troubled, this time with strong convulsions and thunderings, upon
which the masters took refuge in their great tower, closing the people
out. The poor slaves fled to the Humboldt River, and getting into
canoes paddled for life from the awful sight behind them. For the land
was tossing like a troubled sea, and casting up fire, smoke, and
ashes. The flames went up to the very heaven and melted many stars, so
that they rained down in molten metal upon the earth, forming the ore
that the white men seek. The Sierra was mounded up from the bosom of
the earth; while the place where the great fort stood sank, leaving
only the dome on the top exposed above the waters of Lake Tahoe. The
inmates of the temple-tower clung to this dome to save themselves from
drowning; but the Great Spirit walked upon the waters in his wrath,
and took the oppressors one by one like pebbles, and threw them far
into the recesses of a great cavern, on the east side of the lake,
called to this day the Spirit Lodge, where the waters shut them in.
There must they remain till a last great volcanic burning, which is to
overturn the whole earth, shall again set them free. In the depths of
their cavern-prison they may still be heard, wailing and moaning, when
the snows melt and the waters swell in the lake.[II-56]
We again meet the Coyote among the Cahrocs of Klamath River in
Northern California. These Cahrocs believe in a certain Chareya, Old
Man Above, who made the world, sitting the while upon a certain stool
now in the possession of the high-priest, or chief medicine-man. After
the creation of the earth, Chareya first made fishes, then the lower
animals, and lastly man, upon whom was conferred the power of
assigning to each animal its respective duties and position. The man
determined to give each a bow, the length of which should denote the
rank of the receiver. So he called all the animals together, and told
them that next day, early in the morning, the distribution of bows
would take place. Now the Coyote greatly desired the longest bow; and,
in order to be in first at the division, he determined to remain awake
all night. His anxiety sustained him for some time; but just before
morning he gave way, and fell into a sound sleep. The consequence was,
he was last at the rendezvous, and got the shortest bow of all. The
man took pity on his distress, however, and brought the matter to the
notice of Chareya, who, on considering the circumstances, decreed that
the Coyote should become the most cunning of animals, as he remains to
this time. The Coyote was very grateful to the man for his
intercession, and he became his friend and the friend of his children,
and did many things to aid mankind as we shall see hereafter.[II-57]
[Sidenote: MOUNT SHASTA THE WIGWAM OF THE GREAT SPIRIT.]
The natives in the neighborhood of Mount Shasta, in Northern
California, say that the Great Spirit made this mountain first of all.
Boring a hole in the sky, using a large stone as an auger, he pushed
down snow and ice until they had reached the desired height; then he
stepped from cloud to cloud down to the great icy pile, and from it to
the earth, where he planted the first trees by merely putting his
finger into the soil here and there. The sun began to melt the snow;
the snow produced water; the water ran down the sides of the
mountains, refreshed the trees, and made rivers. The Creator gathered
the leaves that fell from the trees, blew upon them, and they became
birds. He took a stick and broke it into pieces; of the small end he
made fishes; and of the middle of the stick he made animals--the
grizzly bear excepted, which he formed from the big end of his stick,
appointing him to be master over all the others. Indeed this animal
was then so large, strong, and cunning, that the Creator somewhat
feared him, and hollowed out Mount Shasta as a wigwam for himself,
where he might reside while on earth, in the most perfect security and
comfort. So the smoke was soon to be seen curling up from the
mountain, where the Great Spirit and his family lived, and still live,
though their hearth-fire is alight no longer, now that the white man
is in the land. This was thousands of snows ago, and there came after
this a late and severe spring-time, in which a memorable storm blew up
from the sea, shaking the huge lodge to its base. The Great Spirit
commanded his daughter, little more than an infant, to go up and bid
the wind to be still, cautioning her at the same time in his fatherly
way, not to put her head out into the blast, but only to thrust out
her little red arm and make a sign before she delivered her message.
The eager child hastened up to the hole in the roof, did as she was
told, and then turned to descend; but the Eve was too strong in her to
leave without a look at the forbidden world outside and the rivers and
the trees, at the far ocean and the great waves that the storm had
made as hoary as the forests when the snow is on the firs. She
stopped, she put out her head to look; instantly the storm took her by
the long hair, and blew her down to the earth, down the mountain
side, over the smooth ice and soft snow, down to the land of the
grizzly bears.
Now the grizzly bears were somewhat different then from what they are
at present. In appearance they were much the same it is true; but they
walked then on their hind legs like men, and talked, and carried
clubs, using the fore-limbs as men use their arms.
[Sidenote: THE GRIZZLY FAMILY OF MOUNT SHASTA.]
There was a family of these grizzlies living at the foot of the
mountain, at the place where the child was blown to. The father was
returning from the hunt with his club on his shoulder and a young elk
in his hand, when he saw the little shivering waif lying on the snow
with her hair all tangled about her. The old Grizzly, pitying and
wondering at the strange forlorn creature, lifted it up, and carried
it in to his wife to see what should be done. She too was pitiful, and
she fed it from her own breast, bringing it up quietly as one of her
family. So the girl grew up, and the eldest son of the old Grizzly
married her, and their offspring was neither grizzly nor Great Spirit,
but man. Very proud indeed were the whole grizzly nation of the new
race, and uniting their strength from all parts of the country, they
built the young mother and her family a mountain wigwam near that of
the Great Spirit; and this structure of theirs is now known as Little
Mount Shasta. Many years passed away, and at last the old grandmother
Grizzly became very feeble and felt that she must soon die. She knew
that the girl she had adopted was the daughter of the Great Spirit,
and her conscience troubled her that she had never let him know
anything of the fate of his child. So she called all the grizzlies
together to the new lodge, and sent her eldest grandson up on a cloud
to the summit of Mount Shasta, to tell the father that his daughter
yet lived. When the Great Spirit heard that, he was so glad that he
immediately ran down the mountain, on the south side, toward where he
had been told his daughter was; and such was the swiftness of his pace
that the snow was melted here and there along his course, as it
remains to this day. The grizzlies had prepared him an honorable
reception, and as he approached his daughter's home, he found them
standing in thousands in two files, on either side of the door, with
their clubs under their arms. He had never pictured his daughter as
aught but the little child he had loved so long ago; but when he found
that she was a mother, and that he had been betrayed into the creation
of a new race, his anger overcame him; he scowled so terribly on the
poor old grandmother Grizzly that she died upon the spot. At this all
the bears set up a fearful howl, but the exasperated father, taking
his lost darling on his shoulder, turned to the armed host, and in his
fury cursed them. Peace! he said. Be silent for ever! Let no
articulate word ever again pass your lips, neither stand any more
upright; but use your hands as feet, and look downward until I come
again! Then he drove them all out; he drove out also the new race of
men, shut to the door of Little Mount Shasta, and passed away to his
mountain, carrying his daughter; and her or him no eye has since seen.
The grizzlies never spoke again, nor stood up; save indeed when
fighting for their life, when the Great Spirit still permits them to
stand as in the old time, and to use their fists like men. No Indian
tracing his descent from the spirit mother and the grizzly, as here
described, will kill a grizzly bear; and if by an evil chance a
grizzly kill a man in any place, that spot becomes memorable, and
every one that passes casts a stone there till a great pile is thrown
up.[II-58]
Let us now pass on, and going east and north, enter the Shoshone
country. In Idaho there are certain famous Soda Springs whose origin
the Snakes refer to the close of their happiest age. Long ago, the
legend runs, when the cotton-woods on the Big River were no larger
than arrows, all red men were at peace, the hatchet was everywhere
buried, and hunter met hunter in the game-lands of the one or the
other, with all hospitality and good-will. During this state of
things, two chiefs, one of the Shoshone, the other of the Comanche
nation, met one day at a certain spring. The Shoshone had been
successful in the chase, and the Comanche very unlucky, which put the
latter in rather an ill humor. So he got up a dispute with the other
as to the importance of their respective and related tribes, and ended
by making an unprovoked and treacherous attack on the Shoshone,
striking him into the water from behind, when he had stooped to drink.
The murdered man fell forward into the water, and immediately a
strange commotion was observable there; great bubbles and spirts of
gas shot up from the bottom of the pool, and amid a cloud of vapor
there arose also an old white-haired Indian, armed with a ponderous
club of elk-horn. Well the assassin knew who stood before him; the
totem on the breast was that of Wankanaga, the father both of the
Shoshone and of the Comanche nations, an ancient famous for his brave
deeds, and celebrated in the hieroglyphic pictures of both peoples.
