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f^arbarli College l^iiirars
rKOM THB FUND OF
GEORGE FRANCIS PARKMAN
(CUm of 1844)
OF BOSTON
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THE MYTHOLOGY OF ALL RACES
VoLtraiiE XI
LATIN-AMERICAN
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?U-H^.|U.II
s-^-^i
VouDiB I. Cf«k and Rtmian
WnUAK Sbuwooo Fok, Ph.D.» Princeton Unhrenity.
VoLUifE n. Teutonic
Axel Outoc, Ph.D., Univenity of Copenhagm.
Volume m. CeiUc, Slavic
CuKM JOHM A. MacCuixoch, D.D., Bridge of Allan, Srofland
Jan MAoul, Ph.D., Bohemian Univenity, Pngue.
VoLUifE IV. Finna-UgHc, Siberian
Uho Houobso, Ph JD., Univeraity of Finland, HeUngfon.
VoLXTME V. Semiiic
R. Camvbzll TBOMPm, M.A., F.S^, F^.G.S., Oiford.
VoLUias VI. Indian, Iranian
A. Bbuxbmlb Kxrh, D.CJ^., Edinbuigh Univenity.
Albert J. Casxoy, Ph.D., Univernty of Loavain.
VoLUiCB Vn. Armenian, African
Maiudlos Amakikian, B.D., Kennedy School of Mianons, Hart-
ford, Connecticut.
AucB WzBXB. LX.A. (St AndiewB); School of Oriental Studiea,
Volthcb Vm. Chinese, Japanese
XJ. Hattosi, Litt.D., Univenity of Tokyo.
(Japaitest Exchange Professor at Harvard Unhorsity, tQt^igi€)
Masahu&u Amebakz, Litt.D., Univenity of Tokyo.
(Japamso Exchange Professor ai Harvard UniversUy, 19'3-XQIS)
Volume DC. Oceanic
RoLAMD Buuuu» DooN, Ph.D.. Harvard Univenity.
Volume X. American (North of Mexico)
Harhkt Burr Audcamder, Fh.D., Univenity of Nebnaka.
Volume XI. American (Latin)
Hartlst Burr Auxamder, Ph.D., Univenity of Nebraika.
Volume Xn. Egyptian, Indo-Chinese
W. Max MDxur, Ph.D., Univenity of Pcnnaylvank.
Sir Jaicbs Giorox Soon, K.C X£.» London. .
Volume Xm. Index
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PLATE I
Top face of the monolith known as the '^ Dragon ''
or the " Great Turtle " of Quirigua. This is one of
the group of stelae and '' altars " which mark the
ceremonial courts of this vanished Maya city (see
Plate XXIII); and is perhaps the master-work
not only of Mayan, but of aboriginal American art.
The top of the stone here figured shows a highly
conventionalized daemon or dragon mask, sur-
rounded by a complication of ornament. The
north and south (here lower and upper) faces of the
monument contain representations of divinities; on
the south face is a mask of the ^* god with the orna-
mented nose** (possibly Ahpuch, the death god),
and on the north, seated within the open mouth
of the Dragon, the teeth of whose upper jaw appear
on the top face of the monument, is carved a serene,
Buddha-like divinity shown in Plate XXV. The
Maya date corresponding, probably, to 525 A. D.
appears in a glyphic inscription on the shoulder of
the Dragon. The monument is fully described by
W. H. Holmes, An and Archaeology, Vol. IV, No. 6.
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THE MYTHOLOGY
OF ALL RACES
IN THIRTEEN VOLUMES
LOUIS HERBERT GRAY, A.M., PH.D., Editor
GEORGE FOOT MOORE, A.M.. D.D., LL.D., Coinvltimo Editor
LATIN-AMERICAN
BY
HARTLEY BURR ALEXANDER, PHJ>.
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
VOLUME XI
BOSTON
MARSHALL JONES COMPANY
M DCCCC XX
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^- ^
Copyright, 1920
By Marshall Jones Company
Entered at Stationers* Hall, London
AU rights reserved
First printing, April, 1920
PiaNTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMEiUCA BT THE UNIVERSITT PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
BOUND BT THE BOSTON BOOKBINDING COMPANY
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TO
ALICE CXJNNINGHAM FLETCHER
IN APPRECIATION OF HER INTERPRETATIONS OF
AMERICAN INDIAN LIFE AND LORE
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE
rl aim and plan the present volume is made to accord as
nearly as may be with the earlier-written volume on the
mythology of the North American Indians. Owing to diver-
gence of the materials, some deviations of method have been
necessary, but in their main lines the two books correspond
in form as they are continuous in matter. In each case the
author has aimed primarily at a descriptive treatment, follow-
ing regional divisions, and directed to essential conceptions
rather than to exhaustive classification; and in each case it
has been, not the specialist in the field, but the scholar with kin-
dred interests and the reader of broadly humane tastes whom
the author has had before him.
The difficulties besetting the.composition of both books have
been analogous, growing chiefly from the vast diversities of the
sources of material; but these difficulties are decidedly greater
for the Latin-American field. The matter of spelling is one of
the more immediate. In general, the author has endeavoured
to adhere to such of the rules given in Note i of Mythology of
All Races, Vol. X (pp. 267-68), as may be applicable, seeking
the simplest plausible English forms and continuing literary
usage wherever it is well established, both for native and for
Spanish names (as MonUzutna, Cortez). Consistency is prag-
matically impossible in such a matter; but it is hoped that the
foundational need, that of identification, is not evaded.
The problem of an appropriate bibliography has proven to
be of the hardest. To the best of the author's belief, there
exists, aside from that here given, no bibliography aiming at a
systematic classification of the sources and discussions of the
mythology of the Latin-American Indians, as a whole. There
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viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE
are, indeed, a considerable number of special bibliographies,
regional in character, for which every student must be grate-
ful; and it is hoped that not many of the more important of
these have failed of inclusion in the bibliographical division
devoted to "Guides"; but for the whole field, the appended
bibliography is pioneer work, and subject to the weaknesses
of all such attempts. The principles of inclusion are: (i) All
works upon which the text of the volume directly rests. These
will be found cited in the NoUSy where are also a few references
to works cited for points of an adventitious character, and
therefore not included in the general bibliography. (2) A
more liberal inclusion of English and Spanish than of works in
other languages, the one for accessibility, the other for source
importance. (3) An eflFort to select only such works as have
material directly pertinent to the mythology, not such as deal
with the general culture, of the peoples under consideration, —
a line most difficult to draw. In respect to bibliography, it
should be further stated that it is the intent to enter the names
of SpaniSIb authors in the forms approved by the rules of the
Real Academia, while it has not seemed important to follow
other than the English custom in either text or notes. It is
certainly the author's hope that the labour devoted to the
assembling of the bibliography will prove helpful to students
generally, and it is his belief that those wishing an introduction
to the more important sources for the various regions will find
of immediate help the select bibliographies given in the NoUSj
for each region and chapter.
The illustrations should speak for themselves. Care has been
taken to reproduce works which are characteristic of the art
as well as of the mythic conceptions of the several peoples;
and since, in the more civilized localities, architecture also is
significantly associated with mythic elements, a certain num-
ber of pictures are of architectural subjects.
It remains to express the numerous forms of indebtedness
which pertain to a work of the present character. Where they
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix
are a matter of authority, it is believed that the references to
the Notes will be found fully to cover them; and where illus-
trations are the subject, the derivation is indicated on the
tissues. In the way of courtesies extended, the author owes
recognition to staff-members of the libraries of Harvard
and Northwestern Universities, to the Peabody Museum,
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the American Museum
of Natural History, and the Museum of the University of
Nebraska. His personal obligations are due to Professor
Frank S. Philbrick, of the Northwestern University Law
School, and to the Assistant Curator of the Academy of
Pacific Coast History, Dr. Herbert I. Priestley, for valuable
suggestions anent the bibliography, and to Dr. Hiram Bing-
ham, of the Yale Peruvian Expedition, for his courtesy in
furnishing for reproduction the photographs represented by
Plates XXX and XXXVHI. His obligations to the editor
of the series are, it is trusted, understood.
The manuscript of the present volume was prepared for the
printer by November of 1916. The ensuing outbreak of war
delayed publication until the present hour. In the intervening
period a number of works of some importance appeared, and
the author has endeavoured to incorporate as much as was
essential of this later criticism into the body of his work, a
mattcfr difficult to make sure. The war also has been respon-
sible for the editor's absence in Europe during the period in
which the book has been put through the press, and the duty
of oversight has fallen upon the author who is, therefore,
responsible for such editorial delinquencies as may be found.
HARTLEY BURR ALEXANDER.
Lincoln, Nebraska,
November 17, 1919.
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CONTENTS
PACK
Axtthor's Preface vii
Introduction i
Chapter I. The Antilles 15
I The Islanders 15
II The First Encounters 18
III Zemiism 21
IV Tamo Myths 28
V TheArcitos 32
VI Carib Lore 36
Chapter II. Mexico 41
I Middle America 41
II Conquistadores 44
III The Aztec Pantheon 49
rV The Great Gods 57
1 Huitzilopochtli 58
2 Tezcatlipoca 61
3 Quetzalcoatl 66
4 Tlaloc and ChalchiuhtHcue 71
V The Powers of Life 74
VI The Powers of Death 79
Chapter III. Mexico {continued) 85
I Cosmogony 85
II The Four Suns 91
III The Calendar and its Cycles 96
IV Legendary History 105
V Aztec Migration-Myths iii
VI Surviving Paganism 118
Chapter IV. Yucatan 124
I The Maya 124
II Votan, Zamna, and Kukulcan 131
III Yucatec Deities 136
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xii CONTENTS
PAGE
IV Rites and Symbols 142
V The Maya Cycles 146
VI The Creation 152
Chapter V. Central America 156
I Quiche and Cakchiquel 156
II The Popul Vuh 159
III The Hero Brothers 168
rV The Annals of the Cakchiquel 177
V Honduras and Nicaragua 183
Chapter VI. The Andean North 187
I The Cultured Peoples of the Andes 187
II The Isthmians 189
III El Dorado 194
IV Myths of the Chibcha 198
V The Men from the Sea 204
Chapter VII. The Andean South 210
I The Empire of the Incas 210
II The Yunca Pantheons 220
III The Myths of the Chincha 227
IV Viracocha and Tonapa 232
V The Children of the Sun 242
VI Legends of the Incas 248
Chapter VIII. The Tropical Forests: the Orinoco and
Guiana 253
I Lands and Peoples 253
II Spirits and Shamans 256
III How Evils Befell Mankind 261
IV Creation and Cataclysm 266
V Nature and Human Nature 275
Chapter IX. The Tropical Forests: the Amazon and
Brazil 281
I The Amazons 281
II Food-Makers and Dance-Masks 287
III Gods, Ghosts, and Bogeys 295
IV Imps, Were-Beasts, and Cannibals 300
V Sun, Moon, and Stars 304
VI Fire, Flood, and Transformations 311
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CONTENTS xiii
PACB
Chapter X. The Pampas to the Land of Fire 316
I The Far South 316
II El Chaco and the Pampeans 318
III The Araucanians 324
IV The Patagonians 331
V TheFuegians 338
Notes 345
Bibliography 379
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ILLUSTRATIONS
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
riJlTB rACIHG PACK
I The Dragon of Quirigua — Photogravure . Frontispiece
II Antillean Triangular Stone Images 24
III Antillean Stone Ring 28
* IV Dance in Honor of the Earth Goddess, Haiti ... 34
V Aztec Goddessy probably Coatlicue 46
" VI Tutelaries of the Quarters, Codex Ferjervary-Mayer
— G>loured 56
VII Coyolxauhquiy Xochipilli, and Xluhcoatl 60
VIII Tezcatlipoca, Codex Borgia — Coloured 64
^ DC Quetzalcoatly Macuilxochitl, Huitzilopochtli, Codex
Borgia — Coloured 70
X Mask of Xipe Totec 76
' XI Mictlantecutli, God of Death 80
XII Heavenly Bodies, Codex Vaticanus B and Codex
Borgia — Coloured 88
XIII Ends of Suns, or Ages of the World, Codex Vatica-
nus A — Coloured * 94
XIV Aztec Calendar Stone 100
XV Temple of Xochicalco 106
"XVI Section of the Tezcucan "Map Tlotzin" — Col-
oured 112
XVII Interior of Chamber, Mitla 118
'XVIII Temple 3, Ruins of Tikal 126
XIX Map of Yucatan Showing Location of Maya Cities 130
XX Bas-relief Tablets, Palenque 136
XXI Bas-relief Lintel, Menche, Showing Priest and
Penitent 144
XXII "Serpent Numbers,*' Codex Dresdensis — Coloured 152
XXIII Ceremonial Precinct, Quirigua 160
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xvi ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE rAONO PAGE
' XXIV Image in Mouth of the Dragon of Quirigua ... i68
' XXV Stela 12, Piedras Negras 178
XXVI Amulet in the Form of a Vampire 190
J XXVII Colombian Goldwork 196
XXVIII Mother Goddess and Ceremonial Dish, Colombia . 200
^ XXIX Vase Painting of Balsa, Truxillo 206
^ XXX Machu Picchu 212
* XXXI Monolith, Chavin de Huantar 218
" XXXII Nasca Vase, Showing Multi-Headed Deity .... 222
" XXXIII Nasca Deity, in Embroidery — Coloured .... 226
^ XXXIV Nasca Vase, Showing Sky Deity 230
' XXXV Monolithic Gateway, Tiahuanaco 234
XXXVI Plaque, probably Representing Viracocha .... 236
^ XXXVII Vase Painting from Pachacamac — Coloured . . . 240
^ XXXVIII Temple of the Windows, Machu Picchu 248
■ XXXIX Carved Seats and Metate 264
" XL Vase from the Island of Marajo 286
^ XLI Brazilian Dance Masks 294
^XLII Trophy Head, from Ecuador 304
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIGURE PAGE
1 Chart showing Culture Sequences in Mexico and Peru . . . 367
2 Figure from a Potsherd, Calchaqui Region 369
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INTRODUCTION
THERE 18 an element of obvious incongruity in the use
of the term "Latin American" to designate the native
Indian myths of Mexico and of Central and South America.
Unfortunately, we have no convenient geographical term
which embraces all those portions of America which fell to
Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, and in default of this,
the term designating their culture, Latin in character, has
come into use — aptly enough when its application is to
transplanted Iberian institutions and peoples, but in no
logical mode relating to the aborigines of these regions. More
than this, there are no aboriginal unities of native culture
and ideas which follow the divisions made by the several
Caucasian conquests of the Americas. It is primarily as
consequence of their conquest by Spaniards that Mexico and
Central America fall with the southern continent in our
thought; from the point of view of their primitive ethnology
there is little evidence (at least for recent times) ^ of southern
influence until Yucatan and Guatemala are passed. There
are, to be sure, striking resemblances between the Mexican
and Andean aboriginal civilizations; and there are, again,
broad similarities between the ideas and customs of the less
advanced tribes of the two continents, such that we may
correctly infer a certain racial character as typical of all Amer-
ican Indians; but amid these similarities there are grouped
differences which, as between the continents, are scarcely less
distinctive than are their fauna and flora, — say, calumet
and eagle's plume as against blowgun and parrot's feather, -r-
and these hold level for level: the Amazonian and the Inca
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% INTRODUCTION
are as distinctively South American as the Mississippian and
the Aztec are distinctively North American.
Were the divisions in a treatment of American Indian myth
to follow the rationale of pre-Columbian ethnography,' the
key-group would be found in the series of civilized or semi-
civilized peoples of the mainly mountainous and plateau
regions of the western continental ridge, roughly from Cancer to
Capricorn, or with outlying spurs from about 35^ North
(Zufii and Hopi) to near 35® South (Calchaqui-Diaguite).
Within this region native American agriculture originated,
and along with agriculture were developed the arts of civiliza-
tion in the forms characteristic of America; while from the
several centres of the key-group agriculture and attendant
arts passed on into the plains and forests regions and the great
alluvial valleys of the two continents and into the archipelago
which lies between them. In each continent there is a region
— the Boreal and the Austral — beyond the boundaries of
the native agriculture, and untouched by the arts of the
central civilizations, yet showing an unmistakable conmiunity
of ideas, of which (primitive and vague as they are) recurrent
instances are to be found among the intervening groups. Thus
the plat and configuration of autochthonous America divides
into cultural zones that are almost those of the hemispherical
projection, and into altitudes that are curiously parallel to
the continental altitudes: the higher civilizations of the
plateaux, the more or less barbarous cultures of the unstable
tribes of the great river basins, and the primitive development
of the wandering hordes of the frigid coasts. The primitive
stage may be assumed to be the foundational one throughout
both continents, and it is virtually repeated in the least ad-
vanced groups of all regions; the intermediate stage (except
in such enigmatical groups as that of the North-West Coast
Indians of North America) appears to owe much to definite
acculturation as a consequence of the spread of the arts and
industries developed by the most advanced peoples. More-
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INTRODUCTION 3
over, the outer unities of mode of life are reflected by inner
communities of thought; for there are unmistakable kinships
of idea, not only throughout the civilized group, but also in
the whole range of the regions affected by its arts; while
underlying these and outcropping at the poles, there is a
definable stratum of virtxially identical primitive thought.
Nevertheless, these unities are cut across by differences,
partly environmental and partly historical in origin, which
give, as said above, distinctive character to the parallel groups
of the two continents. One might, indeed, say that the cul-
tural division is twinned, north and south, — with a certain
primacy, as of elder birth and clear superiority in the northern
groups; for, on the whole, the Maya is superior to the Inca,
just as the Iroquois and Sioux are superior to Carib and
Araucanian, and the Eskimo to the Fuegian.
Such, in loose form, is the native configuration of American
culture and hence of native American thought, and without
question a desirable mode of treating the latter would be to
follow this natural chart. Nevertheless, there are reasons which
fully justify, in the study of native ideas, the bringing together
in a single treatment of all the materials relating to the peoples
of Latin America. The most obvious of these reasons is the
unity of the descriptive literature, in its earlier and primary
works almost wholly Spanish. It is not merely that such writers
as Las Casas, Acosta, Herrera, and Gomara pass ubiquitously
from region to region of the Spanish conquests, now north,
now south, in the course of their narratives; it is rather that
a certain colouristic harmony is derived from what might be
termed the linguistic prejudices of their tongue, which, there-
fore, they share with those Spanish chroniclers whose field of
description is limited to some one region. The mere fact that
the ideas of an Indian nation are first described by a sixteenth
century Spaniard — friar, bishop, or cavalier — gives to them
the flavour of their translation and context, and thus estab-
lishes a sort of community between all groups of ideas so de-
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4 INTRODUCTION
scribed. Nor need this be matter for regret: primitive thought,
with its burning concreteness and its lack of relational expres-
sion, is as truly untranslatable into analytical languages as
poetry is untranslatable; and it is, on the whole, good fortune
to have, as it were, but one linguistic colour cast upon so large
a body of aboriginal ideas.
Further — what may not be to the liking of the ethnologist,
but is certainly of high zest to the lover of romance — the
Spanish colour is quite as much in the nature of imagination
as in the hue of expression. No book on Latin American
mythology could be complete without description of those
truly Latinian fables which the discoverers brought with them
to the New World, and there, wedding them to native tradi-
tions (ill-heard and fabulously repeated), soon created such a
realm of gorgeous marvel as glamoured the age with fantasy
and set the coolest heads to mad adventure. In such names as
Antilles, Brazil, the Amazon, Old World mjrths are fixed in
New World geography; and beyond these there is the whole
series of fantastic tales with which the Spaniard, in a sort of
imaginative munificence, has enriched the literature and the
romantic resources of this world of ours. The Fountain of
Eternal Youth, the Seven Cities of Cibola, the Island of the
Amazons and the marvellous virtues of the Amazon Stone, El
Dorado ("the Gilded Man"), the treasure cities of Manoa
and Omagua, the lost empire of the Gran Moxo and the Gran
Paytiti, Patagonian giants, and "men whose heads do grow
between their shoulders," and finally, most wide-«pread of all,
the miracles of the robed and bearded white man who, long
ago, had come to teach the Indian a new way of life and a
purer worship and had left the cross to be his sign, in whom no
pious mind could see other than the blessed Saint Thomas:
all these were in part a freight of the caravels, and they re-
present collectively a chapter second to none in mjrtiiopoesy.
There is no match for this cargo of imported fantasy in the
parts of America colonized by the English and the French.
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INTRODUCTION S
This, however, need not be accredited merely to cooler blood
and calmer race: the North American colonies belong to the
seventeenth century, a good hundred years after the Spaniards
had completed their most golden conquests, and for the Span-
iard, no less than for the others, the hour of intoxication and
extravagance had by then gone by — leaving its flamboyant
tones to warm the colours of succeeding times. Thus it is that
Latin American myth is in no faint degree truly Latinian.
But while there is a certain Old World seasoning in Latin
American myth, native traditions are, of course, the substan-
tial material of the study. This material is striking and various.
It embraces the usual substrata of demoniac beliefs and
animistic credulities, and above these such elaborate forma-
tions as the Aztec and Maya pantheons, with their amazing
astral and calendric interpretations, or the enigmatic and
fervid religion of Peru. Many of the stories are little more
than vocal superstitions; others, such as the conquering of
death in the Popul Fuhj the Brazilian tale of the release of the
imprisoned night, or the superb Surinam legend of Maconaura
and Anuanaitu, will compare, both for dramatic power and
subtle suggestion, with the best that the world can show.
There is, of course, the constant difficulty of deciding where
myth clearly emerges from the misty realm of folk-lore, and,
at the other extreme, where it is succeeded by science and
religion; but this difficulty is more theoretic than practical: in
its central character mythology is present wherever there are
animating gods operant in the body of nature, and myth is pres-
ent wherever spirits or deities are shown as dramatically inter-
acting causes. With a few possible exceptions (the possibility
being probably but the expression of our ignorance), all Ameri-
can Indians are mjrthopoets, whose mythology is characterized
in characterizing their beliefs.
The practical problem of handling and apportioning the
subject-matter is similar to that presented in the case of
North America, and rather more difficult. In the first place,
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6 INTRODUCTION
it were idle to undertake the mere narration of stories and
superstitions without some delineation of the conditions of
the life and culture of those who make them; frequently, the
whole relevance of the tale is to the manner of life. In the
next place, the feasible mode of apportionment, by regional di-
visions, is made difficult not only by the vastness of some of
the regions, but even more so by the unevenness of culture,
and hence of the range of ideas. If the lines were drawn on the
scale of Old World studies, Mexico (Nahua and Maya) and
Peru would each deserve a volume; and the proportionately
slight attention which they receive in the present work is due
partly to the need of giving reasonable space to other regions,
partly to the fact that the myths of these fallen empires are
already represented by an accessible literature. Still a third
problem has to do with the order in which the matters should
be presented. From the point of view of native affinities, the
logical step from the Antilles is to the Orinoco and Guiana
region (that is, from Chapter I to Chapter VIII).' But since,
in beginning with the Antilles, one is really following the course
of discovery — seeing, as it were, with Spanish eyes — the
natural continuation is on to Mexico and Peru, and thence to
the more slowly uncovered regions of central South America.
This procedure, also, follows a certain bibliographical trend:
the relative importance of Spanish authors is much less for
the latter chapters of the book, and the sources of material,
in general, are of later origin.
Finally, a word might be said with respect to interpretation.
No matter how conscientiously one may aim at straight
narration, the mere need for coherence will compel some in-
terpreting; while every translation is, in its degree, an inter-
pretation (and one literally impossible). Besides and beyond
all this, there are the prepossessions of the recorders to be
taken into account — honest men who interpret according
to their lights. There are the Biblical prepossessions of the
early Padres, for whom the Tower of Babel and the Dispersion
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INTRODUCTION 7
were recent and real events: granting a Noachian Deluge of
the thoroughness which they had in mind, nothing could be
more rational than were their readings of aboriginal legends
of events of a kindred nature, or than their speculations as to
what sons of Shem the Indians might be. There are the tradi-
tionary visions of migratory descendants of the Lost Tribes,
of far-wandering Buddhist monks, of sea-faring Orientals, and
forgotten Atlantideans; and there is the wonderful Euhemerism
of the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg (ever the more admirable
in the more reading) — neither the first nor the last of his
tribe, but assuredly the most gifted of them all. There are,
again, the theological biases of missionaries, for whom the
devil is seldom far and God is generally near; and there are
the no less ingrained prejudices of the anthropologists who
serenely Tylorize and fetishize the most recalcitrant materials,
and of the philologists who solarize and astralize because the
model was once set for them. America has proven an abun-
dant field for the illustration of all these methods of reading
the riddle of man's fancy; and it is scarcely to be desired that
one should report the matters without some reflection of the
colourations. But, in sooth, how could myth be myth apart
from meaning?
Which leads (by no devious routing of reflection) to some
consideration of the meaning of mythology and of our interest
in it. Such interest may be of any of several types. A first,
and still persistent, interest, and one to which we owe, for
America, from Ramon Pane onward, more actual material
than to any other, is the desire of the Christian missionary to
discover in the native mind those points of approach and
elements of community which will best enable him to spread
the faith of Christendom. In many cases, of course, the mis-
sionary is seized with a purely speculative zeal for recording
facts, but it is usually possible in such records to detect
the influence of the impulse which first brought him into the
field, — and which, it may be added, makes of his services a
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8 INTRODUCTION
matter for the gratitude of all who follow him. A second in-
terest, which is often not sharply divorced from the first, as
instanced in Missionary Brett's poetizing of the myths of the
Guiana Indians,^ is the aesthetic and imaginative. What
classical mythology has done for the art and poetry of Chris-
tian Europe all men know: Dante and Milton, Botticelli and
Michelangelo are only less its debtors than are Homer and
Phidias. Further, the Renaissance curiosity, with its passion
for the antique gems and heathen gods whose forms so stimu-
lated its own expressions, was at its height when America was
discovered and conquered; and it is small wonder that that
interest was transformed, where the marvel of the New World
was in question, into a wave of American exotism which rose
to its crest in the humanitarian enthusiasm of the eighteenth
century.*^ In our own day this interest is continuing, more
soberly but not less fruitfully, in a deliberate effort on the part
of artists, of poets, and of musicians to discover the elements
of lasting beauty in the native arts and mythic themes. From
a certain point of view there is a peril in the aesthetic interest:
most investigators consciously or unconsciously possess it, and
most recorders of native myths consciously or unconsciously
dress their materials with the suaver forms of expression
which the cultivated languages of Europe have developed.
There is, in other words, some untruth to aboriginal thought
in the desire to find or inject art where the original motive
was realistic, or, if aesthetic, governed by a taste foreign to
our own. On the other hand, we recognize readily enough
that the real creative gain, in an artistic sense, must come
from an amalgamation, and with such an example of artis-
tic achievement through amalgamation as is afforded by the
Renaissance, we can but hope that the more intimate adoption
of the ideas and motives of American Indian art into our own
aesthetic consciousness may yet result in an American Renais-
sance no less notable.
A third interest in American mythology is that of the an-
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INTRODUCTION 9
thropologists, by whom the domain is today most cultivated.
Here the foundation is scientific curiosity and the modes are
those of the natural and historical sciences. This type of in-
terest, of course, determines its own problems and methods.
For example, to it we owe most of the exact recording and
minute analysis of materials : the preservation of texts in the
native tongues, and the careful application of ethnological
and archaeological observations to their interpretation. Nat-
urally, the key-problem here is of the origin and distribution
of the American Indian peoples, and the reconstruction of
their history, both physical and ideational, — wherein recent
advances have been veritably in the nature of strides. Along
with this problem of distribution and genesis there has co-
existed the complementary question of the influence of nature
(human and environmental) upon the forms of expression —
a question to which one might ascribe three facets, the philo-
logical, the sociological, and the more strictly bionomic, with
its strong Darwinian leanings. Ultimately the two comple-
mental problems resolve into an effort to read human nature,
as human nature is reflected in its express reactions to the
complex world by which it is modified even while it offers a
conserving resistance, bom of the strength of its traditions
and of racial solidarity. This means, at the bottom, an interest
in human psychology.
It is here that the anthropological interest in mythology
passes over into the philosophical. Philosophy strives to
achieve, as it were, a generalized autobiography of the human
mind. It starts, inevitably, with psychology, and with those
elemental unities of experience which our senses (inner and
outer) determine for us; it goes on to try to discover the range
and fullness of meaning of all the variations of human ex-
perience. Philosophers are interested in mjrthology, therefore,
primarily from a psychological standpoint: they are interested
in reading the mind's complexion, as mythopoesy reflects it;
in analyzing out the images of sense in human thought, the
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lo INTRODUCTION
images of instinct, of kind and kin, of speech and number;
and again in reviewing the natural reactions of the human
spirit to the visible;, and sensible world, with its seasons and
cycles and evident metamorphoses, — reactions which start,
apparently, with a dreamy consciousness of the fluid and in-
coherent character of an outer, man-environing world, and
culminate in a sense of the allegory and drama of things
physical, and the discovery of a thinking self, still hazy as to
its powers and its limitations. The biographic tale is a long
one; it begins in savagery and continues on into the highest
civilization; it is today unfinished, and so long as man lives
and thinks must continue unfinished; but it is not without
form, and its continuities become the more obvious with the
extension of our knowledge of men.
It should be added that each of the interests which have
been named shares in or leads to that final interest which is
most appropriate to all, namely, a common concern for human
welfare. The missionary interest is obviously actuated by
this from the very beginning, and, as applied to America, it
has produced (in Las Casas and his many notable successors)
a truly wonderful series of apostolic figures — in themselves
a moving revelation of the possibilities of human nature.
Hardly less striking is the humanitarianism which has accom-
panied the aesthetic interest — one need but mention Mon-
taigne's sympathetic curiosity, Rousseau, fantastic in his
eighteenth century credulity, Chateaubriand, with his "epic
of the man of nature," or Fenimore Cooper's idealization of
the savage chivalrous, — while the curiosity of the anthropolo-
gist and the philosopher, as must all honest curiosity about
things human, leads at the last to understanding and sym-
pathy, and ultimately to an active desire to preserve the mani-
fest good which enlightens every chapter in the narrative of
human progress.
Finally, it is perhaps worth observing that America affords
a field of truly unique profit for all of these interests. The
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INTRODUCTION il
long isolation of its inhabitants from the balance of mankind,
the variety of the forms and levels of their native achievement,
the intrinsic value to humanity at large of what they did
achieve, both in material and ideal modes, all unite to give
to the races of the New Hemisphere an almost other-worid
distinction from the Old Worid peoples from whose midst (in
some remote day) they doubtless sprang. It is true that the
resemblances between the modes of life and the bent of thought
in the two Worlds are as striking and numerous as their diver-
gences; but this fact is in itself of the highest significance in
that it emphasizes that fundamental unity, spiritual as well as
physical, which is of the whole human brotherhood.
It is surely apparent that one book cannot satisfy all the
interests which have been here defined. It is possible, how-
ever, that a description which should show what, in the main,
are the materials to be found and how they are distributed
with reference to accessible sources of study might well con-
tribute to all. Nothing more ambitious than this is in the
plan of the present wort
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LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
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LATIN-AMERICAN
MYTHOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE ANTILLES
L THE ISLANDERS 1
A GLANCE at a map of the Western Hemisphere reveals
two great continents, North and South Americai some-
what tenuously united by the Isthmus and the Antilles. The
Isthmus is solid, mountainous land, forming a part of that
backbone of the hemisphere which extends along its western
border, continuous from Alaska to the Land of Fire. The An-
tilles are an archipelago, or rather a group of archipelagoes,
extending without gap from the tip of Florida to Trinidad and
the mouths of the Orinoco. Both connexions have a certain
weight, or leaning, toward North America. The Isthmus nar-
rows southward almost to the point of its attachment to
South America, while to the north it broadens out into Central
America, the peninsula of Yucatan, and the plateau of Mexico.
Similarly, the southern division of the archipelago, the Lesser
Antilles, forms an arc of islets, mere stepping-stones, as it were,
from the southern continent to the large islands of the Greater
Antilles — Porto Rico, Hispaniola or Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba —
which are natural outliers of the continent to the north. Cuba,
indeed, almost unites Yucatan and Florida; while breasting
Cuba and Florida, toward the open sea, is a third island
group, the Bahamas, still further emphasizing the northern
predominance.
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i6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
There is a superficial resemblance between the connexions
of the northern and southern land bodies in the Old World and
in the New — the Isthnaus of Suez having its counterpart in
Panama; the peninsulas and large islands of southern Europe
corresponding to Florida, Yucatan, and the Greater Antilles;
and the break at Gibraltar suggesting the uncertain bridge of
the Lesser Antilles, But the resemblance is merely superficial.
The Mediterranean served far more as a unifier than as a
divider of cultures and civilizations in antiquity; all its shores
were in a sense a single land even before Rome united them
politically. The Caribbean, on the other hand, was a true
obstacle to the primitive intercourse of the western conti-
nents, having its proper Old World analogue in the Sahara
Desert rather than in the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, we can
carry this truer analogy a step further, pointing out that just
as Old World culture went southward, from Egypt into Ethio-
pia, by way of the comparatively secure route of the Nile, so
New World civilization found its securest path by way of the
solid land of the Isthmus, while the islets of the Lesser An-
tilles and the isle-like oases of the Sahara were alike unfriendly
to profoundly influential intercourse.
In one striking particular the analogies of the Old World
are reversed in the New: at least in recent periods, the migra-
tion of native races and culture has been from the south to
the north. This is the more extraordinary in view of the land
predominance which, as has been indicated, belongs to the
north. The Isthmus was held by, and is now representative
of, the Chibchan stock, extending far south into Ecuador;
while the Antilles, at the time of the discovery, were almost
entirely possessed by tribes of two great South American
stocks, Arawakan and Carib. In Cuba, and probably in the
Bahamas, there were remnants of more ancient peoples —
timid and crude folk, whose kindred seem to have been the
makers of the shell-mounds of Florida, and whose provenience
was doubtless the northern continent; but neither the race
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THE ANTILLES 17
nor the affinities of these vanished peoples is certainly known;
even in pre-Columbian times they were succumbing to the
war-like Calusa of southern Florida and to the still more dan-
gerous Arawakan tribes from the south.
Of the two powerful races from the south, the first com-
ers were doubtless the Taino' (as the Antillean Arawak are
named), whom the Spaniards found in possession of most of
Cuba and of the other greater islands, Porto Rico alone show-
ing a strong Carib element along with the Arawak. The
Lesser Antilles, bordering the sea which was named for their
race, was inhabited by Carib tribes, whose language com-
prised a man-tongue and a woman-tongue, the latter contain-
ing many Arawak words — a fact which has led to the in-
teresting (though uncertain) inference that the first Carib
invaders slew all the warriors of their Arawak predecessors,
taking the women for their own wives. Only when they came
to Porto Rico, the first of the Greater. Antilles in their route,
were they partially stopped by the mass and strength of the
more highly developed Taino peoples; some, indeed, obtained
a foothold here, while beyond, in Hispaniola, one of the five
caciques* dividing the power of the island was reputed a
Carib, and in Cuba itself have been found bones believed to
be those of Carib marauders. The typical culture of the An-
tilles, that of the Arawakan Tamo, was scarcely less aggres-
sive than the Carib. Arawaks gained a foothold in Florida,
and their influence, in trade at least, seems to have extended
far into Muskhogean territories to the north, while it may
have a£Fected Yucatan and Honduras to the west. Nor was it
meanly savage in type. The Antilles furnish every incentive
of climate, food supply, rich resources, and easy communica-
tion for development of civilization; and at the time of the
discovery of the Taino peoples, they were already advanced in
the arts of agriculture, pottery-making, weaving, and stone-
working, combined with some knowledge of metals. Further-
more, they had developed their social organization to such an
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i8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
extent that their chiefs, or caciques, with power in some cases
hereditary, were the heads of veritable nations — ail of Ja-
maica was under one ruler, Hispaniola had five, while the
Ciboney of Cuba and the Borinqueno of Porto Rico were
powerful peoples. The Spanish conquerors of the islands suc-
ceeded early in virtually annihilating these nations, but their
handiwork and the traditions which they have left still com-
mand respect.
II. THE FIRST ENCOUNTERS*
Even before Columbus's day the mythical Island of Antilia
was marked on the maps out in the Atlantic west; and when the
archipelago which Columbus first discovered came to be known
as an archipelago, the name, in the plural form Antilles, was
not unnaturally applied to it. Probably, too, it was with
more than the glamour of discovery — enchanting as that
must have been — that Columbus first looked upon the new-
found lands. From time immemorial European imagination
had been haunted by legends of Isles of the Gods, Isles of the
Happy Dead — Fortunate Isles, in some weird sense, lying
far out in the enchanted seas; and it is no marvel if Columbus
should have felt himself the finder of this blessed realm. In
one of his letters to Ferdinand and Isabella he wrote: "This
country excels all others as far as the day surpasses the night
in splendour; the natives love their neighbours as themselves;
their conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their faces
always smiling; and so gentle and so affectionate are they that
I swear to your highness there is not a better people in the
world."
Something of the same idealization, coupled with a happy
ignorance, underlay, no doubt, the statement which Columbus
makes in his letters to Ferdinand's officials, Gabriel Sanchez
and Luis de Santangel, describing his first voyage: "They
are not acquainted with any kind of worship and are not
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THE ANTILLES 19
idolaters, but believe that all power and, indeed, all good
things are in heaven." Columbus adds that the natives be-
lieved him and his vessels and his crews to be descended from
heaven, and the Indians whom he took with him from his first
landing, to serve as interpreters, cried out to the others,
"Come, come, and see the people from heaven!" This same
simplicity was cruelly exploited by the Spaniards of later date,
for after the mines of Hispaniola were opened, and the native
labour of the island was exhausted, the Bahamas were nearly
emptied of inhabitants by the ruse that the Spaniards would
convey them to the shores where dwelt their departed rela-
tives and friends. Belief in heaven-spirits and belief in living
souls of their dead were surely deep-seated in these first-met
of New World peoples.
The earliest encounters were probably with tribes of the
Taino race, for the Indians taken from San Salvador were
readily understood in the Greater Antilles; and it was with
this race that Columbus had to do on his initial voyage. Yet
even then he was learning of other peoples. He was told that
in the western part of Cuba ("Juana" was the name he gave
to the island) there was a province whose inhabitants were
bom with tails — a form of derogation of inferior peoples
familiar in many parts of the world — and the story very
likely designated remnants of the autochthones of the islands.
Again, as he explored eastward, he began to hear of the Carib
cannibals, with whom he became acquainted on later voyages.
"These are the men," he reports, "who form unions with
certain women who dwell alone in the island of Matenino,
which lies next to Espaiiola on the side toward India; these
latter employ themselves in no labour suitable to their own
sex, for they use bows and javelins as I have already described
their paramours as doing, and for defensive armour they have
plates of brass, of which metal they possess great abundance."
