The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 3 - The Native Races, Volume 3, Myths and Languages

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Title: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 3 - The Native Races, Volume 3, Myths and Languages
Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Italics in the footnote citations were inconsistently applied by the
typesetter.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

^a represents a superscripted character (a for example).
{_v} represents a subscripted v.
[_c_] represents a backwards c.

Footnote II-11: "Reads" should possibly be "Reade."
Footnote VI-43: "por bien de abirle los ojos, y darle luz, y
abridle ... " should possibly be "por bien de abrirle los ojos,
y darle luz, y abrirle ..."
Footnote IX-7 is missing a starting quote.
Footnote X-65: "rook" should possibly be "rock."
Footnote XI-5 is missing a starting quote.
Footnote II'-29: "queer" should possibly be "quer."
Footnote II'-60 is missing a starting quote.
Footnote III'-2: "îsles" should possibly be "îles."
Footnote III'-7: "Kaigáni" or "Kaigani" may be spelled incorrectly.
Footnote IV'-16: "Entferten" should possibly be "Entfernten."
Footnote V'-7: "Schlusstein" should possibly be "Schlussstein."
Footnote XII-75: The ending page should possibly be 302.
Page 569: "Irritilia" should possibly be "Irritila."
Page 634: The periods after "from us", and "masahchie" are possibly
typos.
Page 703: "kiokame" is a possible typo for "hiokame."
_Erman_, _Archiv_ is variously numbered with Roman and Arabic numbers.

THE WORKS
OF
HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT.

VOLUME III.
THE NATIVE RACES.

VOL. III. MYTHS AND LANGUAGES.

SAN FRANCISCO:
A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
1883.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1882, by
HUBERT H. BANCROFT,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

_All Rights Reserved._

CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME.

MYTHOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.

SPEECH AND SPECULATION.
PAGE.

Difference between Man and Brutes -- Mind-Language and
Soul-Language -- Origin of Language: A Gift of the Creator, a
Human Invention, or an Evolution -- Nature and Value of Myth --
Origin of Myth: The Divine Idea, a Fiction of Sorcery, the
Creation of a Designing Priesthood -- Origin of Worship, of
Prayer, of Sacrifice -- Fetichism and the Origin of
Animal-Worship -- Religion and Mythology 1

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN AND END OF THINGS.

Quiché Creation-Myth -- Aztec Origin-Myths -- The Papagos --
Montezuma and the Coyote -- The Moquis -- The Great Spider's
Web of the Pimas -- Navajo and Pueblo Creations -- Origin of
Clear Lake and Lake Tahoe -- Chareya of the Cahrocs -- Mount
Shasta, the Wigwam of the Great Spirit -- Idaho Springs and
Water Falls -- How Differences in Language Occurred -- Yehl,
the Creator of the Thlinkeets -- The Raven and the Dog 42

CHAPTER III.

PHYSICAL MYTHS.

Sun, Moon, and Stars -- Eclipses -- The Moon Personified in the
Land of the Crescent -- Fire -- How the Coyote Stole Fire for
the Cahrocs -- How the Frog Lost His Tail -- How the Coyote
Stole Fire for the Navajos -- Wind and Thunder -- The Four
Winds and the Cross -- Water, the First of Elemental Things --
Its Sacred and Cleansing Power -- Earth and Sky -- Earthquakes
and Volcanoes -- Mountains -- How the Hawk and Crow Built the
Coast Range -- The Mountains of Yosemite 108

CHAPTER IV.

ANIMAL MYTHOLOGY.

Rôles Assigned to Animals -- Auguries from their Movements --
The Ill-omened Owl -- Tutelary Animals -- Metamorphosed Men --
The Ogress-Squirrel of Vancouver Island -- Monkeys and Beavers
-- Fallen Men -- The Sacred Animals -- Prominence of the Bird
-- An Emblem of the Wind -- The Serpent, an Emblem of the
Lightning -- Not Specially connected with Evil -- The Serpent
of the Pueblos -- The Water-Snake -- Ophiolatry -- Prominence
of the Dog, or the Coyote -- Generally though not always a
Benevolent Power -- How the Coyote let Salmon up the Klamath --
Danse Macabre and Sad Death of the Coyote 127

CHAPTER V.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Eskimo Witchcraft -- The Tinneh and the Koniagas -- Kugans of
the Aleuts -- The Thlinkeets, the Haidahs, and the Nootkas --
Paradise Lost of the Okanagans -- The Salish, the Clallams, the
Chinooks, the Cayuses, the Walla Wallas, and the Nez Percés --
Shoshone Ghouls -- Northern California -- The Sun at Monterey
-- Ouiot and Chinigchinich -- Antagonistic Gods of Lower
California -- Comanches, Apaches, and Navajos -- Montezuma of
the Pueblos -- Moquis and Mojaves -- Primeval Race of Northern
California 140

CHAPTER VI.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Gods and Religious Rites of Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, and
Sinaloa -- The Mexican Religion, received with different
degrees of credulity by different classes of the people --
Opinions of different Writers as to its Nature -- Monotheism
of Nezahualcoyotl -- Present condition of the Study of Mexican
Mythology -- Tezcatlipoca -- Prayers to Him in the time of
Pestilence, of War, for those in Authority -- Prayer used by
an Absolving Priest -- Genuineness of the foregoing Prayers --
Character and Works of Sahagun 178

CHAPTER VII.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Image of Tezcatlipoca -- His Seats at the Street-corners --
Various Legends about his Life on Earth -- Quetzalcoatl -- His
Dexterity in the Mechanical Arts -- His Religious Observances --
The Wealth and Nimbleness of his Adherents -- Expulsion from
Tula of Quetzalcoatl by Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli -- The
Magic Draught -- Huemac, or Vemac, King of the Toltecs, and the
Misfortunes brought upon him and his people by Tezcatlipoca in
various disguises -- Quetzalcoatl in Cholula -- Differing
Accounts of the Birth and Life of Quetzalcoatl -- His Gentle
Character -- He drew up the Mexican Calender -- Incidents of his
Exile and of his Journey to Tlapalla, as related and commented
upon by various writers -- Brasseur's ideas about the
Quetzalcoatl Myths -- Quetzalcoatl considered a Sun-God by
Tylor, and as a Dawn-Hero by Brinton -- Helps -- Domenech -- The
Codices -- Long Discussion of the Quetzalcoatl Myths by J. G.
Müller 237

CHAPTER VIII.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Various accounts of the Birth, Origin, and Derivation of the
name of the Mexican War God, Huitzilopochtli, of his Temple,
Image, Ceremonial, Festivals, and his Deputy, or Page, Paynal --
Clavigero -- Boturini -- Acosta -- Solis -- Sahagun -- Herrera
-- Torquemada -- J. G. Müller's Summary of the Huitzilopochtli
Myths, their Origin, Relation, and Signification -- Tylor --
Codex Vaticanus -- Tlaloc, God of Water, especially of Rain, and
of Mountains -- Clavigero, Gama, and Ixtlilxochitl -- Prayer in
time of Drought -- Camargo, Motolinia, Mendieta, and the Vatican
Codex on the Sacrifices to Tlaloc -- The Decorations of his
Victims and the places of their Execution -- Gathering Rushes
for the Service of the Water God -- Highway Robberies by the
Priests at this time -- Decorations and Implements of the
Priests -- Punishments for Ceremonial Offences -- The Whirlpool
of Pantitlan -- Images of the Mountains in honor of the Tlaloc
Festival -- Of the coming Rain and Mutilation of the Images of
the Mountains -- General Prominence in the cult of Tlaloc, of
the Number Four, the Cross, and the Snake 288

CHAPTER IX.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

The Mother or all-nourishing Goddess under various names and in
various aspects -- Her Feast in the Eleventh Aztec month
Ochpaniztli -- Festivals of the Eighth month, Hueytecuilhuitl,
and of the Fourth, Hueytozoztli -- The deification of women that
died in child-birth -- The Goddess of Water under various Names
and in various aspects -- Ceremonies of the Baptism or
Lustration of children -- The Goddess of Love, her various names
and aspects -- Rites of confession and absolution -- The God of
fire and his various names -- His festivals in the tenth month
Xocotlveti and in the eighteenth month Yzcali; also his
quadriennial festival in the latter month -- The great festival
of every fifty-two years; lighting the new fire -- The God of
Hades, and Teoyaomique, collector of the souls of the fallen
brave -- Deification of dead rulers and heroes -- Mixcoatl, God
of hunting, and his feast in the fourteenth month, Quecholli --
Various other Mexican deities -- Festival in the second month,
Tlacaxipehualiztli, with notice of the gladiatorial sacrifices
-- Complete Synopsis of the festivals of the Mexican Calendar,
fixed and movable -- Temples and Priests 349

CHAPTER X.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Revenues of the Mexican Temples -- Vast number of the Priests --
Mexican Sacerdotal System -- Priestesses -- The Orders of
Tlamaxcacayotl and Telpochtiliztli -- Religious Devotees --
Baptism -- Circumcision -- Communion -- Fasts and Penance --
Blood-drawing -- Human Sacrifices -- The Gods of the Tarascos --
Priests and Temple Service of Michoacan -- Worship in Jalisco --
Oajaca -- Votan and Quetzalcoatl -- Travels of Votan -- The
Apostle Wixepecocha -- Cave near Xustlahuaca -- The Princess
Pinopiaa -- Worship of Costahuntox -- Tree Worship 430

CHAPTER XI.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Maya Pantheon -- Zamná -- Cukulcan -- The Gods of Yucatan -- The
Symbol of the Cross in America -- Human Sacrifices in Yucatan --
Priests of Yucatan -- Guatemalan Pantheon -- Tepeu and Hurakan
-- Avilix and Hacavitz -- The Heroes of the Sacred Book --
Quiché Gods -- Worship of the Choles, Manches, Itzas,
Lacandones, and others -- Tradition of Comizahual -- Fasts --
Priests of Guatemala -- Gods, Worship, and Priests of Nicaragua
-- Worship on the Mosquito Coast -- Gods and Worship of the
Isthmians -- Phallic Worship in America 461

CHAPTER XII.

FUTURE STATE.

Aboriginal Ideas of Future -- General Conceptions of Souls --
Future State of the Aleuts, Chepewyans, Natives at Milbank
Sound, and Okanagans -- Happy Land of the Salish and Chinooks --
Conceptions of Heaven and Hell of the Nez Percés, Flatheads, and
Haidahs -- The Realms of Quawteaht and Chayher -- Beliefs of the
Songhies, Clallams, and Pend d'Oreilles -- The Future State of
the Californian and Nevada Tribes, Comanches, Pueblos, Navajos,
Apaches, Moquis, Maricopas, Yumas, and others -- The Sun House
of the Mexicans -- Tlalocan and Mictlan -- Condition of the Dead
-- Journey of the Dead -- Future of the Tlascaltecs and other
Nations 510

LANGUAGES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGES.

Native Languages in Advance of Social Customs -- Characteristic
Individuality of American Tongues -- Frequent Occurrence of Long
Words -- Reduplications, Frequentatives, and Duals --
Intertribal Languages -- Gesture-Language -- Slavé and Chinook
Jargons -- Pacific States Languages -- The Tinneh, Aztec, and
Maya Tongues -- The Larger Families Inland -- Language as a Test
of Origin -- Similarities in Unrelated Languages -- Plan of this
Investigation 551

CHAPTER II.

HYPERBOREAN LANGUAGES.

Distinction between Eskimo and American -- Eskimo Pronunciation
and Declension -- Dialects of the Koniagas and Aleuts --
Language of the Thlinkeets -- Hypothetical Affinities -- The
Tinneh Family and its Dialects -- Eastern, Western, Central, and
Southern Divisions -- Chepewyan Declension -- Oratorical Display
in the Speech of the Kutchins -- Dialects of the Atnahs and
Ugalenzes Compared -- Specimen of the Koltshane Tongue --
Tacully Gutturals -- Hoopah Vocabulary -- Apache Dialects --
Lipan Lord's Prayer -- Navajo Words -- Comparative Vocabulary of
the Tinneh Family 574

CHAPTER III.

COLUMBIAN LANGUAGES.

The Haidah, its Construction and Conjugation -- The Nass
Language and its Dialects -- Bellacoola and Chimsyan Comparisons
-- The Nootka Languages of Vancouver Island -- Nanaimo Ten
Commandments and Lord's Prayer -- Aztec Analogies -- Fraser and
Thompson River Languages -- The Neetlakapamuck Grammar and
Lord's Prayer -- Sound Languages -- The Salish Family --
Flathead Grammar and Lord's Prayer -- The Kootenai -- The
Sahaptin Family -- Nez Percé Grammar -- Yakima Lord's Prayer --
Sahaptin State and Slave Languages -- The Chinook Family --
Grammar of the Chinook Language -- Aztec Affinities -- The
Chinook Jargon 604

CHAPTER IV.

CALIFORNIAN LANGUAGES.

Multiplicity of Tongues -- Yakon, Klamath, and Palaik
Comparisons -- Pitt River and Wintoon Vocabularies -- Weeyot,
Wishosk, Weitspek, and Ehnek Comparisons -- Languages of
Humboldt Bay -- Potter Valley, Russian and Eel River Languages
-- Pomo Languages -- Gallinomero Grammar -- Trans-Pacific
Comparisons -- Chocuyem Lord's Prayer -- Languages of the
Sacramento, San Joaquin, Napa, and Sonoma Valleys -- The Olhone
and other Languages of San Francisco Bay -- Runsien and Eslene
of Monterey -- Santa Clara Lord's Prayer -- Mutsun Grammar --
Languages of the Missions Santa Cruz, San Antonio de Padua,
Soledad, and San Miguel -- Tatché Grammar -- The Dialects of
Santa Cruz and other Islands 635

CHAPTER V.

SHOSHONE LANGUAGES.

Aztec-Sonora Connections with the Shoshone Family -- The Utah,
Comanche, Moqui, Kizh, Netela, Kechi, Cahuillo, and Chemehuevi
-- Eastern and Western Shoshone, or Wihinasht -- The Bannack and
Digger, or Shoshokee -- The Utah and its Dialects -- The Goshute,
Washoe, Paiulee, Piute, Sampitche, and Mono -- Popular Belief
as to the Aztec Element in the North -- Grimm's Law -- Shoshone,
Comanche, and Moqui Comparative Table -- Netela Stanza -- Kizh
Grammar -- The Lord's Prayer in two Dialects of the Kizh --
Chemehuevi and Cahuillo Grammar -- Comparative Vocabulary 660

CHAPTER VI.

THE PUEBLO, COLORADO RIVER, AND LOWER CALIFORNIA LANGUAGES.

Traces of the Aztec not found among the Pueblos of New Mexico
and Arizona -- The Five Languages of the Pueblos, the Queres,
the Tegua, the Picoris, Jemez, and Zuñi -- Pueblo Comparative
Vocabulary -- The Yuma and its Dialects, the Maricopa, Cuchan,
Mojave, Diegueño, Yampais, and Yavipais -- The Cochimí and
Pericú, with their Dialects of Lower California -- Guaicuri
Grammar -- Pater Noster in Three Cochimí Dialects -- The
Languages of Lower California wholly Isolated 680

CHAPTER VII.

THE PIMA, ÓPATA, AND CERI LANGUAGES.

Pima Alto and Bajo -- Pápago -- Pima Grammar -- Formation of
Plurals -- Personal Pronoun -- Conjugation -- Classification of
Verbs -- Adverbs -- Prepositions, Conjunctions, and
Interjections -- Syntax of the Pima -- Prayers in different
dialects -- The Ópata and Eudeve -- Eudeve Grammar --
Conjugation of Active and Passive Verbs -- Lord's Prayer --
Ópata Grammar -- Declension -- Possessive Pronoun -- Conjugation
-- Ceri Language with its Dialects, Guaymi and Tepoca -- Ceri
Vocabulary 694

CHAPTER VIII.

NEW MEXICAN LANGUAGES.

The Cahita and its Dialects -- Cahita Grammar -- Dialectic
Differences of the Mayo, Yaqui, and Tehueco -- Comparative
Vocabulary -- Cahita Lord's Prayer -- The Tarahumara and its
Dialects -- The Tarahumara Grammar -- Tarahumara Lord's Prayer
in two Dialects -- The Concho, the Toboso, the Julime, the Piro,
the Suma, the Chinarra, the Tubar, the Irritila -- Tejano --
Tejano Grammar -- Specimen of the Tejano -- The Tepehuana --
Tepehuana Grammar and Lord's Prayer -- Acaxée and its Dialects,
the Topia, Sabaibo and Xixime -- The Zacatec, Cazcane, Mazapile,
Huitcole, Guachichile, Colotlan, Tlaxomultec, Tecuexe, and
Tepecano -- The Cora and its Dialects, the Muutzicat,
Teacuaeitzca, and Ateacari -- Cora Grammar 706

CHAPTER IX.

THE AZTEC AND OTOMÍ LANGUAGES.

Nahua or Aztec, Chichimec, and Toltec languages identical --
Anáhuac the aboriginal seat of the Aztec Tongue -- The Aztec the
oldest language in Anáhuac -- Beauty and Richness of the Aztec
-- Testimony of the Missionaries and early writers in its favor
-- Specimen from Paredes' Manual -- Grammar of the Aztec
Language -- Aztec Lord's Prayer -- The Otomí a Monosyllabic
Language of Anáhuac -- Relationship claimed with the Chinese and
Cherokee -- Otomí Grammar -- Otomí Lord's Prayer in Different
Dialects 723

CHAPTER X.

LANGUAGES OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MEXICO.

The Pame and its Dialects -- The Meco of Guanajuato and the
Sierra Gordo -- The Tarasco of Michoacan and its Grammar -- The
Matlaltzinca and its Grammar -- The Ocuiltec -- The Miztec and
its Dialects -- Miztec Grammar -- The Amusgo, Chocho, Mazatec,
Cuicatec, Chatino, Tlapanec, Chinantec, and Popoluca -- The
Zapotec and its Grammar -- The Mije -- Mije Grammar and Lord's
Prayer -- The Huave of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec -- Huave
Numerals 742

CHAPTER XI.

THE MAYA-QUICHÉ LANGUAGES.

The Maya-Quiché, the Languages of the Civilized Nations of
Central America -- Enumeration of the Members of this Family --
Hypothetical Analogies with Languages of the Old World -- Lord's
Prayers in the Chañabal, Chiapanec, Chol, Tzendal, Zoque, and
Zotzil -- Pokonchi Grammar -- The Mame or Zaklopahkap -- Quiché
Grammar -- Cakchiquel Lord's Prayer -- Maya Grammar -- Totonac
Grammar -- Totonac Dialects -- Huastec Grammar 759

CHAPTER XII.

LANGUAGES OF HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICA, AND THE ISTHMUS OF
DARIEN.

The Carib an Imported Language -- The Mosquito Language -- The
Poya, Towka, Seco, Valiente, Rama, Cookra, Woolwa, and other
Languages in Honduras -- The Chontal -- Mosquito Grammar -- Love
Song in the Mosquito Language -- Comparative Vocabulary of
Honduras Tongues -- The Coribici, Chorotega, Chontal, and
Orotiña in Nicaragua -- Grammar of the Orotiña or Nagrandan --
Comparison between the Orotiña and Chorotega -- The Chiriquí,
Guatuso, Tiribi, and others in Costa Rica -- Talamanca
Vocabulary -- Diversity of Speech on the Isthmus of Darien --
Enumeration of Languages -- Comparative Vocabulary 782

THE NATIVE RACES
OF THE
PACIFIC STATES.

MYTHOLOGY, LANGUAGES.

CHAPTER I.

SPEECH AND SPECULATION.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAN AND BRUTES -- MIND LANGUAGE AND
SOUL-LANGUAGE -- ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE: A GIFT OF THE CREATOR, A
HUMAN INVENTION, OR AN EVOLUTION -- NATURE AND VALUE OF MYTH --
ORIGIN OF MYTH: THE DIVINE IDEA, A FICTION OF SORCERY, THE
CREATION OF A DESIGNING PRIESTHOOD -- ORIGIN OF WORSHIP, OF
PRAYER, OF SACRIFICE -- FETICHISM AND THE ORIGIN OF
ANIMAL-WORSHIP -- RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.

Hitherto we have beheld Man only in his material organism; as a wild
though intellectual animal. We have watched the intercourse of
uncultured mind with its environment. We have seen how, to clothe
himself, the savage robs the beast; how, like animals, primitive man
constructs his habitation, provides food, rears a family, exercises
authority, holds property, wages war, indulges in amusements,
gratifies social instincts; and that in all this, the savage is but
one remove from the brute. Ascending the scale, we have examined the
first stages of human progress and analyzed an incipient civilization.
We will now pass the frontier which separates mankind from
animal-kind, and enter the domain of the immaterial and supernatural;
phenomena which philosophy purely positive cannot explain.

The primary indication of an absolute superiority in man over other
animals is the faculty of speech; not those mute or vocal symbols,
expressive of passion and emotion, displayed alike in brutes and men;
but the power to separate ideas, to generate in the mind and embody in
words, sequences of thought. True, upon the threshold of this inquiry,
as in whatever relates to primitive man, we find the brute creation
hotly pursuing, and disputing for a share in this progressional power.
In common with man, animals possess all the organs of sensation. They
see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. They have even the organs of
speech; but they have not speech. The source of this wonderful faculty
lies further back, obscured by the mists which ever settle round the
immaterial. Whether brutes have souls, according to the Aristotelean
theory of soul, or whether brute-soul is immortal, or of quality and
destiny unlike and inferior to that of man-soul, we see in them
unmistakable evidence of mental faculties. The higher order of animals
possess the lower order of intellectual perceptions. Thus pride is
manifested by the caparisoned horse, shame by the beaten dog, will by
the stubborn mule. Brutes have memory; they manifest love and hate,
joy and sorrow, gratitude and revenge. They are courageous or
cowardly, subtle or simple, not merely up to the measure of what we
commonly term instinct, but with evident exercise of judgment; and, to
a certain point, we might even claim for them foresight, as in laying
in a store of food for winter. But with all this there seems to be a
lack of true or connected thought, and of the faculty of abstraction,
whereby conceptions are analyzed and impressions defined.

[Sidenote: THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION.]

They have also a language, such as it is; indeed, all the varieties of
language common to man. What gesture-language can be more expressive
than that employed by the horse with its ears and by the dog with its
tail, wherein are manifestations of every shade of joy, sorrow,
courage, fear, shame, and anger? In their brutish physiognomy, also,
one may read the language of the emotions, which, if not so
delicately pictured as in the face of man, is none the less
distinctive. Nor are they without their vocal language. Every fowl and
every quadruped possesses the power of communicating intelligence by
means of the voice. They have their noise of gladness, their signal
cry of danger, their notes of anger and of woe. Thus we see in brutes
not only intelligence but the power of communicating intelligence. But
intelligence is not thought, neither is expression speech. The
language of brutes, like themselves, is soulless.

The next indication of man's superiority over brutes, is the faculty
of worship. The wild beast, to escape the storm, flies howling to its
den; the savage, awe-stricken, turns and prays. The lowest man
perceives a hand behind the lightning, hears a voice abroad upon the
storm, for which the highest brute has neither eye nor ear. This
essential of humanity we see primordially displayed in mythic
phenomena; in the first struggle of spiritual manhood to find
expression. Language is symbol significant of thought, mythology is
symbol significant of soul. The one is the first distinctive sound
that separates the ideal from the material, the other the first
respiration of the soul which distinguishes the immortal from the
animal. Language is thought incarnate; mythology, soul incarnate. The
one is the instrument of thought, as the other is the essence of
thought. Neither is thought; both are closely akin to thought;
separated from either, in some form, perfect intellectual manhood
cannot develop. I do not mean to say with some, that thought without
speech cannot exist; unless by speech is meant any form of expression
symbolical, emotional, or vocal, or unless by thought is meant
something more than mere self-consciousness without sequence and
without abstraction. There can be no doubt that speech is the living
breath of thought, and that the exercise of speech reacts upon the
mental and emotional faculties. In brutes is found neither speech nor
myth; in the deaf and dumb, thought and belief are shadowy and
undefined; in infants, thought is but as a fleeting cloud passing
over the brain. Yet for all this, deaf mutes and children who have no
adequate form of expression cannot be placed in the category of
brutes. The invention of the finger-alphabet opened a way to the
understanding of the deaf and dumb; but long before this is learned,
in every instance, these unfortunates invent a gesture-language of
their own, in which they think as well as speak. And could we but see
the strangely contorted imagery which takes possession of a
gesture-thinker's brain, we should better appreciate the value of
words. So, into the mouth of children words are put, round which
thoughts coalesce; but evidences of ideas are discovered some time
before they can be fully expressed by signs or sounds. Kant held the
opinion that the mind of a deaf mute is incapable of development, but
the wonderful success of our modern institutions has dissipated
forever that idea.

The soul of man is a half-conscious inspiration from which perception
and expression are inseparable. Nature speaks to it in that subtle
sympathy by which the immaterial within holds converse with the
immaterial without, in the soft whisperings of the breeze, in the
fearful bellowings of the tempest. Between the soul and body there is
the closest sympathy, an interaction in every relation. Therefore
these voices of nature speaking to nature's offspring, are answered
back in various ways according to the various organisms addressed. The
animal, the intellectual, the spiritual, whatsoever the entity
consists of, responds, and responding expands and unfolds. Once give
an animal the power to speak and mental development ensues; for speech
cannot continue without ideas, and ideas cannot spring up without
intellectual evolution. A dim, half-conscious, brutish thought there
may be; but the faculty of abstraction, sequences of thought, without
words either spoken or unspoken, cannot exist.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.]

It is not at all probable that a system of gesture-language was ever
employed by any primitive people, prior or in preference to vocal
language. To communicate by signs requires no little skill and
implies a degree of artifice and forethought far beyond that required
in vocal or emotional language. Long before a child arrives at the
point of intelligence necessary for conveying thought by signs, it is
well advanced in a vocal language of its own.

In mythology, language assumes personality and independence. Often the
significance of the word becomes the essential idea. Zeus, from
meaning simply sky, becomes god of the sky; Eos, originally the dawn,
is made the goddess of the opening day. Not the idea but the
expression of the idea becomes the deity. And so, by these creations
of fancy, the imagination expands; in the embodiment of the idea, the
mind enlarges with its own creation. Then yet bolder metaphors are
thrown off like soap-bubbles, which no sooner take form in words than
they are also deified. Thus soul and thought and speech act and react
on one another, all the evolutions of conception seeking vent in sound
or speculation; and thus language, the expression of mind, and
mythology, the expression of soul, become the exponents of divine
humanity.

But what then is Language, what is Myth, and whence are they? Broadly,
the term language may be applied to whatever social beings employ to
communicate passion or sentiment, or to influence one another;
whatever is made a vehicle of intelligence, ideographic or phonetic,
is language. In this category may be placed, as we have seen,
gestures, both instinctive and artificial; emotional expression,
displayed in form or feature; vocal sounds, such as the cries of
birds, the howling of beasts. Indeed, language is everywhere, in
everything. While listening to the rippling brook, the roaring sea,
the murmuring forest, as well as to the still small voice within, we
are but reading from the vocabulary of nature.

Thus construed, the principle assumes a variety of shapes, and may be
followed through successive stages of development. In fact, neither
form nor feature can be set in motion, or even left in a state of
repose, without conveying intelligence to the observer. The
countenance of man, whether it will or not, perpetually speaks, and
speaks in most exquisite shades of significance, and with expression
far more delicate than that employed by tongue or pen. The face is the
reflex of the soul; a transparency which glows with light, divine or
devilish, thrown upon it from within. It is a portrait of individual
intelligence, a photograph of the inner being, a measure of innate
intelligence. And in all pertaining to the actions and passions of
mankind, what can be more expressive than the language of the
emotions? There are the soft, silent wooings of love, the frantic fury
of hate, the dancing delirium of joy, the hungry cravings of desire,
the settled melancholy of dead hopes. But more definitely, language is
articulate human speech or symbolic expression of ideas.

How man first learned to speak, and whence the power of speech was
originally derived, are questions concerning which tradition is
uncommunicative. Even mythology, which attempts the solution of
supernatural mysteries, the explanation of all phenomena not otherwise
accounted for, has little to say as to the genesis of this most
potential of all human powers.

Many theories have been advanced concerning the origin of language.
Some of them are exploded; others in various stages of modification
remain, no two philologists thinking exactly alike. The main
hypotheses are three; the subordinate ones are legion. Obviously,
speech must be either a direct, completed gift of the Creator, with
one or more independent beginnings; or a human invention; or an
evolution from a natural germ.

Schleicher conceives primordial language to be a simple organism of
vocal gestures; Gould Brown believes language to be partly natural and
partly artificial; Adam Smith and Dugald Stewart give to man the
creation and development of speech by his own artificial invention.
According to Herodotus, the Phrygians and the Egyptians disputed over
the question of the antiquity of their languages. Psammetichus
thereupon confided two babes to the care of goats, apart from every
human sound. At the end of two years they were heard to pronounce the
word _bekos_, the Phrygian for bread. The Phrygians therefore claimed
for their language the seniority.

[Sidenote: SCIENCE OF PHILOLOGY.]

In ancient times it was thought that there was some one primeval
tongue, a central language from which all the languages of the earth
radiated. The Sythic, Ethiopic, Chinese, Greek, Latin, and other
languages advanced claims for this seniority. Plato believed language
to be an invention of the gods, and by them given to man. Orthodox
religionists did not hesitate to affirm that Hebrew, the language of
Paradise, was not only given in a perfected state to man, but was
miraculously preserved in a state of purity for the chosen Israel.
After the dispersion from Babel, such nations as relapsed into
barbarism became barbaric in speech. And in the roots of every dialect
of both the old world and the new, the Fathers were able to discern
Hebrew analogies sufficient to confirm them in their dogma. Indeed
other belief was heresy.

There were others who held that, when gesture-language and the
language of the emotions were found insufficient for the growing
necessities of man, by common consent, it was agreed that certain
objects should be represented by certain sounds, and that so, when a
word had been invented for every object, language was made.

Another doctrine, called by Mr. Wedgwood, its enthusiastic advocate,
'onomatopœia,' and by Professor Max Müller the 'bow-wow' theory,
explains the origin of language in the effort of man to imitate the
cries of nature. Thus, for dog the primitive languageless man would
say bow-wow; to the rivulet, the wind, the birds and beasts, names
were applied which as far as possible were but reproductions of the
sounds made by these elements or animals.

Thus philology up to a comparatively late period was a speculation
rather than a science. Philosophers sought to know whence language
came rather than what language is. But when the great discovery
concerning the Arian and Semitic families was made, comparative
philologists went to work after the manner of practical investigators
in other branches of study, by collecting, classifying and comparing
vocabularies, and therefrom striking out a path backward to original
trunks. Catalogues of languages were published, one in 1800 by Hervas,
a Spanish Jesuit, containing three hundred dialects, followed by
Adelung and Vater's Mithridates, from 1806-17. But not until Sanscrit
was made a subject of European study did it become apparent that
affinities of tongues are subject to the laws that govern affinities
of blood. Then it was that a similarity was discovered, not only
between the Sanscrit and the Greek and Latin tongues, but between
these languages and the Teutonic, Celtic, Iranic, and Indic, all of
which became united in the great Arian family. At the same time, the
ancient language of the Jews, the Arabic, and the Aramaic--which
constitute the Semitic family--were found to be totally different from
the Arian in their radical structure. From these investigations,
philologists were no less convinced that the Indo-European languages
were all of the same stock, than that the Semitic idioms did not
belong to it. The doctrine of the Fathers therefore would not stand;
for it was found that all languages were not derivations from the
Hebrew, nor from any other known central tongue.

Then too, the subordination of tongues to the laws of evolution became
apparent. It was discovered that language was in a state of constant
change; that, with all its variations, human speech could be grouped
into families, and degrees of relationship ascertained; and that, by
the comparison of vocabularies, a classification at once morphological
and genealogical could be made. Varieties of tongues, as numberless as
the phases of humanity, could be traced back towards their beginnings
and resolved into earlier forms. It was discovered that in the first
order of linguistic development, words are monosyllabic. In this
rudimentary stage, to which the Chinese, Tibetan, and perhaps the
Japanese belong, roots, or sounds expressive only of the material or
substantial parts of things, are used. In the second stage, called the
polysynthetic, aggregative, or agglutinate, a modifying termination,
significant of the relations of ideas or things to each other, is
affixed or glued to the root. To the agglutinate languages belong the
American and Turanian families. In the third, called the inflectional
stage, which comprises only the Arian and Semitic families, the two
elements are more perfectly developed, and it is only in this stage
that language can attain the highest degree of richness and
refinement.

[Sidenote: VARIATIONS OF LANGUAGE.]

While these stages or conditions are recognized by all, it is claimed
on one side that although settled languages retain their grammatical
character, every agglutinate language must once have been
monosyllabic, or radical, and every inflectional language once
agglutinate; and on the other side it is averred that the assertion is
incapable of proof, for no historical evidence exists of any one type
ever having passed from one of these stages to another. Now if speech
is a perfected gift of the Creator, how happens it that we find
language in every stage of development or relapse, from the cluckings
of Thlinkeets to the classic lines of Homer and of Shakspeare? In his
physiological structure, so far as is known, Man is neither more nor
less perfect now than in the days of Adam. How then if language is an
organism, is it, unlike other organisms, subject to extreme and sudden
change? In animated nature there are two principles; one fixed and
finished as an organism, subject to perpetual birth and decay, but
incapable of advancing or retrograding; the other, elemental life, the
germ or centre of a future development. The one grows, the other
unfolds. We have no evidence that instincts and organic functions were
more or less perfect in the beginning than now. If therefore language
is an instinct or an organism, a perfect gift of the Creator, how can
it exist otherwise than in a concrete and perfect state like other
instincts and organisms?

The absurdity that human speech is the invention of primitive
man--that upon some grassy knoll a company of half-clad barbarians
met, and without words invented words, without significant sounds
produced sounds significant of every object, therein by mutual consent
originating a language--may be set aside. Of all conjectures
concerning the origin of language, the hypothesis that words are an
artificial invention is the least tenable. And what is most surprising
to us, at the present day, is that such men as Locke and Adam Smith
and Dugald Stewart could for a moment have entertained the idea.
Obviously, without language there could be no culture, and without
culture, words never could have been invented. Words are the symbols
of objects and ideas. Certain words may be arbitrarily selected, and,
by the tacit agreement or general concurrence of society, may be made
to signify certain things. And in this sense words may originate
conventionally. But though words may have been conventionally
selected, they were never selected by conventions. We then have the
discoveries of modern philologists, not only to positively deny the
infallibility of the common-origin theory, but to bring forward a
number of other claimants for the greatest antiquity, as well entitled
to a hearing as the Hebrew.

[Sidenote: UNIVERSALITY OF SPEECH.]

Diversity in the origin of speech does not of necessity imply
diversity in the origin of race. Thus with a unity of race,
circumstances may be conceived in which independent tongues may have
arisen in different localities; whereas with a diversity of race, but
one language hypothetically may have been given to all. A common
origin is probable, a diversity of origin is possible; neither can be
proved or disproved. The radical differences in the structure of the
three great types, the monosyllabic, the agglutinate, and the
inflectional; and the inherent heterogeneities of the several families
of the same type, as of the Chinese and Siamese, of the American and
Turanian, or even of the Arian and Semitic, would seem to present
insurmountable obstacles to the theory of a common origin; while on
the other hand the wonderful mutations of types and trunks, the known
transformations of language, and the identifications by some
philologists, of the same stock in each of the three progressional
stages, render the theory of a unity of origin in language equally
probable. Therefore the question of unity or diversity of tongues, as
we speak of unity or diversity of race, can be of but little moment to
us. Language shows the connection between nations widely separated,
leads us back beyond tradition into the obscure past, follows the
sinuosities of migrations, indicates epochs in human development,
points towards the origin of peoples, serves as a guide in following
the radiation of races from common centres. Yet a similarity in the
sound, or even in the construction of two words, does not necessarily
imply relationship. Two totally distinct languages may have borrowed
the same word from a third language; which fact would never establish
relationship between the borrowers. When like forms are found in
different languages, in order to establish a relationship, historical
evidence must be applied as a test, and the words followed up to their
roots.

Stripped of technicalities, the question before us is reduced to a few
simple propositions. All men speak; there never yet was found a nation
without articulate language. Aside from individual and abnormal
exceptions, no primitive tribe has ever been discovered, where part of
the people spoke, and part were speechless. Language is as much a part
of man, as any physical constituent; yet unlike physical organs, as
the eye, the ear, the hand, language is not born with the individual.
It is not in the blood. The Caucasian infant stolen by Apaches, cannot
converse with its own mother when restored to her a few years after.

Therefore speech is not an independent, perfected gift of the Creator,
but an incidental acquirement. Furthermore language is an attribute of
society. It belongs to the people and not to the individual. The child
before mentioned, if dropped by the Apaches among the bears and by
them nurtured and reared, is doomed to mutism or bear-language. Man
was made a social being; speech was made as a means of communicating
intelligence between social beings; one individual alone never could
originate, or even preserve a language.

But how then happens it, if man did not make it, and God did not give
it him, that human speech is universal? With the organism of man the
Creator implants the organs of speech. With the elemental and
progressional life of man the Creator implants the germ of speech. In
common with the element of progress and civilization, innate from the
beginning, speech has developed by slow degrees through thousands of
cycles and by various stages, marching steadily forward with the
forward march of the intellect. Comparative philology, in common with
all other sciences, accords to man a remote antiquity. Bunsen
estimates that at least twenty thousand years are required for a
language to pass from one rudimentary stage to another.

The mind receives impressions and the soul intuitions, and to throw
them off in some form is an absolute necessity. Painful impressions
tend to produce bodily contortions and dolorous sounds; pleasant
impressions to illumine the features and to make musical the voice.
And not only is this compressed emotion destined to find expression,
but to impress itself upon others. Emotion is essentially sympathetic.
Why certain objects are represented by certain sounds we can never
know. Some think that between every word and the object or idea which
it represents, there was in the first instance an intimate
relationship. By degrees certain natural articulations became
associated with certain ideas; then new names were suggested by some
fancied analogy to objects already named. Everything else being equal,
similar conditions and causations produce similar impressions and are
expressed by similar sounds. Hence a certain uniformity between all
human tongues; and a tendency in man to imitate the sounds in nature,
the cries of animals, the melodies of winds and waters, accounts for
the origin of many words.

From giving expression in some outward form to our inward emotion
there is no escape. Let us now apply to the expression of feeling and
emotion the same law of evolution which governs all social and
intellectual phenomena, and from a language of exclamations, we have
first the monosyllabic noun and verb, then auxilliaries--adverbs,
adjectives, prepositions and pronouns--and finally inflections of
parts of speech by which the finer shades of meaning may be expressed.

The spontaneous outbursts of feeling, or the metaphorical expressions
of emotion, arising instinctively and acting almost simultaneously
with the conception or impression made upon the mind, develop with
time into settled forms of speech. Man speaks as birds fly or fishes
swim. The Creator supplies the organs and implants the instinct.
Speech, though intuitive, is more than intuition; for, as we have
seen, speech is a social rather than an individual attribute. Darwin
perceives in language not only a spontaneous generation, but a natural
selection of grammatical forms; the best words, the clearest and
shortest expressions, continually displacing the weaker. So words are
made to fit occasions, and dropped as soon as better ones can be
found.

Languages are not inherited, yet language is an inheritance. Language
is not artificially invented, yet languages are but conventional
agreements. Languages are not a concrete perfected gift of the
Creator, yet the germ of language is ineradicably implanted in man,
and was there implanted by none but man's Creator. This then is
Language: it is an acquisition, but an acquisition from necessity; it
is a gift, but, when given, an undeveloped germ; it is an artifice, in
so far as it is developed by the application of individual agencies.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MYTHOLOGY.]

Here, for a while, we will leave Language and turn to Mythology, the
_mythos_ 'fable' and _logos_ 'speech' of the Grecians.

Under analysis mythology is open to broad yet significant
interpretations. As made up of legendary accounts of places and
personages, it is history; as relating to the genesis of the gods, the
nature and adventures of divinities, it is religion; placed in the
category of science, it is the science of fable; of philosophy, the
philosophy of intuitive beliefs. A mass of fragmentary truth and
fiction not open to rationalistic criticism; a system of tradition,
genealogical and political, confounding the subjective with the
objective; a partition wall of allegories, built of dead facts
cemented with wild fancies--it looms ever between the immeasurable
and the measurable past.

Thick black clouds, portentous of evil, hang threateningly over the
savage during his entire life. Genii murmur in the flowing river, in
the rustling branches are felt the breathings of the gods, goblins
dance in vapory twilight, and demons howl in the darkness.

In the myths of wild, untutored man, is displayed that inherent desire
to account for the origin of things, which, even at the present time,
commands the profoundest attention of philosophy; and, as we look back
upon the absurd conceptions of our savage ancestry with feelings akin
to pity and disgust, so may the speculations of our own times appear
to those who shall come after us. Those weird tales which to us are
puerility or poetry, according as we please to regard them, were to
their believers history, science, and religion. Yet this effort, which
continues from the beginning to the end, is not valueless; in it is
embodied the soul of human progress. Without mythology, the only door
at once to the ideal and inner life of primitive peoples and to their
heroic and historic past would be forever closed to us. Nothing so
reflects their heart-secrets, exposes to our view their springs of
action, shadows forth the sources of their hopes and fears, exhibits
the models after which they moulded their lives.

Within crude poetic imagery are enrolled their religious beliefs, are
laid the foundations of their systems of worship, are portrayed their
thoughts concerning causations and the destinies of mankind. Under
symbolic veils is shrouded their ancient national spirit, all that can
be known of their early history and popular ideas. Thus are explained
the fundamental laws of nature; thus we are told how earth sprang from
chaos, how men and beasts and plants were made, how heaven was
peopled, and earth, and what were the relative powers and successive
dynasties of the gods. Heroes are made gods; gods are materialized and
brought down to men.

[Sidenote: ALL MYTHS FOUNDED ON FACT.]

Of the value of mythology it is unnecessary here to speak. Never was
there a time in the history of philosophy when the character, customs,
and beliefs of aboriginal man, and everything appertaining to him,
were held in such high esteem by scholars as at present. As the
ultimate of human knowledge is approached, the inquirer is thrown back
upon the past; and more and more the fact becomes apparent, that what
is, is but a reproduction of what has been; that in the earlier stages
of human development may be found the counterpart of every phase of
modern social life. Higher and more heterogeneous as are our present
systems of politics and philosophy, every principle, when tracked to
its beginning, proves to have been evolved, not originated.

As there never yet was found a people without a language, so every
nation has its mythology, some popular and attractive form for
preserving historical tradition and presenting ethical maxims; and as
by the range of their vocabularies we may follow men through all the
stages of their progress in government, domestic affairs and
mechanical arts, so, by beliefs expressed, we may determine at any
given epoch in the history of a race their ideal and intellectual
condition. Without the substance there can be no shadow, without the
object there can be no name for it; therefore when we find a language
without a word to denote property or chastity, we may be sure that the
wealth and women of the tribe are held in common; and when in a system
of mythology certain important metaphysical or æsthetic ideas and
attributes are wanting, it is evident that the intellect of its
composers has not yet reached beyond a certain low point of
conception.

Moreover, as in things evil may be found a spirit of good, so in fable
we find an element of truth. It is now a recognized principle of
philosophy, that no religious belief, however crude, nor any
historical tradition, however absurd, can be held by the majority of a
people for any considerable time as true, without having in the
beginning some foundation in fact. More especially is the truth of
this principle apparent when we consider that in all the multitudinous
beliefs of all ages, held by peoples savage and civilized, there exist
a concurrence of ideas and a coincidence of opinion. Human conceptions
of supernatural affairs spring from like intuitions. As human nature
is essentially the same throughout the world and throughout time, so
the religious instincts which form a part of that universal humanity
generate and develop in like manner under like conditions. The desire
to penetrate hidden surroundings and the method of attempting it are
to a certain extent common to all. All wonder at the mysterious; all
attempt the solution of mysteries; all primarily possess equal
facilities for arriving at correct conclusions. The genesis of belief
is uniform, and the results under like conditions analogous.

We may conclude that the purposes for which these fictitious
narratives were so carefully preserved and handed down to posterity
were two-fold--to keep alive certain facts and to inculcate certain
doctrines.

[Sidenote: VALUE OF MYTHOLOGY.]

Something there must have been in every legend, in every tradition, in
every belief, which has ever been entertained by the majority of a
people, to recommend it to the minds of men in the first instance.
Error absolute cannot exist; false doctrine without an amalgam of
verity speedily crumbles, and the more monstrous the falsity the more
rapid its decomposition. Myths were the oracles of our savage
ancestors; their creed, the rule of their life, prized by them as men
now prize their faith; and, by whatever savage philosophy these
strange conceits were eliminated, their effect upon the popular mind
was vital. Anaxagoras, Socrates, Protagoras, and Epicurus well knew
and boldly proclaimed that the gods of the Grecians were disreputable
characters, not the kind of deities to make or govern worlds; yet so
deep rooted in the hearts of the people were the maxims of the past,
that for these expressions one heretic was cast into prison, another
expelled from Athens, and another forced to drink the hemlock. And the
less a fable presents the appearance of probability, the more
grotesque and extravagant it is, the less the likelihood of its having
originated in pure invention; for no extravagantly absurd invention
without a particle of truth could by any possibility have been palmed
off upon a people, and by them accepted, revered, recited, preserved
as veritable incident or solution of mystery, and handed down to those
most dear to them, to be in like manner held as sacred.

Therefore we may be sure that there never was a myth without a
meaning; that mythology is not a bundle of ridiculous fancies invented
for vulgar amusement; that there is not one of these stories, no
matter how silly or absurd, which was not founded in fact, which did
not once hold a significance. "And though I have well weighed and
considered all this," concluded Lord Bacon, nearly three hundred years
ago, "and thoroughly seen into the levity which the mind indulges for
allegories and illusions, yet I cannot but retain a high value for the
ancient mythology." Indeed, to ancient myths has been attributed the
preservation of shattered fragments of lost sciences, even as some
have alleged that we are indebted to the writings of Democritus and
Aristotle for modern geographical discoveries.

That these ductile narratives have suffered in their transmission to
us, that through the magnifying and refracting influences of time, and
the ignorance and fanaticism of those to whom they were first recited,
we receive them mutilated and distorted, there can be no doubt. Not
one in a thousand of those aboriginal beliefs which were held by the
people of the Pacific Coast at the time of its first occupation by
foreigners, has been preserved. And for the originality and purity of
such as we have, in many instances, no one can vouch. Certain writers
who saw in the native fable probable evidence of the presence of an
apostle, or a miraculous interposition in the affairs of benighted
heathendom, could but render the narrative in accordance with their
prepossessions. The desire of some to prove a certain origin for the
Indians, and the contempt of others for native character, also led to
imperfect or colored narrations. But happily, enough has been
preserved in authentic picture-writings, and by narrators whose
integrity and intelligence are above suspicion, to give us a fair
insight into the native psychological structure and belief; and if the
knowledge we have is but infinitesimal in comparison with what has
been lost, we may thereby learn to prize more highly such as we have.

Again we come to the ever-recurring question--Whence is it? Whence
arise belief, worship, superstition? Whence the striking likeness in
all supernatural conceptions between nations and ages the most
diverse? Why is it that so many peoples, during the successive stages
of their progress, have their creation myth, their origin myth, their
flood myth, their animal, and plant, and planet myths? This
coincidence of evolution can scarcely be the result of accident.
Mythologies, then, being like languages common to mankind, uniform in
substance yet varying in detail, what follows with regard to the
essential system of their supernatural conceptions? Is it a perfected
gift of the Creator, the invention of a designing priesthood, or a
spontaneous generation and natural development? So broad a question,
involving as it does the weightiest matters connected with man, may
scarcely expect exactly the same answer from any two persons. Origin
of life, origin of mind, origin of belief, are as much problems to the
profoundest philosopher of to-day, as they were to the first
wondering, bewildered savage who wandered through primeval forests.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF BELIEF.]

Life is defined by Herbert Spencer as "the coördination of actions, or
their continuous adjustment;" by Lewes as "a series of definite and
successive changes, both of structure and composition, which take
place within an individual without destroying its identity;" by
Schelling as "the tendency to individuation;" by Richeraud as "a
collection of phenomena which succeed each other during a limited time
in an organized body;" and by De Blainville as "the two-fold internal
movement of composition and decomposition, at once general and
continuous." According to Hume, Mind is but a bundle of ideas and
impressions which are the sum of all knowledge, and consequently, "the
only things known to exist." In the positive philosophy of Auguste
Comte, intellectual development is divided into three phases; namely,
the Supernatural, in which the mind seeks for supernatural causes; the
Metaphysical, wherein abstract forces are set up in place of
supernatural agencies; and the Positive, which inquires into the laws
which engender phenomena. Martineau, commenting upon intuition and the
mind's place in nature, charges the current doctrine of evolution with
excluding the element of life from developing organisms. Until the
origin of mind, and the relation of mind to its environment is
determined, the origin of the supernatural must remain unaccounted
for. Yet we may follow the principle of worship back to very near its
source, if we are unable entirely to account for it.

We have seen how the inability of brutes to form in the mind long
sequences of thought, prevents speech; so, in primitive societies,
when successions of unrecorded events are forgotten before any
conception of general laws can be formed therefrom, polytheism in its
grossest form is sure to prevail. Not until the earlier stages of
progress are passed, and, from a multitude of correlative and
oft-repeated experiences, general deductions made, can there be any
higher religious conceptions than that of an independent cause for
every consequence.

By some it is alleged that the religious sentiment is a divine idea
perfected by the Creator and implanted in man as part of his nature,
before his divergence from a primitive centre. Singularly enough, the
Fathers of the Church referred the origin of fable as well as the
origin of fact to the Hebrew Scriptures. Supported by the soundest
sophistry, they saw in every myth, Grecian or barbarian, a biblical
character. Thus the Greek Hercules was none other than the Hebrew
Sampson; Arion was Jonah, and Deucalion Noah. Other mythological
characters were supposed by them to have been incarnated fiends, who
disappeared after working for a time their evil upon men.

There have been those who held myths to be the fictions of sorcery, as
there are now those who believe that forms of worship were invented by
a designing priesthood, or that mythology is but a collection of
tales, physical, ethical and historical, invented by the sages and
ancient wise men of the nation, for the purpose of overawing the
wicked and encouraging the good. Some declare that religion is a
factitious or accidental social phenomenon; others that it is an
aggregation of organized human experiences; others that it is a bundle
of sentiments which were originally projected by the imagination, and
ultimately adopted as entities; others that it is a feeling or
emotion, the genesis of which is due to surrounding circumstances.

Many believe all mythological personages to have been once real human
heroes, the foundations of whose histories were laid in truth, while
the structure was reared by fancy. The Egyptians informed Herodotus
that their deities--the last of whom was Orus son of Osiris, the
Apollo of the Grecians--were originally their kings. Others affirm
that myths are but symbolic ideas deified; that they are but the
embodiment of a maxim in the form of an allegory, and that under these
allegorical forms were taught history, religion, law and morality.

Intermingled with all these hypotheses are elements of truth, and yet
none of them appear to be satisfying explanations. All imply that
religion, in some form, is an essential constituent of humanity, and
that whatever its origin and functions, it has exercised from the
earliest ages and does yet exercise the most powerful influence upon
man; working like leaven in the lump, keeping the world in a ferment,
stirring up men to action, banding and disrupting nations, uniting and
dividing communities, and forming the nucleus of numberless societies
and institutions.

[Sidenote: RISE OF THE PRIMITIVE PRIESTHOOD.]

In every society, small and great, there are undoubtedly certain
intellects of quicker than ordinary perception, which seize upon
occasions, and by a skillful use of means obtain a mastery over
inferior minds. It is thus that political and social, as well as
ecclesiastical power arises. Not that the leader creates a want--he is
but the mouth-piece or agent of pent-up human instincts. One of these
instincts is dependence. That we are created subordinate, not absolute
nor unrestrained, is a fact from which none can escape. Thraldom,
constant and insurmountable, we feel we have inherited. Most
naturally, therefore, the masses of mankind seek from among their
fellows some embodiment of power, and ranging themselves under the
banner of leaders, follow blindly whithersoever they are led.
Perceiving the power thus placed in their hands, these born leaders of
men are not slow to invent means for retaining and increasing it. To
the inquiry of the child or unsophisticated savage, who, startled by a
peal of distant thunder, cries, "What is that?" the explanation is
given; "That is the storm-god speaking." "I am afraid, protect me!"
implores the supplicant. "I will, only obey," is the reply. The answer
is sufficient, curiosity is satisfied, and terror allayed; the
barbarian teacher gains a devotee. In this manner, the superstructure
of creeds, witchcrafts, priestcrafts, may have arisen; some gods may
thus have been made, forms of worship invented, and intercourse opened
with beings supernal and infernal. Then devotion advances and becomes
an art; professors by practice become experts. Meanwhile, craft is
economized; the wary Shamán rain-doctor--like the worthy clergyman of
civilized orthodoxy, who refused to pray for rain "while the wind was
in that quarter"--watches well the gathering ripeness of the cloud
before he attempts to burst it with an arrow. And in the end, a more
than ordinary skill in the exercise of this power, deifies or
demonizes the possessor.

But whence arises the necessity for craft and whence the craft? The
faculty of invention implies skill. Skill successfully to play upon
the instincts of humanity can only be acquired through the medium of
like instincts, and although the skill be empirical, the play must be
natural. Craft alone will not suffice to satisfy the desire; the hook
must be baited with some small element of truth before the most
credulous will seize it. If religious beliefs are the fruits of
invention, how shall we account for the strange coincidences of
thought and worship which prevail throughout all myths and cults? Why
is it that all men of every age, in conditions diverse, and in
countries widely sundered, are found searching out the same essential
facts? All worship; nearly all have their creation-myth, their
flood-myth, their theory of origin, of distribution from primitive
centres, and of a future state. In this regard as in many another,
civilization is but an evolution of savagism; for almost every
principle of modern philosophy there may be found in primitive times
its parallel.

The nature and order of supernatural conceptions are essentially as
follows: The first and rudest form of belief is Fetichism, which
invests every phenomenon with an independent personality. In the
sunshine, fire, and water, in the wind and rock and stream, in every
animal, bird, and plant, there is a separate deity; for every effect
there is a cause. Even Kepler, whose intellect could track the planets
in their orbits, must needs assume a guiding spirit for every world.
It is impossible for the mind to conceive of self-creative or
self-existent forces.

In time the personalities of the fetich-worshiper become to some
extent generalized. Homogeneous appearances are grouped into classes,
and each class referred to a separate deity, and hence Polytheism.
Pantheism then comes in and makes all created substance one with the
creator; nature and the universe are God. From the impersonating of
the forces of nature to the creation of imaginary deities there is but
a step. Every virtue and vice, every good and evil becomes a
personality, under the direct governance of which lie certain passions
and events; and thus in place of one god for many individuals, each
individual may have a multitude of his own personal gods. The theogony
of Hesiod was but a system of materialized love and hate; while, on
the other hand, the gods of Homer, although personating human
passions, were likewise endowed with moral perceptions. In them the
blind forces of nature are lighted up into a human-divine
intelligence.

In Monotheism the distinct personalities, which to the savage underlie
every appearance, become wholly generalized, and the origin of all
phenomena is referred to one First Cause. The subtle and philosophic
Greeks well knew that God to be God must be omnipotent, and
omnipotency is indivisible. That the Aztecs could believe and practice
the absurdities they did is less an object of wonder, than that the
intellectual philosophers of Athens could have tolerated the gods of
Homer. Indeed, the religion of the more cultivated Greeks appears to
us monstrous, in proportion as they were superior to other men in
poetry, art, and philosophy.

[Sidenote: THEORIES CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF WORSHIP.]

Comparative mythologists explain the origin of worship by two
apparently oppugnant theories. The first is that whatever is seen in
nature strange and wonderful, is deemed by primitive man an object
worthy of worship. The other is, that upon certain noted individuals
are fastened metaphorical names, symbolic of some quality alike in
them and in the natural object after which they are called; that this
name, which at the first was but the surname of an individual, after
its possessor is dead and forgotten, lives, reverts to the plant or
animal whence it came, becomes impersonal, and is worshiped by a
conservative posterity. In other words, one theory fastens upon
natural phenomena, human attributes, and worships nature under
covering of those attributes, while the other worships in the natural
object only the memory of a dead and forgotten man. I have no doubt
that in both of these hypotheses are elements of truth.

In the earlier acts of worship the tendency is to assimilate the
object worshiped and the character of the worshiper, and also to
assign habitations to deities, behind man's immediate environment.
Every people has its heaven and hell; the former most generally
located beyond the blue sky, and the latter in the dark interior caves
of the earth. Man in nature reproduces himself; invests appearances
with attributes analogous to his own. This likeness of the
supernatural to the natural, of gods to man, is the first advance from
fetichism, but as the intellect advances anthropomorphism declines. As
one by one the nearest mysteries are solved by science, the emptiness
of superstition becomes apparent, and the wonderless wonder is
referred by the waking mind to general laws of causation; but still
clinging to its first conceptions it places them on objects more
remote. Man fixes his eyes upon the planets, discovers their
movements, and fancies their controlling spirit also controls his
destiny; and when released by reason from star-worship, as formerly
from fetichism, again an advance is made, always nearing the doctrine
of universal law.

In one tersely comprehensive sentence Clarke gives the old view of
what were called natural religions: "They considered them, in their
source, the work of fraud; in their essence, corrupt superstitions; in
their doctrines, wholly false; in their moral tendency, absolutely
injurious; and in their result, degenerating more and more into
greater evil."

[Sidenote: PRIESTCRAFT AND PROPITIATION.]

And this view seems to him alike uncharitable and unreasonable: "To
assume that they are wholly evil is disrespectful to human nature. It
supposes man to be the easy and universal dupe of fraud. But these
religions do not rest on such a sandy foundation, but on the feeling
of dependence, the sense of accountability, the recognition of
spiritual realities very near to this world of matter, and the need of
looking up and worshiping some unseen power higher and better than
ourselves. We shall find them always feeling after God, often finding
him. We shall see that in their origin they are not the work of
priestcraft, but of human nature; in their essence not superstitions,
but religions; in their doctrines true more frequently than false; in
their moral tendency good rather than evil. And instead of
degenerating toward something worse, they come to prepare the way for
something better."

The nearest case to deliberate invention of deities was, perhaps, the
promulgation as objects of worship in primitive times of such
abstractions as Hope (Spes), Fear (Pallor), Concord (Concordia),
Courage (Virtus), etc. How far these gods were gods, however, in even
the ordinary heathen sense of the word, is doubtful. In any case, they
were but the extension of an old and existent principle--the
personification of divine aspects or qualities; they added no more to
what went before than a new Saint or Virgin of Loretto does to the
Catholic Church.

"It was a favorite opinion with the Christian apologists, Eusebius and
others," says Gladstone, "that the pagan deities represented deified
men. Others consider them to signify the powers of external nature
personified. For others they are, in many cases, impersonations of
human passions and propensities, reflected back from the mind of man.
A fourth mode of interpretation would treat them as copies, distorted
and depraved, of a primitive system of religion given by God to man.
The Apostle St. Paul speaks of them as devils; by which he may perhaps
intend to convey that, under the names and in connection with the
worship of those deities, the worst influences of the Evil One were at
work. This would rather be a subjective than an objective
description; and would rather convey an account of the practical
working of a corrupted religion, than an explanation of its origin or
its early course. As between the other four, it seems probable that
they all, in various degrees and manners, entered into the composition
of the later paganism, and also of the Homeric or Olympian system.
That system, however, was profoundly adverse to mere Nature-worship;
while the care of departments or provinces of external nature were
assigned to its leading personages. Such worship of natural objects or
elemental powers, as prevailed in connection with it, was in general
local or secondary. And the deification of heroes in the age of Homer
was rare and merely titular. We do not find that any cult or system of
devotion was attached to it."

So humanly divine, so impotently great are the gods of Homer; so
thoroughly invested with the passions of men, clothed in distinctive
shades of human character; such mingled virtue and vice, love and
hate, courage and cowardice; animal passions uniting with noble
sentiments; base and vulgar thoughts with lofty and sublime ideas; and
all so wrought up by his inimitable fancy into divine and supernatural
beings, as to work most powerfully upon the nature of the people.

These concrete conceptions of his deities have ever been a source of
consolation to the savage; for, by thus bringing down the gods to a
nearer level with himself, they could be more materially propitiated,
and their protection purchased with gifts and sacrifices. Thus the
Greeks could obtain advice through oracles, the Hindoo could pass at
once into eternal joys by throwing himself under the car of
Juggernaut, while the latter-day offender seeks in the assistance of
the departed to buy forgiveness with charities, and to compound crime
by building churches.

[Sidenote: UNRECORDED FACTS SOON BECOME MYTHOLOGICAL.]

The difficulty is, that in attempting to establish any theory
concerning the origin of things, the soundest logic is little else
than wild speculation. Mankind progress unconsciously. We know not
what problems we ourselves are working out for those who come after
us; we know not by what process we arrive at many of our conclusions;
much of that which is clear to ourselves is never understood by our
neighbor, and never will be even known by our posterity. Events the
most material are soon forgotten, or else are made spiritual and
preserved as myths. Blot out the process by which science arrived at
results, and in every achievement of science, in the steam engine, the
electric telegraph, we should soon have a heaven-descended agency, a
god for every machine. Where mythology ceases and history begins, is
in the annals of every nation a matter of dispute. What at first
appears to be wholly fabulous may contain some truth, whereas much of
what is held to be true is mere fable, and herein excessive skepticism
is as unwise as excessive credulity.

Historical facts, if unrecorded, are soon lost. Thus when Juan de
Oñate penetrated New Mexico in 1596, Fray Marco de Niza, and the
expedition of Coronado in 1540, appear to have been entirely forgotten
by the Cibolans. Fathers Crespi and Junípero Serra, in their overland
explorations of 1769, preparatory to the establishment of a line of
Missions along the Californian seaboard, could find no traces, in the
minds of the natives, of Cabrillo's voyage in 1542, or of the landing
of Sir Francis Drake in 1579; although, so impressed were the savages
in the latter instance, that, according to the worthy chaplain of the
expedition, they desired "with submission and fear to worship us as
gods." Nor can we think civilized memories--which ascribe the plays of
Shakespeare to Bacon, and parcel out the Iliad of Homer among
numberless unrecorded verse-makers--more tenacious. Frederick Augustus
Wolf denies that a Homer ever existed; or, if he did, that he ever
wrote his poem, as writing was at that time not generally known; but
he claims that snatches of history, descending orally from one
generation to another, in the end coalesced into the matchless Iliad
and Odyssey. The event which so strongly impressed the father,
becomes vague in the mind of the son, and in the third generation is
either lost or becomes legendary. Incidents of recent occurrence,
contemporary perhaps with the narration, are sometimes so
misinterpreted by ignorance or distorted by prejudice, as to place the
fact strangely at variance with the recital. Yet no incident nor
action falls purposeless to the ground. Unrecorded it may be,
unwitnessed, unheard by beings material; a thought-wave even, lost in
space invisible, acting, for aught we know, only upon the author; yet
so acting, it casts an influence, stamps on fleeting time its record,
thereby fulfilling its destiny. Thus linger vapory conceits long after
the action which created them has sunk into oblivion; undefined
shadows of substance departed; none the less impressive because
mingled with immortal imagery.

Turn now from outward events to inner life; from events grown shadowy
with time, to life ever dim and mysterious alike to savage and sage.
Everywhere man beholds much that is incomprehensible; within, around,
the past, the future. Invisible forces are at work, invisible agencies
play upon his destiny. And in the creations of fancy, which of
necessity grow out of the influence of nature upon the imagination, it
is not strange that mysteries darken, facts and fancies blend; the
past and the future uniting in a supernatural present.

We are never content with positive knowledge. From the earliest
workings of the mind, creations of fancy play as important a part in
ethical economy as positive perceptions. Nor does culture in any wise
lessen these fanciful creations of the intellect. In the political
arena of civilized nations, wars and revolutions for the enforcement
of opinion concerning matters beyond the reach of positive knowledge,
have equaled if they have not exceeded wars for empire or ascendancy.
In the social and individual affairs of life we are governed more by
the ideal than by the real. On reaching the limits of positive
knowledge, reason pauses, but fancy overleaps the boundary, and
wanders forward in an endless waste of speculation.

[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC ULTIMATES.]

The tendency of intellectual progress, according to the philosophy of
Herbert Spencer, is from the concrete to the abstract, from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from the knowable to the unknowable.
Primordially nothing was known; as superstitions and priestcraft grew
rank, everything became known; there was not a problem in the natural
or in the supernatural world unsolvable by religion. Now, when some
elements of absolute knowledge are beginning to appear, we discover,
not only that little is positively known, but that much of what has
been hitherto deemed past controverting, is, under the present régime
of thought, absolutely unknowable. Formerly ultimate religious
knowledge was attained by the very novices of religion, and ultimate
scientific knowledge was explained through their fanatical
conceptions. Not only were all the mysteries of the material universe
easily solved by the Fathers, but heaven was measured and the
phenomena of hell minutely described. Now we are just beginning to
comprehend that ultimate facts will probably ever remain unknowable
facts, for when the present ultimate is attained, an eternity of
undiscovered truth will still lay stretched out before the searcher.
Until the finite becomes infinite, and time lapses into eternity, the
realm of thought will remain unfilled. At present, and until the scope
of the intellect is materially enlarged, such theories as the origin
of the universe--held by atheists to be self-existent, by pantheists
to have been self-created, and by theists to have been originated by
an external agency--must remain, as they are now admitted to be,
questions beyond even the comprehension of the intellect. Likewise
scientific ultimates--such as the qualities of time and space, the
divisibility of matter, the co-ordination of motion and rest, the
correlation of forces, the mysteries of gravitation, light and
heat--are found to be not only not solvable, but not conceivable. And,
as with the external, so with the inward life; we cannot conceive the
nature, nor explain the origin and duration, of consciousness. The
endless speculations of biology and psychology only leave impressions
at once of the strength and weakness of the mind of man; strong in
empirical knowledge, impotent in every attempt rationally to penetrate
the unfathomable. Nowhere in mythology do we find the world
self-created or self-existent. Some external agency is ever brought in
to perform the work, and in the end the structure of the universe is
resolved into its original elements.

Primordial man finds himself surrounded by natural phenomena, the
operations of which his intelligence is capable of grasping but
partially. Certain appetites sharpen, at once, certain instincts.
Hunger makes him acquainted with the fruits of the earth; cold with
the skins of beasts. Accident supplies him with rude implements, and
imparts to him a knowledge of his power over animals. But as instinct
merges into intellect, strange powers in nature are felt; invisible
agents wielding invisible weapons; realities which exist unheard and
move unseen; outward manifestations of hidden strength. Humanity,
divine, but wild and wondering, half-fed, half-clad, ranges woods
primeval, hears the roar of battling elements, sees the ancient
forest-tree shivered into fragments by heaven's artillery, feels the
solid earth rise up in rumbling waves beneath his feet. He receives,
as it were, a blow from within the darkness, and flinging himself upon
the ground he begs protection; from what he knows not, of whom he
knows not. "Bury me not, O tumultuous heavens," he cries, "under the
clouds of your displeasure!" "Strike me not down in wrath, O fierce
flaming fire!" "Earth, be firm!" Here, then, is the origin of prayer.
And to render more effectual his entreaties, a gift is offered.
Seizing upon whatever he prizes most, his food, his raiment, he rushes
forth and hurls his propitiatory offering heavenward, earthward,
whithersoever his frenzied fancy dictates. Or, if this is not enough,
the still more dearly valued gift of human blood or human life is
offered. His own flesh he freely lacerates; to save his own life he
gives that of his enemy, his slave, or even his child. Hence arises
sacrifice.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRIESTCRAFT.]

And here also conjurings commence. The necessity is felt of opening up
some intercourse with these mysterious powers; relations commercial
and social; calamities and casualties, personal and public, must be
traced to causes, and the tormenting demon bought off. But it is
clearly evident that these elemental forces are not all of them
inimical to the happiness of mankind. Sunshine, air and water, the
benign influences in nature, are as powerful to create, as the adverse
elements are to destroy. And as these forces appear conflicting, part
productive of life and enjoyment, and part of destruction, decay, and
death, a separation is made. Hence principles of good and evil are
discovered; and to all these unaccountable forces in nature, names and
properties are given, and causations invented. For every act there is
an actor--for every deed a doer; for every power and passion there is
made a god.

Thus we see that worship in some form is a human necessity, or, at
least, a constant accompaniment of humanity. Until perfect wisdom and
limitless power are the attributes of humanity, adoration will
continue; for men will never cease to reverence what they do not
understand, nor will they cease to fear such elements of strength as
are beyond their control. The form of this conciliatory homage appears
to arise from common human instincts; for, throughout the world and in
all ages, a similarity in primitive religious forms has existed. It is
a giving of something; the barter of a valuable something for a
something more valuable. As in his civil polity all crimes may be
compounded or avenged, so in his worship, the savage gives his pride,
his property, or his blood.

At first, this spirit power is seen in everything; in the storm and in
the soft evening air; in clouds and cataracts, in mountains, rocks,
and rivers; in trees, in reptiles, beasts, and fishes. But when
progressive man obtains a more perfect mastery over the brute
creation, brute worship ceases; as he becomes familiar with the causes
of some of the forces in nature, and is better able to protect himself
from them, the fear of natural objects is lessened. Leaving the level
of the brute creation he mounts upward, and selecting from his own
species some living or dead hero, he endows a king or comrade with
superhuman attributes, and worships his dead fellow as a divine being.
Still he tunes his thoughts to subtler creations, and carves with
skillful fingers material images of supernatural forms. Then comes
idolatry. The great principles of causation being determined and
embodied in perceptible forms, adorations ensue. Cravings, however,
increase. As the intellect expands, one idol after another is thrown
down. Mind assumes the mastery over matter. From gods of wood and
stone, made by men's fingers, and from suns and planets, carved by the
fingers of omnipotence, the creature now turns to the Creator. A form
of ideal worship supplants the material form; gods known and tangible
are thrown aside for the unknown God. And well were it for the
intellect could it stop here. But, as the actions of countless
material gods were clear to the primitive priest, and by him
satisfactorily explained to the savage masses; so, in this more
advanced state men are not wanting who receive from their ideal god
revelations of his actions and motives. To its new, unknown, ideal
god, the partially awakened human mind attaches the positive
attributes of the old, material deities, or invents new ones, and
starts anew to tread the endless mythologic circle; until in yet a
higher state it discovers that both god and attributes are wholly
beyond its grasp, and that with all its progress, it has advanced but
slightly beyond the first savage conception;--a power altogether
mysterious, inexplicable to science, controlling phenomena of mind and
matter.

Barbarians are the most religious of mortals. While the busy,
overworked brain of the scholar or man of business is occupied with
more practical affairs, the listless mind of the savage, thrown as he
is upon the very bosom of nature, is filled with innumerable
conjectures and interrogatories. His curiosity, like that of a child,
is proverbial, and as superstition is ever the resource of ignorance,
queer fancies and fantasms concerning life and death, and gods and
devils float continually through his unenlightened imagination.

Ill-protected from the elements, his comfort and his uncertain
food-supply depending upon them, primitive man regards nature with
eager interest. Like the beasts, his forest companions, he places
himself as far as possible in harmony with his environment. He
migrates with the seasons; feasts when food is plenty, fasts in
famine-time; basks and gambols in the sunshine, cowers beneath the
fury of the storm, crawls from the cold into his den, and there
quasi-torpidly remains until nature releases him. Is it therefore
strange that savage intellect peoples the elements with supernatural
powers; that God is everywhere, in everything; in the most trifling
accident and incident, as well as in the sun, the sea, the grove; that
when evil comes God is angry, when fortune smiles God is favorable;
and that he speaks to his wild, untutored people in signs and dreams,
in the tempest and in the sunshine. Nor does he withhold the still,
small voice, which breathes upon minds most darkened, and into breasts
the most savage, a spirit of progress, which, if a people be left to
the free fulfillment of their destiny, is sure, sooner or later, to
ripen into full development.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF FETICHISM.]

We will now glance at the origin of fetichism, which indeed may be
called the origin of ideal religion, from the other standpoint; that
which arises from the respect men feel for the memory of their
departed ancestors.

The first conception of a dualty in man's nature has been attributed
to various causes; it may be the result of a combination of causes.
There is the shadow upon the ground, separate, yet inseparable; the
reflection of the form upon the water; the echo of the voice, the
adventures of fancy portrayed by dreams. Self is divisible from and
inseparably connected with this other self. Herefrom arise innumerable
superstitions; it was portentous of misfortune for one's clothes to be
stepped on; no food must be left uneaten; nail clippings and locks of
hair must not fall into the hands of an enemy. Catlin, in sketching
his portraits, often narrowly escaped with his life, the Indians
believing that in their likenesses he carried away their other self.
And when death comes, and this other self departs, whither has it
gone? The lifeless body remains, but where is the life? The mind
cannot conceive of the total extinguishment of an entity, and so the
imagination rears a local habitation for every departed spirit. Every
phenomenon and every event is analyzed under this hypothesis. For
every event there is not only a cause, but a personal cause, an
independent agent behind every consequence. Every animal, every fish
and bird, every rock and stream and plant, the ripening fruit, the
falling rain, the uncertain wind, the sun and stars, are all
personified. There is no disease without its god or devil, no fish
entangled in the net, no beast or bird that falls before the hunter,
without its special sender.

Savages are more afraid of a dead man than a live one. They are
overwhelmed with terror at the thought of this unseen power over them.
The spirit of the departed is omnipotent and omnipresent. At any cost
or hazard it must be propitiated. So food is placed in the grave;
wives and slaves, and horses and dogs, are slain, and in spirit sent
to serve the ghost of the departed; phantom messengers are sent to the
region of shadows from time to time; the messengers sometimes even
volunteering to go. So boats and weapons and all the property of the
deceased are burned or deposited with him. In the hand of the dead
child is placed a toy; in that of the departed warrior, the symbolic
pipe of peace, which is to open a tranquil entrance into his new
abode; clothes, and ornaments, and paint, are conveniently placed, and
thus a proper personal appearance guaranteed. Not that the things
themselves are to be used, but the souls of things. The body of the
chief rots, as does the material substance of the articles buried with
it; but the soul of every article follows the soul of its owner, to
serve its own peculiar end in the land of phantoms.

[Sidenote: THE WORSHIP OF DEAD ANCESTORS.]

The Chinese, grown cunning with the great antiquity of their burial
customs, which require money and food to be deposited for the benefit
of the deceased, spiritualize the money, by making an imitation coin
of pasteboard, while the food, untouched by the dead, is finally eaten
by themselves.

But whence arises the strange propensity of all primitive nations to
worship animals, and plants, and stones, things animate and inanimate,
natural and supernatural? Why is it that all nations or tribes select
from nature some object which they hold to be sacred, and which they
venerate as deity? It is the opinion of Herbert Spencer that "the
rudimentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead
ancestors, who are supposed to be still existing, and to be capable of
working good or evil to their descendants." It is the universal custom
with savage tribes, as the character of their members becomes
developed, to drop the real name of individuals and to fix upon them
the attribute of some external object, by whose name only they are
afterwards known. Thus a swift runner is called the 'antelope,' the
slow of foot, the 'tortoise,' a merciless warrior, the 'wolf,' a
dark-eyed maid may be likened to the 'raven,' a majestic matron to the
'cypress.' And so the rivulet, the rock, the dawn, the sun, and even
elements invisible, are seized upon as metaphors and fastened upon
individuals, according to a real or fancied resemblance between the
qualities of nature and the character of the men. Inferiority and
baseness, alike with nobleness and wise conduct, perpetuate a name.
Even in civilized societies, a nickname often takes the place of the
real name. Schoolboys are quick to distinguish peculiarities in their
fellows, and fasten upon them significant names. A dull scholar is
called 'cabbage-head,' the girl with red ringlets, 'carrots.' In the
family there is the greedy 'pig,' the darling 'duck,' the little
'lamb.' In new countries, and abnormal communities, where strangers
from all parts are promiscuously thrown together, not unfrequently men
live on terms of intimacy for years without ever knowing each other's
real name. Among miners, such appellations as 'Muley Bill,' 'Sandy,'
'Shorty,' 'Sassafras Jack,' often serve all the purposes of a name. In
more refined circles, there is the hypocritical 'crocodile,' the sly
'fox,' the gruff 'bear.' We say of the horse, 'he is as fleet as the
wind,' of a rapid accountant, 'he is as quick as lightning.' These
names, which are used by us but for the moment, or to fit occasions,
are among rude nations permanent--in many instances the only name a
person ever receives.

Sometimes the nickname of the individual becomes first a family name
and then a tribal name; as when the chief, 'Coyote,' becomes renowned,
his children love to call themselves 'Coyotes.' The chieftainship
descending to the son and grandson of Coyote, the name becomes famous,
the Coyote family the dominant family of the tribe; members of the
tribe, in their intercourse with other tribes, call themselves
'coyotes,' to distinguish themselves from other tribes; the head, or
tail, or claws, or skin, of the coyote ornaments the dress or adorns
the body; the name becomes tribal, and the animal the symbol or totem
of the tribe. After a few generations have passed, the great
chieftain, Coyote, and his immediate progeny are forgotten; meanwhile
the beast becomes a favorite with the people; he begins to be regarded
as privileged; is not hunted down like other beasts; the virtues and
exploits of the whole Coyote clan become identified with the brute;
the affections of the people are centered in the animal, and finally,
all else being lost and forgotten, the descendants of the chieftain,
Coyote, are the offspring of the veritable beast, coyote.

[Sidenote: ABSTRACT CONCEPTIONS, MONSTERS, AND METAPHORS.]

Concerning image-worship and the material representation of ideal
beings, Mr. Tylor believes that "when man has got some way in
developing the religious element in him, he begins to catch at the
device of setting up a puppet, or a stone, as the symbol and
representative of the notions of a higher being which are floating in
his mind."

Primitive languages cannot express abstract qualities. For every kind
of animal or bird or plant there may be a name, but for animals,
plants, and birds in general, they have no name or conception.
Therefore, the abstract quality becomes the concrete idea of a god,
and the descendants of a man whose symbolic name was 'dog,' from being
the children of the man become the children of the dog.

Hence also arise monsters, beings compounded of beast, bird, and fish,
sphinxes, mermaids, human-headed brutes, winged animals; as when the
descendant of the 'hawk' carries off a wife from the 'salmon' tribe, a
totem representing a fish with a hawk's head for a time keeps alive
the occurrence and finally becomes the deity.

Thus realities become metaphors and metaphors realities; the fact
dwindles into shadowy nothingness and the fancy springs into actual
being. The historical incident becomes first indistinct and then is
forgotten; the metaphorical name of the dead ancestor is first
respected in the animal or plant, then worshiped in the animal or
plant, and finally the nickname and the ancestor both are forgotten
and the idea becomes the entity, and the veritable object of worship.
From forgetfulness of primogenitor and metaphor, conceiving the animal
to be the very ancestor, words are put into the animal's mouth, the
sayings of the ancestor become the sayings of the brute; hence
mythological legends of talking beasts, and birds, and wise fishes. To
one animal is attributed a miraculous cure, to another, assistance in
time of trouble; one animal is a deceiver, another a betrayer; and
thus through their myths and metaphors we may look back into the soul
of savagism and into their soul of nature.

That this is the origin of some phases of fetichism there can be no
doubt; that it is the origin of all religions, or even the only
method by which animal and plant worship originates, I do not believe.
While there are undoubtedly general principles underlying all
religious conceptions, it does not necessarily follow, that in every
instance the methods of arriving at those fundamental principles must
be identical. As with us a child weeps over a dead mother's picture,
regarding it with fond devotion, so the dutiful barbarian son, in
order the better to propitiate the favor of his dead ancestor,
sometimes carves his image in wood or stone, which sentiment with time
lapses into idolatry. Any object which strikes the rude fancy as
analogous to the character of an individual may become an object of
worship.

The interpretation of myth can never be absolute and positive; yet we
may in almost every instance discover the general purport. Thus a
superior god, we may be almost sure, refers to some potent hero, some
primitive ruler, whom tradition has made superhuman in origin and in
power; demigods, subordinate or inferior beings in power, must be
regarded as legendary, referring to certain influential persons,
identified with some element or incident in which the deified
personage played a conspicuous part.

Although in mythology religion is the dominant element, yet mythology
is not wholly made up of religion, nor are all primitive religions
mythical. "There are few mistakes" says Professor Max Müller "so
widely spread and so firmly established as that which makes us
confound the religion and the mythology of the ancient nations of the
world. How mythology arises, necessarily and naturally, I tried to
explain in my former lectures, and we saw that, as an affection or
disorder of language, mythology may infect every part of the
intellectual life of man. True it is that no ideas are more liable to
mythological disease than religious ideas, because they transcend
those regions of our experience within which language has its natural
origin, and must therefore, according to their very nature, be
satisfied with metaphorical expressions. Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man. Yet even the
religions of the ancient nations are by no means inevitably and
altogether mythological. On the contrary, as a diseased frame
pre-supposes a healthy frame, so a mythological religion pre-supposes,
I believe, a healthy religion."

[Sidenote: FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS OF RELIGION.]

The universal secrets of supernatural beings are wrapped up in
probable or possible fable; the elements of physical nature are
impersonated in allegories, and arrayed in forms perceptible to the
imagination; deities are sometimes introduced into the machinery of
the supernatural in order to gratify that love for the marvelous which
every attempt to explain the mysterious forces of nature creates in
the ignorant mind. Yet it cannot truly be said that any form of
religion, much less any religion was wholly invented. Fanatics
sometimes originate doctrines, and the Church sets forth its dogmas,
but there must be a foundation of truth or the edifice cannot stand.
Inventions there undoubtedly have been and are, but inventions, sooner
or later fall to the ground, while the essential principles underlying
religion and mythology, though momentarily overcome or swept away, are
sure to remain.

Every one of the fundamental ideas of religion is of indigenous
origin, generating spontaneously in the human heart. It is a
characteristic of mythology that the present inhabitants of the world
descended from some nobler race. From the nobler impulses of fancy the
savage derives his origin. His higher instincts teach him that his
dim distant past, and his impenetrable future, are alike of a lighter,
more ethereal nature; that his earthly nature is base, that that which
binds him to earth is the lowest, vilest part of himself.

The tendency of positive knowledge is to overthrow superstition. Hence
as science develops, many tenets of established religions, palpably
erroneous, are dropped, and the more knowledge becomes real, the more
real knowledge is denied. Superstition is not the effect of an active
imagination, but shows rather a lack of imagination, for we see that
the lower the stage of intelligence, and the feebler the imagination,
the greater the superstition. A keen, vivid imagination, although
capable of broader and more complicated conceptions, is able to
explain the cruder marvels, and consequently to dispel the coarser
phases of superstition, while the dull intellect accepts everything
which is put upon it as true. Ultimate religious conceptions are
symbolic rather than actual. Ultimate ideas of the universe are even
beyond the grasp of the profoundest intellect. We can form but an
approximate idea of the sphere on which we live. To form conceptions
of the relative and actual distances and magnitudes of heavenly
bodies, of systems of worlds, and eternities of space, the human mind
is totally inadequate. If, therefore, the mind is unable to grasp
material visible objects, how much less are we able to measure the
invisible and eternal.

When therefore the savage attempts to solve the problem of natural
phenomena, he first reduces broad conceptions to symbolic ideas. He
moulds his deity according to the measure of his mind; and in forming
a skeleton upon which to elaborate his religious instincts, proximate
theories are accepted, and almost any explanation appears to him
plausible. The potential creations of his fancy are brought within the
compass of his comprehension; symbolic gods are moulded from mud, or
carved from wood or stone; and thus by segregating an infinitesimal
part of the vast idea of deity, the worshiper meets the material
requirements of his religious conceptions. And although the lower
forms of worship are abandoned as the intellect unfolds, the same
principle is continued. We set up in the mind symbols of the ultimate
idea which is too great for our grasp, and imagining ourselves in
possession of the actual idea, we fall into numberless errors
concerning what we believe or think. The atheistic hypothesis of
self-existence, the pantheistic hypothesis of self-creation, and the
theistic hypothesis of creation by an external agency are equally
unthinkable, and therefore as postulates equally untenable. Yet
underlying all, however gross or superstitious the dogma, is one
fundamental truth, namely, that there is a problem to be solved, an
existent mysterious universe to be accounted for.

Deep down in every human breast is implanted a religiosity as a
fundamental attribute of man's nature; a consciousness that behind
visible appearances is an invisible power; underlying all conception
is an instinct or intuition from which there is no escape, that beyond
material actualities potential agencies are at work; and throughout
all belief, from the stupidest fetichism to the most exalted
monotheism, as part of these instinctive convictions, it is held that
the beings, or being, who rule man's destiny may be propitiated.

The first cry of nature is hushed. From time immemorial nations and
peoples have come and gone, whence and whither no one knows; entering
existence unannounced they disappear and leave no trace, save perhaps
their impress on the language or the mythology of the world. Thus from
historic fact blended with the religious sentiments springs the Mythic
Idea.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: CLASSIFICATION OF PACIFIC STATES' MYTHS.]

In the following chapters, I have attempted, as far as practicable, to
classify the Myths of the Pacific States under appropriate heads. In
making such a classification there is no difficulty, except where in
one myth occur two or more divisions of the subject, in which case it
becomes necessary, either to break the narrative, or make exceptions
in the general rule of classifying. I have invariably adopted the
latter alternative. The divisions which I make of Mythology are as
follows: I. Origin and End of Things; II. Physical Myths; III. Animal
Myths; IV. Gods, Supernatural Beings, and Worship; V. The Future
State.

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN AND END OF THINGS.

QUICHÉ CREATION-MYTH -- AZTEC ORIGIN-MYTHS -- THE PAPAGOS --
MONTEZUMA AND THE COYOTE -- THE MOQUIS -- THE GREAT SPIDER'S
WEB OF THE PIMAS -- NAVAJO AND PUEBLO CREATIONS -- ORIGIN OF
CLEAR LAKE AND LAKE TAHOE -- CHAREYA OF THE CAHROCS -- MOUNT
SHASTA, THE WIGWAM OF THE GREAT SPIRIT -- IDAHO SPRINGS AND
WATER FALLS -- HOW DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE OCCURRED -- YEHL,
THE CREATOR OF THE THLINKEETS -- THE RAVEN AND THE DOG.

[Sidenote: THE POPOL VUH.]

Of all American peoples the Quichés, of Guatemala, have left us the
richest mythological legacy. Their description of the creation as
given in the Popol Vuh, which may be called the national book of the
Quichés,[II-1] is, in its rude strange eloquence and poetic originality,
one of the rarest relics of aboriginal thought. Although obliged in
reproducing it to condense somewhat, I have endeavored to give not
only the substance, but also, as far as possible, the peculiar style
and phraseology of the original. It is with this primeval picture,
whose simple silent sublimity is that of the inscrutable past, that we
begin:--

And the heaven was formed, and all the signs thereof set in their
angle and alignment, and its boundaries fixed towards the four winds
by the Creator and Former, and Mother and Father of life and
existence--he by whom all move and breathe, the Father and Cherisher
of the peace of nations and of the civilization of his people--he
whose wisdom has projected the excellence of all that is on the earth,
or in the lakes, or in the sea.

Behold the first word and the first discourse. There was as yet no
man, nor any animal, nor bird, nor fish, nor crawfish, nor any pit,
nor ravine, nor green herb, nor any tree; nothing was but the
firmament. The face of the earth had not yet appeared--only the
peaceful sea and all the space of heaven. There was nothing yet joined
together, nothing that clung to anything else; nothing that balanced
itself, that made the least rustling, that made a sound in the heaven.
There was nothing that stood up; nothing but the quiet water, but the
sea, calm and alone in its boundaries: nothing existed; nothing but
immobility and silence, in the darkness, in the night.[II-2]

[Sidenote: THE QUICHÉ IDEA OF CREATION.]

Alone also the Creator, the Former, the Dominator, the Feathered
Serpent--those that engender, those that give being, they are upon
the water, like a growing light. They are enveloped in green and blue;
and therefore their name is Gucumatz.[II-3] Lo, now how the heavens
exist, how exists also the Heart of Heaven; such is the name of God;
it is thus that he is called. And they spake; they consulted together
and meditated; they mingled their words and their opinion. And the
creation was verily after this wise: Earth, they said, and on the
instant it was formed; like a cloud or a fog was its beginning. Then
the mountains rose over the water like great lobsters; in an instant
the mountains and the plains were visible, and the cypress and the
pine appeared. Then was the Gucumatz filled with joy, crying out:
Blessed be thy coming, O Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, Thunderbolt. Our
work and our labor has accomplished its end.

The earth and its vegetation having thus appeared, it was peopled with
the various forms of animal life. And the Makers said to the animals:
Speak now our name, honor us, us your mother and father; invoke
Hurakan, the Lightning-flash, the Thunderbolt that strikes, the Heart
of Heaven, the Heart of the Earth, the Creator and Former, Him who
begets, and Him who gives being--speak, call on us, salute us! So was
it said to the animals. But the animals could not answer; they could
not speak at all after the manner of men; they could only cluck, and
croak, each murmuring after his kind in a different manner. This
displeased the Creators, and they said to the animals: Inasmuch as ye
can not praise us, neither call upon our names, your flesh shall be
humiliated; it shall be broken with teeth; ye shall be killed and
eaten.

Again the gods took counsel together; they determined to make man. So
they made a man of clay; and when they had made him, they saw that it
was not good. He was without cohesion, without consistence,
motionless, strengthless, inept, watery; he could not move his head,
his face looked but one way; his sight was restricted, he could not
look behind him; he had been endowed with language, but he had no
intelligence, so he was consumed in the water.

Again is there counsel in heaven: Let us make an intelligent being who
shall adore and invoke us. It was decided that a man should be made of
wood and a woman of a kind of pith. They were made; but the result was
in no wise satisfactory. They moved about perfectly well, it is true;
they increased and multiplied; they peopled the world with sons and
daughters, little wooden mannikins like themselves; but still the
heart and the intelligence were wanting; they held no memory of their
Maker and Former; they led a useless existence, they lived as the
beasts live; they forgot the Heart of Heaven. They were but an essay,
an attempt at men; they had neither blood, nor substance, nor
moisture, nor fat; their cheeks were shrivelled, their feet and hands
dried up; their flesh languished.

[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION AND RE-CREATION OF MAN.]

Then was the Heart of Heaven wroth; and he sent ruin and destruction
upon those ingrates; he rained upon them night and day from heaven
with a thick resin; and the earth was darkened. And the men went mad
with terror; they tried to mount upon the roofs and the houses fell;
they tried to climb the trees and the trees shook them far from their
branches; they tried to hide in the caves and dens of the earth, but
these closed their holes against them. The bird Xecotcovach came to
tear out their eyes; and the Camalotz cut off their head; and the
Cotzbalam devoured their flesh; and the Tecumbalam broke and bruised
their bones to powder. Thus were they all devoted to chastisement and
destruction, save only a few who were preserved as memorials of the
wooden men that had been; and these now exist in the woods as little
apes.[II-4]

Once more are the gods in counsel; in the darkness, in the night of a
desolated universe do they commune together; of what shall we make
man? And the Creator and Former made four perfect men; and wholly of
yellow and white maize was their flesh composed. These were the names
of the four men that were made: the name of the first was
Balam-Quitzé; of the second, Balam-Agab; of the third Mahucutah; and
of the fourth, Iqi-Balam.[II-5] They had neither father nor mother,
neither were they made by the ordinary agents in the work of creation;
but their coming into existence was a miracle extraordinary, wrought
by the special intervention of him who is preëminently The Creator.
Verily, at last, were there found men worthy of their origin and their
destiny; verily, at last, did the gods look on beings who could see
with their eyes, and handle with their hands, and understand with
their hearts. Grand of countenance and broad of limb the four sires of
our race stood up under the white rays of the morning star--sole light
as yet of the primeval world--stood up and looked. Their great clear
eyes swept rapidly over all; they saw the woods and the rocks, the
lakes and the sea, the mountains and the valleys, and the heavens that
were above all; and they comprehended all and admired exceedingly.
Then they returned thanks to those who had made the world and all that
therein was: We offer up our thanks, twice--yea verily, thrice! We
have received life; we speak, we walk, we taste; we hear and
understand; we know both that which is near and that which is far
off; we see all things, great and small, in all the heaven and earth.
Thanks then, Maker and Former, Father and Mother of our life! we have
been created; we are.

But the gods were not wholly pleased with this thing; Heaven they
thought had overshot its mark; these men were too perfect; knew,
understood, and saw too much. Therefore there was counsel again in
heaven: What shall we do with man now? It is not good, this that we
see; these are as gods; they would make themselves equal with us; lo,
they know all things, great and small. Let us now contract their
sight, so that they may see only a little of the surface of the earth
and be content. Thereupon the Heart of Heaven breathed a cloud over
the pupil of the eyes of men, and a veil came over it as when one
breathes on the face of a mirror; thus was the globe of the eye
darkened; neither was that which was far off clear to it any more, but
only that which was near.

Then the four men slept, and there was counsel in heaven: and four
women were made--to Balam-Quitzé was allotted Caha-Paluma to wife; to
Balam-Agab, Chomiha; to Mahucutah, Tzununiha; and to Iqi-Balam,
Cakixaha.[II-6] Now the women were exceedingly fair to look upon; and
when the men awoke, their hearts were glad because of the women.

[Sidenote: THE QUICHÉS SET OUT FOR TULAN-ZUIVA.]

Next, as I interpret the narrative, there were other men created, the
ancestors of other peoples, while the first four were the fathers of
all the branches of the Quiché race. The different tribes at first,
however, lived together amicably enough, in a primitive state; and
increased and multiplied, leading happy lives under their bright and
morning star, precursor of the yet unseen sun. They had as yet no
worship save the breathing of the instinct of their soul, as yet no
altars to the gods; only--and is there not a whole idyl in the simple
words?--only they gazed up into heaven, not knowing what they had come
so far to do![II-7] They were filled with love, with obedience, and with
fear; and lifting their eyes towards heaven, they made their
requests:--

Hail! O Creator, O Former! thou that hearest and understandest us!
abandon us not, forsake us not! O God, thou that art in heaven and on
the earth, O Heart of Heaven, O Heart of Earth! give us descendants
and a posterity as long as the light endure. Give us to walk always in
an open road, in a path without snares; to lead happy, quiet, and
peaceable lives, free of all reproach. It was thus they spake, living
tranquilly, invoking the return of the light, waiting the rising of
the sun, watching the star of the morning, precursor of the sun. But
no sun came, and the four men and their descendants grew uneasy: We
have no person to watch over us, they said, nothing to guard our
symbols. So the four men and their people set out for Tulan-Zuiva,[II-8]
otherwise called the Seven-caves or Seven-ravines, and there they
received gods, each man as head of a family, a god; though inasmuch as
the fourth man, Iqi-Balam, had no children and founded no family, his
god is not usually taken into the account. Balam-Quitzé received the
god Tohil; Balam Agab received the god Avilix; and Mahucutah received
the god Hacavitz; all very powerful gods, but Tohil seems to have been
the chief, and in a general way, god of the whole Quiché nation. Other
people received gods at the same time; and it had been for all a long
march to Tulan.

Now the Quichés had as yet no fire, and as Tulan was a much colder
climate than the happy eastern land they had left, they soon began to
feel the want of it. The god Tohil who was the creator of fire had
some in his possession; so to him, as was most natural, the Quichés
applied, and Tohil in some way supplied them with fire.

But shortly after, there fell a great rain that extinguished all the
fires of the land; and much hail also fell on the heads of the people;
and because of the rain and the hail, their fires were utterly
scattered and put out. Then Tohil created fire again by stamping with
his sandal. Several times thus fire failed them, but Tohil always
renewed it. Many other trials also they underwent in Tulan, famines
and such things, and a general dampness and cold--for the earth was
moist, there being as yet no sun.

Here also the language of all the families was confused so that no one
of the first four men could any longer understand the speech of
another. This also made them very sad. They determined to leave Tulan;
and the greater part of them, under the guardianship and direction of
Tohil, set out to see where they should take up their abode. They
continued on their way amid the most extreme hardships for want of
food; sustaining themselves at one time upon the mere smell of their
staves, and by imagining that they were eating, when in verity and in
truth, they ate nothing. Their heart, indeed, it is again and again
said, was almost broken by affliction. Poor wanderers! they had a
cruel way to go, many forests to pierce, many stern mountains to
overpass and a long passage to make through the sea, along the shingle
and pebbles and drifted sand--the sea being, however, parted for
their passage.

[Sidenote: QUICHÉ ORIGIN OF THE SUN.]

At last they came to a mountain that they named Hacavitz, after one of
their gods, and here they rested--for here they were by some means
given to understand that they should see the sun. Then indeed, was
filled with an exceeding joy the heart of Balam-Quitzé, of
Balam-Agab, of Mahucutah, and of Iqi-Balam. It seemed to them that
even the face of the morning star caught a new and more resplendent
brightness. They shook their incense pans and danced for very
gladness: sweet were their tears in dancing, very hot their
incense--their precious incense. At last the sun commenced to advance:
the animals, small and great, were full of delight; they raised
themselves to the surface of the water; they fluttered in the ravines;
they gathered at the edge of the mountains, turning their heads
together toward that part from which the sun came. And the lion and
the tiger roared. And the first bird that sang was that called the
Queletzu. All the animals were beside themselves at the sight; the
eagle and the kite beat their wings, and every bird, both small and
great. The men prostrated themselves on the ground, for their hearts
were full to the brim.

And the sun, and the moon, and the stars were now all established. Yet
was not the sun then in the beginning the same as now; his heat wanted
force, and he was but as a reflection in a mirror; verily, say the
histories, not at all the same sun as that of to-day. Nevertheless he
dried up and warmed the surface of the earth, and answered many good
ends.

Another wonder when the sun rose! The three tribal gods, Tohil,
Avilix, and Hacavitz, were turned into stone, as were also the gods
connected with the lion, the tiger, the viper, and other fierce and
dangerous animals. Perhaps we should not be alive at this
moment--continues the chronicle--because of the voracity of these
fierce animals, of these lions, and tigers, and vipers; perhaps to-day
our glory would not be in existence, had not the sun caused this
petrification.

And the people multiplied on this Mount Hacavitz, and here they built
their city. It is here also that they began to sing that song called
Kamucu, 'we see.' They sang it, though it made their hearts ache, for
this is what they said in singing: Alas! We ruined ourselves in Tulan,
there lost we many of our kith and kin, they still remain there, left
behind! We indeed have seen the sun, but they--now that his golden
light begins to appear, where are they?

And they worshiped the gods that had become stone, Tohil, Avilix, and
Hacavitz; and they offered them the blood of beasts, and of birds, and
pierced their own ears and shoulders in honor of these gods, and
collected the blood with a sponge, and pressed it out into a cup
before them.

Toward the end of their long and eventful life Balam-Quitzé,
Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam were impelled, apparently by a
supernatural vision, to lay before their gods a more awful offering
than the life of senseless beasts. They began to wet their altars with
the heart's blood of human victims. From their mountain hold they
watched for lonely travelers belonging to the surrounding tribes,
seized, overpowered, and slew them for a sacrifice. Man after man was
missing in the neighboring villages; and the people said: Lo! the
tigers have carried them away--for wherever the blood was of a man
slain, were always found the tracks of many tigers. Now this was the
craft of the priests, and at last the tribes began to suspect the
thing and to follow the tracks of the tigers. But the trails had been
made purposely intricate, by steps returning on themselves and by the
obliteration of steps; and the mountain region where the altars were
was already covered with a thick fog and a small rain, and its paths
flowed with mud.

The hearts of the villagers were thus fatigued within them, pursuing
unknown enemies. At last, however, it became plain that the gods
Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz, and their worship, were in some way or
other the cause of this bereavement: so the people of the villages
conspired against them. Many attacks, both openly and by ruses, did
they make on the gods, and on the four men, and on the children and
people connected with them; but not once did they succeed, so great
was the wisdom, and power, and courage of the four men and of their
deities. And these three gods petrified, as we have told, could
nevertheless resume a movable shape when they pleased; which indeed
they often did, as will be seen hereafter.

At last the war was finished. By the miraculous aid of a horde of
wasps and hornets, the Quichés utterly defeated and put to the rout in
a general battle all their enemies. And the tribes humiliated
themselves before the face of Balam-Quitzé, of Balam-Agab, and of
Mahucutah: Unfortunates that we are, they said, spare to us at least
our lives. Let it be so, it was answered, although you be worthy of
death; you shall, however, be our tributaries and serve us, as long as
the sun endure, as long as the light shall follow his course. This was
the reply of our fathers and mothers, upon Mount Hacavitz; and
thereafter they lived in great honor and peace, and their souls had
rest, and all the tribes served them there.

[Sidenote: THE END OF THE QUICHÉ CREATION.]

Now it came to pass that the time of the death of Balam-Quitzé,
Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam drew near. No bodily sickness nor
suffering came upon them; but they were forewarned that their death
and their end was at hand. Then they called their sons and their
descendants round them to receive their last counsels.

And the heart of the old men was rent within them. In the anguish of
their heart they sang the Kamucu, the old sad song that they had sung
when the sun first rose, when the sun rose and they thought of the
friends they had left in Tulan, whose face they should see no more
forever. Then they took leave of their wives, one by one; and of their
sons, one by one; of each in particular they took leave; and they
said: We return to our people; already the King of the Stags is
ready, he stretches himself through the heaven. Lo, we are about to
return; our work is done; the days of our life are complete. Remember
us well; let us never pass from your memory. You will see still our
houses and our mountains; multiply in them, and then go on upon your
way and see again the places whence we are come.

So the old men took leave of their sons and of their wives; and
Balam-Quitzé spake again: Behold! he said, I leave you what shall keep
me in remembrance. I have taken leave of you--and am filled with
sadness, he added. Then instantly the four old men were not; but in
their place was a great bundle; and it was never unfolded, neither
could any man find seam therein on rolling it over and over. So it was
called the Majesty Enveloped; and it became a memorial of these
fathers, and was held very dear and precious in the sight of the
Quichés; and they burned incense before it.[II-9]

Thus died and disappeared on Mount Hacavitz Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab,
Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam, these first men who came from the east, from
the other side of the sea. Long time had they been here when they
died; and they were very old, and surnamed the Venerated and the
Sacrificers.

* * * * *

Such is the Quiché account of the creation of the earth and its
inhabitants and of the first years of the existence of mankind.
Although we find here described in the plainest and least equivocal
terms a supreme, all-powerful Creator of all things, there are joined
with him in a somewhat perplexing manner a number of auxiliary deities
and makers. It may be that those whose faith the Popol Vuh represents,
conceiving and speaking of their supreme god under many aspects and as
fulfilling many functions, came at times, either unconsciously or for
dramatic effect, to bring this one great Being upon their mythic
stage, sustaining at once many of his different parts and characters.
Or perhaps, like the Hebrews, they believed that the Creator had made
out of nothing or out of his own essence, in some mysterious way,
angels and other beings to obey and to assist him in his sovereign
designs, and that these 'were called gods.' That these Quiché notions
seem foolishness to us, is no argument as to their adaptation to the
life and thoughts of those who believed them; for, in the words of
Professor Max Müller, "the thoughts of primitive humanity were not
only different from our thoughts, but different also from what we
think their thoughts ought to have been."[II-10]

[Sidenote: MEXICAN COSMOGONY.]

Yet whatever be the inconsistencies that obscure the Popol Vuh, we
find them multiplied in the Mexican cosmogony, a tangled string of
meagre and apparently fragmentary traditions. There appear to have
been two principal schools of opinion in Anáhuac, differing as to who
was the Creator of the world, as well as on other points--two veins
of tradition, perhaps of common origin, which often seem to run into
one, and are oftener still considered as one by historians to whom
these heathen vanities were matters of little importance. The more
advanced school, ascribing its inspiration to Toltec sources, seems to
have flourished notably in Tezcuco, especially while the famous
Nezahualcoyotl reigned there, and to have had very definite
monotheistic ideas. It taught, as is asserted in unmistakable terms,
that all things had been made by one God, omnipotent and invisible;
and to this school were probably owing the many gentle and beautiful
ideas and rites, mingled with the hard, coarse, and prosaic cult of
the mass of the people.[II-11]

The other school may be considered as more distinctively national, and
as representing more particularly the ordinary Mexican mind. To it is to
be ascribed by far the larger part of all we know about the Mexican
religion.[II-12] According to the version of this school, Tezcatlipoca,
a god whose birth and adventures are set forth hereafter, was the
creator of the material heaven and earth, though not of mankind; and
sometimes even the honor of this partial creation is disputed by others
of the gods.

One Mexican nation, again, according to an ancient writer of their own
blood, affirmed that the earth had been created by chance; and as for
the heavens, they had always existed.[II-13]

[Sidenote: CHIMALPOPOCA MANUSCRIPT.]

From the fragments of the Chimalpopoca manuscript given by the Abbé
Brasseur de Bourbourg we learn that the Creator--whoever he may have
been--produced his work in successive epochs. In the sign Tochtli, the
earth was created; in the sign Acatl was made the firmament, and in
the sign Tecpatl the animals. Man it is added, was made and animated
out of ashes or dust by God on the seventh day, Ehecatl, but finished
and perfected by that mysterious personage Quetzalcoatl. However this
account may be reconciled with itself or with others, it further
appears that man was four times made and four times destroyed.[II-14]

This may perhaps be looked upon as proceeding from what I have called
for convenience the Toltecan school, though this particular fragment
shows traces of Christian influence. What follows seems however to
belong to a distinctively Mexican and ruder vein of thought. It is
gathered from Mendieta, who was indebted again to Fray Andres de
Olmos, one of the earliest missionaries among the Mexicans of whom he
treats; and it is decidedly one of the most authentic accounts of such
matters extant.

[Sidenote: AZTEC CREATION-MYTHS.]

The Mexicans in most of the provinces were agreed that there was a god
in heaven called Citlalatonac, and a goddess called Citlalicue;[II-15]
and that this goddess had given birth to a flint knife, Tecpatl. Now
she had many sons living with her in heaven, who seeing this
extraordinary thing were alarmed, and flung the flint down to the
earth. It fell in a place called Chicomoztoc, that is to say the Seven
Caves, and there immediately sprang up from it one thousand six
hundred gods. These gods being alone on the earth--though as will
hereafter appear, there had been men in the world at a former
period--sent up their messenger Tlotli, the Hawk, to pray their
mother to empower them to create men, so that they might have servants
as became their lineage. Citlalicue seemed to be a little ashamed of
these sons of hers, born in so strange a manner, and she twitted them
cruelly enough on what they could hardly help: Had you been what you
ought to have been, she exclaimed, you would still be in my company.
Nevertheless she told them what to do in the matter of obtaining their
desire: Go beg of Mictlanteuctli, Lord of Hades, that he may give you
a bone or some ashes of the dead that are with him; which having
received you shall sacrifice over it, sprinkling blood from your own
bodies. And the fallen gods having consulted together, sent one of
their number, called Xolotl,[II-16] down to hades as their mother had
advised. He succeeded in getting a bone of six feet long from
Mictlanteuctli; and then, wary of his grisly host, he took an abrupt
departure, running at the top of his speed. Wroth at this, the
infernal chief gave chase; not causing to Xolotl, however, any more
serious inconvenience than a hasty fall in which the bone was broken
in pieces. The messenger gathered up what he could in all haste, and
despite his stumble made his escape. Reaching the earth, he put the
fragments of bone into a basin, and all the gods drew blood from their
bodies and sprinkled it into the vessel. On the fourth day there was a
movement among the wetted bones and a boy lay there before all; and in
four days more, the blood-letting and sprinkling being still kept up,
a girl was lifted from the ghastly dish. The children were given to
Xolotl to bring up; and he fed them on the juice of the maguey.[II-17]
Increasing in stature, they became man and woman; and from them are
the people of the present day descended, who, even as the primordial
bone was broken into unequal pieces, vary in size and shape. The name
of this first man was Iztacmixcuatl, and the name of his wife
Ilancueitl,[II-18] and they had six sons born to them, whose descendants,
with their god-masters, in process of time moved eastward from their
original home, almost universally described as having been towards
Jalisco.

Now there had been no sun in existence for many years; so the gods
being assembled in a place called Teotihuacan, six leagues from
Mexico, and gathered at the time round a great fire, told their
devotees that he of them who should first cast himself into that fire,
should have the honor of being transformed into a sun. So one of them
called Nanahuatzin--either as most say, out of pure bravery, or as
Sahagun relates, because his life had become a burden to him through a
syphilitic disease--flung himself into the fire. Then the gods began
to peer through the gloom in all directions for the expected light and
to make bets as to what part of heaven he should first appear in. And
some said Here, and some said There; but when the sun rose they were
all proved wrong, for not one of them had fixed upon the east.[II-19]
And in that same hour, though they knew it not, the decree went forth
that they should all die by sacrifice.

[Sidenote: HOW THE SUN WAS PLACED IN THE HEAVENS.]

The sun had risen indeed, and with a glory of the cruel fire about him
that not even the eyes of the gods could endure; but he moved not.
There he lay on the horizon; and when the deities sent Tlotli their
messenger to him, with orders that he should go on upon his way, his
ominous answer was, that he would never leave that place till he had
destroyed and put an end to them all. Then a great fear fell upon
some, while others were moved only to anger; and among the latter was
one Citli, who immediately strung his bow and advanced against the
glittering enemy. By quickly lowering his head the Sun avoided the
first arrow shot at him; but the second and third had attained his
body in quick succession, when, filled with fury, he seized the last
and launched it back upon his assailant. And the brave Citli laid
shaft to string nevermore, for the arrow of the sun pierced his
forehead.

Then all was dismay in the assembly of the gods, and despair filled
their heart, for they saw that they could not prevail against the
shining one; and they agreed to die, and to cut themselves open
through the breast. Xolotl was appointed minister, and he killed his
companions one by one, and last of all he slew himself also.[II-20] So
they died like gods; and each left to the sad and wondering men who
were his servants, his garments for a memorial. And these servants
made up, each party, a bundle of the raiment that had been left to
them, binding it about a stick into which they had bedded a small
green stone to serve as a heart. These bundles were called
_tlaquimilloli_, and each bore the name of that god whose memorial it
was; and these things were more reverenced than the ordinary gods of
stone and wood of the country. Fray Andres de Olmos found one of these
relics in Tlalmanalco, wrapped up in many cloths, and half rotten with
being kept hid so long.[II-21]

Immediately on the death of the gods the sun began his motion in the
heavens; and a man called Tecuzistecatl, or Tezcociztecatl, who, when
Nanahuatzin leaped into the fire, had retired into a cave, now emerged
from his concealment as the moon. Others say that instead of going
into a cave, this Tecuzistecatl, had leaped into the fire after
Nanahuatzin, but that, the heat of the fire being somewhat abated, he
had come out less brilliant than the sun. Still another variation is,
that the sun and moon came out equally bright, but this not seeming
good to the gods, one of them took a rabbit by the heels and slung it
into the face of the moon, dimming its lustre with a blotch whose mark
may be seen to this day.

After the gods had died in the way herein related, leaving their
garments behind as relics, those servants went about everywhere,
bearing these relics like bundles upon their shoulders, very sad and
pensive and wondering if ever again they would see their departed
gods. Now the name of one of these deceased deities was Tezcatlipoca,
and his servant having arrived at the sea coast, was favored with an
apparition of his master in three different shapes. And Tezcatlipoca
spake to his servant saying: Come hither, thou that lovest me so well,
that I may tell thee what thou hast to do. Go now to the House of the
Sun and fetch thence singers and instruments so that thou mayest make
me a festival; but first call upon the whale, and upon the siren, and
upon the tortoise, and they shall make thee a bridge to the sun.

Then was all this done; and the messenger went across the sea upon his
living bridge, towards the House of the Sun, singing what he had to
say. And the Sun heard the song, and he straitly charged his people
and servants, saying: See now that ye make no response to this chant,
for whoever replies to it must be taken away by the singer. But the
song was so exceeding sweet that some of them could not but answer,
and they were lured away, bearing with them the drum, _teponaztli_,
and the kettle-drum, _vevetl_. Such was the origin of the festivals
and the dances to the gods; and the songs sung during these dances
they held as prayers, singing them always with great accuracy of
intonation and time.

[Sidenote: THE TEZCUCAN ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION.]

In their oral traditions, the Tezcucans agreed with the usual Mexican
account of creation--the falling of the flint from heaven to earth,
and so on--but what they afterward showed in a picture, and explained
to Fray Andres de Olmos as the manner of the creation of mankind, was
this: The event took place in the land of Aculma, on the Tezcucan
boundary at a distance of two leagues from Tezcuco and of five from
Mexico. It is said that the sun, being at the hour of nine, cast a
dart into the earth at the place we have mentioned and made a hole;
from this hole a man came out, the first man and somewhat imperfect
withal, as there was no more of him than from the arm-pits up, much
like the conventional European cherub, only without wings. After that
the woman came up out of the hole. The rest of the story was not
considered proper for printing by Mendieta; but at any rate from these
two are mankind descended. The name of the first man was
Aculmaitl--that is to say, _aculli_, shoulder, and _maitl_, hand or
arm--and from him the town of Aculma is said to take its name.[II-22]
And this etymology seems to make it probable that the details of this
myth are derived, to some extent, from the name of the place in which
it was located; or that the name of the first man belonging to an
early phase of the language, has been misunderstood, and that to the
false etymology the details of the myth are owing.

As already stated there had been men on the earth previous to that
final and perfect creation of man from the bone supplied by
Mictlanteuctli, and wetted by the gods with their own blood at the
place of the Seven Caves. These men had been swept away by a
succession of great destructions. With regard to the number of these
destructions it is hard to speak positively, as on no single point in
the wide range of early American religion, does there exist so much
difference of opinion. All the way from twice to five times, following
different accounts, has the world been desolated by tremendous
convulsions of nature. I follow most closely the version of the
Tezcucan historian Ixtlilxochitl, as being one of the earliest
accounts, as, prima facie, from its origin, one of the most authentic,
and as being supported by a majority of respectable historians up to
the time of Humboldt.

[Sidenote: THE AGES OR SUNS OF THE MEXICANS.]

Of the creation which ushered in the first age we know nothing; we are
only told by Boturini, that giants then began to appear on the earth.
This First Age; or 'sun,' was called the Sun of the Water, and it was
ended by a tremendous flood in which every living thing perished, or
was transformed, except, following some accounts, one man and one
woman of the giant race, of whose escape more hereafter. The Second
Age, called the Sun of the Earth, was closed with earthquakes,
yawnings of the earth, and the overthrow of the highest mountains.
Giants, or Quinamés, a powerful and haughty race still appear to be
the only inhabitants of the world. The Third Age was the Sun of the
Air. It was ended by tempests and hurricanes, so destructive that few
indeed of the inhabitants of the earth were left; and those that were
saved, lost, according to the Tlascaltec account, their reason and
speech, becoming monkeys.

The present is the Fourth Age. To it appear to belong the falling of
the goddess-born flint from heaven, the birth of the sixteen hundred
heroes from that flint, the birth of mankind from the bone brought
from hades, the transformation of Nanahuatzin into the sun, the
transformation of Tezcatecatl into the moon, and the death of the
sixteen hundred heroes or gods. It is called the Sun of Fire, and is
to be ended by a universal conflagration.[II-23]

Connected with the great flood of water, there is a Mexican tradition
presenting some analogies to the story of Noah and his ark. In most of
the painted manuscripts supposed to relate to this event, a kind of
boat is represented floating over the waste of water, and containing a
man and a woman. Even the Tlascaltecs, the Zapotecs, the Miztecs, and
the people of Michoacan are said to have had such pictures. The man is
variously called Coxcox, Teocipactli, Tezpi, and Nata; the woman
Xochiquetzal and Nena.[II-24]

[Sidenote: THE TOWER OF BABEL.]

The following has been usually accepted as the ordinary Mexican
version of this myth: In Atonatiuh, the Age of Water, a great flood
covered all the face of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were
turned into fishes. Only one man and one woman escaped, saving
themselves in the hollow trunk of an _ahahuete_ or bald cypress; the
name of the man being Coxcox, and that of his wife Xochiquetzal. On
the waters abating a little they grounded their ark on the Peak of
Colhuacan, the Ararat of Mexico. Here they increased and multiplied,
and children began to gather about them, children who were all born
dumb. And a dove came and gave them tongues, innumerable languages.
Only fifteen of the descendants of Coxcox, who afterward became heads
of families, spake the same language or could at all understand each
other; and from these fifteen are descended the Toltecs, the Aztecs,
and the Acolhúas. This dove is not the only bird mentioned in these
deluvial traditions, and must by no means be confounded with the birds
of another palpably Christianized story. For in Michoacan a tradition
was preserved, following which the name of the Mexican Noah was Tezpi.
With better fortune than that ascribed to Coxcox, he was able to save,
in a spacious vessel, not only himself and his wife, but also his
children, several animals, and a quantity of grain for the common use.
When the waters began to subside, he sent out a vulture that it might
go to and fro on the earth and bring him word again when the dry land
began to appear. But the vulture fed upon the carcasses that were
strewed in every part, and never returned. Then Tezpi sent out other
birds, and among these was a humming-bird. And when the sun began to
cover the earth with a new verdure, the humming-bird returned to its
old refuge bearing green leaves. And Tezpi saw that his vessel was
aground near the mountain of Colhuacan and he landed there.

The Mexicans round Cholula had a special legend, connecting the escape
of a remnant from the great deluge with the often-mentioned story of
the origin of the people of Anáhuac from Chicomoztoc, or the Seven
Caves. At the time of the cataclysm, the country, according to Pedro
de los Rios, was inhabited by giants. Some of these perished utterly;
others were changed into fishes; while seven brothers of them found
safety by closing themselves into certain caves in a mountain called
Tlaloc. When the waters were assuaged, one of the giants, Xelhua,
surnamed the Architect, went to Cholula and began to build an
artificial mountain, as a monument and a memorial of the Tlaloc that
had sheltered him and his when the angry waters swept through all the
land. The bricks were made in Tlamanalco, at the foot of the Sierra de
Cocotl, and passed to Cholula from hand to hand along a file of
men--whence these came is not said--stretching between the two places.
Then were the jealousy and the anger of the gods aroused, as the huge
pyramid rose slowly up, threatening to reach the clouds and the great
heaven itself; and the gods launched their fire upon the builders and
slew many, so that the work was stopped.[II-25] But the half-finished
structure, afterwards dedicated by the Cholultecs to Quetzalcoatl,
still remains to show how well Xelhua, the giant, deserved his surname
of the Architect.

[Sidenote: THE MEXICAN DELUGE.]

Yet another record remains to us of a traditional Mexican deluge, in
the following extract from the Chimalpopoca Manuscript. Its words seem
to have a familiar sound; but it would hardly be scientific to draw
from such a fragment any very sweeping conclusion as to its
relationship, whether that be Quiché or Christian:--

When the Sun, or Age, Nahui-Atl came, there had passed already four
hundred years; then came two hundred years, then seventy and six, and
then mankind were lost and drowned and turned into fishes. The waters
and the sky drew near each other; in a single day all was lost; the
day Four Flower consumed all that there was of our flesh. And this
year was the year Ce-Calli; on the first day, Nahui-Atl, all was lost.
The very mountains were swallowed up in the flood and the waters
remained, lying tranquil during fifty and two spring-times. But before
the flood began, Titlacahuan had warned the man Nata and his wife
Nena, saying: Make now no more pulque, but hollow out to yourselves a
great cypress, into which you shall enter when, in the month Tozoztli,
the waters shall near the sky. Then they entered into it, and when
Titlacahuan had shut them in, he said to the man: Thou shalt eat but a
single ear of maize, and thy wife but one also. And when they had
finished eating, each an ear of maize, they prepared to set forth, for
the waters remained tranquil and their log moved no longer; and
opening it they began to see the fishes. Then they lit a fire, rubbing
pieces of wood together, and they roasted fish. And behold the deities
Citlallinicué and Citlallatonac looking down from above, cried out: O
divine Lord! what is this fire that they make there? wherefore do they
so fill the heaven with smoke? And immediately Titlacahuan
Tetzcatlipoca came down, and set himself to grumble, saying: What does
this fire here? Then he seized the fishes and fashioned them behind
and before, and changed them into dogs.[II-26]

We turn now to the traditions of some nations situated on the
outskirts of the Mexican Empire, traditions differing from those of
Mexico, if not in their elements, at least in the combination of those
elements. Following our usual custom, I give the following legend
belonging to the Miztecs just as they themselves were accustomed to
depict and to interpret it in their primitive scrolls:--[II-27]

[Sidenote: THE FLYING HEROES OF MIZTECA.]

In the year and in the day of obscurity and darkness, yea even before
the days or the years were, when the world was in a great darkness and
chaos, when the earth was covered with water and there was nothing but
mud and slime on all the face of the earth--behold a god became
visible, and his name was the Deer, and his surname was the
Lion-Snake. There appeared also a very beautiful goddess called the
Deer, and surnamed the Tiger-Snake.[II-28] These two gods were the
origin and beginning of all the gods.

Now when these two gods became visible in the world, they made, in
their knowledge and omnipotence, a great rock, upon which they built a
very sumptuous palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they made
their abode upon earth. On the highest part of this building there was
an axe of copper, the edge being uppermost, and on this axe the
heavens rested.

This rock and the palace of the gods were on a mountain in the
neighborhood of the town of Apoala in the province of Mizteca Alta.
The rock was called The Place of Heaven; there the gods first abode on
earth, living many years in great rest and content, as in a happy and
delicious land, though the world still lay in obscurity and darkness.

The father and mother of all the gods being here in their place, two
sons were born to them, very handsome and very learned in all wisdom
and arts. The first was called the Wind of Nine Snakes, after the name
of the day on which he was born; and the second was called, in like
manner, the Wind of Nine Caves. Very daintily indeed were these youths
brought up. When the elder wished to amuse himself, he took the form
of an eagle, flying thus far and wide; the younger turned himself into
a small beast of a serpent shape, having wings that he used with such
agility and sleight that he became invisible, and flew through rocks
and walls even as through the air. As they went, the din and clamor of
these brethren was heard by those over whom they passed. They took
these figures to manifest the power that was in them, both in
transforming themselves and in resuming again their original shape.
And they abode in great peace in the mansion of their parents, so they
agreed to make a sacrifice and an offering to these gods, to their
father and to their mother. Then they took each a censer of clay, and
put fire therein, and poured in ground _beleño_ for incense; and this
offering was the first that had ever been made in the world. Next the
brothers made to themselves a garden, in which they put many trees,
and fruit-trees, and flowers, and roses, and odorous herbs of
different kinds. Joined to this garden they laid out a very beautiful
meadow, which they fitted up with all things necessary for offering
sacrifice to the gods. In this manner the two brethren left their
parents' house, and fixed themselves in this garden to dress it and to
keep it, watering the trees and the plants and the odorous herbs,
multiplying them, and burning incense of powder of beleño in censers
of clay to the gods, their father and mother. They made also vows to
these gods, and promises, praying that it might seem good to them to
shape the firmament and lighten the darkness of the world, and to
establish the foundation of the earth, or rather to gather the waters
together so that the earth might appear--as they had no place to rest
in save only one little garden. And to make their prayers more
obligatory upon the gods, they pierced their ears and tongues with
flakes of flint, sprinkling the blood that dropped from the wounds
over the trees and plants of the garden with a willow branch, as a
sacred and blessed thing. After this sort they employed themselves,
postponing pleasure till the time of the granting of their desire,
remaining always in subjection to the gods, their father and mother,
and attributing to them more power and divinity than they really
possessed.

Fray Garcia here makes a break in the relation--that he may not weary
his readers with so many absurdities--but it would appear that the
firmament was arranged and the earth made fit for mankind, who about
that time must also have made their appearance. For there came a great
deluge afterwards, wherein perished many of the sons and daughters
that had been born to the gods; and it is said that when the deluge
was passed the human race was restored as at the first, and the
Miztec kingdom populated, and the heavens and the earth established.

This we may suppose to have been the traditional origin of the common
people; but the governing family of Mizteca proclaimed themselves the
descendants of two youths born from two majestic trees that stood at
the entrance of the gorge of Apoala, and that maintained themselves
there despite a violent wind continually rising from a cavern in the
vicinity.

[Sidenote: THE DUEL WITH THE SUN.]

Whether the trees of themselves produced these youths, or whether some
primeval Æsir, as in the Scandinavian story, gave them shape and blood
and breath and sense, we know not. We are only told that soon or late
the youths separated, each going his own way to conquer lands for
himself. The braver of the two coming to the vicinity of Tilantongo,
armed with buckler and bow, was much vexed and oppressed by the ardent
rays of the sun, which he took to be the lord of that district
striving to prevent his entrance therein. Then the young warrior
strung his bow, and advanced his buckler before him, and drew shafts
from his quiver. He shot there against the great light even till the
going down of the same; then he took possession of all that land,
seeing he had grievously wounded the sun, and forced him to hide
behind the mountains. Upon this story is founded the lordship of all
the caciques of Mizteca, and upon their descent from this mighty
archer their ancestor. Even to this day, the chiefs of the Miztecs
blazon as their arms a plumed chief with bow, arrows, and shield, and
the sun in front of him setting behind gray clouds.[II-29]

Of the origin of the Zapotecs, a people bordering on these Miztecs,
Burgoa says, with a touching simplicity, that he could find no account
worthy of belief. Their historical paintings he ascribes to the
invention of the devil, affirming hotly that these people were blinder
in such vanities than the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. Some, he said,
to boast of their valor made themselves out the sons of lions and
divers wild beasts; others, grand lords of ancient lineage, were
produced by the greatest and most shady trees; while still others of
an unyielding and obstinate nature, were descended from rocks. Their
language, continues the worthy Provincial, striking suddenly and by an
undirected shot the very center of mythological interpretation--their
language was full of metaphors; those who wished to persuade spake
always in parables, and in like manner painted their historians.[II-30]

In Guatemala, according to the relations given to Father Gerónimo
Roman by the natives, it was believed there was a time when nothing
existed but a certain divine Father called Xchmel, and a divine Mother
called Xtmana. To these were born three sons,[II-31] the eldest of whom,
filled with pride and presumption, set about a creation contrary to
the will of his parents. But he could create nothing save old vessels
fit for mean uses, such as earthen pots, jugs, and things still more
despicable; and he was hurled into hades. Then the two younger
brethren, called respectively Hunchevan and Hunavan, prayed their
parents for permission to attempt the work in which their brother had
failed so signally. And they were granted leave, being told at the
same time, that inasmuch as they had humbled themselves, they would
succeed in their undertaking. Then they made the heavens, and the
earth with the plants thereon, and fire and air, and out of the earth
itself they made a man and a woman--presumably the parents of the
human race.

According to Torquemada, there was a deluge some time after this, and
after the deluge the people continued to invoke as god the great
Father and the great Mother already mentioned. But at last a
principal woman[II-32] among them, having received a revelation from
heaven, taught them the true name of God, and how that name should be
adored; all this, however, they afterward forgot.[II-33]

In Nicaragua, a country where the principal language was a Mexican
dialect, it was believed that ages ago the world was destroyed by a
flood in which the most part of mankind perished. Afterward the
_teotes_, or gods, restocked the earth as at the beginning. Whence
came the teotes, no one knows; but the names of two of them who took a
principal part in the creation were Tamagostat and Cipattonal.[II-34]

[Sidenote: THE COYOTE OF THE PAPAGOS.]

Leaving now the Central American region we pass north into the Papago
country, lying south of the Gila, with the river Santa Cruz on the
east and the Gulf of California on the west. Here we meet for the
first time the coyote, or prairie wolf; we find him much more than an
animal, something more even than a man, only a little lower than the
gods. In the following Papago myth[II-35] he figures as a prophet, and
as a minister and assistant to a certain great hero-god Montezuma, whom
we are destined to meet often, and in many characters, as a central
figure in the myths of the Gila valley:--

[Sidenote: LEGEND OF MONTEZUMA.]

The Great Spirit made the earth and all living things, before he made
man. And he descended from heaven, and digging in the earth, found
clay such as the potters use, which, having again ascended into the
sky, he dropped into the hole that he had dug. Immediately there came
out Montezuma and, with the assistance of Montezuma, the rest of the
Indian tribes in order. Last of all came the Apaches, wild from their
natal hour, running away as fast as they were created. Those first
days of the world were happy and peaceful days. The sun was nearer the
earth than he is now; his grateful rays made all the seasons equal,
and rendered garments unnecessary. Men and beasts talked together, a
common language made all brethren. But an awful destruction ended this
happy age. A great flood destroyed all flesh wherein was the breath of
life; Montezuma and his friend the Coyote alone escaping. For before
the flood began, the Coyote prophesied its coming, and Montezuma took
the warning and hollowed out a boat to himself, keeping it ready on
the topmost summit of Santa Rosa. The Coyote also prepared an ark;
gnawing down a great cane by the river bank, entering it, and stopping
up the end with a certain gum. So when the waters rose these two saved
themselves, and met again at last on dry land after the flood had
passed away. Naturally enough Montezuma was now anxious to know how
much dry land had been left, and he sent the Coyote off on four
successive journeys, to find exactly where the sea lay toward each of
the four winds. From the west and from the south, the answer swiftly
came: The sea is at hand. A longer search was that made towards the
east, but at last there too was the sea found. On the north only was
no water found, though the faithful messenger almost wearied himself
out with searching. In the meantime the Great Spirit, aided by
Montezuma, had again repeopled the world, and animals and men began to
increase and multiply. To Montezuma had been allotted the care and
government of the new race; but puffed up with pride and self
importance, he neglected the most important duties of his onerous
position, and suffered the most disgraceful wickedness to pass
unnoticed among the people. In vain the Great Spirit came down to
earth and remonstrated with his vicegerent, who only scorned his laws
and advice, and ended at last by breaking out into open rebellion.
Then indeed the Great Spirit was filled with anger, and he returned to
heaven, pushing back the sun on his way, to that remote part of the
sky he now occupies. But Montezuma hardened his heart, and collecting
all the tribes to aid him, set about building a house that should
reach up to heaven itself. Already it had attained a great height, and
contained many apartments lined with gold, silver, and precious
stones, the whole threatening soon to make good the boast of its
architect, when the Great Spirit launched his thunder, and laid its
glory in ruins. Still Montezuma hardened himself; proud and
inflexible, he answered the thunderer out of the haughty defiance of
his heart; he ordered the temple-houses to be desecrated, and the holy
images to be dragged in the dust, he made them a scoff and byword for
the very children in the village streets. Then the Great Spirit
prepared his supreme punishment. He sent an insect flying away towards
the east, towards an unknown land, to bring the Spaniards. When these
came, they made war upon Montezuma and destroyed him, and utterly
dissipated the idea of his divinity.[II-36]

[Sidenote: DELUGE OF THE PIMAS.]

The Pimas,[II-37] a neighboring and closely allied people to the Papagos,
say that the earth was made by a certain Chiowotmahke, that is to say
Earth-prophet. It appeared in the beginning like a spider's web,
stretching far and fragile across the nothingness that was. Then the
Earth-prophet flew over all lands in the form of a butterfly, till he
came to the place he judged fit for his purpose, and there he made
man. And the thing was after this wise: The Creator took clay in his
hands, and mixing it with the sweat of his own body, kneaded the whole
into a lump. Then he blew upon the lump till it was filled with life
and began to move; and it became man and woman. This Creator had a son
called Szeukha, who, when the world was beginning to be tolerably
peopled, lived in the Gila valley, where lived also at the same time a
great prophet, whose name has been forgotten. Upon a certain night
when the prophet slept, he was wakened by a noise at the door of his
house, and when he looked, a great Eagle stood before him. And the
Eagle spake: Arise, thou that healest the sick, thou that shouldest
know what is to come, for behold a deluge is at hand. But the prophet
laughed the bird to scorn and gathered his robes about him and slept.
Afterwards the Eagle came again and warned him of the waters near at
hand; but he gave no ear to the bird at all. Perhaps he would not
listen because this Eagle had an exceedingly bad reputation among men,
being reported to take at times the form of an old woman that lured
away girls and children to a certain cliff so that they were never
seen again; of this, however, more anon. A third time, the Eagle came
to warn the prophet, and to say that all the valley of the Gila should
be laid waste with water; but the prophet gave no heed. Then, in the
twinkling of an eye, and even as the flapping of the Eagle's wings
died away into the night, there came a peal of thunder and an awful
crash; and a green mound of water reared itself over the plain. It
seemed to stand upright for a second, then, cut incessantly by the
lightning, goaded on like a great beast, it flung itself upon the
prophet's hut. When the morning broke there was nothing to be seen
alive but one man--if indeed he were a man; Szeukha, the son of the
Creator, had saved himself by floating on a ball of gum or resin. On
the waters falling a little, he landed near the mouth of the Salt
River, upon a mountain where there is a cave that can still be seen,
together with the tools and utensils Szeukha used while he lived
there. Szeukha was very angry with the Great Eagle, who he probably
thought had had more to do with bringing on the flood than appears in
the narrative. At any rate the general reputation of the bird was
sufficiently bad, and Szeukha prepared a kind of rope ladder from a
very tough species of tree, much like woodbine, with the aid of which
he climbed up to the cliff where the Eagle lived, and slew him.[II-38]
Looking about here, he found the mutilated and decaying bodies of a
great multitude of those that the Eagle had stolen and taken for a
prey; and he raised them all to life again and sent them away to
repeople the earth. In the house or den of the Eagle, he found a woman
that the monster had taken to wife, and a child. These he sent also
upon their way, and from these are descended that great people called
Hohocam, 'ancients or grandfathers,' who were led in all their
wanderings by an eagle, and who eventually passed into Mexico.[II-39] One
of these Hohocam named Sivano, built the Casa Grande on the Gila, and
indeed the ruins of this structure are called after his name to this
day. On the death of Sivano, his son led a branch of the Hohocam to
Salt River, where he built certain edifices and dug a large canal, or
_acequia_. At last it came about that a woman ruled over the Hohocam.
Her throne was cut out of a blue stone, and a mysterious bird was her
constant attendant. These Hohocam were at war with a people that lived
to the east of them, on the Rio Verde, and one day the bird warned her
that the enemy was at hand. The warning was disregarded or it came too
late, for the eastern people came down in three bands; destroyed the
cities of the Hohocam, and killed or drove away all the inhabitants.

* * * * *

Most of the Pueblo tribes call themselves the descendants of
Montezuma;[II-40] the Moquis, however, have a quite different story of
their origin. They believe in a great Father living where the sun
rises; and in a great Mother, whose home is where the sun goes down.
The Father is the father of evil, war, pestilence, and famine; but
from the Mother are all joys, peace, plenty, and health. In the
beginning of time the Mother produced from her western home nine races
of men in the following primary forms: First, the Deer race; second,
the Sand race; third, the Water race; fourth, the Bear race; fifth,
the Hare race; sixth, the Prairie-wolf race; seventh, the Rattle-snake
race; eighth, the Tobacco-plant race; and ninth, the Reed-grass race.
All these the Mother placed respectively on the spots where their
villages now stand, and transformed them into the men who built the
present Pueblos. These race-distinctions are still sharply kept up;
for they are believed to be realities, not only of the past and
present, but also of the future; every man when he dies shall be
resolved into his primeval form; shall wave in the grass, or drift in
the sand, or prowl on the prairie as in the beginning.[II-41]

[Sidenote: CAVE-ORIGIN OF THE NAVAJOS.]

The Navajos, living north of the Pueblos, say that at one time all the
nations, Navajos, Pueblos, Coyoteros, and white people, lived
together, underground in the heart of a mountain near the river San
Juan. Their only food was meat, which they had in abundance, for all
kinds of game were closed up with them in their cave; but their light
was dim and only endured for a few hours each day. There were happily
two dumb men among the Navajos, flute-players who enlivened the
darkness with music. One of these striking by chance on the roof of
the limbo with his flute, brought out a hollow sound, upon which the
elders of the tribes determined to bore in the direction whence the
sound came. The flute was then set up against the roof, and the
Raccoon sent up the tube to dig a way out; but he could not. Then the
Moth-worm mounted into the breach, and bored and bored till he found
himself suddenly on the outside of the mountain and surrounded by
water. Under these novel circumstances, he heaped up a little mound
and set himself down on it to observe and ponder the situation. A
critical situation enough! for, from the four corners of the universe,
four great white Swans bore down upon him, every one with two arrows,
one under either wing. The Swan from the north reached him first, and
having pierced him with two arrows, drew them out and examined their
points, exclaiming as the result: He is of my race. So also, in
succession, did all the others. Then they went away; and towards the
directions in which they departed, to the north, south, east, and
west, were found four great _arroyos_, by which all the water flowed
off, leaving only mud. The worm now returned to the cave, and the
Raccoon went up into the mud, sinking in it mid-leg deep, as the marks
on his fur show to this day. And the wind began to rise, sweeping up
the four great arroyos, and the mud was dried away. Then the men and
the animals began to come up from their cave, and their coming up
required several days. First came the Navajos, and no sooner had they
reached the surface then they commenced gaming at _patole_, their
favorite game. Then came the Pueblos and other Indians who crop their
hair and build houses. Lastly came the white people, who started off
at once for the rising sun and were lost sight of for many winters.

While these nations lived underground they all spake one tongue; but
with the light of day and the level of earth, came many languages. The
earth was at this time very small and the light was quite as scanty as
it had been down below; for there was as yet no heaven, nor sun, nor
moon, nor stars. So another council of the ancients was held and a
committee of their number appointed to manufacture these luminaries. A
large house or workshop was erected; and when the sun and moon were
ready, they were entrusted to the direction and guidance of the two
dumb fluters already mentioned. The one who got charge of the sun came
very near, through his clumsiness in his new office, to making a
Phaethon of himself and setting fire to the earth. The old men,
however, either more lenient than Zeus or lacking his thunder,
contented themselves with forcing the offender back by puffing the
smoke of their pipes into his face. Since then the increasing size of
the earth has four times rendered it necessary that he should be put
back, and his course farther removed from the world and from the
subterranean cave to which he nightly retires with the great light. At
night also the other dumb man issues from this cave, bearing the moon
under his arm, and lighting up such part of the world as he can. Next
the old men set to work to make the heavens, intending to broider in
the stars in beautiful patterns, of bears, birds, and such things. But
just as they had made a beginning a prairie-wolf rushed in, and crying
out: Why all this trouble and embroidery? scattered the pile of stars
over all the floor of heaven, just as they still lie.

When now the world and its firmament had been finished, the old men
prepared two earthen _tinages_ or water-jars, and having decorated one
with bright colors, filled it with trifles; while the other was left
plain on the outside, but filled within with flocks and herds and
riches of all kinds. These jars being covered and presented to the
Navajos and Pueblos, the former chose the gaudy but paltry jar; while
the Pueblos received the plain and rich vessel; each nation showing in
its choice traits which characterize it to this day. Next there arose
among the Navajos a great gambler, who went on winning the goods and
the persons of his opponents till he had won the whole tribe. Upon
this, one of the old men became indignant, set the gambler on his
bowstring and shot him off into space--an unfortunate proceeding, for
the fellow returned in a short time with firearms and the Spaniards.
Let me conclude by telling how the Navajos came by the seed they now
cultivate: All the wise men being one day assembled, a turkey-hen came
flying from the direction of the morning star, and shook from her
feathers an ear of blue corn into the midst of the company; and in
subsequent visits brought all the other seeds they possess.[II-42]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: ORIGIN-MYTHS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.]

Of some tribes, we do not know that they possess any other ideas of
their origin than the name of their first ancestor, or the name of a
creator or a tradition of his existence.

The Sinaloas, from Culiacan north to the Yaqui River, have dances in
honor of a certain Viriseva, the mother of the first man. This first
man, who was her son, and called Vairubi, they hold in like
esteem.[II-43] The Cochimis, of Lower California, amid an apparent
multiplicity of gods, say there is in reality only one, who created
heaven, earth, plants, animals, and man.[II-44] The Pericues, also of
Lower California, call the creator Niparaya, and say that the heavens
are his dwelling-place. A sect of the same tribe add that the stars
are made of metal, and are the work of a certain Purutabui; while the
moon has been made by one Cucunumic.[II-45]

The nations of Los Angeles County, California, believe that their one
god, Quaoar, came down from heaven; and, after reducing chaos to
order, put the world on the back of seven giants. He then created the
lower animals, and lastly a man and a woman. These were made
separately out of earth and called, the man Tobohar, and the woman
Pabavit.[II-46]

Hugo Reid, to whom we are mainly indebted for the mythology of
Southern California, and who is an excellent authority, inasmuch as
his wife was an Indian woman of that country, besides the preceding
gives us another and different tradition on the same subject: Two
great Beings made the world, filled it with grass and trees, and gave
form, life, and motion to the various animals that people land and
sea. When this work was done, the elder Creator went up to heaven and
left his brother alone on the earth. The solitary god left below, made
to himself men-children, that he should not be utterly companionless.
Fortunately also, about this time, the moon came to that neighborhood;
she was very fair in her delicate beauty, very kind-hearted, and she
filled the place of a mother to the men-children that the god had
created. She watched over them, and guarded them from all evil things
of the night, standing at the door of their lodge. The children grew
up very happily, laying great store by the love with which their
guardians regarded them; but there came a day when their heart
saddened, in which they began to notice that neither their god-creator
nor their moon foster-mother gave them any longer undivided affection
and care, but that instead, the two great ones seemed to waste much
precious love upon each other. The tall god began to steal out of
their lodge at dusk, and spend the night watches in the company of the
white-haired moon, who, on the other hand, did not seem on these
occasions to pay such absorbing attention to her sentinel duty as at
other times. The children grew sad at this, and bitter at the heart
with a boyish jealousy. But worse was yet to come: one night they were
awakened by a querulous wailing in their lodge, and the earliest dawn
showed them a strange thing, which they afterwards came to know was a
new-born infant, lying in the doorway. The god and the moon had eloped
together; their Great One had returned to his place beyond the ether,
and that he might not be separated from his paramour, he had appointed
her at the same time a lodge in the great firmament; where she may yet
be seen, with her gauzy robe and shining silver hair, treading
celestial paths. The child left on the earth was a girl. She grew up
very soft, very bright, very beautiful, like her mother; but like her
mother also, O so fickle and frail! She was the first of woman-kind,
from her are all other women descended, and from the moon; and as the
moon changes so they all change, say the philosophers of Los
Angeles.[II-47]

[Sidenote: CENTRAL-CALIFORNIAN CREATION-MYTHS.]

A much more prosaic and materialistic origin is that accorded to the
moon in the traditions of the Gallinomeros of Central California.[II-48]
In the beginning, they say, there was no light, but a thick darkness
covered all the earth. Man stumbled blindly against man and against
the animals, the birds clashed together in the air, and confusion
reigned everywhere. The Hawk happening by chance to fly into the face
of the Coyote, there followed mutual apologies and afterwards a long
discussion on the emergency of the situation. Determined to make some
effort toward abating the public evil, the two set about a remedy. The
Coyote gathered a great heap of tules, rolled them into a ball, and
gave it to the Hawk, together with some pieces of flint. Gathering all
together as well as he could, the Hawk flew straight up into the sky,
where he struck fire with the flints, lit his ball of reeds, and left
it there, whirling along all in a fierce red glow as it continues to
the present; for it is the sun. In the same way the moon was made, but
as the tules of which it was constructed were rather damp, its light
has been always somewhat uncertain and feeble.[II-49]

In northern California, we find the Mattoles,[II-50] who connect a
tradition of a destructive flood with Taylor Peak, a mountain in their
locality, on which they say their forefathers took refuge. As to the
creation, they teach that a certain Big Man began by making the naked
earth, silent and bleak, with nothing of plant or animal thereon, save
one Indian, who roamed about in a wofully hungry and desolate state.
Suddenly there rose a terrible whirlwind, the air grew dark and thick
with dust and drifting sand, and the Indian fell upon his face in sore
dread. Then there came a great calm, and the man rose and looked, and
lo, all the earth was perfect and peopled; the grass and the trees
were green on every plain and hill; the beasts of the fields, the
fowls of the air, the creeping things, the things that swim, moved
everywhere in his sight. There is a limit set to the number of the
animals, which is this: only a certain number of animal spirits are in
existence; when one beast dies, his spirit immediately takes up its
abode in another body, so that the whole number of animals is always
the same, and the original spirits move in an endless circle of earthy
immortality.[II-51]

[Sidenote: THE COYOTE OF THE CALIFORNIANS.]

We pass now to a train of myths in which the Coyote again appears,
figuring in many important and somewhat mystical rôles--figuring in
fact as the great Somebody of many tribes. To him, though
involuntarily as it appears, are owing the fish to be found in Clear
Lake. The story runs that one summer long ago there was a terrible
drought in that region, followed by a plague of grasshoppers. The
Coyote ate a great quantity of these grasshoppers, and drank up the
whole lake to quench his thirst. After this he lay down to sleep off
the effects of his extraordinary repast, and while he slept a man came
up from the south country and thrust him through with a spear. Then
all the water he had drunk flowed back through his wound into the
lake, and with the water the grasshoppers he had eaten; and these
insects became fishes, the same that still swim in Clear Lake.[II-52]

The Californians in most cases describe themselves as originating from
the Coyote, and more remotely, from the very soil they tread. In the
language of Mr. Powers--whose extended personal investigations give
him the right to speak with authority--"All the aboriginal
inhabitants of California, without exception, believe that their first
ancestors were created directly from the earth of their respective
present dwelling-places, and, in very many cases, that these ancestors
were coyotes."[II-53]

The Potoyantes give an ingenious account of the transformation of the
first coyotes into men: There was an age in which no men existed,
nothing but coyotes. When one of these animals died, his body used to
breed a multitude of little animals, much as the carcass of the huge
Ymir, rotting in Ginnunga-gap, bred the maggots that turned to dwarfs.
The little animals of our story were in reality spirits, which, after
crawling about for a time on the dead coyote, and taking all kinds of
shapes, ended by spreading wings and floating off to the moon. This
evidently would not do; the earth was in danger of becoming
depopulated; so the old coyotes took counsel together if perchance
they might devise a remedy. The result was a general order that, for
the time to come, all bodies should be incinerated immediately after
death. Thus originated the custom of burning the dead, a custom still
kept up among these people. We next learn--what indeed might have
been expected of animals of such wisdom and parts--that these
primeval coyotes began by degrees to assume the shape of men. At
first, it is true, with many imperfections; but, a toe, an ear, a
hand, bit by bit, they were gradually builded up into the perfect form
of man looking upward. For one thing they still grieve, however, of
all their lost estate--their tails are gone. An acquired habit of
sitting upright, has utterly erased and destroyed that beautiful
member. Lost is indeed lost, and gone is gone for ever, yet still when
in dance and festival, the Potoyante throws off the weary burden of
hard and utilitarian care, he attaches to himself, as nearly as may be
in the ancient place, an artificial tail, and forgets for a happy hour
the degeneracy of the present in simulating the glory of the past.[II-54]

The Californians tell again of a great flood, or at least of a time
when the whole country, with the exception of Mount Diablo and Reed
Peak, was covered with water. There was a Coyote on the peak, the only
living thing the wide world over, and there was a single feather
tossing about on the rippled water. The Coyote was looking at the
feather, and even as he looked, flesh and bones and other feathers,
came and joined themselves to the first, and became an Eagle. There
was a stir on the water, a rush of broad pinions, and before the
widening circles reached the island-hill, the bird stood beside the
astonished Coyote. The two came soon to be acquainted and to be good
friends, and they made occasional excursions together to the other
hill, the Eagle flying leisurely overhead while the Coyote swam. After
a time they began to feel lonely, so they created men; and as the men
multiplied the waters abated, till the dry land came to be much as it
is at present.

[Sidenote: HOW THE GOLDEN GATE WAS OPENED.]

Now, also, the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin began to find
their way into the Pacific, through the mountains which, up to this
time, had stretched across the mouth of San Francisco Bay. No Poseidon
clove the hills with his trident, as when the pleasant vale of Tempe
was formed, but a strong earthquake tore the rock apart and opened
the Golden Gate between the waters within and those without. Before
this there had existed only two outlets for the drainage of the whole
country; one was the Russian River, and the other the San Juan.[II-55]

The natives in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe, ascribe its origin to a
great natural convulsion. There was a time, they say, when their tribe
possessed the whole earth, and were strong, numerous, and rich; but a
day came in which a people rose up stronger than they, and defeated
and enslaved them. Afterwards the Great Spirit sent an immense wave
across the continent from the sea, and this wave engulfed both the
oppressors and the oppressed, all but a very small remnant. Then the
taskmasters made the remaining people raise up a great temple, so that
they, of the ruling caste, should have a refuge in case of another
flood, and on the top of this temple the masters worshiped a column of
perpetual fire.

Half a moon had not elapsed, however, before the earth was again
troubled, this time with strong convulsions and thunderings, upon
which the masters took refuge in their great tower, closing the people
out. The poor slaves fled to the Humboldt River, and getting into
canoes paddled for life from the awful sight behind them. For the land
was tossing like a troubled sea, and casting up fire, smoke, and
ashes. The flames went up to the very heaven and melted many stars, so
that they rained down in molten metal upon the earth, forming the ore
that the white men seek. The Sierra was mounded up from the bosom of
the earth; while the place where the great fort stood sank, leaving
only the dome on the top exposed above the waters of Lake Tahoe. The
inmates of the temple-tower clung to this dome to save themselves from
drowning; but the Great Spirit walked upon the waters in his wrath,
and took the oppressors one by one like pebbles, and threw them far
into the recesses of a great cavern, on the east side of the lake,
called to this day the Spirit Lodge, where the waters shut them in.
There must they remain till a last great volcanic burning, which is to
overturn the whole earth, shall again set them free. In the depths of
their cavern-prison they may still be heard, wailing and moaning, when
the snows melt and the waters swell in the lake.[II-56]

We again meet the Coyote among the Cahrocs of Klamath River in
Northern California. These Cahrocs believe in a certain Chareya, Old
Man Above, who made the world, sitting the while upon a certain stool
now in the possession of the high-priest, or chief medicine-man. After
the creation of the earth, Chareya first made fishes, then the lower
animals, and lastly man, upon whom was conferred the power of
assigning to each animal its respective duties and position. The man
determined to give each a bow, the length of which should denote the
rank of the receiver. So he called all the animals together, and told
them that next day, early in the morning, the distribution of bows
would take place. Now the Coyote greatly desired the longest bow; and,
in order to be in first at the division, he determined to remain awake
all night. His anxiety sustained him for some time; but just before
morning he gave way, and fell into a sound sleep. The consequence was,
he was last at the rendezvous, and got the shortest bow of all. The
man took pity on his distress, however, and brought the matter to the
notice of Chareya, who, on considering the circumstances, decreed that
the Coyote should become the most cunning of animals, as he remains to
this time. The Coyote was very grateful to the man for his
intercession, and he became his friend and the friend of his children,
and did many things to aid mankind as we shall see hereafter.[II-57]

[Sidenote: MOUNT SHASTA THE WIGWAM OF THE GREAT SPIRIT.]

The natives in the neighborhood of Mount Shasta, in Northern
California, say that the Great Spirit made this mountain first of all.
Boring a hole in the sky, using a large stone as an auger, he pushed
down snow and ice until they had reached the desired height; then he
stepped from cloud to cloud down to the great icy pile, and from it to
the earth, where he planted the first trees by merely putting his
finger into the soil here and there. The sun began to melt the snow;
the snow produced water; the water ran down the sides of the
mountains, refreshed the trees, and made rivers. The Creator gathered
the leaves that fell from the trees, blew upon them, and they became
birds. He took a stick and broke it into pieces; of the small end he
made fishes; and of the middle of the stick he made animals--the
grizzly bear excepted, which he formed from the big end of his stick,
appointing him to be master over all the others. Indeed this animal
was then so large, strong, and cunning, that the Creator somewhat
feared him, and hollowed out Mount Shasta as a wigwam for himself,
where he might reside while on earth, in the most perfect security and
comfort. So the smoke was soon to be seen curling up from the
mountain, where the Great Spirit and his family lived, and still live,
though their hearth-fire is alight no longer, now that the white man
is in the land. This was thousands of snows ago, and there came after
this a late and severe spring-time, in which a memorable storm blew up
from the sea, shaking the huge lodge to its base. The Great Spirit
commanded his daughter, little more than an infant, to go up and bid
the wind to be still, cautioning her at the same time in his fatherly
way, not to put her head out into the blast, but only to thrust out
her little red arm and make a sign before she delivered her message.
The eager child hastened up to the hole in the roof, did as she was
told, and then turned to descend; but the Eve was too strong in her to
leave without a look at the forbidden world outside and the rivers and
the trees, at the far ocean and the great waves that the storm had
made as hoary as the forests when the snow is on the firs. She
stopped, she put out her head to look; instantly the storm took her by
the long hair, and blew her down to the earth, down the mountain
side, over the smooth ice and soft snow, down to the land of the
grizzly bears.

Now the grizzly bears were somewhat different then from what they are
at present. In appearance they were much the same it is true; but they
walked then on their hind legs like men, and talked, and carried
clubs, using the fore-limbs as men use their arms.

[Sidenote: THE GRIZZLY FAMILY OF MOUNT SHASTA.]

There was a family of these grizzlies living at the foot of the
mountain, at the place where the child was blown to. The father was
returning from the hunt with his club on his shoulder and a young elk
in his hand, when he saw the little shivering waif lying on the snow
with her hair all tangled about her. The old Grizzly, pitying and
wondering at the strange forlorn creature, lifted it up, and carried
it in to his wife to see what should be done. She too was pitiful, and
she fed it from her own breast, bringing it up quietly as one of her
family. So the girl grew up, and the eldest son of the old Grizzly
married her, and their offspring was neither grizzly nor Great Spirit,
but man. Very proud indeed were the whole grizzly nation of the new
race, and uniting their strength from all parts of the country, they
built the young mother and her family a mountain wigwam near that of
the Great Spirit; and this structure of theirs is now known as Little
Mount Shasta. Many years passed away, and at last the old grandmother
Grizzly became very feeble and felt that she must soon die. She knew
that the girl she had adopted was the daughter of the Great Spirit,
and her conscience troubled her that she had never let him know
anything of the fate of his child. So she called all the grizzlies
together to the new lodge, and sent her eldest grandson up on a cloud
to the summit of Mount Shasta, to tell the father that his daughter
yet lived. When the Great Spirit heard that, he was so glad that he
immediately ran down the mountain, on the south side, toward where he
had been told his daughter was; and such was the swiftness of his pace
that the snow was melted here and there along his course, as it
remains to this day. The grizzlies had prepared him an honorable
reception, and as he approached his daughter's home, he found them
standing in thousands in two files, on either side of the door, with
their clubs under their arms. He had never pictured his daughter as
aught but the little child he had loved so long ago; but when he found
that she was a mother, and that he had been betrayed into the creation
of a new race, his anger overcame him; he scowled so terribly on the
poor old grandmother Grizzly that she died upon the spot. At this all
the bears set up a fearful howl, but the exasperated father, taking
his lost darling on his shoulder, turned to the armed host, and in his
fury cursed them. Peace! he said. Be silent for ever! Let no
articulate word ever again pass your lips, neither stand any more
upright; but use your hands as feet, and look downward until I come
again! Then he drove them all out; he drove out also the new race of
men, shut to the door of Little Mount Shasta, and passed away to his
mountain, carrying his daughter; and her or him no eye has since seen.
The grizzlies never spoke again, nor stood up; save indeed when
fighting for their life, when the Great Spirit still permits them to
stand as in the old time, and to use their fists like men. No Indian
tracing his descent from the spirit mother and the grizzly, as here
described, will kill a grizzly bear; and if by an evil chance a
grizzly kill a man in any place, that spot becomes memorable, and
every one that passes casts a stone there till a great pile is thrown
up.[II-58]

Let us now pass on, and going east and north, enter the Shoshone
country. In Idaho there are certain famous Soda Springs whose origin
the Snakes refer to the close of their happiest age. Long ago, the
legend runs, when the cotton-woods on the Big River were no larger
than arrows, all red men were at peace, the hatchet was everywhere
buried, and hunter met hunter in the game-lands of the one or the
other, with all hospitality and good-will. During this state of
things, two chiefs, one of the Shoshone, the other of the Comanche
nation, met one day at a certain spring. The Shoshone had been
successful in the chase, and the Comanche very unlucky, which put the
latter in rather an ill humor. So he got up a dispute with the other
as to the importance of their respective and related tribes, and ended
by making an unprovoked and treacherous attack on the Shoshone,
striking him into the water from behind, when he had stooped to drink.
The murdered man fell forward into the water, and immediately a
strange commotion was observable there; great bubbles and spirts of
gas shot up from the bottom of the pool, and amid a cloud of vapor
there arose also an old white-haired Indian, armed with a ponderous
club of elk-horn. Well the assassin knew who stood before him; the
totem on the breast was that of Wankanaga, the father both of the
Shoshone and of the Comanche nations, an ancient famous for his brave
deeds, and celebrated in the hieroglyphic pictures of both peoples.
Accursed of two nations! cried the old man, this day hast thou put
death between the two greatest peoples under the sun; see, the blood
of this Shoshone cries out to the Great Spirit for vengeance. And he
dashed out the brains of the Comanche with his club, and the murderer
fell there beside his victim into the spring. After that the spring
became foul and bitter, nor even to this day can any one drink of its
nauseous water. Then Wankanaga, seeing that it had been defiled, took
his club and smote a neighboring rock, and the rock burst forth into
clear bubbling water, so fresh and so grateful to the palate that no
other water can even be compared to it.[II-59]

[Sidenote: THE GIANTS OF THE PALOUSE RIVER.]

Passing into Washington, we find an account of the origin of the falls
of Palouse River and of certain native tribes. There lived here at one
time a family of giants, four brothers and a sister. The sister wanted
some beaver-fat and she begged her brothers to get it for her--no
easy task, as there was only one beaver in the country, and he an
animal of extraordinary size and activity. However, like four gallant
fellows, the giants set out to find the monster, soon catching sight
of him near the mouth of the Palouse, then a peaceful gliding river
with an even though winding channel. They at once gave chase, heading
him up the river. A little distance up-stream they succeeded in
striking him for the first time with their spears, but he shook
himself clear, making in his struggle the first rapids of the Palouse,
and dashed on up-stream. Again the brothers overtook him, pinning him
to the river-bed with their weapons, and again the vigorous beast
writhed away, making thus the second falls of the Palouse. Another
chase, and, in a third and fatal attack, the four spear-shafts are
struck again through the broad wounded back. There is a last stubborn
struggle at the spot since marked by the great falls called Aputaput,
a tearing of earth and a lashing of water in the fierce death-flurry,
and the huge Beaver is dead. The brothers having secured the skin and
fat, cut up the body and threw the pieces in various directions. From
these pieces have originated the various tribes of the country, as the
Cayuses, the Nez Percés, the Walla Wallas, and so on. The Cayuses
sprang from the beaver's heart, and for this reason they are more
energetic, daring, and successful than their neighbors.[II-60]

In Oregon the Chinooks and neighboring people tell of a pre-human
demon race, called Ulháipa by the Chinooks, and Sehuiáb by the
Clallams and Lummis. The Chinooks say that the human race was created
by Italapas, the Coyote. The first men were sent into the world in a
very lumpish and imperfect state, their mouth and eyes were closed,
their hands and feet immovable. Then a kind and powerful spirit called
Ikánam, took a sharp stone, opened the eyes of these poor creatures,
and gave motion to their hands and feet. He taught them how to make
canoes as well as all other implements and utensils; and he threw
great rocks into the rivers and made falls, to obstruct the salmon in
their ascent, so that they might be easily caught.[II-61]

Farther north among the Ahts of Vancouver Island, perhaps the
commonest notion of origin is that men at first existed as birds,
animals, and fishes. We are told of a certain Quawteaht, represented
somewhat contradictorily, as the first Aht that ever lived, thickset
and hairy-limbed, and as the chief Aht deity, a purely supernatural
being, if not the creator, at least the maker and shaper of most
things, the maker of the land and the water, and of the animals that
inhabit the one or the other. In each of these animals as at first
created, there resided the embryo or essence of a man. One day a canoe
came down the coast, paddled by two personages in the, at that time,
unknown form of men. The animals were frightened out of their wits,
and fled, each from his house, in such haste that he left behind him
the human essence that he usually carried in his body. These embryos
rapidly developed into men; they multiplied, made use of the huts
deserted by the animals, and became in every way as the Ahts are now.
There exists another account of the origin of the Ahts, which would
make them the direct descendants of Quawteaht and an immense bird that
he married--the great Thunder Bird, Tootooch, with which, under a
different name and in a different sex, we shall become more familiar
presently. The flapping of Tootooch's wings shook the hills with
thunder, _tootah_; and when she put out her forked tongue, the
lightning quivered across the sky.

The Ahts have various legends of the way in which fire was first
obtained, which legends may be reduced to the following: Quawteaht
withheld fire, for some reason or other, from the creatures that he
had brought into the world, with one exception; it was always to be
found burning in the home of the cuttle-fish, _telhoop_. The other
beasts attempted to steal this fire, but only the deer succeeded; he
hid a little of it in the joint of his hind leg, and escaping,
introduced the element to general use.

Not all animals, it would appear, were produced in the general
creation; the loon and the crow had a special origin, being
metamorphosed men. Two fishermen, being out at sea in their canoes,
fell to quarreling, the one ridiculing the other for his small success
in fishing. Finally the unsuccessful man became so infuriated by the
taunts of his companion that he knocked him on the head, and stole his
fish, cutting out his tongue before he paddled off, lest by any chance
the unfortunate should recover his senses and gain the shore. The
precaution was well taken, for the mutilated man reached the land and
tried to denounce his late companion. No sound however could he utter
but something resembling the cry of a loon, upon which the Great
Spirit, Quawteaht, became so indiscriminatingly angry at the whole
affair that he changed the poor mute into a loon, and his assailant
into a crow. So when the mournful voice of the loon is heard from the
silent lake or river, it is still the poor fisherman that we hear,
trying to make himself understood and to tell the hard story of his
wrongs.[II-62]

[Sidenote: NOOTKA AND SALISH CREATION-MYTHS.]

The general drift of many of the foregoing myths would go to indicate
a wide-spread belief in the theory of an evolution of man from
animals.[II-63] Traditions are not wanting, however, whose teaching is
precisely the reverse. The Salish, the Nisquallies, and the Yakimas of
Washington, all hold that beasts, fishes, and even edible roots are
descended from human originals. One account of this inverse Darwinian
development is this: The son of the Sun--whoever he may have
been--caused certain individuals to swim through a lake of magic oil,
a liquid of such Circean potency that the unfortunates immersed were
transformed as above related. The peculiarities of organism of the
various animals, are the results of incidents of their passage; the
bear dived, and is therefore fat all over; the goose swam high, and is
consequently fat only up to the water-line; and so on through all the
list.[II-64]

Moving north to the Tacullies of British Columbia, we find the
Musk-rat an active agent in the work of creation. The flat earth,
following the Tacully cosmogony, was at first wholly covered with
water. On the water a Musk-rat swam to and fro, seeking food. Finding
none there, he dived to the bottom and brought up a mouthful of mud,
but only to spit it out again when he came to the surface. All this he
did again and again till quite an island was formed and by degrees the
whole earth. In some unexplained way this earth became afterwards
peopled in every part, and so remained, until a fierce fire of several
days' duration swept over it, destroying all life, with two
exceptions; one man and one woman hid themselves in a deep cave in the
heart of a mountain, and from these two has the world been since
repeopled.[II-65]

[Sidenote: YEHL, THE CREATOR OF THE THLINKEETS.]

From the Tacully country we pass north and west to the coast inhabited
by the Thlinkeets, among whom the myth of a great Bird, or of a great
hero-deity, whose favorite disguise is the shape of a bird, assumes
the most elaborate proportions and importance. Here the name of this
great Somebody is Yehl, the Crow or Raven, creator of most things, and
especially of the Thlinkeets. Very dark, damp, and chaotic was the
world in the beginning; nothing with breath or body moved there except
Yehl; in the likeness of a raven he brooded over the mist, his black
wings beat down the vast confusion, the waters went back before him
and the dry land appeared. The Thlinkeets were placed on the
earth--though how or when does not exactly appear--while the world was
still in darkness, and without sun or moon or stars. A certain
Thlinkeet, we are further informed, had a wife and a sister. Of the
wife he was devouringly jealous, and when employed in the woods at his
trade of building canoes, he had her constantly watched by eight red
birds of the kind called _kun_. To make assurance surer, he even used
to coop her up in a kind of box every time he left home. All this
while his sister, a widow it would appear, was bringing up certain
sons she had, fine tall fellows, rapidly approaching manhood. The
jealous uncle could not endure the thought of their being in the
neighborhood of his wife. So he inveigled them one by one, time after
time, out to sea with him on pretense of fishing, and drowned them
there. The poor mother was left desolate, she went to the sea-shore to
weep for her children. A dolphin--some say a whale--saw her there, and
pitied her; the beast told her to swallow a small pebble and drink
some sea-water. She did so, and in eight months was delivered of a
child. That child was Yehl, who thus took upon himself a human shape,
and grew up a mighty hunter and notable archer. One day a large bird
appeared to him, having a long tail like a magpie, and a long
glittering bill as of metal; the name of the bird was Kutzghatushl,
that is, Crane that can soar to heaven. Yehl shot the bird, skinned
it, and whenever he wished to fly used to clothe himself in its skin.

Now Yehl had grown to manhood, and he determined to avenge himself
upon his uncle for the death of his brothers; so he opened the box in
which the well-guarded wife was shut up. Instantly the eight faithful
birds flew off and told the husband, who set out for his home in a
murderous mood. Most cunning, however, in his patience, he greeted
Yehl with composure, and invited him into his canoe for a short trip
to sea. Having paddled out some way, he flung himself on the young man
and forced him overboard: Then he put his canoe about and made
leisurely for the land, rid as he thought of another enemy. But Yehl
swam in quietly another way, and stood up in his uncle's house. The
baffled murderer was beside himself with fury, he imprecated with a
potent curse a deluge upon all the earth, well content to perish
himself so he involved his rival in the common destruction, for
jealousy is cruel as the grave. The flood came, the waters rose and
rose; but Yehl clothed himself in his bird-skin, and soared up to
heaven, where he struck his beak into a cloud, and remained till the
waters were assuaged.

[Sidenote: ADVENTURES OF YEHL AND KHANUKH.]

After this affair Yehl had many other adventures, so many that "one
man cannot know them all," as the Thlinkeets say. One of the most
useful things he did was to supply light to mankind--with whom, as
appears, the earth had been again peopled after the deluge. Now all
the light in the world was stored away in three boxes, among the
riches of a certain mysterious old Chief, who guarded his treasure
closely. Yehl set his wits to work to secure the boxes; he determined
to be born into the chief's family. The old fellow had one daughter
upon whom he doted, and Yehl transforming himself into a blade of
grass, got into the girl's drinking-cup and was swallowed by her. In
due time she gave birth to a son, who was Yehl, thus a second time
born of a woman into the world. Very proud was the old chief of his
grandson, loving him even as he loved his daughter, so that Yehl came
to be a decidedly spoiled child. He fell a crying one day, working
himself almost into a fit; he kicked and scratched and howled, and
turned the family hut into a little pandemonium as only an infant
plague can. He screamed for one of the three boxes; he would have a
box; nothing but a box should ever appease him! The indulgent
grandfather gave him one of the boxes; he clutched it, stopped crying,
and crawled off into the yard to play. Playing, he contrived to wrench
the lid off, and lo! the beautiful heaven was thick with stars, and
the box empty. The old man wept for the loss of his stars, but he did
not scold his grandson, he loved him too blindly for that. Yehl had
succeeded in getting the stars into the firmament, and he proceeded to
repeat his successful trick, to do the like by the moon and sun. As
may be imagined, the difficulty was much increased; still he gained
his end. He first let the moon out into the sky, and some time
afterward, getting possession of the box that held the sun, he changed
himself into a raven and flew away with his greatest prize of all.
When he set up the blazing light in heaven, the people that saw it
were at first afraid. Many hid themselves in the mountains, and in the
forests, and even in the water, and were changed into the various
kinds of animals that frequent these places.

There are still other feats of Yehl's replete with the happiest
consequences to mankind. There was a time, for instance, when all the
fire in the world was hid away in an island of the ocean. Thither flew
the indefatigable deity, fetching back a brand in his mouth. The
distance, however, was so great that most of the wood was burned away
and a part of his beak, before he reached the Thlinkeet shore. Arrived
there, he dropped the embers at once, and the sparks flew about in all
directions among various sticks and stones; therefore it is that by
striking these stones, and by friction on this wood, fire is always to
be obtained.

Light they now had, and fire; but one thing was still wanting to men;
they had no fresh water. A personage called Khanukh[II-66] kept all the
fresh water in his well, in an island to the east of Sitka, and over
the mouth of the well, for its better custody, he had built his hut.
Yehl set out to the island in his boat, to secure the water, and on
his way he met Khanukh himself, paddling along in another boat.
Khanukh spoke first: How long hast thou been living in the world?
Proudly Yehl answered: Before the world stood in its place, I was
there. Yehl in his turn questioned Khanukh: But how long hast thou
lived in the world? To which Khanukh replied: Ever since the time that
the liver came out from below.[II-67] Then said Yehl: Thou art older
than I. Upon this Khanukh, to show that his power was as great as his
age, took off his hat, and there rose a dense fog, so that the one
could no longer see the other. Yehl then became afraid, and cried out
to Khanukh; but Khanukh answered nothing. At last when Yehl found
himself completely helpless in the darkness, he began to weep and
howl; upon which the old sorcerer put on his hat again, and the fog
vanished. Khanukh then invited Yehl to his house, and entertained him
handsomely with many luxuries, among which was fresh water. The meal
over, host and guest sat down, and the latter began a long relation of
his many exploits and adventures. Khanukh listened as attentively as
he could, but the story was really so interminable that he at last
fell asleep across the cover of his well. This frustrated Yehl's
intention of stealing the water while its owner slept, so he resorted
to another stratagem: he put some filth under the sleeper, then waking
him up, made him believe he had bewrayed himself. Khanukh, whose own
nose abhorred him, at once hurried off to the sea to wash, and his
deceiver as quickly set about securing the precious water. Just as
All-father Odin, the Raven-god, stole Suttung's mead, drinking it up
and escaping in the form of a bird, so Yehl drank what fresh water he
could, filling himself to the very beak, then took the form of a raven
and attempted to fly off through the chimney of the hut. He stuck in
the flue however, and Khanukh returning at that instant recognized his
guest in the struggling bird. The old man comprehended the situation,
and quietly piling up a roaring fire, he sat down comfortably to watch
the choking and scorching of his crafty guest. The raven had always
been a white bird, but so thoroughly was he smoked in the chimney on
this occasion that he has ever since remained the sootiest of fowls.
At last Khanukh watching the fire, became drowsy and fell asleep; so
Yehl escaped from the island with the water. He flew back to the
continent, where he scattered it in every direction; and wherever
small drops fell there are now springs and creeks, while the large
drops have produced lakes and rivers. This is the end of the exploits
of Yehl; having thus done everything necessary to the happiness of
mankind, he returned to his habitation, which is in the east, and into
which no other spirit, nor any man can possibly enter.

The existing difference in language between the Thlinkeets and other
people is one of the consequences of a great flood--perhaps that
flood already described as having been brought on through the jealousy
of the canoe-builder. Many persons escaped drowning by taking refuge
in a great floating building. When the waters fell, this vessel
grounded upon a rock, and was broken into two pieces; in the one
fragment were left those whose descendants speak the Thlinkeet
language, in the other remained all whose descendants employ a
different idiom.

[Sidenote: CHETHL AND AHGISHANAKHOU.]

Connected with the history of this deluge is another myth in which a
great Bird figures. When the waters rose a certain mysterious brother
and sister found it necessary to part. The name of the brother was
Chethl, that is, Thunder or Lightning, and the name of the sister was
Ahgishanakhou, which means the Underground Woman. As they separated
Chethl said to her: Sister, you shall never see me again, but while I
live you shall hear my voice. Then he clothed himself in the skin of a
great bird, and flew towards the south-west. His sister climbed to the
top of Mount Edgecomb, which is near Sitka, and it opened and
swallowed her up, leaving a great hole, or crater. The world itself is
an immense flat plate supported on a pillar, and under the world, in
silence and darkness, this Under-ground Woman guards the great pillar
from evil and malignant powers. She has never seen her brother since
she left the upper world, and she shall never see him again; but
still, when the tempest sweeps down on Edgecomb, the lightning of his
eyes gleams down her crater-window, and the thundering of his wings
re-echoes through all her subterranean halls.[II-68]

The Koniagas, north of the Thlinkeets, have their legendary Bird and
Dog--the latter taking the place occupied in the mythology of many
other tribes by the wolf or coyote. Up in heaven, according to the
Koniagas, there exists a great deity called Shljam Schoa. He created
two personages and sent them down to the earth, and the Raven
accompanied them carrying light. This original pair made sea, rivers,
mountains, forests, and such things. Among other places they made the
Island of Kadiak, and so stocked it that the present Koniagas assert
themselves the descendants of a Dog.[II-69]

The Aleuts of the Aleutian Archipelago seem to disagree upon their
origin. Some say that in the beginning a Bitch inhabited Unalaska, and
that a great Dog swam across to her from Kadiak; from which pair the
human race have sprung. Others, naming the bitch-mother of their race
Mahakh, describe a certain Old Man, called Iraghdadakh, who came from
the north to visit this Mahakh. The result of this visit was the birth
of two creatures, male and female, with such an extraordinary mixing
up of the elements of nature in them that they were each half man, half
fox. The name of the male creature was Acagnikakh, and by the other
creature he became father of the human race. The Old Man however seems
hardly to have needed any help to people the world, for like the great
patriarch of Thessaly, he was able to create men by merely casting
stones on the earth. He flung also other stones into the air, into the
water, and over the land, thus making beasts, birds, and fishes. In
another version of the narrative, the first father of the Aleuts is
said to have fallen from heaven in the shape of a dog.[II-70]

[Sidenote: THE DOG-ORIGIN OF THE HYPERBOREANS.]

In the legends of the Tinneh, living inland, north-east of the
Koniagas, the familiar Bird and Dog again appear. These legends tell
us that the world existed at first as a great ocean frequented only by
an immense Bird, the beating of whose wings was thunder, and its
glance lightning. This great flying monster descended and touched the
waters, upon which the earth rose up and appeared above them; it
touched the earth, and therefrom came every living creature--except
the Tinneh, who owe their origin to a Dog. Therefore it is that to
this day a dog's flesh is an abomination to the Tinneh, as are also
all who eat such flesh. A few years before Captain Franklin's visit
they almost ruined themselves by following the advice of some fanatic
reformer. Convinced by him of the wickedness of exacting labor from
their near relations, the dogs, they got rid at once of the sin and of
all temptation to its recommission, by killing every cur in their
possession.

To return to the origin of the Tinneh, the wonderful Bird before
mentioned made and presented to them a peculiar arrow, which they were
to preserve for all time with great care. But they would not; they
misappropriated the sacred shaft to some common use, and immediately
the great Bird flew away never to return. With its departure ended the
Golden Age of the Tinneh--an age in which men lived till their
throats were worn through with eating, and their feet with
walking.[II-71]

Belonging to the Northern-Indian branch of the Tinneh we find a
narrative in which the Dog holds a prominent place, but in which we
find no mention at all of the Bird: The earth existed at first in a
chaotic state, with only one human inhabitant, a woman who dwelt in a
cave and lived on berries. While gathering these one day, she
encountered an animal like a dog, which followed her home. This Dog
possessed the power of transforming himself into a handsome young man,
and in this shape he became the father by the woman of the first men.
In course of time a giant of such height that his head reached the
clouds, arrived on the scene and fitted the earth for its inhabitants.
He reduced the chaos to order; he established the land in its
boundaries, he marked out with his staff the position or course of the
lakes, ponds, and rivers. Next he slew the Dog and tore him to pieces,
as the four giants did the Beaver of the Palouse River, or as the
creating Æsir did Aurgelmir. Unlike the four brothers, however, and
unlike the sons of Bör, this giant of the Tinneh used the fragments
not to create men or things, but animals. The entrails of the dog he
threw into the water, and every piece became a fish; the flesh he
scattered over the land, and every scrap became an animal; the bits of
skin he sowed upon the wind, and they became birds. All these spread
over the earth, and increased and multiplied; and the giant gave the
woman and her progeny power to kill and eat of them according to their
necessities. After this he returned to his place, and he has not since
been heard of.[II-72]

Leaving now this division of our subject, more particularly concerned
with cosmogony, it may not be amiss to forestall possible criticism as
to the disconnected manner in which the various myths are given. I
have but to repeat that the mythology with which we have to deal is
only known in fragments, and to submit that a broken statue, or even a
broken shard, of genuine or presumably genuine antiquity, is more
valuable to science and even to poetry, than the most skillful ideal
restoration.

[Sidenote: INTERPRETATION OF MYTHS.]

Further, the absence of any attempt to form a connected whole out of
the myths that come under our notice cannot but obviate that tendency
to alter in outline and to color in detail which is so insensibly
natural to any mythographer prepossessed with the spirit of a system.
In advancing lastly the opinion that the disconnected arrangement is
not only better adapted toward preserving the original myths in their
integrity, but is also better for the student, I may be allowed to
close the chapter with the second of the Rules for the Interpretation
of Mythes given by so distinguished an authority as Mr. Keightley: "In
like manner the mythes themselves should be considered separately, and
detached from the system in which they are placed; for the single
mythes existed long before the system, and were the product of other
minds than those which afterwards set them in connection, not
unfrequently without fully understanding them."[II-73]

FOOTNOTES:

[II-1] In Vienna in 1857, the book now best known as the Popol Vuh was
first brought to the notice of European scholars, under the following
title: _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de
Guatemala, traducidas de la Lengua Quiché al Castellano para mas
Comodidad de los Ministros del S. Evangelio, por el R. P. F. Francisco
Ximenez, cura doctrinero por el real patronato del Pueblo de S. Thomas
Chuila_.--_Exactamente segun el texto español del manuscrito original
que se halla en la biblioteca de la Universidad de Guatemala,
publicado por la primera vez, y aumentado con una introduccion y
anotaciones por el Dr C. Scherzer._ What Dr Scherzer says in a paper
read before the Vienna Academy of Sciences, Feb. 20th, 1856; and
repeats in his introduction, about its author, amounts to this: In the
early part of the 18th century Francisco Ximenez, a Dominican Father
of great repute for his learning and his love of truth, filled the
office of curate in the little Indian town of Chichicastenango in the
highlands of Guatemala. Neither the time of his birth nor that of his
death can be exactly ascertained, but the internal evidence of one of
his works shows that he was engaged upon it in 1721. He left many
manuscripts, but it is supposed that the unpalatable truths some of
them contain with regard to the ill-treatment of the Indians by the
colonial authorities sufficed, as previously in the case of Las Casas,
to ensure their partial destruction and total suppression. What
remains of them lay long hid in an obscure corner of the Convent of
the Dominicans in Guatemala, and passed afterwards, on the suppression
of all the religious orders, into the library of the University of San
Carlos (Guatemala). Here Dr Scherzer discovered them in June 1854, and
carefully copied, and afterwards published as above the particular
treatise with which we are now concerned. This, according to Father
Ximenez himself, and according to its internal evidence, is a
translation of a _literal_ copy of an original book, written by one or
more Quichés, in the Quiché language, in Roman letters, after the
Christians had occupied Guatemala, and after the real original Popol
Vuh--National Book--had been lost or destroyed--literally, was no more
to be seen--and written to _replace_ that lost book. 'Quise trasladar
todas las historias _á la letra_ de estos indios, y tambien traducirla
en la lengua castellana.' 'Esto escribiremos ya en la ley de Dios en
la cristiandad los sacaremos, porque ya no hay libro comun, original
donde verlo, _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 1, 4, 5. 'Voilà ce que
nous écrirons depuis (qu'on a promulgué) la parole de Dieu, et en
dedans du Christianisme; nous le reproduirons, parce qu'on ne voit
plus ce Livre national,' 'Vae x-chi-ka tzibah chupan chic u chabal
Dios, pa Christianoil chic; x-chi-k'-elezah, rumal ma-habi chic ilbal
re Popol-Vuh,' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 5. The
evidence that the author was Quiché will be found in the numerous
passages scattered through the narrative in which he speaks of the
Quiché nation, and of the ancestors of that nation as 'our people,'
'our ancestors,' and so on. We pass now to what the Abbé Brasseur de
Bourbourg has to say about the book. He says that Ximenes 'discovered
this document, in the last years of the 17th century.' In 1855, at
Guatemala, the abbé first saw Ximenez' manuscript containing this
work. The manuscript contained the Quiché text and the Spanish
curate's translation of that text. Brasseur de Bourbourg copied both
at that time, but he was dissatisfied with the translation, believing
it to be full of faults owing to the prejudices and the ignorance of
the age in which it was made, as well as disfigured by abridgments and
omissions. So in 1860 he settled himself among the Quichés and by the
help of natives joined to his own practical knowledge of their
language, he elaborated a new and literal translation, (aussi
littérale qu'il a été possible de la faire). We seem justified then on
the whole in taking this document for what Ximenez and its own
evidence declare it to be, namely, a reproduction of an older work or
body of Quiché traditional history, written because that older work
had been lost and was likely to be forgotten, and written by a Quiché
not long after the Spanish conquest. One consequence of the last fact
would seem to be that a tinge of biblical expression has, consciously
or unconsciously to the Quiché who wrote, influenced the form of the
narrative. But these coincidences may be wholly accidental, the more
as there are also striking resemblances to expressions in the
Scandinavian Edda and in the Hindoo Veda. And even if they be not
accidental, 'much remains,' adopting the language and the conclusion
of Professor Max Müller, 'in these American traditions which is so
different from anything else in the national literatures of other
countries, that we may safely treat it as the genuine growth of the
intellectual soil of America.' _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol.
i., p. 328. For the foregoing, as well as further information on the
subject see:--_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. 5-31, 195-231;
_S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 83-7; _Hist. des Nat.
Civ._, tom. i., pp. 47-61; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 5-15;
_Scherzer_, in _Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien_,
20th Feb., 1856; _Helps' Spanish Conquest_, vol. iv., pp. 455-6.
Professor Müller in his essay on the Popol Vuh, has in one or two
places misunderstood the narrative. There was no such creation of man
as that he gives as the second, while his third creation is the second
of the original. Again, he makes the four Quiché ancestors to be the
progenitors of _all tribes both white and black_; while they were the
parents of the Quiché and kindred races only. The course of the legend
brings us to tribes of a strange blood, with which these four
ancestors and their people were often at war. The narrative is,
however, itself so confused and contradictory at points, that it is
almost impossible to avoid such things; and, as a whole, the views of
Professor Müller on the Popol Vuh seem just and well considered.
Baldwin, _Ancient America_, pp. 191-7, gives a mere dilution of
Professor Müller's essay, and that without acknowledgment.

[II-2] The original Quiché runs as follows: 'Are u tzihoxic vae ca ca
tzinin-oc, ca ca chamam-oc, ca tzinonic; ca ca zilanic, ca ca lolinic,
ca tolona puch u pa cah. Vae cute nabe tzih, nabe uchan.--Ma-habi-oc
hun vinak, hun chicop; tziquin, car, tap, che, abah, hul, civan, quim,
qichelah: xa-utuquel cah qolic. Mavi calah u vach uleu: xa-utnquel
remanic palo, u pah cah ronohel. Ma-habi nakila ca molobic, ca
cotzobic: hunta ca zilobic; ca mal ca ban-tah, ca cotz ca ban-tah pa
cah. X-ma qo-vi nakila qolic yacalic; xa remanic ha, xa lianic palo,
xa-utuquel remanic; x-ma qo-vi nakilalo qolic. Xa ca chamanic, ca
tzininic chi gekum, chi agab.'

This passage is rendered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg thus:
'Voici le récit comme quoi tout était en suspens, tout était calme et
silencieux; tout était immobile, tout était paisible, et vide était
l'immensité des cieux. Voilà donc la première parole et le premier
discours. Il n'y avait pas encore un seul homme, pas un animal, pas
d'oiseaux, de poissons, d'écrevisses, de bois, de pierre, de
fondrières, de ravins, d'herbe ou de bocages: seulement le ciel
existait. La face de la terre ne se manifestait pas encore: seule la
mer paisible était et tout l'espace des cieux. Il n'y avait encore
rien qui fît corps, rien qui se cramponnât à autre chose: rien qui se
balançât, qui fît (le moindre) frôlement, qui fît (entendre) un son
dans le ciel. Il n'y avait rien qui existât debout; (il n'y avait) que
l'eau paisible, que la mer calme et seule dans ses bornes; car il n'y
avait rien qui existât. Ce n'était que l'immobilité et le silence dans
les ténèbres, dans la nuit.' _Popol Vuh_, p. 7.

And by Francisco Ximenez thus: 'Este es su ser dicho cuando estaba
suspenso en calma, en silencio, sin moverse, sin cosa sino vacio el
cielo. Y esta es la primera palabra y elocuencia; aun no habia
hombres, animales, pájaros, pescado, cangrejo, palo, piedra, hoya,
barranca, paja ni monte, sino solo estaba el cielo; no se manifestaba
la faz de la tierra; sino que solo estaba el mar represado, y todo lo
del cielo; aun no habia cosa alguna junta, ni sonaba nada, ni cosa
alguna se meneaba, ni cosa que hiciera mal, ni cosa que hiciera
"_cotz_," (esto es ruido en el cielo), ni habia cosa que estuviese
parada en pié; solo el agua represada, solo la mar sosegada, solo ella
represada, ni cosa alguna habia que estuviese; solo estaba en
silencio, y sosiego en la obscuridad, y la noche.' _Hist. Ind. Guat._,
pp. 5-6.

[II-3] '_Gucumatz_, littéralement serpent emplumé, et dans un sens plus
étendu, serpent revêtu de couleurs brillantes, de vert ou d'azur. Les
plumes du guc ou quetzal offrent également les deux teintes. C'est
exactment la même chose que _quetzalcohuatl_ dans la langue
mexicaine.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i.,
p. 50.

[II-4] A long rambling story is here introduced which has nothing to do
with Creation, and which is omitted for the present.

[II-5] _Balam-Quitzé_, the tiger with the sweet smile; _Balam-Agab_, the
tiger of the night; _Mahucutah_, the distinguished name; _Iqi-Balam_,
the tiger of the moon. 'Telle est la signification littérale que
Ximenez a donnée de ces quatre noms.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol
Vuh_, p. 199.

[II-6] _Caha-paluma_, the falling water; _Chomi-ha_ or _Chomih-a_, the
beautiful house or the beautiful water; in the same way, _Tzununiha_
may mean either the house or the water of the humming-birds; and
_Cakixaha_, either the house or the water of the aras [which are a
kind of parrot]. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 205.

[II-7] 'Are ma-habi chi tzukun, qui coon; xavi chi cah chi qui pacaba qui
vach; mavi qu'etaam x-e be-vi naht x-qui bano.' 'Alors ils ne
servaient pas encore et ne soutenaient point (les autels des dieux);
seulement ils tournaient leurs visages vers le ciel, et ils ne
savaient ce qu'ils étaient venus faire si loin.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 209. It is right to add, however, that
Ximenez gives a much more prosaic turn to the passage: 'No cabian de
sustento, sino que levantaban las caras al cielo y no se sabian
alejar.' _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 84.

[II-8] Or as Ximenez, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 87, writes it--_Tulanzú_,
(las siete cuevas y siete barrancas).

[II-9] The following passage in a letter from the Abbé Brasseur de
Bourbourg, to Mr. Rafn of Copenhagen, bearing date 25th October, 1858,
may be useful in this connection:--'On sait que la coutume toltèque et
mexicaine était de conserver, comme chez les chrétiens, les reliques
des héros de la patrie: on enveloppait leurs os avec des pierres
précieuses dans un paquet d'étoffes auquel on donnait le nom de
Tlaquimilolli; ces paquets demeuraient à jamais fermés et on les
déposait au fond des sanctuaires où on les conservait comme des
objects sacrés.' _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, 1858, tom. iv., p.
268. One of these 'bundles,' was given up to the Christians by a
Tlascaltec some time after the conquest. It was reported to contain
the remains of Camaxtli, the chief god of Tlascala. The native
historian, Camargo, describes it as follows: 'Quand on défit le paquet
où se trouvaient les cendres de l'idole Camaxtle, on y trouva aussi un
paquet de cheveux blonds, ... on y trouva aussi une émeraude, et de
ses cendres on avait fait une pâte, en les pétrissant avec le sang des
enfants que l'on avait sacrifiés.' _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_; in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 179.

[II-10] See _Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i., p. 333.

[II-11] Even supposing there were no special historical reasons for
making this distinction, it seems convenient that such a division
should be made in a country where the distinction of classes was so
marked as in Mexico. As Reads puts the case, _Martyrdom of Man_, p.
177, 'In those countries where two distinct classes of men exist, the
one intellectual and learned, the other illiterate and degraded, there
will be in reality two religions, though nominally there may be only
one.'

[II-12] 'Les prêtres et les nobles de Mexico avaient péri presque tous
lors de la prise de cette ville, et ceux qui avaient échappé au
massacre s'étaient réfugiés dans des lieux inaccessibles. Ce furent
donc presque toujours des gens du peuple sans éducation et livrés aux
plus grossiéres superstitions qui leur firent les récits qu'ils nous
ont transmis; Les missionnaires, d'ailleurs, avaient plus d'intérêt à
connaître les usages qu'ils voulaient déraciner de la masse du peuple
qu'à comprendre le sens plus élevé que la partie éclairée de la nation
pouvait y attacher.' _Ternaux-Compans_, _Essai sur la Théogonie
Mexicaine_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxv., p.
274.

[II-13] This last statement rests on the authority of Domingo Muñoz
Camargo, a native of the city of Tlascala who wrote about 1585. See
his _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_ as translated by Ternaux Compans in the
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 129. 'Les Indiens
ne croyaient pas que le monde eût été créé, mais pensaient qu'il était
le produit du hazard. Ils disaient aussi que les cieux avaient
toujours existé.' 'Estos, pues, alcanzaron con claridad el verdadero
orígen y principio de todo el Universo, porque asientan que el cielo y
la tierra y cuanto en ellos se halla es obra de la poderosa mano de un
Dios Supremo y único, á quien daban el nombre de Tloque Nahuaque, que
quiere decir, criador de todas las cosas. Llamábanle tambien
Ipalnemohualoni, que quiere decir, por quien vivimos y somos, y fué la
única deidad que adoraron en aquellos primitivos tiempos; y aun
despues que se introdujo la idolatría y el falso culto, le creyeron
siempre superior á todos sus dioses, y le invocaban levantando los
ojos al cielo. En esta creencia se mantuvieron constantes hasta la
llegada de los españoles, como afirma Herrera, no solo los mejicanos,
sino tambien los de Michoacan.' _Veytia_, _Historia Antigua de
Méjico_, tom. i., p. 7. 'Los Tultecas alcanzaron y supieron la
creacion del mundo, y como el Tloque Nahuaque lo crió y las demas
cosas que hay en él, como son plantas, montes, animales, aves, agua y
peces; asimismo supieron como crió Dios al hombre y una muger, de
donde los hombres descendieron y se multiplicaron, y sobre esto añaden
muchas fábulas que por escusar prolijidad no se ponen aqui.'
_Ixtlilxochitl_, _Relaciones_, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., p. 321.
'Dios Criador, que en lengua Indiana llamò Tlòque Nahuàque, queriendo
dàr à entender, que este Solo, Poderoso, y Clementissimo Dios.'
_Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, p. 79. 'Confessauan los Mexicanos a vn
supremo Dios, Señor, y hazedor de todo, y este era el principal que
venerauan, mirando al cielo, llamandole criador del cielo y tierra.'
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. 15, p. 85. 'El dios
que se llamaba Titlacaâon, (Tezcatlipuca), decian que era criador del
cielo y de la tierra y era todo poderoso.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Ant.
Mex._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 241. 'Tezcatlipoca, Questo era il
maggior Dio, che in que' paesi si adorava, dopo il Dio invisibile, o
Supremo Essere, di cui abbiam ragionato.... Era il Dio della
Providenza, l'anima del Mondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed
il Signor di tutte le cose.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Antica del Messico_,
tom. ii., p. 7. 'La creacion del cielo y de la tierra aplicaban á
diversos dioses, y algunos á Tezcatlipuca y á Uzilopuchtli, ó segun
otros, Ocelopuchtli, y de los principales de Mexico.' _Mendieta_,
_Hist. Ecles._, p. 81.

[II-14] 'Lorsque le ciel et la terre s'étaient faits, quatre fois déjà
l'homme avait été formé ... de cendres Dieu l'avait formé et animé.'
The _Codex Chimalpopoca_, or _Chimalpopoca MS._, after _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 53. This Codex
Chimalpopoca, so called by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, is an
anonymous manuscript in the Mexican language. What we really know of
this much-talked-of document is little, and will be best given in the
original form. The following is the first notice I find of this
manuscript, with its appurtenances, being Boturini's description of it
as possessed at one time by him. _Catálogo_, pp. 17-18. 'Una historia
de los Reynos de Culhuàcan, y Mexico en lengua Nàhuatl, y papel
Europèo de Autor Anonymo, y tiene añadida una Breve Relacion de los
Dioses, y Ritos de la Gentilidad en lengua Castellana que escribiò el
Bachiller Don Pedro Ponce, Indio Cazique Beneficiado, que fuè del
Partido de Tzumpauàcan. Está todo copiado de letra de Don Fernando de
Alba, y le falta la primera foja.' With regard to the term _Nahuatl_
used in this _Catalogue_, see _Id._, p. 85: 'Los Manuscritos en lengua
Nàhuatl, que en este Catálogo se citan, se entiende ser en lengua
Mexicana!' This manuscript, or a copy of it, fell into the hands of
the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the city of Mexico, in the year
1850, _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne,
Introduction_, p. xxi., and the learned Abbé describes it as
follows:--'Codex Chimalpopoca (Copie du), contenant les Epoques, dites
Histoire des Soleils et l'Histoire des Royaumes de Colhuacan et de
Mexico, texte Mexicain (corrigé d'après celui de M. Aubin), avec un
essai de traduction française en regard. gr. in 4o--Manuscrit de 93
ff., copié et traduit par le signataire de la bibliothèque. C'est la
copie du document marqué au no 13, § viii., du catalogue de Boturini,
sous le titre de: Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y Mexico, etc.
Ce document, où pour la première fois j'ai soulevé le voile
énigmatique qui recouvrait les symboles de la religion et de
l'histoire du Mexique est le plus important de tous ceux qui nous
soient restés des annales antiques mexicaines. Il renferme
chronologiquement l'histoire géologique du monde, par séries de 13
ans, à commencer de plus de dix mille ans avant l'ère chrétienne,
suivant les calculs mexicains.' _Id._, p. 47.

[II-15] Otherwise called, according to Clavigero, the god _Ometeuctli_,
and the goddess _Omecihuatl_. Ternaux-Compans says: 'Les noms
d'Ometeuctli et d'Omecihuatl ne se trouvent nulle part ailleurs dans
la mythologie mexicaine; mais on pourrait les expliquer par
l'étymologie. _Ome_ signifie deux en mexicain, et tous les auteurs
sont d'accord pour traduire littéralement leur nom par deux seigneurs
et deux dames.' _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p.
7.

[II-16] _Xolotl_, 'servant or page.'--_Molina_, _Vocabulario en lengua
Castellana Mexicana_. Not 'eye' as some scholiasts have it.

[II-17] Literally, in the earliest copy of the myth that I have seen,
_the milk of the thistle_, 'la leche de cardo,' which term has been
repeated blindly, and apparently without any idea of its meaning, by
the various writers that have followed. The old authorities, however,
and especially Mendieta, from whom I take the legend, were in the
habit of calling the maguey a thistle; and indeed the tremendous
prickles of the Mexican plant may lay good claim to the _Nemo me
impune lacessit_ of the Scottish emblem. 'Maguey, que es el cardon de
donde sacan la miel.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 110. 'Metl es un
arbol ó cardo que en lengua de las Islas se llama maguey.'
_Motolinia_, _Hist. de los Ind._, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._,
tom. i., p. 243. 'Et similmente-cogliono le foglie di questo albero, ò
cardo che si tengono là, come qua le vigne, et chiamanlo magueis.'
_Relatione fatta per un Gentil'huomo del Signor Cortese_, in
_Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. iii., fol. 307.

[II-18] Motolinia in _Icazbalceta_, _Col._, tom. i., pp. 6-10, says this
first man and woman were begotten between the rain and the dust of the
earth--'engendrada de la lluvia y del polvo de la tierra'--and in
other ways adds to the perplexity; so that I am well inclined to agree
with Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 518, when he says these
cosmogonical myths display marks of local origin and of the subsequent
fusion of several legends into an incongruous whole. 'Aus dieser Menge
von Verschiedenheiten in diesen Kosmogonien ist ersichtlich, dass
viele Lokalmythen hier wie in Peru unabhängig von einander entstanden
die man äusserlich mit einander verband, die aber in mancherlei
Widersprüchen auch noch später ihre ursprüngliche Unabhängigkeit zu
erkennen geben.'

[II-19] Here, as elsewhere in this legend we follow Andres de Olmos'
account as given by Mendieta. Sahagun, however differs from it a good
deal in places. At this point for example, he mentions some notable
personages who guessed right about the rising of the sun:--'Otros se
pusieron á mirar ácia el oriente, y digeron aquí, de esta parte ha de
salir el Sol. El dicho de estos fué verdadero. Dicen que los que
miraron ácia el Oriente, fueron Quetzalcoatl, que tambien se llama
Ecatl, y otro que se llama Totec, y por otro nombre Anaoatlytecu, y
por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y otros que se llaman Minizcoa,'
or as in Kingsborough's edition, _Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 186. 'Por
otro nombre Anaoatl y Tecu, y por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y
otros que se llaman Mimizcoa, que son inumerables; y cuatro mugeres,
la una se llama Tiacapan, la otra Teicu, la tercera Tlacoeoa, la
cuarta Xocoyotl.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. viii., p.
248.

[II-20] Besides differences of authorities already noticed, I may add
that Sahagun describes the personage who became the sun--as well as
him who, as we shall soon see, became the moon--as belonging before
his transformation to the number of the gods, and not as one of the
men who served them. Further, in recounting the death of the gods,
Sahagun says that to the Air, Ecatl, Quetzalcoatl, was alloted the
task of killing the rest; nor does it appear that Quetzalcoatl killed
himself. As to Xolotl, he plays quite a cowardly part in this version;
trying to elude his death, he transformed himself into various things,
and was only at last taken and killed under the form of a fish called
_Axolotl_.

[II-21] This kind of idol answers evidently to the mysterious 'Envelope'
of the Quiché myth. See also note 9.

[II-22] Besides the Chimalpopoca manuscript, the earliest summaries of
the Mexican creation-myths are to be found in _Mendieta_, _Hist.
Ecles._, pp. 77-81; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p.
233, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 246-250; _Boturini_, _Idea de una
Hist._, pp. 37-43; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 31-5,
tom. ii., pp. 76-8; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii.,
pp. 8-10.

[II-23] _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chichimeca_ in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. ix., pp. 205-6. The same author, in his _Relaciones_,
_Ib._ pp. 321-2, either through his own carelessness or that of a
transcriber, transposes the second and third Ages. To see that it is
an oversight of some sort, we have but to pass to the summary he gives
at the end of these same _Relaciones_, _Ib._, p. 459, where the
account is again found in strict agreement with the version given in
the text. Camargo, _Hist. de Tlax._ in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._,
1843, tom. xcix., p. 132, giving as we may suppose the Tlascaltec
version of the general Mexican myth, agrees with Ixtlilxochitl as to
the whole number of Ages, following, however, the order of the error
above noticed in the _Relaciones_. The Tlascaltec historian, moreover,
affirms that only two of these Ages are past, and that the third and
fourth destructions are yet to come. M. Ternaux-Compans, _Nouvelles
Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p. 5, adopts this Tlascaltec
account as the general Mexican tradition; he is followed by Dr.
Prichard, _Researches_, vol. v., pp. 360-1. Dr. Prichard cites
Bradford as supporting the same opinion, but erroneously, as Bradford,
_Am. Antiq._, p. 328, follows Humboldt. Boturini, _Idea de una Hist._,
p. 3. and Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 57, agree
exactly with the text. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg also accepts the
version of three past destructions. _S'il existe des Sources de
l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 26-7. Professor J. G. Müller, _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, pp. 510-12, admits that the version of three past
destructions and one to come, as given in the text, and in the order
there given, 'seems to be the most ancient Mexican version;' though he
decides to follow Humboldt, and adopts what he calls the 'latest and
fullest form of the myth.' The _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice
Mexicano_ [Vaticano] contradicts itself, giving first two past
destructions, and farther on four, _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol.
v., pp. 163-7; as does also the _Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_,
_Ib._, pp. 134-6. Kingsborough himself seems to favor the idea of
three past destructions and four ages in all; see _Mex. Antiq._, vol.
vi., p. 171, note. Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, fol. 297-8; Leon y Gama, _Dos
Piedras_, parte i., pp. 94-5; Humboldt, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 118-129;
Prescott, _Conq. of Mex._, vol. i., p. 61; Gallatin, in _Am. Ethnol.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 325--describe four past destructions
and one yet to come, or five Ages, and the Chimalpopoca MS., see note
13, seems also to favor this opinion. Lastly, Mendieta, _Hist.
Ecles._, p. 81, declares that the Mexicans believe in five Suns, or
Ages, in times past; but these suns were of inferior quality, so that
the soil produced its fruits only in a crude and imperfect state. The
consequence was that in every case the inhabitants of the world died
through the eating of divers things. This present and sixth Sun was
good, however, and under its influence all things were produced
properly. Torquemada--who has, indeed, been all along appropriating,
by whole chapters, the so long inedited work of Mendieta; and that, if
we believe Icazbalceta, _Hist. Ecles._, _Noticias del Autor._, pp.
xxx. to xlv., under circumstances of peculiar turpitude--of course
gives also five past Ages, repeating Mendieta word for word with the
exception of a single 'la.' _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 79.

