CHAPTER XII.

FUTURE STATE.

ABORIGINAL IDEAS OF FUTURE -- GENERAL CONCEPTIONS OF SOUL --

FUTURE STATE OF THE ALEUTS, CHEPEWYANS, NATIVES AT MILBANK

SOUND, AND OKANAGANS -- HAPPY LAND OF THE SALISH AND CHINOOKS

-- CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL OF THE NEZ PERCÉS, FLATHEADS,

AND HAIDAHS -- THE REALMS OF QUAWTEAHT AND CHAYHER -- BELIEFS

OF THE SONGHIES, CLALLAMS, AND PEND D'OREILLES -- THE FUTURE

STATE OF THE CALIFORNIAN AND NEVADA TRIBES, COMANCHES, PUEBLOS,

NAVAJOS, APACHES, MOQUIS, MARICOPAS, YUMAS, AND OTHERS -- THE

SUN HOUSE OF THE MEXICANS -- TLALOCAN AND MICTLAN -- CONDITION

OF THE DEAD -- JOURNEY OF THE DEAD -- FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS

AND OTHER NATIONS.

The hope, or at least the expectation of immortality, is universal

among men. The mind instinctively shrinks from the thought of utter

annihilation, and ever clings to the hope of a future which shall be

better than the present. But as man's ideal of supreme happiness

depends upon his culture, tastes, and condition in this life, we find

among different people widely differing conceptions of a future. The

intellectual Greek looked forward to the enjoyment of less gross and

more varied pleasures in his Elysian Fields, than the sensual

Mussulman, whose paradise was merely a place where bright-eyed houris

could administer to his every want, or the fierce Viking whose

Valhalla was a scene of continual gluttony and strife, of alternate

hewing in pieces and swilling of mead.

[Sidenote: IDEAS OF FUTURE.]

It has been supposed by some that the idea of future punishment and

reward was unknown to the Americans.[XII-1] This is certainly an error,

for some of the Pacific Coast tribes had very definite ideas of future

retribution, and almost all, in supposing that the manner of death

influenced the future state of the deceased, implied a belief in

future reward, at least. The slave, too, who was sacrificed on the

grave of his master, was thought to earn by his devotion, enforced

though it might be, a passport to the realms of eternal joy; had there

been no less blissful bourne this prospective reward for fidelity

would have been manifestly superfluous.

The future life of these people was sharply defined, and was of the

earth, earthy. In its most common forms it was merely earth-life, more

or less free from mortal ills. The soul was subject to the same wants

as the body, and must be supplied by the same means. In fact, the

pagan's conception of heaven was much more clearly defined than the

Christian's, and the former must have anticipated a removal thither

with a far less wondering and troubled mind than the latter.

In the Mexican heaven there were various degrees of happiness, and

each was appointed to his place according to his rank and deserts in

this life. The high-born warrior who fell gloriously in battle did not

meet on equal terms the base-born rustic who died in his bed. Even in

the House of the Sun, the most blissful abode of the brave, the

ordinary avocations of life were not entirely dispensed with, and

after their singing and dancing, the man took up his bow again, and

the woman her spindle. The lower heavens possessed a less degree of

splendor and happiness until the abode of the great mass of those who

had lived an obscure life and died a natural death was reached. These

pursued their avocations by twilight, or passed their time in a

dreamy condition, or state of torpor. As slaves were often sacrificed

over their master's grave that they might serve in the next world, we

must suppose that differences of rank were maintained there. The

Tlascaltecs supposed that the common people were after death

transformed into beetles and disgusting objects, while the nobler

became stars and beautiful birds. But this condition was also

influenced by the acts and conduct of friends of the deceased.

Sir John Lubbock[XII-2] does not believe with Wilson and other

archæologists that the burial of implements with the dead was because

of any belief that they would be of use to the deceased in a future

state; but solely as a tribute of affection, an outburst of that

spirit of sacrifice and offering so noticeable in all, from the most

savage to the most civilized, in the presence of lost brotherhood,

friendship, or love. In the first place the outfit in a great majority

of cases is wholly unfit and inadequate, viewed in any rational scale

of utility; they are not such as the dead warrior would procure, if by

any means he were again restored to earth and to his friends. In the

second place it was and is usual to so effectually mutilate the

devoted arms and utensils, as to render them a mere mockery if they

are intended for the future use of the dead. It is easy to classify

this phenomenon in the same category with the deserting or destroying

of the house of the deceased, the refusal to mention his name, and all

the other rude contrivances by which the memory of their sorrow may be

buried out of their sight.

This subject may be viewed in another light, however, by considering

that these Indians sometimes impute spirits even to inanimate objects,

and when the wife or the slave is slain, their spirits meet the chief

in the future land. Do they not also break the bow and the spear that

the ghostly weapons may seek above the hands of their sometime owner,

not leaving him defenceless among the awful shades. The mutilation of

the articles may perhaps be regarded as a symbolic killing, to release

the soul of the object; the inadequacy of the supply may indicate that

they were to be used only during the journey, or preparatory state,

more perfect articles being given to the soul, or prepared by it, on

entering the heaven proper.

The slaves sacrificed at the grave by the Aztecs and Tarascos were

selected from various trades and professions and took with them the

most cherished articles of the master, and the implements of their

trade, wherewith to supply his wants. Passports were given for the

different points along the road, and a dog as guide. Thus the souls of

animals are shown to have entered heaven with man, and this is also

implied by the belief that men were there transformed into birds and

insects, and that they followed the chase. Another instance which

seems to indicate that the souls of these earthly objects were used

merely during the preparatory state, was the yearly feast given to

departed souls during the period that this condition endured. After

that they were left to oblivion. The Miztecs had the custom of

inviting the spirits to enter and partake of the repast spread for

them, and this food, the essence of which had been consumed by the

unseen visitors, was regarded as sacred.[XII-3]

[Sidenote: THE ROAD TO HEAVEN.]

The road to paradise was represented to be full of dangers--an idea

probably suggested to them by the awful mystery of death. In the idea

of this perilous journey, this road beset with many dangers--storms,

monsters, deep waters, and whirlpools--we may trace a belief in future

retribution, for though the majority of travelers manage to reach

their destination having only suffered more or less maltreatment by

the way, yet many a solitary, ill-provided wanderer is overwhelmed and

prevented from doing so. In exceptional cases, the perils of this

valley of the shadow of death are avoided by the intervention of a

friendly deity who, Hermes-like, bears the weary soul straight to its

rest. Among the Mexicans Teoyaomique, the consort of the war-god,

performed this good office for the fallen warrior.

With the alternative of this not very attractive future before them,

it is natural that the theory of metempsychosis should have found wide

and ready acceptance, for with these people it did not mean

purification from sin, as among the Brahmans; it was simply the return

of the soul to the world, to live once more the old life, although at

times in a different and superior sphere. The human form was,

therefore, assumed more often than that of animals. The soul generally

entered the body of a female relative to form the soul of the unborn

infant; the likeness of the child to a deceased friend in features or

peculiarities lent great weight to this belief. This reëmbodiment was

not limited to individuals; the Nootkas, for instance, accounted for

the existence of a distant tribe, speaking the same language as

themselves, by declaring them to be the incarnated spirits of their

dead. The preservation of the bones of the dead, seems in some cases

to be connected with a belief in a resurrection of the body. The

opinion underlying the various customs of preservation of remains,

says Brinton, "was, that a part of the soul, or one of the souls,

dwelt in the bones; that these were the seeds which, planted in the

earth, or preserved unbroken in safe places, would, in time, put on

once again a garb of flesh, and germinate into living human

beings."[XII-4] Indeed, a Mexican creation-myth relates that man sprang

from dead bones,[XII-5] and in Goatzacoalco the bones were actually

deposited in a convenient place, that the soul might resume them.

[Sidenote: IDEAS OF SOUL.]

The most general idea of a soul seems to have been that of a double

self, possessing all the essence and attributes of the individual,

except the carnal embodiment, and independent of the body in so far as

it was able to leave it, and revel in other scenes or spheres. It

would accordingly appear to another person, by day or night, as a

phantom, with recognizable form and features, and leave the

impression of its visits in ideas, remembrances, or dreams. Every

misty outline, every rustle, was liable to be regarded by the

undiscriminating aborigine as a soul on its wanderings, and the ideas

of air, wind, breath, shadow, soul, were often represented by the same

word. The Eskimo word _silla_, signifies air, wind, and conveys the

idea of world, mind; _tarnak_, means soul, shadow. The Yakima word for

wind and life contains the same root; the Aztec _ehecatl_ signifies

wind, air, life, soul, shadow; in Quiché the soul bears the name of

_natub_, shadow; the Nicaraguans think that it is _yulia_, the breath,

which goes to heaven.[XII-6] Some hold that man has several souls, one

of which goes to heaven, the others remain with the body, and hover

about their former home. The Mexicans and Quichés received a soul

after death from a stone placed between the lips for that purpose,

which also served for heart, the seat of the soul;[XII-7] this was

buried with the remains. The custom of eating the flesh of brave

enemies in order to inherit their virtues, points to a belief in the

existence of another soul or vital quality in the corpse. Some Oregon

tribes gave a soul to every member of the body. A plurality of souls

is also implied by the belief in soul-wandering during sleep, for is

not the body animate though the soul be separated from it? Yet the

soul proper could not remain away from the body beyond a certain time,

lest the weaker soul that remained should fail to sustain life.

With the many contradictions and vague statements before us, it must

be admitted that the phrase "immortality of the soul" is often

misleading. Tylor even considers it doubtful "how far the lower

psychology entertains at all an absolute conception of immortality,

for past and future fade soon into utter vagueness as the savage mind

quits the present to explore them."[XII-8]

[Sidenote: METEMPSYCHOSIS.]

Some tribes among the Hyperboreans actually disbelieved in a future

existence, while others held the doctrine of a future reward and

punishment. The conceptions of a soul were well defined however; the

Thlinkeets supposed it to enter the spirit-world, among the yeks, on

being released from the body. The braves who had fallen in battle, or

had been murdered, became _keeyeks_, 'upper ones,' and went to dwell

in the north, where the aurora borealis, omen of war, flashes in

reflection from the lights which illuminate their dances; so at least

the Eskimos regard it.[XII-9] Those who died a natural death became

_tákeeyeks_, land-spirits, and _tékeeyeks_, sea-spirits, and dwelt in

_takankon_, doubtless situated in the centre of the earth,[XII-10] the

road to which was watered, and made smooth by the tears of relatives,

but if too much crying was indulged in, it became swampy and difficult

to travel. The tákeeyeks and tékeeyeks appear to have attached

themselves as guardian spirits to the living, and were under the

control of the shamáns, before whom they came in the form of land and

sea animals, to do their bidding and reveal the past and future.[XII-11]

The keeyeks were evidently above the conjuration of the sorcerers. The

comforts of heaven, like the road to it, depended on earthly

conditions; thus, the body was burned in order that it might be warm

in its new home. Slaves, however, who were buried, were condemned to

freeze, but the shamáns whose bodies were also left to moulder, had

doubtless power to avoid such misery. All lived in heaven as on earth,

earning their living in the same manner, to which end the implements

and other articles burnt with them were brought into use; wealthy

people appointed two slaves to be sacrificed at the pyre, upon whom

devolved the duty of attending to their wants. The slaves carried

their long-pending doom very philosophically, it is said.[XII-12] It

appears, however, that the soul had the option of returning to this

life, and as I have said, generally entered the body of a female

relative to form the soul of a coming infant. If the child resembled a

deceased friend or relation, this reëmbodiment was at once recognized,

and the name of the dead person was given to it. Metempsychosis does

not appear to have been restricted to relatives only, for the

Thlinkeets were often heard to express a desire to be born again into

families distinguished for wealth and position, and even to wish to

die soon in order to attain this bliss the earlier.[XII-13] This belief

in the transmigration of souls was widely spread, and accounts to some

extent for the fearlessness with which the Hyperboreans contemplated

death.[XII-14] The Tacullies and Sicannis asked the deceased whether he

would return to life or not, and the shamán who put the question

decided the matter by looking at the naked breast of the body through

his fingers; he then raised his hand toward heaven, and blew the soul,

which had apparently entered his fingers, into the air, that it might

seek a body to take possession of; or the shamán placed his hands upon

the head of one of the mourners and sent the spirit into him, to be

embodied in his next offspring. The relative thus favored added the

name of the deceased to his own. If these things were not done the

deceased was supposed to depart to the centre of the earth to enjoy

happiness, according to their estimate of it. The Kenai supposed that

a soft twilight reigned perpetually in this place, and that its

inhabitants pursued their avocations; while the living slept they

worked. The soul did not, however, attain perfect rest until a feast

had been given in its honor, attended by a distribution of skins.[XII-15]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE COLUMBIAN TRIBES.]

Dall, in speaking of the Tinnehs, to which family the Tacullies and

Kenai belong, states that he found few who believed in the immortality

of the soul, and none in future reward and punishment; any contrary

assertion he characterizes as proceeding from ignorance or

exaggeration. Other authors, however, in treating of tribes situated

both in the extreme north, and in the center of this family, as the

Loucheux and Chepewyans, declare that good and wicked were treated

according to their deserts, the poor and rich often changing lots in

the other life. Terrible punishment was sometimes inflicted upon the

wicked in this world; thus, in Stickeen River stand several stone

pillars, which are said to be the remains of an evil-doing chief and

his family, whom divine anger placed there as a warning to others.

