Chapter II: Origin and End of Things (3)

After this affair Yehl had many other adventures, so many that "one man cannot know them all," as the Thlinkeets say. One of the most useful things he did was to supply light to mankind--with whom, as appears, the earth had been again peopled after the deluge. Now all the light in the world was stored away in three boxes, among the riches of a certain mysterious old Chief, who guarded his treasure closely. Yehl set his wits to work to secure the boxes; he determined to be born into the chief's family. The old fellow had one daughter upon whom he doted, and Yehl transforming himself into a blade of grass, got into the girl's drinking-cup and was swallowed by her. In due time she gave birth to a son, who was Yehl, thus a second time born of a woman into the world. Very proud was the old chief of his grandson, loving him even as he loved his daughter, so that Yehl came to be a decidedly spoiled child. He fell a crying one day, working himself almost into a fit; he kicked and scratched and howled, and turned the family hut into a little pandemonium as only an infant plague can. He screamed for one of the three boxes; he would have a box; nothing but a box should ever appease him! The indulgent grandfather gave him one of the boxes; he clutched it, stopped crying, and crawled off into the yard to play. Playing, he contrived to wrench the lid off, and lo! the beautiful heaven was thick with stars, and the box empty. The old man wept for the loss of his stars, but he did not scold his grandson, he loved him too blindly for that. Yehl had succeeded in getting the stars into the firmament, and he proceeded to repeat his successful trick, to do the like by the moon and sun. As may be imagined, the difficulty was much increased; still he gained his end. He first let the moon out into the sky, and some time afterward, getting possession of the box that held the sun, he changed himself into a raven and flew away with his greatest prize of all. When he set up the blazing light in heaven, the people that saw it were at first afraid. Many hid themselves in the mountains, and in the forests, and even in the water, and were changed into the various kinds of animals that frequent these places.

There are still other feats of Yehl's replete with the happiest consequences to mankind. There was a time, for instance, when all the fire in the world was hid away in an island of the ocean. Thither flew the indefatigable deity, fetching back a brand in his mouth. The distance, however, was so great that most of the wood was burned away and a part of his beak, before he reached the Thlinkeet shore. Arrived there, he dropped the embers at once, and the sparks flew about in all directions among various sticks and stones; therefore it is that by striking these stones, and by friction on this wood, fire is always to be obtained.

Light they now had, and fire; but one thing was still wanting to men; they had no fresh water. A personage called Khanukh[II-66] kept all the fresh water in his well, in an island to the east of Sitka, and over the mouth of the well, for its better custody, he had built his hut. Yehl set out to the island in his boat, to secure the water, and on his way he met Khanukh himself, paddling along in another boat. Khanukh spoke first: How long hast thou been living in the world? Proudly Yehl answered: Before the world stood in its place, I was there. Yehl in his turn questioned Khanukh: But how long hast thou lived in the world? To which Khanukh replied: Ever since the time that the liver came out from below.[II-67] Then said Yehl: Thou art older than I. Upon this Khanukh, to show that his power was as great as his age, took off his hat, and there rose a dense fog, so that the one could no longer see the other. Yehl then became afraid, and cried out to Khanukh; but Khanukh answered nothing. At last when Yehl found himself completely helpless in the darkness, he began to weep and howl; upon which the old sorcerer put on his hat again, and the fog vanished. Khanukh then invited Yehl to his house, and entertained him handsomely with many luxuries, among which was fresh water. The meal over, host and guest sat down, and the latter began a long relation of his many exploits and adventures. Khanukh listened as attentively as he could, but the story was really so interminable that he at last fell asleep across the cover of his well. This frustrated Yehl's intention of stealing the water while its owner slept, so he resorted to another stratagem: he put some filth under the sleeper, then waking him up, made him believe he had bewrayed himself. Khanukh, whose own nose abhorred him, at once hurried off to the sea to wash, and his deceiver as quickly set about securing the precious water. Just as All-father Odin, the Raven-god, stole Suttung's mead, drinking it up and escaping in the form of a bird, so Yehl drank what fresh water he could, filling himself to the very beak, then took the form of a raven and attempted to fly off through the chimney of the hut. He stuck in the flue however, and Khanukh returning at that instant recognized his guest in the struggling bird. The old man comprehended the situation, and quietly piling up a roaring fire, he sat down comfortably to watch the choking and scorching of his crafty guest. The raven had always been a white bird, but so thoroughly was he smoked in the chimney on this occasion that he has ever since remained the sootiest of fowls. At last Khanukh watching the fire, became drowsy and fell asleep; so Yehl escaped from the island with the water. He flew back to the continent, where he scattered it in every direction; and wherever small drops fell there are now springs and creeks, while the large drops have produced lakes and rivers. This is the end of the exploits of Yehl; having thus done everything necessary to the happiness of mankind, he returned to his habitation, which is in the east, and into which no other spirit, nor any man can possibly enter.

The existing difference in language between the Thlinkeets and other people is one of the consequences of a great flood--perhaps that flood already described as having been brought on through the jealousy of the canoe-builder. Many persons escaped drowning by taking refuge in a great floating building. When the waters fell, this vessel grounded upon a rock, and was broken into two pieces; in the one fragment were left those whose descendants speak the Thlinkeet language, in the other remained all whose descendants employ a different idiom.

[Sidenote: CHETHL AND AHGISHANAKHOU.]

