms of which represented the four cardinal points. Both inlanguage and religious art, this was regarded as a tree. In the Mayatongue it was called "the tree of bread, " or "the tree of life. "[1] Thecelebrated cross of Palenque is one of its representations, as I believe Iwas the first to point out, and has now been generally acknowledged to becorrect. [2] There was another such cross, about eight feet high, in atemple on the island of Cozumel. This was worshiped as "the god of rain, "or more correctly, as the symbol of the four rain gods, the Bacabs. Inperiods of drought offerings were made to it of birds (symbols of thewinds) and it was sprinkled with water. "When this had been done, " addsthe historian, "they felt certain that the rains would promptly fall. "[3]

[Footnote 1: The Maya word is _uahomche_, from _uah_, originally thetortilla or maize cake, now used for bread generally. It is also currentin the sense of _life_ ("la vida en cierta manera, " _Diccionario MayaEspañol del Convento de Motul_, MS. ). _Che_ is the generic word for tree. I cannot find any particular tree called _Homche_. _Hom_ was the nameapplied to a wind instrument, a sort of trumpet. In the _Codex Troano_, Plates xxv, xxvii, xxxiv, it is represented in use. The four Bacabs wereprobably imagined to blow the winds from the four corners of the earththrough such instruments. A similar representation is given in the _CodexBorgianus_, Plate xiii, in Kingsborough. As the Chac was the god of bread, _Dios de los panes_, so the cross was the tree of bread. ]

[Footnote 2: See the _Myths of the New World_, p. 95 (1st ed. , New York, 1868). This explanation has since been adopted by Dr. CarlSchultz-Sellack, although he omits to state whence he derived it. Hisarticle is entitled _Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden undihre Tempel in Palenque_ in the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1879. Compare also Charles Rau, _The Palenque Tablet_, p. 44 (Washington, 1879). ]

[Footnote 3: "Al pié de aquella misma torre estaba un cercado de piedra ycal, muy bien lucido y almenado, en medio del cual habia una cruz de caltan alta como diez palmos, á la cual tenian y adoraban por dios de lalluvia, porque quando no llovia y habia falta de agua, iban á ella enprocesion y muy devotos; ofrescianle codornices sacrificadas por aplacarlela ira y enojo con que ellos tenia ô mostraba tener, con la sangre deaquella simple avezica. " Francisco Lopez de Gomara, _Conquista de Mejico_, p. 305 (Ed. Paris, 1852). ]

Each of the four Bacabs was also called _Acantun_, which means "a stoneset up, " such a stone being erected and painted of the color sacred to thecardinal point that the Bacab represented[1]. Some of these stones arestill found among the ruins of Yucatecan cities, and are to this dayconnected by the natives with reproductive signs[2]. It is probable, however, that actual phallic worship was not customary in Yucatan. TheBacabs and Itzamná were closely related to ideas of fertility andreproduction, indeed, but it appears to have been especially as gods ofthe rains, the harvests, and the food supply generally. The Spanishwriters were eager to discover all the depravity possible in the religionof the natives, and they certainly would not have missed such anopportunity for their tirades, had it existed. As it is, the references toit are not many, and not clear. 

[Footnote 1: The feasts of the Bacabs Acantun are described in Landa'swork. The name he does not explain. I take it to be _acaan_, pastparticiple of _actal_, to erect, and _tun_, stone. But it may have anothermeaning. The word _acan_ meant wine, or rather, mead, the intoxicatinghydromel the natives manufactured. The god of this drink also bore thename Acan ("ACAN; el Dios del vino que es Baco, " _Diccionario del Conventode Motul_, MS. ). It would be quite appropriate for the Bacabs to be godsof wine. ]

[Footnote 2: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. I, p. 434. ]

From what I have now presented we see that Itzamná came from the distanteast, beyond the ocean marge; that he was the teacher of arts andagriculture; that he, moreover, as a divinity, ruled the winds and rains, and sent at his will harvests and prosperity. Can we identify him furtherwith that personification of Light which, as we have already seen, was thedominant figure in other American mythologies?

This seems indicated by his names and titles. They were many, some ofwhich I have already analyzed. That by which he was best known was_Itzamná_, a word of contested meaning but which contains the sameradicals as the words for the morning and the dawn[1], and points to hisidentification with the grand central fact at the basis of all thesemythologies, the welcome advent of the light in the eastern horizon afterthe gloom of the night. 

[Footnote 1: Some have derived Itzamua from _i_, grandson by a son, usedonly by a female; _zamal_, morning, morrow, from _zam_, before, early, related to _yam_, first, whence also _zamalzam_, the dawn, the aurora; and_ná_, mother. Without the accent _na_, means house. Crescencio Carrilloprefers the derivation from _itz_, anything that trickles in drops, as gumfrom a tree, rain or dew from the sky, milk from teats, and semen ("lechede amor, " _Dicc. De Motul_, MS. ). He says: "_Itzamna_, esto es, rociodiario, ó sustancia cuotidiana del cielo, es el mismo nombre del fundador(de Itzamal). " _Historia Antigua de Yucatan_, p. 145. (Mérida, 1881. ) Thisdoes not explain the last syllable, _ná_, which is always stronglyaccented. It is said that Itzamná spoke of himself only in the words _Itzen caan_, "I am that which trickles from the sky;" _Itz en muyal_, "I amthat which trickles from the clouds. " This plainly refers to his characteras a rain god. Lizana, _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. I, cap. 4. If acompound of _itz, amal, ná_, the name, could be translated, "the milk ofthe mother of the morning, " or of the dawn, i. E. , the dew; while _i, zamal, ná_ would be "son of the mother of the morning. "]

His next most frequent title was _Kin-ich-ahau_, which may be translatedeither, "Lord of the Sun's Face, " or, "The Lord, the Eye of the Day. "[1]As such he was the deity who presided in the Sun's disk and shot forth hisscorching rays. There was a temple at Itzamal consecrated to him as_Kin-ich-kak-mo_, "the Eye of the Day, the Bird of Fire. "[2] In a time ofpestilence the people resorted to this temple, and at high noon asacrifice was spread upon the altar. The moment the sun reached thezenith, a bird of brilliant plumage, but which, in fact, was nothing elsethan a fiery flame shot from the sun, descended and consumed the offeringin the sight of all. At Campeche he had a temple, as _Kin-ich-ahau-haban_, "the Lord of the Sun's face, the _Hunter_, " where the rites weresanguinary. [3]

[Footnote 1: Cogolludo, who makes a distinction between Kinich-ahau andItzamná (_Hist. De Yucatan_, Lib. Iv, cap. Viii), may be corrected byLanda and Buenaventura, whom I have already quoted. ]

[Footnote 2: _Kin_, the sun, the day; _ich_, the face, but generally theeye or eyes; _kak_, fire; _mo_, the brilliant plumaged, sacred bird, theara or guacamaya, the red macaw. This was adopted as the title of theruler of Itzamal, as we learn from the Chronicle of Chichen Itza--"Ho ahaupaxci u cah yahau ah Itzmal Kinich Kakmo"--"In the fifth Age the town (ofChichen Itza) was destroyed by King Kinich Kakmo, of Itzamal. " _El Librode Chilan Balam de Chumayel_, MS. ]

[Footnote 3: Cogolludo, _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. Iv, cap. Viii. ]

Another temple at Itzamal was consecrated to him, under one of his names, _Kabil_, He of the Lucky Hand, [1] and the sick were brought there, as itwas said that he had cured many by merely touching them. This fane wasextremely popular, and to it pilgrimages were made from even such remoteregions as Tabasco, Guatemala and Chiapas. To accommodate the pilgrimsfour paved roads had been constructed, to the North, South, East and West, straight toward the quarters of the four winds. 

[Footnote 1: Lizana says: "Se llama y nombra _Kab-ul_ que quiere decirmano obradora, " and all writers have followed him, although no suchmeaning can be made out of the name thus written. The proper word is_kabil_, which is defined in the _Diccionario del Convento de Motul_, MS. , "el que tiene buena mano para sembrar, ó para poner colmenas, etc. " Landaalso gives this orthography, _Relacion_, p. 216. ]

§2. _The Culture Hero, Kukulcan. _

The second important hero-myth of the Mayas was that about Kukulcan. Thisis in no way connected with that of Itzamna, and is probably later indate, and less national in character. The first reference to it we alsoowe to Father Francisco Hernandez, whom I have already quoted, and whoreported it to Bishop Las Casas in 1545. His words clearly indicate thatwe have here to do with a myth relating to the formation of the calendar, an opinion which can likewise be supported from other sources. 

The natives affirmed, says Las Casas, that in ancient times there came tothat land twenty men, the chief of whom was called "Cocolcan, " and himthey spoke of as the god of fevers or agues, two of the others as gods offishing, another two as the gods of farms and fields, another was thethunder god, etc. They wore flowing robes and sandals on their feet, theyhad long beards, and their heads were bare. They ordered that the peopleshould confess and fast, and some of the natives fasted on Fridays, because on that day the god Bacab died; and the name of that day in theirlanguage is _himix_, which they especially honor and hold in reverence asthe day of the death of Bacab. [1]

[Footnote 1: Las Casas, _Historia Apologetica de las IndiasOccidentales_, cap. Cxxii. ]

In the manuscript of Hernandez, which Las Casas had before him when he waswriting his _Apologetical History_, the names of all the twenty weregiven; but unfortunately for antiquarian research, the good bishop excuseshimself from quoting them, on account of their barbarous appearance. Ihave little doubt, however, that had he done so, we should find them to bethe names of the twenty days of the native calendar month. These are thevisitors who come, one every morning, with flowing robes, full beard andhair, and bring with them our good or bad luck--whatever the day bringsforth. Hernandez made the same mistake as did Father Francisco deBobadilla, when he inquired of the Nicaraguans the names of their gods, and they gave him those of the twenty days of the month. [1] Each day was, indeed, personified by these nations, and supposed to be at once a deityand a date, favorable or unfavorable to fishing or hunting, planting orfighting, as the case might be. 

[Footnote 1: Oviedo, _Historia General de las Indias_, Lib. Xlii, cap. Iii. ]

Kukulcan seems, therefore, to have stood in the same relation in Yucatanto the other divinities of the days as did Votan in Chiapa andQuetzalcoatl Ce Acatl in Cholula. 

His name has usually been supposed to be a compound, meaning "a serpentadorned with feathers, " but there are no words in the Maya language tojustify such a rendering. There is some variation in its orthography, andits original pronunciation may possibly be lost; but if we adopt ascorrect the spelling which I have given above, of which, however, I havesome doubts, then it means, "The God of the Mighty Speech. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Eligio Ancona, after giving the rendering, "serpienteadornada de plumas, " adds, "ha sido repetido por tal número deetimologistas que tendremos necesidad de aceptarla, aunque nos parece unpoco violento, " _Historia de Yucatan_, Vol. I, p. 44. The Abbé Brasseur, in his _Vocabulaire Maya_, boldly states that _kukul_ means "emplumado óadornado con plumas. " This rendering is absolutely without authority, either modern or ancient. The word for feathers in Maya is _kukum_; _kul_, in composition, means "very" or "much, " as "_kulvinic_, muy hombre, hombrede respeto ó hecho, " _Diccionario de Motul_, MS. _Ku_ is god, divinity. For _can_ see chapter iv, §1. _Can_ was and still is a common surname inYucatan. (Berendt, _Nombres Proprios en Lengua Maya_, MS. )

I should prefer to spell the name _Kukulkan_, and have it refer to thefirst day of the Maya week, _Kan_. ]

The reference probably was to the fame of this divinity as an oracle, asconnected with the calendar. But it is true that the name could with equalcorrectness be translated "The God, the Mighty Serpent, " for can is ahomonym with these and other meanings, and we are without positive proofwhich was intended. 

To bring Kukulcan into closer relations with other American hero-gods wemust turn to the locality where he was especially worshiped, to thetraditions of the ancient and opulent city of Chichen Itza, whose ruinsstill rank among the most imposing on the peninsula. The fragments of itschronicles, as preserved to us in the Books of Chilan Balam and by BishopLanda, tell us that its site was first settled by four bands who came fromthe four cardinal points and were ruled over by four brothers. Thesebrothers chose no wives, but lived chastely and ruled righteously, untilat a certain time one died or departed, and two began to act unjustly andwere put to death. The one remaining was Kukulcan. He appeased the strifewhich his brothers' acts had aroused, directed the minds of the people tothe arts of peace, and caused to be built various important structures. After he had completed his work in Chichen Itza, he founded and named thegreat city of Mayapan, destined to be the capital of the confederacy ofthe Mayas. In it was built a temple in his honor, and named for him, asthere was one in Chichen Itza. These were unlike others in Yucatan, havingcircular walls and four doors, directed, presumably, toward the fourcardinal points[1]. 

[Footnote 1: _El Libro de Chilan Balam de Chumayel_, MS. ; Landa, _Relacion_, pp. 34-38. And 299; Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. Iv, Lib. X, cap ii. ]

In gratifying confirmation of the legend, travelers do actually find inMayapan and Chichen Itza, and nowhere else in Yucatan, the ruins of twocircular temples with doors opening toward the cardinal points[1]. 

[Footnote 1: Stephens, _Incidents of Travel in Yucatan_, Vol. Ii, p. 298. ]

Under the beneficent rule of Kukulcan, the nation enjoyed its halcyon daysof peace and prosperity. The harvests were abundant and the people turnedcheerfully to their daily duties, to their families and their lords. Theyforgot the use of arms, even for the chase, and contented themselves withsnares and traps. 

At length the time drew near for Kukulcan to depart. He gathered thechiefs together and expounded to them his laws. From among them he choseas his successor a member of the ancient and wealthy family of the Cocoms. His arrangements completed, he is said, by some, to have journeyedwestward, to Mexico, or to some other spot toward the sun-setting. But bythe people at large he was confidently believed to have ascended into theheavens, and there, from his lofty house, he was supposed to watch overthe interests of his faithful adherents. 

Such was the tradition of their mythical hero told by the Itzas. No wonderthat the early missionaries, many of whom, like Landa, had lived in Mexicoand had become familiar with the story of Quetzalcoatl and his allegeddeparture toward the east, identified him with Kukulcan, and that, following the notion of this assumed identity, numerous later writers haveframed theories to account for the civilization of ancient Yucatan throughcolonies of "Toltec" immigrants. 

It can, indeed, be shown beyond doubt that there were various points ofcontact between the Aztec and Maya civilizations. The complex andartificial method of reckoning time was one of these; certainarchitectural devices were others; a small number of words, probably ahundred all told, have been borrowed by the one tongue from the other. Mexican merchants traded with Yucatan, and bands of Aztec warriors withtheir families, from Tabasco, dwelt in Mayapan by invitation of itsrulers, and after its destruction, settled in the province of Canul, onthe western coast, where they lived strictly separate from theMaya-speaking population at the time the Spaniards conquered thecountry. [1]

[Footnote 1: _El Libro de Chilan Balam de Chumayel_, MS. ; Landa, _Relacion_, p. 54. ]

But all this is very far from showing that at any time a race speaking theAztec tongue ruled the Peninsula. There are very strong grounds to denythis. The traditions which point to a migration from the west or southwestmay well have referred to the depopulation of Palenque, a city whichundoubtedly was a product of Maya architects. The language of Yucatan istoo absolutely dissimilar from the Nahuatl for it ever to have beenmoulded by leaders of that race. The details of Maya civilization aremarkedly its own, and show an evolution peculiar to the people and theirsurroundings. 

How far they borrowed from the fertile mythology of their Nahuatl visitorsis not easily answered. That the circular temple in Mayapan, with fourdoors, specified by Landa as different from any other in Yucatan, waserected to Quetzalcoatl, by or because of the Aztec colony there, mayplausibly be supposed when we recall how peculiarly this form was devotedto his worship. Again, one of the Maya chronicles--that translated by PioPerez and published by Stephens in his _Travels in Yucatan_--opens with adistinct reference to Tula and Nonoal, names inseparable from theQuetzalcoatl myth. A statue of a sleeping god holding a vase wasdisinterred by Dr. Le Plongeon at Chichen Itza, and it is too entirelysimilar to others found at Tlaxcala and near the city of Mexico, for us todoubt but that they represented the same divinity, and that the god ofrains, fertility and the harvests. [1]

[Footnote 1: I refer to the statue which Dr. LePlongeon was pleased toname "Chac Mool. " See the _Estudio acerca de la Estatua llamada Chac-Mooló rey tigre_, by Sr. Jesus Sanchez, in the _Anales del Museo Nacional deMexico_, Tom. I. P. 270. There was a divinity worshiped in Yucatan, calledCum-ahau, lord of the vase, whom the _Diccionario de Motul_, MS. Terms, "Lucifer, principal de los demónios. " The name is also given by Pio Perezin his manuscript dictionary in my possession, but is omitted in theprinted copy. As Lucifer, the morning star, was identified withQuetzalcoatl in Mexican mythology, and as the word _cum_, vase, Aztec_comitl_, is the same in both tongues, there is good ground to suppose thatthis lord of the vase, the "prince of devils, " was the god of fertility, common to both cults. ]

The version of the tradition which made Kukulcan arrive from the West, andat his disappearance return to the West--a version quoted by Landa, andwhich evidently originally referred to the westward course of the sun, easily led to an identification of him with the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, bythose acquainted with both myths. 

