Chapter VI: The Making of the World and of Man (cosmogony) (2)

A twofold destruction befell the original Tupi-Guarani people of Brazil. According to the myth, Monan the Creator, vexed with mankind, attempted to destroy the world by fire; but one Irin Magé a magician of might, extinguished the conflagration by a heavy rain-storm. This in turn caused the rivers and lakes to overflow. When the flood subsided, a quarrel between the hero-brothers Tamandare and Aricoute precipitated another deluge, for the former stamped his foot so deeply into the ground that a flood of water issued therefrom, and the two brothers and their families were forced to take refuge in trees. The Mundruku tribe possesses a myth that a god Raini formed the world by placing it in the shape of a flat stone upon the head of another demiurge. Some other Tupi tribes believe in an interchange of Heaven and earth, as do the Zuñi Indians, while the Mundruku hero, Karu, creates mountains by blowing feathers about. The River Chaco Indians, cognate to the Guarani, believe that the universe was created by a gigantic beetle. After having made the plains, mountains, and forests, it scraped a hole in the ground and entered the earth. From this hole numerous living beings issued and covered the face of the earth. These beings after death became evil spirits, and constantly torment mankind. From the particles of soil thrown up by its excoriations the beetle constructed a man and woman, the progenitors of all human kind. Subsequently other evil spirits came from the hole, and attempted to overthrow the man and woman. The beetle gave power to the human beings to resist, but then withdrew, taking no further interest in their fate. An early traveller, Hans Staden, writing in 1550 of the Tupi-Guarani tribes, states their belief in the destruction of their ancestors by a powerful supernatural being, Maire, in an inundation from which but a few were saved by climbing trees and hiding in caves. The same authority gives the names of three brothers, Krimen, Hermitten, and Coem, from whom these tribes claimed descent. The southern tribes speak of four brothers, two of them called Tupi and Guarani respectively, and parents of the racial divisions designated after them. Among the northern Tupi proper a very definite cosmogony is discovered. Toru-shom-pek, the sun, is their principle of good, and Toru-guenket, the moon, the power of evil. The latter is supposed to fall periodically and destroy the earth, and from her emanate all baneful influences, such as thunder-storms and floods. Tupi cosmology rests primarily upon the idea that all created things possess a maker or 'mother' who is solely responsible for the scheme of creation, no male influence being traceable. There are three other superior deities, who made the various natural families and are generally known among the Tupi tribes as Guaracy, the sun, creator of all animals, Jacy, the moon, creator of plant-life, and Peruda or Ruda, the god of generation, who promotes the reproduction of human beings. Each of these has a number of demiurges under him, served by numerous spirits who protect every individual animal, plant, and person. But Tupi cosmology varies with locality, and this accounts for the conflicting notices of its several investigators. Like the Arawaks, the Tupi believe in Tupan, who alone of his four brothers survived the deluge, but he does not appear as a creative agency. The conception of natural phenomena among the Tupi-Guarani tribes is no less curious than their theories of creation. They believe the Pleiades to be a swarm of celestial bees. The Bororos Indians and other tribes believe the Southern Cross to be the track of an emu, and the Milky Way an ash-track.

A TUPI-GUARANI LEGEND

During their voyage of exploration along the Rio Maraca, a tributary on the right bank of the Amazon, the mightiest river of the world, the leaders of the Croatian Scientific Mission in South America heard from native lips an interesting creation legend concerning the brothers Tupi and Guarani, the first forefathers of the tribes speaking the sister tongues called after them. This legend freely translated, runs as follows:

Tupi was once proceeding on a great journey to Pará, with his bow and arrow in his hands, and his inseparable companion, the wise parrot Maitá, on his shoulders. His younger brother Guarani followed in his track with the evil purpose of stealing Maitá, because Fortune (Toryba) had decreed that the possessor of this bird should have his daughter, the beautiful maiden Maricá ('fine leaf'), as his wife.

Maitá, endowed with all magic wisdom, was a unique bird. He spoke with his companion, knew exactly the spots in the primeval forest where game and fruits were to be found, and likewise kept watch and gave warning of the approach and the number of enemies. Tupi, although aware of the evil intentions of his younger brother, went cheerily and carelessly on his way, the magic bird shielding him against all surprise. The steps of the two brothers were to bring them to the banks of the Pará. Guarani, fitly known as 'the patient one,' did not fret. Maricá, the amiable daughter of Toryba, had long been in love with the younger of the brothers; their hearts had long been united in the primeval forest, where the world had often been forgotten in sweet kisses and embraces.