According to Kennicott, the soul, whether good or bad, was received by

Chutsain, the spirit of death, who was, for this reason probably,

called the bad spirit.[XII-16] The Eskimos seem to have believed in a

future state, for Richardson relates that a dying man whom he saw at

Cumberland Inlet declared his joy at the prospect of meeting his

children in the other world and there living in bliss. It is also a

suggestive fact that implements and clothes were buried with the body,

care being taken that nothing should press heavily upon it. The large

destruction of property practiced by some Rocky Mountain tribes was

for the purpose of obliterating the memory of the deceased.[XII-17] The

Aleuts believed that the spirits of their relatives attended them as

good genii, and invoked them on all trying occasions, especially in

cases of _vendetta_.[XII-18] The Chepewyan story relates that the soul

arrives after death at a river upon which floats a stone canoe. In

this it embarks and is borne by the gentle current to an extensive

lake in the midst of which is an enchanted island. While the soul is

drifting toward it, the actions of its life are examined, and if the

good predominate, the canoe lands it on the shore, where the senses

revel in never-ending pleasures. But if the evil of its past life

out-weigh the good, the stone canoe sinks, leaving the spirit-occupant

immersed up to the chin, there eternally to float and struggle, ever

beholding but never realizing the happiness of the good.[XII-19] This

pronounced belief in a future reward and punishment obtained among

several of the Columbian tribes. The natives of Millbank Sound picture

it as two rivers guarded by huge gates, and flowing out of a dark

lake--the gloom of death. The good enter the stream to the right,

which sparkles in constant sunshine, and supplies them with an

abundance of salmon and berries; the wicked pass in to the left and

suffer cold and starvation on its bleak, snow-clad banks.[XII-20] The

Okanagans call paradise, or the abode of the good spirit,

_elemehumkillanwaist_, and hell, where those who kill and steal go,

_kishtsamah_. The torments of the latter place are increased by an

evil spirit in human form, but with tail and ears like a horse, who

jumps about from tree to tree with a stick in his hand and belabors

the condemned.[XII-21]

Some among the Salish and Chinooks describe the happy state as a

bright land, called _tamath_ by the latter, evidently situated in the

direction of the sunny south, and abounding in all good things. Here

the soul can revel in enjoyments, which, however, depend on its own

exertions; the wealthy, therefore, take slaves with them to perform

the menial duties. The wicked on the other hand are consigned to a

desolate region under the control of an evil spirit, known as the

Black Chief, there to be constantly tantalized by the sight of game,

water and fire, which they can never reach. Some held that tamath was

gained by a difficult road called _otuihuti_, which lay along the

Milky Way, while others believed that a canoe took the soul across the

water that was supposed to separate it from the land of the

living.[XII-22]

The Nez Percés, Flatheads, and some of the Haidah tribes believed that

the wicked, after expiating their crimes by a longer or shorter

sojourn in the land of desolation, were admitted to the abode of

bliss. The Haidahs called the latter place _keewuck_, 'above,' within

which seems to have been a still brighter spot termed _keewuckkow_,

'life above,' the abode of perennial youth, whither the spirit of the

fallen brave took its flight. Those who died a natural death were

consigned with the wicked to _seewukkow_, the purgatorial department,

situated in the forest, there to be purified before entering the happy

keewuck.[XII-23] The Queen Charlotte Islanders termed paradise 'the happy

hunting-ground,' a rather strange idea when we consider that their

almost sole avocation was fishing.[XII-24] The Nez Percés believed also

in a purgatory for the living, and that the beavers were men condemned

to atone their sins before they could resume the human form.[XII-25] It

seems to have been undecided whether the wives and young children

shared the fate of the head of the family; the Flatheads expressed a

belief in reunion, but that may have been after one or all had been

purified in the intermediate state. Those who sacrificed slaves on the

grave, sent them alike with the master that died gloriously on the

battle-field, or obscurely in his bed.

[Sidenote: QUAWTEAHT AND CHAYHER.]

The Ahts hold that the soul inhabits at once the heart and the head of

man. Some say that after death it will return to the animal form from

which its owner can trace his descent; others that, according to rank,

disembodied souls will go to live with Quawteaht or with Chayher.

Quawteaht inhabits a beautiful country somewhere up in the heavens,

though not directly over the earth; a goodly land flowing with all

manner of Indian milk and honey; no storms there, no snow nor frost to

bind the rivers, but only warmth and sunshine and abundant game and

fish. Here the chiefs live in the very mansion of Quawteaht, and the

slain in battle live in a neighboring lodge, enjoying also in their

degree, all the amenities of the place. And these are the only doors

to this Valhalla of the Ahts; only lofty birth or a glorious death in

battle can confer the right of entry here. The souls of those that die

a woman's death, in their bed, go down to the land of Chayher. Chayher

is a figure of flesh without bones--thus reversing our pictorial idea

of the grisly king of terrors--who is in the form of an old

gray-bearded man. He wanders about in the night stealing men's souls,

when, unless the doctors can recover the soul, the man dies. The

country of Chayher is also called chayher. It resembles a subterranean

earth but is every way an inferior country: there are no salmon there

and the deer are wretchedly small, while the blankets are so thin and

narrow as to be almost useless for either warmth or decoration. This

is why people burn blankets when burying their friends; they cannot

bear that their friend be sent shivering to the world below. The dead

Aht seems to have been allowed in some cases to roam about on earth in

the form of a person or animal, doing both good and evil, a belief

which induced many to make conciliatory offerings of food to the

deceased. Some Chinook tribes were afraid to pronounce the names of

their dead lest they should be attracted and carry off souls. This was

especially feared at the sick-bed, and the medicine-man had to be

constantly on guard with his familiars to frustrate such

attempts.[XII-26] The Aht sorcerer even sent his own soul down to

chayher to recover the truant, in which he generally succeeded, unless

the spirit of the sick man had entered a house.[XII-27] Some among the

tribes believed that the soul issued from animals, especially

sea-gulls and partridges, and would return to its original form. The

Songhies said the hunter was transformed into a deer, the fisherman

into a fish; and the Nootkas, that the spirit could reassume a human

form if the celestial abode were not to its taste.[XII-28]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE CALIFORNIANS.]

In striking contrast to the preceding beliefs in futurity, and to that

of the Clallams, who with universalistic feeling believe that the good

spirit will receive all, without exception, in his happy

hunting-ground, we are told that the Pend d'Oreilles had no

conceptions whatever of soul or immortality, so that the missionaries

found it difficult to explain these matters to them. It is certainly

strange that a tribe surrounded by and in constant contact with others

who held these ideas should have remained uninfluenced by them,

especially as they were extremely superstitious and believed in

guardian spirits and dreams.[XII-29] Disbelief in a future state is

assigned to many tribes, which upon closer examination are shown to

possess ideas of a life after this; such statements must, therefore,

be accepted with caution. Among the Californians who are said to

identify death with annihilation, are the Meewocs and the tribes of

the Sacramento Valley, yet the latter are afraid to pronounce the name

of a deceased person, lest he should rise from dark oblivion.[XII-30] But

these may be regarded as exceptions, the remainder had pretty definite

ideas of futurity, heaven being generally placed in the west, whither

the glorious sun speeds to rest. The Northern Californian regarded it

as a great camping-ground, under the charge of the good spirit, where

all meet after death, to enjoy a life free from want. But there were

dangers upon the road which led to this bliss; for Omahá, the evil

spirit, hovered near the dying man, ready to snatch and carry off the

soul as soon as it should leave its earthly tenement. To prevent such

a calamity, the friends who attended the burning of the body shouted

and gesticulated to distract the Evil One's attention and enable the

heart, in which the soul resided, to leap out of the flames and escape

to heaven. If the body was interred, they thought the devil would have

more chance of capturing the heart, which would then be sent back to

earth to annoy the living.[XII-31] The natives near the mouth of Russian

River burned their dead to prevent their becoming grizzlies, while

those about Clear Lake supposed that the wicked alone were thus

metamorphosed, or condemned to wander as spirits.[XII-32] Others,

however, who adhered to interment, sought to complete the ceremony

before night, when the coyote, in which form the evil spirit probably

appeared, begins to howl, and for three days they kept up noisy

demonstrations and fires at the graves; after that the fate of the

soul was no longer doubtful. If captured, the good spirit could redeem

it with a big knife. It was the belief in some parts that the deceased

remained in the grave during the three days, and then proceeded to

heaven, where earth and sky meet, to become stars, chiefs assuming the

most brilliant forms.[XII-33]

The bright rivers, sunny slopes, and green forests of the Euroc

paradise are separated from the earth by a deep chasm, which good and

wicked alike must cross on a thin, slippery pole. The former soon

reach the goal, aided, doubtless, by the good spirit, as well as by

the fire lighted on the grave by mourning friends, but the wicked man

has to falter unaided along the shivering bridge; and many are the

nights that pass before his friends venture to dispense with the

beacon, lest the soul miss the path, and fall into the dark abyss. Nor

does retribution end with the peril and anxiety of the passage, for

many are liable to return to the earth as birds, beasts, and insects.

When a Kailta dies, a little bird carries the soul to spirit-land, but

its flight is impeded by the sins of the wicked, which enables a

watching hawk to overtake and devour the soul.[XII-34]

The Cahrocs have a more distinct conception of future reward and

punishment, and suppose that the spirit on its journey comes to two

roads, one strewn with flowers and leading to the bright western land

beyond the great waters, across which good Chareya doubtless aids it;

the other, bristling with thorns and briars, leading to a place full

of deadly serpents, where the wicked must wander for ever.[XII-35] The

Tolewahs place heaven behind the sun, wherever that is, and picture

hell as a dark place where souls shiver for ever before the cold

winds, and are harassed by fiends.[XII-36] The Modocs believe in a

spirit-land, evidently situated in the air above the earthly home,

where souls hover about inciting the living to good or evil. Merit

appears to be measured by bodily stature, for contemptible woman

becomes so small here that the warrior, whose stature is in proportion

to his powers, requires quite a number of females to supply his

wants.[XII-37]

The Ukiahs, Sanéls, and others sprinkle food about the favorite haunts

of the dead. The mother, for instance, while chanting her mournful

ditty over the grave of her dead babe sprinkles the nourishing milk in

the air.[XII-38]

Many of the Nevada tribes thought that several heavens await the soul,

each with a degree of bliss in proportion to the merits of the dead

person; but this belief was not well defined; nor was that of the

Snakes, who killed the favorite horse, and even wife, for the

deceased, that he might not be lonely.[XII-39] The Allequas supposed that

before the soul could enter the ever-green prairies to live its second

life, free from want and sorrow, it had expiated its sins in the form

of some animal, weak, or strong, bad or good, often passing from a

lower to a higher grade, according to the earthly conduct of the

deceased. By eating prairie-dogs and other game, some sought to gather

souls, apparently with a view to increase the purity of their own and

shorten the preparatory term.[XII-40] The San Diego tribes, on the other

hand, who considered large game as the embodied spirits of certain

generations, abstained from their flesh, evidently fearing that such

fare would hasten their metamorphosis; but old men, whose term of life

was nearly run, were not deterred by these fears.

[Sidenote: METEMPSYCHOSIS IN CALIFORNIA.]

Ideas of metempsychosis also appear in one of the songs of a Southern

Californian tribe, which runs: As the moon dies to be reborn, so the

soul of man will be renewed. Yet this people professed no belief in a

future reward, or punishment. It is doubtless the same people, living

near Monterey, of whom Marmier says, they supposed that the dead

retired to certain verdant isles in the sea, while awaiting the birth

of the infants whose souls they were to form. Others regarded these

islands as paradise, and placed hell in a mountain chasm.[XII-41]

Among the Acagchemems we meet with a peculiar pantheistic notion.

Death was regarded as an invisible entity constituting the air, which

also formed the soul of man, or his breath, whose particular seat was

the heart. As man became decrepit, his soul was gradually absorbed in

the element which had originated it, until it finally became merged

and lost therein. But this was the belief of some only among the

tribe. Others supposed that they would go to _tolmec_, the abode of

the great Chinigchinich, situated below the earth, abounding in

sensual pleasures, unembittered by sorrow, and where food and other

wants were supplied without labor. Still others held that

Chinigchinich sent the soul, or the heart, as they expressed it, to

different places, according to the station in life and manner of death

of the deceased. Thus, chiefs and medicine-men, whom Tacu, the eater

of human flesh, honored by devouring, became heavenly bodies, while

those who died by drowning, or in captivity, and could not be eaten by

Tacu, went elsewhere. Souls of common people were consigned to some

undefined, though evidently happy, place, since they were obliged to

pass a probationary term on the borders of the sea, on mountains, in

valleys, or forests, whence they came to commune with, or among, their

widows or relatives, who often burned or razed the house to be saved

from such visits.[XII-42]

The Mojaves have more liberal ideas and admit all to share the joys of

heaven. With the smoke curling upwards from the pyre, the soul rises

and floats eastward to the regions of the rising sun, whither Matevil

has gone before, and where a second earth-life awaits it, free from

want and sorrow. But if its purity be sullied by crime, or stained

with human blood, the soul is transformed into a rat and must remain

for four days in a rat-hole to be purified before Matevil can receive

it. According to some, Matevil dwells in a certain lofty mountain

lying in the Mojave territory.[XII-43]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF MARICOPAS, YUMAS, APACHES, MOQUIS.]