The probability seems to be that Kukulcan was an original Maya divinity, one of their hero-gods, whose myth had in it so many similarities to thatof Quetzalcoatl that the priests of the two nations came to regard the oneas the same as the other. After the destruction of Mayapan, about themiddle of the fifteenth century, when the Aztec mercenaries were banishedto Canul, and the reigning family (the Xiu) who supported them becamereduced in power, the worship of Kukulcan fell, to some extent, intodisfavor. Of this we are informed by Landa, in an interesting passage. 

He tells us that many of the natives believed that Kukulcan, after hisearthly labors, had ascended into Heaven and become one of their gods. Previous to the destruction of Mayapan temples were built to him, and hewas worshiped throughout the land, but after that event he was paid suchhonor only in the province of Mani (governed by the Xiu). Nevertheless, ingratitude for what all recognized they owed to him, the kings of theneighboring provinces sent yearly to Mani, on the occasion of his annualfestival, which took place on the 16th of the month Xul (November 8th), either four or five magnificent feather banners. These were placed in histemple, with appropriate ceremonies, such as fasting, the burning ofincense, dancing, and with simple offerings of food cooked without salt orpepper, and drink from beans and gourd seeds. This lasted five nights andfive days; and, adds Bishop Landa, they said, and held it for certain, that on the last day of the festival Kukulcan himself descended fromHeaven and personally received the sacrifices and offerings which weremade in his honor. The celebration itself was called the Festival of theFounder[1], with reference, I suppose, to the alleged founding of thecities of Mayapan and Chichen Itza by this hero-god. The five days andfive sacred banners again bring to mind the close relation of this withthe Quetzalcoatl symbolism. 

[Footnote 1: "Llamaban a esta fiesta _Chic Kaban_;" Landa, _Relacion_, p. 302. I take it this should read _Chiic u Kaba_ (_Chiic_; fundar ó poblaralguna cosa, casa, pueblo, etc. _Diccionario de Motul_, MS. )]

As Itzamná had disappeared without undergoing the pains of death, asKukulcan had risen into the heavens and thence returned annually, thoughbut for a moment, on the last day of the festival in his honor, so it wasdevoutly believed by the Mayas that the time would come when the worshipof other gods should be done away with, and these mighty deities alonedemand the adoration of their race. None of the American nations seems tohave been more given than they to prognostics and prophecies, and of noneother have we so large an amount of this kind of literature remaining. Some of it has been preserved by the Spanish missionaries, who used itwith good effect for their own purposes of proselyting; but that it wasnot manufactured by them for this purpose, as some late writers havethought, is proved by the existence of copies of these prophecies, made bynative writers themselves, at the time of the Conquest and at datesshortly subsequent. 

These prophecies were as obscure and ambiguous as all successful prophetsare accustomed to make their predictions; but the one point that is clearin them is, that they distinctly referred to the arrival of white andbearded strangers from the East, who should control the land and alter theprevailing religion. [1]

[Footnote 1: Nakuk Pech, _Concixta yetel mapa_, 1562. MS. ; _El Libro deChilan Balam de Mani_, 1595, MS. The former is a history of the Conquestwritten in Maya, by a native noble, who was an adult at the time thatMérida was founded (1542). ]

Even that portion of the Itzas who had separated from the rest of theirnation at the time of the destruction of Mayapan (about 1440-50) andwandered off to the far south, to establish a powerful nation around LakePeten, carried with them a forewarning that at the "eighth age" theyshould be subjected to a white race and have to embrace their religion;and, sure enough, when that time came, and not till then, that is, at theclose of the seventeenth century of our reckoning, they were driven fromtheir island homes by Governor Ursua, and their numerous temples, filledwith idols, leveled to the soil. [1]

[Footnote 1: Juan de Villagutierre Sotomayor, _Historia de la Provinciade el Itza_, passim (Madrid, 1701). ]

The ground of all such prophecies was, I have no doubt, the expectedreturn of the hero-gods, whose myths I have been recording. Both of themrepresented in their original forms the light of day, which disappears atnightfall but returns at dawn with unfailing certainty. When the naturalphenomenon had become lost in its personification, this expectation of areturn remained and led the priests, who more than others retained therecollection of the ancient forms of the myth, to embrace this expectationin the prognostics which it was their custom and duty to pronounce withreference to the future. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE QQUICHUA HERO-GOD VIRACOCHA. 

VIRACOCHA AS THE FIRST CAUSE--HIS NAME, ILLA TICCI--QQUICHUAPRAYERS--OTHER NAMES AND TITLES OF VIRACOCHA--HIS WORSHIP A TRUEMONOTHEISM--THE MYTH OF THE FOUR BROTHERS--MYTH OF THE TWIN BROTHERS. 

VIRACOCHA AS TUNAPA, HE WHO PERFECTS--VARIOUS INCIDENTS IN HISLIFE--RELATION TO MANCO CAPAC--HE DISAPPEARS IN THE WEST. 

VIRACOCHA RISES FROM LAKE TITICACA AND JOURNEYS TO THE WEST--DERIVATION OFHIS NAME--HE WAS REPRESENTED AS WHITE AND BEARDED--THE MYTH OF CON ANDPACHACAMAC--CONTICE VIRACOCHA--PROPHECIES OF THE PERUVIAN SEERS--THE WHITEMEN CALLED VIRACOCHAS--SIMILARITIES TO AZTEC MYTHS. 

The most majestic empire on this continent at the time of its discoverywas that of the Incas. It extended along the Pacific, from the parallel of2° north latitude to 20° south, and may be roughly said to have been 1500miles in length, with an average width of 400 miles. The official andprincipal tongue was the Qquichua, the two other languages of importancebeing the Yunca, spoken by the coast tribes, and the Aymara, around LakeTiticaca and south of it. The latter, in phonetics and in many root-words, betrays a relationship to the Qquichua, but a remote one. 

The Qquichuas were a race of considerable cultivation. They had adeveloped metrical system, and were especially fond of the drama. Severalspecimens of their poetical and dramatic compositions have been preserved, and indicate a correct taste. Although they did not possess a method ofwriting, they had various mnemonic aids, by which they were enabled torecall their verses and their historical traditions. 

In the mythology of the Qquichuas, and apparently also of the Aymaras, theleading figure is _Viracocha_. His august presence is in one cycle oflegends that of Infinite Creator, the Primal Cause; in another he is thebeneficent teacher and wise ruler; in other words, he too, likeQuetzalcoatl and the others whom I have told about, is at one time God, atothers the incarnation of God. 

As the first cause and ground of all things, Viracocha's distinctiveepithet was _Ticci_, the Cause, the Beginning, or _Illa ticci_, theAncient Cause[1], the First Beginning, an endeavor in words to express theabsolute priority of his essence and existence. He it was who had made andmoulded the Sun and endowed it with a portion of his own divinity, to wit, the glory of its far-shining rays; he had formed the Moon and given herlight, and set her in the heavens to rule over the waters and the winds, over the queens of the earth and the parturition of women; and it wasstill he, the great Viracocha, who had created the beautiful Chasca, theAurora, the Dawn, goddess of all unspotted maidens like herself, her whoin turn decked the fields and woods with flowers, whose time was thegloaming and the twilight, whose messengers were the fleecy clouds whichsail through the sky, and who, when she shakes her clustering hair, dropsnoiselessly pearls of dew on the green grass fields. [2]

[Footnote 1: "_Ticci_, origen, principio, fundamento, cimiento, causa. _Ylla_; todo lo que es antiguo. " Holguin, _Vocabulario de la LenguaQquichua ó del Inga_ (Ciudad de los Reyes, 1608). _Ticci_ is not to beconfounded with _aticsi_, he conquers, from _atini_, I conquer, a termalso occasionally applied to Viracocha. ]

[Footnote 2: _Relacion Anónyma, de los Costumbres Antiguos de losNaturales del Piru_, p. 138. 1615. (Published, Madrid, 1879). ]

Invisible and incorporeal himself, so, also, were his messengers (thelight-rays), called _huaminca_, the faithful soldiers, and _hayhuaypanti_, the shining ones, who conveyed his decrees to every part. [1] He himselfwas omnipresent, imparting motion and life, form and existence, to allthat is. Therefore it was, says an old writer, with more than usualinsight into man's moral nature, with more than usual charity for apersecuted race, that when these natives worshiped some swift river orpellucid spring, some mountain or grove, "it was not that they believedthat some particular divinity was there, or that it was a living thing, but because they believed that the great God, Illa Ticci, had created andplaced it there and impressed upon it some mark of distinction, beyondother objects of its class, that it might thus be designated as anappropriate spot whereat to worship the maker of all things; and this ismanifest from the prayers they uttered when engaged in adoration, becausethey are not addressed to that mountain, or river, or cave, but to thegreat Illa Ticci Viracocha, who, they believed, lived in the heavens, andyet was invisibly present in that sacred object. "[2]

[Footnote 1: Ibid. , p. 140. ]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. , p. 147. ]

In the prayers for the dead, Illa Ticci was appealed to, to protect thebody, that it should not see corruption nor become lost in the earth, andthat he should not allow the soul to wander aimlessly in the infinitespaces, but that it should be conducted to some secure haven ofcontentment, where it might receive the sacrifices and offerings whichloving hands laid upon the tomb. [1] Were other gods also called upon, itwas that they might intercede with the Supreme Divinity in favor of thesepetitions of mortals. 

[Footnote 1: Ibid. , p. 154. ]

To him, likewise, the chief priest at certain times offered a child of sixyears, with a prayer for the prosperity of the Inca, in such terms asthese:--

"Oh, Lord, we offer thee this child, in order that thou wilt maintain usin comfort, and give us victory in war, and keep to our Lord, the Inca, his greatness and his state, and grant him wisdom that he may govern usrighteously. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. V, Lib. Iv, cap. I. ]

Or such a prayer as this was offered up by the assembled multitude:--

"Oh, Viracocha ever present, Viracocha Cause of All, Viracocha the Helper, the Ceaseless Worker, Viracocha who gives the beginnings, Viracocha whoencourages, Viracocha the always fortunate, Viracocha ever near, listen tothis our prayer, send health, send prosperity to us thy people. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Christoval de Molina, _The Fables and Rites of the Incas_, p. 29. Molina gives the original Qquichua, the translation of which isobviously incomplete, and I have extended it. ]

Thus Viracocha was placed above and beyond all other gods, the essentialFirst Cause, infinite, incorporeal, invisible, above the sun, older thanthe beginning, but omnipresent, accessible, beneficent. 

Does this seem too abstract, too elevated a notion of God for a race whomwe are accustomed to deem gross and barbaric? I cannot help it. Thetestimony of the earliest observers, and the living proof of language, aretoo strong to allow of doubt. The adjectives which were applied to thisdivinity by the native priests are still on record, and that they were nota loan from Christian theology is conclusively shown by the fact that thevery writers who preserved them often did not know their meaning, andtranslated them incorrectly. 

Thus even Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of the blood of the Incas, tellsus that neither he nor the natives of that day could translate _Ticci_. [1]Thus, also, Garcia and Acosta inform us that Viracocha was surnamed_Usapu_, which they translate "admirable, "[2] but really it means "he whoaccomplishes all that he undertakes, he who is successful in all things;"Molina has preserved the term _Ymamana_, which means "he who controls orowns all things;"[3] the title _Pachayachachi_, which the Spanish writersrender "Creator, " really means the "Teacher of the World;" that of_Caylla_ signifies "the Ever-present one;" _Taripaca_, which has beenguessed to be the same as _tarapaca_, an eagle, is really a derivative of_taripani_, to sit in judgment, and was applied to Viracocha as the finalarbiter of the actions and destinies of man. Another of his frequentappellations for which no explanation has been offered, was _Tokay_ or_Tocapo_, properly _Tukupay_. [4] It means "he who finishes, " who completesand perfects, and is antithetical to _Ticci_, he who begins. These twoterms express the eternity of divinity; they convey the same idea ofmastery over time and the things of time, as do those words heard by theEvangelist in his vision in the isle called Patmos, "I am Alpha and Omega;I am the Beginning and the End. "

[Footnote 1: "Dan (los Indios), otro nombre á Dios, que es Tici Viracocha, que yo no se que signifique, ni ellos tampoco. " Garcilasso de la Vega, _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. Ii, cap. Ii. ]

[Footnote 2: Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, Lib. Iii, cap. Vi; Acosta, _Historia, Natural y Moral de las Indias_, fol. 199 (Barcelona 1591). ]

[Footnote 3: Christoval de Molina, _The Fables and Rites of the Incas_, Eng. Trans. , p. 6. ]

[Footnote 4: Melchior Hernandez, one of the earliest writers, whose worksare now lost, but who is quoted in the _Relacion Anónima_, gives this name_Tocapu_; Christoval de Molina (ubi sup. ) spells it _Tocapo_; La Vega_Tocay_; Molina gives its signification, "the maker. " It is from the word_tukupay_ or _tucuychani_, to finish, complete, perfect. ]

Yet another epithet of Viracocha was _Zapala_. [1] It conveys strongly andpositively the monotheistic idea. It means "The One, " or, more strongly, "The Only One. "

[Footnote 1: Gomara, _Historia de las Indias_, p. 232 (ed. Paris, 1852). ]

Nor must it be supposed that this monotheism was unconscious; that it was, for example, a form of "henotheism, " where the devotion of the adorerfilled his soul, merely to the forgetfulness of other deities; or that itwas simply the logical law of unity asserting itself, as was the case withmany of the apparently monotheistic utterances of the Greek and Romanwriters. 

No; the evidence is such that we are obliged to acknowledge that thereligion of Peru was a consciously monotheistic cult, every whit as muchso as the Greek or Roman Catholic Churches of Christendom. 

Those writers who have called the Inca religion a "sun worship" have beenled astray by superficial resemblances. One of the best early authorities, Christoval de Molina, repeats with emphasis the statement, "They did notrecognize the Sun as their Creator, but as created by the Creator, " andthis creator was "not born of woman, but was unchangeable and eternal. "[1]For conclusive testimony on this point, however, we may turn to an_Informacion_ or Inquiry as to the ancient belief, instituted in 1571, byorder of the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo. The oldest Indians, especially those of noble birth, including many descendants of the Incas, were assembled at different times and in different parts of the country, and carefully questioned, through the official interpreter, as to justwhat the old religion was. The questions were not leading ones, and thereplies have great uniformity. They all agreed that Viracocha wasworshiped as creator, and as the ever-present active divinity; he aloneanswered prayers, and aided in time of need; he was the sole efficientgod. All prayers to the Sun or to the deceased Incas, or to idols, weredirected to them as intercessors only. On this point the statements weremost positive[2]. The Sun was but one of Viracocha's creations, not itselfthe Creator. 

[Footnote 1: Christoval de Molina, _The Fables and Rites of the Incas_, pp. 8, 17. Eng. Trans. ]

[Footnote 2: "Ellos solo Viracocha tenian por hacedor de todas las cosas, y que el solo los podia socorrer, y que de todos los demas los tenian porsus intercesores, y que ansi los decian ellos en sus oraciones antiguas, antes que fuesen cristianos, y que ansi lo dicen y declaran por cosa muycierta y verdadera. " _Information de las Idolatras de los Incas é Indios_, in the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias_, vol. Xxi, p. 198. Other witnesses said: "Los dichos Ingas y sus antepasados tenianpor criador al solo Viracocha, y que solo los podia socorrer, " id. P. 184. "Adoraban á Viracocha por hacedor de todas las cosas, como á el sol y aHachaccuna los adoraban porque los tenia por hijos de Viracocha y por cosamuy allegada suya, " p. 133. ]

It is singular that historians have continued to repeat that the Qquichuasadored the Sun as their principal divinity, in the face of such evidenceto the contrary. If this Inquiry and its important statements had not beenaccessible to them, at any rate they could readily have learned the samelesson from the well known History of Father Joseph de Acosta. That authorsays, and repeats with great positiveness, that the Sun was in Peru asecondary divinity, and that the supreme deity, the Creator and ruler ofthe world, was Viracocha. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Sientan y confiessan un supremo señor, y hazedor de todo, alqual los del Piru llamavan Viracocha. * * Despues del Viracocha, o supremoDios, fui, y es en los infieles, el que mas comunmente veneran y adoran elsol. " Acosta, _De la Historia Moral de las Indias_, Lib, v. Cap. Iii, iv, (Barcelona, 1591). ]

Another misapprehension is that these natives worshiped directly theirancestors. Thus, Mr. Markham writes: "The Incas worshiped their ancestors, the _Pacarina_, or forefather of the _Ayllu_, or lineage, being idolizedas the soul or essence of his descendants. "[1] But in the _Inquiry_ abovequoted it is explained that the belief, in fact, was that the soul of theInca went at death to the presence of the deity Viracocha, and its emblem, the actual body, carefully preserved, was paid divine honors in order thatthe soul might intercede with Viracocha for the fulfillment of theprayers. [2]

[Footnote 1: Clements R. Markham, _Journal of the Royal GeographicalSociety_, 1871, p. 291. _Pacarina_ is the present participle of_pacarini_, to dawn, to begin, to be born. ]

[Footnote 2: _Informacion_, etc. , p. 209. ]

We are compelled, therefore, by the best evidence now attainable, to adoptthe conclusion that the Inca religion, in its purity, deserved the name ofmonotheism. The statements of the natives and the terms of their religiouslanguage unite in confirming this opinion. 

