Chapter XII: Future State (2)

I will now revert to the terrible four days' journey,[XII-76] which those who were unfortunate enough to die a peaceful death had to perform before they could attain their negative happiness. Fully impressed with the idea of its hardships, the friends of the deceased held it to be a religious duty to provide him with a full outfit of food, clothing, implements, and even slaves, to enable him to pass safely through the ordeal. Idols were also deposited by his side, and if the dead man were a lord, his chaplain was sent to attend to their service. This maintenance of worship during the journey is also implied by the sprinkling of water upon the ashes with the words: Let the dead wash himself.[XII-77] The officiating priests, laid, besides, passports with the body, which were to serve for various points along the road. The first papers passed him by two mountains, which, like the symplegades, threatened to meet and crush him in their embrace. The second was a pass for the road guarded by a big snake; the other papers took him by the green crocodile, Xochitonal, across eight deserts, and over eight hills. Then came the freezing _itzehecaya_, 'wind of knives,' which hurls stones and knives upon the traveler, who now more than ever finds the offerings of his friends of service. How the poor soul escaped this ordeal is not stated. Lastly he came to the broad river Chiconahuapan 'nine waters,' which could be crossed only upon the back of a dog of reddish color, which was killed for this purposes by thrusting an arrow down its throat, and was burnt with the corpse. According to Gomara, the dog served for a guide to Mictlan, but other authors state that it preceded its master, and when he arrived at the river, he found it on the opposite bank, waiting with a number of others for their owners. As soon as the dog recognized its master, it swam over, and bore him safely across the rushing current. A cotton string tied round its neck when placed upon the pyre may have served to distinguish it from other dogs, or as a passport.[XII-78] The traveler was now taken before Mictlantecutli, to whom he presented the passports together with gifts consisting of candlewood, perfume-canes, soft threads of plain and colored cotton, a piece of cloth, a mantle and other articles of clothing, and was thereupon assigned to his sphere. Women underwent the same ordeal.[XII-79] Camargo mentions a paradise above the nine heavens, occupied by the goddess of love, where dwarfs, fools, and hunchbacks danced and sang for her amusement, but whether these beings were of human or divine origin is not stated.[XII-80] At times the old chroniclers consider Mictlan as a place of punishment,[XII-81] but the priests in their homilies never appear to have urged repentance for the purpose of escaping future punishment, but merely to avoid earthly inflictions, visited upon them or their children.[XII-82] The philanthropist whose whole life had been one continuous act of benevolence, the wise prince who had lived but for his country's good, the saintly hermit, the pious priest who had passed his days in perpetual fasts, penance, and self-torture, all were consigned to Mictlan, together with the drunkard, the murderer, the thief, and none were exempt from the terrible journey, or from the long probation which ends in eternal sleep. They may have accounted to themselves for the manifest unfairness of this system by means of their belief in predestination, which taught that the sign under which a man was born determined to a great extent, if not entirely, his character, career, and consequently his future.[XII-83] Mictlan cannot, therefore, be regarded as a hell; it is but a place of negative punishment, a Nirvâna, in which the soul is at last blown out and lost.[XII-84]

[Sidenote: THE FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS.]

The Tlascaltecs supposed that the souls of people of rank entered after death into the bodies of the higher animals, or even into clouds and gems, while common souls passed into lower animal forms.[XII-85] With the Mexicans they believed that little children who died were given another trial of earth-life.[XII-86] In Goatzacoalco the bones of the dead were so placed that the soul might have no difficulty in finding them.[XII-87] In the Aztec creation-myth we have seen that out of bone man was formed, and Brinton considers this, together with instances of the careful preservation of remains to be noticed in different parts of America, evidence of a widespread belief that the soul resided in the bones. This receives further confirmation in the Quiché legend which relates that the bones of certain heroes were ground to powder to prevent their removal.[XII-88] Yet the idea does not accord with the Mexican custom of placing a stone between the lips of the dead to serve as heart, and, doubtless, to hold the soul as the Quichés supposed. Either instance, however, implies a belief in several souls, although no reference is made to such plurality. The Tlascaltecs had guardian spirits which were embodied in the idols called _tepictoton_, and Camargo mentions angels who inhabited the air and influenced thunder, winds, and other phenomena, and who were doubtless the children of Tlalocan.[XII-89] A devil they could scarcely have had, for evil mingled too liberally in the nature of most of the Mexican gods to admit of its personification by one alone. The nearest approach to our Satan was to be found in a phantom called Tlacatecolotl, the 'owlish one'[XII-90] who roamed about doing mischief; to see an owl was accordingly held to be an evil sign, and much dreaded. Will o' the wisps were regarded as transformed wizards and witches, or animals.[XII-91] The Tlascaltecs supposed that the sparks which sped away from the craters of volcanoes were the souls of tyrants sent forth by the gods to torment the people.[XII-92]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE OTOMIS, MIZTECS, AND MAYAS.]