Accursed of two nations! cried the old man, this day hast thou put
death between the two greatest peoples under the sun; see, the blood
of this Shoshone cries out to the Great Spirit for vengeance. And he
dashed out the brains of the Comanche with his club, and the murderer
fell there beside his victim into the spring. After that the spring
became foul and bitter, nor even to this day can any one drink of its
nauseous water. Then Wankanaga, seeing that it had been defiled, took
his club and smote a neighboring rock, and the rock burst forth into
clear bubbling water, so fresh and so grateful to the palate that no
other water can even be compared to it.[II-59]
[Sidenote: THE GIANTS OF THE PALOUSE RIVER.]
Passing into Washington, we find an account of the origin of the falls
of Palouse River and of certain native tribes. There lived here at one
time a family of giants, four brothers and a sister. The sister wanted
some beaver-fat and she begged her brothers to get it for her--no
easy task, as there was only one beaver in the country, and he an
animal of extraordinary size and activity. However, like four gallant
fellows, the giants set out to find the monster, soon catching sight
of him near the mouth of the Palouse, then a peaceful gliding river
with an even though winding channel. They at once gave chase, heading
him up the river. A little distance up-stream they succeeded in
striking him for the first time with their spears, but he shook
himself clear, making in his struggle the first rapids of the Palouse,
and dashed on up-stream. Again the brothers overtook him, pinning him
to the river-bed with their weapons, and again the vigorous beast
writhed away, making thus the second falls of the Palouse. Another
chase, and, in a third and fatal attack, the four spear-shafts are
struck again through the broad wounded back. There is a last stubborn
struggle at the spot since marked by the great falls called Aputaput,
a tearing of earth and a lashing of water in the fierce death-flurry,
and the huge Beaver is dead. The brothers having secured the skin and
fat, cut up the body and threw the pieces in various directions. From
these pieces have originated the various tribes of the country, as the
Cayuses, the Nez Percés, the Walla Wallas, and so on. The Cayuses
sprang from the beaver's heart, and for this reason they are more
energetic, daring, and successful than their neighbors.[II-60]
In Oregon the Chinooks and neighboring people tell of a pre-human
demon race, called Ulháipa by the Chinooks, and Sehuiáb by the
Clallams and Lummis. The Chinooks say that the human race was created
by Italapas, the Coyote. The first men were sent into the world in a
very lumpish and imperfect state, their mouth and eyes were closed,
their hands and feet immovable. Then a kind and powerful spirit called
Ikánam, took a sharp stone, opened the eyes of these poor creatures,
and gave motion to their hands and feet. He taught them how to make
canoes as well as all other implements and utensils; and he threw
great rocks into the rivers and made falls, to obstruct the salmon in
their ascent, so that they might be easily caught.[II-61]
Farther north among the Ahts of Vancouver Island, perhaps the
commonest notion of origin is that men at first existed as birds,
animals, and fishes. We are told of a certain Quawteaht, represented
somewhat contradictorily, as the first Aht that ever lived, thickset
and hairy-limbed, and as the chief Aht deity, a purely supernatural
being, if not the creator, at least the maker and shaper of most
things, the maker of the land and the water, and of the animals that
inhabit the one or the other. In each of these animals as at first
created, there resided the embryo or essence of a man. One day a canoe
came down the coast, paddled by two personages in the, at that time,
unknown form of men. The animals were frightened out of their wits,
and fled, each from his house, in such haste that he left behind him
the human essence that he usually carried in his body. These embryos
rapidly developed into men; they multiplied, made use of the huts
deserted by the animals, and became in every way as the Ahts are now.
There exists another account of the origin of the Ahts, which would
make them the direct descendants of Quawteaht and an immense bird that
he married--the great Thunder Bird, Tootooch, with which, under a
different name and in a different sex, we shall become more familiar
presently. The flapping of Tootooch's wings shook the hills with
thunder, _tootah_; and when she put out her forked tongue, the
lightning quivered across the sky.
The Ahts have various legends of the way in which fire was first
obtained, which legends may be reduced to the following: Quawteaht
withheld fire, for some reason or other, from the creatures that he
had brought into the world, with one exception; it was always to be
found burning in the home of the cuttle-fish, _telhoop_. The other
beasts attempted to steal this fire, but only the deer succeeded; he
hid a little of it in the joint of his hind leg, and escaping,
introduced the element to general use.
Not all animals, it would appear, were produced in the general
creation; the loon and the crow had a special origin, being
metamorphosed men. Two fishermen, being out at sea in their canoes,
fell to quarreling, the one ridiculing the other for his small success
in fishing. Finally the unsuccessful man became so infuriated by the
taunts of his companion that he knocked him on the head, and stole his
fish, cutting out his tongue before he paddled off, lest by any chance
the unfortunate should recover his senses and gain the shore. The
precaution was well taken, for the mutilated man reached the land and
tried to denounce his late companion. No sound however could he utter
but something resembling the cry of a loon, upon which the Great
Spirit, Quawteaht, became so indiscriminatingly angry at the whole
affair that he changed the poor mute into a loon, and his assailant
into a crow. So when the mournful voice of the loon is heard from the
silent lake or river, it is still the poor fisherman that we hear,
trying to make himself understood and to tell the hard story of his
wrongs.[II-62]
[Sidenote: NOOTKA AND SALISH CREATION-MYTHS.]
The general drift of many of the foregoing myths would go to indicate
a wide-spread belief in the theory of an evolution of man from
animals.[II-63] Traditions are not wanting, however, whose teaching is
precisely the reverse. The Salish, the Nisquallies, and the Yakimas of
Washington, all hold that beasts, fishes, and even edible roots are
descended from human originals. One account of this inverse Darwinian
development is this: The son of the Sun--whoever he may have
been--caused certain individuals to swim through a lake of magic oil,
a liquid of such Circean potency that the unfortunates immersed were
transformed as above related. The peculiarities of organism of the
various animals, are the results of incidents of their passage; the
bear dived, and is therefore fat all over; the goose swam high, and is
consequently fat only up to the water-line; and so on through all the
list.[II-64]
Moving north to the Tacullies of British Columbia, we find the
Musk-rat an active agent in the work of creation. The flat earth,
following the Tacully cosmogony, was at first wholly covered with
water. On the water a Musk-rat swam to and fro, seeking food. Finding
none there, he dived to the bottom and brought up a mouthful of mud,
but only to spit it out again when he came to the surface. All this he
did again and again till quite an island was formed and by degrees the
whole earth. In some unexplained way this earth became afterwards
peopled in every part, and so remained, until a fierce fire of several
days' duration swept over it, destroying all life, with two
exceptions; one man and one woman hid themselves in a deep cave in the
heart of a mountain, and from these two has the world been since
repeopled.[II-65]
[Sidenote: YEHL, THE CREATOR OF THE THLINKEETS.]
From the Tacully country we pass north and west to the coast inhabited
by the Thlinkeets, among whom the myth of a great Bird, or of a great
hero-deity, whose favorite disguise is the shape of a bird, assumes
the most elaborate proportions and importance. Here the name of this
great Somebody is Yehl, the Crow or Raven, creator of most things, and
especially of the Thlinkeets. Very dark, damp, and chaotic was the
world in the beginning; nothing with breath or body moved there except
Yehl; in the likeness of a raven he brooded over the mist, his black
wings beat down the vast confusion, the waters went back before him
and the dry land appeared. The Thlinkeets were placed on the
earth--though how or when does not exactly appear--while the world was
still in darkness, and without sun or moon or stars. A certain
Thlinkeet, we are further informed, had a wife and a sister. Of the
wife he was devouringly jealous, and when employed in the woods at his
trade of building canoes, he had her constantly watched by eight red
birds of the kind called _kun_. To make assurance surer, he even used
to coop her up in a kind of box every time he left home. All this
while his sister, a widow it would appear, was bringing up certain
sons she had, fine tall fellows, rapidly approaching manhood. The
jealous uncle could not endure the thought of their being in the
neighborhood of his wife. So he inveigled them one by one, time after
time, out to sea with him on pretense of fishing, and drowned them
there. The poor mother was left desolate, she went to the sea-shore to
weep for her children. A dolphin--some say a whale--saw her there, and
pitied her; the beast told her to swallow a small pebble and drink
some sea-water. She did so, and in eight months was delivered of a
child. That child was Yehl, who thus took upon himself a human shape,
and grew up a mighty hunter and notable archer. One day a large bird
appeared to him, having a long tail like a magpie, and a long
glittering bill as of metal; the name of the bird was Kutzghatushl,
that is, Crane that can soar to heaven. Yehl shot the bird, skinned
it, and whenever he wished to fly used to clothe himself in its skin.
