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 THE MYTHS OF THE NEW WORLD

 A TREATISE ON THE SYMBOLISM AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE RED RACE OF AMERICA

 BY

 DANIEL G. BRINTON, A. M. , M. D. _Memb. Hist. Soc. Of Penn. ; of Numismat. And Antiq. Soc. Of Philada. ; Corresp. Memb. Amer. Ethnolog. Soc. ; author of "Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, " Etc. _

 NEW YORK LEYPOLDT & HOLT LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO. 1868

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by DANIEL G. BRINTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 

PREFACE. 

I have written this work more for the thoughtful general reader than theantiquary. It is a study of an obscure portion of the intellectualhistory of our species as exemplified in one of its varieties. 

What are man's earliest ideas of a soul and a God, and of his own originand destiny? Why do we find certain myths, such as of a creation, aflood, an after-world; certain symbols, as the bird, the serpent, thecross; certain numbers, as the three, the four, the seven--intimatelyassociated with these ideas by every race? What are the laws of growthof natural religions? How do they acquire such an influence, and is thisinfluence for good or evil? Such are some of the universally interestingquestions which I attempt to solve by an analysis of the simple faithsof a savage race. 

If in so doing I succeed in investing with a more general interest thefruitful theme of American ethnology, my objects will have beenaccomplished. 

 PHILADELPHIA, April, 1868. 

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE RED RACE. PAGENatural religions the unaided attempts of man to find out God, modified by peculiarities of race and nation. --The peculiarities ofthe red race: 1. Its languages unfriendly to abstract ideas. Nativemodes of writing by means of pictures, symbols, objects, and phoneticsigns. These various methods compared in their influence on theintellectual faculties. 2. Its isolation, unique in the history of theworld. 3. Beyond all others, a hunting race. --Principal linguisticsubdivisions: 1. The Eskimos. 2. The Athapascas. 3. The Algonkins andIroquois. 4. The Apalachian tribes. 5. The Dakotas. 6. The Aztecs. 7. The Mayas. 8. The Muyscas. 9. The Quichuas. 10. The Caribs and Tupis. 11. The Araucanians. --General course of migrations. --Age of man inAmerica. --Unity of type in the red race 1

CHAPTER II. 

THE IDEA OF GOD. 

An intuition common to the species. --Words expressing it in Americanlanguages derived either from ideas of above in space, or of lifemanifested by breath. --Examples. --No conscious monotheism, and butlittle idea of immateriality discoverable. --Still less any moraldualism of deities, the Great Good Spirit and the Great Bad Spiritbeing alike terms and notions of foreign importation 43

CHAPTER III. 

THE SACRED NUMBER, ITS ORIGIN AND APPLICATIONS. 

The number Four sacred in all American religions, and the key to theirsymbolism. --Derived from the CARDINAL POINTS. --Appears constantly ingovernment, arts, rites, and myths. --The Cardinal Points identifiedwith the Four Winds, who in myths are the four ancestors of the humanrace, and the four celestial rivers watering the terrestrialParadise. --Associations grouped around each Cardinal Point. --From thenumber four was derived the symbolic value of the number _Forty_ andthe _Sign of the Cross_ 66

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIRD AND THE SERPENT. 

Relations of man to the lower animals. --Two of these, the BIRD and theSERPENT, chosen as symbols beyond all others. --The Bird throughoutAmerica the symbol of the Clouds and Winds. --Meaning of certainspecies. --The symbolic meaning of the Serpent derived from its mode oflocomotion, its poisonous bite, and its power of charming. --Usuallythe symbol of the lightning and the Waters. --The Rattlesnake thesymbolic species in America. --The war charm. --The Cross ofPalenque. --The god of riches. --Both symbols devoid of moralsignificance 99

CHAPTER V. 

THE MYTHS OF WATER, FIRE, AND THE THUNDER-STORM. 

Water the oldest element. --Its use in purification. --Holy water. --TheRite of Baptism. --The Water of Life. --Its symbols. --The Vase. --TheMoon. --The latter the goddess of love and agriculture, but also ofsickness, night, and pain. --Often represented by a dog. --Fire worshipunder the form of Sun worship. --The perpetual fire. --The newfire. --Burning the dead. --A worship of the passions, but no sexualdualism in myths, nor any phallic worship in America. --Synthesis ofthe worship of Fire, Water, and the Winds in the THUNDER-STORM, personified as Haokah, Tupa, Catequil, Contici, Heno, Tlaloc, Mixcoatl, and other deities, many of them triune 122

CHAPTER VI. 

THE SUPREME GODS OF THE RED RACE. 

Analysis of American culture myths. --The Manibozho or Michabo ofthe Algonkins shown to be an impersonation of LIGHT, a hero of theDawn, and their highest deity. --The myths of Ioskeha of theIroquois, Viracocha of the Peruvians, and Quetzalcoatl of theToltecs essentially the same as that of Michabo. --Otherexamples. --Ante-Columbian prophecies of the advent of a white racefrom the east as conquerors. --Rise of later culture myths undersimilar forms 159

CHAPTER VII. 

THE MYTHS OF THE CREATION, THE DELUGE, THE EPOCHS OF NATURE, AND THELAST DAY. 

Cosmogonies usually portray the action of the SPIRIT on theWATERS. --Those of the Muscogees, Athapascas, Quichés, Mixtecs, Iroquois, Algonkins, and others. --The Flood-Myth an unconsciousattempt to reconcile a creation in time with the eternity ofmatter. --Proof of this from American mythology. --Characteristics ofAmerican Flood-Myths. --The person saved usually the first man. --Thenumber seven. --Their Ararats. --The rôle of birds. --The confusion oftongues. --The Aztec, Quiché, Algonkin, Tupi, and earliest Sanscritflood-myths. --The belief in Epochs of Nature a further result of thisattempt at reconciliation. --Its forms among Peruvians, Mayas, andAztecs. --The expectation of the End of the World a corollary of thisbelief. --Views of various nations 193

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 

Usually man is the EARTH-BORN, both in language andmyths. --Illustrations from the legends of the Caribs, Apalachians, Iroquois, Quichuas, Aztecs, and others. --The under-world. --Man theproduct of one of the primal creative powers, the Spirit, or theWater, in the myths of the Athapascas, Eskimos, Moxos, andothers--Never literally derived from an inferior species 222

CHAPTER IX. 

THE SOUL AND ITS DESTINY. 

Universality of the belief in a soul and a future state shown by theaboriginal tongues, by expressed opinions, and by sepulchral rites. The future world never a place of rewards and punishments. --The houseof the Son the heaven of the red man. --The terrestrial paradise andthe under-world. --Çupay. --Xibalba. --Mictlan. --Metempsychosis?--Beliefin a resurrection of the dead almost universal 233

CHAPTER X. 

THE NATIVE PRIESTHOOD. 

Their titles. --Practitioners of the healing art by supernaturalmeans. --Their power derived from natural magic and the exercise of theclairvoyant and mesmeric faculties. --Examples. --Epidemichysteria. --Their social position. --Their duties as religiousfunctionaries. --Terms of admission to the Priesthood. --Innerorganization in various nations. --Their esoteric language and secretsocieties 263

CHAPTER XI. 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE NATIVE RELIGIONS ON THE MORALAND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE RACE. 

Natural religions hitherto considered of Evil rather than ofGood. --Distinctions to be drawn. --Morality not derived fromreligion. --The positive side of natural religions in incarnations ofdivinity. --Examples. --Prayers as indices of religiousprogress. --Religion and social advancement. --Conclusion 287

THE MYTHS OF THE NEW WORLD. 

CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RED RACE. 

 Natural religions the unaided attempts of man to find out God, modified by peculiarities of race and nation. --The peculiarities of the red race: 1. Its languages unfriendly to abstract ideas. Native modes of writing by means of pictures, symbols, objects, and phonetic signs. These various methods compared in their influence on the intellectual faculties. 2. Its isolation, unique in the history of the world. 3. Beyond all others, a hunting race. --Principal linguistic subdivisions: 1. The Eskimos. 2. The Athapascas. 3. The Algonkins and Iroquois. 4. The Apalachian tribes. 5. The Dakotas. 6. The Aztecs. 7. The Mayas. 8. The Muyscas. 9. The Quichuas. 10. The Caribs and Tupis. 11. The Araucanians. --General course of migrations. --Age of man in America. --Unity of type in the red race. 

When Paul, at the request of the philosophers of Athens, explained tothem his views on divine things, he asserted, among other startlingnovelties, that "God has made of one blood all nations of the earth, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him andfind him, though he is not far from every one of us. "

Here was an orator advocating the unity of the human species, affirmingthat the chief end of man is to develop an innate idea of God, and thatall religions, except the one he preached, were examples of more orless unsuccessful attempts to do so. No wonder the Athenians, whoacknowledged no kinship to barbarians, who looked dubiously at thedoctrine of innate ideas, and were divided in opinion as to whethertheir mythology was a shrewd device of legislators to keep the populacein subjection, a veiled natural philosophy, or the celestial reflex oftheir own history, mocked at such a babbler and went their ways. Thegenerations of philosophers that followed them partook of their doubtsand approved their opinions, quite down to our own times. But now, afterweighing the question maturely, we are compelled to admit that theApostle was not so wide of the mark after all--that, in fact, the latestand best authorities, with no bias in his favor, support his positionand may almost be said to paraphrase his words. For according to awriter who ranks second to none in the science of ethnology, theseverest and most recent investigations show that "not only doacknowledged facts permit the assumption of the unity of the humanspecies, but this opinion is attended with fewer discrepancies, and hasgreater inner consistency than the opposite one of specificdiversity. "[2-1] And as to the religions of heathendom, the view ofSaint Paul is but expressed with a more poetic turn by a distinguishedliving author when he calls them "not fables, but truths, though clothedin a garb woven by fancy, wherein the web is the notion of God, theideal of reason in the soul of man, the thought of the Infinite. "[2-2]

Inspiration and science unite therefore to bid us dismiss the effeteprejudice that natural religions either arise as the ancientphilosophies taught, or that they are, as the Dark Ages imagined, subtlenets of the devil spread to catch human souls. They are rather theunaided attempts of man to find out God; they are the efforts of thereason struggling to define the infinite; they are the expressions ofthat "yearning after the gods" which the earliest of poets discerned inthe hearts of all men. Studied in this sense they are rich in teachings. Would we estimate the intellectual and æsthetic culture of a people, would we generalize the laws of progress, would we appreciate thesublimity of Christianity, and read the seals of its authenticity: thenatural conceptions of divinity reveal them. No mythologies are socrude, therefore, none so barbarous, but deserve the attention of thephilosophic mind, for they are never the empty fictions of an idlefancy, but rather the utterances, however inarticulate, of an immortaland ubiquitous intuition. 

These considerations embolden me to approach with some confidence eventhe aboriginal religions of America, so often stigmatized as incoherentfetichisms, so barren, it has been said, in grand or beautifulcreations. The task bristles with difficulties. Carelessness, prepossessions, and ignorance have disfigured them with false colors andforeign additions without number. The first maxim, therefore, must be tosift and scrutinize authorities, and to reject whatever betrays theplastic hand of the European. For the religions developed by the redrace, not those mixed creeds learned from foreign invaders, are to bethe subjects of our study. Then will remain the formidable undertakingof reducing the authentic materials thus obtained to system and order, and this not by any preconceived theory of what they ought to conformto, but learning from them the very laws of religious growth theyillustrate. The historian traces the birth of arts, science, andgovernment to man's dependence on nature and his fellows for the meansof self-preservation. Not that man receives these endowments fromwithout, but that the stern step-mother, Nature, forces him by threatsand stripes to develop his own inherent faculties. So with religion: Theidea of God does not, and cannot, proceed from the external world, but, nevertheless, it finds its _historical_ origin also in the desperatestruggle for life, in the satisfaction of the animal wants and passions, in those vulgar aims and motives which possessed the mind of theprimitive man to the exclusion of everything else. 

There is an ever present embarrassment in such inquiries. In dealingwith these matters beyond the cognizance of the senses, the mind isforced to express its meaning in terms transferred from sensuousperceptions, or under symbols borrowed from the material world. Thesetransfers must be understood, these symbols explained, before the realmeaning of a myth can be reached. He who fails to guess the riddle ofthe sphynx, need not hope to gain admittance to the shrine. Withdelicate ear the faint whispers of thought must be apprehended whichprompt the intellect when it names the immaterial from the material;when it chooses from the infinity of visible forms those meet to shadowforth Divinity. 

Two lights will guide us on this venturesome path. Mindful of thewatchword of inductive science, to proceed from the known to theunknown, the inquiry will be put whether the aboriginal languages ofAmerica employ the same tropes to express such ideas as deity, spirit, and soul, as our own and kindred tongues. If the answer proveaffirmative, then not only have we gained a firm foothold whence tosurvey the whole edifice of their mythology; but from an unexpectedquarter arises evidence of the unity of our species far weightier thanany mere anatomy can furnish, evidence from the living soul, not fromthe dead body. True that the science of American linguistics is still inits infancy, and that a proper handling of the materials it even nowoffers involves a more critical acquaintance with its innumerabledialects than I possess; but though the gleaning be sparse, it is enoughthat I break the ground. Secondly, religious rites are livingcommentaries on religious beliefs. At first they are ruderepresentations of the supposed doings of the gods. The Indianrain-maker mounts to the roof of his hut, and rattling vigorously a drygourd containing pebbles, to represent the thunder, scatters waterthrough a reed on the ground beneath, as he imagines up above in theclouds do the spirits of the storm. Every spring in ancient Delphi wasrepeated in scenic ceremony the combat of Apollo and the Dragon, thevictory of the lord of bright summer over the demon of chilling winter. Thus do forms and ceremonies reveal the meaning of mythology, and theorigin of its fables. 

Let it not be objected that this proposed method of analysis assumesthat religions begin and develop under the operation of inflexible laws. The soul is shackled by no fatalism. Formative influences there are, deep seated, far reaching, escaped by few, but like those which of yoreastrologers imputed to the stars, they potently incline, they do notcoerce. Language, pursuits, habits, geographical position, and thosesubtle mental traits which make up the characteristics of races andnations, all tend to deflect from a given standard the religious life ofthe individual and the mass. It is essential to give these due weight, and a necessary preface therefore to an analysis of the myths of the redrace is an enumeration of its peculiarities, and of its chief familiesas they were located when first known to the historian. 

Of all such modifying circumstances none has greater importance than themeans of expressing and transmitting intellectual action. The spoken andthe written language of a nation reveal to us its prevailing, and to acertain degree its unavoidable mode of thought. Here the red race offersa striking phenomenon. There is no other trait that binds together itsscattered clans, and brands them as members of one great family, sounmistakably as this of language. From the Frozen Ocean to the Land ofFire, without a single exception, the native dialects, though varyinginfinitely in words, are marked by a peculiarity in construction whichis found nowhere else on the globe, [6-1] and which is so foreign to thegenius of _our_ tongue that it is no easy matter to explain it. It iscalled by philologists the _polysynthetic_ construction. What it is willbest appear by comparison. Every grammatical sentence conveys oneleading idea with its modifications and relations. Now a Chinese wouldexpress these latter by unconnected syllables, the precise bearing ofwhich could only be guessed by their position; a Greek or a German woulduse independent words, indicating their relations by terminationsmeaningless in themselves; an Englishman gains the same end chiefly bythe use of particles and by position. Very different from all these isthe spirit of a polysynthetic language. It seeks to unite in the mostintimate manner all relations and modifications with the leading idea, to merge one in the other by altering the forms of the words themselvesand welding them together, to express the whole in one word, and tobanish any conception except as it arises in relation to others. Thus inmany American tongues there is, in fact, no word for father, mother, brother, but only for my, your, his father, etc. This has advantages anddefects. It offers marvellous facilities for defining the perceptions ofthe senses with the utmost accuracy, but regarding everything in theconcrete, it is unfriendly to the nobler labors of the mind, toabstraction and generalization. In the numberless changes of theselanguages, their bewildering flexibility, their variable forms, andtheir rapid deterioration, they seem to betray a lack of individuality, and to resemble the vague and tumultuous history of the tribes whoemploy them. They exhibit an almost incredible laxity. It is nothinguncommon for the two sexes to use different names for the same object, and for nobles and vulgar, priests and people, the old and the young, nay, even the married and single, to observe what seem to the Europeanear quite different modes of expression. Families and whole villagessuddenly drop words and manufacture others in their places out of merecaprice or superstition, and a few years' separation suffices to producea marked dialectic difference. In their copious forms and facility ofreproduction they remind one of those anomalous animals, in whom, when alimb is lopped, it rapidly grows again, or even if cut in pieces eachpart will enter on a separate life quite unconcerned about his fellows. But as the naturalist is far from regarding this superabundant vitalityas a characteristic of a higher type, so the philologist justly assignsthese tongues a low position in the linguistic scale. Fidelity to form, here as everywhere, is the test of excellence. At the outset, we divinethere can be nothing very subtle in the mythologies of nations with suchlanguages. Much there must be that will be obscure, much that is vague, an exhausting variety in repetition, and a strong tendency to lose theidea in the symbol. 

What definiteness of outline might be preserved must depend on the carewith which the old stories of the gods were passed from one person andone generation to another. The fundamental myths of a race have asurprising tenacity of life. How many centuries had elapsed between theperiod the Germanic hordes left their ancient homes in Central Asia, andwhen Tacitus listened to their wild songs on the banks of the Rhine? Yetwe know that through those unnumbered ages of barbarism and aimlessroving, these songs, "their only sort of history or annals, " says thehistorian, had preserved intact the story of Mannus, the Sanscrit Manu, and his three sons, and of the great god Tuisco, the Indian Dyu. [9-1] Somuch the more do all means invented by the red race to record andtransmit thought merit our careful attention. Few and feeble they seemto us, mainly shifts to aid the memory. Of some such, perhaps, not asingle tribe was destitute. The tattoo marks on the warrior's breast, his string of gristly scalps, the bear's claws around his neck, were notonly trophies of his prowess, but records of his exploits, and to thecontemplative mind contain the rudiments of the beneficent art ofletters. Did he draw in rude outline on his skin tent figures of mentransfixed with arrows as many as he had slain enemies, his educationwas rapidly advancing. He had mastered the elements of _picturewriting_, beyond which hardly the wisest of his race progressed. Figuresof the natural objects connected by symbols having fixed meanings makeup the whole of this art. The relative frequency of the latter marks itsadvancement from a merely figurative to an ideographic notation. On whatprinciple of mental association a given sign was adopted to express acertain idea, why, for instance, on the Chipeway scrolls a circle means_spirits_, and a horned snake _life_, it is often hard to guess. Thedifficulty grows when we find that to the initiated the same sign callsup quite different ideas, as the subject of the writer varies from warto love, or from the chase to religion. The connection is generallybeyond the power of divination, and the key to ideographic writing oncelost can never be recovered. 

The number of such arbitrary characters in the Chipeway notation is saidto be over two hundred, but if the distinction between a figure and asymbol were rigidly applied, it would be much reduced. This kind ofwriting, if it deserves the name, was common throughout the continent, and many specimens of it, scratched on the plane surfaces of stones, have been preserved to the present day. Such is the once celebratedinscription on Dighton Rock, Massachusetts, long supposed to be a recordof the Northmen of Vinland; such those that mark the faces of the cliffswhich overhang the waters of the Orinoco, and those that in Oregon, Peru, and La Plata have been the subject of much curious speculation. They are alike the mute and meaningless epitaphs of vanishedgenerations. 

I would it could be said that in favorable contrast to our ignorance ofthese inscriptions is our comprehension of the highly wroughtpictography of the Aztecs. No nation ever reduced it more to a system. It was in constant use in the daily transactions of life. Theymanufactured for writing purposes a thick, coarse paper from the leavesof the agave plant by a process of maceration and pressure. An Aztecbook closely resembles one of our quarto volumes. It is made of asingle sheet, twelve to fifteen inches wide, and often sixty or seventyfeet long, and is not rolled, but folded either in squares or zigzags insuch a manner that on opening it there are two pages exposed to view. Thin wooden boards are fastened to each of the outer leaves, so that thewhole presents as neat an appearance, remarks Peter Martyr, as if it hadcome from the shop of a skilful bookbinder. They also covered buildings, tapestries, and scrolls of parchment with these devices, and fortrifling transactions were familiar with the use of _slates_ of softstone from which the figures could readily be erased with water. [11-1]What is still more astonishing, there is reason to believe, in someinstances, their figures were not painted, but actually _printed_ withmovable blocks of wood on which the symbols were carved in relief, though this was probably confined to those intended for ornament only. 

In these records we discern something higher than a mere symbolicnotation. They contain the germ of a phonetic alphabet, and representsounds of spoken language. The symbol is often not connected with the_idea_ but with the _word_. The mode in which this is done correspondsprecisely to that of the rebus. It is a simple method, readilysuggesting itself. In the middle ages it was much in vogue in Europe forthe same purpose for which it was chiefly employed in Mexico at the sametime--the writing of proper names. For example, the English familyBolton was known in heraldry by a _tun_ transfixed by a _bolt_. Precisely so the Mexican emperor Ixcoatl is mentioned in the Aztecmanuscripts under the figure of a serpent _coatl_, pierced by obsidianknives _ixtli_, and Moquauhzoma by a mouse-trap _montli_, an eagle_quauhtli_, a lancet _zo_, and a hand _maitl_. As a syllable could beexpressed by any object whose name commenced with it, as few words canbe given the form of a rebus without some change, as the figuressometimes represent their full phonetic value, sometimes only that oftheir initial sound, and as universally the attention of the artist wasdirected less to the sound than to the idea, the didactic painting ofthe Mexicans, whatever it might have been to them, is a sealed book tous, and must remain so in great part. Moreover, it is entirelyundetermined whether it should be read from the first to the last page, or _vice versa_, whether from right to left or from left to right, frombottom to top or from top to bottom, around the edges of the page towardthe centre, or each line in the opposite direction from the precedingone. There are good authorities for all these methods, [12-1] and theymay all be correct, for there is no evidence that any fixed rule hadbeen laid down in this respect. 

Immense masses of such documents were stored in the imperial archives ofancient Mexico. Torquemada asserts that five cities alone yielded to theSpanish governor on one requisition no less than sixteen thousandvolumes or scrolls! Every leaf was destroyed. Indeed, so thorough andwholesale was the destruction of these memorials now so precious in oureyes that hardly enough remain to whet the wits of antiquaries. In thelibraries of Paris, Dresden, Pesth, and the Vatican are, however, asufficient number to make us despair of deciphering them had we forcomparison all which the Spaniards destroyed. 

Beyond all others the Mayas, resident on the peninsula of Yucatan, wouldseem to have approached nearest a true phonetic system. They had aregular and well understood alphabet of twenty seven elementary sounds, the letters of which are totally different from those of any othernation, and evidently original with themselves. But besides these theyused a large number of purely conventional symbols, and moreover wereaccustomed constantly to employ the ancient pictographic method inaddition as a sort of commentary on the sound represented. What is morecurious, if the obscure explanation of an ancient writer can be dependedupon, they not only aimed to employ an alphabet after the manner ofours, but to express the sound absolutely like our phonographic signsdo. [13-1] With the aid of this alphabet, which has fortunately beenpreserved, we are enabled to spell out a few words on the Yucatecanmanuscripts and façades, but thus far with no positive results. The lossof the ancient pronunciation is especially in the way of such studies. 

In South America, also, there is said to have been a nation whocultivated the art of picture writing, the Panos, on the river Ucayale. A missionary, Narcisso Gilbar by name, once penetrated, with great toil, to one of their villages. As he approached he beheld a venerable manseated under the shade of a palm tree, with a great book open before himfrom which he was reading to an attentive circle of auditors the warsand wanderings of their forefathers. With difficulty the priest got asight of the precious volume, and found it covered with figures andsigns in marvellous symmetry and order. [14-1] No wonder such a romanticscene left a deep impression on his memory. 

The Peruvians adopted a totally different and unique system of records, that by means of the _quipu_. This was a base cord, the thickness of thefinger, of any required length, to which were attached numerous smallstrings of different colors, lengths, and textures, variously knottedand twisted one with another. Each of these peculiarities represented acertain number, a quality, quantity, or other idea, but _what_, not themost fluent _quipu_ reader could tell unless he was acquainted with thegeneral topic treated of. Therefore, whenever news was sent in thismanner a person accompanied the bearer to serve as verbal commentator, and to prevent confusion the _quipus_ relating to the variousdepartments of knowledge were placed in separate storehouses, one forwar, another for taxes, a third for history, and so forth. On whatprinciple or mnemotechnics the ideas were connected with the knots andcolors we are totally in the dark; it has even been doubted whether theyhad any application beyond the art of numeration. [14-2] Each combinationhad, however, a fixed ideographic value in a certain branch ofknowledge, and thus the _quipu_ differed essentially from the Catholicrosary, the Jewish phylactery, or the knotted strings of the natives ofNorth America and Siberia, to all of which it has at times beencompared. 

The _wampum_ used by the tribes of the north Atlantic coast was, in manyrespects, analogous to the quipu. In early times it was composed chieflyof bits of wood of equal size, but different colors. These were hung onstrings which were woven into belts and bands, the hues, shapes, sizes, and combinations of the strings hinting their general significance. Thusthe lighter shades were invariable harbingers of peaceful or pleasanttidings, while the darker portended war and danger. The substitution ofbeads or shells in place of wood, and the custom of embroidering figuresin the belts were, probably, introduced by European influence. 

Besides these, various simpler mnemonic aids were employed, such asparcels of reeds of different lengths, notched sticks, knots in cords, strings of pebbles or fruit-stones, circular pieces of wood or slabspierced with different figures which the English liken to "cony holes, "and at a victory, a treaty, or the founding of a village, sometimes apillar or heap of stones was erected equalling in number the personspresent at the occasion, or the number of the fallen. 

This exhausts the list. All other methods of writing, the hieroglyphs ofthe Micmacs of Acadia, the syllabic alphabet of the Cherokees, thepretended traces of Greek, Hebrew, and Celtiberic letters which havefrom time to time been brought to the notice of the public, have beenwithout exception the products of foreign civilization or simply frauds. Not a single coin, inscription, or memorial of any kind whatever, hasbeen found on the American continent showing the existence, eithergenerally or locally, of any other means of writing than thosespecified. 

Poor as these substitutes for a developed phonetic system seem to us, they were of great value to the uncultivated man. In his legends theirintroduction is usually ascribed to some heaven-sent benefactor, theantique characters were jealously adhered to, and the pictured scroll ofbark, the quipu ball, the belt of wampum, were treasured with providentcare, and their import minutely expounded to the most intelligent of therising generation. In all communities beyond the stage of barbarism aclass of persons was set apart for this duty and no other. Thus, forexample, in ancient Peru, one college of priests styled _amauta_, learned, had exclusive charge over the quipus containing themythological and historical traditions; a second, the _haravecs_, singers, devoted themselves to those referring to the national balladsand dramas; while a third occupied their time solely with thosepertaining to civil affairs. Such custodians preserved and prepared thearchives, learned by heart with their aid what their fathers knew, andin some countries, as, for instance, among the Panos mentioned above, and the Quiches of Guatemala, [16-1] repeated portions of them at timesto the assembled populace. It has even been averred by one of theirconverted chiefs, long a missionary to his fellows, that the Chipewaysof Lake Superior have a college composed of ten "of the wisest and mostvenerable of their nation, " who have in charge the pictured recordscontaining the ancient history of their tribe. These are kept in anunderground chamber, and are disinterred every fifteen years by theassembled guardians, that they may be repaired, and their contentsexplained to new members of the society. [17-1]

In spite of these precautions, the end seems to have been veryimperfectly attained. The most distinguished characters, the weightiestevents in national history faded into oblivion after a few generations. The time and circumstances of the formation of the league of the FiveNations, the dispersion of the mound builders of the Ohio valley in thefifteenth century, the chronicles of Peru or Mexico beyond a century ortwo anterior to the conquest, are preserved in such a vague andcontradictory manner that they have slight value as history. Theirmythology fared somewhat better, for not only was it kept fresh in thememory by frequent repetition; but being itself founded in nature, itwas constantly nourished by the truths which gave it birth. Nevertheless, we may profit by the warning to remember that their mythsare myths only, and not the reflections of history or heroes. 

Rising from these details to a general comparison of the symbolic andphonetic systems in their reactions on the mind, the most obvious aretheir contrasted effects on the faculty of memory. Letters representelementary sounds, which are few in any language, while symbols standfor ideas, and they are numerically infinite. The transmission ofknowledge by means of the latter is consequently attended with mostdisproportionate labor. It is almost as if we could quote nothing froman author unless we could recollect his exact words. We have a right tolook for excellent memories where such a mode is in vogue, and in thepresent instance we are not disappointed. "These savages, " exclaims LaHontan, "have the happiest memories in the world!" It was etiquette attheir councils for each speaker to repeat verbatim all his predecessorshad said, and the whites were often astonished and confused at theverbal fidelity with which the natives recalled the transactions of longpast treaties. Their songs were inexhaustible. An instance is on recordwhere an Indian sang two hundred on various subjects. [18-1] Such a factreminds us of a beautiful expression of the elder Humboldt: "Man, " hesays, "regarded as an animal, belongs to one of the singing species; buthis notes are always associated with ideas. " The youth who were educatedat the public schools of ancient Mexico--for that realm, so far fromneglecting the cause of popular education, established houses forgratuitous instruction, and to a certain extent made the attendance uponthem obligatory--learned by rote long orations, poems, and prayers witha facility astonishing to the conquerors, and surpassing anything theywere accustomed to see in the universities of Old Spain. A phoneticsystem actually weakens the retentive powers of the mind by offering amore facile plan for preserving thought. "_Ce que je mets sur papier, jeremets de ma mémoire_" is an expression of old Montaigne which he couldnever have used had he employed ideographic characters. 

Memory, however, is of far less importance than a free activity ofthought, untrammelled by forms or precedents, and ever alert to novelcombinations of ideas. Give a race this and it will guide it tocivilization as surely as the needle directs the ship to its haven. Itis here that ideographic writing reveals its fatal inferiority. It isforever specifying, materializing, dealing in minutiæ. In the Egyptiansymbolic alphabet there is a figure for a virgin, another for a marriedwoman, for a widow without offspring, for a widow with one child, twochildren, and I know not in how many other circumstances, but for_woman_ there is no sign. It must be so in the nature of things, for thesymbol represents the object as it appears or is fancied to appear, andnot as it is _thought_. Furthermore, the constant learning by heartinfallibly leads to slavish repetition and mental servility. 

A symbol when understood is independent of language, and is asuniversally current as an Arabic numeral. But this divorce of spoken andwritten language is of questionable advantage. It at once destroys allpermanent improvement in a tongue through elegance of style, sonorousperiods, or delicacy of expression, and the life of the language itselfis weakened when its forms are left to fluctuate uncontrolled. Writtenpoetry, grammar, rhetoric, all are impossible to the student who drawshis knowledge from such a source. 

Finally, it has been justly observed by the younger Humboldt that thepainful fidelity to the antique figures transmitted from barbarous topolished generations is injurious to the æsthetic sense, and dulls themind to the beautiful in art and nature. 

The transmission of thought by figures and symbols would, on the whole, therefore, foster those narrow and material tendencies which the geniusof polysynthetic languages would seem calculated to produce. Its oneredeeming trait of strengthening the memory will serve to explain thestrange tenacity with which certain myths have been preserved throughwidely dispersed families, as we shall hereafter see. 

Besides this of language there are two traits in the history of the redman without parallel in that of any other variety of our species whichhas achieved any notable progress in civilization. 

The one is his _isolation_. Cut off time out of mind from the rest ofthe world, he never underwent those crossings of blood and culture whichso modified and on the whole promoted the growth of the old worldnationalities. In his own way he worked out his own destiny, and what hewon was his with a more than ordinary right of ownership. For all thoseold dreams of the advent of the Ten Lost Tribes, of Buddhist priests, ofWelsh princes, or of Phenician merchants on American soil, and thereexerting a permanent influence, have been consigned to the dustbin byevery unbiased student, and when we see such men as Mr. Schoolcraft andthe Abbé E. C. Brasseur essaying to resuscitate them, we regretfullylook upon it in the light of a literary anachronism. 

The second trait is the entire absence of the herdsman's life with itssoftening associations. Throughout the continent there is not a singleauthentic instance of a pastoral tribe, not one of an animal raised forits milk, [21-1] nor for the transportation of persons, and very few fortheir flesh. It was essentially a hunting race. The most civilizednations looked to the chase for their chief supply of meat, and thecourts of Cuzco and Mexico enacted stringent game and forest laws, andat certain periods the whole population turned out for a general crusadeagainst the denizens of the forest. In the most densely settleddistricts the conquerors found vast stretches of primitive woods. 

If we consider the life of a hunter, pitting his skill and strengthagainst the marvellous instincts and quick perceptions of the brute, training his senses to preternatural acuteness, but blunting his moretender feelings, his sole aim to shed blood and take life, dependent onluck for his food, exposed to deprivations, storms, and longwanderings, his chief diet flesh, we may more readily comprehend thatconspicuous disregard of human suffering, those sanguinary rites, thatvindictive spirit, that inappeasable restlessness, which we so oftenfind in the chronicles of ancient America. The law with reason objectsto accepting a butcher as a juror on a trial for life; here is a wholerace of butchers. 

The one mollifying element was agriculture. On the altar of Mixcoatl, god of hunting, the Aztec priest tore the heart from the human victimand smeared with the spouting blood the snake that coiled its lengthsaround the idol; flowers and fruits, yellow ears of maize and clustersof rich bananas decked the shrine of Centeotl, beneficent patroness ofagriculture, and bloodless offerings alone were her appropriate dues. This shows how clear, even to the native mind, was the contrast betweenthese two modes of subsistence. By substituting a sedentary for awandering life, by supplying a fixed dependence for an uncertaincontingency, and by admonishing man that in preservation, not indestruction, lies his most remunerative sphere of activity, we canhardly estimate too highly the wide distribution of the zea mays. Thiswas their only cereal, and it was found in cultivation from the southernextremity of Chili to the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, beyondwhich limits the low temperature renders it an uncertain crop. In theirlegends it is represented as the gift of the Great Spirit (Chipeways), brought from the terrestrial Paradise by the sacred animals (Quiches), and symbolically the mother of the race (Nahuas), and the material fromwhich was moulded the first of men (Quiches). 

As the races, so the great families of man who speak dialects of thesame tongue are, in a sense, individuals, bearing each its ownphysiognomy. When the whites first heard the uncouth gutturals of theIndians, they frequently proclaimed that hundreds of radically diverselanguages, invented, it was piously suggested, by the Devil for theannoyance of missionaries, prevailed over the continent. Earneststudents of such matters--Vater, Duponceau, Gallatin, andBuschmann--have, however, demonstrated that nine-tenths of the area ofAmerica, at its discovery, were occupied by tribes using dialectstraceable to ten or a dozen primitive stems. The names of these, theirgeographical position in the sixteenth century, and, so far as it issafe to do so, their individual character, I shall briefly mention. 

Fringing the shores of the Northern Ocean from Mount St. Elias on thewest to the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the east, rarely seen a hundredmiles from the coast, were the Eskimos. [23-1] They are the connectinglink between the races of the Old and New Worlds, in physical appearanceand mental traits more allied to the former, but in language betrayingtheir near kinship to the latter. An amphibious race, born fishermen, intheir buoyant skin kayaks they brave fearlessly the tempests, make longvoyages, and merit the sobriquet bestowed upon them by Von Baer, "thePhenicians of the north. " Contrary to what one might suppose, they are, amid their snows, a contented, light-hearted people, knowing no longingfor a sunnier clime, given to song, music, and merry tales. They arecunning handicraftsmen to a degree, but withal wholly ingulfed in asensuous existence. The desperate struggle for life engrosses them, andtheir mythology is barren. 

South of them, extending in a broad band across the continent fromHudson's Bay to the Pacific, and almost to the Great Lakes below, is theAthapascan stock. Its affiliated tribes rove far north to the mouth ofthe Mackenzie River, and wandering still more widely in an oppositedirection along both declivities of the Rocky Mountains, people portionsof the coast of Oregon south of the mouth of the Columbia, and spreadingover the plains of New Mexico under the names of Apaches, Navajos, andLipans, almost reach the tropics at the delta of the Rio Grande delNorte, and on the shores of the Gulf of California. No wonder theydeserted their fatherland and forgot it altogether, for it is a very_terra damnata_, whose wretched inhabitants are cut off alike from theharvest of the sea and the harvest of the soil. The profitable culture ofmaize does not extend beyond the fiftieth parallel of latitude, and lessthan seven degrees farther north the mean annual temperature everywhereeast of the mountains sinks below the freezing point. [25-1] Agricultureis impossible, and the only chance for life lies in the uncertainfortunes of the chase and the penurious gifts of an arctic flora. Thedenizens of these wilds are abject, slovenly, hopelessly savage, "at thebottom of the scale of humanity in North America, " says Dr. Richardson, and their relatives who have wandered to the more genial climes of thesouth are as savage as they, as perversely hostile to a sedentary life, as gross and narrow in their moral notions. This wide-spread stock, scattered over forty-five degrees of latitude, covering thousands ofsquare leagues, reaching from the Arctic Ocean to the confines of theempire of the Montezumas, presents in all its subdivisions the samemental physiognomy and linguistic peculiarities. [25-2]

Best known to us of all the Indians are the Algonkins and Iroquois, who, at the time of the discovery, were the sole possessors of the region nowembraced by Canada and the eastern United States north of thethirty-fifth parallel. The latter, under the names of the Five Nations, Hurons, Tuscaroras, Susquehannocks, Nottoways and others, occupied muchof the soil from the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario to the Roanoke, andperhaps the Cherokees, whose homes were in the secluded vales of EastTennessee, were one of their early offshoots. [25-3] They were a race ofwarriors, courageous, cruel, unimaginative, but of rare politicalsagacity. They are more like ancient Romans than Indians, and are leadingfigures in the colonial wars. 

The Algonkins surrounded them on every side, occupying the rest of theregion mentioned and running westward to the base of the RockyMountains, where one of their famous bands, the Blackfeet, still huntsover the valley of the Saskatchewan. They were more genial than theIroquois, of milder manners and more vivid fancy, and were regarded bythese with a curious mixture of respect and contempt. Some writer hasconnected this difference with their preference for the open prairiecountry in contrast to the endless and sombre forests where were thehomes of the Iroquois. Their history abounds in great men, whoseambitious plans were foiled by the levity of their allies and their wantof persistence. They it was who under King Philip fought the Puritanfathers; who at the instigation of Pontiac doomed to death every whitetrespasser on their soil; who led by Tecumseh and Black Hawk gatheredthe clans of the forest and mountain for the last pitched battle of theraces in the Mississippi valley. To them belonged the mild manneredLenni Lenape, who little foreboded the hand of iron that grasped theirown so softly under the elm tree of Shackamaxon, to them the restlessShawnee, the gypsy of the wilderness, the Chipeways of Lake Superior, and also to them the Indian girl Pocahontas, who in the legend avertedfrom the head of the white man the blow which, rebounding, swept awayher father and all his tribe. [27-1]

Between their southernmost outposts and the Gulf of Mexico were a numberof clans, mostly speaking the Muscogee tongue, Creeks, Choctaws, Chikasaws, and others, in later times summed up as Apalachian Indians, but by early writers sometimes referred to as "The Empire of theNatchez. " For tradition says that long ago this small tribe, whose homewas in the Big Black country, was at the head of a loose confederationembracing most of the nations from the Atlantic coast quite into Texas;and adds that the expedition of De Soto severed its lax bonds and shookit irremediably into fragments. Whether this is worth our credence ornot, the comparative civilization of the Natchez, and the analogy theirlanguage bears to that of the Mayas of Yucatan, the builders of thoseruined cities which Stephens and Catherwood have made so familiar to theworld, attach to them a peculiar interest. [27-2]

North of the Arkansas River on the right bank of the Mississippi, quiteto its source, stretching over to Lake Michigan at Green Bay, and up thevalley of the Missouri west to the mountains, resided the Dakotas, anerratic folk, averse to agriculture, but daring hunters and boldwarriors, tall and strong of body. [28-1] Their religious notions havebeen carefully studied, and as they are remarkably primitive andtransparent, they will often be referred to. The Sioux and theWinnebagoes are well-known branches of this family. 

We have seen that Dr. Richardson assigned to a portion of the Athapascasthe lowest place among North American tribes, but there are some in NewMexico who might contest the sad distinction, the Root Diggers, Comanches and others, members of the Snake or Shoshonee family, scattered extensively northwest of Mexico. It has been said of a part ofthese that they are "nearer the brutes than probably any other portionof the human race on the face of the globe. "[28-2] Their habits in somerespects are more brutish than those of any brute, for there is nolimit to man's moral descent or ascent, and the observer might well beexcused for doubting whether such a stock ever had a history in thepast, or the possibility of one in the future. Yet these debasedcreatures speak a related dialect, and are beyond a doubt largely of thesame blood as the famous Aztec race, who founded the empire of Anahuac, and raised architectural monuments rivalling the most famous structuresof the ancient world. This great family, whose language has been tracedfrom Nicaragua to Vancouver's Island, and whose bold intellects coloredall the civilization of the northern continent, was composed in thatdivision of it found in New Spain chiefly of two bands, the Toltecs, whose traditions point to the mountain ranges of Guatemala as theirancient seat, and the Nahuas, who claim to have come at a later periodfrom the northwest coast, and together settled in and near the valley ofMexico. [29-1] Outlying colonies on the shore of Lake Nicaragua and inthe mountains of Vera Paz rose to a civilization that rivalled that ofthe Montezumas, while others remained in utter barbarism in the farnorth. 

The Aztecs not only conquered a Maya colony, and founded the empire ofthe Quiches in Central America, a complete body of whose mythology hasbeen brought to light in late years, but seem to have made a markedimprint on the Mayas themselves. These possessed, as has already beensaid, the peninsula of Yucatan. There is some reason to suppose theycame thither originally from the Greater Antilles, and none to doubt butthat the Huastecas who lived on the river Panuco and the Natchez ofLouisiana were offshoots from them. Their language is radically distinctfrom that of the Aztecs, but their calendar and a portion of theirmythology are common property. They seem an ancient race of mild mannersand considerable polish. No American nation offers a more promisingfield for study. Their stone temples still bear testimony to theiruncommon skill in the arts. A trustworthy tradition dates the close ofthe golden age of Yucatan a century anterior to its discovery byEuropeans. Previously it had been one kingdom, under one ruler, andprolonged peace had fostered the growth of the fine arts; but whentheir capital Mayapan fell, internal dissensions ruined most of theircities. 

No connection whatever has been shown between the civilization of Northand South America. In the latter continent it was confined to twototally foreign tribes, the Muyscas, whose empire, called that of theZacs, was in the neighborhood of Bogota, and the Peruvians, who in theirtwo related divisions of Quichuas and Aymaras extended their languageand race along the highlands of the Cordilleras from the equator to thethirtieth degree of south latitude. Lake Titicaca seems to have been thecradle of their civilization, offering another example how inland seasand well-watered plains favor the change from a hunting to anagricultural life. These four nations, the Aztecs, the Mayas, theMuyscas and the Peruvians, developed spontaneously and independentlyunder the laws of human progress what civilization was found among thered race. They owed nothing to Asiatic or European teachers. The Incasit was long supposed spoke a language of their own, and this has beenthought evidence of foreign extraction; but Wilhelm von Humboldt hasshown conclusively that it was but a dialect of the common tongue oftheir country. [31-1]

When Columbus first touched the island of Cuba, he was regaled withhorrible stories of one-eyed monsters who dwelt on the other islands, but plundered indiscriminately on every hand. These turned out to be thenotorious Caribs, whose other name, _Cannibals_, has descended as acommon noun to our language, expressive of one of their inhumanpractices. They had at that time seized many of the Antilles, and hadgained a foothold on the coast of Honduras and Darien, but pointed fortheir home to the mainland of South America. This they possessed alongthe whole northern shore, inland at least as far as the south bank ofthe Amazon, and west nearly to the Cordilleras. It is still an openquestion whether the Tupis and Guaranis who inhabit the vast regionbetween the Amazon and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres are affined to them. The traveller D'Orbigny zealously maintains the affirmative, and thereis certainly some analogy of language, but withal an inexplicablecontrast of character. The latter were, and are, in the main, apeaceable, inoffensive, apathetic set, dull and unambitious, while theCaribs won a terrible renown as bold warriors, daring navigators, skilful in handicrafts; and their poisoned arrows, cruel and disgustinghabits, and enterprise, rendered them a terror and a by-word forgenerations. [32-1]

Our information of the natives of the Pampas, Patagonia, and the Land ofFire, is too vague to permit their positive identification with theAraucanians of Chili; but there is much to render the view plausible. Certain physical peculiarities, a common unconquerable love of freedom, and a delight in war, bring them together, and at the same time placethem both in strong contrast to their northern neighbors. [33-1]

There are many tribes whose affinities remain to be decided, especiallyon the Pacific coast. The lack of inland water communication, thedifficult nature of the soil, and perhaps the greater antiquity of thepopulation there, seem to have isolated and split up beyond recognitionthe indigenous families on that shore of the continent; while the greatriver systems and broad plains of the Atlantic slope facilitatedmigration and intercommunication, and thus preserved nationaldistinctions over thousands of square leagues. 

These natural features of the continent, compared with the actualdistribution of languages, offer our only guides in forming an opinionas to the migrations of these various families in ancient times. Theirtraditions, take even the most cultivated, are confused, contradictory, and in great part manifestly fabulous. To construct from them by meansof daring combinations and forced interpretations a connected account ofthe race during the centuries preceding Columbus were with the aid of avivid fancy an easy matter, but would be quite unworthy the name ofhistory. The most that can be said with certainty is that the generalcourse of migrations in both Americas was from the high latitudes towardthe tropics, and from the great western chain of mountains toward theeast. No reasonable doubt exists but that the Athapascas, Algonkins, Iroquois, Apalachians, and Aztecs all migrated from the north and westto the regions they occupied. In South America, curiously enough, thedirection is reversed. If the Caribs belong to the Tupi-Guaranay stem, and if the Quichuas belong to the Aymaras, as there is stronglikelihood, [34-1] then nine-tenths of the population of that vastcontinent wandered forth from the steppes and valleys at the head watersof the Rio de la Plata toward the Gulf of Mexico, where they came incollision with that other wave of migration surging down from highnorthern latitudes. For the banks of the river Paraguay and the steppesof the Bolivian Cordilleras are unquestionably the earliest traditionalhomes of both Tupis and Aymaras. 

These movements took place not in large bodies under the stimulus of asettled purpose, but step by step, family by family, as the olderhunting grounds became too thickly peopled. This fact hints unmistakablyat the gray antiquity of the race. It were idle even to guess how greatthis must be, but it is possible to set limits to it in both directions. On the one hand, not a tittle of evidence is on record to carry the ageof man in America beyond the present geological epoch. Dr. Lund examinedin Brazil more than eight hundred caverns, out of which number only sixcontained human bones, and of these six only one had with the humanbones those of animals now extinct. Even in that instance the originalstratification had been disturbed, and probably the bones had beeninterred there. [35-1] This is strong negative evidence. So in everyother example where an unbiased and competent geologist has made theexamination, the alleged discoveries of human remains in the olderstrata have proved erroneous. 

The cranial forms of the American aborigines have by some been supposedto present anomalies distinguishing their race from all others, and evenits chief families from one another. This, too, falls to the groundbefore a rigid analysis. The last word of craniology, which at one timepromised to revolutionize ethnology and even history, is that no one formof the skull is peculiar to the natives of the New World; that in thesame linguistic family one glides into another by imperceptible degrees;and that there is as much diversity, and the same diversity among them inthis respect as among the races of the Old Continent. [35-2] Peculiaritiesof structure, though they may pass as general truths, offer no firmfoundation whereon to construct a scientific ethnology. Anatomy showsnothing unique in the Indian, nothing demanding for its development anyspecial antiquity, still less an original diversity of type. 

On the other hand, the remains of primeval art and the impress he madeupon nature bespeak for man a residence in the New World coeval with themost distant events of history. By remains of art I do not so much referto those desolate palaces which crumble forgotten in the gloom oftropical woods, nor even the enormous earthworks of the Mississippivalley covered with the mould of generations of forest trees, but ratherto the humbler and less deceptive relics of his kitchens and his hunts. On the Atlantic coast one often sees the refuse of Indian villages, where generation after generation have passed their summers in fishing, and left the bones, shells, and charcoal as their only epitaph. How manysuch summers would it require for one or two hundred people to thusgradually accumulate a mound of offal eight or ten feet high and ahundred yards across, as is common enough? How many generations to heapup that at the mouth of the Altamaha River, examined and pronouncedexclusively of this origin by Sir Charles Lyell, [36-1] which is aboutthis height, and covers ten acres of ground? Those who, like myself, have tramped over many a ploughed field in search of arrow-heads musthave sometimes been amazed at the numbers which are sown over the faceof our country, betokening a most prolonged possession of the soil bytheir makers. For a hunting population is always sparse, and thecollector finds only those arrow-heads which lie upon the surface. 

Still more forcibly does nature herself bear witness to this antiquityof possession. Botanists declare that a very lengthy course ofcultivation is required so to alter the form of a plant that it can nolonger be identified with the wild species; and still more protractedmust be the artificial propagation for it to lose its power ofindependent life, and to rely wholly on man to preserve it fromextinction. Now this is precisely the condition of the maize, tobacco, cotton, quinoa, and mandioca plants, and of that species of palm calledby botanists the _Gulielma speciosa_; all have been cultivated fromimmemorial time by the aborigines of America, and, except cotton, by noother race; all no longer are to be identified with any known wildspecies; several are sure to perish unless fostered by human care. [37-1]What numberless ages does this suggest? How many centuries elapsed ereman thought of cultivating Indian corn? How many more ere it had spreadover nearly a hundred degrees of latitude, and lost all semblance to itsoriginal form? Who has the temerity to answer these questions? Thejudicious thinker will perceive in them satisfactory reasons fordropping once for all the vexed inquiry, "how America was peopled, " andwill smile at its imaginary solutions, whether they suggest Jews, Japanese, or, as the latest theory is, Egyptians. 

While these and other considerations testify forcibly to that isolationI have already mentioned, they are almost equally positive for anextensive intercourse in very distant ages between the great families ofthe race, and for a prevalent unity of mental type, or perhaps they hintat a still visible oneness of descent. In their stage of culture, themaize, cotton, and tobacco could hardly have spread so widely bycommerce alone. Then there are verbal similarities running through widefamilies of languages which, in the words of Professor Buschmann, are"calculated to fill us with bewildering amazement, "[38-1] some of whichwill hereafter be pointed out; and lastly, passing to the psychologicalconstitution of the race, we may quote the words of a sharp-sightednaturalist, whose monograph on one of its tribes is unsurpassed forprofound reflections: "Not only do all the primitive inhabitants ofAmerica stand on one scale of related culture, but that mental conditionof all in which humanity chiefly mirrors itself, to wit, their religiousand moral consciousness, this source of all other inner and outerconditions, is one with all, however diverse the natural influencesunder which they live. "[38-2]

Penetrated with the truth of these views, all artificial divisions intotropical or temperate, civilized or barbarous, will in the present work, so far as possible, be avoided, and the race will be studied as a unit, its religion as the development of ideas common to all its members, andits myths as the garb thrown around these ideas by imaginations more orless fertile, but seeking everywhere to embody the same notions. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 

 As the subject of American mythology is a new one to most readers, and as in its discussion everything depends on a careful selection of authorities, it is well at the outset to review very briefly what has already been written upon it, and to assign the relative amount of weight that in the following pages will be given to the works most frequently quoted. The conclusions I have arrived at are so different from those who have previously touched upon the topic that such a step seems doubly advisable. 

 The first who undertook a philosophical survey of American religions was Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, in 1819 (A Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of North America, Collections of the New York Historical Society, vol. Iii. , New York, 1821). He confined himself to the tribes north of Mexico, a difficult portion of the field, and at that time not very well known. The notion of a state of primitive civilization prevented Dr. Jarvis from forming any correct estimate of the native religions, as it led him to look upon them as deteriorations from purer faiths instead of developments. Thus he speaks of them as having "departed less than among any other nation from the form of primeval truth, " and also mentions their "wonderful uniformity" (pp. 219, 221). 

 The well-known American ethnologist, Mr. E. G. Squier, has also published a work on the subject, of wider scope than its title indicates (The Serpent Symbol in America, New York, 1851). Though written in a much more liberal spirit than the preceding, it is wholly in the interests of one school of mythology, and it the rather shallow physical one, so fashionable in Europe half a century ago. Thus, with a sweeping generalization, he says, "The religions or superstitions of the American nations, however different they may appear to the superficial glance, are rudimentally the same, and are only modifications of that primitive system which under its physical aspect has been denominated Sun or Fire worship" (p. 111). With this he combines the favorite and (may I add?) characteristic French doctrine, that the chief topic of mythology is the adoration of the generative power, and to rescue such views from their materializing tendencies, imagines to counterbalance them a clear, universal monotheism. "We claim to have shown, " he says (p. 154), "that the grand conception of a Supreme Unity and the doctrine of the reciprocal principles existed in America in a well defined and clearly recognized form;" and elsewhere that "the monotheistic idea stands out clearly in _all_ the religions of America" (p. 151). 

 If with a hope of other views we turn to our magnificent national work on the Indians (History, Conditions, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States: Washington, 1851-9), a great disappointment awaits us. That work was unfortunate in its editor. It is a monument of American extravagance and superficiality. Mr. Schoolcraft was a man of deficient education and narrow prejudices, pompous in style, and inaccurate in statements. The information from original observers it contains is often of real value, but the general views on aboriginal history and religion are shallow and untrustworthy in the extreme. 

 A German professor, Dr. J. G. Müller, has written quite a voluminous work on American Primitive Religions (_Geschichte der Amerikanischen Ur-religionen_, pp. 707: Basel, 1855). His theory is that "at the south a worship of nature with the adoration of the sun as its centre, at the north a fear of spirits combined with fetichism, made up the two fundamental divisions of the religion of the red race" (pp. 89, 90). This imaginary antithesis he traces out between the Algonkin and Apalachian tribes, and between the Toltecs of Guatemala and the Aztecs of Mexico. His quotations are nearly all at second hand, and so little does he criticize his facts as to confuse the Vaudoux worship of the Haitian negroes with that of Votan in Chiapa. His work can in no sense be considered an authority. 

 Very much better is the Anthropology of the late Dr. Theodore Waitz (_Anthropologie der Naturvœlker_: Leipzig, 1862-66). No more comprehensive, sound, and critical work on the indigenes of America has ever been written. But on their religions the author is unfortunately defective, being led astray by the hasty and groundless generalizations of others. His great anxiety, moreover, to subject all moral sciences to a realistic philosophy, was peculiarly fatal to any correct appreciation of religious growth, and his views are neither new nor tenable. 

 For a different reason I must condemn in the most unqualified manner the attempt recently made by the enthusiastic and meritorious antiquary, the Abbé E. Charles Brasseur (de Bourbourg), to explain American mythology after the example of Euhemerus, of Thessaly, as the apotheosis of history. This theory, which has been repeatedly applied to other mythologies with invariable failure, is now disowned by every distinguished student of European and Oriental antiquity; and to seek to introduce it into American religions is simply to render them still more obscure and unattractive, and to deprive them of the only general interest they now have, that of illustrating the gradual development of the religious ideas of humanity. 

 But while thus regretting the use he has made of them, all interested in American antiquity cannot too much thank this indefatigable explorer for the priceless materials he has unearthed in the neglected libraries of Spain and Central America, and laid before the public. For the present purpose the most significant of these is the Sacred National Book of the Quiches, a tribe of Guatemala. This contains their legends, written in the original tongue, and transcribed by Father Francisco Ximenes about 1725. The manuscripts of this missionary were used early in the present century, by Don Felix Cabrera, but were supposed to be entirely lost even by the Abbé Brasseur himself in 1850 (_Lettre à M. Le Duc de Valmy_, Mexique, Oct. 15, 1850). Made aware of their importance by the expressions of regret used in the Abbé's letters, Dr. C. Sherzer, in 1854, was fortunate enough to discover them in the library of the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala. The legends were in Quiche with a Spanish translation and scholia. The Spanish was copied by Dr. Scherzer and published in Vienna, in 1856, under the title _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de Guatemala, por el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenes_. In 1855 the Abbé Brasseur took a copy of the original which he brought out at Paris in 1861, with a translation of his own, under the title _Vuh Popol: Le Livre Sacré des Quichés et les Mythes de l'Antiquité Américaine_. Internal evidence proves that these legends were written down by a converted native some time in the seventeenth century. They carry the national history back about two centuries, beyond which all is professedly mythical. Although both translations are colored by the peculiar views of their makers, this is incomparably the most complete and valuable work on American mythology extant. 