The Otomís believed that the soul died with the body,[XII-93] while the Tarascos, according to Herrera, admitted a future judgment, with its accompaniments of heaven and hell, but to judge from their burial customs, with immolation of attendants, term of mourning, and so forth, it would appear that they had the same belief as the Aztecs.[XII-94]

The Miztecs placed the gates of paradise within the cavern of Chalcatongo, and the grandees of the kingdom were therefore eager to be buried within its precincts, in order to be near the abode of bliss. The Zapotecs placed the heavenly portals within the cave of Mictlan. Their heaven must accordingly have been situated within the earth, although the custom of placing the dead with their feet towards the east indicates that it lay toward the sunny morning land. The common people at least seem, like the Aztecs, to have been required to pass a probationary term before entering the holy place, and during this period they were permitted to visit their friends on earth once a year, and partake of the repast spread for them. The Zapotecs gave as a reason for interring the dead, that those who were burned failed to reach heaven.[XII-95]

* * * * *

The Mayas believed in a place of everlasting delight, where the good should recline in voluptuous repose beneath the shade of the _yaxché_,[XII-96] indulging in dainty food and delicious drinks. Those who died by hanging were especially sure of admittance to this paradise, for their goddess Ixtab carried them thither herself, and many enthusiasts committed suicide with this expectation. The wicked, on the other hand, descended into Mitnal,[XII-97] a sphere below this, where hunger and other torments awaited them. Cacao money was laid with the body to pay its way, and frequent offerings of food were made, but the funeral was not proceeded with until the fifth day, when the soul had entered its sphere. A trace of metempsychosis may be noticed in the superstitious belief that sorcerers transformed people into animals.[XII-98]

Whether the Quichés believed in a future reward and punishment is uncertain, for on the one hand we are told that Xibalba, which implies a place of terror, was their hell, where ruled two princes bearing the suggestive names of One Death and Seven Deaths; while, on the other hand, the sacrifice of slaves and other objects, implies a negative punishment. A gentle, unwarlike tribe of Guatemala is said to have had a belief similar to that of the Pericuis, namely that a future life was accorded to those only who died a natural death, and, therefore, they left the bodies of the slain to beasts and vultures.[XII-99] The Pipiles appear to have looked forward to the same future abodes as the Mexicans, and to the same dreadful journey after death. During the four days and four nights that the soul was on the road, the mourners wailed deeply, probably with fear for its safety, but on the fifth day, when the priest announced that it had reached the goal, the lamentation ceased. During this time also, the mother whose infant had departed withheld the milk from all other children, lest the thirsty little wanderer should be angry, and smite the usurper.[XII-100] The probationary routine of the spirits appears to have called them to the earth at intervals, for a legend of the isles of Lake Ilopango recounts that at certain times of the year spectre barks glide in silence over the tranquil waters of the lake, anointing every island from the least to the greatest, offering upon each to some bloody divinity of past times a human victim, an infant chosen by lot.[XII-101]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE NICARAGUANS.]

The same view of futurity was taken by the Nicaraguans, who thought that the souls[XII-102] of slain warriors went to the sunrise regions, the abode of Tamagostat and Cipattonal, who welcomed them with the title of 'our children.' But all the good, that is those who had obeyed and reverenced the gods, were admitted here, whether warriors or not, and strong must have been their faith in the bliss that awaited them, for the virgins, says Andagoya, who were cast as offerings into the seething lava streams of the volcano met their fate without fear.[XII-103] The wicked were doomed to annihilation in the abode of Miquetanteot.[XII-104] Infants who died before they were weaned returned to the house of their parents to be cared for, evidently in spirit form.[XII-105] The Mosquitos believe in one heaven only, and this is open to all; for it they prepare at the very beginning of life by tying a little bag of seeds round the neck of the infant, wherewith to pay the ferriage across the great river beyond which paradise lies.[XII-106] In and about Veragua death means annihilation, and no food is left for the dead. In some places the dying are carried out to the woods and abandoned to wild beasts.[XII-107] In Costa Rica and Darien slaves and even wives are sacrificed that their souls may serve their lords in heaven.[XII-108]