The Pimas also believe that the soul[XII-44] goes to the east, to the

sun-house perhaps, there to live with Sehuiab, the son of the

creator, but this Elysium is not perfect, for a devil called Chiawat

is admitted there, and he greatly plagues the inmates.[XII-45] The

Maricopas are stated in one account to believe in a future state

exactly similar to the life on earth, with all its social distinctions

and wants, so that in order to enable the soul to assume its proper

position among the spirits, all the property of the deceased, as well

as a great part of that of his relatives, is offered up at the grave.

But according to Bartlett they think the dead will return to their

ancient home on the banks of the Colorado, and live on the sand hills.

Here the different parts of the body will be transformed into animals,

the head, for instance, becoming an owl, the hands, bats, the feet,

wolves, and in these forms continue their ancient feuds with the

Yumas, who expelled them from that country.[XII-46] The Yumas, however,

do not conform to these views, but expect that the good soul will

leave worldly strife for a pleasant valley hidden in one of the cañons

of the Colorado, and that the wicked will be shut up in a dark cavern

to be tantalized by the view of the bliss beyond their reach.[XII-47]

The Apaches believe in metempsychosis and consider the rattlesnake as

the form to be assumed by the wicked after death. The owl, the eagle,

and perfectly white birds, were regarded as possessing souls of divine

origin, and the bear was not less sacred in their estimation, for the

very daughter of Montezuma, whom it had carried off from her father's

home, was the mother of its race.[XII-48] The Moquis, went so far as to

suppose that they would return to the primeval condition of animals,

plants, and inanimate objects.[XII-49] The faith of the other Pueblo

tribes in New Mexico was more in accordance with their cultured

condition, namely, that the soul would be judged immediately after

death according to its deeds. Food was placed with the dead, and

stones were thrown upon the body to drive out the evil spirit. On a

certain night, in August it seems, the soul haunted the hills near its

former home to receive the tributes of food and drink which

affectionate friends hastened to offer. Scoffers connected the

disappearance of the choice viands with the rotund form of the

priests.[XII-50]

The Navajos expected to return to their place whence they originated,

below the earth, where all kinds of fruits and cereals, germinated

from the seeds lost above, grow in unrivaled luxuriance. Released from

their earthly bonds the spirits proceed to an extensive marsh in which

many a soul is bemired through relying too much on its own efforts,

and failing to ask the aid of the great spirit; or, perhaps the outfit

of live stock and implements offered at the grave has been inadequate

to the journey. After wandering about for four days the more fortunate

souls come to a ladder conducting to the under world; this they

descend and are gladdened by the sight of two great spirits, male and

female, who sit combing their hair. After looking on for a few suns

imbibing lessons of cleanliness, perhaps, they climb up to the swamp

again to be purified, and then return to the abode of the spirits to

live in peace and plenty for ever. Some believe that the bad become

coyotes, and that women turn into fishes, and then into other

forms.[XII-51]

Among the Comanches we find the orthodox American paradise, in its

full glory. In the direction of the setting sun lie the happy

prairies, where the buffalo lead the hunter in the glorious chase, and

where the horse of the pale-face aids those who have excelled in

scalping and horse-stealing, to attain supreme felicity. At night they

are permitted to revisit the earth, but must return before the break

of day.[XII-52] In striking contrast to this idea stands the curious

belief said to have been held by the Pericúis of Lower California.

Their great spirit Niparaya hated war, and to deter his people from

engaging therein, consigned all those slain in battle to Tuparan or

Wac, a spirit who rising in rebellion against the peace-loving

Niparaya was deprived of all luxuries, and imprisoned in a cave by the

sea, guarded by whales. Yet a number openly professed themselves

adherents of this personage. The Cochimís, who appear to have had

nearly the same belief, declare that it was the bad spirits who sought

to secure the soul and hold it captive in the cave. Whatever may be

the correct version, their belief in a future state, says Baegert, is

evident from the custom of putting sandals on the feet of the

dead.[XII-53]

[Sidenote: THE REALM OF MUCCHITA.]

The souls of the Sonora Indians dwell in the caves and among the rocks

of the cliffs, and the echoes heard there are their clamoring

voices.[XII-54] Ribas declares that in one part of Sinaloa a future state

was ignored, yet he says that they acknowledged a supreme mother and

her son, who was the first man.[XII-55] In Nayarit we come upon the

Mexican idea of different heavens, determined by the mode of death.

Thus, children and those who were carried off by disease went to one

place; those who died a violent death, to the air regions, where they

became shooting stars. The others went to _mucchita_, placed somewhere

in the district of Rosario, where they lived under the care of men

with shaven heads. During the day they were allowed to consort with

the living, in the form of flies, to seek food; but at night they

returned to the mucchita to assume the human form and pass the time

in dancing. At one time they could be released from this abode, but

owing to the imprudence of one man, this privilege was lost. This

person one day made a trip to the coast to procure salt, leaving his

wife to take care of the house. After a short absence he returned, in

time only to see her disappear in the mucchita, whither the spirits

had beckoned her. His sorrow was boundless, for he loved his wife

dearly. At last his tears and sighs touched the heart of the keeper of

the souls, who told him to watch for his wife one night when she

appeared in the dance, and wound her with an arrow: she would then

recognize him and return home; but he warned him not to speak a loud

word, or she would disappear forever. The man did as he was told,

wounded his wife on the leg, and had the joy to see her return home.

Musicians and singers were called in, and a grand feast was held to

celebrate the event; but, overcome with excitement, the husband gave

vent to a shout of joy. The next moment the warning of the keeper was

verified--a ghastly corpse had taken the place of the wife. Since then

no other soul has been allowed to rejoin the living.[XII-56] It is

curious to note in how many countries the doctrine of a future life

has been connected with the legend of some hero who has died,

descended into the under-world, and again risen to life. How closely

does this American legend resemble the old story of Orpheus and

Eurydice; the death and resurrection of the Egyptian Osiris; the

Mithraic Mysteries of Persia, in which the initiated, in dumb show,

died and rose again from the coffin; the Indian Mahadeva searching for

the lifeless Sita, and made glad by his resuscitation; the recovery of

Atys by Cybele among the Phrygians; the return of Kore to Demeter for

half of every year in the Elusinian Mysteries; the mock murder and new

birth of the impersonated Zagreus, in the Bacchic Mysteries; the

Metamorphoses in the Celtic and Druidic Mysteries practiced in Gaul

and Britain; all are different forms of but one idea.

[Sidenote: EICUT AND YOÁTOTOWEE.]

An equally devoted husband was the Neeshenam whose story is told by Mr

Powers in the following legend:--"First of all things existed the

moon. The moon created man, some say in the form of a stone, others

say in the form of a simple, straight, hairless, limbless mass of

flesh, like an enormous earth-worm, from which he gradually developed

into his present shape. The first man thus created was called Eicut;

his wife, Yoátotowee. In process of time Yoátotowee fell sick, and

though Eicut nursed her tenderly, she gradually faded away before his

eyes and died. He loved her with a love passing the love of brothers,

and now his heart was broken with grief. He dug a grave for her close

beside his camp-fire (for the Neeshenams did not burn the dead then),

that he might daily and hourly weep above her silent dust. His grief

knew no bounds. His life became a burden to him; all the light was

gone out of his eyes, and all this world was black and dreary. He

wished to die, that he might follow his beloved Yoátotowee. In the

greatness of his grief he fell into a trance, there was a rumbling in

the ground, and the spirit of the dead Yoátotowee arose out of her

grave and came and stood beside him. When he awoke out of his trance

and beheld his wife, he would have spoken to her, but she forbade him,

for in what moment an Indian speaks to a ghost he dies. She turned

away and set out to seek the spirit-land (_oóshwooshe koom_,

literally, 'the dance-house of ghosts.') Eicut followed her, but the

ghost turned and said, 'why do you follow me? you are not dead.' They

journeyed on through a great country and a darksome--a land that no

man has seen and returned to report--until they came to a river that

separated them from the spirit-land. Over this river there was a

bridge of one small rope, so very narrow that a spider could hardly

cross over it. Here the spirit of Yoátotowee must bid farewell to her

husband and go over alone into the spirit-land. But the great

unspeakable grief of Eicut at beholding his wife leaving him forever

overcame his love of life, and he called aloud after her. In that

self-same instant he died--for no Indian can speak to a ghost and

live--and together they entered the land of spirits. Thus Eicut passed

away from the realm of earth, and in the invisible world became a good

and quiet spirit, who constantly watches over and befriends his

posterity still living on earth. But he and his wife left behind them

two children, a brother and a sister; and to prevent incest the moon

created another pair and from these two pairs are descended all the

Neeshenams of to-day."[XII-57]

[Sidenote: THE SUN HOUSE AND TLALOCAN.]

The future abode of the Mexicans had three divisions to which the dead

were admitted according to their rank in life and manner of death.

Glorious as was the fate of the warrior who died in the cause of his

country, on the battle-field, or in the hands of the enemy's priests,

still more glorious was the destiny that awaited his soul. The fallen

Viking was carried by radiant Valkyries to Valhalla, but the Aztec

hero was borne in the arms of Teoyaomique herself, the consort of

Huitzilopochtli, to the bright plains of the sun-house, in the eastern

part of the heavens, where shady groves, trees loaded with luscious

fruit, and flowers steeped in honey, vied with the attractions of vast

hunting-parks, to make his time pass happily. Here also awaited him

the presents sent by affectionate friends below. Every morning when

the sun set out upon his journey, these bright strong warriors seized

their weapons[XII-58] and marched before him, shouting and fighting sham

battles. This continued until they reached the zenith, where the sun

was transferred to the charge of the Celestial Women, after which the

warriors dispersed to the chase or the shady grove. The members of

the new escort were women who had died in war or child-bed, and lived

in the western part of the Sun House. Dressed like the warriors in

martial accoutrement,[XII-59] they conducted the sun to his home, some

carrying the litter of quetzal feathers in which he reclined, while

others went in front shouting and fighting gaily. Arrived at the

extreme west they transferred the sun to the dead of Mictlan, and went

in quest of their spindles, shuttles, baskets, and other implements

necessary for weaving or household work.[XII-60] The only other persons

who are mentioned as being admitted to the Sun House, were merchants

who died on their journey. After four years of this life the souls of

the warriors pass into birds of beautiful plumage, which live on the

honey of flowers growing in the celestial gardens or seek their

sustenance on earth.[XII-61]

The second place of bliss was Tlalocan, the abode of Tlaloc, a

terrestrial paradise, the source of the rivers and all the nourishment

of the earth, where joy reigns and sorrow is unknown,[XII-62] where every

imaginable product of the field and garden grows in profusion beneath

a perpetual summer sky. This paradise appears to have been erected on

the ideal reminiscences of the happy Tollan, the cradle of the race,

where their fathers reveled in riches and splendor. To this place

went those who had been killed by lightning, the drowned, those

suffering from itch, gout, tumors, dropsy, leprosy and other incurable

diseases. Children also, at least those who were sacrificed to the

Tlalocs, played about in its gardens, and once a year they descended

among the living in an invisible form to join in their festivals.[XII-63]

It is doubtful, however, whether this paradise was perpetual, for

according to some authors the diseased stayed here but a short time,

and then passed on to Mictlan; while the children, balked of their

life by death or sacrifice, were allowed to essay it again.[XII-64]

[Sidenote: MICTLAN.]

The third destination of the dead, provided for those who died of

ordinary diseases or old age, and, accordingly, for the great

majority, was Mictlan, 'the place of the dead,' which is described as

a vast, pathless place, a land of darkness and desolation, where the

dead after their time of probation are sunk in a sleep that knows no

waking. In addressing the corpse they spoke of this place of Mictlan

as a 'most obscure land, where light cometh not, and whence none can

ever return.'[XII-65] There are several points, however, given by

Sahagun, as well as other writers, which tend to modify this aspect of

Mictlan. The lords and nobles seem even here to have kept up the

barriers which separated them from the contaminating touch of

inferiors, and doubtless the good and respectable were classed apart

from low miscreants and criminals, for there were nine divisions in

Mictlan, of which Chicohnahuimictlan or Ninth-Mictlan, was the abode

of the Aztec Pluto and his Proserpine. This name seems also to have

been applied to the whole region, meaning then the nine Mictlans.[XII-66]

The different idol-mantles in which the dead person was attired,

determined by his profession and by his manner of death, would imply

that different gods had control of these divisions.[XII-67] Whatever

distinction there may have been was kept up by the humbler or richer

offerings of food, clothing, implements, and slaves, made at the time

of the burial, at the end of eighty days, and on the first, second

third, and fourth anniversary of the death; all of which went before

Mictlantecutli before being turned over to the use of the person for

whom they were destined.[XII-68] In one place Sahagun states that four

years were passed in traveling before the soul reached Mictlan, and on

another page he distinctly implies that this term was passed within

that region, when he says that the dead awoke from their sleep as the

sun reached the western horizon, and rose to escort it through their

land; Torquemada says that four days were occupied in the

journey.[XII-69] The only way to reconcile these statements is by

supposing that the soul passed from one division to another, until it

finally, at the end of the four years, reached Mictlan proper, or

Ninth-Mictlan, and attained repose. Their duties during this term

consisting in escorting the sun, and working like their happier

brethren in the Sun House, besides passing a certain time in sleep.

