not to do it, is want of courage' (p. 18).
His definition of knowledge, though less profound than that of
Socrates, is nevertheless full of good sense:
'The Master said, "Shall I teach you what knowledge is? When
you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do
not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it--this is
knowledge"' (p. 15).
Nor was Confucius unacquainted with the secrets of the heart: 'It is
only the truly virtuous man,' he says in one place, 'who can love or
who can hate others' (p. 30). In another place he expresses his belief
in the irresistible charm of virtue: 'Virtue is not left to stand
alone,' he says; 'he who practises it will have neighbours.' He bears
witness to the hidden connection between intellectual and moral
excellence: 'It is not easy,' he remarks, 'to find a man who has
learned for three years without coming to be good' (p. 76). In his
ethics, the golden rule of the Gospel, 'Do ye unto others as ye would
that others should do to you,' is represented as almost unattainable.
Thus we read, 'Tsze-Kung said, "What I do not wish men to do to me, I
also wish not to do to men." The Master said, "Tsze, you have not
attained to that,"' The Brahmans, too, had a distant perception of the
same truth, which is expressed, for instance, in the Hitopadesa in the
following words: 'Good people show mercy unto all beings, considering
how like they are to themselves.' On subjects which transcend the
limits of human understanding, Confucius is less explicit; but his
very reticence is remarkable, when we consider the recklessness with
which Oriental philosophers launch into the depths of religious
metaphysics. Thus we read (p. 107):
'Ke Loo asked about serving the spirits of the dead. The
Master said, "While you are not able to serve men, how can
you serve their spirits?"
Ke Loo added, "I venture to ask about death." He was
answered, "While you do not know life, how can you know
about death?"'
And again (p. 190):
'The Master said, "I would prefer not speaking."
Tsze-Kung said, "If you, Master, do not speak, what shall
we, your disciples, have to record?"
The Master said, "Does Heaven speak? The four seasons pursue
their courses, and all things are continually being
produced; but does Heaven say anything?"'
_November, 1861._
XIV.
POPOL VUH.
A book called 'Popol Vuh,'[94] and pretending to be the original text
of the sacred writings of the Indians of Central America, will be
received by most people with a sceptical smile. The Aztec children who
were shown all over Europe as descendants of a race to whom, before
the Spanish conquest, divine honours were paid by the natives of
Mexico, and who turned out to be unfortunate creatures that had been
tampered with by heartless speculators, are still fresh in the memory
of most people; and the 'Livre des Sauvages,'[95] lately published by
the Abbe Domenech, under the auspices of Count Walewsky, has somewhat
lowered the dignity of American studies in general. Still, those who
laugh at the 'Manuscrit Pictographique Americain' discovered by the
French Abbe in the library of the French Arsenal, and edited by him
with so much care as a precious relic of the old Red-skins of North
America, ought not to forget that there would be nothing at all
surprising in the existence of such a MS., containing genuine
pictographic writing of the Red Indians. The German critic of Abbe
Domenech, M. Petzholdt,[96] assumes much too triumphant an air in
announcing his discovery that the 'Manuscrit Pictographique' was the
work of a German boy in the backwoods of America. He ought to have
acknowledged that the Abbe himself had pointed out the German scrawls
on some of the pages of his MS.; that he had read the names of Anna
and Maria; and that he never claimed any great antiquity for the book
in question. Indeed, though M. Petzholdt tells us very confidently
that the whole book is the work of a naughty, nasty, and profane
little boy, the son of German settlers in the backwoods of America, we
doubt whether anybody who takes the trouble to look through all the
pages will consider this view as at all satisfactory, or even as more
probable than that of the French Abbe. We know what boys are capable
of in pictographic art from the occasional defacements of our walls
and railings; but we still feel a little sceptical when M. Petzholdt
assures us that there is nothing extraordinary in a boy filling a
whole volume with these elaborate scrawls. If M. Petzholdt had taken
the trouble to look at some of the barbarous hieroglyphics that have
been collected in North America, he would have understood more readily
how the Abbe Domenech, who had spent many years among the Red Indians,
and had himself copied several of their inscriptions, should have
taken the pages preserved in the library of the Arsenal at Paris as
genuine specimens of American pictography. There is a certain
similarity between these scrawls and the figures scratched on rocks,
tombstones, and trees by the wandering tribes of North America; and
though we should be very sorry to endorse the opinion of the
enthusiastic Abbe, or to start any conjecture of our own as to the
real authorship of the 'Livre des Sauvages,' we cannot but think that
M. Petzholdt would have written less confidently, and certainly less
scornfully, if he had been more familiar than he seems to be with the
little that is known of the picture-writing of the Indian tribes. As a
preliminary to the question of the authenticity of the 'Popol Vuh,' a
few words on the pictorial literature of the Red Indians of North
America will not be considered out of place. The 'Popol Vuh' is not
indeed a 'Livre des Sauvages,' but a literary composition in the true
sense of the word. It contains the mythology and history of the
civilised races of Central America, and comes before us with
credentials that will bear the test of critical inquiry. But we shall
be better able to appreciate the higher achievements of the South
after we have examined, however cursorily, the rude beginnings in
literature among the savage races of the North.
