Let us now return to Peru and examine whether there is any proof that the

“Teacher or Guide of the World,” the Supreme Being of the Incas, was

identical with the “Lord who guides” revered by the Mexican navigators.

I have already demonstrated that in ancient America the native scheme of

religion and government was but the natural outcome of certain ideas

suggested by the observation of Polaris and the circumpolar

constellations. I have likewise quoted the remarkable qualification of a

supreme divinity made by Inca Yupanqui, who raised a temple in Cuzco to

the Creator who, superior to the sun, could rest and light the world from

one spot. It is an extremely important and significant fact that the

principal doorway of this temple opened to the north,(32) and that the

“true Creator” is alluded to as an invisible power, the knowledge of which

was transmitted by the Incas from father to son. Thus Salcamayhua records

that on one occasion the young Inca Ccapac Yupanqui exclaimed “I now feel

that there is another Creator of all things [than that worshipped in the

Andes], as my father Mayta Ccapas Inca has indeed told me.”(33)

Considering that in the latitude of Cuzco, situated as it is 14° below the

equator, Polaris is invisible, the conditions thus recorded as existing in

Peru are exactly those which might be expected to exist if a religion

founded on pole-star worship had been carried southward to a region in

which the star itself was invisible. The orientation of the temple would

designate the north as the sacred region and the star-god would become an

invisible power whose very existence would have become traditional and

necessarily be accepted on faith by native-born Peruvians and converted

sun- and moon-worshippers.

It is a remarkable fact that a descendant of the Incas has furnished us

with actual proof that the Supreme Creator revered at Cuzco was not only

associated with a star, but also with the figure of a cross, each branch

of which terminated in a star. We are indebted to the native chronicler

Salcamayhua for some extremely curious drawings, which are reproduced here

from his account of the Antiquities of Peru.(34) In treating of the

primitive astronomy in America in my special paper on the native calendar,

I shall refer to these in greater detail. For my present purpose it

suffices to designate the following figures.

Salcamayhua records that the founder of the Peruvian Empire, Manco Capac,

ordered the smiths to make a flat plate of fine gold, of oval shape, which

was set up as an image of the Creator (_op. cit._ p. 76). The Inca Mayta

Ccapac, “who despised all created things, including the sun and moon,” and

“ordered his people to pay no honour to them,” caused the plate to be

renewed which his “great grandfather had put up, fixing it afresh in the

place where it had been before. He rebuilt the ‘house of gold’ and they

say that he caused things to be placed round the plate, which I have

shown, that it may be seen what these heathens thought.” The central

figure on this plate consists of the oval image of the Creator, fig. 48,

_c_. Close to its right are images designated by the text as representing

the sun and morning star. To the left are the moon and the evening star.

Above the oval and touching it, is a group of five stars forming a cross,

with one star in the centre. Below it is a cross figure formed by lines

uniting four stars. In this case, instead of being in the middle, the

fifth star is attached to the lower edge of the oval, which is designated

as “the image of Uiracocha Pacha-Yachachic, the teacher of the World.”

Outside of the plate is what appears to be an attempt to explain more

clearly the relative positions of the group of five stars to the oval

plate (fig. 48, _a_). It represents the oval and one star in the centre of

a cross formed by four stars. The question naturally suggests itself

whether the group of five stars forming a cross may not represent the

Southern Cross, popularly called the pole-star of the south and which

consists of four principal stars, one of which is of the first and two of

the second magnitude. This possibility opens out a new field of inquiry,

and calls for the statement of the following facts, which I quote from

Amedée Guillemin’s Handbook of Popular Astronomy, edited by J. Norman

Lockyer and revised by Richard A. Proctor.(35)

[Illustration.]

Figure 48.

“In [our] enumeration of the circumpolar constellations of the South, we

have said nothing of the stars situated at the Pole itself. The reason is

simple; there are none deserving mention, and with the exception of one

star in Hydræ, none approach the third magnitude. There is not then, in

the southern sky, any star analogous to Polaris in the northern heavens.”

M. Guillemin proceeds to explain, however, that this poverty of the polar

regions is singularly compensated for by the stars of the equatorial zone.

It seems more than probable that primitive astronomers or their

descendants, who had been reared in a knowledge of the northern Polaris

and of the periodical motion of the circumpolar constellations, should

continue their observations in whatever latitude they found themselves. It

seems possible that they may have observed the Southern Cross and

recognized its closeness to the pivot or centre of rotation; but from

personal experience and observation I can vouch for the fact that this

constellation could never have produced upon primitive man the powerful

impression caused by Ursa Major and Cassiopeia revolving around Polaris.

It is, of course, impossible to conclude to what extent the ancient

Peruvians revered the Southern Cross. It suffices for the present to

establish the incontrovertible facts that the image of the motionless

Creator, set up by the Incas, was associated with stars and with the cross

and that the door of the Cuzco Temple, where this image was kept, faced

the north, the direction whence, according to native traditions, the

culture-heroes had come to Peru.

The following data furnish further important proof that certain peculiar

ideas, symbols and metaphors were held in common by the civilizations of

Peru, Central America and Mexico. Returning to the bas-relief (fig. 47), I

recur to an interesting feature, which I have already pointed out, namely,

that the left arm of the personage terminates in a tiger’s or puma’s head.

In connection with this peculiarity it is interesting to note that the

native historian Ixtlilxochitl cites his illustrious ancestor and

namesake, the Ome Tochtli Ixtlilxochitl of Texcoco, as addressing his

young son Nezalhualcoyotl as “my dearly beloved son, tiger’s arm.”(36) As

the young prince is referred to in the same chapter as “the boy Acolmiztli

[=tiger’s arm] Nezalhualcoyotl,” it is obvious that the metaphor

constituted a title preceding the actual name. It was Nezalhual-coyotl who

instituted the worship of Tloquenahuaque, the true Creator, and

discountenanced human sacrifices.

If the other analogous Santa Lucia slabs be also examined it will be seen

that although the positions of the bodies and arms vary, and the form of

the head is different in each instance, it is invariably the left arm that

terminates in the individual emblem. This sort of consecration of the left

hand seems particularly significant for the following reason: Padre Anello

Oliva records that the Inca Yupanqui, the founder of Cuzco and the same

whose vision agrees so strangely with the bas-relief, was surnamed

Lloque=the left-handed,(37) and was noted for having visited the whole

empire three times. His reign was long and prosperous, and he left a

record as a conqueror and builder. He likewise sent his son Mayta-Capac to

visit the whole empire, accompanied by sages and councillors. I recall

here it was Yupanqui who proclaimed to the sun-worshippers of Peru, the

existence and superiority of an immutable Creator.

I have already shown how, in Peru, it was a dictum that the upper division

of the empire was to bear the same ideal relation to the lower as that of

an elder brother to a younger or a right hand to the left. It is,

therefore, possible to infer that, on ceremonial occasions when it is

recorded that the Hanan Cuzco and Hurin Cuzco people were stationed at

either side of the Inca, the Hanan or chieftains constituting the nobility

were to his right and the Hurin people or lower class, to his left.

It is truly remarkable that it is a passage in the Annals of the

Cakchiquels, the people now inhabiting the region of Guatemala where the

Santa Lucia bas-reliefs were found, that contains the clearest statement

regarding the division of a tribe into two classes and the relative

positions assigned to each of these, according to ceremonial usage. The

passage relates: “We, the 13 divisions of warriors, and the seven tribes

... we came to the enclosure of Tulan, and coming, gave our tribute. The

seven tribes were drawn up in order on the left of Tulan. On the right

hand, were arranged the warriors. Firstly, the tribute was taken from the

seven tribes, next from the warriors.”(38)

Buschmann has recorded the interesting fact that, in Nahuatl, the right

hand is designated as “the good, clever or wise”=yec-maitl or mayectli,

also ma-imatca or ma-nematca (from yectli=good and imati=to be clever or

wise). Molina’s dictionary furnishes us with the following Nahuatl names

for the left hand, etc.

Opoch maitl, Opuch maitl, Opuch maye: left hand.

Opochiuia=v. to do something with the left hand.

Topuchcopa, the left, at the left hand, or side.

In Mexico the totemic lord of the chase was named Opochtli. The

much-discussed name Huitzil-opochtli is considered by some to signify “the

left-handed humming-bird.”

The foregoing proves that in Peru, Guatemala and Mexico a caste-division

was associated with left-handedness and that the expression “left-handed”

was employed as an honorific or distinctive title. It is obvious that

before reaching the point when the left hand would be invested by a

distinctive mark, as in the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs, the above ideas must

have been prevalent for a very long time.

I have already pointed out that a striking similarity of ideas survives

amongst the Zuñi Indians of to-day.

As to the native tiger’s head (puma or ocelot?) we find that it is the

chief symbol of the central human figure on the great monolithic doorway

of Tiahuanaco, Peru, a fact which testifies to a further community of

thought.

This central figure exhibits two tigers’ heads on each shoulder and six

around its head, disposed as rays and interspersed with what resemble

drops of water. The transverse ornament carved on the breast exhibits four

divisions, each of which terminates with a tiger’s head. Four similar

heads, looking upwards, are on the central decoration beneath the figure

and the broad band at the base terminates in two large tigers’ heads. What

is more, on the fragment of a finely carved hollow stone object, which is

preserved at the British Museum and was found at Tiahuanaco by Mr. Richard

Inwards, there are the finest representations of the swastika which have

as yet been found on the American Continent, and each of its branches

terminates in a tiger’s head, resembling those sculptured on the

monolithic doorway. The fragment consists of the half of what seems to me

to have been the top or handle of a staff or sceptre. I am indebted to the

kindness of Mr. C. H. Read of the British Museum, for a rubbing of the

carved fragment and for the permission to reproduce it here (fig. 49). The

central swastika is angular and its form recalls that of the Mexican

Calendar swastika (fig. 9). At each side of it are portions of what

originally were two rounded swastikas, which also terminate in tigers’

heads. These and the size of the fragment seem to justify the inference

that another square swastika was originally sculptured on the opposite

side, making two rounded and two square swastikas in all.

[Illustration.]

Figure 49.

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this fragment, for

it proves to us that in Tiahuanaco, the swastika was a sacred symbol. Its

association with the puma or ocelot, links it to the central figure on the

monolithic doorway and, possibly, connects this with the Mexican

identification of the ocelot with the Ursa Major, with “the lord who walks

around,” or the lord of the underworld, Tezcatlipoca. The two forms of

swastika seem to testify that, in Tiahuanaco also, the idea of the Above

and Below prevailed and that the angular form symbolized the subdivision

of the earth and the rounded one that of the heavens. The rows of

personages sculptured on the doorway at each side of and facing the

central figure seem to indicate that this commemorates an establishment of

tribal organization.