Now Yehl had grown to manhood, and he determined to avenge himself
upon his uncle for the death of his brothers; so he opened the box in
which the well-guarded wife was shut up. Instantly the eight faithful
birds flew off and told the husband, who set out for his home in a
murderous mood. Most cunning, however, in his patience, he greeted
Yehl with composure, and invited him into his canoe for a short trip
to sea. Having paddled out some way, he flung himself on the young man
and forced him overboard: Then he put his canoe about and made
leisurely for the land, rid as he thought of another enemy. But Yehl
swam in quietly another way, and stood up in his uncle's house. The
baffled murderer was beside himself with fury, he imprecated with a
potent curse a deluge upon all the earth, well content to perish
himself so he involved his rival in the common destruction, for
jealousy is cruel as the grave. The flood came, the waters rose and
rose; but Yehl clothed himself in his bird-skin, and soared up to
heaven, where he struck his beak into a cloud, and remained till the
waters were assuaged.
[Sidenote: ADVENTURES OF YEHL AND KHANUKH.]
After this affair Yehl had many other adventures, so many that "one
man cannot know them all," as the Thlinkeets say. One of the most
useful things he did was to supply light to mankind--with whom, as
appears, the earth had been again peopled after the deluge. Now all
the light in the world was stored away in three boxes, among the
riches of a certain mysterious old Chief, who guarded his treasure
closely. Yehl set his wits to work to secure the boxes; he determined
to be born into the chief's family. The old fellow had one daughter
upon whom he doted, and Yehl transforming himself into a blade of
grass, got into the girl's drinking-cup and was swallowed by her. In
due time she gave birth to a son, who was Yehl, thus a second time
born of a woman into the world. Very proud was the old chief of his
grandson, loving him even as he loved his daughter, so that Yehl came
to be a decidedly spoiled child. He fell a crying one day, working
himself almost into a fit; he kicked and scratched and howled, and
turned the family hut into a little pandemonium as only an infant
plague can. He screamed for one of the three boxes; he would have a
box; nothing but a box should ever appease him! The indulgent
grandfather gave him one of the boxes; he clutched it, stopped crying,
and crawled off into the yard to play. Playing, he contrived to wrench
the lid off, and lo! the beautiful heaven was thick with stars, and
the box empty. The old man wept for the loss of his stars, but he did
not scold his grandson, he loved him too blindly for that. Yehl had
succeeded in getting the stars into the firmament, and he proceeded to
repeat his successful trick, to do the like by the moon and sun. As
may be imagined, the difficulty was much increased; still he gained
his end. He first let the moon out into the sky, and some time
afterward, getting possession of the box that held the sun, he changed
himself into a raven and flew away with his greatest prize of all.
When he set up the blazing light in heaven, the people that saw it
were at first afraid. Many hid themselves in the mountains, and in the
forests, and even in the water, and were changed into the various
kinds of animals that frequent these places.
There are still other feats of Yehl's replete with the happiest
consequences to mankind. There was a time, for instance, when all the
fire in the world was hid away in an island of the ocean. Thither flew
the indefatigable deity, fetching back a brand in his mouth. The
distance, however, was so great that most of the wood was burned away
and a part of his beak, before he reached the Thlinkeet shore. Arrived
there, he dropped the embers at once, and the sparks flew about in all
directions among various sticks and stones; therefore it is that by
striking these stones, and by friction on this wood, fire is always to
be obtained.
Light they now had, and fire; but one thing was still wanting to men;
they had no fresh water. A personage called Khanukh[II-66] kept all the
fresh water in his well, in an island to the east of Sitka, and over
the mouth of the well, for its better custody, he had built his hut.
Yehl set out to the island in his boat, to secure the water, and on
his way he met Khanukh himself, paddling along in another boat.
Khanukh spoke first: How long hast thou been living in the world?
Proudly Yehl answered: Before the world stood in its place, I was
there. Yehl in his turn questioned Khanukh: But how long hast thou
lived in the world? To which Khanukh replied: Ever since the time that
the liver came out from below.[II-67] Then said Yehl: Thou art older
than I. Upon this Khanukh, to show that his power was as great as his
age, took off his hat, and there rose a dense fog, so that the one
could no longer see the other. Yehl then became afraid, and cried out
to Khanukh; but Khanukh answered nothing. At last when Yehl found
himself completely helpless in the darkness, he began to weep and
howl; upon which the old sorcerer put on his hat again, and the fog
vanished. Khanukh then invited Yehl to his house, and entertained him
handsomely with many luxuries, among which was fresh water. The meal
over, host and guest sat down, and the latter began a long relation of
his many exploits and adventures. Khanukh listened as attentively as
he could, but the story was really so interminable that he at last
fell asleep across the cover of his well. This frustrated Yehl's
intention of stealing the water while its owner slept, so he resorted
to another stratagem: he put some filth under the sleeper, then waking
him up, made him believe he had bewrayed himself. Khanukh, whose own
nose abhorred him, at once hurried off to the sea to wash, and his
deceiver as quickly set about securing the precious water. Just as
All-father Odin, the Raven-god, stole Suttung's mead, drinking it up
and escaping in the form of a bird, so Yehl drank what fresh water he
could, filling himself to the very beak, then took the form of a raven
and attempted to fly off through the chimney of the hut. He stuck in
the flue however, and Khanukh returning at that instant recognized his
guest in the struggling bird. The old man comprehended the situation,
and quietly piling up a roaring fire, he sat down comfortably to watch
the choking and scorching of his crafty guest. The raven had always
been a white bird, but so thoroughly was he smoked in the chimney on
this occasion that he has ever since remained the sootiest of fowls.
At last Khanukh watching the fire, became drowsy and fell asleep; so
Yehl escaped from the island with the water. He flew back to the
continent, where he scattered it in every direction; and wherever
small drops fell there are now springs and creeks, while the large
drops have produced lakes and rivers. This is the end of the exploits
of Yehl; having thus done everything necessary to the happiness of
mankind, he returned to his habitation, which is in the east, and into
which no other spirit, nor any man can possibly enter.
The existing difference in language between the Thlinkeets and other
people is one of the consequences of a great flood--perhaps that
flood already described as having been brought on through the jealousy
of the canoe-builder. Many persons escaped drowning by taking refuge
in a great floating building. When the waters fell, this vessel
grounded upon a rock, and was broken into two pieces; in the one
fragment were left those whose descendants speak the Thlinkeet
language, in the other remained all whose descendants employ a
different idiom.
[Sidenote: CHETHL AND AHGISHANAKHOU.]
Connected with the history of this deluge is another myth in which a
great Bird figures. When the waters rose a certain mysterious brother
and sister found it necessary to part. The name of the brother was
Chethl, that is, Thunder or Lightning, and the name of the sister was
Ahgishanakhou, which means the Underground Woman. As they separated
Chethl said to her: Sister, you shall never see me again, but while I
live you shall hear my voice. Then he clothed himself in the skin of a
great bird, and flew towards the south-west. His sister climbed to the
top of Mount Edgecomb, which is near Sitka, and it opened and
swallowed her up, leaving a great hole, or crater. The world itself is
an immense flat plate supported on a pillar, and under the world, in
silence and darkness, this Under-ground Woman guards the great pillar
from evil and malignant powers. She has never seen her brother since
she left the upper world, and she shall never see him again; but
still, when the tempest sweeps down on Edgecomb, the lightning of his
eyes gleams down her crater-window, and the thundering of his wings
re-echoes through all her subterranean halls.[II-68]
The Koniagas, north of the Thlinkeets, have their legendary Bird and
Dog--the latter taking the place occupied in the mythology of many
other tribes by the wolf or coyote. Up in heaven, according to the
Koniagas, there exists a great deity called Shljam Schoa. He created
two personages and sent them down to the earth, and the Raven
accompanied them carrying light. This original pair made sea, rivers,
mountains, forests, and such things. Among other places they made the
Island of Kadiak, and so stocked it that the present Koniagas assert
themselves the descendants of a Dog.[II-69]
The Aleuts of the Aleutian Archipelago seem to disagree upon their
origin. Some say that in the beginning a Bitch inhabited Unalaska, and
that a great Dog swam across to her from Kadiak; from which pair the
human race have sprung. Others, naming the bitch-mother of their race
Mahakh, describe a certain Old Man, called Iraghdadakh, who came from
the north to visit this Mahakh. The result of this visit was the birth
of two creatures, male and female, with such an extraordinary mixing
up of the elements of nature in them that they were each half man, half
fox. The name of the male creature was Acagnikakh, and by the other
creature he became father of the human race. The Old Man however seems
hardly to have needed any help to people the world, for like the great
patriarch of Thessaly, he was able to create men by merely casting
stones on the earth. He flung also other stones into the air, into the
water, and over the land, thus making beasts, birds, and fishes. In
another version of the narrative, the first father of the Aleuts is
said to have fallen from heaven in the shape of a dog.[II-70]
[Sidenote: THE DOG-ORIGIN OF THE HYPERBOREANS.]