Writing on the customs of Dabaiba, Peter Martyr says: 'They are such simple men, that they know not how to call the soule, nor vnderstand the power thereof: whereupon, they often talk among themselues with admiration what that inuisible and not intelligible essence might bee, whereby the members of men and brute beastes should be moued: I know not what secret thing they say, should liue after the corporall life. That (I know not what) they beleeue that after this peregrination, if it liued without spott, and reserued that masse committed vnto it without iniury done to any, it shoulde goe to a certayne æternall felicity: contrary, if it shall suffer the same to be corrupted with any filthy lust, violent rapine, or raging furie, they say, it shall finde a thousande tortures in rough and vnpleasant places vnder the Center: and speaking these things, lifting vpp their the handes they shewe the heauens, and after that casting right hand down, they poynt to the wombe of the earth'! Their belief in a future punishment he further illustrates by relating that 'the thicke spott seene in the globe of the Moone, at the full, is a mann, and they beleeue hee was cast out to the moyst, and colde Circle of the Moone, that hee might perpetually bee tormented betweene those two passions, in suffering colde, and moysture, for incest committed with his sister.'[XII-109]

* * * * *

The following myths, for which I am indebted to the kindness and industrious investigation of Mr Powers, having come to hand too late for insertion in their proper places I avail myself of the opportunity to give them here:--There dwells, say the Neeshenams, upon the hills and in the forests, a ghost named Bóhem Cülleh, which is at once man and woman. It is a bad spirit, but nevertheless a useful one to those who seek its aid, and these are mostly bad people. Sometimes in the night its wierd eldritch cry is heard in the forest, and then some woman about to be overtaken in dishonest childbirth goes out into the woods alone, with her shame and her pangs upon her, and having brought forth, presently returns, crying and lamenting that the wicked ghost met and overcame her and that she has conceived of the spirit. Or perhaps it is a man who has wrought an evil thing who makes this bad spirit responsible for his wickedness. Either a man or a woman wandering alone in the forest is exposed to the enticements of the ghost Bóhem Cülleh, to commit fornication with it.

[Sidenote: THE COYOTE'S ELOPEMENT.]

'The Coyote's Elopement' forms the subject of another Neeshenam tale. It is as follows--The coyote and the bat were one day gathering the soft-shelled nuts of the sugar pine, when there came along two women-deer (the only way they have of expressing 'female deer'), who were the wives of pigeons. The coyote, upon this, took a handful of pitch and besmeared the bat's eyes so that it could not see. The poor bat was totally blinded, but it called upon the wind to blow, and its eyes were opened a little, as we see them to-day. Meantime the rascally coyote eloped with the two women-deer. But it was not long before they came to a bridge so extremely narrow that they could not pass over it. Just then there came along a quail, and he took the two women-deer and led them across, leaving the bigamous coyote in the lurch. No sooner had they crossed than the sister of the pigeons took the quail away to his mother's camp, and thus the women-deer were set at liberty, and recovered by their husbands, the pigeons.

"In this story," says Mr Powers, "as in many others, we have something analogous to the were-wolves and swan-maidens of the medieval legends. It also illustrates the Indian belief in the common origin of all animals. Their favorite theory is, that the man originated from the coyote, and the woman from the deer. Wherefore this story probably gives us a glimpse of the first courtship recorded of the human race, when the animals had so developed, strictly in accordance with the Darwinian programme, that man was about to appear upon the scene. The failure of the coyote's elopement delayed that auspicious event a little while."

Another Neeshenam legend relates that there was once a medicine-man who possessed the wonderful faculty of turning himself into a bear for a brief season. When one of his patients was extremely ill, and, according to custom, he sucked him to extract the injurious matter, he would presently be seized with a spasm. Falling upon all fours, he would find his hands and feet sprawled along the ground in plantigrade fashion, his nails would grow long and sharp, a short tail would sprout forth, hair would spring up all over his body, in short he would become a raging, roaring bear. When the spasm had passed away, he would return to the human form.

According to yet another Neeshenam tradition, there lived long, long ago a very terrible old man, whose chief delight it was to kill and devour Indians. He had stone mortars in which he pounded the flesh to make it tender for eating. Far down on the Sacramento plains, thirty or forty miles away, he and his wife lived together, and around their wigwam the blood of Indians lay a foot deep. The Indians all made war on them and tried to kill them, but they could do nothing against them. Then at last the Old Coyote took pity on the Indians whom he had created, and he determined to kill this old man. He was accustomed to go into the great round dance-house when the Indians were assembled within it, and slay the chief. So the Old Coyote dug a deep hole just outside the door, and hid himself in it, armed with a big knife. The knife was just on a level with the ground, and when the old man came along, going into the dance-house, he saw it, and gave a kick at it, but did not notice the Coyote, who immediately jumped out of his hole, ran into the dance-house, and killed the old man.

