CENTRAL AMERICA
I. QUICHÉ AND CAKCHIQUEL[97]
By some accident of history the most significant literary records
of the Mayan peoples--and, in their way, of any American stock--are
not preserved to us from the builders of the monumental cities, the
Maya themselves, but from two closely related tribes belonging to the
southernmost group of the Mayan race. The Quiché (frequently, Kiché)
and the Cakchiquel (or Kakchiquel) dwelt in the mountains of Guatemala
overlooking the Pacific, where, except for the Nahuatlan Pipil, to the
east of them, their neighbours were other Mayan tribes--the Tzental,
the Mame, and their kindred to the west; the Pokonchi, the Kekchi, and
others to the north; and the Chorti to the east. It is in the lands
of these groups, mountain valleys draining toward the Gulf and the
Caribbean, that the ruins of the monumental cities chiefly lie. At the
time of the Conquest their sites had long been abandoned, though it
must not be supposed that the tribes occupying the land were savage.
On the contrary, they lived in well-built, fortified towns, with fine
residences for the chiefs and pyramid temples for the service of the
gods; but the remains of the cities of the Conquest era have yielded
no such wealth of art as has been revealed by the exploration of the
homes of the ancestral Maya, nor do the traditions of the tribes who
inhabited the region at the coming of the Spaniards throw any light
upon the builders of the ancient cities which, indeed, they seem
scarcely to have known. Rather, when the Quiché and their kindred
entered the land, it appears to have been long deserted: "Only
rabbits and birds were here, they say, when they took possession of
the hills and the plains, they, our fathers and ancestors from Tulan,
O my children,"--so runs the beginning of the Cakchiquel _Annals_.[98]
These _Annals_, like the _Popul Vuh_, or "Sacred Book," of the kindred
Quiché, profess to give a migration-legend of the ancestors of the
tribe and an account of the historic chiefs, but neither the one record
nor the other runs to a remote period; both point to a comparatively
recent entrance into an abandoned country, the date of which Brinton
would set at less than two centuries anterior to the Conquest; nor is
there any certain clue which would associate the Quiché-Cakchiquel
histories with those of the contemporary Maya.
The relationship of the two centres of Mayan culture, Yucatec and
Guatemalan, is, however, more than merely linguistic and racial. When
the Maya of the later days of the Old Empire were pushing northward
into the peninsula, exploring and establishing cities, others of their
kindred were penetrating the mountains to the south, and the last town
of the south to rise and fall (as shown by its dated monuments) was
at Quen Santo in the Guatemalan province of Huehuetenango. Whether
or not something of the old culture was transmitted through these
groups or their descendants, whom, indeed, the Quiché and Cakchiquel
may have been, identities of mythic reference make it certain that
all Maya groups had some primitive community of experience. Moreover,
the southern tribes clearly shared with the northern their literary
and artistic bent. The story of the defeat of the Quiché, in the
Cakchiquel _Annals_,[99] tells how the latter slew "the son of the
chief jeweller, the treasurer, the secretary, and the chief engraver"
of the Quiché monarch--officers whose very character gives the
picture of an accomplished society; and it may well be assumed that
the literary taste and historic feeling manifest in the _Annals_ and
the _Popul Vuh_ are but evidences, literary rather than graphic in
character, of the genius which marks the whole Mayan race. Brasseur de
Bourbourg says[100] of the _Popul Vuh_ that "it is composed in a Quiché
of great elegance, and its author must have been one of the princes
of the royal family," while of the _Annals_ (which he names _Mémorial
de Tecpan-Atitlan_, and which was indeed, in greater part written by
a noble, Don Francisco Ernandez Arana Xahila) he declares that "the
style is varied and picturesque and frequently contains passages of
high animation." The translations of both documents quite sustain these
opinions of their literary excellence.
Las Casas, who was as familiar as any man with the general character
of native American culture, and especially with that of Guatemala
of which he was bishop, gives a general characterization of native
learning in his chapter (_Apologética História_, ccxxxv) on "the books
and religious traditions of Guatemala." In the kingdoms and republics
of New Spain, he says, "among other offices and officials, were those
who acted as chroniclers and historians. They possessed knowledge
of the origin of all things relative to religion and to the gods
and their cult, as well as of the founders of their cities, of the
beginnings of their kings and lords and seignories, of the manner of
their election and succession, of how many and what lords and princes
had passed away, of their works and actions and memorable deeds, good
and bad, and of whatever they had governed well or ill; also, of their
great men and good, and of strong and valorous captains, of the wars
that they had made, and of how they had distinguished themselves.
Moreover, of the first customs and the first comers, of how they had
since changed for good or ill, and of all that pertains to history,
in order that they might have understanding and remembrance of past
events." Furthermore, he adds, these chroniclers kept count of the
days, months, and years, and "although they had no writing similar to
ours, nevertheless they had figures and characters representing all
that they needed to designate, and, by means of these, great books of
such clever and ingenious art that we may say that our letters were of
no great advantage to them." The office of chronicler, it is added,
was hereditary, or belonged to certain families.
After the Conquest many of the natives who had acquired the alphabet
adapted it to their own tongue and recorded their histories in the new
characters. Numbers of such books were known to the Spanish writers of
the sixteenth century, and it is from these that the _Popul Vuh_ and
the Cakchiquel _Annals_ have survived.
II. THE POPUL VUH[101]
The _Popul Vuh_ is the most striking and instructive of the
myth-records of primitive America. Other legends are as comprehensive
in scope, as varied in material, and as dramatic in form; but no other,
in anything like the measure of this document, combines with these
qualities the element of critical consciousness, giving the flavour of
philosophic reflection which lifts the narrative from the level of mere
tale-telling into that of literature. Something of this character is
clearly due to the fact that it was written down after the introduction
of Christianity by an author, or authors, professing the new faith; yet
it is equally clear to a reader of our day that this is not the whole
cause, that there is in the aboriginal material itself such an element
of deliberate reflection as appears in the Aztec rituals recorded by
Sahagun and in some of the Incaic fragments, though scarcely to be
found elsewhere in the New World, at least in the myths as they have
been preserved to us.
The work is divided into four parts, consciously literary in
arrangement. The first recounts the creation of the earth and of the
First Peoples, together with the conflicts of the Hero Brothers with
Titan-like Earth-giants. The second part depicts the duel of the
upper-world heroes with the nether-world demonic powers: an elder pair
of Hero Brothers are defeated, later to be avenged by the younger
Hero Brothers--the slayers of the Earth-giants--who overcome Death in
his own lair and by his own wile. This incident of "the harrowing of
Hell" belongs in mythic chronology to a cycle of events earlier in part
than the gigantomachy, and it is obviously for dramatic reasons that
the longest book of the _Popul Vuh_ is devoted to it. With the third
part the original narrative is resumed, narrating the creation of the
ancestors of the present race of men and the rise of the Sun which now
rules the world; while the fourth and last part continues the tale,
giving myths of cult origins, tribal wars, and finally records of
historic rulers, thus satisfying the feeling for consecutiveness and
completeness.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.]