In the legends of the Tinneh, living inland, north-east of the
Koniagas, the familiar Bird and Dog again appear. These legends tell
us that the world existed at first as a great ocean frequented only by
an immense Bird, the beating of whose wings was thunder, and its
glance lightning. This great flying monster descended and touched the
waters, upon which the earth rose up and appeared above them; it
touched the earth, and therefrom came every living creature--except
the Tinneh, who owe their origin to a Dog. Therefore it is that to
this day a dog's flesh is an abomination to the Tinneh, as are also
all who eat such flesh. A few years before Captain Franklin's visit
they almost ruined themselves by following the advice of some fanatic
reformer. Convinced by him of the wickedness of exacting labor from
their near relations, the dogs, they got rid at once of the sin and of
all temptation to its recommission, by killing every cur in their
possession.
To return to the origin of the Tinneh, the wonderful Bird before
mentioned made and presented to them a peculiar arrow, which they were
to preserve for all time with great care. But they would not; they
misappropriated the sacred shaft to some common use, and immediately
the great Bird flew away never to return. With its departure ended the
Golden Age of the Tinneh--an age in which men lived till their
throats were worn through with eating, and their feet with
walking.[II-71]
Belonging to the Northern-Indian branch of the Tinneh we find a
narrative in which the Dog holds a prominent place, but in which we
find no mention at all of the Bird: The earth existed at first in a
chaotic state, with only one human inhabitant, a woman who dwelt in a
cave and lived on berries. While gathering these one day, she
encountered an animal like a dog, which followed her home. This Dog
possessed the power of transforming himself into a handsome young man,
and in this shape he became the father by the woman of the first men.
In course of time a giant of such height that his head reached the
clouds, arrived on the scene and fitted the earth for its inhabitants.
He reduced the chaos to order; he established the land in its
boundaries, he marked out with his staff the position or course of the
lakes, ponds, and rivers. Next he slew the Dog and tore him to pieces,
as the four giants did the Beaver of the Palouse River, or as the
creating Æsir did Aurgelmir. Unlike the four brothers, however, and
unlike the sons of Bör, this giant of the Tinneh used the fragments
not to create men or things, but animals. The entrails of the dog he
threw into the water, and every piece became a fish; the flesh he
scattered over the land, and every scrap became an animal; the bits of
skin he sowed upon the wind, and they became birds. All these spread
over the earth, and increased and multiplied; and the giant gave the
woman and her progeny power to kill and eat of them according to their
necessities. After this he returned to his place, and he has not since
been heard of.[II-72]
Leaving now this division of our subject, more particularly concerned
with cosmogony, it may not be amiss to forestall possible criticism as
to the disconnected manner in which the various myths are given. I
have but to repeat that the mythology with which we have to deal is
only known in fragments, and to submit that a broken statue, or even a
broken shard, of genuine or presumably genuine antiquity, is more
valuable to science and even to poetry, than the most skillful ideal
restoration.
[Sidenote: INTERPRETATION OF MYTHS.]
Further, the absence of any attempt to form a connected whole out of
the myths that come under our notice cannot but obviate that tendency
to alter in outline and to color in detail which is so insensibly
natural to any mythographer prepossessed with the spirit of a system.
In advancing lastly the opinion that the disconnected arrangement is
not only better adapted toward preserving the original myths in their
integrity, but is also better for the student, I may be allowed to
close the chapter with the second of the Rules for the Interpretation
of Mythes given by so distinguished an authority as Mr. Keightley: "In
like manner the mythes themselves should be considered separately, and
detached from the system in which they are placed; for the single
mythes existed long before the system, and were the product of other
minds than those which afterwards set them in connection, not
unfrequently without fully understanding them."[II-73]
FOOTNOTES:
[II-1] In Vienna in 1857, the book now best known as the Popol Vuh was
first brought to the notice of European scholars, under the following
title: _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de
Guatemala, traducidas de la Lengua Quiché al Castellano para mas
Comodidad de los Ministros del S. Evangelio, por el R. P. F. Francisco
Ximenez, cura doctrinero por el real patronato del Pueblo de S. Thomas
Chuila_.--_Exactamente segun el texto español del manuscrito original
que se halla en la biblioteca de la Universidad de Guatemala,
publicado por la primera vez, y aumentado con una introduccion y
anotaciones por el Dr C. Scherzer._ What Dr Scherzer says in a paper
read before the Vienna Academy of Sciences, Feb. 20th, 1856; and
repeats in his introduction, about its author, amounts to this: In the
early part of the 18th century Francisco Ximenez, a Dominican Father
of great repute for his learning and his love of truth, filled the
office of curate in the little Indian town of Chichicastenango in the
highlands of Guatemala. Neither the time of his birth nor that of his
death can be exactly ascertained, but the internal evidence of one of
his works shows that he was engaged upon it in 1721. He left many
manuscripts, but it is supposed that the unpalatable truths some of
them contain with regard to the ill-treatment of the Indians by the
colonial authorities sufficed, as previously in the case of Las Casas,
to ensure their partial destruction and total suppression. What
remains of them lay long hid in an obscure corner of the Convent of
the Dominicans in Guatemala, and passed afterwards, on the suppression
of all the religious orders, into the library of the University of San
Carlos (Guatemala). Here Dr Scherzer discovered them in June 1854, and
carefully copied, and afterwards published as above the particular
treatise with which we are now concerned. This, according to Father
Ximenez himself, and according to its internal evidence, is a
translation of a _literal_ copy of an original book, written by one or
more Quichés, in the Quiché language, in Roman letters, after the
Christians had occupied Guatemala, and after the real original Popol
Vuh--National Book--had been lost or destroyed--literally, was no more
to be seen--and written to _replace_ that lost book. 'Quise trasladar
todas las historias _á la letra_ de estos indios, y tambien traducirla
en la lengua castellana.' 'Esto escribiremos ya en la ley de Dios en
la cristiandad los sacaremos, porque ya no hay libro comun, original
donde verlo, _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 1, 4, 5. 'Voilà ce que
nous écrirons depuis (qu'on a promulgué) la parole de Dieu, et en
dedans du Christianisme; nous le reproduirons, parce qu'on ne voit
plus ce Livre national,' 'Vae x-chi-ka tzibah chupan chic u chabal
Dios, pa Christianoil chic; x-chi-k'-elezah, rumal ma-habi chic ilbal
re Popol-Vuh,' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 5. The
evidence that the author was Quiché will be found in the numerous
passages scattered through the narrative in which he speaks of the
Quiché nation, and of the ancestors of that nation as 'our people,'
'our ancestors,' and so on. We pass now to what the Abbé Brasseur de
Bourbourg has to say about the book. He says that Ximenes 'discovered
this document, in the last years of the 17th century.' In 1855, at
Guatemala, the abbé first saw Ximenez' manuscript containing this
work. The manuscript contained the Quiché text and the Spanish
curate's translation of that text. Brasseur de Bourbourg copied both
at that time, but he was dissatisfied with the translation, believing
it to be full of faults owing to the prejudices and the ignorance of
the age in which it was made, as well as disfigured by abridgments and
omissions. So in 1860 he settled himself among the Quichés and by the
help of natives joined to his own practical knowledge of their
language, he elaborated a new and literal translation, (aussi
littérale qu'il a été possible de la faire). We seem justified then on
the whole in taking this document for what Ximenez and its own
evidence declare it to be, namely, a reproduction of an older work or
body of Quiché traditional history, written because that older work
had been lost and was likely to be forgotten, and written by a Quiché
not long after the Spanish conquest. One consequence of the last fact
would seem to be that a tinge of biblical expression has, consciously
or unconsciously to the Quiché who wrote, influenced the form of the
narrative. But these coincidences may be wholly accidental, the more
as there are also striking resemblances to expressions in the
Scandinavian Edda and in the Hindoo Veda. And even if they be not
accidental, 'much remains,' adopting the language and the conclusion
of Professor Max Müller, 'in these American traditions which is so
different from anything else in the national literatures of other
countries, that we may safely treat it as the genuine growth of the
intellectual soil of America.' _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol.
i., p. 328. For the foregoing, as well as further information on the
subject see:--_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. 5-31, 195-231;
_S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 83-7; _Hist. des Nat.
Civ._, tom. i., pp. 47-61; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 5-15;
_Scherzer_, in _Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien_,
20th Feb., 1856; _Helps' Spanish Conquest_, vol. iv., pp. 455-6.