The distribution of the sculptured figures is as follows:

8 figures=2×4 } Central { 8 figures

8 figures=2×4 } 6×4 { 8 figures

8 figures=2×4 } figure. { 8 figures.

The figures on the upper row to the right and left, making sixteen in all,

are all alike—so are the sixteen figures on the second and the sixteen on

the third rows.

Without attempting to describe all the insignia which characterize the

figures on each of the three rows, I refer the reader to the magnificent

plates contained in Drs. Stübel and Uhle’s monumental work on the Ruins of

Tiahuanaco, and merely note that each figure in the uppermost row exhibits

a bird’s head in front of its head-dress. All figures in the second row

are completely masked as condors. In the third row a tiger’s head

decorates each head-dress. It is curious to find that whilst the birds’

and tigers’ heads designate their wearers as heads or chieftains, these

emblems strikingly coincide with the classification of the highest Mexican

warriors into two divisions, known as “the ocelots and the eagles.” If

attention is bestowed upon the number of emblems or figures and their

distribution it will be seen, in the first case, that the central figure

exhibits on his person twelve tigers’ heads in all, _i. e._, six on his

head, two on each arm and two on his breast-plate. Sixteen chieftains

exhibit the same emblem and the carved fragment with the swastika appears

to have originally exhibited sixteen tigers’ heads, distributed into

homogeneous groups of four.

It cannot be denied that the forty-eight figures on the doorway are first

divided into two groups of twenty-four by being placed to the right and

left of the central figure. Each division of twenty-four is grouped as

3×8, which is also 6×4, and yielding a total of 12×4 or 4×12 figures.

Curiously enough the number 12 coincides not only with the number of heads

exhibited by the central figure, but the entire bas-relief offers a

certain agreement with the numerical divisions of Cuzco which I have

summarized as having been divided into two halves and four quarters and

subdivided into 12 wards, the names of which doubtlessly corresponded with

those of their inhabitants. Personally I am inclined to consider that the

purpose of the Tiahuanaco bas-relief was to establish a certain tribal

organization and impose certain distinctive insignia upon each tribe. The

inference that each sculptured figure was differentiated from the other by

being painted in various colors is justified by Molina’s account, already

cited, that “in Tiahuanaco the ‘Creator’ had his chief abode, hence the

superb edifices in that place, on which edifices were painted many dresses

of Indians ... thus each nation uses the dress with which they invest

their huaca and they say that the first that was born [in Tiahuanaco] was

there turned into stones, others say that the first of their lineages were

turned into falcons, condors and other animals and birds.”

It is with deference, however, that I submit my conclusion and refer the

question to the supreme authority of Drs. Stübel and Uhle and Mr.

Bandelier, whose attainments and exhaustive researches in the region of

Tiahuanaco qualify them to utter a final judgment upon this interesting

subject. According to Dr. Max Uhle the civilization established at

Tiahuanaco antedates that of the Incas. It may yet be proven that whilst

Tiahuanaco was settled in remote times by colonists from the North, the

Inca civilization was due to a later migration. It certainly appears that,

in Tiahuanaco and Cuzco, the identical fundamental scheme of government

and organization prevailed.

I shall yet have occasion to point out that in Mexico and Yucatan and

Central America there are also monuments exhibiting multiples of 12 and 4

and also 16 chieftains. Meanwhile it is worth while to note here briefly,

some analogies to Mexican and Maya antiquities found in Peru.

I am much indebted to Sir Clements D. Markham, the President of the Royal

Geographical Society, for the kind permission to reproduce here a hasty

drawing he made, in 1853, of a gold plaque (size 5-8/10 inches) found in

Cuzco (fig. 50). It was then in Lima, being the property of the President

of Peru, General Echerrique. This curious relic exhibits the image of a

monstrous face surrounded by a band with subdivisions containing various

signs. The plaque was looked upon by its owner as a Calendar, but Sir

Clements Markham, after studying its subdivisions with a view of

ascertaining their agreement with the twelve divisions of the Peruvian

year, preferred to let his notes on the subject remain unpublished, not

having come to a satisfactory conclusion on the subject. I am permitted,

however, to state that Sir Clements Markham specially noted the

resemblance of a sign, which is represented on the cheeks of the central

figure and recurs four times on the encircling band, to the well-known

Maya glyph ahau=chief, lord.

[Illustration.]

Figure 50.

It is, indeed, a cursive representation of a human head and moreover

resembles those figured on the garment of a gigantic red sandstone statue

found at Ak-Kapana and figured in Stübel and Uhle’s Tiahuanaco. On this

garment the heads alternate with squares and form a close design. This

resemblance between the conventional faces on this archaic statue and

those on the gold plaque has made me attach more importance to the latter

and at all events regard it as preserving ancient native symbolism. In

connection with these I wish to point out that the plaque itself offers a

certain resemblance to well-known Mexican calendars, the centre of which

usually exhibits a face which is surrounded by a band with day or month

signs. It is remarkable that above each eye there are four dots,

especially as the Quechua word for eye=naui is homonymous with the Nahuatl

numeral four=nahui, and this is so constantly associated with an eye in

the Mexican sign Nahui ollin=four movements (_cf._ fig. 2). As strange a

coincidence as this is furnished by the mark on the forehead of the image,

not because the latter resembles the sect mark of the Vishnu worshippers,

but because it offers a marked analogy to the Mexican Acatl sign which is

frequently carved or painted as a cane standing in a square receptacle

with recurved ends. I am strongly tempted to interpret this symbol

according to the native mode of thought, as signifying the centre, the

union of the Above and Below and to regard the upper part of the face

itself as a representation of the Above, the heaven, with its two eyes

(the Moon and Sun), whilst the lower part and teeth, as in Mexico,

signified the Below, the earth and underworld. By means of the head on

each cheek and the number four over each eye, the dual and quadruple

rulerships of the empire could well have been expressed. Postponing a more

thorough study of the gold plaque, I merely note here that it exhibits

curious analogies not only to Maya but also to Mexican symbolism.

Another instance of the same kind is furnished by a possibly modern but

curious small silver pendant of unquestionably native workmanship. It is

preserved at the Ethnographical Museum at Vienna and is figured in the

Report of the International Congress of Americanists which was held at

Berlin in 1888 (pl. 1, fig. 4, p. 96). Reputed to be from Cuzco, it

represents a figure of the sun surrounded by eight straight and

intermediate undulating rays. Two serpents are figured beneath the sun;

their bodies extend across the pendant and their heads with open jaws

almost meet in the centre. A figure, wearing a peculiar head-dress, is

kneeling in worship beneath the symbols, which undoubtedly recall the

Mexican mode of representing two serpents meeting, as on the Calendar

Stone of Mexico, for instance.

As I am tracing analogies at present, I should like to ask the reader to

compare the symbols figured and designated by Salcamayhua as that of the

earth (see his fig. _c_, pl. LXVI) with the sacred vase from the Maya MS.

(his fig. II, pl. LIX) and the form of the Peruvian symbol for the sea

(his fig. _e_, pl. LXVI) with the peculiar Mexican shell ornament (fig. 1,

no. 10). Insufficient though the above analogies may seem in themselves,

they are valuable in conjunction with the other data presented and

strengthen the conclusion that the same symbolism prevailed in Peru as in

Central America, Yucatan and Mexico.

Let us now rapidly journey northwards from Peru to these countries and

briefly record the traces of the existence of the same ideas and

quadruplicate form of government which we may encounter en route. In the

elevated plains of Bogota we find positive proof that the Muyscas held the

same ideas as their southern and northern neighbors. Their culture hero,

Bochica or Ida-can-zas, was the personification of the Above and of its

symbol, the Sun, whilst his wife was Chia, a name suspiciously like

Quilla, the Quechua for moon. He was high-priest and ruler but counselled

the Muyscas to elect one of themselves, a chief named Hunc-Ahua, to be

their Za-que or civil ruler. Ida-can-zas instituted the Calendar and

taught the Muyscas to appoint four chiefs of tribes whose names or titles

are recorded as Gameza, Busbanca, Pesca and Toca. The institution of a

dual government is indicated by the record that the high-priest dwelt at

the sacred town Aura-ca and the Za-que at Tunja.

It is extremely curious to notice that Ida-can-zas, in Bogota, did

precisely what Cortés found it expedient to do after the Conquest of

Mexico. The latter assumed the supreme rulership over the nobility, became

the “lord of Heaven” and instituted a native chieftain, bearing a female

title, as his coadjutor, the lord of the earth, and the ruler of the

people of the lower class.

It may be worth making the passing remark that the title of the Muysca

culture-hero contains the word “can” and thus recalls the Maya Kukulcan

and that the title Za-que offers a certain resemblance to the Maya title

Chac, whilst the name Hunc-ahua seems strangely similar to Hun-ahau which

in Maya would signify “one lord.” It is for Muysca scholars to enlighten

us as to the derivation and meaning of the above titles and name.

Regretting the lack of time and documents which have prevented me from

obtaining further data I now return to Guatemala and the vicinity of the

Santa Lucia bas-reliefs. Referring to the introduction to their Annals(39)

we learn that the Cakchiquel tribe was but one of four allied nations,

each of which had its capital, named Tecpan, as follows:

Nations: Capitals.

Cakchiquel: Tecpan Quauhtemallan,

Quiche: Utatlan,

Tzutuhil: Atitlan,

Akahal: Tezolotlan.

According to Mr. A. P. Maudslay’s authoritative statement, these nations

were engaged in warfare against each other at the time of the Conquest.

Tezolotlan was termed the “tierra de guerra” the land of war, and the

precise locality of its tecpan or former capital has not been traced,

although it seems to have been close to Rabinal or in the valley of that

name.

It is well known that, under the rulership of Tizoc, the Mexicans extended

their conquests into Guatemala. Buschmann has, moreover, proven that the

foregoing names of the capitals, of what were at one time four provinces,

are pure Nahuatl, which fact establishes the existence of Nahua supremacy

in these regions.

It is curious to find that one of the Santa Lucia slabs seems to

commemorate the existence of a central rulership and that of the four

quarters. It is reproduced in Mr. Strebel’s publication already cited and

represents a central personage holding a head and a tecpatl, whilst four

lesser personages, each carrying a head, are figured as walking away in

four opposed directions. As, according to native symbolism, the head is

the symbol for chieftain this slab seems to commemorate the establishment

and at all events testifies to the existence in Guatemala of the scheme of

government now so familiar.