Thus we have the beginning of that legend of Amazons * in
the New World which not only occupied the fancies of ex-
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20 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
plorers and historiographers for many decades, but eventually^
as the domain of these mythical women was pushed farther
and farther into the beyond, gave its name to the great river
which drains what was then the mysterious heart of the
southern continent. Possibly the source of the tale lay in a
diflFerence of Taino and Carib customs, for among the latter
the women, as the Spaniards speedily discovered, were quick
with bow and spear; possibly it lay in the fact, already noted,
that the Caribs, dispatching the men of a conquered tribe,
formed unions with their women, who spoke a language diflFer-
ing from that of their conquerors.
Other legends of the Old World, besides that of Amazonian
warriors, gained a footing in the New, mingling, not infre-
quently, with similar native tales. The "Septe Cidade" of
the Island of Antilia had been founded, according to Portu-
guese tradition, by the Archbishop of Oporto and six bishops,
fleeing from the Moors in the eighth century; and it was these
cities, identified by the Spaniards with the seven caves whence
the Aztecs traced their race, that led Cabeza de Vaca onward
in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and resulted in the
discovery of the Pueblos in New Mexico. Similarly, Ponce de
Leon partly brought and partly found the story of the Fountain
of Youth,' or the life-renewing Jordan, in search of which he
went into Florida. The story is narrated in the "Memoir on
Florida " of Hernando d'Escalente Fontaneda, who says that
the Indians of Cuba and the other isles told lies of this mythical
river; but that the stoiy was not merely invented as a gratifica-
tion of the Spaniards' thirst for marvels is suggested by Fon-
taneda's further statement that long before his time a great
number of Indians from Cuba had come into Florida in search
of this same wonder — a possible explanation of the Arawakan
colony on the Florida coast.
But it was chiefly with tales of gold that the Spaniards*
ears were pleasured. Columbus, writing to de Santangel,
promised his sovereigns not only spices and dyes and Brazil-
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THE ANTILLES 21
wood from their new realm, fruits and cotton and slaves, but
''gold as much as they need"; and this promise was all too
well founded for the good of either Spaniard or native, since
the spoil of western gold, more than aught else, resulted in the
wars which eventually impoverished Spain; and thirst for
sudden wealth was the chief cause of the early extermination
of the native peoples of the Antilles. Las Casas, bitter and
full of pity, gives us the contrasting pictures. The first is of
the cacique Hatuey,^ fled from Haiti to Cuba to escape the
Spaniards and there assembling his people before a chest of
gold: "Behold," he said, "the god of the Spaniards! Let us
do to him, if it seem good to you, areitos [solemn dances], that
thus doing we shall please him, and he will command the
Spaniards that they do us no harm." The other is the image of
the Spanish tyrant, enslaving the Indians in mines "to the
end that he might make gold of the bodies and souls of those
for whom Jesus Christ suflFered death."
in. ZEMIISM*
The Spanish conquistador, reckless of native life in his eager
quest of gold, and the Spanish preaching friar, often ]nelding
himself to death for the spread of the Gospel, are the two
types of men most impressively delineated in the pages of the
first decades of Spain's history in America, illustrating the
complex and conflicting motives which urged the great ad-
venture. As early as the writings of Columbus these two
motives stand out, and the promise of wealth and the promise
of souls to save are alike eloquent in his thought. In order to
convert, one must first understand; and Columbus himself
is our earliest authority on the religion of the men of the In-
dies, showing how his mind was moved to this problem. In
the History of the Life of Columbus, by his son Fernando, the
Admiral is quoted in description of the Indian religion.
**I could discover," he says, "neither idolatry nor any other
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22 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
sect among them, though every one of their kings . . . has a
house apart from the town, in which there is nothing at all but
some wooden images carved by them, called cemis; nor is
there anything done in those houses but what is for the ser-
vice of those Cftnisj they repairing to perform certain ceremo-
nies, and pray there, as we do to our churches. In these houses
they have a handsome round table, made like a dish, on which
is some powder which they lay on the head of the cemis with a
certain ceremony; then through a cane that has two branches,
clapped to their nose, they snuff up this powder: the words
they say none of our people understand. This powder puts
them beside themselves, as if they were drunk. They also
give the image a name, and I believe it is their father's or
grandfather's, or both; for they have more than one, and some
above ten, all in memory of their forefathers. . . . The peo-
ple and caciques boast among themselves of having the best
cemis. When they go to these, their cemis, they shun the
Christians, and will not let them go into those houses; and if
they suspect they will come, they take away their cemis and
hide them in the woods for fear they should be taken from
them; and what is most ridiculous, they used to steal one an-
other's cemis. It happened once that the Christians on a
sudden rushed into the house with them, and presently the
cemi cried out, speaking in their language, by which it ap-
peared to be artificially made; for it being hollow they had
applied a trunk to it, which answered to a dark comer of the
house covered with boughs and leaves, where a man was con-
cealed who spoke what the cacique ordered him. The Span-
iards, therefore, reflecting on what it might be, kicked down the
cemij and found as has been said; and the cacique, seeing they
had discovered his practice, earnestly begged of them not to
speak of it to his subjects, or the other Indians, because he
kept them in obedience by that policy."
This, the great Admiral quaintly concedes, "has some re-
semblance to idolatry." In fact, his description points clearly
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THE ANTILLES 23
to well-developed cults: there are temples, with altars, idols,
oracles, and priests, and there is even a shrewd adaptation of
religion to politics — the certain mark of sophistication in
matters of cult. Benzoni, who visited the Indies some fifty
years after their discovery, sa)rs of the islanders: "They wor-
shipped, and still worship, various deities, many painted,
others sculptured, some formed of clay, others of wood, or
gold, or silver. • • . And although our priests still daily en-
deavour to destroy these idols, yet the ministers of their faith
keep a great many of them hidden in caves and underground,
sacrificing to them occultly, and asking in what manner they
can possibly expel the Christians from their country/' Idols of
gold and silver have not been preserved to modem times, but
examples in stone and wood and baked clay are in present-
day collections, and one, at least, of the wooden images has a
hollow head, open at the back for the reception of the speak-
ing-tube by which the priest conveyed the wisdom of his
cacique. A peculiar type of Antillean cultus-image, men-
tioned by Peter Martyr, among others, was made of "plaited
cotton, tightly stuffed inside,'' though its use seems to have
been rather in connexion with funeral rites (perhaps as apotro-
paic fetishes) than in worship of nature-powers.
The work of archaeologists, especially in the Greater An-
tilles, has brought to light many curious objects certainly
connected with the old Antillean cults. There are idols and
images, ranging in height from near three feet to an inch or
so; and the latter, often perforated, were used, perhaps, as
Peter Martyr describes: "When they are about to go into
battle, they tie small images representing little demons upon
their foreheads." There are, again, masks and grotesque faces,
sometimes cunningly carved, sometimes crude pictographs.
Most characteristic are the triangular stones with a human
or an animal face on one side; the stone collars or yokes, some
slender and some massive in construction, but all represenring
laborious toil; and the "elbow stones" with carved panels —
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PLATE II
AntiUean triangular carved stones, lateral and
top views. In addition to the grotesque masks,
limbs are cleariy indicated. For reference to their
probable significance, see pages 23-24 and the note
given in connexion (page 350). After 25 ^^SE^
Plates XLVI and XLIX.
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sb,
heir
lote
BE,
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THE ANTILLES 25
Maorocoti; while Fray Ramon Pane gives names for the Earth
Mother closely paralleling Peter Martyr's list: Atabei ("First-
in-Being")^ lermaoguacar, Apito, and Zuimaco. Guabancez
was a goddess of wind and water, and had two subordinates,
Guatauva, her messenger, and Coatrischie, the tempest-
raiser. Yobanua-Boma was a rain-deity whose shrine was in
a cavern, and who likewise had two subordinates, or ministers.
The Haitians are said to have made pilgrimages to a cave in
which were kept two statues of wood, gods again of rain, or
of sun and rain; and it is likely that the double-figure images
preserved from this region are representations of these or of
some other pair of Antillean twin deities. Baidrama, or Vay-
brama, was also seemingly a twinned divinity, and clearly
was the strength-giver: "They say,'* Fray Ramon tells us,
"in time of wars he was burnt, and afterwards being washed
with the juice of yucca, his arms grew out again, his body
spread, and he recovered his eyes"; and the worshippers of
the god bathed themselves in the sap of the yucca when they
desired strength or healing. Other zemis mentioned by Pane
are Opigielguoviran, a dog-like being which plunged into a
morass when the Spaniards came, never to be seen again; and
Faraguvaol, a beam or tree-trunk with the power of wander-
ing at will. Here there seems to be indication of a vegetation-
cult, which is borne out by Pane's description of the way in
which wooden zemis were made — strikingly analogous to
West African fetish-construction: "Those of wood are made
thus: when any one is travelling he says he sees some tree
that shakes its root; the man, in great fright, stops and asks
who he is; it answers, ^My name is Buhuitihu [a name for
priest, or medicine-man],*® and he will inform you who I am.'
The man repairing to the said physician, tells him what he
has seen. The wizard, or conjurer, runs immediately to see
the tree the other has told him of, sits down by it and makes
it cogioba [an oflFering of tobacco] . . • He stands up, gives it
all its titles, as if it were some great lord, and asks of it, 'Tell
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26 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
me who you are, what you do here, what you will have with me,
and why you send for me? Tell me whether you will have me
cut you, whether you will go along with me, and how you will
have me carry you; and I will build you a house and endow it.'
Immediately that tree, or cemi, becomes an idol, or devil,
answers, telling how he will have him do it. He cuts it into
such a shape as he is directed, builds his house, and endows
it; and makes cogioba for it several times in the year, which
cogioba is to pray to it, to please it, to ask and know of the
said cemi what good or evil is to happen, and to beg wealth
of it/'
In such descriptions we get our picture of zemiism, a reli-
gion rising above the animism which was its obvious source,
becoming predominantly anthropomorphic in its representa-
tions of superhuman beings, yet showing no signs of passing
from crude fetish-worship to that symbolic use of images
which marks the higher forms of idolatry. The ritual was ap-
parently not bloody — offerings of tobacco, the use of purges
and narcotics inducing vision and frenzy, and the dramatic
dances, or areitoSj which marked all solemn occasions and the
great seasons of life, such as birth and marriage and death —
these were the important features. Oblatio sacrificiorum pef-
tinet ad jus naturale^ says Las Casas (quoting St. Thomas
Aquinas) in his description of Haitian rites; and to the law
of man's nature may surely be ascribed that impulse which
caused the Antillean to make his offerings to Heaven and Earth
and to the powers that dwell therein.
Nor was he forgetful of the potencies within himself. With
his nature-worship was a closely associated ancestor-worship.
When they can no longer see the reflection of a person in the
pupil of the eye, the soul is fled, say the Arawak — fled to
become a %emi. The early writers all dwell upon this belief
in the potency and propinquity of the souls of the departed.
They are shut up by day, but walk abroad by night, says
Fray Ramon; and sometimes they return to their kinsmen in
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THE ANTILLES rj
the form of Incubi: "thus it is they know them: they feel their
belly, and if they cannot find their navel, they say they are
dead; for they say the dead have no navel." The navel is the
symbol of birth and of the attachment of the body to its life;
hence the dead, though they may possess all other bodily
members, lack this; and the Indians have, says Pane, one
name for the soul in the living body and another for the soul of
the departed.
The bones of the dead, especially of caciques and great men,
enclosed sometimes in baskets, sometimes in plaited cotton
images, were regarded as powerful fetishes; and from what is
told us of the funeral ceremonies certain beliefs may be in-
ferred. The statement by Columbus, already quoted, closes
with an account of some such rites: "When these Indians die,
they have several ways of performing their obsequies, but
the manner of burying their caciques is thus: they open and
dry him at the fire, that he may keep whole. Of others they
take only the head, others they bury in a grot or den, and lay
a calabash of water and bread on his head; others they bum
in the house where they die, and when they are at the last
gasp, they suffer them not to die but strangle them; and this
is done to caciques. Others are turned out of the house, and
others put them into a hammock, which is their bed, laying
bread and water by their head, never returning to see them
any more. Some that are dangerously ill are carried to the
cacique, who tells them whether they are to be strangled or
not, and what he says is done. I have taken pains to find out
what it is they believe, and whether they know what becomes
of them after they are dead," and the answer was that "they
go to a certain vale, which every great cacique supposes to be
in his country, where they affirm they find their parents and
all their predecessors, and that they eat, have women, and
give themselves up to pleasures and pastimes." This is very
much the belief of all the primitive world, but it has one in-
teresting feature. The strangling of caciques and of those
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28 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
named by caciques clearly indicates that there was a belief
in a different fate for men who die by nature and men who
die with the breath of life not yet exhausted; quite likely it
was some Valhalla reserved for the brave, such as the Norse-
man found who escaped the "straw death," or the Aztec
warrior whom Tonatiuh snatched up into the mansions of
the Sun.
IV. TAINO MYTHS"
"I ordered," says Columbus, "one Friar Ramon, who un-
derstood their language, to set down all their language and
antiquities"; and it is to this Fray Ramon Pane, "a poor
anchorite of the order of St. Jerome," as he tells us, that
thanks are due for most of what is preserved of Taino myth-
ology. The myths which he gathered are from the island of
Haiti, or Hispaniola, but it is safe to assume that they repre-
sent cycles of tales shared by all the Taino peoples. They be-
lieve, says the friar, in an invisible and immortal Being, like
Heaven, and they speak of the mother of this heaven-son,
who was called, among other names, Atabei, "the First-in-
Existence." "They also know whence they came, the origin
of the sun and moon, how the sea was made, and whither the
dead go."
The earliest Indians appeared, according to the legend,
from two caverns of a certain mountain of Hispaniola —
"most of the people that first inhabited the island came out of
Cacibagiagua," while the others emerged from Amaiauva (it
is altogether likely that the two caves represent two races or
tribal stocks). Before the people came forth, a watchman,
Marocael, guarded the entrances by night; but, once delay-
ing his return into the caves until after dawn, the sun trans-
formed him into a stone; while others, going a-fishing, were
also caught by the sun and were changed into trees. As for
the sun and moon, they, too, came from a certain grotto,
called Giovava, to which, says Fray Ramon, the Indians paid
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PLATE III
Antillean stone ring, of the ovate type, with
carved panels. Stone rings, or "collars," form one
of the types of symbolic stones from this region the
significance of which has so profoundly puzzled
archaeologists. Reference to their possible meaning
will be found on page 24 and in the note (page 350)
there referred to. The specimen here figured is in
the Museum of the American Indian, New York.
Joyce (Central American Archaeology^ pages 189-91)
interprets the design as a human figure. The disks
on either side of the head are ear-plugs; arms and
hands may be seen supporting them; the pit be-
tween the elbows is the umbilicus; while the legs
are represented by the upper segments of the dec-
orated panels exterior to the disks.
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THE ANTILLES 29
great veneration, having it ail painted "without any figure,
but with leaves and the like"; and keeping in it two stone
xemis which looked "as if they sweated"; to these they went
when they wanted rain.
The story of the origin of the sea is a little more complex.
In introducing the tale, Fray Ramon says: "I, writing in
haste and not having paper enough, could not place every-
thing rightly. . . . Let us now return to what we should have
said first, that is, their opinion concerning the origin and be-
ginning of the sea." There was a certain man, Giaia, whose
son, Giaiael ("Giaia's son"), undertook to kill his father, but
was himself slain by the parent, who put the bones into a
calabash, which he hung in the top of his house. One day he
took the calabash down, and looking into it, an abundance of
fishes, great and small, came forth, since into these the bones
had changed. Later on, while Giaia was absent, there came to
his house four sons, bom at a birth from a certain woman,
Itiba Tahuvava, who was cut open that they might be de-
livered — "the first that they cut out was Caracaracol, that is,
* Mangy.'" These four brothers took the calabash and ate of
the fish, but seeing Giaia returning, in their haste they re-
placed it badly, with the result that "there ran so much water
from it as overflowed all the country, and with it came out
abundance of fish, and hence they believe the sea had its origin."
Fray Ramon goes on to tell how, the four brothers being hungry,
one of them begged cassaba bread of a certain man, but was
struck by him with tobacco. Thereupon his shoulder swelled
up painfully; and when it was opened, a live female tortoise
issued forth — "so they built their house and bred up the
tortoise."
"I understood no more of this matter, and what we have
writ signifies but little, " continues the friar; yet to the modern
reader the tales have all the marks of a primitive cosmogony,
a cosmogony having many analogues in similar tales from
the two Americas. The notion of a cave or caves from which
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30 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the parents of the human race and of the animal kinds issue
to people the world is ubiquitous in America; so, too, is the
notion of an age of transformations, in which beings were
altered from their first forms- Peter Martyr, who tells the
same stories in resume, as he says, of Pane's manuscript, adds
a number of interesting details; as that after the metamor-
phosis of Marocael, or Machchael, as Martyr calls him, the
First Race were refused entrance into the caves when the sun
rose "because they sought to sin," and so were transformed —
a moral element which recalls similar motifs in Pueblo myths.
But perhaps the most striking analogies are with the cosmog-
onies of the Algonquian and Iroquoian stocks. The four
Caracarols {caracolj "shell," plural cacaracoly is the evident
derivation), one of whom was called "Mangy," recall the
Stone Giants, and again recall the twins or (as in a Potawatomi
version) quadruplets whose birth causes their mother's death,
while the tortoise cut from the shoulder (Martjrr says it was
a woman by whom the brothers successively became fathers
of sons and daughters) is at least suggestive of the cosmo-
gonic turtle of North American myth. In the flood-legend,
the idea of fishes being formed from bones is remotely paralleled
by the Eskimo conception of the creation of fishes from the
finger-bones of the daughter of Anguta; and Benzoni tells
how, in his day, the Haitians still had a pumpkin as a relic,
"saying that it had come out of the sea with all the fish in it."
In the order of his narrative — though not, apparently, in
the order in which he deemed the events ought to lie — Fray
Ramon follows the story of the emergence of the First People
from caves with the adventures of a hero whom he calls Gua-
gugiana, but whom Peter Martyr terms Vagoniona. It is
easy to recognize in this hero an example of the demiurgic
Trickster-Transformer so common in American myth. Like
the Trickster elsewhere, he has a servant or comrade, Gia-
druvava, and the first story that Pane tells is one of which we
would fain have a fuller version, for even the fragmentary-
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THE ANTILLES 31
sketch of it is full of poetic suggestion. Guagugiana, it seems,
was one of the cave-dwellers of the First Race. One day he
sent forth his servant to seek a certain cleansing herb, but,
as Pane has it, "the sun took him by the way, and he became
a bird that sings in the morning, like the nightingale"; to which
Peter Martjrr adds that "on every anniversary of his trans-
formation he fills the night air with songs, bewailing his mis-
fortunes and imploring his master to come to his help."
In this tale, slender as it is, there is an element of unusual
interest, fortified by various other allusions to Antillean be-
liefs. It would appear that the First People, the cave-dwellers,
were of the nature of spirits or souls, and that the Sun was the
true Transformer, whose strength-giving rays gave to each,
as it emerged to light, the form which it was to keep. The dis-
embodied soul {opia) haunts the night, moreover, as if night
were its native season; in the day it is powerless, and men
have no fear of it. Surely it is a beautiful myth which makes of
the night-bird's song a longing for the free life of the spirit, or
at least an expression of the feeling of kinship with the spirit-
world.
The tale goes on to tell how Guagugiana, lamenting his lost
comrade, resolved to go forth from the cave in which the First
People dwelt. Yet he went not alone, for he called to the
women: "Leave your husbands! Let us go into other coun-
tries, where we shall get jewels enough! Leave your children;
we will come again for them; carry only herbs with you."
The women, abandoning all save their nursing children (as
Peter Martjrr tells), followed Guagugiana to the island of
Matenino, and there he left them; but the children he took
away and abandoned them beside a brook — or perhaps, as
Martyr implies, he brought them back and left them on the
shore of the sea — where, starving, they cried, "Toa, toa,"
which is to say, "Milk, milk!" "And they thus crying and
begging of the earth, saying, *toa, toa,' like one that very
earnestly begs a thing, they were transformed into little crea-
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32 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
tures like dwarfs, and called totuiy because of their begging the
earth." Martyr's more prosaic version. says that they were
transformed into frogs; but both authorities agree that this is
how the men came to be left without wives; and doubtless it
is this myth from which Columbus gained at least a part of
his notion of the Amazon-like women ^^who dwell alone in the
island of Matenino."
Other episodes in the career of Guagugiana, which Pane
recounts in a confused way, are his going to sea with a com-
panion whom he tricked into looking for precious shells and
then threw overboard; his finding of a woman of the sea who
taught him a cure for the pox; this woman's name was Gua-
bonito, and she taught him the use of amulets and of orna-
ments of white stone and of gold. Peter Martyr's variant
says: "He is supposed to go to meet a beautiful woman, per-
ceived in the depths of the sea, from whom are obtained the
white shells called by the natives cibaSy and other shells of a
yellowish colour called guianoSj of both of which they make
necklaces; the caciques, in our own time, regard these trinkets
as sacred." In this there is a striking suggestion of the Pueblo
myths of the White-Shell Woman of the East and of the sea-
dwelling Guardian of the yellow shells of the West; and it is
quite to be inferred that the regard in which the caciques
held these objects was due to a ritual and magical significance
analogous to that which we know in the Pueblos.
V. THE AREITOS
"The Spaniards," says Peter Martyr," "lived for some
time in Hispaniola without suspecting that the islanders wor-
shipped anything else than the stars, or that they had any
kind of religion, . . . but after mingling with them for some
years . . . many of the Spaniards began to notice among them
divers ceremonies and rites." These ceremonies are called
areitosy or areytoSj by the Spanish writers; and from the early
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THE ANTILLES 33
descriptions it is obvious that they were rites of the typical
American kind, dramatic dances or mysteries performed in
the great crises of national and personal life, or in the changes
and climaxes of that course of the seasons, which is the life of
Nature. As in the case of myths, so in the case of rites, it is
chiefly those of Haiti which are described for us; but there is
little reason to doubt that these are typical of all the Greater
Antilles.
Birth, marriage, death, going to war, curing the sick, ini-
tiation, and puberty rites all seem to have had their appro-
priate ceremonies. Songs played an important part in these
ceremonies; indeed, the word areito is frequently restricted to
funeral chants, or elegies in praise of heroes. But the chief rite
known to us, and. We may feel assured, the chief rite of the
whole Taino culture, was the ceremony in honour of the
Earth Goddess. This ceremony, as celebrated by the Haitians,
is described by both Benzoni and Gomara with some detail.
Gomara's account is as follows: "
"When the cacique celebrated the festival in honour of his
principal idol, all the people attended the function. They
decorated the idol very elaborately; the priests arranged them-
selves like a choir about the king, and the cacique sat at the
entrance of the temple with a drum at his side. The men came
painted black, red, blue, and other colours or covered with
branches and garlands of flowers, or feathers and shells, wear-
ing shell bracelets and little shells on their arms and rattles
on their feet. The women also came with similar rattles, but
naked, if they were maids, and not painted; if married, wear-
ing only breechcloths. They approached dancing, and sing-
ing to the sound of the shells, and as they approached the
cacique he saluted them with a drum. Having entered the
temple, they vomited, putting a small stick into their throat,
in order to show the idol that they had nothing evil in their
stomach. They seated themselves like tailors and prayed with
a low voice. Then there approached many women bearing
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baskets and cakes on their heads and many roses, flowers, and
fragrant herbs. They formed a circle as they prayed and
began to chant something like an old ballad in praise of the
god. All rose to respond at the close of the ballad; they changed
their tone and sang another song in praise of the cacique,
after which they offered the bread to the idol, kneeling. The
priests took the gift, blessed, and divided it; and so the feast
ended, but the recipients of the bread preserved it all the year
and held that house unfortunate and liable to many dangers
which was without it."
In this rite it is easy to recognize a festival in honour of a
divinity of fertility, probably a com deity, or perhaps a god-
dess who is the mother of com spirits. Benzoni says of the
Haitians that "they worshipped two wooden figures as the
gods of abundance, and at some periods of the year many
Indians went on a pilgrimage to them." These may be the
two zcmis of the painted grotto of the Sun and the Moon,
mentioned by Ramon Pane and Peter Martyr, for the latter
says that "they go on pilgrimages to that cavern just as we go
to Rome"; but it is certain that they were associated with
agriculture, since it was to them that prayers were made for
rain and fmitfulness. In an interesting old picture, printed
in Picart, the rite of the Earth Goddess is represented, much
as described by Gomara and Benzoni. The goddess herself is
shown with several heads, each that of a different animal,
and near her are two lesser idols of grotesque form. It is possi-
ble that the Earth was conceived as the mother of all life,
animal as well as vegetable, and that her two attendants
represented jrucca and maize, the two principal food plants of
the Antilleans. Some authorities regard the chief of the Taino
gods, the son of the great First-in-Being, as a yucca spirit;
and, indeed, the name of the plant appears to' enter into such
forms as locauna, Jocakuvague, Yocahuguama. Yet it is
little likely that we shall ever have certainty on this point,
for of the poems which, Peter Martyr tells us, the sons of
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PLATE IV
Dance, or Areito, of the Haitian Indians in honor
of the Earth Goddess. The ceremony is described
by both Benzoni and Gomara, the latter's descrip-
tion being quoted in this volume, pages 33-34.
After the drawing in Picart, The Religious Cere-
monies and Customs of the Several Nations of the
known Worlds London, 1731-37, Plate No. 78.
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THE ANTILLES 35
chiefs sang to the people on feast days, in the form of sacred
chants, none are preserved to us.
That the Tai'no had, besides these great public festivals,
rites for the individual also is abundantly witnessed in the
old books. Like all American Indians, they were mystics and
vision-seekers. Benzoni says that when the doctors wished
to cure a man who was ill, he was lulled into unconsciousness
by tobacco smoke, and "on returning to his senses he told a
thousand stories of his having been at the council of the
gods and other high visions" — a description which recalls im
Thum's account of his own experiences in the hands of an
Arawak peatman.^* Something analogous to the individual
totem, or "medicine," of other Indians was certainly known
to them. "The islanders," says Peter Martyr, "pay homage
to numerous zemeSy each person having his own. Some are
made of wood, because it is amongst the trees and in the dark-
ness of night they have received the message of the gods.
Others, who have heard the voice among the rocks, make their
zemes of stone; while others, who heard their revelation while
they were cultivating their ages — the kind of cereal I have
already mentioned [sweet potato, or yam], — make theirs of
roots." Martyr goes on to describe trances, induced. Tie
thinks, by tobacco, in which the chiefs seek prophetic revela-
tions, stammered out in incoherent words. One of the most
interesting of the early stories tells of such a prophecy re-
ceived from Yocahuguama, the yucca spirit. Doubtless the
earliest version of the tale is that of Ramon Pane:"
"That great lord who, they say, is in heaven ... is this
Cazziva [cassava], who kept a sort of abstinence here, which
all of them generally perform; for they shut themselves up six
or seven days, without taking any sustenance but the juice
of herbs, with which they also wash themselves. After this
time they begin to eat something that is nourishing. .During
the time they have been without eating, weakness makes
them say they have seen something they earnestly desired,
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36 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
for they all perform that abstinence in honour of the cemxes to
know whether they shall obtain victory over their enemies, or
to acquire wealth or any other thing they desire. They say this
cacique affirmed he spoke with Giocauvaghama, who told him
that whosoever survived him would not long enjoy his power,
because they should see a people clad, in their country, who
would rule over and kill them, and they should die for hunger.
They thought at first these should be the cannibals, but after-
wards considering that they only plundered and fled, they
believed it was some other people the cemi spoke of; and now
they believe it is the admiral and those that came with him."
This is the first of those stories of clothed and bearded strangers
(the beard is added in some versions), coming to overthrow
the gods and kingdoms of the Indians, which were encountered
in various portions of the New World. So much importance was
attached to it, says Gomara, that a song was formed com-
memorating it, sung as an areito in a ceremonial dance.
VI. CARIB LORE"
Not only Columbus, but other early writers praised the
peacefully happy and amiably virtuous character of the In-
dians of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles; and though
this description may have been in some degree coloured by
their ideal of what dwellers in the Fortunate Isles ought to be,
there is yet little in the old accounts of these Indians to con-
travene their good report. With small question, however, this
same picture served only to intensify the grimness of its com-
panion portrait, for the folk of the Lesser Antilles, the "Carib-
bee Islands" of seamen's romance, were painted as hard and
mirthless savages, murderers and marauders, ferocious in war,
and abhorrent cannibals — altogether such as would be dra-
matically appropriate as the aborigines of islands that were
to become the paradise of pirates.
On his second voyage Columbus encountered men of this
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THE ANTILLES 37
race, finding them treacherous and fierce. Unlike the Taino,
the men wore their hair long and they painted themselves
with strange devices; their beards were plucked out, and
their eyes and eyebrows were stained to give them a terrible
appearance — at least so thought Chanca, who describes
them for us. The women — that is, the true Carib women,
not the captives, of whom they had many — were as savage
fighters as the men; and the Spaniards distinguished them
from the captive Tamo women by the leg-bands, fastened
below the knee and above the ankle, which caused the leg-
muscles to swell out — a trait recorded by im Thum of the
true Carib of Guiana.
There is small question that these people came from the
mouth of the Orinoco in the southern continent just as the an-
cestors of the Taino had doubtless come before them; and
even at the time of the discovery they were invading the
Greater Antilles and had secured a foothold in Porto Rico.
Nevertheless, they had already been in the lesser islands for a
period sufficiently long to differentiate them, in a degree, from
their continental congeners and to develop among them a
distinctly Antillean type of Carib culture, related on the one
hand to the continent they had left, on the other to the islands
they had conquered. Doubtless the fundamental modification
was due not so much to the change of habitat or to the differ-
ence between alluvial and insular life as to the fact — repeated
from Columbus onward — that they spared and married with
the women of the dispossessed tribes and so fell heirs to many
of their arts and ideas.
Of all Carib customs, after their cannibalism (the word
"cannibal" is a variant of "Carib"), the most striking is the
couvade — the Custom whereby the husband and father, at
the birth of a child, takes to his bed, or rather hammock, as
if he were suffering the pangs of labour. For forty days he
remains in retirement, fasting or on meagre diet; and at the
end of this period a feast is held at which the invited guests
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38 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
lacerate the skin of the patient with their nails and wash the
wounds with a solution of red pepper, he bearing his pain
heroically. Even then his trials are not at an end; for six
moons more he must be careful of his food — should he eat
turtle, the child will become deaf, and so of other creatures,
bird and fish, — such being Pere du Tertre's description of
this rite, still in vogue on the southern continent.
Other Carib festivals are mentioned by Davies. A cere-
mony attended a council of war, the killing of an enemy, and
the return from war; the launching of a canoe, the building of
a house, and the making of a garden; the birth of a child and
the cutting of its hair; adolescence and participation in the
first war-party; the death of parents, husband, or wife. They
had, of course, their doctors or medicine-men — the peatmen
of the continent, apparently called boii by the islanders, a
name which is surely a variant of the Taino buhuitihu and
doubtless was adopted from the latter; especially as Maboya
("the Great Boye*' or "Great Snake*') is a name recorded for
the tutelary power of these boiij or "snakes." Maboya, or
Mapoia, is the god who sends the hurricane; and here we have
an interesting point of contact with the mythology of the
great isthmus, since Hurakan, the hurricane, is the Mayan
storm-god. Du Tertre says that Jthere were many Maboyas;
and it may be that the term is the insular equivalent for
"Kenaima,'* by which the mainland Carib designate a member
of the class of death-bringing powers.
Good spirits were also recognized. The names Akambou
and Yris are found for the highest of all, and the name Chemin
— doubtless related to zemi — is applied to the sky-god. It
may be that the island Carib possessed a whole pantheon of
celestial deiries, or perhaps the name for the Great Spirit
varied from island to island, as similar names vary among the
related tribes of Guiana.
Fragments of the legends of the island Carib are preserved.
Louquo, the first man, came down from the sky; other men
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THE ANTILLES 39
were bom from his body; and after his death he ascended into
the heavens. The sky itself is eternal; the earth, at first soft,
was hardened by the sun's rays. The First Race of men were
nearly exterminated by a deluge, from which a lucky few
escaped in a canoe. After death the soul of the valiant Carib
ascends to heaven; the stars are Carib souls. All these are
beliefs which we need not ascribe to Old World suggestion,
for they are found far and wide in America; and equally native
must be the Carib notion that each man has three souls — one
in his heart, one in his head, and one in his shoulders — though
it is only the heart-soul that ascends to paradise at death,
while the other two wander abroad as dangerous and evil
powers. The islanders possessed also a legend of their origin
or migration from among the Galibi, their continental rela-
tives, "Galibi" being, apparently, yet another variant of
** Carib." Their ancestor, Kalinago, they said, wearying of life
among his own people, embarked for the conquest of new lands,
and after a long voyage settled in Santo Domingo with his
kin, where his numerous children, conspiring against him,
gave him poison. His body died, but his soul found an avatar
in a terrible fish, Atraioman; while his slayers, pursued by
his vengeance, scattered afar among all the isles. Wherever
they went, they destroyed the men, but spared the women;
and they placed the heads of their enemies in rocky caves that
they might show their sons and their sons' sons these symbols
of the valour of their fathers. According to some tales all
brave Caribs at death enter a paradise where they forever
wage successful war against the Arawak, while cowards are
condemned in the future world to be enslaved to Arawak
masters.
A more agreeable picture of Carib nature is suggested by
their belief in Icheiri — a kind of Lares and Penates — to
whom in each cabin was erected an altar of banana leaves or
of cane, upon which were placed offerings of cassava flour and
of the first fruits of the field, these Icheiri being conceived as
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kindly and familiar intermediaries between man below and
the distant heaven power above. There were also spirits that
could enter into a man to lead him to inspired vision — "medi-
cine" spirits, or tutelaries. The god Yris seems to have been
of this character, for du Tertre, who received the story from one
of the missionaries in Santo Domingo, relates that Yris en-
tered into a certain woman and transported her far above the
sun, where she saw lands of a marvellous beauty with verdant
mountains from which gushed springs of living water; and the
god promised her that after her death she should come thither
to dwell with him forever. The savage mystic, too, it would
appear, has her visions of a divine spouse, who shall one day
welcome her into the heaven above the heavens.
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CHAPTER II
MEXICO
I. MIDDLE AMERICA
FROM the Rio Grande to the southern continent extends
the great land bridge connecting North and South
America, forming a region which might properly be called
Middle America. This region divides naturally into several
sections. To the north is the body of Mexico, its coastal lands
mounting abruptly on the western side, but rising more grad«
ually on the eastern littoral toward the broad central plateau,
the shape of which — roughly triangular, with its apex in the
lofty mountains of the south — conforms to that of the whole
land north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Next to this is the
low-lying peninsular region of Yucatan, ascending into moun-
tains toward the Pacific, and forming a great broadening of the
southward tapering land. A second bulge is Central America,
lying between the Gulf of Honduras and the Mosquito Gulf,
and terminating in the thin Isthmus forming an arc about the
Bay of Panama.
The physiography of the region is an index to its pre-
Columbian ethnography.^ The northern portion, including
Lower California and, roughly, the mainlands in its latitudes,
was a region of wild tribes, the best of them much inferior in
culture to the Pueblo Indians on the Gila and the upper Rio
Grande, and the lowest as destitute of arts as any in America.
Yuman and Waicurian tribes in Lower California; Seri on the
Island of Tiburon and the neighbouring mainland; Piman
in the north central and western mainlands; Apache in the
desert-like lands south of the Rio Grande; and Tamaulipecan
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42 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
on the east, coasting the Gulf of Mexico — these are the
principal groups of this region, peoples whose ideas and myths
differ little from those of their kindred groups of the arid
South-west of North America. The Piman group, however,
possesses a special interest in that it forms a possible connexion
between the Shoshonean to the north and the Nahuatlan
nations of the Aztec world. Such peoples as the Papago,
Yaqui, Tarahumare, and Tepehuane are the wilder cousins of
the Nahua, while the Tepecano, Huichol, and Cora tribes,
just to the south, distinctly show Aztec acculturation. In
general, the Mexican tribes north of the Tropic of Cancer be-
long, in habit and thought, with the groups of the South-West
of the northern continent; ethnically. Middle America falls
south of the Tropic.
Below this line, extending as far as the Isthmus of Tehuan-
tepec, is the region dominated by the empire of the Aztec,
marked by the civilization which bears their name.^ As a
matter of fact, although at the time of the culmination of
their power this whole region was politically subordinated to
the Aztec (it was not completely conquered by them), it con-
tained several centres of culture, each in degree distinct. To
the north, iabout the Panuco, were the Huastec, a branch of
the Maya stock; while immediately south of them, and also
on the Gulf Coast, were the Totonac, possibly of Maya kin-
ship. The central highlands, immediately west of these peo-
ples, were occupied by the Otomi, primitive and warlike foes
of the Aztec emperors. On their west, in turn, the Otomi had
a common frontier with Nahuatlan tribes — Huichol, Cora,
and others -7- forming a transitional group between the wild
tribes of the north and the civilized Nahua. Quite surrounded
by Nahuatlan and Otomian tribes was the Tarascan stock of
Michoacan, a group of peoples whose culture certainly ante-
dates that of the Nahua, of whom, indeed, they may have been
the teachers. Still to the south — their territories nearly conter-
minous with the state of Oaxaca — were the Zapotecan peoples,
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MEXICO 43
chief among them the Zapotec and Mixtec, whose civilization
ranks with those of Nahua and Maya in individual quality,
while in native vitality it has proved stronger than either.
The Zoquean tribes (Mixe, 2^ue, and others), back from
the Gulf of Tehuantepec, form a transition to the next great
culture centre, that of the Maya nations. The territories of
this most remarkable of all American civilizations included
the whole of Yucatan, the greater portions of Tabasco, Chiapas,
and Guatemala, and the lands bordering on both sides of the
Gulf of Honduras. Thus the Mayan regions dominate the
strategy of the Americas, since they not only control the junc-
ture of the continents, but, stretching out toward the Greater
Antilles, command the passage between the Gulf of Mexico
and the Caribbean Sea. It is easily conceivable that, had a free
maritime commerce grown up, the Maya might have become,
not merely the Greeks, but the Romans, of the New World.
Central America, occupied by no less than a dozen distinct
linguistic stocks, forms a fourth cultural district. Its peoples
show not only the influences of the Maya and Nahua to the
north (a tribe of the Nahuatlan stock had penetrated as far
south as Lake Nicaragua), but also of the Chibchan civiliza-
tion of the southern continent, dominant in the Isthmus of
Panama, and extending beyond Costa Rica up into Nicaragua.