"Wait three days for me!" said the maiden, "I will bring you Maitá or be the prisoner of Tupi."

In the meantime Tupi reached the banks of the Pará and lay fast asleep under the shade of a great banana-tree (Pacobahyba).

"Awake, comrade!" cried Maitá. "The enemy is yet far distant, but the treacherous Maricá is in sight."

Hastily the warrior sprang up, and became aware of a mocking titter from the neighbouring bushes.

"Do not fear to come nearer, Maricá, my love. I will marry you, and you shall become the mother of my children,"

"Thou liest, Tupi!" answered the girl. "Give me thy bird and I will believe it!"

The eyes of the charming wood-nymph flashed alluringly upon the youth; he could not resist their magic and ordered the parrot to fly to the shoulder of his new companion; but the wise bird had no intention of furthering the false designs of the maiden, and did not move from the spot.

Tupi angrily repeated his order and made as if to strike the inattentive bird. Then Maitá flew to the very top of a slender palm, while the fleet-footed maiden endeavoured to disappear into the depths of the forest.

Tupi was by no means willing to lose the beauty, and set out after her with swinging strides, but in vain. Laughing heartily, the active little maid clambered up a thousand-year-old giant tree and would not be caught.

As if grown out of the earth Guarani suddenly appeared between them. The game of hide-and-seek came to an end, the rivals measured each other with glances of hatred, fell upon and grappled with one another. Like a squirrel the lovely Maricá climbed up a palm and seated herself beside the fugitive magic bird Maitá. Both desired to witness this unworthy fight between the twin brothers.

The day-star set, the moon arose, but the brothers did not move from the spot. They gripped each other fast, bloody sweat dripped from their brows, and their fiercely sparkling eyes declared that one of them must have no place on earth. The parrot screeched, and Maricá wept, for Guarani's strength seemed to be leaving him.

"Be gracious, mighty Tupan!" pleaded the daughter of Fate to the father of mankind. Tupan, the almighty, heard the maiden's prayer and ordered the bride of the Wind to separate the brothers. Forthwith the Flood (Pororoca) rose in storm amidst peals of thunder; uncanny crashings and rumblings broke the stillness of the primeval forest, the earth shook, and all the elements seemed to have broken loose. Trees and palms were overthrown, and fell into the foam-covered waves of the giant river. The parrot was lost in the skies, while Maricá was carried off by the wind and came to herself in her mother's hut. The terrified wrestlers ceased their struggle and looked in surprise at each other.

In the hope of catching Maricá, Tupi sprang upon a floating tree-trunk and entrusted his fate to the will of the waters, finally anchoring his ship of life to the opposite bank. There he settled down and became the ancestor of numerous Indian peoples, the Pitiguaras, Tupinambas, Tabajaras, Cahetes, Tupiniquias, and many others.

Guarani returned southward and founded the Guayanas, Carijos, Tapes, and many other generations of warlike Indian races.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF COSMOGONIES

We have now summarized the chief creation myths, and the question arises, How far have these influenced each other? The further question, Can they be traced to a common original account or accounts? we do not put, as it appears to us quite as futile as those 'researches' into the 'original language' of mankind.

Although not in any way denying the circulation of myth and its dissemination, we do not think that the theory of complete and wholesale borrowing from advanced races by savage peoples is confirmed by actual research. There are, it is admitted, well-authenticated examples of the colouring of savage myth by civilized cosmogonies; but these examples are easily distinguished by the practised student of myth, as they lack the fundamentals of barbarian myth--simplicity, 'savagery,' in short, that aboriginal artlessness and primitiveness which mark all early and unsophisticated religious thought. Unlike primitive myths, they possess the idea of the creation of something from nothing (that is, they do not describe re-creation instead of creation). Of creation myths exhibiting cultured influence there are very few, and when one creation tale resembles another a great deal of proof should be forthcoming before it is inferred that one has sophisticated the other or that both proceed from a common story.[8]