In their Annals, the Cakchiquels record, as I have already shown, that

they carried their tribute to “the enclosure of Tulan,” a designation

which supports my inference, previously maintained, that Tulan was derived

from the Maya tulum,=a fortification, an enclosed place or that which is

entire, whole, etc., and applied always to the metropolis of a state.

An ancient Cakchiquel legend relates, moreover, that, according to the

“ancient men,” there had been four Tulans: one in the east, one in the

north, one in the west and one “where the god dwells.” This would

obviously have been situated towards the south in order to accord with the

general scheme. I cannot but think that this record testifies to the

existence of an extremely ancient state which starting from one metropolis

had gradually developed into four great Tullans, to one of which the four

tecpans of Guatemala pertained. The fact that the Spaniards found the four

nations living close together, with capitals or tecpans bearing Nahuatl

names and in constant warfare with each other, seems to indicate the

destruction of their own ancient metropolis or Tullan by their Mexican

conquerors and the consequent disintegration of their former

government.(40)

The Mendoza Codex teaches us that when the Mexicans conquered a land they

first burnt and utterly destroyed the teocallis situated in the heart of

its central capital. They razed this to the ground, and carried off to

their own metropolis the totemic images of the rulers of the tribe. The

barbarous institution of human sacrifice, which was only practised to a

great extent by the Mexicans when the necessity to obtain more plentiful

food supplies for their rapidly increasing population forced them to

become a nation of warriors and conquerors, seems indeed to have been

adopted as a fear-inspiring, symbolical rite commemorating the conquest

and destruction of an integral government.

The victim, usually a chieftain taken prisoner in warfare and clad with

his insignia and the raiment of his people, was stretched on the stone of

sacrifice and, figuratively speaking, represented his country and its four

quarters. The tearing out of his heart by the high-priest, armed with the

tecpatl, the emblem of supreme authority, signified the destruction of the

independent life of his tribe as much as did the burning of the teocalli,

and of its capital. It would seem as though the horrible custom of

annually sacrificing one or more representatives of each conquered tribe,

had been adopted as a means of upholding the assumed authority, inspiring

awe and terror and impressing the realization of conquest and utter

subjection. It is known that sometimes a member of a conquered tribe

voluntarily offered himself as a victim in order to release his people

from their obligation, and thus earned for himself immortality.

An insight into the native association of ideas is afforded by Sahagun’s

note that the lord or chieftain was “the heart of his Pueblo,” which means

town as well as population. The death of the sacrificed chief, therefore,

actually conveyed the idea of the destruction of the tribal government to

his vanquished subjects. It remains to be seen whether the subsequent

partition of portions of his dead body amongst the priesthood and their

ritual cannibalism did not signify the absorption of the conquered

population into the communal life of their victors. The preservation of

the victim’s skull on the Tzompantli, as a register of the conquest of a

chieftain, would also be the logical outcome of the native line of thought

and symbolism.

At the risk of making a somewhat lengthy digression I will again refer

here to a point I have already touched upon, namely, the Mexican

employment of the human figure as an allegorical image of their Empire or

State, the idea being that the four limbs represented its four

governmental and territorial divisions and that these were governed by the

head=the lord of the Above or heaven, and the heart=the lord of the Below

or earth. A careful study of the native Codices has shown me that such was

the native allegory which indeed can be further traced. The territory of a

state reproduced the organization of the human body with its four limbs,

each of these terminating in minor groups of five.

According to the same set of ideas the cursive image of a state could be

conveyed by a main group of five dots, situated in the centre of four

minor similar groups. Cross-lines expressing the partition into four

quarters would complete such a graphic and cursive presentation of the

scheme and not only signify its territorial but also its governmental

features. It is noteworthy that, in Nahuatl as in the Quechua, the title

for minor chief is homonymous with the word for fingers.

The Nahuatl pilli is a title for a chieftain or lord and also signifies

child and fingers or toes. A finger is ma-pilli, the prefix ma, from

maitl=hand, designating the fingers as the children of the hand. The thumb

is qualified by the prefix uei=great.

Having gained a recognition of the above facts it is not difficult to

understand the meaning of certain sceptres in the form of an open hand

which occur as symbols of authority borne by chieftains in the native

Codices.(41) I know of one important instance, indeed, where an arm with

an open hand is represented as standing upright in the centre of a circle

divided into sections and zones (similar to fig. 28, nos. 1, 3, 5, and 6).

The above mentioned examples, which I shall illustrate later, have led me

to infer that whilst the arm symbolized one of the four divisions of the

State, the hand symbolized its capital, the thumb its central ruler and

the fingers his four officers or pilli, the rulers of the four quarters of

the minor seat of government. In another publication I shall produce

illustrations showing that the foot was also employed as an emblem of rule

and that Mexico, Yucatan and Central America furnish us with actual proofs

that the hands and the feet respectively symbolized the upper and lower

divisions of the State.

It is thus curious to compare the name for thumb=uei-ma-pilli and the name

Uei-mac (literally, great hand) which Sahagun gives as that of the

“temporal” coadjutor of the Mexican culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, as well as

the term, our toe=totecxopilli with the well-known title Totec=our chief

or lord. In Yucatan the word for hand=kab is, as I shall demonstrate

further on, actually incorporated in the title of the lords of the four

quarters=Bakab. I am almost inclined to find a trace of a similar

association in the Quechua word for fingers=pallca and the title palla

bestowed upon noble women.

I have already mentioned in the preceding pages that the natural basis of

the all-pervading native numerical division into 4×5=20 was the finger and

toe count. The following table exhibits the general custom to designate 20

as one man or one count.(42)

Word for Man. Word for 20.

Nahuatl. tlacatl. cem-poualli=one count.

Quiché }

and } uinay=one man. uinay= " "

Cakchiquel }

Tzendal. hun-uinic=one man. hun-uinic= " "

Maya. uinic. hun-kal= " "

In the latter case the affix kal seems to be derived from the same source

as the verb kal=to close up or fasten something, and to signify something

complete or finished. At the same time the Maya uinal is the Maya name for

the twenty calendar-signs, and the same association is demonstrated as

existing in Mexico by the well-known picture in the Vatican Codex I (p.

75), which represents a man surrounded by the twenty Mexican

calendar-signs.

As I shall treat of the same subject more fully in another publication, I

shall but briefly touch upon the intimate connection there existed between

these calendar-signs and the twenty classes into which the population was

strictly divided. It is known that an individual received the name of the

day on which he was born and it is possible to prove that this determined

his position in the commonwealth, his class and his future occupation.

Each child was formally registered by the priestly statisticians at birth,

and at about the age of six, when his name was sometimes changed, he

entered one of the two educational establishments where he was brought up

by the State, under the absolute control of the priesthood and rulers. It

can be gleaned that one of the chief cares of the latter was to maintain

the same average number of individuals in the distinct classes, to which

the various forms of labor were allotted and who became in time identified

with these. In order to keep the machinery of state in perfect adjustment,

individuals had sometimes to be transferred from the class into which they

were born, to another. In some cases this seems to have been arbitrarily

ordered by the authorities, but the latter appear to have guided

themselves by the position of the parents and to have established the

custom that an individual might alternatively be transferred into the

paternal or maternal class, but not into any other. As each class was,

moreover, divided into an upper and lower one, it was possible for each

person to elevate himself from the lower to the higher by individual merit

or to incur abasement, for unworthy conduct, and being, as we have already

seen, “reduced to the official rank of women.”

The direct outcome of such a form of organization was stringent laws

governing marriage, it being expedient that certain classes only should

intermarry, not only to avoid complications but also to ensure a certain

degree of coöperation conducive to the prosperity of the State. In the

tribal laws still existing amongst the native tribes of North America, I

see the logical survivals of an ancient scheme of organization.

After gaining the above recognition of some of the actual duties of the

priest-rulers of ancient Mexico, it is possible to understand the meaning

of the native sentence, noted by Sahagun, that the native games of patolli

and tlachtli constituted a practice in “the art of government.” From this

it is clear that the former, played by two individuals with dice and

markers upon a mat in the shape of a cross, and symbolical of the Four

Quarters, was originally invented by the priest-rulers for an eminently

practical purpose. The mat being an image of the quadruple state and its

subdivisions, it was possible to make it serve as a register-board

exhibiting the distribution of the population, the number of individuals

in each class and its death and birth rates. We are informed that when

parents, according to the inflexible law, carried their newborn child to

the priest, he consulted his books full of day-signs and foretold what its

future was to be.

A proof that it was the positions of the stars which determined the season

and furnished the means of fixing a date, is furnished by the fact that

the stars were also “consulted” and believed to exert an influence upon

the destiny of the child.

The implicit faith in the predictions of the priests and in the absolute

influence of the position of the heavenly bodies and the date of its birth

upon the individual indicates that the parents were kept in ignorance as

to the workings of the machinery of state and that the priesthood were

reverenced for their power of prophecy. The belief that they could

personally exercise a favorable influence over the destiny of the child

seems also to have been encouraged in the parents, since an offering of

gifts at the period of registration was customary. After the Conquest,

when the native government had been completely broken up, and the enforced

registration of birth and the prediction of the priest had utterly lost

their original significance, native parents still consulted the surviving

members of the priest-rulers; and these ancient statisticians, in order to

gain a livelihood, continued to consult their books and uttered

predictions as of yore, although their power to control their fulfilment

had vanished forever. Ancient Mexico thus furnishes us with an interesting

and instructive explanation of the origin of divinatory practices,

prognostication at birth, etc. It shows us that, under the ancient form of

established government, the sign of the date of a child’s birth actually

did control his future destiny, while it was unquestionably in the power

of the priesthood, not only to predict his future, but also to exert a

favorable or unfavorable influence upon it.

The above facts help us to understand the origin not only of divination,

propitiation and the belief in the influence of day-signs, but also of the

native games which became popular after the Conquest, when their original

use and meaning had become obsolete.

Deferring further discussion of this interesting matter I will but draw

attention to Mr. Stewart Culin’s important study of “American Indian

Games,”(43) which clearly establishes their “interrelation” and at the

same time proves that they were based, as first distinctly insisted upon

by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, on the central idea and that of the four

quarters of the world. Mr. Culin has gone so far as to fix the place of

origin of the “platter or dice class of games which he has found recorded

as existing among some 61 American tribes, in the arid region of the

southwestern United States and Northern or Central Mexico,” and to

conceive that “in ancient Mexico we find traces of its highest

development.”

