hilltops throughout the South-west expressly for the purpose of holding
such tribes as the Navajoes and Apaches in check. (And in addition we
are furnishing the red men with supplies.) But in the 11th century there
were no Congressional appropriations, no detachments of troops hurrying
down from Washington to preserve order. Yet the ancestors of our savage
tribes were certainly there. And although the warrior chieftans
immediately around the young queen appear to have been filled with
jealousy of each other, it is certain that they were united as one in
devising for the princess a calm or sure retreat which no barbaric host
could take by assault. From its base the savage ranks would reel, or
break into foam like waves of the sea.
Aloft in this secure retreat she gave birth to =Mo=.
Who was his father?
The American General already referred to, supplies his own report of the
Pimo interpreter's words:
"All he knew was a tradition amongst them, 'that in bygone days, a woman
of surpassing beauty resided in a green spot in the mountains near the
place where we were encamped. All the men admired and paid court to her.
She received the tributes of their devotion, grain, skins, etc., but
gave no love or other favor in return. Her virtue and her determination
to remain unmarried were equally firm. There came a drought which
threatened the world with famine. In their distress, people applied to
her, and she gave corn from her stock, and the supply seemed to be
endless. Her goodness was unbounded. One day, as she was lying asleep
with her body exposed, a drop of rain fell on her stomach, which
produced conception. A son was the issue, the founder of a new race
which built all these houses'.... The houses of the people (the
agricultural or sedentary Pimos) are mere sheds, thatched with willow
and corn stalks" (n. 85.)
This report is more rational than the other in so far as it represents
the multitudinous houses of stone or adobe as being reared by a "race"
rather than by a "boy"! But, of course, the "son" could not have been
the "founder" of his mother or of her ancestors. It is further apparent
that the infant could not have been either the builder or inventor of
the house or stronghold in which he was born.
Of course it is an impossibility to get at the exact truth in relation
to the mysterious birth. The unwedded lady's own account ought to
constitute a sufficient explanation, and would--but for the unfortunate
historic fact that no mother has ever been known to tell her children
the truth about their production. Even Christian mothers lie precisely
like Pagans in this respect, and are just as thorough-going humbugs as
Hannah in the temple, when questioned for details. They will tell a poor
helpless, green, inquiring child, for instance, that they found him in a
cabbage, when the actual truth is that they got him from a stork. We
therefore unanimously dismiss their worse than useless testimony as that
of a shameless pack of preposterous deluderers.
It is probable that the Pimo princess may have been secretly wedded or
united to some man whom she really loved and preferred to all others.
Yet an open avowal of such preference might have caused his death or
might have turned the love of rival suitors into hate and brought about
the ruin of the already sufficiently perplexed and troubled nation.
But would not the birth of the infant have revealed all?
Certainly, but in the present instance the Queen seems to have contented
herself with the announcement that she had got her child from Heaven.
Her friends, including doubtless the priests, at once spread abroad the
story that the infant--the Child of the Sun--was of celestial origin.
This tale may not have completely satisfied the numerous rival
claimants for the lady's hand. But how disprove it? And why assail or
shake the authority of the beautiful young queen? Why not draw closer
together, bury their mutual animosities or rivalries and face the
murderous hordes thronging the passes of the Rocky Mountains and slopes
of the Mississippi Valley? Why not grasp at the hope--embodied in the
suckling born on the hilltop--that Heaven had furnished a leader, a
reincarnated divinity of the wandering nation, who would guide the
despairing people onward to new fields of national glory and prosperity.
It may of course be said that such predictions were never realized, but
it is certain that they were cherished. Even the Mokis, Tunis and Pimos
still regard =Mo-ti= as immortal and await his return. He is "the
demigod of their earliest traditions, watching over them from Heaven and
waiting to come again to bring to them victory and a period of millenial
glory and happiness" (n. 86.) And, of course, those who actually
followed the leader =Mu= must have felt strongly the ties of affection
and veneration. And who were the people who got across to Mongolia with
accounts of our Grand Canyon, Gulf and Continental Tree--crowned with
its wreath of multiplied suns?