The fact that the people besought the dead to visit them during the

festival in their honor, implies that they were within Mictlan, though

their liberty there, at that season, at least, was not so very

restricted. 'As they helped to escort the sun, we must suppose that

they also enjoyed the blessings of sunshine while terrestrial beings

slept, and the expression of Tezozomoc, a place where none knows

whether it be night or day, a place of eternal rest,' must refer to

those only who have passed the time of probation, and lapsed into the

final sleep. It may be however, that the sun was lustreless at night,

for Camargo states that it slept after its journey.[XII-70] If so, the

dim twilight noticed among the northern people, or the moon, the deity

of the night, must have replaced the obscured brightness of the sun,

if lights indeed were needed, for the escort and the workers could

scarcely have used artificial illumination. The route of the sun

further indicates that Mictlan was situated in the antipodean regions,

or rather in the centre of the earth, to which the term 'dark and

pathless regions' also applies. This is the supposition of Clavigero,

who bases it on the fact that Tlalxicco, the name of Mictlantecutli's

temple, signifies center or bowels of the earth.[XII-71] But Sahagun and

others place it in the north, and support this assertion by showing

that _Mictlampa_ signified north.[XII-72] The fact that the people turned

the face to the north when calling upon the dead,[XII-73] is strongly in

favor of this theory; the north is also the dark quarter. These

apparently contradictory statements may be reconciled by supposing

that Mictlan was situated in the northern part of the subterranean

regions, as the home of the heroes was in the eastern part of the

heavens.

As the warrior in the Sun House passes after four years of perfect

enjoyment into a seemingly less happy state, so the Mictlan

probationer appears to have abandoned his work for a condition of

everlasting repose.[XII-74] This condition is already indicated by the

very signification of the name Mictlan, 'place of the dead,' and by

the preceding statements; it also implied by the myth of the creation

of man, wherein the god-heroes say to Xolotl: Go beg of

Mictlantecutli, Lord of Hades, that he may give thee a bone or some

ashes of the dead that are with him.[XII-75]

[Sidenote: THE JOURNEY OF THE DEAD.]

I will now revert to the terrible four days' journey,[XII-76] which those

who were unfortunate enough to die a peaceful death had to perform

before they could attain their negative happiness. Fully impressed

with the idea of its hardships, the friends of the deceased held it to

be a religious duty to provide him with a full outfit of food,

clothing, implements, and even slaves, to enable him to pass safely

through the ordeal. Idols were also deposited by his side, and if the

dead man were a lord, his chaplain was sent to attend to their

service. This maintenance of worship during the journey is also

implied by the sprinkling of water upon the ashes with the words: Let

the dead wash himself.[XII-77] The officiating priests, laid, besides,

passports with the body, which were to serve for various points

along the road. The first papers passed him by two mountains, which,

like the symplegades, threatened to meet and crush him in their

embrace. The second was a pass for the road guarded by a big snake;

the other papers took him by the green crocodile, Xochitonal, across

eight deserts, and over eight hills. Then came the freezing

_itzehecaya_, 'wind of knives,' which hurls stones and knives upon

the traveler, who now more than ever finds the offerings of his

friends of service. How the poor soul escaped this ordeal is not

stated. Lastly he came to the broad river Chiconahuapan 'nine waters,'

which could be crossed only upon the back of a dog of reddish color,

which was killed for this purposes by thrusting an arrow down its

throat, and was burnt with the corpse. According to Gomara, the dog

served for a guide to Mictlan, but other authors state that it

preceded its master, and when he arrived at the river, he found it on

the opposite bank, waiting with a number of others for their owners.

As soon as the dog recognized its master, it swam over, and bore him

safely across the rushing current. A cotton string tied round its neck

when placed upon the pyre may have served to distinguish it from other

dogs, or as a passport.[XII-78] The traveler was now taken before

Mictlantecutli, to whom he presented the passports together with gifts

consisting of candlewood, perfume-canes, soft threads of plain and

colored cotton, a piece of cloth, a mantle and other articles of

clothing, and was thereupon assigned to his sphere. Women underwent

the same ordeal.[XII-79] Camargo mentions a paradise above the nine

heavens, occupied by the goddess of love, where dwarfs, fools, and

hunchbacks danced and sang for her amusement, but whether these beings

were of human or divine origin is not stated.[XII-80] At times the old

chroniclers consider Mictlan as a place of punishment,[XII-81] but the

priests in their homilies never appear to have urged repentance for

the purpose of escaping future punishment, but merely to avoid earthly

inflictions, visited upon them or their children.[XII-82] The

philanthropist whose whole life had been one continuous act of

benevolence, the wise prince who had lived but for his country's good,

the saintly hermit, the pious priest who had passed his days in

perpetual fasts, penance, and self-torture, all were consigned to

Mictlan, together with the drunkard, the murderer, the thief, and none

were exempt from the terrible journey, or from the long probation

which ends in eternal sleep. They may have accounted to themselves for

the manifest unfairness of this system by means of their belief in

predestination, which taught that the sign under which a man was born

determined to a great extent, if not entirely, his character, career,

and consequently his future.[XII-83] Mictlan cannot, therefore, be

regarded as a hell; it is but a place of negative punishment, a

Nirvâna, in which the soul is at last blown out and lost.[XII-84]

[Sidenote: THE FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS.]

The Tlascaltecs supposed that the souls of people of rank entered

after death into the bodies of the higher animals, or even into clouds

and gems, while common souls passed into lower animal forms.[XII-85]

With the Mexicans they believed that little children who died were

given another trial of earth-life.[XII-86] In Goatzacoalco the bones of

the dead were so placed that the soul might have no difficulty in

finding them.[XII-87] In the Aztec creation-myth we have seen that out

of bone man was formed, and Brinton considers this, together with

instances of the careful preservation of remains to be noticed in

different parts of America, evidence of a widespread belief that the

soul resided in the bones. This receives further confirmation in the

Quiché legend which relates that the bones of certain heroes were

ground to powder to prevent their removal.[XII-88] Yet the idea does not

accord with the Mexican custom of placing a stone between the lips of

the dead to serve as heart, and, doubtless, to hold the soul as the

Quichés supposed. Either instance, however, implies a belief in

several souls, although no reference is made to such plurality. The

Tlascaltecs had guardian spirits which were embodied in the idols

called _tepictoton_, and Camargo mentions angels who inhabited the air

and influenced thunder, winds, and other phenomena, and who were

doubtless the children of Tlalocan.[XII-89] A devil they could scarcely

have had, for evil mingled too liberally in the nature of most of the

Mexican gods to admit of its personification by one alone. The nearest

approach to our Satan was to be found in a phantom called

Tlacatecolotl, the 'owlish one'[XII-90] who roamed about doing mischief;

to see an owl was accordingly held to be an evil sign, and much

dreaded. Will o' the wisps were regarded as transformed wizards and

witches, or animals.[XII-91] The Tlascaltecs supposed that the sparks

which sped away from the craters of volcanoes were the souls of

tyrants sent forth by the gods to torment the people.[XII-92]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE OTOMIS, MIZTECS, AND MAYAS.]

The Otomís believed that the soul died with the body,[XII-93] while the

Tarascos, according to Herrera, admitted a future judgment, with its

accompaniments of heaven and hell, but to judge from their burial

customs, with immolation of attendants, term of mourning, and so

forth, it would appear that they had the same belief as the

Aztecs.[XII-94]

The Miztecs placed the gates of paradise within the cavern of

Chalcatongo, and the grandees of the kingdom were therefore eager to

be buried within its precincts, in order to be near the abode of

bliss. The Zapotecs placed the heavenly portals within the cave of

Mictlan. Their heaven must accordingly have been situated within the

earth, although the custom of placing the dead with their feet towards

the east indicates that it lay toward the sunny morning land. The

common people at least seem, like the Aztecs, to have been required to

pass a probationary term before entering the holy place, and during

this period they were permitted to visit their friends on earth once a

year, and partake of the repast spread for them. The Zapotecs gave as

a reason for interring the dead, that those who were burned failed to

reach heaven.[XII-95]

* * * * *

The Mayas believed in a place of everlasting delight, where the good

should recline in voluptuous repose beneath the shade of the

_yaxché_,[XII-96] indulging in dainty food and delicious drinks. Those

who died by hanging were especially sure of admittance to this

paradise, for their goddess Ixtab carried them thither herself, and

many enthusiasts committed suicide with this expectation. The wicked,

on the other hand, descended into Mitnal,[XII-97] a sphere below this,

where hunger and other torments awaited them. Cacao money was laid

with the body to pay its way, and frequent offerings of food were

made, but the funeral was not proceeded with until the fifth day, when

the soul had entered its sphere. A trace of metempsychosis may be

noticed in the superstitious belief that sorcerers transformed people

into animals.[XII-98]

Whether the Quichés believed in a future reward and punishment is

uncertain, for on the one hand we are told that Xibalba, which implies

a place of terror, was their hell, where ruled two princes bearing the

suggestive names of One Death and Seven Deaths; while, on the other

hand, the sacrifice of slaves and other objects, implies a negative

punishment. A gentle, unwarlike tribe of Guatemala is said to have had

a belief similar to that of the Pericuis, namely that a future life

was accorded to those only who died a natural death, and, therefore,

they left the bodies of the slain to beasts and vultures.[XII-99] The

Pipiles appear to have looked forward to the same future abodes as the

Mexicans, and to the same dreadful journey after death. During the

four days and four nights that the soul was on the road, the mourners

wailed deeply, probably with fear for its safety, but on the fifth

day, when the priest announced that it had reached the goal, the

lamentation ceased. During this time also, the mother whose infant had

departed withheld the milk from all other children, lest the thirsty

little wanderer should be angry, and smite the usurper.[XII-100] The

probationary routine of the spirits appears to have called them to the

earth at intervals, for a legend of the isles of Lake Ilopango

recounts that at certain times of the year spectre barks glide in

silence over the tranquil waters of the lake, anointing every island

from the least to the greatest, offering upon each to some bloody

divinity of past times a human victim, an infant chosen by lot.[XII-101]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE NICARAGUANS.]

The same view of futurity was taken by the Nicaraguans, who thought

that the souls[XII-102] of slain warriors went to the sunrise regions,

the abode of Tamagostat and Cipattonal, who welcomed them with the

title of 'our children.' But all the good, that is those who had

obeyed and reverenced the gods, were admitted here, whether warriors

or not, and strong must have been their faith in the bliss that

awaited them, for the virgins, says Andagoya, who were cast as

offerings into the seething lava streams of the volcano met their fate

without fear.[XII-103] The wicked were doomed to annihilation in the

abode of Miquetanteot.[XII-104] Infants who died before they were

weaned returned to the house of their parents to be cared for,

evidently in spirit form.[XII-105] The Mosquitos believe in one heaven

only, and this is open to all; for it they prepare at the very

beginning of life by tying a little bag of seeds round the neck of the

infant, wherewith to pay the ferriage across the great river beyond

which paradise lies.[XII-106] In and about Veragua death means

annihilation, and no food is left for the dead. In some places the

dying are carried out to the woods and abandoned to wild

beasts.[XII-107] In Costa Rica and Darien slaves and even wives are

sacrificed that their souls may serve their lords in heaven.[XII-108]

Writing on the customs of Dabaiba, Peter Martyr says: 'They are such

simple men, that they know not how to call the soule, nor vnderstand

the power thereof: whereupon, they often talk among themselues with

admiration what that inuisible and not intelligible essence might bee,

whereby the members of men and brute beastes should be moued: I know

not what secret thing they say, should liue after the corporall life.

That (I know not what) they beleeue that after this peregrination, if

it liued without spott, and reserued that masse committed vnto it

without iniury done to any, it shoulde goe to a certayne æternall

felicity: contrary, if it shall suffer the same to be corrupted with

any filthy lust, violent rapine, or raging furie, they say, it shall

finde a thousande tortures in rough and vnpleasant places vnder the

Center: and speaking these things, lifting vpp their the handes they

shewe the heauens, and after that casting right hand down, they poynt

to the wombe of the earth'! Their belief in a future punishment he

further illustrates by relating that 'the thicke spott seene in the

globe of the Moone, at the full, is a mann, and they beleeue hee was

cast out to the moyst, and colde Circle of the Moone, that hee might

perpetually bee tormented betweene those two passions, in suffering

colde, and moysture, for incest committed with his sister.'[XII-109]

* * * * *

The following myths, for which I am indebted to the kindness and

industrious investigation of Mr Powers, having come to hand too late

for insertion in their proper places I avail myself of the

opportunity to give them here:--There dwells, say the Neeshenams, upon

the hills and in the forests, a ghost named Bóhem Cülleh, which is at

once man and woman. It is a bad spirit, but nevertheless a useful one

to those who seek its aid, and these are mostly bad people. Sometimes

in the night its wierd eldritch cry is heard in the forest, and then

some woman about to be overtaken in dishonest childbirth goes out into

the woods alone, with her shame and her pangs upon her, and having

brought forth, presently returns, crying and lamenting that the wicked

ghost met and overcame her and that she has conceived of the spirit.