 Another authority of inestimable value has been placed within the reach of scholars during the last few years. This is the _Relations de la Nouvelle France_, containing the annual reports of the Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois and Algonkins from and after 1611. My references to this are always to the reprint at Quebec, 1858. Of not less excellence for another tribe, the Creeks, is the brief "Sketch of the Creek Country, " by Col. Benjamin Hawkins, written about 1800, and first published in full by the Georgia Historical Society in 1848. Most of the other works to which I have referred are too well known to need any special examination here, or will be more particularly mentioned in the foot-notes when quoted. 

FOOTNOTES:

[2-1] Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_, i. P. 256. 

[2-2] Carriere, _Die Kunst im Zusammenhang der Culturentwickelung_, i. P. 66. 

[6-1] It is said indeed that the Yebus, a people on the west coast ofAfrica, speak a polysynthetic language, and _per contra_, that the Otomisof Mexico have a monosyllabic one like the Chinese. Max Mueller goesfurther, and asserts that what is called the process of agglutination inthe Turanian languages is the same as what has been named polysynthesisin America. This is not to be conceded. In the former the root isunchangeable, the formative elements follow it, and prefixes are notused; in the latter prefixes are common, and the formative elements areblended with the root, both undergoing changes of structure. Veryimportant differences. 

[9-1] Grimm, _Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache_, p. 571. 

[11-1] Peter Martyr, _De Insulis nuper Repertis_, p. 354: Colon. 1574. 

[12-1] They may be found in Waitz, _Anthrop. Der Naturvoelker_, iv. P. 173. 

[13-1] The only authority is Diego de Landa, _Relacion de las Cosas deYucatan_, ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1864, p. 318. The explanation is extremelyobscure in the original. I have given it in the only sense in which theauthor's words seem to have any meaning. 

[14-1] Humboldt, _Vues des Cordillères_, p. 72. 

[14-2] Desjardins, _Le Pérou avant la Conquête Espagnole_, p. 122: Paris, 1858. 

[16-1] An instance is given by Ximenes, _Origen de los Indios deGuatemala_, p. 186: Vienna, 1856. 

[17-1] George Copway, _Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_, p. 130: London, 1850. 

[18-1] Morse, _Report on the Indian Tribes_, App. P. 352. 

[21-1] Gomara states that De Ayllon found tribes on the Atlantic shorenot far from Cape Hatteras keeping flocks of deer (_ciervos_) and fromtheir milk making cheese (_Hist. De las Indias_, cap. 43). I attach noimportance to this statement, and only mention it to connect it with someother curious notices of the tribe now extinct who occupied thatlocality. Both De Ayllon and Lawson mention their very light complexions, and the latter saw many with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fair skin;they cultivated when first visited the potato (or the groundnut), tobacco, and cotton (Humboldt); they reckoned time by disks of wooddivided into sixty segments (Lederer); and just in this latitude the mostcareful determination fixes the mysterious White-man's-land, or GreatIreland of the Icelandic Sagas (see the _American Hist. Mag. _, ix. P. 364), where the Scandinavian sea rovers in the eleventh century found menof their own color, clothed in long woven garments, and not lesscivilized than themselves. 

[23-1] The name Eskimo is from the Algonkin word _Eskimantick_, eaters ofraw flesh. There is reason to believe that at one time they possessed theAtlantic coast considerably to the south. The Northmen, in the year 1000, found the natives of Vinland, probably near Rhode Island, of the samerace as they were familiar with in Labrador. They call them _Skralingar_, chips, and describe them as numerous and short of stature (Eric RothensSaga, in Mueller, _Sagænbibliothek_, p. 214). It is curious that thetraditions of the Tuscaroras, who placed their arrival on the Virginiancoast about 1300, spoke of the race they found there as eaters of rawflesh and ignorant of maize (Lederer, _Account of North America_, inHarris, Voyages). 

[25-1] Richardson, _Arctic Expedition_, p. 374. 

[25-2] The late Professor W. W. Turner of Washington, and ProfessorBuschmann of Berlin, are the two scholars who have traced the boundariesof this widely dispersed family. The name is drawn from Lake Athapasca inBritish America. 

[25-3] The Cherokee tongue has a limited number of words in common withthe Iroquois, and its structural similarity is close. The name is ofunknown origin. It should doubtless be spelled _Tsalakie_, a plural form, almost the same as that of the river Tellico, properly Tsaliko (Ramsey, _Annals of Tennessee_, p. 87), on the banks of which their principaltowns were situated. Adair's derivation from _cheera_, fire, isworthless, as no such word exists in their language. 

[27-1] The term Algonkin may be a corruption of _agomeegwin_, people ofthe other shore. Algic, often used synonymously, is an adjectivemanufactured by Mr. Schoolcraft "from the words Alleghany and Atlantic"(Algic Researches, ii. P. 12). There is no occasion to accept it, asthere is no objection to employing Algonkin both as substantive andadjective. Iroquois is a French compound of the native words _hiro_, Ihave said, and _kouè_, an interjection of assent or applause, termsconstantly heard in their councils. 

[27-2] Apalachian, which should be spelt with one p, is formed of twoCreek words, _apala_, the great sea, the ocean, and the suffix _chi_, people, and means those dwelling by the ocean. That the Natchez wereoffshoots of the Mayas I was the first to surmise and to prove by acareful comparison of one hundred Natchez words with their equivalents inthe Maya dialects. Of these, _five_ have affinities more or less markedto words peculiar to the Huastecas of the river Panuco (a Maya colony), _thirteen_ to words common to Huasteca and Maya, and _thirty-nine_ towords of similar meaning in the latter language. This resemblance may beexemplified by the numerals, one, two, four, seven, eight, twenty. InNatchez they are _hu_, _ah_, _gan_, _uk-woh_, _upku-tepish_, _oka-poo_:in Maya, _hu_, _ca_, _can_, _uk_, _uapxæ_, _hunkal_. (See the Am. Hist. Mag. , New Series, vol. I. P. 16, Jan. 1867. )

[28-1] Dakota, a native word, means friends or allies. 

[28-2] Rep. Of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1854, p. 209. 

[29-1] According to Professor Buschmann Aztec is probably from _iztac_, white, and Nahuatlacatl signifies those who speak the language _Nahuatl_, clear sounding, sonorous. The Abbé Brasseur (de Bourbourg), on the otherhand, derives the latter from the Quiche _nawal_, intelligent, and addsthe amazing information that this is identical with the English _knowall_!! (_Hist. Du Mexique_, etc. , i. P. 102). For in his theory severallanguages of Central America are derived from the same old Indo-Germanicstock as the English, German, and cognate tongues. Toltec, from_Toltecatl_, means inhabitant of Tollan, which latter may be from_tolin_, rush, and signify the place of rushes. The signification_artificer_, often assigned to Toltecatl, is of later date, and wasderived from the famed artistic skill of this early folk (Buschmann, _Aztek. Ortsnamen_, p. 682: Berlin, 1852). The Toltecs are usually spokenof as anterior to the Nahuas, but the Tlascaltecs and natives ofCholollan or Cholula were in fact Toltecs, unless we assign to thislatter name a merely mythical signification. The early migrations of thetwo Aztec bands and their relationship, it may be said in passing, are asyet extremely obscure. The Shoshonees when first known dwelt as far northas the head waters of the Missouri, and in the country now occupied bythe Black Feet. Their language, which includes that of the Comanche, Wihinasht, Utah, and kindred bands, was first shown to have many andmarked affinities with that of the Aztecs by Professor Buschmann in hisgreat work, _Ueber die Spuren der Aztekischen Sprache im nördlichenMexico und höheren Amerikanischen Norden_, p. 648: Berlin, 1854. 

[31-1] His opinion was founded on an analysis of fifteen words of thesecret language of the Incas preserved in the Royal Commentaries ofGarcilasso de la Vega. On examination, they all proved to be modifiedforms from the _lengua general_ (Meyen, _Ueber die Ureinwohner von Peru_, p. 6). The Quichuas of Peru must not be confounded with the Quiches ofGuatemala. Quiche is the name of a place, and means "many trees;" thederivation of Quichua is unknown. Muyscas means "men. " This nation alsocalled themselves Chibchas. 

[32-1] The significance of Carib is probably warrior. It may be the sameword as Guarani, which also has this meaning. Tupi or Tupa is the namegiven the thunder, and can only be understood mythically. 

[33-1] The Araucanians probably obtained their name from two Quichuawords, _ari auccan_, yes! they fight; an idiom very expressive of theirwarlike character. They had had long and terrible wars with the Incasbefore the arrival of Pizarro. 

[34-1] Since writing the text I have received the admirable work of Dr. Von Martius, _Beiträge zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika's zumalBrasilians_, Leipzig, 1867, in which I observe that that profound studentconsiders that there is no doubt but that the Island Caribs, and theGalibis of the main land are descendants from the same stock as the Tupisand Guaranis. 

[35-1] _Comptes Rendus_, vol. Xxi. P. 1368 sqq. 

[35-2] The two best authorities are Daniel Wilson, _The American CranialType_, in _Ann. Rep. Of the Smithson. Inst. _, 1862, p. 240, and J. A. Meigs, _Cranial Forms of the Amer. Aborigs. _: Phila. 1866. They accord inthe views expressed in the text and in the rejection of those advocatedby Dr. S. G. Morton in the Crania Americana. 

[36-1] _Second Visit to the United States_, i. P. 252. 

[37-1] Martius, _Von dem Rechtzustande unter den UreinwohnernBrasiliens_, p. 80: Muenchen, 1832; recently republished in his _Beiträgezur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika's_: Leipzig, 1867. 

[38-1] _Athapaskische Sprachstamm_, p. 164: Berlin, 1856. 

[38-2] Martius, _Von dem Rechtzustande unter den UreinwohnernBrasiliens_, p. 77. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE IDEA OF GOD. 

 An intuition common to the species. --Words expressing it in American languages derived either from ideas of above in space, or of life manifested by breath. --Examples. --No conscious monotheism, and but little idea of immateriality discoverable. --Still less any moral dualism of deities, the Great Good Spirit and the Great Bad Spirit being alike terms and notions of foreign importation. 

If we accept the definition that mythology is the idea of God expressedin symbol, figure, and narrative, and always struggling toward a clearerutterance, it is well not only to trace this idea in its very earliestembodiment in language, but also, for the sake of comparison, to askwhat is its latest and most approved expression. The reply to this isgiven us by Immanuel Kant. He has shown that our reason, dwelling on thefacts of experience, constantly seeks the principles which connect themtogether, and only rests satisfied in the conviction that there is ahighest and first principle which reconciles all their discrepancies andbinds them into one. This he calls the Ideal of Reason. It must be true, for it is evolved from the laws of reason, our only test of truth. Furthermore, the sense of personality and the voice of conscience, analyzed to their sources, can only be explained by the assumption of aninfinite personality and an absolute standard of right. Or, if to someall this appears but wire-drawn metaphysical subtlety, they are welcometo the definition of the realist, that the idea of God is the sum ofthose intelligent activities which the individual, reasoning from theanalogy of his own actions, imagines to be behind and to bring aboutnatural phenomena. [44-1] If either of these be correct, it were hard toconceive how any tribe or even any sane man could be without some notionof divinity. 

Certainly in America no instance of its absence has been discovered. Obscure, grotesque, unworthy it often was, but everywhere man wasoppressed with a _sensus numinis_, a feeling that invisible, powerfulagencies were at work around him, who, as they willed, could help orhurt him. In every heart was an altar to the Unknown God. Not that itwas customary to attach any idea of unity to these unseen powers. Thesupposition that in ancient times and in very unenlightened conditions, before mythology had grown, a monotheism prevailed, which afterwards atvarious times was revived by reformers, is a belief that should havepassed away when the delights of savage life and the praises of a stateof nature ceased to be the themes of philosophers. We are speaking of apeople little capable of abstraction. The exhibitions of force in natureseemed to them the manifestations of that mysterious power felt by theirself-consciousness; to combine these various manifestations andrecognize them as the operations of one personality, was a step noteasily taken. Yet He is not far from every one of us. "Whenever manthinks clearly, or feels deeply, he conceives God as self-consciousunity, " says Carriere, with admirable insight; and elsewhere, "we havemonotheism, not in contrast to polytheism, not clear to the thought, butin living intuition in the religious sentiments. "[45-1]

Thus it was among the Indians. Therefore a word is usually found intheir languages analogous to none in any European tongue, a wordcomprehending all manifestations of the unseen world, yet conveying nosense of personal unity. It has been rendered spirit, demon, God, devil, mystery, magic, but commonly and rather absurdly by the English andFrench, "medicine. " In the Algonkin dialects this word is _manito_ and_oki_, in Iroquois _oki_ and _otkon_, the Dakota has _wakan_, the Aztec_teotl_, the Quichua _huaca_, and the Maya _ku_. They all express in itsmost general form the idea of the supernatural. And as in this word, supernatural, we see a transfer of a conception of place, and that itliterally means that which is _above_ the natural world, so in such aswe can analyze of these vague and primitive terms the same trope appearsdiscoverable. _Wakan_ as an adverb means _above_, _oki_ is but anotherorthography for _oghee_, and _otkon_ seems allied to _hetken_, both ofwhich have the same signification. [46-1]

The transfer is no mere figure of speech, but has its origin in the verytexture of the human mind. The heavens, the upper regions, are in everyreligion the supposed abode of the divine. What is higher is always thestronger and the nobler; a _superior_ is one who is better than we are, and therefore a chieftain in Algonkin is called _oghee-ma_, the higherone. There is, moreover, a naif and spontaneous instinct which leads manin his ecstasies of joy, and in his paroxysms of fear or pain, to lifthis hands and eyes to the overhanging firmament. There the sun andbright stars sojourn, emblems of glory and stability. Its azure vaulthas a mysterious attraction which invites the eye to gaze longer andlonger into its infinite depths. [46-2] Its color brings thoughts ofserenity, peace, sunshine, and warmth. Even the rudest hunting tribesfelt these sentiments, and as a metaphor in their speeches, and as apaint expressive of friendly design, blue was in wide use amongthem. [47-1]

So it came to pass that the idea of God was linked to the heavens longere man asked himself, are the heavens material and God spiritual, is Heone, or is He many? Numerous languages bear trace of this. The LatinDeus, the Greek Zeus, the Sanscrit Dyaus, the Chinese Tien, alloriginally meant the sky above, and our own word heaven is oftenemployed synonymously with God. There is at first no personification inthese expressions. They embrace all unseen agencies, they are void ofpersonality, and yet to the illogical primitive man there is nothingcontradictory in making them the object of his prayers. The Mayas hadlegions of gods; "_ku_, " says their historian, [47-2] "does not signifyany particular god; yet their prayers are sometimes addressed to _kue_, "which is the same word in the vocative case. 

As the Latins called their united divinities _Superi_, those above, soCaptain John Smith found that the Powhatans of Virginia employed theword _oki_, above, in the same sense, and it even had passed into adefinite personification among them in the shape of an "idol of woodevil-favoredly carved. " In purer dialects of the Algonkin it is alwaysindefinite, as in the terms _nipoon oki_, spirit of summer, _pipoonoki_, spirit of winter. Perhaps the word was introduced into Iroquoisby the Hurons, neighbors and associates of the Algonkins. The Huronsapplied it to that demoniac power "who rules the seasons of the year, who holds the winds and the waves in leash, who can give fortune totheir undertakings, and relieve all their wants. "[48-1] In another andfar distant branch of the Iroquois, the Nottoways of southern Virginia, it reappears under, the curious form _quaker_, doubtless a corruption ofthe Powhatan _qui-oki_, lesser gods. [48-2] The proper Iroquois name ofhim to whom they prayed was _garonhia_, which again turns out onexamination to be their common word for _sky_, and again in allprobability from the verbal root _gar_, to be above. [48-3] In thelegends of the Aztecs and Quiches such phrases as "Heart of the Sky, ""Lord of the Sky, " "Prince of the Azure Planisphere, " "He above all, "are of frequent occurrence, and by a still bolder metaphor, theAraucanians, according to Molina, entitled their greatest god "The Soulof the Sky. "

This last expression leads to another train of thought. As thephilosopher, pondering on the workings of self-consciousness, recognizesthat various pathways lead up to God, so the primitive man, in forminghis language, sometimes trod one, sometimes another. Whatever elsesceptics have questioned, no one has yet presumed to doubt that if a Godand a soul exist at all, they are of like essence. This firm belief hasleft its impress on language in the names devised to express thesupernal, the spiritual world. If we seek hints from languages morefamiliar to us than the tongues of the Indians, and take for examplethis word _spiritual_; we find it is from the Latin _spirare_, to blow, to breathe. If in Latin again we look for the derivation of _animus_, the mind, _anima_, the soul, they point to the Greek _anemos_, wind, and_aémi_, to blow. In Greek the words for soul or spirit, _psuche_, _pneuma_, _thumos_, all are directly from verbal roots expressing themotion of the wind or the breath. The Hebrew word _ruah_ is translatedin the Old Testament sometimes by wind, sometimes by spirit, sometimesby breath. Etymologically, in fact, ghosts and gusts, breaths andbreezes, the Great Spirit and the Great Wind, are one and the same. Itis easy to guess the reason of this. The soul is the life, the life isthe breath. Invisible, imponderable, quickening with vigorous motion, slackening in rest and sleep, passing quite away in death, it is themost obvious sign of life. All nations grasped the analogy andidentified the one with the other. But the breath is nothing but wind. How easy, therefore, to look upon the wind that moves up and down and toand fro upon the earth, that carries the clouds, itself unseen, thatcalls forth the terrible tempests and the various seasons, as thebreath, the spirit of God, as God himself? So in the Mosaic record ofcreation, it is said "a mighty wind" passed over the formless sea andbrought forth the world, and when the Almighty gave to the clay a livingsoul, he is said to have breathed into it "the wind of lives. "

Armed with these analogies, we turn to the primitive tongues of America, and find them there as distinct as in the Old World. In Dakota _niya_ isliterally breath, figuratively life; in Netela _piuts_ is life, breath, and soul; _silla_, in Eskimo, means air, it means wind, but it is alsothe word that conveys the highest idea of the world as a whole, and thereasoning faculty. The supreme existence they call _Sillam Innua_, Ownerof the Air, or of the All; or _Sillam Nelega_, Lord of the Air or Wind. In the Yakama tongue of Oregon _wkrisha_ signifies there is wind, _wkrishwit_, life; with the Aztecs, _ehecatl_ expressed both air, life, and the soul, and personified in their myths it was said to have beenborn of the breath of Tezcatlipoca, their highest divinity, who himselfis often called Yoalliehecatl, the Wind of Night. [50-1]

The descent is, indeed, almost imperceptible which leads to thepersonification of the wind as God, which merges this manifestation oflife and power in one with its unseen, unknown cause. Thus it was aworthy epithet which the Creeks applied to their supreme invisibleruler, when they addressed him as ESAUGETUH EMISSEE, Master of Breath, and doubtless it was at first but a title of equivalent purport whichthe Cherokees, their neighbors, were wont to employ, OONAWLEH UNGGI, Eldest of Winds, but rapidly leading to a complete identification of thedivine with the natural phenomena of meteorology. This seems to havetaken place in the same group of nations, for the original Choctaw wordfor Deity was HUSHTOLI, the Storm Wind. [51-1] The idea, indeed, wasconstantly being lost in the symbol. In the legends of the Quiches, themysterious creative power is HURAKAN, a name of no signification intheir language, one which their remote ancestors brought with them fromthe Antilles, which finds its meaning in the ancient tongue of Haiti, and which, under the forms of _hurricane_, _ouragan_, _orkan_, wasadopted into European marine languages as the native name of theterrible tornado of the Caribbean Sea. [51-2] Mixcohuatl, the CloudSerpent, chief divinity of several tribes in ancient Mexico, is to thisday the correct term in their language for the tropical whirlwind, andthe natives of Panama worshipped the same phenomenon under the nameTuyra. [52-1] To kiss the air was in Peru the commonest and simplest signof adoration to the collective divinities. [52-2]

Many writers on mythology have commented on the prominence so frequentlygiven to the winds. None have traced it to its true source. The facts ofmeteorology have been thought all sufficient for a solution. As if manever did or ever could draw the idea of God from nature! In the identityof wind with breath, of breath with life, of life with soul, of soulwith God, lies the far deeper and far truer reason, whose insensibledevelopment I have here traced, in outline indeed, but confirmed by theevidence of language itself. 

Let none of these expressions, however, be construed to prove thedistinct recognition of One Supreme Being. Of monotheism either asdisplayed in the one personal definite God of the Semitic races, or inthe dim pantheistic sense of the Brahmins, there was not a singleinstance on the American continent. The missionaries found no word inany of their languages fit to interpret _Deus_, God. How could theyexpect it? The associations we attach to that name are the accumulatedfruits of nigh two thousand years of Christianity. The phrases GoodSpirit, Great Spirit, and similar ones, have occasioned endlessdiscrepancies in the minds of travellers. In most instances they areentirely of modern origin, coined at the suggestion of missionaries, applied to the white man's God. Very rarely do they bring anyconception of personality to the native mind, very rarely do theysignify any object of worship, perhaps never did in the olden times. TheJesuit Relations state positively that there was no one immaterial godrecognized by the Algonkin tribes, and that the title, the Great Manito, was introduced first by themselves in its personal sense. [53-1] Thesupreme Iroquois Deity Neo or Hawaneu, triumphantly adduced by manywriters to show the monotheism underlying the native creeds, and uponwhose name Mr. Schoolcraft has built some philological reveries, turnsout on closer scrutiny to be the result of Christian instruction, andthe words themselves to be but corruptions of the French _Dieu_ and _lebon Dieu_![53-2]

Innumerable mysterious forces are in activity around the child ofnature; he feels within him something that tells him they are not of hiskind, and yet not altogether different from him; he sums them up in oneword drawn from sensuous experience. Does he wish to express still moreforcibly this sentiment, he doubles the word, or prefixes an adjective, or adds an affix, as the genius of his language may dictate. But itstill remains to him but an unapplied abstraction, a mere category ofthought, a frame for the All. It is never the object of veneration orsacrifice, no myth brings it down to his comprehension, it is notinstalled in his temples. Man cannot escape the belief that behind allform is one essence; but the moment he would seize and define it, iteludes his grasp, and by a sorcery more sadly ludicrous than that whichblinded Titania, he worships not the Infinite he thinks but a base idolof his own making. As in the Zend Avesta behind the eternal struggle ofOrmuzd and Ahriman looms up the undisturbed and infinite ZeruanaAkerana, as in the pages of the Greek poets we here and there catchglimpses of a Zeus who is not he throned on Olympus, nor he who takespart in the wrangles of the gods, but stands far off and alone, one yetall, "who was, who is, who will be, " so the belief in an Unseen Spirit, who asks neither supplication nor sacrifice, who, as the natives ofTexas told Joutel in 1684, "does not concern himself about things herebelow, "[54-1] who has no name to call him by, and is never a figure inmythology, was doubtless occasionally present to their minds. It waspresent not more but far less distinctly and often not at all in themore savage tribes, and no assertion can be more contrary to the laws ofreligious progress than that which pretends that a purer and moremonotheistic religion exists among nations devoid of mythology. Thereare only two instances on the American continent where the worship of animmaterial God was definitely instituted, and these as the highestconquests of American natural religions deserve especial mention. 

They occurred, as we might expect, in the two most civilized nations, the Quichuas of Peru, and the Nahuas of Tezcuco. It is related thatabout the year 1440, at a grand religious council held at theconsecration of the newly-built temple of the Sun at Cuzco, the IncaYupanqui rose before the assembled multitude and spoke somewhat asfollows:--

"Many say that the Sun is the Maker of all things. But he who makesshould abide by what he has made. Now many things happen when the Sun isabsent; therefore he cannot be the universal creator. And that he isalive at all is doubtful, for his trips do not tire him. Were he aliving thing, he would grow weary like ourselves; were he free, he wouldvisit other parts of the heavens. He is like a tethered beast who makesa daily round under the eye of a master; he is like an arrow, which mustgo whither it is sent, not whither it wishes. I tell you that he, ourFather and Master the Sun, must have a lord and master more powerfulthan himself, who constrains him to his daily circuit without pause orrest. "[55-1]

To express this greatest of all existences, a name was proclaimed, basedupon that of the highest divinities known to the ancient Aymara race, Illatici Viracocha Pachacamac, literally, the thunder vase, the foam ofthe sea, animating the world, mysterious and symbolic names drawn fromthe deepest religious instincts of the soul, whose hidden meanings willbe unravelled hereafter. A temple was constructed in a vale by the seanear Callao, wherein his worship was to be conducted without images orhuman sacrifices. The Inca was ahead of his age, however, and when theSpaniards visited the temple of Pachacamac in 1525, they found not onlythe walls adorned with hideous paintings, but an ugly idol of woodrepresenting a man of colossal proportions set up therein, and receivingthe prayers of the votaries. [56-1]

No better success attended the attempt of Nezahuatl, lord of Tezcuco, which took place about the same time. He had long prayed to the gods ofhis forefathers for a son to inherit his kingdom, and the altars hadsmoked vainly with the blood of slaughtered victims. At length, inindignation and despair, the prince exclaimed, "Verily, these gods thatI am adoring, what are they but idols of stone without speech orfeeling? They could not have made the beauty of the heaven, the sun, themoon, and the stars which adorn it, and which light the earth, with itscountless streams, its fountains and waters, its trees and plants, andits various inhabitants. There must be some god, invisible and unknown, who is the universal creator. He alone can console me in my afflictionand take away my sorrow. " Strengthened in this conviction by a timelyfulfilment of his heart's desire, he erected a temple nine stories highto represent the nine heavens, which he dedicated "to the Unknown God, the Cause of Causes. " This temple, he ordained, should never be pollutedby blood, nor should any graven image ever be set up within itsprecincts. [57-1]

In neither case, be it observed, was any attempt made to substituteanother and purer religion for the popular one. The Inca continued toreceive the homage of his subjects as a brother of the sun, and theregular services to that luminary were never interrupted. Nor did theprince of Tezcuco afterwards neglect the honors due his national gods, nor even refrain himself from plunging the knife into the breasts ofcaptives on the altar of the god of war. [57-2] They were but expressionsof that monotheism which is ever present, "not in contrast topolytheism, but in living intuition in the religious sentiments. " Ifthis subtle but true distinction be rightly understood, it will exciteno surprise to find such epithets as "endless, " "omnipotent, ""invisible, " "adorable, " such appellations as "the Maker and Moulder ofAll, " "the Mother and Father of Life, " "the One God complete inperfection and unity, " "the Creator of all that is, " "the Soul of theWorld, " in use and of undoubted indigenous origin not only among thecivilized Aztecs, but even among the Haitians, the Araucanians, theLenni Lenape, and others. [57-3] It will not seem contradictory to hearof them in a purely polytheistic worship; we shall be far fromregarding them as familiar to the popular mind, and we shall never beled so far astray as to adduce them in evidence of a monotheism ineither technical sense of that word. In point of fact they were notapplied to any particular god even in the most enlightened nations, butwere terms of laudation and magniloquence used by the priests anddevotees of every several god to do him honor. They prove something inregard to a consciousness of divinity hedging us about, but nothing atall in favor of a recognition of one God; they exemplify how profound isthe conviction of a highest and first principle, but they do not offerthe least reason to surmise that this was a living reality in doctrineor practice. 

The confusion of these distinct ideas has led to much misconception ofthe native creeds. But another and more fatal error was that whichdistorted them into a dualistic form, ranging on one hand the goodspirit with his legions of angels, on the other the evil one with hisswarms of fiends, representing the world as the scene of their unendingconflict, man as the unlucky football who gets all the blows. Thisnotion, which has its historical origin among the Parsees of ancientIran, is unknown to savage nations. "The idea of the Devil, " justlyobserves Jacob Grimm, "is foreign to all primitive religions. " YetProfessor Mueller, in his voluminous work on those of America, afterapprovingly quoting this saying, complacently proceeds to classify thedeities as good or bad spirits![59-1]

This view, which has obtained without question in every work on thenative religions of America, has arisen partly from habits of thoughtdifficult to break, partly from mistranslations of native words, partlyfrom the foolish axiom of the early missionaries, "The gods of thegentiles are devils. " Yet their own writings furnish conclusive proofthat no such distinction existed out of their own fancies. The same word(_otkon_) which Father Bruyas employs to translate into Iroquois theterm "devil, " in the passage "the Devil took upon himself the figure ofa serpent, " he is obliged to use for "spirit" in the phrase, "at theresurrection we shall be spirits, "[59-2] which is a rather amusingillustration how impossible it was by any native word to convey the ideaof the spirit of evil. When, in 1570, Father Rogel commenced his laborsamong the tribes near the Savannah River, he told them that the deitythey adored was a demon who loved all evil things, and they must hatehim; whereupon his auditors replied, that so far from this being thecase, whom he called a wicked being was the power that sent them allgood things, and indignantly left the missionary to preach to thewinds. [60-1]

A passage often quoted in support of this mistaken view is one inWinslow's "Good News from New England, " written in 1622. The author saysthat the Indians worship a good power called Kiehtan, and another "who, as farre as wee can conceive, is the Devill, " named Hobbamock, orHobbamoqui. The former of these names is merely the word "great, " intheir dialect of Algonkin, with a final _n_, and is probably anabbreviation of Kittanitowit, the great manito, a vague term mentionedby Roger Williams and other early writers, not the appellation of anypersonified deity. [60-2] The latter, so far from corresponding to thepower of evil, was, according to Winslow's own statement, the kindly godwho cured diseases, aided them in the chase, and appeared to them indreams as their protector. Therefore, with great justice, Dr. Jarvis hasexplained it to mean "the _oke_ or tutelary deity which each Indianworships, " as the word itself signifies. [61-1]

So in many instances it turns out that what has been reported to be theevil divinity of a nation, to whom they pray to the neglect of a betterone, is in reality the highest power they recognize. Thus Juripari, worshipped by certain tribes of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, and said tobe their wicked spirit, is in fact the only name in their language forspiritual existence in general; and Aka-kanet, sometimes mentioned asthe father of evil in the mythology of the Araucanians, is the benignpower appealed to by their priests, who is throned in the Pleiades, whosends fruits and flowers to the earth, and is addressed as"grandfather. "[61-2] The Çupay of the Peruvians never was, as Prescottwould have us believe, "the shadowy embodiment of evil, " but simply andsolely their god of the dead, the Pluto of their pantheon, correspondingto the Mictla of the Mexicans. 

The evidence on the point is indeed conclusive. The Jesuit missionariesvery rarely distinguish between good and evil deities when speaking ofthe religion of the northern tribes; and the Moravian Brethren among theAlgonkins and Iroquois place on record their unanimous testimony that"the idea of a devil, a prince of darkness, they first received inlater times through the Europeans. "[62-1] So the Cherokees, remarks anintelligent observer, "know nothing of the Evil One and his domains, except what they have learned from white men. "[62-2] The term GreatSpirit conveys, for instance, to the Chipeway just as much the idea of abad as of a good spirit; he is unaware of any distinction until it isexplained to him. [62-3] "I have never been able to discover from theDakotas themselves, " remarks the Rev. G. H. Pond, who had lived amongthem as a missionary for eighteen years, [62-4] "the least degree ofevidence that they divide the gods into classes of good and evil, and ampersuaded that those persons who represent them as doing so, do itinconsiderately, and because it is so natural to subscribe to a longcherished popular opinion. "

Very soon after coming in contact with the whites, the Indians caughtthe notion of a bad and good spirit, pitted one against the other ineternal warfare, and engrafted it on their ancient traditions. Writersanxious to discover Jewish or Christian analogies, forcibly construedmyths to suit their pet theories, and for indolent observers it wasconvenient to catalogue their gods in antithetical classes. In Mexicanand Peruvian mythology this is so plainly false that historians nolonger insist upon it, but as a popular error it still holds its groundwith reference to the more barbarous and less known tribes. 

Perhaps no myth has been so often quoted in its confirmation as that ofthe ancient Iroquois, which narrates the conflict between the first twobrothers of our race. It is of undoubted native origin and venerableantiquity. The version given by the Tuscarora chief Cusic in 1825, relates that in the beginning of things there were two brothers, Enigorio and Enigohahetgea, names literally meaning the Good Mind andthe Bad Mind. [63-1] The former went about the world furnishing it withgentle streams, fertile plains, and plenteous fruits, while the lattermaliciously followed him creating rapids, thorns, and deserts. At lengththe Good Mind turned upon his brother in anger, and crushed him into theearth. He sank out of sight in its depths, but not to perish, for in thedark realms of the underworld he still lives, receiving the souls of thedead and being the author of all evil. Now when we compare this with theversion of the same legend given by Father Brebeuf, missionary to theHurons in 1636, we find its whole complexion altered; the moral dualismvanishes; the names Good Mind and Bad Mind do not appear; it is thestruggle of Ioskeha, the White one, with his brother Tawiscara, the Darkone, and we at once perceive that Christian influence in the course oftwo centuries had given the tale a meaning foreign to its originalintent. 

So it is with the story the Algonkins tell of their hero Manibozho, who, in the opinion of a well-known writer, "is always placed in antagonismto a great serpent, a spirit of evil. "[64-1] It is to the effect thatafter conquering many animals, this famous magician tried his arts onthe prince of serpents. After a prolonged struggle, which brought on thegeneral deluge and the destruction of the world, he won the victory. Thefirst authority we have for this narrative is even later than Cusic; itis Mr. Schoolcraft in our own day; the legendary cause of the deluge asrelated by Father Le Jeune, in 1634, is quite dissimilar, and makes nomention of a serpent; and as we shall hereafter see, neither among theAlgonkins nor any other Indians, was the serpent usually a type of evil, but quite the reverse. [64-2]

The comparatively late introduction of such views into the nativelegends finds a remarkable proof in the myths of the Quiches, which werecommitted to writing in the seventeenth century. They narrate thestruggles between the rulers of the upper and the nether world, thedescent of the former into Xibalba, the Realm of Phantoms, and theirvictory over its lords, One Death and Seven Deaths. The writer adds ofthe latter, who clearly represent to his mind the Evil One and hisadjutants, "in the old times they did not have much power; they were butannoyers and opposers of men, and in truth they were not regarded asgods. But when they appeared it was terrible. They were of evil, theywere owls, fomenting trouble and discord. " In this passage, which, be itsaid, seems to have impressed the translators very differently, thewriter appears to compare the great power assigned by the Christianreligion to Satan and his allies, with the very much less potencyattributed to their analogues in heathendom, the rulers of the world ofthe dead. [65-1]

A little reflection will convince the most incredulous that any suchdualism as has been fancied to exist in the native religions, could nothave been of indigenous growth. The gods of the primitive man are beingsof thoroughly human physiognomy, painted with colors furnished byintercourse with his fellows. These are his enemies or his friends, ashe conciliates or insults them. No mere man, least of all a savage, iskind and benevolent in spite of neglect and injury, nor is any mancauselessly and ceaselessly malicious. Personal, family, or nationalfeuds render some more inimical than others, but always from a desire toguard their own interests, never out of a delight in evil for its ownsake. Thus the cruel gods of death, disease, and danger, were never ofSatanic nature, while the kindliest divinities were disposed to punish, and that severely, any neglect of their ceremonies. Moral dualism canonly arise in minds where the ideas of good and evil are not synonymouswith those of pleasure and pain, for the conception of a wholly good ora wholly evil nature requires the use of these terms in their higher, ethical sense. The various deities of the Indians, it may safely be saidin conclusion, present no stronger antithesis in this respect than thoseof ancient Greece and Rome. 

FOOTNOTES:

[44-1] But there is no ground for the most positive of philosophers toreject the doctrine of innate ideas when put in a certain way. Theinstincts and habits of the lower animals by which they obtain food, migrate, and perpetuate their kind, are in obedience to particularcongenital impressions, and correspond to definite anatomical andmorphological relations. No one pretends their knowledge is experimental. Just so the human cerebrum has received, by descent or otherwise, varioussensory impressions peculiar to man as a species, which are just ascertain to guide his thoughts, actions, and destiny, as is the cerebrumof the insectivorous aye-aye to lead it to hunt successfully for larvæ. 

[45-1] _Die Kunst im Zusammenhang der Culturentwickelung_, i. Pp. 50, 252. 

[46-1] I offer these derivations with a certain degree of reserve, forsuch an extraordinary similarity in the sound of these words isdiscoverable in North and portions of South America, that one mightalmost be tempted to claim for them one original form. Thus in the Mayadialects it is _ku_, vocative _â kue_, in Natchez _kue-ya_, in the Ucheeof West Florida _kauhwu_, in Otomi _okha_, in Mandan _okee_, Sioux_ogha_, _waughon_, _wakan_, in Quichua _waka_, _huaca_, in Iroquois_quaker_, _oki_, Algonkin _oki_, _okee_, Eskimo _aghatt_, which last hasa singular likeness in sound to the German or Norse, _O Gott_, as some ofthe others have to the corresponding Finnish word _ukko_. _Ku_ in theCarib tongue means _house_, especially a temple or house of the gods. Theearly Spanish explorers adopted the word with the orthography _cue_, andapplied it to the sacred edifices of whatever nation they discovered. Forinstance, they speak of the great cemetery of Teotihuacan, near Tezcuco, as the _Llano de los Cues_. 

[46-2] "As the high heavens, the far-off mountains look to us blue, so ablue superficies seems to recede from us. As we would fain pursue anattractive object that flees from us, so we like to gaze at the blue, notthat it urges itself upon us, but that it draws us after it. " Goethe, _Farbenlehre_, secs. 780, 781. 

[47-1] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission der Evang. Brueder_, p. 63:Barby, 1789. 

[47-2] Cogolludo, _Historia de Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. Vii. 

[48-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France. _ An 1636, p. 107. 

[48-2] This word is found in Gallatin's vocabularies (_Transactions ofthe Am. Antiq. Soc. _, vol. Ii. ), and may have partially induced thatdistinguished ethnologist to ascribe, as he does in more than one place, whatever notions the eastern tribes had of a Supreme Being to theteachings of the Quakers. 

[48-3] Bruyas, _Radices Verborum Iroquæorum_, p. 84. This work is inShea's Library of American Linguistics, and is a most valuablecontribution to philology. The same etymology is given by Lafitau, _Mœurs des Sauvages_, etc. , Germ. Trans. , p. 65. 

[50-1] My authorities are Riggs, _Dict. Of the Dakota_, Boscana, _Accountof New California_, Richardson's and Egede's Eskimo Vocabularies, Pandosy, _Gram. And Dict. Of the Yakama_ (Shea's Lib. Of Am. Linguistics), and the Abbé Brasseur for the Aztec. 

[51-1] These terms are found in Gallatin's vocabularies. The lastmentioned is not, as Adair thought, derived from _issto ulla_ or _ishtohoollo_, great man, for in Choctaw the adjective cannot precede the nounit qualifies. Its true sense is visible in the analogous Creek words_ishtali_, the storm wind, and _hustolah_, the windy season. 

[51-2] Webster derives hurricane from the Latin _furio_. But Oviedo tellsus in his description of Hispaniola that "Hurakan, in lingua di questaisola vuole dire propriamente fortuna tempestuosa molto eccessiva, percheen effetto non è altro que un grandissimo vento è pioggia insieme. "_Historia dell' Indie_, lib. Vi. Cap. Iii. It is a coincidence--perhapssomething more--that in the Quichua language _huracan_, third personsingular present indicative of the verbal noun _huraca_, means "a streamof water falls perpendicularly. " (Markham, _Quichua Dictionary_, p. 132. )

[52-1] Oviedo, _Rel. De la Prov. De Cueba_, p. 141, ed. Ternaux-Compans. 

[52-2] Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, lib. Iv. Cap. Xxii. 

[53-1] See the _Rel. De la Nouv. France pour l'An 1637_, p. 49. 

[53-2] Mr. Morgan, in his excellent work, _The League of the Iroquois_, has been led astray by an ignorance of the etymology of these terms. ForSchoolcraft's views see his _Oneota_, p. 147. The matter is ablydiscussed in the _Etudes Philologiques sur Quelques Langues Sauvages del'Amérique_, p. 14: Montreal, 1866; but comp. Shea, _Dict. Français-Onontagué_, preface. 

[54-1] "Qui ne prend aucun soin des choses icy bas. " _Jour. Hist. D'unVoyage de l'Amérique_, p. 225: Paris, 1713. 

[55-1] In attributing this speech to the Inca Yupanqui, I have followedBalboa, who expressly says this was the general opinion of the Indians(_Hist. Du Pérou_, p. 62, ed. Ternaux-Compans). Others assign it to otherIncas. See Garcilasso de la Vega, _Hist. Des Incas_, lib. Viii. Chap. 8, and Acosta, _Nat. And Morall Hist. Of the New World_, chap. 5. The factand the approximate time are beyond question. 

[56-1] Xeres, _Rel. De la Conq. Du Pérou_, p. 151, ed. Ternaux-Compans. 

[57-1] Prescott, _Conq. Of Mexico_, i. Pp. 192, 193, on the authority ofIxtlilxochitl. 

[57-2] Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, iii. P. 297, note. 

[57-3] Of very many authorities that I have at hand, I shall only mentionHeckewelder, _Acc. Of the Inds. _[TN-1] p. 422, Duponceau, _Mém. Sur lesLangues de l'Amér. Du Nord_, p. 310, Peter Martyr _De Rebus Oceanicis_, Dec. I. , cap. 9, Molina, _Hist. Of Chili_, ii. P. 75, Ximenes, _Origen delos Indios de Guatemala_, pp. 4, 5, Ixtlilxochitl, _Rel. Des Conq. DuMexique_, p. 2. These terms bear the severest scrutiny. The Aztecappellation of the Supreme Being _Tloque nahuaque_ is compounded of_tloc_, together, with, and _nahuac_, at, by, with, with possessive formsadded, giving the signification, Lord of all existence and coexistence(alles Mitseyns und alles Beiseyns, bei welchem das Seyn aller Dinge ist. Buschmann, _Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen_, p. 642). The Algonkin term_Kittanittowit_ is derived from _kitta_, great, _manito_, spirit, _wit_, an adjective termination indicating a mode of existence, and means theGreat Living Spirit (Duponceau, u. S. ). Both these terms are undoubtedlyof native origin. In the Quiche legends the Supreme Being is called_Bitol_, the substantive form of _bit_, to make pottery, to form, and_Tzakol_, substantive form of _tzak_, to build, the Creator, theConstructor. The Arowacks of Guyana applied the term _Aluberi_ to theirhighest conception of a first cause, from the verbal form _alin_, he whomakes (Martius, _Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika's_, i. P. 696). 

[59-1] _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 403. 

[59-2] Bruyas, _Rad. Verb. Iroquæorum_, p. 38. 

[60-1] Alcazar, _Chrono-historia de la Prov. De Toledo_, Dec. Iii. , Añoviii. , cap. Iv: Madrid, 1710. This rare work contains the only faithfulcopies of Father Rogel's letters extant. Mr. Shea, in his History ofCatholic Missions, calls him erroneously Roger. 

[60-2] It is fully analyzed by Duponceau, _Langues de l'Amérique duNord_, p. 309. 

[61-1] _Discourse on the Religion of the Ind. Tribes of N. Am. _, p. 252in the Trans. N. Y. Hist. Soc. 

[61-2] Mueller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, pp. 265, 272, 274. Well may heremark: "The dualism is not very striking among these tribes;" as a fewpages previous he says of the Caribs, "The dualism of gods is anythingbut rigidly observed. The good gods do more evil than good. Fear is theruling religious sentiment. " To such a lame conclusion do these venerableprepossessions lead. "_Grau ist alle Theorie_. "

[62-1] Loskiel, _Ges. Der Miss. Der evang. Brueder_, p. 46. 

[62-2] Whipple, _Report on the Ind. Tribes_, p. 33: Washington, 1855. Pacific Railroad Docs. 

[62-3] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, i. P. 359. 

[62-4] In Schoolcraft, _Ibid. _, iv. P. 642. 

[63-1] Or more exactly, the Beautiful Spirit, the Ugly Spirit. InOnondaga the radicals are _onigonra_, spirit, _hio_ beautiful, _ahetken_ugly. _Dictionnaire Français-Onontagué, édité par Jean-Marie Shea_: NewYork, 1859. 

[64-1] Squier, _The Serpent Symbol in America_. 

[64-2] Both these legends will be analyzed in a subsequent chapter, andan attempt made not only to restore them their primitive form, but toexplain their meaning. 

[65-1] Compare the translation and remarks of Ximenes, _Or. De los Indiosde Guat. _, p. 76, with those of Brasseur, _Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, p. 189. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE SACRED NUMBER, ITS ORIGIN AND APPLICATIONS. 

 The number FOUR sacred in all American religions, and the key to their symbolism. --Derived from the CARDINAL POINTS. --Appears constantly in government, arts, rites, and myths. --The Cardinal Points identified with the Four Winds, who in myths are the four ancestors of the human race, and the four celestial rivers watering the terrestrial Paradise. --Associations grouped around each Cardinal Point. --From the number four was derived the symbolic value of the number _Forty_, and the _Sign of the Cross_. 

Every one familiar with the ancient religions of the world must havenoticed the mystic power they attach to certain numbers, and how thesenumbers became the measures and formative quantities, as it were, oftraditions and ceremonies, and had a symbolical meaning nowise connectedwith their arithmetical value. For instance, in many eastern religions, that of the Jews among the rest, _seven_ was the most sacred number, andafter it, _four_ and _three_. The most cursory reader must have observedin how many connections the seven is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, occurring, in all, something over three hundred and sixty times, it issaid. Why these numbers were chosen rather than others has not beenclearly explained. Their sacred character dates beyond the earliesthistory, and must have been coeval with the first expressions of thereligious sentiment. Only one of them, the FOUR, has any prominence inthe religions of the red race, but this is so marked and so universal, that at a very early period in my studies I felt convinced that if thereason for its adoption could be discovered, much of the apparentconfusion which reigns among them would be dispelled. 

Such a reason must take its rise from some essential relation of man tonature, everywhere prominent, everywhere the same. It is found in the_adoration of the cardinal points_. 

The red man, as I have said, was a hunter; he was ever wandering throughpathless forests, coursing over boundless prairies. It seems to thewhite race not a faculty, but an instinct that guides him so unerringly. He is never at a loss. Says a writer who has deeply studied hischaracter: "The Indian ever has the points of the compass present to hismind, and expresses himself accordingly in words, although it shall beof matters in his own house. "[67-1]

The assumption of precisely four cardinal points is not of chance; it isrecognized in every language; it is rendered essential by the anatomicalstructure of the body; it is derived from the immutable laws of theuniverse. Whether we gaze at the sunset or the sunrise, or whether atnight we look for guidance to the only star of the twinkling thousandsthat is constant to its place, the anterior and posterior planes of ourbodies, our right hands and our left coincide with the parallels andmeridians. Very early in his history did man take note of these fourpoints, and recognizing in them his guides through the night and thewilderness, call them his gods. Long afterwards, when centuries of slowprogress had taught him other secrets of nature--when he had discernedin the motions of the sun, the elements of matter, and the radicals ofarithmetic a repetition of this number--they were to him furtherwarrants of its sacredness. He adopted it as a regulating quantity inhis institutions and his arts; he repeated it in its multiples andcompounds; he imagined for it novel applications; he constantlymagnified its mystic meaning; and finally, in his philosophicalreveries, he called it the key to the secrets of the universe, "thesource of ever-flowing nature. "[68-1]

In primitive geography the figure of the earth is a square plain; in thelegend of the Quiché's it is "shaped as a square, divided into fourparts, marked with lines, measured with cords, and suspended from theheavens by a cord to its four corners and its four sides. "[68-2] Theearliest divisions of territory were in conformity to this view. Thus itwas with ancient Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and China;[68-3] and in thenew world, the states of Peru, Araucania, the Muyscas, the Quichés, andTlascala were tetrarchies divided in accordance with, and in the firsttwo instances named after, the cardinal points. So their chiefcities--Cuzco, Quito, Tezcuco, Mexico, Cholula--were quartered bystreets running north, south, east, and west. It was a necessary resultof such a division that the chief officers of the government were fourin number, that the inhabitants of town and country, that the wholesocial organization acquired a quadruplicate form. The official title ofthe Incas was "Lord of the four quarters of the earth, " and thevenerable formality in taking possession of land, both in their domainand that of the Aztecs, was to throw a stone, to shoot an arrow, or tohurl a firebrand to each of the cardinal points. [69-1] They carried outthe idea in their architecture, building their palaces in squares withdoors opening, their tombs with their angles pointing, their greatcauseways running in these directions. These architectural principlesrepeat themselves all over the continent; they recur in the sacredstructures of Yucatan, in the ancient cemetery of Teo-tihuacan nearMexico, where the tombs are arranged along avenues corresponding exactlyto the parallels and meridians of the central tumuli of the sun andmoon;[69-2] and however ignorant we are about the mound builders of theMississippi valley, we know that they constructed their earthworks witha constant regard to the quarters of the compass. 

Nothing can be more natural than to take into consideration the regionsof the heavens in the construction of buildings; I presume that at anytime no one plans an edifice of pretensions without doing so. Yet thisis one of those apparently trifling transactions which in their originand applications have exerted a controlling influence on the history ofthe human race. 

When we reflect how indissolubly the mind of the primitive man is weldedto his superstitions, it were incredible that his social life and hisarchitecture could thus be as it were in subjection to one idea, and hisrites and myths escape its sway. As one might expect, it reappears inthese latter more vividly than anywhere else. If there is one formulamore frequently mentioned by travellers than another as an indispensablepreliminary to all serious business, it is that of smoking, and theprescribed and traditional rule was that the first puff should be to thesky, and then one to each of the corners of the earth, or the cardinalpoints. [70-1] These were the spirits who made and governed the earth, and under whatever difference of guise the uncultivated fancy portrayedthem, they were the leading figures in the tales and ceremonies ofnearly every tribe of the red race. These were the divine powerssummoned by the Chipeway magicians when initiating neophytes into themysteries of the meda craft. They were asked to a lodge of four poles, to four stones that lay before its fire, there to remain four days, andattend four feasts. At every step of the proceeding this number or itsmultiples were repeated. [71-1] With their neighbors the Dakotas thenumber was also distinctly sacred; it was intimately inwoven in alltheir tales concerning the wakan power and the spirits of the air, andtheir religious rites. The artist Catlin has given a vivid descriptionof the great annual festival of the Mandans, a Dakota tribe, and bringsforward with emphasis the ceaseless reiteration of this number fromfirst to last. [71-2] He did not detect its origin in the veneration ofthe cardinal points, but the information that has since been furnishedof the myths of this stock leaves no doubt that such was the case. [71-3]

Proximity of place had no part in this similarity of rite. In the grandcommemorative festival of the Creeks called the Busk, which wiped outthe memory of all crimes but murder, which reconciled the proscribedcriminal to his nation and atoned for his guilt, when the new fire waskindled and the green corn served up, every dance, every invocation, every ceremony, was shaped and ruled by the application of the numberfour and its multiples in every imaginable relation. So it was at thatsolemn probation which the youth must undergo to prove himself worthy ofthe dignities of manhood and to ascertain his guardian spirit; hereagain his fasts, his seclusions, his trials, were all laid down infourfold arrangement. [72-1]

Not alone among these barbarous tribes were the cardinal points thus thefoundation of the most solemn mysteries of religion. An excellentauthority relates that the Aztecs of Micla, in Guatemala, celebratedtheir chief festival four times a year, and that four priests solemnizedits rites. They commenced by invoking and offering incense to the skyand the four cardinal points; they conducted the human victim four timesaround the temple, then tore out his heart, and catching the blood infour vases scattered it in the same directions. [72-2] So also thePeruvians had four principal festivals annually, and at every new moonone of four days' duration. In fact the repetition of the number in alltheir religious ceremonies is so prominent that it has been a subject ofcomment by historians. They have attributed it to the knowledge of thesolstices and equinoxes, but assuredly it is of more ancient date thanthis. The same explanation has been offered for its recurrence among theNahuas of Mexico, whose whole lives were subjected to its operation. Atbirth the mother was held unclean for four days, a fire was kindled andkept burning for a like length of time, at the baptism of the child anarrow was shot to each of the cardinal points. Their prayers wereoffered four times a day, the greatest festivals were every fourth year, and their offerings of blood were to the four points of the compass. Atdeath food was placed on the grave, as among the Eskimos, Creeks, andAlgonkins, for four days (for all these nations supposed that thejourney to the land of souls was accomplished in that time), andmourning for the dead was for four months or four years. [73-1]

It were fatiguing and unnecessary to extend the catalogue much further. Yet it is not nearly exhausted. From tribes of both continents and allstages of culture, the Muyscas of Columbia and the Natchez of Louisiana, the Quichés of Guatemala and the Caribs of the Orinoko, instance afterinstance might be marshalled to illustrate how universally a sacredcharacter was attached to this number, and how uniformly it is traceableto a veneration of the cardinal points. It is sufficient that it bedisplayed in some of its more unusual applications. 

It is well known that the calendar common to the Aztecs and Mayasdivides the month into four weeks, each containing a like number ofsecular days; that their indiction is divided into four periods; andthat they believed the world had passed through four cycles. It has notbeen sufficiently emphasized that in many of the picture writings thesedays of the week are placed respectively north, south, east, and west, and that in the Maya language the quarters of the indiction still bearthe names of the cardinal points, hinting the reason of theiradoption. [74-1] This cannot be fortuitous. Again, the division of theyear into four seasons--a division as devoid of foundation in nature asthat of the ancient Aryans into three, and unknown among many tribes, yet obtained in very early times among Algonkins, Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Aztecs, Muyscas, Peruvians, and Araucanians. They were supposedto be produced by the unending struggles and varying fortunes of thefour aerial giants who rule the winds. 

We must seek in mythology the key to the monotonous repetition and thesanctity of this number; and furthermore, we must seek it in thosenatural modes of expression of the religious sentiment which are abovethe power of blood or circumstance to control. One of these modes, wehave seen, was that which led to the identification of the divinity withthe wind, and this it is that solves the enigma in the present instance. Universally the spirits of the cardinal points were imagined to be inthe winds that blew from them. The names of these directions and of thecorresponding winds are often the same, and when not, there exists anintimate connection between them. For example, take the languages of theMayas, Huastecas, and Moscos of Central America; in all of them the wordfor _north_ is synonymous with _north wind_, and so on for the otherthree points of the compass. Or again, that of the Dakotas, and the word_tate-ouye-toba_, translated "the four quarters of the heavens, " meansliterally, "whence the four winds come. "[75-1] It were not difficult toextend the list; but illustrations are all that is required. Let it beremembered how closely the motions of the air are associated in thoughtand language with the operations of the soul and the idea of God; let itfurther be considered what support this association receives from thepower of the winds on the weather, bringing as they do the lightning andthe storm, the zephyr that cools the brow, and the tornado that levelsthe forest; how they summon the rain to fertilize the seed and refreshthe shrivelled leaves; how they aid the hunter to stalk the game, andusher in the varying seasons; how, indeed, in a hundred ways, theyintimately concern his comfort and his life; and it will not seemstrange that they almost occupied the place of all other gods in themind of the child of nature. Especially as those who gave or withheldthe rains were they objects of his anxious solicitation. "Ye who dwellat the four corners of the earth--at the north, at the south, at theeast, and at the west, " commenced the Aztec prayer to the Tlalocs, godsof the showers. [75-2] For they, as it were, hold the food, the life ofman in their power, garnered up on high, to grant or deny, as they seefit. It was from them that the prophet of old was directed to call backthe spirits of the dead to the dry bones of the valley. "Prophesy untothe wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the LordGod, come forth from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon theseslain, that they may live. " (Ezek. Xxxvii. 9. )

In the same spirit the priests of the Eskimos prayed to _Sillam Innua_, the Owner of the Winds, as the highest existence; the abode of the deadthey called _Sillam Aipane_, the House of the Winds; and in theirincantations, when they would summon a new soul to the sick, or orderback to its home some troublesome spirit, their invocations were everaddressed to the winds from the cardinal points--to Pauna the East andSauna the West, to Kauna the South and Auna the North. [76-1]

As the rain-bringers, as the life-givers, it were no far-fetchedmetaphor to call them the fathers of our race. Hardly a nation on thecontinent but seems to have had some vague tradition of an origin fromfour brothers, to have at some time been led by four leaders or princes, or in some manner to have connected the appearance and action of fourimportant personages with its earliest traditional history. Sometimesthe myth defines clearly these fabled characters as the spirits of thewinds, sometimes it clothes them in uncouth, grotesque metaphors, sometimes again it so weaves them into actual history that we are at aloss where to draw the line that divides fiction from truth. 

I shall attempt to follow step by step the growth of this myth from itssimplest expression, where the transparent drapery makes no pretence toconceal its true meaning, through the ever more elaborate narratives, the more strongly marked personifications of more cultivated nations, until it assumes the outlines of, and has palmed itself upon the worldas actual history. 