This story, Mr Powers thinks probably refers to some long extinct race of cannibals who were superior in power to the present race. "To them," he says, "may be assigned the stone mortars found in so many parts of California, which the Indians now living here confessedly did not make. Others account for these stone mortars by saying they were made by the chief of the spirits, Haylin Kakeeny, and his subordinates."

[Sidenote: SHASTA LEGENDS.]

The following queer legends are, on the indisputable authority of Mr Powers, of Shasta origin: The world was created by Old Groundmole, _ídidoc_, a huge animal that heaved creation into existence on its back, by rooting underneath somewhere. When the flood came it destroyed all animals except a squirrel, as large as a bear, which exists to this day on a mountain called by the Shastas, Wakwaynuma, near Happy Camp.

A long time ago there was a fire-stone in the distant east, white and glistening, like the purest quartz; and the coyote journeyed east, brought this fire-stone and gave it to the Indians, and that was the origin of fire.

Originally the sun had nine brothers, all, like himself, flaming hot with fire, so that the world was like to perish; but the coyote slew nine of the brothers, and thus saved mankind from burning up. The moon also had nine brothers, all like to himself, made of the coldest ice, so that in the night people went near to freeze to death. But the coyote went away out on the eastern edge of the world with a mighty big knife of flint stone, heated stones to keep his hands warm, then laid hold of the nine moons, one after another, and slew them likewise, and thus men got warm again.

When it rains, there is some Indian sick in heaven, weeping. Long, long ago there was a good young Indian on earth, and when he died all the Indians cried so much that a flood came on the earth and rose up to heaven, and drowned all people except one couple.

The Chénposels relate that there was once a man who loved two women, and wished to marry them. Now, these two women were magpies, _atchatch_, and they loved him not, but laughed his wooing to scorn. Then he fell into a rage and cursed these two women that were magpies and went far away to the north, and there he set the world on fire, made for himself a tule boat in which he escaped to sea, and was never heard of more. But the fire which he had kindled burned with a mighty burning. It ate its way south with terrible swiftness, licking up all things that are on earth--men, trees, rocks, animals, water, and even the ground itself. But the Old Coyote saw the burning and smoke from his place far in the south, and he ran with all his might to put it out. He took two little boys in a sack on his back, and ran north like the wind. So fast did he run that he gave out just as he got to the fire, and dropped the two little boys. But he took Indian sugar (honey dew) in his mouth, chewed it up, spat it on the fire and put it out. Now the fire was out, but the Coyote was very thirsty, but there was no water, so he took Indian sugar again, chewed it up, dug a hole in the bottom of the creek, covered up the sugar in it, and it turned to water, and the earth thus had water again. But the two little boys cried because they were lonely for there was nobody on earth. Then the Coyote made a sweat-house, and split up a great number of little sticks, which he laid in the sweat-house over night; in the morning they were all turned into men and women, so the two little boys had company, and the earth was repeopled.[XII-110]

[Sidenote: SUN-MYTH OF THE PALLAWONAPS.]

I conclude with a sun-myth of the Pallawonaps, who lived on Kern River in Southern California:--Pokòh made all things. Long ago the sun was a man. The sun is bad and wishes to kill all things, but the moon is good. The sun's rays are arrows, and he gives a bundle to every creature, more to the lion, fewer to the coyote, etc.; but to none does he give an arrow that will slay a man. The coyote wished to go to the sun, and he asked Pokòh the road. Pokòh pointed out to him a good road, and the coyote traveled on it all day, but the sun turned round, so he traveled in a circle, and came back at night to the place whence he had started in the morning. A second time he asked Pokòh, and a second time he came back in a circle. Then Pokòh told him to go straight to the eastern edge of the earth, and wait there until the sun came up. So the coyote went and sat down on the hole where the sun came up, with his back turned to the east, and kept pointing with his arrow in every direction, pretending he was going to shoot. The sun came up under him, and told him to get out of the way. But the coyote sat there until it became so warm that he was obliged to coil up his tail under him. Then he began to get thirsty, and asked the sun for water. The sun gave him an acorn-cup full, but this did not satisfy the coyote's great thirst. Next his shoulders began to get warm, so he spat on his paws and rubbed his back with them. Then he said to the sun, Why do you come up here, meddling with me? But the sun said, I am not meddling with you; I am traveling where I have a right to travel. The coyote told him to go round some other way, that that was his road, but the sun insisted on going straight up. Then the coyote wanted to go up with him, so the good-natured sun took him along. Presently they came to a path with steps like a ladder, and as the sun went up he counted the steps; when they got up above the world, the coyote found it getting hot and wanted to jump down, but the distance was too great. By noon the sun was very hot and bright, and he told the coyote to shut his eyes. He did so, but he opened them quickly again, and so kept opening and shutting them all the afternoon, to see how fast the sun was sliding down. When the sun came down to the earth in the west, the coyote jumped off on to a tree, and so clambered down to the ground.[XII-111]