Or perhaps it is a man who has wrought an evil thing who makes this

bad spirit responsible for his wickedness. Either a man or a woman

wandering alone in the forest is exposed to the enticements of the

ghost Bóhem Cülleh, to commit fornication with it.

[Sidenote: THE COYOTE'S ELOPEMENT.]

'The Coyote's Elopement' forms the subject of another Neeshenam tale.

It is as follows--The coyote and the bat were one day gathering the

soft-shelled nuts of the sugar pine, when there came along two

women-deer (the only way they have of expressing 'female deer'), who

were the wives of pigeons. The coyote, upon this, took a handful of

pitch and besmeared the bat's eyes so that it could not see. The poor

bat was totally blinded, but it called upon the wind to blow, and its

eyes were opened a little, as we see them to-day. Meantime the

rascally coyote eloped with the two women-deer. But it was not long

before they came to a bridge so extremely narrow that they could not

pass over it. Just then there came along a quail, and he took the two

women-deer and led them across, leaving the bigamous coyote in the

lurch. No sooner had they crossed than the sister of the pigeons took

the quail away to his mother's camp, and thus the women-deer were set

at liberty, and recovered by their husbands, the pigeons.

"In this story," says Mr Powers, "as in many others, we have something

analogous to the were-wolves and swan-maidens of the medieval legends.

It also illustrates the Indian belief in the common origin of all

animals. Their favorite theory is, that the man originated from the

coyote, and the woman from the deer. Wherefore this story probably

gives us a glimpse of the first courtship recorded of the human race,

when the animals had so developed, strictly in accordance with the

Darwinian programme, that man was about to appear upon the scene. The

failure of the coyote's elopement delayed that auspicious event a

little while."

Another Neeshenam legend relates that there was once a medicine-man

who possessed the wonderful faculty of turning himself into a bear for

a brief season. When one of his patients was extremely ill, and,

according to custom, he sucked him to extract the injurious matter, he

would presently be seized with a spasm. Falling upon all fours, he

would find his hands and feet sprawled along the ground in plantigrade

fashion, his nails would grow long and sharp, a short tail would

sprout forth, hair would spring up all over his body, in short he

would become a raging, roaring bear. When the spasm had passed away,

he would return to the human form.

According to yet another Neeshenam tradition, there lived long, long

ago a very terrible old man, whose chief delight it was to kill and

devour Indians. He had stone mortars in which he pounded the flesh to

make it tender for eating. Far down on the Sacramento plains, thirty

or forty miles away, he and his wife lived together, and around their

wigwam the blood of Indians lay a foot deep. The Indians all made war

on them and tried to kill them, but they could do nothing against

them. Then at last the Old Coyote took pity on the Indians whom he had

created, and he determined to kill this old man. He was accustomed to

go into the great round dance-house when the Indians were assembled

within it, and slay the chief. So the Old Coyote dug a deep hole just

outside the door, and hid himself in it, armed with a big knife. The

knife was just on a level with the ground, and when the old man came

along, going into the dance-house, he saw it, and gave a kick at it,

but did not notice the Coyote, who immediately jumped out of his

hole, ran into the dance-house, and killed the old man.

This story, Mr Powers thinks probably refers to some long extinct race

of cannibals who were superior in power to the present race. "To

them," he says, "may be assigned the stone mortars found in so many

parts of California, which the Indians now living here confessedly did

not make. Others account for these stone mortars by saying they were

made by the chief of the spirits, Haylin Kakeeny, and his

subordinates."

[Sidenote: SHASTA LEGENDS.]

The following queer legends are, on the indisputable authority of Mr

Powers, of Shasta origin: The world was created by Old Groundmole,

_ídidoc_, a huge animal that heaved creation into existence on its

back, by rooting underneath somewhere. When the flood came it

destroyed all animals except a squirrel, as large as a bear, which

exists to this day on a mountain called by the Shastas, Wakwaynuma,

near Happy Camp.

A long time ago there was a fire-stone in the distant east, white and

glistening, like the purest quartz; and the coyote journeyed east,

brought this fire-stone and gave it to the Indians, and that was the

origin of fire.

Originally the sun had nine brothers, all, like himself, flaming hot

with fire, so that the world was like to perish; but the coyote slew

nine of the brothers, and thus saved mankind from burning up. The moon

also had nine brothers, all like to himself, made of the coldest ice,

so that in the night people went near to freeze to death. But the

coyote went away out on the eastern edge of the world with a mighty

big knife of flint stone, heated stones to keep his hands warm, then

laid hold of the nine moons, one after another, and slew them

likewise, and thus men got warm again.

When it rains, there is some Indian sick in heaven, weeping. Long,

long ago there was a good young Indian on earth, and when he died all

the Indians cried so much that a flood came on the earth and rose up

to heaven, and drowned all people except one couple.

The Chénposels relate that there was once a man who loved two women,

and wished to marry them. Now, these two women were magpies,

_atchatch_, and they loved him not, but laughed his wooing to scorn.

Then he fell into a rage and cursed these two women that were magpies

and went far away to the north, and there he set the world on fire,

made for himself a tule boat in which he escaped to sea, and was never

heard of more. But the fire which he had kindled burned with a mighty

burning. It ate its way south with terrible swiftness, licking up all

things that are on earth--men, trees, rocks, animals, water, and even

the ground itself. But the Old Coyote saw the burning and smoke from

his place far in the south, and he ran with all his might to put it

out. He took two little boys in a sack on his back, and ran north like

the wind. So fast did he run that he gave out just as he got to the

fire, and dropped the two little boys. But he took Indian sugar (honey

dew) in his mouth, chewed it up, spat it on the fire and put it out.

Now the fire was out, but the Coyote was very thirsty, but there was

no water, so he took Indian sugar again, chewed it up, dug a hole in

the bottom of the creek, covered up the sugar in it, and it turned to

water, and the earth thus had water again. But the two little boys

cried because they were lonely for there was nobody on earth. Then the

Coyote made a sweat-house, and split up a great number of little

sticks, which he laid in the sweat-house over night; in the morning

they were all turned into men and women, so the two little boys had

company, and the earth was repeopled.[XII-110]

[Sidenote: SUN-MYTH OF THE PALLAWONAPS.]

I conclude with a sun-myth of the Pallawonaps, who lived on Kern River

in Southern California:--Pokòh made all things. Long ago the sun was

a man. The sun is bad and wishes to kill all things, but the moon is

good. The sun's rays are arrows, and he gives a bundle to every

creature, more to the lion, fewer to the coyote, etc.; but to none

does he give an arrow that will slay a man. The coyote wished to go to

the sun, and he asked Pokòh the road. Pokòh pointed out to him a good

road, and the coyote traveled on it all day, but the sun turned round,

so he traveled in a circle, and came back at night to the place whence

he had started in the morning. A second time he asked Pokòh, and a

second time he came back in a circle. Then Pokòh told him to go

straight to the eastern edge of the earth, and wait there until the

sun came up. So the coyote went and sat down on the hole where the sun

came up, with his back turned to the east, and kept pointing with his

arrow in every direction, pretending he was going to shoot. The sun

came up under him, and told him to get out of the way. But the coyote

sat there until it became so warm that he was obliged to coil up his

tail under him. Then he began to get thirsty, and asked the sun for

water. The sun gave him an acorn-cup full, but this did not satisfy

the coyote's great thirst. Next his shoulders began to get warm, so he

spat on his paws and rubbed his back with them. Then he said to the

sun, Why do you come up here, meddling with me? But the sun said, I am

not meddling with you; I am traveling where I have a right to travel.

The coyote told him to go round some other way, that that was his

road, but the sun insisted on going straight up. Then the coyote

wanted to go up with him, so the good-natured sun took him along.

Presently they came to a path with steps like a ladder, and as the sun

went up he counted the steps; when they got up above the world, the

coyote found it getting hot and wanted to jump down, but the distance

was too great. By noon the sun was very hot and bright, and he told

the coyote to shut his eyes. He did so, but he opened them quickly

again, and so kept opening and shutting them all the afternoon, to see

how fast the sun was sliding down. When the sun came down to the

earth in the west, the coyote jumped off on to a tree, and so

clambered down to the ground.[XII-111]

* * * * *

Such are the Myths of the Farthest West, such the endeavors of these

men unenlightened, according to our ideas of enlightenment, to define

the indefinable, such the result of their 'yearning after the gods.'

Most of their myths and beliefs are extravagant, childish,

meaningless, to our understanding of them, but doubtless our myths

would be the same to them. From the beginning of time men have

grappled with shadows, have accounted for material certainties by

immaterial uncertainties. Let us be content to gather and preserve

these perishable phantoms now; they will be very curious relics in the

day of the triumph of substance.

FOOTNOTES:

[XII-1] 'The preconceived opinions,' says Brinton, 'that saw in the

meteorological myths of the Indian a conflict between the Spirit of

Good and the Spirit of Evil, have with like unconscious error

falsified his doctrine of a future life, and almost without an

exception drawn it more or less in the likeness of a Christian heaven,

hell, and purgatory.... Nowhere was any well-defined doctrine that

moral turpitude was judged and punished in the next world. No contrast

is discoverable between a place of torments and a realm of joy; at the

worst, but a negative castigation awaited the liar, the coward, or the

niggard.' _Myths_, p. 242.

[XII-2] _Prehistoric Times_, p. 139.

[XII-3] See vol. ii., pp. 618, 623.

[XII-4] _Myths_, p. 257.

[XII-5] See p. 59, this volume.

[XII-6] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Nic._, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii.,

tom. iii. p. 36; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 74; _Id._,

_Ortsnamen_, p. 159; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Gram. Quiché_, p. 196;

_Brinton's Myths_, p. 49-52, 235.

[XII-7] Vol. ii., pp. 606, 799, of this work.

[XII-8] _Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 22.

[XII-9] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 145, 422.

[XII-10] Barrett-Lennard says, however: 'Those that die a natural death

are condemned to dwell for ages among the branches of tall trees.'

_Trav._, p. 54. 'Careciese de algunas ideas religiosas, y viviese

persuadido de la total aniquilacion del hombre con la muerte.' _Sutil

y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. cxviii. It is doubtful whether the latter

class is composed of the spirits of men, or merely of marine animals.

See this vol., p. 148.

[XII-11] The Tinnehs do not regard these as the spirits of men. _Dall's

Alaska_, p. 88.

[XII-12] _Kotzebue's New Voy._, vol. ii., p. 54. 'They have a confused

notion of immortality.' _Id._, p. 58. The Koniagas also used to kill a

slave on the grave of wealthy men. _Dall's Alaska_, p. 403.

[XII-13] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 422-3; _Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, pp.

63-5.

[XII-14] The Chepewyans also held this theory, though they believed in a

heaven of bliss and a state of punishment. _Mackenzie's Voy._, p.

cxix.

[XII-15] _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 409-10; _Baer_, _Stat. u.

Ethno._, pp. 107-8, 111; _Harmon's Jour._, pp. 299-300; _Wilkes'

Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 482.

[XII-16] _Whymper's Alaska_, p. 345; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxxviii.;

_Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 318. 'Nach dem Tode wurde

nach ihren (Koniagas) Begriffen jeder Mensch ein Teufel; bisweilen

zeigte er sich den Verwandten, und das hatte Glück zu bedeuten.'

_Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, p. 122; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 457-8.

[XII-17] Vol. i., pp. 126-7, of this work; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 83;

_Silliman's Jour._, vol. xvi., p. 147; _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol.

ii., p. 67; _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 322. The Eskimos had no idea

of 'future reward and punishment.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 145.

[XII-18] _D'Orbigny's Voy._, p. 50.

[XII-19] _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxix.; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 104.

[XII-20] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 272-3.

[XII-21] _Ross' Adven._, p. 288; _Cox's Adven._, vol. ii., p. 158.

[XII-22] _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 235, 246-7; _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U.

S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., p. 124; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 120. The Salish and

Pend d'Oreilles believed that the brave went to the sun, while the bad

remained near earth to trouble the living, or ceased to exist. _Lord's

Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 239-40. But this is contradicted by other

accounts.

[XII-23] Macfie's description leaves a doubt whether the keewuck and

keewuckkow are names for the same heaven, or separate. _Vanc. Isl._,

p. 457.

[XII-24] _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, p. 320.

[XII-25] _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 252; Dunn, _Oregon_, p. 318, says,

'beavers are a fallen race of Indians.'

[XII-26] _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. vi., p. 619; vol. i., p. 248, of

this work.