Ceremonial precinct or plaza, Quirigua. An altar and three stelae
of the Old Empire Maya type are shown. Other monuments are still
_in situ_ on this site, among them the "Quirigua Dragon," Plate I
(frontispiece). After photograph by Cornell, Lincoln.
"Admirable is the account"--so the narrative opens--"admirable is the
account of the time in which it came to pass that all was formed in
heaven and upon earth, the quartering of their signs, their measure and
alignment, and the establishment of parallels to the skies and upon
the earth to the four quarters, thereof, as was spoken by the Creator
and Maker, the Mother, the Father of life and of all existence, that
one by whom all move and breathe, father and sustainer of the peace of
peoples, by whose wisdom was premeditated the excellence of all that
doth exist in the heavens, upon the earth, in lake and sea.
"Lo, all was in suspense, all was calm and silent; all was motionless,
all was quiet, and wide was the immensity of the skies.
"Lo, the first word and the first discourse. There was not yet a man,
not an animal; there were no birds nor fish nor crayfish; there was no
wood, no stone, no bog, no ravine, neither vegetation nor marsh; only
the sky existed.
"The face of the earth was not yet to be seen; only the peaceful sea
and the expanse of the heavens.
"Nothing was yet formed into a body; nothing was joined to another
thing; naught held itself poised; there was not a rustle not a sound
beneath the sky. There was naught that stood upright; there were only
the quiet waters of the sea, solitary within its bounds; for as yet
naught existed.
"There were only immobility and silence in the darkness and in the
night. Alone was the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, the Lord, and
Gucumatz, the Plumed Serpent, those who engender, those who give being,
alone upon the waters like a growing light.
"They are enveloped in green and azure, whence is the name Gucumatz,
and their being is great wisdom. Lo, how the sky existeth, how the
Heart of the Sky existeth--for such is the name of God, as He doth name
Himself!
"It is then that the word came to Tepeu and to Gucumatz, in the shadows
and in the night, and spake with Tepeu and with Gucumatz. And they
spake and consulted and meditated, and they joined their words and
their counsels.
"Then light came while they consulted together; and at the moment of
dawn man appeared while they planned concerning the production and
increase of the groves and of the climbing vines, there in the shade
and in the night, through that one who is the Heart of the Sky, whose
name is Hurakan.
"The Lightning is the first sign of Hurakan; the second is the Streak
of Lightning; the third is the Thunderbolt which striketh; and these
three are the Heart of the Sky.
"Then they came to Tepeu, to Gucumatz, and held counsel touching
civilized life: how seed should be formed, how light should be
produced, how the sustainer and nourisher of all.
"'Let it be thus done. Let the waters retire and cease to obstruct,
to the end that earth exist here, that it harden itself and show its
surface, to the end that it be sown, and that the light of day shine
in the heavens and upon the earth; for we shall receive neither glory
nor honour from all that we have created and formed until human beings
exist, endowed with sentience.' Thus they spake while the earth was
formed by them. It is thus, veritably, that creation took place, and
the earth existed. 'Earth,' they said, and immediately it was formed.
"Like a fog or a cloud was its formation into the material state, when,
like great lobsters, the mountains appeared upon the waters, and in an
instant there were great mountains. Only by marvellous power could
have been achieved this their resolution when the mountains and the
valleys instantly appeared with groves of cypress and pine upon them.
"Then was Gucumatz filled with joy. 'Thou art welcome, O Heart of the
Sky, O Hurakan, O Streak of Lightning, O Thunderbolt!'
"'This that we have created and shaped will have its end,' they replied.
"And thus first were formed the earth, the mountains, and the plains;
and the course of the waters was divided, the rivulets running
serpentine among the mountains; it is thus that the waters existed when
the great mountains were unveiled.
"Thus was accomplished the creation of the earth when it was formed
by those who are the Heart of the Sky and the Heart of the Earth; for
so those are called who first made fruitful the heaven and the earth
while yet they were suspended in the midst of the waters. Such was
its fecundation when they fecundated it while its fulfilment and its
composition were meditated by them."
So runs the first chapter of the Quiché Genesis, displaying at the
outset an odd intermingling, which characterizes the whole work, of the
raw actuality of primitive imagination with the dramatic reflection of
the mind of the sage.
The second act of the drama is the creation of denizens, or rather
histrions, for the stage that is set; and the Quiché narrator,
with remarkable ease, casts them in puppet mould, a background of
grandiosity serving still further to belittle the dolls which are the
Creator's experiments. First, the animals are formed and assigned their
dwellings and their habits: "Thou, Deer, shalt sleep on the borders
of brooks and in the ravines; there shalt thou rest in the brushwood,
amid forage; and there multiply; thou shalt go upon four feet, and upon
four feet shalt thou live." This is the style in which the creatures of
land and air and water are severally addressed. Nevertheless--and here
is the philosophic touch--the animals could not speak, as man does;
they had no language; they could only chatter and cluck and croak, each
according to its kind. This is very far from the most primitive stratum
of thought, where all animals are gifted with language.
"When the Creator and the Maker understood that they could not speak,
they said one to another: 'They are unable to utter our name, although
we are their makers and formers. This is not well.' And they spake to
the animals: 'Our glory is not perfect in that ye do not invoke us; but
there shall yet be those who can salute us and who will be capable of
obedience. As for you, your flesh shall be broken under the tooth.'"
Seed-time was approaching, and dawn; and the divine beings said,
"Let us make those who shall be our supporters and nourishers." Then
they formed men out of moist earth, but these proved to be without
cohesion or consistence or power of movement; they could not turn
their heads; their sight was veiled; although they had speech, they
had no intelligence; the waters destroyed them helplessly; and their
makers saw that their handiwork was a failure. Now they consulted with
Xpiyacoc and Xmucané (Mayan equivalents of Cipactonal and Oxomoco, like
whom they were addressed as "Twice Grandmother," "Twice Grandsire");
while Hurakan of the Winds and He of the Sun were also called into the
council. There they divined with kernels of maize and with red berries
of the _tzité_; and when noon came they said: "O Maize, O Tzité, O
Sun, O Creature, unite and join one another! And thou, O Heart of the
Sky, redden that the countenance of Tepeu, of Gucumatz, be not made to
lower!" Then they carved manikins of wood and caused them to live and
to multiply and to engender sons and daughters who were also manikins,
carved and wooden. But these had neither heart nor intelligence nor
memory of their creators; they led a useless and animal existence; they
were only experimental men; they had no blood, no substance, no flesh;
and their faces and their limbs were dry and desiccated. They thought
not of their Makers, nor did they lift their heads to them.