I place the utmost value upon Mr. Culin’s painstaking and conscientious

researches and regard them as strongly corroborating my views exposed in

the preceding pages. His identification of the pictured diagram in the

Féjérvary Codex, as the counting circuit of the Four Quarters, with a

presiding god in the middle, as in Zuñi, does credit to his perspicacity.

I agree with him in considering that this chart could have been employed

after the Conquest for a game or for divination, but trust that, upon

perusal of this paper, he will admit that primarily the Féjérvary diagram

expressed the native scheme of government and the calendar, which was no

other than a means of ruling the classes by binding each of these to a

special day and totemic sign. Each of the twenty classes or clans had its

day, known by a particular sign which was also its totemic mark. As the

day-signs recurred periodically, the chief or head of each clan became its

living representative, assumed a totemistic costume and became the “living

image of the ancestral teotl,” or god of his people, of whose activity he

rendered account to the central government. It is significant that the

common native title for lords or chieftains was “tlatoque,” literally,

“the speakers,” and that they were closely designated as the spokesmen of

his people, who habitually kept silence in his presence.

The fact that the names and signs of the days are identical with the

totemic tribal distinctions imposed for governmental reasons, is one which

I shall proceed to demonstrate more fully. Meanwhile attention is now

drawn to the chapter on the 7-day period in Dr. Daniel G. Brinton’s

“Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico,” in which he surmises that

the tribal divisions of the Cakchiquels “were drawn from the numbers of

the Calendar.”

According to the native records the institution of the Calendar was

simultaneous with that of tribal organization and a minute study of both

features reveals that it could not have been otherwise.

From the dawn of their history the Cakchiquels, as I have already shown,

were divided into thirteen divisions of warriors (Khob, constituting the

upper class) and seven tribes (Amag, constituting the lower class). A

totem and a day being assigned to each division and tribe, they were, once

and for all time, placed in a definite position towards each other and

towards the state, and the order in which their chieftains were to sit in

general council, and to assume or perform certain duties, was thus

instituted. The 20-day period thus constituted a “complete count” and

synopsis of the “thirteen divisions of warriors and seven tribes,” but it

also fulfilled other not less important purposes.

The day-signs were so ordered that the first, eleventh and sixteenth were

major signs employed to designate the years, and identified with the four

quarters, elements and their respective colors. The 20-day period,

consisting as it also did of 4 major signs and of 4×4=16 minor signs, was

as closely linked to the idea of the Four Quarters as it was to the Above

and Below, represented by the 13+7 division. It is therefore evident that

a simultaneous reckoning of periods consisting of 5, 7, 13, and 20 days

was ingeniously combined. I shall show in my special treatise how “the

lords of the Night” employed in their astronomical calendar, 9-night and

9-moon periods for purposes of their own and how these also served to

carry out certain ideas of organization, controlling persons. Although it

embodied the results of long-standing primitive astronomical observation

and accorded with the seasons and movements of the celestial bodies, the

native Calendar was primarily a governmental institution, designed to

control the actions of human beings and bring their communal life in

accord with the periodical movements of the heavenly bodies.

In my Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System, communicated to the

International Congress of Americanists at Stockholm, in 1894, I stated

certain historical and astronomical facts which showed that the New Cycle,

which began in 1507 with the year Acatl, had commenced on March 14th three

days after the vernal equinox and that this delay had obviously been

intentional, in order to wait for the new moon, which fell on March 13th

at 11.40 A. M., and the planet Venus, “which was possibly visible both as

morning and evening star between March 14th and 18th.” The above facts,

which have remained unchallenged since their publication, afford an

insight into the astronomical attainments of the sun-priests and moon and

star-priests and show an evident desire to begin a new era at a favorable

time, when there was a conjunction of the heavenly bodies. Thus the terms

of office of the lords of the Above and Below were entered upon and the

machinery of state set into motion, in unison with striking celestial

phenomena. It is impossible not to realize how great must be the antiquity

of a system which, evolving from the rudimentary, ceremonial division of a

tribe into seven parts, as a consequence of its primitive observation of

the Septentriones, developed into a great and complex government dominated

and pervaded by the abstract conceptions of the seven-fold divisions of

the Above, Below, Middle and Four Quarters.

Deferring further comment I will proceed to demonstrate the practical

value, for governmental purposes, of the classification of a community

into twenty divisions with as many representative heads, their

localizations at given points of the compass, and association with a

calendar-sign and day, and will only refer to what I have already

published in my Note on the Calendar, namely, how, by means of the

combination of 13 numerals with the 20 signs, a unit of 260 days was

obtained, and how each sign was combined but once with the same number,

and a perfect system of rotation of periods, regulating office, labor,

etc., was instituted. It is not possible for me to enlarge here upon the

features and merits of the system which I do not hesitate to term one of

the most admirable and perfect achievements of the human intellect. My

present purpose is to lay stress upon the fact that, in Mexico, the major

calendar-signs were borne as titles by the rulers of the four quarters who

presided in rotation over a year—the name of this and of their title being

always in correspondence.

Nezahualcoyotl, the lord of Tezcoco, is recorded as possessing the title

Ome Tochtli=2 Rabbit, and would obviously have presided over the calendar

periods of that name. This inference is undoubtedly corroborated by Nuñez

de la Vega’s following statement, quoted by Boturini:(44)

“Instead of the Mexican signs Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli and Tochtli, the

Tzendals, inhabiting Chiapas, employed in their Calendar the names of four

of their chieftains: Votan, Lambat, Been and Chinax.... They also figured

a man named Coslahuntax, as seated in a chair....” Boturini remarks that

this person should more correctly be named Imos or Max and was “the head

of the 20 lords who were the symbols of the 20 days of the Calendar. Being

the principal and initial sign, Coslahuntax represented in himself the

period of thirteen days.” As Dr. Brinton rightly notes(45) the name of the

personage should be Oxlaghun tax, literally signifying “the thirteen

divisions or parts.”

We thus see that, whilst the names of the chiefs of the four quarters

constituted the four major calendar-signs, one supreme lord embodied the

attributes or “powers” of the 13 divisions of warriors and principal

division. Thus the 13 divisions seem to have been regarded as 12 plus an

all-embracing 1.

Nuñez de la Vega continues: “In the representations of their calendar they

painted seven black persons, corresponding to the seven days of their

reckoning.” Boturini adds: these seven black men were no other than the

principal priest-rulers of this nation.... “They held in great veneration

the ‘lord of the black men,’ who was entitled Yal-ahua.” Boturini comments

on this utterance and explains that the latter was no other than the

high-priest.

I point out the evident identity of Yal-ahua to the Mexican

Yoal-tecuhtli=the lord of the Night, one of the titles given to Polaris

and to his earthly representative, the high priest of the Earth and

nocturnal cult. As already explained this personage bore in Mexico the

female title, Cihuacoatl=Woman-serpent; but we also find this name for the

earth-mother alternating with Chicome-coatl=literally, seven serpents. In

Beltran de la Rosa’s “Arte Maya” we find the word “Ahaucchapat,”

translated as “Serpent with seven heads” and are thus led to infer that

the Mexicans and Mayas had conceived the image of a “serpent with seven

heads” as an allegory of the seven tribal divisions united in one body and

bestowed this title to the representative of the Earth-cult, the high

priest of the Below. It follows that, just as the number 13 resolves

itself into 12+1, so the mystic number 7 proves to have been considered as

6+1, precisely what might be expected as the natural sequence of the

derivation of the number from a circumpolar constellation, consisting of

seven stars, one of which was Polaris. Nuñez de la Vega and Boturini’s

testimony teaches us that the Tzendals were organized into twenty

divisions and that thirteen of these were embodied in one chief, while the

seven others, associated with black, were personified by the high priest.

The information that one individual was thus believed to unite in his

person the attributes of several classes and that the lords of the four

quarters and each of the twenty divisions bore names which were also

calendar-signs, gain in value when it is realized that, in the opinion of

Drs. Schellhas and Brinton, the invention of the native Calendar system

may probably be assigned to the ancient inhabitants of Chiapas, where the

Tzendals now dwell.(46) In treating of the ruins of Palenque situated in

this region, I shall again refer to the Tzendals.

Meanwhile, let us examine the Cakchiquel tradition about Cucumatz, the

sorcerer chief of the Quichés, since it also treats of the 7-day period.

We are told that he “ascended to heaven for seven days and descended into

the under world for seven days and then assumed, in rotation, four

different animal forms during as many periods of seven days.”

It is impossible not to recognize from this that, like the Zuñis of

to-day, the Quichés “symbolized the terrestrial sphere by referring to the

four cardinal points, to the zenith and nadir, the individual himself

making the seventh number,” and that Cucumatz, who was evidently the high

priest and head of the seven tribes, assumed the totemistic attributes of

each of these, in rotation, for periods of seven days each. In this case

we have an interesting and suggestive variant of the scheme and it

suggests the possibility that, possibly actuated by ambition, Cucumatz had

grasped and united in his person the prerogatives of the chiefs or heads

of each tribe. On the other hand, it may be that it was the original

custom for the high priest to be a sort of animated calendar sign in

unison with the separate chiefs of each tribe, who represented, in

rotation, the totemistic ancestors of their people.

Having shown how the lords of the Four Quarters were indissolubly linked

to the four major calendar-signs which also symbolized the elements, let

us examine the data establishing that the capital of each of the four

provinces was named a tecpan. From Duran I have already quoted that in the

Mexican metropolis there were two tecpans or official houses in which the

affairs of the government were attended to and councils held. It is

significant that one of these was named “the tecpan of men” and the other

“the tecpan of women.” Whilst the metropolis, the seat of the dual

government, thus had its two tecpans which were presided over by the two

supreme rulers, we have learned from other sources of the four tecpans in

Guatemala and that Texcoco, near the city of Mexico, was also termed a

tecpan and that its ruler bore as a title one of the four major

calendar-signs. These facts explain his position and the reason why the

“lord of Texcoco” was one of four lords who supported Montezuma when he

met Cortés in full state. A careful investigation of the derivation and

true significance of the word tecpan yields interesting results.

Cen-tecpan-tli means, a count of twenty persons; the verb tecpana

signifies, “to establish something in concerted order; to establish order

amongst people.” The verb tecpancapoa means, to count something in regular

order.

The Maya verb tepal=to govern or reign, or to be “one who mediates,”

appears to be allied to the above Nahuatl words and it is not unlikely

that the employment of the flint-knife or tecpatl as an emblem of office

had been suggested by the fact that its Nahuatl name resembles, in sound,

the above words formed with tecpan, and also the Maya verb tepal. It thus

constituted a bilingual rebus, expressing the sense=to govern, to rule, to

regulate, etc., and, employed as the symbol of the North and Polaris, it

conveyed the idea that the latter was not only the producer of life but

the regulator of the Universe.

