Chapter XI

THE INFLUENCE OF THE NATIVE RELIGIONS ON THE MORAL AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE RACE.

Natural religions hitherto considered of Evil rather than of
Good.--Distinctions to be drawn.--Morality not derived from
religion.--The positive side of natural religions in incarnations
of divinity.--Examples.--Prayers as indices of religious
progress.--Religion and social advancement.--Conclusion.

Drawing toward the conclusion of my essay, I I am sensible that the vast field of American mythology remains for most part untouched--that I have but proved that it is not an absolute wilderness, pathless as the tropical jungles which now conceal the temples of the race; but that, go where we will, certain landmarks and guide-posts are visible, revealing uniformity of design and purpose, and refuting, by their presence, the oft-repeated charge of entire incoherence and aimlessness. It remains to examine the subjective power of the native religions, their influence on those who held them, and the place they deserve in the history of the race. What are their merits, if merits they have? what their demerits? Did they purify the life and enlighten the mind, or the contrary? Are they in short of evil or of good? The problem is complex--its solution most difficult. The author who of late years has studied most profoundly the savage races of the globe, expresses the discouraging conviction: "Their religions have not acted as levers to raise them to civilization; they have rather worked, and that powerfully, to impede every step in advance, in the first place by ascribing everything unintelligible in nature to spiritual agency, and then by making the fate of man dependent on mysterious and capricious forces, not on his own skill and foresight."[288-1]

It would ill accord with the theory of mythology which I have all along maintained if this verdict were final. But in fact these false doctrines brought with them their own antidotes, at least to some extent, and while we give full weight to their evil, let us also acknowledge their good. By substituting direct divine interference for law, belief for knowledge, a dogma for a fact, the highest stimulus to mental endeavor was taken away. Nature, to the heathen, is no harmonious whole swayed by eternal principles, but a chaos of causeless effects, the meaningless play of capricious ghosts. He investigates not, because he doubts not. All events are to him miracles. Therefore his faith knows no bounds, and those who teach that doubt is sinful must contemplate him with admiration. The damsels of Nicaragua destined to be thrown into the seething craters of volcanoes, went to their fate, says Pascual de Andagoya, "happy as if they were going to be saved,"[288-2] and doubtless believing so. The subjects of a Central American chieftain, remarks Oviedo, "look upon it as the crown of favors to be permitted to die with their cacique, and thus to acquire immortality."[288-3] The terrible power exerted by the priests rested, as they themselves often saw, largely on the implicit and literal acceptance of their dicta.

In some respects the contrast here offered to enlightened nations is not always in favor of the latter. Borrowing the pointed antithesis of the poet, the mind is often tempted to exclaim--

"This is all
The gain we reap from all the wisdom sown
Through ages: Nothing doubted those first sons
Of Time, while we, the schooled of centuries,
Nothing believe."

But the complaint is unfounded. Faith is dearly bought at the cost of knowledge; nor in a better sense has it yet gone from among us. Far more sublime than any known to the barbarian is the faith of the astronomer, who spends the nights in marking the seemingly wayward motions of the stars, or of the anatomist, who studies with unwearied zeal the minute fibres of the organism, each upheld by the unshaken conviction that from least to greatest throughout this universe, purpose and order everywhere prevail.

Natural religions rarely offer more than this negative opposition to reason. They are tolerant to a degree. The savage, void of any clear conception of a supreme deity, sets up no claim that his is the only true church. If he is conquered in battle, he imagines that it is owing to the inferiority of his own gods to those of his victor, and he rarely therefore requires any other reasons to make him a convert. Acting on this principle, the Incas, when they overcame a strange province, sent its most venerated idol for a time to the temple of the Sun at Cuzco, thus proving its inferiority to their own divinity, but took no more violent steps to propagate their creeds.[290-1] So in the city of Mexico there was a temple appropriated to the idols of conquered nations in which they were shut up, both to prove their weakness and prevent them from doing mischief. A nation, like an individual, was not inclined to patronize a deity who had manifested his incompetence by allowing his charge to be gradually worn away by constant disaster. As far as can now be seen, in matters intellectual, the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru were far more liberal than that introduced by the Spanish conquerors, which, claiming the monopoly of truth, sought to enforce its claim by inquisitions and censorships.

In this view of the relative powers of deities lay a potent corrective to the doctrine that the fate of man was dependent on the caprices of the gods. For no belief was more universal than that which assigned to each individual a guardian spirit. This invisible monitor was an ever present help in trouble. He suggested expedients, gave advice and warning in dreams, protected in danger, and stood ready to foil the machinations of enemies, divine or human. With unlimited faith in this protector, attributing to him the devices suggested by his own quick wits and the fortunate chances of life, the savage escaped the oppressive thought that he was the slave of demoniac forces, and dared the dangers of the forest and the war path without anxiety.