[II-24] Professor J. G. Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 568,
remarks of these two personages: 'Rein nordisch ist der chichimekische
Coxcox, der schon bei der Fluthsage genannt wurde, der Tezpi der
Mechoakaner. Das ist auch ursprünglich ein Wassergott und Fischgott,
darum trägt er auch den Namen Cipactli, Fisch, Teocipactli, göttlicher
Fisch, Huehuetonacateocipactli, alter Fischgott von unserem Fleisch.
Darum ist auch seine Gattin eine Pflanzengöttin mit Namen Xochiquetzal
d. h. geflügelte Blume.'

[II-25] _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, pp. 113-4; _Id._, _Catálogo_,
pp. 39-40; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp.
129-30, tom. ii., p. 6; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_
(Vaticano), tav. vii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp.
164-5; _Gemelli Carreri_, in _Churchill's Col. Voy._, vol. iv., p.
481; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 114-15, tom. ii., pp. 175-8;
_Tylor's Anahuac_, pp. 276-7; _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Conquista de
Mexico_, tom. iii., pp. 1-10. A careful comparison of the passages
given above will show that this whole story of the escape of Coxcox
and his wife in a boat from a great deluge, and of the distribution by
a bird of different languages to their descendants, rests on the
interpretation of certain Aztec paintings, containing supposed
pictures of a flood, of Coxcox and his wife, of a canoe or rude vessel
of some kind, of the mountain Culhuacan, which was the Mexican Ararat,
and of a bird distributing languages to a number of men. Not one of
the earliest writers on Mexican mythology, none of those personally
familiar with the natives and with their oral traditions as existing
at the time of, or immediately after the conquest, seems to have known
this legend; Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta, Ixtlilxochitl, and
Camargo, are all of them silent with regard to it. These facts must
give rise to grave suspicions with regard to the accuracy of the
commonly accepted version, notwithstanding its apparently implicit
reception up to this time by the most critical historians. These
suspicions will not be lessened by the result of the researches of Don
José Fernando Ramirez, Conservator of the Mexican National Museum, a
gentleman not less remarkable for his familiarity with the language
and antiquities of Mexico than for the moderation and calmness of his
critical judgments, as far as these are known. In a communication
dated April, 1858, to Garcia y Cubas, _Atlas Geográfico, Estadístico e
Histórico de la Republica Mejicana_, entrega 29, speaking of the
celebrated Mexican picture there for the first time, as he claims,
accurately given to the public--Sigüenza's copy of it, as given by
Gemelli Carreri, that given by Clavigero in his _Storia del Messico_,
that given by Humboldt in his _Atlas Pittoresque_, and that given by
Kingsborough being all incorrect--Señor Ramirez says:--'The authority
of writers so competent as Sigüenza and Clavigero imposed silence on
the incredulous, and after the illustrious Baron von Humboldt added
his irresistible authority, adopting that interpretation, nobody
doubted that "the traditions of the Hebrews were found among the
people of America;" that, as the wise Baron thought, "their Coxcox,
Teocipactli, or Tezpi is the Noah, Xisutrus, or Menou of the Asiatic
families;" and that "the Cerro of Culhuacan is the Ararat of the
Mexicans." Grand and magnificent thought, but unfortunately only a
delusion. The blue square No. 1, with its bands or obscure lines of
the same color, cannot represent the terrestrial globe covered with
the waters of the flood, because we should have to suppose a
repetition of the same deluge in the figure No. 40, where it is
reproduced with some of its principal accidents. Neither, for the same
reason, do the human heads and the heads of birds which appear to
float there, denote the submerging of men and animals, for it would be
necessary to give the same explanation to those seen in group No. 39.
It might be argued that the group to the left (of No. 1), made up of a
human head placed under the head of a bird, represented phonetically
the name Coxcox, and denoted the Aztec Noah; but the group on the
right, formed of a woman's head with other symbolic figures above it,
evidently does not express the name Xochiquetzal, which is said to
have been that of his wife.... Let us now pass on to the dove giving
tongues to the primitive men who were born mute. The commas which seem
to come from the beak of the bird there represented, form one of the
most complex and varied symbols, in respect to their phonetic force,
which are found in our hieroglyphic writing. In connection with
animated beings they designate generically the emission of the
voice.... In the group before us they denote purely and simply that
the bird was singing or speaking--to whom?--to the group of persons
before it, who by the direction of their faces and bodies show clearly
and distinctly the attention with which they listened. Consequently
the designer of the before-mentioned drawing for Clavigero,
pre-occupied with the idea of signifying by it the pretended confusion
of tongues, changed with his pencil the historic truth, giving to
these figures opposite directions. Examining attentively the
inexactitudes and errors of the graver and the pencil in all
historical engravings relating to Mexico, it is seen that they are no
less numerous and serious than those of the pen. The interpretations
given to the ancient Mexican paintings by ardent imaginations led away
by love of novelty or by the spirit of system, justify to a certain
point the distrust and disfavor with which the last and most
distinguished historian of the Conquest of Mexico (W. H. Prescott) has
treated this interesting and precious class of historical documents.'
Señor Ramirez goes on thus at some length to his conclusions, which
reduce the original painting to a simple record of a wandering of the
Mexicans among the lakes of the Mexican valley--that journey
beginning at a place 'not more than nine miles from the gutters of
Mexico,'--a record having absolutely no connection either with the
mythical deluge, already described as one of the four destructions of
the world, or with any other. The bird speaking in the picture, he
connects with a well-known Mexican fable given by Torquemada, in which
a bird is described as speaking from a tree to the leaders of the
Mexicans at a certain stage of their migration, and repeating the work
_Tihui_, that is to say, 'Let us go.' A little bird called the
_Tihuitochan_, with a cry that the vulgar still interpret in a
somewhat similar sense, is well known in Mexico, and is perhaps at the
bottom of the tradition. It may be added that Torquemada gives a
painted manuscript, possibly that under discussion, as his authority
for the story. The boat, the mountain, and the other adjuncts of the
picture are explained in a like simple way, as the hieroglyphics, for
the most part, of various proper names. Our space here will not permit
further details--though another volume will contain this picture and
a further discussion of the subject--but I may remark in concluding
that the moderation with which Señor Ramirez discusses the question,
as well as his great experience and learning in matters of Mexican
antiquity, seem to claim for his views the serious consideration of
future students.

[II-26] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp.
425-7.

[II-27] Fr. Gregorio Garcia, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 327-9, took this
narrative from a book he found in a convent in Cuilapa, a little
Indian town about a league and a half south of Oajaca. The book had
been compiled by the vicar of that convent, and--'escrito con sus
Figuras, como los Indios de aquel Reino Mixteco las tenian en sus
Libros, ò Pergaminos arrollados, con la declaracion de lo que
significaban las Figuras, en que contaban su Origen, la Creacion del
Mundo, i Diluvio General.'

[II-28] 'Que aparecieron visiblemente un Dios, que tuvo por Nombre _un
Ciervo_, i por sobrenombre _Culebra de Leon_; i una Diosa mui linda, i
hermosa, que su Nombre fue _un Ciervo_, i por sobrenombre _Culebra de
Tigre_,' _Garcia_, _Id._, pp. 327-9.

[II-29] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., fol. 128, 176.

[II-30] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, fol. 196-7.

[II-31] One of the Las Casas MSS. gives, according to Helps, 'trece
hijos' instead of 'tres hijos;' the latter, however, being the correct
reading, as the list of names in the same manuscript shows, and as
Father Roman gives it. See note 33.

[II-32] This tradition, says the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des
Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 74-5, has indubitably reference to a queen
whose memory has become attached to very many places in Guatemala, and
Central America generally. She was called _Atit_, Grandmother; and
from her the volcano of Atitlan, received the name _Atital-huyu_, by
which it is still known to the aborigines. This Atit lived during four
centuries, and from her are descended all the royal and princely
families of Guatemala.

[II-33] _Roman_, _República de los Indios Occidentales_, part 1, lib.
2, cap. 15, after _Garcia_, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 329-30; _Las
Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. 235, after _Helps' Span.
Conq._, vol. ii., p. 140; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp.
53-4; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp.
74-5.

[II-34] The first of these two names is erroneously spelt 'Famagoztad'
by M. Ternaux-Compans, Mr. Squier, and the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg,
the two latter perhaps led astray by the error of M. Ternaux-Compans,
an error which first appeared in that gentleman's translation of
Oviedo. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 40. _Peter Martyr_, dec.
vi., cap. 4.

[II-35] This tradition was 'gathered principally from the relations of
Con Quien, the intelligent chief of the central Papagos.' _Davidson_,
in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1865, pp. 131-3.

[II-36] The legendary Montezuma, whom we shall meet so often in the
mythology of the Gila valley, must not be confounded with the two
Mexican monarchs of the same title. The name itself would seem, in the
absence of proof to the contrary, to have been carried into Arizona
and New Mexico by the Spaniards or their Mexican attendants, and to
have become gradually associated in the minds of some of the New
Mexican and neighboring tribes, with a vague, mythical, and departed
grandeur. The name Montezuma became thus, to use Mr. Tylor's words,
that of the great 'Somebody' of the tribe. This being once the case,
all the lesser heroes would be gradually absorbed in the greater, and
their names forgotten. Their deeds would become his deeds, their fame
his fame. There is evidence enough that this is a general tendency of
tradition, even in historical times. The pages of Mr. Cox's scholarly
and comprehensive work, _The Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, teem
with examples of it. In Persia, deeds of every kind and date are
referred to Antar. In Russia, buildings of every age are declared to
be the work of Peter the Great. All over Europe, in Germany, France,
Spain, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland, the exploits of the
oldest mythological heroes figuring in the Sagas, Eddas, and
Nibelungen Lied have been ascribed in the folk-lore and ballads of the
people to Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Boabdil, Charles V., William Tell,
Arthur, Robin Hood, Wallace, and St. Patrick. The connection of the
name of Montezuma with ancient buildings and legendary adventures in
the mythology of the Gila valley seems to be simply another example of
the same kind.

[II-37] I am indebted for these particulars of the belief of the Pimas
to the kindness of Mr. J. H. Stout of the Pima agency, who procured me
a personal interview with five chiefs of that nation, and their very
intelligent and obliging interpreter, Mr. Walker, at San Francisco, in
October, 1873.

[II-38] For the killing of this Great Eagle Szeukha had to do a kind of
penance, which was never to scratch himself with his nails, but always
with a small stick. This custom is still observed by all Pimas; and a
bit of wood, renewed every fourth day, is carried for this purpose
stuck in their long hair.

[II-39] With the reader, as with myself, this clause will probably call
up something more than a mere suspicion of Spanish influence tinging
the incidents of the legend. The Pimas themselves, however, asserted
that this tradition existed among them long before the arrival of the
Spaniards and was not modified thereby. One fact that seems to speak
for the comparative purity of their traditions is that the name of
Montezuma is nowhere to be found in them, although Cremony, _Apaches_,
p. 102, states the contrary.

[II-40] _Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies_, vol. i., p. 268.

[II-41] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 85-6.

[II-42] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 89-90; and
_Eaton_, _Ib._, pp. 218-9. The latter account differs a little from
that given in the text, and makes the following addition: After the
Navajos came up from the cave, there came a time when, by the ferocity
of giants and rapacious animals, their numbers were reduced to
three--an old man, an old woman, and a young woman. The stock was
replenished by the latter bearing a child to the sun.

[II-43] _Ribas_, _Hist._, pp. 18, 40.

[II-44] _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., p. 139.

[II-45] _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 135-7.

[II-46] _Hugo Reid_, in _Los Angeles Star_.

[II-47] _Hugo Reid_, _Ib._

[II-48] Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.

[II-49] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[II-50] Humboldt County.

[II-51] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[II-52] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[II-53] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[II-54] _Johnston_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 224-5.

[II-55] _H. B. D._ in _Hesperian Mag._, vol. iii., 1859, p. 326.

[II-56] _Wadsworth_, in _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. ii., 1858, pp.
356-8.

[II-57] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[II-58] _Joaquin Miller's Life Amongst the Modocs_, pp. 235-236, 242-6.

[II-59] _Ruxton's Adven. in Mex._, pp. 244-6.

[II-60] _Wilkes' Nar._ in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 496.

[II-61] _Franchère's Nar._, p. 258; _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 317;
_Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, pp. 11-13; _Id._, _Clallam and Lummi
Vocab._, pp. 15-29; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 139.

[II-62] _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 176-85, 203-14.

[II-63] To the examples already given of this we may add the case of the
Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island, of whom Mr. Poole, _Q. Char. Isl._,
p. 136, says: 'Their descent from the crows is quite gravely affirmed
and steadfastly maintained.'

[II-64] _Anderson_, in _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 240.

[II-65] _Harmon's Jour._, pp. 302-3.

[II-66] This Khanukh was the progenitor of the Wolf family of the
Thlinkeets even as Yehl was that of the Raven family. The influence of
this wolf-deity seems to have been generally malign, but except in
connection with this water-legend, he is little mentioned in the
Thlinkeet myths.

[II-67] 'Seit der Zeit, entgegnete Khanukh, als von unten die Leber
herauskam.' _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 61. What is meant by the
term 'die Leber,' literally the particular gland of the body called in
English 'the liver,' I cannot say; neither Holmberg or any one else,
as far as my knowledge goes, attempting any explanation.

[II-68] _Barrett-Lennard's Trav._, pp. 54-7; _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._,
pp. 14, 52-63; _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethn._, pp. 93-100; _Dall's Alaska_,
pp. 421-22; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 452-5; _Richardson's Jour._,
vol. i., p. 405; _Mayne's B. C._, p. 272.

[II-69] _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethn._, p. 116; _Lisiansky's Voy._, pp. 197-8;
_Dall's Alaska_, p. 405; _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 140.

[II-70] _Choris_, _Voy. Pitt._, pt. vii., p. 7; _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol.
ii., p. 165.

[II-71] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 102, _et seq._; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol.
v., p. 173; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxviii.; _Franklin's Nar._, vol.
i., pp. 249-50.

[II-72] _Hearne's Journey_, pp. 342-3.

[II-73] _Keightley's Myth. of Ancient Greece and Italy_, p. 14.

CHAPTER III.

PHYSICAL MYTHS.

SUN, MOON, AND STARS -- ECLIPSES -- THE MOON PERSONIFIED IN THE
LAND OF THE CRESCENT -- FIRE -- HOW THE COYOTE STOLE FIRE FOR
THE CAHROCS -- HOW THE FROG LOST HIS TAIL -- HOW THE COYOTE
STOLE FIRE FOR THE NAVAJOS -- WIND AND THUNDER -- THE FOUR
WINDS AND THE CROSS -- WATER, THE FIRST OF ELEMENTAL THINGS --
ITS SACRED AND CLEANSING POWER -- EARTH AND SKY -- EARTHQUAKES
AND VOLCANOES -- MOUNTAINS -- HOW THE HAWK AND CROW BUILT THE
COAST RANGE -- THE MOUNTAINS OF YOSEMITE.

Fetichism seems to be the physical philosophy of man in his most
primitive state. He looks on material things as animated by a life
analogous to his own, as having a personal consciousness and
character, as being severally the material body that contains some
immaterial essence or soul. A child or a savage strikes or chides any
object that hurts him, and caresses the gewgaw that takes his fancy,
talking to it much as to a companion.

[Sidenote: VAGARIES CONCERNING CELESTIAL BODIES.]

Let there be something peculiar, mysterious, or dangerous about the
thing and the savage worships it, deprecates its wrath and entreats
its favor, with such ceremonies, prayers, and sacrifices as he may
deem likely to win upon its regard. In considering such cases
mythologically, it will be necessary to examine the facts to see
whether we have to deal with simple fetichism or with idolatry. That
savage worships a fetich who worships the heaving sea as a great
living creature, or kneels to flame as to a hissing roaring animal;
but the Greeks in conceiving a separate anthropomorphic god of the sea
or of the fire, and in representing that god by figures of different
kinds, were only idolaters. The two things, however, are often so
merged into each other that it becomes difficult or impossible to say
in many instances whether a particular object, for example the sun, is
regarded as the deity or merely as the representation or symbol of the
deity. It is plain enough, however, that a tolerably distinct element
of fetichism underlies much of the Indian mythology. Speaking of this
mythology in the mass, the North American Review says: "A mysterious
and inexplicable power resides in inanimate things. They, too, can
listen to the voice of man, and influence his life for evil or for
good. Lakes, rivers, and waterfalls are sometimes the dwelling-place
of spirits, but more frequently they are themselves living beings, to
be propitiated by prayers and offerings."[III-1]

The explicit worship of the sun and more or less that of other
heavenly bodies, or at least a recognition of some supernatural power
resident in or connected with them, was widely spread through Mexico,
as well among the uncivilized as among the civilized tribes. The wild
Chichimecs or that portion of the wild tribes of Mexico to which
Alegre applied this name, owned the sun as their deity, as did also
the people of the Nayarit country.[III-2]

In what we may call civilized Mexico, the sun was definitely worshiped
under the name of Tonatiuh, the Sun in his substance, and under that
of Naolin, the Sun in his four motions. He was sometimes represented
by a human face surrounded with rays, at other times by a full-length
human figure, while again he often seems to be confused or connected
with the element fire and the god of fire. Sahagun, for instance,
usually speaks of the festival of the month Itzcalli as appertaining
to the god of fire, but in at least one place he describes it as
belonging to the sun and the fire.[III-3] The sun, it is tolerably
certain, held, if not the highest place, one not far removed from that
position in the Mexican pantheon. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Tylor,
Squier, and Schoolcraft agree in considering sun-worship the most
radical religious idea of all civilized American religions.[III-4]
Professor Müller considers the sun-god and the supreme Mexican Teotl
to be identical.[III-5] Dr. Brinton, as we shall see when we come to
notice the mythology of fire, while not denying the prominence of the
sun-cult, would refer that cult to a basal and original fire-worship.
Many interpreters of mythology see also the personification of the sun
in others of the Mexican gods besides Tonatiuh. More especially does
evidence seem to point strongly in this direction in the case of
Quetzalcoatl, as will be seen when we come to deal with this god.

The Mexicans were much troubled and distressed by an eclipse of the
sun. They thought that he was much disturbed and tossed about by
something, and that he was becoming seriously jaundiced. This was the
occasion of a general panic, women weeping aloud, and men howling and
shouting and striking the hand upon the mouth. There was an immediate
search for men with white hair and white faces, and these were
sacrificed to the sun, amid the din and tumult of singing and musical
instruments. It was thought that should the eclipse become once total,
there would be an end of the light, and that in the darkness the
demons would come down to the devouring of the people.[III-6]

[Sidenote: ECLIPSES, AND THEIR EFFECT ON MAN.]

The Tlascaltecs, regarding the sun and the moon as husband and wife,
believed eclipses to be domestic quarrels, whose consequences were
likely to be fatal to the world if peace could not be made before
things proceeded to an extremity. To sooth the ruffled spirit of the
sun when he was eclipsed, a human sacrifice was offered to him of the
ruddiest victims that could be found; and when the moon was darkened
she was appeased with the blood of those white-complexioned persons
commonly known as Albinos.[III-7]

The idea of averting the evil by noise, in case of an eclipse either
of the sun or moon, seems to have been a common one among other
American tribes. Alegre ascribes it to the natives of Sonora in
general. Ribas tells how the Sinaloas held that the moon in an eclipse
was darkened with the dust of battle. Her enemy had come upon her, and
a terrible fight, big with consequence to those on earth, went on in
heaven. In wild excitement the people beat on the sides of their
houses, encouraging the moon and shooting flights of arrows up into
the sky to distract her adversary. Much the same as this was also done
by certain Californians.[III-8]

With regard to an eclipse of the moon the Mexicans seem to have had
rather special ideas as to its effects upon unborn children. At such
times, women who were with child became alarmed lest their infant
should be turned into a mouse, and to guard against such an
undesirable consummation they held a bit of obsidian, _iztli_, in
their mouth, or put a piece of it in their girdle, so that the child
should be born perfect and not lipless, or noseless, or wry-mouthed,
or squinting, or a monster.[III-9] These ideas are probably connected
with the fact that the Mexicans worshiped the moon under the name of
Meztli, as a deity presiding over human generations. This moon-god is
considered by Clavigero to be identical with Joaltecutli, god of
night.[III-10]

It is to the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, however, that we must turn
for a truly novel and cyclopean theory of Mexican lunolatry. He sees
back to a time when the forefathers of American civilization lived in
a certain Crescent Land in the Atlantic; here they practiced Sabaism.
Through some tremendous physical catastrophe their country was utterly
overwhelmed by the sea; and this inundation is considered by the abbé
to be the origin of the deluge-myths of the Central-American nations.
A remnant of these Crescent people saved themselves in the seven
principal islands of the Lesser Antilles; these are, he explains, the
seven mythical caves or grottoes celebrated in so many American
legends as the cradle of the nations. The saved remnant of the people
wept the loss of their friends and of their old land, making the
latter, with its crescent shape, memorable forever by adopting the
moon as their god. "It is the moon," writes the great Américaniste,
"male and female, Luna and Lunas, personified in the land of the
Crescent, engulfed in the abyss, that I believe I see at the
commencement of this amalgam of rites and symbols of every kind."[III-11]
I confess inability to follow the path by which the abbé has reached
this conclusion; but I have indicated its whereabouts, and future
students may be granted a further insight into this new labyrinth and
the subtleties of its industrious Dædalus.

[Sidenote: WHAT THE MEXICANS THOUGHT OF STARS AND COMETS.]

The Mexicans had many curious ideas about the stars, some of which
have come down to us. They particularly reverenced a certain group of
three called _mamalhoaztli_, in, or in the neighborhood of, the sign
Taurus of the zodiac. This name was the same as that of the sticks
from which fire was procured: a resemblance of some kind being
supposed to exist between them and these stars. Connected again with
this was the burning by every male Mexican of certain marks upon his
wrist, in honor of the same stars; it being believed that the man who
died without these marks should, on his arrival in hades, be forced to
draw fire from his wrist by boring upon it as on a fire-stick. The
planet Venus was worshiped as the first light that appeared in the
world, as the god of twilight, and, according to some, as being
identical with Quetzalcoatl. This star has been further said to borrow
its light from the moon, and to rise by four starts. Its first twinkle
was a bad augury, and to be closed out of all doors and windows; on
appearing for the third time, it began to give a steady light, and on
the fourth it shone forth in all its clearness and brilliancy.

Comets were called each _citlalinpopoca_, or the smoking star; their
appearance was considered as a public disaster, and as announcing
pest, dearth, or the death of some prince. The common people were
accustomed to say of one, This is our famine, and they believed it to
cast down certain darts, which falling on any animal, bred a maggot
that rendered the creature unfit for food. All possible precautions of
shelter were of course taken by persons in positions exposed to the
influence of these noxious rays. Besides the foregoing, there were
many stars or groups of stars whose names were identical with those of
certain gods; the following seem to belong to this class:
Tonacatlecutli or Citlalalatonalli, the milky way; Yzacatecutli,
Tlahvizcalpantecutli, Ceyacatl, Achitumetl, Xacupancalqui, Mixcoatl,
Tezcatlipoca, and Contemoctli.[III-12]

* * * * *

I have already noticed a prevailing tendency to connect the worship of
fire and that of the sun. The rites of a perpetual fire are found
closely connected with a sun-cult, and, whichever may be the older, it
is certain they are rarely found apart. "What," says Tylor, "the sea is
to Water-worship, in some measure the Sun is to Fire-worship."[III-13]
Brinton would reverse this and give to fire the predominance: in
short, he says, the sun "is always spoken of as a fire;" "and without
danger or error we can merge the consideration of its worship almost
altogether in this element."[III-14] This sounds rather extravagant and
is hardly needed in any case; for sufficient reason for its deification
can always be found in its mysterious nature and awful powers of
destruction, as well as in its kind and constantly renewed services,
if gratitude have any power in making a god. The mere guarding and
holding sacred a particular fire probably originated in the importance
of possessing an unfailing source of the element, and in the
difficulty of its production if allowed to die out, among men not
possessed of the appliances of civilization.

When we come to review the gods in general, those connected with fire
will be pointed out as they appear; for the present, let it suffice to
say that many American peoples had such gods, or had ceremonies
suggesting their existence and recognition, or lastly, had legends of
the origin or procurement of the fire they daily used on the altar or
on the hearth. In the Pueblos of New Mexico, and more especially among
the Pecos, sacred perpetual fires were kept up by special command of
their traditionary god and ruler Montezuma; but these fires were not
regarded as fetiches.[III-15] The Mexican fire-god was known by the name
of Xiuhtecutli, and by other names appertaining to the different
aspects in which he was viewed. While preserving his own well-marked
identity, he was evidently closely related also to the sun-god. Many
and various, even in domestic life, were the ceremonies by which he
was recognized; the most important ritual in connection with his
service being, perhaps, the lighting of the new fire, with which, as
we shall see, the beginning of every Mexican cycle was solemnized.[III-16]

There are various fables scattered up and down among the various
tribes regarding the origin or rather the procuring of fire. We know
how the Quichés received it from the stamp of the sandal of Tohil;
how, from the home of the cuttle-fish, a deer brought it to the Ahts
in a joint of his leg; how from a distant island the great Yehl of the
Thlinkeets fetched the brand in his beak that filled the flint and the
fire-stick with seeds of eternal fire.

[Sidenote: HOW THE CAHROCS OBTAINED FIRE.]

The Cahrocs hold that, when in the beginning the creator Chareya made
fire, he gave it into the custody of two old hags, lest the Cahrocs
should steal it. The Cahrocs, having exhausted every means to procure
the treasure, applied for help to their old friend the Coyote; who,
having maturely considered how the theft might best be accomplished,
set about the thing in this way: From the land of the Cahrocs to the
home of the old women he stationed a great company of animals, at
convenient distances; the strongest nearest the den of the old
beldames, the weakest farthest removed. Last of all he hid a Cahroc in
the neighborhood of the hut, and, having left the man precise
directions how to act, he trotted up to the door and asked to be let
in out of the cold. Suspecting nothing, the crones gave him
admittance; so he lay down in front of the fire, and made himself as
comfortable as possible, waiting for the further action of his human
accomplice without. In good time, the man made a furious attack on the
house and the old furies rushed out at once to drive off the invader.
This was the Coyote's opportunity. Instantly he seized a half-burnt
brand and fled like a comet down the trail; and the two hags, seeing
how they had been outwitted, turned after him in immediate and furious
chase. It had gone hard then with the hopes of the Cahrocs, if their
four-legged Prometheus had trusted to his single speed; but just as he
began to feel the pace tell on him, and just as the weird women
thought they were about to recover the brand, the Cougar relieved him
of it. Great was the satisfaction of our wise Coyote, as he sank down,
clearing his sooty eyes and throat, and catching his breath, to see
the great lithe cat leap away with the torch, and the hags gnash their
choppy gums as they rushed by, hard in pursuit, on the dim trail of
sparks. The Cougar passed the brand to the Bear, the Bear to his
neighbor, and so on to the end. Down the long line of carriers, the
panting crones plied their withered old legs in vain; only two mishaps
occurring among all the animals that made up the file. The squirrel,
last in the train but one, burned his tail so badly that it curled up
over his back, and even scorched the skin above his shoulders. Last of
all, the poor Frog, who received the brand when it had burned down to
a very little piece, hopped along so heavily that his pursuers gained
on him, gained fast and surely. In vain he gathered himself for every
spring, in vain he stretched at every leap till the jarred muscles
cracked again. He was caught. The smoke-dimmed eyes stood out from his
head, his little heart thumped like a club against the lean fingers
that closed upon his body--yet that wild croak was not the croak of
despair. Once more for the hope of the Cahrocs! one more struggle for
the Coyote that trusted him in this great thing! and with a gulp the
plucky little martyr swallowed the fire, tore himself from the hands
that held him, leaped into a river, and diving deep and long, gained
his goal; but gained it a mournful wreck, the handsome tail, which, of
all his race, only the tadpole should ever wear again, was utterly
gone, left, like that of an O'Shanter's mare, in the witch's grasp;
only the ghost of himself was left to spit out on some pieces of wood
the precious embers preserved at so great a cost. And it is because
the Frog spat out this fire upon these pieces of wood that it can
always be extracted again by rubbing them hard together.[III-17]

[Sidenote: FIRE, THE LIGHTNING, AND WIND.]

The Navajos have a legend as to the procuring of fire, that has many
analogies to the foregoing. They tell how, when they first gained the
earth, they were without fire, and how the Coyote, the Bat, and the
Squirrel agreed to procure it for them. The object of their desire
seems to have been in the possession of the animals in general, in
some distant locality. The Coyote, having attached pine splinters to
his tail, ran quickly through the fire and fled with his lighted
prize. Being keenly pursued, however, by the other animals, he soon
tired; upon which the Bat relieved him, and dodging and flitting here
and there, carried the splinters still farther. Then the Squirrel came
to the assistance of the Bat, and succeeding him in his office,
contrived to reach the hearths of the Navajos with the coveted
embers.[III-18]

The natives of Mendocino county, California, believe that lightning is
the origin of fire, that a primeval bolt hurled down by the Man Above
fell upon certain wood, from which, consequently fire can always be
extracted by rubbing two pieces together.[III-19]

* * * * *

From fire let us turn for a moment to wind, whose phenomena, as might
be expected, have not been allowed to pass wholly unnoticed by the
mythologies with which we have to deal. When we come to examine ideas
connected with death and with the soul of man and its future, we shall
find the wind, or the air, often in use as the best name and figure
for the expression of primitive conceptions of that mysterious thing,
the vital essence or spirit. The wind too is often considered as a
god, or at least as the breath of a god, and in many American
languages the Great Spirit and the Great Wind are one and the same
both in word and signification. The name of the god Hurakan,
mentioned in Quiché myths, still signifies the Storm in many a
language strange to his worshipers, while in Quiché it may be
translated Spirit, or swiftly moving Spirit;[III-20] and the name of
the Mexican god Mixcoatl is said to be to this day the correct Mexican
term for the whirlwind.[III-21]

An interesting point here arises with regard to the division of the
heavens into four quarters and the naming of these after the names of
the wind. Dr. Brinton believes this fact to be at the bottom of the
sacredness and often occurrence of the number four in so many early
legends, and he connects these four winds and their embodiment in many
quaternions of deities, with the sacredness of the cross and its use
among widely separated nations, to whom its later Christian
signification was utterly unknown.[III-22]

If we may suppose that the Great Spirit and the wind are often
represented under the form of an enormous bird, we must connect with
them, as their most inseparable attributes, the thunder and the
lightning; the first, as we have so often seen, is the rustling or
stridor of the wings of the bird, the second is the flashing of his
eyes. The Raven of the Koniagas is not, however, as among most other
tribes of the great Northwest, the author of these things; but their
principal deity when he is angry sends down two dwarfs, who thunder
and lighten according to his command.[III-23] Of the god Hurakan, whom
we have noticed as the etymon of the word hurricane, the Popol Vuh says:
"The flash is the first sign of Hurakan; the second is the furrow of
the flash; the third is the thunderbolt that strikes;"[III-24] and to the
Mexican god, Tlaloc, are also attached the same three attributes.[III-25]

[Sidenote: WATER AS A PURIFYING ELEMENT.]

Turning to water, we find it regarded among many tribes as the first
of elemental things. It is from a primeval ocean of water that the
earth is generally supposed to come up. Water is obviously a first and
chief nourisher of vegetable life, and an indispensable prerequisite
of all fertility; from this it is but a short step to saying that it
is the mother of those that live by the earth's fertility. "Your
mother, Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of water," is a phrase constantly
found in the midwife's mouth, in her address to the child, in the
Mexican washing or baptismal service.[III-26]

The use of water more or less sanctified or set apart or made worthy
the distinction 'holy;' the employment of this in a rite of avowed
purification from inherent sin, at the time of giving a
name--baptism, in one word--runs back to a period far pre-Christian
among the Mexican, Maya, and other American nations; as ancient
ceremonies to be hereafter described will show. That man sets out in
this life-journey of his with a terrible bias toward evil, with a sad
and pitiful liability to temptation, is a point upon which all
religions are practically unanimous. How else could they exist? Were
man born perfect he would remain perfect, otherwise the first element
of perfection would be wanting; and perfection admits of no
superlative, no greater, no god. Where there is a religion then, there
is generally a consciousness of sin voluntary and involuntary. How
shall I be cleansed? how shall my child be cleansed from this great
wickedness? is the cry of the idolater as well as of the monotheist.
Is it strange that the analogy between corporal and spiritual
pollution should independently suggest itself to both? Surely not.
Wash and be clean, is to all the world a parable needing no
interpreter.[III-27]

The ceremonial use of water followed the Mexican through all his
life; though for the present we shall only notice one more custom
connected with it, the last of all. When a body was buried, a vase of
clean, sweet water was let down into the tomb; bright, clear,
life-giving and preserving water--hope and love, dumb and
inarticulate, stretching vague hand toward a resurrection.

The Mexican rain and water god was Tlaloc, sender of thunder and
lightning, lord of the earthly paradise, and fertilizer of earth; his
wife was the Chalchiuhtlicue, already mentioned.[III-28] Like Tlaloc was
Quiateot, the Nicaraguan rain-god, master of thunderbolts and general
director of meteorological phenomena.[III-29]

The Navajos puffed tobacco smoke straight up toward heaven to bring
rain, and those of them that carried a corpse to burial were unclean
till washed in water.[III-30] In a deep and lonely cañon near Fort
Defiance there is a spring that this tribe hold sacred, approaching it
only with much reverence and the performance of certain mystic
ceremonies. They say it was once a boiling spring, and that even yet
if approached heedlessly or by a bad Indian, its waters will seethe up
and leap forth to overwhelm the intruder.[III-31]

The Zuñis had also a sacred spring; sacred to the rain-god, who, as we
see by implication, is Montezuma the great Pueblo deity himself. No
animal might taste of its sacred waters, and it was cleansed annually
with vessels also sacred--most ancient vases that had been
transmitted from generation to generation since times to which even
tradition went not back. These vessels were kept ranged on the wall of
the well. The frog, the rattlesnake, and the tortoise were depicted
upon them, and were sacred to the great patron of the place, whose
terrible lightning should consume the sacrilegious hand that touched
these hallowed relics.[III-32]

[Sidenote: THE EARTH, THE SEA, THE SKY.]

We have seen how the Californian tribes believe themselves descended
from the very earth, how the bodiless ancestor of the Tezcucans came
up from the soil, how the Guatemaltecs, Papagos, and Pimas were molded
from the clay they tread, and how the Navajos came to light from the
bowels of a great mountain near the river San Juan. It seems long ago
and often to have come into men's mind that the over-arching heaven or
something there and the all-producing earth are, as it were, a father
and mother to all living creatures. The Comanches call on the earth as
their mother, and on the Great Spirit as their father. The Mexicans
used to pray: Be pleased, O our Lord, that the nobles who may die in
the war be peacefully and pleasingly received by the sun and the
earth, who are the father and mother of all.[III-33] It was probably,
again, with some reference to the motherly function of the earth that
the same people, when an earthquake came, took their children by the
head or hand, and lifted them up saying: The earthquake will make them
grow.[III-34] Sometimes they specified a particular part of the earth as
closer to them in this relation than other parts. It is said that on
the tenth day of the month Quecholli, the citizens of Mexico and those
of Tlatelolco were wont to visit a hill called Cacatepec, for they
said it was their mother.[III-35]

As to the substance, arrangement, and so on of the earth and sky there
remain one or two ideas not already given in connection with the
general creation. The Tlascaltecs, and perhaps others of the Anáhuac
peoples, believed that the earth was flat, and ending with the
sea-shore, was borne up by certain divinities, who when fatigued
relieved each other, and that as the burden was shifted from shoulder
to shoulder earthquakes occurred. The sea and sky were considered as
of one material, the sea being more highly condensed; and the rain was
thought to fall not from clouds but from the very substance of heaven
itself.[III-36] The Southern Californians believed that when the Creator
made the world he fixed it on the back of seven giants, whose
movements, as in the preceding myth, caused earthquakes.[III-37] The sky,
according to certain of the Yucatecs, was held up by four brothers
called each of them Bacab, in addition to their several names, which
seem to have been Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac. These four, God had
placed at the four corners of the world when he created it, and they
had escaped when all else were destroyed by flood.[III-38]

In the interior of the earth, in volcanoes, subterranean gods were
often supposed to reside. The Koniagas, for example, held that the
craters of Alaska were inhabited by beings mightier then men, and that
these sent forth fire and smoke when they heated their sweat-houses or
cooked their food.[III-39]

* * * * *

The rugged majesty of hills and mountains has not been without its
effect on the reverential mind of the American aborigines. Direct
worship was unusual, but several incidents must have already informed
the reader that a kind of sanctity is often attached to great
elevations in nature. A predilection for hills and mounds as landmarks
and fanes of tradition, and as places of worship, was as common among
the Americans as among the people of the old world. The Choles of the
province of Itza had a hill in their country that they regarded as the
god of all the mountains, and on which they burned a perpetual
fire.[III-40] The Mexicans, praying for rain, were accustomed to vow
that they would make images of the mountains if their petitions were
favorably received;[III-41] and, in other points connected with their
religion to show, as has appeared and will appear both with them and
with other people, their recognition of a divinity abiding on or
hedging about the great peaks. What wonder, indeed, that to the rude
and awe-struck mind, the everlasting hills seemed nearer and liker
heaven than the common-place level of earth? and that the wild man
should kneel or go softly there, as in the peculiar presence of the
Great Spirit? This is hardly a new feeling, it seems an instinct and
custom as old as religion. Where went Abraham in that awful hour,
counted to him for righteousness through all the centuries? Where
smoked the thunderings and lightnings that heralded the delivery of
the Law, when the son of Amram talked with Jehovah face to face, as a
man talketh with his friend? Whence saw a greater than Moses the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them? whence, in the all-nights
that came after, did the prayers of the Christ ascend? and where stood
he when his raiment became as no fuller on earth could white it; Moses
and Elias talking with him, and Peter so sore afraid?

[Sidenote: HILLS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES.]

Where hills were not found conveniently situated for purposes of
worship, they seem to have been counterfeited after man's feeble
fashion: from high-place and mound, from pyramid and teocalli, since
the morning stars sang together, the smoke of the altar and the censer
has not ceased to ascend. But the day begins to broaden out, and the
mists of the morning flee away; though the hills be not lowered, God
is lifted up. Yet they have their glory and their charm still even to
us, and to the savage they often appear as the result of a special and
several creation. We remember how the Great Spirit made Mount Shasta
as his only worthy abiding-place on earth; and I give here another
legend of a much more trivial sort than the first, telling how, not
Mount Shasta alone, but all the mountains of California were built and
put into position:--[III-42] At a time when the world was covered with
water there existed a Hawk and a Crow and a very small Duck. The
latter, after diving to the bottom and bringing up a beakful of mud,
died; whereupon the Crow and the Hawk took each a half of the mud that
had been brought up, and set to work to make the mountains. Beginning
at a place called Teheechaypah Pass, they built northwards, the Hawk
working on the eastern range and the Crow on the western. It was a
long and weary toil, but in time the work was finished, and as they
laid the last peak the workers met at Mount Shasta. Then the Hawk saw
that there had been foul play somewhere, for the western range was
bigger than his; and he charged the Crow with stealing some of his
mud. But the smart bird laughed a hoarse guffaw in the face of his
eastern brother, not even taking the trouble to disown the theft, and
chuckled hugely over his own success and western enterprise. The
honest Hawk was at his wits' end, and he stood thinking with his head
on one side for quite a long time; then in an absent kind of way he
picked up a leaf of Indian tobacco and began to chew, and wisdom came
with chewing. And he strengthened himself mightily, and fixed his
claws in the mountains, and turned the whole chain in the water like a
great floating wheel, till the range of his rival had changed places
with his, and the Sierra Nevada was on the east and the Coast Range on
the west, as they remain to this day.

This legend is not without ingenuity in its way but there is more of
human interest in the following pretty story of the Yosemite nations,
as to the origin of the names and present appearance of certain peaks
and other natural features of their valley:--

[Sidenote: TOTOKÓNULA AND TISAYAC OF YOSEMITE.]

A certain Totokónula was once chief of the people here: a mighty
hunter and a good husbandman, his tribe never wanted food while he
attended to their welfare. But a change came; while out hunting one
day, the young man met a spirit-maid, the guardian angel of the
valley, the beautiful Tisayac. She was not as the dusky beauties of
his tribe, but white and fair, with rolling yellow tresses that fell
over her shoulders like sunshine, and blue eyes with a light in them
like the sky where the sun goes down. White, cloudlike wings were
folded behind her shoulders, and her voice was sweeter than the song
of birds; no wonder the strong chief loved her with a mad and instant
love. He reached toward her, but the snowy wings lifted her above his
sight, and he stood again alone upon the dome, where she had been.

No more Totokónula led in the chase or heeded the crops in the valley;
he wandered here and there like a man distraught, ever seeking that
wonderful shining vision that had made all else on earth stale and
unprofitable in his sight. The land began to languish, missing the
industrious directing hand that had tended it so long; the pleasant
garden became a wilderness where the drought laid waste, and the wild
beast spoiled what was left, and taught his cubs to divide the prey.
When the fair spirit returned at last to visit her valley, she wept to
see the desolation, and she knelt upon the dome, praying to the Great
Spirit for succor. God heard, and stooping from his place, he clove
the dome upon which she stood, and the granite was riven beneath her
feet, and the melted snows of the Nevada rushed through the gorge,
bearing fertility upon their cool bosom. A beautiful lake was formed
between the cloven walls of the mountain, and a river issued from it
to feed the valley for ever. Then sang the birds as of old, laving
their bodies in the water, and the odor of flowers rose like a
pleasant incense, and the trees put forth their buds, and the corn
shot up to meet the sun and rustled when the breeze crept through the
tall stalks.

Tisayac moved away as she had come, and none knew whither she went;
but the people called the dome by her name, as it is indeed known to
this day. After her departure the chief returned from his weary
quest; and as he heard that the winged one had visited the valley, the
old madness crept up into his eyes and entered, seven times worse than
at the first, into his empty soul; he turned his back on the lodges of
his people. His last act was to cut with his hunting-knife the outline
of his face upon a lofty rock, so that if he never returned his
memorial at least should remain with them forever. He never did return
from that hopeless search, but the graven rock was called Totokónula,
after his name, and it may be still seen, three thousand feet high,
guarding the entrance of the beautiful valley.[III-43]

Leaving this locality and subject, I may remark that the natives have
named the Póhono Fall, in the same valley, after an evil spirit; many
persons having been swept over and dashed to pieces there. No native
of the vicinity will so much as point at this fall when going through
the valley, nor could anything tempt one of them to sleep near it; for
the ghosts of the drowned are tossing in its spray, and their wail is
heard forever above the hiss of its rushing waters.[III-44]

FOOTNOTES:

[III-1] _North Am. Rev._, vol. ciii., p. 1.

[III-2] _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., p. 279; _Apostólicos
Afanes_, p. 68.

[III-3] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 74-5, 200-18;
_Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, parte ii., lam. x., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 139; _Spiegazione delle
Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. xxv. and xxxiii., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 178, 181-2; _Mendieta_,
_Hist. Ecles._, pp. 80-1; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom.
ii., pp. 9, 11, 17, 34-5.

[III-4] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p.
301; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 156; _Tylor's Prim.
Cult._, vol. ii., pp. 259, 262-3; _Squier's Serpent Symbol_, pp.
18-20; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 60, vol. iv., p. 639, vol.
v., pp. 29-87, vol. vi., pp. 594, 626, 636.

[III-5] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 474.

[III-6] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 244-5. In
Campeche, in 1834, M. Waldeck witnessed an eclipse of the moon during
which the Yucatecs conducted themselves much as their fathers might
have done in their gentile days, howling frightfully and making every
effort to part the celestial combatants. The only apparent advance
made on the old customs was the firing off of muskets, 'to prove' in
the words of the sarcastic artist, 'that the Yucatecs of to-day are
not strangers to the progress of civilization.' _Waldeck_, _Voy.
Pitt._, p. 14.

[III-7] _Camargo_, _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voy._, 1843, tom. xcvii., p. 193.

[III-8] _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 218; _Ribas_,
_Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 202; _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in
Cal._, pp. 296-300.

[III-9] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 250.

[III-10] _Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, part. ii., lam. x.,
in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 139; _Spiegazione delle
Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. xxvi., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 179; _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., p. 250; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 9-17.

[III-11] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 155-6.

[III-12] _Explicacion delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, part. i., lam.
ii., part. ii., lam. xiv., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v.,
pp. 132, 140; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_
(Vaticano), tav. xvii., xxxi., _Ib._, vol. v., pp. 175, 181;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 250-252; _Camargo_,
_Hist. de Tlaxcallan_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcviii., p. 193; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 81. The word _tecutli_
is of frequent occurrence as a termination in the names of Mexican
gods. It signifies 'lord' and is written with various spellings. I
follow that given by Molina's Vocabulary.

[III-13] _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 259.

[III-14] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 143.

[III-15] _Ward_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, p. 193.

[III-16] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., p. 16; _Torquemada_,
_Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 56-7; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
des Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 491-2.

[III-17] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[III-18] _Eaton_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 218-19.

[III-19] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[III-20] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _S'il Existe des Sources de l'Hist.
Prim. du Mexique_, p. 101.

[III-21] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 485;
_Brinton's Myths_, p. 51.

[III-22] _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 66-98.

[III-23] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 141.

[III-24] _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 6; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_Popol Vuh_, p. 9.

[III-25] _Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt. ii., p. 76.

[III-26] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 197.

[III-27] Singularly apt in this connection are the wise words that
Carlyle, _Past and Present Chartism_, book i., p. 233, puts into the
mouth of his mythical friend Sauerteig--'Strip thyself, go into the
bath, or were it into the limpid pool and running brook, and there
wash and be clean; thou wilt step out again a purer and a better man.
This consciousness of perfect outer pureness, that to thy skin there
now adheres no foreign speck of imperfection, how it radiates in on
thee with cunning symbolic influences, to the very soul!... It remains
a religious duty from oldest time in the East.... Even the dull
English feel something of this; they have a saying, "cleanliness is
near of kin to Godliness."'

[III-28] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 15-16.
'Era conosciuta con altri nomi assai espressive, i quali o
significavano i diversi effetti, che cagionano l'acque, o le diverse
apparenze, colori, che formano col loro moto. I Tlascallesi la
chiamavano Matlalcueje, cioè, vestita di gonna turchina.' See also
_Müller_, _Reisen in Mex._, tom. iii., p. 89.

[III-29] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 46, 55.

[III-30] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 91;
_Bristol_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1867, p. 358.

[III-31] _Backus_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 213.

[III-32] _Whipple_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 39.

[III-33] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.

[III-34] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. v., ap., pp. 21-2.

[III-35] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 70.

[III-36] _Camargo_, _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voy._, 1834, tom. xcviii., p. 192.

[III-37] _Reid_, in _Los Angeles Star_.

[III-38] _Landa_, _Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 206.

[III-39] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 141.

[III-40] _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. de Itza_, pp. 151-2.

[III-41] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 177.

[III-42] _Powers' Pomo_, MS. This is a tradition of the Yocuts, a
Californian tribe, occupying the Kern and Tulare basins, the middle
San Joaquin, and the various streams running into Lake Tulare.

[III-43] _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. iv., pp. 197-9.

[III-44] _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. iv., p. 243.

CHAPTER IV.

ANIMAL MYTHOLOGY.

RÔLES ASSIGNED TO ANIMALS -- AUGURIES FROM THEIR MOVEMENTS --
THE ILL-OMENED OWL -- TUTELARY ANIMALS -- METAMORPHOSED MEN --
THE OGRESS-SQUIRREL OF VANCOUVER ISLAND -- MONKEYS AND BEAVERS
-- FALLEN MEN -- THE SACRED ANIMALS -- PROMINENCE OF THE BIRD
-- AN EMBLEM OF THE WIND -- THE SERPENT, AN EMBLEM OF THE
LIGHTNING -- NOT SPECIALLY CONNECTED WITH EVIL -- THE SERPENT
OF THE PUEBLOS -- THE WATER-SNAKE -- OPHIOLATRY -- PROMINENCE
OF THE DOG, OR THE COYOTE -- GENERALLY THOUGH NOT ALWAYS A
BENEVOLENT POWER -- HOW THE COYOTE LET SALMON UP THE KLAMATH --
DANSE MACABRE AND SAD DEATH OF THE COYOTE.

The reader must have already noticed the strange rôles filled by
animals in the creeds of the Native Races of the Pacific States.
Beasts and birds and fishes fetch and carry, talk and act, in a way
that leaves even Æsop's heroes in the shade; while a mysterious and
inexplicable influence over human destiny is often accorded to them.
It is of course impossible to say precisely how much of all this is
metaphorical, and how much is held as soberly and literally true.
Probably the proportion varies all the way from one extreme to the
other among different nations, and among peoples of different stages
of culture in the same nation. They spake only in part, these priests
and prophets of barbaric cults, and we can understand only in part; we
cannot solve the dark riddle of the past; we can oftenest only repeat
it, and even that in a more or less imperfect manner.

The Mexicans had their official augurs and soothsayers, who divined
much as did their brethren of classic times. The people also drew omen
and presage from many things: from the howling of wild beasts at
night; the singing of certain birds; the hooting of the owl; a weasel
crossing a traveler's path; a rabbit running into its burrow; from the
chance movements of worms, beetles, ants, frogs, and mice; and so on
in detail.[IV-1]

The owl seems to have been in many places considered a bird of ill
omen. Among all the tribes visited by Mr Lord, from the Fraser River
to the Saint Lawrence, this bird was portentously sacred, and was a
favorite decoration of the medicine-men. To come on an owl at an
unusual time, in daylight for example, and to hear its mystic cry,
were things not desirable of any that loved fulness of pleasure and
length of days.[IV-2] In California, by the tribes on the Russian
River, owls were held to be devils or evil spirits incarnate.[IV-3]

We often find an animal adopted in much the same way as a patron saint
was selected by the mediæval knight. The Hyperborean lad, for example,
when he reaches manhood, takes some beast or fish or bird to be his
patron, and the spirit connected with that animal is supposed to guard
him. Unlike most Indians, the Eskimo will have no hesitation in
killing an animal of his tutelary species: he is only careful to wear
a piece of its skin or bone, which he regards as an amulet, which it
were to him a serious misfortune to lose. Prolonged ill luck sometimes
leads a man to change his patron beast for another. The spirits
connected with the deer, the seal, the salmon, and the beluga are
regarded by all with special veneration.[IV-4]

The Mexicans used to allot certain animals to certain parts of the
body; perhaps in much the same way as astrologers and alchemists used
to connect the stars of heaven with different substances and persons.
The following twenty Mexican symbols were supposed to rule over the
various members of the human body: The sign of the deer, over the
right foot; of the tiger, over the left foot; of the eagle, over the
right hand; of the monkey, over the left hand; of death--represented
by a skull--over the skull; of water, over the hair; of the house,
over the brow; of rain, over the eyes; of the dog, over the nose; of
the vulture, over the right ear; of the rabbit, over the left ear; of
the earthquake, over the tongue; of flint, over the teeth; of air,
over the breath; of the rose, over the breast; of the cane, over the
heart; of wind, over the lungs--as appears from the plate in the Codex
Vaticanus, the Italian interpreter giving, however, "over the liver;"
of the grass, over the intestines; of the lizard, over the loins; and
of the serpent, over the genitals.[IV-5]

[Sidenote: THE HUMANITY OF ANIMALS.]

Sometimes the whole life and being of a man was supposed to be bound
up in the bundle with that of some animal. Thus, of the Guatemaltecs,
old Gage quaintly enough writes: "Many are deluded by the Devil to
believe that their life dependeth upon the life of such and such a
beast (which they take unto them as their familiar spirit) and think
that when that beast dieth they must die; when he is chased their
hearts pant; when he is faint they are faint; nay it happeneth that by
the devil's delusion they appear in the shape of that beast."[IV-6]

Animals are sometimes only men in disguise; and this is the idea often
to be found at the bottom of that sacredness which among particular
tribes is ascribed to particular animals.

The Thlinkeet will kill a bear only in case of great necessity, for
the bear is supposed to be a man that has taken the shape of an
animal. We do not know if they think the same of the albatross, but
they certainly will not kill this bird, believing, like mariners
ancient and modern, that such a misdeed would be followed by bad
weather.[IV-7]

Among the natives seen by Mr Lord on Vancouver Island, ill-luck is
supposed to attend the profane killing of the ogress-squirrel, and the
conjurers wear its skin as a strong charm among their other trumpery.
As tradition tells, there once lived there a monstrous old woman with
wolfish teeth, and finger-nails like claws. She ate children, this old
hag, wiling them to her with cunning and oily words, and many were the
broken hearts and empty cradles that she left. One poor Rachel,
weeping for her child and not to be comforted because it was not,
cries aloud: Oh, Great Spirit, Great Medicine, save my son, in any
way, in any form! And the great, good Father, looking down upon the
red mother pities her; lo, the child's soft brown skin turns to fur,
and there slides from the ogress's grip no child, but the happiest,
liveliest, merriest little squirrel of all the west--but bearing, as
its descendants still bear, those four dark lines along the back that
show where the cruel claws plowed into it escaping.[IV-8]

Where monkeys are found, the idea seems often to have occurred to men,
to account for the resemblance of the monkey to the man by making of
the first a fallen or changed form of the latter. We have already seen
how the third Quiché destruction of the human race terminated thus;
and how the hurricane-ended Sun of the Air in Mexican mythology, also
left men in the apish state. The intelligence of beavers may have been
the means of winning them a similar distinction. The Flathead says
these animals are a fallen race of Indians, condemned for their
wickedness to this form, but who will yet, in the fulness of time, be
restored to their humanity.[IV-9]

As we shall see more particularly, when we come to deal with the
question of the future life, it was a common idea that the soul of the
dead took an animal shape, sometimes inhabiting another world,
sometimes this. The Thlinkeets, for example, believed that their
shamáns used to have interviews with certain spirits of the dead that
appeared to them in two forms, some as land animals, some as
marine.[IV-10]

[Sidenote: SACREDNESS OF CERTAIN BRUTES.]

The Californians round San Diego will not eat the flesh of large game,
believing such animals are inhabited by the souls of generations of
people that have died ages ago; 'eater of venison!' is a term of
reproach among them.[IV-11]

The Pimos and Maricopas had, if Bartlett's account be correct, some
curious and unusual ideas regarding their future state; saying that
the several parts of the body should be changed into separate animals;
the head would perhaps take the form of an owl, the feet become
wolves, and so on.[IV-12] The Moquis supposed that at death they should
be severally changed into animals--bears, deer, and such beasts; which
indeed, as we have already seen, they believed to have been their
original form.[IV-13]

Different reasons are given by different tribes for holding certain
animals sacred; some of these we have already had occasion to notice.
Somewhat different from most, however, is that given by the
Northern-Indian branch of the Tinneh, for not eating the flesh of
foxes, wolves, ravens, and so on. This tribe are accustomed to abandon
the bodies of their dead wherever they happen to fall, leaving them to
the maws of kites or of any other animals of prey in the neighborhood;
therefore nothing but the extremest necessity can force any member of
the nation to make use of such animals as food.[IV-14]

Certain natives of Guatemala in the province of Acalán, called by
Villagutierre Mazotecas, kept deer in so tame a state that they were
easily killed by the least active soldiers. These deer were held as
sacred by the inhabitants; for tradition told them that their greatest
god had visited them in this figure.[IV-15] The Apaches greatly respect
the bear, neither killing him nor tasting his flesh. They think that
there are spirits of divine origin within or connected with the eagle,
the owl, and all birds perfectly white. Swine, they hold to be wholly
unclean.[IV-16] Some animals are sacred to particular gods: with the
Zuñis, the frog, the turtle, and the rattlesnake were either
considered as specially under the protection of Montezuma--here
considered as the god of rain--or they were themselves the lesser
divinities of water.[IV-17]

It is sometimes necessary to guard against being misled by names. Thus
the natives of Nicaragua had gods whose name was that of a rabbit or a
deer; yet these animals were not considered as gods. The identity of
name went only to say that such and such were the gods to be invoked
in hunting such and such animals.[IV-18]

[Sidenote: THE WIND OR THUNDER BIRD.]

The reader must have already noticed how important is the part
assigned to birds in our mythology, especially in creation-myths. A
great bird is the agent of the chief deity, perhaps the chief deity
himself. The sweep of his wings is thunder; the lightnings are the
glances of his eyes.[IV-19] Chipewyans, Thlinkeets, Atnas, Koltschanes,
Kenai, and other nations give this being great prominence in their
legends.

Brinton believes this bird to be the emblem of the wind, to be "a
relic of the cosmogonal myth which explained the origin of the world
from the action of the winds, under the image of the bird, on the
primeval ocean;"[IV-20] and his view is probably correct in many cases.

The savage is ever ready to be smitten by natural powers. Ignorant and
agape with wonder, is it unnatural that he should regard, with a
superstitious awe and respect, the higher and more peculiar animal
gifts, relating them to like physical powers, and managing to mix and
confuse the whole by a strange synthesis of philosophy? Birds flew,
the winds flew; the birds were of the kith of the winds, and the winds
were of the kin of the gods who are over all. Poor, weary, painted
man, who could only toil dustily along, foot-sore and perhaps
heart-sore, with strange longings that venison and bear-meat could not
satisfy--was it very wonderful if the throbbing music and upward
flight of the clear-throated and swift-winged were to him very
mysterious and sacred things? "All living beings," say the
north-eastern Eskimos, "have the faculty of soul, but especially the
bird." From the flight and song of birds, the Mexican divined and
shadowed forth the unborn shapes of the to-come. He died too, if he
died in an odor of warlike sanctity, in the strong faith that his soul
should ultimately take the form of a bird and twitter through the ages
in the purple shadows of the trees of paradise.[IV-21]

The Kailtas on the south fork of the Trinity in California, though
they do not turn the soul into a bird, do say that as it leaves the
body a little bird carries it up to the spirit-land.[IV-22]

The Spaniards of Vizcaino's expedition, in 1602, found the
Californians of Santa Catalina Island venerating two great black
crows, which, according to Señor Galan, were probably a species of
bird known in Mexico as _rey de los zopilotes_, or king of
turkey-buzzards; he adding that these birds are still the objects of
respect and devotion among most Californian tribes.[IV-23]

As another symbol, sign, or type of the supernatural, the serpent
would naturally suggest itself at an early date to man. Its stealthy,
subtle, sinuous motion, the glittering fascination of its eyes, the
silent deathly thrust of its channeled fangs--what marvel if the
foolishest of men, like the wisest of kings, should say "I know it
not; it is a thing too wonderful for me?" It seems to be immortal:
every spring-time it cast off and crept from its former skin, a
crawling unburnt phœnix, a new animal.

Schwartz, of Berlin, affirms, from deep research in Greek and German
mythology, that the paramount germinal idea in this wide-spread
serpent-emblem is the lightning, and Dr. Brinton develops the same
opinion at some length.[IV-24]

Tlaloc, the Aztec rain-god, held in his hand a serpent-shaped piece of
gold, representing most probably the lightning. Hurakan, of the Quiché
legends, is otherwise the Strong Serpent, he who hurls below,
referring in all likelihood to storm powers as thunderer.[IV-25] This
view being accepted, the lightning-serpent is the type of
fruitfulness; the thunder storm being inseparably joined with the
thick, fertilizing summer showers.[IV-26] Born, too, in the middle
heaven, of a cloud mother and of an Ixion upon whom science cannot yet
place her finger, amid moaning breeze and threatening tempest, the
lightning is surely also akin to the wind and to the bird that is
their symbol. The amalgamation of these powers in one deity seems to
be what is indicated by such names as Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz,
Cukulcan, all titles of the God of the Air in different American
languages, and all signifying 'Bird-Serpent.'

[Sidenote: THE CROSS AND THE FOUR WINDS.]

In a tablet on the wall of a room at Palenque is a cross surmounted by
a bird, and supported by what appears to be the head of a serpent:
"The cross," says Brinton, "is the symbol of the four winds; the bird
and serpent, the rebus of the air god, their ruler."

It does not appear that savages attach any special significance of
evil to the snake, though the prepossessions of early writers almost
invariably blind them on this point.[IV-27] This rule is not without its
exceptions however; the Apaches hold that every rattlesnake contains
the soul of a bad man or is an emissary of the Evil Spirit.[IV-28] The
Piutes of Nevada have a demon-deity in the form of a serpent still
supposed to exist in the waters of Pyramid Lake. The wind when it
sweeps down among the nine islands of the lake drives the waters into
the most fantastic swirls and eddies, even when the general surface of
the lake is tolerably placid. This, say the Piutes, is the devil-snake
causing the deep to boil like a pot; this is the old serpent seeking
whom he may devour; and no native in possession of his five sober wits
will be found steering toward those troubled waters at such a
time.[IV-29]

In the Pueblo cities, among the Pecos especially, there existed in
early times an immense serpent, supposed to be sacred, and which,
according to some accounts, was fed with the flesh of his devotees.
Gregg heard an "honest ranchero" relate how, one snowy morning, he had
come upon this terrible reptile's trail, "large as that of a dragging
ox;" the ranchero did not pursue the investigation farther, not
obtruding his science, such as it was, upon his religion. This serpent
was supposed to be specially connected with Montezuma, and with rain
phenomena: it is often called "the great water-snake." It was
described to Whipple "as being as large round as a man's body; and of
exceeding great length, slowly gliding upon the water, with long wavy
folds" like the Nahant sea-serpent--to Möllhausen, as being a great
rattlesnake, possessor of power over seas, lakes, rivers and rain; as
thick as many men put together, and much longer than all the snakes in
the world; moving in great curves and destroying wicked men. The
Pueblo Indians prayed to it for rain and revered its mysterious
powers.[IV-30]

A people, called by Castañeda Tahus, apparently of Sinaloa in the
neighborhood of Culiacan, regarded certain large serpents with
sentiments of great veneration if not of worship.[IV-31] These reptiles
seem also to have been regarded with considerable reverence in
Yucatan. In 1517, Bernal Diaz noticed many figures of serpents in a
temple he saw at Campeche. Juan de Grijalva, also, found at the same
time many such figures at Champoton, among other idols of clay and
wood.[IV-32]

We have already spoken of the Mexican Tlaloc and of the frequent
appearance of the serpent in his worship; it does not appear, however,
notwithstanding Mr Squier's assertion to the contrary, that the
serpent was actually worshiped either in Yucatan or Mexico. Bernal
Diaz, indeed, says positively in one passage, speaking of a town
called Tenayuca, that "they worshiped here, in their chief temple,
three serpents;" but the stout soldier was not one to make fine
distinctions between gods and their attributes or symbols; nor, even
with the best intentions, was he or any other of the conquistadores in
a position to do justice to the faith of 'gentiles.'[IV-33]

We shall hereafter find the serpent closely connected with
Quetzalcoatl in many of his manifestations, as well as with others of
the Mexican gods.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE DOG OF AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY.]

From the serpent let us turn to the dog, with his relations the wolf
and coyote, an animal holding a respectable place in American
mythology. We have seen how many tribes derive, figuratively or
literally, their origin from him, and how often he becomes legendarily
important as the hero of some adventure or the agent of some deity. He
is generally brought before us in a rather benevolent aspect, though
an exception occurs to this in the case of the Chinooks at the mouth
of the Columbia. With these the coyote figures as the chosen medium
for the action of the Evil Spirit toward any given malevolent end--as
the form taken by the Evil One to counteract some beneficence of the
Good Spirit toward the poor Indian whom he loves.[IV-34]

Very different from this is the character of that Coyote of the
Cahrocs whose good deeds we have so often had occasion to set forth.
One feat of his yet remains to be told--how he stocked the river with
salmon. Chareya, the creator, had made salmon, but he had put them in
the big-water, and made a great fish-dam at the mouth of the Klamath,
so that they could not go up; and this dam was closed with something
of the nature of a white man's key, which key was given in charge to
two old hags, not wholly unfamiliar to us, to keep and watch over it
night and day, so that no Cahroc should get near it. Now fish being
wanting to the Cahrocs, they were sorely pushed by hunger, and the
voice of women and little children was heard imploring food. The
Coyote determined to help them; he swore by the stool of Chareya that
before another moon their lodges should drip with salmon, and the very
dogs be satisfied withal. So he traveled down the Klamath many days'
journey till he came to the mouth of the river and saw the big-water
and heard the thunder of its waves. Up he went to the hut of the old
women, rapped, and asked hospitality for the night; and he was so
polite and debonair that the crones could find no excuse for refusing
him. He entered the place and threw himself down by the fire, warming
himself while they prepared salmon for supper, which they ate without
offering him a bite. All night long he lay by the fire pretending to
sleep, but thinking over his plans and waiting for the event that
should put him in possession of the mighty key that he saw hanging so
high above his reach. In the morning one of the hags took down the key
and started off toward the dam to get some fish for breakfast. Like a
flash the Coyote leaped at her, hurling himself between her feet;
heels over head she pitched, and the key flew far from her hands.
Before she well knew what had hurt her the Coyote stood at the dam
with the key in his teeth, wrenching at the fastenings. They gave way;
and with a great roar the green water raced through, all ashine with
salmon, utterly destroying and breaking down the dam, so that ever
after fish found free way up the Klamath.

[Sidenote: COYOTES MUST NOT DANCE WITH STARS.]

The end of the poor Coyote was rather sad, considering his kindness of
heart and the many services he had rendered the Cahrocs. Like too many
great personages, he grew proud and puffed up with the adulation of
flatterers and sycophants--proud of his courage and cunning, and of
the success that had crowned his great enterprises for the good of
mankind--proud that he had twice deceived and outwitted the guardian
hags to whom Chareya had entrusted the fire and the salmon--so proud
that he determined to have a dance through heaven itself, having
chosen as his partner a certain star that used to pass quite close by
a mountain where he spent a good deal of his time. So he called out
to the star to take him by the paw and they would go round the world
together for a night; but the star only laughed, and winked in an
excessively provoking way from time to time. The Coyote persisted
angrily in his demand, and barked and barked at the star all round
heaven, till the twinkling thing grew tired of his noise and told him
to be quiet and he should be taken next night. Next night the star
came quite up close to the cliff where the Coyote stood, who leaping
was able to catch on. Away they danced together through the blue
heavens. Fine sport it was for a while; but oh, it grew bitter cold up
there for a Coyote of the earth, and it was an awful sight to look
down to where the broad Klamath lay like a slack bowstring and the
Cahroc villages like arrow-heads. Woe for the Coyote! his numb paws
have slipped their hold on his bright companion; dark is the partner
that leads the dance now, and the name of him is Death. Ten long snows
the Coyote is in falling, and when he strikes the earth he is "smashed
as flat as a willow-mat".--Coyotes must not dance with stars.[IV-35]

FOOTNOTES:

[IV-1] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. v., pp. 1-14, ap. pp.
25-6.

[IV-2] _Lord's Naturalist in Vancouver Island_, vol. ii., pp. 32-4.

[IV-3] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV-4] _Dall's Alaska_, p. 145.

[IV-5] _Codex Vaticanus_ (_Mex._), in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. ii., plate 75; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_
(Vaticano), in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 197, tav.
lxxv.; _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 222-3, plate lxxv. It will be seen that I have
trusted more to the plate itself than to the Italian explanation. As
to Kingsborough's translation of that explanation, it is nothing but a
gloss with additions to and omissions from the original.

[IV-6] _Gage's New Survey_, p. 334.

[IV-7] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 30.

[IV-8] _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 52-4.

[IV-9] _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 253.

[IV-10] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 422-3.

[IV-11] _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 215.

[IV-12] _Bartlett's Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 222.

[IV-13] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 86.

[IV-14] _Hearne's Journey_, p. 341.

[IV-15] _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 43.

[IV-16] _Charlton_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[IV-17] _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 39-40, in _Pac. R. R.
Rept._, vol. iii.

[IV-18] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 54-5.

[IV-19] Swinburne, _Anactoria_, has found an allied idea worthy of his
sublime verse:--

'Cast forth of heaven, with feet of awful gold,
And plumeless wings that make the bright air blind,
Lightning, with thunder for a hound behind,
Hunting through fields unfurrowed and unsown--'

[IV-20] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 205. The Norse belief is akin to this:--

'The giant Hrsuelgur,
At the end of heaven,
Sits in an eagle's form;
'Tis said that from his wings
The cold winds sweep
Over all the nations.'

_Vafthrudvers maal_; Grenville Pigott's translation, in _Scandinavian
Mythology_, p. 27.

Scott, _Pirate_, chap. v., in the 'Song of the Tempest,' which he
translates from Norna's mouth, shows that the same idea is still found
in the Shetland Islands:--

'Stern eagle of the far north-west,
Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt,
Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness, ...
Cease thou the waving of thy pinions,
Let the ocean repose in her dark strength;
Cease thou the flashing of thine eyes,
Let the thunderbolt sleep in the armory of Odin.'

[IV-21] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265;
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5.

[IV-22] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV-23] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 713: 'The entire
tribes of the Californian Indiania [sic] appear to have had a great
devotion and veneration for the Condor or Yellow-headed Vulture.'
_Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, May 25th, 1860. 'Cathartes Californianus,
the largest rapacious bird of North America.' _Baird's Birds of N.
Am._, p. 5. 'This bird is an object of great veneration or worship
among the Indian tribes of every portion of the state.' _Reid_, in
_Los Angeles Star_.

[IV-24] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 112.

[IV-25] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 46-71; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 14-15; _Gama_, _Dos Piedras_,
pt. ii., pp. 76-7.

[IV-26] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 500.

[IV-27] _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 217.

[IV-28] _Charlton_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[IV-29] _Virginia City Chronicle_, in _S. F. Daily Ev'g Post_, of Aug.
12th, 1872.

[IV-30] _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., pp. 271-2; _Whipple, Ewbank,
and Turner's Rept._, pp. 38-9, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.;
_Möllhausen_, _Tagebuch_, p. 170; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp.
164-5. Certain later travelers deny all the foregoing as 'fiction and
fable;' meaning, probably, that they saw nothing of it, or that it
does not exist at present. _Wand_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, p. 193;
_Meline's Two Thousand Miles_, p. 256.

[IV-31] _Castañeda_, _Voy. de Cibola_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voyages_,
série i., tom. ix., p. 150.

[IV-32] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 3, 8.

[IV-33] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 136; _Schoolcraft's Arch._,
vol. v., p. 105.

[IV-34] _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 218.

[IV-35] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.; Boscana, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp.
259-262, describes certain other Californians as worshiping for their
chief god something in the form of a stuffed coyote.

CHAPTER V.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

ESKIMO WITCHCRAFT -- THE TINNEH AND THE KONIAGAS -- KUGANS OF
THE ALEUTS -- THE THLINKEETS, THE HAIDAHS, AND THE NOOTKAS --
PARADISE LOST OF THE OKANAGANS -- THE SALISH, THE CLALLAMS, THE
CHINOOKS, THE CAYUSES, THE WALLA WALLAS, AND THE NEZ PERCÉS --
SHOSHONE GHOULS -- NORTHERN CALIFORNIA -- THE SUN AT MONTEREY
-- OUIOT AND CHINIGCHINICH -- ANTAGONISTIC GODS OF LOWER
CALIFORNIA -- COMANCHES, APACHES, AND NAVAJOS -- MONTEZUMA OF
THE PUEBLOS -- MOQUIS AND MOJAVES -- PRIMEVAL RACE OF NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA.

We now come to the broadest, whether or not it be the most important,
branch of our subject, namely, the gods and spirits that men worship
or know of. Commencing at the extreme north, we shall follow them
through the various nations of our territory toward the south. Very
wild and conflicting is the general mass of evidence bearing on a
belief in supernatural existences. Not only from the nature of the
subject is it allied to questions and matters the most abstruse and
transcendental--in the expression of which the exactest dialectic
terminology must often be at fault; much more the rude and stammering
speech of savages--but it is also apt to call up prejudices of the
most warping and contradictory kind in the minds of those through
whose relation it must pass to us. However hopeless the task, I will
strive to hold an equal beam of historical truth, and putting away
speculations of either extreme, try to give the naked expression of
the belief of the peoples we deal with--however stupid, however
absurd--and not what they ought to believe, or may be supposed to
believe, according to the ingenious speculations of different
theorists.

[Sidenote: ESKIMO SHAMANISM.]

The Eskimos do not appear to recognize any supreme deity, but only an
indefinite number of supernatural beings varying in name, power, and
character--the evil seeming to predominate. They carry on the person a
small ivory image rudely carved to represent some animal, as a kind of
talisman; these are thought to further success in hunting, fishing and
other pursuits, but can hardly be looked upon with any great
reverence, as they are generally to be bought of their owners for a
reasonable price. All supernatural business is transacted through the
medium of shamáns;--functionaries answering to the medicine-men of
eastern Indian tribes;--of these there are both male and female, each
practising on or for the benefit of his or her own respective sex. The
rites of their black art differ somewhat, according to Dall, from
those of their Tinneh neighbors, and very much from those of the
Tschuktschi and other Siberian tribes; and their whole religion may be
summed up as a vague fear finding its expression in witchcraft.[V-1]

The Tinneh, that great people stretching north of the fifty-fifth
parallel nearly to the Arctic Ocean and to the Pacific, do not seem in
any of their various tribes to have a single expressed idea with
regard to a supreme power. The Loucheux branch recognize a certain
personage, resident in the moon, whom they supplicate for success in
starting on a hunting expedition. This being once lived among them as
a poor ragged boy that an old woman had found and was bringing up; and
who made himself ridiculous to his fellows by making a pair of very
large snow-shoes; for the people could not see what a starveling like
him should want with shoes of such unusual size. Times of great
scarcity troubled the hunters, and they would often have fared badly
had they not invariably on such occasions come across a new broad
trail that led to a head or two of freshly killed game. They were glad
enough to get the game and without scruples as to its appropriation;
still they felt curious as to whence it came and how. Suspicion at
last pointing to the boy and his great shoes, as being in some way
implicated in the affair, he was watched. It soon became evident that
he was indeed the benefactor of the Loucheux, and the secret hunter
whose quarry had so often replenished their empty pots; yet the people
were far from being adequately grateful, and continued to treat him
with little kindness or respect. On one occasion they refused him a
certain piece of fat--him who had so often saved their lives by his
timely bounty! That night the lad disappeared, leaving only his
clothes behind, hanging on a tree. He returned to them in a month,
however, appearing as a man and dressed as a man. He told them that he
had taken up his home in the moon; that he would always look down with
a kindly eye to their success in hunting; but he added, that as a
punishment for their shameless greed and ingratitude in refusing him
the piece of fat, all animals should be lean the long winter through,
and fat only in summer; as has since been the case.

[Sidenote: SPIRITS WITH THE KONIAGAS AND TINNEH.]

According to Hearne, the Tinneh believe in a kind of spirits, or
fairies, called _nantena_, which people the earth, the sea, and the
air, and are instrumental for both good and evil. Some of them believe
in a good spirit called Tihugun, 'my old friend,' supposed to reside
in the sun and in the moon; they have also a bad spirit, Chutsain,
apparently only a personification of death, and for this reason called
bad.

They have no regular order of shamáns; any one when the spirit moves
him may take upon himself their duties and pretensions, though some by
happy chances, or peculiar cunning, are much more highly esteemed in
this regard than others, and are supported by voluntary contributions.
The conjurer often shuts himself in his tent and abstains from food
for days till his earthly grossness thins away, and the spirits and
things unseen are constrained to appear at his behest. The younger
Tinneh care for none of these things; the strong limb and the keen
eye, holding their own well in the jostle of life, mock at the terrors
of the invisible; but as the pulses dwindle with disease or age, and
the knees strike together in the shadow of impending death, the shamán
is hired to expel the evil things of which the patient is possessed.
Among the Tacullies, a confession is often resorted to at this stage,
on the truth and accuracy of which depend the chances of a recovery.
As Harmon says, "the crimes which they most frequently confess
discover something of their moral character and therefore deserve to
be mentioned;" but in truth I cannot mention them; both with women and
with men a filthiness and bestiality worse than the sins of Sodom and
Gomorrah defy the stomach of description. The same thing is true of
the tedious and disgusting rites performed by the Tinneh shamáns over
the sick and at various other emergencies. They blow on the invalid,
leap about him or upon him, shriek, sing, groan, gesticulate, and foam
at the mouth, with other details of hocus-pocus varying indefinitely
with tribe and locality. The existence of a soul is for the most part
denied, and the spirits with whom dealings are had are not spirits
that were ever in or of men; neither are they regarded by men with any
sentiment of love or kindly respect; fear and self-interest are the
bonds--where any bonds exist--that link the Tinneh with powers
supernal or infernal.[V-2]

The Koniagas have the usual legion of spirits haunting water, earth,
and air, whose wrath is only to be appeased by offerings to the
shamáns; and sometimes, though very rarely, by human sacrifices of
slaves. They have also a chief deity or spirit, called Shljam Schoá,
and a power for evil called Eyak.[V-3]

Of the Aleuts, it is said that their rites showed a much higher
religious development than was to be found among any of their
neighbors; the labors of the Russian priests have, however, been
successful enough among them to obliterate all remembrance of aught
but the outlines of their ancient cult. They recognize a creator-god,
but without worshiping him; he had made the world, but he did not
guide it; men had nothing to do any longer with him, but only with the
lesser _kugans_, or spirits, to whom the direction and care of earthly
affairs have been committed. The stars and the sun and the moon were
worshiped, or the spirits of them among others, and avenged themselves
on those that adored them not. The offended sun smote the eyes of a
scoffer with blindness, the moon stoned him to death, and the stars
constrained him to count their number--hopeless task that always left
the victim a staring maniac. The shamáns do not seem to have enjoyed
that distinction among the Aleuts that their monopoly of mediation
between man and the invisible world gave them among other nations.
They were generally very poor, living in want and dying in misery;
they had no part nor lot in the joys or sorrows of social life; never
at feast, at wedding, or at a funeral was their face seen. They lived
and wandered men forbid, driven to and fro by phantoms that were their
masters and not their slaves. The Aleuts had no permanent idols, nor
any worshiping-places built with hands; near every village was some
sanctified high place or rock, sacred as a Sinai against the foot of
woman or youth, and whoever profaned it became immediately mad or sick
to death. Only the men and the old men visited the place leaving there
their offerings of skins or feathers with unknown mysterious
ceremonies.

The use of amulets was universal; and more than shield or spear to the
warrior going to battle was a belt of sea-weed woven in magic knots.
What a philosopher's stone was to a Roger Bacon or a Paracelsus, was
the _tkhimkee_, a marvelous pebble thrown up at rare intervals by the
sea, to the Aleutian hunter. No beast could resist its attraction; he
that carried it had no need to chase his prey, he had only to wait and
strike as the animal walked up to its death. Another potent charm was
grease taken from a dead man's body; the spearhead touched with this
was sure to reach a mortal spot in the whale at which it was hurled.

[Sidenote: ALEUTIAN MYSTERY-DANCE.]

There are dim Aleutian traditions of certain religious night dances
held in the month of December. Wooden idols, or figures of some kind,
were made for the occasion and carried from island to island with many
esoteric ceremonies. Then was to be seen a marvelous sight. The men
and women were put far apart; in the middle of each party a wooden
figure was set up; certain great wooden masks or blinders were put on
each person, so contrived that the wearer could see nothing outside a
little circle round his feet. Then every one stripped, and there upon
the snow, under the moonlight, in the bitter Arctic night, danced
naked before the image--say rather before the god, for as they danced
a kugan descended and entered into the wooden figure. Woe to him or to
her whose drift-wood mask fell, or was lifted, in the whirl of that
awful dance; the stare of the Gorgon was not more fatal than a glance
of the demon that possessed the idol; and for any one to look on one
of the opposite sex, however it came about, he might be even counted
as one dead. When the dance was over, the idols and the masks were
broken and cast away. It may be added that such masks as this were
needed, even by prophets in their interviews with the great spirits
that know all mortal consequences; and that when a man died such a
mask was put over his eyes--O naked and shivering soul, face to face
with the darkest kugan of all we will shelter thee what we can.[V-4]

The Thlinkeets are said not to believe in any supreme being. They have
that Yehl, the Raven, and that Khanukh, the Wolf, whom we are already
to some extent acquainted with; but neither the exact rank and
character of these in the supernatural world, nor even their
comparative rank, can be established above contradiction. Thus Yehl is
said to be the creator of all beings and things, yet we have not
forgotten how Khanukh wrung from the unwilling lips of him the
confession: Thou art older that I. It is again said of Yehl that his
power is unlimited; but alas, we have seen him helpless in the magic
darkness raised by Khanukh, and howling as a frightened child might do
in a gloomy corridor. The nature of Yehl is kind and he loves men,
while the reverse is generally considered true of Khanukh; but Yehl,
too, when his anger is stirred up sends sickness and evil fortune.
Yehl existed before his birth upon earth; he cannot die nor even
become older. Where the sources of the Nass are, whence the east-wind
comes, is Nass-Shakieyehl, the home of Yehl; the east-wind brings news
of him. By an unknown mother a son was born to him, who loves mankind
even more than his father, and provides their food in due season. To
conclude the matter, Yehl is, if not the central figure, at least the
most prominent in the Thlinkeet pantheon, and the alpha and the omega
of Thlinkeet philosophy and theology is summed up in their favorite
aphorism: As Yehl acted and lived, so also will we live and do. After
Yehl and Khanukh, the Thlinkeets believe in the brother and sister,
Chethl and Ahgishanakhou, the Thunder or Thunder-bird, and the
Under-ground Woman. Chethl is a kind of great northern rukh that
snatches up and swallows a whale without difficulty, while his wings
and eyes produce thunder and lightning as already described; his
sister Ahgishanakhou sits alone below and guards the Irminsul that
supports the world of the North-west.[V-5]

[Sidenote: THE THLINKEET SHAMÁN.]

The Thlinkeets have no idols, unless the little images sometimes
carried by the magicians for charming with may be called by that name;
they have no worship nor priests, unless their sorcerers and the rites
of them may be entitled to these appellations. These sorcerers or
shamáns seem to be much respected; their words and actions are
generally believed and acquiesced in by all; though the death of a
patient or victim, or supposed victim, is sometimes avenged upon them
by the relatives of the deceased. Shamánism is mostly hereditary; as a
natural course of things the long array of apparatus, masks, dresses,
and so on, is inherited by the son or grandson of the deceased
conjurer. The young man must, however, prove himself worthy of his
position before it becomes assured to him, by calling up and
communicating with spirits. The future shamán retires into a lonely
forest or up some mountain, where he lives retired, feeding only on
the roots of the _panax-horridum_, and waiting for the spirits to come
to him, which they are generally supposed to do in from two to four
weeks. If all go well the meeting takes place, and the chief of the
spirits sends to the neophyte a river-otter, in the tongue of which
animal is supposed to be hid the whole power and secret of shamánism.
The man meets the beast face to face, and four times, each time in a
different fashion, he pronounces the syllable 'Oh!' Upon this the
otter falls instantly, reaching out at the same time its tongue, which
the man cuts off and preserves; hiding it away in a close place, for
if any one not initiated should look on this talisman the sight would
drive him mad. The otter is skinned by the new shamán and the skin
kept for a sign of his profession, while the flesh is buried; it was
unlawful to kill a river-otter save on such occasions as have been
described. If, however, the spirits will not visit the would-be
shamán, nor give him any opportunity to get the otter-tongue as
described above, the neophyte visits the tomb of a dead shamán and
keeps an awful vigil over night, holding in his living mouth a finger
of the dead man or one of his teeth; this constrains the spirits very
powerfully to send the necessary otter. When all these things have
been done the shamán returns to his family emaciated and worn out, and
his new powers are immediately put to the test. His reputation depends
on the number of spirits at his command. The spirits are called _yek_,
and to every conjurer a certain number of them are attached as
familiars, while there are others on whom he may call in an emergency;
indeed every man of whatever rank or profession is attended by a
familiar spirit or demon, who only abandons his charge when the man
becomes exceedingly bad. The world of spirits in general is divided
into three classes: _keeyek_, _tákeeyek_, and _tékeeyek_. The
first-class, 'the Upper Ones,' dwell in the north and seem to be
connected with the northern lights; they are the spirits of the brave
fallen in battle. The other two classes are the spirits of those that
died a natural death, and their dwelling is called _takankóu_. The
tákeeyek, 'land-spirits,' appear to the shamáns in the form of land
animals. With regard to the tékeeyek, 'sea-spirits' which appear in
the form of marine animals, there is some dispute among the Thlinkeets
as to whether these spirits were ever the spirits of men like those of
the other two classes, or whether they were merely the souls of sea
animals.

The supreme feat of a conjurer's power is to throw one of his liege
spirits into the body of one who refuses to believe in his power; upon
which the possessed is taken with swooning and fits. The hair of a
shamán is never cut. As among the Aleuts, a wooden mask is necessary
to his safe intercourse with any spirit; separate masks are worn for
interviews with separate spirits. When a shamán sickens, his relatives
fast for his recovery; when he dies, his body is not burned like that
of other men, but put in a box which is set up on a high frame. The
first night following his death his body is left in that corner of his
hut in which he died. On the second night it is carried to another
corner, and so on for four nights till it has occupied successively
all the corners of the yourt, all the occupants of which are supposed
to fast during this time. On the fifth day the body is tied down on a
board, and two bones that the dead man had often used in his rites
when alive are stuck, the one in his hair and the other in the bridge
of his nose. The head is then covered with a willow basket, and the
body taken to its place of sepulture, which is always near the
sea-shore; no Thlinkeet ever passes the spot without dropping a little
tobacco into the water to conciliate the manes of the mighty
dead.[V-6]

[Sidenote: SOLAR SPIRIT OF THE HAIDAHS.]

The Haidahs believe the great solar spirit to be the creator and
supreme ruler; they do not however confuse him with the material sun,
who is a shining man walking round the fixed earth and wearing a
"radiated" crown. Sometimes the moon is also connected in a confused
indefinite way with the great spirit. There is an evil spirit who,
according to Dunn, is provided with hoofs and horns, though nothing is
said as to the fashion of them, whether orthodox or not. The Haidahs,
at least those seen by Mr Poole on Queen Charlotte Island, have no
worship, nor did they look upon themselves as in any way responsible
to any deity for their actions. As with their northern neighbors, a
belief in goblins, spectres, and sorcery seems to be the sum of their
religion.

With some at least of the Haidahs there was in existence a rite of
this sorcery attended by circumstances of more than ordinary barbarity
and ferocity. When the salmon season is over and the provisions of
winter have been stored away, feasting and conjuring begin. The
chief--who seems to be the principal sorcerer, and indeed to possess
little authority save from his connection with the preterhuman
powers--goes off to the loneliest and wildest retreat he knows of or
can discover in the mountains or forest, and half starves himself
there for some weeks till he is worked up to a frenzy of religious
insanity and the _nawloks_--fearful beings of some kind not
human--consent to communicate with him by voices or otherwise. During
all this observance, the chief is called _taamish_, and woe to the
unlucky Haidah who happens by chance so much as to look on him during
its continuance; even if the taamish do not instantly slay the
intruder, his neighbors are certain to do so when the thing comes to
their knowledge, and if the victim attempt to conceal the affair, or
do not himself confess it, the most cruel tortures are added to his
fate. At last the inspired demoniac returns to his village, naked save
a bear-skin or a ragged blanket, with a chaplet on his head and a red
band of alder-bark about his neck. He springs on the first person he
meets, bites out and swallows one or more mouthfuls of the man's
living flesh wherever he can fix his teeth, then rushes to another and
another, repeating his revolting meal till he falls into a torpor from
his sudden and half-masticated surfeit of flesh. For some days after
this he lies in a kind of coma, "like an over-gorged beast of prey,"
as Dunn says; the same observer adding that his breath during that
time is "like an exhalation from a grave." The victims of this
ferocity dare not resist the bite of the taamish; on the contrary,
they are sometimes willing to offer themselves to the ordeal, and are
always proud of its scars.[V-7]

[Sidenote: NOOTKA GODS.]

The Nootkas acknowledge the existence of a great personage called
Quahootze, whose habitation is apparently in the sky, but of whose
nature little is known. When a storm begins to rage dangerously the
Nootkas climb to the top of their houses and looking upwards to this
great god, they beat drums and chant and call upon his name, imploring
him to still the tempest. They fast, as something agreeable to the
same deity, before setting out on the hunt, and, if their success
warrant it, hold a feast in his honor after their return. This
festival is held usually in December, and it was formerly the custom
to finish it with a human sacrifice, an atrocity now happily fallen
into disuse; a boy, with knives stuck through the superficial flesh of
his arms, legs, and sides, being exhibited as a substitute for the
ancient victim.

Matlose is a famous hob-goblin of the Nootkas; he is a very Caliban of
spirits; his head is like the head of something that might have been a
man but is not; his uncouth bulk is horrid with black bristles; his
monstrous teeth and nails are like the fangs and claws of a bear.
Whoever hears his terrible voice falls like one smitten, and his
curved claws rend a prey into morsels with a single stroke.

The Nootkas, like so many American peoples, have a tradition of a
supernatural teacher and benefactor, an old man that came to them up
the Sound long ago. His canoe was copper, and the paddles of it
copper; every thing he had on him or about him was of the same metal.
He landed and instructed the men of that day in many things; telling
them that he came from the sky, that their country should be
eventually destroyed, that they should all die, but after death rise
and live with him above. Then all the people rose up angry, and took
his canoe from him, and slew him; a crime from which their descendants
have derived much benefit, for copper and the use of it have remained
with them ever since. Huge images, carved in wood, still stand in
their houses intended to represent the form and hold in remembrance
the visit of this old man--by which visit is not improbably intended
to be signified an avatar or incarnation of that chief deity, or
great spirit, worshiped by many Californian tribes as 'the Old Man
above.'

The Ahts regard the moon and the sun as their highest deities, the
moon being the husband and the sun the wife. To the moon chiefly, as
the more powerful deity, they pray for what they require; and to both
moon and sun, as to all good deities, their prayers are addressed
directly and without the intervention of the sorcerers.
Quawteaht--which seems to be a local Aht modification of Quahootze--who
made most things that are in the world, was the first to teach the
people to worship these luminaries who, over all and seeing all, are
more powerful than himself, though more distant and less active. There
is also that Tootooch, thunder-bird, of which so much has been already
said.

The Nootkas, in general, believe in the existence of numberless
spirits of various kinds, and in the efficacy of sorcery. As in
neighboring nations, the shamán gains or renews his inspiration by
fasting and solitary meditation in some retired place, re-appearing at
the end of his vigil half-starved and half-insane, but filled with the
black virtue of his art. He does not generally collect a meal of
living human flesh like the taamish of the preceding family, but he is
satisfied with what his teeth can tear from the corpses in the
burial-places. Old women are admitted to a share in the powers of
sorcery and prophecy and the interpretation of omens and dreams; the
latter a most important function, as few days and nights pass over a
Nootka house that do not give occasion by some vision or occurrence
for the office of the sibyl or the augur.[V-8]

[Sidenote: PARADISE LOST OF THE OKANAGANS.]

The Okanagans believe in a good spirit or master of life, called
Elemehumkillanwaist or Skyappe; and in a bad spirit Kishtsamah or
Chacha; both moving constantly through the air, so that nothing can be
done without their knowledge. The Okanagans have no worship public or
private, but before engaging in anything of importance they offer up a
short prayer to the good spirit for assistance; again on state
occasions, a pipe is passed round and each one smokes three whiffs
toward the rising sun, the same toward the setting, and the same
respectively toward the heaven above and the earth beneath. Then they
have their great mythic ruler and heroine, Scomalt, whose story is
intimately connected with a kind of Okanagan fall or paradise lost.
Long ago, so long ago that the sun was quite young and very small and
no bigger than a star, there was an island far out at sea called
Samahtumiwhoolah, or the White Man's Island. It was inhabited by a
white race of gigantic stature, and governed by a tall fair woman
called Scomalt; and she was a great and strong 'medicine,' this
Scomalt. At last the peace of the island was destroyed by war, and the
noise of battle was heard, the white men fighting the one with the
other; and Scomalt was exceedingly wroth. She rose up and said: lo,
now I will drive these wicked far from me; my soul shall be no longer
vexed concerning them, neither shall they trouble the faithful of my
people with their strivings any more. And she drove the rebellious
together to the uttermost end of the island, and broke off the piece
of land on which they were huddled, and pushed it out to sea to drift
whither it would. This floating island was tossed to and fro many days
and buffeted of the winds exceedingly, so that all the people thereon
died save one man and one woman, who, seeing their island was ready to
sink, made themselves a canoe and gat them away toward the west. After
paddling day and night for many suns, they came to certain islands,
whence steering through them, they came at last to where the mainland
was, being the territory that the Okanagans now inhabit; it was,
however, much smaller in those days, having grown much since. This man
and woman were so sorely weather-beaten when they landed that they
found their original whiteness quite gone, and a dusky reddish color
in its place. All the people of the continent are descended from this
pair, and the dingy skin of their storm-tossed ancestors has become a
characteristic of the race. And even, as in time past the wrath of the
fair Scomalt loosed the island of their ancestors from its mainland,
and sent it adrift with its burden of sinful men, so in a time to
come, the deep lakes, that like some Hannibal's vinegar soften the
rocks of the foundations of the world, and the rivers that run for
ever and gnaw them away, shall set the earth afloat again; then shall
the end of the world be, the awful _itsowleigh_.[V-9]

The Salish tribes believe the sun to be the chief deity, and certain
ceremonies, described by Mr Lord as having taken place on the death of
a chief, seem to indicate that fire is in some way connected with the
great light.[V-10] The chief is ex officio a kind of priest, presiding
for the most part at the various observances by which the deity of the
sun is recognized. There is the usual belief in sorcery and second
sight, and individuals succeed, by force of special gifts for fasting
and lonely meditation, in having themselves accounted conjurers--an
honor of dubious profit, as medicine-men are constantly liable to be
shot by an enraged relative of any one whose death they may be
supposed to have brought about.

[Sidenote: DEITIES OF THE CLALLAMS.]

The Clallams, a coast tribe on the mainland opposite the south end of
Vancouver Island, have a principal good deity called by various names,
and an evil spirit called Skoocoom; to these some add a certain
Teyutlma, 'the genius of good fortune.' The medicine-men of the tribe
are supposed to have much influence both for good and evil with these
spirits and with all the demon race, or _sehuiáb_ as the latter are
sometimes called. In this tribe the various conjurers are united by
the bonds of a secret society, the initiation into which is attended
by a good deal of ceremony and expense. Three days and three nights
must the novice of the order fast alone in a mysterious lodge prepared
for him, round which during all that time the brethren already
initiated sing and dance. This period elapsed, during which it would
seem that the old nature has been killed out of him, he is taken up
like one dead and soused into the nearest cold water, where he is
washed till he revives; which thing they call "washing the dead." When
his senses are sufficiently gathered to him, he is set on his feet;
upon which he runs off into the forest, whence he soon reappears a
perfect medicine-man, rattle in hand and decked out with the various
trappings of his profession. He then parts all his worldly gear among
his friends, himself henceforth to be supported only by the fees of
his new calling.[V-11]

Ikánam, the creator of the universe, is a powerful deity among the
Chinooks, who have a mountain named after him from a belief that he
there turned himself into stone. After him, or before him as many say,
comes Italapas, the Coyote, who created men after an imperfect
fashion,[V-12] taught them how to make nets and catch salmon, how to
make a fire, and how to cook; for this the first fruits of the fishing
season are always sacred to him, and his figure is to be found carved
on the head of almost every Chinook canoe on the Columbia. They have a
fire-spirit, an evil spirit, and a body of familiar spirits,
_tamanowas_. Each person has his special spirit, selected by him at an
early age, sometimes by fasting and other mortification of the flesh,
sometimes by the adoption of the first object the child or young man
sees, or thinks he sees, on visiting the woods. These spirits have a
great effect on the imagination of the Chinooks, and their supposed
directions are followed under pain of mysterious and awful
punishments; people converse--"particularly when in the water"--with
them, apparently talking to themselves in low monotonous tones. Some
say that when a man dies his tamanowa passes to his son; but the whole
matter is darkened with much mystery and secrecy; the name of one's
familiar spirit or guardian never being mentioned even to the nearest
friend. A similar custom forbids the mention of a dead man's name, at
least till many years have elapsed after the bereavement.

The Chinook medicine-men are possessed of the usual powers of converse
and mediation with the spirits good and evil; there are two classes of
them, employed in all cases of sickness--the _etaminuas_, or priests,
who intercede for the soul of the patient, and, if necessary, for its
safe passage to the land of spirits--and the _keelalles_, or doctors,
sometimes women, whose duty it is to administer medical as well as
spiritual aid.[V-13]

With the Cayuses and the Walla-Wallas any one may become a
medicine-man; among the Nez Percés the office belongs to an hereditary
order. Women are sometimes trained to the profession, but they are not
believed to hold such extreme powers as the males, nor are they
murdered on the supposed exercise of some fatal influence. For, as
with the Chinooks[V-14] so here, the reputation of sorcerer is at once
the most terrible to others and the most dangerous to one's self that
one can have. His is a power of life, and death; his evil eye can
wither and freeze a hated life if not as swiftly at least as surely as
the stare of the Medusa; he is mortal, however--he can slay your
friend or yourself, and death is bitter, but then how sweet an anodyne
is revenge! There is no strong magic can avail when the heart's blood
trickles down the avenger's shaft, no cunning enchantment that can
keep the life in when his tomahawk crumbles the skull like a
potsherd--and so it comes about that the conjurers walk everywhere
with their life in their hand, and are constrained to be very wary in
their exercise of their nefarious powers.[V-15]

[Sidenote: SHOSHONE DEMONS.]

The Shoshone legends people certain parts of the mountains of Montana
with little imps or demons called _ninumbees_, who are about two feet
long, perfectly naked, and provided each with a tail. These limbs of
the evil one are accustomed to eat up any unguarded infant they may
find, leaving in its stead one of their own baneful race. When the
mother comes to suckle what she supposes to be her child, the fiendish
changeling seizes her breast and begins to devour it; then, although
her screams and the alarm thereby given soon force the malicious imp
to make his escape, there is no hope further; she dies within the
twenty-four hours, and if not well watched in the meantime, the little
demon will even return and make an end of her by finishing his
interrupted meal. There is another variety of these hobgoblins call
_pahonahs_, 'water-infants,' who devour women and children as do their
brother-fiends of the mountain, and complete the ring of ghoulish
terror that closes round the Shoshone child and mother.[V-16]

The Californian tribes, taken as a whole, are pretty uniform in the
main features of their theogonic beliefs. They seem, without
exception, to have had a hazy conception of a lofty, almost supreme
being; for the most part referred to as a Great Man, the Old Man
Above, the One Above; attributing to him, however, as is usual in such
cases, nothing but the vaguest and most negative functions and
qualities. The real, practical power that most interested them, who
had most to do with them and they with him, was a demon, or body of
demons, of a tolerably pronounced character. In the face of divers
assertions to the effect that no such thing as a devil proper has ever
been found in savage mythology, we would draw attention to the
following extract from the _Pomo_ manuscript of Mr Powers--a gentleman
who, both by his study and by personal investigation, has made himself
one of the best qualified authorities on the belief of the native
Californian, and whose dealings have been for the most part with
tribes that have never had any friendly intercourse with white
men:--"Of course the thin and meagre imagination of the American
savages was not equal to the creation of Milton's magnificent imperial
Satan, or of Goethe's Mephistopheles, with his subtle intellect, his
vast powers, his malignant mirth; but in so far as the Indian fiends
or devils have the ability, they are wholly as wicked as these. They
are totally bad, they have no good thing in them, they think only
evil; but they are weak and undignified and absurd; they are as much
beneath Satan as the 'Big Indians' who invent them are inferior in
imagination to John Milton."[V-17]

A definite location is generally assigned to the evil one as his
favorite residence or resort; thus the Californians in the county of
Siskiyou, give over Devil's Castle, its mount and lake, to the
malignant spirits, and avoid the vicinity of these places with all
possible care.

[Sidenote: SACRED FIRES.]

The medicine-man of these people is a personage of some importance,
dressing in the most costly furs; he is a non-combatant, not coming on
the field till after the fight; among other duties, it is absolutely
necessary for him to visit any camp from which the tribe has been
driven by the enemy, there to chant the death-song and appease the
angry spirit that wrought this judgment of defeat, for only after this
has been done is it thought safe to light again the lodge-fires on the
old hearths. Once lit these lodge-fires are never allowed to go out
during times of peace; it would be a bad omen, and omens are
everything with these men, and deducible from all things. The power of
prophecy is thoroughly believed in, and is credited not only to
special seers, but also to distinguished warriors going into battle;
in the latter case, as far at least as their own several fate is
concerned; this, according to Mr Miller, they often predict with
startling accuracy.[V-18]

There is a strange sacredness mixed up with the sweat-house and its
use, among the Cahrocs, the Eurocs, and many other tribes. The men of
every village spend the winter and rainy season in its warm shelter;
but squaws are forbidden to enter, under penalty of death, except when
they are initiated into the ranks of the 'medicines.' So consistent
are the Indians in this matter, that women are not allowed even to
gather the wood that is to be burned in the sacred fire of a
sweat-house; all is done by men, and that only with certain
precautions and ceremonies. The sacred fire is lit every year in
September by a 'medicine' who has gone out into the forest and fasted
and meditated for ten days; and, till a certain time has elapsed, no
secular eye must behold so much as the smoke of it under awful
penalties. The flame once burning is never suffered to go out till the
spring begins to render further heat unnecessary and inconvenient.

On one only occasion is the ban lifted from the head of women; when a
female is being admitted to the medicine ranks, she is made to dance
in the sweat-house till she falls exhausted. It does not appear,
however, that even by becoming a medicine can she hope to see twice
the interior of this lodge.

The admission of a man to the medicine is a much severer affair. He
must retire to the forest for ten days, eating no meat the while, and
only enough acorn-porridge to keep the life in him; the ten days past,
he returns to the sweat-house and leaps up and down till he falls,
just as the woman did.

The doctors or sorcerers are of two kinds, 'root doctors' and 'barking
doctors.' To the barking doctor falls the diagnosis of a case of
sickness. He, or she, squats down opposite the patient, and barks at
him after the manner of an enraged cur, for hours together. If it be a
poisoning case, or a case of malady inflicted by some conjurer, the
barking doctor then goes on to suck the evil thing out through the
skin or administer emetics, as may be deemed desirable. If the case,
however, be one of less serious proportions, the 'barker,' after
having made his diagnosis, retires, and the root-doctor comes in, who,
with his herbs and simples and a few minor incantations, proceeds to
cure the ailment. If a patient die, then the medicine is forced to
return his fee; and if he refuse to attend on anyone and the person
die, then he is forced to pay to the relatives a sum equal to that
which was tendered to him as a fee in the beginning of the affair;
thus like all professions, that of a medicine has its draw-backs as
well as advantages.

Several Northern Californian tribes have secret societies which meet
in a lodge set apart, or in a sweat-house, and engage in mummeries of
various kinds, all to frighten their women. The men pretend to
converse with the devil, and make their meeting-place shake and ring
again with yells and whoops. In some instances, one of their number,
disguised as the master fiend himself, issues from the haunted lodge,
and rushes like a madman through the village, doing his best to
frighten contumacious women and children out of their senses. This, it
would seem, has been going on from time immemorial and the poor women
are still gulled by it, and even frightened into more or less
prolonged fits of wifely propriety and less easy virtue.

[Sidenote: CALIFORNIAN DEITIES.]

The coast tribes of Del Norte County, California, live in constant
terror of a malignant spirit that takes the form of certain animals,
the form of a bat, of a hawk, of a tarantula, and so on--but
especially delights in and affects that of a screech-owl. The belief
of the Russian-River tribes and others is practically identical with
this.

The Cahrocs have, as we already know, some conception of a great
deity, called Chareya, the Old Man Above; he is wont to appear upon
earth at times to some of the most favored sorcerers; he is described
as wearing a close tunic, with a medicine-bag, and as having long
white hair that falls venerably about his shoulders. Practically,
however, the Cahrocs, like the majority of Californian tribes,
venerate chiefly the coyote. Great dread is also had of certain
forest-demons of nocturnal habits; these, say the Eurocs, take the
form of bears and shoot arrows at benighted wayfarers.[V-19]

Between the foregoing outlines of Californian belief and those
connected with the remaining tribes, passing south, we can detect no
salient difference till we reach the Olchones, a coast tribe between
San Francisco and Monterey; the sun here begins to be connected, or
identified by name, with that great spirit, or rather, that Big Man,
who made the earth and who rules in the sky.[V-20] So we find it again
both around Monterey and around San Luis Obispo; the first fruits of
the earth were offered in these neighborhoods to the great light, and
his rising was greeted with cries of joy.[V-21]

Father Gerónimo Boscana[V-22] gives us the following relation of the
faith and worship of the Acagchemem nations, in the valley and
neighborhood of San Juan Capistrano, California. Part of it would fall
naturally into that part of this work alloted to origin; but the whole
is so intimately mixed with so much concerning the life, deeds, and
worship of various supernatural personages that it has seemed better
to fit its present position than any other. Of the first part of the
tradition there are two versions--if indeed they be versions of the
same tradition. We give first that version held by the _serranos_, or
highlanders, of the interior country, three or four leagues inland
from the said San Juan Capistrano:--

Before the material world at all existed there lived two beings,
brother and sister, of a nature that can not be explained; the brother
living above, and his name meaning the Heavens, the sister living
below and her name signifying Earth. From the union of these two,
there sprang a numerous offspring. Earth and sand were the first
fruits of this marriage; then were born rocks and stones; then trees
both great and small; then grass and herbs; then animals; lastly was
born a great personage called Ouiot, who was a "grand captain." By
some unknown mother many children of a medicine race were born to this
Ouiot. All these things happened in the north; and afterward when men
were created they were created in the north; but as the people
multiplied they moved toward the south, the earth growing larger also
and extending itself in the same direction.

[Sidenote: THE COYOTE OF THE ACAGCHEMEMS.]

In process of time, Ouiot becoming old, his children plotted to kill
him, alleging that the infirmities of age made him unfit any longer
to govern them or attend to their welfare. So they put a strong poison
in his drink, and when he drank of it a sore sickness came upon him;
he rose up and left his home in the mountains and went down to what is
now the sea-shore, though at that time there was no sea there. His
mother, whose name is the Earth, mixed him an antidote in a large
shell, and set the potion out in the sun to brew; but the fragrance of
it attracted the attention of the Coyote, who came and overset the
shell. So Ouiot sickened to death, and though he told his children
that he would shortly return and be with them again, he has never been
seen since. All the people made a great pile of wood and burnt his
body there, and just as the ceremony began the Coyote leaped upon the
body, saying that he would burn with it; but he only tore a piece of
flesh from the stomach and ate it and escaped. After that the title of
the Coyote was changed from Eyacque, which means Sub-captain, to Eno,
that is to say, Thief and Cannibal.

When now the funeral rites were over, a general council was held and
arrangements made for collecting animal and vegetable food; for up to
this time the children and descendants of Ouiot had nothing to eat but
a kind of white clay. And while they consulted together, behold a
marvelous thing appeared before them, and they spoke to it saying: Art
thou our captain, Ouiot. But the spectre said: Nay, for I am greater
than Ouiot; my habitation is above, and my name is Chinigchinich. Then
he spoke further, having been told for what they were come together: I
create all things, and I go now to make man, another people like unto
you; as for you I give you power, each after his kind, to produce all
good and pleasant things. One of you shall bring rain, and another
dew, and another make the acorn grow, and others other seeds, and yet
others shall cause all kinds of game to abound in the land; and your
children shall have this power for ever, and they shall be sorcerers
to the men I go to create, and shall receive gifts of them, that the
game fail not and the harvests be sure. Then Chinigchinich made man;
out of the clay of the lake he formed him, male and female; and the
present Californians are the descendants of the one or more pairs
there and thus created.

So ends the known tradition of the mountaineers; we must now go back
and take up the story anew at its beginning, as told by the
_playanos_, or people of the valley of San Juan Capistrano. These say
that an invisible all-powerful being, called Nocuma, made the world
and all that it contains of things that grow and move. He made it
round like a ball and held it in his hands, where it rolled about a
good deal at first, till he steadied it by sticking a heavy black rock
called _tosaut_ into it, as a kind of ballast. The sea was at this
time only a little stream running round the world, and so crowded with
fish that their twinkling fins had no longer room to move; so great
was the press that some of the more foolish fry were for effecting a
landing and founding a colony, upon the dry land, and it was only with
the utmost difficulty that they were persuaded by their elders, that
the killing air and baneful sun and the want of feet must infallibly
prove the destruction before many days of all who took part in such a
desperate enterprise. The proper plan was evidently to improve and
enlarge their present home; and to this end, principally by the aid of
one very large fish, they broke the great rock tosaut in two, finding
a bladder in the centre filled with a very bitter substance. The taste
of it pleased the fish, so they emptied it into the water, and
instantly the water became salt and swelled up and overflowed a great
part of the old earth, and made itself the new boundaries that remain
to this day.

Then Nocuma created a man, shaping him out of the soil of the earth,
calling him Ejoni. A woman also the great god made, presumably of the
same material as the man, calling her Aé. Many children were born to
this first pair, and their descendants multiplied over the land. The
name of one of these last was Sirout, that is to say, Handful of
Tobacco, and the name of his wife was Ycaiut, which means Above; and
to Sirout and Ycaiut was born a son, while they lived in a place
north-east about eight leagues from San Juan Capistrano. The name of
this son was Ouiot, that is to say Dominator; he grew a fierce and
redoubtable warrior; haughty, ambitious, tyrannous, he extended his
lordship on every side, ruling everywhere as with a rod of iron; and
the people conspired against him. It was determined that he should die
by poison; a piece of the rock tosaut was ground up in so deadly a way
that its mere external application was sufficient to cause death.
Ouiot, notwithstanding that he held himself constantly on the alert,
having been warned of his danger by a small burrowing animal called
the _cucumel_, was unable to avoid his fate; a few grains of the
cankerous mixture were dropped upon his breast while he slept, and the
strong mineral ate its way to the very springs of his life. All the
wise men of the land were called to his assistance; but there was
nothing for him save to die. His body was burned on a great pile with
songs of joy and dances, and the nation rejoiced.

[Sidenote: THE FIRST MEDICINE-MAN.]

While the people were gathered to this end, it was thought advisable
to consult on the feasibility of procuring seed and flesh to eat
instead of the clay which had up to this time been the sole food of
the human family. And while they yet talked together, there appeared
to them, coming they knew not whence, one called Attajen, "which name
implies man, or rational being." And Attajen, understanding their
desires, chose out certain of the elders among them, and to these gave
he power; one that he might cause rain to fall, to another that he
might cause game to abound, and so with the rest, to each his power
and gift, and to the successors of each for ever. These were the first
medicine-men.

Many years having elapsed since the death of Ouiot, there appeared in
the same place one called Ouiamot, reputed son of Tacu and
Auzar--people unknown, but natives; it is thought by Boscana, of "some
distant land." This Ouiamot is better known by his great name
Chinigchinich, which means Almighty. He first manifested his powers
to the people on a day when they had met in congregation for some
purpose or other; he appeared dancing before them crowned with a kind
of high crown made of tall feathers stuck into a circlet of some kind,
girt with a kind of petticoat of feathers, and having his flesh
painted black and red. Thus decorated he was called the _tobet_.
Having danced some time, Chinigchinich called out the medicine-men, or
_puplems_ as they were called, among whom it would appear the chiefs
are always numbered, and confirmed their power; telling them that he
had come from the stars to instruct them in dancing and all other
things, and commanding that in all their necessities they should array
themselves in the tobet, and so dance as he had danced, supplicating
him by his great name, that thus they might receive of their
petitions. He taught them how to worship him, how to build
_vanquechs_, or places of worship, and how to direct their conduct in
various affairs of life. Then he prepared to die, and the people asked
him if they should bury him; but he warned them against attempting
such a thing: If ye buried me, he said, ye would tread upon my grave,
and for that my hand would be heavy upon you; look to it, and to all
your ways, for lo, I go up where the high stars are, where mine eyes
shall see all the ways of men; and whosoever will not keep my
commandments nor observe the things I have taught, behold disease
shall plague all his body, and no food shall come near his lips, the
bear shall rend his flesh, and the crooked tooth of the serpent shall
sting him.

[Sidenote: SANCTUARIES OF REFUGE.]

The vanquech, or place of worship, seems to have been an unroofed
inclosure of stakes, within which, on a hurdle, was placed the image
of the god Chinigchinich. This image was the skin of a coyote or that
of a mountain-cat stuffed with the feathers of certain birds, and with
various other things, so that it looked like a live animal; a bow and
some arrows were attached to it on the outside, and other arrows were
thrust down its throat so that the feathers of them appeared at the
mouth as out of a quiver. The whole place of the inclosure was sacred,
and not to be approached without reverence; it does not seem that
sacrifices formed any part of the worship there offered, but only
prayer, and sometimes a kind of pantomime connected with the
undertaking desired to be furthered--thus, desiring success in hunting
one mimicked the actions of the chase, leaping and twanging one's bow.
Each vanquech was a city of refuge, with rights of sanctuary exceeding
any ever granted in Jewish or Christian countries. Not only was every
criminal safe there whatever his crime, but the crime was as it were
blotted out from that moment, and the offender was at liberty to leave
the sanctuary and walk about as before; it was not lawful even to
mention his crime; all that the avenger could do was to point at him
and deride him, saying: Lo, a coward, who has been forced to flee to
Chinigchinich! This flight was rendered so much a meaner thing in that
it only turned the punishment from the head of him that fled upon that
of some of his relatives; life went for life, eye for eye, and tooth
for tooth, even to the third and fourth generation, for justice' sake.

Besides Chinigchinich they worshiped, or at any rate feared, a god
called Touch; who inhabited the mountains and the bowels of the earth,
appearing, however, from time to time in the form of various animals
of a terrifying kind. Every child at the age of six or seven received,
sent to him from this god, some animal as a protector. To find out
what this animal or spirit in the shape of animal was, narcotic drinks
were swallowed, or the subject fasted and watched in the vanquech for
a given time, generally three days. He whose rank entitled him to wait
for his guardian apparition in the sacred inclosure, was set there by
the side of the god's image, and on the ground before him was sketched
by one of the wise men an uncouth figure of some animal. The child was
then left to complete his vigil, being warned at the same time to
endure its hardships with patience, in that any attempt to infringe
upon its rules, by eating or drinking or otherwise, would be reported
to the god by the sprawling figure the enchanter had drawn in the
clay, and that in such a case the punishment of Chinigchinich would be
terrible. After all this was over, a scar was made on the child's
right arm, and sometimes on the thick part of the leg also, by
covering the part, "according to the figure required," with a peculiar
herb dried and powdered, and setting fire to it. This was a brand or
seal required by Chinigchinich, and was besides supposed to strengthen
the nerves and give "a better pulse for the management of the
bow."[V-23]

The Acagchemems, like many other Californian tribes,[V-24] regard the
great buzzard with sentiments of veneration, while they seem to have
had connected with it several rites and ideas peculiar to themselves.
They called this bird the _panes_, and once every year they had a
festival of the same name, in which the principal ceremony was the
killing of a buzzard without losing a drop of its blood. It was next
skinned, all possible care being taken to preserve the feathers
entire, as these were used in making the feathered petticoat and
diadem, already described as part of the tobet. Last of all the body
was buried within the sacred inclosure amid great apparent grief from
the old women, they mourning as over the loss of relative or friend.
Tradition explained this: the panes had indeed been once a woman,
whom, wandering in the mountain ways, the great god Chinigchinich had
come suddenly upon and changed into a bird. How this was connected
with the killing of her anew every year by the people, and with
certain extraordinary ideas held relative to that killing is, however,
by no means clear; for it was believed that as often as the bird was
killed it was made alive again, and more, and faith to move
mountains--that the birds killed in one same yearly feast in many
separate villages were one and the same bird. How these things were or
why, none knew, it was enough that they were a commandment and
ordinance of Chinigchinich, whose ways were not as the ways of
men.[V-25]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AND THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN.]

The Pericues of Lower California were divided into two sects,
worshiping two hostile divinities who made a war of extermination upon
each other. The tradition explains that there was a great lord in
heaven, called Niparaya, who made earth and sea, and was almighty and
invisible. His wife was Anayicoyondi, a goddess who, though possessing
no body, bore him in a divinely mysterious manner three children; one
of whom, Quaayayp, was a real man and born on earth, on the Acaragui
mountains. Very powerful this young god was, and a long time he lived
with the ancestors of the Pericues, whom it is almost to be inferred
that he created; at any rate we are told that he was able to make men,
drawing them up out of the earth. The men at last killed this their
great hero and teacher, and put a crown of thorns upon his head.[V-26]
Somewhere or other he remains lying dead to this day, and he remains
constantly beautiful, neither does his body know corruption. Blood
drips constantly from his wounds, and he can speak no more, being
dead; yet there is an owl that speaks to him. And besides the
before-spoken-of god Niparaya in heaven, there was another and hostile
god called Wac or Tuparan. According to the Niparaya sect, this Wac
had made war on their favorite god, and been by him defeated and cast
forth of heaven into a cave under the earth, of which cave the whales
of the sea were the guardians. With a perverse, though not unnatural
obstinacy, the sect that held Wac or Tuparan to be their great god
persisted in holding ideas peculiar to themselves with regard to the
truth of the foregoing story; and their account of the great war in
heaven and its results differed from the other, as differ the creeds
of heterodox and orthodox everywhere; they ascribe, for example, part
of the creation to other gods besides Niparaya.[V-27] The Cochimis and
remaining natives of the Californian peninsula seem to have held in
the main much the same ideas with regard to the gods and powers above
them as the Pericues held, and the sorcerers of all had the common
blowings, leapings, fastings, and other mummeries that make these
professors of the sinister art so much alike everywhere in our
territory.[V-28]

* * * * *

The natives of Nevada have ideas respecting a great kind Spirit of
some kind, as well as a myth concerning an evil one; but they have no
special class set apart as medicine-men.[V-29] The Utah belief seems to
be as nearly as possible identical with that of Nevada.[V-30]

The Comanches acknowledge more or less vaguely a Supreme Spirit, but
seem to use the Sun and the Earth as mediators with and, in some sort,
as embodiments of him. They have a recognized body of sorcerers called
_puyacantes_, and various religious ceremonies and chants; for the
most part of a simple kind, and directed to the Sun as the great
source of life, and to the Earth as the producer and receptacle of all
that sustains life. According to the Abbé Domenech, every Comanche
wears a little figure of the sun attached to his neck, or has a
picture of it painted on his shield; from the ears of each hang also
two crescents, which may possibly represent the moon.[V-31]

The Apaches recognize a supreme power in heaven under the name
Yaxtaxitaxitanne, the creator and master of all things; but they
render him no open service nor worship. To any taciturn cunning man
they are accustomed to credit intercourse with a preternatural power
of some kind, and to look to him as a sort of oracle in various
emergencies. This is, in fact, their medicine-man, and in cases of
illness he pretends to perform cures by the aid of herbs and
ceremonies of various kinds.[V-32]

The Navajos, having the usual class of sorcerers, call their good
deity Whaillahay, and their evil one Chinday; the principal use of
their good god seems to be to protect them from their evil one. In
smoking they sometimes puff their tobacco-smoke toward heaven with
great formality; this is said to bring rain; to the same end certain
long round stones, thought to be cast down by the clouds in a
thunderstorm, are used with various ceremonies.

The sun, moon, and stars are thought to be powers connected with rain
and fine weather; while the god Montezuma of their Pueblo neighbors is
unknown among them.[V-33]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MONTEZUMA OF THE PUEBLOS.]

All the Pueblo cities, though speaking different languages hold
substantially the same faith. They seem to assent to the statement of
the existence of a great and good spirit whose name is too sacred to
be mentioned; but most say that Montezuma is his equal; and some,
again, that the Sun is the same as or equal to Montezuma. There are,
besides, the lesser divinities of water--Montezuma being considered
in one aspect as the great rain-god, and as such often mentioned as
being aided by or being in connection with a serpent. Over and above
all these, the existence of a general class or body of evil spirits is
taken for granted.

Many places in New Mexico claim to be the birthplace of the great
leader, teacher, and god Montezuma. At any rate he is traditionally
supposed to have appeared among the Pueblos before they had arrived at
or built their present towns. Some traditions would make him either
the ancestor or the creator of the same people; but the most regard
him as a kind of semi or wholly divine priest, prophet, leader, and
legislator. Under restrictions pointed out in a former note,[V-34] we
may fairly regard him as at once the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the
Messiah of these Pueblo desert wanderers from an Egypt that history is
ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his
people to build cities with tall houses, to construct estufas, or
semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire.

At Acoma, it is said by some, was established the first Pueblo, and
thence the people marched southward, forming others. Acoma was one,
and Pecos another. At this last, Montezuma planted a tree upside down,
and said that, on his leaving them, a strange nation should oppress
them for many years, years also in which there should be no rain, but
that they were to persist in watching the sacred fire until the tree
fell, when he would return, with a white race which should destroy
their enemies; and then rain should fall again and the earth be
fertile. It is said that this tree fell from its abnormal position, as
the American army entered Santa Fé.

[Sidenote: HE IS NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH.]

The watching of the fire, kept up in subterranean estufas, under a
covering of ashes generally, and in the basin of a small altar, was no
light task. The warriors took the post by turns, some said, for two
successive days and nights, sans food, sans drink, sans sleep, sans
everything. Others affirm that this watching was kept up till
exhaustion and even death relieved the guard--the last not to be
wondered at, seeing the insufferable closeness of the place and the
accumulation of carbonic acid. The remains of the dead were, it was
sometimes supposed, carried off by a monstrous serpent. This holy fire
was believed to be the palladium of the city, and the watchers by it
could well dream of that day, when, coming with the sun, Montezuma
should descend by the column of smoke whose roots they fed, and should
fill the shabby little estufa with a glory like that in a wilderness
tabernacle they knew not of, where a more awful pillar of smoke
shadowed the mystic cherubim. Hope dies hard, and the dim memories of
a great past never quite fade away from among any people. No true-born
British bard ever doubted of Arthur's return from his kingly rest in
Avalon, nor that the flash of Excalibar should be one day again as the
lightning of death in the eyes of the hated Saxon. The herders on the
shore of Lucerne know that were Switzerland in peril, the Tell would
spring from his sleep as at the crack of doom. "When Germany is at her
lowest then is her greatness nearest" say the weird old ballads of
that land; for then shall the Great Kaiser rise from the vault in the
Kyffhäuser--Barbarossa shall rise, though his beard be grown through
the long stone table. Neither is the Frank without his savior: Sing, O
troubadours, sing and strike the chords proudly! Who shall prevail
while Charlemagne but sleeps in the shadow of the Untersberg?--And so
our Pueblo sentinel climbing the housetop at Pecos, looking ever
eastward from Santo Domingo on the Rio Grande; he too waits for the
beautiful feet upon the mountains and the plumes of him--

Who dwelt up in the yellow sun,
And sorrowing for man's despair,
Slid by his trailing yellow hair
To earth, to rule with love and bring
The blessedness of peace.[V-35]

The Pueblo chiefs seem to be at the same time priests; they perform
the various simple rites by which the power of the sun and of
Montezuma is recognized as well as the power--according to some
accounts--of "the Great Snake, to whom by order of Montezuma they are
to look for life;" they also officiate in certain ceremonies with
which they pray for rain. There are painted representations of the
Great Snake, together with that of a misshapen red-haired man declared
to stand for Montezuma. Of this last there was also in 1845, in the
pueblo of Laguna, a rude effigy or idol, intended, apparently, to
represent only the head of the deity; it was made of tanned skin in
the form of a brimless hat or cylinder open at the bottom. Half-way
round, it was painted red; the other half was green. The green side
was rudely marked to suggest a face: two triangles were cut for eyes;
there was no nose; a circular leather patch served for a mouth, and
two other patches in an appropriate situation suggested ears. Crowning
the head was a small tuft of leather, said to be supplemented by
feathers on festal occasions. A sorry image one would say, yet one
looked upon by its exhibitors with apparently the greatest veneration;
they kneeling in a most devoted manner, going through a form of
prayer, and sprinkling it with a white powder. One of the worshipers
said it was God and the brother of God; and the people bring it out in
dry seasons, and, with dancing and other rites, invoke it for rain.

Christianity has now effaced the memory of most of the rites of the
Pueblo religion, but Dr Ten Broeck noticed that many of the worshipers
at the Christian church in Laguna carried little baskets in their
hands containing images of domestic animals, or of beasts of the
chase, molded in mud or dough; it being the custom, as it had been
there from time immemorial, for those that had been successful in the
chase, or in accumulating cattle, to bring such simulachres of their
prosperity before the altar of God--probably, a modification produced
by the poverty of the people of a rite as old as the altar of Abel, to
wit, the offering of the firstlings and first-fruits to that Deity
whose blessing had given the increase.

It has been affirmed, without much foundation or probability of truth,
that the Pueblos worshiped fire and water.[V-36]

The Moquis know nothing of Montezuma; they believe in a Great Father,
living where the sun rises, and in a great Mother, whose home is where
the sun goes down. This Father is the father of evil, war, pestilence,
and famine; but from the mother are all their joy, peace, plenty, and
health.[V-37]

[Sidenote: MOJAVE DEITIES.]

The Mojaves tell of a certain Matevil, creator of heaven and earth,
who was wont in time past to remain among them in a certain grand
_casa_. This habitation was, however, by some untoward event broken
down; the nations were destroyed; and Matevil departed eastward.
Whence, in the latter days, he will again return to consolidate,
prosper, and live with his people forever. This Matevil, or
Mathowelia, has a son called Mastamho, who made the water and planted
trees. There is also an Evil Spirit Newathie.[V-38]

* * * * *

From a letter just received from Judge Roseborough, I am enabled to
close this chapter with some new and valuable facts regarding the
religious ideas of certain tribes--not accurately specified--of the
north-west portion of Upper California. The learned judge has given
unusual attention to the subject of which he writes, and his
opportunities for procuring information must have been frequent during
ten years of travel and residence in the districts of the northern
counties of California:--

Among the tribes in the neighborhood of Trinity river is found a
legend relating to a certain Wappeckquemow, who was a giant, and
apparently the father and leader of a pre-human race like himself. He
was expelled from the country that he inhabited--near the mouth of the
Klamath--for disobeying or offending some great god, and a curse was
pronounced against him, so that not even his descendants should ever
return to that land. On the expulsion of these Anakim, the ancestors
of the people to whom this legend belongs came down from the
north-west, a direction of migration, according to Judge Roseborough,
uniformly adhered to in the legends of all the tribes of north-west
California. These new settlers, however, like their predecessors of
the giant race, quarreled with the great god and were abandoned by him
to their own devices, being given over into the hands of certain evil
powers or devils. Of these the first is Omahá, who, possessing the
shape of a grizzly bear, is invisible and goes about everywhere
bringing sickness and misfortune on mankind. Next there is Makalay, a
fiend with a horn like a unicorn; he is swift as the wind and moves by
great leaps like a kangaroo. The sight of him is usually death to
mortals. There is, thirdly, a dreadful being called Kalicknateck, who
seems a faithful reproduction of the great thunder-bird of the north:
thus Kalicknateck "is a huge bird that sits on the mountain-peak, and
broods in silence over his thoughts until hungry; when he will sweep
down over the ocean, snatch up a large whale, and carry it to his
mountain-throne, for a single meal."

Besides the before-mentioned powers of evil, these Trinity people have
legends connected with other personages of the same nature, among whom
are Wanuswegock, Surgelp, Napousney, and Nequiteh.

When white miners first came to work on the Trinity River, their
advent caused, as may be imagined, much unsatisfactory speculation
among the aborigines; some saying one thing of the whites and some
another. At last an old seer of the Hoopah Valley settled the question
by declaring that the new-comers were descendants of that banished
Wappeckquemow, from whose heads the already-mentioned curse,
forbidding their return, had been by some means lifted.

[Sidenote: THE KITCHEN-MIDDEN OF THE HOHGATES.]

The coast people in northern California have a story about a
mysterious people called Hohgates, to whom is ascribed an immense bed
of mussel-shells and bones of animals still existing on the table-land
of Point St George, near Crescent City. These Hohgates, seven in
number, are said to have come to the place in a boat, to have built
themselves "houses above-ground, after the style of white men"--all
this about the time that the first natives came down the coast from
the north. These Hohgates, living at the point mentioned, killed many
elk on land, and many seals and sea-lions in fishing excursions from
their boats; using for the latter purpose a kind of harpoon made of a
knife attached to a stick, and the whole fastened to the boat with a
long line. They also sailed frequently to certain rocks, and loaded
their little vessels with mussels. By all this they secured plenty of
food, and the refuse of it, the bones and shells and so on, rapidly
accumulated into the great _kjökken mödding_ still to be seen. One
day, however, all the Hohgates being out at sea in their boat, they
struck a huge sea-lion with their rude harpoon, and, unable or
unwilling to cut or throw off their line, were dragged with fearful
speed toward a great whirlpool, called Chareckquin, that lay far
toward the north-west. It is the place where souls go, where in
darkness and cold the spirits shiver for ever; living men suffer even
from its winds--from the north-west wind, the bleak and bitter
Charreck-rawek. And just as the boat reached the edge of this fearful
place, behold, a marvelous thing: the rope broke and the sea-monster
was swept down alone into the whirl of wind and water, while the
Hohgates were caught up into the air; swinging round and round, their
boat floated steadily up into the vast of heaven. Nevermore on earth
were the Hohgates seen; but there are seven stars in heaven that all
men know of, and these stars are the seven Hohgates that once lived
where the great shell-bed near Crescent City now is.

FOOTNOTES:

[V-1] _Armstrong's Nar._, pp. 102, 193; _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, pp.
319-20, 325; _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 358, 385; _Dall's
Alaska_, pp. 144-5.

[V-2] _Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, pp. 318-19; _Jarvis'
Religion, Ind. N. Am._, p. 91; _Kennicott_, in _Whymper's Alaska_, p.
345; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxxviii.; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v.,
p. 178; _Ross_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, pp. 306-7; _Franklin's
Nar._, vol. i., pp. 246-7; _Harmon's Jour._, p. 300; _Hooper's Tuski_,
p. 317; _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 385-6; _Dall's Alaska_, pp.
83-90; _Whymper's Alaska_, pp. 231-2.

[V-3] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, pp. 140-1; _Sauer_, _Billings' Ex._,
p. 174.

[V-4] _D'Orbigny_, _Voy._, pp. 579-80; _Coxe's Russ. Dis._, p. 217;
_Dall's Alaska_, pp. 335, 389; See _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i.,
p. 93.

[V-5] In Holmberg's account of these Thlinkeet supernatural powers,
nothing is said of the sun or moon as indicating the possession of
life by them or of any qualities not material. But Dunn, _The Oregon
Territory_, p. 284, and Dixon, _Voyage Round the World_, pp. 189-90,
describe at least some tribe or tribes of the Thlinkeets and many
tribes of the Haidahs, that consider the sun to be a great spirit
moving over the earth once every day, animating and keeping alive all
creatures, and, apparently, as being the origin of all; the moon is a
subordinate and night watcher.

[V-6] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, pp. 52-73; _Dall's Alaska_, pp.
421-3; _Kotzebue's New Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 58; _Dunn's Oregon_, p.
280; _Bendel's Alex. Arch._, pp. 31-3. This last traveler gives us a
variation of the history of Yehl and Khanukh, which is best presented
in his own words:--'The Klinkits do not believe in one Supreme Being,
but in a host of good and evil spirits, above whom are towering two
lofty beings of godlike magnitude, who are the principal objects of
Indian reverence. These are Yethl and Kanugh--two brothers; the former
the benefactor and well-wisher of mankind, but of a very whimsical and
unreliable nature; the latter the stern God of War, terrible in his
wrath, but a true patron of every fearless brave. It is he who sends
epidemics, bloodshed and war to those who have displeased him, while
it seems to be the principal function of Yethl to cross the sinister
purposes of his dark-minded brother. Yethl and Kanugh lived formerly
on earth, and were born of a woman of a supernatural race now passed
away, about the origin and nature of which many conflicting legends
are told, hard to comprehend. When Yethl walked on earth and was quite
young he acquired great skill in the use of the bow and arrow. He used
to kill large birds, assume their shape and fly about. His favorite
bird was the raven; hence its name, "Yethl," which signifies "raven"
in the Klinkit language. He had also the fogs and clouds at his
command, and he would often draw them around him to escape his
enemies. His brother's name, Kanugh, signifies "wolf," consequently
"raven" and "wolf" are the names of the two gods of the Klinkits, who
are supposed to be the founders of the Indian race.'

[V-7] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 253-9; _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc.,
Jour._, vol. xi., p. 223; _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., pp.
170-71.

[V-8] _Jewitt's Nar._, p. 83; _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._,
vol. xi., pp. 223-4; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. i., p. 345; _Sutil y
Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 136; _Meares' Voy._, p. 270; _Hutchings' Cal.
Mag._, vol. v., pp. 222-4; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 433-441, 455;
_Barrett-Lennard's Trav._, pp. 51-3; _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 40, 156-8,
167-75, 205-11; _Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., p. 317. As
illustrating strongly the Nootka ideas with regard to the sanctity of
the moon and sun, as well as the connection of the sun with the fire,
it may be well to call attention to the two following customs:--'El
Tays [chief] no puede hacer uso de sus mugeres sin ver enteramente
iluminado el disco de la luna.' _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 145.
'Girls at puberty ... are kept particularly from the sun or fire.'
_Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., p. 197. In this connection it may be
mentioned that Mr Lord, _Naturalist_, vol. ii., p. 257, saw among the
Nootkas while at Fort Rupert, a very peculiar Indian "medicine," a
solid piece of native copper, hammered flat, oval it would appear from
the description, and painted with curious devices, eyes of all sizes
being especially conspicuous. The Hudson-Bay traders call it an
"Indian copper," and said it was only exhibited on extraordinary
occasions, and that its value to the tribe was estimated at fifteen
slaves or two hundred blankets. This "medicine" was preserved in an
elaborately ornamented wooden case, and belonging to the tribe, not to
the chief, was guarded by the medicine-men. Similar sheets of copper
are described by Schoolcraft as in use among certain of the Vesperic
aborigines: May they all be intended for symbols of the sun, such as
that reverenced by the Peruvians?

[V-9] _Ross' Adven._, pp. 287-9.

[V-10] 'The bravest woman of the tribe, one used to carrying ammunition
to the warrior when engaged in fight, bared her breast to the person
who for courage and conduct was deemed fit successor to the departed.
From the breast he cut a small portion, which he threw into the fire.
She then cut a small piece from the shoulder of the warrior, which was
also thrown into the fire. A piece of bitter root, with a piece of
meat, were next thrown into the fire, all these being intended as
offerings to the Sun, the deity of the Flatheads.' _Tolmie_, in
_Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 237-8. For references to the remaining
matter of the paragraph see _Id._, vol. ii., pp. 237-43, 260.

[V-11] _Kane's Wand._, pp. 218-9; _Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, p.
15.

[V-12] This vol., pp. 95-6.

[V-13] _Wilkes' Nar._ in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., pp. 124-5; _Cox's
Adven._, vol. i., p. 317; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 125-6; _Franchère's
Nar._, p. 258; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 354; _Ross' Adven._,
p. 96; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 139, 246, 254; _Tolmie_, in
_Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 248; _Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, pp. 11, 13;
_Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, pp. 15, 29; _Irving's Astoria_, pp.
339-40; _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 253.

[V-14] _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 254: 'The chiefs say, that they and
their sons are too great to die of themselves, and although they may
be sick, and decline, and die, as others do, yet some person, or some
evil spirit instigated by some one, is the invisible cause of their
death; and therefore when a chief, or chief's son dies, the supposed
author of the deed must be killed.'

[V-15] _Alvord_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 652.

[V-16] _Stuart's Montana_, pp. 64-6.

[V-17] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[V-18] _Joaquin Miller's Life amongst the Modocs_, pp. 21, 116, 259-60,
360.

[V-19] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[V-20] _Beechey's Voy._, vol. ii., p. 78.

[V-21] _Fages_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, vol. ci., pp. 316,
335.

[V-22] Father Boscana, one of the earliest missionaries to Upper
California, left behind him the short manuscript history from which
the tradition following in the text has been taken--through the
medium of a now rare translation by Mr Robinson. Filled with the
prejudices of its age and of the profession of its author, it is yet
marvelously truthlike; though a painstaking care has evidently been
used with regard to its most apparently insignificant details, there
are none of those too visible wrenchings after consistency, and
fillings up of lacunae which so surely betray the hand of the
sophisticator in so many monkish manuscripts on like and kindred
subjects. There are found on the other hand frank confessions of
ignorance on doubtful points, and many naïve and puzzled comments on
the whole. It is apparently the longest and the most valuable notice
in existence on the religion of a nation of the native Californians,
as existing at the time of the Spanish conquest, and more worthy of
confidence than the general run of such documents of any date
whatever. The father procured his information as follows. He says:
'God assigned to me three aged Indians, the youngest of whom was over
seventy years of age. They knew all the secrets, for two of them were
_capitanes_, and the other a _pul_, who were well instructed in the
mysteries. By gifts, endearments, and kindness, I elicited from them
their secrets, with their explanations; and by witnessing the
ceremonies which they performed, I learned by degrees, their
mysteries. Thus, by devoting a portion of the nights to profound
meditation, and comparing their actions with their disclosures, I was
enabled after a long time, to acquire a knowledge of their religion.'
_Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, p. 236.

[V-23] See p. 113, of this volume, for a custom among the Mexicans not
without analogies to this.

[V-24] See p. 134, of this volume.

[V-25] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 242-301.

[V-26] The Christian leaven, whose workings are evident through this
narrative, ferments here too violently to need pointing out.

[V-27] See pp. 83-4, this volume.

[V-28] _Venegas_, _Noticia de la Cal._, tom. i., pp. 102-124;
_Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 135-141; _Humboldt_,
_Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 314.

[V-29] _Virginia City Chronicle_, quoted in _S. F. Daily Ev'g Post_, of
Oct. 12th, 1872; _Browne's Lower Cal._, p. 188.

[V-30] _De Smet's Letters_, p. 41.

[V-31] _Parker_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 684; _Whipple,
Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 35-6, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol.
iii.; _Barreiro_, _Ojeada sobre N. Mex._, ap. p. 8; _Filley's Life and
Adven._, p. 82; _Marcy's Army Life_, pp. 58, 64; _Domenech_, _Jour.
d'un Miss._, pp. 13, 131, 469.

[V-32] _Barreiro_, _Ojeada sobre N. Mex._, ap. pp. 2-3; _Henry_, in
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 212.

[V-33] _Crofutt's Western World_, Aug. 1872, p. 27; _Whipple, Ewbank,
and Turner's Rept._, p. 42, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.; _Ten
Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 91; _Bristol_, in
_Ind. Aff. Rept., Special Com._, 1867, p. 358; _Brinton's Myths_, p.
158; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 402.

[V-34] See pp. 77-8, note 36, this volume.

[V-35] _Joaquin Miller's Californian._

[V-36] _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., pp. 271-3; _Davis' El Gringo_,
pp. 142, 396; _Simpson's Overland Journ._, pp. 21-3; _Domenech's
Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 164-5, 418, vol. ii., pp. 62-3, 401;
_Möllhausen_, _Tagebuch_, pp. 170, 219, 284; _Meline's Two Thousand
Miles on Horseback_, pp. 202, 226; _Ruxton's Adven. in Mex._, p. 193;
_Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 73; _Ward_, in
_Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, pp. 192-3; _Emory's Reconnoissance_, p. 30;
_Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 384; _Brinton's Myths_, p. 190;
_Coronado_, in _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii., p. 379. Fremont gives an
account of the birth of Montezuma. His mother was, it is said, a woman
of exquisite beauty, admired and sought after by all men, they making
her presents of corn and skins and all that they had; but the
fastidious beauty would accept nothing of them but their gifts. In
process of time a season of drought brought on a famine and much
distress; then it was that the rich lady showed her charity to be as
great in one direction as it had been wanting in another. She opened
her granaries and the gifts of the lovers she had not loved went to
relieve the hungry she pitied. At last with rain, fertility returned
to the earth; and on the chaste Artemis of the Pueblos its touch fell
too. She bore a son to the thick summer shower and that son was
Montezuma.

[V-37] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 85-6.

[V-38] _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 42-3, in _Pac. R. R.
Rept._, vol. iii.; _Dodt_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1870, p. 129.

CHAPTER VI.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

GODS AND RELIGIOUS RITES OF CHIHUAHUA, SONORA, DURANGO, AND
SINALOA -- THE MEXICAN RELIGION, RECEIVED WITH DIFFERENT
DEGREES OF CREDULITY BY DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE PEOPLE --
OPINIONS OF DIFFERENT WRITERS AS TO ITS NATURE -- MONOTHEISM OF
NEZAHUALCOYOTL -- PRESENT CONDITION OF THE STUDY OF MEXICAN
MYTHOLOGY -- TEZCATLIPOCA -- PRAYERS TO HIM IN TIME OF
PESTILENCE, OF WAR, FOR THOSE IN AUTHORITY -- PRAYER USED BY AN
ABSOLVING PRIEST -- GENUINENESS OF THE FOREGOING PRAYERS --
CHARACTER AND WORKS OF SAHAGUN.

From the Pueblo cities let us now pass down into Mexico, glancing
first at the northern and north-western neighbors of this great people
that ruled on the plateau of Anáhuac. The Chihuahuans worshiped a
great god called by them the 'captain of heaven' and recognized a
lesser divinity as abiding in and inspiring their priests and
medicine-men. They rendered homage to the sun; and when any comet or
other phenomenon appeared in the heavens they offered sacrifice
thereto; their sacrifice being much after the Mexican fashion--fruits,
herbs, and such things as they had, together with blood drawn from
their bodies by the pricks of a thorn.[VI-1]

[Sidenote: GODS OF SONORA AND DURANGO.]

In Sonora--the great central heart of Mexico making its beatings more
and more clearly felt as we approach it nearer--the vague feelings of
awe and reverence with which the savage regards the unseen, unknown,
and unknowable powers, begin at last to somewhat lose their vagueness
and to crystallize into the recognition of a power to be represented
and symbolized by a god made with hands. The offerings thereto begin
also, more and more, to lose their primitive simple shape, and the
blood, without which is no remission of sins, stains the rude altar
that a more Arcadian race had only heaped with flowers and fruit. The
natives of Sonora bring, says Las Casas, "many deer, wolves, hares,
and birds before a large idol, with music of many flutes and other
instruments of theirs; then cutting open the animals through the
middle, they take out their hearts and hang them round the neck of the
image, wetting it with the flowing blood. It is certain that the only
offering made in all this province of Sonora was the hearts of
brutes."[VI-2] All this they did more especially in two great festivals
they had, the one at seed-time, the other at harvest; and we have
reason to rejoice that the thing was no worse, reason to be glad that
the hearts of brave men and fair women, and soft children not knowing
their right hand from their left, were not called for, as in the land
of the eagle and cactus banner, to feed that devil's Minotaur,
superstition.

The people of Durango called the principal power in which they
believed Meyuncame, that is to say, Maker of All Things; they had
another god, Cachiripa, whose name is all we know of him. They had
besides innumerable private idols, penates of all possible and
impossible figures; some being stone, shaped by nature only. In one
village they worshiped a great flint knife that their flint implements
of every kind might be good and sure. They had gods of storm and gods
of sunshine, gods of good and gods of evil, gods of everything in
heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.
Their idols received bloody sacrifices, not always of beasts; a bowl
containing beans and the cooked human flesh of an enemy was offered to
them for success in war.[VI-3]

Much of the preceding paragraph belongs also to Sinaloa or cannot be
exactly located more in the one province than in the other. The
Sinaloas are said to have venerated above all the other gods one
called Cocohuame, which is, being interpreted, Death. They worshiped
also a certain Ouraba,[VI-4] which is Valor, offering him bows, arrows,
and all kinds of instruments of war. To Sehuatoba, that is to say
Pleasure, they sacrificed feathers, raiment, beads of glass, and
women's ornaments. Bamusehua was the god of water. In some parts, it
is said, there was recognized a divine element in common herbs and
birds. One deity--or devil, as Ribas calls him with the exquisite
courtesy that distinguishes the theosophic historian--was the especial
patron of a class of wizards closely resembling the shamáns and
medicine-men of the north. No one seemed to know exactly the powers of
this deity, but everyone admitted their extent by recognizing with a
respectful awe their effects; effects brought about through the agency
of the wizards, by the use of bags, rattles, magic stones, blowings,
suckings, and all that routine of sorcery with which we are already
familiar. This deity was called Grandfather or Ancestor.[VI-5]

One Sinaloa nation, the Tahus, in the neighborhood of Culiacan, reared
great serpents for which they had a good deal of veneration. They
propitiated their gods with offerings of precious stones and rich
stuffs, but they did not sacrifice men. With an altogether
characteristic insinuation, the Abbé Domenech says, that though highly
immoral in the main, they so highly respected women who devoted
themselves to a life of celibacy, that they held great festivals in
their honor--leaving the reader to suppose that the Tahus had a class
of female religious who devoted themselves to a life of chastity and
were respected for that reason; the truth is found to be, on referring
to the author Castañeda--from whom apparently the abbé has taken this
half truth and whole falsehood--that these estimable celibate women
were the public prostitutes of the nation.[VI-6]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE MEXICAN RELIGION AND ITS HISTORIANS.]

The Mexican religion, as transmitted to us, is a confused and clashing
chaos of fragments. If ever the great nation of Anáhuac had its Hesiod
or its Homer, no ray of his light has reached the stumbling feet of
research in that direction; no echo of his harmony has been ever heard
by any ear less dull than that of a Zumárraga. It is given to few men
to rise above their age, and it is folly to expect grapes of thorns,
or figs of thistles; yet it is hard to suppress wholly some feelings
of regret, in poring upon those ponderous tomes of sixteenth and
seventeenth century history that touch upon Mexican religion; one
pities far less the inevitable superstition and childish ignorance of
the barbarian than the senility of his Christian historian and
critic--there was some element of hope and evidence of attainment in
what the half-civilized barbarian knew; but from what heights of
Athenian, Roman, and Alexandrian philosophy and eloquence, had
civilization fallen into the dull and arrogant nescience of the
chronicles of the clergy of Spain.

We have already noticed[VI-7] the existence of at least two schools of
religious philosophy in Mexico, two average levels of thought, the
one that of the vulgar and credulous, the other that of the more
enlightened and reflective. It has resulted from this that different
writers differ somewhat in their opinions with regard to the precise
nature and essence of that religion, some saying one thing and some
another. I cannot show this more shortly and--what is much more
important in a subject like this--more exactly, than by quoting a
number of these opinions:

"Turning from the simple faiths of savage tribes of America, to the
complex religion of the half-civilized Mexican nation, we find what we
might naturally expect, a cumbrous polytheism complicated by mixture
of several national pantheons, and beside and beyond this, certain
appearances of a doctrine of divine supremacy. But these doctrines
seem to have been spoken of more definitely than the evidence
warrants. A remarkable native development of Mexican theism must be
admitted, in so far as we may receive the native historian
Ixtlilxochitl's account of the worship paid by Nezahualcoyotl, the
poet-king of Tezcuco, to the invisible supreme Tloque-Nahuaque, he who
has all in him, the cause of causes, in whose star-roofed pyramid
stood an idol, and who there received no bloody sacrifice, but only
flowers and incense. Yet it would have been more satisfactory, were
the stories told by this Aztec panegyrist of his royal ancestors
confirmed by other records. Traces of divine supremacy in Mexican
religion are especially associated with Tezcatlipoca, 'Shining
Mirror,' a deity who seems in his original nature the Sun-god, and
thence by expansion to have become the soul of the world, creator of
heaven and earth, lord of all things, Supreme Deity. Such conceptions
may, in more or less measure, have arisen in native thought, but it
should be pointed out that the remarkable Aztec religious formulas
collected by Sahagun, in which the deity Tezcatlipoca is so prominent
a figure, show traces of Christian admixture in their material, as
well as of Christian influence in their style. In distinct and
absolute personality, the divine Sun in Aztec theology was
Tonatiuh[VI-8] whose huge pyramid-mound stands on the plain of
Teotihuacan, a witness of his worship for future ages. Beyond this the
religion of Mexico, in its complex system, or congeries of great gods,
such as results from the mixture and alliance of the deities of
several nations, shows the solar element rooted deeply and widely in
other personages of its divine mythology, and attributes especially to
the sun the title of Teotl, God."[VI-9]

[Sidenote: COMPLEXITY OF AZTEC THEOLOGY.]

"It is remarkable," says Professor J. G. Müller, "that the
well-instructed Acosta should have known nothing about the adoration
of a highest invisible God, under the name of Teotl. And yet this
adoration has been reported in the most certain manner by others, and
made evident from more exact statements regarding the nature of this
deity. He has been surnamed Ipalnemoan, that is, He through whom we
live, and Tloquenahuaque, that is, He who is all things through
himself. He has been looked upon as the originator and essence of all
things, and as especially throned in the high cloud-surrounded mountains.
Rightly does Wuttke contend against any conception of this deity as a
monotheistic one, the polytheism of the people being considered--for
polytheism and monotheism will not be yoked together; even if a
logical concordance were found, the inner spirits of the principles of
the two would still be opposed to each other. Another argument stands
also clearly out, in the total absence of any prayers, offerings,
feasts, or temples to or in the honor of this god. From this it is
evident that Teotl was not a god of the common people. Yet this, on
the other hand, cannot justify us--the so-frequently-occurring
statements of well-informed authorities being taken into account--in
denying in toto all traces of a pantheistic monotheism, as this latter
may easily spring up among cultivated polytheists as a logical result
and outcome of their natural religion. Nezahualcoyotl, the enlightened
king of Tezcuco, adored as the cause of causes, a god without an
image. The chief of the Totonac aborigines of Cempoallan had, if we
may credit the speech put in his mouth by Las Casas and Herrera, an
idea of a highest god and creator. This abstract idea has also here,
as in other parts of America, intertwined itself with the conception
of a sun-god. Hence the Mexicans named the sun-god pre-eminently
Teotl; and that enlightened king of Tezcuco, who built a temple of
nine stories--symbolizing the nine heavens--in honor of the stars,
called the sun-god his father."[VI-10]

"To the most ancient gods," says Klemm, "belonged the divinities of
nature, as well as a highest being called Teotl, God. He was perfect,
independent, and invisible, and consequently not represented by any
image. His qualities were represented by expressions like these: He
through whom we live, He who is all in himself. This god coincides
very nearly with the Master of Life of the North Americans. In
opposition to him is the evil spirit, the enemy of mankind, who often
appears to and terrifies them. He is called Tlacatecololotl, that is
to say, Rational Owl, and may possibly, like the Lame-foot of the
Peruvians, be a survival from the times when the old hunter-nations
inhabited the forests and mountains. Next to Teotl was Tezcatlipoca,
that is to say, Shining Mirror; he was the god of providence, the soul
of the world, and the creator of heaven and earth. Teotl was not
represented by any image, and was probably not worshiped with
offerings nor in any special temples; Tezcatlipoca was, however, so
represented, and that as a youth, because time could have no power
over his beauty and his splendor. He rewarded the righteous, and
punished the ungodly with sickness and misfortune. He created the
world, and mankind, and the sun, and the water, and he was himself in
a certain degree the overseer thereof."[VI-11]

[Sidenote: TLOQUE-NAHUAQUE.]

The Abbé Brasseur believes in the knowledge by the Mexicans and
certain neighboring or related nations, of a Supreme God; but he
thinks also that the names of great priests and legislators have often
been used for or confounded with the one Name above every name. He
says: "In the traditions that have reached us the name of the
legislator is often confused with that of the divinity; and behind the
symbolic veil that covers primitive history, he who civilized and
brought to light in the Americans a new life, is designedly identified
with the Father of the universal creation. The writers who treat of
the history of the ancient American nations avow that, at the time of
the landing of the Spaniards on the soil of the western continent,
there was not one that did not recognize the existence of a supreme
deity and arbiter of the universe. In that confusion of religious
ideas, which is the inevitable result of ignorance and superstition,
the notion of a unique immaterial being, of an invisible power, had
survived the shipwreck of pure primitive creeds. Under the name
Tloque-Nahuaque, the Mexicans adored Him who is the first cause of all
things, who preserves and sustains all by his providence; calling him
again, for the same reason, Ipalnemoaloni, He in whom and by whom we
are and live. This god was the same as that Kunab-Ku, the Alone Holy,
who was adored in Yucatan; the same again as that Hurakan, the Voice
that Cries, the Heart of Heaven, found with the Guatemalan nations of
Central America; and the same lastly as that Teotl, God, whom we find
named in the Tzendal and Mexican books. This "God of all purity," as
he was styled in a Mexican prayer, was, however, too elevated for the
thoughts of the vulgar. His existence was recognized, and sages
invoked him; but he had neither temples nor altars--perhaps because
no one knew how he should be represented--and it was only in the last
times of the Aztec monarchy that Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcuco,
dedicated to him a teocalli of nine terraces, without statues, under
the title of the unknown god."[VI-12]

Mr Gallatin says of the Mexicans: "Their mythology, as far as we know
it, presents a great number of unconnected gods, without apparent
system or unity of design. It exhibits no evidence of metaphysical
research or imaginative powers. Viewed only as a development of the
intellectual faculties of man, it is, in every respect, vastly
inferior to the religious systems of Egypt, India, Greece, or
Scandinavia. If imported, it must have been from some barbarous
country, and brought directly from such country to Mexico, since no
traces of a similar worship are found in the more northern parts of
America."[VI-13]

"The Aztecs," writes Prescott, "recognized the existence of a Supreme
Creator and Lord of the Universe. But the idea of unity--of a being,
with whom volition is action, who has no need of inferior ministers to
execute his purposes--was too simple, or too vast, for their
understandings; and they sought relief as usual, in a plurality of
deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the seasons,
and the various occupations of man. Of these, there were thirteen
principal deities, and more than two hundred inferior; to each of whom
some special day, or appropriate festival, was consecrated."[VI-14]

[Sidenote: PRIMITIVE WORSHIP.]

According to Mr Squier: "The original deities of the Mexican pantheon
are few in number. Thus when the Mexicans engaged in a war, in defense
of the liberty or sovereignty of their country, they invoked the War
God, under his aspect and name Huitzlipochtli. When suddenly attacked
by enemies, they called upon the same god, under his aspect and name
of Paynalton, which implied God of Emergencies, etc. In fact, as
already elsewhere observed, all the divinities of the Mexican, as of
every other mythology, resolve themselves into the primeval God and
Goddess."[VI-15]

"The population of Central America," says the Vicomte de Bussierre,
"although they had preserved the vague notion of a superior eternal
God and creator, known by the name Teotl, had an Olympus as numerous
as that of the Greeks and the Romans. It would appear--the most
ancient, though, unfortunately, also the most obscure legends being
followed--that during the civilized period which preceded the
successive invasions of the barbarous hordes of the north, the
inhabitants of Anáhuac joined to the idea of a supreme being the
worship of the sun and the moon, offering them flowers, fruits, and
the first fruits of their fields. The most ancient monuments of the
country, such as the pyramids of Teotihuacan, were incontestably
consecrated to these luminaries. Let us now trace some of the most
striking features of these people. Among the number of their gods, is
found one represented under the figure of a man eternally young, and
considered as the symbol of the supreme and mysterious God. Two other
gods there were, watching over mortals from the height of a celestial
city, and charged with the accomplishment of their prayers. Air,
earth, fire, and water had their particular divinities. The woman of
the serpent, the prolific woman, she who never gave birth but to
twins, was adored as the mother of the human race. The sun and the
moon had their altars. Various divinities presided over the phenomena
of nature, over the day, the night, the mist, the thunder, the
harvest, the mountains, and so on. Souls, the place of the dead,
warriors, hunters, merchants, fishing, love, drunkenness, medicine,
flowers, and many other things had their special gods. A multitude of
heroes and of illustrious kings, whose apotheosis had been decreed,
took their place in this vast pantheon, where were besides seated two
hundred and sixty divinities of inferior rank, to each of whom
nevertheless one of the days of the year was consecrated. Lastly,
every city, every family, every individual, had its or his celestial
protector, to whom worship was rendered. The number of the temples
corresponded to that of the gods; these temples were found everywhere,
in the cities, in the fields, in the woods, along the roads, and all
of them had priests charged with their service. This complicated
mythology was common to all the nations of Anáhuac, even to those that
the empire had been unable to subjugate and with which it was at war;
but each country had its favorite god, such god being to it, what
Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, was to the Aztecs."[VI-16]

The Mexican religion, as summed up by Mr Brantz Mayer,[VI-17] "was a
compound of spiritualism and gross idolatry; for the Aztecs believed
in a Supreme Deity, whom they called Teotl, God; or Ipalnemoani, He by
whom we live; or Tloque Nahuaque, He who has all in himself; while
their evil spirit bore the name of Tlaleatcololotl, the Rational Owl.
These spiritual beings are surrounded by a number of lesser
divinities, who were probably the ministerial agents of Teotl. These
were Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and Teoyaomiqui, his spouse,
whose duty it was to conduct the souls of warriors who perished in
defense of their homes and religion to the 'house of the sun,' the
Aztec heaven. Huitzilopochtli, or Mextli, the god of war, was the
special protector of the Aztecs; and devoted as they were to war, this
deity was always invoked before battle, and recompensed after it by
the offering of numerous captives taken in conflict."

[Sidenote: MEXICAN RELIGION, GREEK AND ROMAN.]

"The religion of the Mexicans," writes Señor Carbajal Espinosa,[VI-18]
plagiarizing as literally as possible from Clavigero, "was a tissue of
errors and of cruel and superstitious rites. Similar infirmities of
the human mind are inseparable from a religious system originating in
caprice and fear, as we see even in the most cultured nations of
antiquity. If the religion of the Mexicans be compared with that of
the Greeks and Romans, it will be found that the latter is the more
superstitious and ridiculous and the former the more barbarous and
sanguinary. These celebrated nations of ancient Europe multiplied
excessively their gods because of the mean idea that they had of their
power; restricting their rule within narrow limits, attributing to
them the most atrocious crimes, and solemnizing their worship with
such execrable impurities as were so justly condemned by the fathers
of Christianity. The gods of the Mexicans were less imperfect, and
their worship although superstitious contained nothing repugnant to
decency. They had some idea, although imperfect, of a Supreme Being,
absolute, independent, believing that they owed him tribute,
adoration, and fear. They had no figure whereby to represent him,
believing him to be invisible, neither did they give him any other
name, save the generic one, God, which is in the Mexican tongue teotl,
resembling even more in sense than in pronunciation the theos of the
Greeks; they used, however, epithets, in the highest degree
expressive, to signify the grandeur and the power which they believed
him endowed with, calling him Ipalnemoani, that is to say, He by whom
we live, and Tloque-Nahuaque, which means, He that is all things in
himself. But the knowledge and the worship of this Supreme Essence
were obscured by the multitude of gods invented by superstition. The
people believed furthermore in an evil spirit, inimical to mankind,
calling him Tlacatecololotl, or Rational Owl, and saying that
oftentimes he revealed himself to men, to hurt or to terrify them."

"The Mexicans and the Tezcucans," following Señor Pimentel,
"recognized the existence of a Supreme Being, of a First Cause, and
gave him that generic title Teotl, God, the analogy of which with the
Theos of the Greeks, has been already noted by various authors. The
idea of God is one of those that appear radical to our very
existence.... With the Mexicans and Tezcucans this idea was darkened
by the adoration of a thousand gods, invoked in all emergencies; of
these gods there were thirteen principal, the most notable being the
god of providence, that of war, and that of the wind and waters. The
god of providence had his seat in the sky, and had in his care all
human affairs. The god of the waters was considered as the fertilizer
of earth, and his dwelling was in the highest of the mountains where
he arranged the clouds. The god of war was the principal protector of
the Mexicans, their guide in their wanderings from the mysterious
country of Aztlan, the god to whose favor they owed those great
victories that elevated them from the lowly estate of lake-fishermen
up to the lordship of Anáhuac. The god of the wind had an aspect more
benign.... The Mexicans also worshiped the sun and the moon, and even,
it would appear, certain animals considered as sacred. There figured
also in the Aztec mythology an evil genius called the Owl-man,[VI-19]
since in some manner the good and the bad, mixed up here on earth,
have to be explained. So the Persians had their Oromasdes and
Arimanes, the first the genius of good, and the second of evil, and
so, later, Manicheism presents us with analogous explanations."[VI-20]

[Sidenote: THE NAMELESS GOD.]

Solis, writing of Mexico and the Mexicans says: "There was hardly a
street without its tutelary god; neither was there any calamity of
nature without its altar, to which they had recourse for remedy. They
imagined and made their gods out of their own fear; not understanding
that they lessened the power of some by what they attributed to
others.... But for all so many as were their gods, and so complete as
was the blindness of their idolatry, they were not without the
knowledge of a Superior Deity, to whom they attributed the creation of
the heavens and the earth. This original of things was, among the
Mexicans, a god without name; they had no word in their language with
which to express him, only they gave it to be understood that they
knew him, pointing reverently towards heaven, and giving to him after
their fashion the attribute of ineffable, with that sort of religious
uncertainty with which the Athenians venerated the Unknown God."[VI-21]

The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis calls the Supreme God
of the Mexicans by the name Tonacateotle.[VI-22] The interpreter says:
"God, Lord, Creator, Governor of all, Tloque, Nauaq, Tlalticpaque,
Teotlalale-Matlava-Tepeva--all these epithets they bestowed on their
god Tonacateotle, who, they said, was the god that created the world;
and him alone they painted with a crown as lord of all. They never
offered sacrifices to this god for they said he cared not for such
things. All the others to whom they sacrificed were men once on a
time, or demons."[VI-23]

We have already seen from Herrera that "the Mexicans confessed to a
Supreme God, Lord, and maker of all things, and the said God was the
principal that they venerated, looking towards heaven, and calling
him Creator of heaven and earth."[VI-24] In contradistinction to this
it may be well to consider the following extract from the same author:
"Such was the blindness of the Mexicans, even to the natural light,
that they did not think like men of good judgment that all created
things were the work and effect of some immense and infinite cause,
the which only the First Cause and true God is.... And in Mexico alone
(according to the common opinion) they had and adored two thousand
gods, of whom the principal were Vizilipuztli and Tezcatlipucatl, who
as supreme were set up in the height of the great temple, over two
altars.... Tezcatlipucatl was the god of providence, and Vizilipuztli
the god of war."[VI-25]

Speaking of Mexican temples[VI-26] and gods, Oviedo says: "But Montezuma
had the chief [temple], together with three other prayer-houses, in
which he sacrificed in honor of four gods, or idols, that he had; of
these they had one for god of war, as the Gentiles had Mars; to
another they gave honor and sacrifice as god of the waters, even as
the ancients gave to Neptune; another they adored for god of the wind,
as the lost heathen adored Æolus; and another still they revered as
their sovereign god, and this was the sun.... They had further other
gods; making one of them god of the maize-fields, attributing to him
the power of guarding and multiplying the same, as the fable-writing
poets and ancients of antiquity did to Ceres. They had gods for
everything, giving attributes to each according to their surmises,
investing them with that godhead which they had not, and with which it
was not right to invest any save only the true God."[VI-27]

Speaking in general terms of probably a large part of New Spain,
Torquemada, says: "These idolaters did not deny that they had a god
called Ypalnemoaloni, that is to say, Lord by whom we live, and his
nature is that his existence is in himself:[VI-28] the which is most
proper to God, who is in his essence life. But that in which these
people erred was in distributing this divinity and attributing it to
many gods; yet, in reality, and verily, they recognized a Supreme God,
to whom all the others were inferior. But for the greatness of their
sins, they lacked faith and ran into this error like the other nations
that have done so."

[Sidenote: ACOSTA AND TEOTL.]

Acosta, as has been already noticed by Professor J. G. Müller, either
never heard of or disbelieved in the existence of the name Teotl and
of the ideas connected therewith by so many historians.[VI-29] The said
Acosta says: "If wee shall seeke into the Indian tongue for a word to
answer to this name of God, as in Latin, Deus; in Greeke, Theos; in
Hebrew, El; in Arabike, Alla; but wee shall not finde any in the
Cuscan or Mexicaine tongues. So as such as preach, or write to the
Indians, vse our Spanish name Dios, fitting it to the accent or
pronounciation of the Indian tongues; the which differ much, whereby
appeares the small knowledge they had of God, seeing they cannot so
much as name him, if it be not by our very name: yet in trueth they
had some little knowledge.... The Mexicaines almost in the same manner
[as the Peruvians] after the supreame God, worshiped the Sunne: And
therefore they called Hernando Cortez, Sonne of the Sunne, for his
care and courage to compasse the earth. But they made their greatest
adoration to an Idol called Vitzilipuztli, the which in all this
region they called the most puissant and Lord of all things: for this
cause the Mexicaines built him a Temple, the greatest, the fairest,
the highest, and the most sumptuous of all others.... But heere the
Mexicaines Idolatrie hath bin more pernicious and hurtfull than that
of the Inguas, as wee shall see plainer heereafter, for that the
greatest part of their adoration and idolatrie, was employed to Idols,
and not to naturall things, although they did attribute naturall
effects to these Idolls, as raine, multiplication of cattell, warre,
and generation, even as the Greekes and Latins have forged Idolls of
Phœbus, Mercurie, Jupiter, Minerva, and of Mars. To conclude, who
so shall neerely looke into it, shall finde this manner which the
Divell hath vsed to deceive the Indians, to be the same wherewith hee
hath deceived the Greekes and Romans, and other ancient Gentiles,
giving them to vnderstand that these notable creatures, the Sunne,
Moone, Starres, and Elements, had power and authoritie to doe good or
harme to men."[VI-30]

[Sidenote: MENDIETA'S EUHEMERISTIC THEORY.]

Mendieta says: "It is to be noted for a general rule that, though
these people, in all the continent of these Indias, from the farthest
parts of New Spain to the parts of Florida, and farther still to the
kingdoms of Peru, had, as has been said, an infinity of idols that
they reverenced as gods, nevertheless, above all, they still held the
sun as chiefest and most powerful. And they dedicated to the sun the
greatest, richest, and most sumptuous of their temples. This should be
the power the Mexicans called Ipalnemohuani, that is to say, 'by whom
all live,' and Moyucuyatzin ayac oquiyocux ayac oquipic, that is to
say, 'he that no one created or formed, but who, on the contrary, made
all things by his own power and will.' ... So many are the fictions
and fables that the Indians invented about their gods, and so
differently are these related in the different towns, that neither can
they agree among themselves in recounting them, nor shall there be
found any one who shall understand them. In the principal provinces of
this New Spain, they had--after the sun, which was the common god of
them all--each province, its particular and principal god, to which
god above all others they offered their sacrifices; as the Mexicans to
Uzilopuchtli--a name that the Spaniards not being able to pronounce
called Ocholobos, 'eight wolves', or Uchilobos; as the Tezucans to
Tezcatlipuca; as the Tlaxcalans to Camaxtli, and as the Cholulans to
Quetzalcoatl; doubtless all these were famous men that performed some
notable feats, or invented some new thing, to the honor and benefit of
the state; or perhaps again these gave the people laws and a rule of
life, or taught them trades, or to offer up sacrifices, or some other
thing that appeared good and worthy to be rewarded with grateful
acknowledgements.... The demon, the old enemy, did not content himself
with the service that these people did him in the adoration of almost
every visible creature, in making idols of them, both carven and
painted, but he also kept them blinded with a thousand fashions of
witchcrafts, parodies of sacraments, and superstitions."[VI-31]

"It is well to remark," writes Camargo, "that although the Indians had
a divinity for each thing, they were aware of the existence of a
Supreme God that they named Tloque-Nahuaque, or He who contains all,
regarding the same as superior to all the other gods." This Tlascaltec
author has also preserved us a native prayer couched in the following
terms: "O, all-powerful gods, that inhabit the heavens, even as far as
the ninth, where abides your master and ours, the great
Tloque-Nahuaque (this name means, He that accompanies the other
gods[VI-32])--you that have all power over men forsake us not in
danger. We invoke you, as well also as the sun Nauholin, and the moon,
spouse of that brilliant luminary, the stars of heaven also, and the
wind of the night and of the day."[VI-33]

According to the somewhat vague and incomplete account of Fray Toribio
de Benavente, or Motolinia--the latter his adopted name and that by
which he is best known--another of the original and early authorities
in matter concerning the gentile Mexicans: "Tezcatlipoca was the god
or demon that they held for greatest and to whom most dignity was
attributed.... They had idols of stone, and of wood, and of baked
clay; they also made them of dough and of seeds kneaded into the
dough.... Some of them were shaped like men, ... some were like
women; ... some were like wild beasts, as lions, tigers, dogs, deer,
and such other animals as frequented the mountains and plains; ... some
like snakes of many fashions, large and coiling.... Of the owl and
other night-birds, and of others as the kite, and of every large bird,
or beautiful, or fierce, or preciously feathered--they had an idol.
But the principal of all was the sun. Likewise had they idols of the
moon and stars, and of the great fishes, and of the water-lizards, and
of toads and frogs, and of other fishes; and these they said were the
gods of the fishes.... They had for gods fire, water, and earth; and
of all these they had painted figures.... Of many other things they
had figures and idols, carved or painted, even of butterflies, fleas,
and locusts."[VI-34]

[Sidenote: THE CREED OF NEZAHUALCOYOTL.]

Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcuco, was he who--according to the no doubt
somewhat partial account of his descendant Ixtlilxochitl--pushed the
farthest into overt speech and act his contempt of the vulgar idolatry
and his recognition of a high, holy, and to a great extent unknowable
supreme power. This thoughtful monarch "found for false all the gods
adored by the people of this land, saying that they were statues and
demons hostile to the human race; for he was very learned in moral
things, and he went to and fro more than any other, seeking if haply
he might find light to affirm the true God and creator of all things,
as has been seen in the discourse of his history, and as bear witness
the songs that he composed on this theme. He said that there was only
One, that this One was the maker of heaven and earth, that he
sustained all he had made and created, and that he was where was no
second, above the nine heavens; that no eye had ever seen this One, in
a human shape nor in any shape whatever; that the souls of the
virtuous went to him after death, while the souls of the bad went to
another place, some most infamous spot of earth, filled with horrible
hardships and sufferings. Never--though there were many gods
representing many idols--did the king neglect an opportunity of saying
when divinity was discussed, 'yntloque in nauhaque y palne moalani,'
which sentence sums up his convictions as above expressed.
Nevertheless he recognized the sun as his father and the earth as his
mother."[VI-35]

Now it is in the face of much that has been said denying or doubting
Ixtlilxochitl's account of the creed of Nezahualcoyotl that I have
selected the passage above translated, from among other passages
touching the same subject in the _Historia Chichimeca_ and in the
_Relaciones_. I have selected it not because it is the most clearly
worded, or the most eloquent, or the most complete; but solely on
account of the sentence with which it concludes: Nezahualcoyotl
"recognized the sun as his father and the earth as his mother." These
few words occurring at the end of a eulogy of the great Tezcucan by a
confessed admirer, these few words that have passed unnoticed amid the
din and hubbub raised over the lofty creed to which they form the last
article, these few words so insignificant apparently and yet so
significant in their connection--should go far to prove the
faithfulness of Ixtlilxochitl's record, and the greater or less
completeness of his portrait of his great ancestor. Were Ixtlilxochitl
dishonest, would he ever have allowed such a pagan chord as this to
come jangling into the otherwise perfect music of his description of a
perfect sage and Christian, who believed in a God alone and
all-sufficient, who believed in a creator of all things without any
help at all, much less the help of his dead material creatures the sun
and the earth? Let us admit the honesty of Ixtlilxochitl, and admit
with him a knowledge of that Unknown God, whom, as did the Athenians,
Nezahualcoyotl ignorantly worshiped; but let us not be blinded by a
glitter of words--which we may be sure lose nothing in the
repetition--as to the significance of that 'ignorantly;' let us never
lose sight across the shadow of that obscure Athenian altar to the
Unknown God, of the mighty columns of the Acropolis and the crest of
the Athena Promachos. Nezahualcoyotl seems a fair type of a
thoughtful, somewhat sceptical Mexican of that better-instructed class
which is ever and everywhere the horror of hypocrites and fanatics, of
that class never without its witnesses in all countries and at all
times, of that class two steps above the ignorant laity, and one step
above the learned priesthood, yet far still from that simple and
perfect truth which shall one day be patent enough to all.

[Sidenote: AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY.]

Turning from the discussion of a point so obscure and intangible as
the monotheism of Nezahualcoyotl and the school of which he was the
type, let us review the very palpable and indubitable polytheism of
the Mexicans. It seems radically to differ little from other
polytheisms better known, such as those of Greece, Rome, and
Scandinavia; it seems to have been a jumble of personified powers,
causes, and qualities, developed in the ordinary way from the mythical
corruption of that florid hyperbolical style of speech natural to all
peoples in days before the exact definition of words was either
possible or necessary; just such a jumble as the Aryan polytheisms
were in the days of the Euhemerists, and for too long after
unfortunately; such a jumble as Aryan mythology was till the brothers
Grimm led the van of the ripest talent and scholarship of the
nineteenth century into the paths of 'word-shunting,' which led again
into god or hero shunting, if the term may be invented. Unfortunately
the philologic and mythologic material for such an exhaustive
synthesis of the origin and relations of the American creeds as Mr
Cox, for example, has given to the world on the Aryan legends, in his
_Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, is yet far from complete; which fact
indeed makes the raison d'être of works like the present. There is
nothing for me at present but to gather, sift, and arrange, with such
sifting and arrangement as may be possible, all accessible materials
relating to the subject in hand; that done let more skilled workmen
find and give them their place in the wall of science. For they have a
place there, whether or no it be found to-day or to-morrow; a breach
is there that shall be empty until they fit and fill it.

* * * * *

Tezcatlipoca seems to have been considered on the whole, and the
patron-gods of different cities aside, as the most important of the
Mexican gods. We have seen him identified in several of the preceding
quotations with a supreme invisible god, and I now proceed,
illustrating this phase of his character, to translate as closely as
possible the various prayers given by Sahagun as addressed to this
great deity under his various names, Titlacoan, Yautl, Telpuchtli,
Tlamatzincatl, Moiocoiatzin, Iaotzin, Necociautl, Necaoalpilli, and
others:--

O, thou almighty God, that givest life to men, and art called
Titlacaoan, grant me in thy mercy everything needful to eat and to
drink, and to enjoy of thy soft and delicate things; for in grievous
toil and straitness I live in the world. Have mercy on me, so poor I
am and naked, I that labor in thy service, and for thy service sweep,
and clean, and put light in this poor house, where I await thine
orders; otherwise let me die soon and end this toilful and miserable
life, so that my body may find rest and a breathing-time.

In illness the people prayed to this deity as follows: O God, whose
name is Titlacaoan, be merciful and send away this sickness which is
killing me, and I will reform my life. Let me be once healed of this
infirmity and I swear to serve thee and to earn the right to live;
should I by hard toil gain something, I will not eat it nor employ it
in anything save only to thine honor; I will give a feast and a
banquet of dancing in this poor house.

But the sick man that could not recover, and that felt it so, used to
grow desperate and blaspheme saying: O Titlacaoan, since thou mockest
me, why dost thou not kill me?[VI-36]

[Sidenote: PRAYER IN TIME OF PESTILENCE.]

[Sidenote: SPARE THE GREEN AND TAKE THE RIPE.]

Then following is a prayer to Tezcatlipoca, used by the priest in time
of pestilence: O mighty Lord, under whose wing we find defense and
shelter, thou art invisible and impalpable even as night and the air.
How can I that am so mean and worthless dare to appear before thy
majesty? Stuttering and with rude lips I speak; ungainly is the manner
of my speech as one leaping among furrows, as one advancing unevenly;
for all this I fear to raise thine anger, and to provoke instead of
appeasing thee; nevertheless thou wilt do unto me as may please thee.
O Lord, that hast held it good to forsake us in these days, according
to the counsel thou hast as well in heaven as in hades--alas for us,
in that thine anger and indignation has descended in these days upon
us; alas, in that the many and grievous afflictions of thy wrath have
overgone and swallowed us up, coming down even as stones, spears, and
arrows upon the wretches that inhabit the earth--this is the sore
pestilence with which we are afflicted and almost destroyed. Alas, O
valiant and all-powerful Lord, the common people are almost made an
end of and destroyed; a great destruction and ruin the pestilence
already makes in this nation; and, what is most pitiful of all, the
little children that are innocent and understand nothing, only to play
with pebbles and to heap up little mounds of earth, they too die,
broken and dashed to pieces as against stones and a wall--a thing very
pitiful and grievous to be seen, for there remain of them not even
those in the cradles, nor those that could not walk nor speak. Ah,
Lord, how all things become confounded; of young and old and of men
and women there remains neither branch nor root; thy nation and thy
people and thy wealth are leveled down and destroyed. O our Lord,
protector of all, most valiant and most kind, what is this? Thine
anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in hurling the
stone and arrow and spear? The fire of the pestilence, made exceeding
hot, is upon thy nation, as a fire in a hut, burning and smoking,
leaving nothing upright or sound. The grinders of thy teeth are
employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of thy people, who
have become lean and of little substance, even as a hollow green cane.
Yea, what doest thou now, O Lord, most strong, compassionate,
invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose
disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all is subject--what
in thy divine breast hast thou decreed? Peradventure hast thou
altogether forsaken thy nation and thy people? Hast thou verily
determined that it utterly perish, and that there be no more memory of
it in the world, that the peopled place become a wooded hill and a
wilderness of stones? Peradventure wilt thou permit that the temples,
and the places of prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, be
razed and destroyed and no memory of them be left? Is it indeed
possible that thy wrath and punishment, and vexed indignation are
altogether implacable and will go on to the end to our destruction?
Is it already fixed in thy divine counsel that there is to be no mercy
nor pity for us, until the arrows of thy fury are spent to our utter
perdition and destruction? Is it possible that this lash and
chastisement is not given for our correction and amendment, but only
for our total destruction and obliteration; that the sun shall
nevermore shine upon us, but that we must remain in perpetual darkness
and silence; that nevermore thou wilt look upon us with eyes of mercy,
neither little nor much? Wilt thou after this fashion destroy the
wretched sick that cannot find rest nor turn from side to side, whose
mouth and teeth are filled with earth and scurf? It is a sore thing to
tell how we are all in darkness, having none understanding nor sense
to watch for or aid one another. We are all as drunken and without
understanding, without hope of any aid; already the little children
perish of hunger, for there is none to give them food, nor drink, nor
consolation, nor caress--none to give the breast to them that suck;
for their fathers and mothers have died and left them orphans,
suffering for the sins of their fathers. O our Lord, all-powerful,
full of mercy, our refuge, though indeed thine anger and indignation,
thine arrows and stones, have sorely hurt this poor people, let it be
as a father or a mother that rebukes children, pulling their ears,
pinching their arms, whipping them with nettles, pouring chill water
upon them; all being done that they may amend their puerility and
childishness. Thy chastisement and indignation have lorded and
prevailed over these thy servants, over this poor people, even as rain
falling upon the trees and the green canes, being touched of the wind,
drops also upon those that are below. O most compassionate Lord, thou
knowest that the common folk are as children, that being whipped they
cry and sob and repent of what they have done. Peradventure, already
these poor people by reason of thy chastisement weep, sigh, blame, and
murmur against themselves; in thy presence they blame and bear witness
against their bad deeds and punish themselves therefor. Our Lord most
compassionate, pitiful, noble, and precious, let a time be given the
people to repent; let the past chastisement suffice, let it end here,
to begin again if the reform endure not. Pardon and overlook the sins
of the people; cause thine anger and thy resentment to cease; repress
it again within thy breast that it destroy no farther; let it rest
there; let it cease, for of a surety none can avoid death nor escape
to any place. We owe tribute to death; and all that live in the world
are the vassals thereof; this tribute shall every man pay with his
life. None shall avoid from following death, for it is thy messenger
what hour soever it may be sent, hungering and thirsting always to
devour all that are in the world and so powerful that none shall
escape: then indeed shall every man be punished according to his
deeds. O most pitiful Lord, at least take pity and have mercy upon the
children that are in the cradles, upon those that cannot walk. Have
mercy also, O Lord, upon the poor and very miserable, who have nothing
to eat, nor to cover themselves withal, nor a place to sleep, who do
not know what thing a happy day is, whose days pass altogether in
pain, affliction, and sadness. Than this, were it not better, O Lord,
if thou should forget to have mercy upon the soldiers and upon the men
of war, whom thou wilt have need of sometime; behold it is better to
die in war and go to serve food and drink in the house of the sun,
than to die in this pestilence and descend to hades. O most strong
Lord, protector of all, lord of the earth, governor of the world, and
universal master, let the sport and satisfaction thou hast already
taken in this past punishment suffice; make an end of this smoke and
fog of thy resentment; quench also the burning and destroying fire of
thine anger: let serenity come and clearness; let the small birds of
thy people begin to sing and to approach the sun; give them quiet
weather so that they may cause their voices to reach thy highness and
thou mayest know them. O our Lord, most strong, most compassionate,
and most noble, this little have I said before thee, and I have
nothing more to say, only to prostrate and throw myself at thy feet,
seeking pardon for the faults of this my prayer; certainly I would not
remain in thy displeasure, and I have no other thing to say.

[Sidenote: PRAYER FOR AID AGAINST POVERTY.]

The following is a prayer to the same deity, under his names
Tezcatlipuca and Yoalliehecatl, for succor against poverty: O our
Lord, protector most strong and compassionate, invisible, and
impalpable, thou art the giver of life; lord of all, and lord of
battles, I present myself here before thee to say some few words
concerning the need of the poor people, the people of none estate nor
intelligence. When they lie down at night they have nothing, nor when
they rise up in the morning; the darkness and the light pass alike in
great poverty. Know, O Lord, that thy subjects and servants, suffer a
sore poverty that cannot be told of more than that it is a sore
poverty and desolateness. The men have no garments nor the women to
cover themselves with, but only certain rags rent in every part that
allow the air and the cold to pass everywhere. With great toil and
weariness they scrape together enough for each day, going by mountain
and wilderness seeking their food; so faint and enfeebled are they
that their bowels cleave to the ribs, and all their body reëchoes with
hollowness; and they walk as people affrighted, the face and the body
in likeness of death. If they be merchants, they now sell only cakes
of salt and broken pepper; the people that have something despise
their wares, so that they go out to sell from door to door and from
house to house; and when they sell nothing they sit down sadly by some
fence, or wall, or in some corner, licking their lips and gnawing the
nails of their hands for the hunger that is in them; they look on the
one side and on the other at the mouths of those that pass by, hoping
peradventure that one may speak some word to them. O compassionate
God, the bed on which they lie down is not a thing to rest upon, but
to endure torment in; they draw a rag over them at night and so sleep;
there they throw down their bodies and the bodies of children that
thou hast given them. For the misery they grow up in, for the
filth[VI-37] of their food, for the lack of covering, their faces are
yellow and all their bodies of the color of earth. They tremble with
cold, and for leanness they stagger in walking. They go weeping, and
sighing, and full of sadness, and all misfortunes are joined to them;
though they stay by a fire they find little heat. O our Lord, most
clement, invisible, and impalpable, I supplicate thee to see good to
have pity upon them as they move in thy presence wailing and clamoring
and seeking mercy with anguish of heart. O our Lord, in whose power it
is to give all content, consolation, sweetness, softness, prosperity
and riches, for thou alone art lord of all good--have mercy upon them
for they are thy servants. I supplicate thee, O Lord, that thou prove
them a little with tenderness, indulgence, sweetness, and softness,
which indeed they sorely lack and require. I supplicate thee that thou
will lift up their heads with thy favor and aid, that thou will see
good that they enjoy some days of prosperity and tranquillity, so they
may sleep and know repose, having prosperous and peaceable days of
life. Should they still refuse to serve thee, thou afterwards canst
take away what thou hast given; they having enjoyed it but a few days,
as those that enjoy a fragrant and beautiful flower and find it wither
presently. Should this nation, for whom I pray and entreat thee to do
them good, not understand what thou hast given, thou canst take away
the good and pour out cursing; so that all evil may come upon them,
and they become poor, in need, maimed, lame, blind, and deaf: then
indeed they shall waken and know the good that they had and have not,
and they shall call upon thee and lean towards thee; but thou wilt not
listen, for in the day of abundance they would not understand thy
goodness towards them. In conclusion, I supplicate thee, O most kind
and benificent Lord, that thou will see good to give this people to
taste of the goods and riches that thou art wont to give, and that
proceed from thee, things sweet and soft and bringing content, and
joy, although it be but for a little while, and as a dream that
passes. For it is certain that for a long time the people go sadly
before thee, weeping and thoughtful, because of the anguish, hardship,
and anxiety that fill their bodies and hearts, taking away all ease
and rest. Verily, it is not doubtful that to this poor nation, needy
and shelterless, happens all I have said. If thou answerest my
petition it will be only of thy liberality and magnificence, for no
one is worthy to receive thy bounty for any merit of his, but only
through thy grace. Search below the dung-hills and in the mountains
for thy servants, friends, and acquaintance, and raise them to riches
and dignities. O our Lord, most clement, let thy will be done as it is
ordained in thy heart, and we shall have nothing to say. I, a rude man
and common, would not by importunity and prolixity disgust and annoy
thee, detailing my sickness, destruction, and punishment. Whom do I
speak to? Where am I? Lo I speak with thee, O King; well do I know
that I stand in an eminent place, and that I talk with one of great
majesty, before whose presence flows a river through a chasm, a gulf
sheer down of awful depth; this also is a slippery place, whence many
precipitate themselves, for there shall not be found one without error
before thy majesty. I myself, a man of little understanding and
lacking speech, dare to address my words to thee; I put myself in
peril of falling into the gorge and cavern of this river. I, Lord,
have come to take with my hands blindness to mine eyes, rottenness and
shrivelling to my members, poverty and affliction to my body; for my
meanness and rudeness this it is that I merit to receive. Live and
rule for ever in all quietness and tranquillity, O thou that art our
lord, our shelter, our protector, most compassionate, most pitiful,
invisible, impalpable.

[Sidenote: PRAYER IN TIME OF WAR.]

[Sidenote: PRAYER TO THE GOD OF BATTLES.]

This following is a petition in time of war to the same principal god,
under his name of Tezcatlipoca Yautlnecociautlmonenequi, praying favor
against the enemy: O our Lord, most compassionate, protector,
defender, invisible, impalpable, by whose will and wisdom we are
directed and governed, beneath whose rule we live--O, Lord of
battles, it is a thing very certain and settled that war begins to be
arranged and prepared for. The god of the earth opens his mouth,
thirsty to drink the blood of them that shall die in this strife. It
seems that they wish to be merry, the sun and the god of the earth
called Tlaltecutli; they wish to give to eat and drink to the gods of
heaven and hades, making them a banquet with the blood and flesh of
the men that have to die in this war. Already do they look, the gods
of heaven and hades, to see who they are that have to conquer, and who
to be conquered; who they are that have to slay, and who to be slain;
whose blood it is that has to be drunken, and whose flesh it is that
has to be eaten;--which things the noble fathers and mothers whose
sons have to die, are ignorant of. Even so are ignorant all their kith
and kin, and the nurses that gave them suck--ignorant also are the
fathers that toiled for them, seeking things needful for their food
and drink and raiment until they reached the age they now have.
Certainly they could not foretell how those sons should end whom they
reared so anxiously, or that they should be one day left captives or
dead upon the field. See good, O our Lord, that the nobles who die in
the shock of war be peacefully and agreeably received, and with bowels
of love, by the sun and the earth that are father and mother of all.
For verily thou dost not deceive thyself in what thou doest,[VI-38] to
wit, in wishing them to die in war; for certainly for this didst thou
send them into the world, so that with their flesh and their blood
they might be for meat and drink to the sun and the earth. Be not
wroth, O Lord, anew against those of the profession of war, for in the
same place where they will die have died many generous[VI-39] and noble
lords and captains, and valiant men. The nobility and generosity of
the nobles and the great-heartedness of the warriors is made apparent,
and thou makest manifest, O Lord, how estimable and precious is each
one, so that as such he may be held and honored, even as a stone of
price or a rich feather. O Lord, most clement, lord of battles,
emperor of all, whose name is Tezcatlipoca, invisible and impalpable,
we supplicate thee that he or they that thou wilt permit to die in
this war may be received into the house of the sun in heaven, with
love and honor, and may be placed and lodged between the brave and
famous warriors already dead in war, to wit, the lords Quitzicquaquatzin,
Maceuhcatzin, Tlacahuepantzin, Ixtlilcuechavac, Ihuitltemuc,
Chavacuetzin, and all the other valiant and renowned men that died in
former times--who are rejoicing with and praising our lord the sun,
who are glad and eternally rich through him, and shall be for ever;
they go about sucking the sweetness of all flowers delectable and
pleasant to the taste. This is a great dignity for the stout and
valiant ones that died in war; for this they are drunken with delight,
keeping no account of night, nor day, nor years, nor times; their joy
and their wealth is without end; the nectarous flowers they sip never
fade, and for the desire thereof men of high descent strengthen
themselves to die. In conclusion, I entreat thee, O Lord, that art our
lord most clement, our emperor most invincible, to see good that those
that die in this war be received with bowels of pity and love by our
father the sun, and our mother the earth; for thou only livest and
rulest and art our most compassionate lord. Nor do I supplicate alone
for the illustrious and noble, but also for the other soldiers, who
are troubled and tormented in heart, who clamor, calling upon thee,
holding their lives as nothing, and who fling themselves without fear
upon the enemy, seeking death. Grant them at least some small part of
their desire, some rest and repose in this life; or if here, in this
world, they are not destined to prosperity, appoint them for servants
and officers of the sun, to give food and drink to those in hades and
to those in heaven. As for those whose charge it is to rule the state
and to be tlacateccatl or tlacochcalatl,[VI-40] make them to be fathers
and mothers to the men of war that wander by field and mountain, by
height and ravine--in their hand is the sentence of death for enemies
and criminals, as also the distribution of dignities, the offices and
the arms of war, the badges, the granting privileges to those that
wear visors and tassels[VI-41] on the head, and ear-rings, pendants, and
bracelets, and have yellow skins tied to their ankles--with them is
the privilege of appointing the fashion of the raiment that every one
shall wear. It is to these also to give permission to certain to use
and wear precious stones, as chalchivetes, turquoises, and rich
feathers in the dances, and to wear necklaces and jewels of gold: all
of which things are delicate and precious gifts proceeding from thy
riches, and which thou givest to those that perform feats and valiant
deeds in war. I entreat thee also, O Lord, to make grace of thy
largess to the common soldiers, give them some shelter and good
lodging in this world, make them stout and brave, and take away all
cowardice from their heart, so that not only shall they meet death
with cheerfulness, but even desire it as a sweet thing, as flowers and
dainty food, nor dread at all the hoots and shouts of their enemies:
this do to them as to thy friend. Forasmuch as thou art lord of
battles, on whose will depends the victory, aiding whom thou wilt,
needing not that any counsel thee--I entreat thee, O Lord, to make
mad and drunken our enemies so that without hurt to us they may cast
themselves into our hands, into the hands of our men of war enduring
so much hardship and poverty. O our Lord, since thou art God,
all-powerful, all-knowing, disposer of all things, able to make this
land rich, prosperous, praised, honored, famed in the art and feats of
war, able to make the warriors now in the field to live and be
prosperous, if, in the days at hand, thou see good that they die in
war, let it be to go to the house of the sun, among all the heroes
that are there and that died upon the battle-field.

[Sidenote: PRAYER THAT A RULER MAY RULE WELL.]

[Sidenote: THAT A RULER MAY NOT ABUSE HIS POWER.]

The following prayer is one addressed to the principal deity, under
his name Tezcatlipoca Teiocoiani Tehimatini, asking favor for a newly
elected ruler: To-day, a fortunate day, the sun has risen upon us,
warming us, so that in it a precious stone may be wrought, and a
handsome sapphire. To us has appeared a new light, has arrived a new
brightness, to us has been given a glittering axe to rule and govern
our nation--has been given a man to take upon his shoulders the
affairs and troubles of the state. He is to be the image and
substitute of the lords and governors that have already passed away
from this life, who for some days labored, bearing the burden of thy
people, possessing thy throne and seat, which is the principal
dignity[VI-42] of this thy nation, province, and kingdom; having and
holding the same in thy name and person some few days. These have now
departed from this life, put off their shoulders the great load and
burden that so few are able to suffer. Now, O Lord, we marvel that
thou hast indeed set thine eyes on this man, rude and of little
knowledge, to make him for some days, for some little time, the
governor of this state, nation, province, and kingdom. O our Lord,
most clement, art thou peradventure in want of persons and
friends?--nay verily, thou that hast thereof more than can be counted!
Is it, peradventure, by error, or that thou dost not know him; or is
it that thou hast taken him for the nonce, while thou seekest among
many for another and a better than he, unwise, indiscrete,
unprofitable, a superfluous man in the world. Finally, we give thanks
to thy majesty for the favor thou hast done us. What thy designs
therein are thou alone knowest; perhaps beforehand this office has
been provided for: thy will be done as it is determined in thy heart;
let this man serve for some days and times. It may be that he will
fill this office defectively, giving unrest and fear to his subjects,
doing things without counsel or consideration, deeming himself worthy
of the dignity he has, thinking that he will remain in it for a long
time, making a sad dream of it, making the occupation and dignity thou
hast given him an occasion of pride and presumption, making little of
everybody and going about with pomp and pageantry. Within a few days,
thou wilt know the event of all, for all men are thy spectacle and
theatre, at which thou laughest and makest thyself merry. Perhaps this
ruler will lose his office through his childishness, or it will happen
through his carelessness and laziness; for verily nothing is hidden
from thee, thy sight makes way through stone and wood, and thine
hearing. Or perhaps his arrogance, and the secret boasting of his
thoughts will destroy him. Then thou wilt throw him among the filth
and upon the dung-hills, and his reward will be blindness, and
shrivellings, and extreme poverty till the hour of his death, when
thou wilt put him under thy feet. Since this poor man is put in this
risk and peril, we supplicate thee, who art our Lord, our invisible
and impalpable protector, under whose will and pleasure we are, who
alone disposes of and provides for all--we supplicate thee that thou
see good to deal mercifully with him; inasmuch as he is needy, thy
subject and servant, and blind; deign to provide him with thy light,
that he may know what he has to think, what he has to do, and the road
he has to follow, so as to commit no error in his office, contrary to
thy disposition and will. Thou knowest what is to happen to him in
this office both by day and night; we know, O our Lord, most clement,
that our ways and deeds are not so much in our hands as in the hands
of our ruler. If this ruler after an evil and perverse fashion, in the
place to which thou hast elevated him, and in the seat in which thou
hast put him--which is thine--where he manages the affairs of the
people, as one that washes filthy things with clean and clear water,
(yea in the same seat holds a similar cleansing office the ancient
god, who is father and mother to thyself, and is god of fire, who
stands in the midst of flowers, in the midst of the place bounded by
four walls, who is covered with shining feathers that are as
wings)--if this ruler-elect of ours do evil with which to provoke
thine ire and indignation, and to awaken thy chastisement against
himself, it will not be of his own will or seeking, but by thy
permission or by some impulse from without; for which I entreat thee
to see good to open his eyes to give him light; open also his ears and
guide him, not so much for his own sake as for that of those whom he
has to rule over and carry on his shoulders.[VI-43] I supplicate thee,
that now, from the beginning, thou inspire him with what he is to
conceive in his heart, and the road he is to follow, inasmuch as thou
hast made of him a seat on which to seat thyself, and also as it were
a flute that, being played upon, may signify thy will. Make him, O
Lord, a faithful image of thyself, and permit not that in thy throne
and hall he make himself proud and haughty; but rather see good, O
Lord, that quietly and prudently he rule and govern those in his
charge who are common people: do not permit him to insult and oppress
his subjects, nor to give over without reason any of them to
destruction. Neither permit, O Lord, that he spot and defile thy
throne and hall with any injustice or oppression, for in so doing he
will stain also thine honor and fame. Already, O Lord, has this poor
man accepted and received the honor and lordship that thou hast given
him; already he possesses the glory and riches thereof; already thou
hast adorned his hands, feet, head, ears, and lips, with visor,
ear-rings, and bracelets, and put yellow leather upon his ankles.
Permit it not, O Lord, that these decorations, badges, and ornaments
be to him a cause of pride and presumption; but rather that he serve
thee with humility and plainness. May it please thee, O our Lord, most
clement, that he rule and govern this, thy seignory, that thou hast
committed to him, with all prudence and wisdom. May it please thee
that he do nothing wrong or to thine offense; deign to walk with him
and direct him in all his ways. But if thou wilt not do this, ordain
that from this day henceforth he be abhorred and disliked, and that he
die in war at the hands of his enemies, that he depart to the house of
the sun; where he will be taken care of as a precious stone, and his
heart esteemed by the sun-lord; he dying in the war like a stout and
valiant man. This would be much better than to be dishonored in the
world, to be disliked and abhorred of his people for his faults or
defects. O our Lord, thou that providest to all the things needful for
them, let this thing be done as I have entreated and supplicated
thee.

[Sidenote: THAT A RULER BE SET OVER THE NATION.]

The next prayer, directed to the god under his name Tezcatlipoca
Titlacaoamoquequeloa, is to ask, after the death of a ruler, that
another may be given: O our Lord, already thou knowest how our ruler
is dead, already thou hast put him under thy feet; he is gathered to
his place; he is gone by the road that all have to go by, and to the
house where all have to lodge; house of perpetual darkness, where
there is no window, nor any light at all; he is now where none shall
trouble his rest. He served thee here in his office during some few
days and years, not indeed without fault and offense. Thou gavest him
to taste in this world somewhat of thy kindness and favor, passing it
before his face as a thing that passes quickly. This is the dignity
and office that thou placedst him in, that he served thee in for some
days, as has been said, with sighs, tears and devout prayers before
thy majesty. Alas, he is gone now where our father and mother the god
of hades is, the god that descended head foremost below the fire,[VI-44]
the god that desires to carry us all to his place, with a very
importunate desire, with such a desire as one has that dies of hunger
and thirst; the god that is moved exceedingly, both by day and night,
crying and demanding that all go to him. There, with this god, is now
our late-departed ruler; he is there with all his ancestors that were
in the first times, that governed this kingdom, with Acamapichtli,
with Tyzoc, with Avitzotl, with the first Mocthecuzoma, with
Axayacatl, and with those that came last, as the second Mocthecuzoma
and also Mocthecuzoma Ilhuicamina.[VI-45] All these lords and kings
ruled, governed, and enjoyed the sovereignty and royal dignity, and
throne and seat of this empire; they ordered and regulated the affairs
of this thy kingdom--thou that art the universal lord and emperor,
and that needest not to take counsel with another. Already had these
put off the intolerable load that they had on their shoulders, leaving
it to their successor, our late ruler, so that for some days he bore
up this lordship and kingdom; but now he has passed on after his
predecessors to the other world. For thou didst ordain him to go, and
didst call him to give thanks for being unloaded of so great a burden,
quit of so sore a toil, and left in peace and rest. Some few days we
have enjoyed him, but now forever he is absent from us, never more to
return to the world. Peradventure has he gone to any place whence he
can return here, so that his subjects may see his face again? Will he
come again to tell us to do this or that? Will he come again to look
to the consuls or governors of the state? Peradventure will they see
him any more, or hear his decree and commandment? Will he come any
more to give consolation and comfort to his principal men and his
consuls? Alas, there is an end to his presence, he is gone for ever.
Alas, that our candle has been quenched, and our light, that the axe
that shone with us is lost altogether. All his subjects and inferiors,
he has left in orphanage and without shelter. Peradventure will he
take care henceforward of this city, province, and kingdom, though
this city be destroyed and leveled to the ground, with this seignory
and kingdom? O our Lord, most clement, is it a fit thing that by the
absence of him that died shall come to the city, seignory, and kingdom
some misfortune, in which will be destroyed, undone, and affrighted
the vassals that live therein? For while living, he who has died gave
shelter under his wings, and kept his feathers spread over the people.
Great danger runs this your city, seignory, and kingdom, if another
ruler be not elected immediately to be a shelter thereto. What is it
that thou art resolved to do? Is it good that thy people be in
darkness? Is it good that they be without head or shelter? Is it thy
will that they be leveled down and destroyed? Woe for the poor and the
little ones, thy servants, that go seeking a father and mother, some
one to shelter and govern them, even as little children that go
weeping, seeking an absent father and mother, and that grieve, not
finding them. Woe for the merchants, petty and poor, that go about by
the mountains, deserts, and meadows, woe also to the sad toilers that
go about seeking herbs to eat, roots and wood to burn, or to sell, to
eke out an existence withal. Woe for the poor soldiers, for the men of
war, that go about seeking death, that abhor life, that think of
nothing but the field and the line where battle is given--upon whom
shall they call? who shall take a captive? to whom shall they present
the same? And if they themselves be taken captive, to whom shall they
give notice, that it may be known in their land? Whom shall they take
for father and mother, so that in such a case favor may be granted
them? Since he whose duty it was to see to this, who was as father and
mother to all, is already dead. There will be none to weep, to sigh
for the captives, to tell their relatives about them. Woe for the poor
of the litigants, for those that have lawsuits with those that would
take their estates. Who will judge, make peace among, and clear them
of their disputes and quarrels? Behold when a child becomes dirty, if
his mother clean him not, he must remain filthy. And those that make
strife between themselves, that beat, that knock down, who will keep
peace between them? Those that for all this go weeping and shedding
tears, who shall wipe away their tears and put a stop to their
laments? Peradventure can they apply a remedy to themselves? Those
deserving death, will they peradventure pass sentence upon themselves?
Who shall set up the throne of justice? Who shall possess the hall of
the judge, since there is no judge? Who will ordain the things that
are necessary for the good of this city, seignory, and kingdom? Who
will elect the special judges that have charge of the lower people,
district by district? Who will look to the sounding of the drum and
fife to gather the people for war? who will collect and lead the
soldiers and dexterous men to battle? O our Lord and protector see
good to elect and decide upon some person sufficient to fill your
throne and bear upon his shoulders the sore burden of the ruling of
the state, to gladden and cheer the common people, even as the mother
caresses the child, taking it in her lap; who will make music to the
troubled bees[VI-46] so that they may be at rest? O our Lord, most
clement, favor our ruler-elect, whom we deem fit for this office,
elect and choose him so that he may hold this your lordship and
government; give him as a loan your throne and seat, so that he may
rule over this seignory and kingdom as long as he lives; lift him from
the lowliness and humility in which he is, and put on him this honor
and dignity that we think him worthy of; O our Lord, most clement,
give light and splendor with your hand to this state and kingdom. What
has been said I only come to propose to thy majesty; although very
defectively, as one that is drunken, and that staggers, almost ready
to fall. Do that which may best serve thee, in all and through all.