From the fact that a tecpan constituted a minor integral whole and

comprised the rule over twenty classes of people, we see that whilst the

four provincial tecpans were in themselves miniature reproductions of the

metropolis, they but filled the same position in relation to this as the

four limbs to the body of a man or quadruped. A final proof of how

completely this analogy was recognized by the native rulers is furnished

by the Maya titles which embody the word kab=arm and hand.

It has already been mentioned in the preceding pages that the rulers of

the four quarters were entitled Ba-cab and that in the Dresden Codex an

image of the four quarters was figured by four bones. The word for bone

being bac and for arm being kab, it is obvious that the arm-bone or

humerus would furnish a rebus, expressing the title of the four Bacabs—a

conclusion which throws light upon the signification of the cross-bones of

native pictography and also of the incised and decorated human arm and leg

bones which have been found in Mexico and Yucatan.

At the same time the word kab also recurs in the title Ah-Cuch-Cab which

signifies “the ruler or chief of a town or place,” Cuchil being the name

of the latter. Both of these words so closely resemble cuxabal and cuxtal,

the word for “life,” that it is not impossible that the native mind often

associated the town as a centre of life, and thought of their chief as one

whose symbol was a “life-dispensing hand.” In order to grasp the full

significance of the symbol of the hand in Maya sculptured and written

records it is necessary to bear these facts in mind.

In 1895 Mr. Teobert Maler unearthed in the centre of the public square at

“El Seibal,” Guatemala, a sculptured stela exhibiting the figures of a

chieftain over whose head an open hand was carved. It is impossible not to

interpret this as a mark that the chieftain had once been the ruler of a

town and that this, in turn, was one of four minor capitals belonging to a

central metropolis. A hand, enclosed in quadrangular lines and represented

on the garment of a chieftain, was found by Dr. Le Plongeon at Uxmal, and

I believe that this should be interpreted in the same manner.

In my essay on Ancient Mexican Shields (Internationales Archiv für

Ethnographie, band V, 1892) I reproduced two interesting instances of the

employment, as the name-sign of a ruler in native pictography, of a hand

on the palm of which an eye is depicted. The effigy of a hand, the sacred

Kab-ul, which was kept in a place in Yucatan to which people from all

quarters resorted regularly in great numbers, resolves itself into the

symbol of an ancient capital to which great high-roads led from the

cardinal points. But important as this capital may have been, its

connection with the hand-symbol proves that it was originally one of four

minor centres and formed but a part of a greater whole. It would

correspond to the image, in one of the native Codices, of a subdivided

circle with an arm and hand standing in its middle, and its Bacab would

undoubtedly have carried a sceptre in the shape of an open hand, such as

depicted in the Codices as a staff of office.

While we thus find the human figure distinctly associated with the lords

of the four quarters of the Above we find the four lords of the Below,

entitled Chac, symbolized by the quadruped figure of the native

jaguar=chacoh, associated with the color red=chac and with rain, storms,

thunder and lightning, all of which phenomena were, singly and

collectively, termed Chác.

If ever there has been an instance where language or the resemblance in

sound of certain words has caused certain symbols to amalgamate with a

name or title, it is surely this, and light is thereby thrown upon the

development of symbolism and associations of thought amongst primitive

people.

The Chacs of Yucatan were identical with the Tlalocs, the octli or rain

lords of Mexico, whose function, as votaries of earth-cult, was the

regulation of agriculture, irrigation and the collection and distribution

of all products of the soil. It is interesting to trace that, in other

regions of Yucatan, presumably where no chacohs or jaguars existed, the

minor rulers of provinces seem to have been termed ocelots=Balam, a title

found associated with Maya rulership.

With the foregoing data in mind it is easy to grasp the meaning of the

talon of a beast of prey, employed as an emblem of rank or office in the

native Codices or bas-reliefs and to perceive that this was the symbol of

a Chac or Balam, one of the four lords of the earth or Below, just as the

hand was that of the lords of the Above. The complete image of the dual

State is thus shown to have consisted at one time of an ideal group

consisting of a man with a beast of prey, a jaguar or ocelot. In Mexico we

have the man-bird and the man-ocelot respectively representing the rulers

of the two great divisions of the State.

At Chichen-Itza and elsewhere in Yucatan sculptured figures of ocelots

supporting circular vessels have been found and there are interesting

instances of the combination of the human figure with ocelot=Balam

attributes. One monolithic figure, discovered at Chichen-Itza by Mr. A. P.

Maudslay, and belonging to the category of the recumbent statues bearing

circular vase-like receptacles, already described, exhibits a human head

and form, whilst the body is covered with a spotted skin. In the

sculptured image of Mictlan-tecuhtli (fig. 19) a human head is accompanied

by limbs of equal length-terminating in wild beasts’ talons. The positions

of the limbs are better understood when compared with the following

illustration, to which I shall revert (fig. 51). Meanwhile, I shall merely

remark that in both of these curious bas-reliefs we seem to have images of

the quadruple terrestrial and celestial governments. Fig. 51, which is a

corrected drawing of one of those contained in Leon y Gama’s “Descripcion

de las dos Piedras,” furnishes an interesting example, in accord with the

image of Mictlantecuhtli, of the employment of the group of five as a

symbol of the centre and four quarters, and exhibits four limbs associated

with four heads (the quarters and their chiefs), while the hands hold two

other heads, symbolical of the dual rulers of the State.

Two facts which throw an interesting light upon the growth of native

symbolism are worth mentioning here. As a symbol on the head of

Mictlan-tecuhtli, the lord of the North, two representations of a

centipede are distinguishable. In Nahuatl the name of this is

“centzonmaye,” literally, four hundred hands. It can thus be seen that the

idea of one body with a multitude of hands had occurred to the native

philosophers as a suitable allegory for their conception of a central

celestial and terrestrial rule which guided the activity of innumerable

appointed hands and dispensed, through these, not only life and favors but

also death or chastisement.

[Illustration.]

Figure 51.

Before proceeding farther we must consider tree-symbolism in ancient

America. According to Molina the Inca Yupanqui (surnamed the left-handed)

ordered the temple of Quisuar-cancha to be made: quisuar=a tree, the

_Buddleia Incana_, cancha=place of. Salcamayhua (_op. cit._, p. 77), who

attributes the building of this temple to Manco Capac, states that these

two trees, which were in the temple, “typified his father and mother ...

and he ordered that they should be adorned with roots of gold and silver

and with golden fruit. Hence they were called Ccurichachac Collquechachac

Tampu Yracan, which means that the two trees typified his parents, that

the Incas proceeded from them like fruit from the trees, and that the two

trees were as the roots and stems of the Incas. All these things were

executed to record their greatness.” This passage is of utmost value, for

it conveys to us not only that the Incas kept a record of their male and

female ancestry and respectively associated the male and female elements

with gold and silver, but also establishes the important point that the

tree was employed as an emblem of the life and growth of a lineage or

race.

This fact is particularly interesting if collated with the Mexican

tree-symbols. In the Féjérvary diagram (fig. 52), we find a different kind

of tree and two totemic figures assigned to each quarter, which indicates

that the inhabitants of each of the four provinces were regarded as of a

distinct race. The top of each tree spreads itself into two branches and,

with one exception, each of these bears three blossoms or leaves denoting,

it would seem, the division of a tribe into 2×3=6 parts.

[Illustration.]

Figure 52. Copy of p. 44, Féjérvary Codex.

The majority of tree-symbols, however, exhibit a quadruplicate division as

in fig. 53, nos. 1, 4 and 7. At the same time it is impossible not to

recognize that each example renders in a graphic manner the organization

of a tribe. In nos. 2 and 8, for instance, we find that each of the four

branches was again subdivided, yielding eight subdivisions instead of

four. In no. 3, we have quadruple branches, a pair of recurved spikes with

buds and a central bud, the idea of duality repeating itself in the trunk

of the tree, one-half of which above ground is white, whilst the other

below ground is dark. The obvious allusion is to the Above and Below and

this idea is further symbolized by the head of the coatl=serpent or twin.

In this figure there is a hint of the existence of an idea I have found

expressed in other cases, namely, that a mystic line of demarcation

existed at the base of a tree, which separated its upward from its

downward growth. This was the seat of the life of the tree, which sent its

trunk and crown heavenwards and its roots and rootlets earthwards. The

fact that the juice of the agave or maguey was collected from the core of

the plant seems to be at the bottom of its adoption as the sacred and

ceremonial “drink of life,” which was, subsequently, carefully prepared

and fermented. The idea that a tree enclosed male and female elements

seems to have been also a strong one and would, in course of time,

doubtlessly have led to the conception of superhuman beings in human form,

dwelling in trees. What is more, the adoption by each tribe of a

particular sort of tree, a custom amply proven, would naturally lead to a

species of tree-cult or veneration which, amongst the uninitiated, might

lead to a form of worship of the tree itself.

[Illustration.]

Figure 53.

The ceremonial presentation of single leaves of the same kinds as those

represented on the trees, as in fig. 53, no. 6, proves that underlying

these picture-writings there is far more meaning than has heretofore been

suspected or recognized. It is not possible for me to present here all the

material I have collected on this subject which will be set forth in a

future monograph. I will, however, direct attention to the peculiar

treatment in fig. 53, no. 1, of the tree trunk which is enlarged and forms

a quadriform figure. In no. 4, the trunk enlarges to the shape of a head;

in no. 2 the tree grows from a human head and two young shoots issue from

each side of the trunk, seemingly indicating a fresh growth in tribal

life. In no. 5, we have an example of a human figure lying at the base of

a tree and a fifth leaf growing in the centre of the treetop. Directing

attention to the evident care taken in representing an equal number of

branches pointing upwards and downwards I would cite here an extremely

interesting representation of a tree in the Borgian Codex. In this case

the trunk issues from a conventionally drawn heart, figured in the centre

of the symbol for sky or heaven. As the Nahuatl for heart is yul-lotl,

from the verb yuli=to live, to resuscitate, the idea is distinctly

conveyed that the tree was that of life=yuli and proceeded from the

celestial centre of life, Polaris or the Heart of Heaven, a native title

for the Supreme Being.(47)

In the Telleriano-Remensis MS., a “tree of Paradise,” so termed in the

text, is figured, and there are, in other Codices, various examples of

trees encircled with serpents, where it is obvious that this combination

was made in order to express, phonetically, that a celestial tree was

intended, the word kan=serpent, being made to express kaan=heaven. A

celestial tree, situated at the pole and bearing in some cases seven and

in others five blossoms, was frequently depicted and its symbolism is

obvious. In my commentary on the Hispano-Mexican MS. “The Lyfe of the

Indians,” the “Gods,” “Five Flowers,” and “Seven Flowers,” will be treated

in detail.