Connected with the history of this deluge is another myth in which a great Bird figures. When the waters rose a certain mysterious brother and sister found it necessary to part. The name of the brother was Chethl, that is, Thunder or Lightning, and the name of the sister was Ahgishanakhou, which means the Underground Woman. As they separated Chethl said to her: Sister, you shall never see me again, but while I live you shall hear my voice. Then he clothed himself in the skin of a great bird, and flew towards the south-west. His sister climbed to the top of Mount Edgecomb, which is near Sitka, and it opened and swallowed her up, leaving a great hole, or crater. The world itself is an immense flat plate supported on a pillar, and under the world, in silence and darkness, this Under-ground Woman guards the great pillar from evil and malignant powers. She has never seen her brother since she left the upper world, and she shall never see him again; but still, when the tempest sweeps down on Edgecomb, the lightning of his eyes gleams down her crater-window, and the thundering of his wings re-echoes through all her subterranean halls.[II-68]

The Koniagas, north of the Thlinkeets, have their legendary Bird and Dog--the latter taking the place occupied in the mythology of many other tribes by the wolf or coyote. Up in heaven, according to the Koniagas, there exists a great deity called Shljam Schoa. He created two personages and sent them down to the earth, and the Raven accompanied them carrying light. This original pair made sea, rivers, mountains, forests, and such things. Among other places they made the Island of Kadiak, and so stocked it that the present Koniagas assert themselves the descendants of a Dog.[II-69]

The Aleuts of the Aleutian Archipelago seem to disagree upon their origin. Some say that in the beginning a Bitch inhabited Unalaska, and that a great Dog swam across to her from Kadiak; from which pair the human race have sprung. Others, naming the bitch-mother of their race Mahakh, describe a certain Old Man, called Iraghdadakh, who came from the north to visit this Mahakh. The result of this visit was the birth of two creatures, male and female, with such an extraordinary mixing up of the elements of nature in them that they were each half man, half fox. The name of the male creature was Acagnikakh, and by the other creature he became father of the human race. The Old Man however seems hardly to have needed any help to people the world, for like the great patriarch of Thessaly, he was able to create men by merely casting stones on the earth. He flung also other stones into the air, into the water, and over the land, thus making beasts, birds, and fishes. In another version of the narrative, the first father of the Aleuts is said to have fallen from heaven in the shape of a dog.[II-70]

[Sidenote: THE DOG-ORIGIN OF THE HYPERBOREANS.]

In the legends of the Tinneh, living inland, north-east of the Koniagas, the familiar Bird and Dog again appear. These legends tell us that the world existed at first as a great ocean frequented only by an immense Bird, the beating of whose wings was thunder, and its glance lightning. This great flying monster descended and touched the waters, upon which the earth rose up and appeared above them; it touched the earth, and therefrom came every living creature--except the Tinneh, who owe their origin to a Dog. Therefore it is that to this day a dog's flesh is an abomination to the Tinneh, as are also all who eat such flesh. A few years before Captain Franklin's visit they almost ruined themselves by following the advice of some fanatic reformer. Convinced by him of the wickedness of exacting labor from their near relations, the dogs, they got rid at once of the sin and of all temptation to its recommission, by killing every cur in their possession.

To return to the origin of the Tinneh, the wonderful Bird before mentioned made and presented to them a peculiar arrow, which they were to preserve for all time with great care. But they would not; they misappropriated the sacred shaft to some common use, and immediately the great Bird flew away never to return. With its departure ended the Golden Age of the Tinneh--an age in which men lived till their throats were worn through with eating, and their feet with walking.[II-71]

Belonging to the Northern-Indian branch of the Tinneh we find a narrative in which the Dog holds a prominent place, but in which we find no mention at all of the Bird: The earth existed at first in a chaotic state, with only one human inhabitant, a woman who dwelt in a cave and lived on berries. While gathering these one day, she encountered an animal like a dog, which followed her home. This Dog possessed the power of transforming himself into a handsome young man, and in this shape he became the father by the woman of the first men. In course of time a giant of such height that his head reached the clouds, arrived on the scene and fitted the earth for its inhabitants. He reduced the chaos to order; he established the land in its boundaries, he marked out with his staff the position or course of the lakes, ponds, and rivers. Next he slew the Dog and tore him to pieces, as the four giants did the Beaver of the Palouse River, or as the creating Æsir did Aurgelmir. Unlike the four brothers, however, and unlike the sons of Bör, this giant of the Tinneh used the fragments not to create men or things, but animals. The entrails of the dog he threw into the water, and every piece became a fish; the flesh he scattered over the land, and every scrap became an animal; the bits of skin he sowed upon the wind, and they became birds. All these spread over the earth, and increased and multiplied; and the giant gave the woman and her progeny power to kill and eat of them according to their necessities. After this he returned to his place, and he has not since been heard of.[II-72]

Leaving now this division of our subject, more particularly concerned with cosmogony, it may not be amiss to forestall possible criticism as to the disconnected manner in which the various myths are given. I have but to repeat that the mythology with which we have to deal is only known in fragments, and to submit that a broken statue, or even a broken shard, of genuine or presumably genuine antiquity, is more valuable to science and even to poetry, than the most skillful ideal restoration.

[Sidenote: INTERPRETATION OF MYTHS.]

Further, the absence of any attempt to form a connected whole out of the myths that come under our notice cannot but obviate that tendency to alter in outline and to color in detail which is so insensibly natural to any mythographer prepossessed with the spirit of a system. In advancing lastly the opinion that the disconnected arrangement is not only better adapted toward preserving the original myths in their integrity, but is also better for the student, I may be allowed to close the chapter with the second of the Rules for the Interpretation of Mythes given by so distinguished an authority as Mr. Keightley: "In like manner the mythes themselves should be considered separately, and detached from the system in which they are placed; for the single mythes existed long before the system, and were the product of other minds than those which afterwards set them in connection, not unfrequently without fully understanding them."[II-73]

FOOTNOTES:

[II-1] In Vienna in 1857, the book now best known as the Popol Vuh was first brought to the notice of European scholars, under the following title: _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de Guatemala, traducidas de la Lengua Quiché al Castellano para mas Comodidad de los Ministros del S. Evangelio, por el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez, cura doctrinero por el real patronato del Pueblo de S. Thomas Chuila_.--_Exactamente segun el texto español del manuscrito original que se halla en la biblioteca de la Universidad de Guatemala, publicado por la primera vez, y aumentado con una introduccion y anotaciones por el Dr C. Scherzer._ What Dr Scherzer says in a paper read before the Vienna Academy of Sciences, Feb. 20th, 1856; and repeats in his introduction, about its author, amounts to this: In the early part of the 18th century Francisco Ximenez, a Dominican Father of great repute for his learning and his love of truth, filled the office of curate in the little Indian town of Chichicastenango in the highlands of Guatemala. Neither the time of his birth nor that of his death can be exactly ascertained, but the internal evidence of one of his works shows that he was engaged upon it in 1721. He left many manuscripts, but it is supposed that the unpalatable truths some of them contain with regard to the ill-treatment of the Indians by the colonial authorities sufficed, as previously in the case of Las Casas, to ensure their partial destruction and total suppression. What remains of them lay long hid in an obscure corner of the Convent of the Dominicans in Guatemala, and passed afterwards, on the suppression of all the religious orders, into the library of the University of San Carlos (Guatemala). Here Dr Scherzer discovered them in June 1854, and carefully copied, and afterwards published as above the particular treatise with which we are now concerned. This, according to Father Ximenez himself, and according to its internal evidence, is a translation of a _literal_ copy of an original book, written by one or more Quichés, in the Quiché language, in Roman letters, after the Christians had occupied Guatemala, and after the real original Popol Vuh--National Book--had been lost or destroyed--literally, was no more to be seen--and written to _replace_ that lost book. 'Quise trasladar todas las historias _á la letra_ de estos indios, y tambien traducirla en la lengua castellana.' 'Esto escribiremos ya en la ley de Dios en la cristiandad los sacaremos, porque ya no hay libro comun, original donde verlo, _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 1, 4, 5. 'Voilà ce que nous écrirons depuis (qu'on a promulgué) la parole de Dieu, et en dedans du Christianisme; nous le reproduirons, parce qu'on ne voit plus ce Livre national,' 'Vae x-chi-ka tzibah chupan chic u chabal Dios, pa Christianoil chic; x-chi-k'-elezah, rumal ma-habi chic ilbal re Popol-Vuh,' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 5. The evidence that the author was Quiché will be found in the numerous passages scattered through the narrative in which he speaks of the Quiché nation, and of the ancestors of that nation as 'our people,' 'our ancestors,' and so on. We pass now to what the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg has to say about the book. He says that Ximenes 'discovered this document, in the last years of the 17th century.' In 1855, at Guatemala, the abbé first saw Ximenez' manuscript containing this work. The manuscript contained the Quiché text and the Spanish curate's translation of that text. Brasseur de Bourbourg copied both at that time, but he was dissatisfied with the translation, believing it to be full of faults owing to the prejudices and the ignorance of the age in which it was made, as well as disfigured by abridgments and omissions. So in 1860 he settled himself among the Quichés and by the help of natives joined to his own practical knowledge of their language, he elaborated a new and literal translation, (aussi littérale qu'il a été possible de la faire). We seem justified then on the whole in taking this document for what Ximenez and its own evidence declare it to be, namely, a reproduction of an older work or body of Quiché traditional history, written because that older work had been lost and was likely to be forgotten, and written by a Quiché not long after the Spanish conquest. One consequence of the last fact would seem to be that a tinge of biblical expression has, consciously or unconsciously to the Quiché who wrote, influenced the form of the narrative. But these coincidences may be wholly accidental, the more as there are also striking resemblances to expressions in the Scandinavian Edda and in the Hindoo Veda. And even if they be not accidental, 'much remains,' adopting the language and the conclusion of Professor Max Müller, 'in these American traditions which is so different from anything else in the national literatures of other countries, that we may safely treat it as the genuine growth of the intellectual soil of America.' _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. i., p. 328. For the foregoing, as well as further information on the subject see:--_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. 5-31, 195-231; _S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 83-7; _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 47-61; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 5-15; _Scherzer_, in _Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien_, 20th Feb., 1856; _Helps' Spanish Conquest_, vol. iv., pp. 455-6. Professor Müller in his essay on the Popol Vuh, has in one or two places misunderstood the narrative. There was no such creation of man as that he gives as the second, while his third creation is the second of the original. Again, he makes the four Quiché ancestors to be the progenitors of _all tribes both white and black_; while they were the parents of the Quiché and kindred races only. The course of the legend brings us to tribes of a strange blood, with which these four ancestors and their people were often at war. The narrative is, however, itself so confused and contradictory at points, that it is almost impossible to avoid such things; and, as a whole, the views of Professor Müller on the Popol Vuh seem just and well considered. Baldwin, _Ancient America_, pp. 191-7, gives a mere dilution of Professor Müller's essay, and that without acknowledgment.

[II-2] The original Quiché runs as follows: 'Are u tzihoxic vae ca ca tzinin-oc, ca ca chamam-oc, ca tzinonic; ca ca zilanic, ca ca lolinic, ca tolona puch u pa cah. Vae cute nabe tzih, nabe uchan.--Ma-habi-oc hun vinak, hun chicop; tziquin, car, tap, che, abah, hul, civan, quim, qichelah: xa-utuquel cah qolic. Mavi calah u vach uleu: xa-utnquel remanic palo, u pah cah ronohel. Ma-habi nakila ca molobic, ca cotzobic: hunta ca zilobic; ca mal ca ban-tah, ca cotz ca ban-tah pa cah. X-ma qo-vi nakila qolic yacalic; xa remanic ha, xa lianic palo, xa-utuquel remanic; x-ma qo-vi nakilalo qolic. Xa ca chamanic, ca tzininic chi gekum, chi agab.'