In addition, there is more than a suggestion of influence from
the Antilles and from the sea-faring Carib. Here, we can truly
say, is the meeting-place of the continents.
The nodes of interest in the culture and history of Middle
America are the Aztec and Maya civilizations, which are
justly regarded as marking the highest attainment of native
Americans.* Neither Aztec nor Maya could vie with the Peru-
vian peoples in the engineering and political skill which made
the empire of the Incas such a marvel of organization; but in
the general level of the arts, in the intricacy of their science,
and above all in the possession of systems of hieroglyphic
writing and of monumental records the Middle Americans
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had touched a level properly comparable with the earliest
civilizations of the Old World, nor can theirs have been vastly-
later than Old World culture in origin.
In a number of particulars the civilizations of the Middle
and South American centres show curious parallels. In each
case we are in the presence of an aggressively imperial high-
land (Aztec, Inca) and of a decadent lowland (Maya, Yunca)
culture. In each case the lowland culture is the more advanced
aesthetically and apparently of longer history. Both highland
powers clearly depend upon remote highland predecessors for
their own culture (Aztec harks back to Toltec, Inca to Tia-
huanaco); and in both regions it is a pretty problem for the
archaeologist to determine whether this more remote high-
land civilization is ancestrally akin to the lowland. Again, in
both the apogee of monument building and of the arts seems
to have passed when the Spaniards arrived; indeed, empire
itself was weakening. The Aztec and the Inca tribes (perhaps
the most striking parallel of all) emerged from obscurity about
the same time to proceed on the road to empire, for the tradi-
tional Aztec departure from Aztlan and the Inca departure
from Tampu Tocco alike occurred in the neighbourhood of
1 200 A. D. Finally, it was Ahuitzotl,' the predecessor of
Montezuma II, who brought Aztec power to its zenith, and it
was Huayna Capac, the father of Atahualpa, who gave Inca
empire its greatest extent; while both the Aztec empire under
Montezuma, which fell to Cortez in 1519, and the Inca empire
under Atahualpa, conquered by Pizarro in 1524, were in-
ternally weakening at the time. But the crowning misfortune
common to the two empires was the possession of gold, mad-
dening the eyes of the conquistador es.
II. CX)NQUISTADORES*
In 1 5 17 Hernandez de Cordova, sailing from Cuba for the
Bahamas, was driven out of his course by adverse gales;
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MEXICO 45
Yucatan was discovered; and a part of the coast of the Gulf
of Campeche was explored. Battles were fought, and hard-
ships were endured by the discoverers, but the reports of a
higher civilization which they brought back to Cuba, coupled
with specimens* of curious gold-work, induced the governor
of the island to equip a new expedition to continue the ex-
ploration. This venture, of four vessels under the command of
Juan de Grijalva, set out in May, 1518, and following the
course of its predecessor, coasted as far as the province of
Panuco, visiting the Isla de los Sacrificios — near the site of
the future Vera Cruz — and doing profitable trading with
some of the vassals of the Aztec emperor. A caravel which he
dispatched to Cuba with some of his golden profit induced the
governor to undertake a larger military expedition to effect
the conquest of the empire discovered; for now men began to
realize that a truly imperial realm had been revealed. This
third expedition was placed under the command of Hernando
Cortez; it sailed from Cuba in February, 1519, and landed on
the island of Cozumel, in Maya territory, where the Spaniards
were profoundly impressed at finding the Cross an object of
veneration. The course was resumed, and a battle was fought
near the mouth of the Rio de Tabasco; but Cortez was in
search of richer lands and so moved onward, beyond the lands
of the Maya, until on Good Friday, April 21, 1519, he landed
with all his forces on the site of Vera Cruz. The two years of
the Conquest followed — the tale of which, for fantastic and
romantic adventure, for egregious heroism and veritable
gluttony of bloodshed, has few competitors in human annals:
its climacterics being the seizure of Montezuma in November,
1519; la noche triste, July i, 1520, when the invaders were
driven from Tenochtitlan; and, finally, the defeat and capture
of Guatemotzin, August 13, 1521.
The reader of the tale cannot but be profoundly moved both
by what the Spaniards found and by what they did. He will
be moved with regret at the wanton destruction of so much
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46 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
that was in its way splendid in Aztec civilization. He will be
moved with revulsion and wonder that such a civilization
could support a religion which, though not without elements
of poetic exaltation, was drugged with obscene and bloody
rites; and he will feel only a shuddering thankfulness that this
faith is of the past. But when he turns to the agents of its
destruction and reads their chronicles, furious with carnage,
he will surely say, with Clavigero, that "the Spaniards can-
not but appear to have been the severest instruments fate
ever made use of to further the ends of Providence," and amid
conflicting horrors he will be led again into regretful sym-
pathy for the final victims.
An apologist for human nature would say that neither con-*
quistador nor papa (as the Spaniards named the Aztec priest)
was quite so despicable as his deeds, that both were moved by
a faith that had redeeming traits. Outwardly, aesthetically,
the whole scene is bizarre and devilish; inwardly, it is not with-
out devotion and heroism. Bemal Diaz del Castillo, adven-
turer not only with Cortez, but with Cordova and Grijalva
before him, one of the sturdiest of the conquerors and destined
to be their foremost chronicler, records for us one unforget-
table incident which presents the whole inwardness and
outwardness of the situation — gorgeous cruelty and simple
humanity — in a single image. It was four days after the army
of Cortez had entered the Mexican capital; and after having
been shown the wonders of the populous markets of Tenoch-
titkn, the visitors were escorted, at their own request, to the
platform top of the great teocalli overlooking Tlatelolco, the
mart of Mexico. From the platform Montezuma proudly
pointed to the quartered city below, and beyond that to the
gleaming lake and the glistening villages on its borders — all
a local index of his imperial domains. "We counted among
us,'* says the chronicler,*^ "soldiers who had traversed different
parts of the world: Constantinople, Italy, Rome; they said
that they had seen nowhere a place so well aligned, so vast,
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PLATE V
Aztec goddess, probably Coatlicue, the mother
of Huitzilopochtli, an earth goddess (see page 74).
The statue is one of two Aztec monuments (the
other being the "Calendar Stone," Plate XIV)
discovered under the pavement of the principal
plaza of Mexico City in 1790, and is possibly the
very image which Bernal Diaz mistook for "Huichi-
lobos" (see pages 46-49, and Note 5). The goddess
wears the serpent apron, and carries a death's head
at the girdle; her own head is formed of two serpent
heads, facing, rising from her shoulders. The im-
portance of Coatlicue in Aztec legend is evidenced
by the story of the embassy sent to her by Mon-
tezuma I (see page 116). After an engraving in
AnMM^ first series, Vol. II.
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MEXICO 47
ordered with such art, and covered with so many people/*
Cortez turned to Montezuma: **You are a great lord/' he
said. ''You have shown us your great cities; show us now
your gods."
"He invited us into a tower/* continues the chronicler,
"into a part in form like a great hall where were two altars
covered with rich woodwork. Upon the altars were reared
two massive forms, like giants with ponderous bodies. The
first, placed at the right, was, they say, Huichilobos [Huit-
zilopochtli], their god of war. His countenance was very large,
the eyes huge and terrifying; all his body, including the head,
was covered with gems, with gold, with pearls large and small,
adherent by means of a glue made from farinaceous roots.
The body was cinctured with great serpents fabricked of gold
and precious stones; in one hand he held a bow, and in the
other arrows. A second little idol, standing beside the great
divinity like a page, carried for him a short spear and a buckler
rich in gold and gems. From the neck of Huichilobos hung
masks of Indians and hearts in gold or in silver surmounted
by blue stones. Near by were to be seen burners with incense
of copal; three hearts of Indians sacrificed that very day
burned there, continuing with the incense the sacrifice that
had just taken place. The walls and floor of this sanctuary
were so bathed with congealing blood that they exhaled a
horrid odour.
"Turning our gaze to the left, we saw there another great
mass, of the height of Huichilobos. Its face resembled the
snout of a bear, and its shining eyes were made of mirrors
called tezcatl in the language of the country; its body was cov-
ered with rich gems, in like manner with Huichilobos, for
they are called brothers. They adore Tezcatepuca [Tezcatli-
poca] as god of the lower worlds, and attribute to him the
care of the souls of Mexicans. His body was bound about with
little devils having the tails of snakes. About him also upon
the walls there was such a crust of blood and the floor so
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48 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
soaked with it that not the butcheries of Castile exhale such
a stench. There was to be seen, moreover, the offering of five
hearts of victims sacrificed that day. At the culminating point
of the temple was a niche of woodwork, richly carved; within
it, a statue representing a being half man, half crocodile, en-
riched with jewels and partly covered by a mantle. They
said that this idol was the god of sowings and of fruits; the
half of his body contained all the grains of the country. I do
not recall the name of this divinity; what I do know is that
here also all was soiled with blood, wall and altar, and that the
stench was such that we did not delay to go forth to take the
air. There we found a drum of immense size; when struck it
gave forth a lugubrious sound, such as an infernal instrument
could not want. It could be heard for two leagues about, and
it was said to be stretched with the skins of gigantic serpents.
"Upon the terrace were to be seen an endless number of
things diabolical in appearance: speaking trumpets, horns,
knives, many hearts of Indians burned as incense to idols;
and all covered with blood in such quantity that I vowed it to
malediction! As moreover, everywhere arose the odours of a
chamel, it moved us strongly to depart from these exhalations
and above all from so repulsive a sight.
"It was then that our general, by means of our interpreter,
said to Montezuma, smiling: 'Sire, I cannot understand how
being so great a prince and so wise as you are, that you have
not perceived in your reflections that your idols are not gods^
but evilly named demons. That Your Majesty may recognize
this and all your priests be convinced, grant me the grace of
finding it good that I erect a Cross upon the height of this
tower, and that in the same part of the sanctuary where are
your Huichilobos and Tezcatepuca, we construct a shrine and
elevate the image of Our Lady; and you will see the fear which
she will inspire in these idols, of which you are the dupes.'
Montezuma replied partly in anger, while the priests made
menacing gestures: 'Sir Malinche, if I had thought that you
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MEXICO 49
could offer blasphemies, such as you have just done, I had
not shown you my deities. Our gods we hold to be good; it is
they who give us healthi rains, good harvests, storms, victo-
ries, and all that we desire. We ought to adore them and
make them sacrifices. What I beg of you is that you will say
not a word more that is not in their honour.* Our general,
having heard and seeing his emotion, thought best not to reply;
so, affecting a gay air, he said: 'It is already the hour that we
and Your Majesty must part.' To which Montezuma an-
swered, true, but as for him, he must pray and make sacrifice
in expiation of the sin he had committed in giving us access
to his temple, which had had for consequence our presenta-
tion to his gods and the want of respect through which we had
rendered ourselves culpable, blaspheming against them.'' So
the Spaniards departed, leaving Montezuma to his expiatory
prayers and no doubt bloody sacrifices.
III. THE AZTEC PAlSfTHEON*
Within the precincts of the temple-pyramid, and not far
from it, was a lesser building which Bemal Diaz describes, a
house of idols, diabolisms, serpents, tools for carving the
bodies of sacrificed victims, and pots and kettles to cook them
for the cannibal repasts of the priests, the entrance being
formed by gaping jaws "such as one pictures at the mouth of
Inferno, showing great teeth for the devouring of poor souls."
The place was foul with blood and black with smoke, "and for
my part," says Diaz, "I was accustomed to call it *Hell.'"
It is indeed doubtful whether the human imagination has
ever elsewhere conjured up such soul-satisfying devils as are
the gods of the Aztec pantheon. Beside them Old World
demons seem prankishly amiable sprites: the Mediaeval
imagination at best (or worst) gives us but a somewhat de-
ranged barnyard, while even Chinese devils modulate into
pleasantly decorative motifs. But the Aztec gods, in their
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formal presentments, and seldom less in their material char-
acters, ugly, ghastly, foul, aflFord unalloyed shudders which
time cannot still nor custom stale. To be sure, the ensemble
frequently shows a vigour of design which suggests decora-
tion (though the decorative spirit is never sensitive, as it
often is in Maya art); but this suggestion is too illusory to
abide: it passes like a mist, and the imagination is gripped by
the raw horror of the Thing. Aztec religious art seems, in fact,
to move in a more primitively realistic atmosphere than that
in which the religious art of other peoples has come to simi-
larly adept expression; it shows little of that tendency —
which Yucatan and Peru in America, as well as the ancient and
Oriental nations, had all attained — to subordinate the idea to
the expressional form, and to soften even the horrible with the
suavity of aesthetic charm. The Aztec gods were as grimly busi-
ness-like in form as the realities of their service were fearful.
In number these divinities were myriad and in relations
chaotic. There were clan and tribal, city and national gods,
not only of the victorious race, but of their confederates and
subjects, for the Aztec followed the custom of pagan con-
querors, holding it safest to honour the deities native to the
land; and several of their greatest divinities were assuredly
inherited from vanquished peoples — Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc
among them — though an odd and somewhat amusing fact is
that a multitude of the godling idols of ravaged cities were
kept in a kind of prison-house in the Aztec capital, where, it
was assumed, they were incapable of assisting their former
worshippers. There were gods of commerce and industries,
headed by Tacatecutli, god of merchant-adventurers, whose
"peaceful penetration" opened paths for the imperial armies;
gods of potters and weavers and mat-makers, of workers in
wood and stone and metal; gods of agriculture, of sowing and
ripening and reaping; gods of fishermen; gods of the elements
— earth, air, fire, and water; gods of mountains and volca-
noes; creator-gods; animal-gods; gods of medicine, of disease
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MEXICO 51
and death, and of the underworld; deity patrons of drunken-
ness and of carnal vice, and deity protectors of the flowers
which these strange peoples loved. The whole heterogeneous
world was filled with divinities, reflecting the old fears of
primitive man and the old tumults of history, each god jealous
of his right and gluttonous of blood — a kind of horrid ex-
teriorization of human passion and desire.
However, this motley pantheon is not without certain
principles of order. The regulations of an elaborate social
system, divided by clan and caste and rank and guild, are re-
duplicated in it; for to every phase of Mexican life religious
rites and divine tutelage were attached. Still more significant
as a means of hierarchic classification is the relation of the
divine beings to the divisions of time and space. A cult of the
quarters of space and their tutelaries and of the powers of
sky-realms above and of earth-realms below is almost uni-
versal among American Indian groups showing any advance-
ment in culture; the gods of the quarters, for example, are
bringers of wind and rain, upholders of heaven, animal chiefs;
the gods above are storm-deities and rulers of the orbs and
dominions of light, on the whole beneficent; the powers below,
under the hegemony of the earth goddess, are spirits of vegeta-
tion and lords of death and things noxious. This is the most
primitive stage in which the family of Heaven and Earth
begin to assume form as an hierarchic pantheon. But the
seasons, beginning with the diurnal alternation of the rule of
light and darkness, and proceeding thence to the changing
phases of the moon and the seasonal journeys of the sun, con-
stantly shift the domination of the world from deity to deity
and from group to group. Thus the lords of day are not the
lords of night, nor are the fates of the mounting mom those
of descending eve: the Sun himself changes his disposition
with the hours. Similarly, the Moon's phases are tempers
rather than forms; and the year, divided among the gods, runs
the cycle of their influences.
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52 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
The Aztec and other pantheons of the civilized Mexicans
evince all of these elements with complications. Both cos-
mography and calendar are more complex than among the
more northerly Americans, and there is a veritable tangle of
space-craft and time-craft, with astrological and necromantic
conceptions, bound up with every human desire and every
natural activity. Certainly the most curious feature of this
lore is the influence of certain numbers — especially four
(and five) and nine; and, again, six (and seven) and thirteen.
These number-groups are primarily related to space-divisions.
Thus four is the number of cardinal points, North, South,
East, and West, to which a fifth point is added if the pou stOj
or point of the observer, is included; by a process of redupli-
cation, of which there are several instances in North America,
the number of earth's cardinal points became the number of
the sky-tiers above and of the earth-tiers below, so that the
cosmos becomes a nine-storeyed structure, with earth its
middle plane. Sometimes (this is characteristic of the Pueblo
Indians) orientation is with reference to six points — the
four directions and the Above and the Below (the pou sto^
when added, becomes a seventh — a grouping which recalls
to us the seven forms of Platonic locomotion — up, down,
forward, backward, right, left, and axial). With these direc-
tions colours, jewels, herbs, and animals are symbolically
associated, becoming emblems of the ruling powers of the
quarters. The number-groups thus cosmographically formed
react upon time-conceptions, especially where ritual is con-
cerned. Thus the Pueblo Indians celebrate lesser festivals of
five days (a day of preparation and four of ritual), and greater
feasts of nine days (reduplicating the four) the whole, in
some cases at least, being comprised in a longer period of
twenty days. The rites of the year among the Zuni and some
others are divided into two six-month groups, and each month
is dedicated to or associated with one of the six colour-symbols
of the six directions; while the Hopi — a fact of especial in-
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MEXICO 53
terest — make use of thirteen points on the horizon for the
determination of ceremonial dates.^
The cosmic and calendric orientation of the Mexicans is
a complex, with elaborations, of both these number-groups
(i. e. four, five, nine, and six, seven, thirteen). According to
one conception there are nine heavens above and nine hells
beneath. Ometecutli ("Twofold Lord") and Omeciuatl
("Twofold Lady") the male and female powers of generation,
dwell in Omcyocan ("the Place of the Twofold") at the cul-
mination of the universe; and it is from Omeyocan that the
souls of babes, bringing the lots "assigned to them from the
commencement of the world," • descend to mortal birth;
while in the opposite direction the souls of the dead, after four
years of wandering, having passed the nine-fold stream of the
underworld, go to find their rest in Chicunauhmictlan, the
ninth pit. Nine "Lords of the Night" preside over its nine
hours, and potently over the affairs of men. Mictlantecutli,
the skeleton god of death, is lord of the midnight hour; the
owl is his bird; his consort is Mictlanciuatl; and the place of
their abode, windowless and lightless, is "huge enough to re-
ceive the whole world." Over the first hour of night and the
first of morning (there are Lords of the Day, too) presides
Xiuhtecutli, the fire-god, for the hearth of the universe, like
the hearth of the house, is the world's centre.
But the ninefold conception of the universe is not without
rival. A second notion (of Toltec source, according to Sa-
hagun) speaks of twelve heavens; or of thirteen, reckoning
earth as one. The Toltec, says Sahagun, were the first to
count the days of the year, the nights, and the hours, and to
calculate the movements of the heavens by the movements
of the stars; they affirmed that Ometecutli and Omeciuatl rule
over the twelve heavens and the earth, and are procreators
of all life below. There is some ground for believing that with
this there was associated a belief in twelve corresponding
under-worlds, for Seler • plausibly argues that the five-and-
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54 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
twenty divine pairs of Codex Vaticanus B represent twelve
pairs of rulers of hours of the day, twelve of hours of the night,
and one intermediate. However, the arrangement which
Seler finds predominating is that of thirteen Lords of the Day
and nine Lords of the Night — implying a commingling of
the two systems — and this scheme (the day-hour lords fol-
lowing the Aubin Tonalamatl and the Codex Borbonicus, as
Seler interprets them) he reconstructs dial-fashion, as follows:
(Noon)
7. Xochipilli Cinteotl
(Flower-God as Maize-God)
6* Teoyaoimqui 8. Haloc
(Warrior's Death-God) (God of Rain)
5. Tlazolteotl 9. Quetzalcoatl
(Goddess of Dirt) (as Wind-God)
4. Tonatiuh 10. Tezcatlipoca
(the Sun-God) (the Great God)
3. Chalchiuhtlicue (Day) 11. Mictlantecutli
(Goddess of Water) (God of the Dead)
2. Tlaltecutli 12. Hauizcalpantecutli
(the Earth as Gaping Jaws) (the Planet Venus)
1. Xiuhtecutli 13. Ilamatecutli
(God of Fire) (Mother-of the Gods)
IX. Haloc I. Xiuhtecutli
(God of Rain) (God of Fire)
Vm. TepeyoUotl (Night) IL Itztli
(Heart of the Mountain) (Stone-Knife God)
Vn. Tlazolteotl IIL Piltzintecutli-Tonatiuh
(Earth Goddess) (Loxd of Princes, the Sun)
VL Chalchiuhtlicue IV. Cinteotl
((^dess of Flowmg Water) (Maize-<jod)
V. Mictlantecutli
(God of the Underworld)
(Midnight)
But the gods are patrons not only of the celestial worlds
and of the underworlds, hours of the day and of the night;
they are also rulers and tutelaries of the quarters of earth and
heaven, and of the numerous divisions and periods of time
involved in the complicated Mexican calendar. The in-
fluences of the cosmos were conceived to vary not merely
with the seasonal or solar year of 365 days, but also with the
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MEXICO 55
Tonalamatl (a calendric period of 13 z 20, or 260, days); again
with a 584-day period of the phases of Venus; and finally with
the cycles formed by measuring these periods into one an-
other. Here, it is evident, we are in the presence not only of a
scheme capable of utilizing an extensive pantheon, but of one
having divinatory possibilities second to no astrology.
As such it was used by the Mexican priests, and various
codices, or pinturaSj preserved from the general destruction of
Aztec manuscripts are nothing but calendric charts to calcu-
late days for feasts and days auspicious or inauspicious for
enterprise. In one of these, the Codex Ferjcrvary-Mayer, the
first sheet is devoted to a figure in the general form of a cross
fattie combined with an X, or St. Andrew's cross. This figure,
as explained by Seler,^^ aflfords a graphic illustration of Aztec
ideas. It represents the five regions of the world and their
deities, the good and bad days of the Tonalamatlj the nine
Lords of the Night, and the four trees (in form like tau-
crosses) which rise into the quarters of heaven, perhaps as its
support. In the Middle Place, the pau sto^ is the red image of
Xiuhtecutli, the Fire-Deity — "the Mother, the Father of the
Gods, who dwells in the navel of the Earth") — armed with
spears and spear-thrower, while from the divinity's body four
streams of blood flow to the four cardinal points, terminating
in s)rmbols appropriate to these points — East, a yellow hand
t3npifying the sun's ray; North, the stump of a leg, s)anbol of
Tezcatlipoca as Mictlantecutli, lord of the underworld; West,
where the sun dies, the vertebrae and ribs of a skeleton;
South, Tezcatlipoca as lord of the air, with featherdown in
his head-gear. The arms of the St. Andrew's cross terminate
in birds — quetzal, macaw, eagle, parrot — bearing shields
upon which are depicted the four day-signs after which the
years are named (because, in sequence, they fall on the first
day of the year), each year being brought into relation with a
correspondingly symbolized world-quarter; within each arm
of the cross, below the day-sign, is a sign denoting plenty or
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S6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
famine. But the main part of the design, about the centre, is
occupied with symbols of the quarters of the heavens. In each
section is a T-shaped tree, surmounted by a bird, with tutelary
deities on either side of the trunk. Above, framed in red, the
tree rises from an image of the sun, set on a temple, while a
quetzal bird surmounts it; the gods on either side are (left)
Itztli, the Stone-Knife God, and (right) Tonatiuh, the Sun;
the whole symbolizes the tree which rises into the eastern
heavens. The trapezoid opposite this, coloured blue, symbol
of the west, contains a thorn-tree rising from the body of the
dragon of the eclipse (for the heavens descend to darkness in
this region) and surmounted by a hunmiing-bird, which, ac-
cording to Aztec belief, dies with the dry and revives with the
rainy season; the attendant deities are Chalchiuhtlicue, god-
dess of flowing water, and the earth goddess Tlazolteotl, deity
of dirt and of sin. To the right, framed in yellow, a thorny
tree rises from a dish containing emblems of expiation, while
an eagle surmounts it; the attendants are Tlaloc, the rain-god,
and TepeyoUotl, the Heart of the Mountains, Voice of the
Jaguar — all a token of the northern heavens. Opposite this
is a green trapezoid containing a parrot-surmounted tree ris-
ing from the jaws of the Earth, and having, on one side, Cin-
teotl, the maize-god, and on the other, Mictlantecutli, the
divinity of death. The nine deities, he of the centre and the
four pairs, form the group of los Senores de la Noche ("the
Lords of Night"); while the whole figure sjrmbolizes the
orientation of the world-powers in space and time — years
and Tonalamatls, earth-realms and sky-realms.
The recurrence of cross-forms in this and similar pictures is
striking: the Greek cross, the tau-cross, St. Andrew's cross.
The Codex Vaticanus B contains a series of sjonbols of the
trees of the quarters approximating the Roman cross in form,
suggesting the cross-figured tablets of Palenque. In the
analogous series of the Codex Borgia, each tree issues from
the recumbent body of an earth divinity or underworld deity,
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PLATE VI
First page of the Codex Ferjervaiy-Mayer, rep-
resenting the five regions of the world and their
tutelary deities. Seler's interpretation of this figure
is given, in brief, on pages 55-56 of this book.
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MEXICO 57
each surmounted by a heaven-bird; and again all are cruci-
form. There is also a tree of the Middle Place in the series,
rismg from the body of the Earth Goddess, who is masked
with a death's head and lies upon the spines of a crocodile —
the fish from which Earth was made" — surmounted by the
quetzal bird (Pharomacrus mocinno), whose green and flowing
tail-plumage is the symbol of fructifying moisture and re-
sponding fertility — "already has it changed to quetzal
feathers, already all has become green, already the rainy time
is here!" About the stem of the tree are the circles of the
world-encompassing sea, and on either side of it, springing also
from the body of the goddess, are two great ears of maize.
The attendant or tutelar deities in this image are Quetzal-
coatl ("the green Feather-Snake"), god of the winds, and
Macuilxochitl ("the Five Flowers"), the divinity of music
and dancing. Another series of figures in this same Codex
represent the gods of the quarters as caryatid-like upbearers
of the skies — Quetzalcoatl of the east; Huitzilopochtli, the
Aztec war-god, of the south; Tlauizcalpantecutli, Venus as
Evening Star, of the west; Mictlantecutli, the death-god, of
the north. All these, however, are only a few of the many ex-
amples of the multifarious cosmic and calendric arrangements
of the gods of the Aztec pantheon.
IV. THE GREAT GODS » _
On the cosmic and astral side the regnant powers of the
Aztec pantheon are the Gaping Jaws of Earth; the Sea as a
circumambient Great Serpent; and the Death's-Head God of
the Underworld; while above are the Sun wearing a collar of
life-giving rays; the Moon represented as marked by a rabbit
(for in Mexican myth the Moon shone as brightly as the Sun
till the latter darkened his rival by casting a rabbit upon his
face); and finally the Great Star, "Lord in the House of
Dawn," the planet Venus, characteristically shown with a
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58 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
body streaked red and white, now Morning Star, now Even-
ing Star. The Sun and Venus are far more important than the
Moon, for the reason that their periods (365 and 584 days
respectively), along with the Tonalamatl (260 days), form the
foundation for calendric computations. The regents of the
quarters of space and of the divisions of time are ranged in
numerous and complex groups under these deities of the
cosmos.
But the divinities who are thus important cosmically are
not in like measure important politically, nor indeed mytho-
logically, since the great gods of the Aztec, like those of other
consciously political peoples, were those that presided over
the activities of statecraft — war and agriculture and political
destiny. In the Aztec capital the central teocalli was the shrine
of Huitzilopochtli, the war-god and national deity of the rul-
ing tribe. The teocalli above the market-place, which Bemal
Diaz describes, was devoted to Coatlicue, the mother of the
war-god, to Tezcatlipoca, the omnipotent divinity of all the
Nahua tribes, and, in a second shrine, to Tlaloc, the rain-god,
whose cult, according to tradition, was older than the coming
of the first Nahua. In a third temple, built in circular rather
than pyramidal form, was the shrine of what was perhaps the
most ancient deity of all, Quetzalcoatl ("the Feather-Snake ")>
lord of wind and weather. These — Huitzilopochtli, Tezcat-
lipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc — are the gods that are su-
preme in picturesque emphasis in the Aztec pantheon.
I. Huitzilopochtli"
The great teocalli of Huitzilopochtli stood in the centre of
Tenochtitlan and was dedicated in the year i486 by Ahuitzoti,
the emperor preceding the last Montezuma, with the sacrifice
of huge numbers of captive warriors — sixty to eighty thou-
sand, if we are to believe the chroniclers. On the platform top
of the pyramidal structure, bearing the fane of the war-god
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. MEXICO 59
and also (as in the case of the temple in the market place) a
shrine of Tlaloc, was space, tradition says, for a thousand
warriors, and it was here, in 1520, that Cortez and his com-
panions waged their most picturesque battle, fighting their
way up the temple stairs, clearing the summit of some four
hundred Aztec warriors, burning the fanes, and hurling the
images of the gods to the pavements below. After the Con-
quest the temple was razed, and the Cathedral which still
adorns the City of Mexico was erected on or near a site which
had probably seen more human blood shed for superstition
than has any other in the world.
The name of the war-god, Huitzilopochtli (or Uitzilopochtli),
is curiously innocent in suggestion — "Humming-Bird of the
South" (literally, "Humming-Bird-Left-Side,*' for in naming
the directions the Nahua called the south the "left" of the
8un). Humming-bird feathers on his left leg formed part of
the insignia of the divinity; the fire-snake, Xiuhcoatl, was an-
other attribute, and the spear-thrower which he carried was
serpentine in form; among his weapons were arrows tipped
with balls of featherdown; and it was to his glory that gladia-
torial sacrifices were held in which captive warriors, chained
to the sacrificial rock, were armed with down-tipped weapons
and forced to fight to the death with Aztec champions. One
of the most romantic of native tales recounts the capture, by
wile, of the Tlascalan chieftain, Tlahuicol. Such was his renown
that Montezuma offered him citizenship, rather than the usual
death by sacrifice, and even sent him at the head of a mili-
tary expedition in which the Tlascalan won notable victories.
But the chieftain refused all proffers of grace, claiming the
right to die a warrior's death on the sacrificial stone, and at
last, after three years of captivity, Montezuma conceded to
him the privilege sought — the gladiatorial sacrifice. The
Tlascalan is said to have slain eight Aztec warriors and to
have wounded twenty before he finally succumbed. It may
be remarked in passing that the Tlascalan deity, Camaxtli,
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the Tarascan Curicaveri, the Chichimec Mixcoatl, and the
tribal god of the Tepanec and Otomi, Otontecutli or Xocotl,
were similar to, if not identical with, Huitzilopochtli.
The myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, which Sahagun
relates, throws light upon the character of the divinity. His
mother, Coatlicue ("She of the Serpent-Woven Skirt"),
dwelling on Coatepec ("Serpent Mountain"), had a family
consisting of a daughter, Coyolxauhqui ("She whose Face is
Painted with Bells"), and of many sons, known collectively
as the Centzonuitznaua ("the Four Hundred Southerners").
One day, while doing penance upon the mountain, a ball of
feathers fell upon her, and having placed this in her bosom, it
was observed, shortly afterward, that she was pregnant. Her
sons, the Centzonuitznaua, urged by Coyolxauhqui, planned
to slay their mother to wipe out the disgrace which they con-
ceived to have befallen them; but though Coatlicue was
frightened, the unborn child conmianded her to have no fear.
One of the Four Hundred, turning traitor, conmiunicated to
the still unborn Huitzilopochtli the approach of the hostile
brothers, and at the moment of their arrival the god was bom
in full panoply, carrying a blue shield and dart, his limbs
painted blue, his head adorned with plumes, and his left leg
decked with hunmiing-bird feathers. Commanding his serv-
ant to light a torch, in shape a serpent, with this Xiuhcoatl
he slew Coyolxauhqui, and destroying her body, he placed her
head upon the summit of Coatepec. Then taking up his arms,
he pursued and slew the Centzonuitznaua, a very few of whom
succeeded in escaping to Uitztlampa ("the Place of Thorns"),
the South.
The myth seemingly identifies Huitzilopochtli as a god of
the southern sun. The hostile sister is the moon; the brothers
are the stars driven from the heavens by the rising sun, whose
blue shield is surely the blue buckler of the daylit sky; and
probably the balls of featherdown tipping his arrows are
cloud-symbols. Sahagun describes a sacramental rite in which
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PLATE VII
1. Colossal stone head representing Coyolzauh-
qui, the Moon goddess, sister of Huitzilopochtli
(see page 60). The head is not a fragment, but
bears figures upon its base, and doubtless represents
Coyolxauhqui as slain by t\^t Fire Snake, Xiuh-
coatl, hurled by Huitzilopochtli, and afterwards be-
headed by him. The original is in the Museo
Nacional, Mexico.
2. Statue of the god of feasting, Xochipilli,
"Lord of Flowers" (see page 77). The crest is
missing. The original is in the British Museum.
3. The Fire Snake, Xiuhcoatl, as represented in
stone. The Fire Snake is associated with Huitzi-
lopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, and the fire god, Xiuhte-
cutli; and stands, perhaps, in a kind of opposition
to the "Green Feather Snake," Quetzalcoatl, the
latter signifying rain and vegetation, the former
drought and want (cf. the hymn to Xipe Totec,
page 77). The original is in the British Museum.
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MEXICO 6i
an image of the god's body, made of grain, was eaten by a
group of youths who were for a year the servitors of the deity,
with duties so onerous that the young men sometimes fled
the country, preferring death at the hands of their enemies —
a statement which leads to the suspicion that here was some
ordeal connected with chivalric advancement. Certainly
Huitzilopochtli was a god of warriors, and it is probable that
those devoted to him sought the warrior's death, which meant
ascent into the skies rather than that descent into murky
Mictlan which was the lot of the ordinary. In this connexion
the name of the divinity and the humming-bird feather in-
signia acquire significance; for again it is Sahagun who relates
that the souls of ascending warriors, after four years, are
"metamorphosed into various kinds of birds of rich plumage
and brilliant colour which go about drawing the sweet from
the flowers of the sky, as do the humming-birds upon earth."
2. Tezcatlipoca "
Tezcatlipoca, or "Smoking Mirror," was so called because
of his most conspicuous emblem, a mirror from which a spiral
of smoke is sometimes represented as ascending, and in which
the god was supposed to see all that takes place on earth, in
heaven, and in hell. Frequently the mirror is shown as re-
placing one of his feet (loss or abnormality of cne foot is com-
mon in the Mexican pantheon), explained mythically as
severed when the doors of the underworld closed prematurely
upon it — for Tezcatlipoca in one of his many functions is
deity of the setting sun. In other aspects he is a moon-god,
the moon of the evening skies; again, a divinity of the night;
or sometimes, with blindfold eyes, a god of the underworld
and of the dead; and in the calendric charts he is represented
as regent of the northern heavens, although sometimes (per-
haps identified with Huitzilopochtli) he is ruler of the south.
Probably he is at bottom the incarnation of the changing
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62 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
heavens, symbolized by his mirror, now fiery, now murky^
reflecting the encompassed universe. He is the red Tezcatli-
poca and the black — the heaven of day and the heaven of
night. He is the Warrior of the North and the Warrior of the
South, symbolizing the course of the yearly sun, which, in the
latitude of Mexico, culminates with the alternating seasons
to the north and to the south of the zenith. His emblems in-
clude the Fire-Snake, symbol of heavenly fires; and again he
is Iztli-Tezcatlipoca, the Stone-Knife God of the underworld,
of blood-letting penance, and of human sacrifice. Sahagun
says of him that he raised wars, enmities, and discords wherever
he went; nevertheless, he was the ruler of the world, and from
him proceeded all prosperities and enrichments. Frequently
he is represented as a jaguar, which to the Mexicans was the
dragon of the eclipse, a'were-beast, and the patron of magicians;
cross-roads were marked by seats for Tezcatiipoca, the god
who traversed all ways; and he was called the Wizard and the
Transformer. In himself he was invisible and impalpable,
penetrating all things; or, if he appeared to men, it was as
a flitting shadow; yet he could assume multifarious mon-
strous forms to tempt and try men, striking them with disease
and death. As Yoalli Ehecati, the Night Wind, he wandered
about in search of evil-doers, and sinners summoned him in
their confessions. On the other hand, he was "the Youth"
(Telpochtii), and as Omacati ("Two-Reed") he was lord of
banquets and festivities.
It is evident that Tezcatiipoca is the Great Transformer,
identified with the heavens and all its breaths, twofold in all
things: day, night; life, death; good, evil. Certainly he seems
to have been held in more awe than any other Mexican god
and well merits the supremacy (not political, but religious)
which tradition assigns to him. The most notable of the
prayers which Sahagun transcribes are filled with poetic
veneration for this deity, and had we only these invocations
as record — not also tales of the fearful human sacrifices —
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MEXICO 63
we should assuredly assign to their Aztec composers a pure
and noble religious sentiment. Perhaps theirs was so, for
men's actions everjrwhere seem worse than the creeds which
impel them. Thus, in time of plague the priests prayed:
"O mighty Lord, under whose wings wc seek protection, defence,
and shelter! Thou art invisible, impalpable, as the air and as the
night. I come in humility and in littleness, daring to appear before
Thy Majesty. I come uttering my words like one choking and
stammering; my speech is wandering, like as the way of one who
strayeth from the path and stumbleth. I am possessed of the fear
of exciting thy wrath against me rather than the hope of meriting
thy grace. But, Lord, do with my body as it pleaseth thee, for thou
hast indeed abandoned us according to thy counsels taken in heaven
and in hell. Oh, sorrow! thine anger and thine indignation are de-
scended upon us in all our days . . •
**0 Lord, very kindly! Thou knowest that we mortals are like
unto children which, when punished, weep and sigh, repenting their
faults. It is thus that these men, ruined by thy chastisements, re-
proach themselves grievously. They confess in thy presence; they
atone for their evil deeds, imposing penance upon themselves. Lord,
very good, very compassionate, very noble, very precious! let the
chastisement which thou hast inflicted suffice, and let the ills which
thou hast sent in castigation find their end!"
Throughout the prayers there are characterizations of the god,
not a few of them echoing a kind of world-weary melancholy
that seems so typical of Aztec supplications. When the new
king is crowned, the priest prays: "Perchance, deeming him-
self worthy of his high employ, he will think to perpetuate
himself long therein. Will not this be for him a dream of
sorrow? Will he find in this dignity received at thy hands an
occasion of pride and presumption, till it hap that he despise
the world, assuming to himself a sumptuous show? Thy
Majesty knoweth well whereto he must come within a few
brief days — for we men are but thy spectacle, thy theatre,
serving for thy laughter and diversion." And when the king
is dead: "Thou hast given him to taste in this world a few of
thy sweets and suavities, making them to pass before his
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64 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
eyes like the will-o'-the-wisp, which vanisheth in an instant;
such is the dignity of the post wherein thou didst place him,
and in which he had a few days in thy service, prostrate, in
tears, breathing his devoted prayers unto thy Majesty."