From Sahagun and Olmos we learn that the Mexicans employed the image of a

tree, metaphorically, to signify a lord, governor, progenitor, first

ancestor. Relations are designated as “issuing from one trunk.” A branch

is literally termed “the arm of the tree,” kab-ché. Two kinds of trees,

the Puchutl and Aueuetl, signified, metaphorically, “a father, mother,

lord, captain or governor who were, or are, like shade-giving, sheltering

trees” (Olmos).

The above metaphors explain the frequent association of a head, the symbol

of a chief or lord, with the tree symbols. It is noteworthy that in

Nahuatl, the name for head=quaitl, is singularly like quauitl=tree, and

also recalls the word for serpent=coatl, facts which may have somewhat

guided the choice and association of these symbols. The native metaphors

recorded by Olmos, moquauhtia=an honored person or lord who has vassals or

dependents, and atlapalli=literally, leaf=a person of the lower class, a

worker, initiate us still further into the meaning of the native symbolism

and prove the antiquity of this, since the designation of a chief as a

tree and a vassal as a leaf was in current use. The presentation of the

tree issuing from a heart=yul-lotl is moreover, in perfect keeping with

native thought, since the chieftain or lord was entitled “the heart, or

life of the town or population.”

The meaning of the bird, which is represented as perched on each of the

four trees in the Féjérvary diagram, is likewise explained by the

metaphors recorded by Olmos who states that, “a son or child or a much

beloved lord or chieftain was compared to a beautiful and precious bird,

such as the Quetzal, the Roseate Spoonbill, the Blue-bird, etc., etc.”

Surmounting the tribal trees in the diagram, the birds therefore typify

the lords of the four provinces and this is corroborated by the fact that

each different bird is figured again in the corner-loops in combination

with the symbols of the cardinal points. The association of the symbols

for lord or chief=the head, and the precious bird with the tribal tree

also explains the frequent representation, in the native Codices, of one

or two serpents entwined around the tree, since the serpent was the symbol

in Mexico of the dual rulers or high-priests of the Above and Below. There

is ample proof, which shall be presented in full in my monograph on this

subject, that the above metaphorical images were as intelligible to the

Mayas and other tribes, as to the Mexicans themselves, for the identical

metaphors and imagery were in widespread general use. The following data

will corroborate this statement.

A Maya native drawing, copied by Cogolludo in 1640 from the MS. of the

Chilan Balam or Sacred Book of Man, which relates the history of the

Mayas, has been recently reproduced in Dr. Daniel G. Brinton’s Primer of

Maya Hieroglyphics, p. 47. It displays a rectangular stone slab like a

table, on the centre of which rests a circular bowl, the symbol, as I have

shown, of the earth and centre. Growing from this is a spreading tree.

It is a curious and undeniable fact that the Maya name for table is mayac,

and that the dictionaries contain the words mayac-tun, stone-table, and

mayac-ché, wooden, literally, tree-table. Familiarity with the native

modes of rebus-writing leads to the inference that this picture of a tree

and table, expressing the sounds mayac-ché, actually signified the tree of

the Mayas and therefore figured in the book relating their history. Bishop

Landa records that the Mayas believed in a beautiful celestial tree,

resembling the ceiba and named yax-ché, literally, green tree, under whose

shade they would repose in after-life. Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg surmises

that this tree was the same as the beautiful shade tree which grows in

Yucatan and Mexico and is named, in the latter country,

tonacaz-quahuital=tree of our subsistence, _i. e._, life.

A Maya name for the “tree of life,” ua-hom-ché, next claims our

attention.(48) A valuable old manuscript dictionary of the Maya language,

quoted by Dr. Brinton, records that the word uah means “a certain kind of

life.” The word _hom_ is an ancient term for an artificial elevation,

mound or pyramid, hence _homul_, the pyramid on which a temple was built.

Combined with ché, tree, the word seems to signify “the elevated or high

tree of life,” the idea of the celestial tree “on high,” being possibly

intended. In connection with this it is interesting to reëxamine fig. 20,

IV, which represents a flat pyramid from which grows a four-petalled

flower on a stalk with two leaves, the symbolism of which is apparent.

I am inclined to connect another native name translated in the

dictionaries by “cross”=zin-ché with zihil=to be born, to commence,

zihnal=original, primitive, and zian=origin, generation, ancestry, and to

interpret it “the tree of ancestral or tribal life.” On the other hand,

there is the adjective zinil=mighty, great, and the meaning of zin-ché may

merely mean “the mighty tree.” In treating of the “cross tablet” of

Palenque in the following pages, reference will be made to Dr. Brinton’s

identification of the “cross” as a tree and tree symbolism referred to

again. Although unable to produce here all the data I have collected on

the subject, I think that the foregoing prove that the Peruvians, Mexicans

and Mayas, employed the four-branched tree as an image of the organization

and growth of their communal life, and utilized it in pictography as a

means of recording changes of organization and statistics of increase or

decrease of population. The Maya word for “one generation of men,” uinay,

literally meaning “one growth,” seems to reveal that each generation was

popularly thought of as one growth of leaves on the tree of state—a simile

which is worthy of note.

One more point remains to be considered in reference to the organization

of the population into four parts, each of which consisted of four minor

parts and so on; namely, the employment of color as a means of

differentiation.

In Peru each person wore on the head a twisted cord, of the color of its

quarter, whilst the Inca alone wore these colors combined, in the band

which encircled his brow, as a sign that, in his person he united the

rulership over the four provinces. Molina records the colors of these as

red, yellow, white and black. In the titles of the Maya Bacabs, or lords

of the provinces, as given by Landa, the words for yellow, red, white and

black, are found to be incorporated and prove to be identical with the

arrangement in Peru. In Mexico, on the other hand, we find red, yellow,

green and blue as the colors of the Four Quarters, white and black being

assigned to the Above and Below. All colors combined are to be found

united in symbols of the Centre and it is known that the use of

centzon-tilmatli and quachtli=mantles of four hundred colors=multicolored

were supplied as tributes to the capital, for the use of a privileged

caste. A somewhat similar arrangement to the Mexican is that of the Zuñis

at the present time. According to Mr. Cushing, they assign yellow, blue,

red and white to the cardinal points, speckled and black to the

Above=zenith and Below=nadir, and “all colours to the Middle or Centre.”

In Peru, Mexico and Yucatan I have found scattered notices proving that

individuals habitually painted their bodies with their respective colors.

The Mexican “lords of the night” smeared themselves with black. A passage

in Sahagun (book I, chap. V) speaks of the whitening of the “face, arms,

hands and legs with ‘tiçatl’ ”=chalk, as though this were a habit of the

“noblewomen.” In the Codices some women are, in fact, represented with

white faces, whilst those of the majority are painted yellow and it is

known that yellow ochre was employed in reality. I have, in preparation, a

brief, illustrated monograph showing the various modes of painting the

face represented in the native pictorial records. In these, men painted

red are of frequent occurrence, and it is known that the “red man” owed

his appellation to the custom of using red pigment on his body.

Let us now briefly consider some of the results which inevitably followed

the establishment of two diverging cults which were the outcome of the

primitive recognition of duality and the artificial association of sex

with Heaven and Earth, Day and Night, etc. On pp. 60-62 I have cited

evidence showing that at one time in the past history of the Aztecs,

serious differences arose between the male and female rulers, and led to a

separation of the tribe and the establishment of two distinct centres of

government.

The native languages furnish strong indications that, in ordinary tribal

life, the separation of the sexes must have been generally enforced from

remote antiquity and that male and female communities existed in various

portions of the continent. It is well known that, to this day, the Nahuatl

tongue spoken by the men is different from that spoken by the women, and

that the same duality of language prevails among other American tribes.

When the male and female portions of the native states separated and

founded separate capitals it is obvious that each would have still further

cultivated a separate language and that the institution of two distinct

cults would have accentuated their differences and given a fresh impetus

to their development. As will be shown, the Maya chronicles reveal that,

in Yucatan, the nocturnal cult of the female principle degenerated into

such abominations that the incensed population actually rose in revolt,

murdered the high-priests and scattered their votaries.

It was obviously owing to a recognition of the degradation attendant upon

the abuse of intoxicating drinks, which had played such a rôle in the cult

of the earth-mother, that such stern laws were enforced in Mexico, at the

time of the Conquest, restricting and regulating the use of pulque. This

was distributed by the priests at certain festivals only. These and other

rigid measures evidently dictated by a spirit of reform, as well as the

close union of both cults, seem to have efficiently maintained a certain

equilibrium. At the same time two different moral standards were thus

inevitably evolved by the votaries of both cults and naturally profoundly

affected the position of woman. The dangers and evils attendant upon the

earth-cult became irretrievably associated with the female sex and the

votaries of Heaven naturally came to regard woman as a source of

temptation and degradation. In ancient Mexico and Peru the celibacy of the

sun-priests and of a certain number of noblewomen, “the Virgins of the

Sun,” was enforced; thus, whilst the position of woman was being lowered

in one caste by an artificial set of ideas, it was raised in the other by

an equally fictitious association with the Above, which led, however, to

her real elevation of mind and character and finally enforced a

recognition of her individuality. The consecration of her person, which

caused her to assume a position commanding universal homage, relieved her

from heavy labor but caused her to be guarded and protected. She was thus

condemned to a still greater seclusion, the primary object of which was to

remove her from possible contact with members of the lower earthly caste.

For, whilst ceremonial usage even required that the male members of the

upper caste should associate in certain symbolical rites with the chief

women of the lower order, it was a crime and a desecration for a man of

the latter caste to approach a woman of the nobility. These could only

marry in their own caste or remain celibate and were kept aloof from all

debasing influences, inside of protecting walls.

Reflection shows that such conditions would inevitably lead to the

formation of a nobility whose ideal was celibacy and whose “Virgins of the

Sun,” by virtue of their consecration, ranked highest amongst the women of

the “celestial caste.” Those who married did so in their own caste, led a

life of seclusion and always maintained a position of superiority over all

women of the “earthly caste.” The latter, on the other hand, had the

prerogative of being the representatives of their caste, since the cult of

the earth-mother necessitated a female representative, high-priestesses

and also female chiefs in their own rights. We know that, in ancient

Mexico, an independent gynocracy had been founded at one time. From

certain native manuscripts and monuments we have positive evidence that a

number of independent female chieftains ruled over minor communities and

represented them officially, their rank and insignia being equal to that

of the chiefs of male communities. At the same time, from the standpoint

of the “upper caste,” the position and moral code of these “votaries of

the earth,” were always viewed as inferior.