This passage is rendered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg thus: 'Voici le récit comme quoi tout était en suspens, tout était calme et silencieux; tout était immobile, tout était paisible, et vide était l'immensité des cieux. Voilà donc la première parole et le premier discours. Il n'y avait pas encore un seul homme, pas un animal, pas d'oiseaux, de poissons, d'écrevisses, de bois, de pierre, de fondrières, de ravins, d'herbe ou de bocages: seulement le ciel existait. La face de la terre ne se manifestait pas encore: seule la mer paisible était et tout l'espace des cieux. Il n'y avait encore rien qui fît corps, rien qui se cramponnât à autre chose: rien qui se balançât, qui fît (le moindre) frôlement, qui fît (entendre) un son dans le ciel. Il n'y avait rien qui existât debout; (il n'y avait) que l'eau paisible, que la mer calme et seule dans ses bornes; car il n'y avait rien qui existât. Ce n'était que l'immobilité et le silence dans les ténèbres, dans la nuit.' _Popol Vuh_, p. 7.

And by Francisco Ximenez thus: 'Este es su ser dicho cuando estaba suspenso en calma, en silencio, sin moverse, sin cosa sino vacio el cielo. Y esta es la primera palabra y elocuencia; aun no habia hombres, animales, pájaros, pescado, cangrejo, palo, piedra, hoya, barranca, paja ni monte, sino solo estaba el cielo; no se manifestaba la faz de la tierra; sino que solo estaba el mar represado, y todo lo del cielo; aun no habia cosa alguna junta, ni sonaba nada, ni cosa alguna se meneaba, ni cosa que hiciera mal, ni cosa que hiciera "_cotz_," (esto es ruido en el cielo), ni habia cosa que estuviese parada en pié; solo el agua represada, solo la mar sosegada, solo ella represada, ni cosa alguna habia que estuviese; solo estaba en silencio, y sosiego en la obscuridad, y la noche.' _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 5-6.

[II-3] '_Gucumatz_, littéralement serpent emplumé, et dans un sens plus étendu, serpent revêtu de couleurs brillantes, de vert ou d'azur. Les plumes du guc ou quetzal offrent également les deux teintes. C'est exactment la même chose que _quetzalcohuatl_ dans la langue mexicaine.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 50.

[II-4] A long rambling story is here introduced which has nothing to do with Creation, and which is omitted for the present.

[II-5] _Balam-Quitzé_, the tiger with the sweet smile; _Balam-Agab_, the tiger of the night; _Mahucutah_, the distinguished name; _Iqi-Balam_, the tiger of the moon. 'Telle est la signification littérale que Ximenez a donnée de ces quatre noms.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 199.

[II-6] _Caha-paluma_, the falling water; _Chomi-ha_ or _Chomih-a_, the beautiful house or the beautiful water; in the same way, _Tzununiha_ may mean either the house or the water of the humming-birds; and _Cakixaha_, either the house or the water of the aras [which are a kind of parrot]. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 205.

[II-7] 'Are ma-habi chi tzukun, qui coon; xavi chi cah chi qui pacaba qui vach; mavi qu'etaam x-e be-vi naht x-qui bano.' 'Alors ils ne servaient pas encore et ne soutenaient point (les autels des dieux); seulement ils tournaient leurs visages vers le ciel, et ils ne savaient ce qu'ils étaient venus faire si loin.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 209. It is right to add, however, that Ximenez gives a much more prosaic turn to the passage: 'No cabian de sustento, sino que levantaban las caras al cielo y no se sabian alejar.' _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 84.

[II-8] Or as Ximenez, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 87, writes it--_Tulanzú_, (las siete cuevas y siete barrancas).

[II-9] The following passage in a letter from the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, to Mr. Rafn of Copenhagen, bearing date 25th October, 1858, may be useful in this connection:--'On sait que la coutume toltèque et mexicaine était de conserver, comme chez les chrétiens, les reliques des héros de la patrie: on enveloppait leurs os avec des pierres précieuses dans un paquet d'étoffes auquel on donnait le nom de Tlaquimilolli; ces paquets demeuraient à jamais fermés et on les déposait au fond des sanctuaires où on les conservait comme des objects sacrés.' _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, 1858, tom. iv., p. 268. One of these 'bundles,' was given up to the Christians by a Tlascaltec some time after the conquest. It was reported to contain the remains of Camaxtli, the chief god of Tlascala. The native historian, Camargo, describes it as follows: 'Quand on défit le paquet où se trouvaient les cendres de l'idole Camaxtle, on y trouva aussi un paquet de cheveux blonds, ... on y trouva aussi une émeraude, et de ses cendres on avait fait une pâte, en les pétrissant avec le sang des enfants que l'on avait sacrifiés.' _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_; in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 179.

[II-10] See _Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, vol. i., p. 333.

[II-11] Even supposing there were no special historical reasons for making this distinction, it seems convenient that such a division should be made in a country where the distinction of classes was so marked as in Mexico. As Reads puts the case, _Martyrdom of Man_, p. 177, 'In those countries where two distinct classes of men exist, the one intellectual and learned, the other illiterate and degraded, there will be in reality two religions, though nominally there may be only one.'

[II-12] 'Les prêtres et les nobles de Mexico avaient péri presque tous lors de la prise de cette ville, et ceux qui avaient échappé au massacre s'étaient réfugiés dans des lieux inaccessibles. Ce furent donc presque toujours des gens du peuple sans éducation et livrés aux plus grossiéres superstitions qui leur firent les récits qu'ils nous ont transmis; Les missionnaires, d'ailleurs, avaient plus d'intérêt à connaître les usages qu'ils voulaient déraciner de la masse du peuple qu'à comprendre le sens plus élevé que la partie éclairée de la nation pouvait y attacher.' _Ternaux-Compans_, _Essai sur la Théogonie Mexicaine_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxv., p. 274.