Professor Müller in his essay on the Popol Vuh, has in one or two
places misunderstood the narrative. There was no such creation of man
as that he gives as the second, while his third creation is the second
of the original. Again, he makes the four Quiché ancestors to be the
progenitors of _all tribes both white and black_; while they were the
parents of the Quiché and kindred races only. The course of the legend
brings us to tribes of a strange blood, with which these four
ancestors and their people were often at war. The narrative is,
however, itself so confused and contradictory at points, that it is
almost impossible to avoid such things; and, as a whole, the views of
Professor Müller on the Popol Vuh seem just and well considered.
Baldwin, _Ancient America_, pp. 191-7, gives a mere dilution of
Professor Müller's essay, and that without acknowledgment.
[II-2] The original Quiché runs as follows: 'Are u tzihoxic vae ca ca
tzinin-oc, ca ca chamam-oc, ca tzinonic; ca ca zilanic, ca ca lolinic,
ca tolona puch u pa cah. Vae cute nabe tzih, nabe uchan.--Ma-habi-oc
hun vinak, hun chicop; tziquin, car, tap, che, abah, hul, civan, quim,
qichelah: xa-utuquel cah qolic. Mavi calah u vach uleu: xa-utnquel
remanic palo, u pah cah ronohel. Ma-habi nakila ca molobic, ca
cotzobic: hunta ca zilobic; ca mal ca ban-tah, ca cotz ca ban-tah pa
cah. X-ma qo-vi nakila qolic yacalic; xa remanic ha, xa lianic palo,
xa-utuquel remanic; x-ma qo-vi nakilalo qolic. Xa ca chamanic, ca
tzininic chi gekum, chi agab.'
This passage is rendered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg thus:
'Voici le récit comme quoi tout était en suspens, tout était calme et
silencieux; tout était immobile, tout était paisible, et vide était
l'immensité des cieux. Voilà donc la première parole et le premier
discours. Il n'y avait pas encore un seul homme, pas un animal, pas
d'oiseaux, de poissons, d'écrevisses, de bois, de pierre, de
fondrières, de ravins, d'herbe ou de bocages: seulement le ciel
existait. La face de la terre ne se manifestait pas encore: seule la
mer paisible était et tout l'espace des cieux. Il n'y avait encore
rien qui fît corps, rien qui se cramponnât à autre chose: rien qui se
balançât, qui fît (le moindre) frôlement, qui fît (entendre) un son
dans le ciel. Il n'y avait rien qui existât debout; (il n'y avait) que
l'eau paisible, que la mer calme et seule dans ses bornes; car il n'y
avait rien qui existât. Ce n'était que l'immobilité et le silence dans
les ténèbres, dans la nuit.' _Popol Vuh_, p. 7.
And by Francisco Ximenez thus: 'Este es su ser dicho cuando estaba
suspenso en calma, en silencio, sin moverse, sin cosa sino vacio el
cielo. Y esta es la primera palabra y elocuencia; aun no habia
hombres, animales, pájaros, pescado, cangrejo, palo, piedra, hoya,
barranca, paja ni monte, sino solo estaba el cielo; no se manifestaba
la faz de la tierra; sino que solo estaba el mar represado, y todo lo
del cielo; aun no habia cosa alguna junta, ni sonaba nada, ni cosa
alguna se meneaba, ni cosa que hiciera mal, ni cosa que hiciera
"_cotz_," (esto es ruido en el cielo), ni habia cosa que estuviese
parada en pié; solo el agua represada, solo la mar sosegada, solo ella
represada, ni cosa alguna habia que estuviese; solo estaba en
silencio, y sosiego en la obscuridad, y la noche.' _Hist. Ind. Guat._,
pp. 5-6.
[II-3] '_Gucumatz_, littéralement serpent emplumé, et dans un sens plus
étendu, serpent revêtu de couleurs brillantes, de vert ou d'azur. Les
plumes du guc ou quetzal offrent également les deux teintes. C'est
exactment la même chose que _quetzalcohuatl_ dans la langue
mexicaine.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i.,
p. 50.
[II-4] A long rambling story is here introduced which has nothing to do
with Creation, and which is omitted for the present.
[II-5] _Balam-Quitzé_, the tiger with the sweet smile; _Balam-Agab_, the
tiger of the night; _Mahucutah_, the distinguished name; _Iqi-Balam_,
the tiger of the moon. 'Telle est la signification littérale que
Ximenez a donnée de ces quatre noms.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol
Vuh_, p. 199.
[II-6] _Caha-paluma_, the falling water; _Chomi-ha_ or _Chomih-a_, the
beautiful house or the beautiful water; in the same way, _Tzununiha_
may mean either the house or the water of the humming-birds; and
_Cakixaha_, either the house or the water of the aras [which are a
kind of parrot]. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 205.
[II-7] 'Are ma-habi chi tzukun, qui coon; xavi chi cah chi qui pacaba qui
vach; mavi qu'etaam x-e be-vi naht x-qui bano.' 'Alors ils ne
servaient pas encore et ne soutenaient point (les autels des dieux);
seulement ils tournaient leurs visages vers le ciel, et ils ne
savaient ce qu'ils étaient venus faire si loin.' _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 209. It is right to add, however, that
Ximenez gives a much more prosaic turn to the passage: 'No cabian de
sustento, sino que levantaban las caras al cielo y no se sabian
alejar.' _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 84.
[II-8] Or as Ximenez, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 87, writes it--_Tulanzú_,
(las siete cuevas y siete barrancas).
[II-9] The following passage in a letter from the Abbé Brasseur de
Bourbourg, to Mr. Rafn of Copenhagen, bearing date 25th October, 1858,
may be useful in this connection:--'On sait que la coutume toltèque et
mexicaine était de conserver, comme chez les chrétiens, les reliques
des héros de la patrie: on enveloppait leurs os avec des pierres
précieuses dans un paquet d'étoffes auquel on donnait le nom de
Tlaquimilolli; ces paquets demeuraient à jamais fermés et on les
déposait au fond des sanctuaires où on les conservait comme des
objects sacrés.' _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, 1858, tom. iv., p.
268. One of these 'bundles,' was given up to the Christians by a
Tlascaltec some time after the conquest. It was reported to contain
the remains of Camaxtli, the chief god of Tlascala. The native
historian, Camargo, describes it as follows: 'Quand on défit le paquet
où se trouvaient les cendres de l'idole Camaxtle, on y trouva aussi un
paquet de cheveux blonds, ... on y trouva aussi une émeraude, et de
ses cendres on avait fait une pâte, en les pétrissant avec le sang des
enfants que l'on avait sacrifiés.' _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_; in
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 179.
[II-10] See _Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i., p. 333.
[II-11] Even supposing there were no special historical reasons for
making this distinction, it seems convenient that such a division
should be made in a country where the distinction of classes was so
marked as in Mexico. As Reads puts the case, _Martyrdom of Man_, p.
177, 'In those countries where two distinct classes of men exist, the
one intellectual and learned, the other illiterate and degraded, there
will be in reality two religions, though nominally there may be only
one.'
[II-12] 'Les prêtres et les nobles de Mexico avaient péri presque tous
lors de la prise de cette ville, et ceux qui avaient échappé au
massacre s'étaient réfugiés dans des lieux inaccessibles. Ce furent
donc presque toujours des gens du peuple sans éducation et livrés aux
plus grossiéres superstitions qui leur firent les récits qu'ils nous
ont transmis; Les missionnaires, d'ailleurs, avaient plus d'intérêt à
connaître les usages qu'ils voulaient déraciner de la masse du peuple
qu'à comprendre le sens plus élevé que la partie éclairée de la nation
pouvait y attacher.' _Ternaux-Compans_, _Essai sur la Théogonie
Mexicaine_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxv., p.
274.
[II-13] This last statement rests on the authority of Domingo Muñoz
Camargo, a native of the city of Tlascala who wrote about 1585. See
his _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_ as translated by Ternaux Compans in the
_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 129. 'Les Indiens
ne croyaient pas que le monde eût été créé, mais pensaient qu'il était
le produit du hazard. Ils disaient aussi que les cieux avaient
toujours existé.' 'Estos, pues, alcanzaron con claridad el verdadero
orígen y principio de todo el Universo, porque asientan que el cielo y
la tierra y cuanto en ellos se halla es obra de la poderosa mano de un
Dios Supremo y único, á quien daban el nombre de Tloque Nahuaque, que
quiere decir, criador de todas las cosas. Llamábanle tambien
Ipalnemohualoni, que quiere decir, por quien vivimos y somos, y fué la
única deidad que adoraron en aquellos primitivos tiempos; y aun
despues que se introdujo la idolatría y el falso culto, le creyeron
siempre superior á todos sus dioses, y le invocaban levantando los
ojos al cielo. En esta creencia se mantuvieron constantes hasta la
llegada de los españoles, como afirma Herrera, no solo los mejicanos,
sino tambien los de Michoacan.' _Veytia_, _Historia Antigua de
Méjico_, tom. i., p. 7. 'Los Tultecas alcanzaron y supieron la
creacion del mundo, y como el Tloque Nahuaque lo crió y las demas
cosas que hay en él, como son plantas, montes, animales, aves, agua y
peces; asimismo supieron como crió Dios al hombre y una muger, de
donde los hombres descendieron y se multiplicaron, y sobre esto añaden
muchas fábulas que por escusar prolijidad no se ponen aqui.'