The gods, again disappointed, resolved upon the destruction of the
manikin race and caused a heavy, resinous rain to descend day and
night, darkening the face of the earth. Moreover, four great birds were
sent to assail these creatures of wood: Xecotcovach snatched their
eyes from their orbits; Camalotz attacked their heads, and Cotzbalam
their flesh, while Tecumbalam broke their bones, and animals great
and small turned against them. "Ye have done ill to us," cried their
dogs and their fowls; "now we shall bite you; in your turn ye shall
be tormented." Even the pots and cooking utensils arose in rebellion.
The metates said: "We were tortured by you; daily, daily, night and
day, always it was _holi, holi, huqui, huqui,_ grinding our surfaces
because of you. This we have suffered from you; now that ye have ceased
to be men, ye shall feel our power; we shall grind you and reduce your
flesh to powder;" and the bowls and pots followed with similar threats
and imprecations. The victims ran everywhere in desperate efforts to
escape: they ascended to the roofs of their houses, but the houses
collapsed; they wished to climb the trees, but the trees drew away from
them; they sought to enter the caverns, but these closed against them.
All were destroyed, and there remained of their descendants only the
little monkeys that live in the trees, which is token that "of wood
alone their flesh was formed by the Creator and Maker."
After the destruction of the manikins is narrated, the _Popul Vuh_
digresses to recount the deeds of the Hero Brothers, Hunahpu and
Xbalanqué; and it is only in the third part of the work that the tale
of creation is resumed, the beginnings of the present "Sun" of the
world being its theme.
Once more the demiurgic gods meditated the creation of man, and once
more they gathered for counsel in the cosmic dusk, for though the dawn
was near, the world was not yet illuminated. It was then that they
heard of the white and the yellow maize in the Place of the Division
of the Waters; and it was decided that from these should be made
the blood and the flesh of man. "Then they began to grind the white
maize and the yellow, while Xumucané concocted nine broths; and this
nourishment entering in, generated strength and power, giving flesh
and muscles to man.... Only yellow maize and white entered into their
flesh, and these were the sole substance of the legs and arms of man;
thus were formed our first fathers, the four brothers, who were formed
of it," whose names were Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and
Iqi-Balam. "Men they were; they spake and they reasoned; they saw and
they understood; they moved and they had feeling; men perfect and fair,
whose features were human features."
These beings, however, were too highly endowed; they lifted up their
eyes, and their gaze embraced all; they knew all things; nothing in
heaven or earth was concealed from them. The Maker asked: "Is not your
being good? Do ye not see? Do ye not understand? Your speech and your
movement, are they not admirable? Look up, are there not mountains
and plains under the sky?" Then the created ones rendered thanks
to their Creator, saying: "Truly, thou gavest us every motion and
accomplishment! We have received existence, we have received a mouth,
a face; we speak, we understand, we think, we walk; we perceive and
we know equally well what is far and what is near; we see all things,
great and small, in heaven and upon the earth. Thanks be to you who
have created us, O Maker, O Former!" But the Makers were not pleased
to hear this. "This is not well! Their nature will not be that of
simple creatures; they will be as gods.... Would they perchance rival
us who have made them, whose wisdom extendeth far and knoweth all
things?" Thus spoke Hurakan, and Tepeu, and Gucumatz, and the divine
pair Xpiyacoc and Xmucané. Then the Heart of the Sky breathed a cloud
upon the eyes of the four men, veiling itself so that it appeared like
a mirror covered with vapour; and their vision was obscured, so that
they could clearly see only what was near them. Thus their knowledge
and their wisdom were reduced to mortal proportions; and being caused
to slumber, during their sleep four beautiful women were brought to
be their wives, so that when they awoke, they were filled with joy of
their espousals.
The generations of humanity increased, men living together in joy and
peace. They had but a single language and they prayed neither to wood
nor to stone, but only to the Maker and Former, Heart of the Sky and
Heart of the Earth, their prayer being for children and for light, for
the sun had not yet risen. As time passed and no sun appeared, men
became disquieted, so that the four brothers set forth for Tulan-Zuiva,
the Place of Seven Caves and Seven Ravines, where they received their
gods, a deity for each clan, Tohil being the divinity of Balam-Quitzé,
Avilix of Balam-Agab, Hacavitz of Mahucutah, and Nicahtagah of
Iqi-Balam. Tohil's first gift was fire, and when rains extinguished
the first flame, he kindled it anew by striking upon his foot-gear,
whereupon men of other tribes, their teeth chattering with cold, came
to the brothers praying for a little of their fire. "They were not well
received, and their hearts were filled with sadness," is the rather
brutal comment; but the motive turns out to be yet more brutal, for as
a price of fire Tohil demanded that these strangers "embrace me, Tohil,
under the armpit and under the girdle," a euphemism which can refer
only to the customary form of human sacrifice.
Even yet the sun had not appeared, and the race of man was saddened
by the delay. They fasted and performed expiations, keeping continual
watch for the Morning Star, which should herald the first sunrise.
Finally in despair they resumed their migration: "Alas!" they said,
"here we shall never behold the dawn at the moment when the sun is born
to lighten the face of the earth!" The journey led through many lands
until finally they came to the mountain of Hacavitz, where the brothers
burned incense which they had brought from "the place of sunrise" and
where they watched the Morning Star ascend with waxing splendour on
the dawn of the rising sun. As the orb appeared, the animals, great
and small, were filled with joy, while all the nations prostrated
themselves in adoration. The new sun did not burn with the heat of the
sun of today, but was like a pale reflection of ours; nevertheless
it dried the dank earth and made it habitable. Moreover, the great
beast-gods of the first days--lion, tiger, and noxious viper--together
with the gods Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz, were changed into stone as
the sun appeared--"their arms cramped like the branches of trees ...
and in all parts they became stone. Perhaps we should not be in life
at this moment because of the voracity of the lions, the tigers, the
vipers, the _qantis_, and the White Fire-Maker of the Night; perchance
our glory would not now exist had not the first animals been petrified
by the sun."
Nevertheless sorrow mingled with joy, for though the ancestors of the
Quiché had found their mountain home, illumined by the sun, the moon,
and the stars, they remembered their kindred left behind; and even
when they sang the song _Ka-mucu_ ("We behold"), the anguish in their
hearts came also to expression. "Alas! we were ruined in Tollan; we
were parted from our brethren, who still remain behind! True, indeed,
we have beheld the Sun, but they, where now are they, when at last
the day hath come?" Years afterward, when the Quiché had become great
under the leadership of the four heroes, the brothers foresaw the day
of their death drawing near; and again, with dolour of soul, they sang
the song _Ka-mucu_, bidding farewell to their wives and their sons, and
saying: "We return to our people; even now the King of the Deer riseth
into the sky. Lo, we make our return; our task is performed; our days
are complete." Thereupon they disappeared, vanishing without trace,
excepting that in their place was left a sacred bundle which was never
to be opened and which was called "Majesty Enveloped."