[Sidenote: PRAYER TO BE RID OF A BAD RULER.]

What follows is a kind of greater excommunication, or prayer to get
rid of a ruler that abused and misused his power and dignity: O our
Lord, most clement, that givest shelter to every one that approaches,
even as a tree of great height and breadth, thou that art invisible
and impalpable; that art, as we understand, able to penetrate the
stones and the trees, seeing what is contained therein. For this same
reason thou seest and knowest what is within our hearts and readest
our thoughts. Our soul in thy presence is as a little smoke or fog
that rises from the earth. It cannot at all be hidden from thee, the
deed and the manner of living of any one; for thou seest and knowest
his secrets and the sources of his pride and ambition. Thou knowest
that our ruler has a cruel and hard heart and abuses the dignity that
thou hast given him, as the drunkard abuses his wine, as one drunken
with a soporific;[VI-47] that is to say that the riches, dignity, and
abundance that for a little while thou hast given him, fill him with
error, haughtiness, and unrest, and that he becomes a fool,
intoxicated with the poison that makes him mad. His prosperity causes
him to despise and make little of every one; it seems that his heart
is covered with sharp thorns and also his face: all of which is made
apparent by his manner of living, and by his manner of talking; never
saying nor doing anything that gives pleasure to any one, never caring
for any one, never taking counsel of any one; he ever lives as seems
good to him and as the whim directs. O our Lord, most clement,
protector of all, creator and maker of all, it is too certain that
this man has destroyed himself, has acted like a child ungrateful to
his father, like a drunkard without reason. The favors thou hast
accorded him, the dignity thou hast set him in, have occasioned his
perdition. Besides these, there is another thing, exceedingly hurtful
and reprehensible: he is irreligious, never praying to the gods, never
weeping before them, nor grieving for his sins, nor sighing; from this
it comes about that he is as headstrong as a drunkard in his vices,
going about like a hollow and empty person, wholly senseless; he stays
not to consider what he is nor the office that he fills. Of a verity
he dishonors and affronts the dignity and throne that he holds, which
is thine, and which ought to be much honored and reverenced; for from
it depends the justice and rightness of the judicature that he holds,
for the sustaining and worthily directing of thy nation, thou being
emperor of all. He should so hold his power that the lower people be
not injured and oppressed by the great; from him should fall
punishment and humiliation on those that respect not thy power and
dignity. But all things and people suffer loss in that he fills not
his office as he ought. The merchants suffer also, who are those to
whom thou givest the most of thy riches, who overrun all the world,
yea the mountains and the unpeopled places, seeking through much
sorrow thy gifts, favors, and dainties, the which thou givest
sparingly and to thy friends. Ah, Lord, not only does he dishonor thee
as aforesaid, but also when we are gathered together to intone thy
songs, gathered in the place where we solicit thy mercies and gifts,
in the place where thou art praised and prayed to, where the sad
afflicted ones and the poor gather comfort and strength, where very
cowards find spirit to die in war--in this so holy and reverend place
this man exhibits his dissoluteness and hurts devotion; he troubles
those that serve and praise thee in the place where thou gatherest and
markest thy friends, as a shepherd marks his flock.[VI-48] Since thou,
Lord, hearest and knowest to be true all that I have now said in thy
presence, there remains no more but that thy will be done, and the
good pleasure of thy heart to the remedy of this affair. At least, O
Lord, punish this man in such wise that he become a warning to others,
so that they may not imitate his evil life. Let the punishment fall on
him from thy hand that to thee seems most meet, be it sickness or any
other affliction; or deprive him of the lordship, so that thou mayest
give it to another, to one of thy friends, to one humble, devoted, and
penitent; for many such thou hast, thou that lackest not persons such
as are necessary for this office, friends that hope, crying to thee:
thou knowest those for friends and servants that weep and sigh in thy
presence every day. Elect some one of these that he may hold the
dignity of this thy kingdom and seignory; make trial of some of these.
And now, O Lord, of all the aforesaid things which is it that thou
wilt grant? Wilt thou take from this ruler the lordship, dignity, and
riches on which he prides himself, and give them to another who may be
devout, penitent, humble, obedient, capable, and of good
understanding? Or, peradventure, wilt thou be served by the falling of
this proud one into poverty and misery, as one of the poor rustics
that can hardly gather the wherewithal to eat, drink, and clothe
himself? Or, peradventure, will it please thee to smite him with a
sore punishment so that all his body may shrivel up, or his eyes be
made blind, or his members rotten? Or wilt thou be pleased to withdraw
him from the world through death, and send him to hades, to the house
of darkness and obscurity, where his ancestors are, whither we have
all to go, where our father is, and our mother, the god and the
goddess of hell. O our Lord, most clement, what is it that thy heart
desires the most? Let thy will be done. And in this matter in which I
supplicate thee, I am not moved by envy nor hate; nor with any such
motives have I come into thy presence. I am moved only by the robbery
and ill-treatment that the people suffer, only by a desire for their
peace and prosperity. I would not desire, O Lord, to provoke against
myself thy wrath and indignation, I that am a mean man and rude; for
it is to thee, O Lord, to penetrate the heart and to know the thoughts
of all mortals.

[Sidenote: PRAYER USED BY A CONFESSOR OF SINS.]

The following is a form of Mexican prayer to Tezcatlipoca, used by the
officiating confessor after having heard a confession of sins from
some one. The peculiarity of a Mexican confession was that it could
not lawfully have place in a man's life more than once; a man's first
absolution and remission of sins was also the last and the only one he
had to hope for:--O our most compassionate Lord, protector and favorer
of all, thou hast now heard the confession of this poor sinner, with
which he has published in thy presence his rottenness and
unsavoriness. Perhaps he has hidden some of his sins before thee, and
if it be so he has irreverently and offensively mocked thy majesty,
and thrown himself into a dark cavern and into a deep ravine;[VI-49] he
has snared and entangled himself; he has made himself worthy of
blindness, shrivelling and rotting of the members, poverty, and
misery. Alas, if this poor sinner have attempted any such audacity as
to offend thus before thy majesty, before thee that art lord and
emperor of all, that keepest a reckoning with all, he has tied himself
up, he has made himself vile, he has mocked himself. Thou thoroughly
seest him, for thou seest all things, being invisible and without
bodily parts. If he have done this thing, he has, of his own will, put
himself in this peril and risk; for this is a place of very strict
justice and very strait judgment. This rite is like very clear water
with which thou washest away the faults of him that wholly confesses,
even if he have incurred destruction and shortening of days; if indeed
he have told all the truth, and have freed and untied himself from his
sins and faults, he has received the pardon of them and of what they
have incurred. This poor man is even as a man that has slipped and
fallen in thy presence, offending thee in divers ways, dirting himself
also and casting himself into a deep cavern, and a bottomless
well.[VI-50] He fell like a poor and lean man, and now he is grieved and
discontented with all the past; his heart and body are pained and ill
at ease; he is now filled with heaviness for having done what he did;
he is now wholly determined never to offend thee again. In thy
presence, O Lord, I speak, that knowest all things, that knowest also
that this poor wretch did not sin with an entire liberty of free will;
he was pushed to it and inclined by the nature of the sign under which
he was born. And since this is so, O our Lord, most clement, protector
and helper of all, since also this poor man has gravely offended thee,
wilt thou not remove thine anger and thine indignation from him? Give
him time, O Lord; favor and pardon him, inasmuch as he weeps, sighs,
and sobs, looking before him on the evil he has done, and on that
wherein he has offended thee. He is sorrowful, he sheds many tears,
the sorrow of his sins afflicts his heart; he is not sorry only, but
terrified also at thoughts of them. This being so, it is also a just
thing that thy fury and indignation against him be appeased and that
his sins be thrown on one side. Since thou art full of pity, O Lord,
see good to pardon and to cleanse him; grant him the pardon and
remission of his sins, a thing that descends from heaven, as water
very clear and very pure to wash away sins,[VI-51] with which thou
washest away all the stain and impurity that sin causes in the soul.
See good, O Lord, that this man go in peace, and command him in what
he has to do; let him go to do penance for and to weep over his sins;
give him the counsels necessary to his well living.

[Sidenote: PERILS OF FALSE CONFESSION.]

[Sidenote: EXHORTATION TO THE PENITENT.]

At this point the confessor ceases from addressing the god and turns
to the penitent, saying: O my brother, thou hast come into a place of
much peril, a place of travail and fear; thou hast come to a steep
chasm and a sheer rock, where if any one fall he shall never come up
again; thou hast come to the very place where the snares and the nets
touch one another, where they are set one upon another, in such wise
that no one may pass thereby without falling into some of them, and
not only snares and nets but also holes like wells. Thou hast thrown
thyself down the banks of the river and among the snares and nets,
whence without aid it is not possible that thou shouldst escape. These
thy sins are not only snares, nets, and wells, into which thou hast
fallen, but they are also wild beasts that kill and rend both body and
soul. Peradventure, hast thou hidden some one or some of thy sins,
weighty, huge, filthy, unsavory, hidden something now published in
heaven, earth, and hades, something that now stinks to the uttermost
part of the world? Thou hast now presented thyself before our most
clement Lord and protector of all, whom thou didst irritate, offend,
and provoke the anger of, who to-morrow, or some other day, will take
thee out of this world and put thee under his feet, and send thee to
the universal house of hades, where thy father is and thy mother, the
god and the goddess of hell, whose mouths are always open desiring to
swallow thee and as many as may be in the world. In that place shall
be given thee whatsoever thou didst merit in this world, according to
the divine justice, and to what thou hast earned with thy works of
poverty, misery, and sickness. In divers manners thou wilt be
tormented and afflicted in the extreme, and wilt be soaked in a lake
of intolerable torments and miseries; but here, at this time, thou
hast had pity upon thyself in speaking and communicating with our
Lord, with him that sees all the secrets of every heart. Tell
therefore wholly all that thou hast done, as one that flings himself
into a deep place, into a well without bottom. When thou wast created
and sent into the world, clean and good thou wast created and sent;
thy father and thy mother Quetzalcoatl formed thee like a precious
stone, and like a bead of gold of much value; when thou wast born thou
wast like a rich stone and a jewel of gold very shining and very
polished. But of thine own will and volition thou hast defiled and
stained thyself, and rolled in filth, and in the uncleanness of the
sins and evil deeds that thou hast committed and now confessed. Thou
hast acted as a child without judgment or understanding, that playing
and toying defiles himself with a loathsome filth; so hast thou acted
in the matter of the sins that thou hast taken pleasure in, but hast
now confessed and altogether discovered before our Lord, who is the
protector and purifier of all sinners. This thou shalt not take for an
occasion of jesting, for verily thou hast come to the fountain of
mercy, which is like very clear water, with which filthinesses of the
soul are washed away by our Lord God, the protector and favorer of all
that turn to him. Thou hast snatched thyself from hades, and hast
returned again to come to life in this world, as one that comes from
another. Now thou hast been born anew, thou hast begun to live anew,
and our Lord God gives thee light and a new sun. Now once more thou
beginnest to radiate and to shine anew like a very precious and clear
stone, issuing from the belly of the matrix in which it was created.
Since this is thus, see that thou live with much circumspection and
very advisedly now and henceforward, all the time that thou mayest
live in this world under the power and lordship of our Lord God, most
clement, beneficent, and munificent. Weep, be sad, walk humbly, with
submission, with the head low and bowed down, praying to God. Look
that pride find no place within thee, otherwise thou wilt displease
our Lord, who sees the hearts and the thoughts of all mortals. In what
dost thou esteem thyself? At how much dost thou hold thyself? What is
thy foundation and root? On what dost thou support thyself? It is
clear that thou art nothing, canst do nothing, and art worth nothing;
for our Lord will do with thee all he may desire and none shall stay
his hand. Peradventure, must he show thee those things with which he
torments and afflicts, so that thou mayest see them with thine eyes in
this world? Nay verily, for the torments and horrible sufferings of
his tortures of the other world are not visible, nor able to be seen
by those that live here. Perhaps he will condemn thee to the universal
house of hades; and the house where thou now livest will fall down and
be destroyed, and be as a dung-hill of filthiness and uncleanness,
thou having been accustomed to live therein with much satisfaction,
waiting to know how he would dispose of thee, he our Lord and helper,
the invisible, incorporeal and alone one. Therefore I entreat thee to
stand up and strengthen thyself and to be no more henceforth as thou
hast been in the past. Take to thyself a new heart and a new manner of
living, and take good care not to turn again to thine old sins.
Consider that thou canst not see with thine eyes our Lord God, for he
is invisible and impalpable, he is Tezcatlipoca, he is Titlacaoa, he
is a youth of perfect perfection and without spot. Strengthen thyself
to sweep, to clean, and to arrange thy house; for if thou do not this,
thou wilt reject from thy company and from thy house, and wilt offend
much the very clement youth that is ever walking through our houses,
and through our streets, enjoying and amusing himself--the youth that
labors, seeking his friends, to comfort them and to comfort himself
with them. To conclude, I tell thee to go and learn to sweep, and to
get rid of the filth and sweepings of thy house, and to cleanse
everything, thyself not the least. Seek out also a slave to immolate
him before God; make a feast to the principal men, and let them sing
the praises of our Lord. It is moreover fit that thou shouldst do
penance, working a year or more in the house of God; there thou shalt
bleed thyself, and prick thy body with maguey thorns; and, as a
penance for the adulteries and other vilenesses that thou hast
committed, thou shalt, twice every day, pass osier twigs through holes
pierced in thy body, once through thy tongue, and once through thine
ears. This penance shalt thou do not alone for the carnalities above
mentioned, but also for the evil and injurious words with which thou
hast insulted and affronted thy neighbors; as also for the ingratitude
thou hast shown with reference to the gifts bestowed on thee by our
Lord, and for thine inhumanity toward thy neighbors, neither making
offerings of the goods that were given thee by God, nor sharing with
the poor the temporal benefits given by our Lord. Thou shalt burden
thyself to offer paper and copal; thou shalt give alms to the needy
and the hungry, to those that have nothing to eat nor to drink nor to
cover themselves with; even though thou thyself go without food to
give it away and to clothe the naked: look to it, for their flesh is
like thy flesh, and they are men as thou. Care most of all for the
sick, they are the image of God.[VI-52] There remains nothing more to be
said to thee; go in peace, and entreat God to aid thee to fulfill what
thou art obliged to do; for he gives favor to all.

[Sidenote: PRAYER OF A RULER FOR DIRECTION.]

The following prayer is one addressed to Tezcatlipoca by a recently
elected ruler, to give thanks for his election and to ask favor and
light for the proper performance of his office: O our lord, most
clement, invisible and impalpable protector and governor, well do I
know that thou knowest me, who am a poor man, of low destiny, born and
brought up among filth, and a man of small reason and mean judgment,
full of many defects and faults, a man that knows not himself, nor
considers who he is. Thou hast bestowed on me a great benefit, favor,
and mercy, without any merit on my part; thou hast lifted me from the
dung-hill and set me in the royal dignity and throne. Who am I, my
Lord, and what is my worth that thou shouldst put me among the number
of those that thou lovest? among the number of thine acquaintance, of
those thou holdest for chosen friends and worthy of all honor; born
and brought up for thrones and royal dignities; to this end thou hast
created them able, prudent, descended from noble and generous fathers;
for this end they were created and educated; to be thine instruments
and images they were born and baptized under the signs and
constellations that lords are born under. They were born to rule thy
kingdoms, thy word being within them and speaking by their
mouth--according to the desire of the ancient god, the father of all
the gods, the god of fire, who is in the pond of water among turrets
surrounded with stones like roses, who is called Xiuhtecutli, who
determines, examines, and settles the business and lawsuits of the
nation and of the common people, as it were washing them with water;
in the company and presence of this god the generous personages
aforementioned always are. O most clement Lord, ruler, and governor,
thou hast done me a great favor. Perhaps it has been through the
intercession and through the tears shed by the departed lords and
ladies that had charge of this kingdom.[VI-53] It would be great madness
to suppose that for any merit or courage of mine thou hast favored me,
setting me over this your kingdom, the government of which is
something very heavy, difficult, and even fearful; it is as a huge
burden, carried on the shoulders, and one that with great difficulty
the past rulers bore, ruling in thy name. O our Lord, most clement,
invisible, and impalpable, ruler and governor, creator and knower of
all things and thoughts, beautifier of thy creatures,[VI-54] what shall
I say more, poor me? In what wise have I to rule and govern this thy
state, or how have I to carry this burden of the common people? I who
am blind and deaf, who do not even know myself, nor know how to rule
over myself. I am accustomed to walk in filth, my faculties fit me for
seeking and selling edible herbs, and for carrying and selling wood.
What I deserve, O Lord, is blindness for mine eyes and shriveling and
rotting for my limbs, and to go dressed in rags and tatters; this is
what I deserve and what ought to be given me. It is I that need to be
ruled and to be carried on some one's back. Thou hast many friends and
acquaintances that may be trusted with this load. Since, however, thou
has already determined to set me up for a scoff and a jeer to the
world, let thy will be done and thy word fulfilled. Peradventure thou
knowest not who I am; and, after having known me, wilt seek another
and take the government from me; taking it again to thyself, hiding
again in thyself this dignity and honor, being already angry and weary
of bearing with me; and thou wilt give the government to another, to
some close friend and acquaintance of thine, to some one very devout
toward thee, that weeps and sighs and so merits this dignity. Or,
peradventure, this thing that happened to me is a dream, or a walking
in sleep. O Lord, thou that art present in every place, that knowest
all thoughts, that distributest all gifts, be pleased not to hide from
me thy words and thine inspiration. I do not know the road I have to
follow, nor what I have to do, deign then not to hide from me the
light and the mirror that have to guide me. Do not allow me to cause
those I have to rule and carry on my shoulders to lose the road and to
wander over rocks and mountains. Do not allow me to guide them in the
tracks of rabbits and deer. Do not permit, O Lord, any war to be
raised against me, nor any pestilence to come upon those I govern; for
I should not know, in such a case, what to do, nor where to take those
I have upon my shoulders; alas for me, that am incapable and ignorant.
I would not that any sickness come upon me, for in that case thy
nation and people would be lost, and thy kingdom desolated and given
up to darkness. What shall I do, O Lord and creator, if by chance I
fall into some disgraceful fleshly sin, and thereby ruin the kingdom?
what do if by negligence or sloth I undo my subjects? what do if
through my fault I hurl down a precipice those I have to rule? Our
Lord, most clement, invisible and impalpable, I entreat thee not to
separate thyself from me; visit me often; visit this poor house, for I
will be waiting for thee therein. With great thirst I await thee and
demand urgently thy word and inspiration, which thou didst breathe
into thine ancient friends and acquaintances that have ruled with
diligence and rectitude over thy kingdom. This is thy throne and
honor, on either side whereof are seated thy senators and principal
men, who are as thine image and very person. They give sentence and
speak on the affairs of the state in thy name; thou usest them as thy
flutes, speaking from within them and placing thyself in their faces
and ears, opening their mouths so that they may speak well. In this
place the merchants mock and jest at our follies, with which merchants
thou art spending thy leisure, since they are thy friends and
acquaintances; there also thou inspirest and breathest upon thy
devoted ones, who weep and sigh in thy presence, sincerely giving thee
their heart.[VI-55] For this reason thou adornest them with prudence
and wisdom, so that they may look as into a mirror with two faces,
where every one's image is to be seen;[VI-56] for this thou givest them
a very clear axe, without any dimness, whose brightness flashes into
all places. For this cause also thou givest them gifts and precious
jewels, hanging them from their necks and ears, even like material
ornaments such as are the _nacochtl_, the _tentetl_, the _tlapiloni_
or head-tassel, the _matemecatl_ or tanned strap that lords tie round
their wrists,[VI-57] the yellow leather bound on the ankles, the beads
of gold, and the rich feathers. In this place of the good governing
and rule of thy kingdom, are merited thy riches and glory, thy sweet
and delightful things, calmness and tranquillity, a peaceable and
contented life; all of which come from thy hand. In the same place,
lastly, are also merited the adverse and wearisome things, sickness,
poverty, and the shortness of life; which things are sent by thee to
those that in this condition do not fulfill their duty. O our Lord,
most clement, knower of thoughts and giver of gifts, is it in my hand,
that am a mean man, to know how to rule? is the manner of my life in
my hand, and the works that I have to do in my office? which indeed is
of thy kingdom and dignity and not mine. What thou mayest wish me to
do and what may be thy will and disposition, thou aiding me I will do.
The road thou mayest show me I will walk in; that thou mayest inspire
me with, and put in my heart, that I will say and speak. O our Lord,
most clement, in thy hand I wholly place myself, for it is not
possible for me to direct or govern myself; I am blind, darkness, a
dung-hill. See good, O Lord, to give me a little light, though it be
only as much as a fire-fly gives out, going about at night; to light
me in this dream, in this life asleep that endures as for a day; where
are many things to stumble at, many things to give occasion for
laughing at one, many things like a rugged road that has to be gone
over by leaps. All this has to happen in the position thou hast put me
in, giving me thy seat and dignity. O Lord, most clement, I entreat
thee to visit me with thy light, that I may not err, that I may not
undo myself, that my vassals may not cry out against me. O our Lord,
most pitiful, thou hast made me now the back-piece[VI-58] of thy chair,
also thy flute; all without any merit of mine. I am thy mouth, thy
face, thine ears, thy teeth, and thy nails. Although I am a mean man I
desire to say that I unworthily represent thy person, and thine image,
that the words I shall speak have to be esteemed as thine, that my
face has to be held as thine, mine eyes as thine, and the punishment
that I shall inflict as if thou hadst inflicted it. For all this I
entreat thee to put thy spirit within me, and thy words, so that all
may obey them and none contradict.[VI-59]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: GENUINENESS OF THE FOREGOING PRAYERS.]

[Sidenote: CHARACTER AND WORKS OF SAHAGUN.]

[Sidenote: ADULTERATION OF THE SAHAGUN MSS.]

Now with regard to the measure of the genuineness of the prayers to
Tezcatlipoca, just given, it seems evident that either with or without
the conscious connivance of Father Bernardino de Sahagun, their
historian, a certain amount of sophistication and adaptation to
Christian ideas has crept into them; it appears to be just as evident,
however, on the other hand, that they contain a great deal that is
original, indigenous, and characteristic in regard to the Mexican
religion. At any rate they purport to do so, and as evidence bearing
on the matter, presented by a hearer and eye-witness at first hand,
by a man of strongly authenticated probity, learning, and above all,
of strong sympathy with the Mexican people, beloved and trusted by
those of them with whom he came in contact, and admitted to the
familiarity of a friend with their traditions and habits of
thought--for all these reasons his evidence, however we may esteem
it, must be heard and judged.[VI-60]

FOOTNOTES:

[VI-1] _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. iii., p. 22; _Doc. Hist.
Mex._, série iv., tom. iii., p. 86.

[VI-2] _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., tom. iii., cap. 168;
_Smith's Relation of Cabeza de Vaca_, p. 177.

[VI-3] _Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, pp. 473-5; _Doc. Hist. Mex._,
série iv., tom. iii., p. 48.

[VI-4] Apparently the same as that Vairubi spoken of on p. 83 of this
volume.

[VI-5] _Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, pp. 16, 18, 40. 'A uno de sus
dioses llamaban Ouraba, que quiere decir fortaleza. Era como Marte,
dios de la guerra. Ofrecíanle arcos, flechas y todo género de armas
para el feliz éxito de sus batallas. A otro llamaban Sehuatoba, que
quiere decir, deleite, á quien ofrecian plumas, mantas, cuentecillas
de vidrio y adornos mugeriles. Al dios de las aguas llamaban
Bamusehua. El mas venerado de todos era Cocohuame, que significa
muerte.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 45. 'They
worship for their gods such things as they haue in their houses, as
namely, hearbes, and birdes, and sing songs vnto them in their
language.' _Coronado_, in _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii., p. 363.

[VI-6] 'Ils célébraient de grandes fêtes en l'honneur des femmes qui
voulaient vivre dans le célibat. Les caciques d'un canton se
réunissaient et dansaient tous nus, l'un après l'autre, avec la femme
qui avait pris cette détermination. Quand la danse était terminée, ils
la conduisaient dans une petite maison qu'on avait décorée à cet
effet, et ils jouissaient de sa personne, les caciques d'abord et
ensuite tous ceux qui le voulaient. A dater de ce moment, elles ne
pouvaient rien refuser à quiconque leur offrait le prix fixé pour
cela. Elles n'étaient jamais dispensées de cette obligation, même
quand plus tard elles se mariaient.' _Castañeda_, in _Ternaux-Compans_,
_Voy._, série i., tom. ix., pp. 150-1. 'Although these men were very
immoral, yet such was their respect for all women who led a life of
celibacy, that they celebrated grand festivals in their honour.' And
there he makes an end. _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., p. 170.

[VI-7] This volume, pp. 55-6.

[VI-8] I would call attention to the fact that Alvarado, the ruddy
handsome Spanish captain, was called Tonatiuh by the Mexicans, just as
Barnabas was called Jupiter, and Paul, Mercurius, by the people of
Lystra--going to show how unfetish and anthropomorphic were the ideas
connected with the sun-god by the Mexicans.

[VI-9] _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 311.

[VI-10] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 473-4. The so-often
discussed resemblance in form and signification between the two
Mexican words _teotl_ and _calli_ (see _Molina_, _Vocabulario_) and
the two Greek words _theos_ and _kalia_, is completely enough noticed
by Müller. 'Die Mexikanischen Völker haben einen Appellativnamen für
Gott, Teotl, welcher, da die Buchstaben tl blosse aztekische Endung
sind, merkwürdiger Weise mit dem indogermanischen theos, Deus, Deva,
Dew, zusammenstimmt. Dieses Wort wird zur Bildung mancher Götternamen
oder Kultusgegenstände gebraucht. Hieher gehören die Götternamen
Tcotlacozanqui, Teocipactli, Teotetl, Teoyamiqui, Tlozolteotl. Der
Tempel heisst Teocalli (vgl. Kalia, Hütte, Kalias, Capelle) oder
wörtlich Haus Gottes--das göttliche Buch, Teoamoxtli, Priester
Teopuixqui, oder auch Teoteuktli, eine Prozession, Teonenemi,
Göttermarsch. Dazu kommen noch manche Namen von Städten, die als
Kultussitze ausgezeichnet waren, wie das uns schon früher bekannt
gewordene Teotihuacan. Im Plural wurden die Götter Teules genannt und
eben so, wie uns Bernal Diaz so oft erzählt, die Gefährten des Cortes,
welche das gemeine Volk als Götter bezeichnen wollte.' _Id._, p. 472.

[VI-11] _Klemm_, _Cultur-Geschichte_, tom. v., pp. 114-5.

[VI-12] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp.
45-6.

[VI-13] _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 352.

[VI-14] _Prescott's Conq. of Mex._, vol. i., p. 57.

[VI-15] _Squier's Serpent Symbol_, p. 47.

[VI-16] _Bussierre_, _L'Empire Mexicain_, pp. 131-3.

[VI-17] _Brantz Mayer_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. vi., p. 585; see
also, _Brantz Mayer's Mexico as it was_, p. 110.

[VI-18] _Carbajal Espinosa_, _Hist. de Mexico_, tom. i., pp. 468-9;
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 3-4.

[VI-19] _Hombre Buho._

[VI-20] _Pimentel_, _Mem. sobre la Raza Indígena_, pp. 11-13.

[VI-21] _Solis_, _Hist. de la Conq. de Mex._, tom. i., pp. 398-9, 431.

[VI-22] Gallatin, in _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 350,
identifies this god with Tezcatlipoca of whom he writes in the
following terms: 'Tezcatlipoca. A true invisible god, dwells in heaven,
earth, and hell; alone attends to the government of the world, gives
and takes away wealth and prosperity. Called also _Titlacoa_ (whence
his star _Titlacahuan_). Under the name of _Necocyaotl_, the author of
wars and discords. According to Boturini, he is the god of providence.
He seems to be the only equivalent for the _Tonacatlecottle_ of the
interpreters of the Codices.'

[VI-23] _Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. v., p. 135. I take this opportunity of cautioning the
reader against Kingsborough's translation of the above codex, as well
as against his translation of the _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice
Mexicano_: every error that could vitiate a translation seems to have
crept into these two.

[VI-24] See this vol. p. 57, note 13. On pages 55 and 56, and in the
note pertaining thereto, will also be found many references bearing on
the matter under present discussion.

[VI-25] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. xviii., p.
253.

[VI-26] _Qües_, Oviedo calls them, (spelled _cues_ by most writers) the
following explanation being given in glossary of _Voces Americanas
Empleadas por Oviedo_, appended to the fourth volume of the _Hist.
Gen._: 'Qü: templo, casa de oracion. Esta voz era muy general en casi
toda América, y muy principalmente en las comarcas de Yucatan y
Mechuacan.'

[VI-27] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., p. 503.

[VI-28] 'Ypalnemoaloni, que quiere decir, Señor por quien se vive, y ai
sèr en èl de Naturaleça.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. iii., p.
30.

[VI-29] See this vol. p. 183.--Not, be it remarked that Acosta denies
the knowledge by the Mexicans of a Supreme God; he only denies the
existence of any name by which the said deity was generally known.
This is clear from the following extract from the _Hist. Nat. Ind._,
p. 333: 'First, although the darkenesse of infidelitie holdeth these
nations in blindenesse, yet in many thinges the light of truth and
reason works somewhat in them. And they commonly acknowledge a
supreame Lorde and Author of all things, which they of Peru called
Viracocha.... Him they did worship, as the chiefest of all, whom they
did honor in beholding the heaven. The like wee see amongest them of
Mexico.'

[VI-30] _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, pp. 334, 337-8.

[VI-31] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, pp. 88, 91, 107.

[VI-32] The interpretation of the title Tloque Nahuaque is not only
irreconcilable with another given by the same author a few lines above
in our text, but it is also at utter variance with those of all other
authors with which I am acquainted. It may not be amiss here to turn
to the best authority accessible in matters of Mexican idiom: Molina,
_Vocabulario_, describes the title to mean, 'He upon whom depends the
existence of all things, preserving and sustaining them,'--a word used
also to mean God, or Lord. '_Tloque nauaque_, cabe quien esta el ser
de todas las cosas, conseruandolas y sustentandolas: y dizese de nro
señor dios.'

[VI-33] _Camargo_, _Hist. de Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._,
1843, tom. xcviii., p. 191, tom. xcix., p. 168.

[VI-34] _Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col._, tom. i.,
pp. 4, 33-34.

[VI-35] _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chichimeca_ in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. ix., p. 261. 'Tuvo por falsos á todos los dioses que
adoraban los de esta tierra, diciendo que eran estatuas ó demonios
enemigos del género humano; por que fue muy sabio en las cosas
morales, y el que mas vaciló buscando de donde tomar lumbre para
certificarse del verdadero Dios y criador de todas las cosas, como se
ha visto en el discurso de su historia, y dan testimonio sus cantos
que compuso en razon de esto como es el decir que habia uno solo, y
que este era el hacedor del cielo y de la tierra, y sustentaba todo lo
hecho y criado por él, y que estaba donde no tenia segundo, sobre los
nueve cielos, que él alcanzaba, que jamas se habia visto en forma
humana, ni otra figura, que con él iban á parar las almas de los
virtuosos despues de muertos, y que las de los malos iban á otro
lugar, que era el mas ínfimo de la tierra, de trabajos y penas
horribles. Nunca jamas (aunque habia muchos ídolos que representaban
muchos dioses) cuando se ofrecia tratar de deidad, ni en general ni en
particular, sino que decia yntloque in nauhaque y palne moalani, que
significa lo que està atras declarado. Solo decia que reconocia al sol
por padre; y á la tierra por madre.' See also the _Relaciones_ of the
same author, in the same volume, p. 454.

[VI-36] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 241-2.

[VI-37] 'Por la freza de la comida.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii.,
lib. vi., p. 39.

[VI-38] 'Porque á la verdad no os engañais con lo que haceis.' See
_Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 356, as the
substitution of 'engañeis' for 'engañais' destroys the sense of the
passage in Bustamante's ed. of the same, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib.
vi., p. 43.

[VI-39] By an error and a solecism of Bustamante's ed. the words 'gentes
rojas' are substituted for the adjective 'generosos.' See, as in the
preceding note, _Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v.,
p. 357, and _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.

[VI-40] 'Es decir Comandantes ó Capitanes generales de ejército:'
_Bustamante_, in _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 44.

[VI-41] 'Borlas,' see _Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol.
v., p. 358, given 'bollas' in Bustamante's _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 45.

[VI-42] 'Dignidad,' _Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v.,
p. 359, misprinted 'diligencia' in Bustamante's _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 46.

[VI-43] This doubtful and involved sentence, with the contained clause
touching the nature of the fire-god, runs exactly as follows in the
two varying editions of the original: 'Si alguna cosa aviesa ó mal
heche hiciera en la dignidad que le habeis dado, y en la silla en que
le habeis puesto, que és vuestra, donde està tratando los negocios
populares, como quien lava cosas sucias con agua muy clara y muy
limpia; en la qual silla y dignidad tiene el mismo oficio de lavar
vuestro padre y madre de todos los Dioses, el Dios antiguo que és el
Dios del fuego, que está en medio del albergue cerca de quatro
paredes, y está cubierto con plumas resplandecientes que son como
alas, lo que este electo hiciese mal hecho, con que provoque vuestra
ira é indignacion, y despierte vuestro castigo contra si, no será de
su albedrio ó de su querer, sino de vuestra permision, ó de algun otra
sugestion vuestra, ó de otro; por lo cual os suplico tengais por bien
de abrirle los ojos y darle lumbre y abrirle las orejas, y guiadle á
este pobre electo, no tanto por lo que él és, sino principalmente por
aquellos á quienes ha de regir y llevar á cuestas.' _Sahagun_, in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 360-361. 'Si alguna cosa
aviesa ó mal hecha hiciere, en la dignidad que le habeis dado, y en la
silla en que lo habeis puesto que es vuestra, donde está tratando los
negocios populares, como quien laba cosas sucias, con agua muy clara y
muy limpia, en la cual silla y dignidad tiene el mismo oficio de labar
vuestro padre y madre, de todos los dioses, el dios antiguo, que es el
dios del fuego que está en medio de las flores, y en medio del
albergue cercado de cuatro paredes, y está cubierto con plumas
resplandecientes que son somo álas; lo que este electo hiciere mal
hecho con que provoque vuestra ira é indignacion, y despierte vuestro
castigo contra sí, no será de su alvedrio de ó su querer, sino de
vuestra permision, ó de alguna otra sugestion vuestra, ó de otro; por
lo cual os suplico tengais por bien de abirle los ojos, y darle luz, y
abridle tambien las orejas, y guiad á este pobre electo; no tanto por
lo que es él, sino principalmente por aquellos á quien ha de regir y
llevar a cuestas.' Bustamante's _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib.
vi., p. 48.

[VI-44] See this volume p. 60.

[VI-45] Some of these names are differently spelt in Kingsborough's ed.,
_Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 362. 'Uno de los quales fué Camapichtli,
otro fué Tizocic, otro Avitzotl, otro el primero Motezuzoma, otro
Axayaca, y los que ahora á la parte han muerto, como el segundo
Motezuzoma, y tambien Ylhiycamina.'

[VI-46] 'Obejas,' in Bustamante's ed. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii.,
lib. vi., p. 53; 'abejas' in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p.
364.

[VI-47] 'Y como el loco de los beleños.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
ii., lib. vi., p. 54.

[VI-48] Both editors of Sahagun agree here in using the word 'obejas.'
As sheep were unknown in Mexico it is too evident that other hands
than Mexican have been employed in the construction of this simile.

[VI-49] 'Si es así ha hecho burla de V. M., y con desacato y grande
ofensa, se ha arrojado á una cima, y en una profunda barranca.'
Bustamante's ed. of _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p.
58. The same passage runs as follows in Kingsborough's ed.: 'Si és así
ha hecho burla de vuestra magestad, y con desacato y grande ofensa de
vuestra magestad será arrojado en una sima, y en una profunda
barranca.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 367.

[VI-50] 'Poca' is misprinted for 'poza' in Bustamante's ed., _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. v., p. 58.

[VI-51] 'Cosa que desciende del cielo, como agua clarísima y purísima
par lavar los pecados.' _Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. v., p. 368. See also _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi.,
p. 59.

'The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.'--_Merchant of Venice_, act. iv.

[VI-52] 'Mayormente á los enfermos porque son imágen de dios.'
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 63.

[VI-53] 'Los pasados señores y señoras que tuvieron cargo de éste
reino.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 71.

[VI-54] 'Adornador de las criaturas.' _Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol v., p. 377. 'Adornador de las almas.' _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 71.

[VI-55] The precise force of much of this sentence it is hard to
understand. It seems to show, at any rate, that the merchants were
supposed to be very intimate with and especially favored by this
deity. The original runs as follows: 'En este lugar burlan y rien de
nuestras boberías los negociantes, con los quales estais vos
holgados, porque son vuestros amigos y vuestros conocidos, y allí
inspirais é insuflais á vuestros devotos, que lloran y suspiran en
vuestra presencia y os dan de verdad su corazon.' _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 73.

[VI-56] 'Para que vean como en espejo de dos hazes, donde se representa
la imágen de cada uno'. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi.,
p. 73.

[VI-57] _Nacochtli_, orejeras (ear-rings); _Tentetl_, beçote de indio
(lip-ornament). _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. Molina gives also
_Matemecatl_, to mean a gold bracelet or something of that kind;
Bustamante translates the word in the same way, explaining that the
strap mentioned in the text was used to tie the bracelet on.
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 74.

[VI-58] 'Espaldar de vuestra silla.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii.,
lib. vi., p. 75.

[VI-59] 'He that delivered this prayer before Tezcatlipoca, stood on his
feet, his feet close together, bending himself towards the earth.
Those that were very devout were naked. Before they began the prayer
they offered copal to the fire, or some other sacrifice, and if they
were covered with a blanket, they pulled the knot of it round to the
breast, so that they were naked in front. Some spoke this prayer
squatting on their calves, and kept the knot of the blanket on the
shoulder.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.

[VI-60] Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was one of
the first preachers sent to Mexico; where he was much employed in the
instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the
province of Tezcuco. While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known to
us as the _Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España_, from which
the above prayers have been translated, and from which we shall draw
largely for further information. It would be hard to imagine a work of
such a character constructed after a better fashion of working than
his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in which he carried
on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a number of persons, the
most learned and experienced in the things of which he wished to
write. These learned Mexicans being collected, Father Sahagun was
accustomed to get them to paint down in their native fashion the
various legends, details of history and mythology, and so on that he
wanted; at the foot of the said pictures these learned Mexicans wrote
out the explanations of the same in the Mexican tongue; and this
explanation the Father Sahagun translated into Spanish: that
translation purports to be what we now read as the _Historia General_.
Here follows a translation of the Prologo of his work, in which he
describes all the foregoing in his own way: "All writers labor the
best that they can to make their works authoritative; some by
witnesses worthy of faith, others by the writings of previous writers
held worthy of belief, others by the testimony of the Sacred
Scriptures. To me are wanting all these foundations to make
authoritative what I have written in these twelve books [of the
_Historia General_]. I have no other foundation, but to set down here
the relation of the diligence that I made to know the truth of all
that is written in these twelve books. As I have said in other
prologues to this work, I was commanded in all holy obedience by my
chief prelate to write in the Mexican language that which appeared to
me to be useful for the doctrine, worship, and maintenance of
Christianity among these natives of New Spain, and for the aid of the
workers and ministers that taught them. Having received this
commandment, I made in the Spanish language a minute or memorandum of
all the matters that I had to treat of, which matters are what is
written in the twelve books, ... which were begun in the pueblo of
Tepeopulco, which is in the province of Culhuacán or Tezcuco. The work
was done in the following way. In the aforesaid pueblo, I got together
all the principal men, together with the lord of the place, who was
called Don Diego de Mendoza, of great distinction and ability, well
experienced in things ecclesiastic, military, political, and even
relating to idolatry. They being come together, I set before them what
I proposed to do, and prayed them to appoint me able and experienced
persons, with whom I might converse and come to an understanding on
such questions as I might propose. They answered me that they would
talk the matter over and give their answer on another day; and with
this they took their departure. So on another day the lord and his
principal men came, and having conferred together with great
solemnity, as they were accustomed at that time to do, they chose out
ten or twelve of the principal old men, and told me that with these I
might communicate and that these would instruct me in any matters I
should inquire of. Of these there were as many as four instructed in
Latin, to whom I, some few years before, had myself taught grammar in
the college of Santa Cruz, in Tlaltelolco. With these appointed
principal men, including the four instructed in grammar, I talked many
days during about two years, following the order of the minute I had
already made out. On all the subjects on which we conferred they gave
me pictures--which were the writings anciently in use among
them--and these the grammarians interpreted to me in their language,
writing the interpretation at the foot of the picture. Even to this
day I hold the originals of these.... When I went to the chapter, with
which was ended the seven years' term of Fray Francisco Torál--he that
had imposed the charge of this work upon me--I was removed from
Tepeopulco, carrying all my writings. I went to reside at Santiago del
Tlaltelolco. There I brought together the principal men, set before
them the matter of my writings, and asked them to appoint me some able
principal men, with whom I might examine and talk over the writings I
had brought from Tepeopulco. The governor, with the alcaldes, appointed
me as many as eight or ten principal men, selected from all the most
able in their language, and in the things of their antiquities. With
these and with four or five collegians, all trilinguists, and living
for the space of a year or more secluded in the college, all that had
been brought written from Tepeopulco was clearly emended and added to;
and the whole was rewritten in small letters, for it was written with
much haste. In this scrutiny or examination, he that worked the
hardest of all the collegians was Martin Jacobita, who was then rector
of the college, an inhabitant of the ward of Santa Ana. I, having done
all as above said in Tlaltelolco, went, taking with me all my
writings, to reside in San Francisco de México, where, by myself, for
the space of three years, I examined over and over again the writings,
emended them, divided them into twelve books, and each book into
chapters and paragraphs. After this, Father Miguel Navarro being
provincial, and Father Diego de Mendoza commissary-general in Mexico,
with their favor I had all the twelve books clearly copied in a good
hand, as also the _Postilla_ and the _Cantáres_ [which were other
works on which Sahagun was engaged]. I made out also an Art of the
Mexican language with a vocabulary-appendix. Now the Mexicans added to
and emended my twelve books [of the _Historia General_] in many things
while they were being copied out in full; so that the first sieve
through which my work passed was that of Tepeopulco, the second that
of Tlaltelolco, the third that of Mexico; and in all these scrutinies
collegiate grammarians had been employed. The chief and most learned
was Antonio Valeriano, a resident of Aztcapuzalco; another little less
than the first, was Alonso Vegerano, resident of Cuauhtitlan; another
was Martin Jacobita, above mentioned; another Pedro de Santa
Buenaventura, resident of Cuauhtitlan; all expert in three languages,
Latin, Spanish, and Indian [Mexican]. The scribes that made out the
clear copies of all the works are Diego Degrado, resident of the ward
of San Martin, Mateo Severino, resident of Xochimilco, of the part of
Ullác. The clear copy being fully made out, by the favor of the
fathers above mentioned and the expenditure of hard cash on the
scribes, the author thereof asked of the delegate Father Francisco de
Rivera that the work be submitted to three or four religious, so that
they might give an opinion on it, and that in the provincial chapter,
which was close at hand, they might attend and report on the matter to
the assembly, speaking as the thing might appear to them. And these
reported in the assembly that the writings were of much value and
deserved such support as was necessary toward their completion. But to
some of the assembly it seemed that it was contrary to their vows of
poverty to spend money in copying these writings; so they commanded
the author to dismiss his scribes, and that he alone with his own hand
should do what copying he wanted done; but as he was more than seventy
years old, and for the trembling of his hand not able to write
anything, nor able to procure a dispensation from this mandate, there
was nothing done with the writings for more than five years. During
this interval, and at the next chapter, Father Miguel Navarro was
elected by the general chapter for custos custodium, and Father Alonso
de Escalona, for provincial. During this time the author made a
summary of all the books and of all the chapters of each book, and
prologues, wherein was said with brevity all that the books contained.
This summary Father Miguel Navarro and his companion, Father Gerónimo
de Mendieta, carried to Spain, and thus in Spain the things that had
been written about this land made their appearance. In the mean time,
the father provincial took all the books of the author and dispersed
them through all the province, where they were seen by many religious
and approved for very precious and valuable. After some years, the
general chapter meeting again, Father Miguel Navarro, at the petition
of the author, turned with censures to collect again the said books;
which, from that collecting, came within about a year into the hands
of the author. During that time nothing was done in them, nor was
there any one to help to get them translated into the vernacular
Spanish, until the delegate-general Father Rodrigo de Sequera came to
these parts, saw and was much pleased with them, and commanded the
author to translate them into Spanish; providing all that was
necessary to their being re-written, the Mexican language in one
column and the Spanish in another, so that they might be sent to
Spain; for the most illustrious Señor Don Juan de Ovando, president of
the Council of Indies, had inquired after them, he knowing of them by
reason of the summary that the said Father Miguel Navarro had carried
to Spain, as above said. And all the above-said is to show that this
work has been examined and approved by many, and during many years has
passed through many troubles and misfortunes before reaching the place
it now has." _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., Prólogo, pp.
iii. vii. As to the date at which Sahagun wrote he says: 'These twelve
books and the Art and the vocabulary-appendix were finished in a clear
copy in the year 1569; but not translated into Spanish.' _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. i., Introduccion, p. xv. The following
scanty sketch of the life of Sahagun, is taken, after Bustamante, from
the _Menealógio Seráfico_ of Father Betancourt: 'Father Bernardino
Sahagun, native of Sahagun, took the robe in the convent of Salamanca,
being a student of that university. He passed into this province
[Mexico] in the year 1529, in the company of Father Antonio de Ciudad
Rodrigo. While a youth he was endowed with a beauty and grace of
person that corresponded with that of his soul. From his tenderest
years he was very observant, self-contained, and given to prayer.
Father Martin de Valencia held very close communion with him, owing to
which he saw him many times snatched up into an ecstasy. Sahagun was
very exact in his attendance in the choir, even in his old age, he
never was absent at matins. He was gentle, humble, courteous in his
converse with all. He was elected secondly with the learned Father
Juan de Gaona, as professor at Tlaltelolco in the college of Santa
Cruz; where he shone like a light on a candlestick, for he was perfect
in all the sciences. His possession of the Mexican language was of a
perfectness that has never to this day being equaled; he wrote many
books in it that will be mentioned in the catalogue of authors. He had
to strive with much opposition, for to some it did not seem good to
write out in the language of the Mexicans their ancient rites, lest it
should give occasion for their being persevered in. He watched over
the honor of God against idolatry, and sought earnestly to impress the
Christian faith upon the converted. He affirmed as a minister of much
experience, that during the first twenty years [of his life in the
province] the fervor of the natives was very great; but that afterward
they inclined to idolatry, and became very lukewarm in the faith. This
he says in the book of his _Postillas_ that I have, in which I learnt
much. During the first twenty years of his life [in the province] he
was guardian of some convents; but after that he desired not to take
upon himself any office or guardianship for more than forty years, so
that he could occupy himself in preaching, confessing, and writing.
During the sixty and one years that he lived in the province, for the
most part in college, without resting a single day, he instructed the
boys in civilization and good customs, teaching them reading, writing,
grammar, music, and other things in the service of God and the state.
This went on till the year 1590, when, the approach of death becoming
apparent to every one, he entered the hospital of Mexico; where he
died on the 23rd of October. There assembled to his funeral the
collegians, trailing their _becas_, and the natives shedding tears,
and the members of the different religious houses giving praises to
God our Lord for this holy death, of which the martyrology
treats--Gonzaga, Torquemada, Deza, Rampineo, and many others. In the
library of Señor Eguiara, in the manuscript of the Turriana
collection, I have read the article relating to Father Sahagun; in it
a large catalogue of works that he wrote is given. I remember only the
following: _Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España_; _Arte de
gramática mexicana_; _Diccionario trilingue de español, latin, y
mexicano_; _Sermones para todo el año en mexicano_, (poséo aunque sin
nombre de autor); _Postillas ó commentarios al evangelio, para las
misas solemnes de dia de precepto_; _Historia de los primeros
pobladores franciscanos en Mexico_; _Salmodia de la vida de Cristo, de
la virgen y de los santos, que usaban los indios, y preceptos para los
casados_; _Escala espiritual_, que fué la primera obra que se imprimió
en Mexico en la imprenta que trajo Hernan Cortés de España.'
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., pp. vii.-ix. As to the manner in
which the _Historia General_ of Sahagun, 'whom,' says Prescott,
_Mex._, vol. i., p. 67, 'I have followed as the highest authority' in
matters of Mexican religion--at last saw the light of publication, I
give Prescott's account, _Mex._, vol. i., p. 88, as exact save in one
point, for which see the correction in brackets:--'At length, toward
the close of the last century, the indefatigable Muñoz succeeded in
disinterring the long lost manuscript from the place tradition had
assigned to it--the library of a convent at Tolosa, in Navarre, the
northern extremity of Spain. With his usual ardor, he transcribed the
whole work with his own hands, and added it to the inestimable
collection, of which, alas! he was destined not to reap the full
benefit himself. From this transcript Lord Kingsborough was enabled to
procure the copy which was published in 1830, in the sixth volume of
his magnificent compilation. [It was published in two parts, in the
fifth and seventh volumes of that compilation, and the exact date of
the publication was 1831.] In it he expresses an honest satisfaction
at being the first to give Sahagun's work to the world. But in this
supposition he was mistaken. The very year preceding, an edition of
it, with annotations, appeared in Mexico, in three volumes 8vo. It was
prepared by Bustamante--a scholar to whose editorial activity his
country is largely indebted--from a copy of the Muñoz manuscript
which came into his possession. Thus this remarkable work, which was
denied the honors of the press during the author's lifetime, after
passing into oblivion, reappeared, at the distance of nearly three
centuries, not in his own country, but in foreign lands widely remote
from each other, and that almost simultaneously.... Sahagun divided
his history into twelve books. The first eleven are occupied with the
social institutions of Mexico, and the last with the Conquest. On the
religion of the country he is particularly full. His great object
evidently was, to give a clear view of its mythology, and of the
burdensome ritual which belonged to it. Religion entered so intimately
into the most private concerns and usages of the Aztecs, that Sahagun's
work must be a text-book for every student of their antiquities.
Torquemada availed himself of a manuscript copy, which fell into his
hands before it was sent to Spain, to enrich his own pages--a
circumstance more fortunate for his readers than for Sahagun's
reputation, whose work, now that it is published, loses much of the
originality and interest which would otherwise attach to it. In one
respect it is invaluable; as presenting a complete collection of the
various forms of prayer, accommodated to every possible emergency, in
use by the Mexicans. They are often clothed in dignified and beautiful
language, showing that sublime speculative tenets are quite compatible
with the most degrading practices of superstition. It is much to be
regretted that we have not the eighteen hymns, inserted by the author
in his book, which would have particular interest, as the only
specimen of devotional poetry preserved of the Aztecs. The
hieroglyphical paintings, which accompanied the text are also missing.
If they have escaped the hands of fanaticism, both may reappear at
some future day.' As may have been noticed, the editions of Sahagun by
both Bustamante and Kingsborough have been constantly used together
and collated during the course of this present work. They differ,
especially in many minor points of typography, Bustamante's being the
more carelessly edited in this respect. Notwithstanding, however, the
opinion to the contrary of Mr Harrisse, Bustamante's edition is on the
whole the more complete; Kingsborough having avowedly omitted divers
parts of the original which he thought unimportant or
uninteresting--a fault also of Bustamante's, but to a lesser extent.
Fortunately what is absent in the one I have always found in the
other; and indeed, as a whole, and all circumstances being considered,
they agree tolerably well. The criticism of Mr Harrisse, just referred
to, runs as follows, _Bib. Am. Vet._, p. 208, note 52: '_Historia
General de las Cosas de Nueva España_; Mexico, 3 vols., 4to, 1829
(edited and castrated by Bustamente [Bustamante] in such a manner as
to require for a perfect understanding of that dry but important work,
the reading of the parts also published in vols. v. and vi. [v. and
vii.], of Kingsborough's _Antiquities_.)' We are not yet done,
however, with editions of Sahagun. A third edition of part of his work
has seen the light. It is Bustamante himself that attempts to
supersede a part of his first edition. He affirms, that book xii. of
that first edition of his, as of course also book xii. of
Kingsborough's edition, is spurious and has been garbled and glossed
by Spanish hands quite away from the original as written by Sahagun.
Exactly how or when this corruption took place he does not show; but
he leaves it to be inferred that it was immediately after the original
manuscript had been taken from its author, and that it was done
because that twelfth book, which treats more immediately of the
Conquest, reflected too hardly on the Conquerors. Bustamante having
procured, in a manner now to be given in his own words, a correct and
genuine copy of the twelfth book, a copy written and signed by the
hand of Sahagun himself, proceeded in 1840 to give it to the world
under the extraordinary title of _La Aparicion de Nuestra Senora de
Guadalupe de Mexico, comprobada con la refutacion del argumento
negativo que presenta D. Juan Bautista Muñoz, fundandose en el
testimonio del P. Fr. Bernardino Sahagun; ó sea, Historia Original de
este Escritor, que altera la publicada en 1829 en el equivocado
concepto de ser la unica y original del dicho autor_. All of which
means to say that he, Bustamante, having already published in 1829-30,
a complete edition of Sahagun's _Historia General_, in twelve books,
according to the best manuscript he could then find, has found the
twelfth book of that history to be not genuine, has found the genuine
original of said twelfth book, and now, in 1840, publishes said
genuine twelfth book under the above extraordinary name, inasmuch as
it contains some reference to what is supposed to be uppermost in
every religious Mexican's mind, to wit, the miraculous appearance of
the Blessed Virgin to a certain native Mexican, la aparicion de
nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Mexico. Bustamante's own account of all
the foregoing, being translated from the above-mentioned _Nra. Señora
de Guadalupe_, pp. iv., viii., xxiii., runs as follows: 'As he
[Sahagun] wrote with the frankness proper to truth, and as this was
not pleasing to the heads of the then government, nor even to some of
his brother friars, he was despoiled of his writings. These were sent
to Spain, and ordered to be stored away in the archives of the convent
of San Francisco de Tolosa de Navarra, so that no one should ever be
able to read them; there they lay hid for more than two centuries.
During the reign of Carlos iii., Señor Muñoz was commissioned to write
the history of the New World. But he found himself without this work
[of Sahagun's] so necessary to his purpose; and he was ignorant of its
whereabouts, till, reading the index of the Biblioteca Franciscana he
came to know about it, and, furnished by the government with all
powers, he took it out of the said monastery. Colonel D. Diego Garcia
Panes having come to Madrid at the same time, to publish the works of
Señor Veytia, this gentleman contracted a friendship with Muñoz who
allowed him to copy the two thick volumes in which Sahagun's work was
written.... These two volumes, then, that Colonel Panes had copied,
were what was held to be solely the work of Father Sahagun, and as
such esteemed; still it does not appear to be proved by attestation
that this was the author's original _autograph_ history. Had it been
so, the circumstance would hardly have been left without definite
mention, when the relation was given of the way in which the book was
got hold of, and when the guarantee of the exactness of the copy was
procured. I, to-day, possess an original manuscript, written
altogether and signed by the hand of Father Sahagun; in which is to be
noted an essential variation in certain of the chapters which I now
present, from those that I before published in the twelfth book of his
_Historia General_; which is the book treating of the Conquest.
Sahagun wrote this manuscript in the year 1585, that is to say, five
years before his death, and he wrote it without doubt under a
presentiment of the alterations that his work would suffer. He had
already made alterations therein himself, since he confesses (they are
his words) that certain defects existed in them, that certain things
had been put into the narrative of that Conquest that should not have
been put there, while other things were left out that should not have
been omitted. Therefore [says Bustamante], this autograph manuscript
discovers the alterations that his writings underwent and gives us
good reason to doubt the authenticity and exactness of the text seen
by Muñoz.... During the revolution of Madrid, in May, 1808, caused by
the entrance of the French and the removal of the royal family to
Bayonne, the office of the secretary of the Academy of History was
robbed, and from it were taken various bundles of the works of Father
Sahagun. These an old lawyer of the court bought, and among them one
entitled: _Relacion de la conquista de esta Nueva España, como la
contaron los soldados indios que se hallaron presentes. Convertióse en
lengua española llana é inteligible y bien enmendada en este año de
1585_. Unfortunately there had only remained [of the _Relacion_, etc.,
(?)] a single volume of manuscript, which Señor D. José Gomez de la
Cortina, ex-count of that title, bought, giving therefor the sum of a
hundred dollars. He allowed me the use of it, and I have made an exact
copy of it, adding notes for the better understanding of the Conquest;
the before-mentioned being altogether written, as I have said, and
signed by the hands of Father Sahagun. This portion, which the said
ex-count has certified to, induces us to believe that the other works
of Sahagun, relating both to the Conquest and to the Aparicion
Guadalupana have been adulterated because they did little honor to the
first Conquerors. That they have at all come to be discussed with
posterity, has been because a knowledge of them was generally
scattered, and in such a way that it was no longer possible to keep
them hidden; or, perhaps, because the faction interested in their
concealment had disappeared. In proof of the authenticity and identity
of this manuscript, we refer to Father Betancur in his Chronicle of
the province of the Santo Evangelio de México, making a catalogue of
the illustrious men thereof; speaking of Sahagun, he says on page 138:
"The ninth book that this writer composed was the Conquest of Mexico
by Cortés; which book afterward, in the year 1585, he re-wrote and
emended; the [emended] original of this I saw signed with his hand in
the possession of Señor D. Juan Francisco de Montemayor, president of
the Royal Audiencia, who carried it to Spain with the intention of
having it printed; and of this I have a translation wherein it is said
that the Marquis of Villa-Manrique, viceroy of Mexico, took from him
[Sahagun] the twelve books and sent them to his majesty for the royal
chronicler." Bustamante lastly gives a certificate of the authenticity
of the manuscript under discussion and published by him. The
certificate is signed by José Gomez de la Cortina, and runs as
follows: 'Mexico, 1st April, 1840. I certify that, being in Madrid in
the year 1828, I bought from D. Lorenzo Ruiz de Artieda, through the
agency of my friend and companion, D. José Musso Valiente, member of
the Spanish Academies of language and of history, the original
manuscript of Father Sahagun, of which mention is made in this work by
his Excellency Señor D. Cárlos María Bustamante, as constated by the
receipts of the seller, and by other documents in my possession.' So
much for Bustamante's new position as a reëditor of a part of
Sahagun's _Historia General_; we have stated it in his own words, and
in those of his own witnesses as brought forward by him. The changes
referred to do not involve any matter bearing on mythology; it may be
not out of place to say however, that the evidence in favor of
Bustamante's new views seems strong and truth-like.

CHAPTER VII.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

IMAGE OF TEZCATLIPOCA -- HIS SEATS AT THE STREET-CORNERS --
VARIOUS LEGENDS ABOUT HIS LIFE ON EARTH -- QUETZALCOATL -- HIS
DEXTERITY IN THE MECHANICAL ARTS -- HIS RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
-- THE WEALTH AND NIMBLENESS OF HIS ADHERENTS -- EXPULSION FROM
TULLA OF QUETZALCOATL BY TEZCATLIPOCA AND HUITZILOPOCHTLI --
THE MAGIC DRAUGHT -- HUEMAC, OR VEMAC, KING OF THE TOLTECS, AND
THE MISFORTUNES BROUGHT UPON HIM AND HIS PEOPLE BY TEZCATLIPOCA
IN VARIOUS DISGUISES -- QUETZALCOATL IN CHOLULA -- DIFFERING
ACCOUNTS OF THE BIRTH AND LIFE OF QUETZALCOATL -- HIS GENTLE
CHARACTER -- HE DREW UP THE MEXICAN CALENDAR -- INCIDENTS OF
HIS EXILE AND OF HIS JOURNEY TO TLAPALLA, AS RELATED AND
COMMENTED UPON BY VARIOUS WRITERS -- BRASSEUR'S IDEAS ABOUT THE
QUETZALCOATL MYTHS -- QUETZALCOATL CONSIDERED A SUN-GOD BY
TYLOR, AND AS A DAWN-HERO BY BRINTON -- HELPS -- DOMENECH --
THE CODICES -- LONG DISCUSSION OF THE QUETZALCOATL MYTHS BY J.
G. MÜLLER.

In the preceding chapter I have given only the loftier view of
Tezcatlipoca's nature, which even on this side cannot be illustrated
without many inconsistencies. We pass now to relations evidencing a
much meaner idea of his character, and showing him whom we have seen
called invisible, almighty, and beneficent, in a new and much less
imposing light. We pass, in fact, from the Zeus of Plato and Socrates
to the Zeus of Hesiod and Homer.

Let us glance first at the fashion of his representation in the
temples, though with little hope of seeing the particular fitness of
many of the trappings and symbols with which his statue was decorated.
His principal image, at least in the city of Mexico, was cut out of a
very shining black stone, called iztli, a variety of obsidian--a
stone valued, in consideration of its capabilities of cleavage, for
making those long splinters, used as knives by the Aztecs, for
sacrificial and other purposes. For these uses in worship, and perhaps
indeed for its manifold uses in all regards, it was surnamed
_teotetl_, divine stone. In places where stone was less convenient the
image was made of wood. The general idea intended to be given was that
of a young man; by which the immortality of the god was set forth. The
ears of the idol were bright with ear-rings of gold and silver.
Through his lower lip was thrust a little crystal tube, perhaps six
inches long, and through the hollow of this tube a feather was drawn;
sometimes a green feather, sometimes a blue, giving the transparent
ornament the tint at one time of an emerald, at another of a
turquoise. The hair--carved from the stone, we may suppose--was drawn
into a queue and bound with a ribbon of burnished gold, to the end of
which ribbon, hanging down behind, was attached a golden ear with
certain tongues of ascending smoke painted thereon; which smoke was
intended to signify the prayers of those sinners and afflicted that,
commending themselves to the god, were heard by him. Upon his head
were many plumes of red and green feathers. From his neck there hung
down in front a great jewel of gold that covered all his breast.
Bracelets of gold were upon his arms, and in his navel was set a
precious green stone. In his left hand there flashed a great circular
mirror of gold, bordered like a fan with precious feathers, green and
azure and yellow; the eyes of the god were ever fixed on this, for
therein he saw reflected all that was done in the world. This mirror
was called _itlachia_, that is to say, the 'looker-on,' the 'viewer.'
Tezcatlipoca was sometimes seated on a bench covered with a red cloth,
worked with the likeness of many skulls, having in his right hand four
darts, signifying, according to some, that he punished sin. To the top
of his feet were attached twenty bells of gold, and to his right foot
the fore-foot of a deer, to show the exceeding swiftness of this
deity in all his ways. Hiding the shining black body, was a great
cloak, curiously wrought in black and white, adorned with feathers,
and fringed about with rosettes of three colors, red, white, and
black. This god, whose decorations vary a little with different
writers--variations probably not greater than those really existing
among the different figures representing in different places the same
deity--had a kind of chapel built to hold him on the top of his
temple. It was a dark chamber lined with rich cloths of many colors;
and from its obscurity the image looked out, seated on a pedestal,
with a costly canopy immediately overhead, and an altar in front; not
apparently an altar of sacrifice, but a kind of ornamental table, like
a Christian altar, covered with rich cloth. Into this holy of holies
it was not lawful for any but a priest to enter.

[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF TEZCATLIPOCA.]

What most of all, however, must have served to bring the worship of
Tezcatlipoca prominently before the people, were the seats of stone,
built at the corners of the streets, for the accommodation of this god
when he walked invisibly abroad. Mortal, born of woman, never sat
thereon; not the king himself might dare to use them: sacred they
were, sacred for ever, and always shadowed by a canopy of green
boughs, reverently renewed every five days.[VII-1]

Lower and lower we must now descend from the idea of an almighty god,
to take up the thread of various legends in which Tezcatlipoca figures
in an anything but creditable light. We have already seen him
described as one of those hero-gods whom the new-born Sun was
instrumental in destroying;[VII-2] and we may suppose that he then
ascended into heaven, for we find him afterward descending thence,
letting himself down by a rope twined from spider's web. Rambling
through the world he came to a place called Tulla, where a certain
Quetzalcoatl--another, according to Sahagun, of the hero-gods just
referred to--had been ruling for many years. The two engaged in a game
of ball, in the course of which Tezcatlipoca suddenly transformed
himself into a tiger, occasioning thereby a tremendous panic among the
spectators, many of whom in the haste of their flight precipitated
themselves down a ravine in the neighborhood into a river and were
drowned. Tezcatlipoca then began to persecute Quetzalcoatl from city
to city till he drove him to Cholula. Here Quetzalcoatl was held as
chief god, and here for some time he was safe. But only for a few
years; his indefatigable and powerful enemy forced him to retreat with
a few of his adherents toward the sea, to a place called Tlillapa or
Tizapan. Here the hunted Quetzalcoatl died, and his followers
inaugurated the custom of burning the dead by burning his body.[VII-3]

The foregoing, from Mendieta, gives us a glimpse, from one point of
view, of that great personage Quetzalcoatl, of whom we shall know much
more anon, and whom in the meantime we meet again and again as the
opponent, or rather victim of Tezcatlipoca. Let us consider Sahagun's
version of the incidents of this strife:--

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL.]

Quetzalcoatl was, from very ancient times, adored as a god in Tulla.
He had a very high _cu_[VII-4] there, with many steps up to it, steps
so narrow that there was not room for a whole foot on any of them. His
image was always in a recumbent position and covered with blankets.
The face of it was very ugly, the head large and furnished with a long
beard. The adherents of this god were all devoted to the mechanical
arts, dexterous in working the green stone called chalchiuite, and in
founding the precious metals; all of which arts had their beginning
and origin with the said Quetzalcoatl. He had whole houses made of
chalchiuites, others made of silver, others of white and red shells,
others of planks, others of turquoises, and others of rich feathers.
His adherents were very light of foot and swift in going whither they
wished, and they were called _tlanquacemilhiyme_. There is a mountain
called Tzatzitepetl on which Quetzalcoatl used to have a crier, and
the people afar off and scattered, and the people of Anáhuac, a
hundred leagues distant, heard and understood at once whatever the
said Quetzalcoatl commanded. And Quetzalcoatl was very rich; he had
all that was needful both to eat and to drink; maize was abundant, and
a head of it was as much as a man could carry clasped in his arms;
pumpkins measured a fathom round; the stalks of the wild amarinth were
so large and thick that people climbed them like trees. Cotton was
sowed and gathered in of all colors, red, scarlet, yellow, violet,
whitish, green, blue, blackish, grey, orange, and tawny; these colors
in the cotton were natural to it, thus it grew. Further it is said
that in that city of Tulla, there abounded many sorts of birds of rich
and many-colored plumage, the _xiuhtototl_, the _quetzaltototl_, the
_zaquan_, the _tlauquechol_, and other birds that sang with much
sweetness. And this Quetzalcoatl had all the riches of the world, of
gold and silver, of green stones called chalchiuites, and of other
precious things, and a great abundance of cocoa-nut trees of divers
colors. The vassals or adherents of Quetzalcoatl were also very rich
and wanted for nothing; they were never hungry; they never lacked
maize, nor ate the small ears of it, but burned them like wood to heat
the baths. It is said lastly that Quetzalcoatl did penance by pricking
his legs and drawing blood with the spines of the maguey and by
washing at midnight in a fountain called _xicapoya_;[VII-5] this custom
the priests and ministers of the Mexican idols adopted.

There came at last a time in which the fortunes of Quetzalcoatl and of
his people, the Toltecs, began to fail; for there came against them
three sorcerers, gods in disguise, to wit Tezcatlipoca,
Huitzilopochtli, and Tlacavepan, who wrought many deceits in Tulla.
Tezcatlipoca especially prepared a cunning trick; he turned himself
into a hoary-headed old man, and went to the house of Quetzalcoatl,
saying to the servants there, I wish to see and speak to your master.
Then the servants said, Go away, old man, thou canst not see our king,
for he is sick, thou wilt annoy him and cause him heaviness. But
Tezcatlipoca insisted, I must see him. Then the servants bid the
sorcerer to wait, and they went in and told Quetzalcoatl how an old
man without affirmed that he would see the king and would not be
denied. And Quetzalcoatl answered, Let him come in, behold for many
days I have waited for his coming. So Tezcatlipoca entered, and he
said to the sick god-king, How art thou? adding further that he had a
medicine for him to drink. Then Quetzalcoatl answered, Thou art
welcome, old man, behold for many days I have waited for thee. And the
old sorcerer spake again, How is thy body, and how art thou in health?
I am exceedingly sick, said Quetzalcoatl, all my body is in pain, I
cannot move my hands nor my feet. Then, answered Tezcatlipoca, behold
this medicine that I have, it is good and wholesome and intoxicating;
if thou will drink it, thou shalt be intoxicated and healed and eased
at the heart, and thou shalt have in mind the toils and fatigues of
death and of thy departure.[VII-6] Where, cried Quetzalcoatl, have I to
go? To Tullantlapallan, replied Tezcatlipoca, where there is another
old man waiting for thee; he and thou shall talk together, and on thy
return thence thou shalt be as a youth, yea, as a boy. And
Quetzalcoatl hearing these words his heart was moved, while the old
sorcerer, insisting more and more, said, Sir, drink this medicine. But
the king did not wish to drink it. The sorcerer, however, insisted,
Drink, my lord, or thou wilt be sorry for it hereafter; at least rub a
little on thy brow and taste a sip. So Quetzalcoatl tried and tasted
it, and drank, saying, What is this? it seems to be a thing very good
and savory; already I feel myself healed and quit of mine infirmity;
already I am well. Then the old sorcerer said again, Drink once more,
my lord, since it is good; so thou shall be the more perfectly healed.
And Quetzalcoatl drank again, he made himself drunk, he began to weep
sadly, his heart was eased and moved to depart, he could not rid
himself of the thought that he must go; for this was the snare and
deceit of Tezcatlipoca. And the medicine that Quetzalcoatl drank was
the white wine of the country, made from the magueys that are called
_teumetl_.

[Sidenote: TEZCATLIPOCA AS A PEDDLER.]

So Quetzalcoatl, whose fortunes we shall hereafter follow more
particularly, set out upon his journey; and Tezcatlipoca proceeded
further guilefully to kill many Toltecs, and to ally himself by
marriage with Vemac, who was the temporal lord of the Toltecs, even as
Quetzalcoatl was the spiritual ruler of that people. To accomplish
these things Tezcatlipoca took the appearance of a poor foreigner, and
presented himself naked, as was the custom of such people, in the
market-place of Tulla, selling green chilly pepper. Now the palace of
Vemac, the great king, overlooked the market-place, and he had an only
daughter, and the girl, looking by chance among the buyers and
sellers, saw the disguised god. She was smitten through with love of
him, and she began to sicken. Vemac heard of her sickness and he
inquired of the women that guarded her as to what ailed his daughter.
They told him as best they could, how for the love of a peddler of
pepper, named Toveyo, the princess had lain down to die. The king
immediately sent a crier upon the mountain Tzatzitepec to make this
proclamation: O Toltecs, seek me out Toveyo that goes about selling
green pepper, let him be brought before me. So the people sought
everywhere for the handsome pepper vender; but he was nowhere to be
found. Then, after they could not find him, he appeared of his own
accord one day, at his old place and trade in the market. He was
brought before the king, who said to him, Where dost thou belong to?
and Toveyo answered, I am a foreigner come here to sell my green
pepper. Why dost thou delay to cover thyself with breeches and with a
blanket? said Vemac. Toveyo answered that in his country such things
were not in fashion. Vemac continued, My daughter longs after thee,
not willing to be comforted by any Toltec; she is sick of love and
thou must heal her. But Toveyo replied, This thing can in no wise be,
kill me first; I desire to die, not being worthy to hear these words,
who get my living by selling green pepper. I tell thee, said the king,
that thou must heal my daughter of this her sickness; fear not. Then
they took the cunning god, and washed him, and cut his hair, and dyed
all his body, and put breeches on him and a blanket; and the king
Vemac said, Get thee in and see my daughter, there where they guard
her. Then the young man went in and he remained with the princess and
she became sound and well; thus Toveyo became the son-in-law of the
king of Tulla.

Then behold all the Toltecs being filled with jealousy and offended,
spake injurious and insulting words against king Vemac, saying among
themselves, Of all the Toltecs can there not to be found a man, that
this Vemac marries his daughter to a peddler? Now when the king heard
all the injurious and insulting words that the people spake against
him, he was moved, and he spoke to the people saying, Come hither,
behold I have heard all these things that ye say against me in the
matter of my son-in-law Toveyo; dissimulate then; take him deceitfully
with you to the war of Cacatepec and Coatepec, let the enemy kill him
there. Having heard these words the Toltecs armed themselves, and
collected a multitude, and went to the war, bringing Toveyo along.
Arrived where the fighting was to take place, they hid him with the
lame and the dwarfs, charging them, as the custom was in such cases,
to watch for the enemy, while the soldiers went on to the attack. The
battle began; the Toltecs at once gave way; treacherously and
guilefully deserting Toveyo and the cripples, leaving them to be
slaughtered at their post, they returned to Tulla and told the king
how they had left Toveyo and his companions alone in the hands of the
enemy. When the king heard the treason he was glad, thinking Toveyo
dead, for he was ashamed of having him for a son-in-law. Affairs had
gone otherwise, however, with Toveyo from what the plotters supposed.
On the approach of the hostile army he consoled his deformed
companions, saying, Fear nothing; the enemy come against us. but I
know that I shall kill them all. Then he rose up and went forward
against them, against the men of Coatepec and Cacatepec; he put them
to flight and slew of them without number. When this came to the ears
of Vemac, it weighed upon and terrified him exceedingly. He said to
his Toltecs, Let us now go and receive my son-in-law. So they all went
out with king Vemac to receive Toveyo, bearing the arms or devises
called _quetzalapanecayutl_, and the shields called _xiuchimali_. They
gave these things to Toveyo, and he and his comrades received them
with dancing and the music of flutes, with triumph and rejoicing.
Furthermore, on reaching the palace of the king, plumes were put upon
the heads of the conquerors, and all the body of each of them was
stained yellow, and all the face red; this was the customary reward of
those that came back victorious from war. And king Vemac said to his
son-in-law, I am now satisfied with what thou hast done and the
Toltecs are satisfied; thou hast dealt very well with our enemies,
rest and take thine ease. But Toveyo held his peace.

[Sidenote: TRIUMPH OF TEZCATLIPOCA.]

And after this, Toveyo adorned all his body with the rich feathers
called _tocivitl_, and commanded the Toltecs to gather together for a
festival, and sent a crier up to the top of the mountain, Tzatzitepec,
to call in the strangers and the people afar off to dance and to
feast. A numberless multitude gathered to Tulla. When they were all
gathered Toveyo led them out, young men and girls, to a place called
Texcalapa, where he himself began and led the dancing, playing on a
drum. He sang too, singing each verse to the dancers, who sang it
after him, though they knew not the song before hand. Then was to be
seen there a marvelous and terrible thing. From sunset till midnight
the beat of the countless feet grew faster and faster; the tap, tap,
tap of the drum closed up and poured into a continual roll; the
monotonous song rose higher, wilder, till it burst into a roar. The
multitude became a mob, the revel a riot; the people began to press
upon and hustle each other; the riot became a panic. There was a
fearful gorge or ravine there, with a river rushing through it called
the Texcaltlauhco; a stone bridge led over the river. Toveyo broke
down this bridge as the people fled; grim corypheus of this fearful
revel, he saw them tread and crush each other down, under-foot, and
over into the abyss. They that fell were turned into rocks and stones;
as for them that escaped, they did not see nor think that it was
Toveyo and his sorceries had wrought this great destruction; they were
blinded by the witchcraft of the god, and out of their senses like
drunken men.

Far from being satisfied with the slaughter at Texcalapa, Tezcatlipoca
proceeded to hatch further evil against the Toltecs. He took the
appearance of a certain valiant man called Teguioa, and commanded a
crier to summon all the inhabitants of Tulla and its neighborhood to
come and help at a certain piece of work in a certain flower-garden
(said to have been a garden belonging to Quetzalcoatl.). All the
people gathered to the work, whereupon the disguised god fell upon
them, knocking them on the head with a _coa_.[VII-7] Those that escaped
the _coa_ were trodden down and killed by their fellows in attempting
to escape; a countless number was slain; every man that had come to
the work was left lying dead among the trodden flowers.

[Sidenote: TEZCATLIPOCA DEAD.]

And after this Tezcatlipoca wrought another witchcraft against the
Toltecs. He called himself Tlacavepan, or Acexcoch, and came and sat
down in the midst of the market-place of Tulla, having a little
manikin (said to have been Huitzilopochtli) dancing upon his hand.
There was an instant uproar of all the buyers and sellers and a rush
to see the miracle. The people crushed and trod each other down, so
that many were killed there; and all this happened many times. At last
the god-sorcerer cried out, on one such occasion, What is this? do you
not see that you are befooled by us? stone and kill us. So the people
took up stones and killed the said sorcerer and his little dancing
manikin. But when the body of the sorcerer had lain in the
market-place for some time it began to stink and to taint the air, and
the wind of it poisoned many. Then the dead sorcerer spake again,
saying, Cast this body outside the town, for many Toltecs die because
of it. So they prepared to cast out the body, and fastened ropes
thereto and pulled. But the talkative and ill-smelling corpse was so
heavy that they could not move it. Then a crier made a proclamation,
saying, Come all ye Toltecs, and bring ropes with you, that we may
drag out and get rid of this pestilential carcass. All came
accordingly, bringing ropes, and the ropes were fastened to the body,
and all pulled. It was utterly in vain. Rope after rope broke with a
sudden snap, and those that dragged on a rope fell and were killed
when it broke. Then the dead wizard looked up and said, O Toltecs, a
verse of a song is needed; and he himself gave them a verse. They
repeated the verse after him, and, singing it, pulled all together, so
that with shouts they hauled the body out of the city; though still
not without many ropes breaking and many persons being killed as
before. All this being over, those Toltecs that remained unhurt
returned every man to his place, not remembering anything of what had
happened, for they were all as drunken.

Other signs and wonders were wrought by Tezcatlipoca in his rôle of
sorcerer. A white bird called Yztaccuixtli, was clearly seen flying
over Tulla, transfixed with a dart. At night also, the sierra called
Zacatepec burned, and the flames were seen from far. All the people
were stirred up and affrighted, saying one to another, O Toltecs, it
is all over with us now; the time of the end of Tulla is come; alas
for us, whither shall we go?

Then Tezcatlipoca wrought another evil upon the Toltecs: he rained
down stones upon them. There fell also, at the same time, a great
stone from heaven called _techcatl_; and when it fell the god-sorcerer
took the appearance of an old woman, and went about selling little
banners in a place called Chapultepecuitlapilco, otherwise named
Vetzinco. Many then became mad and bought of these banners and went to
the place where was the stone Techcatl, and there got themselves
killed; and no one was found to say so much as, What is this that
happens to us? they were all mad.

Another woe Tezcatlipoca brought upon the Toltecs. All their victuals
suddenly became sour, and no one was able to eat of them. The old
woman, above mentioned, took up then her abode in a place called
Xochitla[VII-8], and began to roast maize; and the odor of the roasted
maize reached all the cities round about. The starving people set out
immediately, and with one accord, to go where the old woman was. They
reached her instantly, for here it may be again said, that the Toltecs
were exceedingly light of foot, and arrived always immediately
whithersoever they wished to go. As for the Toltecs that gathered to
the sham sorceress, not one of them escaped, she killed them every
one.[VII-9]

[Sidenote: IMAGE OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Turning, without remark for the present, from Tezcatlipoca, of whose
life on earth the preceding farrago of legends is all that is known,
let us take up the same period in the history of Quetzalcoatl. The
city of Cholula was the place in which this god was most honored, and
towards which he was supposed to be most favorably inclined; Cholula
being greatly given to commerce and handicraft, and the Cholulans
considering Quetzalcoatl to be the god of merchandise. As Acosta
tells: "In Cholula, which is a commonwealth of Mexico, they worshipt a
famous idoll which was the god of marchandise, being to this day
greatly given to trafficke. They called it Quetzaalcoalt. This idoll
was in a great place in a temple very hie: it had about it, golde,
silver, jewells, very rich feathers, and habites of divers colours. It
had the forme of a man, but the visage of a little bird, with a red
bill, and above a combe full of wartes, having ranckes of teeth, and
the tongue hanging out. It carried vpon the head, a pointed myter of
painted paper, a sithe in the hand, and many toyes of golde on the
legges; with a thousand other foolish inventions, whereof all had
their significations, and they worshipt it, for that hee enriched
whome hee pleased, as Memnon and Plutus. In trueth this name which the
Choluanos gave to their god, was very fitte, although they vnderstood
it not: they called it Quetzaalcoalt, signifying colour of a rich
feather, for such is the divell of covetousnesse."[VII-10]

Motolinia gives the following confused account of the birth as a man,
the life, and the apotheosis of this god. The Mexican Adam, called
Iztacmixcoatl by some writers, married a second time.[VII-11] This second
wife, Chimamatl by name, bore him, it is said, an only son who was
called Quetzalcoatl. This son grew up a chaste and temperate man. He
originated by his preaching and practice the custom of fasting and
self-punishment; and from that time many in that country began to do
this penance. He never married, nor knew any woman, but lived
restrainedly and chastely all his days. The custom of sacrificing the
ears and the tongue, by drawing blood from these members, was also
introduced by him; not for the service of the devil but in penitence
for the sins of his speech and his hearing: it is true that afterward
the demon misappropriated these rites to his own use and worship. A
man called Chichimecatl fastened a leather strap on the arm of
Quetzalcoatl, fixing it high up near the shoulder; Chichimecatl was
from that time called Acolhuatl, and from him, it is said, are
descended those of Colhua, ancestors of Montezuma and lords of Mexico
and Coluacan. This Quetzalcoatl is now held as a deity and called the
god of the air; everywhere an infinite number of temples has been
raised to him, and everywhere his statue or picture is found.[VII-12]

According to the account of Mendieta, tradition varied much as to the
facts of the life of Quetzalcoatl. Some said he was the son of
Camaxtli, god of hunting and fishing, and of Camaxtli's wife Chimalma.
Others make mention only of the name of Chimalma, saying that as she
was sweeping one day she found a small green stone called chalchiuite,
that she picked it up, became miraculously pregnant, and gave birth to
the said Quetzalcoatl. This god was worshiped as a principal deity in
Cholula, where, as well as in Tlaxcala and Huejotzingo, there were
many of his temples. We have already had one legend from
Mendieta,[VII-13] giving an account of the expulsion from Tulla and death
of Quetzalcoatl; the following from the same source gives a different
and more usual version of the said expulsion:--

[Sidenote: DEPARTURE OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Quetzalcoatl came from the parts of Yucatan (although some said from
Tulla) to the city of Cholula. He was a white man, of portly person,
broad brow, great eyes, long black hair, and large round beard; of
exceedingly chaste and quiet life, and of great moderation in all
things. The people had at least three reasons for the great love,
reverence, and devotion with which they regarded him: first, he taught
the silversmith's art, a craft the Cholulans greatly prided themselves
on; second, he desired no sacrifice of the blood of men or animals,
but delighted only in offerings of bread, roses and other flowers, of
perfumes and sweet odors; third, he prohibited and forbade all war and
violence. Nor were these qualities esteemed only in the city of his
chiefest labors and teachings; from all the land came pilgrims and
devotees to the shrine of the gentle god. Even the enemies of Cholula
came and went secure, in fulfilling their vows; and the lords of
distant lands had in Cholula their chapels and idols to the common
object of devotion and esteem. And only Quetzalcoatl among all the
gods was preëminently called Lord; in such sort, that when any one
swore, saying, By Our Lord, he meant Quetzalcoatl and no other; though
there were many other highly esteemed gods. For indeed the service of
this god was gentle, neither did he demand hard things, but light; and
he taught only virtue, abhorring all evil and hurt. Twenty years this
good deity remained in Cholula, then he passed away by the road he had
come, carrying with him four of the principal and most virtuous youths
of that city. He journeyed for a hundred and fifty leagues, till he
came to the sea, in a distant province called Goatzacoalco. Here he
took leave of his companions and sent them back to their city,
instructing them to tell their fellow citizens that a day should come
in which white men would land upon their coasts, by way of the sea in
which the sun rises; brethren of his and having beards like his; and
that they should rule that land. The Mexicans always waited for the
accomplishment of this prophecy, and when the Spaniards came they took
them for the descendants of their meek and gentle prophet, although,
as Mendieta remarks with some sarcasm, when they came to know them and
to experience their works, they thought otherwise.

Quetzalcoatl is further reported by Mendieta to have assisted in
drawing up and arranging the Mexican Calendar, a sacred book of
thirteen tables, in which the religious rites and ceremonies proper to
each day were set forth, in connection with the appropriate signs. It
is said that the gods having created mankind, bethought themselves
that it would be well if the people they had made had some writings by
which they might direct themselves. Now there were, in a certain cave
at Cuernavaca, two personages of the number of the gods, and they
were man and wife, he Oxomoco and she Cipactonal; and they were
consulting together. It appeared good to the old woman that her
descendant Quetzalcoatl should be consulted. The Cholulan god thought
the thing of the calendar to be good and reasonable; so the three set
to work. To the old woman was respectfully allotted the privilege of
choosing and writing the first sign; she painted a kind of
water-serpent called _cipactli_, and called the sign _Ce Cipactli_,
that is "a serpent." Oxomoco, in his turn wrote "two canes," and then
Quetzalcoatl wrote "three houses;" and so they went on till the whole
thirteen signs of each table were written out in their order.[VII-14]

[Sidenote: THE SUN CALLS QUETZALCOATL.]

Let us now take up again the narrative of Sahagun, at the point where
Quetzalcoatl, after drinking the potion prepared by Tezcatlipoca,
prepares to set off upon his journey. Quetzalcoatl, very heavy in
heart for all the misfortunes that this rival god was bringing upon
the Toltecs, burned his beautiful houses of silver and of shell, and
ordered other precious things to be buried in the mountains and
ravines. He turned the cocoa-nut trees into a kind of trees that are
called _mizquitl_; he commanded all the birds of rich plumage, the
quetzaltototl, and the xiuhtotl, and the tlauquechol, to fly away and
go into Anáhuac, a hundred leagues distant. Then he himself set out
upon his road from Tulla; he traveled on till he came to a place
called Quauhtitlan, where was a great tree, high and very thick. Here
the exile rested, and he asked his servants for a mirror, and looked
at his own face. What thoughts soever were working in his heart, he
only said, I am already old. Then he named that place Vevequauhtitlan,
and he took up stones and stoned the great tree; and all the stones he
threw sank into it, and were for a long time to be seen sticking
there, from the ground even up to the topmost branches. Continuing his
journey, having flute-players playing before him, he came to a place
on the road where he was weary and sat down on a stone to rest. And
looking toward Tulla, he wept bitterly. His tears marked and ate into
the stone on which he sat, and the print of his hands, and of his back
parts, was also found therein when he resumed his journey. He called
that place Temacpalco. After that he reached a very great and wide
river, and he commanded a stone bridge to be thrown across it; on that
bridge he crossed the river, and he named the place Tepanoaya. Going
on upon his way, Quetzalcoatl came to another place, where certain
sorcerers met and tried to stop him, saying, Whither goest thou? why
dost thou leave thy city? to whose care wilt thou commend it? who will
do penance? Quetzalcoatl replied to the said sorcerers, Ye can in no
wise hinder my going, for I must go. They asked him further, Whither
goest thou? He said, To Tlapalla. They continued, But to what end
goest thou? He said, I am called and the sun calls me. So the
sorcerers said, Go then, but leave behind all the mechanical arts, the
melting of silver, the working of precious stones and of masonry, the
painting, feather-working, and other crafts. And of all these the
sorcerers despoiled Quetzalcoatl. As for him, he cast into a fountain
all the rich jewels that he had with him; and that fountain was called
Cohcaapa, and it is so named to this day.

Quetzalcoatl continued his journey; and there came another sorcerer to
meet him, saying, Whither goest thou? Quetzalcoatl said, To Tlapalla.
The wizard said, Very well; but drink this wine that I have. The
traveler answered, No: I cannot drink it; I cannot so much as taste
it. Thou must drink, said the grim magician, were it but a drop; for
to none of the living can I give it; it intoxicates all, so drink.
Then Quetzalcoatl took the wine and drank it through a cane. Drinking,
he made himself drunk; he slept upon the road; he began to snore; and
when he awoke, he looked on one side and on the other, and tore his
hair with his hands. And that place was called Cochtoca.

Quetzalcoatl going on upon his way and passing between the sierra of
the volcano and the snowy sierra, all his servants, being hump-backed
and dwarfs, died of cold in the pass between the said mountains. And
Quetzalcoatl bewailed their death bitterly and sang with weeping and
sighing. Then he saw the other snowy sierra, which is called
Poyauhtecatl and is near Tecamachalco; and so he passed by all the
cities and places, leaving many signs, it is said, in all the
mountains and roads.[VII-15] It is said further that he had a way of
crossing the sierras whereby he amused and rested himself at the same
time: when he came to the top of a mountain he used to sit down, and
so seated, let himself slide down the mountain-side to the bottom. In
one place he built a court for ball-play, all of squared stone, and
here he used to play the game called _tlachtli_.[VII-16] Through the
midst of this court he drew a line called the _telcotl_; and where
that line was made the mountain is now opened with a deep gash. In
another place he cast a dart at a great tree called a _pochutl_,
piercing it through with the dart in such wise that the tree looked
like a cross; for the dart he threw was itself a tree of the same
kind.[VII-17] Some say that Quetzalcoatl built certain subterranean
houses, called _mictlancalco_; and further, that he set up and
balanced a great stone, so that one could move it with one's little
finger, yet a multitude could not displace it. Many other notable
things remain that Quetzalcoatl did among many peoples; he it was that
named all the places and woods and mountains. Traveling ever onward,
he came at last to the sea-shore, and there commanded a raft to be
made of the snakes called _coatlapechtli_. Having seated himself on
this raft as in a canoe, he put out to sea, and no man knows how he
got to Tlapallan.[VII-18]

Torquemada gives a long and valuable account of Quetzalcoatl, gathered
from many sources, which cannot be overlooked. It runs much as
follows:--The name Quetzalcoatl means Snake-plumage, or Snake that
has plumage--and the kind of snake referred to in this name, is found
in the province of Xicalanco, which is on the frontier of the kingdom
of Yucatan as one goes thence to Tabasco. This god Quetzalcoatl was
very celebrated among the people of the city of Cholula, and held in
that place for the greatest of all. He was, according to credible
histories, high priest in the city of Tulla. From that place he went
to Cholula, and not, as Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas says in his
_Apologia_, to Yucatan; though he went to Yucatan afterwards, as we
shall see. It is said of Quetzalcoatl that he was a white man, large
bodied, broad-browed, great-eyed, with long black hair, and a beard
heavy and rounded.[VII-19] He was a great artificer, and very ingenious.
He taught many mechanical arts, especially the art of working the
precious stones called chalchiuites, which are a kind of green stone
highly valued, and the art of casting silver and gold. The people,
seeing him so inventive, held him in great estimation, and reverenced
him as king in that city; and so it came about that, though in
temporal things the ruler of Tulla was a lord named Huemac,[VII-20] yet
in all spiritual and ecclesiastical matters Quetzalcoatl was supreme,
and as it were chief pontiff.

[Sidenote: SWIFTNESS OF THE SERVANTS OF QUETZALCOATL.]

It is feigned by those that seek to make much of their god that he had
certain palaces made of green stone like emeralds, others made of
silver, others of shells, red and white, others of all kinds of wood,
others of turquoise, and others of precious feathers. He is said to
have been very rich, and in need of nothing. His vassals were very
obedient to him, and very light of foot; they were called
tlanquacemilhuique. When they wished to publish any command of
Quetzalcoatl, they sent a crier up upon a high mountain called
Tzatzitepec, where with a loud voice he proclaimed the order; and the
voice of this crier was heard for a hundred leagues distance, and
farther, even to the coasts of the sea: all this is affirmed for true.
The fruits of the earth and the trees flourished there in an
extraordinary degree, and sweet singing birds were abundant. The great
pontiff inaugurated a system of penance, pricking his legs, and
drawing blood and staining therewith maguey thorns. He washed also at
midnight in a fountain called Xiuhpacoya. From all this, it is said,
the idolatrous priests of Mexico adopted their similar custom.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL LEAVES MARKS ON A STONE.]

While Quetzalcoatl was enjoying this good fortune with pomp and
majesty, we are told that a great magician called Titlacahua
[Tezcatlipoca], another of the gods, arrived at Tulla. He took the
form of an old man, and went in to see Quetzalcoatl, saying to him, My
lord, inasmuch as I know thine intent and how much thou desirest to
set out for certain distant lands, also, because I know from thy
servants that thou art unwell, I have brought thee a certain beverage,
by drinking which thou shalt attain thine end. Thou shalt so make thy
way to the country thou desirest, having perfect health to make the
journey; neither shalt thou remember at all the fatigues and toils of
life, nor how thou art mortal.[VII-21] Seeing all his projects thus
discovered by the pretended old man, Quetzalcoatl questioned him,
Where have I to go. Tezcatlipoca answered, That it was already
determined with the supreme gods, that he had to go to Tlapalla, and
that the thing was inevitable, because there was another old man
waiting for him at his destination. As Quetzalcoatl heard this, he
said that it was true, and that he desired it much; and he took the
vessel and drank the liquor it contained. Quetzalcoatl was thus easily
persuaded to what Tezcatlipoca desired, because he wished to make
himself immortal and to enjoy perpetual life. Having swallowed the
draught he became beside himself, and out of his mind, weeping sadly
and bitterly. He determined to go to Tlapalla. He destroyed or buried
all his plate and other property and set out. First he arrived at the
place, Quauhtitlan, where the great tree was and where he, borrowing a
mirror from his servants, found himself "already old." The name of
this place was changed by him to Huehuequauhtitlan, that is to say,
"near the old tree, or the tree of the old man;" and the trunk of the
tree was filled with stones that he cast at it. After that he
journeyed on, his people playing flutes and other instruments, till he
came to a mountain near the city of Tlalnepantla, two leagues from the
city of Mexico, where he sat down on a stone and put his hands on it,
leaving marks embedded therein that may be seen to this day. The truth
of this thing is strongly corroborated by the inhabitants of that
district; I myself have questioned them upon the subject, and it has
been certified to me. Furthermore we have it written down accurately
by many worthy authors; and the name of the locality is now
Temacpalco, that is to say "in the palm of the hand."

Journeying on to the coast and to the kingdom of Tlapalla,
Quetzalcoatl was met by the three sorcerers, Tezcatlipoca and other
two with him, who had already brought so much destruction upon Tulla.
These tried to stop or hinder him in his journey, questioning him,
Whither goest thou? He answered, To Tlapalla. To whom, they inquired,
hast thou given the charge of thy kingdom of Tulla, and who will do
penance there? But he said that that was no longer any affair of his
and that he must pursue his road. And being further questioned as to
the object of his journey, he said that he was called by the lord of
the land to which he was going, who was the sun.[VII-22] The three
wizards seeing then the determination of Quetzalcoatl, made no
further attempt to dissuade him from his purpose, but contented
themselves with taking from him all his instruments and his mechanical
arts, so that though he departed those things should not be wanting to
the state. It was here that Quetzalcoatl threw into a fountain all the
rich jewels that he carried with him; for which thing the fountain was
called from that time Cozcaapan, that is to say, "The water of the
strings or chains of jewels." The same place is now called Coaapan,
that is to say, "In the snake-water," and very properly, because the
word Quetzalcoatl means "feathered snake." In this way he journeyed
on, suffering various molestations from those sorcerers, his enemies,
till he arrived at Cholula where he was received (as we in another
part say),[VII-23] and afterward adored as god. Having lived twenty
years in that city he was expelled by Tezcatlipoca. He set out for the
kingdom of Tlapalla, accompanied by four virtuous youths of noble
birth, and in Goatzacoalco, a province distant from Cholula toward
the sea a hundred and fifty leagues, he embarked for his destination.
Parting with his disciples, he told them that there should surely come
to them in after times, by way of the sea where the sun rises, certain
white men with white beards, like him, and that these would be his
brothers and would rule that land.

After that the four disciples returned to Cholula, and told all that
their master and god had prophesied when departing. Then the Cholulans
divided their province into four principalities and gave the
government to those four, and some four of their descendants always
ruled in like manner over these tetrarchies till the Spaniard came;
being, however, subordinate to a central power.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL SWEPT THE ROADS.]

This Quetzalcoatl was god of the air, and as such had his temple, of a
round shape and very magnificent. He was made god of the air for the
mildness and gentleness of all his ways, not liking the sharp and
harsh measures to which the other gods were so strongly inclined. It
is to be said further that his life on earth was marked by intensely
religious characteristics; not only was he devoted to the careful
observance of all the old customary forms of worship, but he himself
ordained and appointed many new rites, ceremonies, and festivals for
the adoration of the gods; and it is held for certain that he made the
calendar. He had priests who were called quequetzalcohua, that is to
say "priests of the order of Quetzalcoatl." The memory of him was
engraved deeply upon the minds of the people, and it is said that when
barren women prayed and made sacrifices to him, children were given
them. He was, as we have said, god of the winds, and the power of
causing them to blow was attributed to him as well as the power of
calming or causing their fury to cease. It was said further that he
swept the road, so that the gods called Tlaloques could rain: this the
people imagined because ordinarily a month or more before the rains
began there blew strong winds throughout all New Spain. Quetzalcoatl
is described as having worn during life, for the sake of modesty,
garments that reached down to the feet, with a blanket over all, sown
with red crosses. The Cholulans preserved certain green stones that
had belonged to him, regarding them with great veneration and
esteeming them as relics. Upon one of these was carved a monkey's
head, very natural. In the city of Cholula there was to be found
dedicated to him a great and magnificent temple, with many steps, but
each step so narrow that there was not room for a foot on it. His
image had a very ugly face, with a large and heavily bearded head. It
was not set on its feet but lying down, and covered with blankets.
This, it is said, was done as a memorial that he would one day return
to reign. For reverence of his great majesty, his image was kept
covered, and to signify his absence it was kept lying down, as one
that sleeps, as one that lies down to sleep. In awaking from that
sleep, he was to rise up and reign. The people also of Yucatan
reverenced this god Quetzalcoatl, calling him Kukulcan, and saying
that he came to them from the west, that is from New Spain, for
Yucatan is eastward therefrom. From him it is said the kings of
Yucatan are descended, who call themselves Cocomes, that is to say
"judges or hearers."[VII-24]

[Sidenote: CLAVIGERO ON QUETZALCOATL.]

Clavigero's account is characteristically clear and comprehensible. It
may be summed up as follows:--

Among the Mexicans and other nations of Anáhuac, Quetzalcoatl was
accounted god of the air. He is said to have been sometime high-priest
of Tulla. He is described as having been white--a large,
broad-browed, great-eyed man, with long black hair and thick beard.
His life was rigidly temperate and exemplary, and his industry was
directed by the profoundest wisdom. He amassed great treasure, and his
was the invention of gem-cutting and of metal-casting. All things
prospered in his time. One ear of corn was a man's load; and the
gourds, or pumpkins, of the day were as tall as one's body. No one
dyed cotton then, for it grew of all colors; and all other things in
like manner were perfect and abundant. The very birds in the trees
sang such songs as have never since been heard, and flashed such
marvelous beauties in the sun as no plumage of later times could
rival. Quetzalcoatl had his laws proclaimed from the top of the hill
Tzatzitepec, (mountain of outcry), near Tulla, by a crier whose voice
was audible for three hundred miles.

All this, however, was put an end to, as far as Tulla was concerned,
by Tezcatlipoca, who, moved perhaps by jealousy, determined to remove
Quetzalcoatl. So the god appeared to the great teacher in the guise of
an old man, telling him it was the will of the gods that he betake
himself to Tlapalla, and administering at the same time a potion, the
effect of which was to cause an intense longing for the said journey.
Quetzalcoatl set out and, having performed many marvels on the way,
arrived in Cholula. Here the inhabitants would not suffer him to go
farther, but persuaded him to accept the government of their city; and
he remained with them, teaching many useful arts, customs, and
ceremonies and preaching against war and all other forms of cruelty.
According to some, he at this time arranged the divisions of the
seasons and the calendar.

Having lived twenty years in Cholula, he left, still impelled by the
subtle draught, to seek this imaginary city of Tlapalla. He was no
more seen of men, some said one thing and some another; but, however
he might have disappeared, he was apotheosized by the Toltecs of
Cholula, who raised him a great mound and built a sanctuary upon it. A
similar structure was erected to his honor at Tulla. From Cholula his
worship as god of the air spread over all the country; in Yucatan the
nobles claimed descent from him.[VII-25]

[Sidenote: BRASSEUR ON QUETZALCOATL.]

The ideas of Brasseur with regard to Quetzalcoatl have their roots in
and must be traced back to the very first appearing of the Mexican
religion, or of the religion or religions by which it was preceded; so
that to arrive at those ideas I must give a summary of the abbé's
whole theory of the origin of that creed. He believes that in the
seething and thundering of volcanoes a conception of divinity and of
supernatural powers first sprang up in the mind of the ancestors of
the Mexicans. The volcanoes were afterwards identified with the stars,
and the most terrific of all, Nanahuatl or Nanahuatzin,[VII-26] received
the honors of apotheosis in the sun. Issued from the earth of the
Crescent (Brasseur's sunken island or continent in the Atlantic),[VII-27]
personified in the antique Quetzalcoatl, prototype of priests and of
sacerdotal continence, he is thus his son and identifies himself with
him; he (the divinity, Tylor's "Great Somebody") is the model of sages
under the name of Hueman and the prototype of kings under that of
Topiltzin. Strange thing to find united in one being, personalities so
diverse! King, philosopher, priest par excellence, whose virtues serve
as a rule to all the priests of the pagan antiquity, and, side by side
with all that, incontinence and passion deified in this invalid, whose
name even, "the syphilitic," is the expression of the abuse he has
made of the sex.

At the commencement of the religion two sects appear to have sprung
up, or rather two manners of judging the same events. There was first
a struggle, and then a separation; under the banner-names of
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca the rival schools fought for the most
part--of course there were divers minor factions; but the foregoing
were the principal and most important. There is every reason to
believe that the religion that took Quetzalcoatl for symbol was but a
reformation upon another more ancient, that had the moon for its
object. It is the moon, male and female, _Luna Lunus_, personified in
the earth of the Crescent, engulfed in the abyss, that I believe (it
is always the abbé that speaks) I see at the commencement of the
amalgam of rites and symbols of every kind, religion of enjoyments and
material pleasures, born of the promiscuity of the men and women,
taken refuge in the lesser Antilles after the cataclysm.

The religion that had taken the moon for point of departure, and in
which women seem to have played the principal rôle, as priestesses,
attacked formally, by this very fact, a more antique religion, a
pre-diluvian religion that appears to have been Sabaism, entirely
exempt from idolatry, and in which the sun received the chief homage.
In the new religion, on the contrary, it was not the moon as a star,
which was the real object of worship, it was the moon-land
(lune-terre), it was the region of the Crescent, shrouded under the
waves, whose death was wept and whose resurrection was afterward
celebrated in the appearance of the isles--refuge of the shipwrecked
of the grand catastrophe--of the Lesser Antilles; to the number of
seven principal islands, sung, in all American legends, as the Seven
Grottoes, cradle of nations.

This is the myth of Quetzalcoatl, who dies or disappears, and whose
personality is represented at the outset in the isles, then
successively, in all the countries whither the civilization was
carried of which he was the flag. So far as I can judge at present,
the priest who placed himself under the ægis of this grand name,
labored solely to reform what there was of odious and barbarous in the
cult of which the women had the chief direction, and under whose
regime human blood flowed in waves. After the triumph of Quetzalcoatl,
the men who bore his name took the direction of religion and society,
which then made considerable progress in their hands.

But if we are to believe the same traditions, their preponderance had
not a very long duration. The most restless and the most audacious
among the partisans of the ancient order of things, raised the flag of
revolt: they became the chiefs of a warlike faction, rival of the
sacerdotal--a conquering faction, source of veritable royal dynasties
and of the religion of the sun living and victorious, in opposition to
the god entombed in the abyss. Quetzalcoatl, vanquished by
Tezcatlipoca, then retired before a too-powerful enemy, and the
Toltecs were dispersed among all nations. Those of them that remained
coalesced with the victors, and from the accord of the aforementioned
three cults, there sprang that monstrous amalgam of so many different
ideas and symbols, such as is found to-day in what remains to us of
the Mexican religion.

For me (and it is always the abbé that speaks), I believe I perceive
the origin of the struggle, not alone in the diversity of races, but
principally in the existence of two currents of contrary ideas, having
had the same point of departure in the events of the great cataclysm
of the Crescent Land, above referred to. Different manners of looking
at these events and of commemorating them, seem to me to have marked
from the beginning the starting point of two religions that lived,
perhaps, side by side for centuries without the explosion of their
disagreements, otherwise than by insignificant agitations. Before
these two could take, with regard to each other, the proportions of a
schism or a heresy, it was necessary that all the materials of which
these religions are constituted had had time to elaborate themselves,
and that the hieroglyphics which represented their origin had become
sufficiently obscure for the priesthood to keep the vulgar from
understanding them. For, if schism has brought on the struggle between
and afterward the violent separation of families, this separation can
not have taken place till after the entire creation of myths, the
entire construction of these divine genealogies, of these poetic
traditions, that are found scattered among all the peoples of the
earth, but of which the complete whole does not exist, save in the
history and religion of Mexico.[VII-28]

[Sidenote: MANY CHARACTERS OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Two orders of gods--the one order fallen from heaven into the abyss,
becoming there the judges of the dead, and being personified in one of
their number, who came to life again, symbolizing thus life and
death--the other order surviving the cataclysm and symbolizing thus
an imperishable life--such, at its origin, is the double character of
the myth of Quetzalcoatl. But, in reality, this god he is the earth,
he is the region swallowed up by the waters, he is the vanquished
stifled under the weight of his adversary, under the force of the
victorious wave; which adversary, which power in opposition to the
first, joining itself to the fire on the blazing pile of Nanahuatl, is
Tezcatlipoca, is Hercules, conqueror of enemies, is the god whose
struggle is eternal as that of the ocean beating the shore, is he in
whom the light becomes afterward personified, and who becomes thus the
battle-flag of the opponents of Quetzalcoatl. To the dead god a victim
is necessary, one that like him descends into the abyss. This victim
was a young girl, chosen among those that were consecrated at the foot
of the pyramid, and drowned; a custom long found as well in Egypt as
at Chichen-Itza,[VII-29] and in many other countries of the world. But
to the god come to life again, to the god in whom fire was personified,
and immortal life, to Quetzalcoatl when he became Huitzilopochtli,
victims were sacrificed, by tearing out the heart--symbol of the jet
of flame issuing from the volcano--to offer it to the conquering sun,
symbol of Tezcatlipoca, who first demanded holocausts of human
blood.[VII-30]

Mr Tylor declares Quetzalcoatl to have been the Sun: "We may even
find him identified with the Sun by name, and his history is perhaps a
more compact and perfect series of solar myths than hangs to the name
of any single personage in our own Aryan mythology. His mother, the
Dawn or the Night, gives birth to him, and dies. His father Camaxtli
is the sun, and was worshiped with solar rites in Mexico, but he is
the old Sun of yesterday. The clouds, personified in the mythic race
of the Mixcohuas, or "Cloud-Snakes" (the Nibelungs of the western
hemisphere), bear down the old Sun and choke him, and bury him in
their mountain. But the young Quetzalcoatl, the Sun of to-day, rushes
up into the midst of them from below, and some he slays at the first
onset, and some he leaves, rift with red wounds to die. We have the
Sun boat of Helios, of the Egyptian Ra, of the Polynesian Maui.
Quetzalcoatl, his bright career drawing toward its close, is chased
into far lands by his kinsman Tezcatlipoca, the young Sun of
to-morrow. He, too, is well known as a Sun God in the Mexican
theology. Wonderfully fitting with all this, one incident after
another in the life of Quetzalcoatl falls into its place. The
guardians of the sacred fire tend him, his funeral pile is on the top
of Orizaba, he is the helper of travelers, the maker of the calendar,
the source of astrology, the beginner of history, the bringer of
wealth and happiness. He is the patron of the craftsmen, whom he
lights to his labor; as it is written in an ancient Sanskrit hymn, 'He
steps forth, the splendor of the sky, the wide-seeing, the far-aiming,
the shining wanderer; surely enlivened by the sun, do men go to their
tasks and do their work.' Even his people, the Toltecs, catch from
him solar qualities. Will it be even possible to grant to this famous
race, in whose story the legend of Quetzalcoatl is the leading
incident, anything more than a mythic existence?"[VII-31]

[Sidenote: BRINTON ON QUETZALCOATL.]

Dr Brinton is of opinion "that there were in truth many
Quetzalcoatls, for his high priest always bore his name, but he
himself is a pure creation of the fancy, and all his alleged history
is nothing but a myth. His emblematic name, the Bird-Serpent, and his
rebus and cross at Palenque, I have already explained. Others of his
titles were, Ehecatl, the air; Yolcuat, the rattlesnake; Tohil, the
rumbler; Huemac, the strong hand; Nanihehecatl, lord of the four
winds. The same dualism reappears in him that has been noted in his
analogues elsewhere. He is both lord of the eastern light and the
wind.

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. The morning star was his symbol, and the temple of Cholula was
dedicated to him expressly as the author of light. 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 white robes, and, as most of the Aztec gods, with a
full and flowing beard. When his earthly work was done he too returned
to the east, assigning as a reason that the sun, the ruler of
Tlapallan, demanded his presence. But the real motive was that he had
been overcome by Tezcatlipoca, otherwise called Yoalliehecatl, the
wind or spirit of night, who had descended from heaven by a spider's
web and presented his rival with a draught pretended to confer
immortality, but, in fact, producing uncontrollable longing for home.
For the wind and the light both depart when the gloaming draws near,
or when the clouds spread their dark and shadowy webs along the
mountains, and pour the vivifying rain upon the fields.

In his other character, he was begot of the breath of Tonacateotl,
god of our flesh or subsistence, or (according to Gomara) was the son
of Iztac Mixcoatl, the white cloud serpent, the spirit of the tornado.
Messenger of Tlaloc, god of rain, he was figuratively said to sweep
the road for him, since in that country violent winds are the
precursors of the wet seasons. Wherever he went all manner of singing
birds bore him company, emblems of the whistling breezes. When he
finally disappeared in the far east, he sent back four trusty youths
who had ever shared his fortunes, 'incomparably swift and light of
foot,' with directions to divide the earth between them and rule it
till he should return and resume his power. When he would promulgate
his decrees, his herald proclaimed them from Tzatzitepec, the hill of
shouting, with such a mighty voice that it could be heard a hundred
leagues around. The arrows which he shot transfixed great trees, the
stones he threw leveled forests, and when he laid his hands on the
rocks the mark was indelible. Yet as thus emblematic of the
thunderstorm, he possessed in full measure its better attributes. By
shaking his sandals he gave fire to men; and peace, plenty, and riches
blessed his subjects. Tradition says he built many temples to
Mictlantecutli, the Aztec Pluto, and at the creation of the sun that
he slew all the other gods, for the advancing dawn disperses the
spectral shapes of night, and yet all its vivifying power does but
result in increasing the number doomed to fall before the remorseless
stroke of death.

His symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross and the flint,
representing the clouds, the lightning, the four winds, and the
thunderbolt. Perhaps, as Huemac, the Strong Hand, he was god of the
earthquakes. The Zapotecs worshiped such a deity under the image of
this number carved from a precious stone, calling to mind the 'Kab
ul,' the Working Hand, adored by the Mayas, and said to be one of the
images of Zamná their hero god. The human hand, 'that divine tool,' as
it has been called, might well be regarded by the reflective mind as
the teacher of the arts and the amulet whose magic power has won for
man what vantage he has gained in his long combat with nature and his
fellows."[VII-32]

[Sidenote: ANALOGUES OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Mr Helps sees in Quetzalcoatl the closest analogies with certain other
great civilizers and teachers that made their appearance in various
parts of the American continent:--"One peculiar circumstance, as
Humboldt remarks, is very much to be noted in the ancient records and
traditions of the Indian nations. In no less than three remarkable
instances has superior civilization been attributed to the sudden
presence among them of persons differing from themselves in appearance
and descent.

Bohica, a white man with a beard, appeared to the Mozca Indians in the
plains of Bogota, taught them how to build and to sow, formed them
into communities, gave an outlet to the waters of the great lake, and,
having settled the government civil and ecclesiastical, retired into a
monastic state of penitence for two thousand years.

In like manner Manco Capac, accompanied by his sister, Mama Oello,
descended amongst the Peruvians, gave them a code of admirable laws,
reduced them into communities, and then ascended to his father, the
Sun.

Amongst the Mexicans there suddenly appeared Quetzalcoatl
(green-feathered snake), a white and bearded man, of broad brow,
dressed in a strange dress; a legislator, who recommended severe
penances, lacerating his own body with the prickles of the agave and
the thorns of the cactus, but who dissuaded his followers from human
sacrifice. While he remained in Anáhuac, it was a Saturnian reign; but
this great legislator, after moving on to the plains of Cholula, and
governing the Cholulans with wisdom, passed away to a distant country,
and was never heard of more. It is said briefly of him that 'he
ordained sacrifices of flowers and fruits, and stopped his ears when
he was spoken to of war.'"[VII-33]

The Abbé Domenech considers the tradition of the lives of
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca to be a bit of simple and slightly
veiled history, and also that there were several Quetzalcoatls. Let it
be remembered in reading the abbé's version of this matter that the
names of places, peoples, and the dates he gives are in great part
mythical and conjectural:--"After the enfranchisement of the Olmecs, a
man named Quetzalcoatl arrived in the country, whom Garcia,
Torquemada, Sahagun, and other Spanish writers took to be Saint
Thomas. It was also at that time that the third age ended, and that
the fourth began, called Sun of the fire, because it was supposed that
it was in this last stage that the world would be destroyed by fire.

It is in this fourth period that the Mexican historian places the
Toltecs' arrival in New Spain, that is to say, about the third century
before the Christian era. According to the Quichés' traditions, the
primitive portion of the Nahoas, or ancestors of the Toltecs, were in
a distant East, beyond immense seas and lands. Amongst the families
and tribes that bore with least patience this long repose and
immobility, those of Canub, and of Tlocab may be cited, for they were
the first who determined to leave their country. The Nahoas sailed in
seven barks or ships, which Sahagun calls Chicomoztoc, or the seven
grottos. It is a fact worthy of note, that in all ages the number
seven was a sacred number among the American people, from one pole to
the other. It was at Pánuco, near Tampico, that those strangers
disembarked; they established themselves at Paxil, with the Votanites'
consent, and their state took the name of Huehue-Tlopallan. It is not
stated from whence they came, but merely that they came out of the
regions where the sun rises. The supreme command was in the hand of a
chieftain, whom history calls Quetzalcohuatl, that is to say, Lord par
excellence. To his care was confided the holy envelope, which
concealed the divinity from the human gaze, and he alone received from
it the necessary instructions to guide his people's march. These kinds
of divinities, thus enveloped, passed for being sure talismans, and
were looked upon with the greatest respect and veneration. They
consisted generally of a bit of wood, in which was inserted a little
idol of green stone; this was covered with the skin of a serpent or of
a tiger, after which it was rolled in numerous little bands of stuff,
wherein it would remain wrapped for centuries together. Such is,
perhaps, the origin of the medicine bags made use of, even in the
present day, by the Indians of the Great Desert, and of which we shall
speak in the second volume of this work."

Of apparently another Quetzalcoatl, he writes: "The Toltecs became
highly flourishing under the reign of Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl, a
Culhuacan prince, who preached a new religion, sanctioning auricular
confession and the celibacy of the priests. He proscribed all kinds of
warfare and human sacrifices. Tezcatlipoca put himself at the head of
the dissatisfied party, and besieged Tollan, the residence of Ceocatl
Quetzalcohuatl; but the latter refused to defend himself, in order to
avoid the effusion of blood, which was prohibited by the laws of the
religion he himself had established, and retired to Cholula, that had
been constructed by his followers. From thence he went to Yucatan.
Tezcatlipoca, his fortunate rival, after a long reign became in his
turn the victim of the popular discontent, and fell in a battle that
was given him by Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl's relatives. Those two kings
are elevated to the rank of gods, and their worship was a perpetual
subject of discord and civil war in all Anáhuac until the arrival of
the Spaniards in the New World."[VII-34]

[Sidenote: THE CODICES ON QUETZALCOATL.]

The interpreters of the different codices, or Mexican paintings
represented in Kingsborough's great work, give, as is their wont in
all matters, a confused, imperfect, and often erroneous account of
Quetzalcoatl:--"Quetzalcoatl is he who was born of the virgin, called
Chalchihuitztli, which means the precious stone of penance or of
sacrifice. He was saved in the deluge, and was born in Zivenaritzcatl
where he resides. His fast was a kind of preparation for the arrival
of the end of the world which they said would happen on the day of
Four Earthquakes, so that they were thus in daily expectation of that
event. Quetzalcoatl was he who they say created the world, and they
bestowed on him the appellation of lord of the wind, because they said
that Tonacatecotli, when it appeared good to him, breathed and begat
Quetzalcoatl. They erected round temples to him, without any corners.
They said that it was he (who was also the lord of the thirteen signs
which are here represented), who formed the first man. He alone had a
human body like that of men, the other gods were of an incorporeal
nature."[VII-35]

"They declare that their supreme deity, or more properly speaking,
demon Tonacatecotle, whom we have just mentioned, who by another name
was called Citinatonali, ... begot Quetzalcoatl, not by connection
with a woman, but by his breath alone, as we have observed above, when
he sent his ambassador, as they say, to the virgin of Tulla. They
believed him to be the god of the air, and he was the first to whom
they built temples and churches, which they formed perfectly round,
without any angles. They say it was he who effected the reformation of
the world by penance, as we have already said; since, according to
their account, his father had created the world, and men had given
themselves up to vice, on which account it had been so frequently
destroyed. Citinatonali sent this his son into the world to reform it.
We certainly must deplore the blindness of these miserable people, on
whom Saint Paul says the wrath of God has to be revealed, inasmuch as
his eternal truth was so long kept back by the injustice of
attributing to this demon that which belonged to Him; for He being the
sole creator of the universe, and He who made the division of the
waters, which these poor people just now attributed to the Devil, when
it appeared good to Him, dispatched the heavenly ambassador to
announce to the virgin that she should be the mother of his eternal
word; who, when He found the world corrupt, reformed it by doing
penance and by dying upon the cross for our sins; and not the wretched
Quetzalcoatl, to whom these miserable people attributed this work.
They assigned to him the dominion over the other thirteen signs, which
are here represented, in the same manner as they had assigned the
preceding thirteen to his father. They celebrated a great festival on
the arrival of his sign, as we shall see in the sign of Four
Earthquakes, which is the fourth in order here, because they feared
that the world would be destroyed in that sign, as he had foretold to
them when he disappeared in the Red Sea; which event occurred on the
same sign. As they considered him their advocate, they celebrated a
solemn festival, and fasted during four signs."[VII-36]

[Sidenote: MÜLLER ON QUETZALCOATL.]

J. G. Müller holds Quetzalcoatl to be the representative national god
of the Toltecs, surviving under many misconceptions and amid many
incongruities--bequeathed to or adopted into the later Mexican
religion. The learned professor has devoted an unusual amount of care
and research to the interpretation of the Quetzalcoatl myths; and as
no other inquirer has shown therein at once so accurate and extensive
an acquaintance with the subject and so calm and judicious a judgment,
we give his opinion at length, and first his summing up of the
fable-history of Quetzalcoatl:--

The Toltecs, a traditional pre-historic people, after leaving their
original northern home Huehuetlapallan (that is Old-red-land) chose
Tulla, north of Anáhuac as the first capital of their newly founded
kingdom. Quetzalcoatl was their high-priest and religious chief at
this place. Huemac, or Huematzin, conducted the civil government as
the companion of Quetzalcoatl, and wrote the code of the nation.
Quetzalcoatl is said to have been a white man (some gave him a bright
red face), with a strong formation of body, broad forehead, large
eyes, black hair, and a heavy beard. He always wore a long white robe;
which, according to Gomara, was decorated with crosses; he had a mitre
on his head and a sickle in his hand. At the volcano of Cotcitepec, or
Tzatzitepec, near Tulla, he practised long and numerous penances,
giving thereby an example to his priests and successors. The name of
this volcano means "the mountain of outcry;" and when Quetzalcoatl
gave laws, he sent a crier to the top of it whose voice could be heard
three hundred miles off. He did what the founders of religions and
cults have done in other countries: he taught the people agriculture,
metallurgy, stone-cutting, and the art of government. He also arranged
the calendar, and taught his subjects fit religious ceremonies;
preaching specially against human sacrifices, and ordering offerings
of fruits and flowers only. He would have nothing to do with wars,
even covering his ears when the subject was mentioned. His was a
veritable golden age, as in the time of Saturn; animals and even men
lived in peace, the soil produced the richest harvests without
cultivation, and the grain grew so large that a man found it trouble
enough to carry one ear; no cotton was dyed, as it grew of all colors,
and fruits of all kinds abounded. Everybody was rich and Quetzalcoatl
owned whole palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones. The air was
filled with the most pleasant aromas, and a host of finely feathered
birds filled the world with melody.

But this earthly happiness came to an end. Tezcatlipoca rose up
against Quetzalcoatl and against Huemac, in order to separate them,
and to destroy their government. He descended from the sky on a rope
of spider-web and commenced to work for his object with the aid of
magic arts. He first appeared in the form of a handsome youth (and in
the dress of a merchant), dressed as a merchant selling pepper-pods,
and presented himself before the daughter of king Huemac. He soon
seduced the princess, and thereby opened the road to a general
immorality and a total collapse of the laws. He presented himself
before Quetzalcoatl in the form of an old man, with the view of
inducing him to depart to his home in Tlapalla. For this purpose he
offered him a drink which he pretended would endow him with
immortality. No sooner had Quetzalcoatl taken the drink, then he was
seized with a violent desire to see his fatherland. He destroyed the
palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones, transformed the
fruit-trees into withered trunks, and ordered all song-birds to leave
the country, and to accompany him. Thus he departed, and the birds
entertained him during his journey with their songs.

[Sidenote: TRAVELS OF QUETZALCOATL.]

He first traveled southward, and arrived in Quauhtitlan, in Anáhuac.
In the vicinity of this town he broke down a tree by throwing stones,
the stones remaining in the trunk. Farther south, in the same valley,
near Tlalnepantla, or Tanepantla, he pressed hand and foot into a rock
with such force that the impression has remained down to the latest
centuries, in the same manner as the mark of the shoes of the horses
of Castor and Pollux near Regillum. The Spaniards were inclined to
ascribe these and similar freaks of nature to the Apostle Thomas.

Quetzalcoatl now turned toward the east, and arrived in Cholula, where
he had to remain for a longer period, as the inhabitants intrusted him
with the government of their state. The same order of things which had
taken place in Tulla, his first residence, was here renewed. From this
centre his rule spread far and wide; he sent colonists from Cholula to
Huaxayacac, Tabasco and Campeche, and the nobility of Yucatan prided
themselves on their descent from him; men having been found in our
time who bear his name, just as the descendants of Votan bore the name
of Votan in Chiapas. In Cholula itself he was adored, and temples were
everywhere erected in his honor, even by the enemies of the Cholulans.
After a residence of twenty years in Cholula, he proceeded on his
journey toward Tlalpalla until he arrived at the river and in the
province of Coatzacoalco, or Goasacoalco, Guasacualco, that is,
Hiding-nook of the snake--south of Vera Cruz. He now sent the four
youths, who had accompanied him from Cholula, back to the Cholulans,
promising to return later on and renew the old government. The
Cholulans placed the four youths at the head of their government, out
of love for him. This hope of his return still existed among the
Mexican nations at the time of Cortés' arrival. In fact, Cortés was at
first held to be the returning Quetzalcoatl, and a man was sacrificed
to him, with whose blood the conqueror and his companions were marked.
Father Sahagun was also asked, by everybody on his journey to Mexico,
if he and his suite came from Tlapalla. According to Montezuma's
account to Cortés, Quetzalcoatl really did once return to Cholula, but
after such a length of time that he found his subjects married to the
native women, having children, and so numerous that a number of new
districts had to be founded. This new race would not recognize their
old chief, and refused to obey him. He thereupon departed angrily,
threatening to return at another time and to subdue them by force. It
is not remarkable that an expectation, which was a hope to the
Cholulans, should be a dread to Montezuma and his subjects.

According to some accounts, Quetzalcoatl died in the Hiding-nook of
the snakes, in the Goatzacoalco country; according to others, he
suddenly disappeared toward the east, and a ship, formed of snakes
wound together, brought him to Tlapalla.

A closer view and criticism of this tale, in the light of the analogy
of mythological laws, shows us that Quetzalcoatl is the euhemerized
religious ideal of the Toltecan nations. The similarity of this tale
with those of Manco Capac, Botschika, Saturn, and others, is at once
apparent. The opinion of Prescott, Wuttke, and many others, who held
him for a deified man, founder of a religion and of a civilization, is
confirmed by the latest version of the fable, in which Quetzalcoatl is
represented in this character. Although euhemerism is an old idea with
all people, as well as with the Americans--personification being the
first step toward it--the general reasons which everywhere appear
against the existence of such founders of a civilization must also be
made to speak against this idea of Quetzalcoatl.

If a special value is placed upon the white face and the beard, it
must be remembered that the beard, which is given to the Mexican
priests, could not be omitted with Quetzalcoatl; and the mention by
some of his having had a white face, and by others a red, might arouse
a suspicion that Quetzalcoatl has been represented as a white man on
account of his white robe.

The fable of Quetzalcoatl contains contradictions, the younger
elements of which are a pure idealism of the more ancient. For
instance, the statement that the earth produced everything
spontaneously, without human labor, does not agree with the old
version of the myth, according to which Quetzalcoatl taught
agriculture and other industries requiring application and hard work.
The sentimental love of peace has also been attributed to this god in
later times, during a time when the Toltecs had lost the martial
spirit of their victorious ancestors, and when the Cholulans, given to
effeminacy, distinguished themselves more by cunning than by courage.
The face of the god is represented, in the fable, as more beautiful
and attractive, than it is depicted on the images. At the place where
he was most worshiped, in Cholula, the statue of Quetzalcoatl stood in
his temple, on the summit of the great pyramid. Its features had a
gloomy cast, and differed from the beautiful face which is said to
have been his on earth.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE TOLTECS.]

The fable shows its later idealized elements in these points. In all
other respects, the Toltecan peculiarities of the entire nation are
either clearly and faithfully depicted in their hero, as in a
personified ideal, or else the original attributes of the nature deity
are recognizable. Where the Toltecs were, there was he also, or a hero
identical with him; the Toltecs who journeyed southward are colonists
sent by him; the Toltec capitals, Tulla and Cholula, are his
residences; and as the laws of the Toltecs extended far and wide, so
did the voice of his crier reach three hundred miles into the country.
The arts and welfare of the Toltecs, their riches and religious
feeling, even their later unwarlike peacefulness, all these attributes
are transferred to Quetzalcoatl. The long robe of the Toltecs was also
the dress of their hero; the necktie of the boys of his religious
order is attached to his image; and, as his priests wore the mitre, he
is also represented with it. He is, above all, depicted as the
original model of the Toltec priests, the Tlamacazque (the order was
called Tlamacazcojotl), whose chief, or superior, always bore the name
of Quetzalcoatl. As these orders of his had to submit to the strictest
observances--their members having to slit the tongue, ears and lips
in honor of Quetzalcoatl, and the small boys being set apart for him
by making an incision on their breasts--so he submitted, before all
others, to these penances on the Tzatzitipec Mountain. These
self-inflicted punishments must not be termed penances, as is often
done, for they have no moral meaning, such as to do penance for
committed sins, nor have they the mystic meaning of the East Indian
idea of the end of the world (Weltabsterben) and the return to the
pantheistic chaos (Urall and Urnichts); all this is foreign to the
American religion. They are, on the contrary, blood-offerings,
substitutes for the human sacrifices in the background, to obtain
earthly blessings, and to avert earthly misfortunes. As Quetzalcoatl
preached against human sacrifices, so his priests under the Aztec
rule, were very reluctant to make them. After the great slaughter by
Cortés, in Cholula, Montezuma proceeded to the great temple of
Huitzilopochtli, made many human sacrifices, and questioned the god,
who bade him to be of good heart, and assured him that the Cholulans
had suffered so terribly merely on account of their reluctance to
offer up human beings.

As the disappearance of the Toltecs toward the south and the south-east
agrees with the disappearance of Quetzalcoatl, so we find many traits
from the end of the last Toltec king reproduced in the end of the
Toltec hero. After the defeat of king Tlolpintzin, he (Tlolpintzin)
fled southward, toward Tlapalla. He made use of these words, in his
last farewell to his friends: I have retired toward the east, but will
return after 5012 years to avenge myself on the descendants of mine
enemies. After having lived thirty years in Tlapalla, he died. His
laws were afterward accepted by Nezalhualcoyotzin. The belief that
Tlolpintzin stayed with Nezalhualcoyotzin, and some other brave kings,
in the cave of Xicco, after death, like the three Tells of Switzerland,
but would at some time come out and deliver his people, was long
current among the Indians. Every one will notice how well this agrees
with Montezuma's account of the return of Quetzalcoatl.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL A NATURE-DEITY.]

Quetzalcoatl cannot, however, be a representative and a national god
of the Toltecs, without having an original nature-basis for his
existence as a god. It is everywhere the case among savages with their
national god, that the latter is a nature-deity, who becomes gradually
transformed into a national god, then into a national king,
high-priest, founder of a religion, and at last ends in being
considered a human being. The older and purer the civilization of a
people is, the easier it is to recognize the original essence of its
national god, in spite of all transformations and disguises. So it is
here. Behind the human form of the god glimmers the nature shape, and
the national god is known by, perhaps, all his worshipers as also a
nature deity. From his powerful influence upon nature, he might also
be held as the creator.

The pure human form of this god, as it appears in the fable, as well
as in the image, is not the original, but the youngest. His oldest
concrete forms are taken from nature, to which he originally belongs,
and have maintained themselves in many attributes. All these symbolize
him as the god of fertility, chiefly, as it is made apparent, by means
of the beneficial influence of the air. All Mexican and European
statements make him appear as the god of the air and of the wind;
even the euhemeristic idea deifies the man Quetzalcoatl into a god of
the air. All the Mexican tribes adored him at the time of the conquest
as god of the air, and all accounts, however much they may differ on
the particular points of his poetical life, agree, without exception,
in this one respect, as the essential and chief point. Besides the
symbols, which are merely attached to the image, there are three
attributes, which represent as many original visible forms and
exteriors of the god, in which he is represented and worshiped: the
sparrow, the flint (Feuerstein), and the snake.

According to Herrera, the image of Quetzalcoatl had the body of a man,
but the head of a bird, a sparrow with a red bill, a large comb, and
with the tongue hanging far out of the mouth. The air-god of these
northern people, parallel to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec Huitzilopochtli,
was represented with devices connected with the humming-bird, in
remembrance of his former humming-bird nature. This is the northern
element. The great spirit of the northern redskins also appear in his
most esteemed form as a bird. The Latin Picus was originally a
woodpecker (Specht), afterward anthropomorphized and even euhemerized,
but he has ever the woodpecker by his side, in his capacity of human
seer. Several Egyptian gods have human bodies and animal heads,
especially heads of birds. Birds are not alone symbols of particular
godlike attributes, as used in the anthropomorphic times, not mere
messengers and transmitters of the orders of the gods, but they have
originally been considered as gods themselves, with forms of godlike
powers, especially in North America; and the exterior of the god of
the air, the fructifying air, is naturally that of a bird, a
singing-bird. The hieroglyphic sign among the Mexicans for the air is,
therefore, the head of a bird with three tongues. Wherever
Quetzalcoatl stayed and ruled, there birds filled the air, and
song-birds gave indication of their presence; when he departed, he
took them with him, and was entertained during the journey by their
singing.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE FLINT.]

A second form of Quetzalcoatl was the flint, which we have already
learned to know as a symbol and hieroglyphic sign for the air. He was
either represented as a black stone, or several small green ones,
supposed to have fallen from heaven, most likely ærolites, which were
adored by the Cholulans in the service of Quetzalcoatl. Bétancourt
even explains the meaning of the name Quetzalcoatl, contrary to the
usual definition, as "twin of a precious stone." The fable of
Quauhtitlan is also connected with this stone-worship; how
Quetzalcoatl had overthrown a tree by means of stones which remained
fixed in it. These stones were later on adored as holy stones of
Quetzalcoatl. The stone at Tlalnepantla, into which he pressed his
hand, must also have represented the god himself. Similar ancient
stone-worships, of greater nature deities as well as fetiches, were
found, in many instances, in Peru, in the pre-Inca times. In ancient
Central America we meet with the worship of such green stones called
chalchihuites. Votan was worshiped in the form of such a green stone,
connected with the other two attributes. This attribute of
Quetzalcoatl most likely belongs to the south.

The third form of Quetzalcoatl, which also belongs to the south, is
the snake; he is a snake-god, or, at least, merged into an ancient
snake-god. The snake is not, as far as I know, a direct symbol of the
air, and this attribute is, therefore, not the one pertaining to him
from the beginning; but the snake represents the season which, in
conjunction with heat and rain, contains the fructifying influence of
the atmosphere, spring, the rejuvenating year. However, the very name
of the god signifies, according to the usual explanation given to it,
"the feathered snake, the snake covered with feathers, the green
feathered-snake, the wood-snake with rich feathers." A snake has
consequently been added to the human figure of this god. The other
name, under which he is adored in Yucatan, is Cuculcan, a snake
covered with godlike feathers. The entrance to his round temple in
Mexico represented the jaw and fangs of a tremendous snake.
Quetzalcoatl disappeared in Goatzacoalco, the Snake-corner (or nook),
and a ship of snakes brought him to Tlapalla. His followers in Yucatan
were called snakes, Cocome (plural of Coatl), while he himself bore
the name of Cocolcan in this country as well as in Chiapas. The snake
attribute signifies, in connection with Huitzilopochtli, also the
beneficial influence of the atmosphere, the yearly renewed course of
nature, the continual rejuvenation of nature in germs and blossoms.
The northern celestial god, Odin, is in many ways connected with
snakes, he transformed himself into a snake, and bore the by-name of
Snake.

The relationship of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, as given in the
fable, may be touched upon here. The driving away of the latter by
Tezcatlipoca does not, as may be supposed, signify a contest between
the Aztec religion and the preceding Toltecan. In such a case
Huitzilopochtli, the chief of the Aztec gods, by whose adoration the
contrast is painted in the deepest colors, would have been a much
better representant.

Quetzalcoatl no doubt preached against human sacrifices, brought into
such unprecedented swing by the Aztecs, yet the worshipers of this god
adopted the sacrifice of human beings in an extensive way during the
Aztec rule, to which period this part of the Quetzalcoatl fable
necessarily owes its origin. At this time the contrast was so slight
that Quetzalcoatl partook of the highest adoration of Aztecs, not only
in Cholula, but in Mexico and everywhere. His priest enjoyed the
highest esteem and his temple in Mexico stood by the side of that of
Huitzilopochtli. Montezuma not only calls the Toltec hero a leader of
his forefathers, but the Aztecs actually consider him as a son of
Huitzilopochtli. The opposition of the two gods, Quetzalcoatl and
Tezcatlipoca, has another reason: the difference lies not in their
worship, but in their nature and being, in the natural phenomena which
they represent. If the god of the beneficial atmosphere, the
manifested god-power of the atmosphere of the fructifying seasons, is
adored in Quetzalcoatl; then Tezcatlipoca is his opposite, the god of
the gloomy lower regions destitute of life and germ, the god of
drought, of withering, of death.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE SNAKE.]

Wherever, therefore, Quetzalcoatl rules, there are riches and
abundance, the air is filled with fragrance and song-birds--an actual
golden era; but when he goes southward with his song-birds, he is
expelled by Tezcatlipoca, drought sets in, and the palaces of gold,
silver, and precious stones, symbols of wealth, are destroyed. He
promises, however, everywhere to return. A representation mentioned
and copied by Humboldt, shows Tezcatlipoca in the act of cutting up
the snake. This has not the meaning of the acts of Hercules, of
Tonatiuh, of the great spirit of the Chippewas, of the German
Siegfried, of the Celtic dragon-killers Tristan and Iwein, or of the
other sun-gods, spring-gods, and culture-heroes, who fight and subdue
the snake of the unfertile moisture; such an interpretation would be
opposed to the nature of this god. On the contrary, the god of death
and drought here fights the snake as the symbol of moisture, of the
fertilization of the plant-life.

The question now arises: if Quetzalcoatl only received his snake
attribute in the south, and this his name, what was his original
northern and Toltecan name? We answer, coinciding with the views
expressed by Ixtlilxochitl and others, who affirm that Quetzalcoatl
and his worldly companion, Huemac, were one and the same person. The
opposed opinion of Ternaux-Compans, who states that Quetzalcoatl must
have been an Olmec, while Huemac was a Toltec, actually gives the key
to the solution of the question. Both are right, Ixtlilxochitl and
Ternaux, Huemac is the original Toltec name of the Toltec national
god, ruler, and author of the holy books, the ancient name used by the
Toltecs. As this people succumbed more and more to southern
influences, and their ancient air-god in his sparrow form received in
addition the snake attribute, on account of his rejuvenating influence
upon nature, then, the new name of the more cultivated people soon
appeared. The name may, therefore, be Olmec, but not the god; we may
sooner suppose that the attributes of the Maya god, Votan, have been
transferred to the Toltec god. Both names having thus a double origin;
the legend which found two names, made also two persons of them, and
placed them side by side. It is, however, easy to see that they are
naturally one: Huemac has just as much a religious signification as
Quetzalcoatl; as Huematzin, he wrote the divine book, containing all
the earthly and heavenly wisdom of the Toltecs. Quetzalcoatl has, in
the same degree, besides his religious position, the worldly one of
ruler and founder of a civilization. As Quetzalcoatl possesses a
divine nature, so does Huemac, to whom also are ascribed the three
hundred years of life, and the impression of the hand in the rock.

Besides the attributes of the sparrow, flint, and snake, there are
others which ascribe to Quetzalcoatl the same properties, but less
prominently. As god of the air, he holds the wonderfully painted
shield in his hand, a symbol of his power over the winds. As god of
the fertilizing influence of the air, he holds, like Saturn, the
sickle, symbol of the harvest--he it is that causes the grain to
ripen. It used to be said that he prepared the way for the water-god,
for in these regions, the rains are always preceded by winds. It was
on account of this intimate connection with the rain, which had
already procured him the snake attribute, that his mantle was adorned
with crosses. We have already seen that such crosses represented the
rain-god with the Mayas, and are symbols of the fructifying rain.
Consequently they are well suited for the god who is only air-god in
the sense of the air exercising its fructifying and invigorating
influence upon the earth.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE TRADE-WINDS.]

Another question, which has already occurred to us, must here be
considered. Why did this god come from the east, depart toward the
east, and why should he be expected from the east? The Toltecs have,
according to almost unanimous statements, come from the north, and
even Quetzalcoatl commences his rule in the north, in Tulla, and
proceeds gradually on his journey from the north to the south-east,
just like the Toltecs, who traveled southward from Tulla. It is plain
that he departs for the east, because this is his home, from which he
came and will return. His eastern origin is, no doubt, based upon the
direction of the eastern trade-winds, which carry rain and, with it,
fertility to the interior of Central America. The rains began three or
four weeks earlier in Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Tabasco than in Puebla
and Mexico. Another reason, which has, however, a certain connection
with the above, may be the relationship of the god of air and the
sun-god, who often assumed an equal position in nature and in worship.
We know that the founders of the Peruvian and Muyscan cults come from
the east, because they are sun-gods. Quetzalcoatl is not such a deity,
it is true, but the fertilizing air-god is also in other places
closely connected with the fructifying sun, as, for example
Huitzilopochtli, Odin, and Brama. The sun is his eye. This connection
with the sun, Montezuma referred to when he spoke in the presence of
Cortés of the departure of Quetzalcoatl for the regions from which the
sun comes. As the sun is the eye of heaven, to whom the heart of the
victim sacrificed to the god of heaven is presented, so it is at night
with the moon, to whom the same tribute was paid at the feast of
Quetzalcoatl. I merely refer to this here to show the connection of
the air-god with the great heavenly bodies.

Several other significations are attached to the idea of an air-god.
It is natural that the god of heavenly blessing should also be the god
of wealth. All wealth depends originally upon the produce of the soil,
upon the blessing of heaven, however worldly the opinion of the matter
may be. Gold is merely the symbol of this wealth, like the golden
shower of Zeus. The image of Quetzalcoatl was, therefore, according to
Acosta, adorned with gold, silver, jewels, rich feathers, and gay
dresses, to illustrate his wealth. For this reason he wore a golden
helmet, and his sceptre was decorated with costly stones. The same
view is also the basis of the myths of the ancients about snakes and
dragons guarding treasures. The fact that the merchants of Cholula
worshiped the god of wealth before all others, and as their chief
deity, requires no explanation.

His worship in Cholula was conducted as follows: Forty days before the
festival, the merchants bought a spotless slave, who was first taken
to bathe in a lake called the Lake of the Gods, then dressed up as the
god Quetzalcoatl, whom he had to represent for forty days. During this
time he enjoyed the same adoration as was given to the god: he was set
upon a raised place, presented with flowers, and fed on the choicest
viands. He was, however, well guarded during the night, so that he
might not escape. During his exhibition through the town, he danced
and sang, and the women and children ran out of their houses to salute
him and make him presents. This continued until nine days before the
end of the forty days. Then two old priests approached him in all
humility, saying, in deep voice: Lord, know that in nine days thy
singing and dancing will cease, because thou must die! If he continued
of good spirit, and inclined to dance and sing, it was considered a
good omen, if the contrary, a bad one. In the latter case they
prepared him a drink of blood and cacao, which was to obliterate the
remembrance of the past conversation. After drinking this, it was
hoped that he would resume his former good humor. On the day of the
festival still greater honors were shown him, music sounded and
incense was burnt. At last, at the midnight hour, he was sacrificed,
the heart was torn out of his body, held up to the moon, and then
thrown toward the image of the god. The body was cast down the steps
of the temple, and served the merchants, especially the slave-dealers,
for a sacrificial meal. This feast and sacrifice took place every
year, but after a certain number of cycles, as in the divine year,
Teoxihuitl, they were celebrated with much more pomp. Quetzalcoatl
had, generally, his human sacrifices during the Aztec rule, as well
as the other gods.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AS A HEALING GOD.]

The power which reëstablishes the macrocosm, heals and rejuvenates the
microcosm also: it is the general healing power. With the good weather
thousands of invalids are restored, and refreshing rains not only
revive the thirsty plains of the tropics, but man himself. Thus the
air-god, the atmosphere, becomes a healing god. A Phœnician told
Pausanius that the snake god, Æsculapius, signified the
health-restoring air. If this god of heaven is also a snake-god, like
Quetzalcoatl, the rejuvenating and reinvigorating power of nature is
expressed in a clear parallelism.

The snake-god is also a healing god, and even the Greek Æsculapius
cannot dispense with the snake. It is, thus, not to be wondered at
that the sterile women of the Mexican peoples directed their prayers
to Quetzalcoatl.[VII-37]

This concludes the able summing-up presented by Müller, and it is
given as I give all theoretical matter, neither accepting nor
rejecting it, as simply another ray of light bent in upon the god
Quetzalcoatl, whose nature it is not proposed here to either explain
or illustrate, but only to reproduce, as regarded from many sides by
the earliest and closest observers.

FOOTNOTES:

[VII-1] _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, pp. 353-4; _Clavigero_, _Storia
Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 7; _Duran_, _Hist. Ant. de la Nueva
España_, MS., quoted in _Squier's Notes to Palacio_, _Carta_, note 27,
pp. 117-8; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 242;
_Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, lam. ii. and xxvi., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 132, 144-5; _Spiegazione
delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xlii., xlix., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 185, 188.

[VII-2] See this volume p. 62.

[VII-3] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 82.

[VII-4] Temple; see this vol., p. 192, note 26.

[VII-5] Or perhaps _xipacoya_, as in Kingsborough's ed. of _Sahagun_,
_Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 108.

[VII-6] 'Y acordarseos há de los trabajos y fatigas de la muerte, ó de
vuestra ida.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 109. 'Y
acordarseos ha los trabajos y fatigas de la muerte, ó de vuestra
vida.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 245-6.

[VII-7] Hoe of burnt wood. '_Coa_: palo tostado, empleado por los indios
para labrar la tierra, á manera de hazada. (Lengua de Cuba.)' _Voces
Americanas Empleadas Por Oviedo_, appended to _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. iv., p. 596.

[VII-8] _Xochitla_, garden; see _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. Perhaps that
garden belonging to Quetzalcoatl, which had been already so fatal to
the Toltecs. See this volume p. 246.

[VII-9] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 108-13; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 243-55. It will be seen that in
almost all point of spelling the edition of Kingsborough is followed
in preference to the, in such points very inaccurate, edition of
Bustamante.

[VII-10] _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, p. 354.

[VII-11] As to the first wife and her family see this vol. p. 60.

[VII-12] _Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col._, tom. i.,
pp. 10-11.

[VII-13] See this vol., p. 240.

[VII-14] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, pp. 82, 86, 92-3, 97-8.

[VII-15] See this vol. p. 243.

[VII-16] _Tlachtli_, juego de pelota con las nalgas; el lugar donde
juegan assi. _Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

[VII-17] This last clause is to be found only in Bustamante's ed.; see
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 258.

[VII-18] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 114-5; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 255-9.

[VII-19] 'Era Hombre blanco, crecido de cuerpo, ancha la frente, los
ojos grandes, los cabellos largos, y negros, la barba grande y redonda.'
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 47.

[VII-20] Spelled Vemac by Sahagun; see preceding pages of this chapter.

[VII-21] This agrees ill with what is related at this point by Sahagun;
see this vol. p. 242.

[VII-22] At this part of the story Torquemada takes opportunity,
parenthetically, to remark that this fable was very generally current
among the Mexicans, and that when Father Bernardino de Sahagun was in
the city of Xuchimilco, they asked him where Tlapalla was. Sahagun
replied that he did not know, as indeed he did not (nor any one
else--it being apparently wholly mythical), nor even understand their
question, inasmuch as he had been at that time only a little while in
the country--it being fifty years before he wrote his book [the
_Historia General_]. Sahagun adds that the Mexicans made at that time
divers trials of this kind, questioning the Christians to see if they
knew anything of their antiquities. _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom.
ii., p. 50.

[VII-23] The passage of Torquemada referred to I condense as
follows:--Certain people came from the north by way of Panuco. These
were men of good carriage, well-dressed in long robes of black linen,
open in front, and without capes, cut low at the neck, with short
sleeves that did not come to the elbow; the same, in fact, as the
natives use to this day in their dances. From Panuco they passed on
very peaceably by degrees to Tulla, where they were well received by
the inhabitants. The country there, however, was already too thickly
populated to sustain the new-comers, so these passed on to Cholula
where they had an excellent reception. They brought with them as their
chief and head, a personage called Quetzalcoatl, a fair and ruddy
complexioned man, with a long beard. In Cholula these people remained
and multiplied, and sent colonies to people Upper and Lower Mizteca
and the Zapotecan country; and these it is said raised the grand
edifices, whose remains are still to be seen at Mictlan. These
followers of Quetzalcoatl were men of great knowledge and cunning
artists in all kinds of fine work; not so good at masonry and the use
of the hammer, as in casting and in the engraving and setting of
precious stones, and in all kinds of artistic sculpture, and in
agriculture. Quetzalcoatl had, however, two enemies; Tezcatlipoca was
one, and Huemac, king of Tulla the other; these two had been most
instrumental in causing him to leave Tulla. And at Cholula, Huemac
followed him up with a great army; and Quetzalcoatl, not wishing to
engage in any war, departed for another part with most part of his
people--going, it is said, to a land called Onohualco, which is near
the sea, and embraced what are now called Yucatan, Tabasco, and
Campeche. Then when Huemac came to the place where he had thought to
find Quetzalcoatl, and found him not, he was wrath and laid waste and
destroyed all the country, and made himself lord over it and caused
also that the people worshipped him as a god. All this he did to
obscure and blot out the memory of Quetzalcoatl and for the hate that
he bore him. _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 254-6.

[VII-24] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 48-52.

[VII-25] _Clavigero_, _Hist. Ant. del Messico_, pp. 11-13.

[VII-26] See p. 60 of this volume.

[VII-27] See p. 112 of this volume.

[VII-28] This, in its astounding immensity, is the abbé's theory: his
suppositional Crescent Land was the cradle of all human races and
human creeds. On its submergence the aforesaid races and creeds spread
and developed through all the world to their respective present
localities and phases. The Mexican branch of this development he
considers the likest to and the most closely connected with the
original.

[VII-29] In Yucatan.

[VII-30] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 154-7. Much of
this last paragraph seems utterly incomprehensible and absurd, even
viewed from the stand-point of the Abbé Brasseur himself. By no means
certain, at all points, of having caught the exact meaning by its
author, I give the original:--'Deux ordres de dieux, dont les uns,
tombés du ciel dans l'abîme où ils deviennent les juges des morts, se
personnifient en un seul qui ressuscite, symbole de la vie et de la
mort; dont les autres survivent à la destruction, symbole de la vie
impérissable; tel est le double caractère du mythe de Quetzal-Coatl, à
son origine. Mais en réalité, ce dieu, c'est la terre, c'est la région
ensevelie sous les eaux, c'est le vaincu étouffé sous le poids de son
adversaire, sous l'effort de la vague victorieuse et celle-ci
s'unissant au feu sur le bûcher de Nanahuatl, c'est Tezcatlipoca,
c'est Hercule, vainqueur de ses ennemis, c'est le dieu dont la lutte
est éternelle, comme celle de l'Océan battant le rivage, c'est celui
en qui se personnifie ensuite la lumière et qui devient ainsi le
drapeau des adversaires de Quetzal-Coatl. Au dieu mort, il fallait une
victime, comme lui, descendue dans l'abîme: ce fut une jeune fille,
choisie parmi celles qui lui étaient consacrées au pied de la
pyramide, et qu'on noyait en la plongeant sous l'eau, coutume qu'on
retrouva longtemps en Egypte, comme à Chichen-Itza, ainsi que dans
bien d'autres pays du monde. Mais au dieu ressuscité, au dieu en qui
se personnifiait le feu, la vie immortelle, à _Quetzal-Coatl_, devenu
_Huitzil-Opochtli_, on sacrifia des victimes sans nombre, à qui l'on
arrachait le cœur, symbole du jet de flamme sortant du volcan, pour
l'offrir au soleil vainqueur, symbole de Tezcatlipoca qui, le premier,
avait demandé des holocaustes de sang humain.' _Id._, pp. 342-3.

[VII-31] _Tylor's Researches_, pp. 155-6.

[VII-32] _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 180-3.

[VII-33] _Helps' Span. Conq._, vol. i., pp. 286-7.

[VII-34] _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 32-3, 39.

[VII-35] _Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, parte ii., lam.
ii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 135-6.

[VII-36] _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xli.,
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 184-5.

[VII-37] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 577-590. Some
further notes regarding this god from a different point, may be found
in _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Palenqué_, pp. 40 etc., 66 etc.

CHAPTER VIII.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

VARIOUS ACCOUNTS OF THE BIRTH, ORIGIN, AND DERIVATION OF THE
NAME OF THE MEXICAN WAR GOD, HUITZILOPOCHTLI, OF HIS TEMPLE,
IMAGE, CEREMONIAL, FESTIVALS, AND HIS DEPUTY, OR PAGE, PAYNAL
-- CLAVIGERO -- BOTURINI -- ACOSTA -- SOLIS -- SAHAGUN --
HERRERA -- TORQUEMADA -- J. G. MÜLLER'S SUMMARY OF THE
HUITZILOPOCHTLI MYTHS, THEIR ORIGIN, RELATION, AND
SIGNIFICATION -- TYLOR -- CODEX VATICANUS -- TLALOC, GOD OF
WATER, ESPECIALLY OF RAIN, AND OF MOUNTAINS -- CLAVIGERO, GAMA,
AND IXTLILXOCHITL -- PRAYER IN THE TIME OF DROUGHT -- CAMARGO,
MOTOLINIA, MENDIETA, AND THE VATICAN CODEX ON THE SACRIFICES TO
TLALOC -- THE DECORATIONS OF HIS VICTIMS AND THE PLACES OF
THEIR EXECUTION -- GATHERING RUSHES FOR THE SERVICE OF THE
WATER GOD -- HIGHWAY ROBBERIES BY THE PRIESTS AT THIS TIME --
DECORATIONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE PRIESTS -- PUNISHMENTS FOR
CEREMONIAL OFFENCES -- THE WHIRLPOOL OF PANTITLAN -- IMAGES OF
THE MOUNTAINS IN HONOR OF THE TLALOC FESTIVAL -- OF THE COMING
RAIN AND MUTILATION OF THE IMAGES OF THE MOUNTAINS -- GENERAL
PROMINENCE IN THE CULT OF TLALOC, OF THE NUMBER FOUR, THE
CROSS, AND THE SNAKE.

[Sidenote: BIRTH OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

Huitzilopochtli, Huitziloputzli, or Vitziliputzli, was the god of war
and the especially national god of the Mexicans. Some said that he was
a purely spiritual being, others that a woman had borne him after
miraculous conception. This legend, following Clavigero, ran as
follows:

In the ancient city of Tulla, lived a most devout woman, Coatlicue by
name. Walking one day in the temple as her custom was, she saw a
little ball of feathers floating down from heaven, which, taking
without thought, she put into her bosom. The walk being ended,
however, she could not find the ball, and wondered much, all the more
that soon after this she found herself pregnant. She had already many
children, who now, to avert this dishonor of their house, conspired to
kill her; at which she was sorely troubled. But, from the midst of her
womb the god spoke: Fear not, O my mother, for this danger will I turn
to our great honor and glory. And lo, Huitzilopochtli, perfect as
Pallas Athena, was instantly born, springing up with a mighty
war-shout, grasping the shield and the glittering spear. His left leg
and his head were adorned with plumes of green; his face, arms, and
thighs barred terribly with lines of blue. He fell upon the unnatural
children, slew them all, and endowed his mother with their spoils. And
from that day forth his names were Tezahuitl, Terror, and
Tetzauhteotl, Terrible god.

This was the god who became protector of the Mexicans, who conducted
them so many years in their pilgrimage, and settled them at last on
the site of Mexico. And in this city they raised him that proud temple
so much celebrated even by the Spaniards, in which were annually held
their solemn festivals, in the fifth, ninth, and fifteenth months;
besides those kept every four years, every thirteen years, and at the
beginning of every century. His statue was of gigantic size, in the
posture of a man seated on a blue-colored bench, from the four corners
of which issued four huge snakes. His forehead was blue, but his face
was covered with a golden mask, while another of the same kind covered
the back of his head. Upon his head he carried a beautiful crest,
shaped like the beak of a bird; upon his neck a collar consisting of
ten figures of the human heart; in his right hand, a large, blue,
twisted club; in his left, a shield, on which appeared five balls of
feathers disposed in the form of a cross, and from the upper part of
the shield rose a golden flag with four arrows, which the Mexicans
pretended to have been sent to them from heaven to perform those
glorious actions which we have seen in their history. His body was
girt with a large golden snake, and adorned with various lesser
figures of animals made of gold and precious stones, which ornaments
and insignia had each their peculiar meaning. They never deliberated
upon making war without imploring the protection of this god, with
prayers and sacrifices; and offered up a greater number of human
sacrifices to him than to any other of the gods.[VIII-1]

A different account of the origin of this deity is given by Boturini,
showing the god to have been a brave Mexican chief, who was afterward
apotheosized:--

While the Mexicans were pushing their conquests and their advance
toward the country now occupied by them, they had a very renowned
captain, or leader, called Huitziton. He it was that in these long and
perilous journeys through unknown lands, sparing himself no fatigue,
took care of the Mexicans. The fable says of him that being full of
years and wisdom he was one night caught up in sight of his army, and
of all his people, and presented to the god Tezauhteotl, that is to
say the Frightful God, who, being in the shape of a horrible dragon,
commanded him to be seated at his right hand, saying: Welcome, O
valiant captain; very grateful am I for thy fidelity in my service and
in governing my people. It is time that thou shouldest rest, since
thou art already old, and since thy great deeds raise thee up to the
fellowship of the immortal gods. Return then to thy sons and tell them
not to be afflicted if in future they cannot see thee as a mortal man;
for from the nine heavens thou shalt look down propitious upon them.
And not only that, but also, when I strip the vestments of humanity
from thee, I will leave to thine afflicted and orphan people thy bones
and thy skull so that they may be comforted in their sorrow, and may
consult thy relics as to the road they have to follow: and in due time
the land shall be shown them that I have destined for them, a land in
which they shall hold wide empire, being respected of the other
nations.

Huitziton did according to these instructions, and after a sorrowful
interview with his people, disappeared, carried away by the gods. The
weeping Mexicans remained with the skull and bones of their beloved
captain, which they carried with them till they arrived in New Spain,
and at the place where they built the great city of Tenochtitlan, or
Mexico. All this time the devil spoke to them through this skull of
Huitziton, often asking for the immolation of men and women, from
which thing originated those bloody sacrifices, practiced afterwards
by this nation with so much cruelty on prisoners of war. This deity
was called, in early as well as in later times, Huitzilopochtli--for
the principal men believed that he was seated at the left hand of
Tezcatlipoca--a man derived from the original name Huitziton, and
from the word _mapoche_, 'left hand.'[VIII-2]

[Sidenote: IMAGE OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

Acosta gives a minute description of the image and temple of this
god:--

"The chiefest idoll of Mexico was, as I have sayde, Vitziliputzli. It
was an image of wood like to a man, set vpon a stoole of the colour of
azure, in a brankard or litter, at every corner was a piece of wood in
forme of a Serpent's head. The stoole signified that he was set in
heaven: this idoll hadde all the forehead azure, and had a band of
azure vnder the nose from one eare to another: vpon his head he had a
rich plume of feathers, like to the beake of a small bird, the which
was covered on the toppe with golde burnished very browne: hee had in
his left hand a white target, with the figures of five pine apples,
made of white feathers, set in a crosse: and from above issued forth a
crest of gold, and at his sides hee hadde foure dartes, which (the
Mexicaines say) had beene sent from heaven to do those actes and
prowesses which shall be spoken of: In his right hand he had an azured
staffe, cutte in fashion of a waving snake. All those ornaments with
the rest hee had, carried his sence as the Mexicaines doe shew; the
name of Vitziliputzli signifies the left hand of a shining feather. I
will speake heereafter of the prowde Temple, the sacrifices, feasts
and ceremonies of this great idoll, being very notable things. But at
this present we will only shew, that this idoll thus richly appareled
and deckt, was set vpon an high Altare, in a small peece or boxe, well
covered with linnen clothes, jewells, feathers and ornaments of golde,
with many rundles of feathers, the fairest and most exquisite that
could be found: hee had alwaies a curtine before him for the greater
veneration. Ioyning to the chamber or chappell of this idoll, there
was a peece of lesse worke, and not so well beautified, where there
was another idoll they called Tlaloc. These two idolls were alwayes
together, for that they held them as companions, and of equal power.

[Sidenote: TEMPLE OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

There was in Mexico, this Cu, the famous Temple of Vitziliputzli, it
had a very great circuite, and within a faire Court. It was built of
great stones, in fashion of snakes tied one to another, and the
circuite was called Coatepantli, which is, a circuite of snakes: vppon
the toppe of every chamber and oratorie where the Idolls were, was a
fine piller wrought with small stones, blacke as ieate, set in goodly
order, the ground raised vp with white and red, which below gave a
great light. Vpon the top of the pillar were battlements very
artificially made, wrought like snailes [caracoles], supported by two
Indians of stone, sitting, holding candlesticks in their hands, the
which were like Croisants garnished and enriched at the ends, with
yellow and greene feathers and long fringes of the same. Within the
circuite of this court, there were many chambers of religious men, and
others that were appointed for the service of the Priests and Popes,
for so they call the soveraigne Priests which serve the Idoll.

There were foure gates or entries, at the east, west, north, and
south; at every one of these gates beganne a faire cawsey of two or
three leagues long. There was in the midst of the lake where the
cittie of Mexico is built, foure large cawseies in crosse, which did
much beautify it; vpon every portall or entry, was a God or Idoll,
having the visage turned to the causey, right against the Temple gate
of Vitziliputzli. There were thirtie steppes of thirtie fadome long,
and they divided from the circuit of the court by a streete that went
betwixt them; vpon the toppe of these steppes there was a walke
thirtie foote broad, all plaistered with chalke, in the midst of which
walke was a Pallisado artificially made of very high trees, planted in
order a fadome one from another. These trees were very bigge, and all
pierced with small holes from the foote to the top, and there were
roddes did runne from one tree to another, to the which were chained
or tied many dead mens heades. Vpon every rod were twentie sculles,
and these ranckes of sculles continue from the foote to the toppe of
the tree. This Pallissado was full of dead mens sculls from one end to
the other, the which was a wonderfull mournefull sight and full of
horror. These were the heads of such as had beene sacrificed; for
after they were dead, and had eaten the flesh, the head was delivered
to the Ministers of the Temple, which tied them in this sort vntil
they fell off by morcells; and then had they a care to set others in
their places. Vpon the toppe of the temple were two stones or
chappells, and in them were the two Idolls which I have spoken of,
Vitziliputzli, and his companion Tlaloc. These Chappells were carved
and graven very artificially, and so high, that to ascend vp to it,
there was a staire of stone of sixscore steppes. Before these Chambers
or Chappells, there was a Court of fortie foote square, in the midst
thereof, was a high stone of five hand breadth, poynted in fashion of
a Pyramide, it was placed there for the sacrificing of men; for being
laid on their backes, it made their bodies to bend, and so they did
open them and pull out their hearts, as I shall shew heereafter."[VIII-3]

Solis describes this temple also:--

The top of the truncated pyramid on which the idols of Huitzilopochtli
and Tlaloc were placed was forty feet square, and reached by a stair
of a hundred and twenty steps. On this platform, on either hand, at
the head of the stairs, stood two sentinel-statues supporting great
candlesticks of an extraordinary fashion. And first, from the jasper
flags, rose a hump-backed altar of green stone. Opposite and beyond
was the chapel wherein behind curtains sat Huitzilopochtli, on a
throne supported by a blue globe. From this, supposed to represent the
heavens, projected four staves with serpents' heads, by which the
priests carried the god when he was brought before the public. The
image bore on its head a bird of wrought plumes whose beak and crest
were of burnished gold. The feathers expressed horrid cruelty and were
made still more ghastly by two stripes of blue one on the brow and the
other on the nose. Its right hand leaned as on a staff upon a crooked
serpent. Upon the left arm was a buckler bearing five white plumes,
arranged in form of a cross; and the hand grasped four arrows
venerated as heaven-descended. To the left of this was another chapel,
that of Tlaloc. Now these two chapels and idols were the same in every
particular. These gods were esteemed brothers--their attributes,
qualities, powers, inclinations, service, prayers, and so on, were
identical or interchangeable.[VIII-4]

[Sidenote: HUITZILOPOCHTLI AND CAMAXTLI.]

Sahagun says of Huitzilopochtli, that, being originally a man, he was
a sort of Hercules, of great strength and warlike, a great destroyer
of towns and slayer of men. In war he had been a living fire, very
terrible to his adversaries; and the devise he bore was a dragon's
head, frightful in the extreme, and casting fire out of its mouth. A
great wizard he had been, and sorcerer, transforming himself into the
shape of divers birds and beasts. While he lived, the Mexicans
esteemed this man very highly for his strength and dexterity in war,
and when he died they honored him as a god, offering slaves, and
sacrificing them in his presence. And they looked to it that those
slaves were well fed and well decorated with such ornaments as were in
use, with ear-rings and visors; all for the greater honor of the god.
In Tlaxcala also they had a deity, called Camaxtli, who was similar to
this Huitzilopochtli.[VIII-5]

Gage, in a pretty fair translation of Herrera, describes this god with
Tezcatlipoca. He says:--

"The gods of Mexico (as the Indians reported to the first Spaniards)
were two thousand in number; the chiefest were Vitzilopuchtli, and
Tezcatlipoca, whose images stood highest in the temple upon the
altars. They were made of stone in full proportion as big as a giant.
They were covered with a lawn called Nacar; they were beset with
pearls, precious stones, and pieces of gold, wrought like birds,
beasts, fishes, and flowers, adorned with emeralds, turquies,
chalcedons, and other little fine stones, so that when the lawn was
taken away, the images seemed very beautiful and glorious to behold.
These two Indian idols had for a girdle great snakes of gold, and for
collars or chains about their necks ten hearts of men made of gold;
and each of them had a counterfeit visor with eyes of glass, and in
their necks Death painted. These two gods were brethren, for
Tezcatlipoca was the god of providence, and Vitzilopuchtli, god of the
wars, who was worshiped and feared more than all the rest."[VIII-6]

Torquemada goes to some length into the legend and description of
this god of war, Huitzilopochtli, or Mexitl:[VIII-7]--

Huitzilopochtli, the ancient god and guide of the Mexicans, is a name
variously derived. Some say it is composed of two words: _huitzilin_,
'a humming-bird', and _tlahuipuchtli_, 'a sorcerer that spits fire.'
Others say that the second part of the name comes not from
tlahuipuchtli, but from _opuchtli_, that is, 'the left hand;' so that
the whole name, Huitzilopochtli, would mean 'the shining-feathered
left hand.' For this idol was decorated with rich and resplendent
feathers on the left arm. And this god it was that led out the
Mexicans from their own land and brought them into Anáhuac.

Some held him to be a purely spiritual being, others affirmed that he
had been born of a woman, and related his history after the following
fashion: Near the city of Tulla there is a mountain called Coatepec,
that is to say the Mountain of the Snake, where a woman lived, named
Coatlicue, or Snake-petticoat. She was the mother of many sons called
Centzunhuitznahua, and of a daughter whose name was Coyolxauhqui.
Coatlicue was very devout and careful in the service of the gods, and
she occupied herself ordinarily in sweeping and cleaning the sacred
places of that mountain. It happened that one day, occupied with these
duties, she saw a little ball of feathers floating down to her through
the air, which she taking, as we have already related, found herself
in a short time pregnant.[VIII-8]

[Sidenote: DOUGH STATUE OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

Upon this all her children conspired against her to slay her, and
came armed against her, the daughter Coyolxauhqui being the ringleader
and most violent of all. Then, immediately, Huitzilopochtli was born,
fully armed, having a shield called _teuehueli_ in his left hand, in
his right a dart, or long blue pole, and all his face barred over with
lines of the same color. His forehead was decorated with a great tuft
of green feathers, his left leg was lean and feathered, and both
thighs and the arms barred with blue. He then caused to appear a
serpent made of torches, _teas_, called _xiuhcoatl_; and he ordered a
soldier named Tochaucalqui to light this serpent, and taking it with
him, to embrace Coyolxauhqui. From this embrace the matricidal
daughter immediately died, and Huitzilopochtli himself slew all her
brethren and took their spoil, enriching his mother therewith. After
this he was surnamed Tetzahuitl, that is to say, Fright, or Amazement,
and held as a god, born of a mother, without a father--as the great
god of battles, for in these his worshipers found him very favorable
to them. Besides the ordinary image of this god, permanently set up in
the great temple of Mexico, there was another, renewed every year,
made of grains and seeds of various kinds. In one of the halls in the
neighborhood of the temple the priests collected and ground up with
great devotion a mass of seeds, of the amaranth and other plants,
moistening the same with the blood of children, and making a dough
thereof, which they shaped into a statue of the form and stature of a
man. The priests carried this image to the temple and the altar,
previously arranged for its reception, playing trumpets and other
instruments, and making much noise and ado with dancing and singing at
the head of the procession. All this during the night; in the morning
the high-priest and the other priests blessed and consecrated the
image, with such blessing and consecration as were in use among them.
This done, and the people assembled, every person that could come at
the image touched it wherever he could, as Christians touch a relic,
and made offerings thereto, of jewels of gold and precious stones,
each according to his means and devotion, sticking the said offerings
into the soft fresh dough of which the idol was confected. After this
ceremony no one was allowed to touch the image any more, nor to enter
the place where it was, save only the high-priest. After that they
brought out the image of the god Paynalton,[VIII-9]--who is also a war
god, being vicar or sub-captain of the said Huitzilopochtli--an image
made of wood. It was carried in the arms of a priest who represented
the god Quetzalcoatl, and who was decorated with ornaments rich and
curious. Before this priest there marched another carrying [the image
of] a great snake, large and thick, twisted and of many coils. The
procession filed along at great length, and here and there at various
temples and altars the priests offered up sacrifices, immolating human
captives and quails. The first station, or stopping-place, was at the
ward of Teotlachco. Thence the cortège passed to Tlatelulco (where I,
Torquemada, am now writing this history); then to Popotlan; then to
Chapultepec--nearly a league from, the city of Mexico; then to
Tepetoca; then to Acachinanco; then back again to the temple whence it
had set out; and then the image of Paynalton was put on the altar
where stood that of Huitzilopochtli, being left there with the banner,
called _ezpaniztli_, that had been carried before it during the march:
only the great snake, mentioned above, was carried away and put in
another place, to which it belonged. And at all these places where
the procession appeared, it was received with incensings, sacrifices,
and other ceremonies.

This procession finished, it having occupied the greater part of the
day, all was prepared for a sacrifice. The king himself acted the part
of priest; taking a censer, he put incense therein with certain
ceremonies and incensed the image of the god. This done, they took
down again the idol, Paynalton, and set out in march, those going in
front that had to be sacrificed, together with all things pertaining
to the fatal rite. Two or three times they made the circle of the
temple, moving in horrid cortège, and then ascended to the top, where
they slew the victims; beginning with the prisoners of war, and
finishing with the fattened slaves, purchased for the occasion,
rending out their hearts and casting the same at the feet of the idol.

[Sidenote: SYMBOLIC DEATH OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

All through this day the festivities and the rejoicings continued, and
all the day and night the priests watched vigilantly the dough statue
of Huitzilopochtli, so that no oversight or carelessness should
interfere with the veneration and service due thereto. Early next day
they took down said statue and set it on its feet in a hall. Into this
hall there entered the priest, called after Quetzalcoatl, who had
carried the image of Paynalton in his arms in the procession, as
before related; there entered also the king, with one of the most
intimate servants, called Tehua, of the god Huitzilopochtli, four
other great priests, and four of the principal youths, called
Telpochtlatoque, out of the number of those that had charge of the
other youths of the temple. These mentioned, and these alone, being
assembled, the priest named after Quetzalcoatl took a dart tipped with
flint and hurled it into the breast of the statue of dough, which fell
on receiving the stroke. This ceremony was styled, 'killing the god
Huitzilopochtli so that his body might be eaten.' Upon this the
priests advanced to the fallen image and one of them pulled the heart
out of it, and gave the same to the king. The other priests cut the
pasty body into two halves. One half was given to the people of
Tlatelulco, who parted it out in crumbs among all their wards, and
specially to the young soldiers--no woman being allowed to taste a
morsel. The other half was allotted to the people of that part of
Mexico called Tenochtlitlan; it was divided among the four wards,
Teopan, Atzaqualco, Quepopan, and Moyotlan; and given to the men, to
both small and great, even to the men-children in the cradle. All this
ceremony was called _teoqualo_, that is to say, 'god is eaten,' and
this making of the dough statue and eating of it was renewed once
every year.[VIII-10]

Closely as J. G. Müller studied the character of Quetzalcoatl, his
examination of that of Huitzilopochtli, has been still more minute and
was indeed the subject of a monograph published by him in 1847. A
student of the subject cannot afford to overlook this study, and I
translate the more important parts of it in the paragraphs which
follow; not, indeed, either for or against the interests of the theory
it supports, but for the sake of the accurate and detailed handling,
rehandling, and grouping there, by a master in this department of
mythological learning, of almost all the data relating to the matter
in hand:--

Huitzilopochtli has been already referred to as an original god of the
air and of heaven. He agrees also with Quetzalcoatl in a second
capital point, in having become the anthropomorphic national god of
the Aztecs, as Quetzalcoatl of the Toltecs. On their marches and in
their wars, in the establishment of codes and towns, in happiness as
well as in misfortune, the Aztecs were guided by his oracle, by the
spirit of his being. As the Toltecs, especially in their later
national character, differ from the Aztecs, so differ their two chief
national gods. If the capital of the Toltecs, Cholula, resembled
modern Rome in its religious efforts, so the god enthroned there was
transformed into the human form of a high-priest, in whom this people
saw his human ideal. In the same manner one might be led to compare
the capital of the Aztecs with ancient Rome, on account of its warlike
spirit, and therefore it was right to make the national god of the
Aztecs a war god like the Roman Mars.

[Sidenote: THE NAME HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

We will commence with the name of the god, which, according to
Sahagun, Acosta, Torquemada, and most of the writers, signifies 'on
the left side a humming-bird;' from _huitzilin_, 'a humming-bird,' and
_opochtli_, 'left.' In connecting the Aztec words, the ending is cut
off. The image of the god had in reality, frequently, the feathers of
the humming-bird on the left foot. The connection of this bird with
the god is, in many ways, appropriate. It no doubt appeared to them as
the most beautiful of birds, and as the most worthy representant of
their chief deity. Does not its crest glitter like a crown set with
rubies and all kinds of precious stones? The Aztecs have accordingly,
in their way, called the humming-bird, 'sun-beam,' 'or sun-hair;' as
its alighting upon flowers, is like that of a sun-beam. The chief god
of the Caribs, Juluca, is also decorated with a band of its feathers
round the forehead. The ancient Mexicans had, as their most noble
adornment, state-mantles of the same feathers, so much praised by
Cortés; and even at the present time the Aztec women adorn their ears
with these plumes. This humming-bird decoration on the left foot of
the god was not the only one; he had also a green bunch of plumage
upon his head, shaped like the bill of a small bird. The shield in his
left hand was decorated with white feathers, and the whole image was
at times covered with a mantle of feathers. To the general virtues
which make comprehensible the humming-bird attribute as a divine one,
must be added the special virtue of bravery peculiar to this bird,
which is specially suited to the war god. The English traveler Bullock
tells how this bird distinguishes itself for its extraordinary
courage, attacking others ten times its own size, flying into their
eyes, and using its sharp bill as a most dangerous weapon. Nothing
more daring can be witnessed than its attack upon other birds of its
own species, when it fears disturbance during the breeding-season. The
effects of jealousy transform these birds into perfect furies, the
throat swells, the crest on their head, the tail, and the wings are
expanded; they fight whistling in the air, until one of them falls
exhausted to the ground. That such a martial spirit should exist in so
small a creature shows the intensity of this spirit; and the religious
feeling is the sooner aroused, when the instrument of a divine power
appears in so trifling and weak a body. The small but brave and
warlike woodpecker stood in a similar relation to Mars, and is
accordingly termed _picus martius_.

This, the most common explanation of the name Huitzilopochtli, as
'humming-bird, left side' is not followed by Veytia, with whom
Prichard agrees. He declares the meaning of the name to be 'left
hand,' from _huitzitoc_, 'hand,' because Huitzilopochtli, according to
the fable, after his death, sits on the left side of the god
Tezcatlipoca, Now, Huitzilopochtli is in another place considered as
the brother of this god; he also stands higher, and can therefore
scarcely have obtained his name from his position with respect to the
other deity. Besides, hand in Aztec is properly translated as _maitl_,
or _toma_.

Over and above this attribute which gives the god his name, there are
others which point towards the conception of a war god.
Huitzilopochtli had, like Mars and Odin, the spear, or a bow, in his
right hand, and in the left, sometimes a bundle of arrows, sometimes a
round white shield, on the side of which were the four arrows sent him
from heaven wherewith to perform the heroic deeds of his people. On
these weapons depended the welfare of the state, just as on the
_ancile_ of the Roman Mars, which had fallen from the sky, or on the
_palladium_ of the warlike Pallas Athena.

By-names also point out Huitzilopochtli as war god; for he is called
the terrible god, Tetzateotl, or the raging, Tetzahuitl. These names
he received at his birth, when he, just issued from his mother's womb,
overthrew his adversaries.

[Sidenote: KINDRED OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

Not less do his connections indicate his warlike nature. His youngest
brother, Tlacahuepancuextotzin, was also a war god, whose statue
existed in Mexico, and who received homage, especially in Tezcuco. In
still closer relationship to him stands his brother-in-arms, or, as
Bernal Diaz calls him, his page, Paynalton, that is, 'the fleet one;'
he was the god of the sudden war alarm, _tumultus_ or general _levée
en masse_; his call obliged all capable of bearing arms to rush to the
defence. He is otherwise considered as the representant of
Huitzilopochtli and subordinate to him, for he was only a small image,
as Diaz says, and as the ending _ton_ denotes. The statue of this
little war-crier was always placed upon the altar of Huitzilopochtli,
and sometimes carried round at his feast.

Other symbolic attributes establish Huitzilopochtli as the general
national god of this warlike people, and symbolized his personal
presence. On the march from the ancient home, the priests took their
turn, in fours, to carry his wooden image, with the little flag fallen
from heaven, and the four arrows. The litter, upon which the image was
carried, was called the 'chair of god,' _teoicpalli_, and was a holy
box, such as was used among the Etruscans and Egyptians, the Greeks
and the Romans, in Ilium, among the Japanese, among the Mongols. In
America, the Cherokees are also found with such an ark. The ark of the
covenant carried by the Levites through the desert and in battle, was
of a similar kind. Wherever the Aztecs halted for some time during
their wanderings, they erected an altar or a sacrifice mound to their
god, upon which they placed this god's-litter with the image; which
ancient observance they kept up, in later times, in their temples. By
its side they erected a movable tent, _tabernaculum_, (Stiftshütte),
in the open country, as is customary among nomadic people, such as the
Mongols. The god, however, gave them the codes and usages of a
cultured people, and received offerings of prisoners, hawks, and
quails.

As the head of a sparrow on a human body points to the former worship
of Quetzalcoatl under the form of a sparrow, so the humming-bird
attribute on the image and in the name of Huitzilopochtli, points him
out as an original animal god. The general mythological rule, that
such animal attributes refer to an ancient worship of the god in
question under the form of an animal, points this out in his case, and
the special myth of Huitziton assists here in the investigation of the
foundation of this original nature.

When the Aztecs still lived in Aztlan, a certain Huitziton enjoyed
their highest esteem, as the fable tells. This Huitziton heard the
voice of a bird, which cried "tihui," that is 'let us go.'[VIII-11] He
thereupon asked the people to leave their home, which they accordingly
did. When we consider the name Huitziton, the nature of the story, and
the mythical time to which it refers, no doubt remains as to who this
Huitziton is supposed to be. It is evident that he is none other than
the little bird itself, which, in our later form of the myth, as an
anthropomorphic fable, is separated from him; separated
euhemeristically, just as the Latin Picus was separated from his
woodpecker. This Picus, whose songs and flight were portentous, was
represented as a youth with a woodpecker on his head, of which he made
use for his seer-art; but was originally, as denoted by his name,
nothing else than a woodpecker, which was adored on the wooden pillar
from which it sent its sayings. This woodpecker placed itself upon the
_vexillum_ of the Sabines, and guided them to the region which has
been named Picenum after it. As this bird guided its people to their
new abode, like Huitziton, so many other animal gods have lead those
who, in ancient times, sought new homes. Thus a crow conducted Battus
to Cyrene; a dove led the Chalcidians to Cyrene; Apollo, in the form
of a dolphin, took the Cretans to Pytho; Antinous founded a new
settlement, to which a snake had pointed the way; a bull carried
Cadmus to Thebes; a wolf led the Hirpinians. The original stock of the
South American people, the Mbayas, received the divine order, through
the bird Caracara, to roam as enemies in the territories of other
people instead of settling down in a fixed habitation--this is an
anti-culture myth. As the founding of towns favors the birth of myths
like the preceding, so also does the founding of convents, the sites
of which, according to the numerous fables of the Christian mediæval
age, were pointed out by animals--one of the remnants of old
heathenism then existing in the popular fancy. To resume the subject,
Huitziton is, therefore, the humming-bird god, who, as oracular god,
commanded the Aztecs to emigrate. His name signifies nothing else than
'small humming-bird,' the ending _ton_ being a diminutive syllable, as
in Paynalton. Thus the humming-bird was the bearer, at the time of the
great flood, of the divine message of joy to the Tezpi of the
Michoacans, a people related to the Aztecs. It had been let loose as
the water receded, and soon returned with a small twig to the
ark.[VIII-12] On the Catherine Islands [islands of Santa
Catalina],[VIII-13] in California, crows were adored as interpreters
of the divine will. From the above it is also self-evident that
Huitziton and Huitzilopochtli were one, which is the conclusion
arrived at by the learned researcher of Mexican languages and
traditions, the Italian Boturini. The name, myth, and attributes of
Huitzilopochtli point then to the humming-bird. Previous to the
transformation of this god, by anthropomorphism, he was merely a small
humming-bird, _huitziton_; by anthropomorphism, the bird became,
however, merely the attribute, emblem or symbol, and name of the
god--a name which changed with his form into 'humming-bird on the
left,' or Huitzilopochtli.

The identity of the two, in spite of the different explanations of
the name, is accepted by Veytia, who gives Huitzitoc as the name of
the chief who led the Aztec armies during their last wanderings from
Chicomoztoc, or the Seven Caves, into Anáhuac. Under his leadership
the Aztecs were everywhere victorious, and for this reason he was
placed, after his death, on the left side of the god Tezcatlipoca;
since which time he was called Huitzilopochtli.

[Sidenote: HUITZITON AND PAYNALTON.]

The identity of Huitziton and Huitzilopochtli, is also shown by other
facts besides the name, the attribute, and the mythological analogy:
the same important acts are ascribed to both. We have seen that
Huitziton commanded the Aztecs to leave their home; according to
another account of Acosta, this was done on the persuasion of
Huitzilopochtli. If other Spanish authors state that this was done by
instigation of the devil, they mean none other than Huitzilopochtli,
using a mode of speech which had become an established one. This name
became a common title of the devil in Germany, under the form of
Vizliputzli, soon after the conquest of Mexico, as may be seen in the
old popular drama of Faust. The fable further relates of Huitziton
that he taught the Aztecs to produce fire by friction, during their
wanderings. The gift of fire is usually ascribed to a culture-god.
Huitzilopochtli was such a deity; he introduced dress, laws, and
ceremonies among his people. The statement that Huitziton had at some
time, given fire to the people, has no historical meaning; there is no
people without fire, and a formerly told myth mentions that man made
fire even before the existence of the present sun. The signification
of the fable is a religious one, it is a myth in which the Aztecs
ascribe the origin of all human culture to Huitziton their
culture-god, afterward Huitzilopochtli.

[Sidenote: SACRIFICE MYTHS.]

This god wore also a band of human hearts and faces of gold and
silver; while various bones of dead men, as well as a man torn in
pieces, were depicted on his dress. These attributes like those of the
Indian Schiwa and Kali, clearly point him out as the god to whom
human sacrifices were made. It was extensively believed among the
nations composing the Mexican Empire that human sacrifices had been
introduced by the Aztecs within the last two centuries. Before that
time only bloodless offerings had been made. A myth places the
commencement of human sacrifices in the fourteenth century, in which
the three first successive cases thereof are said to have occurred.

The Colhuas, the ruling nation at that time in the valley of Anáhuac,
are said to have fought a battle with their enemies of Xochimilco,
which was decided in favor of the Colhuas, owing to the impetuous
attack made by the tributary Aztecs in their aid. While the Colhuas
were presenting a large number of prisoners before their king, the
Aztecs had only secured four, whom they kept secreted, but exhibited,
in token of their bravery, a number of ears that they had cut from
their slain enemies, boasting that the victory would have been much
delayed had they lost time in making prisoners. Proud of their
triumph, they erected an altar to Huitzilopochtli, in Huitzilopochco,
and made known to their lord, the king of the Colhuas, that they
desired to offer this god a costly and worthy sacrifice. The king sent
them, by the hands of priests, a dead bird, which the messengers laid
irreverently upon the altar, and departed. The Aztecs swallowed their
chagrin, and set a fragrant herb with a knife of iztli beside the
bird. As the king with his suite arrived at the festival, more for the
sake of mocking the proceedings than to grace them, the four prisoners
taken from the Xochimilcos were brought out, placed upon the stone of
sacrifice, their breasts cut open with the iztli, and the palpitating
heart torn out. This sacrifice brought consternation upon the Colhuas,
they discharged the Aztecs from their service and drove them away. The
Aztecs wandered for some time about the country, and then, at the
command of their god, founded the town of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, on
a site where they had found a nopal (Opuntie) growing upon a rock.

At the second sacrifice a Colhua was the victim. An Aztec was hunting,
on the shore of the lake, for an animal to offer his patron deity,
when he met a Colhua called Xomimitl; he attacks him furiously, bears
him down, and the defeated man is made to bleed upon the sacrifice
stone.

Both myths are aitiological, and explained by the sacrifice system
(Opferkultus). This is shown in the case of the four prisoners, of
whom we shall learn more in the third story. The second story
personifies the Aztec and the Colhua peoples in the two men, the
second nation supplying the first with human sacrifices. With the
sacrifice of Xomimitl, the parallelism of which to the four
Xochimilcos cannot be overlooked by any one, the first temple of
Huitzilopochtli, in Tenochtitlan, was inaugurated.

The third sacrifice shows still more closely the religious basis
(Kultusgrundlage) of the myth. Here also, as in the former, we have to
do with a Colhua. The Aztecs offered the Colhua king to show divine
honors to his daughter and to apotheosize her into the mother of their
national god, declaring that such was the will of the deity. The king,
rejoicing at the honor intended for his daughter, let her go, and she
was brought to Tenochtitlan with great pomp. No sooner, however, had
she arrived than she was sacrificed, flayed, and one of the bravest
youths dressed in her skin. The king was invited to the solemn act of
the deification of his daughter, and only became aware of her death
when the flame from the copal gum revealed to him the bloody skin
about the youth placed at the side of the god. The daughter was,
however, at once formally declared mother of Huitzilopochtli and of
all the gods.

[Sidenote: TETEIONAN.]

This aitiological cultus-myth is easily explained. The name of the
daughter is Teteionan, whom we have learned to know as the
gods'-mother, and as Tocitzin, 'our grandmother.'[VIII-14] She was never
the daughter of a human king, but has been transformed into one by
euhemerism, somewhat as Iphigenia is to be considered as originally
Artemis. The goddess Teteionan had her special festival in Mexico,
when a woman, dressed as goddess, was sacrificed; while held on the
back of another woman, her head was cut off, then she was flayed, and
the skin carried by a youth, accompanied by a numerous retinue, as a
present to Huitzilopochtli. Four prisoners of war were, moreover,
previously sacrificed.

Similar to this story, told by Clavigero, is another, narrated by
Acosta. According to the latter, Tozi was the daughter of the king of
Culhuacan, and was made the first human sacrifice by order of
Huitzilopochtli, who desired her for a sister. Tozi is, however, none
other than Tocitzin, and is also shown to be 'our grandmother.'
According to the Aztec version, the custom of dressing priests in the
skin of sacrificed beings dates from her--such representations are
often seen, especially in Humboldt; the Bâsle collection of Mexican
antiquities possesses also the stone image of a priest dressed in a
human skin. The fourth month, Tlacaxipehualitzli, this is, 'to flay a
man,' derived its name from this custom, which is said to have been
most frequent at this period of the year.

Goddesses, or beings representing goddesses, are sacrificed in both of
these fables. We have met with human sacrifices among the Muyscas in
Central America, and in connection with many deities of the Mexicans,
in which the human victim represents the god to whom he is to be
sacrificed. Slaves impersonating gods were also sacrificed among the
northern Indians, the so-called _Indios bravos_. The person sacrificed
is devoured by the god, is given over to him, is already part of him,
is the god himself. Such was the case with the slave that personated
Quetzalcoatl in the merchants' festival in Cholula.

The critic is only able to admit the relative truth of the recentness
of the period in which the origin of Mexican human sacrifices is
placed by these three myths. We already know that human sacrifices are
very ancient in all America, and that they have only been put aside at
a few places by humane efforts; as in Peru to some extent by means of
the Incas. We have met with them throughout all South America.

The statement so generally made that the Toltec Quetzalcoatl preached
against human sacrifices, certainly implies the previous existence of
such sacrifices. This statement about Quetzalcoatl also points out the
way to the assimilation of the varying accounts, fables, and myths. In
very ancient times human sacrifices predominated everywhere. The
Toltecs, like the Incas, endeavored more or less to abolish them, and,
even if not altogether successful, they reduced them considerably. The
Aztecs reintroduced them. In the East Indies, these sacrifices date
back to the era before the flood, and the Greeks there met with
remains of anthropophagy, the basis thereof.

Brahmanism sought to exterminate these ancient sacrifices, and the
Vedas forbid them, a prohibition which, in connection with the custom
of pretending to sacrifice human beings, gives evidence of a former
use of actual sacrifices. The later sect of Shiwaits again introduced
them.

However ancient the national political phase of Huitzilopochtli may
be, the nature phase is still older. This god, too, has a nature-basis
which not only explains his being, but throws light upon his further
unfolding as a national or war god. All searchers who do not begin
with this basis, see nothing but inexplicable riddles and
contradictions before them.

[Sidenote: TWO MOTHERS OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

This nature-basis is first seen in the myth about his birth. In the
neighborhood of Tulla there was a place called Coatepec, where lived a
god-fearing woman, called Coatlicue. One day, as she was going to the
temple, according to her custom, a gaily colored ball of feathers fell
down from heaven; she picked it up, and hid it in her bosom,
intending to decorate the altar therewith. As she was on the point of
producing it for this purpose, it could not be found. A few days
afterward she was aware of being pregnant. Her children, the
Centzunhuitznahuas, also noticed this, and, in order to avoid their
own disgrace, they determined to kill her before she was delivered.
Her sorrow was however, miraculously consoled by a voice that made
itself heard from within her womb, saying: Fear not, O mother, I will
save thee to thy great honor, and to my great fame! The brothers,
urged on by their sister, were on the point of killing her, when,
behold, even as the armed Athena sprang from her father's head,
Huitzilopochtli was born; the shield in his left hand, the spear in
his right, the green plumage on his head, and humming-bird feathers on
his left leg; his face, arms, and legs being, moreover, striped with
blue. At once he slew his opponents, plundered their dwellings, and
brought the spoils to his mother. From this he was called Terror and
the Frightful God.

If we dissect this myth, we notice that another mother appears than
the one formerly sacrificed in his honor, Teteionan. Two mothers
present nothing remarkable in mythology, I have only to mention
Aphrodite and Athena, who according to different accounts, had
different fathers. So long as the formation of myths goes on, founded
upon fresh conceptions of nature, somewhat different ideas (for wholly
different, even here, the two mothers are not) from distinct points of
view, are always possible. It is the anthropomorphism of the age that
fixes on the one-sided conclusion. Teteionan is Huitzilopochtli's
mother, because she is the mother of all the gods. The mother, in this
instance, is the Flora of the Aztecs, euhemerized into a god-fearing
woman, Coatlicue, or Coatlantana, of whose worship in Coatepec and
Mexico we have already spoken.

The second point prominent in the myth, is the close connection of
Huitzilopochtli with the botanical kingdom. The humming-bird is the
messenger of spring, sent by the south to the north, by the hot to
the temperate region. It is the means of fructifying the flowers, its
movements causing the transfer of the pollen from the stamens to the
germ-shells. It sticks its long, thin little bill deep into the
flower, and rummaging beneath the stamens, drinks the nectar of the
flower, while promoting the act of plant-reproduction. In the Latin
myth also, Mars stands in close connection with Flora: Juno gives him
birth with Flora's aid, without the assistance of Jupiter. In our
mythology of the north, Thor is on a friendly footing with Nanna, the
northern Flora. We are already acquainted also with a fable of the
Pimas, according to which the goddess of maize became pregnant by a
raindrop, and bore the forefather of the people, he who built the
great houses.

[Sidenote: SISTERS OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.]

The question, why Huitzilopochtli should be the son of the goddess of
plants, and what his real connection with the botanical kingdom
consists in, is solved by examining his worship at the three ancient
yearly feasts, which take place exactly at those periods of the year
that are the most influential for the Mexican climate, the middle of
May, the middle of August, and the end of December. As a rule, in the
first half of May the rain begins. Previous to this, the greatest
drought and torpidness reign; the plants appear feeble and drooping;
nature is bare, the earth gray with dry, withered grass. After a few
days of rain, however, the trees appear in a fresh green, the ground
is covered with new herbs, all nature is reanimated. Trees, bushes,
plants, develop their blossoms; a vapory fragrance rises over all. The
fruit shoots from the cultivated field, the juicy, bright green of the
maize refreshes the eye. Mühlenpfordt, who stayed a long time in these
regions, gives this description of the season. Völker's statement that
rain and water stand as fructifying principles in the first rank in
ancient physics, and that they meet us in innumerable myths, holds
doubly good for the tropics. It requires little imagination to
understand what a powerful impression transformed nature, with all its
beauty and blessings, must produce in the soul of the child of
nature. It is on this account that the ancient Tlaloc came to enjoy so
high a regard among the Aztecs, nor has Quetzalcoatl disdained to
adorn his mantle with the crosses of a rain-god. And so
Huitzilopochtli's first feast of the year, the festival of the arrival
of the god, of the offering of incense, stands at the beginning of the
season of the reinvigorating of nature by the rain. The pagan Germans
used to say that Nerthus, Freya, Hulda, Bertha, Frieg, and other
divinities, entered the country at this period. The Aztecs prepared
especially for this feast an image of their chief god, made of edible
plants and honey, of the same size as the wooden image; and the youths
sang the deeds of their god before it, and hymns praying for rain and
fertility. Offering of multitudes of quails, incense-burning, and the
significant dance of priests and virgins, followed. The virgins, who
on this day were called sisters of Huitzilopochtli, wore garlands of
dry maize-leaves on their heads, and carried split reeds in their
hands; by this representing the dry season. The priests, on the
contrary, represented the quickened nature, having their lips smeared
with honey.

Now although, according to Max von Wied, there were no bees in America
before the arrival of the Europeans, the bees are here represented by
humming-birds, also called honey or bee birds, which, hovering and
humming like bees, gather their food from the tube-shaped flowers.
This food consists of a small insect that lives on honey, and they
feed their young by letting them suck at the tongue covered with this
honey. The priests bore, further, another symbol of spring: each one
held a staff in his hand, on which a flower of feathers was fixed,
having another bunch of feathers fixed over it; thus too, Freya's
hawk-plumage denoted the advent of the fine season. A prisoner had
been selected a year in advance as a victim, and was called 'wise lord
of the heaven,' for he personated the god, and had the privilege of
choosing the hour of the sacrifice; he did not die, like the other
prisoners, on the sacrifice stone, but on the shoulders of the
priests. The little children were consecrated to the god of their
country, at this festival, by a small incision on the breast.

So also Mars appears as god of spring, he to whom the grass and the
sacred spring time of the birth of animals (_ver sacrum_) were
dedicated, whose chief festival and whose month are placed at the
commencement of spring, at which time the Salii also sang their old
religious songs, and a man personated the god. The Tyrian festival of
the awaking of Hercules fell also in spring, for the same reason.
Thus, in the myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, and in his first
festival, spring, or the energy that produces spring, is made the
basis of his being. His warlike attributes are appendages of the
anthropomorphized national and war god.

The second great festival of the deity takes place in the middle of
August. The rains which have lasted and refreshed up to this time,
become intermittent, and the fine season approaches, during which the
azure sky of the tropics pours its splendor and its beneficial warmth
upon men, animals, and plants, scattered over a plain situated 8500
feet above the level of the sea. This is the twelfth month there, the
month of ripe fruits. The idols in all temples and dwellings are
decorated with flowers. It is now no longer the rain which is the
blessing, but the blue sky which cherishes the variegated
flower-world. For this reason the image of Huitzilopochtli was blue,
his head was wound round with an azure ribbon, in his right hand he
held an azure staff or club, and he sat on an azure stool, which,
according to ancient accounts, represents heaven as his
dwelling-place. His arms and legs had also blue stripes, and costly
blue stones hung round his neck. The Egyptian god of fertility, Khem,
was also represented in blue.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF VEGETATION.]

The third festival of Huitzilopochtli takes place during the winter
solstice, a period which plays a great rôle in all worships and myths.
The best-known festival of this kind is the one held on the 25th of
December throughout the Roman Empire, to celebrate the birth of
Mithras, the invincible sun. The Chipewas in North America call
December the month of the small spirit, and January that of the great
spirit. The Mexican festival of this month represented the character
of the entering season, and the new state of nature. The cold sets in,
the mountains are covered with snow, the ground dries up, the plants
search in vain for their nourishment, many trees lose their
foliage--in a word, nature seems dead. And so it happened with their
god. The priests prepared his image of various seeds kneaded with the
blood of sacrificed children. Numerous religious purifyings and
penances, washings with water, blood-lettings, fasts, processions,
burning of incense, sacrifices of quails and human beings, inaugurated
the festival. One of Quetzalcoatl's priests then shot an arrow at this
image of Huitzilopochtli, which penetrated the god who was now
considered as dead. His heart was cut out, as with human victims, and
eaten by the king, the representative of the god on earth. The body,
however, was divided among the various quarters of the city, so that
every man received a piece. This was called _teoqualo_ 'the god who is
eaten.'

The meaning of the death of this god is, on the whole, evident; it
corresponds with the death of vegetation; and a comparison of the myth
of his birth, with the two other feasts of Huitzilopochtli, leads to
the same conclusion. This third feast is, therefore, at the same time,
a festival in honor of the brother of this god, Tezcatlipoca, the god
of the under-world, of death, of drought, and of hunger, whose rule
commences where that of his brother ends. The myth gives a similar
form and sense to the death of Osiris, who is killed by Typhon, and
the death of Dionysos and Hercules in the Phœnician colonies.
Adonis lives with Aphrodite during one half of the year, and with
Persephone the other half; the Indian Krishna leaves for the
under-world; thus, too, Brahma and the Celtic sun-god, Hu, died
yearly, and were yearly born again. The festival of the self-burning
of the Tyrian Heracles is also of this kind; it takes place at the
time of the dying off of vegetation, even if this should be in the
summer.

As regards the custom of eating the god, this also occurs at another
feast which is celebrated during this season, in honor of the gods of
the mountains and the water. Small idols of seeds and dough were then
prepared, their breasts were opened like those of human victims, the
heart was cut out, and the body distributed for eating. The time at
which this occurs, shows that it stands in necessary connection with
the death of the god. When the god dies it must be as a sacrifice in
the fashion of his religion, and when the anthropomorphized god dies,
it is as a human sacrifice amid all the necessary usages pertaining
thereto: he is killed by priests, the heart is torn out, and his body
eaten at the sacrifice meal, just as was done with every human
sacrifice. Could it be meant that the god, in being eaten, is imparted
to, or incorporated with, the person eating him? This is no doubt so,
though not in the abstract, metaphysical, Christian or moral sense,
but only with regard to his nature-sense, (seiner Naturseite), which
is the real essence of the god. He gives his body, in seed, to be
eaten by his people, just as nature, dying at the approach of the
winter, at this very period, has stored up an abundance of its gifts
for the sustenance of man. It gives man its life-fruit, or its fruit
of life as a host or holy wafer. As a rule, the god, during the time
of sacrifice, regales with the offering those bringing sacrifices;
and, the eating of the flesh of the slave, who so often represents the
god to whom he is sacrificed, is the same as eating the god. We have
heard of the custom among some nations of eating the ashes of their
forefathers, to whom they give divine honors, in order to become
possessors of their virtues. The Arkansas nation, west of the
Mississippi, which worshiped the dog, used to eat dog-flesh at one of
its feasts. Many other peoples solemnly slaughter animals, consume
their flesh, and moreover pay divine honors to the remains of these
animals. Here the eating of the god, in seeds, is made clear--this
custom also existed among the Greeks. The division of the year-god by
the ancients, in myth and religious system, has, for the rest, no
other sense than has this distribution of the body of Huitzilopochtli.
This is done with the sun-bull at the festival of the Persian Mithras,
as at the feast, and in the myth of the Dionysos-Zagreus, of Osiris
and Attys.

[Sidenote: YEARLY LIFE OF THE PLANT-WORLD.]

The three yearly festivals, as well as the myth of his birth, all tend
to show the positive connection of Huitzilopochtli with the yearly
life of the plant-world. The first festival is the arrival of the god,
as the plant-world is ushered in, with its hymns praying for rain, its
virgins representing the sisters of the god and the inimical drought,
in the same sense as the brothers and sister, especially the latter,
are his enemies in the myth of his birth, and, as Tezcatlipoca, the
god of drought is his brother. Brothers and sisters not seldom
represent parallel contrasts in mythology and worship. The second
celebration presents the god as the botanical kingdom in its splendor,
for which reason the Mexicans call the humming-bird the sunbeam, from
the form assumed by the god at this time. The humming-bird, moreover,
takes also his winter sleep, and thus the god dies in winter with the
plants. The Greenlanders asked the younger Egede if the god of heaven
and earth ever died, and, when answered in the negative, they were
much surprised, and said that he must surely be a great god. This
intimate connection with the plant-world is also shown in the
birth-myth of Huitzilopochtli, who here appears as the son of the
goddess of plants. It now becomes easier to answer the question of
Wuttke: has the fable of this birth reference merely to the making a
man out of a god already existing, or to the actual birth of the god?
The Aztecs, it is true, were undecided on this point, some conceding
to him a human existence on earth, others investing him with a
consciousness of his nature being. We, however, answer this question
simply, from the preceding: the birth of the god is annual, and the
myth has therefrom invented one birth, said to have taken place at
some period, while the anthropomorphism fables very prettily the
transformation into a man. Of the former existence of a born god, the
myth knows nothing, for it is only afterward that it raises the god
into heaven. It has not, however, come to euhemerism in the case of
Huitzilopochtli, though it has with Huitziton. In placing the god in
the position of son to the plant-goddess, the myth separates his being
from that of the mother, consequently, Huitzilopochtli is not the
plant-world himself, however closely he may be related to it. This is
made clearer by following up the birth-myth, which makes him out to be
not only the son of Coatlicue, but also of the force causing her
fructification. The variegated ball of feathers which fell from
heaven, is none other than Huitzilopochtli himself, the little
humming-bird, which is the means of fructifying the plants, and the
virile, fructifying nature-force manifested by and issuing from him in
the spring. He is also born with the feather-tuft, and this symbol of
the fine season never leaves him in any of his forms, it remains his
attribute.