* * * * *

Such are the Myths of the Farthest West, such the endeavors of these men unenlightened, according to our ideas of enlightenment, to define the indefinable, such the result of their 'yearning after the gods.' Most of their myths and beliefs are extravagant, childish, meaningless, to our understanding of them, but doubtless our myths would be the same to them. From the beginning of time men have grappled with shadows, have accounted for material certainties by immaterial uncertainties. Let us be content to gather and preserve these perishable phantoms now; they will be very curious relics in the day of the triumph of substance.

FOOTNOTES:

[XII-1] 'The preconceived opinions,' says Brinton, 'that saw in the meteorological myths of the Indian a conflict between the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil, have with like unconscious error falsified his doctrine of a future life, and almost without an exception drawn it more or less in the likeness of a Christian heaven, hell, and purgatory.... Nowhere was any well-defined doctrine that moral turpitude was judged and punished in the next world. No contrast is discoverable between a place of torments and a realm of joy; at the worst, but a negative castigation awaited the liar, the coward, or the niggard.' _Myths_, p. 242.

[XII-2] _Prehistoric Times_, p. 139.

[XII-3] See vol. ii., pp. 618, 623.

[XII-4] _Myths_, p. 257.

[XII-5] See p. 59, this volume.

[XII-6] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Nic._, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii., tom. iii. p. 36; _Buschmann_, _Spuren der Aztek. Spr._, p. 74; _Id._, _Ortsnamen_, p. 159; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Gram. Quiché_, p. 196; _Brinton's Myths_, p. 49-52, 235.

[XII-7] Vol. ii., pp. 606, 799, of this work.

[XII-8] _Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 22.

[XII-9] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 145, 422.

[XII-10] Barrett-Lennard says, however: 'Those that die a natural death are condemned to dwell for ages among the branches of tall trees.' _Trav._, p. 54. 'Careciese de algunas ideas religiosas, y viviese persuadido de la total aniquilacion del hombre con la muerte.' _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. cxviii. It is doubtful whether the latter class is composed of the spirits of men, or merely of marine animals. See this vol., p. 148.

[XII-11] The Tinnehs do not regard these as the spirits of men. _Dall's Alaska_, p. 88.

[XII-12] _Kotzebue's New Voy._, vol. ii., p. 54. 'They have a confused notion of immortality.' _Id._, p. 58. The Koniagas also used to kill a slave on the grave of wealthy men. _Dall's Alaska_, p. 403.

[XII-13] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 422-3; _Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, pp. 63-5.

[XII-14] The Chepewyans also held this theory, though they believed in a heaven of bliss and a state of punishment. _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxix.

[XII-15] _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 409-10; _Baer_, _Stat. u. Ethno._, pp. 107-8, 111; _Harmon's Jour._, pp. 299-300; _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. iv., p. 482.

[XII-16] _Whymper's Alaska_, p. 345; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxxviii.; _Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 318. 'Nach dem Tode wurde nach ihren (Koniagas) Begriffen jeder Mensch ein Teufel; bisweilen zeigte er sich den Verwandten, und das hatte Glück zu bedeuten.' _Holmberg_, _Ethno. Skiz._, p. 122; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 457-8.

[XII-17] Vol. i., pp. 126-7, of this work; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 83; _Silliman's Jour._, vol. xvi., p. 147; _Seemann's Voy. Herald_, vol. ii., p. 67; _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, p. 322. The Eskimos had no idea of 'future reward and punishment.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 145.

[XII-18] _D'Orbigny's Voy._, p. 50.

[XII-19] _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxix.; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 104.

[XII-20] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 272-3.

[XII-21] _Ross' Adven._, p. 288; _Cox's Adven._, vol. ii., p. 158.

[XII-22] _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 235, 246-7; _Wilkes' Nar._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., p. 124; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 120. The Salish and Pend d'Oreilles believed that the brave went to the sun, while the bad remained near earth to trouble the living, or ceased to exist. _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 239-40. But this is contradicted by other accounts.

[XII-23] Macfie's description leaves a doubt whether the keewuck and keewuckkow are names for the same heaven, or separate. _Vanc. Isl._, p. 457.

[XII-24] _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, p. 320.

[XII-25] _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 252; Dunn, _Oregon_, p. 318, says, 'beavers are a fallen race of Indians.'

[XII-26] _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. vi., p. 619; vol. i., p. 248, of this work.