III. THE HERO BROTHERS
The deeds of the Hero Brothers in the _Popul Vuh_ take place in an
epoch of the world previous to the rise of the present Sun. Apparently
they fall in an Age of Giants just succeeding the destruction of the
manikins, for the narrative proceeds from the tale of the annihilation
of these beings to the overthrow, by the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanqué,
of the Earth Titans, stating that the events occurred in the days of
the inundation. Vukub-Cakix was the first of the Giants, and his sin
was the sin of _hubris_, for he boasted: "I shall be yet again above
all created beings; I am their sun, I am their dawn, I am their moon.
Great is my splendour; I am he by whom men move. Of silver are the
balls of my eyes, gleaming like precious stones; and the whiteness of
my teeth is like the face of the sky. My nostrils shine afar like the
moon; of silver is my throne, and the earth liveth when I step forth
from it. I am the sun, I am the moon, the bringer of felicity. So be
it, for my gaze reacheth afar!" This is obviously a hymn to the sun;
and it is possible that it refers to a mythic "Sun of Giants," although
the narrator clearly takes it in another sense: "In reality his sight
ended where it fell, and his gaze did not embrace the entire world." It
was, in fact, because of his riches (metals and precious stones) that
Vukub-Cakix thought to emulate the sun and the moon.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.]
Image of a youthful deity with elaborate head-dress seated in the
mouth of the "Dragon of Quirigua" (see frontispiece). After a
photograph in the Peabody Museum.
It was for their pride and arrogance that Vukub-Cakix and his sons,
Zipacna and Cabrakan, were successively overcome and destroyed by the
hero brothers. "Attention, it is I who am the sun," cried Vukub-Cakix;
"it is I who move the earth," said Zipacna; "and it is I that shake the
sky and overturn the the whole earth," quoth Cabrakan. Indeed, such
was their strength that they could move mountains, great and small, at
will; and since such orgulous Titans could be overcome only by craft,
even with demi-gods for their adversaries, it was by craft that Hunahpu
and Xbalanqué conquered them.
Vukub-Cakix possessed a tree the fruit of which was his food, and the
twins, concealing themselves in its branches, shot the giant in the
cheek with a poisoned arrow when he came for his meal, though they
did not escape uninjured, for he tore away one of Hunahpu's arms. The
monster went home, roaring with pain, and the two plotters, disguising
themselves as physicians, came offering to cure his malady and saying:
"You suffer from a worm but you can be cured if your jaw is altered by
removing the bad teeth." "It is by my teeth alone that I am king; all
my beauty comes from my teeth and the balls of mine eyes." "We will
put others in their place," they said; and so they substituted teeth
of maize for the emerald teeth of the giant and flayed the splendour
from his eyes. The splendour faded from him; he ceased to appear like
a king; and soon he died, while Hunahpu recovered his arm, which
Chimalmat, the wife of Vukub-Cakix, was basting on a spit; and the
twins turned away in triumph. Zipacna was the next victim. First, the
brothers conspired with four hundred youths (doubtless the same as
the "Four Hundred Southerners" of the Huitzilopochtli myth) to lure
Zipacna into a pitfall, where they tried to destroy him by hurling
huge trees upon him; and when all was quiet, the plotters erected
a house on the spot, making merry with drink and celebrating their
triumph. But the giant was only craftily biding his time, and, rising
suddenly, he cast house and revellers high into the heavens, where the
four hundred became stars and constellations. The twins then decided
upon another decoy. Since the food of Zipacna was sea-food, especially
crabs, they modelled a great crab, and painting it cunningly they put
it into a deep ravine. Encountering the giant on his food search, they
pointed out this fine crab; he leaped after it, and they--wiser by
experience--hurled mountains upon him, thus imprisoning him, though
so desperate were his struggles for freedom that they turned him into
stone to quiet him. The third giant, Cabrakan, was also made the victim
of his own gluttony and pride. The brothers challenged him to shift a
certain mountain, for he boasted that he could remove the greatest; but
as he was preparing to show his strength, they suggested that he first
partake of food, and shooting a bird, they cooked it for him, taking
care to poison it in the process. The giant devoured the bird the more
greedily in that it was his first taste of cooked meat; but immediately
his strength began to fail, and his eyes to dim; and while the brothers
twittingly urged him to make good his boasts, he sank to earth dead.
The great adventure of the heroic twins, however, was their triumph
over the Lords of Death, and to this the second part of the _Popul
Vuh_ is devoted. The tale begins with the story of an earlier pair
of Hero Brothers, Hunhun-Ahpu and Vukub-Ahpu, sons of Xpiyacoc and
Xmucané. Hunhun-Ahpu, in turn, was father of Hunbatz and Hunchouen, two
youths who seem to be little more than foils for the hero twins later
to be born; although they are described as wise in all the arts, as
players of the flute, singers, blow-gun shooters, painters, sculptors,
jewel-workers, and smiths.
Hunhun-Ahpu and his brother, Vukub-Ahpu, being devoted to _tlachtli_,
exercised themselves at this sport every day. As they played, they
journeyed toward Xibalba, the underworld, whose lords, Hun-Camé and
Vukub-Camé, also were clever at the ball game. Therefore, thinking to
trap the upper-world champions, they of the nether realm sent them a
challenge--four owls were their messengers--to meet in an underworld
match; and the brothers accepting the challenge, set out for Xibalba.
Passing down a steep descent, they soon crossed a river in a deep
gorge, next a boiling river, and then a river of blood, after which,
beyond a fourth river, they came to cross-roads, red, black, white,
and yellow. The guardian of the black road said: "I am the way to the
king"; but it led them to a place where two wooden images were seated.
These the brothers saluted; and receiving no response except the ribald
laughter of the Xibalbans, the heroes knew that they had been made
butts of ridicule. The brothers angrily issued their challenge, and
the Xibalbans invited them to seats on the throne of honour; but this
proved to be a heated stone, and when they burned themselves, the
princes of Xibalba could scarcely contain their merriment. The brothers
were then given torches and conducted to the House of Gloom, with
injunctions to keep the lights undiminished until the dawn; but the
torches were speedily consumed, and when, next day, they were brought
before Hun-Camé and Vukub-Camé who demanded the lights, they could only
reply, "They are consumed, Lords." Thereupon, at the command of the
underworld-gods, the brothers were sacrificed, and their bodies were
buried; only, the head of Hunhun-Ahpu was placed in a fruit-tree, where
it was immediately transformed so as to be indistinguishable from the
gourd-like fruits which the tree bore.