This simplest form is that which alone appears among the Algonkins andDakotas. They both traced their lives back to four ancestors, personagesconcerned in various ways with the first things of time, not rightlydistinguished as men or gods, but very positively identified with thefour winds. Whether from one or all of these the world was peopled, whether by process of generation or some other more obscure way, the oldpeople had not said, or saying, had not agreed. [77-1]

It is a shade more complex when we come to the Creeks. They told of fourmen who came from the four corners of the earth, who brought them thesacred fire, and pointed out the seven sacred plants. They were calledthe Hi-you-yul-gee. Having rendered them this service, the kindlyvisitors disappeared in a cloud, returning whence they came. Whenanother and more ancient legend informs us that the Creeks were at firstdivided into four clans, and alleged a descent from four femaleancestors, it will hardly be venturing too far to recognize in thesefour ancestors the four friendly patrons from the cardinal points. [78-1]

The ancient inhabitants of Haiti, when first discovered by theSpaniards, had a similar genealogical story, which Peter Martyr relateswith various excuses for its silliness and exclamations at itsabsurdity. Perhaps the fault lay less in its lack of meaning than in hiswant of insight. It was to the effect that men lived in caves, and weredestroyed by the parching rays of the sun, and were destitute of meansto prolong their race, until they caught and subjected to their use fourwomen who were swift of foot and slippery as eels. These were themothers of the race of men. Or again, it was said that a certain kinghad a huge gourd which contained all the waters of the earth; fourbrothers, who coming into the world at one birth had cost their motherher life, ventured to the gourd to fish, picked it up, but frightened bythe old king's approach, dropped it on the ground, broke it intofragments, and scattered the waters over the earth, forming the seas, lakes, and rivers, as they now are. These brothers in time became thefathers of a nation, and to them they traced their lineage. [78-2] Withthe previous examples before our eyes, it asks no vivid fancy to see inthese quaternions once more the four winds, the bringers of rain, soswift and so slippery. 

The Navajos are a rude tribe north of Mexico. Yet even they have anallegory to the effect that when the first man came up from the groundunder the figure of the moth-worm, the four spirits of the cardinalpoints were already there, and hailed him with the exclamation, "Lo, heis of our race. "[79-1] It is a poor and feeble effort to tell the sameold story. 

The Haitians were probably relatives of the Mayas of Yucatan. Certainlythe latter shared their ancestral legends, for in an ancient manuscriptfound by Mr. Stephens during his travels, it appears they looked back tofour parents or leaders called the Tutul Xiu. But, indeed, this was atrait of all the civilized nations of Central America and Mexico. Anauthor who would be very unwilling to admit any mythical interpretationof the coincidence, has adverted to it in tones of astonishment: "In allthe Aztec and Toltec histories there are four characters who constantlyreappear; either as priests or envoys of the gods, or of hidden anddisguised majesty; or as guides and chieftains of tribes during theirmigrations; or as kings and rulers of monarchies after their foundation;and even to the time of the conquest, there are always four princes whocompose the supreme government, whether in Guatemala, or inMexico. "[79-2] This fourfold division points not to a common history, but to a common nature. The ancient heroes and demigods, who, four innumber, figure in all these antique traditions, were not men of fleshand blood, but the invisible currents of air who brought the fertilizingshowers. 

They corresponded to the four gods Bacab, who in the Yucatecan mythologywere supposed to stand one at each corner of the world, supporting, likegigantic caryatides, the overhanging firmament. When at the generaldeluge all other gods and men were swallowed by the waters they aloneescaped to people it anew. These four, known by the names of Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac, represented respectively the east, north, west, andsouth, and as in Oriental symbolism, so here each quarter of the compasswas distinguished by a color, the east by yellow, the south by red, thewest by black, and the north by white. The names of these mysteriouspersonages, employed somewhat as we do the Dominical letters, adjustedthe calendar of the Mayas, and by their propitious or portentouscombinations was arranged their system of judicial astrology. They werethe gods of rain, and under the title Chac, the Red Ones, were the chiefministers of the highest power. As such they were represented in thereligious ceremonies by four old men, constant attendants on the highpriest in his official functions. [80-1] In this most civilized branchof the red race, as everywhere else, we thus find four mythologicalcharacters prominent beyond all others, giving a peculiar physiognomy tothe national legends, arts, and sciences, and in them once more werecognize by signs infallible, personifications of the four cardinalpoints and the four winds. 

They rarely lose altogether their true character. The Quiché legendstell us that the four men who were first created by the Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, the Air in Motion, were infinitely keen of eye and swift offoot, that "they measured and saw all that exists at the four cornersand the four angles of the sky and the earth;" that they did not fulfilthe design of their maker "to bring forth and produce when the season ofharvest was near, " until he blew into their eyes a cloud, "until theirfaces were obscured as when one breathes on a mirror. " Then he gave themas wives the four mothers of our species, whose names were FallingWater, Beautiful Water, Water of Serpents, and Water of Birds. [81-1]Truly he who can see aught but a transparent myth in this recital, is arealist that would astonish Euhemerus himself. 

There is in these Aztec legends a quaternion besides this of the firstmen, one that bears marks of a profound contemplation on the course ofnature, one that answers to the former as the heavenly phase of theearthly conception. It is seen in the four personages, or perhaps weshould say modes of action, that make up the one Supreme Cause of All, Hurakan, the breath, the wind, the Divine Spirit. They are He whocreates, He who gives Form, He who gives Life, and He whoreproduces. [82-1] This acute and extraordinary analysis of the originand laws of organic life, clothed under the ancient belief in the actionof the winds, reveals a depth of thought for which we were hardlyprepared, and is perhaps the single instance of anything likemetaphysics among the red race. It is clearly visible in the earlierportions of the legends of the Quichés, and is the more surely of nativeorigin as it has been quite lost on both their translators. 

Go where we will, the same story meets us. The empire of the Incas wasattributed in the sacred chants of the Amautas, the priests assigned totake charge of the records, to four brothers and their wives. Thesemythical civilizers are said to have emerged from a cave called _Pacaritampu_, which may mean "the House of Subsistence, " reminding us of thefour heroes who in Aztec legend set forth to people the world fromTonacatepec, the mountain of our subsistence; or again it may mean--forlike many of these mythical names it seems to have been designedlychosen to bear a double construction--the Lodgings of the Dawn, recalling another Aztec legend which points for the birthplace of therace to Tula in the distant orient. The cave itself suggests to theclassical reader that of Eolus, or may be paralleled with that in whichthe Iroquois fabled the winds were imprisoned by their lord. [83-1] Thesebrothers were of no common kin. Their voices could shake the earth andtheir hands heap up mountains. Like the thunder god, they stood on thehills and hurled their sling-stones to the four corners of the earth. When one was overpowered he fled upward to the heaven or was turned intostone, and it was by their aid and counsel that the savages whopossessed the land renounced their barbarous habits and commenced totill the soil. There can be no doubt but that this in turn is butanother transformation of the Protean myth we have so longpursued. [83-2]

There are traces of the same legend among many other tribes of thecontinent, but the trustworthy reports we have of them are too scanty topermit analysis. Enough that they are mentioned in a note, for it isevery way likely that could we resolve their meaning they too wouldcarry us back to the four winds. [83-3]

Let no one suppose, however, that this was the only myth of the originof man. Far from it. It was but one of many, for, as I shall hereafterattempt to show, the laws that governed the formations of such myths notonly allowed but enjoined great divergence of form. Equally far was itfrom being the only image which the inventive fancy hit upon to expressthe action of the winds as the rain bringers. They too were many, butmay all be included in a twofold division, either as the winds weresupposed to flow in from the corners of the earth or outward from itscentral point. Thus they are spoken of under such figures as fourtortoises at the angles of the earthly plane who vomit forth therains, [85-1] or four gigantic caryatides who sustain the heavens andblow the winds from their capacious lungs, [85-2] or more frequently asfour rivers flowing from the broken calabash on high, as the Haitians, draining the waters of the primitive world, [85-3] as four animals whobring from heaven the maize, [85-4] as four messengers whom the god ofair sends forth, or under a coarser trope as the spittle he ejectstoward the cardinal points which is straightway transformed into wildrice, tobacco, and maize. [85-5]

Constantly from the palace of the lord of the world, seated on the highhill of heaven, blow four winds, pour four streams, refreshing andfecundating the earth. Therefore, in the myths of ancient Iran there ismention of a celestial fountain, Arduisur, the virgin daughter ofOrmuzd, whence four all nourishing rivers roll their waves toward thecardinal points; therefore the Thibetans believe that on the sacredmountain Himavata grows the tree of life Zampu, from whose foot oncemore flow the waters of life in four streams to the four quarters of theworld; and therefore it is that the same tale is told by the Chinese ofthe mountain Kouantun, by the Brahmins of Mount Meru, and by the Parseesof Mount Albors in the Caucasus. [85-6] Each nation called their sacredmountain "the navel of the earth;" for not only was it the supposedcentre of the habitable world, but through it, as the fœtus throughthe umbilical cord, the earth drew her increase. Beyond all other spotswere they accounted fertile, scenes of joyous plaisance, of repose, andeternal youth; there rippled the waters of health, there blossomed thetree of life; they were fit trysting spots of gods and men. Hence camethe tales of the terrestrial paradise, the rose garden of Feridun, theEden gardens of the world. The name shows the origin, for paradise (inSanscrit, _para desa_) means literally _high land_. There, in theunanimous opinion of the Orient, dwelt once in unalloyed delight thefirst of men; thence driven by untoward fate, no more anywhere couldthey find the path thither. Some thought that in the north among thefortunate Hyperboreans, others that in the mountains of the moon wheredwelt the long lived Ethiopians, and others again that in the furthesteast, underneath the dawn, was situate the seat of pristine happiness;but many were of opinion that somewhere in the western sea, beyond thepillars of Hercules and the waters of the Outer Ocean, lay the garden ofthe Hesperides, the Islands of the Blessed, the earthly Elysion. 

It is not without design that I recall this early dream of the religiousfancy. When Christopher Columbus, fired by the hope of discovering thisterrestrial paradise, broke the enchantment of the cloudy sea and founda new world, it was but to light upon the same race of men, deludingthemselves with the same hope of earthly joys, the same fiction of along lost garden of their youth. They told him that still to the west, amid the mountains of Paria, was a spot whence flowed mighty streamsover all lands, and which in sooth was the spot he sought;[87-1] andwhen that baseless fabric had vanished, there still remained the fabledisland of Boiuca, or Bimini, hundreds of leagues north of Hispaniola, whose glebe was watered by a fountain of such noble virtue as to restoreyouth and vigor to the worn out and the aged. [87-2] This was no fictionof the natives to rid themselves of burdensome guests. Long before thewhite man approached their shores, families had started from Cuba, Yucatan, and Honduras in search of these renovating waters, and notreturning, were supposed by their kindred to have been detained by thedelights of that enchanted land, and to be revelling in its seductivejoys, forgetful of former ties. [87-3]

Perhaps it was but another rendering of the same belief that pointed tothe impenetrable forests of the Orinoko, the ancient homes of the Caribsand Arowacks, and there located the famous realm of El Dorado with itsimperial capital Manoa, abounding in precious metals and all manner ofgems, peopled by a happy race, and governed by an equitable ruler. 

The Aztec priests never chanted more regretful dirges than when theysang of Tulan, the cradle of their race, where once it dwelt in peacefulindolent happiness, whose groves were filled with birds of sweet voicesand gay plumage, whose generous soil brought forth spontaneously maize, cocoa, aromatic gums, and fragrant flowers. "Land of riches and plenty, where the gourds grow an arm's length across, where an ear of corn is aload for a stout man, and its stalks are as high as trees; land wherethe cotton ripens of its own accord of all rich tints; land aboundingwith limpid emeralds, turquoises, gold, and silver. "[88-1] This land wasalso called Tlalocan, from Tlaloc, the god of rain, who there had hisdwelling place, and Tlapallan, the land of colors, or the red land, forthe hues of the sky at sunrise floated over it. Its inhabitants weresurnamed children of the air, or of Quetzalcoatl, and from its centrerose the holy mountain Tonacatepec, the mountain of our life orsubsistence. Its supposed location was in the east, whence in thatcountry blow the winds that bring mild rains, says Sahagun, and thatmissionary was himself asked, as coming from the east, whether his homewas in Tlapallan; more definitely by some it was situated among thelofty peaks on the frontiers of Guatemala, and all the great rivers thatwater the earth were supposed to have their sources there. [88-2] Buthere, as elsewhere, its site was not determined. "There is a Tulan, "says an ancient authority, "where the sun rises, and there is another inthe land of shades, and another where the sun reposes, and thence camewe; and still another where the sun reposes, and there dwellsGod. "[89-1]

The myth of the Quichés but changes the name of this pleasant land. Withthem it was _Pan-paxil-pa-cayala_, where the waters divide in falling, or between the waters parcelled out and mucky. This was "an excellentland, full of pleasant things, where was store of white corn and yellowcorn, where one could not count the fruits, nor estimate the quantity ofhoney and food. " Over it ruled the lord of the air, and from it thefour sacred animals carried the corn to make the flesh of men. [90-1]

Once again, in the legends of the Mixtecas, we hear the old storyrepeated of the garden where the first two brothers dwelt. It laybetween a meadow and that lofty peak which supports the heavens and thepalaces of the gods. "Many trees were there, such as yield flowers androses, very luscious fruits, divers herbs, and aromatic spices. " Thenames of the brothers were the Wind of Nine Serpents and the Wind ofNine Caverns. The first was as an eagle, and flew aloft over the watersthat poured around their enchanted garden; the second was as a serpentwith wings, who proceeded with such velocity that he pierced rocks andwalls. They were too swift to be seen by the sharpest eye, and were onenear as they passed, he was only aware of a whisper and a rustling likethat of the wind in the leaves. [90-2]

Wherever, in short, the lust of gold lured the early adventurers, theywere told of some nation a little further on, some wealthy andprosperous land, abundant and fertile, satisfying the desire of theheart. It was sometimes deceit, and it was sometimes the creditedfiction of the earthly paradise, that in all ages has with a promise ofperfect joy consoled the aching heart of man. 

It is instructive to study the associations that naturally groupthemselves around each of the cardinal points, and watch how these aremirrored on the surface of language, and have directed the current ofthought. Jacob Grimm has performed this task with fidelity and beauty asregards the Aryan race, but the means are wanting to apply his searchingmethod to the indigenous tongues of America. Enough if in general termstheir mythological value be determined. 

When the day begins, man wakes from his slumbers, faces the rising sun, and prays. The east is before him; by it he learns all other directions;it is to him what the north is to the needle; with reference to it heassigns in his mind the position of the three other cardinalpoints. [91-1] There is the starting place of the celestial fires, thehome of the sun, the womb of the morning. It represents in space thebeginning of things in time, and as the bright and glorious creatures ofthe sky come forth thence, man conceits that his ancestors also inremote ages wandered from the orient; there in the opinion of many inboth the old and new world was the cradle of the race; there in Azteclegend was the fabled land of Tlapallan, and the wind from the east wascalled the wind of Paradise, Tlalocavitl. 

From this direction came, according to the almost unanimous opinion ofthe Indian tribes, those hero gods who taught them arts and religion, thither they returned, and from thence they would again appear to resumetheir ancient sway. As the dawn brings light, and with light isassociated in every human mind the ideas of knowledge, safety, protection, majesty, divinity, as it dispels the spectres of night, asit defines the cardinal points, and brings forth the sun and the day, it occupied the primitive mind to an extent that can hardly be magnifiedbeyond the truth. It is in fact the central figure in most naturalreligions. 

The west, as the grave of the heavenly luminaries, or rather as theirgoal and place of repose, brings with it thoughts of sleep, of death, oftranquillity, of rest from labor. When the evening of his days was come, when his course was run, and man had sunk from sight, he was supposed tofollow the sun and find some spot of repose for his tired soul in thedistant west. There, with general consent, the tribes north of the Gulfof Mexico supposed the happy hunting grounds; there, taught by the sameanalogy, the ancient Aryans placed the Nerriti, the exodus, the land ofthe dead. "The old notion among us, " said on one occasion adistinguished chief of the Creek nation, "is that when we die, thespirit goes the way the sun goes, to the west, and there joins itsfamily and friends who went before it. "[92-1]

In the northern hemisphere the shadows fall to the north, thence blowcold and furious winds, thence come the snow and early thunder. Perhapsall its primitive inhabitants, of whatever race, thought it the seat ofthe mighty gods. [92-2] A floe of ice in the Arctic Sea was the home ofthe guardian spirit of the Algonkins;[92-3] on a mountain near the northstar the Dakotas thought Heyoka dwelt who rules the seasons; and therealm of Mictla, the Aztec god of death, lay where the shadows pointed. From that cheerless abode his sceptre reached over all creatures, eventhe gods themselves, for sooner or later all must fall before him. Thegreat spirit of the dead, said the Ottawas, lives in the darknorth, [93-1] and there, in the opinion of the Monquis of California, resided their chief god, Gumongo. [93-2]

Unfortunately the makers of vocabularies have rarely included the wordsnorth, south, east, and west, in their lists, and the methods ofexpressing these ideas adopted by the Indians can only be partiallydiscovered. The east and west were usually called from the rising andsetting of the sun as in our words orient and occident, but occasionallyfrom traditional notions. The Mayas named the west the greater, the eastthe lesser debarkation; believing that while their culture hero Zamnacame from the east with a few attendants, the mass of the populationarrived from the opposite direction. [93-3] The Aztecs spoke of the eastas "the direction of Tlalocan, " the terrestrial paradise. But for northand south there were no such natural appellations, and consequently thegreatest diversity is exhibited in the plans adopted to express them. The north in the Caddo tongue is "the place of cold, " in Dakota "thesituation of the pines, " in Creek "the abode of the (north) star, " inAlgonkin "the home of the soul, " in Aztec "the direction of Mictla" therealm of death, in Quiché and Quichua, "to the right hand;"[93-4] whilefor the south we find such terms as in Dakota "the downward direction, "in Algonkin "the place of warmth, " in Quiché "to the left hand, " whileamong the Eskimos, who look in this direction for the sun, its nameimplies "before one, " just as does the Hebrew word _kedem_, which, however, this more southern tribe applied to the east. 

We can trace the sacredness of the number four in other curious andunlooked-for developments. Multiplied into the number of thefingers--the arithmetic of every child and ignorant man--or by addingtogether the first four members of its arithmetical series (4 + 8 + 12 +16), it gives the number forty. This was taken as a limit to the sacreddances of some Indian tribes, and by others as the highest number ofchants to be employed in exorcising diseases. Consequently it came to befixed as a limit in exercises of preparation or purification. Thefemales of the Orinoko tribes fasted forty days before marriage, andthose of the upper Mississippi were held unclean the same length of timeafter childbirth; such was the term of the Prince of Tezcuco's fast whenhe wished an heir to his throne, and such the number of days the Mandanssupposed it required to wash clean the world at the deluge. [94-1]

No one is ignorant how widely this belief was prevalent in the oldworld, nor how the quadrigesimal is still a sacred term with somedenominations of Christianity. But a more striking parallelism awaitsus. The symbol that beyond all others has fascinated the human mind, THECROSS, finds here its source and meaning. Scholars have pointed out itssacredness in many natural religions, and have reverently accepted it asa mystery, or offered scores of conflicting and often debasinginterpretations. It is but another symbol of the four cardinal points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously appear by a study of itsuse and meaning in America. 

The Catholic missionaries found it was no new object of adoration to thered race, and were in doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the piouslabors of Saint Thomas or the sacrilegious subtlety of Satan. It was thecentral object in the great temple of Cozumel, and is still preserved onthe bas-reliefs of the ruined city of Palenque. From time immemorial ithad received the prayers and sacrifices of the Aztecs and Toltecs, andwas suspended as an august emblem from the walls of temples in Popoyanand Cundinamarca. In the Mexican tongue it bore the significant andworthy name "Tree of Our Life, " or "Tree of our Flesh" (Tonacaquahuitl). It represented the god of rains and of health, and this was everywhereits simple meaning. "Those of Yucatan, " say the chroniclers, "prayed tothe cross as the god of rains when they needed water. " The Aztec goddessof rains bore one in her hand, and at the feast celebrated to her honorin the early spring victims were nailed to a cross and shot with arrows. Quetzalcoatl, god of the winds, bore as his sign of office "a mace likethe cross of a bishop;" his robe was covered with them strown likeflowers, and its adoration was throughout connected with hisworship. [96-1] When the Muyscas would sacrifice to the goddess of watersthey extended cords across the tranquil depths of some lake, thusforming a gigantic cross, and at their point of intersection threw intheir offerings of gold, emeralds, and precious oils. [96-2] The arms ofthe cross were designed to point to the cardinal points and representthe four winds, the rain bringers. To confirm this explanation, let ushave recourse to the simpler ceremonies of the less cultivated tribes, and see the transparent meaning of the symbol as they employed it. 

When the rain maker of the Lenni Lenape would exert his power, heretired to some secluded spot and drew upon the earth the figure of across (its arms toward the cardinal points?), placed upon it a piece oftobacco, a gourd, a bit of some red stuff, and commenced to cry aloud tothe spirits of the rains. [96-3] The Creeks at the festival of the Busk, celebrated, as we have seen, to the four winds, and according to theirlegends instituted by them, commenced with making the new fire. Themanner of this was "to place four logs in the centre of the square, endto end, forming a cross, the outer ends pointing to the cardinal points;in the centre of the cross the new fire is made. "[97-1]

As the emblem of the winds who dispense the fertilizing showers it isemphatically the tree of our life, our subsistence, and our health. Itnever had any other meaning in America, and if, as has been said, [97-2]the tombs of the Mexicans were cruciform, it was perhaps with referenceto a resurrection and a future life as portrayed under this symbol, indicating that the buried body would rise by the action of the fourspirits of the world, as the buried seed takes on a new existence whenwatered by the vernal showers. It frequently recurs in the ancientEgyptian writings, where it is interpreted _life_; doubtless, could wetrace the hieroglyph to its source, it would likewise prove to bederived from the four winds. 

While thus recognizing the natural origin of this consecrated symbol, while discovering that it is based on the sacredness of numbers, andthis in turn on the structure and necessary relations of the humanbody, thus disowning the meaningless mysticism that Joseph de Maistreand his disciples have advocated, let us on the other hand be equally onour guard against accepting the material facts which underlie thesebeliefs as their deepest foundation and their exhaustive explanation. That were but withered fruit for our labors, and it might well be asked, where is here the divine idea said to be dimly prefigured in mythology?The universal belief in the sacredness of numbers is an instinctivefaith in an immortal truth; it is a direct perception of the soul, akinto that which recognizes a God. The laws of chemical combination, of thevarious modes of motion, of all organic growth, show that simplenumerical relations govern all the properties and are inherent to thevery constitution of matter; more marvellous still, the most recent andsevere inductions of physicists show that precisely those two numbers onwhose symbolical value much of the edifice of ancient mythology waserected, the _four_ and the _three_, regulate the molecular distributionof matter and preside over the symmetrical development of organic forms. This asks no faith, but only knowledge; it is science, not revelation. In view of such facts is it presumptuous to predict that experimentitself will prove the truth of Kepler's beautiful saying: "The universeis a harmonious whole, the soul of which is God; numbers, figures, thestars, all nature, indeed, are in unison with the mysteries ofreligion"?

FOOTNOTES:

[67-1] Buckingham Smith, _Gram. Notices of the Heve Language_, p. 26(Shea's Lib. Am. Linguistics). 

[68-1] I refer to thefour "ultimate elementary particles" of Empedocles. The number wassacred to Hermes, and lay at the root of the physical philosophy ofPythagoras. The quotation in the text is from the "Golden Verses, " givenin Passow's lexicon under the word τετρακτὺς: ναι μα τον ἁμετερᾳ ψυχᾳπαραδοντα τετρακτυν, παγαν αεναου φυσεως. "The most sacred of allthings, " said this famous teacher, "is Number; and next to it, thatwhich gives Names;" a truth that the lapse of three thousand years isjust enabling us to appreciate. 

[68-2] Ximenes, _Or. De los Indios_, etc. , p. 5. 

[68-3] See Sepp, _Heidenthum und dessen Bedeutung für das Christenthum_, i. P. 464 sqq. , a work full of learning, but written in the wildest veinof Joseph de Maistre's school of Romanizing mythology. 

[69-1] Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, ii. P. 227, _Le Livre Sacré desQuichés_, introd. P. Ccxlii. The four provinces of Peru were Anti, Cunti, Chincha, and Colla. The meaning of these names has been lost, but torepeat them, says La Vega, was the same as to use our words, east, west, north, and south (_Hist. Des Incas_, lib. Ii. Cap. 11). 

[69-2] Humboldt, _Polit. Essay on New Spain_, ii. P. 44. 

[70-1] This custom has been often mentioned among the Iroquois. Algonkins, Dakotas, Creeks, Natchez, Araucanians, and other tribes. Nuttall points out its recurrence among the Tartars of Siberia also. (_Travels_, p. 175. )

[71-1] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. Pp. 424 et seq. 

[71-2] _Letters on the North American Indians_, vol. I. , Letter 22. 

[71-3] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, iv. P. 643 sq. "Four is their sacrednumber, " says Mr. Pond (p. 646). Their neighbors, the Pawnees, though notthe most remote affinity can be detected between their languages, coincide with them in this sacred number, and distinctly identified itwith the cardinal points. See De Smet, _Oregon Missions_, pp. 360, 361. 

[72-1] Benj. Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, pp. 75, 78:Savannah, 1848. The description he gives of the ceremonies of the Creekswas transcribed word for word and published in the first volume of theAmerican Antiquarian Society's Transactions as of the Shawnees of Ohio. This literary theft has not before been noticed. 

[72-2] Palacios, _Des. De la Prov. De Guatemala_, pp. 31, 32, ed. Ternaux-Compans. 

[73-1] All familiar with Mexican antiquity will recall many suchexamples. I may particularly refer to Kingsborough, _Antiqs. Of Mexico_, v. P. 480, Ternaux-Compans' _Recueil de pièces rel. à la Conq. DuMexique_, pp. 307, 310, and Gama, _Des. De las dos Piedras que sehallaron en la plaza principal de Mexico_, ii. Sec. 126 (Mexico, 1832), who gives numerous instances beyond those I have cited, and directs withemphasis the attention of the reader to this constant repetition. 

[74-1] Albert Gallatin, _Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc. _, ii. P. 316, from theCodex Vaticanus, No. 3738. 

[75-1] Riggs, _Gram. And Dict. Of the Dakota Lang. _, s. V. 

[75-2] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, in Kingsborough, v. P. 375. 

[76-1] Egede, _Nachrichten von Grönland_, pp. 137, 173, 285. (Kopenhagen, 1790. )

[77-1] Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, i. P. 139, and _Indian Tribes_, iv. P. 229. 

[78-1] Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, pp. 81, 82, and Blomes, _Acc. Of his Majesty's Colonies_, p. 156, London, 1687, in Castiglioni, _Viaggi nelle Stati Uniti_, i. P. 294. 

[78-2] Peter Martyr, _De Reb. Ocean. _, Dec. I. Lib. Ix. The story is alsotold more at length by the Brother Romain Pane, in the essay on theancient histories of the natives he drew up by the order of Columbus. Ithas been reprinted with notes by the Abbé Brasseur, Paris, 1864, p. 438sqq. 

[79-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. P. 89. 

[79-2] Brasseur, _Le Liv. Sac. _, Introd. , p. Cxvii. 

[80-1] Diego de Landa, _Rel. De las Cosas de Yucatan_, pp. 160, 206, 208, ed. Brasseur. The learned editor, in a note to p. 208, states erroneouslythe disposition of the colors, as may be seen by comparing the documenton p. 395. This dedication of colors to the cardinal points is universalin Central Asia. The geographical names of the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Yellow Sea or Persian Gulf, and the White Sea or the Mediterranean, are derived from this association. The cities of China, many of them atleast, have their gates which open toward the cardinal points painted ofcertain colors, and precisely these four, the white, the black, the red, and the yellow, are those which in Oriental myth the mountain in thecentre of Paradise shows to the different cardinal points. (Sepp, _Heidenthum und Christenthum_, i. P. 177. ) The coincidence furnishes foodfor reflection. 

[81-1] _Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, pp. 203-5, note. 

[82-1] The analogy is remarkable between these and the "quatre actes dela puissance generatrice jusqu'à l'entier developpément des corpsorganisés, " portrayed by four globes in the Mycenean bas-reliefs. SeeGuigniaut, _Religions de l'Antiquité_, i. P. 374. It were easy tomultiply the instances of such parallelism in the growth of religiousthought in the Old and New World, but I designedly refrain from doing so. They have already given rise to false theories enough, and moreover mypurpose in this work is not "comparative mythology. "

[83-1] Müller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 105, after Strahlheim, who is, however, no authority. 

[83-2] Müller, _ubi supra_, pp. 308 sqq. , gives a good résumé of thedifferent versions of the myth of the four brothers in Peru. 

[83-3] The Tupis of Brazil claim a descent from four brothers, three ofwhose names are given by Hans Staden, a prisoner among them about 1550, as Krimen, Hermittan, and Coem; the latter he explains to mean themorning, the east (_le matin_, printed by mistake _le mutin_, _Relationde Hans Staden de Homberg_, p. 274, ed. Ternaux-Compans, compare Dias, _Dicc. Da Lingua Tupy_, p. 47). Their southern relatives, the Guaranis ofParaguay, also spoke of the four brothers and gave two of their names asTupi and Guarani, respectively parents of the tribes called after them(Guevara, _Hist. Del Paraguay_, lib. I. Cap. Ii. , in Waitz). The fourfolddivision of the Muyscas of Bogota was traced back to four chieftainscreated by their hero god Nemqueteba (A. Von Humboldt, _Vues desCordillères_, p. 246). The Nahuas of Mexico much more frequently spoke ofthemselves as descendants of four or eight original families than ofseven (Humboldt, _ibid. _, p. 317, and others in Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iv. Pp. 36, 37). The Sacs or Sauks of the Upper Mississippi supposed thattwo men and two women were first created, and from these four sprang allmen (Morse, _Rep. On Ind. Affairs_, App. P. 138). The Ottoes, Pawnees, "and other Indians, " had a tradition that from eight ancestors allnations and races were descended (Id. , p. 249). This duplication of thenumber probably arose from assigning the first four men four women aswives. The division into clans or totems which prevails in most northerntribes rests theoretically on descent from different ancestors. TheShawnees and Natchez were divided into four such clans, the Choctaws, Navajos, and Iroquois into eight, thus proving that in those tribes alsothe myth I have been discussing was recognized. 

[85-1] Mandans in Catlin, _Letts. And Notes_, i. P. 181. 

[85-2] The Mayas, Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 8. 

[85-3] The Navajos, Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. P. 89. 

[85-4] The Quichés, Ximenes, _Or. De los Indios_, p. 79. 

[85-5] The Iroquois, Müller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 109. 

[85-6] For these myths see Sepp, _Das Heidenthum und dessen Bedeutung fürdas Christenthum_, i. P. 111 sqq. The interpretation is of course my own. 

[87-1] Peter Martyr, _De Reb. Ocean. _, Dec. Iii. , lib. Ix. P. 195; Colon, 1574. 

[87-2] Ibid. , Dec. Iii. , lib. X. P. 202. 

[87-3] Florida was also long supposed to be the site of this wondrousspring, and it is notorious that both Juan Ponce de Leon and De Soto hadsome lurking hope of discovering it in their expeditions thither. I haveexamined the myth somewhat at length in _Notes on the FloridianPeninsula, its Literary History, Indian Tribes, and Antiquities_, pp. 99, 100: Philadelphia, 1859. 

[88-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. Iii. Cap. Iii. 

[88-2] _Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, Introd. , p. Clviii. 

[89-1] Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan, in Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, i. P. 167. The derivation of Tulan, or Tula, is extremely uncertain. The AbbéBrasseur sees in it the _ultima Thule_ of the ancient geographers, whichsuits his idea of early American history. Hernando De Soto found avillage of this name on the Mississippi, or near it. But on looking intoGallatin's vocabularies, _tulla_ turns out to be the Choctaw word for_stone_, and as De Soto was then in the Choctaw country, the coincidenceis explained at once. Buschmann, who spells it _Tollan_, takes it from_tolin_, a rush, and translates, _juncetum_, _Ort der Binsen. Ueber dieAztekischen Orstnamen_, [TN-2] p. 682. Those who have attempted to makehistory from these mythological fables have been much puzzled about thelocation of this mystic land. Humboldt has placed it on the northwestcoast, Cabrera at Palenque, Clavigero north of Anahuac, etc. Etc. Aztlan, literally, the White Land, is another name of wholly mythical purport, which it would be equally vain to seek on the terrestrial globe. In theextract in the text, the word translated God is _Qabavil_, an old wordfor the highest god, either from a root meaning to open, to disclose, orfrom one of similar form signifying to wonder, to marvel; literally, therefore, the Revealer, or the Wondrous One (_Vocab. De la LenguaQuiché_, p. 209: Paris, 1862). 

[90-1] Ximenes, _Or. De los Indios_, p. 80, _Le Livre Sacré_, p. 195. 

[90-2] Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, lib. Iv. Cap. 4. 

[91-1] Compare the German expression _sich orientiren_, to right oneselfby the east, to understand one's surroundings. 

[92-1] Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, p. 80. 

[92-2] See Jacob Grimm, _Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache_, p. 681

[92-3] De Smet, Oregon Missions, p. 352. 

[93-1] Bressani, _Relation Abrégé_, p. 93. 

[93-2] Venegas, _Hist. Of California_, i. P. 91: London, 1759. 

[93-3] Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. Iii. 

[93-4] Alexander von Humboldt has asserted that the Quichuas had otherand very circumstantial terms to express the cardinal points drawn fromthe positions of the son (_Ansichten der Natur_, ii. P. 368). But thedistinguished naturalist overlooked the literal meaning of the phrases hequotes for north and south, _intip chaututa chayananpata_ and _intipchaupunchau chayananpata_, literally, the sun arriving toward themidnight, the sun arriving toward the midday. These are evidentlytranslations of the Spanish _hacia la media noche_, _hacia el medio dia_, for they could not have originated among a people under or south of theequatorial line. 

[94-1] Catlin, _Letters and Notes_, i. , Letter 22; La Hontan, _Mémoires_, ii. P. 151; Gumilla, _Hist. Del Orinoco_, p. 159

[96-1] On the worship of the cross in Mexico and Yucatan and itsinvariable meaning as representing the gods of rain, consultIxtlilxochitl, _Hist. Des Chichimeques_, p. 5; Sahagun, _Hist. De laNueva España_, lib. I. Cap. Ii. ; Garcia, _Or. De los Indios_, lib. Iii. Cap. Vi. P. 109; Palacios, _Des. De la Prov. De Guatemala_, p. 29;Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. Ix. ; VillagutierreSotomayor, _Hist. De el Itza y de el Lacandon_, lib. Iii. Cap. 8; andmany others might be mentioned. 

[96-2] Rivero and Tschudi, _Peruvian Antiquities_, p. 162, after J. Acosta. 

[96-3] Loskiel, _Ges. Der Miss. Der evang. Brüder_, p. 60. 

[97-1] Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, p. 75. Lapham and Pidgeonmention that in the State of Wisconsin many low mounds are found in theform of a cross with the arms directed to the cardinal points. Theycontain no remains. Were they not altars built to the Four Winds? In themythology of the Dakotas, who inhabited that region, the winds werealways conceived as birds, and for the cross they have a native nameliterally signifying "the musquito hawk spread out" (Riggs, _Dict. Of theDakota_, s. V. ). Its Maya name is _vahom che_, the tree erected or setup, the adjective being drawn from the military language and implying asa defence or protection, as the warrior lifts his lance or shield (Landa, _Rel. De las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 65). 

[97-2] Squier, _The Serpent Symbol in America_, p. 98. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIRD AND THE SERPENT. 

 Relations of man to the lower animals. --Two of these, the BIRD and the SERPENT, chosen as symbols beyond all others. --The Bird throughout America the symbol of the Clouds and Winds. --Meaning of certain species. --The symbolic meaning of the Serpent derived from its mode of locomotion, its poisonous bite, and its power of charming. --Usually the symbol of the Lightning and the Waters. --The Rattlesnake the symbolic species in America. --The war charm. --The Cross of Palenque. --The god of riches. --Both symbols devoid of moral significance. 

Those stories which the Germans call _Thierfabeln_, wherein the actorsare different kinds of brutes, seem to have a particular relish forchildren and uncultivated nations. Who cannot recall with what delighthe nourished his childish fancy on the pranks of Reynard the Fox, or thetragic adventures of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf? Every nationhas a congeries of such tales, and it is curious to mark how the sameanimal reappears with the same imputed physiognomy in all of them. Thefox is always cunning, the wolf ravenous, the owl wise, and the assfoolish. The question has been raised whether such traits were at firstactually ascribed to animals, or whether their introduction in story wasintended merely as an agreeable figure of speech for classes of men. Wecannot doubt but that the former was the case. Going back to the dawn ofcivilization, we find these relations not as amusing fictions, but asmyths, embodying religious tenets, and the brute heroes held up as theancestors of mankind, even as rightful claimants of man's prayers andpraises. 

Man, the paragon of animals, praying to the beast, is a spectacle sohumiliating that, for the sake of our common humanity, we may seek theexplanation of it least degrading to the dignity of our race. We mustremember that as a hunter the primitive man was always matched againstthe wild creatures of the woods, so superior to him in their dumbcertainty of instinct, their swift motion, their muscular force, theirpermanent and sufficient clothing. Their ways were guided by a witbeyond his divination, and they gained a living with little toil ortrouble. They did not mind the darkness so terrible to him, but throughthe night called one to the other in a tongue whose meaning he could notfathom, but which, he doubted not, was as full of purport as his own. Hedid not recognize in himself those god-like qualities destined to endowhim with the royalty of the world, while far more clearly than we do hesaw the sly and strange faculties of his antagonists. They were to him, therefore, not inferiors, but equals--even superiors. He doubted notthat once upon a time he had possessed their instinct, they hislanguage, but that some necromantic spell had been flung on them both tokeep them asunder. None but a potent sorcerer could break this charm, but such an one could understand the chants of birds and the howls ofsavage beasts, and on occasion transform himself into one or anotheranimal, and course the forest, the air, or the waters, as he saw fit. Therefore, it was not the beast that he worshipped, but that share ofthe omnipresent deity which he thought he perceived under itsform. [101-1]

Beyond all others, two subdivisions of the animal kingdom have soriveted the attention of men by their unusual powers, and enter sofrequently into the myths of every nation of the globe, that a rightunderstanding of their symbolic value is an essential preliminary to thediscussion of the divine legends. They are the BIRD and the SERPENT. Weshall not go amiss if we seek the reasons of their pre-eminence in thefacility with which their peculiarities offered sensuous images underwhich to convey the idea of divinity, ever present in the soul of man, ever striving at articulate expression. 

The bird has the incomprehensible power of flight; it floats in theatmosphere, it rides on the winds, it soars toward heaven where dwellthe gods; its plumage is stained with the hues of the rainbow and thesunset; its song was man's first hint of music; it spurns the cloudsthat impede his footsteps, and flies proudly over the mountains andmoors where he toils wearily along. He sees no more enviable creature;he conceives the gods and angels must also have wings; and pleaseshimself with the fancy that he, too, some day will shake off this coilof clay, and rise on pinions to the heavenly mansions. All livingbeings, say the Eskimos, have the faculty of soul (_tarrak_), butespecially the birds. [101-2] As messengers from the upper world andinterpreters of its decrees, the flight and the note of birds have everbeen anxiously observed as omens of grave import. "There is one birdespecially, " remarks the traveller Coreal, of the natives of Brazil, "which they regard as of good augury. Its mournful chant is heard ratherby night than day. The savages say it is sent by their deceased friendsto bring them news from the other world, and to encourage them againsttheir enemies. "[102-1] In Peru and in Mexico there was a College ofAugurs, corresponding in purpose to the auspices of ancient Rome, whopractised no other means of divination than watching the course andprofessing to interpret the songs of fowls. So natural and so general issuch a superstition, and so wide-spread is the respect it still obtainsin civilized and Christian lands, that it is not worth while to summonwitnesses to show that it prevailed universally among the red race also. What imprinted it with redoubled force on their imagination was thecommon belief that birds were not only divine nuncios, but the visiblespirits of their departed friends. The Powhatans held that a certainsmall wood bird received the souls of their princes at death, and theyrefrained religiously from doing it harm;[102-2] while the Aztecs andvarious other nations thought that all good people, as a reward ofmerit, were metamorphosed at the close of life into feathered songstersof the grove, and in this form passed a certain term in the umbrageousbowers of Paradise. 

But the usual meaning of the bird as a symbol looks to a differentanalogy--to that which appears in such familiar expressions as "thewings of the wind, " "the flying clouds. " Like the wind, the bird sweepsthrough the aerial spaces, sings in the forests, and rustles on itscourse; like the cloud, it floats in mid-air and casts its shadow on theearth; like the lightning, it darts from heaven to earth to strike itsunsuspecting prey. These tropes were truths to savage nations, and ledon by that law of language which forced them to conceive everything asanimate or inanimate, itself the product of a deeper law of thoughtwhich urges us to ascribe life to whatever has motion, they found noanimal so appropriate for their purpose here as the bird. Therefore theAlgonkins say that birds always make the winds, that they create thewater spouts, and that the clouds are the spreading and agitation oftheir wings;[103-1] the Navajos, that at each cardinal point stands awhite swan, who is the spirit of the blasts which blow from itsdwelling; and the Dakotas, that in the west is the house of theWakinyan, the Flyers, the breezes that send the storms. So, also, theyfrequently explain the thunder as the sound of the cloud-bird flappinghis wings, and the lightning as the fire that flashes from his tracks, like the sparks which the buffalo scatters when he scours over a stonyplain. [103-2] The thunder cloud was also a bird to the Caribs, and theyimagined it produced the lightning in true Carib fashion by blowing itthrough a hollow reed, just as they to this day hurl their poisoneddarts. [104-1] Tupis, Iroquois, Athapascas, for certain, perhaps all thefamilies of the red race, were the subject pursued, partook of thispersuasion; among them all it would probably be found that the samefigures of speech were used in comparing clouds and winds with thefeathered species as among us, with however this most significantdifference, that whereas among us they are figures and nothing more, tothem they expressed literal facts. 

How important a symbol did they thus become! For the winds, the clouds, producing the thunder and the changes that take place in theever-shifting panorama of the sky, the rain bringers, lords of theseasons, and not this only, but the primary type of the soul, the life, the breath of man and the world, these in their role in mythology aresecond to nothing. Therefore as the symbol of these august powers, asmessenger of the gods, and as the embodiment of departed spirits, no onewill be surprised if they find the bird figure most prominently in themyths of the red race. 

Sometimes some particular species seems to have been chosen as mostbefitting these dignified attributes. No citizen of the United Stateswill be apt to assert that their instinct led the indigenes of ourterritory astray when they chose with nigh unanimous consent the greatAmerican eagle as that fowl beyond all others proper to typify thesupreme control and the most admirable qualities. Its feathers composedthe war flag of the Creeks, and its images carved in wood or its stuffedskin surmounted their council lodges (Bartram); none but an approvedwarrior dare wear it among the Cherokees (Timberlake); and the Dakotasallowed such an honor only to him who had first touched the corpse ofthe common foe (De Smet). The Natchez and Akanzas seem to have paid iteven religious honors, and to have installed it in their most sacredshrines (Sieur de Tonty, Du Pratz); and very clearly it was not so muchfor ornament as for a mark of dignity and a recognized sign of worththat its plumes were so highly prized. The natives of Zuñi, in NewMexico, employed four of its feathers to represent the four winds intheir invocations for rain (Whipple), and probably it was the eaglewhich a tribe in Upper California (the Acagchemem) worshipped under thename Panes. Father Geronimo Boscana describes it as a species ofvulture, and relates that one of them was immolated yearly, with solemnceremony, in the temple of each village. Not a drop of blood wasspilled, and the body burned. Yet with an amount of faith that staggeredeven the Romanist, the natives maintained and believed that it was thesame individual bird they sacrificed each year; more than this, that thesame bird was slain by each of the villages![105-1]

The owl was regarded by Aztecs, Quichés, Mayas, Peruvians, Araucanians, and Algonkins as sacred to the lord of the dead. "The Owl" was one ofthe names of the Mexican Pluto, whose realm was in the north, [106-1] andthe wind from that quarter was supposed by the Chipeways to be made bythe owl as the south by the butterfly. [106-2] As the bird of night, itwas the fit emissary of him who rules the darkness of the grave. Something in the looks of the creature as it sapiently stares and blinksin the light, or perhaps that it works while others sleep, got for itthe character of wisdom. So the Creek priests carried with them as thebadge of their learned profession the stuffed skin of one of thesebirds, thus modestly hinting their erudite turn of mind, [106-3] and theculture hero of the Monquis of California was represented, like PallasAthene, having one as his inseparable companion (Venegas). 

As the associate of the god of light and air, and as the antithesistherefore of the owl, the Aztecs reverenced a bird called _quetzal_, which I believe is a species of parroquet. Its plumage is of a brightgreen hue, and was prized extravagantly as a decoration. It was one ofthe symbols and part of the name of Quetzalcoatl, their mythicalcivilizer, and the prince of all sorts of singing birds, myriads of whomwere fabled to accompany him on his journeys. 

The tender and hallowed associations that have so widely shielded thedove from harm, which for instance Xenophon mentions among the ancientPersians, were not altogether unknown to the tribes of the New World. Neither the Hurons nor Mandans would kill them, for they believed theywere inhabited by the souls of the departed, [107-1] and it is said, buton less satisfactory authority, that they enjoyed similar immunity amongthe Mexicans. Their soft and plaintive note and sober russet hue widelyenlisted the sympathy of man, and linked them with his more tenderfeelings. 

"As wise as the serpent, as harmless as the dove, " is an antithesis thatmight pass current in any human language. They are the emblems ofcomplementary, often contrasted qualities. Of all animals, the serpentis the most mysterious. No wonder it possessed the fancy of theobservant child of nature. Alone of creatures it swiftly progresseswithout feet, fins, or wings. "There be three things which are toowonderful for me, yea, four which I know not, " said wise King Solomon;and the chief of them were, "the way of an eagle in the air, the way ofa serpent upon a rock. "

Its sinuous course is like to nothing so much as that of a windingriver, which therefore we often call serpentine. So did the Indians. Kennebec, a stream in Maine, in the Algonkin means snake, and Antietam, the creek in Maryland of tragic celebrity, in an Iroquois dialect hasthe same significance. How easily would savages, construing the figureliterally, make the serpent a river or water god! Many species beingamphibious would confirm the idea. A lake watered by innumerabletortuous rills wriggling into it, is well calculated for the fabledabode of the king of the snakes. Thus doubtless it happened that bothAlgonkins and Iroquois had a myth that in the great lakes dwelt amonster serpent, of irascible temper, who unless appeased by meetofferings raised a tempest or broke the ice beneath the feet of thoseventuring on his domain, and swallowed them down. [108-1]

The rattlesnake was the species almost exclusively honored by the redrace. It is slow to attack, but venomous in the extreme, and possessesthe power of the basilisk to attract within reach of its spring smallbirds and squirrels. Probably this much talked of fascination is nothingmore than by its presence near their nests to incite them to attack, andto hazard near and nearer approaches to their enemy in hope to force himto retreat, until once within the compass of his fell swoop they fallvictims to their temerity. I have often watched a cat act thus. Whateverexplanation may be received, the fact cannot be questioned, and is everattributed by the unreflecting, to some diabolic spell cast upon them bythe animal. They have the same strange susceptibility to the influenceof certain sounds as the vipers, in which lies the secret of snakecharming. Most of the Indian magicians were familiar with thissingularity. They employed it with telling effect to put beyond questiontheir intercourse with the unseen powers, and to vindicate the potencyof their own guardian spirits who thus enabled them to handle withimpunity the most venomous of reptiles. [109-1] The well-known antipathyof these serpents to certain plants, for instance the hazel, which boundaround the ankles is an efficient protection against their attacks, andperhaps some antidote to their poison used by the magicians, led totheir frequent introduction in religious ceremonies. Such exhibitionsmust have made a profound impression on the spectators, and redounded ina corresponding degree to the glory of the performer. "Who is a manito?"asks the mystic meda chant of the Algonkins. "He, " is the reply, "he whowalketh with a serpent, walking on the ground, he is a manito. "[109-2]And the intimate alliance of this symbol with the most sacred mysteriesof religion, the darkest riddles of the Unknown, is reflected in theirlanguage, and also in that of their neighbors the Dakotas, in both ofwhich the same words _manito_, _wakan_, which express divinity in itsbroadest sense, are also used as generic terms signifying this speciesof animals! This strange fact is not without a parallel, for in bothArabic and Hebrew, the word for serpent has many derivatives, meaning tohave intercourse with demoniac powers, to practise magic, and to consultfamiliar spirits. [110-1]

The pious founder of the Moravian brotherhood, the Count of Zinzendorf, owed his life on one occasion to this deeply rooted superstition. He wasvisiting a missionary station among the Shawnees, in the Wyoming valley. Recent quarrels with the whites had unusually irritated this unrulyfolk, and they resolved to make him their first victim. After he hadretired to his secluded hut, several of their braves crept upon him, andcautiously lifting the corner of the lodge, peered in. The venerable manwas seated before a little fire, a volume of the Scriptures on hisknees, lost in the perusal of the sacred words. While they gazed, a hugerattlesnake, unnoticed by him, trailed across his feet, and rolleditself into a coil in the comfortable warmth of the fire. Immediatelythe would-be murderers forsook their purpose and noiselessly retired, convinced that this was indeed a man of God. 

A more unique trait than any of these is its habit of casting its skinevery spring, thus as it were renewing its life. In temperate latitudesthe rattlesnake, like the leaves and flowers, retires from sight duringthe cold season, and at the return of kindly warmth puts on a new andbrilliant coat. Its cast-off skin was carefully collected by the savagesand stored in the medicine bag as possessing remedial powers of highexcellence. Itself thus immortal, they thought it could impart itsvitality to them. So when the mother was travailing in sore pain, andthe danger neared that the child would be born silent, the attendingwomen hastened to catch some serpent and give her its blood todrink. [111-1]

It is well known that in ancient art this animal was the symbol ofÆsculapius, and to this day, Professor Agassiz found that the MauesIndians, who live between the upper Tapajos and Madeira Rivers inBrazil, whenever they assign a form to any "remedio, " give it that of aserpent. [111-2]

Probably this notion that it was annually rejuvenated led to itsadoption as a symbol of Time among the Aztecs; or, perchance, as theyreckoned by suns, and the figure of the sun, a circle, corresponds tonothing animate but a serpent with its tail in its mouth, eating itself, as it were, this may have been its origin. Either of them is more likelythan that the symbol arose from the recondite reflection that time is"never ending, still beginning, still creating, still destroying, " ashas been suggested. 

Only, however, within the last few years has the significance of theserpent symbol in its length and breadth been satisfactorily explained, and its frequent recurrence accounted for. By a searching analysis ofGreek and German mythology, Dr. Schwarz, of Berlin, has shown that themeaning which is paramount to all others in this emblem is _thelightning_; a meaning drawn from the close analogy which the serpent inits motion, its quick spring, and mortal bite, has to the zigzag course, the rapid flash, and sudden stroke of the electric discharge. He evengoes so far as to imagine that by this resemblance the serpent firstacquired the veneration of men. But this is an extravagance notsupported by more thorough research. He has further shown with greataptness of illustration how, by its dread effects, the lightning, theheavenly serpent, became the god of terror and the opponent of suchheroes as Beowulf, St. George, Thor, Perseus, and others, mythicalrepresentations of the fearful war of the elements in the thunder storm;how from its connection with the advancing summer and fertilizingshowers it bore the opposite character of the deity of fruitfulness, riches, and plenty; how, as occasionally kindling the woods where itstrikes, it was associated with the myths of the descent of fire fromheaven, and as in popular imagination where it falls it scatters thethunderbolts in all directions, the flint-stones which flash when struckwere supposed to be these fragments, and gave rise to the stone worshipso frequent in the old world; and how, finally, the prevalent myth of aking of serpents crowned with a glittering stone or wearing a horn isbut another type of the lightning. [113-1] Without accepting unreservedlyall these conclusions, I shall show how correct they are in the mainwhen applied to the myths of the New World, and thereby illustrate howthe red race is of one blood and one faith with our own remote ancestorsin heathen Europe and Central Asia. 

It asks no elaborate effort of the imagination to liken the lightning toa serpent. It does not require any remarkable acuteness to guess theconundrum of Schiller:--

 "Unter allen Schlangen ist eine Auf Erden nicht gezeugt, Mit der an Schnelle keine, An Wuth sich keine vergleicht. "

When Father Buteux was a missionary among the Algonkins, in 1637, heasked them their opinion of the nature of lightning. "It is an immenseserpent, " they replied, "which the Manito is vomiting forth; you can seethe twists and folds that he leaves on the trees which he strikes; andunderneath such trees we have often found huge snakes. " "Here is a novelphilosophy for you!" exclaims the Father. [113-2] So the Shawnees calledthe thunder "the hissing of the great snake;"[113-3] and Tlaloc, theToltec thunder god, held in his hand a serpent of gold to represent thelightning. [114-1] For this reason the Caribs spoke of the god of thethunder storm as a great serpent dwelling in the fruit forests, [114-2]and in the Quiché legends other names for Hurakan, the hurricane orthunder-storm, are the Strong Serpent, He who hurls below, referring tothe lightning. [114-3]

Among the Hurons, in 1648, the Jesuits found a legend current that thereexisted somewhere a monster serpent called Onniont, who wore on his heada horn that pierced rocks, trees, hills, in short everything heencountered. Whoever could get a piece of this horn was a fortunate man, for it was a sovereign charm and bringer of good luck. The Huronsconfessed that none of them had had the good hap to find the monster andbreak his horn, nor indeed had they any idea of his whereabouts; buttheir neighbors, the Algonkins, furnished them at times small fragmentsfor a large consideration. [114-4] Clearly the myth had been taught themfor venal purposes by their trafficking visitors. Now among theAlgonkins, the Shawnee tribe did more than all others combined tointroduce and carry about religious legends and ceremonies. From theearliest times they seem to have had peculiar aptitude for theecstasies, deceits, and fancies that made up the spiritual life of theirassociates. Their constantly roving life brought them in contact withthe myths of many nations. And it is extremely probable that they firstbrought the tale of the horned serpent from the Creeks and Cherokees. Itfigured extensively in the legends of both these tribes. 

The latter related that once upon a time among the glens of theirmountains dwelt the prince of rattlesnakes. Obedient subjects guardedhis palace, and on his head glittered in place of a crown a gem ofmarvellous magic virtues. Many warriors and magicians tried to getpossession of this precious talisman, but were destroyed by the poisonedfangs of its defenders. Finally, one more inventive than the rest hitupon the bright idea of encasing himself in leather, and by this devicemarched unharmed through the hissing and snapping court, tore off theshining jewel, and bore it in triumph to his nation. They preserved itwith religious care, brought it forth on state occasions with solemnceremony, and about the middle of the last century, when CaptainTimberlake penetrated to their towns, told him its origin. [115-1]

The charm which the Creeks presented their young men when they set outon the war path was of very similar character. It was composed of thebones of the panther and the horn of the fabulous horned snake. According to a legend taken down by an unimpeachable authority towardthe close of the last century, the great snake dwelt in the waters; theold people went to the brink and sang the sacred songs. The monster roseto the surface. The sages recommenced the mystic chants. He rose alittle out o[TN-3] the water. Again they repeated the songs. This timehe showed his horns and they cut one off. Still a fourth time did theysing, and as he rose to listen cut off the remaining horn. A fragment ofthese in the "war physic" protected from inimical arrows and gavesuccess in the conflict. [116-1]

In these myths, which attribute good fortune to the horn of the snake, that horn which pierces trees and rocks, which rises from the waters, which glitters as a gem, which descends from the ravines of themountains, we shall not overstep the bounds of prudent reasoning if wesee the thunderbolt, sign of the fructifying rain, symbol of thestrength of the lightning, horn of the heavenly serpent. They arestrictly meteorological in their meaning. And when in later Algonkintradition the hero Michabo appears in conflict with the shining princeof serpents who lives in the lake and floods the earth with its waters, and destroys the reptile with a dart, and further when the conquerorclothes himself with the skin of his foe and drives the rest of theserpents to the south where in that latitude the lightnings are lastseen in the autumn;[116-2] or when in the traditional history of theIroquois we hear of another great horned serpent rising out of the lakeand preying upon the people until a similar hero-god destroys it with athunderbolt, [116-3] we cannot be wrong in rejecting any historical orethical interpretation, and in construing them as allegories which atfirst represented the atmospheric changes which accompany the advancingseasons and the ripening harvests. They are narratives conveying underagreeable personifications the tidings of that unending combat which theDakotas said was being waged with varying fortunes by Unktahe againstWauhkeon, the God of Waters against the Thunder Bird. [117-1] They arethe same stories which in the old world have been elaborated into thestruggles of Ormuzd and Ahriman, of Thor and Midgard, of St. George andthe Dragon, and a thousand others. 

Yet it were but a narrow theory of natural religion that allowed noother meaning to these myths. Many another elemental warfare is beingwaged around us, and applications as various as nature herself lie inthese primitive creations of the human fancy. Let it only be rememberedthat there was never any moral, never any historical purport in them inthe infancy of religious life. 