It is not right to depreciate the force of these facts simply because wehave made up our minds that a people in the intellectual stage of thePeruvians could not have mounted to such a pure air of religion. Aprejudgment of this kind is unworthy of a scientific mind. The evidence iscomplete that the terms I have quoted did belong to the religious languageof ancient Peru. They express the conception of divinity which thethinkers of that people had formed. And whether it is thought to be inkeeping or not with the rest of their development, it is our bounden dutyto accept it, and explain it as best we can. Other instances might bequoted, from the religious history of the old world, where a nation'sinsight into the attributes of deity was singularly in advance of theirgeneral state of cultivation. The best thinkers of the Semitic race, forexample, from Moses to Spinoza, have been in this respect far ahead oftheir often more generally enlightened Aryan contemporaries. 

The more interesting, in view of this lofty ideal of divinity they hadattained, become the Peruvian myths of the incarnation of Viracocha, hislife and doings as a man among men. 

These myths present themselves in different, but to the reader who hasaccompanied me thus far, now familiar forms. Once more we meet the storyof the four brothers, the first of men. They appeared on the earth afterit had been rescued from the primeval waters, and the face of the land wasdivided between them. Manco Capac took the North, Colla the South, Pinahuathe West, and the East, the region whence come the sun and the light, wasgiven to Tokay or Tocapa, to Viracocha, under his name of the Finisher, hewho completes and perfects. [1]

[Footnote 1: Garcilasso de la Vega, _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. I, cap. Xviii. ]

The outlines of this legend are identical with another, where Viracochaappears under the name of Ayar Cachi. This was, in its broad outlines, themost general myth, that which has been handed down by the most numerousauthorities, and which they tell us was taken directly from the ancientsongs of the Indians, as repeated by those who could recall the days ofthe Incas Huascar and Atahualpa. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Parece por los cantares de los Indios; * * * afirmaron losOrejones que quedaron de los tiempos de Guascar i de Atahualpa; * * *cuentan los Indios del Cuzco mas viejos, etc. , " repeats the historianHerrera, _Historia de las Indias Occidentals_, Dec. V, Lib. Iii, cap. Vii, viii. ]

It ran in this wise: In the beginning of things there appeared on theearth four brothers, whose names were, of the oldest, Ayar Cachi, whichmeans he who gives Being, or who Causes;[1] of the youngest, Ayar Manco, and of the others, Ayar Aucca (the enemy), and Ayar Uchu. Their father wasthe Sun, and the place of their birth, or rather of their appearance onearth, was Paccari-tampu, which means _The House of the Morning_ or the_Mansion of the Dawn_. [2] In after days a certain cave near Cuzco was socalled, and pointed out as the scene of this momentous event, but we maywell believe that a nobler site than any the earth affords could becorrectly designated. 

[Footnote 1: "_Cachini_; dar el ser y hazer que sea; _cachi chiuachic_, elautor y causa de algo. " Holguin, _Vocabvlario de la Lengva Qquichua, subvoce, cachipuni_. The names differ little in Herrera (who, however, omitsUchu), Montesinos, Balboa, Oliva, La Vega and Pachacuti; I have followedthe orthography of the two latter, as both were native Qquichuas. ]

[Footnote 2: Holguin (_ubi suprá_, ) gives _paccarin_, the morning, _paccarini_, to dawn; _tampu_, _venta ó meson_. ]

These brothers were clothed in long and flowing robes, with short uppergarments without sleeves or collar, and this raiment was worked withmarvelous skill, and glittered and shone like light. They were powerfuland proud, and determined to rule the whole earth, and for this purposedivided it into four parts, the North, the South, the East, and the West. Hence they were called by the people, _Tahuantin Suyu Kapac_, Lords of allfour Quarters of the Earth. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Tahuantin_, all four, from _tahua_, four; _suyu_, division, section; _kapac_, king. ]

The most powerful of these was Ayar Cachi. He possessed a sling of gold, and in it a stone with which he could demolish lofty mountains and hurlaloft to the clouds themselves. He gathered together the natives of thecountry at Pacari tampu, and accumulated at the House of the Dawn a greattreasure of yellow gold. Like the glittering hoard which we read of in thelay of the Nibelung, the treasure brought with it the destruction of itsowner, for his brothers, envious of the wondrous pile, persuaded AyarCachi to enter the cave where he kept his hoard, in order to bring out acertain vase, and also to pray to their father, the Sun, to aid them torule their domains. As soon as he had entered, they stopped the mouth ofthe cave with huge stones; and thus rid of him, they set about collectingthe people and making a settlement at a certain place called _Tampu quiru_(the Teeth of the House). 

But they did not know the magical power of their brother. While they werebusy with their plans, what was their dismay to see Ayar Cachi, freed fromthe cave, and with great wings of brilliantly colored feathers, hoveringlike a bird in the air over their heads. They expected swift retributionfor their intended fratricide, but instead of this they heard reassuringwords from his lips. 

"Have no fear, " he said, "I left you in order that the great empire of theIncas might be known to men. Leave, therefore, this settlement of Tampuquiru, and descend into the Valley of Cuzco, where you shall found afamous city, and in it build a sumptuous temple to the Sun. As for me, Ishall remain in the form in which you see me, and shall dwell in themountain peak Guanacaure, ready to help you, and on that mountain you mustbuild me an altar and make to me sacrifices. And the sign that you shallwear, whereby you shall be feared and respected of your subjects, is thatyou shall have your ears pierced, as are mine, " saying which he showedthem his ears pierced and carrying large, round plates of gold. 

They promised him obedience in all things, and forthwith built an altar onthe mountain Guanacaure, which ever after was esteemed a most holy place. Here again Ayar Cachi appeared to them, and bestowed on Ayar Manco thescarlet fillet which became the perpetual insignia of the reigning Inca. The remaining brothers were turned into stone, and Manco, assuming thetitle of _Kapac_, King, and the metaphorical surname of _Pirhua_, theGranary or Treasure house, founded the City of Cuzco, married his foursisters, and became the first of the dynasty of the Incas. He lived to agreat age, and during the whole of his life never omitted to pay divinehonors to his brothers, and especially to Ayar Cachi. 

In another myth of the incarnation the infinite Creator Ticci Viracochaduplicates himself in the twin incarnation of _Ymamana Viracocha_ and_Tocapu Viracocha_, names which we have already seen mean "he who has allthings, " and "he who perfects all things. " The legend was that thesebrothers started in the distant East and journeyed toward the West. Theone went by way of the mountains, the other by the paths of the lowlands, and each on his journey, like Itzamna in Yucatecan story, gave names tothe places he passed, and also to all trees and herbs of the field, and toall fruits, and taught the people which were good for food, which ofvirtue as medicines, and which were poisonous and to be shunned. Thus theyjourneyed westward, imparting knowledge and doing good works, until theyreached the western ocean, the great Pacific, whose waves seem to stretchwestward into infinity. There, "having accomplished all they had to do inthis world, they ascended into Heaven, " once more to form part of theInfinite Being; for the venerable authority whom I am following is carefulto add, most explicitly, that "these Indians believed for a certainty thatneither the Creator nor his sons were born of woman, but that they allwere unchangeable and eternal. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Christoval de Molina, _Fables and Rites of the Incas_, p. 6. ]

Still more human does Viracocha become in the myth where he appears underthe surnames _Tunapa_ and _Taripaca_. The latter I have already explainedto mean He who Judges, and the former is a synonym of Tocapu, as it isfrom the verb _ttaniy_ or _ttanini_, and means He who Finishes completesor perfects, although, like several other of his names, the significanceof this one has up to the present remained unexplained and lost. The mythhas been preserved to us by a native Indian writer, Joan de Santa CruzPachacuti, who wrote it out somewhere about the year 1600. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Relacion de Antiguedades deste Reyno del Piru_, por Don Joande Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui, passim. Pachacuti relates the story ofTunapa as being distinctly the hero-myth of the Qquichuas. He was also thehero-god of the Aymaras, and about him, says Father Ludovico Bertonio, "they to this day relate many fables and follies. " _Vocabulario de laLengua Aymara_, s. V. Another name he bore in Aymara was _Ecaco_, which inthat language means, as a common noun, an ingenious, shifty man of manyplans (_Bertonio, Vocabulario_, s. V. ). "Thunnupa, " as Bertonio spells it, does not lend itself to any obvious etymology in Aymara, which is furtherevidence that the name was introduced from the Qquichua. This is by nomeans a singular example of the identity of religious thought and termsbetween these nations. In comparing the two tongues, M. Alcide D'Orbignylong since observed: "On retrouve même à peu prés un vingtième des motsqui ont evidemment la même origine, surtout ceux qui expriment les idéesreligieuses. " _L'Homme Américain, considéré sous ses RapportsPhysiologiques et Moraux_, Tome i, p. 322 (Paris, 1839). This authorendeavors to prove that the Qquichua religion was mainly borrowed from theAymaras, and of the two he regards the latter as the senior incivilization. But so far as I have been able to study the mythology of theAymaras, which is but very superficially, on account of the lack ofsources, it does not seem to be entitled to this credit. ]

He tells us that at a very remote period, shortly after the country ofPeru had been populated, there came from Lake Titicaca to the tribes anelderly man with flowing beard and abundant white hair, supporting himselfon a staff and dressed in wide-spreading robes. He went among the people, calling them his sons and daughters, relieving their infirmities andteaching them the precepts of wisdom. 

Often, however, he met the fate of so many other wise teachers, and wasrejected and scornfully entreated by those whom he was striving toinstruct. Swift retribution sometimes fell upon such stiff-neckedlisteners. Thus he once entered the town of Yamquesupa, the principalplace in the province of the South, and began teaching the inhabitants;but they heeded him not, and seized him, and with insult and blows drovehim from the town, so that he had to sleep in the open fields. Thereuponhe cursed their town, and straightway it sank into the earth with all itsinhabitants, and the depression was filled with water, and all weredrowned. To this day it is known as the lake of Yamquesupa, and all thepeople about there well know that what is now a sheet of water was oncethe site of a flourishing city. 

At another time he visited Tiahuanaco, where may yet be seen the colossalruins of some ancient city, and massive figures in stone of men and women. In his time this was a populous mart, its people rich and proud, given torevelry, to drunkenness and dances. Little they cared for the words of thepreacher, and they treated him with disdain. Then he turned upon them hisanger, and in an instant the dancers were changed into stone, just as theystood, and there they remain to this day, as any one can see, perpetualwarnings not to scorn the words of the wise. 

On another occasion he was seized by the people who dwelt by the greatlake of Carapaco, and tied hands and feet with stout cords, it being theirintention to put him to a cruel death the next day. But very early in themorning, just at the time of the dawn, a beautiful youth entered and said, "Fear not, I have come to call you in the name of the lady who is awaitingyou, that you may go with her to the place of joys. " With that he touchedthe fetters on Tunapa's limbs, and the ropes snapped asunder, and theywent forth untouched by the guards, who stood around. They descended tothe lake shore, and just as the dawn appeared, Tunapa spread his mantle onthe waves, and he and his companion stepping upon it, as upon a raft, werewafted rapidly away into the rays of the morning light. 

The cautious Pachacuti does not let us into the secret of this mysteriousassignation, either because he did not know or because he would notdisclose the mysteries of his ancestral faith. But I am not so discreet, and I vehemently suspect that the lady who was awaiting the virtuousTunapa, was Chasca, the Dawn Maiden, she of the beautiful hair whichdistills the dew, and that the place of joys whither she invited him wasthe Mansion of the Sky, into which, daily, the Light-God, at the hour ofthe morning twilight, is ushered by the chaste maiden Aurora. 

As the anger of Tunapa was dreadful, so his favors were more than regal. At the close of a day he once reached the town of the chief Apotampo, otherwise Pacari tampu, which means the House or Lodgings of the Dawn, where the festivities of a wedding were in progress. The guests, intentupon the pleasures of the hour, listened with small patience to the wordsof the old man, but the chief himself heard them with profound attentionand delight. Therefore, as Tunapa was leaving he presented to the chief, as a reward for his hospitality and respect, the staff which had assistedhis feeble limbs in many a journey. It was of no great seemliness, butupon it were inscribed characters of magic power, and the chief wiselycherished it among his treasures. It was well he did, for on the day ofthe birth of his next child the staff turned into fine gold, and thatchild was none other than the far-famed Manco Capac, destined to becomethe ancestor of the illustrious line of the Incas, Sons of the Sun, andfamous in all countries that it shines upon; and as for the golden staff, it became, through all after time until the Spanish conquest, the sceptreof the Incas and the sign of their sovereignty, the famous and sacred_tupa yauri_, the royal wand. [1]

[Footnote 1: "_Tupa yauri_; El cetro real, vara insignia real del Inca. "Holguin, _Vocabvlario de la Lengva Qquichua o del Inca_, s. V. ]

It became, indeed, to Manco Capac a mentor and guide. His father andmother having died, he started out with his brothers and sisters, sevenbrothers and seven sisters of them, to seek new lands, taking this staffin his hand. Like the seven brothers who, in Mexican legend, left Aztlan, the White Land, to found nations and cities, so the brothers of MancoCapac, leaving Pacari tampu, the Lodgings of the Dawn, became the_sinchi_, or heads of various noble houses and chiefs of tribes in theempire of the Incas. As for Manco, it is well known that with his goldenwand he journeyed on, overcoming demons and destroying his enemies, untilhe reached the mountain over against the spot where the city of Cuzco nowstands. Here the sacred wand sunk of its own motion into the earth, andManco Capac, recognizing the divine monition, named the mountain_Huanacauri_, the Place of Repose. In the valley at the base he foundedthe great city which he called _Cuzco_, the Navel. Its inhabitants everafterwards classed Huanacauri as one of their principal deities. [1]

[Footnote 1: Don Gavino Pacheco Zegarra derives Huanacauri from _huanaya_, to rest oneself, and _cayri_, here; "c'est ici qu'il faut se reposer. "_Ollantai_, Introd. , p. Xxv. It was distinctly the _huzca_, or sacredfetish of the Incas, and they were figuratively said to have descendedfrom it. Its worship was very prominent in ancient Peru. See the_Information de las Idolatras de los Incas y Indios_, 1671, previouslyquoted. ]

When Manco Capac's work was done, he did not die, like other mortals, butrose to heaven, and became the planet Jupiter, under the name _Pirua_. From this, according to some writers, the country of Peru derived itsname. [2]

[Footnote 2: The identification of Manco Capac with the planet Jupiter ismentioned in the _Relacion Anonima_, on the authority of MelchiorHernandez. ]

It may fairly be supposed that this founder of the Inca dynasty was anactual historical personage. But it is evident that much that is toldabout him is imagery drawn from the legend of the Light-God. 

And what became of Tunapa? We left him sailing on his outspread mantle, into the light of the morning, over Lake Carapace. But the legend does notstop there. Whereever he went that day, he returned to his toil, andpursued his way down the river Chacamarca till he reached the sea. Therehis fate becomes obscure; but, adds Pachacuti, "I understand that hepassed by the strait (of Panama) into the other sea (back toward theEast). This is what is averred by the most ancient sages of the Inca line, (_por aquellos ingas antiquissimos_). " We may well believe he did; forthe light of day, which is quenched in the western ocean, passes backagain, by the straits or in some other way, and appears again the nextmorning, not in the West, where we watched its dying rays, but in theEast, where again it is born to pursue its daily and ever recurringjourney. 

According to another, and also very early account, Viracocha was precededby a host of attendants, who were his messengers and soldiers. When hereached the sea, he and these his followers marched out upon the waves asif it had been dry land, and disappeared in the West. [1]

[Footnote 1: Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, Lib. V, Cap. Vii. ]

These followers were, like himself, white and bearded. Just as, in Mexico, the natives attributed the erection of buildings, the history of which hadbeen lost, to the white Toltecs, the subjects of Quetzalcoatl (see above, chapter iii, §2), so in Peru various ancient ruins, whose builders had beenlost to memory, were pointed out to the Spaniards as the work of a white andbearded race who held the country in possession long before the Incas hadfounded their dynasty. [1] The explanation in both cases is the same. Inboth the early works of art of unknown origin were supposed to be theproductions of the personified light rays, which are the source of skill, because they supply the means indispensable to the acquisition ofknowledge. 

[Footnote 2: Speaking of certain "grandes y muy antiquissimos edificios"on the river Vinaque, Cieza de Leon says: "Preguntando a los Indioscomarcanos quien hizo aquella antigualla, responden que otras gentesbarbadas y blancas como nosotros: los cuales, muchos tiempos antes que losIngas reinasen, dicen que vinieron a estas partes y hicieron alli sumorada. " _La Crónica del Peru_, cap. Lxxxvi. ]

The versions of these myths which have been preserved to us by Juan deBetanzos, and the documents on which the historian Herrera founded hisnarrative, are in the main identical with that which I have quoted fromthe narrative of Pachacuti. I shall, however, give that of Herrera, as ithas some interesting features. 

He tells us that the traditions and songs which the Indians had receivedfrom their remote ancestors related that in very early times there was aperiod when there was no sun, and men lived in darkness. At length, inanswer to their urgent prayers, the sun emerged from Lake Titicaca, andsoon afterwards there came a man from the south, of fair complexion, largein stature, and of venerable presence, whose power was boundless. Heremoved mountains, filled up valleys, caused fountains to burst from thesolid rocks, and gave life to men and animals. Hence the people called himthe "Beginning of all Created Things, " and "Father of the Sun. " Many goodworks he performed, bringing order among the people, giving them wisecounsel, working miracles and teaching. He went on his journey toward thenorth, but until the latest times they bore his deeds and person inmemory, under the names of Tici Viracocha and Tuapaca, and elsewhere asArnava. They erected many temples to him, in which they placed his figureand image as described. 