[XII-27] The sorcerer is stated by one native to have brought the soul on a small stick and thrown it back into the head of its body. _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 214. 'The natives often imagine that a bad spirit, which loves to vex and torment, takes the place of the truant soul during its absence.' _Id._, pp. 173-4; _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. v., p. 225.

[XII-28] _Mayne's B. C._, p. 181; _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 136; _Meares' Voy._, p. 270; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, p. 457; _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 212-3.

[XII-29] _Stevens_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1854, p. 212; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 233-4; see note 2.

[XII-30] _Johnston_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 225.

[XII-31] _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. iii., pp. 438-9; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, p. 448.

[XII-32] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[XII-33] _Ib._; _Gibbs_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 140.

[XII-34] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.; _Miller's Life amongst the Modocs_, pp. 241, 249.

[XII-35] _Powers_, in _Overland Monthly_, vol. viii., pp. 430-1.

[XII-36] _Id._, _Pomo_, MS.; this vol., p. 177.

[XII-37] _Meacham_, _Religion of Indians._

[XII-38] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[XII-39] Vol. i., pp. 439-40, this work; _Browne's L. Cal._, p. 188.

[XII-40] _Meyer_, _Nach dem Sacramento_, pp. 228-9; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., pp. 215-6.

[XII-41] _La Pérouse_, _Voy._, tom. ii., p. 307; _Marmier_, _Notice_, in _Bryant_, _Voy. en Cal._, p. 238; _Fages_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1844, tom. ci., pp. 335-6; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., pp. 379-80.

[XII-42] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 316-24.

[XII-43] 'Ives legte dem Gebirge den Namen: "Berg der Todten" bei.' _Möllhausen_, _Reisen in die Felsengeb._, tom. i., pp. 357-8. 'All cowardly Indians (and bravery was the good with them) were tormented with hardships and failures, sickness and defeats. This hill, or hades, they never dared visit.' _Stratton's Capt. Oatman Girls_, p. 233; _Dodt_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1870, p. 129; _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 43.

[XII-44] Estupec, the soul or heart, may be connected with _eep_, breath. _Walker's Pimas_, MS. In _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 461, occurs the term angel, but the Pima chiefs whom I have questioned state that the term angel was not known to them.

[XII-45] _Walker's Pimas_, MS.

[XII-46] _Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 222; _Cremony's Apaches_, pp. 104-5. 'Cuando muere vá á vivir su corazon por el mar hácia el poniente: que algunos despues que mueren viven como tecolotes, y últimamente dijeron que ellos no saben bien estas cosas.' _Garcés_, _Diario_, in _Doc. Hist. Mex._, série ii., tom. i., p. 239.

[XII-47] _Day_, in _Hesperian_, vol. iii., p. 482.

[XII-48] _Henry_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[XII-49] _Ten Broeck_, in _Id._, vol. iv., p. 86.

[XII-50] _Id._, p. 78; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 402; _Whipple's Rept._, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii., p. 59.

[XII-51] _Beadle_, in _Crofutt's Western World_, Aug., 1872, p. 27; _Bristol_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1867, p. 358; _Eaton_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iii., p. 218; _Davis' El Gringo_, p. 418.

[XII-52] _Marcy's Army Life_, p. 57; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., pp. 54, 685. Food is left at the grave for a certain time; this would indicate that the soul proper, or its second form, remains with the body for a while. _Id._, pp. 78-9.

[XII-53] _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, p. 387; _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 136-7, 139.

[XII-54] _Alger's Future Life_, p. 208. 'Lo llevan á enterrar sentado y con sus mejores vestidos, poniendo á su lado competente porcion de sus ordinarios, alimentos.' _Alegre_, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, tom. ii., p. 218.

[XII-55] _Hist. de los Triumphos_, p. 18.

[XII-56] _Apostólicos Afanes_, pp. 22-4.

[XII-57] This legend is taken from a MS kindly presented to me by Mr. Stephen Powers, and is a corrected version of the legend entitled 'Hilpmecone and Olégance' contributed by the same gentleman to the _Overland Monthly_, January, 1874. pp. 30-1.

[XII-58] 'El que tenia rodela horadada de saetas no podia mirar al sol.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265. This may perhaps mean that the humbler warrior, whose inferior shield was more likely to be pierced, could not look upon the majestic face of the sun, just as he had been interdicted from regarding the face of his king.

[XII-59] 'When the midwife speaks to a woman who has died in childbed, she refers to the noble manner in which she has used the sword and shield, a figure of speech which is probably intended to represent the high estimation in which they held her.' _Id._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 189.