[Footnote 94: 'Popol Vuh:' le Livre Sacre et les Mythes de l'Antiquite
Americaine, avec les Livres Heroiques et Historiques des Quiches. Par
l'Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. Paris: Durand, 1861.]
[Footnote 95: 'Manuscrit Pictographique Americain,' precede d'une
Notice sur l'Ideographie des Peaux-Rouges. Par l'Abbe Em. Domenech.
Ouvrage publie sous les auspices de M. le Ministre d'Etat et de la
Maison de l'Empereur. Paris, 1860.]
[Footnote 96: 'Das Buch der Wilden im Lichte Franzoesischer
Civilisation.' Mit Proben aus dem in Paris als 'Manuscrit
Pictographique Americain,' veroeffentlichten Schmierbuche eines
Deutsch-Amerikanischen Hinterwaelder Jungen. Von J. Petzholdt. Dresden,
1861.]
Colden, in his 'History of the Five Nations,' informs us that when, in
1696, the Count de Frontenac marched a well-appointed army into the
Iroquois country, with artillery and all other means of regular
military offence, he found, on the banks of the Onondaga, now called
Oswego River, a tree, on the trunk of which the Indians had depicted
the French army, and deposited two bundles of cut rushes at its foot,
consisting of 1434 pieces; an act of symbolical defiance on their
part, which was intended to warn their Gallic invaders that they would
have to encounter this number of warriors.
This warlike message is a specimen of Indian picture-writing. It
belongs to the lowest stage of graphic representation, and hardly
differs from the primitive way in which the Persian ambassadors
communicated with the Greeks, or the Romans with the Carthaginians.
Instead of the lance and the staff of peace between which the
Carthaginians were asked to choose, the Red Indians would have sent an
arrow and a pipe, and the message would have been equally understood.
This, though not yet _peindre la parole_, is nevertheless a first
attempt at _parler aux yeux_. It is a first beginning which may lead
to something more perfect in the end. We find similar attempts at
pictorial communication among other savage tribes, and they seem to
answer every purpose. In Freycinet and Arago's 'Voyage to the Eastern
Ocean' we are told of a native of the Carolina Islands, a Tamor of
Sathoual, who wished to avail himself of the presence of a ship to
send to a trader at Botta, M. Martinez, some shells which he had
promised to collect in exchange for a few axes and some other
articles. This he expressed to the captain, who gave him a piece of
paper to make the drawing, and satisfactorily executed the commission.
The figure of a man at the top denoted the ship's captain, who by his
outstretched hands represented his office as a messenger between the
parties. The rays or ornaments on his head denote rank or authority.
The vine beneath him is a type of friendship. In the left column are
depicted the number and kinds of shells sent; in the right column the
things wished for in exchange--namely, seven fish-hooks, three large
and four small, two axes, and two pieces of iron.
The inscriptions which are found on the Indian graveboards mark a step
in advance. Every warrior has his crest, which is called his totem,
and is painted on his tombstone. A celebrated war-chief, the Adjetatig
of Wabojeeg, died on Lake Superior, about 1793. He was of the clan of
the Addik, or American reindeer. This fact is symbolized by the figure
of the deer. The reversed position denotes death. His own personal
name, which was White Fisher, is not noticed. But there are seven
transverse strokes on the left, and these have a meaning--namely, that
he had led seven war parties. Then there are three perpendicular lines
below his crest, and these again are readily understood by every
Indian. They represent the wounds received in battle. The figure of a
moose's head is said to relate to a desperate conflict with an enraged
animal of this kind; and the symbols of the arrow and the pipe are
drawn to indicate the chief's influence in war and peace.
There is another graveboard of the ruling chief of Sandy Lake on the
Upper Mississippi. Here the reversed bird denotes his family name or
clan, the Crane. Four transverse lines above it denote that he had
killed four of his enemies in battle. An analogous custom is mentioned
by Aristotle ('Politica,' vii. 2, p. 220, ed. Goettling). Speaking of
the Iberians, he states that they placed as many obelisks round the
grave of a warrior as he had killed enemies in battle.
But the Indians went further; and though they never arrived at the
perfection of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, they had a number of
symbolic emblems which were perfectly understood by all their tribes.