[II-13] This last statement rests on the authority of Domingo Muñoz Camargo, a native of the city of Tlascala who wrote about 1585. See his _Hist. de Tlaxcallan_ as translated by Ternaux Compans in the _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 129. 'Les Indiens ne croyaient pas que le monde eût été créé, mais pensaient qu'il était le produit du hazard. Ils disaient aussi que les cieux avaient toujours existé.' 'Estos, pues, alcanzaron con claridad el verdadero orígen y principio de todo el Universo, porque asientan que el cielo y la tierra y cuanto en ellos se halla es obra de la poderosa mano de un Dios Supremo y único, á quien daban el nombre de Tloque Nahuaque, que quiere decir, criador de todas las cosas. Llamábanle tambien Ipalnemohualoni, que quiere decir, por quien vivimos y somos, y fué la única deidad que adoraron en aquellos primitivos tiempos; y aun despues que se introdujo la idolatría y el falso culto, le creyeron siempre superior á todos sus dioses, y le invocaban levantando los ojos al cielo. En esta creencia se mantuvieron constantes hasta la llegada de los españoles, como afirma Herrera, no solo los mejicanos, sino tambien los de Michoacan.' _Veytia_, _Historia Antigua de Méjico_, tom. i., p. 7. 'Los Tultecas alcanzaron y supieron la creacion del mundo, y como el Tloque Nahuaque lo crió y las demas cosas que hay en él, como son plantas, montes, animales, aves, agua y peces; asimismo supieron como crió Dios al hombre y una muger, de donde los hombres descendieron y se multiplicaron, y sobre esto añaden muchas fábulas que por escusar prolijidad no se ponen aqui.' _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Relaciones_, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., p. 321. 'Dios Criador, que en lengua Indiana llamò Tlòque Nahuàque, queriendo dàr à entender, que este Solo, Poderoso, y Clementissimo Dios.' _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, p. 79. 'Confessauan los Mexicanos a vn supremo Dios, Señor, y hazedor de todo, y este era el principal que venerauan, mirando al cielo, llamandole criador del cielo y tierra.' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. 15, p. 85. 'El dios que se llamaba Titlacaâon, (Tezcatlipuca), decian que era criador del cielo y de la tierra y era todo poderoso.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Ant. Mex._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 241. 'Tezcatlipoca, Questo era il maggior Dio, che in que' paesi si adorava, dopo il Dio invisibile, o Supremo Essere, di cui abbiam ragionato.... Era il Dio della Providenza, l'anima del Mondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed il Signor di tutte le cose.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Antica del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 7. 'La creacion del cielo y de la tierra aplicaban á diversos dioses, y algunos á Tezcatlipuca y á Uzilopuchtli, ó segun otros, Ocelopuchtli, y de los principales de Mexico.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 81.

[II-14] 'Lorsque le ciel et la terre s'étaient faits, quatre fois déjà l'homme avait été formé ... de cendres Dieu l'avait formé et animé.' The _Codex Chimalpopoca_, or _Chimalpopoca MS._, after _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 53. This Codex Chimalpopoca, so called by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, is an anonymous manuscript in the Mexican language. What we really know of this much-talked-of document is little, and will be best given in the original form. The following is the first notice I find of this manuscript, with its appurtenances, being Boturini's description of it as possessed at one time by him. _Catálogo_, pp. 17-18. 'Una historia de los Reynos de Culhuàcan, y Mexico en lengua Nàhuatl, y papel Europèo de Autor Anonymo, y tiene añadida una Breve Relacion de los Dioses, y Ritos de la Gentilidad en lengua Castellana que escribiò el Bachiller Don Pedro Ponce, Indio Cazique Beneficiado, que fuè del Partido de Tzumpauàcan. Está todo copiado de letra de Don Fernando de Alba, y le falta la primera foja.' With regard to the term _Nahuatl_ used in this _Catalogue_, see _Id._, p. 85: 'Los Manuscritos en lengua Nàhuatl, que en este Catálogo se citan, se entiende ser en lengua Mexicana!' This manuscript, or a copy of it, fell into the hands of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the city of Mexico, in the year 1850, _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, Introduction_, p. xxi., and the learned Abbé describes it as follows:--'Codex Chimalpopoca (Copie du), contenant les Epoques, dites Histoire des Soleils et l'Histoire des Royaumes de Colhuacan et de Mexico, texte Mexicain (corrigé d'après celui de M. Aubin), avec un essai de traduction française en regard. gr. in 4o--Manuscrit de 93 ff., copié et traduit par le signataire de la bibliothèque. C'est la copie du document marqué au no 13, § viii., du catalogue de Boturini, sous le titre de: Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y Mexico, etc. Ce document, où pour la première fois j'ai soulevé le voile énigmatique qui recouvrait les symboles de la religion et de l'histoire du Mexique est le plus important de tous ceux qui nous soient restés des annales antiques mexicaines. Il renferme chronologiquement l'histoire géologique du monde, par séries de 13 ans, à commencer de plus de dix mille ans avant l'ère chrétienne, suivant les calculs mexicains.' _Id._, p. 47.

[II-15] Otherwise called, according to Clavigero, the god _Ometeuctli_, and the goddess _Omecihuatl_. Ternaux-Compans says: 'Les noms d'Ometeuctli et d'Omecihuatl ne se trouvent nulle part ailleurs dans la mythologie mexicaine; mais on pourrait les expliquer par l'étymologie. _Ome_ signifie deux en mexicain, et tous les auteurs sont d'accord pour traduire littéralement leur nom par deux seigneurs et deux dames.' _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p. 7.