[XII-27] The sorcerer is stated by one native to have brought the soul on

a small stick and thrown it back into the head of its body. _Sproat's

Scenes_, p. 214. 'The natives often imagine that a bad spirit, which

loves to vex and torment, takes the place of the truant soul during

its absence.' _Id._, pp. 173-4; _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. v., p.

225.

[XII-28] _Mayne's B. C._, p. 181; _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 136;

_Meares' Voy._, p. 270; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, p. 457; _Sproat's

Scenes_, pp. 212-3.

[XII-29] _Stevens_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1854, p. 212; _Brinton's

Myths_, pp. 233-4; see note 2.

[XII-30] _Johnston_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 225.

[XII-31] _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. iii., pp. 438-9; _Macfie's Vanc.

Isl._, p. 448.

[XII-32] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[XII-33] _Ib._; _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 140.

[XII-34] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.; _Miller's Life amongst the Modocs_, pp.

241, 249.

[XII-35] _Powers_, in _Overland Monthly_, vol. viii., pp. 430-1.

[XII-36] _Id._, _Pomo_, MS.; this vol., p. 177.

[XII-37] _Meacham_, _Religion of Indians._

[XII-38] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[XII-39] Vol. i., pp. 439-40, this work; _Browne's L. Cal._, p. 188.

[XII-40] _Meyer_, _Nach dem Sacramento_, pp. 228-9; _Schoolcraft's

Arch._, vol. v., pp. 215-6.

[XII-41] _La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom. ii., p. 307; _Marmier_, _Notice_, in

_Bryant_, _Voy. en Cal._, p. 238; _Fages_, in _Nouvelles Annales des

Voy._, 1844, tom. ci., pp. 335-6; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., pp.

379-80.

[XII-42] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 316-24.

[XII-43] 'Ives legte dem Gebirge den Namen: "Berg der Todten" bei.'

_Möllhausen_, _Reisen in die Felsengeb._, tom. i., pp. 357-8. 'All

cowardly Indians (and bravery was the good with them) were tormented

with hardships and failures, sickness and defeats. This hill, or

hades, they never dared visit.' _Stratton's Capt. Oatman Girls_, p.

233; _Dodt_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1870, p. 129; _Whipple, Ewbank, and

Turner's Rept._, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 43.

[XII-44] Estupec, the soul or heart, may be connected with _eep_, breath.

_Walker's Pimas_, MS. In _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 461,

occurs the term angel, but the Pima chiefs whom I have questioned

state that the term angel was not known to them.

[XII-45] _Walker's Pimas_, MS.

[XII-46] _Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 222; _Cremony's Apaches_, pp. 104-5.

'Cuando muere vá á vivir su corazon por el mar hácia el poniente: que

algunos despues que mueren viven como tecolotes, y últimamente dijeron

que ellos no saben bien estas cosas.' _Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc.

Hist. Mex._, série ii., tom. i., p. 239.

[XII-47] _Day_, in _Hesperian_, vol. iii., p. 482.

[XII-48] _Henry_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[XII-49] _Ten Broeck_, in _Id._, vol. iv., p. 86.

[XII-50] _Id._, p. 78; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 402;

_Whipple's Rept._, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 59.

[XII-51] _Beadle_, in _Crofutt's Western World_, Aug., 1872, p. 27;

_Bristol_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1867, p. 358; _Eaton_, in

_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 218; _Davis' El Gringo_, p. 418.

[XII-52] _Marcy's Army Life_, p. 57; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., pp.

54, 685. Food is left at the grave for a certain time; this would

indicate that the soul proper, or its second form, remains with the

body for a while. _Id._, pp. 78-9.

[XII-53] _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 387; _Clavigero_, _Storia della

Cal._, tom. i., pp. 136-7, 139.

[XII-54] _Alger's Future Life_, p. 208. 'Lo llevan á enterrar sentado y

con sus mejores vestidos, poniendo á su lado competente porcion de sus

ordinarios, alimentos.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p.

218.

[XII-55] _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 18.

[XII-56] _Apostólicos Afanes_, pp. 22-4.

[XII-57] This legend is taken from a MS kindly presented to me by Mr.

Stephen Powers, and is a corrected version of the legend entitled

'Hilpmecone and Olégance' contributed by the same gentleman to the

_Overland Monthly_, January, 1874. pp. 30-1.

[XII-58] 'El que tenia rodela horadada de saetas no podia mirar al sol.'

_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265. This may perhaps

mean that the humbler warrior, whose inferior shield was more likely

to be pierced, could not look upon the majestic face of the sun, just

as he had been interdicted from regarding the face of his king.

[XII-59] 'When the midwife speaks to a woman who has died in childbed,

she refers to the noble manner in which she has used the sword and

shield, a figure of speech which is probably intended to represent the

high estimation in which they held her.' _Id._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p.

189.

[XII-60] 'Descendian acá á la tierra.' Ib. But it is just as likely that

they used the weaving implements supplied to them at the grave, as

those of the living. Brasseur de Bourbourg says that the inhabitants

of this region had day when the inhabitants of the earth slept; but

since the women resumed their work after the setting of the sun, it is

more likely that they always had light up there, and that they never

slept. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 497.

[XII-61] The humming-bird, the emblem and attribute of the war-god,

offered on the grave in the month of Quecholli, probably referred to

this transformation. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p.

164, lib. iv., pp. 264-5, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 188-9, lib. ix., p.

358; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 530. 'Nachher werden

sie theils in Wolken verwandelt, theils in Kolibris.' _Müller_,

_Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 661. The transformation into clouds

seems to refer to the Tlascaltecs.

[XII-62] Tlalocan is the name given by some old writers to the country

between Chiapas and Oajaca. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.

Civ._, tom. iii., p. 496; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 88-9. It may also be

the place referred to under the names of Tamoancha, Xuchitlycacan.

_Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's

Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 127.

[XII-63] Vol. ii., p. 336, this work.

[XII-64] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97; _Torquemada_, _Monarq.

Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 82, 529. The remarks of the above authors with

reference to those who die of diseases may, however, refer to

sufferers from ordinary afflictions, who were from all doomed to

Mictlan. In _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's

Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 169-71, all who die of diseases and a

violent death are consigned to Mictlan. _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 246-7;

_Alger's Future Life_, pp. 475-6. Chevalier, _Mex. Ancien et Mod._, p.

91, who regards the sun as heaven, and Mictlan as hell, considers this

an intermediate and incomplete paradise. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom.

i., lib. iii., p. 264; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom.

ii., p. 5.

[XII-65] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-1, tom.

ii., lib. vi., p. 176; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 529;

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 571;

_Tezozomoc_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., pp. 329, 331.

[XII-66] _Id._, p. 329. 'Le plus commun est _Chiucnauh-Mictlan_, les

Neuf séjours des Morts.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._,

tom. iii., p. 495; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97; _Sahagun_,

_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-67] This seems also to be the idea of Gomara, _Conq. Mex._, fol.

308-9, although he makes the heavens distinct from one another, and

includes the Sun House and Tlalocan in the list.

[XII-68] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 166, lib. iii.,

p. 263.

[XII-69] _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 522. The fact that offerings and

prayers were kept up for four days by the mourners, confirms this

statement. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263, tom.

ii., lib. vi., p. 189. 'Until souls had arrived at the destined place

at the expiration of these four years, they had to encounter much

hardship, cold, and toil.' _Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_,

in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 96.

[XII-70] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.

xcviii., p. 193; _Tezozomoc_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 331. 'When the

sun sets, it goes to give light to the dead.' _Explanation of the

Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi.,

p. 128.

[XII-71] _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 6. Tlalxicco may be

considered as hell proper, and distinct from Mictlan, and may have

been ruled over by Tzontemoc who must then be regarded as distinct

from Mictlantecutli. _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 219.

[XII-72] Mictlampaehecatl, the north-wind, is said to come from hell.

_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 253, 256-7;

_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 81.

[XII-73] _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex.

Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 218-9.

[XII-74] 'Despues de pasados cuatro años, el difunto se salía y se iba

á los nueve infiernos ... en este lugar del infierno que se llamaba

_Chicunamictla_, se acababan y fenecian los difuntos.' _Sahagun_,

_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263; see also note 8. At the end

of four years the souls came to a place where they enjoyed a certain

degree of repose. _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in

_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 218.

[XII-75] This vol., p. 59; see also, pp. 296-402.

[XII-76] See note 12. Four was the most sacred number among the

Mexicans as well as the other nations of America, and is derived from

the adoration of the cardinal points. _Brinton's Myths_, p. 67. The

Central Americans believed that the soul arrived at its destination in

four days after death.

[XII-77] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-78] 'Pour qu'il ne fût pas entraîné en traversant le Styx indien.'

_Biart_, _Terre Tempérée_, p. 280; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 309.

'Los perros de pelo blanco y negro, no podian nadar y pasar el rio,

porque dizque decia el perro de pelo negro: "yo me labé" y el perro de

pelo blanco decia: "yo me he manchado de color prieto, y por eso no

puedo pasaros" solamente el perro de pelo vermejo podia pasar.'

_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-79] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-4;

_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 528-30; _Clavigero_,

_Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 5-6; vol. ii., pp. 603-19, of

this work.

[XII-80] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.

xcix., pp. 192-3.

[XII-81] 'Tenian por cierto, que en el infierno habian de padecer

diversas penas conforme á la calidad de los delitos.' _Mendieta_,

_Hist. Ecles._, p. 83. 'Entónces todos serán castigados conforme á sus

obras.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 36-7;

_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 80. 'Ils étaient plongés

dans une obscurité profonde, livrés à leurs remords.' _Chevalier_,

_Mex. Ancien et Mod._, p. 91.

[XII-82] 'Padecen por los pecados de sus padres.' _Sahagun_, _Hist.

Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 36. Their prayers and penances, says

Acosta, were merely on account of corporal inflictions, for they

certainly feared no punishment in the world to come, but expected that

all would rest there. _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 383. 'In the destiny

they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of refinement;

since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking contrast to

the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of the

most enlightened nations. In all this, so contrary to the natural

suggestions of the ferocious Aztec, we see the evidences of a higher

civilization, inherited from their predecessors in the land.'

_Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., pp. 62-3.

[XII-83] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 267, et seq.

[XII-84] The reader who thinks upon the subject at all, cannot help

being struck by the remarkable resemblance in some points between

these future abodes of the Mexicans and those of the ancient Greeks

and Romans. The trembling soul has to pass over the same dreadful

river, ferried by a brute Charon. In Hades as in Mictlan, the

condition of the dead was a shadowy sort of apparent life, in which,

mere ghosts of their former selves, they continued dreamily to perform

the labors and carry on the occupations to which they had been

accustomed on earth. In Greece as in Mexico, the shades of the dead

were occasionally permitted to visit their friends on earth, summoned

by a sacrifice and religious rites. Neither Elysium nor the glorious

Sun House was the reward of the purely good so much as of the

favorites of the gods. Such points of resemblance as these are,

however, unnoticed by those who theorize concerning the origin of the

Americans; they go farther for analogies, and perhaps fare worse.

[XII-85] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5;

_Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97.

[XII-86] _Alger's Future Life_, pp. 475-6.

[XII-87] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. ix., cap. vii.

[XII-88] _Myths_, p. 258; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 175.

[XII-89] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom.

xcviii., p. 192; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 64.

[XII-90] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, p. 81. 'Tlacatecolotl, demonio o

diablo.' _Molina_, _Diccionario_.

[XII-91] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 109.

[XII-92] 'The inhabitants suppose kinges (who, while they liued,

gouerned amisse) to haue a temporary aboade there being companions

with diuels amonge those flames, where they may purge the foule spots

of their wickednesse.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. v., lib. ii.

[XII-93] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 4:

_Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 96.

[XII-94] _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.; _Carbajal

Espinosa_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 292; vol. ii., pp. 620-2, of this

work.

[XII-95] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol. 230-1, tom. i., fol.

159-61; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5;

_Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's

Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 96; _Id._, _Codex Vaticanus_, p. 218; vol.

ii., pp. 622-3, of this work.

[XII-96] 'Le _Yaxché_, qui signifie arbre vert, est probablement le même

que le _tonacaste_ ou _tonacazquahuitl_, arbre au tronc puissant et

élevé, au feuillage immense, mais menu et serré, dont la beauté et

l'extrême fraîcheur lui ont fait donner le nom d'arbre de la vie.'

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 200.

[XII-97] An evident corruption of Mictlan.

[XII-98] 'Dezian se lo (el difunto) avia llevado el diablo porque del

pensavan les venian los males todos y especial la muerte.' _Landa_,

_Relacion_, p. 196, 198-202; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 192;

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 62-3;

_Carrillo_, in _Mex. Soc. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii., pp.

265-6.

[XII-99] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 246; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol

Vuh_, pp. lxxix.-lxxx., cxxviii.-cxxx; vol. ii., p. 799, of this work.

[XII-100] _Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 76-8.

[XII-101] _Dollfus and Mont-Serrat_, _Voy. Géologique_, p. 12.