The Xibalbans were prohibited from approaching this tree, but a certain
maiden, Xquiq ("Princess Blood"), having heard of it, said to herself:
"Why should I not go to see this tree; in sooth, its fruits should
be sweet, according to what I hear said of it." She approached the
tree in admiration: "Are such the fruits of this tree? And should I
die were I to pluck one?" Then the head in the midst said: "Do you
indeed desire it? These round lumps among the branches of the tree
are only death's-heads!" Nevertheless, Xquiq was insistent, whereupon
Hunhun-Ahpu's head demanded that she stretch forth her hand, and,
by a violent effort, he spat into it, saying: "This saliva and foam
which I give thee is my posterity. Behold, my head will cease to
speak, for it is only a death's-head, with no longer any flesh. So it
is also with the head of even the greatest of princes; for it is the
flesh alone that adorneth the visage, whence cometh the horror which
besetteth men at the moment of death." He then directed the maiden
to flee to the upper world, knowing that she would be pursued by the
underworld-powers; and these, indeed, when they heard that Xquiq was
_enceinte_, demanded that she be sacrificed, sending Owl-Men to
execute their doom. But the princess beguiled the Owls, inducing them
to substitute for her heart the coagulated sap of the bloodwort, the
odour of which they took to be the scent of blood, while she herself
fled to the protection of the mother of Hunbatz and Hunchouen. The
latter demanded proof that the new comer was indeed her daughter-in-law
and sent Xquiq into the field for maize. There was but one hill in
the field, whereupon the maiden appealed for aid to the gods, by
whose miraculous help she was enabled to gather a full burden without
disturbing the single hill. This miracle satisfied the mother-in-law;
who said: "It is a sign that thou art indeed my daughter-in-law, and
that those whom thou dost carry will be wise"; and shortly after this,
Xquiq gave birth to the twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanqué.
The new comers were welcomed by all excepting Hunbatz and Hunchouen,
who regarded their half-brothers as rivals and plotted their death;
but Hunahpu and Xbalanqué, who from birth had shown their prowess as
magicians, transformed the two flute-players into monkeys, condemning
them to live in the trees. Hunbatz and Hunchouen, says the chronicler,
"were invoked by musicians and singers aforetime, and also by painters
and sculptors; but they were changed into beasts and became monkeys
because of their pride and their maltreatment of their brothers." It is
probable that the two were monkey-form gods of the arts, though it is
also possible that the transformation is associated with that of the
primeval age which ended with the metamorphosis of men into monkeys.
The next episode in the career of the two youths was the clearing of
a field by means of magic tools which felled trees and dug the soil
while their owners amused themselves at the chase; but at night the
animals restored the vegetation. Accordingly the brothers concealed
themselves to watch for the undoers of their work; and when by night
the lion (puma) and the tiger (jaguar), the hare and the opossum, the
deer, the coyote, the porcupine, and the peccary, together with the
birds, appeared and called to the felled trees to raise themselves,
the brothers attempted to trap them. They succeeded only in seizing
the tails of the deer and the rabbit (which, of course, explains the
present decurtate state of these animals), but finally they captured
the rat, which, to save its life, revealed to them the hiding-place
of the rings and gloves and rubber ball with which their fathers had
played _tlachtli_, and which their grandmother had concealed from them
lest they, too, become lost through the fatal lure of the game. By a
ruse the twins succeeded in getting possession of the apparatus, and
like their fathers became passionately devoted to the sport.
When the Lords of Xibalba learned of this, they said: "Who, then, are
these that begin again to play above our heads, shaking the earth
without fear? Are not Hunhun-Ahpu and Vukub-Hunahpu dead, who wished
to exalt themselves before us?" Forthwith they dispatched a challenge
to the new champions which the twins accepted; but before they
departed for the underworld, each planted a reed in the house of their
grandmother, saying that if any ill befell either of them, his reed
would wither and die. They passed the underworld rivers, and coming to
the four roads (here named black, white, red, and green), they set out
upon the black path, though they took the precaution to send in advance
an animal called Xan, with instructions to prick the leg of each lord
in the realm below. The first two throned beings made no response,
being manikins of wood; but the third uttered a cry, and his neighbour
said: "What is it, Hun-Camé? What has pricked you?" The same thing
happened to Vukub-Camé, Xiqiripat, Ahalpuh, Cuchumaquiq, Chamiabak,
Ahalcana, Chamiaholom, Patan, Quiqxic, Quiqrixgag, and Quiqré (for
such were the names of these princes): "it is thus that they revealed
themselves, calling one another by name," each in turn. When the hero
twins came, refusing to salute the wooden men, they addressed the Lords
of Xibalba each by his title, much to the chagrin of these; and,
further, they declined a place on the heated stone, saying, "It is not
our seat."
In succeeding episodes Hunahpu and Xbalanqué underwent the ordeals of
the houses of the underworld. The House of Gloom was first; but the
twins substituted red paint for the fire on the torches given them and
thus preserved these undiminished. "Whence indeed, are you come?" cried
the astonished Xibalbans; "who are you?" "Who can say whence we are,"
they answered; "we ourselves do not know." So they refused to reveal
themselves and in the game of ball which followed they altogether
defeated the Xibalbans; but since this only augmented the desire of the
latter for the lives of the pair, the underworld lords demanded of the
two heroes that they bring them four vases of flowers. Accordingly they
sent the youths under guard to the House of Lances; but the brothers
overcame the demons of this abode by promising them the flesh of all
animals, while at the same time they persuaded the ants to bring the
needed flowers from the gardens of Hun-Camé and Vukub-Camé. Having
failed with this test, the Xibalbans then dispatched their guests to
the House of Cold, which they survived by kindling pine-knots. The next
trial was the House of Tigers, but its ferocious denizens were diverted
by bones which the brothers cast to them. The House of Fire was also
harmless to them; but in the sixth, the House of Bats, or House of
Camazotz, as its lord was called, they met their first discomfiture.
All night the heroes lay prone, longing for the dawn; but at last
Hunahpu for a moment raised his head, which was instantly shorn off by
the vigilant Camazotz. Xbalanqué, in desperation, summoned the animals
to his assistance; and the turtle, chancing to touch the bleeding neck
of Hunahpu and becoming attached to it, was transformed into a head
with the magic aid of the animals. The real head the Lords of Xibalba
had suspended in the ball court, where they were reviling it when
Xbalanqué and Hunahpu, with his turtle's head, appeared for the last
round at the game; and with the assistance of the animals Xbalanqué
succeeded in winning the victory once more, and recovering Hunahpu's
head, he restored it in place of the turtle's.
Having now met the ordeals set by the Xibalbans, the brothers undertook
to show their own prowess, and, first of all, their contempt of death.