Again: "Thou art invisible and impalpable, and we believe
that thy gaze doth penetrate the stones and into the hearts
of the trees, seeing clearly all that is concealed therein. So
dost thou see and comprehend what is in our hearts and in
our thoughts; before thee our souls are as a waft of smoke or
as a vapour that riseth from the earth."
Perhaps the most striking rite in the Aztec year was the
springtime sacrifice to Tezcatlipoca — near Easter, Sahagun
says. In the previous year a youth had been selected from a
group of captives trained for the purpose, physically without
blemish and having all accomplishments possible. He was
trained to sing and to play the flute, to carry flowers and to
smoke with elegance; he was dressed in rich apparel and was
constantly accompanied by eight pages. The king himself
provided for his habiliment, since "he held him already to be
a god." For nearly a year this youth was entertained and
feasted, honoured by the nobility and venerated by the popu-
lace as the living embodiment of Tezcatlipoca. Twenty days
before the festival his livery was changed, and his long hair
was dressed like that of an Aztec chieftain. Four maidens, deli-
cately reared, were assigned to him as wives, called by the
names of four goddesses — Xochiquetzal ("Flowering Quetzal-
Plume"), Xilonen ("Young Maize"), Atlatonan (a goddess
of the coast), and Uiitociuatl (goddess of the salt water).
Five days previous to the sacrifice a series of feasts and dances
was begun, continued during each of the following four days
in separate quarters of the city. Then came the final day; the
youth was taken beyond the city; his goddess-wives aban-
doned him; and he was brought to a little road-side temple for
the consummation of the rite. He ascended its four stages,
breaking a flute at each stage, till at the top he was seized,
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PLATE VIII
Figure from the Codex Borgia representing the red
and the black Tezcatlipoca facing one another
across a tlachtli court upon which is shown a sacri-
ficial victim painted with the red and white stripes
of the Morning and Evening Star (Venus). The
red Tezcatlipoca symbolizes day, the black Tez-
catlipoca, night; the ball court is a symbol of the
universe; the Morning and Evening Star might
very naturally be looked upon as a sacrifice to the
heaven god.
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MEXICO 6s
and the priest opening his breast with a single blow, pre-
sented his heart to the sun. Immediately another youth was
chosen for the following year, for the Tezcatlipoca must never
die. It was said, remarks Sahagun, that this youth's fate
signified that those who possess wealth and march amid
pleasures during life will end their career in grief and poverty;
while Torquemada more grimly comments that "the soul of
the victim went down to the company of his false gods, in hell."
For the student of to-day, however, the rite is but another
significant symbol of the god who dies and is bom again.
In myth Tezcatlipoca plays the leading role as adversary
of QuetzalcoatI, the ruler and god of the Toltec city of ToUan.
In Sahagun's version of the story, three magicians, Huitzil-
opochtli, Titlacauan ("We are his Slaves," an epithet of
Tezcatlipoca), and Tlacauepan, the younger brother of the
others, undertook by magic and wile to drive QuetzalcoatI
from the country and to overthrow the Toltec power. The
three deities are obviously tribal gods of Nahuatlan nations,
and Tezcatlipoca, who plays the chief part in the legends, is
clearly the god of first importance at this early period, possi-
bly the principal deity of all the Nahua; he was also the fore-
most divinity of Tezcuco, which, almost to the eve of the
Conquest, was the leading partner in the Aztec confederacy.
As the tale goes, QuetzalcoatI was ailing; Tezcatlipoca ap-
peared in the guise of an old man, a physician, and admin-
istered to the ailing god, not medicine, but a liquor which in-
toxicated him. Texcatlipoca then assumed the form of a
nude Indian of a strange tribe, a seller of green peppers, and
walked before the palace of Uemac, temporal chief of the
Toltec. Here he was seen by the chiefs daughter, who fell ill
of love for him. Uemac ordered the stranger brought before
him and demanded of Toueyo (as the stranger called himself)
why he was not clothed as other men. "It is not the custom
of my country," Toueyo answered. "You have inspired my
daughter with caprice; you must cure her,'* said Uemac. "That
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66 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
is impossible; kill me; I would die, for I do not deserve such
words, seeking as I am only to earn an honest living." "Never-
theless, you shall cure her," replied the chief, "it is necessary;
have no fear." So he caused the marriage of his daughter with
the stranger, who thus became a chieftain among the Toltec.
Winning a victory for his new countrymen, he announced a
feast in ToUan; and when the multitudes were assembled, he
caused them to dance to his singing until they were as men in-
toxicated or demented; they danced into a ravine and were
changed into rocks, they fell from a bridge and became stones
in the waters below. Again, in company with Tlacauepan, he
appeared in the market-place of Tollan and caused the infant
Huitzilopochtli to dance upon his hand. The people, crowd-
ing near, crushed several of their number dead; enraged, they
slew the performers and, on the advice of Tlacauepan, fas-
tened ropes to their bodies to drag them out; but all who
touched the cords fell dead. By this and other magical de-
vices great numbers of the Toltec were slain, and their dominion
was brought to an end.
3. QUETZALCOATL "
The most famous and picturesque of New World mythic
figures is that of Quetzalcoatl, although primarily his renown
is due less to the undoubted importance of his cult than to
his association with the coming and the beliefs of the white
men. According to native tradition, Quetzalcoatl had been
the wise and good ruler of Tollan in the Golden Age of Ana-
huac, lawgiver, teacher of the arts, and founder of a purified
religion. Driven from his kingdom by the machinations of
evil magicians, he departed over the eastern sea for Tlapallan,
the land of plenty, promising to return and reinstitute his
kindly creed on some future anniversary of the day of his de-
parture. He was described as an old man, bearded, and white,
clad in a long robe; as with other celestial gods, crosses were
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MEXICO 67
associated with his representations and shrines. When Cortez
landed, the Mexicans were expecting the return of Quetzal-
coatl; and, according to Sahagun, the very outlooks who first
beheld the ships of the Spaniards had been posted to watch
for the coming god. The white men (perhaps the image was
aided by their shining armour, their robed priests, their
crosses) were inevitably assumed to be the deity, and among
the gifts sent to them by Montezuma were the turquoise mask,
feather mantle, and other apparel appropriate to the god. It
is certain that the belief materially aided the Spaniards in the
early stages of their advance, and it is small wonder that the
myth which was so helpful to their ambitions should have ap-
pealed to their imaginations. The missionary priests, gaining
some idea of native traditions and finding among them ideas,
emblems, and rites analogous to those of Qiristendom (the
deluge, the cross, baptism, sacraments, confession), not un-
naturally saw in the figure of the robed and bearded reformer
of religion a Christian teacher, and they were not slow to iden-
tify him with St. Thomas, the Apostle. When an almost
identical story was found throughout Central America, the
Andean region, and, indeed, wide-spread in South America,
the same explanation was adopted, and the wanderings of
the Saint became vast beyond the dreams of Marco Polo or
any other vaunted traveller, while memorials of his miracles
are still displayed in regions as remote from Mexico as the
basin of La Plata. Naturally, too, the interest of the subject
has not waned with time, for whether we view the Quetzal-
coatl myth in relation to its association with European ideas
or with respect to its aboriginal analogues in the two Americas,
it presents a variety of interest scarcely equalled by any other
tale of the New World.
The name of the god is formed of quetudj designating the
long, green tail-plumes of Pharomacrus mocinno, and coatl
("serpent"); it means, therefore, "the Green-Feather Snake,"
and immediately puts C^uetzalcoatl into the group of celestial
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68 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
powers of which the plumed serpent is a symbol, among the
Hopi and Zufii to the north as well as among Andean peoples
far to the south. Sahagun says that Quetzalcoatl is a wind-
god, who "sweeps the roads for the rain-gods, that they may
rain." Quetzal-plumes were a symbol of greening vegetation,
and it is altogether probable that the Plumed Serpent-God was
originally a deity of rain-clouds, the sky-serpent embodiment
of the rainbow or the lightning. The turquoise snake-mask
or bird-mask, characteristic of the god, is surely an emblem
of the skies, and like other sky-gods he carries a serpent-
shaped spear-thrower. The beard (which other Mexican
deities sometimes wear) is perhaps a symbol of descending
rain, perhaps (as on some Navaho figures) of pollen, or fer-
tilization. Curiously enough, Quetzalcoatl is not commonly
shown as the white god which the tradition would lead us to
expect, but typically with a dark-hued body; it may be that
the dark hue and the robe of legend are both emblems of
rain-clouds.
The tradition of his whiteness may come from his stellar
associations, for though he is sometimes shown with emblems
of moon or sun, he is more particularly identified with the
morning star. According to the Annals of Quauhtitlanj Quet-
zalcoatl, when driven from ToUan, immolated himself on the
shores of the eastern sea, and from his ashes rose birds with
shining feathers (symbols of warrior souls mounting to the
sun), while his heart became the Morning Star, wandering
for eight days in the underworld before it ascended in splendour.
In numerous legends Quetzalcoatl h associated with Tez-
catlipoca, commonly as an antagonist; and if we may believe
one tale, recounted by Mendieta, Tezcatlipoca, defeating
Quetzalcoatl in ball-play (a game directly symbolic of the
movements of the heavenly orbs), cast him out of the land into
the east, where he encountered the sun and was burned. This
story (clearly a variant of the tale of the banishment of Quet*
zalcoatl told in the Annals of Quauhtitlan and by Sahagun) is
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MEXICO 69
interpreted by Seler as a myth of the morning moon, driven
back by night (the dark Tezcatlipoca) to be consumed by the
rising sun. A reverse story represents Tezcatlipoca, the sun,
as stricken down by the club of Quetzalcoatl, transformed
into a jaguar, the man-devouring demon of night, while
Quetzalcoatl becomes sun in his place. Normally Quetzal-
coatl is a god of the eastern heavens, and sometimes he is pic-
tured as the caryatid or upbearer of the sky of that quarter.
Perhaps it is in this character that he was conceived as a
lord of life, a meaning naturally intensified by his association
with the rejuvenating rains and with the wind, which is the
breath of life. A woman who had become pregnant was
praised by the relatives of her husband for her faithfulness in
religious devotions. "It is for these," they said, "that our
lord Quetzalcoatl, author and creator, has vouchsafed this
grace — even as it was decreed in the sky by that one who is
man and woman under the names Ometecutli and Omeciuatl."
Moreover the new-bom was addressed: "Little son and lord,
person of high value, of great price and esteem! 0 precious
stone, emerald, topaz, rare plume, fruit of lofty generation!
be welcome among us! Thou hast been formed in the highest
places, above the ninth heaven, where the two supreme gods
dwell. The Divine Majesty hath cast thee in his mould, as
one casts a golden bead; thou hast been pierced, like a rich
stone artistically wrought, by thy father and mother, the
great god and the great goddess, assisted by their son, Quet-
zalcoatl." The deity also figures as a world creator, as in the
Sahagun manuscript in the Academia de la Historia, from
which Seler translates :
"And thus said our fathers, our grandfathers,
They said that he made, created, and formed us
Whose creatures we arc, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl;
And he made the heavens, the sun, the earth."
It is in another character, however, that Quetzalcoatl is
romantically of most interest. His cult was less sanguinary
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70 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
than that of most Aztec divinities, though assuredly not an-
tagonistic to human sacrifice, as some traditions say. He was a
penance-inflicting god, perhaps particularly a deity of priests
and their lore; yet he was also associated with education and
the rearing of the young. He is named as the patron of the
arts, the teacher of metallurgy and of letters, and in tradition
he is the god of the cultured people of yore from whom the
Aztec derived their civilization. A part of the story, as nar-
rated by Sahagun, has been told: how Quetzalcoatl was the
aged and wise priest-king of ToUan, driven thence by the magic
and guile of Tezcatlipoca and his companions. The tale goes
on to tell how Quetzalcoatl, chagrined and ailing, resolved to
depart from his kingdom for his ancient home, Tlapallan. He
burned his houses built of shell and silver, buried his treasure,
changed the cacao-trees into mesquite, and set forth, pre-
ceded by servants in the form of birds of rich plumage. Com-
ing to Quauhtitlan, he demanded a mirror and gazing into it,
he said, "I am old," wherefore he named the city "the old
Quauhtitlan." Seating himself at another place and gazing
back upon ToUan, as he wept, his tears pierced the rock, which
also bore thenceforth the marks where his hands had rested.
He encountered certain magicians, who demanded of him, before
they would let him pass, the arts of refining silver, of working
in wood, stone, and feathers, and of painting; and as he crossed
the sierra, all his companions, who were dwarfs and hump-
backs, died of the cold. Many other localities received memo-
rials of his passage: at one place he played a game of ball, at
another shot arrows into a tree so that they formed a cross,
at another caused underworld houses to be built — all clearly-
cosmic symbols — and finally coming to the sea, he departed
for Tlapallan on his serpent-raft. In Ixtlilxochitl's history,
Quetzalcoatl first appeared in the third period of the world,
taught the arts, instituted the worship of the cross — "tree of
nourishment and of life" — and ended the period with his
departure. Tradition names the last king of the Toltec "Topil*
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PLATE IX
Figures from the Codex Borgia^ representing cos-
mic tutelaries.
The upper figure represents the tree of the
Middle Place rising from the body of the Earth
Goddess, recumbent upon the spines of the croco-
dile from which Earth was made. The tree is
encircled by the world sea and is surmounted by
the Quetzal, whose plumage typifies vegetation;
two ears of maize spring up at its roots. The at-
tendant deities are Quetzalcoatl and Macuilxo-
chitl, both symbols of fertility. In the figure they
are apparently nourishing themselves on the up-
flowing blood, or vital saps, of the body of Earth.
The figure should be compared with the Palenque
Cross and Foliate Cross tablets (Plate XVIII a, b).
See, also, pages 57, 68, 77.
The lower figure represents one of the four cary-
atid-like supporters of the heavens, Huitzilopochtli,
as the Atlas of the southern quarter. See page 57.
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MEXICO 71
tadn Quetzalcoatl/' and it may be assumed as not improbable
that stories of the disasters attending the fall of Tollan, under
a king bearing the name of the ancient divinity^ represent an
historical element, confused with nature elements, in the
myths of Quetzalcoatl, — such an assumption accounting for
the heroic glamour surrounding the god, who, like King
Arthur, is half kingly mortal, half divinity. In Cholula,
whither many of the Toltec were said to have fled with the
fall of their empire, was the loftiest pyramid in Mexico, dedi-
cated to Quetzalcoatl and even in the eyes of Aztec conquerors
a seat of venerable sanctities — the emblem of the culture
whose conquest had conquered them.
4. Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue**
The rain-god, Tlaloc, was less important in myth than in
cult. He was a deity of great antiquity, and a mountain, east
of Tezcuco, bearing his name, was said to have had from re-
mote times a statue of the god, carved in white lava. His
especial abode, Tlalocan, supposed to be upon the crests of
hills, was rich in all foods and was the home of the maize-
goddesses; and there, with his dwarf (or child) servants,
Tlaloc possesses four jars from which he pours water down
upon the earth. One water is good and causes maize and other
fruits to flourish; a second brings cobwebs and blight; a third
congeals into frost; a fourth is followed by dearth of fruit.
These are the waters of the four quarters, and only that of
the east is good. When the dwarfs smash their jars, there is
thunder; and pieces cast below are thunderbolts. The number
of the Tlaloque was regarded as great, so that, indeed, every
mountain had its Tlaloc.
Like Quetzalcoatl, the god was shown with a serpent-mask,
except that Tlaloc's was formed, not of one, but of two ser-
pents; and from the conventionalization of the serpentine
coils of this mask came the customary representation of the
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72 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
god's eyes as surrounded by wide, blue circles, and of his lip
as formed by a convoluted band from which are fanglike de-
pendencies. The double-headed serpent — a symbol no less
wide-spread than the plumed serpent — is frequently his
attribute. His association with mountains brought him also
into connexion with volcanoes and fire, and it was he who was
said to have presided over the Rain-Sun, one of the cosmo-
gonic epochs, during which there rained, not water, but fire
and red-hot stones.
The worship of Tlaloc was among the most ghastly in
Mexico. Perhaps for the purpose of keeping up the number of
his rain-dwarfs, children were constantly sacrificed to him.
If we may believe Sahagun, at the feast of the Tlaloque "they
sought out a great number of babes at the breast, which they
purchased of their mothers. They chose by preference those
who had two crowns in their hair and who had been bom
under a good sign. They pretended that these would form a
more agreeable sacrifice to the gods, to the end that they might
obtain rain at the opportune time. . . . They killed a great
number of babes each year; and after they had put them to
death, they cooked and ate them. ... If the children wept
and shed tears abundantly, those who beheld it rejoiced and
said that this was a sign of rain very near." No wonder the
brave friar turns from his narrative to cry out against such
horror. Yet, he says, "the cause of this cruel blindness, of
which the poor children were victims, should not be directly
imputed to the natural inspirations of their parents, who, in-
deed, shed abundant tears and delivered themselves to the
practice with dolour of soul; one should rather see therein the
hateful and barbarous hand of Satan, our eternal enemy, em-
ploying all his malign ruses to urge on to this fatal act."
Unfortunately, it is to be suspected that the rite was very far-
spread, for in the myths of many of the wild Mexican tribes
and even in those of the Pueblo tribes north of Mexico the
story of the sacrifice of children to the water-gods constantly
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MEXICO 73
recurs — though, perhaps, this was but the far-cast rumour
of the terrible superstition of the south.
The goddess of flowing waters, of springs and rivulets, Chal-
chiuhtlicue, was regarded as sister of the Tlaloque and was
frequently honoured in rites in connexion with them. Like
Tlaloc, she played no minor roU in the calendric division of
powers, and she also ruled over one of the "Suns" of the cos-
mogonic period. Serpents and maize were associated with
her, and like the similar deities she had both her beneficent and
malevolent moods, being not merely a cleanser, but also a
cause of shipwreck and watery deaths. At the bathing of the
new-bom she was addressed: "Merciful Lady Chalchiuhtlicue,
thy servant here present is come into this world, sent by our
father and mother, Ometecutli and Omeciuatl, who reside at
the ninth heaven. We know not what gifts he bringeth; we
know not what hath been assigned to him from before the be-
ginning of the world, nor with what lot he cometh enveloped.
We know not if this lot be good or bad, or to what end he will
be followed by ill fc^rtune. We know not what faults or de-
fects he may inherit from his father and mother. Behold him
between thy hands! Wash him and deliver him from impuri-
ties as thou knowest should be, for he is confided to thy power.
Cleanse him of the contaminarions he hath received from his
parents; let the water take away the soil and the stain, and
let him be freed from all taint. May it please thee, O goddess,
that his heart and his life be purified, that he may dwell in
this world in peace and wisdom. May this water take away
all ills, for which this babe is put into thy hands, thou who
art mother and sister of the gods, and who alone art worthy
to possess it and to give it, to wash from him the evils which he
beareth from before the beginning of the world. Deign to do
this that we ask, now that the child is in thy presence." It
18 not difficult to see how this rite should have suggested to
the first missionaries their own Christian sacrament of baptism.
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74 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
V. THE POWERS OF LIFE"
Universally Earth is the mythic Mother of Gods and Men,
and Giver of Life; nor does the Mexican pantheon offer an
exception to the rule, although its embodiments of the Earth
Mother possess associations which give a character of their
own. Like similar goddesses, the Mexican Earth Mothers
are prophetic and divinatory, and in various forms they appear
in the calendric omen-books. They are goddesses of medicine,
too, probably owing this function primarily to their associa-
tion with the sweat-bath, which, in its primitive form of earth-
lodge and heated stones, is the fundamental instrument of
American Indian therapeutics. It is here, possibly, that
these goddesses get their connexion with the fire-gods, of
whom they are not infrequently consorts, and with whom they
share the butterfly insignia — a symbol of fertility, for the
fire-god, at earth's centre, was believed to generate the warmth
of life. Serpents also are signs of the earth goddesses, not the
plumed serpents of the skies, but underworld powers, like-
wise associated with generation in Aztec symbolism. A third
animal connected with generation, and hence with these
deities, is the deer — the white, dead Deer of the East de-
noted plenty; the stricken, brown Deer of the North was a
symbol of drought, and related to the fire-gods. The eagle,
also, is sometimes found associated with the goddesses by a
process of indirection, for the eagle is primarily the heavenly
warrior, Tonatiuh, the Sun. Frequently, however, the earth
goddess is a war-goddess; Coatlicue, mother of the war-god
Huitzilopochtli, is an earth deity, wearing the serpent skirt;
and it was a wide-spread belief among the Mexicans that the
Earth was the first victim offered on the sacrificial stone to the
Sun — the first, therefore, to die a warrior's death. When a
victim was dedicated for sacrifice, therefore, his captor adorned
himself in eagle's down in honour, at once, of the Sun and of
the goddess who had been the primal offering.
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MEXICO 75
Among the earth goddesses the most famous was Ciuacoatl
("Snake Woman ")> whose voice, roaring through the night,
betokened war. She was also called Tonantzin ("Our Mother*')
and, Sahagun says, "these two circumstances give her a re-
semblance to our mother Eve who was duped by the Ser-
pent." Other names for the same divinity were Ilamatecutli
("the Old Goddess")? sometimes represented as the Earth
Toad, Tlatecutli, swallowing a stone knife; Itzpapalotl ("Ob-
sidian Butterfly"), occasionally shown as a deer; Temazcal-
teci ("Grandmother of the Sweat-Bath"); and Teteoinnan,
the Mother of the Gods, who, like several other of the earth
goddesses, was also a lunar deity. In her honour a harvest-
home was celebrated in which her Huastec priests (for she
probably hailed from the eastern coast) bore phallic emblems.
Qosely connected with the earth goddesses are their chil-
dren, the vegetation-deities. Of these the maize-spirits are
the most important, maize being the great cereal of the high-
land region, and, indeed, so much the "com" of primitive
America that the latter word has come to mean maize in the
English-speaking parts of the New World. Cinteotl was the
maize-god, and Chicomecoatl ("Seven Snakes"), also known
as Xilonen, was his female counterpart, their symbol being
the young maize-ear. Because of the use of maize as the staff
of life, a crown filled with this grain was the symbol of Tona-
catecutli ("Lord of our Flesh"), creator-god and food-giver.
Pedro de Rios says " of him that he was "the first Lord that
the world was said to have had, and who, as it pleased him,
blew and divided the waters from the heaven and from the
earth, which before him were all intermingled; and he it is
who disposed them as they now are, and so they called him
'Lord of our Bodies' and *Lord of the Overflow'; and he gave
them all things, and therefore he alone was pictured with the
royal crown. He was further called * Seven Flowers' [Chico-
mezochitl], because they said that he divided the principali-
ties of the world. He had no temple of any kind, nor were
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76 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
oflFerings brought to him, because they say he desired them
not, as it were to a greater Majesty." This god was also
identified with the Milky Way.
Of all Mexican vegetation-deities, however, at once the
most important and the most horrible was Xipe Totec ("Our
Lord the Flayed"), represented as clad in a human skin,
stripped from the body of a sacrificed captive. He was the god
of the renewal of vegetation — the fresh skin which Earth
receives with the recurrent green — and his great festival, the
Feast of the Man-Flaying, was held in the spring when the
fresh verdure was appearing. At this time, men, women, and
children captives were sacrificed, their bodies eaten, and the
skins flayed from them to be worn by personators of the god.
That there was a kind of sacrament in this rite is evident from
Sahagun's statement that the captor did not partake of the
flesh of his own captive, regarding it as part of his own body.
Again, youths clad in skins flayed from sacrificed warriors
were called by the god's own name, and they waged mimic
warfare with bands pitted against them; if a captive was
made, a mock sacrifice was enacted. The famous sacrificio
gladiatorio was also celebrated in the god's honour, the victim,
with weak weapons, being pitted against strong warriors
until he succumbed. The magic properties of the skins torn
from victims' bodies is shown by the fact that persons suffer-
ing from diseases of the skin and eye wore these trophies for
their healing, the period being twenty days. Xipe Totec was
clad in a green garment, but yellow was his predominant
colour; his ornaments were golden, and he was the patron of
gold-workers — a symbolism probably related to the ripening
grain, for with all that is horrible about him Xipe Totec is
at bottom a simple agricultural deity. At his festival were
stately areitosj and songs were chanted, one of which is pre-
served : "
"Thou night-time drinker, why dost thou delay?
Put on thy disguise — thy golden garment, put it on!
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PLATE X
Stone mask of Xipc Totcc. The face is repre-
sented as covered by the skin of a sacrificed victim,
flaying being a rite with which this god was honored.
The reverse of the mask bears an image of the god
in relief. The original is in the British Museum.
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MEXICO 77
*^My Lord, let thine emerald waters come descending!
Now is the old tree changed to green plumage —
The Fire-Snake is transformed into the Quetzal!
*^ It may be that I am to die, I, the young maize-plant;
Like an emerald is my heart; gold would I see it be;
I shall be happy when first it is ripe — the war-chief bom!
''My Lord, when there is abundance in the maize-fields,
I shall look to thy mountains, verily thy worshipper;
I shall be happy when first it is ripe — the war-chief bom!*'
Less unattractive is the group of deities of flowers and
dancing, games and feasting — Xochipilli ("Flower Lord")t
Macuikochitl ("Five Blossoms*'), and Ixtlilton ("Little
Black-Face"). Xochipilli is in part a divinity of the young
maize, probably as pollinating, and is sometimes viewed as a
son of Cinteotl. As is natural, he and his brothers are occa-
sionally associated with the pulque-gods, the Centzontotochtin,
of whom there were a great number — among them Patecatl,
lord and discoverer of the ocpatli (the peyote) from which
liquor is made, Texcatzoncatl ("Straw Mirror'*), Colhuatzin-
catl ("the Winged"), and Ometochtli ("Two Rabbit") —
deities who were supposed to possess their worshippers and
to be the real agents of the drunken man's mischief. The more
especial associate of the flower-gods, however, is Xochiquetzai
("Flower Feather"), who is said to have been originally the
spouse of Tlaloc, but to have been carried away by Tezcatli-
poca and to have been established by him as the goddess of
love. Her throne is described as being above the ninth heaven,
and there is reason to think that in this role she is identical
with Tonacaciuatl, the consort of the creator-god, Tonacate-
cutli.** Her home was in Xochitlicacan ("Place of Flowers") in
Itzeecayan ("Place of Cool Winds"), or in Tamoanchan, the
Paradise of the West — the region whence came the Ciuateteo,
the ghostly women who at certain seasons swooped down in
eagles' form, striking children with epilepsy and inspiring
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78 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
men with lust. Xochiquetzal was, indeed, the patroness of
the unmarried women who lived with the young bachelor
warriors and marched to war with them, and who sometimes,
at the goddess's festival, immolated themselves upon her
altars. In a more pleasing aspect she was the deity of weaving
and spinning and of making all beautiful and artistic fabrics,
and she is portrayed in bright and many-coloured raiment,
not forgetting the butterfly at her lips, emblem of life and of
the seeker after sweets. In a hymn ^ she is named along with
her lover, Piltzintecutli ("Lord of Princes"), who is presumed
to be the same as Xochipilli:
**Out of the land of water and mist, I come, Xochiquetzal —
Out of the land where the Sun enters his house, out of Tamoanchan.
"Weepeth the pious Piltzintecutli;
He seeketh Xochiquetzal.
Dark it is whither I must go."
Seler suggests that this lamentation is perchance the expres-
sion of a Proserpina mjrth — of the carrying oflF into the un-
derworld of the bright goddess of flowers and of the quest for
her by her disconsolate lover.
Of far darker hue is the goddess whom Sahagun** calls
"another Venus," Tlazolteotl ("Goddess of Uncleanliness"),
the deity in particular of lust and sexual sin. To her priests
confession was made of carnal sins and drunkenness, and by
them penance was inflicted, including as a feature piercing
the tongue with a maguey thorn and the insertion therein of
straws and osier twigs. Sahagun remarks that the Indians
awaited old age before confessing carnal sins, "a thing easy
to comprehend, since, although they had committed their
faults during youth, they would not confess before an ad-
vanced age in order not to find themselves obliged to cease
from disorderly conduct before age came upon them; this, be-
cause of their belief that one who fell into a sin already once
confessed could receive no absolution. From all of which,"
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MEXICX) 79
he continues, 'St is natural to reach the conclusion that the
Indians of New Spain believed themselves obliged to confess
once in their lifetime, and that in lumine naturalij with no
knowledge of the things of the faith." One of the titles of
Tlazolteotl is "Heart of the Earth,*' and since she is represented
in the same attire as the great mother of the gods, it is pre--
sumed that she is a special form of the Earth Mother, Te--
teoinnan, with emphasis upon her character as deity of fer-
tility. Sometimes she is spoken of as Izcuiname ("the Four-
faced*') and is regarded plurally as a group of four sisters
who, according to Sahagun, represent four ages of woman's
maturity. In the Annals of Quauhtitlan it is related that the
Ixcuiname came to ToUan from Huasteca. "And in the place
called Where-the-Huaxtec-weep they summoned their cap-
tives, whom they had taken in Huaxteca, and explained to
them what the business was, telling them that, *We go now
to Tollan, we want to couple the Earth with you, we want to
hold a feast with you: for till now no battle oflFerings have
been made with men. We want to make a beginning of it,
and shoot you to death with arrows.'" In Aztec paintings of
the arrow sacrifice the victim is shown suspended from a
ladder-like scaffold, whence the blood from the arrow wounds
drips to earth. This blood was the emblem of the fertilizing
seed, dropped into the womb of the goddess; and it is at least
worthy of remark that the form of the Skidi Pawnee fertility
sacrifice, in honour of the Morning Star, was identical, scaf-
fold and all, with that in vogue in Mexico.
VI. THE POWERS OF DEATH
Earth, the Great Mother, is a giver of life, but Earth, the
cavernous, is Lord of Death. The Mexicans are second to no
people in the grimness of their representations of this power.
As TepeyoUotl ("Heart of the Mountain"), earth's cavern,
it is the spotted jaguar monster which leaps up out of the
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west to seize the declining sun, and its roars may be heard
in the echoing hills. As Tlaltecutli ("Lord of the Earth")
it is the hideous Toad with Gaping Jaws, which must be
nourished with the blood of sacrificed men, precisely as the
Sun above must be nurtured; for the Mexican idea of warfare
seems to have been that it must be waged to keep perpetual
the ascending vapours and the descending flow from the
hearts of sacrificed victims, that Tonatiuh and Tlaltecutli
might gain sustenance in heaven and in earth.**
But the grimmest figure is that of Hades himself, Mictlan-
tecutli, the skeleton God of the Dead — also called, says
Sahagun, Tzontemoc ("He of the Falling Hair"). Sahagun
describes the journey to the abode of this divinity. When a
mortal — man, woman, child, lord, or thrall — died of disease,
his soul descended to Mictlan, and beside the corpse the last
words were spoken:** "Our son, thou art finished with the
sufferings and fatigues of this life. It hath pleased Our Lord
to take thee hence, for thou hast not eternal life in this world:
our existence is as a ray of the sun. He hath given thee the
grace of knowing us and of associating in our common life.
Now the god Mictlantecutli, otherwise called Acolnauacatl
or Tzontemoc, as also the goddess Mictecaciuatl, hath made
thee to share his abode. We shall all follow thee, for it is our
destiny, and the abode is broad enough to receive the whole
world. Thou wilt be heard of no longer among us. Behold,
thou art gone to the domain of darkness, where there is neither
light nor window. Never shalt thou come hither again, nor
needst thou concern thyself for thy return, for thine absence
is eternal. Thou dost leave thy children poor and orphaned,
not knowing what will be their end nor how they will support
the fatigues of this life. As for us, we shall not delay to go to
join thee there where thou wilt be." Similar words were spoken
to the relatives: "Hath this death come because some being
wisheth us ill or mocketh us? Nay, it is because Our Lord hath
willed that such be his end." Then the body was wrapped.
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PLATE XI
Green stone image of Mictlantecutli, the skeleton
god of death and of the underworld. The original
is in the Stuttgart Museum.
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MEXICX) 8i
mummy-form, and a few drops of water were poured upon the
head: ^'Lo, the water of which thou hast made use in this
life"; and a vessel of water was presented: "This for thy
journey." Next, certain papers were laid before the body in
due order: "Lo, with this thou shalt pass the two clashing
mountains." "With this thou shalt pass the road where the
serpent awaiteth thee." "With this thou shalt pass the place
of the green lizard." "Lo, wherewithal thou shalt cross the
eight deserts." "And the eight hills." "And behold with
what thou canst traverse the place of the winds that bear ob-
sidian knives." Thus the perils of the underworld were to be
passed and the soul, arrived before Mictlantecutli, was, after
four years, to fare on until he should arrive at Chiconauapan,
the "Nine-Fold Stream" of the underworld. Across this he
would be borne by the red dog which, sacrificed at his grave,
had been his faithful companion; and thence master and
hound would enter into the eternal house of the dead, Chico-
namictlan, the "Ninth Hell."
Yet not all who died pursued this journey. To the terres-
trial paradise, Tlalocan, the abode of Tlaloc, rich with every
kind of fruit and abundant with joys, departed those slain by
lightning, the drowned, victims of skin-diseases, and persons
who died of dropsical aflFections — a heterogeneous lot whose
company is to be ascribed to the various attributes of the rain-
gods. With them should be included victims sacrificed to
these deities, who perhaps themselves became rain-makers
and servants of the Lords of the Rain. More fortunate still
were they who ascended to the mansions of the Sun — those
who fell in war, those who perished on the sacrificial altar or
were sacrificed by burning, and women who died in child-
birth. Those warriors, it was said, whose shields had been
pierced could behold the Sun through the holes; to the
others Tonatiuh was invisible; but all entered into the sky
gardens, whose trees were other than those of this world;
and there, after four years, they were transformed into
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82 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
birds of bright plumage, drawing the honey from the celestial
blossoms.
It was in the eastern heavens that the souls of warriors
found their paradise. Here they met the Sun as he rose in the
morning, striking their bucklers with joyous cries and ac-
companying him on his journey to the meridian, where they
were encountered by the War Women of the western heavens,
the Ciuateteo, or Ciuapipiltin, souls of women who had gone
to war or had died in childbed. These escorted the Sun
down the western sky, bearing him on a gorgeous palanquin,
into Tamoanchan ("the House of the Descent 'O-** At the
portals of the underworld they were met by the Lords of
Hell, who conducted the Sun into their abode; for when it ceases
to be day here, the day begins in the realm below. Possibly it
was from this association with the underworld powers that
the Ciuateteo acquired their sinister traits, for they were
sometimes identified with the descending stars, the Tzitzimime,
which follow the Sun's descent and become embodied as
Demons of the Dark.
But the Sun has yet another comrade on his journey. As
the soul of the dead Aztec is accompanied and guided into the
nether world by his faithful dog, so the Sun has for com-
panion the dog Xolotl. Xolotl is a god who presides over the
game of Uachtlij the Mexican ball-game, analogous to tennis,
in which a rubber ball was bounced back and forth in a court,
not hurled or struck by hand, but by shoulder or thigh. As
with other Indian ball-games, this was regarded as symbolic
of the sun's course, and Xolotl was said to play the game on a
magic court, which could be nothing else than the heavens.
He was, moreover, deity of twins and other monstrous forms
(for twins were regarded as monstrous), and it was hump-
backs and dwarfs that were sacrificed to the Sun on the occa-
sion of an eclipse, when it was deemed that the solar divinity
had need of them. A myth narrated by Sahagun possibly ex-
plains or reflects this belief. In the beginning of things there
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was no sun and no moon; but two of the gods immolated
themselves, and from their ashes rose the orbs of night and
day, although neither sun nor moon as yet had motion. Then
all the gods resolved to sacrifice themselves in order to give
life and motion to the heavenly bodies. Xolotl alone refused:
"Gods, I will not die," he said; and when the priest of the
sacrifice came, he fled, transforming himself into a twin-
stalked maize plant, such as is called xolotl; discovered, he
escaped again and assumed the form of a maguey called
nuxolotl; and evading capture a third time, he entered the
water and became a larva, axoloil — only to be found and
offered up. A second version of the legend, recorded by Men-
dieta, makes Xolotl the sacrificial celebrant who gave death
to the other gods and then to himself that the sun might have
life. In still another tale, recorded also by Mendieta, it is the
dog Xolotl who is sent to the Underworld for bones of the
forefathers, that the first human pair might be created; but
being pursued by Mictlantecutli, Xolotl stumbled, and the
bone that he carried was dropped and broken into fragments,
from which the various kinds of people sprang. Tales such as
these are strongly reminiscent of the coyote stories of the
northern continent, and it is possible that Xolotl himself is
only a special form of Coyote, the trickster and transformer,
especially as Ueuecoyotl ("Old ODyote"), borrowed from
the more primitive Otomi, was a recognized member of the
Aztec pantheon, as a god of feasts and dances, and perhaps
- of trickery as well.
Of all the recorded beliefs connected with the dead the
most affecting is the brief account of the limbo of child-souls
reported by the clerical expositor of Codex Vaticanus A.
There was, he says,* "a third place for souls which passed
from this life, to which went only the souls of children who
died before attaining the use of reason. They feigned the
existence of a tree from which milk distilled, where all chil-
dren who died at such an age were carried; since the Devil,
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84 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
who is so inimical to the honour of God, even in this instance
wished to show his rivalry: for in the same way as our holy
doctors teach the existence of limbo for children who die
without baptism, or without the circumcision of the old law,
or without the sacrifice of the natural man, so he has caused
these poor people to believe that there was such a place for
their children; and he has superadded another error — the
persuading them that these children have to return thence to
repeople the world after the third destruction which they
suppose that it must undergo, for they believe that the world
has already been twice destroyed." The belief in an infant
paradise, with its Tree of Life whence the souls of babes draw
nourishment, biding the day of their rebirth, is a pleasant
relief from the nightmarelike quality of most Aztec notions —
not less familiarly human than are the pious reflections of the
good friar who records it.
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CHAPTER III
MEXICO
{Continued)
I. COSMOGONY »
MEXICAN cosmogonies conform to a wide-spread Ameri-
can type. There is first an ancient creator, little im-
portant in cult, who is the remote giver and sustainer of the
life of the universe; and next comes a generation of gods,
magicians and transformers rather than true creators, who
form and transform the beings of times primeval and eventually
bring the world to its present condition. The earlier world-
epochs, or "Suns," as the Mexicans called them, are commonly
four in number, and each is terminated by the catastrophic
destruction 'of its Sun and of its peoples, fire and flood over-
whelming creation in successive cataclysms. Not all of this,
in single completeness, is preserved in any one account, but
from the various fragments and abridgements that are extant
the whole may be reasonably reconstructed.