How absurd it is to credit all or most barbarian theology with an alien origin is seen from the _Popol Vuh_, already quoted, an aboriginal composition of the Kiche Indians of Guatemala. This work was written by a Christianized native of Guatemala some time in the seventeenth century, and was copied (in the Kiche language, in which it was originally written) by a Dominican friar, Francisco Ximenez, who added a Spanish translation and _scholia_. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, a profound student of American archæology and languages,[9] deplored, in a letter to the Duc de Valmy,[10] the supposed loss of the _Popol Vuh_ which he was aware had been made use of early in the nineteenth century by a certain Don Felix Cabrera. Dr C. Scherzer, an Austrian scholar, thus made aware of its value, paid a visit to the republic of Guatemala in 1854 or 1855, and was successful in tracing the missing manuscript in the library of the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala. It was afterward ascertained that its scholiast, Ximenez, had deposited it in the library of his convent at Chichicastenango, whence it passed to the San Carlos library in 1830. Scherzer made a copy of the Spanish translation of the manuscript, which he published at Vienna in 1856 under the title of _Las Historias del origen de los Indios de Guatemala, par el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez_. The Abbé Brasseur also took a copy of the original, which he published at Paris in 1861, with the title _Vuh Popol: Le livre sacré des Quiches, et les mythes de l'antiquité americaine_. In this work the Kiche original and the Abbé's French translation are set forth side by side. Unfortunately both the Spanish and the French translations leave much to be desired in accuracy, and the notes which accompany them are misleading. The name '_Popol Vuh_' signifies 'Record of the Community,' and its literal translation is 'Book of the Mat,' from the Kiche words _pop_ or _popol_, a mat or rug of woven leaves on which the entire family sat, and _vuh_ or _uuh,_ paper or book, from _uoch_, to write. The _Popol Vuh_ is an example of a world-wide _genre_--a type of annals of which the first portion is pure mythology, shading off into pure history, evolving from the hero-myths of saga to the recital of the deeds of authentic personages. It may, in fact, be classed with the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri, the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, the Chinese History in the Five Books, the Japanese _Nihongi_, and its fourth book somewhat resembles the Pictish Chronicle. The cosmogony of the _Popol Vuh_ exhibits no signs of Christian influence, and even if it did, it would be quite erroneous to infer that such influence was direct--that is, that the original compiler deliberately infused into the narrative what he knew of Hebrew cosmogony. The resemblance between the first few chapters of the _Popol Vuh_ and the creation myth in Genesis is slight and fortuitous. There are no precise points of contact, and the supposed resemblance has been drawn by writers only superficially acquainted with Kiche myth and wholly ignorant of its spirit and the processes which developed it. It is by no means difficult to prove the genuine American character of the _Popol Vuh_. A perusal should suffice. Macpherson, in his preface to the first edition of the poems of Ossian, says an "ingenious gentleman" before reading those poems imagined that out of modesty he had ascribed them to an ancient writer, but after reading them said they abounded too much in ideas only belonging to an early state of society to be the work of a modern poet. We need not trouble about the authorship of the poems of Ossian; but the ingenious gentleman could have said the same thing with justice of the _Popol Vuh_. To anyone who has given it a careful examination it must be abundantly evident that it has passed through several stages of development; that it is of aboriginal origin; and that it has not been influenced by European thought in any manner whatsoever. The fact that it was composed in the Kiche tongue is almost sufficient proof of its genuine American character. The scholarship of the nineteenth century was unequal to the adequate translation of the _Popol Vuh_; the twentieth century has as yet shown no signs of being able to accomplish the task; and if modern scholarship is unable to translate the work, the eighteenth century was unable to create it. No European of that time was sufficiently versed in Kiche theology and history to compose in faultless Kiche such a work as the _Popol Vuh_, breathing as it does in every line an intimate and natural acquaintance with the antiquities of Guatemala.

From these considerations it will be clear that the Hebrew cosmogony has neither coloured nor veneered the account of creation in the _Popol Vuh_, nor have its transcribers destroyed the veritable aboriginal thought which lies beneath. The account of the making of man, for example, is totally different in Genesis and in the Kiche production. "Giants in those days" appear in both, but in the first they are merely alluded to, whereas in the second a very full account is provided of their destruction. The star and sun myths of the two accounts have no resemblance, and the sole likeness is in the opening scene,[11] where the vast abyss in which the original deity or deities sleep is pictured. Its resemblance to other American cosmogonies has been amply proved; and to credit the whole, as has been done, to Christian influence _alone_ is characteristic of the period in which the criticism was promulgated--a period of superficial learning and cheap generalization like that of certain present-day critics and ultra-popular writers on mythology and folklore, and improperly equipped persons at all times.[12]