The Tapuas in South America have, after a similar symbolism, the
custom, at their yearly seed-sowing festivals, of letting some one
hang a bunch of ostrich-feathers on his back, the feathers being
spread over like a wheel. This feather-bunch is their symbol of the
fructifying power which comes from heaven. Their belief that bread
falls from heaven into this tuft of feathers is thus made clear. In
this myth we find the natural basis of such a birth-myth. In our
northern mythology, Neekris, the ball, is, in the same manner, the
father of Nanna, the northern Flora. That this virile power of heaven
is made to appear as a ball of feathers, suits the humming-bird god.
The Esths also imagined their god of thunder, as the god of warmth, in
the form of a bird. In the same sense, doves were consecrated to Zeus,
in Dodona and Arcadia, and a flying bird is a symbol of heaven among
the Chinese. This force may, however, be symbolized in another form,
and give rise to a birth-myth of exactly the same kind. Thus, the
daughter of the god Sangarius, in the Phrygian myth, hid in her bosom
the fruit of an almond-tree, which had grown out of the seed of the
child of the earth, Agdistis: the fruit disappeared, the daughter
became pregnant and bore the beautiful boy Attes. According to
Arnobius, it was the fruit of a pomegranate-tree, which fructified
Nanna. Among the Chinese, a nymph, called Puzza, the nourisher of all
living things, became pregnant by eating a lotus-flower, and gave
birth to a great law-giver and conqueror. Danaë, again, becomes
pregnant from the golden shower of Zeus--an easily understood
symbolism. It is always the virile nature-power, either as seen in the
sun, or in the azure sky (for which reason Huitzilopochtli is called
the lord of the heaven, Ochibus or Huchilobos), which puts the
variegated seed into the womb of the plant-world, 'at the same time
bringing himself forth again, and making himself manifest in the
plant-world.' This heavenly life-force no sooner finds an earthly
mother-womb than its triumph is assured, even before birth, while
developing its bud; just as the inner voice, in the myth, consoled the
mother, and protected her against all her enemies. It is only after
his birth that the myth holds Huitzilopochtli as a personal
anthropomorphic god.

[Sidenote: THE VIRILE NATURE-POWER.]

This is the natural signification of Huitzilopochtli, which we have
accepted as the basis of all other developments of the god, and for
this universal reason, namely, that the most ancient heathen gods are
nature-gods, mythologic rules being followed, and that the pagan
religion is essentially a nature-worship as well as a polytheism. The
special investigation and following up of the various virtues have led
to the same result. But, as this view has not yet been generally
accepted in regard to this god, a few words concerning the union of
the anthropomorphic national aspect of Huitzilopochtli, with his
natural one may be added. It has been thought necessary to make the
martial phase of Huitzilopochtli the basis of the others, as with
Mars. War is, from this point of view, a child of spring, because
weapons are then resumed after the long winter armistice. This is not
at all the case with Huitzilopochtli, because the rainy season,
setting in in spring, when the arrival and birth of the god are
celebrated, renders the soft roads of Mexico unsuitable for war
expeditions. Wars were originally children of autumn, at which time
the ripe fruits were objects of robbery. But the idea of a war and
national god is easily connected with the basis of a fructifying god
of heaven. This chief nature-god may either be god of heaven, as
Huitzilopochtli, as the rain-giving Zeus is made the national god by
Homer, to whom human sacrifices were brought in Arcadia down to a late
period, or he may be a sun-god, like Baal, to whom prayers for rain
were addressed in Phoenicia, to further the growth of the fruit, and
who also received human sacrifices. The Celtic Hu is also an ethereal
war god, properly sun-god, who received human sacrifices in honor of
the victory of spring; none the less is Odin's connection with war,
battle, and war horrors; he is a fire-god, like Moloch and Shiva, to
whom human sacrifices were made for fear of famine and failure of
crops. The apparent basis of such a god has not to be considered so
much as the point that the people ascribed to him the chief government
of the course of the year. In such a case, the chief ruler also
becomes the national god, the life of the nation depending immediately
on the yearly course of nature. Is the nation warlike, then, the
national god naturally becomes a war god as well. As anthropomorphism
connects itself with the nature-god only at a later period, so does
his worship as war god and national god. In the case of Mars, as well
as of Picus and Faunus, the same succession is followed. Mars, for
example, is called upon in a prayer which has been preserved by Cato,
to protect shepherds and flocks, and to avert bad weather and
misgrowth; Virgil refers to him as a god of plants. In the song of the
Arvalian brothers, he is called upon as the protector of the flowers.
Thus, in his case also, the nature side is the basis. The Chinese
symbolism of the union of the two sides or phases, is expressed in
such a manner as to make spears and weapons representations of the
germs of plants. This union has already been illustrated among the
Aztecs, in the humming-bird, the sunbeam which plays round the
flowers, in whose little body the intensest war spirit burns. Among
the Egyptians, the beetle was placed upon the ring of the warrior,
with whom it signified world and production.

[Sidenote: SNAKE SYMBOLISM.]

It remains to speak of another attribute of Huitzilopochtli, the snake
attribute. Huitzilopochtli is also a snake-god. We have already, when
treating of the snake-worship of the Mayas, referred to the numerous
snakes with which this god is connected by myth and image, and how
this attribute was added to the original humming-bird attribute, in
Coatepec, where the snake-goddess Coatlicue gave him birth. If the
snake signifies, in one case, time, in another, world, and in another
instance, water, or the yearly rejuvenation of germs and blossoms, the
eternal circle of nature, domination, soothsaying--it is quite
proper; for all these qualities are found united in the god. Still
other qualities, not seemingly possessed by him, we pass over, such as
a connection with the earth and with the healing power, to be found in
other Mexican gods, or the evil principle, which is entirely wanting.
Just as the snake changes its skin every year, and takes its winter
sleep, so does Huitzilopochtli, whose mother, Flora, is, therefore, a
snake-goddess. Even so the snake represents the seed-corn in the
mysteries of Demeter. In the Sabazii it represents the fructifying
Zeus and the blessing. It is also the symbol of productive power and
heat, or of life, attribute of the life-endowing Shiva; among the
Egyptians it represents the yearly rejuvenation of germs and blossoms.
The snake Agathodæmon appears with ears of grain and poppies, as the
symbol of fertility. If the god exhibits this nature of his, in
spring, in the rain, then the snake is a suitable attribute. In India,
snakes are genii of seas, and the Punjab, whose fertility is assured
by the yearly inundations, has the name of snake lands (Nagakhanda),
and claims an ancient worship. The sustaining water-god, Vishnu, also
received the snake attribute. Among the Chinese, the water could be
represented by a snake. The Peruvians call the boa constrictor the
mother of nature.

The idea of the yearly renewal of nature is also connected with that
of time forever young, and the Aztecs, therefore, encircle their cycle
with a snake as the symbol of time. The more positive signification
which the snake, placed by the side of the humming-bird, gives to
Huitzilopochtli, is that of a soothsaying god, like the snake Python
among the Greeks. The snake signified 'king' among the Egyptians, and
this suits Huitzilopochtli also, who may properly enough be considered
the real king of his people. If, as connected with Huitzilopochtli,
the snake also represents the war god, on account of its spirited mode
of attack, I cannot with certainty say, but the myth as well as the
worship places it in this relation to the war goddess Athene. Although
the idea of a national and a war god is not quite obscured in the
snake attribute, yet the nature side is especially denoted by it, as
in the southern countries, where snake worship prevailed; the
reference to the southern nature of this god is quite evident in the
snake attribute. In the north, moisture, represented by the snake, has
never attained the cosmological import which it has in the hot
countries of the south. There, the snake rather represents an
anticosmogonic, or a bad principle.[VIII-15]

[Sidenote: WINTER-SOLSTICE FESTIVAL.]

Mr Tylor, without committing himself to any extent in details, yet
agrees, as far as he goes, with Müller. He says: "The very name of
Mexico seems derived from Mexitli, the national war-god, identical or
identified with the hideous gory Huitzilopochtli. Not to attempt a
general solution of the enigmatic nature of this inextricable compound
parthenogenetic deity, we may notice the association of his principal
festival with the winter solstice, when his paste idol was shot
through with an arrow, and being thus killed, was divided into morsels
and eaten, wherefore the ceremony was called the _teoqualo_, or
'god-eating.' This, and other details, tend to show Huitzilopochtli as
originally a nature-deity, whose life and death were connected with
the year's, while his functions of war-god may be of later
addition."[VIII-16]

Of this festival of the winter solstice the date and further
particulars are given by the Vatican Codex as follows:--

The name Panquetzaliztli, of the Mexican month that began on the first
of December, means, being interpreted, 'the elevation of banners.'
For, on the first day of December every person raised over his house a
small paper flag in honor of this god of battle; and the captains and
soldiers sacrificed those that they had taken prisoners in war, who,
before they were sacrificed, being set at liberty, and presented with
arms equal to their adversaries, were allowed to defend themselves
till they were either vanquished or killed, and thus sacrificed. The
Mexicans celebrated in this month the festival of their first captain,
Vichilopuchitl. They celebrated at this time the festival of the wafer
or cake. They made a cake of the meal of bledos, which is called
_tzoalli_, and having made it, they spoke over it in their manner, and
broke it into pieces. These the high priest put into certain very
clean vessels, and with a thorn of maguey, which resembles a thick
needle, he took up with the utmost reverence single morsels, and put
them into the mouth of each individual, in the manner of a
communion--and I am willing to believe that these poor people have
had the knowledge of our mode of communion or of the preaching of the
gospel; or perhaps the devil, most envious of the honor of God, may
have led them into this superstition in order that by this ceremony he
might be adored and served as Christ our Lord. On the twenty-first of
December they celebrated the festival of this god--through whose
instrumentality, they say, the earth became again visible after it had
been drowned with the waters of the deluge: they therefore kept his
festival during the twenty following days, in which they offered
sacrifices to him.[VIII-17]

[Sidenote: DECORATIONS OF TLALOC.]

The deity Tlaloc, or Tlalocateuchtli, whom we have several times found
mentioned as seated beside Huitzilopochtli in the great temple, was
the god of water and rain, and the fertilizer of the earth. He was
held to reside where the clouds gather, upon the highest
mountain-tops, especially upon those of Tlaloc, Tlascala, and Toluca,
and his attributes were the thunderbolt, the flash, and the thunder.
It was also believed that in the high hills there resided other gods,
subaltern to Tlaloc--all passing under the same name, and revered not
only as gods of water but also as gods of mountains. The prominent
colors of the image of Tlaloc were azure and green, thereby
symbolizing the various shades of water. The decorations of this image
varied a good deal according to locality and the several fancies of
different worshipers: the description of Gama, founded on the
inspection of original works of Mexican religious art, is the most
authentic and complete. In the great temple of Mexico, in his own
proper chapel, called _epeoatl_, adjoining that of Huitzilopochtli,
this god of water stood upon his pedestal. In his left hand was a
shield ornamented with feathers; in his right were certain thin,
shining, wavy sheets of gold representing his thunderbolts, or
sometimes a golden serpent representing either the thunderbolt or the
moisture with which this deity was so intimately connected. On his
feet were a kind of half-boots, with little bells of gold hanging
therefrom. Round his neck was a band or collar set with gold and gems
of price; while from his wrists depended strings of costly stones,
even such as are the ornaments of kings. His vesture was an azure
smock reaching to the middle of the thigh, cross-hatched all over with
ribbons of silver forming squares; and in the middle of each square
was a circle also of silver, while in the angles thereof were flowers,
pearl-colored, with yellow leaves hanging down. And even as the
decoration of the vesture so was that of the shield; the ground blue,
covered with crossed ribbons of silver and circles of silver: and the
feathers of yellow and green and flesh-color and blue, each color
forming a distinct band. The body was naked from mid-thigh down, and
of a grey tint, as was also the face. This face had only one eye of a
somewhat extraordinary character: there was an exterior circle of
blue, the interior was white with a black line across it and a little
semi-circle below the line. Either round the whole eye or round the
mouth was a doubled band, or ribbon of blue; this, although unnoticed
by Torquemada, is affirmed by Gama to have been never omitted from any
figure of Tlaloc, to have been his most characteristic device, and
that which distinguished him specially from the other gods. In his
open mouth were to be seen only three grinders; his front teeth were
painted red, as was also the pendant, with its button of gold, that
hung from his ear. His head-adornment was an open crown, covered in
its circumference with white and green feathers, and from behind it
over the shoulder depended other plumes of red and white. Sometimes
the insignium of the thunderbolt is omitted with this god, and
Ixtlilxochitl represents him, in the picture of the month Etzalli,
with a cane of maize in the one hand, and in the other a kind of
instrument with which he was digging in the ground. In the ground thus
dug were put maize leaves filled with a kind of food, like fritters,
called _etzalli_; from this the month took its name.[VIII-18]

[Sidenote: PRAYER TO TLALOC.]

[Sidenote: PRAYER FOR RAIN.]

A prayer to this god has been preserved by Sahagun, in which it will
be noticed that the word Tlaloc is used sometimes in the singular and
sometimes in the plural:--

O our Lord, most clement, liberal giver and lord of verdure and
coolness, lord of the terrestrial paradise, odorous and flowery, and
lord of the incense of copal, woe are we that the gods of water, thy
subjects, have hid themselves away in their retreat, who are wont to
serve us with the things we need and who are themselves served with
_ulli_ and _auchtli_ and copal. They have left concealed all the
things that sustain our lives, and carried away with them their sister
the goddess of the necessaries of life, and carried away also the
goddess of pepper. O our Lord, take pity on us that live; our food
goes to destruction, is lost, is dried up; for lack of water, it is as
if turned to dust and mixed with spiders' webs. Woe for the miserable
laborers and for the common people; they are wasted with hunger, they
go about unrecognizable and disfigured every one. They are blue under
the eyes as with death; their mouths are dry as sedge; all the bones
of their bodies may be counted as in a skeleton. The children are
disfigured and yellow as earth; not only those that begin to walk, but
even those in the cradle. There is no one to whom this torment of
hunger does not come; the very animals and birds suffer hard want, by
the drought that is. It is pitiful to see the birds, some dragging
themselves along with drooping wings, others falling down utterly and
unable to walk, and others still with their mouths open through this
hunger and thirst. The animals, O our Lord, it is a grievous sight to
see them stumbling and falling, licking the earth for hunger, and
panting with open mouth and hanging tongue. The people lose their
senses and die for thirst; they perish, none is like to remain. It is
woeful, O our Lord, to see all the face of the earth dry, so that it
cannot produce the herbs nor the trees, nor anything to sustain
us--the earth that used to be as a father and mother to us, giving us
milk and all nourishment, herbs and fruits that therein grew. Now is
all dry, all lost; it is evident that the Tlaloc gods have carried all
away with them, and hid in their retreat, which is the terrestrial
paradise. The things, O Lord, that thou wert graciously wont to give
us, upon which we lived and were joyful, which are the life and joy
of all the world, and precious as emeralds or sapphires--all these
things are departed from us. O our Lord, god of nourishment and giver
thereof, most humane and most compassionate, what thing hast thou
determined to do with us? Hast thou, peradventure altogether forsaken
us? Thy wrath and indignation shall it not be appeased? Hast thou
determined on the perdition of all thy servants and vassals, and that
thy city and kingdom shall be left desolate and uninhabited?
Peradventure, this has been determined, and settled in heaven and
hades. O our Lord, concede at least this, that the innocent children,
who cannot so much as walk, who are still in the cradle, may have
something to eat, so that they may live, and not die in this so great
famine. What have they done that they should be tormented and should
die of hunger? No iniquity have they committed, neither know they what
thing it is to sin; they have neither offended the god of heaven nor
the god of hell. We, if we have offended in many things, if our sins
have reached heaven and hades, and the stink thereof gone out to the
ends of the earth, just it is that we be destroyed and made an end of;
we have nothing to say thereto, nor to excuse ourselves withal, nor to
resist what is determined against us in heaven and in hades. Let it be
done; destroy us all, and that swiftly, that we may not suffer from
this long weariness which is worse than if we burned in fire.
Certainly it is a horrible thing to suffer this hunger; it is like a
snake lacking food, it gulps down its saliva, it hisses, it cries out
for something to devour. It is a fearful thing to see the anguish of
it demanding somewhat to eat; this hunger is intense as burning fire,
flinging out sparks. Lord, let the thing happen that many years ago we
have heard said by the old men and women that have passed away from
us, let the heavens fall on us and the demons of the air come down,
the Izitzimites, who are to come to destroy the earth with all that
dwell on it; let darkness and obscurity cover the whole world, and the
habitation of men be nowhere found therein. This thing was known to
the ancients, and they divulged it, and from mouth to mouth it has
come down to us, all this that has to happen when the world ends and
the earth is weary of producing creatures. Our Lord, such present end
would be now dear to us as riches or pleasures once were--miserable
that we are! See good, O Lord, that there fall some pestilence to end
us quickly. Such plague usually comes from the god of hades; and if it
came there would peradventure be provided some allowance of food, so
that the dead should not travel to hades without any provision for the
way. O that this tribulation were of war, which is originated by the
sun, and which breaks from sleep like a strong and valiant one--for
then would the soldiers and the brave, the stout and warlike men, take
pleasure therein. In it many die, and much blood is spilt, and the
battle-field is filled with dead bodies and with the bones and skulls
of the vanquished; strewn also is the face of the earth with the hairs
of the head of warriors that rot; but this they fear not, for they
know that their souls go to the house of the sun. And there they honor
the sun with joyful voices, and suck the various flowers with great
delight; there all the stout and valiant ones that died in war are
glorified and extolled; there also the little and tender children that
die in war are presented to the Sun, very clean and well adorned and
shining like precious stones. Thy sister, the goddess of food,
provides for those that go thither, supplying them with provision for
the way; and this provision of necessary things is the strength and
the soul and the staff of all the people of the world, and without it
there is no life. But this hunger with which we are afflicted, O our
most humane Lord, is so sore and intolerable that the miserable common
people are not able to suffer nor support it; being still alive they
die many deaths; and not the people alone suffer but also all the
animals. O our most compassionate Lord, lord of green things and gums,
of herbs odorous and virtuous, I beseech thee to look with eyes of
pity on the people of this thy city and kingdom; for the whole world
down to the very beasts is in peril of destruction, and disappearance,
and irremediable end. Since this is so, I entreat thee to see good to
send back to us the food-giving gods, gods of the rain and storm, of
the herbs and of the trees; so that they perform again their office
here with us on the earth. Scatter the riches and the prosperity of
thy treasures, let the timbrels of joy be shaken that are the staves
of the gods of water, let them take their sandals of india-rubber that
they may walk with swiftness. Give succor, O Lord, to our lord, the
god of the earth, at least with one shower of water, for when he has
water he creates and sustains us. See good, O Lord, to invigorate the
corn, and the other foods, much wished for and much needed, now sown
and planted; for the ridges of the earth suffer sore need and anguish
from lack of water. See good, O Lord, that the people receive this
favor and mercy at thine hand, let them see and enjoy of the verdure
and coolness that are as precious stones; see good that the fruit and
the substance of the Tlalocs be given, which are the clouds that these
gods carry with them and that sow the rain about us. See good, O Lord,
that the animals and herbs be made glad, and that the fowls and birds
of precious feather, such as the _quechotl_ and the _caguan_, fly and
sing and suck the herbs and flowers. And let not this come about with
thunderings and lightnings, symbols of thy wrath; for if our lords the
Tlalocs come with thunder and lightning the whole people, being lean
and very weak with hunger, would be terrified. If indeed some are
already marked out to go to the earthly paradise by the stroke of the
thunderbolt, let this death be restricted to them, and let no injury
befall any of the other people in mountain or cabin; neither let hurt
come near the magueys or the other trees and plants of the earth; for
these things are necessary to the life and sustenance of the people,
poor, forsaken, and cast-away, who can with difficulty get food enough
to live, going about through hunger with the bowels empty and
sticking to the ribs. O our Lord, most compassionate, most generous,
giver of all nourishment, be pleased to bless the earth and all the
things that live on the face thereof. With deep sighing and with
anguish of heart I cry upon all those that are gods of water, that are
in the four quarters of the world, east and west, north and south, and
upon those that dwell in the hollow of the earth, or in the air, or in
the high mountains, or in the deep caves, I beseech them to come and
console this poor people and to water the earth; for the eyes of all
that inhabit the earth, animals as well as men, are turned toward you,
and their hope is set upon your persons. O our Lord, be pleased to
come.[VIII-19]

[Sidenote: VENGEANCE OF TLALOC.]

This is a prayer to Tlaloc. But it was not with prayers alone that
they deprecated his wrath and implored his assistance; here as
elsewhere in the Mexican religion sacrifices played an important part.
When the rain failed and the land was parched by drought, great
processions were made in which a number of hairless dogs, common to
the country, and good to eat, were carried on decorated litters to a
place devoted to this use. There they were sacrificed to the god of
water by cutting out their hearts. Afterwards the carcasses were eaten
amid great festivities. All these things the Tlascaltec historian,
Camargo, had seen with his own eyes thirty years before writing his
book. The sacrifices of men, which were added to these in the days of
greatness of the old religion, he describes as he was informed by
priests who had officiated thereat. Two festivals in the year were
celebrated to Tlaloc, the greater feast and the less. Each of these
was terminated by human sacrifices. The side of the victim was opened
with a sharp knife; the high priest tore out the heart, and turning
toward the east offered it with lifted hands to the sun, crushing it
at the same time with all his strength. He repeated this, turning in
succession towards the remaining three cardinal points; the other
_tlamacaxques_, or priests, not ceasing the while to darken with
clouds of incense the faces of the idols. The heart was lastly burned
and the body flung down the steps of the temple. A priest, who had
afterwards been converted to Christianity, told Camargo that when he
tore out the heart of a victim and flung it down, it used to palpitate
with such force as to clear itself of the ground several times till it
grew cold. Tlaloc was held in exceeding respect and the priests alone
had the right to enter his temple. Whoever dared to blaspheme against
him was supposed to die suddenly or to be stricken of thunder; the
thunderbolt, instrument of his vengeance, flashed from the sky even at
the moment it was clearest. The sacrifices offered to him in times of
drought were never without answer and result; for, as Camargo craftily
insinuates, the priests took good care never to undertake them till
they saw indications of coming rain; besides, he adds--introducing,
in defiance of _nec deus intersit_, a surely unneeded personage, if we
suppose his last statement true--the devil, to confirm these
people in their errors, was always sure to send rain.[VIII-20]

Children were also sacrificed to Tlaloc. Says Motolinia, when four
years came together in which there was no rain, and there remained as
a consequence hardly any green thing in the fields, the people waited
till the maize grew as high as the knee, and then made a general
subscription with which four slave children, of five or six years of
age, were purchased. These they sacrificed in a cruel manner by
closing them up in a cave, which was never opened except on these
occasions.[VIII-21]

According to Mendieta, again, children were sometimes offered to this
god by drowning. The children were put into a canoe which was carried
to a certain part of the lake of Mexico where was a whirlpool, which
is no longer visible. Here the boat was sunk with its living cargo.
These gods had, according to the same author, altars in the
neighborhood of pools especially near springs; which altars were
furnished with some kind of roof, and at the principal fountains were
four in number set over against each other in the shape of a
cross--the cross of the rain god.[VIII-22]

The Vatican Codex says that in April a boy was sacrificed to Tlaloc
and his dead body put into the maize granaries or maize fields--it is
not clearly apparent which--to preserve the food of the people from
spoiling.[VIII-23] It is to Sahagun, however, that we must turn for the
most complete and authentic account of the festivals of Tlaloc with
their attendant sacrifices.

[Sidenote: SACRIFICES OF CHILDREN.]

In the first days of the first month of the year, which month is
called in some parts of Mexico, Quavitleloa, but generally Atlcaoalo,
and begins on the second of our February, a great feast was made in
honor of the Tlalocs, gods of rain and water. For this occasion many
children at the breast were purchased from their mothers; those being
chosen that had two whirls (remolinos) in their hair, and that had
been born under a good sign; it being said that such were the most
agreeable sacrifice to the storm gods, and most likely to induce them
to send rain in due season. Some of these infants were butchered for
this divine holiday on certain mountains, and some were drowned in the
lake of Mexico. With the beginning of the festival, in every house,
from the hut to the palace, certain poles were set up and to these
were attached strips of the paper of the country, daubed over with
india-rubber gum, said strips being called _amateteuitl_; this was
considered an honor to the water-gods. And the first place where
children were killed was Quauhtepetl, a high mountain in the
neighborhood of Tlatelulco; all infants, boys or girls, sacrificed
there were called by the name of the place, Quauhtepetl, and were
decorated with strips of paper dyed red. The second place where
children were killed was Yoaltecatl, a high mountain near Guadalupe.
The victims were decorated with pieces of black paper, with red lines
on it, and were named after the place, Yoaltecatl. The third
death-halt was made at Tepetzingo, a well-known hillock that rose up
from the waters of the lake opposite Tlatelulco; there they killed a
little girl, decking her with blue paper, and calling her Quetzalxoch,
for so was this hillock called by another name. Poiauhtla, on the
boundary of Tlascala, was the fourth hill of sacrifice. Here they
killed children, named as usual after the locality, and decorated with
paper on which were lines of india-rubber oil. The fifth place of
sacrifice was the no longer visible whirlpool or sink of the lake of
Mexico, Pantitlan. Those drowned here were called Epcoatl, and their
adornment _epuepaniuhqui_. The sixth hill of death was Cocotl,[VIII-24]
near Chalcoatenco; the infant victims were named after it and
decorated with strips of paper of which half the number were red and
half a tawny color. The mount Yiauhqueme, near Atlacuioaia, was the
seventh station; the victims being named after the place and adorned
with paper of a tawny color.

All these miserable babes before being carried to their death were
bedecked with precious stones and rich feathers and with raiment and
sandals wrought curiously; they put upon them paper wings (as if they
were angels); they stained their faces with oil of india-rubber, and
on the middle of each tiny cheek they painted a round spot of white.
Not able yet to walk, the victims were carried in litters shining with
jewels and awave with plumes; flutes and trumpets bellowed and
shrilled round the little bedizened heads, all so unfortunate in their
two whirls of hair, as they passed along; and everywhere as the
litters were borne by, all the people wept. When the procession
reached the temple near Tepetzinco, on the east, called Tozocan, the
priests rested there all night, watching and singing songs, so that
the little ones could not sleep. In the morning the march was again
resumed; if the children wept copiously those around them were very
glad, saying it was a sign that much rain would fall; while if they
met any dropsical person on the road it was taken for a bad omen and
something that would hinder the rain. If any of the temple ministers,
or of the others called _quaquavitli_, or of the old men, broke off
from the procession or turned back to their houses before they came to
the place where the sacrifice was done, they were held for infamous
and unworthy of any public office; thenceforward they were called
_mocauhque_, that is to say, 'deserters.'[VIII-25]

[Sidenote: SPOLIATION OF CÆSAR FOR THE CHURCH.]

More ludicrous than diabolical are the ceremonies of the next feast of
Tlaloc. In the sixth Aztec month, the month Etzalqualixtli, there was
held a festival in honor of the gods of water and rain. Before the
commencement of this festival the idol priests fasted four days, and
before beginning to fast they made a procession to a certain piece of
water, near Citlaltepec, to gather tules; for at that place these
rushes grew very tall and thick and what part of them was under water
was very white. There they pulled them up, rolled them in bundles
wrapped about with their blankets, and so carried them back on their
shoulders. Both on going out for these rushes and on coming back with
them, it was the custom to rob anyone that was met on the road; and
as every one knew of this custom the roads were generally pretty clear
of stragglers about this time. No one, not even a king's officer
returning to his master with tribute, could hope to escape on such an
occasion, nor to obtain from any court or magistrate any
indemnification for loss or injury so sustained in goods or person;
and if he made any resistance to his clerical spoilers they beat and
kicked and dragged him over the ground. When they reached the temple
with their rushes they spread them out on the ground and plaited them,
white with green, into as it were painted mats, sewing them firm with
threads of maguey-root; of these mats they made stools, and chairs
with backs. The first day of the fast arrived, all the idol ministers
and priests retired to their apartments in the temple buildings. There
retired all those called _tlamacaztequioagues_, that is to say,
'priests that have done feats in war, that have captured three or four
prisoners;' these although they did not reside continually in the
temple, resorted thither at set times to fulfil their offices. There
retired also those called _tlamacazcayiaque_, that is, 'priests that
have taken one prisoner in war;' these also, although not regular
inmates of the cues, resorted thither, when called by their duties.
There retired also those that are called _tlamacazquecuicanime_,
'priest singers,' who resided permanently in the temple building
because they had as yet captured no one in war. Last of all those also
retired that were called _tlamacaztezcahoan_, which means 'inferior
ministers,' and those boys, like little sacristans, who were called
_tlamacatoton_, 'little ministers.'

Next, all the rush mats that had been made which were called
_aztapilpetlatl_, 'jaspered mats of rushes, or mats of white and
green' were spread round about the hearths (hogares) of the temple,
and the priests proceeded to invest themselves for their offices. They
put on a kind of jacket that they had, called _xicolli_, of painted
cloth; on the left arm they put a kind of scarf, _macataxtli_; in the
left hand they took a bag of copal, and in the right a censer,
_temaitl_, which is a kind of sauce-pan or frying-pan of baked clay.
Then they entered into the court-yard of the temple, took up their
station in the middle of it, put live coals into their censers, added
copal, and offered incense toward the four quarters of the world,
east, north, west, and south. This done they emptied the coals from
their incense-pans into the great brasiers that were always burning at
night in the court, brasiers somewhat less in height than the height
of a man, and so thick that two men could with difficulty clasp them.

[Sidenote: BATHING IN THE FESTIVAL OF TLALOC.]

This over, the priests returned to the temple buildings, _calmecac_,
and put off their ornaments. Then they offered before the hearth
little balls of dough, called _veutelolotli_; each priest offering
four, arranging them on the aforementioned rush mats, and putting them
down with great care, so that they should not roll nor move; and if
the balls of any one stirred, it was the duty of his fellows to call
attention to the matter and have him punished therefor. Some offered
instead of dough four little pies or four pods of green pepper. A
careful scrutiny was also observed to see if any one had any dirt on
his blanket, or any bit of thread or hair or feather, and that no one
should trip or fall; for in such a case he had to be punished; and as
a consequence every man took good heed to all his steps and ways
during these four days. At the end of each day's offerings, certain
old men, called _quaquacuiltin_ came, their faces dyed black, and
their heads shaved, save only the crown of the head, where the hair
was allowed to grow long, the reverse of the custom of the Christian
priests. These old men daily collected the offerings that had been
made, dividing them among themselves. It was further the custom with
all the priests and in all the temples, while fasting these four days,
to be wakened at midnight by the blast of horns and shells and other
instruments; when all rose up and, utterly naked, went to where were
certain thorns of maguey, cut for the purpose the day before, and with
little lancets of stone they hacked their ears, staining the prepared
thorns of maguey and besmearing their faces with the blood that
flowed; each man staining maguey-thorns with his blood in number
proportioned to his devotion, some five, others more, others less.
This done all the priests went to bathe themselves, how cold soever it
might be, attended by the music of marine shells and shrill whistles
of baked clay. Every one had a little bag strapped to his shoulders,
ornamented with tassels or strips of painted paper; in these bags was
carried a sort of herb ground fine and made up with a kind of black
dye into little longish pellets.[VIII-26] The general body of the priests
marched along, each one carrying a leaf of maguey in which the thorns
were stuck, as in a pincushion, which he had to use. Before these went
a priest with his censer full of live coals and a bag of copal; and in
advance of all these walked one carrying a board on his shoulder of
about a span broad and two yards long, hollowed apparently in some
way, and filled with little rollers of wood that rattled and sounded
as the bearer went along shaking them.[VIII-27] All the priests took part
in this procession, only four remaining behind to take care of the
temple-building, or calmecac, which was their monastery. These four
during the absence of the others remained seated in the calmecac and
occupied themselves in devotion to the gods, in singing and in
rattling with a hollow board of the sort mentioned above. At the piece
of water where the priests were to bathe there were four houses,
called _axaucalli_, 'fog houses,' set each toward one of the four
quarters of the compass; in the ablutions of the first night one of
these houses was occupied, on the second night another, and so on
through all the four nights and four houses of the fog. Here also were
four tall poles standing up out of the water. And the unfortunate
bathers, naked from the outset as we remember, reached this place
trembling and their teeth chattering with cold. One of their number
mumbled a few words, which being translated mean: this is the place of
snakes, the place of mosquitos, the place of ducks, and the place of
rushes. This said, all flung themselves into the water and began to
splash with their hands and feet, making a great noise and imitating
the cries of various aquatic birds.[VIII-28] When the bathing was over,
the naked priests took their way back accompanied by the music of
pipes and shells. Half dead with cold and weariness they reached the
temple, where drawing their mantles over them they flung themselves
down in a confused heap on the rush mats, so often mentioned, and
slept as best they could. We are told that some talked in their sleep,
and some walked about in it, and some snored, and some sighed in a
painful manner. There they lay in a tangled weary heap not rising till
noon of the next day.

[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS DISCIPLINE.]

The first thing to be done on waking was to array themselves in their
canonicals, take their censers, and to follow an old priest called
Quaquacuilti to all the chapels and altars of the idols, incensing
them. After this they were at liberty to eat; they squatted down in
groups, and to each one was given such food as had been sent to him
from his own house; and if any one took any of the portion of another,
or even exchanged his for that of another, he was punished for it.
Punishment also attended the dropping of any morsel while eating, if
the fault were not atoned for by a fine. After this meal, they all
went to cut down branches of a certain kind called _acxoiatl_, or,
where these were not to be found, green canes instead, and to bring
them to the temple in sheaves. There they sat down, every man with his
sheaf, and waited for an arranged signal. The signal given, every one
sprang up to some appointed part of the temple to decorate it with his
boughs; and if any one went to a place not his, or wandered from his
companions, or lagged behind them, they punished him--a punishment
only to be remitted by paying to his accuser, within the four days of
which we are now speaking, either a hen or a blanket or a
breech-clout, or, if very poor, a ball of dough in a cup.

These four days over, the festival was come, and every man began it by
eating _etzalli_, a kind of maize porridge, in his own house. For
those that wished it there was general dancing and rejoicing. Many
decked themselves out like merry-andrews and went about in parties
carrying pots, going from house to house, demanding etzalli. They sang
and danced before the door, and said, "If you do not give me some
porridge, I will knock a hole in your house;" whereupon the etzalli
was given. These revels began at midnight and ceased at dawn. Then
indeed did the priests array themselves in all their glory: underneath
was a jacket, over that a thin transparent mantle called
_aiauhquemitl_, decorated with parrot-feathers set cross-wise. Between
the shoulders they fastened a great round paper flower, like a shield.
To the nape of the neck they attached other flowers of crumpled paper
of a semi-circular shape; these hung down on both sides of the head
like ears. The forehead was painted blue and over the paint was dusted
powder of marcasite. In the right hand was carried a bag made of
tiger-skin, and embroidered with little white shells which clattered
as one walked. The bag seems to have been three-cornered; from one
angle hung down the tiger's tail, from another his two fore feet, from
another his two hind feet. It contained incense made from a certain
herb called _yiauhtli_.[VIII-29] There went one priest bearing a hollow
board filled with wooden rattles, as before described. In advance of
this personage there marched a number of others, carrying in their
arms images of the gods made of that gum that is black and leaps,
called _ulli_ (india-rubber), these images were called _ulteteu_, that
is to say 'gods of ulli.' Other ministers there were carrying in their
arms lumps of copal, shaped like sugar loaves; each pyramid having a
rich feather, called quetzal, stuck in the peak of it like a plume. In
this manner went the procession with the usual horns and shells, and
the purpose of it was to lead to punishment those that had
transgressed in any of the points we have already discussed. The
culprits were marched along, some held by the hair at the nape of the
neck, others by the breech-clout; the boy offenders were held by the
hand, or, if very small, were carried. All these were brought to a
place called Totecco, where water was. Here certain ceremonies were
performed, paper was burned in sacrifice, as were also the pyramids of
copal and images of ulli, incense being thrown into the fire and other
incense scattered over the rush mats with which the place was adorned.
While this was going on those in charge of the culprits had not been
idle, but were flinging them into the water. Great was the noise, it
is said, made by the splash of one tossed in, and the water leaped
high with the shock. As any one came to the surface or tried to
scramble out he was pushed in or pushed down again--well was it then
for him who could swim, and by long far diving keep out of the reach
of his tormentors. For the others they were so roughly handled that
they were often left for dead on the water's edge, where their
relatives would come and hang them up by the feet to let the water
they had swallowed run out of them; a method of cure surely as bad as
the malady.

[Sidenote: THE FOUR BALLS.]

The shrill music struck up again and the procession returned by the
way it had come; the friends of the punished ones carrying them. The
monastery or calmecac reached, there began another four days' fast,
called _netlacacaoaliztli_; but in this the sharp religious etiquette
of the first four days' fast was not observed, or at least one was not
liable to be informed upon or punished for a breach of such etiquette.
The conclusion of this fast was celebrated by feasting. Again the
priests decorated themselves in festal array. All the head was painted
blue, the face was covered with honey (miel) mixed with a black dye.
Over the shoulders were carried the incense-bags embroidered with
little white shells--bags made of tiger-skins, as before described,
for the chief priests, and of paper painted to imitate tiger-skin in
the case of the inferior priests. Some of these satchels were
fashioned to resemble the bird called _atzitzicuilotl_, others to
resemble ducks. The priests marched in procession to the temple, and
before all marched the priest of Tlaloc. He had on his head a crown of
basketwork, fitting close to the temples below and spreading out
above, with many plumes issuing from the middle of it. His face was
anointed with melted india-rubber gum, black as ink, and concealed by
an ugly mask with a great nose, and a wig attached which fell as low
as the waist. All went along mumbling to themselves as if they prayed,
till they came to the cu of Tlaloc. There they stopped and spread tule
mats on the ground, and dusted them over with powdered tule-leaves
mixed with yiauhtli incense. Upon this the acting priest placed four
round chalchiuites, like little balls; then he took a small hook
painted blue, and touched each ball with it; and as he touched each he
made a movement as if drawing back his hand, and turned himself
completely round. He scattered more incense on the mats, then he took
the board with the rattles inside and sounded with it--perhaps a kind
of religious stage thunder in imitation of the thunder of his god.
Upon this every one retired to his house or to his monastery and put
off his ornaments; and the unfortunates who had been ducked were
carried at last to their own dwellings for the rest and recovery that
they so sorely needed. That night the festivities burst out with a new
glory, the musical instruments of the cu itself were sounded, the
great drums and the shrill shells. Well watched that night were the
prisoners who were doomed to death on the morrow. When it came they
were adorned with the trappings of the Tlaloc gods--for it was said
they were the images of these gods--and those that were killed first
were said to be the foundation of the others, which seemed to be
symbolized by those who had to die last being made to seat themselves
on those who had been first killed.[VIII-30]

The slaughter over, the hearts of the victims were put into a pot that
was painted blue and stained with ulli in four places. Together with
this pot offerings were taken of paper and feathers and precious
stones and chalchiuites, and a party set out with the whole for that
part of the lake where the whirlpool is, called Pantitlan. All who
assisted at this offering and sacrifice were provided with a supply of
the herb called _iztauhiatl_, which is something like the incense used
in Spain, and they puffed it with their mouths over each other's faces
and over the faces of their children. This they did to hinder maggots
getting into the eyes, and also to protect against a certain disease
of the eyes called _exocuillo-o-alixtli_; some also put this herb into
their ears, and others for a certain superstition they had held a
handful of it clutched in the hand. The party entered a great canoe
belonging to the king, furnished with green oars, or paddles, spotted
with ulli, and rowed swiftly to the place Pantitlan, where the
whirlpool was. This whirlpool was surrounded by logs driven into the
bottom of the lake like piles--probably to keep canoes from being
drawn into the sink. These logs being reached, the priests, standing
in the bows of the royal vessel, began to play on their horns and
shells. Conspicuous among them stood their chief holding the pot
containing the hearts; he flung them far into the whirling hollow of
water, and it is said that when the hearts plunged in, the waters were
strangely moved and stirred into waves and foam. The precious stones
were also thrown in, and the papers of the offering were fastened to
the stakes with a number of the chalchiuites and other stones. A
priest took a censer and put four papers called _telhuitl_ into it,
and burned them, offering them toward the whirlpool; then he threw
them, censer and all, still burning into the sink. That done, the
canoe was put about and rowed to the landing of Tetamacolco, and every
one bathed there.

All this took place between midnight and morning, and when the light
began to break the whole body of the priests went to bathe in the
usual place. They washed the blue paint off their heads, save only on
the forehead; and if there were any offences of any priest to be
punished he was here ducked and half drowned as described above.
Lastly all returned to their monasteries, and the green rush mats
spread there were thrown out behind each house.[VIII-31]

We have given the description of two great festivals of the
Tlalocs--two being all that are mentioned by many authorities--there
still remain, however, two other notable occasions on which they were
propitiated and honored.

[Sidenote: IMAGES OF THE MOUNTAINS.]

In the thirteenth month, which was called Tepeilhuitl, and which
began, according to Clavigero, on the 24th of October, it was the
custom to cut certain sticks into the shape of snakes. Certain images
as of children were also cut out of wood, and these dolls, called
_hecatotonti_, together with the wooden snakes, were used as a
foundation or centre round which to build up little effigies of the
mountains; wherein the Tlalocs were honored as gods of the mountains,
and wherein memorial was had of those that had been drowned, or killed
by thunderbolts, or whose bodies had been buried without
cremation--the dolls perhaps representing the bodies of these, and
the snakes the thunderbolts. Having then these wooden dolls and snakes
as a basis, they were covered with dough mixed from the seeds of the
wild amaranth; over each doll certain papers were put; round one snake
and one doll, set back to back, there appears next to have been bound
a wisp of hay, (which wisp was kept from year to year and washed on
the vigil of every feast), till the proper shape of a mountain was
arrived at; over the whole was then daubed a layer of dough, of the
kind already mentioned. We have now our image of the mountain with two
heads looking opposite ways, sticking out from its summit. Round this
summit there seem to have been stuck rolls of dough representing the
clouds usually formed about the crests of high mountains. The face of
the human image that looked out over these dough clouds was daubed
with melted ulli; and to both cheeks of it were stuck little
tortillas, or cakes of the everywhere-present dough of wild amaranth
seeds. On the head of this same image was put a crown with feathers
issuing from it.[VIII-32] These images were made at night, and in the
morning they were carried to their 'oratories,' and laid down on beds
of rushes or reeds; then food was offered to them, small pies or
tarts, a porridge of maize-flour and sugar, and the stewed flesh of
fowls or of dogs. Incense was burned before them, being thrown into a
censer shaped like a hand, as it were a great spoon full of burning
coals. Those who could afford it sang and drank pulque in honor of
their dead ones and of these gods.

[Sidenote: SACRIFICES TO TLALOC.]

In this feast four women and a man were killed in honor of the Tlalocs
and of the mountains. The four women were named respectively, Tepoxch,
Matlalquac, Xochetecatl, and Mayavel--this last was decorated to
appear as the image of the magueyes. The man was called Milnaoatl; he
stood for an image of 'the snakes.' These victims, adorned with crowns
of paper stained with ulli, were borne to their doom in litters. Being
carried to the summit of the cu, they were thrown one by one on the
sacrificial stone, their hearts taken out with the flint and offered
to Tlaloc, and their bodies allowed to slide slowly down the
temple-steps to the earth--a too rapid descent being hindered by the
priests. The corpses were carried to a place where the heads were cut
off and preserved, spitted on poles thrust through the temples of each
skull. The bodies were lastly carried to the wards from which they had
set out alive, and there cut in pieces and eaten. At the same time the
images of the mountains, which we have attempted to describe, were
broken up, the dough with which they were covered was set out to dry
in the sun, and was eaten, every day a piece. The papers with which
the said images had been adorned were then spread over the wisps of
hay, above mentioned, and the whole was fastened up in the rafters of
the oratory that every one had in his house; there to remain till
required for the next year's feast of the same kind; on which
occasion, and as a preliminary to the other ceremonies which we have
already described in the first part of this feast, the people took
down the paper and the wisp from their private oratories, and carried
them to the public oratory called the _acaucalli_, left the paper
there, and returned with the wisp to make of it anew the image of a
mountain.[VIII-33]

[Sidenote: KILLING IMAGES OF THE MOUNTAINS.]

The fourth and last festival of Tlaloc which we have to describe, fell
in our December and in the sixteenth Aztec month, called the month
Atemuztli. About this time it began to thunder round the
mountain-tops, and the first rains to fall there; the common people
said, "Now come the Tlalocs," and for love of the water they made vows
to make images of the mountains--not, however, as it would appear,
such images as have been described as appertaining to the preceding
festival. The priests were very devout at this season and very earnest
in prayer, expecting the rain. They took each man his incense-pan or
censer, made like a great spoon with a long round hollow handle filled
with rattles and terminating in a snake's head, and offered incense to
all the idols. Five days before the beginning of the feast the common
people bought paper and ulli and flint knives and a kind of coarse
cloth called _nequen_, and devoutly prepared themselves with fasting
and penance to make their images of the mountains and to cover them
with paper. In this holy season, although every one bathed, he washed
no higher than the neck, the head was left unwashed; the men,
moreover, abstained from their wives. The night preceding the great
feast-day was spent wholly, flint knife in hand, cutting out paper
into various shapes. These papers called _tetevitl_, were stained with
ulli; and every householder got a long pole, covered it with pieces of
this paper, and set it up in his court-yard, where it remained all the
day of the festival. Those that had vowed to make images of the
mountains invited priests to their houses to do it for them. The
priests came, bearing their drums and rattles and instruments of music
of tortoise-shell. They made the images--apparently like human
figures--out of the dough of wild amaranth seed, and covered them with
paper. In some houses there were made five of such images, in others
ten, in others fifteen; they were figures that stood for such
mountains as the clouds gather round, such as the volcano of the
Sierra Nevada or that of the Sierra of Tlascala. These images being
constructed, they were set in order in the oratory of the house, and
before each one was set food--very small pies, on small platters,
proportionate to the little image, small boxes holding a little sweet
porridge of maize, little calabashes of cacao, and other small green
calabashes containing pulque. In one night they presented the figures
with food in this manner four times. All the night too they sang
before them, and played upon flutes; the regular flutists not being
employed on this occasion, but certain small boys who were paid for
their trouble with something to eat. When the morning came, the
ministers of the idols asked the master of the house for his
_tzotzopaztli_, a kind of broad wooden knife used in weaving,[VIII-34]
and thrust it into the breasts of the images of the mountains, as if
they were living men, and cut their throats and drew out the hearts,
which they put in a green cup and gave to the owner of the house. This
done, they took all the paper with which these images had been adorned,
together with certain green mats that had been used for the same
purpose, and the utensils in which the offering of food had been put,
and burned all in the court-yard of the house. The ashes and the
mutilated images seem then to have been carried to a public oratory
called Aiauhcalco, on the shore of the lake. Then all who assisted at
these ceremonies joined themselves to eat and drink in honor of the
mutilated images, which were called _tepieme_. Women were allowed to
join in this banquet provided they brought fifteen or twenty heads of
maize with them; they received every one his or her share of food and
pulque. The pulque was kept in black jars and lifted out to be drunk
with black cups. This banquet over, the paper streamers were taken
down from the poles set up in the court-yards of the houses and
carried to certain places in the water that were marked out by piles
driven in--we may remember that our whirlpool of Pantitlan, in the
lake of Mexico, was one place so marked--and to the tops of the
mountains, and left there as it would appear.[VIII-35]

In taking leave here of Tlaloc I may draw attention to the prominence
in his cult of the number four, the cross, and the snake; and add that
as lord of one of the three Aztec divisions of the future world, lord
of the terrestrial paradise, we shall meet with him again in our
examination of the Mexican ideas of a future life.

FOOTNOTES:

[VIII-1] Huitzilopochtli is derived from two words: _huitzilin_, the
humming-bird, and _opochtli_, left--so called from the left foot of
his image being decorated with humming-bird feathers. _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 17-19.

[VIII-2] _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, pp. 60-1.

[VIII-3] _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, pp. 352-3, 361-3. Acosta gives a
description of the wanderings of the Mexicans and how their god
Vitziliputzli, directed and guided them therein, much as the God of
Israel directed his people, across the wilderness to the Promised
Land. Tradition also tells, how he himself revealed that manner of
sacrifice most acceptable to his will:--some of the priests having
overnight offended him, lo, in the morning, they were all dead men;
their stomachs being cut open, and their hearts pulled out; which
rites in sacrifice were thereupon adopted for the service of that
deity, and retained until their rooting out by the stern Spanish
husbandry, so well adapted to such foul and bloody tares. _Purchas
his Pilgrimes_, vol. iv., pp. 1002-3.

[VIII-4] _Solis_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. i., pp. 396-8. This writer
says: 'The Spanish soldiers called this idol _Huchilobos_, a corrupt
pronunciation: so too Bernal Diaz del Castillo writes it. Authors
differ much in describing this magnificent building. Antonio de
Herrera follows Francisco Lopez de Gómara too closely. We shall follow
Father Josef de Acosta and the better informed authors.' _Id._, p.
395.

[VIII-5] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., p. i.

[VIII-6] _Gage's New Survey_, pp. 116-7; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
i., dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. xvii.

[VIII-7] 'Pero los mismos Naturales afirman, que este Nombre tomaron de
el Dios Principal, que ellos traxeron, el qual tenia dos Nombres, el
uno Huitzilopuchtli, y el otro Mexitly, y este segundo, quiere decir
Ombligo de Maguey.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 293.

[VIII-8] 'Aconteciò, pues, vn dia, que estando barriendo, come
acostumbraba, viò bajar por el Aire, una pelota pequeña, hecha de
plumas, à manera de ovillo, hecho de hilado, que se le vino à los
manos, la qual tomò, y metiò entre los Nahuas, ò Faldellin, y la
carne, debajo de la faja que le ceñia el cuerpo (porque siempre traen
fajado este genero de vestido) no imaginando ningun misterio, ni fin
de aquel caso. Acabo de barrer, y buscò la pelota de pluma, para vèr
de què podria aprovecharla en servicio de sus Dioses, y no la hallò.
Quedò de esto admirada, y mucho mas de conocer en sì, que desde aquel
punto se avia hecho preñada.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii.,
pp. 41-2.

[VIII-9] This Paynalton, or Paynal, was a kind of deputy-god, or
substitute for Huitzilopochtli; used in cases of urgent haste and
immediate emergency, where perhaps it might be thought there was not
time for the lengthened ceremonies necessary to the invocation of the
greater war deity. Sahagun's account of Paynal is concise, and will
throw light on the remarks of Torquemada, as given above in the text.
Sahagun says, in effect: This god Paynal was a kind of sub-captain to
Huitzilopochtli. The latter, as chief-captain, dictated the deliberate
undertaking of war against any province; the former, as vicar to the
other, served when it became unexpectedly necessary to take up arms
and make front hurriedly against an enemy. Then it was that
Paynal--whose name means 'swift, or hurried,'--when living on earth
set out in person to stir up the people to repulse the enemy. Upon his
death he was deified and a festival appointed in his honor. In this
festival, his image, richly decorated, was carried in a long
procession, every one, bearer of the idol or not, running as fast as
he could; all of which represented the promptness that is many times
necessary to resist the assault of a foe attacking by surprise or
ambuscade. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., p. 2.

[VIII-10] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 293, tom. ii., pp.
41-3, 71-3.

[VIII-11] See this vol., p. 69, note.

[VIII-12] See this vol. p. 67.

[VIII-13] See this vol. p. 134.

[VIII-14] If some of the names and myths, mentioned or alluded to from
time to time, by Müller and others, are yet unknown to the reader, he
will remember the impossibility of any arrangement of these mixed and
far-involved legends by which, without infinite verbiage, this trouble
could be wholly obviated. In good time, and with what clearness is
possible, the list of gods and legends will be made as nearly as may
be complete.

[VIII-15] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 591-612.

[VIII-16] _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p 279.

[VIII-17] _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano),
tav. lxxi.-ii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 195-6.

[VIII-18] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 14;
_Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., p. 101, pt ii., pp. 76-9.

[VIII-19] _Sahagun_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp.
372-6; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, vol. ii., pp. 64-70.

[VIII-20] _Camargo_, _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voy._, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 133, 135-7. Camargo, being a Tlascaltec,
most of his writings have particular reference to his own province,
but in this as in other places he seems to be describing general
Mexican customs.

[VIII-21] The text, without saying directly that these unfortunate
children were closed there alive, appears to infer it: 'Cuando el maiz
estaba á la rodilla, para un dia repartian y echaban pecho, con que
compraban cuatro niños esclavos de edad de cinco á seis años, y
sacrificábanlos á Tlaloc, dios del agua, poniéndolos en una cueva, y
cerrábanla hasta otro año que hacian lo mismo. Este cruel sacrificio.'
_Motolinia_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 45.

[VIII-22] 'Tambien tenian ídolos junto á los aguas, mayormente cerca de
las fuentes, á do hacian sus altares con sus gradas cubiertas por
encima, y en muchas principales fuentes cuatro altares de estos á
manera de cruz unos enfrente de otros, y allí en el agua echaban mucho
encienso ofrecido y papel.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, pp. 87, 102.

[VIII-23] 'In questo mese ritornavano ad ornare li tempj, e le immagini
come nello passato, ed in fine delli venti dí sacrificavano un putto
al Dio dell' acqua, e lo mettevano infra il maiz, a fine che non si
guastasse la provisione di tutto l' anno.' _Spiegazione delle Tavole
del Codice Mexicano_, tav. lx., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol.
v., p. 191.

[VIII-24] 'Whence is derived the name _cocoles_, by which the boys of
the choir of the cathedral of Mexico are now known.' _Bustamante_, note
to _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 85.

[VIII-25] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 37-8; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 84-7.

[VIII-26] 'En aquellas talegas llevaban una manera de harina hecha á la
manera de estiercol de ratones, que ellos llamaban yyaqualli, que era
conficionada con tinta y con polvos de una yerva que ellos llaman
yietll; és como veleños de Castilla.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. vii., p. 51.

[VIII-27] Sahagun gives two different accounts of this instrument: 'Una
tabla tan larga como dos varas, y ancha como un palmo ó poco mas. Yvan
dentro de estas tablas unas sonajas, y el que le llevaba iva sonando
con ellas. Llamaban á esta tabla Axochicaoaliztli, ó Nacatlquoavitl.'
The second description is: 'Una tabla de anchura de un palmo y de
largura de dos brazas; á trechos ivan unos sonajas en esta tabla unos
pedazuelos de madero rollizos y atados á la misma tabla, y dentro de
ella ivan sonando los unos con los otros. Esta tabla se llamaba
aiauhchicaoaztli.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 51 and
53.

[VIII-28] 'Comenzaban á vocear y á gritar y a contrahacer las aves del
agua, unos á los anades, otros á unas aves zancudas del agua que llama
pipititi, otros á los cuervos marinos, otros á las garzotas blancas,
otros á las garzas. Aquellas palabras que decia el satrapa parece que
eran invocacion del Demonio para hablar aquellos lenguages de aves en
al agua.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 51.

[VIII-29] 'Yauhtlaulli or Yauitl, mayz moreno o negro.' _Molina_,
_Vocabulario_.

[VIII-30] 'Comenzaban luego á matar á los captivos; aquellos que primero
mataban decian que eran el fundamento de los que eran imagen de los
Tlaloques, que ivan aderezados con los ornamentos de los mismos
Tlaloques que (ivan aderezados) decian eran sus imagenes, y asi los
que morian á la postre ivanse á sentar sobre los que primero habian
muerto.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 54.

[VIII-31] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 49-55; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 111-124.

[VIII-32] This passage relating to the making of images of the mountains
is such a chaotic jumble in the original that one is forced to use
largely any constructive imagination one may possess to reproduce even
a comprehensible description. I give the original; if any one can make
rhyme or reason out of it by a closer following of the words of
Sahagun, he shall not want the opportunity: 'Al trece mes llamaban
Tepeilhuitl. En la fiesta que se hacia en este mes cubrian de masa de
bledos unos palos que tenian hechos como culebras, y hacian imagenes
de montes fundadas sobre unos palos hechos á manera de niños que
llamaban Hecatotonti: era la imagen del monte de masa de bledos.
Ponianle delante junto unas masas rollizas y larguillas de masa de
bledos á manera de bezos, y estos llamaban Yomiio. Hacian estas
imagenes á honra de los montes altos donde se juntan las nubes, y en
memoria de los que habian muerto en agua ó heridos de rayo, y de los
que no se quemaban sus cuerpos sino que los enterraban. Estos montes
hacianlos sobre unos rodeos ó roscas hechas de heno atadas con zacate,
y guardabanlas de un año para otro. La vigilia de esta fiesta llevaban
á lavar estas roscas al rio ó á la fuente, y quando las llevaban
ivanlas tañendo con unos pitos hechos de barro cocido ó con unos
caracoles mariscos. Lavabanlas en unas casas ú oratorias que estaban
hechos á la orilla del agua que se llama Ayauh calli. Lavabanlas con
unas ojas de cañas verdes; algunos con el agua que pasaba por su casa
las lavaban. En acabandolas de lavar volvianlas á su casa con la misma
musica; luego hacian sobre ellas las imagenes de los montes como está
dicho. Algunos hacian estas imagenes de noche antes de amanecer cerca
del dia; la cabeza de cada un monte, tenia dos caras, una de persona y
otra de culebra, y untaban la cara de persona con ulli derretido, y
hacian unas tortillas prequeñuelas de masa de bledos amarillos, y
ponianlas en las mexillas de la cara de persona de una parte y de
otra; cubrianlos con unos papeles que llamaban Tetcuitli; ponianlos
unas coronas en las cabezas con sus penachos. Tambien á los imagenes
de los muertos las ponian sobre aquellas roscas de zacate, y luego en
amaneciendo ponian estas imagenes en sus oratorios, sobre unos lechos
de espadañas ó de juncias ó juncos.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. vii., pp. 71-2.

[VIII-33] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 71-3; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 159-162.

[VIII-34] 'Tzotzopaztli, palo ancho como cuchilla con que tupen y
aprietan la tela que se texe.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

[VIII-35] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 80-1; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 176-9, 198, 210. Farther notice
of Tlaloc and his worship will be found in the _Spiegazione delle
Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xxviii., lvii., lx., lxii., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 179, 190-2; _Boturini_,
_Idea_, pp. 12-3, 99, 101; _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i.,
p. 305; _Motolinia_, _Hist. Ind._, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._,
tom. i., pp. 32, 39, 42, 44-5; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i.,
p. 290, and tom. ii., pp. 45-6, 119, 121, 147, 151, 212, 251-4;
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. vi., cap. xv.; _Gomara_,
_Hist. Conq. Mex._, fol. 216; _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., pp.
235, 243; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 500-4 et passim.

CHAPTER IX.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

THE MOTHER OR ALL-NOURISHING GODDESS UNDER VARIOUS NAMES AND IN
VARIOUS ASPECTS -- HER FEAST IN THE ELEVENTH AZTEC MONTH
OCHPANIZTLI -- FESTIVALS OF THE EIGHTH MONTH, HUEYTECUILHUITL,
AND OF THE FOURTH, HUEYTOZOZTLI -- THE DEIFICATION OF WOMEN
THAT DIED IN CHILD-BIRTH -- THE GODDESS OF WATER UNDER VARIOUS
NAMES AND IN VARIOUS ASPECTS -- CEREMONIES OF THE BAPTISM OR
LUSTRATION OF CHILDREN -- THE GODDESS OF LOVE, HER VARIOUS
NAMES AND ASPECTS -- RITES OF CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION -- THE
GOD OF FIRE AND HIS VARIOUS NAMES -- HIS FESTIVALS IN THE TENTH
MONTH XOCOTLVETI AND IN THE EIGHTEENTH MONTH YZCALI; ALSO HIS
QUADRIENNIAL FESTIVAL IN THE LATTER MONTH -- THE GREAT FESTIVAL
OF EVERY FIFTY-TWO YEARS; LIGHTING THE NEW FIRE -- THE GOD OF
HADES, AND TEOYAOMIQUE, COLLECTOR OF THE SOULS OF THE FALLEN
BRAVE -- DEIFICATION OF DEAD RULERS AND HEROES -- MIXCOATL, GOD
OF HUNTING AND HIS FEAST IN THE FOURTEENTH MONTH, QUECHOLLI --
VARIOUS OTHER MEXICAN DEITIES -- FESTIVAL IN THE SECOND MONTH,
TLACAXIPEHUALIZTLI, WITH NOTICE OF THE GLADIATORIAL SACRIFICES
-- COMPLETE SYNOPSIS OF THE FESTIVALS OF THE MEXICAN CALENDAR,
FIXED AND MOVABLE -- TEMPLES AND PRIESTS.

Centeotl is a goddess, or according to some good authorities a god,
who held, under many names and in many characters, a most important
place in the divine world of the Aztecs, and of other Mexican and
Central American peoples. She was goddess of maize, and consequently,
from the importance in America of this grain, of agriculture, and of
the producing earth generally. Many of her various names seem
dependent on the varying aspects of the maize at different stages of
its growth; others seem to have originated in the mother-like
nourishing qualities of the grain of which she was the deity. Müller
lays much stress on this aspect of her character: "The force which
sustains life must also have created it. Centeotl was therefore
considered as bringing children to light, and is represented with an
infant in her arms. Nebel gives us such a representation, and in our
Mexican museum at Basel there are many images in this form, made of
burnt clay. Where agriculture rules, there more children are brought
to mature age than among the hunting nations, and the land revels in a
large population. No part of the world is so well adapted to exhibit
this difference as America. Centeotl is consequently the great
producer, not of children merely, she is the great goddess, the most
ancient goddess."[IX-1]

[Sidenote: THE MOTHER-NOURISHER.]

Centeotl was known, according to Clavigero, by the titles Tonacajohua,
'she who sustains us;' Tzinteotl, 'original goddess;' and by the
further names Xilonen, Iztacacenteotl, and Tlatlauhquicenteotl. She
was further, according to the same author, identical with Tonantzin,
'our mother,' and, according to Müller and many Spanish authorities,
either identical or closely connected with the various deities known
as Teteionan, 'the mother of the gods,'[IX-2] Cihuatcoatl, 'the
snake-woman,' Tazi or Toci or Tocitzin, 'our grandmother,' and Earth,
the universal material mother. Squier says of Tiazolteotl, that "she
is Cinteotl the goddess of maize, under another aspect."[IX-3]

She was particularly honored by the Totonacs, with whom she was the
chief divinity. They greatly loved her, believing that she did not
demand human victims, but was content with flowers and fruits, the fat
banana and the yellow maize, and small animals, such as doves, quails,
and rabbits. More, they hoped that she would in the end utterly
deliver them from the cruel necessity of such sacrifices, even to the
other gods.

With very different feelings, as we shall soon see, did the Mexicans
proper approach this deity, making her temples horrid with the
tortured forms of human sacrifices. It shows how deep the stain of the
blood was in the Mexican religious heart, how poisonous far the odor
of it had crept through all the senses of the Aztec soul, when it
could be believed that the great sustainer, the yellow waving maize,
the very mother of all, must be fed upon the flesh of her own
children.[IX-4]

To make comprehensible various allusions it seems well here to sum up
rapidly the characters given of certain goddesses identical with or
resembling in various points this Centeotl. Chicomecoatl[IX-5] was,
according to Sahagun, the Ceres of Mexico, and the goddess of
provisions, as well of what is drunk as of what is eaten. She was
represented with a crown on her head, a vase in her right hand, and on
her left arm a shield with a great flower painted thereon; her
garments and her sandals were red.

The first of the Mexican goddesses was, following the same authority,
Cioacoatl, or Civacoatl, the goddess of adverse things, such as
poverty, downheartedness, and toil. She appeared often in the guise of
a great lady, wearing such apparel as was used in the palace; she was
also heard at night in the air shouting and even roaring. Besides her
name Cioacoatl, which means 'snake-woman,' she was known as Tonantzin,
that is to say, 'our mother.' She was arrayed in white robes, and her
hair was arranged in front, over her forehead, in little curls that
crossed each other. It was a custom with her to carry a cradle on her
shoulders, as one that carries a child in it, and after setting it
down in the market-place beside the other women, to disappear. When
this cradle was examined, there was found a stone knife in it, and
with this the priests slew their sacrificial victims.

[Sidenote: MEDICINE-GODDESS.]

The goddess of Sahagun's description most resembling the Toci of other
writers, is the one that he calls 'the mother of the gods, the heart
of the earth, and our ancestor or grandmother (abuela).' She is
described as the goddess of medicine and of medicinal herbs, as
worshiped by doctors, surgeons, blood-letters, of those that gave
herbs to produce abortions, and also of the diviners that pronounced
upon the fortune of children according to their birth. They worshiped
her also that cast lots with grains of maize, those that augured by
looking into water in a bowl, those that cast lots with bits of cord
tied together, those that drew little worms or maggots from the mouth
or eyes, those that extracted little stones from other parts of the
body, and those that had sweat-baths, _temazcallis_, in their houses.
These last always set the image of this goddess in the baths, calling
her Temazcalteci, that is to say, 'the grandmother of the baths.' Her
adorers made this goddess a feast every year, buying a woman for a
sacrifice, decorating this victim with the ornaments proper to the
goddess. Every evening they danced with this unfortunate, and regaled
her delicately, praying her to eat as they would a great lady, and
amusing her in every way that she might not weep nor be sad at the
prospect of death. When the dreadful hour did come, having slain her,
together with two others that accompanied her to death, they flayed
her; then a man clothed himself in her skin, and went about all the
city playing many pranks--by all of which her identity with Tozi
seems sufficiently clear. This goddess was represented with the mouth
and chin stained with ulli, and a round patch of the same on her face;
on her head she had a kind of turban made of cloth rolled round and
knotted behind. In this knot were stuck plumes which issued from it
like flames, and the ends of the cloth fell behind over the shoulders.
She wore sandals, a shirt with a kind of broad serrated lower border,
and white petticoats. In her left hand she held a shield with a round
plate of gold in the centre thereof; in her right hand she held a
broom.[IX-6]

The festival in which divers of the various manifestations of the
mother-goddess were honored, was held in the beginning of the eleventh
Aztec month, beginning on the 14th of September; Centeotl, or
Cinteotl, or Centeutl, or Tzinteutl, is however represented therein as
a male and not a female.

[Sidenote: SACRIFICE TO THE MOTHER-GODDESS.]

Fifteen days before the commencement of the festival those that took
part in it began to dance, if dancing it could be called, in which the
feet and body were hardly moved, and in which the time was kept by
raising and lowering the hands to the beat of the drum. This went on
for eight days, beginning in the afternoon and finishing with the set
of sun, the dancers being perfectly silent, arranged in four lines,
and each having both hands full of flowers, cut branches and all. Some
of the youths, indeed, too restless to bear the silence, imitated with
their mouths the sound of the drum; but all were forced to keep, as
well in motion as in voice, the exactest time and good order. On the
expiration of these eight days the medical women, both old and young,
divided themselves into two parties, and fought a kind of mock battle
before the woman that had to die in this festival, to amuse her and
keep tears away; for they held it of bad augury if this miserable
creature gave way to her grief, and as a sign that many women had to
die in childbirth. This woman who was called for the time being, 'the
image of the mother of the gods,' led in person the first attack upon
one of the two parties of fighters, being accompanied by three old
women that were to her as mothers and never left her side, called
respectively Aoa, Tlavitezqui, and Xocuauhtli.[IX-7] The fight
consisted in pelting each other with handfuls of red leaves, or leaves
of the nopal, or of yellow flowers called _cempoalsuchitl_, the same
sort as had been carried by the actors in the preceding dance. These
women all wore girdles, to which were suspended little gourds filled
with powder of the herb called _yietl_. When the pelting-match was
over, the woman that had to die was led back to the house where she
was guarded; and all this was repeated during four successive days.
Then the victim representing Toci, that is to say, 'our grandmother or
ancestor,' for so was called the mother of the gods, was led for the
last time through the market-place by the medical woman. This ceremony
was called 'the farewell to the market-place;' for never more should
she see it who this day passed through, decorated in such mournful
frippery, surrounded by the pomp of such hollow mirth. She went sowing
maize on every side as she walked, and having passed through the
market she was received by the priests who took her to a house near
the cu where she had to be killed. There the medical women and
midwives consoled her: Daughter, be joyful and not sad, this night
thou shalt sleep with the king. Then they adorned her with the
ornaments of the goddess Toci, striving all the while to keep the fact
of her death in the back-ground, that she might die suddenly and
without knowing it. At midnight, in darkness, not so much as a cough
breaking the silence, she was led to the holy temple-top, and caught
up swiftly on the shoulders of a man. There was hardly a struggle; her
bearer felt himself deluged with blood, while she was beheaded with
all despatch, and flayed, still warm. The skin of the thighs was first
taken off and carried, for a purpose to be presently revealed, to the
cu of Centeotl, who was the son of Toci. With the remainder of the
skin, next taken off, a priest clothed himself, drawing it on, it
would appear from other records, like a glove; this priest who was a
young man chosen for his bodily forces and size, thus clothed
represented Toci, the goddess herself. The Toci priest, with this
horrible jacket sticking to his sinewy bust, then came down from the
temple amid the chanting of the singers of the cu. On each side of him
went two persons, who had made a vow to help him in this service, and
behind came several other priests. In front there ran a number of
principal men and soldiers, armed with besoms of blood-stained grass,
who looked back from time to time, and struck their shields as if
provoking a fight; these he pretended to pursue with great fury, and
all that saw this play (which was called _cacacalli_) feared and
trembled exceedingly. On reaching the cu of Huitzilopochtli, the Toci
priest spread out his arms and stood like a cross before the image of
the war god; this he did four times and then went on to the cu of
Centeotl, whither, as we remember, the skin of the thighs of the
flayed woman had been sent. This skin of the thighs another young
priest, representing the god Centeotl, son of Toci, had put on over
his face like a mask. In addition to this loathsome veil, he wore a
jacket of feathers and a hood of feathers attached to the jacket. This
hood ran out into a peak of a spiral form falling behind; and the
back-bone or spine of this spiral resembled the comb of a cock; this
hood was called _ytztlacoliuhqui_, that is to say 'god of frost.'

The Toci priest and the Centeotl priest next went together to the cu
of Toci, where the first waited for the morning (for all this already
described took place at night) to have certain trappings put on over
his horrid under-vest. When the morning broke, amid the chanting of
the singers, all the principal men, who had been waiting below, ran
with great swiftness up the steps of the temple carrying their
offerings. Some of these principal men began to cover the feet and the
head of the Toci priest with the white downy inner feathers of the
eagle; others painted his face red; others put on him a rather short
shirt with the figure of an eagle wrought or woven into the breast of
it, and certain painted petticoats; others beheaded quails and offered
copal. All this done quickly, these men took their departure.

[Sidenote: THE SKIN-BEARERS.]

Then were brought forth and put on the Toci priest all his rich
vestures, and a kind of square crown very wide above and ornamented
with five little banners, one in each corner, and in the centre one
higher than the others. All the captives that had to die were brought
out and set in line, and he took four of them one after the other,
threw them down on the sacrificial stone and took out their hearts;
the rest of the captives he handed over to the other priests to
complete the work he had begun. After this he set out with the
Centeotl priest for the cu of the latter. In advance of these a little
way there walked a party of their devotees, called _ycuexoan_,
decorated with papers, girt for breech-clout with twisted paper,
carrying at their shoulders a crumpled paper, round like a shield, and
tassels of untwisted cotton. On either side also there went those that
sold lime[IX-8] in the market, and the medical women, moving to the
singing of the priests and the beat of drum. Having come to the place
where heads were spitted at the cu of Centeotl, the Toci priest set
one foot on the drum and waited there for the Centeotl priest. The two
being come together it would seem that he who represented Centeotl now
set out alone, with much haste and accompanied by many soldiers, for a
place on the enemy's frontier where there was a kind of small hut
built. There at last was deposited and left the skin of the thighs of
the sacrificed woman which had served such ghastly use. And often, it
is said, it happened, this ceremony taking place on the border of a
hostile territory, that the enemy sallied out against the procession,
and there was fighting and many were slain.

After this the young man who represented the goddess Toci was taken to
the house that is called Atempan. The king took his seat on a throne
with a mat of eagle-skin and feathers under his feet, and a tiger-skin
over the back of his seat, and there was a grand review of the army,
and a distribution from the royal treasury of raiment, ornaments, and
arms; and it was understood that those who received such arms had to
die with them in war. This done, dancing was begun in the court-yard
of the temple of Toci; and all who had received presents, as above,
repaired thither. This dancing, as in the first part of the festival,
consisted for the most part in keeping time to the beat of the drum
with hands filled with flowers; so that the whole court looked like a
living garden; and there was so much gold, for the king and all the
princes were there, that the sun flashed through all as on water. This
began at mid-day and went on for two days. On the evening of the
second day, the priests of the goddess Chicomecoatl, clothed with the
skins of the captives that had died in a former day, ascended a small
cu called the table of Huitzilopochtli and sowed maize of all kinds,
white and yellow and red, and calabash-seeds, upon the heads of the
people that were below. The people tried to gather up these as they
fell, and elbowed each other a good deal. The damsels, called
_cioatlamacazque_, that served the goddess Chicomecoatl, carried each
one on her shoulder, rolled in a rich mantle, seven ears of maize,
striped with melted ulli and wrapped in white paper; their legs and
arms were decorated with feathers sprinkled over with marcasite. These
sang with the priest of their goddess. This done, one of the priests
descended from the above-mentioned cu of Huitzilopochtli, carrying in
his hand a large basket filled with powdered chalk and feather-down,
which he set in a small chamber, or little cave, called _coaxalpan_,
between the temple-stairs and the temple itself. This cavity was
reached from below by four or five steps, and when the basket was put
down there was a general rush of the soldiers to be first to secure
some of the contents. Every one, as he got his hands filled, with much
elbowing, returned running to the place whence he had set out. All
this time the Toci priest had been looking on, and now he pretended to
chase those that ran, while they pelted him back with the down and
powdered chalk they had in their hands; the king himself running a
little way and pelting him like the rest. After this fashion they all
ran away from him and left him alone, except some priests, who
followed him to a place called Tocititlan, when he took off the skin
of the sacrificed woman and hung it up in a little hut that was there;
taking care that its arms were stretched out, and that the head (or,
surely, the neck--for have we not read that the head was cut off the
woman on the fatal night which terminated her life?), was turned
toward the road, or street. And this was the last of the ceremonies of
the feast of Ochpaniztli.[IX-9]

[Sidenote: THE XILONEN FESTIVAL.]

The intimate connection of the goddess Xilonen (from _xilotl_, a young
or tender ear of maize) with Centeotl is shown by the fact that in the
cu of Centeotl was killed the unfortunate woman who was decorated to
resemble the goddess Xilonen. The festival of Xilonen commenced on the
eleventh day of the eighth Mexican month, which month begins on the
16th of July. The victim was made to resemble the image of the goddess
by having her face painted yellow from the nose downward, and her brow
red. On her head was put a crown of paper with four corners, from the
centre and top of which issued many plumes. Round her neck and over
her breasts hung strings of precious stones, and over these was put a
round medal of gold. Her garments and sandals were curiously wrought,
the latter painted with red stripes. On her left arm was a shield, and
in the right hand she held a stick, or baton, painted yellow. The
women led her to death dancing round her, and the priests and the
principal men danced before them, sowing incense as they went. The
priest who was to act as executioner had on his shoulders a bunch of
feathers held there in the grip of an eagle's talons, artificial;
another of the priests carried the hollow board filled with rattles,
so often mentioned. At the foot of the cu of Centeotl, this latter
stopped in front of the Xilonen woman, scattered incense before her,
and rattled with his board, waving it from side to side. They ascended
the cu, and one of the priests caught the victim up, twisting her
backwards, her shoulders against his shoulders; on which living altar
her heart was cut out through her breast, and put into a cup. After
that there was more dancing, in which the women, old and young, took
part in a body by themselves, their arms and legs decorated with red
macaw feathers, and their faces painted yellow and dusted with
marcasite. There was also a banquet of small pies called
_xocotamalli_, during which to the old men and women license was given
to drink pulque; the young, however, being restrained from the
bacchanalian part of this enjoyment by severe and sometimes capital
punishment.[IX-10]

Lastly, the intimate connection or identity of Centeotl with the
earth-mother, the all-nourisher, seems clearly symbolized in the feast
of the fourth month of the Mexicans, which began on the 27th of April.
In it they made a festival to the god of cereals, under the name of
Centeotl, and to the goddess of provisions, called Chicomecoatl. First
they fasted four days, putting certain rushes or water-flags beside
the images of the gods, staining the white part of the bottom of each
rush with blood drawn from their ears or legs; branches too, of the
kind called _acxoiatl_, and a kind of bed or mattress of hay were put
before the altars. A sort of porridge of maize called _mazamorra_ was
also made and given to the youths. Then all walked out into the
country, and through the maize-fields, carrying stalks of maize, and
other herbs called _mecoatl_. With these they strewed the image of the
god of cereals that every one had in his house, and they put papers on
it and food before it of various kinds; five _chiquivites_,[IX-11] or
baskets, of tortillas, and on the top of each _chiquivitl_ a cooked
frog, a basket of _chian_[IX-12] flour, which they call _pinolli_;[IX-13]
and a basket of toasted maize mixed with beans. They cut also a joint
from a green maize-stalk, stuffed the little tube with morsels of
every kind of the above-mentioned food, and set it carefully on the
back of the frog.[IX-14] This each one did in his own house, and in the
afternoon all this offering of food was carried to the cu of the
goddess of provisions, of the goddess Chicomecoatl, and eaten there in
a general scramble, take who take could; symbolizing one knows not
what, if not the laisser-faire and laisser-aller system of national
commisariat much advocated by many political economists, savage and
civilized.

[Sidenote: BLESSING THE SEED-MAIZE.]

In this festival the ears of maize that were preserved for seed were
carried in procession by virgins to a cu, apparently the one just
mentioned, but which is here called the cu of Chicomecoatl _and_ of
Centeotl. The maidens carried on their shoulders not more than seven
ears of corn apiece, sprinkled with drops of oil of ulli, and wrapped
first in papers and then in a cloth. The legs and arms of these girls
were ornamented with red feathers, and their faces were smeared with
the pitch called _chapopotli_ and sprinkled with marcasite. As they
went along in this bizarre attire, the people crowded to see them
pass, but it was forbidden to speak to them. Sometimes indeed an
irrepressible youth would break out into words of admiration or love
toward some fair pitch-besmeared face, but his answer came sharp and
swift from one of the old women that watched the younger, in some such
fashion as this: And so thou speakest, raw coward! thou must be
speaking, eh? Think first of performing some man's feat, and get rid
of that tail of hair at the nape of thy neck that marks the coward and
the good-for-nothing. It is not for thee to speak here; thou art as
much a woman as I am; thou hast never come out from behind the fire!
But the young lovers of Tenochtitlan were not without insolent
springalls among them, much given to rude gibes, and retorts like the
following: Well said, my lady, I receive this with thanks, I will do
what you command me, will take care to show myself a man; but as for
you, I value two cacao-beans more than you and all your lineage; put
mud on your body, and scratch yourself; fold one leg over the other
and roll in the dust; see! here is a rough stone, knock your face
against it; and if you want anything more take a red-hot coal and burn
a hole in your throat to spit through; for God's sake, hold your
peace.

This the young fellows said, writes Sahagun, to show their courage;
and so it went, give and take, till the maize was carried to the cu
and blessed. Then the folk returned to their houses and sanctified
maize was put in the bottom of every granary, and it was said that it
was the heart thereof, and it remained there till taken out for seed.
These ceremonies were specially in honor of the goddess Chicomecoatl.
She supplied provisions, she it was that had made all kinds of maize
and frijoles, and whatsover vegetables could be eaten, and all sorts
of chia; and for this they made her that festival with offerings of
food, and with songs and dances, and with the blood of quails. All the
ornaments of her attire were bright red and curiously wrought, and in
her hands they put stalks of maize.[IX-15]

The Mexicans deified, under the name Cioapipilti, all women that died
in child-bed. There were oratories raised to their honor in every ward
that had two streets. In such oratories, called _cioateucalli_ or
_ciateupan_, there were kept images of these goddesses adorned with
certain papers called _amatetevitl_. The eighth movable feast of the
Mexican calendar was dedicated to them, falling in the sign
Cequiahuitl, in the first house; in this feast were slain in their
honor all lying in the jails under pain of death. These goddesses were
said to move through the air at pleasure, and to appear to whom they
would of those that lived upon the earth, and sometimes to enter into
and possess them. They were accustomed to hurt children with various
infirmities, especially paralysis and other sudden diseases. Their
favorite haunt on earth was the cross-roads, and, on certain days of
the year, people would not go out of their houses for fear of meeting
them. They were propitiated in their temples and at the cross-roads by
offerings of bread kneaded into various shapes--into figures of
butterflies and thunderbolts for example--by offerings of small
tamales, or pies, and of toasted maize. Their images, besides the
papers above mentioned, were decorated by having the face, arms, and
legs painted very white; their ears were made of gold; their hair was
dressed like that of ladies, in little curls; the shirt was painted
over with black waves; the petticoats were worked in divers colors;
the sandals were white.

[Sidenote: THE MOTHER-GODDESS AND WOMAN IN CHILD-BED.]

The mother-goddess, under the form of the serpent-woman, Cioacoatl, or
Ciuacoatl, or Cihuacoatl, or, lastly, Quilaztli, seems to have been
held as the patroness of women in child-bed generally, and,
especially, of those that died there. When the delivery of a woman was
likely to be tedious and dangerous, the midwife addressed the patient
saying: Be strong, my daughter; we can do nothing for thee. Here are
present thy mother and thy relations, but thou alone must conduct this
business to its termination. See to it, my daughter, my well-beloved,
that thou be a strong and valiant and manly woman; be like her who
first bore children, like Cioacoatl, like Quilaztli. And if still
after a day and a night of labor the woman could not bring forth, the
midwife took her away from all other persons and brought her into a
closed room and made many prayers, calling upon the goddess Cioacoatl,
and upon the goddess Yoalticitl,[IX-16] and upon other goddesses. If,
notwithstanding all, however, the woman died, they gave her the
title, _mociaquezqui_, that is 'valiant woman,' and they washed all
her body, and washed with soap her head and her hair. Her husband
lifted her on his shoulders, and, with her long hair flowing loose
behind him, carried her to the place of burial. All the old midwives
accompanied the body, marching with shields and swords, and shouting
as when soldiers close in the attack. They had need of their weapons,
for the body that they escorted was a holy relic which many were eager
to win; and a party of youths fought with these Amazons to take their
treasure from them: this fight was no play but a very bone-breaking
earnest. The burial procession set out at the setting of the sun and
the corpse was interred in the court-yard of the cu of the goddesses,
or celestial women called Cioapipilti. Four nights the husband and his
friends guarded the grave and four nights the youths, or rawest and
most inexperienced soldiers, prowled like wolves about the little
band. If, either from the fighting midwives or from the
night-watchers, they succeeded in securing the body, they instantly
cut off the middle finger of the left hand and the hair of the head;
either of these things being put in one's shield, made one fierce,
brave, invincible in war, and blinded the eyes of one's enemies. There
prowled also round the sacred tomb certain wizards, called
_temamacpalitotique_, seeking to hack off and steal the whole left arm
of the dead wife; for they held it to be of mighty potency in their
enchantments, and a thing that when they went to a house to work their
malice thereon, would wholly take away the courage of the inmates, and
dismay them so that they could neither move hand nor foot, though they
saw all that passed.

[Sidenote: THE HOUSE OF THE SUN.]

The death of this woman in child-bed was mourned by the midwives, but
her parents and relations were joyful thereat; for they said that she
did not go to hades, or the under-ground world, but to the western
part of the House of the Sun. To the eastern part of the House of the
Sun, as the ancients said, were taken up all the soldiers that died in
war. When the sun rose in the morning these brave men decorated
themselves in their panoply of war, and accompanied him towards the
mid-heaven, shouting and fighting, apparently in a sham or review
battle, until they reached the point of noonday, which was called
_nepantlatonatiuh_. At this point the heroines, whose home was in the
west of heaven, the _mocioaquezque_, the valiant women, dead in
child-bed, who ranked as equal with the heroes fallen in war, met
these heroes and relieved them of their duty as guards of honor of the
sun. From noon till night, down the western slope of light, while the
forenoon escort of warriors were scattered through all the fields and
gardens of heaven, sucking flowers till another day should call them
anew to their duty, the women, in panoply of war, just as the men had
been, and fighting like them with clashing shields and shouts of joy,
bore the sun to his setting; carrying him on a litter of _quetzales_,
or rich feathers, called the _quetzal-apanecaiutl_. At this
setting-place of the sun the women were, in their turn, relieved by
those of the under world, who here came out to receive him. For it was
reported of old by the ancients that when night began in the upper
world the sun began to shine through hades, and that thereupon the
dead rose up from their sleep and bore his shining litter through
their domain. At this hour too the celestial women, released from
their duty in heaven, scattered and poured down through the air upon
the earth, where, with a touch of the dear nature that makes the world
kin, they are described as looking for spindles to spin with, and
shuttles to weave with, and all the old furniture and implements of
their house-wifely pride. This thing, says Sahagun, "the devil wrought
to deceive withal, for very often, in the form of those women, he
appeared to their bereaved husbands, giving them petticoats and
shirts."

Very beautiful was the form of address before burial used by the
midwife to the dead woman who had taken rank among the _mocioaquezque_
or _mocioaquetza_: O woman, strong and warlike, child well-beloved,
valiant one, beautiful and tender dove, strong hast thou been and
toil-enduring as a hero; thou hast conquered, thou hast done as did
thy mother the lady Cioacoatl, or Quilaztli. Very valiantly hast thou
fought, stoutly hast thou handled the shield and the spear that the
great mother put in thine hand. Up with thee! break from sleep! behold
it is already day; already the red of morning shoots through the
clouds; already the swallows and all birds are abroad. Rise, my
daughter, attire thyself, go to that good land where is the house of
thy father and mother the Sun; thither let thy sisters, the celestial
women, carry thee, they that are always joyful and merry and filled
with delight, because of the Sun with whom they take pleasure. My
tender daughter and lady, not without sore travail hast thou gotten
the glory of this victory; a great pain and a hard penance hast thou
undergone. Well and fortunately hast thou purchased this death. Is
this, peradventure, a fruitless death, and without great merit and
honor? Nay, verily, but one of much honor and profit. Who receives
other such great mercy, other such happy victory as thou? for thou
hast gained with thy death eternal life, a life full of joy and
delight, with the goddesses called Cioapipilti, the celestial
goddesses. Go now, my lady, my well-beloved; little by little advance
toward them; be one of them, that they may receive thee and be always
with thee, that thou mayest rejoice and be glad in our father and
mother the Sun, and accompany him whithersoever he wish to take
pleasure. O my lady, my well-beloved daughter, thou hast left us
behind, us old people, unworthy of such glory; thou hast torn thyself
away from thy father and mother, and departed. Not indeed of thine own
will, but thou wast called; thou didst follow a voice that called. We
must remain orphans and forlorn, old and luckless and poor; misery
will glorify itself in us. O my lady, thou hast left us here that we
may go from door to door and through the streets in poverty and
sorrow; we pray thee to remember us where thou art, and to provide for
the poverty that we here endure. The sun wearies us with his great
heat, the air with its coldness, and the frost with its torment. All
these things afflict and grieve our miserable earthen bodies; hunger
is lord over us, and we can do nothing against it. My well-beloved, I
pray thee to visit us since thou art a valorous woman and a lady,
since thou art settled forever in the place of delight and
blessedness, there to live and be forever with our Lord. Thou seest
him with thine eyes, thou speakest to him with thy tongue, pray to him
for us, entreat him that he favor us, and therewith we shall be at
rest.[IX-17]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: CHALCHIHUITLICUE.]

Chalchihuitlicue or Chalchiuhcyeje is described by Clavigero as the
goddess of water and the mate of Tlaloc. She had other names relating
to water in its different states, as Apozonallotl and Acuecuejotl,
which mean the swelling and fluctuation of water; Atlacamani, or the
storms excited thereon; Ahuic and Aiauh, or its motion, now to one side,
now to the other; and Xixiquipilihui, the alternate rising and falling
of the waves. The Tlascaltecs called her Matlalcueje, that is 'clothed
in a green robe;' and they gave the same name to the highest mountain
of Tlascala, on whose summit are found those stormy clouds which
generally burst over the city of Puebla. To that summit the Tlascaltecs
ascended to perform their sacrifices, and offer up their prayers. This
is the very same goddess of water to whom Torquemada gives the name of
Hochiquetzal, and Boturini that of Macuilxochiquetzalli.[IX-18]

Of the accuracy of the assertions of this last sentence I am by no
means certain; Boturini and Torquemada both describe their goddess of
water without giving any support thereto. Boturini says that she was
metaphorically called by the Mexicans the goddess of the Petticoat of
Precious Stones--chalchihuites, as it would appear from other
authorities, being meant--and that she was represented with large
pools at her feet, and symbolized by certain reeds that grow in moist
places. She was particularly honored by fishermen and others whose
trade connected them with water, and great ladies were accustomed to
dedicate to her their nuptials--probably, as will be seen immediately,
because this goddess had much to do with certain lustral ceremonies
performed on new-born children.[IX-19]

Many names, writes Torquemada, were given to this goddess, but that of
Chalchihuitlicue was the most common and usual; it meant to say,
'petticoat of water, of a shade between green and blue,' that is, of
the color of the stones called chalchihuites.[IX-20] She was the
companion, not the wife of Tlaloc, for indeed as our author affirms,
the Mexicans did not think so grossly of their gods and goddesses as
to marry them.[IX-21]

[Sidenote: IDOL OF CHALCHIHUITLICUE.]

According to Sahagun, Chalchihuitlicue was the sister of the Tlalocs.
She was honored because she had power over the waters of the sea and
of the rivers to drown those that went down to them, to raise
tempests and whirlwinds, and to cause boats to founder. They worshiped
her all those that dealt in water, that went about selling it from
canoes, or peddled jars of it in the market. They represented this
goddess as a woman, painted her face yellow, save the forehead, which
was often blue, and hung round her neck a collar of precious stones
from which depended a medal of gold. On her head was a crown of light
blue paper, with plumes of green feathers, and tassels that fell to
the nape of her neck. Her ear-rings were of turquoise wrought in
mosaic. Her clothing was a shirt, or upper body-garment, clear blue
petticoats with fringes from which hung marine shells, and white
sandals. In her left hand she held a shield, and a leaf of the broad
round white water-lily, called _atlacuezona_.[IX-22] In her right hand
she held as a sceptre a vessel in the shape of a cross, or of a
monstrance of the Catholic Church. This goddess, together with
Chicomecoatl, goddess of provisions, and Vixtocioatl, goddess of salt,
was held in high veneration by kings and lords, for they said that
these three supported the common people so that they could live and
multiply.[IX-23]

[Sidenote: TWO LUSTRATIONS OR BAPTISMS.]

Chalchihuitlicue was especially connected with certain ceremonies of
lustration of children, resembling in many points baptism among
Christians. It would seem that two of these lustrations were practiced
upon every infant, and the first took place immediately upon its birth.
When the midwife had cut the umbilical cord of the child, then she
washed it, and while washing it said, varying her address according to
its sex: My son, approach now thy mother, Chalchihuitlicue, the
goddess of water; may she see good to receive thee, to wash thee, and
to put away from thee the filthiness that thou takest from thy father
and mother; may she see good to purify thine heart, to make it good
and clean, and to instill into thee good habits and manners.

Then the midwife turned to the water itself and spoke: Most
compassionate lady, Chalchihuitlicue, here has come into the world
this thy servant, sent hither by our father and mother, whose names
are Ometecutli and Omecioatl,[IX-24] who live on the ninth heaven, which
is the place of the habitation of the gods. We know not what are the
gifts that this infant brings with it; we know not what was given to
it before the beginning of the world; we know not what it is, nor what
mischief and vice it brings with it taken from its father and mother.
It is now in thine hands, wash and cleanse it as thou knowest to be
necessary; in thine hands we leave it. Purge it from the filthiness it
inherits from its father and its mother, all spot and defilement let
the water carry away and undo. See good, O our lady, to cleanse and
purify its heart and life that it may lead a quiet and peaceable life
in this world; for indeed we leave this creature in thine hands, who
art mother and lady of the gods, and alone worthy of the gift of
cleansing that thou has held from before the beginning of the world;
see good to do as we have entreated thee to this child now in thy
presence.

Then the midwife spake again; I pray thee to receive this child here
brought before thee. This said, the midwife took water and blew her
breath upon it, and gave to taste of it to the babe, and touched the
babe with it on the breast and on the top of the head. Then she said:
My well-beloved son, or daughter, approach here thy mother and father,
Chalchihuitlicue and Chalchihuitlatonac; let now this goddess take
thee, for she has to bear thee on her shoulders and in her arms
through this world. Then the midwife dipped the child into water and
said: Enter, my son, into the water that is called _mamatlac_ and
_tuspalac_; let it wash thee; let him cleanse thee that is in every
place, let him see good to put away from thee all the evil that thou
hast carried with thee from before the beginning of the world, the
evil that thy father and thy mother have joined to thee. Having so
washed the creature, the midwife then wrapped it up, addressing it the
while as follows: O precious stone, O rich feather, O emerald, O
sapphire, thou wert shaped where abide the great god and the great
goddess that are above the heavens; created and formed thou wert by
thy mother and father, Ometecutli and Omecioatl, the celestial woman
and the celestial man. Thou hast come into this world, a place of many
toils and troubles, of intemperate heat and intemperate cold and wind,
a place of hunger and thirst, of weariness and of tears; of a verity
we cannot say that this world is other than a place of weeping, of
sadness, of vexation. Behold thy lot, weariness and weeping and tears.
Thou hast come, my well-beloved, repose then and take here thy rest;
let our Lord that is in every place provide for and support thee. And
in saying all these things the midwife spake softly, as one that
prays.

The second lustration or baptism, usually took place on the fifth day
after birth, but in every case the astrologers and diviners were
consulted, and if the signs were not propitious, the baptism was
postponed till a day of good sign came. The ceremony, when the child
was a boy, began by bringing to it a little shield, bow, and arrows;
of which arrows there were four, one pointing toward each of the four
points of the world. There were also brought a little shield, bow, and
arrows, made of paste or dough of wild amaranth seeds, and a pottage
of beans and toasted maize, and a little breech-clout and blanket or
mantle. The poor in such cases had no more than the little shield,
bow, and arrows, together with some tamales and toasted maize. When
the child was a girl, there were brought to it, instead of mimic
weapons, certain woman's implements and tools for spinning and
weaving, the spindle and distaff, a little shirt and petticoats. These
things being prepared, suiting the sex of the infant, its parents and
relatives assembled before sunrise. When the sun rose the midwife
asked for a new vessel full of water; and she took the child in her
hands. Then the by-standers carried all the implements and utensils
already mentioned into the court-yard of the house, where the midwife
set the face of the child toward the west, and spake to the child
saying: O grandson of mine, O eagle, O tiger, O valiant man, thou hast
come into the world, sent by thy father and mother, the great Lord and
the great lady; thou wast created and begotten in thy house, which is
the place of the supreme gods that are above the nine heavens. Thou
art a gift from our son Quetzalcoatl, who is in every place; join
thyself now to thy mother, the goddess of water, Chalchihuitlicue.

Then the midwife gave the child to taste of the water, putting her
moistened fingers in its mouth, and said: Take this; by this thou hast
to live on the earth, to grow and to flourish; through this we get all
things that support existence on the earth; receive it. Then with her
moistened fingers she touched the breast of the child, and said:
Behold the pure water that washes and cleanses thine heart, that
removes all filthiness; receive it; may the goddess see good to purify
and cleanse thine heart. Then the midwife poured water upon the head
of the child saying: O my grandson, my son, take this water of the
Lord of the world, which is thy life, invigorating and refreshing,
washing and cleansing. I pray that this celestial water, blue and
light blue, may enter into thy body and there live; I pray that it may
destroy in thee and put away from thee all the things evil and
adverse that were given thee before the beginning of the world. Into
thine hand, O goddess of water, are all mankind put, because thou art
our mother Chalchihuitlicue. Having so washed the body of the child
and so spoken, the midwife said: Wheresoever thou art in this child, O
thou hurtful thing, begone, leave it, put thyself apart; for now does
it live anew, and anew is it born; now again is it purified and
cleansed; now again is it shaped and engendered by our mother the
goddess of water.

[Sidenote: PRAYER TO THE EARTH-MOTHER.]

All these things being done and spoken, the midwife lifted the child
in both her hands toward heaven and said: O Lord, behold here thy
creature that thou hast sent to this place of pain, of affliction, of
anguish, to this world. Give it, O Lord, thy gifts and thine
inspiration, forasmuch as thou art the great god, and hast with thee
the great goddess. Then the midwife stooped again and set the child
upon the earth, and raised it the second time toward heaven, saying: O
our lady, who art mother of the heavens, who art called
Citlalatonac,[IX-25] to thee I direct my voice and my cry; I pray thee
to inspire with thy virtue, what virtue soever it may be, to give and
to instil it into this creature. Then the midwife stooped again and
set the child on the ground, and raised it the third time toward
heaven, and said: O our Lord, god and goddess celestial, that are in
the heavens, behold this creature; see good to pour into it thy virtue
and thy breath, so that it may live upon the earth. Then a fourth and
last time the midwife set the babe upon the ground, a fourth time she
lifted it toward heaven, and she spake to the sun and said: O our
Lord, Sun, Totonametl, Tlaltecutli, that art our mother and our
father, behold this creature, which is like a bird of precious
plumage, like a _zaquan_ or a _quechutl_;[IX-26] thine, O our Lord the
Sun, he is; thou who art valiant in war and painted like a tiger in
black and gray, he is thy creature and of thine estate and patrimony.
For this he was born, to serve thee and to give thee food and drink;
he is of the family of warriors and soldiers that fight on the field
of battle.

[Sidenote: DEDICATION OF THE CHILD TO WAR.]

Then the midwife took the shield, and the bow and the dart that were
there prepared, and spake to the Sun after this sort: Behold here the
instruments of war which thou art served with, which thou delightest
in; impart to this babe the gift that thou art wont to give to thy
soldiers, enabling them to go to thine house of delights, where,
having fallen in battle, they rest and are joyful and are now with
thee praising thee. Will this poor little nobody ever be one of them?
Have pity upon him, O clement Lord of ours.

During all the time of these ceremonies a great torch of candlewood
was burning; and when these ceremonies were accomplished, a name was
given to the child, that of one of his ancestors, so that he might
inherit the fortune or lot of him whose name was so taken. This name
was applied to the child by the midwife, or priestess, who performed
the baptism. Suppose the name given was Yautl. Then the midwife began
to shout and to talk like a man to the child: O Yautl, O valiant man,
take this shield and this dart; these are for thy amusement, they are
the delight of the sun. Then she tied the little mantle on its
shoulders and girt the breech-clout about it. Now all the boys of the
ward were assembled, and at this stage of the ceremony they rushed
into the house where the baptism had taken place, and representing
soldiers and forrayers, they took food that was there prepared for
them, which was called 'the navel-string,' or 'navel,' of the child,
and set out with it into the streets, shouting and eating. They cried
O Yautl, Yautl, get thee to the field of battle, put thyself into the
thickest of the fight; O Yautl, Yautl, thine office is to make glad
the sun and the earth, to give them to eat and to drink; upon thee has
fallen the lot of the soldiers that are eagles and tigers, that die in
war, that are now making merry and singing before the sun. And they
cried again: O soldiers, O men of war, come hither, come to eat of the
navel of Yautl. Then the midwife, or priestess, took the child into
the house, and departed, the great torch of candlewood being carried
burning before her, and this was the last of the ceremony.[IX-27]

[Sidenote: THE AZTEC VENUS.]

The goddess (or god, as some have it) connected by the Mexicans with
carnal love was variously called Tlazolteotl, Ixcuina, Tlaclquani,
with other names, and, especially it would appear in Tlascala,
Xochiquetzal. She had no very prominent or honorable place in the
minds of the people and was much more closely allied to the Roman
Cloacina than to the Greek Aphrodite. Camargo, the Tlascaltec, gives
much the most agreeable and pleasing account of her. Her home was in
the ninth heaven, in a pleasant garden, watered by innumerable fountains,
where she passed her time spinning and weaving rich stuffs, in the
midst of delights, ministered to by the inferior deities. No man was
able to approach her, but she had in her service a crowd of dwarfs,
buffoons, and hunchbacks, who diverted her with their songs and
dances, and acted as messengers to such gods as she took a fancy to.
So beautiful was she painted that no woman in the world could equal
her; and the place of her habitation was called Iamotamohuanichan,
Xochitlycacan, Chitamihuany, Cicuhnauhuepaniuhcan, and Tuhecayan, that
is to say 'the place of Tamohuan, the place of the tree of flowers
Xochitlihcacan, where the air is purest, beyond the nine heavens.' It
was further said, that whoever had been touched by one of the flowers
that grow in the beautiful garden of Xochiquetzal should love to the
end, should love faithfully.[IX-28]

[Sidenote: TLAZOLTEOTL SEDUCES YÁPPAN.]

Boturini gives a legend in which this goddess figures in a very
characteristic way. There was a man called Yáppan, who, to win the
regard of the gods made himself a hermit, leaving his wife and his
relations, and retiring to a desert place, there to lead a chaste and
solitary life. In that desert was a great stone or rock, called
Tehuehuetl, dedicated to penitential acts, which rock Yáppan ascended
and took up his abode upon like a western Simeon Stylites. The gods
observed all this with attention, but doubtful of the firmness of
purpose of the new recluse, they set a spy upon him in the person of
an enemy of his, named Yáotl, the word _yáotl_ indeed signifying
'enemy.' Yet not even the sharpened eye of hate and envy could find
any spot in the austere continent life of the anchorite, and the many
women sent by the gods to tempt him to pleasure were repulsed and
baffled. In heaven itself the chaste victories of the lonely saint
were applauded, and it began to be thought that he was worthy to be
transformed into some higher form of life. Then Tlazolteotl, feeling
herself slighted and held for naught, rose up in her evil beauty,
wrathful, contemptuous, and said: Think not, ye high and immortal
gods, that this hero of yours has the force to preserve his resolution
before me, or that he is worthy of any very sublime transformation; I
descend to earth, behold now how strong is the vow of your devotee,
how unfeigned his continence!

That day the flowers of the gardens of Xochiquetzal were untended by
their mistress, her singing dwarfs were silent, her messengers
undisturbed by her behests, and away in the desert, by the lonely
rock, the crouching spy Yáotl saw a wondrous sight: one shaped like a
woman, but fairer than eye can conceive, advancing toward the lean
penance-withered man on the sacred height. Ha! thrills not the
hermit's mortified flesh with something more than surprise, while the
sweet voice speaks: My brother Yáppan, I the goddess Tlazolteotl,
amazed at thy constancy, and commiserating thy hardships, come to
comfort thee; what way shall I take, or what path, that I may get up
to speak with thee? The simple one did not see the ruse, he came down
from his place and helped the goddess up. Alas, in such a crisis, what
need is there to speak further?--no other victory of Yáppan was
destined to be famous in heaven, but in a cloud of shame his chaste
light went down for ever. And thou, O shameless one, have thy fierce
red lips had their fill of kisses, is thy Paphian soul satisfied
withal, as now, flushed with victory, thou passest back to the
tinkling fountains, and to the great tree of flowers, and to the
far-reaching gardens where thy slaves await thee in the ninth heaven?
Do thine eyes lower themselves at all in any heed of the miserable
disenchanted victim left crouching, humbled on his desecrated rock,
his nights and days of fasting and weariness gone for naught, his
dreams, his hopes dissipated, scattered like dust at the trailing of
thy robes? And for thee, poor Yáppan, the troubles of this life are
soon to end; Yáotl, the enemy, has not seen all these things for
nothing; he, at least, has not borne hunger and thirst and weariness,
has not watched and waited in vain. O it avails nothing to lift the
pleading hands, they are warm but not with clasping in prayer, and
weary but not with waving the censer; the flint-edged mace beats down
thy feeble guard, the neck that Tlazolteotl clasped is smitten
through, the lips she kissed roll in the dust beside a headless trunk.

The gods transformed the dead man into a scorpion, with the forearms
fixed lifted up as when he deprecated the blow of his murderer; and he
crawled under the stone upon which he had abode. His wife, whose name
was Tlahuitzin, that is to say 'the inflamed,' still lived. The
implacable Yáotl sought her out, led her to the spot stained with her
husband's blood, detailed pitilessly the circumstances of the sin and
death of the hermit, and then smote off her head. The gods transformed
the poor woman into that species of scorpion called the _alacran
encendido_, and she crawled under the stone and found her husband. And
so it comes that tradition says that all reddish colored scorpions are
descended from Tlahuitzin, and all dusky or ash-colored scorpions from
Yáppan, while both keep hidden under the stones and flee the light for
shame of their disgrace and punishment. Last of all the wrath of the
gods fell on Yáotl for his cruelty and presumption in exceeding their
commands; he was transformed into a sort of locust that the Mexicans
call _ahuacachapullin_.[IX-29]

[Sidenote: CONFESSION.]

Sahagun gives a very full description of this goddess and her
connection with certain rites of confession, much resembling those
already described in speaking of Tezcatlipoca.[IX-30] The goddess had
according to our author, three names. The first was Tlazolteotl, that
is to say 'the goddess of carnality.' The second name was Yxcuina,
which signifies four sisters, called respectively, and in order of
age, Tiacapan, Teicu, Tlaco, Xucotsi. The third and last name of this
deity was Tlaclquani, which means 'eater of filthy things,' referring
it is said to her function of hearing and pardoning the confessions of
men and women guilty of unclean and carnal crimes. For this goddess,
or these goddesses, had power not only to inspire and provoke to the
commission of such sins, and to aid in their accomplishment, but also
to pardon them, if they were confessed to certain priests who were
also diviners and tellers of fortunes and wizards generally. In this
confession, however, Tlazolteotl seems not to have been directly
addressed, but only the supreme deity under several of his names.
Thus the person whom, by a stretch of courtesy, we may call the
penitent, having sought out a confessor from the class above
mentioned, addressed that functionary in these words: Sir, I wish to
approach the all-powerful god, protector of all, Yoalliehecatl, or
Tezcatlipoca; I wish to confess my sins in secret. To this the wizard,
or priest, replied: Welcome, my son; the thing thou wouldst do is for
thy good and profit. This said, he searched the divining book,
_tonalamatl_, to see what day would be most opportune for hearing the
confession. That day come, the penitent brought a new mat, and white
incense called _copalli_, and wood for the fire in which the incense
was to be burned. Sometimes when he was a very noble personage, the
priest went to his house to confess him, but as a general rule the
ceremony took place at the residence of the priest. On entering this
house the penitent swept very clean a portion of the floor and spread
the new mat there for the confessor to seat himself upon, and kindled
the wood. The priest then threw the copal upon the fire and said: O
Lord, thou that art the father and the mother of the gods and the most
ancient god,[IX-31] know that here is come thy vassal and servant,
weeping and with great sadness; he is aware that he has wandered from
the way, that he has stumbled, that he has slidden, that he is spotted
with certain filthy sins and grave crimes worthy of death. Our Lord,
very pitiful, since thou art the protector and defender of all, accept
the penitence, give ear to the anguish of this thy servant and vassal.

At this point the confessor turned to the sinner and said: My son,
thou art come into the presence of God, favorer and protector of all;
thou art come to lay bare thy inner rottenness and unsavoriness; thou
art come to publish the secrets of thine heart; see that thou fall
into no pit by lying unto our Lord; strip thyself, put away all shame
before him who is called Yoalliehecatl and Tezcatlipoca. It is certain
that thou art now in his presence, although thou art not worthy to
see him, neither will he speak with thee, for he is invisible and
impalpable. See then to it how thou comest, and with what heart; fear
nothing to publish thy secrets in his presence, give account of thy
life, relate thine evil deeds as thou didst perform them; tell all
with sadness to our Lord God, who is the favorer of all, and whose
arms are open and ready to embrace and set thee on his shoulders.
Beware of hiding anything through shame or through weakness.

Having heard these words the penitent took oath, after the Mexican
fashion, to tell the truth. He touched the ground with his hand and
licked off the earth that adhered to it;[IX-32] then he threw copal in
the fire, which was another way of swearing to tell the truth. Then he
set himself down before the priest and, inasmuch as he held him to be
the image and vicar of god, he, the penitent, began to speak after
this fashion: O our Lord who receivest and shelterest all, give ear to
my foul deeds; in thy presence I strip, I put away from myself what
shameful things soever I have done. Not from thee, of a verity, are
hidden my crimes, for to thee all things are manifest and clear.
Having thus said, the penitent proceeded to relate his sins in the
order in which they had been committed, clearly and quietly, as in a
slow and distinctly pronounced chant, as one that walked along a very
straight way turning neither to the right hand nor to the left. When
he had done the priest answered him as follows: My son, thou hast
spoken before our Lord God, revealing to him thine evil works; and I
shall now tell thee what thou hast to do. When the goddesses
Civapipilti descend to the earth, or when it is the time of the
festival of the four sister goddesses of carnality that are called
Yxcuina, thou shalt fast four days afflicting thy stomach and thy
mouth; this feast of the Yxcuina being come, at daybreak thou shalt do
penance suitable to thy sins.[IX-33] Through a hole pierced by a
maguey-thorn through the middle of thy tongue thou shall pass certain
osier-twigs called _teucalzacatl_ or _tlacotl_, passing them in front
of the face and throwing them over the shoulder one by one; or thou
mayest fasten them the one to the other and so pull them through thy
tongue like a long cord. These twigs were sometimes passed through a
hole in the ear; and, wherever they were passed, it would appear by
our author that there were sometimes used of them by one penitent to
the number of four hundred, or even of eight hundred.

[Sidenote: PENANCES.]

If the sin seemed too light for such a punishment as the preceding,
the priest would say to the penitent: My son, thou shalt fast, thou
shall fatigue thy stomach with hunger and thy mouth with thirst, and
that for four days, eating only once on each day and that at noon. Or,
the priest would say to him: Thou shalt go to offer paper in the usual
places, thou shalt make images covered therewith in number
proportionate to thy devotion, thou shalt sing and dance before them
as custom directs. Or, again, he would say to him: Thou hast offended
God, thou hast got drunk; thou must expiate the matter before
Totochti, the god of wine; and when thou goest to do penance thou
shalt go at night, naked, save only a piece of paper hanging from thy
girdle in front and another behind; thou shalt repeat thy prayer and
then throw down there before the gods those two pieces of paper, and
so take thy departure.

This confession was held not to have been made to a priest, or to a
man, but to God; and, inasmuch as it could only be heard once in a
man's life, and, as for a relapse into sin after it there was no
forgiveness, it was generally put off till old age. The absolution
given by the priest was valuable in a double regard; the absolved was
held shriven of every crime he had confessed, and clear of all pains
and penalties, temporal or spiritual, civil or ecclesiastical, due
therefor. Thus was the fiery lash of Nemesis bound up, thus were
struck down alike the staff of Minos and the sword of Themis before
the awful ægis of religion. It may be imagined with what reluctance
this last hope, this unique life-confession was resorted to; it was
the one city of refuge, the one Mexican benefit of sanctuary, the sole
horn of the altar, of which a man might once take hold and live, but
no more again for ever.[IX-34]

[Sidenote: GOD OF FIRE.]

The Mexican god of fire as we have already noticed was usually called
Xiuhtecutli. He had, however, other names such as Ixcozauhqui, that is
to say, 'yellow-faced;' and Cuecaltzin, which means 'flame of fire;'
and Huehueteotl, or 'the ancient god.'[IX-35] His idol represented a
naked man, the chin blackened with ulli, and wearing a lip-jewel of
red stone. On his head was a parti-colored paper crown, with green
plumes issuing from the top of it like flames of fire; from the sides
hung tassels of feathers down to the ears. The ear-rings of the image
were of turquoise wrought in mosaic. On the idol's back was a dragon's
head made of yellow feathers and some little marine shells. To the
ankles were attached little bells or rattles. On the left arm was a
shield, almost entirely covered with a plate of gold, into which were
set in the shape of a cross five chalchiuites. In the right hand the
god held a round pierced plate of gold, called the 'looking-plate,'
(mirador ó miradero); with this he covered his face, looking only
through the hole in the golden plate. Xiuhtecutli was held by the
people to be their father, and regarded with feelings of mingled love
and fear; and they celebrated to him two fixed festivals every year,
one in the tenth and another in the eighteenth month, together with a
movable feast in which, according to Clavigero, they appointed
magistrates and renewed the ceremony of the investiture of the fiefs
of the kingdom. The sacrifices of the first of these festivals, the
festival of the tenth month, Xocotlveti, were particularly cruel even
for the Mexican religion.

[Sidenote: FESTIVAL OF THE FIRE GOD.]

The assistants began by cutting down a great tree of five and twenty
fathoms long and dressing off the branches, removing all it would seem
but a few round the top. This tree was then dragged by ropes into the
city, on rollers apparently, with great precaution against bruising
or spoiling it; and the women met the entering procession giving those
that dragged cacao to drink. The tree, which was called _xocotl_, was
received into the court of a cu with shouts; and there set up in a
hole in the ground and allowed to remain for twenty days. On the eve
of the festival Xocotlvetzi, they let this large tree or pole down
gently to the ground, by means of ropes and trestles, or rests, made
of beams tied two and two, probably in an X shape; and carpenters
dressed it perfectly smooth and straight, and, where the branches had
been left, near the top, they fastened with ropes a kind of yard or
cross-beam of five fathoms long. Then was prepared, to be set on the
very top of the pole or tree, a statue of the god Xiuhtecutli, made
like a man out of the dough of wild amaranth seeds, and covered and
decorated with innumerable white papers. Into the head of the image
were stuck strips of paper instead of hair; sashes of paper crossed
the body from each shoulder; on the arms were pieces of paper like
wings, painted over with figures of sparrow-hawks; a maxtli of paper
covered the loins; and a kind of paper shirt or tabard covered all.
Great strips of paper, half a fathom broad and ten fathoms long,
floated from the feet of the dough god half way down the tree; and
into his head were struck three rods with a tamale or small pie on the
top of each. The tree being now prepared with all these things, ten
ropes were attached to the middle of it, and by the help of the
above-mentioned trestles and a large crowd pulling all together, the
whole structure was reared into an upright position and there fixed,
with great shouting and stamping of feet.

Then came all those that had captives to sacrifice; they came
decorated for dancing, all the body painted yellow (which is the
livery color of the god), and the face vermilion. They wore a mass of
the red plumage of the parrot, arranged to resemble a butterfly, and
carried shields covered with white feathers and as it were the feet of
tigers or eagles walking. Each one went dancing side by side with his
captive. These captives had the body painted white, and the face
vermilion, save the cheeks which were black; they were adorned with
papers, much, apparently, as the dough image was, and they had white
feathers on the head and lip-ornaments of feathers. At set of sun the
dancing ceased; the captives were shut up in the _calpulli_, and
watched by their owners, not being even allowed to sleep. About
midnight every owner shaved away the hair of the top of the head of
his slave, which hair, being fastened with red thread to a little tuft
of feathers, he put in a small case of cane, and attached to the
rafters of his house, that every one might see that he was a valiant
man and had taken a captive. The knife with which this shaving was
accomplished was called the claw of the sparrow-hawk. At daybreak the
doomed and shorn slaves were arranged in order in front of the place
called Tzompantli, where the skulls of the sacrificed were spitted in
rows. Here one of the priests went along the row of captives taking
from them certain little banners that they carried and all their
raiment or adornment, and burning the same in a fire; for raiment or
ornament these unfortunates should need no more on earth. While they
were standing thus all naked and waiting for death, there came another
priest, carrying in his arms the image of the god Paynal and his
ornaments; he ran up with this idol to the top of the cu Tlacacouhcan
where the victims were to die. Down he came, then up again, and as he
went up the second time the owners took their slaves by the hair and
led them to the place called Apetlac and there left them. Immediately
there descended from the cu those that were to execute the sacrifice,
bearing bags of a kind of stupefying incense called _yiauhtli_,[IX-36]
which they threw by handfuls into the faces of the victims to deaden
somewhat their agonies in the fearful death before them. Each captive
was then bound hand and foot and so carried up to the top of the cu
where smouldered a huge heap of live coal. The carriers heaved their
living burdens in; and the old narrative gives minute details about
the great hole made in the sparkling embers by each slave, and how the
ashy dust rose in a cloud as he fell. As the dust settled the bound
bodies could be seen writhing and jerking themselves about in torment
on their soft dull-red bed, and their flesh could be heard crackling
and roasting. Now came a part of the ceremony requiring much
experience and judgment; the wild-eyed priests stood grappling-hook in
hand biding their time. The victims were not to die in the fire, the
instant the great blisters began to rise handsomely over their
scorched skins it was enough, they were raked out. The poor blackened
bodies were then flung on the 'tajon' and the agonized soul dismissed
by the sacrificial breast-cut (from nipple to nipple, or a little
lower); the heart was then torn out and cast at the feet of
Xiuhtecutli, god of fire.

[Sidenote: CLIMBING FOR THE GOD.]

This slaughter being over, the statue of Paynal was carried away to
its own cu and every man went home to eat. And the young men and boys,
all those called _quexpaleque_,[IX-37] because they had a lock of hair
at the nape of the neck, came, together with all the people, the women
in order among the men, and began at mid-day to dance and to sing in
the court-yard of Xiuhtecutli; the place was so crowded that there was
hardly room to move. Suddenly there arose a great cry, and a rush was
made out of the court toward the place where was raised the tall tree
already described at some length. Let us shoulder our way forward, not
without risk to our ribs, and see what we can see: there stands the
tall pole with streamers of paper and the ten ropes by which it was
raised dangling from it. On the top stands the dough image of the fire
god, with all his ornaments and weapons, and with the three tamales
sticking out so oddly above his head. Ware clubs! we press too close;
shoulder to shoulder in a thick serried ring round the foot of the
pole stand the 'captains of the youths' keeping the youngsters back
with cudgels, till the word be given at which all may begin to climb
the said pole for the great prize at the top. But the youths are wild
for fame; old renowned heroes look on; the eyes of all the women of
the city are fixed on the great tree where it shoots above the head of
the struggling crowd; glory to him who first gains the cross-beam and
the image. Stand back, then, ye captains, let us pass! There is a
rush, and a trampling, and despite a rain of blows, all the pole with
its hanging ropes is aswarm with climbers, thrusting each other down.
The first youth at the top seizes the idol of dough; he takes the
shield and the arrows and the darts and the stick _atalt_ for throwing
the darts; he takes the tamales from the head of the statue, crumbles
them up, and throws the crumbs with the plumes of the image down into
the crowd; the securing of which crumbs and plumes is a new occasion
for shouting and scrambling and fisticuffs among the multitude. When
the young hero comes down with the weapons of the god which he has
secured, he is received with far-roaring applause and carried up to
the cu Tlacacouhcan, there to receive the reward of his activity and
endurance, praises and jewels and a rich mantle not lawful for another
to wear, and the honor of being carried by the priests to his house,
amid the music of horns and shells. The festivity is over now; all the
people lay hold on the ropes fastened to the tree, and pull it down
with a crash that breaks it to pieces, together, apparently, with all
that is left of the wild-amaranth-dough image of Xiuhtecutli.[IX-38]

Another feast of the god of fire was held in the month Yzcalli, the
eighteenth month; it was called _motlaxquiantota_, that is to say 'our
father the fire toasts his food.' An image of the god of fire was
made, with a frame of hoops and sticks tied together as the basis or
model to be covered with his ornaments. On the head of this image was
put a shining mask of turquoise mosaic, banded across with rows of
green chalchiuites. Upon the mask was put a crown fitting to the head
below, wide above, and gorgeous with rich plumage as a flower; a wig
of reddish hair was attached to this crown so that the evenly cut
locks flowed from below it, behind and around the mask, as if they
were natural. A robe of costly feathers covered all the front of the
image and fell over the ground before the feet, so light that it
shivered and floated with the least breath of air till the variegated
feathers glittered and changed color like water. The back of the image
seems to have been left unadorned, concealed by a throne on which it
was seated, a throne covered with a dried tiger-skin, paws and head
complete. Before this statue new fire was produced at midnight by
boring rapidly by hand one stick upon another; the spunk or tinder so
inflamed was put on the hearth and a fire lit.[IX-39] At break of day
came all the boys and youths with game and fish that they had captured
on the previous day; walking round the fire, they gave it to certain
old men that stood there, who taking it threw it into the flames
before the god, giving the youths in return certain tamales that had
been made and offered for this purpose by the women. To eat these
tamales it was necessary to strip off the maize-leaves in which they
had been wrapped and cooked; these leaves were not thrown into the
fire, but were all put together and thrown into water. After this all
the old men of the ward in which the fire was, drank pulque and sang
before the image of Xiuhtecutli till night. This was the tenth day of
the month and thus finished that feast, or that part of the feast,
which was called _vauquitamalqualiztli_.

On the twentieth and last day of the month was made another statue of
the fire god, with a frame of sticks and hoops as already described.
They put on the head of it a mask with a ground of mosaic of little
bits of the shell called _tapaztli_,[IX-40] composed below the mouth of
black stones, banded across the nostrils with black stones of another
sort, and the cheeks made of a still different stone called
_tezcapuchtli_. As in the previous case there was a crown on this
mask, and over all and over the body of the image costly and beautiful
decorations of feather-work. Before the throne on which this statue
sat there was a fire, and the youths offered game to and received
cakes from the old men with various ceremonies; the day being closed
with a great drinking of pulque by the old people, though not to the
point of intoxication. Thus ended the eighteenth month; and with
regard to the two ceremonies just described, Sahagun says, that though
not observed in all parts of Mexico, they were observed at least in
Tezcuco.

[Sidenote: FOURTH YEAR FESTIVAL.]

It will be noticed that the festivals of this month have been without
human sacrifices; but every fourth year was an exception to this. In
such a year on the twentieth and last day of this eighteenth month,
being also, according to some, the last day of the year, the five
Nemonteni, or unlucky days, being excepted, men and women were slain
as images of the god of fire. The women that had to die carried all
their apparel and ornaments on their shoulders, and the men did the
same. Arrived thus naked where they had to die, men and women alike
were decorated to resemble the god of fire; they ascended the cu,
walked round the sacrificial stone, and then descended and returned
to the place where they were to be kept for the night. Each male
victim had a rope tied round the middle of his body which was held by
his guards. At midnight the hair of the crown of the head of each was
shaven off before the fire and kept for a relic, and the head itself
was covered with a mixture of resin and hens' feathers. After this the
doomed ones burned or gave away to their keepers their now useless
apparel, and as the morning broke they were decorated with papers and
led in procession to die, with singing and shouting and dancing. These
festivities went on till mid-day, when a priest of the cu, arrayed in
the ornaments of the god Paynal, came down, passed before the victims,
and then went up again. They were led up after him, captives first and
slaves after, in the order they had to die in; they suffered in the
usual manner. There was then a grand dance of the lords, led by the
king himself; each dancer wearing a high-fronted paper coronet, a kind
of false nose of blue paper, ear-rings of turquoise mosaic, or of wood
wrought with flowers, a blue curiously flowered jacket, and a mantle.
Hanging to the neck of each was the figure of a dog made of paper and
painted with flowers; in the right hand was carried a stick shaped
like a chopping-knife, the lower half of which was painted red and the
upper half white; in the left hand was carried a little paper bag of
copal. This dance was begun on the top of the cu and finished by
descending and going four times round the court-yard of the cu; after
which all entered the palace with the king. This dance took place only
once in four years, and none but the king and his lords could take
part in it. On this day the ears of all children born during the three
preceding years were bored with a bone awl, and the children
themselves passed near or through the flames of a fire as already
related.[IX-41] There was a further ceremony of taking the children by
the head and lifting them up "to make them grow;" and from this the
month took its name, Yzcalli meaning 'growth.'[IX-42]

There was generally observed in honor of fire a custom called 'the
throwing,' which was that no one ate without first flinging into the
fire a scrap of the food. Another common ceremony was in drinking
pulque to first spill a little on the edge of the hearth. Also when a
person began upon a jar of pulque he emptied out a little into a broad
pan and put it beside the fire, whence with another vessel he spilt of
it four times upon the edge of the hearth; this was 'the libation or
the tasting.'[IX-43]

[Sidenote: THE GREAT NEW FIRE FESTIVAL.]

The most solemn and important of all the Mexican festivals was that
called Toxilmolpilia or Xiuhmolpilli, the 'the binding up of the
years.' Every fifty-two years was called a sheaf of years; and it was
held for certain that at the end of some sheaf of fifty-two years the
motion of the heavenly bodies should cease and the world itself come
to an end. As the possible day of destruction drew near all the people
cast their household gods of wood and stone into the water, as also
the stones used on the hearth for cooking and bruising pepper. They
washed thoroughly their houses, and last of all put out all fires. For
the lighting of the new fire there was a place set apart, the summit
of a mountain called Vixachtlan, or Huixachtla, on the boundary line
between the cities of Itztapalapa and Colhuacan, about six miles from
the city of Mexico. In the production of this new fire none but
priests had any part, and the task fell specially upon those of the
ward Copolco. On the last day of the fifty-two years, after the sun
had set, all the priests clothed themselves with the dress and
insignia of their gods, so as to themselves appear like very gods, and
set out in procession for the mountain, walking very slowly, with
much gravity and silence, as befitted the occasion and the garb they
wore, "walking," as they phrased it, "like gods." The priest of the
ward of Copolco, whose office it was to produce the fire, carried the
instruments thereof in his hand, trying them from time to time to see
that all was right. Then, a little before midnight, the mountain being
gained, and a cu which was there builded for that ceremony, they began
to watch the heavens and especially the motion of the Pleiades. Now
this night always fell so that at midnight these seven stars were in
the middle of the sky with respect to the Mexican horizon; and the
priests watched them to see them pass the zenith and so give sign of
the endurance of the world, for another fifty and two years. That sign
was the signal for the production of the new fire, lit as follows. The
bravest and finest of the prisoners taken in war was thrown down
alive, and a board of very dry wood was put upon his breast; upon this
the acting priest at the critical moment bored with another stick,
twirling it rapidly between his palms till fire caught. Then instantly
the bowels of the captive were laid open, his heart torn out, and it
with all the body thrown upon and consumed by a pile of fire. All this
time an awful anxiety and suspense held possession of the people at
large; for it was said, that if anything happened to prevent the
production at the proper time of the new fire, there would be an end
of the human race, the night and the darkness would be perpetual, and
those terrible and ugly beings the Tzitzimitles[IX-44] would descend to
devour all mankind. As the fateful hour approached, the people
gathered on the flat house-tops, no one willingly remaining below. All
pregnant women, however, were closed into the granaries, their faces
being covered with maize-leaves; for it was said that if the new fire
could not be produced, these women would turn into fierce animals and
devour men and women. Children also had masks of maize-leaf put on
their faces, and they were kept awake by cries and pushes, it being
believed that if they were allowed to sleep they would become mice.

[Sidenote: FEAST OF THE NEW FIRE.]

From the crowded house-tops every eye was bent on Vixachtlan. Suddenly
a moving speck of light was seen by those nearest, and then a great
column of flame shot up against the sky. The new fire! and a great
shout of joy went up from all the country round about. The stars moved
on in their courses; fifty and two years more at least had the
universe to exist. Every one did penance; cutting his ear with a
splinter of flint and scattering the blood toward the part where the
fire was; even the ears of children in the cradle were so cut. And now
from the blazing pile on the mountain, burning brands of pine
candle-wood were carried by the swiftest runners toward every quarter
of the kingdom. In the city of Mexico, on the temple of
Huitzilopochtli, before the altar, there was a fire-place of stone and
lime containing much copal; into this a blazing brand was flung by the
first runner, and from this place fire was carried to all the houses
of the priests, and thence again to all the city. There soon blazed
great central fires in every ward, and it was a thing to be seen the
multitude of people that came together to get light, and the general
rejoicings.

The hearth-fires being thus lit, the inhabitants of every house began
to renew their household gods and furniture, and to lay down new mats,
and to put on new raiment; they made everything new in sign of the new
sheaf of years; they beheaded quails, and burned incense in their
court-yard toward the four quarters of the world, and on their
hearths. After eating a meal of wild amaranth seed and honey, a fast
was ordered, even the drinking of water till noon being forbidden.
Then the eating and drinking were renewed, sacrifices of slaves and
captives were made, and the great fires renewed. The last solemn
festival of the new fire was celebrated in the year 1507, the
Spaniards being not then in the land; and through their presence,
there was no public ceremony when the next sheaf of years was
finished in 1559.[IX-45]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: TEOYAOMIQUE.]

Mictlan, the Mexican hades, or place of the dead, signifies either
primarily, or by an acquired meaning, 'northward, or toward the
north,' though many authorities have located it underground or below
the earth. This region was the seat of the power of a god best known
under his title of Mictlantecutli; his female companion was called
Mictlancihuatl, made identical by some legends with Tlazolteotl, and
by others apparently with the serpent-woman and mother goddess.[IX-46]
There has been discovered and there is now to be seen in the city of
Mexico a huge compound statue, representing various deities, the most
prominent being a certain goddess Teoyaomique, who, it seems to me, is
almost identical with or at least a connecting link between the
mother goddess and the companion of Mictlantecutli. Mr Gallatin
says[IX-47] that the Mexican gods "were painted in different ways
according to their various attributes and names: and the priests were
also in the habit of connecting with the statue of a god or goddess,
symbols of other deities which partook of a similar character. Gama
has adduced several instances of both practices, in the part of his
dissertation which relates to the statue of the goddess of death found
buried in the great Square of Mexico of which he, and lately Mr Nebel,
have given copies.[IX-48] Her name is Teoyaomiqui, which means, to die
in sacred war, or 'in defense of the gods,' and she is the proper
companion of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. The symbols of her own
attributes are found in the upper part of the statue: but those from
the waist downwards relate to other deities connected with her or with
Huitzilopochtli. The serpents are the symbols of his mother
Cohuatlycue, and also of Cihuacohuatl, the serpent woman who begat
twins, male and female, from which mankind proceeded: the same
serpents and feathers are the symbol of Quezatlcohuatl, the precious
stones designate Chalchihuitlycue, the goddess of water; the teeth and
claws refer to Tlaloc and to Tlatocaocelocelotl (the tiger king): and
together with her own attributes, the whole is a most horrible
figure."

[Sidenote: GAMA ON THE COMPOUND IMAGE.]

Of this great compound statue of Huitzilopochtli (for the most part
under his name of Teoyaotlatohua), Teoyaomique, and Mictlantecutli,
and of the three deities separately Leon y Gama treats, in substance
as follows, beginning with Mictlantecutli:[IX-49]--

The Chevalier Boturini mentions another of his names, Teoyaotlatohua,
and says that as director and chief of sacred war he was always
accompanied by Teoyaomique, a goddess whose business it was to collect
the souls of those that died in war and of those that were sacrificed
afterward as captives. Let these statements be put alongside of what
Torquemada says, to wit, that in the great feast of the month
Hueimiccailhuitl,[IX-50] divine names were given to dead kings and to
all famous persons who had died heroically in war, and in the power of
the enemy; idols were made furthermore of these persons, and they were
put with the deities; for it was said that they had gone to the place
of delights and pleasures there to be with the gods. From all this it
would appear that before this image, in which were closely united
Teoyaotlatohua and Teoyaomique, there were each year celebrated
certain rites in memory and honor of dead kings and lords and captains
and soldiers fallen in battle. And not only did the Mexicans venerate
in the temple this image of many gods, but the judicial astrologers
feigned a constellation answering thereto and influencing persons born
under it. In depicting this constellation Teoyaotlatohua
Huitzilopochtli was represented with only half his body, as it were
seated on a bench, and with his mouth open as if speaking. His head
was decorated after a peculiar fashion with feathers, his arms were
made like trunks of trees with branches, while from his girdle there
issued certain herbs that fell downwards over the bench. Opposite this
figure was Teoyaomique, naked save a thin robe,[IX-51] and standing on
a pedestal, apparently holding her head in her hands, at any rate with
her head cut off, her eyes bandaged, and two snakes issuing from the
neck where the head should have been. Between the god and the goddess
was a flowering tree divided through the middle, to which was attached
a beam with various crosspieces, and over all was a bird with the head
separated from its body. There was to be seen also the head of a bird
in a cup, and the head of a serpent, together with a pot turned upside
down while the contents--water as it would appear by the hieroglyphics
attached--ran out.

In this form were painted these two gods, as one of the twenty
celestial signs, sufficiently noticed by Boturini, although as he
confesses, he had not arranged them in the proper order. Returning to
notice the office attributed to Teoyaomique, that of collecting the
souls of the dead, we find that Cristóbal del Castillo says that all
born under the sign which, with the god of war, this goddess ruled,
were to become at an early age valorous soldiers; but that their
career was to be short as it was brilliant, for they were to fall in
battle young. These souls were to rise to heaven, to dwell in the
house of the sun, where were woods and groves. There they were to
exist four years, at the end of which time they were to be converted
into birds of rich and beautiful plumage, and to go about sucking
flowers both in heaven and on earth.

[Sidenote: MICTECACIHUATL.]

To the statue mentioned above there was joined with great propriety
the image of another god, feigned to be the god of hell, or of the
place of the dead, which latter is the literal signification of his
name, Mictlantecutli. This image was engraved in demi-relief on the
lower plane of the stone of the great compound statue; but it was also
venerated separately in its own proper temple, called Tlalxicco, that
is to say, 'in the bowels or navel of the earth.' Among the various
offices attributed to this deity was that of burying the corpses of
the dead, principally of those that died of natural infirmities; for
the souls of these went to hell to present themselves before this
Mictlantecutli and before his wife Mictecacihuatl, which name
Torquemada interprets as 'she that throws into hell.' Thither indeed
it was said that these dead went to offer themselves as vassals
carrying offerings, and to have pointed out to them the places that
they were to occupy according to the manner of their death. This god
of hades was further called Tzontemoc, a term interpreted by
Torquemada to mean 'he that lowers his head;' but it would rather
appear that it should take its signification from the action indicated
by the great statue, where this deity is seen as it were carrying down
tied to himself the heads of corpses to bury them in the ground, as
Boturini says. The places or habitations supposed to exist in hell,
and to which the souls of the dead had to go, were nine; in the last
of which, called Chicuhnauhmictlan, the said souls were supposed to be
annihilated and totally destroyed. There was lastly given to this god
a place in heaven, he being joined with one of the planets and
accompanied by Teotlamacazqui; at his feet, there was painted a body
that was half buried, or covered with earth from the head to the
waist, while the rest stuck out uncovered. It only remains to be said
that such was the veneration and religious feeling with which were
regarded all things relating to the dead, that not only there were
invented for them tutelary gods, much honored by frequent feasts and
sacrifice; but the Mexicans elevated Death itself, dedicating to it a
day of the calendar (the first day of the sixth 'trecena'), joining it
to the number of the celestial signs; and erecting to it a sumptuous
temple called Tolnahuac, within the circuit of the great temple of
Mexico, wherein it was particularly adored with holocausts and victims
under the title Ce Miquiztli.[IX-52]

[Sidenote: MIXCOATL, GOD OF HUNTING.]

Mixcoatl is the god--or goddess according to some good
authorities--of hunting. The name means 'cloud-serpent' and indeed
seems common to a whole class of deities or heroes somewhat resembling
the Nibelungs of northern European mythology.[IX-53] He is further
supposed to be connected with the thunderstorm: "Mixcoatl, the
Cloud-Serpent, or Iztac-Mixcoatl, the White or Gleaming
Cloud-Serpent," writes Brinton,[IX-54] "said to have been the only
divinity of the ancient Chichimecs, held in high honor by the Nahuas,
Nicaraguans, and Otomís, and identical with Taras, supreme god of the
Tarascos, and Camaxtli, god of the Teo-Chichimecs, is another
personification of the thunderstorm. To this day this is the familiar
name of the tropical tornado in the Mexican language. He was
represented, like Jove, with a bundle of arrows in his hand, the
thunderbolts. Both the Nahuas and Tarascos related legends in which he
figured as father of the race of man. Like other lords of the
lightning he was worshiped as the dispenser of riches and the patron
of traffic; and in Nicaragua his image is described as being 'engraved
stones' probably the supposed products of the thunder."

In the fourteenth month, called Quecholli, and beginning, according
to Clavigero, on the fourteenth of November, there was made with many
obscure ceremonies, a feast to this god. On the sixth day of the month
all assembled at the cu of Huitzilopochtli, where during four days
they made arrows and darts for use in war and for general practice at
a mark, mortifying at the same time their flesh by drawing blood, and
by abstaining from women and pulque. This done they made, in honor of
the dead, certain little mimic darts of a hand long, of which four
seem to have been tied together with four splinters of candle-wood
pine; these were put on the graves, and at set of sun, lit and burned,
after which the ashes were interred on the spot. There were taken a
maize-stalk of nine knots with a paper flag on the top that hung down
to the bottom, together with a shield and dart belonging to the dead
man, and his maxtli and blanket; the last two being attached to the
maize-stalk. The hanging flag was ornamented on either side with red
cotton thread, in the figure of an X; a piece of twisted white thread
also hung down to which was suspended a dead humming-bird. Handfuls of
the white feathers of the heron were tied two and two and fastened to
the burdened maize-stalk, while all the cotton threads used were
covered with white hen's feathers, stuck on with resin. Lastly all
these were burned on a stone block called the _quaulixicalcalico_.

In the court of the cu of Mixcoatl was scattered much dried grass
brought from the mountains, upon which the old women-priests, or
_cioatlamacazque_, seated themselves, each with a mat before her. All
the women that had children came, each bringing her child and five
sweet tamales; and the tamales were put on the mats before the old
women, who in return took the children, tossed them in their arms and
then returned them to their mothers.

[Sidenote: DRIVE-HUNT OF MIXCOATL.]

About the middle of the month was made a special feast to this god of
the Otomís, to Mixcoatl. In the morning all prepared for a great
drive-hunt, girding their blankets to their loins, and taking bows
and arrows. They wended their way to a mountain-slope, anciently
Zapatepec, or Yxillantonan, above the sierra of Atlacuizoayan, or as
it is now called, according to Bustamante, Tacubaya. There they drove
deer, rabbits, hares, coyotes, and other game together, little by
little, every one in the meantime killing what he could; few or no
animals escaping. To the most successful hunters blankets were given,
and every one brought to his house the heads of the animals he had
taken, and hanged them up for tokens of his prowess or activity.

There were human sacrifices in honor of this hunting god with other
deities. The manufacturers of pulque bought, apparently two slaves who
were decorated with paper and killed in honor of the gods
Tlamatzincatl and Yzquitecatl; there were also sacrificed women
supposed to represent the wives of these two deities. The _calpixquis_
on their part led other two slaves to the death in honor of Mixcoatl
and of Cohuatlicue his wife. On the morning of the last day but one of
the month, all the doomed were brought out and led round the cu where
they had to die; after mid-day they were led up the cu, round the
sacrificial block, down again, then back to the _calpulco_, to be at
once guarded and forced to keep awake for the night. At midnight their
heads were shaven before the fire, and every one of them burned there
what goods he had, little paper flags, cane tobacco-pipes[IX-55] and
drinking-vessels; the women threw into the flame their raiment, their
ornaments, their spindles, little baskets, vessels in which the
spindles were twirled, warping-frames, fuller's earth, pieces of cane
for pressing a fabric together, cords for fastening it up,
maguey-thorns, measuring-rods, and other implements for weaving; and
they said that all these things had to be given to them in the other
world after their death. At daybreak these captives were carried or
assisted up, each having a paper flag borne before him, to the
several cues of the gods they were to die in honor of. Four that had
to die, probably before Mixcoatl, were, each by four bearers, carried
up to a temple, bound hand and foot to represent dead deer; while
others were merely assisted up the steps by a youth at each arm, so
that they should not faint nor fail; two other youths trailing or
letting them down the same steps after they were dead. The preceding
relates only to the male captives, the women being slain before the
men, in a separate cu called the _coatlan_; it is said that as they
were forced up the steps of it some screamed and others wept. In
letting the dead bodies of these women down the steps again, it is
also specially written, that they were not hurled down roughly, but
rolled down little by little. At the place where the skulls of the
dead were exposed, waited two old women called _teixamique_, having by
them salt water and bread and a mess or gruel of some kind. The
carcasses of the victims being brought to them, they dipped
cane-leaves into the salt water and sprinkled the faces of them
therewith, and into each mouth they put four morsels of bread
moistened with the gruel or mess above-mentioned. Then the heads were
cut off and spitted on poles; and so the feast ended.[IX-56]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MACUILXOCHITL.]

In connection with the religious honors paid to the dead, it may be
here said that the Mexicans had a deity of whom almost all we know is
that he was the god of those that died in the houses of the lords or
in the palaces of the principal men; he was called Macuilxochitl,
'the chief that gives flowers, or that takes care of the giving of
flowers.'[IX-57] The festival of this god fell among the movable feasts
and was called Xochilhuitl, or 'the festival of flowers.' There were
in it the usual preliminary fasting (that is to say, eating but once a
day, at noon, and then only of a restricted diet), blood-letting, and
offering of food in the temple; though there did not occur therein
anything suggestive either of a god of flowers or of a god of the more
noble dead. The image of this deity was in the likeness of an almost
naked man, either flayed or painted of a vermilion color; the mouth
and chin were of three tints, white, black, and light blue; the face
was of a light reddish tinge. It had a crown of light green color,
with plumes of the same hue, and tassels that hung down to the
shoulders. On the back of the idol was a device wrought in feathers,
representing a banner planted on a hill; about the loins of it was a
bright reddish blanket, fringed with sea-shells; curiously wrought
sandals adorned its feet; on the left arm of it was a white shield, in
the midst of which were set four stones, joined two and two; it held a
sceptre, shaped like a heart and tipped with green and yellow
feathers.[IX-58]

Ome Acatl was the god of banquets and of guests; his name signified
'two canes.' When a man made a feast to his friends, he had the image
of this deity carried to his house by certain of its priests; and if
the host did not do this, the deity appeared to him in a dream,
rebuking him in such words as these: Thou bad man, because thou hast
withheld from me my due honor, know that I will forsake thee and that
thou shalt pay dearly for this insult. When this god was excessively
angered, he was accustomed to mix hairs with the food and drink of the
guests of the object of his wrath, so that the giver of the feast
should be disgraced. As in the case of Huitzilopochtli, there was a
kind of communion sacrament in connection with the adoration of this
god of feasts: in each ward dough was taken and kneaded by the
principal men into the figure of a bone of about a cubit long, called
the bone of Ome Acatl. A night seems to have been spent in eating and
in drinking pulque; then at break of day an unfortunate person, set up
as the living image of the god, had his belly pricked with pins, or
some such articles; being hurt thereby, as we are told. This done the
bone was divided and each one ate what of it fell to his lot; and when
those that had insulted this god ate, they often grew sick, and almost
choked, and went stumbling and falling. Ome Acatl was represented as a
man seated on a bunch of cyperus-sedges. His face was painted white
and black; upon his head was a paper crown surrounded by a long and
broad fillet of divers colors, knotted up at the back of the head; and
again round and over the fillet, was wound a string of chalchiuite
beads. His blanket was made like a net, and had a broad border of
flowers woven into it. He bore a shield, from the lower part of which
hung a kind of fringe of broad tassels. In the right hand he held a
sceptre called the _tlachielonique_, or 'looker,'[IX-59] because it was
furnished with a round plate through which a hole was pierced, and
the god kept his face covered with the plate and looked through the
hole.[IX-60]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: IXTLILTON, HEALER OF CHILDREN.]

Yxtliton, or Ixtlilton--that is to say 'the little negro,' according
to Sahagun, and 'the black-faced,' according to Clavigero--was a god
who cured children of various diseases.[IX-61] His 'oratory' was a kind
of temporary building made of painted boards; his image was neither
graven nor painted; it was a living man decorated with certain
vestments. In this temple or oratory were kept many pans and jars,
covered with boards, and containing a fluid which was called 'black
water.' When a child sickened, it was brought to this temple and one
of these jars was uncovered, upon which the child drank of the black
water and was healed of its disease--the cure being probably most
prompt and complete when the priests as well as the god knew something
of physic. When one made a feast to this god--which seems to have been
when one made new pulque--the man that was the image of Ixtlilton came
to the house of the feast-giver with music and dancing, and preceded
by the smoke of copal incense. The representative of the deity having
arrived, the first thing he did was to eat and drink; there were more
dances and festivities in his honor, in which he took part, and then
he entered the cellar of the house, where were many jars of pulque
that had been covered for four days with boards or lids of some kind.
He opened one or many of these jars, a ceremony called 'the opening of
the first, or of the new wine,' and himself with those that were with
him drank thereof. This done, he went out into the court-yard of the
house, where there were prepared certain jars of the above-mentioned
black water, which also had been kept covered four days; these he
opened, and if there was found therein any dirt, or piece of straw, or
hair, or ash, it was taken as a sign that the giver of the feast was a
man of evil life, an adulterer, or a thief, or a quarrelsome person,
and he was affronted with the charge accordingly. When the
representative of the god set out from the house where all this
occurred, he was presented with certain blankets called _yxguen_, or
_ixquen_, that is to say, 'covering of the face,' because when any
fault had been found in the black water, the giver of the feast was
put to shame.[IX-62]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OPUCHTLI, GOD OF FISHING.]

Opuchtli, or Opochtli, 'the left-handed,' was venerated by fishermen
as their protector and the inventor of their nets, fish-spears, oars,
and other gear. In Cuitlahuac, an island of lake Chalco, there was a
god of fishing called Amimitl, who, according to Clavigero, differed
from the first-mentioned only in name. Sahagun says that Opuchtli was
counted among the number of the Tlaloques, and that the offerings made
to him were composed of pulque, stalks of green maize, flowers, the
smoking-canes, or pipes called _yietl_, copal incense, the odorous
herb _yiauhtli_, and parched maize. These things seem to have been
strewed before him as rushes used to be strewed before a procession.
There were used in these solemnities certain rattles enclosed in
hollow walking-sticks. The image of this god was like a man, almost
naked, with the face of that grey tint seen in quails' feathers; on
the head was a paper crown of divers colors, made like a rose, as it
were, of leaves overlapping each other, topped by green feathers
issuing from a yellow tassel; other long tassels hung from this crown
to the shoulders of the idol. Crossed over the breast was a green
stole resembling that worn by the Christian priest when saying mass;
on the feet were white sandals; on the left arm was a red shield, and
in the centre of its field a white flower with four leaves disposed
like a cross; and in the left hand was a sceptre of a peculiar
fashion.[IX-63]

* * * * *

Xipe, or Totec, or Xipetotec, or Thipetotec, is, according to
Clavigero, a god whose name has no meaning,[IX-64] who was the deity of
the goldsmiths, and who was much venerated by the Mexicans, they being
persuaded that those that neglected his worship would be smitten with
diseases; especially the boils, the itch, and pains of the head and
eyes. They excelled themselves therefore in cruelty at his festival
time, occurring ordinarily in the second month.

Sahagun describes this god as specially honored by dwellers on the
sea-shore, and as having had his origin at Zapotlan in Jalisco. He was
supposed to afflict people with sore eyes and with various
skin-diseases, such as small-pox, abscesses, and itch. His image was
made like a human form, one side or flank of it being painted yellow,
and the other of a tawny color; down each side of the face from the
brow to the jaw a thin stripe was wrought; and on the head was a
little cap with hanging tassels. The upper part of the body was
clothed with the flayed skin of a man; round the loins was girt a kind
of green skirt. It had on one arm a yellow shield with a red border,
and held in both hands a scepter shaped like the calix of a poppy and
tipped with an arrow-head.[IX-65]

[Sidenote: EATING THE BODIES OF THE SACRIFICED.]

On the last day of the second month--or, according to some authors,
of the first--Tlacaxipehualiztli, there was celebrated a solemn feast
in honor at once of Xipetotec and of Huitzilopochtli. It was preceded
by a very solemn dance at noon of the day before. As the night of the
vigil fell, the captives were shut up and guarded; at midnight--the
time when it was usual to draw blood from the ears--the hair of the
middle of the head of each was shaven away before a fire. When the
dawn appeared they were led by their owners to the foot of the stairs
of the temple of Huitzilopochtli--and if they would not ascend
willingly the priests dragged them up by the hair. The priests threw
them down one by one on the back on a stone of three quarters of a
yard or more high, and square on the top something more than a foot
every way. Two assistants held the victim down by the feet, two by the
hands, and one by the head--this last according to many accounts
putting a yoke over the neck of the man and so pressing it down. Then
the priest, holding with both hands a splinter of flint, or a stone
resembling flint, like a large lance-head, struck across the breast
therewith, and tore out the heart through the gash so made; which,
after offering it to the sun and other gods by holding it up toward
the four quarters of heaven, he threw into a wooden vessel.[IX-66] The
blood was collected also in a vessel and given to the owner of the
dead captive, while the body, thrown down the temple steps, was taken
to the calpule by certain old men, called _quaquacuiltin_, flayed, cut
into pieces, and divided for eating; the king receiving the flesh of
the thigh, while the rest of the carcass was eaten at the house of the
owner of the captive, though, as will appear by a remark
hereafter,[IX-67] it is improbable that the captor or owner himself ate
any of it. With the skin of these flayed persons, a party of youths
called the _tototecli_ clothed themselves, and fought in sham fight
with another party of young men; prisoners being taken on both sides,
who were not released without a ransom of some kind or other. This
sham battle was succeeded by combats of a terribly real sort, the
famous so-called gladiatorial fights of Mexico. On a great round
stone, like an enormous mill-stone, a captive was tied by a cord,
passing round his waist and through the hole of the stone, long enough
to permit him freedom of motion everywhere about the block--set near
or at a temple called _yopico_, of the god Totec, or Xipe.[IX-68] With
various ceremonies, more particularly described in the preceding
volume, the bound man furnished with inferior weapons was made to
fight with a picked Mexican champion--the latter holding up his sword
and shield to the sun before engaging. If, as sometimes happened, the
desperate though hampered and ill-armed captive--whose club-sword was,
by a refinement of mockery, deprived of its jagged flint edging and
set with feathers--slew his opponent, another champion was sent
against him, and so on to the number of five, at which point,
according to some, the captive was set free; though according to other
authorities, he was not allowed so to escape, but champions were sent
against him till he fell. Upon which a priest called the _yooallaoa_
opened his breast, tore out his heart, offered it to the sun, and
threw it into the usual wooden vessel; while the ropes used for
binding to the fighting-stone were carried to the four quarters of the
world, reverently with weeping and sighing. A second priest thrust a
piece of cane into the gash in the victim's breast and held it up
stained with blood to the sun. Then the owner of the captive came and
received the blood into a vessel bordered with feathers; this vessel
he took with a little cane-and-feather broom or aspergillum and went
about all the temples and calpules, giving to each of the idols, as
it were to taste of the blood of his captive. The slain body was then
carried to the calpulco--where, while alive, it had been confined the
night before the sacrifice--and there skinned. Thence it was brought
to the house of its owner, who divided and made presents of it to his
superiors, relatives, and friends; not however tasting thereof
himself, for, we are told, "he counted it as the flesh of his own
body," because from the hour that he took the prisoner "he held him to
be his son, and the captive looked up to his captor as to a father."

[Sidenote: RELATIONS BETWEEN CAPTOR AND CAPTIVE.]

The skins of the dead belonged to their captors, who gave them again
to others to be worn by them for apparently twenty days, probably as a
kind of penance--the persons so clothed collecting alms from everyone
in the meantime and bringing all they got, each to the man that had
given him the skin. When done with, these skins were hid away in a
rotting condition in a certain cave, while the ex-wearers thereof
washed themselves with great rejoicings. At the putting away of these
skins there assisted numbers of people ill with the itch and such
other diseases as Xipe inflicted--hoping thus to be healed of their
infirmities, and it is said that many were so cured.[IX-69]

The merchants of Mexico--a class of men who hawked their goods from
place to place and wandered often far into strange countries to buy or
sell--had various deities to whom they did special honor. Among these
the chief, and often the only one mentioned, was the god Yiacatecutli,
or Jacateuctli, or Iyacatecuhtli, that is 'the lord that guides,'
otherwise called Yacacoliuhqui, or Jacacoliuhqui.[IX-70] This chief god
of the merchants had, however, according to Sahagun, five brothers and
a sister, also reverenced by traders, the sister being called
Chalmecacioatl, and the brothers respectively Chiconquiavitl,
Xomocuil, Nacxitl, Cochimetl, and Yacapitzaoac. The principal image of
this god was a figure representing a man walking along a road with a
staff; the face black and white; the hair tied up in a bundle on the
middle of the top of the head with two tassels of rich quetzal-feathers;
the ear-rings of gold; the mantle blue, bordered with a flowered
fringe, and covered with a red net, through whose meshes the blue
appeared; round the ankles leather straps from which hung marine
shells; curiously wrought sandals on the feet; and on the arm a plain
unornamented yellow shield, with a spot of light blue in the centre of
its field. Practically, however, every merchant reverenced his own
stout staff--generally made of a solid, knotless piece of black cane,
called _utatl_--as the representative or symbol of this god
Yiacatecutli; keeping it, when not in use, in the oratory or sacred
place in his house, and invariably putting food before it preliminary
to eating his own meal. When traveling the traders were accustomed
nightly to stack up their staves in a convenient position, bind them
about, build a fire before them,[IX-71] and then offering blood and
copal, pray for preservation and shelter from the many perils to which
their wandering life made them especially subject.[IX-72]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: NAPATECUTLI.]

Napatecutli, that is to say 'four times lord,' was the god of the
mat-makers and of all workers in water-flags and rushes. A beneficent
and helpful divinity, and one of the Tlalocs, he was known by various
names, such as Tepahpaca Teaaltati, 'the purifier or washer;'
Quitzetzelohua, or Tlaitlanililoni, 'he that scatters or winnows
down;' Tlanempopoloa, 'he that is large and liberal;' Teatzelhuia, 'he
that sprinkles with water;' and Amotenenqua, 'he that shows himself
grateful.' This god had two temples in Mexico and his festival fell in
the thirteenth month, by Clavigero's reckoning. His image resembled a
black man, the face being spotted with white and black, with tassels
hanging down behind supporting a green plume of three feathers. Round
the loins and reaching to the knees was girt a kind of white and black
skirt or petticoat, adorned with little sea-shells. The sandals of
this idol were white; on its left arm was a shield made like the broad
leaf of the water-lily, or nenuphar; while the right hand held a
sceptre like a flowering staff, the flowers being of paper; and across
the body, passing under the left arm, was a white scarf, painted over
with black flowers.[IX-73]

The Mexicans had several gods of wine, or rather of pulque; of these
the chief seems to have been Tezcatzoncatl, otherwise known as
Tequechmecaniani 'the strangler,' and as Teatlahuiani 'the drowner;'
epithets suggested by the effects of drunkenness. The companion
deities of this Aztec Dionysus were called as a class by the somewhat
extraordinary name of Centzontotochtin or 'the four hundred rabbits';
Yiaulatecatl, Yzquitecatl, Acoloa, Thilhoa, Pantecatl (the Patecatl of
the interpreters of the codices), Tultecatl, Papaztac, Tlaltecaiooa,
Ometochtli (often referred to as the principal god of wine),
Tepuztecatl, Chimapalnecatl, were deities of this class. The principal
characteristic of the image of the Mexican god of drunkenness was,
according to Mendieta and Motolinia, a kind of vessel carried on the
head of the idol, into which vessel wine was ceremoniously poured. The
feast of this god, like that of the preceding divinity, fell in the
thirteenth month, Tepeilhuitl, and in his temple in the city of Mexico
there served four hundred consecrated priests, so great was the
service done this everywhere too widely and well known god.[IX-74]

[Sidenote: THE HOUSEHOLD GODS.]

The Mexicans had certain household gods called Tepitoton, or
Tepictoton, 'the little ones,'--small statues of which kings kept six
in their houses, nobles four, and common folks two. Whether these were
a particular class of deities or merely miniature images of the
already described greater gods it is hard to say. Similar small idols
are said to have adorned streets, cross-roads, fountains and other
places of public traffic and resort.[IX-75]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE CEREMONIAL CALENDAR.]

With these Tepitoton may be said to finish the list of Mexican gods of
any repute or any general notoriety; so that it seems fit to give here
a condensed and arranged résumé of all the fixed festivals and
celebrations of the Aztec calendar, with its eighteen months of twenty
days each, and its five supplementary days at the end of the year.
There is some disagreement as to which of the months the year began
with; but it will best suit our present purpose to follow the
arrangement of Sahagun, the interpreters of the Codices, Torquemada,
and Clavigero, in which the month variously called Atlcahualco, or
Quahuitlehua, or Cihuailhuitl, or Xilomanaliztli, is the first.[IX-76]
The name Atlchualco, or Atlaooalo, or Atalcaoplo, means 'the buying
or scarcity of water;' Quahuitlehua, or Quavitleloa, 'the sprouting of
trees;' and Xilomanaliztli, 'the offering of Xilotl (that is heads of
maize, which were then presented to the gods to secure their blessing
on the seed time).' This first month beginning on the second of
February according to Sahagun, the eighteenth according to Gama, and
the twenty-sixth according to Clavigero, was consecrated to Tlaloc and
the other gods of water, and in it great numbers of children were
sacrificed.[IX-77] In further honor of the Tlalocs there were also at
this time killed many captives on the gladiatorial stone.

It was the second month, called Tlacaxiphualiztli,[IX-78] or 'the
flaying of men,' that was specially famous for its gladiatorial
sacrifices, sacrifices already described and performed to the honor of
Xipe, or Xipetotec.[IX-79]

The third month called Tozoztontli, 'the lesser fast or penance,' was
inaugurated by the sacrifice on the mountains of children to the
Tlalocs. Those also that traded in flowers and were called
Sochimanque, or Xochimanqui, made a festival to their goddess,
Coatlycue, or Coatlantona, offering her the first-fruits of the
flowers of the year, of these that had grown in the precincts of the
cu _yapico_, a cu as we have seen, consecrated to Tlaloc. Into a cave
belonging to this temple there were also at this time cast the now
rotten skins of the human beings that had been flayed in the preceding
month. Thither, "stinking like dead dogs," as Sahagun phrases it,
marched in procession the persons that wore these skins and there they
put them off, washing themselves with many ceremonies; and sick folk
troubled with certain skin-diseases followed and looked on, hoping by
the sight of all these things to be healed of their infirmities. The
owners of the captives that had been slain had also been doing penance
for twenty days, neither washing nor bathing during that time; and
they now, when they had seen the skins deposited in the cave, washed
and gave a banquet to all their friends and relatives, performing many
ceremonies with the bones of the dead captives. All the twenty days of
this month singing exercises, praising the god, were carried on in the
houses called Cuicacalli, the performers not dancing but remaining
seated.

The fourth month was called, in contradistinction to the third,
Veitozoztli, or Hueytozoztli, that is to say, 'the greater penance or
letting of blood;' because in it not only the priests but also the
populace and nobility did penance, drawing blood from their ears,
shins, and other parts of the body, and exposing at their doors leaves
of sword-grass stained therewith. After this they performed certain
already described ceremonies,[IX-80] and then made, out of the dough
known as _tzoalli_,[IX-81] an image of the goddess Chicomecoatl, in the
court-yard of her temple, offering before it all kinds of maize,
beans, and chian, because she was the maker and giver of these things
and the sustainer of the people. In this month, as well as in the
three months preceding, little children were sacrificed, a cruelty
which was supposed to please the water gods, and which was kept up
till the rains began to fall abundantly.

[Sidenote: THE MONTH TOXCATL.]

The fifth month, called Toxcatl and sometimes Tepopochuiliztli,[IX-82]
was begun by the most solemn and famous feast of the year, in honor of
the principal Mexican god, a god known by a multitude of names and
epithets, among which were Tezcatlipoca, Titlacaoan, Yautl,
Telpuchtli, and Tlamatzincatl. A year before this feast, one of the
most distinguished of the captives reserved for sacrifice was chosen
out for superior grace and personal appearance from among all his
fellows, and given in charge to the priestly functionaries called
calpixques. These instructed him with great diligence in all the arts
pertaining to good breeding, according to the Mexican idea: such as
playing on the flute, walking, speaking, saluting those he happened to
meet, the use and carrying about of straight cane tobacco-pipes and of
flowers, with the dexterous smoking of the one, and the graceful
inhalation of the odor of the other. He was attended upon by eight
pages, who were clad in the livery of the palace, and had perfect
liberty to go where he pleased night and day; while his food was so
rich that to guard against his growing too fat, it was at times
necessary to vary the diet by a purge of salt and water. Everywhere
honored and adored as the living image and accredited representative
of Tezcatlipoca, he went about playing on a small shrill clay flute,
or fife, and adorned with rich and curious raiment furnished by the
king, while all he met did him reverence kissing the earth. All his
body and face was painted--black, it would appear; his long hair
flowed to the waist; his head was covered with white hens' feathers
stuck on with resin, and covered with a garland of the flowers called
_yzquisuchitl_; while two strings of the same flowers crossed his body
in the fashion of cross-belts. Earrings of gold, a necklace of
precious stones with a great dependent gem hanging to the breast, a
lip-ornament (barbote) of sea-shell, bracelets of gold above the elbow
on each arm, and strings of gems called _macuextli_ winding from wrist
almost to elbow, glittered and flashed back the light as the doomed
man-god moved. He was covered with a rich beautifully fringed mantle
of netting, and bore on his shoulders something like a purse made of
white cloth of a span square, ornamented with tassels and fringe. A
white maxtli of a span broad went about his loins, the two ends,
curiously wrought, falling in front almost to the knee. Little bells
of gold kept time with every motion of his feet, which were shod with
painted sandals called _ocelunacace_.

All this was the attire he wore from the beginning of his year of
preparation; but twenty days before the coming of the festival, they
changed his vestments, washed away the paint or dye from his skin, and
cut down his long hair to the length, and arranged it after the
fashion, of the hair of the captains, tying it up on the crown of the
head with feathers and fringe and two gold-buttoned tassels. At the
same time they married to him four damsels, who had been pampered and
educated for this purpose, and who were surnamed respectively after
the four goddesses, Xochiquetzal, Xilonen, Atlatonan, and
Vixtocioatl.[IX-83] Five days before the great day of the feast,[IX-84]
the day of the feast being counted one, all the people, high and low,
the king it would appear being alone excepted, went out to celebrate
with the man-god a solemn banquet and dance, in the ward called
Tecanman; the fourth day before the feast, the same was done in the
ward in which was guarded the statue of Tezcatlipoca. The little hill,
or island, called Tepetzinco, rising out of the waters of the lake of
Mexico, was the scene of the next day's solemnities; solemnities
renewed for the last time on the next day, or that immediately
preceding the great day, on another like island called Tepelpulco, or
Tepepulco. There, with the four women that had been given him for his
consolation, the honored victim was put into a covered canoe usually
reserved for the sole use of the king; and he was carried across the
lake to a place called Tlapitzaoayan, near the road that goes from
Yztapalapan to Chalco, at a place where was a little hill called
Acacuilpan, or Cabaltepec. Here left him the four beautiful girls,
whose society for twenty days he had enjoyed, they returning to the
capital with all the people; there accompanying the hero of this
terrible tragedy only those eight attendants that had been with him
all the year. Almost alone, done with the joys of beauty, banquet, and
dance, bearing a bundle of his flutes, he walked to a little ill-built
cu, some distance from the road mentioned above, and about a league
removed from the city. He marched up the temple steps, not dragged,
not bound, not carried like a common slave or captive; and as he
ascended he dashed down and broke on every step one of the flutes that
he had been accustomed to play on in the days of his prosperity. He
reached the top;--by sickening repetition we have learned to know the
rest; one thing only, from the sacrificial stone his body was not
hurled down the steps, but was carried by four men down to the
Tzompantli, to the place of the spitting of heads.

[Sidenote: THE FEAST OF TOXCATL.]

And the chroniclers say that all this signified that those who enjoyed
riches, delights in this life, should at the end come to poverty and
sorrow--so determined are these same chroniclers to let nothing escape
without its moral.

In this feast of Toxcatl, in the cu called Huitznahuac, where the
image of Huitzilopochtli was always kept, the priests made a bust of
this god out of _tzoalli_ dough, with pieces of mizquitl-wood inserted
by way of bones. They decorated it with his ornaments; putting on a
jacket wrought over with human bones, a mantle of very thin _nequen_,
and another mantle called the _tlaquaquallo_, covered with rich
feathers, fitting the head below and widening out above; in the middle
of this stood up a little rod, also decorated with feathers and
sticking into the top of the rod was a flint knife half covered with
blood. The image was set on a platform made of pieces of wood
resembling snakes and so arranged that heads and tails alternated all
the way round; the whole borne by many captains and men of war.
Before this image and platform a number of strong youths carried an
enormous sheet of paper resembling pasteboard, twenty fathoms long,
one fathom broad, and a little less than an inch thick; it was
supported by spear-shafts arranged in pairs of one shaft above and one
below the paper, while persons on either side of the paper held each
one of these pairs in one hand. When the procession, with dancing and
singing, reached the cu to be ascended, the snaky platform was
carefully and cautiously hoisted up by cords attached to its four
corners, the image was set on a seat, and those that carried the paper
rolled it up and set down the roll before the bust of the god. It was
sunset when the image was so set up; and the following morning every
one offered food in his own house before the image of Huitzilopochtli
there, incensing also such images of other gods as he had, and then
went to offer quails' blood before the bust set up on the cu. The king
began, wringing off the heads of four quails; the priests offered
next, then all the people; the whole multitude carrying clay fire-pans
and burning copal incense of every kind, after which every one threw
his live coals upon a great hearth in the temple-yard. The virgins
painted their faces, put on their heads garlands of parched maize with
strings of the same across their breasts, decorated their arms and
legs with red feathers, and carried black paper flags stuck into split
canes. The flags of the daughters of nobles were not of paper but of a
thin cloth called _canaoac_, painted with vertical black stripes.
These girls joining hands danced round the great hearth, upon or over
which on an elevated place of some kind there danced, giving the time
and step, two men, having each a kind of pine cage covered with paper
flags on his shoulders, the strap supporting which passed, not across
the forehead--the usual way for men to carry a burden--but across
the chest as was the fashion with women. The priests of the temple,
dancing on this occasion with the women, bore shields of paper,
crumpled up like great flowers; their heads were adorned with white
feathers, their lips and part of the face were smeared with
sugar-cane juice which produced a peculiar effect over the black with
which their faces were always painted. They carried in their hands
pieces of paper called _amasmaxtli_, and sceptres of palm-wood tipped
with a black flower and having in the lower part a ball of black
feathers. In dancing they used this sceptre like a staff, and the part
by which they grasped it was wrapped round with a paper painted with
black lines. The music for the dancers was supplied by a party of
unseen musicians, who occupied one of the temple buildings, where they
sat, he that played on the drum in the centre, and the performers on
the other instruments about him. The men and women danced on till
night, but the strictest order and decency were preserved, and any
lewd word or look brought down swift punishment from the appointed
overseers.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE YXTEUCALLI.]

This feast was closed by the death of a youth who had been during the
past year dedicated to and taken care of for Huitzilopochtli,
resembling in this the victim of Tezcatlipoca, whose companion he had
indeed been, but without receiving such high honors. This
Huitzilopochtli youth was entitled Yxteucalli, or Tlacabepan, or
Teicauhtzin, and was held to be the image and representative of the
god. When the day of his death came, the priests decorated him with
papers painted over with black circles, and put a mitre of eagles'
feathers on his head, in the midst of whose plumes was stuck a flint
knife, stained half way up with blood and adorned with red feathers.
Tied to his shoulders, by strings passing across the breast, was a
piece of very thin cloth about a span square, and over it hung a
little bag. Over one of his arms was thrown a wild beast's skin,
arranged somewhat like a maniple; bells of gold jingled at his legs as
he walked or danced. There were two peculiar things connected with the
death of this youth; first he had absolute liberty of choice regarding
the hour in which he was to die; and second, he was not extended upon
any block or altar, but when he wished he threw himself into the arms
of the priests, and had his heart so cut out. His head was then hacked
off and spitted alongside of that of the Tezcatlipoca youth, of whom
we have spoken already. In this same day the priests made little marks
on children, cutting them, with thin stone knives, in the breast,
stomach, wrists, and fleshy part of the arms; marks, as the Spanish
priests considered, by which the devil should know his own sheep.[IX-85]
The ceremonies of the ensuing monthly festivals have already been
described at length.[IX-86]

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS FEASTS.]

There were, besides, a number of movable feasts in honor of the higher
gods, the celestial bodies, and the patron deities of the various
trades and professions. Sahagun gives an account of sixteen movable
feasts, many of which, however, contained no religious element.[IX-87]
The first was dedicated to the sun, to whom a ghostly deputation of
eighteen souls was sent to make known the wants of the people, and
implore future favors. The selected victims were ranged in order at
the place of sacrifice, and addressed by the priest, who exhorted them
to bear in mind the sacred nature of their mission, and the glory
which would be theirs upon its proper fulfillment. The music now
strikes up; amid the crash and din the victims one after another are
stretched upon the altar; a few flashes of the iztli-knife in the
practiced hand of the slayer, and the embassy has set out for the
presence of the sun.[IX-88]

The sixth, seventh, and eleventh festivals were celebrated to
Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Huitzilopochtli respectively. The
public and household idols of these gods were at such seasons
decorated, and presented with offerings of food, quails, and incense.
During the festival of the god of fire, the thirteenth of the movable
feasts, various public officials were elected, and a great many grand
banquets given. The _atamalqualiztli_, or 'fast of bread and water,'
seems to have been one of the most important of the movable feasts.
The people prepared for its celebration, which took place every eight
years, by a rigid fast, broken only by a midday meal of water and
unsalted bread. Those who offended the gods by neglecting to observe
this fast were thought to expose themselves to an attack of leprosy.
The people indulged in all sorts of amusements during the holiday
season which succeeded the fast. The most interesting feature of the
festivities was a bal masqué, which was supposed to be attended by all
the gods. The chief honors of the day were, however, rendered to the
Tlalocs, and round their effigy, which stood in the midst of a pond
alive with frogs and snakes, the dancers whirled continually. It was a
part of the ceremonies for a number of men called _maxatecaz_ to
devour the reptiles in the pond; this they did by each seizing a snake
or a frog in his teeth, and swallowing it gradually as he joined in
the dance; the one who first bolted his titbit cried out triumphantly,
'Papa, papa!'

Every fourth year, called _teoxihuitl_, or 'divine year,' and at the
beginning of every period of thirteen years, the feasts were more
numerous and on a larger scale, the fasts more severe, and the
sacrifices far greater in number than upon ordinary occasions.[IX-89]
The entire series of festivals may be said to have closed with the
solemn Toxilmolpilia, or 'binding up of the years,' which took place
every fifty-two years, and marked the expiration and renewal of the
world's lease of existence.[IX-90]

FOOTNOTES:

[IX-1] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 493.

[IX-2] Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 16, 22,
indeed says that Teteionan and Tocitzin are 'certainly different.'

[IX-3] _Squier's Serpent Symbol_, p. 47. A passage which makes the
principal element of the character of Toci or Tocitzin that of Goddess
of Discord may be condensed from Acosta, as follows: When the
Mexicans, in their wanderings, had settled for a time in the territory
of Culhuacan, they were instructed by their god Huitzilopochtli to go
forth and make wars, and first to apotheosize, after his directions, a
Goddess of Discord. Following these directions, they sent to the king
of Culhuacan for his daughter to be their queen. Moved by the honor,
the father sent his hapless daughter, gorgeously attired, to be
enthroned. But the wiley, superstitious, and ferocious Mexicans slew
the girl and flayed her, and clothed a young man in her skin, calling
him 'their goddess and mother of their god,' under the name of Toccy,
that is 'grand mother.' See also _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, vol. iv., p.
1004.

[IX-4] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 16-22;
_Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, lam. xii., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 140; _Spiegazione delle
Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xxx., _Ib._, p. 180; _Humboldt_,
_Essai Politique_, tom. i., p. 217; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. vi.,
p. 631. The sacrifices to Centeotl, if she be identical with the
earth-mother, are illustrated by the statement of Mendieta, _Hist.
Ecles._, p. 81, that the Mexicans painted the earth-goddess as a frog
with a bloody mouth in every joint of her body, (which frog we shall
meet again by and by in a Centeotl festival) for they said that the
earth devoured all things--a proof also, by the by, among others of a
like kind which we shall encounter, that not to the Hindoos alone (as
Mr J. G. Müller somewhere affirms), but to the Mexicans also, belonged
the idea of multiplying the organs of their deities to express great
powers in any given direction. The following note from the
_Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, in _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 179-80, illustrates the last point noticed,
gives another form or relation of the goddess of sustenance, and also
the origin of the name applied to the Mexican priests: 'They feign
that Mayaguil was a woman with four hundred breasts, and that the
gods, on account of her fruitfulness, changed her into the Maguey,
which is the vine of that country, from which they make wine. She
presided over these thirteen signs; but whoever chanced to be born on
the first sign of the Herb, it proved unlucky to him; for they say
that it was applied to the Tlamatzatzguex, who were a race of demons
dwelling amongst them, who according to their account wandered through
the air, from whom the ministers of their temples took their
denomination. When this sign arrived, parents enjoined their children
not to leave the house, lest any misfortune or unlucky accident should
befall them. They believed that those who were born in Two Canes,
which is the second sign, would be long lived, for they say that that
sign was applied to heaven. They manufacture so many things from this
plant called the Maguey, and it is so very useful in that country,
that the devil took occasion to induce them to believe that it was a
god, and to worship and offer sacrifices to it.'

[IX-5] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 5-6; Gallatin,
in _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 341, 349-50,
condensing from and commenting upon the codices Vaticanus and
Tellerianus says: 'Tonacacigua, alias Tuchiquetzal (plucking rose),
and Chicomecouatl (seven serpents); wife of Tonacatlecotle; the cause
of sterility, famine, and miseries of life.... Amongst Sahagun's
superior deities is found Civacoatl, the 'serpent woman,' also called
Tonantzin, 'our mother;' and he, sober as he is in Scriptural
allusions, calls her Eve, and ascribes to her, as the interpreters [of
the codices] to Tonatacinga, all the miseries and adverse things of
the world. This analogy is, if I am not mistaken, the only foundation
for all the allusions to Eve and her history, before, during, and
after the sin, which the interpreters have tried to extract from
paintings which indicate nothing of the kind. They were certainly
mistaken in saying that their Tonacacinga was also called
Chicomecouatl, seven serpents. They should have said Civacoatl, the
serpent woman. Chicomecoatl, instead of being the cause of sterility,
famine, etc., is, according to Sahagun, the goddess of abundance, that
which supplies both eating and drinking: probably the same as
Tzinteotl, or Cinteotl, the goddess of maize (from _centli_, maize),
which he does not mention. There is no more foundation for ascribing
to Tonacacigua the name of Suchiquetzal.' Gama, _Dos Piedras_, pt i.,
p. 39, says in effect: Cihuacounatl, or snake woman, was supposed to
have given birth to two children, male and female, whence sprung the
human race. It is on this account that twins are called in Mexico
_cocohua_, 'snakes,' or in the singular cohuatl or coatl, now vulgarly
pronounced coate.

[IX-6] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 3-4; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 4-7.

[IX-7] Or, according to Bustamante's ed., Aba, Tlavitecqui, and
Xoquauchtli.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 149.

[IX-8] Lime was much used in the preparation of maize for making
various articles of food.

[IX-9] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 69-70; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 148-56.

[IX-10] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 60-1; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 135-9; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant.
del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 75; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii.,
pp. 269-71.

[IX-11] Chiquiuitl, cesto ó canasta. _Molina_, _Vocabulario._

[IX-12] Chian, ó Chia, cierta semilla de que sacan azeite. _Id._

[IX-13] Pinolli, la harina de mayz y chia, antes que la deslian. _Id._

[IX-14] Apparently the earth symbolized as a frog (see this vol. p. 351,
note 4.) and bearing the fruits thereof on her back.

[IX-15] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 43-4; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 97-100; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant.
del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 67; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii.,
pp. 52-3, 60-1, 134, 152-3, 181, 255-6.

[IX-16] Yoalticitl, another name of the mother-goddess, of the mother
of the gods, of the mother of us all, of our grandmother or ancestress;
more particularly that form of the mother-goddess described, after
Sahagun (this vol. p. 353), as being the patroness of medicine and of
doctors and of the sweat-baths. Sahagun speaks in another passage of
Yoalticitl (_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 453): 'La madre
de los Dioses, que és la Diosa de las medicinas y medicos, y és madre
de todos nosotros, la cual se llama Yoalticitl, la qual tiene poder y
autoridad sobre los Temazcales (sweat-baths) que llaman Xuchicalli, en
el qual lugar esta Diosa vé las cosas secretas, y adereza las cosas
desconcertadas en los cuerpos de los hombres, y fortifica las cosas
tiernas y blandas.'

[IX-17] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 5, 35, vol. v.,
pp. 459-2; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 8-9, lib.
ii., pp. 78-9; tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 185-191.

[IX-18] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 16.

[IX-19] _Boturini_, _Idea_, pp. 25-6.

[IX-20] 'The stones called _chalchiuites_ by the Mexicans (and written
variously _chalchibetes_, _chalchihuis_, and _calchihuis_, by the
chroniclers) were esteemed of high value by all the Central American
and Mexican nations. They were generally of green quartz, jade, or the
stone known as _madre de Esmeralda_.... The goddess of water, amongst
the Mexicans, bore the name of _Chalchiuilcuye_, the woman of the
_Chalchiuites_, and the name of _Chalchiuihapan_ was often applied to
the city of Tlaxcalla, from a beautiful fountain of water found near
it, "the color of which," according to Torquemada, "was between blue
and green."' _Squier_ in _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 110, note 15. In the
same work p. 53, we find mention made by Palacio of an idol apparently
representing Chalchihuitlicue: 'Very near here, is a little village
called Coatan, in the neighborhood of which is a lake ["This lake is
distant two leagues to the southward of the present considerable town
of _Guatepeque_, from which it takes its name, _Laguna de
Guatepue_"--Guatemala], situated on the flank of the volcano. Its
water is bad; it is deep, and full of caymans. In its middle there are
two small islands. The Indians regard the lake as an oracle of much
authority.... I learned that certain negroes and mulattoes of an
adjacent estate had been there [on the islands], and had found a great
idol of stone, in the form of a woman, and some objects which had been
offered in sacrifice. Near by were found some stones called
_chalchibites_.'

[IX-21] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 47.

[IX-22] _Atlacueçonan_, ninfa del onenufar, flor de yerna de agua.
_Molina_, _Vocabulario._ The Abbé Brasseur adds, on what authority I
have not been able to find, that this leaf was ornamented with golden
flags. _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 324. He adds in a note to
this passage, what is very true, that, 'suivant Ixtlilxochitl, et
après lui Veytia, la déesse des eaux aurait été adorée sous la forme
d'une grenouille, faite d'une seule émeraude, et qui, suivant
Ixtlilxochitl, existait encore au temps de la conquête de Mexico. La
seule déesse adorée sous la forme unique d'une grenouille était la
terre.' (See this vol. p. 351, note 4.) Gomara, _Hist. Conq. Mex._,
fol. 326, says that the figure of a frog was held to be the goddess of
fishes: 'Entre los ídolos ... estaua el de la rama. A la cual tenian
por diosa del pescado.' Motolinia extends this last statement as
follows. The Mexicans had idols he says, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de
Doc._, tom. i., p. 34, 'de los pescados grandes y de los lagartos de
agua, hasta sapos y ranas, y de otros peces grandes, y estos decian
que eran los dioses del pescado. De un pueblo de la laguna de México
llevaron unos ídolos de estos peces, que eran unos peces hechos de
piedra, grandes; y despues volviendo por allí pidiéronles para comer
algunos peces, y respondieron que habian llevado el dios del pescado y
que no podian tomar peces.'

[IX-23] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 5-6, 36; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 9-10, lib. ii., p. 81; _Amer.
Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 342, 350.

[IX-24] See this vol., p. 58, note 15.

[IX-25] See note 24. 'Entre los Dioses que estos ciegos Mexicanos
fingieron tener, y ser maiores, que otros, fueron dos; vno llamado
Ometecuhtli, que quiere decir, dos hidalgos, ò cavalleros; y el otro
llamaron Omecihuatl, que quiere decir, dos mugeres: los quales, por
otros nombres, fueron llamados, Citlalatonac, que quiere decir,
Estrella que resplandece, ò resplandeciente; y el otro, Citlalicue,
que quiere decir, Faldellin de la Estrella: ... Estos dos Dioses
fingidos de esta Gentilidad, creìan ser el vno Hombre, y el otro
Muger; y como à dos naturaleças distintas, y de distintos sexos las
nombraban, como por los nombres dichos parece. De estos dos Dioses, (o
por mejor decir, Demonios) tuvieron creìdo estos naturales, que
residian en vna Ciudad gloriosa, asentada sobre los once Cielos, cuio
suelo era mas alto, y supremo de ellos; y que en aquella Ciudad
goçaban de todos los deleites imaginables y poseìan todas las riqueças
de el Mundo; y decian que desde alli arriba regian, y governaban toda
esta maquina inferior del Mundo, y todo aquello que es visible, è
invisible, influiendo en todas las Animas, que criaban todas las
inclinaciones naturales, que vemos aver en todas las criaturas
racionales, è irracionales; y que cuidaban de todo, como por
naturaleça los convenia, atalaindo desde aquel su asiento las cosas
criadas.... De manera, que segun lo dicho, está mui claro de entender,
que tenian opinion, que los que regian, y governaban el Mundo, eran
dos (conviene á saber) vn Dios, y vna Diosa, de los quales el vno que
era el Dios Hombre, obraba en todo el genero de los Varones; y el
otro, que era la Diosa, criaba, y obraba en todo el genero de las
Mugeres.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 37.

[IX-26] Caquantototl, paxaro de pluma amarillo y rica. _Molina_,
_Vocabulario._ According to Bustamante however, this bird is not one
in anyway remarkable for plumage, but is identical with the _tzacua_
described by Clavigero, and is here used as an example of a vigilant
and active soldier. Bustamante (in a note to _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 194-5) writes: _Tzacua_, of this bird repeated
mention has been made in this history, for the Indians used it for a
means of comparison or simile in their speeches. It is an early-rising
bird (madrugador), and has nothing notable in its plumage or in its
voice, but only in its habits. This bird is one of the last to go to
rest at night and one of the first to announce the coming sun. An hour
before daybreak a bird of this species, having passed the night with
many of his fellows on any branch, begins to call them, with a shrill
clear note that he keeps repeating in a glad tone till some of them
reply. The _tzacua_ is about the size of a sparrow, and very similar
in color to the bunting (calandria), but more marvellous in its
habits. It is a social bird, each tree is a town of many nests. One
_tzacua_ plays the part of chief and guards the rest; his post is in
the top of the tree, whence, from time to time, he flies from nest to
nest uttering his notes; and while he is visiting a nest all within
are silent. If he sees any bird of another species approaching the
tree he sallies out upon the invader and with beak and wings compels a
retreat. But if he sees a man or any large object advancing, he flies
screaming to a neighboring tree, and, meeting other birds of his tribe
flying homeward, he obliges them to retire by changing the tone of his
note. When the danger is over he returns to his tree and begins his
rounds as before, from nest to nest. Tzacuas abound in Michoacan, and
to their observations regarding them the Indians are doubtless
indebted for many hints and comparisons applied to soldiers diligent
in duty. The _quechutl_, or _tlauhquechol_, is a large aquatic bird
with plumage of a beautiful scarlet color, or a reddish white, except
that of the neck, which is black. Its home is on the sea-shore and by
the river banks, where it feeds on live fish, never touching dead
flesh. See _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 87,
91-3.

[IX-27] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 479-483, vol. vii.,
pp. 151-2; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 215-221.
According to some authors, and I think Boturini for one, this baptism
was supplemented by passing the child through fire. There was such a
ceremony; however, it was not connected with that of baptism, but it
took place on the last night of every fourth year, before the five
unlucky days. On the last night of every fourth year, parents chose
god-parents for their children born during the three preceding years,
and these god-fathers and god-mothers passed the children over, or
near to, or about the flame of a prepared fire (rodearlos por las
llamas del fuego que tenian aparejado para esto, que en el latin se
dice _lustrare_). They also bored the children's ears, which caused no
small uproar (Habia gran voceria de muchachos y muchachas por el
ahugeramiento de las orejas) as may well be imagined. They clasped the
children by the temples and lifted them up 'to make them grow;'
wherefore they called the feast _izcalli_, 'growing.' They finished by
giving the little things pulque in tiny cups, and for this the feast
was called the 'drunkenness of children.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 189-192. In the _Spiegazione delle Tavole del
Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. xxxi., in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. v., p. 181, there is given a description of the water
baptism differing somewhat from that given in the text. It runs as
follows: 'They took some ficitle; and having a large vessel of water
near them, they made the leaves of the ficitle into a bunch, and
dipped it into the water, with which they sprinkled the child; and
after fumigating it with incense, they gave it a name, taken from the
sign on which it was born; and they put into its hand a shield and
arrow, if it was a boy, which is what the figure of Xiuatlatl denotes,
who here represents the god of war; they also uttered over the child
certain prayers in the manner of deprecations, that he might become a
brave, intrepid, and courageous man. The offering which his parents
carried to the temple the elder priests took and divided with the
other children who were in the temple, who ran with it through the
whole city.' Mendieta, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 107, again describes this
rite, in substance as follows: 'They had a sort of baptism: thus when
the child was a few days old, an old woman was called in, who took the
child out into the court of the house where it was born, and washed it
a certain number of times with the wine of the country, and as many
times again with water; then she put a name on it, and performed
certain ceremonies with the umbilical cord. These names were taken
from the idols, or from the feasts that fell about that time, or from
a beast or bird.' See further _Esplicacion de la Coleccion de
Mendoza_, pt iii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 90-1;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 445, 449-458; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 85-9; _Humboldt_, _Vues des
Cordillères_, tom. ii., pp. 311, 318; _Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt ii.,
pp. 39-41; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. iii., p. 385; _Brinton's Myths_,
pp. 122, 130; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 652; _Biart_,
_La Terre Tempéreé_, p. 274. Mr Tylor, speaking of Mexico, in his
_Anahuac_, p. 279, says: 'Children were sprinkled with water when
their names were given to them. This is certainly true, though the
statement that they believed that the process purified them from
original sin is probably a monkish fiction.' Farther reading, however,
has shown Mr Tylor the injustice of this judgment, and in his masterly
latest and greatest work (see _Primitive Culture_, vol. ii., pp.
429-36), he writes as follows: 'The last group of rites whose course
through religious history is to be outlined here, takes in the varied
dramatic acts of ceremonial purification or lustration. With all the
obscurity and intricacy due to age-long modification, the primitive
thought which underlies these ceremonies is still open to view. It is
the transition from practical to symbolic cleansing, from removal of
bodily impurity to deliverance from invisible, spiritual, and at last
moral evil. (See this vol. p. 119).... In old Mexico, the first act of
ceremonial lustration took place at birth. The nurse washed the infant
in the name of the water-goddess, to remove the impurity of its birth,
to cleanse its heart and give it a good and perfect life; then blowing
on water in her right hand she washed it again, warning it of
forthcoming trials and miseries and labors, and praying the invisible
Deity to descend upon the water, to cleanse the child from sin and
foulness, and to deliver it from misfortune. The second act took place
some four days later, unless the astrologers postponed it. At a
festive gathering, amid fires kept alight from the first ceremony, the
nurse undressed the child sent by the gods into this sad and doleful
world, bade it to receive the life-giving water, and washed it,
driving out evil from each limb and offering to the deities appointed
prayers for virtue and blessing. It was then that the toy instruments
of war or craft or household labor were placed in the boy's or girl's
hand (a custom singularly corresponding with one usual in China), and
the other children, instructed by their parents, gave the new-comer
its child-name, here again to be replaced by another at manhood or
womanhood. There is nothing unlikely in the statement that the child
was also passed four times through the fire, but the authority this is
given on is not sufficient. The religious character of ablution is
well shown in Mexico by its forming part of the daily service of the
priests. Aztec life ended as it had begun, with the ceremonial
lustration; it was one of the funeral ceremonies to sprinkle the head
of the corpse with the lustral water of this life.'

[IX-28] _Camargo_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, 1843, tom. xcix.,
pp. 132-3. 'On célébrait chaque année une fête solennelle en l'honneur
de cette déesse Xochiquetzal, et une foule de peuple se réunissait
dans son temple. On disait qu'elle était la femme de Tlaloc le dieu
des eaux, et que Texcatlipuca la lui avait enlevée et l'avait
transportée au neuvième ciel. Metlacueycati était la déesse des
magiciennes. Tlaloc l'épousa quand Xochiquetzal lui eut été enlevée.'

[IX-29] _Boturini_, _Idea_, pp. 15, 63-8: 'Pero, no menos indignados los
Dioses del pecado de Yàppan, que de la inobediencia, y atrevimiento
de _Yàotl_, le convirtieron en Langosta, que llaman los Indios
_Ahuacachapùllin_, mandando se llamasse en adelante _Tzontecomàma_,
que quiere dicir, _Carga Cabeza_, y en efecto este animal parece que
lleva cargo consigo, propiedad de los Malsines, que siempre cargan
las honras, que han quitado à sus Proximos.'

[IX-30] See this vol. pp. 220-5.

[IX-31] See this vol., pp. 212, 226.

[IX-32] Other descriptions of this rite are given with additional
details: 'Usaban una ceremonia generalmente en toda esta tierra,
hombres y mugeres, niños y niñas, que quando entraban en algun lugar
donde habia imagenes de las idolos, una ó muchas, luego tocaban en la
tierra con el dedo, y luego le llegaban á la boca ó á la lengua: á
esto llamaban comer tierra, haciendolo en reverencia de sus Dioses, y
todos los que salian de sus casas, aunque no saliesen del pueblo,
volviendo á su casa hacian lo mismo, y por los caminos quando pasaban
delante algun Cu ú oratorio hacian lo mismo, y en lugar de juramento
usaban esto mismo, que para afirmar quien decia verdad hacian esta
ceremonia, y los que se querian satisfacer del que hablaba si decia
verdad, demandabanle hiciese esta ceremonia, luego le creian como
juramento.... Tenian tambien costumbre de hacer juramento de cumplir
alguna cosa á que se obligaban, y aquel á quien se obligaban les
demandaba que hiciesen juramento para estar seguro de su palabra y el
juramento que hacian era en esta forma: Por vida del Sol y de nuestra
señora la tierra que no falte en lo que tengo dicho, y para mayor
seguridad como esta tierra; y luego tocaba con los dedos en la tierra,
llegabalos á la boca y lamialos; y asi comia tierra haciendo
juramento.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 95-6, 101;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. i., ap., pp. 212, 226;
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 25.

[IX-33] Quite different versions of this sentence are given by
Kingsborough's and Bustamante's editions respectively. That of
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 7, reads: 'Quando
decienden á la tierra las Diosas Ixcuiname, luego de mañana ó en
amaneciendo, para que hagas la penitencia convenible por tus pecados.'
That of Bustamante, _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., p. 13,
reads: 'Cuando descienden á la tierra las diosas llamadas
_Civapipilti_, ó cuando se hace la fiesta de las diosas de la
carnalidad que se llaman _Yxtuiname_, ayunarás cuatro dias afligiendo
tu estómago y tu boca, y llegado el dia de la fiesta de estas diosas
_Yxtuiname_, luego de mañana ó en amaneciendo para que hagas la
penitencia convenible por tus pecados.'

[IX-34] 'De esto bien se arguye que aunque habian hecho muchos pecados
en tiempo de su juventud, no se confesaban de ellos hasta la vejez,
por no se obligar á cesar de pecar antes de la vejez, por la opinion
que tenian, que el que tornaba á reincidir en los pecados, al que se
confesaba una vez no tenia remedio.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. vii., pp. 6-8; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp.
10-16. Prescott writes, _Mex._, vol. i., p. 68: 'It is remarkable that
they administered the rites of confession and absolution. The secrets
of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were imposed of
much the same kind as those enjoined in the Roman Catholic Church.
There were two remarkable peculiarities in the Aztec ceremony. The first
was, that, as the repetition of an offence, once atoned for, was deemed
inexpiable, confession was made but once in a man's life, and was
usually deferred to a late period of it, when the penitent unburdened
his conscience, and settled, at once, the long arrears of iniquity.
Another peculiarity was, that priestly absolution was received in
place of the legal punishment of offences, and authorized an acquittal
in case of arrest.' Mention of Tlazolteotl will be found in _Gomara_,
_Conq. Mex._, fol. 309; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp.
62, 79; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., dec. ii., lib. vi., cap.
xv.; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 21. They say
that Yxcuina, who was the goddess of shame, protected adulterers. She
was the goddess of salt, of dirt, and of immodesty, and the cause of
all sins. They painted her with two faces, or with two different
colors on the face. She was the wife of Mizuitlantecutli, the god of
hell. She was also the goddess of prostitutes; and she presided over
these thirteen signs, which were all unlucky, and thus they held that
those who were born in these signs would be rogues or prostitutes.
_Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, (Vaticano), tav.
xxxix., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 184; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 291-2, 301.

[IX-35] See this vol., pp. 212, 226.

[IX-36] 'Il Jauhtli è una pianta, il cui fusto e lungo un cubito, le
foglie somiglianti a quelle del Salcio, ma dentate, i fiori gialli, e
la radice sottile. Così i fiori, come l'altre parti della pianta,
hanno lo stesso odore e sapore dell' Anice. È assai utile per la
Medicina, ed i Medica Messicani l'adoperavano contro parecchie
malattie; ma servivansi ancora d'essa per alcuni usi superstiziosi.'
This is the note given by Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom.
ii., p. 77, in describing this festival, and the incense used for
stupefying the victims; see a different note however, in this vol., p.
339, in which Molina describes _yiauhtli_ as 'black maize.' In some
cases, according to Mendieta, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 100, there was given
to the condemned a certain drink that put them beside themselves, so
that they went to the sacrifice with a ghastly drunken merriment.

[IX-37] '_Cuexpalli_, cabello largo que dexan a los muchachos en el
cogote, quando los tresquilan.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario._

[IX-38] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 8-9, 28, 63-6;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 16-19, lib. ii., pp.
62-4, 141-8; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 16,
76; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, (Vaticano), tav.
lvi., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 190.

[IX-39] 'Esta estatua asi adornada no lejos de un lugar que estaba
delante de ella, á la media noche sacaban fuego nuevo para que ardiese
en aquel lugar, y sacabanlo con unos palos, uno puesto abajo, y sobre
él barrenaban con otro palo, como torciendole entre las manos con gran
prisa, y con aquel movimiento y calor se encendia el fuego, y alli lo
tomaban con yesca y encendian en el hogar.' _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 84; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii.,
p. 184.

[IX-40] Or _tapachtli_ as Bustamante spells it. '_Tapachtli_, cral,
concha o venera.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario._

[IX-41] See this vol., p. 376, note 27.

[IX-42] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 33, 83-7;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 74-5, 183-92;
_Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 138; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice
Mexicano_, (Vaticano), tav. lxxiv., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. v., pp. 196-7; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii.,
p. 82.

[IX-43] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 96; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., ap., p. 213.

[IX-44] Or _Izitzimites_ as on p. 327 of this vol.

[IX-45] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 157, 191-3;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iv., ap., pp. 346-7, tom. ii.,
lib. vii., pp. 260-4; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp.
292-5; _Boturini_, _Idea_, pp. 18-21; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 62, 84-5; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 101;
_Acosta_, _Hist. de las Yndias_, pp. 398-9. Leon y Gama, _Dos
Piedras_, pt i., pp. 51-55, differs somewhat from the text; he was
unfortunate in never having seen the works of Sahagun.

[IX-46] This vol. p. 59. The interpretations of the codices represent
this god as peculiarly honored in their paintings: They place
Michitlatecotle opposite to the sun, to see if he can rescue any of
those seized upon by the lords of the dead, for Michitla signifies the
dead below. These nations painted only two of their gods with the
crown called Altoutcatecoatle, viz., the God of heaven and of
abundance and this lord of the dead, which kind of crown I have seen
upon the captains in the war of Coatle. _Explicacion del Codex
Telleriano Remensis_, pt ii., lam. xv., in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. v., p. 140. Miquitlantecotli signifies the great lord of
the dead fellow in hell who alone after Tonacatecotle was painted with
a crown, which kind of a crown was used in war even after the arrival
of the Christians in those countries, and was seen in the war of
Coatlan, as the person who copied these paintings relates, who was a
brother of the Order of Saint Dominic, named Pedro de los Rios. They
painted this demon near the sun; for in the same way as they believed
that the one conducted souls to heaven, so they supposed that the
other carried them to hell. He is here represented with his hands open
and stretched toward the sun, to seize on any soul which might escape
from him. _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano),
tav. xxxiv., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 182. The
Vatican Codex says further--that these were four gods or principal
demons in the Mexican hell. Miquitlamtecotl or Zitzimitl; Yzpunteque,
the lame demon, who appeared in the streets with the feet of a cock;
Nextepelma, scatterer of ashes; and Contemoque, he who descends
head-foremost. These four have goddesses, not as wives, but as
companions, which was the simple relation in which all the Mexican god
and goddesses stood to one another, there having been--according to
most authorities--in their olympus neither marrying nor giving in
marriage. Picking our way as well as possible across the frightful
spelling of the interpreter, the males and females seem paired as
follows: To Miquitlamtecotl or Tzitzimitl, was joined as goddess,
Miquitecacigua; to Yzpunteque, Nexoxocho; to Nextepelma,
Micapetlacoli; and to Contemoque, Chalmecaciuatl. _Spiegazione delle
Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. iii., iv., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 162-3; _Boturini_, _Idea_,
pp. 30-1; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., ap. pp. 260-3;
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 116-17, says that this god
was known by the further name of Tzontemoc and Aculnaoacatl.
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 6, 17. Gallatin,
_Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 350-1, says that
'Mictlanteuctli is specially distinguished by the interpreters as one
of the crowned gods. His representation is found under the basis of
the statue of Teoyaomiqui, and Gama has published the copy. According
to him, the name of that god means the god of the place of the dead.
He presided over the funeral of those who died of diseases. The souls
of all those killed in battle were led by Teoyaomiqui to the dwelling
of the sun. The others fell under the dominion of Mictanteuctli.'
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 77, 148, 447, tom. ii., p.
428. Brasseur de Bourbourg mentions this god and his wife, bringing up
several interesting points, for which, however, he must bear the sole
responsibility: _S'il Existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 98-9.
'Du fond des eaux qui couvraient le monde, ajoute un autre document
mexicain (_Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem._, fol. 4, v.), le dieu des régions d'en
bas. _Mictlan-Teuctli_ fait surgir un monstre marin nommé _Cipactli_
ou _Capactli_ (_Motolinia_, _Hist. Antig. de los Indios_, part. MS.
Dans ce document, au lieu de _cipactli_ il y a _capactli_, qui n'est
peut-être qu'une erreur du copiste, mais qui, peut-être aussi est le
souvenir d'une langue perdue et qui se rattacherait au _capac_ ou
_Manco-Capac_ du Pérou.): de ce monstre, qui a la forme d'un caïman,
il crée la terre (_Motolinia_, _Ibid._). Ne serait-ce pas là le
crocodile, image du temps, chez les Égyptiens, et ainsi que l'indique
Champollion (Dans _Herapollon_, i., 69 et 70, le crocodile est le
symbole du couchant et des ténèbres) symbole également de la _Région
du Couchant_, de l'_Amenti_? Dans l'Orcus mexicain, le prince des
Morts, _Mictlan-Teuctli_, a pour compagne _Mictecacihuatl_, celle qui
étend les morts. On l'appelle _Ixcuina_, ou la déesse au visage peint
ou au double visage, parce qu'elle avait le visage de deux couleurs,
rouge avec le contour de la bouche et du nez peint en noir (_Cod. Mex.
Tell.-Rem._, fol. 18, v.). On lui donnait aussi le nom de
_Tlaçolteotl_, la déesse de l'ordure, ou _Tlaçolquani_, la mangeuse
d'ordure, parce qu'elle présidait aux amours et aux plaisirs lubriques
avec ses trois sœurs. On la trouve personifiée encore avec
_Chantico_, quelquefois représentée comme un chien, soit à cause de sa
lubricité, soit à cause du nom de _Chiucnauh-Itzcuintli_ ou les
Neuf-Chiens, qu'on lui donnait également (_Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem._, fol.
21, v.). C'est ainsi que dans l'Italie anté-pélasgique, dans la Sicile
et dans l'île de Samothrace, antérieurement aux Thraces et aux
Pélasges, on adorait une Zérinthia, une Hécate, déesse Chienne qui
nourrissait ses trois fils, ses trois chiens, sur le même autel, dans
la demeure souterraine; l'une et l'autre rappelaient ainsi le souvenir
de ces hétaires qui veillaient au pied des pyramides, où elles se
prostituaient aux marins, aux marchands et aux voyageurs, pour
ramasser l'argent nécessaire à l'érection des tombeaux des rois. "Tout
un calcul des temps, dit Eckstein (_Sur les sources de la Cosmogonie
de Sanchoniathon_, pp. 101, 197), se rattache à l'adoration solaire de
cette déesse et de ses fils. Le Chien, le Sirius, règne dans l'astre
de ce nom, au zénith de l'année, durant les jours de la canicule. On
connaît le cycle ou la période que préside l'astre du chien: on sait
qu'il ne se rattache pas seulement aux institutions de la vieille
Égypte, mais encore à celles de la haute Asie." En Amérique le nom de
la déesse _Ixcuina_ se rattache également à la constellation du sud,
où on la personnifie encore avec _Ixtlacoliuhqui_, autre divinité des
ivrognes et des amours obscènes: les astrologues lui attribuaient un
grand pouvoir sur les événements de la guerre, et, dans les derniers
temps, on en faisait dépendre le châtiment des adultères et des
incestueux (_Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem._, fol. 16, v.).' See also, _Brinton's
Myths_, pp. 130-7; _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., p. 12, pt ii.,
pp. 65-6.