One of the simpler tales (simple at least in its transmitted
form) is of the Tarascan deity, Tucupacha. "They hold him
to be creator of all things," says Herrera,* "that he gives life
and death, good and evil fortune, and they call upon him in
their tribulations, gazing toward the sky where they believe
him to be." This deity first created heaven and earth and hell;
then he formed a man and a woman of clay, but they were
destroyed in bathing; again he made a human pair, using cin-
ders and metals, and from these the world was peopled. But
the god sent a flood, from which he preserved a certain priest,
Texpi, and his wife, with seeds and with animals, floating in an
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86 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ark-like log. Texpi discovered land by sending out birds, after
the fashion of Noah, and it is quite possible that the legend as
recounted is not altogether native.
More primitive in type and more interesting in form is the
Mixtec cosmogony narrated by Fray Gregorio Garcia, which
begins thus :• " In the year and in the day of obscurity and dark-
ness, when there were as yet no days nor years, the world was
a chaos sunk in darkness, while the earth was covered with
water, on which scum and slime floated/* This exordium,
with its effort to describe the void by negation and the be-
ginning of time by the absence of its denominations. Is strik-
ingly reminiscent of the creation-narrative in Genesis ii. and
of the similar Babylonian cosmogony; the negative mode, em-
ployed in all three, is essentially true to that stage when human
thought is first struggling to grapple with abstractions, seeking
to define them rather by a process of denudation than by one
of limitation of the field of thought. The Mixtec tale proceeds
with a group of incidents, (i) The Deer-God and the Deer-
Goddess (the deer is an emblem of fecundity) — known also
as the Puma-Snake and the Jaguar-Snake, in which character
they doubtless represent the tawny heaven of the day-sky and
the starry vault of night — magically raised a cliff above the
abyss of waters, on the sunmiit of which they placed an axe,
edge upward, upon which the heavens rested. (2) Here, at
the Place-where-the-Heavens-stood, they lived many cen-
turies, and here they reared their two boys, Wind-of-the-Nine-
Serpents and Wlnd-of-the-Nine-Caves, who possessed the
power of transforming themsfelves into eagles and serpents,
and even of passing through solid bodies. The symbolism of
these two boys as typifying the upper and the nether world is
obvious; they can only be one more example of the demiurgic
twins common in American cosmogony. (3) The brothers
inaugurated sacrifice and penance, the cultivation of flowers
and fruits; and with vows and prayers they besought their
ancestral gods to let the light appear, to cause the water to be
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MEXICO 87
separated from the earth, and to permit the dry land to be
freed from its covering. (4) The earth was peopled, but a
flood destroyed this First People, and the world was restored
by the "Creator of all Things/'
It is probable that this Mixtec Creator-of-All-Things was the
same deity as he who was known to their Zapotec kindred as
Coqui-Xee or Coqui-Cilla ("Lord of the Beginning *')> of whom
it was said that "he was the creator of all things and was him«
self uncreated.'* Seler is of opinion that Coqui-Xee is a spirit
of "the beginning" in the sense of dawn and the east and the
rising sun, and that since he is also known as Piye-Tao, or
"the Great Wind," he is none other than the Zapotec Quet-
zalcoatl, who also is an increate creator. Coqui-Xee, however,
is "merely the principle, the essence of the creative deity or of
deity in general without reference to the act of creating the
world and human beings"; for that act is rather to be ascribed
to the primeval pair (equivalent to the Deer-God and Deer-
Goddess of the Mixtec), Cozaana ("Creator, the Maker of all
Beasts") and Huichaana ("Creator, the Maker of Men and
Fishes").
The ideas of the Nahuatlan tribes were similar. Of the
Chichimec Sahagun^ says that "they had only a single god,
Mixcoatl, whose image they possessed; but they believed in
another invisible god, not represented by any image, called
Yoalli Ehecatl, that is to say, God invisible, impalpable,
beneficent, protector, omnipotent, by whose strength alone
the whole world lives, and who, by his sole knowledge, rules
voluntarily all things." Mixcoatl ("Qoud-Snake"), the tribal
god of the Chichimec and Otomi, is certainly an analogue
of Quetzalcoatl or of Huitzilopochtli, like them figuring as
demiurge; and Yoalli Ehecatl ("Wind and Night," or "Night-
Wind") is an epithet applied to Tezcatlipoca, who also is
addressed as "Creator of Heaven and Earth."
All of these gods are of the sky and atmosphere, and all of
them appear as creative powers, though mainly in the demiurgic
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88 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
roU. Back of and above them is the ancient Twofold One, the
Male-Female or Male and Female principle of generation,
which not only first created the world, but maintains it fecund.
This being, sometimes called Tloque Nauaque, or ''Lord of
the By," i. e. the Omnipresent, is represented as a divine pair,
known under several names. Sahagun commonly speaks of
them asOmetecutli and Omeciuatl ("Twi-Lord,*' "Twi-Lady "),
and in his account of the Toltec he states that they reign over
the twelve heavens and the earth; the existence of all things
depends upon them, and from them proceeds the ''influence
and warmth whereby infants are engendered in the wombs of
their mothers." Tonacatecutli and Tonacaciutl ("Lord of Our
Flesh," "Lady of Our Flesh") is another pair of names, used
with reference to the creation of the human body out of maize
and to its support thereby.* A third pair of terms, appearing
in Mendieta and in the Annals of Quauhtitlany is Citlallatonac
and Citlalicue ("Lord" and "Lady of the Starry Zones").
In the Annab Quetzalcoatl, as high-priest of the Toltec, is said
to have dedicated a cult to "Citlalicue Citlallatonac, Tonaca-
ciuatl Tonacatecutli . . . who is clothed in charcoal, clothed
in blood, who giveth food to the earth; and he cried aloft, to
the Omeyocan, to the heaven lying above the nine that are
bound together." Nevertheless, these deities — or rather
deity, for Tloque Nauaque seems to be, like the Zuiii Awona-
wilona, bisexual in nature — received little recognition in the
formal cult; and it was said that they desired none.
In connexion with these primal creators appear the demiur-
gic transformers, (Quetzalcoatl usually playing the important
part. According to Sahagun's fragmentary accounts, the gods
were gathered from time immemorial in a place called Teotiua-
can. They asked: "Who shall govern and direct the world?
Who will be Sun?" Tecuciztecatl ("Cockle-Shell House") and
the pox-afilicted Nanauatzin volunteered. They were dressed
in ceremonial garments and fasted for four days; and then the
gods ranged themselves about a sacrificial fire, which the candi-
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PLATE XII
Figures representing the heavenly bodies.
The upper figure, from Codex Faticanus By rep-
resents the conflict of light and darkness. The
Eagle is either the Morning Star or the Sun; the
Plumed Serpent is the symbol of the Cosmic Waters,
from whose throat the Hare, perhaps the Earth or
Moon, is being snatched by the Eagle. Similar
figures appear in other codices, the Serpent being
in one instance represented as torn by the Eagle's
talons.
The lower figure, from Codex Borgiaj portrays
Sun, Moon, and Morning Star. The Sun-god is
within the rayed disk; he holds a bundle of spears
in one hand, a spear-thrower in the other; a stream
of blood, apparently from a sacrifice oflFered by the
Morning Star, which has the form of an ocelot,
nourishes the Sun. The Moon appears as a Hare
upon the face of the crescent, which is filled with
water and set upon a background of dark sky.
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MEXICO 89
dates were asked to enter. Tecuciztecatl recoiled from the
intense heat until encouraged by the example of Nanauatzin,
who plunged into it; and because of this Nanauatzin became
the Sun, while Tecuciztecatl assumed second place as Moon.
The gods now ranged themselves to await the appearance of
the Sun, but not knowing where to expect it, and gazing in
various directions, some of them, including Quetzalcoatl,
turned their faces toward the east, where the Sun finally
manifested himself, close-followed by the Moon. Their light
being then equal, was so bright that none might endure it, and
the deities accordingly asked one another, "How can this be?
Is it good that they should shine with equal light?" One of
them ran and threw a rabbit into the face of Tecuciztecatl,
which thenceforth shone as does now the moon; but since the
sun and the moon rested upon the earth, without rising,
the gods saw that they must immolate themselves to give
motion to the orbs of light. Xolotl fled, but was finally caught
and sacrificed; yet even so the orbs did not stir until the wind
blew with such violence as to compel them — first, the sun, and
afterward the moon. Quetzalcoatl, the wind-god, is, of course,
thus the giver of life to sun and moon as he is also, in the prayers
the bearer of the breath of life from the divine pair to the new-
bom.
A complete version of the same myth is given by Mendieta,*
who credits it to Fray Andres de Olmos, transmitted by word
of mouth from Mexican caciques. Each province had its own
narrative, he says, but they were agreed that in heaven were
a god and goddess, Citlallatonac and Citlalicue, and that the
goddess gave birth to a stone knife (tecpatl)^ to the amazement
and horror of her other sons which were in heaven. The stone
hurled forth by these outraged sons and falling to Chicomoxtoc
("Seven Caves"), was shattered, and from its fragments arose
sixteen hundred earth-godlings. These sent Tlotli, the Hawk,
heavenward to demand of their mother the privilege of creating
men to be their servants; and she replied that they should send
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90 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLCXiY
to Mictlantecutli, Lord of Hell, for a bone or ashes of the dead,
from which a man and woman would be bom. Xolotl was
dispatched as messenger, secured the bone, and fled with it;
but being pursued by the Lord of Hell, he stumbled, and the
bone broke. With such fragments as he could secure he
reached the earth, and the bones, placed in a vessel, were sprin-
kled with blood drawn from the bodies of the gods. On the
fourth day a boy emerged from the mixture; on the eighth, a girl;
and these were reared by Xolotl to become parents of mankind.
Men diflFer in size because the bone broke into unequal frag-
ments; and as human beings multiplied, they were assigned as
servants to the several gods. Now, the Sun had not been
shining for a long time, and the deities assembled at Teotiuacan
to consider the matter. Having built a great fire, they an-
nounced that that one among their devotees who should first
hurl himself into it should have the honour of becoming the
Sun, and when one had courageously entered the flames, they
awaited the sunrise, wagering as to the quarter in which he
would appear; but they guessed wrong, and for this they were
condemned to be sacrificed, as they were soon to learn. When
the Sun appeared, he remained ominously motionless; and al-
though Tlotli was sent to demand that he continue his journey,
he refused, saying that he should remain where he was until
they were all destroyed. Citii ("Hare") in anger shot the Sun
with an arrow, but the latter hurled it back, piercing the fore-
head of his antagonist. The gods then recognized their inferior-
ity and allowed themselves to be sacrificed, their hearts being
torn out by Xolotl, who slew himself last of all. Before de-
parting, however, each divinity gave to his followers, as a
sacred bundle, his vesture wrapped about a green gem which
was to serve as a heart. Tezcatlipoca was one of the departed
deities, but one day he appeared to a mourning follower whom
he commanded to journey to the House of the Sun beyond the
waters and to bring thence singers and musical instruments
to make a feast for him. This the messenger did, singing as he
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MEXICO 91
went. The Sun warned his people not to harken to the stranger,
but the music was irresistible, and some of them were lured
to follow him back to earth, where they instituted the musical
rites. Such details as the formation of the ceremonial bundles
and the journey of the song-seeker to the House of the Sun
immediately suggest numerous analogues among the wild
tribes of the north, indicating the primitive and doubtless
ancient character of the myth.
IL THE FOUR SUNS»
In the developed cosmogonic myths the cycles, or "Suns,"
of the early world are the turns of the drama of creation.
Ixtlilzochitl names four ages, following the creation of the
world and man by a supreme god, "Creator of All Things,
Lord of Heaven and Earth." Atonatiuh, "the Sun of Waters,"
was the first age terminated by a deluge in which all creatures
perished. Next came Tlalchitonatiuh, "the Sun of Earth";
this was the age of. giants, and it ended with a terrific earth-
quake and the fall of mountains. "The Sun of Air," Ehca-
tonatiuh, closed with a furious wind, which destroyed edifices,
uprooted trees, and even moved the rocks. It was during this
period that a great number of monkeys appeared "brought by
the wind," and these were regarded as men changed into ani-
mals. Quetzalcoatl appeared in this third Sun, teaching the way
of virtue and the arts of life; but his doctrines failed to take root,
so he departed toward the east, promising to return another
day. With his departure " the Sun of Air" came to its end, and
Tlatonatiuh, "the Sun of Fire," began, so called because it was
expected that the next destruction would be by fire.
Other versions give four Suns as already completed, making
the present into a fifth age of the world. The most detailed
of these cosmogonic myth-records is that given in the Historia
de los Mexicanos pot sus pinturas. According to this document
Tonacatecutli and Tonacaciuatl dwelt from the beginning in
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92 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the thirteenth heaven. To them were bom, as to an elder
generation, four gods — the ruddy Camaxtli (chief divinity
of the Tlascalans) ; the black Tezcatlipoca, wizard of the night;
Quetzalcoatl, the wind-god; and the grim Huitzilopochtli, of
whom it was said that he was bom without flesh, a skeleton.
For six hundred years these deities lived in idleness; then the
four brethren assembled, creating first the fire (hearth of the uni-
verse) and afterward a half-sun. They formed also Oxomoco
and Cip^ctonal, the first man and first woman, commanding
that the former should till the ground, and the latter spin and
weave; while to the woman they gave powers of divination
and grains of maize that she might work cures. They also
divided time into days and inaugurated a year of eighteen
twenty-day periods, or three hundred and sixty days. Mictlan-
tecutli and Mictlanciuatl they created to be Lord and Lady of
Hell, and they formed the heavens that are below the thirteenth
storey of the celestial regions, and the waters of the sea, making
in the sea a monster Cipactli, from which they shaped the earth.
The gods of the waters, Tlaloctecutli and his wife Chalchiuh-
tlicue, they created, giving them dominion over the Quarters.
The son of the first pair married a woman formed from a hair
of the goddess Xochiquetzal; and the gods, noticing how little
was the light given forth by the half-sun, resolved to make
another half-sun, whereupon Tezcatlipoca became the sun-
bearer — for what we behold traversing the daily heavens
is not the sun itself, but only its brightness; the true sun is
invisible. The other gods created huge giants, who could uproot
trees by brute force, and whose food was acorns. For thirteen
times fifty-two years, altogether six hundred and seventy-six,
this period lasted — as long as its Sun endured; and it is from
this first Sun that time began to be counted, for during the
six hundred years of the idleness of the gods, while Huitzilo-
pochtli was in his bones, time was not reckoned. This Sun came
to an end when Quetzalcoatl stmck down Tezcatlipoca and
became Sun in his place. Tezcatlipoca was metamorphosed
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MEXICO 93
into a jaguar (Ursa Major) which is seen by night in the skies
wheeling down into the waters whither Quetzaicoatl cast him;
and this jaguar devoured the giants of that period. At the
end of six hundred and seventy-six years Quetzaicoatl was
treated by his brothers as he had treated Tezcatlipoca, and his
Sun came to an end with a great wind which carried away most
of the people of that time or transformed them into monkeys.
Then for seven times fifty-two years Tlaloc was Sun; but at
the end of this three hundred and sixty-four years Quetzaicoatl
rained fire from heaven and made Chalchiuhtlicue Sun in place
of her husband, a dignity which she held for three hundred
and twelve years (six times fifty-two); and it was in these days
that maize began to be used. Now two thousand six hundred
and twenty-eight years had passed since the birth of the gods,
and in this year it rained so heavily that the heavens themselves
fell, while the people of that time were transformed into fish.
When the gods saw this, they created four men, with whose aid
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzaicoatl again upreared the heavens,
even as they are today; and these two gods becoming lords of
the heavens and of the stars, walked therein. After the deluge
and the restoration of the heavens, Tezcatlipoca discovered
the art of making fire from sticks and of drawing it from the
heart of flint. The first man, PiltzintecutH, and his wife, who
had been made of a hair of Xochiquetzal, did not perish in the
flood, because they were divine. A son was bom to them, and
the gods created other people just as they had formerly existed.
But since, except for the fires, all was in darkness, the gods re-
solved to create a new Sun. This was done by Quetzaicoatl,
who cast his own son, by Chalchiuhtlicue, into a great fire,
whence he issued as the Sun of our own time; Tlaloc hurled his
son into the cinders of the fire, and thence rose the Moon, ever
following after the Sun. This Sun, said the gods, should eat
hearts and drink blood, and so they established wars that there
might be sacrifices of captives to nourish the orbs of light.
Most of the other versions of the myth of the epochal Suns
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94 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLCXiY
similarly date the beginning of sacrifice and penance from the
birth of the present age.
The Annals of Quauhtitlan gives a somewhat diflFerent pic-
ture of the course of the epochs. Each epoch begins on the
first day of Tochtli, and the god Quetzalcoatl figures as the
creator. Atonatiuh, the first Sun, ended with a flood and the
transformation of living creatures into fish. Ocelotonatiuh,
"the Jaguar Sun," was the epoch of giants and of solar eclipse.
Third came "the Sun of Rains," Quiyauhtonatiuh, ending
with a rain of fire and red-hot rocks; only birds, or those trans-
formed into them, and a human pair who found subterranean
refuge, escaped the conflagration. The fourth, Ecatonatiuh,
is the Sun of destruction by winds; while the fifth is the Sun
of Earthquakes, Famines, Wars, and Confusions, which will
bring our present world to destruction. The author of the
Spiegazione delle tavole del codice mexicano (Codex Vaticanus A)
— not consistent with himself, for in his account of the infants'
limbo he makes ours the third Sun — changes the order some-
what: first, the Sun of Water, which is also the Age of Giants;
second, the Sun of Winds, ending with the transformation
into apes; third, the Sun of Fire; fourth, the Sun of Famine,
terminating with a rain of blood and the fall of ToUan. Four
Suns passed, and a fifth Sun, leading forward to a fifth eventual
destruction, seems, most authorities agree, to represent the
orthodox Mexican myth; though versions like that of Ixtlilxo-
chitl represent only three as past, while others, as Camargo's
account of the Tlascaltec myth, make the present Sun the third
in a total of four that are to be. Probably one cause of the
confusion with respect to the order of the Suns is the double
association of Quetzalcoatl — ^first, with the Sun of Winds, which
he, as the Wind-God, would naturally acquire; and second, with
the fall of ToUan and of the Toltec empire, for Quetzalcoatl,
with respect to dynastic succession, is clearly the Toltec Zeus.
The Sun of Winds is normally the second in the series; the fall
of ToUan is generally associated with the end of the Sun last
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MEXICO 95
past: circumstances which may account for the shortened
versions, for it seems little likely (judging from American
analogies) that the notion of four Suns passed is not the most
primitive version.
Another myth confusedly associated now with the Sun of
Waters, now with the Sun last past, is the story of the deluge.
In the pattern conception (if it may so be termed) each Sun be*
gins with the creation or appearance of a First Man and First
Woman and ends with the salvation of a single human pair, all
others being lost or transformed. The first Sun ends with a
deluge and the metamorphosis of the First Men into fish; but
a single pair escaped by being sealed up in a log or ark. In the
Chimalpopoca (C^uauhtitlan) version given by Brasseur de
Bourbourg it is related that the waters had been tranquil for
fifty-two years; then, on the first day of the Sun, there came
such a flood as submerged even the mountains, and this en-
dured for fifty-two years. Warned by Tezcatlipoca, however,
a man named Nata, with Nena his wife, hollowed a log and
entered therein; and the god closed the port, saying, "Thou
shalt eat but a single ear of maize, and thy wife but a single
ear also." When the waters subsided, they issued from their
log, and seeing fish about, they built a fire to roast them.
Citlallatonac and Citlalicue, beholding this from the heavens,
said: "Divine Lord, what is this fire? Wherefore does this
smoke cloud the sky?" Whereupon Tezcatlipoca descended in
anger, crying, "What fire is this?" And he seized the fishes
and transformed them into dogs. Certainly one would relish
an elaboration of this tale; for it would seem that a theft of the
fire must precede — perhaps a suffering Prometheus may have
followed — the anger of the gods. In another version the
Mexican Noah is named Coxcox, his wife bears the name of
Xochiquetzal; and it is said that their children, bom dumb,
received their several forms of speech from the birds. Now
Xochiquetzal is associated (doubtless as a festal goddess) with
Tollan and the age in which she appears is the last of all, that
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96 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
in which ToUan is destroyed; whence the deluge is placed at
the end of the fourth Sun.
To the same group of events — the passing of ToUan and
the deluge — belong the stories of the building of the great
pyramid of Cholula and the portents which accompanied it.
It is said ^ that, reared by a chief named Xelua, who escaped
the deluge, it was built so high that it appeared to reach heaven;
and that they who reared it were content, "since it seemed to
them that they had a place whence to escape from the deluge
if it should happen again, and whence they might ascend into
heaven*'; but "a chalcuitl, which is a precious stone, fell thence
[i. e. from the skies] and struck it to the ground; others say
that the chalcuitl was in the shape of a toad; and that whilst
destroying the tower it reprimanded them, inquiring of them
their reason for wishing to ascend into heaven, since it was
sufficient for them to see what was on the earth." It is worth
while to remember that the hybristic scaling of heaven is no
uncommon motive in American Indian myth, while the moral
of the tale is honestly pagan — "mortal things are the behoof
of mortals," saith Pindar; nor can we fail to see in the green
jewel the jealous Earth-Titaness, for the toad is Earth's symbol.
The duration of the cosmic Suns is given various values by
the recorders of the myths. These, no doubt, issued from varia-
tions in calendric computations; for the Mexicans not only
possessed an elaborate calendar; they also used it, in its in-
volved circles of returning signs, as the foundation for calcula-
ting the cycles of cosmic and of human history. It is essential,
therefore, if the genius of Mexican myth be fully grasped, that
the elements of its calendar be made clear.
III. THE CALENDAR AND ITS CYCLES*
The Mexican calendar is one of the most extraordinary in-
ventions of human intelligence. Elsewhere the science of the
calendar is a lore of sun, moon, and stars, and of their synodic
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MEXICO 97
pericxls; in the count of time astronomy is mistress, and num«
ber is but the handmaiden. In the Mexican system this rela*
tion is distinctly reversed: it is number that is dominant, and
astronomy that is ancillary. One might, indeed, add that the
number is geometric. It is common enough elsewhere to find
the measures of space influencing the measures of time, but
ordinarily they are the measures of celestial, not of terres-
trial, space; and they are, therefore, moving, and not sta-
tionary, numbers. In the Mexican system the controlling
numerical ideas appear to be the 4 (5) and the 6 (7) of the
world-quarters — these in their duplicate forms, 9(=2 X4 + 1)
and 13 (=2 X6 + i) — and all are under the domination of
the four by five digits (two fives of fingers and two of toes) of
their vigesimal system of counting. Man in the Middle Place
of his cosmos; oriented to the rising Sun; four-square with the
Quarters, which are duplicate in the Above and the Below;
counting his natural days by his natural digits: this is the
image which makes most plausible our explanations of the
peculiarly earth-tethered calendar of the Mexicans, and, in
consequence, of a cosmographical rather than an astrological
conception of the Fates and Influences.
Not that the moving heavens were without computation:
astronomy, though secondary, was indispensable.^® The day,
of course, is the creation of the journey of the sun; and the
day, as a time-unit, plays in the Mexican count a part alto-
gether commensurate in importance with that given to the
sun in myth and ritual. The moon, though far less prominent
in every respect, is still conspicuously figured. The morning
star (far and wide a great deity of the American Indian nations)
was second in significance only to the sun; indeed, one of
the most extraordinary achievements of aboriginal American
science was the identification of Phosphorus and Hesperus as
the same star, and the computation of a Venus-period of five
hundred and eighty-four days (the exact period being five
hundred and eighty-three days and twenty-two hours).
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98 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Comets and meteors were regarded as portents; the Milky
Way was the skirt of Citlalicue, or was the white hair of
Mixcoatl of the Zenith; and in the patterns of the stars were
seen the figures that define the topography of the nocturnal
heavens. Sahagun mentions three constellations, which he
vaguely identifies with Gemini, Scorpio, and Ursa Minor;
and in the chart of heavenly bodies, given with his Nahuatlan
text, he figures two other stellar groups; while five is the num-
ber which Tezozomoc names as those for which the king elect
must keep watch on the night of his vigil. Doubtless many
other star-patterns were observed, but these five seem pre-
dominant. Stansbury Hagar, resolving what he regards as
the Mexican Scorpio into Scorpio and Libra, would see in
Sahagun's figures half of the zodiacal twelve; and in both
Mexico and Peru he believes that he has identified a series of
signs closely equivalent to that of the Old World zodiac. An-
other view (presented by Zelia Nuttall) conceives the Aztec
constellations as forming a series of twenty, corresponding to
the twenty day-signs employed in the calendar. A third in-
terpretation, on the whole, accordant with the evidence, is that
of Seler, who maintains that the five constellations named by
Sahagun and Tezozomoc represent, instead of a zodiac, the
four quarters and the zenith of the sky-world, and are, there-
fore, spatial rather than temporal guides. Seler identifies
Mamalhuaztli, "the Fire-Sticks," with stars of the east, in or
near Taurus. The Pleiades, rising in the same neighbourhood,
he believes to have been the sign of the zenith; and at the be-
ginning of a new cycle of fifty-two years the new fire was kin-
dled when the Pleiades were in the zenith at midnight — the
very hour, according to Tezozomoc, when the king rises to his
vigil. Citlalachtli, "the Star Ball-Ground," is called "the
North and its Wheel" by Tezozomoc, and must refer to the
stars which revolve about the northern pole. Colotlixayac,
"Scorpion-Face," marks the west; while Citlalxonecuilli —
so named, Sahagun tells us, from its resemblance to S-shaped
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MEXICO 99
loaves of bread which were called xonecuiUi — is clearly identi-
fied by Tezozomoc with the Southern Cross and adjacent
stars. Thus it appears (granting Seler's interpretation) that
the constellations served but to mark the pillars of this four-
square world.
Essentially the Mexican calendar is an elaborate day-
count. As with many other American peoples, the system of
notation was vigesimal (probably developed from a quinary
mode of counting), and the days were accordingly reckoned
by twenties: twenty pictographs served as day-signs, end-
lessly repeated like the names of the days of the week. These '
twenty-day periods are commonly called "months" (follow-
ing the usage of Spanish writers), though they have no rela-
tion to the moon and its phases; they are, however, like our
months, used as measures* of the primitive solar year of three
hundred and sixty-five days, the Aztec year comprising
eighteen months (or sets of twenties) plus five nemonUmi, or
"Empty Days,*' regarded as unlucky. According to Sahagun,
six nemontemi were counted every fourth year; if this were
true (it is widely doubted), the Mexicans would have had a
calendar which was Julian in effect. Like our months, each
of the eighteen twenties of the solar year had its own name
and its characteristic religious festivals; during the nemontemi
there were neither feasts nor undertakings. The beginning of
the solar year is placed by Sahagun on the first day of the
month Atlcaualco — corresponding, he says, to February 2
— the period of the cessation of rains, and the time of rites
in honour of Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue. Some authorities,
however, believe that the year really began with Toxcatl,
corresponding to the earlier part of May, the period of the
celebration of the great festival of Tezcatlipoca, when his
personator was sacrificed and the next year's victim was
chosen. The location of the nemontemi in the year is not
certain.
From the fact that to the days of the year were assigned
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loo LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
twenty endlessly repeating signs, and the further fact that
the nemonUmi were five in number (i8 X 20 + S ~ 3^5), it
follows that the first day of the year would always fall upon
one of four signs; and these signs — CaUi ("House '*)> Tochtli
("Rabbit'O, Acatl ("Reed'O, and Tecpatl ("Flint*^ —in-
evitably became emphasized in the imagination, not only
with units of time, but also with the Quarters which divide
the world.
But the designation of the days was not simply by the series
of pictographic signs. An additional series was formed of the
numbers one to thirteen, which, like the signs, were repeated
over and over; so that each day had not only a sign, but
also a number. Since only thirteen numerals were employed,
it follows that if any given twenty days have the number one
accompanying the sign of its first day, the sign pf the first
day of the ensuing twenty days will be accompanied by the
number eight, the sign of the first day of the third twenty by
two, and so on; not until the end of two hundred and sixty
days (since thirteen is a prime number) will the same number
recur with the initial sign. The representation of this period
of thirteen by twenty days, in which the cycles of numerals
and pictographs passed from an initial correspondence to its
first recurrence, was called by the Aztec the Tonalamatl, or
"Book of Good and Bad Days" — a set of signs employed
for divination as the name implies. Since the Tonalamatl
represents only two hundred and sixty days, it follows that the
last one hundred and fifteen days of the year will have the
same signs and numerals as the first one hundred and fifteen.
For this reason De Jonghe and some others believe that a
third set of day-signs was employed — the nine Lords of the
Night, which (since two hundred and sixty is not evenly
divisible by nine) would sufiice to differentiate the days
throughout the year. Seler, however maintains that he has
disproved this theory; if so, there would still be the possibility
of differentiating the days of the second Tonalamatl from
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PLATE XIV
The Aztec "Calendar Stone," one of the two
monuments (see Plate V for the other) found be-
neath the pavement of the plaza of the city of
Mexico in 1790. The outer band of decoration is
formed of two "Fire Snakes" (cf. Plates VII 3 and
XXI), each with a human head in its mouth; be-
tween the tips of the serpents' tails is a glyph giving
the date, 13 Acatl, of the historical Sun, that is,
the beginning of the present Age of the World. A
decorative band formed of the twenty day signs
surrounds the central figure, which consists of a
Sun-face, with the glyph 4 Olin; while in the four
adjacent compartments are the names of the eras
of the four earlier "Suns." Sun rays, with other
figures, appear in the spaces between the inner and*
outer decorative bands. Below is given a key
(after Joyce, Mexican Archaeology^ page 74).
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MEXICO loi
those of the first by employing the sign of that one of the
eighteen "months" in which the day fell.
In addition to the Tonalamatlj there is another consequence
of the double designation of the days. Each year, it has been
noted, begins with one of four day-signs. But three hundred
and sixty-five is indivisible, evenly, by thirteen; therefore,
the day-signs and numerals for succeeding years must vary,
the day-signs recurring in the same order every four years,
and the numerals in the same order every thirteen years
(since 365 = 13 X 28 + i), while not until there has elapsed
four times thirteen years will the same day-sign and the same
numeral occur on the first day of the yean These divisions of
the years into groups, determined by their signs and numbers,
were of great significance to the Mexican peoples. The sign
which began each group of thirteen years was regarded as
dominant during that period, and as each of these signs was
dedicated to one of the four Quarters, it is to be supposed that
the powers of the ruling sign determined the fortunes of the
period. The cycle was complete when, at the end of fifty-two
years, the same sign and number recurred as the emblem of
the year. Such an epoch was the occasion for prognostics and
dread anticipations, and it was celebrated with a special feast
at which all fires were extinguished and a new flame was
kindled on the breast of a sacrificial victim. This festival was
called "the Knot of the Years," and in Aztec pictography
past periods were represented by bundles, each signifying
such a cycle of fifty-two years.
It will be noted that the fifty-two year cycle is also the
period for the recurring coincidence of the day-signs and
numerals in the year and in the Tonalamatl (for, 365 .factor-
ing 73 X 5, and 260 factoring 52 X 5, it follows that 52 years
will equal 73 Tonalamails). It is, therefore, the more extra-
ordinary that in the usual mode of figuring the Tonalamatl
it is begun, not with one of the four signs which name the
years and their cycles, but with another day-sign, Cipactli
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I02 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
("Crocodile"). The plausible explanation of this is that
since the Crocodile was the monster from which Earth was
formed by the creative gods, the divinatory period was in-
augurated under his sign.
The origin of so peculiar a reckoning as the TonalamaU is
one of the puzzles of Americanist studies. Effort has been
made to connect it with lunar movements, but no astronom-
ical period corresponds with it. Again, it has been pointed out
that the two hundred and sixty days of the Tonalamatl ap-
proximate the period of gestation, and in view of its use, for
divinations and horoscopic forecasts, this is not impossible
as an explanation of its origin. The obvious fact that it
expresses the cycle of coincidence of the twenty day-signs
and thirteen numerals only carries the puzzle back to the
origination of the numeration, with its anomalous thirteen —
for which, as a significant number, no more satisfactory
astronomical reason has been suggested than Le5n y Gama's,
that it represents half of the period of the moon's visi-
bility. In myth the invention of the Tonalamatl is ascribed
to Cipactonal and Oxomoco (in whom Senor Robelo sees the
personification of Day and Night), and again to Quetzalcoatl.
At his immolation the heart of Quetzalcoatl, it will be re-
called, flew upward to become the Morning Star, and in
special degree the god is associated with this star. "They
said that Quetzalcoatl died when the star became visible, and
henceforward they called him Tlauizcalpantecutli, *Lord of
the Dawn.' They said that when he died he was invisible for
four days; they said he wandered in the underworld, and for
four days more he was bone. Not until eight days were past
did the great star appear. Quetzalcoatl then ascended the
throne as god." One of the early writers, Ramon y Zamora,
states that the Tonalamatl was determined by the Mexicans
as the period during which Venus is visible as the evening
star; and Forstemann discovered representations of the
Venus-year of five hundred and eighty-four days divided into
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MEXICO 103
periods of ninety, two hundred and fifty, eight, and two hun-
dred and thirty-six days, which he estimated to represent re-
spectively the period of Venus's invisibility during superior
conjunction (ninety days), of its visibility as evening star
(two hundred and fifty days), of its invisibility during in-
ferior conjunction (eight days), and of its visibility as morning
star (two hundred and thirty-six days). The near corre-
spondence of the period of two hundred and fifty days with
the Tonalamatly coupled with the identity of the eight days*
invisibility with the period of Quetzalcoatl's wandering and
lying dead in the underworld, which was followed by his as-
cension to the throne of the eastern heaven, as related in the
myth, give plausibility to the traditions which associate the
formation of the Tonalamatl with the Venus-period. Seler
suggests — and this is perhaps the best explanation yet
oflFered — that the Tonalamatl is the product of an indirect
association of the solar year (three hundred and sixty-five
days) and of the Venus-period (five hundred and eighty-four
days), for the least common multiple of the numbers of days
in these two periods is twenty-nine hundred and twenty
days, equal to eight solar years and five Venus years; in
associating the two, he says, the inventors of the calendar
lighted upon the number thirteen (8 + 5), and hence upon
the Tonalamatl of two hundred and sixty days. If this be the
case, the belief in thirteen heavens and thirteen hours of the
day would be derivative from temporal rather than spatial
observations, from astronomy rather than cosmography. A
somewhat analogous association might be offered in connexion
with the nine of the heavens and the nine of the hours of the
night; for just as there are four signs that always recur as the
designations of the solar years, so for the Venus-period there
are five (since five hundred and eighty-four divided by twenty
leaves four as divisor of the signs), and the sum of these is
nine.
The signs which inaugurate the Venus periods are Cipactli
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I04 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
("Crocodile"), Coatl ("Snake"), Ad ("Water"), Acotl
("Reed"), and Olin ("Motion"), But here again the numerals
enter in to complicate the series, so that while the day-signs
which inaugurate the Venus-periods recur in groups of five,
they do not recur with the same numeral until the lapse of
thirteen times five periods. This great cycle of Venus-days,
comprising sixty-five repetitions of the apparent course of the
planet, is also a common multiple of the solar year and of the
Tonalamatlj comprising one hundred and four of the former
and one hundred and forty-six of the latter. Thus it was that
at the end of one hundred and four years of three hundred and
sixty-five days the same sign and number-series recurred in
the three great units of the Aztec calendar. When it is remem-
bered that prognostics were to be drawn not merely from the
complex relations of the signs to their place in each of the
three time-units, with their respective elaborations into cycles;
but from their further relations with the regions of the upper
and lower worlds, and also from the numerals, which had good
and evil values of their own, it will be seen that the Mexican
priests were in possession of a fount of craft not second to that
of the astrologers of the Old World.
That so complex a system could easily give rise to error is
evident, and it is probable that, as tradition asserts, from
time to time corrections were made, serving as the inaugura-
tion of new "Suns" or as new "inventions" of time. It may
even be that the "Suns" of the cosmogonic myths are remi-
niscences of calendric corrections, and it is at least a striking
coincidence that the traditions of these "Suns" make them
four in number, like the year-signs, or five in number, like the
Venus-signs. The latter series, too, is distinctly cosmogonic in
symbolism — Crocodile suggests the creation from a fish-like
monster; Snake, the falling heavens; Water, the "Water-Sun"
and the deluge; Reed (the fire-maker), the Sun of Fire; Mo-
tion, the Sun of Wind, or perhaps the Earthquake. But what-
ever be the value of these symbolisms, it is certain that the
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MEXICX) los
Mexicans themselves associated perilous times and cataclysmic
changes with the rounding out of their cycles.
IV. LEGENDARY HISTORY
The cosmogonic and calendric cycles (intimately associated)
profoundly influenced the Mexican conception of history.
Orderly arrangement of time is as essential to an advancing
civilization as the ordering of space, and it is natural for the
human imagination to form all of its temporal conceptions
into a single dramatic unity — a World Drama, with its Crea-
tion, Fall, Redemption, and Judgement; or a Cosmic Evolution
from Nebula to Solar System, and Solar System to Nebula.
In the making, such cosmic dramas start from these roots:
(i) Cosmogony and Theogony, for which there is no simpler
image in nature than the creation of the Life of Day from the
Chaos of Night at the command of the Lord of Light; (2)
"Great Years," or calendric cycles, formed by calculations of
the synodic periods of sun and moon and wandering stars, or,
as in the curious American instance, mainly from simple day-
counts influenced by a complex symbolism of numbers and
by an awkward notation; (3) the recession of history, back
through the period of record to that of racial reminiscence and
of demigod founders and culture-heroes. Of these three ele-
ments, the first and third constitute the material, while the
second becomes the form-giver — the measure of the duration
of the acts and scenes of the drama, as it were — adding, how-
ever, on the material side, the portents and omens imaged in
the stars.
The Mexican system of cosmic Suns is a capital example of
the first element — each Sun introducing a creation or restora-
tion, and each followed by an elemental destruction, while
all are meted out in formal cycles. It is no matter for wonder
that there are varying versions of the order and number of the
cosmogonic cycles, nor that a nebulous and legendary history
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io6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
is varyingly fitted into the cyclic plan; for each political state
and cultural centre tended to develop its own stories in con-
nexion with its own records and traditions. Nevertheless,
there is a broad scheme of historic events common to all the
more advanced Nahuatlan peoples, the uniformity of which
somewhat argues for its truly historic foundation. This is
the legend which assigns to the plateau of Anahuac three suc-
cessive dominations, that of the Toltec, that of the Chichimec
nations, and that of the Aztec and their allies. Although the
remote Toltec period is clouded in myth, archaeology tends
to support the truth of the tales of legendary ToUan, at
least to the extent of identifying the site of a city which for a
long period had been the centre of a power that was, by Mexi-
can standards, to be accounted civilized.