[XII-60] 'Descendian acá á la tierra.' Ib. But it is just as likely that they used the weaving implements supplied to them at the grave, as those of the living. Brasseur de Bourbourg says that the inhabitants of this region had day when the inhabitants of the earth slept; but since the women resumed their work after the setting of the sun, it is more likely that they always had light up there, and that they never slept. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 497.

[XII-61] The humming-bird, the emblem and attribute of the war-god, offered on the grave in the month of Quecholli, probably referred to this transformation. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 164, lib. iv., pp. 264-5, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 188-9, lib. ix., p. 358; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 530. 'Nachher werden sie theils in Wolken verwandelt, theils in Kolibris.' _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 661. The transformation into clouds seems to refer to the Tlascaltecs.

[XII-62] Tlalocan is the name given by some old writers to the country between Chiapas and Oajaca. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 496; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 88-9. It may also be the place referred to under the names of Tamoancha, Xuchitlycacan. _Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 127.

[XII-63] Vol. ii., p. 336, this work.

[XII-64] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 82, 529. The remarks of the above authors with reference to those who die of diseases may, however, refer to sufferers from ordinary afflictions, who were from all doomed to Mictlan. In _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 169-71, all who die of diseases and a violent death are consigned to Mictlan. _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 246-7; _Alger's Future Life_, pp. 475-6. Chevalier, _Mex. Ancien et Mod._, p. 91, who regards the sun as heaven, and Mictlan as hell, considers this an intermediate and incomplete paradise. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 264; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5.

[XII-65] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-1, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 176; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 529; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 571; _Tezozomoc_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., pp. 329, 331.

[XII-66] _Id._, p. 329. 'Le plus commun est _Chiucnauh-Mictlan_, les Neuf séjours des Morts.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 495; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-67] This seems also to be the idea of Gomara, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 308-9, although he makes the heavens distinct from one another, and includes the Sun House and Tlalocan in the list.

[XII-68] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 166, lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-69] _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 522. The fact that offerings and prayers were kept up for four days by the mourners, confirms this statement. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 189. 'Until souls had arrived at the destined place at the expiration of these four years, they had to encounter much hardship, cold, and toil.' _Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 96.

[XII-70] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 193; _Tezozomoc_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 331. 'When the sun sets, it goes to give light to the dead.' _Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 128.

[XII-71] _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 6. Tlalxicco may be considered as hell proper, and distinct from Mictlan, and may have been ruled over by Tzontemoc who must then be regarded as distinct from Mictlantecutli. _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 219.

[XII-72] Mictlampaehecatl, the north-wind, is said to come from hell. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 253, 256-7; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 81.

[XII-73] _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 218-9.

[XII-74] 'Despues de pasados cuatro años, el difunto se salía y se iba á los nueve infiernos ... en este lugar del infierno que se llamaba _Chicunamictla_, se acababan y fenecian los difuntos.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263; see also note 8. At the end of four years the souls came to a place where they enjoyed a certain degree of repose. _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 218.

[XII-75] This vol., p. 59; see also, pp. 296-402.

[XII-76] See note 12. Four was the most sacred number among the Mexicans as well as the other nations of America, and is derived from the adoration of the cardinal points. _Brinton's Myths_, p. 67. The Central Americans believed that the soul arrived at its destination in four days after death.

[XII-77] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-78] 'Pour qu'il ne fût pas entraîné en traversant le Styx indien.' _Biart_, _Terre Tempérée_, p. 280; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 309. 'Los perros de pelo blanco y negro, no podian nadar y pasar el rio, porque dizque decia el perro de pelo negro: "yo me labé" y el perro de pelo blanco decia: "yo me he manchado de color prieto, y por eso no puedo pasaros" solamente el perro de pelo vermejo podia pasar.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.

[XII-79] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-4; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 528-30; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 5-6; vol. ii., pp. 603-19, of this work.

[XII-80] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcix., pp. 192-3.

[XII-81] 'Tenian por cierto, que en el infierno habian de padecer diversas penas conforme á la calidad de los delitos.' _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 83. 'Entónces todos serán castigados conforme á sus obras.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 36-7; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 80. 'Ils étaient plongés dans une obscurité profonde, livrés à leurs remords.' _Chevalier_, _Mex. Ancien et Mod._, p. 91.

[XII-82] 'Padecen por los pecados de sus padres.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 36. Their prayers and penances, says Acosta, were merely on account of corporal inflictions, for they certainly feared no punishment in the world to come, but expected that all would rest there. _Hist. de las Ynd._, p. 383. 'In the destiny they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of refinement; since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking contrast to the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of the most enlightened nations. In all this, so contrary to the natural suggestions of the ferocious Aztec, we see the evidences of a higher civilization, inherited from their predecessors in the land.' _Prescott's Mex._, vol. i., pp. 62-3.