By far the darkest side of such a religion is that which it presents to morality. The religious sense is by no means the voice of conscience. The Takahli Indian when sick makes a full and free confession of sins, but a murder, however unnatural and unprovoked, he does not mention, not counting it crime.[291-1] Scenes of brutal licentiousness were approved and sustained throughout the continent as acts of worship; maidenhood was in many parts freely offered up or claimed by the priests as a right; in Central America twins were slain for religious motives; human sacrifice was common throughout the tropics, and was not unusual in higher latitudes; cannibalism was often enjoined; and in Peru, Florida, and Central America it was not uncommon for parents to slay their own children at the behest of a priest.[291-2] The philosophical moralist, contemplating such spectacles, has thought to recognize in them one consoling trait. All history, it has been said, shows man living under an irritated God, and seeking to appease him by sacrifice of blood; the essence of all religion, it has been added, lies in that of which sacrifice is the symbol, namely, in the offering up of self, in the rendering up of our will to the will of God.[291-3] But sacrifice, when not a token of gratitude, cannot be thus explained. It is not a rendering up, but a _substitution_ of our will for God's will. A deity is angered by neglect of his dues; he will revenge, certainly, terribly, we know not how or when. But as punishment is all he desires, if we punish ourselves he will be satisfied; and far better is such self-inflicted torture than a fearful looking for of judgment to come. Craven fear, not without some dim sense of the implacability of nature's laws, is at its root. Looking only at this side of religion, the ancient philosopher averred that the gods existed solely in the apprehensions of their votaries, and the moderns have asserted that "fear is the father of religion, love her late-born daughter;"[292-1] that "the first form of religious belief is nothing else but a horror of the unknown," and that "no natural religion appears to have been able to develop from a germ within itself anything whatever of real advantage to civilization."[292-2]

Far be it from me to excuse the enormities thus committed under the garb of religion, or to ignore their disastrous consequences on human progress. Yet this question is a fair one--If the natural religious belief has in it no germ of anything better, whence comes the manifest and undeniable improvement occasionally witnessed--as, for example, among the Toltecs, the Peruvians, and the Mayas? The reply is, by the influence of great men, who cultivated within themselves a purer faith, lived it in their lives, preached it successfully to their fellows, and, at their death, still survived in the memory of their nation, unforgotten models of noble qualities.[293-1] Where, in America, is any record of such men? We are pointed, in answer, to Quetzalcoatl, Viracocha, Zamna, and their congeners. But these august figures I have shown to be wholly mythical, creations of the religious fancy, parts and parcels of the earliest religion itself. The entire theory falls to nothing, therefore, and we discover a positive side to natural religions--one that conceals a germ of endless progress, which vindicates their lofty origin, and proves that He "is not far from every one of us."

I have already analyzed these figures under their physical aspect. Let it be observed in what antithesis they stand to most other mythological creations. Let it be remembered that they primarily correspond to the stable, the regular, the cosmical phenomena, that they are always conceived under human form, not as giants, fairies, or strange beasts; that they were said at one time to have been visible leaders of their nations, that they did not suffer death, and that, though absent, they are ever present, favoring those who remain mindful of their precepts. I touched but incidentally on their moral aspects. This was likewise in contrast to the majority of inferior deities. The worship of the latter was a tribute extorted by fear. The Indian deposits tobacco on the rocks of a rapid, that the spirit of the swift waters may not swallow his canoe; in a storm he throws overboard a dog to appease the siren of the angry waves. He used to tear the hearts from his captives to gain the favor of the god of war. He provides himself with talismans to bind hostile deities. He fees[TN-17] the conjurer to exorcise the demon of disease. He loves none of them, he respects none of them; he only fears their wayward tempers. They are to him mysterious, invisible, capricious goblins. But, in his highest divinity, he recognized a Father and a Preserver, a benign Intelligence, who provided for him the comforts of life--man, like himself, yet a god--God of All. "Go and do good," was the parting injunction of his father to Michabo in Algonkin legend;[294-1] and in their ancient and uncorrupted stories such is ever his object. "The worship of Tamu," the culture hero of the Guaranis, says the traveller D'Orbigny, "is one of reverence, not of fear."[294-2] They were ideals, summing up in themselves the best traits, the most approved virtues of whole nations, and were adored in a very different spirit from other divinities.

None of them has more humane and elevated traits than Quetzalcoatl. He was represented of majestic stature and dignified demeanor. In his train came skilled artificers and men of learning. He was chaste and temperate in life, wise in council, generous of gifts, conquering rather by arts of peace than of war; delighting in music, flowers, and brilliant colors, and so averse to human sacrifices that he shut his ears with both hands when they were even mentioned.[295-1] Such was the ideal man and supreme god of a people who even a Spanish monk of the sixteenth century felt constrained to confess were "a good people, attached to virtue, urbane and simple in social intercourse, shunning lies, skilful in arts, pious toward their gods."[295-2] Is it likely, is it possible, that with such a model as this before their minds, they received no benefit from it? Was not this a lever, and a mighty one, lifting the race toward civilization and a purer faith?