[IX-47] _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 338-9.

[IX-48] Speaking of the great image in the Mexican museum of antiquities
supposed by some to be this Mexican goddess of war, or of death,
Teoyaomique, Mr Tylor says, _Anahuac_, pp. 222-3: 'The stone known as
the statue of the war-goddess is a huge block of basalt covered with
sculptures. The antiquaries think that the figures on it stand for
different personages, and that it is three gods--Huitzilopochtli the
god of war, Teoyaomiqui his wife, and Mictlanteuctli the god of hell.
It has necklaces of alternate hearts and dead men's hands, with
death's head for a central ornament. At the bottom of the block is a
strange sprawling figure, which one cannot see now, for it is the base
which rests on the ground; but there are two shoulders projecting from
the idol, which show plainly that it did not stand on the ground, but
was supported aloft on the tops of two pillars. The figure carved upon
the bottom represents a monster holding a skull in each hand, while
others hang from his knees and elbows. His mouth is a mere oval ring,
a common feature of Mexican idols, and four tusks project just above
it. The new moon laid down like a bridge forms his forehead, and a
star is placed on each side of it. This is thought to have been the
conventional representation of Mictlanteuctli (Lord of the land of the
dead), the god of hell, which was a place of utter and eternal
darkness. Probably each victim as he was led to the altar could look
up between the two pillars and see the hideous god of hell staring
down upon him from above.'

[IX-49] _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., pp. 41-4.

[IX-50] The tenth month, so named by the Tlascaltecs and others. See
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 298. 'Al decimo Mes del
Kalendario Indiano llamaban sus Satrapas, Xocotlhuetzi, que quiere
decir: Quando se cae, y acaba la Fruta, y debia de ser, por esta
raçon, de que por aquel Tiempo se acababa, que cae en nuestro Agosto,
è ià en todo este Mes se pasan las Frutas en tierra fria. Pero los
Tlaxcaltecas, y otros lo llamaban Hueymiccailhuitl. que quiere decir:
La Fiesta maior de los Difuntos; y llamavanla asi, porque este Mes
solemniçaban la memoria de los Difuntos, con grandes clamores, y
llantos, y doblados lutos, que la primera, y se teñian los cuerpos de
color negro, y se tiznaban toda la cara; y asi, las ceremonias, que se
hacian de Dia, y de Noche, en todos los Templos, y fuera de ellos,
eran de mucha tristeça, segun que cada vno podia hacer su sentimiento;
y en este Mes daban nombre de Divinos, à sus Reies difuntos, y à todas
aquellas Personas señaladas, que havian muerto haçañosamente en las
Guerras, y en poder de sus enemigos, y les hacian sus Idolos, y los
colocaban, con sus Dioses, diciendo, que avian ido al lugar de sus
deleites, y pasatiempos, en compañia de los otros Dioses.'

[IX-51] As the whole description becomes a little puzzling here, I give
the original, _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, p. 42: 'Enfrente de esta
figura está Teoyaomique desnuda, y cubierta con solo un cendal, parada
sobre una basa, ó porcion de pilastra; la cabeza separada del cuerpo,
arriba del cuello, con los ojos vendados, y en su lugar dos viboras ó
culebras, que nacen del mismo cuello. Entre estas dos figuras está un
árbol de flores partido por medio, al cual se junta un madero con
varios atravesaños, y encima de él una ave, cuya cabeza está tambien
dividida del cuerpo. Se vé tambien otra cabeza de ave dentro de una
jicara, otra de sierpe, una olla con la boca para abajo, saliendo de
ella la materia que contenia dentro, cuya figura parece ser la que
usaban para representar el agua; y finalmente ocupan el resto del
cuadro [of the representation of the constellation above mentioned in
the text] otros geroglíficos y figuras diferentes.'

[IX-52] Boturini, _Idea_, pp. 27-8, mentions the goddess Teoyaomique; on
pp. 30-1, he notices the respect with which Mictlantecutli and the
dead were regarded: 'Me resta solo tratar de la decima tercia, y
ultima Deidad esto es, el _Dios del Infierno_, Geroglifico, que
explica el piadoso acto de sepultar los muertos, y el gran respeto,
que estos antiguos Indios tenian à los sepulcros, creyendo, à
imitacion de otras Naciones, no solo que alli asistian las almas de
los Difuntos, ... sino que tambien dichos Parientes eran sus Dioses
_Indigetes, ita dicti, quasi inde geniti_, cuyos huessos, y cenizas
daban alli indubitables, y ciertas señales de el dominio, que tuvieron
en aquella misma tierra, donde se hallaban sepultados, la que havian
domado con los sudores de la Agricultura, y aun defendian con los
respetos, y eloquencia muda, de sus cadaveres.... Nuestros Indios en
la segunda Edad dedicaron dos meses de el año llamados _Micaylhuitl_, y
_Hueymicaylhuitl_ à la Commemoracion de los Difuntos, y en la tercera
exercitaron varios actos de piedad en su memoria, prueba constante de
que confessaron la immortalidad de el alma.' See further _Torquemada_,
_Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 529-30. Of the compound idol discussed
above, Humboldt, _Vues des Cordillères_, tom. ii., pp. 153-7, speaks
at some length. He says: 'On distingue, à la partie supérieure, les
têtes de deux monstres accolés et l'on trouve, à chaque face, deux
yeux et une large gueule armée de quatre dents. Ces figures monstrueuses
n'indiquent peut-être que des masques: car, chez les Mexicains, on
étoit dans l'usage de masquer les idoles à l'époque de la maladie d'un
roi, et dans toute autre calamité publique. Les bras et les pieds sont
cachés sous une draperie entourée d'énormes serpens, et que les
Mexicains designoient sous le nom de _cohuatlicuye, vêtement de
serpent_. Tous ces accessoires, surtout les franges en forme de
plumes, sont sculptés avec le plus grand soin. M. Gama, dans un
mémoire particulier, a rendu très-probable que cette idole représente
le dieu de la guerre, _Huitzilopochtli_, ou _Tlacahuepancuexcotzin_,
et sa femme, appelée _Teoyamiqui_ (de _miqui_, mourir, et de _teoyao_,
guerre divine), parcequ'elle conduisoit les ames des guerriers morts
pour la défense des dieux, à la _maison du Soleil_, le paradis des
Mexicains, où elle les transformoit en colibris. Les têtes de morts et
les mains coupées, dont quatre entourent le sein de la déesse,
rappellent les horribles sacrifices (_teoquauhquetzoliztli_) célébrés
dans la quinzième période de treize jours, après le solstice d'été, à
l'honneur du dieu de la guerre et de sa compagne _Teoyamiqui_. Les
mains coupées alternent avec la figure de certains vases dans lesquels
on brûloit l'encens. Ces vases étoient appelés _top-xicalli sacs en
forme de calebasse_ (de _toptli_, bourse tissue de fil de pite, et de
_xicali_, calebasse). Cette idole étant sculptée sur toutes ses faces,
même par dessous (fig. 5), où l'on voit représenté _Mictlanteuhtli, le
seigneur du lieu des morts_, on ne sauroit douter qu'elle étoit
soutenue en l'air au moyen de deux colonnes sur lesquelles reposoient
les parties marquées A et B, dans les figures 1 et 3. D'après cette
disposition bizarre, la tête de l'idole se trouvoit vraisemblablement
élevée de cinq à six mètres au-dessus du pavé du temple, de manière
que les prêtres (_Teopixqui_) traînoient les malheureuses victimes à
l'autel, en les faisant passer au-dessous de la figure de
_Mictlanteuhtli_.'

[IX-53] According to Brasseur de Bourbourg, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voyages_, 1858, tom. clx., pp. 267-8: 'Les héros et demi-deux qui,
sous le nom générique de Chichemèques-Mixcohuas, jouent un si grand
rôle dans la mythologie mexicaine, et qui du vii^e au ix^e siècle de
notre ère, obtinrent la prépondérance sur le plateau aztèque.... Les
plus célèbres de ces héros sont Mixcohuatl-Mazatzin (le Serpent
Nébuleux et le Daim), fondateur de la royauté à Tollan (aujourd'hui
Tula), Tetzcatlipoca, spécialement adoré à Tetzeuco, et son frère
Mixcohuatl le jeune, dit Camaxtli, en particulier adoré à Tlaxcallan,
l'un et l'autre mentionnés, sous d'autres noms, parmi les rois de
Culhuacan et considérés, ainsi que le premier, comme les principaux
fondateurs de la monarchie toltèque. On ignore où ils reçurent le
jour. Un manuscrit mexicain, [Codex Chimalpopoca], en les donnant pour
fils d'Iztac-Mixcohuatl ou le Serpent Blanc Nébuleux et
d'Iztac-Chalchiuhlicué ou la Blanche Dame azurée, fait allégoriquement
allusion aux pays nébuleux et aquatiques où ils ont pris naissance; le
même document ajoute qu'ils vinrent par eau et qu'ils demeurèrent un
certain temps en barque. Peut-être que le nom d'Iztac ou Blanc,
également donné à Mixcohuatl, désigne aussi une race différente de
celle des Indiens et plus en rapport avec la nôtre.'

[IX-54] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 158.

[IX-55] Cañas de humo. _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 75;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 166.

[IX-56] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 73-6; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 162-7; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 148-9, 151-2, 280-1; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant.
del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 79; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_,
pp. 483, 486, and elsewhere. Brasseur, as his custom is, euhemerizes
this god, detailing the events of his reign, and theorizing on his
policy, as soberly and believingly as if it were a question of the
reign of a Louis XIV., or a Napoleon I.; see _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom.
i., pp. 227-35. Gomara, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 88, and others, make
Camaxtle, the principal god of Tlascala, identical with Mixcoatl. The
Chichimecs 'had only one god called Mixcoatl and they kept this image
or statue. They held to another god, invisible, without image, called
Iooalliehecatl--that is to say, god invisible and impalpable,
favoring, sheltering, all-powerful, by whose power all live, etc.'
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 64.

[IX-57] This deity must not, it would seem, be confounded with another
mentioned by Sahagun, viz., Coatlyace, or Coatlyate, or Coatlantonan,
a goddess of whom we know little save the fact, incidentally
mentioned, that she was regarded with great devotion by the dealers in
flowers. See _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 42, and
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 95.

[IX-58] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 10-11, 136;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 19-22, lib. iv., p.
305. Boturini, _Idea de una Hist._, pp. 14-15, speaks of a goddess
called Macuilxochiquetzalli; by a comparison of the passage with note
28 of this chapter, it will I think be evident that the chevalier's
Macuilxochiquetzalli is identical not with Macuilxochitl, but with
Xochiquetzal, the Aztec Venus. See further, on the relations of this
goddess, _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp.
490-1: 'Matlalcuéyé, qui donnait son nom au versant de la montagne du
côté de Tlaxcallan, était regardée comme la protectrice spéciale des
magiciennes. La légende disait qu'elle était devenue l'épouse de
Tlaloc, après que Xochiquetzal eut été enlevée à ce dieu [see this
vol. p. 378]. Celle-ci, dont elle n'était, après tout, qu'une
personnification différente, était appelée aussi Chalchiuhlycué, ou le
Jupon semé d'émeraudes, en sa qualité de déesse des eaux. Le symbole
sous lequel on la représente, comme déesse des amours honnêtes, est
celui d'un éventail composé de cinq fleurs, ce que rend encore le nom
qu'on lui donnait "Macuil-Xochiquetzalli."' Brasseur, it is to be
remembered, distinguishes between Xochiquetzal as the goddess of
honest love, and Tlazolteotl as the goddess of lubricity.

[IX-59] The fire-god Xiuhtecutli used an instrument of this kind; see
this vol. p. 385.

[IX-60] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 11-12; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 22-3; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 58, 240-1; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., p. 22; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._,
tom. iii., p. 492.

[IX-61] This god, who was also known by the title of Tlaltecuin, is the
third Mexican god connected with medicine. There is first that unnamed
goddess described on p. 353 of this vol.; and there is then a certain
Tzaputlatena, described by Sahagun--_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol.
vii., p. 4; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 7-8--as the
goddess of turpentine (see _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._,
tom. iii., p. 494), or of some such substance, used to cure the itch
in the head, irruptions on the skin, sore throats, chapped feet or
lips, and other such things: 'Tzaputlatena fué una muger, segun su
nombre, nacida en el pueblo de Tzaputla, y por esto se llama la Madre
de Tzaputla, porque fué la primera que inventó la resina que se llama
uxitl, y es un aceyte sacado por artificio de la resina del pino, que
aprovecha para sanar muchas enfermedades, y primeramente aprovecha
contra una manera de bubas, ó sarna, que nace en la cabeza, que se
llama Quaxococivistli; y tambien contra otra enfermedad es provechosa
asi mismo, que nace en la cabeza, que es como bubas, que se llama
Chaguachicioiztli, y tambien para la sarna de la cabeza. Aprovecha
tambien contra la ronguera de la garganta. Aprovecha tambien contra
las grietas de las pies y de los labios. Es tambien contra los
empeines que nacen en la cara ó en las manos. Es tambien contra el
usagre; contra muchas otras enfermedades es bueno. Y como esta muger
debió ser la primera que halló este aceyte, contaronla entre las
Diosas, y hacianla fiesta y sacrificios aquellos que venden y hacen
este aceyte que se llama Uxitl.'

[IX-62] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 12-13; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 24-5; _Clavigero_, _Hist. Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., p. 21.

[IX-63] 'Tenia en la mano izquierda una rodela teñida de colorado, y en
el medio de este campo una flor blanca con quatro ojas á manera de
cruz, y de los espacios de las ojas salian quatro puntas que eran
tambien ojas de la misma flor. Tenia un cetro en la mano derecha como
un caliz, y de lo alto de él salia como un casquillo de saetas.'
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 13; _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 26-7; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., p. 20; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp.
60-1. 'La pêche avait, toutefois, son génie particulier: c'était
Opochtli, le Gaucher, personnification de Huitzilopochtli.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 494.

[IX-64] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 22. This is
evidently a blunder, however; Boturini explains Totec to mean 'god our
lord,' and Xipe (or Oxipe, as he writes it) to signify 'god of the
flaying.' '_Tlaxipehualiztli_, Symbolo del primer Mes, quiere decir
_Deshollamiento de Gentes_, porque en su primer dia se deshollaban
unos Hombres vivos dedicados al Dios _Totéuc_, esto es, _Dios Señor
nuestro_, ò al Dios _Oxipe, Dios de el Deshollamiento_, syncope de
_Tloxipeùca_.' _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, p. 51. Sahagun says
that the name means 'the flayed one.' 'Xipetotec, que quiere decir
desollado.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 14; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., p. 27. While Torquemada affirms that
it means 'the bald,' or 'the blackened one.' 'Tenian los Plateros otro
Dios, que se llamaba Xippe, y Totec.... Este Demonio Xippe, que quiere
decir, Calvo, ó Ateçado.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p.
58. Brasseur, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 503, partially accepts
all these derivations: 'Xipe, le chauve ou l'écorché, autrement dit
encore Totec ou notre seigneur.' This god was further surnamed,
according to the interpreter of the Vatican Codex, 'the mournful
combatant,' or, as Gallatin gives it, 'the disconsolate;' see
_Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav.
xliii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 186; and _Amer.
Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 345, 350.

[IX-65] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 14; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 27-8; _Boturini_, _Idea de Nueva
Hist._, p. 51.

[IX-66] These human sacrifices were begun, according to Clavigero,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 165-7, by the Mexicans, before
the foundation of their city, while yet slaves of the Culhuas. These
Mexicans had done good service to their rulers in a battle against the
Xochimilcas. The masters were expected to furnish their serfs with a
thank-offering for the war god. They sent a filthy rag and a rotten
fowl. The Mexicans received and were silent. The day of festival came;
and with it the Culhua nobles to see the sport--the Helots and their
vile sacrifice. But the filth did not appear, only a coarse altar,
wreathed with a fragrant herb, bearing a great flake of keen-ground
obsidian. The dance began, the frenzy mounted up, the priests advanced
to the altar, and with them they dragged four Xochimilca prisoners.
There is a quick struggle, and over a prisoner bruised, doubled back
supine on the altar-block gleams and falls the itzli, driven with a
two-handed blow. The blood spurts like a recoil into the bent face of
the high priest, who grabbles, grasps, tears out and flings the heart
to the god. Another, another, another, and there are four hearts
beating in the lap of the grim image. There are more dances but there
is no more sport for the Culhuas: with lips considerably whitened they
return to their place. After this there could be no more mastership,
nor thought of mastership over such a people; there was too much of
the wild beast in them; they had already tasted blood. And the
Mexicans were allowed to leave the land of their bondage, and journey
north toward the future Tenochtitlan.

[IX-67] See this vol., p. 415.

[IX-68] Further notice of this stone appears in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 94, or _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib.
ii., ap., pp. 207-8: 'El sesenta y dos edificio se llamaba Temalacatl.
Era una piedra como muela de molino grande, y estaba agujereada en el
medio como muela de molino. Sobre esta piedra ponian los esclavos y
acuchillabanse con ellos: estaban atados por medio de tal manera que
podian llegar hasta la circumferencia de la piedra, y dabanles armas
con que peleasen. Era este un espectaculo muy frequente, y donde
concurria gente de todas las comarcas á verle. Un satrapa vestido de
un pellejo de oso ó Cuetlachtli, era alli el padrino de los captivos
que alli mataban, que los llevaba á la piedra y los ataba alli, y los
daba las armas, y los lloraba entre tanto que peleaban, y quando caian
los entregaba al que les habia de sacar el corazon, que era otro
satrapa vestido con otro pellejo que se llamaba Tooallaoan. Esta
relacion queda escrita en la fiesta de Tlacaxipeoaliztli.'

[IX-69] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 23, 37-43;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 51-3, 86-97;
_Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, pt. i., lam. iii., in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 133; _Spiegazione delle
Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. lxiii., in _Id._, vol.
v., p. 191; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 154, 252-4;
_Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt. ii., pp. 50-4; _Prescott's Mex._,
vol. i., p. 78, note; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom.
ii., p. 481. We learn from Clavigero, _Ibid._, tom. i., pp. 281-2,
that this great gladiatorial block was sometimes to an extraordinary
extent a 'stone of sacrifice' to the executioners as well as to the
doomed victim. In the last year of the reign of the last Montezuma, a
famous Tlascaltec general, Tlahuicol, was captured by the merest
accident. His strength of arm was such that few men could lift his
_maquahuil_, or sword of the Mexican type, from the ground. Montezuma,
too proud to use such an inglorious triumph, or perhaps moved by a
sincere admiration of the terrible and dignified warrior, offered him
his liberty, either to return to Tlascala, or to accept high office in
Mexico. But the honor of the chief was at stake, as he understood it;
and not even a favor would he accept from the hated Mexican; the
death, the death! he said, and, if you dare, by battle on the
gladiatorial stone. So they tied him, (by the foot says Clavigero),
upon the _temalacatl_, armed with a great staff only, and chose out
champions to kill him from the most renowned of the warriors; but the
grim Tlascaltec dashed out the brains of eight with his club, and hurt
twenty more, before he fell, dying like himself. They tore out his
heart, as of wont, and a costlier heart to Mexico never smoked before
the sun.

[IX-70] This last name means, Torquemada, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p.
57, being followed, 'the hook-nosed;' and it is curious enough that
this type of face, so generally connected with the Hebrew race and
through them with particular astuteness in trade, should be the
characteristic of the Mexican god of trade: 'Los mercaderes tuvieron
Dios particular, al qual llamaron Iyacatecuhtli, y por otro nombre se
llamò Yacacoliuhqui, que quiere decir: El que tiene la nariz aguileña,
que propriamente representa persona que tiene viveça, ò habilidad,
para mofar graciosamente, ò engañar, y es sabio, y sagàz (que es
propia condicion de mercaderes.)'

[IX-71] Without laying any particular stress on this lighting a fire
before Yiacatecutli--perhaps here necessary as a camp-fire and
probably, at any rate, a thing done before many other gods--it may be
noticed that the fire god seems to be particularly connected with the
merchant god and indeed with the merchants themselves. Describing a
certain coming down or arrival of the gods among men, believed to take
place in the twelfth Mexican month, Sahagun--after describing the
coming, first of Tezcatlipoca, who, 'being a youth, and light and
strong, walked fastest,' and then the coming of all the rest (their
arrival being known to the priests by the marks of their feet on a
little heap of maize flour, specially prepared for the purpose)--says
that a day after all the rest of the gods, came the god of fire and
the god of the merchants, together; they being old and unable to walk
as fast as their younger divine brethren: 'El dia siguiente llegaba el
dios de los Mercaderes llamado Yiaiacapitzaoac, ó Yiacatecutli, y otro
Dios llamado Hiscocauzqui (Yxcocauhqui), ó Xiveteuctli (Xiuhtecutli),
que és el Dios del fuego á quien los mercaderes tienen grande
devocion. Estos dos llegaban á la postre un dia despues de los otros,
porque decian que eran viejos y no andaban tanto como los otros:'
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 71, or _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 158. See also, for the connection of the
fire god Xiuhtecutli with business, this vol. p. 226; and for the high
position of the merchants themselves besides Tezcatlipoca see this
vol., p. 228.

[IX-72] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 14-16; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 29-33; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant.
del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 20. The Nahuihehecatli, or Nauiehecatl,
mentioned by the interpreters of the codices, as a god honored by the
merchants, is either some air god like Quetzalcoatl, or, as Sahagun
gives it, merely the name of a sign; see _Spiegazione delle Tavole del
Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. xxvii., in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. v., p. 179; also, pp. 139-40; _Explicacion del Codex
Telleriano-Remensis_, lam. xii.; also, _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
i., lib. iv., pp. 304-5, and _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii.,
pp. 135-6.

[IX-73] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 16-17; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 33-5; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 59-60; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_,
tom. ii., p. 22.

[IX-74] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 7, 19, 90, 93;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 14, 39-40, lib. ii.,
pp. 200, 205; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 58, 152,
184, 416; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano),
tav. xxxv., and _Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, lam.
xvi., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 141, 182;
_Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 344, 350;
_Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 87, 315; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., p. 21. 'Otros tenian figuras de hombres; tenian
estos en la cabeza un mortero en lugar de mitra, y allí les echaban
vino, por ser el dios del vino.' _Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in
_Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 33. 'Otros con un mortero
en la cabeza, y este parece que era el dios del vino, y así le echaban
vino en aquel como mortero.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 88.
'_Papaztla_ ó _Papaztac_.... Este era uno de los tres pueblos de donde se
sacaban los esclavos para el sacrificio que se hacia de dia, al idolo
_Centzentotochtin_, Dios del vino en el mes nombrado _Hueipachtli_, ó
_tepeilhuitl_ en su templo propio que es el cuadragesimo cuarto
edificio de los que se contenian en la area del mayor, como dice el
Dr. Hernandez: "Templum erat dicatum vini deo, in cujus honorem tres
captivos interdiu tamen, et nonnoctu jugulabant, quorum primum
Tepuztecatl nuncupabant secundum toltecatl, tertium vero Papaztac quod
fiebat quotanni circa festum Tepeilhuiltl." Apud P. Nieremberg, pag.
144.' _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt ii., p. 35. 'Les buveurs et les
ivrognes avaient cependant, parmi les Aztèques, plusieurs divinités
particulières: la principale était Izquitecatl; mais le plus connu
devait être Tezcatzoncatl, appelé aussi Tequechmecaniani, ou le
Pendeur.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p.
493.

[IX-75] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 64; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 23. These were what the
Spaniards called 'oratorios' in the houses of the Mexicans. In or
before these oratories the people offered cooked food to such images
of the gods as they had there. Every morning the good-wife of the
house woke up the members of her family and took care that they made
the proper offering, as above, to these deities. _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 95; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii.,
ap. p. 211.

[IX-76] It is obviously of little consequence to mythology whether the
Mexicans called the month Atlcahualco the first or the third month
(or, as Boturini has it, the eighteenth,) so long as we know, with
some accuracy, to what month and day of the month it corresponds in
our own Gregorian calendar. For the complete discussion of this
question of the calendar we refer readers to the preceding volume of
this series. Gama was unfortunately unacquainted with the writings of
Sahagun, and Bustamante (who edited the works both of Gama and
Sahagun) remarks in a note to the writings of the astronomer: 'Muchas
veces he deplorado, que el sábio Sr. D. Antonio Leon y Gama no hubiese
tenido á la vista para formar esta preciosa obra los manuscritos del
P. Sahagun, que he publicado en los años de 1829 y 30 en la oficina de
D. Alejandro Valdés, y solo hubiese leído la obra del P. Torquemada,
discípulo de D. Antonio Valeriano, que lo fué de dicho P. Sahagun;
pues la lectura del texto de éste, que acaso truncó, ó no entendió
bien, podrian haberle dejado dudas en hechos muy interesantes á esta
historia.' See _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., pp. 45-89;
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 20-34, or _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 49-76; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 251-86; _Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 397;
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 58-84;
_Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, pt i., and _Spiegazione
delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. lvii-lxxiv, in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 129-34, 190-7; _Boturini_,
_Idea de una Hist._, pp. 47-53; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 294;
_Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 646-8; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 502-37; _Gallatin_, in
_Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 57-114.

[IX-77] See this vol., pp. 332-4.

[IX-78] It is also surnamed Cohuailhuitl, 'feast of the snake:' see
above.

[IX-79] There seems to be some confusion with regard to whether or not
there were gladiatorial sacrifices in each of the first two months.
Sahagun, however, appears to describe sacrifices of this kind, as
occurring in both periods; those of the first month being in honor of
the Tlalocs and those of the second in honor of Xipe. For a
description of these rites see this vol. pp. 414-5.

[IX-80] See this vol., pp. 360-2.

[IX-81] 'Le _Tzohualli_ était un composé de graines légumineuses
particulières au Mexique, qu'on mangeait de diverses manières.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 513.

[IX-82] The name 'Tepopochuiliztli' signifies 'smoke or vapor.' As to
the meaning of 'Toxcatl' writers are divided, Boturini interpreting it
to mean 'effort,' and Torquemada 'a slippery place.' Acosta, Sahagun,
and Gama agree, however, in accepting it as an epithet applied to a
string of parched or toasted maize used in ceremonies to be
immediately described, and Acosta further gives as its root
signification 'a dried thing.' Consult, in addition to the references
given in the note at the beginning of these descriptions of the
feasts, _Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 383; _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 45-9; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib.
iii., pp. 100-11.

[IX-83] With three of these goddesses we are tolerably familiar, knowing
them to be intimately connected with each other and concerned in the
production, preservation, or support of life and of life-giving food.
Of Atlatonan little is known, but she seems to belong to the same
class, being generally mentioned in connection with Cinteotl. Her name
means, according to Torquemada, 'she that shines in the water.' 'Otra
Capilla, ò Templo avia, que se llamaba Xiuhcalco, dedicado al Dios
Cinteutl, en cuia fiesta sacrificaban dos Varones Esclavos, y una
Muger, à los quales ponian el nombre de su Dios. Al vno llamaban
Iztaccinteutl, Dios Tlatlauhquicinteutl, Dios de las Mieses
encendidas, ò coloradas; y à la Muger Atlantona, que quiere decir, que
resplandece en el Agua, à la qual desollaban, cuio pellejo, y cuero,
se vestia vn Sacerdote, luego que acababa el Sacrificio, que era de
noche.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 155; see also,
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 94; or _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., ap. p. 209.

[IX-84] Acosta, _Hist. de las Ynd._, pp. 382-3, gives an account of
various other ceremonies which took place ten days before the great
feast day, which account has been followed by Torquemada, Clavigero,
and later writers, and which we reproduce from the quaint but in this
case at least full and accurate translation of E. G.--a translation
which, however, makes this chapter the 29th of the fifth book instead
of the 28th as in the original: 'Then came forth one of the chiefe of
the temple, attired like to the idoll, carrying flowers in his hand,
and a flute of earth, having a very sharpe sound, and turning towards
the east, he sounded it, and then looking to the west, north and south
he did the like. And after he had thus sounded towards the foure parts
of the world (shewing that both they that were present and absent did
heare him) hee put his finger into the aire, and then gathered vp
earth, which he put in his mouth, and did eate it in signe of
adoration. The like did all they that were present, and weeping, they
fell flat to the ground, invocating the darknesse of the night, and
the windes, intreating them not to leave them, nor to forget them, or
else to take away their lives, and free them from the labors they
indured therein. Theeves, adulterers, and murtherers, and all others
offendors had great feare and heavinesse, whilest this flute sounded;
so as some could not dissemble nor hide their offences. By this meanes
they all demanded no other thing of their god, but to have their
offences concealed, powring foorth many teares, with great repentaunce
and sorrow, offering great store of incense to appease their gods. The
couragious and valiant men, and all the olde souldiers, that followed
the Arte of Warre, hearing this flute, demaunded with great devotion
of God the Creator, of the Lorde for whome wee live, of the sunne, and
of other their gods, that they would give them victorie against their
ennemies, and strength to take many captives, therewith so honour
their sacrifices. This ceremonie was doone ten dayes before the feast:
During which tenne dayes the Priest did sound this flute, to the end
that all might do this worship in eating of earth, and demaund of
their idol what they pleased: they every day made their praiers, with
their eyes lift vp to heaven, and with sighs and groanings, as men
that were grieved for their sinnes and offences.'

[IX-85] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 100-11;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 263-6; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 70-3.

[IX-86] For the month Etzalqualiztli, see this volume, pp. 334-43; for
the months Tecuilhuitzintli, Hueytecuilhuitl, and Tlaxochimaco, see
vol. ii. of this work, pp. 225-8; for Xocotlhuetzin and Ochpaniztli,
this volume, pp. 385-9, 354-9; for Teotleco, vol. ii., pp. 332-4; for
Tepeilhuitl, Quecholli, Panquetzaliztli, and Atemoztli, this volume,
pp. 343-6, 404-6, 297-300, 323-4, 346-8; for Tititl, vol. ii., pp.
337-8; for Itzcalli, this volume, pp. 390-3.

[IX-87] _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 194-7, 216. There are other
scattered notices of these movable feasts, which will be referred to
as they appear.

[IX-88] _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. clxxvi.

[IX-89] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 84;
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 77-8, 195-218. The
last five days of the year were, according to Gomara, _Conq. Mex._,
fol. 331, devoted to religious ceremonies, as drawing of blood,
sacrifices, and dances, but most other authors state that they were
passed in quiet retirement.

[IX-90] See this volume, pp. 393-6.

CHAPTER X.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

REVENUES OF THE MEXICAN TEMPLES -- VAST NUMBER OF THE PRIESTS
-- MEXICAN SACERDOTAL SYSTEM -- PRIESTESSES -- THE ORDERS OF
TLAMAXCACAYOTL AND TELPOCHTILIZTLI -- RELIGIOUS DEVOTEES --
BAPTISM -- CIRCUMCISION -- COMMUNION -- FASTS AND PENANCE --
BLOOD-DRAWING -- HUMAN SACRIFICES -- THE GODS OF THE TARASCOS
-- PRIESTS AND TEMPLE SERVICE OF MICHOACAN -- WORSHIP IN
JALISCO AND OAJACA -- VOTAN AND QUETZALCOATL -- TRAVELS OF
VOTAN -- THE APOSTLE WIXEPECOCHA -- CAVE NEAR XUSTLAHUACA --
THE PRINCESS PINOPIAA -- WORSHIP OF COSTAHUNTOX -- TREE
WORSHIP.

We have seen in the preceding volume that the number of religious
edifices was very great; that in addition to the temples in the
cities--and Mexico alone is said to have contained two thousand sacred
buildings--there were "on every isolated hill, along the roads, and in
the fields, substantial structures consecrated to some deity."
Torquemada estimates the whole number at eighty thousand.

[Sidenote: TEMPLE REVENUES.]

The vast revenues needed for the support and repair of the temples,
and for the maintenance of the immense army of priests that officiated
in them, were derived from various sources. The greatest part was
supplied from large tracts of land which were the property of the
church, and were held by vassals under certain conditions, or worked
by slaves. Besides this, taxes of wine and grain, especially first
fruits, were levied upon communities, and stored in granaries
attached to the temples. The voluntary contributions, from a cake,
feather, or robe to slaves or priceless gems, given in performance of
a vow, or at the numerous festivals, formed no unimportant item.
Quantities of food were provided by the parents of the children
attending the schools, and there were never wanting devout women eager
to prepare it. In the kingdom of Tezcuco, thirty towns were required
to provide firewood for the temples and palaces;[X-1] in Meztitlan,
says Chaves, every man gave four pieces of wood every five days; it is
easy to believe that the supply of fuel must have been immense, when
we consider that six hundred fires were kept continually blazing in
the great temple of Mexico alone.[X-2] Whatever surplus remained of
the revenues after all expenses had been defrayed, is said to have
been devoted to the support of charitable institutions and the relief
of the poor;[X-3] in this respect, at least the Holy Mother Church of
contemporary Europe might have taken a lesson from her pagan sister in
the New World.

Each temple had its complement of ministers to conduct and take part
in the daily services, and of servants to attend to the cleansing,
firing, and other menial offices. In the great temple at Mexico there
were five thousand priests and attendants,[X-4] the total number of
the ecclesiastical host must therefore have been immense; Clavigero
places it at a million, which does not appear improbable if we accept
Torquemada's statement that there were forty thousand temples as a
basis for the computation. It should be remembered, however, that the
sacerdotal body was not composed entirely of permanent members; some
were merely engaged for a certain number of years, in fulfillment of a
vow made by themselves or their parents; others were obliged to attend
at intervals only, or at certain festivals, the rest of their time
being passed in the pursuit of some profession, usually that of
arms.[X-5]

The vast number of the priests, their enormous wealth, and the blind
zeal of the people, all combined to render the sacerdotal power
extremely formidable. The king himself performed the functions of
high-priest on certain occasions, and frequently held some sacred
office before succeeding to the throne. The heads of Church and State
seem to have worked amicably together, and to have united their power
to keep the masses in subjection. The sovereign took no step of
importance without first consulting the high-priests to learn whether
the gods were favorable to the project. The people were guided in the
same manner by the inferior ministers, and this influence was not
likely to decrease, for the priests as the possessors of all learning,
the historians and poets of the nation, were intrusted with the
education of the youth, whom they took care to mold to their purposes.

At the head of the Mexican priesthood were two supreme ministers; the
Teotecuhtli or 'divine lord,' who seems to have attended more
particularly to secular matters, and the Hueiteopixqui, who chiefly
superintended religious affairs. These ministers were elected,
ostensibly from among the priests most distinguished in point of
birth, piety, and learning; but as the king and principal nobles were
the electors, the preference was doubtless given to those who were
most devoted to their interests, or to members of the royal
family.[X-6] They were distinguished by a tuft of cotton, falling
down upon the breast. Their robes of ceremony varied with the nature
of the god whose festival they celebrated. In Tezcuco and Tlacopan,
the pontifical dignity was always conferred upon the second son of the
king. The Totonacs elected their pontiff from among the six chief
priests, who seem to have risen from the ranks of the Centeotl monks;
the ointment used at his consecration was composed partly of
children's blood. High as was the high-priest's rank, he was not by
any means exempt from punishment; in Ichatlan, for instance, where he
was elected by his fellow-priests, if he violated his vow of celibacy
he was cut in pieces, and the bloody limbs were given as a warning to
his successor.[X-7]

[Sidenote: MEXICAN PRIESTHOOD.]

Next in rank to the two Mexican high-priests was the
Mexicatlteohuatzin, who was appointed by them, and seems to have been
a kind of Vicar General. His duties were to see that the worship of
the gods was properly observed throughout the kingdom, and to
supervise the priesthood, monasteries, and schools. His badge of
office was a bag of incense of peculiar shape. Two coadjutors assisted
him in the discharge of his duties; the Huitzuahuacteohuatzin, who
acted in his place when necessary, and the Tepanteohuatzin, who
attended chiefly to the schools.[X-8] Conquered provinces retained
control over their own religious affairs.[X-9] Among other dignitaries
of the church may be mentioned the Topiltzin, who held the hereditary
office of sacrificer, in which he was aided by five assistants;[X-10]
the Tlalquimiloltecuhtli, keeper of relics and ornaments; the
Ometochtli, composer of hymns; the Tlapixcatzin, musical director; the
Epcoaquacuiltzin, master of ceremonies; the treasurer; the master of
temple properties; and a number of leaders of special celebrations.
Besides these, every ward, or parish, had its rector, who performed
divine service in the temple, assisted by a number of inferior priests
and school-children. The nobles kept private chaplains to attend to
the worship of the household gods, which everyone was required to have
in his dwelling.[X-11] The statement of some writers indicate that the
body of priests attached to the service of each god, was to a certain
extent independent, and governed by its own rules. Thus in some wards
the service of Huitzilopochtli was hereditary, and held in higher
estimation than any other.

The distinguishing dress of the ordinary priests was a black cotton
cloth, from five to six feet square, which hung from the back of the
head like a veil. Their hair, which was never cut and frequently
reached to the knees, was painted black and braided with cord; during
many of their long fasts it was left unwashed, and it was a rule with
some of the more ascetic orders never to cleanse their heads.[X-12]
Reed sandals protected their feet. They frequently dyed their bodies
with a black mixture made of ocotl-root, and painted themselves with
ochre and cinnabar. They bathed every night in ponds set apart for the
purpose within the temple enclosure. When they went out into the
mountains to sacrifice, or do penance, they anointed their bodies with
a mixture called _teopatli_, which consisted of the ashes of poisonous
insects, snakes, and worms, mixed with ocotl-soot, tobacco,
ololiuhqui, and sacred water. This filthy compound was supposed to be
a safeguard against snakebites, and the attack of wild beasts.[X-13]

[Sidenote: MEXICAN PRIESTESSES.]

Sacred offices were not occupied by males only; females held positions
in the temples, though they were excluded from the sacrificial and
higher offices. The manner in which they were dedicated to the temple
school has been already described.[X-14] Like the Roman vestals, their
chief duty seems to have been to tend the sacred fires, though they
were also required to place the meat offerings upon the altar, and to
make sacerdotal vestments. The punishment inflicted upon those who
violated their vow of chastity was death. They were divided into
watches, and during the performance of their duties were required to
keep at a proper distance from the male assistants, at whom they did
not even dare to glance.[X-15]

Of the several religious orders the most renowned for its sanctity was
the Tlamaxcacayotl, which was consecrated to the service of
Quetzalcoatl. The superior of this order, who was named after the god,
never deigned to issue from his seclusion except to confer with the
king. Its members, called _tlamacaxqui_, led a very ascetic life,
living on coarse fare, dressing in simple black robes,[X-16] and
performing all manner of hard work. They bathed at midnight, and kept
watch until an hour or two before dawn, singing hymns to Quetzalcoatl;
on occasions some of them would retire into the desert to lead a life
of prayer and penance in solitude. Children dedicated to this order
were distinguished by a collar called _yanuati_, which they wore till
their fourth year, the earliest age at which they were admitted as
novices. The females who joined these orders were not necessarily
virgins, for it seems that married women were admitted.[X-17]

The order of Telpochtiliztli, 'congregation of young men,' was
composed of youths who lived with their parents, but met at sunset in
a house set apart for them, to dance and chant hymns in honor of their
patron god, Tezcatlipoca. Females also attended these meetings, and,
according to report, strict decorum was maintained, at least while the
services lasted.[X-18]

[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS DEVOTEES.]

Acosta makes mention of certain ascetics who dedicated themselves for
a year to the most austere life; they assisted the priests at the
hours of incensing, and drew much blood from their bodies in
sacrifice. They dressed in white robes and lived by begging.[X-19]
Camargo refers to a similar class of penitents in Tlascala, who called
themselves _tlamaceuhque_, and sought to obtain divine favor by
passing from temple to temple at night, carrying pans of fire upon
their heads; this they kept up for a year or two, during which time
they led a very strict life.[X-20] The Totonacs had a very strict sect,
limited in number, devoted to Centeotl, to which none were admitted
but widowers of irreproachable character, who had passed the age of
sixty. It was they who made the historical and other paintings from
which the high-priest drew his discourses. They were much respected by
the people, and were applied to by all classes for advice, which they
gave gravely, squatted upon their haunches and with lowered eyes. They
dressed in skins, and ate no meat.[X-21]

The children, who were all required, says Las Casas, to attend school
between the ages of six and nine, rendered valuable assistance to the
priests by performing the minor duties about the temple. Those of the
lower school performed much of the outside labor, such as carrying
wood and drawing water, while the sons of the nobility were assigned
higher tasks in the interior of the building.[X-22]

The daily routine of temple duties was performed by bodies of priests,
who relieved each other at intervals of a few hours or days. The
service, which chiefly consisted of hymn-chanting and incense-burning,
was performed four times each day, at dawn, noon, sunset, and
midnight. At the midnight service the priests drew blood from their
bodies and bathed themselves. The sun received offerings of quails
four times during the day, and five times during the night.[X-23] The
priests of Quetzalcoatl sounded the hours of these watches with
shell-trumpets and drums. Thrice every morning the Totonac pontiff
wafted incense toward the sun; after which the elder priests, who
followed him in a file, according to rank, waved their censers three
times before the principal idols, and once before the others; finally,
incense was burned in honor of the pontiff himself. The copal that
remained was distributed in heaps upon the various altars. Later in
the day, the high-priest delivered a lecture before the priests
and nobles.[X-24] Their prayers were standard compositions, learned by
rote at school;[X-25] while reciting them, they assumed a squatting
posture,[X-26] usually with the face toward the east; on occasions of
great solemnity they prostrated themselves. A test was sometimes
applied to ascertain whether the deity was disposed to respond to the
prayers of the nation, when offered for a particular purpose. This was
done by sprinkling snuff upon the altar, and if, shortly afterwards,
the foot-print of an animal, particularly that of an eagle, was found
impressed in the snuff, it was regarded as a mark of divine favor, and
great was the shouting when the priest announced the augury.[X-27]

Many rites and ceremonies were found to exist among the civilized
nations of America that were very similar to certain others observed
by Jews and Christians in the old world. The innumerable speculators
on the origin of the aboriginal inhabitants of the new world, or at
least on the origin of their civilization, have not neglected to bring
forward these coincidences--there is no good reason to suppose them
anything else--in support of their various theories.

[Sidenote: BAPTISM AND CIRCUMCISION.]

The cleansing virtue of water would naturally suggest its adaptability
to the purification of spiritual stains; the priests and ascetics,
plunging at midnight, with their self-inflicted wounds unclosed, into
the icy pool within the temple inclosure, had this end in view; there
is therefore no cause to wonder that baptism developed into an
established rite. The fact that infants were baptized immediately
after birth, proves that these people believed, with the Christians
and Jews, that sin is inherited; but this, to my thinking at least,
does not necessarily show that any communication or connection of any
kind ever took place or existed between the inhabitants of the old
world and those of the new. They saw that life was not all happiness;
they saw that a man's suffering begins at his birth; they were
peculiarly apt to regard every misfortune as a direct visitation of
the offended gods, whose anger they continually deprecated by prayer
and sacrifice; how, then, could they help but believe in the inherency
of sin--in the visiting of the sins of the fathers upon the
children--while the suffering entailed upon irresponsible infancy was
continually before them?

The rite of circumcision has been the main-stay of the numerous
theorists who have attempted to prove that the native Americans are
descended from the Jews; but with the same evidence they may be proved
to be descended from the Caffirs, the South Sea Islanders, the
Ethiopians, the Egyptians, or from any Mohammedan people, who all
either have practiced, or do now practice circumcision.[X-28] Brinton
thinks that the rite was probably a symbolic renunciation of the
lusts of the flesh;[X-29] but, as it would be difficult to find a more
licentious race than the American, this supposition is unsatisfactory.
After all, why need we grope among the recesses of an obscure cult for
the meaning and origin of a custom which may have had no religious
ideas connected with it? We know that several of the nations of the
old world practiced circumcision merely for purposes of cleanliness
and convenience, why not also the Americans?

A rite, analogous in some aspects to the Christian communion, was
observed on certain occasions. Thus, in the fifteenth month, a dough
statue of Huitzilopochtli was broken up and distributed among the men;
this ceremony was called _teoqualo_, meaning 'the god is eaten.' At
other times, sacred cakes of amaranth-seeds and honey, were stuck upon
maguey-thorns and distributed. Mendieta states that tobacco was eaten
in honor of Cihuacoatl. The Totonacs made a dough of first-fruits from
the temple garden, _ulli_, and the blood of three infants sacrificed
at a certain festival; of this the men above twenty-five years of age,
and the women above sixteen, partook every six months; as the dough
became stale, it was moistened with the heart's blood of ordinary
victims.[X-30] The rite of confession has been already described.[X-31]

[Sidenote: FASTS AND PENANCE.]

Fasting was observed as an atonement for sin, as well as a preparation
for solemn festivals. An ordinary fast consisted in abstaining from
meat for a period of from one to ten days, and taking but one meal a
day, at noon; at no other hour might so much as a drop of water be
touched. In the 'divine year' a fast of eighty days was observed. Some
of the fasts held by the priests lasted one hundred and sixty days,
and, owing to the insufficient food allowed and terrible mutilations
practiced, these long feasts not unfrequently resulted fatally to the
devotees. The high-priest sometimes set a shining example to his
subordinates by going into the mountains and there passing several
months, in perfect solitude, praying, burning incense, drawing blood
from his body, and supporting life upon uncooked maize.[X-32]

In Teotihuacan, four priests undertook a four years' penance, which,
if strictly observed, entitled them to be regarded as saints forever
after. A thin mantle and a breech-clout were all the dress allowed
them, no matter what the weather might be; the bare ground was their
only bed, a stone their softest pillow; their noonday and only meal
was a two-ounce cake, and a small bowl of porridge made of meal and
honey, except on the first of each month, when they were allowed to
take part in the general banquets. Two of them watched every alternate
night, drawing blood and praying. Every twentieth day they passed
twenty sticks through the upper part of the ear; and these, Gomara
solemnly assures us, were allowed to accumulate from month to month,
so that at the end of the four years, the ear held four thousand three
hundred and twenty sticks, which were burned in honor of the gods at
the expiration of the time of penance.[X-33]

Blood-drawing was the favorite and most common mode of expiating sin
and showing devotion. Chaves says that the people of Meztitlan drew
blood every five days, staining pieces of paper with it, and offering
them to the god.[X-34] The instruments used in ordinary scarification
were maguey-thorns, which were offered to the idol, and afterwards
burned, but for more severe discipline iztli knives were used, and
cords or sticks were passed through the tongue, ears, or genitals.

[Sidenote: HUMAN SACRIFICES.]

The offering most acceptable to the Nahua divinities was human life,
and without this no festival of any importance was complete. The
origin of the rite of human sacrifice, as connected with sun-worship
at least, dates back to the earliest times. It is mentioned in the
story of the first appearance of the sun to the Mexicans, which
relates how that luminary refused to proceed upon its daily circuit
until appeased by the sacrifice of certain heroes who had offended
it.[X-35] Some affirm that human sacrifice was first introduced by
Tezcatlipoca; others again say that it was practiced before
Quetzalcoatl's time, which is likely enough, if, as we are told, that
prophet not only preached against it as an abomination, but shut his
ears with both hands when it was even mentioned. Written, or painted,
records show its existence in 1091, though some native writers assert
that it was not practiced until after this date. The nations that
encompass the Aztecs ascribe the introduction of human sacrifice to
the latter people; a statement accepted by most of the early
historians, who relate that the first human victims were four
Xochimilcos, with whose blood the newly erected altar of
Huitzilopochtli was consecrated.[X-36]

The number of human victims sacrificed annually in Mexico is not
exactly known. Las Casas, the champion of the natives, places it at an
insignificantly low figure, while Zumárraga states that twenty
thousand were sacrificed in the capital alone every year. That the
number was immense we can readily believe, when we read in Torquemada,
Ixtlilxochitl, Boturini, and Acosta, that from seventy to eighty
thousand human beings were slaughtered at the inauguration of the
temple of Huitzilopochtli, and a proportionately large number at the
other celebrations of the kind.[X-37]

The victims were mostly captives of war, and for the sole purpose of
obtaining these wars were often made; a large proportion of the
sacrificed, however, were of slaves and children, either bought or
presented for the purpose, and condemned criminals. Moreover,
instances are not wanting of devout people offering themselves
voluntarily for the good of the people and the honor of the god.[X-38]
The greater part of the victims died under the knife, in the manner so
often described;[X-39] some, however, were, as we have seen in the
preceding volume, burned alive; children were often buried, or immured
alive, or drowned; in some cases criminals were crushed between
stones. The Tlascaltecs frequently bound the doomed one to a pole and
made his body a target for their spears and arrows.

It is difficult to determine what religious ideas were connected with
the almost universal practice of anthropophagy. We have seen that
several of the savage tribes ate portions of slain heroes, thinking
thereby to inherit a portion of the dead man's good qualities; the
same reason might be assigned for the cannibalism of the Aztecs, were
it not for the fact that they ate the flesh of sacrificed slaves and
children as well as that of warriors and notable persons. Whatever
may have been the original significance of the rite, it is most
probable that finally the body, the essence of which served to regale
the god, was regarded merely as the remains of a divine feast, and,
therefore, as sacred food. It is quite possible, however, that
religious anthropophagy gradually degenerated into an unnatural
appetite for human flesh and nothing more.

* * * * *

I here close the review of the Aztec gods. Like most of its branches,
this great centre of North American mythology rests on natural
phenomena and anthropomorphic creations, with an occasional
euhemeristic development or apotheosis, but is attended by a worship
so sanguinary and monstrous that it stands out an isolated spectacle
of the extreme to which fanatical zeal and blind superstition can go.
A glance at the Greek and Roman mythology is sufficient to show how
much purer was the Nahua conception of divine character. The Nahua
gods did not, like those of Greece, play with vice, but rather
abhorred it. Tezcatlipoca is the only deity that can be fairly
compared with the fitful Zeus of Homer--now moved with extreme
passion, now governed by a noble impulse, now swayed by brutal lust,
now drawn on by a vein of humor. But the polished Greek, poetic,
refined, full of ideas, exulting in his strong, beautiful, immoral
gods, and making his art immortal by his sublime representations of
them, presents a picture very different from the Aztec, phlegmatic,
bloody-minded, ferocious, broken in body and in spirit by the excesses
of his worship, overshadowed by countless terrors of the imagination,
quaking continually before gods who feast on his flesh and blood.
Nevertheless there was one bright spot, set afar off on the horizon,
upon which the Aztec might look and hope. Like the Brahmans, the
Buddhists, and the Jews, he looked forward to a new era under a great
leader, even Quetzalcoatl, who had promised to return from the glowing
east, bringing with him all the prosperity, peace, and happiness of
his former reign. The Totonacs, also, knew of one in heaven who
pleaded unceasingly for them with the great god, and who was
ultimately to bring about a gentler era.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN MICHOACAN.]

Worship in Michoacan, though on a smaller scale, was very similar to
that in Mexico. The misty form of a Supreme Being that hovers through
the latter, here assumes a more distinct outline, however. A First
Cause, a Creator of All, a Ruler of the World, who bestows existence,
and regulates the seasons, is recognized in the god Tucapacha; an
invisible being whose abode is in the heaven above, an inconceivable
being whom no image can represent, a merciful being to whom the people
may hopefully pray.[X-40] But the very beauty and simplicity of the
conception of this god seem to have operated against the popularity of
his worship. The people needed a less shadowy personification of their
ideas, and this they found in Curicaneri, originally the patron
divinity of the Chichimec rulers of the country, and by them exalted
over Xaratanga, the former head god of the Tarascos. Brasseur de
Bourbourg thinks Curicaneri to be identical with the sun, and gives as
his reason that the Chichimecs presented their offerings first to that
luminary and then to the inferior deities. There is another point that
seems to favor this view. The insignia of Curicaneri and Xaratanga
were carried by the priests in the van of the army to inspire courage
and confidence of victory. Before setting out on the march a fire was
lighted before the idol, and as the incense rose to heaven, the priest
addressed the god of fire, imploring him to accept the offering and
favor the expedition.[X-41] The image of Curicaneri was profusely
adorned with jewels, each one of which represented a human sacrifice
made in honor of the god.

The goddess Xaratanga, though second in rank, seems to have occupied
the first place in the affections of the Tarascos, in spite of the
myth which associates her name with the downfall of the native
dynasty, saying that she transformed their princes into snakes,
because they appeared drunk at her festivals, and thus afforded the
Chichimecs an opportunity to seize the sceptre. The priests did their
utmost, besides, to maintain her prestige, and they were successful,
as we have seen from the position of the goddess by the side of
Curicaneri, in the van of the army.

Among the inferior gods were Manovapa, son of Xaratanga, and Taras,
from whom, says Sahagun, the Tarascos took their name, and who
corresponded to the Mexican Mixcoatl. The Matlaltzincas worshiped
Coltzin, suffocating before his image the few human beings offered to
him. They reverenced very highly, also, a great reformer, Surites, a
high-priest, who preached morality, and, inspired by a prophetic
spirit, is said to have prepared the people for a better faith, which
was to come from the direction of the rising sun. The festivals of the
Peranscuaro, which corresponded to our Christmas, and the
Zitacuarencuaro, or 'resurrection,' were instituted by Surites. These
ideas, however, bear traces of having been 'improved' by the padres.

The priests of Michoacan exercised even a greater influence over the
people than those of Mexico. In order to retain this power they
appealed to the religious side of the people's character by thundering
sermons and solemn rites, and to their affections by practicing
charity at every opportunity. The king himself, when he paid his
annual visit to the high-priest to inaugurate the offering of
first-fruits, set an example of humility by kneeling before the
pontiff and reverently kissing his hand. The priests of Michoacan
formed a distinct class, composed of three orders, at the head of
which stood the high priest of Curicaneri.[X-42] Those who served the
goddess Xaratanga were called _watarecha_, and were distinguished by
their shaven crowns, long black hair, and tunics bordered with red
fringe.[X-43] Marriage was one of their privileges.

The temple-service of Michoacan was much the same as in Mexico. Human
sacrifices, which seem to have been introduced at a late period, were
probably very numerous, since hundreds of human victims were immolated
at the funeral of a monarch. The hearts of the sacrificed were eaten
by the priests, says Beaumont, and this is not unlikely since the
Otomí population of Michoacan sold flesh in the public market. During
seasons of drought the Otomís sought to propitiate the rain gods by
sacrificing a virgin on the top of a hill.[X-44]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN JALISCO.]

In Jalisco, several forms of worship appear, each with its special
divinities. These were mostly genii of natural features. Thus, the
towns about Chapala paid divine honors to the spirit of the lake, who
was represented by a misshapen image with a miniature lake before it.
The people of other places had idols mounted on rocks, or represented
in the act of fighting with a wild animal or monster. In Zentipac and
Acaponeta the stars were honored with offerings of the choicest fruit
and flowers. Equally innocent were the offerings brought to
Piltzinteolli, the 'child god,' whose youthful form was reared in
several places. An instance of apotheosis occurred in Nayarit, where
the skeleton of a king, enthroned in a cave, received divine honors.

Among the temples consecrated to the various idols, may be mentioned
one in Jalisco, which was a square pyramid, decorated with breast-work
and turrets, to which access was had by a staircase sixty feet in
height. At each of the four corners was a hearth so arranged that the
smoke from the sacred fire spread in a dense cloud over the temple.
Another, at Teul, consisted of a stone building, five fathoms in
length, by three in breadth, and gradually widening towards the top.
Two entrances, one at the north corner, the other at the south, each
with five steps, gave admission to the interior; close by were several
piles, formed of the bones of the sacrificed.

The festivals which took place seem to have been disgraced not only by
excesses of the most infamous character, but by the most horrible
cruelties, if we are to believe Oviedo, who writes of furnaces filled
with charred human remains. These sacrifices, however, if sacrifices
they were, which were common in the north-eastern parts, where
intercourse with Mexico had produced many changes, do not appear as we
advance southward. Not only do they entirely vanish, but the
chroniclers state that in Colima, which was reputed to have been at
one time governed by a very wise prince, no outward worship of any
kind could be found; moreover, they hint at an atheism having existed
there, restricted only by moral precepts. But the reality of an oasis
of this character, in the midst of the most degraded superstitions and
the wildest fanaticism, is at the least, doubtful, and the work of the
Fathers seems to be once more apparent.[X-45]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN OAJACA.]

The worship of Oajaca bore even a stronger resemblance to that of
Mexico than did that of Michoacan, and the assertion of some modern
writers that both nations have a common origin seems fully borne out
by the records of the old chroniclers. The array of gods was, if
possible, greater, for almost every feature of the grand, wild
scenery, every want, every virtue, even every vice, says Burgoa, had
one or more patron deities, to whom offerings were made on the
household altars. This was especially the case in the upper district
of Mizteca and Zapoteca, where the rugged, cloud-capped peaks, dense
forests, boiling cataracts, and stealthy streams, all tended to fill
the crude mind of the native with a superstitious awe that must have
vent. Through all this may be discerned the vague shape of a Supreme
Being, bearing many titles, such as Piyetao Piyexoo, 'one without
being,' Pitao Cozaana, 'creator of beings,' Wichaana, 'creator of men
and fishes,' Coquiza-Chibataya Cozaanatao, 'the sustainer and governor
of all,' and a multitude of other titles, which merely serve to show
how indefinite was the position this Invisible One occupied in the
minds of a people unable to rise to a definite conception of his
eminence, and groveling before the hideous gnomes bred of their own
imagination.[X-46]

When the disciples of Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec god and lawgiver, went
forth at the command of their master to preach his doctrines, some are
said to have wended their way to Oajaca, where they founded several
centres of worship,[X-47] and among them Achiuhtla, the headquarters of
the Miztec religion, situated in the most rugged part of the
mountains. Here, in a cave the interior of which was filled with
idols, set up in niches upon stones dyed with human blood and smoke of
incense, was a large transparent chalchiuite,[X-48] entwined by a snake
whose head pointed toward a little bird perched on the apex. This
relic, worshiped since time immemorial under the name of the 'heart of
the people,' has all the chief attributes of Quetzalcoatl; the stone,
the emblem of the air god, the snake and the bird; yet how mutilated
the original myth, how much of its beautiful significance gone! Burgoa
invests the relic with another attribute in making it the supporter of
the earth, another Atlas in fact, whose movements produce earthquakes.
This also accords with the character of Quetzalcoatl, who, under the
name of Huemac, was supposed to produce earthquakes. The Zapotecs,
besides, prayed to it for victory and wealth, and Quetzalcoatl as the
'peace god,' could doubtless influence the former, while the latter
gift was always in his power.[X-49] In several other places were idols
with the same name, as at Yangüistlan, Chalcatongo, and Coatlan, where
the temples were caves, a fact worthy of note when we consider that
Quetzalcoatl is stated by the myth to have erected temples to
Mictlantecutli, the Mexican Pluto.[X-50]

[Sidenote: VOTAN AND QUETZALCOATL.]

The few authors, however, who have referred to this relic, nearly all
hold it to represent Votan; the old writers doubtless because the name
signifies 'heart'[X-51] in the Tzendal dialect of Chiapas, where he was
the most prominent deity, the modern, because its attributes accord
with those of this god. But Votan has so much in common with
Quetzalcoatl that some writers are inclined to consider them
identical, or at least related. Müller, however, declares him to be an
original Maya snake-god, one of the thirteen chief snakes, to whom the
bird attribute was given at a late period, borrowed, perhaps, from
Quetzalcoatl. He is gradually anthropomorphized into one of the many
leaders whose names have been given to the days of the month, Votan
taking the third of the four names that designated days as well as
years. Yet Professor Müller concedes that the god was brought from
Cholula, and that certain special attributes of Quetzalcoatl may be
recognized in the figures on the Palenque ruins, which probably refer
to Votan; and further, that a phase of the myth seems to point to him
as the grandson of Quetzalcoatl.[X-52] Brasseur de Bourbourg, while
accepting his identity with the 'heart of the people,' considers that
the double aspect of the tradition allows us to suppose that there
were several Votans, or that this name was accorded to deserving men
who came after him. At times he seems to be a mythic creation, the
mediator between man and God, the representation of wisdom and power;
at times a prince and legislator who introduced a higher culture among
his people. The analogy presented by traditions between Votan,
Gucumatz, Cukulcan, and Quetzalcoatl, would lead us to believe that
one individual united in his person all these appellations.
Nevertheless, a comparison of the different traditions admits of two,
Votan and Quetzalcoatl, the other names having the same signification
as the latter.

It is certain, however, that from them, whether heroes, priests,
rulers, or warriors, Central America received the culture which their
successors brought to such perfection. The knowledge of one supreme
being appears to have been among the first dogmas instilled into the
minds of their people; but in the tradition presented to us, the
hero's name is often confounded with that of the divinities.[X-53] Like
Quetzalcoatl, Votan was the first historian of his people, and wrote a
book on the origin of the race, in which he declares himself a snake,
a descendant of Imos, of the line of Chan, of the race of
Chivim.[X-54] One of his titles was 'lord of the hollow tree,' the
tepahuaste, or teponaztli.[X-55]

From the confused tradition of the Tzendals, as rendered by Nuñez de
la Vega and Ordoñez y Aguiar, it seems that Votan, proceeded by divine
command to America and there portioned out the land.[X-56] He
accordingly departed from Valum Chivim, passed by the 'dwelling of the
thirteen snakes,' and arrived in Valum Votan,[X-57] where he took with
him several of his family to form the nucleus of the settlement. With
them he passed through the island-strewn Laguna de Terminos, ascended
the Usumacinta, and here, on one of its tributaries founded
Nachan,[X-58] or Palenque, the future metropolis of a mighty kingdom,
and one of the reputed cradles of American civilization. The Tzendal
inhabitants bestowed upon the strange-looking new-comers the name
Tzequiles, 'men with petticoats,' on account of their long robes, but
soon exchanged ideas and customs with them, submitted to their rule,
and gave them their daughters in marriage. This event is laid a
thousand years before Christ.[X-59]

[Sidenote: TRAVELS OF VOTAN.]

Ordoñez proceeds to say that Votan, after the establishment of his
government, made four or more visits to his former home. On his first
voyage he came to a great city, wherein a magnificent temple was in
course of erection; this city Ordoñez supposed to be Jerusalem; he
next visited an edifice which had been originally intended to reach
heaven, an object defeated by a confusion of tongues; finally he was
allowed to penetrate by a subterranean passage to the root of
heaven.[X-60] On returning to Palenque, Votan found that several more
of his nations had arrived; these he recognized as snakes, and showed
them many favors, in return for which his supremacy was made secure,
and he was at last apotheosized.[X-61] Among the monuments left by the
hero was a temple on the Huehuetan River, called 'house of darkness,'
from its subterranean chambers, where the records of the nation were
deposited under the charge of a fixed number of old men, termed
_tlapianes_, or guardians, and an order of priestesses, whose superior
was likewise the head of the male members. Here were also kept a
number of tapirs, a sacred animal among the people.[X-62]

The claims of Votan to be considered as the 'heart of the people,' are
supported, according to the above accounts, chiefly by his name, which
means 'heart,' and by the fact that a chalchiuite, of which stone the
relic was made, was placed by the Mexicans and other peoples between
the lips of deceased. The other attributes accord more with the
character of Quetzalcoatl, as we have seen, and the tradition is very
similar; its confusion goes to show that it is a mutilated version of
the Toltec myth. If we accept Votan as a grandson of Quetzalcoatl we
may also suppose that he was one of the disciples sent out by the
prophet to spread his doctrines, and that his own name has been
substituted for that of his master. This view is favored by the fact
that Quetzalcoatl is identified with the snake-heroes of Yucatan and
Guatemala, countries that lie beside and beyond Chiapas. Then, again,
we find that Votan's worship was known in Cholula, and that he landed
in the very region where the former hero disappeared. However doubtful
the preceding tradition may be, there is one among the Oajacans, which
to me has all the appearance of a mutilated version of the myth of
Quetzalcoatl, deformed still more by the orthodox Fathers. In very
remote times, about the era of the apostles, according to the padres,
an old white man, with long hair and beard, appeared suddenly at
Huatulco, coming from the south-west by sea, and preached to the
natives in their own tongue, but of things beyond their understanding.
He lived a strict life, passing the greater part of the night in a
kneeling posture, and eating but little. He disappeared shortly after
as mysteriously as he had come, but left as a memento of his visit a
cross, which he planted with his own hand, and admonished the people
to preserve it sacredly, for one day they would be taught its
significance.[X-63] Some authors describe a personage of the same
appearance and character, coming from the same quarter, and appearing
in the country shortly after, but it is doubtless the same old man,
who, on leaving Huatulco, may have turned his steps to the interior.
His voice is next heard in Mictlan,[X-64] inveighing in gentle but firm
accents against the pleasures of this world, and enjoining repentance
and expiation. His life was in strict accordance with his doctrines,
and never, except at confession, did he approach a woman. But the lot
of Wixepecocha, as the Zapotecs call him, was that of most reformers.
Persecuted by those whose vice and superstitions he attacked, he was
driven from one province to another, and at last took refuge on Mount
Cempoaltepec. Even here his pursuers followed him, climbing its craggy
sides to lay hands upon the prophet. Just as they reached the summit,
he vanished like a shadow, leaving only the print of his feet upon the
rock.[X-65]

[Sidenote: THE APOSTLE WIXEPECOCHA.]

Among the points in this myth that correspond to the character of
Quetzalcoatl may be noticed the appearance of the prophet from the
south-west, which agrees with the direction of the moisture-bearing
winds, the chief attribute of the Toltec god; the cross, which
indicates not only the four winds, but the rain of which they are the
bearers, attributes recognized by the Mexicans who decorated the
mantle of the god with crosses; the long beard, the white face, and
the dress, which all accord with the Toltec Quetzalcoatl. Like him
Wixepecocha taught gentle doctrines of reform, like him he was
persecuted and forced to wander from place to place, and at last
disappeared, leaving his followers the hope of a better future. The
doctrine of Wixepecocha, took root and flourished in the land he had
consecrated with his toils and prayers, and, according to Brasseur de
Bourbourg, Wiyatao, the pontiff of Zapotecapan, was vicar and
successor of the 'prophet of Monapostiac.'[X-66]

The early padres saw in this personage none other than St. Thomas, the
apostle, who had walked across to plant the cross and prepare the way
for christianity. There is, or was until recently, a statue of him in
the village of Magdalena, four leagues from Tehuantepec, which
represented him with long white beard, and muffled up in a long robe
with a hood, secured by a cord round the waist; he was seated in a
reflective attitude, listening to the confession of a woman kneeling
by his side.[X-67] A similar statue is mentioned by Burgoa, as having
existed in a cave not far from Xustlahuaca, in Mistecapan,[X-68] where
it stood near the entrance, on a marble monolith eleven feet in
height. The approach to the cavern appears to have formerly led
through a beautiful garden; within were masses of stalactite of the
most fantastic and varied forms, many of which the people had
fashioned into images of different kinds, and of the most artistic
execution, says the padre, whose fancy was doubtless aided by the
twilight within. Here lay the embalmed bodies of kings and pontiffs,
surrounded by treasures, for this was a supposed entrance to the
flowered fields of heaven. The temple cave at Mictlan bore a similar
reputation, and served as a sepulchre for the Zapotec grandees. It
consisted of four chief divisions, the largest forming the sanctuary
proper, the second and third the tombs of kings and pontiffs, and the
fourth a vestibule to an immense labyrinthine grotto, in which brave
warriors were occasionally buried. Into this, the very ante-room of
paradise, frenzied devotees would at times enter, and seek in its dark
mazes for the abode of the gods; none ever returned from this dread
quest, for the entrance was closed with a great stone, and doubtless
many a poor wretch as he touched in his last feeble gropings the bones
of those who had preceded him, felt the light come in upon his soul in
spite of the thick darkness, and knew he had been deluded; but the
mighty stone at the mouth of the cave told no secrets.[X-69]

[Sidenote: GODS OF OAJACA.]

The prominence of the Plutonic element in the worship of Oajaca is
shown by the fact that Pezelao, whose character corresponded to that
of the Mexican Mictlantecutli, received high honors. The other
conspicuous gods, as enumerated by Brasseur de Bourbourg, were
Pitao-Cocobi, god of abundance, or of the harvest; Cociyo, the rain
god; Cozaana, patron of hunters and fishermen; and Pitao-Xoo, god of
earthquakes. Other deities controlled riches, misfortunes, auguries,
poetic inspiration--even the hens had their patron divinity. As might
be expected of a people who regarded even living kings and priests
with adoration, apotheosis was common. Thus, Petela, an ancient
Zapotec cacique whose name signified dog, was worshiped in the cavern
of Coatlan. At one end of this subterranean temple a yawning abyss
received the foaming waters of a mountain torrent, and into this
slaves and captives, gaily dressed and adorned with flowers, were cast
on certain occasions.[X-70]

At another place was a white stone shaped like a nine-pin, supposed to
be the embodiment of Pinopiaa, a saintly princess of Zapotecapan,
whose corpse had been miraculously conveyed to heaven and returned in
this form for the benefit of the devout.[X-71]

In Chiapas they worshiped Costahuntox, who was represented with ram's
horns on his head, and sat on a throne surrounded by thirteen
grandees. In the district of Llanos, Yabalan, or Yahalan, and Canamlum
were the chief gods. Even living beings held the position of deities,
according to Diaz, who states that a fat old woman, dressed in richly
decorated robes, whom the natives venerated as a goddess, led them
against the Spanish invaders, but was killed.[X-72] Among the Mijes a
green flat stone, with blood-red, lustrous rays, was held in much
veneration. Although this is the only reference made by the
chroniclers that may be connected with sun worship--which, by the
way, could scarcely have claimed a very high position here, since the
founder of the Miztec royal family is stated to have been victorious
in a contest with the sun--it is worthy of note that the Zapotec word
_nuhu_, fire, also denotes divinity, idol, everything sacred, the
earth itself.[X-73] The household idols had their names, history, and
worship depicted on bark, and smoked or painted hides, in order to
keep them always before the people, and insure to the youth a
knowledge of their god. How firmly rooted idolatry was, and how slow
the work of eradicating it must have been, to the padres,
notwithstanding they destroyed every idol they could lay hands on, is
shown by the fact that among the Guechecoros a statue of Cortés served
as an object of worship.[X-74] Nagualism is one of the ancient forms of
worship which still flourish, and consists in choosing an animal as
the tulelary divinity of child, whose existence will be so closely
connected with it, that the life of one depends on that of the other.
Burgoa states that the priest selected the animal by divination; when
the boy grew up he was directed to proceed to a mountain to offer
sacrifice, and there the animal would appear to him. Others say that
at the hour of the mother's confinement, the father and friends drew
on the floor of the hut the outline of various animals, effacing each
figure as soon as they began the next, and the figure that remained at
the moment of delivery represented the guardian of the infant; or,
that the bird or beast first seen by the watchers after the
confinement was accepted as the nagual. The bestowal of the sign of
the day upon the infant as its name may perhaps be considered as a
species of nagualism, since the name of animals often formed these
signs.[X-75]

[Sidenote: TREE WORSHIP.]

A form of worship particularly marked in this country was the
veneration accorded to trees, as may be judged from the myth which
attributes the origin of the Miztec, as well as a portion at least of
the Zapotec people to two trees. This cult existed also in other parts
of Mexico and Central America, where cypresses and palms growing near
the temples, generally in groups of three, were tended with great
care, and often received offerings of incense and other gifts. They do
not, however, seem to have been dedicated to any particular god, as
among the Romans, where Pluto claimed the cypress, and Victory the
palm. One of the most sacred of these relics is a cypress standing at
Santa María de Tule, the venerable trunk of which measures ninety feet
in circumference, at a height of six feet from the ground.[X-76]

One of the chief offerings of the Zapotecs was the blood of the, to
them sacred, turkey; straws and feathers smeared with blood from the
back of the ear, and from beneath the tongue of persons, also
constituted a large portion of the sacred offerings, and were
presented in special grass vessels. Human sacrifices were not common
with the Oajacan people, but in case of emergency, captives and slaves
were generally the victims. The usual mode of offering them was to
tear out the heart, but in some places, as at Coatlan, they were cast
into an abyss. Herrera states that men were offered to the gods, women
to goddesses, and children to inferior deities, and that their bodies
were eaten, but the latter statement is doubtful.[X-77]

FOOTNOTES:

[X-1] 'Los Pueblos, que à los Templos de la Ciudad de Tetzcuco
servian, con Leña, Carbon, y corteça de Roble, eran quince ... y otros
quince Pueblos ... servian los otros seis meses del Año, con lo mismo,
à las Casas Reales, y Templo Maior.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._,
tom. ii., p. 164.

[X-2] _Rapport_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii., tom. v., p.
305.

[X-3] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 164-6; _Las Casas_,
_Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxxix., cxli. 'È da credersi, che
quel tratto di paese, che avea il nome di _Teotlalpan_, (Terra degli
Dei,) fosse così appellata, per esservi delle possesioni de' Tempj.'
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 36.

[X-4] _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 120.

[X-5] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 112; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 36-7.

[X-6] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 175-7; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 37. Sahagun calls them
Quetzalcoatl Teoteztlamacazqui, who was also high-priest of
Huitzilopochtli, and Tlaloctlamacazqui, who was Tlaloc's chief priest;
they were equals, and elected from the most perfect, without reference
to birth. _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 276-7. There are two
inconsistencies in this, the only strong contradiction of the
statement of the above, as well as several other authors, who form the
authority of my text: first, Sahagun calls the first high-priest
Quetzalcoatl Teotectlamacazqui, a name which scarcely accords with the
title of Huitzilopochtli's high-priest; secondly, he ignores the
almost unanimous evidence of old writers, who state that the latter
office was hereditary in a certain district. 'Al Summo Pontìfice
llamaban en la lengua mexicana Tehuatecolt.' _Las Casas_, _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxxiii. 'El mayor de todos que es superlado,
Achcauhtli.' _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 323. But this was the title
of the Tlascaltec high-priest. 'A los supremos Sacerdotes ... llamauan
en su antigua lengua Papas.' _Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 336.
See also _Chaves_, _Rapport_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii.,
tom. v., pp. 303-4.

[X-7] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 177, 180;
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 41; _Herrera_,
_Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xv.; _Las Casas_, _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxxiii.

[X-8] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 218-19. Brasseur
de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 549-51, whose chief
authority is Hernandez, and who is not very clear in his description,
holds that the Mexicatlteohuatzin was the supreme priest, and that he
also bore the title of Teotecuhtli, the rank of chief priest of
Huitzilopochtli, and was the right hand minister of the king.
Quetzalcoatl's high-priest he places next in rank, but outside of the
political sphere. On one page he states that the high-priest was
elected by the two chief men in the hierarchy, and on another he
distinctly implies that the king made the higher appointments in order
to control the church. The sacrificing priest, whom he evidently holds
to be the same as the high-priest, he invests with the rank of
generalissimo, and heir to the throne.

[X-9] Carbajal states that a temple bearing the name of the people, or
their chief town, was erected in the metropolis, and attended by a
body of priests brought from the province. _Discurso_, p. 110. This
may, however, be a misinterpretation of Torquemada, who gives a
description of a building attached to the chief temple at Mexico, in
which the idols of subjugated people were kept imprisoned, to prevent
them from aiding their worshipers to regain their liberty.

[X-10] Some authors seem to associate this office with that of the
pontiff, but it appears that the high-priest merely inaugurated the
sacrifices on special occasions. 'Era esta vna dignidad suprema, y
entre ellos tenida en mucho, la qual se heredaua como cosa de
mayorazgo. El ministro que tenia oficio de matar ... era tenido y
reuerenciado como supreme Sacerdote, o Pontifice.' _Acosta_, _Hist. de
las Ynd._, p. 352. 'Era como decir, el Sumo Sacerdote, al qual, y no à
otro, era dado este oficio de abrir los Hombres por los pechos, ...
siendo comunmente los herederos, de este Patrimonio, y suerte
Eclesiastica, los primogenitos.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom.
ii., p. 117. It is difficult to decide upon the interpretation of
these sentences. The expression of his being 'held or reverenced as
pontiff' certainly indicates that another priest held the office, so
does the sentence, 'it was inherited by the first-born' of certain
families. But the phrase, 'el Sumo Sacerdote, al qual y no à otro, era
dado este oficio,' points very directly to the high-priest as the
holder of the post.

[X-11] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 178-9; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 37-9; _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 218-26; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 551.

[X-12] _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 323-4. He describes the dress as
'vna ropa de algodon blanca estrecha, y larga, y encima vna manta por
capa añudada al hombro.... Tiznaunse los dios festiuales, y quando su
regla mandaua de negro las piernas,' etc.

[X-13] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 39-40;
_Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, pp. 369-71. Brasseur de Bourbourg
thinks that the teopatli was the ointment used at the consecration of
the high-priest, but it is not likely that a preparation which served
monks and invalids as body paint, would be applied to the heads of
high-priests and kings. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 558. Every
priestly adornment had, doubtless, its mystic meaning. The custom of
painting the body black was first done in honor of the god of Hades.
_Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 117.

[X-14] See vol. ii., pp. 242, et seq.

[X-15] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 189-91; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 223-31; _Motolinia_, _Hist.
Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., pp. 53-4.
'Sustentábanse del trabajo de sus manos ó por sus padres y parientes.'
_Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 107.

[X-16] 'Trahian en las cabeças coronas como frayles, poco cabello,
aunque crezido hasta media oreja, y mas largo por el colodrillo hasta
las espaldas, y a manera de trençado le atauan.' _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xvi.

[X-17] Clavigero asserts that at the age of two the boy was consecrated
to the order of _tlamacazcayotl_ by a cut in the breast, and at seven
he was admitted. _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 44;
_Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom.
i., p. 53.

[X-18] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 220-4. Whether this
decorum was preserved after the adjournment of the meeting, is a point
which some writers are inclined to doubt.

[X-19] _Hist. de las Ynd._, pp. 341-2.

[X-20] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcix., pp. 134-5.

[X-21] _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxxii.; _Mendieta_,
_Hist. Ecles._, p. 90.

[X-22] _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxxix.;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 185-6.

[X-23] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 39.
According to Torquemada, the night service was partly devoted to the
god of night. _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 227.

[X-24] _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. clxxv.; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 224-5, 275; _Acosta_, _Hist. de las Ynd._, pp.
336, 343; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xv.

[X-25] This was the answer given by Juan de Tovar, in his _Hist. Ind._,
MS., to the doubts expressed by Acosta as to the authenticity of the
long-winded prayers of the Mexicans, whose imperfect writing was not
well adapted to reproduce orations. _Helps' Span. Conq._, vol. i., p.
282.

[X-26] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 93. Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., p. 24, certainly says: 'Taceano le loro preghiere
comunemente inginocchione,' but we are told by Sahagun and others,
that when they approached the deity with most humility, namely, at the
confession, a squatting position was assumed; the same was done when
they delivered orations. The greatest sign of adoration, according to
Camargo, was to take a handful of earth and grass and eat it; very
similar to the manner of taking an oath or greeting a superior, which
consisted in touching the hand to the ground and then putting it to
the lips. _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcix., p. 168.

[X-27] _Ib._

[X-28] At the present day the rite of circumcision may be traced almost
in an unbroken line from China to the Cape of Good Hope.

[X-29] _Myths_, p. 147.

[X-30] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 83; _Mendieta_,
_Hist. Ecles._, pp. 108-9; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap.
clxxv.; _Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 133.

[X-31] See this volume, pp. 380-4.

[X-32] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 212-13; _Acosta_,
_Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 343; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib.
iii., pp. 275-6.

[X-33] _Conq. Mex._, fol. 336. Some of these sticks were thicker than a
finger, 'y largos, como el tamaño de vn braço.' 'Eran en numero de
quatrocientas.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 102-3;
_Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom.
i., pp. 51-2.

[X-34] _Rapport_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii., tom. v., p.
305. The Mexican priests performed this sacrifice every five days.
_Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._,
vol. vi., p. 225, 'De la sangre que sacaban de las partes del Cuerpo
en cada provincia tenian diferente costumbre.' _Las Casas_, _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. clxx.

[X-35] See this volume, p. 61.

[X-36] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 165-7.
Torquemada, however, mentions one earlier sacrifice of some refractory
Mexicans, who desired to leave their wandering countrymen and settle
at Tula, contrary to the command of the god. _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii.,
pp. 115-16, 50. 'On prétend que cet usage vint de la province de
Chalco dans celle de Tlaxcallan.' _Camargo_, _Hist. Tlax._, in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 199; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 343. 'Quetzalcoatle was the first
inventor of sacrifices of human blood.' _Explanation of the Codex
Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 201. It is
conceded, however, by other writers, that Quetzalcoatl was opposed to
all bloodshed. See this volume, p. 278. Müller, _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, p. 628, thinks that the Aztecs introduced certain rites
of human sacrifice, which they connected with others already existing
in Mexico.

[X-37] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 186. 'Eran cada año
estos Niños sacrificados mas de veinte mil por cuenta.' _Id._, tom.
ii., p. 120. A misconstruction of Zumárraga, who does not specify them
as children. _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 49,
tom. i., p. 257; _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chich._, in _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., p. 268; _Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 28. 'Afirman
que auia vez que passauan de cinco mil, y dia vuo que en diuersas
partes fueron assi sacrificados mas de veynta mil.' _Acosta_, _Hist.
de las Ynd._, p. 356. Gomara states that the conquerors counted
136,000 skulls in one skull-yard alone. _Conq. Mex._, fol. 122.

[X-38] 'Non furono mai veduti i Messicani sacriücare i propj lor
Nazionali, se non coloro, che per li loro delitti erano rei di morte.'
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv., p. 299. A rather
hasty assertion.

[X-39] See vol. ii., p. 307.

[X-40] _Salazar y Olarte_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, p. 71; _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.

[X-41] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp.
79-82. This author gives the name as Curicaweri.

[X-42] 'El Sumo Sacerdote Curinacanery.' _Beaumont_, _Crón. Mechoacan_,
MS., p. 52.

[X-43] 'Guirnaldas de fluecos colorados,' says Herrera, _Hist. Gen._,
dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.

[X-44] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.;
_Beaumont_, _Crón. Mechoacan_, MS., pp. 52-3, 75; _Alegre_, _Hist.
Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., pp. 91-2; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 59, 64-5, 79-82; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. ii., p. 525; Carbajal Espinosa, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i.,
pp. 291-2, thinks that the sacrifices were introduced by surrounding
tribes, and that cannibalism was unknown to the Tarascos.
'Sacrificaban culebras, aves y conejos, y no los hombres, aunque
fuesen cautivos, porque se servian de ellos, como de esclavos.'
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 138. See also vol.
ii., pp. 620-1, of this work.

[X-45] Beaumont, _Crón. Mechoacan_, MS., p. 232, tells of a Supreme
Being in heaven, and with him an ever young virgin from whom all men
descend; a belief which the child-god is said to have promulgated; but
the account seems somewhat confused both as to place and authority.
Alegre, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. iii., p. 197, and Padilla, _Conq.
N. Galicia_, MS., p. 8, mention additional gods, but give no
description. _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., pp. 269-70;
_Alcedo_, _Diccionario_, tom. iii., p. 299; _Tello_, in _Icazbalceta_,
_Col. de Doc._, tom. ii., p. 363; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii.,
p. 566; _Gil_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. viii., pp. 496-8.

[X-46] 'Les dieux, de quelque nature qu'ils fussent, avaient dans la
langue zapotèque le nom de "Pitao," qui correspond à l'idée du
grand-esprit, d'un esprit étendu.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., pp. 26-7.

[X-47] Torquemada, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 255-6, also refers to
emigration of Toltec chiefs to found new states.

[X-48] 'Vna esmeralda tan grande como vn gruesso pimiento de esta
tierra, tenia labrado encima vna auesita, ò pajarillo con grandissimo
primor, y de arriba à baxo enroscada vna culebrilla con el mesmo arte,
la piedra era tan transparente, que brillaba desde el fondo.'
_Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt i., fol. 156.

[X-49] Burgoa gives the relic in this instance a title which varies
somewhat in the wording, although the former sense remains: 'El Alma,
y coraçon del Reyno.' _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 396.
Dávila Padilla, _Hist. Fvnd. Mex._, p. 639, mentions an idol among the
Zapotecs in shape of a hand, which may have represented Huemac.

[X-50] The Zapotecs had other temples also, fashioned like those of
Mexico in superimposed terraces of stone-cased earth. Burgoa describes
one which measured 2000 paces in circumference, and rose to a height
of 88-90 feet; on each terrace stood an adobe chapel with a well
attached for the storage of water. On the occasion of a great victory
another terrace was added to the pile. _Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., pt
ii., fol. 198.

[X-51] _Cabrera_, _Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, p. 37.

[X-52] He also calls him the Miztec Cultur god. _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, pp. 486-90.

[X-53] _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 44-5.

[X-54] Chan, 'snake,' was the name of a tribe of Lacandones, near
Palenque, known also as Colhuas, Chanes, or Quinames. _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 109. The book referred to or a copy of it,
written in the Tzendal or Quiché language, was in the possession of
Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who published short extracts of
it in his _Constitut. Diœces_, but seems to have had it burned,
together with other native relics, in 1691, at Huehuetan. Previous to
this, however, Ordoñez y Aguiar had obtained a copy of it, written in
Latin characters, and gave a résumé of the contents in his _Hist. del
Cielo_, MS. This author contradicts himself by stating, in one part of
his MS., that the original was written by a descendant of Votan.
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. lxxxvii., cviii.; _Tschudi's
Peruvian Antiq._, p. 12; _Cabrera_, _Teatro_, in _Rio's Descrip._, pp.
33-4. Cabrera, who bases his account of the myth on Ordoñez'
rendering, which he at times seems to have misunderstood and
mutilated, thinks that Chivim refers to Tripoli, and it is the same as
Hivim or Givim, the Phœnician word for snake, which, again, refers
to Hivites, the descendants of Heth, son of Canaan. Votan's
expression, as given in his book, 'I am a snake, a Chivim,' signifies
'I am a Hivite from Tripoli.' _Teatro_, in _Rio's Descrip._, p. 34, et
seq.

[X-55] _Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 115. It may be of interest to compare his
name with Odon in the Michoacan calendar, and Oton, the Otomí god and
chief. Humboldt was particularly struck with its resemblance to Odin,
the Scandinavian god-hero. _Vues_, tom. i., p. 208; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. lxxvi.

[X-56] Equivalent to laying the foundation for civilization. According
to Ordoñez he was sent to people the continent; a view also taken by
Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 150-1. Torquemada's
account of the spreading of the Toltecs southward, may throw some
light on this subject. _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 256, et seq.

[X-57] Valum Chivim, Valum Votan, land of Chivim and Votan. See note
15. Cabrera considers two marble columns found at Tangier, with
Phœnician inscriptions, a trace of his route; the dwellings of the
thirteen snakes are thirteen islands of the Canary group, and Valum
Votan, the Island of Santo Domingo. _Teatro_, in _Rio's Descrip._, p.
34, et seq. Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 489, hints
significantly at the worship of the snake-god Votan, on Santo Domingo
Island, under the name of Vaudoux. Brasseur de Bourbourg's ideas on
this point have already been made pretty evident in the account of
Quetzalcoatl's myth. The thirteen snakes may mean thirteen chiefs of
Xibalba. There is a ruin bearing the name of Valum Votan about nine
leagues from Ciudad Real, Chiapas. _Popol Vuh_, p. lxxxviii. Ordoñez
holds Valum Votan to be Cuba, whence he takes seven families with him.
_Cabrera_, ubi sup.

[X-58] Ordoñez says the original Na-chan means 'place of snakes.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 69.

[X-59] A date which is confirmed by the Chimalpopoca MS. _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. lxxxviii. One tradition makes the
Tzequiles speak a Nahua dialect, but it is possible that Ordoñez
confounds two epochs. _Id._, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 70.

[X-60] In the traditions presented on pp. 67-8, 50, of this volume,
will be found reference to Cholula as the place where the tower of
Babel was built, and to the confusion of tongues, which tends to
connect this myth with those of the neighboring country. Ordoñez'
orthodox ideas have probably added much to the native MS. from which
he took his account, yet Nuñez de la Vega agrees with him in most
respects. Cabrera, _Teatro_, in _Rio's Descrip._, p. 84, considers the
great city to be Rome, but agrees with his authorities that the latter
edifice is the tower of Babel. A Tzendal legend relates that a
subterranean passage, leading from Palenque to Tulhá, near Ococingo,
was constructed in commemoration of the celestial passage, or 'serpent
hole,' into which Votan in his quality of snake, was admitted.
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 72-3.

[X-61] Cabrera has it that the new-comers are seven Tzequiles, or
shipwrecked countrymen of Votan. The voyages and other incidents he
considers confirmed by the sculptures on the Palenque ruins, which
shows Votan surrounded by symbols of travel, indications of the places
visited in the old and new world; he recognizes the attributes of
Osiris in the idol brought over by Votan, with the intention of
establishing its worship in the new world. Lastly, Votan and his
families are Carthaginians. _Teatro_, in _Rio's Description_, pp. 95,
34.

[X-62] The ruins of Huehuetan, 'city of old men,' are still to be seen.
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 73-4;
_Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq._, pp. 11-15; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i.,
pp. 10-21. Vega mentions that at Teopixca in Chiapas he found several
families who bore the hero's name and claimed to be descendants of
his. This has little value, however, for we know that priests assumed
the name of their god, and nearly all mythical heroes have had
descendants, as Zeus, Herakles, and others. _Boturini_, _Idea_, p.
115.

[X-63] A portion of this relic was sent to Pope Paul V., in 1613; the
remainder was deposited in the cathedral for safe keeping. _Burgoa_,
_Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 350-2.

[X-64] The place of the dead, or hades, also called Yopaa, land of
tombs. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 9.

[X-65] Fray Juan de Ojedo saw and felt the indentation of two feet upon
the rook, the muscles and toes as distinctly marked as if they had
been pressed upon soft wax. The Mijes had this tradition written in
characters on skin. _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt ii., fol.
299.

[X-66] A name given to Wixepecocha by the tradition, which adds that he
was seen on the island of Monapostiac, near Tehuantepec, previous to
his final disappearance. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._,
tom. iii., p. 411. Quetzalcoatl also disappeared seaward.

[X-67] He debarked near Tehuantepec, bearing a cross in his hand;
_Gondra_, _Rasgos y señales de la primera predicacion en el
Nuevo-Mundo_, MS.; _Carriedo_, _Estudios, Hist. del Estado Oaxaqueño_,
tom. i., cap. i.; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom.
iii., pp. 9-10.

[X-68] Brasseur de Bourbourg seems to place it at Chalcatongo. _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 19; _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt
i., fol. 170.

[X-69] _Escalera and Llana_, _Mej. Hist. Descrip._, p. 330.

[X-70] 'Le tenian enterrado, seco, y embalsamado en su proporcion.' The
cave was supposed to connect with the city of Chiapas, 200 leagues
distant. _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xiv.

[X-71] 'Piedra blanca, labrada al modo de vn acho de bolos ... vn
gruesso taladro.' _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt ii., fol.
362.

[X-72] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 179; _Salazar y Olarte_,
_Hist. Conq. Mex._, p. 137. There were many among the padres who held
Yabalan to have been an immediate descendant of Noah's son Ham,
because the name signified 'chief black man, or negro.' _Piñeda_, in
_Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. iii., p. 419.

[X-73] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 17;
_Dávila Padilla_, _Hist. Fvnd. Mex._, pp. 638-9. In Chiapas are found
a number of representations of heavenly bodies, sculptured, or drawn,
and at Palenque a sun temple is supposed to have existed. _Piñeda_, in
_Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. iii., p. 419.

[X-74] They 'worship his image in their own peculiar way, sometimes by
cutting off a turkey's head.' 'The natives are about as far advanced
in christianity as they were at the time of the conquest.' _Hutchings'
Cal. Mag._, vol. ii., p. 542.

[X-75] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 395; _Ferry_,
_Costal L'Indien_, pp. 6-7.

[X-76] Some consider it to be composed of three trunks which have grown
together, and the deep indentations certainly give it that appearance;
but trees of this species generally present irregular forms. _Escalera
and Llana_, _Méj. Hist. Descrip._, pp. 224-5; _Charnay_, _Ruines
Amér._, phot. xviii.

[X-77] _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xiv.; _Burgoa_, _Geog.
Descrip._, tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 282; _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom.
ii., p. 194. Pontelli, who claims to have paid a visit to the
forbidden retreats of the mountain Lacandones, a few years ago,
mentions, among other peculiarities, a stone of sacrifice, interlaced
by serpents, and covered with hieroglyphics, on which the heart of
human beings were torn out. _Correo de Ultramar_, Paris 1860; _Cal.
Farmer_, Nov. 7, 1862.

CHAPTER XI.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

MAYA PANTHEON -- ZAMNÁ -- CUKULCAN -- THE GODS OF YUCATAN --
THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS IN AMERICA -- HUMAN SACRIFICES IN
YUCATAN -- PRIESTS OF YUCATAN -- GUATEMALAN PANTHEON -- TEPEU
AND HURAKAN -- AVILIX AND HACAVITZ -- THE HEROES OF THE SACRED
BOOK -- QUICHÉ GODS -- WORSHIP OF THE CHOLES, MANCHES, ITZAS,
LACANDONES, AND OTHERS -- TRADITION OF COMIZAHUAL -- FASTS --
PRIESTS OF GUATEMALA -- GODS, WORSHIP, AND PRIESTS OF NICARAGUA
-- WORSHIP ON THE MOSQUITO COAST -- GODS AND WORSHIP OF THE
ISTHMIANS -- PHALLIC WORSHIP IN AMERICA.

The religion of the Mayas was fundamentally the same as that of the
Nahuas, though it differed somewhat in outward forms. Most of the gods
were deified heroes, brought more or less prominently to the front by
their importance. Occasionally we find very distinct traces of an
older sun-worship, which has succumbed to later forms, introduced,
according to vague tradition, from Anáhuac. The generality of this
cult is testified to by the numerous representations of sun-plates and
sun-pillars found among the ruins of Central America.[XI-1]

In Yucatan, Hunab Ku, 'the only god', called also Kinehahau, 'the
mouth or eyes of the sun',[XI-2] is represented as the Supreme Being,
the Creator, the Invisible one, whom no image can represent.[XI-3] His
spouse Ixazalvoh was honored as the inventor of weaving, and their son
Zamná, or Yaxcocahmut, one of the culture-heroes of the people, is
supposed to have been the inventor of the art of writing.[XI-4] The
inquiries instituted by Las Casas revealed the existence of a trinity,
the first person of which was Izona, the Great Father; the second was
the Son of the Great Father, Bacab, born of the virgin Chibirias,[XI-5]
scourged and crucified, he descended into the realms of the dead, rose
again the third day, and ascended into heaven; the third person of the
trinity was Echuah, or Ekchuah, the Holy Ghost.[XI-6] Now, to accuse
the reverend Fathers of deliberately concocting this and other
statements of a similar character is to accuse them of acts of
charlatanism which no religious zeal could justify. On the other hand,
that this mysterious trinity, had any real existence in the original
belief of the natives, is, to put it in its mildest form, exceedingly
doubtful. It may be, however, that the natives, when questioned
concerning their religion, endeavored to make it conform as nearly as
possible to that of their conquerors, hoping by this means to gain the
good will of their masters, and to lull suspicions of lurking
idolatry.

Bacab, stated above to mean the Son of the Great Father, was in
reality the name of four spirits who supported the firmament; while
Echuah, or the Holy Ghost, was the patron god of merchants and
travelers.

[Sidenote: ZAMNÁ.]

The goddess Ixcanleox was held to be the mother of the gods, but as
Cogolludo states that she had several names, she may possibly be
identical with Ixazaluoh, the wife of Hunab Ku, whose name implies
generation.[XI-7] The Mayas were not behind their neighbors in the
number of their lesser and special divinities, so that there was
scarcely an animal or imaginary creature which they did not represent
by sacred images. These idols, or _zemes_,[XI-8] as they were called,
were generally made of terra cotta, though sometimes they were of
stone, gold, or wood. In the front rank of the circle of gods, known
by the name of _ku_, were the deified kings and heroes, whom we often
find credited with attributes so closely connected as to imply
identity, or representation of varied phases of the same element.[XI-9]
The most popular names were Zamná and Cukulcan, both culture-heroes,
and considered by some to be identical; a very probable supposition
when we consider that Quetzalcoatl, who is admitted to be the same as
Cukulcan, had the attribute of the strong hand, as well as Zamná. The
tradition relates that some time after the fall of the Quinamean
Empire, Zamná appeared in Yucatan, coming from the west, and was
received with great respect wherever he stayed. Besides being the
inventor of the alphabet, he is said to have named all points and
places in the country. Over his grave rose a city called Izamal or
Itzamat Ul, which soon became one of the chief centres of pilgrimage
in the peninsula, especially for the afflicted, who sincerely believed
that their prayers when accompanied by suitable presents would not
fail to obtain a hearing. This class of devotees generally resorted
to the temple where he was represented in the form of a hand, Kab Ul,
or working hand, whose touch was sufficient to restore health.[XI-10]

Professor Müller thinks it very uncertain whether the creating or
working hand referred to the sun, as was the case among the northern
tribes, but the account given of the following idol seems to me to
make this not improbable. In the same city was an image of Kinich
Kakmo, 'face or eye of the sun', whom Landa represents to be the
offspring of the sun, but who subsequently became identified with that
luminary and received divine honors in the very temple that he had
erected to his father. He is represented in the act of sacrifice,
pointing the finger toward a ray from the midday sun, as if to draw a
spark wherewith to kindle the sacred fire. To this idol the people
resorted in times of calamity and sickness, bringing offerings to
induce oracular advice.[XI-11] There are many things which seem to me to
identify this personage with Zamná, although other writers hold them
to be distinct. Cogolludo, for instance, implies that Zamná was the
only son of the sun, or Supreme Being, while Landa and others declare
Kinich Kakmo to be the son of that luminary; both are placed on or
about the same level and considered as healers, and the uplifted hand
of the latter reminds us strongly of the Kab Ul. Another form in which
we may recognize Zamná is the image of Itzamat Ul, or 'the dew of
heaven', who is said to have been a great ruler, the son of god, and
who cured diseases, raised the dead, and pronounced oracles. When
asked his name, he replied, _ytzencaan_, _ytzenmuyal_.[XI-12]

[Sidenote: CUKULCAN.]

The other culture-hero, Cukulcan, appeared in Yucatan from the west,
with nineteen followers, two of whom were gods of fishes, two gods of
farms, and one of thunder, all wearing full beard, long robes, and
sandals, but no head-covering. This event is supposed to have occurred
at the very time that Quetzalcoatl disappeared in the neighboring
province of Goazacoalco, a conjecture which, in addition to the
similarity of the names, character, and work of the heroes, forms the
basis for their almost generally accepted identity. Cukulcan stopped
at several places in Yucatan, but at last settled in Chichen Itza,
where he governed for ten years, and framed laws. At the expiration of
this period, he left without apparent reason to return to the country
whence he had come. A grateful people erected temples at Mayapan and
Chichen, to which pilgrims resorted from all quarters to worship him
as a god, and to drink of the waters in which he had bathed. His
worship, although pretty general throughout Yucatan at one time, was
later on confined chiefly to the immediate scenes of his labors.[XI-13]

Besides Izamal and Chichen, there was a third great centre of worship
in Yucatan, namely, the temple of Ahulneb, on Cozumel Island, said by
some writers to have been the chief sanctuary, Chichen being second in
importance. It consisted of a square tower of considerable size,
within which was the gigantic terra-cotta statue of Ahulneb, dressed
as a warrior, and holding an arrow in his hand. The statue was hollow
and set up close against an aperture in the wall, by which the priest
entered the figure to deliver the oracle; should the prediction not be
fulfilled, which was scarcely likely as it was generally so worded
that it might mean anything or nothing, the failure was ascribed to
insufficient sacrifice or unatoned sin. So famous did this oracle
become, and so great was the multitude of pilgrims continually
flocking to it, that it was found necessary to construct roads leading
from the chief cities of Yucatan, and even from Tabasco and Guatemala,
to Polé, a town on the continent opposite the island. Before
embarking, the genius of the sea was always propitiated by the
sacrifice of a dog, which was slain with arrows amid music and
dancing.[XI-14]

[Sidenote: YUCATEC DEITIES.]

The Bacabs were four brothers who supported the four corners of the
firmament; they were also regarded as air gods. Cogolludo speaks of
them as Zacal Bacab, Canal Bacab, Chacal Bacab, and Ekel Bacab, but
they were also known by other names. Echuah was the patron-god of
merchants and of roads; to him the traveler erected every night a rude
altar of six stones, three laid flat, and three set upright, upon
which he burned incense while he invoked the protection of the god.
It was considered a religious duty by Yucatec wayfarers, when passing
some prominent point on the road or spot where an image of Echuah
stood, to add a stone or two to the heap already accumulated there, an
act of devotion similar to that performed by the Romans in honor of
Mercury. Yuncemil was Lord of Death, or, perhaps, the personification
of death itself; this dread deity was propitiated with offerings of
food.[XI-15] Acat was God of Life; he it was that formed the infant in
the womb. At Tihoo, the present Mérida, stood the magnificent temple
of Yahau Kuna in which Baklum Chaam, the Priapus of the Mayas and
their most ancient god was worshiped. Chac, or Chaac, a former king of
Izamal, was honored as the god of fields, and fertility, and the
inventor of agriculture. Some distance south-west of this city was the
temple of Hunpictok, 'commander of eight thousand lances', a title
given also to the general of the army.[XI-16] Abchuy Kak was another
apotheosized warrior-prince, whose statue, dressed in royal robes, was
borne in the van of the army by four of the most illustrious captains,
and received an ovation all along the route. Yxchebelyax is mentioned
as the inventor of the art of interweaving figures in cloth, and of
painting. Xibalba, 'he who disappears,' was the name of the evil
spirit. Exquemelin relates that nagualism obtained on the coast. The
naked child was placed on a bed of ashes in the temple, and the animal
whose footprint was noticed in the ashes, was adopted as the nagual,
and to it the child offered incense as it grew up.[XI-17]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS.]

One of the most remarkable emblems of Maya worship, in the estimation
of the conquerors, was the cross, which has also been noticed in other
parts of Central America and in Mexico,[XI-18] although less prominently
than here. Among the many conjectures as to its origin it is supposed
that it was received from Spaniards who were wrecked on the coast
before Córdova discovered Yucatan, as, for instance, the pious
Aguilar, Cortés' interpreter; but this would not account for the
crosses that existed in other parts of Central America. The natives
had a tradition, however, which placed the introduction of the cross a
few years before the conquest. Among the many prophets who arose at
that time was one who predicted the coming of a strange people from
the direction of the rising sun, who would bring with them a
monotheistic faith having the cross for its emblem. He admonished them
to accept the new religion, and erected a cross as a token of his
prophecy.[XI-19] Another tradition states that a very handsome man
passed through the country and left the cross as a memento, and this
many of the padres readily believed, declaring this personage to be
none other than the wanderer St Thomas.[XI-20] The opinion that it was
introduced by early Christians, or old-world pagans, is, however,
opposed by the argument that other more practical features of their
culture would have left their mark at the same time. The symbol
itself is so simple and suggestive of so many ideas that it seems to
me most reasonable to suppose that the natives adopted it without
foreign aid. At all events, as the cross was in use both as a
religious emblem and an instrument of punishment long before the
Christian era, it is surely unnecessary to account for its presence in
America by theories invented for the occasion, or, in fact, in any way
to connect it with Christianity. The most common signification
attributed to the symbol is fertility or generation. A piece of wood
fastened horizontally to an upright beam indicated the height of the
overflow of the Nile. If the flood reached this mark, the crops
flourished; should it fail to do so, famine was the result; thus, we
are told, in Egypt the cross came to be worshipped as a symbol of life
and generation, or feared as an image of decay and death. By other
peoples and for other reasons it was closely connected with phallic
rites, of which I shall speak elsewhere, or was connected with the
worship of that great fertilizer and life-giver, the sun. Among the
Chinese the cross signifies conception. The cross of Thor may possibly
be an exception, and refer merely to his hammer or thunderbolt.[XI-21]

With the Mexicans the cross was a symbol of rain, the fertilizing
element, or rather of the four winds, the bearers of rain, and as such
it was one of Quetzalcoatl's emblems. Chalchiuitlicue, the sister of
the rain-gods, bore in her hands a cross-shaped vessel. The cross is
to be found in Mexican MSS., and appears in that of Fejérvary with a
bird, which, as an inhabitant of the air, may be said to accord with
the character of the symbol. The Mexican name of the cross,
_tonacaquahuitl_, 'tree of one life, or flesh,' certainly conveys the
idea of fertility. It is nevertheless regarded by some writers merely
as an astronomical sign.[XI-22] The first cross noticed by the Spaniards
stood within the turreted court-yard of a temple on Cozumel Island; it
was composed of lime and stone, and was ten spans (palmos) in height.
To this cross the natives prayed for rain, and in times of drought
went in procession to offer _vahomche_, as they called the symbol,
quails and other propitiatory gifts. Another cross stood within the
precincts of the Spanish cloister at Mérida, whither the pious monks
had most likely brought it from Cozumel; it was about three feet high,
six inches thick, and had another cross sculptured on its face.[XI-23]
The sculptured cross at Palenque has the latin form; a bird is perched
on its apex, and on either side stands a human figure, apparently
priests, one of whom offers it a child.[XI-24]

[Sidenote: HUMAN SACRIFICES IN YUCATAN.]

The Yucatecs were as careful as the Mexicans to prepare for their
numerous festivals by fasts marked by strict chastity and absence from
salt and pepper.[XI-25] Scarification could not be omitted by the pious
on these occasions, although women were not called upon to draw
blood.[XI-26] Yet their gods were not by any means so blood-thirsty as
the Mexican, being generally appeased by the blood of animals, and
human sacrifices were called for only on extraordinary occasions.
Cukulcan, like his prototype Quetzalcoatl, doubtless opposed the
shedding of human blood, but after his departure the practice
certainly existed, and the pit at Chichen Itza, whose waters he had
consecrated with his person, was among the first places to be
polluted. The victims here were generally young virgins, who were
charged when they should come into the presence of the gods to entreat
them for the needed blessings. Medel relates that on one occasion the
victim threatened to invoke the most terrible evils upon the people,
instead of blessings, if they sacrificed her against her will; the
perplexed priests thought it prudent to let the girl go, and select
another and more tractable sacrifice in her place. The victims who
died under the knife, or were tied to a tree and shot, were usually
enslaved captives, especially those of rank, but when these failed,
criminals and even children were substituted. All contributed to these
sacrifices, either by presenting slaves and children, or by
subscribing to the purchase money. While awaiting this doom the
victims were well treated, and conducted from town to town amid great
rejoicings; care was taken, however, that no sinful act should detract
from their purity or value.[XI-27] Sometimes the body was eaten, says
Landa, the feet, hands and head being given to the priests, the rest
to the chiefs and others; but Cogolludo and Gomara insist that
cannibalism was not practiced. The latter statement can not apply to
the whole of the peninsula, however, for on a preceding page Cogolludo
relates that Aguilar's shipwrecked companions were sacrificed and
eaten by the natives.[XI-28]

Confession, which Cukulcan is said to have introduced, was much
resorted to, the more so as death and disease were thought to be
direct punishments for sin committed. Married priests were the regular
confessors, but these were not always applied to for spiritual aid;
the wife would often confess to her husband, or a husband to his wife,
or sometimes a public avowal was made. Mental sins however, says
Landa, were not confessed.[XI-29]

[Sidenote: PRIESTS OF YUCATAN.]

The priesthood of Yucatan were divided into different factions, some
of which regarded Zamná and Cukulcan as their respective founders,
while others remained true to more ancient leaders. According to Landa
the high-priest was termed Ahkin Mai, or Ahau Can Mai, and held in
great veneration, as one whose advice was followed by the kings and
grandees. The revenues of the office, which passed as an inheritance
to the son or nearest relative, consisted of presents from the king
and of tributes collected by the priests. The ordinary priests bore
the title of _ahkin_,[XI-30] and were divided into several classes.
Some of them preached, made offerings, kept records, and instructed
the sons of nobles and those destined for the priesthood in the
various branches of education. The _chilanes_ who construed the
oracles of the gods, and accordingly exercised great influence, held
the highest place in the estimation of the people, before whom they
appeared in state, borne in litters. The sorcerers and medicine men
foretold fortunes and cured diseases. The _chacs_ were four old men
elected at every celebration to assist the priests, from which it
would seem that the priesthood was not a very numerous body. _Nacon_
was the title of the sacrificer, an office held for life, but little
esteemed; this title was also borne by the general of the army, who
assisted at certain festivals. Marriage seems to have been permitted
to all, and confessors were actually required to have wives, yet there
were doubtless a large number who lived in a state of celibacy,
devoted to their sacred duties. Their dress varied according to their
rank, the high-priest being distinguished by a mitre in addition to
his peculiar robe; the most usual dress was, however, a large white
cotton robe[XI-31] and a turban formed by wreathing the unwashed hair
round the head, and keeping it pasted in that position with blood.
Connected with the sun worship was an order of vestals, formed by
princess Zuhui Kak, 'fire virgin,' the daughter of Kinich Kakmo,
superioress of the vestals. The members were all volunteers, who
generally enrolled themselves for a certain time, at the expiration of
which they were allowed to leave and enter the married state; some,
however, remained for ever in the service of the temple, and were
apotheosized. Their duty was to tend the sacred fire, the emblem of
the sun, and to keep strictly chaste; those who broke their vows were
shot to death with arrows.[XI-32]

The chief account of Guatemalan worship is derived from the sacred
book of the Quichés, the _Popol Vuh_, to which I have already referred
in the opening pages of this volume, but the description given in it
is so confused, the names and attributes of the gods so mixed, that no
very reliable conclusions can be derived therefrom. This very
confusion seems, however, to indicate that the imported names of
Hurakan, Gucumatz, and others, were with their attributes attached to
native heroes, who undergo the most varying fortunes and character,
amid which now and then a glance is obtained at their original form.

[Sidenote: TEPEU AND HURAKAN.]

The most ancient of the gods are two persons called Hun Ahpu Vuch and
Hun Ahpu Utïu, or Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, Creator and Protector,
Grandfather and Grandmother of the sun and moon, who are often
confounded under either gender and represented with big noses, like
tapirs, an animal sacred to these people. Brasseur identifies them
with the Mexican Oxomoco and Cipactonal,[XI-33] Tonacatlecutli and
Tonacatepetl, Ometecutli and Omecihuatl, the female also with Centeotl
and Toci, and places her in the Quiché calendar as Hun Ahpu, while the
male heads the list of months under the name of Imox.[XI-34] Connected
with them stands Tepeu, termed by the sacred book Dominator, He who
Begets, and whose name means grand, majestic. Ximenez, by translating
his name as buboes, or syphilis, connects him with Nanahuatzin, the
Nahua hero who threw himself into the fire and rose as the sun.[XI-35]
Tepeu is more generally known under the name of Gucumatz, 'feathered
snake,' which is universally identified with Quetzalcoatl, the Nahua
air god. In this character he is said to transform himself every seven
days into four forms, snake, eagle, tiger, a mass of coagulated blood,
one after the other, and every seven days he visits heaven and hell
alternately. He is also held to be the introducer of culture in
Guatemala, though more, as one who directs man in his search for
improvement, than as a culture-hero.[XI-36] These two gods blending into
one, often form a trinity with Hun Ahpu Vuch and Hun Ahpu Utïu, under
the one name of Gucumatz, the Heart of Heaven. The assumption by this
god of four forms may have reference to the divine quartette, and in
the expression "they are enveloped in a mist of green and azure,"
Brasseur de Bourbourg sees a reference to the sacred bundle containing
the four first men and sacrifices, transformed into gods.[XI-37]

Hurakan,[XI-38] although connected with the above quartette in the
enumeration of titles of the supreme deity, keeps aloof from the lower
sphere in which these move at times, and is even invoked by Gucumatz,
who calls him, among other names, Creator, he who begets and gives
being. That he was held to be distinct, and worshiped as such by the
Quichés, may be seen from the fact that they had one high-priest for
Gucumatz, and another for Tohil, another name of Hurakan, who seems to
have ranked a degree above the former.[XI-39] He represented the thunder
and lightning, and his particular title seems to have been Heart of
Heaven, under which were included the three phases of his attribute,
the thunder, the lightning, and the thunderbolt, or, as stated in
another place, the flash, the track of the lightning, and the
thunderbolt,[XI-40] another conception of a trinity. He is also called
Centre of the Earth and is represented with thunder in his hand. The
bird Voc was his messenger. Müller considers him a sun god, probably
because of his title 'Heart of Heaven,' which determines nothing,
while others hold him to be identical with the Tlalocs, the Mexican
rain gods. He is doubtless the same as Tohil, the leader of the Quiché
gods, who is represented by the sign of water, but whose name
signifies rumble, clash.[XI-41] In him are also found united the three
symbols of Quiché trinity, as will be seen shortly, and his priests
address him: "Hail, Beauty of the Day, Hurakan, Heart of Heaven and of
Earth! Thou who givest glory, riches and children! Thou Tohil, Avilix,
Gagavitz, Bowels of Heaven, Bowels of Earth! Thou who dost constitute
the four ends of Heaven!"[XI-42] He was also god of fire, and as such
gave his people fire by shaking his sandals.[XI-43] According to the
version of Brasseur de Bourbourg, his temple at Utatlan, where he
seems to have taken the place of an ancient god, was a truncated
pyramid with extremely steep steps in the façade. On its summit was a
temple of great height, built of cut stone, and with a roof of
precious woods; the walls within and without were covered with fine,
brilliant stucco of extreme hardness. In the midst of the most
splendid surroundings sat the idol, on a throne set with precious
stones. His priests perpetually prayed and burnt precious incense
before him, relieving each other in bands of thirteen, so that while
some attended to his service, the others fasted to prepare for it. The
chief men of the kingdom also attended in bands of eighteen, to invoke
his blessing for them and their provinces, nine fasting, while nine
offered incense.[XI-44] Tohil, and the other members of the trinity,
Avilix and Hacavitz, or Gagavitz, who also represent the thunder, the
lightning, and the thunderbolt, were the family gods given by the
Creator to the founders of the Quiché race, and though they afterwards
became stone, they could still assume other shapes in conformity with
the supreme will. As family gods they had special temples in the
palace of the princes, where their regular service was conducted, and
three mountain peaks bearing their names, served to keep them before
the people.[XI-45] The flint with which Brinton identifies Tohil may,
perhaps, be the black stone brought from the far east, and venerated
in the temple of Kahba, 'house of sacrifice,' at Utatlan, but there
is no confirmation by the chroniclers. It is, besides, stated that the
worship of Kahba had greatly declined, but was again restored to
something like its former glory by Gucumatz; Tohil, on the other hand,
always stood high, and his high-priest belonged to a different
family.[XI-46] A similar stone existed in a temple situated in a deep
ravine near Iximche, in whose polished face the gods made known their
will. This stone was often used to determine the fate of those accused
of crime; if the judges perceived no change in the stone the prisoner
went free.[XI-47]

[Sidenote: HAVALITZ AND HACAVITZ.]

[Sidenote: ADVENTURES OF XQUIQ, HUN AHPU, AND XBALANQUE.]

We now come to the heroes with whose adventures the _Popol Vuh_ is
chiefly occupied. From the union of the Grandfather and Grandmother
who head the list of Quiché deities, proceeded two sons, Hunhun Ahpu
and Vukab Hun Ahpu.[XI-48] They incur the suspicion and hatred of the
princes of Xibalba, who plan their downfall and for this purpose
invite them to their court, under the pretence of playing a game of
ball with them. On their arrival they are subjected to various
indignities and finally condemned to lose their heads. The head of
Hunhun Ahpu is placed between the withered branches of a
calabash-tree; but lo! a miracle takes place; the tree immediately
becomes laden with fruit and the head turns into a calabash.
Henceforth the tree is held sacred and the king commands that none
shall touch it. Xquiq, however, a royal princess, Eve-like, disregards
the injunction, and approaches to pluck the fruit. As she stretches
forth her arm, Hunhun Ahpu spits into her hand, and Xquiq finds
herself pregnant. Her father soon perceives her condition, and in a
fury condemns her to death, telling the executioners to bring him the
heart of his daughter to prove that they have done their duty. While
being led to the wood Xquiq pleads earnestly for her life, and finally
prevails upon her executioners to deceive her father by substituting
for her heart the jelly-like resin of a tree, which she procures.
Xquiq proceeds to Utatlan, to the Grandmother, Xmucane, and gives
birth to the twins Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque,[XI-49] who develop rapidly;
their superior talents soon make their elder brothers jealous, and
they attempt their destruction, but the twins anticipate their designs
and transform them into apes. These brothers Hun Batz and Hun Chouen,
were the sons of Hunhun Ahpu by Xbakiyalo, and were invoked as the
patrons of the fine arts[XI-50]. Brasseur de Bourbourg explains this
myth by saying that Hunhun Ahpu denotes the Nahua immigrants who by
their superiority gain the women of the country, and whose children
carry on a successful struggle with the aboriginal race. The
continuance of the contest and the triumph of the Nahuas is described
in the adventures of Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque. A rat reveals to them
their origin, and the place where the ball-game implements of their
father are hidden. They play a match with the Xibalba princes who had
challenged their father, and are successful in this as well as several
herculean tasks assigned to them, but are nevertheless burned.[XI-51]
The ashes, thrown into the water, are transformed into two handsome
young men, and then into man-fishes, a reference, perhaps, to the
arrival by sea of allies to help them. Again they make their
appearance in Xibalba, this time as conjurers, and lay their plans so
skillfully as to overthrow the Prince Vukub Cakix with his adherents,
and obtain the apotheosis of their father and his adherents as sun,
moon, and stars. Vukub Cakix, who represents the sun, may be taken as
the representative of an older sun-worship replaced by the newer cult
introduced by Hun Ahpu.[XI-52] The burning of this hero agrees with that
of the Mexican Nanahuatzin who by this act became a sun. In fact,
Brasseur de Bourbourg considers the whole as a version of the Nahua
myth. From another point of view Hun Ahpu, whose name, signifying
'sarbacan-blower or air-shooter,' suits the attribute of the air-god,
may be considered as the morning wind dispersing the clouds and
disclosing the splendors of the sun.[XI-53]

In the _Quatre Lettres_, the Abbé takes another view of the myth, and
sees in it but a version of the convulsions that take place in the
Antilles, the Seven Grottos of the Mexican myth, of which I have
spoken in a preceding chapter. Hunhun Ahpu, Vukub Hun Ahpu, and the
two legitimate sons of the former are volcanoes, and their plays,
death, and transformation, are earthquakes, extinction, and upheavals.
The burning of Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque and the scattering of their
ashes upon the waters is the final catastrophe, the sinking of the
Atlantides, or the seven islands; and as the brothers rise again in
the form of beautiful young men, so do new islands take the place of
those destroyed. The confirmation of this he finds in a tradition
current on the islands, which speaks of certain upheavals similar to
the above.[XI-54]

[Sidenote: QUICHÉ GODS.]

The Quichés had a multitude of other gods and genii, who controlled
the elements and exercised their influence upon the destinies of man.
The places where they most loved to linger were dark quiet spots, in
the undisturbed silence of the grotto, at the foot of some steep
precipice, beneath the shade of mighty trees, especially where a
spring trickled forth between its roots, and on the summit of the
mountains; and here the simple native came to pour out his sorrow, and
to offer his sacrifice. In some places this idea of seclusion was
carried to such an extent that idols were kept hidden in subterranean
chapels, that they might not be disturbed or the people become too
familiar with them; another reason, however, was to prevent their
being stolen by other villagers. The god of the road had sanctuaries,
called _mumah_, all along the highways, especially at the junctions,
and the traveler in passing never failed to rub his legs with a
handful of grass, upon which he afterwards spat with great respect,
and deposited it upon the altar together with a small stone, believing
that this act of piety would give him renewed strength. He also left a
small tribute from his stock of food or merchandise, which remained to
decay before the idol, for none dared to remove it. This custom was
also observed in Nicaragua.

The household gods were termed _chahalha_, 'guardian of the house,'
and to them incense was burned and sacrifice made during the erection
of a building; when finished, a corner in the interior was consecrated
to their use. They seem to have been identified with the spirit of
departed friends, for occasionally a corpse was buried beneath the
house to insure their presence.[XI-55]

Among the more superstitious highlanders, the ancient worship has
retained its hold upon the population to a great extent, in spite of
the efforts of the padres. Scherzer tells us that the people of
Istlavacan reverenced gods of reason, health, sowing, and others,
under the names of Noj, Ajmak, Kanil, and Ik, who were generally
embodied in natural features, as mountains, or big trees. They
recognized an Ormuzd and an Ahriman in Kij, the god of light and good
principle, opposed by Juiup, the god of earth and evil principle, who
was represented by a rock, three feet high and one foot thick,
supposed to be a distorted human face. The native priests generally
took the horoscope, and appointed a nagual, or guardian spirit for
their children, before the padres were allowed to baptize them. They
are said to have sacrificed infants, scattering their heart's blood
upon a stone before the idol, and burying the body in the woods to
avoid detection.[XI-56]

The Choles and Manches of Vera Paz, impressed with the wild features
of their country, venerated the mountains, and on one called
Escurruchan, which stood at the junction of several branches of their
principal river, they kept up a perpetual fire to which passers-by
added fuel, and at which sacrifices were offered. At another place the
padres found a rough altar of stone and clay surrounded by a fence,
where they burned torches of black wax and resinous wood, and offered
fowls, and blood from their bodies, to mountains, cross-roads and
pools in the river, whence came all means of existence and all
increase.[XI-57]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF A HORSE.]

The chief idol of the Itzas was Hubo, who was represented by a hollow
metal figure with an opening between the shoulders, through which
human beings were passed, charged to implore the favors of the gods. A
fire was then lighted beneath the figure, and while the victims were
roasting alive, their friends joined in a dance around it, drowning
the cries of the victims with shouts and rattling of drums. No women
were allowed to join in the temple ceremonies. On the chief island in
the lake of Peten, the conquerors found twenty-one stone temples with
stone roofs, the chief of which formed a kind of pyramid of nine
steps. In this was found a large chalchiuite, representing one of
their two battle-gods, Pakoc and Hunchunchan, who gave oracles and
were supposed to join the people in their dances. This familiarity
evidently bred contempt, however, for it is related that when a
prediction of the oracle was not fulfilled, the priest without
hesitation castigated the idol. In the same temple stood a gypsum
image in the form of the sun, adorned with rays, inlaid with nacar,
and having a gaping mouth set with human teeth. The bones of a horse,
which hung from the rafters, were adored as sacred relics. These were
the remains of a wounded horse left by Cortés among the natives when
on his way to Honduras. Having seen the Spaniards fire from its back,
they believed that the animal produced the flash and report, and hence
adored it as Tziminchac, god of thunder, and brought it flowers,
flesh, and incense; but such offerings did not sustain life, and it
was not long before the bones of the apotheosized charger were all
that remained to his worshipers. In another place was a stone and lime
imitation of this horse, seated on the floor on its haunches, which
the natives adored in the same manner. This animal-worship was the
more readily admitted, since their gods was supposed to assume such
forms.[XI-58]

Their idols were so numerous, say the conquerors, that it took over a
hundred men a whole day to destroy those existing on the chief island
alone; Cogolludo affirms that the priests had charge of all the
idols.[XI-59] The chief god of the Cakchiquels, Chamalcan, or
Chimalacan,[XI-60] had many of the attributes of Tohil, but took the
form of a bat, the symbol of the royal house of Zotzil. Every seventh
and thirteenth day of the month the priests placed before him
blood-stained thorns, fresh white resin, bark and branches of pine,
and a cat, the emblem of night, which were burned in his honor.[XI-61]

The purest form of sun-worship appears among the Lacandones, who
adored the luminary without the intervention of an image, and
sacrificed before it in the Mexican fashion. They had temples,
however, the walls of which were decorated with hieroglyphs of the sun
and moon, and with a figure in the act of praying to the sun.[XI-62] The
Nahua tribe of the Pipiles also worshiped the sun, before which they
prostrated themselves while offering incense and muttering
invocations. Quetzalcoatl and the goddess Itzqueye were honored in the
sacrifice,[XI-63] which generally consisted of a deer. The relative
importance of Quetzalcoatl and Itzqueye, may be seen from the
statement that the festival held in honor of the former on certain
occasions lasted fifteen days, while that in honor of the latter was
but of five days duration. The chief centre of worship was at Mictlan,
near Huixa Lake, where now is the village of Santa Maria Mita,
founded, according to tradition, by an old man, who in company with an
exceedingly beautiful girl issued from the lake, both dressed in long
blue robes, the man also wearing a mitre. He seated himself upon a
stone on the hill, while the girl pursued her way and disappeared, and
here, by his order, was built the temple of Mictlan, round which
stately palaces afterwards arose; he also organized the government of
the place.[XI-64]

[Sidenote: TRADITION OF COMIZAHUAL.]

Among the vestiges of older worship we find the natives of Cerquin in
Honduras,[XI-65] venerating and praying for health to two idols, called
respectively Great Father and Great Mother, which probably refer to
the Grandfather and Grandmother of the Quichés. A faint idea of a
Supreme Being, says Torquemada, was mixed up with the worship of the
sun and stars, to which sacrifices were made. Their culture-tradition
speaks of a beautiful white woman, called Comizahual, or 'flying
tigress,' a reputed sorceress, as the introducer of civilization in
Cerquin. She is said to have descended from heaven and to have been
transported by an invisible hand to the city of Cealcoquin, where she
built a palace adorned with monstrous figures of men and animals, and
placed in the chief temple a stone having on each of its three sides
three faces of strange and hideous aspect; by aid of this stone she
conquered her enemies. She remained a virgin, yet three sons were born
to her,[XI-66] among whom she divided the kingdom when she grew old.
After arranging her affairs, she commanded her attendants to carry her
on her bed to the highest part of the palace, whence she suddenly
disappeared amid thunder and lightning, doubtless to resume her place
among the gods; directly afterwards a beautiful bird was seen to fly
upwards and disappear. The people erected a temple in her honor, where
the priest delivered her oracles, and celebrated every year the
anniversary of her disappearance with great feasts. Palacio refers to
a stone, like the one with three faces, named Icelaca, in Cezori,
which disclosed things past, present, and future, and before which the
people sacrificed fowls, rabbits and various kinds of food, and
smeared the face with blood drawn from the generative organs.[XI-67]

The religious fervor of the people is shown by the fact that whatever
work they undertook they commenced by sanctifying it with prayers and
offerings and by incensing their implements that they might acquire
more efficacy; thus, before commencing to sow, the laborers killed a
turkey whose blood they scattered over the field, and performed other
ceremonies.[XI-68] Simple in their mode of life, they did not importune
the gods for vain luxuries: their prayers were for long life, health,
children, and the necessaries of life. The first they hoped to obtain
by scarifications and penances; to guard against disease, they sent
the priest a bird, generally a quail, to sacrifice. When actually
attacked by sickness confession was resorted to as a powerful means of
propitiation, as was also the case on all important occasions to
secure divine blessings and avert immediate danger. It is related by
an old chronicler that when a party of travelers met a jaguar or puma,
each one immediately commended himself to the gods and confessed in a
loud voice the sins he had committed, imploring pardon. If the object
of their terror still advanced upon them, they cried, "we have
committed as many more sins, do not kill us!" and sat down, saying one
to another, "one of us has done some grievous deed, and him the wild
beast will kill!"[XI-69]

[Sidenote: SPECIAL FASTS.]

In their scarifications, those who drew the most blood, especially
from the secret organs, were held to be the most pious. Among the
Pipiles the women joined in drawing blood from the ears and tongue,
and smearing it on cotton, offered it to Quetzalcoatl, and then to
Itzcueye.[XI-70] On extraordinary occasions, as in the event of a public
calamity, the priests and chief men held a council to determine the
propitiatory penance to be imposed on the people, and the kind of
sacrifice to be offered; the Ahgih were called upon to trace magic
circles and figures, and to cast grains, so as to determine the time
when it should be made. The esteemed task of collecting the fuel for
this celebration devolved upon a royal prince, who formed the boys of
the district into bands to forage for the wood. The efforts of the
people alone were not considered sufficient at such times to
propitiate the gods; it required the sanctified presence and powerful
influence of the high priest to secure remission of sins. This
personage, whether king or pontiff, subjected himself to a very severe
fast and penance during the twenty, or even hundred days determined
upon. He removed to an arbor near the hidden sanctuary of the idols,
and lived in entire solitude, subsisting on grains and fruit, touching
no food prepared by fire, sacrificing the offerings brought him during
the day, and drawing blood. The fast over, with its attendant
separation of man and wife, bathing, painting in red, and other acts
of penance, the nobles went in a body to the retreat of the idols, and
having adorned them in the most splendid manner, conducted them in
procession to the town, attended by the high priest and victims. In
places where the idols were kept in the temples of the town, they
marched with them round the city. The various rites closed with games
of ball, played under the supervision of the idols, and with feasting
and reveling.[XI-71]

The Popol Vuh ascribes the introduction of human sacrifices to Tohil,
who exacted this offering from the first four men in return for the
fire given to the Quichés, while Las Casas states that Xbalanque
initiated them. Their knives of sacrifice, he says, had fallen from
heaven, and were accordingly adored as 'hands of God,' and set in rich
handles of gold or silver, ornamented with turquoises and emeralds.
The ordinary sacrifices occurred several times a month, and among the
Pipiles, the number and quality were indicated by the calendar and
consisted chiefly of bastard boys from six to twelve years of age.
Their most solemn offerings were made at the commencement and end of
the rains, and were attended by the chief men only. Juarros states
that human sacrifices were not offered by the Pipiles and that the
attempt of caciques to introduce them resulted in an insurrection;
and, although this will scarcely apply to later times, it seems that
formerly the sacrifices were very few in number. The Cakchiquels are,
however, said to have abstained from the rite. Cortés relates that at
Acalá the fairest girls to be found were selected by the priests and
brought up, in strict chastity, to be sacrificed, at the proper time,
to the goddess of the place. The Itzas, who, when captives failed, took
the fattest of their young men for victims, had several modes of
immolation, as roasting the victims alive in the metal image;
dispatching them with the knife on the stone of sacrifice, a large one
of which was found at Taysal; impalement, followed by extraction of
the heart, as at Prospero; and in earlier times shooting, as was done
by their Yucatec ancestors. According to Cogolludo, three persons
assisted at the sacrifices, the _adkulel_, master of ceremonies, the
_adkayom_, and a virgin who must be the daughter of one of these; but
Villagutierre mentions that the stone of sacrifice at the chief temple
at Taysal, was surrounded by twelve seats for the attendant priests;
and assistants to hold the victims were certainly required.
Cannibalism seems to have attended all these sacrifices, the flesh
being boiled and seasoned, and the choice bits reserved for the high
priests and chiefs.[XI-72]

[Sidenote: THE PRIESTS OF GUATEMALA.]

Each of the numerous tribes of Guatemala had a distinct and separate
body of priests, who by means of their oracles exercised a decided
influence on the state, and some, the Quichés for instance, were
spiritually governed by independent pontiffs. The high priests of
Tohil and Gucumatz, Ahau Ah Tohil and Ahau Ah Gucumatz, belonged to
the royal house of Cawek, and held the fourth and fifth rank
respectively among the grandees of the Empire; Ahau-Avilix, the
high-priest of Avilix, was a member of the Nihaïb family; Ahau
Gagavitz came of the Ahau Quiché house; and the two high-priests of
the Kahba temple in Utatlan were of the Zakik house, and each had a
province allotted him for his support. The Tohil priests were vowed to
perpetual continence and austere penitence, and were not permitted to
taste meat or bread.[XI-73] The pontiff at Mictlan, in Salvador, who
stood on nearly the same level as the king, bore the title of Teoti,
'divine'[XI-74] and was distinguished by a long blue robe, a diadem, and
a baton like an episcopal cross; on solemn occasions he substituted a
mitre of beautiful feathers for the diadem. Next to him came an
ecclesiastical council composed of the Tehuamatlini, chief of the
astrologers and learned priests, who acted as lieutenant of the high
priest, and superintended the writings and divinations, and four other
priests, _teopixqui_, who dressed in different colors. These ruled the
rest of the priesthood, composed of keepers of properties,
sacrificers, watchers, and the ordinary priests, termed _teupas_, who
were all appointed by the high-priests from the sons of the
ministers. When the high-priest died, the body was embalmed and placed
in a crypt beneath the palace. After fifteen days of mourning,
attended by fasts, the king and Tehuamatlini drew lots for his
successor from among the four teopixqui, the vacancy in their ranks
being filled by a son of the pontiff, or one of their own sons. The
elected purified himself for the office by blood-letting and other
observances, while the people celebrated his accession with feasting
and dancing. In Vera Paz the chief priest was elected according to
merit from a certain family by the people, and ranked next to the
king.[XI-75] As an instance of the lasting influence possessed by the
priesthood over the people, Scherzer relates that at Istlávacan there
were a few years ago as many as sixty priests, diviners, and
medicine-men, Ahgih, Ahqixb, and Ahqahb, as they used to be termed,
who exercised their offices among them. At Coban, says Villagutierre,
a priest was so highly respected that the person who presumed to touch
him was expected to fall dead immediately.[XI-76]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: GODS OF THE NICARAGUANS.]

The Nahua impress, noticeable in the languages and customs of
Nicaragua, is still more strongly marked in the mythology of that
country.[XI-77] Instead of obliterating the older forms of worship,
however, as it seems to have done in the northern part of Central
America, it has here and there passed by many of the distinct beliefs
held by different tribes, and blended with the chief element of a
system which is traced to the Muyscas in South America. The inquiries
instituted by a Spanish friar among different classes of people in the
Nagrando district go to prove that Tamagostat[XI-78] and Cipattonal,
male and female deities who inhabit the regions of the rising sun,
were the supreme beings. They created all things, stars as well as
mortals, and re-created what had been destroyed by the flood, in which
work they were aided by Ecalchot, surnamed Huehue, 'the aged,' and
Ciagat 'the little.' In Tamagostat Müller at once recognizes Fomagata,
the ancient sun-god of the Muyscas, who after his dethronement by a
newer solar deity became more particularly the fire-god of that
people, but retained more of his original preëminence in the countries
to which his worship spread, as in Nicaragua. This view is supported
by the statement that he inhabited the heavens above, or rather the
region of sunrise. His consort Cipattonal, Müller, judging from their
relationship, holds to be the moon; her name seems however, to be
derived from a Mexican source, probably from _xipalli_, 'dark blue
color,' and _tonalli_, 'sun,'[XI-79] which may be construed as referring
to the sun in its blue element, or, as the fainter sun, to the moon.
In either case the connection of the two is perfectly legitimate.
Ecalchot, who is represented as a young man, yet is surnamed 'the
aged,' seems to be the same as the Mexican Ehecatl, 'wind, air,' an
element ever young, yet ever old, and Ciagat may mean 'moisture;'[XI-80]
both forming with the sun the fertilizing forces that create.[XI-81]
Oviedo gives the names of these deities as Tamagostat or Tamagostad,
Zipattoval or Zipattonal, Calchithuehue, and Chicoziagat,[XI-82]
'father.' He further names Chiquinaut and Hecat as gods of the winds,
which seems to be merely another version of Chicoziagat and
Ehecatl.[XI-83]

The Guatemalan trinity reappears in the character of Omeyateite and
Omeyatezigoat[XI-84]--easily recognizable in the Mexican Ometecutli and
Omecihuatl--and their son Ruiatcot, the rain god,[XI-85] who sends forth
thunder, lightning and rain. They are also supposed to live where the
sun rises, doubtless because that seems the abode of bliss, and as
fertilizing forces they are regarded as creators, but not connected
with the two before mentioned. Quiateot was the most prominent, if not
the supreme, member of the trinity, for the other two, as representing
the thunder and lighting, the forerunners, or parents, of the showers,
do not seem to have been invoked when rain was wanted, or to have
participated in the sacrifices of young boys and girls offered on such
occasions.[XI-86]

[Sidenote: THE GODDESS OF THE VOLCANO.]

The Nicaraguans had other deities presiding over the elements,
seasons, and necessaries of life. Thus, Macat and Toste, also written
Mazat and Teotost,[XI-87] the deer and rabbit, were gods of the chase.
When a deer was killed, the hunter placed the head in a basket in his
house, and regarded it as the representation of the god.[XI-88] Mixcoa
was the god invoked by the traders, and those about to make purchases;
Cacaguat was the patron of cacao-culture; Miquetanteot, god of hades,
was evidently the same as Mictlantecutli of Mexico; there were,
besides, others whose names have been given to the days of the month.
In Martiari the chief deity was called Tipotani. In Nicaragua proper,
they adored Tomaoteot, 'the great god,' whose son Teotbilche was sent
down to mankind. This looks like another Christ-myth, especially when
we read of attendant angels who had wings and flew about in heaven.
The names of the two chief angels were Taraacazcati and
Tamacaztobal.[XI-89] The Dirans revered in particular the goddess of the
volcano Masaya; for her they placed food on the brink of the crater,
into which they cast human beings, especially when she manifested her
anger by earthquakes. On such occasions the chiefs and priests, who
alone were permitted to look into the seething abyss, went to the
summit and called upon the genius, who issued from the lake of fire in
the form of an old woman and instructed them what to do. She is
described as a naked, dark-skinned hag, with hanging breasts, scanty
hair, long, sharp teeth, and sunken glaring eyeballs. The gods were
invested with all the peculiarities of humanity, formed of flesh and
blood, and lived on the food provided for man, besides blood and
incense. They also appeared on earth dressed like the natives, but
since the death of the cacique Xostoval these visits ceased.[XI-90] They
were personified by idols of stone, clay, or wood, called
_teobat_,[XI-91] whose forms their forefathers had transmitted; to them
were brought offerings of food and other things, which were taken in
at the door of the temple by boys serving there, for none except the
consecrated were allowed to enter the sanctuary.[XI-92] To encourage the
piety that prompted these offerings, the priests never failed to
remind the people of the punishment inflicted on the inhabitants of
the ancient capital of Nagrando, who having given themselves up to the
pursuit of pleasure, and neglected the gods, were one night swallowed
up, not a vestige of their city being left.[XI-93] The most acceptable
offering was, of course, human blood. At certain times the favorite
idol was set on a spear and planted in an open place amid gorgeously
adorned attendants holding banners, and flowers. Here the priests
gashed their tongues, and other parts, smearing the face of the image
with the blood that flowed, while the devout approached to whisper
their desires into the ear of the idol. Songs, dances, and games
attended these ceremonies.

Before each temple was a conic or pyramidal mound of adobe, called
_tescuit_, or _tezarit_, ascended by an interior staircase.[XI-94] From
its summit, upon which there was room for about ten men to stand, the
priest proclaimed the nature of the approaching festival, and the kind
of sacrifice to be made, and here, upon a stone block, the victims,
generally captives and slaves, had their hearts cut out, after which
they were decapitated, the body to be cut up and prepared for the
grand banquets, while the head, if that of a captive, was hung on a
tree near the temple, a particular tree being reserved for each tribe
from whom the victims were captured. The most prized victims were
young boys and girls, who were brought up by the chiefs for the
purpose and treated with great care and respect wherever they went,
for they were supposed to become deified after death and to exercise
great influence over the affairs of life. Women, who were held to be
unworthy to perform any duty in connection with the temples, were
immolated outside the temple ground of the large sanctuaries, and even
their flesh was unclean food for the high-priest, who accordingly ate
only of the flesh of males.[XI-95]

Fasts and baptismal rites, so prominent hitherto, do not appear to
have been practiced in Nicaragua. A kind of sacrament was
administered, however, by means of maize sprinkled with blood drawn
from the generative organs, and confession was a recognized
institution. The confessor was chosen from among the most aged and
respected citizens; a calabash suspended from the neck was his badge
of office. He was required to be a man of blameless life, unmarried,
and not connected with the temple. Those who wished to confess went to
his house, and there standing with humility before him unburdened
their conscience. The confessor was forbidden to reveal any secret
confided to him in his official capacity, under pain of punishment.
The penance he imposed was generally some kind of labor to be
performed for the benefit of the temple. Boys did not confess, but
seem to have reserved the avowal of their peccadillos for maturer
age.[XI-96]

[Sidenote: PRIESTS OF NICARAGUA.]

The office of high-priest was held by the caciques, who each in his
turn left home and occupation and removed to the chief temple, there
to remain for a year attending to religious matters and praying for
the people. At the expiration of the term he received the honorable
distinction of having his nose perforated. Subordinate duties were
performed by boys. In the inferior temples other classes entered for a
year's penance, living like the chief in strict seclusion, except at
festivals perhaps, seeing none but the boys who brought food from
their homes. The ordinary priests were called _tamagast_[XI-97] and
lived on the offerings made to the idols, and perhaps by their own
exertions, for the temples had no fixed revenues.[XI-98] They had
sorcerers, _texoxes_, who sometimes caused the death of children by
merely looking at them, and who could assume animal forms, for which
reasons they were much feared by the people. To strengthen this belief
they at times disguised themselves in skins of beasts.[XI-99] In
Honduras the idea of a Supreme Being and Creator was connected with a
worship of the sun, moon, and stars, to which the people made
sacrifices.[XI-100] Near Truxillo were three chief temples[XI-101] in
one of which was a chalchiuite in the form of a woman, to which the
people prayed, and which answered them through the priests.
Preparatory to any important undertaking, cocks, dogs, or even men,
were sacrificed to secure the favor of the gods. In each of the
sanctuaries presided a _papa_, or chief priest, to whom the education
of the sons of the nobles was entrusted. These were unmarried men,
distinguished by long hair reaching to the waist, though in some
places they wound it round the head in plaits. Their sanctity and
superior knowledge gave them great influence, and their advice was
sought on all affairs of importance by the principal men, for none
else dared to approach them. There were also sorcerers who could
assume animal forms, in which guise they went about devouring men and
spreading diseases.[XI-102]

[Sidenote: THE MOSQUITO PANTHEON.]

Among the barbarians of the Mosquito Coast, we find, of course, a much
lower order of belief, and one which calls to mind the ghouls and
ghosts of Californian mythology. The natives acknowledged a good
spirit or principle, to which they gave no definite name[XI-103] and
rendered no homage, for there was no necessity, they said, to pray to
one who always did good; as for thanking him for mercies received,
such an idea seems never to have occurred to them. In fact, they had
neither temples nor idols, and the only ceremonies that partook of a
religious character were the conjurations of their _sukias_, or
sorceresses, who were constantly engaged in breaking the spells of
evil spirits, with which the people's fancy, excited by grewsome
stories told round the camp-fire, had filled every dark and dismal
place, every stream and mountain top. These gnomes were known by the
name of Wulasha,[XI-104] and were supposed to issue from their
hiding-places, especially at night, to do all manner of evil; they
were especially addicted to carrying off solitary wanderers; it was,
therefore, say the chroniclers, almost impossible to induce a native
to go out alone after dark.

Amid the underwood and fallen trees about the sources of rivers, big
snakes were thought to dwell. These monsters were assisted by a
resistless upward current and a strong wind which swept the unwary
boatman within the reach of the red jaws and slimy folds. Patook,
among other rivers, had this bad reputation, and a white man who
despite the warnings of the natives started to explore its mysteries,
returned in a few days with the story that his progress had been
opposed by a big white cock. Leewa[XI-105] was the name of the water
spirit, who sucked the bather into pools and eddies and sent forth
devastating waterspouts and hurricanes. Wihwin, a spirit having the
appearance of a horse,[XI-106] with tremendous teeth to devour human
prey, haunted the hills during the summer, but retired with the winter
to the sea, whence he originally issued. In mountain caves, guarded by
fierce white boars, lived the patron deity of the _warrees_, the wild
pigs of the country, of childish form but immense strength, who
directed the movements of the droves. There were, besides, certain
venomous lizards, who after biting a man ran immediately to the
nearest water: if the wounded person did the same and succeeded in
reaching the water first, he was saved, and the lizard died; otherwise
the man was doomed.[XI-107] The Sukias who were called upon to exorcise
these malignant beings on every occasion of sickness, or misfortune,
were generally old hags, supposed to have a compact with the evil one,
in whose name they exacted half their fee before commencing their
enchantments. The Caribs held regular meetings or festivals to
propitiate these spirits, and the Woolwas, who seem to have had many
religious forms in common with the Nicaraguans, had "dances with the
gods."[XI-108]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: GODS OF THE ISTHMIANS.]

Among the Isthmians several forms of worship appear, that in the
vicinity of Panamá resembling the system prevalent in Hayti and Cuba,
says Gomara.[XI-109] The heavenly bodies seem to have been very generally
adored, especially in the northern part of the Isthmus, where all good
things were thought to come from the sun and moon, which were
considered as man and wife; but no accounts are given of temples, or
forms of worship, except that prayers were addressed to the sun.[XI-110]

The most prominent personage in the Isthmian pantheon was Dabaiba, a
goddess who controlled the thunder and lightning, and with their aid
devastated the lands of those who displeased her. In South America,
thunder and lightning were held to be the instruments used by the sun
to inflict punishment upon its enemies, which makes it probable that
Dabaiba was a transformed sun-goddess. Pilgrims resorted from afar to
her temple at Urabá, bringing costly presents and human victims, who
were first killed and then burned, that the savory odors of roasting
flesh might be grateful in the delicate nostrils of the goddess. Some
describe her as a native princess, whose reign was marked by great
wisdom and many miracles, and who was apotheosized after death. She
was also honored as the mother of the Creator, the maker of the sun,
the moon, and all invisible things, and the sender of blessings, who
seems to have acted as mediator between the people and his mother, for
their prayers for rain were addressed to him, although she is
described as controlling the showers, and once when her worship was
neglected she inflicted a severe drought upon the country.

When the needs of the people were very urgent, the chiefs and priests
remained in the temple fasting and praying with uplifted hands; the
people meanwhile observed a four-days fast, lacerating their bodies
and washing their faces, which were at other times covered with paint.
So strict was this fast that no meat or drink was to be touched until
the fourth day, and then only a soup made from maize-flour. The
priests themselves were sworn to perpetual chastity and abstinence,
and those who went astray in these matters were burned or stoned to
death. Their temples were encompassed with walls and kept scrupulously
clean; golden trumpets, and bells with bone clappers summoned the
people to worship.[XI-111]

In the province of Pocorosa the existence of a rain-god called
Chipiripe was recognized, who inhabited the heaven above, whence he
regulated celestial movements; with him lived a beautiful woman with
one child. Nothing else was known respecting this divine family. This
ignorance of the deity was further manifested by the absence of any
form of worship; the moral laws were well defined, however, so that
adultery and even lying were regarded as sinful.[XI-112] Las Casas
states that Chicune, 'the beginning of all,' who lived in heaven, was
the one being to whom the people of Darien addressed their invocations
and sacrifices, though a certain sect, or tribe, among them worshiped
the water. In another chapter he declares that the Isthmians had
little or no religion, for they had no temples and few or no gods or
idols.[XI-113] According to Peter Martyr, the embalmed and bejeweled
bodies of ancestors were worshiped in Comagre, and in Veragua gold was
invested with divine qualities, so that the gathering of it was
attended with fasting and penance.[XI-114] Tuira, whom the Spanish
writers declared to have been the devil himself, was a widely known
being who communed with his servants, _tequina_, 'masters,'[XI-115] in
roofless huts kept for this purpose. Here the tequinas entered at
night, and spoke in different voices, to induce the belief that the
spirits were actually answering their questions; the result of the
interview was communicated to their patrons. At times the evil one
appeared in the guise of a handsome boy without hands[XI-116] and with
three-toed feet, and accompanied the sorcerers upon their expeditions
to work mischief, and supplied them with a protecting ointment. Among
the evil deeds imputed to these sorcerers was that of sucking the
navel of sleeping people until they died.[XI-117] These men naturally
took care to foster ideas that tended to sustain or increase their
influence, and circulated, besides, most extravagant stories of
supernatural events and beings. Once a terrible hurricane, blowing
from the east, devastated the country and brought with it two birds
with maiden faces, one of which was of a size so great that it seized
upon men and carried them off to its mountain nest. No tree could
support it, and where it alighted upon the rocks, the imprint of its
talons were left. The other bird was smaller and supposed to be the
offspring of the first. After trying several plans to kill these
man-eating harpies, they hit upon the device of fixing a large beam in
the ground, near the place where they usually alighted, leaving only
one end exposed, on which was carved the image of a man. With the dawn
of day the larger bird came swooping down upon the decoy and imbedded
its claws so firmly in the beam that it could not withdraw them, and
thus the people were enabled to kill it.[XI-118]

The knowledge that the human mind, no matter how low its condition,
can be capable of such puerile conceptions, must bring with it a sense
of humiliation to the thinking man; and well were it for him could he
comfort himself with the belief that such debasing superstitions were
at least confined to humanity in its first and lowest stages; but this
he cannot do. It is true that the belief of the civilized Aztec was
far higher and nobler than that of the uncivilized Carib, but can he
who has read the evidence upon which old women and young maidens were
convicted of riding upon broomsticks to witches' Sabbaths, by the most
learned judges of the most learned law-courts of modern Europe, deny
that the coarsest superstition and the highest civilization have
hitherto gone hand in hand.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: PHALLIC WORSHIP.]

Before leaving this division it will be well to say a few words
concerning the existence of Phallic Worship in America.

One of the first problems of the primitive man is creation. If
analogies lead him to conceive it as allied to a birth, and the joint
result of some unknown male and female energy, then the symbolization
of this power is liable to take the gross form of phallic worship.
Thus it is that among the earliest nations of which we possess any
knowledge, the life-giving and vivifying principle of nature has been
always symbolized by the human organs of generation. The Lingham of
India, the Phallus of Greece, the Priapus of Rome, the Baal-Peor of
the Hebrew records, and the Peor-Apis of Egypt, all have plainly the
same significance. In most mythologies the sun, the principle of fire,
the moon, and the earth, were connected with this belief; the sun and
moon as the celestial emblems of the generative and productive powers
of nature, fire and the earth as the terrestrial emblems. These were
the Father and the Mother, and their most obvious symbols, as already
stated, were the phallus and wares, or the Skuas and yoni of
Hindustan.

It is unnecessary to multiply quotations respecting the basal though
often veiled idea of One, underlying the polytheistic systems. The
difficulty to the human mind of considering anything in another than
human aspect, and our natural delight in analogies, leads, however, in
many cases to the consideration in certain aspects of this deity as a
duality or joint essence of the masculine and the feminine. Take the
learned Cory's summary of ancient mythology: "It recognizes, as the
primary elements of all things, two independent principles, of the
nature of male and female; and these, in mystic union, as the soul and
body, constitute the Great Hermaphrodite Deity, The One, the universe
itself, consisting still of the two separate elements of its
composition, modified though combined in one individual.... If we
investigate the Pantheons of the ancient nations, we shall find that
each, notwithstanding the variety of names, acknowledged the same
deities and the same system of Theology; and, however humble any of
the deities may appear, each who has any claim to antiquity will be
found ultimately, if not immediately, resolvable into one or other of
the Primeval Principles, the Great God and Goddess of the
Gentiles."[XI-119]

[Sidenote: RATIONALE OF PHALLIC WORSHIP.]

To the moral ideal of the present age, an ideal derived from acquired
habit, not from nature, phallic worship will doubtless appear
repulsive and indelicate in the extreme. It was, nevertheless, the
most natural form of worship that the primitive man could adopt; for
him the symbol had no impure meaning, and was associated with none of
the disgusting excesses by means of which, as he became more
sophisticated, he converted his reverence of Nature into a worship of
Lust.

What could be more natural than that he should symbolize the
fecundating principle, the creative power, by the immediate cause of
reproduction, or as he doubtless took it, of creation, the phallus. He
recognized no impurity or licentiousness in the moderate and regular
gratification of any natural appetite; nor did it seem to him that the
organs of one species of enjoyment were naturally to be considered as
subjects of shame and concealment more than those of another. As Payne
Knight remarks of the ancient nations of the old world: "In an age,
therefore, when no prejudices of artificial decency existed, what more
just and natural image could they find, by which to express their idea
of the beneficent power of the great Creator than that organ which
endowed them with the power of procreation, and made them partakers,
not only of the felicity of the Deity, but of his great characteristic
attribute, that of multiplying his own image, communicating his
blessings, and extending them to the generations yet unborn." Nothing
natural was to them offensively obscene. When the Egyptian matrons
touched the phallus they did so with the pure wish of obtaining
offspring. The gold lingam on the neck of the Hindoo wives was not an
object of shame to them.

[Sidenote: RELICS OF PHALLIC WORSHIP.]

That the worship of the reciprocal principles of nature was recognized
and practiced in America, there is in my mind no doubt. The almost
universal prevalence of sun-worship, which is, as I have already
intimated, closely connected with phallic rites, would alone go far
to prove this, but an account of certain material relics and well
known customs is still more satisfactory evidence.

In Yucatan, according to Stephens, "the ornaments upon the external
cornice of several large buildings actually consisted of _membra
conjuncta in coitu_, too plainly sculptured to be misunderstood. And,
if this were not sufficient testimony, more was found in the isolated
and scattered representations of the _membrum virile_, so accurate
that even the Indians recognised the object, and invited the attention
of Mr Catherwood to the originals of some of his drawings as yet
unpublished."

The sculptured pillars to be seen at Copan and other ruins in Central
America, which are acknowledged to be connected with sun worship, are
very similar to the sculptured phallus-pillars of the East.[XI-120] Mr
Squier is of the opinion that they may be considered as such, and the
Abbé Brasseur takes the same view in making the plain cylindrical
pillar found in so many places the representation of the volcano, the
goddess of love, and whence it issues as the symbol of new life. On
another page he terms the phallus the Crescent, the land whence the
Nahuas originated, and the continent of America the body.[XI-121] Some of
the pillars appear without ornament, as the _picote_ at Uxmal, a round
stone of irregular form, which stood in front of one of the ruins, but
the worshipers of Priapus at Thespia and other places were content
with a rude stone for an image in early times. In Mexico according to
Gama, the presiding god of spring, Xopancalehuey Tlalloc, was often
represented without a human body, having instead a pilaster or square
column, upon a pedestal covered with various sculptured designs.[XI-122]
In Pánuco images of the generative organs were kept in the temples as
objects of worship, and statues representing men and women performing
the sexual act in various postures stood in the temple-courts.[XI-123]
Near Laguna de Terminos, on the coast of Yucatan, Grijalva found
images of men committing acts of indescribable beastliness, while
close by lay the bodies of victims recently sacrificed in their
honor.[XI-124] The united symbols of the sexual organs were publicly
worshiped in Tlascala, and in the month of Quecholli a grand festival
was held in honor of Xochiquetzal, Xochitecatl, and Tlazolteotl,
goddesses of sensual delights, when the prostitutes and young men
addicted to sodomy were allowed to solicit custom on the public
streets.[XI-125] On Zapatero Island, around Lake Nicaragua, and in Costa
Rica, a number of idols have been found of which the disproportionately
large _membrum generationis virile in erectione_ was the most
prominent feature. Palacio relates that at Cezori, in Honduras, the
natives offered blood drawn from the organs of generation and
circumcised boys before an idol called Icelaca, which was simply a
round stone,[XI-126] with two faces and a number of eyes, and was
supposed to know all things, past, present, and future.[XI-127] The
frequent occurrence of the cross, which has served in so many and such
widely separated parts of the earth as the symbol of the life-giving,
creative, and fertilizing principle in nature, is, perhaps, one of the
most striking evidences of the former recognition of the reciprocal
principles of nature by the Americans; especially when we remember
that the Mexican name for the emblem, tonacaquahuitl, signifies 'tree
of one life, or flesh.'[XI-128] Of two terra-cotta relics found at
Ococingo, in the state of Chiapas, one would certainly attract the
attention of any one who had investigated the subject of phallic
worship or had seen the phallic amulets and ornaments of the old
world.[XI-129] In the Museum at Mexico are two small images which were
evidently used as ornaments. Each of these represents a human figure
in a crouching posture, clasping with both hands an enormous phallus.
Col. Brantz Mayer kindly showed me drawings of these made by himself.
One of these figures is reproduced in another volume of this work.

[Sidenote: PHALLIC RITES.]

The Pipiles abstained from their wives for four days previous to
sowing, in order to indulge in the marital act to the fullest extent
on the eve of that day, evidently with a view to initiate or urge the
fecundating powers of nature. It is even said that certain persons
were appointed to perform the sexual act at the moment of planting the
first seed. During the bitter cold nights of the Hyperborean winter,
the Aleuts, both men and women, joined hands in the open air and
whirled perfectly naked round certain idols, lighted only by the pale
moon. The spirit was supposed to hallow the dance with his presence.
There certainly could have been no licentious element in this
ceremony, for setting aside the discomfort of dancing naked with the
thermometer at zero, we read that the dancers were blindfolded, and
that decorum was strictly enforced. In Nicaragua, maize sprinkled with
blood drawn from the genitals was regarded as sacred food.[XI-130] The
custom of drawing blood from this part of the body was observed as a
religious rite by almost every tribe from Mexico to Panamá, though
this, of course, does not prove that it was in all cases connected
with phallic worship. Circumcision is regarded by Squier as a phallic
rite, but there is not sufficient testimony to support this view.
Tezcatlipoca, the chief god of the Nahuas, who has been frequently
identified with the sun, was adored as a love-god, according to
Boturini, who adds that the Nahua Lotharios held disorderly festivals
in his honor, to induce him to favor their designs.[XI-131] Orgies,
characterized by the grossest licentiousness are met with at different
places along the coast, as among the Nootkas, the Upper and Lower
Californians, in Sinaloa, Nicaragua, and especially in Yucatan, where
every festival ended in a debauch. During a certain annual festival
held in Nicaragua, women, of whatever condition, could abandon
themselves to the embrace of whomever they pleased, without incurring
any disgrace.[XI-132]

The feast of the Mexican month Xocotlhuetzin, 'fall, or maturity of
fruit,' is to me a most striking evidence of the former existence of
phallic worship, or at least recognition of the fecundating principle
in nature. I will, however, leave the reader to draw his own
conclusions. This feast of the 'maturity of fruit' was dedicated to
Xiuhtecutli, god of fire, and, therefore, of fertility, or fecundity.
The principal feature of the feast was a tall, straight tree, which
was stripped of all its branches except those close to the top and
set up in the court of the temple. Within a few feet of its top a
cross-yard thirty feet long was fastened; thus a perfect cross was
formed. Above all, a dough image of the god of fire curiously dressed
was fixed. After certain horrible sacrifices had been made to the
deity of the day, the people assembled about the pole, and the youth
scrambled up for the image, which they broke in pieces and scattered
upon the ground.[XI-133] A great number of similar analogies may be
detected in the rites and customs of the people, and it is almost
reluctantly that I refrain from giving my views in full. I have made
it my aim, however, to deal with facts, and leave speculation to
others. Those who wish to thoroughly investigate this most interesting
subject, cannot do better than study Mr Squier's learned and
exhaustive treatise on the Serpent Symbol.

FOOTNOTES:

[XI-1] 'Toda esta Tierra, con estotra, ... tenia vna misma manera de
religion, y ritos, y si en algo diferenciaba, era, en mui poco.' 'Lo
mismo fue de las Provincias de Quatimala, Nicaragua, y Honduras.'
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 54, 191. Tylor thinks that
'the civilizations of Mexico and Central America were originally
independent, but that they came much in contact, and thus modified one
another to no small extent.' _Anahuac_, p. 191. 'On reconnaît
facilement que le culte y était partout basé sur le rituel toltèque,
et que les formes mêmes ne différaient guère les unes des autres.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 559.

[XI-2] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 42, calls
him the sun.

[XI-3] Representations of the sun, with whom he seems to be identified,
are not impossible to these peoples if we may judge from the
sun-plates with lapping tongues and other representations found on the
ruins in Mexico and Central America.

[XI-4] 'Porque à este le llamaban tambien Ytzamnà.' _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, pp. 196, 192.

[XI-5] The daughter of Ixchel, the Yucatec medicine goddess. _Brasseur
de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 43. He writes the
virgin's name as Chiribias. Ixchel seems to be the same as the
Guatemalan Xmucané, mother of the gods.' _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, p.
243.

[XI-6] _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiii.;
_Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 190; _Remesal_, _Hist. Chyapa_, p. 246;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. iii., p. 133.

[XI-7] 'Celle de l'eau matrice d'embryon, _ix-a-zal-uoh_.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _MS. Troano_, tom. ii., p. 258.

[XI-8] 'Idolo, ò Zemì.' _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 33.
'Zemes which are the Images of their familiar and domesticall
spirites.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv., lib. vi.

[XI-9] 'Les dieux de l'Yucatan, disent Lizana et Cogolludo, étaient
presque tous des rois plus ou moins bons que la gratitude ou la
terreur avait fait placer au rang des divinités.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 20; _Landa_, _Relacion_,
p. 158; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 198.

[XI-10] _Lizana_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 356; _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, p. 197; Brinton, _Myths_, p. 188, speaks of 'Zamna, or
Cukulcan, lord of the dawn and four winds,' and connects him with
Votan also. 'Il y a toute apparence qu'il était de la même race (as
Votan) et que son arrivée eut lieu peu d'années après la fondation de
la monarchie palenquéenne.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. i., p. 76, et seq. The hand in picture-writing signifies
strength, power, mastery, and is frequently met with on Central
American ruins, impressed in red color. Among the North American
savages it was the symbol of supplication. Their doctors sometimes
smeared the hand with paint and daubed it over the patient.
_Schoolcraft_, in _Stephens' Yucatan_, vol. ii., pp. 476-8.

[XI-11] Lizana, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 360, translates the name as
'Sol con rostro que sus rayos eran de fuego,' _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, pp. 198, 178; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _MS. Troano_, p. 270;
_Id._, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 5-6; _Müller_, _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, p. 475. In the syllable _mo_ of the hero's name is
found another reference to the sun, for _moo_ is the Maya term for the
bird _ara_, the symbol of the sun.

[XI-12] 'El que recibe, y possee la gracia, ò rozio del Cielo.' 'No
conocian otro Dios Autor de la vida, sino à este.' _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, p. 179. 'Celui qui demande ou obtient la rosée ou la glace, ou
rempli de l'eau en bras de glace, _itz-m-a-tul_.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _MS. Troano_, tom. ii., p. 257; _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp.
284-5.

[XI-13] After staying a short time at Potonchan, he embarked and nothing
more was heard of him. The _Codex Chimalpopoca_ states, however, that
he died in Tlapallan, four days after his return. _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 18. In another place this
writer refers to three brothers, _itzaob_, 'saintly man,' who were
probably sent by Quetzalcoatl to spread his doctrines, but who
ultimately founded a monarchy. They also seem to throw a doubt on the
identity of Cukulcan with Quetzalcoatl. 'Il n'y a pas à douter,
toutefois, que, s'il est le même que Quetzalcohuatl, la doctrine aura
été la même.' _Id._, pp. 10-1, 43. Torquemada, _Monarq. Ind._, tom.
ii., p. 52, states that the Cocomes were his descendants, but as the
hero never married, his disciples must rather be accepted as their
ancestors. _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 35-9, 300-1; _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iv., lib. x., cap. ii. Veytia connects him with St.
Thomas. _Hist. Antig. Mej._, tom. i., pp. 195-8. Speaking of Cukulcan
and his companions Las Casas says: 'A este llamaron Dios de las
fiebres ò Calenturas.... Los cuales mandaban que se confesasen las
gentes y ayunasen; y que algunos ayunaban el viernes porque habia
muerto aquel dia Bacab; y tiene por nombre aquel dia Himis.' _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiii. '_Kukulcan_, vient de _kuk_, oiseau
qui paraît être le même que le quetzal; son déterminatif est _kukul_
qui uni à can, serpent, fait exactement le même mot que _Quetzal
Cohuatl_, serpent aux plumes vertes, ou de Quetzal.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 35.

[XI-14] _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 22; _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 158;
_Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 202; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 46-7. 'Se tenian por santificados los que
alla auian estado,' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. x., cap.
iv.

[XI-15] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 50, calls
the god of death Rakalku. Baeza, in _Registro Yuc._, tom. i., pp.
168-9, mentions a transparent stone called _zatzun_, by means of which
hidden things and causes of diseases could be discovered.

[XI-16] 'Cette divinité paraît être la même que le _Tihax_ des Quichés
et Cakchiquels, le _Tecpatl_ des Mexicains, la lance ou la flèche.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 363.

[XI-17] _Zee-Rovers_, p. 64; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 178, 190-1,
196-7; _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 206-8; _Lizana_, in _Id._, pp. 356-64;
_Ternaux-Compans_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcvii.,
pp. 40-4; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 17, 32; _Remesal_, _Hist.
Chyapa_, pp. 245-6; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom.
ii., pp. 4-10, 20, 42-50.

[XI-18] 'Tra le Croci sono celebri quelle di Jucatan, della Mizteca, di
Queretaro, di Tepique, e di Tianquiztepec.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant.
del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 14. There were also crosses at Palenque, on
San Juan de Ulloa, at Copan, in Nicaragua, and other places. 'Die
Tolteken haben nämlich die Verehrung des Kreuzes mit durchaus
bewusster Beziehung desselben auf den Regen, von der alten
Urbevölkerung aufgenommen.' _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_,
pp. 498-9; _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 88.

[XI-19] This and other prophecies, which, if not mere fabrications, bear
at least marks of mutilation and addition, may be found in
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. iii., pp. 132-3; _Remesal_, _Hist.
Chyapa_, pp. 245-6; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 99-100; _Brasseur
de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 603-6. Brinton thinks
that they may refer to 'the return of Zamná, or Kuckulcan, lord of the
dawn and the four winds, worshipped at Cozumel ... under the sign of
the cross.' _Myths_, p. 188. The report circulated by Aguilar of his
people and of the cross, may have given the prophets a clue.

[XI-20] 'The formation of such an opinion by the Spaniards seems to shew
almost conclusively, that the aborigines of the country did not retain
any traditional history on the subject that would justify the simple
belief, that Catholic Europeans had ever possessed influence enough
among them to have established so important a feature in their
superstitious observances.' _McCulloh_, _Researches in Amer._, p. 327.
'Afirmaban que por que habia muerto en ella un hombre mas
replandeciente que el sol.' _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS.,
cap. cxxiii.; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv., lib. i.

[XI-21] Mr Godfrey Higgins, in his _Celtic Druids_, p. 126, says: 'Few
causes have been more powerful in producing mistakes in ancient
history, than the idea, hastily taken up by Christians in all ages,
that every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, or with any of
those symbols which they conceived to be monograms of Christ, were of
Christian origin.... The cross is as common in India as in Egypt, and
Europe,' Mr Maurice, in his _Indian Antiquities_, vol. ii., p. 361,
writes: 'Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian be offended at
the preceding assertion that the cross was one of the most usual
symbols among the hieroglyphics of Egypt and India.' The emblem of
universal nature is equally honored in the Gentile and Christian
world. 'In the cave at Elephanta, in India, over the head of the
principal figure, again may be seen this figure (the cross), and a
little in the front the huge Lingham (phallus).'

[XI-22] Constantio holds it to be a symbol of the solstices.
_Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., pp. 464-5; _Humboldt_,
_Exam. Crit._, tom. ii., pp. 354-6; _Waldeck_, _Voy. Pitt._, p. 24;
_Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 497-500; _Torquemada_,
_Monarq. Ind._, tom. iii., pp. 133, 200-6, 299; _McCulloh's
Researches_, pp. 331-6; _Klemm_, _Cultur-Geschichte_, tom. v., p. 143;
_Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 63. Brinton refers to a statement that
the Mexicans had cruciform graves, and supposes that this referred to
four spirits of the world who were to carry the deceased to heaven,
but there seems to be a mistake on both of these points. _Myths_, pp.
95-8; _Gould's Curious Myths_, vol. ii., p. 79, et seq.; _Cox's
Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. ii., pp. 369-72. Some of the
crosses referred to lack the head piece, and being of this shape,
"T", resemble, somewhat, a Mexican coin.

[XI-23] 'No solo se hallò vna Cruz, sino algunas.' _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, pp. 199-302; _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 3; _Herrera_,
_Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. i.; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._,
fol. 24. Stephens found a cross at the church of Mejorada, in Mérida,
which an old monk had dug out of the ruins of a church on Cozumel
Island. 'The connecting of the "Cozumel Cross" with the ruined church
on the island completely invalidates the strongest proof offered at
this day that the cross was ever recognized by the Indians as a symbol
of worship.' _Yucatan_, vol. ii., pp. 377-8. Rather a hasty assertion
when made in the face of so many old authorities.

[XI-24] This seems to confirm the idea that it was worshiped, yet
Constantio regards it as a representation of the birth of the sun in
the winter solstice, and holds the ruin to which the cross belongs to
be a sun temple. _Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., pp.
464-5; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 498; _Stephens'
Cent. Amer._, vol. i., pp. 345-8. Squier, who denies that the
Tonacaquahuitl was intended to represent a cross, thinks that the
Palenque cross merely represents one of these trees with the branches
placed crosswise. _Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 120-1. Jones, _Hist. Anc.
Amer._, p. 149, et seq., who identifies almost every feature of
Central American worship with the Phœnician, asserts that the
Palenque cross proves the Tyrian origin of the aborigines.

[XI-25] Cogolludo says, however: 'Solian ayunar dos, y tres dias, sin
comer cosa alguna.' _Hist. Yuc._, p. 194.

[XI-26] These mutilations were at times very severe. 'Otras vezes hazian
un suzio y penoso sacrificio añudandose los que lo hazian en el
templo, donde puestas en rengla, se hazian sendos aguzeros en los
miembros viriles al soslayo por el lado, y hechos passavan toda la
mas cantidad de hilo que podian, quedando assi todos asidos.' _Landa_,
_Relacion_, pp. 162-3. This author thinks that the practice of
slitting the prepuce gave rise to the idea that circumcision existed
in Yucatan.

[XI-27] _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 164-8; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp.
193-4; _Medel_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcvii., p.
43; vol. ii., pp. 704-5, of this work. 'For want of children they
sacrifice dogges.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv., lib. vi. 'El numero de la
gente sacrificada era mucho: y esta costumbre fue introduzida en
Yucatan, por los Mexicanos.' 'Flechauan algunas vezes al sacrificado
... desollauanlos, vestiase el sacerdote el pellejo, y baylauo, y
enterrauan el cuerpo en el patio del templo.' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._,
dec. iv., lib. x., cap. iii., iv. Tradition relates that in a cave
near Uxmal existed a well like that of Chichen, guarded by an old
woman, the builder of the dwarf palace in that city, who sold the
water for infants, and these she cast before the snake at her side.
_Stephens' Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., p. 425.

[XI-28] _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 165; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 25,
180; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 62.

[XI-29] _Relacion_, p. 154; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. x.,
cap. iv. For description of baptismal rites, see vol. ii., pp. 682-4,
of this work.

[XI-30] 'Que se deriva de un verbo _kinyah_, que significa "sortear ó
echar suertes."' _Lizana_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 362.

[XI-31] 'Longues robes noires.' _Morelet_, _Voyage_, tom. i., p. 168.

[XI-32] _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 198; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 6; _Ternaux-Compans_, in _Nouvelles
Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcvii., pp. 39-41. Temples are described
in vol. ii., pp. 791-3, of this work.

[XI-33] 'Célèbres dans toutes les traditions d'origine toltèque, comme
les pères du soleil et de la magie.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.
Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 120.

[XI-34] '_Hun-Ahpu-Vuch_ un Tireur de Sarbacane au Sarigue et
_Hun-Ahpu-Utïu_ un Tireur de Sarbacane au Chacal.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. cxviii., cxix., pp. 2-5. They are also
referred to as conjurers. _Id._, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 54.
Ximenez spells the latter name Hun-ahpu-uhú, and states that they are
held as oracles. _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 4, 156-8, 82. Las Casas,
_Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiv., refers to these beings as
having been adored under the name of grandfather and grandmother
before the deluge, but later on a woman appeared who taught them to
call the gods by other names. This woman, Brasseur de Bourbourg holds
to be the traditional and celebrated queen Atit, from whom Atitlan
volcano obtained its name, and from whom the princely families of
Guatemala have descended. The natives still recall her name, but as
that of a phantom. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 74-5. He further
finds considerable similarity between her and Aditi of the Veda. In
his solution of the Antilles cataclysm he identifies Xmucane as the
South American part of the continent and Xpiyacoc as North America.
_Quatre Lettres_, pp. 223-4, 235-8. Garcia, _Origen de los Ind._, pp.
329-30, calls these first beings Xchmel and Xtmana, and gives them
three sons, who create all things. In the younger of these we
recognize the two legitimate sons of Hunhun Ahpu, who will be
described later on as the patrons of the fine arts.

[XI-35] To be afflicted with buboes implied the possession of many women
and consequently wealth and grandeur. _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 157; see
this vol. p. 60; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 3.

[XI-36] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Popol Vuh_, p. 315, does not understand
why Ximenez, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 125, translates heaven and Xibalba
as heaven and hell, but as both terms doubtless refer to provinces, or
towns, it is better to retain the figurative name. Xibalba is,
besides, derived from the same source as the Insomuch 'demon' of the
Yucatecs. Brasseur translates: 'Chaque sept (jours) il montait au ciel
et en sept (jours) il faisait le chemin pour descendre à Xibalba;'
while Ximenez with more apparent correctness renders: 'Siete dias se
subia al cielo y siete dias se iba al infierno.' In _Quatre Lettres_,
p. 228, the Abbé explains Xibalba as hell. See also vol. ii., pp.
715-7, of this work.

[XI-37] _Popol Vuh_, p. cxvii.-cxx., 7, 9; see this vol., pp. 48-54. The
occurrence of the number 4 in mythical and historical accounts of
Mexico and Central America is very frequent.

[XI-38] 'Parait venir des Antilles, où il désignait la tempête et le
grondement de l'orage.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 8.

[XI-39] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 496.

[XI-40] Garcilaso says: 'C'est encore l'idée du Tonnerre, de l'Eclair et
de la Foudre, contenus dans un seul _Hurakan_, le centre, le coeur
du ciel, la tempête, le vent, le souffle.' _Comentarios Reales_, lib.
ii., cap. xxiii., lib. iii., cap. xxi., lib. iii.; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. ccxxxv., 9; _Id._, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom.
i., p. 51.

[XI-41] 'Ximenez dit qu'il signifie _Pluie, Averse_: mais il confond ici
le nom du dieu avec le signe. _Toh_, ... est rendu par le mot _paga_,
paie, _pagar_, payer. Mais le MS. _Cakehiquel_ ... dit que les Quichés
reçurent celui de _Tohohil_, qui signifie grondement, bruit,' etc.
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 214. He seems identical with
the Maya Hunpictok.

[XI-42] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 553,
tom. i., p. 128.

[XI-43] Brinton, _Myths_, pp. 156-7, who holds Hurakan to be the Tlaloc,
connects Tohil with Quetzalcoatl--ideas taken most likely from
Brasseur de Bourbourg--states that he was represented by a flint. This
must refer to his traditional transformation into a stone, for the
Abbé declares that no description of his idol is given by the
chroniclers. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 552. Now, although the
Abbé declares Tohil to be the same as Quetzalcoatl, in the _Popol
Vuh_, p. 214, and other places, he acknowledges that the tradition
positively identifies him with Hurakan, and confirms this by
explaining on p. cclxvii., that Tohil, sometimes in himself, sometimes
in connection with the two other members of the trinity, combines the
attributes of thunder, flash, and thunderbolt; further, he gives a
prayer by the Tohil priests in which this god is addressed as Hurakan.
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 553. Gucumatz, the acknowledged
representative of Quetzalcoatl, is, besides, shown to be distinct from
Tohil. Every point, therefore, tradition, name, attributes, connect
Tohil and Hurakan, and identify them with Tlaloc.

[XI-44] _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 552-3.

[XI-45] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. cclxvii., 235; _Id._,
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 554. The turning into stone 'veut dire
que les trois principaux volcans s'éteignirent ou cessèrent de lancer
leurs feux.' _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 331.

[XI-46] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 497,
75; _Id._, _Popol Vuh_, p. cclxii.; see note 7.

[XI-47] _Id._, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 521; _Juarros' Hist.
Guat._, p. 384.

[XI-48] '_Hunhun-Ahpu_ signifie Chaque Tireur de Sarbacane;
_Vukub-Hun-Ahpu_, Sept un Tireur de Sarbacane.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. cxxxv. Their chief name, Ahpu, 'désigne la
puissance volcanique.' _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 225.

[XI-49] Hun Ahpu, a sarbacan shooter. '_Xbalenque, de balam_, tigre,
jaguar; le _que_ final est un signe pluriel, et le _x_ qui précède,
prononcez _sh_ (anglais), est alternativement un diminutif ou un signe
féminin.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. cxxxv. Ximenez,
_Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 146-7, 156, remarks the similarity of these
personages to the God, son, and virgin of the Christians.

[XI-50] '_Hun-Batz_, Un Singe (ou un Fileur); _Hun-Chouen_, un qui se
blanchit, ou s'embellit.' They seem to correspond to the Mexican
Ozomatli and Piltzintecutli. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp.
cxxxv., 69, 117. The _ba_ in Hun-Batz refers to something underground,
or deep down, and Hun-Chouen '"Une Souris cachée" ou "un lac en
sentinelle."' Both names indicate the disordered condition and
movement of a region (the Antilles). _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, pp.
227-9.

[XI-51] 'Les deux frères, s'étant embrassés, s'élancent dans les
flammes.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 137.

[XI-52] Vukub Cakix, 'seven aras,' a type of the sun, although declared
in one place to have usurped the solar attribute, seems to have been
worshiped as the sun; his two sons, Zipacna and Cabrakan, represent
respectively the creator of the earth and the earthquake, which
confirms their father's high position. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol
Vuh_, pp. 31-9, cciv., ccliii.

[XI-53] The allegorical account of these events is related on pp. 31 to
192 of _Popol Vuh_, and Brasseur's remarks are given on pages cxxxiv.
to cxl. Juarros, _Hist. Guat._, p. 164, states that Hun Ahpu
discovered the use of cacao and cotton, which is but another
indication of the introduction of culture. According to Las Casas,
Xbalanque descends into hell, Xibalba, where he captures Satan and his
chief men, and when the devil implores the hero not to bring him to
the light, he kicks him back with the curse that all things rotten and
abhorrent may cling to him. When he returns, his people do not receive
him with due honor, and he accordingly leaves for other parts. _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiv.; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom.
ii., pp. 53-4.

[XI-54] _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 225-53; see this vol. 261-4.

[XI-55] On one occasion the people 'égorgèrent chacun un de leurs fils,
dont ils mirent les cadavres dans les fondations.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 561-4.

[XI-56] _Indianer von Istlávacan_, pp. 11-3. The natives believed that
they would have to share all the sufferings and emotions of their
naguals. _Gage's New Survey_, p. 334; Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv.,
lib. viii., cap. iv., also refers to naguals, and states that the
Honduras protégé made his compact with it in the mountains by
offerings and blood-letting.

[XI-57] _Espinosa_, _Chrón. Apost._, pp. 344-5; _Remesal_, _Hist.
Chyapa_, p. 726; _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 151-3.

[XI-58] 'Tenian por sus Dioses à los Venados.' _Villagutierre_, _Hist.
Conq. Itza_, p. 43.

[XI-59] _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 699, 489-93, 509; _Villagutierre_, _Hist.
Conq. Itza_, pp. 100-2, 182, 500-2; _Morelet_, _Voyage_, tom. ii., p.
32; _McCulloh's Researches in Amer._, p. 318.

[XI-60] '_Cha-malcan_ serait donc Flèche ou Dard frotté d'ocre jaune,'
etc. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. 248-9.

[XI-61] _Id._, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 173.

[XI-62] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 475. In their want of
idols they contrasted strongly with their neighbors. _Villagutierre_,
_Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 74; _Morelet_, _Voyage_, tom. ii., p. 79.

[XI-63] 'C'est à eux qu'elles offraient presque tous leurs sacrifices.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 556;
_Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 66-70.

[XI-64] 'L'époque que les événements paraissent assigner à cette légende
coïncide avec la période de la grande émigration toltèque et la
fondation des divers royaumes guatémaliens.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 81; _Id._, _Popol Vuh_, p. cxxviii.
Near the village of Coatan was a small lake which they regarded as
oracular, into which none dared to peer least he should be smitten
with dumbness and death. _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 50.

[XI-65] 'Aujourd'hui de _Gracias_.... Il y a encore aujourd'hui un
village du même nom, paroisse à 12 l. de Comayagua.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 106.

[XI-66] 'Aunque otros dicen, que eran sus Hermanos.' _Torquemada_,
_Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 336.

[XI-67] _Carta_, pp. 82-4. As an instance of the respect entertained for
the idols, Las Casas relates that on the Spaniards once profaning them
with their touch, the natives brought censers with which they incensed
them, and then carried them back to their altar with great respect,
shedding their blood upon the road traversed by the idols. _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. clxxx.; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i.,
326; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. iv.

[XI-68] See vol. ii. of this work, pp. 719-20.

[XI-69] _Roman_, _Republica de los Indios_, in _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind.
Guat._, pp. 176-81; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom.
ii., pp. 564-566; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. clxxix.;
_Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, p. 196.

[XI-70] The ancient Quichés 'recueillirent leur sang avec des éponges,'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 259.

[XI-71] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp.
559-63; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. clxxvii.; vol. ii.
of this work, pp. 688.

[XI-72] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. 226-7; _Las Casas_,
_Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiv., clxxvii.; _Juarros' Hist.
Guat._, p. 225; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 54;
_Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 66; _Squier_, in _Id._, pp. 116-7; _Cortés_,
_Cartas_, pp. 417-8; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 699;
_Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 392, 502; _Gomara_, _Hist.
Ind._, fol. 268; _Waldeck_, _Voy. Pitt._, p. 40; see also, this vol.
pp. 688-9, 706-10, 735; _Stephens' Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., pp. 184-5.
Ximenez, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 210, states, that in case of a severe
illness, a father would not hesitate to sacrifice his son to obtain
relief. The very fact of such a tale passing current, shows how little
human life was valued.

[XI-73] 'Ils n'avaient pour toute nourriture que des fruits.' MS.,
_Quiché de Chichicastenango_, in _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 552-553, 496-7; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_,
MS., cap. cxxxiii.

[XI-74] Ternaux-Compans renders it _tuti_, _Recueil de Doc._, p. 29,
while Squier gives it as _tecti_. _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 62. But as an
Aztec word, it ought to be written _teoti_.

[XI-75] _Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 62-6; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv.,
lib. viii., cap. x.; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 200-1;
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 105, 555-6;
_Salazar y Olarte_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, pp. 315-6.

[XI-76] _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 61; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_,
pp. cxviii., cclxvi.; _Scherzer_, _Indianer von Istlávacan_, p. 10.

[XI-77] Gomara says with regard to this: 'Religion de Nicaragua que casi
es la mesma Mexicana.' _Hist. Ind._, fol. 63.

[XI-78] The similarity of the name of _tamachaz_ and _tamagast_, names
given to angels and priests, is striking. The ending _tat_ might also
be regarded as a contraction of the Aztec _tatli_, father.
_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 164-5.

[XI-79] _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 163.

[XI-80] 'Ich bringe es in Verbindung mit dem Stammworte _ciahua_ oder
_ciyahua_ befeuchten, bewässern.' _Ib._ It is to be noticed that the
Aztec _h_ frequently changes into _g_, in these countries.

[XI-81] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 435-8, 503;
_Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856), vol. ii., pp. 349-60; _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 112; this author
identifies Tamagostat and Cipaltona with the solar deities Oxomoc and
Cipactonal of the Toltecs, but places them in rather an inferior
position.

[XI-82] Oxomogo is also introduced, which tends to throw doubt on
Brasseur's identification of Jamagostad with this personage.

[XI-83] 'Ehecatl oder verkürzt Ecatl ... ist die Berichtigung für
Oviedo's Hecat.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 163; _Oviedo_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 40-5, 52.

[XI-84] In _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii., tom. iii., p. 40, they
are written Homey-Atelïte and Homey-Ateciguat, but the above spelling
corresponds better with other similar Aztec names in Nicaragua.
_Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 46.

[XI-85] 'Von quiahui oder quiyahui regnen: mit _teotl_ Gott verbunden.'
_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 167.

[XI-86] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 46.

[XI-87] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 113.
The latter seems to be the same as the Mexican Teotochtli, 'rabbit
god.'

[XI-88] 'Y esso tenemos por el dios de los venados.' _Oviedo_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. iv., p. 55.

[XI-89] All probably derived from _tlamacazqui_, priest. _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 112-4. This author,
following _Oviedo_, _Hist. Nic._, spells the names somewhat
differently. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 165-8; _Oviedo_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 48, 52, 101.

[XI-90] These remarks appear inconsistent with the statement that the
spirit only of men ascended to heaven. _Id._, pp. 41-2.

[XI-91] '_Téobat_ vient probablement de _Téohuatl_, être divin.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 113.

[XI-92] 'En toda la plaça, ni en el templo donde están, entran allí
hombre ni muger en tanto que allí están, sino solamente los muchachos
pequeños que les llevan é dan de comer.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
iv., p. 47.

[XI-93] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 330.

[XI-94] Peter Martyr describes this edifice as follows: 'Within the
viewe of their Temples there are diuers Bases or Pillers like the
Pulpittes ... which Bases consist of eight steppes or stayres in some
places twelue, and in another fifteene.' Dec. vi., lib. vi.

[XI-95] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 46-7, 53, 56, 93-4, 98,
101; _Peter Martyr_, dec. vi., lib. vii.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol.
265-6; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec., iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.; vol.
ii., pp. 708-10, 715, of this work.

[XI-96] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 55-6; _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., lib. v., cap. xii.; _Gomara_,
_Hist. Ind._, fol. 256.

[XI-97] Brasseur de Bourbourg says: '_Tamagoz_, c'est encore une autre
corruption du mot _tlamacazqui_.' _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 114.

[XI-98] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 46-7, 53; _Andagoya_, in
_Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 414; vol. ii., p. 728, of
this work. Gomara, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 265, states that the priests
were all married, while Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv.,
cap. vii., asserts the contrary. The latter view seems more correct
when we consider that women were not permitted to enter the temples,
and that the high priest and devotees were obliged to leave their
wives when they passed into the sanctuary. It is even probable that
there was no distinct priesthood, since the temples had no revenues,
and the temple service was performed in part at least by volunteers;
to this must be added the fact, that although the confessor might not
be connected with the temple, yet he ordered penance for its benefit.
It must be considered, however, that without regular ministers it
would have been difficult to keep up the routine of feasts and
ceremonies, write the books of records, teach the children, and
maintain discipline.

[XI-99] _Arricivita_, _Crónica Seráfica_, p. 57; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. iv., pp. 101, 107. 'Sous le nom de "Texoxé" on désignait les
naguals, les génies mauvais de toute espèce, ainsi que les sorciers.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 113.

[XI-100] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 63.

[XI-101] At Cape Honduras they consisted of long, narrow houses, raised
above the ground, containing idols with heads of animals. _Herrera_,
_Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. v.

[XI-102] _Id._, and dec. iv., lib. i., cap. vi.; see vol. i., p. 740, of
this work.

[XI-103] 'Es ist dafür das Wort God aus dem Englischen aufgenommen.'
_Mosquitoland_, _Bericht_, p. 142.

[XI-104] _Bard's Waikna_, p. 243. 'Devils, the chief of whom they call
the Woolsaw, or evil principle, witchcraft.' _Strangeways' Mosquito
Shore_, p. 331. Young writes Oulasser. _Narrative_, p. 72.

[XI-105] _Bell_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., p. 254.

[XI-106] A shape which assigns the story a comparatively recent date,
unless a deer was originally meant.

[XI-107] _Bell_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., pp. 253-4;
_Young's Narrative_, p. 79.

[XI-108] _Froebel's Cent. Amer._, p. 137; see also vol. i., pp. 740-1,
of this work.

[XI-109] _Hist. Ind._, fol. 255.

[XI-110] _Id._, fol. 89; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., pp. 20, 125.

[XI-111] _Peter Martyr_, dec. vii., lib. x.; _Irving's Columbus_, vol.
iii., pp. 173-4; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 421.

[XI-112] _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 401;
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. i., cap. xi., dec. ii., lib.
iii., cap. v.

[XI-113] _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiv., ccxlii.; _Torquemada_,
_Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 63.

[XI-114] Dec. iii., lib. iv., dec. ii., lib. iii.

[XI-115] A name applied in Cueba to all who excelled in an art. _Oviedo_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., pp. 126-7.

[XI-116] 'Las manos no se las vian.' _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col.
de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 400.

[XI-117] For further account of sorcerers, see vol. i., pp. 779-80.
Gomara writes: 'Tauira, que es el Diablo.' _Hist. Ind._, fol. 255;
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. ii., cap. x., lib. iii., cap.
v., dec. iv., lib. i., cap. x.

[XI-118] _Peter Martyr_, dec. vii., lib. x.

[XI-119] _Ancient Fragments_, introduction, p. 34. M. Pictet says of the
primitive Celtic religion: "From a _primitive duality_, constituting
the fundamental forces of the universe, there arises a double
progression of cosmical powers, which, after having crossed each other
by a mutual transition, at last proceed to blend in One Supreme Unity,
as in their essential principles." Says Sir William Jones: "We must
not be surprised at finding, on a close examination, that the
characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female, melt into each
other, and at last into one or two, for it seems a well-founded
opinion that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses in ancient Rome and
modern Váránes, mean only the Powers of Nature, and principally those
of the SUN, expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of
fanciful names." _On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India_, p. 273.

[XI-120] 'This suggestion was first publicly made in a communication
read,' says Squier, _Serpent Symbol_, p. 49, 'before the American
Ethnological Society, by a distinguished member of that body; from
which the following passages are extracted. After noticing several
facts tending to show the former existence of Phallic worship in
America, the author of the paper proceeds as follows:--"We come now to
Central America. Upon a perusal of the first journey of our
fellow-members, Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood, into Guatemala and
the central territories of the Continent, I was forcibly struck with
the monolithic idols of Copan. We knew nothing before, save of
Mexican, Palenque, and Uxmal remains; and those of Copan appeared to
me to be unlike them all, and probably of an older date. My reading
furnishes me with but one parallel to those singular monolithic
sculptures, and that was seen in Ceylon, in 1796, by Captain Colin
McKenzie, and described in the 6th volume of the Asiatic Researches.
As the description is short, I transcribe it: 'The figure is cut out
of stone in relievo; but the whole is sunk in a hollow, scooped out,
so that it is defended from injury on the sides. It may be about
fourteen feet high, the countenance wild, a full round visage, the
eyes large, the nose round and long; it has no beard; nor the usual
distinguishing marks of the Gentoo casts. He holds up both his hands,
with the forefingers and thumbs bent; the head-dress is high, and
seems ornamented with jewels; on the little finger of the left hand is
a ring; on the arms bracelets; a belt high about the waist; the lower
dress or drapery fixed with a girdle much lower than the Gentoo dress,
from which something like tassels depend; a collar and ornaments on
the neck and shoulders; and rings seem to hang low from the ears. No
appearance of any arms or weapons.' This was the nearest approximation
I could make to the Copan idols; for idols I took them to be, from the
fact that an altar was invariably placed before them. From a close
inspection of Mr. Catherwood's drawings, I found that though no single
figure presented all the foregoing characteristics, yet in the various
figures I could find every particular enumerated in the Ceylon
sculpture. It then occurred to me that one of the most usual symbols
of the Phallus was an erect stone, often in its rough state, sometimes
sculptured, and that no other object of heathen worship was so often
shadowed forth by a single stone placed on end, as the Phallus. That
the worship of the Priapus, [Lingam] existed in Ceylon, has long since
been satisfactorily established; and hence I was led to suspect that
these monuments at Copan, might be vestiges of a similar idolatry. A
further inspection confirmed my suspicions; for, as I supposed, I
found sculptured on the American ruins the organs of generation, and
on the back of one of the emblems relative to uterine existence,
parturition, etc. I should, however, have wanted entire confidence in
the correctness of my suspicions, had the matter rested here. On the
return of Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood from their second
expedition, every doubt of the existence of Phallic worship,
especially in Yucatan, was removed."

[XI-121] _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 290, 301; _Squier's Serpent Symbol_, pp.
47-50.

[XI-122] _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, part i., p. 40.

[XI-123] In Pánuco and other provinces 'adorano il membro che portano gli
huomini fra le gambe, & lo tengono nella meschita, & posto similmente
sopra la piazza insieme con le imagini de rilieuo di tutti modi di
piacere che possono essere fra l'huomo & la donna, & gli hanno di
ritratto con le gambe di alzate in diuersi modi.' _Relatione fatta per
un Gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortése_, in _Ramusio_,
_Navigationi_, tom. iii., fol. 307.

[XI-124] 'Hallaron entre vnos arboles vn idolillo de oro y muchos de
barro, dos hombres de palo, caualgando vno sobre otro, a fuer Sodoma,
y otro de tierra cozida con ambas manos a lo suyo, que lo tenia
retajado, como son casi todos los Indios de Yucatan.' _Gomara_, _Hist.
Ind._, fol. 58.

[XI-125] See vol. ii., pp. 336-7, concerning this festival.

[XI-126] 'Un idolo de piedra redondo,' which may mean a 'cylindrical
stone,' as the translator of Palacio's _Carta_ has rendered it.

[XI-127] _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 84.

[XI-128] Concerning the cross in America, see this vol. p. 468.

[XI-129] I refer to the left hand figure in the cut on p. 348, vol. iv.,
of this work. For examples of the amulets mentioned, see illustrations
in Payne Knight's _Worship of Priapus_.

[XI-130] See vol. i., of this work, p. 93; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
iv., p. 48; See vol. ii., of this work, pp. 719-20.

[XI-131] _Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 13; see also this volume, pp. 243-4.

[XI-132] See vol. i., of this work, pp. 200, 414, 566-6; vol. ii., p.
676, and account of Yucatec feasts in chap. xxii. In citing these
brutish orgies I do not presume, or wish to assert, that they were in
any way connected with phallus worship, or indeed, that there was
anything of a religious nature in them. Still, as they certainly were
indulged in during, or immediately after the great religious
festivals, and as we know how the phallic cult degenerated from its
original purity into just such bestiality in Greece and Rome, I have
thought it well to mention them. There is much truth in the following
remarks on this point, by Mr. Brinton, though with his statement that
the proofs of a recognition of the fecundating principle in Nature by
the Americans are 'altogether wanting,' I cannot agree. He says:
'There is no ground whatever to invest these debauches with any
recondite meaning. They are simply indications of the thorough and
utter immorality which prevailed throughout the race. And a still more
disgusting proof of it is seen in the frequent appearance among
diverse tribes of men dressed as women and yielding themselves to
indescribable vices. There was at first nothing of a religious nature
in such exhibitions. Lascivious priests chose at times to invest them
with some such meaning.... The pretended phallic worship of the
Natchez and of Culhuacan, cited by the Abbé Brasseur, rests on no good
authority, and if true, is like that of the Huastecs of Panuco,
nothing but an unrestrained and boundless profligacy which it were an
absurdity to call a religion. That which Mr. Stephens attempts to show
existed once in Yucatan, rests entirely by his own statement on a
fancied resemblance of no value whatever, and the arguments of Lafitau
to the same effect are quite insufficient. There is a decided
indecency in the remains of ancient American art, especially in Peru,
(Meyen) and great lubricity in many ceremonies, but the proof is
altogether wanting to bind these with the recognition of fecundating
principle throughout nature, or, indeed, to suppose for them any other
origin than the promptings of an impure fancy. I even doubt whether
they often referred to fire as the deity of sexual love. By a flight
of fancy inspired by a study of oriental mythology, the worship of the
reciprocal principle in America has been connected with that of the
sun and moon, as the primitive pair from whose fecund union all
creatures proceeded. It is sufficient to say if such a myth exists
among the Indians--which is questionable--it justifies no such
deduction; that the moon is often mentioned in their languages merely
as the "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
sister than as man and wife; nor did at least the northern tribes
regard the sun as the cause of fecundity in nature at all, but solely
as giving light and warmth.' _Myths_, pp. 149-50; _Schoolcraft's
Arch._, vol. v., pp. 416-17.

[XI-133] For a full account of this feast see vol. ii., of this work,
pp. 329-30.

CHAPTER XII.

FUTURE STATE.

ABORIGINAL IDEAS OF FUTURE -- GENERAL CONCEPTIONS OF SOUL --
FUTURE STATE OF THE ALEUTS, CHEPEWYANS, NATIVES AT MILBANK
SOUND, AND OKANAGANS -- HAPPY LAND OF THE SALISH AND CHINOOKS
-- CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL OF THE NEZ PERCÉS, FLATHEADS,
AND HAIDAHS -- THE REALMS OF QUAWTEAHT AND CHAYHER -- BELIEFS
OF THE SONGHIES, CLALLAMS, AND PEND D'OREILLES -- THE FUTURE
STATE OF THE CALIFORNIAN AND NEVADA TRIBES, COMANCHES, PUEBLOS,
NAVAJOS, APACHES, MOQUIS, MARICOPAS, YUMAS, AND OTHERS -- THE
SUN HOUSE OF THE MEXICANS -- TLALOCAN AND MICTLAN -- CONDITION
OF THE DEAD -- JOURNEY OF THE DEAD -- FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS
AND OTHER NATIONS.

The hope, or at least the expectation of immortality, is universal
among men. The mind instinctively shrinks from the thought of utter
annihilation, and ever clings to the hope of a future which shall be
better than the present. But as man's ideal of supreme happiness
depends upon his culture, tastes, and condition in this life, we find
among different people widely differing conceptions of a future. The
intellectual Greek looked forward to the enjoyment of less gross and
more varied pleasures in his Elysian Fields, than the sensual
Mussulman, whose paradise was merely a place where bright-eyed houris
could administer to his every want, or the fierce Viking whose
Valhalla was a scene of continual gluttony and strife, of alternate
hewing in pieces and swilling of mead.

[Sidenote: IDEAS OF FUTURE.]

It has been supposed by some that the idea of future punishment and
reward was unknown to the Americans.[XII-1] This is certainly an error,
for some of the Pacific Coast tribes had very definite ideas of future
retribution, and almost all, in supposing that the manner of death
influenced the future state of the deceased, implied a belief in
future reward, at least. The slave, too, who was sacrificed on the
grave of his master, was thought to earn by his devotion, enforced
though it might be, a passport to the realms of eternal joy; had there
been no less blissful bourne this prospective reward for fidelity
would have been manifestly superfluous.

The future life of these people was sharply defined, and was of the
earth, earthy. In its most common forms it was merely earth-life, more
or less free from mortal ills. The soul was subject to the same wants
as the body, and must be supplied by the same means. In fact, the
pagan's conception of heaven was much more clearly defined than the
Christian's, and the former must have anticipated a removal thither
with a far less wondering and troubled mind than the latter.

In the Mexican heaven there were various degrees of happiness, and
each was appointed to his place according to his rank and deserts in
this life. The high-born warrior who fell gloriously in battle did not
meet on equal terms the base-born rustic who died in his bed. Even in
the House of the Sun, the most blissful abode of the brave, the
ordinary avocations of life were not entirely dispensed with, and
after their singing and dancing, the man took up his bow again, and
the woman her spindle. The lower heavens possessed a less degree of
splendor and happiness until the abode of the great mass of those who
had lived an obscure life and died a natural death was reached. These
pursued their avocations by twilight, or passed their time in a
dreamy condition, or state of torpor. As slaves were often sacrificed
over their master's grave that they might serve in the next world, we
must suppose that differences of rank were maintained there. The
Tlascaltecs supposed that the common people were after death
transformed into beetles and disgusting objects, while the nobler
became stars and beautiful birds. But this condition was also
influenced by the acts and conduct of friends of the deceased.

Sir John Lubbock[XII-2] does not believe with Wilson and other
archæologists that the burial of implements with the dead was because
of any belief that they would be of use to the deceased in a future
state; but solely as a tribute of affection, an outburst of that
spirit of sacrifice and offering so noticeable in all, from the most
savage to the most civilized, in the presence of lost brotherhood,
friendship, or love. In the first place the outfit in a great majority
of cases is wholly unfit and inadequate, viewed in any rational scale
of utility; they are not such as the dead warrior would procure, if by
any means he were again restored to earth and to his friends. In the
second place it was and is usual to so effectually mutilate the
devoted arms and utensils, as to render them a mere mockery if they
are intended for the future use of the dead. It is easy to classify
this phenomenon in the same category with the deserting or destroying
of the house of the deceased, the refusal to mention his name, and all
the other rude contrivances by which the memory of their sorrow may be
buried out of their sight.

This subject may be viewed in another light, however, by considering
that these Indians sometimes impute spirits even to inanimate objects,
and when the wife or the slave is slain, their spirits meet the chief
in the future land. Do they not also break the bow and the spear that
the ghostly weapons may seek above the hands of their sometime owner,
not leaving him defenceless among the awful shades. The mutilation of
the articles may perhaps be regarded as a symbolic killing, to release
the soul of the object; the inadequacy of the supply may indicate that
they were to be used only during the journey, or preparatory state,
more perfect articles being given to the soul, or prepared by it, on
entering the heaven proper.