_Ixtlilxochitl_, _Relaciones_, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., p. 321.
'Dios Criador, que en lengua Indiana llamò Tlòque Nahuàque, queriendo
dàr à entender, que este Solo, Poderoso, y Clementissimo Dios.'
_Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, p. 79. 'Confessauan los Mexicanos a vn
supremo Dios, Señor, y hazedor de todo, y este era el principal que
venerauan, mirando al cielo, llamandole criador del cielo y tierra.'
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. 15, p. 85. 'El dios
que se llamaba Titlacaâon, (Tezcatlipuca), decian que era criador del
cielo y de la tierra y era todo poderoso.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Ant.
Mex._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 241. 'Tezcatlipoca, Questo era il
maggior Dio, che in que' paesi si adorava, dopo il Dio invisibile, o
Supremo Essere, di cui abbiam ragionato.... Era il Dio della
Providenza, l'anima del Mondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed
il Signor di tutte le cose.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Antica del Messico_,
tom. ii., p. 7. 'La creacion del cielo y de la tierra aplicaban á
diversos dioses, y algunos á Tezcatlipuca y á Uzilopuchtli, ó segun
otros, Ocelopuchtli, y de los principales de Mexico.' _Mendieta_,
_Hist. Ecles._, p. 81.
[II-14] 'Lorsque le ciel et la terre s'étaient faits, quatre fois déjà
l'homme avait été formé ... de cendres Dieu l'avait formé et animé.'
The _Codex Chimalpopoca_, or _Chimalpopoca MS._, after _Brasseur de
Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 53. This Codex
Chimalpopoca, so called by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, is an
anonymous manuscript in the Mexican language. What we really know of
this much-talked-of document is little, and will be best given in the
original form. The following is the first notice I find of this
manuscript, with its appurtenances, being Boturini's description of it
as possessed at one time by him. _Catálogo_, pp. 17-18. 'Una historia
de los Reynos de Culhuàcan, y Mexico en lengua Nàhuatl, y papel
Europèo de Autor Anonymo, y tiene añadida una Breve Relacion de los
Dioses, y Ritos de la Gentilidad en lengua Castellana que escribiò el
Bachiller Don Pedro Ponce, Indio Cazique Beneficiado, que fuè del
Partido de Tzumpauàcan. Está todo copiado de letra de Don Fernando de
Alba, y le falta la primera foja.' With regard to the term _Nahuatl_
used in this _Catalogue_, see _Id._, p. 85: 'Los Manuscritos en lengua
Nàhuatl, que en este Catálogo se citan, se entiende ser en lengua
Mexicana!' This manuscript, or a copy of it, fell into the hands of
the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the city of Mexico, in the year
1850, _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne,
Introduction_, p. xxi., and the learned Abbé describes it as
follows:--'Codex Chimalpopoca (Copie du), contenant les Epoques, dites
Histoire des Soleils et l'Histoire des Royaumes de Colhuacan et de
Mexico, texte Mexicain (corrigé d'après celui de M. Aubin), avec un
essai de traduction française en regard. gr. in 4o--Manuscrit de 93
ff., copié et traduit par le signataire de la bibliothèque. C'est la
copie du document marqué au no 13, § viii., du catalogue de Boturini,
sous le titre de: Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y Mexico, etc.
Ce document, où pour la première fois j'ai soulevé le voile
énigmatique qui recouvrait les symboles de la religion et de
l'histoire du Mexique est le plus important de tous ceux qui nous
soient restés des annales antiques mexicaines. Il renferme
chronologiquement l'histoire géologique du monde, par séries de 13
ans, à commencer de plus de dix mille ans avant l'ère chrétienne,
suivant les calculs mexicains.' _Id._, p. 47.
[II-15] Otherwise called, according to Clavigero, the god _Ometeuctli_,
and the goddess _Omecihuatl_. Ternaux-Compans says: 'Les noms
d'Ometeuctli et d'Omecihuatl ne se trouvent nulle part ailleurs dans
la mythologie mexicaine; mais on pourrait les expliquer par
l'étymologie. _Ome_ signifie deux en mexicain, et tous les auteurs
sont d'accord pour traduire littéralement leur nom par deux seigneurs
et deux dames.' _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p.
7.
[II-16] _Xolotl_, 'servant or page.'--_Molina_, _Vocabulario en lengua
Castellana Mexicana_. Not 'eye' as some scholiasts have it.
[II-17] Literally, in the earliest copy of the myth that I have seen,
_the milk of the thistle_, 'la leche de cardo,' which term has been
repeated blindly, and apparently without any idea of its meaning, by
the various writers that have followed. The old authorities, however,
and especially Mendieta, from whom I take the legend, were in the
habit of calling the maguey a thistle; and indeed the tremendous
prickles of the Mexican plant may lay good claim to the _Nemo me
impune lacessit_ of the Scottish emblem. 'Maguey, que es el cardon de
donde sacan la miel.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 110. 'Metl es un
arbol ó cardo que en lengua de las Islas se llama maguey.'
_Motolinia_, _Hist. de los Ind._, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._,
tom. i., p. 243. 'Et similmente-cogliono le foglie di questo albero, ò
cardo che si tengono là, come qua le vigne, et chiamanlo magueis.'
_Relatione fatta per un Gentil'huomo del Signor Cortese_, in
_Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. iii., fol. 307.
[II-18] Motolinia in _Icazbalceta_, _Col._, tom. i., pp. 6-10, says this
first man and woman were begotten between the rain and the dust of the
earth--'engendrada de la lluvia y del polvo de la tierra'--and in
other ways adds to the perplexity; so that I am well inclined to agree
with Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 518, when he says these
cosmogonical myths display marks of local origin and of the subsequent
fusion of several legends into an incongruous whole. 'Aus dieser Menge
von Verschiedenheiten in diesen Kosmogonien ist ersichtlich, dass
viele Lokalmythen hier wie in Peru unabhängig von einander entstanden
die man äusserlich mit einander verband, die aber in mancherlei
Widersprüchen auch noch später ihre ursprüngliche Unabhängigkeit zu
erkennen geben.'
[II-19] Here, as elsewhere in this legend we follow Andres de Olmos'
account as given by Mendieta. Sahagun, however differs from it a good
deal in places. At this point for example, he mentions some notable
personages who guessed right about the rising of the sun:--'Otros se
pusieron á mirar ácia el oriente, y digeron aquí, de esta parte ha de
salir el Sol. El dicho de estos fué verdadero. Dicen que los que
miraron ácia el Oriente, fueron Quetzalcoatl, que tambien se llama
Ecatl, y otro que se llama Totec, y por otro nombre Anaoatlytecu, y
por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y otros que se llaman Minizcoa,'
or as in Kingsborough's edition, _Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 186. 'Por
otro nombre Anaoatl y Tecu, y por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y
otros que se llaman Mimizcoa, que son inumerables; y cuatro mugeres,
la una se llama Tiacapan, la otra Teicu, la tercera Tlacoeoa, la
cuarta Xocoyotl.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. viii., p.
248.
[II-20] Besides differences of authorities already noticed, I may add
that Sahagun describes the personage who became the sun--as well as
him who, as we shall soon see, became the moon--as belonging before
his transformation to the number of the gods, and not as one of the
men who served them. Further, in recounting the death of the gods,
Sahagun says that to the Air, Ecatl, Quetzalcoatl, was alloted the
task of killing the rest; nor does it appear that Quetzalcoatl killed
himself. As to Xolotl, he plays quite a cowardly part in this version;
trying to elude his death, he transformed himself into various things,
and was only at last taken and killed under the form of a fish called
_Axolotl_.
[II-21] This kind of idol answers evidently to the mysterious 'Envelope'
of the Quiché myth. See also note 9.
[II-22] Besides the Chimalpopoca manuscript, the earliest summaries of
the Mexican creation-myths are to be found in _Mendieta_, _Hist.
Ecles._, pp. 77-81; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p.
233, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 246-250; _Boturini_, _Idea de una
Hist._, pp. 37-43; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 31-5,
tom. ii., pp. 76-8; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii.,
pp. 8-10.