Another factor also exerted a marked and growing influence upon the

relative positions of the two classes of women. The enforced seclusion of

the noblewomen rendering out-door occupations or work impossible, it

became necessary to relegate such to members of the lower caste who

gradually constituted a class of domestic slaves, dedicated to the service

of the nobility. In ancient Mexico, as a punishment for various crimes,

such as murder, theft, etc., an individual, even of the upper class, was

reduced to slavery as a punishment for his crime. The ranks of slaves were

also recruited from prisoners of war. On the other hand, the laws

regulating slavery were just and mild, the children of slaves were born

free and various modes of regaining freedom were afforded to those held in

bondage as an expiation for crime. The introduction of slaves

necessitating, as it did, their classification with the lower class, now

associated servitude with the female division of the community, and the

idea arose that women and the lower class existed for the benefit of the

male element of the state and a favored minority of consecrated women.

If slavery and bondage came to be regarded on the one hand as a just

punishment for crime, the idea of liberty shone as an incentive to good

conduct. An eloquent proof of the high estimate in which personal freedom

was regarded by the ancient Mexicans, is furnished by the Nahuatl word,

recorded by Olmos, for “free man”=xoxouhqui-yollotl, literally, “fresh or

green heart.” This expression is of particular interest because it

explains a strange mortuary custom which consisted in placing a piece of

jade, chal-chihuitl, or precious green stone, in the mouth of a noble

person, after death, saying that it was “his heart.” In the case of the

lower class a stone of little value, named texaxoctli, was employed. In

ancient Mexico, therefore, the presence of jade or any green stone, in a

grave, proved that the body was that of a free member of the upper caste.

It is evident that the employment of this significant emblem was suggested

by the Nahuatl word for “freeman,” and constituted a sort of rebus

expressing this title or rank.

In the Peabody Museum there are several specimens of jade celts, collected

by Dr. Earl Flint in Nicaragua, which had been cut into two or more

pieces. Professor Putnam had the satisfaction of discovering that these

pieces from different graves fitted together. His inference that the stone

must have been rare and highly prized, probably from some motive connected

with native ritual, is fully supported by the explanation afforded by the

existence of the Nahuatl word. It is evident that, in order to provide a

dead kinsman with the mark of his rank, a living chief would gladly have

divided his own celt of jade, if, for some reason or other, no other green

stone was forthcoming at the time of burial.

Let us now rapidly enumerate a few facts which prove that not only burial

customs but also social organization and numerical divisions were carried

northward from the southern cradle of ancient American civilization. I

shall make two statements only, hoping that competent authorities on North

American tribal organization, and amongst them, my esteemed friend and

colleague, Miss Alice C. Fletcher, will supply a number of authoritative

reports on these matters.

Referring to the writings of Horatio Hale, whose comparatively recent loss

will long be deeply felt by all students of aboriginal history and

languages, I quote the following sentences from his interesting pamphlet

on “Four Huron Wampum records,” published, with notes and addenda by Prof.

E. B. Tylor of Oxford, in 1897.

“The surviving members of the Huron nation, even in its present broken,

dispersed and half extinct condition, still retain the memory of their

ancient claim to the headship of all the aboriginal tribes of America

north of Mexico.... The Hurons or Wendat, as they should be properly

styled, belonged to the important group or linguistic stock, commonly

known, from its principal branch, as the Iroquoian family and which

includes, besides the Huron and Iroquois nations, the Attiwendaronks, the

Eries, Andastes, Tuscaroras and Cherokees, all once independent and

powerful nations.” (I draw attention to the detail that these nations were

seven in number.) Gallatin, in his “Synopsis of the Indian tribes,”

notices the remarkable fact that while the “Five Nations” or Iroquois

proper were found by Champlain, on his arrival in Canada, to be engaged in

deadly warfare with all the Algonquian tribes within their reach, the

Hurons, another Iroquoian nation, were the head and principal support of

the Algonquian confederacy. In the “Fall of Hochelaga,” Horatio Hale sets

forth the reasons which led to the division of the Hurons and Iroquois,

who had formerly dwelt together in friendly unison. The latter, retreating

to the south and augmented by other refugees, became the “Five Confederate

Nations.”

The “kingdom of Hochelaga,” as Cartier styles it, comprised, besides the

fortified city of that name, the important town of Stadaconé (commonly

known to its people as Canada or “the town”) and eight or nine other towns

along the great river. According to their tradition the name of their

leader, Sut-staw-ra-tse, had been kept up by descent for seven or eight

hundred years.

“Towards the conclusion of a long and deadly warfare between the Iroquois

confederates and Canada as well as the Hurons a remarkable change had

taken place in their character; a change which recalls that which is

believed to have been developed in the character of the Spartans under the

institutions of Lycurgus, and the similar change which is known to have

appeared in the character of the Arabians under the influence of

Mohammedan precepts. A great reformer had arisen in the person of the

Onondaga chief, Hiawatha, who, imbued with an overmastering idea, had

inspired his people with a spirit of self-sacrifice, which stopped at no

obstacle in the determination of carrying into effect their teacher’s

sublime purpose. This purpose was the establishment of universal peace....

The Tionontaté or Tobacco Nation seem to have made an alliance with the

Huron nation....

“Eight clans or gentes composed the Huron people and were found in

different proportions in all the tribes. These clans, called by the

Algonquians ‘totems,’ all bore the names of certain animals, with which

the Indians held themselves to be mythologically connected—the bear, wolf,

deer, porcupine, snake, hawk, large tortoise and small tortoise. Each clan

was more numerous in some towns than in others, as it was natural that

near kindreds should cluster together.

“The five Iroquois nations also had eight clans.... The Iroquois league is

spoken of in their Book of Rites as kanasta-tsi-koma, ‘the great

framework’ and the large, bent frame-poles of their council-house, the

exact original shape of which is not known, were named kan-asta.”

An examination of the signs woven in the famous wampum belts of the Hurons

and Iroquois reveals some curious facts.

One of these treaty belts, described by Horatio Hale, commemorates an

alliance formed between four nations. It exhibits four squares (fig. 54,

_a_) “which indicate, in the Indian hieroglyphic system, either towns or

tribes with their territory.”(49) This mode of representing a nation is of

utmost interest, not only because it coincides with the Maya conception of

“the quadrated” earth but because it also reveals that, in North America,

the Indians associated a tribal organization with a quadriform. What is

more, an older belt, which is unfortunately incomplete, exhibits a central

oval (fig. 54, _b_) between a bird and a quadruped and three crosses with

a circle uniting their branches. The cross and circle, being a native

symbol for “an integral state,” as definitely proven by the Maya map,

justifies the suggestion that this symbol on the wampum belt may have had

the significance of “nation” and central government. It is remarkable that

the Iroquois central capital, Ho-che-laga, can be analyzed in the Maya

tongue, as meaning five=_ho_, tree=_ché_ or _hoch_=vase (symbol of centre)

whilst the terminal _laga_ might possibly be a form of _lacan_=banner, an

object so frequently associated with names of towns in Mexico, where it

yields the sound pan and means on or above something.

[Illustration.]

Figure 54.

It will be interesting and important to learn what “Hochelaga” means in

the Iroquois language. The resemblance between the Maya and Iroquois

symbols for nation and tribal territory and of the names for capital might

even be overlooked and treated as a coincidence merely, if the Iroquois

name for the confederacy, kan-asta-tsik-o-ma did not also begin with the

word kan, the Maya for four and for serpent. The same particle recurs in

the Iroquois name for the town=can-ada, a word which, in Maya, would

describe a metropolis divided into four quarters.

The question naturally suggests itself whether the affix can, frequently

met with in Mexico combined with names of localities, was not of Maya

origin and expressed also a centre of quadruple government. It occurs in

the Nahuatl name for metropolis to-tec-ua can and in Teoti-hua can, for

instance. The Nahuatl scholars have rendered its meaning as “place of.”

Mr. Hale tells us that, amongst the “Five Nations,” the tradition exists

that the confederacy was originally divided into “seven tribes,” each of

which was composed of 2×4=8 gentes or clans. Another wampum belt he

figures exhibits a heart between 2×2=4 squares, a symbol which would be

interpreted by a Mexican or Maya as well as by a Huron or Iroquois, as

meaning “four nations, one heart,” the latter being as common a symbol for

union of rule or government or for chieftain, as a “head.”

Combined with other testimony it seems impossible to evade the question

whether in remote times the Iroquois and Hurons had not shared in some way

or other the civilization of the Mayas. If so the ancient

earthwork-builders of the Ohio valley, who are authoritatively regarded as

of southern origin by Professor Putnam, and whose art exhibits a strong

resemblance to that of the Mayas, seem to constitute the missing link

between the northeastern and the southeastern tribes. It is curious to

find that the terminal ché, which occurs in the name Quiché and which

signifies in Maya, tree, and, by extension, tribe, is preserved in the

names of the Nat-ché-z tribe still inhabiting the Mississippi valley. It

is also present in Coman-ché, Apa-che, etc.

It is to be hoped that, before long, authorities who have made special

studies of the above tribes will make searching comparisons of their

languages, social organization and symbolism with that of the Mayas, in

particular, it seeming evident that the coast communication along the gulf

of Mexico, from Yucatan to the mouth of the Mississippi river, was not

only easy but was favored by sea-currents.

It is interesting to note that if we now proceed to the southwest of the

United States and study the Pueblo people, we seem to find not only more

distinctly marked affinities between their customs, etc., and those of the

Mexicans, but also traces of similarity with certain Maya symbols.

In several important publications Dr. J. Walter Fewkes has made the

valuable observation that there are marked “resemblances between a

ceremony practised [at the time of the Conquest] in the heart of Mexico

and one still kept up in Arizona,” and states that these “lead one to look

for likenesses in symbolism, especially that pertaining to the

mythological Snake among the two peoples.” He continues as follows: “From

the speculative side it seems probable that there is an intimate

resemblance between some of the ceremonials, the symbolism and

mythological systems of the Indians of Tusayan and those of the more

cultured stocks of Central America.... The facts here recorded look as if

the Hopi practise a ceremonial form of worship with strong affinities to

the Nahuatl and Maya.... I have not yet seen enough evidence to convince

me that the Hopi derived their cult and ceremonials from the Zuñians or

from any other single people. It is probably composite. I am not sure that

portions of it were not brought up from the far south, perhaps from the

Salado and Gila by the Bat-kin-ya-mûh=‘Water people,’ whose legendary

history is quite strong that they came from the south.”(50)

Dr. Fewkes frankly states that he “knows next to nothing of the symbolic

characters of the Mexican deities ...” and quotes Mr. Bandelier’s opinion

that “there are traces or tracks of the same mythological system and

symbolism amongst the Indians of the southwestern United States and the

aborigines of Central America.”