In snake charming as a proof of proficiency in magic, and in the symbolof the lightning, which brings both fire and water, which in its mightcontrols victory in war, and in its frequency, plenteous crops at home, lies the secret of the serpent symbol. As the "war physic" among thetribes of the United States was a fragment of a serpent, and as thussignifying his incomparable skill in war, the Iroquois represent theirmythical king Atatarho clothed in nothing but black snakes; so that whenhe wished to don a new suit he simply drove away one set and orderedanother to take their places, [118-1] so, by a precisely similar mentalprocess, the myth of the Nahuas assigns as a mother to their war godHuitzilapochtli, Coatlicue, the robe of serpents; her dwelling placeCoatepec, the hill of serpents; and at her lying-in say that she broughtforth a serpent. Her son's image was surrounded by serpents, his sceptrewas in the shape of one, his great drum was of serpents' skins, and hisstatue rested on four vermiform caryatides. 

As the symbol of the fertilizing summer showers the lightning serpentwas the god of fruitfulness. Born in the atmospheric waters, it was anappropriate attribute of the ruler of the winds. But we have alreadyseen that the winds were often spoken of as great birds. Hence the unionof these two emblems in such names as Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz, Kukulkan, all titles of the god of the air in the languages of Central America, all signifying the "Bird-serpent. " Here also we see the solution of thatmonument which has so puzzled American antiquaries, the cross atPalenque. It is a tablet on the wall of an altar representing a crosssurmounted by a bird and supported by the head of a serpent. The latteris not well defined in the plate in Mr. Stephens' Travels, but is verydistinct in the photographs taken by M. Charnay, which that gentlemanwas kind enough to show me. The cross I have previously shown was thesymbol of the four winds, and the bird and serpent are simply the rebusof the air god, their ruler. [119-1] Quetzalcoatl, called also Yolcuat, the rattlesnake, was no less intimately associated with serpents thanwith birds. The entrance to his temple at Mexico represented the jaws ofone of these reptiles, and he finally disappeared in the province ofCoatzacoalco, the hiding place of the serpent, sailing towards the eastin a bark of serpents' skins. All this refers to his power over thelightning serpent. 

He was also said to be the god of riches and the patron consequently ofmerchants. For with the summer lightning come the harvest and theripening fruits, come riches and traffic. Moreover "the golden color ofthe liquid fire, " as Lucretius expresses it, naturally led where thismetal was known, to its being deemed the product of the lightning. Thusoriginated many of those tales of a dragon who watches a treasure in theearth, and of a serpent who is the dispenser of riches, such as werefound among the Greeks and ancient Germans. [119-2] So it was in Peruwhere the god of riches was worshipped under the image of a rattlesnakehorned and hairy, with a tail of gold. It was said to have descendedfrom the heavens in the sight of all the people, and to have been seenby the whole army of the Inca. [119-3] Whether it was in reference toit, or as emblems of their prowess, that the Incas themselves chose astheir arms two serpents with their tails interlaced, is uncertain;possibly one for each of these significations. 

Because the rattlesnake, the lightning serpent, is thus connected withthe food of man, and itself seems never to die but annually to renew itsyouth, the Algonkins called it "grandfather" and "king of snakes;" theyfeared to injure it; they believed it could grant prosperous breezes, orraise disastrous tempests; crowned with the lunar crescent it was theconstant symbol of life in their picture writing; and in the meda signsthe mythical grandmother of mankind _me suk kum me go kwa_ wasindifferently represented by an old woman or a serpent. [120-1] For likereasons Cihuacoatl, the Serpent Woman, in the myths of the Nahuas wasalso called Tonantzin, our mother. [120-2]

The serpent symbol in America has, however, been brought into undueprominence. It had such an ominous significance in Christian art, andone which chimed so well with the favorite proverb of the earlymissionaries--"the gods of the heathens are devils"--that wherever theysaw a carving or picture of a serpent they at once recognized the signmanual of the Prince of Darkness, and inscribed the fact in theirnote-books as proof positive of their cherished theory. After goingover the whole ground, I am convinced that none of the tribes of the redrace attached to this symbol any ethical significance whatever, and thatas employed to express atmospheric phenomena, and the recognition ofdivinity in natural occurrences, it far more frequently typified whatwas favorable and agreeable than the reverse. 

FOOTNOTES:

[101-1] That these were the real views entertained by the Indians inregard to the brute creation, see Heckewelder, _Acc. Of the Ind. Nations_, p. 247; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iii. P. 520. 

[101-2] Egede, _Nachrichten von Grönland_, p. 156. 

[102-1] _Voiages aux Indes Occidentales_, pt. Ii. P. 203: Amst. 1722. 

[102-2] Beverly, _Hist. De la Virginie_, liv. Iii. Chap. Viii. 

[103-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 420. 

[103-2] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 191: New York, 1849. This is a trustworthy and meritorious book, which can be said of very fewcollections of Indian traditions. They were collected during a residenceof seven years in our northwestern territories, and are usually verballyfaithful to the native narrations. 

[104-1] Müller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 222, after De la Borde. 

[105-1] _Acc. Of the Inds. Of California_, ch. Ix. Eng. Trans. ByRobinson: New York, 1847. The Acagchemem were a branch of the Netelatribe, who dwelt near the mission San Juan Capistrano (see Buschmann, _Spuren der Aztek. Sprache_, etc. , p. 548). 

[106-1] Called in the Aztec tongue _Tecolotl_, night owl; literally, thestone scorpion. The transfer was mythological. The Christians prefixed tothis word _tlaca_, man, and thus formed a name for Satan, which Prescottand others have translated "rational owl. " No such deity existed inancient Anahuac (see Buschmann, _Die Voelker und Sprachen Neu Mexico's_, p. 262). 

[106-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 420. 

[106-3] William Bartram, Travels, p. 504. Columbus found the natives ofthe Antilles wearing tunics with figures of these birds embroidered uponthem. Prescott, _Conq. Of Mexico_, i. P. 58, note. 

[107-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1636, ch. Ix. Catlin, _Letters andnotes_, Lett. 22. 

[108-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1648, p. 75; Cusic, _Trad. Hist. Ofthe Six Nations_, pt. Iii. The latter is the work of a native Tuscarorachief. It is republished in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, but is of littlevalue. 

[109-1] For example, in Brazil, Müller, _Amer. Urrelig. _, p. 277; inYucatan, Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 4; among thewestern Algonkins, _Hennepin, Decouverte dans l'Amer. Septen_. Chap. 33. Dr. Hammond has expressed the opinion that the North American Indiansenjoy the same immunity from the virus of the rattlesnake, that certainAfrican tribes do from some vegetable poisons (_Hygiene_, p. 73). But hisobservation must be at fault, for many travellers mention the dread theseserpents inspired, and the frequency of death from their bites, e. G. _Rel. Nouv. France_. 1667, p. 22. 

[109-2] _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_, p. 356. 

[110-1] See Gallatin's vocabularies in the second volume of the _Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc. _ under the word _Snake_. In Arabic _dzann_ is serpent;_dzanan_ a spirit, a soul, or the heart. So in Hebrew _nachas_, serpent, has many derivatives signifying to hold intercourse with demons, toconjure, a magician, etc. See Noldeke in the _Zeitschrift fürVoelkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft_, i. P. 413. 

[111-1] Alexander Henry, _Travels_, p. 117. 

[111-2] _Bost. Med. And Surg. Journal_, vol. 76, p. 21. 

[113-1] Schwarz, _Der Ursprung der Mythologie dargelegt an Griechischerund Deutscher Sage_: Berlin, 1860, _passim_. 

[113-2] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_: An 1637, p. 53. 

[113-3] _Sagen der Nord-Amer. Indianer_, p. 21. This is a Germantranslation of part of Jones's _Legends of the N. Am. Inds. _: London, 1820. Their value as mythological material is very small. 

[114-1] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. Vi. Cap. 37. 

[114-2] Müller, _Amer. Urrelig. _, 221, after De la Borde. 

[114-3] _Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, p. 3. 

[114-4] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1648, p. 75. 

[115-1] _Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake_, p. 48: London, 1765. Thislittle book gives an account of the Cherokees at an earlier date than iselsewhere found. 

[116-1] Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, p. 80. 

[116-2] Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, i. P. 179 sq. ; compare ii. P. 117. 

[116-3] Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 159; Cusic, _Trad. Hist. Ofthe Six Nations_, pt. Ii. 

[117-1] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, pp. 161, 212. In thisexplanation I depart from Prof. Schwarz, who has collected variouslegends almost identical with these of the Indians (with which he was notacquainted), and interpreted the precious crown or horn to be the summersun, brought forth by the early vernal lightning. _Ursprung derMythologie_, p. 27, note. 

[118-1] Cusic, u. S. , pt. Ii. 

[119-1] This remarkable relic has been the subject of a long and ablearticle in the _Revue Américaine_ (tom. Ii. P. 69), by the venerabletraveller De Waldeck. Like myself--and I had not seen his opinion untilafter the above was written--he explains the cruciform design asindicating the four cardinal points, but offers the explanation merely asa suggestion, and without referring to these symbols as they appear in somany other connections. 

[119-2] Schwarz, _Ursprung der Mythologie_, pp. 62 sqq. 

[119-3] "I have examined many Indians in reference to these details, "says the narrator, an Augustin monk writing in 1554, "and they have allconfirmed them as eye-witnesses" (_Lettre sur les Superstitions duPérou_, p. 106, ed. Ternaux-Compans. This document is very valuable). 

[120-1] _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 355; Henry, _Travels_, p. 176. 

[120-2] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. Vi. Cap. 31. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE MYTHS OF WATER, FIRE, AND THE THUNDER-STORM. 

 Water the oldest element. --Its use in purification. --Holy water. --The Rite of Baptism. --The Water of Life. --Its symbols. --The Vase. --The Moon. --The latter the goddess of love and agriculture, but also of sickness, night, and pain. --Often represented by a dog. --Fire worship under the form of Sun worship. --The perpetual fire. --The new fire--Burning the dead. --A worship of the passions, but no sexual dualism in myths, nor any phallic worship in America. --Synthesis of the worship of Fire, Water, and the Winds in the THUNDER-STORM, personified as Haokah, Tupa, Catequil, Contici, Heno, Tlaloc, Mixcoatl, and other deities, many of them triune. 

The primitive man was a brute in everything but the susceptibility toculture; the chief market of his time was to sleep, fight, and feed; hisbodily comfort alone had any importance in his eyes; and his gods werenothing, unless they touched him here. Cold, hunger, thirst, these werethe hounds that were ever on his track; these were the fell powers hesaw constantly snatching away his fellows, constantly aiming theirinvisible shafts at himself. Fire, food, and water were the gods thatfought on his side; they were the chief figures in his pantheon, hiskindliest, perhaps his earliest, divinities. 

With a nearly unanimous voice mythologies assign the priority to water. It was the first of all things, the parent of all things. Even the godsthemselves were born of water, said the Greeks and the Aztecs. Cosmogonies reach no further than the primeval ocean that rolled itsshoreless waves through a timeless night. 

"Omnia pontus erant, deerant quoque litora ponto. "

Earth, sun, stars, lay concealed in its fathomless abysses. "All of us, "ran the Mexican baptismal formula, "are children of Chalchihuitlycue, Goddess of Water, " and the like was said by the Peruvians of Mama Cocha, by the Botocudos of Taru, by the natives of Darien of Dobayba, by theIroquois of Ataensic--all of them mothers of mankind, allpersonifications of water. 

How account for such unanimity? Not by supposing some ancientintercourse between remote tribes, but by the uses of water as theoriginator and supporter, the essential prerequisite of life. Leavingaside the analogy presented by the motherly waters which nourish theunborn child, nor emphasizing how indispensable it is as a beverage, themany offices this element performs in nature lead easily to thesupposition that it must have preceded all else. By quenching thirst, itquickens life; as the dew and the rain it feeds the plant, and whenwithheld the seed perishes in the ground and forests and flowers alikewither away; as the fountain, the river, and the lake, it enriches thevalley, offers safe retreats, and provides store of fishes; as theocean, it presents the most fitting type of the infinite. It cleanses, it purifies; it produces, it preserves. "Bodies, unless dissolved, cannot act, " is a maxim of the earliest chemistry. Very plausibly, therefore, was it assumed as the source of all things. 

The adoration of streams, springs, and lakes, or rather of the spiritstheir rulers, prevailed everywhere; sometimes avowedly because theyprovided food, as was the case with the Moxos, who called themselveschildren of the lake or river on which their village was, and wereafraid to migrate lest their parent should be vexed;[124-1] sometimesbecause they were the means of irrigation, as in Peru, or on moregeneral mythical grounds. A grove by a fountain is in all nature worshipthe ready-made shrine of the sylphs who live in its limpid waves andchatter mysteriously in its shallows. On such a spot in our Gulf Statesone rarely fails to find the sacrificial mound of the ancientinhabitants, and on such the natives of Central America were wont toerect their altars (Ximenes). Lakes are the natural centres ofcivilization. Like the lacustrine villages which the Swiss erected inante-historic times, like ancient Venice, the city of Mexico was firstbuilt on piles in a lake, and for the same reason--protection fromattack. Security once obtained, growth and power followed. Thus we cantrace the earliest rays of Aztec civilization rising from lake Tezcuco, of the Peruvian from Lake Titicaca, of the Muyscas from Lake Guatavita. These are the centres of legendary cycles. Their waters were hallowed byvenerable reminiscences. From the depths of Titicaca rose Viracocha, mythical civilizer of Peru. Guatavita was the bourne of many a foot-sorepilgrim in the ancient empire of the Zac. Once a year the high priestpoured the collective offerings of the multitude into its waves, andanointed with oils and glittering with gold dust, dived deep in itsmidst, professing to hold communion with the goddess who there had herhome. [125-1]

Not only does the life of man but his well-being depends on water. As anablution it invigorates him bodily and mentally. No institution was inhigher honor among the North American Indians than the sweat-bathfollowed by the cold douche. It was popular not only as a remedy inevery and any disease, but as a preliminary to a council or an importanttransaction. Its real value in cold climates is proven by the sustainedfondness for the Russian bath in the north of Europe. The Indians, however, with their usual superstition attributed its good effects tosome mysterious healing power in water itself. Therefore, when thepatient was not able to undergo the usual process, or when his medicalattendant was above the vulgar and routine practice of his profession, it was administered on the infinitesimal system. The quack muttered aformula over a gourd filled from a neighboring spring and sprinkled iton his patient, or washed the diseased part, or sucked out the evilspirit and blew it into a bowl of water, and then scattered the liquidon the fire or earth. [125-2]

The use of such "holy water" astonished the Romanist missionaries, andthey at once detected Satan parodying the Scriptures. But theirastonishment rose to horror when they discovered among various nations arite of baptism of appalling similarity to their own, connected withthe imposing of a name, done avowedly for the purpose of freeing frominherent sin, believed to produce a regeneration of the spiritualnature, nay, in more than one instance called by an indigenous wordsignifying "to be born again. "[126-1] Such a rite was of immemorialantiquity among the Cherokees, Aztecs, Mayas, and Peruvians. Had themissionaries remembered that it was practised in Asia with all thesemeanings long before it was chosen as the sign of the new covenant, theyneed have invoked neither Satan nor Saint Thomas to explain its presencein America. 

As corporeal is near akin to spiritual pollution, and cleanliness togodliness, ablution preparatory to engaging in religious acts came earlyto have an emblematic as well as a real significance. The water freedthe soul from sin as it did the skin from stain. We should come to Godwith clean hands and a clean heart. As Pilate washed his hands beforethe multitude to indicate that he would not accept the moralresponsibility of their acts, so from a similar motive a Natchez chief, who had been persuaded against his sense of duty not to sacrificehimself on the pyre of his ruler, took clean water, washed his hands, and threw it upon live coals. [126-2] When an ancient Peruvian had laidbare his guilt by confession, he bathed himself in a neighboring riverand repeated this formula:--

"O thou River, receive the sins I have this day confessed unto the Sun, carry them down to the sea, and let them never more appear. "[127-1]

The Navajo who has been deputed to carry a dead body to burial, holdshimself unclean until he has thoroughly washed himself in water preparedfor the purpose by certain ceremonies. [127-2] A bath was anindispensable step in the mysteries of Mithras, the initiation atEleusis, the meda worship of the Algonkins, the Busk of the Creeks, theceremonials of religion everywhere. Baptism was at first alwaysimmersion. It was a bath meant to solemnize the reception of the childinto the guild of mankind, drawn from the prior custom of ablution atany solemn occasion. In both the object is greater purity, bodily andspiritual. As certainly as there is a law of conscience, as certainly asour actions fall short of our volitions, so certainly is man painfullyaware of various imperfections and shortcomings. What he feels heattributes to the infant. Avowedly to free themselves from this sense ofguilt the Delawares used an emetic (Loskiel), the Cherokees a potioncooked up by an order of female warriors (Timberlake), the Takahlies ofWashington Territory, the Aztecs, Mayas, and Peruvians, auricularconfession. Formulize these feelings and we have the dogmas of "originalsin, " and of "spiritual regeneration. " The order of baptism among theAztecs commenced, "O child, receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life; it is to wash and to purify; may these drops removethe sin which was given to thee before the creation of the world, sinceall of us are under its power;" and concluded, "Now he liveth anew andis born anew, now is he purified and cleansed, now our mother the Wateragain bringeth him into the world. "[128-1]

A name was then assigned to the child, usually that of some ancestor, who it was supposed would thus be induced to exercise a kindlysupervision over the little one's future. In after life should theperson desire admittance to a superior class of the population and hadthe wealth to purchase it--for here as in more enlightened landsnobility was a matter of money--he underwent a second baptism andreceived another name, but still ostensibly from the goddess ofwater. [128-2]

In Peru the child was immersed in the fluid, the priest exorcised theevil and bade it enter the water, which was then buried in theground. [128-3] In either country sprinkling could take the place ofimmersion. The Cherokees believe that unless the rite is punctuallyperformed when the child is three days old, it will inevitablydie. [128-4]

As thus curative and preservative, it was imagined that there was waterof which whoever should drink would not die, but live forever. I havealready alluded to the Fountain of Youth, supposed long before Columbussaw the surf of San Salvador to exist in the Bahama Islands or Florida. It seems to have lingered long on that peninsula. Not many years ago, Coacooche, a Seminole chieftain, related a vision which had nerved himto a desperate escape from the Castle of St. Augustine. "In my dream, "said he, "I visited the happy hunting grounds and saw my twin sister, long since gone. She offered me a cup of pure water, which she said camefrom the spring of the Great Spirit, and if I should drink of it, Ishould return and live with her forever. "[129-1] Some such mysticalrespect for the element, rather than as a mere outfit for his spirithome, probably induced the earlier tribes of the same territory to placethe conch-shell which the deceased had used for a cup conspicuously onhis grave, [129-2] and the Mexicans and Peruvians to inter a vase filledwith water with the corpse, or to sprinkle it with the liquid, baptizingit, as it were, into its new associations. [130-1] It was an emblem ofthe hope that should cheer the dwellings of the dead, a symbol of theresurrection which is in store for those who have gone down to thegrave. 

The vase or the gourd as a symbol of water, the source and preserver oflife, is a conspicuous figure in the myths of ancient America. As Akbalor Huecomitl, the great or original vase, in Aztec and Maya legends itplays important parts in the drama of creation; as Tici (Ticcu) in Peruit is the symbol of the rains, and as a gourd it is often mentioned bythe Caribs and Tupis as the parent of the atmospheric waters. 

As the MOON is associated with the dampness and dews of night, anancient and wide-spread myth identified her with the Goddess of Water. Moreover, in spite of the expostulations of the learned, the commonpeople the world over persist in attributing to her a marked influenceon the rains. Whether false or true, this familiar opinion is of greatantiquity, and was decidedly approved by the Indians, who were all, inthe words of an old author, "great observers of the weather by themoon. "[130-2] They looked upon her not only as forewarning them by herappearance of the approach of rains and fogs, but as being their actualcause. 

Isis, her Egyptian title, literally means moisture; Ataensic, whom theHurons said was the moon, is derived from the word for water; andCitatli and Atl, moon and water, are constantly confounded in Aztectheology. Their attributes were strikingly alike. They were both themythical mothers of the race, and both protect women in child-birth, thebabe in the cradle, the husbandman in the field, and the youth andmaiden in their tender affections. As the transfer of legends was nearlyalways from the water to its lunar goddess, by bringing them in at thispoint their true meaning will not fail to be apparent. 

We must ever bear in mind that the course of mythology is from many godstoward one, that it is a synthesis not an analysis, and that in thisprocess the tendency is to blend in one the traits and stories oforiginally separate divinities. As has justly been observed by theMexican antiquarian Gama: "It was a common trait among the Indians toworship many gods under the figure of one, principally those whoseactivities lay in the same direction, or those in some way related amongthemselves. "[131-1]

The time of full moon was chosen both in Mexico and Peru to celebratethe festival of the deities of water, the patrons of agriculture, [131-2]and very generally the ceremonies connected with the crops wereregulated by her phases. The Nicaraguans said that the god of rains, Quiateot, rose in the east, [131-3] thus hinting how this connectionoriginated. At a lunar eclipse the Orinoko Indians seized their hoes andlabored with exemplary vigor on their growing corn, saying the moon wasveiling herself in anger at their habitual laziness;[132-1] and adescription of the New Netherlands, written about 1650, remarks that thesavages of that land "ascribe great influence to the moon overcrops. "[132-2] This venerable superstition, common to all races, stilllingers among our own farmers, many of whom continue to observe "thesigns of the moon" in sowing grain, setting out trees, cutting timber, and other rural avocations. 

As representing water, the universal mother, the moon was theprotectress of women in child-birth, the goddess of love and babes, thepatroness of marriage. To her the mother called in travail, whether bythe name of "Diana, diva triformis" in pagan Rome, by that of MamaQuilla in Peru, or of Meztli in Anahuac. Under the title ofYohualticitl, the Lady of Night, she was also in this latter country theguardian of babes, and as Teczistecatl, the cause of generation. [132-3]

Very different is another aspect of the moon goddess, and well might theMexicans paint her with two colors. The beneficent dispenser of harvestsand offspring, she nevertheless has a portentous and terrific phase. Sheis also the goddess of the night, the dampness, and the cold; sheengenders the miasmatic poisons that rack our bones; she conceals in hermantle the foe who takes us unawares; she rules those vague shapes whichfright us in the dim light; the causeless sounds of night or its moreoppressive silence are familiar to her; she it is who sends dreamswherein gods and devils have their sport with man, and slumber, the twinbrother of the grave. In the occult philosophy of the middle ages shewas "Chief over the Night, Darkness, Rest, Death, and theWaters;"[133-1] in the language of the Algonkins, her name is identicalwith the words for night, death, cold, sleep, and water. [133-2]

She is the evil minded woman who thus brings diseases upon men, who atthe outset introduced pain and death in the world--our common mother, yet the cruel cause of our present woes. Sometimes it is the moon, sometimes water, of whom this is said: "We are all of us under the powerof evil and sin, _because_ we are children of the Water, " says theMexican baptismal formula. That Unktahe, spirit of water, is the masterof dreams and witchcraft, is the belief of the Dakotas. [133-3] A femalespirit, wife of the great manito whose heart is the sun, the ancientAlgonkins believed brought death and disease to the race; "it is shewho kills men, otherwise they would never die; she eats their flesh andknaws[TN-4] their vitals, till they fall away and miserablyperish. "[134-1] Who is this woman? In the legend of the Muyscas it isChia, the moon, who was also goddess of water and flooded the earth outof spite. [134-2] Her reputation was notoriously bad. The Brazilianmother carefully shielded her infant from the lunar rays, believing thatthey would produce sickness;[134-3] the hunting tribes of our owncountry will not sleep in its light, nor leave their game exposed to itsaction. We ourselves have not outgrown such words as lunatic, moon-struck, and the like. Where did we get these ideas? Thephilosophical historian of medicine, Kurt Sprengel, traces them to theprimitive and popular medical theories of ancient Egypt, in accordancewith which all maladies were the effects of the anger of the goddessIsis, the Moisture, the Moon. [134-4]

We have here the key to many myths. Take that of Centeotl, the Aztecgoddess of Maize. She was said at times to appear as a woman ofsurpassing beauty, and allure some unfortunate to her embraces, destinedto pay with his life for his brief moments of pleasure. Even to see herin this shape was a fatal omen. She was also said to belong to a classof gods whose home was in the west, and who produced sickness andpains. [134-5] Here we see the evil aspect of the moon reflected onanother goddess, who was at first solely the patroness of agriculture. 

As the goddess of sickness, it was supposed that persons afflicted withcertain diseases had been set apart by the moon for her peculiarservice. These diseases were those of a humoral type, especially such asare characterized by issues and ulcers. As in Hebrew the word _accursed_is derived from a root meaning _consecrated to God_, so in the Aztec, Quiché, and other tongues, the word for _leprous_, _eczematous_, or_syphilitic_, means also _divine_. This bizarre change of meaning isillustrated in a very ancient myth of their family. It is said that inthe absence of the sun all mankind lingered in darkness. Nothing but ahuman sacrifice could hasten his arrival. Then Metzli, the moon, ledforth one Nanahuatl, the leprous, and building a pyre, the victim threwhimself in its midst. Straightway Metzli followed his example, and asshe disappeared in the bright flames the sun rose over thehorizon. [135-1] Is not this a reference to the kindling rays of theaurora, in which the dark and baleful night is sacrificed, and in whoselight the moon presently fades away, and the sun comes forth?

Another reaction in the mythological laboratory is here disclosed. Asthe good qualities of water were attributed to the goddess of night, sleep, and death, so her malevolent traits were in turn reflected backon this element. Other thoughts aided the transfer. In primitivegeography the Ocean Stream coils its infinite folds around the speck ofland we inhabit, biding its time to swallow it wholly. Unwillingly didit yield the earth from its bosom, daily does it steal it away piece bypiece. Every evening it hides the light in its depths, and Night and theWaters resume their ancient sway. The word for ocean (_mare_) in theLatin tongue means by derivation a desert, and the Greeks spoke of it as"the barren brine. " Water is a treacherous element. Man treads boldly onthe solid earth, but the rivers and lakes constantly strive to swallowthose who venture within their reach. As streams run in tortuouschannels, and as rains accompany the lightning serpent, this animal wasoccasionally the symbol of the waters in their dangerous manifestations. The Huron magicians fabled that in the lakes and rivers dwelt one ofvast size called _Angont_, who sent sickness, death, and other mishaps, and the least mite of whose flesh was a deadly poison. They added--andthis was the point of the tale--that they always kept on hand portionsof the monster for the benefit of any who opposed their designs. [136-1]The legends of the Algonkins mention a rivalry between Michabo, creatorof the earth, and the Spirit of the Waters, who was unfriendly to theproject. [136-2] In later tales this antagonism becomes more and morepronounced, and borrows an ethical significance which it did not have atfirst. Taking, however, American religions as a whole, water is far morefrequently represented as producing beneficent effects than the reverse. 

Dogs were supposed to stand in some peculiar relation to the moon, probably because they howl at it and run at night, uncanny practiceswhich have cost them dear in reputation. The custom prevailed amongtribes so widely asunder as Peruvians, Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois, Algonkins, and Greenland Eskimos to thrash the curs most soundly duringan eclipse. [137-1] The Creeks explained this by saying that the big dogwas swallowing the sun, and that by whipping the little ones they couldmake him desist. What the big dog was they were not prepared to say. Weknow. It was the night goddess, represented by the dog, who was thusshrouding the world at midday. The ancient Romans sacrificed dogs toHecate and Diana, in Egypt they were sacred to Isis, and thus astraditionally connected with night and its terrors, the Prince ofDarkness, in the superstition of the middle ages, preferably appearedunder the form of a cur, as that famous poodle which accompaniedCornelius Agrippa, or that which grew to such enormous size behind thestove of Dr. Faustus. In a better sense, they represented the moreagreeable characteristics of the lunar goddess. Xochiquetzal, mostfecund of Aztec divinities, patroness of love, of sexual pleasure, andof childbirth, was likewise called _Itzcuinan_, which, literallytranslated, is _bitch-mother_. This strange and to us so repugnant titlefor a goddess was not without parallel elsewhere. When in his wars theInca Pachacutec carried his arms into the province of Huanca, he foundits inhabitants had installed in their temples the figure of a dog astheir highest deity. They were accustomed also to select one as hisliving representative, to pray to it and offer it sacrifice, and whenwell fattened, to serve it up with solemn ceremonies at a great feast, eating their god _substantialiter_. The priests in this provincesummoned their attendants to the temples by blowing through aninstrument fashioned from a dog's skull. [138-1] This canine canonizationexplains why in some parts of Peru a priest was called by way of honor_allco_, dog![138-2] And why in many tombs both there and in Mexicotheir skeletons are found carefully interred with the human remains. Wherever the Aztec race extended they seem to have carried the adorationof a wild species, the coyote, the _canis latrans_ of naturalists. TheShoshonees of New Mexico call it their progenitor, [138-3] and with theNahuas it was in such high honor that it had a temple of its own, acongregation of priests devoted to its service, statues carved in stone, an elaborate tomb at death, and is said to be meant by the god Chantico, whose audacity caused the destruction of the world. The story was thathe made a sacrifice to the gods without observing a preparatory fast, for which he was punished by being changed into a dog. He then invokedthe god of death to deliver him, which attempt to evade a justpunishment so enraged the divinities that they immersed the world inwater. [139-1]

During a storm on our northern lakes the Indians think no offering solikely to appease the angry water god who is raising the tempest as adog. Therefore they hasten to tie the feet of one and toss himoverboard. [139-2] One meets constantly in their tales and superstitionsthe mysterious powers of the animals, and the distinguished actions hehas at times performed bear usually a close parallelism to thoseattributed to water and the moon. 

Hunger and thirst were thus alleviated by water. Cold remained, andagainst this _fire_ was the shield. It gives man light in darkness andwarmth in winter; it shows him his friends and warns him of his foes;the flames point toward heaven and the smoke makes the clouds. Around itsocial life begins. For his home and his hearth the savage has but oneword, and what of tender emotion his breast can feel, is linked to thecircle that gathers around his fire. The council fire, the camp fire, and the war fire, are so many epochs in his history. By its aid manyarts become possible, and it is a civilizer in more ways than one. Inthe figurative language of the red race, it is constantly used as "anemblem of peace, happiness, and abundance. "[140-1] To extingish[TN-5] anenemy's fire is to slay him; to light a visitor's fire is to bid himwelcome. Fire worship was closely related to that of the sun, and somuch has been said of sun worship among the aborigines of America thatit is well at once to assign it its true position. 

A generation ago it was a fashion very much approved to explain allsymbols and myths by the action of this orb on nature. This short andeasy method with mythology has, in Carlylian phrase, had its bottompulled from under it in these later times. Nowhere has it manifested itsinefficiency more palpably than in America. One writer, while thusexplaining the religions of the tribes of colder regions and higherlatitudes, denies sun worship among the natives of hot climates; anotherasserts that only among the latter did it exist at all; while a thirdlays down the maxim that the religion of the red race everywhere "wasbut a modification of Sun or Fire worship. "[141-1] All such sweepinggeneralizations are untrue, and must be so. No one key can open all thearcana of symbolism. Man devised means as varied as nature herself toexpress the idea of God within him. The sun was but one of these, andnot the first nor the most important. Fear, said the wise Epicurean, first made the gods. The sun with its regular course, its kindly warmth, its beneficent action, no wise inspires that sentiment. It conjures nophantasms to appal the superstitious fancy, and its place in primitivemythology is conformably inferior. The myths of the Eskimos andnorthern Athapascas omit its action altogether. The Algonkins by nomeans imagined it the highest god, and at most but one of hisemblems. [142-1] That it often appears in their prayers is true, but thisarose from the fact that in many of their dialects, as well as in thelanguage of the Mayas and others, the word for heaven or sky wasidentical with that for sun, and the former, as I have shown, was thesupposed abode of deity, "the wigwam of the Great Spirit. "[142-2] Thealleged sun worship of the Cherokees rests on testimony modern, doubtful, and unsupported. [142-3] In North America the Natchez alonewere avowed worshippers of this luminary. Yet they adored it under thename Great Fire (_wah sil_), clearly pointing to a prior adoration ofthat element. The heliolatry organized principally for political ends bythe Incas of Peru, stands alone in the religions of the red race. Thoseshrewd legislators at an early date officially announced that Inti, thesun, their own elder brother, was ruler of the cohorts of heaven by likedivine right that they were of the four corners of the earth. Thisscheme ignominiously failed, as every attempt to fetter the liberty ofconscience must and should. The later Incas finally indulged publicly inheterodox remarks, and compromised the matter by acknowledging adivinity superior even to their brother, the sun, as we have seen in aprevious chapter. 

The myths of creation never represent the sun as anterior to the world, but as manufactured by the "old people" (Navajos), as kindled and setgoing by the first of men (Algonkins), or as freed from some cave by akindly deity (Haitians). It is always spoken of as a fire; only in Peruand Mexico had the precession of the equinoxes been observed, andwithout danger of error we can merge the consideration of its worshipalmost altogether in that of this element. [143-1]

The institutions of a perpetual fire, of obtaining new fire, and ofburning the dead, prevailed extensively in the New World. In the presentdiscussion the origin of such practices, rather than the ceremonies withwhich they were attended, have an interest. The savage knew that firewas necessary to his life. Were it lost, he justly foreboded direcalamities and the ruin of his race. Therefore at stated times with duesolemnity he produced it anew by friction or the flint, or else wascareful to keep one fire constantly alive. These not unwise precautionssoon fell to mere superstitions. If the Aztec priest at the stated timefailed to obtain a spark from his pieces of wood, if the sacred fire bychance became extinguished, the end of the world or the destruction ofmankind was apprehended. "You know it was a saying among ourancestors, " said an Iroquois chief in 1753, "that when the fire atOnondaga goes out, we shall no longer be a people. "[144-1] So deeplyrooted was this notion, that the Catholic missionaries in New Mexicowere fain to wink at it, and perform the sacrifice of the mass in thesame building where the flames were perpetually burning, that were notto be allowed to die until Montezuma and the fabled glories of ancientAnahuac with its heathenism should return. [144-2] Thus fire became thetype of life. "Know that the life in your body and the fire on yourhearth are one and the same thing, and that both proceed from onesource, " said a Shawnee prophet. [144-3] Such an expression was wholly inthe spirit of his race. The greatest feast of the Delawares was that totheir "grandfather, the fire. "[144-4] "Their fire burns forever, " wasthe Algonkin figure of speech to express the immortality of theirgods. [144-5] "The ancient God, the Father and Mother of all Gods, " saysan Aztec prayer, "is the God of the Fire which is in the centre of thecourt with four walls, and which is covered with gleaming feathers likeunto wings;"[144-6] dark sayings of the priests, referring to theglittering lightning fire borne from the four sides of the earth. 

As the path to a higher life hereafter, the burning of the dead wasfirst instituted. It was a privilege usually confined to a select few. Among the Algonkin-Ottawas, only, those of the distinguished totem ofthe Great Hare, among the Nicaraguans none but the caciques, among theCaribs exclusively the priestly caste, were entitled to this peculiarhonor. [145-1] The first gave as the reason for such an exceptionalcustom, that the members of such an illustrious clan as that of Michabo, the Great Hare, should not rot in the ground as common folks, but riseto the heavens on the flames and smoke. Those of Nicaragua seemed tothink it the sole path to immortality, holding that only such as offeredthemselves on the pyre of their chieftain would escape annihilation atdeath;[145-2] and the tribes of upper California were persuaded thatsuch as were not burned at death were liable to be transformed into thelower orders of brutes. [145-3] Strangely, enough, we thus find a sort ofbaptism by fire deemed essential to a higher life beyond the grave. 

Another analogy strengthened the symbolic force of fire as life. This isthat which exists between the sensation of warmth and those passionswhose physiological end is the perpetuation of the species. We see hownative it is to the mind from such coarse expressions as "hot lust, " "toburn, " "to be in heat, " "stews, " and the like, figures not of thepoetic, but the vulgar tongue. They occur in all languages, and hint howreadily the worship of fire glided into that of the reproductiveprinciple, into extravagances of chastity and lewdness, into theshocking orgies of the so-called phallic worship. 

Some have supposed that a sexual dualism pervades all natural religionsand this too has been assumed as the solution of all their myths. It hasbeen said that the action of heat upon moisture, of the sun on thewaters, the mysteries of reproduction, and the satisfaction of thesexual instincts, are the unvarying themes of primitive mythology. Sofar as the red race is concerned, this is a most gratuitous assumption. The facts that have been eagerly collated by Dulaure and others tobolster such a detestable theory lend themselves fairly to no suchinterpretation. 

There existed, indeed, a worship of the passions. Apparently it wasgrafted upon or rose out of that of fire by the analogy I have pointedout. Thus the Mexican god of fire was supposed to govern the generativeproclivities, [146-1] and there is good reason to believe that the sacredfire watched by unspotted virgins among the Mayas had decidedly such asignification. Certainly it was so, if we can depend upon the authorityof a ballad translated from the original immediately after the conquest, cited by the venerable traveller and artist Count de Waldeck. Itpurports to be from the lover of one of these vestals, and referring toher occupation asks with a fine allusion to its mystic meaning--

 "O vièrge, quand pourrai-je te posséder pour ma compagne cherie? Combien de temps faut-il encore que tes vœux soient accomplis? Dis-moi le jour qui doit devancer la belle nuit où tous deux, Alimenterons le feu qui nous fit naitre et que nous devons perpetuer. "[147-1]

There is a bright as well as a dark side even to such a worship. InMexico, Peru, and Yucatan, the women who watched the flames must beundoubted virgins; they were usually of noble blood, and must voweternal chastity, or at least were free to none but the ruler of therealm. As long as they were consecrated to the fire, so long any carnalardor was degrading to their lofty duties. The sentiment of shame, oneof the first we find developed, led to the belief that to forego fleshlypleasures was a meritorious sacrifice in the eyes of the gods. In thispersuasion certain of the Aztec priests practised complete abscission orentire discerption of the virile parts, and a mutilation of females wasnot unknown similar to that immemorially a custom in Egypt. [147-2] Suchenforced celibacy was, however, neither common nor popular. Circumcision, if it can be proven to have existed among the redrace--and though there are plenty of assertions to that effect, they arenot satisfactory to an anatomist--was probably a symbolic renunciationof the lusts of the flesh. The same cannot be said of the very commoncustom with the Aztec race of anointing their idols with blood drawnfrom the genitals, the tongue, and the ears. This was simply a form ofthose voluntary scarifications, universally employed to mark contritionor grief by savage tribes, and nowhere more in vogue than with the redrace. 

There was an ancient Christian heresy which taught that the true way toconquer the passions was to satiate them, and therefore preachedunbounded licentiousness. Whether this agreeable doctrine was known tothe Indians I cannot say, but it is certainly the most creditableexplanation that can be suggested for the miscellaneous congress whichvery often terminated their dances and ceremonies. Such orgies were ofcommon occurrence among the Algonkins and Iroquois at a very early date, and are often mentioned in the Jesuit Relations; Venegas describes themas frequent among the tribes of Lower California; and Oviedo refers tocertain festivals of the Nicaraguans, during which the women of all rankextended to whosoever wished just such privileges as the matrons ofancient Babylon, that mother of harlots and all abominations, used togrant even to slaves and strangers in the temple of Melitta, as one ofthe duties of religion. But in fact there is no ground whatever toinvest these debauches with any recondite meaning. They are simplyindications of the thorough and utter immorality which prevailedthroughout the race. And a still more disgusting proof of it is seen inthe frequent appearance among diverse tribes of men dressed as women andyielding themselves to indescribable vices. [149-1] There was at firstnothing of a religious nature in such exhibitions. Lascivious priestschose at times to invest them with some such meaning for their ownsensual gratification, just as in Brazil they still claim the _jus primænoctis_. [149-2] The pretended phallic worship of the Natchez and ofCulhuacan, cited by the Abbé Brasseur, rests on no good authority, andif true, is like that of the Huastecas of Panuco, nothing but anunrestrained and boundless profligacy which it were an absurdity to calla religion. [149-3] That which Mr. Stephens attempts to show existed oncein Yucatan, [149-4] rests entirely by his own statement on a fanciedresemblance of no value whatever, and the arguments of Lafitau to thesame effect are quite insufficient. There is a decided indecency in theremains of ancient American art, especially in Peru (Meyen), and greatlubricity in many ceremonies, but the proof is altogether wanting tobind these with the recognition of a fecundating principle throughoutnature, or, indeed, to suppose for them any other origin than thepromptings of an impure fancy. I even doubt whether they often referredto fire as the deity of sexual love. 

By a flight of fancy inspired by a study of oriental mythology, theworship of the reciprocal principle in America has been connected withthat of the sun and moon, as the primitive pair from whose fecund unionall creatures proceeded. It is sufficient to say if such a myth existsamong the Indians--which is questionable--it justifies no suchdeduction; that the moon is often mentioned in their languages merely asthe "night sun;" and that in such important stocks as the Iroquois, Athapascas, Cherokees, and Tupis, the sun is said to be a feminine noun;while the myths represent them more frequently as brother and sisterthan as man and wife; nor did at least the northern tribes regard thesun as the cause of fecundity in nature at all, but solely as givinglight and warmth. [150-1]

In contrast to this, so much the more positive was their association ofthe THUNDER-STORM as that which brings both warmth and rain with therenewed vernal life of vegetation. The impressive phenomena whichcharacterize it, the prodigious noise, the awful flash, the portentousgloom, the blast, the rain, have left a profound impression on the mythsof every land. Fire from water, warmth and moisture from the destructivebreath of the tempest, this was the riddle of riddles to the untutoredmind. "Out of the eater came forth meat, out of the strong came forthsweetness. " It was the visible synthesis of all the divinemanifestations, the winds, the waters, and the flames. 

The Dakotas conceived it as a struggle between the god of waters and thethunder bird for the command of their nation, [150-2] and as a bird, oneof those which make a whirring sound with their wings, the turkey, thepheasant, or the nighthawk, it was very generally depicted by theirneighbors, the Athapascas, Iroquois, and Algonkins. [151-1] As theherald of the summer it was to them a good omen and a friendly power. Itwas the voice of the Great Spirit of the four winds speaking from theclouds and admonishing them that the time of corn planting was athand. [151-2] The flames kindled by the lightning were of a sacrednature, proper to be employed in lighting the fires of the religiousrites, but on no account to be profaned by the base uses of daily life. When the flash entered the ground it scattered in all directions thosestones, such as the flint, which betray their supernal origin by a gleamof fire when struck. These were the thunderbolts, and from such an one, significantly painted red, the Dakotas averred their race hadproceeded. [151-3] For are we not all in a sense indebted for our livesto fire? "There is no end to the fancies entertained by the Siouxconcerning thunder, " observes Mrs. Eastman. They typified theparadoxical nature of the storm under the character of the giant Haokah. To him cold was heat, and heat cold; when sad he laughed, when merrygroaned; the sides of his face and his eyes were of different colors andexpressions; he wore horns or a forked headdress to represent thelightning, and with his hands he hurled the meteors. His manifestationswere fourfold, and one of the four winds was the drum-stick he used toproduce the thunder. [152-1]

Omitting many others, enough that the sameness of this conception isillustrated by the myth of Tupa, highest god and first man of the Tupisof Brazil. During his incarnation, he taught them agriculture, gave themfire, the cane, and the pisang, and now in the form of a huge birdsweeps over the heavens, watching his children and watering their crops, admonishing them of his presence by the mighty sound of his voice, therustling of his wings, and the flash of his eye. These are the thunder, the lightning, and the roar of the tempest. He is depicted with horns;he was one of four brothers, and only after a desperate struggle did hedrive his fraternal rivals from the field. In his worship, the priestsplace pebbles in a dry gourd, deck it with feathers and arrows, andrattling it vigorously, reproduce in miniature the tremendous drama ofthe storm. [152-2]

As nations rose in civilization these fancies put on a more complex formand a more poetic fulness. Throughout the realm of the Incas thePeruvians venerated as creator of all things, maker of heaven and earth, and ruler of the firmament, the god Ataguju. The legend was that fromhim proceeded the first of mortals, the man Guamansuri, who descended tothe earth and there seduced the sister of certain Guachemines, raylessones, or Darklings, who then possessed it. For this crime they destroyedhim, but their sister proved pregnant, and died in her labor, givingbirth to two eggs. From these emerged the twin brothers, Apocatequiland Piguerao. The former was the more powerful. By touching the corpseof his mother he brought her to life, he drove off and slew theGuachemines, and, directed by Ataguju, released the race of Indians fromthe soil by turning it up with a spade of gold. For this reason theyadored him as their maker. He it was, they thought, who produced thethunder and the lightning by hurling stones with his sling; and thethunderbolts that fall, said they, are his children. Few villages werewilling to be without one or more of these. They were in appearancesmall, round, smooth stones, but had the admirable properties ofsecuring fertility to the fields, protecting from lightning, and, by atransition easy to understand, were also adored as gods of the Fire, aswell material as of the passions, and were capable of kindling thedangerous flames of desire in the most frigid bosom. Therefore they werein great esteem as love charms. 

Apocatequil's statue was erected on the mountains, with that of hismother on one hand, and his brother on the other. "He was Prince of Eviland the most respected god of the Peruvians. From Quito to Cuzco not anIndian but would give all he possessed to conciliate him. Five priests, two stewards, and a crowd of slaves served his image. And his chieftemple was surrounded by a very considerable village whose inhabitantshad no other occupation than to wait on him. " In memory of thesebrothers, twins in Peru were deemed always sacred to the lightning, andwhen a woman or even a llama brought them forth, a fast was held andsacrifices offered to the two pristine brothers, with a chantcommencing: _A chuchu cachiqui_, O Thou who causest twins, wordsmistaken by the Spaniards for the name of a deity. [154-1]

Garcilasso de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, has preserved anancient indigenous poem of his nation, presenting the storm myth in adifferent form, which as undoubtedly authentic and not devoid of poeticbeauty I translate, preserving as much as possible the trochaictetrasyllabic verse of the original Quichua:--

 "Beauteous princess, Lo, thy brother Breaks thy vessel Now in fragments. From the blow come Thunder, lightning, Strokes of lightning. And thou, princess, Tak'st the water, With it rainest, And the hail, or Snow dispensest. Viracocha, World constructor, World enliv'ner, To this office Thee appointed, Thee created. "[155-1]

In this pretty waif that has floated down to us from the wreck of aliterature now forever lost, there is more than one point to attract thenotice of the antiquary. He may find in it a hint to decipher thosenames of divinities so common in Peruvian legends, Contici and Illatici. Both mean "the Thunder Vase, " and both doubtless refer to the conceptionhere displayed of the phenomena of the thunder-storm. [155-2]

Again, twice in this poem is the triple nature of the storm adverted to. This is observable in many of the religions of America. It constitutes asort of Trinity, not in any point resembling that of Christianity, noryet the Trimurti of India, but the only one in the New World the leastdegree authenticated, and which, as half seen by ignorant monks, hascaused its due amount of sterile astonishment. Thus, in the Quichélegends we read: "The first of Hurakan is the lightning, the second thetrack of the lightning, and the third the stroke of the lightning; andthese three are Hurakan, the Heart of the Sky. "[156-1] It reappears withcharacteristic uniformity of outline in Iroquois mythology. Heno, thethunder, gathers the clouds and pours out the warm rains. Therefore hewas the patron of husbandry. He was invoked at seed time and harvest;and as purveyor of nourishment he was addressed as grandfather, and hisworshippers styled themselves his grandchildren. He rode through theheavens on the clouds, and the thunderbolts which split the forest treeswere the stones he hurled at his enemies. _Three_ assistants wereassigned him, whose names have unfortunately not been recorded, andwhose offices were apparently similar to those of the three companionsof Hurakan. [156-2]

So also the Aztecs supposed that Tlaloc, god of rains and the waters, ruler of the terrestrial paradise and the season of summer, manifestedhimself under the three attributes of the flash, the thunderbolt, andthe thunder. [157-1]

But this conception of three in one was above the comprehension of themasses, and consequently these deities were also spoken of as fourfoldin nature, three _and_ one. Moreover, as has already been pointed out, the thunder god was usually ruler of the winds, and thus another reasonfor his quadruplicate nature was suggested. Hurakan, Haokah, Tlaloc, andprobably Heno, are plural as well as singular nouns, and are used asnominatives to verbs in both numbers. Tlaloc was appealed to asinhabiting each of the cardinal points and every mountain top. Hisstatue rested on a square stone pedestal, facing the east, and had inone hand a serpent of gold. Ribbons of silver, crossing to form squares, covered the robe, and the shield was composed of feathers of fourcolors, yellow, green, red, and blue. Before it was a vase containingall sorts of grain; and the clouds were called his companions, the windshis messengers. [157-2] As elsewhere, the thunderbolts were believed tobe flints, and thus, as the emblem of fire and the storm, this stonefigures conspicuously in their myths. Tohil, the god who gave theQuichés fire by shaking his sandals, was represented by a flint-stone. He is distinctly said to be the same as Quetzalcoatl, one of whosecommonest symbols was a flint (tecpatl). Such a stone, in the beginningof things, fell from heaven to earth, and broke into 1600 pieces, eachof which sprang up a god;[158-1] an ancient legend, which shadows forththe subjection of all things to him who gathers the clouds from the fourcorners of the earth, who thunders with his voice, who satisfies withhis rain "the desolate and waste ground, and causes the tender herb tospring forth. " This is the germ of the adoration of stones as emblems ofthe fecundating rains. This is why, for example, the Navajos use astheir charm for rain certain long round stones, which they think fallfrom the cloud when it thunders. [158-2]

Mixcoatl, the Cloud Serpent, or Iztac-Mixcoatl, the White or GleamingCloud Serpent, said to have been the only divinity of the ancientChichimecs, held in high honor by the Nahuas, Nicaraguans, and Otomis, and identical with Taras, supreme god of the Tarascos and Camaxtli, godof the Teo-Chichimecs, is another personification of the thunder-storm. To this day this is the familiar name of the tropical tornado in theMexican language. [158-3] He was represented, like Jove, with a bundle ofarrows in his hand, the thunderbolts. Both the Nahuas and Tarascosrelated legends in which he figured as father of the race of man. Likeother lords of the lightning he was worshipped as the dispenser ofriches and the patron of traffic; and in Nicaragua his image isdescribed as being "engraved stones, "[158-4] probably the supposedproducts of the thunder. 

FOOTNOTES:

[124-1] A. D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Américain_, i. P. 240. 

[125-1] Rivero and Tschudi, _Peruvian Antiquities_, 162, after J. Acosta. 

[125-2] Narrative of _Oceola Nikkanoche, Prince of Econchatti_, p. 141;Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. P. 650. 

[126-1] The term in Maya is _caput zihil_, corresponding exactly to theLatin _renasci_, to be re-born, Landa, _Rel. De Yucatan_, p. 144. 

[126-2] Dumont, _Mems. Hist. Sur la Louisiane_, i. P. 233. 

[127-1] Acosta, _Hist. Of the New World_, lib. V. Cap. 25. 

[127-2] _Senate Report on Condition of Indian Tribes_, p. 358:Washington, 1867. 

[128-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. Vi. Cap. 37. 

[128-2] Ternaux-Compans, _Pièces rel. à la Conq. Du Mexique_, p. 233. 

[128-3] Velasco, _Hist. De la Royaume de Quito_, p. 106, and others. 

[128-4] Whipple, _Rep. On the Indian Tribes_, p. 35. I am not sure thatthis practice was of native growth to the Cherokees. This people havemany customs and traditions strangely similar to those of Christians andJews. Their cosmogony is a paraphrase of that of Genesis (Squier, _Serp. Symbol_, from Payne's MSS. ); the number seven is as sacred with them asit was with the Chaldeans (Whipple, u. S. ); and they have improved andincreased by contact with the whites. Significant in this connection isthe remark of Bartram, who visited them in 1773, that some of theirfemales were "nearly as fair and blooming as European women, " andgenerally that their complexion was lighter than their neighbors(_Travels_, p. 485). Two explanations of these facts may be suggested. They may be descendants in part of the ancient white race near CapeHatteras, to whom I have referred in a previous note. More probably theyderived their peculiarities from the Spaniards of Florida. Mr. Shea is ofopinion that missions were established among them as early as 1566 and1643 (_Hist. Of Catholic Missions in the U. S. _, pp. 58, 73). Certainlyin the latter half of the seventeenth century the Spaniards wereprosecuting mining operations in their territory (See _Am. Hist. Mag. _, x. P. 137). 

[129-1] Sprague, _Hist. Of the Florida War_, p. 328. 

[129-2] Basanier, _Histoire Notable de la Floride_, p. 10. 

[130-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. Iii. App. Cap. I. ;Meyen, _Ueber die Ureinwohner von Peru_, p. 29. 

[130-2] Gabriel Thomas, _Hist. Of West New Jersey_, p. 6: London, 1698. 

[131-1] Gama, _Des. De las dos Piedras_, etc. , i. P. 36. 

[131-2] Garcia, _Or. De los Indios_, p. 109. 

[131-3] Oviedo, _Rel. De la Prov. De Nicaragua_, p. 41. The name is acorruption of the Aztec _Quiauhteotl_, Rain-God. 

[132-1] Gumilla, _Hist. Del Orinoco_, ii. Cap. 23. 

[132-2] _Doc. Hist. Of New York_, iv. P. 130. 

[132-3] Gama, _Des. De las dos Piedras_, ii. P. 41; Gallatin, _Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc. _, i. P. 343. 

[133-1] Adrian Van Helmont, _Workes_, p. 142, fol. : London, 1662. 

[133-2] The moon is _nipa_ or _nipaz_; _nipa_, I sleep; _nipawi_, night;_nip_, I die; _nepua_, dead; _nipanoue_, cold. This odd relationship wasfirst pointed out by Volney (Duponceau, _Langues de l'Amérique du Nord_, p. 317). But the kinship of these words to that for water, _nip_, _nipi_, _nepi_, has not before been noticed. This proves the association of ideason which I lay so much stress in mythology. A somewhat similarrelationship exists in the Aztec and cognate languages, _miqui_, to die, _micqui_, dead, _mictlan_, the realm of death, _te-miqui_, to dream, _cec-miqui_, to freeze. Would it be going too far to connect these with_metzli_, moon? (See Buschmann, _Spuren der Aztekischen Sprache imNördlichen Mexico_, p. 80. )

[133-3] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, vol. Iii. P. 485. 

[134-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1634, p. 16. 

[134-2] Humboldt, _Vues des Cordillères_, p. 21. 

[134-3] Spix and Martius, _Travels in Brazil_, ii. P. 247. 

[134-4] _Hist. De la Médecine_, i. P. 34. 

[134-5] Gama, _Des. De las dos Piedras_, etc. , ii. Pp. 100-102. CompareSahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. I. Cap. Vi. 

[135-1] Codex Chimalpopoca, in Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, i. P. 183. Gama and others translate Nanahuatl by _el buboso_, Brasseur by _lesyphilitique_, and the latter founds certain medical speculations on theword. It is entirely unnecessary to say to a surgeon that it could notpossibly have had the latter meaning, inasmuch as the diagnosis betweensecondary or tertiary syphilis and other similar diseases was unknown. That it is so employed now is nothing to the purpose. The same or asimilar myth was found in Central America and on the Island of Haiti. 

[136-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1648, p. 75. 

[136-2] Charlevoix is in error when he identifies Michabo with the Spiritof the Waters, and may be corrected from his own statements elsewhere. Compare his _Journal Historique_, pp. 281 and 344: ed. Paris, 1740. 

[137-1] Bradford, _American Antiquities_, p. 833; Martius, _Von demRechtszustande unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens_, p. 32; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, i. P. 271. 

[138-1] La Vega, _Hist. Des Incas_, liv. Vi. Cap. 9. 

[138-2] _Lett. Sur les Superstitions du Pérou_, p. 111. 

[138-3] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. P. 224. 

[139-1] Chantico, according to Gama, means "Wolf's Head, " though I cannotverify this from the vocabularies within my reach. He is sometimes calledCohuaxolotl Chantico, the snake-servant Chantico, considered by Gama asone, by Torquemada as two deities (see Gama, _Des. De las dos Piedras_, etc. , i. P. 12; ii. P. 66). The English word _cantico_ in the phrase, forinstance, "to cut a cantico, " though an Indian word, is not from this, but from the Algonkin Delaware _gentkehn_, to dance a sacred dance. TheDutch describe it as "a religious custom observed among them beforedeath" (_Doc. Hist. Of New York_, iv. P. 63). William Penn says of theLenape, "their worship consists of two parts, sacrifice and cantico, " thelatter "performed by round dances, sometimes words, sometimes songs, thenshouts; their postures very antic and differing. " (_Letter to the FreeSociety of Traders_, 1683, sec. 21. )

[139-2] Charlevoix, _Hist. Gén. De la Nouv. France_, i. P. 394: Paris, 1740. On the different species of dogs indigenous to America, see a noteof Alex. Von Humboldt, _Ansichten der Natur. _, i. P. 134. It may benoticed that Chichimec, properly Chichimecatl, the name of the Aztectribe who succeeded the ancient Toltecs in Mexico, means literally"people of the dog, " and was probably derived from some mythologicalfable connected with that animal. 