The slaves sacrificed at the grave by the Aztecs and Tarascos were
selected from various trades and professions and took with them the
most cherished articles of the master, and the implements of their
trade, wherewith to supply his wants. Passports were given for the
different points along the road, and a dog as guide. Thus the souls of
animals are shown to have entered heaven with man, and this is also
implied by the belief that men were there transformed into birds and
insects, and that they followed the chase. Another instance which
seems to indicate that the souls of these earthly objects were used
merely during the preparatory state, was the yearly feast given to
departed souls during the period that this condition endured. After
that they were left to oblivion. The Miztecs had the custom of
inviting the spirits to enter and partake of the repast spread for
them, and this food, the essence of which had been consumed by the
unseen visitors, was regarded as sacred.[XII-3]

[Sidenote: THE ROAD TO HEAVEN.]

The road to paradise was represented to be full of dangers--an idea
probably suggested to them by the awful mystery of death. In the idea
of this perilous journey, this road beset with many dangers--storms,
monsters, deep waters, and whirlpools--we may trace a belief in future
retribution, for though the majority of travelers manage to reach
their destination having only suffered more or less maltreatment by
the way, yet many a solitary, ill-provided wanderer is overwhelmed and
prevented from doing so. In exceptional cases, the perils of this
valley of the shadow of death are avoided by the intervention of a
friendly deity who, Hermes-like, bears the weary soul straight to its
rest. Among the Mexicans Teoyaomique, the consort of the war-god,
performed this good office for the fallen warrior.

With the alternative of this not very attractive future before them,
it is natural that the theory of metempsychosis should have found wide
and ready acceptance, for with these people it did not mean
purification from sin, as among the Brahmans; it was simply the return
of the soul to the world, to live once more the old life, although at
times in a different and superior sphere. The human form was,
therefore, assumed more often than that of animals. The soul generally
entered the body of a female relative to form the soul of the unborn
infant; the likeness of the child to a deceased friend in features or
peculiarities lent great weight to this belief. This reëmbodiment was
not limited to individuals; the Nootkas, for instance, accounted for
the existence of a distant tribe, speaking the same language as
themselves, by declaring them to be the incarnated spirits of their
dead. The preservation of the bones of the dead, seems in some cases
to be connected with a belief in a resurrection of the body. The
opinion underlying the various customs of preservation of remains,
says Brinton, "was, that a part of the soul, or one of the souls,
dwelt in the bones; that these were the seeds which, planted in the
earth, or preserved unbroken in safe places, would, in time, put on
once again a garb of flesh, and germinate into living human
beings."[XII-4] Indeed, a Mexican creation-myth relates that man sprang
from dead bones,[XII-5] and in Goatzacoalco the bones were actually
deposited in a convenient place, that the soul might resume them.

[Sidenote: IDEAS OF SOUL.]

The most general idea of a soul seems to have been that of a double
self, possessing all the essence and attributes of the individual,
except the carnal embodiment, and independent of the body in so far as
it was able to leave it, and revel in other scenes or spheres. It
would accordingly appear to another person, by day or night, as a
phantom, with recognizable form and features, and leave the
impression of its visits in ideas, remembrances, or dreams. Every
misty outline, every rustle, was liable to be regarded by the
undiscriminating aborigine as a soul on its wanderings, and the ideas
of air, wind, breath, shadow, soul, were often represented by the same
word. The Eskimo word _silla_, signifies air, wind, and conveys the
idea of world, mind; _tarnak_, means soul, shadow. The Yakima word for
wind and life contains the same root; the Aztec _ehecatl_ signifies
wind, air, life, soul, shadow; in Quiché the soul bears the name of
_natub_, shadow; the Nicaraguans think that it is _yulia_, the breath,
which goes to heaven.[XII-6] Some hold that man has several souls, one
of which goes to heaven, the others remain with the body, and hover
about their former home. The Mexicans and Quichés received a soul
after death from a stone placed between the lips for that purpose,
which also served for heart, the seat of the soul;[XII-7] this was
buried with the remains. The custom of eating the flesh of brave
enemies in order to inherit their virtues, points to a belief in the
existence of another soul or vital quality in the corpse. Some Oregon
tribes gave a soul to every member of the body. A plurality of souls
is also implied by the belief in soul-wandering during sleep, for is
not the body animate though the soul be separated from it? Yet the
soul proper could not remain away from the body beyond a certain time,
lest the weaker soul that remained should fail to sustain life.

With the many contradictions and vague statements before us, it must
be admitted that the phrase "immortality of the soul" is often
misleading. Tylor even considers it doubtful "how far the lower
psychology entertains at all an absolute conception of immortality,
for past and future fade soon into utter vagueness as the savage mind
quits the present to explore them."[XII-8]

[Sidenote: METEMPSYCHOSIS.]

Some tribes among the Hyperboreans actually disbelieved in a future
existence, while others held the doctrine of a future reward and
punishment. The conceptions of a soul were well defined however; the
Thlinkeets supposed it to enter the spirit-world, among the yeks, on
being released from the body. The braves who had fallen in battle, or
had been murdered, became _keeyeks_, 'upper ones,' and went to dwell
in the north, where the aurora borealis, omen of war, flashes in
reflection from the lights which illuminate their dances; so at least
the Eskimos regard it.[XII-9] Those who died a natural death became
_tákeeyeks_, land-spirits, and _tékeeyeks_, sea-spirits, and dwelt in
_takankon_, doubtless situated in the centre of the earth,[XII-10] the
road to which was watered, and made smooth by the tears of relatives,
but if too much crying was indulged in, it became swampy and difficult
to travel. The tákeeyeks and tékeeyeks appear to have attached
themselves as guardian spirits to the living, and were under the
control of the shamáns, before whom they came in the form of land and
sea animals, to do their bidding and reveal the past and future.[XII-11]
The keeyeks were evidently above the conjuration of the sorcerers. The
comforts of heaven, like the road to it, depended on earthly
conditions; thus, the body was burned in order that it might be warm
in its new home. Slaves, however, who were buried, were condemned to
freeze, but the shamáns whose bodies were also left to moulder, had
doubtless power to avoid such misery. All lived in heaven as on earth,
earning their living in the same manner, to which end the implements
and other articles burnt with them were brought into use; wealthy
people appointed two slaves to be sacrificed at the pyre, upon whom
devolved the duty of attending to their wants. The slaves carried
their long-pending doom very philosophically, it is said.[XII-12] It
appears, however, that the soul had the option of returning to this
life, and as I have said, generally entered the body of a female
relative to form the soul of a coming infant. If the child resembled a
deceased friend or relation, this reëmbodiment was at once recognized,
and the name of the dead person was given to it. Metempsychosis does
not appear to have been restricted to relatives only, for the
Thlinkeets were often heard to express a desire to be born again into
families distinguished for wealth and position, and even to wish to
die soon in order to attain this bliss the earlier.[XII-13] This belief
in the transmigration of souls was widely spread, and accounts to some
extent for the fearlessness with which the Hyperboreans contemplated
death.[XII-14] The Tacullies and Sicannis asked the deceased whether he
would return to life or not, and the shamán who put the question
decided the matter by looking at the naked breast of the body through
his fingers; he then raised his hand toward heaven, and blew the soul,
which had apparently entered his fingers, into the air, that it might
seek a body to take possession of; or the shamán placed his hands upon
the head of one of the mourners and sent the spirit into him, to be
embodied in his next offspring. The relative thus favored added the
name of the deceased to his own. If these things were not done the
deceased was supposed to depart to the centre of the earth to enjoy
happiness, according to their estimate of it. The Kenai supposed that
a soft twilight reigned perpetually in this place, and that its
inhabitants pursued their avocations; while the living slept they
worked. The soul did not, however, attain perfect rest until a feast
had been given in its honor, attended by a distribution of skins.[XII-15]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE COLUMBIAN TRIBES.]

Dall, in speaking of the Tinnehs, to which family the Tacullies and
Kenai belong, states that he found few who believed in the immortality
of the soul, and none in future reward and punishment; any contrary
assertion he characterizes as proceeding from ignorance or
exaggeration. Other authors, however, in treating of tribes situated
both in the extreme north, and in the center of this family, as the
Loucheux and Chepewyans, declare that good and wicked were treated
according to their deserts, the poor and rich often changing lots in
the other life. Terrible punishment was sometimes inflicted upon the
wicked in this world; thus, in Stickeen River stand several stone
pillars, which are said to be the remains of an evil-doing chief and
his family, whom divine anger placed there as a warning to others.
According to Kennicott, the soul, whether good or bad, was received by
Chutsain, the spirit of death, who was, for this reason probably,
called the bad spirit.[XII-16] The Eskimos seem to have believed in a
future state, for Richardson relates that a dying man whom he saw at
Cumberland Inlet declared his joy at the prospect of meeting his
children in the other world and there living in bliss. It is also a
suggestive fact that implements and clothes were buried with the body,
care being taken that nothing should press heavily upon it. The large
destruction of property practiced by some Rocky Mountain tribes was
for the purpose of obliterating the memory of the deceased.[XII-17] The
Aleuts believed that the spirits of their relatives attended them as
good genii, and invoked them on all trying occasions, especially in
cases of _vendetta_.[XII-18] The Chepewyan story relates that the soul
arrives after death at a river upon which floats a stone canoe. In
this it embarks and is borne by the gentle current to an extensive
lake in the midst of which is an enchanted island. While the soul is
drifting toward it, the actions of its life are examined, and if the
good predominate, the canoe lands it on the shore, where the senses
revel in never-ending pleasures. But if the evil of its past life
out-weigh the good, the stone canoe sinks, leaving the spirit-occupant
immersed up to the chin, there eternally to float and struggle, ever
beholding but never realizing the happiness of the good.[XII-19] This
pronounced belief in a future reward and punishment obtained among
several of the Columbian tribes. The natives of Millbank Sound picture
it as two rivers guarded by huge gates, and flowing out of a dark
lake--the gloom of death. The good enter the stream to the right,
which sparkles in constant sunshine, and supplies them with an
abundance of salmon and berries; the wicked pass in to the left and
suffer cold and starvation on its bleak, snow-clad banks.[XII-20] The
Okanagans call paradise, or the abode of the good spirit,
_elemehumkillanwaist_, and hell, where those who kill and steal go,
_kishtsamah_. The torments of the latter place are increased by an
evil spirit in human form, but with tail and ears like a horse, who
jumps about from tree to tree with a stick in his hand and belabors
the condemned.[XII-21]

Some among the Salish and Chinooks describe the happy state as a
bright land, called _tamath_ by the latter, evidently situated in the
direction of the sunny south, and abounding in all good things. Here
the soul can revel in enjoyments, which, however, depend on its own
exertions; the wealthy, therefore, take slaves with them to perform
the menial duties. The wicked on the other hand are consigned to a
desolate region under the control of an evil spirit, known as the
Black Chief, there to be constantly tantalized by the sight of game,
water and fire, which they can never reach. Some held that tamath was
gained by a difficult road called _otuihuti_, which lay along the
Milky Way, while others believed that a canoe took the soul across the
water that was supposed to separate it from the land of the
living.[XII-22]

The Nez Percés, Flatheads, and some of the Haidah tribes believed that
the wicked, after expiating their crimes by a longer or shorter
sojourn in the land of desolation, were admitted to the abode of
bliss. The Haidahs called the latter place _keewuck_, 'above,' within
which seems to have been a still brighter spot termed _keewuckkow_,
'life above,' the abode of perennial youth, whither the spirit of the
fallen brave took its flight. Those who died a natural death were
consigned with the wicked to _seewukkow_, the purgatorial department,
situated in the forest, there to be purified before entering the happy
keewuck.[XII-23] The Queen Charlotte Islanders termed paradise 'the happy
hunting-ground,' a rather strange idea when we consider that their
almost sole avocation was fishing.[XII-24] The Nez Percés believed also
in a purgatory for the living, and that the beavers were men condemned
to atone their sins before they could resume the human form.[XII-25] It
seems to have been undecided whether the wives and young children
shared the fate of the head of the family; the Flatheads expressed a
belief in reunion, but that may have been after one or all had been
purified in the intermediate state. Those who sacrificed slaves on the
grave, sent them alike with the master that died gloriously on the
battle-field, or obscurely in his bed.

[Sidenote: QUAWTEAHT AND CHAYHER.]

The Ahts hold that the soul inhabits at once the heart and the head of
man. Some say that after death it will return to the animal form from
which its owner can trace his descent; others that, according to rank,
disembodied souls will go to live with Quawteaht or with Chayher.
Quawteaht inhabits a beautiful country somewhere up in the heavens,
though not directly over the earth; a goodly land flowing with all
manner of Indian milk and honey; no storms there, no snow nor frost to
bind the rivers, but only warmth and sunshine and abundant game and
fish. Here the chiefs live in the very mansion of Quawteaht, and the
slain in battle live in a neighboring lodge, enjoying also in their
degree, all the amenities of the place. And these are the only doors
to this Valhalla of the Ahts; only lofty birth or a glorious death in
battle can confer the right of entry here. The souls of those that die
a woman's death, in their bed, go down to the land of Chayher. Chayher
is a figure of flesh without bones--thus reversing our pictorial idea
of the grisly king of terrors--who is in the form of an old
gray-bearded man. He wanders about in the night stealing men's souls,
when, unless the doctors can recover the soul, the man dies. The
country of Chayher is also called chayher. It resembles a subterranean
earth but is every way an inferior country: there are no salmon there
and the deer are wretchedly small, while the blankets are so thin and
narrow as to be almost useless for either warmth or decoration. This
is why people burn blankets when burying their friends; they cannot
bear that their friend be sent shivering to the world below. The dead
Aht seems to have been allowed in some cases to roam about on earth in
the form of a person or animal, doing both good and evil, a belief
which induced many to make conciliatory offerings of food to the
deceased. Some Chinook tribes were afraid to pronounce the names of
their dead lest they should be attracted and carry off souls. This was
especially feared at the sick-bed, and the medicine-man had to be
constantly on guard with his familiars to frustrate such
attempts.[XII-26] The Aht sorcerer even sent his own soul down to
chayher to recover the truant, in which he generally succeeded, unless
the spirit of the sick man had entered a house.[XII-27] Some among the
tribes believed that the soul issued from animals, especially
sea-gulls and partridges, and would return to its original form. The
Songhies said the hunter was transformed into a deer, the fisherman
into a fish; and the Nootkas, that the spirit could reassume a human
form if the celestial abode were not to its taste.[XII-28]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE CALIFORNIANS.]

In striking contrast to the preceding beliefs in futurity, and to that
of the Clallams, who with universalistic feeling believe that the good
spirit will receive all, without exception, in his happy
hunting-ground, we are told that the Pend d'Oreilles had no
conceptions whatever of soul or immortality, so that the missionaries
found it difficult to explain these matters to them. It is certainly
strange that a tribe surrounded by and in constant contact with others
who held these ideas should have remained uninfluenced by them,
especially as they were extremely superstitious and believed in
guardian spirits and dreams.[XII-29] Disbelief in a future state is
assigned to many tribes, which upon closer examination are shown to
possess ideas of a life after this; such statements must, therefore,
be accepted with caution. Among the Californians who are said to
identify death with annihilation, are the Meewocs and the tribes of
the Sacramento Valley, yet the latter are afraid to pronounce the name
of a deceased person, lest he should rise from dark oblivion.[XII-30] But
these may be regarded as exceptions, the remainder had pretty definite
ideas of futurity, heaven being generally placed in the west, whither
the glorious sun speeds to rest. The Northern Californian regarded it
as a great camping-ground, under the charge of the good spirit, where
all meet after death, to enjoy a life free from want. But there were
dangers upon the road which led to this bliss; for Omahá, the evil
spirit, hovered near the dying man, ready to snatch and carry off the
soul as soon as it should leave its earthly tenement. To prevent such
a calamity, the friends who attended the burning of the body shouted
and gesticulated to distract the Evil One's attention and enable the
heart, in which the soul resided, to leap out of the flames and escape
to heaven. If the body was interred, they thought the devil would have
more chance of capturing the heart, which would then be sent back to
earth to annoy the living.[XII-31] The natives near the mouth of Russian
River burned their dead to prevent their becoming grizzlies, while
those about Clear Lake supposed that the wicked alone were thus
metamorphosed, or condemned to wander as spirits.[XII-32] Others,
however, who adhered to interment, sought to complete the ceremony
before night, when the coyote, in which form the evil spirit probably
appeared, begins to howl, and for three days they kept up noisy
demonstrations and fires at the graves; after that the fate of the
soul was no longer doubtful. If captured, the good spirit could redeem
it with a big knife. It was the belief in some parts that the deceased
remained in the grave during the three days, and then proceeded to
heaven, where earth and sky meet, to become stars, chiefs assuming the
most brilliant forms.[XII-33]

The bright rivers, sunny slopes, and green forests of the Euroc
paradise are separated from the earth by a deep chasm, which good and
wicked alike must cross on a thin, slippery pole. The former soon
reach the goal, aided, doubtless, by the good spirit, as well as by
the fire lighted on the grave by mourning friends, but the wicked man
has to falter unaided along the shivering bridge; and many are the
nights that pass before his friends venture to dispense with the
beacon, lest the soul miss the path, and fall into the dark abyss. Nor
does retribution end with the peril and anxiety of the passage, for
many are liable to return to the earth as birds, beasts, and insects.
When a Kailta dies, a little bird carries the soul to spirit-land, but
its flight is impeded by the sins of the wicked, which enables a
watching hawk to overtake and devour the soul.[XII-34]

The Cahrocs have a more distinct conception of future reward and
punishment, and suppose that the spirit on its journey comes to two
roads, one strewn with flowers and leading to the bright western land
beyond the great waters, across which good Chareya doubtless aids it;
the other, bristling with thorns and briars, leading to a place full
of deadly serpents, where the wicked must wander for ever.[XII-35] The
Tolewahs place heaven behind the sun, wherever that is, and picture
hell as a dark place where souls shiver for ever before the cold
winds, and are harassed by fiends.[XII-36] The Modocs believe in a
spirit-land, evidently situated in the air above the earthly home,
where souls hover about inciting the living to good or evil. Merit
appears to be measured by bodily stature, for contemptible woman
becomes so small here that the warrior, whose stature is in proportion
to his powers, requires quite a number of females to supply his
wants.[XII-37]

The Ukiahs, Sanéls, and others sprinkle food about the favorite haunts
of the dead. The mother, for instance, while chanting her mournful
ditty over the grave of her dead babe sprinkles the nourishing milk in
the air.[XII-38]

Many of the Nevada tribes thought that several heavens await the soul,
each with a degree of bliss in proportion to the merits of the dead
person; but this belief was not well defined; nor was that of the
Snakes, who killed the favorite horse, and even wife, for the
deceased, that he might not be lonely.[XII-39] The Allequas supposed that
before the soul could enter the ever-green prairies to live its second
life, free from want and sorrow, it had expiated its sins in the form
of some animal, weak, or strong, bad or good, often passing from a
lower to a higher grade, according to the earthly conduct of the
deceased. By eating prairie-dogs and other game, some sought to gather
souls, apparently with a view to increase the purity of their own and
shorten the preparatory term.[XII-40] The San Diego tribes, on the other
hand, who considered large game as the embodied spirits of certain
generations, abstained from their flesh, evidently fearing that such
fare would hasten their metamorphosis; but old men, whose term of life
was nearly run, were not deterred by these fears.

[Sidenote: METEMPSYCHOSIS IN CALIFORNIA.]

Ideas of metempsychosis also appear in one of the songs of a Southern
Californian tribe, which runs: As the moon dies to be reborn, so the
soul of man will be renewed. Yet this people professed no belief in a
future reward, or punishment. It is doubtless the same people, living
near Monterey, of whom Marmier says, they supposed that the dead
retired to certain verdant isles in the sea, while awaiting the birth
of the infants whose souls they were to form. Others regarded these
islands as paradise, and placed hell in a mountain chasm.[XII-41]

Among the Acagchemems we meet with a peculiar pantheistic notion.
Death was regarded as an invisible entity constituting the air, which
also formed the soul of man, or his breath, whose particular seat was
the heart. As man became decrepit, his soul was gradually absorbed in
the element which had originated it, until it finally became merged
and lost therein. But this was the belief of some only among the
tribe. Others supposed that they would go to _tolmec_, the abode of
the great Chinigchinich, situated below the earth, abounding in
sensual pleasures, unembittered by sorrow, and where food and other
wants were supplied without labor. Still others held that
Chinigchinich sent the soul, or the heart, as they expressed it, to
different places, according to the station in life and manner of death
of the deceased. Thus, chiefs and medicine-men, whom Tacu, the eater
of human flesh, honored by devouring, became heavenly bodies, while
those who died by drowning, or in captivity, and could not be eaten by
Tacu, went elsewhere. Souls of common people were consigned to some
undefined, though evidently happy, place, since they were obliged to
pass a probationary term on the borders of the sea, on mountains, in
valleys, or forests, whence they came to commune with, or among, their
widows or relatives, who often burned or razed the house to be saved
from such visits.[XII-42]

The Mojaves have more liberal ideas and admit all to share the joys of
heaven. With the smoke curling upwards from the pyre, the soul rises
and floats eastward to the regions of the rising sun, whither Matevil
has gone before, and where a second earth-life awaits it, free from
want and sorrow. But if its purity be sullied by crime, or stained
with human blood, the soul is transformed into a rat and must remain
for four days in a rat-hole to be purified before Matevil can receive
it. According to some, Matevil dwells in a certain lofty mountain
lying in the Mojave territory.[XII-43]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF MARICOPAS, YUMAS, APACHES, MOQUIS.]

The Pimas also believe that the soul[XII-44] goes to the east, to the
sun-house perhaps, there to live with Sehuiab, the son of the
creator, but this Elysium is not perfect, for a devil called Chiawat
is admitted there, and he greatly plagues the inmates.[XII-45] The
Maricopas are stated in one account to believe in a future state
exactly similar to the life on earth, with all its social distinctions
and wants, so that in order to enable the soul to assume its proper
position among the spirits, all the property of the deceased, as well
as a great part of that of his relatives, is offered up at the grave.
But according to Bartlett they think the dead will return to their
ancient home on the banks of the Colorado, and live on the sand hills.
Here the different parts of the body will be transformed into animals,
the head, for instance, becoming an owl, the hands, bats, the feet,
wolves, and in these forms continue their ancient feuds with the
Yumas, who expelled them from that country.[XII-46] The Yumas, however,
do not conform to these views, but expect that the good soul will
leave worldly strife for a pleasant valley hidden in one of the cañons
of the Colorado, and that the wicked will be shut up in a dark cavern
to be tantalized by the view of the bliss beyond their reach.[XII-47]

The Apaches believe in metempsychosis and consider the rattlesnake as
the form to be assumed by the wicked after death. The owl, the eagle,
and perfectly white birds, were regarded as possessing souls of divine
origin, and the bear was not less sacred in their estimation, for the
very daughter of Montezuma, whom it had carried off from her father's
home, was the mother of its race.[XII-48] The Moquis, went so far as to
suppose that they would return to the primeval condition of animals,
plants, and inanimate objects.[XII-49] The faith of the other Pueblo
tribes in New Mexico was more in accordance with their cultured
condition, namely, that the soul would be judged immediately after
death according to its deeds. Food was placed with the dead, and
stones were thrown upon the body to drive out the evil spirit. On a
certain night, in August it seems, the soul haunted the hills near its
former home to receive the tributes of food and drink which
affectionate friends hastened to offer. Scoffers connected the
disappearance of the choice viands with the rotund form of the
priests.[XII-50]

The Navajos expected to return to their place whence they originated,
below the earth, where all kinds of fruits and cereals, germinated
from the seeds lost above, grow in unrivaled luxuriance. Released from
their earthly bonds the spirits proceed to an extensive marsh in which
many a soul is bemired through relying too much on its own efforts,
and failing to ask the aid of the great spirit; or, perhaps the outfit
of live stock and implements offered at the grave has been inadequate
to the journey. After wandering about for four days the more fortunate
souls come to a ladder conducting to the under world; this they
descend and are gladdened by the sight of two great spirits, male and
female, who sit combing their hair. After looking on for a few suns
imbibing lessons of cleanliness, perhaps, they climb up to the swamp
again to be purified, and then return to the abode of the spirits to
live in peace and plenty for ever. Some believe that the bad become
coyotes, and that women turn into fishes, and then into other
forms.[XII-51]

Among the Comanches we find the orthodox American paradise, in its
full glory. In the direction of the setting sun lie the happy
prairies, where the buffalo lead the hunter in the glorious chase, and
where the horse of the pale-face aids those who have excelled in
scalping and horse-stealing, to attain supreme felicity. At night they
are permitted to revisit the earth, but must return before the break
of day.[XII-52] In striking contrast to this idea stands the curious
belief said to have been held by the Pericúis of Lower California.
Their great spirit Niparaya hated war, and to deter his people from
engaging therein, consigned all those slain in battle to Tuparan or
Wac, a spirit who rising in rebellion against the peace-loving
Niparaya was deprived of all luxuries, and imprisoned in a cave by the
sea, guarded by whales. Yet a number openly professed themselves
adherents of this personage. The Cochimís, who appear to have had
nearly the same belief, declare that it was the bad spirits who sought
to secure the soul and hold it captive in the cave. Whatever may be
the correct version, their belief in a future state, says Baegert, is
evident from the custom of putting sandals on the feet of the
dead.[XII-53]

[Sidenote: THE REALM OF MUCCHITA.]

The souls of the Sonora Indians dwell in the caves and among the rocks
of the cliffs, and the echoes heard there are their clamoring
voices.[XII-54] Ribas declares that in one part of Sinaloa a future state
was ignored, yet he says that they acknowledged a supreme mother and
her son, who was the first man.[XII-55] In Nayarit we come upon the
Mexican idea of different heavens, determined by the mode of death.
Thus, children and those who were carried off by disease went to one
place; those who died a violent death, to the air regions, where they
became shooting stars. The others went to _mucchita_, placed somewhere
in the district of Rosario, where they lived under the care of men
with shaven heads. During the day they were allowed to consort with
the living, in the form of flies, to seek food; but at night they
returned to the mucchita to assume the human form and pass the time
in dancing. At one time they could be released from this abode, but
owing to the imprudence of one man, this privilege was lost. This
person one day made a trip to the coast to procure salt, leaving his
wife to take care of the house. After a short absence he returned, in
time only to see her disappear in the mucchita, whither the spirits
had beckoned her. His sorrow was boundless, for he loved his wife
dearly. At last his tears and sighs touched the heart of the keeper of
the souls, who told him to watch for his wife one night when she
appeared in the dance, and wound her with an arrow: she would then
recognize him and return home; but he warned him not to speak a loud
word, or she would disappear forever. The man did as he was told,
wounded his wife on the leg, and had the joy to see her return home.
Musicians and singers were called in, and a grand feast was held to
celebrate the event; but, overcome with excitement, the husband gave
vent to a shout of joy. The next moment the warning of the keeper was
verified--a ghastly corpse had taken the place of the wife. Since then
no other soul has been allowed to rejoin the living.[XII-56] It is
curious to note in how many countries the doctrine of a future life
has been connected with the legend of some hero who has died,
descended into the under-world, and again risen to life. How closely
does this American legend resemble the old story of Orpheus and
Eurydice; the death and resurrection of the Egyptian Osiris; the
Mithraic Mysteries of Persia, in which the initiated, in dumb show,
died and rose again from the coffin; the Indian Mahadeva searching for
the lifeless Sita, and made glad by his resuscitation; the recovery of
Atys by Cybele among the Phrygians; the return of Kore to Demeter for
half of every year in the Elusinian Mysteries; the mock murder and new
birth of the impersonated Zagreus, in the Bacchic Mysteries; the
Metamorphoses in the Celtic and Druidic Mysteries practiced in Gaul
and Britain; all are different forms of but one idea.

[Sidenote: EICUT AND YOÁTOTOWEE.]

An equally devoted husband was the Neeshenam whose story is told by Mr
Powers in the following legend:--"First of all things existed the
moon. The moon created man, some say in the form of a stone, others
say in the form of a simple, straight, hairless, limbless mass of
flesh, like an enormous earth-worm, from which he gradually developed
into his present shape. The first man thus created was called Eicut;
his wife, Yoátotowee. In process of time Yoátotowee fell sick, and
though Eicut nursed her tenderly, she gradually faded away before his
eyes and died. He loved her with a love passing the love of brothers,
and now his heart was broken with grief. He dug a grave for her close
beside his camp-fire (for the Neeshenams did not burn the dead then),
that he might daily and hourly weep above her silent dust. His grief
knew no bounds. His life became a burden to him; all the light was
gone out of his eyes, and all this world was black and dreary. He
wished to die, that he might follow his beloved Yoátotowee. In the
greatness of his grief he fell into a trance, there was a rumbling in
the ground, and the spirit of the dead Yoátotowee arose out of her
grave and came and stood beside him. When he awoke out of his trance
and beheld his wife, he would have spoken to her, but she forbade him,
for in what moment an Indian speaks to a ghost he dies. She turned
away and set out to seek the spirit-land (_oóshwooshe koom_,
literally, 'the dance-house of ghosts.') Eicut followed her, but the
ghost turned and said, 'why do you follow me? you are not dead.' They
journeyed on through a great country and a darksome--a land that no
man has seen and returned to report--until they came to a river that
separated them from the spirit-land. Over this river there was a
bridge of one small rope, so very narrow that a spider could hardly
cross over it. Here the spirit of Yoátotowee must bid farewell to her
husband and go over alone into the spirit-land. But the great
unspeakable grief of Eicut at beholding his wife leaving him forever
overcame his love of life, and he called aloud after her. In that
self-same instant he died--for no Indian can speak to a ghost and
live--and together they entered the land of spirits. Thus Eicut passed
away from the realm of earth, and in the invisible world became a good
and quiet spirit, who constantly watches over and befriends his
posterity still living on earth. But he and his wife left behind them
two children, a brother and a sister; and to prevent incest the moon
created another pair and from these two pairs are descended all the
Neeshenams of to-day."[XII-57]

[Sidenote: THE SUN HOUSE AND TLALOCAN.]

The future abode of the Mexicans had three divisions to which the dead
were admitted according to their rank in life and manner of death.
Glorious as was the fate of the warrior who died in the cause of his
country, on the battle-field, or in the hands of the enemy's priests,
still more glorious was the destiny that awaited his soul. The fallen
Viking was carried by radiant Valkyries to Valhalla, but the Aztec
hero was borne in the arms of Teoyaomique herself, the consort of
Huitzilopochtli, to the bright plains of the sun-house, in the eastern
part of the heavens, where shady groves, trees loaded with luscious
fruit, and flowers steeped in honey, vied with the attractions of vast
hunting-parks, to make his time pass happily. Here also awaited him
the presents sent by affectionate friends below. Every morning when
the sun set out upon his journey, these bright strong warriors seized
their weapons[XII-58] and marched before him, shouting and fighting sham
battles. This continued until they reached the zenith, where the sun
was transferred to the charge of the Celestial Women, after which the
warriors dispersed to the chase or the shady grove. The members of
the new escort were women who had died in war or child-bed, and lived
in the western part of the Sun House. Dressed like the warriors in
martial accoutrement,[XII-59] they conducted the sun to his home, some
carrying the litter of quetzal feathers in which he reclined, while
others went in front shouting and fighting gaily. Arrived at the
extreme west they transferred the sun to the dead of Mictlan, and went
in quest of their spindles, shuttles, baskets, and other implements
necessary for weaving or household work.[XII-60] The only other persons
who are mentioned as being admitted to the Sun House, were merchants
who died on their journey. After four years of this life the souls of
the warriors pass into birds of beautiful plumage, which live on the
honey of flowers growing in the celestial gardens or seek their
sustenance on earth.[XII-61]

The second place of bliss was Tlalocan, the abode of Tlaloc, a
terrestrial paradise, the source of the rivers and all the nourishment
of the earth, where joy reigns and sorrow is unknown,[XII-62] where every
imaginable product of the field and garden grows in profusion beneath
a perpetual summer sky. This paradise appears to have been erected on
the ideal reminiscences of the happy Tollan, the cradle of the race,
where their fathers reveled in riches and splendor. To this place
went those who had been killed by lightning, the drowned, those
suffering from itch, gout, tumors, dropsy, leprosy and other incurable
diseases. Children also, at least those who were sacrificed to the
Tlalocs, played about in its gardens, and once a year they descended
among the living in an invisible form to join in their festivals.[XII-63]
It is doubtful, however, whether this paradise was perpetual, for
according to some authors the diseased stayed here but a short time,
and then passed on to Mictlan; while the children, balked of their
life by death or sacrifice, were allowed to essay it again.[XII-64]

[Sidenote: MICTLAN.]

The third destination of the dead, provided for those who died of
ordinary diseases or old age, and, accordingly, for the great
majority, was Mictlan, 'the place of the dead,' which is described as
a vast, pathless place, a land of darkness and desolation, where the
dead after their time of probation are sunk in a sleep that knows no
waking. In addressing the corpse they spoke of this place of Mictlan
as a 'most obscure land, where light cometh not, and whence none can
ever return.'[XII-65] There are several points, however, given by
Sahagun, as well as other writers, which tend to modify this aspect of
Mictlan. The lords and nobles seem even here to have kept up the
barriers which separated them from the contaminating touch of
inferiors, and doubtless the good and respectable were classed apart
from low miscreants and criminals, for there were nine divisions in
Mictlan, of which Chicohnahuimictlan or Ninth-Mictlan, was the abode
of the Aztec Pluto and his Proserpine. This name seems also to have
been applied to the whole region, meaning then the nine Mictlans.[XII-66]
The different idol-mantles in which the dead person was attired,
determined by his profession and by his manner of death, would imply
that different gods had control of these divisions.[XII-67] Whatever
distinction there may have been was kept up by the humbler or richer
offerings of food, clothing, implements, and slaves, made at the time
of the burial, at the end of eighty days, and on the first, second
third, and fourth anniversary of the death; all of which went before
Mictlantecutli before being turned over to the use of the person for
whom they were destined.[XII-68] In one place Sahagun states that four
years were passed in traveling before the soul reached Mictlan, and on
another page he distinctly implies that this term was passed within
that region, when he says that the dead awoke from their sleep as the
sun reached the western horizon, and rose to escort it through their
land; Torquemada says that four days were occupied in the
journey.[XII-69] The only way to reconcile these statements is by
supposing that the soul passed from one division to another, until it
finally, at the end of the four years, reached Mictlan proper, or
Ninth-Mictlan, and attained repose. Their duties during this term
consisting in escorting the sun, and working like their happier
brethren in the Sun House, besides passing a certain time in sleep.
The fact that the people besought the dead to visit them during the
festival in their honor, implies that they were within Mictlan, though
their liberty there, at that season, at least, was not so very
restricted. 'As they helped to escort the sun, we must suppose that
they also enjoyed the blessings of sunshine while terrestrial beings
slept, and the expression of Tezozomoc, a place where none knows
whether it be night or day, a place of eternal rest,' must refer to
those only who have passed the time of probation, and lapsed into the
final sleep. It may be however, that the sun was lustreless at night,
for Camargo states that it slept after its journey.[XII-70] If so, the
dim twilight noticed among the northern people, or the moon, the deity
of the night, must have replaced the obscured brightness of the sun,
if lights indeed were needed, for the escort and the workers could
scarcely have used artificial illumination. The route of the sun
further indicates that Mictlan was situated in the antipodean regions,
or rather in the centre of the earth, to which the term 'dark and
pathless regions' also applies. This is the supposition of Clavigero,
who bases it on the fact that Tlalxicco, the name of Mictlantecutli's
temple, signifies center or bowels of the earth.[XII-71] But Sahagun and
others place it in the north, and support this assertion by showing
that _Mictlampa_ signified north.[XII-72] The fact that the people turned
the face to the north when calling upon the dead,[XII-73] is strongly in
favor of this theory; the north is also the dark quarter. These
apparently contradictory statements may be reconciled by supposing
that Mictlan was situated in the northern part of the subterranean
regions, as the home of the heroes was in the eastern part of the
heavens.

As the warrior in the Sun House passes after four years of perfect
enjoyment into a seemingly less happy state, so the Mictlan
probationer appears to have abandoned his work for a condition of
everlasting repose.[XII-74] This condition is already indicated by the
very signification of the name Mictlan, 'place of the dead,' and by
the preceding statements; it also implied by the myth of the creation
of man, wherein the god-heroes say to Xolotl: Go beg of
Mictlantecutli, Lord of Hades, that he may give thee a bone or some
ashes of the dead that are with him.[XII-75]

[Sidenote: THE JOURNEY OF THE DEAD.]

I will now revert to the terrible four days' journey,[XII-76] which those
who were unfortunate enough to die a peaceful death had to perform
before they could attain their negative happiness. Fully impressed
with the idea of its hardships, the friends of the deceased held it to
be a religious duty to provide him with a full outfit of food,
clothing, implements, and even slaves, to enable him to pass safely
through the ordeal. Idols were also deposited by his side, and if the
dead man were a lord, his chaplain was sent to attend to their
service. This maintenance of worship during the journey is also
implied by the sprinkling of water upon the ashes with the words: Let
the dead wash himself.[XII-77] The officiating priests, laid, besides,
passports with the body, which were to serve for various points
along the road. The first papers passed him by two mountains, which,
like the symplegades, threatened to meet and crush him in their
embrace. The second was a pass for the road guarded by a big snake;
the other papers took him by the green crocodile, Xochitonal, across
eight deserts, and over eight hills. Then came the freezing
_itzehecaya_, 'wind of knives,' which hurls stones and knives upon
the traveler, who now more than ever finds the offerings of his
friends of service. How the poor soul escaped this ordeal is not
stated. Lastly he came to the broad river Chiconahuapan 'nine waters,'
which could be crossed only upon the back of a dog of reddish color,
which was killed for this purposes by thrusting an arrow down its
throat, and was burnt with the corpse. According to Gomara, the dog
served for a guide to Mictlan, but other authors state that it
preceded its master, and when he arrived at the river, he found it on
the opposite bank, waiting with a number of others for their owners.
As soon as the dog recognized its master, it swam over, and bore him
safely across the rushing current. A cotton string tied round its neck
when placed upon the pyre may have served to distinguish it from other
dogs, or as a passport.[XII-78] The traveler was now taken before
Mictlantecutli, to whom he presented the passports together with gifts
consisting of candlewood, perfume-canes, soft threads of plain and
colored cotton, a piece of cloth, a mantle and other articles of
clothing, and was thereupon assigned to his sphere. Women underwent
the same ordeal.[XII-79] Camargo mentions a paradise above the nine
heavens, occupied by the goddess of love, where dwarfs, fools, and
hunchbacks danced and sang for her amusement, but whether these beings
were of human or divine origin is not stated.[XII-80] At times the old
chroniclers consider Mictlan as a place of punishment,[XII-81] but the
priests in their homilies never appear to have urged repentance for
the purpose of escaping future punishment, but merely to avoid earthly
inflictions, visited upon them or their children.[XII-82] The
philanthropist whose whole life had been one continuous act of
benevolence, the wise prince who had lived but for his country's good,
the saintly hermit, the pious priest who had passed his days in
perpetual fasts, penance, and self-torture, all were consigned to
Mictlan, together with the drunkard, the murderer, the thief, and none
were exempt from the terrible journey, or from the long probation
which ends in eternal sleep. They may have accounted to themselves for
the manifest unfairness of this system by means of their belief in
predestination, which taught that the sign under which a man was born
determined to a great extent, if not entirely, his character, career,
and consequently his future.[XII-83] Mictlan cannot, therefore, be
regarded as a hell; it is but a place of negative punishment, a
Nirvâna, in which the soul is at last blown out and lost.[XII-84]

[Sidenote: THE FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS.]

The Tlascaltecs supposed that the souls of people of rank entered
after death into the bodies of the higher animals, or even into clouds
and gems, while common souls passed into lower animal forms.[XII-85]
With the Mexicans they believed that little children who died were
given another trial of earth-life.[XII-86] In Goatzacoalco the bones of
the dead were so placed that the soul might have no difficulty in
finding them.[XII-87] In the Aztec creation-myth we have seen that out
of bone man was formed, and Brinton considers this, together with
instances of the careful preservation of remains to be noticed in
different parts of America, evidence of a widespread belief that the
soul resided in the bones. This receives further confirmation in the
Quiché legend which relates that the bones of certain heroes were
ground to powder to prevent their removal.[XII-88] Yet the idea does not
accord with the Mexican custom of placing a stone between the lips of
the dead to serve as heart, and, doubtless, to hold the soul as the
Quichés supposed. Either instance, however, implies a belief in
several souls, although no reference is made to such plurality. The
Tlascaltecs had guardian spirits which were embodied in the idols
called _tepictoton_, and Camargo mentions angels who inhabited the air
and influenced thunder, winds, and other phenomena, and who were
doubtless the children of Tlalocan.[XII-89] A devil they could scarcely
have had, for evil mingled too liberally in the nature of most of the
Mexican gods to admit of its personification by one alone. The nearest
approach to our Satan was to be found in a phantom called
Tlacatecolotl, the 'owlish one'[XII-90] who roamed about doing mischief;
to see an owl was accordingly held to be an evil sign, and much
dreaded. Will o' the wisps were regarded as transformed wizards and
witches, or animals.[XII-91] The Tlascaltecs supposed that the sparks
which sped away from the craters of volcanoes were the souls of
tyrants sent forth by the gods to torment the people.[XII-92]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE OTOMIS, MIZTECS, AND MAYAS.]

The Otomís believed that the soul died with the body,[XII-93] while the
Tarascos, according to Herrera, admitted a future judgment, with its
accompaniments of heaven and hell, but to judge from their burial
customs, with immolation of attendants, term of mourning, and so
forth, it would appear that they had the same belief as the
Aztecs.[XII-94]

The Miztecs placed the gates of paradise within the cavern of
Chalcatongo, and the grandees of the kingdom were therefore eager to
be buried within its precincts, in order to be near the abode of
bliss. The Zapotecs placed the heavenly portals within the cave of
Mictlan. Their heaven must accordingly have been situated within the
earth, although the custom of placing the dead with their feet towards
the east indicates that it lay toward the sunny morning land. The
common people at least seem, like the Aztecs, to have been required to
pass a probationary term before entering the holy place, and during
this period they were permitted to visit their friends on earth once a
year, and partake of the repast spread for them. The Zapotecs gave as
a reason for interring the dead, that those who were burned failed to
reach heaven.[XII-95]

* * * * *

The Mayas believed in a place of everlasting delight, where the good
should recline in voluptuous repose beneath the shade of the
_yaxché_,[XII-96] indulging in dainty food and delicious drinks. Those
who died by hanging were especially sure of admittance to this
paradise, for their goddess Ixtab carried them thither herself, and
many enthusiasts committed suicide with this expectation. The wicked,
on the other hand, descended into Mitnal,[XII-97] a sphere below this,
where hunger and other torments awaited them. Cacao money was laid
with the body to pay its way, and frequent offerings of food were
made, but the funeral was not proceeded with until the fifth day, when
the soul had entered its sphere. A trace of metempsychosis may be
noticed in the superstitious belief that sorcerers transformed people
into animals.[XII-98]

Whether the Quichés believed in a future reward and punishment is
uncertain, for on the one hand we are told that Xibalba, which implies
a place of terror, was their hell, where ruled two princes bearing the
suggestive names of One Death and Seven Deaths; while, on the other
hand, the sacrifice of slaves and other objects, implies a negative
punishment. A gentle, unwarlike tribe of Guatemala is said to have had
a belief similar to that of the Pericuis, namely that a future life
was accorded to those only who died a natural death, and, therefore,
they left the bodies of the slain to beasts and vultures.[XII-99] The
Pipiles appear to have looked forward to the same future abodes as the
Mexicans, and to the same dreadful journey after death. During the
four days and four nights that the soul was on the road, the mourners
wailed deeply, probably with fear for its safety, but on the fifth
day, when the priest announced that it had reached the goal, the
lamentation ceased. During this time also, the mother whose infant had
departed withheld the milk from all other children, lest the thirsty
little wanderer should be angry, and smite the usurper.[XII-100] The
probationary routine of the spirits appears to have called them to the
earth at intervals, for a legend of the isles of Lake Ilopango
recounts that at certain times of the year spectre barks glide in
silence over the tranquil waters of the lake, anointing every island
from the least to the greatest, offering upon each to some bloody
divinity of past times a human victim, an infant chosen by lot.[XII-101]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE NICARAGUANS.]

The same view of futurity was taken by the Nicaraguans, who thought
that the souls[XII-102] of slain warriors went to the sunrise regions,
the abode of Tamagostat and Cipattonal, who welcomed them with the
title of 'our children.' But all the good, that is those who had
obeyed and reverenced the gods, were admitted here, whether warriors
or not, and strong must have been their faith in the bliss that
awaited them, for the virgins, says Andagoya, who were cast as
offerings into the seething lava streams of the volcano met their fate
without fear.[XII-103] The wicked were doomed to annihilation in the
abode of Miquetanteot.[XII-104] Infants who died before they were
weaned returned to the house of their parents to be cared for,
evidently in spirit form.[XII-105] The Mosquitos believe in one heaven
only, and this is open to all; for it they prepare at the very
beginning of life by tying a little bag of seeds round the neck of the
infant, wherewith to pay the ferriage across the great river beyond
which paradise lies.[XII-106] In and about Veragua death means
annihilation, and no food is left for the dead. In some places the
dying are carried out to the woods and abandoned to wild
beasts.[XII-107] In Costa Rica and Darien slaves and even wives are
sacrificed that their souls may serve their lords in heaven.[XII-108]

Writing on the customs of Dabaiba, Peter Martyr says: 'They are such
simple men, that they know not how to call the soule, nor vnderstand
the power thereof: whereupon, they often talk among themselues with
admiration what that inuisible and not intelligible essence might bee,
whereby the members of men and brute beastes should be moued: I know
not what secret thing they say, should liue after the corporall life.
That (I know not what) they beleeue that after this peregrination, if
it liued without spott, and reserued that masse committed vnto it
without iniury done to any, it shoulde goe to a certayne æternall
felicity: contrary, if it shall suffer the same to be corrupted with
any filthy lust, violent rapine, or raging furie, they say, it shall
finde a thousande tortures in rough and vnpleasant places vnder the
Center: and speaking these things, lifting vpp their the handes they
shewe the heauens, and after that casting right hand down, they poynt
to the wombe of the earth'! Their belief in a future punishment he
further illustrates by relating that 'the thicke spott seene in the
globe of the Moone, at the full, is a mann, and they beleeue hee was
cast out to the moyst, and colde Circle of the Moone, that hee might
perpetually bee tormented betweene those two passions, in suffering
colde, and moysture, for incest committed with his sister.'[XII-109]

* * * * *

The following myths, for which I am indebted to the kindness and
industrious investigation of Mr Powers, having come to hand too late
for insertion in their proper places I avail myself of the
opportunity to give them here:--There dwells, say the Neeshenams, upon
the hills and in the forests, a ghost named Bóhem Cülleh, which is at
once man and woman. It is a bad spirit, but nevertheless a useful one
to those who seek its aid, and these are mostly bad people. Sometimes
in the night its wierd eldritch cry is heard in the forest, and then
some woman about to be overtaken in dishonest childbirth goes out into
the woods alone, with her shame and her pangs upon her, and having
brought forth, presently returns, crying and lamenting that the wicked
ghost met and overcame her and that she has conceived of the spirit.
Or perhaps it is a man who has wrought an evil thing who makes this
bad spirit responsible for his wickedness. Either a man or a woman
wandering alone in the forest is exposed to the enticements of the
ghost Bóhem Cülleh, to commit fornication with it.

[Sidenote: THE COYOTE'S ELOPEMENT.]

'The Coyote's Elopement' forms the subject of another Neeshenam tale.
It is as follows--The coyote and the bat were one day gathering the
soft-shelled nuts of the sugar pine, when there came along two
women-deer (the only way they have of expressing 'female deer'), who
were the wives of pigeons. The coyote, upon this, took a handful of
pitch and besmeared the bat's eyes so that it could not see. The poor
bat was totally blinded, but it called upon the wind to blow, and its
eyes were opened a little, as we see them to-day. Meantime the
rascally coyote eloped with the two women-deer. But it was not long
before they came to a bridge so extremely narrow that they could not
pass over it. Just then there came along a quail, and he took the two
women-deer and led them across, leaving the bigamous coyote in the
lurch. No sooner had they crossed than the sister of the pigeons took
the quail away to his mother's camp, and thus the women-deer were set
at liberty, and recovered by their husbands, the pigeons.

"In this story," says Mr Powers, "as in many others, we have something
analogous to the were-wolves and swan-maidens of the medieval legends.
It also illustrates the Indian belief in the common origin of all
animals. Their favorite theory is, that the man originated from the
coyote, and the woman from the deer. Wherefore this story probably
gives us a glimpse of the first courtship recorded of the human race,
when the animals had so developed, strictly in accordance with the
Darwinian programme, that man was about to appear upon the scene. The
failure of the coyote's elopement delayed that auspicious event a
little while."

Another Neeshenam legend relates that there was once a medicine-man
who possessed the wonderful faculty of turning himself into a bear for
a brief season. When one of his patients was extremely ill, and,
according to custom, he sucked him to extract the injurious matter, he
would presently be seized with a spasm. Falling upon all fours, he
would find his hands and feet sprawled along the ground in plantigrade
fashion, his nails would grow long and sharp, a short tail would
sprout forth, hair would spring up all over his body, in short he
would become a raging, roaring bear. When the spasm had passed away,
he would return to the human form.

According to yet another Neeshenam tradition, there lived long, long
ago a very terrible old man, whose chief delight it was to kill and
devour Indians. He had stone mortars in which he pounded the flesh to
make it tender for eating. Far down on the Sacramento plains, thirty
or forty miles away, he and his wife lived together, and around their
wigwam the blood of Indians lay a foot deep. The Indians all made war
on them and tried to kill them, but they could do nothing against
them. Then at last the Old Coyote took pity on the Indians whom he had
created, and he determined to kill this old man. He was accustomed to
go into the great round dance-house when the Indians were assembled
within it, and slay the chief. So the Old Coyote dug a deep hole just
outside the door, and hid himself in it, armed with a big knife. The
knife was just on a level with the ground, and when the old man came
along, going into the dance-house, he saw it, and gave a kick at it,
but did not notice the Coyote, who immediately jumped out of his
hole, ran into the dance-house, and killed the old man.

This story, Mr Powers thinks probably refers to some long extinct race
of cannibals who were superior in power to the present race. "To
them," he says, "may be assigned the stone mortars found in so many
parts of California, which the Indians now living here confessedly did
not make. Others account for these stone mortars by saying they were
made by the chief of the spirits, Haylin Kakeeny, and his
subordinates."

[Sidenote: SHASTA LEGENDS.]

The following queer legends are, on the indisputable authority of Mr
Powers, of Shasta origin: The world was created by Old Groundmole,
_ídidoc_, a huge animal that heaved creation into existence on its
back, by rooting underneath somewhere. When the flood came it
destroyed all animals except a squirrel, as large as a bear, which
exists to this day on a mountain called by the Shastas, Wakwaynuma,
near Happy Camp.

A long time ago there was a fire-stone in the distant east, white and
glistening, like the purest quartz; and the coyote journeyed east,
brought this fire-stone and gave it to the Indians, and that was the
origin of fire.

Originally the sun had nine brothers, all, like himself, flaming hot
with fire, so that the world was like to perish; but the coyote slew
nine of the brothers, and thus saved mankind from burning up. The moon
also had nine brothers, all like to himself, made of the coldest ice,
so that in the night people went near to freeze to death. But the
coyote went away out on the eastern edge of the world with a mighty
big knife of flint stone, heated stones to keep his hands warm, then
laid hold of the nine moons, one after another, and slew them
likewise, and thus men got warm again.

When it rains, there is some Indian sick in heaven, weeping. Long,
long ago there was a good young Indian on earth, and when he died all
the Indians cried so much that a flood came on the earth and rose up
to heaven, and drowned all people except one couple.

The Chénposels relate that there was once a man who loved two women,
and wished to marry them. Now, these two women were magpies,
_atchatch_, and they loved him not, but laughed his wooing to scorn.
Then he fell into a rage and cursed these two women that were magpies
and went far away to the north, and there he set the world on fire,
made for himself a tule boat in which he escaped to sea, and was never
heard of more. But the fire which he had kindled burned with a mighty
burning. It ate its way south with terrible swiftness, licking up all
things that are on earth--men, trees, rocks, animals, water, and even
the ground itself. But the Old Coyote saw the burning and smoke from
his place far in the south, and he ran with all his might to put it
out. He took two little boys in a sack on his back, and ran north like
the wind. So fast did he run that he gave out just as he got to the
fire, and dropped the two little boys. But he took Indian sugar (honey
dew) in his mouth, chewed it up, spat it on the fire and put it out.
Now the fire was out, but the Coyote was very thirsty, but there was
no water, so he took Indian sugar again, chewed it up, dug a hole in
the bottom of the creek, covered up the sugar in it, and it turned to
water, and the earth thus had water again. But the two little boys
cried because they were lonely for there was nobody on earth. Then the
Coyote made a sweat-house, and split up a great number of little
sticks, which he laid in the sweat-house over night; in the morning
they were all turned into men and women, so the two little boys had
company, and the earth was repeopled.[XII-110]

[Sidenote: SUN-MYTH OF THE PALLAWONAPS.]

I conclude with a sun-myth of the Pallawonaps, who lived on Kern River
in Southern California:--Pokòh made all things. Long ago the sun was
a man. The sun is bad and wishes to kill all things, but the moon is
good. The sun's rays are arrows, and he gives a bundle to every
creature, more to the lion, fewer to the coyote, etc.; but to none
does he give an arrow that will slay a man. The coyote wished to go to
the sun, and he asked Pokòh the road. Pokòh pointed out to him a good
road, and the coyote traveled on it all day, but the sun turned round,
so he traveled in a circle, and came back at night to the place whence
he had started in the morning. A second time he asked Pokòh, and a
second time he came back in a circle. Then Pokòh told him to go
straight to the eastern edge of the earth, and wait there until the
sun came up. So the coyote went and sat down on the hole where the sun
came up, with his back turned to the east, and kept pointing with his
arrow in every direction, pretending he was going to shoot. The sun
came up under him, and told him to get out of the way. But the coyote
sat there until it became so warm that he was obliged to coil up his
tail under him. Then he began to get thirsty, and asked the sun for
water. The sun gave him an acorn-cup full, but this did not satisfy
the coyote's great thirst. Next his shoulders began to get warm, so he
spat on his paws and rubbed his back with them. Then he said to the
sun, Why do you come up here, meddling with me? But the sun said, I am
not meddling with you; I am traveling where I have a right to travel.
The coyote told him to go round some other way, that that was his
road, but the sun insisted on going straight up. Then the coyote
wanted to go up with him, so the good-natured sun took him along.
Presently they came to a path with steps like a ladder, and as the sun
went up he counted the steps; when they got up above the world, the
coyote found it getting hot and wanted to jump down, but the distance
was too great. By noon the sun was very hot and bright, and he told
the coyote to shut his eyes. He did so, but he opened them quickly
again, and so kept opening and shutting them all the afternoon, to see
how fast the sun was sliding down. When the sun came down to the
earth in the west, the coyote jumped off on to a tree, and so
clambered down to the ground.[XII-111]

* * * * *

Such are the Myths of the Farthest West, such the endeavors of these
men unenlightened, according to our ideas of enlightenment, to define
the indefinable, such the result of their 'yearning after the gods.'
Most of their myths and beliefs are extravagant, childish,
meaningless, to our understanding of them, but doubtless our myths
would be the same to them. From the beginning of time men have
grappled with shadows, have accounted for material certainties by
immaterial uncertainties. Let us be content to gather and preserve
these perishable phantoms now; they will be very curious relics in the
day of the triumph of substance.

FOOTNOTES:

[XII-1] 'The preconceived opinions,' says Brinton, 'that saw in the
meteorological myths of the Indian a conflict between the Spirit of
Good and the Spirit of Evil, have with like unconscious error
falsified his doctrine of a future life, and almost without an
exception drawn it more or less in the likeness of a Christian heaven,
hell, and purgatory.... Nowhere was any well-defined doctrine that
moral turpitude was judged and punished in the next world. No contrast
is discoverable between a place of torments and a realm of joy; at the
worst, but a negative castigation awaited the liar, the coward, or the
niggard.' _Myths_, p. 242.

[XII-2] _Prehistoric Times_, p. 139.

[XII-3] See vol. ii., pp. 618, 623.

[XII-4] _Myths_, p. 257.

[XII-5] See p. 59, this volume.

[XII-6] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Nic._, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii.,
tom. iii. p. 36; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 74; _Id._,
_Ortsnamen_, p. 159; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Gram. Quiché_, p. 196;
_Brinton's Myths_, p. 49-52, 235.

[XII-7] Vol. ii., pp. 606, 799, of this work.

[XII-8] _Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 22.

[XII-9] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 145, 422.

[XII-10] Barrett-Lennard says, however: 'Those that die a natural death
are condemned to dwell for ages among the branches of tall trees.'
_Trav._, p. 54. 'Careciese de algunas ideas religiosas, y viviese
persuadido de la total aniquilacion del hombre con la muerte.' _Sutil
y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. cxviii. It is doubtful whether the latter
class is composed of the spirits of men, or merely of marine animals.
See this vol., p. 148.

[XII-11] The Tinnehs do not regard these as the spirits of men. _Dall's
Alaska_, p. 88.

[XII-12] _Kotzebue's New Voy._, vol. ii., p. 54. 'They have a confused
notion of immortality.' _Id._, p. 58. The Koniagas also used to kill a
slave on the grave of wealthy men. _Dall's Alaska_, p. 403.

[XII-13] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 422-3; _Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, pp.
63-5.

[XII-14] The Chepewyans also held this theory, though they believed in a
heaven of bliss and a state of punishment. _Mackenzie's Voy._, p.
cxix.

[XII-15] _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 409-10; _Baer_, _Stat. u.
Ethno._, pp. 107-8, 111; _Harmon's Jour._, pp. 299-300; _Wilkes'
Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 482.

[XII-16] _Whymper's Alaska_, p. 345; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxxviii.;
_Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 318. 'Nach dem Tode wurde
nach ihren (Koniagas) Begriffen jeder Mensch ein Teufel; bisweilen
zeigte er sich den Verwandten, und das hatte Glück zu bedeuten.'
_Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, p. 122; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 457-8.

[XII-17] Vol. i., pp. 126-7, of this work; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 83;
_Silliman's Jour._, vol. xvi., p. 147; _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol.
ii., p. 67; _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 322. The Eskimos had no idea
of 'future reward and punishment.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 145.

[XII-18] _D'Orbigny's Voy._, p. 50.

[XII-19] _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxix.; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 104.

[XII-20] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 272-3.

[XII-21] _Ross' Adven._, p. 288; _Cox's Adven._, vol. ii., p. 158.

[XII-22] _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 235, 246-7; _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U.
S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., p. 124; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 120. The Salish and
Pend d'Oreilles believed that the brave went to the sun, while the bad
remained near earth to trouble the living, or ceased to exist. _Lord's
Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 239-40. But this is contradicted by other
accounts.

[XII-23] Macfie's description leaves a doubt whether the keewuck and
keewuckkow are names for the same heaven, or separate. _Vanc. Isl._,
p. 457.

[XII-24] _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, p. 320.

[XII-25] _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 252; Dunn, _Oregon_, p. 318, says,
'beavers are a fallen race of Indians.'

[XII-26] _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. vi., p. 619; vol. i., p. 248, of
this work.

[XII-27] The sorcerer is stated by one native to have brought the soul on
a small stick and thrown it back into the head of its body. _Sproat's
Scenes_, p. 214. 'The natives often imagine that a bad spirit, which
loves to vex and torment, takes the place of the truant soul during
its absence.' _Id._, pp. 173-4; _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. v., p.
225.

[XII-28] _Mayne's B. C._, p. 181; _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 136;
_Meares' Voy._, p. 270; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, p. 457; _Sproat's
Scenes_, pp. 212-3.

[XII-29] _Stevens_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1854, p. 212; _Brinton's
Myths_, pp. 233-4; see note 2.

[XII-30] _Johnston_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 225.

[XII-31] _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. iii., pp. 438-9; _Macfie's Vanc.
Isl._, p. 448.

[XII-32] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[XII-33] _Ib._; _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 140.

[XII-34] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.; _Miller's Life amongst the Modocs_, pp.
241, 249.

[XII-35] _Powers_, in _Overland Monthly_, vol. viii., pp. 430-1.

[XII-36] _Id._, _Pomo_, MS.; this vol., p. 177.

[XII-37] _Meacham_, _Religion of Indians._

[XII-38] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[XII-39] Vol. i., pp. 439-40, this work; _Browne's L. Cal._, p. 188.

[XII-40] _Meyer_, _Nach dem Sacramento_, pp. 228-9; _Schoolcraft's
Arch._, vol. v., pp. 215-6.

[XII-41] _La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom. ii., p. 307; _Marmier_, _Notice_, in
_Bryant_, _Voy. en Cal._, p. 238; _Fages_, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voy._, 1844, tom. ci., pp. 335-6; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., pp.
379-80.

[XII-42] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 316-24.

[XII-43] 'Ives legte dem Gebirge den Namen: "Berg der Todten" bei.'
_Möllhausen_, _Reisen in die Felsengeb._, tom. i., pp. 357-8. 'All
cowardly Indians (and bravery was the good with them) were tormented
with hardships and failures, sickness and defeats. This hill, or
hades, they never dared visit.' _Stratton's Capt. Oatman Girls_, p.
233; _Dodt_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1870, p. 129; _Whipple, Ewbank, and
Turner's Rept._, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 43.

[XII-44] Estupec, the soul or heart, may be connected with _eep_, breath.
_Walker's Pimas_, MS. In _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 461,
occurs the term angel, but the Pima chiefs whom I have questioned
state that the term angel was not known to them.

[XII-45] _Walker's Pimas_, MS.

[XII-46] _Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 222; _Cremony's Apaches_, pp. 104-5.
'Cuando muere vá á vivir su corazon por el mar hácia el poniente: que
algunos despues que mueren viven como tecolotes, y últimamente dijeron
que ellos no saben bien estas cosas.' _Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc.
Hist. Mex._, série ii., tom. i., p. 239.

[XII-47] _Day_, in _Hesperian_, vol. iii., p. 482.

[XII-48] _Henry_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[XII-49] _Ten Broeck_, in _Id._, vol. iv., p. 86.

[XII-50] _Id._, p. 78; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 402;
_Whipple's Rept._, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 59.

[XII-51] _Beadle_, in _Crofutt's Western World_, Aug., 1872, p. 27;
_Bristol_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1867, p. 358; _Eaton_, in
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 218; _Davis' El Gringo_, p. 418.

[XII-52] _Marcy's Army Life_, p. 57; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., pp.
54, 685. Food is left at the grave for a certain time; this would
indicate that the soul proper, or its second form, remains with the
body for a while. _Id._, pp. 78-9.

[XII-53] _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 387; _Clavigero_, _Storia della
Cal._, tom. i., pp. 136-7, 139.

[XII-54] _Alger's Future Life_, p. 208. 'Lo llevan á enterrar sentado y
con sus mejores vestidos, poniendo á su lado competente porcion de sus
ordinarios, alimentos.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p.
218.

[XII-55] _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 18.

[XII-56] _Apostólicos Afanes_, pp. 22-4.

[XII-57] This legend is taken from a MS kindly presented to me by Mr.
Stephen Powers, and is a corrected version of the legend entitled
'Hilpmecone and Olégance' contributed by the same gentleman to the
_Overland Monthly_, January, 1874. pp. 30-1.

[XII-58] 'El que tenia rodela horadada de saetas no podia mirar al sol.'
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265. This may perhaps
mean that the humbler warrior, whose inferior shield was more likely
to be pierced, could not look upon the majestic face of the sun, just
as he had been interdicted from regarding the face of his king.

[XII-59] 'When the midwife speaks to a woman who has died in childbed,
she refers to the noble manner in which she has used the sword and
shield, a figure of speech which is probably intended to represent the
high estimation in which they held her.' _Id._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p.
189.

[XII-60] 'Descendian acá á la tierra.' Ib. But it is just as likely that
they used the weaving implements supplied to them at the grave, as
those of the living. Brasseur de Bourbourg says that the inhabitants
of this region had day when the inhabitants of the earth slept; but
since the women resumed their work after the setting of the sun, it is
more likely that they always had light up there, and that they never
slept. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 497.

[XII-61] The humming-bird, the emblem and attribute of the war-god,
offered on the grave in the month of Quecholli, probably referred to
this transformation. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p.
164, lib. iv., pp. 264-5, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 188-9, lib. ix., p.
358; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 530. 'Nachher werden
sie theils in Wolken verwandelt, theils in Kolibris.' _Müller_,
_Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 661. The transformation into clouds
seems to refer to the Tlascaltecs.

[XII-62] Tlalocan is the name given by some old writers to the country
between Chiapas and Oajaca. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. iii., p. 496; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 88-9. It may also be
the place referred to under the names of Tamoancha, Xuchitlycacan.
_Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 127.

[XII-63] Vol. ii., p. 336, this work.

[XII-64] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.
Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 82, 529. The remarks of the above authors with
reference to those who die of diseases may, however, refer to
sufferers from ordinary afflictions, who were from all doomed to
Mictlan. In _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 169-71, all who die of diseases and a
violent death are consigned to Mictlan. _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 246-7;
_Alger's Future Life_, pp. 475-6. Chevalier, _Mex. Ancien et Mod._, p.
91, who regards the sun as heaven, and Mictlan as hell, considers this
an intermediate and incomplete paradise. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
i., lib. iii., p. 264; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom.
ii., p. 5.

[XII-65] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-1, tom.
ii., lib. vi., p. 176; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 529;
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 571;
_Tezozomoc_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., pp. 329, 331.

[XII-66] _Id._, p. 329. 'Le plus commun est _Chiucnauh-Mictlan_, les
Neuf séjours des Morts.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._,
tom. iii., p. 495; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97; _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-67] This seems also to be the idea of Gomara, _Conq. Mex._, fol.
308-9, although he makes the heavens distinct from one another, and
includes the Sun House and Tlalocan in the list.

[XII-68] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 166, lib. iii.,
p. 263.

[XII-69] _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 522. The fact that offerings and
prayers were kept up for four days by the mourners, confirms this
statement. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263, tom.
ii., lib. vi., p. 189. 'Until souls had arrived at the destined place
at the expiration of these four years, they had to encounter much
hardship, cold, and toil.' _Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_,
in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 96.

[XII-70] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcviii., p. 193; _Tezozomoc_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 331. 'When the
sun sets, it goes to give light to the dead.' _Explanation of the
Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi.,
p. 128.

[XII-71] _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 6. Tlalxicco may be
considered as hell proper, and distinct from Mictlan, and may have
been ruled over by Tzontemoc who must then be regarded as distinct
from Mictlantecutli. _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 219.

[XII-72] Mictlampaehecatl, the north-wind, is said to come from hell.
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 253, 256-7;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 81.

[XII-73] _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 218-9.

[XII-74] 'Despues de pasados cuatro años, el difunto se salía y se iba
á los nueve infiernos ... en este lugar del infierno que se llamaba
_Chicunamictla_, se acababan y fenecian los difuntos.' _Sahagun_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263; see also note 8. At the end
of four years the souls came to a place where they enjoyed a certain
degree of repose. _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 218.

[XII-75] This vol., p. 59; see also, pp. 296-402.

[XII-76] See note 12. Four was the most sacred number among the
Mexicans as well as the other nations of America, and is derived from
the adoration of the cardinal points. _Brinton's Myths_, p. 67. The
Central Americans believed that the soul arrived at its destination in
four days after death.

[XII-77] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-78] 'Pour qu'il ne fût pas entraîné en traversant le Styx indien.'
_Biart_, _Terre Tempérée_, p. 280; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 309.
'Los perros de pelo blanco y negro, no podian nadar y pasar el rio,
porque dizque decia el perro de pelo negro: "yo me labé" y el perro de
pelo blanco decia: "yo me he manchado de color prieto, y por eso no
puedo pasaros" solamente el perro de pelo vermejo podia pasar.'
_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-79] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-4;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 528-30; _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 5-6; vol. ii., pp. 603-19, of
this work.

[XII-80] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcix., pp. 192-3.

[XII-81] 'Tenian por cierto, que en el infierno habian de padecer
diversas penas conforme á la calidad de los delitos.' _Mendieta_,
_Hist. Ecles._, p. 83. 'Entónces todos serán castigados conforme á sus
obras.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 36-7;
_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 80. 'Ils étaient plongés
dans une obscurité profonde, livrés à leurs remords.' _Chevalier_,
_Mex. Ancien et Mod._, p. 91.

[XII-82] 'Padecen por los pecados de sus padres.' _Sahagun_, _Hist.
Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 36. Their prayers and penances, says
Acosta, were merely on account of corporal inflictions, for they
certainly feared no punishment in the world to come, but expected that
all would rest there. _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 383. 'In the destiny
they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of refinement;
since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking contrast to
the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of the
most enlightened nations. In all this, so contrary to the natural
suggestions of the ferocious Aztec, we see the evidences of a higher
civilization, inherited from their predecessors in the land.'
_Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., pp. 62-3.

[XII-83] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 267, et seq.

[XII-84] The reader who thinks upon the subject at all, cannot help
being struck by the remarkable resemblance in some points between
these future abodes of the Mexicans and those of the ancient Greeks
and Romans. The trembling soul has to pass over the same dreadful
river, ferried by a brute Charon. In Hades as in Mictlan, the
condition of the dead was a shadowy sort of apparent life, in which,
mere ghosts of their former selves, they continued dreamily to perform
the labors and carry on the occupations to which they had been
accustomed on earth. In Greece as in Mexico, the shades of the dead
were occasionally permitted to visit their friends on earth, summoned
by a sacrifice and religious rites. Neither Elysium nor the glorious
Sun House was the reward of the purely good so much as of the
favorites of the gods. Such points of resemblance as these are,
however, unnoticed by those who theorize concerning the origin of the
Americans; they go farther for analogies, and perhaps fare worse.

[XII-85] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5;
_Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97.

[XII-86] _Alger's Future Life_, pp. 475-6.

[XII-87] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. ix., cap. vii.

[XII-88] _Myths_, p. 258; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 175.

[XII-89] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcviii., p. 192; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 64.

[XII-90] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, p. 81. 'Tlacatecolotl, demonio o
diablo.' _Molina_, _Diccionario_.

[XII-91] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 109.

[XII-92] 'The inhabitants suppose kinges (who, while they liued,
gouerned amisse) to haue a temporary aboade there being companions
with diuels amonge those flames, where they may purge the foule spots
of their wickednesse.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. v., lib. ii.

[XII-93] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 4:
_Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 96.

[XII-94] _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.; _Carbajal
Espinosa_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 292; vol. ii., pp. 620-2, of this
work.

[XII-95] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol. 230-1, tom. i., fol.
159-61; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5;
_Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 96; _Id._, _Codex Vaticanus_, p. 218; vol.
ii., pp. 622-3, of this work.

[XII-96] 'Le _Yaxché_, qui signifie arbre vert, est probablement le même
que le _tonacaste_ ou _tonacazquahuitl_, arbre au tronc puissant et
élevé, au feuillage immense, mais menu et serré, dont la beauté et
l'extrême fraîcheur lui ont fait donner le nom d'arbre de la vie.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 200.

[XII-97] An evident corruption of Mictlan.

[XII-98] 'Dezian se lo (el difunto) avia llevado el diablo porque del
pensavan les venian los males todos y especial la muerte.' _Landa_,
_Relacion_, p. 196, 198-202; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 192;
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 62-3;
_Carrillo_, in _Mex. Soc. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii., pp.
265-6.

[XII-99] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 246; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol
Vuh_, pp. lxxix.-lxxx., cxxviii.-cxxx; vol. ii., p. 799, of this work.

[XII-100] _Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 76-8.

[XII-101] _Dollfus and Mont-Serrat_, _Voy. Géologique_, p. 12.

[XII-102] _Yolia_ or _yulia_ derived from _yoli_, to live is distinct
from heart, _yollotli_. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 159. Yet the
heart was evidently considered as the seat of the soul, for some
Indians stated that 'el coraçon va arriba,' while others explained
that by this was meant the breath. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv.,
pp. 44-5.

[XII-103] _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 415.

[XII-104] Corresponding to the Aztec Mictlantecutli. It is not quite
clear whether all agreed upon total annihilation in this place.

[XII-105] 'Han de resuçitar ó tornar á casa de sus padres, é sus
padres los conoserán é criarán.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp.
41, 42-9; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 145, 235; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 113-4.

[XII-106] Bell adds that this ferriage money was provided lest the
child 'should die young.' Offerings are also placed upon the grave.
_Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., pp. 254-5.

[XII-107] 'They suppose that men do naturally liue and die as other
beastes do.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii., lib. iv.

[XII-108] 'Aquel humo iba donde estaba el ánima de aquel defunto ...
en el cielo, y que en el humo iba allá.' _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_,
_Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 402; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i.,
lib. vii., cap. xvi., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. v.; _Gomara_, _Hist.
Ind._, fol. 255; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., p. 142.

[XII-109] Dec. vii., lib. x.

[XII-110] "It is possible," concludes Mr Powers, "that this legend has
dim reference to that great ancient cataclysm, or overflow of lava
from the north, which has been demonstrated by Professor le Conte, in
a paper read before the Californian Academy of Science."

[XII-111] This myth, Mr Powers thinks, has been belittled or corrupted
from the ancient myth of the zodiac, and, in his opinion, argues for
the Americans a civilized, or at least semi-civilized, Asiatic
origin--a very far-fetched conclusion I should say.

THE NATIVE RACES

OF THE

PACIFIC STATES.

LANGUAGES.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL REMARKS.

NATIVE LANGUAGES IN ADVANCE OF SOCIAL CUSTOMS -- CHARACTERISTIC
INDIVIDUALITY OF AMERICAN TONGUES -- FREQUENT OCCURRENCE OF
LONG WORDS -- REDUPLICATIONS, FREQUENTATIVES, AND DUALS --
INTERTRIBAL LANGUAGES -- GESTURE-LANGUAGE -- SLAVÉ AND CHINOOK
JARGONS -- PACIFIC STATES LANGUAGES -- THE TINNEH, AZTEC, AND
MAYA TONGUES -- THE LARGER FAMILIES INLAND -- LANGUAGE AS A
TEST OF ORIGIN -- SIMILARITIES IN UNRELATED LANGUAGES -- PLAN
OF THIS INVESTIGATION.

In nothing, perhaps, do the Native Races of the Pacific States show
signs of age, and of progress from absolute primevalism, more than in
their languages. Indeed, throughout the length and breadth of the two
Americas aboriginal tongues display greater richness, more delicate
gradations, and a wider scope, than from the uncultured condition in
which the people were found, one would be led to suppose. Until
recently, no attention has been given by scholars to these languages;
now it is admitted that the more they are studied the more do new
beauties appear, and that in their speech these nations are in advance
of what their general rudeness in other respects would imply. Nor is
there that difference in the construction of words and the scope of
vocabularies between nations which we call civilized and those called
savage, which, from the difference in their customs, industries, and
polities we should expect to find; from which it is safe to infer that
in progress, after the essential corporeal requirements are satisfied,
the necessities of the intellect, of which speech is the very first,
are not only met, but are developed and gratified beyond what the
actual necessities of the body demand. That is, speech or no speech
the body must be fed or the animal dies, but with the absolute
necessities of the body supplied, the intellect and its
supernumeraries shoot forward beyond their relative primeval state,
leaving bodily comforts far behind. Hence, in the very outset of what
we call progress, we see the intellect asserting its independence and
developing those organs only which in their turn assist its own
development. Again, under certain conditions, two nations having
advanced materially and intellectually side by side up to a certain
point, may from extrinsic or incidental causes become widely separate;
one may go forward intellectually while the two remain together
substantially; one may go forward materially while mentally there is
no apparent difference. The causes which give rise to these strange
inequalities we cannot fathom until we can minutely retrace the
progress of the people for thousands of ages in their history; we only
see, in the many examples round us, that such is the fact. A people
well advanced in art and language may, from war or famine, become
reduced to primeval penury and yet retain traces of its former culture
in its speech, but by no possibility can rude and barbaric speech
suddenly assume depth and richness from material prosperity; from all
of which it is safe to conclude that language is the surest test of
the age of a people, for the mind cannot expand without an improvement
in speech, and speech improves only as it is forced slowly to develop
under pressure of the mind.

[Sidenote: RELATIONSHIP OF AMERICAN LANGUAGES.]

The researches of the few philologists who have given American
languages their study have brought to light the following facts.
First, that a relationship exists among all the tongues of the
northern and southern continents; and that while certain
characteristics are found in common throughout all the languages of
America, these languages are as a whole sufficiently peculiar to be
distinguishable from the speech of all the other races of the world.
Although some of these characteristics, as a matter of course, are
found in some of the languages of the old world--more of them in the
Turanian family than in any other--yet nowhere on the globe are
uniformities of speech carried over vast areas and through innumerable
and diversified races with such persistency, as in America; nowhere
are tongues so dissimilar and yet so alike as here. In this general
similarity would be a strong ground-work for a theory of common
origin, either indigenous or foreign, but for the fact that while the
languages of America appear distinct from all other languages of the
world, and do indeed in certain respects bear a general resemblance
one to another throughout, yet at the same time I may safely assert
that on no other continent can there be found such a multitude of
distinct languages which definitely approach one another in scarcely a
single word or syllable as in America. It is as easy to prove from
language that the nations of the New World were originally thrown
together from different parts, and that by intermigrations, uniformity
in customs and climate, and the lapse of long ages the people have
become approximately brethren in speech, while their incessant wars
have at the same time held them asunder and prevented a more
particular uniformity, as it would be to prove a common origin and
subsequent dispersion; without further light both theories are alike
insusceptible of proof, as are, indeed, all hypotheses concerning the
origin of the native races of this continent. Another fact which
naturally becomes more apparent the more we investigate the subject,
particularly as regards the nations inhabiting the western half of
North America, is, that the innumerable diversities of speech found
among these tribes constantly tend to disappear, tend to range
themselves under broad divisions, coalescing into groups and families,
thereby establishing more intimate relationship between some, and
widening the distance between others. The numbers of tongues and
dialects, which at the first appeared to be legion, by comparison and
classification are constantly being reduced. Could we go back, even
for a few thousand years, and follow these peoples through the
turnings and twistings of their nomadic existence, we should be
surprised at the rapid and complete changes constantly taking place;
we should see throughout this broad continent the tide of human life
ebbing and flowing like a mighty ocean, surging to and fro in a
perpetual unrest, huge billows of humanity rolling over forest, plain,
and mountain, nations driving out nations, absorbing, or annihilating,
only to be themselves inevitably driven out, absorbed, or annihilated;
we should see as a result of this interminable mixture, languages
constantly being modified, some wholly or in part disappearing, some
changing in a lesser degree, hardly one remaining the same for any
considerable length of time. Even within the short period of our own
observation, between the time of the first arrival of Europeans and
the disappearance of the natives, many changes are apparent; while we
are gazing upon them we see their boundaries oscillate, like the play
of the threads in network. On the buffalo-hunting inland plains I have
seen aggregations of tribes driven out from their old camping-ground,
in some instances a thousand miles away, and their places occupied by
others; in the narrower limits of the north-western mountains I have
seen numerous tribes extirpated by their neighbors, a remnant only
being kept as slaves. While such was the normal condition of the
aborigines it is not difficult to perceive in some degree at least,
the effect upon languages. Yet while American languages are indeed, as
Whitney terms them, "the most changeful human forms of speech" there
are yet found indestructible characteristic elements, affiliations
which no circumstances of time or place can wholly obliterate.

[Sidenote: LONG WORDS IN AMERICAN LANGUAGES.]

One of these characteristic elements is the frequent occurrence of
long words. Even the Otomí, the only language in America which can be
called monosyllabic, consisting as it does, for the most part, of
etymons of one syllable, contains some comparatively long words. This
frequency of long words, the method of their construction, and the
ease with which they are manufactured constitute a striking feature in
the system of unity that pervades all American languages. The native
of the New World expresses in a single word, accompanied perhaps by a
grunt or a gesture, what a European would employ a whole sentence to
elucidate. He crowds the greatest possible number of ideas into the
most compact form possible, as though in a multitude of words he found
weakness rather than strength--taking their several ideas by their
monosyllabic equivalents, and joining them in one single expression.
This rule is universal; and so these languages become as Humboldt
expresses it "like different substances in analogous forms," in which,
as Gallatin observes, there is "an universal tendency to express in
the same word, not only all that modifies or relates to the same
object or action but both the action and the object, thus
concentrating in a single expression a complex idea or several ideas,
among which there is a natural connection." This linguistic
peculiarity is called by various names. Duponceau terms it the
polysynthetic stage or system, Wilhelm von Humboldt the agglutinative,
Lieber the holophrastic; others the aggregative, the incorporative,
and so on. As an illustration of this peculiarity, take the Aztec word
for letter-postage, _amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxtlahuilli_, which
interpreted literally signifies, 'the payment received for carrying a
paper on which something is written.' The Cherokees go yet further and
express a whole sentence in a single word--a long one it is true, but
yet one word--_winitawtigeginaliskawlungtanawnelitisesti_ which
translated forms the sentence, 'they will by that time have nearly
finished granting favors from a distance to thee and me.' Other
peculiarities common to all American languages might be mentioned,
such as reduplications, or a repetition of the same syllable to
express plurals; the use of frequentatives and duals; the application
of gender to the third person of the verb; the direct conversion of
nouns, substantive and adjective, into verbs, and their conjugation as
such; peculiar generic distinctions arising from a separation of
animate from inanimate beings, and the like.

The multiplicity of tongues, even within comparatively narrow areas,
rendered the adoption of some sort of universal language absolutely
necessary. This international language in America is for the most part
confined to gestures, and nowhere has gesture-language attained a
higher degree of perfection than here; and what is most remarkable,
the same representatives are employed from Alaska to Mexico and even
in South America. Thus each tribe has a certain gesture to indicate
its name, which is understood by all others. A Flathead will make his
tribe known by placing his hand upon his head; a Crow by imitating the
flapping of the wings of a bird; a Nez Percé by pointing with his
finger through his nose, and so on. Fire is generally indicated by
blowing followed by a pretended warming of the hands, water by a
pretended scooping up and drinking, trade or exchange by crossing the
fore fingers, a certain gesture being fixed for everything necessary
to carry on a conversation. Besides this natural gesture-language
there is found in various parts an intertribal jargon composed of
words chosen to fit emergencies, from the speech of the several
neighboring nations; the words being altered, if necessary, in
construction or pronunciation to suit all. Thus in the valley of the
Yukon we find the Slavé jargon, and in the valley of the Columbia the
Chinook jargon, which latter arose originally, not as is generally
supposed conventionally between the French-Canadian and English
trappers and the natives of the north-west solely for purposes of
trade, but which originated among the tribes themselves spontaneously
and before the advent of Europeans, though greatly modified and
extended by subsequent European intercourse. Thus has been laid, no
doubt, the foundation of many permanent languages and dialects; and
thus we may easily perceive the powerful and continued effect of one
language upon another.

As to the number of languages in America much difference of opinion
exists. Hervás, before half the country was discovered, felt justified
in classifying them all under seven families, while others find, on
the Pacific side of the northern continent alone, over six hundred
languages which thus far refuse to affiliate. The different dialects
are countless; and yet, notwithstanding the formidable array of names
which I have gathered at the end of this chapter, probably not
one-fourth of their real number are or ever will be known to us.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC STATES.]

Many of the Pacific States' languages bear resemblances to one
another, and may therefore be brought more or less under groups and
classes. These languages, however, resemble one another too slightly
to be called dialects, and in the majority of cases no affiliations of
any kind can be traced. But four great languages are found within our
territory, or, if we exclude the Eskimo, which is not properly an
American language, there remain but three, the Tinneh, the Aztec, and
the Maya. Of the lesser tongues there are many more, as will appear
further on. The Eskimos skirt the shores of the north polar ocean and
belong more to the old world than to the new. The Tinneh, Athabasca,
or Chepewyan family covers the northern end of the Rocky Mountain
range, sending its branches in every direction, into Alaska, British
Columbia, British America, Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico,
Texas, and Mexico. The Aztec language, whose seat is Central Mexico,
is found also in Nicaragua and other parts of Central America. Traces
moreover appear in some parts of Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Chihuahua,
Texas, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.
The Maya is the chief Central American tongue, but traces of it may be
found as well in Mexico. Thus we see that while the cradle of the
Tinneh tongue appears to be in the centre of British North America,
its dialects extend westward and southward, lessening in intensity the
further they are removed from the hypothetical original centre,
suddenly dying out in some directions, fading gradually away in
others, and breaking out at disconnected intervals in others. So with
the Aztec language, whose primitive centre, so far as present
appearances go, was the valley of Mexico; we find it extending south
along the shores of the Pacific as far as Nicaragua, while northward
its traces grow fainter and fainter until it disappears. And so it is
with the Maya, which, covering as it does a less extent of territory,
is more distinctly marked and consequently more easily followed.

In classifying the languages of the Pacific States, the marks of
identification vary with different families. Thus the linguistic
affiliations of the Tinneh family are founded not so much on certain
recurring grammatical rules, as on the number of important words
occurring under the same or slightly altered form. In the Aztec
language the reverse of this is true; for although to some extent, in
the establishing of relationships, we are governed by verbal
similarities, yet we also find positive grammatical rules which carry
with them much more weight than mere word likenesses.

For example, in the north, wherever Aztec traces are found, the Aztec
substantive endings _tl_ and _tli_ are either abbreviated or changed
according to a regular system into _ti_, _te_, _t_, _de_, _re_, _ki_,
_ke_, _ca_, _la_, _ri_. Aztec numerals are used by these northern
nations, but in greatly modified forms; personal pronouns are there
found but little changed, while demonstrative, interrogative, and
indefinite pronouns likewise show signs of Aztec origin. The ending
_ame_, which, attached to the verb, designates the person acting, can
be plainly traced; while among these same northern nations of which I
am speaking, is found that certain system of _Lautverschiebung_ or
sound-shunting, originally discovered by Grimm in the Indo-Germanic
family, and by Professor Max Müller called Grimm's law.

In the pursuance of this investigation I noticed a two-fold curiosity
which may be worthy of mention. Throughout the great Northwest, as
well in most of the many Tinneh vocabularies as elsewhere, is found
the Aztec word for stone, _tetl_, sometimes slightly changed but
always recognizable, and to which the same meaning is invariably
attached; while on the other hand the Tinneh word for fire, _cun_, or
_coon_, appears in like manner in several of the Mexican languages,
and I even noticed it in the vocabulary of a Honduras nation. This may
be purely accidental, but both being important words I thought best to
draw attention to the fact.

[Sidenote: INLAND AND COAST LANGUAGES.]

The larger linguistic families are for the most part found inland,
while along the sea-shore the speech of the people is broken into
innumerable fragments. Particularly is this the case along the shores
of the Northwest. South of Acapulco, as we have seen, the Aztec tongue
holds the seaboard for some distance; but again farther south, as well
as on the gulf coast, there is found a great diversity in languages
and dialects. In California the confusion becomes interminable; as if
Babel-builders from every quarter of the earth had here met to the
eternal confounding of all; yet there are linguistic families even in
California, principally in the northern part. It is not at all
improbable that Malays, Chinese, or Japanese, or all of them, did at
some time appear in what is now North America, in such numbers as
materially to influence language, but hitherto no Asiatic nor European
tongue, excepting always the Eskimo, has been found in America; nor
have affinities with any other language of the world been discovered
sufficiently marked to warrant the claim of relationship. Theorizers
enough there have been and will be; for centuries to come half-fledged
scientists, ignorant of what others have done or rather have failed to
do, will not cease to bring forward wonderful conceptions, striking
analogies; will not cease to speculate, linguistically,
ethnologically, cosmographically and otherwise to their own
satisfaction and to the confusion of their readers. The absurdity of
these speculations is apparent to all but the speculator. No sooner is
a monosyllabic language, the Otomí, discovered in America than up
rises a champion, Señor Nájera, claiming the distinction for the
Chinese, and with no other result than to establish both as
monosyllabic, which was well enough known before. So the Abbé Brasseur
de Bourbourg, who has given the subject more years of study and more
pages of printed matter than any other writer, unless it be the
half-crazed Lord Kingsborough, first attempts to prove that the Maya
languages are derived from the Latin, Greek, English, German,
Scandinavian, or other Aryan tongues; then that all these languages
are but offshoots from the Maya itself, which is the only true
primeval language. So much for intemperate speculation, which, whether
learned or shallow, too often originates in doubt and ends in
obscurity. In all these hypotheses, argument assumes the form of
analogies drawn between the peoples with whom a relationship is
attempted to be established--no difficult matter, truly, when we
consider that all mankind are formed on one model, and that
innumerable similarities must of necessity exist among all the races
of the globe.

[Sidenote: ACCIDENTAL WORD-SIMILARITIES.]

To show the futility of such attempts, let me give a few words,
analogous both in signification and sound, selected from American,
European, Asiatic, and other languages, between which it is now well
established that no relationship exists. For the German _ja_ we have
the Shasta _ya_; for _komm_, the Comanche _kim_; for _Kopf_, the
Cahita _coba_; for _weinen_, the Cora _vyeine_; for _thun_, the
Tepehuana _duni_; for _nichts_, _nein_, the Chinook _nixt_, _nix_. For
the Greek κόραξ , there is the Tarahumara _colatschi_; for _ἔμαθον_,
_μαθεῖν_, the Cora _muatê_; for _γυνή_, the Cahita _cuna_. For the Latin
_hic_, _vas_, we have the Tepehuana _hic_, _vase_; for _mucor_, the Cora
_mucuare_; for _lingua_, the Moqui _línga_; for _vallis_, the Kalapooya
_wallâh_; for _toga_, _manus_, the Kenai _togaai_, _man_. For the French
_casser_, we find the Tarahumara _cassníaler_; for _tâtonner_, the
Tepehuana _tatame_. For the Spanish _hueco_, the Tarahumara _hoco_; for
_tuétano_, the Cora _tûtana_. For the Italian _cosi_, the Tarahumara
_cossi_; for the Arabic _âchar_, the Tarahumara _ajaré_; for the
Hawaiian _po_, the Sekumne _po_ (night).

For the Sanscrit _da_, there is the Cora _ta_ (give); for _eké_, the
Miztec _ec_ (one); for _mâ_, the Tepehuana _mai_ (not) and the Maya
_ma_ (no); for _masâ_ (month), the Pima _mahsa_ (moon); for
_tschandra_ (moon), the Kenai _tschane_ (moon); for _pada_ (foot), the
Sekumne _podo_ (leg); for _kamâ_ (love), the Shoshone _kamakh_ (to
love); for _pâ_, the Kizh _paa_ (to drink). For the Malay _tâna_, we
have the Tepehuana _tani_ (to ask); for _hurip_, _tabah_, the Cora
_huri_ (to live), _tabá_ (to beat); for _hômah_, the Shasta _óma_
(house), and so on.

These examples I could increase indefinitely and show striking
similarities in some few words between almost any two languages of the
world. When there are enough of them similar in sound and
signification in any two tongues to constitute a rule rather than
exceptions, such languages are said to be related; but where, as in
the above-cited instances, these similarities are merely accidental,
to prove them related would prove too much, for then all the languages
of the earth might be said to be related.

In treating of the languages of the Pacific States, commencing with
those of the north and proceeding southward, I make it a rule to
follow them wherever they lead, without restricting myself to place or
nation. One nation may speak two languages; the same language may be
spoken by a dozen nations, and if the evidence is such as to imply the
existence of the same language, or traces of it, in Alaska and in
Sonora, I can do no less than step from one place to the other in
speaking of it. Besides the names and localities of languages and
linguistic families, I shall endeavor to give some idea of their
several peculiar characteristics, their grammatical construction, with
such specimens of each as will enable the student to make comparisons
and draw inferences. In the following table I have attempted a
classification of these languages; but in some instances, from the
lack of vocabularies taken before the intermixtures that followed the
advent of Europeans, any classification can be but approximative.

[Sidenote: CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES.]

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF
THE PACIFIC STATES.

H { { { Naggeuktormute
y { { { Kittear
p { { Northern { Kangmali-Innuin
e { { Eskimo { Nuwangmeun
r { { { Nunatangmeun
b { { { Kitegue
o { {
r { Eskimo { { Malemute
e { { { Anlygmute
a { { { Chnagmute
n { { Southern { Pashtolik
s { { Eskimo {
{ { or { Kangjulit { Kuskoquigmute.
{ { Koniagan { { Kwichpagmute.
{ { { Magemute
{ { { Agulmute
{ { { Kejataigmute
{ { { Aglegmute
{ { { Chugatsch
{ { { Kadiak
{
{
{ Aleut { Unalaska
{ { Atkha
{
{ { Yakutat
{ { Chilkat
{ { Hoodsinoo
{ { Takoo
{ Thlinkeet { Auk
{ { Kaka
{ { Sitka
{ { Eeliknoo
{ { Stikeen
{ { Tungass
{
{ { { Sawessaw-tinneh or Chepewyan
{ { { Tantsawhoot-tinneh or
{ { { Coppermine River
{ { { Horn Mountain
{ { { Beaver
{ { { Thlingcha-tinneh or Dog-Rib
{ { Eastern { Kawcho-tinneh or Hare
{ { Division { Ambawtawhoot-tinneh or Sheep
{ { { Sarsis or Sursees
{ { { Tsillawdawhoot-tinneh or
{ { { Brush-wood
{ { { Nagailer
{ { { Slouacuss-tinneh
{ { { Rocky Mountain
{ { { Edchawtawoot-tinneh
{ { {
{ { { { Degothi-kutchin or
{ { { { Loucheux
{ { { { Vanta-kutchin
{ { { { Natche-kutchin
{ { { { Kukuth-kutchin
{ { { { Tutchone-kutchin
{ { { Kutchin { Tathzey-kutchin
{ { { { Han-kutchin
{ { { { Artez-kutchin
{ { Western { { Kutcha-kutchin
{ { Division { { Tenan-kutchin
{ { {
{ { { { Junakachotana
{ { { { Jugelnut
{ { { { Ingalik
{ { { Kenai { Inkalit
{ { { Kenai
{ { { Ugalenz
{ { { Atnah or Nehanne
{ { { Koltschane
{ {
{ Tinneh { { { Tautin or Talkotin
{ { { { Tsilkotin or Chilkotin
{ { { { Naskotin
{ { { { Thetliotin
{ { { Tacully { Tsatsnotin
{ { { or { Nulaautin
{ { { Carrier { Ntshaautin
{ { { { Natliautin
{ { Central { { Nikozliautin
{ { Division { { Tatshiautin
{ { { { Babine
{ { { { Sicanni
{ { {
{ { { Tlatskanai
{ { { Qualhioqua
{ { { Umpqua
{ { {
{ { { { Lassics
{ { { { Wilacki
{ { { Hoopah { Haynaggi
{ { { Tolewah
{ { { Tahahteen
{ { { Siah
{
{
{
{ { { { Apache proper
{ { { { Tonto
{ { { { Chiricagui
{ { { { Gileño
{ { { { Mimbreño
{ { { { Faraon
{ { { { Mescalero
{ { Southern { Apaches { Llanero
{ { Division { { Lipan
{ { { { Vaquero
{ { { { Xicarilla
{ { { { Natage
{ { { { Piñaleno
{ { { { Coyotero
{ { { { Tejua
{ { { { Coppermine
{ { { { Navajo

C { Haidah { Haidah
o { { Kaiganie
l {
u { Nass { Nass
m { { Sebassa
b { { Hailtza
i {
a { Bellacoola
n { Chimsyan
s {
{ { Nootka
{ { Quackoll
{ { Cowichin
{ { Tlaoquatch
{ { Uclenu
{ { Quane
{ { Quactoe
{ { Koskiemo
{ { Quatsino
{ { Kycucut
{ { Aitizzaht
{ { Chicklezaht
{ { Ahazaht
{ { Eshquaht
{ { Klaizzaht
{ { Nitinaht
{ { Toquaht
{ { Seshaht
{ { Clayoquot
{ { Patcheena
{ { Soke
{ { Nimkish
{ Nootka { Wickinninish
{ { Songhie
{ { Sanetch
{ { Comux
{ { Noosdalum
{ { Kwantlum
{ { Teet
{ { Nanaimo
{ { Taculta
{ { Ucleta
{ { Neculta
{ { Queehaniculta
{ { Newittee
{ { Saukaulutuck
{ { Makah
{ { Newchemass
{ { Shimiahmoo
{ { Nooksak
{ { Samish
{ { Skagit
{ { Snohomish
{ { Chimakum
{ { Clallum
{ { Toanhooch
{ { Salish proper or Flathead
{ { Lummi
{ { Clallam
{ { Kullespelm or Pend d'Oreilles
{ { Shushwap
{ { { Sngomenei
{ { Spokane { Snpoilschi
{ { { Syk'eszilni
{
{ { Soaiatlpi
{ Salish { Okanagan { St lakam
{ { Skitsuish, or Coeur d'Alêne
{ { Pisquouse
{ { Cowlitz
{ { Nsietshaw
{ { { Chehalis proper
{ { Chehalis { Quaiantl
{ { { Queniauitl
{ { Nisqually
{
{ Kootenai
{
{ { Sahaptin proper or Nez Percé
{ { Walla Walla
{ { Palouse
{ Sahaptin { Yakima
{ { Kliketat
{ { Tairtla
{
{ Waiilatpu { Cayuse
{ { Mollale
{
{ { Chinook
{ { Wakiakum
{ Chinook { Cathlamet
{ { Clatsop
{ { Multnomah
{ { Skilloot
{ { Watlala
{
{ Yamkally
{ Calapooya
{ Chinook Jargon

C { Tototin
a { Yakon
l {
i { { Lutuami or Klamath
f { Klamath { Modoc
o { { Copah
r {
n {
i { { Shasta
a { Shasta { Palaik
n { { Watsahewah
s {
{ Euroc
{ Cahroc
{ Oppegach
{ { Pataway
{ Pataway or { Veeard
{ Weitspeck { Weeyot
{ { Wishosk
{
{ Ehnek or Pehtsik
{ Howteteoh
{ Nabiltse
{ Patawat
{ Chillulah
{ Wheelcutta
{ Kailta
{ Chimalaquai
{
{ { Yuka
{ Yuka { Tahtoo
{ { Wapo or Ashochemie
{
{ { Ukiah
{ { Gallinomero
{ { Masallamagoon
{ { Gualala
{ { Matole
{ Pomo { Kulanapo
{ { Sanél
{ { Yonios
{ { Choweshak
{ { Batemdakaie
{ { Chocuyem
{ { Olamentke
{ { Kainamare
{ { Chwachamaju
{
{ Cushna
{ Kinkla
{ Yuba
{ Sonoma
{ Oleepa
{ Yoloy or Yolo
{ Nemshous
{ Colusa
{ Bashonee
{ Veshanack
{ Meidoo
{ Neeshenam
{
{ { { Ochecamne
{ { { Serouskumne
{ { { Chupumne
{ { { Omochumne
{ { { Secumne
{ { { Walagumne
{ { { Cosumne
{ { Eastern { Sololumne
{ { Dialects { Turealumne
{ { { Saywamine
{ { { Newichumne
{ { { Matchemne
{ Sacramento { { Sagayayumne
{ Valley { { Muthelemne
{ Languages { { Sopotatumne
{ { { Talatiu
{ {
{ { { Puzlumne
{ { { Yasumne
{ { { Pujuni
{ { Western { Sekumne
{ { Dialects { Kisky
{ { { Yalesumne
{ { { Huk
{ { { Yukal
{ { { Tsamak
{ { { Nemshaw
{
{ Napobatin
{
{ { Napa
{ { Myacoma
{ Napa { Calayomane
{ { Caymus
{ { Uluca
{ { Suscol
{
{ Mustitul
{ Tulkay
{ Suisun
{ Karquines
{ Tomales
{ Lekatuit
{ Petaluma
{ Guiluco
{ Tulare
{ Hawhaw
{ Coconoon
{ Yocut
{ Matalan
{ Salse
{ Quirote
{ Olhone
{ Runsien
{ Eslene
{ Ismuracan
{ Aspianaque
{ Sakhone
{ Chalone
{ Katlendaruca
{ Poytoqui
{ Mutsun
{ Thamien
{ Chowchilla
{ Meewoc
{ Tatché
{ San Miguel
{ Santa Cruz

S { { Shoshone
h { Shoshone { Wihinasht
o { { Bannack
s { { Shoshokee
h {
o { { Utah
n { { Uintaüte
e { { Goshute
s { { Piute
{ Utah { Pahute
{ { Paiulee
{ { Washoe
{ { Sampitche
{ { Mono
{
{ Comanche
{ Moqui
{ Kizh
{ Netela
{ Kechi
{ Chemehuevi
{ Cahuillo

P { { Kiwomi
u { Queres { Cochitemi
e { { Acoma
n {
l { Tegua or Tezuque
o {
s { Picoris
{ Jemez
{ Zuñi
{

N { { Yuma
e { { Maricopa
w { { Cuchan
{ Yuma { Mojave
M { { Diegeño
e { { Yampais
x { { Yavipais
i { Chevet
c {
a { Cajuenche { Cajuenche
n { { Jalliquamai
s {
{ Tamajab
{
{ Benemé { Tecuiche
{ { Teniqueche
{
{ Covaji
{
{ Noche

L C { Cochimí { Laymon
o a { { Ika
w l {
e i { Guaicuri { Cora
r f { { Monqui
o { { Didiù
r { { Liyùe
n { { Edù
i { { Uchitie
a {
n { Pericú
s {

P { Pima Alto { Pápago
i { { Sobaipuris
m {
a { Pima Bajo

N { { Eudeve
o { { Teguis
r { { Teguima
t { { Coguinachie
h { Ópata { Batuca
e { { Sahuaripa
r { { Himeri
n { { Guazaba
{ { Jova
M {
e { { Mayo
x { Cahita { Yaqui
i { { Tehueco
c {
a { Zoe
n { Guazave
s { Batuca
{ Aibino
{ Ocoroni
{ Vocaregui
{ Zuaque
{ Comoporis
{ Ahome
{ Mocorito
{ Petatlan
{ Huite
{ Ore
{ Macoyahui
{ Tauro
{ Troes
{ Nio
{ Cahuimeto
{ Tepave
{ Ohuero
{ Chicorata
{ Basopa
{
{ { Varogio
{ Tarahumara { Guazapare
{ { Pachera
{
{ Concho
{ Toboso
{ Julime
{ Piro
{ Suma
{ Chinarra
{ Irritilia
{ Tejano
{ Tubar
{
{ Tepehuana
{ { Topia
{ Acaxée { Sabaibo
{ { Xixime
{
{ Zacatec
{ Cazcane
{ Mazapile
{ Huitcole
{ Guachichile
{ Colotlan
{ Tlaxomultec
{ Tecuexe
{ Tepecano

C { { Muutzicat
e { Cora { Teakualitzigti
n { { Cora, or Ateakari
t {
r { Aztec, Mexican, or Nahuatl
a {
l { Otomí { Otomí
{ { Mazahua
M {
e { Pame
x { Meco, or Serrano
i { Yuê
c { Yemê
a { Olive
n { Xanambre
s { Pisone
{ Tamaulipec
{
{ Tarasco
{ Matlaltzinca
{ Ocuiltec

S { { Tepuzculano
o { { Yangüistlan
u { { Miztec baja
t { { Miztec alta
h { { Cuixlahuac
e { Miztec { Tlaxiaco
r { { Cuilapa
n { { Mictlantongo
{ { Tamazulapa
M { { Xaltepec
e { { Nochiztlan
x {
i { Chocho, or Chuchone
c { Amusgo
a { Mazatec
n { Cuicatec
s { Chatino
{ Tlapanec
{ Chinantec
{ Popoluca
{
{ { Zaachilla
{ { Ocotlan
{ { Etla
{ Zapotec { Netzicho
{ { Serrano de Itztepec
{ { Serrano de Cajonos
{ { Beni Xono
{ { Serrano de Miahuatlan
{
{ Mije
{ Huave

M { { Tetikilhati
a { Huastec { Chakalmati
y { { Ipapana
a { { Tatimolo, or Naolingo
- {
Q { Totonac
u { Chiapanec
i { Tloque
c { Zotzil
h { Zeldal-quelen
é { Vebetlateca
{ Mam
{ Achie
{ Guatemaltec
{ Cuettac
{ Hhirichota
{ Pokonchi
{ Caechicolchi
{ Tlacacebastla
{ Apay
{ Poton
{ Taulepa
{ Ulua
{ Quiché
{ Cakchiquel
{ Zutugil
{ Chorti
{ Alaguilac
{ Caichi
{ Ixil
{ Zoque
{ Coxoh
{ Chañabal
{ Chol
{ Uzpantec
{ Aguacatec
{ Quechi
{ Maya

M { Carib
o { Mosquito
s { Poya
q { Towka
u { Seco
i { Valiente
t { Rama
o { Cookra
{ Woolwa
{ Toonglas
{ Lenca
{ Smoo
{ Teguca
{ Albatuina
{ Jara
{ Toa
{ Gaula
{ Motuca
{ Fansasma
{ Sambo

C A { Coribici
e m { Chorotega
n e { Chontal
t r { Orotiña
. .

C R { Blanco
o i { Tiribi
s c { Talamanca
t a { Chiripo
a { Guatuso

I { Nicoya
s { Cerebaro
t { Chiriquí
h { Burica
m { Veragua
i { Paris
a { Escoria
n { Biruqueta
{ Nata
{ Urraca
{ Chiru
{ Chame
{ Chicacotra
{ Sangana
{ Guarara
{ Cutara
{ Panamá
{ Chuchura
{ Chagre
{ Chepo
{ Cueba
{ Quarecua
{ Chiape
{ Ponca
{ Pocora
{ Zumanamá
{ Coiba
{ Ponca
{ Chitarraga
{ Acla
{ Careta
{ Darien
{ Abieiba
{ Abenamechey
{ Dabaiba
{ Birú
{ Tule
{ Cholo
{ Doracho
{ Cimarron
{ Bayano
{ Manzanillo, or San Blas
{ Mandingo
{ Cuna
{ Cunacuna
{ Choco
{ Caomane
{ Urabá
{ Idiba
{ Paya
{ Goajiro
{ Motilone
{ Guaineta
{ Cocina

CHAPTER II.

HYPERBOREAN LANGUAGES.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN ESKIMO AND AMERICAN -- ESKIMO PRONUNCIATION
AND DECLENSION -- DIALECTS OF THE KONIAGAS AND ALEUTS --
LANGUAGE OF THE THLINKEETS -- HYPOTHETICAL AFFINITIES -- THE
TINNEH FAMILY AND ITS DIALECTS -- EASTERN, WESTERN, CENTRAL,
AND SOUTHERN DIVISIONS -- CHEPEWYAN DECLENSION -- ORATORICAL
DISPLAY IN THE SPEECH OF THE KUTCHINS -- DIALECTS OF THE ATNAHS
AND UGALENZES COMPARED -- SPECIMEN OF THE KOLTSHANE TONGUE --
TACULLY GUTTURALS -- HOOPAH VOCABULARY -- APACHE DIALECTS --
LIPAN LORD'S PRAYER -- NAVAJO WORDS -- COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY
OF THE TINNEH FAMILY.

The national and tribal distinctions given in the first volume of this
work will, for the most part, serve as divisions for languages and
dialects; I shall not therefore repeat here the names and boundaries
before mentioned, except so far as may be necessary in speaking of
languages alone. As a rule those physical and social distinctions
which indicate severalness among peoples, are followed, if indeed they
are not governed by the severalness of dialects, that is, the
diversities of language operate as powerfully as the aspects of nature
or any other causes, in separating mankind into tribes and nations;
hence it is that in the different divisions of humanity are found
different dialects, and between dialects physical and geographical
divisions.[II'-1]

[Sidenote: LANGUAGES ON THE ARCTIC SEABOARD.]

As I have said in another place the Eskimos are the anomalous race of
the New World; and this is no less true in their language than in
their physical characteristics. Obviously they are a polar people
rather than an American or an Asiatic people.[II'-2] They cling to the
seaboard; and while the distinction between them and the inland
American is clearly drawn, as we descend the strait and sea of Bering,
cross the Alaskan peninsula and follow the shores of the Pacific
eastward and southward, gradually the Arctic dialect merges into that
of the American proper. In our Hyperborean group, whose southern bound
is the fifty-fifth parallel, the northern seaboard part is occupied
wholly by Eskimos, the southern by a people called by some Eskimos and
by others Koniagas, while further on the graduation is so complete and
the transition from one to the other so imperceptible that it is often
difficult to determine which are Indians and which Eskimos. In
treating of their manners and customs, I separated the littoral
Alaskans into two divisions, calling them Eskimos and Koniagas, but in
their languages and dialects I shall speak of them as one. No
philologist familiar with the whole territory has attempted to
classify these Hyperborean tongues; different writers refer the
languages of all to such particular parts as they happen to be
familiar with. Thus the Russian priest Veniaminoff divides the Eskimo
language into six dialects, all belonging to the Koniagas, on the
Kadiak Islands and the adjacent territory. The fact is Veniaminoff
dwelt in southern Alaska and in the Aleutian Isles, and knew nothing
of the great inland nations to the north and west. To the people of
Kadiak he gives two dialects, a northern and a southern, and carries
the same language over to the main land adjacent.[II'-3] The Russian
explorer Sagoskin, to the Chnagmute dialect of Veniaminoff, unites the
Kwichpagmute and Kuskoquigmute under the collective name of Kangjulit,
of which with the Kadiak he makes a comparative vocabulary
establishing their identity.[II'-4] In like manner Baer classifies these
northern languages, but confines himself almost exclusively to the
coast above Kadiak Island.[II'-5]

Kotzebue says that a dialect of this same language is spoken by the
natives of St Lawrence Island.[II'-6] Yet if we may believe Mr Seemann,
all these dialects are essentially different. The Eskimo language, he
writes, "is divided into many dialects, which often vary so much that
those who speak one are unable to understand the others. The natives
of Kotzebue Sound for instance have to use an interpreter in
conversing with their countrymen in Norton Sound; towards Point Barrow
another dialect prevails, which however is not sufficiently distinct
to be unintelligible to the Kotzebue people."[II'-7]

[Sidenote: EXAMPLES OF THE ESKIMO GRAMMAR.]

According to Vater and Richardson the Eskimo language as spoken east
of the Mackenzie River appears to have a softer sound, as for
instance, for the western ending _tch_ the eastern tribes mostly use
_s_ and sometimes _h_. The German sound _ch_, guttural, is frequently
heard among the western people. Nouns have six cases, the changes of
which are expressed by affixed syllables.

These are in the singular _mut_, _mik_, _mit_, _me_, and _kut_, and in
the plural _nut_, _nik_, _nit_, _ne_, and _gut_. _Ga_, _go_, _ne_,
_ait_, _anga_, _ara_, etc., affixed to the nominative, denote a
possessive case. As:--_kivgah_, a servant; _kivganga_, my servant;
_kivgane_, his servant; etc. _Arsu_ and _arsuit_ are diminutive
endings and _soak_, _sudset_, and _sudsek_ augmentatives. Adjectives
are also declinable. Nouns can be transposed into verbs by affixing
_evok_ and _ovok_, and the adjective is altered in the same manner.

The third person singular of the indicative is taken as the root of
the verb, and by changing its termination it may be used as a noun.
The infinitive is formed by the postposition _nek_. The verb has
numerous inflections.

'To be' or 'to have,' both possessing a similar signification, are
expressed by _gi_ or _vi_--as _nunagiva_, it is his land.

Richardson gives the following declension of a noun, transitively and
intransitively (?):

TUPEK, A TENT.

SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL.

Nom. tr. tupek }
intr. turkib} tuppak turket
Gen. turkib tuppak turket
Dat. tr. tuppek tuppak turket
intr. tuppermut tuppangnut tuppernut
Acc. tr. tuppak tuppak turkinut
intr. tuppernik tuppangnit turkit
Abl. tr. tuppermit tuppangnit tuppermit
intr. tuppermut tuppangnut turkinnut[II'-8]

Some claim that the languages of Kadiak and the Aleutian Islands are
cognate, others deny any relationship. Stephen Glottoff, one of the
first to visit Kadiak Island, states positively that the inhabitants
of Unalaska and particularly a boy from the western Aleutian Isles
could not understand the people of Kadiak.[II'-9] Captain Cook thought
there existed a phonetic similarity between the speech of the
Unalaskas and the people of Norton Sound, which opinion appears to be
correct.[II'-10] So disarranged have the aboriginal tongues in this
vicinity become since the advent of the Russians that little
dependence can be placed on latter-day investigations. Dall admits the
speech of the two peoples to be dissimilar yet their language he
believes to be one.[II'-11] Vater, more cautious, thinks that there is
perhaps some Eskimo influence noticeable among the Koniagas.[II'-12]
Baer gives Admiral von Wrangell's opinion, which also inclines towards
such a connection, but he himself expresses the opposite belief,
citing in support of this that the physical appearance of the Koniagas
differs entirely from that of the Eskimo race.[II'-13] Buschmann
gives, as the result of careful investigations and comparisons, the
opinion that the language of Unalaska is distinct from that of Kadiak,
and supports it by the statements of travelers, as for instance that
of the mate Saikoff, given in the _Neue Nordische Beiträge_, tom.
iii., p. 284, who says that the two are totally different.

[Sidenote: ATKHA AND UNALASKA DIALECTS.]

Throughout the whole Aleutian Archipelago there are but two dialects,
one of which is spoken on the peninsula, on Unalaska, and a few
islands contiguous, while the other--by Veniaminoff called the Atkha
dialect--extends thence over all the other Aleutian Isles. In neither
dialect is there any distinction of gender; but to make up for this
deficiency, besides the plural, a dual is used. Substantives have
three cases:--_adakch_, the father; _adam_ or _adaganilyak_, of the
father; _adaman_, to the father; _adakik_ or _adakin_, both fathers;
_adan_, the fathers; _adanik_, to the fathers. Verbs are conjugated by
means of terminals. They are divided into three classes, active,
medium, and passive. Negation is expressed by the syllable _oljuk_
added to the root of the verb; sometimes also by _ljaka_, _ljaga_, or
_gana_. _Sjukong_, I take; _sjunakching_, I took; _sjuljakakching_, I
take not; _sjunag´oljuting_, I took not; _sjuda_, take; _sjuljagada_,
or _sjuganachtchin_, take not.

The eastern Aleuts enunciate very rapidly, without dividing their
words distinctly, making it very difficult for a stranger to
understand them. In Unalaska their speech is more drawling, while on
Atkha Island the natives pronounce each word very distinctly. The
western Aleuts and the people on Umnak also speak rather
slowly--drawling.[II'-14] Dall states that the chief difference between
the Atkha and Unalaska dialects consists in the formation of the
plural of nouns. The former for this purpose employ the terminal
letters _s_, _sh_, or _ng_. For diminutives the Atkhas use the ending
_kutshak_ and the Unalaskas _dak_.[II'-15]

On the next page I insert a vocabulary of Eskimo, Kuskoquigmute,
Malemute, Aleut, and Kadiak tongues.

COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY.

---------------------+--------------+------------+----------+-----------
ESKIMO. |KUSKOQUIGMUTE.| MALEMUTE. | ALEUT. | KADIAK.
---------------------+--------------+------------+----------+-----------
Man tuak |yugut |enuk |toioch |sewk
Woman |agnak |okanok |aiyagar |
Fire { ignik or |knik |iknik |kignak |knok
{ ignuck | | | |
Fresh } emik | | | |
Water } | | | |
Salt } tarreoke | | | |
Water } | | | |
Water |mik |immik |taangak |taangak
Earth |nuni |nuneh |tshekak |noona
Stone angmak | | | |
Dog { kenma or |annakhukkta |kiyukmuk |uikuk |pewatit
{ kooneack | | | |
Knife sequetat |chivichuk |chowik |omgazshiz-|tshangielk
| | |shik |
{ baittsaach | | | |
Sun { maisak or |akhtah |shukeenyuk |akathak |madzshak
{ neiya | | | |
I woonga |hwihka |wunga |keen |chooi
Thou |lpit |illewit |ingaan |chlput
Eat { ashadlooik or|neega |nugerunger |kaangen |pittooaga
{ ishadlooweet | | | |
Yes a |you |wah |aang |aang
{ naga, nau, | | | |
No { tuum, nao, |chashituk |peechuk |maselikan |pedok
{ aunga | | | |
One { tegara or |atauchik |atowsik |attakon |alcheluk
{ adaitsuk | | | |
Two { milleit- |malkhok |malruk |alluk |malogh
{ sungnet | | | |
{ pingettsat- | | | |
Three { sungnet or |païnaïvak |pinyusut |kankoon |pingaien
{ pingeyook | | | |
Four { tsetummat or |t'chamik |setemat |shitshin |stamen
{ setumet | | | |
{ tadglémat | | | |
Five { adreyeet or |talimik |telemat |tshang |taliman
{ taleema | | | |
{ arkbunna | | | |
Six { aghwinnak |akhvinok |aghwinuleet |attoon |agovinligin
{ akkaooin- | | | |
{ elget | | | |
{ aitpa | | | |
Seven { achwinnigh- | | | |
{ ipagha |ainaäkhvanam |mahluditagh-|olung |malchongun
{ mullaroonik | |winuleet | |
{ or bolruk | | | |
{ penayua | | | |
Eight { penniyooik |pinaiviak |pinyusuni- |kamtshing |inglulgin
{ pegesset | |laghwinuleet| |
Nine { seetumna |chtamiakvanam |koolinotyluk|sitching |kollemgaien
{ teeidimmik | | | |
Ten { tadleema or | | | |
{ kólit |kullnuk |kooleet |hasuk- |kollen
Eleven{ | | |attakatha-|alchtoch
{ | | |matkich |
---------------------+--------------+------------+----------+-----------

Turn now to the Thlinkeets, who extend along the coast southward from
Mount St Elias, as Holmberg says, to the Columbia River;[II'-16]
Chlebikoff, to the forty-first parallel; Vater, to Queen Charlotte
Island;[II'-17] and Veniaminoff, to the Stikeen River; the latter
affirming, at the same time, that there is but one dialect spoken
among them all.[II'-18] The nations mentioned by Captain Bryant as
speaking this language are the Chilkats, Sitkas, Hoodsinoos, Auks,
Kakas, Elikinoos, Stikeens, and Tungass.[II'-19]

[Sidenote: HARSHNESS OF THE THLINKEET TONGUE.]

From all accounts the Thlinkeets possess the most barbarous speech
found anywhere in the Pacific States. Whether this arises from the
huge block of wood with which the Thlinkeet matrons grace their under
lip, which drives the sound from the throat through the teeth and nose
before it reaches the ear of the listener, I do not pretend to say;
but that it is hard, guttural, clucking, hissing, in short everything
but labial, there is no doubt. All who have visited them, whether
German, English, French, or Spanish, agree in this particular.
Marchand describes it as excessively rude and wild. Most of their
articulations are accompanied by a strong nasal aspiration, with
strenuous efforts of the throat; particularly in producing the sound
of a double _r_, which is heavy and hard. Many of their words commence
with a strongly guttural _k_ sound and this same sound is frequently
heard three times in one word. Dr Roblet who accompanied Marchand,
says that, notwithstanding all this, the language is very complete,
possessing a multitude of words, the natives being at no loss to give
a name to everything.[II'-21] La Pérouse, who makes a similar report,
gives as an example of its harshness the word _khlrleies_, hair.[II'-22]
In Veniaminoff's vocabulary are found such words as _thlklunúk_,
healthy, and _katlhth_, ashes, literally unpronounceable. The
frequently occurring sound _tl_ has led several authors to suppose a
relationship with the Aztec tongue; as for example Vater, who made a
small comparative table which I insert to show directly the contrary
to what he wished to prove.

Setting aside the _tetl_, _te_, stone, of which I have made previous
mention, had the words been selected to prove a want of affinity
between the two languages they could not have been more to the point.
Buschmann asserts, moreover, that several of the Mexican words are
mis-quoted.[II'-23]

AZTEC. THLINKEET.

Mother nantli attli
Brother teachcauh achaik or achonoik
Face xayacatl kaga
Forehead yxquatl kakak
Strong velitilizcotl itlzin
Depth vecatlyotl kattljan
Stone tetl te
Earth tlalli tljaknak or tlatka
Duck canauhtli kauchu
Star citlati tlaachztl[II'-24]

A few instances have been discovered by the same writer, where the
Thlinkeet tongue appears to be verging towards the Tinneh. Among
others he mentions the Thlinkeet words _te_, stone, _zyyn_, muskrat,
comparing the latter with the Dogrib _tzin_; the Thlinkeet _achschat_,
woman, wife, with the Umpqua _sch'at_; the Thlinkeet _tjé_, _teik_,
road, with the Tacully _tee_.[II'-25] La Pérouse pretends that they do
not use and can hardly pronounce the letters _b_, _f_, _j_, _d_, _p_,
and _v_. Most words commence with _k_, _t_, _n_, _s_, or _m_, the
first named being the most frequently used; no word commences with an
_r_.[II'-26] Veniaminoff again says that it would take thirty-eight
letters or combinations to write the distinct sounds which are
expressed in the Thlinkeet language. The personal pronouns are _khat_,
or _khatsh_, I; _bae_, _be_, or _belch_, thou; _b_ or _bch_, he; _ban_
or _bantch_, we; _iban_ or _ibantch_, you; _as_ or _astch_ or _youtas_
or _youastch_, they. The verb 'to do' is conjugated as follows:

PRESENT INDICATIVE. FIRST FUTURE. SECOND FUTURE.

etakhani ekbkazyani enkbizini

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

etakhanegin | ekhbziní or ekhbzinnigin[II'-27]

Vater has a Lord's prayer communicated by Baranoff, director of the
late Russian possessions in America. It reads as follows:

[Sidenote: THLINKEET LORD'S PRAYER.]

Ais waan, wet wwetu tikeu; ikukastii itssagi
Father our, who art in the clouds; honored be name

bae; faa atkwakut ikustigi ibee; atkwakut attüitugati
thine; let come kingdom thine, be done will

bee ikachtekin linkitan zu tlekw. Katuachawat
thine as we in heaven and on earth. Food

uáan zuikwülkinichat akech uáan itat; tamil uáan
our needful give us to-day; absolve us

tschaniktschak aagi zu uáan akut tugati ajat; ilil
debts ours as also we give debtors ours; not lead

uan zulkikagatii táat anachut uan akalléelchwetach.
us into temptation but deliver us from the evil Spirit.

Tü.
So.[II'-28]

Next come the Tinneh, a people whose diffusion is only equaled by that
of the Aryan or Semitic nations of the old world. The dialects of the
Tinneh language are by no means confined within the limits of the
Hyperborean division. Stretching from the northern interior of Alaska
down into Sonora and Chihuahua, we have here a linguistic line of more
than four thousand miles in length extending diagonally over forty-two
degrees of latitude; like a great tree whose trunk is the Rocky
Mountain range, whose roots encompass the deserts of Arizona and New
Mexico, and whose branches touch the borders of Hudson Bay[II'-29] and
of the Arctic and Pacific oceans.[II'-30] In the north, immense compact
areas are covered by these dialects; towards the south the line holds
its course steadily in one direction, while at the same time on either
side are isolated spots, broken fragments as it were, of the Tinneh
tongue, at wide distances in some cases from the central line. A
reference to the classification given at the end of the preceding
chapter, will show the separation of the Tinneh family into four
divisions--the eastern, western, central and southern. The eastern
division embraces the dialects spoken between Hudson Bay and the
Mackenzie River; the western, those of the Kutchins and Kenai of
interior Alaska and the Pacific Coast in the vicinity of Mount St
Elias and Copper River; the central, those of the Tacullies of New
Caledonia, the Umpquas of Oregon, and the Hoopahs of California; the
southern, those of the Apaches of New Mexico, Arizona, and Northern
Mexico.

Near the sources of a branch of the Saskatchewan River are the
Sursees, who have been frequently classed with the Blackfeet, but
Mackenzie had before this stated that they speak a dialect of the
Tinneh.[II'-31] Umfreville who visited these people, compares their
language to the cackling of hens, and says that it is very difficult
for their neighbors to learn it.[II'-32]

Glance first at the dialects round Hudson Bay, and thence towards the
west. The northern dialects are exceedingly difficult to pronounce,
being composed largely of gutturals. Richardson compares some of the
sounds to the Hottentot cluck, and Isbister calls them "harsh and
guttural, difficult of enunciation and unpleasant to the ear."[II'-33]
They differ mainly in accentuation and pronunciation, and it therefore
does not require that philological research which is necessary with
the farther outlying branches of the family to establish their
connection. Richardson says that the Hare and Dog-rib dialects differ
scarcely at all even in their accents; and again that the Sheep
dialect is well understood by the Hare Indians. Latham affirms that
the "Beaver Indian is transitional to the Slavé and Chepewyan proper."
Of the Coppermine people, Franklin writes that their language is
"essentially the same with those of the Chipewyans." Ross Cox says
that the language of the Slowacuss and Nascud "bears a close affinity
to that spoken by the Chepewyans and Beaver Indians."[II'-34]

[Sidenote: DIALECTS OF THE TINNEH FAMILY.]

From a paper in the collection of M. Du Ponceau, cited by Mr Gallatin,
there appears to be in the grammar of these northern dialects a dual
as well as a plural. Thus _dinné_, a person; _dinné you_, a man;
_dinné you keh_, two men; _dinné you thlang_, many men. Again we have
_sick keh_, my foot; _sick keh keh_, my feet. The Chepewyan declension
is as follows:

My two hats, _sit sackhallé keh_; thy two hats, _nit sackhallé keh_;
his two hats, _bit sackhaleé keh_, or _noneh bid tsakhalle keh_; their
two hats, _hoot sackhallé keh_; two pieces of wood, _teitchin keh_;
much, or many pieces of wood, _teitchin thlang_; my son, _see azé_; my
two sons, _see azé keh_; thy two sons, _nee azé keh_; his two sons,
_bee azé keh_; their two sons, _hoo bee azé keh_; my children, _see
azé keh thlang_, or _siskainé_. Thus we see that the dual ending is
_keh_ (which also means foot), and that of the plural, _thlang_.
Possessive pronouns are: first person, _si_, _sit_ or _nee_; second
person, _nit_ or _nee_; third person, his or their, _bit_, _bee_,
_noot_, or _hoo_.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB I SPEAK, YAWS'THEE.

PRESENT. IMPERFECT.

At the end of this chapter may be found a comparative vocabulary,
comprising words selected from these and other dialects, belonging to
this family.

[Sidenote: THE KUTCHIN DIALECTS OF THE YUKON.]

Crossing over to the country drained by the Yukon, we find the great
Kutchin nation and to their north-east the Kenai. The Kutchins,
according to Jones, are "divided into about twenty-two different
tribes, each speaking a dialect of the same language." Hardisty
affirms that "the Loucheux proper is spoken by the Indians of Peels
River, thence traversing the mountains, westward down Rat River, the
Tuk-kuth, and Van-tah-koo-chin, which extend to the Tran-jik-koo-chin,
Na-tsik-koo-chin, and Koo-cha-koo-chin of the Youcon."[II'-36] The
connection of the Kutchin language with the Tinneh has been, by early
travelers, denied, and this denial re-echoed by writers following
them;[II'-37] but later philological investigations have established the
relationship beyond a question. Furthermore, to corroborate this fact
there are persons, well acquainted with these people and their
language, having lived in their country and traded with them for
years, who are positive that the Kutchin is a dialect of the Tinneh.
Some of them even affirm that the eastern Kutchin dialect bears a
closer relationship to that of their neighbors, the Hares and Slavés,
than do some of the dialects of the western Kutchins to each other,
yet it is certain that all the Kutchin tribes of the Yukon and its
tributaries understand one another, accentuation being the principal
distinction between them.

A greater divergence from the stock language is observable in the
dialect of the Tutchone Kutchin, which, with those of the Han Kutchin,
the Slavé of Francis Lake and Fort Halkett, the Sicannis, the
Abbato-tinneh of the Pelly and Macmillan Rivers, and the Nehanne of
forts Liard and Simpson, might almost be called a dialectic division
of the Tinneh language.[II'-38]

Richardson, following Murray, cautiously traces these relationships in
the following words: "More resemblances, he thinks, might be traced
through the Mountain Indian speech (Naha-'tdinnè or Dtchè-ta-ut'tinnè)
than directly between the Kutchin and Dog-rib tongues. The Han-Kutchi
of the sources of the Yukon, speak a dialect of the Kutcha-Kutchi
language, yet they understand and are readily understood by the
Indians of Frances Lake and the banks of the Pelly. Now these converse
freely with the Naha- or Dtché-ta-ut'tinnè, and other Rocky Mountain
tribes, whose language resembles the Dog-rib tongue, and who are, in
fact, acknowledged members of the Chepewyan nation. Again, the Frances
Lake Indians understand the Netsilley, or Wild Nation, who trade at
Fort Halkett, on the River of the Mountains; these again are
understood by the Sikanis; and the Sikanis by the Beaver Indians,
whose dialect varies little from that of the Athabascans, the
longest-known member of the 'Tinnè nation."[II'-39]

The Kutchins pride themselves on their oratorical powers, making
long, windy, and allegorical speeches remarkable alike for native wit
and eloquence. In public speaking their delivery is unique and
effective; commencing in a low monotonous tone the voice slowly rises
to a crescendo, then increases to a forte, and finally rolls forth in
grand fortissimo, at which point, accompanied by striking gestures, it
continues until sheer exhaustion compels the orator to pause for
breath. The speech closes with a "most infernal screech," as Hardisty
calls it, which is supposed to be a clincher to the most abstruse
argument.

It was among these people, in the vicinity of the junction of the
Tananah with the Yukon River that the before-mentioned broken Slavé
jargon originated. Before the arrival of foreigners, the necessity of
a trade, or intertribal, language was felt and met, the dialect spoken
on the Liard River forming the basis. With the arrival of Russians,
French, and English successively, each one of these nationalities
contributed of its words to form the general jargon. Dall says that it
is in use among all western Eskimos who have intercourse with the
Tinneh. The European element in their jargon is very slight, much less
than in the Chinook jargon, from the fact that but few Europeans have
ever come in contact with the inland tribes of Alaska even in an
indirect way.

Following the Tinneh tongue southward from Central Alaska, we strike
the Pacific seaboard at Cook's Inlet and Prince William Sound, where
we find the Kenai, with six or more dialects, stretching along the
shores of the Ocean as far as Copper River. The word Kenai, or as they
are sometimes called the Thnaina,[II'-40] meaning men, in signification
and sound is almost identical with the word Tinneh, Dinneh, Tinné,
Dinay, Tinna, with many other variations applied to this family.[II'-41]
According to Sagoskin the Ingaliks, Unakatanas, and others of the
Yukon and Nulato rivers call themselves Ttynaichotana.[II'-42]
Veniaminoff, a high authority on matters coming under his immediate
observation, draws erroneous conclusions from his comparisons of Kenai
dialects. The Kenai language, he says, is divided into four dialects;
the Kenai proper, the Atnah spoken by the Koltshanes and the people of
Copper River, the Kuskoquim, and the Kwichpak.[II'-43] Baron von Wrangell
is of the opinion that the Kenai are of Thlinkeet stock, affirming
that although their idiom is different yet it comes from the same
root;[II'-44] but Dall believes that it might be "more properly grouped
with the Tinneh."[II'-45] The dialect of the Ugalenzes, Buschmann
confidently asserts, belongs to the Tinneh family, although its
connection with the Kenai is not strongly marked, while slight traces
of the Thlinkeet tongue are found in it, but not the least shadow of
the Aztec as Vater imagined.[II'-46] Long words are of frequent occurence
in the speech of the Ugalenzes; as for example, _chakljtschejalsga_,
work; _tekssekonachalek_, enemy; _kakujasliatenna_, to divide;
_aukatschetohatle_, to take away.

* * * * *

The Atnah dialect has also been classed with the Thlinkeet by Baer,
who inserts a small comparative vocabulary to show the similarity, but
in it few similar words are found, while between the Atnah and the
Ugalenze the connection is quite prominent, as for instance;

ATNAH. UGALENZE.

Heaven jaat jaa
Ice ttön ttetz
Stone ttzesch ttza
Fox nakattze nakattze
Eagle ttschkuläk tkotschkalak
Blood tell tedlch
Fat chchä chche
Come here any anatschtja[II'-47]

[Sidenote: KENAI LINGUISTIC AFFILIATIONS.]

In like manner the Kenai dialect has been classed with the
Thlinkeet;[II'-48] but here the preponderance of evidence is with the
Tinneh. Buschmann claims it as his discovery that the Kenai belong to
the Tinneh family.[II'-49] The Kenai dialect is very difficult to
pronounce, so much so that even the neighboring people with their
harsh, nasal, and guttural idioms, find great trouble in enunciating
it clearly. Some of the combinations of consonants are really very
curious,[II'-50]--_aljtnjan_, earth; _kyssynj_, woman; _mljchny_, to
drink; _keljkatj_, to eat; _ktaaltatlni_, to shoot; _kydykntjassnissj_,
I hear; _tschatscheeintschichku_, do not be afraid; _kazikatejityssny_,
I know not.

Baer makes the Ingalik cognate with Kenai, Atnah, and Thlinkeet;[II'-51]
an affinity is also detected between the Inkalit and the Kenai, Atnah,
and Unalaska dialects;[II'-52] while Sagoskin numbers both the Ingalik
and the Inkalit among the members of the Tinneh family.[II'-53] Like
those of their neighbors these two dialects are harsh and difficult of
pronunciation, as for instance in the Inkalit, _tschugljkchuja_, a
fox.

From the earliest times it has been known that the Koltshanes could
converse freely with the Atnahs and Kenai, and the relationship
existing between these dialects has long been recognized.[II'-54] As a
specimen of the Koltshane tongue, I present the following:
_tschiljkaje_, eagle; _nynkakit_, earth; _ssyljtschitan_, cold;
_sstscheljssilj_, warm; _tschilje_, man.

[Sidenote: CENTRAL TINNEH DIVISION.]

To the Tacullies of our central Tinneh division, whose language Hale
separates into eleven dialects, Latham adds the Sicannis, and other
writers the Umpquas and the Hoopahs.[II'-55] The northern dialects of
this division are represented as composed of words harsh and difficult
to pronounce, while the southern dialects are softer and more
sonorous, yet robust and emphatic. Mr Hale felt the necessity of
adopting a peculiar style of orthography to represent the sounds of
these words. The Greek _chi_ he employed to reproduce the Tacully
gutturals, which he says are somewhat deeper than the Spanish _jota_,
probably nearly akin to the German _ch_ in _acht und achtzig_. With _t
chi l_ he aims to convey a sound which "is a combination uttered by
forcing out the breath at the side of the mouth between the tongue and
the palate."[II'-56] In the following words instead of the Greek
_chi_, I write _kh_, and for _t chi l_, _sch_. _Schling_, dog;
_schluk_, fish; _sutschon_, good; _kwun_, fire; _kukh_, house;
_schhell_, mountain; _tse_, stone; _kuschkai_, run.

Hale is the only author who gives any information of the two tribes
Tlatskanai and Kwalhioqua. The Kwalhioquas dwell on the north bank of
the Columbia, near its mouth; but between them and the river there
runs a wedge of Chinook territory. The former are to be found south of
the river, on a narrow strip extending north and south. Being nearly
related to the Tacully, these languages also belong to the Tinneh
family. The only vocabulary obtainable is given by Mr Hale. Round the
headwaters of the river Umpqua live the people of that name, speaking
a language related to the two last mentioned, but which, if we may
believe Mr Hale, is "much softer than the others."

[Sidenote: VOCABULARY OF HOOPAH DIALECTS.]

Scouler, who has made a curious classification of the languages of
north-western America, places the Umpqua in the same family with the
Calapooya and Yamkally under the general name of Cathlascon.[II'-57] The
southernmost dialect of this division is that of the Hoopahs, on
Trinity River. Upon the authority of Mr Powers, "the Hoopa language is
worthy of the people who speak it--copious in its vocabulary; robust,
sonorous, and strong in utterance; of a martial simplicity and
rudeness in construction." Again he writes, "as the Hoopas remind one
of the Romans among savages, so is their language something akin to
the Latin in its phonetic characteristics: the idiom of camps--rude,
strong, laconic. Let a grave and decorous Indian speak it
deliberately, and every word comes out like the thud of a
battering-ram against a wall. For instance let the reader take the
words for 'devil' and 'death'--_keetoanchwa_ and _cheechwit_--and note
the robust strength with which they can be uttered. What a grand roll
of drums there is in that long, strong word, _conchwilchwil_." Mr
Powers gives the following declension: I, _hwe_; father, _hoota_; my
father, _hwehoota_; you, _nine_; your father, _nineta_; mother,
_necho_; death, _cheechwit_; your mother's death, _nincho
cheechwit_.[II'-58]

On the western slope of Mount Shasta, there is the Wi-Lackee language,
which bears a close likeness to the Hoopah; on Mad River is the Lassic
and on Eel River the Siah, both probably Hoopah dialects, and on Smith
River in Del Norte County, the Haynaggi, Tolewah and Tahahteen, also
presumably Hoopah and Wi-Lackee dialects. The following comparative
table of the numerals in the Tolewah, Hoopah, and Wi-Lackee dialects,
will serve to illustrate their relationship.

TOLEWAH. HOOPAH. WI-LACKEE.

One chla chla clyhy
Two nacheh nach nocka
Three tacheh tach tock
Four tencheh tinckh tenckha
Five swoila chwola tusculla
Six ostáneh hostan cooslac
Seven tsayteh ochkit coosnac
Eight lanésh tnata cahnem coostac
Nine chla ntuch nocósta coosténckha
Ten neh sun minchla kwang enta

[Sidenote: SPEECH OF THE APACHE TRIBES.]

In the southern and last division of the Tinneh family are found the
great Apache and Navajo nations, with their many dialects. The Apaches
may be said to inhabit or rather to roam over the country, commencing
at the Colorado desert and extending east to the Rio Pecos, or from
about 103° to 114° west long., and from Utah Territory into the states
of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Texas, or from about
38° to 30° north lat. Hardly two authors agree in stating the number
and names of the different tribes belonging to this nation.[II'-59] The
names by which they are known among themselves are, according to
Orozco y Berra: _Vinni ettinen-ne_, _Segatajen-ne_, _Tjuiccujen-ne_,
_Iccujen-ne_, _Yutajen-ne_, _Sejen-ne_, _Cuelcajen-ne_, _Lipajen-ne_,
for which the Mexicans have substituted, such words as Apaches,
Tontos, Chiricaguis, Gileños, Mimbreños, Faraones, Mescaleros,
Llaneros, Lipanes, and Navajos.[II'-60] The nations that make up this
great people are the Chiricaguis in north-eastern Sonora; Coyoteros in
the Gila country; Faraones, west of New Mexico in the Sierras del
Diablo, Chanate, and Pilares; Gileños at the eastern base of the
Sierra de los Mimbres south of the Rio Gila; the people of the copper
mines on both banks of the Rio Grande, ranging west to the Coyoteros
and Pinaleños, and also into Chihuahua and Sonora, and at Lake Guzman
west of Paso del Norte; the Lipanes, or Ipandes, in Texas; the
Llaneros, north-east of Santa Fé, and northerly of the Rio Rojo de
Natchitoches or Rio Pecos; Mescaleros, in the Sierras del Diablo,
Chanate, Pilares, and on both banks of the Rio Tuerco, above its
confluence with the Rio Grande; the Natages, or Natajes, in Texas near
the Lipanes; the Pelones, in Coahuila; the Pinaleños, in the Sierras
del Pinal and Blanca; the Tejuas, east of the Rio Grande, in the Gila
country; the Tontos, in north-eastern Sonora, in the north-east near
the Seris in the Pimeria Alta, and south of the Maricopas and the Rio
Gila; the Vaqueros in the eastern part of New Mexico; the Mimbreños,
in the Sierra de los Mimbres, west of Paso del Norte, and in the
south-western end of New Mexico, on the northern boundary of
Chihuahua.[II'-61] The Xicarillas, whose dialect forms the principal
connecting link between the Apache language and the Tinneh family,
live on the Rio de los Osos, west of the Rio Grande; also in the Moro
Mountains and along the Cimarron.[II'-62] All the Apache tribes speak
dialects but slightly varying from one another, and all can converse
easily together. Different accentuations and some peculiar vocal
appellations are, for the most part, all that constitute severalness
in these dialects. Don José Cortéz states that "the utterance of the
language is very violent, but it is not so difficult to speak as the
first impression of it would lead one to suppose; for the ear,
becoming accustomed to the sound, discovers a cadence in the words."
"It has great poverty, both of expression and words." It appears as
well that the harsh gutturals so constantly heard among the northern
members of the Tinneh family, frequently occur in the Apache
dialects.[II'-63] Bartlett writes, "it sounds like a combination of
Polish, Chinese, Choctaw, and Dutch. Grunts and gutturals abound, and
there is a strong resemblance to the Hottentot click. Now blend these
together, and as you utter the word, swallow it, and the sound will be
a fair specimen of an Apache word."[II'-64] Apache affiliations have been
surmised by different writers, with nearly all their neighbors, and
even with more distant nations. Arricivita hints at a possible
relationship with the Otomí, because an Otomí muleteer told him that
he could converse with the Apaches.[II'-65] The Shoshone and Comanche
dialects have also been referred to the Tinneh trunk, but in reality
they belong to the Sonora vernacular, a discovery first made by
Turner, and proved by Buschmann.

Col. Cremony, who was interpreter for the United States Mexican
boundary commission, and hence conversant with the Apache language,
gives some valuable grammatical notes. "Their verbs," he says "express
the past, present and future with much regularity, and have the
infinitive, indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods, together
with the first, second and third persons, and the singular, dual and
plural numbers. Many of them are very irregular, and depend upon
auxiliaries which are few. In all that relates to special
individuality the language is exacting; thus, _shee_ means I, or me;
but _shee-dah_ means I myself, or me myself; _dee_ means thee or thou;
but _dee-dah_ means you yourself especially and personally, without
reference to any other being. When an Apache is relating his own
personal adventures he never says _shee_ for I, because that word, in
some sense, includes all who were present and took any part in the
affair but he uses the word _shee-dah_, to show that the act was
wholly his own. The pronouns are: _shee_--I; _shee-dah_--I myself;
_dee_--thee or thou; _dee-dah_, thee thyself; _aghan_--it, he, her, or
they. The word _to-dah_ means no, and all their affirmatives are
negatived by dividing this word so as to place the first syllable in
front and the second in the rear of the verb to be negatived. For
example, _ink-tah_ means, sit down, but to say, do _not_ sit down, we
must express it _to-ink-tah-dah_; _nuest-chee-shee_, come here;
_to-nuest-chee-shee-dah_, do _not_ come here; _anah-zont-tee_, begone;
_to-anah-zont-tee-dah_, do _not_ begone."[II'-66]

[Sidenote: APACHE GRAMMAR.]

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE, AH GHONTAY.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I am, tak she | We are, tan-ah-hee-ah-aht-tee
Thou art, tan-dee-ah-aht-tee | You are, nah-hee-ah-aht-tee
He is, tah-annah | They are, aghan-day-aht-tee

IMPERFECT.

I was, tash-ee-ah-ash-ee
Thou wast, dee-ah-alt-een
He was, tah annah-kah-on-yah
We were, akannah sin-kah
You were, nah-hee-dah-a-kan nah-dash-shosh
They were, aghan-do-doh-ah-kah-gah-kah

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall be, she-ah-dosh-´n-dahl | We shall be, nah-he-do-gont-ee dahl
Thou wilt be, dee-ay-goh-ay-dahl | You will be, nah-he-nah-hat-han-dahl
He will be, ando-ay-gah-ee-dahl | They will be, nah-hayt-han-dahl

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO DO, AH GOSH LAH.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I do, she-ash-lah | We do, tah-nah-hee-ah-ghont-lah
Thou dost, tan-dee-aghon-lah | You do, nah-hee-ah-ghast-lah
He does tah-pee-ay-il-lah | They do, tah-goh-pee-ah-goh-lah

IMPERFECT.

I did, tah-she-ash-lah | We did, tah-nah-kee-and-lah
Thou didst, dee-and-lah | You did, nah-hee-alt-lah
He did, pee-ind-lah | They did, goh-pee-ah-goh-nind-lah

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall do, tash-ee-ah-dosh-leel
Thou wilt do, dee-ah-goh-dont-leel
He will do, tah-pee-aye-dahl-teel
We shall do, tah-nah-he-ah-go-dont-leel
You will do, nah-he-ah-dash-leel
They will do, go-pee-ah-guill-dah-leel

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I do, she-ash-lah-nah-ah | If we do, tah-nah-hee-ant-lah
If thou do, dee-alt-in-dahl | If you do, nah-hee-alt-lah
If he do, tah-pee-ayilt-in-dahl | If they do, go-pee-ah-wilt-ee

IMPERATIVE.

Do thou, eah-and-lah

PRESENT PARTICIPLE.

Doing, ah-whee-lah

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO EAT, ISH SHAN.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I eat, she-ish-shan | We eat, tah-nah-de-hit-tahn
Thou eatest, deah-in-nah | You eat, nah-he-naloh-in-day
He eats, aghan-iz-yan | They eat, goh-pee-goo-iz-yun

PERFECT.

I have eaten, she-ohz-yan
Thou hast eaten, dee-schlee-ohn-nah
He has eaten, aghan-ohnz-yan
We have eaten, tah-nah-hee-al-ke-dah-ohn-tan
You have eaten, nah-he-ahz-yan
They have eaten, goh-pee-go-yohnz-yan

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall eat, she-go-ish-shan
Thou wilt eat, dee-doh-in-mah-dahl
He will eat, aghandoh-iz-yan
We shall eat, tah-nah-hee-hin-tahn-dahl
You will eat, nah-he-goh-an-shan
They will eat, goh-pee-goh-iz-yan-dahl

IMPERATIVE.

Eat thou, tan-dee-in-nah | Let them eat, tah-goh-pee-niz-yan

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO SLEEP, IL HOOSH.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I sleep, she-ish-hoosh | We sleep, tah-nah-he-il-hoosh
Thou sleepest, dee-ilt-hoosh | You sleep, nah-he-il-hoosh
He sleeps, aghan-it-hoosh | They sleep, go-pee-will-hoosh

PERFECT.

I have slept, she-al-kee-dah-ish-hash
Thou hast slept, dee-al-kee-dah-ish-hash
He has slept, aghando-ish-hash
We have slept, tah-nah-he-al-kee-dah-il-gash
You have slept, nah-he-al-kee-dah-al-hoosh
They have slept, go-pee-al-kee-dah-go-il-gash

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall sleep, she-do-ish-hoosht-tahl
Thou wilt sleep, dee-do-dohl-goosh
He will sleep, aghando-il-hoosht-dahl
We shall sleep, tah-nah-he-do-il-goosh-tahl
You will sleep, nah-he-doh-al-hoosh-tahl
They will sleep, go-pee-go-will-hoosh-tahl

IMPERATIVE.

Sleep thou, dee-ilh-hoosh
Sleep you, nah-hee-doh-al-hoosh
Sleep they, go-pee-go-il-hoosh

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO LOVE, IN KAY GO ISHT LEE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

IMPERFECT.

I loved, she-in-kay-go-isht-leeth-lay
Thou lovedst, dee-vick-kay-go-int-leeth-lee
He loved, aghan-vick-kay-go-it-leelth-lee
We loved, tan-ah-hee-vick-kay-int-leelth-lee
You loved, nah-he-vick-kay-at-leelth-lee
They loved, go-pee-vick-kay-go-leelth-lee

FIRST FUTURE.

Thou wilt love, dee-vick-kay-go-isht-lee-dahl
He will love, ghan-vick-kay-go-it-lee-dahl
I shall love, he-in-kay-go-isht-lee-dahl
We shall love, tah-nah-he-vick-kay-go-it-tlee-dahl
You will love, nah-he-vick-kay-at-tlee-dahl
They will love, goh-pee-vick-kay-go-it-tlee-dahl

IMPERFECT POTENTIAL.

I should love, she 'dn-vick-kay-go-isht-leel-dahl
Thou shouldst love, dee 'dn-vick-kay-go-isht-leel-dahl
He should love, aghan-vick-kay-ich-klee-dahl
We should love, tah-nah-he-vick-kay-go-in-klee-dahl
You should love, nah-he-vick-kay-go-in-klee-dahl
They should love, goh-pee-vick-kay-go-in-klee-dahl

IMPERATIVE.

Love thou, vick-kay-go-it-lee
Love you, nah-he-vick-kay-at-lee
Let them love, goh-pee-vick-kay-go-it-lee

NUMERALS.

One tash-ay-ay
Two nah-kee
Three kah-yay
Four in-yeh
Five asht-lay
Six host-kon-nay
Seven host-ee-day
Eight hah-pee
Nine 'n-ghost-ay
Ten go-nay-nan-nay
Eleven klats-ah-tah
Twelve nah-kee-sah-tah
Thirteen kah-yay-sah-tah
Fourteen tin-sah-tah-hay
Fifteen asht-lay-sah-tah-hay
Sixteen host-kon-sah-tah-hay
Seventeen host-ee-sah-tah-hay
Eighteen tan-pee-sah-tah-hay
Nineteen 'n-ghost-ah-sah-tah-hay
Twenty natin-yay
Thirty kah-tin-yay
Forty tinsh-tin-yay
Fifty asht-lah-tin-yay
Sixty host-kon-tin-yay
Seventy host-ee-tin-yay
Eighty san-vee-tin-yay
Ninety 'n-ghost-ah-tin-yay
One hundred tah-len-too-ooh
One thousand go-nay-nan-too-ooh
Two thousand nah-tin-ee-too-ooh

The following sentences will serve as specimens to show the
construction of this language.

Whence come you? _hash-ee-ohn-dahl?_

I come from afar, _an-dah-she-oh-thal_.

I am a friend, _tah-in-joon-ay-ish-lee_.

What do you want? _ee-ya-althe-ee 'n?_

There are wood, water, and grass, _tooh-tlo-chee-gon-lee_.

Go and watch the enemy, _niñ-dah-bin-naht-hah-aden-he_.

Take notice of them, _gon-joon-ay-go-hah-den-ee_.

Of what nation are they? _yah-indah-aht-ee?_

Where is their camp? _hah-ay-vee-goat-hah?_

Note well their position, _gon-joon-ay-go-nel-he-hayago-ah-tay-na-lee_.

They are near by, _goh-pee-ach-han-nay-she-go_.

I do not believe it, _too-vah-osht-lah-dah_.

Show me the road, _in-tin-dee-she-chee-toh-golt-chee_.

Mine, _shee_.

It is mine, _es-shee_.

Thine, _dee_.

It is his or hers, _ah-koon-pee_.

It is not mine, _too-she-dah_.

It is not thine, _too-in-dee-dah_.

It is not his or hers, _too-pee-dah_.

These, _tee-hay-ah_.

Those, _ah-wayh-hay-yah_.

[Sidenote: SPEECH IN THE MESCALERO DIALECT.]

As a further illustration, I give a speech made by General Carleton
during an interview with the Mescaleros, which was translated and
written down at the time by Col. Cremony.

Nah-heedn day nah goodnltay; toogo take headah;
Your people are bad; they have not kept faith;

bayay geah gontay; schlee nahhah goh inay een;
they are treacherous; they have stolen our horses;

nahgah godilt say; nahhannah gwinheay endah ah tay;
they have murdered our people; they must make amends;

too nahhan neet ee dah; tah nakee ahendah adenh dee;
they must cease troubling us; they must obey our orders;

nah schleen nahhannah weedah ayl; han eganday
they must restore our animals; they must

nahhannah goee dalt yeal; enday nahhah hitjash
give up the murderers; they must give us

toohayago andadah; alkeedah llaynah ildee; eschlanay
hostages; let them remember past times; they were

vaygo daht eel; saylth lee goh-pee; taat hooay takee
numerous and powerful; they held all the sierras; they occupied all

anah goh kah; tah golkahay takay ikay goon lee;
the water-holes; they were masters of the plains;

tash lainah too nelchedah. Ako ahn day hahdah?
none made them afraid. Where are they now?

Eeyah veeahkah tsay nogoshee 'n nilt ee? Nakay eeah
Why do they hide behind rocks? Where is their

haddah? Bahyay kay 'n nilt ee? She aghan iltisch
possession? Why do they hide like coyotes? I will tell

in dee; taykay indah nash lee; taykay ay
them why; they have been enemies to all other people; they have made

veeakah nah hindah; tahnahhe elchindah nah hee;
all other people their enemies; they have made enemies of each other;

tannahee eedaltsay ayveeahkah hee nahindah; too nah
they have lived by robbery and murder; they have

yah seedah; tah nalkoneeay vickaygo tee en nahseego;
not worked; idleness breeds want;

tee en nahseego chin nah hilt yeeay; chevilheeaygo
want breeds hunger; hunger

vilkonyeago takhoogo ont yeal; yont hooaygo anaht eel;
and idleness breed crime; they have committed crimes;

takhoogo ninis yah;
the punishment has fallen on them;

aghon ahltay koohaygo naht lee;
their thousands have become hundreds;

elchinalcheego vickeah golt seel; nahee vah ahtee
we speak harsh truths; we speak so only for

elchinahtee; naschayhay too ahnah lahdah;
their good; we have no vengeance in our hearts;

Elchinalcheego inklees andah 'n june; nah kashee
Our talk is hard but good; let them

vanan an keeays; anahtay kahdayah too wakhahdah;
reflect upon it; let them change their ways;

innee nahl ash lah; ilk jeel eego andah 'n june.[II'-67]
let them cultivate the earth; let them be a strong but a good people.

Mr Dorr, writing in the _Overland Monthly_, makes an erroneous
assertion that the Apache and Zuñi languages are the same, "differing
only in accent, intonation, and cadence, they understand each other
without difficulty. The Zuñi, or Apache language is very flexible and
_suave_, and may at some time have been the Court language of the
ancient races. It is often as expressive of fine shades of distinction
as even the Greek itself. It preserves--in the _adyta_ of its
wonderful radicals--the traditional duality of the human race: its
dual, as well as singular and plural, forms of speech."[II'-68]

Vater intimates a relationship between the Apaches and the Pawnees,
and that chiefly on the ground of a similarity in the names Pawnees
and Lipanes.[II'-69]

Pimentel gives a Lord's Prayer in the Lipan dialect, which will serve
as a specimen of the language:

'Cutall nezlló ezllá anel ti qui Llatá; setezdanela net agá
nautela; nosesene nda tendajé lle agá tandé: tanzanenda agá
atanclaju, senegui ti ezllza glezi, aj ullú ti lle lata; Lle
tulatan nezllé ja lagé tatichi anizané tatichi en gucecen dé
joullé vandaezhé lenegui ajullú da yé nachezonllé tenagé
vandaezhec en ne zto agatenjá tendá tlez ti tezchupanen da
glicóa genechi te najacengli Gaache lyé net.'[II'-70]

The Navajos, or Apache Navajos, of New Mexico, like the northern
Tinneh, call themselves Tennai, men. Their dialect approaches the
Xicarilla Apache, and Mr Eaton even asserts that it is about the
same.[II'-71] Pike mentions the Nanahaws, which name is probably
intended for Navajos, as no other account can be found of such a
people.

[Sidenote: TINNEH VOCABULARY.]

COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY OF THE TINNEH FAMILY.

------------+--------+--------+---------+-----------+-----------+--------+
|STONE. |FIRE. |WATER. | DOG. | SUN. |KNIFE. |
------------+--------+--------+---------+-----------+-----------+--------+
Apache | zeyzai | kou | toah | zeetzaian | skeemai | pesh |
Apache }| | | | | | |
Coppermine }| tzi | con |t'hochon | klinchane |chigonakai | pes |
Atnah | tzesch | tkchon | ttuu | tchlikja | noai | |
Beaver | | | too | tlee | | |
Chepewyan | thaih | counn | tto | thling | sakh | bess |
Dogrib | thai | cun | to | kling | ssa | paas |
Hoopah | tsha | hoh | tahnahn | schlunh | hontsah |salstha |
Inkilik | |ttakuna | tu | klikhk | nooja |tschawyk|
Inkalit | luohna | kchun | te | klikhk | nooi |tschawyk|
Kenai |kaljniki| tasi | miljtni | chlika | channoo |kisjaki |
Koltshane | tzi | |tokatschj| liki |naaitschete| |
Kutchin | tchi | khon | tchu | tleine | r'seyé | r'si |
Kwalhioqua | | | | | |tschoho |
Loucheux | | | tchu | | | tlay |
Navajo | tsai | tcou | toe |kleechahee | chohaeha | pesh |
North'n Ind.| |odelchat| ictoo | anelwosh | | pace |
Apache }| | | | | | |
Pinaleño }|tschayer| | to | | yaheye |paysche |
Sursee | | coo | | tley | | marsh |
Tacully | tse | coun | tou | sleing | tsa | téisch |
Tenan }| | | | | | |
Kutchin }| utsih | | chu | klankoyah | soh | |
Tlatskanai | zeyzay | khtane | to | schling | taosse | tekhe |
Ugalenze | tza | takak | kaja | chaua | katakyl | zachlj |
Umpqua | seh | khong | tkho | schlinge | scha | natlmi |
Unakatana | luohna | khun | tu | klikhk | taltohna | |
Xicarilla | | cone | ko | klinchaah | | |
Apache }| | | | | | |
Mescalero }| teesch | kunh' | too-ooh |neechschlee|shoonnahaye| pesh |

------------+---------+----------+------------+-----------+---------
| MAN. | EYE. | ONE. | TWO. | THREE.
------------+---------+----------+------------+-----------+---------
Apache | ailee | konda | tahse | nahkee | tai
Apache }| | | | |
Coppermine }| n'de | sleenda | tashte | naki | ta-i
Atnah | tkichlj | ssnega |schtschelkai| nateakcha | taakei
Beaver | tiné | | | |
Chepewyan | 'tinné | naw | slachy | nakhé | takke
Dogrib |tchelaqui| ztennhae | 'nthlaré | nakhké | khtarre
Hoopah |quaietai | hunnah | tlah | nahe | tahek
Inkilik |ttynnaij | noga | kissleka | inteka | tokak
Inkalit | tynni | noga | kissleka | inteka | toka
Kenai | tynni | ssnaga | zelkei | techa | tokchke
Koltshane |tschilje |tschintagi| ilite | lakeji | takei
Kutchin | tengi | | tihlagga | nakhei | thieka
Kwalhioqua | | | | |
Loucheux | tenghie | | | |
Navajo | tennai | hunnah | tathlai | naki | tanh
North'n Ind.| tinneh | naw | she |chellatelle| elthoi
Apache }| | | | |
Pinaleño }|payyahnay| chindar | | |
Sursee | |senourvoh | vttegar | vkkeer | tankey
Tacully | dinay | nah | etscha | nangkakh | taki
Tenan }| | | | |
Kutchin }| tinji | sintaga | | |
Tlatskanai | khanae | nakhai | schlié | natoke | tage
Ugalenze | togoju | kalljag | tlchinke | gaatte | toolkoa
Umpqua | toene | naye | aitschla | nakhok | taak
Unakatana | tena lo | sunoga | | |
Xicarilla | tinday | pindah | | |
Apache }| | | | |
Mescalero }| enday | shindah | tash-ayay | nahkee | kahyay

FOOTNOTES:

[II'-1] See vol. i., p. 42 et seq. of this work.

[II'-2] 'Ces deux langues ... sont absolument la même que celle des
Vogules, habitants de la Tartarie, et la même que celle des Lapons.'
_Monglave_, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. i., p. 65. 'Les Esquimaux
d'Amérique et les Tchoutchis de l'extrémité nord de l'Asie orientale
... il est aisé de reconnaître qu'ils appartiennent à une même
famille.' _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 330. 'The whole arctic
shore of North America is possessed by the Esquimaux and Greenlanders,
who speak an original tongue called Karalit.' _McCulloh's Researches
in Amer._, p. 36. 'The Arctic region is mainly covered by dialects of
a single language--the Eskimo.' _Latham's Comp. Phil._, vol. viii., p.
384. 'Der Amerikanische Sprachtypus, die Eskimo-Sprache, reicht
hinüber nach Asien.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 711.
'Alle Eskimos sprechen im Wesentlichen dieselbe Sprache.' _Baer_,
_Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 280. 'The language of the Western Esquimaux so
nearly resembles that of the tribes to the eastward.' _Beechey's
Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 311; _Sauer's Billings' Ex._, p. 245;
_Kotzebue's Voyage_, vol. iii., p. 314; _Franklin's Nar._, vol. i., p.
30; _Dease and Simpson_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. viii., p.
222; _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 68. But Vater does not
believe that the language extends across to Asia. 'Dass sich wohl ein
Einfluss der Eskimo-Sprache, aber nicht diese selbst über die zwischen
Asien and Amerika liegenden Inseln erstreckt.' _Mithridates_, tom.
iii., pt iii., pp. 458, 426.

[II'-3] _Veniaminoff_, _Ueber die Sprachen des russ. Amer._, in
_Erman_, _Archiv._, tom. vii., No. 1, p. 126 et seq.

[II'-4] _Sagoskin_, _Tagebuch_, in _Russ. Geog. Gesell., Denkschr._,
tom. i., p. 359 et seq.

[II'-5] 'Alle diese Völkerschaften reden eine Sprache and gehören zu
einem und demselben Stamme, der sich auch weiter nördlich längs der
Küste ... ausdehnt.' _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 122.

[II'-6] _Kotzebue's Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 175.

[II'-7] Of the similarity between the Kadiak and Alaska idiom,
Langsdorff says: 'In a great degree the clothing and language of the
Alaskans, are the same as those of the people of Kodiak.' _Voy._, vol.
ii., p. 236. _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., pp. 68-69.

[II'-8] _Richardson's Jour._, vol. ii., p. 364 et seq.; _Veniaminoff_,
in _Erman_, _Archiv_, tom. iii., No. i., pp. 142-43; _Beechey's
Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 366; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii.,
p. 458 et seq.; notes on the Chugatsh dialect at Prince William Sound
in _Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., pp. 374-6, and _Portlock's Voy._,
pp. 254-5.

[II'-9] 'Er konnte die Sprache dieser Insulaner nicht ... verstehen.'
_Neue Nachrichten_, p. 105.

[II'-10] _Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., p. 522.

[II'-11] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 377-8.

[II'-12] 'Dass sich wohl ein Einfluss der Eskimo-Sprache aber nicht
diese selbst über die zwischen Asien and Amerika liegenden Inseln
erstreckt.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., 458.

[II'-13] 'Der Bewohner von Unalaschka kann den von Kadjack gar nicht
verstehen.' _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, pp. 123-289.

[II'-14] 'Dass ... sich das aleutische Idiom ... als ein eigner, von
dem grossen eskimoischen ganz verschiedener Sprachtypus erweist.'
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 702 et seq. Veniaminoff's
examples are as follows: active, he took; medium, he took me; passive,
he was born. In _Erman_, _Archiv_, tom. iii., No. 1, pp. 136-8;
_Veniaminoff_, _Sapiski ob Ostrovach Oonalashkinskacho Otjela_, tom.
ii., pp. 264-71.

[II'-15] _Dall's Alaska_, p. 386; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii.,
pt iii., pp. 459-460.

[II'-16] 'Von St Eliasberge bis hinunter zum Columbia-Strome.'
_Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, p. 9.

[II'-17] 'Sie erstrecken sich von Iakutat südlich bis zu den
Charlotten-Inseln.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p.
219.

[II'-18] 'Von Ltu bis Stachin, und hat fast nur einen Dialect.'
_Veniaminoff_, in _Erman_, _Archiv_, tom. vii., No. i., p. 128.

[II'-19] _Bryant's Jour._, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii.,
p. 302. The Tungass language 'as Mr. Tolmie conjectured, is nearly the
same as that spoken at Sitga.' _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc.,
Jour._, vol. xi., p. 218.

[II'-21] _Marchand_, _Voyage_, tom. ii., pp. 109-110.

[II'-22] _La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom. ii., p. 238. 'Their language is
harsh and unpleasant to the ear.' _Portlock's Voy._, p. 293. 'It
appears barbarous, uncouth, and difficult to pronounce.' _Dixon's
Voy._, p. 172. 'La dificil pronunciacion de sus vozes ... pues las
forman de la garganta con un movimiento de la lengua contra el
paladar.' _Bodega y Quadra_, _Nav._, MS., pp. 46-47.

[II'-23] 'Von der ganzen Liste bleibt allein The, Stein als ähnlich.'
_Buschmann_, _Pima u. Koloschen Sprache_, p. 386. 'Zwischen ihnen und
der mexicanischen in Wörtern und Grammatik keine Verwandtschaft
existirt ... gänzlich vom Mex. verschieden sind.' _Buschmann_,
_Ortsnamen_, p. 69. 'Je n'ai trouvé aucune ressemblance entre les mots
de cette langue et celle des ... Mexicains.' _La Pérouse_, _Voy._,
tom. ii., p. 240.

[II'-24] _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 212-13;
_Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, p. 16.

[II'-25] _Buschmann_, _Pima u. Koloschen Sprache_, p. 388.

[II'-26] _La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom. ii., pp. 238-9.

[II'-27] _Veniaminoff_, _Sapiski ob Ostrovach Oonalashkinskacho
Otjela_, tom. iii., pp. 149-51. No translation is given.

[II'-28] _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 225.

[II'-29] 'Dimensionen, in welchen er ein ungeheures Gebiet im Innern
des nördlichen Continents einnimmt, nahe an das Eismeer reicht, und
queer das nordamerikanische Festland durchzieht: indem er im Osten die
Hudsonsbai, im Südwesten in abgestossenen Stämmen am Umpqua-Flusse das
stille Meer berührt.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 323.
'This great family includes a large number of North American tribes,
extending, from near the mouth of the Mackenzie, south to the borders
of Mexico.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 428. 'There are outlyers of the stock
as far as the southern parts of Oregon. More than this, there are
Athabascans in California, New Mexico and Sonora.' _Latham's Comp.
Phil._, vol. viii., p. 393. 'Dass er in seinem Hauptgürtel von der
nördlichen Hudsonsbai aus fast die ganze Breite des Continents
durchläuft; und dass er in abgesonderten, in die Ferne geschleuderten
Gliedern, gen Süden nicht allein unter dem 46ten (Tlatskanai und
Kwalhioqua) und 43ten Grade nördlicher Breite (Umpqua) das stille Meer
berührt, sondern auch tief im Innern in den Navajos den 36ten Grad
trifft ... während er im Norden und Nordwesten den 65ten Grad und
beinahe die Gestade des Polarmeers erreicht.' _Buschmann_, _Athapask.
Sprachstamm_, p. 313. See also vol. i., pp. 114, 143-9.

[II'-30] _Gibbs_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 303.

[II'-31] 'The Sarsees who are but few in number, appear from their
language, to come on the contrary from the North-Westward, and are of
the same people as the Rocky-Mountain Indians ... who are a tribe of
the Chepewyans.' _Mackenzie's Voyages_, pp. lxxi-lxxii.

[II'-32] _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 252;
_Gallatin_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii., p. 19. The
Sarsi, Sussees 'speak a dialect of the Chippewyan (Athapascan), allied
to the Tahkali.' _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p.
219.

[II'-33] 'They speak a copious language, which is very difficult to be
attained.' _Mackenzie's Voyages_, p. 114. 'As a language it is
exceedingly meagre and imperfect.' _Richardson's Jour._, vol. ii., pp.
3, 28.

[II'-34] _Richardson's Jour._, vol. ii., pp. 3, 7; _Franklin's Nar._,
vol. ii., p. 76. 'Hare Indians, who also speak a dialect of the
Chipewyan language.' _Id._, p. 83. Rocky Mountain Indians differ but
little from the Strongbow, Beaver, etc. _Id._, p. 85; _Latham's Comp.
Phil._, vol. viii., pp. 388, 391; _Id._, vol. iii., p. 393; _Cox's
Adven._, p. 323.

[II'-35] _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii., pp.
215-16, 269.

[II'-36] _Richardson's Jour._, pp. 377-413; _Latham's Native Races_,
pp. 293-4; _Jones_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 320; _Hardisty_,
in _Id._, p. 311.

[II'-37] 'They speak a language distinct from the Chipewyan,'
_Franklin's Nar._, vol. ii., p. 83. 'The similarity of language
amongst all the tribes (Athabascans) that have been enumerated under
this head (the Loucheux excepted) is fully established. It does not
appear to have any distinct affinities with any other than that of the
Kinai.' _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii., p.
20. 'The language of the latter (Loucheux) is entirely different from
that of the other known tribes who possess the vast region to the
northward of a line drawn from Churchill, on Hudson's Bay, across the
Rocky Mountains, to New Caledonia.' _Simpson's Nar._, p. 157. 'The
Degothees or Loucheux, called Quarrellers by the English, speak a
different language.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 542.

[II'-38] _Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 311.

[II'-39] _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 400-1; _Hooper's Tuski_,
p. 270.

[II'-40] _Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, pp. 6-7; _Baer_, _Stat. u.
Ethno._, p. 97; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 228;
_Dall's Alaska_, p. 430; _Latham's Nat. Races_, p. 292.

[II'-41] _Buschmann_, _Athapask. Sprachstamm_, p. 223; _Krusentern_,
_Woerter-Sammlung_, p. xi.

[II'-42] 'So nennen die Seeküstenbewohner Ulukag Mjuten Inkiliken,
und diese letzten nennen sich selbst entweder nach dem Dorfe, oder im
allgemeinen Ttynai-Chotana.' _Sagoskin_, _Tagebuch_, in _Russ. Geog.
Gesell., Denkschr._, p. 321.

[II'-43] _Veniaminoff_, in _Erman_, _Archiv_, tom. vii., No. i., p. 128.

[II'-44] 'Ihre Sprache ist zwar von der der Koloschen verschieden,
stammt aber von derselben Wurzel ab.' _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 97.

[II'-45] _Dall's Alaska_, p. 430.

[II'-46] 'Ich bleibe dabei stehn sie für eine athapaskische Sprache zu
erklären.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 687. 'Two tribes
are found, on the Pacific Ocean, whose kindred languages, though
exhibiting some affinities both with that of the Western Eskimaux and
with that of the Athapascas, we shall, for the present, consider as
forming a distinct family. They are the Kinai, in or near Cook's Inlet
or River, and the Ugaljachmutzi (_Ougalachmioutzy_) of Prince
William's Sound.' _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol.
ii., p. 14.

[II'-47] 'Dieses Volk gehört gleich den Ugalenzen zu einem und demselben
Stamme mit den Koloschen.... Auch in der Sprache giebt es mehrere
Wörter, die auf eine gemeinschaftliche Wurzel hindeuten.' _Baer_,
_Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 99.

[II'-48] 'Gehört zu demselben Stamme wie die Galzanen oder Koltschanen,
Atnaer und Koloschen. Dieses bezeugt nicht nur die noch vorhandene
Aehnlichkeit einiger Wörter in den Sprachen dieser Völker (eine
Aehnlichkeit, welche freilich in der Sprache der Koloschen kaum noch
merkbar und fast gänzlich verschwunden ist).' _Baer_, _Stat. u.
Ethno._, p. 103.

[II'-49] 'Die Kinai, Kenai oder Kenaizen wurden bisher schon als ein
Hauptvolk und ihre Sprache als eine hauptsächliche des russischen
Nordamerika's betrachtet. Sie umziehen in ihren Wohnungen an jener
Küste die grosse Kinai-Bucht oder den sogenannten Cooks-Fluss. Ihr
Idiom galt bisher als eine selbstständige und ursprüngliche Sprache,
Trägerinn mehrerer anderer. Nach meinen Entdeckungen ist es ein Glied
des grossen athapaskischen Sprachstammes, und seine Verwandten im
russischen Nordwesten sind andere Glieder desselben.' _Buschmann_,
_Athapask. Sprachstamm_, p. 223.

[II'-50] 'Die Kenai-Sprache ist, wegen der Menge ihrer Gurgellaute, von
allen Idiomen des russischen Amerika's am schwierigsten auszusprechen.
Selbst die Nachbarn der Kenajer, deren Sprachen schon ein sehr
geschmeidiges Organ erfordern, sind nicht im Stande, Wörter des
Kenajischen rein wiederzugeben.' _Veniaminoff_, in _Erman_, _Archiv_,
tom. vii., No. i., p. 128.

[II'-51] _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 119.

[II'-52] 'Sie sprechen eine Sprache, die ganz verschieden ist von der an
der Seeküste gebräuchlichen Sprache der Aleuten von Kadjack; der
Dialect der Inkaliten ist ein Gemisch aus den Sprachen der Kenayer,
Unalaschken und Atnaer ... auch die Anwigmüten und Magimüten sind
Inkaliten.' _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, pp. 120-1.

[II'-53] 'Der zwei Stämme des Volkes Ttynai, hauptsächlich der Inkiliken
und der Inkaliten-jug-elnut.' _Sagoskin_, _Tagebuch_, in _Russ. Geog.
Gesell., Denkschr._, tom. i., p. 352; _Whymper's Alaska_, p. 175.

[II'-54] 'Die näher wohnenden gehören zu demselben Stamme wie die Atnaer
und Kenayer und können sich mit ihnen, obgleich sie einen anderen
Dialect sprechen, verständigen.' _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 101.

[II'-55] _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 62; _Mackenzie's Voyages_,
p. 284. 'Their language is very similar to that of the Chipewyans, and
has a great affinity to the tongues spoken by the Beaver Indians and
the Sicaunes. Between all the different villages of the Carriers,
there prevails a difference of dialect, to such an extent, that they
often give different names to the most common utensils.' _Harmon's
Jour._, pp. 285-6, 379, 193, 196; _Ludewig's Ab. Lang._, p. 178. 'Les
Indiens de la côte ou de la Nouvelle Calédonie, les Tokalis, les
Chargeurs (_Carriers_), les Schouchouaps, les Atnas, appartiennent
tous à la nation des Chipeouaïans.' _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p.
337; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii., p. 20.
'A branch of the great Chippewyan (Athapascan) stock.' _Hale's
Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 202.

[II'-56] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 533.

[II'-57] _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 225;
_Hines' Voy._, p. 117.

[II'-58] _Powers_, in _Overland Monthly_, vol. ix., pp. 157-8; _Gibbs_,
in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 422; _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R.
Rept._, vol. iii., pp. 87-5. 'Ich habe später die _Hoopah_ Sprache
wirklich für eine athapaskische angenommen.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der
Aztek. Spr._, p. 576.

[II'-59] _Bartlett's Pers. Nar._, vol. i., p. 325. 'Desde el Real de
Chiguagua, cruzando al Poniente, hasta el rio Gila, y subiendo al
Norte, hasta el Moqui, y Nuevo México, y Provincias de Texas y
Quahuila; y revolviendo al Sur remata en el sobredicho Real.'
_Arricivita_, _Crónica Seráfica_, p. 338; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom.
iii., pt iii., p. 177; _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. i., pp. 212-3;
'Extend from the black mountains in New México to the frontiers of
Cogquilla.' _Pike's Explor. Trav._, (Phil. 1810,) appendix, p. 10;
_Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 83; _Malte-Brun_,
_Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., p. 446; _Pope_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._,
vol. ii., p. 13; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 298;
_Ludewig's Ab. Lang._, p. 8. 'Se extienden en el vasto espacio de
dicho continente, que comprenden los grados 30 á 38 de latitud Norte,
y 264 á 277 de longitud de Tenerife.' _Cordero_, in _Orozco y Berra_,
_Geografía_, p. 369; _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., pp.
393, et seq. 'Tota hæc regio, quam Novam Mexicanam vocant, ab omnibus
pene lateribus ambitur ab _Apachibus_.' _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 316;
_Venegas_, _Noticia de la Cal._, tom. ii., 553; _Orozco y Berra_,
_Geografía_, p. 40.

[II'-60] _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 369. 'La nacion apache es una
misma aunque con las denominaciones de Gileños, Carlanes, Chilpaines,
Xicarillas, Faraones, Mescaleros, Natales, Lipanes, etc. varia poco en
su idioma,' _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom. iii., p. 10. 'Los
Apaches se dividen en cinco parcialidades como son: Tontos ó
Coyoteros, Chiricahues, Gileños, Faraones, Mescaleros, Llaneros,
Lipanes, Xicarillas y otras.' _Barreiro_, _Ojeada_, appendix, p. 7.
Browne mentions the Gila Apaches, and as belonging to them Mimbrenas,
Chiricahuas, Sierra Blancas, Pinal llanos, Coyoteros, Cominos, Tontos,
and Mogallones.' _Apache Country_, p. 290; _Vater_, _Mithridates_,
tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 177-8; _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. i., p.
211. 'The Apache; from which branch the Navajos, Apaches, Coyoteros,
Mescaleros, Moquis, Yabipias, Maricopas, Chiricaquis, Chemeguabas,
Yumayas (the last two tribes of the Moqui), and the Nijoras, a small
tribe on the Gila.' _Ruxton's Adven. Mex._, p. 194; _Ind. Aff. Rept._,
1857, p. 298; 1858, pp. 205-6; 1854, p. 180; 1861, p. 122; 1862, p.
238; 1863, p. 108; 1864, p. 156; 1865, p. 506; 1869, p. 234;
_Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 289. 'Los apaches se dividen en
nueve parcialidades ó tribus.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 251.
'Since acquiring the Apache language, I have discovered that they
(Lipans) are a branch of that great tribe, speaking identically the
same language, with the exception of a few terms and names of things
existing in their region and not generally known to those branches
which inhabit Arizona and New Mexico.' _Cremony's Apaches_, p. 21.

[II'-61] _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 303, et seq. 'El
intermedio del Colorado y Gila, ocupan los yavipaistejua, y otros
yavipais; al sur del Moqui son todos yavipais, que es lo mismo que
apaches, donde se conoce el gran terreno que ocupa esta nacion.'
_Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série ii., tom. i., p. 352;
_San Francisco Evening Bulletin_, Feb. 18, 1864. Padilla mentions the
following nations with the Apaches: 'Apaches, Pharaones, Natagees,
Gilas, Mescaleros, Cosninas, Quartelejos, Palomas, Xicarillas, Yutas,
Moquinos.' _Conq. N. Galicia_, MS., p. 785; _Cortez_, _Hist. Apache
Nations_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., pp. 118-20. 'The Apaches,
the Navahoes, and the Lipans, of Texas, speak dialects of the same
language. The Jicarillas, (Hic-ah-ree-ahs) Mescaleros, Tontos, and
Coyotens, are all bands of Apaches; and I am induced to think the
Garoteros are also an offshoot from the Apache tribe.' _Lane_, in
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 689.

[II'-62] 'A distancia de cinco leguas, al mesmo rumbo (north of Taos),
está una Nacion de Indios, que llaman Xicarillas.' _Villa-Señor y
Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., p. 420; _Davis_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._,
1869, p. 255. Xicarillas, Apache Indians of northern New Mexico. Their
language shows affinity with the great Athabascan stock of languages.
_Buschmann_, _Spr. N. Mex. u. der Westseite des B. Nordamer._, p. 274;
_Id._, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 318-9; _Schoolcraft's Arch._,
vol. v., p. 203.

[II'-63] _Cortez_, _Hist. Apache Nations_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol.
iii., p. 120. 'Hablan un mismo idioma, y aunque varia el acento y tal
cual voz provincial, no influye esta diferencia que dejen de
entenderse reciprocamente.' _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 339.

[II'-64] _Bartlett's Letter_, in _Literary World_, April 24, 1852, pp.
298-9. 'It abounds equally with guttural, hissing and indistinctly
uttered mixed intonations.... It abounds in the sound of _tz_, so
common in the Shemitic languages, of _zl_ of _d_ and the rough
_rr_.... It may be suggested that its proper affinities are to be
found in the Athpasca.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., pp. 202-3.

[II'-65] 'Le preguntó que si acaso entendia la lengua de los Apaches, y
satisfizo con que era la misma Otomite que él hablaba, y solo con la
diferencia de que ellos variaban la significacion de muchos vocablos
que en la suya querian decir otras cosas: pero por el contexto de las
otras palabras, facilmente se entendian.' _Arricivita_, _Crónica
Seráfica_, p. 339.

[II'-66] _Cremony's Apaches_, p. 239; _Id._, in _Overland Monthly_, Sept.
1868, pp. 306-7.

[II'-67] Prepared at Fort Sumner, Bosque Redondo, on the Pecos River, New
Mexico, in 1863, as certified by Brig. Gen. James H. Carleton, U. S.
A., and the only Apache grammar known to exist at this date.
_Cremony's Vocabulary and Grammar of the Mescalero Apache Language_,
MS.

[II'-68] _Dorr's Ride with the Apaches_, in _Overland Monthly_, vol. vi.,
p. 343.

[II'-69] _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt. iii., p. 179.

[II'-70] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 251, and in _Coleccion
Polidiómica Mexicana que contiene La Oracion Dominical; por la
Sociedad Mex. Geog. y Estad._, México, 1860.

[II'-71] 'The Apaches call the Navajoes Yú-tah-kah. The Navajoes call
themselves, as a tribe, Tenúai (man.) The appellation Návajo, was
unquestionably given them by the Spaniards.' _Eaton_, in
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 217-8; _Möllhausen_, _Tagebuch_,
p. 229. 'Gehört ebenfalls zur Familie der Apaches.' _Id._, _Reisen_,
tom. ii., p. 236.

CHAPTER III.

COLUMBIAN LANGUAGES.

THE HAIDAH, ITS CONSTRUCTION AND CONJUGATION -- THE NASS
LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS -- BELLACOOLA AND CHIMSYAN
COMPARISONS -- THE NOOTKA LANGUAGES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND --
NANAIMO TEN COMMANDMENTS AND LORD'S PRAYER -- AZTEC ANALOGIES
-- FRASER AND THOMPSON RIVER LANGUAGES -- THE NEETLAKAPAMUCK
GRAMMAR AND LORD'S PRAYER -- SOUND LANGUAGES -- THE SALISH
FAMILY -- FLATHEAD GRAMMAR AND LORD'S PRAYER -- THE KOOTENAI --
THE SAHAPTIN FAMILY -- NEZ PERCÉ GRAMMAR -- YAKIMA LORD'S
PRAYER -- SAHAPTIN STATE AND SLAVE LANGUAGES -- THE CHINOOK
FAMILY -- GRAMMAR OF THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE -- AZTEC AFFINITIES
-- THE CHINOOK JARGON.

Returned from the south, whither we were led by the Apache branch of
the Tinneh family, let us examine the languages of our Columbian
group. Next along the seaboard, south of the Thlinkeets, are the
Haidahs and Kaiganies, whose language is spoken on the southern part
of the Prince of Wales Archipelago, and on Queen Charlotte Island.
This language is sometimes called Haidah, and sometimes Kaiganie,[III'-1]
and although many tribes belong to these nations, I find among them no
dialectic difference, except that between the Haidahs of Queen
Charlotte Island and the Kaiganies of the Prince of Wales Archipelago.

Marchand claims that this language is understood by the Thlinkeets
and other eastern tribes;[III'-2] Capt. Dixon thinks it is a distinct and
separate tongue;[III'-3] Scouler makes one large northern family, which
he says spreads "from the Arctic Circle to the northern extremity of
Quadra and Vancouver's Island;"[III'-4] Radloff's comparative researches
incline him to the opinion that, although there may be a few
similarities in words between this and other idioms, as, for example,
the Thlinkeet, they are yet insufficient to prove identity.[III'-5]

[Sidenote: THE HAIDAH AND KAIGANIE.]

Some of those who have heard the Haidahs speak, say that their
language is uncouth and difficult to articulate, abounding in
consonants, and with a labial and dental pronunciation;[III'-6] others
affirm that it does not possess the hard aspirated consonants so
frequently found in the Thlinkeet language, that it is richer in
vowels and softer, though, like the Thlinkeet, it is wanting in
labials, in the dental _r_, and in the guttural _l_, while the Haidah
has the clear _l_.[III'-7] The Haidah language lacks the letters _b_,
_p_, _f_, and the dental _r_; neither its substantives nor adjectives
have any gender, and to express the feminine the word _dshetta_,
woman, is added. _Itlk dshetta_, wife of the chief; _ha_, dog; _ha
dshetta_, slut. Neither is there any particular expression for the
plural. _Kjéganei_, my house; _kjeganei tljönxl lágun_, my three
houses are good; _tön dsha_, thy wife; _tön dsha s'töng hána_, thy two
wives are both pretty. Two exceptions have been mentioned;--_gjeà_,
mast; _gjeàng hlöhnhl_, three masts; _hätä_, man (homo); _hátei_, men.
Substantives are not declined, but remain unchanged in all cases.
_Hantl_, water; _hall hantl_, bring water; _tlu_, boat; _tlu tön
gistasa_, I give thee a boat; _katt_, deer; _katt hutsu ziggin_, I
have a small deer; _slei_, hand; _hall tön slei_, give thy hand.
Pronouns are either distinct words, or are prefixes to substantives
and verbs. Prefixes also denote the possessive case. To the former
class belong _htlä_, I; and _tonga_, thou. To the latter belong _te_,
_ti_, _de_, _di_, _zi_, _kje_, _teea_, _tl_, _t_, mine, all of which
are used in the first person singular. Second person singular, _töng_,
_tön_, _ten_, thine; second person plural, _töllöng_, yours.

Of the conjugation of the verb, the following may serve as example:
Present indicative--I am hungry, _tekutke_; thou art hungry, _töng
khúttus_; he is hungry, _law khúttung_; we are hungry, _itl khúttung_;
you are hungry, _töllöng khúttus_; they are hungry, _únnas khúttung_.
Root words are not of great length. The larger part are words of one
or two syllables; some are of three or four, but these are rare;
nevertheless, words may be agglutinated to any length.[III'-8]

The Nass language is spoken with very slight differences by the Nass,
Hailtzas, and Sebassas, who dwell around Observatory Inlet, Millbank
Sound, and the islands of Pitt Archipelago, respectively. Harsh sounds
and gutturals predominate.[III'-9] The personal pronouns are--_nookwa_,
I; _cusho_, thou; _nesho_, mine; _cusho_, thine; _nookwintok_, we;
_kycusko_, ye; _caigh qua_, he; _elee caigh qua_, they.[III'-10]

Dunn gives a few sentences, which I insert as specimens: _whealey
lowels kussú_, where are you going? _howmithlem pooquialla iltsouk_,
do you understand our language? _lowels, cah cúnter cah míllah_, go
shoot deer.[III'-11]

[Sidenote: BELLACOOLA AND CHIMSYAN.]

In the immediate vicinity of the Nass are two other languages, the
Bellacoola and Chimsyan, of which hardly anything is known. Tolmie
supposes the Chimsyan to be related to the Tacully language, but
Buschmann, on comparing the vocabularies, could not find the affinity.
The Rev. Mr Good informs me that the Chimsyan tongue extends inland as
far as Fraser and Stuart Lake.[III'-12] Compare the following words:

BELLACOOLA. CHIMSYAN.

I untsh newyo
Thou eno noone
Mine untshil nawhawae
We unshto neuhami
Ye enooh neumi
He teechtil taigh qua
They teech til tin no mo taight queet
Man tlimsdah tzib
Knife teech tah ilth-a-peesh
Water kull ah use
Stone quils tolomick loap
Sun skin nuch kium uk
Moon tlooki kium ugum aat uk
Good teeah aam
Bad ushee atuchk

The Hailtzas and the Bellacoolas have the following words in
common;--_watz_, dog; _poe_, halibut; _tlah_, black bear; _nun_,
grizzly bear.[III'-13]

[Sidenote: LANGUAGES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND.]

On Vancouver Island a multitude of dialects are spoken, and various
and contradictory classifications have been made, none of which, in my
opinion, are correct. From the evidence, dialetic diversity prevails
to such an extent that almost every petty tribe has its idiom; so
that, even if affinities do exist, sufficient to justify a
classification into languages and dialects, so meagre is our knowledge
that it is impossible in many instances to say which are languages and
which dialects. Hence in my classification I cannot do better than to
make of the Nootka one language, and give a list of the dialects on
the island, with all the information concerning them at my command.
Four languages of the island--the Quackoll in the north, the Cowichin
on the east, the Clallam at the south, and the Makah on the west, are
said to be "totally distinct from each other, both in sound,
formation, and modes of expression." The one last mentioned is said to
bear some affinity to the language spoken at the mouth of the Columbia
River,[III'-14] and is called by Sproat the Aht language, for which he
claims in like manner that it "can be traced through all the tribes on
the ocean coast, as far south as the mouth of the Columbia." The
Comux, which people he locates on the east coast between the Cowichins
and Quackolls, migrated thither, he says, from the main land, and the
tribes "do not readily understand one another's language;" from all of
which we may infer that in reality there is only one language, of
which these four are the chief dialects.[III'-15] Yet this is partially
contradicted by Grant, who affirms that the Cowichins and Clallams can
communicate with each other, though not very easily, but that the
Makahs and Quackolls cannot converse with each other or with any of
the other nations.[III'-16] Another authority, who certainly ought to be
entitled to an opinion, having been a captive among these nations for
some years, also intimates that in reality there was only one language
dominant on the island. After enumerating the different tribes he
concludes; "all of whom speak the same language. But the Newchemass
who come from a great way Northward, and from some distance inland,
speak quite a different language, although it is well understood by
those of Nootka."[III'-17]

National differences appear to consist more in pronunciation than in
grammatical construction. Thus the articulation of the Klaizzahts is
hoarser and more guttural than that of the people of Nootka
Sound.[III'-18] Dialectic differences sometimes go so far that the
several bands of the same tribe find difficulty in making themselves
understood; as for instance the Nitinaht tribes when conversing with
one another, have frequently to repeat their sentences differently
accented to make them intelligible. The chief peculiarity of the
Nitinaht dialect is the transmutation of the letters _m_ and _n_,
which are in universal use throughout the island, for which it
substitutes _b_ and _d_. Thus for _mamook_, to work, the Nitinahts say
_baboik_; _nismah_, country, they pronounce _dissibach_, and so
on.[III'-19]

As compared with that of the Thlinkeets, the Nootka language is
neither harsh nor disagreeable. Its most curious feature is the
predominance of labials and dentals over gutturals. The Nootkas
possess fine oratorical powers, lending assistance to their words by
shaking their head, gesticulating forcibly, and even jumping at each
other. A singular sound, and one which it is hardly possible to
express by any combination of letters, happens in many of their words.
Spreading the corners of the mouth to their widest extent, and raising
the point of the tongue against the palate, they expel the air from
the sides of the mouth, at the same time bringing the tongue down
strongly, which obviously produces a sound altogether foreign to the
English vocabulary. Captain Cook says of this sound, "it is formed, in
a particular manner, by clashing the tongue partly against the roof of
the mouth, with considerable force; and may be compared to a very
coarse or harsh method of lisping," and he attempts to give the sound
by the letters _lszthl_. Many words end with this sound, and also with
a _tl_, _z_, or _ss_;--as _opulszthl_, sun; _onulszthl_, moon;
_kahsheetl_, dead; _teeshcheetl_, to throw a stone; _kooomitz_, a
human skull; _quahmiss_, fish-roe. Captain Cook further remarks upon
their language that it "can only be inferred, from their method of
speaking, which is very slow and distinct, that it has few
prepositions or conjunctions; and, as far as we could discover, is
destitute of even a single interjection, to express admiration or
surprize."[III'-20]

Furthermore, I may add, there is no case, nor gender, nor tense, and
number is expressed only in the personal pronoun and in the inflection
of verbs. In the first persons singular and plural, verbs end in _a_
or _mah_; in the second persons, _huk_ or _ayts_; and in the third
persons, in _mah_, _win_, or _utlma_. Sometimes these endings go over
to the adverb which accompanies the verb, and they are subject to
phonetic rules, according to which syllables are sometimes changed or
left out altogether. We have _wik_, not; and _kumotop_, to understand;
_wikahkumotop_ or _wimmutomah_, I do not understand; the latter mode
being a change for the sake of euphony. Plurals, and particularly
frequentative plurals, are expressed by duplication: as _mahte_ or
_mahs_, house; _mahtmahs_, all the houses. Different classes of words
appear to have different terminals: for example, instruments end with
_ik_--_hukkaik_, a knife; _hissik_, a saw. Colors end in _uk_ or
_ook_--_eyyohquk_, green; _kistokkuk_, blue; _klayhook_, purple;
_kleesook_, white; _toopkook_, black. _Hissit_, red, forms an
exception. Trees and plants end in _pt_--_kowwhipt_, _seewhipt_,
_ootsmupt_, _klakkupt_, etc. Verbs end in _shitl_, _shetl_, and
_chitl_, although some exceptions occur. Another distinctive ending is
_up_--_châtayup_, to cut off with a knife; _kââsup_, to hurt or wound;
_hyyusatyup_, to diminish; _ashsup_, to break a string or cord;
_quoyup_, to break a stick, etc.[III'-21] As a specimen of the
language, I give the first three of the Ten Commandments, and the
Lord's Prayer, in the dialect of the Nanaimos.[III'-22]

[Sidenote: NANAIMO COMMANDMENTS.]

NUTSA.

Owa tonowa quinet ta eesaila tseetsel seeam, ohi tanca tseetsel
seeam.

EESAILA.

Owa tanowa seeise ta seeathl sta ta stem nay quo tseetsel, sta
ta stem aitna tomuck, e sta ta stem nay ta ka, kokoo taswa
tseetsel seeam owa tanowa cappausom e stayweeil ta sta, ohi
tanca tseetsel seeam. Towhat oyas kullstuck, tanca ouseete
tanca quaquat e towhat ighstuck tanca e oyas shatlm tanswan
squell oseete tanca igh lalamat.

TLEEUGH.

Owa tanowa heewaulim ta squish quo tseetsel seeam oseete
tseetsel seeam quaquasaum towhat oyas sta.

TA KALHEM TA JESUKIT.

Saulth man nay quo tseetsel igh telneemelth oyas stlay stuck ta
statsn squish. Tel-neemelth ohi stlay tanowa sthee seeam nay
toumuck tomuck. Igh taswa mestiu shatlm ta squell aitna tomuck
sta ta tseetsel mestiu. Tana quial e muck squial mistook ta
saulth saulthan. Igh tanowa nahi tataeuk whawa telneemelth e ta
saulth kull squiaxits sta telneemelth nahi tataeuk whunem
toumuck mestiu kull squiaxits whawa telneemelth. Igh
telneemelth owanam ethlkalth ta kull, igh tanowa awistuck etha
igh. Ohi tanowa oonans sthee seeam, tanowa ohi sthee quamqum
telneemelth ohi cappausom high quo tanowa oyas oyas. Amen.

From certain interpretations placed upon the ancient Aztec
manuscripts, it was by some inferred that the origin of that people
must be sought in the north; hence speculative philologists have, from
time to time, discovered many fancied resemblances between the
language of the aboriginal Mexicans and those of various northern
nations. Thus, in the speech of the Nootkas, a distinct phonetic
resemblance, and the frequent occurrence of the ending _tl_ were
sufficient evidence to Vater and others that a relationship exists
between the Aztecs and the Nootkas. Prescott, following his
predecessors, fell into the same error. Humboldt, although struck with
the similarities mentioned, yet pronounced them different
tongues,[III'-23] while Buschmann, who has examined the subject more than
all others combined, denies all such relationship.[III'-24]

* * * * *

Coming over to the main land we find, for the most part, in each of
the many inlets and canals a separate language. Between these
languages, from perpetual intertribal intercourse, it is impossible to
determine, in some instances, what relationship, if any, exists.
Several of the languages of the island we find also on the main land
adjacent. The Clallams are found on both sides of Juan de Fuca
Straits; and nearly related to the Cowichins, who are found as well on
the main land near the mouth of Fraser River as on the island, are the
Noosdalums of Hood Canal, one language being but a dialect of the
other.

[Sidenote: LANGUAGES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.]

Respecting the languages spoken in the interior of British Columbia,
the Rev. Mr Good, who has spent fifteen years among the inland
nations, and who is fully conversant with their languages, gives me
the following information: From Yale to Lillooet, on the Fraser River,
thence from Bonaparte to Nicola River, the Neetlakapamuch, or Thompson
River, language is spoken. From Douglas, along the Harrison River and
lake, to its confluence with the Fraser, as far as Chilicothe, and
again from Lillooet northward to Clinton, the Stlatelemuck, or
Lillooet, language prevails. Next, from Bonaparte River northward to
William Lake, to Shushwap Lake, around Lake Kamloops, and for some
distance on the Thompson River, the Suwapamuck, or Shushwap, tongue
prevails; and finally, from Nicola Lake to Kamloops, and southward as
far as Columbia River, the Chitwout, or Similkameen, language is used.
Mr Good further asserts that, although there are four distinct
languages, they are nevertheless in some degree affiliated. From the
same gentleman, I also obtained the following grammatical notes and
specimens of the Neetlakapamuch tongue. Personal pronouns are--I,
_ens_; thou, _awee_; he, _cheneelt_; we, _nemeemult_; you,
_aweepeeaps_; they, _chinkoast_.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO GIVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I give, ens nahktinna | We give, nemeemult nahktam
Thou givest, awee nahktatta | You give, aweepeeaps nahktattose
He gives, cheneelt nahktass | They give, chinkvast nahkteeiks

IMPERFECT.

I gave, huinahktlam

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall give, huinahkchin

IMPERATIVE.

Give me, nahkchams | Give us, nahkteea

_Mamans_ inserted in a word, signifies a desire to do a thing; thus,
_winaskin_ means to go; and _winasmamankin_, I am wishing to go. The
syllable _weltin_, affixed to a word, expresses that a thing has been
done effectively;--_tlokhtinnaweltin_, I have fastened it well, or
thoroughly. _Tata_ is a negative preposition.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Takamote nemeemult skatzazact whohakn nil
Our Father who art in

kakhtomew. Axseeas chutam clas squest awee. Eyah
heaven. Good to be done the name thine. Good

huntohs stakums asait cunamah axclahaks swonakum
make haste all men come truly

eah tuksmite Jesu Cree huntoseamal. Awee kaseah
good children of Jesus Christ make haste. Thy will

eah ah chuwo naanatomew, clah seeatahah L'angels
good done on earth, as the angels

archkhwamo incheah nilkahtomew. Takamose nuk
do there heaven. All and

stakum a tseetlekut nahkteea nemeemult stakums as
every day give us all our

skhlayans. Altla quonquonstyea nemeenult takamote
food. And forgive us all

nemeemult outkest, tseeah nemeemult quonquonstama
our evil, as we forgive

takamote tooal saitcunama aks weetsikteese tekest whoa
all of men who accomplish any evil to

nemeemult. Atahmose tah hoshaman as masteel
us. Never let the evil one lead

nemeemult axkhokestumtum a quonteese akest. Kamult
us to wish to lay hold of any evil. But

akklokpistyip nemeemult takamote too a kest wilkakow.
deliver us all that is evil far from us.

Shutenmeenwawee takamose atomew. Shutenmeenwawee
Thine all the world. Thine

takamose azozoht. Shutenmeenwawee takamose
all strength. Thine all

asyameet. Taeah asklakameemus astinansouse,
worship. Good evermore to come,

asklakameemus astinansouse. Axseahs.
evermore to come. Amen.

[Sidenote: PUGET SOUND DIALECTS.]

Proceeding southward to Puget Sound, we have the Shimiahmoo, Nooksak,
Lummi, Samish, Snohomish, and others; and around Cape Flattery, the
Classet. The Makah, Classet, or Klaizzaht, I have spoken of already,
in connection with the language of Vancouver Island, and it also
appears that the Clallam, S'klalum, or as they call themselves,
Nusklaiyum, is also connected with the Vancouver Island
language.[III'-25] It is probably the same which Dr Scouler has called
the Noosdalum. The Lummi, or Nukhlumi, and the Shimiahmoo have also
some affinity with the Sanetch dialect of Vancouver Island, and the
languages of the Skagits and Samish approach that of the Nisquallies.
Yet while the Clallam and Lummi show certain affinities to the Nootka
dialect, they nevertheless clearly belong to the Salish, or Flathead
family.[III'-26]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: SALISH DIALECTS.]

We now come to the great interior Salish family, although I shall have
occasion again to refer to the coast language in this vicinity. The
northernmost Salish language is the Shushwap, or Atnah, which
approaches near to its neighbor the Salish proper;[III'-27] then there
are the Kullespelm, or Pend d'Oreille, the Spokane, the Soaiatlpi, and
the Okanagan, which with others spoken on the Columbia show close
affinities.

The Salish proper, or Flathead, is harsh and guttural. The letters
_b_, _d_, _f_, _r_, _v_, do not exist in this language. The plural of
substantives is formed in different ways: first, by duplicating the
root--_skoi_, mother; _skoikoi_, mothers: second by duplicating and
dropping a vowel from the root--_skaltmigu_, man; _sklkaltmigu_, men;
_esmòck_, mountain; _esmòkmck_, mountains: third, by duplicating a
consonant in the middle of the word--_skòlchemùs_, eyelid;
_skòlchammùs_, eyelids: fourth, by prefixing the syllable
_ul_--_nackoèmen_, thief; _ulnakoèmen_, thieves: and lastly there are
divers formations, as _es´schíte_, tree; _szlzlíl_, trees, forest;
_s´m´èm_, woman (mulier); _pèlplgui_, women. Diminutives are expressed
by placing _l_ before the root, as, _s´m´èm_, woman; _slm´èm_, small
woman; _lùk_, wood; _llùl´lk_, a small piece of wood. Augmentatives
are formed by prefixing the syllable _kutn_, or _kuti_, when the word
commences with an _s_ or _l_, thus, _skagae_, horse; _kuti-skagae_, a
great horse; _sm´ot_, smoke; _kuti-sm´ot_, a great smoke. There are
pronouns, personal, possessive, demonstrative, relative,
interrogative, and indefinite. According to Mengarini the personal
pronoun has two forms, absolute and copulative, the exact meaning
attached to these terms not being explained.

ABSOLUTE. COPULATIVE.

I koie ko
Thou anúi ku
He zuilz
We kaémpile kae
You mpilèpstemp p, or mp
They zni´ilz

As examples of the others there are possessives--mine, _in_; thine,
_an_; his, _s_; ours, _kao_; yours, _mp_; theirs, _s_:
demonstratives--this, _iè_; that, _zi_: interrogative--who, _suèt_:
and indefinite--some one, _chnáksi_.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE ANGRY.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I am angry, tnes aimt-i | We are angry, kaes aimt-i
Thou art angry, kues aimt-i | You are angry, pes aimt-i
He is angry, es aimt-i | They are angry, es afimt-i

PERFECT.