They also said that after a certain length of time there re-appearedanother like this first one, or else he was the same, who also gave wisecounsel and cured the sick. He met disfavor, and at one spot the peopleset about to slay him, but he called down upon them fire from heaven, which burned their village and scorched the mountains into cinders. Thenthey threw away their weapons and begged of him to deliver them from thedanger, which he did[1]. He passed on toward the West until he reached theshore of the sea. There he spread out his mantle, and seating himself uponit, sailed away and was never seen again. For this reason, adds thechronicler, "the name was given to him, _Viracocha_, which means Foam ofthe Sea, though afterwards it changed in signification. "[2]

[Footnote 1: This incident is also related by Pachacuti and Betanzos. Allthree locate the scene of the event at Carcha, eighteen leagues fromCuzco, where the Canas tribe lived at the Conquest. Pachacuti states thatthe cause of the anger of Viracocha was that upon the Sierra there was thestatue of a woman to whom human victims were sacrificed. If this was thetradition, it would offer another point of identity with that ofQuetzalcoatl, who was also said to have forbidden human sacrifices. ]

[Footnote 2: Herrera, _Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. V, Lib. Iii, cap. Vi. ]

This leads me to the etymology of the name. It is confessedly obscure. Thetranslation which Herrera gives, is that generally offered by the Spanishwriters, but it is not literal. The word _uira_ means fat, and _cocha_, lake, sea, or other large body of water; therefore, as the genitive mustbe prefixed in the Qquichua tongue, the translation must be "Lake or Seaof Fat. " This was shown by Garcilasso de la Vega, in his _RoyalCommentaries_, and as he could see no sense or propriety in applying sucha term as "Lake of Grease" to the Supreme Divinity, he rejected thisderivation, and contented himself by saying that the meaning of the namewas totally unknown. [1] In this Mr. Clements R. Markham, who is anauthority on Peruvian matters, coincides, though acknowledging that noother meaning suggests itself. [2] I shall not say anything about thederivations of this name from the Sanskrit, [3] or the ancient Egyptian;[4]these are etymological amusements with which serious studies have nothingto do. 

[Footnote 1: "Donde consta claro no ser nombre compuesto, sino proprio deaquella fantasma que dijó llamarse Viracocha y que era hijo del Sol. "_Com, Reales_, Lib. V, cap. Xxi. ]

[Footnote 2: Introduction to _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of theIncas_, p. Xi. ]

[Footnote 3: "Le nom de Viracocha dont la physionomie sanskrite est sifrappante, " etc. Desjardins, _Le Perou avant la Conquête Espagnole_, p. 180 (Paris 1858). ]

[Footnote 4: Viracocha "is the Il or Ra of the Babylonian monuments, andthus the Ra of Egypt, " etc. Professor John Campbell, _Compte-Rendu duCongrés International des Américanistes_, Vol. I, p. 362 (1875). ]

The first and accepted derivation has been ably and to my mindsuccessfully defended by probably the most accomplished Qquichua scholarof our age, Señor Gavino Pacheco Zegarra, who, in the introduction to hismost excellent edition of the Drama of _Ollantaï_, maintains thatViracocha, literally "Lake of Fat, " was a simile applied to the frothing, foaming sea, and adds that as a personal name in this signification it isin entire conformity with the genius of the Qquichua tongue[1]. 

[Footnote 1: _Ollantai, Drame en vers Quechuas_, Introd. , p. Xxxvi (Paris, 1878). There was a class of diviners in Peru who foretold the future byinspecting the fat of animals; they were called Vira-piricuc. Molina, _Fables and Rites_, p. 13. ]

To quote his words:--"The tradition was that Viracocha's face wasextremely white and bearded. From this his name was derived, which means, taken literally, 'Lake of Fat;' by extension, however, the word means'Sea-Foam, ' as in the Qquichua language the foam is called _fat_, no doubton account of its whiteness. "

It had a double appropriateness in its application to the hero-god. Notonly was he supposed in the one myth to have risen from the waves of LakeTiticaca, and in another to have appeared when the primeval ocean left theland dry, but he was universally described as of fair complexion, _a whiteman_. Strange, indeed, it is that these people who had never seen a memberof the white race, should so persistently have represented their highestgods as of this hue, and what is more, with the flowing beard and abundantlight hair which is their characteristic. 

There is no denying, however, that such is the fact. Did it depend onlegend alone we might, however strong the consensus of testimony, harborsome doubt about it. But it does not. The monuments themselves attest it. There is, indeed, a singular uniformity of statement in the myths. Viracocha, under any and all his surnames, is always described as whiteand bearded, dressed in flowing robes and of imposing mien. His robes werealso white, and thus he was figured at the entrance of one of his mostcelebrated temples, that of Urcos. His image at that place was of a manwith a white robe falling to his waist, and thence to his feet; by him, cut in stone, were his birds, the eagle and the falcon. [1] So, also, on acertain occasion when he was said to have appeared in a dream to one ofthe Incas who afterwards adopted his name, he was said to have come withbeard more than a span in length, and clothed in a large and loose mantle, which fell to his feet, while with his hand he held, by a cord to itsneck, some unknown animal. And thus in after times he was represented inpainting and statue, by order of that Inca. [2]

[Footnote 1: Christoval de Molina, _ubi supra_, p. 29. ]

[Footnote 2: Garcilasso de la Vega, _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. Iv, cap. Xxi. ]

An early writer tells us that the great temple of Cuzco, which wasafterwards chosen for the Cathedral, was originally that of Illa TicciViracocha. It contained only one altar, and upon it a marble statue of thegod. This is described as being, "both as to the hair, complexion, features, raiment and sandals, just as painters represent the Apostle, Saint Bartholomew. "[1]

[Footnote 1: _Relacion anonima_, p. 148. ]

Misled by the statements of the historian Garcilasso de la Vega, somelater writers, among whom I may note the eminent German traveler VonTschudi, have supposed that Viracocha belonged to the historical deitiesof Peru, and that his worship was of comparatively recent origin. [1] LaVega, who could not understand the name of the divinity, and, moreover, either knew little about the ancient religion, or else concealed hisknowledge (as is shown by his reiterated statement that human sacrificeswere unknown), pretended that Viracocha first came to be honored through adream of the Inca who assumed his name. But the narrative of theoccurrence that he himself gives shows that even at that time the myth waswell known and of great antiquity. [2]

[Footnote 1: "La principal de estas Deidades historicas era _Viracocha_. * * * Dos siglos contaba el culto de Viracocha á la llegada de losEspañoles. " J. Diego de Tschudi, _Antiguedades Peruanas_, pp. 159, 160(Vienna, 1851). ]

[Footnote 2: Compare the account in Garcilasso de la Vega, _ComentariosReales_, Lib. Ii, cap. Iv; Lib. Iv, cap. Xxi, xxiii, with that in Acosta, _Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias_, Lib. Vi, cap. Xxi. ]

The statements which he makes on the authority of Father Blas Valera, thatthe Inca Tupac Yupanqui sought to purify the religion of his day byleading it toward the contemplation of an incorporeal God, [3] is probably, in the main, correct. It is supported by a similar account given byAcosta, of the famous Huayna Capac. Indeed, they read so much alike thatthey are probably repetitions of teachings familiar to the nobles andhigher priests. Both Incas maintained that the Sun could not be the chiefgod, because he ran daily his accustomed course, like a slave, or ananimal that is led. He must therefore be the subject of a mightier powerthan himself. 

[Footnote 3: _Comentarios Reales_, Pt. I, Lib. Viii, cap. Viii. ]

We may reasonably suppose that these expressions are proof of a growingsense of the attributes of divinity. They are indications of the evolutionof religious thought, and go to show that the monotheistic ideas which Ihave pointed out in the titles and names of the highest God, were clearlyrecognized and publicly announced. 

Viracocha was also worshiped under the title _Con-ticci-Viracocha_. Various explanations of the name _Con_ have been offered. It is notpositively certain that it belongs to the Qquichua tongue. A mythpreserved by Gomara treats Con as a distinct deity. He is said to havecome from the north, to have been without bones, muscles or members, tohave the power of running with infinite swiftness, and to have leveledmountains, filled up valleys, and deprived the coast plains of rain. Atthe same time he is called a son of the Sun and the Moon, and it was owingto his good will and creative power that men and women were formed, andmaize and fruits given them upon which to subsist. 

Another more powerful god, however, by name Pachacamac, also a son of theSun and Moon, and hence brother to Con, rose up against him and drove himfrom the land. The men and women whom Con had formed were changed byPachacamac into brutes, and others created who were the ancestors of thepresent race. These he supplied with what was necessary for their support, and taught them the arts of war and peace. For these reasons theyvenerated him as a god, and constructed for his worship a sumptuoustemple, a league and a half from the present city of Lima. [1]

[Footnote 1: Francisco Lopez de Gomara, _Historia de las Indias_, p. 233(Ed. Paris, 1852). ]

This myth of the conflict of the two brothers is too similar to others Ihave quoted for its significance to be mistaken. Unfortunately it has beenhanded down in so fragmentary a condition that it does not seem possibleto assign it its proper relations to the cycle of Viracocha legends. 

As I have hinted, we are not sure of the meaning of the name Con, norwhether it is of Qquichua origin. If it is, as is indeed likely, then wemay suppose that it is a transcription of the word _ccun_, which inQquichua is the third person singular, present indicative, of _ccuni_, Igive. "He Gives;" the Giver, would seem an appropriate name for the firstcreator of things. But the myth itself, and the description of the deity, incorporeal and swift, bringer at one time of the fertilizing rains, atanother of the drought, seems to point unmistakably to a god of the winds. Linguistic analogy bears this out, for the name given to a whirlwind orviolent wind storm was _Conchuy_, with an additional word to signifywhether it was one of rain or merely a dust storm. [1] For this reason Ithink M. Wiener's attempt to make of Con (or _Qquonn_, as he prefers tospell it) merely a deity of the rains, is too narrow. [2]

[Footnote 1: A whirlwind with rain was _paria conchuy_ (_paria_, rain), one with clouds of dust, _allpa conchuy_ (_allpa_, earth, dust); Holguin, _Vocabulario Qquichua_, s. V. _Antay conchuy_. ]

[Footnote 2: _Le Perou et Bolivie_, p. 694. (Paris, 1880. )]

The legend would seem to indicate that he was supposed to have beendefeated and quite driven away. But the study of the monuments indicatesthat this was not the case. One of the most remarkable antiquities in Peruis at a place called _Concacha_, three leagues south of Abancay, on theroad from Cuzco to Lima. M. Leonce Angrand has observed that this "wasevidently one of the great religious centres of the primitive peoples ofPeru. " Here is found an enormous block of granite, very curiously carvedto facilitate the dispersion of a liquid poured on its summit into variedstreams and to quaint receptacles. Whether the liquid was the blood ofvictims, the intoxicating beverage of the country, or pure water, all ofwhich have been suggested, we do not positively know, but I am inclined tobelieve, with M. Wiener, that it was the last mentioned, and that it wasas the beneficent deity of the rains that Con was worshiped at this sacredspot. Its name _con cacha_, "the Messenger of Con, " points to this. [1]

[Footnote 1: These remains are carefully described by Charles Wiener, _Perou et Bolivie_, p. 282, seq; from the notes of M. Angrand, byDesjardins, _Le Perou avant la Conquête Espagnole_, p. 132; and in asuperficial manner by Squier, _Peru_, p. 555. ]

The words _Pacha camac_ mean "animating" or "giving life to the world. " Itis said by Father Acosta to have been one of the names of Viracocha, [1]and in a sacred song preserved by Garcilasso de la Vega he is appealed toby this title. [2] The identity of these two divinities seems, therefore, sufficiently established. 

[Footnote 1: _Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias_, Lib. V, cap. Iii. ]

[Footnote 2: _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. Ii, cap. Xxviii. ]

The worship of Pachacamac is asserted by competent antiquarian students tohave been more extended in ancient Peru than the older historianssupposed. This is indicated by the many remains of temples which localtradition attribute to his worship, and by the customs of the natives. [1]For instance, at the birth of a child it was formally offered to him andhis protection solicited. On reaching some arduous height the toilingIndian would address a few words of thanks to Pachacamac; and the piles ofstones, which were the simple signs of their gratitude, are still visiblein all parts of the country. 

[Footnote 1: Von Tschudi, who in one part of his work maintains thatsun-worship was the prevalent religion of Peru, modifies the assertionconsiderably in the following passage: "El culto de Pachacamac se hallabamucho mas extendido de lo que suponen los historiadores; y se puede sinerror aventurar la opinion de que era la Deidad popular y acatada por lasmasas peruanas; mientras que la religion del Sol era la de la corte, cultoque, por mas adoptado que fuese entre los Indios, nunca llegó ádesarraigar la fe y la devocion al Numen primitivo. En effecto, en todaslas relaciones de la vida de los Indios, resalta la profunda veneracionque tributavan á Pachacamac. " _Antiguedades Peruanas_, p. 149. Inasmuch aselsewhere this author takes pains to show that the Incas discarded theworship of the Sun, and instituted in place of it that of Viracocha, theabove would seem to diminish the sphere of Sun-worship very much. ]

This variation of the story of Viracocha aids to an understanding of hismythical purport. The oft-recurring epithet "Contice Viracocha" shows aclose relationship between his character and that of the divinity Con, infact, an identity which deserves close attention. It is explained, Ibelieve, by the supposition that Viracocha was the Lord of the Wind aswell as of the Light. Like all the other light gods, and deities of thecardinal points, he was at the same time the wind from them. What has beensaved from the ancient mythology is enough to show this, but not enough toallow us to reconcile the seeming contradictions which it suggests. Moreover, it must be ever remembered that all religions repose oncontradictions, contradictions of fact, of logic, and of statement, sothat we must not seek to force any one of them into consistent unity ofform, even with itself. 

I have yet to add another point of similarity between the myth ofViracocha and those of Quetzalcoatl, Itzamna and the others, which I havealready narrated. As in Mexico, Yucatan and elsewhere, so in the realms ofthe Incas, the Spaniards found themselves not unexpected guests. Here, too, texts of ancient prophecies were called to mind, words of warningfrom solemn and antique songs, foretelling that other Viracochas, men offair complexion and flowing beards, would some day come from the Sun, thefather of existent nature, and subject the empire to their rule. When thegreat Inca, Huayna Capac, was on his death-bed, he recalled theseprophecies, and impressed them upon the mind of his successor, so thatwhen De Soto, the lieutenant of Pizarro, had his first interview with theenvoy of Atahuallpa, the latter humbly addressed him as Viracocha, thegreat God, son of the Sun, and told him that it was Huayna Capac's lastcommand to pay homage to the white men when they should arrive. [1]

[Footnote 1: Garcilasso de La Vega, _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. Ix, caps. Xiv, xv; Cieza de Leon, _Relacion_, MS. In Prescott, _Conquest of Peru_, Vol. I, p. 329. The latter is the second part of Cieza de Leon. ]

We need no longer entertain about such statements that suspicion orincredulity which so many historians have thought it necessary to indulgein. They are too generally paralleled in other American hero-myths toleave the slightest doubt as to their reality, or as to theirsignificance. They are again the expression of the expected return of theLight-God, after his departure and disappearance in the western horizon. Modifications of what was originally a statement of a simple occurrence ofdaily routine, they became transmitted in the limbeck of mythology to thestory of the beneficent god of the past, and the promise of golden dayswhen again he should return to the people whom erstwhile he ruled andtaught. 

The Qquichuas expected the return of Viracocha, not merely as an earthlyruler to govern their nation, but as a god who, by his divine power, wouldcall the dead to life. Precisely as in ancient Egypt the literal belief inthe resurrection of the body led to the custom of preserving the corpseswith the most sedulous care, so in Peru the cadaver was mummied anddeposited in the most secret and inaccessible spots, so that it shouldremain undisturbed to the great day of resurrection. 

And when was that to be?

We are not left in doubt on this point. It was to be when Viracocha shouldreturn to earth in his bodily form. Then he would restore the dead tolife, and they should enjoy the good things of a land far more gloriousthan this work-a-day world of ours. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Dijeron quellos oyeron decir a sus padres y pasados que unViracocha habia de revolver la tierra, y habia de resucitar esos muertos, y que estos habian de bibir en esta tierra. ". _Information de lasIdolatras de los Incas é Indios_, in the _Coll. De Docs. Ineditos delArchivo de Indias_, vol. Xxi, p. 152. ]

As at the first meeting between the races the name of the hero-god wasapplied to the conquering strangers, so to this day the custom hascontinued. A recent traveler tells us, "Among _Los Indios del Campo_, orIndians of the fields, the llama herdsmen of the _punas_, and thefishermen of the lakes, the common salutation to strangers of a fair skinand blue eyes is '_Tai-tai Viracocha_. '"[1] Even if this is used now, asM. Wiener seems to think, [2] merely as a servile flattery, there is nodoubt but that at the beginning it was applied because the white strangerswere identified with the white and bearded hero and his followers of theirculture myth, whose return had been foretold by their priests. 