Eating is represented by a man's hand lifted to his mouth. Power over
man is symbolized by a line drawn in the figure from the mouth to the
heart; power in general by a head with two horns. A circle drawn
around the body at the abdomen denotes full means of subsistence. A
boy drawn with waved lines from each ear and lines leading to the
heart represents a pupil. A figure with a plant as head, and two
wings, denotes a doctor skilled in medicine, and endowed with the
power of ubiquity. A tree with human legs, a herbalist or professor of
botany. Night is represented by a finely crossed or barred sun, or a
circle with human legs. Rain is figured by a dot or semicircle filled
with water and placed on the head. The heaven with three disks of the
sun is understood to mean three days' journey, and a landing after a
voyage is represented by a tortoise. Short sentences, too, can be
pictured in this manner. A prescription ordering abstinence from food
for two, and rest for four, days is written by drawing a man with two
bars on the stomach and four across the legs. We are told even of
war-songs and love-songs composed in this primitive alphabet; but it
would seem as if, in these cases, the reader required even greater
poetical imagination than the writer. There is one war-song consisting
of four pictures--
1. The sun rising.
2. A figure pointing with one hand to the earth and the
other extended to the sky.
3. The moon with two human legs.
4. A figure personifying the Eastern woman, i. e. the
evening star.
These four symbols are said to convey to the Indian the following
meaning:
I am rising to seek the war path;
The earth and the sky are before me;
I walk by day and by night;
And the evening star is my guide.
The following is a specimen of a love-song:
1. Figure representing a god (monedo) endowed with magic
power.
2. Figure beating the drum and singing; lines from his
mouth.
3. Figure surrounded by a secret lodge.
4. Two bodies joined with one continuous arm.
5. A woman on an island.
6. A woman asleep; lines from his ear towards her.
7. A red heart in a circle.
This poem is intended to express these sentiments:
1. It is my form and person that make me great--
2. Hear the voice of my song, it is my voice.
3. I shield myself with secret coverings.
4. All your thoughts are known to me, blush!
5. I could draw you hence were you ever so far--
6. Though you were on the other hemisphere--
7. I speak to your naked heart.
All we can say is, that if the Indians can read this writing, they are
greater adepts in the mysteries of love than the judges of the old
_Cours d'amour_. But it is much more likely that these war-songs and
love-songs are known to the people beforehand, and that their writings
are only meant to revive what exists in the memory of the reader. It
is a kind of mnemonic writing, and it has been used by missionaries
for similar purposes, and with considerable success. Thus, in a
translation of the Bible in the Massachusetts language by Eliot, the
verses from 25 to 32 in the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs, are
expressed by 'an ant, a coney, a locust, a spider, a river (symbol of
motion), a lion, a greyhound, a he-goat and king, a man foolishly
lifting himself to take hold of the heavens.' No doubt these symbols
would help the reader to remember the proper order of the verses, but
they would be perfectly useless without a commentary or without a
previous knowledge of the text.
We are told that the famous Testera, brother of the chamberlain of
Francois I, who came to America eight or nine years after the taking
of Mexico, finding it impossible to learn the language of the natives,
taught them the Bible history and the principal doctrines of the
Christian religion, by means of pictures, and that these diagrams
produced a greater effect on the minds of the people, who were
accustomed to this style of representation, than all other means
employed by the missionaries. But here again, unless these pictures
were explained by interpreters, they could by themselves convey no
meaning to the gazing crowds of the natives. The fullest information
on this subject is to be found in a work by T. Baptiste, 'Hieroglyphes
de la conversion, ou par des estampes et des figures on apprend aux
naturels a desirer le ciel.'
There is no evidence to show that the Indians of the North ever
advanced beyond the rude attempts which we have thus described, and of
which numerous specimens may be found in the voluminous work of
Schoolcraft, published by authority of Congress, 'Historical and
Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and
Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States,' Philadelphia,
1851-1855. There is no trace of anything like literature among the
wandering tribes of the North, and until a real 'Livre des Sauvages'
turns up to fill this gap, they must continue to be classed among the
illiterate races.[97]
[Footnote 97: 'Manuscrit Pictographique,' pp. 26, 29.]
It is very different if we turn our eyes to the people of Central and
South America, to the races who formed the population of Mexico,
Guatemala, and Peru, when conquered by the Spaniards. The Mexican
hieroglyphics published by Lord Kingsborough are not to be placed in
the same category with the totems and the pictorial scratches of the
Red-skins. They are, first of all, of a much more artistic character,
more conventional in their structure, and hence more definite in their
meaning. They are coloured, written on paper, and in many respects
quite on a level with the hieroglyphic inscriptions and hieratic
papyri of Egypt. Even the conception of speaking to the ear through
the eye, of expressing sound by means of outlines, was familiar to the
Mexicans, though they seem to have applied their phonetic signs to the
writing of the names of places and persons only. The principal object,
indeed, of the Mexican hieroglyphic manuscripts was not to convey new
information, but rather to remind the reader by means of mnemonic
artifices of what he had learnt beforehand. This is acknowledged by
the best authorities, by men who knew the Indians shortly after their
first intercourse with Europeans, and whom we may safely trust in what
they tell us of the oral literature and hieroglyphic writings of the
natives. Acosta, in his 'Historia natural y moral,' vi. 7, tells us
that the Indians were still in the habit of reciting from memory the
addresses and speeches of their ancient orators, and numerous songs
composed by their national poets. As it was impossible to acquire
these by means of hieroglyphics or written characters such as were
used by the Mexicans, care was taken that those speeches and poems
should be learnt by heart. There were colleges and schools for that
purpose, where these and other things were taught to the young by the
aged in whose memory they seemed to be engraved. The young men who
were brought up to be orators themselves had to learn the ancient
compositions word by word; and when the Spaniards came and taught them
to read and write the Spanish language, the Indians soon began to
write for themselves, a fact attested by many eye-witnesses.