[XII-83] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 267, et seq.

[XII-84] The reader who thinks upon the subject at all, cannot help being struck by the remarkable resemblance in some points between these future abodes of the Mexicans and those of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The trembling soul has to pass over the same dreadful river, ferried by a brute Charon. In Hades as in Mictlan, the condition of the dead was a shadowy sort of apparent life, in which, mere ghosts of their former selves, they continued dreamily to perform the labors and carry on the occupations to which they had been accustomed on earth. In Greece as in Mexico, the shades of the dead were occasionally permitted to visit their friends on earth, summoned by a sacrifice and religious rites. Neither Elysium nor the glorious Sun House was the reward of the purely good so much as of the favorites of the gods. Such points of resemblance as these are, however, unnoticed by those who theorize concerning the origin of the Americans; they go farther for analogies, and perhaps fare worse.

[XII-85] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5; _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 97.

[XII-86] _Alger's Future Life_, pp. 475-6.

[XII-87] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. ix., cap. vii.

[XII-88] _Myths_, p. 258; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. 175.

[XII-89] _Hist. Tlax._, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 192; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 64.

[XII-90] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, p. 81. 'Tlacatecolotl, demonio o diablo.' _Molina_, _Diccionario_.

[XII-91] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 109.

[XII-92] 'The inhabitants suppose kinges (who, while they liued, gouerned amisse) to haue a temporary aboade there being companions with diuels amonge those flames, where they may purge the foule spots of their wickednesse.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. v., lib. ii.

[XII-93] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 4: _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 96.

[XII-94] _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.; _Carbajal Espinosa_, _Hist. Mex._, tom. i., p. 292; vol. ii., pp. 620-2, of this work.

[XII-95] _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip._, tom. ii., fol. 230-1, tom. i., fol. 159-61; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5; _Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., p. 96; _Id._, _Codex Vaticanus_, p. 218; vol. ii., pp. 622-3, of this work.

[XII-96] 'Le _Yaxché_, qui signifie arbre vert, est probablement le même que le _tonacaste_ ou _tonacazquahuitl_, arbre au tronc puissant et élevé, au feuillage immense, mais menu et serré, dont la beauté et l'extrême fraîcheur lui ont fait donner le nom d'arbre de la vie.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 200.

[XII-97] An evident corruption of Mictlan.

[XII-98] 'Dezian se lo (el difunto) avia llevado el diablo porque del pensavan les venian los males todos y especial la muerte.' _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 196, 198-202; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 192; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 62-3; _Carrillo_, in _Mex. Soc. Geog., Boletin_, 2da época, tom. iii., pp. 265-6.

[XII-99] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 246; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, pp. lxxix.-lxxx., cxxviii.-cxxx; vol. ii., p. 799, of this work.

[XII-100] _Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 76-8.

[XII-101] _Dollfus and Mont-Serrat_, _Voy. Géologique_, p. 12.

[XII-102] _Yolia_ or _yulia_ derived from _yoli_, to live is distinct from heart, _yollotli_. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 159. Yet the heart was evidently considered as the seat of the soul, for some Indians stated that 'el coraçon va arriba,' while others explained that by this was meant the breath. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 44-5.

[XII-103] _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 415.

[XII-104] Corresponding to the Aztec Mictlantecutli. It is not quite clear whether all agreed upon total annihilation in this place.

[XII-105] 'Han de resuçitar ó tornar á casa de sus padres, é sus padres los conoserán é criarán.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 41, 42-9; _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 145, 235; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 113-4.

[XII-106] Bell adds that this ferriage money was provided lest the child 'should die young.' Offerings are also placed upon the grave. _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., pp. 254-5.

[XII-107] 'They suppose that men do naturally liue and die as other beastes do.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii., lib. iv.

[XII-108] 'Aquel humo iba donde estaba el ánima de aquel defunto ... en el cielo, y que en el humo iba allá.' _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 402; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i., lib. vii., cap. xvi., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. v.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 255; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., p. 142.

[XII-109] Dec. vii., lib. x.

[XII-110] "It is possible," concludes Mr Powers, "that this legend has dim reference to that great ancient cataclysm, or overflow of lava from the north, which has been demonstrated by Professor le Conte, in a paper read before the Californian Academy of Science."

[XII-111] This myth, Mr Powers thinks, has been belittled or corrupted from the ancient myth of the zodiac, and, in his opinion, argues for the Americans a civilized, or at least semi-civilized, Asiatic origin--a very far-fetched conclusion I should say.

THE NATIVE RACES

OF THE

PACIFIC STATES.

LANGUAGES.