The general characters of Toltec civilization, as tradition
shows it, are those recorded by Sahagun.^* The Toltec were
clever workmen in metals, pottery, jewellery, and fabrics,
indeed, in all the industrial arts. They were notable builders,
adorning the walls of their structures with skilful mosaic. They
were magicians, astrologers, medicine-men, musicians, priests,
inventors of writing, and creators of the calendar. They were
mannerly men, and virtuous, and lying was unknown among
them. But they were not warlike — and this was to be their
ruin.
Their principal deity was Quetzalcoatl, and his chief priest
bore the same name. The temple of the god was the greatest
work of their hands. It was composed of four chambers : that
to the east, of gold; that to the west, encrusted with turquoise
and emerald; that to the south, with sea-shells and silver; that
to the north, with reddish jasper and shell. In another similar
shrine, plumage of the several colours adorned the four apart-
ments. The explicator of Codex Vaticanus A says that Quetzal-
coatl was the inventor of round temples (it is possible that the
rotundity of his shrines was due to the presumption tliat the wind
does not love comers), and that he founded four; in the first
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PLATE XV
The temple of Xochicalco, partially restored. The
relief band, of which a section is given for detail,
shows a serpent; a human figure, doubtless a deity,
IS seated beneath one of the great coils. After
photographs in the Peabody Museum.
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MEXICO 107
princes and nobles fasted; the second was frequented by the
lower classes; the third was "the House of the Serpent,** and
here it was unlawful to lift the eyes from the ground; the fourth
was "the Temple of Shame,** where were sent siimers and men
of inmioral life. Details such as these — obviously referring to
familiar features of American Indian ritual — as well as the
numerous myths that narrate the departure of Quetzalcoatl
for the mysterious Hapallan, followed by a great part of the
Toltec population, clearly belong in the realm of fancy,
shimmeringly veiling historic facts. Thus, when Ixtlilzochitl
states that the reign of each Toltec king was just fifty-two
years, we see simply a statement which identifies calendric with
political periods; yet when he goes on with the qualification
that those kings who died under such a period were replaced by
regents until a new cycle could begin with the election of a
new king, and when he specifically notes that, as exceptions,
Ilacomihua reigned fifty-nine years, and Xiuhquentzin, his
queen, four years after him, we are in the presence of a tradi-
tion which looks much more like history than myth — for
there is no mythic reason that satisfies this shift* Fact, too,
should underlie Sahagun's naive remark that the Toltec were
expert in the Mexican tongue, although they did not speak
it with the perfection of his day, and again that conmiunities
which spoke a pure Nahua were composed of descendants of
Toltecs who remained in the land when Quetzalcoatl departed —
for behind such notions should lie a story of linguistic super-
session.
Such, indeed, appears to have been the course of events.
The date of the founding of ToUan, according to the Annals
of Quauhtitlany is, computed in our era, 752 a. d. Ixtlilxochitl
puts the beginning of the Toltec kingship as early as 510 a. d.;
and the end he sets in the year 959, when the last Toltec king,
Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, was overthrown and departed, none
knew whither. It is a plausible hypothesis which assumes the ^
historicity of this event and which accounts for the myths of
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io8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the departure of Quetzalcoatl, the god, as due in part to a con-
fusion of the permutations of a nature deity with the gesta of
an earthly hero — a process exemplified in the Old World in the
tales of King Arthur, Celtic god and British hero-king. It is
certain that from an early date the civilization of the Mexican
plateau was racially akin to that of the Maya in the south; it
is not improbable that the Toltec represent an ancient northern
extension of Maya power (the oldest stratum at ToUan shows
Huastec influences, and the Huastec are of Maya kin) ; and,
finally, when the political overthrow of the Toltec was accom-
plished, and their leaders fled away to Tlapallan, to the south-
east, the northern barbarians who had replaced them gradually
learned the lesson of civilization from the sporadic groups
which remained in various centres after the capital had fallen —
Cholula, Cuemavaca, and Teotihuacan, cities which were to
figure in Nahuatlan lore as the centres of priestly learning.
Such an hypothesis would account for Sahagun's statement
that the Toltec spoke Nahua imperfectly, for those who re-
mained would have changed to this language; while what may
well be an historical incident of the period of change is Ixtlilxo-
chitl's account of the reply of the Toltec king of Colhuacan
to the invading Chichimec, refusing to pay tribute, for "they
held the country from their ancestors, to whom it belonged,
and they had never obeyed or payed tribute to any foreign
lord . . . nor recognized other master than the Sun and their
gods." However, less able in arms than the invaders, they fell
to no great force.
The Chichimec, according to the prevailing accounts, were
a congeries of wild hunting tribes, cave-dwellers by preference,
who vaguely and imperfectly absorbed the culture that had
preceded them in the Valley of Mexico. Ixtlilxochiti has it
that, under the leadership of a chief named after the celestial
dog Xolotl, they entered the Toltec domain a few years after
the fall of ToUan, peaceably possessing themselves of an almost
deserted land. They were soon followed by related tribes,
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MEXICO 109
among whom the most important were the Acolhua, found-
ers of Tezcuco; while later came the Mexicans, or Aztec, who
wandered obscurely from place to place before they finally es-
tablished the town which was to be the capital of their empire.
For several centuries, as the chronicler pictures it, these re-
lated peoples warred and quarrelled turbulently, owning the
shadowy suzerainty of "emperors" whose power waxed or
waned with their personal force — altogether such a picture
as is presented by Mediaeval Europe after the recession of the
Roman Empire before the incursive barbarians. Gradually,
however, just as in Europe, the seed of the elder civilization
took root, and the culture which the Spaniards discovered grew
and consolidated.
Its leaders were not the Aztec, but the related Acolhua,
whose capital, Tezcuco, became the Athens of an empire of
which Tenochtitlan was to be the Rome; and the great age of
Tezcuco came with King Nezahualcoyotl, less than a century
before the appearance of Cortez. Cautious writers point to the
resemblances between the career and character of this monarch
as pictured by Ixtlilxochitl, and that of the Scriptural David:
both, in their youth, are hunted and persecuted by a jealous
king, and are forced into exile and outlawry; both triumphantly
overthrow their enemies and inaugurate reigns of splendour,
erecting temples, cultivating the arts, and reforming the state;
both are singers and psalmists, and prophets of a purified
monotheism; both assent to the execution of an eldest son and
heir because of palace intrigue; and, finally, both, in the hour
of temptation, cause an honoured thane to be treacherously
slain in order that they may possess themselves of a woman
who has captivated their fancy. In each case, too, the queen
dishonourably won becomes the mother of a successor whose
reign is followed by a decline of power, for Nezahualpilli was
the last of the great Tezcucan kings. Certainly the parallels
are striking and the chronicler may well have been influenced
by Biblical analogy in the form which he gives his stories; but
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no LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
it is surely not unfair to remark that such repetitions of event
are to be expected in a world whose possibilities are, after all,
limited in number; that, for example, a whole series of similari-
ties can be drawn between Inca and Aztec history (where there
is no suspicion of influence), and that there are not a few
striking likenesses of the characters of' Nezahualcoyotl and
Huayna Capac, to both of whom is ascribed an enlightened
monotheism. Various fragments of Nezahualcoyotl's poems —
or such as bear his name — have survived, among them a
lament which has the very tone of the Aztec prayers preserved
by Sahagun, and which, indeed, breathes the whole world-weary
dolour of Nahuatlan religion."
'^Harken to the lamentations of Nezahualcoyotl, communing
with himself upon the fate of. Empire — spoken as an example to
others!
*^0 king, inquiet and insecure, when thou art dead, thy vassals
shall be destroyed, scattered in dark confusion; on that day ruler-
ship will no longer be in thy hand, but with God the Creator, All-
Powerful.
^'Who hath beheld the palace and court of the king of old, Tezo-
zomoc, how flourishing was his power and firm his tyranny, now
overthrown and destroyed — will he think to escape? Mockery and
deceit is this world's gift, wherefore let all be consumed!
"Dismal It 18 to contemplate the prosperity enjoyed by this king,
even to his senility, like an old willow, animated by desire and by
ambition, uplifting himself above the weak and humble.' Long time
did the green and the flowers offer themselves in the fields of spring-
time, but at last, worm-eaten and dried, the wind of death seized
him, uprooted him, and scattered him in fragments on Earth's soil.
So, also, the olden king Cozastli passed onward, leaving neither
house nor Uncage to preserve his memory.
"With such reflections, with melancholy song, I bring again the
memory of the flowery springtime gone, and of the end of Tczozomoc
who so long knew its joys. Who, barkening, shall withhold his tears?
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MEXICO III
Abundance of riches and varied pleasures, are they not like culled
flowers, passed from hand to hand, and at the end cast forth stripped
and withered?
^'Sons of kings, sons of great lords, give heed and consideration to
what is made manifest in my sad and lamenting song, as I relate
how passed the flowery springtime and the end of the powerful king
Tezozomoc! Ah, who, harkening, will be hard enough to restrain
his tears — for all these varied flowers, these pleasures sweet, wither
and end with this passing life!
^* Today we possess the abundance and beauty of the blossoming
summer, and harken to the melody of birds, where the butterflies
sip sweet nectar from fragrant petals. But all is like culled flowers,
that pass from hand to hand, and at the end are cast forth, stripped
and withered!"
V. AZTEC MIGRATION-MYTHS"
Common tradition makes of the Aztec, or Mexica, late
comers into the central valley, although they are regarded as
belonging to the general movement of tribes known as the
Chichimec immigration. Apparently they entered obscurely
in the wake of kindred groups, perhaps in the middle of the
eleventh century; wandered from place to place for a period;
and finally settled on the swampy islands of Lake Tezcuco,
founding Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, which eventually became
the capital of empire. The founding of the city is variously
dated — one group of references placing it at or near 1140,
and another assigning dates from 1321 to 1327, variations
which may refer to an earlier and later occupation by diflFerent
or related tribal groups. The Aztec formed a league with
their kindred neighbours, the Tecpanec of Tlacopan and the
Acolhua of Tezcuco, in which their own roU was a secondary
one, until finally, under Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl, the
immediate predecessors of the last Montezuma (whose name
is variously rendered Moteuhjoma, Moteczuma, Motejuma,
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iATi::-A:.:z:?jLrji: imaiccGY
c£ t^Hsffm" Bacx zt tz5s Kvcrzl cf the
zjtZT^rsvts gc^ gCiliLg .-Vra^rf cf ^rJizi tie p^gij r^tiic char-
acter k eriicrt. ior tbe '''^-■■-^t^ "J"*^" arc p>5i cd cpcrvmous
f:ra, wilic tHbes c£ t^ugly ^irrrlgrrd r:=x±s arc given a
cosrsaco fccnc T^^a, arrciZLjg ts M£=k5eta*s account,"
at CLScxi^criaztoc im€r^ T^^^ 'i-i^'! ^lic Wihe Cloud-
Serpact'^y and Lis wife Eanmc ^^:hc Old Wooan'^, from
wLcc; nfCTC t^prz^ the aBocston — "as ^xxn the soos of Xoah •*
— of the IraxT-g natkcs rf Mrako, eaocpthig that the Toltec
were descended £roci Ixtadnmoatl by a seocod vife, Chimal^
isatl (or Qumalma^, who is named as nxrther of Qoetzalcoatl,
and who is represented dscwheie as the priestess or ancestress
of the Aztec in their fabled first heme, Aztlan.
Sahagun * gives a version starting with the l^iwlmg of the
ancestral Mexicans at Panotlan ("Place of Arrival by Sea"),
whence he says that they proceeded to Guatemala, and thence,
guided by a priest, to Tamoanchan, where the Anxizoaque,
or wise men, left them, departing toward the east with their
ritual manuscripts and promising to return at the end of the
world. Only four of the learned ones remained with the
colonists — Ozomoco, Cpactonal, TIaltetecuin, and Xochi-
cauaca — and it was they who invented the calendar and its
mterpretation in order that men might have a guide for their
conduct. From Tamoanchan the colonists went to Teoti-
huacan, where they made sacrifices and erected pyramids in
honour of the Sun and of the Moon. Here also they elected
their first kings, and here they buried them, regarding them
as gods and saying of them, not that they had died, but that
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PLATE XVI
Section, comprising about one third, of the
"Map Tlotzin," after Aubin, Mimoires sur la pfin-
iure didactiqtu {Mission scientifique an Mexique et
dans TAmiriqtu Cenirale)^ Plate I. The map is
described by Boturini as a "map on prepared skin
representing the genealogy of the Chichimec em-
perors from Tlotzin to the last lung, Don Fernando
Cortes Ixtilxochitzin." Two of the six "caves,"
or ancestral abodes of the Chichimec, shown on the
whole map, are here represented. At the rights
marked by a bat in the ceiling, is Tzinacanoztoc,
"the Cave of the Bat"; below it, in Nahuatl, being
the inscription, "Tzinacanoztoc, here was bom
Ixtilxochitzin." The second cave shown is Quauh-
yacac, "At the End of the Trees"; and here are
shown a group of ancestral Chichimec chieftains,
whose wanderings are indicated in the figures below.
The Nahuatlan text below the figure of the cave is
translated: "All came to establish themselves there
at Quauhyacoc, where they were yet all together.
Thence departed Amacui; with his wife he went to
Colhuatlican. Thence again departed Nopal; he
went with his wife to Huexotla. Thence again de-
parted Tlotli; he went with his wife to Oztoticpac,"
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niiis^^^sag^
Vl^iT^f^^^
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MEXICO 113
they had just awakened from a dream called life. '^ Hence the
ancients were in the habit of saying that when men die, they
in reality began to live," addressing them: "Lord (or Lady),
awake! the day is coming! Already the first light of dawn
appears! The song of the yellow-plumed birds is heard, and
the many-coloured butterflies are taking wing!" Even at
Tamoanchan a dispersal of the tribes had begun: the Olmac
and the Huastec had departed toward the east, and from them
had come the invention of the intoxicating drink, pulque, and
(apparently as a result of this) the power of creating magical
illusions; for they could make a house seem to be in flames
when nothing of the sort was taking place, they could show
fish in empty waters, and they could even make it appear that
they had cut their own bodies into morsels. But the peoples
associated with the Mexicans departed from Teotihuacan.
First went the Toltec, then the Otomi, who settled in Coatepec,
and last the Nahua; they traversed the deserts, seeking a
home, each tribe guided by its own gods. Worn by pains and
famines, they at length came to the Place of Seven Caves,
where they celebrated their respective rites. The Toltec were
the first to go forth, finally settling at Tollan. The people of
Michoacan departed next, to be followed by the Tepanec,
Acolhua, Tlascaltec, and other Nahuatlan tribes, and last of
all by the Aztec, or Mexicans proper, who, led by their god,
came to Colhuacan. Even here they were not allowed to rest,
but were compelled to resume their wanderings, and, passing
from place to place — "all designated by their names in the
ancient paintings which form the annals of this people" —
finally they came again to Colhuacan, and thence to the
neighbouring island where Tenochtitlan was founded.
Of the "ancient paintings," mentioned by Sahagun, several
are preserved,^ portraying the journey of the Aztec from
Aztlan, their mythical fatherland, which is represented and
described as located beyond the waters, or as surrounded by
waters; and the first stage of the migration is said to have
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114 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
been made by boat. For this reason numerous speculations as
to its locality have placed it overseas — in Asia or on the
North-west Coast of America — although the more con-
servative opinion follows Seler, who holds that it represents
simply an island shrine or temple-centre of the national god,
and hence a focus of national organization rather than of tribal
origin. According to the Codex Boturini (one of the migra-
tion picture-records), as interpreted by Seler and others, after
leaving Aztlan, represented as an island upon which stood the
shrine of Huitzilopochtli in care of the tribal ancestor and
his wife Chimalma, the Aztec landed at Colhuacan (or Teo-
colhuacan, i. e. "the divine Colhuacan"), where they united
with eight related tribes, the Uezotzinca, Chalca, Xochimiica,
Cuitlauaca, Malinalca, Chichimeca, Tepaneca, and Matla-
tzinca, who are said to have had their origin in a cavern of a
crook-peaked mountain* From Colhuacan, led by a priestess
and four priests, they journeyed to a place (represented in
the codex by a broken tree) which Seler identifies as Tamoan-
chan, or "the House of Descent," and which is also the "House
of Birth," for it is here that souls are sent from the thirteenth
heaven to be bom. Thence^ after a sojourn of five years, the
Aztec, perhaps urged on by some portent of which the broken
tree is a symbol, took their departure alone, leaving their
kindred tribes; and guided by Huitzilopochtli, they came to
the land of melon-cacti and mesquite, where the god gave
them bow and arrows and a snare. This land they called
Mimixcoua ("Land of the Qoud-Serpent"); and it was here
that they changed their name, for the first time calling them-
selves "Mexica" — an appellation which Sahagun describes
as formed from that of a chieftain, who was also an inspired
priest, ruling over the nation while they were in the land of
the Chichimec, and whose cradle, it was said, was a maguey
plant, whence he was called Mexicatl ("Mescal Hare*'). Per-
haps this is the incident represented in the curious picture
which shows human beings clad in skins and with ceremonial
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MEXICO IIS
face-paintings, recumbent upon desert plants; and no doubt
it signifies some important change in cult, such, perhaps, as
the introduction of the mescal intoxication, with its attendant
visions. It may, too, portray the institution of human sacri-
fice; for the next station indicated on the chart, Cuextecat-
lichocayan ("Where the Huastec Weep"), was the scene of
the offering of the Huastec captives by arrow-slaying (see
p. 79, supra). From this place the journey led to G>atlicamac
("In the Jaws of the Serpent *0> where the people "tied the
years" and kindled the new fire; and from Coatlicamac they
made their way to ToUan, with the reaching of which the
first stage of the migration-story may be said to end. Seler
regards the whole as a myth of the world-quarters: Tamoan-
chan is the West, as in the Books of Fate; Mimixcoua is the
North; Cuextecatlichocayan is the East, as the reference to
the Huastec shows; and Coatlicamac is the South; finally,
Tollan is the Middle Place, being regarded, like other sacred
cities, as the navel of the world.
A second stage of the myth depicts the journey of the
Aztec from Tollan, through many stops, back to Colhuacan,
until at last they came to the site of Tenochtitlan. It is said
that as the tribes halted by the waters of Tezcuco they beheld
a great eagle perched on a cactus growing from a wave-washed
rock; and while they gazed the bird ascended to the rising
sun with a serpent in his talons. This was regarded as a
divine augury, and here Tenochtitlan was founded. Such is
the tradition which gives modem Mexico its national emblem.
The places of sojourn between Tollan and Tenochtitlan, as
represented in the writings, are all with fair certainty identified
with towns or sites in the Valley of Mexico, so that here we
are in the realm of history rather than of myth. Historic
also are the names (and approximate dates) of the nine lords
or emperors who ruled from the Mexican capital before the
coming of the Spaniards brought the native power to its un-
happy end.
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ii6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
The fifth of the Aztec monarchs was the first Montezuma.
Of him it is told (the story is recorded by Fray Diego Duran) "
that after he had extended his realm and consolidated his rule,
he decided to send an embassy to the home of his fathers,
especially since he had heard that the mother of Huitzilo-
pochtli was still living there. He summoned his counsellor
Tlacaelel, who brought before him an aged man learned in
the nation's history. "The place you name," said the old
man, "is called Aztlan [* White'], and near it, in the midst of
the water, is a mountain called Culhuacan [* Crooked Hill'].
In its caverns our fathers dwelt for many years, much at their
easfe, and they were known as Mexitin and Azteca. They had
quantities of duck, heron, cormorants, and other waterfowl,
while birds of red and of yellow plumage diverted them with
song. They had fine large fish; handsome trees lined the shores;
and the streams flowed through meadows under the cypress
and alder. In canoes they fared upon the waters, and they
had floating gardens bearing maize, chile, tomatoes, beans,
and all the vegetables which we now eat and which we have
brought thence. But after they leiFt this island and set foot
on land, all this was changed: the herbs pricked them, the
stones wounded, and the fields were full of thistle and of
thorn. Snakes and venomous vermin swarmed everywhere,
while all about were lions and tigers and other dangerous and
hurtful beasts. So is it written in my books." Then the king
dispatched his messengers with gifts for the mother of Huit-
zilopochtli. They came first to Coatepec, near ToUan, and
there called upon their demons (for they were magicians) to
guide them; and thus they reached Culhuacan, the mountain
in the sea, where they beheld the fisherfolk and the floating
gardens. The people of the land, finding that the foreigners
spoke their tongue, asked what god they worshipped, and
when told that it was Huitzilopochtli and that they were
come with a present for Coatlicue, his mother, if she yet lived,
they conducted the strangers to the steward of the god's
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MEXICO 117
mother. When they had delivered their message, stating their
mission from the King and his counsellor, the steward an-
swered: "Who is this Montezuma and who is Tlacaelel?
Those who went from here bore no such names; they were
called Tef acatetl, Acacitli, Ojelopan, Ahatl, Xomimitl, Auexotl,
Uicton, Tenoch, chieftains of the tribes, and with them were
the four guardians of Huitzilopochtli." The messengers an-
swered: "Sir, we own that we do not know these lords, nor
have we seen them, for all are long dead." "Who, then, killed
them? We who are left here are all yet living. Who, then,
are they who live to-day?" The messengers told of the old
man who retained the record of the journey, and they asked
to be taken before the mother of the god to discharge their
duty. The old man, who was the steward of Coatlicue, led
them forward; but the mountain, as they ascended, was like
a pile of loose sand, in which they sank. "What makes you
so heavy?" asked the guide, who moved lightly on the sur-
face; and they answered, "We eat meat and drink cocoa."
"It is this meat and drink," said the elder, "that prevent you
from reaching the place where your fathers dwelt; It is this
that has brought death among you. We know naught of
these, naught of the luxury that drags you down; with us all
is simple and meagre." Thereupon he took them up, and swift
as wind brought them into the presence of Coatlicue. The
goddess was foul and frightful to behold, and like one near
death, for she was in mourning for her son's departure; but
when she heard the message and beheld the rich gifts, she sent
word to her son, reminding him of the prophecy that he had
made at the time of his going forth: how he should lead the
seven tribes into the lands they were to possess, making war
and reducing cities and nations to his service; and how at last
he should be overthrown, even as he had overthrown others,
and his weapons cast to earth. "Then, O mother mine, my
time will be accomplished, and I will return fleeing to thy lap,
but until then I shall know naught save' pain. Therefore give
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Ii8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
me two pairs of sandals, one for going forth and one for re-
turning, and four pairs of sandals, two pair for going forth
and two for returning." "When he thinks on these words,"
continued the goddess, "and remembers that his mother
yearns after him, bring to him this mantle of nequen and this
breechband." With these gifts she dismissed the messengers;
and as they descended, the steward of Coatlicue explained
how the people of Aztlan kept their youth, for when they
grew old, they climbed the mountain, and the climbing re-
newed their years. So the messengers returned, by the way
they had come, to King Montezuma.
VI. SURVIVING PAGANISM
In 1502 Montezuma Xocoyotzin ("Montezuma the Young")
was elected Emperor of Mexico, assuming a pomp and pride
unknown to his predecessors. Five years later, in 1507, the
Aztec "tied the years" and for the last time kindled the new
fire on the breast of a noble captive. Ominous portents began
to appear with the new cycle, and the chronicles abounded
with imaginations of disaster." The temple turret of the war-
god was burned; another shrine was destroyed by fire from
heaven, thunderlessly fallen in the midst of rain; a tree-headed
comet was seen; Lake Tezcuco overflowed its banks for no
cause; a rock which the King had ordered made into a sacrificial
altar refused to be moved, saying to the workmen that the
Lord of Creation would not suffer it; twins and monsters were
bom, and there were nightly cries, as of women in travail —
"Lamentings heard i* the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New-hatched to the woeful time."
Fishermen caught a strange bird with a crystal in its head, and
in the crystal, as in a mirror, Montezuma beheld unheard-of
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PLATE XVII
Interior of chamber, Mitla, showing type of mural
decoration peculiar to this region. After photograph
in the Peabody Museum.
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MEXICO 119
warriors, armed and slaying. Most terrible of all, a huge
pyramid of fire appeared in the east, night after night, corus-
cating with points of brilliance. In his terror Montezuma sum-
moned old Nezahualpilli of Tezcuco, noted as an astrologer, to
interpret the sign; and this King, whose star was in the decline,
took perhaps a grim satisfaction in reading from the portents
the early overthrow of the empire. Montezuma, it is said, put
the interpretation to test, challenging Nezahualpilli to the
divinatory game of ilachtli; but just on the point of winning,
the monarch lost and returned discomfited. Another tale,
doubtless apocryphal, tells how Papantzin, sister of Monte-
zuma, died and was buried; shortly afterward she was found
sitting by a fountain in the palace garden, and when the lords
were assembled in her presence, she told how a winged youth
had taken her to the banks of a river, beside which she saw
the bones of dead men and heard their groans, while upon the
waters were strange craft, manned by fair and bearded warriors
coming to possess the kingdom. Certain it is, at least, that the
hearts of all men regarded the return of Quetzalcoatl as near —
the oppressed looking with hope, the powerful with dread, to
the coming of the god — and the vestments of the deity were
among the first gifts with which the unhappy Mexican sought
to win the favour of Cortez.
Nevertheless the memory of the King did not fade from na-
tive imagination with the fall of his throne. Stories of the
greatness, the pride and the destruction of Montezuma spread;
they became confused with older legends; and finally the
Mexican monarch himself became the subject of myth. Far
to the north the Papago ^* still show the cave of Montezuma,
whom they have identified with Sihu, the elder brother of
Coyote; and they tell how Montezuma, coming forth from a
cave dug by the Creator, led the Indian nations thence. At
first all went happily, and men and beasts conversed with one
another until a flood ended this age of felicity, only Montezuma
and his brother. Coyote, escaping in arks which they made for
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I20 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
themselves. When the waters had subsided, they aided in the
repeopling of the world, and to Montezuma was assigned the
lordship of the new race, but, being swollen with pride and
arrogance by his high dignity, he failed to rule justly. The
Great Spirit, to punish him, removed the sun to a remote part
of the heavens; whereupon Montezuma set about building a
house which should reach the skies, and whose apartments he
lined with jewels and precious metals. This the Great Spirit
destroyed with his thunder; but Montezuma was still rebel-
lious, whereupon as his supreme punishment, the Great Spirit
sent an insect to sunmion the Spaniards from the East for his
destruction.
How far the political influence of the Aztec Empire extended
is not clearly certain, but there are numerous indications that its
cultural relations were very wide. There are rites and myths of
the Pueblo Indians, Hopi and Zuni, whose resemblance to the
Mexican seems surely to imply a connexion not too remote;
while far to the south, among the Nahua of Lake Nicaragua,
the creator pair and ruling gods, Tamagostad and Qipattoval,
are identical with the Mexican generative couple, Oxomoco
and Cipactonal.*®
In outlying districts today the less-touched Nahuatlan tribes
preserve their essential paganism, and Lumholtz's and Preuss's
accounts *^ of the pantheons of the Cora and Huichol Indians
give us a living image of what must have been the ancestral
religion of the Nahuatlan tribes, at least in the crude days of
their wanderings. Father Sun, say the Cora, is fierce in the
summer-time, slaying men and animals; but Chuvalete, the
Morning Star, keeps watch over him to prevent him from
harming the people. Morning Star is cool and dislikes heat,
and once he shot the Sun, causing him to fall to earth; but an
old man restored him to the heavens, giving him a new start,
Chuvalete is the first friend of the Cora among the gods, and
I that they address their prayers as they go to the
bathe in the early dawn; they call him, "Elder
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MEXICO 121
Brother," just as the Earth is "Our Mother" and the Sun "Our
Father." The Water Serpent of the West, the Moon, the Winds,
the Rain, the Lightning, — all these are familiar deities.
Preuss ^ calls attention to the striking emphasis which the
Cora place on the power of thought: the leaders of the cere-
monies are called "thinkers" and in their prayers and rites the
conception of a magical preservative and creative power in
thought frequently recurs, not only as a power of priests, who
have obtained it through purification, but as the essential
power of the gods. Thus, of the sun about to rise:
"Our Father in Heaven thinks upon his Earth, our Father the
Shining One.
There he is, on the other side of the World.
He thinks with his Thought, our Father, the Shining One.
He remembers, too, what he is, our Father, the Shining One."
And again it is the sacred words handed down in ritual through
which men acquire that mystical participation in the divine
power that preserves them in life:
" Here are present his Words, which he has given to us, his children,
Wherewith we live and continue in the World.
Indeed, all his Words are here present, which he has uttered and
left unto us.
Here leaves he unto his children his Thought."
The Huichol have a more populous pantheon. Tatevali
("Grandfather Fire") is the deity of life and health, and also
of shamans and prophesying. Great-grandfather Deer-Tail
is likewise a fire-god and a singing shaman; he is the son of
Grandfather Fire and yet his elder; for, it is said. Great-
grandfather Deer-Tail is the spark produced in striking flint,
while Grandfather Fire is the flame fed by wood. Father Sun
is another important deity who was created, they say, when
the Corn Mother (or the Eagle Mother, as some have it) threw
her young son, armed with bow and arrows, into an oven.
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122 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTH0LCX5Y
whence he emerged as the divinity. Setting Sun is the assis-
tant of Father Sun; and with the Moon, who is a Grandmother,
he helps to keep Tokakami, the black and blood-smeared god
of death, from leaving his underworld abode to devour the
Indians. Tamats, the Elder Brother, is divinity of wind and
air and messenger of the gods; ^ the cock belongs to him, be-
cause it follows the course of the Sun and always knows where
the Sun is; and he is also the deity who conquered the under-
world people and put the world into shape. He appears in dif-
ferent forms (like Tezcatlipoca), now a wolf, now a deer, a
pine-tree, a whirlwind; and it is he who taught the ancients
"all they had to do in order to comply with what the gods
wanted at the five points of the world." There are goddesses,
too. Takotsi Nakawe ("Grandmother Growth") is the Earth
goddess who gives long life and is the mother of the amiadillo,
the peccary, and the bear; to her belong maize, and squash,
and beans, and sheep; she is water, likewise, and is a Rain-
Serpent in the east. Rain-Serpent goddesses live in each of the
Quarters — she of the east is red, and the flowers of spring are
her skirt; she of the west is white, like a white doud; blue is
the Rain-Serpent goddess of the south, and to her belong seeds
and singing shamans; while the Rain-Serpent goddess of the
north, whose name means "Rain and Fog hanging in the Trees
and Grass," is spotted. Another goddess is Young Mother
Eagle, the Sun's mother, and it is she who holds the world in
her talons and guards everything; the stars are her dress.
With Grandmother Growth beneath, Young Mother Eagle
above, and the four Rain-Serpent goddesses, the six cardinal
points of the world are defined. It will be observed, too, that
the goddesses are deities of the feminine element, earth and
water; while the gods are divinities of the masculine elements,
fire and air.
Beliefs such as these inevitably suggest those of the older
Mexico, and similarly in many of the. rites of these Indians
there are analogies to Aztec cult. Perhaps most striking of all
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MEXICO 123
is the elaborate and partly mystical adoration of the hikuli,
or peyote (cacti of the genus Lophophora)^ to which are ascribed
mantic power and the induction of ecstacy; and in which, no
doubt, we see the marvellous plant which the Aztec encountered
in their migration. The cult extends to tribes remote in the
north and is not without a touch of welcome poetry, as in the
Tarahumare song given by Lumholtz ^ —
^'Beautiful lily, in bloom this morning, guard me!
Drive away sorcery! Make me grow old!
Let me reach the age at which I have to take up a walking-stick!
I thank thee for exhaling thy fragrance, there where thou art
standing!''
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CHAPTER IV
YUCATAN
I. THE MAYA
NATIVE American civilization attained its apogee among
the Maya. This is not true in a political sense, for,
though at the time of the Conquest the Maya remembered a
past political greatness, there is no reason to believe that it had
ever been, either in power or in organization, a rival of such
states as the Aztec and Inca. The Mayan cities had been con-
federate in their unions rather than narional, aristocratic in
their governments rather than monarchic; and in their great-
est unity the power of their strongest rulers, the lords of Ma-
yapan, appears to have been that of feudal suzerains, or at
best of insecure tyrants. Politically the Mayan cities present
somewhat the aspect of the loose-leaguing Hellenic states, and
it is not without probability that in each case the looseness
of the political organization was directly conducive to the in-
tense civic pride which undoubtedly in each case fostered an
extraordinary development of the arts. For in all the more in-
tellectual tokens of culture — in art, in mathematics, in writing,
and in historical records — the Mayan peoples surpassed all
other narive Americans, leaving in the ruins of their cities and
in the profusion of their sculptured monuments such evidences
of genius as only the most famous centres of Old-World anti-
quity can rival.
The territories of the Mayan stock are singularly compact.^
They occupied — and their descendants now occupy — the
Peninsula of Yucatan, the valley of the Usumacinta, and the
Cordillera rising westerly and sinking to the Pacific. The Rio
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YUCATAN 125
Motagua, emptying intx) the Gulf of Honduras, and the Rio
Grijalva, debouching into the Bay of Campeche, form re-
spectively their south-eastern and western borders excepting
for the fact that on the eastern coasts of Mexico, facing the
Gulf of Campeche, the Huastec (and perhaps their Totonac
neighbours) represent a Mayan kindred. Between this western
branch and the great Mayan centre of Yucatan the coast was
occupied by intrusive Nahuatlan tribes, landward from whom
lay the territories of the Zoquean and Zapotecan stocks, the
western neighbours of the Mayan peoples.
The culture of the Maya is distinctly related, either as parent
or as branch, to the civilizations of Mexico.^ Affinities of
Haustec and Maya works of art indicate that the ancestors
of the two branches were not separated previous to a consider-
able progress in civilization; while, in a broader way, the
cultures of the Nahuatlan, 2^potecan, and Mayan peoples
have common elements of art, ritual, myth, and, above all,
of mathemadcal and calendric systems which mark them as
sprung from a common source. The Zapotec, situated between
the Nahuatlan and Mayan centres, show an intermediate art
and science, whose elements clearly unite the two extremes;
while the appearance of place-names, such as Nonoual and
Tulan, or Tollan, in both Maya and Nahua tradition imply at
least a remote geographical community. The Nahuatlan tribes,
if we may believe their own account, were comparatively
recent comers into the realm of a civilization long anteceding
them, and one which they, as barbarians, adopted; the Maya
(at least, mythically) remembered the day of their coming
into Yucatan. On the basis of these two facts and the un-
doubted community of culture of the two races, it has been not
implausibly reasoned that the Toltec of Nahua tradition were
in fact the ancestors of the Maya, who, abandoning their
original home in Mexico, made their way to the pg^ninsula,
there to perfect their civilization; and the common association
of C^uetzalcoatl ("Kukulcan" in Maya) with the migration-
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126 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
legends adds strength to this theory. Nevertheless, tradition
points to the high antiquity of the southern rather than of the
Mexican centres of civilization; and as the facts seem to be
well explained by the assumption of a northern extension of
Mayan culture in the Toltec or pre-Toltec age, followed by its
recession in the period of its decline in the south, this may be
taken as the more acceptable theory in the light of present
knowledge. According to this view, the Nahua should be re-
garded as the late inheritors of an older civilization which they
had gradually pushed back upon its place of origin and which,
indeed, they were threatening still further at the time of the
Conquest, for even then Nahuatlan tribes had forced them-
selves among and beyond the declining Maya.
When the Spaniards reached Yucatan, its civilization was
already decadent. The greater cities had been abandoned and'
were falling into decay, while the country was anarchical with
local enmities. The past greatness of Mayapan and Chichen
Itza was remembered^ but rather, as Bishop Landa's account
shows,' for the intensification of the jealousies of those who
boasted great descent than as models for emulation: Three
brothers from the east — so runs the Bishop's narrative — had
founded Chichen Itza, living honourably until one of them died,
when dissensions arose, and the two surviving brothers were
assassinated. Either before this event, or immediately after-
ward, there arrived from the west a great prince named Cucul-
can who, "after his departure, was regarded in Mexico as a god
and was called Cezalcouati; and he was venerated as a divinity
in Yucatan also because of his zeal for the public good." He
quieted the dissensions of the people and founded the city of
Mayapan, where he built a round temple, with four entrances
opening to the four quarters, "entirely diflFerent from all those
that are in Yucatan"; and after ruling in Mayapan for seven
years he returned to Mexico, leaving peace and amity behind
him. The family of the Cocomes succeeded to the rule, and
shortly afterward came Tutul-Xiu and his followers, who had
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PLATE XVIII
Temple 3, ruins of Tikal. After Memoirs of the
Peabody Museum^ Vol. V, Plate II.
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YUCATAN 127
been wandering in the interior for forty years. These formed an
alliance with Mayapan; but eventually the Cocomes, by intro-
ducing Mexican mercenaries (who brought the bow, previously
unknown there) were able to tyrannize over the people. Under
the leadership of the Xius, rising in revolt, the Cocomes were
overthrown, only one son out of the royal house escaping; and
Mayapan, after five centuries of power, was abandoned. The
single Cocom who escaped gathered his followers and founded
Tibulon calling his province Zututa, while the Mexican mer-
cenaries settled at Canul. Achchel, a noble who had married the
daughter of the Ahkin-Mai, chief priest of Mayapan and keeper
of the mysteries, founded the kingdom of the Cheles on the
coast; and the Xius held the inlands. ^'Between these three
great princely houses of the Oxomes, Xivis, and Cheles there
were constant struggles and cruel hatreds, and these endure
even now that they have become Christians. The Cocomes say
to the Xivis that they assassinated their sovereign and stole
his domains; the Xivis reply that they are neither less noble
nor less ancient and royal than the others, and that far from
being traitors, they were the liberators of the country in slaying
a tyrant. The Cheles, in turn, claim to be as noble as any,
since they are descended from the most venerated priest of
Mayapan. On another side, they mutually reviled each other
in the matter of food, since the Cheles, dwelling on the coast,
would not give fish or salt to the Cocomes, obliging them to
send far for these, while the Cocomes would not permit the
Cheles the game and fruits of their territory."