[Doubtless the notion that our =Mu-te= (or =Te-Mu=) was of divine
origin, had a surprising, stimulating effect. Curiously enough, Asiatic
writers notice a =Te-mu= (=Te-mu-dzin= or =Temugin=) who arose in
Tartary in the early part of the 12th century, and therefore might be
regarded as the contemporary of our =Mu= born at Pimo about the year
1100. Some say this Tartarean conqueror was called Timour or Temur-chi,
and his origin is wrapt in mystery. One account treats him as a demigod,
but other statements assume that a divinity was his remote ancestor. He
is said to belong to the race that broke out of Irkena Kon (or the
mountain valley), situated in some out of the way and dangerous region.
Personally this =Mu= came from a distant land. Some historians whose
time is valuable readily find Irkena Kon in the vicinity of the Caspian
Sea, but others declare that it must be situated in the direction of the
Arctic Ocean!
[In his old age, in or about the year 1153, this supposed demigod had a
child born to him. The name of Temudzin or Temugin was bestowed upon the
infant. When thirteen years old his father--the demigod--died, and the
extensive empire which the parent had established fell into political
pieces. Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap.
LXIV, says that the young prince Temugin could only claim authority over
about 12,000 families. We should never overlook this fact when
contemplating his career. Every incident in his history is known. His
name has resounded through the world. He rose to be a mighty conqueror.
He became Jenghiz Khan--King of Kings--grandsire of Kublai Khan,
ancestor of Tamerlane and the Great Moguls, and of no end of Persian or
Moslem Sultans or Kings.
[The immediate followers of Jenghiz Khan always declared that success
awaited him because he was the son of a God. Petis de la Croix denounces
such a claim as a piece of "insolence," yet it might better be regarded
as a form of delusion. But notice the victorious lengths to which this
delusion carried believers. And the notion promulgated at Pimo, in the
midst of crowding calamities,--that the royal infant was a Son of
Heaven,--might have been intended to console and stimulate a despairing
nation. And the spiritual stimulus appears to have transported its
believers to such lengths that aboriginal Americans seem to have lost
track of the demigod, and know not from what point he may return.
[The father of Temugin was the founder of the =Yuen= dynasty, or at all
events an ancestral king. He is generally called Yisukai or Pysukai
Behadur, but such is a mere title, signifying "9th hero," and not a
proper name at all. Some lucid commentators will positively tell us that
it was not the father of Jenghiz Khan, but his 9th father or ancestor,
who was the God. But with such hair-splitting we need not concern
ourselves. Enough to note the uplifting, psychological effect or result
of faith or belief in divine aid or protection. No wonder David
exclaims: "Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me."
[In the case of the Tartars, the results of their exalted faith were
indeed surprising. The Crusades of the Christians had proved a failure.
Jerusalem had passed from their hands. Richard, King of England, had
been taken prisoner. The Moslems, according to Gibbon, were preparing
for the invasion of Europe. Their brethren were actually intrenched in
the heart of Spain. Enraged against western nations for the long war
waged against their power, armies were gathering for the conquest and
plunder of Christendom. The crescent instead of the cross, says Gibbon,
was to glitter on the spire of St. Paul's.
[But at this very juncture, Jenghiz Khan and his followers came pouring
forth from the wilds of Tartary. The Sultan felt secure within his line
of fortified cities which hitherto had repelled every assault. But the
Tartarean host--led by warriors of the race from Irkena Kon--overthrew
the Moslems in every encounter. They ransacked the provinces and gave
the cities to the flames. And the children or successors of the
conqueror completed the work which he had begun. Bagdad which for ages
had successfully defied the invading, crusading armies of Europe, was
destroyed, and an end put to the Caliphate so long enthroned within its
historic walls. The conquest of China was completed by Kublai Khan, and
an empire formed which stretched from the Indian Ocean to the Arctic,
and from the Pacific to the Mediterranean Sea.]
Even traditions of tribes that most certainly remained behind in Arizona
and consequently did not disappear in company with the mysterious =Mu=
or Mo-te, declare that he was an agent of Providence. He was the "equal"
of the "Great Spirit" and "was often considered identical with the Sun"
(n. 87.) Had he remained in Arizona, his son in due time might have
claimed divine descent through his father the demigod.