We do not desire, as we have already said, to deny the existence of borrowed or sophisticated cosmogonies, but these are of late origin, easily perceived, and as a rule merely veil a primitive or much earlier original. The following instance, alluded to by the late Professor Brinton, well serves to illustrate the point in question. He says:

"Very soon after coming in contact with the whites, the Indians caught the notion of a bad and good spirit, pitted one against the other in eternal warfare, and engrafted it on their ancient traditions. Writers anxious to discover Jewish or Christian analogies forcibly construed myths to suit their pet theories, and for indolent observers it was convenient to catalogue their gods in antithetical classes. In Mexican and Peruvian mythology this is so plainly false that historians no longer insist upon it, but as a popular error it still holds its ground with reference to the more barbarous and less known tribes. Perhaps no myth has been so often quoted in its confirmation as that of the ancient Iroquois, which narrates the conflict between the first two brothers of our race. It is of undoubted native origin and venerable antiquity. The version given by the Tuscarora chief Cusic in 1825 relates that in the beginning of things there were two brothers, Enigorio and Enigohatgea, names literally meaning the Good Mind and the Bad Mind. (Or more exactly, the Beautiful Spirit, the Ugly Spirit In Onondaga the radicals are _onigonra_, spirit; _hio_, beautiful; _ahetken_, ugly.) The former went about the world furnishing it with gentle streams, fertile plains, and plenteous fruits, while the latter maliciously followed him, creating rapids, thorns, and deserts. At length the Good Mind turned upon his brother in anger, and crushed him into the earth. He sank out of sight in its depths, but not to perish, for in the dark realms of the Underworld he still lives, receiving the souls of the dead, and being the author of all evil. Now when we compare this with the version of the same legend given by Father Brebeuf, missionary to the Hurons in 1636, we find its whole complexion altered; the moral dualism vanishes; the names Good Mind and Bad Mind do not appear; it is the struggle of Ioskeha, the White one, with his brother Tawiscara, the Dark one, and we at once perceive that Christian influence in the course of two centuries had given the tale a meaning foreign to its original intent."[13]

No student of myth of any experience would for a moment accept the first-mentioned tale as solely of aboriginal origin. Its ethical trend would make this at least doubtful. It would not be correct to say that an ethical spirit never enters into the religious tales of savages, but it should certainly be regarded with suspicion until it is proved to be aboriginal. It is not surprising to find it in the tales of Egyptians, Hebrews, Peruvians, and people of considerable culture; but to encounter it in the stories of Africans, American Indians, and savages who have been long in contact with Europeans should at once arouse suspicion. Never let us neglect, however, the matter which lies beneath the cultural veneer. The Uapès Indians of Brazil include both Jurupari and the Christian hierarchy in their pantheon. We know that the latter are new-comers there; but let us not neglect Jurupari! We know that Roman belief sophisticated Gallic religious practice; but is that to say that it submerged it?

In order to show exactly where the most notable creation myths impinge upon each other and exhibit resemblances, the following tables have been drawn up, which indicate this at a glance. It will be seen that most of those which bear resemblances are situated in regions excessively remote--an argument in favour of those who believe that the religious evolution of man has followed similar lines in all parts of the habitable globe.

CONCLUSIONS

The idea of a primeval abyss is common to Egypt,
Babylonia, India, Scandinavia, the Celts, some North
American Indians.

The original god (or gods) finds himself in this abyss in
the myths of Egypt, Babylonia, India, the Hebrews, the
Maya-Kiches.

The original god (or gods) broods over the face of the
waters in Hebrew, Polynesian, North American Indian, and
Maya-Kiche myth.

The universe is manufactured from the corpse of a primeval
being in the myths of Babylonia, China, Scandinavia,
Hindus (Purusha).

Life or matter is created by the spoken word of the
original god in the myths of Egypt, the Hebrews, the
Celts, the Maya-Kiches.

The idea of the cosmic egg appears in the myths of Egypt,
India, Japan, Peru.

Man emanates: from the tears of a god (Egypt), from the
blood and bones of a god (Babylonia), from clay (the
Hebrews and North American Indians), from worms (China),
from wooden images or trees (Scandinavia, Maya-Kiches,
Iran), from the sweat of a god or giant (Iran and
Scandinavia), from the union of a god and an animal (some
North American Indians).