[II-16] _Xolotl_, 'servant or page.'--_Molina_, _Vocabulario en lengua Castellana Mexicana_. Not 'eye' as some scholiasts have it.

[II-17] Literally, in the earliest copy of the myth that I have seen, _the milk of the thistle_, 'la leche de cardo,' which term has been repeated blindly, and apparently without any idea of its meaning, by the various writers that have followed. The old authorities, however, and especially Mendieta, from whom I take the legend, were in the habit of calling the maguey a thistle; and indeed the tremendous prickles of the Mexican plant may lay good claim to the _Nemo me impune lacessit_ of the Scottish emblem. 'Maguey, que es el cardon de donde sacan la miel.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 110. 'Metl es un arbol ó cardo que en lengua de las Islas se llama maguey.' _Motolinia_, _Hist. de los Ind._, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 243. 'Et similmente-cogliono le foglie di questo albero, ò cardo che si tengono là, come qua le vigne, et chiamanlo magueis.' _Relatione fatta per un Gentil'huomo del Signor Cortese_, in _Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. iii., fol. 307.

[II-18] Motolinia in _Icazbalceta_, _Col._, tom. i., pp. 6-10, says this first man and woman were begotten between the rain and the dust of the earth--'engendrada de la lluvia y del polvo de la tierra'--and in other ways adds to the perplexity; so that I am well inclined to agree with Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 518, when he says these cosmogonical myths display marks of local origin and of the subsequent fusion of several legends into an incongruous whole. 'Aus dieser Menge von Verschiedenheiten in diesen Kosmogonien ist ersichtlich, dass viele Lokalmythen hier wie in Peru unabhängig von einander entstanden die man äusserlich mit einander verband, die aber in mancherlei Widersprüchen auch noch später ihre ursprüngliche Unabhängigkeit zu erkennen geben.'

[II-19] Here, as elsewhere in this legend we follow Andres de Olmos' account as given by Mendieta. Sahagun, however differs from it a good deal in places. At this point for example, he mentions some notable personages who guessed right about the rising of the sun:--'Otros se pusieron á mirar ácia el oriente, y digeron aquí, de esta parte ha de salir el Sol. El dicho de estos fué verdadero. Dicen que los que miraron ácia el Oriente, fueron Quetzalcoatl, que tambien se llama Ecatl, y otro que se llama Totec, y por otro nombre Anaoatlytecu, y por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y otros que se llaman Minizcoa,' or as in Kingsborough's edition, _Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 186. 'Por otro nombre Anaoatl y Tecu, y por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y otros que se llaman Mimizcoa, que son inumerables; y cuatro mugeres, la una se llama Tiacapan, la otra Teicu, la tercera Tlacoeoa, la cuarta Xocoyotl.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 248.

[II-20] Besides differences of authorities already noticed, I may add that Sahagun describes the personage who became the sun--as well as him who, as we shall soon see, became the moon--as belonging before his transformation to the number of the gods, and not as one of the men who served them. Further, in recounting the death of the gods, Sahagun says that to the Air, Ecatl, Quetzalcoatl, was alloted the task of killing the rest; nor does it appear that Quetzalcoatl killed himself. As to Xolotl, he plays quite a cowardly part in this version; trying to elude his death, he transformed himself into various things, and was only at last taken and killed under the form of a fish called _Axolotl_.

[II-21] This kind of idol answers evidently to the mysterious 'Envelope' of the Quiché myth. See also note 9.

[II-22] Besides the Chimalpopoca manuscript, the earliest summaries of the Mexican creation-myths are to be found in _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, pp. 77-81; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 233, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 246-250; _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, pp. 37-43; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 31-5, tom. ii., pp. 76-8; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 8-10.

[II-23] _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Hist. Chichimeca_ in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ix., pp. 205-6. The same author, in his _Relaciones_, _Ib._ pp. 321-2, either through his own carelessness or that of a transcriber, transposes the second and third Ages. To see that it is an oversight of some sort, we have but to pass to the summary he gives at the end of these same _Relaciones_, _Ib._, p. 459, where the account is again found in strict agreement with the version given in the text. Camargo, _Hist. de Tlax._ in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., p. 132, giving as we may suppose the Tlascaltec version of the general Mexican myth, agrees with Ixtlilxochitl as to the whole number of Ages, following, however, the order of the error above noticed in the _Relaciones_. The Tlascaltec historian, moreover, affirms that only two of these Ages are past, and that the third and fourth destructions are yet to come. M. Ternaux-Compans, _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p. 5, adopts this Tlascaltec account as the general Mexican tradition; he is followed by Dr. Prichard, _Researches_, vol. v., pp. 360-1. Dr. Prichard cites Bradford as supporting the same opinion, but erroneously, as Bradford, _Am. Antiq._, p. 328, follows Humboldt. Boturini, _Idea de una Hist._, p. 3. and Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 57, agree exactly with the text. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg also accepts the version of three past destructions. _S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim._, pp. 26-7. Professor J. G. Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 510-12, admits that the version of three past destructions and one to come, as given in the text, and in the order there given, 'seems to be the most ancient Mexican version;' though he decides to follow Humboldt, and adopts what he calls the 'latest and fullest form of the myth.' The _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ [Vaticano] contradicts itself, giving first two past destructions, and farther on four, _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 163-7; as does also the _Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, _Ib._, pp. 134-6. Kingsborough himself seems to favor the idea of three past destructions and four ages in all; see _Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 171, note. Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, fol. 297-8; Leon y Gama, _Dos Piedras_, parte i., pp. 94-5; Humboldt, _Vues_, tom. ii., pp. 118-129; Prescott, _Conq. of Mex._, vol. i., p. 61; Gallatin, in _Am. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., p. 325--describe four past destructions and one yet to come, or five Ages, and the Chimalpopoca MS., see note 13, seems also to favor this opinion. Lastly, Mendieta, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 81, declares that the Mexicans believe in five Suns, or Ages, in times past; but these suns were of inferior quality, so that the soil produced its fruits only in a crude and imperfect state. The consequence was that in every case the inhabitants of the world died through the eating of divers things. This present and sixth Sun was good, however, and under its influence all things were produced properly. Torquemada--who has, indeed, been all along appropriating, by whole chapters, the so long inedited work of Mendieta; and that, if we believe Icazbalceta, _Hist. Ecles._, _Noticias del Autor._, pp. xxx. to xlv., under circumstances of peculiar turpitude--of course gives also five past Ages, repeating Mendieta word for word with the exception of a single 'la.' _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 79.