Transfer the field of observation to Yucatan, and we find in Zamna, to New Granada and in Nemqueteba, to Peru and in Viracocha, or his reflex Manco Capac, the lineaments of Quetzalcoatl--modified, indeed, by difference of blood and temperament, but each combining in himself all the qualities most esteemed by their several nations. Were one or all of these proved to be historical personages, still the fact remains that the primitive religious sentiment, investing them with the best attributes of humanity, dwelling on them as its models, worshipping them as gods, contained a kernel of truth potent to encourage moral excellence. But if they were mythical, then this truth was of spontaneous growth, self-developed by the growing distinctness of the idea of God, a living witness that the religious sense, like every other faculty, has within itself a power of endless evolution.

If we inquire the secret of the happier influence of this element in natural worship, it is all contained in one word--its _humanity_. "The Ideal of Morality," says the contemplative Novalis, "has no more dangerous rival than the Ideal of the Greatest Strength, of the most vigorous life, the Brute Ideal" (_das Thier-Ideal_).[296-1] Culture advances in proportion as man recognizes what faculties are peculiar to him _as man_, and devotes himself to their education. The moral value of religions can be very precisely estimated by the human or the brutal character of their gods. The worship of Quetzalcoatl in the city of Mexico was subordinate to that of lower conceptions, and consequently the more sanguinary and immoral were the rites there practised. The Algonkins, who knew no other meaning for Michabo than the Great Hare, had lost, by a false etymology, the best part of their religion.

Looking around for other standards wherewith to measure the progress of the knowledge of divinity in the New World, _prayer_ suggests itself as one of the least deceptive. "Prayer," to quote again the words of Novalis,[296-2] "is in religion what thought is in philosophy. The religious sense prays, as the reason thinks." Guizot, carrying the analysis farther, thinks that it is prompted by a painful conviction of the inability of our will to conform to the dictates of reason.[296-3] Originally it was connected with the belief that divine caprice, not divine law, governs the universe, and that material benefits rather than spiritual gifts are to be desired. The gradual recognition of its limitations and proper objects marks religious advancement. The Lord's Prayer contains seven petitions, only one of which is for a temporal advantage, and it the least that can be asked for. What immeasurable interval between it and the prayer of the Nootka Indian on preparing for war!--

"Great Quahootze, let me live, not be sick, find the enemy, not fear him, find him asleep, and kill a great many of him."[297-1]

Or again, between it and the petition of a Huron to a local god, heard by Father Brebeuf:--

"Oki, thou who livest in this spot, I offer thee tobacco. Help us, save us from shipwreck, defend us from our enemies, give us a good trade, and bring us back safe and sound to our villages."[297-2]

This is a fair specimen of the supplications of the lowest religion. Another equally authentic is given by Father Allouez.[297-3] In 1670 he penetrated to an outlying Algonkin village, never before visited by a white man. The inhabitants, startled by his pale face and long black gown, took him for a divinity. They invited him to the council lodge, a circle of old men gathered around him, and one of them, approaching him with a double handful of tobacco, thus addressed him, the others grunting approval:--

"This, indeed, is well, Blackrobe, that thou dost visit us. Have mercy upon us. Thou art a Manito. We give thee to smoke.

"The Naudowessies and Iroquois are devouring us. Have mercy upon us.

"We are often sick; our children die; we are hungry. Have mercy upon us. Hear me, O Manito, I give thee to smoke.

"Let the earth yield us corn; the rivers give us fish; sickness not slay us; nor hunger so torment us. Hear us, O Manito, we give thee to smoke."

In this rude but touching petition, wrung from the heart of a miserable people, nothing but their wretchedness is visible. Not the faintest trace of an aspiration for spiritual enlightenment cheers the eye of the philanthropist, not the remotest conception that through suffering we are purified can be detected.

By the side of these examples we may place the prayers of Peru and Mexico, forms composed by the priests, written out, committed to memory, and repeated at certain seasons. They are not less authentic, having been collected and translated in the first generation after the conquest. One to Viracocha Pachacamac, was as follows:--

"O Pachacamac, thou who hast existed from the beginning and shalt exist unto the end, powerful and pitiful; who createdst man by saying, let man be; who defendest us from evil and preservest our life and health; art thou in the sky or in the earth, in the clouds or in the depths? Hear the voice of him who implores thee, and grant him his petitions. Give us life everlasting, preserve us, and accept this our sacrifice."[299-1]

In the voluminous specimens of Aztec prayers preserved by Sahagun, moral improvement, the "spiritual gift," is very rarely if at all the object desired. Health, harvests, propitious rains, release from pain, preservation from dangers, illness, and defeat, these are the almost unvarying themes. But here and there we catch a glimpse of something better, some dim sense of the divine beauty of suffering, some feeble glimmering of the grand truth so nobly expressed by the poet:--

aus des Busens Tiefe stroemt Gedeihn
Der festen Duldung und entschlossner That.
Nicht Schmerz ist Unglueck, Glueck nicht immer Freude;
Wer sein Geschick erfuellt, dem laecheln beide.