I have been angry, tn-aimt or tnes aimt

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall be angry, nem tn aimt

IMPERATIVE.

Be angry, aimt sch

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I be angry, tiks aimt-i | If we be angry, kaeks aímt-i
If thou be angry, kuks aimt-i | If you be angry, pks aimt-i
If he be angry, ks aimt-i | If they be angry, ks aíimt-i

IMPERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I were angry, k neu tn aimt

OPTATIVE.

If I might be angry, komi tn aimt

Following is a Lord's Prayer, the nationality not given:

Kae l'eu l's'chichmáskat u ku l'zii, asku èst kuks
Our father in heaven who liveth, thy name of thee

gamènchltm; ku kl chèltich s esià sp'us; aszntèls ks
be loved; thou be Lord of all hearts; thy will

kólli iè l stóligu, ezgail l's'chichmáskat. Kae guizlilt
be done this on earth, as in heaven. Us give to-day

iè tlgoa lu kaesiapzínm. Kaelkolgoèllilt lu kae gulguílt
what we need. Us forgive our debts,

ezgail lu tkaempilè kaes kolgoelltm, lu e épl gulguílt l
as we forgive (those) who have debts with

kaempilè. Kae olkschílilt ta ka keskuèstm lu tèie; u kai
us. Us assist not at any time receive evil; but us

gulguillilt lu tel teié. Komi ezgail.
preserve uninjured from evil. Be it so.[III'-28]

The above is taken from the grammar of Mengarini, written in Latin;
following is a Lord's Prayer of the Pend d'Oreilles, from Father De
Smet, who wrote in French:

Kyleeyou, Itchitchemask, askwees kowaaskshamenshem
Our father of heaven, that your name be respected

ailetzemilkou yeelskyloog; ntziezie telletzia spoo
by all the earth; reign in all the

oez. Assinteels astskole, yelstoloeg etzageel
hearts. That your will be done on earth as also

Itchichemask. Hoogwitzilt yettilgwa lokaitssia petzim.
in heaven. Give us now all our necessaries.

Knwaasksmeemiltem klotayie kloitskeyen etzageel
Forgive us the evil which we have done, as

kaitsskolgwelem klotoiye kloitskwen klielskyloog.
we forgive (the evil) to those who us have offended.

Koaxalock shitem takaakskwentem klotaiye;
Accord to us assistance to evade evil;

kowaaksgweeltem klotaiye. Komieetzegeel.
but deliver us from evil. So be it.[III'-29]

Also belonging to this family are the languages spoken by the
Skitsuish, Pisquouse, Nsietshaws, Nisquallies, and Chehalis. The
Nsietshaw differs more than the others from the Salish proper, which
is the stock language of this family, and particularly in not
possessing any labials; the letters _m_ and _b_ being changed to _w_,
and _p_ to _h_. Thus, in the Chehalis and Nisqually languages, we
have, _numan_, son; _tomokh_, earth; _pansototsi_, winter; which, in
the Nsietshaw, are pronounced respectively, _nuwon_, _tawekh_ and
_hansototsi_. The Chehalis is spoken in three dialects, the Chehalis
proper, the Quaiantl, and the Queniauitl.[III'-30]

The languages of the Salish Family, particularly that of the Chehalis,
are rich in words, by means of which everything coming within their
knowledge may find expression; they are not easily acquired by
strangers; it is difficult for the different nations and tribes to
make themselves understood to one another. This is owing principally
to the many localisms in vogue among them, of which there is a good
specimen in the Chehalis language. Thus, _tolneuch_ means west-wind,
off shore, toward the sea, or to the west. Now, if the Chehalis are
leaving the shore in a canoe, and one of them wants to tell his mate
to put her head off shore, he will say _tolneuch_, but if in a hurry,
_neuch neuch_. _Claathlum_ signifies east-wind, also ashore; this they
transpose into _clath clath_.[III'-31] The Clallum and Lummi languages
have another peculiarity, which is a certain nasal sound at the
commencement and ending of words like a strong nasal _ns_; also a
broad _a_ sound as in far, path. The sounds of the letters _v_, _r_,
_z_, are wanting.[III'-32] The frequently occurring ending _tl_ has also
led to speculation, and to a search for Aztec affinities among these
languages, but nothing except this phonetic similarity has been
discovered. This _tl_ ending is very common. Swan says that,
"sometimes they will, as if for amusement, end all their words with
_tl_; and the effect is ludicrous to hear three or four talking at the
same time, with this singular sound, like so many sitting hens.'[III'-33]
East of the Salish, the Kitunaha, Kootenai, or Coutanie language is
spoken. Authorities differ widely in describing this language. Parker
calls it "open and sonorous, and free from gutturals, which are common
in the language of the surrounding tribes;" while Capt. Palliser
affirms that it is "most guttural and unpronounceable by a European,
every word appearing to be brought from their lowest extremities with
difficulty."[III'-34] The following Lord's Prayer, taken by a Frenchman
will give a better idea of the language than any description:

Katitoe naitle naite, akiklenais zedabitskinne
Our father, who art in heaven, may thy name be great

wilkane. Ninshalinne oshemake kapaik akaitlainam.
and honored. Be thou the master of all hearts.

Inshazetluité younoamake yekakaekinaitte.
May thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Komnakaike logenie niggenawaishne naiosaem miaitéke.
Grant us this day all our wants.

Kekepaime nekoetjekoetleaitle ixzeai, iyakaikakaaike
Forgive us all the evil we have done, as we forgive

iyazeaikinawash kokakipaimenaitle. Amatikezawes
all the evil done unto us. Strengthen us

itchkestshimmekakkowêlle akatakzen. Shaeykiakakaaike.
against all evil, and deliver us from it. May it be so.[III'-35]

[Sidenote: SAHAPTIN LANGUAGES.]

The languages of the Sahaptin family are spoken along the Lewis and
Snake Rivers and their tributaries, as far as the foot of the Rocky
Mountains. The Walla Walla, Palouse, Yakima, Kliketat, and Sahaptin
proper, some of them widely divergent from the mother tongue, are of
this family.[III'-36] The Walla Walla differs from the Sahaptin proper
not more than the Portuguese from the Spanish. Father Pandosy made a
grammar of the Yakima language, under which he ranges the whole
Sahaptin family, dividing it into dialects, as the Walla Walla, the
Tairtla, the Roilroilpam, or Kliketat, and the Palouse.[III'-37]

In the Nez Percé language, the following letters only are found: _h_,
_k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _p_, _s_, _t_, _w_, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, but
the missionaries having introduced some new words, it was found
necessary to add _b_, _d_, _f_, _g_, _v_, _z_. Agglutination is
carried to a great length, and long words are very frequent. In fact,
wherever a sentence can be expressed by joining one word to another,
it is done, leaving out letters in places, for the sake of euphony.
The following is a fair illustration: _hitautualawihnankauna_, he
traveled past in a rainy night. Analysed, _hi_ expresses the third
person singular; _tau_ a thing done at night; _tuala_, something done
in the rain; _wihnan_, to travel on foot; _kau_ is derived from the
verb _kokauna_, to pass by; _na_ expresses the indicative mood, aorist
tense, direction from the speaker. The plural of substantives is
formed by duplicating the first syllable: _pitin_, girl; _pipitin_,
girls. Or when the word commences with a vowel, the vowel is sometimes
repeated: _atwai_, old woman; _aatwai_, old women. Exceptions to this
rule are made in words expressing family relations, the prefix _ma_
being employed in such cases, as _pika_, mother; _pikama_, mothers. If
_p_ terminates the word, it is omitted, as _askap_, plural _askama_.
To express gender, the words _hama_, male, and _aiat_, female, are
employed, but the substantive remains unchanged. Nouns are declined
either by changing their terminals, or by affixes:

Nom. a house init
Gen. of a house ininm
Acc. house inina

1st Dat. to or for a house initph
2d Dat. in on, or upon a house initpa

1st Abl. with a house initki
2d Abl. from a house initpkinih
3d Abl. for the purpose of a house initain

Comparison--_tahs_, good; _tahs kanmakanm_, better; _tahsni_, best.
Personal prounouns--_in_, I; _im_, thou; _ipi_, he, or she; _nun_,
we; _ima_, ye; _imma_, they. Of the verb numerous variations are made.
They are divided into three classes, neuter, active transitive, and
active intransitive. The two neuter verbs are _wash_, to be; and
_witsasha_, to become. Active intransitive verbs cannot be followed by
any accusative.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

DIRECTION FROM. DIRECTION TOWARDS.

I am, in wash
Thou art, im a wash im a wam
He is, it is his, ipi hiwash, ipnim ush ipi hiwam
We are, nun washih
You are, ima ath washih ima ath washinm
They are, it is theirs, imma hiushih, imman aushih imma hiushinm

RECENT PAST TENSE.

I have just been, waka wamka
Thou hast just been, a waka a wamka
He has just been,
it has just been his, hiwaka, awaka hiwamka
We have just been, washeka washinmka
You have just been, ath washeka ath washinmka
They have just been,
it has just been theirs, kinsheka, ausheka hiushinmka
[III'-38]

[Sidenote: YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA, AND PALOUSE.]

The following grammatical notes will serve to illustrate the Yakima
and some of the other languages of the Sahaptin family.

SINGULAR.

Nom. the horse kussi-nan
Gen. of the horse kussi-nmi
Dat. to the horse kussi-ow
Acc. the horse kussi-nan
Voc. O horse na-kussi
Abl. for the horse kussi-ei

PLURAL.

Nom. the horses kussi-ma
Gen. of the horses kussi-ma mi
Dat. to the horses kussi-ma-miow
Acc. the horses kussi ma-man
Voc. O horses na-kussi-ma
Abl. for the horses kussi-ma-miei

In the Palouse and Walla Walla languages the affix _nan_ is changed
into _na_. Personal pronouns--I, _ink_, _nes_, _nesh_, or _sh_; of
me, _enmi_; to me, _enmiow_; me, _inak_; for me, _enmiei_; we,
_namak_, _natés_, _nanam_, _aatés_, or _namtk_; of us, _néémi_; to us
_néémiow_; us, _némanak_; for us, _néémiei_. The Walla Wallas leaves
off the _k_ from the affix _ak_; thus, instead of _inak_, me, they say
_ina_, and instead of _namak_, we, _nama_.

YAKIMA. WALLA WALLA AND PALOUSE.

He penk penk
Of him pin-mink pinmin
To him pin-miwk pinmiow
Him pin-nim pinminnan
For Him pin-mikaiei pinmiei
They pmak pma
Of Them pe-mink pamin
To them pe-miwk pamiwk
Them pe-minak pamanak
For them pe-mikaiei pamikaiei

In one dialect the terminal _ak_ is changed into _ei_.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO HAVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I have, nesh wa, or wash nesh
Thou hast, mesh wa, or wash mesh
He has, penk awa, or pinmink awa
We have, natesh wa, or wash natesh
You have, matesh wa, or wash matesh.
They have, pa wa, or pemink awa

PERFECT AND PLUPERFECT.

I had, or have had, nesh wacha

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall have, nesh wata

As a specimen of agglutination there is the word
_ipinashapatawtrahliktamawarsha_, he himself makes night disagreeably
tiresome long wait; that is, he keeps one long waiting for him at
night.

YAKIMA LORD'S PRAYER.

Neemi Psht, imk nam wamsh Roiemich-nik;
Our Father, thou who art high on the side (heaven);

shir nam 'manak p'a t-maknani tarnei wanicht; shir
well thou they (indef.) should respect the name; well

ewianawitarnei emink miawarwit; shir nammanak pa
should arrive thy chieftainship; well thee they

twanenitarnei, ichinak techampa, tenma, prw,
should follow here earth (on) inhabitants (the) will

amakwsrimmanak pa twanenishamsh roiemipama
thou as thyself they follow high of the (heaven)

tenma. Nemanak nim t-kwatak kwalissim maisr
inhabitants (the). Our (us) give us food always to-morrow

maisr. Nemanak laknanim chélwitit: aateskwsri
to-morrow. Our (us) forget sins: us as

namak t'normaman laknánisha chélwitit anakwnkink
we others forget sins have by which

neémiow pa chelwitia. R-t-to anianim nemanak
us have offended. Strong make our (us)

temna; t-kraw krial. Nemanak eikrenkem chelwitknik
heart; that it fall not. Us snatch bad from the side.

Ekws iwa neemi temna.
So it is our heart.[III'-39]

The Nez Percés make use of two languages, one the native language
proper, or, as a European might say, the court language, and the other
a slave language, or jargon. They differ so much, that a stranger
fully conversant with one cannot understand the other. This jargon
originated, probably, from intermixing prisoners of war of different
nationalities who were enslaved, and their languages mingled with each
other, and with that of their conquerors. The pure-blooded Nez
Percés all understand the jargon, learning it when children, together
with their own proper language. Nor is this all. The jargon is more or
less modified by each of the several languages, or dialects, in which
it is spoken. The employés of the fur companies, who first came in
contact with the Sahaptins, were greatly annoyed by this multiformity;
as, for example, one Nez Percé coming to sell a beaver skin would say,
_tammecess taxpool_, I wish to sell a beaver; another would say,
_towèyou weespoose_, I wish to trade a beaver; and a third would say,
_e'towpa e'yechcoe_, I wish to trade a beaver.

[Sidenote: COURT LANGUAGE OF THE SAHAPTINS.]

The following short vocabulary will show some of the differences
between the Nez Percé language and the jargon:

NEZ PERCÉ JARGON.

Man kewas winch
Woman eyatt tealacky
Boy tachnutsem tuchnoot
Girl tochanough peten
No waatown, tsya
Knife waltz whapallmeh,
Horse she came koosy
Hair tootanick kookoo
Eyes shelaw Atchass.[III'-40]

Professor Rafinesque, out of twenty-four Sahaptin words, claims to
have found six bearing close affinities to the English, but Buschmann
says that of these twenty-four, many are not Sahaptin at all.[III'-41]
The Waiilatpu language, conterminous with the Sahaptin, is spoken in
two dialects, the Cayuse and Mollale. The Cayuses mingle frequently
with the Sahaptins, and therefore many words of the latter have been
adopted into their tongue. They mostly understand and speak the
Sahaptin, and frequently the Walla Walla, and this not from any
relationship in the several languages, but from intercourse.[III'-42]

Like their neighbors, the Cayuses employ two languages; one in the
transaction of the common affairs of life, and the other on high state
occasions, such as when making speeches round the council fire, to
determine questions of war and peace, as well as all other intertribal
affairs. That is to say, the Sahaptins use their court language on all
ordinary, as well as extraordinary occasions, keeping the jargon for
their servants, while the Cayuses employ the baser tongue for common,
and the higher for state occasions.

The Cayuses were eloquent speakers; their language abounded in
elegant expressions, and they well knew how to make the most of it.
When first known to Europeans, it was fast fading away, and
subsequently merged into the Sahaptin; so fleeting are these native
idioms.[III'-43]

[Sidenote: DIFFICULTIES OF THE CHINOOK.]

The Chinook language is spoken by the different tribes inhabiting the
banks of the Lower Columbia and adjacent country. This family is
divided into many dialects, which diverge from the mother tongue as we
ascend the river; in fact, the upper tribes have mostly to employ an
interpreter, when they communicate with those on the lower part of the
river. The chief diversities of this language are the Chinook proper,
the Wakiakum, Cathlamet, and Clatsop, and the various dialects
mentioned by Lewis and Clarke as belonging to those inhabiting this
region at the time of their expedition, but which cannot now be
positively identified with any of the languages known to us. Two of
the last-mentioned dialects, the Multnomah and the Skilloot, the
explorers describe as belonging to the Chinook.[III'-44] Among all the
languages of north-western America, except perhaps that of the
Thlinkeets, the Chinook is considered in its construction the most
intricate; and in its pronunciation the most difficult. No words are
to be found in the English vocabulary which can accurately describe
it. To say that it is guttural, clucking, spluttering, and the like
conveys but a faint conception of the sound produced by a Chinook in
his frantic effort to unburden his mind of an idea. He does not appear
to have yet discovered the use of the lips and tongue in speaking, but
struggles with the lower part of the throat to produce sounds for the
expression of his thoughts. Some declare that the speech of the
Thlinkeets, whose language like that of the Chinook contains no
labials, is melody in comparison to the croakings of the Chinooks.
Ross says, that "to speak the Chinook dialect, you must be a
Chinook."[III'-45] Indeed, they appear to have become tired of their own
language and to have voluntarily abandoned it, for, to-day, the
youthful Chinook speaks almost wholly Chehalis and the jargon. The
employés of the fur companies, voyageurs, trappers and traders, who
were accustomed to master with little difficulty the aboriginal
tongues which they encountered, were completely nonplussed by the
Chinook. A Canadian of Astor's company is the only person known to
have acquired it so as to speak it fluently. During a long illness he
was nursed by the Chinooks, and during his convalescence devoted his
entire time to perfecting himself in their tongue.[III'-46]

Here the sounds of the letters _f_, _r_, _v_, and _z_ do not exist,
the pronunciation is generally very indistinct, and _ç_ and _s_, _k_
and _g_, _d_ and _t_, are almost always confounded.

In the first person of the dual and plural of pronouns, the person
present and addressed is either included or excluded according to the
form used.

Personal pronouns in the Watlala dialect are:

SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL.

Of the possessive pronouns the following will serve as examples. They
are joined to the noun _itukutkhle_, or _itukwutkhle_, house.

SINGULAR.

My house kukwutkhl
Thy house meokwitkhl
His house iakwitkhl

DUAL. PLURAL.

Our house (exc.) ndakwitkhl ntçakwitkhl (exc.)
Our house (incl.) tkhakwitkhl olkhakwitkhl (incl.)
Your house mdakwitkhl mçakwitkhl
Their house içtakwitkhl tkhlakwitkhl

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE COLD.

PRESENT INDICATIVE, SINGULAR.

I am cold, naika tçinokhkeakh
Thou art cold, maika tçiçomkeakh
He is cold, iakhka tçikeakh

DUAL.

We (two) are cold (exc.), ndaika tçiçontkeakh
We (two) are cold (incl.), tkhaika tçiçtkeakh
You (two) are cold, mdaika tçimokeakh
They (two) are cold, ictakhka tçiçtkeakh

PLURAL.

We are cold (exc.), ntçaika tçicontçkeakh
We are cold (incl.), olkhaika tçilokeakh
You are cold, mçaika tçiçomçkeakh
They are cold, tkhlaitçka tçiçotkhlkeakh

IMPERFECT.

Yesterday I was cold, takotkhl naika tçinotkeakh

FIRST FUTURE.

By and bye I shall be cold, atkhlke naika tçiçonkhatka
I shall be cold, naika onçkhatka tçiç

THE VERB TO KILL.

I kill thee, aminowagua
I kill him, tçinowagua
I kill you (dual), omtkinowagua
I kill them (dual), oçtkinowagua
I kill you (pl.), omçkinowagua
I kill them, otkhlkinowngua
You kill him, omçkiwagua
You kill them, otkhlkiwagua

Dialectic differences particularly among the upper Chinooks, or
Watlalas, are found principally in words; grammatical forms being
alike in both.[III'-47] Kane remarks as a peculiarity that this
language contains "no oaths, or any words conveying gratitude or
thanks."[III'-48]

Moving again southward to the Willamette Valley, I find the Calapooya
language, and for the first time a soft and harmonious idiom. Although
the guttural _kh_ sometimes occurs, it is more frequently softened to
_h_. The consonants are _ç_, or _s_, _f_, _j_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_,
_ng_, _p_, or _b_, _t_, or _d_, _q_, and _w_. Unlike the Sahaptin and
Chinook there are neither dual nor plural forms in the Calapooya
language.

[Sidenote: CALAPOOYA PRONOUNS.]

The personal pronouns are:

I tsi, or tsii
Thou maha, or maa
He koka, or kak
We soto
You miti
They kinuk

My father tsi simna
Thy father maha kaham
His father kok inifam
Our father soto tufam
Your father miti tifam
Their father kinuk inifam

My mother tsi sinni
Thy mother maha kanni
His mother kok ininnim
Our mother soto tunnim
Your mother miti tinnim
Their mother kinuk ininnim

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE SICK, ILFATIN.

PRESENT NEUTER.

I am sick, tsi ilfatin
Thou art sick, intsi ilfatin
He is sick, ilfatin
We are sick, tsiti ilfaf
You are sick, intsip ilfaf
They are sick, kinuk in ilfaf

NEGATIVE.

I am not sick, wangk tsik ilfatit

IMPERFECT.

I was sick yesterday, ilfatin tsi kuyi
Thou wast sick yesterday, imku ilfatin
He was sick yesterday, hu ilfatin

FIRST FUTURE.

To-morrow I shall be sick, midji taïlfit tsii

The following example will serve to illustrate the great changes verbs
undergo in their conjugations;--_ksitapatsitup maha_, I love thee;
_tsitapintsuo kok_, I love him; _himtapintsiwata tsii kak_, he loves
me; _hintsitapintsiwata tsii_, dost thou love me?[III'-49]

The Yamkally is spoken at the sources of the Willamette River. A
comparison of the Yamkally and Calapooya vocabularies shows a certain
relationship between them.[III'-50]

[Sidenote: COLUMBIAN AND MEXICAN COMPARISONS.]

I have said that certain affinities are discovered between the
Waiilatpu and Mollale, and also between the Watlala and Chinook; in
these, as well as in the Calapooya and Yamkally, Buschmann discovers
faint traces of the Aztec language. Others have discovered a fancied
relationship between the language of the Mexicans and those of more
northern nations, but Mr Buschmann believes that, descending from the
north, the peoples mentioned, whose lands are drained by the Columbia,
are the first in which the Aztec, in dim shadows, makes its
appearance. These similarities, he discovered not alone by direct
comparisons with the Aztec, but also by detecting resemblances between
these Columbian dialects and those of certain nations which he calls
his Sonora group and its affiliations, all of which contain elements
of the Aztec tongue. Yet Mr Buschmann does not therefrom claim any
relationship between the Aztecs and Columbians, but only notices these
few slight assimilations.[III'-51]

Herewith is a comparative table, containing a few similar words:

COMPARATIVE TABLE, SHOWING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE COLUMBIAN AND
MEXICAN TONGUES.

ENGLISH. WAIILATPU. MOLLALE. WATLALA. CHINOOK. CALA- AZTEC. SONORA
POOYA. FAMILY.
Yes i ia a ah he, aw e, ha
Tooth tenif tanti tlantli
Red tkhlpal tkhlpolpol tlapalli
Wind ikkhala itskhakh ikhala ehecatl heicala
Black tkhlol tkhlalukh tlilli
Water wematkhl webatkhl atl
I naika nëe ne
Chief iatoiang iakant iout,
iauta

The Chinook jargon is employed by the white people in their
intercourse with the natives, as well as by the natives among
themselves. It is spoken throughout Oregon, Washington Territory, on
Vancouver Island, and extends inland into Idaho and some parts of
Montana. It is more than probable that, like other languages _de
convenance_, it formed itself gradually, first among the natives
themselves, and that in the course of time, in order to facilitate
their intercourse with the aborigines, trappers and traders adopted
and improved it, until it was finally brought into its present state.
Indeed, so great was the diversity of languages in this vicinity, and
so intricate were they, that without something of this kind there
could have been but little intercourse between the people.

A somewhat similar mixture I have already mentioned as existing in
Alaska. Father Paul Le Jeune gives a short account of a jargon in use
between the French and the Indians, in the north-eastern part of
America, as early as the year 1633.[III'-52] In Europe a similar
mixture, or patois, prevails to this day, the lingua franca, used by
the many nationalities that congregate upon the shores of the
Mediterranean. In China, and in the East Indies, the so-called pigeon
English occupies the same place; and in various parts of Central and
Southern America, neutral languages may be found. To show how
languages spring up and grow, Vancouver, when visiting the coast in
1792, found in various places along the shores of Oregon, Washington,
and Vancouver Island, nations that now and then understood words and
sentences of the Nootka and other tongues, some of which had been
adopted into their own language.

When Lewis and Clarke, in 1806, reached the coast, the jargon seems to
have already assumed a fixed shape, as may be seen from the sentences
quoted by the explorers. But not until the arrival of the expedition
sent out by John Jacob Astor does it appear that either English or
French words, of which it contains a large percentage, were
incorporated. Very few, if any, of the words of which the jargon is
composed, retain their original shape. The harsh, guttural, and
unpronounceable native cackling was softened or omitted, thus forming
a speech suited to all. In the same manner, some of the English
sounds, like _f_ and _r_, unpronounceable by the native, were dropped,
or transferred into _p_ and _l_, while all grammatical forms were
reduced to the fewest and plainest rules possible.[III'-53] But even in
this jargon, there are what may be called dialectic differences; for
instance, many words used at the Dalles, are quite unintelligible at
the mouth of the Columbia and at Puget Sound. It has often been
asserted that the jargon was invented or originated by the Hudson's
Bay Company, but although the fur company undoubtedly greatly aided
its development, and assisted in perfecting it, it is well known,
first, that this jargon existed before the advent of Europeans, and
secondly, that languages are not made in this way.

[Sidenote: ANALYSIS OF THE CHINOOK JARGON.]

Mr Gibbs states the number of words to be nearly five hundred, and
after a careful analysis of the language, has arrived at the following
conclusion as to the number contributed by the several nationalities:

Chinook and Clatsop 200 words
Chinook, having analogies with other languages 21 "
Interjections common to several 8 "
Nootka, including dialects 24 "
Chehalis, 32, and Nisqually, 7 39 "
Kliketat and Yakima 2 "
Cree 2 "
Chippeway (Ojibway) 1 "
Wasco (probably) 4 "
Calapooya (probably) 4 "
By direct onomatopoeia 6 "
Derivation unknown, or undetermined 18 "
French, 90, Canadian, 4 94 "
English 67 "[III'-54]

As before mentioned, foreign words adopted into the jargon vocabulary
are changed to suit the taste of the speaker, as in the word
Français, being unable to pronounce the _f_, _r_, and _n_, for
Frenchman they say _pasaiuks_, and for French, _pasai_. The few words
formed by onomatopoeia, are after this fashion;--_tumtum_, heart, an
imitation of its beating; _tintin_, bell; _tiktik_, watch; _liplip_,
to boil, from the sound of boiling water, and so on.

Neither article nor inflections are employed. _Okok_, this, at times
takes the place of the English the. As a rule, plurals are not
distinguished, but sometimes the word _haiu_, many, is used. Adjectives
precede nouns, as in English--_lasuai hakatshum_, silk handkerchief;
_masatsi tilikum_, bad people. The comparative is expressed, for
example, in the sentence, I am stronger than thou, by _wek maika
skukum kakwa naika_, thou not strong as I. Superlative--_haias oluman
okok kanem_, very old that canoe. There are only two conjunctions,
_pi_, derived from the French _puis_, which denotes and or then; and
_pos_, from _suppose_, meaning if, in case that, provided that. The
particle _na_ is at times used as an interrogative.[III'-55]

The Lord's Prayer in the Chinook jargon is as follows:

Nesika papa klaksta mitlite kopa saghalie, kloshe
Our Father who stayeth in the above, good

kopa nesika tumtum mika nem; kloshe mika tyee
in our hearts (be) thy name; good thou chief

kopa konoway tilikum; kloshe mika tumtum kopa
among all people; good thy will upon

illahie, kahkwe kopa saghalie. Potlatch konaway sun
earth, as in the above. Give every day

nesika muckamuck. Spose nesika mamook masahchie,
our food. If we do ill,

wake mika hyas solleks, pe spose klaksta masahchie
(be) not thou very angry, and if any one evil

kopa nesika, wake nesika solleks kopa klaska. Mahsh
towards us, not we angry towards them. Send away

siah kopa nesaika konaway masahchie. Kloshe kahkwa.
far from us. all evil.[III'-56]

FOOTNOTES:

[III'-1] 'Die Kaigan-Sprache wird auf der Insel Kaigan und den
Charlotten Inseln ... gesprochen.' _Veniaminoff_, in _Erman_,
_Archiv_, tom. vii., No. 1., p. 128.

[III'-2] 'En parlant du langage de _Tchinkîtâiné_, j'ai rapporté
d'avance les termes numériques employés aux îles de _Queen-Charlotte_,
tels que le capitaine _Chanal_ a pu les recueillir _á Cloak-Bay_; il
observe que quelques-uns de ces termes sont communs aux autres parties
de ces îsles qu'il a visitées, ainsi que quelques autres termes qu'il
a pu saisir, et par lesquels les Naturels expriment les objets
suivanes.... Cette similitude des termes numériques et d'autres
termes, employés également par les diverses Tribus, séparées les unes
des autres, qui occupent la partie de côtes des îles de
_Queen-Charlotte_ que le Capitaine _Chanal_ a visitée, me semble
démontrer, contre l'opinion hasardée du Rédacteur du Journal de
_Dixon_, que ces Tribus communiquent habituellement entre elles: cette
identité du langage pourroit encore prouver que les Peuplades qui
habitent ces îles ont une origine commune.' _Marchand_, _Voyage_, tom.
ii., p. 216.

[III'-3] 'There are at least two or three different languages spoken
on the coast, and yet probably they are all pretty generally
understood; though if we may credit the old Chief at Queen Charlotte's
Islands, his people were totally ignorant of that spoken by the
inhabitants to the Eastward.' _Dixon's Voy._, p. 240.

[III'-4] _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. ii., pp. 218,
220.

[III'-5] _Radloff_, _Sprache der Kaiganen_, in _Mél. Russes._ tom.
iii., liv. v., p. 575; _Green_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._,
vol. iii., p. 302.

[III'-6] _Dixon's Voy._, p. 240.

[III'-7] 'Es fehlen dem Kaigáni (Haidah) jene harten aspirirten
Consonanten, die dem Thlinkít so geläufig sind, es ist vocalreicher
und weicher. Dagegen theilt es mit dem Thlinkít den Mangel der
Labialen, des dentalen _r_, wie auch der Verbindung des _l_ mit Dentalen,
Gutturalen und Sibilanten, während jenem dagegen das reine _l_ des
Kaigani ganz fremd ist.' _Radloff_, _Sprache der Kaiganen_, in _Mél.
Russes_, tom. iii., liv. v., pp. 575-6.

[III'-8] _Id._, pp. 569-607.

[III'-9] _Green_, in _Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact._, vol. ii., p. 302.
'Náss ... in custom and language, resemble the Sabassa.' _Dunn's
Oregon_, p. 279. _Buschmann_, _Spr. N. Mex. u. der Westseite des b.
Nordamer._, p. 398, et seq.

[III'-10] _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. ix., p. 234.

[III'-11] _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 358.

[III'-12] _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. ix., p. 221.

[III'-13] _Id._, p. 230, et seq.

[III'-14] _Grant's Vanc. Isl._, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol.
xxvii., pp. 295-6.

[III'-15] _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 311.

[III'-16] _Grant's Vanc. Isl._, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol.
xxvii., p. 295.

[III'-17] 'The inhabitants of Nootka Sound and the Tlaoquatch, who
occupy the south-western points of the island, speak the same
language.' _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 224;
_Jewitt's Nar._, pp. 74-77; _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol.
vi., p. 220; _Meares' Voy._, pp. 229-32; _Douglas' Report_, in _Lond.
Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxiv., p. 246. At Point Discovery, Vancouver
met people some of whom 'understood a few words of the Nootka
language.' _Voyage_, vol. i., p. 228. 'The distinct languages spoken
by the Indians are few in number, but the dialects employed by the
various tribes are so many, that, although the inhabitants of any
particular district have no great difficulty in communicating with
each other, ...' _Mayne's B. C._, p. 244; _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 311.
The Rev. Mr Good divides and locates the languages of Vancouver Island
and the opposite shore on the mainland as follows. The first language,
he says, runs along the coast from Nitinaht to Nootka Sound; the
second prevails from Sooke to Nanaimo, and across the Sound up to Bird
Inlet on the main land, thence following up the Fraser River as far as
Yale; this he names the Cowichin. On the island north of Cowichin he
locates the Comux and adjoining it the Ucleta; finally starting at
Fort Rupert and following the north coast of the island and also on
the opposite shore of the main land is the Quackoll.

[III'-18] _Jewitt's Nar._, p. 75.

[III'-19] _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 132.

[III'-20] 'El idioma de estos naturales es tal vez el mas áspero y
duro de los conocidos. Abundan mucho en él las consonantes, y las
terminaciones en tl y tz, constando el intermedio y el principio de
los vocablos de aspiraciones muy fuertes.' _Sutil y Mexicana_,
_Viage_, p. 147. 'Their language is very guttural, and if it were
possible to reduce it to our orthography, it would very much abound
with consonants.' _Sparks' Life of Ledyard_, p. 72; _Cook's Voy. to
Pac._, vol. ii., pp. 334-6.

[III'-21] _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 124, et seq.

[III'-22] For a copy of which I am indebted to the late proprietor of
the _Overland Monthly_ of San Francisco.

[III'-23] 'En examinant avec soin des vocabulaires formés à Noutka et
à Monterey, j'ai été frappé de l'homotonie et des désinences
mexicaines de plusieurs mots, comme, par exemple, dans la langue des
Noutkiens.... Cependant, en général, les langues de la
Nouvelle-Californie et de l'île de Quadra, diffèrent essentiellement
de l'aztèque.' _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 321.
'Sprachähnlichkeiten ... hat man, wie auch nachher bey der Betrachtung
der Mexikanischen Sprache aus einander gesetzt werden soll, an dieser
Nordwest-Küste am Nutka-Sunde und bey den Völkern in der Nähe der
Russischen Colonien gefunden.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt
iii., p. 76. 'In the neighborhood of Nootka, tribes still exist whose
dialects, both in the termination and general sound of the words, bear
considerable resemblance to the Mexican.' _Prescott's Mex._, vol.
iii., p. 399.

[III'-24] 'So gewinnt die Nutka-Sprache, durch eine reiche Zahl von
Wörtern und durch grosse Züge ihres Lautwesens, einzig vor allen
anderen fremden ... in einem bedeutenden Theile eine täuschende
Ähnlichkeit mit der aztekischen oder mexicanischen; und so wird die
ihr schon früher gewidmete Aufmerksamkeit vollständig gerechtfertigt.
Ihrer mexicanischen Erscheinung fehlt aber, wie ich von meiner Seite
hier ausspreche, jede Wirklichkeit.' _Buschmann_, _Spr. N. Mex. u. der
Westküste des b. Nordamer._, p. 371.

[III'-25] They spoke the same language as the Nootkas. _Vancouver's
Voy._, vol. i., p. 218.

[III'-26] 'The affinities of the Clallam and Lummi are too obvious to
require demonstration.' _Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, p. vii.
'The Tsihaili-Selish languages reach the sea in the part opposite
Vancouver's Island. Perhaps they touch it to the north also.'
_Latham's Comp. Phil._, vol. viii., p. 401; _Gairdner_, in _Lond.
Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 255.

[III'-27] 'Les Indiens de la côte ou de la Nouvelle Calédonie, les
Tokalis, les Chargeurs (Carriers), les Schouchouaps, les Atnas
appartiennent tous à la nation des Chipeouaïans.' _Mofras_, _Explor._,
tom. ii., p. 337. 'The Atnah language has no affinity to any with
which I am acquainted.' _Mackenzie's Voyages_, p. 258.

[III'-28] _Mengarini_, _Selish Gram._

[III'-29] 'Nationes que radicaliter linguam Selicam loquuntur sunt
saltem decem: Calispelm, (vulgo) _Pends d'oreilles du Lac Inférieur_.
Slkatkomlchi, _Pends d'oreilles du Lac Superieur_. Selish, _Têtes
Plattes_. Sngomènei, Snpoilschi, Szk'eszilni, _Spokanes_. S´chizni,
_Coeurs d'alène_. Sgoièlpi, _Chaudières_. Okinakein, Stlakam,
_Okanagan_.' _Mengarini_, _Selish Gram._, p. 120. 'Their language is
the same as the Spokeins' and Flatheads'.' _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p.
307. 'The Spokanes speak the same dialect as the Flatheads and Pend
d'Oreilles.' _Chapman_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1866, p. 201; _De Smet_,
_Voy._, p. 237. 'The Flatheads are divided into numerous tribes, each
having its own peculiar locality, and differing more or less from the
others in language, customs, and manners.' 'The Spokan Indians are a
small tribe, differing very little from the Indians at Colville either
in their appearance, habits, or language.' _Kane's Wand._, pp. 173,
307. 'The Pend' d'Oreilles are generally called the Flatheads, the two
clans, in fact, being united.... Still, the two races are entirely
distinct, their languages being fundamentally different. The variety
of tongues on the west side of the (Rocky) mountains is almost
infinite, so that scarcely any two tribes understand each other
perfectly. They have all, however, the common character of being very
guttural; and, in fact, the sentences often appear to be mere jumbles
of grunts and croaks, such as no alphabet could express in writing.'
_Simpson's Overland Jour._, vol. i., p. 146.

[III'-30] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., pp. 535-7.

[III'-31] _Swan's N. W. Coast_, p. 315.

[III'-32] _Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, p. 7.

[III'-33] 'In the northern districts of the great chain of Rocky
Mountains which were visited by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, there are
several nations of unknown language and origin. The Atnah nation is
one of them. Their dialect appears, from the short vocabulary given by
that traveller, to be one of those languages which, in the frequent
recurrence of peculiar consonants, bears a certain resemblance to the
Mexican.' _Prichard's Nat. Hist. Man_, vol. ii., p. 550; _Swan's N. W.
Coast_, pp. 315-6.

[III'-34] 'Der Prinz bezeugt (Bd. ii., 511) dass der behauptete Mangel
an Gurgellauten ein Irrthum ist; er bemerkt: dass die Sprache durch
den ihr eignen "Zungenschnalz" für das Aussprechen schwierig werde,
und dass sie eine Menge von Gutturaltönen habe. Man spreche die Wörter
leise und undeutlich aus; dabei gebe es darin viele schnalzende Töne,
indem man mit der Zungenspitze anstösst; auch gebe es darin viele
dumpfe Kehllaute.' _Prinz Max zu Wied_, in _Buschmann_, _Spuren der
Aztek. Spr._, p. 661. 'Their language bears no affinity whatever to
that of any of the western nations. It is infinitely softer and more
free from those unpronounceable gutturals so common among the lower
tribes.' _Cox's Adven._, p. 233; _Blakiston's Rept._, in _Palliser's
Explor._, p. 73; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 307.

[III'-35] _De Smet's Oregon Miss._, p. 409.

[III'-36] Tribes speaking the Kliketat language: Whulwhypum,
Tait-inapum, Yakima, Walla Wallapum, Kyoose, Umatilla, Peloose,
Wyampam; the Yakimas and Kliketats or Whulwhypum ... speaking the
Walla-Walla language, otherwise known as the Kliketat. _Lord's Nat._,
vol. ii., pp. 244, 232. 'The Kyeuse resemble the Walla-Wallas very
much.... Their language and customs are almost identical.' _Kane's
Wand._, p. 280. The Pend d'Oreilles 'speak the same language' (Nez
Percé.) _Hutchins_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1863, p. 456. The Palouse
Indians 'speak the same language.' _Cain_, in _Id._, 1860, p. 210.
'The Wallah-Wallahs, whose language belongs to the same family.' 'The
Wallah-Wallahs and Nez Perces speak dialects of a common language, and
the Cayuses have abandoned their own for that of the latter.' _Gibbs_,
in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. i., pp. 416, 425; _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U.
S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., pp. 213, 542. 'The nation among which we now
are call themselves Sokulks; and with them are united a few of another
nation, who reside on a western branch, emptying itself into the
Columbia a few miles above the mouth of the latter river, and whose
name is Chimnapum. The language of both these nations differs but
little from each other, or from that of the Chopunnish who inhabit the
Kooskooskee and Lewis's river.' _Lewis and Clarke's Trav._, p. 12.
'The language of the Walla-Wallas differs from the Nez Percés'.
_Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 137.

[III'-37] _Pandosy's Yakama Lang._, p. 9.

[III'-38] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 542, et
seq.

[III'-39] _Pandosy's Yakama Lang._

[III'-40] _Ross' Fur Hunters_, vol. i., p. 313, et seq.

[III'-41] _Rafinesque_, _Atlantic Jour._, p. 133, quoted in
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 615. 'Ich habe diese Wörter
Rafinesque's zu einem Theil ganz verschieden von den _Sahaptan_
gefunden.' _Ib._

[III'-42] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 561.

[III'-43] 'The Skyuse have two distinct languages: the one used in
ordinary intercourse, the other on extraordinary occasions; as in war
counsels, &c.' _Farnham's Travels_, p. 153. 'The Cayuses have
abandoned their own for that of the Nez Percés.' _Gibbs_, in _Pac. R.
R. Rept._, vol. i., pp. 416, 425. 'Their language bears some affinity
to the Sahaptin or Nez-Percé language.' _Ludewig's Ab. Lang._, p. 199;
_Coke's Rocky Mts._, p 295; _Kane's Wand._, p. 279. 'Their original
language, now almost extinct ... having affinity to that of the
Carriers, of North Caledonia, and the Umpqua Indians of Southern
Oregon.' _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 249-50.

[III'-44] 'The language of the bands farther up the river departed
more and more widely from the Chinook proper, so that the lower ones
could not have understood the others without an interpreter.' _Gibbs'
Chinook Vocab._, p. 4. 'The vocabulary given by Dr. Scouler as
"Chenook" is almost altogether Chihalis. His "Cathlascon" ... is
Chinook.' _Id._, p. 5. 'Des _Tchinooks_, d'où est sortie la
langue-mère de ces sauvages.' _Saint-Amant_, _Voyages_, p. 381.
'Cathlamahs speak the same language as the Chinnooks and Clatsops.'
_Lewis and Clarke's Travels_, p. 424. Chinooks 'in language ...
resemble the Clatsops, Cathlamahs, and indeed all the people near the
mouth of the Columbia.' _Id._, p. 426. 'The Chinooks, Clatsops,
Wahkiacums and Cathlamahs ... resembled each other in person, dress,
language.' _Irving's Astoria_, pp. 85, 336. Chinooks, Clatsops,
Cathlamux, Wakicums, Wacalamus, Cattleputles, Clatscanias, Killimux,
Moltnomas, Chickelis, ... resemble one another in language. _Ross'
Adven._, pp. 87-88. 'The _Chinook_ language is spoken by all the
nations from the mouth of the Columbia to the falls.' _Franchère's
Nar._, p. 262.

[III'-45] 'The language spoken by these people is guttural, very
difficult for a foreigner to learn, and equally hard to pronounce.'
_Ross' Adven._, p. 101. 'Decidedly the most unpronounceable compound
of gutturals ever formed for the communication of human thoughts, or
the expression of human wants.' _Cox's Adven._, vol. ii., p. 133. 'I
would willingly give a specimen of the barbarous language of this
people, were it possible to represent by any combination of our
alphabet the horrible, harsh, spluttering sounds which proceed from
their throats apparently unguided either by the tongue or lip.'
_Kane's Wand._, p. 182. 'It is hard and difficult to pronounce, for
strangers; being full of gutturals, like the Gaelic. The combinations
_thl_, or _tl_, and _lt_, are as frequent in the Chinook as in the
Mexican.' _Franchère's Nar._, p. 262. 'After the soft languages and
rapid enunciation of the islanders, the Chinooks presented a singular
contrast in the slow, deliberate manner in which they seemed to choke
out their words; giving utterance to sounds, some of which could
scarcely be represented by combinations of known letters.'
_Pickering's Races_, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. ix., p. 23. 'It abounds
with gutturals and "clucking" sounds, almost as difficult to analyse
as to utter.' _Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, p. 5.

[III'-46] 'The ancient Chenook is such a guttural, difficult tongue,
that many of the young Chenook Indians can not speak it, but have been
taught by their parents the Chehalis language and the Jargon.' _Swan's
N. W. Coast_, p. 306; _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi.,
p. 562. 'The very difficult pronunciation and excessively complicated
form of the Chinook has effectually prevented its acquisition, even by
missionaries and fur traders.' _Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, p. 5.

[III'-47] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol., vi., p. 562, et
seq.

[III'-48] _Kane's Wand._, p. 183.

[III'-49] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 566, et
seq.

[III'-50] 'Yamkallie, Kallapuiah. Oregon Indians of the plains of the
Wallamette, speaking a language related to that of the Cathlascons and
Haeeltzuk.' _Ludewig's Ab. Lang._, p. 202. 'Gross die Verwandtschaft
der Kalapuya und des Yamkallie; aber an verschiedenen Wörtern fehlt es
nicht.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 628.

[III'-51] 'Höchst merkwürdig sind einzelne unläugbare aztekische und
zweitens einzelne sonorische Wörter, welche ich in diesen Sprachen
aufgefunden habe.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 629.

[III'-52] 'This system of jargons began very early, and has,
doubtless, led to many errors. As early as 1633, the Jesuit Father
Paul Le Jeune wrote: "I have remarked, in the study of their language,
that there is a certain jargon between the French and Indians, which
is neither French nor Indian; and yet, when the French use it, they
think they are speaking Indian, and the Indians using it, think they
speak good French."' _Hist. Mag._, vol. v., p. 345.

[III'-53] _Gibbs' Chinook Dic._, p. 6; _San Francisco Evening Bulletin_,
June 15, 1866. 'Chinook is a jargon which was invented by the Hudson's
Bay Company for the purpose of facilitating communication with the
different Indian tribes. These were so numerous, and their languages
so various, that the traders found it impossible to learn them all,
and adopted the device of a judicious mixture of English, French,
Russian, and several Indian tongues, which has a very limited
vocabulary; but which, by the help of signs, is readily understood by
all the natives, and serves as a common language.' _Milton and
Cheadle's N. W. Passage_, p. 344. 'The jargon so much in use all over
the North Pacific Coast, among both whites and Indians, as a verbal
medium of communicating with each other, was originally invented by
the Hudson's Bay Company, in order to facilitate the progress of their
commerce with Indians.' _Stuart's Dictionary of Chinook Jargon_, p.
161. 'Chinook is a jargon, consisting of not more than three or four
hundred words, drawn from the French, English, Spanish, Indian, and
the fancy of the inventor. It was contrived by the Hudson's Bay
Company for the convenience of trade.' _Brunot_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._,
1871, p. 124. Sproat disputes the invention of the jargon, and says:
'Such an achievement as the invention of a language, is beyond the
capabilities of even a chief factor.' _Scenes_, p. 139. 'I think that,
among the Coast Indians in particular, the Indian part of the language
has been in use for years.' _Swan's N. W. Coast_, p. 307. _Hale's
Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 635, et seq.

[III'-54] _Gibbs' Chinook Dic._, pp. vii.-viii. 'All the words thus
brought together and combined in this singularly constructed speech
are about two hundred and fifty in number.' _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U.
S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 636. 'Words undoubtedly of Japanese origin
are still used in the jargon spoken on the coast called Chinook.'
_Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 217.

[III'-55] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 636, et
seq.

[III'-56] _Gibbs' Chinook Dic._, p. 44.

CHAPTER IV.

CALIFORNIAN LANGUAGES.

MULTIPLICITY OF TONGUES -- YAKON, KLAMATH, AND PALAIK
COMPARISONS -- PITT RIVER AND WINTOON VOCABULARIES -- WEEYOT,
WISHOSK, WEITSPEK, AND EHNEK COMPARISONS -- LANGUAGES OF
HUMBOLDT BAY -- POTTER VALLEY, RUSSIAN AND EEL RIVER LANGUAGES
-- POMO LANGUAGES -- GALLINOMERO GRAMMAR -- TRANS-PACIFIC
COMPARISONS -- CHOCUYEM LORD'S PRAYER -- LANGUAGES OF THE
SACRAMENTO, SAN JOAQUIN, NAPA AND SONOMA VALLEYS -- THE OLHONE
AND OTHER LANGUAGES OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY -- RUNSIEN AND ESLENE
OF MONTEREY -- SANTA CLARA LORD'S PRAYER -- MUTSUN GRAMMAR --
LANGUAGES OF THE MISSIONS SANTA CRUZ, SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA,
SOLEDAD, AND SAN MIGUEL -- TATCHÉ GRAMMAR -- THE DIALECTS OF
SANTA CRUZ AND OTHER ISLANDS.

Notwithstanding the great diversity of tongues encountered in the
regions of the north, the confusion increases ten-fold on entering
California. Probably nowhere in America is there a greater
multiformity of languages and dialects than here. Until quite
recently, no attempt has been made to bring order out of this
linguistic chaos, owing mainly to a lack of grammars and vocabularies.
Within the last few years this want has, in a measure, been supplied,
and I hope to be able to present some broader classifications than
have hitherto been attempted. Through the researches of Mr Powers, who
has kindly placed his materials at my disposal, and the valuable
information communicated by Judge Roseborough, the dialects of
northern California have been reduced to some sort of system, yet
there remains the fact that, in central and southern California,
hundreds of dialects have been permitted to die out, without leaving
us so much as their name.[IV'-1]

In attempting the classification of Californian tongues, no little
difficulty arises from the ambiguity of tribal names. So far as
appearances go, some peoples have no distinctive name; others are
known by the name of their chief alone, or their ranchería; the
affiliation of chief, ranchería, and tribe being identical or
distinct, as the case may be. Some writers have a common name for all
tribes speaking the same, or dialects of the same, language; others
name a people from each dialect. Last of all, there are nations and
tribes that call themselves by one name, while their neighbors call
them by another, so that the classifier, ethnologic or philologic, is
apt to enumerate one people under two names, while omitting many.[IV'-2]

We have seen in the Columbian languages, as we approach the south,
that they become softer and less guttural; this is yet more observable
among Californians, whose speech, for the most part, is harmonious,
pronounceable, and rich in vowels; and this feature becomes more and
more marked as we proceed from northern to southern California. On
this point, Mr Powers writes: "Not only are the California languages
distinguished for that affluence of vowel sounds, which is more or
less characteristic of all tongues spoken in warm climates; but most
of them are also remarkable for their special striving after harmony.
There are a few languages found in the northern mountains which are
harsh and sesquipedalian, and some on the coast that are guttural
beyond the compass of our American organs of speech; but with these
few exceptions, the numerous languages of the state are beautiful
above all their neighbors for their simplicity, the brevity of their
words, their melody, and their harmonious sequences."[IV'-3]

[Sidenote: RULES OF EUPHONY IN CALIFORNIA.]

Throughout California, much attention is paid to the euphony of words;
and if, in the inevitable manufacturing process, a syllable does not
sound well, or does not exactly harmonize according to the native ear,
it is ruthlessly sacrificed. In many languages these elisions are made
in accordance with fixed rules, while others, again, obey no other
mandate but harmony.

Concerning the languages of northern California, Judge Roseborough
writes: "In an ethnological view, the language of these various tribes
is a subject of great interest. They seem to be governed by the
geographical nature of the country, which has had much influence in
directing the migrations and settlement of the various tribes in this
state, where they have been found by the whites; and there have been
in remote times at least three currents, or lines of migration,
namely--first, one along the coast southward, dispersing more or less
towards the interior as the nature of the country and hostile tribes
permitted. In so broken and rough a country the migrations must have
been slow, and the eddies numerous, leaving many fragments of
aboriginal tribes here and there with language and customs wholly
dissimilar. Second, that along the Willamette Valley, over the passes
of the Calapooya, across the open lands of the Umpqua, southward
through Rogue River Valley into Shasta and Scott valleys. As an
evidence of this trace I may mention that all the tribes on this line,
from the Calapooya mountains southward to the head of Shasta and Scott
valleys, speak the same language, and were confederate in their wars
with the tribes on Pitt River, who seem to have arrested their
progress southward. In this connection I may mention two facts worthy
of remark, namely, first, in this cataclysm of tribes, there have been
some singular displacements; for instance, the similarity of language
and customs of the Cumbatwas and other cognate tribes on Pitt River
denotes a common origin with a small tribe found on Smith River, on
the north-west coast: and secondly, the traditions of the Shastas
settled in Shasta and Scott valleys, the advance of this line of
migrations, show that a former tribe had been found in possession of
those valleys and mountains, and had been driven out. The remains of
their ancient villages, and the arrangements still visible in their
excavations confirm the fact, and also the further fact that the
expelled tribes were the same, or cognate to those which the whites
found in occupation of the Sacramento Valley. For instance, in all of
these ancient villages, there was one house of very large dimensions,
used for feasts, ceremonious dances, etc., just as we found on the
settlement of California, in the valley of Sacramento. The existing
tribes in those mountains have no such domicil and no public houses.
They say, when asked, that the villages were built and inhabited by a
tribe that lived there before they came, and that those ancient
dwellers worshiped the great snowy Mount Shasta, and always built
their villages in places from which they could behold that mountain.
Thirdly, another wave of migration evidently came southward along the
Des Chutes River, upon the great plateau of the lakes, which
conclusion is borne out by a similarity of languages and customs, as
well as by traditions."[IV'-4]

In support of this theory, Judge Roseborough states that the languages
spoken on Smith River, and extending thence forty miles along the
coast, are radically and wholly different from those of the
neighboring tribes. The former are harsh, guttural, irregular, and
apparently monosyllabic, while on the other hand, the neighboring
tribes inhabiting the coast southward to Humboldt Bay, and along the
Klamath as far up as the mouth of the Trinity, speak a language very
regular in its structure; copious in its capacity for expressing ideas
and shades of thought, and not unpleasing to the ear, being free from
harsh and guttural sounds. Of all the languages spoken in this part,
that which prevails along the Klamath River, as far up as Happy Camp,
and along the Salmon to its sources, is by far the most regular and
musical. In fact, for its regular and musical accents it occupies
among the Indian tongues of the continent the same preëminence that
the Spanish does among the Caucasian languages. For instance, their
proper nouns for persons and places are very euphoneous, as,
_euphippa_, _escassasoo_, names of persons, and _tahasoofca_,
_cheenich_, _panumna_, _chimicanee_, _tooyook_, _savorum_, names of
noted localities along the river.

As an example of the copiousness and richness of the coast languages
above Humboldt Bay, Judge Roseborough cites the following, for one,
two, three, four, they say, _kor_, _nihhi_, _naxil_, _chohnah_; so for
to-morrow they say, _kohchamol_; for the day after to-morrow,
_nahamohl_; three days hence, _naxamohl_; four days hence,
_chohnahamol_. Nor do they stop here; _mare_, being five, and
_marunimícha_, fifteen; the fifteenth day from the present is,
_marunimîcháhamohl_.

Mr George Bancroft in his Indianology erroneously asserts that the
sound of our letter _r_ does not occur in any of the aboriginal
languages of America. A similar assertion has been made with regard to
Asiatic tongues, that there is not a people from the peninsula of
Hindostan to Kamchatka who make use of this sound. Although this idea
is now exploded, evidence goes to show the rarity of the use of the
letter _r_ in these regions; yet, Judge Roseborough assures me that in
these northern Californian dialects the sound of this letter is not
only frequent, but is uttered with its most rolling, whirring
emphasis; that such words as _arrarra_, Indian; _carrook_, or
_cahroc_, up; _eurook_, or _euroc_, down; _seearrook_, across and up;
_micarra_, the name of a village; _tahasoofcarrah_, that is to say the
village of upper Tahasoofca, are brought forth with an intensity that
a Frenchman could not exceed.

* * * * *

On both sides of the Oregon and Californian boundary line is spoken
the Klamath language; adjoining it on the north is the Yakon, and on
the south the Shasta and the Palaik. A dialect of the Klamath is also
spoken by the Modocs. Herewith I give a short comparative table, and
although no relationship between them is claimed, yet many of the
words which I have selected are not without a similarity.[IV'-5]

YAKON. KLAMATH. SHASTA. PALAIK.

Man kalt hisuatsos awatikoa yaliu
Woman tkhlaks snawats taritsi omtewitsen
Mouth qai sum au, or aof, ap
Leg sia tsoks halaway, or hatis, atetewa
Water kilo ampo atsa as
Blood pouts poits ime ahati
Earth onitstoh kaela tarak kela
Stone kelih kotai itsa olisti
Wood kukh anko awa hau
Beaver kaatsilawa pum tawai pum
Dog tskekh watsak hapso watsaqa
Bird kokoaia lalak tararakh lauitsa
Salmon tsutais tsialus kitari tsialas
Great haihaiat moönis kempe wawa

[Sidenote: THE WINTOON, EUROC, AND CAHROC.]

Along Pitt River and its tributaries are the Pitt River Indians and
the Wintoons, of which languages short vocabularies are given.

PITT RIVER.

Man t'elyou Hair teee
Woman emmetowchan Eyes ossa
House teoomchee Nose yame
Tree (pine) oswoo Mouth yanena
Water oss Teeth etesä
Stone alliste Legs säyä
Sun tsool Fire mallis
Moon tchool Big walswa
Crow owwicha Little chowkootcha
Dog chahoom Dead deoome
Deer doshshe Mountain akoo
Bear loehta Fish oll[IV'-6]

WINTOON.

Yes ummina Warm pela
Woman darcus Eyes toomb
House boss Nose sono
I, or me net Mouth all
Water mem Teeth see
Rain luhay Talk teene
Sun sash To kill kloma
Moon chamitta Large bohama
Night kenavina, or peno To fight cluckapooda
Dog suco Dead menil
Deer nope North wy
Bear chilch, or weemer South nora[IV'-7]

On the lower Klamath, the Euroc language prevails. As compared with
the dialects of southern California, it is guttural; there being
apparently in some of its words, or rather grunts, a total absence of
vowels--_mrprh_, nose; _chlh_, earth; _ynx_, child. Among other
sounds peculiar to it, there is that of the _ll_, so frequent in the
Welsh language. Mr Powers says that, "in conversation they terminate
many words with an aspiration which is imperfectly indicated by the
letter _h_, a sort of catching of the sound, immediately followed by
the letting out of the residue of breath, with a quick little grunt.
This makes their speech harsh and halting; the voice often comes to a
dead stop in the middle of a sentence." He further adds that "the
language seems to have had a monosyllabic origin, and, in fact, they
pronounce many dissyllables as if they were two monosyllables."

Along the upper Klamath, the Cahroc language is spoken, which is
entirely distinct from that of the Eurocs. It is sonorous, and its
intonation has even been compared with that of the Spanish, being not
at all guttural like the Euroc. The _r_, when it occurs in such words
as _chareya_, and _cahroc_, is strangely rolled. The language is
copious; the people speaking it having a name for everything, and on
seeing any article new to them, if a proper designation is not
immediately at hand, they forthwith proceed to manufacture one.

Another guttural language is the Pataway, spoken on Trinity River. Its
pronunciation is like the Euroc, and it has the same curious, abrupt
stopping of the voice at the end of syllables terminating with a
vowel, as Mr Powers describes it. Related to it is the Veeard of lower
Humboldt Bay. The numerals in the latter language are: _koh-tseh_,
one; _dee-teh_, two; _dee-keh_, three; _deeh-oh_, four; _weh-sah_,
five; _chilókeh_, six; _awtloh_, seven; _owit_, eight; _serókeh_,
nine; _lokél_ ten.[IV'-8]

The language known as the Weitspek, spoken at the junction of the
Trinity and Klamath rivers, is probably the same which Mr Powers has
named the Pataway. It is also said to have the frequently occurring
rolling _r_. The _f_, as in the Oregon languages, is wanting. Dialects
of the Weitspek are the Weeyot and Wishosk, on Eel and Mad rivers.
This language is understood from the coast range down to the coast
between Cape Mendocino and Mad River.[IV'-9] The Ehnek, or Pehtsik,
language is spoken on Salmon River; thence in the region of the
Klamath, are the Watsahewah, Howteteoh, and Nabiltse languages.[IV'-10]

COMPARISONS.

WEEYOT. WISHOSK. WEITSPEK. EHNEK.

Man ko éh ko-éh pagehk ah wunsh
Arrow sáhpe tsahpé nah qut kha-wish
Water merah tche mer ah ché pa ha iss shah
Earth let kuk let kuk chahk steep
Dog wyets wy'ts chishé chish ee
Fire mass mess mets ah
Sun taum tahm wá noush leh kosh rah
One koh tse kohtsa spinekoh issah
Two er ee ta ritta nun ehr ach bok
Three er ee ka rihk nak sa kui rahk
Four re aw wa ri yah toh hun ne peehs
Five wessa wéhsah mahr o tum ti rah o

The Chillulah, Wheelcutta, and Kailta were spoken on Redwood Creek,
but before the extinction of these people, their languages were merged
into that of the Hoopahs by whom they were subjugated. The language of
the Chimalquays of New River has also been absorbed by the Hoopah. Of
the Chimalquays Powers hyperbolically remarks "their language was like
the mountain city of California, beautiful in its simplicity, but
frail."[IV'-11]

[Sidenote: THE POMO FAMILY AND ITS DIALECTS.]

At Humboldt Bay a language called Patawat is mentioned, and in Round
Valley the Yuka. The numerals in the latter tongue are--_pongwe_, one;
_opeh_, two; _malmeh_, three; and _omehet_, four. In Potter Valley is
the Tahtoo language which Mr Powers thinks may belong to the Pomo or
the Yuka.[IV'-12] In the Eel River and Russian River valleys as far as
the mouth of Russian River and in Potter Valley, the different tribes
known by the names of Ukiahs or Yokias, Sanèls, Gallinomeros,
Masallamagoons, Gualalas, and Matoles, speak various dialects of the
Pomo language, which obtains in Potter Valley and the dialects of
which become more and more estranged according to the distance from
the aboriginal centre. The Pomo men are good linguists; they readily
acquire all the different dialects of their language, which in places
differ to such an extent, that unless they are previously learned they
cannot be understood. Pomo women are not allowed to learn any dialect
but their own.

The following comparative table of numerals will illustrate the
relationship of these tribes, among which I include the Kulanapo
spoken near Clear Lake, and of which Mr Gibbs has also noticed an
affinity to the Russian River and Eel River languages; also, the
language spoken by the natives of the Yonios Ranchería in Marin
County.[IV'-13]

POMO. UKIAH. SANÉL. GALINO- KULANAPO. YUNIO.
MERO.

One cha taro tate cha k'hah lih kalli
Two co can co aco kots hotz
Three sibbo sibbo sibboo mesibbo homeka humka
Four tack duhan ducho meta dol caddol
Five shal native mato tooshuh leh ma lema
Six padeh tsadeh tsadeh lancha tsa di sav
Seven copah hoyneit cóëmar latco ku la hots kolaus
Eight cowal cogodol cogodol cométa ko ka dohl kadol
Nine shalshal némgoshum númoshum chaco hah da rol shum gin
Ten sala némpotec návacotec chasúto hah da rul tek hidelema

[Sidenote: GALLINOMERO GRAMMAR.]

On the Gallinomero dialect I make a few grammatical remarks. In
conversation the Gallinomeros are rather slovenly and make use of
frequent contractions and abbreviations like the English can't and
shan't, which makes it difficult for a stranger to understand them.
Another difficulty for the student is the convertibility of a number
of letters, such as _t_ into _ch_, _sh_ into _ch_, _i_ into _ah_, etc.
Nouns have neither number, case, nor gender; the first being only
occasionally indicated by a separate word--_cha ataboónya_, one man;
_aco ataboónja_, two men. The genitive is formed by placing the words
in juxtaposition--_atópte meätega_, the chief's brother; the governed
word being always prepositive. None of the remaining cases are
distinguished; for example--_chadúna bidácha_, I see the river;
_bidácha hoalye_, I go to the river, or, into the river; _bidácha
huodúna_, I come out of the river; _didácha toholeéna_, I go away from
the river; the accusative may be recognized as being placed
immediately after the verb, but there are many exceptions to this
rule. Sometimes the accusative is also marked by the ending _ga_ or
_gen_--_chechoanoótugen_, I strike the boy; but this is seldom used.
Verbs are always regular. There are present, imperfect, and future
tenses, and three forms of the imperative, all distinctly marked by
tense endings.

PRESENT INDICATIVE. IMPERFECT. FIRST FUTURE.

Do, tseena tseeteéna tseecúwa
Go, hoalye hoaleteéna hoalecúwa
Break, matsána matsanteéna matsancúwa
Kill, matemána matemanteéna matemancúwa
See, chadúna chaduteéna chaducúwa
Fight, mehailme mehailmooteéna mehailmoocúwa

In some instances these endings are changed for the sake of euphony,
certain letters being elided. The endings may really be called
auxiliary verbs, attached to the principal verb. Thus the imperfect
reads, literally, 'would be I go do,' the ending _teena_, being
nothing but the word _tseena_, with the _s_ omitted. In like manner
the future is formed, as in _tudáwa_, to want, which is changed into
_cúwa_.

There is nothing to denote number in the verb, as can be seen in the

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE.

I am, ahwa | We are, áyawa
Thou art, ámawa | You are, ámawa
He is, hámowa | They are, hámowa

Of the imperative, the following may serve as an example: _hoáleluh_,
let me go; _hoalin_, go thou; _hoálegun_, let him go. The verb
_chadúna_, to see, may signify either I see, or seeing, or to see, or
it may be construed as a substantive--sight; or as an adjective in
agglutination, as _chadunatoboónya_, a watchful man. _Chanhódin_ is an
auxiliary verb and is always prepositive. The pronouns are, _ah_,
_ahto_, or _ahmet_, I; _ama_, thou; and _wemo_, _waymo_, _hamo_, or
_ámata_, he. The first person of the pronoun is always omitted, except
with the verb to be, and the second and third persons frequently.
Pronominal adjectives are quite irregular, as _owkey_, from _ah_;
_maykey_, from _ama_; _wébakey_, from _wemo_; and they are also used
irregularly with nouns. Thus in _medde_, father; _ahmen_, or
_owkáhmen_, or _áhmedde_, being equivalent to I father, my father.
Here, also, euphony steps in and makes words sometimes wholly
unrecognizable, as _ahtótána_, equivalent to _méhand_, and still more
different, as _mamówky_, this is for me. Your father is _máykemay_;
his father, _wébamen_. Thus it will be seen that _medde_ is changed,
or abbreviated, into _men_, and _may_. Sometimes the personal pronoun
is agglutinated to the verb, and sometimes it is not;--_chechoánomdo_
(_chechoána meto_), I strike you; _meto tudáwa_, I love you. As in
many other Pacific States languages, we have here a reverential
syllable, which in this language is always prefixed, whereas in
others, for instance the Aztec, it is an affix. Speaking of persons
related, or of things belonging, to the chief, the reverential _me_ or
_jin_, is always prefixed;--_owkeybaì_, my wife; _maykeybaì_, your
wife; _atópte meëtchen_, the chief's wife; _shinna_, head; _metoshin_,
your head; _webashin_, his head; _atópte jinshinna_, the chief's head.
All adjectives are really substantives, and are used for both
purposes. Thus, _ootu_, boy, also signifies little, or young.
Adjectives are generally placed after nouns--_majey codey_, good day;
but there are also many exceptions to this rule. Comparatives are
expressed by the particle _pala_, more;--_paleyabáta waymo ahmet_, he
is greater than I, _pala_ becoming _paléya_, in composition. This is
only used by the more intelligent class. A Gallinomero of the lower
order would say, _bata waymo ahmet_, great he I. The principal
characteristics of the language are euphony and brevity, to which all
things else are subservient, but nevertheless, as I have shown
already, agglutination is carried to the farthest extent.[IV'-14]

As will be seen by the following comparative table, the Pomo language,
or rather one of its dialects, the Kulanapo, shows some affinity to
the Malay family of languages. Of one hundred and seventy words which
I have compared, I find fifteen per cent. showing Malay similarities,
and more could perhaps have been found if the several vocabularies had
been made upon some one system. As it is, I have been obliged to use a
Malay, a Tonga, and other Polynesian vocabularies, taken by different
persons, at different times. Without attempting to establish any
relationship between the Polynesians and Californians, I present these
similarities merely as a fact; these analogies I find existing nowhere
else in California, and between them and no other Trans-Pacific
peoples.[IV'-15]

[Sidenote: TRANS-PACIFIC COMPARISONS.]

DIALECT OF THE
KULANAPO. MALAY. MALAY.

Woman dah do Kayan
Mother nihk indi, ini Sakarran
Husband dah'k laki, lake Malay
Wife bai le bini Malay
Head kai yah kapala Malay
Hair moo sooh fooloo Tonga
Neck mi yah gia Tonga
Foot kah mah kaki Malay
House kah (calli, Aztec) falle Tonga
Sun lah láa Tonga
Fire poh (Copeh) apoé Millanow
Water k'hah vy, cawna Tonga
Mountain dah no darud Suntah
Black keela keelick kele Polynesian
Bed keh dah reh duk dadara Malay
Green doh tor ota Polynesian
Dead mu dal mati Malay
I hah au Polynesian
One k'hah lih tasi Polynesian
" tchah (Yukai) satu Malay
Four dol tau Polynesian
Five leh ma lima Malay
Eat ku hu kai Polynesian
Drink mih mea inoo Tonga
To see el lih (Chocuyem) ilaw Tonga
To go le loom aloo Tonga
Bow pah chee pana Malay
Tongue lehn teep (Chocuyem) lida Malay
Leg co yok (Chocuyem) ku jak Suntah

The similarities existing between the Japanese and Chinese, and the
Californian languages, appearing from a careful comparison of the same
one hundred and seventy words, are insufficient to establish any
relationship; the few resemblances may be regarded as purely
accidental. Of these words I insert the following, which are all
between which I have been able to discover any likeness:

Husband Japanese muko Costaños makho
Teeth Chinese chi Copeh see ih
Knife Japanese deba Costaños tepah
Fire Chinese ho Choweshak ho
Water Japanese sui Costaños see ee
Dog Japanese chin Weitepek and chishe
Ehnek
Deer Japanese sh'ka Copeh siáh

The Choweshak and Batemdakaiee are mentioned as being spoken at the
head of Eel River, and the Chocuyem in Marin County, near the Mission
of San Rafael. On Russian River, there yet remain to be mentioned the
Olamentke, and the Chwachamaju. All these may be properly classed as
dialects nearly related to the Pomo family, and some of them may even
be the same dialects under different names.[IV'-16]

Of the Chocuyem I give the following Lord's Prayer:

Api maco su lilecoe, ma nénas mi aués omai mácono mi taucuchs
oyópa mi tauco chaquenit opú neyatto chaquenit opu liletto. Tu
maco muye genum ji naya macono sucuji sulia mácono masócte,
chague mat opu ma suli mayaco. Macoi yangia ume omutto, ulémi
mácono omu incapo. Nette esa Jesus.[IV'-17]

In Round Valley, northern California, there is the before-mentioned
Yuka language, which is connected with the Wapo, or Ashochemie, spoken
near Calistoga, and in the mountains leading thence to the
Geysers.[IV'-18]

On Yuba and Feather rivers are the Meidoos and Neeshenams of whose
language Powers says that "the Meidoo shades away so gradually into
the Neeshenam that it is extremely difficult to draw a line anywhere.
But it must be drawn somewhere, because a vocabulary taken down on
Feather River will lose three fourths of its words before it reaches
the Cosumnes. Even a vocabulary taken on Bear River will lose half or
more of its words in going to the Cosumnes, which denotes, as is the
fact, that the Neeshenam language varies greatly within itself.
Indeed, it is probably less homogeneous and more thronged with
dialects than any other tongue in California. Let an Indian go even
from Georgetown to American Flat, or from Bear River to Auburn, and,
with the exception of the numerals he will not at first understand
above one word in four, or five, or six. But, with this small stock in
common, and the same laws of grammar to guide them, they pick up each
others dialects with amazing rapidity. It is these wide variations
which have caused some pioneers to believe that there is one tongue
spoken on the plains around Sacramento, and another in the mountains;
whereas they are as nearly identical as the mountain dialects are. So
long as the numerals remain the same, I count it one language; and so
long as this is the case, the Indians generally learn each others
dialects; but when the numerals change utterly, they often find it
easier to speak the English together than to acquire another tongue.
As to the southern boundary of the Neeshenam there is no doubt, for at
the Cosumnes the language changes abruptly and totally."

[Sidenote: LANGUAGES OF THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY.]

Along the banks of the Sacramento, two distinct linguistic systems are
said to prevail. But to what extent all the languages mentioned in
that vicinity are related, or can be classified, it is difficult to
say; for not only is there great confusion in names, but what is more
essential, vocabularies of most of them are wanting. On the eastern
bank of the Sacramento and extending along Feather River, the
Cosumnes, and other tributaries of the Sacramento, the following
languages are mentioned: Ochecamne, Serouskumne, Chupumne, Omochumne,
Siecumne, Walagumne, Cosumne, Sololumne, Turealumne, Saywamine,
Newichumne, Matchemne, Sagayayumne, Muthelemne, Sopotatumne, and
Talatiu. In all these dialects the word for water is _kik_, but in the
dialects spoken on the west bank it is _mómi_. On the western bank are
mentioned the dialects of the Pujuni, Puzlumne, Secumne, Tsamak,
Yasumne, Nemshaw, Kisky, Yalesumne, Huk, and others.[IV'-19] Undoubtedly
all these Sacramento Valley dialects are more or less related, but of
them we have no positive knowledge except that the Secumne and Tsamak
are closely related, while the Puzlumne and Talatiu also show many
words in common, but cannot be said to affiliate.[IV'-20] In the
mountains south of the Yuba, and also on some parts of the Sacramento
the Cushna language obtains. On the latter river Wilkes mentions the
Kinkla, of which he says that in comparison with the language of the
northern nations it may be called soft, "as much so as that of the
Polynesians." Repetitions of syllables appear to be frequent as
_wai-wai_, and _hau-hau-hau_.[IV'-21] In Napa Valley six dialects were
spoken, the Myacoma, Calayomane, Caymus, Napa, Uluka, and Suscol.[IV'-22]
In Solano County the Guiluco language was spoken, of which the
following Lord's Prayer may serve as a specimen:

Allá igamé mutryocusé mi zahuá om mi yahuatail cha usqui etra
shou mur tzecali ziam pac onjinta mul zhaiíge nasoyate chelegua
mul znatzoitze tzecali zicmatan zchiitiilaa chalehua mesqui
pihuatzite yteima omahuá. Emqui Jesus.[IV'-23]

Near the straits of Karquines, and also in the San Joaquin and Tulare
valleys, the Tulare tongue prevailed. In this language, if we may
believe M. Duflot de Mofras, the letters _b_, _d_, _f_, _g_, and _r_
do not exist, the _r_ being changed into _l_, as _maria_, _malia_.
Many guttural sounds like _kh_, _tsh_, _lm_, _tp_, _tsp_, _th_, etc.,
are found, yet softer than the gutturals of the north. Notwithstanding
the above statement M. de Mofras gives as a specimen of the Tulare
language the following Lord's Prayer, in which the _r_ frequently
occurs:

Appa macquen erinigmo tasunimac emracat, jinnin eccey macquen
iunisínmac macquen quitti éné soteyma erinigmo: sumimac macquen
hamjamú jinnan guara ayei: sunun macquen quit ti enesunumac
ayacma: aquectsem unisimtac nininti equetmini: juriná macquen
equetmini em men.

[Sidenote: SPECIMENS OF SOUTHERN LANGUAGES.]

Of the languages spoken at the mission of Santa Inez the following
Lord's Prayer is given by M. de Mofras; and this is very likely in the
true Tulare language in place of the one above.

Dios caquicoco upalequen alapa, quiaenicho opte: paquininigug
quique eccuet upalacs huatahuc itimisshup caneche alapa.
Ulamuhu ilahulalisahue. Picsiyug equepe ginsucutaniyug
uquiyagmagin, canechequique quisagin sucutanagun utiyagmayiyug
peux hoyug quie utic lex ulechop santequiyug ilautechop. Amen
Jesus.[IV'-24]

The Tulare language is probably the same which was known under the
name of Kahweyah in central California and may have some connection
with the Cahuillo in the southern part of the state.[IV'-25]

Languages in the interior, of which but little more than the name and
the region where they were spoken is known, are, on the Tuolumne River
the Hawhaw and another which has no particular name; on the Merced
River the Coconoon with a dialect extending to King River and to
Tulare Lake.[IV'-26] Mr Powers makes of the tribes inhabiting Kern and
Tulare valleys the Yocut nation, _yocut_ signifying an aggregation of
people, while _myee_, or _nono_, means man. "It is a singular fact,"
observes this writer, "that in several of the northern languages
_kiya_ denotes dog, while in the Yocut, _kiya_ is coyote."

From Mr Powers I have also the following vocabularies, which have
never before been published.

CAHROC. MEIDOO. PALEGAWONÀP.

Man awans midoo anghanil
Woman asicitáwa catee coyeem
Sun coosooda pocum tahl
Earth soosaney caweh serwahl
Dog cheshee seyu poongool
Water ahs momeh pahl
Stone ass ohm tuhnt
Fire alih sum quoat
Head huchwa onum koönte
Mouth apman cumbo tawkunte
Hand teeik ma mah
Big nuckishnuck haylin
Little neenums wedaka
To eat ohámt pin
To give tanneëh meëy
To work ickeeàht tawale

MEEWOC. YOCUT. NEESHENAM.

Man Meewa nono neeshenam or maidee
Woman Osuh mokella cülleh
Sun Watoo ope ophy
Earth Toleh hoocheh cow
Dog Chookoo chehca sooh
Water Kikuh ilic moh
Stone Sawa sileh oam
Fire Wookeh osit sah
Head Hanna oochuh tsoll
Mouth Awoh samah sim
Hand Tissuh poonose mah
Big Oyaneh koteh nem
Little Toonchickche colich hunum
To eat Sowuh hateh pap
To give wahneh meh
To work tawhaleh towhàn

Information regarding the languages spoken where the city of San
Francisco now stands, and throughout the adjacent country, is meagre,
and of a very indefinite character. On the shores of San Francisco
Bay, there are the languages spoken by the Matalans, Salses, and
Quirotes, which are dialects of one mother language.[IV'-27] This
language has by some been called the Olhone, and although other
dialects are mentioned as belonging to it, it is generally stated that
but one general language was spoken by all of them.[IV'-28] Southward,
near Monterey, there are more positive data. Here we find as the
principal languages, the two spoken by the Runsiens and Eslenes;
besides which, the Ismuracan and Aspianaque are mentioned.[IV'-29]

[Sidenote: DIALECTS OF THE RUNSIEN AND ESLENE.]

But although they are called distinct languages, Taylor affirms that
the Eslenes, Sakhones, Chalones, Katlendarukas, Poytoquis, Mutsunes,
Thamiens, and many others, spoke different dialects of the Runsien
language, and that over a stretch of country one hundred and seventy
miles in length, the natives were all able to converse with greater or
less facility with each other, and that although "their dialects were
infinitesimal and puzzling, their vocal communications were
intelligible enough when brought together at the different missions."
La Pérouse's Achastliens and Ecclemachs are probably nothing more than
other names for some of the above-mentioned dialects.[IV'-30]

Not only do all these before-mentioned languages show a relationship
one with another, but there are faint resemblances detected between
them and the Olhone language of San Francisco Bay. Furthermore, between
the latter and the language spoken at La Soledad Mission, as well as
that of the Olamentkes of Russian River, which I have already classed
with the Pomo family, there are faint traces of relationship.[IV'-31]

MUTSUN. LA SOLEDAD. RUNSIEN. ACHASTLIEN.

One hemethscha himítsa enjalá moukala
Two usthrgin utshe ultis outis
Three capjan hapkha kappei capes
Four uthrit utjit ultizim outiti
Five parnes paruash hali izú is
Father appá nikápa appan
Mother anan nikána aán
Daughter ca niká kaana
Nose us us
Ears ocho otsho
Mouth jai hai

A further confirmation of this relationship is found in the statement
of the first missionary Fathers, who traveled overland from Monterey
to San Francisco, and who, although at that time totally unacquainted
with these languages, recognized resemblances in certain words.[IV'-32]
The dialect spoken at the Mission of Santa Clara has been preserved to
us only in the shape of the Lord's Prayer which follows:

Appa macréne mé saura saraahtiga elecpuhmen imragat, sacan
macréne mensaraah assueiy nouman ourun macari pireca numa ban
saraathtiga poluma macréne souhaii naltis anat macréne neéna,
ia annanit macréne nieena, ia annanit macréne macrec équetr
maccari noumabaú mare annan, nou maroté, jassemper macréne in
eckoué tamouniri innam tattahné icatrarca oniet macréne equets
naccaritkoun oun och á Jésus.[IV'-33]

[Sidenote: MUTSUN GRAMMAR.]

Of the Mutsun dialect I give the following grammatical notes. Words of
this language do not contain the letters _b_, _d_, _k_, _f_, _v_, _x_,
and the rolling _r_.

DECLENSION OF THE WORD APPA, FATHER.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. appa appagma
Gen. appa appagma
Dat. appahuas appagmahuas
Acc. appase apagamase
Voc. appa appagma
Abl. appatsu {or appatca appagmatsu {or appamatca
{or appame {or appagmane

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB ARÁ, TO GIVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I give, can ará | We give, macse ará
Thou givest, men ará | You give, macam ará
He gives, nunissia ará | They give, nupcan ará

PAST.

I gave (a very short time ago), can itzs arán
I gave (a long while ago), can cus arás
I gave (very long ago), can hocs ará
I gave (from time immemorial), can munna arás
I gave (without mentioning time), can arán
I gave (who knows when), can arás
I gave (sometime ago), can araicun
I gave (already), can aragte

FUTURE.

I shall give (soon), can et (or iete) ará
I shall give (after many days), can iti ará
I shall give (after many years), can múnna ará
I shall have given (perhaps), can piñ arán

IMPERATIVE.

Give me, arat, or aratit
Give thyself, araia
Give him, arai, or arati
Give them, arais

SUBJUNCTIVE.

That I give, cat ará
If I gave, imatcum can ará, or cochop tucne can ará

The language abounds in adverbs, of which I give the following.

This day neppe tengis To-morrow aruta
Now naha Since yete
Immediately iñaha Always imi
Never ecue et Before aru
Never more ecue imi Much tolon
Good miste, utin Very much tompe
Bad equitseste Little cutis
Gently chequen Very little cuti
Certainly amane Yes gehe
No ecue Truly asaha, eres
To-day naha Look giré

Adjectives are declined the same as substantives when they are
declined alone; but they differ in their declension from substantives
when they are declined in connection with them, because then they do
not change their terminations, but remain the same in all the cases.
The rules of syntax are intricate and very difficult.

Father Comelias speaks of a language at the Mission of Santa Cruz,
with numerous dialects, in fact so many, that the language changed
nearly every two leagues, and being at times so divergent, that it was
with difficulty neighboring people could understand one another.[IV'-34]
In the vicinity of the Mission San Antonio de Padua, there is a
language which has been variously named, Tatché, Telamé, and Sextapay.
It appears to be a distinct language, and Taylor affirms that the
people speaking it could not understand those of La Soledad Mission,
thirty miles north.[IV'-35] In this language the letters _b_, _d_, _r_,
do not appear; _na_ expresses the article the, and also this. There
are many different ways of expressing the plural of nouns. Some add
the syllable _il_, _el_, _l_, or _li_, others insert _ti_, or _t_,
while others again add _leg_, _aten_, _ten_, or _teno_, as may be seen
in the following examples.[IV'-36]

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Counsellor tayito tayilito
Flame me^ache^alíya me^ache^aliliya
Work tácâto taquele^ato
My enemy zitcho^fn zitcho^fne^al
Brother citol citolanél
Grass ca*tz ca*tza^onél
Man tama tamaten
Mouse e^azzqui*lmog e^azzqui*lmoco*ten
Oven aloconíya alocotiníya
Prison que^aluezúgne que^aluezúgtine
Fat cu*pinit cupinitleg
Woman lixii litzzin
Bone ejacô ejaclíto

[Sidenote: TATCHE GRAMMAR.]

Cases do not appear to exist, the relations of the nouns being expressed
by particles. Adjectives do not vary to show gender or degree. Personal
pronouns are usually copulative and included in the verb, whether
subjective or objective. Of the use of the possessive pronoun the
following examples will give the clearest idea: Brother, _citolo_; my
brother, _cítol_; thy brother, _e^atsmitol_; brothers, _citolanélo_;
my brothers, _citolanél_; thy brothers, _e^atsmitolanel_; mother,
_epjo_; thy mother, _petsmipeg_; house, _ch^viconou_; my house,
_ch^vícono^v_; thy house, _zimch^vicono_; blood, _akata_; my
blood, _ekata_; thy blood, _cimekata_; father, _ecco_; my father,
_tili_; thy father, _cimic_; our father, _tatilli_; work, _tácâto_; my
work, _tácât_; thy work, _cimtácât_; our work, _zatúcât_; your work,
_zugtácât_; mine, _zeé_; thine, _e^atsme^amée_; this, _na_; that,
_pe^a_.

Verbs have also a plural form. _Ca*lom_, to teach; _ca*^ólilom_,
to teach much, or, to teach many.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

To desire quia^olep quia^olilep
To drink cácheme cáchetem
To run quenole quenoltec
To say maláco maloltaco
To walk qui*tipa^v qui*lipa{_v}

VERB AND PRONOUN.

I teach, 'eca^o*lom | Give me, me^aya^oc
He teaches me, quepa^oalác | Give us, maítiltac
Speak thou to me, pssia^oc | He gives us, pe^aya^oc
Speak you to me, pssitác | He gives us, paitiltac
To give, peyaco, pe^aíco

I love thee, 'epe^apa^omaqueca
Thou lovest thyself, mimo e^atame^apa^omapque*co

The following are prepositions: by, _zo_; in _ne^ape^a_; to _zui_,
_zuiyo_, _zo_; from, _ze^ape^a_; on, _zui_; within,
_zine^apa^v_. A few examples of adverbs are--here, _zopa{_v}_;
there, _ne^apé_; to-day, _taha_; to-morrow, _tixjáy_; yesterday,
_notcieyo_.

LORD'S PRAYER.

Za tili, mo quixco ne^ape^a limaatnil. An zucueteyem
Our father, thou art in heaven. Hallowed

na etsmatz: antsiejtsitia na ejtmilina. An citaha
the thy name: come the thy kingdom. Be done

natsmalog zui lac* quicha ne^ap^ae lima. Ma^itiltac taha
thy will on earth as in heaven. Give us to-day

zizalamaget zizucanatel ziczia. Za manimtiltac na
our food our daily. Forgive us the

zanayl, quicha na kac apaninitílico na zananaol. Zi
Debts, as the we forgive them the our debt.

quetza commanatatelnec za alimeta zo na ziuxnia.
Let not us fall into the temptation.

Za no quissili jom zig zumtaylitee. Amen.[IV'-37]
Us from evil defend.

[Sidenote: SAN MIGUEL AND SANTA CRUZ VOCABULARY.]

Another distinct language is found at and near the Mission of San
Miguel, but of it nothing but a short vocabulary taken by Mr Hale is
known. The language spoken at San Gabriel and at San Fernando Rey,
called Kizh, and the Netela used at San Juan Capistrano, I shall not
describe here, but include them with the Shoshone family, to which
they are related. The Chemehuevi and Cahuillo I also place among the
Shoshone dialects, while the Diegeño and Comeya will be included in
the Yuma family. It therefore only remains for me to speak of the
languages of the islands near the coast of California. Of these, the
principal, or mother language, was spoken on the island of Santa Cruz.
The different tribes inhabiting the various islands all spoke dialects
of one language, which was somewhat guttural. I insert a short
vocabulary of the Santa Cruz Island language with that of the Mission
of San Miguel.

SAN MIGUEL. SANTA CRUZ ISLAND.

Man loaí, or loguai alamuün
Woman tlené hemutch
Father tata ceske
Mother apai osloe
Head tobuko pispulaoah
Hair teasakho toffooll
Ears tentkhito pasthoo
Eyes trugento tisplesoose
Mouth treliko pasaotch
One tohi ismala
Two kogsu ischum
Three tlobahi maseghe
Four kesa scumoo
Five oldrato sietisma
Six paiate sietischum
Seven tepa sietmasshugh
Eight sratel malawah
Nine teditrup spah
Ten trupa kascum[IV'-38]

FOOTNOTES:

[IV'-1] _Roseborough's Letter to the Author_, MS.; _The Shastas and
their Neighbors_, MS. 'The diversity of language is so great in
California, that at almost every 15 or 20 leagues, you find a distinct
dialect.' _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, p. 240. 'Il n'est
peut-être aucun pays où les différens idiomes soient aussi multipliés
que dans la Californie septentrionale.' _La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom.
ii., p. 323. 'One might spend years with diligence in acquiring an
Indian tongue, then journey a three-hours' space, and find himself
adrift again, so multitudinous are the languages and dialects of
California.' _Powers' North. Cal. Ind._, in _Overland Monthly_, vol.
viii., p. 328. 'The diversity is such as to preclude almost entirely
all verbal communication.' _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. iii., p. 159.
'Languages vary from tribe to tribe.' _Pickering's Races_, in _U. S.
Ex. Ex._, vol. ix., p. 106. 'In California, there appears to be spoken
two or more distinct languages.' _McCulloh's Researches in Amer._, p.
37; _Kotzebue's Voyage_, vol. iii., p. 48; _Id._, _New Voy._, vol.
ii., p. 98; _Taylor_, in _Bancroft's Handbook Almanac_, 1864, p. 29.

[IV'-2] See vol. i., p. 325; _Roseborough's Letter to the Author_, MS.;
_The Shastas and their Neighbors_, MS.; _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol.
iii., p. 159

[IV'-3] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV'-4] _Roseborough's Letter to the Author_, MS.

[IV'-5] 'The Lutuami, Shasti and Palaik are thrown by Gallatin into
three separate classes. They are without doubt mutually
unintelligible. Nevertheless they cannot be very widely separated.'
_Latham's Comp. Phil._, vol. viii., p. 407. The T-ka, Id-do-a,
Ho-te-day, We-o-how, or Shasta Indians, speak the same language.
_Steele_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, p. 120. The Modocs speak the
same language as the Klamaths. _Palmer_, in _Id._, 1854, p. 262;
_Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 218; _Berghaus_,
_Geographisches Jahrbuch_, tom. iii., p. 48; _Taylor_, in _Cal.
Farmer_, June 8, 1860. 'A branch of the latter (Shoshone) is the tribe
of Tlamath Indians.' _Ruxton's Adven. Mex._, p. 244.

[IV'-6] _The Shastas and their Neighbors_, MS.

[IV'-7] _Jackson's Vocab. of the Wintoon Language_, MS.; _Powers'
Vocabularies_, MS.

[IV'-8] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV'-9] _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 422. 'The
junction of the rivers Klamath, or Trinity, gives us the locality of
the Weitspek. Its dialects, the Weyot and Wishosk, extend far into
Humboldt county, where they are probably the prevailing form of
speech, being used on the Mad River, and the parts about Cape
Mendocino. From the Weitspek they differ much more than they do from
each other.' _Latham's Comp. Phil._, vol. viii., p. 40. 'Weeyot und
Wish-osk, unter einander verwandt.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek.
Spr._, p. 575.

[IV'-10] _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., pp. 422-3.

[IV'-11] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV'-12] _Roseborouqh's Letter to the Author_, MS.; _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV'-13] _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., pp. 421-2;
_Powers' Pomo_, MS.; _Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, March 30, 1860.

[IV'-14] _Powers' Notes on Cal. Languages_, MS.

[IV'-15] _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 428, et seq.;
_Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 342, et seq;
_Keppel's Exped._, vol. i., appendix, p. 14, et Seq.; _Martin's Tonga
Isl._, vol. ii.

[IV'-16] 'Die Indianer in Bodega verstehen nur mit Mühe die Sprache
derjenigen welche in den Ebenen am Slawänka-Flusse leben; die Sprache
der nördlich von Ross lebenden Stämme ist ihnen völlig unverständlich.'
_Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, p. 75. 'Die Bodegischen Indianer verstehen
die nördlichen nicht, sowohl die Sprache als die Art der Aussprache
ist verschieden. Die Entferten und die Steppen-Indianer sprechen eine
Menge Dialecte oder Sprachen, deren Eigenthümlichkeit und Verwandtschaft
noch nicht bekannt sind.' _Kostromitonow_, in _Id._, p. 80; _Gibbs_,
in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 421. 'Kulanapo und Yukai,
verwandt: d. h. in dem beschränkten Grade, dass viele Wörter zwischen
ihnen übereinstimmen, viele andere, z. B. ein guter Theil der
Zahlwörter, verschieden sind.... Choweshak und Batemdakaiee sehr genau
und im vollkommnen Maasse unter einander und wiederum beide ganz genau
mit Yukai, und auch Kulanapo verwandt.... Wichtig ist es aber zu
sagen, dass die Sprache Tchokoyem mit dem Olamentke der Bodega Bai und
mit der Mission S. Raphael nahe gleich ist.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der
Aztek. Spr._, p. 575. 'The Kanimares speak a different dialect from
the Tamalos. The Sonoma Indians also speak different from Tamalos. The
Sonomos speak a similar dialect as the Suisuns. The San Rafael Indians
speak the same as the Tamalos.' _Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, March
30th, 1860.

[IV'-17] _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 391.

[IV'-18] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV'-19] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., pp. 222, 630;
_Wilkes' Nar._, in _Id._, vol. v., p. 201.

[IV'-20] 'Puzhune, Sekamne, Tsamak und Talatui ... Sekumne und Tsamak
sind nahe verwandt, die übrigen zeigen gemeinsames und fremdes.'
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 571. 'Hale's vocubulary of
the Talatiu belongs to the group for which the name of Moquelumne is
proposed, a Moquelumne Hill and a Moquelumne River being found within
the area over which the languages belonging to it are spoken. Again,
the names of the tribes that speak them end largely in mne, Chupumne,
etc. As far south as Tuolumne County the language belongs to this
division, viz., 1, the Mumaltachi; 2, Mullateco; 3, Apaugasi; 4,
Lapappu; 5, Siyante, or Typoxi band, speak this language.' _Latham's
Comp. Phil._, vol. viii., p. 414.

[IV'-21] _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., p. 201.

[IV'-22] _Montgomery's Indianology of Napa County_, MS.

[IV'-23] _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 391.

[IV'-24] _Arroyo_, _Gram. de la lengua Tulareña_, MS., quoted in
_Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 388, see also pp. 392-3. 'Malgré le
grand nombre de dialectes des Missions de la Californie, les
Franciscains espagnols s'étaient attachés à apprendre la langue
générale de la grande vallée de los Tulares, dont presque toutes les
tribus sont originaires, et ils ont rédigés le vocabulaire et une
sorte de grammaire de cette langue nommée _el Tulareño_.' _Id._, p.
387.

[IV'-25] _Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, May 25, 1860.

[IV'-26] _Johnston_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 407. 'Die
Sprachen der Coconoons und die vom King's River sind nahe verwandt.'
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 564.

[IV'-27] 'Dans la baie de San Francisco on distingue les tribus des
Matalans, Salsen et Quirotes, dont les langues dérivent d'une souche
commune.' _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., pp. 321-2;
_Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., pt ii., p. 454.

[IV'-28] 'The tribe of Indians which roamed over this great valley,
from San Francisco to near San Juan Bautista Mission ... were the
Olhones. Their language slightly resembled that spoken by the Mutsuns,
at the Mission of San Juan Bautista, although it was by no means the
same.' _Hall's San José_, p. 40. 'In the single Mission Santa Clara
more than twenty languages are spoken.' _Kotzebue's New Voy._, vol.
ii., p. 98; _Kotzebue's Voyage_, vol. iii., p. 51; _Beechey's Voyage_,
vol. ii., p. 78; _Choris_, _Voy. Pitt._, pt iii., pp. 5-6; _Conder's
Mex. Guat._, vol. ii., pp. 94-5.

[IV'-29] 'La misma diferencia que se advierte en los usos y costumbres
de una y otra nacion hay en sus idiomas.' _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_,
p. 172.

[IV'-30] 'Each tribe has a different dialect; and though their districts
are small, the languages are sometimes so different that the
neighbouring tribes cannot understand each other. I have before
observed that in the Mission of San Carlos there are eleven different
dialects.' _Beechey's Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 73. 'La langue de ces
habitans (Ecclemachs) diffère absolument de toutes celles de leurs
voisins; elle a même plus de rapport avec nos langues Européennes
qu'avec celles de l'Amérique.... L'idiome de cette nation est
d'ailleurs plus riche que celui des autres peuples de la Californie.'
_La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom. ii., pp. 324-326. 'La partie septentrionale
de la Nouvelle-Californie est habitée par les deux nations de Rumsen
et Escelen. Elles parlent des langues entièrement différentes.'
_Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 321. 'Beyde Darstellungen
derselben sind, wie man aus der so bestimmten Erklärung beider
Schriftsteller, dass diese zwey Völker die Bevölkerung jener Gegend
ausmachen, schliessen muss, ohne Zweifel unter verschiedenen
Abtheilungen Eines Volkes aufgefasst, unter dessen Zweigen die
Dialekte, ungeregelt, wie sie sind, leicht grosse Abweichungen von
einander zeigen werden.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt. iii.,
p. 202; _Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, Feb. 22, Apr. 20, 1860.

[IV'-31] 'Es erhellt aber aus den Zahlwörtern und anderen Wörtern, dass
die Sprache von la Soledad, der Runsien nahe gleich und der Achastlier
ähnlich ist.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 561; _Turner_,
in _Hist. Mag._, vol. i., p. 206.

[IV'-32] 'En estos indios reparé que entendian mas que otros los
términos de Monterey y entendí muchos términos de lo que hablaban....
El diciéndome _meapam_ tu eres mi padre, que es la misma palabra que
usan los de Monterey.' _Palou_, _Noticias_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._,
série iv., tom. vii., pp. 62-3, 59, 65, 67, 69.

[IV'-33] _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 392.

[IV'-34] _Comelias_, in _Cal. Farmer_, April 5, 1860.

[IV'-35] _Taylor_, in _Id._, April 27, 1860.

[IV'-36] 'Quod quanquam hoc idioma ineloquens videatur et inelegans,
in rei veritate non est ita: est valde copiosum, oblongum, abundans et
eloquens.' _Arroyo de la Cuesta_, _Alphabs Rivulus Obeundus_, preface,
also, _Arroyo de la Cuesta_, _Mutsun Grammar_. On the cover of the
manuscript is the following important note. 'Copia de la lengua Mutsun
en estilo Catalan á causa la escribió un Catalan. La Castellana usa de
la fuerza de la pronunciacion de letras de otro modo en su alfabeto.'
The Catalans pronounce _ch_ hard, and _j_ like the Germans.

[IV'-37] _Sitjar_, _Vocabulario de la M. de San Antonio._ The
orthography employed by Father Sitjar is very curious; accents, stars,
small letters above or below the line, and various other marks are
constantly used; but no explanation of these have been found in the
MS. I have therefore, as far as possible, presented the original style
of writing. See also _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., pp. 392-3.

[IV'-38] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., pp. 633-4;
_Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, May 4, 1860.

CHAPTER V.

SHOSHONE LANGUAGES.

AZTEC-SONORA CONNECTIONS WITH THE SHOSHONE FAMILY -- THE UTAH,
COMANCHE, MOQUI, KIZH, NETELA, KECHI, CAHUILLO, AND CHEMEHUEVI
-- EASTERN AND WESTERN SHOSHONE, OR WIHINASHT -- THE BANNACK
AND DIGGER, OR SHOSHOKEE -- THE UTAH AND ITS DIALECTS -- THE
GOSHUTE, WASHOE, PAIULEE, PIUTE, SAMPITCHE, AND MONO -- POPULAR
BELIEF AS TO THE AZTEC ELEMENT IN THE NORTH -- GRIMM'S LAW --
SHOSHONE, COMANCHE, AND MOQUI COMPARATIVE TABLE -- NETELA
STANZA -- KIZH GRAMMAR -- THE LORD'S PRAYER IN TWO DIALECTS OF
THE KIZH -- CHEMEHUEVI AND CAHUILLO GRAMMAR -- COMPARATIVE
VOCABULARY.

In this chapter I include all the languages of the Shoshone family,
the Wihinasht or western Shoshone of Idaho and Oregon, the Utah with
its many dialects, the Comanche or Yetan of Texas and New Mexico, the
Moqui of Arizona, the Kizh, Netela, and Kechi of the San Fernando
Mission, and their dialects, and the Cahuillo and Chemehuevi of
south-eastern California. The six last mentioned do not properly
belong to the Shoshone family, but on account of certain faint traces
of Aztec, found alike in them and in all Shoshone idioms, I cannot do
better than to speak of them in this connection. As regards this Aztec
element, I do not mean to say that these languages are related to the
Aztec language, in the same sense that other languages are spoken of
as being related to each other, for this might lead those who are
searching for the former habitation or fatherland of the Aztecs, to
suppose that it has been found. This element consists simply in a
number of words, identical or reasonably approximate to the like Aztec
words, and in the similarity, perhaps, of a few grammatical rules. How
this Aztec word-material crept into the languages of the Shoshones,
whether by intercommunication, or Aztec colonization, we do not know.
Nor do I wish to be understood as attempting to sustain the popular
theory of an Aztec migration from the north; on the contrary, the
evidence of language is all on the other side. Whether or not the
Great Basin, or any part of the Northwest, was once occupied by the
ancient Mexicans, it is certain that the Aztec language, as a base, is
found nowhere north of central Mexico, so that these incidental or
accidental word-analogies if they prove anything, indicate only a
scattering from some primeval centre, other than the place where they
are found, and tend to show that the language whose words are thus
thinly sprinkled over so broad an area, could not have been the
aboriginal stock language of the country.

[Sidenote: SHOSHONE AND UTAH DIALECTS.]

The Shoshone and the Utah are the principal languages of the great
interior basin; and these may be regarded as sisters of a common
mother language, the Shoshone preponderating. Each has many dialects.
The Shoshone language may be divided into eastern, or Shoshone proper,
and western Shoshone, or Wihinasht. Of the former the Bannack, and the
Digger, or Shoshokee, are the chief variations. The Utah dialects, more
numerous, are the Goshute, Washoe, Paiulee, Piute, Sampitche, Mono,
and a few others, which latter vary so little from some one of the
others, that it is unnecessary to trace them as separate dialects. The
Comanche dialects I shall not attempt to classify.[V'-1] No grammar
has ever been written of any of these languages. In all of them words
are generally accented on the first syllable, except when a possessive
pronoun is prefixed. Words of more than four syllables, generally have
a secondary accent on the fifth, as in _té-ith-tis-chi-hó-no_,
valley.[V'-2] A few words in these languages are found almost identical
with like words of the Tinneh family, which have probably found their
way into them by intercommunication. Of these the following are the
principal ones, so far as designated by existing vocabularies:

[Sidenote: SHOSHONE AND TINNEH SIMILARITIES.]

Fire: Comanche, _ku-ona_; Shoshone, _kuna_; Chepewyan, _counn_, _kon_,
_kone_; Utah, _coon_. Bow: Comanche, _eth_; Shoshone, _atschö_;
Wihinasht, _ati_; Chepewyan, _atheike_. Cold: Comanche, _etscho_;
Shoshone, _ötschoin_; Wihinasht, _izíts_; Chepewyan, _edzah_. Eye:
Comanche, _nachich_; Chepewyan, _nackhay_.[V'-3]

In the Wihinasht, words occur sometimes in which an unusual number of
vowels are combined--_paöaíu_, great; long words are also not
infrequent, like _pimatiyimwaiákin_, salt.[V'-4] A short comparative
vocabulary to show the connection between these languages, is given
further on.

[Sidenote: AZTEC TRACES NORTH OF MEXICO.]

Let us now consider the often discussed but ill understood question of
the Aztec language in the north. Torquemada and Vetancvrt narrate the
expedition of Juan de Oñate, who invaded New Mexico during the last
years of the sixteenth century. Father Roque de Figueredo, who
accompanied the expedition, says that while searching for a lost mule,
at the Rio del Tizon, the Mexican muleteers met certain natives who
addressed them in their own language, and who, on being asked whence
they came, answered that they came from the north, where that language
was spoken. Clavigero, who repeats the above, also asserts, that
during the expedition made by the Spaniards, in 1606, to New Mexico,
when north of the Rio del Tizon, they saw some large houses, and near
them certain natives who spoke the Mexican language. Then we have the
statement of Father Gerónimo de Zárate, that while searching for the
Laguna de Copala, he was informed, among other things, that the
country in its vicinity was densely peopled by men who spoke a
language similar to that of his Aztec servants. Zárate was at this
time at the Rio del Tizon, and the natives, who are close observers in
such matters, assured the Spaniards that they detected in the speech
of the servant certain words common to both his own and the language
of the people of the Laguna de Copala. And again, in the region toward
the east, Acosta says that "of late they have discovered a new land,
which they call New Mexico, where they say is much people that speake
the Mexican tongue."

Vater, in his Mithridates, intimates that the Mexican language spread
far northward, through the roamings of wild tribes, particularly the
Chichimecs; but when we remember that the term Chichimec was applied
by the early Spaniards to all the immense unknown nomadic hordes north
and west, this mention carries with it but little weight. Mr Anderson,
who accompanied Captain Cook to the north-west coast, in 1778, fancied
he detected a resemblance between the Aztec and the language of the
Nootkas. "From the few Mexican words," he says, "I have been able to
procure, there is the most obvious agreement, in the very frequent
terminations of the vowels in _l_, _tl_, or _z_, throughout the
language." And remarks the editor, "may we not, in confirmation of Mr.
Anderson's remark, observe, that Opulszthl, the Nootka name of the
Sun; and Vitziputzli, the name of the Mexican Divinity, have no very
distant affinity in sound." Now the absurdity of all idle speculations
is apparent when we encounter such far-fetched comparisons as this. In
the first place, there is no affinity in the sounds of the two words,
and in the next place there is no such Aztec god--Huitzilopochtli
probably being the god meant. Neither has this last word any
resemblance to the sun; it is composed of the two words, _huitzilin_,
an abbreviation of the Mexican _huitzitzilin_, which signifies
'humming-bird,' and _opochtli_, that is to say 'left.' Vater also
draws analogies between the Aztec and the Nootka, and Ugalenze, which
on close comparison do not hold good.

Regarding the affinity of the Aztec language with those of the
Pueblos, Moquis, Apaches, Yumas, and others of New Mexico and Arizona,
Ruxton ventures the assertion, "all these speak dialects of the same
language.... They likewise all understand each other's tongue. What
relation this language bears to the Mexican is unknown; but my
impression is, that it will be found to assimilate greatly, if not to
be identical,"--in all of which assertions Mr Ruxton is greatly in
error.

All this, as evidence, does not amount to much; it only indicates the
origin of a popular belief which placed a Mexican language in various
parts of the north, while at the same time it shows upon how slender a
thread hangs this belief, and how the vaguest traditionary rumors
come, by repetition, to be accredited as fixed facts.

Buschmann asks himself the question whether the Aztec words, in any
considerable number, are not found in any other languages of the great
Mexican empire--in the Zapotec, Miztec, Tarasco, Otomí, or
Huastec--and the answer is no; he has discovered a few accidental
word-similarities, such as may be found between the Aztec and other
American languages, or between any two languages of the world, but
nothing which, by any possibility, could denote relationship.

From another class of evidence we approach a little nearer the truth.
Andres Perez de Ribas, missionary to Sinaloa writing about 1640, says,
that while studying the language of his people, he noticed many
Mexican words particularly radicals, and also words which appeared to
have been originally Mexican, but which had been so altered that only
one or two syllables in them could be recognized as Aztec.

Father Ortega, in 1732, wrote a vocabulary of the Cora language, in
which he says, the people had incorporated in their language many
words of the Mexican and some few of the Spanish languages, and this
at a period so early that at the time of his writing they were
regarded as belonging to the original language.

Hervas, whose work appeared in 1787, says that the Tarahumara language
is full of Mexican words. Vater, writing early in the nineteenth
century, affirms that the Cora is remarkable for its relation to the
Mexican, and that the Tarahumara, which is a more polished language
than its neighbors, contains some words similar to the Aztec. In his
Mithridates, Vater notices a relationship between the Cora and the
Aztec, furthermore asserting that the conjugations of the two are so
alike as plainly to prove the connection.

Wilhelm von Humboldt left us a short manuscript grammar of the Cora
and Tarahumara, in which he remarks that for languages which are
related, the Cora and the Mexican have great differences in their
sound-systems, and although these two languages certainly appear to be
related, yet he is unwilling to assert that either is derived from the
other. "There are more ways than one," says the great philologist
Wilhelm von Humboldt, "by which languages are connected. The
impression left upon me by the Cora, is that it is a mixture of two
different languages: one the Mexican, and the other some older and
richer language, but rougher. In the grammar of the Cora there are
found very many forms which strikingly call to mind the Mexican, yet
at the same time there are many forms wholly different, made by rules
directly opposite, among which are the pronouns." He further remarks
two other important differences between the Cora and the Mexican which
are the absence of the reduplication of syllables and of the
reverential forms.

Such was the attitude of the subject when Mr Buschmann took it up.
From the prevailing impression of an Aztec origin in the north, but
more particularly from certain remarks of Alexander von Humboldt
concerning the probable passing of the ancient Mexicans through the
regions of the north, he set himself to work to find this line of
migration, and the exact relations of their language in various parts.
Commencing at the Valley of Mexico he made a careful analysis of every
western language north of that place of which he could obtain any
material. The result of Mr Buschmann's researches was the discovery
of Aztec traces in certain parts, but nowhere did he find the Aztec
language as a base.

[Sidenote: AZTEC TRACES IN NORTHERN MEXICO.]

More particularly were these Aztec words and word-analogies
perceptible in four certain languages of north-western Mexico; in the
Cora, spoken in the Nayarit district of Jalisco, commencing about
fifteen leagues from the coast at the mouth of the Rio Tololotlan, and
extending between the parallels 21°30' and 20° back irregularly into
the interior about twenty leagues; in the Tepehuana of northern
Sinaloa, northern Durango, and southern Chihuahua, or as laid down on
the map of Orozco y Berra, commencing near the twenty-third parallel
about twenty leagues from the eastern shore of the Gulf of California,
and extending over a horse-shoe shaped territory to about the
twenty-seventh parallel; in the Tarahumara spoken immediately north of
the Tepehuana in the states of Chihuahua and Sonora, in the centre of
the Sierra Madre; and lastly in the Cahita spoken by the people
inhabiting the eastern shore of the Gulf of California, between
latitude 26° and 28° north, and extending back from the coast
irregularly about forty leagues, being almost directly west of the
Tarahumara, though not exactly contiguous. The name Cahita is applied
by the missionaries only to the language, and not to the people
speaking it. In the license prefixed to the _Manual para administrar à
los Indios del idioma Cahita los santos sacramentos compuesto por un
Sacerdote de la Compañia de Jesus_, printed in Mexico in 1740, it is
called the common language of the missions of the province of Sinaloa,
spoken by the Yaquis and the Mayos, the latter extending far into
southern Sonora. In a vocabulary of the Cahita given by
Ternaux-Compans, in the _Nouvelles Annales_, there are likewise found
many Aztec words. Neither of these languages are related to the
others, yet in all of them is a sprinkling of Aztec word-material. The
Aztec substantive ending _tl_ and _tli_, in the Cora are found changed
in _ti_, _te_, and _t_; in the Tepehuana into _de_, _re_, and _sci_;
in the Tarahumara into _ki_, _ke_, _ca_, and _la_; and in the Cahita,
into _ri_. In all four of the languages substantive endings are
dropped, first, in composition when the substantive is united with the
possessive pronoun; secondly, before an affix; thirdly, in the Cora
alone, before the ending of the plural; and before affixes in the
formation of words. They are not dropped in verbs derived from
substantives; and when two substantives are combined to form a word
the Aztec terminal is dropped in the first, and also in the
combination of a substantive and verb.

In the Cora, the ending _tyahta_ has the same meaning as the Aztec
local ending _tla_, or _tlan_, which signifies the locality of a
thing; as, _acotn_, a fir-tree; (Aztec, _ocotl_) _ocotyahta_, a
fir-forest; (Aztec, _ocotlan_). Another striking similarity between
these four languages and the Aztec consists in the use of a postfix
in the formation of substantives of locality and names of places. Then
come the numerals, in which are found similarities in all their
formations. The Aztec verb _ca_, to be, and even its irregular branch,
_catqui_, is found disseminated throughout all these languages. In the
Tarahumara dictionary of Steffel, and in the Cora dictionary of
Ortega, Buschmann found the Aztec element even stronger than he had
supposed, and he wondered how Gallatin, who had Tellechea's grammar,
could have allowed these similarities to escape his observations.

[Sidenote: AZTEC MATERIAL IN THE AZTEC-SONORA FAMILY.]

Of these four languages Buschmann makes what he calls his Sonora
family; which term is somewhat a misnomer as applied to languages not
related, and spoken more without than within the province of Sonora.
Their only bond of union is this Aztec element, which may have found
its way into them at different times and under different
circumstances. The most peculiar feature of it all, is the departure
which is made by these Aztec-Sonora languages, as from an original
centre, and their several appearance, each stamped alike with Aztec
marks while at the same time sustaining its own individuality, in
different parts of the great northern regions. It is as though a
handful of Aztec words had been thrown, at intervals, into the
languages of each of these four peoples, and, after partial
amalgamations of these foreign words with those of the aboriginal
tongues, by some means the words so modified had found their way in
greater or less quantities into the languages of other and remote
tribes. It is at such times, when we obtain a glance from a distance
at their shadowy history, that there arise in the mind visions of
their illimitable unwritten past, and of the mighty turmoils and
revolutions which must forever remain as they are, shrouded in the
deepest mystery.

In these four Aztec-Sonora languages there are nearly two hundred
Aztec words, and the words derived from them by the respective native
idioms into which they were projected, swell the list to four times
that number; and these, with other pure Aztec words in every stage of
mutilation and transformation are found re-scattered throughout the
before-mentioned Pueblo, Shoshone, and other languages of the north.
But again, let me say, nowhere does the Aztec, or any of its
affiliations appear as a base north of central Mexico.[V'-5]

Taking into consideration that some Aztec and Shoshone words are
almost identical, and that the endings of others are almost exactly
alike, it is not surprising if the acute ear of the natives detected
phonetic resemblances. The connection between these languages may not
be in one respect as positive as that between the languages which
compose the great Aryan family on the Asiatic and European continents,
but, on the other hand, it presents a somewhat analogous system, by
means of which it becomes possible to establish a connection. I allude
to Mr Grimm's discovery of what has been termed '_Lautverschiebung_,'
or '_Lautveränderung_,' anglicé 'Sound-shunting.'[V'-6]

This phenomenon consists of the changing, or shunting, of certain
vowels or consonants in the words of one language, into certain other
vowels and consonants in the same words of another language; and this
not accidentally, but in accordance with fixed rules. Sound-shunting,
originally discovered by Mr Grimm in the Aryan tongues, has also been
found by Mr Buschmann in the languages of his Sonora family, where it
is more particularly prominent in the word-endings. In a subsequent
place I shall have occasion to refer again to this point, and
particularly when speaking of the North Mexican languages, the
Tarahumara, Tepehuana, Cora, and Cahita, where it can be clearly shown
by comparison with the Aztec, that such shunting, or changing, has
taken place. In the languages at present under consideration, the
Shoshone, Utah, and Comanche, we have this shunting system illustrated
in the substantives and adjective endings _p_, _pa_, _pe_, _pi_, _be_,
_wa_, _ph_, _pee_, _rp_, and _rpe_; and more particularly in the Utah
and Shoshone _ts_, _tse_, _tsi_, all of which may be referred to the
Aztec endings _tl_, _tli_, and others. In the last-mentioned case the
endings have been preserved in a purer form, while in the former the
shunting or changing law is observed. As illustrating the connection
between the languages under consideration and those before mentioned
of Sonora and through them with the Aztec, I append on the next page a
short vocabulary in which the similarities can be easily
observed.[V'-7]

[Sidenote: THE MOQUI LANGUAGE.]

The Moqui, as before observed, does not properly belong to the
Shoshone family, but shows a connection with the Aztec. It is strange
that two permanently located peoples, the Moquis and the Pueblos, both
living in well-built towns not far apart, and both showing signs of a
budding civilization, should speak languages totally different from
each other; that one of these languages should show a connection with
the Aztec and the other not; that neither is related to the tongue of
the Shoshones, who nearly surround them; and, furthermore, that in six
of the seven Moqui towns only, the Moqui language is spoken, while in
the seventh, Harno, the Tegua, a language of one of the New Mexican
Pueblos is spoken. The people of Harno can converse with the Moquis of
the six other towns, but among themselves they never make use of the
Moqui, always speaking the Tegua.[V'-8]

------+----------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+
| SHOSHONE.| WIHINASHT.| UTAH. | COMANCHE.| MOQUE. |
+----------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+
Foot |namps |kuki |namp |nahap |herkuck |
Eye |pui, umboi|pui |puttyshoe|puile |pose |
Water |pa |pa |pah |pa | |
Arm |puiró |putá |pooir |pur(e) |mahat |
Dog |schari | |sahreets |zari |poku |
Tongue|aku |ego |ahoh |ehk |linga |
Wife |wepee | | | | |
Winter|tumu |tomó | |tohane | |
{|nupáhw | | | | |
Egg {| or |anohó | |uno io | |
{|nanki | | | | |
{|nongkawa | | | | |
Ear {| or |inaka |nink |nahkarke |nookawuck|
{|masoaki | | | | |
Hand |mashitu |imai |masseer |mashpa |mocktay |
Teeth |tangwa |tama |tong |tahnee |tahmah |
{|chermti | | | | |
One {| or |singwáiu | |semmus | |
{|shímutsi | | | | |
Ten |paimanusch|síngwaloyu | |matoëcut | |
Lip |timpa |tupa |timp |tupe | |
Sun |taba |tava |tap |tabih |tahwah |
House |uinkán |noöí | |kanuke | |
Stone |timpi |tipí | |terp | |
Moon |mungá |muschhá |mahtots |mushe |mooyah |
Head |pampi |pompi |tuts |páaph |quatah |
Nose |mui |moöi |mahvetah |moopee |yakuck |
God | | | | |tockill |
------+----------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+

No grammar has been written of the Moqui language, and a few
vocabularies are all we possess of it. Gov. Lane, speaking of the
Pueblo languages collectively, writes: "All these languages are
extremely guttural, and, to my ear, seemed so much alike, that I
imagine they have sprung from the same parent stock."[V'-9]

[Sidenote: MOQUI AFFILIATIONS.]

Some claim a relationship between the Moquis and the Apaches and
others, but no such connection has ever been established.[V'-10] The
only positive statement in this regard is made by Buschmann, who, by
actual comparison of vocabularies, has determined its status.[V'-11]
Among other connecting links he particularly mentions the substantive
endings _pe_, _be_, and others, by means of which, he says, the Moqui
attaches itself to the Shoshone-Comanche branch of the Sonora idioms.
The comparative vocabulary before given will further illustrate their
affiliation.[V'-12]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: KIZH AND NETELA SPECIMENS.]

Returning to southern California, let us examine the three languages,
Kizh, Netela, and Kechi, spoken near the missions of San Gabriel, San
Juan Capistrano, and San Luis Rey, respectively, which are not only
distantly related to each other, but show traces of the Sonora-Aztec
idioms. Father Boscana, who has left us an accurate description of the
natives at San Juan Capistrano, unfortunately devoted little attention
to their language, and only gives us a few scattered words and
stanzas. One of the latter reads as follows:

Quic noit noivam
Quic secat peleblich
Ybicnum majaar vesagnec
Ibi panal, ibi urusar,
Ibi ecbal, ibi seja, ibi calcel.

Which may be rendered thus:

I go to my home
That is shaded with willows.
These five they have placed,
This agave, this stone pot,
This sand, this honey, etc.[V'-13]

But very little is known of the grammatical structure of these
languages. In the Kizh, the plural is formed in various ways, as may
be seen in the following examples:

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Man woroit wororoit
House kitsh kikitsh
Mountain haikh hahaikh

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Wolf ishot ishishot
Good tihorwait tiriwait
Small tshinui tshitshínui
Black yupikha yupinot
Woman tokor totokor
Bow paítkhuar papaítkhuar
Bad mohai momohoi
White arawatai rawanot
Red kwauokha kwaukhonot

DECLENSION WITH PRONOUN.

My father ninak Our father ayoinak
Thy father monak Your father asoinak
His father anak
My house nikin Our house eyoknga
Thy house mukin Your house asoknga
His house akinga Their house pomoknga

Of the Netela there are also the following few specimens of plural
formation and pronouns;--_suol_, star; _sulum_, stars; _nopulum_, my
eyes; _nanakom_, my ears; _nikíwalom_, my cheeks; _natakalom_, my
hand; _netémelum_, my knees.

DECLENSION WITH PRONOUN.

My house niki Our house tshomki
Thy house om aki Your house omomomki
His house poki Their house omp omki
My boat nokh Our boat tshomikh
Thy boat om omikh Your boat omom omikh
His boat ompomikh Their boat ompomikh[V'-14]

The Kizh appears also to have been spoken, in a slightly divergent
dialect, at the Mission of San Fernando, as may be easily seen by
comparing the following two versions of the Lord's Prayer; the first
in the language of San Fernando, and the latter in that spoken at San
Gabriel.

Y yorac yona taray tucúpuma sagoucó motoanian majarmi moin main
monó muismi miojor yiactucupar. Pan yyogin gimiamerin majarmi
mifema coyó ogorná yio mamainay mii, yiarmá ogonug y yoná, y yo
ocaynen coijarmea main ytomo mojay coiyamá huermi. Parima.

* * * * *

Yyonac y yogin tucupugnaisá sujucoy motuanían masarmí magin
tucupra maimanó muísme mílléosar y ya tucupar jiman bxí y yoní
masaxmí mítema coy aboxmi y yo mamaínatar momojaích milli y
yaxma abonac y yo no y yo ocaihuc coy jaxmea main itan
momosaích coy jama juexme huememesaích.

In like manner do the Netela and Kechi show a close affinity. The
Netela Lord's Prayer reads:

Chana ech tupana ave onench, otune a cuachin, chame om reino,
libi yb chosonec esna tupána cham nechetepe, micate tom cha
chaom, pepsum yg cai caychame, y i julugcalme cai ech. Depupnn
opco chame chum oyote. Amen Jésus.

The Kechi is as follows:

Cham na cham mig tu panga auc onan moquiz cham to gai ha cua
che nag omreina li vi hiche ca noc ybá heg gá y vi au qui gá
topanga. Cham na cholane mim cha pan pituo mag ma jan pohi cala
cai gui cha me holloto gai tom chame o gui chag cay ne che cal
me tus so lli olo calme alla linoc chame cham cho sivo.[V'-15]

Although Mr Turner classed these languages with the Shoshone family,
in reality they only form such a tie through their Sonora and Aztec
connection.[V'-16] This is illustrated by Mr Buschmann in an extensive
comparative vocabulary of the three languages, of which I shall give a
brief extract on a subsequent page.[V'-17]

[Sidenote: CHEMEHUEVI AND CAHUILLO PRONOUNS.]

The Chemehuevi and Cahuillo, the last two of this division, have also
been classed as belonging to the Shoshone family, and some have even
called them bands of Pah-Utes, but what has been said concerning the
affiliation of the three last mentioned will apply to these with equal
force. That they are distinct languages has already been stated by
Padre Garcés, who describes them under the name of Chemegue cajuala,
Chemegue sebita, Chemeguaba, and Chemegue, ascribing the same language
to all of them in distinction from their neighbors. He includes with
the Chemehuevi the Yavipai muca oraive or Moqui, who, although not
speaking the same language, are still somewhat connected with them,
through their Sonora and Aztec relations, which conjectures are
singularly significant.[V'-18] Grammatical remarks on these languages
there are but few to offer. The accentuation is in neither very
regular; in the Chemehuevi, it is generally on the second syllable,
while in the Cahuillo it is mostly on the first.[V'-19] I give here the
personal pronouns of the two languages.

CHEMEHUEVI. CAHUILLO.

I nuu neh
Thou háiïco eh
He einpá peh
We chémim
You éhmim
They íwim

To illustrate the Sonora and Aztec connection, I offer the following
short comparative vocabulary.

SHOSHONE LANGUAGES.

--------+------------+------------+-----------+----------+------------
| CHEMEHUEVI.| CAHUILLO. | KECHI. | NETELA. | KIZH.
+------------+------------+-----------+----------+------------
Water |pa |pal |pala |pala |bar
Sun |tabaputz |tamit |temet |temét |tamet
Day |tuwaruwit |tamyit | |temé |oronga
Eye |puoui |napush |pusun-opush|nopulum |atshotshon
Three |paii |mepa |pai |pahe |pahe
I |nuu |neh |no |no |noma
House |cani |kish |kicha |niki |kitsh
Arrow |nu |hul |nohu |hul |nihun
Father |muo |nena |pehnah |nana |anak
Girl |naiitsit |inismal | |nawitmal |
Forehead|cobanim |nepush | | |
Five |manu |momequadnun | |mahar |
Ear |nancaba |nanocka |nonak |nanakum |anana, najas
To die | |muqush | | |
Stone |timp |cow-wish | |tot |tota
Black |shawagaré |tuliksh | |yaöatkhnot|yupikha
Beard |mutza |nultaman | |numus |aong, pehen
Hill |caib |{ow-so-ni, | | |
| |{or tu-qnush| |haikh |tule
To kill |pacai |meca | |kakshitkhl|
Woman | |mukeadi | | |
--------+------------+------------+-----------+----------+------------

[Sidenote: AZTEC TRACES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.]

As regards the Sonora and Aztec relationship, we have here again the
substantive endings _p_, _b_, _t_, in various forms, which, as before
stated, may be compared with Aztec endings, changed according to
certain linguistic laws. In the Cahuillo, as in the Kechi, prefixed
possessive pronouns, before substantives representing parts of the
human body, particularly that in the first person singular, _n_, are
proof of the Sonora affiliation. In the same words, the Chemehuevi has
the two pronouns _ni_ and _wi_, which always carry with them the
ending, _m_.[V'-21]

FOOTNOTES:

[V'-1] 'The _Shoshóni_ and _Pánasht_ (Bonnaks) of the Columbia, the
_Yutes_ and _Sampitches_ ... the _Commanches_ of Texas, and some other
tribes along the northern frontier of Mexico, are said to speak
dialects of a common language.' _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._,
vol. vi., pp. 218-9. 'The great Shoshonee, or Snake, family: which
comprehends the Shoshones proper ... the Utahs ... Pah-Utahs ... the
Kizh ... the Netela ... the Kechi ... the Comanches.' _Turner_, in
_Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 76. '_Shoshónies_ ou _Serpents_ et
de _Soshocos_ ou _Déterreurs de racines_ ... parlent la même langue.'
_De Smet_, _Voy._, p. 126. 'The Shoshone language is spoken mostly by
all the bands of Indians in southeastern Nevada.' _Parker_, in _Ind.
Aff. Rept._, 1866, p. 114. 'Their language (Shoshones) is very
different from that of either the Bannocks, or Pi-Utes.' _Campbell_,
in _Id._, p. 120. Goshautes speak the same language as Shoshones.
_Forney_, in _Id._, 1859, p. 363. 'The language is spoken by bands in
the gold mine region of the Sacramento.' _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol.
i., p. 198. 'Pai-uches speak the same language as the Yutas.'
_Farnham's Life in Cal._, pp. 371, 375. '_Pi-Edes_, allied in language
to the Utahs.' _Cooley_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1865, p. 18. Goships,
or Gosha Utes 'talk very nearly the Shoshonee language.' _Irish_, in
_Id._, p. 144. Shoshones and Comanches 'both speak the same language.'
Sampiches. 'Their language is said to be allied to that of the
Snakes.' Youtas. 'Their language is by some thought to be peculiar.'
_Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 501. 'Pueblan todas
las partes de esta sierra por el sueste, sur sudoeste y oeste, gran
número de gentes de la misma nacion, idioma etc.,' which they call
Timpanogotzis. _Dominguez and Escalante_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série
ii., tom. i., p. 467. 'The language spoken by the Comanches is of
great antiquity, and differs but little from that of the Incas of
Peru.' _Maillard's Hist. Tex._, p. 249; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der
Aztek. Spr._, pp. 349, 351. Yam-pah. 'This is what the Snakes call the
Comanches, of which they are either the parents or descendants, for
the two languages are nearly the same, and they readily understand
each other, and say that they were once one people.' 'The Snake
language is talked and understood by all the tribes from the Rocky
mountains to California, and from the Colorado to the Columbia, and by
a few in many tribes outside of these limits.' _Stuart's Montana_, pp.
58, 82. 'The different bands of the Comanches and Shoshonies or
Snakes, constitute another extensive stock, speaking one language.'
_Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. ii., p. 251. 'The vernacular language of
the Yutas is said to be distantly allied to that of the Navajoes, but
it has appeared to me much more guttural, having a deep sepulchral
sound resembling ventriloquism.' _Id._, vol. i., p. 300. 'The Utahs,
who speak the same language as the Kyaways.' _Conder's Mex. Guat._,
vol. ii., p. 74; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 197. The Goshutes
are of different language from the Shoshones. _Douglas_, in _Ind. Aff.
Rept._, 1870, p. 96. Diggers, 'differ from the other Snakes somewhat
in language.' _Wyeth_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. i., p. 206;
_Berghaus_, in _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 371. The
Kusi-Utahs, 'in speaking they clipped their words ... we recognized
the sounds of the language of the Shoshonès.' _Remy and Brenchley's
Journey_, vol. ii., p. 412; _Thümmel_, _Mexiko_, p. 359; _Catlin's N.
Amer. Ind._, vol. ii., p. 113. 'Their native language (Comanches), in
sound differs from the language of any other nation, and no one can
easily learn to speak it. They have also a language of signs, by which
they converse among themselves.' _French's Hist. La._, (N. Y. 1869),
p. 156. 'The primitive terms of the Comanches are short, and several
are combined for the expression of complex ideas. The language is very
barren of verbs, the functions of which are frequently performed by
the aid of gestures and grimaces.' _Kennedy's Texas_, vol. i., p. 348.

[V'-2] _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 77.

[V'-3] _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 402-3.

[V'-4] _Id._, p. 645, et seq.

[V'-5] 'Que en casi todas ellas (que son muchas y varias) se hallan
vocablos, principalmente los que llaman radicales, que o son de la
lengua Mexicana, o se deriuan della, y retienen muchas de sus silabas,
de que pudiera hazer aqui vn muy largo catalago. De todo lo qual se
infieren dos cosas. La primera que casi todas estas Naciones
comunicaron en puestas y lenguas con la Mexicana: y aunque los Artes y
Gramaticas dellas son diferentes; pero en muchos de sus preceptos
concuerdan.' _Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 20. 'Pintaron esta
laguna en tierra y muy poblada de gentes, y oyendo hablar á un indio,
criado de un soldado, en el idioma mexicano, preguntaron si era de
Copala, porque así hablaban los de alla ... que distaba de allí diez
jornadas pobladas.' _Zarate_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iii., tom.
iv., p. 83. 'El Padre Fr. Roque d Figueredo haze del viage que hizo
con D. Iuan de Oñate 500 leguas al Norte hallaremos que dice, que
aviendoseles perdido vnas bestias, buscandolas el rio de Tizon arriba
encontraron los mosos vn Indio que les hablò en lengua mexicana que
preguntado de donde era, dixo ser del Reyno adentro ... que està en las
Provincias del Norte donde se habla en esta lengua Mexicana cuyo es
vocablo.' _Vetancurt_, _Teatro Mex._, pt ii., p. 11. 'In un viaggio,
che fecero gli Spagnuoli l'anno 1606. dal Nuovo Messico fino al fiume,
che eglino appellarono _del Tizon_, seicento miglia da quella
Provincia verso Maestro, vi trovarono alcuni grandi edificj, e
s'abbatterono in alcuni Indiani, che parlavano la lingua messicana.'
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv., p. 29. Tarahumara
'la cui lingua abbonda di parole Messicane.' _Hervás_, _Saggio
Practico delle Lingue_, p. 71. 'Die Sprache (Cora) ist auch wegen
ihres Verhältnisses zur Mexicanischen merkwürdig.' 'Die Sprache
(Tarahumara) welche eine gewisse Ausbildung zeigt, hat manche dem
Mexicanischen ähnliche Wörter,' _Vater_, _Litteratur der Grammatiken,
Lexica und Wörter-Sammlungen aller Sprachen der Erde_, pp. 52, 231;
_Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., p. 336; _Ruxton's Adven. Mex._, p.
194.

[V'-6] Max Müller simply names it 'Grimm's Law.' _Science of Language_,
series ii., p. 213, et seq.

[V'-7] 'Indem ich die Urtheile wegen der comanchischen und
schoschonischen Verwandtschaft bestätige, erkläre ich die Yutah-Sprache
für ein Glied des sonorischen Sprachstammes.' 'Noch ehe ich zur
Wortvergleichung übergehe, kann ich die sonorische Natur der Sprache
nach den beiden Elementen der aztekischen und sonorischen
Gemeinschaft, und sogar ihre besondere Stellung zwischen der
comanche-schoschonischen Ligue, durch blosse zwei, in ihr sich
hervorthuende Substantiv-Endungen (ts und p) darlegen.' 'Die zwiefache
Schoschonen Sprache und das Volk der Schoschonen sind das äusserste
Glied meiner Entdeckungen: des grossen Bundes, durch ein mächtiges
eignes Element zusammengehaltener Sprachen, von einem kleinen Erbtheil
aztekischen Wortstoffes durchdrungen; welches ich, von Guadalaxara aus
nordwärts suchend nach den Spuren des Azteken-Idioms und seines
Volkes, angetroffen habe; sie bilden den Schlusstein meines
sonorischen Baues.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 349,
351, 648, 391, 652, et seq.; _Sivers_, _Mittelamerika_, pp. 291-2.

[V'-8] 'They all speak the same language except Harno, the most
northern town of the three, which has a language and some custom
peculiar to itself.' _Marcy's Army Life_, p. 111. 'In six of the seven
Moqui pueblos, the same language is said to be spoken.... Those of San
Juan ... and one Moqui pueblo all speak the same language ...
Tay-waugh.' _Lane_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 689; _Ten
Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 87. 'The Moquis ... do
not all speak the same language. At Oraybe some of the Indians
actually professed to be unable to understand what was said by the
Mooshahneh chief, and the latter told me that the language of the two
towns was different. At Tegua they say that a third distinct tongue is
spoken.... The people ... have abandoned the habit of visiting each
other till the languages, which, with all Indian tribes, are subject
to great mutations, have gradually become dissimilar.' _Ives' Colorado
Riv._, p. 127. 'Wie ich erfuhr, sollen die Moquis nicht alle eine und
dieselbe Sprache haben, und die Bewohner einiger Städte nicht nur
fremde Dialekte, sondern sogar fremde Sprachen reden.' _Möllhausen_,
_Reisen_, tom. ii., p. 239. Davis, referring to a MS. by Cruzate, a
former Governor of New Mexico, maintains that the Moqui speak the
Queres language, but at the same time he says 'it is maintained by
some that ... four of the Moqui villages speak a dialect very nearly
the same as that of the Navajos, while a fifth speaks that of San
Juan, which is Tegua.... The distance from Picoris to the Moqui
villages is about four hundred miles ... yet these widely separated
pueblos speak ... the same language.' _El Gringo_, pp. 116-7, 155.
Comparisons of the vocabularies in Simpson, Davis, and Meline prove
the Moqui to be a distinct language. _Ward_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._,
1864, p. 191.

[V'-9] _Lane_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 689.

[V'-10] 'The language of the Môquis, or the Môquinos, is said to differ
but little from that of the Navajos.' _Hughes' Doniphan's Ex._, p.
197. Speaking of all the Pueblo languages, including the Moqui: 'All
these speak dialects of the same language, more or less approximating
to the Apache, and of all of which the idiomatic structure is the
same. They likewise all understand each other's tongue. What relation
this language bears to the Mexican is unknown, but my impression is
that it will be found to assimilate greatly, if not to be identical.'
_Ruxton's Adven. Mex._, p. 194; _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., p.
269.

[V'-11] 'No analogy has yet been traced between the language of the old
Mexicans and any tribe at the north in the district from which they
are supposed to have come.' _Bartlett's Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 283.
'Reste der Mexikanischen Sprache fanden dagegen in den Sprachen dieser
Völker die im Mexikanischen sehr geübten Missionäre nicht, sondern die
Sprache von Moqui, und die der _Yabipais_, welche lange Bärte tragen,
wesentlich unterschieden von dem Mexikanischen.' _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 182. 'Cependant la langue que
parlent les Indiens du Moqui, les Yabipais, qui portent de longue
barbes, et ceux qui habitent les plaines voisines du Rio Colorado,
diffère essentiellement de la langue mexicaine.' _Humboldt_, _Essai
Pol._, tom. i., p. 305. 'Doch reden die Moquis.... Sprachen ganz
verschieden vom Aztekischen.' _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., pt
ii., p. 539. 'Die Moqui-Sprache ist doch der mexikanischen befreundet!
sie ist--dies ist meine Erfindung--ein Zweig des Idioms, welches dem
Suchenden als ein Phantom statt des leibhaften _nahuatl_ als sein
Schattenbild, in dem alten Norden überall entgegentritt: ein Gebilde
der sonorischen Zunge, bei welchem Namen ein kleines aztekisches
Erbtheil sich von selbst versteht.... Ich erkläre die Moqui-Sprache
für ein Glied meines Sonorischen Sprachstammes. Schon die auffallend
vielen, manchmal in vorzüglich reiner Form erscheinenden, aztekischen
Wörter bezeichnen die Sprache als eine sonorische; es kommt das zweite
Kennzeichen hinzu: der Besitz gewisser ächt sonorischer Wörter. In
einem grossen Theile erscheint die Sprache aber überaus fremdartig: um
so mehr als sie auch von den 5 Pueblo-Sprachen, wie schon Simpson
bemerkt hat, gänzlich verschieden ist.... Die Spuren der Subst. Endung
_pe_, _be_ u.ä. weisen der Moqui-Sprache ihren Platz unter der
comanche-schoschonischen Familie des Sonora Idioms an. Dieses allgemeine
Urtheil über die Sprache ist sicher.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek.
Spr._, pp. 289-90.

[V'-12] _Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon._, pp. 128-30; _Davis' El Gringo_,
pp. 157-9.

[V'-13] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, p. 282.

[V'-14] _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., pp. 566-7;
_Buschmann_, _Kizh und Netela_, pp. 512-13.

[V'-15] _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., pp. 393-4.

[V'-16] 'Belong to the great Shoshonee, or Snake family.' _Turner_, in
_Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 76. 'The similarity which exists
between many words in these two languages, and in the Shoshoni, is
evident enough from a comparison of the vocabularies. The resemblance
is too great to be attributed to mere casual intercourse, but it is
doubtful whether the evidence which it affords will justify us in
classing them together as branches of the same family.' _Hale's
Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. vi., p. 567. 'The natives of St.
Diego cannot understand a word of the language used in this mission,
and in like manner, those in the neighborhood of St. Barbara, and
farther north.' _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, p. 240;
_Gleeson's Hist. Cath. Church_, p. 97.

[V'-17] 'Ich habe in dem Kizh ... und in der Netela ... zwei Glieder
meines sonorischen Sprachstammes, ausgestattet mit Aztekischem
Sprachstoff, entdeckt.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 546.
'Bei der, genugsam von mir aufgezeigten Gemeinschaft der zwei
californischen Idiome, so lautet _mein Urtheil_, hofft man auch hier
_vergebens_ auf ein genaues, glückliches _Zutreffen_ eigenthümlicher
Formen dieser Sprachen mit dem Comanche und Schoschonischen oder mit
den südlicheren sonorischen Hauptsprachen, ein Zusammentreffen mit
etwas recht Besonderem Einer Sprache mit einer anderen: so nahe liegen
die Sprachen sich nie, sie sind alle fremd genug gegen einander.'
_Buschmann_, _Kizh und Netela_, p. 518.

[V'-18] _Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série ii., tom. i., p.
351. Orozco y Berra includes them as well as the Utahs and Moquis with
the Apache family of languages, in support of which he cites Balbi,
tableau xxxii. 'Die Chimehwhuebes, Comanches und Cahuillos, also
Stämme, die zwischen den Küsten der Südsee und Texas verbreitet sind,
als Nebenstämme der Nation der Schoschone oder Schlangen-Indianer
betrachtet werden können.' _Möllhausen_, _Reisen in die Felsengeb._,
tom. i., pp. 435-6. 'The _Chemehuevis_ are a band of _Pah-Utahs_ ...
whose language ... agrees most nearly with Simpson's Utah, and Hale's
East Shoshonee.' The Cahuillo 'exhibits the closest affinity to the
Kechi and Netela, especially the former. Its affinity to the Kizh is
equally evident.' _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 76.
'Die Chemehuevi- und Cahuillo-Sprache sind einander so fremd, dass sie
beinahe für alle Begriffe ganz andere Wörter besitzen; ihre
Verschiedenheit ist so gross, dass man aus ihnen allein nicht ahnden
sollte, sie seien beide gleichmässig sonorische Glieder.' _Buschmann_,
_Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 554.

[V'-19] _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 77.

[V'-20] Compiled from Buschmann, Turner, Hale, Molina, Ortega, and
others.

[V'-21] _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 553-4.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PUEBLO, COLORADO RIVER, AND LOWER CALIFORNIA LANGUAGES.

TRACES OF THE AZTEC NOT FOUND AMONG THE PUEBLOS OF NEW MEXICO
AND ARIZONA -- THE FIVE LANGUAGES OF THE PUEBLOS, THE QUERES,
THE TEGUA, THE PICORIS, JEMEZ, AND ZUÑI -- PUEBLO COMPARATIVE
VOCABULARY -- THE YUMA AND ITS DIALECTS, THE MARICOPA, CUCHAN,
MOJAVE, DIEGEÑO, YAMPAIS, AND YAVIPAIS -- THE COCHIMÍ,
GUAICURÍ, AND PERICÚ, WITH THEIR DIALECTS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA
-- GUAICURÍ GRAMMAR -- PATER NOSTER IN THREE COCHIMÍ DIALECTS
-- THE LANGUAGES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA WHOLLY ISOLATED.

Having already mentioned some of the principal idioms spoken in the
southern part of the Great Basin, as parts of the trunks to which they
belong, or with which they affiliate, I shall devote the present
chapter to such languages of New Mexico and Arizona as cannot be
brought into the Tinneh or Sonora stocks, and to those of Lower
California. Beginning with the several tongues of the Pueblos, thence
proceeding westward to the Colorado River, and following its course
southward to the Gulf of California, I shall include the languages of
the southern extremity of California, and finally those of the
peninsula. These languages are none of them cognate with any spoken in
Mexico. Respecting those of the Pueblos which have long been popularly
regarded as allied to southern tongues, it is now very certain that
they are in no wise related to them, if we except the Aztec
word-material found in the Moqui. From analogous manners and customs,
from ancient traditions and time-honored beliefs, many have claimed
that these New Mexican towns-people are the remains of aboriginal
Aztec civilization, attempting meanwhile to explain away the adverse
testimony of language, by amalgamation of the ancient tongue with
those of other nations, or by absorption or annihilation; all of
which, so far as arriving at definite conclusions is concerned,
amounts to nothing. Analogies may be drawn between any nations of the
earth; human beings are not so unlike but that in every community much
may be found that is common to other communities, irrespective of
distance and race, especially when the comparison is drawn between two
peoples both just emerging from savagism. The facts before us
concerning the Pueblo languages are these: although all alike are well
advanced from primeval savagism, live in similar substantial houses,
and have many common customs, yet their languages, though distinct as
a whole from those of the more savage surrounding tribes, do not agree
with each other. It is difficult to prove that the Aztec, although now
perhaps extinguished, never was the tongue of New Mexico; on the other
hand, it is impossible to prove that it was, and surely theorists go
far out of their way in attempting to establish a people in a land
where no trace of their language exists, or exists only in such a
phase as proves conclusively that it could not possibly have ever been
the basis of the language now spoken.

[Sidenote: THE FIVE PUEBLO LANGUAGES.]

Five distinct languages, with numerous dialects, more or less
deviating, are spoken by the Pueblos. By the inhabitants of Santo
Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Silla, Laguna, Pojuate, Acoma, and
Cochiti, the Queres language is spoken; in San Juan, Santa Clara, San
Ildefonso, Pojuaque, Nambe, Tezuque, and also in Harno, one of the
Moqui towns, the Tegua language prevails; in Taos, Picoris, Zandia,
and Isleta, there is the Picoris language; in Jemez and Old Pecos, the
Jemez; in Zuñi, the Zuñi language.[VI'-1] The three principal dialects
of Queres are the Kiwomi, Cochitemi, and Acoma. Of these the first two
are very similar, in some cases almost identical, while the Acoma is
more distinct.[VI'-2] In the Queres the accent is almost invariably on
the first syllable, and the words are in general rather short,
although a few long words occur. Possessive pronouns appear to be
affixed; they are _ini_, _ni_, _ne_, _in_, and _i_.

In the Tegua and Zuñi the personal pronouns are:

TEGUA. ZUÑI.

I nah hóo
Thou uh tóo
He ihih lóoko
She ihih
We (incl.) tahquireh hóono
We (exc.) nihyeuboh
You nahih ahchée
They ihnah lóoko

In the Tegua, although many monosyllabics appear, there are also a
number of long words, such as _pehgnahvicahmborih_, shrub;
_haihiombotahrei_, for ever; _hahnguenaahnpih_, to be; _haihahgnuhai_,
great; _heinginubainboyoh_, nothing. In the Zuñi, long words appear to
predominate--_ákmeeashneekeeah_, autumn; _áhseeailahpalhtonnai_,
finger; _lahtailoopeetsínnah_, gold; _téhleenahweeteekeeah_, midnight;
_táhmchahpahnáhmnee_, war-club, and others.[VI'-3] As will more clearly
appear by the following comparative vocabulary, none of these
languages are cognate; they have no affinity among themselves, nor
with any other family or group.[VI'-4]

[Sidenote: PUEBLO COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY.]

QUERES. TEGUA. PICORIS. JEMEZ. ZUÑI.

Sun pah hoolennah pay yattockkah
Moon poyye pannah pahah
Star shecat adoyeah hahheglannah woonhah moyatchuway
Earth hahats nah pahhannah dockah oulocknannay
Man hatssee sayen tahhahnenah shuotish oatse
Woman naiatsay ker clayannah steosh ocare
Head nashcanne pumbah pinemah chitchous oshuckquinnay
Eye kannah chay chenay saech toonahway
Nose karwishshe shay pooaenah forsaech nolinnay
Mouth tseeikah sho clahmoenah eaequah aewahtinnay
Ear kahupah oyeo taglayonay washchish lahschucktinnay
Hand kahmoshtay mah mahtish shoncheway
Dog tish cher sodornah cannu watsetah
Fire hahkanye fah pahannah fwaah mackke
Water tseats ogh pohahoon pah keaoway

[Sidenote: COLORADO RIVER LANGUAGES.]

In the region through which flows the Colorado, and between that river
and the Gila, many different languages are mentioned by the early
missionaries but at this time it is difficult to ascertain how far
different names are applied to any one nation.

The missionaries themselves frequently did not know how to name the
people; often they gave several names to one language, and several
languages one name; many of the then existing dialects are known to
have since become extinct, and many more have mysteriously
disappeared, along with those who spoke them, so that in many
instances, a century after their first mention no such language could
be found. It seems seldom to have occurred to the missionaries and
conquerors that the barbarous tongues of these heathen could ever be
of interest or value to Christendom, still less lists of their words;
so that vocabularies, almost the only valuable speech-material of the
philologist, are exceedingly rare among the writings of the early
missionary Fathers. If one half of their profitless homilies on savage
salvation had been devoted to the simple gleaning of facts, science
would have been the gainer, and the souls of the natives no whit less
at peace. Of late, however, vocabularies of the dialects of this
region have become numerous, and relationships are at length becoming
permanently established.

The languages under consideration, on comparison, may nearly all be
comprised in what may be called the Yuma family. The principal
dialects which constitute the Yuma family are the Yuma, Maricopa,
Cuchan, Mojave, and Diegueño, which last is spoken in southern
California, and more particularly around the bay of San Diego. Among
others mentioned are the Yavipais and Yampais.[VI'-5] Compared with
that of their neighbors the language of the Diegueños is soft and
harmonious, and as it contains all the sounds of the letters in the
English alphabet, the people speaking it readily learn to pronounce
the English and Spanish languages correctly.[VI'-6] The following
Lord's Prayer is a specimen of the dialect of the Diegueños.

[Sidenote: DIEGUEÑO LORD'S PRAYER.]

Nagua anall amaí tacaguach naguanetuuxp mamamulpo cayuca
amaíbo mamatam meyayam canaao amat amaibo quexuic echasau
naguaguí ñaña chonñaquin ñípil meñeque pachís echeyuchapo
ñagua quexuíc ñaguaích ñacaguaihpo ñamechamel anipuch
uch-guelích-cuíapo. Nacuíuch-pambo-cuchlích-cuíatpo-ñamat.
Napuíjá.[VI'-7]

Of the other dialects the short vocabulary on the following page will
give an illustration:

CUCHAN. MARICOPA. MOJAVE. DIEGUEÑO.

Man épatch eepáche ipah aycóotchet
Woman seenyack sinchayaíxhutch sinyax seen
House eenouwa ahba awáh
Sun n'yatch n'yatz n'yatz
Moon hullyar hullash hullya
Fire aawo áhooch awa
Water ahá ahha ahá
Maize terditch terdítz terdicha
Good ahotk ahotk abhotk han
I n'yat inyátz n'yatz n'yat
Go n'yeemoom n'yimoom
Sleep aseemáh esoma'om [VI'-8]

Then there are the Yampai and Yavipai, said to approach the Cuchan and
Mojave;[VI'-9] the Chevet reported as a distinct tongue;[VI'-10] the
Cajuenche said to be another language, and the Jalliquamai, a dialect
of the Cajuenche.[VI'-11] The Tamajab is a strange language, described
by Don José Cortez as "spoken with violent utterance and lofty
arrogance of manner; and in making speeches, the thighs are violently
struck with the palms of the hands."[VI'-12]

There are further mentioned the Benemó with the dialects Tecuiche and
Teniqueche, and lastly the Covaji and Noche, each a distinct
tongue.[VI'-13] The people speaking the Noche probably were the
northern and eastern neighbors of the Diegueños, and may have been
mentioned by some writers under other names. I have preferred to
enumerate them here, because the names frequently occur in the reports
of the earlier expeditions to the Yuma nations.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THREE STOCK LANGUAGES IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.]

On the peninsula of Lower California, there are three distinct
languages with many dialects, more or less related to each other. Some
of these dialects appear so remote from the parent stock that the
early missionaries believed them to be independent languages, and
accordingly the number of tongues on the peninsula has been variously
estimated, some saying four, others six; but careful comparisons refer
them all to three stock languages. These are the Cochimí, with its
principal dialects, the Laymon and Ika; the Guaicuri, with the Cora,
Monqui, Didiú, Liyúe, Edú, and Uchiti dialects; and lastly the Pericú.
Besides the above, there were also other dialectic differences in
almost every mission, such as the variations of word-endings, and
other minor points.[VI'-14] In general these languages have been
described as harsh and poverty-stricken. The missionaries complained
of not being able to find terms with which to express many of the
doctrines which they wished to inculcate; but from the grammatical
notes left by Father Baegert and those of Ducrue contained in _Murr's
Nachrichten_, as well as from the various Pater Nosters at hand, it
appears that these languages are not so very poor after all. Much
there may have been wanting to the zealous Fathers, many burning words
and soul-stirring expressions, which would have greatly assisted their
efforts, but except that there is certainly no redundancy in these
languages, they offer nothing very extraordinary.[VI'-15] Following I
give a few grammatical notes on the Guaicuri language. The sounds
represented by the German letters, _o_, _f_, _g_, _l_, _x_, _z_, and
_s_, excepting in _tsh_, do not appear. Possessive pronouns are shown
in the following examples:

My father bedáre My nose minamù
Thy father edáre Thy nose einamú
His father tiáre His nose tinamù
Our father kepedáre

[Sidenote: GUAICURI GRAMMAR.]

Of prepositions only two are mentioned--_tina_, on or upon; and
_déve_, or _tipítscheû_, on account of, or for (_propter_). There is
no article, and nouns are indeclinable. The conjunction _tshie_ is
always placed after the words to be connected. Verbs have only one
mood and three tenses--the present, the perfect, and the future. The
present is formed by the affix _re_ or _reke_; the perfect by the
affix _rikíri_, _rujére_, _raúpe_, or _raúpere_; and the future by
adding in like manner _me_, _méje_, or _éneme_. If the action of
several persons is to be expressed, the syllable _ku_ or _k_ is
prefixed to the verb, or the first syllable is changed into _ku_.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

To fight piabakè kupiábake
To remember umutù kumutú
To speak jake kuáke

Some verbs have also a perfect passive participle in the form of a
substantive--_tschípake_, to beat; _tschipitschürre_, a person who
has been beaten. The personal pronouns are: _be_, I, me, to me, my;
_ei_, thou, thee, to thee, thy; _becùn_, _beticùn_, _ecûn_, or
_eiticûn_, mine, thine.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB AMUKÍRI, TO PLAY.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I play, bè amukirire | We play, catè amukírire
Thou playest, eï amukirire | You play, petè amukirire
He plays, tutâu amukirire | They play, tucáva amukirire

PERFECT. FIRST FUTURE.

I have played, bè amukiririkíri | I shall play, bè amukírime

IMPERATIVE.

Play thou, amukiri tei | Play you, amukiri tu

OPTATIVE.

Would that I had not played, beri amukiririkirikára
or, beri amukirirujerára

I also add a Guaicuri Lord's Prayer with literal translation.

Kepè; dáre tekerekádatembà daï, eïrì
Our father arched earth (heaven) thou art, thee O that

akátuikè-pu-me, tschakárrake-pu-me ti tschie: ecùn
acknowledge all will, praise all will people and: thy

gracia-ri atúme catè tekerekádatembà tschie: eïri
grace O that have will we arched earth and: thee O that

jebarrakéme ti pù jaûpe datembà, páe eï jebarrakére,
obey will people all here earth, as thee obey,

aëna kéa: kepecùn búe kepe kên jatúpe untâiri: catè
above are: our food us give this day: us

kuitscharrakè têi tschie kepecùn atacámara, pàe
forgive thou and our evil, as

kuitscharrakère catè tschie cávape atukiàra kepetujakè:
forgive we also the evil us do:

catè tikakambà têi tschie, cuvumerà catè uë
us help thou and, desire will not we something

atukiára: kepe kakunjà pe atacára tschie. Amen.[VI'-16]
evil: us protect from evil and. Amen.

[Sidenote: LORD'S PRAYERS IN DIFFERENT DIALECTS.]

As regards the other two languages, the only materials at hand are
some Lord's Prayers in various dialects of the Cochimí, as used in the
different missions. Of these I insert the following as samples of the
dialects spoken--I. at the Mission of Santa Maria, II. at San
Francisco de Borgia, and III. at San Ignacio:

Father our heaven in who art: thy name
I. Lahai-apa ambeing mia: mimbangajua val
II. Cahaí apá, ambeing miá, mimbang-ajuá val
III. Ua-bappá amma-bang miamú, ma mang-á-juá huit

all honored: earth thy kingdom come: will thine
I. vuit-maha: amet mididivvaijua kukuem: jenmu-jua
II. vuit-mahá; amét mididuvaijuá cucyém; jemmu-juá
III. maja tegem amat-ma-thadabajuá ucuem: kemmu-juá

heaven done be earth on
I. amabang vihi mieng ametetenang
II. amabáng vihí miéng ametenáug
III. ammabang vahi-mang amatànang

as Bread
I. luvihim. Thevap yi-cue ti-mi-ei-di-gua
II. luichim. Theváp yiecué ti-mi-eì-di-guá,
III. lauahim. Teguap ibang gual gúiang-avit-á-jua

Day
I. ibang-a-nang na-kahit tevichip
II. ibang-anáng gna cahit tevichip
III. ibang ánane pac-kagit: machi

I. nuhigua aviuve ham: vichip iyeg-ua na
II. nuhiguá aviuvehám vichip iyeguá gna
III. pugijua abadakegem, machi uayecg-juá

I. kaviu-vem cassetajuang inamenit nakum
II. caviu vém cassetasuàng mamenit guakúm
III. pac kabaya guem; kazet-à juan à juang-amuegnit

I. guang tevisiec na-kaviñaha.
II. guang tevisiec gna cavignahà.
III. pacum guang mayi-acg packanajam.[VI'-17]

The dialect spoken at the Missions of San Francisco Xavier, San José
de Comondú, and at Santa Gertrudis, differed considerably from the
above as will be seen by the following Lord's Prayer as used in the
last mentioned places.

Pennayù makenambà, yaà ambayujùp miya mò,
Our father who heaven thou art,

buhù mombojuà tammalà gkomendá hi nagodognò demuejueg
thy name men recognize and love all;

gkajim: pennayulà bogodognò gkajim, guihí
as and

ambayujup mabà yaà kæammet è decuinyi mò puegign:
heaven above earth satisfy

yaàm buhula mùjua ambayujupmò de dahijua, amet è
thy will heaven in done be, earth on

nò guilugui, ji pagkajim. Tamadà yaà ibò tejuèg guiluguigui
this as. Bread this day

pamijich è mò, ibò yanno puegin: guihi tammà
day and men

yaà gambuegjula kæpujui ambinyijuà pennayula
who have done evil us

dedaudugùjua, guilugui pagkajim: guìhi yaà tagamueglà
done have as: and

huì ambinyyjùa hi doomò puguegjuà, hi doomò pogounyim;
evil and although and although

tamuegjua, guihì usi mahel kæmmet è dicuin
also earth satisfy

yumò, guihì yaà hui mabinyì yaà, gambuegjuà pagkaudugum.[VI'-18]
and what is evil

Clavigero does not give a translation of this Lord's Prayer, but
Hervás, who copies it in his _Saggio Pratico_, translates all words
which he could find in a short vocabulary; Buschmann and others copy
from him, and even at this time no complete translation is obtainable.

Lastly, I present a few sentences in the Laymon dialect, literally
translated.

Tamma amayben metañ aguinañi
Man years many lives not

Kenedabapa urap, guang lizi, quimib tejunoey
Father mine eats, and drinks, but little.

Kenassa maba guimma
Sister thine sleeps.

Kadagua gadey iguimil decuiñi
The fish sees but not hears

Juetabajua tahipeñi
Blood mine good not

Kotajua kamang gehua
The stone (is) great, hard

Ibungajua ganehmajen kaluhù
Moon sun greater is.[VI'-19]

[Sidenote: THE CORA DIALECT IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.]

None of the Lower Californian languages are in any way related to, or
connected with, any other language. In Jalisco an idiom is spoken
which is called the Cora, but Señor Pimentel after comparing it with
the Cora of the peninsula as well as with others in Lower California,
assures us that not the least connection exists between them.[VI'-20] It
has also been stated that the languages spoken on the peninsula north
of La Paz are affiliated with the Yuma tongue, but this is not the
case. As we have seen, the dialect of the Diegueños reaches the
seacoast near San Diego, and again south of that point, and this being
a Yuma dialect, it has perhaps given rise to the belief that the Lower
Californian languages incline the same way.[VI'-21] In South America
there is a language called the Guaicuru, which has nothing in common
with the Guaicuri of Lower California.[VI'-22]

FOOTNOTES:

[VI'-1] 'No one showing anything more than the _faintest_, if any,
indications of a cognate origin with the other.' _Simpson's Jour. Mil.
Recon._, pp. 5, 128-9. 'Classed by dialects, the Pueblos of New Mexico
at the period of the arrival of the Spaniards spoke four separate and
distinct languages, called the Tegua, the Piro, the Queres, and the
Tagnos.' 'There are now five different dialects spoken by the
Pueblos.' No Pueblo can 'understand another of a different dialect.'
'It does not follow that the groups by dialect correspond with their
geographical grouping; for, frequently, those furthest apart speak the
same, and those nearest speak different languages.' _Meline's Two
Thousand Miles_, pp. 203-4; _Lane_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v.,
p. 689. 'The Pueblo Indians of Taos, Pecuris and Acoma speak a
language of which a dialect is used by those of the Rio Abajo,
including the Pueblos of San Felipe, Sandia, Ysleta, and Xeméz.'
_Ruxton's Adven. Mex._, p. 194. 'There are but three or four different
languages spoken among them, and these, indeed, may be distantly
allied to each other.' 'Those further to the westward are perhaps
allied to the Navajoes.' _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., p. 269. 'In
ancient times the several pueblos formed four distinct nations, called
the _Piro_, _Tegua_, _Queres_, and _Tagnos_ or _Tanos_, speaking as
many different dialects or languages.' _Davis' El Gringo_, p. 116; see
also pp. 155-6, on classification according to Cruzate. 'The Jemez ...
speak precisely the same language as the Pecos.' _Domenech's Deserts_,
vol. i., p. 198; _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., pp. 90,
et seq. 'There are five different dialects spoken by the nineteen
pueblos.' These are so distinct that the Spanish language 'has to be
resorted to as a common medium of communication.' _Ward_, in _Ind.
Aff. Rept._, 1864, p. 191; _Buschmann_, _Spr. N. Mex. u. der Westseite
des b. Nordamer._, p. 280, et seq.

[VI'-2] _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 90; _Buschmann_,
_Spr. N. Mex. u. der Westseite des b. Nordamer._, p. 302.

[VI'-3] Tusuque words 'are monosyllabic, and suggest a connection with
Asiatic stocks, in which this feature is prominent.' _Schoolcraft's
Arch._, vol. iii., p. 406. 'All these languages are extremely guttural
and to my ear seemed so much alike that I imagine they have sprung
from the same parent stock.' _Lane_, in _Id._, vol. v., p. 689;
_Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 93 et seq.;
_Buschmann_, _New Mex. und Brit. N. Amer._, p. 280 et seq.

[VI'-4] 'Die Queres-Sprache ist trotz einiger Anklänge an andere eine
ganz besondere Sprache, von der keine Verwandtschaft aufzufinden.'
_Buschmann_, _Spr. N. Mex. u. der Westseite des b. Nordamer._, p. 303.
'Die Fremdheit der Tezuque-Sprache gegen alles Bekannte ist durch das
Wortverzeichniss genugsam erwiesen.' 'Ich unterlasse es spielende
aztekische oder Sonorische Aehnlichkeiten zu bezeichnen, da auch die
Zuñi-Sprache diesen Idiomen ganz fremd ist.' _Id._, pp. 296-7. Tanos,
'one of the Moqui villages, at present speak the Tegua language, which
is also spoken by several of the New Mexican Pueblo Indians, which
leaves but little doubt us to the common origin of all the village
Indians of this country and Old Mexico.' _Arny_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._,
1871, p. 381. 'These Indians claim, and are generally supposed, to
have descended from the ancient Aztec race, but the fact of their
speaking three or four different languages would tend to cast a doubt
upon this point.' _Merriwether_, in _Id._, 1854, p. 174. 'The words in
the Zuñi language very much resemble the English.' _Hutchings' Cal.
Mag._, vol. ii., p. 348; _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., p. 285.

[VI'-5] Cocomaricopa, Yuma, Jalchedun and Jamajab, speak the same
language. _Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série ii., tom.
i., p. 350; _Kino_, _Relacion_, in _Id._, série iv., tom. i., pp.
292-3. 'Opas, que hablan la lengua de los Yumas y Cocomaricopas ...
Corre la gentilidad de éstos y de su misma lengua por los rios Azul,
Verde, Salado y otros que entran el Colorado.' _Arricivita_, _Crónica
Seráfica_, p. 416. 'La lengua de todas estas naciones es una,
Cocomaricopas, Yuma, Nijora, Quicamopa.' _Sedelmair_, _Relacion_, in
_Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iii., tom. iv., p. 852. Cuchans, or Yumas,
'speak the same dialect' as the Maricopas. _Emory's Rept. U. S. and
Mex. Boundary Survey_, p. 107; _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol.
iii., pp. 101-3; _Möllhausen_, _Reisen in die Felsengeb._, tom. i., p.
433. Yumas 'no ser Nacion distinta de la Cocomaricopa, pues usan el
mesmo Idioma.' _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., p. 408;
_Gallatin_, in _Emory's Reconnoissance_, p. 129; _Cremony's Apaches_,
p. 90. 'The Pimos and Cocomaricopas ... speaking different languages.
_Cutts' Conq. of Cal._, p. 189. Cosninos and Tontos, 'leur langue
aurait plus d'affinité avec celle des _Mohaves_ et des _Cuchans_ du
Colorado.' 'Les _Yumas_, auxquels se joignent les _Cocopas_, les
_Mohaves_, les _Hawalcoes_, et les _Dieguenos_. Chacune de ces tribus
a une langue particulière, mais qui, jusqu'à un certain point, se
rapproche de celles des tribus du même groupe.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Esquisses_, pp. 28-9. 'Gewiss ist, dass die Cocomaricópas
und Yumas nur Dialecte einer und derselben Sprache reden.'
_Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. i., p 211. 'The Maricopas speak ... a
dialect of the Cocapa, Yuma, Mohave and Diegana tongue.' _Mowry_, in
_Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1859, p. 361; _Id._, 1857, p. 302. Papagos, Pimos,
and Maricopas. 'These tribes speak a common language, which is
conceded to be the ancient Aztec tongue.' _Davidson_, in _Id._, 1865,
p. 131. Pima and Maricopa. 'Their languages are totally different, so
much so that I was enabled to distinguish them when spoken.'
_Bartlett's Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 262. 'Los opas, cocomaricopas,
hudcoadan, yumas, cuhuanas, quiquimas, y otros mas allá del rio
Colorado, se pueden tambien llamar pimas y contar por otras tantas
tribus de esta nacion; pues la lengua de que usan es una misma con
sola la diferencia del dilecto.' _Sonora_, _Descrip. Geog._, in _Doc.
Hist. Mex._, série iii., p. 554; _Sonora_, _Rudo Ensayo_, p. 103.
'Yuma. Dialecto del Pima, lo tienen los Yumas, ó chirumas, gileños ó
xileños, opas, cocopas, cocomaricopas, hudcoadanes, jamajabs ó
cuesninas, ó cuismer ó cosninas ó culisnisnas ó culisnurs y los
quicamopas. Cajuenche. Dialecto del pima, pertenecen á esta seccion
los cucapá ó cuhanas, jallicuamai, cajuenches, quiquimas ó quihuimas,
yuanes, cutganes, alchedomas, bagiopas, cuñai y quemeyá.' _Orozco y
Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 353, 37; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek.
Spr._, p. 264, et seq. 'Die _Yumas_, deren Sprache von der
_Cocomericoopas_ ... wenig verschieden ist.' 'Cocomericoopas, Yumas,
Pimas ... haben jede ihre besondere Sprache.' _Pfefferkorn_, in
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 159. 'Alike in other
respects the Pima and Cocomaricopa Indians differ in language.'
_Latham's Comp. Phil._, vol. viii., p. 421.

[VI'-6] 'Suave al parecer, y mas fácil que no la pima, pues tiene la
suave vocal el la que falta á los pimas, repitiendo ellos la u hablan
su idioma cantando.' _Sedelmair_, _Relacion_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._,
série iii., tom. iv., p. 852. 'Soft and melodious.' _Bartlett's Pers.
Nar._, vol. ii., p. 262; _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.,
p. 101.

[VI'-7] _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 395.

[VI'-8] _Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 95, et seq.;
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. ii., p. 118, et seq.

[VI'-9] _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.,
p. 14.

[VI'-10] 'La Nacion Chevet ... de muy distinto idioma de los que tienen
las demas Naciones.' _Arricivita_, _Crónica Seráfica_, p. 472.

[VI'-11] 'La lengua de los cajuenches es muy distinta de la yuma.'
Jalliquamais 'aunque parece el mismo idioma que el de los cajuenches,
se diferencía mucho.' _Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série
ii., tom. i., pp. 247, 251.

[VI'-12] 'The Cucápas, Talliguamays, and Cajuenches speak one tongue;
the Yumas, Talchedums, and Tamajabs have a distinct one.' _Cortez_,
_Hist. Apache Nations_, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 124.

[VI'-13] _Id._, p. 125.

[VI'-14] 'Nun dann fünf andere ganz verschiedene, und in dem bisher
entdeckten Californien übliche Sprachen (welche seynd die Laymóna, in
der Gegend der Mission von Loreto, die Cotschimì, in der Mission des
heil. Xaverii und anderen gegen Norden, die Utschitì, und die Pericúa
in Suden, und die annoch unbekannte welche die Völker reden, so P.
Linck auf seiner Reis hat angetroffen) nebst einer Menge Absprossen
oder Dialekten, auf Seit gesetzt, und von der Waïcurischen allein
etwas anzumerken.' _Baegert_, _Nachr. von Cal._, pp. 176-7. 'Tres son
(dice el Padre Taravàl) las Lenguas: la Cochimi, la Pericù y la de
Loreto. De esta ultima salen dos ramos, y son: la Guaycùra, y la
Uchiti; verdad es, que es la variacion tanta, que ... juzgarà, no solo
que hay quatro Lenguas, sino que hay cinco.' _Venegas_, _Noticia de la
Cal._, tom. i., pp. 63-7. Pericui, Guaicuri, Cochimí. 'Ognuna di
queste tre Nazioni aveva il suo linguaggio proprio.' _Clavigero_,
_Storia della Cal._, tom. i., p. 109. 'Vehitls, Coras, Pericos,
Guaicuras, Cantils, Cayeyus, y otros muchos.' 'Los de la baja
peninzula ... hablan distintos idiomas pero todos se entienden.'
_Revillagigedo_, _Carta_, MS., p. 7. Edues, Cochimies, et Periuches.
'Ces trois tribus parlent neuf dialectes différents, dérivés de trois
langues-matrices.' _Pauw_, _Rech. Phil._, tom. i., p. 168. 'Les unes
parlant la Langue _Monqui_ ... les autres la Langue _Laimone_.'
_Picolo_, _Mémoire_, in _Recueil de Voiages au Nord_, tom. iii., p.
279. 'Dreyerley Sprachen in Californien,' 'die de los Picos, dann die
de los Waïcuros ... und endlich die de los Laymónes.' _Ducrue_, in
_Murr_, _Nachrichten_, p. 392. 'Die Pericu; die Waicura mit den
Dialecten Cora, Uchidie und Aripe; die Laymon; die Cochima mit 4
verschiedenen Dialecten, worunter der von S. Francesco und Borgia; die
Utschita; die Ika.' _Hassel_, _Mex. Guat._, p. 57. 'Die Perícues, dann
die Monquis oder Menguis, zu welchen die Familien der Guaycúras und
Coras gehören, die Cochímas oder Colímiës, die Laimónes, die Utschitas
oder Vehítis, und die Icas.' _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. i., p.
212. See also tom. ii., pt ii., pp. 443-4; _Taylor_, in _Browne's L.
Cal._, pp. 53-4. 'The Cochimi, Pericu, and Loretto languages; the
former is the same as the Laymon, for the Laymones are the northern
Cochimies; the Loretto has two dialects, that of the Guaycuru and the
Uchiti.' _Prichard's Nat. Hist. Man_, vol. ii., p. 553. 'The languages
of old California were: 1. The Waikur, spoken in several dialects; 2.
The Utshiti; 3. The Laymon; 4. The Cochimi North and the Pericu at the
southern extremity of the peninsula; 5. A probably new form of speech
used by some tribes visited by Link.' _Latham's Comp. Phil._, vol.
viii., p. 423. Morrell mentions three languages, the Pericues,
Menquis, and Cochimies. _Nar._, p. 198. Forbes, quoting Father
Taraval, also speaks of three languages, Pericues, Monquis, and
Cochimís. _Cal._, p. 21. 'Solo habia dos idiomas distintos; el uno
todo lo que comprehende la parte del Mediodía, y llamaban _Ado_; y el
otro todo lo que abraza el Departamento del Norte y llamaban
_Cochimi_.' _Californias, Noticias_, carta i., p. 99; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 182, et seq.; _Baegert_, in
_Smithsonian Rept._, 1864, p. 393. Orozco y Berra also accepts three,
naming them, Pericu; Guaicura, with the dialects, Cora, Conchos,
Uchita and Aripa; and the Cochimí with the dialects, Edú, Didú, and
Northern Cochimi. _Geografía_, pp. 365-7; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom.
ii., p. 207, et seq.; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 469,
et seq.

[VI'-15] 'La lingua Cochimi, la quale è la più distesa, è molto
dificile, è piena d'aspirazioni, ed ha alcune maniere di pronunziare,
che non è possibile di darle ad intendere.... La lingua Pericù è
oggimai estinta.... La branca degli Uchiti, e quasi tutta quella de'
Cori si sono estinte.' _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp.
110, 109. Edues and Didius, 'sus palabras no eran de muy difícil
pronunciacion, pero carecian enteramente de la f y s.' _Alegre_,
_Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. iii., pp. 46-7. 'Die Aussprache ist
meistentheils gutturalis und narium.' _Ducrue_, in _Murr_,
_Nachrichten_, p. 392. Waïcuri. 'Kann man von derselben sagen, dass
sie im höchsten Grad wild sey und barbarisch ... so bestehet derselben
Barbarey in folgendem, und zwar--1. In einem erbärmlichen und
erstaunlichen Mangel unendlich vieler Wörter ... in dem Mangel und
Abgang der Präpositionen, Conjunctionen, und Relativorum, das déve,
oder tipitscheû, so wegen, und das tina, welches auf heisset
ausgenommen.... Im Abgang des Comparativi und Superlativi, und der
Wörter mehr und weniger, item, aller Adverbiorum, so wohl deren,
welche von Adjectivis herkommen, als auch schier aller anderen.... Im
Abgang des Modi Conjunctivi, mandativi und schier gar des optativi.
Item, des verbi Passivi, oder an statt dessen, des verbi Reciproci,
dessen sich die Spanier und Franzosen bedienen. Item, in Abgang der
Declinationen, und zugleich der Artiklen der, die, das, etc.'
_Baegert_, _Nachr. von Cal._, pp. 177-83. See also, _Smithsonian
Rept._, 1864, pp. 394-5.

[VI'-16] _Baegert_, _Nachr. von Cal._, pp. 175-94; _Id._, in
_Smithsonian Rept._, 1864, pp. 394-393; also in _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_,
tom. ii., pp. 207-14; _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iv.,
pp. 31-40; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 188-92;
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 484-95.

[VI'-17] _Hervás_, _Saggio Pratico_, p. 125; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der
Aztek. Spr._, pp. 496-7; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii.,
pp. 193-4; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 222; _Mofras_,
_Explor._, tom. ii., pp. 395-6; _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom.
i., p. 265.

[VI'-18] _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 264-5;
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 497; _Hervás_, _Saggio
Pratico_, p. 125; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp.
192-4; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., pp. 395-6; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_,
tom. ii., pp. 221-2.

[VI'-19] _Ducrue_, in _Murr_, _Nachrichten_, pp. 394-7.

[VI'-20] 'Hay otra idioma llamado Cora en California, que es un
dialecto del Guaicura ó Vaicura, diferente al que se habla en
Jalisco.' _Pimentel_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. viii., p.
603.

[VI'-21] 'All the Indian tribes of the peninsula seem to be affiliated
with the Yumas of the Colorado, and with the Coras below La Paz.'
_Taylor_, in _Browne's L. Cal._, p. 53.

[VI'-22] 'Beide Sprachen, die californische und die Südamerikanische
Guaycura oder Guaycuru (Mbaya) von einander gänzlich verschieden
sind.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 494.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PIMA, ÓPATA, AND CERI LANGUAGES.

PIMA ALTO AND BAJO -- PÁPAGO -- PIMA GRAMMAR -- FORMATION OF
PLURALS -- PERSONAL PRONOUN -- CONJUGATION -- CLASSIFICATION OF
VERBS -- ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, CONJUNCTIONS, AND INTERJECTIONS
-- SYNTAX OF THE PIMA -- PRAYERS IN DIFFERENT DIALECTS -- THE
ÓPATA AND EUDEVE -- EUDEVE GRAMMAR -- CONJUGATION OF ACTIVE AND
PASSIVE VERBS -- LORD'S PRAYER -- ÓPATA GRAMMAR -- DECLENSION
-- POSSESSIVE PRONOUN -- CONJUGATION -- CERI LANGUAGE WITH ITS
DIALECTS, GUAYMI AND TEPOCA -- CERI VOCABULARY.

From the Rio Gila southward, in Sonora and in certain parts of
northern Sinaloa, is found the Pima language, spoken in many dialects,
of which the principal divisions are the Pima alto and Pima bajo, or
upper and lower Pima, and it has generally been considered one of the
chief languages of northern Mexico. North of the thirty-second
parallel, the Pápago is the dominant dialect of the Pima; in Sonora
there are the Sobaipuri and others more or less divergent.[VII'-1] The
Pima as compared with the languages of their northern and southern
neighbors is represented as complete, full, and harmonious.[VII'-2]
Although frequently classified with the Yuma, it is nevertheless a
distinct tongue. It is closely connected with the Aztec-Sonora
languages, which may be proven no less by its grammatical
coincidences, than by the similarity of many of its words.[VII'-3]
Following is an extract from a Pima grammar. The alphabet consists of
the following letters: _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _j_, _m_,
_n_, _o_, _p_, _q_, _r_, _rh_, _s_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _y_. Nearly
all words end with a vowel. To form the plural, the first syllable of
the singular noun is duplicated--_hota_, stone; _hohota_, stones.
Exceptions to this rule occur in some few cases;--_vinoy_, snake;
_vipinoy_, snakes; _tuaia_, girl; _tusia_, girls; _sisi_, brother;
_sisiki_, brothers; _tuvu_, hare; _tutuapa_, hares. Gender is
expressed by means of the words _ubi_, female, and _ituoti_, male.
Derivatives expressing something which partakes of the nature of the
primitive are formed with the affix _magui_;--_xaivori_, honey;
_xaivorimaqui_, honeyed. For the same purpose the terminal _kama_ is
also used;--_hadunikama_, related to. _Kama_ is also employed to form
names of places and patronymics. Abstract words are formed with the
word _daga_;--_humatkama_, man; _humatkamadaga_, mankind; _stoa_,
white; _stoadaga_, whiteness. The particle _parha_, affixed to nouns
implies a past condition;--_nigaga_, my land for planting; _nigaga
parha_, the land for planting which was mine.

[Sidenote: PIMA GRAMMAR.]

PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

SINGULAR.

FIRST PERSON. SECOND PERSON.

Nom. ani an'ani | Nom api ap'api
Gen., Dat., ni | Gen., Dat., and Abl. mu
and Abl.
Acc. ni, nunu, nu | Acc. mumu, mu
| Voc. api

PLURAL.

Nom. ati, at'ati | Nom., and Voc. apimu
Gen., Dat.,ti | Gen., Dat., and Abl. amu
and Abl.
Ac., ti, tutu, tu | Ac. amumu, amu

THIRD PERSON.

He, or she, hugai huka | They, those, nugama, hukama

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB AQUIARIDA, TO COUNT.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I count, ani haquiarida | We count, ati haquiarida
Thou countest, api haquiarida | You count, apimu haquiarida
He counts, hugai haquiarida | They count, hugam haquiarida

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I counted, ani haquiarid cada | I have counted, an't' haquiari

PLUPERFECT.

I had counted, an't'haquiarid cada

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall count, ani aquiaridamucu, or an't'io haquiari

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have counted, an't' io haquiari

IMPERATIVE.

Count thou, haquiaridani, or hahaquiarida
Count you, haquiarida vorha, or gorha haquiarida

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I count, co'n'igui haquiaridana

PRESENT OPTATIVE.

O that I may count, dod' an' iki haquiaridana
When I am counting haquiaridatu
(speaking of one person only),
Speaking of two persons, haquiaridada
Having counted, haquiaridac
When I count, or after counting, haquiaridaay
He who counts, haquiaridadama
He who counted, haquiaridacama
He who has to count, haquiaridaaguidama, or
io haquiaridacama

Verbs are divided into many classes, such as singular, plural,
frequentative, applicative, and compulsive. Plural-verbs--_murha_, to
run, one person; _vopobo_, to run, many. Frequentatives are formed
with the verb _himu_, to go; for example, _vaita_, to call;
_vaitahimu_, to call frequently. Applicatives are made by changing the
terminal vowel of the verb into _i_, and adding the terminal
_da_--_tubanu_, to lower; _tubanida_, to lower something. Compulsive
verbs are formed with the affix _tuda_--_hukiaridatuda_, to compel to
count. A large number of adverbs are used, of which I give only a few
specimens:

Where ua, ubai Near here iavu
Here ia High tai
Here (moving) ay Yesterday taco
Near mia How, as xa, astu, xaco
Nearer miacu No pima

PREPOSITIONS.

Before vaita Since oiti
For iquiti, vusio With bumata, buma
Upon damana Of amidurhu
In aba

CONJUNCTIONS.

And upu, cosi Or aspumusi, aspi
But posa Then bunoga
Because coiva Although apcada

Substantives are generally placed after the adjectives. To signify
possession the name of the possessor is simply prefixed--_Pedro
onnigga_, wife of Pedro. Prepositions are affixed.[VII'-4] Of the
different dialects there are four specimens, of which one differs to
such an extent as to be hardly recognizable. Neither the names of
these dialects nor the places where they were spoken are given with
any of them by the authorities. The first which I give is by the
missionary Father Pfefferkorn, and differs most from any of the
others.

Diosch ini mam, ami si schoic tat, wus in' ipudakit.
God my dear, I very sorry am towards my heart of

Ant' apotuta si sia pitana, apt' um soreto
I have done very much ugly, thou me punish wilt

taikisa pia humac tasch pia etonni tat.
fire in no single time not burning is.

The next, a Lord's Prayer, is from a _Doctrina Christiana_:

T'oga ti dama ca tum' ami da cama s'cuga m'aguna mu tuguiga,
tubui divianna simu tuodidaga. Cosasi m'huga cugai kiti ti
dama catum' ami gusuda huco bupo gusudana ia duburh' aba.
Siari vugadi ti coadaga vutu ica tas' aba cati maca. Vpu gat'
oanida pima s'cugati tuidiga cos' as' ati pima tuguitoa
t'obaga to buy pima s'cuga tuidiga. Pima t' huhuguida tudana
vpu pima s'cuga tuidiga, co' pi ti duguvonidani pima scuga ami
durhu. Doda hapu muduna Jhs.

The next is a Lord's Prayer from Hervás:

T'oca titauacatum ami dacama; scuc amu aca mu tukica; ta hui
dibiana ma tuotidaca; cosassi mu cussuma amocacugai
titamacatum apa hapa cussudana inatuburch apa mui siarim
t'hukiacugai buto ca tu maca. Pim' upu ca tukitoa pima scuca
ta tuica cosas ati pima tukitoa t'oopa amidurch pima scuca
tuitic; pim' upu ca ta dakitoa co diablo ta hiatokidara; cupto
ta itucuubundana pim scuc amidurch.

The fourth, also a Lord's Prayer, is from the collection of the
Mexican Geographical Society:

Chóga dáma cáta diácamá izquiáma ña meitilla tabus matúyaga
cosamacai yí, dama cata gussada imidirraba Sulit ecuadaga
butis maca vupuc chuan yiga cosismatito chavaga
tiapisnisquantillos pinitiandaná copetullañi imisquiandura
dodá maduná cetús.

From the same source I also take a Pápago Lord's Prayer:

Pan toc momo tamcaschina apeta michucuyca Santo: anchut
botonia ati chuyca: entupo hoyehui maetachui apo masima motepa
cachitmo, mapotomal pami buemasitaapa, jummo tomae,
boetoicusipua chuyechica, apomasi maza china sugocuita juann
motupay assimi qui, jubo gibu matama cazi pachuichica, panchit
borrapi. Amen.[VII'-5]

[Sidenote: THE DIALECTS OF THE ÓPATA LANGUAGE.]

Wedged in between the Pima alto and the Pima bajo, is the Ópata, or
Teguima, with its principal dialect the Eudeve. Although the Ópata and
Eudeve have generally been enumerated as distinct languages, after
careful comparison I think with the missionaries who were conversant
with both, that it will be safe to call the one a dialect of the
other. An anonymous author even says that the difference between them
is not greater than between the Portuguese and Castilian, or between
the French and the Provençal.[VII'-6] Like the Pima, it is a branch of
the Aztec-Sonora languages. As is most frequent on the Pacific Coast,
classification differs greatly according to fancy; thus it is with the
Ópata; its classifications have been many, and among others it has
been placed with the Pima family. Many dialects are mentioned, but
little is said of them. Of these there are the Teguis, Teguima,
Coguinachi, Batuca, Sahuaripa, Himeri, Guazaba, and Jova.[VII'-7] The
Ópata is represented as finished, easy to acquire, and abounding in
eloquent expressions.[VII'-8] Of the Eudeve dialect I insert a few
grammatical remarks. In the alphabet are wanting the letters _f_, _j_,
_k_, _w_, _x_, _y_, and _l_; vowels are pronounced as in the Spanish;
nouns are declined without the aid of articles. Verbal nouns are
frequently used;--_hiósguadauh_, painting or writing, from _hiósguan_,
I write. Nouns as names of instruments are formed from the future
active of verbs, designating the action performed by the said
instrument;--_métecan_, I chop; future, _métetze_, by changing its
last syllable into _siven_, forms _métesiven_--as a noun, meaning axe
or chopper. In some cases the ending _rina_ is used instead of
_siven_;--_bícusirina_, flute, from _bicudan_, I whistle, and
_bihirina_, shovel, from _bihán_, I scrape. Abstract nouns are formed
with the particles _ragua_ or _súra_--_váde_, joyously, _váderagua_,
joy; _déni_, good, _déniragua_, goodness; _dóhme_, man or people;
_dóhmeragua_, humanity. All verbs are used as nouns, and as such are
declined as well as conjugated;--_hiósguan_, I write, also means
writer; _nemútzau_, I bewitch, is also wizard. Adjective nouns ending
with _téri_ and _ei_ signify quality;--_bavitéri_, elegant;
_aresumetéri_, different or distinct; _tasúquei_, narrow. The ending
_ráve_ denotes plenitude;--_sitoráve_, full of honey; _sitóri_, honey;
and _ráve_, full. Endings in _e_, _o_, _u_, signify possession;--_esé_,
she that has petticoats; _nóno_, he that has a father, from _nónogua_,
father; _sutúu_, he that has finger-nails, from _sutú_. _Ca_ prefixed
to a word reverses its meaning;--_cúne_, married; _cacúne_, not
married. _Sguari_, affixed, denotes an augmentative;--_dotzi_, old
man; _dotzísguari_, very old man.

DECLENSION OF THE WORD SIIBI, HAWK.

Nom. siibi Acc. siibíc
Gen. siiibíque Voc. siibí
Dat. siibt Abl. sibítze

The plural of nouns is usually formed by duplication;--_dor_, man or
male, plural _dódor_; _hóit_, woman, _hóhoit_, women. Some exceptions
to this rule occur;--as, _doritzi_, boy, plural _vus_, applied to both
sexes, but when intended only for males, it is _dódorus_. In some
cases females employ different words from those used by the male sex;
for example, the father says to his son, _noguàt_, to his daughter,
_mórqua_; the mother says to either, _nótzgua_; the son says to the
father, _nonógua_; and the daughter, _mósgua_.

[Sidenote: EUDEVE GRAMMAR.]

Personal pronouns are _nee_, I; _nap_, thou; _id_, _at_, or _ar_, he,
or she; _tamide_, we; _emet_, or _emíde_, you; _amét_, or _met_, these
or they. In joining pronouns with other words, elision takes place,
the last letter or syllable of the pronouns being dropped.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB HIÓSGUAN, I PAINT.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

ACTIVE. PASSIVE.

I paint, nee hiósguan | I am painted, nee hiósguadauh
Thou paintest, nap hiósguan | Thou art painted, náp hiósguadauh
He paints, id, or | He is painted, id, or
at hiósguan | at hiósguadauh
We paint, tamide hiósguame | We are painted, tamide hiósguadagua
You paint, emét hiósguame | You are painted, emét hiósguadagua
They paint, amet hiósguame | They are painted, amet hiósguadagua

IMPERFECT.

I painted, nee hiósguamru | I was painted, nee hiósguadauhru

PERFECT.

I have painted, nee hiósguari | I have been painted, nee hiósguacauh
or nee hiósguarit

PLUPERFECT.

I had painted, nee hiósguariru | I had been painted,
nee hiósguacauhrutu

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall paint, nee hiósguatze | I shall be painted,
nee hiósguatzidauh

Paint thou, hiósgua
Paint ye, hiósguavu
I will see that I paint, asmane hiósguatze
I shall see that I be painted, asmane hiósguatzidauh
Even though you paint, venésmana hiósguam
I will that you paint, nee eme hiósguaco naquém
I will that thou be painted, nee eme hiósguarico naquém
Even though I may paint, venésmane hiósguam
Even though I may be painted, venésmane hiósguadauh
If I should paint, nee hiósguatzern
I should be painted, nee hiósquatziudauhru

There are seven other kinds of verbs mentioned, such as frequentative,
compulsive, applicative verbs, etc.

The numerals show more particularly a strong affinity to those of the
Aztec language: 1. _sei_; 2. _godum_; 3. _veidum_; 4. _nauoi_; 5.
_marqui_; 6. _vusani_; 7. _seniovusáni_; 8. _gos návoi_; 9.
_vesmácoi_; 10. _macoi_.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Tamo Nóno, tevíctze catzi, cannè teguà, uéhoa vitzua terádauh. Tomo
canne venè hasém amo quéidagua. Amo canne hinádocauh iuhtépatz
éndaugh, teníctze endahtevèn. Quécovi tamo bádagua óqui tame mic. Tame
náventziuh tame piuidedo tamo canáde émca; ein tamide tamo. Ovi tamo
náven tziuhdahteven. Cana tótzi Diablo tatacóritze tame huétudenta;
nassa tame hipùr cadénitzeuai.[VII'-9]

[Sidenote: ÓPATA GRAMMAR.]

Of the Ópata, there exists a grammar written by Natal Lombardo, from
which a few remarks are here given. The alphabet: _a_, _b_, _ch_, _d_,
_e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _r_, _rh_, _s_, _t_,
_th_, _tz_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _z_. Most words end with a vowel. Long
words are not rare, as _chumikanahuinaguat_, name of a plant;
_kuguesaguataguikide_, spring (season); _makoisenignabussanibegua_,
seventeen. Gender is expressed either by the addition of the word,
male or female, or by distinct words. The plural is formed by
duplication; the manner of duplicating varies; sometimes the first,
and at others the last syllable being repeated, and very frequently
letters changed;--_Temachi_, lad; plural, _tetemachi_; _höre_,
squirrel; plural, _hohore_; _uri_, male; plural, _urini_; _vatziguat_,
brother; plural, _vapatziguat_; _maraguat_, daughter; plural,
_mamaraguat_, daughters. Ten declensions are described; they may be
recognized by different endings of the genitive, which are: _te_,
_ri_, _si_, _gui_, _ni_, _tzi_, _ki_, _ku_, _ku_, _pi_. The greater
number of words belong to the first declension. In the 2d, 3d, 4th,
5th, 6th, 7th, and 10th, the accusative and dative are the same as the
genitive; in the 8th the genitive, which ends in _ku_, is formed from
the accusative, while in the 9th, in which the genitive also ends in
_ku_, the accusative and dative are like the nominative.

1st DECLENSION OF THE WORD TAT, THE SUN.

Nom. tät | Gen. tätte | Dat. or Acc. tätta

2d DECLENSION OF THE WORD KUKU, THE QUAIL.

Nom. kuku | Gen. kukuri | Dat. or Acc. kukuri

8th DECLENSION OF THE WORD CHI, THE BIRD.

Nom. chi | Gen. chimiku | Dat. or Acc. chimi

9th DECLENSION OF THE WORD TUTZI, THE TIGER.

Nom. tutzi | Gen. tutziku | Dat. or Acc. tutzi

Abstract terms are formed by the affix _ragua_;--_massi_, father;
_massiragua_, paternity; _naideni_, good; _naideniragua_, goodness.
The word _ahka_ is used for a like purpose;--_uri_, man; _uriahka_,
humanity; _tossai_, white; _tossaiahka_, whiteness. To express a local
noun, the syllable _de_ is added;--_denide_, place of light;
_neomachide_, difficult place. _Suraua_, _guëua_, _ena_, _en_, _essa_,
and _otze_, signify much, and are used to form superlatives. Personal
pronouns are:--_ne_, I; _ta_, we; _ma_, thou; _emido_, you; _i_ or
_it_, he or she; _me_, they. Possessive pronouns are:--_no_, mine;
_tamo_, ours; _amo_, thine; _emo_, yours; _are_, _araku_, his;
_mereki_, theirs.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB NE HIO, I PAINT.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I paint, ne hio | We paint, ta, or tamido hio
Thou paintest, ma hio | You paint, emido hio
He paints, i hio | They paint, me hio

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I painted, ne hiokaru | I have painted, ne hiosia, or
ne hiove

PLUPERFECT. FIRST FUTURE.

I had painted, ne hiosiruta | I shall paint, ne hiosea

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have painted, ne hioseave

IMPERATIVE.

Paint thou, hiotte | Paint you, hiovu
Let him paint, hioseai | Let them paint, hioseame

Painting, hiopa, or hioko
Having painted, hiosaru, or hiositzi
Having to paint, hioseakoko, or hioseakiko
He who shall paint, hioseakame
He who paints, kiokame
He who painted, hiosi

As in the Eudeve, there are in this language many classes of verbs,
differing mostly in endings of certain persons. Prepositions and
adverbs exist in great number. Finally I give a few of the
conjunctions;--_guetza_, although; _vesé_, and; _nemake_, also;
_naneguari_, why, etc.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Tamomas teguikaktzigua kakame amo tegua santo
Of our father heaven in he who is of thee name holy

ah, amo reino tame makte, hinadoka iguati tevepa
is, of thee kingdom to us give, thy will here earth on

ahnia teguikaktzi veri. Chiama tamo guaka veu
be done heaven in so. Of all the days of us food now

tame mak, tame neavere tamo kainaideni ata api tamido
to us give, to us forgive of us bad as also

neavere tamo opagua, kai tame taotidudare; kianaideni
forgive of us enemy, not to us fall let; bad

chiguadu apita kaktzia.[VII'-10]
of also deliver.

Following is the Lord's Prayer in the Jova dialect:

Dios Noiksa: Vantegueca cachi, sec jan itemijunalequa
itemijunalequa motequán. Veda no parin, embeida mogitápejepa.
Ennio ju güidade, naté, vite tevá, nate vanteguéca. Necho
cuguírra, setata veté toomacá ento oreirá, en tobarurra, como
ité yté topa oreira toon oreira seeján. Caa ton surratoga
canecho jorrá sacu nuna dogüe seejan iguité caagüeta.

[Sidenote: SUPPOSED CERI AND WELSH SIMILARITIES.]

East of the Ópata and Pima bajo, on the shores of the gulf of
California, and thence for some distance inland, and also on the
island of Tiburon, the Ceri language with its dialects, the Guaymi and
Tepoca, is spoken. Few of the words are known, and the excuse given by
travelers for not taking vocabularies, is, that it was too difficult
to catch the sound. It is represented as extremely harsh and guttural
in its pronunciation, and well suited to the people who speak it, who
are described as wild and fierce.[VII'-11] It is, so far as known, not
related to any of the Mexican linguistic families. As in many other
languages, some have fancied they saw Welsh traces in it; one writer
thought he detected similarities to Arabic, but neither of these
speculations are worth anything. The Arabic relationship has been
disproven by Señor Ramirez, who compared the two, and the statement
regarding the Welsh is given on the hearsay of some sailors, who are
said to have stated that they thought they discovered some Welsh
sounds, when hearing the Ceris speak.[VII'-12] I give here the only
vocabulary which I have been able to find of this language:

Woman jidja Horse cai
Population jiciri Room (chamber) migenman
Milk junin More amen
Wine amat Less tungurá
Good tanjajipe Little jinás
Better jipe

FOOTNOTES:

[VII'-1] 'Estos se parten en altos y bajos ... hasta los rios Xila y
Colorado, aunque de otra banda de este hay muchos que hablan todavia
el mismo idioma.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 216.
'Los _pimas bajos_ usan del mismo idioma con los _altos_, y estos con
todas las demas parcialidades de indios que habitan los arenales y
páramos de los pápagos, los amenos valles de _Sobahipuris_, las vegas
de los rios _Xila_ (á escepcion de los apaches) y _Colorado_, y aun el
lado opuesto del último gran número de gentes, que á dicho del Padre
Kino y Sedelmayr, no diferencian sino en el dialecto,' _Sonora_,
_Descrip. Geog._, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iii., tom. iv., pp.
534-5. 'Los opas, cocomaricopas, hudcoadan, yumas, cuhuanas,
quiquimas, y otras mas allá del rio Colorado se pueden tambien llamar
pimas y contar por otras tantas tribus de estar nacion; pues la lengua
de que usan es una misma con sola la diferencia del dialecto.' _Id._,
p. 554. _Sonora_, _Estado de la Provincia_, in _Id._, pp. 618-19;
_Sonora_, _Papeles_, in _Id._, p. 772. 'Sobaypuris, y hablan en el
idioma de los Pimas, aunque con alguna diferencia en la
pronunciacion.' _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., p. 396;
_Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 369. 'El idioma es igual, y con
respecto al de los pimas se diferencian en muy determinadas palabras.'
_Velasco_, _Noticias de Sonora_, p. 161; _Zapata_, _Relacion_, in
_Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom. iii., p. 301, et seq. 'Las naciones
Pima, Soba y sobaipuris ... es una misma y general el idioma que todos
hablan, con poca diferencia de tal cual verbo y nombre' 'papabotas ...
de la misma lengua.' _Kino_, _Relacion_, in _Id._, tom. i., pp. 292-3.
Pimas 'usan todos una misma lengua, pero especialmente al Norte que en
todo se aventaja á los demas, mas abundente y con mas primores que al
Poniente y Pimería baja; todos no obstante se entienden.' _Velarde_,
in _Id._, tom. i., p. 366. 'El pima se divide en varios dialectos, de
los cuales ... el tecoripa y el sabagui.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom.
ii., p. 94. Orozco y Berra gives as dialects of the Pima, the Pápago,
Sobaipuri, Yuma and Cajuenche. _Geografía_, pp. 58-9, 35-40, 345-53.
_Papàgos_ 'die mit den Pimas dieselbe Sprache reden.' _Pfefferkorn_,
in _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 159. 'Die Sprache
der _Sovaipure_, als verwandt mit der Pima.' _Id._, p. 161. 'Aux Yumas
... se rattachent aussi, quant à la langue ... les _Cocomaricopas_ et
les tribus nombreuses qui, sous le nom de _Pimos_, s'étendent ... de
la même souche paraissent venir aussi les _Papayes_ ... mais dont la
langue s'éloigne davantage de celle des Yumas.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Esquisses_, p. 30.

[VII'-2] 'Esta lengua distingue par flexion el singular del plural de
los nombres sustantivos; coloca de las preposiciones despues de sus
regímenes y las conjunciones al fin de las preposiciones: la sintáxis
es muy complicada y del todo distinta de la de las lenguas Europeas.'
_Balbi_, in _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 352; _Bartlett's Pers.
Nar._, vol. ii., p. 262.

[VII'-3] 'Sie ist unfraglich und deutlich ein Glied des sonorischen
Sprachstammes; aber wieder sehr eigenthümliches, selbständiges und
wichtiges Idiom.' _Buschmann_, _Pima-Sprache_, p. 352. Family,
Dohme.... Language, Pima.... Dialects, Opata, Heve, Nevome, Papagos,
etc.' _Hist. Mag._, vol. v., p. 236. 'These tribes speak a common
language, which is conceded to be the ancient Aztec tongue.'
_Davidson_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1865, p. 131; _Parker_, in _Id._,
1869, p. 19.

[VII'-4] _Arte de la Lengua Névome, que se dice Pima_; _Pimentel_,
_Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 93-118; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt
iii., pp. 166-9; _Coulter_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi.,
pp. 248-50; _Parry_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., pp. 461-2;
_Hist. Mag._, vol. v., pp. 202-3; _Buschmann_, _Pima-Sprache_, pp.
357-69; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 401.

[VII'-5] _Pfefferkorn_, in _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii.,
pp. 164-5; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 113-15; _Doctrina
Christiana_, in _Arte de la Lengua Névome_, p. 3.; _Buschmann_,
_Pima-Sprache_, p. 353; _Col. Polidiómica Mex._, _Oracion Dominical_,
pp. 34-5.

[VII'-6] 'Á la Opata se pueden reducir los _Edues_ y _Jovas_; aquellos,
por diferenciar tan poco su lengua de la ópata, como la portuguesa de
la castellana, ó la provenzal de la francesa.' 'La nacion Opata y
Eudeve, que con muy poco diferencian en su idioma.' _Sonora_,
_Descrip. Geog._, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iii., tom. iv., pp. 534,
494. 'A las opatas se reducen los tovas y eudeves, poco diferentes en
el idioma.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 216.

[VII'-7] 'É vero, che fra alcune di queste lingue si scorge una tale
affinità, che da tosto a divedere, che esse son nate da una medesima
madre, sicome _l'Eudeve_, _l'Opata_, e _la Tarahumara_ nell'America
settentrionale.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. iv., p.
21; _Hervás_, _Catálogo_, tom. i., p. 333; _Salmeron_, _Relaciones_,
in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iii., tom. iv., p. 68. 'Auch von den,
nachher anzuführenden Opata und Eudeve sieht man aus Pfefferkorn, dass
sie von eben denselben Missionären bedient wurden, wie die Pima:
gleichwohl sind die Sprachen derselben, so weit sich aus den V. U.
schliessen lässt, sehr verschieden.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom.
iii., pt iii., p. 161. Eudeve 'Ihre Verwandtschaft mit dem sonorischen
Sprachstamme, als eines ächten Gliedes, mit erfreulicher Bestimmtheit
beweisen.' 'Man kan sie (Opata) mit Ruhe und ohne viele Einschränkung
als ein Glied in den sonorischen Sprachstamm einreihen.' _Buschmann_,
_Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 227, 235; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_,
pp. 343-5.

[VII'-8] 'El idioma de los ópatas es muy arrogante ó elocuente en su
espresion, fácil de aprender, y tiene muchas voces del castellano.'
_Velasco_, _Noticias de Sonora_, p. 154.

[VII'-9] _Smith's Gram. Heve Lang._; _Hervás_, in _Vater_, _Mithridates_,
tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 165-6; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp.
154-67; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 222-9.