[Footnote 1: E. G. Squier, _Travels in Peru_, p. 414. ]

[Footnote 2: C. Wiener, _Perou et Bolivie_, p. 717. ]

Are we obliged to explain these similarities to the Mexican tradition bysupposing some ancient intercourse between these peoples, the arrival, forinstance, and settlement on the highlands around Lake Titicaca, of some"Toltec" colony, as has been maintained by such able writers on Peruvianantiquities as Leonce Angrand and J. J. Von Tschudi?[1] I think not. Thegreat events of nature, day and night, storm and sunshine, are everywherethe same, and the impressions they produced on the minds of this race werethe same, whether the scene was in the forests of the north temperatezone, amid the palms of the tropics, or on the lofty and barren plateauxof the Andes. These impressions found utterance in similar myths, and wererepresented in art under similar forms. It is, therefore, to the onenessof cause and of racial psychology, not to ancient migrations, that we mustlook to explain the identities of myth and representation that we findbetween such widely sundered nations. 

[Footnote 1: L. Angrand, _Lettre sur les Antiquités de Tiaguanaco etl'Origine présumable de la plus ancienne civilisation du Haut-Perou_. Extrait du 24eme vol. De la _Revue Generale d'Architecture_, 1866. VonTschudi, _Das Ollantadrama_, p. 177-9. The latter says: "Der von demPlateau von Anahuac ausgewanderte Stamm verpflanzte seine Gesittung unddie Hauptzüge seiner Religion durch das westliche Südamerica, etc. "]

CHAPTER VI. 

THE EXTENSION AND INFLUENCE OF THE TYPICAL HERO-MYTH. 

THE TYPICAL MYTH FOUND IN MANY PARTS OF THE CONTINENT--DIFFICULTIES INTRACING IT--RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION IN AMERICA SIMILAR TO THAT IN THE OLDWORLD--FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE RED RACE. 

THE CULTURE MYTH OF THE TARASCOS OF MECHOACAN--THAT OF THE RICHES OFGUATEMALA--THE VOTAN MYTH OF THE TZENDALS OF CHIAPAS--A FRAGMENT OF A MIXEMYTH--THE HERO-GOD OF THE MUYSCAS OF NEW GRANADA--OF THE TUPI-GUARANAYSTEM OF PARAGUAY AND BRAZIL--MYTHS OF THE DÈNÈ OF BRITISH AMERICA. 

SUN WORSHIP IN AMERICA--GERMS OF PROGRESS IN AMERICAN RELIGIONS--RELATIONOF RELIGION AND MORALITY--THE LIGHT-GOD A MORAL AND BENEFICENTCREATION--HIS WORSHIP WAS ELEVATING--MORAL CONDITION OF NATIVE SOCIETIESBEFORE THE CONQUEST--PROGRESS IN THE DEFINITION OF THE IDEA OF GOD INPERU, MEXICO, AND YUCATAN--ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS ABOUT THE MORALS OF THENATIVES--EVOLUTION OF THEIR ETHICAL PRINCIPLES. 

In the foregoing chapters I have passed in review the hero-myths of fivenations widely asunder in location, in culture and in language. I haveshown the strange similarity in their accounts of their mysterious earlybenefactor and teacher, and their still more strange, because true, presentiments of the arrival of pale-faced conquerors from the East. 

I have selected these nations because their myths have been most fullyrecorded, not that they alone possessed this striking legend. It is, Irepeat, the fundamental myth in the religious lore of American nations. Not, indeed, that it can be discovered in all tribes, especially in theamplitude of incident which it possesses among some. But there arecomparatively few of the native mythologies that do not betray some of itselements, some fragments of it, and, often enough to justify us in thesupposition that had we the complete body of their sacred stories, weshould find this one in quite as defined a form as I have given it. 

The student of American mythology, unfortunately, labors under peculiardisadvantages. When he seeks for his material, he finds an extraordinarydearth of it. The missionaries usually refused to preserve the nativemyths, because they believed them harmful, or at least foolish; while menof science, who have had such opportunities, rejected all those thatseemed the least like a Biblical story, as they suspected them to bemodern and valueless compositions, and thus lost the very life of thegenuine ancient faiths. 

A further disadvantage is the slight attention which has been paid to theaboriginal American tongues, and the sad deficiency of material for theirstudy. It is now recognized on all hands that the key of a mythology is tobe found in the language of its believers. As a German writer remarks, "the formation of the language and the evolution of the myth go hand inhand. "[1] We must know the language of a tribe, at least we mustunderstand the grammatical construction and have facilities to trace outthe meaning and derivation of names, before we can obtain any accuratenotion of the foundation in nature of its religious beliefs. No convenientgenerality will help us. 

[Footnote 1: "In der Sprache herrscht immer und erneut sich stets diesinnliche Anschauung, die vor Jahrtausenden mit dem gläubigen Sinnvermählt die Mythologien schuf, und gerade durch sie wird es am klarsten, wie Sprachenschöpfung und mythologische Entwicklung, der Ausdruck desDenkens und Glaubens, einst Hand in Hand gegangen. " Dr. F. L. W. Schwartz, _Der Ursprung der Mythologie dargelegt an Griechischer und DeutscherSage_, p. 23 (Berlin, 1860). ]

I make these remarks as a sort of apology for the shortcomings of thepresent study, and especially for the imperfections of the fragments Ihave still to present. They are, however, sufficiently defined to make itcertain that they belonged to cycles of myths closely akin to thosealready given. They will serve to support my thesis that the seeminglyconfused and puerile fables of the native Americans are fully as worthythe attention of the student of human nature as the more poetic narrativesof the Veda or the Edda. The red man felt out after God with like childishgropings as his white brother in Central Asia. When his course wasinterrupted, he was pursuing the same path toward the discovery of truth. In the words of a thoughtful writer: "In a world wholly separated fromthat which it is customary to call the Old World, the religious evolutionof man took place precisely in the same manner as in those surroundingswhich produced the civilization of western Europe. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Girard de Rialle, _La Mythologie Comparée_, vol. I, p. 363(Paris, 1878). ]

But this religious development of the red man was violently broken by theforcible imposition of a creed which he could not understand, and whichwas not suited to his wants, and by the heavy yoke of a priesthood totallyout of sympathy with his line of progress. What has been the result? "HasChristianity, " asks the writer I have just quoted, "exerted a progressiveaction on these peoples? Has it brought them forward, has it aided theirnatural evolution? We are obliged to answer, No. "[1] This sad reply isrepeated by careful observers who have studied dispassionately the nativesin their homes. [2] The only difference in the results of the two greatdivisions of the Christian world seems to be that on Catholic missions hasfollowed the debasement, on Protestant missions the destruction of therace. 

[Footnote 1: Girard de Rialle, _ibid_, p. 862. ]

[Footnote 2: Those who would convince themselves of this may read the workof Don Francisco Pimentel, _Memoria sobre las Causas que han originado laSituation Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico_ (Mexico, 1864), and thatof the Licentiate Apolinar Garcia y Garcia, _Historia de la Guerra deCastas de Yucatan_, Prologo (Mérida, 1865). That the Indians of the UnitedStates have directly and positively degenerated in moral sense as a race, since the introduction of Christianity, was also very decidedly theopinion of the late Prof. Theodor Waitz, a most competent ethnologist. See_Die Indianer Nordamerica's. Eine Studie_, von Theodor Waitz, p. 39, etc. (Leipzig, 1865). This opinion was also that of the visiting committee ofthe Society of Friends who reported on the Indian Tribes in 1842; see the_Report of a Visit to Some of the Tribes of Indians West of theMississippi River_, by John D. Lang and Samuel Taylor, Jr. (New York, 1843). The language of this Report is calm, but positive as to theincreased moral degradation of the tribes, as the, direct result ofcontact with the whites. ]

It may be objected to this that it was not Christianity, but itsaccompaniments, the greedy horde of adventurers, the profligate traders, the selfish priests, and the unscrupulous officials, that wrought thedegradation of the native race. Be it so. Then I merely modify myassertion, by saying that Christianity has shown itself incapable ofcontrolling its inevitable adjuncts, and that it would have been better, morally and socially, for the American race never to have knownChristianity at all, than to have received it on the only terms on whichit has been possible to offer it. 

With the more earnestness, therefore, in view of this acknowledged failureof Christian effort, do I turn to the native beliefs, and desire tovindicate for them a dignified position among the faiths which have helpedto raise man above the level of the brute, and inspired him with hope andambition for betterment. 

For this purpose I shall offer some additional evidence of the extensionof the myth I have set forth, and then proceed to discuss its influence onthe minds of its believers. 

The Tarascos were an interesting nation who lived in the province ofMichoacan, due west of the valley of Mexico. They were a polished race, speaking a sonorous, vocalic language, so bold in war that their boast wasthat they had never been defeated, and yet their religious rites werealmost bloodless, and their preference was for peace. The hardy Aztecs hadbeen driven back at every attempt they made to conquer Michoacan, but itsruler submitted himself without a murmur to Cortes, recognizing in him anopponent of the common enemy, and a warrior of more than human powers. 

Among these Tarascos we find the same legend of a hero-god who broughtthem out of barbarism, gave them laws, arranged their calendar, which, inprinciples, was the same as that of the Aztecs and Mayas, and decided onthe form of their government. His name was _Surites_ or _Curicaberis_, words which, from my limited resources in that tongue, I am not able toanalyze. He dwelt in the town Cromuscuaro, which name means theWatch-tower or Look-out, and the hour in which he gave his instructionswas always at sunrise, just as the orb of light appeared on the easternhorizon. One of the feasts which he appointed to be celebrated in hishonor was called _Zitacuarencuaro_, which melodious word is said by theSpanish missionaries to mean "the resurrection from death. " When to thisit is added that he distinctly predicted that a white race of men shouldarrive in the country, and that he himself should return, [1] his identitywith the light-gods of similar American myths is too manifest to requireargument. 

[Footnote 1: P. Francisco Xavier Alegre, _Historia de la Compañia de Jesusen la Nueva España_, Tomo i, pp. 91, 92 (Mexico, 1841). The authoritieswhom Alegre quotes are P. P. Alonso de la Rea, _Cronica de Mechoacan_(Mexico, 1648), and D. Basalenque, _Cronica de San Augustin de Mechoacan_(Mexico, 1673). I regret that I have been unable to find either of thesebooks in any library in the United States. It is a great pity that thestudent of American history is so often limited in his investigations inthis country, by the lack of material. It is sad to think that such anopulent and intelligent land does not possess a single complete library ofits own history. ]

The king of the Tarascos was considered merely the vicegerent of theabsent hero-god, and ready to lay down the sceptre when Curicaberis shouldreturn to earth. 

We do not know whether the myth of the Four Brothers prevailed among theTarascos; but there is hardly a nation on the continent among whom thenumber Four was more distinctly sacred. The kingdom was divided into fourparts (as also among the Itzas, Qquichuas and numerous other tribes), thefour rulers of which constituted, with the king, the sacred council offive, in imitation, I can hardly doubt, of the hero-god, and the fourdeities of the winds. 

The goddess of water and the rains, the female counterpart of Curicaberis, was the goddess _Cueravaperi_. "She is named, " says the authority I quote, "in all their fables and speeches. They say that she is the mother of allthe gods of the earth, and that it is she who bestows the harvests and thegermination of seeds. " With her ever went four attendant goddesses, thepersonifications of the rains from the four cardinal points. At the sacreddances, which were also dramatizations of her supposed action, theseattendants were represented by four priests clad respectively in white, yellow, red and black, to represent the four colors of the clouds. [1] Inother words, she doubtless bore the same relation to Curicaberis thatIxchel did to Itzamna in the mythology of the Mayas, or the rainbowgoddess to Arama in the religious legends of the Moxos. [2] She was thedivinity that presided over the rains, and hence over fertility and theharvests, standing in intimate relation to the god of the sun's rays andthe four winds. 

[Footnote 1: _Relacion de las Ceremonias y Ritos, etc. , de Mechoacan_, inthe _Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de España_, vol. Liii, pp. 13, 19, 20. This account is anonymous, but was written in the sixteenthcentury, by some one familiar with the subject. A handsome MS. Of it, withcolored illustrations (these of no great value, however), is in theLibrary of Congress, obtained from the collection of the late Col. PeterForce. ]

[Footnote 2: See above, chapter iv, §1]

The Kiches of Guatemala were not distant relatives of the Mayas ofYucatan, and their mythology has been preserved to us in a rescript oftheir national book, the _Popol Vuh_. Evidently they had borrowedsomething from Aztec sources, and a flavor of Christian teaching isoccasionally noticeable in this record; but for all that it is one of themost valuable we possess on the subject. 

It begins by connecting the creation of men and things with the appearanceof light. In other words, as in so many mythologies, the history of theworld is that of the day; each begins with a dawn. Thus the _Popol Vuh_reads:--

"This is how the heaven exists, how the Heart of Heaven exists, he, thegod, whose name is Qabauil. "

"His word came in the darkness to the Lord, to Gucumatz, and it spoke withthe Lord, with Gucumatz. "

"They spoke together; they consulted and planned; they understood; theyunited in words and plans. "

"As they consulted, the day appeared, the white light came forth, mankindwas produced, while thus they held counsel about the growth of trees andvines, about life and mankind, in the darkness, in the night (the creationwas brought about), by the Heart of Heaven, whose name is Hurakan. "[1]

[Footnote 1: _Popol Vuh, le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, p. 9 (Paris, 1861). ]

But the national culture-hero of the Kiches seems to have been_Xbalanque_, a name which has the literal meaning, "Little Tiger Deer, "and is a symbolical appellation referring to days in their calendar. Although many of his deeds are recounted in the _Popol Vuh_, that workdoes not furnish us his complete mythical history. From it and othersources we learn that he was one of the twins supposed to have been bornof a virgin mother in Utatlan, the central province of the Kiches, to havebeen the guide and protector of their nation, and in its interest to havemade a journey to the Underworld, in order to revenge himself on hispowerful enemies, its rulers. He was successful, and having overcome them, he set free the Sun, which they had seized, and restored to life fourhundred youths whom they had slain, and who, in fact, were the stars ofheaven. On his return, he emerged from the bowels of the earth and theplace of darkness, at a point far to the east of Utatlan, at some placelocated by the Kiches near Coban, in Vera Paz, and came again to hispeople, looking to be received with fitting honors. But like Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl, and others of these worthies, the story goes that theytreated him with scant courtesy, and in anger at their ingratitude, heleft them forever, in order to seek a nobler people. 

I need not enter into a detailed discussion of this myth, many points inwhich are obscure, the less so as I have treated them at length in amonograph readily accessible to the reader who would push his inquiriesfurther. Enough if I quote the conclusion to which I there arrive. It isas follows:--

"Suffice it to say that the hero-god, whose name is thus compounded of twosigns in the calendar, who is one of twins born of a virgin, who performsmany surprising feats of prowess on the earth, who descends into the worldof darkness and sets free the sun, moon and stars to perform their dailyand nightly journeys through the heavens, presents in these and othertraits such numerous resemblances to the Divinity of Light, the Day-makerof the northern hunting tribes, reappearing in so many American legends, that I do not hesitate to identify the narrative of Xbalanque and hisdeeds as but another version of this wide-spread, this well-nigh universalmyth. "[1]

[Footnote 1: _The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths, Central America_, by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. , in the _Proceedings of the AmericanPhilosophical Society_ for 1881. ]

Few of our hero-myths have given occasion for wilder speculation than thatof Votan. He was the culture hero of the Tzendals, a branch of the Mayarace, whose home was in Chiapas and Tabasco. Even the usually cautiousHumboldt suggested that his name might be a form of Odin or Buddha! As formore imaginative writers, they have made not the least difficulty indiscovering that it is identical with the Odon of the Tarascos, the Otonof the Othomis, the Poudan of the East Indian Tamuls, the Vaudoux of theLouisiana negroes, etc. All this has been done without any attempt havingbeen made to ascertain the precise meaning and derivation of the nameVotan. Superficial phonetic similarities have been the only guide. 

We are not well acquainted with the Votan myth. It appears to have beenwritten down some time in the seventeenth century, by a Christianizednative. His manuscript of five or six folios, in the Tzendal tongue, cameinto the possession of Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, about 1690, and later into the hands of Don Ramon Ondonez y Aguiar, where it was seenby Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, about 1790. What has become of it is not known. 

No complete translation of it was made; and the extracts or abstractsgiven by the authors just named are most unsatisfactory, and disfigured byignorance and prejudice. None of them, probably, was familiar with theTzendal tongue, especially in its ancient form. What they tell us runs asfollows:--

At some indefinitely remote epoch, Votan came from the far East. He wassent by God to divide out and assign to the different races of men theearth on which they dwell, and to give to each its own language. The landwhence he came was vaguely called _ualum uotan_, the land of Votan. 

His message was especially to the Tzendals. Previous to his arrival theywere ignorant, barbarous, and without fixed habitations. He collected theminto villages, taught them how to cultivate the maize and cotton, andinvented the hieroglyphic signs, which they learned to carve on the wallsof their temples. It is even said that he wrote his own history in them. 

He instituted civil laws for their government, and imparted to them theproper ceremonials of religious worship. For this reason he was alsocalled "Master of the Sacred Drum, " the instrument with which theysummoned the votaries to the ritual dances. 