"Is it possible," says one of them, "that this scourge, this affliction, is sent to us not for our correction and improvement, but for our destruction and annihilation? O Merciful Lord, let this chastisement with which thou hast visited us, thy people, be as those which a father or mother inflicts on their children, not out of anger, but to the end that they may be free from follies and vices." Another formula, used when a chief was elected to some important position, reads: "O Lord, open his eyes and give him light, sharpen his ears and give him understanding, not that he may use them to his own advantage, but for the good of the people he rules. Lead him to know and to do thy will, let him be as a trumpet which sounds thy words. Keep him from the commission of injustice and oppression."[300-1]

At first, good and evil are identical with pleasure and pain, luck and ill-luck. "The good are good warriors and hunters," said a Pawnee chief,[300-2] which would also be the opinion of a wolf, if he could express it. Gradually the eyes of the mind are opened, and it is perceived that "whom He loveth, He chastiseth," and physical give[TN-18] place to moral ideas of good and evil. Finally, as the idea of God rises more distinctly before the soul, as "the One by whom, in whom, and through whom all things are," evil is seen to be the negation, not the opposite of good, and itself "a porch oft opening on the sun."

The influence of these religions on art, science, and social life, must also be weighed in estimating their value.

Nearly all the remains of American plastic art, sculpture, and painting, were obviously designed for religious purposes. Idols of stone, wood, or baked clay, were found in every Indian tribe, without exception, so far as I can judge; and in only a few directions do these arts seem to have been applied to secular purposes. The most ambitious attempts of architecture, it is plain, were inspired by religious fervor. The great pyramid of Cholula, the enormous mounds of the Mississippi valley, the elaborate edifices on artificial hills in Yucatan, were miniature representations of the mountains hallowed by tradition, the "Hill of Heaven," the peak on which their ancestors escaped in the flood, or that in the terrestrial paradise from which flow the rains. Their construction took men away from war and the chase, encouraged agriculture, peace, and a settled disposition, and fostered the love of property, of country, and of the gods. The priests were also close observers of nature, and were the first to discover its simpler laws. The Aztec sages were as devoted star-gazers as the Chaldeans, and their calendar bears unmistakable marks of native growth, and of its original purpose to fix the annual festivals. Writing by means of pictures and symbols was cultivated chiefly for religious ends, and the word _hieroglyph_ is a witness that the phonetic alphabet was discovered under the stimulus of the religious sentiment. Most of the aboriginal literature was composed and taught by the priests, and most of it refers to matters connected with their superstitions. As the gifts of votaries and the erection of temples enriched the sacerdotal order individually and collectively, the terrors of religion were lent to the secular arm to enforce the rights of property. Music, poetic, scenic, and historical recitations, formed parts of the ceremonies of the more civilized nations, and national unity was strengthened by a common shrine. An active barter in amulets, lucky stones, and charms, existed all over the continent, to a much greater extent than we might think. As experience demonstrates that nothing so efficiently promotes civilization as the free and peaceful intercourse of man with man, I lay particular stress on the common custom of making pilgrimages.

The temple on the island of Cozumel in Yucatan was visited every year by such multitudes from all parts of the peninsula, that roads, paved with cut stones, had been constructed from the neighboring shore to the principal cities of the interior.[302-1] Each village of the Muyscas is said to have had a beaten path to Lake Guatavita, so numerous were the devotees who journeyed to the shrine there located.[302-2] In Peru the temples of Pachacama, Rimac, and other famous gods, were repaired to by countless numbers from all parts of the realm, and from other provinces within a radius of three hundred leagues around. Houses of entertainment were established on all the principal roads, and near the temples, for their accommodation; and when they made known the object of their journey, they were allowed a safe passage even through an enemy's territory.[302-3]

* * * * *

The more carefully we study history, the more important in our eyes will become the religious sense. It is almost the only faculty peculiar to man. It concerns him nearer than aught else. It is the key to his origin and destiny. As such it merits in all its developments the most earnest attention, an attention we shall find well repaid in the clearer conceptions we thus obtain of the forces which control the actions and fates of individuals and nations.

FOOTNOTES:

[288-1] Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_, i. p. 459.

[288-2] Navarrete, _Viages_, iii. p. 415.

[288-3] _Relation de Cueba_, p. 140. Ed. Ternaux-Compans.

[290-1] La Vega, _Hist. des Incas_, liv. v. cap. 12.

[291-1] Morse, _Rep. on the Ind. Tribes_, App. p. 345.

[291-2] Ximenes, _Origen de los Indios de Guatemala_, p. 192; Acosta, _Hist. of the New World_, lib. v. chap. 18.