[140-1] _Narr. Of the Captiv. Of John Tanner_, p. 362. From the word forfire in many American tongues is formed the adjective _red_. Thus, Algonkin, _skoda_, fire, _miskoda_, red; Kolosch, _kan_, fire, _kan_, red; Ugalentz, _takak_, fire, _takak-uete_, red; Tahkali, _cūn_, fire, _tenil-cūn_, red; Quiche, _cak_, fire, _cak_, red, etc. From theadjective _red_ comes often the word for _blood_, and in symbolism thecolor red may refer to either of these ideas. It was the royal color ofthe Incas, brothers of the sun, and a llama swathed in a red garment wasthe Peruvian sacrifice to fire (Garcia, _Or. De los Indios_, lib. Iv. Caps. 16, 19). On the other hand the war quipus, the war wampum, and thewar paint were all of this hue, boding their sanguinary significance. Theword for fire in the language of the Delawares, Nanticokes, andneighboring tribes puzzles me. It is _taenda_ or _tinda_. This is theSwedish word _taenda_, from whose root comes our _tinder_. Yet it isfound in vocabularies as early as 1650, and is universally currentto-day. It has no resemblance to the word for fire in pure Algonkin. Wasit adopted from the Swedes? Was it introduced by wandering Vikings inremote centuries? Or is it only a coincidence?

[141-1] Compare D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Américain_, i. P. 243, Müller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 51, and Squier, _Serpent Symbol in America_, p. 111. This is a striking instance of the confusion of ideas introduced byfalse systems of study, and also of the considerable misapprehension ofAmerican mythology which has hitherto prevailed. 

[142-1] La Hontan, _Voy. Dans l'Amér. Sept. _, p. Ii. 127; _Rel. Nouv. France_, 1637, p. 54. 

[142-2] Copway, _Trad. Hist. Of the Ojibway Nation_, p. 165. _Kesuch_ inAlgonkin signifies both sky and sun (Duponceau, _Langues de l'Amér. DuNord_, p. 312). So apparently does _kin_ in the Maya. 

[142-3] Payne's manuscripts quoted by Mr. Squier in his Serpent Symbol inAmerica were compiled within this century, and from the extracts givencan be of no great value. 

[143-1] The words for fire and sun in American languages are usually fromdistinct roots, but besides the example of the Natchez I may instance tothe contrary the Kolosch of British America, in whose tongue fire is_kan_, sun, _kakan_ (_gake_, great), and the Tezuque of New Mexico, whouse _tah_ for both sun and fire. 

[144-1] _Doc. Hist. Of New York_, ii. P. 634. 

[144-2] Emory, _Milt'y Reconnoissance[TN-6] of New Mexico_, p. 30. 

[144-3] _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 161. 

[144-4] Loskiel, _Ges. Der Miss. Der evang. Brüder_, p. 55. 

[144-5] _Nar. Of John Tanner_, p. 351. 

[144-6] Sahagun, _Hist. Nueva España_, lib. Vi. Cap. 4. 

[145-1] _Letts. Edifiantes et Curieuses_, iv. P. 104, Oviedo; _Hist. DuNicaragua_, p. 49; Gomara, _Hist. Del Orinoco_, ii. Cap. 2. 

[145-2] Oviedo, _Hist. Gen. De las Indias_, p. 16, in Barcia's _Hist. Prim. _

[145-3] _Presdt's Message and Docs. _ for 1851, pt. Iii. P. 506. 

[146-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, i. Cap. 13. 

[147-1] _Voyage Pittoresque dans le Yucatan_, p. 49. 

[147-2] Davila Padilla, _Hist. De la Prov. De Santiago de Mexico_, lib. Ii. Cap. 88 (Brusselas, 1625); Palacios, _Des. De Guatemala_, p. 40;Garcia, _Or. De los Indios_, p. 124. To such an extent did the priests ofthe Algonkin tribes who lived near Manhattan Island carry theirausterity, such uncompromising celibates were they, that it is said onauthority as old as 1624, that they never so much as partook of foodprepared by a married woman. (_Doc. Hist. New York_, iv. P. 28. )

[149-1] Martius, _Von dem Rechtzustande unter den UreinwohnernBrasiliens_, p. 28, gives many references. 

[149-2] Id. _ibid. _, p. 61. 

[149-3] _Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, Introd. , pp. Clxi. , clxix. 

[149-4] _Travels in Yucatan_, i. P. 434. 

[150-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. Pp. 416, 417. 

[150-2] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 161. 

[151-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1634, p. 27; Schoolcraft, _AlgicResearches_, ii. P. 116; _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 420. 

[151-2] De Smet, _Western Missions_, p. 135; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, i. P. 319. 

[151-3] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 72. By another legendthey claimed that their first ancestor obtained his fire from the sparkswhich a friendly panther struck from the rocks as he scampered up a stonyhill (McCoy, _Hist. Of Baptist Indian Missions_, p. 364). 

[152-1] Mrs. Eastman, ubi sup. , p. 158; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. P. 645. 

[152-2] Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iii. P. 417; Müller, _Am. Urrelig. _, p. 271. 

[154-1] On the myth of Catequil see particularly the _Lettre sur lesSuperstitions du Pérou_, p. 95 sqq. , and compare Montesinos, _AncienPérou_, chaps. Ii. , xx. The letters g and j do not exist in Quichua, therefore Ataguju should doubtless read _Ata-chuchu_, which means lord, or ruler of the twins, from _ati_ root of _atini_, I am able, I control, and _chuchu_, twins. The change of the root _ati_ to _ata_, thoughuncommon in Quichua, occurs also in _ata-hualpa_, cock, from _ati_ and_hualpa_, fowl. Apo-Catequil, or as given by Arriaga, another old writeron Peruvian idolatry, Apocatequilla, I take to be properly_apu-ccatec-quilla_, which literally means _chief of the followers of themoon_. Acosta mentions that the native name for various constellationswas _catachillay_ or _catuchillay_, doubtless corruptions of _ccatecquilla_, literally "following the moon. " Catequil, therefore, the darkspirit of the storm rack, was also appropriately enough, and perhapsprimarily, lord of the night and stars. Piguerao, where the g appearsagain, is probably a compound of _piscu_, bird, and _uira_, white. Guachemines seems clearly the word _huachi_, a ray of light or an arrow, with the negative suffix _ymana_, thus meaning rayless, as in the text, or _ymana_ may mean an excess as well as a want of anything beyond whatis natural, which would give the signification "very bright shining. "(Holguin, _Arte de la Lengua Quichua_, p. 106: Cuzco, 1607. ) Is thissister of theirs the Dawn, who, as in the Rig Veda, brings forth at thecost of her own life the white and dark twins, the Day and the Night, thelatter of whom drives from the heavens the far-shooting arrows of light, in order that he may restore his mother again to life? The answer may forthe present be deferred. It is a coincidence perhaps worth mentioningthat the Augustin monk who is our principal authority for this legendmentions two other twin deities, Yamo and Yama, whose names are almostidentical with the twins Yama and Yami of the Veda. 

[155-1] _Hist. Des Incas_, liv. Ii. Cap. 28, and corrected in Markham's_Quichua Grammar_. 

[155-2] The latter is a compound of _tici_ or _ticcu_, a vase, and_ylla_, the root of _yllani_, to shine, _yllapantac_, it thunders andlightens. The former is from _tici_ and _cun_ or _con_, whence byreduplication _cun-un-un-an_, it thunders. From _cun_ and _tura_, brother, is probably derived _cuntur_, the condor, the flyingthunder-cloud being looked upon as a great bird also. Dr. Waitz haspointed out that the Araucanians call by the title _con_, the messengerwho summons their chieftains to a general council. 

[156-1] _Le Livre Sacré_, p. 9. The name of the lightning in Quiché is_cak ul ha_, literally, "fire coming from water. "

[156-2] Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 158. 

[157-1] "El rayo, el relámpago, y el trueno. " Gama, _Des. De las dosPiedras_, etc. , ii. P. 76: Mexico, 1832. 

[157-2] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. Vi. Cap. 23. Gama, ubi sup. Ii. 76, 77. 

[158-1] Torquemada, ibid. , lib. Vi. Cap. 41. 

[158-2] _Senate Report on the Indian Tribes_, p. 358: Washington, 1867. 

[158-3] Brasseur, _Hist[TN-7] du Mexique_, i. P. 201, and on the extentof his worship Waitz, _Anthropol. _, iv. P. 144. 

[158-4] Oviedo, _Hist. Du Nicaragua_, p. 47. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE SUPREME GODS OF THE RED RACE. 

 Analysis of American culture myths. --The Manibozho or Michabo of the Algonkins shown to be an impersonation of LIGHT, a hero of the Dawn, and their highest deity. --The myths of Ioskeha of the Iroquois, Viracocha of the Peruvians, and Quetzalcoatl of the Toltecs essentially the same as that of Michabo. --Other examples. --Ante-Columbian prophecies of the advent of a white race from the east as conquerors. --Rise of later culture myths under similar forms. 

The philosopher Machiavelli, commenting on the books of Livy, lays itdown as a general truth that every form and reform has been broughtabout by a single individual. Since a remorseless criticism has shorn somany heroes of their laurels, our faith in the maxim of the greatFlorentine wavers, and the suspicion is created that the popular fancywhich personifies under one figure every social revolution is anillusion. It springs from that tendency to hero worship, ineradicable inthe heart of the race, which leads every nation to have an ideal, theimagined author of its prosperity, the father of his country, and thefocus of its legends. As has been hinted, history is not friendly totheir renown, and dissipates them altogether into phantoms of the brain, or sadly dims the lustre of their fame. Arthur, bright star of chivalry, dwindles into a Welsh subaltern; the Cid Campeador, defender of thefaith, sells his sword as often to Moslem as to Christian, and _sells_it ever; while Siegfried and Feridun vanish into nothings. 

As elsewhere the world over, so in America many tribes had to tell ofsuch a personage, some such august character, who taught them what theyknew, the tillage of the soil, the properties of plants, the art ofpicture writing, the secrets of magic; who founded their institutionsand established their religions, who governed them long with gloryabroad and peace at home; and finally, did not die, but like FrederickBarbarossa, Charlemagne, King Arthur, and all great heroes, vanishedmysteriously, and still lives somewhere, ready at the right moment toreturn to his beloved people and lead them to victory and happiness. Such to the Algonkins was Michabo or Manibozho, to the Iroquois Ioskeha, Wasi to the Cherokees, Tamoi to the Caribs; so the Mayas had Zamna, theToltecs Quetzalcoatl, the Muyscas Nemqueteba; such among the Aymaras wasViracocha, among the Mandans Numock-muckenah, and among the natives ofthe Orinoko Amalivaca; and the catalogue could be extended indefinitely. 

It is not always easy to pronounce upon these heroes, whether theybelong to history or mythology, their nation's poetry or its prose. Inarriving at a conclusion we must remember that a fiction built on anidea is infinitely more tenacious of life than a story founded on fact. Further, that if a striking similarity in the legends of two such heroesbe discovered under circumstances which forbid the thought that one wasderived from the other, then both are probably mythical. If this is thecase in not two but in half a dozen instances, then the probabilityamounts to a certainty, and the only task remaining is to explain suchnarratives on consistent mythological principles. If after sifting outall foreign and later traits, it appears that when first known toEuropeans, these heroes were assigned all the attributes of highestdivinity, were the imagined creators and rulers of the world, andmightiest of spiritual powers, then their position must be set farhigher than that of deified men. They must be accepted as the supremegods of the red race, the analogues in the western continent of Jupiter, Osiris, and Odin in the eastern, and whatever opinions contrary to thismay have been advanced by writers and travellers must be set down to theaccount of that prevailing ignorance of American mythology which hasfathered so many other blunders. To solve these knotty points I shallchoose for analysis the culture myths of the Algonkins, the Iroquois, the Toltecs of Mexico, and the Aymaras or Peruvians, guided in my choiceby the fact that these four families are the best known, and, in manypoints of view, the most important on the continent. 

From the remotest wilds of the northwest to the coast of the Atlantic, from the southern boundaries of Carolina to the cheerless swamps ofHudson's Bay, the Algonkins were never tired of gathering around thewinter fire and repeating the story of Manibozho or Michabo, the GreatHare. With entire unanimity their various branches, the Powhatans ofVirginia, the Lenni Lenape of the Delaware, the warlike hordes of NewEngland, the Ottawas of the far north, and the western tribes perhapswithout exception, spoke of "this chimerical beast, " as one of the oldmissionaries calls it, as their common ancestor. The totem or clanwhich bore his name was looked up to with peculiar respect. In many ofthe tales which the whites have preserved of Michabo he seems half awizzard[TN-8], half a simpleton. He is full of pranks and wiles, butoften at a loss for a meal of victuals; ever itching to try his artsmagic on great beasts and often meeting ludicrous failures therein;envious of the powers of others, and constantly striving to outdo themin what they do best; in short, little more than a malicious buffoondelighting in practical jokes, and abusing his superhuman powers forselfish and ignoble ends. But this is a low, modern, and corrupt versionof the character of Michabo, bearing no more resemblance to his real andancient one than the language and acts of our Saviour and the apostlesin the coarse Mystery Plays of the Middle Ages do to those recorded bythe Evangelists. 

What he really was we must seek in the accounts of older travellers, inthe invocations of the jossakeeds or prophets, and in the part assignedto him in the solemn mysteries of religion. In these we find himportrayed as the patron and founder of the meda worship, [162-1] theinventor of picture writing, the father and guardian of their nation, the ruler of the winds, even the maker and preserver of the world andcreator of the sun and moon. From a grain of sand brought from thebottom of the primeval ocean, he fashioned the habitable land and setit floating on the waters, till it grew to such a size that a strongyoung wolf, running constantly, died of old age ere he reached itslimits. Under the name Michabo Ovisaketchak, the Great Hare who createdthe Earth, he was originally the highest divinity recognized by them, "powerful and beneficent beyond all others, maker of the heavens and theworld. " He was founder of the medicine hunt in which after appropriateceremonies and incantations the Indian sleeps, and Michabo appears tohim in a dream, and tells him where he may readily kill game. He himselfwas a mighty hunter of old; one of his footsteps measured eight leagues, the Great Lakes were the beaver dams he built, and when the cataractsimpeded his progress he tore them away with his hands. Attentivelywatching the spider spread its web to trap unwary flies, he devised theart of knitting nets to catch fish, and the signs and charms he testedand handed down to his descendants are of marvellous efficacy in thechase. In the autumn, in "the moon of the falling leaf, " ere he composeshimself to his winter's sleep, he fills his great pipe and takes agod-like smoke. The balmy clouds float over the hills and woodlands, filling the air with the haze of the "Indian summer. "

Sometimes he was said to dwell in the skies with his brother the snow, or, like many great spirits, to have built his wigwam in the far northon some floe of ice in the Arctic Ocean, while the Chipeways localizedhis birthplace and former home to the Island Michilimakinac at theoutlet of Lake Superior. But in the oldest accounts of the missionarieshe was alleged to reside toward the east, and in the holy formulæ ofthe meda craft, when the winds are invoked to the medicine lodge, theeast is summoned in his name, the door opens in that direction, andthere, at the edge of the earth, where the sun rises, on the shore ofthe infinite ocean that surrounds the land, he has his house and sendsthe luminaries forth on their daily journies. [164-1]

It is passing strange that such an insignificant creature as the rabbitshould have received this apotheosis. No explanation of it in the leastsatisfactory has ever been offered. Some have pointed it out as asenseless, meaningless brute worship. It leads to the suspicion thatthere may lurk here one of those confusions of words which have so oftenled to confusion of ideas in mythology. Manibozho, Nanibojou, Missibizi, Michabo, Messou, all variations of the same name in different dialectsrendered according to different orthographies, scrutinize them closelyas we may, they all seem compounded according to well ascertained lawsof Algonkin euphony from the words corresponding to _great_ and _hare_or _rabbit_, or the first two perhaps from _spirit_ and _hare_ (_michi_, great, _wabos_, hare, _manito wabos_, spirit hare, Chipeway dialect), and so they have invariably been translated even by the Indiansthemselves. But looking more narrowly at the second member of the word, it is clearly capable of another and very different interpretation, ofan interpretation which discloses at once the origin and the secretmeaning of the whole story of Michabo, in the light of which it appearsno longer the incoherent fable of savages, but a true myth, instinctwith nature, pregnant with matter, nowise inferior to those whichfascinate in the chants of the Rig Veda, or the weird pages of the Edda. 

On a previous page I have emphasized with what might have seemedsuperfluous force, how prominent in primitive mythology is the east, thesource of the morning, the day-spring on high, the cardinal point whichdetermines and controls all others. But I did not lay as much stress onit as others have. "The whole theogony and philosophy of the ancientworld, " says Max Müller, "centred in the Dawn, the mother of the brightgods, of the Sun in his various aspects, of the morn, the day, thespring; herself the brilliant image and visage of immortality. "[165-1]Now it appears on attentively examining the Algonkin root _wab_, that itgives rise to words of very diverse meaning, that like many others inall languages while presenting but one form it represents ideas ofwholly unlike origin and application, that in fact there are twodistinct roots having this sound. One is the initial syllable of theword translated hare or rabbit, but the other means _white_, and from itis derived the words for the east, the dawn, the light, the day and themorning. [165-2] Beyond a doubt this is the compound in the namesMichabo and Manibozho which therefore mean the Great Light, the Spiritof Light, of the Dawn, or the East, and in the literal sense of the wordthe Great White One, as indeed he has sometimes been called. 

In this sense all the ancient and authentic myths concerning him areplain and full of meaning. They divide themselves into two distinctcycles. In the one Michabo is the spirit of light who dispels thedarkness; in the other as chief of the cardinal points he is lord of thewinds, prince of the powers of the air, whose voice is the thunder, whose weapon the lightning, the supreme figure in the encounter of theair currents, in the unending conflict which the Dakotas described aswaged by the waters and the winds. 

In the first he is grandson of the moon, his father is the West Wind, and his mother, a maiden, dies in giving him birth at the moment ofconception. For the moon is the goddess of night, the Dawn is herdaughter, who brings forth the morning and perishes herself in the act, and the West, the spirit of darkness as the East is of light, precedesand as it were begets the latter as the evening does the morning. Straightway, however, continues the legend, the son sought the unnaturalfather to revenge the death of his mother, and then commenced a long anddesperate struggle. "It began on the mountains. The West was forced togive ground. Manabozho drove him across rivers and over mountains andlakes, and at last he came to the brink of this world. 'Hold, ' cried he, 'my son, you know my power and that it is impossible to killme. '"[167-1] What is this but the diurnal combat of light and darkness, carried on from what time "the jocund morn stands tiptoe on the mistymountain tops, " across the wide world to the sunset, the struggle thatknows no end, for both the opponents are immortal?

In the second, and evidently to the native mind more important cycle oflegends, he was represented as one of four brothers, the North, theSouth, the East, and the West, all born at a birth, whose mother died inushering them into the world;[167-2] for hardly has the kindling orientserved to fix the cardinal points than it is lost and dies in theadvancing day. Yet it is clear that he was something more than apersonification of the east or the east wind, for it is repeatedly saidthat it was he who assigned their duties to all the winds, to that ofthe east as well as the others. This is a blending of his twocharacters. Here too his life is a battle. No longer with his father, indeed, but with his brother Chakekenapok, the flint-stone, whom hebroke in pieces and scattered over the land, and changed his entrailsinto fruitful vines. The conflict was long and terrible. The face ofnature was desolated as by a tornado, and the gigantic boulders andloose rocks found on the prairies are the missiles hurled by the mightycombatants. Or else his foe was the glittering prince of serpents whoseabode was the lake; or was the shining Manito whose home was guarded byfiery serpents and a deep sea; or was the great king of fishes; allsymbols of the atmospheric waters, all figurative descriptions of thewars of the elements. In these affrays the thunder and lightning are athis command, and with them he destroys his enemies. For this reason theChipeway pictography represents him brandishing a rattlesnake, thesymbol of the electric flash, [168-1] and sometimes they called him theNorthwest Wind, which in the region they inhabit usually brings thethunder-storms. 

As ruler of the winds he was, like Quetzalcoatl, father and protector ofall species of birds, their symbols. [168-2] He was patron of hunters, for their course is guided by the cardinal points. Therefore, when themedicine hunt had been successful, the prescribed sign of gratitude tohim was to scatter a handful of the animal's blood toward each ofthese. [168-3] As daylight brings vision, and to see is to know, it wasno fable that gave him as the author of their arts, their wisdom, andtheir institutions. 

In effect, his story is a world-wide truth, veiled under a thin garb offancy. It is but a variation of that narrative which every race has totell, out of gratitude to that beneficent Father who everywhere hascared for His children. Michabo, giver of life and light, creator andpreserver, is no apotheosis of a prudent chieftain, still less thefabrication of an idle fancy or a designing priestcraft, but in origin, deeds, and name the not unworthy personification of the purestconceptions they possessed concerning the Father of All. To Him at earlydawn the Indian stretched forth his hands in prayer; and to the sky orthe sun as his homes, he first pointed the pipe in his ceremonies, ritesoften misinterpreted by travellers as indicative of sun worship. Aslater observers tell us to this day the Algonkin prophet builds themedicine lodge to face the sunrise, and in the name of Michabo, whothere has his home, summons the spirits of the four quarters of theworld and Gizhigooke, the day maker, to come to his fire and disclosethe hidden things of the distant and the future: so the earliestexplorers relate that when they asked the native priests who it was theyinvoked, what demons or familiars, the invariable reply was, "theKichigouai, the genii of light, those who make the day. "[169-1]

Our authorities on Iroquois traditions, though numerous enough, are notso satisfactory. The best, perhaps, is Father Brebeuf, a Jesuitmissionary, who resided among the Hurons in 1626. Their culture myth, which he has recorded, is strikingly similar to that of the Algonkins. Two brothers appear in it, Ioskeha and Tawiscara, names which find theirmeaning in the Oneida dialect as the White one and the Dark one. [170-1]They are twins, born of a virgin mother, who died in giving them life. Their grandmother was the moon, called by the Hurons Ataensic, a wordwhich signifies literally _she bathes herself_, and which, in theopinion of Father Bruyas, a most competent authority, is derived fromthe word for water. [170-2]

The brothers quarrelled, and finally came to blows; the former using thehorns of a stag, the latter the wild rose. He of the weaker weapon wasvery naturally discomfited and sorely wounded. Fleeing for life, theblood gushed from him at every step, and as it fell turned intoflint-stones. The victor returned to his grandmother, and establishedhis lodge in the far east, on the borders of the great ocean, whencethe sun comes. In time he became the father of mankind, and specialguardian of the Iroquois. The earth was at first arid and sterile, buthe destroyed the gigantic frog which had swallowed all the waters, andguided the torrents into smooth streams and lakes. [171-1] The woods hestocked with game; and having learned from the great tortoise, whosupports the world, how to make fire, taught his children, the Indians, this indispensable art. He it was who watched and watered their crops;and, indeed, without his aid, says the old missionary, quite out ofpatience with such puerilities, "they think they could not boil a pot. "Sometimes they spoke of him as the sun, but this only figuratively. [171-2]

From other writers of early date we learn that the essential outlines ofthis myth were received by the Tuscaroras and the Mohawks, and as theproper names of the two brothers are in the Oneida dialect, we cannoterr in considering this the national legend of the Iroquois stock. Thereis strong likelihood that the Taronhiawagon, he who comes from the Sky, of the Onondagas, who was their supreme God, who spoke to them indreams, and in whose honor the chief festival of their calendar wascelebrated about the winter solstice, was, in fact, Ioskeha underanother name. [172-1] As to the legend of the Good and Bad Minds givenby Cusic, to which I have referred in a previous chapter, and the laterand wholly spurious myth of Hiawatha, first made public by Mr. Clark inhis History of Onondaga (1849), and which, in the graceful poem ofLongfellow, is now familiar to the world, they are but pale andincorrect reflections of the early native traditions. 

So strong is the resemblance Ioskeha bears to Michabo, that what hasbeen said in explanation of the latter will be sufficient for both. YetI do not imagine that the one was copied or borrowed from the other. Wecannot be too cautious in adopting such a conclusion. The two nationswere remote in everything but geographical position. I call to mindanother similar myth. In it a mother is also said to have brought forthtwins, or a pair of twins, and to have paid for them with her life. Again the one is described as the bright, the other as the dark twin;again it is said that they struggled one with the other for the mastery. Scholars, likewise, have interpreted the mother to mean the Dawn, thetwins either Light and Darkness, or the Four Winds. Yet this is notAlgonkin theology; nor is it at all related to that of the Iroquois. Itis the story of Sarama in the Rig Veda, and was written in Sanscrit, under the shadow of the Himalayas, centuries before Homer. 

Such uniformity points not to a common source in history, but inpsychology. Man, chiefly cognizant of his soul through his senses, thought with an awful horror of the night which deprived him of the useof one and foreshadowed the loss of all. Therefore _light_ and _life_were to him synonymous; therefore all religions promise to lead

 "From night to light, From night to heavenly light;"

therefore He who rescues is ever the Light of the World; therefore it issaid "to the upright ariseth light in darkness;" therefore everywherethe kindling East, the pale Dawn, is the embodiment of his hopes and thecentre of his reminiscences. Who shall say that his instinct led himhere astray? For is not, in fact, all life dependent on light? Do notall those marvellous and subtle forces known to the older chemists asthe imponderable elements, without which not even the inorganic crystalis possible, proceed from the rays of light? Let us beware of thatshallow science so ready to shout Eureka, and reverently acknowledge amysterious intuition here displayed which joins with the latestconquests of the human mind to repeat and emphasize that message whichthe Evangelist heard of the Spirit and declared unto men, that "God isLight. "[173-1]

Both these heroes, let it be observed, live in the uttermost east; bothare the mythical fathers of the race. To the east, therefore, shouldthese nations have pointed as their original dwelling place. This theydid in spite of history. Cusic, who takes up the story of the Iroquois athousand years before the Christian era, locates them first in the mosteastern region they ever possessed. While the Algonkins with one voicecalled those of their tribes living nearest the rising sun _Abnakis_, our ancestors at the east, or at the dawn; literally our _white_ancestors. [174-1] I designedly emphasize this literal rendering. Itreminds one of the white twin of Iroquois legend, and illustrates howthe color white came to be intimately associated with the morning lightand its beneficent effects. Moreover color has a specific effect on themind; there is a music to the eye as well as to the ear; and white, which holds all hues in itself, disposes the soul to all pleasant andelevating emotions. [174-2] Not fashion alone bids the bride wreathe herbrow with orange flowers, nor was it a mere figure of speech that ledthe inspired poet to call his love "fairest among women, " and toprophecy a Messiah "fairer than the children of men, " fulfilled in thatday when He appeared "in garments so white as no fuller on earth couldwhite them. " No nation is free from the power of this law. "White, "observes Adair of the southern Indians, "is their fixed emblem of peace, friendship, happiness, prosperity, purity, and holiness. "[175-1] Theirpriests dressed in white robes, as did those of Peru and Mexico; thekings of the various species of animals were all supposed to bewhite;[175-2] the cities of refuge established as asylums for allegedcriminals by the Cherokees in the manner of the Israelites were called"white towns, " and for sacrifices animals of this color were ever mosthighly esteemed. All these sentiments were linked to the dawn. Languageitself is proof of it. Many Algonkin words for east, morning, dawn, day, light, as we have already seen, are derived from a radical signifying_white_. Or we can take a tongue nowise related, the Quiché, and findits words for east, dawn, morning, light, bright, glorious, happy, noble, all derived from _zak_, white. We read in their legends of theearliest men that they were "white children, " "white sons, " leading "awhite life beyond the dawn, " and the creation itself is attributed tothe Dawn, the White One, the White Sacrificer of Blood. [175-3] But whyinsist upon the point when in European tongues we find the daybreakcalled _l'aube_, _alva_, from _albus_, white? Enough for the purpose ifthe error of those is manifest, who, in such expressions, would seeksupport for any theory of ancient European immigration; enough if itdisplays the true meaning of those traditions of the advent ofbenevolent visitors of fair complexion in ante-Columbian times, whichboth Algonkins and Iroquois[176-1] had in common with many other tribesof the western continent. Their explanation will not be found in theannals of Japan, the triads of the Cymric bards, nor the sagas ofIcelandic skalds, but in the propensity of the human mind to attributeits own origin and culture to that white-shining orient where sun, moon, and stars, are daily born in renovated glory, to that fair mother, who, at the cost of her own life, gives light and joy to the world, to thebrilliant womb of Aurora, the glowing bosom of the Dawn. 

Even the complicated mythology of Peru yields to the judiciousapplication of these principles of interpretation. Its peculiarobscurity arises from the policy of the Incas to blend the religions ofconquered provinces with their own. Thus about 1350 the Inca Pachacutecsubdued the country about Lima where the worship of Con and Pachacamàprevailed. [176-2] The local myth represented these as father and son, or brothers, children of the sun. They were without flesh or blood, impalpable, invisible, and incredibly swift of foot. Con first possessedthe land, but Pachacamà attacked and drove him to the north. Irritatedat his defeat he took with him the rain, and consequently to this daythe sea-coast of Peru is largely an arid desert. Now when we areinformed that the south wind, that in other words which blows to thenorth, is the actual cause of the aridity of the low-lands, [177-1] andconsider the light and airy character of these antagonists, we cannothesitate to accept this as a myth of the winds. The name of _Con tici_, the Thunder Vase, was indeed applied to Viracocha in later times, butthey were never identical. Viracocha was the culture hero of the ancientAymara-Quichua stock. He was more than that, for in their creed he wascreator and possessor of all things. Lands and herds were assigned toother gods to support their temples, and offerings were heaped on theiraltars, but to him none. For, asked the Incas: "Shall the Lord andMaster of the whole world need these things from us?" To him, saysAcosta, "they did attribute the chief power and commandement over allthings;" and elsewhere "in all this realm the chief idoll they didworship was Viracocha, and _after him_ the Sunne. "[178-1]

Ere sun or moon was made, he rose from the bosom of Lake Titicaca, andpresided over the erection of those wondrous cities whose ruins stilldot its islands and western shores, and whose history is totally lost inthe night of time. He himself constructed these luminaries and placedthem in the sky, and then peopled the earth with its presentinhabitants. From the lake he journeyed westward, not withoutadventures, for he was attacked with murderous intent by the beings whomhe had created. When, however, scorning such unequal combat, he hadmanifested his power by hurling the lightning on the hill-sides andconsuming the forests, they recognized their maker, and humbledthemselves before him. He was reconciled, and taught them arts andagriculture, institutions and religion, meriting the title they gave himof _Pachayachachic_, teacher of all things. At last he disappeared inthe western ocean. Four personages, companions or sons, were closelyconnected with him. They rose together with him from the lake, or elsewere his first creations. These are the four mythical civilizers ofPeru, who another legend asserts emerged from the cave Pacarin tampu theLodgings of the Dawn. [179-1] To these Viracocha gave the earth, to onethe north, to another the south, to a third the east, to a fourth thewest. Their names are very variously given, but as they have alreadybeen identified with the four winds, we can omit their considerationhere. [179-2] Tradition, as has rightly been observed by the IncaGarcilasso de la Vega, [179-3] transferred a portion of the story ofViracocha to Manco Capac, first of the historical Incas. King Manco, however, was a real character, the Rudolph of Hapsburg of their reigningfamily, and flourished about the eleventh century. 

There is a general resemblance between this story and that of Michabo. Both precede and create the sun, both journey to the west, overcomingopposition with the thunderbolt, both divide the world between the fourwinds, both were the fathers, gods, and teachers of their nations. Nordoes it cease here. Michabo, I have shown, is the white spirit of theDawn. Viracocha, all authorities translate "the fat or foam of the sea. "The idea conveyed is of whiteness, foam being called fat from itscolor. [180-1] So true is this that to-day in Peru white men are called_viracochas_, and the early explorers constantly received the sameepithet. [180-2] The name is a metaphor. The dawn rises above the horizonas the snowy foam on the surface of a lake. As the Algonkins spoke ofthe Abnakis, their white ancestors, as in Mexican legends the earlyToltecs were of fair complexion, so the Aymaras sometimes called thefirst four brothers, _viracochas_, white men. [180-3] It is the ancientstory how

 "Light Sprang from the deep, and from her native east To journey through the airy gloom began. "

The central figure of Toltec mythology is Quetzalcoatl. Not an author onancient Mexico but has something to say about the glorious days when heruled over the land. No one denies him to have been a god, the god ofthe air, highest deity of the Toltecs, in whose honor was erected thepyramid of Cholula, grandest monument of their race. But many insistthat he was at first a man, some deified king. There were in truth manyQuetzalcoatls, for his high priest always bore his name, but he himselfis a pure creation of the fancy, and all his alleged history is nothingbut a myth. 

His emblematic name, the Bird-Serpent, and his rebus and cross atPalenque, I have already explained. Others of his titles were, Ehecatl, the air; Yolcuat, the rattlesnake; Tohil, the rumbler; Huemac, thestrong hand; Nani he hecatle, lord of the four winds. The same dualismreappears in him that has been noted in his analogues elsewhere; He isboth lord of the eastern light and the winds. 

As the former, he was born of a virgin in the land of Tula or Tlapallan, in the distant Orient, and was high priest of that happy realm. Themorning star was his symbol, and the temple of Cholula was dedicated tohim expressly as the author of light. [181-1] As by days we measure time, he was the alleged inventor of the calendar. Like all the dawn heroes, he too was represented as of white complexion, clothed in long whiterobes, and, as most of the Aztec gods, with a full and flowingbeard. [181-2] When his earthly-work was done he too returned to theeast, assigning as a reason that the sun, the ruler of Tlapallan, demanded his presence. But the real motive was that he had beenovercome by Tezcatlipoca, otherwise called Yoalliehecatl, the wind orspirit of night, who had descended from heaven by a spider's web andpresented his rival with a draught pretended to confer immortality, but, in fact, producing uncontrollable longing for home. For the wind and thelight both depart when the gloaming draws near, or when the cloudsspread their dark and shadowy webs along the mountains, and pour thevivifying rain upon the fields. 

In his other character, he was begot of the breath of Tonacateotl, godof our flesh or subsistence, [182-1] or (according to Gomara) was the sonof Iztac Mixcoatl, the white cloud serpent, the spirit of the tornado. Messenger of Tlaloc, god of rains, he was figuratively said to sweep theroad for him, since in that country violent winds are the precursors ofthe wet seasons. Wherever he went all manner of singing birds bore himcompany, emblems of the whistling breezes. When he finally disappearedin the far east, he sent back four trusty youths who had ever shared hisfortunes, "incomparably swift and light of foot, " with directions todivide the earth between them and rule it till he should return andresume his power. When he would promulgate his decrees, his heraldproclaimed them from Tzatzitepec, the hill of shouting, with such amighty voice that it could be heard a hundred leagues around. The arrowswhich he shot transfixed great trees, the stones he threw levelledforests, and when he laid his hands on the rocks the mark was indelible. Yet as thus emblematic of the thunder-storm, he possessed in fullmeasure its better attributes. By shaking his sandals he gave fire tomen, and peace, plenty, and riches blessed his subjects. Tradition sayshe built many temples to Mictlanteuctli, the Aztec Pluto, and at thecreation of the sun that he slew all the other gods, for the advancingdawn disperses the spectral shapes of night, and yet all its vivifyingpower does but result in increasing the number doomed to fell before theremorseless stroke of death. [183-1]

His symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross, and the flint, representing the clouds, the lightning, the four winds, and thethunderbolt. Perhaps, as Huemac, the Strong Hand, he was god of theearthquakes. The Zapotecs worshipped such a deity under the image ofthis member carved from a precious stone, [183-2] calling to mind the"Kab ul, " the Working Hand, adored by the Mayas, [183-3] and said to beone of the images of Zamna, their hero god. The human hand, "that divinetool, " as it has been called, might well be regarded by the reflectivemind as the teacher of the arts and the amulet whose magic power has wonfor man what vantage he has gained in his long combat with nature andhis fellows. 

I might next discuss the culture myth of the Muyscas, whose hero Bochicaor Nemqueteba bore the other name SUA, the White One, the Day, theEast, an appellation they likewise gave the Europeans on their arrival. He had taught them in remotest times how to manufacture their clothing, build their houses, cultivate the soil, and reckon time. When hedisappeared, he divided the land between four chiefs, and laid down manyminute rules of government which ever after were religiouslyobserved. [184-1] Or I might choose that of the Caribs, whose patron Tamucalled Grandfather, and Old Man of the Sky, was a man of lightcomplexion, who in the old times came from the east, instructed them inagriculture and arts, and disappeared in the same direction, promisingthem assistance in the future, and that at death he would receive theirsouls on the summit of the sacred tree, and transport them safely to hishome in the sky. [184-2] Or from the more fragmentary mythology of rudernations, proof might be brought of the well nigh universal reception ofthese fundamental views. As, for instance, when the Mandans of the UpperMissouri speak of their first ancestor as a son of the West, whopreserved them at the flood, and whose garb was always of fourmilk-white wolf skins;[185-1] and when the Pimos, a people of the valleyof the Rio Gila, relate that their birthplace was where the sun rises, that there for generations they led a joyous life, until theirbeneficent first parent disappeared in the heavens. From that time, saythey, God lost sight of them, and they wandered west, and further westtill they reached their present seats. [185-2] Or I might instance theTupis of Brazil, who were named after the first of men, Tupa, he whoalone survived the flood, who was one of four brothers, who is describedas an old man of fair complexion, _un vieillard blanc_, [185-3] and whois now their highest divinity, ruler of the lightning and the storm, whose voice is the thunder, and who is the guardian of their nation. Butis it not evident that these and all such legends are but variations ofthose already analyzed?

In thus removing one by one the wrappings of symbolism, and displayingat the centre and summit of these various creeds, He who is throned inthe sky, who comes with the dawn, who manifests himself in the light andthe storm, and whose ministers are the four winds, I set up no new god. The ancient Israelites prayed to him who was seated above the firmament, who commanded the morning and caused the day-spring to know its place, who answered out of the whirlwind, and whose envoys were the four winds, the four cherubim described with such wealth of imagery in theintroduction to the book of Ezekiel. The Mahometan adores "the clementand merciful Lord of the Daybreak, " whose star is in the east, who rideson the storm, and whose breath is the wind. The primitive man in the NewWorld also associated these physical phenomena as products of aninvisible power, conceived under human form, called by name, worshippedas one, and of whom all related the same myth differing but inunimportant passages. This was the primeval religion. It was notmonotheism, for there were many other gods; it was not pantheism, forthere was no blending of the cause with the effects; still less was itfetichism, an adoration of sensuous objects, for these were recognizedas effects. It teaches us that the idea of God neither arose from thephenomenal world nor was sunk in it, as is the shallow theory of theday, but is as Kant long ago defined it, a conviction of a highest andfirst principle which binds all phenomena into one. 

One point of these legends deserves closer attention for the influenceit exerted on the historical fortunes of the race. The dawn heroes wereconceived as of fair complexion, mighty in war, and though absent for aseason, destined to return and claim their ancient power. Here was oneof those unconscious prophecies, pointing to the advent of a white racefrom the east, that wrote the doom of the red man in letters of fire. Historians have marvelled at the instantaneous collapse of the empiresof Mexico, Peru, the Mayas, and the Natchez, before a handful of Spanishfilibusters. The fact was, wherever the whites appeared they wereconnected with these ancient predictions of the spirit of the dawnreturning to claim his own. Obscure and ominous prophecies, "texts ofbodeful song, " rose in the memory of the natives, and paralyzed theirarms. 

"For a very long time, " said Montezuma, at his first interview withCortes, "has it been handed down that we are not the original possessorsof this land, but came hither from a distant region under the guidanceof a ruler who afterwards left us and returned. We have ever believedthat some day his descendants would come and resume dominion over us. Inasmuch as you are from that direction, which is toward the rising ofthe sun, and serve so great a king as you describe, we believe that heis also our natural lord, and are ready to submit ourselves tohim. "[187-1]

The gloomy words of Nezahualcoyotl, a former prince of Tezcuco, foretelling the arrival of white and bearded men from the east, whowould wrest the power from the hands of the rightful rulers and destroyin a day the edifice of centuries, were ringing in his ears. But theywere not so gloomy to the minds of his down-trodden subjects, for thatday was to liberate them from the thralls of servitude. Therefore whenthey first beheld the fair complexioned Spaniards, they rushed into thewater to embrace the prows of their vessels, and despatched messengersthroughout the land to proclaim the return of Quetzalcoatl. [188-1]

The noble Mexican was not alone in his presentiments. When Hernando deSoto on landing in Peru first met the Inca Huascar, the latter relatedan ancient prophecy which his father Huayna Capac had repeated on hisdying bed, to the effect that in the reign of the thirteenth Inca, whitemen (_viracochas_) of surpassing strength and valor would come fromtheir father the Sun and subject to their rule the nations of the world. "I command you, " said the dying monarch, "to yield them homage andobedience, for they will be of a nature superior to ours. "[188-2]

The natives of Haiti told Columbus of similar predictions long anteriorto his arrival. [188-3] And Father Lizana has preserved in the originalMaya tongue several such foreboding chants. Doubtless he has adaptedthem somewhat to proselytizing purposes, but they seem very likely to beclose copies of authentic aboriginal songs, referring to the return ofZamna or Kukulcan, lord of the dawn and the four winds, worshipped atCozumel and Palenque under the sign of the cross. An extract will showtheir character:--

 "At the close of the thirteenth Age of the world, While the cities of Itza and Tancah still flourish, The sign of the Lord of the Sky will appear, The light of the dawn will illumine the land, And the cross will be seen by the nations of men. A father to you, will He be, Itzalanos, A brother to you, ye natives of Tancah; Receive well the bearded guests who are coming, Bringing the sign of the Lord from the daybreak, Of the Lord of the Sky, so clement yet powerful. "[189-1]

The older writers, Gomara, Cogolludo, Villagutierre, have taken pains tocollect other instances of this presentiment of the arrival anddomination of a white race. Later historians, fashionably incredulous ofwhat they cannot explain, have passed them over in silence. That theyexisted there can be no doubt, and that they arose in the way I havestated, is almost proven by the fact that in Mexico, Bogota, and Peru, the whites were at once called from the proper names of the heroes ofthe Dawn, _Suas_, _Viracochas_, and _Quetzalcoatls_. 

When the church of Rome had crushed remorselessly the religions ofMexico and Peru, all hope of the return of Quetzalcoatl and Viracochaperished with the institutions of which they were the mythical founders. But it was only to arise under new incarnations and later names. As wellforbid the heart of youth to bud forth in tender love, as that ofoppressed nationalities to cherish the faith that some ideal hero, someroyal man, will yet arise, and break in fragments their fetters, andlead them to glory and honor. 

When the name of Quetzalcoatl was no longer heard from the teocalli ofCholula, that of Montezuma took its place. From ocean to ocean, and fromthe river Gila to the Nicaraguan lake, nearly every aboriginal nationstill cherishes the memory of Montezuma, not as the last unfortunateruler of a vanished state, but as the prince of their golden era, theirSaturnian age, lord of the winds and waters, and founder of theirinstitutions. When, in the depth of the tropical forests, the antiquarydisinters some statue of earnest mien, the natives whisper one to theother, "Montezuma! Montezuma!"[190-1] In the legends of New Mexico he isthe founder of the pueblos, and intrusted to their guardianship thesacred fire. Departing, he planted a tree, and bade them watch it well, for when that tree should fall and the fire die out, then he wouldreturn from the far East, and lead his loyal people to victory andpower. When the present generation saw their land glide, mile by mile, into the rapacious hands of the Yankees--when new and strange diseasesdesolated their homes--finally, when in 1846 the sacred tree wasprostrated, and the guardian of the holy fire was found dead on its coldashes, then they thought the hour of deliverance had come, and everymorning at earliest dawn a watcher mounted to the house-tops, and gazedlong and anxiously in the lightening east, hoping to descry the nobleform of Montezuma advancing through the morning beams at the head of aconquering army. [191-1]

Groaning under the iron rule of the Spaniards, the Peruvians would notbelieve that the last of the Incas had perished an outcast and awanderer in the forests of the Cordilleras. For centuries they clung tothe persuasion that he had but retired to another mighty kingdom beyondthe mountains, and in due time would return and sweep the haughtyCastilian back into the ocean. In 1781, a mestizo, Jose GabrielCondorcanqui, of the province of Tinta, took advantage of this strongdelusion, and binding around his forehead the scarlet fillet of theIncas, proclaimed himself the long lost Inca Tupac Amaru, and a truechild of the sun. Thousands of Indians flocked to his standard, and attheir head he took the field, vowing the extermination of every soul ofthe hated race. Seized at last by the Spaniards, and condemned to apublic execution, so profound was the reverence with which he hadinspired his followers, so full their faith in his claims, that, undeterred by the threats of the soldiery, they prostrated themselves ontheir faces before this last of the children of the sun, as he passed onto a felon's death. [191-2]

These fancied reminiscences, these unfounded hopes, so vague, sochild-like, let no one dismiss them as the babblings of ignorance. Contemplated in their broadest meaning as characteristics of the race ofman, they have an interest higher than any history, beyond that of anypoetry. They point to the recognized discrepancy between what man is, and what he feels he should be, must be; they are the indignant protestsof the race against acquiescence in the world's evil as the world's law;they are the incoherent utterances of those yearnings for noblerconditions of existence, which no savagery, no ignorance, nothing but afalse and lying enlightenment can wholly extinguish. 

FOOTNOTES:

[162-1] The _meda_ worship is the ordinary religious ritual of theAlgonkins. It consists chiefly in exhibitions of legerdemain, and inconjuring and exorcising demons. A _jossakeed_ is an inspired prophet whoderives his power directly from the higher spirits, and not as the_medawin_, by instruction and practice. 

[164-1] For these particulars see the _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1667, p. 12, 1670, p. 93; Charlevoix, _Journal Historique_, p. 344; Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. Pp. 420 sqq. , and Alex. Henry, _Travs. In Canada andthe Ind. Territories_, pp. 212 sqq. These are decidedly the bestreferences of the many that could be furnished. Peter Jones' _History ofthe Ojibway Indians_, p. 35, may also be consulted. 

[165-1] _Science of Language_, Second Series, p. 518. 

[165-2] Dialectic forms in Algonkin for white, are _wabi_, _wape_, _wompi_, _waubish_, _oppai_; for morning, _wapan_, _wapaneh_, _opah_; foreast, _wapa_, _waubun_, _waubamo_; for dawn, _wapa_, _waubun_; for day, _wompan_, _oppan_; for light, _oppung_; and many others similar. In theAbnaki dialect, _wanbighen_, it is white, is the customary idiom toexpress the breaking of the day (Vetromile, _The Abnakis and theirHistory_, p. 27: New York, 1866). The loss in composition of the vowelsound represented by the English w, and in the French writers by thefigure 8, is supported by frequent analogy. 

[167-1] Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, i. Pp. 135-142. 

[167-2] The names of the four brothers, Wabun, Kabun, Kabibonokka, andShawano, express in Algonkin both the cardinal points and the winds whichblow from them. In another version of the legend, first reported byFather De Smet and quoted by Schoolcraft without acknowledgment, they areNanaboojoo, Chipiapoos, Wabosso, and Chakekenapok. See for the support ofthe text, Schoolcraft, _Algic Res. _, ii. P. 214; De Smet, _OregonMissions_, p. 347. 

[168-1] _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 351. 

[168-2] Schoolcraft, _Algic Res. _, i. P. 216. 

[168-3] _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 354. 

[169-1] Compare the _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1634 p. 14, 1637, p. 46, with Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 419. _Kichigouai_ is the same wordas _Gizhigooke_, according to a different orthography. 

[170-1] The names _I8skeha_ and _Ta8iscara_ I venture to identify withthe Oneida _owisske_ or _owiska_, white, and _tetiucalas_ (_tyokaras_, _tewhgarlars_, Mohawk), dark or darkness. The prefix i to _owisske_ isthe impersonal third person singular; the suffix _ha_ gives a futuresense, so that _i-owisske-ha_ or _iouskeha_ means "it is going to becomewhite. " Brebeuf gives a similar example of _gaon_, old; _a-gaon-ha_, _ilva devenir vieux_ (_Rel. Nouv. France_, 1636, p. 99). But "it is going tobecome white, " meant to the Iroquois that the dawn was about to appear, just as _wanbighen_, it is white, did to the Abnakis (see note on page166), and as the Eskimos say, _kau ma wok_, it is white, to express thatit is daylight (Richardson's Vocab. Of Labrador Eskimo in his _ArcticExpedition_). Therefore, that Ioskeha is an impersonation of the light ofthe dawn admits of no dispute. 

[170-2] The orthography of Brebeuf is _aataentsic_. This may be analyzedas follows: root _aouen_, water; prefix _at_, _il y a quelque chose làdedans_; _ataouen_, _se baigner_; from which comes the form_ataouensere_. (See Bruyas, _Rad. Verb. Iroquæor. _, pp. 30, 31. ) Hereagain the mythological role of the moon as the goddess of water comesdistinctly to light. 

[171-1] This offers an instance of the uniformity which prevailed insymbolism in the New World. The Aztecs adored the goddess of water underthe figure of a frog carved from a single emerald; or of human form, butholding in her hand the leaf of a water lily ornamented with frogs. (Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, i. P. 324. )

[171-2] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1636, p. 101. 

[172-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1671, p. 17. Cusic spells it_Tarenyawagon_, and translates it Holder of the Heavens. But the name isevidently a compound of _garonhia_, sky, softened in the Onondaga dialectto _taronhia_ (see Gallatin's Vocabs. Under the word sky), and _wagin_, Icome. 

[173-1] Ὁ Θεος φως εστι, The First Epistle General of John, i. 5. Incurious analogy to these myths is that of the Eskimos of Greenland. Inthe beginning, they relate, were two brothers, one of whom said: "Thereshall be night and there shall be day, and men shall die, one afteranother. " But the second said, "There shall be no day, but only nightall the time, and men shall live forever. " They had a long struggle, buthere once more he who loved darkness rather than light was worsted, andthe day triumphed. (_Nachrichten von Grönland aus einem Tagebuche vomBischof Paul Egede_, p. 157: Kopenhagen, 1790. The date of the entry is1738. )

[174-1] I accept without hesitation the derivation of this word, proposedand defended by that accomplished Algonkin scholar, the Rev. EugeneVetromile, from _wanb_, white or east, and _naghi_ ancestors (_TheAbnakis and their History_, p. 29: New York, 1866). 

[174-2] White light, remarks Goethe, has in it something cheerful andennobling; it possesses "eine heitere, muntere, sanft reizendeEigenschaft. " _Farbenlehre_, sec's 766, 770. 

[175-1] _Hist. Of the N. Am. Indians_, p. 159. 

[175-2] La Hontan, _Voy. Dans l'Amér. Sept. _, ii. P. 42. 

[175-3] "Blanco pizote, " Ximenes, p. 4, _Vocabulario Quiché_, s. V. _zak_. In the far north the Eskimo tongue presents the same analogy. Day, morning, bright, light, lightning, all are from the same root (_kau_), signifying white (Richardson, Vocab. Of Labrador Eskimo). 

[176-1] Some fragments of them may be found in Campanius, _Acc. Of NewSweden_, 1650, book iii. Chap. 11, and in Byrd, _The WestoverManuscripts_, 1733, p. 82. They were in both instances alleged to havebeen white and bearded men, the latter probably a later trait in thelegend. 

[176-2] _Con_ or _Cun_ I have already explained to mean thunder, _Contici_, the mythical thunder vase. Pachacamà is doubtless, as M. LeonceAngrand has suggested, from _ppacha_, source, and _camà_, all, the Sourceof All things (Desjardins, _Le Pérou avant la Conq. Espagnole_, p. 23, note). But he and all other writers have been in error in consideringthis identical with _Pachacámac_, nor can the latter mean _creator of theworld_, as it has constantly been translated. It is a participialadjective from _pacha_, place, especially the world, and _camac_, presentparticiple of _camani_, I animate, from which also comes _camakenc_, thesoul, and means _animating the world_. It was never used as a propername. The following trochaic lines from the Quichua poem translated inthe previous chapter, show its true meaning and correct accent:--

 Pāchă rūrăc, World creating, Pāchă cāmăc, World animating, Viracocha, Viracocha, Camasunqui, He animates thee. 

The last word is the second transition, present tense, of _camani_, while_camac_ is its present participle. 

[177-1] Ulloa, _Mémoires Philosophiques sur l'Amérique_, i. P. 105. 

[178-1] Acosta, _Hist. Of the New World_, bk. V. Chap. 4, bk. Vi. Chap. 19, Eng. Trans. , 1704. 

[179-1] The name is derived from _tampu_, corrupted by the Spaniards to_tambo_, an inn, and _paccari_ morning, or _paccarin_, it dawns, whichalso has the figurative signification, it is born. It may therefore meaneither Lodgings of the Dawn, or as the Spaniards usually translated it, House of Birth, or Production, _Casa de Producimiento_. 

[179-2] The names given by Balboa (_Hist. Du Pérou_, p. 4) and Montesinos(_Ancien Pérou_, p. 5) are Manco, Cacha, Auca, Uchu. The meaning of Mancois unknown. The others signify, in their order, messenger, enemy ortraitor, and the little one. The myth of Viracocha is given in its mostantique form by Juan de Betanzos, in the _Historia de los Ingas_, compiled in the first years of the conquest from the original songs andlegends. It is quoted in Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, lib. V. Cap. 7. Balboa, Montesinos, Acosta, and others have also furnished me someincidents. Whether Atachuchu mentioned in the last chapter was notanother name of Viracocha may well be questioned. It is every wayprobable. 

[179-3] _Hist. Des Incas_, liv. Iii. Chap. 25. 

[180-1] It is compounded of _vira_, fat, foam (which perhaps is akin to_yurac_, _white_), and _cocha_, a pond or lake. 

[180-2] See Desjardins, _Le Pérou avant la Conq. Espagnole_, p. 67. 

[180-3] Gomara, _Hist. De las Indias_, cap. 119, in Müller. 

[181-1] Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, i. P. 302. 

[181-2] There is no reason to lay any stress upon this feature. Beard wasnothing uncommon among the Aztecs and many other nations of the NewWorld. It was held to add dignity to the appearance, and thereforeSahagun, in his description of the Mexican idols, repeatedly alludes totheir beards, and Müller quotes various authorities to show that thepriests wore them long and full (_Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 429). Not onlywas Quetzalcoatl himself reported to have been of fair complexion--whiteindeed--but the Creole historian Ixtlilxochitl says the old legendsasserted that all the Toltecs, natives of Tollan, or Tula, as their namesignifies, were so likewise. Still more, Aztlan, the traditional home ofthe Nahuas, or Aztecs proper, means literally the white land, accordingto one of our best authorities (Buschmann, _Ueber die AztekischenOrtsnamen_, 612: Berlin, 1852). 

[182-1] Kingsborough, _Antiquities of Mexico_, v. P. 109. 

[183-1] The myth of Quetzalcoatl I have taken chiefly from Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. I. Cap. 5; lib. Iii. Caps. 3, 13, 14;lib. X. Cap. 29; and Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. Vi. Cap. 24. It must be remembered that the Quiché legends identify him positivelywith the Tohil of Central America (_Le Livre Sacré_, p. 247). 

[183-2] Padilla Davila, _Hist. De la Prov. De Santiago de Mexico_, lib. Ii. Cap. 89. 

[183-3] Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 8. 

[184-1] He is also called Idacanzas and Nemterequetaba. Some havemaintained a distinction between Bochica and Sua, which, however, has notbeen shown. The best authorities on the mythology of the Muyscas arePiedrahita, _Hist. De las Conq. Del Nuevo Reyno de Granada_, 1668 (who iscopied by Humboldt, _Vues des Cordillères_, pp. 246 sqq. ), and Simon, _Noticias de Tierra Firme_, Parte ii. , in Kingsborough's _Mexico_. 

[184-2] D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Américain_, ii. P. 319, and Rochefort, _Hist. Des Isles Antilles_, p. 482 (Waitz). The name has variousorthographies, Tamu, Tamöi, Tamou, Itamoulou, etc. Perhaps the Ama-livacaof the Orinoko Indians is another form. This personage corresponds evenminutely in many points with the Tamu of the island Caribs. 

[185-1] Catlin, _Letters and Notes_, Letter 22. 

[185-2] Journal of Capt. Johnson, in Emory, _Reconnoissance of NewMexico_, p. 601. 

[185-3] M. De Charency, in the _Revue Américaine_, ii. P. 317. _Tupa_ itmay be observed means in Quichua, lord, or royal. Father Holguin gives asan example _â tupa Dios_, O Lord God (_Vocabulario Quichua_, p. 348:Ciudad de los Reyes, 1608). In the Quiché dialects _tepeu_ is one of thecommon appellations of divinity and is also translated lord or ruler. Weare not yet sufficiently advanced in the study of American philology todraw any inference from these resemblances, but they should not beoverlooked. 