Such is the picture which Bishop Landa gives of the con-
ditions in the north of the peninsula at the time of the Conquest,
about a century after the fall of Mayapan; and native records
and archaeology alike sustain its general truth.* At Chichen
Itza the so-called Ball Court is regarded as Mexican in in-
spiration, while in the same city exist the ruins of a round
temple similar to those which tradition ascribes to Kukulcan,
different in character from the normal Mayan types. Reliefs
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128 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
representing warriors in Mexican garb also point to Nahuatlan
incursions, which may in fact have been the occasion for the
dissolution of the Mayan league of the cities of the north —
Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapan — in the Books of Chilam
Balam represented as powerful in the day of the great among
the Maya of Yucatan.
These "Books" are historical chronicles written after the
Conquest by members of native families — chiefly the Tutul-
Xiu — and from them, as key events of Yucatec history, a few
events stand forth so conspicuously that possible dates can be
assigned to them. "This is the arrangement of the katuns
[periods of 7200 days] since the departure was made from the
land, from the house of Nonoual, where were the four Tutul-
Xiu, from Zuiva in the west; they came from the land of Tula-
pan, having formed a league."*^ So begins one of the chronicles,
indicating a remote migration of the Xiu family from the west —
an event which Spinden and Joyce place near 160 a. d.* The
next event recorded is a stay, eighty years later, at Chacno-
uiton (or Chacnabiton), where a sojourn of ninety-nine years
is recorded; and thence the migration was renewed, Bakhalal,
near the Gulf of Honduras, being occupied for some sixty years.
Here it was that the wanderers "learned of," or discovered,
Chichen Itza, and hither the people removed about the middle
of the fifth century, only to abandon it after a century or more
in order to occupy Chacanputun, on the Bay of Campeche.
Two hundred and sixty years later this seat was lost, and the
Itza returned, about the year 970 a. d., to Chichen Itza, while
a member of the Tutul-Xiu founded Uxmal, these two cities
joining with Mayapan to form the triple league which, for
more than two centuries, was to bring peace and prosperity
and the climax of its civilization to northern Yucatan. This
happy condition was ended by "the treachery of Hunac Ceel,"
who introduced foreign warriors (Mexicans, as their names
indicate) into Chichen Itza, overthrew its ruler, Chac Xib Chac,
and caused a state of anarchy. For a brief period power cen-
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YUCATAN 129
tred in Mayapan, which ruled with something like order, until
"by the revolt of the Itza" it also lost its position and was
finally depopulated in 1442, this disaster being closely followed
by plagues, wars, and a terrific storm, accompanied by in-
undation, all of which carried the destruction forward.
This reconstruction of northern Yucatec history, however,
gives no clue to the origin or life of the cities of the south —
Palenque, Piedras Negras, and Yazchilan in the lower central
valley of the Usumacintla; Seibal on its upper reaches, not far
from Lake Peten, near which are the ruins of Tikal and Naranjo;
while, south-east of these, Copan, on the river of the same
name, and Quirigua mark the boundaries of Mayan power
toward Central America. These cities had been long in ruins
at the time of the Conquest; their builders were forgotten,
and their sites were hardly known; nor do the sparse traditions
which have survived in the south — the Cakchiquel Annals
and the Popul Fuh — throw light upon them. Were it not for
the ingenuity of scholars, who have deciphered the numeral and
dating system of their many monuments, their period would
have remained but vague surmise; nor would this have sufiiced
without the aid of the Tutul-Xiu chronicles to bring the read-
ings within the range of our own chronological system. The
problem is by no means a simple one, even when the dates on
the monuments have been read; for the southern centres em-
ployed a system — the "long count," as it is called — of
which only a single monumental specimen, a lintel at Chichen
Itza, has been discovered in the north. Nevertheless, with the
aid of this inscription, and with the probable identification
of its date in the light of the Books of Chilam Balam^ scholars
have arrived at something like consensus as to the period of
the southern floruit of Mayan culture. This falls within the
ninth Maya cycle (160 a. d. to 554 a. d., on Spinden's reckon-
ing), for it is a remarkable fact that practically all the monu-
ments of the south are of this cycle; and as the archaeological
evidence indicates an occupancy of nearly two centuries for
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I30 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
several of the cities, it is clear that the southern civilization,
like the northern of a later day, was marked by the contem-
poraneous rise of several great centres. Morley '^ suggests that
the south may even have been held by a league of three cities,
as was later the case in the north, Palenque dominating the
west, Tikal the centre and north, and Copan the south and
east. Two archaic inscriptions — on the Tuxtla Statuette and
the Leiden Plate, as the relics are called — bear dates of the
eighth cycle, the earlier falling a century or more before the
beginning of our era; and these, no doubt, imply a nascent
civilization which was to reach the height of its power in the
fifth century, when the cities of the south produced those
masterpieces of sculpture which mark the climax of an Ameri-
can aboriginal art, which was to disappear, a century later,
leaving scarcely a memory in the land of its origin.
As restored by Morley,* the history of Mayan civilization
falls into two periods of imperial development, each subdivided
into several epochs. The older, or parent empire is that of
the south; the later, formed by colonization begun while the
old civilization was still flourishing, is that of the peninsula.
Morley's scheme is as follows :
Old Empire
I. Archaic Period .... Earliest times . . c. 360 A. d.
II. Middle Period c. 360 a. d. . . . c. 460 a. d.
III. Great Period c. 460 a. d. . . . c 600 a. d.
New Empire
IV. Colonization Period
V. Transitional Period
VI. Renaissance Period .
VII. Toltec Period . . .
VIII. Final Period . . .
C. 420 A. D. . . C. 620 A. D.
C. 620 A. D. . . C. 980 A. D.
C. 980 A. D. . . C. II9O A. D.
C. 1 190 A. D. . . C. 1450 A. D.
C. 1450A.D. . . C. IS37A.D.
Each of tht earlier periods is marked by the appearance of new
sites and the foundation of new cities as well as by advance
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PLATE XIX
Map of Yucatan, showing sites of ancient cities.
After Morley, BBE 57, Plate I.
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o««
0
0
CHAKANPUTUI
•Fieri DA ^^
ITPAN* •IZAMAlsC'
IICHEN ITZA« ^^
"N^#UXMAL l>f
\»KABAH VT'
\»ubnaT,
.J O
^
BAKHALAL:
^campeche:\
/DAiFfct£*«J^AlO; TIKAL \
PALEJ^Qirli^PJ T'KAI^
• \
•3
a>!
i
''^^'^«lx^c?!fE^^^^ NARAN JO . ^ ,
S^TZENDALTy-'' SEIBAlit^
,. •'•QUENSANTO {5
^ /GUATE.MALA-
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YUCATAN 131
in the arts; and as a whole the Old Empire is marked by the
high development of its sculpture and the use of the more
complete mode of reckoning, while in the cities of the New
Empire architecture attains to its highest development.
Such are the more plausible theories of Mayan culture his-
tory, although there are others (those of Brasseur de Bour-
bourg, for example) which would place the age of Mayan
greatness earlier by m^;ny centuries.
11. VOTAN, ZAMNA, AND KUKULCAN
From their remote beginnings, as with other peoples whose
traditions lead back to an age of migrations, the Mayan tribes
remembered culture heroes, tutors in the arts as well as founders
of empire, priests as well as kings, who may have been historic,*
but who in origin were probably gods rather than men — gods
whom time had confused with the persons of their priestly or
royal worshippers, and in whose deeds cosmic and historic
events were distortedly intermingled. Tales of three such heroes
hold a central place in Mayan mythology: Votan, the hero of
Tzental legend, whose name is associated with Palenque and
the tradition of a great "Votanic Empire" of times long past;
Zamna, or Itzamna, a Yucatec hero; and Kukulcan, known to
the Quiche as Gucumatz, who is the Mayan equivalent of
Quetzalcoatl. All three of these hero-deities are reputed to
have come from afar — strange in costume and in custom, —
to have been the inventors or teachers of writing, and to have
founded new cults.
The Tzental legend of Votan," describing him as having ap-
peared from across the sea, declares that when he reached La-
guna de Terminos he named the country ^' the Land of Birds and
Game" because of the abundant life of the region; and thence
the Votanides ascended the Usumacinta valley, ultimately
founding their capital at Palenque, whose older and perhaps
original name was Nachan, or ''House of Snakes." Shortly
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132 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
afterward, no less astonishing to the Votanides than had been
their own apparition to the rude aboriginal, came other boat-
loads of long-robed strangers, the first Nahuatlans; but these
were peaceably amalgamated into the new empire. Votan ruled
many years, and, among other works, composed a narrative of
the origin of the Indian nations, of which Ordonez y Aguiar
gives a summary. The chief argument of the work, he says,
aims to show that Votan was descended from Imos (one of the
genii, or guardians, of the days), that he was of the race of
Chan, the Serpent, and that he took his origin from Chivim.
Being the first man whom God had sent to this region, which
we call America, to people and divide the lands, he made
known the route which he had followed, and after he had es-
tablished his seat, he made divers journeys to Valum-Chivim.
These were four in number: in the first he related that having
departed from Valum-Votan, he set out toward the House of
Thirteen Serpents and then went to Valum-Chivim, whence he
passed by the city where he beheld the House of God being
built. He next visited the ruins of the ancient edifice which
men had erected at the command of their common ancestor in
order to climb to the sky; and he declared that those with whom
he there conversed assured him that that was the place where
God had given to each tribe its own particular tongue. He
affirmed that on his return from the House of God he went forth
a second time to examine all the subterranean regions which he
had passed, and the signs to be found there, adding that he was
made to traverse a subterranean road which, leading beneath
the Earth and terminating at the roots of the Sky, was none
other than the hole of a snake; and this he entered because he
was "the Son of the Serpent."
Ordonez would like to see in this legend (which he has obvi-
ously accommodated to his desire) a record of historical wander-
ings in and from Old World lands and out of Biblical times.
Yet the narrative, even in its garbled form, is clearly a cos-
mologic myth — at the least a tale of the sun's journey, and
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YUCATAN 133
probably this tale set in the general context of Ages of the
World (the four journeys of Votan?) analogous to those of
Nahuatlan myth and of the Popul Fuh. When it is added that
Votan was known by the epithet "Heart of the People," that
his successor was called Canam-Lum ("Serpent of the Earth"),
and that both of these were venerated as gods at the time of the
Conquest, no word need be added to emphasize the naturalistic
character of the myth; although there may be truth in a legend
of Votanides, or Votan-worshippers, as founders of Palenque
and possibly as institutors of Mayan civilization. *
ZamnsL (Itzamna, Yzamna, "House of the Dews," or "Lap
of the Dews") " was the reputed bringer of civilization into
the peninsula and the traditional founder of Mayapan, which
he was said to have made a centre of feudal rule. Like Votan
he was supposed to have been the first to name the localities
of the land, to have invented writing, and to have instructed the
barbarous aborigines in the arts. "With the populations
which came from the East," CogoUudo writes, "was a man,
called 2^mna, who was as their priest, and who, they say, was
the one who gave the names by which they now distinguish, in
their language, all the seaports, hills, estuaries, coasts, moun-
tains, and other parts of the country, which assuredly is an
admirable thing if he thus made a division of every part of the
land, of which scarcely an inch has not its proper appellation
in their tongue." After having lived to a great age, Zamna is
said to have been buried at Izamal, where his tomb-temple
became a centre for pilgrimage. In fact, Izamal is but a modifi-
cation of a name of Itzamna, since its older form is Itzmatul,
which means, says the Abbe Brasseur, "He who asks or obtains
the dew or the frost." The ancients of Izamal, Lizana declares,
possessed a renowned idol, Ytzmatul, which "had no other
name . . . although it was said that he was a powerful king
in this region, to whom obedience was given as to the son
of the gods. When he was asked how he was named and
how he should be addressed, he answered only, Ytzen caatiy
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134 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ytzen muyaly * I am the dew, the substance, of the sky and
clouds/"
All this is plain euhemerism, for Itzamna was a deity of rain
and fertility; Yucatan, it is said, was without moisture when
he came to it; he rose from the sea; and his temples and his
tomb were by the seaside. His festival, according to Landa,
fell in Mac (March), when he was worshipped in company
with the gods of abundance. He caused the dead to rise and
cured the sick; while in his honour a temple was built with
four doors leading to the four extremities of the country, as far
as Guatemala, Tabasco, and Chiapas, this shrine being called
Kab-ul, or " the Potent Hand," — a striking image of the sky-
deity reaching down from heaven, of which there are analogues
in Egypt and Peru. Both Landa and Lizana state that he was
the son of Hunab-Ku ("the Holy One"), "the one living and
true God, who, they said, is the greatest of the gods, and who
cannot be figured or represented because he is incorporeal. . . .
From him everything proceeds, . . . and he has a son whom
they name Hun Ytzamna." All this indicates a deity of the
descending rains and dews, son of Father Heaven, and, through
his association with the East, giver of life, light, and knowledge.
Students of the codices believe that he is represented by "God
D" — the aged divinity with the Roman nose and toothless
mouth, associated (as is Tlaloc) with the double-headed ser-
pent, which is clearly a sky-symbol. Perhaps, as Seler suggests,
he is the "Grandfather Above," the Lord of life, analogous to
the Mexican Tonacatecutli."
As has been indicated, the worship of Kukulcan,^ to whom
tradition ascribed the latest appearance of the three culture
heroes, was especially associated with Chichen Itza and
Mayapan, and perhaps with Nahua immigrations. His name,
like that of the Quiche demiurge Gucumatz, means "Plumed
Serpent" and is a precise equivalent of "CJuetzalcoatl". — the
first element referring directly to the long and iridescent plumes
of the quetzal. The frequency of bird-serpent symbols in Maya
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YUCATAN I3S
art, regarded as emblematic of this deity, as well as images,
both in the codices and on the monuments, of the long-nosed
god himself, indicate a deep-seated and fervent worship, so
that it may indeed be an open question as to whether Kukulcan
is the pattern or the copy of Quetzalcoatl, with the probabilities
favoring the Maya source. Certainly it is significant that, as
Tozzer tells us, his name still survives among the Yucatec
Maya, while to the Lacandones he is a many-headed snake
which dwells with the great father, Nohochakyum: "this snake
is killed and eaten only at the time of great national peril, as
during an eclipse of the moon and especially that of the sun."
The importance of Kukulcan in the peninsula is indicated by
Landaus description of his festival, which occurred on the
sixteenth day of Xul (October 24). Upon Kukulcan's depart-
ure, says Landa (who clearly regarded the god as an historical
personage), there were some Indians who believed that he had
ascended into heaven, and regarding him as a god, they built
temples in his honour. After the destruction of Mayapan,
however, his feasts were kept only in the province of Mani,
"but the other districts, turn by turn, in recognition of what
was due to Kukulcan, presented each year at Mani sometimes
four, sometimes five, magnificent feather banners with which
they celebrated the fete.^^ This festival was observed in the
following manner: After fasts and abstinences, the lords and
priests of Mani assembled before the multitude; and on the
evening of the festal day, together with a great number of mum-
mers, they issued from the palace of the prince, proceeding
slowly to the temple of Kukulcan, which had been properly
adorned. When they had reached it and had prayed, they
erected their banners, setting forth their idols on a carpet of
leafage; and having lighted a new fire, they burned incense
in many places, making oblations of meat cooked without
seasoning and of drink made from beans and the seeds of
gourds. The lords and all who had observed the fast remained
there five days and five nights, praying, burning copal, and
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136 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
performing sacred dances, during which period the mummers
went from the house of one noble to that of another, performing
their acts and receiving the gifts offered them. At the end
of five days they carried their donations to the temple, where
they shared all with the lords, the singers, the priests, and the
dancers; and after this the banners and idols (doubtless house-
hold gods) were taken again to the palace of the prince, whence
each returned to his own house. "They say and hold for certain
that Kukulcan descended from the sky the last day of the feast
and personally received the sacrifices, the penitences, and the
offerings made in his honour."
III. YUCATEC DEITIES
For the names of the Maya gods we are mainly indebted to
sparse notices in the works of Landa and Lizana, who, in ob-
literating native writings, destroyed far more than they pre-
served. Landa** gives a general picture of the aboriginal
religion, indicating a ritual not less elaborate than the Mexican,
though with far less human bloodshed. "They had," he says,
"a great number of Idols and of sumptuous temples. Besides
the ordinary shrines, princes, priests, and chief men had ora-
tories with household Idols, where they made special prayers
and offerings. They had as much devotion for Cozumel and
the wells of the Chichen Itza as we for pilgrimages to Rome and
Jerusalem; and they went to visit them and make offerings
as we go to holy places. . . . They had such a number of idols
that their gods did not suffice them; for there was not an animal
nor a reptile of which they did not make images, and they
formed them also in the likeness of their gods and goddesses.
They had some idols of stone, but in small number, and others,
of lesser size, of wood, though not so many as of earthenware.
The idols in wood were esteemed to such a degree as to be
counted for inheritances, and in them they had the greatest
confidence. They were not at all ignorant that their idols were
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PLATE XX
(^)
Tablet of the Foliated Cross, Palenque. This
cross, like that shown in Plate XX (B), rests upon a
monstrous head, doubtless representing the Under-
world, and is surmounted by the quetzal, the symbol
of rain and vegetation. It is possible that the
greater of the two human figures represents a deity,
the lesser a priest, or that both are divinities as in
the analogous figures of the codices (cf. Plate IX,
upper figure). After drawing in Maudsley [c].
Vol. IV.
(?)
Tablet of the Cross, Palenque. The cross was
encountered as an object of worship on the Island
of Cozumel by the first-coming Spaniards. Cruci-
form figures of several types are of frequent occur-
rence as cosmic sjrmbols in Mexican and Mayan
art. With this plate and with Plate XX (A) should
be compared Plates VI and IX. After drawing in
Maudsley [c], Vol. IV.
(C)
* Tablet of the Sun, Palenque. The two cary-
atid-like figures beneath the solar symbol doubtless
represent the upbearers of the heavens (cf. Plate
IX, lower figure). After drawing in Maudsley [c],
Vol. IV.
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.:ft^ •
^T^ Y''^'. HgL -^ - ■ ' • ■'•'■. w'rB- -rrMldZ,
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^,-.^K>f^'^~-vi '''M^
■--V
'.<-."■*■ ^
A-
Uv-
1 ■ i:- -t,^--. :'
3ti v:::b^
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YUCATAN 137
only the work of their own hands, dead things and without
divinity, but they venerated them for the sake of what they
represented and because of the rites with which they had
consecrated them."
Among the deities mentioned by Landa are the Chacs, or
"gods of abundance," whose feasts were held in the spring of
the year in connexion with the four Bacab, or deities of the
Quarters; and again in association with Itzamna at the great
March festival designed to obtain water for the crops, when the
hearts of every kind of wild animal and reptile were offered in
sacrifice. The Chacs were evidently rain-gods, like the Mexi-
can TIaloque, with a ruler, Chac, corresponding to Tlaloc. The
name was likewise applied to four old men annually chosen to
assist the priests in the festivals, and from Landa's descrip-
tions of the parts played by them it is clear that they repre-
sented the genii of the Quarters.
Other divinities who are named include Ekchuah (also men-
tioned by CogoUudo and Las Casas), to whom travellers prayed
and burned copal: "At night, wherever they rested, they
erected three small stones, depositing upon each of these some
grains of their incense, while before them they placed three
other flat stones on which they put more incense, entreating
the god which they name Ekchuah that he would deign to
bring them safely home." There were, again, medicine-gods,
Cit-Bolon-Tum and Ahau-Chamahez, names which Brasseur de
Bourbourg" interprets as meaning respectively "Boar-with-
the-Nine-Tusks" and "Lord-of-the-Magic-Tooth." There
were gods of the chase; gods of fisher folk; gods of maize, as
Yum Kaax ("Lord of Harvests"), of cocoa; and no doubt of
all other food plants. Of the annual feasts, the most signifi-
cant appear to have been the New Year's consecration of the
idols in the month Pop (July) ; the great medicine festival, with
devotion to hunters* and fishermen's gods, in Zip (September) ;
the festival of Kukulcan in Xul (October); the fabrication of
new idols in Mol (December) ; the Ocna, or renovation of the
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138 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
temple in honour of the gods of the fields, in Yax (January);
the interesting expiation for bloodshed — "for they regarded
as abominable all shedding of blood apart from sacrifice" — in .
Zac (February); the rain-prayer to Itzamna and the Chacs,
in March (mentioned above); and the Pax (May) festival in
which the Nacon, or war-chief, was honoured, and at which
the Holkan-Okot, or "Dance of the Warriors," was probably
the notable feature. The war-god is represented in the codices
with a black line upon his face, supposed to represent war-
paint, and is often shown as presiding over the body of a sacri-
ficial victim; while with him is associated not only the death-
god, Ahpuch, but another grim deity, the "Black Captain,"
£k Ahau.
Celestial divinities were probably numerous in the Maya
pantheon, as was almost inevitable in view of the extraordi-
nary development of astronomical observation. Xaman Ek
was the North Star, while Venus was Noh Ek, the Great Star.
The Sun, according to Lizana,^ was worshipped at Izamal as
Kinich-Kakmo, the "Fiery-Visaged Sun"; and the macaw was
his symbol, for, they said, "the Sun descends at midday to
consume the sacrifice as the macaw descends in plumage of
many colours." In view of all the fire thus came at noon upon
the altars, after which the priest prophesied what should come
to pass, especially by way of pestilence, famine, and death.
"The Yucatec have an excessive fear of death," says Landa,
"as may be seen in all their rites with which they honour their
gods, which have no other end than to obtain health and life
and their daily bread"; and he continues with a description of
the abode of blessed souls, a land of food, drink, and sweet
savours, where "there is a tree which they call Yaxche, of an
admirable freshness under the shady branches of which they
will enjoy eternal pleasure. . . . The pains of a wicked-life
consist in a descent to a place still lower which they call Mit-
nal, there to be tormented by demons and to suffer the tortures
of hunger, cold, famine, and sorrow." The lord of this hell is
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YUCATAN 139
Hanhau; and the future life, good or bad, is eternal, for the
life of souls has no end. "They hold it as certain that the souls
of those who hang .themselves go to paradise, there to be re-
ceived by Iztab, goddess of the hanged"; and many ended
their lives in this manner for but light reason such as a disap-
pointment or an illness.
The image of Ixtab, with body limp and head in a loop, as if
hanged, is one of those recognized in the codices; for in default
of m)rthic tales, few of which are preserved concerning the
Yucatec gods, these codex drawings and the monumental
images furnish our main clues to the Maya pantheon. Follow-
ing the suggestion of Schellhas,^^ it is customary to designate
the codical deities (nameless, or uncertainly named) by letters.
Thus, God A is represented with visible vertebrae and skull
head, and is therefore identified as the death-god, named
Hanhau in Landa's account, Ahpuch by Hernandez, and Yum
Cimil ("Lord of Death") by the Yucatec of today. Death is
occasionally shown as an owl-headed deity, and is also asso-
ciated with the moan-bird (a kind of screech-owl), with the god
of war, and with a being that is dubiously identified as a
divinity of frost and of sin. God B, whose image occurs most
frequently of all in the codices, and who is represented with
protruding teeth, a pendulous nose, and lolling tongue, is
closely connected with the serpent and with symbols of the
meteorological elements and of the cardinal points; and is re-
garded as representing Kukulcan. God C, the "god with the
ornamented face," is a sky-deity, tentatively identified with
the North Star, or perhaps with the constellation of the Little
Bear. God D, the old divinity with the Roman nose and the
toothless jaws, is regarded by Schellhas as a god of the moon
or of the night, although in him other scholars see Itzamna, re-
garded as a sun-deity. God E is the maize-god, probably Yum
Raax, or "Lord of Harvests"; God F is the deity of war; and
with him is sometimes associated God M, the "black god
with the red lips," perhaps Ekchuah, the divinity of merchants
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I40 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
and travellers, for war and commerce are connected in the New
World as in the Old.
These seven deities are those of most frequent occurrence
in the codices, though the full list, which surely gives a general
picture of the Maya pantheon, includes also God G, the sun-god
God H, the Chicchan-god (or serpent-deity) ; God I, a water-
goddess; God K, the "god with the ornamented nose"; God L,
the "old black god," perhaps related to M; God N, the "god
of the end of the year"; God O, a goddess with the face of an
old woman; and God P, a frog-god. Others are animal deities,
— the dog, jaguar, vulture, tortoise, and, in differing shapes
of representation, the panther, deer, peccary, bat, and many
forms of birds and animals.
Not a few of these ancient deities hold among the Maya of
today something of their ancient dignity: they are slightly
degraded, not utterly overthrown by the intervention of
Catholic Christianity. At least this is the picture given by
Tozzer as result of his researches among the Yucatac villagers.
According to them, he says,** there are seven heavens above
the earth, each .pierced by a hole at its center. A giant ceiba,
growing in the exact center of the earth, rears its branches
through the holes of the heavens until It reaches the seventh,
where lives El Gran Dios of the Spaniards; and it is by means
of this tree that the spirits of the dead ascend from heaven to
heaven. Below this topmost Christianized heaven, dwell the
spirits, under the rule oiEl Gran Dios, which are none other than
the ancient Maya gods. In the sixth heaven are the bearded
old men, the Nukuchyumchakob, or Yumchakob, white-haired
and very fond of smoking, who are the lords of rain and the
protectors of human beings — apparently the Chacs of the
earlier chroniclers, though the description of them would seem
to imply that Kukulcan is of their number; perhaps originally
he was their lord; now they receive their orders from El Gran
Dios.
In the fifth heaven above dwell the protecting spirits of the
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YUCATAN 141
fields and the forests; in the fourth the protectors of animals;
in the third the spirits ill-disposed toward men; in the second
the lords of the four winds; while in the first above the earth
reside the Yumbalamob, for the special protection of Christians.
These latter are invisible during the day, but at night they sit
beside the crosses reared at the entrances of the pueblos, one
for each of the cardinal points, protecting the villagers from
the dangers of the forest. With obsidian knives they cut
through the wind, and make sounds by which they signal to
their comrades stationed at other entrances to the town.
Truly, this description answers astonishingly to the Aztec
lord of the crossroads, Tezcatlipoca.
Below the earth is Kisin, the earthquake, the evil one, who
resents the chill rains sent down by the Yumchakob, and raises
a wind to clear the sky. The spirits of suicides dwell here also,
and all souls excepting those of war-slain men and women dead
of child-birth (which go directly to heaven) are doomed for a
time to this underworld realm.
Other diminished deities are Ahkinshok, the owner of the
days; the guardians of the bees; the spirit of newfire; Ahkushtal,
of birth; Ahmakiq, who locks up the crop-destroying winds;
patrons of medicine; and a crowd of workers of ill to men,
among them the Shtabai, serpentiform demons who issue from
their cavernous abodes and in female form snare men to ruin.
Paqok, on the other hand, wanders abroad at night and attacks
women. The Yoyolche are also night-walkers; their step is
half a league, and they shake the house as they pass.
Tozzer makes the interesting observation that in many cases,
where among the Maya is found a class of spirits, the purely
heathen Lacandones recognize a single god. Thus, to the
Nukuchjoimchakob of the Maya corresponds the Lacandone
Nohochakjoim, who is the Great Father and chief god of their
religion, having as his servants the spirits of the east, the con-
stellations, and the thunder. At the end of the world he will
wear around his body the serpent Hapikem, who will draw
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142 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
people to him by his breath and slay them. Nohochakyum is
one of four brothers, apparently lords of the four quarters. As
is usual in such groups, he of the east is pre-«minent. Usukun,
one of the brothers, is a cave-dweller, having the earthquake for
his servant; he is regarded with dread, and his image is set
apart from the other gods. There are a number of other gods
and goddesses of the Lacandones, several of which are clearly
identifiable as the same as the Maya deities described by Landa
and other early writers. As a whole, the pantheon is a humane
one; it lacks that quality of terror which makes hideous the
congregation of the Aztec deities. Most of the gods, Maya and
Lacandone, are kindly-disposed toward men, and doubtless it
was this kindliness reflected back which kept the Maya altars
relatively free of human blood.
IV. RITES AND SYMBOLS
No region in America appears to have furnished so many or
such striking analogies to Christian ritual and symbolism as
did the Mayan. It was here, on the island of Cozumel, that
the cross was an object of veneration even at the first coming
of the Spaniard; and when the rites of the natives were studied
by the missionaries, they were found to include many that
seemed to be Christian in inspiration. Bishop Landa *• de-
scribes at length the Yucatec baptism, which was designated
by a name equivalent, he says, to renascor — "for in the Yucatec
tongue zihil means to be reborn" — and which was celebrated
in a complex festival, godfather and all. The name of the rite
was Em-Ku, or "Descent of God"; and, he adds, "They be-
lieve that they receive therefrom a disposition inclined to good
conduct and that it guarantees them from all temptations of
the devil with respect to temporal things, while by means of
this rite and a good life they hope to secure salvation." Sacra-
ments of various sorts, confession of sins, penitence, penance,
and pilgrimages to holy shrines were other ritual similarities
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YUCATAN 143
with Catholic Christianity which could not fail to be impressive
and which actually furthered the change of religion with a
minimum of friction.
Along with these analogies of ritual there were likenesses of
belief: traditions of a deluge, a confusion of tongues, and a dis-
persion of peoples, as well as reminiscences of legendary teachers
of the arts of life and of the truths of religion in which it was
not difficult for the eye of faith to discern the missionary labours
of Saint Thomas. Las Casas,^ quoting a certain cleric. Padre
Francisco Hernandez, tells of a Yucatec trinity: one of their
old men, when asked as to their ancient religion, said that '^ they
recognized and believed in God who dwells in heaven, and that
this God was Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and that the
Father was called Ifona, who had created men and all things,
that the Son was named Bacab, and that he was bom of a
virgin called Chibirias, who is in heaven with God; the Holy
Spirit they termed Echuac." The son, Bacab, it is added, being
scourged and crowned with thorns by one Eopuco, was tied
upon a cross with extended arms, where he died; but after
three days he arose and ascended into heaven to be with his
father. The name Echuac signifies "merchant"; "and good
merchandise the Holy Spirit bore to this world, for He filled
the earth with gifts and graces so divine and so abundant.^'
The honesty of this account is no less evident than its dis-
tortion, which may have been due as much to the confused
reminiscences of the old Indian as to the imaginative expectancy
of the Spanish recorder. Bacab and Ekchuah are mentioned
by Landa and others, and Las Casas also states that the mother
of Chibirias was named Hischen {que nosotros decimos haher
sido Sanf Ana)^ who must surely be the goddess Ixchel, goddess
of fecundity, invoked at child-birth. The association of the
Bacabs (for there are four of them) with the cross and with
heaven is also intelligible, since the Bacabs are genii of the
Quarters, where they upheld the skies and guarded the waters,
which were symbolized in rites by water-jars with animal or
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144 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
human heads. They are, no doubt, in the Maya region as in
Mexico, represented by caryatid and cruciform figures, of
which, we may suppose, the celebrated Tablet of the Cross
and Tablet of the Foliate Cross at Palenque are examples.
The character of the Bacab is best indicated by Landa's ^^
description of the New Year festival celebrated for them; and
he calls them "four brothers whom God, when creating the
world, had placed at its four comers in order to uphold the
heaven • • . though some say that these Bacabs were among
those who were saved when the earth was destroyed in the
Deluge." In all the Yucatec cities there were, Landa states,
four entrances toward the four points, each marked by two
huge stones opposite one another; and each of the four suc-
cessive years designated by a different New Year's sign was
introduced by rites performed at the stones marking the en-
trance appropriate to the year. Thus Kan years were devoted
to the south. The omen of this year was called Hobnil, and
the festival began with the fabrication of a statue of Kan-u-
Uayeyab which was placed with the stones of the south, while
a second idol, called Bolon-Zacab, was erected at the principal
entrance of the chiefs house. When the populace had assembled
they proceeded, along a path well-swept and adorned with
greenery, to the gate of the south, where priests and nobles,
burning incense mingled with maize, sacrificed a fowl. This
done, they placed the statue upon a litter of yellow wood,
"and upon its shoulders an angel — horribly fashioned and
painted — as a sign of an abundance of water and of a good
year to come." Dancing, they conveyed the litter to the pres-
ence of the statue of Bolon-Zacab at the chiefs house, where
further offerings were made and a banquet was shared by such
strangers as might be within the gates. "Others drawing
blood and scarifying their ears, anointed a stone which was
there, an idol named Kanal-Acantun; and they moulded also
a heart of bread-dough and another of gourd-seeds which they
presented to the idol Kan-u-Uayeyab. Thus they guarded this
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PLATE XXI
Stone Lintel from Menche, Chiapas, representing
a Maya priest asperging a penitent who is drawing
a barbed cord through his tongue. After photo-
graph in the Peabody Museum.
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YUCATAN 145
statue and the other during the unlucky days, smoking them
with incense and with incense mingled with ground maize for
they believed that if they neglected these rites, they would be
subject to the ills pertaining to this year. When the unlucky
days were past, they carried the image of Bolon-Zacab to the
temple, and the idol of the other to the eastern gate of the
town, that there they might begin the New Year; and leaving
it in this place, they returned home, each occupying himself
with the duties of the New Year." This was regarded as a year
of good augury; and similar rites were performed in connexion
with each of the other year-signs. Under Muluc the omen was
called Canzienal and was also regarded as good. It was the
year of the east, and the gate was marked by an idol named
Chac-u-Uayeyab, while the deity presiding at the chiefs house
was termed Kinich-Ahau, the meaning of which must be "Lord
of the Solar Eye" if Brasseur's interpretation be correct. War-
dances were a feature of the celebration, doubtless to Sol In-
mctus; and offerings made in the form of yolks of eggs further
suggest solar symbolism; while it was believed that eye-disease
or injury would be the lot of anyone who neglected the rites.
Ix years were devoted to the north, with an omen called
Zac-Ciui and regarded as evil. The god of the quarter was
named Zac-u-Uayeyab, and he of the centre Yzamna, to whom
were offered turkeys' heads, quails' feet, etc. Cotton was the
sole crop in which abundance was to be expected, while ills of
all sorts threatened. Darker still were the prognostics of
Hozanek, the omen of Cauac years, sacred to the west. An
image of Ek-u-Mayeyab was carried to the portals of the west,
while Uac-Mitun-Ahau presided in the central place; and on a
green and black litter the god of the gate was carried to the
centre, having on his shoulders a calabash and a dead man,
with an ash-coloured bird of prey above. "This they conveyed
in a manner showing devotion mingled with distress, per-
forming dances which they called Xibalba-Okot, which signi-
fies Mance of the demon.'" Pests of ants and devouring birds
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146 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
were among the plagues expected; and among the rites by
which they sought to exorcise these evils was a night of bon-
fires, through the hot coals of which they raced with bare feet,
hoping thus to expiate the threatened ills, all ending in an
intoxication "demanded both by custom and by the heat of
the fire."
V. THE MAYA CYCLES"
It is probable that the Mexican calendar is remotely of
Mayan origin, especially as the fundamental features of the
calendric system are the same in the two regions; viz., first,
the combination of the Tonalamatl of two hundred and sixty
days with the year of three hundred and sixty-rfive days in a
"round" or "bundle," of fifty-two such years; and second, the
co-ordination of cyclic returns of calendric symbols with the
synodic periods of the planets, serving, along with purely
numerical counts, to distinguish and characterize the major
cycles. It is in this second feature that the Maya calendar
is vastly superior to the Mexican; forming, indeed, by far the
most impressive achievement of aboriginal America in the way
of scientific conception.
The Mayan name for the period known to the Aztec as
Xiuhmolpilli, or "Bundle of the Years," is unknown; it is cus-
tomarily designated as the Calendar Round. In construction it
is essentially the same as the Mexican: the day, kin (literally,
**sun"), is combined in the twenty-day period, or uinal (prob-
ably related to uinic, "man," referring to the foundation of
the vigesimal system in the full count of fingers and toes) ; and
thirteen of these periods are united in the Tonalamatl (the Maya
name is unknown), which Goodman designates the "Burner
Period," believing it to be ceremonially related to incense
burning. As the combination of thirteen numerals with the
twenty day-signs causes the completion of their possible com-
binations in this period, the series, as with the Mexicans, begins
anew at the end of the Tonalamatl; and is so continued, repeat-
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YUCATAN 147
ing indefinitely. The names of the Maya days, corresponding
to the twenty signs, are: Imix, Ik, Akbal, Kan, Chicchan, Cimi,
Manik, Lamat, Muluc, Oc, Chuen, £b, Ben, Ix, Men, Cib,
Caban, Eznab, Cauac, and Ahau. Each of these day-signs
(and probably each of the thirteen numbers accompanying
them) had its divinatory significance; and it is quite certain,
from Landa's references alone, that divination formed a promi-
nent use of calendric codices.
The year, or haaby of the Maya, again like the Mexican, con-
sisted of eighteen uinals — Pop, Uo, Zip, Zotz, Tzec, Xul,
Yaxkin, Mol, Chen, Yax, Zac, Ceh, Mac, Kankin, Muan, Pax,
Kayab, and Cumhu, — plus five "nameless days," or Uayeb.
This year of three hundred and sixty-five days is, of course, a
quarter of a day less than the true year, and such astronomers
as the Maya must have been could not have failed to discover
this fact. Bishop Landa states explicitly that they were quite
aware of it; but they did not, in all probability, resort to any
intercalation to correct the defect, for the whole genius of the
Mayan calendar consists in their unswerving maintenance of
the count of days. On the other hand, it is probable that the
priests who made the solar observations adjusted the seasonal
feasts to the changing dates as in the precisely similar custom
of ancient Egypt, where each ascending Pharaoh swore to pre-
serve the civil year of three hundred and sixty-five days with-
out intercalation: the immense power and prestige given to the
priesthood by this custom is a sufiicient reason for its perpe-
tuity. The fact that 20 {uinal) and 365 {haab) factor with 5
gives, again, the division of the uinal days into groups of five,
each headed by one of the four — Ik, Manik, Eb. and Caban —
which alone could be New Year's days.
The names of the "month," or divisions of the year, like the
names of the uincd days, were symbolized by hieroglyphs, and
the days of the month were numbered o to 19, since in their
reckoning of time the Maya always counted that which had
elapsed. Thus every day had a double designation: its position
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148 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
in the Tonalamatl, determined by day-sign and day-number
(i . . • 13), and its position in tlie haaby determined by
"month "-sign (tttna/ or Uayeb) and day-number (o . . • 19),
as, for example, the date-name of the Maya Era, "4 Ahau 8
Cumhu." The possible combinations of these elements is ex-
hausted only in a cycle of 18,980 days, equal to 73 Tonala-
mails and to 52 haabs. This is the Calendar Round, or cycle
of date-names, which, like the other elements in the Maya
calendar, is endlessly repeated. It is probable that the Aztec
had no such precision in their dating system even within the
Year-Bundle, evidence for the employment of month-signs in
computation of the day-series being uncertain.