[XII-102] _Yolia_ or _yulia_ derived from _yoli_, to live is distinct

from heart, _yollotli_. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 159. Yet the

heart was evidently considered as the seat of the soul, for some

Indians stated that 'el coraçon va arriba,' while others explained

that by this was meant the breath. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv.,

pp. 44-5.

[XII-103] _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 415.

[XII-104] Corresponding to the Aztec Mictlantecutli. It is not quite

clear whether all agreed upon total annihilation in this place.

[XII-105] 'Han de resuçitar ó tornar á casa de sus padres, é sus

padres los conoserán é criarán.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp.

41, 42-9; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 145, 235; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 113-4.

[XII-106] Bell adds that this ferriage money was provided lest the

child 'should die young.' Offerings are also placed upon the grave.

_Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., pp. 254-5.

[XII-107] 'They suppose that men do naturally liue and die as other

beastes do.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii., lib. iv.

[XII-108] 'Aquel humo iba donde estaba el ánima de aquel defunto ...

en el cielo, y que en el humo iba allá.' _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_,

_Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 402; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i.,

lib. vii., cap. xvi., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. v.; _Gomara_, _Hist.

Ind._, fol. 255; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., p. 142.

[XII-109] Dec. vii., lib. x.

[XII-110] "It is possible," concludes Mr Powers, "that this legend has

dim reference to that great ancient cataclysm, or overflow of lava

from the north, which has been demonstrated by Professor le Conte, in

a paper read before the Californian Academy of Science."

[XII-111] This myth, Mr Powers thinks, has been belittled or corrupted

from the ancient myth of the zodiac, and, in his opinion, argues for

the Americans a civilized, or at least semi-civilized, Asiatic

origin--a very far-fetched conclusion I should say.

THE NATIVE RACES

OF THE

PACIFIC STATES.

LANGUAGES.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL REMARKS.

NATIVE LANGUAGES IN ADVANCE OF SOCIAL CUSTOMS -- CHARACTERISTIC

INDIVIDUALITY OF AMERICAN TONGUES -- FREQUENT OCCURRENCE OF

LONG WORDS -- REDUPLICATIONS, FREQUENTATIVES, AND DUALS --

INTERTRIBAL LANGUAGES -- GESTURE-LANGUAGE -- SLAVÉ AND CHINOOK

JARGONS -- PACIFIC STATES LANGUAGES -- THE TINNEH, AZTEC, AND

MAYA TONGUES -- THE LARGER FAMILIES INLAND -- LANGUAGE AS A

TEST OF ORIGIN -- SIMILARITIES IN UNRELATED LANGUAGES -- PLAN

OF THIS INVESTIGATION.

In nothing, perhaps, do the Native Races of the Pacific States show

signs of age, and of progress from absolute primevalism, more than in

their languages. Indeed, throughout the length and breadth of the two

Americas aboriginal tongues display greater richness, more delicate

gradations, and a wider scope, than from the uncultured condition in

which the people were found, one would be led to suppose. Until

recently, no attention has been given by scholars to these languages;

now it is admitted that the more they are studied the more do new

beauties appear, and that in their speech these nations are in advance

of what their general rudeness in other respects would imply. Nor is

there that difference in the construction of words and the scope of

vocabularies between nations which we call civilized and those called

savage, which, from the difference in their customs, industries, and

polities we should expect to find; from which it is safe to infer that

in progress, after the essential corporeal requirements are satisfied,

the necessities of the intellect, of which speech is the very first,

are not only met, but are developed and gratified beyond what the

actual necessities of the body demand. That is, speech or no speech

the body must be fed or the animal dies, but with the absolute

necessities of the body supplied, the intellect and its

supernumeraries shoot forward beyond their relative primeval state,

leaving bodily comforts far behind. Hence, in the very outset of what

we call progress, we see the intellect asserting its independence and

developing those organs only which in their turn assist its own

development. Again, under certain conditions, two nations having

advanced materially and intellectually side by side up to a certain

point, may from extrinsic or incidental causes become widely separate;

one may go forward intellectually while the two remain together

substantially; one may go forward materially while mentally there is

no apparent difference. The causes which give rise to these strange

inequalities we cannot fathom until we can minutely retrace the

progress of the people for thousands of ages in their history; we only

see, in the many examples round us, that such is the fact. A people

well advanced in art and language may, from war or famine, become

reduced to primeval penury and yet retain traces of its former culture

in its speech, but by no possibility can rude and barbaric speech

suddenly assume depth and richness from material prosperity; from all

of which it is safe to conclude that language is the surest test of

the age of a people, for the mind cannot expand without an improvement

in speech, and speech improves only as it is forced slowly to develop

under pressure of the mind.

[Sidenote: RELATIONSHIP OF AMERICAN LANGUAGES.]

The researches of the few philologists who have given American

languages their study have brought to light the following facts.

First, that a relationship exists among all the tongues of the

northern and southern continents; and that while certain

characteristics are found in common throughout all the languages of

America, these languages are as a whole sufficiently peculiar to be

distinguishable from the speech of all the other races of the world.

Although some of these characteristics, as a matter of course, are

found in some of the languages of the old world--more of them in the

Turanian family than in any other--yet nowhere on the globe are

uniformities of speech carried over vast areas and through innumerable

and diversified races with such persistency, as in America; nowhere

are tongues so dissimilar and yet so alike as here. In this general

similarity would be a strong ground-work for a theory of common

origin, either indigenous or foreign, but for the fact that while the

languages of America appear distinct from all other languages of the

world, and do indeed in certain respects bear a general resemblance

one to another throughout, yet at the same time I may safely assert

that on no other continent can there be found such a multitude of

distinct languages which definitely approach one another in scarcely a

single word or syllable as in America. It is as easy to prove from

language that the nations of the New World were originally thrown

together from different parts, and that by intermigrations, uniformity

in customs and climate, and the lapse of long ages the people have

become approximately brethren in speech, while their incessant wars

have at the same time held them asunder and prevented a more

particular uniformity, as it would be to prove a common origin and

subsequent dispersion; without further light both theories are alike

insusceptible of proof, as are, indeed, all hypotheses concerning the

origin of the native races of this continent. Another fact which

naturally becomes more apparent the more we investigate the subject,

particularly as regards the nations inhabiting the western half of

North America, is, that the innumerable diversities of speech found

among these tribes constantly tend to disappear, tend to range

themselves under broad divisions, coalescing into groups and families,

thereby establishing more intimate relationship between some, and

widening the distance between others. The numbers of tongues and

dialects, which at the first appeared to be legion, by comparison and

classification are constantly being reduced. Could we go back, even

for a few thousand years, and follow these peoples through the

turnings and twistings of their nomadic existence, we should be

surprised at the rapid and complete changes constantly taking place;

we should see throughout this broad continent the tide of human life

ebbing and flowing like a mighty ocean, surging to and fro in a

perpetual unrest, huge billows of humanity rolling over forest, plain,

and mountain, nations driving out nations, absorbing, or annihilating,

only to be themselves inevitably driven out, absorbed, or annihilated;

we should see as a result of this interminable mixture, languages

constantly being modified, some wholly or in part disappearing, some

changing in a lesser degree, hardly one remaining the same for any

considerable length of time. Even within the short period of our own

observation, between the time of the first arrival of Europeans and

the disappearance of the natives, many changes are apparent; while we

are gazing upon them we see their boundaries oscillate, like the play

of the threads in network. On the buffalo-hunting inland plains I have

seen aggregations of tribes driven out from their old camping-ground,

in some instances a thousand miles away, and their places occupied by

others; in the narrower limits of the north-western mountains I have

seen numerous tribes extirpated by their neighbors, a remnant only

being kept as slaves. While such was the normal condition of the

aborigines it is not difficult to perceive in some degree at least,

the effect upon languages. Yet while American languages are indeed, as

Whitney terms them, "the most changeful human forms of speech" there

are yet found indestructible characteristic elements, affiliations

which no circumstances of time or place can wholly obliterate.

[Sidenote: LONG WORDS IN AMERICAN LANGUAGES.]

One of these characteristic elements is the frequent occurrence of

long words. Even the Otomí, the only language in America which can be

called monosyllabic, consisting as it does, for the most part, of

etymons of one syllable, contains some comparatively long words. This

frequency of long words, the method of their construction, and the

ease with which they are manufactured constitute a striking feature in

the system of unity that pervades all American languages. The native

of the New World expresses in a single word, accompanied perhaps by a

grunt or a gesture, what a European would employ a whole sentence to

elucidate. He crowds the greatest possible number of ideas into the

most compact form possible, as though in a multitude of words he found

weakness rather than strength--taking their several ideas by their

monosyllabic equivalents, and joining them in one single expression.

This rule is universal; and so these languages become as Humboldt

expresses it "like different substances in analogous forms," in which,

as Gallatin observes, there is "an universal tendency to express in

the same word, not only all that modifies or relates to the same

object or action but both the action and the object, thus

concentrating in a single expression a complex idea or several ideas,

among which there is a natural connection." This linguistic

peculiarity is called by various names. Duponceau terms it the

polysynthetic stage or system, Wilhelm von Humboldt the agglutinative,

Lieber the holophrastic; others the aggregative, the incorporative,

and so on. As an illustration of this peculiarity, take the Aztec word

for letter-postage, _amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxtlahuilli_, which

interpreted literally signifies, 'the payment received for carrying a

paper on which something is written.' The Cherokees go yet further and

express a whole sentence in a single word--a long one it is true, but

yet one word--_winitawtigeginaliskawlungtanawnelitisesti_ which

translated forms the sentence, 'they will by that time have nearly

finished granting favors from a distance to thee and me.' Other

peculiarities common to all American languages might be mentioned,

such as reduplications, or a repetition of the same syllable to

express plurals; the use of frequentatives and duals; the application

of gender to the third person of the verb; the direct conversion of

nouns, substantive and adjective, into verbs, and their conjugation as

such; peculiar generic distinctions arising from a separation of

animate from inanimate beings, and the like.

The multiplicity of tongues, even within comparatively narrow areas,

rendered the adoption of some sort of universal language absolutely

necessary. This international language in America is for the most part

confined to gestures, and nowhere has gesture-language attained a

higher degree of perfection than here; and what is most remarkable,

the same representatives are employed from Alaska to Mexico and even

in South America. Thus each tribe has a certain gesture to indicate

its name, which is understood by all others. A Flathead will make his

tribe known by placing his hand upon his head; a Crow by imitating the

flapping of the wings of a bird; a Nez Percé by pointing with his

finger through his nose, and so on. Fire is generally indicated by

blowing followed by a pretended warming of the hands, water by a

pretended scooping up and drinking, trade or exchange by crossing the

fore fingers, a certain gesture being fixed for everything necessary

to carry on a conversation. Besides this natural gesture-language

there is found in various parts an intertribal jargon composed of

words chosen to fit emergencies, from the speech of the several

neighboring nations; the words being altered, if necessary, in

construction or pronunciation to suit all. Thus in the valley of the

Yukon we find the Slavé jargon, and in the valley of the Columbia the

Chinook jargon, which latter arose originally, not as is generally

supposed conventionally between the French-Canadian and English

trappers and the natives of the north-west solely for purposes of

trade, but which originated among the tribes themselves spontaneously

and before the advent of Europeans, though greatly modified and

extended by subsequent European intercourse. Thus has been laid, no

doubt, the foundation of many permanent languages and dialects; and

thus we may easily perceive the powerful and continued effect of one

language upon another.

As to the number of languages in America much difference of opinion

exists. Hervás, before half the country was discovered, felt justified

in classifying them all under seven families, while others find, on

the Pacific side of the northern continent alone, over six hundred

languages which thus far refuse to affiliate. The different dialects

are countless; and yet, notwithstanding the formidable array of names

which I have gathered at the end of this chapter, probably not

one-fourth of their real number are or ever will be known to us.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC STATES.]

Many of the Pacific States' languages bear resemblances to one

another, and may therefore be brought more or less under groups and

classes. These languages, however, resemble one another too slightly

to be called dialects, and in the majority of cases no affiliations of

any kind can be traced. But four great languages are found within our

territory, or, if we exclude the Eskimo, which is not properly an

American language, there remain but three, the Tinneh, the Aztec, and

the Maya. Of the lesser tongues there are many more, as will appear

further on. The Eskimos skirt the shores of the north polar ocean and

belong more to the old world than to the new. The Tinneh, Athabasca,

or Chepewyan family covers the northern end of the Rocky Mountain

range, sending its branches in every direction, into Alaska, British

Columbia, British America, Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico,

Texas, and Mexico. The Aztec language, whose seat is Central Mexico,

is found also in Nicaragua and other parts of Central America. Traces

moreover appear in some parts of Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Chihuahua,

Texas, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.

The Maya is the chief Central American tongue, but traces of it may be

found as well in Mexico. Thus we see that while the cradle of the

Tinneh tongue appears to be in the centre of British North America,

its dialects extend westward and southward, lessening in intensity the

further they are removed from the hypothetical original centre,

suddenly dying out in some directions, fading gradually away in

others, and breaking out at disconnected intervals in others. So with

the Aztec language, whose primitive centre, so far as present

appearances go, was the valley of Mexico; we find it extending south

along the shores of the Pacific as far as Nicaragua, while northward

its traces grow fainter and fainter until it disappears. And so it is

with the Maya, which, covering as it does a less extent of territory,

is more distinctly marked and consequently more easily followed.