[187-1] Cortes, _Carta Primera_, pp. 113, 114. 

[188-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. Xii. Caps. 2, 3. 

[188-2] La Vega, _Hist. Des Incas_, lib. Ix. Cap. 15. 

[188-3] Peter Martyr, _De Reb. Oceanicis_, Dec. Iii. Lib. Vii. 

[189-1] Lizana, _Hist. De Nuestra Señora de Itzamal_, lib. Ii. Cap. I. InBrasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, ii. P. 605. The prophecies are of thepriest who bore the title--not name--_chilan balam_, and whose officeswere those of divination and astrology. The verse claims to date fromabout 1450, and was very well known throughout Yucatan, so it is said. The number thirteen which in many of these prophecies is the supposedlimit of the present order of things, is doubtless derived from theobservation that thirteen moons complete one solar year. 

[190-1] Squier, _Travels in Nicaragua_, ii. P. 35. 

[191-1] Whipple, _Report on the Ind. Tribes_, p. 36. Emory, _Recon. OfNew Mexico_, p. 64. The latter adds that among the Pueblo Indians, theApaches, and Navajos, the name of Montezuma is "as familiar as Washingtonto us. " This is the more curious, as neither the Pueblo Indians noreither of the other tribes are in any way related to the Aztec race bylanguage, as has been shown by Dr. Buschman, _Die Voelker und SprachenNeu Mexico's_, p. 262. 

[191-2] Humboldt, _Essay on New Spain_, bk. Ii. Chap. Vi, Eng. Trans. ;_Ansichten der Natur_, ii. Pp. 357, 386. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE MYTHS OF THE CREATION, THE DELUGE, THE EPOCHS OF NATURE, AND THELAST DAY. 

 Cosmogonies usually portray the action of the SPIRIT on the WATERS. --Those of the Muscogees, Athapascas, Quichés, Mixtecs, Iroquois, Algonkins, and others. --The Flood-Myth an unconscious attempt to reconcile a creation in time with the eternity of matter. --Proof of this from American mythology. --Characteristics of American Flood-Myths. --The person saved usually the first man. --The number seven. --Their Ararats. --The rôle of birds. --The confusion of tongues. --The Aztec, Quiché, Algonkin, Tupi, and earliest Sanscrit flood-myths. --The belief in Epochs of Nature a further result of this attempt at reconciliation. --Its forms among Peruvians, Mayas, and Aztecs. --The expectation of the End of the World a corollary of this belief. --Views of various nations. 

Could the reason rest content with the belief that the universe alwayswas as it now is, it would save much beating of brains. Such is thecomfortable condition of the Eskimos, the Rootdiggers of California, themost brutish specimens of humanity everywhere. Vain to inquire theirstory of creation, for, like the knife-grinder of anti-Jacobin renown, they have no story to tell. It never occurred to them that the earth hada beginning, or underwent any greater changes than those of theseasons. [193-1] But no sooner does the mind begin to reflect, theintellect to employ itself on higher themes than the needs of the body, than the law of causality exerts its power, and the man, out of suchmaterials as he has at hand, manufactures for himself a Theory ofThings. 

What these materials were has been shown in the last few chapters. Asimple primitive substance, a divinity to mould it--these are therequirements of every cosmogony. Concerning the first no nation everhesitated. All agree that before time began _water_ held all else insolution, covered and concealed everything. The reasons for this assumedpriority of water have been already touched upon. Did a tribe dwell nearsome great sea others can be imagined. The land is limited, peopled, stable; the ocean fluctuating, waste, boundless. It insatiably swallowsall rains and rivers, quenches sun and moon in its dark chambers, andraves against its bounds as a beast of prey. Awe and fear are thesentiments it inspires; in Aryan tongues its synonyms are the _desert_and the _night_. [194-1] It produces an impression of immensity, infinity, formlessness, and barren changeableness, well suited to anotion of chaos. It is sterile, receiving all things, producing nothing. Hence the necessity of a creative power to act upon it, as it were toimpregnate its barren germs. Some cosmogonies find this in one, some inanother personification of divinity. Commonest of all is that of thewind, or its emblem the bird, types of the breath of life. 

Thus the venerable record in Genesis, translated in the authorizedversion "and the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters, " maywith equal correctness be rendered "and a mighty wind brooded on thesurface of the waters, " presenting the picture of a primeval oceanfecundated by the wind as a bird. [195-1] The eagle that in the Finnishepic of Kalewala floated over the waves and hatched the land, the eggthat in Chinese legend swam hither and thither until it grew to acontinent, the giant Ymir, the rustler (as wind in trees), from whoseflesh, says the Edda, our globe was made and set to float like a speckin the vast sea between Muspel and Niflheim, all are the same talerepeated by different nations in different ages. But why takeillustrations from the old world when they are so plenty in the new?

Before the creation, said the Muscogees, a great body of water was alonevisible. Two pigeons flew to and fro over its waves, and at last spied ablade of grass rising above the surface. Dry land gradually followed, and the islands and continents took their present shapes. [195-2] Whetherthis is an authentic aboriginal myth, is not beyond question. No suchdoubt attaches to that of the Athapascas. With singular unanimity, mostof the northwest branches of this stock trace their descent from araven, "a mighty bird, whose eyes were fire, whose glances werelightning, and the clapping of whose wings was thunder. On his descentto the ocean, the earth instantly rose, and remained on the surface ofthe water. This omnipotent bird then called forth all the variety ofanimals. "[196-1]

Very similar, but with more of poetic finish, is the legend of theQuichés:--

"This is the first word and the first speech. There were neither men norbrutes; neither birds, fish, nor crabs, stick nor stone, valley normountain, stubble nor forest, nothing but the sky. The face of the landwas hidden. There was naught but the silent sea and the sky. There wasnothing joined, nor any sound, nor thing that stirred; neither any to doevil, nor to rumble in the heavens, nor a walker on foot; only thesilent waters, only the pacified ocean, only it in its calm. Nothing wasbut stillness, and rest, and darkness, and the night; nothing but theMaker and Moulder, the Hurler, the Bird-Serpent. In the waters, in alimpid twilight, covered with green feathers, slept the mothers and thefathers. "[196-2]

Over this passed Hurakan, the mighty wind, and called out Earth! andstraightway the solid land was there. 

The picture writings of the Mixtecs preserved a similar cosmogony: "Inthe year and in the day of clouds, before ever were either years ordays, the world lay in darkness; all things were orderless, and a watercovered the slime and the ooze that the earth then was. " By the effortsof two winds, called, from astrological associations, that of NineSerpents and that of Nine Caverns, personified one as a bird and one asa winged serpent, the waters subsided and the land dried. [197-1]

In the birds that here play such conspicuous parts, we cannot fail torecognize the winds and the clouds; but more especially the dark thundercloud, soaring in space at the beginning of things, most forcible emblemof the aerial powers. They are the symbols of that divinity which actedon the passive and sterile waters, the fitting result being theproduction of a universe. Other symbols of the divine could also beemployed, and the meaning remain the same. Or were the fancy toohelpless to suggest any, they could be dispensed with, and purelynatural agencies take their place. Thus the unimaginative Iroquoisnarrated that when their primitive female ancestor was kicked from thesky by her irate spouse, there was as yet no land to receive her, butthat it "suddenly bubbled up under her feet, and waxed bigger, so thatere long a whole country was perceptible. "[197-2] Or that certainamphibious animals, the beaver, the otter, and the muskrat, seeing herdescent, hastened to dive and bring up sufficient mud to construct anisland for her residence. [197-3] The muskrat is also the simplemachinery in the cosmogony of the Takahlis of the northwest coast, theOsages and some Algonkin tribes. 

These latter were, indeed, keen enough to perceive that there was reallyno _creation_ in such an account. Dry land was wanting, but earth wasthere, though hidden by boundless waters. Consequently, they spokedistinctly of the action of the muskrat in bringing it to the surface asa formation only. Michabo directed him, and from the mud formed islandsand main land. But when the subject of creation was pressed, theyreplied they knew nothing of that, or roundly answered the questionerthat he was talking nonsense. [198-1] Their myth, almost identical withthat of their neighbors, was recognized by them to be not of aconstruction, but a reconstruction only; a very judicious distinction, but one which has a most important corollary. A reconstruction supposesa previous existence. This they felt, and had something to say about anearth anterior to this of ours, but one without light or humaninhabitants. A lake burst its bounds and submerged it wholly. This isobviously nothing but a mere and meagre fiction, invented to explain theorigin of the primeval ocean. But mark it well, for this is the germ ofthose marvellous myths of the Epochs of Nature, the catastrophes of theuniverse, the deluges of water and of fire, which have laid such stronghold on the human fancy in every land and in every age. 

The purpose for which this addition was made to the simpler legend isclear enough. It was to avoid the dilemma of a creation from nothing onthe one hand, and the eternity of matter on the other. _Ex nihilo nihil_is an apothegm indorsed alike by the profoundest metaphysicians and therudest savages. But the other horn was no easier. To escape acceptingthe theory that the world had ever been as it now is, was the onlyobject of a legend of its formation. As either lemma conflicts withfundamental laws of thought, this escape was eagerly adopted, and in thesuggestive words of Prescott, men "sought relief from the oppressiveidea of eternity by breaking it up into distinct cycles or periods oftime. "[199-1] Vain but characteristic attempt of the ambitious mind ofman! The Hindoo philosopher reconciles to his mind the suspension of theworld in space by imagining it supported by an elephant, the elephant bya tortoise, and the tortoise by a serpent. We laugh at the Hindoo, andfancy we diminish the difficulty by explaining that it revolves aroundthe sun, and the sun around some far-off star. Just so the general mindof humanity finds some satisfaction in supposing a world or a series ofworlds anterior to the present, thus escaping the insoluble enigma ofcreation by removing it indefinitely in time. 

The support lent to these views by the presence of marine shells on highlands, or by faint reminiscences of local geologic convulsions, Iestimate very low. Savages are not inductive philosophers, and bynothing short of a miracle could they preserve the remembrance of eventhe most terrible catastrophe beyond a few generations. Nor has any suchoccurred within the ken of history of sufficient magnitude to make avery permanent or wide-spread impression. Not physics, but metaphysics, is the exciting cause of these beliefs in periodical convulsions of theglobe. The idea of matter cannot be separated from that of time, andtime and eternity are contradictory terms. Common words show thisconnection. World, for example, in the old language _waereld_, from theroot to wear, by derivation means an age or cycle (Grimm). 

In effect a myth of creation is nowhere found among primitive nations. It seems repugnant to their reason. Dry land and animate life had abeginning, but not matter. A series of constructions and demolitions mayconveniently be supposed for these. The analogy of nature, as seen inthe vernal flowers springing up after the desolation of winter, of thesapling sprouting from the fallen trunk, of life everywhere rising fromdeath, suggests such a view. Hence arose the belief in Epochs of Nature, elaborated by ancient philosophers into the Cycles of the Stoics, theGreat Days of Brahm, long periods of time rounded off by sweepingdestructions, the Cataclysms and Ekpyrauses of the universe. Somethought in these all beings perished; others that a few survived. [200-1]This latter and more common view is the origin of the myth of thedeluge. How familiar such speculations were to the aborigines of Americathere is abundant evidence to show. 

The early Algonkin legends do not speak of an antediluvian race, nor ofany family who escaped the waters. Michabo, the spirit of the dawn, their supreme deity, alone existed, and by his power formed and peopledit. Nor did their neighbors, the Dakotas, though firm in the belief thatthe globe had once been destroyed by the waters, suppose that any hadescaped. [201-1] The same view was entertained by the Nicaraguans[201-2]and the Botocudos of Brazil. The latter attributed its destruction tothe moon falling to the earth from time to time. [201-3]

Much the most general opinion, however, was that some few escaped thedesolating element by one of those means most familiar to the narrator, by ascending some mountain, on a raft or canoe, in a cave, or even byclimbing a tree. No doubt some of these legends have been modified byChristian teachings; but many of them are so connected with localpeculiarities and ancient religious ceremonies, that no unbiased studentcan assign them wholly to that source, as Professor Vater has done, evenif the authorities for many of them were less trustworthy than they are. There are no more common heirlooms in the traditional lore of the redrace. Nearly every old author quotes one or more of them. They presentgreat uniformity of outline, and rather than engage in repetitions oflittle interest, they can be more profitably studied in the aggregatethan in detail. 

By far the greater number represent the last destruction of the world tohave been by water. A few, however, the Takahlis of the North Pacificcoast, the Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras, and the Mbocobi ofParaguay, attribute it to a general conflagration which swept over theearth, consuming every living thing except a few who took refuge in adeep cave. [202-1] The more common opinion of a submersion gave rise tothose traditions of a universal flood so frequently recorded bytravellers, and supposed by many to be reminiscences of that of Noah. 

There are, indeed, some points of striking similarity between the delugemyths of Asia and America. It has been called a peculiarity of thelatter that in them the person saved is always the first man. This, though not without exception, is certainly the general rule. But thesefirst men were usually the highest deities known to their nations, theonly creators of the world, and the guardians of the race. [202-2]

Moreover, in the oldest Sanscrit legend of the flood in the ZatapathaBrahmana, Manu is also the first man, and by his own efforts createsoffspring. [202-3]

A later Sanscrit work assigns to Manu the seven Richis or shining onesas companions. Seven was also the number of persons in the ark of Noah. Curiously enough one Mexican and one early Peruvian myth give outexactly seven individuals as saved in their floods. [203-1] Thiscoincidence arises from the mystic powers attached to the number seven, derived from its frequent occurrence in astrology. Proof of this appearsby comparing the later and the older versions of this myth, either inthe book of Genesis, where the latter is distinguished by the use of theword Elohim for Jehovah, [203-2] or the Sanscrit account in the ZatapathaBrahmana with those in the later Puranas. [203-3] In both instances thenumber seven hardly or at all occurs in the oldest version, while it isconstantly repeated in those of later dates. 

As the mountain or rather mountain chain of Ararat was regarded withveneration wherever the Semitic accounts were known, so in Americaheights were pointed out with becoming reverence as those on which thefew survivors of the dreadful scenes of the deluge were preserved. Onthe Red River near the village of the Caddoes was one of these, a smallnatural eminence, "to which all the Indian tribes for a great distancearound pay devout homage, " according to Dr. Sibley. [203-4] The CerroNaztarny on the Rio Grande, the peak of Old Zuñi in New Mexico, that ofColhuacan on the Pacific Coast, Mount Apoala in Upper Mixteca, andMount Neba in the province of Guaymi, are some of many elevationsasserted by the neighboring nations to have been places of refuge fortheir ancestors when the fountains of the great deep broke forth. 

One of the Mexican traditions related by Torquemada identified this withthe mountain of Tlaloc in the terrestrial paradise, and added that oneof the seven demigods who escaped commenced the pyramid of Cholula inits memory. He intended that its summit should reach the clouds, but thegods, angry at his presumption, drove away the builders with lightning. This has a suspicious resemblance to Bible stories. Equally fabulous wasthe retreat of the Araucanians. It was a three-peaked mountain which hadthe property of floating on water, called Theg-Theg, the Thunderer. Thisthey believed would preserve them in the next as it did in the lastcataclysm, and as its only inconvenience was that it approached too nearthe sun, they always kept on hand wooden bowls to use asparasols. [204-1]

The intimate connection that once existed between the myths of thedeluge and those of the creation is illustrated by the part assigned tobirds in so many of them. They fly to and fro over the waves ere anyland appears, though they lose in great measure the significance ofbringing it forth, attached to them in the cosmogonies as emblems of thedivine spirit. The dove in the Hebrew account appears in that of theAlgonkins as a raven, which Michabo sent out to search for land beforethe muskrat brought it to him from the bottom. A raven also in theAthapascan myth saved their ancestors from the general flood, and inthis instance it is distinctly identified with the mighty thunder bird, who at the beginning ordered the earth from the depths. Prometheus-like, it brought fire from heaven, and saved them from a second death bycold. [205-1] Precisely the same beneficent actions were attributed bythe Natchez to the small red cardinal bird, [205-2] and by the Mandansand Cherokees an active participation in the event was assigned to wildpigeons. The Navajos and Aztecs thought that instead of being drowned bythe waters the human race were transformed into birds and thus escaped. In all these and similar legends, the bird is a relic of the cosmogonalmyth which explained the origin of the world from the action of thewinds, under the image of the bird, on the primeval ocean. 

The Mexican Codex Vaticanus No. 3738 represents after the picture of thedeluge a bird perched on the summit of a tree, and at its foot men inthe act of marching. This has been interpreted to mean that after thedeluge men were dumb until a dove distributed to them the gift ofspeech. The New Mexican tribes related that all except the leader ofthose who escaped to the mountains lost the power of utterance byterror, [205-3] and the Quichés that the antediluvian race were "puppets, men of wood, without intelligence or language. " These stories, soclosely resembling that of the confusion of tongues at the tower ofBabel or Borsippa, are of doubtful authenticity. The first is anentirely erroneous interpretation, as has been shown by Señor Ramirez, director of the Museum of Antiquities at Mexico. The name of the bird inthe Aztec tongue was identical with the word _departure_, and this isits signification in the painting. [206-1]

Stories of giants in the days of old, figures of mighty proportionslooming up through the mist of ages, are common property to everynation. The Mexicans and Peruvians had them as well as others, but theirconnection with the legends of the flood and the creation is incidentaland secondary. Were the case otherwise, it would offer no additionalpoint of similarity to the Hebrew myth, for the word rendered _giants_in the phrase, "and there were giants in those days, " has no suchmeaning in the original. It is a blunder which crept into theSeptuagint, and has been cherished ever since, along with so many othersin the received text. 

A few specimens will serve as examples of all these American floodmyths. The Abbé Brasseur has translated one from the Codex Chimalpopoca, a work in the Nahuatl language of Ancient Mexico, written about half acentury after the conquest. It is as follows:--

"And this year was that of Ce-calli, and on the first day all was lost. The mountain itself was submerged in the water, and the water remainedtranquil for fifty-two springs. 

"Now towards the close of the year, Titlahuan had forewarned the mannamed Nata and his wife named Nena, saying, 'Make no more pulque, butstraightway hollow out a large cypress, and enter it when in the monthTozoztli the water shall approach the sky. ' They entered it, and whenTitlacahuan had closed the door he said, 'Thou shalt eat but a singleear of maize, and thy wife but one also. '

"As soon as they had finished [eating], they went forth and the waterwas tranquil; for the log did not move any more; and opening it they sawmany fish. 

"Then they built a fire, rubbing together pieces of wood, and theyroasted the fish. The gods Citlallinicue and Citlallatonac looking belowexclaimed, 'Divine Lord, what means that fire below? Why do they thussmoke the heavens?'

"Straightway descended Titlacahuan Tezcatlipoca, and commenced to scold, saying, 'What is this fire doing here?' And seizing the fishes hemoulded their hinder parts and changed their heads, and they were atonce transformed into dogs. "[207-1]

That found in the oft quoted legends of the Quichés is to this effect:--

"Then by the will of the Heart of Heaven the waters were swollen and agreat flood came upon the mannikins of wood. For they did not think norspeak of the Creator who had created them, and who had caused theirbirth. They were drowned, and a thick resin fell from heaven. 

"The bird Xecotcovach tore out their eyes; the bird Camulatz cut offtheir heads; the bird Cotzbalam devoured their flesh; the birdTecumbalam broke their bones and sinews, and ground them intopowder. "[207-2]

"Because they had not thought of their Mother and Father, the Heart ofHeaven, whose name is Hurakan, therefore the face of the earth grew darkand a pouring rain commenced, raining by day, raining by night. 

"Then all sorts of beings, little and great, gathered together to abusethe men to their faces; and all spoke, their mill-stones, their plates, their cups, their dogs, their hens. 

"Said the dogs and hens, 'Very badly have you treated us, and you havebitten us. Now we bite you in turn. '

"Said the mill-stones, 'Very much were we tormented by you, and daily, daily, night and day, it was _squeak, squeak, screech, screech_, foryour sake. Now yourselves shall feel our strength, and we will grindyour flesh, and make meal of your bodies, ' said the mill-stones. [208-1]

"And this is what the dogs said, 'Why did you not give us our food? Nosooner did we come near than you drove us away, and the stick was alwayswithin reach when you were eating, because, forsooth, we were not ableto talk. Now we will use our teeth and eat you, ' said the dogs, tearingtheir faces. 

"And the cups and dishes said, 'Pain and misery you gave us, smoking ourtops and sides, cooking us over the fire, burning and hurting us as ifwe had no feeling. [209-1] Now it is your turn, and you shall burn, ' saidthe cups insultingly. 

"Then ran the men hither and thither in despair. They climbed to theroofs of the houses, but the houses crumbled under their feet; theytried to mount to the tops of the trees, but the trees hurled them farfrom them; they sought refuge in the caverns, but the caverns shutbefore them. 

"Thus was accomplished the ruin of this race, destined to be destroyedand overthrown; thus were they given over to destruction and contempt. And it is said that their posterity are those little monkeys who live inthe woods. "[209-2]

The Algonkin tradition has often been referred to. Many versions of itare extant, the oldest and most authentic of which is that translatedfrom the Montagnais dialect by Father le Jeune, in 1634. 

"One day as Messou was hunting, the wolves which he used as dogs entereda great lake and were detained there. 

"Messou looking for them everywhere, a bird said to him, 'I see them inthe middle of this lake. '

"He entered the lake to rescue them, but the lake overflowing its bankscovered the land and destroyed the world. 

"Messou, very much astonished at this, sent out the raven to find apiece of earth wherewith to rebuild the land, but the bird could findnone; then he ordered the otter to dive for some, but the animalreturned empty; at last he sent down the muskrat, who came back withever so small a piece, which, however, was enough for Messou to form theland on which we are. 

"The trees having lost their branches, he shot arrows at their nakedtrunks which became their limbs, revenged himself on those who haddetained his wolves, and having married the muskrat, by it peopled theworld. "

Finally may be given the meagre legend of the Tupis of Brazil, as heardby Hans Staden, a prisoner among them about 1550, and Coreal, a latervoyager. Their ancient songs relate that a long time ago a certain verypowerful Mair, that is to say, a stranger, who bitterly hated theirancestors, compassed their destruction by a violent inundation. Only avery few succeeded in escaping--some by climbing trees, others in caves. When the waters subsided the remnant came together, and by gradualincrease populated the world. [210-1]

Or, it is given by an equally ancient authority as follows:--

"Monan, without beginning or end, author of all that is, seeing theingratitude of men, and their contempt for him who had made them thusjoyous, withdrew from them, and sent upon them _tata_, the divine fire, which burned all that was on the surface of the earth. He swept aboutthe fire in such a way that in places he raised mountains, and in othersdug valleys. Of all men one alone, Irin Monge, was saved, whom Monancarried into the heaven. He, seeing all things destroyed, spoke thus toMonan: 'Wilt thou also destroy the heavens and their garniture? Alas!henceforth where will be our home? Why should I live, since there isnone other of my kind?' Then Monan was so filled with pity that hepoured a deluging rain on the earth, which quenched the fire, and, flowing from all sides, formed the ocean, which we call _parana_, thebitter waters. "[211-1]

In these narratives I have not attempted to soften the asperities norconceal the childishness which run through them. But there is nooccasion to be astonished at these peculiarities, nor to found upon themany disadvantageous opinion of the mental powers of their authors andbelievers. We can go back to the cradle of our own race in CentralAsia, and find traditions every whit as infantile. I cannot refrain fromadding the earliest Aryan myth of the same great occurrence, as it ishanded down to us in ancient Sanscrit literature. It will be seen thatit is little, if at all, superior to those just rehearsed. 

"Early in the morning they brought to Manu water to wash himself; whenhe had well washed, a fish came into his hands. 

"It said to him these, words: 'Take care of me; I will save thee. ' 'Whatwilt thou save me from?' 'A deluge will sweep away all creatures; I wishthee to escape. ' 'But how shall I take care of thee?'

"The fish said: 'While we are small there is more than one danger ofdeath, for one fish swallows another. Thou must, in the first place, putme in a vase. Then, when I shall exceed it in size, thou must dig a deepditch, and place me in it. When I grow too large for it, throw me in thesea, for I shall then be beyond the danger of death. '

"Soon it became a great fish; it grew, in fact, astonishingly. Then itsaid to Manu, 'In such a year the Deluge will come. Thou must build avessel, and then pay me homage. When the waters of the Deluge mount up, enter the vessel. I will save thee. '

"When Manu had thus taken care of the fish, he put it in the sea. Thesame year that the fish had said, in this very year, having built thevessel, he paid the fish homage. Then the Deluge mounting, he enteredthe vessel. The fish swam near him. To its horn Manu fastened the ship'srope, with which the fish passed the Mountain of the North. 

"The fish said, 'See! I have saved thee. Fasten the vessel to a tree, sothat the water does not float thee onward when thou art on the mountaintop. As the water decreases, thou wilt descend little by little. ' ThusManu descended gradually. Therefore to the mountain of the north remainsthe name, Descent of Manu. The Deluge had destroyed all creatures; Manusurvived alone. "[213-1]

Hitherto I have spoken only of the last convulsion which swept over theface of the globe, and of but one cycle which preceded the present. Mostof the more savage tribes contented themselves with this, but it isinstructive to observe how, as they advanced in culture, and the minddwelt more intently on the great problems of Life and Time, they wereimpelled to remove further and further the dim and mysterious Beginning. The Peruvians imagined that _two_ destructions had taken place, thefirst by a famine, the second by a flood--according to some a few onlyescaping--but, after the more widely accepted opinion, accompanied bythe absolute extirpation of the race. Three eggs, which dropped fromheaven, hatched out the present race; one of gold, from which came thepriests; one of silver, which produced the warriors; and the last ofcopper, source of the common people. [213-2]

The Mayas of Yucatan increased the previous worlds by one, making thepresent the _fourth_. Two cycles had terminated by devastating plagues. They were called "the sudden deaths, " for it was said so swift andmortal was the pest, that the buzzards and other foul birds dwelt in thehouses of the cities, and ate the bodies of their former owners. Thethird closed either by a hurricane, which blew from all four of thecardinal points at once, or else, as others said, by an inundation, which swept across the world, swallowing all things in its mountainoussurges. [214-1]

As might be expected, the vigorous intellects of the Aztecs impressedupon this myth a fixity of outline nowhere else met with on thecontinent, and wove it intimately into their astrological reveries andreligious theories. Unaware of its prevalence under more rudimentaryforms throughout the continent, Alexander von Humboldt observed that, "of all the traits of analogy which can be pointed out between themonuments, manners, and traditions of Asia and America, the moststriking is that offered by the Mexican mythology in the cosmogonicalfiction of the periodical destructions and regenerations of theuniverse. "[215-1] Yet it is but the same fiction that existed elsewhere, somewhat more definitely outlined. There exists great discrepancybetween the different authorities, both as to the number of Aztec agesor Suns, as they were called, their durations, their terminations, andtheir names. The preponderance of testimony is in favor of _four_antecedent cycles, the present being the _fifth_. The interval from thefirst creation to the commencement of the present epoch, owing to theequivocal meaning of the numeral signs expressing it in the picturewritings, may have been either 15228, 2316, or 1404 solar years. Whythese numbers should have been chosen, no one has guessed. It has beenlooked for in combinations of numbers connected with the calendar, butso far in vain. 

While most authorities agree as to the character of the destructionswhich terminated the suns, they vary much as to their sequence. Water, winds, fire, and hunger, are the agencies, and in one Codex (Vaticanus)occur in this order. Gama gives the sequence, hunger, winds, fire, andwater; Humboldt hunger, fire, winds, and water; Boturini water, hunger, winds, fire. As the cycle ending by a famine, is called the Age ofEarth, Ternaux-Compans, the distinguished French _Américaniste_, hasimagined that the four Suns correspond mystically to the dominationexercised in turn over the world by its four constituent elements. Butproof is wanting that Aztec philosophers knew the theory on which thisexplanation reposes. 

Baron Humboldt suggested that the suns were "fictions of mythologicalastronomy, modified either by obscure reminiscences of some greatrevolution suffered by our planet, or by physical hypotheses, suggestedby the sight of marine petrifactions and fossil remains, "[216-1] whilethe Abbé Brasseur, in his late works on ancient Mexico, interprets themas exaggerated references to historical events. As no solution can beaccepted not equally applicable to the same myth as it appears inYucatan, Peru, and the hunting tribes, and to the exactly parallelteachings of the Edda, [216-2] the Stoics, the Celts, and the Brahmans, both of these must be rejected. And although the Hindoo legend is soclose to the Aztec, that it, too, defines four ages, each terminating bya general catastrophe, and each catastrophe exactly the same inboth, [216-3] yet this is not at all indicative of a derivation from oneoriginal, but simply an illustration how the human mind, under thestimulus of the same intellectual cravings, produces like results. Whatthese cravings are has already been shown. 

The reason for adopting four ages, thus making the present the fifth, probably arose from the sacredness of that number in general; butdirectly, because this was the number of secular days in the Mexicanweek. A parallel is offered by the Hebrew narrative. In it six epochs ordays precede the seventh or present cycle, in which the creative powerrests. This latter corresponded to the Jewish Sabbath, the day ofrepose; and in the Mexican calendar each fifth day was also a day ofrepose, employed in marketing and pleasure. 

Doubtless the theory of the Ages of the world was long in vogue amongthe Aztecs before it received the definite form in which we now have it;and as this was acquired long after the calendar was fixed, it is everyway probable that the latter was used as a guide to the former. Echevarria, a good authority on such matters, says the number of theSuns was agreed upon at a congress of astrologists, within the memory oftradition. [217-1] Now in the calendar, these signs occur in the order, earth, air, water, fire, corresponding to the days distinguished by thesymbols house, rabbit, reed, and flint. This sequence, commencing withTochtli (rabbit, air), is that given as that of the Suns in the CodexChimalpopoca, translated by Brasseur, though it seems a taint ofEuropean teaching, when it is added that on the _seventh_ day of thecreation man was formed. [217-2]

Neither Jews nor Aztecs, nor indeed any American nation, appear to havesupposed, with some of the old philosophers, that the present was anexact repetition of previous cycles, [218-1] but rather that each was animprovement on the preceding, a step in endless progress. Nor did eitherconnect these beliefs with astronomical reveries of a great year, defined by the return of the heavenly bodies to one relative position inthe heavens. The latter seems characteristic of the realism of Europe, the former of the idealism of the Orient; both inconsistent with themeagre astronomy and more scanty metaphysics of the red race. 

The expectation of the end of the world is a natural complement to thebelief in periodical destructions of our globe. As at certain times pastthe equipoise of nature was lost, and the elements breaking the chain oflaws that bound them ran riot over the universe, involving all life inone mad havoc and desolation, so in the future we have to expect thatday of doom, when the ocean tides shall obey no shore, but overwhelm thecontinents with their mountainous billows, or the fire, now chafing involcanic craters and smoking springs, will leap forth on the forests andgrassy meadows, wrapping all things in a winding sheet of flame, andmelting the very elements with fervid heat. Then, in the language of theNorse prophetess, "shall the sun grow dark, the land sink in the waters, the bright stars be quenched, and high flames climb heavenitself. "[218-2] These fearful foreboding shave[TN-9] cast their darkshadow on every literature. The seeress of the north does but paint inwilder colors the terrible pictures of Seneca, [219-1] and the sibyl ofthe capitol only re-echoes the inspired predictions of Malachi. Well hasthe Christian poet said:--

 Dies iræ, dies illa, Solvet sæclum in favillâ, _Testis David cum Sibylâ_. 

Savage races, isolated in the impenetrable forests of another continent, could not escape this fearful looking for of destruction to come. Itoppressed their souls like a weight of lead. On the last night of eachcycle of fifty-two years, the Aztecs extinguished every fire, andproceeded, in solemn procession, to some sacred spot. Then the priests, with awe and trembling, sought to kindle a new fire by friction. Momentous was the endeavor, for did it fail, their fathers had taughtthem on the morrow no sun would rise, and darkness, death, and thewaters would descend forever on this beautiful world. 

The same terror inspired the Peruvians at every eclipse, for some day, taught the Amautas, the shadow will veil the sun forever, and land, moon, and stars will be wrapt in the vortex of a devouring conflagrationto know no regeneration; or a drought will wither every herb of thefield, suck up the waters, and leave the race to perish to the lastcreature; or the moon will fall from her place in the heavens andinvolve all things in her own ruin, a figure of speech meaning that thewaters would submerge the land. [220-1] In that dreadful day, thoughtthe Algonkins, when in anger Michabo will send a mortal pestilence todestroy the nations, or, stamping his foot on the ground, flames willburst forth to consume the habitable land, only a pair, or only, atmost, those who have maintained inviolate the institutions he ordained, will he protect and preserve to inhabit the new world he will thenfabricate. Therefore they do not speak of this catastrophe as the end ofthe world, but use one of those nice grammatical distinctions sofrequent in American aboriginal languages and which can only beimitated, not interpreted, in ours, signifying "when it will be near itsend, " "when it will no longer be available for man. "[220-2]

An ancient prophecy handed down from their ancestors warns theWinnebagoes that their nation shall be annihilated at the close of thethirteenth generation. Ten have already passed, and that now living hasappointed ceremonies to propitiate the powers of heaven, and mitigateits stern decree. [220-3] Well may they be about it, for there is agloomy probability that the warning came from no false prophet. Fewtribes were destitute of such presentiments. The Chikasaw, the Mandansof the Missouri, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the Muyscas ofBogota, the Botocudos of Brazil, the Araucanians of Chili, have beenasserted on testimony that leaves no room for scepticism, to haveentertained such forebodings from immemorial time. Enough for thepurpose if the list is closed with the prediction of a Maya priest, cherished by the inhabitants of Yucatan long before the Spaniarddesolated their stately cities. It is one of those preserved by FatherLizana, curé of Itzamal, and of which he gives the original. Otherwitnesses inform us that this nation "had a tradition that the worldwould end, "[221-1] and probably, like the Greeks and Aztecs, theysupposed the gods would perish with it. 

 "At the close of the ages, it hath been decreed, Shall perish and vanish each weak god of men, And the world shall be purged with a ravening fire. Happy the man in that terrible day, Who bewails with contrition the sins of his life, [221-2] And meets without flinching the fiery ordeal. "

FOOTNOTES:

[193-1] So far as this applies to the Eskimos, it might be questioned onthe authority of Paul Egede, whose valuable _Nachrichten von Grönland_contains several flood-myths, &c. But these Eskimos had had forgenerations intercourse with European missionaries and sailors, and asthe other tribes of their stock were singularly devoid of correspondingtraditions, it is likely that in Greenland they were of foreign origin. 

[194-1] Pictet, _Origines Indo-Européennes_ in Michelet, _La Mer_. Thelatter has many eloquent and striking remarks on the impressions left bythe great ocean. 

[195-1] "Spiritus Dei incubuit superficei aquarum" is the translation ofone writer. The word for spirit in Hebrew, as in Latin, originally meantwind, as I have before remarked. 

[195-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, i. P. 266. 

[196-1] Mackenzie, _Hist. Of the Fur Trade_, p. 83; Richardson, _ArcticExpedition_, p. 239. 

[196-2] Ximenes, _Or. De los Ind. De Guat. _, pp. 5-7. I translate freely, following Ximenes rather than Brasseur. 

[197-1] Garcia, _Or. De los Indios_, lib. V. Cap. 4. 

[197-2] _Doc. Hist. Of New York_, iv. P. 130 (circ. 1650). 

[197-3] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1636, p. 101. 

[198-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1634, p. 13. 

[199-1] _Conquest of Mexico_, i. P. 61. 

[200-1] For instance, Epictetus favors the opinion that at the solsticesof the great year not only all human beings, but even the gods, areannihilated; and speculates whether at such times Jove feels lonely(_Discourses_, bk. Iii. Chap. 13). Macrobius, so far from coinciding withhim, explains the great antiquity of Egyptian civilization by thehypothesis that that country is so happily situated between the pole andequator, as to escape both the deluge and conflagration of the greatcycle (_Somnium Scipionis_, lib. Ii. Cap. 10). 

[201-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iii. P. 263, iv. P. 230. 

[201-2] Oviedo, _Hist. Du Nicaragua_, pp. 22, 27. 

[201-3] Müller, _Amer. Urrelig. _, p. 254, from Max and Denis. 

[202-1] Morse, _Rep. On the Ind. Tribes_, App. P. 346; D'Orbigny, _Frag. D'un Voyage dans l'Amér. Mérid. _, p. 512. 

[202-2] When, as in the case of one of the Mexican Noahs, Coxcox, thisdoes not seem to hold good, it is probably owing to a loss of the realform of the myth. Coxcox is also known by the name of Cipactli, Fish-god, and Huehue tonaca cipactli, Old Fish-god of Our Flesh. 

[202-3] My knowledge of the Sanscrit form of the flood-myth is drawnprincipally from the dissertation of Professor Felix Nève, entitled _LaTradition Indienne du Deluge dans sa Forme la plus ancienne_, Paris, 1851. There is in the oldest versions no distinct reference to anantediluvian race, and in India Manu is by common consent the Adam aswell as the Noah of their legends. 

[203-1] Prescott, _Conquest of Peru_, i. P. 88; _Codex Vaticanus_, No. 3776, in Kingsborough. 

[203-2] And also various peculiarities of style and language lost intranslation. The two accounts of the Deluge are given side by side in Dr. Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_ under the word Pentateuch. 

[203-3] See the dissertation of Prof. Nève referred to above. 

[203-4] _American State Papers_, Indian Affairs, i. P. 729. Date oflegend, 1801. 

[204-1] Molina, _Hist. Of Chili_, ii. P. 82. 

[205-1] Richardson, _Arctic Expedition_, p. 239. 

[205-2] Dumont, _Mems. Hist. Sur la Louisiane_, i. P. 163. 

[205-3] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 686. 

[206-1] Desjardins, _Le Pérou avant la Conq. Espagn. _, p. 27. 

[207-1] Cod. Chimalpopoca, in Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, PiècesJustificatives. 

[207-2] These four birds, whose names have lost their signification, represent doubtless the four winds, or the four rivers, which, as in somany legends, are the active agents in overwhelming the world in itsgreat crises. 

[208-1] The word rendered mill-stone, in the original means those largehollowed stones on which the women were accustomed to bruise the maize. The imitative sounds for which I have substituted others in English, arein Quiché, _holi, holi, huqui, huqui_. 

[209-1] Brasseur translates "quoique nous ne sentissions rien, " butXimenes, "nos quemasteis, y sentimos el dolor. " As far as I can make outthe original, it is the negative conditional as I have given it in thetext. 

[209-2] _Le Livre Sacré_, p. 27; Ximenes, _Or. De los Indios_, p. 13. 

[210-1] The American nations among whom a distinct and well-authenticatedmyth of the deluge was found are as follows: Athapascas, Algonkins, Iroquois, Cherokees, Chikasaws, Caddos, Natchez, Dakotas, Apaches, Navajos, Mandans, Pueblo Indians, Aztecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Tlascalans, Mechoacans, Toltecs, Nahuas, Mayas, Quiches, Haitians, natives of Darienand Popoyan, Muyscas, Quichuas, Tuppinambas, Achaguas, Araucanians, anddoubtless others. The article by M. De Charency in the _Revue Américaine, Le Deluge, d'après les Traditions Indiennes de l'Amérique du Nord_, contains some valuable extracts, but is marred by a lack of criticism ofsources, and makes no attempt at analysis, nor offers for their existencea rational explanation. 

[211-1] _Une Fête Brésilienne célébré à Rouen en 1550, par M. FerdinandDenis_, p. 82 (quoted in the _Revue Américaine_, ii. P. 317). The nativewords in this account guarantee its authenticity. In the Tupi language, _tata_ means fire; _parana_, ocean; Monan, perhaps from _monáne_, tomingle, to temper, as the potter the clay (_Dias, Diccionario da LinguaTupy_: Lipsia, 1858). Irin monge may be an old form from _mongat-iron_, to set in order, to restore, to improve (_Martius, Beiträge zurEthnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika's_, ii. P. 70). 

[213-1] Professor Nève, _ubi supra_, from the Zatapatha Brahmana. 

[213-2] Avendano, _Sermones_, Lima, 1648, in Rivero and Tschudi, _Peruv. Antiqs. _, p. 114. In the year 1600, Oñate found on the coast ofCalifornia a tribe whose idol held in one hand a shell containing threeeggs, in the other an ear of maize, while before it was placed a cup ofwater. Vizcaino, who visited the same people a few years afterwards, mentions that they kept in their temples tame ravens, and looked uponthem as sacred birds (Torquemada, _Mon. Ind. _, lib. V. Cap. 40 in Waitz). Thus, in all parts of the continent do we find the bird, as a symbol ofthe clouds, associated with the rains and the harvests. 

[214-1] The deluge was called _hun yecil_, which, according to Cogolludo, means _the inundation of the trees_, for all the forests were swept away(_Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 5). Bishop Landa adds, tosubstantiate the legend, that all the woods of the peninsula appear as ifthey had been planted at one time, and that to look at them one would saythey had been trimmed with scissors (_Rel. De las Cosas de Yucatan_, 58, 60). 

[215-1] _Vues des Cordillères_, p. 202. 

[216-1] Ubi sup. , p. 207. 

[216-2] The Scandinavians believed the universe had been destroyed ninetimes:--

 Ni Verdener yeg husker, Og ni Himle, says the Voluspa (i. 2, in Klee, _Le Deluge_, p. 220). I observe someEnglish writers have supposed from these lines that the Northmen believedin the existence of nine abodes for the blessed. Such is not the sense ofthe original. 

[216-3] At least this is the doctrine of one of the Shastas. The race, itteaches, has been destroyed four times; first by water, secondly bywinds, thirdly the earth swallowed them, and lastly fire consumed them(Sepp. , _Heidenthum und Christenthum_, i. P. 191). 

[217-1] Echevarria y Veitia, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. I. Cap. 4, in Waitz. 

[217-2] Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, iii. P. 495. 

[218-1] The contrary has indeed been inferred from such expressions ofthe writer of the book of Ecclesiastes as, "that which hath been, is now, and that which is to be, hath already been" (chap. Iii. 15), and thelike, but they are susceptible of an application entirely subjective. 

[218-2] Voluspa, xiv. 51, in Klee, _Le Deluge_. 

[219-1] _Natur. Quæstiones_, iii. Cap. 27. 

[220-1] Velasco, _Hist. Du Royaume du Quito_, p. 105; Navarrete, _Viages_, iii. P. 444. 

[220-2] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1637, p. 54; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, i. P. 319, iv. P. 420. 

[220-3] Schoolcraft, ibid. , iv. P. 240. 

[221-1] Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 7. 

[221-2] The Spanish of Lizana is--

 "En la ultima edad, segun esta determinado, Avra fin el culto de dioses vanos; Y el mundo sera purificado con fuego. El que esto viere sera llamado dichoso Si con dolor lloraré sus pecados. "

(_Hist. De Nuestra Señora de Itzamal_, in Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, ii. P. 603). I have attempted to obtain a more literal rendering from theoriginal Maya, but have not been successful. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 

 Usually man is the EARTH-BORN, both in language and myths. --Illustrations from the legends of the Caribs, Apalachians, Iroquois, Quichuas, Aztecs, and others. --The underworld. --Man the product of one of the primal creative powers, the Spirit, or the Water, in the myths of the Athapascas, Eskimos, Moxos, and others. --Never literally derived from an inferior species. 

No man can escape the importunate question, whence am I? The firstreplies framed to meet it possess an interest to the thoughtful mind, beyond that of mere fables. They illustrate the position in creationclaimed by our race, and the early workings of self-consciousness. Oftenthe oldest terms for man are synopses of these replies, and merit a morethan passing contemplation. 

The seed is hidden in the earth. Warmed by the sun, watered by the rain, presently it bursts its dark prison-house, unfolds its delicate leaves, blossoms, and matures its fruit. Its work done, the earth draws it toitself again, resolves the various structures into their original mould, and the unending round recommences. 

This is the marvellous process that struck the primitive mind. Out ofthe Earth rises life, to it it returns. She it is who guards all germs, nourishes all beings. The Aztecs painted her as a woman with countlessbreasts, the Peruvians called her Mama Allpa, _mother_ Earth. _Homo_, _Adam_, _chamaigenēs_, what do all these words mean but theearth-born, the son of the soil, repeated in the poetic language ofAttica in _anthropos_, he who springs up as a flower?

The word that corresponds to the Latin _homo_ in American languages hassuch singular uniformity in so many of them, that we might be tempted toregard it as a fragment of some ancient and common tongue, their parentstem. In the Eskimo it is _inuk_, _innuk_, plural _innuit_; in Athapascait is _dinni_, _tenné_; in Algonkin, _inini_, _lenni_, _inwi_; inIroquois, _onwi_, _eniha_; in the Otomi of Mexico _n-aniehe_; in theMaya, _inic_, _winic_, _winak_; all in North America, and the numbermight be extended. Of these only the last mentioned can plausibly betraced to a radical (unless the Iroquois _onwi_ is from _onnha_ life, _onnhe_ to live). This Father Ximenes derives from _win_, meaning togrow, to gain, to increase, [223-1] in which the analogy to vegetablelife is not far off, an analogy strengthened by the myth of that stock, which relates that the first of men were formed of the flour ofmaize. [223-2]

In many other instances religious legend carries out this idea. Themythical ancestor of the Caribs created his offspring by sowing the soilwith stones or with the fruit of the Mauritius palm, which sproutedforth into men and women, [224-1] while the Yurucares, much of whosemythology was perhaps borrowed from the Peruvians, clothed this crudetenet in a somewhat more poetic form, fabling that at the beginning thefirst of men were pegged, Ariel-like, in the knotty entrails of anenormous hole, until the god Tiri--a second Prospero--released them bycleaving it in twain. [224-2]

As in oriental legends the origin of man from the earth was veiled underthe story that he was the progeny of some mountain fecundated by theembrace of Mithras or Jupiter, so the Indians often pointed to someheight or some cavern, as the spot whence the first of men issued, adultand armed, from the womb of the All-mother Earth. The oldest name of theAlleghany Mountains is Paemotinck or Pemolnick, an Algonkin word, themeaning of which is said to be "the origin of the Indians. "[224-3]

The Witchitas, who dwelt on the Red River among the mountains namedafter them, have a tradition that their progenitors issued from therocks about their homes, [225-1] and many other tribes the Tahkalis, Navajos, Coyoteras, and the Haitians, for instance, set up this claim tobe autochthones. Most writers have interpreted this simply to mean thatthey knew nothing at all about their origin, or that they coined thesefables merely to strengthen the title to the territory they inhabitedwhen they saw the whites eagerly snatching it away on every pretext. Nodoubt there is some truth in this, but if they be carefully sifted, there is sometimes a deep historical significance in these myths, whichhas hitherto escaped the observation of students. An instance presentsitself in our own country. 

All those tribes, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chicasaws, andNatchez, who, according to tradition, were in remote times banded intoone common confederacy under the headship of the last mentioned, unanimously located their earliest ancestry near an artificial eminencein the valley of the Big Black River, in the Natchez country, whencethey pretended to have emerged. Fortunately we have a description, though a brief one, of this interesting monument from the pen of anintelligent traveller. It is described as "an elevation of earth abouthalf a mile square and fifteen or twenty feet high. From its northeastcorner a wall of equal height extends for near half a mile to the highland. " This was the Nunne Chaha or Nunne Hamgeh, the High Hill, or theBending Hill, famous in Choctaw stories, and which Captain Gregg foundthey have not yet forgotten in their western home. The legend was thatin its centre was a cave, the house of the Master of Breath. Here hemade the first men from the clay around him, and as at that time thewaters covered the earth, he raised the wall to dry them on. When thesoft mud had hardened into elastic flesh and firm bone, he banished thewaters to their channels and beds, and gave the dry land to hiscreatures. [226-1] When in 1826 Albert Gallatin obtained from someNatchez chiefs a vocabulary of their language, they gave to him as theirword for _hill_ precisely the same word that a century and a quarterbefore the French had found among them as their highest term forGod;[226-2] reversing the example of the ancient Greeks who came in timeto speak of Olympus, at first the proper name of a peak in Thessaly, assynonymous with heaven and Jove. 

A parallel to this southern legend occurs among the Six Nations of thenorth. They with one consent, if we may credit the account of Cusic, looked to a mountain near the falls of the Oswego River in the State ofNew York, as the locality where their forefathers first saw the light ofday, and that they had some such legend the name Oneida, people of theStone, would seem to testify. 

The cave of Pacari Tampu, the Lodgings of the Dawn, was five leaguesdistant from Cuzco, surrounded by a sacred grove and inclosed withtemples of great antiquity. From its hallowed recesses the mythicalcivilizers of Peru, the first of men, emerged, and in it during the timeof the flood, the remnants of the race escaped the fury of thewaves. [227-1] Viracocha himself is said to have dwelt there, though ithardly needed this evidence to render it certain that this consecratedcavern is but a localization of the general myth of the dawn rising fromthe deep. It refers us for its prototype to the Aymara allegory of themorning light flinging its beams like snow-white foam athwart the wavesof Lake Titicaca. 

An ancient legend of the Aztecs derived their nation from a place calledChicomoztoc, the Seven Caverns, located north of Mexico. Antiquarieshave indulged in all sorts of speculations as to what this means. Sahagun explains it as a valley so named; Clavigero supposes it to havebeen a city; Hamilton Smith, and after him Schoolcraft, construedcaverns to be a figure of speech for the _boats_ in which the earlyAmericans paddled across from Asia(!); the Abbé Brasseur confounds itwith Aztlan, and very many have discovered in it a distinct referenceto the fabulous "seven cities of Cibola" and the Casas Grandes, ruins oflarge buildings of unburnt brick in the valley of the River Gila. Fromthis story arose the supposed sevenfold division of the Nahuas, adivision which never existed except in the imagination of Europeans. When Torquemada adds that _seven_ hero gods ruled in Chicomoztoc andwere the progenitors of all its inhabitants, when one of them turns outto be Xelhua, the giant who with six others escaped the flood byascending the mountain of Tlaloc in the terrestrial paradise andafterwards built the pyramid of Cholula, and when we remember that inone of the flood-myths _seven_ persons were said to have escaped thewaters, the whole narrative acquires a fabulous aspect that shuts it outfrom history, and brands it as one of those fictions of the origin ofman from the earth so common to the race. Fictions yet truths; forcaverns and hollow trees were in fact the houses and temples of ourfirst parents, and from them they went forth to conquer and adorn theworld; and from the inorganic constituents of the soil acted on byLight, touched by Divine Force, vivified by the Spirit, did in realitythe first of men proceed. 

This cavern, which thus dimly lingered in the memories of nations, occasionally expanded to a nether world, imagined to underlie this ofours, and still inhabited by beings of our kind, who have never beenlucky enough to discover its exit. The Mandans and Minnetarees on theMissouri River supposed this exit was near a certain hill in theirterritory, and as it had been, as it were, the womb of the earth, thesame power was attributed to it that in ancient times endowed certainshrines with such charms; and thither the barren wives of their nationmade frequent pilgrimages when they would become mothers. [229-1] TheMandans added the somewhat puerile fable that the means of ascent hadbeen a grapevine, by which many ascended and descended, until one day animmoderately fat old lady, anxious to get a look at the upper earth, broke it with her weight, and prevented any further communication. 

Such tales of an under-world are very frequent among the Indians, andare a very natural outgrowth of the literal belief that the race isearth-born. 

Man is indeed like the grass that springs up and soon withers away; buthe is also more than this. The quintessence of dust, he is a son of thegods as well as a son of the soil. He is the direct product of the greatcreative power; therefore all the Athapascan tribes west of the RockyMountains--the Kenai, the Kolushes, and the Atnai--claim descent from araven--from that same mighty cloud-bird, who in the beginning of thingsseized the elements and brought the world from the abyss of theprimitive ocean. Those of the same stock situate more eastwardly, theDogribs, the Chepewyans, the Hare Indians, and also the west coastEskimos, and the natives of the Aleutian Isles, all believe that theyhave sprung from a dog. [229-2] The latter animal, we have already seen, both in the old and new world was the fixed symbol of the water goddess. Therefore in these myths, which are found over so many thousand squareleagues, we cannot be in error in perceiving a reflex of theircosmogonical traditions already discussed, in which from the winds andthe waters, represented here under their emblems of the bird and thedog, all animate life proceeded. 

Without this symbolic coloring, a tribe to the south of them, a band ofthe Minnetarees, had the crude tradition that their first progenitoremerged from the waters, bearing in his hand an ear of maize, [230-1]very much as Viracocha and his companions rose from the sacred waves ofLake Titicaca, or as the Moxos imagined that they were descended fromthe lakes and rivers on whose banks their villages were situated. 

These myths, and many others, hint of general conceptions of life andthe world, wide-spread theories of ancient date, such as we are notaccustomed to expect among savage nations, such as may very excusablyexcite a doubt as to their native origin, but a doubt infalliblydispelled by a careful comparison of the best authorities. Is it thathitherto, in the pride of intellectual culture, we have never donejustice to the thinking faculty of those whom we call barbarians? Orshall we accept the only other alternative, that these are theunappreciated heirlooms bequeathed a rude race by a period of highercivilization, long since extinguished by constant wars and ceaselessfear? We are not yet ready to answer these questions. With almostunanimous consent the latter has been accepted as the true solution, butrather from the preconceived theory of a state of primitivecivilization from which man fell, than from ascertained facts. 

It would, perhaps, be pushing symbolism too far to explain as an emblemof the primitive waters the coyote, which, according to the Root-Diggersof California, brought their ancestors into the world; or the wolf, which the Lenni Lenape pretended released mankind from the dark bowelsof the earth by scratching away the soil. They should rather beinterpreted by the curious custom of the Toukaways, a wild people inTexas, of predatory and unruly disposition. They celebrate their originby a grand annual dance. One of them, naked as he was born, is buried inthe earth. The others, clothed in wolf-skins, walk over him, snuffaround him, howl in lupine style, and finally dig him up with theirnails. The leading wolf then solemnly places a bow and arrow in hishands, and to his inquiry as to what he must do for a living, paternallyadvises him "to do as the wolves do--rob, kill, and murder, rove fromplace to place, and never cultivate the soil. "[231-1] Most wise andfatherly counsel! But what is there new under the sun? Three thousandyears ago the Hirpini, or Wolves, an ancient Sabine tribe, were wont tocollect on Mount Soracte, and there go through certain rites in memoryof an oracle which predicted their extinction when they ceased to gaintheir living as wolves by violence and plunder. Therefore they dressedin wolf-skins, ran with barks and howls over burning coals, and gnawedwolfishly whatever they could seize. [231-2]

Though hasty writers have often said that the Indian tribes claimliteral descent from different wild beasts, probably in all otherinstances, as in these, this will prove, on examination, to be an errorresting on a misapprehension arising from the habit of the natives ofadopting as their totem or clan-mark the figure and name of some animal, or else, in an ignorance of the animate symbols employed with suchmarked preference by the red race to express abstract ideas. In somecases, doubtless, the natives themselves came, in time, to confound thesymbol with the idea, by that familiar process of personification andconsequent debasement exemplified in the history of every religion; butI do not believe that a single example could be found where an Indiantribe had a tradition whose real purport was that man came by naturalprocess of descent from an ancestor, a brute. 

The reflecting mind will not be offended at the contradictions in thesedifferent myths, for a myth is, in one sense, a theory of naturalphenomena expressed in the form of a narrative. Often severalexplanations seem equally satisfactory for the same fact, and the mindhesitates to choose, and rather accepts them all than rejects any. Then, again, an expression current as a metaphor by-and-by crystallizes into adogma, and becomes the nucleus of a new mythological growth. These arefamiliar processes to one versed in such studies, and involve no logicalcontradiction, because they are never required to be reconciled. 

FOOTNOTES:

[223-1] _Vocabulario Quiche_, s. V. , ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1862. 

[223-2] The Eskimo _innuk_, man, means also a possessor or owner; theyelk[TN-10] of an egg; and the pus of an abscess (Egede, _Nachrichten vonGrönland_, p. 106). From it is derived _innuwok_, to live, life. Probably_innuk_ also means the _semen masculinum_, and in its identification withpus, may not there be the solution of that strange riddle which in somany myths of the West Indies and Central America makes the first of mento be "the purulent one?" (See ante, p. 135. )

[224-1] Müller, _Amer. Urrelig. _, pp. 109, 229. 

[224-2] D'Orbigny, _Frag. D'une Voy. Dans l'Amér. Mérid. _, p. 512. It isstill a mooted point whence Shakspeare drew the plot of The Tempest. Thecoincidence mentioned in the text between some parts of it and SouthAmerican mythology does not stand alone. Caliban, the savage and brutishnative of the island, is undoubtedly the word Carib, often speltCaribani, and Calibani in older writers; and his "dam's god Setebos" wasthe supreme divinity of the Patagonians when first visited by Magellan. (Pigafetta, _Viaggio intorno al Globo_, Germ. Trans. : Gotha, 1801, p. 247. )

[224-3] Both Lederer and John Bartram assign it this meaning. Gallatingives in the Powhatan dialect the word for mountain as _pomottinke_, doubtless another form of the same. 