Anticipating the action of the Lords of Xibalba in condemning them to
death, they sought the counsel of two magicians, Xulu and Pacam, with
whom they arranged for their resurrection; after which, sentenced to
be burned, they mounted the funeral pyre and met their death, whereat
all the Xibalbans were filled with joy, crying, "We have triumphed,
indeed; and none too soon!" The bones, ground to powder at the advice
of the two magicians, were cast upon the underworld waters; wherein
on the fifth day two fish-men were to be seen, while the next day
a pair of wretched beggars, poor and miserable, appeared among the
Xibalbans. These beggars, however, were wonder-workers: they burned
houses and immediately restored them; they even sacrificed and then
resuscitated one another. Their fame soon reached the ears of Hun-Camé
and Vukub-Camé, and when the mendicant-magicians were brought before
these lords, they were implored by the Xibalban kings to perform their
miracles. Thereupon the beggars began their "dances": they killed and
revivified the dog of the underworld princes; they burned and restored
the royal palace; they sacrificed and brought to life a man--each deed
at the command of Hun-Camé and Vukub-Camé. Finally, overcome with
excitement, the Lords of Xibalba cried, "Do likewise with us; immolate
us also!" "Can death exist for you?" asked the beggars ironically.
"Nevertheless, it is your right that we amuse you." But when they
had sacrificed Hun-Camé and Vukub-Camé, they restored them no more
to life. "Then fled all the princes of Xibalba, seeing their kings
dead, and their bodies laid open; but in a moment they themselves were
sacrificed, two by two, a chastisement which was their due." A single
prince escaped, begging for pity, while the host of their vassals
prostrated themselves before their conquerors.
Then the heroes revealed themselves, disclosing their names and the
names of their fathers, saying, "We are the avengers of the sufferings
of our sires; harken, now to your doom, ye of Xibalba! Since your
fame and your power are no more, and ye merit no clemency, your race
shall have little rule, and never again shall ye play the Game of
Ball. Yours it shall be to make objects of burnt clay, pots and pans,
and maize-grinders; and the animals that live in the brushwood and in
solitude shall be your share. All the happy, all the cultivated, shall
cease to be yours; the bees alone will continue to reproduce before
your eyes. Ye, perverse, cruel, sad, wretched, who have done ill,
now lament it!" Thus were degraded those who had been of bad faith,
hypocritical, tyrannical; thus their power was ruined.
Meanwhile, in the upper world, the grandmother of the twins watching
the two reeds, had mourned and rejoiced in turn, twice seeing them
wither and twice revive. "The Living Reeds, the Level Earth, the Centre
of the House, shall be the names of this place," she said. The twins
talked with the heads of their father and uncle, paying them funeral
honours and elevating them to the sky, the one to become the sun, the
other the moon; and they raised up also the four hundred youths buried
by Zipacna, to become stars in heaven, saying: "Henceforth ye shall be
invoked by civilized peoples; ye shall be adored; and your names shall
not perish."
Such, in its general character, is the mythic portion of the _Popul
Vuh_. It is built up of elements found far and wide in North
America and it reflects ideas practically universal among the
civilized Nahuatlan and Mayan tribes; but it possesses one great
distinction--that of presenting these concepts with an imaginative
intensity unmatched by any other version, a quality which in some
measure argues that the whole cycle is original with the Mayan stock.
The myth certainly gives a broad view of the south Mayan pantheons;
and most of the elements in the proper names which can be interpreted
are indicative of the cosmic nature of the personalities. According
to Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hun signifies "one," Vukub is the word for
"seven"; Hunahpu is "One Blowgun-Shooter," and it is quite likely that
the blowgun was associated with celestial phenomena, as the game of
_tlachtli_ certainly is; Hunbatz is "One Monkey"; Hun-Camé is "One
Dead," and so on. Vukub-Cakix ("Seven Macaws"), Vukub-Hunahpu ("Seven
One-Blowgun-Shooter"), and Vukub-Camé ("Seven Dead") are clearly
corresponding, or complementary, cosmic powers. The Abbé believes
that Hurakan (from which comes our word "hurricane") and Cabrakan
("Earthquake") are deities imported from the Antilles. Camazotz
("Ruler of Bats,"--Brasseur; "Death Bat,"--Seler) is clearly the
Elder of the Bats--the bat-god known to have been a dread and potent
deity among the Maya, and, as the vampire, feared and propitiated far
into South America.[102] Balam means "tiger"--that is, the jaguar,
which, perhaps because of its spots, is symbol of the star-studded
night and of the west. The four Quiché ancestors are clearly cosmic
deities--Balam-Quitzé ("Smiling Tiger") perhaps of the east; Balam-Agab
("Night Tiger") of the west; Iqi-Balam ("Moon Tiger"); and Mahucatah
("Renowned Name," an epithet, in the Abbé's opinion). The Hero Brothers
are, of course, familiar figures everywhere in American myth.
IV. THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUEL[103]
The Cakchiquel _Annals_ do not, like the _Popul Vuh_, form a work of
primarily literary or historical intent, but are, both in form and in
content, part of a brief, the purpose of which is to establish certain
territorial rights of members of the family of Xahila, thus falling
into the class of native _titulos_, written in Spanish, several of
which have been published. From its nature the composition has not,
therefore, the dramatic character of a mythic narrative; nevertheless
its very purpose, as founding a title to lands anciently held, leads
to the effort to establish this by the right of first occupation, and
hence to stories of the first comers. That such accounts are reproduced
more or less exactly from mythic narratives there can be no manner of
doubt, internal traits showing near affinity with the tales of the
_Popul Vuh_ and kindred cycles.
The narrative begins with a record of "the sayings of our earliest
fathers and ancestors, Gagavitz the name of one, Zactecauh the name of
the other ... as we came from the other side of the sea, from the land
of Tulan, where we were brought forth and begotten....
"These are the very words which Gagavitz and Zactecauh spake: 'Four men
came from Tulan; one Tulan is at the sunrise, and one is at Xibalbay,
and one is at the sunset; and we came from this one at the sunset; and
one is where is God. Therefore there are four Tulans, they say, O our
sons; from the sunset we came; from Tulan from beyond the sea; and it
was at Tulan that, arriving, we were brought forth; coming, we were
produced, as they say, by our fathers and our mothers.
"'And now the Obsidian Stone is brought forth by the precious Xibalbay,
the glorious Xibalbay; and man is made by; the Maker, the Creator.
The Obsidian Stone was his sustainer when man was made in misery and
when man was formed; he was fed with wood, he was fed with leaves; he
wished only the earth; he could not speak, he could not walk; he had
no blood, he had no flesh; so say our fathers, our ancestors, O ye my
sons. Nothing was found to feed him; at length something was found
to feed him. Two brutes knew that there was food in the place called
Paxil, where these creatures were, the Coyote and the Crow by name.