They especially remembered him as the inventor of their calendar. His namestood third in the week of twenty days, and was the first Dominical sign, according to which they counted their year, corresponding to the _Kan_ ofthe Mayas. 

As a city-builder, he was spoken of as the founder of Palenque, Nachan, Huehuetlan--in fact, of any ancient place the origin of which had beenforgotten. Near the last mentioned locality, Huehuetlan in Soconusco, hewas reported to have constructed an underground temple by merely blowingwith his breath. In this gloomy mansion he deposited his treasures, andappointed a priestess to guard it, for whose assistance he created thetapirs. 

Votan brought with him, according to one statement, or, according toanother, was followed from his native land by, certain attendants orsubordinates, called in the myth _tzequil_, petticoated, from the long andflowing robes they wore. These aided him in the work of civilization. Onfour occasions he returned to his former home, dividing the country, whenhe was about to leave, into four districts, over which he placed theseattendants. 

When at last the time came for his final departure, he did not passthrough the valley of death, as must all mortals, but he penetratedthrough a cave into the under-earth, and found his way to "the root ofheaven. " With this mysterious expression, the native myth closes itsaccount of him. [1]

[Footnote 1: The references to the Votan myth are Nuñez de la Vega, _Constituciones Diocesanas, Prologo_ (Romae, 1702); Boturini, _Idea de unaNueva Historia de la America septentrional_, pp. 114, et seq. , whodiscusses the former; Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_, translated, London, 1822; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Des NationsCivilisées de Mexique_, vol. I, chap, ii, who gives some additional pointsfrom Ordoñez; and H. De Charencey, _Le Mythe de Votan; Etude sur lesOrigines Asiatiques de la Civilization Américaine_. (Alencon, 1871). ]

He was worshiped by the Tzendals as their principal deity and theirbeneficent patron. But he had a rival in their religious observances, thefeared _Yalahau_ Lord of Blackness, or Lord of the Waters. He wasrepresented as a terrible warrior, cruel to the people, and one of thefirst of men. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Yalahau_ is referred to by Bishop Nuñez de la Vega asvenerated in Occhuc and other Tzendal towns of Chiapas. He translates it"Señor de los Negros. " The terminal _ahau_ is pure Maya, meaning king, ruler, lord; _Yal_ is also Maya, and means water. The god of the waters, of darkness, night and blackness, is often one and the same in mythology, and probably had we the myth complete, he would prove to be Votan'sbrother and antagonist. ]

According to an unpublished work by Fuentes, Votan was one of fourbrothers, the common ancestors of the southwestern branches of the Mayafamily. [1]

[Footnote 1: Quoted in Emeterio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapasy Soconusco_, p. 9 (Mexico, 1845). ]

All these traits of this popular hero are too exactly similar to those ofthe other representatives of this myth, for them to leave any doubt as towhat we are to make of Votan. Like the rest of them, he and his long-robedattendants are personifications of the eastern light and its rays. Thoughbut uncritical epitomes of a fragmentary myth about him remain, they areenough to stamp it as that which meets us so constantly, no matter wherewe turn in the New World. [1]

[Footnote 1: The title of the Tzendal MSS. , is said by Cabrera to be"Proof that I am a Chan. " The author writes in the person of Votanhimself, and proves his claim that he is a Chan, "because he is a Chivim. "Chan has been translated _serpent_; on _chivim_ the commentators havealmost given up. Supposing that the serpent was a totem of one of theTzendal clans, then the effort would be to show that their hero-god was ofthat totem; but how this is shown by his being proved a _chivim_ is notobvious. The term _ualum chivim_, the land of the _chivim_. Appears to bethat applied, in the MS. , to the country of the Tzendals, or a part of it. The words _chi uinic_ would mean, "men of the shore, " and might be a localname applied to a clan on the coast. But in default of the original textwe can but surmise as to the precise meaning of the writer. ]

It scarcely seems necessary for me to point out that his name Votan is inno way akin to Othomi or Tarasco roots, still less to the Norse Wodan orthe Indian Buddha, but is derived from a radical in pure Maya. Yet I willdo so, in order, if possible, to put a stop to such visionary etymologies. 

As we are informed by Bishop Nuñez de la Vega, _uotan_ in Tzendal means_heart_. Votan was spoken of as "the heart or soul of his people. " Thisderivation has been questioned, because the word for the heart in theother Maya dialects is different, and it has been suggested that this wasbut an example of "otosis, " where a foreign proper name was turned into afamiliar common noun. But these objections do not hold good. 

In regard to derivation, _uotan_ is from the pure Maya root-word _tan_, which means primarily "the breast, " or that which is in front or in themiddle of the body; with the possessive prefix it becomes _utan_. InTzendal this word means both _breast_ and _heart_. This is wellillustrated by an ancient manuscript, dating from 1707, in my possession. It is a guide to priests for administering the sacraments in Spanish andTzendal. I quote the passage in point[1]:--

[Footnote 1: _Modo de Administrar los Sacramentos en Castellano yTzendal_, 1707. 4to MS. , p. 13. ]

"Con todo tu corazón, hiriendoteen los pechos, di, conmigo. "

_Ta zpizil auotan, xatigh znyauotan, zghoyoc, alagh ghoyoc_. --

Here, _a_ is the possessive of the second person, and _uotan_ is used bothfor heart and breast. Thus the derivation of the word from the Mayaradical is clear. 

The figure of speech by which the chief divinity is called "the heart ofthe earth, " "the heart of the sky, " is common in these dialects, andoccurs repeatedly in the _Popol Vuh_, the sacred legend of the Kiches ofGuatemala. [2]

[Footnote 2: Thus we have (_Popol Vuh_, Part i, p. 2) _u qux cho_, Heartof the Lakes, and _u qux palo_, Heart of the Ocean, as names of thehighest divinity; later, we find _u qux cah_, Heart of the Sky (p. 8), _uqux uleu_, Heart of the Earth, p. 12, 14, etc. 

I may here repeat what I have elsewhere written on this figurativeexpression in the Maya languages: "The literal or physical sense of theword heart is not that which is here intended. In these dialects this wordhas a richer metaphorical meaning than in our tongue. It stands for allthe psychical powers, the memory, will and reasoning faculties, the life, the spirit, the soul. It would be more correct to render these names the'Spirit' or 'Soul' of the lake, etc. , than the 'Heart. ' They indicate adimly understood sense of the unity of spirit or energy in all the variousmanifestations of organic and inorganic existence. " _The Names of the Godsin the Kiche Myths, Central America_, by Daniel G. Brinton, in_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, vol. Xix, 1881, p. 623. ]

The immediate neighbors of the Tzendals were the Mixes and Zoques, theformer resident in the central mountains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the latter rather in the lowlands and toward the eastern coast. The Mixesnowadays number but a few villages, whose inhabitants are reported asdrunken and worthless, but the time was when they were a powerful andwarlike nation. They are in nowise akin to the Maya stock, although theyare so classed in Mr. H. H. Bancroft's excellent work. [1] They have, however, a distinct relationship with the Zoques, about thirty per cent ofthe words in the two languages being similar. [2] The Zoques, whosemythology we unfortunately know little or nothing about, adjoined theTzendals, and were in constant intercourse with them. 

[Footnote 1: "Mijes, Maya nation, " _The Native Races of the PacificStates_, Vol. V, p. 712. ]

[Footnote 2: _Apuntes sobre la Lengua Mije_, por C. H. Berendt, M. D. , MS. , in my hands. The comparison is made of 158 words in the two languages, ofwhich 44 have marked affinity, besides the numerals, eight out of ten ofwhich are the same. Many of the remaining words are related to theZapotec, and there are very few and faint resemblances to Maya dialects. One of them may possibly be in this name, Votan (_uotan_), heart, however. In Mixe the word for heart is _hot_. I note this merely to complete myobservations on the Votan myth. ]

We have but faint traces of the early mythology of these tribes; but theypreserved some legends which show that they also partook of the belief, sogeneral among their neighbors, of a beneficent culture-god. 

This myth relates that their first father, who was also their Supreme God, came forth from a cave in a lofty mountain in their country, to govern anddirect them. He covered the soil with forests, located the springs andstreams, peopled them with fish and the woods with game and birds, andtaught the tribe how to catch them. They did not believe that he had died, but that after a certain length of time, he, with his servants andcaptives, all laden with bright gleaming gold, retired into the cave andclosed its mouth, not to remain there, but to reappear at some other partof the world and confer similar favors on other nations. 

The name, or one of the names, of this benefactor was Condoy, the meaningof which my facilities do not enable me to ascertain. [1]

[Footnote 1: Juan B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos y Estadisticos delEstado Libre de Oaxaca_, p. 3 (Oaxaca, 1847). ]

There is scarcely enough of this to reveal the exact lineaments of theirhero; but if we may judge from these fragments as given by Carriedo, itappears to be of precisely the same class as the other hero-myths I havecollected in this volume. Historians of authority assure us that theMixes, Zoques and Zapotecs united in the expectation, founded on theirancient myths and prophecies, of the arrival, some time, of men from theEast, fair of hue and mighty in power, masters of the lightning, who wouldoccupy the land. [1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid. , p. 94, _note_, quoting from the works of Las Casas andFrancisco Burgoa. ]

On the lofty plateau of the Andes, in New Granada, where, though nearlyunder the equator, the temperature is that of a perpetual spring, was thefortunate home of the Muyscas. It is the true El Dorado of America; everymountain stream a Pactolus, and every hill a mine of gold. The nativeswere peaceful in disposition, skilled in smelting and beating the preciousmetal that was everywhere at hand, lovers of agriculture, and versed inthe arts of spinning, weaving and dying cotton. Their remaining sculpturesprove them to have been of no mean ability in designing, and it isasserted that they had a form of writing, of which their signs for thenumerals have alone been preserved. 

The knowledge of these various arts they attributed to the instructions ofa wise stranger who dwelt among them many cycles before the arrival of theSpaniards. He came from the East, from the llanos of Venezuela or beyondthem, and it was said that the path he made was broad and long, a hundredleagues in length, and led directly to the holy temple at his shrine atSogamoso. In the province of Ubaque his footprints on the solid rock werereverently pointed out long after the Conquest. His hair was abundant, hisbeard fell to his waist, and he dressed in long and flowing robes. He wentamong the nations of the plateaux, addressing each in its own dialect, taught them to live in villages and to observe just laws. Near the villageof Coto was a high hill held in special veneration, for from its prominentsummit he was wont to address the people who gathered round its base. Therefore it was esteemed a sanctuary, holy to the living and the dead. Princely families from a distance carried their dead there to be interred, because this teacher had said that man does not perish when he dies, butshall rise again. It was held that this would be more certain to occur inthe very spot where he announced this doctrine. Every sunset, when he hadfinished his discourse, he retired into a cave in the mountain, not toreappear again until the next morning. 

For many years, some said for two thousand years, did he rule the peoplewith equity, and then he departed, going back to the East whence he came, said some authorities, but others averred that he rose up to heaven. Atany rate, before he left, he appointed a successor in the sovereignty, andrecommended him to pursue the paths of justice. [1]

[Footnote 1: "Afirman que fue trasladado al cielo, y que al tiempo de supartida dexó al Cacique de aquella Provincia por heredero de su santidad ipoderio. " Lucas Fernaudez Piedrahita, _Historia General de las Conquistasdel Nueoo Reyno de Granada_, Lib. I, cap. Iii (Amberes, 1688). ]

What led the Spanish missionaries to suspect that this was one of thetwelve apostles, was not only these doctrines, but the undoubted fact thatthey found the symbol of the cross already a religious emblem among thispeople. It appeared in their sacred paintings, and especially, theyerected one over the grave of a person who had died from the bite of aserpent. 

A little careful investigation will permit us to accept these statementsas quite true, and yet give them a very different interpretation. 

That this culture-hero arrives from the East and returns to the East arepoints that at once excite the suspicion that he was the personificationof the Light. But when we come to his names, no doubt can remain. Thesewere various, but one of the most usual was _Chimizapagua_, which, we aretold, means "a messenger from _Chiminigagua_. " In the cosmogonical mythsof the Muyscas this was the home or source of Light, and was a nameapplied to the demiurgic force. In that mysterious dwelling, so theiraccount ran, light was shut up, and the world lay in primeval gloom. At acertain time the light manifested itself, and the dawn of the firstmorning appeared, the light being carried to the four quarters of theearth by great black birds, who blew the air and winds from their beaks. Modern grammarians profess themselves unable to explain the exact meaningof the name _Chiminigagua_, but it is a compound, in which, evidently, appear the words _chie_, light, and _gagua_, Sun. [1]

[Footnote 1: Uricoechea says, "al principio del mundo la luz estabaencerrada en una cosa que no podian describir i que llamaban_Chiminigague_, ó El Criador. " _Gramatica de la Lengua Chibcha_, Introd. , p. Xix. _Chie_ in this tongue means light, moon, month, honor, and is alsothe first person plural of the personal pronoun. _Ibid_. , p. 94. FatherSimon says _gagua_ is "el nombre del mismo sol, " though ordinarily Sun is_Sua_. ]

Other names applied to this hero-god were Nemterequeteba, Bóchica, andZuhe, or Sua, the last mentioned being also the ordinary word for the Sun. He was reported to have been of light complexion, and when the Spaniardsfirst arrived they were supposed to be his envoys, and were called _sua_or _gagua_, just as from the memory of a similar myth in Peru they wereaddressed as Viracochas. 

In his form as Bóchica, he is represented as the supreme male divinity, whose female associate is the Rainbow, Cuchaviva, goddess of rains andwaters, of the fertility of the fields, of medicine, and of child-bearingin women, a relationship which I have already explained. [1]

[Footnote 1: The principal authority for the mythology of the Mayscas, orChibchas, is Padre Pedro Simon, _Noticias Historiales de las Conquistas deTierra Firme en el Nuevo Reyno de Granada_, Pt. Iv, caps. Ii, iii, iv, printed in Kingsborough, _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. Viii, and Piedrahitaas above quoted. ]

Wherever the widespread Tupi-Guaranay race extended--from the mouth of theRio de la Plata and the boundless plains of the Pampas, north to thenorthernmost islands of the West Indian Archipelago--the early explorersfound the natives piously attributing their knowledge of the arts of lifeto a venerable and benevolent old man whom they called "Our Ancestor, "_Tamu_, or _Tume_, or _Zume_. 

The early Jesuit missionaries to the Guaranis and affiliated tribes ofParaguay and southern Brazil, have much to say of this personage, and someof them were convinced that he could have been no other than the ApostleSt. Thomas on his proselytizing journey around the world. 

The legend was that Pay Zume, as he was called in Paraguay (_Pay_ =magician, diviner, priest), came from the East, from the Sun-rising, inyears long gone by. He instructed the people in the arts of hunting andagriculture, especially in the culture and preparation of the maniocaplant, their chief source of vegetable food. Near the city of Assumptionis situated a lofty rock, around which, says the myth, he was accustomedto gather the people, while he stood above them on its summit, anddelivered his instructions and his laws, just as did Quetzalcoatl from thetop of the mountain Tzatzitepec, the Hill of Shouting. The spot where hestood is still marked by the impress of his feet, which the pious nativesof a later day took pride in pointing out as a convincing proof that theirancestors received and remembered the preachings of St. Thomas. [1] Thiswas not a suggestion of their later learning, but merely a christianizedterm given to their authentic ancient legend. As early as 1552, whenFather Emanuel Nobrega was visiting the missions of Brazil, he heard thelegend, and learned of a locality where not only the marks of the feet, but also of the hands of the hero-god had been indelibly impressed uponthe hard rock. Not satisfied with the mere report, he visited the spot andsaw them with his own eyes, but indulged in some skepticism as to theirorigin. [2]

[Footnote 1: "Juxta Paraquariae metropolim rupes utcumque cuspidata, sedin modicam planitiem desinens cernitur, in cujus summitate vestigia pedumhumanorum saxo impressa adhuc manent, affirmantibus constanter indigenis, ex eo loco Apostolum Thomam multitudini undequaque ad eum audiendumconfluenti solitum fuisse legem divinam tradere: et addunt mandiocae, exqua farinam suam ligneam conficiunt, plantandae rationem ab eodemaccepisse. " P. Nicolao del Techo, _Historia Provincial ParaquariaeSocietatis Jesu_, Lib. Vi, cap. Iv (folio, Leodii, 1673). ]

[Footnote 2: "Ipse abii, " he writes in his well known Letter, "et propriisoculis inspexi, quatuor pedum et digitorum satis alté impressa vestigia, quae nonnunquam aqua excrescens cooperit. " The reader will remember thesimilar event in the history of Quetzalcoatl (see above, chapter iii, §3)]

The story was that wherever this hero-god walked, he left behind him awell-marked path, which was permanent, and as the Muyscas of New Granadapointed out the path of Bochica, so did the Guaranays that of Zume, whichthe missionaries regarded "not without astonishment. "[1] He lived acertain length of time with his people and then left them, going back overthe ocean toward the East, according to some accounts. But according toothers, he was driven away by his stiff-necked and unwilling auditors, whohad become tired of his advice. They pursued him to the bank of a river, and there, thinking that the quickest riddance of him was to kill him, they discharged their arrows at him. But he caught the arrows in his handand hurled them back, and dividing the waters of the river by his divinepower he walked between them to the other bank, dry-shod, and disappearedfrom their view in the distance. 

