Chapter I: Preface

The present memoir is an enlargement of a paper which I laid before the _Congres International des Americanistes_, when acting as a delegate to its recent session in Copenhagen, August, 1883. The changes are material, the whole of the text having been re-written and the notes added.

It does not pretend to be an exhaustive bibliographical essay, but was designed merely to point out to an intelligent and sympathetic audience a number of relics of Aboriginal American Literature, and to bespeak the aid and influence of that learned body in the preservation and publication of these rare documents.

_Philadelphia, Nov. 1883._

CONTENTS.

Section 1. _Introductory_

Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_

Vivid imagination of the Indians.
Love of story telling.
Appreciation of style.
Power and resources of their languages.
Facility in acquiring foreign languages.
Native writers in the English tongue.
In Latin.
In Spanish.
Ancient books of Aztecs.
Of Mayas, etc.
Peruvian Quipus.

Section 3. _Narrative Literature_

Desire of preserving national history.
Eskimo legends and narratives.
The _Walum Olum_ of the Delawares.
The Iroquois _Book of Rites_.
Kaondinoketc's Narrative.
The National Legend of the Creeks.
Cherokee writings.
Destruction of Ancient Literature.
Boturini's collection.
Historians in Nahuatl.
The Maya _Books of Chilan Balam_.
Other Maya documents.
Writings in Cakchiquel.
_The Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_.
Authors in Cakchiquel and Kiche.
The _Popol Vuh_.
Votan, the Tzendal.
Writers in Qquichua.
Letters, etc., in native tongues.
Tales and stories of the Tupis and other tribes.

Section 4. _Didactic Literature_

Progress of natives in science.
Their calendars and rituals.
Their maps.
Scholastic works.
Theological writers.
Sermons in Guarani.
_Las Pasiones_.

Section 5. _Oratorical Literature_

Native admiration of eloquence.
The Oratorical style.
Custom of set orations.
Specimens in the Nahuatl tongue.
Ancient prayers and rhapsodies.

Section 6. _Poetical Literature_

Form of the earliest poetry.
Unintelligible character of primitive songs explained.
A Chippeway love song.
A Taensa epithalamium.
Montaigne on Tupi poetry.
Ancient Aztec poetry.
Maya and Peruvian poems.
Tupi songs.

Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_

Development of the dramatic art in America.
Origin of the serious and comic dramas.
The Qquichua drama of Ollanta.
The Kiche drama of Rabinal Achi.
The Comic Ballet of the Gueegueence.
The _Logas_ of Central America.
Dramas of the Mangues.

Section 8. _Conclusion_

Ethnological value of literary productions.
Their general interest to scholars.

_Footnotes_

_Index_

[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been moved from inline to end-of-text, and the above "Footnotes" section added.]

ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS.

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