Even in the refuse of maize it was found when the creature Coyote was
killed as he was separating his maize and was searching for bread to
knead, killed by the creature named Tiuh Tiuh; and from within the sea,
by means of Tiuh Tiuh, was brought the blood of the serpent and of the
tapir with which the maize was to be kneaded; the flesh of man was
formed of it by the Maker, the Creator; and well did they, the Maker
and the Creator, know him who was born, him who was begotten; they
made man as he was made, they formed man as they made him; so they
tell. There were thirteen men, fourteen women; they, talked, they
walked; they had blood, they had flesh. They married, and one had two
wives. They brought forth daughters, they brought forth sons, those
first men. Thus men were made, and thus the Obsidian Stone was made,
for the enclosure of Tulan; thus we came to where the Zotzils were at
the gates of Tulan; arriving, we were born; coming, we were produced;
coming, we gave the tribute in the darkness, in the night, O our sons.'
Thus spake Gagavitz and Zactecauh, O my sons; and what they said hath
not been forgotten. They are our great ancestors; these are the words
with which they encouraged us of old."
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.]
Monumental stela, Piedras Negras. This superb relief shows a divinity
with quetzal-plume crest to whom a priest is presenting the group of
bound captives, shown at the base. After photograph in the Peabody
Museum.
These extracts indicate the style of the _Annals_, full of repetition
and almost without relational expressions, but now and again lighted
with passages of extraordinary vividness. The Obsidian Stone, Chay
Abah, represented an important civic fetish or oracular talisman, if
we may credit the description of Iximche, the Cakchiquel capital,
transmitted by Fuentes y Guzman and quoted by Brinton.[104] On the
summit of a small hill overlooking the town--so goes the account--"is
a circular wall, not unlike the curb of a well, about a full fathom in
height. The floor within is paved with cement, as the city streets. In
the centre is placed a socle or pedestal of a glittering substance,
like glass, but of what composition is not known. This circular
structure was the tribunal or consistory of the Cakchiquel Indians,
where not only was public hearing given to causes, but also the
sentences were carried out. Seated around this wall, the judges heard
the pleas and pronounced the sentences, in both civil and criminal
cases. After this public decision, however, there remained an appeal
for its revocation or confirmation. Three messengers were chosen as
deputies of the judges, and these went forth from the tribunal to a
deep ravine, north of the palace, to a small but neatly fitted-up
chapel or temple, where was located the oracle of the demon. This
was a black and semi-transparent stone, of a finer grade than that
called _chay_ (obsidian). In its transparency, the demon revealed to
them what should be their final decision." This passage is not the
only indication of the employment of divination by crystal gazing in
primitive America; and it is even possible that the translucent green
stones so widely valued were primarily sacred because of divinatory
properties. Not all sacred stones were of the emerald hue, however; for
in the Cakchiquel narrative one of the deeds of Gagavitz is the ascent
of a volcano where, it is said, he conquered the fire, bringing it
captive in the form of a stone called Gak Chog, which, the chronicler
is at pains to state, is not a green stone.
The mythic affinities of the Cakchiquel narrative are already apparent
in the passages quoted. The city of Tulan (frequently "Tullan" in the
text) is clearly become a name for certain cosmic stations, namely
the houses of sunrise, sunset, zenith ("where is God"), and nadir
(Tulan of Xibalbay, the underworld). The successive creations of men,
experimental men first, and finally maize-formed men, is certainly
the same myth as that of the _Popul Vuh_, which is briefly described
also by Las Casas and which is probably intimately associated with
a cult of the maize-gods. "If one looks closely at these Indians,"
says an early writer quoted by Brinton,[105] (manuscript known as the
_Crónica Franciscana_), "he will find that everything they do and say
has something to do with maize. A little more, and they would make a
god of it. There is so much conjuring and fussing about their corn
fields, that for them they will forget wives and children and any other
pleasure, as if the only end and aim of life was to secure a crop of
corn."
There are numerous mythic incidents in the continuation of the
narrative after the creation. At Tulan the peoples were divided into
seven tribes, and it was from Tulan that, with idols of wood and of
stone, they set out at the oracular command of the Obsidian Stone. The
auguries were mostly evil: "A bird called 'the guard of the ravine'
began to complain within the gate of Tulan, as we were going forth
from Tulan. 'Ye shall die, ye shall be lost, I am your portent,' the
creature said to us. 'Do ye not believe me? Truly your state shall be
a sad one.'" The owl prophesied similar disaster, and another bird,
the parroquet, "complained in the sky and said, 'I am your portent;
ye shall die.' But we said to the creature, 'Speak not thus; thou art
but the sign of spring. Thou wailest first when it is spring; when
the rain ceaseth, thou wailest.'" They arrived at the sea-coast, and
there a great number perished while they awaited a means of crossing,
which finally came when "a red tree, our staff, which we had taken in
passing from the gate of Tulan," was thrust into the sands, whereupon
the waters divided, and all passed over. Then it was that Gagavitz
and Zactecauh were elected leaders; and next they fought with the
people of Nonoualcat and Zuyva, but though at first successful in the
fight, they were eventually defeated: "Truly, it was fearful there
among the houses; truly, the noise was great, the dust was oppressive;
fighting was going on in the houses, fighting with the dogs, the wasps,
fighting with all. One attack, two attacks we made, and we ourselves
were routed; as truly as they were in the air, they were in the earth;
they ascended and they descended, everywhere against us; and thus they
showed their magic and their sorcery." After this defeat, the various
tribes received the gods which were to be their protectors. "When we
asked each other where our salvation was, it was said to us by the
Quiché men: 'As it thundered and resounded in the sky, truly the sky
must be our salvation'; so they said, and therefore the name Tohohil
was given them." The Zotzil received Cakix, the macaw, as their deity;
and the Cakchiquel said: "'Truly, in the middle of the valley lieth our
salvation, entering there into the earth.' Therefore the name Chitagah
was given. Another, who said salvation was in the water, was called
Gucumatz"; and so on, down the roll. The tribes then set forth and
encounter "the spirit of the forest, the fire called Zakiqoxol," who
kills many men. "Who are these boys whom we see?" says the spirit (who,
it seems, is a giant); and Gagavitz and Zactecauh replied: "Let us see
what kind of a hideous mole thou art? Who art thou? We shall kill thee.
Why is it that thou guardest the road here?" "Do not kill me; I, who am
here, I am the heart of the forest," and he asked for clothing. "They
shall give to thee wherewith to clothe thyself," they answered; and
"then they gave him wherewith to clothe himself, a change of garment,
his blood-red cuirass, his blood-red shoes, the dying raiment of
Zakiqoxol."