[Footnote 1: "E Brasiliâ in Guairaniam euntibus spectabilis adhuc semitaviditur, quam ab Sancto Thoma ideo incolae vocant, quod per eam Apostolusiter fecisse credatur; quae semita quovis anni tempore eumdem statumconservat, modicé in ea crescendibus herbis, ab adjacenti campo multumherbescenti prorsus dissimilibus, praebetque speciem viae artificioséductae; quam Socii nostri Guairaniam excolentes persaepe non sine stuporeperspexisse se testantur. " Nicolao del Techo, _ubi suprá_, Lib. Vi, cap. Iv. 

The connection of this myth with the course of the sun in the sky, "thepath of the bright God, " as it is called in the Veda, appears obvious. Soalso in later legend we read of the wonderful slot or trail of the dragonFafnir across the Glittering Heath, and many cognate instances, whichmythologists now explain by the same reference. ]

Like all the hero-gods, he left behind him the well-remembered promisethat at some future day he should return to them, and that a race of menshould come in time, to gather them into towns and rule them in peace. [1]These predictions were carefully noted by the missionaries, and regardedas the "unconscious prophecies of heathendom" of the advent ofChristianity; but to me they bear too unmistakably the stamp of thelight-myth I have been following up in so many localities of the New Worldfor me to entertain a doubt about their origin and meaning. 

[Footnote 1: "Ilium quoque pollicitum fuisse, se aliquando has regionesrevisurum. " Father Nobrega, _ubi suprá_. For the other particulars I havegiven see Nicolao del Techo, _Historia Provinciae Paraquariae_, Lib. Vi, cap. Iv, "De D. Thomae Apostoli itineribus;" and P. Antonio Ruiz, _Conquista Espiritual hecha por los Religiosos de la Compañia de Jesus enlas Provincias del Paraguay, Parana, Uruguay y Tape_, fol. 29, 30 (4to. , Madrid, 1639). The remarkable identity of the words relating to theirreligious beliefs and observances throughout this widespread group oftribes has been demonstrated and forcibly commented on by AlcideD'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, vol. Ii, p. 277. The Vicomte de PortoSeguro identifies Zume with the _Cemi_ of the Antilles, and this etymologyis at any rate not so fanciful as most of those he gives in hisimaginative work, _L'Origine Touranienne des Americaines Tupis-Caribes_, p. 62 (Vienna, 1876). ]

I have not yet exhausted the sources from which I could bring evidence ofthe widespread presence of the elements of this mythical creation inAmerica. But probably I have said enough to satisfy the reader on thispoint. At any rate it will be sufficient if I close the list with somemanifest fragments of the myth, picked out from the confused and generallymodern reports we have of the religions of the Athabascan race. This stemis one of the most widely distributed in North America, extending acrossthe whole continent south of the Eskimos, and scattered toward the warmerlatitudes quite into Mexico. It is low down in the intellectual scale, itscomponent tribes are usually migratory savages, and its dialects areextremely synthetic and of difficult phonetics, requiring as many assixty-five letters for their proper orthography. No wonder, therefore, that we have but limited knowledge of their mental life. 

Conspicuous in their myths is the tale of the Two Brothers. Thesemysterious beings are upon the earth before man appears. Though alone, they do not agree, and the one attacks and slays the other. Anotherbrother appears on the scene, who seems to be the one slain, who has cometo life, and the two are given wives by the Being who was the Creator ofthings. These two women were perfectly beautiful, but invisible to theeyes of mortals. The one was named, The Woman of the Light or The Woman ofthe Morning; the other was the Woman of Darkness or the Woman of Evening. The brothers lived together in one tent with these women, who each in turnwent out to work. When the Woman of Light was at work, it was daytime;when the Woman of Darkness was at her labors, it was night. 

In the course of time one of the brothers disappeared and the otherdetermined to select a wife from one of the two women, as it seems he hadnot yet chosen. He watched what the Woman of Darkness did in her absence, and discovered that she descended into the waters and enjoyed the embracesof a monster, while the Woman of Light passed her time in feeding whitebirds. In course of time the former brought forth black man-serpents, while the Woman of Light was delivered of beautiful boys with white skins. The master of the house killed the former with his arrows, but preservedthe latter, and marrying the Woman of Light, became the father of thehuman race, and especially of the Dènè Dindjié, who have preserved thememory of him. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Monographie des Dènè Dindjié, par_ C. R. P. E. Petitot, pp. 84-87 (Paris, 1876). Elsewhere the writer says: "Tout d'abord je doisrappeler mon observation que presque toujours, dans les traditions Dènè, le couple primitif se compose de _deux frères_. " Ibid. , p. 62. ]

In another myth of this stock, clearly a version of the former, thisfather of the race is represented as a mighty bird, called _Yêl_, or_Yale_, or _Orelbale_, from the root _ell_, a term they apply toeverything supernatural. He took to wife the daughter of the Sun (theWoman of Light), and by her begat the race of man. He formed the dry landfor a place for them to live upon, and stocked the rivers with salmon, that they might have food. When he enters his nest it is day, but when heleaves it it is night; or, according to another myth, he has the two womenfor wives, the one of whom makes the day, the other the night. 

In the beginning Yêl was white in plumage, but he had an enemy, by name_Cannook_, with whom he had various contests, and by whose machinations hewas turned black. Yêl is further represented as the god of the winds andstorms, and of the thunder and lightning. [1]

[Footnote 1: For the extent and particulars of this myth, many of thedetails of which I omit, see Petitot, _ubi suprá_, pp. 68, 87, note;Matthew Macfie. _Travels in Vancouver Island and British Columbia_, pp. 452-455 (London, 1865); and J. K. Lord, _The Naturalist in Vancouver Islandand British Columbia_ (London, 1866). It is referred to by Mackenzie andother early writers. ]

Thus we find, even in this extremely low specimen of the native race, thesame basis for their mythology as in the most cultivated nations ofCentral America. Not only this; it is the same basis upon which is builtthe major part of the sacred stories of all early religions, in bothcontinents; and the excellent Father Petitot, who is so much impressed bythese resemblances that he founds upon them a learned argument to provethat the Dènè are of oriental extraction, [1] would have written more tothe purpose had his acquaintance with American religions been as extensiveas it was with those of Asiatic origin. 

[Footnote 1: See his "Essai sur l'Origine des Dènè-Dindjié, " in his_Monographie_, above quoted. ]

There is one point in all these myths which I wish to bring out forcibly. That is, the distinction which is everywhere drawn between the God ofLight and the Sun. Unless this distinction is fully comprehended, Americanmythology loses most of its meaning. 

The assertion has been so often repeated, even down to the latest writers, that the American Indians were nearly all sun-worshipers, that I takepains formally to contradict it. Neither the Sun nor the Spirit of the Sunwas their chief divinity. 

Of course, the daily history of the appearance and disappearance of lightis intimately connected with the apparent motion of the sun. Hence, in themyths there is often a seeming identification of the two, which I havebeen at no pains to avoid. But the identity is superficial only; itentirely disappears in other parts of the myth, and the conceptions, asfundamentally distinct, must be studied separately, to reach accurateresults. It is an easy, but by no means a profound method of treatingthese religions, to dismiss them all by the facile explanations of"animism, " and "sun and moon worship. "

I have said, and quoted strong authority to confirm the opinion, that thenative tribes of America have lost ground in morals and have retrogradedin their religious life since the introduction of Christianity. Their ownfaiths, though lower in form, had in them the germs of a religious andmoral evolution, more likely, with proper regulation, to lead these peopleto a higher plane of thought than the Aryan doctrines which were forcedupon them. 

This may seem a daring, even a heterodox assertion, but I think that mostmodern ethnologists will agree that it is no more possible for races inall stages of culture and of widely different faculties to receive withbenefit any one religion, than it is for them to thrive under one form ofgovernment, or to adopt with advantage one uniform plan of buildinghouses. The moral and religious life is a growth, and the brash wood ofancient date cannot be grafted on the green stem. It is well to rememberthat the heathendoms of America were very far from wanting living seeds ofsound morality and healthy mental education. I shall endeavor to pointthis out in a few brief paragraphs. 

In their origin in the human mind, religion and morality have nothing incommon. They are even antagonistic. At the root of all religions is thepassionate desire for the widest possible life, for the most unlimitedexercise of all the powers. The basis of all morality is self-sacrifice, the willingness to give up our wishes to the will of another. Thecriterion of the power of a religion is its ability to command thissacrifice; the criterion of the excellence of a religion is the extent towhich its commands coincide with the good of the race, with the loftystandard of the "categorical imperative. "

With these axioms well in mind, we can advance with confidence to examinethe claims of a religion. It will rise in the scale just in proportion asits behests, were they universally adopted, would permanently increase thehappiness of the human race. 

In their origin, as I have said, morality and religion are opposites; butthey are opposites which inevitably attract and unite. The first lesson ofall religions is that we gain by giving, that to secure any end we mustsacrifice something. This, too, is taught by all social intercourse, and, therefore, an acute German psychologist has set up the formula, " Allmanners are moral, "[1] because they all imply a subjection of the personalwill of the individual to the general will of those who surround him, asexpressed in usage and custom. 

[Footnote 1: "Alle Sitten sind sittlich. " Lazarus, _Ursprung der Sitte_, S. 5, quoted by Roskoff. I hardly need mention that our word _morality_, from _mos_, means by etymology, simply what is customary and of currentusage. The moral man is he who conforms himself to the opinions of themajority. This is also at the basis of Robert Browning's definition of apeople: "A people is but the attempt of many to rise to the completer lifeof one" (_A Soul's Tragedy_). ]

Even the religion which demands bloody sacrifices, which forces itsvotaries to futile and abhorrent rites, is at least training its adherentsin the virtues of obedience and renunciation, in endurance and confidence. 

But concerning American religions I need not have recourse to such aquestionable vindication. They held in them far nobler elements, as isproved beyond cavil by the words of many of the earliest missionariesthemselves. Bigoted and bitter haters of the native faiths, as they were, they discovered in them so much that was good, so much that approximatedto the purer doctrines that they themselves came to teach, that they haveleft on record many an attempt to prove that there must, in some remoteand unknown epoch, have come Christian teachers to the New World, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, monks from Ireland, or Asiatic disciples, toacquaint the natives with such salutary doctrines. It is precisely inconnection with the myths which I have been relating in this volume thatthese theories were put forth, and I have referred to them in variouspassages. 

The facts are as stated, but the credit of developing these elevated moralconceptions must not be refused to the red race. They are its ownproperty, the legitimate growth of its own religious sense. 

The hero-god, the embodiment of the Light of Day, is essentially a moraland beneficent creation. Whether his name be Michabo, Ioskeha, orQuetzalcoatl, Itzamna, Viracocha or Tamu, he is always the giver of laws, the instructor in the arts of social life, the founder of commonwealths, the patron of agriculture. He casts his influence in favor of peace, andagainst wars and deeds of violence. He punishes those who pursue iniquity, and he favors those who work for the good of the community. 

In many instances he sets an example of chaste living, of stricttemperance, of complete subjection of the lusts and appetites. I have butto refer to what I have already said of the Maya Kukulcan and the AztecQuetzalcoatl, to show this. Both are particularly noted as characters freefrom the taint of indulgence. 

Thus it occurred that the early monks often express surprise that these, whom they chose to call savages and heathens, had developed a moral law ofundeniable purity. "The matters that Bochica taught, " says the chroniclerPiedrahita, "were certainly excellent, inasmuch as these natives hold asright to do just the same that we do. " "The priests of these Muyscas, " hegoes on to say, "lived most chastely and with great purity of life, insomuch that even in eating, their food was simple and of small quantity, and they refrained altogether from women and marriage. Did one transgressin this respect, he was dismissed from the priesthood. "[1]

[Footnote 1: "Las cosas que el Bochica les enseñaba eran buenas, siendoassi, que tenian por malo lo mismo que nosotros tenemos por tal. "Piedrahita, _Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Reyno deGranada_, Lib. I, Cap. Iii. ]

The prayers addressed to these deities breathe as pure a spirit ofdevotion as many now heard in Christian lands. Change the names, and someof the formulas preserved by Christobal de Molina and Sahagun would notjar on the ears of a congregation in one of our own churches. 

Although sanguinary rites were common, they were not usual in the worshipof these highest divinities, but rather as propitiations to the demons ofthe darkness, or the spirits of the terrible phenomena of nature. The mildgod of light did not demand them. 

To appreciate the effect of all this on the mind of the race, let it beremembered that these culture-heroes were also the creators, the primaland most potent of divinities, and that usually many temples and a largecorps of priests were devoted to their worship, at least in the nations ofhigher civilization. These votaries were engaged in keeping alive themyth, in impressing the supposed commands of the deity on the people, andin imitating him in example and precept. Thus they had formed a loftyideal of man, and were publishing this ideal to their fellows. Certainlythis could not fail of working to the good of the nation, and of elevatingand purifying its moral conceptions. 

That it did so we have ample evidence in the authentic accounts of theancient society as it existed before the Europeans destroyed and corruptedit, and in the collections of laws, all distinctly stamped with the sealof religion, which have been preserved, as they were in vogue in Anahuac, Utatlan, Peru and other localities. [1] Any one who peruses these will seethat the great moral principles, the radical doctrines of individualvirtue, were clearly recognized and deliberately enforced as divine andcivil precepts in these communities. Moreover, they were generally andcheerfully obeyed, and the people of many of these lands were industrious, peaceable, moral, and happy, far more so than they have ever been since. 

[Footnote 1: The reader willing to pursue the argument further can findthese collections of ancient American laws in Sahagun, _Historia de NuevaEspaña_, for Mexico; in Geronimo Roman, _Republica de las IndiasOccidentales_, for Utatlan and other nations; for Peru in the _Relaciondel Origen, Descendencia, Politica, y Gobierno de los Incas, por ellicenciado Fernando de Santillan_ (published at Madrid. 1879); and for theMuyscas, in Piedrahita, _Hist. Gen. Del Nuevo Reyno de Granada_, Lib. Ii, cap. V. ]

There was also a manifest progress in the definition of the idea of God, that is, of a single infinite intelligence as the source and controllingpower of phenomena. We have it on record that in Peru this was the directfruit of the myth of Viracocha. It is related that the Inca Yupanguipublished to his people that to him had appeared Viracocha, withadmonition that he alone was lord of the world, and creator of all things;that he had made the heavens, the sun, and man; and that it was not rightthat these, his works, should receive equal homage with himself. Therefore, the Inca decreed that the image of Viracocha should thereafterbe assigned supremacy to those of all other divinities, and that notribute nor sacrifice should be paid to him, for He was master of all theearth, and could take from it as he chose. [1] This was evidently a directattempt on the part of an enlightened ruler to lift his people from alower to a higher form of religion, from idolatry to theism. The Inca evenwent so far as to banish all images of Viracocha from his temples, so thatthis, the greatest of gods, should be worshiped as an immaterial spiritonly. 

[Footnote 1: P. Joseph de Acosta, _Historia Natural y Moral de lasIndias_, Lib. Vi, cap. 31 (Barcelona, 1591). ]

A parallel instance is presented in Aztec annals. Nezahualcoyotzin, anenlightened ruler of Tezcuco, about 1450, was both a philosopher and apoet, and the songs which he left, seventy in number, some of which arestill preserved, breathe a spirit of emancipation from the idolatroussuperstition of his day. He announced that there was one only god, whosustained and created all things, and who dwelt above the ninth heaven, out of sight of man. No image was fitting for this divinity, nor did heever appear bodily to the eyes of men. But he listened to their prayersand received their souls. [1]

[Footnote 1: See Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, _Historica Chichimeca_, cap. Xlix; and Joseph Joaquin Granados y Galvez, _Tardes Americanas_, p. 90 (Mexico, 1778). ]

These traditions have been doubted, for no other reason than because itwas assumed that such thoughts were above the level of the red race. Butthe proper names and titles, unquestionably ancient and genuine, which Ihave analyzed in the preceding pages refute this supposition. 

We may safely affirm that other and stronger instances of the kind couldbe quoted, had the early missionaries preserved more extensively thesacred chants and prayers of the natives. In the Maya tongue of Yucatan acertain number of them have escaped destruction, and although they areopen to some suspicion of having been colored for proselytizing purposes, there is direct evidence from natives who were adults at the time of theConquest that some of their priests had predicted the time should comewhen the worship of one only God should prevail. This was nothing morethan another instance of the monotheistic idea finding its expression, andits apparition is not more extraordinary in Yucatan or Peru than inancient Egypt or Greece. 

The actual religious and moral progress of the natives was designedlyignored and belittled by the early missionaries and conquerors. Bishop LasCasas directly charges those of his day with magnifying the vices of theIndians and the cruelties of their worship; and even such a liberalthinker as Roger Williams tells us that he would not be present at theirceremonies, "Lest I should have been partaker of Satan's Inventions andWorships. "[1] This same prejudice completely blinded the first visitors tothe New World, and it was only the extravagant notion that Christianityhad at some former time been preached here that saved us most of thelittle that we have on record. 