The eyes of a god or demiurge become the sun and moon in
the cosmogonies of Egypt, China, Scandinavia (?).

The piece of earth from which the new world is constructed
is fished out of the waters of the deluge by an animal
in some North American Indian myths, and perhaps in the
original form of the Hebrew myth.

PRINCIPAL CREATION MYTHS SUMMARIZED

EGYPT

(1) A god finding himself in a primeval abyss, where he
has been since the beginning of time, utters his name.
This act causes him to 'live.'

(2) He next creates, by a magical act, a foundation upon
which to stand, probably the earth.

(3) From his mouth he brings objects which reproduce
themselves.

(4) He creates two other deities, male and female, who in
turn propagate other gods.

(5) Vegetation and creeping things are formed on the earth.

(6) Man is then created from the tears which fall from the
original deity.

BABYLONIA

(1) Primeval deities dwell in an abyss.

(2) New gods arrive (?) and quarrel with them.

(3) Two of the primeval deities are slain, but the third,
a female, creates monsters and gives battle to the
new-comers, and is annihilated.

(4) The new gods create the earth and firmament from her
corpse.

(5) Their champion is decapitated, and from his blood and
bones springs the race of mankind.

CHINESE

(1) From nothingness an atom is formed.

(2) In the course of ages it splits into a male and female
principle which again split in two.

(3) From the co-operation of these four elements springs a
being whose body is broken up into the constituents of a
universe, and the worms from its decomposing corpse become
men.

SCANDINAVIAN

(1) There exists a yawning abyss, bordered on one side
by a realm of mist and cold, on the other by a region of
fire.

(2) A giant is brought into being through the melting of
the congealing vapour in the place of cold by a spark of
fire from the region of Muspelheim.

(3) This being becomes the progenitor of a race of giants.

(4) He has a cow which, by licking a brine-covered rock,
produces the father of the gods.

(5) These gods slay the giant and all his progeny save
two, and manufacture the earth from his corpse.

(6) Alternatively the gods lift the earth out of the
primeval waters.

(7) The dwarfs fashion two figures out of trees, and the
gods give them life and understanding.

CELTS

(1) Two principles, creative and destructive, are alluded
to.

(2) The latter dwells in an abyss.

(3) Atomic life originates through the spoken words of the
creative principle.

(4) Man passes from the abyss to the earth-circle.

JAPANESE

(1) Male and female elements separate from the original
atom.

(2) These form an ovoid body containing germs from which
heaven and earth are formed.

(3) A species of reed-shoot appears between them and is
transformed into a god.

(4) Divine beings are born, two of whom unite and give
birth to islands, seas, rivers, herbs, and trees, and the
celestial bodies.

[1] _Original Sanscrit Texts_, London, 1868, vol. v, p. 356.

[2] See Budge, _The Gods of Egypt_ (1904).

[3] See King, _Seven Tablets of Creation_(1902); and _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_ (1899).

[4] Gomara, _Conquista de Mejico_, chap. ccxv (Madrid, 1749).

[5] Mendieta, _Hist. Eccl. Ind_., lib. i, chap. 2 (Mexico, 1870).

[6] See my _The Popol Vuh_, pp. 9-26 (London, 1908).

[7] W. H. Brett, _Indian Tribes of Guiana_, p. 378 _et seq._(1865).

[8] This question has been dealt with at greater length elsewhere (see p. 158).

[9] His euhemeristic interpretations of the Mexican myths are as worthless as the materials he unearthed are priceless.

[10] Mexico, October 15, 1850.

[11] This has, in fact, quite as strong a resemblance to the cosmological account in the _Satapatha Brahmana_ in some details.

[12] A disquieting circumstance attending such ignorant criticism is that those who criticize appear in many instances to be quite unable to apprehend the substantial difficulties in the way of barbarian borrowings. Thus a reviewer in a weekly journal of standing actually inferred that certain North American Indian myths presented by the author had been sophisticated by Greek and classical tales. However well the theory of borrowing may explain things, and although borrowing does at times occur, the difficulties in this especial instance are overwhelming. They were quite unappreciated, however, by the reviewer, whose experience of myth was, of course, obviously limited. Students of myth would do well to bear the point of virtual impossibility in mind, as it is of constant occurrence, and one regarding which no fixed or definite rules or laws can possibly obtain.

[13] _Myths of the New World_ by Professor D. G. Brinton (Philadelphia, 1905).