CHINESE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PIMO DEMIGOD.
But if the =Mu-te= (or =Te-Mu=,) builder or ruler of fortresses in the
region of Pimo and the Grand Canyon, was identical with our Pimo
=Mu-te=, he should be referred to as semi-divine, in the Chinese record.
And so he actually is. Even here the evidence does not fail. But
conception of the little sun-child did not occur on the well watched or
guarded hilltop at Pimo. It was in a green wilderness noted for its hay
or grass and butchering of beasts, that a phantasm approached the
female--and so on.
Fortunately we can turn away from this particular account of the visit
of incubus, seeing that the necessary information is more conveniently
furnished elsewhere (n. 88.) The name of a mountain, which may or may
not have been far indeed from the Grand Canyon, is furnished, and we are
informed that =Shao Hao= dwelt (=ku=) there (=chi=.) In addition he is
called a sovereign (=ti= or =te=) and a =shan=.
Now this term, =shan=, according to Williams (p. 737,) stands for "the
gods, the divinities, a god, a supernatural good being; divine;
spiritual, as being higher than man; godlike, wonderful, superhuman; to
deify.
The =Shao Hao= (or =Mu-ti=) is a =shan= or god.
A god! say the Chinese.
A god! say the Indians.
Taking the account as it stands, it appears that an incarnated god (in
the shape of the =Shao Hao Mu=) was at one time within the Grand Canyon
(which still retains his "lute.")
Notice that the "country contiguous to the mighty chasm is called the
"Shao Hao's country."
Next observe that the vast chasm (or =ta-hoh=) is itself called the
Great Canyon of the Incarnated God (or =Keang Shang=.) =Shang= stands
for "Heaven" or supreme;" and Keang signifies "to descend from a higher
level, to come from the sky, to fall as rain, to come into the world as
Christ did" (Williams.) The contiguous country is named in honor of the
=Shao Hao=, or sun-child, who is called a =shan= or god. And "=Keang
Shang's= ta-hoh" or great Canyon is also named in honor of this =shan=
or god--this incarnated god.
And here, "in the region beyond the Eastern Sea," the land is ringing
with his name. He was =Mu= or =Mo-te= and a builder of forts, and above
and beyond all this he was an incarnation of the Great Spirit!
"The name, at this moment, is as familiar to every Indian, Apache and
Navajoe as that of our Savior or Washington is to us" (n. 89.)
Bancroft says: "Under restrictions, we may fairly regard him as the
Melchizedek, the =Moses=, and the Messiah of the Pueblo desert-wanderers
from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose name even tradition
whispers not."
A Messiah and Demigod! say the Chinese.
A Messiah and Demigod! say Americans.
Bancroft, says, that according to Indian paintings or traditions, the
Messiah or Demigod of Pueblo tradition had red or yellow hair.
Then Mo was a white man and his mother a white woman.
Such a conclusion agrees completely with the teaching of the ancient
Chinese book just quoted. We are informed with reference to a certain
mountain, that: =Ki= (the) =shan= (god or spirit) =poh= (white) =ti=
(sovereign) =Shao hao= (little sun-child) =ku= (dwelt) =chi= (there).
Next appears a comment stating in the plainest possible terms that =Shao
Hao= of the =Kin Tien= dynasty was a virtuous or excellent ruler.
The =Shao Hao= who was at the Ta-hoh or Great Canyon is here called a
=White King=.
Mons. Rosny, in his French translation, declares that the divine or
superhuman =Shao Hao= was "l'empereur Blanc." (note 90.)
One well known writer and archaeologist says with reference to the
builders of some structures in the Pimo region, that there is "reason to
suppose that they were a light-skinned people. At least one red-haired
skull and one with still lighter hair were found. Hair has been but
rarely found not over a half dozen times in all. In three cases it was
black." (note 91.)
According to aboriginal testimony, 800 years have rolled by since the
time of burial, and hair has lingered on but few of the heads it once
adorned. But when discovered it is seen to be quite different from the
hair of the Indians.
Those interested in the subject of the Cliff-dwellers should study the
accurate reports of the Ethnological Bureau and also the writings of
Editor Peet the well known "American Antiquarian." These works should be
in the libraries of all Americanists.