Under the leadership of Mr. Frank H. Cushing let us now enter into the

life and thoughts of the modern Zuñis. After having traced certain ideas

in Mexico and Peru, it is possible to recognize them again when we find

them in Mr. Cushing’s valuable work, from which I shall quote somewhat at

length, referring the reader, however, to the original, for a fuller

realization of existing resemblances.(51)

The Zuñi creation-myth relates how the light of the Sun-father and a

foam-cap on the sea, caused the Earth-mother to give birth to

twin-brothers, Uanam Achi Piah-_koa_, “the Beloved Twain who descended.”

The first was Uanam Ehkona=the beloved Preceder, the second Uanam Yaluna,

the beloved Follower; they were twin-brothers of light, yet elder and

younger, the right and left, like to question and answer in deciding and

doing.... The Sun-father gave them the thunderbolts of the four quarters,

two apiece.... On their cloud-shield, even as a spider in her web

descendeth, they descended into the underworld ... (p. 381).

Pausing here for a moment, we note the curious fact that in the Zuñi name

for the twins we find _koa_, resembling the Nahuatl coatl=twin or serpent;

that the name of one brother Ehk-ona recalls the Mexican ec-atl=air, wind

or breath, and the Maya ik=air, wind, breath, courage, spirit. The

allotment of two quarters to each and the image of a spider employed to

express their descent from heaven have counterparts in Nahuatl lore.

The “Twain” ... guided men upwards to become the fathers of six kinds of

men (yellow or tawny, grey, red, white, mingled and black).... The nation

divided itself into the winter or Macaw and the summer or Raven people....

“The Twain beloved gathered in council for the naming and selection of man

groups and creature kinds, spaces and things. They determined that the

creatures and things of summer and the southern space pertained to the

southern people or children of the producing Earth-mother; and those of

the winter and northern space to the winter people or children of the

Forcing or Quickening Sky-father.”

It is impossible to do more than refer the reader to Mr. Cushing’s account

of the origin of totem clans and creature-kinds which bears such an

affinity to the Peruvian, and obviously arose for the same practical

reason, to serve as distinction marks for identification and

classification. “At first ... there were four bands of priest-keepers of

the mysteries: the Shiwana-kwe=priesthood of the priest-people;

Sa’niah’-ya-kwe=priesthood of the Hunt; Ach-iahya-kwe=great Knife people;

Newe-kwe=keepers of the magic medicines.” Out of these four divisions “all

societies were formed, both that of the Middle and the twain for each of

all six regions, constituting the tabooed and sacred 13.” In another

passage account is given of the marriage of a brother and sister, which

produced twelve children, the first of which, Hlamon, was man and woman

combined—the 12 thus constituting in reality 13.

One of the most interesting portions of the Zuñi narrative is one which

elucidates the motive which led to the migration of peoples in ancient

America. We are told how generations of the forefathers of the Zuñis

wandered about in search of the stable middle of the earth, on which they

wished to found their sacred city. The tribe divided; the winter-clan

journeyed to the northeast and the summer-clan to the southwest, a reunion

of the people took place, and a council was held for the determination of

the true Middle.... According to a myth the Sun-father requested the

water-skate to determine the Middle. This mythical monster lifted himself

up, stretched out and then settled downward, calling out: “Where my heart

and navel rest beneath them mark ye the spot and then build ye a town of

the midmost, for there shall be the midmost of the Earth-mother, even the

navel.... And when he descended squatting, his belly rested over the plain

and valley of Zuñi and when he drew in his finger-legs, lo! there were the

trail roads leading out and in like the stays of a spider’s net, into and

forth from the place he had covered.”

Pausing to point out that fig. 28, reproduced from Mexican Codices, shows

curious topographical drawings resembling a spider’s net, I will not

recount the many disappointments of the wanderers, who were evidently

driven away from several places of settlement by earthquakes, but will

refer to the Zuñi custom of “annually testing the stability of the Middle

in middle time ... when the sun reached the middle between winter and

summer ... a shell was laid by the sacred fire of the north.... When

during solemn chanting no trembling of the earth ensued, the priests cast

new fire and ... dwelt happily feeling sure that their sacred things were

resting in the stable middle of the world.”

At the beginning of this paper I referred to the powerful hold that the

realization of the fixity of the pole star would naturally have exerted

upon the mind of primitive man, and I can produce no more striking

illustration of this and of my view that the idea of central government

and organization had been suggested by Polaris, than this account of the

earnest and prolonged search of these ancient people for the stable centre

of the earth, on which to found a permanent centre of terrestrial rule or

the plan of the celestial government. At the same time it seems to me that

the longing for a stable and fixed residence would naturally have been

most intense amongst people who had experienced terrible earthquakes and

been driven out of their original abodes by their repeated destruction. It

is unnecessary to mention the well-known fact that whilst earthquakes

prevail throughout North and Central America, the most impressive trace of

catastrophes of the kind are connected with the gigantic volcanoes of

Central Mexico and Guatemala.

With a sympathetic insight into the disasters which seem to have driven

the wandering tribes from one region to another and filled them with a

passionate yearning for a centre of rest, let us now learn from Mr.

Cushing how they planned their metropolis and organized themselves, when

they had found the long-looked-for goal, in the Zuñi valley and “settling

there, built seven great cities therein.

“All their subtribes and lesser tribes were distinctively related to and

ruled from a central tribe and town through priest chiefs representatives

of each of these, sitting under supreme council or septuarchy of the

‘Master priests of the house’ in the central town itself, much as were the

divisions and cities of the great Inca dominion in South America

represented at and ruled from Cuzco, the central city and power of them

all.

“Zuñi is divided, not always clearly to the eye, but very clearly in the

estimation of the people themselves, into seven parts, corresponding not

perhaps in arrangement topographically, but in scheme to their

subdivisions of the worlds or world-quarters of this world. Thus one

division of the town is supposed to be related to the north and to be

centred in its kiva or estufa which may or may not be at its centre;

another division represents the west, another the south, another the east;

yet another the upper world and another the lower world; while a final

division represents the middle or mother and synthetic combination of the

all in the world.

“By reference to the early Spanish history of the pueblos, it may be seen

that when discovered the Ashiwis or Zuñis were living in seven quite

widely separated towns the celebrated seven cities of Cibola and that this

theoretic subdivision of the only one of these towns now remaining is in

some manner a survival of the original subdivision of the tribes into

seven into as many towns. It is evident that in both cases, however, the

arrangement was and is, if we may call it such, a mythic organization;

hence my use of the term of mytho-sociologic organization of the tribe. At

all events this is the key to their sociology as well as to their mythic

conception of space and universe.

“... There were nineteen clans, grouped in threes, to correspond to the

mythic subdivision. Three to north, west, south, east, Upper, Lower. The

_single_ clan of Macaw is midmost or of middle and also as the all

containing and mother clan of the entire tribe, for in it is ‘the seed of

the priesthood of houses’ supposed to be preserved.(52)

“Finally, as produced from all the clans and as representative alike of

all the clans and through a tribal septuarchy of all the regions and

divisions of the midmost and, finally, as representative of all the cult

societies above mentioned, is the Kaka or A’kâkâ-kwe or Mythic Dance drama

people or organization.

“It may be seen of these mytho-sociologic organizations that they are a

system within a system and that it contains systems within systems all

founded on the classification according to the six-fold division of things

and in turn the six-fold division of each of these divisions of things ...

The tribal division made up of the clans of the north take precedence

ceremonially, occupying the position of elder brother or the oldest

ancestor. The west is the younger brother to this and the south of the

west, the east of south, etc.... while the middle is supposed to be a

representative being, the heart and name of all of the brothers of the

regions, the first and last, as well as elder and younger.

“To such an extent indeed, is this tendency to classify according to the

number of the six regions with its seventh synthesis of them all (the

latter sometimes apparent, sometimes non-appearing) that not only are the

subdivisions of the societies also again subdivided according to this

arrangement, but each clan is subdivided, both according to the six-fold

arrangement and according to the subsidiary relations of the six parts of

its totem....

“In each clan is to be found a set of names, called the names of

childhood. These names are more of titles than of cognomens. They are

determined upon by sociological divinistic modes and are bestowed in

childhood as the ‘verity names’ or titles of the children to whom given.

But the body of names relating to any one totem, for instance, to one of

the beast totems, will not be the name of the totem-beast itself but will

be the names of both of the totems and its various conditions and of the

various parts of the totem or of its functions, or of its attributes,

actual or mythical.

“Now these parts or functions, or attributes of the parts or functions,

are subdivided also in a six-fold manner, so that the name relating to one

member of the totem, for example, like the right leg or arm of the animal

thereof, would correspond to the north and would be the first in honor in

a clan (not itself of the northern group); then the name relating to

another member, say the left leg and its powers, etc., would pertain to

the west and would be second in honor, ... the right foot, pertaining to

the south, would be third in honor, ... the tail to the lower regions and

be sixth in honor; while the heart and navel and centre of the being would

be first as well as last in honor.... In addressing each other the word

symbol for elder or younger is always used.

“With such a system of arrangement as all this maybe seen to be, with such

a facile device for symbolizing the arrangement (not only according to the

number of regions, and their subdivisions in their relative succession and

the succession of their elements and seasons, but also in the colors

attributed to them) and, finally, with such an arrangement of names,

correspondingly classified and of terms of relation significant of rank

rather than of consanguineal connection, mistake in the order of a

ceremonial, a procession or a council is simply impossible and the people

employing these devices may be said to have written and to be writing

their statutes and laws in all their daily relationship and utterances.”

If this precious exposition of the Zuñi social organization teaches us

more about native method and system than all of the writings of the

Spanish chroniclers put together, there is one important point which,

strangely enough, is not touched upon, namely, the regulation of time. All

information concerning native astronomy, and the subdivision of the years,

the festival periods and the names of days, seems to have been withheld

from Mr. Cushing by the Zuñi priesthood, if we are to assume that they

possess a calendar.