[II-24] Professor J. G. Müller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 568, remarks of these two personages: 'Rein nordisch ist der chichimekische Coxcox, der schon bei der Fluthsage genannt wurde, der Tezpi der Mechoakaner. Das ist auch ursprünglich ein Wassergott und Fischgott, darum trägt er auch den Namen Cipactli, Fisch, Teocipactli, göttlicher Fisch, Huehuetonacateocipactli, alter Fischgott von unserem Fleisch. Darum ist auch seine Gattin eine Pflanzengöttin mit Namen Xochiquetzal d. h. geflügelte Blume.'

[II-25] _Boturini_, _Idea de una Hist._, pp. 113-4; _Id._, _Catálogo_, pp. 39-40; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 129-30, tom. ii., p. 6; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), tav. vii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 164-5; _Gemelli Carreri_, in _Churchill's Col. Voy._, vol. iv., p. 481; _Humboldt_, _Vues_, tom. i., pp. 114-15, tom. ii., pp. 175-8; _Tylor's Anahuac_, pp. 276-7; _Gondra_, in _Prescott_, _Conquista de Mexico_, tom. iii., pp. 1-10. A careful comparison of the passages given above will show that this whole story of the escape of Coxcox and his wife in a boat from a great deluge, and of the distribution by a bird of different languages to their descendants, rests on the interpretation of certain Aztec paintings, containing supposed pictures of a flood, of Coxcox and his wife, of a canoe or rude vessel of some kind, of the mountain Culhuacan, which was the Mexican Ararat, and of a bird distributing languages to a number of men. Not one of the earliest writers on Mexican mythology, none of those personally familiar with the natives and with their oral traditions as existing at the time of, or immediately after the conquest, seems to have known this legend; Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta, Ixtlilxochitl, and Camargo, are all of them silent with regard to it. These facts must give rise to grave suspicions with regard to the accuracy of the commonly accepted version, notwithstanding its apparently implicit reception up to this time by the most critical historians. These suspicions will not be lessened by the result of the researches of Don José Fernando Ramirez, Conservator of the Mexican National Museum, a gentleman not less remarkable for his familiarity with the language and antiquities of Mexico than for the moderation and calmness of his critical judgments, as far as these are known. In a communication dated April, 1858, to Garcia y Cubas, _Atlas Geográfico, Estadístico e Histórico de la Republica Mejicana_, entrega 29, speaking of the celebrated Mexican picture there for the first time, as he claims, accurately given to the public--Sigüenza's copy of it, as given by Gemelli Carreri, that given by Clavigero in his _Storia del Messico_, that given by Humboldt in his _Atlas Pittoresque_, and that given by Kingsborough being all incorrect--Señor Ramirez says:--'The authority of writers so competent as Sigüenza and Clavigero imposed silence on the incredulous, and after the illustrious Baron von Humboldt added his irresistible authority, adopting that interpretation, nobody doubted that "the traditions of the Hebrews were found among the people of America;" that, as the wise Baron thought, "their Coxcox, Teocipactli, or Tezpi is the Noah, Xisutrus, or Menou of the Asiatic families;" and that "the Cerro of Culhuacan is the Ararat of the Mexicans." Grand and magnificent thought, but unfortunately only a delusion. The blue square No. 1, with its bands or obscure lines of the same color, cannot represent the terrestrial globe covered with the waters of the flood, because we should have to suppose a repetition of the same deluge in the figure No. 40, where it is reproduced with some of its principal accidents. Neither, for the same reason, do the human heads and the heads of birds which appear to float there, denote the submerging of men and animals, for it would be necessary to give the same explanation to those seen in group No. 39. It might be argued that the group to the left (of No. 1), made up of a human head placed under the head of a bird, represented phonetically the name Coxcox, and denoted the Aztec Noah; but the group on the right, formed of a woman's head with other symbolic figures above it, evidently does not express the name Xochiquetzal, which is said to have been that of his wife.... Let us now pass on to the dove giving tongues to the primitive men who were born mute. The commas which seem to come from the beak of the bird there represented, form one of the most complex and varied symbols, in respect to their phonetic force, which are found in our hieroglyphic writing. In connection with animated beings they designate generically the emission of the voice.... In the group before us they denote purely and simply that the bird was singing or speaking--to whom?--to the group of persons before it, who by the direction of their faces and bodies show clearly and distinctly the attention with which they listened. Consequently the designer of the before-mentioned drawing for Clavigero, pre-occupied with the idea of signifying by it the pretended confusion of tongues, changed with his pencil the historic truth, giving to these figures opposite directions. Examining attentively the inexactitudes and errors of the graver and the pencil in all historical engravings relating to Mexico, it is seen that they are no less numerous and serious than those of the pen. The interpretations given to the ancient Mexican paintings by ardent imaginations led away by love of novelty or by the spirit of system, justify to a certain point the distrust and disfavor with which the last and most distinguished historian of the Conquest of Mexico (W. H. Prescott) has treated this interesting and precious class of historical documents.' Señor Ramirez goes on thus at some length to his conclusions, which reduce the original painting to a simple record of a wandering of the Mexicans among the lakes of the Mexican valley--that journey beginning at a place 'not more than nine miles from the gutters of Mexico,'--a record having absolutely no connection either with the mythical deluge, already described as one of the four destructions of the world, or with any other. The bird speaking in the picture, he connects with a well-known Mexican fable given by Torquemada, in which a bird is described as speaking from a tree to the leaders of the Mexicans at a certain stage of their migration, and repeating the work _Tihui_, that is to say, 'Let us go.' A little bird called the _Tihuitochan_, with a cry that the vulgar still interpret in a somewhat similar sense, is well known in Mexico, and is perhaps at the bottom of the tradition. It may be added that Torquemada gives a painted manuscript, possibly that under discussion, as his authority for the story. The boat, the mountain, and the other adjuncts of the picture are explained in a like simple way, as the hieroglyphics, for the most part, of various proper names. Our space here will not permit further details--though another volume will contain this picture and a further discussion of the subject--but I may remark in concluding that the moderation with which Señor Ramirez discusses the question, as well as his great experience and learning in matters of Mexican antiquity, seem to claim for his views the serious consideration of future students.