[II-23] _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chichimeca_ in _Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq._, vol. ix., pp. 205-6. The same author, in his _Relaciones_,
_Ib._ pp. 321-2, either through his own carelessness or that of a
transcriber, transposes the second and third Ages. To see that it is
an oversight of some sort, we have but to pass to the summary he gives
at the end of these same _Relaciones_, _Ib._, p. 459, where the
account is again found in strict agreement with the version given in
the text. Camargo, _Hist. de Tlax._ in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._,
1843, tom. xcix., p. 132, giving as we may suppose the Tlascaltec
version of the general Mexican myth, agrees with Ixtlilxochitl as to
the whole number of Ages, following, however, the order of the error
above noticed in the _Relaciones_. The Tlascaltec historian, moreover,
affirms that only two of these Ages are past, and that the third and
fourth destructions are yet to come. M. Ternaux-Compans, _Nouvelles
Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p. 5, adopts this Tlascaltec
account as the general Mexican tradition; he is followed by Dr.
Prichard, _Researches_, vol. v., pp. 360-1. Dr. Prichard cites
Bradford as supporting the same opinion, but erroneously, as Bradford,
_Am. Antiq._, p. 328, follows Humboldt. Boturini, _Idea de una Hist._,
p. 3. and Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 57, agree
exactly with the text. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg also accepts the
version of three past destructions. _S'il existe des Sources de
l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 26-7. Professor J. G. Müller, _Amerikanische
Urreligionen_, pp. 510-12, admits that the version of three past
destructions and one to come, as given in the text, and in the order
there given, 'seems to be the most ancient Mexican version;' though he
decides to follow Humboldt, and adopts what he calls the 'latest and
fullest form of the myth.' The _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice
Mexicano_ [Vaticano] contradicts itself, giving first two past
destructions, and farther on four, _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol.
v., pp. 163-7; as does also the _Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_,
_Ib._, pp. 134-6. Kingsborough himself seems to favor the idea of
three past destructions and four ages in all; see _Mex. Antiq._, vol.
vi., p. 171, note. Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, fol. 297-8; Leon y Gama, _Dos
Piedras_, parte i., pp. 94-5; Humboldt, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 118-129;
Prescott, _Conq. of Mex._, vol. i., p. 61; Gallatin, in _Am. Ethnol.
Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 325--describe four past destructions
and one yet to come, or five Ages, and the Chimalpopoca MS., see note
13, seems also to favor this opinion. Lastly, Mendieta, _Hist.
Ecles._, p. 81, declares that the Mexicans believe in five Suns, or
Ages, in times past; but these suns were of inferior quality, so that
the soil produced its fruits only in a crude and imperfect state. The
consequence was that in every case the inhabitants of the world died
through the eating of divers things. This present and sixth Sun was
good, however, and under its influence all things were produced
properly. Torquemada--who has, indeed, been all along appropriating,
by whole chapters, the so long inedited work of Mendieta; and that, if
we believe Icazbalceta, _Hist. Ecles._, _Noticias del Autor._, pp.
xxx. to xlv., under circumstances of peculiar turpitude--of course
gives also five past Ages, repeating Mendieta word for word with the
exception of a single 'la.' _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 79.
[II-24] Professor J. G. Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 568,
remarks of these two personages: 'Rein nordisch ist der chichimekische
Coxcox, der schon bei der Fluthsage genannt wurde, der Tezpi der
Mechoakaner. Das ist auch ursprünglich ein Wassergott und Fischgott,
darum trägt er auch den Namen Cipactli, Fisch, Teocipactli, göttlicher
Fisch, Huehuetonacateocipactli, alter Fischgott von unserem Fleisch.
Darum ist auch seine Gattin eine Pflanzengöttin mit Namen Xochiquetzal
d. h. geflügelte Blume.'
[II-25] _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, pp. 113-4; _Id._, _Catálogo_,
pp. 39-40; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp.
129-30, tom. ii., p. 6; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_
(Vaticano), tav. vii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp.
164-5; _Gemelli Carreri_, in _Churchill's Col. Voy._, vol. iv., p.
481; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 114-15, tom. ii., pp. 175-8;
_Tylor's Anahuac_, pp. 276-7; _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Conquista de
Mexico_, tom. iii., pp. 1-10. A careful comparison of the passages
given above will show that this whole story of the escape of Coxcox
and his wife in a boat from a great deluge, and of the distribution by
a bird of different languages to their descendants, rests on the
interpretation of certain Aztec paintings, containing supposed
pictures of a flood, of Coxcox and his wife, of a canoe or rude vessel
of some kind, of the mountain Culhuacan, which was the Mexican Ararat,
and of a bird distributing languages to a number of men. Not one of
the earliest writers on Mexican mythology, none of those personally
familiar with the natives and with their oral traditions as existing
at the time of, or immediately after the conquest, seems to have known
this legend; Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta, Ixtlilxochitl, and
Camargo, are all of them silent with regard to it. These facts must
give rise to grave suspicions with regard to the accuracy of the
commonly accepted version, notwithstanding its apparently implicit
reception up to this time by the most critical historians. These
suspicions will not be lessened by the result of the researches of Don
José Fernando Ramirez, Conservator of the Mexican National Museum, a
gentleman not less remarkable for his familiarity with the language
and antiquities of Mexico than for the moderation and calmness of his
critical judgments, as far as these are known. In a communication
dated April, 1858, to Garcia y Cubas, _Atlas Geográfico, Estadístico e
Histórico de la Republica Mejicana_, entrega 29, speaking of the
celebrated Mexican picture there for the first time, as he claims,
accurately given to the public--Sigüenza's copy of it, as given by
Gemelli Carreri, that given by Clavigero in his _Storia del Messico_,
that given by Humboldt in his _Atlas Pittoresque_, and that given by
Kingsborough being all incorrect--Señor Ramirez says:--'The authority
of writers so competent as Sigüenza and Clavigero imposed silence on
the incredulous, and after the illustrious Baron von Humboldt added
his irresistible authority, adopting that interpretation, nobody
doubted that "the traditions of the Hebrews were found among the
people of America;" that, as the wise Baron thought, "their Coxcox,
Teocipactli, or Tezpi is the Noah, Xisutrus, or Menou of the Asiatic
families;" and that "the Cerro of Culhuacan is the Ararat of the
Mexicans." Grand and magnificent thought, but unfortunately only a
delusion. The blue square No. 1, with its bands or obscure lines of
the same color, cannot represent the terrestrial globe covered with
the waters of the flood, because we should have to suppose a
repetition of the same deluge in the figure No. 40, where it is
reproduced with some of its principal accidents. Neither, for the same
reason, do the human heads and the heads of birds which appear to
float there, denote the submerging of men and animals, for it would be
necessary to give the same explanation to those seen in group No. 39.
It might be argued that the group to the left (of No. 1), made up of a
human head placed under the head of a bird, represented phonetically
the name Coxcox, and denoted the Aztec Noah; but the group on the
right, formed of a woman's head with other symbolic figures above it,
evidently does not express the name Xochiquetzal, which is said to
have been that of his wife.... Let us now pass on to the dove giving
tongues to the primitive men who were born mute. The commas which seem
to come from the beak of the bird there represented, form one of the
most complex and varied symbols, in respect to their phonetic force,
which are found in our hieroglyphic writing. In connection with
animated beings they designate generically the emission of the
voice.... In the group before us they denote purely and simply that
the bird was singing or speaking--to whom?--to the group of persons
before it, who by the direction of their faces and bodies show clearly
and distinctly the attention with which they listened. Consequently
the designer of the before-mentioned drawing for Clavigero,
pre-occupied with the idea of signifying by it the pretended confusion
of tongues, changed with his pencil the historic truth, giving to
these figures opposite directions. Examining attentively the
inexactitudes and errors of the graver and the pencil in all
historical engravings relating to Mexico, it is seen that they are no
less numerous and serious than those of the pen. The interpretations
given to the ancient Mexican paintings by ardent imaginations led away
by love of novelty or by the spirit of system, justify to a certain
point the distrust and disfavor with which the last and most
distinguished historian of the Conquest of Mexico (W. H. Prescott) has
treated this interesting and precious class of historical documents.'