[291-3] Joseph de Maistre, _Eclaircissement sur les Sacrifices_; Trench, _Hulsean Lectures_, p. 180. The famed Abbe Lammenaais and Professor Sepp, of Munich, with these two writers, may be taken as the chief exponents of a school of mythologists, all of whom start from the theories first laid down by Count de Maistre in his _Soirees de St. Petersbourg_. To them the strongest proof of Christianity lies in the traditions and observances of heathendom. For these show the wants of the religious sense, and Christianity, they maintain, purifies and satisfies them all. The rites, symbols, and legends of every natural religion, they say, are true and not false; all that is required is to assign them their proper places and their real meaning. Therefore the strange resemblances in heathen myths to what is revealed in the Scriptures, as well as the ethical anticipations which have been found in ancient philosophies, all, so far from proving that Christianity is a natural product of the human mind, in fact, are confirmations of it, unconscious prophecies, and presentiments of the truth.

[292-1] Alfred Maury, _La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquite et au Moyen Age_, p. 8: Paris, 1860.

[292-2] Waitz, _Anthropologie_, i. pp. 325, 465.

[293-1] So says Dr. Waitz, _ibid._, p. 465.

[294-1] Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, i. p. 143.

[294-2] _L'Homme Americain_, ii. p. 319.

[295-1] Brasseur, _Hist. du Mexique_, liv. iii. chaps. 1 and 2.

[295-2] Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva Espana_, lib. x. cap. 29.

[296-1] Novalis, _Schriften_, i. p. 244: Berlin, 1837.

[296-2] Ibid., p. 267.

[296-3] _Hist. de la Civilisation en France_, i. pp. 122, 130.

[297-1] _Narrative of J. R. Jewett among the Savages of Nootka Sound_, p. 121.

[297-2] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, An 1636, p. 109.

[297-3] Ibid., An 1670, p. 99.

[299-1] Geronimo de Ore, _Symbolo Catholico Indiano_, chap, ix., quoted by Ternaux-Compans. De Ore was a native of Peru and held the position of Professor of Theology in Cuzco in the latter half of the sixteenth century. He was a man of great erudition, and there need be no hesitation in accepting this extraordinary prayer as genuine. For his life and writings see Nic. Antonio, _Bib. Hisp. Nova_, tom. ii. p. 43.

[300-1] Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva Espana_, lib. vi. caps. 1, 4.

[300-2] Morse, _Rep. on the Ind. Tribes_, App. p. 250.

[302-1] Cogolludo, _Hist. de Yucathan_, lib. iv. cap. 9. Compare Stephens, _Travs. in Yucatan_, ii. p. 122, who describes the remains of these roads as they now exist.

[302-2] Rivero and Tschudi, _Antiqs. of Peru_, p. 162.

[302-3] La Vega, _Hist. des Incas_, lib. vi. chap. 30; Xeres, _Rel de la Conq. du Perou_, p. 151; _Let. sur les Superstit. du Perou_, p. 98, and others.

INDEX.

Abnakis, 174

Acagchemem, a Californian tribe, 105

Age of man in America, 35-37

Ages of the world, 213 sq.

Akakanet, 61

Akanzas, 238

Akenatzi, 284

Algonkins, location, 26
name of God, 58 n.[TN-19]
mythical ancestors, 77
veneration of birds, 103
of serpents, 108, 109, 113, 116
myths and rites, 133, 136, 144, 147, 151, 161, 174, 198, 209, 220,
224, 236, 240, 244, 248, 277, 297

Aluberi, a name of God, 58 n.[TN-19]

Anahuac, 29, 282

Angont, a mythical serpent, 136

Apalachian tribes, 27, 225

Apocatequil, a Peruvian deity, 153

Ararats, of America, 203

Araucanians, 33
name of God, 48, 61
myths, 204, 248

Arks, 255

Arowacks, 58 n.[TN-19]

Ataensic, an Iroquois deity, 123, 131, 170

Ataguju, or Atachuchu, 152

Atatarho, mythical Iroquois chief, 118

Athapascan tribes, 24
myths, 104, 150, 195, 205, 229, 248, 257

Atl, an Aztec deity, 131

Aurora borealis, 245

Aymaras, 31, 34, 177

Aztecs, their books and characters, 10
divisions, 29
names of God, 48, 50, 58 n.[TN-19]
government, 69
rites, 72, 126, 127, 147
calendar, 74
worship of cross, 95
names of cardinal points, 93
worship of birds, 102, 106, 107
of serpents, 111
myths, 132, 133, 134, 138, 144, 156, 171, 181, 205, 214 sq., 227,
240, 246, 248, 252, 258
priests, 282
prayers, 292

Aztlan, 181

Bacab, Maya gods, 80

Baptism, 125 seq.

Bimini, 87

Bird, symbol of, 101 sq., 195 sq., 229, 254

Blue, symbolic meaning of, 47

Bochica, 183

Boiuca, a mythical isle, 87

Bones, preservation of, 255
soul in the, 257

Botocudos, 123, 201

Brasseur, Abbe, his works, 41

Brazilian tribes, 102, 134, 250
(See _Tupis_, _Botocudos_.)