[II-26] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 425-7.

[II-27] Fr. Gregorio Garcia, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 327-9, took this narrative from a book he found in a convent in Cuilapa, a little Indian town about a league and a half south of Oajaca. The book had been compiled by the vicar of that convent, and--'escrito con sus Figuras, como los Indios de aquel Reino Mixteco las tenian en sus Libros, ò Pergaminos arrollados, con la declaracion de lo que significaban las Figuras, en que contaban su Origen, la Creacion del Mundo, i Diluvio General.'

[II-28] 'Que aparecieron visiblemente un Dios, que tuvo por Nombre _un Ciervo_, i por sobrenombre _Culebra de Leon_; i una Diosa mui linda, i hermosa, que su Nombre fue _un Ciervo_, i por sobrenombre _Culebra de Tigre_,' _Garcia_, _Id._, pp. 327-9.

[II-29] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. i., fol. 128, 176.

[II-30] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, fol. 196-7.

[II-31] One of the Las Casas MSS. gives, according to Helps, 'trece hijos' instead of 'tres hijos;' the latter, however, being the correct reading, as the list of names in the same manuscript shows, and as Father Roman gives it. See note 33.

[II-32] This tradition, says the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 74-5, has indubitably reference to a queen whose memory has become attached to very many places in Guatemala, and Central America generally. She was called _Atit_, Grandmother; and from her the volcano of Atitlan, received the name _Atital-huyu_, by which it is still known to the aborigines. This Atit lived during four centuries, and from her are descended all the royal and princely families of Guatemala.

[II-33] _Roman_, _República de los Indios Occidentales_, part 1, lib. 2, cap. 15, after _Garcia_, _Origen de los Ind._, pp. 329-30; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. 235, after _Helps' Span. Conq._, vol. ii., p. 140; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 53-4; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 74-5.

[II-34] The first of these two names is erroneously spelt 'Famagoztad' by M. Ternaux-Compans, Mr. Squier, and the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, the two latter perhaps led astray by the error of M. Ternaux-Compans, an error which first appeared in that gentleman's translation of Oviedo. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 40. _Peter Martyr_, dec. vi., cap. 4.

[II-35] This tradition was 'gathered principally from the relations of Con Quien, the intelligent chief of the central Papagos.' _Davidson_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1865, pp. 131-3.

[II-36] The legendary Montezuma, whom we shall meet so often in the mythology of the Gila valley, must not be confounded with the two Mexican monarchs of the same title. The name itself would seem, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to have been carried into Arizona and New Mexico by the Spaniards or their Mexican attendants, and to have become gradually associated in the minds of some of the New Mexican and neighboring tribes, with a vague, mythical, and departed grandeur. The name Montezuma became thus, to use Mr. Tylor's words, that of the great 'Somebody' of the tribe. This being once the case, all the lesser heroes would be gradually absorbed in the greater, and their names forgotten. Their deeds would become his deeds, their fame his fame. There is evidence enough that this is a general tendency of tradition, even in historical times. The pages of Mr. Cox's scholarly and comprehensive work, _The Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, teem with examples of it. In Persia, deeds of every kind and date are referred to Antar. In Russia, buildings of every age are declared to be the work of Peter the Great. All over Europe, in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland, the exploits of the oldest mythological heroes figuring in the Sagas, Eddas, and Nibelungen Lied have been ascribed in the folk-lore and ballads of the people to Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Boabdil, Charles V., William Tell, Arthur, Robin Hood, Wallace, and St. Patrick. The connection of the name of Montezuma with ancient buildings and legendary adventures in the mythology of the Gila valley seems to be simply another example of the same kind.

[II-37] I am indebted for these particulars of the belief of the Pimas to the kindness of Mr. J. H. Stout of the Pima agency, who procured me a personal interview with five chiefs of that nation, and their very intelligent and obliging interpreter, Mr. Walker, at San Francisco, in October, 1873.

[II-38] For the killing of this Great Eagle Szeukha had to do a kind of penance, which was never to scratch himself with his nails, but always with a small stick. This custom is still observed by all Pimas; and a bit of wood, renewed every fourth day, is carried for this purpose stuck in their long hair.

[II-39] With the reader, as with myself, this clause will probably call up something more than a mere suspicion of Spanish influence tinging the incidents of the legend. The Pimas themselves, however, asserted that this tradition existed among them long before the arrival of the Spaniards and was not modified thereby. One fact that seems to speak for the comparative purity of their traditions is that the name of Montezuma is nowhere to be found in them, although Cremony, _Apaches_, p. 102, states the contrary.

[II-40] _Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies_, vol. i., p. 268.

[II-41] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 85-6.