[225-1] Marcy, _Exploration of the Red River_, p. 69. 

[226-1] Compare Romans, _Hist. Of Florida_, pp. 58, 71; Adair, _Hist. Ofthe North Am. Indians_, p. 195; and Gregg, _Commerce of the Prairies_, ii. P. 235. The description of the mound is by Major Heart, in the_Trans. Of the Am. Philos. Soc. _, iii. P. 216. (1st series. )

[226-2] The French writers give for Great Spirit _coyocopchill_; Gallatinfor hill, _kweya koopsel_. The blending of these two ideas, at firstsight so remote, is easily enough explained when we remember that on "thehill of heaven" in all religions is placed the throne of the mightiest ofexistences. The Natchez word can be analyzed as follows: _sel_, _sil_, or_chill_, great; _cop_, a termination very frequent in their language, apparently signifying existence; _kweya_, _coyo_, for _kue ya_, from theMaya _kue_, god; the great living God. The Tarahumara language of Sonoraoffers an almost parallel instance. In it _regui_, is _above_[TN-11], up, over, _reguiki_, heaven, _reguiguiki_, a hill or mountain (Buschmann, _Spuren der Aztek. Sprache im nörd. Mexico_, p. 244). In the Quichédialects _tepeu_ is lord, ruler, and is often applied to the SupremeBeing. With some probability Brasseur derives it from the Aztec _tepetl_, mountain (_Hist. Du Mexique_, i. P. 106). 

[227-1] Balboa, _Hist. Du Pérou_, p. 4. 

[229-1] Long's _Expedition to the Rocky Mountains_, i. P. 274; Catlin's_Letters_, i. P. 178. 

[229-2] Richardson, _Arctic Expedition_, pp. 239, 247; Klemm, _Culturgeschichte der Menschheit_, ii. P. 316. 

[230-1] Long, _Exped. To the Rocky Mountains_, i. P. 326. 

[231-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 683. 

[231-2] Schwarz, _Ursprung der Mythologie_, p. 121. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE SOUL AND ITS DESTINY. 

 Universality of the belief in a soul and a future state shown by the aboriginal tongues, by expressed opinions, and by sepulchral rites. --The future world never a place of rewards and punishments. --The house of the Sun the heaven of the red man. --The terrestrial paradise and the under-world. --Çupay. --Xibalba. --Mictlan. --Metempsychosis?--Belief in a resurrection of the dead almost universal. 

The missionary Charlevoix wrote several excellent works on Americatoward the beginning of the last century, and he is often quoted bylater authors; but probably no one of his sayings has been thus honoredmore frequently than this: "The belief the best established among ourAmericans is that of the immortality of the soul. "[233-1] The tremendousstake that every one of us has on the truth of this dogma makes it quitea satisfaction to be persuaded that no man is willing to live whollywithout it. Certainly exceptions are very rare, and most of those whichmaterialistic philosophers have taken such pains to collect, rest onmisunderstandings or superficial observation. 

In the new world I know of only one well authenticated instance whereall notion of a future state appears to have been entirely wanting, andthis in quite a small clan, the Lower Pend d'Oreilles, of Oregon. Thispeople had no burial ceremonies, no notion of a life hereafter, no wordfor soul, spiritual existence, or vital principle. They thought thatwhen they died, that was the last of them. The Catholic missionaries whoundertook the unpromising task of converting them to Christianity, wereat first obliged to depend upon the imperfect translations of half-breedinterpreters. These "made the idea of soul intelligible to their hearersby telling them they had a gut which never rotted, and that this wastheir living principle!" Yet even they were not destitute of religiousnotions. No tribe was more addicted to the observance of charms, omens, dreams, and guardian spirits, and they believed that illness and badluck generally were the effects of the anger of a fabulous oldwoman. [234-1] The aborigines of the Californian peninsula were as nearbeasts as men ever become. The missionaries likened them to "herds ofswine, who neither worshipped the true and only God, nor adored falsedeities. " Yet they must have had some vague notion of anafter. World[TN-12], for the writer who paints the darkest picture oftheir condition remarks, "I saw them frequently putting shoes on thefeet of the dead, which seems to indicate that they entertain the ideaof a journey after death. "[234-2]

Proof of Charlevoix's opinion may be derived from three independentsources. The aboriginal languages may be examined for termscorresponding to the word soul, the opinions of the Indians themselvesmay be quoted, and the significance of sepulchral rites as indicative ofa belief in life after death may be determined. 

The most satisfactory is the first of these. _We_ call the soul a ghostor spirit, and often a shade. In these words, the _breath_ and the_shadow_ are the sensuous perceptions transferred to represent theimmaterial object of our thought. Why the former was chosen, I havealready explained; and for the latter, that it is man's intangibleimage, his constant companion, and is of a nature akin to darkness, earth, and night, are sufficiently obvious reasons. 

These same tropes recur in American languages in the same connection. The New England tribes called the soul _chemung_, the shadow, and inQuiché _natub_, in Eskimo _tarnak_, express both these ideas. In Mohawk_atonritz_, the soul, is from _atonrion_, to breathe, and other examplesto the same purpose have already been given. [235-1]

Of course no one need demand that a strict immateriality be attached tothese words. Such a colorless negative abstraction never existed forthem, neither does it for us, though we delude ourselves into believingthat it does. The soul was to them the invisible man, material as ever, but lost to the appreciation of the senses. 

Nor let any one be astonished if its unity was doubted, and severalsupposed to reside in one body. This is nothing more than a somewhatgross form of a doctrine upheld by most creeds and most philosophies. Itseems the readiest solution of certain psychological enigmas, and may, for aught we know, be an instinct of fact. The Rabbis taught a threefolddivision--_nephesh_, the animal, _ruah_, the human, and _neshamah_, thedivine soul, which corresponds to that of Plato into _thumos_, _epithumia_, and _nous_. And even Saint Paul seems to have recognizedsuch inherent plurality when he distinguishes between the bodily soul, the intellectual soul, and the spiritual gift, in his Epistle to theRomans. No such refinements of course as these are to be expected amongthe red men; but it may be looked upon either as the rudiments of theseteachings, or as a gradual debasement of them to gross and materialexpression, that an old and wide-spread notion was found among bothIroquois and Algonkins, that man has two souls, one of a vegetativecharacter, which gives bodily life, and remains with the corpse afterdeath, until it is called to enter another body; another of moreethereal texture, which in life can depart from the body in sleep ortrance, and wander over the world, and at death goes directly to theland of Spirits. [236-1]

The Sioux extended it to Plato's number, and are said to have lookedforward to one going to a cold place, another to a warm and comfortablecountry, while the third was to watch the body. Certainly a mostimpartial distribution of rewards and punishments. [237-1] Some otherDakota tribes shared their views on this point, but more commonly, doubtless owing to the sacredness of the number, imagined _four_ souls, with separate destinies, one to wander about the world, one to watch thebody, the third to hover around the village, and the highest to go tothe spirit land. [237-2] Even this number is multiplied by certain Oregontribes, who imagine one in every member; and by the Caribs ofMartinique, who, wherever they could detect a pulsation, located aspirit, all subordinate, however, to a supreme one throned in the heart, which alone would be transported to the skies at death. [237-3] For theheart that so constantly sympathizes with our emotions and actions, is, in most languages and most nations, regarded as the seat of life; andwhen the priests of bloody religions tore out the heart of the victimand offered it to the idol, it was an emblem of the life that was thustorn from the field of this world and consecrated to the rulers of thenext. 

Various motives impel the living to treat with respect the body fromwhich life has departed. Lowest of them is a superstitious dread ofdeath and the dead. The stoicism of the Indian, especially the northerntribes, in the face of death, has often been the topic of poets, and hasoften been interpreted to be a fearlessness of that event. This is byno means true. Savages have an awful horror of death; it is to them theworst of ills; and for this very reason was it that they thought to meetit without flinching was the highest proof of courage. Everythingconnected with the deceased was, in many tribes, shunned withsuperstitious terror. His name was not mentioned, his property leftuntouched, all reference to him was sedulously avoided. A Tupi tribeused to hurry the body at once to the nearest water, and toss it in; theAkanzas left it in the lodge and burned over it the dwelling andcontents; and the Algonkins carried it forth by a hole cut opposite thedoor, and beat the walls with sticks to fright away the lingering ghost. Burying places were always avoided, and every means taken to prevent thedeparted spirits exercising a malicious influence on those remainingbehind. 

These craven fears do but reveal the natural repugnance of the animal toa cessation of existence, and arise from the instinct ofself-preservation essential to organic life. Other rites, undertakenavowedly for the behoof of the soul, prove and illustrate a simple butunshaken faith in its continued existence after the decay of the body. 

None of these is more common or more natural than that which attributesto the emancipated spirit the same wants that it felt while on earth, and with loving foresight provides for their satisfaction. Clothing andutensils of war and the chase were, in ancient times, uniformly placedby the body, under the impression that they would be of service to thedeparted in his new home. Some few tribes in the far west still retainthe custom, but most were soon ridiculed into its neglect, or wereforced to omit it by the violation of tombs practised by depraved whitesin hope of gain. To these harmless offerings the northern tribes oftenadded a dog slain on the grave; and doubtless the skeletons of theseanimals in so many tombs in Mexico and Peru point to similar customsthere. It had no deeper meaning than to give a companion to the spiritin its long and lonesome journey to the far off land of shades. Thepeculiar appropriateness of the dog arose not only from the guardianshipit exerts during life, but further from the symbolic signification it sooften had as representative of the goddess of night and the grave. 

Where a despotic form of government reduced the subject almost to thelevel of a slave and elevated the ruler almost to that of a superiorbeing, not animals only, but men, women, and children were frequentlyimmolated at the tomb of the cacique. The territory embraced in our owncountry was not without examples of this horrid custom. On the lowerMississippi, the Natchez Indians brought it with them from CentralAmerica in all its ghastliness. When a sun or chief died, one or severalof his wives and his highest officers were knocked on the head andburied with him, and at such times the barbarous privilege was allowedto any of the lowest caste to at once gain admittance to the highest bythe deliberate murder of their own children on the funeral pyre--aprivilege which respectable writers tell us human beings were found baseenough to take advantage of. [239-1]

Oviedo relates that in the province of Guataro, in Guatemala, an actualrivalry prevailed among the people to be slain at the death of theircacique, for they had been taught that only such as went with him wouldever find their way to the paradise of the departed. [240-1] Theirs wastherefore somewhat of a selfish motive, and only in certain parts ofPeru, where polygamy prevailed, and the rule was that only one wife wasto be sacrificed, does the deportment of husbands seem to have been socreditable that their widows actually disputed one with another for thepleasure of being buried alive with the dead body, and bearing theirspouse company to the other world. [240-2] Wives who have found fewparallels since the famous matron of Ephesus!

The fire built nightly on the grave was to light the spirit on hisjourney. By a coincidence to be explained by the universal sacredness ofthe number, both Algonkins and Mexicans maintained it for _four_ nightsconsecutively. The former related the tradition that one of theirancestors returned from the spirit land and informed their nation thatthe journey thither consumed just _four_ days, and that collecting fuelevery night added much to the toil and fatigue the soul encountered, allof which could be spared it by the relatives kindling nightly a fire onthe grave. Or as Longfellow has told it:--

 "Four days is the spirit's journey To the land of ghosts and shadows, Four its lonely night encampments. Therefore when the dead are buried, Let a fire as night approaches Four times on the grave be kindled, That the soul upon its journey May not grope about in darkness. "

The same length of time, say the Navajos, does the departed soul wanderover a gloomy marsh ere it can discover the ladder leading to the worldbelow, where are the homes of the setting and the rising sun, a land ofluxuriant plenty, stocked with game and covered with corn. To that land, say they, sink all lost seeds and germs which fall on the earth and donot sprout. There below they take root, bud, and ripen theirfruit. [241-1]

After four days, once more, in the superstitions of the GreenlandEskimos, does the soul, for that term after death confined in the body, at last break from its prison-house and either rise in the sky to dancein the aurora borealis or descend into the pleasant land beneath theearth, according to the manner of death. [241-2]

That there are logical contradictions in this belief and theseceremonies, that the fire is always in the same spot, that the weaponsand utensils are not carried away by the departed, and that the foodplaced for his sustenance remains untouched, is very true. But those whowould therefore argue that they were not intended for the benefit of thesoul, and seek some more recondite meaning in them as "unconsciousemblems of struggling faith or expressions of inward emotions, "[242-1]are led astray by the very simplicity of their real intention. Where isthe faith, where the science, that does not involve logicalcontradictions just as gross as these? They are tolerable to us merelybecause we are used to them. What value has the evidence of the sensesanywhere against a religious faith? None whatever. A stumbling blockthough this be to the materialist, it is the universal truth, and assuch it is well to accept it as an experimental fact. 

The preconceived opinions that saw in the meteorological myths of theIndian, a conflict between the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil, have with like unconscious error falsified his doctrine of a futurelife, and almost without an exception drawn it more or less in thelikeness of the Christian heaven, hell, and purgatory. Very faint tracesof any such belief except where derived from the missionaries arevisible in the New World. Nowhere was any well-defined doctrine thatmoral turpitude was judged and punished in the next-world. No contrastis discoverable between a place of torments and a realm of joy; at theworst but a negative castigation awaited the liar, the coward, or theniggard. The typical belief of the tribes of the United States was wellexpressed in the reply of Esau Hajo, great medal chief and speaker forthe Creek nation in the National Council, to the question, Do the redpeople believe in a future state of rewards and punishments? "We have anopinion that those who have behaved well are taken under the care ofEsaugetuh Emissee, and assisted; and that those who have behaved illare left to shift for themselves; and that there is no otherpunishment. "[243-1]

Neither the delights of a heaven on the one hand, nor the terrors of ahell on the other, were ever held out by priests or sages as anincentive to well-doing, or a warning to the evil-disposed. Differentfates, indeed, awaited the departed souls, but these rarely, if ever, were decided by their conduct while in the flesh, but by the manner ofdeath, the punctuality with which certain sepulchral rites werefulfilled by relatives, or other similar arbitrary circumstance beyondthe power of the individual to control. This view, which I am well awareis directly at variance with that of all previous writers, may be shownto be that natural to the uncultivated intellect everywhere, and thereal interpretation of the creeds of America. Whether these arbitrarycircumstances were not construed to signify the decision of the DivineMind on the life of the man, is a deeper question, which there is nomeans at hand to solve. 

Those who have complained of the hopeless confusion of Americanreligions have but proven the insufficiency of their own means ofanalyzing them. The uniformity which they display in so many points isnowhere more fully illustrated than in the unanimity with which they allpoint to the _sun_ as the land of the happy souls, the realm of theblessed, the scene of the joyous hunting-grounds of the hereafter. Itsperennial glory, its comfortable warmth, its daily analogy to the lifeof man, marked its abode as the pleasantest spot in the universe. Itmatters not whether the eastern Algonkins pointed to the south, othersof their nation, with the Iroquois and Creeks, to the west, or manytribes to the east, as the direction taken by the spirit; all thesemyths but mean that its bourn is the home of the sun, which is perhapsin the Orient whence he comes forth, in the Occident where he makes hisbed, or in the South whither he retires in the chilling winter. Wherethe sun lives, they informed the earliest foreign visitors, were thevillages of the deceased, and the milky way which nightly spans the archof heaven, was, in their opinion, the road that led thither, and wascalled the path of the souls (_le chemin des ames_). [244-1] To _hueyuku_, the mansion of the sun, said the Caribs, the soul passes when deathovertakes the body. [244-2] Our knowledge is scanty of the doctrinestaught by the Incas concerning the soul, but this much we do know, thatthey looked to the sun, their recognized lord and protector, as he whowould care for them at death, and admit them to his palaces. There--not, indeed, exquisite joys--but a life of unruffled placidity, void oflabor, vacant of strong emotions, a sort of material Nirvana, awaitedthem. [244-3] For these reasons, they, with most other American nations, interred the corpse lying east and west, and not as the traveller Meyenhas suggested, [244-4] from the reminiscences of some ancient migration. Beyond the Cordilleras, quite to the coast of Brazil, the innumerablehordes who wandered through the sombre tropical forests of that immenseterritory, also pointed to the west, to the region beyond the mountains, as the land where the souls of their ancestors lived in undisturbedserenity; or, in the more brilliant imaginations of the latergenerations, in a state of perennial inebriety, surrounded by infinitecasks of rum, and with no white man to dole it out to them. [245-1] Thenatives of the extreme south, of the Pampas and Patagonia, suppose thestars are the souls of the departed. At night they wander about the sky, but the moment the sun rises they hasten to the cheerful light, and areseen no more until it disappears in the west. So the Eskimo of thedistant north, in the long winter nights when the aurora bridges the skywith its changing hues and arrowy shafts of light, believes he sees thespirits of his ancestors clothed in celestial raiment, disportingthemselves in the absence of the sun, and calls the phenomenon _thedance of the dead_. 

The home of the sun was the heaven of the red man; but to this joyousabode not every one without distinction, no miscellaneous crowd, couldgain admittance. The conditions were as various as the nationaltemperaments. As the fierce gods of the Northmen would admit no soul tothe banquets of Walhalla but such as had met the "spear-death" in thebloody play of war, and shut out pitilessly all those who feeblybreathed their last in the "straw death" on the couch of sickness, sothe warlike Aztec race in Nicaragua held that the shades of those whodied in their beds went downward and to naught; but of those who fellin battle for their country to the east, "to the place whence comes thesun. "[246-1] In ancient Mexico not only the warriors who were thussacrificed on the altar of their country, but with a delicate andpoetical sense of justice that speaks well for the refinement of therace, also those women who perished in child-birth, were admitted to thehome of the sun. For are not they also heroines in the battle of life?Are they not also its victims? And do they not lay down their lives forcountry and kindred? Every morning, it was imagined, the heroes cameforth in battle array, and with shout and song and the ring of weapons, accompanied the sun to the zenith, where at every noon the souls of themothers, the Cihuapipilti, received him with dances, music, and flowers, and bore him company to his western couch. [246-2] Except these, none--without, it may be, the victims sacrificed to the gods, and thisis doubtful--were deemed worthy of the highest heaven. 

A mild and unwarlike tribe of Guatemala, on the other hand, werepersuaded that to die by any other than a natural death was to forfeitall hope of life hereafter, and therefore left the bodies of the slainto the beasts and vultures. 

The Mexicans had another place of happiness for departed souls, notpromising perpetual life as the home of the sun, but unalloyed pleasurefor a certain term of years. This was Tlalocan, the realm of the god ofrains and waters, the terrestrial paradise, whence flowed all therivers of the earth, and all the nourishment of the race. The diseasesof which persons died marked this destination. Such as were drowned, orstruck by lightning, or succumbed to humoral complaints, as dropsies andleprosy, were by these tokens known to be chosen as the subjects ofTlaloc. To such, said the natives, "death is the commencement of anotherlife, it is as waking from a dream, and the soul is no more human butdivine (_teot_). " Therefore they addressed their dying in terms likethese: "Sir, or lady, awake, awake; already does the dawn appear; evennow is the light approaching; already do the birds of yellow plumagebegin their songs to greet thee; already are the gayly-tintedbutterflies flitting around thee. "[247-1]

Before proceeding to the more gloomy portion of the subject, to thedestiny of those souls who were not chosen for the better part, I mustadvert to a curious coincidence in the religious reveries of manynations which finds its explanation in the belief that the house of thesun is the home of the blessed, and proves that this was the firstconception of most natural religions. It is seen in the events andobstacles of the journey to the happy land. We everywhere hear of awater which the soul must cross, and an opponent, either a dog or anevil spirit, which it has to contend with. We are all familiar with thedog Cerberus (called by Homer simply "the dog"), which disputed thepassage of the river Styx over which the souls must cross; and with thecustom of the vikings, to be buried in a boat so that they might crossthe waters of Ginunga-gap to the inviting strands of Godheim. Relics ofthis belief are found in the Koran which describes the bridge _elSirat_, thin as a hair and sharp as a scimetar, [TN-13] stretched in asingle span from heaven to earth; in the Persian legend, where therainbow arch Chinevad is flung across the gloomy depths between thisworld and the home of the happy; and even in the current Christianallegory which represents the waters of the mythical Jordan rollingbetween us and the Celestial City. 

How strange at first sight does it seem that the Hurons and Iroquoisshould have told the earliest missionaries that after death the soulmust cross a deep and swift river on a bridge formed by a single slendertree most lightly supported, where it had to defend itself against theattacks of a dog?[248-1] If only they had expressed this belief, itmight have passed for a coincidence merely. But the Athapascas(Chepewyans) also told of a great water, which the soul must cross in astone canoe; the Algonkins and Dakotas, of a stream bridged by anenormous snake, or a narrow and precipitous rock, and the Araucanians ofChili of a sea in the west, in crossing which the soul was required topay toll to a malicious old woman. Were it unluckily impecunious, shedeprived it of an eye. [248-2] With the Aztecs this water was calledChicunoapa, the Nine Rivers. It was guarded by a dog and a green dragon, to conciliate which the dead were furnished with slips of paper by wayof toll. The Greenland Eskimos thought that the waters roared throughan unfathomable abyss over which there was no other bridge than a wheelslippery with ice, forever revolving with fearful rapidity, or a pathnarrow as a cord with nothing to hold on by. On the other side sits ahorrid old woman gnashing her teeth and tearing her hair with rage. Aseach soul approaches she burns a feather under its nose; if it faintsshe seizes it for her prisoner, but if the soul's guardian spirit canovercome her, it passes through in safety. [249-1]

The similarity to the passage of the soul across the Styx, and the tollof the obolus to Charon is in the Aztec legend still more striking, whenwe remember that the Styx was the ninth head of Oceanus (omitting theCocytus, often a branch of the Styx). The Nine Rivers probably refer tothe nine Lords of the Night, ancient Aztec deities guarding thenocturnal hours, and introduced into their calendar. The Tupis andCaribs, the Mayas and Creeks, entertained very similar expectations. 

We are to seek the explanation of these wide-spread theories of thesoul's journey in the equally prevalent tenet that the sun is itsdestination, and that that luminary has his abode beyond the oceanstream, which in all primitive geographies rolls its waves around thehabitable land. This ocean stream is the water which all have to attemptto pass, and woe to him whom the spirit of the waters, representedeither as the old woman, the dragon, or the dog of Hecate, seizes andovercomes. In the lush fancy of the Orient, the spirit of the watersbecomes the spirit of evil, the ocean stream the abyss of hell, andthose who fail in the passage the damned, who are foredoomed to evildeeds and endless torture. 

No such ethical bearing as this was ever assigned the myth by the redrace before they were taught by Europeans. Father Brebeuf could onlyfind that the souls of suicides and those killed in war were supposed tolive apart from the others; "but as to the souls of scoundrels, " headds, "so far from being shut out, they are the welcome guests, thoughfor that matter if it were not so, their paradise would be a totaldesert, as Huron and scoundrel (_Huron et larron_) are one and thesame. "[250-1] When the Minnetarees told Major Long and the Mannicicas ofthe La Plata the Jesuits, [250-2] that the souls of the bad fell into thewaters and were swept away, these are, beyond doubt, attributable eitherto a false interpretation, or to Christian instruction. No suchdistinction is probable among savages. The Brazilian natives divided thedead into classes, supposing that the drowned, those killed by violence, and those yielding to disease, lived in separate regions; but no ethicalreason whatever seems to have been connected with this. [250-3] If theconception of a place of moral retribution was known at all to the race, it should be found easily recognizable in Mexico, Yucatan, or Peru. Butthe so-called "hells" of their religions have no such significance, andthe spirits of evil, who were identified by early writers with Satan, nomore deserve the name than does the Greek Pluto. 

Çupay or Supay, the Shadow, in Peru was supposed to rule the land ofshades in the centre of the earth. To him went all souls not destined tobe the companions of the Sun. This is all we know of his attributes; andthe assertion of Garcilasso de la Vega, that he was the analogue of theChristian Devil, and that his name was never pronounced without spittingand muttering a curse on his head, may be invalidated by the testimonyof an earlier and better authority on the religion of Peru, who callshim the god of rains, and adds that the famous Inca, Huayna Capac, washis high priest. [251-1]

"The devil, " says Cogolludo of the Mayas, "is called by themXibilha, [TN-14] which means he who disappears or vanishes. "[251-2] In thelegends of the Quichés, the name Xibalba is given as that of theunder-world ruled by the grim lords One Death and Seven Deaths. Thederivation of the name is from a root meaning to fear, from which comesthe term in Maya dialects for a ghost or phantom. [251-3] Under theinfluence of a century of Christian catechizing, the Quiché legendsportray this really as a place of torment, and its rulers as malignantand powerful; but as I have before pointed out, they do so, protestingthat such was not the ancient belief, and they let fall no word thatshows that it was regarded as the destination of the morally bad. Theoriginal meaning of the name given by Cogolludo points unmistakably tothe simple fact of disappearance from among men, and corresponds inharmlessness to the true sense of those words of fear, Scheol, Hades, Hell, all signifying hidden from sight, and only endowed with more grimassociations by the imaginations of later generations. [252-1]

Mictlanteuctli, Lord of Mictlan, from a word meaning to die, was theMexican Pluto. Like Çupay, he dwelt in the subterranean regions, and hispalace was named Tlalxicco, the navel of the earth. Yet he was alsolocated in the far north, and that point of the compass and the northwind were named after him. Those who descended to him were oppressed bythe darkness of his abode, but were subjected to no other trials; norwere they sent thither as a punishment, but merely from having died ofdiseases unfitting them for Tlalocan. Mictlanteuctli was said to be themost powerful of the gods. For who is stronger than Death? And who daredefy the Grave? As the skald lets Odin say to Bragi: "Our lot isuncertain; even on the hosts of the gods gazes the gray Fenriswolf. "[252-2]

These various abodes to which the incorporeal man took flight were notalways his everlasting home. It will be remembered that where aplurality of souls was believed, one of these, soon after death, entered another body to recommence life on earth. Acting under thispersuasion, the Algonkin women who desired to become mothers, flocked tothe couch of those about to die, in hope that the vital principle, as itpassed from the body, would enter theirs, and fertilize their sterilewombs; and when, among the Seminoles of Florida, a mother died inchildbirth, the infant was held over her face to receive her partingspirit, and thus acquire strength and knowledge for its futureuse. [253-1] So among the Tahkalis, the priest is accustomed to lay hishand on the head of the nearest relative of the deceased, and to blowinto him the soul of the departed, which is supposed to come to life inhis next child. [253-2] Probably, with a reference to the currenttradition that ascribes the origin of man to the earth, and likens hislife to that of the plant, the Mexicans were accustomed to say that atone time all men have been stones, and that at last they would allreturn to stones;[253-3] and, acting literally on this conviction, theyinterred with the bones of the dead a small green stone, which wascalled the principle of life. 

Whether any nations accepted the doctrine of metempsychosis, and thoughtthat "the souls of their grandams might haply inhabit a partridge, " weare without the means of knowing. La Hontan denies it positively of theAlgonkins; but the natives of Popoyan refused to kill doves, saysCoreal, [254-1] because they believe them inspired by the souls of thedeparted. And Father Ignatius Chomé relates that he heard a woman of theChiriquanes in Buenos Ayres say of a fox: "May that not be the spirit ofmy dead daughter?"[254-2] But before accepting such testimony asdecisive, we must first inquire whether these tribes believed in amultiplicity of souls, whether these animals had a symbolical value, andif not, whether the soul was not simply presumed to put on this shape inits journey to the land of the hereafter: inquiries which areunanswered. Leaving, therefore, the question open, whether the sage ofSamos had any disciples in the new world, another and more fruitfultopic is presented by their well-ascertained notions of the resurrectionof the dead. 

This seemingly extraordinary doctrine, which some have asserted wasentirely unknown and impossible to the American Indians, [254-3] was infact one of their most deeply-rooted and wide-spread convictions, especially among the tribes of the eastern United States. It isindissolubly connected with their highest theories of a future life, their burial ceremonies, and their modes of expression. The MoravianBrethren give the grounds of this belief with great clearness: "Thatthey hold the soul to be immortal, and perhaps think the body will riseagain, they give not unclearly to understand when they say, 'We Indiansshall not for ever die; even the grains of corn we put under the earth, grow up and become living things. ' They conceive that when the soul hasbeen a while with God, it can, if it chooses, return to earth and beborn again. "[255-1] This is the highest and typical creed of theaborigines. But instead of simply being born again in the ordinary senseof the word, they thought the soul would return to the bones, that thesewould clothe themselves with flesh, and that the man would rejoin histribe. That this was the real, though often doubtless the dimlyunderstood reason of the custom of preserving the bones of the deceased, can be shown by various arguments. 

This practice was almost universal. East of the Mississippi nearly everynation was accustomed, at stated periods--usually once in eight or tenyears--to collect and clean the osseous remains of those of its numberwho had died in the intervening time, and inter them in one commonsepulchre, lined with choice furs, and marked with a mound of wood, stone, and earth. Such is the origin of those immense tumuli filled withthe mortal remains of nations and generations which the antiquary, withirreverent curiosity, so frequently chances upon in all portions of ourterritory. Throughout Central America the same usage obtained in variouslocalities, as early writers and existing monuments abundantly testify. Instead of interring the bones, were they those of some distinguishedchieftain, they were deposited in the temples or the council-houses, usually in small chests of canes or splints. Such were thecharnel-houses which the historians of De Soto's expedition so oftenmention, and these are the "arks" which Adair and other authors, whohave sought to trace the descent of the Indians from the Jews, havelikened to that which the ancient Israelites bore with them on theirmigrations. A widow among the Tahkalis was obliged to carry the bones ofher deceased husband wherever she went for four years, preserving themin such a casket handsomely decorated with feathers. [256-1] The Caribsof the mainland adopted the custom for all without exception. About ayear after death the bones were cleaned, bleached, painted, wrapped inodorous balsams, placed in a wicker basket, and kept suspended from thedoor of their dwellings. [256-2] When the quantity of these heirloomsbecame burdensome, they were removed to some inaccessible cavern, andstowed away with reverential care. Such was the cave Ataruipe, a visitto which has been so eloquently described by Alexander von Humboldt inhis "Views of Nature. "

So great was the filial respect for these remains by the Indians, thaton the Mississippi, in Peru, and elsewhere, no tyranny, no cruelty, soembittered the indigenes against the white explorers as the sacrilegioussearch for treasures perpetrated among the sepulchres of pastgenerations. Unable to understand the meaning of such deep feeling, soforeign to the European who, without a second thought, turns a cemeteryinto a public square, or seeds it down in wheat, the Jesuit missionariesin Paraguay accuse the natives of worshipping the skeletons of theirforefathers, [257-1] and the English in Virginia repeated it of thePowhatans. 

The question has been debated and variously answered, whether the art ofmummification was known and practised in America. Without entering intothe discussion, it is certain that preservation of the corpse by a longand thorough process of exsiccation over a slow fire was nothingunusual, not only in Peru, Popoyan, the Carib countries, and Nicaragua, but among many of the tribes north of the Gulf of Mexico, as I haveelsewhere shown. [257-2] The object was essentially the same as when thebones alone were preserved; and in the case of rulers, the same homagewas often paid to their corpses as had been the just due of their livingbodies. 

The opinion underlying all these customs was, that a part of the soul, or one of the souls, dwelt in the bones; that these were the seedswhich, planted in the earth, or preserved unbroken in safe places, would, in time, put on once again a garb of flesh, and germinate intoliving human beings. Language illustrates this not unusual theory. TheIroquois word for bone is _esken_--for soul, _atisken_, literally thatwhich is within the bone. [257-3] In an Athapascan dialect bone is_yani_, soul _i-yune_. [257-4] The Hebrew Rabbis taught that in the bone_lutz_, the coccyx, remained at death the germ of a second life, which, at the proper time, would develop into the purified body, as the plantfrom the seed. 

But mythology and supersitions[TN-15] add more decisive testimony. One ofthe Aztec legends of the origin of man was, that after one of thedestructions of the world the gods took counsel together how to renewthe species. It was decided that one of their number, Xolotl, shoulddescend to Mictlan, the realm of the dead, and bring thence a bone ofthe perished race. The fragments of this they sprinkled with blood, andon the fourth day it grew into a youth, the father of the presentrace. [258-1] The profound mystical significance of this legend isreflected in one told by the Quichés, in which the hero gods Hunahpu andXblanque succumb to the rulers of Xibalba, the darksome powers of death. Their bodies are burned, but their bones are ground in a mill and thrownin the waters, lest they should come to life. Even this precaution isinsufficient--"for these ashes did not go far; they sank to the bottomof the stream, where, in the twinkling of an eye, they were changed intohandsome youths, and their very same features appeared anew. On thefifth day they displayed themselves anew, and were seen in the water bythe people, "[258-2] whence they emerged to overcome and destroy thepowers of death and hell (Xibalba). 

The strongest analogies to these myths are offered by the superstitiousrites of distant tribes. Some of the Tupis of Brazil were wont on thedeath of a relative to dry and pulverize his bones and then mix themwith their food, a nauseous practice they defended by asserting that thesoul of the dead remained in the bones and lived again in theliving. [259-1] Even the lower animals were supposed to follow the samelaw. Hardly any of the hunting tribes, before their original mannerswere vitiated by foreign influence, permitted the bones of game slain inthe chase to be broken, or left carelessly about the encampment. Theywere collected in heaps, or thrown into the water. Mrs. Eastman observesthat even yet the Dakotas deem it an omen of ill luck in the hunt, ifthe dogs gnaw the bones or a woman inadvertently steps over them; andthe Chipeway interpreter, John Tanner, speaks of the same fear amongthat tribe. The Yurucares of Bolivia carried it to such an inconvenientextent, that they carefully put by even small fish bones, saying thatunless this was done the fish and game would disappear from thecountry. [259-2] The traveller on our western prairies often notices thebuffalo skulls, countless numbers of which bleach on those vast plains, arranged in circles and symmetrical piles by the careful hands of thenative hunters. The explanation they offer for this custom gives the keyto the whole theory and practice of preserving the osseous relics of thedead, as well human as brute. They say that, "the bones contain thespirits of the slain animals, and that some time in the future they willrise from the earth, re-clothe themselves with flesh, and stock theprairies anew. "[259-3] This explanation, which comes to us fromindisputable authority, sets forth in its true light the belief of thered race in a resurrection. It is not possible to trace it out in thesubtleties with which theologians have surrounded it as a dogma. Thevery attempt would be absurd. They never occurred to the Indian. Hethought that the soul now enjoying the delights of the happy huntinggrounds would some time return to the bones, take on flesh, and liveagain. Such is precisely the much discussed statement that Garcilasso dela Vega says he often heard from the native Peruvians. He adds that socareful were they lest any of the body should be lost that theypreserved even the parings of their nails and clippings of thehair. [260-1] In contradiction to this the writer Acosta has been quoted, who says that the Peruvians embalmed their dead because they "had noknowledge that the bodies should rise with the soul. "[260-2] But, rightly understood, this is a confirmation of La Vega's account. Acostameans that the Christian doctrine of the body rising from the dust beingunknown to the Peruvians (which is perfectly true), they preserved thebody just as it was, so that the soul when it returned to earth, as allexpected, might not be at a loss for a house of flesh. 

The notions thus entertained by the red race on the resurrection arepeculiar to it, and stand apart from those of any other. They did notlook for the second life to be either better or worse than the presentone; they regarded it neither as a reward nor a punishment to be sentback to the world of the living; nor is there satisfactory evidence thatit was ever distinctly connected with a moral or physical theory of thedestiny of the universe, or even with their prevalent expectation ofrecurrent epochs in the course of nature. It is true that a writer whosepersonal veracity is above all doubt, Mr. Adam Hodgson, relates anancient tradition of the Choctaws, to the effect that the present worldwill be consumed by a general conflagration, after which it will bereformed pleasanter than it now is, and that then the spirits of thedead will return to the bones in the bone mounds, flesh will knittogether their loose joints, and they shall again inhabit their ancientterritory. [261-1]

There was also a similar belief among the Eskimos. They said that in thecourse of time the waters would overwhelm the land, purify it of theblood of the dead, melt the icebergs, and wash away the steep rocks. Awind would then drive off the waters, and the new land would be peopledby reindeers and young seals. Then would He above blow once on the bonesof the men and twice on those of the women, whereupon they would at oncestart into life, and lead thereafter a joyous existence. [261-2]

But though there is nothing in these narratives alien to the course ofthought in the native mind, yet as the date of the first is recent(1820), as they are not supported (so far as I know) by similartraditions elsewhere, and as they may have arisen from Christiandoctrines of a millennium, I leave them for future investigation. 

What strikes us the most in this analysis of the opinions entertained bythe red race on a future life is the clear and positive hope of ahereafter, in such strong contrast to the feeble and vague notions ofthe ancient Israelites, Greeks, and Romans, and yet the entire inertnessof this hope in leading them to a purer moral life. It offers anotherproof that the fulfilment of duty is in its nature nowise connected withor derived from a consideration of ultimate personal consequences. It isanother evidence that the religious is wholly distinct from the moralsentiment, and that the origin of ethics is not to be sought inconnection with the ideas of divinity and responsibility. 

FOOTNOTES:

[233-1] _Journal Historique_, p. 351: Paris, 1740. 

[234-1] _Rep. Of the Commissioner of Ind. Affairs_, 1854, pp. 211, 212. The old woman is once more a personification of the water and the moon. 

[234-2] Bægert, _Acc. Of the Aborig. Tribes of the CalifornianPeninsula_, translated by Chas. Rau, in Ann. Rep. Smithson. Inst. , 1866, p. 387. 

[235-1] Of the Nicaraguans Oviedo says: "Ce n'est pas leur cœur qui vaen haut, mais ce qui les faisait vivre; c'est-à-dire, le souffle qui leursort par la bouche, et que l'on nomme _Julio_" (_Hist. Du Nicaragua_, p. 36). The word should be _yulia_, kindred with _yoli_, to live. (Buschmann, _Uber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen_, p. 765. ) In the Aztec andcognate languages we have already seen that _ehecatl_ means both _wind_, _soul_, and _shadow_ (Buschmann, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr. In NördlichenMexico_, p. 74). 

[236-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1636, p. 104; "Keating's_Narrative_, " i. Pp. 232, 410. 

[237-1] French, _Hist. Colls. Of Louisiana_, iii. P. 26. 

[237-2] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 129. 

[237-3] _Voy. à la Louisiane fait en 1720_, p. 155: Paris, 1768. 

[239-1] Dupratz, _Hist. Of Louisiana_, ii. P. 219; Dumont, _Mems. Hist. Sur la Louisiane_, i. Chap. 26. 

[240-1] _Rel. De la Prov. De Cueba_, p. 140. 

[240-2] Coreal, _Voiages aux Indes Occidentales_, ii. P. 94: Amsterdam, 1722. 

[241-1] _Senate Rep. On the Ind. Tribes_, p. 358: Wash. 1867. 

[241-2] Egede, _Nachrichten von Grönland_, p. 145. 

[242-1] Alger, _Hist. Of the Doctrine of a Future Life_, p. 76. 

[243-1] Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, p. 80. 

[244-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1634, pp. 17, 18. 

[244-2] Müller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 229. 

[244-3] La Vega, _Hist. Des Incas. _, lib. Ii. Cap. 7. 

[244-4] _Ueber die Ureinwohner von Peru_, p. 41. 

[245-1] Coreal, _Voy. Aux Indes Occident. _, i. P. 224; Müller, _Amer. Urrelig. _, p. 289. 

[246-1] Oviedo, _Hist. Du Nicaragua_, p. 22. 

[246-2] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. Vi. Cap. 27. 

[247-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. X. Cap. 29. 

[248-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1636, p. 105. 

[248-2] Molina, _Hist. Of Chili_, ii. P. 81, and others in Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iii. P. 197. 

[249-1] _Nachrichten von Grönland aus dem Tagebuche vom Bischof PaulEgede_, p. 104: Kopenhagen, 1790. 

[250-1] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1636, p. 105. 

[250-2] Long's _Expedition_, i. P. 280; Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iii. P. 531. 

[250-3] Müller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 287. 

[251-1] Compare Garcilasso de la Vega, _Hist. Des Incas. _, liv. Ii. Chap. Ii. , with _Lett. Sur les Superstitions du Pérou_, p. 104. Çupay isundoubtedly a personal form from _Çupan_, a shadow. (See Holguin, _Vocab. De la Lengua Quichua_, p. 80: Cuzco, 1608. )

[251-2] "El que desparece ô desvanece, " _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 7. 

[251-3] Ximenes, _Vocab. Quiché_, p. 224. The attempt of the AbbéBrasseur to make of Xibalba an ancient kingdom of renown with Palenque asits capital, is so utterly unsupported and wildly hypothetical, as tojustify the humorous flings which have so often been cast at antiquaries. 

[252-1] Scheol is from a Hebrew word, signifying to dig, to hide in theearth. Hades signifies the _unseen_ world. Hell Jacob Grimm derives from_hilan_, to conceal in the earth, and it is cognate with _hole_ and_hollow_. 

[252-2] Pennock, _Religion of the Northmen_, p. 148. 

[253-1] La Hontan, _Voy. Dans l'Am. Sept. _, i. P. 232; _Narrative ofOceola Nikkanoche_, p. 75. 

[253-2] Morse, _Rep. On the Ind. Tribes_, App. P. 345. 

[253-3] Garcia, _Or. De los Indios_, lib. Iv. Cap. 26, p. 310. 

[254-1] _Voiages aux Indes Oc. _, ii. P. 132. 

[254-2] _Lettres Edif. Et Cur. _, v. P. 203. 

[254-3] Alger, _Hist. Of the Doctrine of a Future Life_, p. 72. 

[255-1] Loskiel, _Ges. Der Miss. Der evang. Brüder_, p. 49. 

[256-1] Richardson, _Arctic Expedition_, p. 260. 

[256-2] Gumilla, _Hist. Del Orinoco_, i. Pp. 199, 202, 204. 

[257-1] Ruis, _Conquista Espiritual del Paraguay_, p. 48, in Lafitau. 

[257-2] _Notes on the Floridian Peninsula_, pp. 191 sqq. 

[257-3] Bruyas, _Rad. Verborum Iroquæorum_. 

[257-4] Buschmann, _Athapask. Sprachstamm_, pp. 182, 188. 

[258-1] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. Vi. Cap. 41. 

[258-2] _Le Livre Sacré des Quichés_, pp. 175-177. 

[259-1] Müller, _Amer. Urrelig. _, p. 290, after Spix. 

[259-2] D'Orbigny, _Annuaire des Voyages_, 1845, p. 77. 

[259-3] Long's _Expedition_, i. P. 278. 

[260-1] _Hist. Des Incas_, lib. Iii. Chap. 7. 

[260-2] _Hist. Of the New World_, bk. V. Chap. 7. 

[261-1] _Travels in North America_, p. 280. 

[261-2] Egede, _Nachrichten von Grönland_, p. 156. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE NATIVE PRIESTHOOD. 

 Their titles. --Practitioners of the healing art by supernatural means. --Their power derived from natural magic and the exercise of the clairvoyant and mesmeric faculties. --Examples. --Epidemic hysteria. --Their social position. --Their duties as religious functionaries. --Terms of admission to the Priesthood. --Inner organization in various nations. --Their esoteric languages and secret societies. 

Thus picking painfully amid the ruins of a race gone to wreck centuriesago, thus rejecting much foreign rubbish and scrutinizing each stonethat lies around, if we still are unable to rebuild the edifice in itspristine symmetry and beauty, yet we can at least discern and trace theground plan and outlines of the fane it raised to God. Before leavingthe field to the richer returns of more fortunate workmen, it will notbe inappropriate to add a sketch of the ministers of these religions, the servants in this temple. 

Shamans, conjurers, sorcerers, medicine men, wizards, and many anotherhard name have been given them, but I shall call them _priests_, for intheir poor way, as well as any other priesthood, they set up to be theagents of the gods, and the interpreters of divinity. No tribe was sodevoid of religious sentiment as to be without them. Their power wasterrible, and their use of it unscrupulous. Neither men nor gods, deathnor life, the winds nor the waves, were beyond their control. Like OldMen of the Sea, they have clung to the neck of their nations, throttlingall attempts at progress, binding them to the thraldom of superstitionand profligacy, dragging them down to wretchedness and death. Christianity and civilization meet in them their most determined, mostimplacable foes. But what is this but the story of priestcraft andintolerance everywhere, which Old Spain can repeat as well as New Spain, the white race as well as the red? Blind leaders of the blind, dupersand duped fall into the ditch. 

In their own languages they are variously called; by the Algonkins andDakotas, "those knowing divine things" and "dreamers of the gods"(_manitousiou_, _wakanwacipi_); in Mexico, "masters or guardians of thedivine things" (_teopixqui_, _teotecuhtli_); in Cherokee, their titlemeans, "possessed of the divine fire" (_atsilung kelawhi_); in Iroquois, "keepers of the faith" (_honundeunt_); in Quichua, "the learned"(_amauta_); in Maya, "the listeners" (_cocome_). The popular term inFrench and English of "medicine men" is not such a misnomer as might besupposed. The noble science of medicine is connected with divinity notonly by the rudest savage but the profoundest philosopher, as has beenalready adverted to. When sickness is looked upon as the effect of theanger of a god, or as the malicious infliction of a sorcerer, it isnatural to seek help from those who assume to control the unseen world, and influence the fiats of the Almighty. The recovery from disease isthe kindliest exhibition of divine power. Therefore the earliest canonsof medicine in India and Egypt are attributed to no less distinguishedauthors than the gods Brahma and Thoth;[265-1] therefore the earliestpractitioners of the healing art are universally the ministers ofreligion. 

But, however creditable this origin is to medicine, its partnership withtheology was no particular advantage to it. These mystical doctorsshared the contempt still so prevalent among ourselves for a treatmentbased on experiment and reason, and regarded the administration ofemetics and purgatives, baths and diuretics, with a contempt quite equalto that of the disciples of Hahnemann. The practitioners of the rationalschool formed a separate class among the Indians, and had nothing to dowith amulets, powwows, or spirits. [265-2] They were of different nameand standing, and though held in less estimation, such valuableadditions to the pharmacopœia as guaiacum, cinchona, and ipecacuanha, were learned from them. The priesthood scorned such ignoble means. Werethey summoned to a patient, they drowned his groans in a barbarousclangor of instruments in order to fright away the demon that possessedhim; they sucked and blew upon the diseased organ, they sprinkled himwith water, and catching it again threw it on the ground, thus drowningout the disease; they rubbed the part with their hands, and exhibiting abone or splinter asserted that they drew it from the body, and that ithad been the cause of the malady, they manufactured a little image torepresent the spirit of sickness, and spitefully knocked it to pieces, thus vicariously destroying its prototype; they sang doleful andmonotonous chants at the top of their voices, screwed theircountenances into hideous grimaces, twisted their bodies into unheard ofcontortions, and by all accounts did their utmost to merit thehonorarium they demanded for their services. A double motive spurredthem to spare no pains. For if they failed, not only was theirreputation gone, but the next expert called in was likely enough tohint, with that urbanity so traditional in the profession, that theillness was in fact caused or much increased by the antagonistic natureof the remedies previously employed, whereupon the chances were that thedoctor's life fell into greater jeopardy than that of his quondampatient. 

Considering the probable result of this treatment, we may be allowed todoubt whether it redounded on the whole very much to the honor of thefraternity. Their strong points are rather to be looked for in the realknowledge gained by a solitary and reflective life, by an earnest studyof the appearances of nature, and of those hints and forest signs whichare wholly lost on the white man and beyond the ordinary insight of anative. Travellers often tell of changes of the weather predicted bythem with astonishing foresight, and of information of singular accuracyand extent gleaned from most meagre materials. There is nothing in thisto shock our sense of probability--much to elevate our opinion of thenative sagacity. They were also adepts in tricks of sleight of hand, andhad no mean acquaintance with what is called natural magic. They wouldallow themselves to be tied hand and foot with knots innumerable, and ata sign would shake them loose as so many wisps of straw; they would spitfire and swallow hot coals, pick glowing stones from the flames, walknaked through a fire, and plunge their arms to the shoulder in kettlesof boiling water with apparent impunity. [267-1] Nor was this all. With askill not inferior to that of the jugglers of India, they could plungeknives into vital parts, vomit blood, or kill one another out and out toall appearances, and yet in a few minutes be as well as ever; they couldset fire to articles of clothing and even houses, and by a touch oftheir magic restore them instantly as perfect as before. [267-2] If itwere not within our power to see most of these miracles performed anynight in one of our great cities by a well dressed professional, wewould at once deny their possibility. As it is, they astonish us onlytoo little. 

One of the most peculiar and characteristic exhibitions of their power, was to summon a spirit to answer inquiries concerning the future and theabsent. A great similarity marked this proceeding in all northern tribesfrom the Eskimos to the Mexicans. A circular or conical lodge of stoutpoles four or eight in number planted firmly in the ground, was coveredwith skins or mats, a small aperture only being left for the seer toenter. Once in, he carefully closed the hole and commenced hisincantations. Soon the lodge trembles, the strong poles shake and bendas with the united strength of a dozen men, and strange, unearthlysounds, now far aloft in the air, now deep in the ground, anonapproaching near and nearer, reach the ears of the spectators. At lengththe priest announces that the spirit is present, and is prepared toanswer questions. An indispensable preliminary to any inquiry is toinsert a handful of tobacco, or a string of beads, or some such douceurunder the skins, ostensibly for the behoof of the celestial visitor, whowould seem not to be above earthly wants and vanities. The repliesreceived, though occasionally singularly clear and correct, are usuallyof that profoundly ambiguous purport which leaves the anxious inquirerlittle wiser than he was before. For all this, ventriloquism, trickery, and shrewd knavery are sufficient explanations. Nor does it materiallyinterfere with this view, that converted Indians, on whose veracity wecan implicitly rely, have repeatedly averred that in performing thisrite they themselves did not move the medicine lodge; for nothing iseasier than in the state of nervous excitement they were then in to beself-deceived, as the now familiar phenomenon of table-turningillustrates. 

But there is something more than these vulgar arts now and then to beperceived. There are statements supported by unquestionable testimony, which ought not to be passed over in silence, and yet I cannot butapproach them with hesitation. They are so revolting to the laws ofexact science, so alien, I had almost said, to the experience of ourlives. Yet is this true, or are such experiences only ignored and putaside without serious consideration? Are there not in the history ofeach of us passages which strike our retrospective thought with awe, almost with terror? Are there not in nearly every community individualswho possess a mysterious power, concerning whose origin, mode of action, and limits, we and they are alike in the dark? I refer to such organicforces as are popularly summed up under the words clairvoyance, mesmerism, rhabdomancy, animal magnetism, physical spiritualism. Civilized thousands stake their faith and hope here and hereafter, onthe truths of these manifestations; rational medicine recognizes theirexistence, and while it attributes them to morbid and exceptionalinfluences, confesses its want of more exact knowledge, and refrainsfrom barren theorizing. Let us follow her example, and hold it enough toshow that such powers, whatever they are, were known to the nativepriesthood as well as the modern spiritualists, and the miracle mongersof the Middle Ages. 

Their highest development is what our ancestors called "second sight. "That under certain conditions knowledge can pass from one mind toanother otherwise than through the ordinary channels of the senses, isfamiliarly shown by the examples of persons _en rapport_. The limit tothis we do not know, but it is not unlikely that clairvoyance or secondsight is based upon it. In his autobiography, the celebrated Sac chiefBlack Hawk, relates that his great grandfather "was inspired by a beliefthat at the end of four years, he should see a white man, who would beto him a father. " Under the direction of this vision he travelledeastward to a certain spot, and there, as he was forewarned, met aFrenchman, through whom the nation was brought into alliance withFrance. [269-1] No one at all versed in the Indian character will doubtthe implicit faith with which this legend was told and heard. But we maybe pardoned our scepticism, seeing there are so many chances of error. It is not so with an anecdote related by Captain Jonathan Carver, acool-headed English trader, whose little book of travels is anunquestioned authority. In 1767, he was among the Killistenoes at a timewhen they were in great straits for food, and depending upon the arrivalof the traders to rescue them from starvation. They persuaded the chiefpriest to consult the divinities as to when the relief would arrive. After the usual preliminaries, this magnate announced that next day, precisely when the sun reached the zenith, a canoe would arrive withfurther tidings. At the appointed hour the whole village, together withthe incredulous Englishman, was on the beach, and sure enough, at theminute specified, a canoe swung round a distant point of land, andrapidly approaching the shore brought the expected news. [270-1]

Charlevoix is nearly as trustworthy a writer as Carver. Yet hedeliberately relates an equally singular instance. [270-2]

But these examples are surpassed by one described in the _AtlanticMonthly_ of July, 1866, the author of which, John Mason Brown, Esq. , hasassured me of its accuracy in every particular. Some years since, at thehead of a party of voyageurs, he set forth in search of a band ofIndians somewhere on the vast plains along the tributaries of theCopper-mine and Mackenzie rivers. Danger, disappointment, and thefatigues of the road, induced one after another to turn back, until ofthe original ten only three remained. They also were on the point ofgiving up the apparently hopeless quest, when they were met by somewarriors of the very band they were seeking. These had been sent out byone of their medicine men to find three whites, whose horses, arms, attire, and personal appearance he minutely described, which descriptionwas repeated to Mr. Brown by the warriors before they saw his twocompanions. When afterwards, the priest, a frank and simple-minded man, was asked to explain this extraordinary occurrence, he could offer noother explanation than that "he saw them coming, and heard them talk ontheir journey. "[271-1]

Many tales such as these have been recorded by travellers, and howevermuch they may shock our sense of probability, as well-authenticatedexhibitions of a power which sways the Indian mind, and which has everprejudiced it so unchangeably against Christianity and civilization, they cannot be disregarded. Whether they too are but specimens ofrefined knavery, whether they are instigations of the Devil, or whetherthey must be classed with other facts as illustrating certain obscureand curious mental faculties, each may decide as the bent of his mindinclines him, for science makes no decision. 

Those nervous conditions associated with the name of Mesmer were nothingnew to the Indian magicians. Rubbing and stroking the sick, and thelaying on of hands, were very common parts of their clinical procedures, and at the initiations to their societies they were frequentlyexhibited. Observers have related that among the Nez Percés of Oregon, the novice was put to sleep by songs, incantations, and "certain passesof the hand, " and that with the Dakotas he would be struck lightly onthe breast at a preconcerted moment, and instantly "would drop prostrateon his face, his muscles rigid and quivering in every fibre. "[272-1]

There is no occasion to suppose deceit in this. It finds its parallel inevery race and every age, and rests on a characteristic trait of certainepochs and certain men, which leads them to seek the divine, not inthoughtful contemplation on the laws of the universe and the facts ofself-consciousness, but in an entire immolation of the latter, a sinkingof their own individuality in that of the spirits whose alliance theyseek. This is an outgrowth of that ignoring of the universality of Law, which belongs to the lower stages of enlightenment. [273-1] And as thisis never done with impunity, but with iron certainty brings itspunishment with it, the study of the mental conditions thus evoked, andthe results which follow them, offers a salutary subject of reflectionto the theologian as well as the physician. For these examples ofnervous pathology are identical in kind, and alike in consequences, whether witnessed in the primitive forests of the New World, among theconvulsionists of St. Medard, or in the excited scenes of a religiousrevival in one of our own churches. 