Busk, a Creek festival, 71, 96

Caddoes, 93, 203

Camaxtli, 158

Cardinal points, adoration of, 67 sq.
names of, 93 sq.

Caribs, 32
theory of lightning, 104, 114
myths and rites, 145, 184, 223, 237, 244, 256
priests, 282

Catequil. (See _Apocatequil_.)

Centeotl, goddess of maize, 22, 134

Chac, Maya gods, 80

Chalchihuitlycue, an Aztec god, 123

Chantico, an Aztec god, 138

Cherokees, location, 25
name of God, 51
serpent myth, 115
baptism, 128
deluge, 205
priests, 281

Chia, goddess of Muyscas, 134

Chichimec, 139 n., 158

Chicomoztoc, the Seven Caves, 227

Chicunoapa, the Aztec Styx, 249

Chipeways, picture-writing, 10
records, 17
magicians, 71
myths, 163, 168

Choctaws, location, 27
name of God, 51
myths, 84 n.,[TN-20] 225, 261
priests, 281

Cholula, 180, 181, 204, 228

Cihuacoatl, the Serpent Woman, 120

Cihuapipilti, 246

Circumcision, 147

Citatli, 131

Clairvoyance, 269

Coatlicue, 118

Colors, symbolism of, 47, 80, 140, 165

Con or Contici, 155, 176

Coxcox, 202

Craniology, American, 35

Creation, myths of, 193 seq.

Creeks, location, 27
name of God, 50
rites, 71, 96
mythical ancestors, 77
serpent myth, 115
other myths, 137, 225, 242, 244
priests, 273, 283

Cross, symbolic meaning of, 95-7, 183, 188
of Palenque, 118

Cupay,[TN-21] the Quichua Pluto, 61, 251

Cusic, his Iroquois legends, 63, 108 n.

Dakotas, location, 28
rites, 71
language, 75
mythical ancestors, 77
myths, 62, 103, 133, 150, 237, 259, 279

Dawn, myths of, 166, 167, 175, 227

Delawares, 140 n., 144
(See _Lenni Lenape_.)

Deluge, myth, origin, etc., 198-212

Devil, idea of unknown to red race, 59, 251

Divination, 278

Dobayba, 123

Dog, as a symbol, 137, 229, 247-9

Dove, as a a[TN-22] symbol, 107

Dualism, moral, not found in America, 59
sexual not found, 146

Eagle, as a symbol, 104

East, myths, concerning, 91, 165, 174, 180
(See _Dawn_.)

Eastman, Mrs., her _Legends of the Sioux_, 103

Eldorado,[TN-23] 87

Enigorio and Enigohahetgea, 63

Epochs of nature, 200 seq.

Esaugetuh Emissee, 50

Eskimos, location, 23
name of chief god, 50, 76
term for south, 94
veneration of birds, 101
myths, 173 n., 193, 226, 229, 241, 245, 261, 280

Fear in religion, 141, 292

Fire-worship, 140 seq.

Flood-myth. (See _Deluge_.)

Florida, 87

Forty, a sacred number, 94

Fountain of youth, 129

Four, the sacred number of red race, 66 sq., 105, 157, 167, 178, 182,
184, 240

Four brothers, the myth of, 76-83, 152, 167, 178, 182

Garhonia, Iroquois deity, 48

Gizhigooke, the day-maker, 169

Guaranis, 32, 84 n.[TN-20]

Guatavita Lake, 124

Gucumatz, the bird-serpent, 118

Gumongo, god of the Monquis, 93

Haitians, myths of, 78, 85, 135, 188

Hand, symbol of the, 183

Haokah, Dakota thunder god, 151

Hawaneu. (See _Neo_.)

Heaven, the, of the red race, 243

Hell, the hidden world, 252

Heno, Iroquois thunder-god, 156

Hiawatha, myth of, 172

Hobbamock, 60

Huemac, the Strong-hand, 181, 183

Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, 118, 282

Hunting, its effect on the mind, 21, 67, 100

Hurakan or hurricane, meaning of, 51
a Maya god, 81, 82, 114, 156, 196

Hurons, 25, 48, 114, 136, 169, 248, 250, 275

Hushtoli, Choctaw name of God, 51

Illatici, Quichua name of God, 55, 155

Incas, secret language, 31
official title, 69
ancestors, 82, 153
arms, 120
sun-worship, 142
myths, 188, 191, 244

Ioskeha, supreme god of Iroquois, 63, 170-2

Iroquois, location, 25
name of God, 48, 53
myths of, 83, 85, 169-72, 196, 227, 236
veneration of serpents, 108, 116, 118
of fire, 148

Isolation of the red race, 20, 34

Itzcuinan, the Bitch-Mother, 138

Jarvis, Dr., his Discourse on American Religions, 39

Juripari, 61

Killistenoes, 270

Kittanitowit, 58, 60

Ku, a name of divinity, 46, 47

Kukulcan, god of air, 118

Languages of America, 7
esoteric of priests, 284

Lenni Lenape, 26, 96, 161, 231

Light, universal symbol of divinity, 173

Lightning, the, 112 seq., 151 seq., 168

Madness, as inspiration, 274 seq.