Las Casas, the devoted friend of the Indians, writes as follows:
'It ought to be known that in all the republics of this
country, in the kingdoms of New Spain and elsewhere, there
was amongst other professions, that of the chroniclers and
historians. They possessed a knowledge of the earliest
times, and of all things concerning religion, the gods, and
their worship. They knew the founders of cities, and the
early history of their kings and kingdoms. They knew the
modes of election and the right of succession; they could
tell the number and characters of their ancient kings, their
works, and memorable achievements whether good or bad, and
whether they had governed well or ill. They knew the men
renowned for virtue and heroism in former days, what wars
they had waged, and how they had distinguished themselves;
who had been the earliest settlers, what had been their
ancient customs, their triumphs and defeats. They knew, in
fact, whatever belonged to history; and were able to give an
account of all the events of the past.... These chroniclers
had likewise to calculate the days, months, and years; and
though they had no writing like our own, they had their
symbols and characters through which they understood
everything; they had their great books, which were composed
with such ingenuity and art that our alphabet was really of
no great assistance to them.... Our priests have seen those
books, and I myself have seen them likewise, though many
were burnt at the instigation of the monks, who were afraid
that they might impede the work of conversion. Sometimes
when the Indians who had been converted had forgotten
certain words, or particular points of the Christian
doctrine, they began--as they were unable to read our
books--to write very ingeniously with their own symbols and
characters, drawing the figures which corresponded either to
the ideas or to the sounds of our words. I have myself seen
a large portion of the Christian doctrine written in figures
and images, which they read as we read the characters of a
letter; and this is a very extraordinary proof of their
genius.... There never was a lack of those chroniclers. It
was a profession which passed from father to son, highly
respected in the whole republic; each historian instructed
two or three of his relatives. He made them practise
constantly, and they had recourse to him whenever a doubt
arose on a point of history.... But not these young
historians only went to consult him; kings, princes, and
priests came to ask his advice. Whenever there was a doubt
as to ceremonies, precepts of religion, religious festivals,
or anything of importance in the history of the ancient
kingdoms, every one went to the chroniclers to ask for
information.'
In spite of the religious zeal of Dominican and Franciscan friars, a
few of these hieroglyphic MSS. escaped the flames, and may now be seen
in some of our public libraries, as curious relics of a nearly extinct
and forgotten literature. The first collection of these MSS. and other
American antiquities was due to the zeal of the Milanese antiquarian,
Boturini, who had been sent by the Pope in 1736 to regulate some
ecclesiastical matters, and who devoted the eight years of his stay in
the New World to rescuing whatever could be rescued from the scattered
ruins of ancient America. Before, however, he could bring these
treasures safe to Europe, he was despoiled of his valuables by the
Spanish Viceroy; and when at last he made his escape with the remnants
of his collection, he was taken prisoner by an English cruiser, and
lost everything. The collection, which remained at Mexico, became the
subject of several lawsuits, and after passing through the hands of
Veytia and Gama, who both added to it considerably, it was sold at
last by public auction. Humboldt, who was at that time passing through
Mexico, acquired some of the MSS., which he gave to the Royal Museum
at Berlin. Others found their way into private hands, and after many
vicissitudes they have mostly been secured by the public libraries or
private collectors of Europe. The most valuable part of that
unfortunate shipwreck is now in the hands of M. Aubin, who was sent to
Mexico in 1830 by the French Government, and who devoted nearly
twenty years to the same work which Boturini had commenced a hundred
years before. He either bought the dispersed fragments of the
collections of Boturini, Gama, and Pichardo, or procured accurate
copies; and he has brought to Europe, what is, if not the most
complete, at least the most valuable and most judiciously arranged
collection of American antiquities. We likewise owe to M. Aubin the
first accurate knowledge of the real nature of the ancient Mexican
writing; and we look forward with confident hope to his still
achieving in his own field as great a triumph as that of Champollion,
the decipherer of the hieroglyphics of Egypt.