Sleeplessness and abstemiousness, carried to the utmost verge of humanendurance--seclusion, and the pertinacious fixing of the mind on onesubject--obstinate gloating on some morbid fancy, rarely failed to bringabout hallucinations with all the garb of reality. Physicians are wellaware that the more frequently these diseased conditions of the mind aresought, the more readily they are found. Then, again, they were ofteninduced by intoxicating and narcotic herbs. Tobacco, the maguey, coca;in California the chucuaco; among the Mexicans the snake plant, ollinhiqui or coaxihuitl; and among the southern tribes of our owncountry the cassine yupon and iris versicolor, [273-2] were used; and, itis even said, were cultivated for this purpose. The seer must workhimself up to a prophetic fury, or speechless lie in apparent deathbefore the mind of the gods would be opened to him. Trance and ecstasywere the two avenues he knew to divinity; fasting and seclusion themeans employed to discover them. His ideal was of a prophet who dweltfar from men, without need of food, in constant communion with divinity. Such an one, in the legends of the Tupis, resided on a mountainglittering with gold and silver, near the river Uaupe, his onlycompanion a dog, his only occupation dreaming of the gods. When, however, an eclipse was near, his dog would bark; and then, taking theform of a bird, he would fly over the villages, and learn the changesthat had taken place. [274-1]

But man cannot trample with impunity on the laws of his physical life, and the consequences of these deprivations and morbid excitements of thebrain show themselves in terrible pictures. Not unfrequently they werecarried to the pitch of raving mania, reminding one of the worst formsof the Berserker fury of the Scandinavians, or the Bacchic rage ofGreece. The enthusiast, maddened with the fancies of a disorderedintellect, would start forth from his seclusion in an access of demoniacfrenzy. Then woe to the dog, the child, the slave, or the woman whocrossed his path; for nothing but blood could satisfy his inappeasablecraving, and they fell instant victims to his madness. But were it astrong man, he bared his arm, and let the frenzied hermit bury his teethin the quivering flesh. Such is a scene at this day not uncommon on thenorthwest coast, and few of the natives around Milbank Sound are withoutthe scars the result of this horrid custom. [275-1]

This frenzy, terrible enough in individuals, had its most disastrouseffects when with that peculiar facility of contagion which markshysterical maladies, it swept through whole villages, transforming theminto bedlams filled with unrestrained madmen. Those who have studied thestrange and terrible mental epidemics that visited Europe in the middleages, such as the tarantula dance of Apulia, the chorea Germanorum, andthe great St. Vitus' dance, will be prepared to appreciate the nature ofa scene at a Huron village, described by Father le Jeune in 1639. Afestival of three days and three nights had been in progress to relievea woman who, from the description, seems to have been suffering fromsome obscure nervous complaint. Toward the close of this vigil, whichthroughout was marked by all sorts of debaucheries and excesses, all theparticipants seemed suddenly seized by ten thousand devils. They ranhowling and shrieking through the town, breaking everything destructiblein the cabins, killing dogs, beating the women and children, tearingtheir garments, and scattering the fires in every direction with barehands and feet. Some of them dropped senseless, to remain long orpermanently insane, but the others continued until worn out withexhaustion. The Father learned that during these orgies not unfrequentlywhole villages were consumed, and the total extirpation of some familieshad resulted. No wonder that he saw in them the diabolical workings ofthe prince of evil, but the physician is rather inclined to class themwith those cases of epidemic hysteria, the common products of violentand ill-directed mental stimuli. [276-1]

These various considerations prove beyond a doubt that the power of thepriesthood did by no means rest exclusively on deception. They indorseand explain the assertions of converted natives, that their power asprophets was something real, and entirely inexplicable to themselves. And they make it easily understood how those missionaries failed whoattempted to persuade them that all this boasted power was false. Morecorrect views than these ought to have been suggested by the factsthemselves, for it is indisputable that these magicians did nothesitate at times to test their strength on each other. In these strangeduels _à l'outrance_, one would be seated opposite his antagonist, surrounded with the mysterious emblems of his craft, and call upon hisgods one after another to strike his enemy dead. Sometimes one, "gathering his medicine, " as it was termed, feeling within himself thathidden force of will which makes itself acknowledged even without words, would rise in his might, and in a loud and severe voice command hisopponent to die! Straightway the latter would drop dead, or yielding incraven fear to a superior volition, forsake the implements of his art, and with an awful terror at his heart, creep to his lodge, refuse allnourishment, and presently perish. Still more terrible was the tyrannythey exerted on the superstitious minds of the masses. Let an Indianonce be possessed of the idea that he is bewitched, and he will probablyreject all food, and sink under the phantoms of his own fancy. 

How deep the superstitious veneration of these men has struck its rootsin the soul of the Indian, it is difficult for civilized minds toconceive. Their power is currently supposed to be without any bounds, "extending to the raising of the dead and the control of all laws ofnature. "[277-1] The grave offers no escape from their omnipotent arms. The Sacs and Foxes, Algonkin tribes, think that the soul cannot leavethe corpse until set free by the medicine men at their great annualfeast;[277-2] and the Puelches of Buenos Ayres guard a profound silenceas they pass by the tomb of some redoubted necromancer, lest they shoulddisturb his repose, and suffer from his malignant skill. [278-1]

While thus investigating their real and supposed power over the physicaland mental world, their strictly priestly functions, as performers ofthe rites of religion, have not been touched upon. Among the rudertribes these, indeed, were of the most rudimentary character. Sacrifices, chiefly in the form of feasts, where every one crammed tohis utmost, dances, often winding up with the wildest scenes oflicentiousness, the repetition of long and monotonous chants, the makingof the new fire, these are the ceremonies that satisfy the religiouswants of savages. The priest finds a further sphere for his activity inmanufacturing and consecrating amulets to keep off ill luck, ininterpreting dreams, and especially in lifting the veil of the future. In Peru, for example, they were divided into classes, who made thevarious means of divination specialties. Some caused the idols to speak, others derived their foreknowledge from words spoken by the dead, otherspredicted by leaves of tobacco or the grains and juice of cocoa, whileto still other classes, the shapes of grains of maize taken at random, the appearance of animal excrement, the forms assumed by the smokerising from burning victims, the entrails and viscera of animals, thecourse taken by a certain species of spider, the visions seen indrunkeness, [TN-16] the flights of birds, and the directions in whichfruits would fall, all offered so many separate fields ofprognostication, the professors of which were distinguished by differentranks and titles. [279-1]

As the intellectual force of the nation was chiefly centred in thisclass, they became the acknowledged depositaries of its sacred legends, the instructors in the art of preserving thought; and from their duty toregulate festivals, sprang the observation of the motions of theheavenly bodies, the adjustment of the calendars, and the pseudo-scienceof judicial astrology. The latter was carried to as subtle a pitch ofrefinement in Mexico as in the old world; and large portions of theancient writers are taken up with explaining the method adopted by thenative astrologers to cast the horoscope, and reckon the nativity of thenewly-born infant. 

How was this superior power obtained? What were the terms of admissionto this privileged class? In the ruder communities the power wasstrictly personal. It was revealed to its possessor by the character ofthe visions he perceived at the ordeal he passed through on arriving atpuberty; and by the northern nations was said to be the manifestation ofa more potent personal spirit than ordinary. It was not a faculty, butan inspiration; not an inborn strength, but a spiritual gift. Thecurious theory of the Dakotas, as recorded by the Rev. Mr. Pond, wasthat the necromant first wakes to consciousness as a winged seed, waftedhither and thither by the intelligent action of the Four Winds. In thisform he visits the homes of the different classes of divinities, andlearns the chants, feasts, and dances, which it is proper for the humanrace to observe, the art of omnipresence or clairvoyance, the means ofinflicting and healing diseases, and the occult secrets of nature, man, and divinity. This is called "dreaming of the gods. " When thisinstruction is completed, the seed enters one about to become a mother, assumes human form, and in due time manifests his powers. _Four_ suchincarnations await it, each of increasing might, and then the spiritreturns to its original nothingness. The same necessity of death andresurrection was entertained by the Eskimos. To become of the highestorder of priests, it was supposed requisite, says Bishop Egede, that oneof the lower order should be drowned and eaten by sea monsters. Then, when his bones, one after another, were all washed ashore, his spirit, which meanwhile had been learning the secrets of the invisible world, would return to them, and, clothed in flesh, he would go back to histribe. At other times a vague and indescribable longing seizes a youngperson, a morbid appetite possesses them, or they fall a prey to aninappeasable and aimless restlessness, or a causeless melancholy. Thesesigns the old priests recognize as the expression of a personal spiritof the higher order. They take charge of the youth, and educate him tothe mysteries of their craft. For months or years he is condemned toentire seclusion, receiving no visits but from the brethren of hisorder. At length he is initiated with ceremonies of more or less pompinto the brotherhood, and from that time assumes that gravity ofdemeanor, sententious style of expression, and general air of mysteryand importance, everywhere deemed so eminently becoming in a doctor anda priest. A peculiarity of the Moxos was, that they thought nonedesignated for the office but such as had escaped from the claws of theSouth American tiger, which, indeed, it is said they worshipped as agod. [281-1]

Occasionally, in very uncultivated tribes, some family or totem claimeda monopoly of the priesthood. Thus, among the Nez Percès of Oregon, itwas transmitted in one family from father to son and daughter, butalways with the proviso that the children at the proper age reporteddreams of a satisfactory character. [281-2] Perhaps alone of the Algonkintribes the Shawnees confined it to one totem, but it is remarkable thatthe greatest of their prophets, Elskataway, brother of Tecumseh, was nota member of this clan. From the most remote times, the Cherokees havehad one family set apart for the priestly office. This was when firstknown to the whites that of the Nicotani, but its members, puffed upwith pride and insolence, abused their birthright so shamefully, andprostituted it so flagrantly to their own advantage, that with savagejustice they were massacred to the last man. Another was appointed intheir place who to this day officiates in all religious rites. Theyhave, however, the superstition, possibly borrowed from Europeans, thatthe _seventh_ son is a natural born prophet, with the gift of healing bytouch. [281-3] Adair states that their former neighbors, the Choctaws, permitted the office of high priest, or Great Beloved Man, to remain inone family, passing from father to eldest son, and the very influential_piaches_ of the Carib tribes very generally transmitted their rank andposition to their children. 

In ancient Anahuac the prelacy was as systematic and its rules as welldefined, as in the Church of Rome. Except those in the service ofHuitzilopochtli, and perhaps a few other gods, none obtained thepriestly office by right of descent, but were dedicated to it from earlychildhood. Their education was completed at the _Calmecac_, a sort ofecclesiastical college, where instruction was given in all the wisdom ofthe ancients, and the esoteric lore of their craft. The art of mixingcolors and tracing designs, the ideographic writing and phonetichieroglyphs, the songs and prayers used in public worship, the nationaltraditions and the principles of astrology, the hidden meaning ofsymbols and the use of musical instruments, all formed parts of thereally extensive course of instruction they there received. When theymanifested a satisfactory acquaintance with this curriculum, they wereappointed by their superiors to such positions as their natural talentsand the use they had made of them qualified them for, some to instructchildren, others to the service of the temples, and others again to takecharge of what we may call country parishes. Implicit subordination ofall to the high priest of Huitzilopochtli, hereditary _pontifexmaximus_, chastity, or at least temperate indulgence in pleasure, gravity of carriage, and strict attention to duty, were laws laid uponall. 

The state religion of Peru was conducted under the supervision of ahigh priest of the Inca family, and its ministers, as in Mexico, couldbe of either sex, and hold office either by inheritance, education, orelection. For political reasons, the most important posts were usuallyenjoyed by relatives of the ruler, but this was usage, not law. It isstated by Garcilasso de la Vega[283-1] that they served in the templesby turns, each being on duty the fourth of a lunar month at a time. Werethis substantiated it would offer the only example of the regulation ofpublic life by a week of seven days to be found in the New World. 

In every country there is perceptible a desire in this class of men tosurround themselves with mystery, and to concentrate and increase theirpower by forming an intimate alliance among themselves. They affectedsingularity in dress and a professional costume. Bartram describes thejunior priests of the Creeks as dressed in white robes and carrying ontheir head or arm "a great owlskin, stuffed very ingeniously, as aninsignia of wisdom and divination. These bachelors are alsodistinguishable from the other people by their taciturnity, grave andsolemn countenance, dignified step, and singing to themselves songs orhymns, in a low sweet voice, as they stroll about the towns. "[283-2] Thepriests of the civilized nations adopted various modes of dress totypify the divinity which they served, and their appearance was often inthe highest degree unprepossessing. 

To add to their self-importance they pretended to converse in a tonguedifferent from that used in ordinary life, and the chants containingthe prayers and legends were often in this esoteric dialect. Fragmentsof one or two of these have floated down to us from the Aztecpriesthood. The travellers Balboa and Coreal, mention that the templeservices of Peru were conducted in a language not understood by themasses, [284-1] and the incantations of the priests of Powhatan were notin ordinary Algonkin, but some obscure jargon. [284-2] The samepeculiarity has been observed among the Dakotas and Eskimos, and inthese nations, fortunately, it fell under the notice of competentlinguistic scholars, who have submitted it to a searching examination. The results of their labors prove that certainly in these two instancesthe supposed foreign tongues were nothing more than the ordinarydialects of the country modified by an affected accentuation, by theintroduction of a few cabalistic terms, and by the use of descriptivecircumlocutions and figurative words in place of ordinary expressions, aslang, in short, such as rascals and pedants invariably coin wheneverthey associate. [285-1]

All these stratagems were intended to shroud with impenetrable secrecythe mysteries of the brotherhood. With the same motive, the priestsformed societies of different grades of illumination, only to be enteredby those willing to undergo trying ordeals, whose secrets were not to berevealed under the severest penalties. The Algonkins had three suchgrades, the _waubeno_, the _meda_, and the _jossakeed_, the last beingthe highest. To this no white man was ever admitted. All tribes appearto have been controlled by these secret societies. Alexander vonHumboldt mentions one, called that of the Botuto or Holy Trumpet, amongthe Indians of the Orinoko, whose members must vow celibacy and submitto severe scourgings and fasts. The Collahuayas of Peru were a guild ofitinerant quacks and magicians, who never remained permanently in onespot. 

Withal, there was no class of persons who so widely and deeplyinfluenced the culture and shaped the destiny of the Indian tribes, astheir priests. In attempting to gain a true conception of the race'scapacities and history, there is no one element of their social lifewhich demands closer attention than the power of these teachers. Hitherto, they have been spoken of with a contempt which I hope thischapter shows is unjustifiable. However much we may deplore the use theymade of their skill, we must estimate it fairly, and grant it its dueweight in measuring the influence of the religious sentiment on thehistory of man. 

FOOTNOTES:

[265-1] Haeser, _Geschichte der Medicin_, pp. 4, 7: Jena, 1845. 

[265-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 440. 

[267-1] Carver, _Travels in North America_, p. 73: Boston, 1802;_Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 135. 

[267-2] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. X. Cap. 20; _Le LivreSacré des Quichés_, p. 177; _Lett. Sur les Superstit. Du Pérou_, pp. 89, 91. 

[269-1] _Life of Black Hawk_, p. 13. 

[270-1] _Travs. In North America_, p. 74. 

[270-2] _Journal Historique_, p. 362. 

[271-1] Sometimes facts like this can be explained by the quickness ofperception acquired by constant exposure to danger. The mind takescognizance unconsciously of trifling incidents, the sum of which leads itto a conviction which the individual regards almost as an inspiration. This is the explanation of _presentiments_. But this does not apply tocases like that of Swedenborg, who described a conflagration going on atStockholm, when he was at Gottenberg, three hundred miles away. Psychologists who scorn any method of studying the mind but throughphysiology, are at a loss in such cases, and take refuge in refusing themcredence. Theologians call them inspirations either of devils or angels, as they happen to agree or disagree in religious views with the personexperiencing them. True science reserves its opinion until furtherobservation enlightens it. 

[272-1] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, iii. P. 287; v. P. 652. 

[273-1] "The progress from deepest ignorance to highest enlightenment, "remarks Herbert Spencer in his _Social Statics_, "is a progress fromentire unconsciousness of law, to the conviction that law is universaland inevitable. "

[273-2] The Creeks had, according to Hawkins, not less than seven sacredplants; chief of them were the cassine yupon, called by botanists _Ilexvomitoria_, or _Ilex cassina_, of the natural order Aquifoliaceæ; and theblue flag, _Iris versicolor_, natural order Iridaceæ. The former is apowerful diuretic and mild emetic, and grows only near the sea. Thelatter is an active emeto-cathartic, and is abundant on swampy groundsthroughout the Southern States. From it was formed the celebrated "blackdrink, " with which they opened their councils, and which served them inplace of spirits. 

[274-1] Martius, _Von dem Rechtzustande unter den UreinwohnernBrasiliens_, p. 32. 

[275-1] Mr. Anderson, in the _Am. Hist. Mag. _, vii. P. 79. 

[276-1] Such spectacles were nothing uncommon. They are frequentlymentioned in the Jesuit Relations, and they were the chief obstacles tomissionary labor. In the debauches and excesses that excited thesetemporary manias, in the recklessness of life and property they fostered, and in their disastrous effects on mind and body, are depicted more thanin any other one trait the thorough depravity of the race and itstendency to ruin. In the quaint words of one of the Catholic fathers, "Ifthe old proverb is true that every man has a grain of madness in hiscomposition, it must be confessed that this is a people where each has atleast half an ounce" (De Quen, _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, 1656, p. 27). For the instance in the text see _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1639, pp. 88-94. 

[277-1] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. P. 423. 

[277-2] J. M. Stanley, in the _Smithsonian Miscellaneous Contributions_, ii. P. 38. 

[278-1] D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Américain_, ii. P. 81. 

[279-1] See Balboa, _Hist. Du Pérou_, pp. 28-30. 

[281-1] D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Américain_, ii. P. 235. 

[281-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. P. 652. 

[281-3] Dr. Mac Gowan, in the _Amer. Hist. Mag. _, x. P. 139; Whipple, _Rep. On the Ind. Tribes_, p. 35. 

[283-1] _Hist. Des Incas_, lib. Iii. Ch. 22. 

[283-2] _Travels in the Carolinas_, p. 504. 

[284-1] _Hist. Du Pérou_, p. 128; _Voiages aux Indes Occidentales_, ii. P. 97. 

[284-2] Beverly, _Hist. De la Virginie_, p. 266. The dialect he specifiesis "celle d'Occaniches, " and on page 252 he says, "On dit que la langueuniverselle des Indiens de ces Quartiers est celle des _Occaniches_, quoiqu'ils ne soient qu'une petite Nation, depuis que les Angloisconnoissent ce Pais; mais je ne sais pas la difference qui'l y a entrecette langue et celle des Algonkins. " (French trans. , Orleans, 1707. )This is undoubtedly the same people that Johannes Lederer, a Germantraveller, visited in 1670, and calls _Akenatzi_. They dwelt on anisland, in a branch of the Chowan River, the Sapona, or Deep River(Lederer's _Discovery of North America_, in Harris, Voyages, p. 20). Thirty years later the English surveyor, Lawson, found them in the samespot, and speaks of them as the _Acanechos_ (see _Am. Hist. Mag. _, i. P. 163). Their totem was that of the serpent, and their name is notaltogether unlike the Tuscarora name of this animal _usquauhne_. As theserpent was so widely a sacred animal, this gives Beverly's remarks anunusual significance. It by no means follows from this name that theywere of Iroquois descent. Lederer travelled with a Tuscarora (Iroquois)interpreter, who gave them their name in his own tongue. On the contrary, it is extremely probable that they were an Algonkin totem, which had theexclusive right to the priesthood. 

[285-1] Riggs, _Gram. And Dict. Of the Dakota_, p. Ix; Kane, _SecondGrinnell Expedition_, ii. P. 127. Paul Egede gives a number of words andexpressions in the dialect of the sorcerers, _Nachrichten von Grönland_, p. 122. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE NATIVE RELIGIONS ON THE MORAL AND SOCIAL LIFE OFTHE RACE. 

 Natural religions hitherto considered of Evil rather than of Good. --Distinctions to be drawn. --Morality not derived from religion. --The positive side of natural religions in incarnations of divinity. --Examples. --Prayers as indices of religious progress. --Religion and social advancement. --Conclusion. 

Drawing toward the conclusion of my essay, I I am sensible that the vastfield of American mythology remains for most part untouched--that I havebut proved that it is not an absolute wilderness, pathless as thetropical jungles which now conceal the temples of the race; but that, gowhere we will, certain landmarks and guide-posts are visible, revealinguniformity of design and purpose, and refuting, by their presence, theoft-repeated charge of entire incoherence and aimlessness. It remains toexamine the subjective power of the native religions, their influence onthose who held them, and the place they deserve in the history of therace. What are their merits, if merits they have? what their demerits?Did they purify the life and enlighten the mind, or the contrary? Arethey in short of evil or of good? The problem is complex--its solutionmost difficult. The author who of late years has studied most profoundlythe savage races of the globe, expresses the discouraging conviction:"Their religions have not acted as levers to raise them tocivilization; they have rather worked, and that powerfully, to impedeevery step in advance, in the first place by ascribing everythingunintelligible in nature to spiritual agency, and then by making thefate of man dependent on mysterious and capricious forces, not on hisown skill and foresight. "[288-1]

It would ill accord with the theory of mythology which I have all alongmaintained if this verdict were final. But in fact these false doctrinesbrought with them their own antidotes, at least to some extent, andwhile we give full weight to their evil, let us also acknowledge theirgood. By substituting direct divine interference for law, belief forknowledge, a dogma for a fact, the highest stimulus to mental endeavorwas taken away. Nature, to the heathen, is no harmonious whole swayed byeternal principles, but a chaos of causeless effects, the meaninglessplay of capricious ghosts. He investigates not, because he doubts not. All events are to him miracles. Therefore his faith knows no bounds, andthose who teach that doubt is sinful must contemplate him withadmiration. The damsels of Nicaragua destined to be thrown into theseething craters of volcanoes, went to their fate, says Pascual deAndagoya, "happy as if they were going to be saved, "[288-2] anddoubtless believing so. The subjects of a Central American chieftain, remarks Oviedo, "look upon it as the crown of favors to be permitted todie with their cacique, and thus to acquire immortality. "[288-3] Theterrible power exerted by the priests rested, as they themselves oftensaw, largely on the implicit and literal acceptance of their dicta. 

In some respects the contrast here offered to enlightened nations is notalways in favor of the latter. Borrowing the pointed antithesis of thepoet, the mind is often tempted to exclaim--

 "This is all The gain we reap from all the wisdom sown Through ages: Nothing doubted those first sons Of Time, while we, the schooled of centuries, Nothing believe. "

But the complaint is unfounded. Faith is dearly bought at the cost ofknowledge; nor in a better sense has it yet gone from among us. Far moresublime than any known to the barbarian is the faith of the astronomer, who spends the nights in marking the seemingly wayward motions of thestars, or of the anatomist, who studies with unwearied zeal the minutefibres of the organism, each upheld by the unshaken conviction that fromleast to greatest throughout this universe, purpose and order everywhereprevail. 

Natural religions rarely offer more than this negative opposition toreason. They are tolerant to a degree. The savage, void of any clearconception of a supreme deity, sets up no claim that his is the onlytrue church. If he is conquered in battle, he imagines that it is owingto the inferiority of his own gods to those of his victor, and he rarelytherefore requires any other reasons to make him a convert. Acting onthis principle, the Incas, when they overcame a strange province, sentits most venerated idol for a time to the temple of the Sun at Cuzco, thus proving its inferiority to their own divinity, but took no moreviolent steps to propagate their creeds. [290-1] So in the city of Mexicothere was a temple appropriated to the idols of conquered nations inwhich they were shut up, both to prove their weakness and prevent themfrom doing mischief. A nation, like an individual, was not inclined topatronize a deity who had manifested his incompetence by allowing hischarge to be gradually worn away by constant disaster. As far as can nowbe seen, in matters intellectual, the religions of ancient Mexico andPeru were far more liberal than that introduced by the Spanishconquerors, which, claiming the monopoly of truth, sought to enforce itsclaim by inquisitions and censorships. 

In this view of the relative powers of deities lay a potent correctiveto the doctrine that the fate of man was dependent on the caprices ofthe gods. For no belief was more universal than that which assigned toeach individual a guardian spirit. This invisible monitor was an everpresent help in trouble. He suggested expedients, gave advice andwarning in dreams, protected in danger, and stood ready to foil themachinations of enemies, divine or human. With unlimited faith in thisprotector, attributing to him the devices suggested by his own quickwits and the fortunate chances of life, the savage escaped theoppressive thought that he was the slave of demoniac forces, and daredthe dangers of the forest and the war path without anxiety. 

By far the darkest side of such a religion is that which it presents tomorality. The religious sense is by no means the voice of conscience. The Takahli Indian when sick makes a full and free confession of sins, but a murder, however unnatural and unprovoked, he does not mention, notcounting it crime. [291-1] Scenes of brutal licentiousness were approvedand sustained throughout the continent as acts of worship; maidenhoodwas in many parts freely offered up or claimed by the priests as aright; in Central America twins were slain for religious motives; humansacrifice was common throughout the tropics, and was not unusual inhigher latitudes; cannibalism was often enjoined; and in Peru, Florida, and Central America it was not uncommon for parents to slay their ownchildren at the behest of a priest. [291-2] The philosophical moralist, contemplating such spectacles, has thought to recognize in them oneconsoling trait. All history, it has been said, shows man living underan irritated God, and seeking to appease him by sacrifice of blood; theessence of all religion, it has been added, lies in that of whichsacrifice is the symbol, namely, in the offering up of self, in therendering up of our will to the will of God. [291-3] But sacrifice, whennot a token of gratitude, cannot be thus explained. It is not arendering up, but a _substitution_ of our will for God's will. A deityis angered by neglect of his dues; he will revenge, certainly, terribly, we know not how or when. But as punishment is all he desires, if wepunish ourselves he will be satisfied; and far better is suchself-inflicted torture than a fearful looking for of judgment to come. Craven fear, not without some dim sense of the implacability of nature'slaws, is at its root. Looking only at this side of religion, the ancientphilosopher averred that the gods existed solely in the apprehensions oftheir votaries, and the moderns have asserted that "fear is the fatherof religion, love her late-born daughter;"[292-1] that "the first formof religious belief is nothing else but a horror of the unknown, " andthat "no natural religion appears to have been able to develop from agerm within itself anything whatever of real advantage tocivilization. "[292-2]

Far be it from me to excuse the enormities thus committed under the garbof religion, or to ignore their disastrous consequences on humanprogress. Yet this question is a fair one--If the natural religiousbelief has in it no germ of anything better, whence comes the manifestand undeniable improvement occasionally witnessed--as, for example, among the Toltecs, the Peruvians, and the Mayas? The reply is, by theinfluence of great men, who cultivated within themselves a purer faith, lived it in their lives, preached it successfully to their fellows, and, at their death, still survived in the memory of their nation, unforgotten models of noble qualities. [293-1] Where, in America, is anyrecord of such men? We are pointed, in answer, to Quetzalcoatl, Viracocha, Zamna, and their congeners. But these august figures I haveshown to be wholly mythical, creations of the religious fancy, parts andparcels of the earliest religion itself. The entire theory falls tonothing, therefore, and we discover a positive side to naturalreligions--one that conceals a germ of endless progress, whichvindicates their lofty origin, and proves that He "is not far from everyone of us. "

I have already analyzed these figures under their physical aspect. Letit be observed in what antithesis they stand to most other mythologicalcreations. Let it be remembered that they primarily correspond to thestable, the regular, the cosmical phenomena, that they are alwaysconceived under human form, not as giants, fairies, or strange beasts;that they were said at one time to have been visible leaders of theirnations, that they did not suffer death, and that, though absent, theyare ever present, favoring those who remain mindful of their precepts. Itouched but incidentally on their moral aspects. This was likewise incontrast to the majority of inferior deities. The worship of the latterwas a tribute extorted by fear. The Indian deposits tobacco on the rocksof a rapid, that the spirit of the swift waters may not swallow hiscanoe; in a storm he throws overboard a dog to appease the siren of theangry waves. He used to tear the hearts from his captives to gain thefavor of the god of war. He provides himself with talismans to bindhostile deities. He fees[TN-17] the conjurer to exorcise the demon ofdisease. He loves none of them, he respects none of them; he only fearstheir wayward tempers. They are to him mysterious, invisible, capriciousgoblins. But, in his highest divinity, he recognized a Father and aPreserver, a benign Intelligence, who provided for him the comforts oflife--man, like himself, yet a god--God of All. "Go and do good, " wasthe parting injunction of his father to Michabo in Algonkinlegend;[294-1] and in their ancient and uncorrupted stories such is everhis object. "The worship of Tamu, " the culture hero of the Guaranis, says the traveller D'Orbigny, "is one of reverence, not of fear. "[294-2]They were ideals, summing up in themselves the best traits, the mostapproved virtues of whole nations, and were adored in a very differentspirit from other divinities. 

None of them has more humane and elevated traits than Quetzalcoatl. Hewas represented of majestic stature and dignified demeanor. In his traincame skilled artificers and men of learning. He was chaste and temperatein life, wise in council, generous of gifts, conquering rather by artsof peace than of war; delighting in music, flowers, and brilliantcolors, and so averse to human sacrifices that he shut his ears withboth hands when they were even mentioned. [295-1] Such was the ideal manand supreme god of a people who even a Spanish monk of the sixteenthcentury felt constrained to confess were "a good people, attached tovirtue, urbane and simple in social intercourse, shunning lies, skilfulin arts, pious toward their gods. "[295-2] Is it likely, is it possible, that with such a model as this before their minds, they received nobenefit from it? Was not this a lever, and a mighty one, lifting therace toward civilization and a purer faith?

Transfer the field of observation to Yucatan, and we find in Zamna, toNew Granada and in Nemqueteba, to Peru and in Viracocha, or his reflexManco Capac, the lineaments of Quetzalcoatl--modified, indeed, bydifference of blood and temperament, but each combining in himself allthe qualities most esteemed by their several nations. Were one or all ofthese proved to be historical personages, still the fact remains thatthe primitive religious sentiment, investing them with the bestattributes of humanity, dwelling on them as its models, worshipping themas gods, contained a kernel of truth potent to encourage moralexcellence. But if they were mythical, then this truth was ofspontaneous growth, self-developed by the growing distinctness of theidea of God, a living witness that the religious sense, like everyother faculty, has within itself a power of endless evolution. 

If we inquire the secret of the happier influence of this element innatural worship, it is all contained in one word--its _humanity_. "TheIdeal of Morality, " says the contemplative Novalis, "has no moredangerous rival than the Ideal of the Greatest Strength, of the mostvigorous life, the Brute Ideal" (_das Thier-Ideal_). [296-1] Cultureadvances in proportion as man recognizes what faculties are peculiar tohim _as man_, and devotes himself to their education. The moral value ofreligions can be very precisely estimated by the human or the brutalcharacter of their gods. The worship of Quetzalcoatl in the city ofMexico was subordinate to that of lower conceptions, and consequentlythe more sanguinary and immoral were the rites there practised. TheAlgonkins, who knew no other meaning for Michabo than the Great Hare, had lost, by a false etymology, the best part of their religion. 

Looking around for other standards wherewith to measure the progress ofthe knowledge of divinity in the New World, _prayer_ suggests itself asone of the least deceptive. "Prayer, " to quote again the words ofNovalis, [296-2] "is in religion what thought is in philosophy. Thereligious sense prays, as the reason thinks. " Guizot, carrying theanalysis farther, thinks that it is prompted by a painful conviction ofthe inability of our will to conform to the dictates of reason. [296-3]Originally it was connected with the belief that divine caprice, notdivine law, governs the universe, and that material benefits rather thanspiritual gifts are to be desired. The gradual recognition of itslimitations and proper objects marks religious advancement. The Lord'sPrayer contains seven petitions, only one of which is for a temporaladvantage, and it the least that can be asked for. What immeasurableinterval between it and the prayer of the Nootka Indian on preparing forwar!--

"Great Quahootze, let me live, not be sick, find the enemy, not fearhim, find him asleep, and kill a great many of him. "[297-1]

Or again, between it and the petition of a Huron to a local god, heardby Father Brebeuf:--

"Oki, thou who livest in this spot, I offer thee tobacco. Help us, saveus from shipwreck, defend us from our enemies, give us a good trade, andbring us back safe and sound to our villages. "[297-2]

This is a fair specimen of the supplications of the lowest religion. Another equally authentic is given by Father Allouez. [297-3] In 1670 hepenetrated to an outlying Algonkin village, never before visited by awhite man. The inhabitants, startled by his pale face and long blackgown, took him for a divinity. They invited him to the council lodge, acircle of old men gathered around him, and one of them, approaching himwith a double handful of tobacco, thus addressed him, the othersgrunting approval:--

"This, indeed, is well, Blackrobe, that thou dost visit us. Have mercyupon us. Thou art a Manito. We give thee to smoke. 

"The Naudowessies and Iroquois are devouring us. Have mercy upon us. 

"We are often sick; our children die; we are hungry. Have mercy upon us. Hear me, O Manito, I give thee to smoke. 

"Let the earth yield us corn; the rivers give us fish; sickness not slayus; nor hunger so torment us. Hear us, O Manito, we give thee to smoke. "

In this rude but touching petition, wrung from the heart of a miserablepeople, nothing but their wretchedness is visible. Not the faintesttrace of an aspiration for spiritual enlightenment cheers the eye of thephilanthropist, not the remotest conception that through suffering weare purified can be detected. 

By the side of these examples we may place the prayers of Peru andMexico, forms composed by the priests, written out, committed to memory, and repeated at certain seasons. They are not less authentic, havingbeen collected and translated in the first generation after theconquest. One to Viracocha Pachacamac, was as follows:--

"O Pachacamac, thou who hast existed from the beginning and shalt existunto the end, powerful and pitiful; who createdst man by saying, let manbe; who defendest us from evil and preservest our life and health; artthou in the sky or in the earth, in the clouds or in the depths? Hearthe voice of him who implores thee, and grant him his petitions. Giveus life everlasting, preserve us, and accept this our sacrifice. "[299-1]

In the voluminous specimens of Aztec prayers preserved by Sahagun, moralimprovement, the "spiritual gift, " is very rarely if at all the objectdesired. Health, harvests, propitious rains, release from pain, preservation from dangers, illness, and defeat, these are the almostunvarying themes. But here and there we catch a glimpse of somethingbetter, some dim sense of the divine beauty of suffering, some feebleglimmering of the grand truth so nobly expressed by the poet:--

 aus des Busens Tiefe strömt Gedeihn Der festen Duldung und entschlossner That. Nicht Schmerz ist Unglück, Glück nicht immer Freude; Wer sein Geschick erfüllt, dem lächeln beide. 

"Is it possible, " says one of them, "that this scourge, this affliction, is sent to us not for our correction and improvement, but for ourdestruction and annihilation? O Merciful Lord, let this chastisementwith which thou hast visited us, thy people, be as those which a fatheror mother inflicts on their children, not out of anger, but to the endthat they may be free from follies and vices. " Another formula, usedwhen a chief was elected to some important position, reads: "O Lord, open his eyes and give him light, sharpen his ears and give himunderstanding, not that he may use them to his own advantage, but forthe good of the people he rules. Lead him to know and to do thy will, let him be as a trumpet which sounds thy words. Keep him from thecommission of injustice and oppression. "[300-1]

At first, good and evil are identical with pleasure and pain, luck andill-luck. "The good are good warriors and hunters, " said a Pawneechief, [300-2] which would also be the opinion of a wolf, if he couldexpress it. Gradually the eyes of the mind are opened, and it isperceived that "whom He loveth, He chastiseth, " and physical give[TN-18]place to moral ideas of good and evil. Finally, as the idea of God risesmore distinctly before the soul, as "the One by whom, in whom, andthrough whom all things are, " evil is seen to be the negation, not theopposite of good, and itself "a porch oft opening on the sun. "

The influence of these religions on art, science, and social life, mustalso be weighed in estimating their value. 

Nearly all the remains of American plastic art, sculpture, and painting, were obviously designed for religious purposes. Idols of stone, wood, orbaked clay, were found in every Indian tribe, without exception, so faras I can judge; and in only a few directions do these arts seem to havebeen applied to secular purposes. The most ambitious attempts ofarchitecture, it is plain, were inspired by religious fervor. The greatpyramid of Cholula, the enormous mounds of the Mississippi valley, theelaborate edifices on artificial hills in Yucatan, were miniaturerepresentations of the mountains hallowed by tradition, the "Hill ofHeaven, " the peak on which their ancestors escaped in the flood, or thatin the terrestrial paradise from which flow the rains. Theirconstruction took men away from war and the chase, encouragedagriculture, peace, and a settled disposition, and fostered the love ofproperty, of country, and of the gods. The priests were also closeobservers of nature, and were the first to discover its simpler laws. The Aztec sages were as devoted star-gazers as the Chaldeans, and theircalendar bears unmistakable marks of native growth, and of its originalpurpose to fix the annual festivals. Writing by means of pictures andsymbols was cultivated chiefly for religious ends, and the word_hieroglyph_ is a witness that the phonetic alphabet was discoveredunder the stimulus of the religious sentiment. Most of the aboriginalliterature was composed and taught by the priests, and most of it refersto matters connected with their superstitions. As the gifts of votariesand the erection of temples enriched the sacerdotal order individuallyand collectively, the terrors of religion were lent to the secular armto enforce the rights of property. Music, poetic, scenic, and historicalrecitations, formed parts of the ceremonies of the more civilizednations, and national unity was strengthened by a common shrine. Anactive barter in amulets, lucky stones, and charms, existed all over thecontinent, to a much greater extent than we might think. As experiencedemonstrates that nothing so efficiently promotes civilization as thefree and peaceful intercourse of man with man, I lay particular stresson the common custom of making pilgrimages. 

The temple on the island of Cozumel in Yucatan was visited every year bysuch multitudes from all parts of the peninsula, that roads, paved withcut stones, had been constructed from the neighboring shore to theprincipal cities of the interior. [302-1] Each village of the Muyscas issaid to have had a beaten path to Lake Guatavita, so numerous were thedevotees who journeyed to the shrine there located. [302-2] In Peru thetemples of Pachacamà, Rimac, and other famous gods, were repaired to bycountless numbers from all parts of the realm, and from other provinceswithin a radius of three hundred leagues around. Houses of entertainmentwere established on all the principal roads, and near the temples, fortheir accommodation; and when they made known the object of theirjourney, they were allowed a safe passage even through an enemy'sterritory. [302-3]

 * * * * *

The more carefully we study history, the more important in our eyes willbecome the religious sense. It is almost the only faculty peculiar toman. It concerns him nearer than aught else. It is the key to his originand destiny. As such it merits in all its developments the most earnestattention, an attention we shall find well repaid in the clearerconceptions we thus obtain of the forces which control the actions andfates of individuals and nations. 

FOOTNOTES:

[288-1] Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_, i. P. 459. 

[288-2] Navarrete, _Viages_, iii. P. 415. 

[288-3] _Relation de Cueba_, p. 140. Ed. Ternaux-Compans. 

[290-1] La Vega, _Hist. Des Incas_, liv. V. Cap. 12. 

[291-1] Morse, _Rep. On the Ind. Tribes_, App. P. 345. 

[291-2] Ximenes, _Origen de los Indios de Guatemala_, p. 192; Acosta, _Hist. Of the New World_, lib. V. Chap. 18. 

[291-3] Joseph de Maistre, _Eclaircissement sur les Sacrifices_; Trench, _Hulsean Lectures_, p. 180. The famed Abbé Lammenaais and Professor Sepp, of Munich, with these two writers, may be taken as the chief exponents ofa school of mythologists, all of whom start from the theories first laiddown by Count de Maistre in his _Soirées de St. Petersbourg_. To them thestrongest proof of Christianity lies in the traditions and observances ofheathendom. For these show the wants of the religious sense, andChristianity, they maintain, purifies and satisfies them all. The rites, symbols, and legends of every natural religion, they say, are true andnot false; all that is required is to assign them their proper places andtheir real meaning. Therefore the strange resemblances in heathen mythsto what is revealed in the Scriptures, as well as the ethicalanticipations which have been found in ancient philosophies, all, so farfrom proving that Christianity is a natural product of the human mind, infact, are confirmations of it, unconscious prophecies, and presentimentsof the truth. 

[292-1] Alfred Maury, _La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et auMoyen Age_, p. 8: Paris, 1860. 

[292-2] Waitz, _Anthropologie_, i. Pp. 325, 465. 

[293-1] So says Dr. Waitz, _ibid. _, p. 465. 

[294-1] Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, i. P. 143. 

[294-2] _L'Homme Américain_, ii. P. 319. 

[295-1] Brasseur, _Hist. Du Mexique_, liv. Iii. Chaps. 1 and 2. 

[295-2] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. X. Cap. 29. 

[296-1] Novalis, _Schriften_, i. P. 244: Berlin, 1837. 

[296-2] Ibid. , p. 267. 

[296-3] _Hist. De la Civilisation en France_, i. Pp. 122, 130. 

[297-1] _Narrative of J. R. Jewett among the Savages of Nootka Sound_, p. 121. 

[297-2] _Rel. De la Nouv. France_, An 1636, p. 109. 

[297-3] Ibid. , An 1670, p. 99. 

[299-1] Geronimo de Ore, _Symbolo Catholico Indiano_, chap, ix. , quotedby Ternaux-Compans. De Ore was a native of Peru and held the position ofProfessor of Theology in Cuzco in the latter half of the sixteenthcentury. He was a man of great erudition, and there need be no hesitationin accepting this extraordinary prayer as genuine. For his life andwritings see Nic. Antonio, _Bib. Hisp. Nova_, tom. Ii. P. 43. 

[300-1] Sahagun, _Hist. De la Nueva España_, lib. Vi. Caps. 1, 4. 

[300-2] Morse, _Rep. On the Ind. Tribes_, App. P. 250. 

[302-1] Cogolludo, _Hist. De Yucathan_, lib. Iv. Cap. 9. CompareStephens, _Travs. In Yucatan_, ii. P. 122, who describes the remains ofthese roads as they now exist. 

[302-2] Rivero and Tschudi, _Antiqs. Of Peru_, p. 162. 

[302-3] La Vega, _Hist. Des Incas_, lib. Vi. Chap. 30; Xeres, _Rel de laConq. Du Pérou_, p. 151; _Let. Sur les Superstit. Du Pérou_, p. 98, andothers. 

INDEX. 

Abnakis, 174

Acagchemem, a Californian tribe, 105

Age of man in America, 35-37

Ages of the world, 213 sq. 

Akakanet, 61

Akanzas, 238

Akenatzi, 284

Algonkins, location, 26 name of God, 58 n. [TN-19] mythical ancestors, 77 veneration of birds, 103 of serpents, 108, 109, 113, 116 myths and rites, 133, 136, 144, 147, 151, 161, 174, 198, 209, 220, 224, 236, 240, 244, 248, 277, 297

Aluberi, a name of God, 58 n. [TN-19]

Anahuac, 29, 282

Angont, a mythical serpent, 136

Apalachian tribes, 27, 225

Apocatequil, a Peruvian deity, 153

Ararats, of America, 203

Araucanians, 33 name of God, 48, 61 myths, 204, 248

Arks, 255

Arowacks, 58 n. [TN-19]

Ataensic, an Iroquois deity, 123, 131, 170

Ataguju, or Atachuchu, 152

Atatarho, mythical Iroquois chief, 118

Athapascan tribes, 24 myths, 104, 150, 195, 205, 229, 248, 257

Atl, an Aztec deity, 131

Aurora borealis, 245

Aymaras, 31, 34, 177

Aztecs, their books and characters, 10 divisions, 29 names of God, 48, 50, 58 n. [TN-19] government, 69 rites, 72, 126, 127, 147 calendar, 74 worship of cross, 95 names of cardinal points, 93 worship of birds, 102, 106, 107 of serpents, 111 myths, 132, 133, 134, 138, 144, 156, 171, 181, 205, 214 sq. , 227, 240, 246, 248, 252, 258 priests, 282 prayers, 292

Aztlan, 181

Bacab, Maya gods, 80

Baptism, 125 seq. 

Bimini, 87

Bird, symbol of, 101 sq. , 195 sq. , 229, 254

Blue, symbolic meaning of, 47

Bochica, 183

Boiuca, a mythical isle, 87

Bones, preservation of, 255 soul in the, 257

Botocudos, 123, 201

Brasseur, Abbé, his works, 41

Brazilian tribes, 102, 134, 250 (See _Tupis_, _Botocudos_. )

Busk, a Creek festival, 71, 96

Caddoes, 93, 203

Camaxtli, 158

Cardinal points, adoration of, 67 sq. Names of, 93 sq. 

Caribs, 32 theory of lightning, 104, 114 myths and rites, 145, 184, 223, 237, 244, 256 priests, 282

Catequil. (See _Apocatequil_. )

Centeotl, goddess of maize, 22, 134

Chac, Maya gods, 80

Chalchihuitlycue, an Aztec god, 123

Chantico, an Aztec god, 138

Cherokees, location, 25 name of God, 51 serpent myth, 115 baptism, 128 deluge, 205 priests, 281

Chia, goddess of Muyscas, 134

Chichimec, 139 n. , 158

Chicomoztoc, the Seven Caves, 227

Chicunoapa, the Aztec Styx, 249

Chipeways, picture-writing, 10 records, 17 magicians, 71 myths, 163, 168

Choctaws, location, 27 name of God, 51 myths, 84 n. , [TN-20] 225, 261 priests, 281

Cholula, 180, 181, 204, 228

Cihuacoatl, the Serpent Woman, 120

Cihuapipilti, 246

Circumcision, 147

Citatli, 131

Clairvoyance, 269

Coatlicue, 118

Colors, symbolism of, 47, 80, 140, 165

Con or Contici, 155, 176

Coxcox, 202

Craniology, American, 35

Creation, myths of, 193 seq. 

Creeks, location, 27 name of God, 50 rites, 71, 96 mythical ancestors, 77 serpent myth, 115 other myths, 137, 225, 242, 244 priests, 273, 283

Cross, symbolic meaning of, 95-7, 183, 188 of Palenque, 118

Cupay, [TN-21] the Quichua Pluto, 61, 251

Cusic, his Iroquois legends, 63, 108 n. 

Dakotas, location, 28 rites, 71 language, 75 mythical ancestors, 77 myths, 62, 103, 133, 150, 237, 259, 279

Dawn, myths of, 166, 167, 175, 227

Delawares, 140 n. , 144 (See _Lenni Lenape_. )

Deluge, myth, origin, etc. , 198-212

Devil, idea of unknown to red race, 59, 251

Divination, 278

Dobayba, 123

Dog, as a symbol, 137, 229, 247-9

Dove, as a a[TN-22] symbol, 107

Dualism, moral, not found in America, 59 sexual not found, 146

Eagle, as a symbol, 104

East, myths, concerning, 91, 165, 174, 180 (See _Dawn_. )

Eastman, Mrs. , her _Legends of the Sioux_, 103

Eldorado, [TN-23] 87

Enigorio and Enigohahetgea, 63

Epochs of nature, 200 seq. 

Esaugetuh Emissee, 50

Eskimos, location, 23 name of chief god, 50, 76 term for south, 94 veneration of birds, 101 myths, 173 n. , 193, 226, 229, 241, 245, 261, 280

Fear in religion, 141, 292

Fire-worship, 140 seq. 

Flood-myth. (See _Deluge_. )

Florida, 87

Forty, a sacred number, 94

Fountain of youth, 129

Four, the sacred number of red race, 66 sq. , 105, 157, 167, 178, 182, 184, 240

Four brothers, the myth of, 76-83, 152, 167, 178, 182

Garhonia, Iroquois deity, 48

Gizhigooke, the day-maker, 169

Guaranis, 32, 84 n. [TN-20]

Guatavita Lake, 124

Gucumatz, the bird-serpent, 118

Gumongo, god of the Monquis, 93

Haitians, myths of, 78, 85, 135, 188

Hand, symbol of the, 183

Haokah, Dakota thunder god, 151

Hawaneu. (See _Neo_. )

Heaven, the, of the red race, 243

Hell, the hidden world, 252

Heno, Iroquois thunder-god, 156

Hiawatha, myth of, 172

Hobbamock, 60

Huemac, the Strong-hand, 181, 183

Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, 118, 282

Hunting, its effect on the mind, 21, 67, 100

Hurakan or hurricane, meaning of, 51 a Maya god, 81, 82, 114, 156, 196

Hurons, 25, 48, 114, 136, 169, 248, 250, 275

Hushtoli, Choctaw name of God, 51

Illatici, Quichua name of God, 55, 155

Incas, secret language, 31 official title, 69 ancestors, 82, 153 arms, 120 sun-worship, 142 myths, 188, 191, 244

Ioskeha, supreme god of Iroquois, 63, 170-2

Iroquois, location, 25 name of God, 48, 53 myths of, 83, 85, 169-72, 196, 227, 236 veneration of serpents, 108, 116, 118 of fire, 148

Isolation of the red race, 20, 34

Itzcuinan, the Bitch-Mother, 138

Jarvis, Dr. , his Discourse on American Religions, 39

Juripari, 61

Killistenoes, 270

Kittanitowit, 58, 60

Ku, a name of divinity, 46, 47

Kukulcan, god of air, 118

Languages of America, 7 esoteric of priests, 284

Lenni Lenape, 26, 96, 161, 231

Light, universal symbol of divinity, 173

Lightning, the, 112 seq. , 151 seq. , 168

Madness, as inspiration, 274 seq. 

Magic, natural, 266

Maistre, Joseph de, his theory of mythology, 291, n. [TN-24]

Maize, distribution of, 22, 37

Man, origin of, 222 sq. , 258 word for, 223

Mandans, 71, 85, 107, 184, 205, 228

Manibozho. (See _Michabo_. )

Mannacicas, 250

Manoa, 87

Manes, 111

Mayas, alphabet, 13 location, 30 calendar, 74, 80 mythical ancestors, 79, 80, 85 myths and rites, 93, 146, 183, 188, 214, 221 name of cross, 97

Mbocobi, 201

Meda worship, 162 n. 

Medicine, 45 lodge, 267 men, 264, 277 seq. 

Memory, cultivated by picture-writing, 18

Mesmerism, 272

Messou, 209 (See _Michabo_. )

Metempsychosis, 253

Mexicans, (See _Aztecs_. )

Meztli, 132, 135

Michabo, supreme Algonkin god, 63, 116, 136, 161-9, 198, 220, 294

Mictlan, god of the dead, 92, 252

Migrations, coarse of, 34

Milky-way, 244

Millennium, 261

Minnetarees, 228, 230, 250

Mixcoatl, or Mixcohuatl, 22, 51, 158

Mixtecas, 90, 196

Monan, 211

Monquis, 93, 106

Montezuma, 187, 190

Moon, worship of, 130 seq. 

Moxos, 124, 230

Müller, J. G. , his work on American religions, 40, 59, 61

Mummies, 257-60

Muscogees, 195 (See _Creeks_. )

Muyscas, 31 myths, 84 n. , [TN-20] 183-4

Nahuas, 29, 73 myths, 84 n. , [TN-20] 118, 138, 158, 206 (See _Aztecs_. )

Nanahuatl, 135

Natchez, 27, 28 n. [TN-25] myths, 126, 142, 149, 205, 225, 239

Natural religions, 3

Navajos, 79, 84 n. , [TN-20] 103, 127, 205, 241

Neo, Iroquois corruption of _Dieu_, 53

Nemqueteba, 183

Netelas, 50, 105 n. 

Nez Percés[TN-26] 272, 281

Nicaraguans, 145, 158, 201, 245, 288

Nine Rivers, the, 248

Nootka Indians, 297

North, myths concerning, 82

Nottoways, 25, 84

Numbers, sacred, 66, 98 (See _Four_, _Three_, _Seven_. )

Occaniches, 284

Oki, name of God, 46-8

Onniont, a mythical serpent, 114

Onondagas, 171

Oonawleh unggi, 51

Otomis, 6, 158

Ottawas, 93, 145, 161

Ottoes, 84 n. [TN-20]

Pacari Tampu, 82, 179, 227

Pachacamac, 56, 176-7, 298

Panos, 13

Paradise, myth of, 86 seq. 

Paria, 87

Passions, worship of, 146, 149

Pawnees, 71 n. , 84 n. [TN-20]

Pend d'Oreilles, 233

Peru, 69 rites and myths, 82, 102, 106, 131, 132, 137, 138, 142, 149, 152 sq, [TN-27] 176-9, 188, 213, 219, 227, 240, 251, 260 priests, 278, 282, 284 (See _Aymaras_, _Incas_. )

Phallic worship, 146, 149

Picture writing, 9

Pilgrimages, custom of, 301

Pimos, 185

Prayers, specimens of, 296-300

Priesthood, native, 263 sq. 

Puelches, 277

Quetzalcoatl, the supreme Aztec god, 106, 118, 157, 180-3, 188, 294-6

Quiateot, a rain god, 131

Quichés, 30 Sacred Book, 41 names for God, 51, 58 n. [TN-19] evil deities, 64 myth of first four brothers, 81 of paradise, 89 of creation, 196 of flood, 207 of hell, 251, 258

Quichuas, 31 religion, 55 ancestors, 82, 153 names of cardinal points, 93 n. Myths, 155 (_See_ Peru, Incas. )[TN-28]

Quipus, 14

Rattlesnake, as a symbol, 108 sq. 

Raven, as a symbol, 195, 204, 213, 229

Red, symbolic meaning, 80, 88, 140

Sacrifice, its meaning, 291

Sacs, 84, 277

Sanscrit flood-myth, 212

Schwarz, Dr. , his views of mythology, 112

Seminoles, 129

Serpent, as a symbol, 107 sq. , 136, 158

Seven, a sacred number, 66, 128 n. , 202, 204, 273 n. , 281, 283

Shawnees, 26, 84 n. , [TN-20] 110, 113, 114, 144, 281

Shoshonees, 28, 138

Sillam Innua, 50, 76

Sioux, 28, 151, 236

Soul, notions concerning, 235 sq. , 277

Sua, the Muysca God, 184

Sun-worship, 141 sq. , 149, 243-9

Suns, Aztec, 215 sq. 

Takahlis, 127, 197, 201, 253, 256

Tamu, 184, 294

Taras, 158

Taronhiawagon, 171

Tawiscara, 170

Teczistecatl, 132

Teatihuacan, [TN-29] 46, 69

Three, a sacred number, 66, 98, 156

Thunder-storm, in myths, 150 sq. 

Tici, the vase, 130

Timberlake, Lt. , his _Memoirs_, 115

Titicaca, Lake, 124, 178

Tlacatecolotl, supposed Aztec Satan, 106

Tlaloc, god of rain, 75, 88, 156-7

Tlalocan, 88, 246

Tlapallan, 88, 91, 181

Tloque nahuaque, 58 n. [TN-19]

Tohil, 157

Toltecs, 29, 180

Tonacatepec, 88

Toukaways, 231

Trinity, in American religions, 156

Tulan, 88, 89, 181

Tupa, 32, 84, 152, 185

Tupis, 32 myths, 83 n. , 152, 185, 210, 258, 274

Twins, sacred to lightning, 153-4

Unktahe, a Dakota god, 133

Vase, symbol of, 130, 155

Viracocha, supreme god in Peru, 124, 155, 177-80

Waitz, Dr. , his _Anthropology_, 40, 288

Wampum, 15

Water, myths of, 122 seq. , 194

West, myths of, 92, 93, 166

White, as a symbol, 165, 174-6

Whiteman's land, 21 n. 

Winds, myths of, 49-52, 74 sq. , 96, 103, 166, 182

Winnebagoes, 220

Witchitas, 224

Writing, modes of, 9-13

Xelhua, 228

Xibalba, 64, 251

Xochiquetzal, 137

Xolotl, 258

Yakama language, 50

Yamo and Yama, twin deities, 154 n. 

Yoalli-ehecatl, 50

Yohualticitl, 132

Yupanqui, Inca, 55

Yurucares, 201, 224, 259

Zac, empire of, 31, 124

Zamna, culture hero of Mayas, 93, 183, 188

Zapotecs, 183

ERRATA. 

 Page 31, note, for "_Ureinbewohner_" read "_Ureinwohner_. "[TN-30] " 101, line 10 from bottom, _for_ "clouds" _read_ "clods. " " 145, note 1, _for_ "Gomara" _read_ "Gumilla. "

Transcriber's Note

The following typographical errors were noted in the original text. 

 Page Error TN-1 57 the Inds. P. Should read the Inds. , p. TN-2 89 Orstnamen should read Ortsnamen TN-3 115 o should read of TN-4 134 knaws should read gnaws TN-5 140 extingish should read extinguish TN-6 144 fn. 2 Reconnoissance was spelled this way in the title of original publication, quoted correctly TN-7 158 fn. 3 Hist du Mexique should read Hist. Du Mexique TN-8 162 wizzard should read wizard TN-9 218 foreboding shave should read forebodings have TN-10 223 fn. 2 yelk should read yolk TN-11 226 fn. 2 _above_ should read above TN-12 234 after. World should read after world TN-13 248 scimetar should read scimitar TN-14 251 Xibilha should read Xibalba TN-15 258 supersitions should read superstitions TN-16 278 drunkeness should read drunkenness TN-17 294 fees should read frees or feeds? TN-18 300 give should read gives TN-19 303 (and elsewhere) 58 n. Refers to footnote 57-3, the continued text of this footnote was printed on p. 58 in the original book TN-20 304 (and elsewhere) 84 n. Refers to footnote 83-3, the continued text of this footnote was printed on p. 84 in the original book TN-21 304 Cupay should read Çupay TN-22 304 a a symbol should read a symbol TN-23 304 Eldorado should read El Dorado TN-24 305 291, n. Should read 291 n. TN-25 305 28 n. Refers to footnote 27-2, the continued text of this footnote was printed on p. 28 in the original book TN-26 306 Nez Percés should read Nez Percés, TN-27 306 152 sq, should read 152 sq. , TN-28 306 _See_ Peru, Incas should read See _Peru_, _Incas_ TN-29 306 Teatihuacan should read Teotihuacan TN-30 307 Ureinbewohner was not found in the text

The following words were inconsistently spelled:

 Mannacicas / Mannicicas Percès / Percés Quiché / Quiche rôle / role Tamöi / Tamoi

The following words were inconsistently hyphenated:

 Aka-kanet / Akakanet Ama-livaca / Amalivaca child-birth / childbirth Teo-tihuacan / Teotihuacan under-world / underworld Ur-religionen / Urreligionen Yoalli-ehecatl / Yoalliehecatl

Other inconsistencies

Titles of works referred to in the footnotes are occasionally notitalicized. Author names of the works referred to in the footnotes areoccasionally italicized.