Magic, natural, 266

Maistre, Joseph de, his theory of mythology, 291, n.[TN-24]

Maize, distribution of, 22, 37

Man, origin of, 222 sq., 258
word for, 223

Mandans, 71, 85, 107, 184, 205, 228

Manibozho. (See _Michabo_.)

Mannacicas, 250

Manoa, 87

Manes, 111

Mayas, alphabet, 13
location, 30
calendar, 74, 80
mythical ancestors, 79, 80, 85
myths and rites, 93, 146, 183, 188, 214, 221
name of cross, 97

Mbocobi, 201

Meda worship, 162 n.

Medicine, 45
lodge, 267
men, 264, 277 seq.

Memory, cultivated by picture-writing, 18

Mesmerism, 272

Messou, 209
(See _Michabo_.)

Metempsychosis, 253

Mexicans, (See _Aztecs_.)

Meztli, 132, 135

Michabo, supreme Algonkin god, 63, 116, 136, 161-9, 198, 220, 294

Mictlan, god of the dead, 92, 252

Migrations, coarse of, 34

Milky-way, 244

Millennium, 261

Minnetarees, 228, 230, 250

Mixcoatl, or Mixcohuatl, 22, 51, 158

Mixtecas, 90, 196

Monan, 211

Monquis, 93, 106

Montezuma, 187, 190

Moon, worship of, 130 seq.

Moxos, 124, 230

Mueller, J. G., his work on American religions, 40, 59, 61

Mummies, 257-60

Muscogees, 195
(See _Creeks_.)

Muyscas, 31
myths, 84 n.,[TN-20] 183-4

Nahuas, 29, 73
myths, 84 n.,[TN-20] 118, 138, 158, 206
(See _Aztecs_.)

Nanahuatl, 135

Natchez, 27, 28 n.[TN-25]
myths, 126, 142, 149, 205, 225, 239

Natural religions, 3

Navajos, 79, 84 n.,[TN-20] 103, 127, 205, 241

Neo, Iroquois corruption of _Dieu_, 53

Nemqueteba, 183

Netelas, 50, 105 n.

Nez Perces[TN-26] 272, 281

Nicaraguans, 145, 158, 201, 245, 288

Nine Rivers, the, 248

Nootka Indians, 297

North, myths concerning, 82

Nottoways, 25, 84

Numbers, sacred, 66, 98
(See _Four_, _Three_, _Seven_.)

Occaniches, 284

Oki, name of God, 46-8

Onniont, a mythical serpent, 114

Onondagas, 171

Oonawleh unggi, 51

Otomis, 6, 158

Ottawas, 93, 145, 161

Ottoes, 84 n.[TN-20]

Pacari Tampu, 82, 179, 227

Pachacamac, 56, 176-7, 298

Panos, 13

Paradise, myth of, 86 seq.

Paria, 87

Passions, worship of, 146, 149

Pawnees, 71 n., 84 n.[TN-20]

Pend d'Oreilles, 233

Peru, 69
rites and myths, 82, 102, 106, 131, 132, 137, 138, 142, 149,
152 sq,[TN-27] 176-9, 188, 213, 219, 227, 240, 251, 260
priests, 278, 282, 284
(See _Aymaras_, _Incas_.)

Phallic worship, 146, 149

Picture writing, 9

Pilgrimages, custom of, 301

Pimos, 185

Prayers, specimens of, 296-300

Priesthood, native, 263 sq.

Puelches, 277

Quetzalcoatl, the supreme Aztec god, 106, 118, 157, 180-3, 188, 294-6

Quiateot, a rain god, 131

Quiches, 30
Sacred Book, 41
names for God, 51, 58 n.[TN-19]
evil deities, 64
myth of first four brothers, 81
of paradise, 89
of creation, 196
of flood, 207
of hell, 251, 258

Quichuas, 31
religion, 55
ancestors, 82, 153
names of cardinal points, 93 n.
myths, 155
(_See_ Peru, Incas.)[TN-28]

Quipus, 14

Rattlesnake, as a symbol, 108 sq.

Raven, as a symbol, 195, 204, 213, 229

Red, symbolic meaning, 80, 88, 140

Sacrifice, its meaning, 291

Sacs, 84, 277

Sanscrit flood-myth, 212

Schwarz, Dr., his views of mythology, 112

Seminoles, 129

Serpent, as a symbol, 107 sq., 136, 158

Seven, a sacred number, 66, 128 n., 202, 204, 273 n., 281, 283

Shawnees, 26, 84 n.,[TN-20] 110, 113, 114, 144, 281

Shoshonees, 28, 138

Sillam Innua, 50, 76

Sioux, 28, 151, 236

Soul, notions concerning, 235 sq., 277

Sua, the Muysca God, 184

Sun-worship, 141 sq., 149, 243-9

Suns, Aztec, 215 sq.