[VII'-10] _Lombardo_, in _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 407-445;
_Hervás_, in _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 166;
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 229-236; _Pimentel_, in
_Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. x., pp. 288-313; _Col. Polidiómica
Mex._, _Oracion Dominical_, p. 11.

[VII'-11] 'Posee un idioma gutural muy dificil de aprender.' _Velasco_,
_Noticias de Sonora_, p. 131. 'Los guaimas ... de la misma lengua.'
_Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 216. 'Poco es la
distincion que hay entre seri y upanguaima, ... y unos y otros casi
hablan un mismo idioma.' _Gallardo_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iii.,
pp. 889; _Sonora_, _Descrip. Geog._, in _Id._, p. 535.

[VII'-12] 'Por su idioma ... se aparta completamente de la filiacion de
las naciones que la rodean.' _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 42,
353-4. 'Their language is guttural, and very different from any other
idiom in Sonora. It is said that on one occasion, some of these
Indians passed by a shop in Guaymas, where some Welsh sailors were
talking, and on hearing the Welsh language spoken, stopped, listened,
and appeared much interested; declaring that these white men were
their brothers, for they had a tongue like their own.' _Stone_, in
_Hist. Mag._, vol. v., p. 166; _Lavandera_, quoted by _Ramirez_, in
_Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. ii., p. 148, and _Ramirez_, in
_Id._, p. 149.

CHAPTER VIII.

NORTH MEXICAN LANGUAGES.

THE CAHITA AND ITS DIALECTS -- CAHITA GRAMMAR -- DIALECTIC
DIFFERENCES OF THE MAYO, YAQUI, AND TEHUECO -- COMPARATIVE
VOCABULARY -- CAHITA LORD'S PRAYER -- THE TARAHUMARA AND ITS
DIALECTS -- THE TARAHUMARA GRAMMAR -- TARAHUMARA LORD'S PRAYER
IN TWO DIALECTS -- THE CONCHO, THE TOBOSO, THE JULIME, THE
PIRO, THE SUMA, THE CHINARRA, THE TUBAR, THE IRRITILA -- TEJANO
-- TEJANO GRAMMAR -- SPECIMEN OF THE TEJANO -- THE TEPEHUANA --
TEPEHUANA GRAMMAR AND LORD'S PRAYER -- ACAXÉE AND ITS DIALECTS,
THE TOPIA, SABAIBO, AND XIXIME -- THE ZACATEC, CAZCANE,
MAZAPILE, HUITCOLE, GUACHICHILE, COLOTLAN, TLAXOMULTEC,
TECUEXE, AND TEPECANO -- THE CORA AND ITS DIALECTS, THE
MUUTZICAT, TEACUAEITZICA, AND ATEACARI -- CORA GRAMMAR.

We now come to the four Aztec-Sonora languages before mentioned, the
Cora, the Cahita, the Tepehuana, and the Tarahumara, and their
neighbors. I have already said that notwithstanding the Aztec element
contained in them, they are in no wise related to each other.

[Sidenote: NUMEROUS LANGUAGES IN SINALOA.]

In the northern part of Sinaloa, extending across the boundary into
Sonora, the principal language is the Cahita, spoken in many dialects,
of most of which nothing is transmitted to us. Numerous languages,
which were perhaps only dialects, are named in this region, and by
some classed with the Cahita, but the information regarding them is
vague and contradictory. No vocabularies or other specimens of them
can be obtained, nor can I find anywhere mention that any were ever
written. Of these there are the Zoe, the Guazave, the Vacoregue, the
Batucari, the Aibino, the Ocoroni, which are mentioned as related, as
also the Zuaque and Tehueco, and the Comoporis and Ahome. There are
also the Mocorito and Petatlan, both distinct; the Huite, the Ore, the
Varogio, the Tauro, the Macoyahui, the Troe, the Nio, the Cahuimeto,
the Tepague, the Ohuero, the Chicorata, the Basopa, and two distinct
tongues spoken at the Mission San Andres de Conicari, and four at the
Mission of San Miguel do Mocorito.[VIII'-1] The only dialects of the
Cahita, regarding which a few notes exist, and which at the same time
appear to have been the principal ones, according to the best
authorities, are the Mayo, Yaqui, and Tehueco.[VIII'-2] The Cahita
language is copious, but will not readily express polite
sentiments.[VIII'-3] Father Ribas says that the Yaquis always speak very
loudly and arrogantly, and that when he asked them to lower their
voice, they answered: "Dost thou not see that I am a Yaqui?" which
latter word signifies, 'he who speaks loudly.'[VIII'-4]

A grammar of the Cahita was written in the year 1737, of which I give
here an extract. The alphabet consists of the following letters: _a_,
_b_, _ch_, _e_, _h_, _i_, _j_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _r_, _s_,
_t_, _u_, _v_, _y_, _z_, _tz_.

There are three declensions; two for nouns, and the third for
adjectives. To the first belong those words which end in a vowel, and
also the participles ending with _me_ and _u_; to the second, those
ending with a consonant. Nouns ending with a vowel, and adjectives,
form the plural by appending an _m_ to the singular;--_tabu_, rabbit;
_tabum_, rabbits. Those ending with a consonant affix _im_, and those
ending with _t_ affix _zim_;--_paros_, hare; _parosim_, hares;
_uikit_, bird; _uikitzim_, birds. The personal pronouns are: _inopo_,
_neheriua_, _neheri_, _nehe_, _ne_, I; _itopo_, _iteriua_, _itee_,
_te_, we; _empo_, _eheriua_, _eheri_, _ehee_, _e_, thou; _empom_,
_emeriua_, _emeri_, _emee_, _em_, you; _uahaa_, _uahariua_, _uahari_,
he; _uameriua_, _uameri_, _uamee_, _im_, they.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO LOVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I love, ne eria | We love, te eria
Thou lovest, e eria | You love, em eria
He loves, eria | They love, im eria

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I loved, ne eriai | I have loved, ne eriak

PLUPERFECT. FIRST FUTURE.

I had loved, ne eriakai | I shall love, ne erianake

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have loved, ne eriasunake

IMPERATIVE.

Love thou, e eria, or e eriama
Let him love, eria, or eriama
Love you, em eriabu, or em eriamabu
Let them love, im eriabu, or im eriamabu

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I love, ne eriauaua, or eriana

OPTATIVE.

O that I may love, netziyo eriayo

PRESENT PARTICIPLE.

Loving, eriakari, eriayo, eriako, or eriakako

INFINITIVE PASSIVE.

To be loved, erianaketeka, or erianakekari

He who loves, eriame | He who was loved, eriau
He who has loved, eriakame | He who had loved, eriakau
He who will love, erianakeme |

Of the many prepositions I only insert the following:--

To ui Below vetukuni, tukuni
In tzi Toward venukutzi, patiua
With ye For vetziu
Before uepatzi, patzi Within uahiua
Above vepa Whence kuni, uni

CONJUNCTIONS.

Also vetzi, suri, As if siua
huneri, soko
Although mautzi Thus huleni
But vitzi, tepa Besides ioentoksoko, ientoik
Not even tepesan If sok

The dialectic differences between the Mayo, Yaqui, and Tehueco are as
follows;--the Yaquis and Mayos use the letter _h_, where the Tehuecos
use _s_ when it occurs in the middle of a word, and is followed by a
consonant;--_tuhta_, by the Tehuecos is pronounced _tusta_. Other
words also, by some are pronounced short, while others pronounce them
long. The interjection of the vocative is with some _hiua_, and with
others _me_. The pronoun _nepo_, the Yaquis use instead of _inopo_.
The Mayos use the imperfect as before given; the Tehuecos end it with
_t_, and the Yaquis with _n_. The pluperfect of the Tehuecos ends with
_k_; that of the Yaquis with _kam_; that of the Maya with _kai_.

To illustrate dialectic differences, I insert a short comparative
vocabulary, made up from a dictionary, a doctrina, and from words of
the Mayo and two Yaqui dialects:

DICTIONARY. DOCTRINA. MAYO. YAQUI. YAQUI.

Father achai atzai hechai achay achai
Our itom itom itom itom itom
Be katek katek katek katek katek
Respected aioiore ioiori llori llori iori
Thine em em em em em
Name tehua tehuam tegam teguam teguam
Bread buahuame buaieu buanakem buailem buaye
Daily matzukve makhukve makehut matehui machuk
Give amaka amika amika amika mika
To day ieni ieni hene ian hien
Of vetana betana betana betana betana

The Lord's Prayer in the Cahita:

Itom atzai teuekapo katekame emtehuam checheuasu
Our father heaven in he who is thy name very much

ioioriua, itom ipeisana emiauraua emuarepo imbuiapo
be respected, to us that he may come thy kingdom thy will earth in

anua aman teuekapo anua eueni. Makhukve itom
let it be done also heaven in is done as. Each day our

buaieu ieni itom amika, itome sok alulutiria itom
bread to-day to us give, to us also forgive us

kaalanekau itome sok alulutiria eueni itom beherim
sins we also we forgive as our enemies

kate sok itom butia huena kutekom uoti: emposi
not and to us lead fall temptation in: thou

aman itom ioretua katuri betana.
also us save no good (bad) of.

The Lord's Prayer in the Yaqui dialect:

Ytoma chay teque canca tecame emteguam cheheguasullorima yem
iton llejosama. Emllauragua embalepo ynim buiajo angua. Aman
teguecapo anguaben matehui itom buallem yan sitoma mica. Sor y
toma a hitaria cala ytom á hitaria y topo á litariame ytom
begerim catuise ytom bulilae contegotiama, ca juena cuchi
emposu juchi aman ytom lloretuane caturim betana. Amen
Jesus.[VIII'-5]

[Sidenote: GRAMMAR OF THE TARAHUMARA LANGUAGE.]

East of the Cahita, in the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango,
an uncivilized and barbarous people inhabit the Sierra Madre, who
speak the Tarahumara tongue, which contains the same Aztec element as
the Cahita, but is otherwise, as previously stated, a distinct
language. The principal dialects are the Varogio, Guazapare and
Pachera.[VIII'-6] The Tarahumara is a rather difficult language to
acquire, mainly owing to its pronunciation. The final syllables of
words are frequently omitted or swallowed, and sometimes even the
first syllables or letters. The accentuation also differs much, nouns
generally being accentuated on the penultimate, and verbs on the
ultimate. The alphabet consists of the following letters: _a_, _b_,
_ch_, _e_, _g_, _i_, _j_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _r_, _s_, _t_,
_u_, _v_, _y_. These letters, and also the following grammatical
remarks refer specially to the language as spoken in Chinipas. Other
dialects have the letter _h_ in place of _j_ or _r_, and _z_ for _s_.
The plural of nouns is formed by duplicating a syllable;--_mukí_,
woman; _mumukí_, women; or, in some cases an adverb, indicating the
plural, is appended. Patronymics form the plural, by duplicating the
last syllable. The particle _gua_ also indicates the plural. The
possessive case is formed by annexing the syllable _ra_ to the thing
possessed;--_Pedro bukúra_, house of Pedro. Comparatives are expressed
by adding the terminal _be_;--_gara_, good; _garabé_, better; and
superlatives by simply putting a heavier accent on the comparative
terminal;--_reré_, low; _rerebé_, lower; _rerebéé_, lowest. Personal
pronouns are: _nejé_, I; _mujé_, thou; _senú_, he; _tamujé_ or
_ramujé_, we; _emejé_ or _emé_, you; _güepuná_, they.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO COUNT.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I count, nejé tará | We count, ramujé tará
Thou countest, mujé tará | You count, emejé tará
He counts, senú tará | They count, guepuná tará

PERFECT. PLUPERFECT.

I have counted, nejé taráca | I had counted, nejé tarayéque

FIRST FUTURE. SECOND FUTURE.

I shall count, nejé tarára | I shall have counted, nejé taragópera

IMPERATIVE.

Count thou, tará | Let them count, tarára
Count you, tarási | Do not count, caté tarási
Let us count, tarayéque |

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I count, sonecá tarára | If we count, sotamenecá tarára
If thou count, somucá tarára | If they count, sopucá tarára
If he count, sosenucá tarára |

IMPERFECT.

If I did count, sonecá tarareyéque

He who counts, tarayámeque | They who have to count, taraméri
Counting, taroyó | He who has to count, tarabéri
Having counted, taraságo | [VIII'-7]

Of the different dialects there are five specimens, all Lord's
Prayers, a comparison of which will show their variations. The first
is from Father Steffel:

Tamí Nonó, mamú reguí guamí gatíkí, tamí noinéruje mú reguá
seliméa rekíjena, tamí neguáruje mú jelalikí henná guetschikí,
mapú hatschíbe réguega quamí. Tamí nutútuje hipelâ, tamí
guecáuje tamí guikelikí, matamé hatschíbe réguega tamí
guecáuje putsé tamí guikejámeke, ké tá tamí sátuje,
telegatígameke mechcá hulá. Amen.

The second is from Tellechea, who lived in Chinipas and at Zapópan:

Tamú nonó repá regiiegáchi atígameque muteguárarí santo
níreboa, mu semárarí regiiegáchi atigá, tamú jurá muyerarí
jenagiiichíqui mapú regiiegá eguarígua repá regiiegáchi.
Sesenú ragiiê tamú nitugára, jipe ragiiê tamí nejá, tami
cheligiie tamucheína yorí yomá matameregiiegiá, cheligué tamú
ayoriguámeque uché mapú requí chàti ju mecá mu jurá, mapú tamí
tayoràbua quéco.

The third is in the dialect spoken in the district of Mina:

Taminonó tehuastiqui tehuara santi riboa razihuachi tamuperá
arimihuymira nahuichi chumiricá tehuanehuario teamonetellá
sinerahué hiperahuí tamenejá. Seoriqui cahuillé chumaricá
cahuillé quiamoqué tarubé chimerá chiniariqui mastí
nahuchimoba. Amen Jesus.

[Sidenote: TARAHUMARA LORD'S PRAYERS.]

For the next two no localities are given:

Tami nono guami repá reguegachi atiame: tá cheiquichi ju, màpu
müreg uéga repá asagá mu atiqui: Jená ibi, guichimòba quima
neogarae mu naguára; mu llelá litae guichimòba mü llolára
guali mü cii mollenara, mi, repá reguegachi. Amen Jesus.

Hono tami niguëga matu ati crepa: guebrucá nilrera que
mubreguá. Tami nagüibra que munetebrichi, nilrelra que mu el
rabrichi gená güichimoba: mapu breguegal repa. Brami goguáme
epilri bragüe brame jipeyá, brami güecagüe. Mata igui güicá
mapu bregüega bramegé. Güecagüe mapu brami güique ta nobri
brami guichavari que chitichi natabrichi. Habri brami guaini
mane brisiga equimé. Amen Isuis.[VIII'-8]

Although in possession of Tellechea's grammar, Gallatin denies the
connection between the Tarahumara and the Aztec.[VIII'-9] I give here
some of their grammatical resemblances. These are, the incorporation
of the noun with the verb in some cases; the combination of two verbs,
the dropping of the original end-syllables when joining or
incorporating several words together, the formation of the plural by
duplication, and the traces of a reverential end syllable. All these
are important points, and combined with the similarity--in some cases
even identity--of a great number of words, they make the relationship
or traces of the Aztec language in the Tarahumara
incontestable.[VIII'-10]

* * * * *

Passing to the north-eastern part of Mexico I enter a totally unknown
region, of whose languages mention is made, but nothing more. Neither
vocabularies, nor grammars, nor any other specimens of them exist, and
in most cases it is even difficult to fix the exact geographical
location of the people who are reported to have spoken them. Of these
I name first the Concho, which language is reported to have been a
dialect of the Aztec, but this is denied by Hervás, who had his
information from the missionary Palacios, although the latter admits
that the people spoke the Aztec. Their location is stated to have been
near the Rio Concho.[VIII'-11] In the Bolson de Mapimi, the Toboso
language is named. This people are reported to have understood the
language of the Zacatecs and the Aztecs; and furthermore, to have had
their own distinct tongue.[VIII'-12] Other idioms mentioned near the
same region are the Hualahuise, Julime, Piro, Suma, and
Chinarra.[VIII'-13] Of the Piro I find the following Lord's Prayer:

Quitatác nasaul e yapolhua tol húy quiamgiana mi quiamnarinú.
Jaquie mugilley nasamagui hikiey quiamsamaé, mukiataxám,
hikiey, hiquiquiamo quia inaé, huskilley nafoleguey, gimoréy,
y apol y ahuléy, quialiey, nasan e pomo llekey, quiale
mahimnague yo sé mahi kaná rrohoy, se teman quiennatehui
mukilley, nani, nani emolley quinaroy zetasi, nasan
quianatehuey pemcihipompo y, qui solakuey quifollohipuca. Kuey
maihua atellan, folliquitey. Amen.

The Irritila, which was spoken by a number of tribes, called by the
Spaniards the Laguneros, inhabiting the country near the Missions of
Parras, is another extinct tongue.[VIII'-14] In Coahuila, the Tejano or
Coahuiltec language is found. A short manual for the use of the
priests was written in this language by Father García, and from it a
few grammatical observations have been drawn by Pimentel.

[Sidenote: EXTRACT FROM THE COAHUILTEC GRAMMAR.]

The letters used are _a_, _c_, _ch_, _e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _j_, _l_,
_m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _q_, _s_, _t_, _u_, _y_, _tz_. The pronunciation
is similar to that of some of the people who inhabit the Northwest
Coast, as the Nootkas, Thlinkeets, and others. A kind of clicking
sound produced with the tongue, which García designates by an
apostrophe, thus--_c'_, _q'_, _t'_, _p'_, _l'_. The _c'_, and _q'_, are
pronounced with a rasping sound from the root of the tongue; _t'_ with
a click with the point of the tongue against the teeth, etc. There is
no plural in the language except such as is expressed by the words
many, all, and some. Pronouns are _tzin_, I; _jamin_, or _am_, thou;
_nami_, mine; _ja_, thine; _jami_, ours. Interrogation is expressed by
the letter _e_ after the verb;--_japtû pôé?_ are you a father? _po_
being the verb. Negation is expressed by _ojua_, if it stands for 'no'
alone, but if it is joined to a verb it is expressed by _ajâm_
following the verb, and if the verb ends with a vowel, by _yajâm_. The
Tejano is divided into several dialects which vary chiefly in the
different pronunciation of some words: as for _che_ they say _chi_, or
_so_ for _se_, _cue_ instead of _co_, etc. The following soul-winning
dogma with the translation is given as a specimen of the language.

Mej t' oajâm pitucuêj pînta pilapâm chojâi pilchê guatzamôjuajâmaté,
pilâpajuáj sauj chojai: Mej t' oajâm pitucuêj pilapôujpacô san paj
guajátam atê; talôm apnán pan t' oajâm tucuet apcué tucué apajái
sanché guasáyajám: sajpám pinapsá pitachîjô, mai cuân tzam aguajtá,
namo, namo t' oajâm tucuém mâisájâc mem; t' ájacat mem jatâlam ajam é?

And there in hell there is nothing to eat, nor any sleep, nor rest;
there is no getting out of hell; the great fire of hell will never be
finished. If thou hadst died with those sins, thou wouldst be already
there in hell; then, why art thou not afraid?[VIII'-15]

The Tubar is another idiom which was spoken near the head-waters of
the Rio Sinaloa. Ribas affirms that two totally distinct languages
are spoken by this people. From a Lord's Prayer preserved in this
tongue Mr Buschmann after careful comparison has concluded that the
Tubar is another member of the Aztec-Sonora group, showing, as it
does, unmistakeable Aztec traces. I insert the Lord's Prayer with
translation.

Ite cañar tegmuecarichin catemat imit tegmuarat
Our father heaven in art thy name

militurabà teochigualac; imit huegmica carin iti
be praised; thy kingdom us to

bacachinassisaguin, imit avamunarir echu nañigualac imo cuigan
come, thy will here be done as well as

amo nachic tegmuecarichin; ite cokuatarit essemer taniguarit
there is done heaven; our bread daily

iabba ite micam; ite tatacoli ikiri atzomua ikirirain
to-day us give; our sins forgive as we forgive

ite bacachin cale kuegmua nañiguacantem caisa
us against evil previously have done not

ite nosam baca tatacoli bacachin ackirò muetzerac ite.[VIII'-16]
us lead in sin of evil deliver us.

The following is a Lord's Prayer of the Tubar dialect spoken in the
district of Mina in Chihuahua.

Hite cañac temo calichin catema himite muhará huiturabá
santoñetará himitemoh acarí hay sesahui hitebacachin hitaramaré
hechinemolac amo cuira pan amotemo calichin hítecocohatari éseme
tan huaric. Llava hitemicahin tatacoli higuíli hite nachi
higuiriray hitebacach in calquihuan nehun conten hitehohui
caltehue cheraca tatacol bacachin hiqu ipó calquihuá ñahuité
baquit ebacachin calaserac. Amen Jesus.[VIII'-17]

[Sidenote: TEPEHUANA GRAMMAR.]

In the state of Durango and extending into parts of Jalisco,
Chihuahua, Coahuila and Sonora, is spoken the Tepehuana
language.[VIII'-18] Like the Tarahumara it is guttural and pronounced
in a rather sputtering manner. The Tepehuanes speak very fast, and
often leave off or swallow the end syllables, which occasioned much
trouble to the missionaries, who on that account could not easily
understand them. Another difficulty is the accentuation, as the
slightest variation of accent will change the meaning of a
word.[VIII'-19] The following alphabet is used to represent the sound
of the Tephuana, _a_, _b_, _ch_, _d_, _e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _j_, _k_,
_l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _q_, _r_, _s_, _sc_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _y_. In
the formation of words many vowels are frequently combined, as, _ooo_,
bone; _iiuie_, to drink. Long words are of frequent occurrence
as--_soigulidadatudadamo_, difficult; _meit
sciuguidodadaguitodadamoe_, continually. The letter _d_ appears to be
very frequently used, as in the word--_toddascidaraga_, or
_doadidamodaraga_, fright. To form the plural of words, the first
syllable is duplicated. Personal pronouns are;--_aneane_, or _ane_, I;
_api_, thou; _eggue_, he; _atum_, we; _apum_, you; _eggama_, they;
_in_, mine; _u_, thine; _di_, or _de_, his; _ut_, ours; _um_, yours.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO SAY.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I say, aneane aguidi | We say, atum aguidi
Thou sayest, api aguidi | You say, apum aguidi
He says, eggue aguidi | They say, eggam aguidi

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I said, aneane aguiditade | I have said, aguidianta or
| aneaneanta aguidi

FIRST FUTURE. SECOND FUTURE.

I shall say, aneane aguidiague | I shall have said,
aneane aquidiamokue

IMPERATIVE.

Let me say, aguidiana ane
Say thou, aguidiani, or aguidiana api
Let him say, aguidiana eggue
Let us say, aguiuiana atum
Say you, aguidiana apum, or aguidavoramoe
Let them say, aguidiana eggam

I may say, aneane aguidana
I should say, aneane aguidaguitade
I should have said, aneane aguidaguijatade
If I should say, aneane aguidaguiague

PARTICIPLE.

Saying, aguidimi
He is saying, aguidimijatade
Having said, aguidati

In some places the ending of the imperfect indicative is _kade_
instead of _tade_.

CONJUNCTIONS.

And amider
As if appia na
Also jattika, kat
And for that ikaidiatut
Or sciupu
Although tumasci, tume
For which ukaidi

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Utogga atemo tubaggue dama santusikamoe uggue
Our father who in heaven above sanctified be he

ututugaraga duviana uguiere api odduna gutuguitodaraga
thy name come thy kingdom thou do thy will

tami dubur dama tubaggue. Udguaddaga ud
as well earth above heaven. Our food to us

makane scibi ud joigudane ud sceadoadaraga addukate
give to-day to us forgive our sins as

joigude jut jaddune maitague daguito ud.[VIII'-20]
we forgive our debtors not tempt us.

The roughest and most inaccessible part of the Sierra Madre, in the
state of Durango, is the seat of the Acaxee language, which from this
centre spreads, under different names and dialects, into the
neighboring states. Among these dialects are mentioned the Topia,
Sabaibo, Xixime, Hume, Mediotaquel and Tebaca.[VIII'-21] Some writers
claim that the Acaxee with all its differences is related to the
Mexican, while others, among them Balbi, make it a distinct tongue. As
neither vocabularies nor other specimens of it exist, the real fact
cannot be ascertained. The missionaries say that the Aztec language
was spoken and understood in these parts. In Zacatecas is mentioned as
the prevailing tongue the Zacatec, besides which some authors speak of
the Cazcane as a distinct idiom, while others aver that the Cazcanes
and Zacatecs were one people. Besides these there are adjoining them
the Mazapile, Huitcole, and Guachichile, of none of which do I find
any specimens or vocabularies.[VIII'-22] I also find mentioned in
Zacatecas the Colotlan, and in Jalisco the Tlaxomulteca, Tecuexe, and
Tepecano.[VIII'-23]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE CORA LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS.]

In that portion of the state of Jalisco which is known by the name of
Nayarit, the Cora language is spoken. It is divided into three
dialects; the Muutzicat, spoken in the heart of the mountains; the
Teacuaeitzica, on the mountain slopes; and the Cora, or Ateacari, near
the mouth of the Rio Nayarit, or Jesus María.[VIII'-24] The Aztec
element, which is stronger and more apparent in the Cora than in any
other of the three Aztec-Sonora languages, has been recognized by many
of the earliest writers.[VIII'-25] The Cora language is intricate and
rather difficult to learn, as indeed are the other three.[VIII'-26]
Following are a few grammatical notes taken from Ortega's vocabulary.

The letters of the alphabet are _a_, _b_, _ch_, _e_, _h_, _i_, _k_,
_m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _r_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _y_, _z_, _tz_. The
pronunciation is hard; there is no established way of expressing the
gender. The names of animated beings, as well as inanimate objects
form the plural by the affixes _te_, _eri_ or _ri_, _tzi_ or _zi_, and
also with the preposition _mea_, although there are some exceptions to
this rule; for example;--_zearate_, bee; _zearateri_, bees; _kanax_,
sheep; _kanexeri_, sheep; _ukubihuame_, orator; _ukubihuametzi_,
orators; _teatzahuateakame_, he who is obedient, of which the plural
is _teatzahuateakametzi_; _kurute_, crane; _kurutzi_, cranes;
_teaxka_, scorpion; _teaxkate_, scorpions. Verbal nouns designating a
person who performs an action, are formed by affixing to the verb the
syllable _kame_, or _huame_;--_hukabihuame_, advocate (he who pleads);
_timuacheakame_, lover, (he who loves); _tichuikame_, singer, (he who
sings).

[Sidenote: CORA GRAMMAR AND LORD'S PRAYER.]

Personal pronouns are;--_neapue_, _nea_, I; _apue_, _ap_, thou;
_aehpu_, _aehp_, he; _iteammo_, _itean_, we; _ammo_, _an_, you;
_aehmo_, _aehm_, they; but in conjugating the following are
used:--_ne_, I; _pe_ or _pa_, thou; _te_, we; _ze_, you; _me_, they.
Of the conjugation of the verb, it is only stated that there is no
infinitive, and the following example of the present indicative is
given:

I love, nemuache
Thou lovest, pemuache
He loves, muache
We love, te muache
You love, ze muache
They love, me muache

There are plural and singular verbs;--_tachuite_, to give a long
thing; _taihte_, to give long things.

Prepositions are:--_hetze_, _tzahta_, in; _keme_, with, for; _apoan_,
above; _tihauze_, before. The peculiarity of the Muutzicat dialect is
the frequent use of the letter _r_, which is either appended, or
placed in the middle of the word at pleasure;--for _huihma_, they say
_ruihma_; for _earit_, _erarit_. The Teakuaeitzicai dialect has many
distinct words not used in any of the others, so that at times they
are not at all understood by those speaking the other dialects. As a
specimen I insert the Lord's Prayer:

Tayaoppa tahapoa petehbe cherihuaca eiia teaguarira;
Our father heaven be sanctified be thy name;

chemeahaubeni tahemi eiia chianaca cheaguasteni eiia
come to us thy world done be thy

jevira iye chianakatapoan tup up tahapoa. Ta hamuit
will as earth as heaven. Our bread

huima tahetze rujeve ihic ta taa; huatauniraca
always us by wanting to-day us give; forgive

ta xanacat tetup iteahmo tatahuatauni titaxanakante ta
our sin as we we forgive our debtors us

vaehre teatkai havobereni xanakat hetze huavaehreaka
help that not let us fall sin in help

tecai tahemi rutahuaja tehai eu ene che enhuata
that not us reach not what good so be it.

hua.[VIII'-27]

FOOTNOTES:

[VIII'-1] Mocorito, Petatlan and Ocoroni are 'gentes de varias lenguas.'
_Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 34. Ahome are 'gente de
diferente lengua llamada Zoe.' Zoes 'son de la misma lengua con los
Guaçaues.' _Id._, p. 145. 'Comoporis los quales aunque eran de la
misma lengua de los mansos Ahomes.' _Id._, p. 153. 'Huites de
diferente lengua' from the Cinaloas. _Id._, p. 207. Zuaques and
Tehuecos 'ser todos de una misma lengua.' Batuca 'de una lengua no
dificil, y parecida mucho á la de Ocoroiri.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de
Jesus_, tom. ii., pp. 10, 186. 'La lengua es ore.' 'Varogia y segun se
ha reconocido es lo mismo que la taura, aunque varia algo
principalmente en la gramática.' 'La lengua es particular macoyahui
con que son tres las lenguas de este partido.' In San Andres de
Conicari 'la lengua es particular y distinta de la de los demas
pueblos si bien todos los demas de ellos entienden la lengua tepave, y
aun la caita aunque no la hablan.' 'La lengua es particular que llaman
troes.' 'La gente en su idioma es guazave.' 'La lengua es distinta y
particular que llaman nio.' 'Conversan entre sí distintas las lenguas
de cahuimetos y ohueras.' 'Lenguas que hablan entre sí y son chicurata
y basopa.' San Miguel de Mocorito 'de cuatro parcialidades y distintas
lenguas.' _Zapata_, _Relacion_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom.
iii., pp. 363-409. 'Los misioneros ... colocaban en las misiones de la
lengua cahita á los sinaloas, hichucios, zuaques, biaras, matapanes y
tehuecos.' 'El ahome y el comopori son dialectos muy diversos ó
lenguas hermanas del guazave.' _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 35;
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 154-7; _Hassel_, _Mex.
Guat._, p. 175.

[VIII'-2] 'La nacion Hiaqui y por consecuencia la Mayo y del Fuerte, ...
que en la sustancia son una misma y de una propia lengua.' _Cancio_,
in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom. ii., p. 246. Mayo and Yaqui: 'Su
idioma por consiguìente es el mismo, con la diferencia de unas cuantas
voces.' _Velasco_, _Noticias de Sonora_, p. 82. Mayo 'su lengua es la
misma que corre en los rios de Çuaque y Hiaqui.' Yaqui 'que es la mas
general de Cinaloa.' _Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, pp. 237, 287;
_Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 286. 'La lengua cahita es dividida en tres
dialectos principales, el mayo, yaqui y tehueco; ademas hay otros
secundarios.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 485. 'Tres dialectos
principales, el zuaque, la maya y el yaqui.' _Balbi_, in _Orozco y
Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 35; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Esquisses_, p.
31.

[VIII'-3] 'Su idioma es muy franco, nada dificil de aprenderse, y
susceptible de reducirse á las reglas gramaticales de cualquiera
nacion civilizada.' _Velasco_, _Noticias de Sonora_, p. 75.

[VIII'-4] 'En hablar alto, y con brio singulares, y grandemente
arrogantes.' 'No vès que soy Hiaqui: y dezianlo, porque essa palabra,
y nombre, significa, el que habla a gritos.' _Ribas_, _Hist. de los
Triumphos_, p. 285.

[VIII'-5] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 456-91, _Hervás_, in _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 157-8; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der
Aztek. Spr._, pp. 211-18; _Ternaux-Compans_, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voy._, 1841, tom. xcii., pp. 260-87; _Col. Polidiómica Mex._, _Oracion
Dominical_, p. 49.

[VIII'-6] 'Varogia y segun se ha reconocido es lo mismo que la taura
aunque varia algo principalmente en la gramática.' Guazapare 'la
lengua es la misma aunque ya mas parecida á la de los taraumares.'
_Zapata_, _Relacion_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom. iii., pp.
388, 390, 334, et seq.; _Steffel_, in _Murr_, _Nachrichten_, pp.
296-300; _Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 592; _Pimentel_,
_Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 363; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 34.

[VIII'-7] _Tellechea_, _Compendio Gram. del Idioma Tarahumar_, pp. 2-3.

[VIII'-8] _Tellechea_, _Compendio Gram. del Idioma Tarahumar_; also in
_Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. iv., pp. 145-68, and in _Pimentel_,
_Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 366-400; _Steffel_, _Tarahumarisches
Wörterbuch_, in _Murr_, _Nachrichten_, pp. 296-374; _Ternaux-Compans_,
in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1841, tom. xcii., pp. 260-287;
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 144-54; _Col.
Polidiómica Mex._, _Oracion Dominical_, pp. 40-43.

[VIII'-9] 'Have no resemblance with the Mexican.' _Gallatin_, in _Amer.
Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 4. 'This (the Tarahumara) has not
in its words any affinity with the Mexican; and the people who speak
it have a decimal arithmetic.' _Id._, p. 203. 'Ihre Aehnlichkeit mit
dem Mexikanischen ... ist doch gross genug.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_,
tom. iii., pt iii., p. 143; _Wilhelm von Humboldt_, in _Buschmann_,
_Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 46-50.

[VIII'-10] _Wilhelm von Humboldt_, in _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek.
Spr._, pp. 50.

[VIII'-11] _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 58; _Orozco
y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 324-5; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek.
Spr._, p. 172.

[VIII'-12] _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., p. 348;
_Pascual_, in _Hist. Doc. Mex._, série iv., tom. iii., p. 201;
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 172; _Orozco y Berra_,
_Geografía_, pp. 308-9.

[VIII'-13] _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 309, 327; _Col.
Polidiómica Mex._, _Oracion Dominical_, p. 36.

[VIII'-14] _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 309.

[VIII'-15] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 409-413.

[VIII'-16] 'Tienen estos indios dos lenguas totalmente distintas: la una,
y que mas corre entre ellos, y demas gente, es de las que yo tengo en
este partido, con que les hablo, y me entienden ... la otra es
totalmente distinta.' _Hervás_, _Catálogo_, tom. i., p. 320. _Ribas_,
_Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 118; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii.,
pt iii., p. 139. 'Zwar voll von Fremdheit und sehr für sich dasteht,
aber doch als ein wirkliches sonorisches Glied, bei bestimmten
Gemeinschaften mit den anderen und als vorzugsweise reich an
aztekischen Stoff ausgestattet.... Ihre Ähnlichkeiten neigen
abwechselnd gegen die _Cora_, _Tarahumara_, und _Cahita_, besonders
gegen die beiden letzten, auch _Hiaqui_; der _Tepeguana_ bleibt sie
mehr fremd.' _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 164, 170-1.

[VIII'-17] _Col. Polidiómica Mex._, _Oracion Dominical_, p. 47.

[VIII'-18] _Ribas_, _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 673; _Alegre_, _Hist.
Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., p. 319; _Museo Mex._, tom. iii., p. 269;
_Zapata_, _Relacion_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom. iii., pp.
310-315; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 34, 320; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 138; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom.
ii., p. 43; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 162; _Hervás_,
_Catálogo_, tom. i., p. 327.

[VIII'-19] 'La pronunciacion es muy gutural y basta el mas ligero cambio
en ella para que cambien de sentido las palabras.' _Rinaldini_,
_Gramatica_, in _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 46; _Buschmann_,
_Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 36.

[VIII'-20] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 46-68.

[VIII'-21] Sabaibos 'eran de la misma lengua y Nacion Acaxee.' _Ribas_,
_Hist. de los Trivmphos_, pp. 471, 491. Sabaibos 'distinta nacion,
aunque del mismo idioma'--Acaxee. _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_,
tom. i., p. 422. 'Humes, nacion distinta de los xiximes aunque tienen
una misma lengua.' _Alonso del Valle_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série
iv., tom. iii., p. 96. 'Me parece que tienen afinidad las lenguas
_topia_, _acajee_ y _tepehuana_, las quales, como tambien la de
Parras, son dialectos de la _Zacateca_.' _Hervás_, _Catálogo_, tom.
i., p. 327. 'Im Norden von Tepehuana enthält die gebirgige Provinz
Topia um den 25° N. Br. ausser der lingua _Topia_ und der damit
verwandten _Acaxee_, noch im Norden der letzteren die _Xixime_,
_Sicuraba_, _Hina_ und _Iluime_ als Sprachen ebenso vieler
verschiedener in der Nähe der Topia und Acaxee wohnenden
Völkerschaften.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp.
138-9. Castañeda mentions in these regions the Tahus, Pacasas, and
Acaxas languages, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série i., tom. ix.,
pp. 150-3; _Zapata_, _Relacion_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série iv., tom.
iii., pp. 415-17; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 12-13, 319-20;
_Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 173-4.

[VIII'-22] 'Indios cascanes que son los Zacatecas.' 'Xuchipila que
entendian la lengua de los Zacatecos.' _Padilla_, _Conq. N. Galicia_,
MS., p. 234; _Bernardez_, _Descrip. Zacatecas_, p. 23. '_Cazcanes_,
qui ad fines _Zacatecarum_ degunt, lingua moribusque á caeteris
diversi: _Guachachiles_ itidem idiomate differentes; Denique
_Guamaroe_, quorum idioma supra modum concisum, difficilime
addiscitur.' _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 281. 'La lengua mexicana que es
la generica de toda la Provincia.' _Arlegui_, _Chrón. Zacatecas_, p.
52. 'Sobre el Cascon ó Zacateco, no creo que hubiera sido ni aun
dialecto del mexicano, sino que era el mismo mexicano hablado por unos
rústicos que estropeaban las palabras y que les daban distínto
acento.' Huacbichiles, Tejuejue and Tlajomolteco 'Sobre estos idiomas,
ó si les considera dialectos, juzgo que no existieron.' _Romero Gil_,
in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. viii., p. 499; _Ribas_, _Hist.
de los Triumphos_, p. 676; _Hassel_, _Mex. Guat._, p. 159.

[VIII'-23] _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 61.

[VIII'-24] _Apostólicos Afanes_, cap. vii., p. 56. 'Dentro de Reyno de la
Galicia quedaron algunos otras Naciones como son los Cocas, Tequexes,
Choras, Tecualmes y Nayaritas, y otras que despues de pacíficada la
tierra han dejado de hablarse por que ya reducidos los de la lengua
Azteca, que era la major nacion se han mixturado de suerte que ya
todos las mas hablan solo una lengua en toda la Galicia excepta en la
Provincia del Nayarit.' _Padilla_, _Conq. N. Galicia_, MS., p. 8. 'La
lengua Cora, que es la del Nayar.' _Arricivita_, _Crónica Seráfica_,
p. 89; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 39, 281-2; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 131-2.

[VIII'-25] 'La lengua mas comun del pais es la _chota_ aunque muy
interpolada y confundida hoy con la Mexicana.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp.
de Jesus_, tom. iii., p. 197. 'Muchos vocablos de la lengua mexicana,
y algunos de la castellana, los han corisado hacièndolos propios de su
idioma tan antiguamente; que ya hoy en dia corren, y se tienen por
Coras.' _Ortega_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. viii., p. 563.
'No carezco totalmente de datos para creer que los indios nayares son
pimas, ó al menos descendientes de ellos.' _Orozco y Berra_,
_Geografía_, p. 39. 'Es idioma hermano del azteca, tal vez fundado en
algunas palabras que tienen la forma ó las raices del mexicano;
nosotros creemos que estas semejanzas no provienen de comunidad de
orígen de las dos lenguas, sino de las relaciones que esas tribus
mantuvieron por espacio de mucho tiempo.' _Id._, p. 282. 'La core
offrent très-peu d'affinité avec les autres langues américaines.'
_Malte-Brun_, _Précis de la Géog._, tom. vi., p. 449. 'Die Cora ...
bewährt ihre Verwandtschaft vornehmlich durch die unverkennbare
Gleichheit einer nur diesen beiden Sprachen gemeinschaftlichen
Formations-Weise des Verbum in seinen Personen und die Bezeichnung ihrer
Beziehung auf ein leidendes Object, wie die Vergleichung des
grammatischen Charakters beyder Sprachen deutlich zeigen wird.'
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 87, 89. 'Für verwandte
Sprachen, wie sie allerdings scheinen, haben die Cora und die
mexicanische grosse Verschiedenheiten in ihrem Lautsystem.' _Wilhelm
von Humboldt_, in _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, pp. 48-9.

[VIII'-26] 'La lengua Cora ... es tan dificil, que si no se está entre
ellos muchos años, no se puede aprender y tiene de particular, que no
se asemeja á otra de las naciones que tiene vecinas.' _Cavo_, _Tres
Siglos_, tom. ii., p. 117.

[VIII'-27] _Ortega_, _Vocabulario_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom.
viii., pp. 561-602; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 71-88;
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 131-8; _Buschmann_,
_Die Lautveränderung Aztek. Wörter in den Sonor. Spr._; _Id._, _Gram.
der Sonor. Spr._

CHAPTER IX.

THE AZTEC AND OTOMÍ LANGUAGES.

NAHUA OR AZTEC, CHICHIMEC, AND TOLTEC LANGUAGES IDENTICAL --
ANÁHUAC THE ABORIGINAL SEAT OF THE AZTEC TONGUE -- THE AZTEC
THE OLDEST LANGUAGE IN ANÁHUAC -- BEAUTY AND RICHNESS OF THE
AZTEC -- TESTIMONY OF THE MISSIONARIES AND EARLY WRITERS IN ITS
FAVOR -- SPECIMEN FROM PAREDES' MANUAL -- GRAMMAR OF THE AZTEC
LANGUAGE -- AZTEC LORD'S PRAYER -- THE OTOMÍ A MONOSYLLABIC
LANGUAGE OF ANÁHUAC -- RELATIONSHIP CLAIMED WITH THE CHINESE
AND CHEROKEE -- OTOMÍ GRAMMAR -- OTOMÍ LORD'S PRAYER IN
DIFFERENT DIALECTS.

The Nahua, Aztec, or Mexican, is the language of Mexican civilization,
spoken throughout the greater part of Montezuma's empire, extending
from the plateau of Anáhuac, or valley of Mexico, as a centre,
eastward to the gulf of Mexico, and along its shores from above Vera
Cruz east to the Rio Goatzacoalcos; westward to the Pacific, and upon
its border from about the twenty-sixth to the sixteenth parallel, thus
forming an irregular but continuous linguistic line from the gulf of
California south-east, across the Mexican plateau to the gulf of
Mexico, of more than four hundred leagues in extent. Again, it is
found on the coast of Salvador, and in the interior of Nicaragua, and
we have before seen its connection with the nations of the north.
Within the limits of the ancient Mexican empire many other languages
besides the Aztec were spoken, as for instance the Otomí, Huastec,
Totonac, Zapotec, Miztec, and Tarasco, about twenty in all. It has
been claimed by some that the languages of the Toltecs and Chichimecs
were different from each other, and from the Aztec; it has even been
intimated that traces of a language more ancient than any of these
have been found. Pedro de los Rios mentions two words of a song used
in the religious ceremonies at Cholula, _tulanian hululaez_--which he
says belong to a language not understood by the Mexicans, and
Alexander von Humboldt thinks they may be the remains of some
pre-Mexican language.[IX'-1] Others, and among them the Abbé Brasseur de
Bourbourg, claim greater antiquity for the Maya, affirming that it was
spoken in Mexico before the Nahua-speaking people reached that
country.

From a careful examination of the early authorities, I can but
entertain the opinion that the Toltec, Chichimec, and Aztec languages
are one, that the Nahua, or Aztec, is the oldest known language of
Anáhuac, and that contrary conclusions arrived at by certain later
writers are merely speculative. All of the many different peoples
mentioned as aboriginal in ancient Anáhuac are said to have spoken the
Aztec, as the Ulmecs, Xicalancas, Tecpanecs, Colhuas, Acolhuas,
Nahuas, etc. Ixtlilxochitl, the native Tezcucan historian, relates
that by order of the ruler, Techotlalatzin, the Chichimecs dropped
their own tongue and adopted that of the Aztecs.[IX'-2]

[Sidenote: ORIGINALITY OF THE AZTEC TONGUE.]

Furthermore, internal evidence is all in favor of the originality of
the Aztec tongue. Throughout the great empire of Anáhuac it was the
dominant stock language. Towards the north, as we have seen,
sprinklings of it are found in many places, but nowhere does it appear
in that direction as a base. Far to the south, in Nicaragua, it is
again found as the stock tongue, yet with a dialectic rather than an
aboriginal appearance, so that the testimony of language is all in
favor of the plateau of Anáhuac having been the primal centre of the
Aztec tongue, rather than its having been introduced within any
measurable epoch by immigration.

That the Mexican nation did its utmost to extend the language is
certain. It was the court language of American civilization, the Latin
of medieval and the French of modern times; it was used as the means
of holding intercourse with non-Aztec speaking people, also by all
ambassadors, and in all official communications; in all newly acquired
and conquered territories it was immediately introduced as the
official language, and the people were ordered to learn it. It, or its
kindred dialects, can be said to have been the common vernacular in
the whole interior of Anáhuac, and over a large part of the Aztec
plateau, although within these limits other tongues were in vogue.
Southward, it again appears along the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It
was spoken as far as Guatemala, in the interior of which it appeared
in the shape of various dialects more or less corrupted. It can also
be traced into Tabasco, and even into Yucatan on the Atlantic coast.
It is again encountered in the gulf of Amatique, whence lines extend
connecting with the branches of the Aztec in Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua. It is also possible that it may at one time have been used
even east of the Mississippi, as will appear from the following
statements of Acosta and Sahagun. The latter says that the Apalaches
living east of the Mississippi extended their expeditions and colonies
far into Mexico, and were proud to show to the first conquerors of
their country the great highways on which they traveled. Acosta
affirms that the Mexicans called these Apalaches, Tlatuices or
mountaineers. Sahagun, speaking of them, says "they are Nahoas, and
speak the Mexican language."[IX'-3] This is by no means improbable, as
the Aztec is found eastward in the present states of Tamaulipas and
Coahuila, and thence the distance to the Mississippi is not so very
far.[IX'-4]

[Sidenote: THE AZTEC LANGUAGE EAST OF MEXICO.]

Of all the languages spoken on the American continent, the Aztec is
the most perfect and finished, approaching in this respect the tongues
of Europe and Asia, and actually surpassing many of them by its
elegance of expression. Although wanting the six consonants, _b_,
_d_, _f_, _r_, _g_, _s_, it may still be called full and rich. Of its
copiousness the Natural History of Dr Hernandez gives evidence, in
which are described twelve hundred different species of Mexican
plants, two hundred or more species of birds, and a large number of
quadrupeds, reptiles, insects, and metals, each of which is given its
proper name in the Mexican language.[IX'-5] Mendieta says that it is not
excelled in beauty by the Latin, displaying even more art in its
construction, and abounding in tropes and metaphors. Camargo calls it
the richest of the whole land, and the purest, being mixed with no
foreign barbaric element; Gomara says it is the best, most copious,
and most extended in all New Spain; Dávila Padilla, that it is very
elegant and graceful, although it contains many metaphors which make
it difficult; Lorenzana, that it is very elegant, sweet, and complete;
Clavigero, that it is copious, polite, and expressive; Brasseur de
Bourbourg, that from the most sublime heights it descends to common
things with a sonorousness and richness of expression peculiar only to
itself. The missionaries found it ample for their purpose, as in it
and without the aid of foreign words they could express all the shades
of their dogmas, from the thunderings and anathemas of Sinai to the
sublime teachings of the Christ.

Although the Spaniards usually employed the word Dios for God, the
Aztecs offered one as fit, their Teotl, and Tloque Nahuaque,
signifying invisible supreme being. The many written Aztec sermons,
catechisms, and rituals also attest the copiousness of the
tongue.[IX'-6] The Mexican, like the Hebrew and French, does not
possess superlative nouns, and like the Hebrew and most of the living
European languages, it has no comparatives, their place being supplied
by certain particles. The Aztec contains more diminutives and
augmentatives than the Italian, and is probably richer than any other
tongue in the world in verbal nouns and abstracts, there being hardly
a verb from which verbal nouns cannot be formed, or a substantive or
adjective of which abstracts are not made. It is equally rich in
verbs, for every verb is the root from which others of different
meanings spring. Agglutination or aggregation is carried to its widest
extent, and words of inordinate length are not uncommon. In
agglutinating, end-syllables or letters are usually dropped,
principally for the sake of euphony. A prayer to the Virgin of
Guadalupe, which is to be found in the _Promptuario Manual_ of
Paredes, I insert here as a curious specimen of long words:

* * * * *

[Sidenote: SPECIMEN OF LONG AZTEC WORDS.]

Tlahuemmanaliztli; ic momoztlê tictocemmacazque in Tlâtocacihuapilli
Santa Maria de Guadalupe. Tlâtocacihuapillê, Notlazomahuiznantzinê,
Santa Mariae, nican mixpantzinco ninomayahui, ninocnotlaza, ihuan
mochi Noyollotica, Nanimatica nimitzhohuêcapanilhuia,
nimitznomahuiztililia, nimitznotlazotilia, ihuan
nimitznotlazocamachitia ipampa in nepapan in motetlaocolilitzin; ic in
Tehuâtzin otinechmomacahuililitzino. Auh ocyecenca ipampa ca
Tehuâtzin, Notzopelicanantziné, otinechmopiltzintitzino, ihuan,
otinechmoconetitzinô. Auh ic ipampa in axcan ihuan yê mochipa
nimitznocemmacatzinoa, Notetlaocolicanantzinê, inic in Tehuâtzin
nimitznotlazotiliz, ihuan inic áic nimitznoyoltequipaehilhuiz. Auh in
Tehuâtzin, nimitznotlátlauhtilia: in ma in nonemian, ihuan in
nomiquian xinechmopalchuili, ma xinechmochimalcaltili, ihuan ma in
motetlaocolilizcuexantzinco xinechmocalaquili; inic qualli ic ninemiz,
ihuan nimiquiz; inic çatepan nimitznomahuizalhuiz, in ompa in
Ilhuicac; in ompa in Dios Itlâtocatecpanchantzinco in Gloria.
Amen.[IX'-7]

* * * * *

A word of sixteen syllables, the name of a plant, occurs in
Hernandez--_mihuiittilmoyoiccuitlatonpicixochitl_.[IX'-8] Though the
Aztecs made verses, no specimens of their poetry have been preserved
except in a translated form. One, composed by the great Tezcucan, King
Nezahualcoyotl, translated in full in the preceding volume, gives us
an exalted idea of the advanced state of the language.[IX'-9]

The Mexican language employs the following letters: _a_, _ç_, _ch_,
_e_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _q_, _t_, _tl_, _tz_,
_u_, _v_, _x_, _y_, _z_. The pronunciation is soft and musical, and
free from nasal sound. The _a_ is clear; _ch_ before a vowel is
pronounced as in Spanish; but before a consonant, or when a terminal,
it differs somewhat; _e_ is clear; _h_ is an aspirate, in general
soft, being strong only when it precedes _u_. No word commences with
the letter _l_; _ll_ is pronounced as in English. The _t_ is sometimes
silent, but not when it comes between two _l's_; _tl_ in the middle of
a word is soft, as in Spanish, but as a terminal it is pronounced
_tle_, the _e_ half mute; _tz_ is similar to the Spanish _s_, but a
little stronger; the _v_ is by the women pronounced as in Spanish, but
men give it a sound very similar to _hu_ in Spanish; _x_ is soft, like
_sh_ in English; _z_ is like _s_ in Spanish, but less hissing.

[Sidenote: AGGLUTINATION IN THE AZTEC LANGUAGE.]

By compounding, the Mexicans make many long words, some even of
sixteen syllables; but there are also some non-compounded words that
are very long. Words are compounded by uniting a number of whole
words, and not alone by simple juxtaposition, since, with much
attention to brevity and euphony, letters and syllables are frequently
omitted. For instance;--_tlazotli_, loved; _mahuiztik_; honorable, or
reverend; _teopixqui_, priest; _tatli_, father; _no_, mine; of which
is composed _notlazomahuizteopixcatzin_, that is to say, my very
esteemed father and reverend priest. This also presents an example of
the ending _tzin_, which simply signifies respect. _Teopixqui_ is
composed of _teotl_, God, and _pia_, to guard. There are two particles
which may be appropriately called ligatures, as they serve to unite
words in certain cases; they are _ca_ and _ti_. _Kualani_, to
irritate, to anger; _itta_, consider, reflect; _nikualanicaitta_, to
observe with anger, angrily.

By reason of these compounded words, the meaning of a whole sentence
is often contained in a single word, as;--_tlalnepantla_, in the
middle of the earth, or, situated in the middle; _popocatepetl_,
smoking mountain; _atzcaputzalli_, ant-hill, or, place where there are
many people moving--alluding to a dense population; _cuauhnahuac_,
(Cuernavaca) near to the trees; _atlixco_, above the water;
_tepetitlan_, above the mountain, etc.

There are several ways of expressing the plural. As a rule, plurals
are applied only to animate objects. Inanimate objects seldom change
in the plural, as;--_ce tetl_, one stone; _yei tetl_, three stones;
_miec tetl_, many stones. In exceptional cases the plural of inanimate
objects is expressed by terminals. One of these exceptions is when the
object is connected with persons, as;--_zoquitl_, mud; _tizoquime_, we
are earth; but there are again exceptions to this rule, as for
instance;--_ilhuicame_, the heavens; _tepeme_, mountains; _zitlaltin_,
stars. Sometimes inanimate things also form the plural by doubling the
first syllable;--_tetla_, place full of stones; _tetetla_, places full
of stones; _calli_, house; cacalli, houses. These various terminations
may be reduced to the following rules. Primitive words have the plural
in _me_, _tin_, or _que_, as;--_ichcatl_, a sheep; _ichcame_, sheep;
_zolin_, a quail, _zoltin_, quail; _cocoxqui_, sick; _cocoxque_, sick
(plural); _topile_, constable; _topileque_, constables. Derivatives
form the plural as follows: those called reverentials, ending with
_tzintli_, have in the plural _tzitzintin_. Diminutives, ending in
_tontli_, have in the plural _totontin_, and diminutives ending in
_ton_ and _pil_, augmentatives in _pol_, and reverentials in _tzin_,
double the terminal, as;--_tlacatzintli_, person; _tlacatzitzintin_,
persons; _ichcatontli_, a lamb; _ichcatatontin_, lambs; _ichcapil_,
lamb; _ichcapipil_, lambs; _chichiton_, a little dog; _chichitoton_,
little dogs; _huehuetzin_, old man; _huehuetzitzin_, old men.

Words into whose composition the possessive pronoun enters,
whether primitive or derivative, have for the plural _van_ or
_huan_;--_noichcahuan_, my sheep; _noichcatotonhuan_, my little sheep.
The words _tlcatl_, man, _ciuatl_, woman, and those which imply an
official or professional position, form the plural simply by leaving
off the last letters, as;--_mexicatl_, plural, _mexicá_; in which
case, however, the ultimate syllable is accented. Some words, to form
the plural, double the first syllable, and also use terminals,
as;--_teotl_, God; _teteo_, gods; _zolin_, quail; _zozoltin_, quails;
_zitli_, hare; _ziziltin_, hares. _Telpochtli_ and _ichpochtli_,
double the syllable _po_.

Some adjectives have several plurals, as;--_miec_, much; plural,
_miectin_, _miecintin_, or _miecin_. Gender is expressed by adding the
words _oquichtli_ or _ciuatl_, male and female, except in such words
as in themselves indicate the gender. A father speaking of his son
says, _nopiltzin_, and a mother of her daughter, _noconeuh_.

[Sidenote: AZTEC GRAMMAR.]

There are no regular declensions; in the vocative case, an _e_ is
added to the nominative, or words ending in _tli_ or _li_, change the
_i_ into _e_. Those ending in _tzin_ may change to _tze_ or add an
_e_, but the latter is only used by males. The genitive is denoted by
the possessive pronoun or by the juxtaposition of the words,
as;--_teotl_, God; _tenahuatilli_, emanating; _teotenahuatilli_, precept
of God. The dative is indicated by verbs called applicatives; the
accusative, by certain particles which accompany the verb, or by
juxtaposition; as;--_chihua_, to have; _tlaxcalli_, bread;
_nitlaxcalchihua_, I have bread. The ablative is indicated by certain
particles and prepositions. Diminutives are formed by the terminals
_tontli_ and _ton_, as;--_chichi_, dog; _chichiton_, small dog;
_calli_, house; _cacontli_, small house. Augmentatives take the
syllable _pol_. The terminals _tla_, and _la_, serve as collectives;
--_xochitl_, flower; _xochitla_, flower-bed. Words ending with _otl_
are abstracts, as;--_qualli_, good; _qualotl_, goodness. Those ending
with _va_ (_hua_) and _e_ indicate possession;--_ilhuicatl_, heaven;
_ilhuicahua_, master of heaven, (applied to God). Comparatives and
superlatives have no particular terminations, but their place is
supplied by adverbs, as;--_achi_, _ocachi_, etc., which mean 'more.'
Pedro is better than Juan, _ocachiqualli in Pedro ihuan amo Juan_;
here the adverb is connected with _quallo_, good. Words derived from
active, neuter, passive, reflective and impersonal verbs, having
various significations, terminate in _ni_, _oni_, _ya_, _ia_, _yan_,
_can_, _yau_, _ian_, _tli_, _li_, _liztli_, _oca_, _ca_, _o_, _tl_;
as;--_cochini_, he who sleeps; _tlaxcalchihuani_, he who has bread;
_motlaloani_, he who runs; _chihualoni_, practicable; _neitoniloni_,
something producing perspiration; _notlachiuaya_, my instrument;
_amotlanequia_, our will; _tlacualoyan_, eater; _micoayan_, place to
sleep; _itepatiayan_, hospital; _tlachihualli_, created, produced;
_tetlazotlatiztli_, love; _nachihualoka_, creation.

Personal pronouns are;--_nehuatl_, _nehua_, _ne_, I; _tehuatl_,
_tehua_, _te_, thou; _yehuatl_, _yehua_, _ye_, he or somebody;
_tehuantin_, _tehua_, we; _amehuantin_, _amehuan_, you; _yehuantin_,
_yehuan_, they. Possessives;--_no_, mine; _mo_, thine; _i_, his; _to_,
ours; _amo_, yours; _in_ or _im_, theirs; _te_, belonging to others.

The above-mentioned possessives are used in compounded words, and
change the final syllable of the word to which they are
joined;--_teotl_, God; _noteuh_, my God; _huehuetl_, old man;
_amohuehuetcauh_, our old man.

The verb has indicative, imperative, optative, and subjunctive
moods--present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, and future tenses.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TEMICTIA, TO KILL.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I kill, nitemictia | We kill, titemictiâ
Thou killest, titemictia | You kill, antemictiâ
He kills, temictia | They kill, temictiâ

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I killed, nitemictiaya | I have killed, onitemicti
| We have killed, otitemictiquê

PLUPERFECT.

I had killed, onitemictica

FIRST FUTURE. SECOND FUTURE.

I shall kill, nitemictiz | I shall have killed, yeonitemictli
We shall kill, titemictizquê |

IMPERATIVE.

Kill thou, maxictemicti | Kill you, maxitemictican

OPTATIVE.

Would that I might kill, manitemictiani

PASSIVE FORMS.

I am killed, nimictilo
I was killed, onimictiloya

PASSIVE FORMS.

I have been killed, onimictiloc
I had been killed, onimitiloca
I shall be killed, nimictiloz
I shall have been killed, ye onimictiloc
O that I may be killed, manimictilo
O that I had been killed, manimictiloni
I ought to be killed, nimictilozquia
He who is killed, inmictilo

OTHER FORMS.

If I had killed, intlaonitcmictiani
If I had not killed, intlacamo onitemictiani
If I should kill, intlanitemictiz
He who kills, intemictia
I come to kill, onitemictico
I will come to kill, nitemictiquiuh
May I come to kill, manitemictiqui
I went to kill, onitemictito
I will go to kill, nitemictiuh
May I go to kill, manitemiciti

[Sidenote: AZTEC IRREGULAR VERBS.]

There are but few irregular verbs in the Aztec language and the
following are all that Pimentel could find;--_ka_ and _mani_, to be;
_icac_, to be on foot; _onoc_, to be lying down; _yauh_, to go;
_huallauh_ and _huitz_, to come; _mazehualti_, _icnopilti_, and
_ilhuilti_, to obtain a benefit.

The following words are always used as affixes:

For pal, pampa Of, from tech
Behind icampa, tepotzco, Toward huic
cuitlapan Between tzalan
With huan, pa, copa, ca In the midst nepantla
Belonging to tloc Together nahuac
Within co, c Above icpac
On the other side nalko, nal Before ixco, ixpan,
ixtlan, ixtla
Underneath tlan Inside itic, itec
Under tzintlan

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Totatzine ynilhuicac timoyeztica, mayectenehualo
Our revered father who heaven in art, be praised

inmotocatzin, mahualauh inmotlatocayotzin machihualo
thy name, may come thy kingdom be done

intlalticpac inmotlanequilitzin, inyuhchichihualo inilhuicac,
earth above thy will as is done heaven in,

intotlaxcalmomoztlac totech monequi maaxcan
our bread every day to us is necessary to-day

xitechmomaquili, maxitechmetlapopohuili intotlatlacol,
give us, forgive us our sins,

iniuh tiquintlapopolhuia intechtlatla calhuia,
as we forgive those who us offend,

macamoxitechmomacahuili inicamo ipan tihuetzizque
thou not us lead that not in we fall

inteneyeyecoltiliztli: çanye xitechmomaquixtili inyhuicpa
in temptation: but deliver us against

inamoqualli. Maiuhmochihua.[IX'-10]
from not good.

Many comparisons between the Aztec and the tongues of Asia and Europe
have been made, and relationship claimed with almost every prominent
language, but under analysis all these fancied affinities vanish.
Similarities in words, in common with all tongues, are found between
the Aztec and others, but at best they can be called only accidental.
Still, a few remarkable word-analogies have been noticed, among the
chief of which are the following. The Aztec like the Greek and
Sanskrit, uses the privative preposition _a_, which in the Celtic has
been changed to _an_, in Latin to _in_, or _im_, and in the German to
_un_;--Greek, athanatos; Aztec, _amiquini_, immortal. Further, in the
perfect tense, and sometimes in the imperfect, _o_ is used in the
Aztec, like the Sanskrit _a_, and the Greek _e_. But the most
remarkable coincidence is the word _teotl_, which is as near as
possible to the Greek _Théos_. Kingsborough and Mrs Simon see in the
Aztec the language of the Jews; Jones that of the ancient Tyrians;
Lang, that of the Polynesians. García makes comparisons with the
Hebrew, Spanish, Phœnician, Egyptian, Japanese, and German, and for a
relationship with these and many others he finds claimants. Until
further light is thrown upon American philology, the Aztec must stand
alone, as one of the independent languages of the world.[IX'-11]

* * * * *

The Otomí, held to be next to the Aztec the most widely extended
language in Mexico, was spoken by a rough and barbarous people who
inhabit the mountains encircling the valley of Anáhuac, but more
particularly those towards the north-west. Thence it extended into the
present state of San Luis Potosí, was spoken throughout Querétaro and
the larger part of Guanajuato, and in places in Michoacan, Vera Cruz,
and Puebla.[IX'-12] From the Journal and Proceedings of the fourth
Provincial Council, held in Mexico in the year 1771, it appears that
the language was spoken in four dialects, varying so much that it was
only with the greatest difficulty that the several tribes could hold
intercourse.[IX'-13] The only dialect of which particular notice has
been taken is the Mazahua, spoken in the ancient province of
Mazahuacan. Of the others the only specimens are a few Lord's Prayers.

[Sidenote: HYPOTHETICAL OTOMÍ AND CHINESE RELATIONSHIP.]

The Otomí claims attention in one particular; it is the only true
monosyllabic language found in the Pacific States, and this alone has
led many to claim relationship between it and the Chinese.

This Chinese relationship has been mainly advocated by Señor Nájera, a
native Otomí, who in furtherance of his peculiar views wrote an
excellent Otomí grammar, in an appendix to which he gives an extensive
comparison between the two idioms. But, taking up the words which he
declares to be similar, we are at once struck with important omissions
on his part. The first is that he has not at all taken into
consideration the difficulty of comparing monosyllabic languages, in
which a word frequently has ten or more significations,
distinguishable only by pronunciation and accentuation, and at times
having scarcely these distinguishing features. Secondly, the words
which he adduces to be similar, are wanting in the very essentials
that constitute a relationship, for in most instances they are not
even similar in sound, a requisite to which more attention ought to be
paid in monosyllabic languages than in those which are polysyllabic.
The few words that in reality are similar are probably only accidental
resemblances, and the question of relationship between the Otomí and
Chinese cannot be said to have been established as yet.[IX'-14]

Mr Bringier branches out in another direction in search of a
relationship, and fancies he finds it in the Cherokee, basing his
whole argument on a hypothetical resemblance of perhaps half a dozen
words, which in fact do not resemble each other at all.[IX'-15]

Like other monosyllabic tongues the Otomí is rather difficult to
acquire, its pronunciation being rough, guttural, with frequently
occurring nasals and aspirates.[IX'-16]

[Sidenote: OTOMÍ GRAMMAR.]

As before stated, many words having distinct meanings, are
distinguished only by various sounds, or intonations of the same
vowel; many words even having the same sound and intonations have
different meanings. The words of this language are of one or two
syllables; a few of them have three. In words compounded of more than
one syllable, each syllable preserves its original meaning. The words
whether noun or verb, are inflexible. Neither substantive nor
adjective nouns have any gender. The same word may be a substantive,
adjective, verb, and adverb, as in the following sentence;--_na nho
nho ye na nho he nho_, which means, the goodness of man is good and
becomes him well. Nouns have neither declension nor gender, which are
expressed either by distinct words, or by _ta_, or _tza_, male, and
_nsu_ or _nxu_, female;--_tayo_, the dog; _nxuyo_, slut. The particle
_na_ has the property of the article and, prefixed to the noun,
distinguishes the singular. In the plural, _ya_ affixed, or _e_
prefixed, is substituted. Adjectives are always placed before
substantives;--_ka ye_, holy man. Comparatives are expressed by the
words _nra_, more, and _chu_, less;--_nho_, good; _nra nho_, better.
Superlatives are in like manner shown by the word _tza_, or _tze_,
prefixed, meaning very much, excessively, exceedingly;--_tza nho_,
best; _tze ntzo_, worst, or very bad. The particle _ztzi_, or _ztzu_,
prefixed, marks a diminutive;--_ztzi hensi_, a small paper. In
abstract nouns of quality the prefix _na_ is changed into _sa_;--_na
nho yeh_, a good man; _sa nho_, that which is good. Personal pronouns
are;--_nuga_, _nugaga_, _nugui_, I; _gui_, _ki_, me, for me; _nugué_,
_nûy_, thou; _y_, _hi_, to thee, for thee; _nunu_, he; _bi_, _ba_,
_ki_, him, for him, to him; _nugahé_, _nugagahé_, _nuguihé_, we, or
us; _nuguégúi_, _nuguehu_, _nûygúi_, _nûyhu_, you, to you; _nuyu_,
they; _ma_, mine; _ni_, thine; _na_, his.

Verbs are conjugated with the assistance of particles, which designate
tense and person. Every tense has three persons, also a singular, and
a plural. The plural is always designated by the syllable _hé_, we;
_wi_, _gúi_, or _hu_, you; _yu_, they. All nouns may also be verbs,
for the Otomís, unable to segregate the abstract idea of existence
from the thing existing, confound both and have no substantive
verb;--_nho_, good; _di nho_, I good, or I am good.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB NEE, I WILL.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I will, di nee | We will, di nee hé
Thou willest, gui nee | You will, gui nee gúi
He wills, y nee | They will, y nee yu

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I willed, di nee hma | I have willed, xta nee, or da nee

PLUPERFECT.

I had willed, xta nee hma

FIRST FUTURE. SECOND FUTURE.

I shall will, ga nee | I shall have willed, gua xte nee

IMPERATIVE.

Will thou, nee | Will you, nee gúi nee hu[IX'-17]

[Sidenote: OTOMÍ AND MAZAHUA LORD'S PRAYERS.]

LORD'S PRAYER.

Ma tà he ni bùy mahetsi da ne ansu ni huhu
My father we thou house heaven call holy thy name name

da ehe ga he ni bùy da kha ni hnee ngù
thy will come towards us thy house thy will do thy will as

gua na hày te ngù mahètsi ma hme he ta nà pa
here the earth as also heaven the bread us every day

rà he nar a pa ya ha, puni he ma dupatè he
give us one day new and forgive us our debts

tengù di puni he u ma ndupatè he ha yo gui he he
as we forgive now debtors ours and avoid the permit us

ga he kha na tzò cadi ma na pehe he hin nhò.
do us in bad action but save us no good.

Do kha.
Thy will do.

The same in another dialect. Still another version of the same.

The grammar of the Mazahua dialect is very nearly the same as that of
the Otomí, and I therefore insert the Lord's Prayer only to illustrate
the connection between the two languages.

Mi yho me ki obuihui ahezi tanereho ni chuu ta ehe
Our father is heaven sanctified thy name come

ni nahmuu ta cha axoñihomue cho ni nane makhe
thou kingdom do earth ? thy will as

anzi ocha ahezi. Ti yak me mi bech me choyazmue,
also is done heaven. Give us our bread every day,

ti chotkhe me mo huezok me makhe anzi tigattotpue
forgive us our faults as also we forgive

me mache i zokhegue me pêkhecho gueguetme tezoxkhemeyo
those who offend us not us must lead in

huezok hi tipe yeziz one macho yoñene macho
sins deliver us from all

tenxi higaho.[IX'-18]
evil.

FOOTNOTES:

[IX'-1] 'Les Cholulains chantoient dans leur fêtes en dansant autour du
téocalli, et que ce cantique commençoit par les mots _Tulanian
hululaez_, qui ne sont d'aucune langue actuelle du Mexique. Dans tous
les parties du globe, sur le dos des Cordillères, comme à l'île de
Samothrace, dans la mer Egée, des fragmens de langues primitives se
sont conservés dans les rites religieux.' _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i.,
p. 115.

[IX'-2] 'Les Culhuas, les Tecpanèques, les Aculhuaques, les Chalmecas,
les Ulmecas les Xicalancas ... parlaient la même langue, quoique dans
chaque province avec un autre dialecte; la principale différence
consistait dans la prononciation.' _Camargo_, _Hist. Tlax._, in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 138. 'Les
Ulmecas, les Xicalancas et les Zacatecas ... avaient les mêmes
moeurs et la même langue.' _Id._, p. 137. 'Car la langue de ce pays
(Xalisco) est le chichimeque, et Marina parlait mexicain. On se
servait, à la verité, aussi dans ce pays d'un Mexicain grossier et
barbare, tandis que Marina le parlait avec beaucoup d'élégance.'
_Id._, tom. xcix., p. 143. Techotlalatzin 'fue el primero que usó
hablar la lengua nahua, que ahora se llama Mexicana, porque sus
pasados nunca la usaron; y asi mandó que todos los de la nacion
Chichimeca la hablasen, en especial todos los que tuviesen oficio y
cargos de republica.' _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chich._, in
_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., p. 217. 'Los Mexicanos ... son
de los mismos de Colhua ... por ser la lengua toda una.' _Motolinia_,
_Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 5. 'La
lengua de los Mexicanos es la de los Nahuales.' _Id._, p. 187. 'La
principal lengua de la Nueva España que es de nahuatl.' _Id._, p. 231;
see also pp. 10-11. 'Los Tetzcucanos (llamados Aculhuaques) y los
Mexicanos, ... eran de vn Lenguage.' 'La propia, y antigua Lengua, de
los Chichimecas Antiguos ... es esta que aora corre, con comun Nombre
de Mexicana.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 31, 33, 44.
Tecpaneca, Otomí y Acolhua. 'El lenguage de estas tres naciones era
diverso, no lo era rigorosamente hablando el de la tecpaneca y
aculhua, ni pueden llamarse tales y distintos de la lengua nahuatl ó
mejicana, sino solamente en el dialecto y frasimos, al modo que el
portuguez respecto del castellana. La Otomi se diferencia mas de la
nahuatl.' _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mej._, tom. ii., p. 44. Ulmecs; 'su
lengua era la Nahuatl que hoy llaman mejicana, y se tiene por madre; y
esta fué de la nacion tolteca, y he oido decir á personas bien
instruidas en este idioma, que en algunos pueblos que aun subsisten en
nuestros dias conocidas por de la nacion ulmeca.' _Id._, tom. i., p.
154. 'Los _Nahoas_, eran los que hablaban la lengua mexicana, aunque
no la pronunciaban tan clara, como los perfectos mexicanos; y estos
_Nahoas_ tambien se llamaban _Chichimecas_.' 'De estos _Chichimecas_
unos habia que se decian _Nahuazchichimecas_ llamándose de _Nahóas_ y
de _Chichimecas_ porque hablaban algo la lengua de los _Nahóas_ ó
Mexicanos y la suya propia Chichimeca.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
iii., lib. x., pp. 120, 130, 147. 'Lengua _Nàhuatl_ ... se entiende
ser en lengua Mexicàna; aunque la que al presente hablan y hablaron en
la Gentilidad los Mexicànos no es suya, sino aprehendida de las otras
antecedentes Naciones, y mas bien se debia llamar Tultèca, porque esta
Nacion la traxo desde su peregrinacion, haviendola perfeccionado en la
tercera Edad.' _Boturini_, _Catálogo_, p. 95. 'Los tlaxcaltecos, que
tienen la mesma lengua nahual de México y Tezcuco.' _Mendieta_, _Hist.
Ecles._, p. 147. 'Le nahuatl est sans nul doute une langue déjà
ancienne dans l'Amérique centrale, et plus ancienne même que l'empire
dont Montézuma fut le chef.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Lettre_, in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., pp. 154, 153. 'Io
però non dubito, che la lingua propria dei Cicimechi antichi fosse la
medesima degli Acolhui, e Nahuatlachi, cioe messicana.' _Clavigero_,
_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., p. 153. 'Los Mexicanos, ó por
mejor decir Aztlanecas, no es su natural lengua la que hablan ahora,
... es la que aprendieron en Tezcuco.' _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Relaciones_,
in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., p. 345. 'Que el lenguage
mexicano se usó por las antiquísimas naciones de los _Toltecas_ y
_Chichimecas_.' _Hervás_, _Catálogo_, tom. i., p. 298. 'Xochimilcas,
Chalqueños, Tepanecas, Colhuas, Tlahuicas, Tlazcaltecas y Mexicanos
... todas hablan un mismo idioma.' _Heredia y Sarmiento_, _Sermon_, p.
86. 'Mehr oder minder zahlreiche Sprachreste aus dem Mexikanischen
Sprachstamme ... sind Zeugen von der ehemaligen Verbreitung der
Tolteken im Süden.' _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 525.
'Chichimecs ... same family with the Toltecs, whose language they
appear to have spoken.' _Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., p. 14. 'Die
Chichimeken welche aztekisch reden.' _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom.
ii., pt ii., p. 364; _Wappäus_, _Geog. u. Stat._, pp. 34-5. 'Dass sie
Eines Ursprunges mit den Tolteken, ... waren, beweist die allen
gemeinschaftliche Sprache, welche noch die aztekische heisst.'
_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 6. 'The Aztecs, Acolhuas, and other
kindred tribes ... were of the same language ... as the Toltecs.'
_Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 203.
'Lengua mexicana, llamada tolteca.' _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p.
86. 'Toltecas y las siete tribus nahuatlacas tenian un mismo orígen y
hablaban la misma lengua, que era el mexicano, nahuatl ó azteca; pero
de ninguna manera succede esto respecto á los chichimecas, aunque
hasta hoy por un error muy comun se cree lo contrario.' _Pimentel_,
_Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 154; _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_, fol. 32. 'Les
rares traditions qui nous sont restées de l'empire des Votanides,
antérieurement à l'arrivée des Nahoas, ne donnent aucune lumière sur
les populations qui habitaient, à cette époque, les provinces
intérieures du Mexique.... Ce que nous pensons, toutefois, pouvoir
avancer avec une conviction plus entière, c'est que la majeure partie
des nations qui en dépendaient parlaient une seule et même langue.'
'Cette langue était suivant toute apparence le _Maya_ ou Yucatèque.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 102; _Heller_,
_Reisen_, p. 379, et seq.

[IX'-3] Acosta, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, p. 600; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
iii., lib. ix., cap. 9; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Palenqué_, p. 39.

[IX'-4] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. v., cap. v., lib. vi.,
cap. xii., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. ix., lib. iv., cap. vii., dec.
iv., lib. ix., cap. xiii.; _Dávila Padilla_, _Hist. Fvnd. Mex._, p.
64. 'Nicaragua sea y esté poblada de Nahuales, que son de la lengua de
México.' _Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de
Doc._, tom. i., pp. 10-11, 231; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., p.
103, tom. iv., pp. 35-37, 108; _Solis_, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, tom. i.,
p. 118. 'Seine Herrschafft, Lands-Sprach, und Glaubens-Sect
erstreckten sich einer seits biss zu dem Markflecken Tecoantepec, das
ist zweyhundert, anderseits biss gehn Guatimala dass ist dreyhundert
Meil sehr von der Statt Mexico.' _Hazart_, _Kirchengeschichte_, tom.
ii., p. 499. 'Esta lengua mexicana es la general que corre por todas
las provincias de esta Nueva España, puesto que en ella hay muy muchas
y differentes lenguas particulares, de cada provincia, y en partes de
cada pueblo, porque son innumerables.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p.
552. 'Sie haben viererley Sprach darinnen, unter welchen der Mexicaner
am lieblichsten vnd gebräuchlichsten (in Nicaragua).' _West und
Ost-Indischer Lustgart_, p. 390; _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_, p. 12.
'La lengua general del pais, que era la Mejicana.' _Beaumont_, _Crón.
Mechoacan_, MS., p. 89; _Arnaya_, _Carta_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série
iv., tom. iii., p. 67. 'Celui de Mexico est regardé comme le dialecte
original.' _Camargo_, _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._,
1843, tom. xcviii., p. 138; _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol.
341; _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 252; _Gottfried_, _Newe Welt_, p. 285;
_Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, p. 224; _Chevalier_, _Mex. Ancien et Mod._,
p. 160; _Museo Mex._, tom. iii., p. 269; _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 20;
_Squier_, in _Id._, note iii., p. 100; _Squier's Monograph of
Authors_, p. ix.; _Id._, _Cent. Amer._, pp. 320, 327-9, 339, 413;
_Stephens' Cent. Amer._, vol. ii., p. 190; _Froebel_, _Aus Amerika_,
tom. i., p. 285; _Conder's Mex. Guat._, vol. ii., p. 178; _Romero_,
_Noticias para formar la Historia de Michoacan_, p. 5; _Alegre_,
_Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., pp. 89-90; _Baril_, _Mexique_, p.
212; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Id._, _Esquisses_, p. 24; _Gallatin_,
in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 3, 8; _Orozco y
Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 54-5; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt
iii., p. 85; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 158; _Anales del
Ministerio de Fomento_, 1854, tom. i.; _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, p.
584; _Id._, _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 530.

[IX'-5] _Hernandez_, _Nova Plant_.

[IX'-6] See _Juan de la Anunciacion_, _Doctrina Christiana muy cumplida,
donde se contiene la exposicion de todo lo necessario para doctrinar a
los Indios y administralles los Sanctos Sacramentos. Compuesta en
lengua Castellana y Mexicana_. Mex., 1575. _Juan de la Anunciacion_,
_Sermonario en lengua Mexicana_. Mex., 1577. _Joan Baptista_,
_Advertencias para los Confesores de los Naturales_. Mex., 1600.
_Rosales_, _Loa en Obsequio de la Aparicion de Nuestra Señora de
Guadalupe, Poem_, 1582. _Ioan de Mijango_, _Espejo Diuino, en lengua
Mexicana_. Mex., 1607. _Martin de Leon_, _Camino del Cielo, en lengua
Mexicana_. Mex., 1611. _Martin de Leon_, _Manual breve y forma de
administrar los Santos Sacramentos á los Indios_. Mex., 1640. _Carlos
Celedonio Velasquez de Cardenas y Leon_, _Breve Practica, y Regimen
del Confessionario de Indios en Mexicano_. Mex., 1661. _Ignacio de
Paredes_, _Promptuario Manual Mexicano_. Mex., 1759. _Francisco de
Avila_, _Platica para hazer a los Indios_. Mex., 1717. _Antonio
Vasquez Gastelu_, _Confessionario Breve en lengua Mexicana, Catecismo
Breve_. Puebla, 1716, and 2d edition, 1826, 1838, also 1860.
_Lecciones Espirituales para las Tandas de Ejercicios._ Puebla, 1841.
_Pequeno Catecismo en el idioma Mex._ Puebla, 1819. _Juan Romualdo
Amaro_, _Doctrina_. Mex. 1840.

[IX'-7] _Paredes_, _Promptuario Manual Mexicano_, p. xc.

[IX'-8] _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 24.

[IX'-9] 'La mexicana no es menos galana y curiosa que la latina, y aun
pienso que mas artizada en composicion y derivacion de vocablos, y en
metáforas, cuya inteligencia y uso se ha perdido.' _Mendieta_, _Hist.
Ecles._, p. 552. 'La langue mexicaine est la plus riche de toute
contrée: elle est aussi la plus pure, car elle n'est pas mélangée
d'aucun mot étranger.' _Camargo_, _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales
des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 136. 'Lengua Mexicana y Nahuatl, que
es la mejor, mas copiosa y mas estendida que ay en la nueva España.'
_Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 293; _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, vol. iv.,
fol. 1135. 'La lengua Mexicana, que aunque es muy elegante y graciosa,
tiene por su artificio y agudeza muchas metaforas, que la hazen
dificultosa.' _Dávila Padilla_, _Hist. Fvnd. Mex._, p. 31. 'Malgrado
la mancanza di quelle sei consonanti é una lingua copiosissima, assai
pulita, e sommamente espressiva.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. ii., p. 171. 'Es muy elegante este idioma, dulce, y muy
abundante de Frases, y composiciones.' _Cortés_, _Hist. Nueva España_,
p. 5; _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, pp. 240-1; _Carbajal Espinosa_, _Hist.
Mex._, tom. i., p. 635; _Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. iii., pp. 105-8. 'Su
lengua es la mejor y mas polida.' (Tezcuco.) _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._,
dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. x. 'La mas elegante la Tezcucana como la
Castellana en Toledo.' _Vetancvrt_, _Teatro Mex._, pt ii., p. 14;
_Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 142; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 382-3.
'Esta lengua mas elegante y expressiva que la Latina, y dulce que la
Toscana.' _Granados y Galves_, _Tardes Amer._, p. 401. 'La langue
mexicaine est riche comme les autres langues indiennes; mais, comme
elles, elle est matérielle et n'abonde pas en mots significatifs
d'idées abstraites; comme elles, elle est synthétique dans sa
structure, et n'en diffère, quant à ses formes, que par les détails
qui n'affectent point son génie et son caractère. Elle abonde en
particules intercalées,' _Du Ponceau_, _Mémoire_, p. 255;
_Sonneschmid_, _Remarks on Mex. and the Mex. Lang._, in _Amer. Monthly
Mag._, vol. iii., p. 118; _Lang's Polynesian Nat._, pp. 95-7. 'The
Mexican tongue abounded in expressions of reverence and courtesy. The
style and appellations used in the intercourse between equals, would
have been so unbecoming in the mouth of one in a lower sphere, when he
accosted a person in higher rank, as to be deemed an insult.'
_Robertson's Hist. Amer._, vol. ii., pp. 278-9. 'The low guttural
pronunciation of the Mexican, or Aztec.' _Ward's Mex._, vol. i., p.
31; _Galicia Chimalpopocatl_, _Dissertacion_, in _Museo Mex._, tom.
iv., p. 517, et seq.; _Heller_, _Reisen_, p. 377. 'Des hauteurs les
plus sublimes, de la métaphysique, elle descend aux choses les plus
vulgaires; avec une sonorité et une richesse d'expression qui
n'appartiennent qu'à elle.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. i., p. 103; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., p. 108, vol. iii.,
p. 395. 'The language of the Mexicans is to our apprehension harsh in
the extreme.' _Helps' Span. Conq._, vol. i., p. 288.

[IX'-10] _Pedro de Arenas_, _Vocabulario Manual de las Lenguas Castellana
y Mexicana_. Mex., 1583. _Manuel Perez_, _Arte del Idioma Mexicano_.
Mex., 1713. _Antonio Vasquez Gastelu_, _Arte de la Lengua Mexicana_.
Puebla, 1716, and 2d edition, 1838. _Francisco de Avila_, _Arte de la
Lengua Mexicana_. Mex., 1717. _Carlos de Tapia Zenteno_, _Arte
Novissima de Lengua Mexicana_. Mex., 1753. _Horacio Carochi_,
_Compendio del Arte de la Lengua Mexicana_. Mex., 1759. _Molina_,
_Vocabulario_. Mex., 1571. _Rafael Sandoval_, _Arte de la Lengua
Mexicana_. Mex., 1810. _Pedro de Arenas_, _Guide de la Conversation_.
Paris, 1862. _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i.,
pp. 214-245; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, vol. i., pp. 164-216; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 85-106; _Buschmann_,
_Ortsnamen_, pp. 20-37.

[IX'-11] 'Es ist nicht möglich von einer Verwandtschaft der mexicanischen
Sprache mit den Sprachen anderer Erdtheile zu reden.' _Buschmann_,
_Ortsnamen_, p. 20; _Garcia_, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 118-21, 187,
232-5, 241, 269; _Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer._; _Simon's Ten Tribes_, pp.
163, 173; _Lang's Polynesian Nat._, pp. 96-8, et seq; _Quarterly
Review_, 1816, p. 415; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. ii., p. 229, et seq.

[IX'-12] _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 17; _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de
Jesus_, tom. i., p. 282; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 118;
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 113.

[IX'-13] 'Concòrdandose en que no se entienden los mismos Otomites de
diversos Pueblos, aun Vecinos, de que diò una prueba concluyente el
Obispo de Puebla, con el hecho de haver juntado quatro Curas
estindantes de su sierra Otomì los que mutuamente se improbaban por
hereticas, a disparatadòs sus esplicaciones de los Mysterios de nrã
Religion.' _Concilio Provincial Mexicano_, iv., 1771, Julio 31, MS.

[IX'-14] _Naxera_, _Dis. sobre la lengua Othomí_; _Warden_, _Recherches_,
in _Antiq. Mex._, pp. 125-9.

[IX'-15] _Bringier_, _Lettre_, in _Silliman's Jour._, vol. iii., pp.
35-6.

[IX'-16] 'La Otomí, lengua bárbara cuasi enteramente gutural, y que á
pénas cede al estudio y á la mas séria aplicacion.' _Alegre_, _Hist.
Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., p. 90. 'La Otomi, que se dilata casi tanto
como la Mexicana, y en la difficultad, y obscuridad le haze grandes
ventajas.' _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_, fol. 74. 'Loro linguaggio è
assai difficile, e pieno d'aspirazioni, che fanno parte nella gola, e
parte nel naso ma peraltro è abbastanza copioso ed espressivo.'
_Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., p. 148. 'Une langue
pleine d'aspirations nasales et gutturales.' _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._,
tom. i., p. 255. 'Die Sprache der Othomi zeichnet sich durch die
Einsylbigkeit oder wenigstens Kürze ihrer meisten Wörter, durch Härte
und Aspiration aus.' _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p.
114. 'Leur langue, rude comme eux, est monosyllabique: embrassant à la
fois tous les sons, mais dénuée d'ornements, elle montre, néanmoins,
dans sa simplicité quelque chose de majestueux qui rappelle les temps
antiques.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p.
157. 'Es dura, seca, ingrata á la lengua y mal al oido: todo lo de
ella es rústico, vasto, sin pulidez.' _Naxera_, _Dis. sobre la lengua
Othomí_, p. 23. 'Su lenguage es muy duro y corte.' _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iii., lib. v., cap. xix.; _Duponceau_, _Mémoire_, pp.
68-71; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 33, tom. ii., p. 82;
_Müller_, _Reisen_, tom. iii., p. 45; _Hassel_, _Mex. Guat._, p. 152;
_Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., pt ii., p. 364; _Conder's Mex.
Guat._, vol. ii., p. 119.

[IX'-17] _Yoaquin Lopez Yepes_, _Catecismo y Declaracion de la Doctrina
Cristiana, en lengua Otomí_. _Francisco Perez_, _Catecismo de la
Doctrina Cristiana, en lengua Otomí_. _Naxera_, _Disertacion sobre la
lengua Othomi_. _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol.
i., pp. 286-98; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp.
115-24; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, vol. i., pp. 120-50; _Antonio Guadalupe
Ramirez_, _Breve Compendio ... Dispuesto en lengua Othomí_. See also
_Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. iii., p. 355; _Luis de Neve y Molina_,
_Grammatica Della Lingua Otomí_.

[IX'-18] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 194-201.

CHAPTER X.

LANGUAGES OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MEXICO.

THE PAME AND ITS DIALECTS -- THE MECO OF GUANAJUATO AND THE
SIERRA GORDA -- THE TARASCO OF MICHOACAN AND ITS GRAMMAR -- THE
MATLALTZINCA AND ITS GRAMMAR -- THE OCUILTEC -- THE MIZTEC AND
ITS DIALECTS -- MIZTEC GRAMMAR -- THE AMUSGO, CHOCHO, MAZATEC,
CUICATEC, CHATINO, TLAPANEC, CHINANTEC, AND POPOLUCA -- THE
ZAPOTEC AND ITS GRAMMAR -- THE MIJE -- MIJE GRAMMAR AND LORD'S
PRAYER -- THE HUAVE OF THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC -- HUAVE
NUMERALS.

North-eastward of the Otomí, is a language called the Pame, spoken in
three distinct dialects; the first in San Luis de la Paz, in the
Sierra Gorda; the second, near the city of Maiz, in San Luis Potosí;
and the third in Purísima Concepcion de Arnedo, and also in the Sierra
Gorda. I have at hand only the Lord's Prayer in three dialects; nor
can I find mention of any vocabulary or grammar. It is described as
difficult to acquire, principally on account of the many dialectic
variations.[X'-1]

[Sidenote: PAME AND MECO LORD'S PRAYER.]

FIRST DIALECT.

Tata mícagon indis bonigemajá: indis unajá grotztacuz: Quii
unibó: Nage eu nitazá, unibó ubonigí: Urroze paricagon uvinguí
ambogón bucon gatigí bajir gomór, como icagon gumorbon
quipicgo hicnangó: nenanguí nandazó pacunimá: imorgo cabonjá
pajanor. Amen Jesus.

SECOND DIALECT.

Caucan xugüenan, que humiju cantau impains, achscalijon gee
nigiu yucant gee cumpó. Chaucat gee quimang, ac-gi cumpó acgi
cantau impain. Senté caucan senda gunó yucant chiné iguadcatan
caucan humunts, ac-gipain caucan hujuadptan á caucan humunts.
Y mi negenk do guaik guning cacaa yeket vali ening, ac-ge-bo.

THIRD DIALECT.

Ttattahghuhggg ighegh ddih uhvoh hinh gghih qquihhmissches:
ughgnjuhgh ttahghgihh innddisseh Qquihihihh uhggúho uhghg
gühihh rrehhino, Ih qquih üghgghihghh wohlluhn ttáh
ighschchahh, Assi uhggüghh commo ub vóhnnihghh. Uhnghehddi
uhvrá hhvíhn qquihhphpohggühuhh, yhchihh uh vehvéhh
ihghgühohgühuhh ih qqih ih chi wchveh ihhumhurhggühuhh
uhhohddi nuch hêhôhuág. Assi commo ahpe hpâhhddi ihec
âhggühuhh kuhmhûhrûhhg uhonnddi ahphpiggühúhh. Ih
qquihngnahghnhêhrrggühuhh phpahagh, Ahnâhssuhqquih huhnhéhh.
Mahhsséhh Uihbbráhrhr ihhehggühuhh. Ihghgôhttahhehrêh
Ggéhssúhs.

It will be observed that the third dialect displays a most singular
combination of letters. It is a manifest absurdity. Pimentel does not
mention where he obtained it, nor does he intimate what sounds are
produced from this huddling of consonants. I give it more as a
curiosity than with the idea that philologists will ever derive any
benefit from it.[X'-2]

In the Sierra Gorda and in Guanajuato, another language is mentioned,
called the Meco, or Serrano, of which no specimen but a Lord's Prayer
exists:

Mataíge gui bu majetzi, qui sundat too, da guê rit tû jû da ne
pa quecque ni moc canáni, ne si dac-kaá na moccanzû; tanto na
sinfai, tengû, majetzi. Mat tumeje tá, át mapa, rac-je pilla,
ne si gi pungagé, mat-oigajé, tengû si didi pumjéé, too
dit-tuc-je, nello gijega je gatac-je ratentacion; man-aa
juêgaje, gat-tit-jov llaizoonfenni.[X'-3]

Still less is said concerning the languages spoken in the state of
Tamaulipas; of them nothing is known but the names, and it cannot be
ascertained whether they are correctly classified or not, as no
specimens exist. The languages which I find spoken of are the Yuê,
Yemé, Olive, Janambre, Pisone, and a general one named Tamaulipeco.[X'-4]

The Tarasco, the principal language of Michoacan, can be placed almost
upon an equality with the Aztec, as being copious and well finished.
It is particularly sweet-sounding, and on this account has been
likened to the Italian; possessing all the letters of the alphabet.

Each syllable usually contains one consonant and one vowel; the letter
_r_ is frequent.[X'-5] From the different grammars I compile the
following:

[Sidenote: TARASCO GRAMMAR.]

In the alphabet there is neither _f_, _v_, nor _l_; no words begin
with the letters _b_, _d_, _g_, and _r_; _k_, has a sound distinct
from that of _c_, being pronounced stronger. The letter _s_ is often
intercalated for euphony; it must be inserted between _h_ and _i_,
when a word ends with _h_, and the next begins with _i_. At the end of
a word it signifies same, or self; _hi_, I; _his_, I myself. When a
word ends in _s_ and the next begins with _h_, the letter _x_ is
substituted for both. The letter _x_ at the end of a word indicates
the plural. _Ph_ is never pronounced like _f_; the _h_ after _p_ only
indicates an aspiration of the vowel which follows:--_p-hica_. _Hati_,
third person singular of the pronoun used in conjugations, may be
converted into _ndi_. The _p_ immediately following _m_ is converted
into _b_. The _r_ and _t_ next following _n_ are converted into _d_;
and _e_ and _q_ next following _n_ are converted into _g_. There are
three kinds of nouns--rational, irrational, and inanimate. The last
two are indeclinable in the singular. The plural of irrational animals
is formed simply by the addition of the particle _echa_. Two other
particles are used to express the plural of inanimate things;--_uan_,
and _harandeti_, many, much. Five words of this species use, however,
the particle _echa_ in the plural; _uata_, mountain; _ambocuta_,
street; _ahchiuri_, night; _tzipaé_, morning; _hosqua_, star.

DECLENSION OF THE WORD FATHER.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB POMI, TO TOUCH.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

Active. Passive.
I touch, pohaca | I am touched, pogahaca
Thou touchest, pohacare | Thou art touched, pogahacare
He touches, pohati | He is touched, pogahati
We touch, pohacachuchi | We are touched, pogahacachuchi
You touch, pohacarechuchi | You are touched, pogahacuchuchi
They touch, potix | They are touched, pogatix

IMPERFECT.

I touched, pohambihca | I was touched, pogahambihca

PERFECT.

I have touched, poca | I was touched, pogaca

PLUPERFECT.

I had touched, pophihca | I had been touched, pogaphica

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall touch, pouaca | I shall be touched, pagauaca

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have touched, thuvin pouaca
I shall have been touched, thuvin pogauaca

IMPERATIVE.

Let me touch, popa | Let us touch, popacuche
Touch thou, po | Touch you, paue
Let him touch, poue | Let them touch, pauez

I might touch, popiringa | I might be touched, pogapiringa[X'-6]

LORD'S PRAYER.

Tata huchaeueri thukirehaca auándaro santo arikeue
Father our thou who art heaven in holy be said

thucheueti hacangurikua uuehtsini andarenoni thucheueti
thy name make us arrive thy

irechekua ukeue thucheueti uekua iskire auándaro
kingdom be done thy will as in heaven in

umengahaca istu umengaue ixu echerendo. Huchaeueri
it is made as it be made as earth in. Our

curinda anganaripakua instcuhtsini iya canhtsini uepouachetsnsta
bread daily give us to-day and to us forgive

huchaeueri hatzingakuareta iski hucha uehpouacuhuantstahaca
our fault as also we forgive

huchaeueri hatsingakuaecheni ca hastsini teruhtatzemani
our debtors and not us lead us

terungutahperakua himbo. Euahpentstatsini caru casingurita
temptation but deliver us also evil

himbo.[X'-7]
of.

[Sidenote: MATLALTZINCA GRAMMAR.]

West of the valley of Anáhuac, in the ancient kingdom of Michoacan,
and in the district which is now called Toluca, was an independent
nation, the Matlaltzincas, whose language, of which there are several
dialects, notwithstanding the assertion of some writers that it was
connected with or related to the Tarasco, must still stand as an
individual and distinct tongue. Comparisons may develop a few phonetic
similarities, but otherwise the two do not approach one another in the
least.[X'-8]

There are twenty-one letters used in the Matlaltzinca language:--_a_,
_b_, _ch_, _d_, _e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _q_, _r_,
_t_, _tz_, _th_, _u_, _x_, _y_, _z_. Compounded words are frequently
used and are considered very elegant;--_kimituhoritakimindutzitzi_, to
look for something to eat; _kituteginchimuthohuinikuhumbi_, I give a
good example. Gender is expressed and there is also a declension.
There is a singular, a dual, and a plural; the dual is designated by
the preposition _the_;--_huema_, the man; _thema_, the two men. The
plural is designated by the preposition _ne_;--_nema_, the men; but
there are some inanimate substantives with which this latter
preposition is not used.

The personal pronouns are:--_kaki_, I; _kakuehui_, _kakuebi_,
_kakuehebi_, we two; _kakohuiti_, _kakehebi_, we; _kahachi_, thou;
_kachehui_, you two; _kachohui_, you; _inthehui_, he; _inthehuehui_,
they two; _inthehue_, they. Possessives:--_niteyeh_, mine; _kaxniyeh_,
thine; _niyeh inthehui_, his.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO LOVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

SINGULAR.

I love, kitututochi
Thou lovest, kitutochi, or kikitutochi
He loves, kitutochi

DUAL.

We two love, kikuentutochi
You two love, kichentutochi
They two love, kikuentutochi

PLURAL.

We love, kikuchentutochi
You love, kichehentutochi
They love, kirontutochi

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I loved, kimitututochi | I have loved, kitabutochi

FUTURE.

I shall love, kirutochi, or takimitututochi

IMPERATIVE.

Let me love, kutochi

PASSIVE.

I am loved, kitochikikaki | We are loved, kitochikakehebi
We two are loved, kitochihuehuikakuebi|

REFLEXIVE.

I love myself, kitutecochi

He who loves, inmututochi | He who will love, inkakatutochi

LORD'S PRAYER.

Kabotuntanki kizhechori ypiytiy tharehetemeyuhbutohui
Father our thou art above in heaven sanctified be

inituyuh tapue nitubeye tharetehehui inunihami
thy name come thy kingdom do above the earth

inkituhenahui ipuzka hetehehui ypiytiy. Achii ripahkehbi
thy will as it is done in heaven. To-day give us

inbotumehui indahmutze dihemindikebi inbotubuchochi
our bread every day forgive us our fault

pukuehentukahmindi indorihuebikeh nuximenkarihechi
as we forgive our debtors let us not fall

kehbi muhe dishedanita kehbi pinita
us and deliver us from

inbuti.[X'-9]
evil.

A language spoken in Toluca, the Ocuiltec, is mentioned by Sahagun and
Grijalua, about which, excepting the name only, no information can be
obtained.[X'-10]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: DIALECTS OF THE MIZTEC LANGUAGE.]

Principally in the state of Oajaca, but also in parts of the present
states of Puebla and Guerrero, the Miztec language is spoken even to
this day. Of this language there are many dialects, of which the
following are mentioned as chief;--the Tepuzculano, the Yangüistlan,
the Miztec bajo, the Miztec alto, the Cuixlahuac, the Tlaxiaco, the
Cuilapa, the Mictlantongo, the Tamazulapa, the Xaltepec, and the
Nochiztlan. As related to the Miztec, the Chocho, or Chuchon, also an
Oajaca idiom, is mentioned.[X'-11] As the Miztecs are generally classed
among the autochthones of Mexico, their language is considered as of
great antiquity, being spoken of in connection with that of the Ulmecs
and Xicalancas.[X'-12] Almost all of the old missionaries complained of
the difficulty of acquiring this tongue and its many dialects, which
necessitated often a threefold or fourfold study.[X'-13]

The Miztec may be written by means of the following letters:--_a_,
_ch_, _d_, _e_, _h_, _i_, _j_, _k_, _m_, _n_, _ñ_, _o_, _s_, _t_,
_u_, _v_, _x_ or _ks_, _gs_, _y_, _z_, _dz_, _nd_, _tn_, _kh_.
The pronunciation is very clear; the _h_ is aspirated; _v_ is as
in English; _kh_, _nd_, and _tn_, are nasal. Long words are of
frequent occurence. I give two of seventeen syllables each;--
_yodoyokavuandisasikandiyosanninahasahan_, to walk stumbling; and
_yokuvuihuatinindiyotuvuihuatusindisahata_, to conciliate the good
graces of a person. Words are compounded or agglutinated in five
different ways;--First, without changing either of the component
words, as;--_yutnù_, tree; and _kuihi_, fruit; _yutnukuihi_,
fruit-tree. Second, one of the component words changes, as;--_huaha_,
good, and _ñaha_, no; _ñahuaha_, bad. Third, words which are first
divided and cut up, are afterward, so to say, patched together again.
Fourth, one word is intercalated with another; as;--_yosinindi_, I
know; _mani_, an estimable thing; _yosinimanindi_, I love or esteem.

There are many words in this language which express quite different
things, according to the connection in which they are used,
as;--_yondakandi_, I accompany somebody, means also I ask;
_yoyuhuindi_, I counsel, signifies also, I go to receive somebody on
the road; also, let us go; etc. Reverential terms are of frequent
occurrence, necessitating almost a separate language when addressing
superiors. For instance;--_noho_, teeth; _yeknya yuchixa_, teeth of a
lord; _dzitui_, nose; _dutuya_, nose of a lord; _dzoho_, ears;
_tnahaya_, ears of a lord. There is no regular plural, but plurality
is expressed by the word 'many,' or the number. Personal pronouns
are;--I, speaking to inferiors or equals, _duhu_, _ndi_; I, speaking
with superiors, _ñadzaña_, _ñadza_, _ñdza_; thou, _doho_, _ndo_; thou,
used by females speaking to their children, _diya_, _nda_; you, or
your honor, _disi_, _maini_, _ni_; he, _ta_, _tay_, _yukua_; she,
_ña_, (also used by women speaking of men); he or she, speaking
respectfully, _ya_, _iya_; we, _ndoo_; you, _doho_; they, _ta_, _tay_,
_yukua_. The pronouns, _ndi_, _ndo_, _ta_, are affixed to the verb;
and the pronouns, _duhu_, _doho_, and _tai_, are prefixed; _ñadzaña_,
is usually prefixed; _ñadza_ or _ndza_, affixed; _disi_, and _maini_,
are generally prefixed, _ni_ is affixed; _diya_, is prefixed and _ña_,
_ndoo_, and _ya_, are affixed.

[Sidenote: MIZTEC GRAMMAR AND LORD'S PRAYERS.]

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO SIN.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I sin, yodzatevuindi | He sins, yodzatevuita
Thou sinnest, yodzatevuindo | We sin, yodzatevuindoo

IMPERFECT. PLUPERFECT.

I sinned, nidzatevuindi | I had sinned, sanidzatevuindi

FIRST FUTURE. SECOND FUTURE.

I shall sin, dzatevuindi | I shall have sinned, sadzatevuikandi

IMPERATIVE.

Let me sin, nadzatevuindi | Let us sin, nadzatevuindoo
Sin thou, dzatevui | Sin you, chidzatevui
Let him, or them sin, nadzatevuita

Verbal nouns are formed by prefixing the syllable _sa_, or _sasi_, to
the present indicative of the verb. Regarding the dialects of the
Miztec, Pimentel quotes the following from Father Reyes' grammar. All
the dialects may be grouped into two principal languages, which are
those of Tepuzculula and Yangüitlan. That of Tepuzculula is the best
understood throughout the district of Mizteca.

The Pater Noster in the Tepuzculula dialect is as follows.

Dzutundoo yodzikani andevui nakakunahihuahandoo,
Our father thou art heaven let us praise,

sananini nakisi santoniisini nakuvui ñuuñayevui inini
thy name come thy kingdom be done (in the) world thy will

dzavuatnaha yokuvui andevui. Dzitandoo yutnaa yutnaa
as also be done (in) heaven. Our bread each day

tasinisindo huitno dzaandoui kuachisindoo dzavuatnaha
give us much to-day forgive us our sins as well as

yodzandoondoo suhani sindoo huasa kivuiñahani nukuitandodzondoo
we forgive debtor ours not lead us we will fall

kuachi tavuiñahani sañahuahua. Dzavua
in sin deliver you from evil. So

nakuvui.
be it made.

For the purpose of illustrating the difference between the dialects, I
insert two other Pater Nosters, the first of Miztec bajo, and the
second of the alto dialect:

Dútundo hiadícani andívi ñacùú hii ña nániní: naquíxidíca satónixiní:
nacúu ndúdu ínìní ñunahívi yóhò daguatnaha yo cúu ini andivi. Ditàndo
itián itían taxinia nundi vichi: te dandooni cuachindi dagua tnaha
dandoondi naa ni dativi nundi: te maza dáñani ntziuhu uncaguandi ña
dativindi: te cuneguahanindi nuu nditaca ña unguaha. Duha na cuu
Jesus.

Dzutuyo iyoxicani andivi nacui hii ñanánini. Naquixi xatòniixini.
Nacúhui ndudzuinìni uñaiviyóhò, sahuatna yocúhui ini andivi. Dzitàyo
itian itian taxini nundi vichi: sandoo-ni cuáchiyo, sahuatanha yo
sandondi nanidzativi nundi taun-sayáhani ñacanacahuandi zadzativindi.
Sacacunino ñahani nuu nditaca ña hunhua. Dzaa nacuu Iya Iesus.[X'-14]

Another language, said to be connected with the Miztec is the Amusgo.
Wedged in between the Miztec and Zapotec are several tongues, of
which, excepting a few Lord's Prayers, I find nothing mentioned but
the names; it is not improbable that some of them were only dialects
of either the Miztec or Zapotec. These are the Mazatec, Cuicatec, and
Chinantec, which latter is described as a very guttural tongue, with a
rather indistinct pronunciation, so that it is difficult to
distinguish the vowels; further there are mentioned the Chatino,
Tlapanec, and Popoluca.[X'-15] Orozco y Berra declares that the
following names designate the Popoluca in different states. Thus the
Chocho, Chochona, or Chuchon, is said by him to have been called--in
Puebla, the Popoluca; in Guerrero, the Tlapanec; in Michoacan, the
Teco; and in Guatemala, the Pupuluca.[X'-16] Of these languages I have
the following Lord's Prayers:

CHOCHO OR CHUCHON.

Thañay theeñingarmhi athiytnuthu y ñay dithiñi achuua
dinchaxiñi atatçu ndithetatçu caguñi, nchiyatheetatçu
ngarmhi andaatatçu saçermhi y tçama caatuenesacaha cahau
atzizhuqhee caa tuënesacaha di ëñihay a taanguyheene cagüñi,
ditheethaxengaqhine tuënesacaha nchiyaquichuu,
ditheetaanguyheene cagüquichuu ... sacaha,
thiytheecheëxengaqhine quichuu sacaha netçanga yhathamiñi
çixitçeyasacaha yhee cheecaamiñi cheecaaqhi nemiñi
caatuënesacaha caanenndiñaña andataazu.

[Sidenote: MAZATEC AND CUICATEC LORD'S PRAYERS.]

Of the Mazatec there are two specimens, which do not appear to accord,
thus showing how little regard was paid to names:

Nadminá Nainá ga tecni gahami, sandumí ili ga tirrubanajin
nanguili. Cuaha catama janimali, jacunit dic nangui cunit
gahami. Niño rrajinna tey quitaha najin; qntedchatahanajin
gadchidtonajin jacunitgajin nedchata alejin chidtaga
tedtunajin. Guquimit tacuntuajin, tued tinajin cuacha ca tama.

* * * * *

Tata nahan xi nacá nihaseno: chacuca, catoma ñieré; catichová
rico manimajin. Catoma cuazuare, donjara batoó cor nanguí,
bateco, nihasen: niotisla najin ri ganeihinixtin, tinto najin
dehi; nicanuhi ri guitenajin donjara batoo, juirin ni canojin
ri quiteisjajin, quiniquenahi najin ri danjin quis anda nongo
niqueste. Meé.

* * * * *

Of the Cuicatec there are also two dialects:

Chidao, chicane cheti jubí chintuico ña; cobichi, jubi ña;
chichií, chicobi no ns: ñendi ña; cobichi ñenoña. Duica ñahán,
ñahán tando cheti jubi. Nondo ñecno; chi jubi, jubi; techi ni
nons: má dinenino, ni chi canticono, dinen, tandonons;
dineninono chi canti co ñehen nons, ata condicno; na tentac
ioñ, ante danhi, dinenino ni chin que hé danhi.

* * * * *

Chida deco, chicanede vae chetingue cuivicu duchi dende cuichi
nusun dende vue chetingue cui, tundube vedinun dende tica
nañaa, tandu vae chetingue yn dingue deco de huehue techide
deco guema yna dechecode deco ducue ticu tica, tandu nusun
nadecheco deevioducue chichati cusa yati, tumandicude cuitao
vendicuido nanguaedene ducue chiguetae.[X'-17]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: ZAPOTEC GRAMMAR AND LORD'S PRAYER.]

The ancient kingdom of Zapotecapan, in which the Zapotec language was
spoken, extended from the valley of Oajaca as far as Tehuantepec. The
different dialects were, the Zaachilla, Ocotlan, Etla, Netzicho,
Serrano de Ixtepec, Serrano de Cajones or Beni-Xono, and Serrano de
Miahuatlan.[X'-18] The Zapotec is a more harmonious language than the
Miztec, and is spoken with considerable elegance, metaphors and
parables abounding.[X'-19] Yet it is in some places pronounced
indistinctly; so much so that Juan Córdova, the author of a grammar,
complains that the letters _a_ and _o_, _e_, _y_, and _i_, _o_ and
_u_, _b_ and _p_, and _t_ and _r_, are often confounded. The _h_ is
used only as an aspirate. The following letters of the alphabet
represent the sounds of the Zapotec: _a_, _b_, _ch_, _e_, _g_, _h_,
_i_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _ñ_, _o_, _p_, _r_, _t_, _u_, _y_, _x_, _z_,
_th_. There are also five diphthongs: _æ_, _oe_, _ei_, _ie_, _ou_.
The plural is expressed either by numerals or by adjectives;--_pichina_,
deer; _ziani pichina_, many deer. Like the Aztec, Miztec, and others,
the Zapotec has reverential terms. The personal pronouns are;--_naa_,
_ya_, _a_, I; _lohui_, _loy_, _looy_, _lo_, thou; _yobina_, your honor
(when speaking to superiors); _nikani_, _nike_, _nikee_, _ni_, _ke_,
he or they; _yobini_ or _yobina_, he, (speaking respectfully);
_taono_, _tono_, _tonoo_, _tona_, _no_, _noo_, we; _lato_, _to_, you.

Possessives;--_xitenia_, mine; _xitenilo_, thine; _xitenini_, his;
_xitenitono_ or _xitenino_, ours; _xitenito_, yours. Interrogatives
used with animate beings, are;--_tuxa_ or _tuia_, _tu_ or _chu_; and
with inanimate things: _xiikaxa_, _xiixa_, _xii_; _koota_ is used for
either animate or inanimate objects.

There are four conjugations, which are distinguished by the particles
with which they commence. The first uses, in the present, _ta_, in the
past, _ka_, and in the future, _ka_; the second has _te_, _pe_, and
_ke_; the third, _ti_, _ko_, _ki_; and if they are passives, _ti_,
_pi_, _ki_, or _ti_, _ko_, and _ka_; the fourth uses _to_, _pe_, and
_ko_.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO DIG.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I dig, tanaya | We dig, tieenano
Thou diggest, tanalo | You dig, tanato
He digs, or they dig, tanani |

IMPERFECT. PERFECT.

I dug, tanatia, konatia, or konaya | I have dug, zianaya

PLUPERFECT.

I had dug, huayanaya, konakalaya, zianakalaya,
or, huayanakalaya

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall dig, kanaya

IMPERATIVE.

Dig thou, kona
Let us dig, lakeyanano, or kolakieenano
Dig you, kolakana

OTHER FORMS.

If I would dig, nianalayaniaka
If I have dug, zianatilaya
If I shall dig, nikanaya

The following is an example of the differences between the dialects.
Child in the Zaachilla is _batoo_; in the Ocotlan, _metho_; in the
Etla, _binnito_; in the sierra, _bitao_; in the tierra caliente,
_bato_.

The Pater Noster with literal translation taken from the _Catecismo_
of Leonardo Levanto, reads as follows.

Bixoozetonoohe kiiebaa nachiibalo nazitoo ziikani
Father our heaven thou who art above great has been done

laalo kellakookii xtennilo kita ziika ruarii nitizigueelalo
thy name kingdom thine will come here thy will

ziika raka kiaa, kiiebaa laaniziika gaka ruarii
as is done above, heaven as be done here

layoo. Xikonina kixee kixee peneche ziika anna chela
earth. The bread of all us to-morrow give also to-day and

a kozaanañaaziikalo tonoo niiani ya kezihuina: peziilla
not lead us us that we sin: deliver

zika tonoo niiaxtenni kiraa kellahuechiie. Gaga ziiga
also us of all evil. Will be done so

ziika.[X'-20]
so.

Between the head waters of the Rio Nexapa and Goatzacoalco the Mije
language is spoken. It is described as guttural and rough, and by some
as poor in words, necessitating auxiliary gestures. The bishop of
Oajaca, to whose diocese they belonged, in a letter to Archbishop
Lorenzana stated that he had a people under him, who could only
converse during daylight, for at night they could not see their
gestures and without these were unable to understand each other.[X'-21]
The following alphabet is used by Pimentel in writing this
language;--_a_, _b_, _ch_, _e_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _m_, _n_, _ñ_, _o_,
_p_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _y_, _tz_. Two and more consonants frequently
follow one another in the same syllable, as;--_akx_, _epx_, _itzp_,
_otzk_, _mma_, _mne_, _mpi_, _mto_, _mxu_, etc. Vowels are also
frequently double, as;--_kôô_, arms; _teikkaa_, and _tinaak_, stomach.
In declensions the genitive is formed by prefixing the letter
_i_;--_xêuh_, name; _dios ixêuh_, name of God. The plural is formed by
the terminal _toch_;--_toix_, woman; _toixtoch_, women.

PRONOUNS.

I ôtz, n, nôtz
Thou ix, mitz, mi, mim, n
Thou, speaking with reverence mih
He t, i
He, or they who hudiiphee, hudii
He, or they who (affixed) phee, hee
This, these phee, hee, yaat
Who pôn
We ôôtz, n
They yâó
Mine nôtz
Thine m, mitzm
His i
Our, ours ôôtzn, nôôtz, n

[Sidenote: MIJE ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, AND CONJUNCTIONS.]

ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, AND CONJUNCTIONS.

Here ya
No katii
Thence heem
Always xûma
Never kahundiin
More niik
Then hueniit
When ko
For, in, to, above, with kûxm
Of kûxmit, it
In, between hoitp
In huiñ
With môôt
Inside, within akuuk
Before huindui
Why, what for heekûxm
That huen
As much, so that ixtanôm
Not yet katiinam
How, since ixta

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Nteitôôtz tzaphoitp mtzônaiphee konuikx itot mitzm
Father our in heaven who lives blessed be thy

xêuh momoikôôtz mitzm konkion itunot mitzm tzokn
name give us thy kingdom be done thy will

ya naxhuiñ ixta ituiñu tzaphoitp. Oôtzn kaik opomopomit
as in earth as is done in heaven. Our bread daily

momoikôôtz yoniit etz moyaknitokoikôôtzn
give us to-day and forgive us

pokpa ixta ôôtz niaknitokoi ôôtzn yachotmaatpa etz
sin as we forgive our offender and

katii ôôtz ixmomatztuit heekuxm katii ôôtz nkedai
not as lead that not as let us carry

huinonn kûxn. Etz mokohuankôôtz nañihum kaoiaphee
temptation in. And deliver all evil

kuxmit.[X'-22]
from.

The language of the Huaves spoken on the isthmus of Tehuantepec, is,
according to tradition, not indigenous to the country. It is related
that these people came by water from a place down the coast, although
the locality whence they came is not given.[X'-23] I have only the
following numerals as a specimen of the language.

FOOTNOTES:

[X'-1] 'Es mucha la dificultad del idioma, porque en treinta vecinos
suele haber cuatro y cinco lenguas distintas, y tanto, que aun despues
de mucho trato no se entienden sino las cosas muy ordinarias.'
_Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., p. 282.

[X'-2] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 267; _Col. Polidiómica Mex._,
_Oracion Dominical_, pp. 31-3.

[X'-3] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 267.

[X'-4] _Berlandier_, _Diario_, p. 144; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_,
p. 296.

[X'-5] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 552. 'Tarascum, quod hujus
gentis proprium erat et vulgare, concisum atque elegans.' _Laet_,
_Novus Orbis_, p. 267. 'La Tarasca, que corre generalmente en las
Prouincias de Mechoacan, esta es muy facil por tener la mesma
pronunciacion que la nuestra: yassi se escriue con el mesmo
abecedario. Es muy copiosa, y elegante.' _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_,
fol. 75; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. ix.;
_Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. i., pp. 90-1; _Acosta_, _Hist.
Nat. Ind._, p. 506. 'La loro lingua è abbondante, dolce, e sonora.
Adoperano spesso la R soave: le loro sillabe constano per lo più d'una
sola consonante e d'una vocale.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del
Messico_, tom. i., p. 149. 'Les Tarasques ... célèbres ... par
l'harmonie de leur langue riche en voyelles.' _Humboldt_, _Essai
Pol._, tom. i., p. 255; _Beaumont_, _Crón. de Mechoacan_, p. 43;
_Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., pt ii., p. 364; _Romero_,
_Noticias Michoacan_, p. 5; _Heredia y Sarmiento_, _Sermon_, p. 83;
_Anales del Ministerio de Fomento_, 1854, p. 185, et seq.; _Wappäus_,
_Geog. u. Stat._, p. 35; _Hassel_, _Mex. Guat._, p. 152. 'Die Sprache
in dieser Provinz wird für die reineste und zierlichste von ganz
Neu-Spanien gehalten.' _Delaporte_, _Reisen_, pp. 313-4; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 125. '_Tarasca_ een nette en
korte spraek, die eigentlijk alhier te huis hoort.' _Montanus_,
_Nieuwe Weereld_, p. 256. Ward, speaking of the Tarasco, has made the
serious mistake of confounding it with the Otomí, and seems to think
that they are both one and the same. Two languages could hardly be
farther apart than these two. _Mexico_, vol. ii., p. 681.
_Raffinesque_, the indefatigable searcher for foreign relationships
with Mexican languages, claims to have discovered an affinity between
the Tarasco, Italian, Atlantic, Coptic, Pelasgic, Greek, and Latin
languages. He writes that he was 'struck with its evident analogy'
with the above and with the 'languages of Africa and Europe both in
words and structure, in spite of a separation of some thousand years.'
In _Priest's Amer. Antiq._, p. 314.

[X'-6] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 275-309; _Gallatin_, in
_Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 245-52; _Moxo_, _Cartas
Mejicanas_, p. 68; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 126;
_Manuel de San Juan Crisostomo Nájera_, _Gram. Tarasca_, in _Soc. Mex.
Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iv., pp. 664-684.

[X'-7] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 304; _Vater_, _Mithridates_,
tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 126-7; _Araujo_, _Manual de las Santos
Sacramentos en el Idioma de Michuacan_.

[X'-8] 'Estos tolucas, y por otro nombre _Matlatzincas_, no hablaban
la lengua mexicana, sino otra diferente y obscura ... y su lengua
propia de ellos, no carece de la letra R.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,
tom. iii., lib. x., p. 129; _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_, fol. 75;
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Esquisses_, p. 33.

[X'-9] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 499-539; _Guevara_, _Arte
Doctrinal_, in _Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin_, tom. ix., pp. 197-260;
_Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., p. 126.

[X'-10] '_Ocuiltecas_, viven en el distrito de Toluca, en tierras y
terminos suyos, son de la misma vida, y costumbre de los de la Toluca,
aunque su lenguage es diferente.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii.,
lib. x., p. 130. 'Ocuilteca, que es lengua singular de aquel pueblo, y
de solo ocho visitas, que tenia sujetas àsi, y assi somos solos, los
que la sabemos.' _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_, fol. 75.

[X'-11] 'Y aunque la lengua los haze generalmente à todos vnos en
muchos partes la han diferenciado en sylabas, y modo de pronunciarlas,
pero todos se comunican, y entienden.' _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._,
tom. i., fol. 127, 130; _Grijalua_, _Crón. Augustin_, p. 75; _Brasseur
de Bourbourg_, _Esquisses_, pp. 34-6; _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 260;
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xii-xiii.; _Orozco
y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 189-96; _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_,
tom. ii., p. 137; _Remesal_, _Hist. Chyapa_, p. 712.

[X'-12] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 32. 'Ein Volk, das zu
den Autochthonen von Mexico gehört.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 18.

[X'-13] 'Mistica, cuya entera pronunciacion se vale algunas vezes de
las narizes, y tiene muchos equiuocos que la hazen de mayor
dificultad.' _Dávila Padilla_, _Hist. Fvnd. Mex._, p. 64. 'La lengua
dificultosissima en la pronunciacion, con notable variedad de terminos
y vozes en vnos y otros Pueblos.' _Burgoa_, _Palestra, Hist._, pt i.,
fol. 211. 'Que como eran Demonios se valian de la maliciosa astucia de
variar las vozes y vocablos en esta lengua, asi para los Palacios de
los Caziques con terminos reuerenciales, como para los Idolos con
parabolos, y tropos, que solos los satrapas los aprendian, y como era
aqui lo mas corrupto.' _Id._, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., fol. 156. 'La
lengua de aquella nacion, que es dificultosa de saberse, por la gran
equiuocacion de los bocablos, para cuya distincion es necessario vsar
de ordinario del sonido de la nariz y aspiracion del aliento.'
_Remesal_, _Hist. Chyapa_, p. 321. 'Ser la Lengua dificultosa de
aprender, por las muchas equiuocaciones que tiene.' _Dávila_, _Teatro
Ecles._, tom. i., p. 156.

[X'-14] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 41-79; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt. iii., pp. 31-41; _Catecismo del P.
Ripaldo, traducida al Misteco; Catecismo en idioma Mixteco_.

[X'-15] _Remesal_, _Hist. Chyapa_, p. 712. Chinantec 'con la dificultad
de la pronunciacion, y vozes tan equiuocas que con vn mesmo termino
mas blando ò mas reciò dicho significa disonante sentido.' 'Por que la
locucion es entre dientes, violenta, y con los accentos de consonantes
asperas, confusas las vocales, sin distincion vnas de otras que
parecian bramidos, mas que terminos de locucion.' _Burgoa_, _Geog.
Descrip._, tom. i., fol. 183., tom. ii., fol. 284, 286; _Villa-Señor y
Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., pp. 137, 141, 163, 187, 189, 197;
_Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 187-197; _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol.
iii., p. 497.

[X'-16] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 135;
_Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 262.

[X'-17] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 259-62.

[X'-18] _Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., pp. 190-9; _Museo
Mex._, tom. ii., p. 554; _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., p. 186;
_Wappäus_, _Geog. u. Stat._, p. 36; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p.
177; _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol. 312.

[X'-19] 'Su lenguage era tan metaforico, como el de los Palestinos, lo
que querian persuadir, hablaban siempre con parabolas.' _Burgoa_,
_Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., fol. 196. 'La langue Zapotèque est d'une
douceur et d'une sonorité qui rappelle l'Italien.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Esquisses_, p. 35.

[X'-20] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 321-60; _Nouvelles Annales
des Voy._, 1841, tom. xcii., p. 260, et seq.

[X'-21] 'Expressa el Illm^o Señor Obispo de Oaxaca en su Pastoral, que
en su Diocesis hay una Lengua, que solo de dia se entienden bien, y
que de noche en apagándoles la luz, ya no se pueden explicar, porque
con los gestos significan.' _Lorenzana y Buitron_, _Cartas
Pastorales_, p. 96, note 1. 'Tambien su idioma tiene fuerça y
energia.' _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol. 271. 'Lingua
illorum, rudis et crassum quid sonans instar Allemanorum.' _Laet_,
_Novus Orbis_, p. 262; _Barnard's Tehuantepec_, pp. 224-5;
_Villa-Señor y Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. ii., pp. 155, 199-201;
_Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., p. 143; _Museo Mex._, tom. ii., p.
555; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 176.

[X'-22] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 173-88.

[X'-23] 'Y se dixo antes, que la nacion destos Indios huabes avian
venido de tierras muy lexanas, de allà de la Costa del Sur, mas cerca
de la Eclyptica vezindad del Perù, y segun las circunstancias de su
lengua, y trato de la Provincia ò Reyno de Nicarahua.' _Burgoa_,
_Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol. 396; 'El huave, huavi, guave, llamado
tambien en un antiguo MS. guazonteca ó huazonteca, se habla en el
Estado de Oaxaca, Los huaves son originarios de Guatemala; unos les
hacen de la filiacion de los peruanos, fundándose en la semejanza de
algunas costumbres, mientras otros les suponen hermanos de los pueblos
de Nicaragua. La segunda opinion nos parece la mas acertada, y aun nos
atreveriamos á creer que el huave pertenece á la familia maya-quiché.'
_Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 44, 74. 'Il paraît démontré,
cependant, que la langue des Wabi a de grandes analogies avec
quelqu'une de celles qu'on parlait à Nicaragua.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 36.

[X'-24] _Sivers_, _Mittelamerika_, p. 290.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MAYA-QUICHÉ LANGUAGES.

THE MAYA-QUICHÉ, THE LANGUAGES OF THE CIVILIZED NATIONS OF
CENTRAL AMERICA -- ENUMERATION OF THE MEMBERS OF THIS FAMILY --
HYPOTHETICAL ANALOGIES WITH LANGUAGES OF THE OLD WORLD --
LORD'S PRAYERS IN THE CHAÑABAL, CHIAPANEC, CHOL, TZENDAL,
ZOQUE, AND ZOTZIL -- POKONCHI GRAMMAR -- THE MAME OR
ZAKLOPAHKAP -- QUICHÉ GRAMMAR -- CAKCHIQUEL LORD'S PRAYER --
MAYA GRAMMAR -- TOTONAC GRAMMAR -- TOTONAC DIALECTS -- HUASTEC
GRAMMAR.

The languages of the civilized nations of Central America, being all
more or less affiliated, may be not improperly classified as the
Maya-Quiché family, the Maya constituting the mother tongue.
Commencing in the neighborhood of the river Goazacoalco, thence
extending over Tabasco, Chiapas, Yucatan, Guatemala, and portions of
Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, it occupies the same relatively
important position in the south as the Aztec farther north. Besides
spreading out over this immense area, there are two branches still
farther north, isolated from the mother tongue, yet conterminous to
each other, the Huastec and the Totonac of Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz.
Without including the last mentioned, probably the fullest enumeration
of all these languages, is given by the Licenciado Diego García de
Palacio, in a letter addressed to the King of Spain, in the year 1576.
Omitting the Aztec, which he includes in his catalogue, his summary is
substantially as follows. In Chiapas, the Chiapanec, Tloque, Zotzil,
and Zeldal-Quelen; in Soconusco, a tongue which he designates as the
mother language and another called the Vebetlateca; in Suchitepec and
Guatemala, the Mame, Achi, Guatemaltec, Chinantec, Hutatec, and
Chirichota; in Vera Paz, the Pokonchi, and Caechicolchi; in the
valleys of Acacebastla and Chiquimula, the Tlacacebastla, and Apay;
and in the valley of San Miguel, the Poton, Taulepa, and Ulua. Other
authors mention, in Guatemala the Quiché, the Cakchiquel, the Zutugil,
the Chorti, the Alaguilac, the Caichi, the Ixil, the Zoque, the Coxoh,
the Chañabal, the Chol, the Uzpanteca, the Aguacateca, the Quecchi;
and in Yucatan, the stock language, the Maya. Among all these
languages thus enumerated by different authors, it is not at all
unlikely that some have been mentioned twice under different
names.[XI'-1] Most, if not all of them, are related to, if indeed they
did not spring from one mother tongue, the Maya, of which a dialect,
called the Tzendal is said to be the oldest language spoken in any of
these countries. In fact, they all appear to be dialects and
variations of some few tongues of yet greater antiquity, which again
have sprung from the oldest of all, the Maya. This latter, I may say,
forms the linguistic centre, from which all the others radiate,
decreasing in consanguinity according to the distance from this
centre, losing, by intermixture, and the adoption of foreign words,
their aboriginal forms, until on reaching the outer edge of the
circle, it becomes difficult to trace their connection with the source
from which they sprang.[XI'-2]

[Sidenote: THE MAYA LANGUAGE IN YUCATAN.]

The Maya, with its many affiliations, may be well compared in its
grammatical construction and capacity to the Aztec. It has in this
respect been likened to the ancient Greek which it is said to resemble
in many points. Although monosyllabic words are of frequent
occurrence, it has not, as is common to monosyllabic languages, many
very harsh and guttural sounds, but is generally called soft and
well-sounding. The dialects spoken on the coast of Yucatan and near
Belize, are the purest and most elegant of the Maya family, and the
greater the distance from this region, the greater are the variations
from the pure Maya.[XI'-3] Some remarkable hypotheses, which, if
proven, would revolutionize many existing theories, ethnologic and
philologic, have latterly been brought forward by the Abbé Brasseur de
Bourbourg. This gentleman, who has devoted himself to the study of
ancient Central America and Mexico for many years, and who is fully
conversant with the languages of Yucatan and Guatemala, the Maya and
Quiché, claims to have discovered a close connection between the Maya,
Quiché, Cakchiquel, Zutugil, and others, with most of the chief
languages of Europe; prominent among which he places the Greek, but
mentions also Latin, French, English, German, Flemish, Danish, and
others. Although on examination many of the abbé's so-called roots
display similarities, both phonetic and in meaning, with some European
words, still a large majority are evidently twisted to conform to the
writer's ideas, and it will require not alone further investigations,
but unprejudiced studies, such as are not made for the purpose of
proving any particular hypothesis, to substantiate his theories. Until
such impartial comparisons are made, and a clearer light thrown upon
the subject, these Central American languages must remain content to
be treated as strangers to those of the old world.[XI'-4] Of the
languages previously enumerated I have the following specimens.

* * * * *

The Lord's Prayer in Chañabal, spoken in Comitan, in the state of
Chiapas:

Tattic hayá culchahan tanlinubal á vihil jacué eg bagtic á
guajan acotuc á guabal hichuc ili luhum jastal culchahan. Yipil
caltzil eg güiniquil tic aquitic sva yabanhi soc culanperdon eg
multic hichuc qucj ganticon guazt culanticon perdon machá hay
smul sigilticon soc mi ztagua concoctic mulil mas lec
coltayotic scab pucuj jachuc.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: CHIAPANEC, CHOL, AND TZENDAL.]

Lord's Prayer in Chiapanec:

Pua manguemé nilumá cané nacapajó totomomo copamimé chambriomo
chalaya guipumutamu; gadilojá istanacupu cajilucá nacopajó:
cajilo baña yacameomo nuori may tarilu mindamu oguajime lla
copomimemo taguajime nambucamuñeme cuqueme gadiluca si memu
casimemu tagnagime nambucamuñeme copá tipusitumu bica
tipucapuimu mujarimimuñame mangueme. Diusi mutarilú nitangame
chacuillame caji Jesus.

* * * * *

Lord's Prayer in Chol:

Tiat te lojon, aué tipuchan utzat alvilacaval trictic tolejón
han gracia chulee viliç á pucical vafchec ti paniumil chee
tipanchan. Laa cual ti juun pel quin, de vennomelojón gualee
sutven lasvet baschee mue sutvenlaa y vetob laspibulob. Llastel
ti lolontecl cotanon melojon y chachan jaipel y tiué
nialoloion. Amen Jesus.

* * * * *

Lord's Prayer in Tzendal, as spoken near the celebrated ruins of
Palenque:

Tatic, ta nacalat tachulchan: chulalviluc te ajalalvilé:
acatalúc te aguajualé: acapastayuc: te tuxacane tajich ta
chulchan jichucnix ta valumilal. Ecuctae jujhan acabeyaotic te
guag vixtum cuntic tajujun caal chaybeyaotic te multic achiotic
chaybetic ate hay smul cagtojoltique soyoc mameaguac yalucotic
ta mulil colta yaoticnax tastojol piscil te colae. Amen Jesus.

* * * * *

Lord's Prayer in Zoque, as spoken in Tabasco, Chiapas, and parts of
Oajaca:

Theshata tzapguesmue itupue yavecotzamué mis nei, yaminé mis
yumihacui, ya tuque mis sunoycui, yecnasquesi tzapquesmuese.
Tesané hoimuepe homepe tzihete yshoy, yatocoyates mis hescova
hes jaziquet mis atocoipasé thesquesipue jatzi huitemistetzaeu
hocysete cuijomue ticomaye ya cotzocamisthe mumuyatzipue quesi,
tese yatuque. Amen Jesus.

* * * * *

Lord's Prayer in Zotzil:

Totit ot-te nacal oi ta vinagel-utzilaluc á vi-acotal
aguajualel-acopas huc á chul cano-echuc nox ta vinagel-eclusé
ta valumil-acbeotic e cham-llocom llocomutic-ech
xachaibeutic-cuie tag tojolic-ma á guae llalucuntic-ta
altajoltic-ech xacolta utic nox ta stojol ti coloc. Amen
Jesus.[XI'-5]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: POKONCHI GRAMMAR.]

Of the Pokonchi Language I have a short grammar, by Thomas Gage, which
has also been used by Vater and Gallatin. Following are a few of its
prominent features:

Nouns are declined by the aid of particles, of which there are two
kinds, varying accordingly as the word to be declined commences with a
consonant or with a vowel. For words commencing with a consonant the
particles _nu_, _a_, _ru_, _ca_, _ata_, and _quitacque_ are used; and
for those commencing with a vowel, _v_, _av_, _r_, _c_, or _q_, _ta_,
_qu_, and _tacque_. These particles are partly prefixed and partly
affixed, as will appear in the following examples. So the word _pat_,
house, and _tat_, father, are by Gage declined in the following
manner.

My house nupat | Our house capat
Thy house apat | Your house apatta
His house rupat | Their house quipattacque

My father nutat | Our father catat
Thy father atat | Your father atatta
His father rutat | Their father quitattacque

The declension of the word _acun_, son, and _ixim_, corn, are given
by Gage, as follows:

My son vacun | Our son cacun
Thy son avacun | Your son avacunta
His son racun | Their son cacuntaque

My corn vixim | Our corn quixim
Thy corn avixim | Your corn avicimta
His corn rixim | Their corn quiximtacque

Verbs in like manner change the particles, by means of which they are
conjugated, accordingly as the word commences with a consonant or a
vowel. For those commencing with a consonant the particles are;--_nu_,
_na_, _inru_, _inca_, _nata_, _inquitacque_. Thus the word _locoh_, to
love, is conjugated as follows:

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB LOCOH, TO LOVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I love, nulocoh | We love, incalocoh
Thou lovest, nalocoh | You love, nalocohto
He loves, inrulucoh | They love, inquilocohtacque

PRESENT PASSIVE.

I am loved, quiloconhi | We are loved, coloconhi
Thou art loved, tiloconhi | You are loved, tiloconhita
He is loved, inroconhi | They are loved, quiloconhitacque

PERFECT PASSIVE.

I have been loved, xinloconhi
Thou hast been loved, ixtiloconhi
He has been loved, ixloconhi
We have been loved, xoloconhi
You have been loved, ixtiloconhita
They have been loved, xiloconhi tacque

IMPERATIVE.

Be thou loved, tiloconhi
Let him be loved, chiloconho
Let us be loved, chicaloconho
Be ye loved, tiloconhota
Let them be loved, chiquiloconho taque

I can love, inchoinulocoh
I will love, inranulocoh
I have been willing to love, ixnulocoh
I have been able to love, ixcholixnulocoh
I can love thee, tichol nulocoh
I will love thee, tira nulocoh

Sometimes the verb I will is added to express the future;--_inva_, I
will; _nava_, thou wilt; _inra_, he will.

Verbs beginning with a vowel have the following particles;--_ino_,
_nav_, _inr_, _inqu_, or _inc_, _nauta_, _inqu tacque_, or _inc
tacque_. Thus the verb _eça_, to deliver, is conjugated.

I deliver, inveça | We deliver, inqueça
Thou deliverest, naveça | You deliver, naveçata
He delivers, inreça | They deliver, inqueça tacque

Adjectives are indeclinable, and the plural of nouns cannot be
distinguished from the singular, as;--_kiro uinac_, good man; _kiro
uinac_, good men.

The following Lord's Prayer comes from the same source:

Catat taxah vilcat; nimta incaharçihi avi; inchalita
avihauripau cana. Invanivita nava yahvir vacacal, he invataxab.
Chaye runa cahuhunta quih viic; naçachtamac, he inçachve quimac
ximacquivi chiquih; macoacana chipam catacchyhi, coaveçata
china unche tsiri, mani quiro, he inqui. Amen.[XI'-6]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MAME CONJUGATION.]

Of the Mame, or Zaklohpakap, the following extract is from a grammar
written by Diego de Reynoso. The letters used are: _a_, _b_, _ch_,
_e_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _y_,
_z_, _tz_. There are no special syllables or signs to express gender,
but distinct words are used, as;--_mama_, old man; _ahkimikeia_, old
woman; _mamail_, old age of a man; _keiail_, or _ahkimikil_, old age
of a woman. The plural of animate beings is expressed by the particle
_e_ prefixed to the word;--_vuinak_, person; _evuinak_, persons; but
it is considered as elegant also to affix the same _e_;--_kiahol_,
son; _ekiahole_, sons. For inanimate things, either numerals or
adjectives expressing the plural are used;--_abah_, stone; _ikoh
abah_, many stones. Personal pronouns are;--_ain_, I; _aia_, thou;
_ahu_ or _ahi_, he; _ao_ or _aoio_, we; _ae_ or _aeie_, you; _aehu_ or
_aehi_, they.

Me, to me, in me vuih
Thee, to thee, in thee tiha
Him, to him, in him tihu
Us, to us, in us kiho
You, to you, in you kihae
Them, to them, in them kihaehu
Of me, by me vuxm
By thee tuma
By him tumhi
By us kumo
By you kume
By them kumhu
By myself tipa
By himself tiphi
By ourselves kibo
By yourselves kibe
By themselves kibaehu or kibhu

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I am, ain in, or ain inen
Thou art, aia
He is, ahu
We are, ao, or aoia
You are, ae, or aeie
They are, aehu

IMPERFECT.

I was, ain took

PERFECT.

I have been, ain hi

PLUPERFECT.

I had been, ain tokem

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall be, in abenelem, or ain loiem

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have been, ain lohi

IMPERATIVE.

Be, a u ia

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB XTALEM, TO LOVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I love, ain tzum chim xtalem
Thou lovest, tzum xtalem a
He loves, tzum xtalem hu
We love, tzum ko xtalem o
You love, tzum che xtalem e
They love, tzum che xtalem hu

IMPERFECT.

I loved, tzum tok chim xtalem

PERFECT.

I have loved, ini xtalim, uni xtale, ma chim xtalim,
ma ni xtale, or ma uni xtale

PLUPERFECT.

I had loved, ixtok chim xtalim

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall love, uni xtalibetz, or ain chim xtalem

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have loved, ain lo in xtalem

IMPERATIVE.

Love thou, ixtalin o ia
Let him love, ixtalin o hu
Let us love, ko ixtalin o
Love you, ixtalin ke ie
Let them love, ixtalin ke hu[XI'-7]

Of the Quiché, there is an abundance of material. The letters used
are;--_a_, _b_, _c_, _e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_,
_q_, _r_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _y_, _z_, _tz_, _tch_. Gender is
expressed by prefixing the noun _ixok_, woman, to the word,
as;--_coh_, lion; _ixok coh_, lioness; _mun_, slave; _ixok mun_,
female slave. The sound _ish_ expressed by the letter _x_ denotes
inferiority, and is therefore frequently used to express the feminine
of inferior beings. _U_ in the Quichè and _ru_ in the Cakchiquel are
either possessive pronouns or denote the possession of the word which
follows. The particles _re_ and _ri_ are at times used for the same
purpose;--_u chuch ahpop_, the mother of the prince; _qui quoxtum
tinanit_, the ramparts of the town. Before the vowels _a_, _o_, and
_u_, they are changed to _c_; and before _e_ and _i_, to _qu_.
Derivatives are formed with the preposition _ah_, either prefixed or
affixed to the primitive noun;--_car_, fish; _ahcar_, the fisherman;
_tzih_, word; _ahtzih_, the speaker; etc. No positive rule can be
given for the formation of the plural, as there are several different
methods in use. The most common appears to be by the affixes _ab_,
_eb_, _ib_, _ob_, _ub_;--_beom_, merchant; plural, _beomab_; _ixok_,
woman; plural, _ixokib_; _ahau_, lord; plural, _ahauab_. In the
Cakchiquel language the last letter _b_ is omitted, as;--_ixokib_,
women, in Quiché, is _ixoki_ in Cakchiquel. With adjectives the
syllables _ak_, _tak_, _ic_, _tic_, etc., are used instead;--_nim_,
great; _nimak ha_, great houses; _rihi_, old; _rihitak vinak_, old
people; _utz_, good; _utzic va_, good eatables. Adjectives are always
placed before the substantives;--_zak_, white; _zaki ha_, white house.
Substantives are formed from adjectives by adding one of the
particles, _al_, _el_, _il_, _ol_, _ul_;--_nim_, great; _nimal_, the
greatness; _zak_, white; _zakil_, the whiteness; _utz_, good; _utzil_,
the goodness. These same substantives can be turned into adjectives
again by adding the particle _ah_;--_nimalah mak_, great sin; _utzilah
achi_, good man. In the same manner all substantives may be turned
into adjectives by adding one of the particles _alah_, _elah_, _ilah_,
_olah_, _ulah_, etc.; _ahau_, king or lord; _ahaualah_, royal.

To express the comparative, the present participle of the verb _iqou_,
to surpass, which is _iqouinak_, is used, and sometimes also the word
_yalacuhinak_, from _yalacuh_, to exceed. For example;--_nim_, great,
comparative, _iqouinak chi nim_, he who surpasses in greatness;
_iqouinak chi nim u hebeliquiil ka xokahau Gapoh maria chiqui vi
conohel ixokib_, (literally) surpasses in great beauty our Lady the
Virgin Mary all other women. The superlative is expressed by the
syllable _maih_, very great or much; _nim_, great or greatly; _tih_,
_xoo_, _quï_, much; all of which are placed before the word and are
followed by the syllable _chi_;--_maih chi nim_, very great; _maih chi
hebel_, very fine; _maih chi tinamit_, very great city; _xoo qatan_,
very great heat; _tih nima ha_, very great house. The adverb _lavolo_
or _lolo_ is also used for the same purpose--_lavolo_ or _lolo cou ch'
a bana_, hold it strong.

The names of colors are duplicated to express the superlative,
as;--_rax rax_, very green; _zak zak_, very white.

The reverential syllables in use are _lal_ and _la_--_lal nu cahau_,
your excellency is my father; _in alcual la_, I am the son of your
excellency.

[Sidenote: QUICHÉ PRONOUNS.]

PRONOUNS.

I, or me in, nu, nuv
Thou at, a
He are, ri, r'
Myself xavi in
Thyself xavi at
Himself xavi are
We oh
You yx
They e, he
Ourselves xavi oh
Yourselves xavi yx
Themselves xavi e, he

When a noun commences with a consonant, _nu_, _a_, _u_, in the
singular, and _ka_, _y_, _qui_, in the plural are used as possessive
pronouns, but if it commences with a vowel, _v_, _av'_, _r_, are
employed in the singular, and _k'_, _yv'_, _c'_, or _qu'_, in the
plural.

My slave nu mun
Thy slave a mun
His slave u mun
Our slaves ka munib
Your slaves y munib
Their slaves oui munib

My wrath v' oyoual
Thy wrath av' oyoual
His wrath r' oyoual
Our wrath k' oyoual
Your wrath yv' oyoual
Their wrath c' oyoual

INTERROGATIVES.

Who naki, achinak, apachinak
Who am I apa-in-chinak
Who art thou apa-at-chinak
Who is this apachinak-ri
Who is it naki-la
Who would it be naki-lalo
Who are we apa-oh-chinak
Who are you apa-yx-chinak
Who are they apa-e-chinak

The verb, to be, is expressed by either _ux_, or _qo_, or _qohe_. As
an example of its conjugation I insert the indicative present.

I am, in ux or in qolic
Thou art, at ux " at qolic
He is, are ux " are qolic
We are, oh ux " oh qolic
You are, yx ux " yx qolic
They are, e, or he ux " e, or he qolic

Four different kinds of verbs are given in the grammar compiled by the
Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, which he calls active, absolute, passive,
and neuter. The following sentences are given as specimens of each
kind. Active;--_can nu logoh v' ahtih_, I love my master.
Absolute;--_qu' i logon_, or _logonic_, I love; _qu' i tzibanic_, I
write. Passive;--_ta x-e tzonox rumal ahtzak_, then they were
interrogated by the creator. Neuter;--_qu' i cam_, or _qui cam_, I
die; _qu' in ul_, I come; _qu' i be_, I go; _qu' i var_, I sleep.

[Sidenote: QUICHÉ CONJUGATIONS.]

Following I insert the conjugation of the active verb to love, in
which the word _logoh_, love, commences with a consonant, and also the
conjugation of the active verb _oyohbeh_, to wait, which commences
with a vowel, thus showing the different particles used.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO LOVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I love, ca nu logoh
We love, ca ka logoh
Thou lovest, c' a logoh
You love, qu' y logoh
He loves, c' u logoh
They love, ca que logoh

PERFECT.

I have loved, x-in, xi-nu, or x-nu logoh, or nu logom

PLUPERFECT.

I had loved, nu, or x-nu logom-chic

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall love, ch' in, x-ch'in chi nu, or x-chi nu logoh

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I love, ca nu logoh-tah
If I had loved, nu logom-chi-tah

PARTICIPLE.

Loving, logonel

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB OYOBEH, TO WAIT.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I wait, ca v'oyobeh
Thou waitest, c' av' oyobeh
He waits, ca r' oyobeh
We wait, ca k' oyobeh
You wait, qu' yv' oyobeh
They wait, ca c' oyobeh

PERFECT.

I have waited, xi-v' oyobeh, or av' oyobem

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have waited, chi v', or xchi v oyobeh

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I wait, ca v' oyobeh-tah

In the following three columns I give a specimen of the conjugation of
the absolute, passive, and neuter verb.

ABSOLUTE.

I love, qu'i logon
Thou lovest, c'at logon
He loves, ca logon
We love, koh logon
You love, qu'y logon
They love, que logon

PASSIVE.

I am loved, qu'i logox
Thou art loved, c'at logox
He is loved, ca legox
We are loved, koh logox
You are loved, qu'ix logox
They are loved, que logox

NEUTER.

I roll, qu'i bol
Thou rollest, c'at bol
He rolls, ca bol
We roll, koh bol
You roll, qu' yx bol
They roll, que bol

ABSOLUTE.

I have loved, x-i logon, or in logoninak

PASSIVE.

I was loved, x-i logox, or in logoxinak

NEUTER.

I have arrived, x-in ul, or in ulinak

FIRST FUTURE.

ABSOLUTE.

I shall love, x-qui logon

PASSIVE.

I shall be loved, x-qui logox

NEUTER.

I shall arrive, x-qu'in ul

There are further mentioned a reciprocal and a distributive verb.

Of the former the following is an example.

I love myself, ca nu logoh uib
Thou lovest thyself, c'a logoh rib
He loves himself, c'u logoh rib
We love ourselves, ca ka logoh kib
You love yourselves, qu'y logoh yvib
They love themselves, ca qui logoh quib

Of the second form this is an example.

Thee I love, cat nu logoh
He loves his father, cu ri, or are logoh a cahau
You love us, koh y logoh
Thee they love, cat que logoh

The prepositions--_ma_, _man_, or _mana_, and _mave_, are negatives.
When _man_, or _mana_, is used with a verb, the particle _tah_ must be
added;--_man ca v' il-tah_, I do not see. Father Ximenez calls the
following irregular verbs, _qo_, _qoh_, or _qolic_, _pa_, _ux_, or
_uxic_; _qaz_, to live, and _oh_, or _ho_, to go.

The conjugation of the last mentioned is as follows.

INDICATIVE PRESENT.

I go, h'in | We go, o'ho
Thou goest, h'at | You go, h'yx
He goes, oh, or ho | They go, h'e

The Zutugil and Cakchiquel appear to bear a closer relationship to
each other, than the Cakchiquel and Quiché. Some of the principal
differences between the three are the following. The plural of nouns
which in the Quiché is formed by the affixes _ab_, _eb_, _ob_, _ib_,
_ub_, is in the Cakchiquel designated by simply affixing the vowels of
the above syllables, and in the Zutugil by the affixes _ay_, or _i_.
The pronouns which in the Quiché and Cakchiquel are _in_, I, etc., are
in the Zutugil doubled, as;--_in-in_, I, etc. The possessive pronouns
differ in all three of the languages. The Quiché has _vech_, mine;
_avecha_, thine; _rech_, his; _kech_, ours; _yvech_, yours; _quech_,
theirs. In the Cakchiquel these are;--_vichin_, _avichin_, _richin_,
_kichin_, _yvichin_, _quichin_, and the Zutugil changes the _ch_ of
the Cakchiquel into _n_;--_vixin_, _avixin_, _rixin_, _kixin_,
_yvixin_, _quixin_. The dative in the Quiché is _chuvech_, to me, in
the Cakchiquel _chuvichin_, and in the Zutugil, _chuvixin_. Reciprocal
pronouns in the Quiché are _vib_, _avib_, _rib_, _kib_, _yvib_, and
_quib_, and in the Zutugil they are _vi_, _avi_, _ri_, _ki_, _yvi_,
_qui_. The verb _ganeh_, which also means to love, is in the
Cakchiquel and Zutugil conjugated as follows.

I love, tin ganeh | We love, ti ka ganeh
Thou lovest, tah ganeh | You love, ty ganeh
He loves, tu ganeh | They love, ti qui ganeh

There are also many other words which differ in one or more letters in
the three languages, but it appears that they are nevertheless so much
alike that the different people speaking them can understand one
another.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: QUICHÉ AND CAKCHIQUEL LORD'S PRAYERS.]

Lord's Prayer in the Quiché:

Ka cachau chi cab lal qo-vi, r'auazirizaxic-tah bi la. Chi
pe-tah ahauarem la. Chi ban-ta ahauam la, varal chuvi uleu
queheri ca ban chi cah. Yah la chikech ka hutagihil va. Zacha
la ka mak, queheri ca ka zacho qui mak rii x-e makun chike ruq
m'oh ocotah la pa takchiibal mak, xata noh col-ta la pa itzel.
Quehe ch'uxoc.

* * * * *

Lord's Prayer in Cakchiquel:

Ka tata r'at qoh chi cah, r'auazirizaxic-tah a bi. Ti pe-ta-ok
av' ahauarem. Ti ban-tah av'ahoom vave chuvi uleu, quereri
tan-ti ban chi cah. Ta yata-ok chike vacamic ka hutagihil vay.
Ta zach-ta-qa-ok ka mak, quereri tan-ti ka zach qui mak riy x-e
makun chike. Ruquin qa maqui-tah koh av'ocotah pa takchiibal
mak, xatah koh a colo pan itzel. Quere ok t'ux.[XI'-8]

* * * * *

Of the Maya Grammar, the following is a brief compendium:

The following alphabet is used to write the Maya language: _a_, _b_,
_c_, _ç_, _z_, _tz_, [_c_], _cti_, _ch_, _e_, _h_, _i_, _y_, _k_,
_l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _pp_, _t_, _th_, _u_, _x_.

The letter _ç_ is pronounced like the English _z_, or as if for
example the word _cambeç_, were spelled _cambez_. The [_c_] is
pronounced as if spelled _dj_, [_c_]ib_ is pronounced as if written
_djib_, to write; _h_, not aspirated, and very frequently omitted;
_k_, rather guttural; _pp_ and _p_, sharp and with force; _th_, hard,
at the same time approximating slightly the English _tt_. The gender
of rational beings is denoted by the prefixes _ah_, for masculine, and
_ix_, for feminine;--_ah cambezah_, master; _ix cambezah_, mistress.
With animals the particles _xibil_, for males, and _chupul_, for
females, is prefixed. An exception to this rule is the word
_pal_;--_xibil pal_, the boy; and _chupal pal_, the girl. Nouns form
the plural by adding the particle _ob_;--_ich_, eye; _ich ob_, eyes.
Adjectives ending in _nac_, in the plural lose their two last
syllables and substitute for them the syllable _lac_;--_kakatnác_, an
idle thing; _kaklác_, idle things. When an adjective and substantive
are joined together, the adjective is always placed before the
substantive, but the plural is expressed only in the substantive;--man,
_uinic_; good, _utzul_; _utzúl uinicob_, good men. To form the
comparative, the last vowel of the adjective with the letter _l_ added
to it is affixed; frequently, the particle _il_ is simply
affixed;--further, the pronoun of the third person _u_ or _y_ is
always prefixed, in the comparative;--_tibil_, a good thing; _ú
tibilil_, a better thing; _utz_, good; _yutzil_, or _yutzul_, better;
_lob_, bad; _ulobol_, or _ulobil_, worse; _kaz_, ugly; _ukazal_, or
_ukazil_, uglier. The superlative is expressed by the particle _hach_,
which is prefixed;--_lob_, bad; _hachlob_, very bad. _Il_ added to
nouns and adjectives serves to make them abstracts, _uinic_, man;
_uinicil_, humanity.

There are four kinds of pronouns used in the Maya, all of which are
used in conjugating verbs. But the two last are also used, united with
nouns, or as possessive pronouns, and never alone, or as absolute
pronouns.

PRONOUNS.

I ten | We tóon
Thou tech | You téex
He lay | They lóob

I en | We on
Thou ech | You ex
He laylo | They ob

I, mine in | We, ours ca
Thou, thine a | You, yours a-ex
He, his ú | They, theirs ú-ob

Mine u | Ours ca
Thine au | Yours au-ex
His y | Theirs y-ob

RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS.

Myself in-ba | Ourselves ca-ba
Thyself a-ba | Yourselves a-ba-ex
Himself ú-ba | Themselves ú-ba-ob

[Sidenote: MAYA CONJUGATIONS.]

CONJUGATION OF THE AUXILLARY VERB TENI, TO BE.

INDICATIVE PRESENT.

I am, ten
We are, tóon
Thou art, tech
You are, téex
He is, lay
They are, lóob

IMPERFECT.

I was, ten cuchi

PERFECT.

I have been, ten hi

PLUPERFECT.

I had been, ten hi-ili cuchi

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall be, bin ten-ac

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have been, ten hi-ili coshom

IMPERATIVE.

Be, ten-ac

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I be, ten-ac en

IMPERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I were, hi ten-ac

FIRST CONJUGATION OF THE VERB NACAL, TO ASCEND.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I ascend, nacal in cah
Thou ascendest, nacal a cah
He ascends, nacal ú cah
We ascend, nacal ca cah
You ascend, nacal a-cau-ex
They ascend, nacal ú-cah-ob

IMPERFECT.

I ascended, nacal in cah-cuchi

PERFECT.

I have ascended, nac-en

PLUPERFECT.

I had ascended, nac-eu ili-cuehi

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall ascend, bin nacac-en

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have ascended, nac-en ili-cuchom

IMPERATIVE.

Ascend, nacac-en

SECOND CONJUGATION CAMBEZAH, TO INSTRUCT.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I instruct, cambezah in cah, or ten cambezic
Thou instructest, cambezah á cah, " tech cambezic
He instructs, cambezah ú cah, " lay cambezic
We instruct, cambezah ca cah, " tóon cambezic
You instruct, cambezah á cah-ez, " téex cambezic
They instruct, cambezah ú cah-ob, " lóob cambezic

IMPERFECT.

I instructed, cambezah in cah cuchi

PERFECT.

I have instructed, in cambezah

PLUPERFECT.

I had instructed, in cambezah ili-cuchi

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall instruct, bin in cambez

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have instructed, in cambezah ili-cochom

IMPERATIVE.

Let me instruct, in cambez
Instruct thou, cambez
Let him instruct, ú cambez
Let us instruct, ca cambez
Instruct you, á cambez ex
Let them instruct, ú cambez ob

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I instruct, ten in cambez

The third and fourth conjugations not differing from the above, I do
not insert them.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Cayum ianeeh ti càannob cilichthantabac akaba:
Our father who art in heaven blessed be thy name;

tac a ahaulil c' okol. Mencahac a uolah uai
it may come thy kingdom us over. Be done thine will as

ti luun bai ti caanè. Zanzamal uah ca azotoon
on earth as in heaven. Daily bread us give

heleae caazaatez c' ziipil he bik c' zaatzic uziipil
to-day us forgive our sins as we forgive their sins

ahziipiloobtoone ma ix appatic c' lubul ti tuntah,
to sinners not also let us fall in temptation

caatocoon ti lob.[XI'-9]
us deliver from evil.

To the two languages the Huaztec and Totonac spoken respectively in
the states of Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz, great antiquity is ascribed. I
include them both in this chapter, and classify them with the Maya
family; the Huaztec because its relationship has already been
satisfactorily established by Vater and his successors, and the
Totonac on the statements of Sahagun and other good authorities.[XI'-10]
Of both of these languages I insert some grammatical notes. The
Totonac is divided into four principal dialects, named respectively
that of the Sierra Alta or Tetikilhati, that of Xalpan y Pontepec, or
Chakahuaxti, the Ipapana and the Naolingo or Tatimolo. The following
grammar refers specially to the last dialect.

[Sidenote: TOTONAC GRAMMAR.]

The letters used are _a_, _ch_, _e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _k_, _l_, _m_,
_n_, _o_, _p_, _t_, _u_, _v_, _x_, _y_, _z_, _tz_, _lh_. Compounded or
agglutinated words are of frequent occurrence; they seem to be joined
without any particular system, although it appears that the last
letter is oftentimes omitted. The following shows the composition of a
word;--_lioxilhmagatlakachalikihuin_, to go prophesying; composed of
the particle _li_, the verb _oxilha_, the adverb _magat_, the
substantive _lakatin_, and the verbs _chaan_ and _likihuin_. There are
no particular signs or letters to express the gender, but in most
cases the words _huixkana_, male, and _pozkat_, female, are prefixed
to words.

The plural for animated beings is formed by one of the following
terminations;--_n_, _in_, _nin_, _itni_, _nitni_, _an_, _na_, _ne_,
_ni_, _no_, _nu_;--_oxga_, youth; _oxgan_, youths; _agapon_, heaven;
_agaponin_, heavens; _pulana_, captain; _pulananin_, captains;
_makan_, hand; _makanitni_, hands; _ztako_, star; _ztakonitni_, stars;
_xanat_, flower; _xanatna_, flowers; etc., etc.; _in_ and _itni_ are
used when the word ends with a consonant, and _nin_ and _nitni_ when
it ends with a vowel.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

I akit
Me kin
Thou huix
He amah, or huata
We akin
Us kila, or kinka
You huixin
They huatonin

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB IK-PAXKI-Y, I LOVE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I love, ik-paxki-y | We love, ik-paxki-yauh
Thou lovest, paxki-a | You love, paxki-yatit
He loves, paxki-y | They love, paxki-goy

IMPERFECT.

I loved, xak-paxki-y

PERFECT.

I have loved, ik-paxki-lh, or ik-paxki-nit

PLUPERFECT.

I had loved, xah-paxki-nit

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall love, nak-paxki-y

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have loved, ik-paxki lh nahuan, or ik-paxki-nit nahuan

IMPERATIVE.

Love, ka-paxki

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I love, kak-paxki-lh

IMPERFECT.

If I loved, xax-paxki-lh

The difference between the three dialects may be seen:

Heart nako alkonoko lakatzin
World kiltamako katoxahuat tankilatzon
Moon malkoyo papa laxkipap
Maize koxi tapaxni kizpa
Good tzey tlaan kolhana
Truth ztonkua loloto tikxliana
To believe akaeniy kanalay katayahuay

The Lord's Prayer in the dialect of Naolingo:

Kintlatkane nak tiayan huil takollalihuakahuanli ó
Our father in heaven art sanctified be

mimaokxot nikiminanin ó mintakakchi tacholakahuanla
thy name come thy kingdom be done

ó minpahuat cholei kaknitiet chalchix nak tiayan. O
thy name as world as in heaven.

kinchouhkan lakalliya nikilaixkiuh yanohue kakilamatzankaniuh
Our bread daily give us to-day forgive us

kintakallitkan chonlei ó kitnan lamatzankaniyauh
our faults as we ourselves we forgive

ó kintalakallaniyan ka ala kilamaktaxtoyauh
our debtors and not us lead

nali yoyauh naka liyogni. Chon tacholakahuanla.
that we be in temptation. So be it done.

The descriptions or grammatical remarks of Vater and Pimentel, vary in
many points. For instance, Vater says that the letters _k_ and _v_ are
not used in this language, while Pimentel mentions them both as being
used. The expression of the plural is also given differently by both,
as are also several other points.[XI'-11]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: HUAZTEC GRAMMAR.]

From the grammar of Carlos de Tapia Zenteno, which was also used by
Gallatin and Pimentel, I offer the following remarks on the Huaztec:

The letters used in writing this language are: _a_, _b_, _ch_, _d_,
_e_, _g_, _h_, _i_, _j_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, _p_, _t_, _u_, _v_,
_x_, _y_, _z_, _tz_. The pronunciation is soft. Gender is denoted by
the addition of the words _imik_, man, and _uxum_, woman;--_tzalle_,
king; _uxumtzalle_, queen; _tzejelinik_, young man; _tzejeluxum_,
young girl. The affix _chick_ is used to express the plural;--_atik_,
son; _atikchick_, sons; but there are a few exceptions to this rule.
Diminutives are expressed by the preposition _chichick_, as;--_te_,
tree; _chichikte_, small tree. In some cases the preposition _tzakam_,
or the affix _il_, is used for this purpose. In the superlative the
syllable _le_ is used before the word, as;--_pullik_, great;
_lepullik_, very great. Personal pronouns;--_nana_, I; _tata_, thou;
_jaja_, he; _huahua_, we; _xaxa_, you; _baba_, they.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TAHJAL, TO HAVE.

INDICATIVE PRESENT.

I have, nana utahjal or intahjal
Thou hast, tata atahjal or ittahjal
He has, taja, intahjal
We have, huahua yatahjal
You have, xaxa yatahjal
They have, baba tahjal

IMPERFECT.

I had, nana utahjalitz or intahjalitz

PERFECT.

I have had, nana utahjaitz or utahjamal, or utahjamalitz

PLUPERFECT.

I had had, nana utahjalak or utahjamalak, or utahjamalakitz

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall have, nana ku or kin, or kiatajah

IMPERATIVE.

Have, tata katahja

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE.

If I have, nana kutahja or kiatahja

IMPERFECT.

If I had, nana kin or intahjalak

INFINITIVE.

To have, tahjal

Verbal nouns and participles are formed by adding _x_ or _chix_, to
the infinitive, as;--_tzobnal_, to know; and _tzobnax_, he who knows.
There are said to be several different dialects of this language in
use. Following is the Pater Noster as given by Zenteno in his
Doctrina, and as spoken in the mountains of the district of Tampico.

Pailomê anitquahat tiaeb, quaquauhlu anabi, cachich
Father art heaven holy said thy name come

anatzalletal. Katahan analenal têtitzabal, nuantiani huatahab
thy kingdom. Be done thy will on the earth as to have

tiaeb. Ani tacupiza xahue cailel yabacanil ani
heaven. And thou give to-day each day our bread and

tacupaculamchi antuhualabchic, antiani huahua tupaculamchial
thou forgive sins as we forgive

tutomnanchixlomchik, ani ib takuhila tincal
debtors and not lead that we

ib cucuallam tin exextalab. Timat taculouh timbâ ana ib
not fall us in temptation. But save us from no

cuacua. Anitz catahan.
holy (evil) so be it done.[XI'-12]

Lord's Prayer in the dialect spoken in the Department of San Luis
Potosí:

Tatu puilom huahuá, itcuajat, ti eb chie pelit santo jajatz abi
cachic atzale tal ti eb al huahua: catajatz taculbetal hantzaná
titzabal hantini tiaeb ani cap ud patalaguicha tacubinanchi,
xoque ani tacupaculanchi; cal igualab, ani ela tegui
tacupalanchi cal y at guitzab ani il tacujila cugualan cal
junhi fataxtalb, maxibtaculohu cal ban atax mal tajana
guatalel.

[Sidenote: HUAZTEC LORD'S PRAYER.]

Lord's Prayer in the dialect spoken in another part of the district of
Tampico:

Pailon qüa que cuajat tiá el: tu cab tajal hanchaná enta bi ca
chix hanti ca ilál cataja na aquiztal hanchana antich aval
quinitine tiá el. An pan abalgüa ti patás hüicha ha, tu piza
segue, tu placuanchi ni gualal anchaná jontinégüá y placuanchal
in at qualablom, il tú en gila cu cualan anti atás cha lablal,
tu en librari ti patas an ataz tabal, anchaná juntam. Anchanan
catajan.[XI'-13]

FOOTNOTES:

[XI'-1] _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 20; _Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, p. 198;
_Registro Yucateco_, tom. i., p. 166; _Galindo_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc.,
Jour._, vol. iii., pp. 95, 63; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc.,
Transact._, vol. i., pp. 4-7; _Mühlenpfordt_, _Mejico_, tom. ii., pp.
8, 17; _Wappäus_, _Geog. u. Stat._, p. 245; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._,
dec. iv., lib. x., cap. ii-xiv.; _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, pp. 277, 317,
325; _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 267; _Heller_, _Reisen_, p.
380; _Galindo_, in _Antiq. Mex._, p. 67; _Norman's Rambles_, p. 238;
_Haefkens_, _Cent. Amer._, p. 412; _Prichard's Nat. Hist. Man_, vol.
ii., p. 513; _Behrendt's Report_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1867, p.
425; _Squier's Monograph_, p. ix.; _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq.
Itza_, p. 84.

[XI'-2] The languages of the Maya family are spoken in the old
provinces of Soconusco, Chiapas, Suchitepec, Vera Paz, Honduras,
Izalcos, Salvador, San Miguel, Nicaragua, Xerez de Choluteca,
Tegucigalpa, and Costa Rica, says the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, _MS.
Troano_, tom. ii., p. vi. 'La plupart des langues de cette contrée,
si multiples au premier aspect, se réduisent en réalité à un petit
nombre. Ce sont des dialectes qui ne diffèrent les uns des autres que
par le mélange de quelques mots étrangers, une certaine variété dans
les finales ou dans la prononciation.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., p. 155. 'Il me
paraît indubitable que la langue universelle des royaumes guatémaliens
devait être, avant l'invasion des tribus que les Espagnols trouvèrent
en possession de ces contrées, le maya d'Yucatan ou le tzendal qui lui
ressemble beaucoup.' _Ib._ 'Lacandons ... les _Mames_, _Pocomames_,
etc., qui parlent encore aujourd'hui une langue presqu'en tout
semblable à celle des Yucatèques.' _Id._, p. 156. 'Le _Tzendal_ ou
_Tzeldal_ et un dialecte de la langue _zotzile_ dont il diffère fort
peu.' _Id._, _Palenqué_, p. 34. 'Toutes sont issues d'une seule
souche, dont le _maya_ paraît avoir gardé le plus grand nombre
d'éléments. Le _quiché_, le _cakchiquel_, le _mame_, le _tzendal_,
sont marqués eux-mêmes au sceau d'une très-haute antiquité, amplement
partagée par le _mexicain_ ou _nahuatl_ malgré les différences que
comporte sa grammaire; car si ses formes et sa syntaxe sont
très-distinctes de celles du _maya_, on peut dire, néanmoins, que tous
ces vocables sont composés de racines communes à tout le groupe.
_Id._, _MS. Troano_, tom. ii., pp. vii., viii. 'La langue primitive
forme le centre; plus elle s'avance vers la circonférence, plus elle
perd de son originalité la tangente, c'est-à-dire le point où elle
rencontre un autre idiome, est l'endroit où elle s'altère pour former
une langue mixte.' _Waldeck_, _Voy. Pitt._, pp. 24, 42. 'Les Taitzaes,
les Cehatches, les Campims, les Chinamitas, les Locènes, les Ytzaes et
les Lacandons. Toutes ces nations parlent la langue maya, excepté les
Locènes, qui parlent la langue Chol.' _Ternaux-Compans_, in _Nouvelles
Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcvii., p. 50; _Id._, 1840, tom.
lxxxviii., p. 6. 'La de Yucatan, y Tabasco, que es toda vna.' _Bernal
Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 25; _Solis_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 89.
'Zoques, Celtales y Quèlenes, todos de lenguas diferentes.' _Remesal_,
_Hist. Chyapa_, pp. 264, 299; also in _Montanus_, _Nieuwe Weereld_, p.
269; _Helps' Span. Conq._, tom. iii., p. 252; _Squier_, in _Nouvelles
Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlviii., p. 275; _Id._, 1857, tom.
cliii., pp. 175, 177-8. The natives of the island of Cozumel 'son de
la lengua y costumbres de los de Yucatan.' _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 12;
_Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 18-25, 55-56.

[XI'-3] 'La simplicité originale de cette langue et la régularité
merveilleuse de ses formes grammaticales, c'est la facilité avec
laquelle elle se prête à l'analyse de chacun de ces vocables et à la
dissection des racines dont ils sont dérivés.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _MS. Troano_, tom. ii., pp. iii., vi., v. 'The _Maya_
tongue spoken in the northern parts of Yucatan, is remarkable for its
extremely guttural pronunciation.' _Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem._, p.
73. 'The whole of the native languages are exceedingly guttural in
their pronunciation.' _Dunn's Guatimala_, p. 265. 'Diese Sprache war
wohlklingend und weich.' _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p.
453; _Ternaux-Compans_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.
xcvii., p. 32; _Squier_, in _Id._, tom. cliii., p. 178.

[XI'-4] 'Dans ces langues kakchiquèle, kichée et zutugile, les mots qui
n'appartiennent pas au Maya, m'ont tout l'air d'être d'origine
germanique, saxons, danois, flamands, anglais même.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1855, tom. cxlvii., pp.
156-7. 'Je fus frappé, dès mon arrivée ... de la similitude qu'une
quantité de mots de leur langue offrait avec celles du nord de
l'Europe.' _Id._, _Lettre à M. Rafn_, in _Id._, tom. clx., 1858, pp.
263, 281-90. 'The fundamental forms and words of the languages of
these regions (except the Mexican) are intimately connected with the
Maya or Tzendal and that all the words, that are neither Mexican nor
Maya, belong to our languages of Northern Europe, viz., English,
Saxon, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Flemish and German, some even
appear to belong to the French and Persian, and altogether they are
really very numerous and astounding.' _Id._, _Letter in the New York
Tribune_, November 21, 1855.

[XI'-5] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 231-45.

[XI'-6] _Gage's New Survey_, pp. 465-477, et seq.

[XI'-7] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 84-110.

[XI'-8] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Grammaire de la Langue Quiché_;
_Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 126-47.

[XI'-9] _Beltran de Santa Rosa María_, _Arte_; _Ruz_, _Catecismo
Historico_; _Id._, _Cartilla_; _Id._, _Gram. Yucateca_; _Gallatin_, in
_Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 252, et seq.; _Heller_,
_Reisen_, p. 381, et seq.; _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii.,
pp. 4-24; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 5, 223, tom. ii., pp.
119, 229; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Grammaire_, in _Landa_,
_Relacion_, pp. 459-479; _Id._, in _MS. Troano_, tom. ii.

[XI'-10] 'Estos Totonaques ... decian ser ellas de _Guastelas_.' 'Otros
hay, que entienden la lengua Guasteca.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.
iii., lib. x., pp. 131-2. 'Im alten Centralamerika also waren die
Sprachen der Totonaken, Otimier, Huasteken, Macahuer unter sich sowohl
als auch mit der Sprache in Yucatan verwandt.' _Müller_,
_Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 453; _Mexikanische Zustände_; tom.
i., p. 143; _Montanus_, _Nieuwe Weereld_, p. 251; _Hassel_, _Mex.
Guat._, p. 245; _Almaraz_, _Memorio_, pp. 18, 20; _Villa-Señor y
Sanchez_, _Theatro_, tom. i., pp. 287-91; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 4; _Ternaux-Compans_, in _Nouvelles
Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxviii., p. 7; _Vater_, _Mithridates_,
tom. iii., pt iii., p. 106; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 18-20,
204.

[XI'-11] _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., pp. 223-68; _Vater_,
_Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt iii., pp. 44-60.

[XI'-12] _Zenteno_, _Lengua Huasteca_; _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 276-85; _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i.,
pp. 5-34.

[XI'-13] _Col. Polidiómica Mex._, _Oracion Dominical_, p. 8-10.

CHAPTER XII.

LANGUAGES OF HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICA, AND THE ISTHMUS OF
DARIEN.

THE CARIB AN IMPORTED LANGUAGE -- THE MOSQUITO LANGUAGE -- THE
POYA, TOWKA, SECO, VALIENTE, RAMA, COOKRA, WOOLWA, AND OTHER
LANGUAGES IN HONDURAS -- THE CHONTAL -- MOSQUITO GRAMMAR --
LOVE SONG IN THE MOSQUITO LANGUAGE -- COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY OF
HONDURAS TONGUES -- THE CORIBICI, CHOROTEGA, CHONTAL AND
OROTIÑA IN NICARAGUA -- GRAMMAR OF THE OROTIÑA OR NAGRADAN --
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE OROTIÑA AND CHOROTEGA -- THE CHIRIQUÍ,
GUATUSO, TIRIBI, AND OTHERS IN COSTA RICA -- TALAMANCA
VOCABULARY -- DIVERSITY OF SPEECH ON THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN --
ENUMERATION OF LANGUAGES -- COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY.

In Honduras there is a long list of tribal names, to each of which is
attributed a distinct tongue. Vocabularies have been taken of three or
four only, and one, spoken on the Mosquito coast, has had its
grammatical structure reduced to writing. It is therefore impossible
to make comparisons and therefrom to determine how far their number
might be reduced by classification. The first which I introduce is
generally conceded to have been imported. It is the Carib, spoken on
the shores of the bay of Honduras and on the adjacent islands, and has
been proven to be almost identically the same as the one spoken on the
West India Islands. From Cape Honduras to the Rio San Juan, and
extending inland as far as Black River, the Mosquito language is in
general use. Of it I shall insert a few grammatical remarks. In the
Poya Mountains a like-named tongue is spoken; on the headwaters of the
Patook River is the Towka, and on the Rio Secos, the Seco. Further in
the mountains, near the boundary of Nicaragua, and extending into that
state are the Valiente and Rama, said to be both separate tongues; and
in the interior of the state there are the Cookra and Woolwa, the
latter spoken in the province of Chontales. Others mentioned are the
Tonglas, the Lenca, the Smoo, the Teguaca, the Albatuina, the Jara,
the Taa, the Gaula, the Motuca, the Fantasma, and the Sambo. Of these
nothing but the names can be given. The oldest authorities mention, as
a principal language the Chontal, the name of a people and language
met in many variations in almost every state from Mexico to Nicaragua.
As there are no specimens of this language existing, it is impossible
to say whether one people and language extended through all this
territory or whether certain wild tribes were designated by this
general name, as, according to Molina's Mexican dictionary,
_chontalli_ means stranger or foreigner; and _popoluca_, which seems
to be also used like chontalli, is defined as barbarian, or man of
another nation and language. I am therefore of the opinion that no
such nations as Chontals or Popolucas exist, but that these names were
employed by the more civilized nations to designate people speaking
other and barbarous tongues.[XII'-1]

[Sidenote: MOSQUITO ADJECTIVES AND DECLENSIONS.]

Of the Mosquito language, which is understood throughout the whole
Mosquito Coast, and of which I here give a few grammatical remarks, Mr
Squier remarks that "it is not deficient in euphony, although
defective in grammatical power."[XII'-2] There is but one article, the
numeral adjective _kumi_, one, used also for a and an. The adjectives
are few in number, having no uniform termination, and are discovered
only by their signification, except when participles, when they always
terminate in _ra_ or _n_. Adjectives form the comparative by adding
_kara_ to the positive and the superlative by adding _poli_ except in
two words, _uia_ and _silpe_, which have distinct words for each
degree of comparison, thus;--_silpe_, small; _uria_, smaller;
_katara_, smallest; _uia_, much; _kara_, more; _poli_, most.
Comparison is usually formed in the manner following;--_yamne_, good;
_yamne kara_, better; _yamne poli_, best; _konra_, strong; _konra
kara_, stronger; _konra poli_, strongest.

In composition, to express excess or diminution, comparison is
sometimes formed in this manner;--_Jan almuk, Samuel almuk apia_: John
is old, Samuel is not old.

ADJECTIVES.

Old almuk Bad saura
Every bane Green sane
Tight, close bitne Black sixa
Spotted bulne Small silpe
Greedy slabla Transparent slilong
Dull dimdim Slippery swokswaka
Circular iwit Sour swane
Less kausa Damp tauske
More kara Great tara
Hot lapta Thin, flat tanta
Rich lela-kera Thick twotne
Round marbra Poor umpira
Sharp mata Much uia
White pine Smaller uria
Red paune Weary wet
Most, very poli Heavy wira
Grey, light popotne Chief wita
blue etc.
New raiaka Good yamne

THE PERFECT TENSE USED AS AN ADJECTIVE.

Dry lawan Angry palan, or luan
Lazy shringwan Fearful sibrin
Slack, loose langwan Sore latwan
Wet buswan Sick, troubled warban
Dirty klaklan Dead pruan
Generous kupia-pine

The gender is commonly marked by adding _waikna_ for the male and
_mairen_ for the female, or, for beasts, _wainatka_ for the male, and
_mairen_, as before, for the female. Thus;--_lupia waikna_, a son;
_lupia mairen_, a daughter; _bip wainatka_, a bull; _bip mairen_, a
cow. In nouns relating to the human species the plural is formed by
adding _nani_ to the singular; as;--_waikna_, a man; _waikna nani_,
men; _yapte_, mother; _yapte nani_, mothers. Other nouns have the
plural the same as the singular, although sometimes a plural is formed
by adding _ra_ to the singular;--_inska_, a fish; _inskara_, fishes.

There are four cases, distinguished by their terminations, the
nominative, dative, accusative, and ablative.

DECLENSION OF THE WORD AIZE, FATHER.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. Father aize | Fathers aize-nani
Dat. To father aizera | To fathers aize-nanira
Acc. Father aize | Fathers aize-nani
Abl. With father aize-ne | With fathers aize-ne-nani

WITH AFFIX KE.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. My father aize-ke | My fathers aizeke-nani
Dat. To my father aizekra | To my fathers aizeke-nanira
Acc. My father aizeke | My fathers aizeke-nani
Abl. With my father aize-ke-ne | With my fathers aizeke ne nani

WITH AFFIX KAM.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. Thy father aizekam | Thy fathers aizekam-nani
Dat. To thy father aizekamra | To thy fathers aizekam-nanira
Acc. Thy father aizekam | Thy fathers aizekam-nani
Abl. With thy father aizekam-ne | With thy fathers aizekam ne nani

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. His people ai upla | Their people ai upla-nani
Dat. To his people ai uplara | To their people ai upla-nanira
Acc. His people ai upla | Their people ai upla-nani
Abl. With his people ai uplane | With their people ai uplane-nani

To form the possessive case of nouns, the word _dukia_, signifying
'belonging', is added. The word, being subject to a declension
peculiar to itself, is on that account not put as an affix in the
usual declension of nouns.

DECLENSION OF THE WORD DUKIA, BELONGING, POSSESSION.

Belonging, possession dukia
Belonging to him, to them ai dukiara
Belonging to thee, to you ai dukiamra
In my possession, belonging to me dukia-ne

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Of me, mine yung dukia | Of us, ours yung-nani dukia
Of thee, thine man dukia | Of you, yours man-nani dukia
Of him, his, hers, its wetin dukia | Of them, theirs wetin nani dukia

There are twelve pronouns, mostly declinable. Six of them are
personal.

I yung | Self bui
Thou man | Our wan
He wetin | He, his, her, hers, I, me, etc. ai

Three are relative, and three adjective.

ADJECTIVE. RELATIVE.

This baha | What naki
That naha | Which ansa
Other wala | Who dia

The first three are declined alike; thus

DECLENSION OF THE WORD YUNG, I.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. I yung | We yung-nani
Dat. To me yungra | To us yung-nanira,
Acc. Me yung | Us yung-nani
Abl. In me yung-ne | With us yung-nani kera

DECLENSION OF THE WORD MAN, THOU.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. Thou man | You man nani
Dat. To thee manra | To you man-nanira
Acc. Thee man | You man-nani
Abl. In thee man-ne | With you man-nani-kera

DECLENSION OF THE WORD WETIN, HE.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. He wetin | They wetin-nani
Dat. To him wetinra | To them wetin-nanira
Acc. Him wetin | Them wetin nani
Abl. In him wetin-ne | With them wetin-nani kera

Affixes are also joined to pronouns to increase, vary, or change their
signification, such as _sa_, _ne_, _ra_, _am_, and others, as well as
prepositions and adverbs.

There are but three interjections: _alai!_ alas! _kais!_ lo! and
_alakai!_ O dear!

[Sidenote: MOSQUITO ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONS.]

Adverbs are numerous, and admit of certain variations in their
signification by the use of affixes, thus;--_nara_, here; _narasa_,
here it is; _lama_, near; _lamara_, nearer.

Quickly ane Never tara
When ankia Where ansera
Every bane Together aika-aika
Yesterday, the There bara
other day eua-wala There it is barasa
Presently kanara Yonder bukra
When kanka Near lama
Again kli Nearer, close lamara
Soon mit Further liwara
To-day naiua Here nara
Next, by and by naika Here it is narasa
Already put No more yulakane
Immediately tiske Yes au
To-morrow yunka Anything deradera
After to-morrow yawanka Sweetly dumdum
No, not apia Exactly kut
Only baman Strangely pale
For nothing barke Very, truly poli
Not, never para Enough sipse
Not sip Truly kosak
It is not sipsa

There are twenty-eight prepositions. Some of them are also used as
conjunctions; and some, like the adverb, admit of a variation.

At, near, about baila For mata
To, there bara Beneath maira
In bela Below monunta
Into, within belara Under monuntara
Against dara Behind ninara
Beyond kau After ninka
With kera Without, destitute para
Through krauan Over, upon pura
With, together kuki Upon, above purara
In front lalma Before, anterior pus
Opposite, before lalmara Without, exterior skera
Unto, close lama Among tilara
Without, outside latara With wal
Between, centre lilapos From, out of wina

CONJUNCTIONS.

Then baha Until kut
Since baha-wina Now mek
Like bako How naki
Because, for bamna Next naika
So thus bun But sekuna
So it is bunsa Lest sia
If kaka And, also sin
Yet kau And wal
Still kause

CONJUGATION OF THE VEEB KAIA, TO BE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

I am, yung ne | The same, only placing _nani_ after
Thou art, man kam | the pronouns.
He is, wetin |

PERFECT. FUTURE.

I have been, kare | I shall be, kamne
Thou hast been, karum | Thou wilt be, kama
He has been, | He will be, kabia

IMPERATIVE.

Be thou, kama | Let us be, kape
Let him be, kabia | Be ye, man-nani-kama
| Let them be, wetin nani kabia

OTHER FORMS.

I have not been, kerus
Thou hast not been, kerum
He has not been, keruiskan
I shall not be, kamue-apia
Thou wilt not be, kama-apia
He shall not be, kabia-apia
We shall not be, yung-nani kamne-apia
Ye shall not be, man-nani kama-apia
They shall not be, wetin-nani kabia-apia
Shall I not be? kamne-apiake
Wilt thou not be? kama-apiake
Shall he not be? kabia-apiake

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB DAUKAIA, TO MAKE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

I make, daukisne | We make, yung-nani daukisne
Thou makest, daukisma | You make, man-nani daukisma
He makes, daukisa, or danki | They make, wetin-nani dauki,
or dankisa

IMPERFECT.

I did make, daukatne
Thou didst make, daukatma
He did make, daukata

In the same way every tense forms the plural, having no difference in
the terminations.

PERFECT. FUTURE.

I have made, dankre | I shall make, daukamne
Thou hast made, daukrum | Thou wilt make, daukama
He has made, daukan | He will make, daukbia

IMPERATIVE.

Make, daux | Let us make, daukpe
Let him make, daukbia, or | Make ye, man nani daux
dautbiasika | Let them make, wetin nani daukbia
| or daukbiasika

OTHER FORMS.

I make not, daukrusne
I did not make, daukruskatne
I have not made, yung daukrus
I shall not make, daukamme-apia
Make not, daukparama, or man daukpara
Let him not make, daukiera, or wetin daukbiera
Let us not make, yung nani daukbiera
Make ye not, man nani daukpara, or daukparama
Let them not make, wetin nani daukbiera
I may or can make, yung shep daukisne
I should make, daukaiakatne
I may have made, yung shep daukre
I might have made, yung daukatnekrane
I shall have made, daukaiakamne
Do I make? daukisneke
Do I not make? daukrusneke
Dost thou not make, or
makest thou not? daukrusmake
Does he not make? daukruske
Shall I not make? daukamne apiake
If I make, yung daukikaka
If I had not made, yung daukruskaka[XII'-3]

[Sidenote: MOSQUITO LOVE SONG.]

As a specimen of this language I have the following love song:

Keker miren náne, warwar páser yamne krouekan. Coope nárer mi koolkun
I doukser. Dear máne kuker cle wol proue. I sabbeáne wal moonter
moppara. Keker misére yapte winegan. Koker sombolo barnar lippun,
lippun, lippunke. Koolunker punater bin biwegan. Coope nárer tánes I
doukser. Coope nárer mi koolkun I doukser.

* * * * *

Of this the translation is given as follows:

Dear girl, I am going far from thee. When shall we meet again to
wander together on the sea-side? I feel the sweet sea-breeze blow its
welcome on my cheek. I hear the distant rolling of the mournful
thunder. I see the lightning flashing on the mountain's top, and
illuminating all things below, but thou art not near me. My heart is
sad and sorrowful; farewell! dear girl, without thee I am
desolate.[XII'-4]

Following is a comparative vocabulary of some of the other
languages.[XII'-5]

LENCA.

[Sidenote: OROTIÑA CONJUGATIONS.]

Besides the Aztec, which I have already spoken of in a previous
chapter, there were four distinct languages spoken in Nicaragua:--The
Coribici, Chorotega, Chontal, and Orotiña.[XII'-6] Of the Orotiña, which
Mr Squier calls the Nagrandan, I have the following grammatical notes.

Neither articles nor prepositions are expressed. The plural is formed
by the affix _nu_;--_ruscu_, bird; _ruscunu_, birds. Comparatives and
superlatives are expressed by _mah_, better or more, and _pooru_ or
_puru_, best or most;--_meheña_, good; _ma-meheña_, better;
_puru-meheña_, best. Diminutives, or deficiency, are expressed by _ai_
or _mai_;--_ai-meheña_ or _mai-meheña_, bad or lacking good.

PRONOUNS.

I icu
We, masc. hechelu
We, fem. hecheri
Thou ica
You, m. hechela
You, f. hechelai
He icau
She icagui
They, m. icanu
They, f. icagunu
That cagui
Those caguinu
This, m. cala
This, f. hala
These, m. cadchinulu
These, f. cadchici
Mine, m. cugani
Mine, f. icagani
Yours, m. cutani
Yours, f. icatani
His cagani

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB SA, TO BE.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

I am, sá | We are, so
Thou art, sá | You are, soa
He is, sá | They are, sula

IMPERFECT.

I was, caná | We were, cananá
Thou wast, caná | You were, cananoá
He was, caná | They were, lacananá

PERFECT.

I have been, sá cá | We have been, sá cuá
Thou hast been, sachu | You have been, sá cnahi
He has been, sacá | They have been, sa gahu

PLUPERFECT.

I had been, mucasini | Plural the same
Thou hadst been, mucanasini |
He had been, mucanasadini |

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall be, lamanambi | We shall be, lamananna

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have been, malamana | We shall have been, lamana

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB AIHA, TIHA, AHIHA, TO COME.

PRESENT INDICATIVE.

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

I come, icunaha | We come, hechelunagubi

IMPERFECT.

I came, incunahalu | We came, hechelunagubalú

PERFECT.

I have come, icusanaha | We have come, hechelusagualalu

PLUPERFECT.

I had come, icuschisalu | We had come, hechelunigualalu

FIRST FUTURE.

I shall come, icugaha | We shall come, hecheluguha

SECOND FUTURE.

I shall have come, icuvihiluniha | We shall have come,
hechehivihiluingualalu

IMPERATIVE.

Come, ahiyaica | Let us come, ahiyohecheu

I should come, icugahalu | We should come, hechelugualalu

If I had come, icumahaluvihilu | If we had come,
hechelumainueamaguíha[XII'-7]

[Sidenote: NICARAGUA AND COSTA RICA VOCABULARIES.]

Of the Orotiña and Chorotega I also insert a short vocabulary.

OROTIÑA. CHOROTEGA. OROTIÑA. CHOROTEGA.

Man rahpa nuho Water eeia nimbu
Woman rapaku nahseyomo Stone esee, or esenu nugo
Head a'cu, or edi goochemo Wood bara nanguima
Face enu grote To drink mahuia boprima
Ear nau nuhme To go aiyu, or icu paya
Eye setu nahte Dead ganganu gagame
Nose ta'co mungoo White mesha andirume
Arm pa'pu deno I icu saho
House gua nahngu Thou, he ica sumusheta
Sun ahca numbu We hechelu semehmu
Fire ahku nahu [XII'-8]

More scanty still is the information regarding the tongues of Costa
Rica. Only one vocabulary is at hand of the languages spoken by the
Blancos, Valientes, and Talamancas, who inhabit the east coast between
the Rio Zent and the Boca del Toro. Besides these there are mentioned,
as speaking separate tongues, the Chiripos, Guatusos, and Tiribis. Of
the language of the Talamancas I give a few words.

Man signa-kirinema Water dí-tzítá
Woman signa-arágre Stone ák
Head sa-za-kú Wood u-ruk
Face sa-kar-kú Dog tschi-tschi
Ear su-kú-ke Good buisi
Eye su-wu-ákétéi Bad be-so-i
Nose su-tshu-ko-tó I be-hé
Hand sa-fra-tzin-sek Thou tschi-si
House suhú He se-dé
Sun kan-hué We sa-ta-war-ke
Moon tu-lu You se-hetsch-te
Fire tschú-ko They be-zo[XII'-9]

[Sidenote: CHOLO, TULE, AND DARIEN LANGUAGES.]

On the isthmus of Darien there is nothing to be mentioned but the
names of tongues said to have been spoken there, and of specimens
nothing but a few scanty vocabularies exist. Oviedo, speaking of
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the ancient province of Tierra Firme,
thinks there were as many as seventy-two distinct tongues spoken in
that region. He specially mentions the Coiba, the Burica, and the
Paris.[XII'-10] Andagoya speaks of a distinct language in the province
of Acla; another called the Cueva as spoken in the provinces of
Comogre and Biruqueta, on Pearl Island, about the gulf of San Miguel,
and in the province of Coiba; at Nombre de Dios the Chuchura; to each
of the provinces of Tobreytrota, Nata, Chiru, Chame, Paris, Escoria,
Chicacotra, Sangana, and Guarara, a distinct language is
assigned.[XII'-11] Another tongue spoken of by an old writer is that of
the Simerones.[XII'-12] To the different surveying and exploring
expeditions of later years we are indebted for a few notes on the
languages spoken in Darien at this day. The Tules, Dariens, Cholos,
Dorachos, Savanerics, Cunas, and Bayamos, are new names not mentioned
by any of the older writers; of some of them vocabularies have been
taken, but otherwise we are left in darkness.[XII'-13]

CHOLO. TULE. WAFER'S DARIEN VOCAB.

Water payto tee doola
Fire tuboor cho
Sun pesea ipé
Moon hedecho nee nee
Tree pachru chowala (pl.)
House dhé neka
Man mochina mastola
Woman wuèna pundola poonah
Thunder pá marra
Dog achu
Ear uwa
Eye ibia
Nose an uchuu
Mouth kagya
Father tautah
Mother naunah
Brother roopah
Go chaunah
Sleep cotchah
Fine mamaubah
One quenchaqua hean
Two pocoa dìv
Three pagwa tree
Four pakegua caher
Five aptali cooig
Ten ambe deh[XII'-14]

Although from a perusal of what has here been gathered we might wish
to know more of the weird imaginings that floated through the minds of
these peoples, and to follow further the interminable intermixture of
tongues and dialects, spoken, grunted, and gestured between the Arctic
Ocean and the Atrato River, we must content ourselves with what we
have. I have gathered and given in this volume all that I have been
able to find; and from the readiness with which the Americans were
wont to adopt the dogmas and creeds of Europeans, supernatural
conceptions supposedly superior to their own, and insist upon their
being aboriginal, and from the rapid and bewildering changes that so
quickly mar and destroy the original purity of tongues, there is
little hope of our learning further from living lips, or of our ever
being able to study these things from the scattered and degraded
remnants of the people themselves.

[Sidenote: CONCLUSION.]

He who carefully examines the Myths and Languages of the aboriginal
nations inhabiting the Pacific States, cannot fail to be impressed
with the similarity between them and the beliefs and tongues of
mankind elsewhere. Here is the same insatiate thirst to know the
unknowable, here are the same audacious attempts to tear asunder the
veil, the same fashioning and peopling of worlds, laying out and
circumscribing of celestial regions, and manufacturing, and setting
up, spiritually and materially, of creators, man and animal makers and
rulers, everywhere manifest. Here is apparent what would seem to be
the same inherent necessity for worship, for propitiation, for
purification, or a cleansing from sin, for atonement and sacrifice,
with all the symbols and paraphernalia of natural and artificial
religion. In their speech the same grammatical constructions are seen
with the usual variations in form and scope, in poverty and richness,
which are found in nations, rude or cultivated, everywhere. Little as
we know of the beginning and end of things, we can but feel, as fresh
facts are brought to light and new comparisons made between the races
and ages of the earth, that humanity, of whatsoever origin it may be
or howsoever circumstanced, is formed on one model, and unfolds under
the influence of one inspiration.

FOOTNOTES:

[XII'-1] A classification has been made by Mr Squier, but in the absence
of reliable data on which to base it, it cannot be accepted without
reserve. He says: 'it appears that Honduras was anciently occupied by
at least four distinct families or groups.' These he names: the Chorti
or Sesenti, belonging to the Maya family, the Lenca, under the various
names of Chontals and perhaps Xicaques and Poyas;--in the third he
includes the various tribes intervening between the Lencas proper and
the inhabitants of Cariay, or what is now called the Mosquito shore,
such as the Toacas, Tonglas, Ramas, etc., and lastly in the fourth,
the savages who dwelt on the Mosquito shore from near Carataska Lagoon
southward to the Rio San Juan. _Cent. Amer._, pp. 252-3. See also
_Squier_, in _Palacio_, _Carta_, note iii., pp. 100-5; _Froebel_, _Aus
Amerika_, tom. i., pp. 399-403; _Id._, _Cent. Amer._, pp. 133-36;
_Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., p. 287; _Squier_, in _Nouvelles Annales des
Voy._, 1858, tom. clx., pp. 134-5; _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 20. 'Variis
et diversis linguis utebantur, Chontalium tamen maxime erat inter eos
communis.' _Laet_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 337. 'Tenian diferencias de
lenguas, y la mas general es la de los Chontales.' _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. iii.; _Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, p.
62; _Galindo_, _Notice of the Caribs_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._,
vol. iii., p. 290-1; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 20. 'Die
Karaiben bedienen sich noch gegenwärtig ihrer ganz eigenthümlichen
Sprache, welche bedeutend von allen übrigen abweicht, und von den
anderen Indianerstämmen nicht verstanden wird.' _Mosquitoland_,
_Bericht_, pp. 19-20, 140; _Bell's Remarks on Mosquito Ter._, in
_Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., pp. 258-9; _Wells' Explor.
Hond._, pp. 552-3.

[XII'-2] _Bard's Waikna_, p. 363. 'Die Sprache ... der Sambos oder
eigentlichen Mosquitos, am meisten ausgebildet, allgemein verbreitet
und wird im ganzen Lande von allen Stämmen verstanden und gesprochen.
Sie ist wohlklingend, ohne besondere Kehllaute aber ziemlich arm und
unbeholfen.' _Mosquitoland_, _Bericht_, p. 140.

[XII'-3] _Mosquitoland_, _Bericht_, pp. 241-68; _Alex. Henderson's
Grammar, Moskito Lang._, N. York, 1846.

[XII'-4] _Young's Narrative_, pp. 77-8.

[XII'-5] _Squier's Cent. Amer._, pp. 253-6; _Id._, in _Nouvelles Annales
des Voy._, 1858, clx., p. 135; _Froebel_, _Aus Amerika_, tom. i., pp.
400-1.

[XII'-6] 'Ay en Nicaragua cinco lenguajes muy diferentes: Coribici, que
loan mucho, Chorotega, que es la natural, y antigua: y assi estan en los
que lo hablan los heredamientos, y el Cacao, que es la moneda, y
riqueza dela tierra.... Chondal es grossero, y serrano. Orotiña, que
dize mama, por lo que no otros (nosotros). Mexicano, que es la
principal.' _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 264. 'A quatro ó çinco
lenguas distintas é diverssas las unas de las otras. La prinçipal es
la que llaman de _Nicaragua_, y es la mesma que hablan en México ó en
Nueva España. La otra es la lengua que llaman de _Chorotega_, é la
terçera es Chondal.... Otra hay ques del golpho de Orotiñaruba háçia
la parte del Nordeste, ó otras lenguas hay adelante la tierra
adentro.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 35, 37. Herrera, who
has copied from Gomara almost literally, has made a very important
mistake; he speaks of five languages and only mentions four. As
Herrera mentions a place Chuloteca, some writers, and among them Mr
Squier, have applied this name to a language, but seemingly without
authority. Herrera's copy reads: 'Hablauan en Nicaragua, çinco lenguas
diferentes, Coribizi, que lo hablan mucho en Chuloteca, que es la
natural, y antigua, y ansi estauan en los que la hablauan.... Los de
Chondal son grosseros, y serranos, la quarta es Orotina, Mexicana es
la quinta.' _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii. Purchas has
copied Gomara more closely, and cites the five like him. _Pilgrimes_,
vol. v., p. 887. Mr Squier makes the following division: Dirian,
Nagrandan, Choluteca, Orotina, and Chondal. Those speaking the Aztec
dialect he names Niquirans and also counts the Choluteca as a dialect
of the same. _Nicaragua_, vol. ii., p. 310-12; _Buschmann_,
_Ortsnamen_, p. 132; _Froebel_, _Cent. Amer._, p. 59, et seq.;
_Boyle's Ride_, vol. i., p. 267, vol. ii., pp. 286-7; _Hassel_, _Mex.
Guat._, p. 397; _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 20.

[XII'-7] _Squier's Nicaragua_, vol. ii., pp. 315-319.

[XII'-8] _Id._, pp. 320-23.

[XII'-9] _Wagner and Scherzer_, _Costa Rica_, p. 562; _Scherzer_,
_Vocab._, in _Sitzungsberichte der Akad. der Wissensch._, _Wien_, vol.
xv., no. i., 1855, pp. 28-35.

[XII'-10] 'Pienso yo que son apartados del número de las septenta y dos.'
_Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., cap. xliii. 'En tierra
firme ... ai mui diversas, i apartadas Lenguas.' _Oviedo_, _Proemio_,
in _Barcia_, _Historiadores_, tom. i., p. 12. 'Ai entre ellos lenguas
diferentes.' _Fernando Colon_, in _Barcia_, _Historiadores_, tom. i.,
fol. 106. 'Son trà lor diuerse lingue.' _Colombo_, _Hist. Ammeraglio_,
p. 405.

[XII'-11] _Andagoya_, _Relacion_, in _Navarrete_, _Col._, tom. iii., p.
393, et seq.; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. i., cap. xi.

[XII'-12] _Baptista Antonio_, _Relation_, in _Hakluyt's Voy._, tom. iii.,
fol. 554.

[XII'-13] _Vater_, _Mithridates_, tom. iii., pt ii., p. 707; _Cullen's
Darien_, p. 65; _Fitzroy_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xx., p.
164; _Latham_, in _Id._, pp. 189-90; _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. i.,
p. 312; _Bidwell's Isthmus_, pp. 33-38; _De Puydt_, _Explor._, in
_Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxviii., p. 91.

[XII'-14] _Cullen's Darien_, pp. 99-102; _Latham_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc.,
Jour._, vol. xx., p. 190; _Wafer's New Voy._, pp. 185-188.

END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 3 - The Native Races, Volume 3, Myths and Languages" ***

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