According to the American Antiquarian, Doctor Birdsall reports that
dried bodies have been found in tombs on the Mesa Verde in Arizona and
the "hair of the head has been found partly preserved on some mummies.
It is said to be of fine texture, not coarse like Indian hair and
varying in color from shades of yellowish brown to reddish brown and
black" ... The Wetherills exhumed one mummy having a short brownish
beard." (note 92.)
We are further informed that mummies have been taken from "a
hermetically sealed cave in the Canyon of the Gila River," and two of
the bodies were those of women. The females "retain their long, flowing
silken hair." The "bodies were covered with highly colored clothes,
which crumbled on exposure. Three kinds were saved, and one a deep blue
woven in diamond shapes. No implements or utensils were found.... All
the consuls and many scientific men inspected the mummies yesterday.
Among those present were Henry A. Ward, of Rochester, N. Y., Kate Field,
Dr. Harkness, Academy of Sciences." Other Doctors and Professors were
present and also "Historian Bancroft." (n. 93.)
In addition to all this, Professor C. L. Webster, the accomplished,
painstaking, and trusted scientist of Charles City, Iowa, has unearthed
a body whose silent testimony is truly inestimable. In the
"Archaeological Bulletin," issued by the International Society of
Archaeologists (Madison, Indiana,) for July and September, 1912, we find
a photograph of a mummy brought to light by the Professor in a
cliff-house on a head stream of the Gila.
The body is that of a child, and its preservation is due to "the
chemical elements of the soil," etc.
"The hair on the head of the mummy was of a beautiful dark brown color,
and of a soft and silky texture," and "the hair on the head of this
mummified child is of the same color and texture (only finer) as that of
adults found braided in long plaits in an adjoining room"--Page 78.
The Professor believes that "different races" were here contending for
the mastery of the region, and that "one or more of them were driven out
(perhaps destroyed) suddenly" (see article 1.)
Another archaeologist says, that "quite recently hieroglyphics were
discovered in the Tonto Basin country, depicting the driving out of
white people by red men, and local archaeologists have set up a theory
that the people who once cultivated these valleys were white. The
present Indians have many legends of white men being in their country
before the advent of the Spanish conquistodores. Father Marcas Niza, a
pious Jesuit, who accompanied Coronado on his march through this section
in search of the seven lost cities of Cibola, speaks frequently of
allusions made by Indians to white bearded men who were here before" (n.
94.)
[In tracking the missing white race, remember that some of the Toltecs,
like the Mayas of Yucatan, compressed the skull in childhood, that they
had among them a sprinkling of very large men (quinames,) and that in
the wilderness their mode of living would be more like that of Indians
than of cultured, civilized people.]
Mons. Charney has argued that the Mexican Toltecs were of a white race,
but very foolishly argues (like Baron Humboldt) that the Toltecs marched
from Mongolia to Mexico in the 6th century. The illustrious Humboldt has
served Archaeology enormously by drawing attention to the absolute and
startling identity of the Zodiacal signs of the Manchu Tartars with
those of Central America (see Mr. Vining's exceedingly comprehensive and
valuable work entitled "An Inglorious Columbus.")
Skilled, scientific archaeologists connected with the Washington Bureau
have all along been contending that the cliff or cave dwellings, forts,
pueblos, and mounds of North America were constructed by native-born
Americans, rather than by Toltecs moving in, say, the 6th century from
Tartary to Arizona or Mexico.
Therefore, as the Toltecs (sun-people and architects or builders) were
certainly settled in Mexico for some centuries prior to the 11th (when
the remnant disappeared,) the ancestors of the pale-faced and cultured
people (see Vining's chapter on the "Toltecs") may like ourselves have
reached America by crossing the Atlantic. The Greek face, the Celtic
face, the Saxon face, and the Jewish or Semitic face are all seen carved
on the tottering walls of temples and palaces in Yucatan (see Charney's
essays.)
Moving to the Vale of Mexico, the Toltecs tried with more or less
success to keep on neighborly terms with the red skinned people. But
thoughtless propagation produced more mouths than could be
filled--except with human flesh. Open war broke out in the 11th century.