The narrative continues with episodes that may be historical. There
are encounters, friendly and militant, with various tribes; Zactecauh
is killed by falling down a ravine; the wanderers are delayed a year
by the volcano which Gagavitz conquers; a certain being named Tolgom,
son of "the Mud that Quivers," is captured and offered by the arrow
sacrifice, this being the beginning of an annual festival at which
children were similarly slain; and afterward the people come to the
place where their dawn is to be and there they behold the sunrise.
The warriors took wives from neighbouring tribes and "then also they
began to adore the Demon.... It is said that the worship of the Demon
increased with the face of our prosperity." To Gagavitz were born two
sons, Caynoh and Caybatz, who were to be his successors; and "at that
time King Gagavitz died, the same who came from Tulan; his children,
our ancestors, Caynoh and Caybatz, were still very young when their
father died. They buried him in the same place where their dawn
appeared, in Paroxene."
Here the mythical part of the _Annals_ ends. Caynoh and Caybatz may be
a pair of heroes like Hunahpu and Xbalanqué, as some authorities deem;
but the situation in which they are presented, subjects of a Quiché
King, Tepeuh, indicates an historical situation, finally reversed, as
the narrative later shows, in sanguinary wars in which the Cakchiquel
threw off the Quiché yoke. And here, as elsewhere in the New World,
the coming Spaniard was enabled to profit by local dissensions; for
Alvarado, whose entrance into Iximche is described as by an eyewitness,
first allied himself with the Cakchiquel for the destruction of their
neighbours and then destroyed his allies for the sake of their gold.
So out of this broken past speaks the Xahila narrative--the one native
voice from a lost civilization.
V. HONDURAS AND NICARAGUA[106]
South of the Mayan peoples, in the territories formed by the projection
of Central America between the Gulf of Honduras and Lake Nicaragua, the
aboriginal inhabitants were represented by some ten linguistic stocks.
On the western coast were several groups of Nahuatlan tribes who had
come from far in the north, probably in recent times; on the other
hand, the large Ulvan stock, back from the Mosquito Coast, are regarded
as probably of Chibchan kinship, and their territories were contiguous
with the Chibchans of Costa Rica, who brought the influence of the
southern continent as far northward as the southern shores of the lake;
the remaining tribal groups--Lencan, Subtiaban, Payan, Mosquitoan,
Chiapanecan, etc.--have no certain linguistic affinity with any other
peoples. Culturally, the whole region was aboriginally marked by an
obvious inferiority both to the Mayan peoples to the north and the
Chibchan to the south; though at the same time it reflected something
of the civilization of each of these regions. As a whole, however, it
possessed no single level, but ranged from the primitive savagery of
the Mosquito Coast to something approaching a native culture in the
western highlands.
The mythic lore of these peoples (not extensively reported) is in no
way remarkable. The Nahuatlan tribes--Pipil and Niquiran--worshipped
gods whose kinship with those of the Aztec is apparent. Of the Pipil,
Brasseur says[107]: "They adored the rising sun, as also statues of
Quetzalcohuatl and Itzcueye, to whom they offered almost all their
sacrifices," Itzcueye being a form of the earth goddess. Similarly the
Niquiran deities mentioned by Oviedo, especially the creator pair,
Tamagostad and Cipattonal, are identified with Oxomoco and Cipactonal
of the Mexicans; while the calendar of the same tribe is Mexican in
type. The chief centre of worship of the Pipil was named Mictlan, but
the myth which Brasseur narrates in connexion with the establishment
of this shrine is curiously analogous to certain Chibcha tales. The
sacred city was on a promontory in Lake Huixa, and "it was there that
one day a venerable old man was beheld to advance, followed by a girl
of unequalled beauty, both clad in long blue robes, while the man was
crowned with a pontifical mitre. They arose together from the lake, but
they did not delay to separate; and the old man seated himself upon a
stone on the summit of a high hill, where, by his order, was reared a
beautiful temple called Mictlan." Similar cults of lake-spirits are
indicated on the island of Zapatero, in Lake Nicaragua, where Squier
discovered a whole series of remarkable idols, pillars surmounted by
crudely carved crouching or seated figures, while statues of a similar
type were found on another island, Pensacola. In several of these the
human figure is hooded by an animal's head or jaw, or appears within
the mouth of the monster--a motive which probably comes from the Mayan
north.
The Chiapanecan people north of the Niquirian Nahua consulted an
oracular Old Woman, who appears, as Oviedo relates the story,[108] to
have been the spirit of the volcano Masaya. The caciques went in secret
to consult her before undertaking any enterprise and sacrificed to
her human victims, who, says Oviedo, offered themselves voluntarily.
When Oviedo asked how the Old Woman looked, they replied that "she was
old and wrinkled, with pendant breasts, thin, dishevelled hair, long
teeth like those of a dog, a skin darker than that of the Indians,
and glowing eyes," a description which scarcely makes the voluntary
sacrifice plausible. With the coming of the Christians her appearances
were more and more rare.
Of such character were the ideas of the more advanced tribes of the
western coast. The Sumo (of the Ulvan stock) tell a tale of their
origin, reported by Lehmann[109]: "Between the Rio Patuca and the Rio
Coco is a hill named Kaun'ápa, where is a rock with the sign of a human
umbilical cord. There in olden time the Indians were born; there is the
source of the people. A great Father, Maisahána, and a great Mother,
Ituána, likewise existed, the latter being the same as Itóki, whom the
Mosquito know as Mother Scorpion. First, the Mosquito were born and
instructed in all things; but they were disobedient to their elders
(as they still are) and departed toward the coast. Thereafter the
Tuáchca were born, and then the Yusco who live on Rio Prinzapolca and
Bambana; but since the Yusco were bad and lewd, the rest of the Sumo
fought against them and killed all but a few, who live somewhere around
the source of Rio Coco, near the Spaniards. Last the Ulua were born,
who are indeed the youngest; and they were instructed in all things,
especially medicine and song, wherefore they are known as 'Singers.'"
The Mother Scorpion of this myth is regarded by the Mosquito as
dwelling at the end of the Milky Way, where she receives the souls of
the dead; and from her, represented as a mother with many breasts, at
which children take suck, come the souls of the new-born--a belief
which points to a notion of reincarnation. The Mosquito[110] possess
also a migration-myth, with stories of a culture hero named Wakna,
and an ancient prophecy that they shall never be driven back from
the coasts to which he led them. Along with this are reminiscences
of the coming of cannibals--doubtless Carib--from overseas; and the
usual quota of superstitions as to monsters of forest and waters. They
are said, moreover, to have vague notions of a supreme or superior
god--which is altogether likely--and, in general, these Central
American religions are, doubtless, as the early writers describe them,
formed of an ill-defined belief in a Heaven Father, with deities of sun
and stars as objects of worship, and spirits of earth and forest as
objects of dread.