[Footnote 1: Roger Williams, _A Key Into the Language of America_, p. 152. ]

Yet now and then the truth breaks through even this dense veil ofprejudice. For instance, I have quoted in this chapter the evidence of theSpanish chroniclers to the purity of the teaching attributed to Bochica. The effect of such doctrines could not be lost on a people who looked uponhim at once as an exemplar and a deity. Nor was it. The Spaniards haveleft strong testimony to the pacific and virtuous character of thatnation, and its freedom from the vices so prevalent in lower races. [1]

[Footnote 1: See especially the _Noticias sobre el Nuevo Reino deGranada_, in the _Colleccion de Documentos ineditos del Archivo deIndias_, vol. V, p. 529. ]

Now, as I dismiss from the domain of actual fact all these legendaryinstructors, the question remains, whence did these secluded tribes obtainthe sentiments of justice and morality which they loved to attribute totheir divine founders, and, in a measure, to practice themselves?

The question is pertinent, and with its answer I may fitly close thisstudy in American native religions. 

If the theory that I have advocated is correct, these myths had to do atfirst with merely natural occurrences, the advent and departure of thedaylight, the winds, the storm and the rains. The beneficent and injuriousresults of these phenomena were attributed to their personifications. Especially was the dispersal of darkness by the light regarded as thetransaction of all most favorable to man. The facilities that it gave himwere imputed to the goodness of the personified Spirit of Light, and by anatural association of ideas, the benevolent emotions and affectionsdeveloped by improving social intercourse were also brought into relationto this kindly Being. They came to be regarded as his behests, and, in thenational mind, he grew into a teacher of the friendly relations of man toman, and an ideal of those powers which "make for righteousness. " Priestsand chieftains favored the acceptance of these views, because they felttheir intrinsic wisdom, and hence the moral evolution of the nationproceeded steadily from its mythology. That the results achieved weresimilar to those taught by the best religions of the eastern world shouldnot excite any surprise, for the basic principles of ethics are the sameeverywhere and in all time. 

THE END. 

INDEXES. 

I. INDEX OF AUTHORS. 

Acosta, J. DeAlegre, F. X. Anales del Museo Nacional de MejicoAncona, EligioAngrand, L. Annals of CuauhtitlanAntonio, G. Argoll, CaptAvila, Francisco de

Bancroft, H. H. Baraga, FrederickBasalenque, D. BecerraBeltran, de Santa RosaBerendt, C. H. Bernal DiazBertonio, L. Betanzos, Juan deBobadilla, F. DeBoturini, L. Bourbourg, Brasseur de, see Brasseur. Brasseur (de Bourbourg), C. Buschmann, J. C. E. Buteux, Father

Cabrera, P. F. Campanius, ThomasCampbell, JohnCarriedo, J. B. Carrillo, CrescencioCharency, H. DeCharlevoix, PéreChavero, AlfredoChaves, Gabriel deChilan Balam, Books ofClavigero, Francesco S. Codex BorgianusCodex Telleriano-RemensisCodex TroanoCodex VaticanusCogolludo, D. L. DeComte, AugusteCortes, HernanCox, Sir George W. Cuoq, J. A. Cusic, David

Desjardins, E. D'Orbigny, A. Duran, Diego

Elder, F. X. 

Fischer, HeinrichFranco, P. Fuen-Leal, Ramirez de

Gabriel de San BuenaventuraGarcia, G. Garcia y Garcia, A. Gatschet, A. S. Gomara, F. L. Granados y Galvez, J. J. 

Hale, HoratioHaupt, PaulHernandez, FranciscoHernandez, M. Herrera, Antonio deHolguin, D. G. Humbolt, A. V. 

Ixtlilxochitl, F. A. De

Jourdanet, M. 

Keary, Charles F. Kingsborough, Lord

Lalemant, FatherLanda, D. DeLang, J. D. Las Casas, B. DeLazarus, Prof. Leon, Cieza deLe Plongeon, Dr. Lizana, B. Lord, J. K. Lubbock, Sir John

Macfie, M. Mangan, ClarenceMarkham, C. R. Melgar, J. M. Mendieta, Geronimo deMendoza, G. Molina, Alonso deMolina, C. DeMontejo, Francisco deMotolinia, PadreMotul, Diccionario deMüller, Max

Nieremberg, E. DeNobrega, E. 

Ollanta, drama ofOlmos, Andre deOrozco y Berra, SeñorOviedo, G. F. De

Pachacuti, J. DePech, NakukPerrot, NicholasPetitot, P. E. Piedrahita, L. T. Pimentel, F. Pinart, A. L. Pineda, E. Pio Perez, J. Popol Vuh, thePorto Seguro, V. DePrescott, W. H. 

Rau, CharlesRea, A. De laRialle, G. DeRoman, H. Roskoff, GustavRuiz, A. 

Sagard PéreSahagun, B. DeSanchez, JesusSantillan, F. DeSchoolcraft, H. R. Schultz-Sellack, Dr. C. Schwartz, F. L. W. Short, J. T. Simeon, RemiSimon, P. Sotomayor, J. De V. Squier, B. G. Stephens, J. L. Strachey, William

Tanner, JohnTaylor, S. Techo, N. DeTernaux-Compans, MTezozomoc, A. Tiele, C. P. Tobar, Juan deToledo, F. DeTorquemada, Juan deTrumbull, J. H. Tschudi, J. J. Von

Uricoechea, E. 

Valera, BlasVega, Garcillaso, de laVega, Nuñez de laVeitia

Waitz, Th. Wiener, C. Williams, Roger

Xahila, F. E. A. 

Zegarra, G. P. 

II. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 

Abancay, in PeruAbstract expressionsAcan, Maya god of wineAcantun, Maya deitiesAges of the worldAh-kiuic, deity of the MayasAh-puchah, deity of the MayasAir, gods of; see WindAlgonkins, their location " their hero-mythAmun, Egyptian deityAnahuacAnimiki, the thunder godArawack languageAres, the GreekArnava, name of ViracochaApotampoArama, deity of the MoxosArrival, the Great and LessAtaensic, an Iroquois deityAtahualpa IncaAtecpanamochco, the bath of QuetzalcoatlAthabascan myths and languagesAticsi, epithet of ViracochaAurora, myths of; see DawnAyar, AnccaAyar Cachi, a name of ViracochaAyar MancoAyar UchuAymaras, myths of " language ofAztecs, location ofAztecs in YucatanAztlan, meaning of

Bacabs, the fourBaldur, the NorseBall, the game ofBearded hero-godBelly, the, in symbolismBird, symbol ofBisexual deitiesBochica, hero-god of the MuyscasBorrowing in mythsButterfly, the, as a symbol of the wind

Cadmus, the myth ofCakchiquels, myths ofCamaxtli, a name of TezcatlipocaCanas tribeCanil, a name of ItzamnaCannook, deity of DènèCarapaco, lake ofCarcha, town ofCardinal points, worship ofCaylla, epithet of ViracochaCe Acatl, One Reed, a name of QuetzalcoatlCe Acatl InacuilCemi, deity of ArawacksChac, deity of the MayasChacamarca, river ofChac Mool, supposed idolChalchihuitlChalchiuitlicue, Aztec goddessChalchihuitzli, Aztec deityChalchiuhapan, the bath of QuetzalcoatlChasca, Qquichua deityChem, Egyptian deityChibchas, see MuyscasChibilias, a Maya goddessChichen ItzaChichimees, theChickaban, a festivalChicomecoatl, an Aztec deityChicomoztocChimalmanChimalmatlChimizapagua, name of BochicaChivim, land ofChnum, Egyptian deityChoctaws, myth ofCholulaChristianity, effects ofCincalco, Cave ofCipactli, in Aztec mythCipactonal, in Aztec mythCitlatonac, an Aztec deityCitlallicue, an Aztec deityCitlaltlachtliCoatl, in NahuatlCoatecalli, the Aztec PantheonCoatlicue, Aztec goddessCocoms, theColhuacanColla, a Peruvian deityColors, symbolism ofCon, Peruvian deityConcachaConchuyCondorcoto, the mountainCondoy, hero-god of MixesCoto, villageCoyote, sacred to TezcatlipocaCozcapan, fountain ofCozumel, cross ofCross, the, symbol ofCuchaviva, goddess of MuyscasCueravaperi, goddess of TarascosCuernava, cave ofCum-ahau, a Maya deityCuricaberis, deity of TarascosCuzco, founding of " temple of

Darkness, powers ofDawn, the mansion of the " myths ofDènè, myths ofDrum, the sacredDyaus, the Aryan godDyonisiac worship, the

East, sacredness ofEchuac, a Maya deityEgyptian mythologyEurope, carried off by Zeus

Fafnir, the dragonFatal children, the myth ofFire, origin ofFive eggs, theFlint stone, myths ofFlood myth, theFour brothers, the myths of " sacred numbers " roads to the underworldFreya, Norse goddessFrog, as symbol of water

Genesiac principle, worship ofGijigonai, the day makersGlittering heath, theGolden locks of the hero-godGreat Bear, constellation ofGuanacaure, mountain ofGuaranis tribeGuaymis, tribe of DarienGuazacoalcoGucumatz, god of Kiches

HachaccunaHanmachis, the sun-godHeart, symbol ofHenotheism in religionsHermaphrodite deitiesHermes, Greek myth ofHill of Heaven, theHobnel, deity of the MayasHomonomyHuanacauriHuastecs, theHuarachiri Indians, myth ofHuayna Capac, IncaHuehuetlan, town ofHuemac, a name of QuetzalcoatlHueytecpatl, an Aztec deityHue TlapallanHueytonantzin, an Aztec deityHuitzilopochtli, Aztec deity birth ofHuitznahna, Aztec deityHunchbacks, attendant on QuetzalcoatlHunhunahpu, a Kiche deityHunpictok, a Maya deityHurons, myth ofHurukan, god of Kiches

Idea of God, evolution ofIlla, name of ViracochaIncas, empire ofIndraIoskeha, the myth of " derivation ofIroquois, their location " hero myth ofItzamal, city ofItzamna, the Maya hero god " his namesItzas, a Maya tribeItztlacoliuhqui, Aztec deityIx-chebel-yax, Maya goddessIxchel, the rainbow goddessIxcuin, an Aztec deityIzona, error for ItzamnaIztac Mixcoatl

Jupiter, the planet

Kabironokka, the NorthKabil, a name of ItzamnaKabun, the WestKiches, myths ofKinich ahau, a name of ItzamnaKinich ahau habanKinich kakmo, a name of ItzamnaKukulcan, myth of " meaning of name

Languages, sacred, of priests " AmericanLaws, native AmericanLif, the TeutonicLight, its place in mythologyLight-god, the " color ofLight, woman ofLucifer, worshiped by Mayas

Maize, origin ofManco CapacMani, province ofMarriage ceremoniesMaster of life, theMat, the virgin goddessMa TlapallanMayapan, destruction of " foundation ofMayas, myths of " language " ancestors of " prophecies ofMeconetzin, a name of QuetzalcoatlMeztitlan, province ofMichabo, myth of " derivation ofMichoacanMictlancalcoMirror, the magicMirrors, of AztecsMixcoatl, a name of TezcatlipocaMixes, tribeMonenequi, a name of TezcatlipocaMonotheism in PeruMoon, in Algonkin myths " in Aztec mythsMoquequeloa, a name of TezcatlipocaMorals and religionMorning, house of theMoxos, myths ofMoyocoyatzin, a name of TezcatlipocaMuskrat, in Algonkin mythologyMuyscas, myths of " laws of

Nahuatl, the languageNanacatltzatzi, an Aztec deityNanih WayehNanihehecatle, name of QuetzalcoatlNarcissus, the myth ofNemterequeteba, name of BochicaNezahualcoyotzin, Aztec rulerNezaualpilli, a name of TezcatlipocaNicaraguans, myths ofNonoalcoNuns, houses of

Oaxaca, province ofOcchuc, townOcelotl, theOdin, the NorseOjibway dialect, the " myth

Ometochtli, an Aztec deityOrelbale, Athabascan, deityOsiris, the myth ofOtomiesOtosis, in myth buildingOttawas, an Algonkin tribeOwl, as a symbol of the windOxomuco, in Aztec myth

Pacarina, the, in PeruPacari tampuPachacamacPachayachachi, epithet of ViracochaPalenque, the cross of " building ofPantecatl, Aztec deityPanuco, province ofPapachtic, a name of QuetzalcoatlPariacaca, a Peruvian deityParonymsParturition, symbol ofPaths of the godsPay zume, a hero-godPerseusPersonificationPeten, lakePhallic emblemsPhoebusPinahua, a Peruvian deityPirhuaPiruaPochotl son of QuetzalcoatlPolyonomy in myth buildingPrayers, purpose of " to Quetzalcoatl " to ViraoochaProper names in American languagesProphecies of MayasProsopopeiaPulque, myths concerning

QABAUIL, god of KichesQquichua languageQquonn, Peruvian deityQuateczizque, priests so-calledQuauhtitlanQuetzalcoatl identified with the East meaning of the name as god contest with Tezcatlipoca the hero of Tula worshiped in Cholula born of a virgin his bath as the planet Venus as lord of the winds god of thieves representationsQuetzalpetlatl

Ra, the Sun-godRabbit, the giant " in Algonkin myths " in Aztec mythsRainbow, as a deityRains, gods ofRed Land, the, see TlapallanReligions, classifications of " the essence of " and moralsRepose, the place ofReproduction, myths concerningResurrection, belief inRomulus and Remus

Sand, place ofSarama and Sarameyas, a Sanscrit mythSerpent symbol, theSerpents, the king ofSeven brothers, the " caves or tribes, theShawano, the southShu, Egyptian deitySkunk, sacred to TezcatlipocaSnailshell symbolSogamoso, townSoma, the intoxicatingSons of the cloudsSterility, relief fromSua, name of BochicaSun worship in Peru " in AmericaSun, the city ofSuns, the AztecSurites, deity of Tarascos

Tahuantin Suyu kapacTampuquiruTamu, a hero-godTapirsTarascosTaripaca, epithet of ViracochaTawiscara, in Iroquois mythTecpancaltzin, a Toltec kingTecpatl, an Aztec deityTehotennhiaron, Iroquois deityTehunatepec tribesTeimatini, a name of TezcatlipocaTelephassa, mother of CadmusTelpochtli, a name of TezctlipocaTentetemic, an Aztec deityTeocolhuacanTeometl, theTexcalapanTexcaltlauhcoTeyocoyani, a name of TezcatlipocaTezcatlachcoTezcatlipoca, Aztec deity his names derivation of name as twins contests with Quetzalcoatl slays Ometochli dressed in the tiger skinTezcatlipoca-CamaxtliTezcucoTharonhiawakon, in IroquoisThomas, Saint, in AmericaThunder, myth ofTiahuanaco, myth concerningTicci, name of ViracochaTiger, as a symbolTiticaca lakeTitlacauan, a name of TezcatlipocaTizapan, the White LandTlacauepanTlaloc, Aztec deityTlalocanTlamatzincatl, a name of TezcatlipocaTlanqua-cemilhuique, a name of the ToltecsTlapallanTlatlallan, the fire landTlillan, the dark landThllapa, the murky landThlpotonqui, a name of QuetzalcoatlTocapo, epithet of ViracochaToh, a Kiche deityTokay, epithet of ViracochaTollan, see TulaTollan-CholollanTollan TlapallanTollantzincoToltecs, theTonalanTonatlanTonaca cihuatl, an Aztec deityTonaca tecutli, Aztec deityTopiltzin, a name of QuetzalcoatlToltec, an Aztec deityTotems, origin ofToveyo, theTree of life, theTree of the MirrorTualati, myth ofTukupay, epithet of ViracochaTula, the mythical city ofTum, Egyptian deityTume, a hero-godTunapa, name of ViracochaTupac Yupanqui, IncaTupi-Guaranay tribesTwins, in mythologyTwo brothers, myths ofTzatzitepec, the hill of shoutingTzendals, hero-myth ofTzinteotl, Aztec deityTtzitzimime, Aztec deities

Uac metun ahau, a name of ItzamnaUalum chivimUalum uotanUrcos, temple ofUsapu, epithet of ViracochaUtatlan, province of

Vase, lord of theVenus, the planet, in mythsViracocha, myth of " meaning of " statues of " worship ofVirgin cow, the, in EgyptVirgin-mother, myth ofVirgins of the sun, in PeruVotan, hero-god of Tzendals

Wabawang, the morning starWabun, or the EastWater, in mythology " gods ofWest, in mythologyWest wind, theWheel of the months " of the windsWhite hero-god, the " land " serpentWinds, gods ofWorld-stream, the

XalacXbalanque, hero-god of KichesXicapoyan, the bath of QuetzalcoatlXilotzin, son of QuetzalcoatlXiu, Maya family ofXmukane, in Kiche mythXochitl, the maidenXochitlycacan, the rose gardenXochiquetzal, an Aztec deity

Yacacoliuhqui, Aztec deityYacatecutli, Aztec deityYahualli ehecatl, a name of QuetzalcoatlYalahau, deity of TzendalsYale, deity of the DènèYamquesupa, lake ofYaotlnecoc, a name of TezcatlipocaYaotzin, a name of TezcatlipocaYaqui, derivation ofYax-coc-ahmut, a name of ItzamnaYêl, deity of DènèYmamana ViracochaYoalli ehecatl, a name of TezcatlipocaYoamaxtli, a name of TezcatlipocaYoel of the windsYolcuat QuetzalcoatYucatanYunca languageYupanqui, Inca

ZacuanZapala, epithet of ViracochaZapotecs, tribeZeus, the GreekZipacna, a Kiche dietyZitacuarencuaro, a festivalZivena vitzcatlZoques, tribeZuhe, name of BochicaZume, a hero-godZuyva, Tollan in