The Aztecs or others of the red tribes almost annihilated the Whites;
and Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, the "last" King of the Toltecs fled north
from Chapultepec,--the selfsame Chapultepec which in our own day has
seen the downfall of Maxmillian and the flight of Diaz.
May not the fair and beautiful Princess at Pimo have belonged to the
outcast Mexican royal family? May not her idolized child have inherited
titles absurdly out of place among the deserts of Arizona? And may not
all the elements in our later Yankee nation have been represented in the
pale-faced people that found refuge among the canyons and cliffs of the
Colorado? If so, their remote or ancestral fathers and mothers were
likewise no less our own.
The curtain of history rises and shows the young Queen of the Builders
on a hill top at Pimo. The structures there, according to aboriginal
testimony were reared about the year 1100,--the very time when the
Toltecs disappeared from the Vale of Mexico. And now the ruins are
yielding up forms of the females who once tenanted those cliffs and
contrived to get plaster and paint with which to adorn the now desolate
and trembling walls. And the yellow, brown, or silky black hair on the
heads of those women who sought to make their bleak and dreary homes
attractive, shows unfailingly their race. Even an ostrich might see it!
Mons. Charney declares that the Toltecs expelled from Mexico in the 11th
century were scholars, artists, astronomers, and philosophers. And their
sisters were certainly no less cultured and refined.
Now, the Shan Hai King states that in "the region beyond the Eastern
Sea" there is (or was) a "Country of Refined Gentlemen."
And Charney argues that "a gentle race were the Toltecs, preferring the
arts to war."
Refined and Gentle--men, says Charney.
Refined Gentlemen, says the Shan Hai King.
Certain comments collected by Jin Chin Ngan, and unnoticed in Mr.
Vining's translation (p. 657), connect the Refined Gentlemen with
pyramids (=k'iu=) and even declare that their dwellings were on mounds
(=ling=).
And Charney says: "Now, the first thing that we find at the houses of
Tula is an example of a mode of building entirely new and curious. The
prevailing tendency of the Toltec is to place his dwellings and his
temples likewise upon eminences and pyramids."
They lived upon Mounds, says Charney.
They lived upon Mounds, says the Shan Hai King.
"They are very gentle, and do not quarrel. They have fragrant plants.
They have a flowering-plant which produces blossoms in the morning that
die in the evening.
The Chinese account calls this vegetable production the =Hwa= plant, and
as =Hwa= stands for "glory" (see Williams' Chinese dict.) it is apparent
that the "Morning Glory" is referred to.
Botanist Wood says: "This =glorious= plant is a =native= of Tropical
America and now universally cultivated. It is also nearly naturalized
with us." (in the United States.)
"The flowers are ephemeral. Beginning to open soon after midnight, they
greet the Sun at his rising, arrayed in all their =glory=" (=Hwa=) "and
before he reaches the meridian, fold their robes and perish. But their
work is done, and their successors, already in bud, will renew the
gorgeous display the following morning."--P. 182.
Such a flower might be held to symbolize the fleeting glory of the
generations which had lived and died in Central America. It still climbs
about the temples of the Sun, saluting its divinity with a smile, and
then falling prostrate among the desolate and forsaken altars. It may
often be seen twining its arms around the monuments of a buried Past,
or pressing its lips to the dust of the vanished race it so speedily
follows.
It lives but a day, says the American botanist.
It lives but a day, says the Shan Hai King.
Surely the works in Arizona are worthy of the exiled Toltecs.
One of the ancient stone structures, on a northern feeder of the Gila,
is so strong, commodious, and so impregnably planted that by universal
consent it is called a Castle. And because the Indian tribes persist in
ascribing its construction to =Mu= or =Mo-te= it is known as
"Montezuma's Castle." The Ethnological Bureau has interested itself in
the preservation of this impressive work of the so-called
Cliff-dwellers, and our Government has taken charge of it as a "National
Monument." And =Ari-zona= is named in honor of the =Ari= or
"Maiden"--the legendary Queen of the Pimo =zona= or Pimo valley. The
mother referred to in the ancient Chinese record is thus remembered in
the title of a Yankee sister State.