Señor Ramirez goes on thus at some length to his conclusions, which
reduce the original painting to a simple record of a wandering of the
Mexicans among the lakes of the Mexican valley--that journey
beginning at a place 'not more than nine miles from the gutters of
Mexico,'--a record having absolutely no connection either with the
mythical deluge, already described as one of the four destructions of
the world, or with any other. The bird speaking in the picture, he
connects with a well-known Mexican fable given by Torquemada, in which
a bird is described as speaking from a tree to the leaders of the
Mexicans at a certain stage of their migration, and repeating the work
_Tihui_, that is to say, 'Let us go.' A little bird called the
_Tihuitochan_, with a cry that the vulgar still interpret in a
somewhat similar sense, is well known in Mexico, and is perhaps at the
bottom of the tradition. It may be added that Torquemada gives a
painted manuscript, possibly that under discussion, as his authority
for the story. The boat, the mountain, and the other adjuncts of the
picture are explained in a like simple way, as the hieroglyphics, for
the most part, of various proper names. Our space here will not permit
further details--though another volume will contain this picture and
a further discussion of the subject--but I may remark in concluding
that the moderation with which Señor Ramirez discusses the question,
as well as his great experience and learning in matters of Mexican
antiquity, seem to claim for his views the serious consideration of
future students.
[II-26] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp.
425-7.
[II-27] Fr. Gregorio Garcia, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 327-9, took this
narrative from a book he found in a convent in Cuilapa, a little
Indian town about a league and a half south of Oajaca. The book had
been compiled by the vicar of that convent, and--'escrito con sus
Figuras, como los Indios de aquel Reino Mixteco las tenian en sus
Libros, ò Pergaminos arrollados, con la declaracion de lo que
significaban las Figuras, en que contaban su Origen, la Creacion del
Mundo, i Diluvio General.'
[II-28] 'Que aparecieron visiblemente un Dios, que tuvo por Nombre _un
Ciervo_, i por sobrenombre _Culebra de Leon_; i una Diosa mui linda, i
hermosa, que su Nombre fue _un Ciervo_, i por sobrenombre _Culebra de
Tigre_,' _Garcia_, _Id._, pp. 327-9.
[II-29] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., fol. 128, 176.
[II-30] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, fol. 196-7.
[II-31] One of the Las Casas MSS. gives, according to Helps, 'trece
hijos' instead of 'tres hijos;' the latter, however, being the correct
reading, as the list of names in the same manuscript shows, and as
Father Roman gives it. See note 33.
[II-32] This tradition, says the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des
Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 74-5, has indubitably reference to a queen
whose memory has become attached to very many places in Guatemala, and
Central America generally. She was called _Atit_, Grandmother; and
from her the volcano of Atitlan, received the name _Atital-huyu_, by
which it is still known to the aborigines. This Atit lived during four
centuries, and from her are descended all the royal and princely
families of Guatemala.
[II-33] _Roman_, _República de los Indios Occidentales_, part 1, lib.
2, cap. 15, after _Garcia_, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 329-30; _Las
Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. 235, after _Helps' Span.
Conq._, vol. ii., p. 140; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp.
53-4; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp.
74-5.
[II-34] The first of these two names is erroneously spelt 'Famagoztad'
by M. Ternaux-Compans, Mr. Squier, and the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg,
the two latter perhaps led astray by the error of M. Ternaux-Compans,
an error which first appeared in that gentleman's translation of
Oviedo. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 40. _Peter Martyr_, dec.
vi., cap. 4.
[II-35] This tradition was 'gathered principally from the relations of
Con Quien, the intelligent chief of the central Papagos.' _Davidson_,
in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1865, pp. 131-3.
[II-36] The legendary Montezuma, whom we shall meet so often in the
mythology of the Gila valley, must not be confounded with the two
Mexican monarchs of the same title. The name itself would seem, in the
absence of proof to the contrary, to have been carried into Arizona
and New Mexico by the Spaniards or their Mexican attendants, and to
have become gradually associated in the minds of some of the New
Mexican and neighboring tribes, with a vague, mythical, and departed
grandeur. The name Montezuma became thus, to use Mr. Tylor's words,
that of the great 'Somebody' of the tribe. This being once the case,
all the lesser heroes would be gradually absorbed in the greater, and
their names forgotten. Their deeds would become his deeds, their fame
his fame. There is evidence enough that this is a general tendency of
tradition, even in historical times. The pages of Mr. Cox's scholarly
and comprehensive work, _The Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, teem
with examples of it. In Persia, deeds of every kind and date are
referred to Antar. In Russia, buildings of every age are declared to
be the work of Peter the Great. All over Europe, in Germany, France,
Spain, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland, the exploits of the
oldest mythological heroes figuring in the Sagas, Eddas, and
Nibelungen Lied have been ascribed in the folk-lore and ballads of the
people to Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Boabdil, Charles V., William Tell,
Arthur, Robin Hood, Wallace, and St. Patrick. The connection of the
name of Montezuma with ancient buildings and legendary adventures in
the mythology of the Gila valley seems to be simply another example of
the same kind.
[II-37] I am indebted for these particulars of the belief of the Pimas
to the kindness of Mr. J. H. Stout of the Pima agency, who procured me
a personal interview with five chiefs of that nation, and their very
intelligent and obliging interpreter, Mr. Walker, at San Francisco, in
October, 1873.
[II-38] For the killing of this Great Eagle Szeukha had to do a kind of
penance, which was never to scratch himself with his nails, but always
with a small stick. This custom is still observed by all Pimas; and a
bit of wood, renewed every fourth day, is carried for this purpose
stuck in their long hair.
[II-39] With the reader, as with myself, this clause will probably call
up something more than a mere suspicion of Spanish influence tinging
the incidents of the legend. The Pimas themselves, however, asserted
that this tradition existed among them long before the arrival of the
Spaniards and was not modified thereby. One fact that seems to speak
for the comparative purity of their traditions is that the name of
Montezuma is nowhere to be found in them, although Cremony, _Apaches_,
p. 102, states the contrary.
[II-40] _Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies_, vol. i., p. 268.
[II-41] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 85-6.
[II-42] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 89-90; and
_Eaton_, _Ib._, pp. 218-9. The latter account differs a little from
that given in the text, and makes the following addition: After the
Navajos came up from the cave, there came a time when, by the ferocity
of giants and rapacious animals, their numbers were reduced to
three--an old man, an old woman, and a young woman. The stock was
replenished by the latter bearing a child to the sun.
[II-43] _Ribas_, _Hist._, pp. 18, 40.
[II-44] _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., p. 139.
[II-45] _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 135-7.
[II-46] _Hugo Reid_, in _Los Angeles Star_.
[II-47] _Hugo Reid_, _Ib._
[II-48] Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.
[II-49] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[II-50] Humboldt County.
[II-51] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[II-52] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[II-53] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[II-54] _Johnston_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 224-5.
[II-55] _H. B. D._ in _Hesperian Mag._, vol. iii., 1859, p. 326.
[II-56] _Wadsworth_, in _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. ii., 1858, pp.
356-8.
[II-57] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[II-58] _Joaquin Miller's Life Amongst the Modocs_, pp. 235-236, 242-6.
[II-59] _Ruxton's Adven. in Mex._, pp. 244-6.
[II-60] _Wilkes' Nar._ in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 496.
[II-61] _Franchère's Nar._, p. 258; _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 317;
_Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, pp. 11-13; _Id._, _Clallam and Lummi
Vocab._, pp. 15-29; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 139.
[II-62] _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 176-85, 203-14.
[II-63] To the examples already given of this we may add the case of the
Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island, of whom Mr. Poole, _Q. Char. Isl._,
p. 136, says: 'Their descent from the crows is quite gravely affirmed
and steadfastly maintained.'
[II-64] _Anderson_, in _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 240.
[II-65] _Harmon's Jour._, pp. 302-3.
[II-66] This Khanukh was the progenitor of the Wolf family of the
Thlinkeets even as Yehl was that of the Raven family. The influence of
this wolf-deity seems to have been generally malign, but except in
connection with this water-legend, he is little mentioned in the
Thlinkeet myths.
[II-67] 'Seit der Zeit, entgegnete Khanukh, als von unten die Leber
herauskam.' _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 61. What is meant by the
term 'die Leber,' literally the particular gland of the body called in
English 'the liver,' I cannot say; neither Holmberg or any one else,
as far as my knowledge goes, attempting any explanation.
[II-68] _Barrett-Lennard's Trav._, pp. 54-7; _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._,
pp. 14, 52-63; _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethn._, pp. 93-100; _Dall's Alaska_,
pp. 421-22; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 452-5; _Richardson's Jour._,
vol. i., p. 405; _Mayne's B. C._, p. 272.
[II-69] _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethn._, p. 116; _Lisiansky's Voy._, pp. 197-8;
_Dall's Alaska_, p. 405; _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 140.
[II-70] _Choris_, _Voy. Pitt._, pt. vii., p. 7; _Kotzebue's Voy._, vol.
ii., p. 165.
[II-71] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 102, _et seq._; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol.
v., p. 173; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxviii.; _Franklin's Nar._, vol.
i., pp. 249-50.
[II-72] _Hearne's Journey_, pp. 342-3.
[II-73] _Keightley's Myth. of Ancient Greece and Italy_, p. 14.