In classifying the languages of the Pacific States, the marks of

identification vary with different families. Thus the linguistic

affiliations of the Tinneh family are founded not so much on certain

recurring grammatical rules, as on the number of important words

occurring under the same or slightly altered form. In the Aztec

language the reverse of this is true; for although to some extent, in

the establishing of relationships, we are governed by verbal

similarities, yet we also find positive grammatical rules which carry

with them much more weight than mere word likenesses.

For example, in the north, wherever Aztec traces are found, the Aztec

substantive endings _tl_ and _tli_ are either abbreviated or changed

according to a regular system into _ti_, _te_, _t_, _de_, _re_, _ki_,

_ke_, _ca_, _la_, _ri_. Aztec numerals are used by these northern

nations, but in greatly modified forms; personal pronouns are there

found but little changed, while demonstrative, interrogative, and

indefinite pronouns likewise show signs of Aztec origin. The ending

_ame_, which, attached to the verb, designates the person acting, can

be plainly traced; while among these same northern nations of which I

am speaking, is found that certain system of _Lautverschiebung_ or

sound-shunting, originally discovered by Grimm in the Indo-Germanic

family, and by Professor Max Müller called Grimm's law.

In the pursuance of this investigation I noticed a two-fold curiosity

which may be worthy of mention. Throughout the great Northwest, as

well in most of the many Tinneh vocabularies as elsewhere, is found

the Aztec word for stone, _tetl_, sometimes slightly changed but

always recognizable, and to which the same meaning is invariably

attached; while on the other hand the Tinneh word for fire, _cun_, or

_coon_, appears in like manner in several of the Mexican languages,

and I even noticed it in the vocabulary of a Honduras nation. This may

be purely accidental, but both being important words I thought best to

draw attention to the fact.

[Sidenote: INLAND AND COAST LANGUAGES.]

The larger linguistic families are for the most part found inland,

while along the sea-shore the speech of the people is broken into

innumerable fragments. Particularly is this the case along the shores

of the Northwest. South of Acapulco, as we have seen, the Aztec tongue

holds the seaboard for some distance; but again farther south, as well

as on the gulf coast, there is found a great diversity in languages

and dialects. In California the confusion becomes interminable; as if

Babel-builders from every quarter of the earth had here met to the

eternal confounding of all; yet there are linguistic families even in

California, principally in the northern part. It is not at all

improbable that Malays, Chinese, or Japanese, or all of them, did at

some time appear in what is now North America, in such numbers as

materially to influence language, but hitherto no Asiatic nor European

tongue, excepting always the Eskimo, has been found in America; nor

have affinities with any other language of the world been discovered

sufficiently marked to warrant the claim of relationship. Theorizers

enough there have been and will be; for centuries to come half-fledged

scientists, ignorant of what others have done or rather have failed to

do, will not cease to bring forward wonderful conceptions, striking

analogies; will not cease to speculate, linguistically,

ethnologically, cosmographically and otherwise to their own

satisfaction and to the confusion of their readers. The absurdity of

these speculations is apparent to all but the speculator. No sooner is

a monosyllabic language, the Otomí, discovered in America than up

rises a champion, Señor Nájera, claiming the distinction for the

Chinese, and with no other result than to establish both as

monosyllabic, which was well enough known before. So the Abbé Brasseur

de Bourbourg, who has given the subject more years of study and more

pages of printed matter than any other writer, unless it be the

half-crazed Lord Kingsborough, first attempts to prove that the Maya

languages are derived from the Latin, Greek, English, German,

Scandinavian, or other Aryan tongues; then that all these languages

are but offshoots from the Maya itself, which is the only true

primeval language. So much for intemperate speculation, which, whether

learned or shallow, too often originates in doubt and ends in

obscurity. In all these hypotheses, argument assumes the form of

analogies drawn between the peoples with whom a relationship is

attempted to be established--no difficult matter, truly, when we

consider that all mankind are formed on one model, and that

innumerable similarities must of necessity exist among all the races

of the globe.

[Sidenote: ACCIDENTAL WORD-SIMILARITIES.]

To show the futility of such attempts, let me give a few words,

analogous both in signification and sound, selected from American,

European, Asiatic, and other languages, between which it is now well

established that no relationship exists. For the German _ja_ we have

the Shasta _ya_; for _komm_, the Comanche _kim_; for _Kopf_, the

Cahita _coba_; for _weinen_, the Cora _vyeine_; for _thun_, the

Tepehuana _duni_; for _nichts_, _nein_, the Chinook _nixt_, _nix_. For

the Greek κόραξ , there is the Tarahumara _colatschi_; for _ἔμαθον_,

_μαθεῖν_, the Cora _muatê_; for _γυνή_, the Cahita _cuna_. For the Latin

_hic_, _vas_, we have the Tepehuana _hic_, _vase_; for _mucor_, the Cora

_mucuare_; for _lingua_, the Moqui _línga_; for _vallis_, the Kalapooya

_wallâh_; for _toga_, _manus_, the Kenai _togaai_, _man_. For the French

_casser_, we find the Tarahumara _cassníaler_; for _tâtonner_, the

Tepehuana _tatame_. For the Spanish _hueco_, the Tarahumara _hoco_; for

_tuétano_, the Cora _tûtana_. For the Italian _cosi_, the Tarahumara

_cossi_; for the Arabic _âchar_, the Tarahumara _ajaré_; for the

Hawaiian _po_, the Sekumne _po_ (night).

For the Sanscrit _da_, there is the Cora _ta_ (give); for _eké_, the

Miztec _ec_ (one); for _mâ_, the Tepehuana _mai_ (not) and the Maya

_ma_ (no); for _masâ_ (month), the Pima _mahsa_ (moon); for

_tschandra_ (moon), the Kenai _tschane_ (moon); for _pada_ (foot), the

Sekumne _podo_ (leg); for _kamâ_ (love), the Shoshone _kamakh_ (to

love); for _pâ_, the Kizh _paa_ (to drink). For the Malay _tâna_, we

have the Tepehuana _tani_ (to ask); for _hurip_, _tabah_, the Cora

_huri_ (to live), _tabá_ (to beat); for _hômah_, the Shasta _óma_

(house), and so on.

These examples I could increase indefinitely and show striking

similarities in some few words between almost any two languages of the

world. When there are enough of them similar in sound and

signification in any two tongues to constitute a rule rather than

exceptions, such languages are said to be related; but where, as in

the above-cited instances, these similarities are merely accidental,

to prove them related would prove too much, for then all the languages

of the earth might be said to be related.

In treating of the languages of the Pacific States, commencing with

those of the north and proceeding southward, I make it a rule to

follow them wherever they lead, without restricting myself to place or

nation. One nation may speak two languages; the same language may be

spoken by a dozen nations, and if the evidence is such as to imply the

existence of the same language, or traces of it, in Alaska and in

Sonora, I can do no less than step from one place to the other in

speaking of it. Besides the names and localities of languages and

linguistic families, I shall endeavor to give some idea of their

several peculiar characteristics, their grammatical construction, with

such specimens of each as will enable the student to make comparisons

and draw inferences. In the following table I have attempted a

classification of these languages; but in some instances, from the

lack of vocabularies taken before the intermixtures that followed the

advent of Europeans, any classification can be but approximative.

[Sidenote: CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES.]

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF

THE PACIFIC STATES.

H { { { Naggeuktormute

y { { { Kittear

p { { Northern { Kangmali-Innuin

e { { Eskimo { Nuwangmeun

r { { { Nunatangmeun

b { { { Kitegue

o { {

r { Eskimo { { Malemute

e { { { Anlygmute

a { { { Chnagmute

n { { Southern { Pashtolik

s { { Eskimo {

{ { or { Kangjulit { Kuskoquigmute.

{ { Koniagan { { Kwichpagmute.

{ { { Magemute

{ { { Agulmute

{ { { Kejataigmute

{ { { Aglegmute

{ { { Chugatsch

{ { { Kadiak

{

{

{ Aleut { Unalaska

{ { Atkha

{

{ { Yakutat

{ { Chilkat

{ { Hoodsinoo

{ { Takoo

{ Thlinkeet { Auk

{ { Kaka

{ { Sitka

{ { Eeliknoo

{ { Stikeen

{ { Tungass

{

{ { { Sawessaw-tinneh or Chepewyan

{ { { Tantsawhoot-tinneh or

{ { { Coppermine River

{ { { Horn Mountain

{ { { Beaver

{ { { Thlingcha-tinneh or Dog-Rib

{ { Eastern { Kawcho-tinneh or Hare

{ { Division { Ambawtawhoot-tinneh or Sheep

{ { { Sarsis or Sursees

{ { { Tsillawdawhoot-tinneh or

{ { { Brush-wood

{ { { Nagailer

{ { { Slouacuss-tinneh

{ { { Rocky Mountain

{ { { Edchawtawoot-tinneh

{ { {

{ { { { Degothi-kutchin or

{ { { { Loucheux

{ { { { Vanta-kutchin

{ { { { Natche-kutchin

{ { { { Kukuth-kutchin

{ { { { Tutchone-kutchin

{ { { Kutchin { Tathzey-kutchin

{ { { { Han-kutchin

{ { { { Artez-kutchin

{ { Western { { Kutcha-kutchin

{ { Division { { Tenan-kutchin

{ { {

{ { { { Junakachotana

{ { { { Jugelnut

{ { { { Ingalik

{ { { Kenai { Inkalit

{ { { Kenai

{ { { Ugalenz

{ { { Atnah or Nehanne

{ { { Koltschane

{ {

{ Tinneh { { { Tautin or Talkotin

{ { { { Tsilkotin or Chilkotin

{ { { { Naskotin

{ { { { Thetliotin

{ { { Tacully { Tsatsnotin

{ { { or { Nulaautin

{ { { Carrier { Ntshaautin

{ { { { Natliautin

{ { Central { { Nikozliautin

{ { Division { { Tatshiautin

{ { { { Babine

{ { { { Sicanni

{ { {

{ { { Tlatskanai

{ { { Qualhioqua

{ { { Umpqua

{ { {

{ { { { Lassics

{ { { { Wilacki

{ { { Hoopah { Haynaggi

{ { { Tolewah

{ { { Tahahteen

{ { { Siah

{

{

{

{ { { { Apache proper

{ { { { Tonto

{ { { { Chiricagui

{ { { { Gileño

{ { { { Mimbreño

{ { { { Faraon

{ { { { Mescalero

{ { Southern { Apaches { Llanero

{ { Division { { Lipan

{ { { { Vaquero

{ { { { Xicarilla

{ { { { Natage

{ { { { Piñaleno

{ { { { Coyotero

{ { { { Tejua

{ { { { Coppermine

{ { { { Navajo

C { Haidah { Haidah

o { { Kaiganie

l {

u { Nass { Nass

m { { Sebassa

b { { Hailtza

i {

a { Bellacoola

n { Chimsyan

s {

{ { Nootka

{ { Quackoll

{ { Cowichin

{ { Tlaoquatch

{ { Uclenu

{ { Quane

{ { Quactoe

{ { Koskiemo

{ { Quatsino

{ { Kycucut

{ { Aitizzaht

{ { Chicklezaht

{ { Ahazaht

{ { Eshquaht

{ { Klaizzaht

{ { Nitinaht

{ { Toquaht

{ { Seshaht

{ { Clayoquot

{ { Patcheena

{ { Soke

{ { Nimkish

{ Nootka { Wickinninish

{ { Songhie

{ { Sanetch

{ { Comux

{ { Noosdalum

{ { Kwantlum

{ { Teet

{ { Nanaimo

{ { Taculta

{ { Ucleta

{ { Neculta

{ { Queehaniculta

{ { Newittee

{ { Saukaulutuck

{ { Makah

{ { Newchemass

{ { Shimiahmoo

{ { Nooksak

{ { Samish

{ { Skagit

{ { Snohomish

{ { Chimakum

{ { Clallum

{ { Toanhooch

{ { Salish proper or Flathead

{ { Lummi

{ { Clallam

{ { Kullespelm or Pend d'Oreilles

{ { Shushwap

{ { { Sngomenei

{ { Spokane { Snpoilschi

{ { { Syk'eszilni

{

{ { Soaiatlpi

{ Salish { Okanagan { St lakam

{ { Skitsuish, or Coeur d'Alêne

{ { Pisquouse

{ { Cowlitz

{ { Nsietshaw

{ { { Chehalis proper

{ { Chehalis { Quaiantl

{ { { Queniauitl

{ { Nisqually

{

{ Kootenai

{

{ { Sahaptin proper or Nez Percé

{ { Walla Walla

{ { Palouse

{ Sahaptin { Yakima

{ { Kliketat

{ { Tairtla

{

{ Waiilatpu { Cayuse

{ { Mollale

{

{ { Chinook

{ { Wakiakum

{ Chinook { Cathlamet

{ { Clatsop

{ { Multnomah

{ { Skilloot

{ { Watlala

{

{ Yamkally

{ Calapooya

{ Chinook Jargon