Takahlis, 127, 197, 201, 253, 256

Tamu, 184, 294

Taras, 158

Taronhiawagon, 171

Tawiscara, 170

Teczistecatl, 132

Teatihuacan,[TN-29] 46, 69

Three, a sacred number, 66, 98, 156

Thunder-storm, in myths, 150 sq.

Tici, the vase, 130

Timberlake, Lt., his _Memoirs_, 115

Titicaca, Lake, 124, 178

Tlacatecolotl, supposed Aztec Satan, 106

Tlaloc, god of rain, 75, 88, 156-7

Tlalocan, 88, 246

Tlapallan, 88, 91, 181

Tloque nahuaque, 58 n.[TN-19]

Tohil, 157

Toltecs, 29, 180

Tonacatepec, 88

Toukaways, 231

Trinity, in American religions, 156

Tulan, 88, 89, 181

Tupa, 32, 84, 152, 185

Tupis, 32
myths, 83 n., 152, 185, 210, 258, 274

Twins, sacred to lightning, 153-4

Unktahe, a Dakota god, 133

Vase, symbol of, 130, 155

Viracocha, supreme god in Peru, 124, 155, 177-80

Waitz, Dr., his _Anthropology_, 40, 288

Wampum, 15

Water, myths of, 122 seq., 194

West, myths of, 92, 93, 166

White, as a symbol, 165, 174-6

Whiteman's land, 21 n.

Winds, myths of, 49-52, 74 sq., 96, 103, 166, 182

Winnebagoes, 220

Witchitas, 224

Writing, modes of, 9-13

Xelhua, 228

Xibalba, 64, 251

Xochiquetzal, 137

Xolotl, 258

Yakama language, 50

Yamo and Yama, twin deities, 154 n.

Yoalli-ehecatl, 50

Yohualticitl, 132

Yupanqui, Inca, 55

Yurucares, 201, 224, 259

Zac, empire of, 31, 124

Zamna, culture hero of Mayas, 93, 183, 188

Zapotecs, 183

ERRATA.

Page 31, note, for "_Ureinbewohner_" read "_Ureinwohner_."[TN-30]
" 101, line 10 from bottom, _for_ "clouds" _read_ "clods."
" 145, note 1, _for_ "Gomara" _read_ "Gumilla."

Transcriber's Note

The following typographical errors were noted in the original text.

Page Error
TN-1 57 the Inds. p. should read the Inds., p.
TN-2 89 Orstnamen should read Ortsnamen
TN-3 115 o should read of
TN-4 134 knaws should read gnaws
TN-5 140 extingish should read extinguish
TN-6 144 fn. 2 Reconnoissance was spelled this way in the title of
original publication, quoted correctly
TN-7 158 fn. 3 Hist du Mexique should read Hist. du Mexique
TN-8 162 wizzard should read wizard
TN-9 218 foreboding shave should read forebodings have
TN-10 223 fn. 2 yelk should read yolk
TN-11 226 fn. 2 _above_ should read above
TN-12 234 after.world should read after world
TN-13 248 scimetar should read scimitar
TN-14 251 Xibilha should read Xibalba
TN-15 258 supersitions should read superstitions
TN-16 278 drunkeness should read drunkenness
TN-17 294 fees should read frees or feeds?
TN-18 300 give should read gives
TN-19 303 (and elsewhere) 58 n. refers to footnote 57-3, the
continued text of this footnote was printed on p. 58 in
the original book
TN-20 304 (and elsewhere) 84 n. refers to footnote 83-3, the
continued text of this footnote was printed on p. 84 in
the original book
TN-21 304 Cupay should read Cupay
TN-22 304 a a symbol should read a symbol
TN-23 304 Eldorado should read El Dorado
TN-24 305 291, n. should read 291 n.
TN-25 305 28 n. refers to footnote 27-2, the continued text of this
footnote was printed on p. 28 in the original book
TN-26 306 Nez Perces should read Nez Perces,
TN-27 306 152 sq, should read 152 sq.,
TN-28 306 _See_ Peru, Incas should read See _Peru_, _Incas_
TN-29 306 Teatihuacan should read Teotihuacan
TN-30 307 Ureinbewohner was not found in the text

The following words were inconsistently spelled:

Mannacicas / Mannicicas
Perces / Perces
Quiche / Quiche
role / role
Tamoei / Tamoi

The following words were inconsistently hyphenated:

Aka-kanet / Akakanet
Ama-livaca / Amalivaca
child-birth / childbirth
Teo-tihuacan / Teotihuacan
under-world / underworld
Ur-religionen / Urreligionen
Yoalli-ehecatl / Yoalliehecatl

Other inconsistencies

Titles of works referred to in the footnotes are occasionally not italicized. Author names of the works referred to in the footnotes are occasionally italicized.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Myths of the New World, by Daniel G. Brinton