In yet another important respect the Maya were far in ad-
vance of the Mexicans, for the latter had no adequate means of
distinguishing dates of the same name belonging to separate
Year-Bundles, in consequence of which their historic records
are full of confusion; whereas the Maya developed an elaborate
method — still, curiously enough, a day-count — parallel with
the Calendar Round series, by which they were able to record
historic dates for immense periods. The system was essentially
mathematical and was based on their vigesimal notation, its
elements being as follows:
Kin I day
Uinal 20 days
Tun (18 Uinals) 360 days
Katun (20 Tuns) 7,200 days
Cycle (20 Katuns) 144,000 days
Great Cycle, either 13 Cycles 1,872,000 days
or 20 Cycles 2,880,000 days
In this series, it will be observed, the third day-group does not
rise from the second by vigesimal multiplication; and it is as-
sumed that it has been, as it were, psychologically deflected
from the regular ascending series by the attraction of the 18
uinals of the natural year in order to bring the tun into some
kind of conformity with the haab. Beyond the katun, the na-
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YUCATAN 149
live names for the cycles are unknown, though their symbols
have been determined.
The series of units of time thus composed is that employed
by the Maya of Yucatan, as recovered from the early Spanish
records and the codices. In this region the katun was the
historical unit of prime significance, for both Landa and Cogol-
ludo note the fact that at the end of every katun a graven stone
was erected or laid in the walls of an edifice to record the event.
Study of the sculptured stelae of the capitals and cities of the
Old Empire of the south has convinced archaeologists that
these stelae are similarly, in great part, monuments erected
not primarily to honor men or commemorate events but to
mark the passage of time. The units, however, as recorded
from readings of the dates, are not primarily katuns (of 7200
days), but halves and quarters of the katun. Morley,^ to whom
belongs credit of the demonstration of the system, gives to
these lesser periods the names hotun ("five /wnj," or 1800 days)
and lahuntun ("ten tuns^^^ or 3600 days). The amazing monu-
mental wealth, therefore, of the old Maya cities turns out to
be chiefly due to the importance which the Maya peoples at-
tached to the idea of time itself and to the recording of its
passage.
Such an idea could only have reference to religious or
mythico-religious beliefs, of the nature of which something is
to be inferred from the monumental and codical indications of
the cycles and the Great Cycle which entered into Maya com-
putations. The cycle is clearly a conception induced by the
necessities of vigesimal notation, with, no doubt, mythic
associations suggested by its pictographic notation; it is a
period of twenty katuns, just as the katun is twenty tuns. But
the duration of the Great Cycle is matter of dispute. Bowditch
and Goodman, basing their judgment on the fact that the
cycles in the inscriptions are numbered i ... 13, and again
upon the fact that the two known starting-points, or eras, of
Maya monumental chronology are just thirteen cycles apart,
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regard the Great Cycle as composed of thirteen cycles; Morley,
chiefly from evidence in the codices, believes that it was com-
posed of twenty cycles. It is possible, of course, that the con-
ception of the Great Cycle changed from the time of the Old
Empire to that of the New, perhaps influenced by the change
in the period of erecting monumental records; but in any case
the immense numbers of days embraced in the Maya reckonings
excite our wonden Such calculations could have been made
possible only by the use of a highly developed arithmetical
system, and this the Maya possessed; for they had developed
a positional notation, employing a sign for zero ( ® ), a
system of dots ( • ■* i; • • » 2; etc.) and bars ( — 5; :^ «= 10;
etc.) for the integers i ... 19 (= « 19), while the concep-
tion of positive and negative was achieved through the use
of these elements recorded vertically — units above zero,
twenties above the units, tuns in the third position upward,
and so on. The tun (==360) is an obvious calendric number,
and this makes clear that the Maya certainly developed the
higher possibilities of their mode of computation in connexion
with the needs of their reckoning of time. The perfection of
their achievement is indicated by the fact that through its
use they were enabled to distinguish any date within the range
of a Great Cycle from any other, thus creating a numbered
time-scheme which in our own system would be measured by
millenia.
To complete its historical value only one element need be
added, the selection of an era from which to reckon dates.
Two such eras are known, one bearing the name 4 Ahau 8
Cumhu, and the other (found in only two inscriptions) that
of 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, this falling thirteen cycles earlier than the
other. The former, from which nearly all thp monumental in-
scriptions are reckoned, is some three thousand years anterior
to the period of the inscriptions themselves and probably,
therefore, refers to an event in the third millennium b. c, as-
suming that the monuments belong to the first thousand years
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YUCATAN 151
of our era. It is altogether unlikely that a date so remote can
represent any but a mythical event, such, we may suppose, as
the end of a preceding "Sun," or Age of the World, and the
beginning of that in which we live; for the Maya, like the
Nahua, possessed the myth of ages of this type. CogoUudo
mentions two of these ages as terminated by annihilation of
the human race through epidemic, and a third as ended by
storm and flood; while Landa's account of the calamities fol-
lowing the destruction of Mayapan seems clearly to be inter-
mingled with a myth of world catastrophes. The Popul Vuk
shows that the character of the Quiche legend was not essen-
tially unlike that of the Aztec, who may, indeed, have received
from the Maya their cosmogony along with their calendric
system, of which it is doubtless in some degree a product.
Astronomical data must have entered into the calculation
of these great epochs. Forstemann and other students have
discovered in the codices, particularly in the Dresden Codex,
evidences of the reckoning of the period not only of Venus
(five hundred and eighty-four days), but also of lunar revolu-
tions, of the period of Mars (seven hundred and eighty days),
and possibly of the cycles Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury as
well. Such periods, for astrological and divinatory purposes,
were recorded in the books of the priests; and, as elsewhere in
the world, the synodic revolutions of the planets, and the re-
currences of their stations with respect to the day-signs, gave
the material for the formation of huge cycles of time which
their mathematical system enabled them to compute. Thus
it is that Forstemann finds near the end of the Dresden Codex
vast numbers — designated as "Serpent Numbers" because
of the occurrence of the serpent-symbol in connexion with
them — which correspond to such cyclic recombinations of
signs and events.
"In the 80<alled * serpent numbers,'" writes Morley,** "a
grand total of nearly twelve and a half million days (about
thirty-four thousand years) is recorded again and again. In
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152 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
these well-nigh inconceivable periods all the smaller units may
be regarded as coming at last to a more or less exact close.
What matter a few score years one way or the other in this
virtual eternity? Finally, on the last page of the manuscript,
is depicted the Destruction of the World, for which the highest
numbers have paved the way. Here we see the rain serpent,
stretching across the sky, belching forth torrents of water.
Great streams of water gush from the sun and moon. The old
goddess, she of the tiger claws and forbidding aspect, the
malevolent patronness of floods and cloudbursts, overturns
the bowl of the heavenly waters. The crossbones, dread em-
blem of death, decorate her skirt, and a writhing snake crowns
her head. Below with downward-pointed spears, symbolic of
the universal destruction, the black god stalks abroad, a
screeching owl raging on his fearsome head. Here, indeed, is
portrayed with graphic touch the final all-engulfing cataclysm.'*
In their sculpture the Maya far surpassed the artistic ex-
pression of all other Americans, attaining not only decorative
power, but such idealization of the human countenance as is
possible only among people whose aesthetic sensibilities have
an intellectual background and guidance. No more con-
vincing evidence of this mental power could be forthcoming
than is shown in their mathematical and astronomical learn-
ing, at once a testimony to the antiquity of their culture and
to the force of their native genius.
VI. THE CREATION
Just as the notion of great astronomical cycles shadowed
forth eschatological cataclysms, so it reverted to cyclic aeons
of the past in which the world came to its present form. There
is no such wealth of creation m)rth preserved from the ancient
Maya as from the Nahua, but enough is recorded to make it
clear that the ideas of the two peoples were essentially one:
indeed, they clearly belong to a group of cosmogonical con-
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PLATE XXII
Final page from the Codex Desdensis showing
"Serpent Numbers" and typifying the cataclysms
destroying the world. See pages ISI"52 for de-
scription, and compare Plates XII, XIII, XIV.
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YUCATAN 153
ceptions extending as far to the north as the Pueblos of the
United States, and not without influence beyond, into the
prairie country. Possibly the whole complex conception had
its first telling with the Maya; it is with them, at least, that
the numerical and calendric ideas with which it is logically
associated received the greatest development and give the
most natural raison d'etre to the mythic lore.
Something of the nature of the Maya conception is intimated
by CogoUudo and Landa, as noted in a preceding paragraph.
More is given in Tozzer's account of Maya religion as it is to-
day.* According to information obtained from Mayas of
Valladolid, the world is now in the fourth period of its exist-
ence. In the first, there lived the Saiyamkoob, "the Ad-
justers," the primitive race of Yucatan, who were dwarfs and
built the cities now in ruins. Their work was done in darkness,
when as yet there was no sun. When the sun appeared they
were turned into stone, and their images are to be found to-
day in the ruins. In this period there was a living rope ex-
tending from earth to sky, by which food was brought down to
the builders. Blood was in this rope; but the rope was cut,
the blood flowed out, and earth and sky were parted. Water-
over-the-earth ended this period. It was followed by the age
of the Tsolob, "the Offenders**; and these, too, were de-
stroyed by a flood. The third age was that in which the Maya
reigned, but their day likewise passed amid waters of destruc-
tion, to give place to the present age peopled by a mixture of
all the races that have previously dwelt in Yucatan.
It is easy to align these notions with what we know of
Mexican myth, though it is evident that history rather than
genesis is its present significance. But purely cosmogonic is
the fragment from the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel
published by Martinez Hernandez* with its suggestion of the
Thirteen Lords of the Day captured by the Nine of the Night
as the first great act:
"During the 11 ahau, Ahmucen-cab come [came] to cover
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the faces of Ozlahun-ti-ku (thirteen gods); his names were
unknown except those of his sister and of his children : and they
said that the faces also were equally not visible; then, when the
world was made, they knew not that they would be entirely
cast away; and Oxlahun-ti-ku was captured by Bolon-ti-ku
(nine gods); then he brought down fire; then he brought down
salt; then he brought down the stones and trees and came to
play with the stones and trees; and Oxlahun-ti-ku was caught
and they broke his head and buffeted him, and also carried
him on their backs; and they despoiled him of his dragon and
his tiznf [black paint or soot]; and they took fresh shoots of
yaxum and white beans, tuberous roots cut up small, and the
heart of small calabash seeds and of large calabash seeds cut
up small, and of black beans cut up small. This first Bolon-
tsac-cab (nine orders of the world) made a thick covering of
seeds and went away to the thirteenth heaven, and the sur-
face of the earth remained formed, and the peaks of the rocks
of the world.
"And the heart of Oxlahun-ti-ku went away, the hearts of
the tuberous roots refusing to go. And there came women
without-fathers, with those who have hard work, the without-
husbands, who, although living have no heart; and wrapped
in dog's grass, they were buried in the sea.
"All at once came the water after the dragon was carried
away. The heaven was broken up; it fell upon the earth; and
they say that Cantul-ti-ku (four gods), the four Bacab, were
those who destroyed it. Then, when the universal destruc-
tion was past, they placed as dweller Kan-xib-yui, to order it
anew. And the tree, the white ymixy was placed standing in
the north; and he placed the supporting poles of the heaven;
and it was said that this tree was the symbol of the universal
destruction." Four other trees, each of a different colour, each
symbol of a destruction of the world, were planted at the re-
maining quarters and the centre; and the form of the world
was then complete. "*The whole world,' said Ah-uuc-chek-
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YUCATAN 155
nale (he who seven times makes fruitful), * proceeded from the
seven bosoms of the earth.' And he descended to make fruit-
ful Itzam-kab^tn (the female whale with alligator feet), when
he came down from the central angle of the heavenly region.
The four lights, the four regions of the stars, revolved. As
yet there was no light; absolutely there was no sun; absolutely
there was no night; absolutely there was no moon. They
awoke; and from then began the world. At that instant the
world began. Thirteen numeral orders, with seven, is the
period since the beginning of the world.**
I
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CHAPTER V
CENTRAL AMERICA
I. QUICHE AND CAKCHIQUELi
BY some accident of history the most significant literary
records of the Mayan peoples — and, in their way, of any
American stock — are not preserved to us from the builders of
the monumental cities, the Maya themselves, but from two
closely related tribes belonging to the southernmost group of
the Mayan race. The Quiche (frequently, Kiche) and the Cak-
chiquel (or Eakchiquel) dwelt in the mountains of Guatemala
overlooking the Pacific, where, except for the Nahuatlan Pipil,
to the east of them, their neighbours were other Mayan tribes
— the Tzental, the Mame, and their kindred to the west; the
Pokonchi, the Kekchi, and others to the north; and the Chorti
to the east. It is in the lands of these groups, mountain valleys
draining toward the Gulf and the Carribbean, that the ruins of
the monumental cities chiefly lie. At the time of the Conquest
their sites had long been abandoned, though it must not be sup-
posed that the tribes occupying the land were savage. On the
contrary, they lived in well-built, fortified towns, with fine
residences for the chiefs and pyramid temples for the service of
the gods; but the remains of the cities of the Conquest era have
yielded no such wealth of art as has been revealed by the ex-
ploration of the homes of the ancestral Maya, nor do the tradi-
tions of the tribes who inhabited the region at the coming of the
Spaniards throw any light upon the builders of the ancient
cities which, indeed, they seem scarcely to have known. Rather,
when the Quiche and their kindred entered the land, it appears
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CENTRAL AMERICA 157
to have been long deserted: "Only rabbits and birds were here,
they say, when they took possession of the hills and the plains,
they, our fathers and ancestors from Tulan, O my children," —
so runs the beginning of the Cakchiquel Annals.^ These AnnalSy
like the Popid Fuh, or "Sacred Book," of the kindred Quiche,
profess to give a migration-legend of the ancestors of the tribe
and an account of the historic chiefs, but neither the one record
nor the other runs to a remote period; both point to a com-
paratively recent entrance into an abandoned country, the date
of which Brinton would set at less than two centuries anterior
to the Conquest; nor is there any certain clue which would
associate the Quiche-Cakchiquel histories with those of the
contemporary Maya.
The relationship of the two centres of Mayan culture, Yucatec
and Guatemalan, is, however, more than merely linguistic and
raciaL When the Maya of the later days of the Old Empire
were pushing northward into the peninsula, exploring and es-
tablishing cities, others of their kindred were penetrating the
mountains to the south, and the last town of the south to rise
and fall (as shown by its dated monuments) was at Quen Santo
in the Guatemalan province of Huehuetenango. Whether or
not something of the old culture was transmitted through these
groups or their descendants, whom, indeed, the Quiche and
Cakchiquel may have been, identities of mythic reference make
it certain that all Maya groups had some primitive community of
experience. Moreover, the southern tribes clearly shared with
the northern their literary and artistic bent. The story of the
defeat of the Quiche, in the Cakchiquel Annals^ tells how the
latter slew "the son of the chief jeweller, the treasurer, the
secretary, and the chief engraver" of the Quiche monarch —
officers whose very character gives the picture of an accom-
plished society; and it may well be assumed that the literary
taste and historic feeling manifest in the Annals and the Popul
Fuh are but evidences, literary rather than graphic in char-
acter, of the genius which marks the whole Mayan race. Bras-
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seur de Bourbourg says * of the Popul Fuh that "it is composed
in a Quiche of great elegance, and its author must have been
one of the princes of the royal family," while of the Annals
(which he names Mtmorial de Tecpan-AtiUanj and which was
indeed, in greater part written by a noble, Don Francisco Er-
nandez Arana Xahila) he declares that "the style is varied and
picturesque and frequently contains passages of high anima-
tion." The translations of both documents quite sustain these
opinions of their literary excellence.
Las Casas, who was as familiar as any man with the general
character of native American culture, and especially with that
of Guatemala of which he was bishop, gives a general charac-
terization of native learning in his chapter {Apologetica His^
toriaj ccxxxv) on "the books and religious traditions of Guate-
mala." In the kingdoms and republics of New Spain, he says,
"among other offices and officials, were those who acted as
chroniclers and historians. They possessed knowledge of the
origin of all things relative to religion and to the gods and their
cult, as well as of the founders of their cities, of the beginnings
of their kings and lords and seignories, of the manner of their
election and succession, of how many and what lords and
princes had passed away, of their works and actions and memo-
rable deeds, good and bad, and of whatever they had governed
well or ill; also, of their great men and good, and of strong and
valorous captains, of the wars that they had made, and of how
they had distinguished themselves. Moreover, of the first
customs and the first comers, of how they had since changed
for good or ill, and of all that pertains to history, in order that
they might have understanding and remembrance of past
events." Furthermore, he adds, these chroniclers kept count
of the days, months, and years, and "although they had no
writing similar to ours, nevertheless they had figures and char-
acters representing all that they needed to designate, and, by
means of these, great books of such clever and ingenious art
that we may say that our letters were of no great advantage to
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CENTRAL AMERICA 159
them." The office of chronicler, it Is added, was hereditary,
or belonged to certain families.
After the Conquest many of the natives who had acquired the
alphabet adapted it to their own tongue and recorded their
histories in the new characters. Numbers of such books were
known to the Spanish writers of the sixteenth century, and it is
from these that the Popul Vuh and the Cakchiquel Annals have
survived.
II. THE POPUL VUH»
The Popul Vuh is the most striking and instructive of the
myth-records of primitive America. Other legends are as com-
prehensive in scope, as varied in material, and as dramatic in
form; but no other, in anything like the measure of this docu-
ment, combines with these qualities the element of critical
consciousness, giving the flavour of philosophic reflection
which lifts the narrative from the level of mere tale-telling into
that of literature. Something of this character is clearly due
to the fact that it was written down after the introduction of
Christianity by an author, or authors, professing the new faith;
yet it is equally clear to a reader of our day that this is not the
whole cause, that there is in the aboriginal material itself such
an element of deliberate reflection as appears in the Aztec
rituals recorded by Sahagun and in some of the Incaic frag-
ments, though scarcely to be found elsewhere in the New World,
at least in the myths as they have been preserved to us.
The work is divided into four parts, consciously literary in
arrangement. The first recounts the creation of the earth and
of the First Peoples, together with the conflicts of the Hero
Brothers with Titan-like Earth-giants. The second part de-
picts the duel of the upper-world heroes with the nether-world
demonic powers: an elder pair of Hero Brothers are defeated,
later to be avenged by the younger Hero Brothers — the
slayers of the Earth-giants — who overcome Death in his own
lair and by his own wile. This incident of "the harrowing of
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i6o LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Hell" belongs in mythic chronology tx) a cycle of events earlier*
in part than the gigantomachy, and it is obviously for dramatic
reasons that the longest book of the Popul Vuh is devoted to it.
With the third part the original narrative is resumed, narrating
the creation of the ancestors of the present race of men and the
rise of the Sun which now rules the world; while the fourth and
last part continues the tale, giving myths of cult origins, tribal
wars, and finally records of historic rulers, thus satisfying the
feeling for consecutiveness and completeness.
"Admirable is the account" — so the narrative opens —
"admirable is the account of the time in which it came to pass
that all was formed in heaven and upon earth, the quartering of
their signs, their measure and alignment, and the establishment
of parallels to the skies and upon the earth to the four quarters
thereof, as was spoken by the Creator and Maker, the Mother,
the Father of life and of all existence, that one by whom all
move and breathe, father and sustainer of the peace of peoples,
by whose wisdom was premeditated the excellence of all that
doth exist in the heavens, upon the earth, in lake and sea.
"Lo, all was in suspense, all was calm and silent; all was mo-
tionless, all was quiet, and wide was the immensity of the
skies.
"Lo, the first word and the first discourse. There was not
yet a man, not an animal; there were no birds nor fish nor cray-
fish; there was no wood, no stone, no bog, no ravine, neither
vegetation nor marsh; only the sky existed.
"The face of the earth was not yet to be seen; only the peace-
ful sea and the expanse of the heavens.
"Nothing was yet formed into a body; nothing was joined to
another thing; naught held itself poised; there was not a rustle,
not a sound beneath the sky. There was naught that stood
upright; there were only the quiet waters of the sea, solitary
within its bounds; for as yet naught existed.
"There were only immobility and silence in the darkness and
in the night. Alone was the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, the
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PLATE XXIII
Ceremonial precinct or plaza, Quirigua. An
altar and three stelae of the Old Empire Maya type
are shown. Other monuments are still in situ on
this site, among them the "Quirigua Dragon,**
Plate I (frontispiece). After photograph by Cornell,
Lincoln.
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CENTRAL AMERICA i6i
Lord, and Gucumatz, the Plumed Serpent, those who engender,
those who give being, alone upon the waters like a growing
light.
"They are enveloped in green and azure, whence is the name
Gucumatz, and their being is great wisdom. Lo, how the sky
existeth, how the Heart of the Sky existeth — for such is the
name of God, as He doth name Himself !
"It is then that the word came to Tepeu and to Gucumatz,
in the shadows and in the night, and spake with Tepeu and
with Gucumatz. And they spake and consulted and meditated,
and they joined their words and their counsels.
"Then light came while they consulted together; and at the
moment of dawn man appeared while they planned concerning
the production and increase of the groves and of the climbing
vines, there in the shade and in the mght, through that one who
is the Heart of the Sky, whose name is Hurakan.
"The Lightning is the first sign of Hurakan; the second is
the Streak of Lightning; the third is the Thunderbolt which
striketh; and these three are the Heart of the Sky.
"Then they came to Tepeu, to Gucumatz, and held counsel
touching civilized life: how seed should be formed, how light
should be produced, how the sustainer and nourisher of all.
"*Let it be thus done. Let the waters retire and cease to
obstruct, to the end that earth exist here, that it harden itself
and show its surface, to the end that it be sown, and that the
light of day shine in the heavens and upon the earth; for we
shall receive neither glory nor honour from all that we have
created and formed until human beings exist, endowed with
sentience.' Thus they spake while the earth was formed by
them. It is thus, veritably, that creation took place, and the
earth existed. ^ Earth,' they said, and immediately it was
formed.
"Like a fog or a doud was its formation into the material
state, when, like great lobsters, the mountains appeared upon
the waters, and in an instant there were great mountains. Only
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by marvellous power could have been achieved this their resolu-
tion when the mountains and the valleys instantly appeared
with groves of cypress and pine upon them.
"Then was Gucumatz filled with joy. *Thou art welcome, O
Heart of the Sky, O Hurakan, O Streak of Lightning, O Thun-
derbolt!'
"*This that we have created and shaped will have its end,*
they replied.
"And thus first were formed the earth, the mountains, and
the plains; and the course of the waters was divided, the rivulets
running serpentine among the mountains; it is thus that the
waters existed when the great mountains were unveiled.
"Thus was accomplished the creation of the earth when it
was formed by those who are the Heart of the Sky and the
Heart of the Earth; for so those are called who first made fruit-
ful the heaven and the earth while yet they were suspended in
the midst of the waters. Such was its fecundation when they
fecundated it while its fulfilment and its composition were
meditated by them."
So runs the first chapter of the Quiche Genesis, displaying
at the outset an odd intermingling, which characterizes the
whole work, of the raw actuality of primitive imagination with
the dramatic reflection of the mind of the sage.
The second act of the drama is the creation of denizens, or
rather histrions, for the stage that is set; and the Quiche narra-
tor, with remarkable ease, casts them in puppet mould, a back-
ground of grandiosity serving still further to belittle the dolls
which are the Creator's experiments. First, the animals are
formed and assigned their dwellings and their habits: "Thou,
Deer, shalt sleep on the borders of brooks and in the ravines;
there shalt thou rest in the brushwood, amid forage; and there
multiply; thou shalt go upon four feet, and upon four feet
shalt thou live." This is the style in which the creatures of
land and air and water are severally addressed. Nevertheless —
and here is the philosophic touch — the animals could not
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speak, as man does; they had no language; they could only
chatter and cluck and croak, each according to its kind. This
is very far from the most primitive stratum of thought, where
all animals are gifted with language.
"When the Creator and the Maker understood that they
could not speak, they said one to another: *They are unable
to utter our name, although we are their makers and formers.
This is not well.' And they spake to the animals: 'Our
glory is not perfect in that ye do not invoke us; but there
shall yet be those who can salute us and who will be capable
of obedience. As for you, your flesh shall be broken under
the tooth.'"
Seed-time was approaching, and dawn; and the divine beings
said, "Let us make those who shall be our supporters and
nourishers." Then they formed men out of moist earth, but
these proved to be without cohesion or consistence or power
of movement; they could not turn their heads; their sight was
veiled; although they had speech, they had no intelligence;
the waters destroyed them helplessly; and their makers saw
that their handiwork was a failure. Now they consulted with
Xpiyacoc and Xmucane (Mayan equivalents of Cipactonal
and Qzomoco, like whom they were addressed as "Twice
Grandmother," "Twice Grandsire"); while Hurakan of the
Winds and He of the Sun were also called into the council. There
they divined with kernels of maize and with red berries of the
tzite; and when noon came they said : "O Maize, O Tzite, O Sun,
O Creature, unite and join one another! And thou, O Heart of
the Sky, redden that the countenance of Tepeu, of Gucumatz,
be not made to lower !" Then they carved manikins of wood
and caused them to live and to multiply and to engender sons
and daughters who were also manikins, carved and wooden.
But these had neither heart nor intelligence nor memory of
their creators; they led a useless and animal existence; they
were only experimental men; they had no blood, no substance,
no flesh; and their faces and their limbs were dry and desic-
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cated. They thought not of their Makers, nor did they lift
their heads to them.
I''-' The gods, again disappointed, resolved upon the destruction
of the manikin race and caused a heavy, resinous rain to descend
day and night, darkening the face of the earth. Moreover, four
great birds were sent to assail these creatures of wood: Xecot-
covach snatched their eyes from their orbits; Camalotz attacked
their heads, and Cotzbalam their flesh, while Tecumbalam
broke their bones, and animals great and small turned against
them. "Ye have done ill to us," cried their dogs and their
fowls; "now we shall bite you; in your turn ye shall be tor-
mented." Even the pots and cooking utensils arose in rebellion.
The metates said: "We were tortured by you; daily, daily,
night and day, always it was hoH, holi, huquij huqui, grinding
our surfaces because of you. This we have suffered from you;
now that ye have ceased to be men, ye shall feel our power;
we shall grind you and reduce your flesh to powder;" and the
bowls and pots followed with similar threats and imprecations.
The victims ran everywhere in desperate efforts to escape:
they ascended to the roofs of their houses, but the houses col-
lapsed; they wished to climb the trees, but the trees drew away
from them; they sought to enter the caverns, but these closed
against them. All were destroyed, and there remained of their
descendants only the little monkeys that live in the trees, which
is token that "of wood alone their flesh was formed by the
Creator and Maker."
After the destruction of the manikins is narrated, the Popul
Fuh digresses to recount the deeds of the Hero Brothers,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque; and it is only in the third part of
the work that the tale of creation is resumed, the beginnings
of the present "Sun" of the world being its theme.
Once more the demiurgic gods meditated the creation of man,
and once more they gathered for counsel in the cosmic dusk, for
though the dawn was near, the world was not yet illuminated.
It was then that they heard of the white and the yellow maize
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in the Place of the Division of the Waters; and it was decided
that from these should be made the blood and the flesh of man*
"Then they began to grind the white maize and the yellow,
while Xumucane concocted nine broths; and this nourishment
entering in, generated strength and power, giving flesh and
muscles to man. . . . Only yellow maize and white entered
into their flesh, and these were the sole substance of the legs
and arms of man; thus were formed our first fathers, the four
brothers, who were formed of it," whose names were Balam-
Quitze, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam. ^^Men they
were; they spake and they reasoned; they saw and they under-
stood; they moved and they had feeling; men perfect and fair,
whose features were human features."
These beings, however, were too highly endowed; they lifted
up their eyes, and their gaze embraced all; they knew all things;
nothing in heaven or earth was concealed from them. The
Maker asked: "Is not your being good? Do ye not see? Do
ye not understand? Your speech and your movement, are
they not admirable? Look up, are there not mountains and
plains under the sky?" Then the created ones rendered thanks
to their Creator, saying: "Truly, thou gavest us every motion
and accomplishment! We have received existence, we have
received a mouth, a face; we speak, we understand, we think,
we walk; we perceive and we know equally well what is far and
what is near; we see all things, great and small, in heaven and •
upon the earth. Thanks be to you who have created us, O
Maker, O Former!" But the Makers were not pleased to hear
this. "This is not well! Their nature will not be that of simple
creatures; they will be as gods. . . . Would they perchance
rival us who have made them, whose wisdom extendeth far
and knoweth all things?" Thus spoke Hurakan, and Tepeu,
and Gucumatz, and the divine pair Xpiyacoc and Xmucane.
Then the Heart of the Sky breathed a cloud upon the eyes of
the four men, veiling itself so that it appeared like a mirror
covered with vapour; and their vision was obscured, so that
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they could clearly see only what was near them. Thus their
knowledge and their wisdom were reduced to mortal propor-
tions; and being caused to slumber, during their sleep four
beautiful women were brought to be their wives, so that when
they awoke, they were filled with joy of their espousals.
The generations of humanity increased, men living together
in joy and peace. They had but a single language and they
prayed neither to wood nor to stone, but only to the Maker
and Former, Heart of the Sky and Heart of the Earth, their
prayer being for children and for light, for the sun had not yet
risen. As time passed and no sun appeared, men became dis-
quieted, so that the four brothers set forth for Tulan-Zuiva,
the Place of Seven Caves and Seven Ravines, where they re-
ceived their gods, a deity for each clan, Tohil being the divinity
of Balam-Quitze, Avilix of Balam-Agab, Hacavitz of Mahu-
cutah, and Nicahtagah of Iqi-Balam. Tohil's first gift was fire,
and when rains extinguished the first flame, he kindled it anew
by striking upon his foot-gear, whereupon men of other tribes,
their teeth chattering with cold, came to the brothers praying
for a little of their fire. "They were not well received, and
their hearts were filled with sadness,'* is the rather brutal
comment; but the motive turns out to be yet more brutal, for
as a price of fire Tohil demanded that these strangers "embrace
me, Tohil, under the armpit and under the girdle," a euphe-
mism which can refer only to the customary form of human
sacrifice.
Even yet the sun had not appeared, and the race of man was
saddened by the delay. They fasted and performed expiations,
keeping continual watch for the Morning Star, which should
herald the first sunrise. Finally in despair they resumed their
migration: "Alas!" they said, "here we shall never behold the
dawn at the moment when the sun is bom to lighten the face
of the earth!" The journey led through many lands until
finally they came to the mountain of Hacavitz, where the
brothers burned incense which they had brought from "the
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place of sunrise" and where they watched the Morning Star
ascend with waxing splendour on the dawn of the rising sun.
As the orb appeared, the animals, great and small, were filled
with joy, while all the nations prostrated themselves in adora-
tion. The new sun did not bum with the heat of the sun of
today, but was like a pale reflection of ours; nevertheless it
dried the dank earth and made it habitable. Moreover, the
great beast-gods of the first days — lion, tiger, and noxious
viper — together with the gods Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz,
were changed into stone as the sun appeared — "their arms
cramped like the branches of trees . . . and in all parts they
became stone. Perhaps we should not be in life at this moment
because of the voracity of the lions, the tigers, the vipers, the
gantis, and the White Fire-Maker of the Night; perchance
our glory would not now exist had not the first animals been
petrified by the sun.*'
Nevertheless sorrow mingled with joy, for though the ances-
tors of the Quiche had found their mountain home, illumined
by the sun, the moon, and the stars, they remembered their
kindred left behind; and even when they sang the song Ka-
^mucu ("We behold"), the anguish in their hearts came also
to expression. "Alas! we were ruined in Tollan; we were
parted from our brethren, who still remain behind! True,
indeed, we have beheld the Sun, but they, where now are they,
when at last the day hath come?" Years afterward, when the
Quiche had become great under the leadership of the four
heroes, the brothers foresaw the day of their death drawing
near; and again, with dolour of soul, they sang the song Ka-
mucu, bidding farewell to their wives and their sons, and say-
ing: "We return to our people; even now the King of the Deer
riseth into the sky. Lo, we make our return; our task is per-
formed; our days are complete." Thereupon they disappeared,
vanishing without trace, excepting that in their place was left
a sacred bundle which was never to be opened and which was
called "Majesty Enveloped."
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III. THE HERO BROTHERS
The deeds of the Hero Brothers in the Popul Fuh take place
in an epoch of the world previous to the rise of the present Sun.
Apparently they fall in an Age of Giants just succeeding the
destruction of the manikins, for the narrative proceeds from
the tale of the annihilation of these beings to the overthrow,
by the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, of the Earth Titans,
stating that the events occurred in the days of the inundation.
Vukub-Cakix was the first of the Giants, and his sin was the
sin of hybris, for he boasted: "I shall be yet again above all
created beings; I am their sun, I am their dawn, I am their
moon. Great is my splendour; I am he by whom men move.
Of silver are the balls of my eyes, gleaming like precious stones;
and the whiteness of my teeth is like the face of the sky. My
nostrils shine afar like the moon; of silver is my throne, and
the earth liveth when I step forth from it. I am the sun, I am
the moon, the bringer of felicity. So be it, for my gaze reacheth
afar!" This is obviously a hymn to the sun; and it is possible
that it refers to a mythic "Sun of Giants," although the
narrator clearly takes it in another sense: "In reality his sight
ended where it fell, and his gaze did not embrace the entire
world." It was, in fact, because of his riches (metals and
precious stones) that Vukub-Cakix thought to emulate the
sun and the moon.
It was for their pride and arrogance that Vukub-Cakix and
his sons, Zipacna and Cabrakan, were successively overcome
and destroyed by the hero brothers. "Attention, it is I who
am the sun," cried Vukub-Cakix; "it is I who move the earth,"
said Zipacna; "and it is I that shake the sky and overturn the
the whole earth," quoth Cabrakan. Indeed, such was their
strength that they could move mountains, great and small,
at will; and since such orgulous Titans could be overcome only
by craft, even with demi-gods for their adversaries, it was by
craft that Hunahpu and Xbalanque conquered them.
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PLATE XXIV
Image of a youthful deity with elaborate head-
dress seated in the mouth of the "Dragon of Quiri-
gua" (see frontispiece). After a photograph in the
Peabody Museum.
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^
head-
Quiri-
intiie
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CENTRAL AMERICA 169
Vukub-Cakix possessed a tree the fruit of which was his
food, and the twins, concealing themselves in its branches,
shot the giant in the cheek with a poisoned arrow when he
came for his meal, though they did not escape uninjured, for
he tore away one of Hunahpu's arms. The monster went home,
roaring with pain, and the two plotters, disguising themselves
as physicians, came offering to cure his malady and saying:
"You suffer from a worm but you can be cured if your jaw is
altered by removing the bad teeth." "It is by my teeth alone
that I am king; all my beauty comes from my teeth and the
balls of mine eyes." "We will put others in their place," they
said; and so they substituted teeth of maize for the emerald
teeth of the giant and flayed the splendour from his eyes. The
splendour faded from him; he ceased to appear like a king;
and soon he died, while Hunahpu recovered his arm, which
Chimalmat, the wife of Vukub-Cakix, was basting on a spit;
and the twins turned away in triumph. Zipacna was the next
victim. First, the brothers conspired with four hundred youths
(doubtless the same as the "Four Hundred Southerners" of
the Huitzilopochtli myth) to lure Zipacna into a pitfall, where
they tried to destroy him by hurling huge trees upon him; and
when all was quiet, the plotters erected a house on the spot,
making merry with drink and celebrating their triumph. But
the giant was only craftily biding his time, and, rising suddenly,
he cast house and revellers high into the heavens, where the
four hundred became stars and constellations. The twins
then decided upon another decoy. Since the food of Zipacna
was sea-food, especially crabs, they modelled a great crab, and
painting it cunningly they put it into a deep ravine. Encoun-
tering the giant on his food search, they pointed out this fine
crab; he leaped after it, and they — wiser by experience —
hurled mountains upon him, thus imprisoning him, though so
desperate were his struggles for freedom that they turned him
into stone to quiet him. The third giant, Cabrakan, was
also made the victim of his own gluttony and pride. The
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brothers challenged him to shift a certain mountain, for he
boasted that he could remove the greatest; but as he was pre-
paring to show his strength, they suggested that he first partake
of food, and shooting a bird, they cooked it for him, taking care
to poison it in the process. The giant devoured the bird the
more greedily in that it was his first taste of cooked meat; but
immediately his strength began to fail, and his eyes to dim;
and while the brothers twittingly urged him to make good his
boasts, he sank to earth dead.
The great adventure of the heroic twins, however, was their
triumph over the Lords of Death, and to this the second part
of the Popid Fuh is devoted. The tale begins with the story of
an earlier pair of Hero Brothers, Hunhun-Ahpu and Vukub-
Ahpu, sons of Xpiyacoc and Xmucane. Hunhun-Ahpu, in
turn, was father of Hunbatz and Hunchouen, two youths who
seem to be little more than foils for the hero twins later to
be bom; although they are described as wise in all the arts,
as players of the flute, singers, blow-gun shooters, painters,
sculptors, jewel-workers, and smiths.
Hunhun-Ahpu and his brother, Vukub-Ahpu, being de-
voted to tlachtlij exercised themselves at this sport every day.
As they played, they journeyed toward Xibalba, the under-
world, whose lords, Hun-Came and Vukub-Came, also were
clever at the ball game. Therefore, thinking to trap the upper-
world champions, they of the nether realm sent them a chal-
lenge— four owls were their messengers — to meet in an
underworld match; and the brothers accepting the challenge,
set out for Xibalba. Passing down a steep descent, they soon
crossed a river in a deep gorge, next a boiling river, and then a
river of blood, after which, beyond a fourth river, they came to
cross-roads, red, black, white, and yellow. The guardian of
the black road said : " I am the way to the king" ; but it led them
to a place where two wooden images were seated. These the
brothers saluted; and receiving no response except the ribald
laughter of the Xibalbans, the heroes knew that they had
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been made butts of ridicule. The brothers angrily issued their
challenge, and the Xibalbans invited them to seats on the
throne of honour; but this proved to be a heated stone, and when
they burned themselves, the princes of Xibalba could scarcely
contain their merriment. The brothers were then given torches
and conducted to the House of Gloom, with injunctions to
keep the lights undiminished until the dawn; but the torches
were speedily consumed, and when, next day, they were brought
before Hun-Came and Vukub-Came who demanded the lights,
they could only reply, "They are consumed. Lords." There-
upon, at the command of the underworld-gods, the brothers
were sacrificed, and their bodies were buried; only, the head of
Hunhun-Ahpu was placed in a fruit-tree, where it was im-
mediately transformed so as to be indistinguishable from the
gourd-like fruits which the tree bore.
The Xibalbans were prohibited from approaching this tree,
but a certain maiden, Xquiq ("Princess Blood"), having heard
of it, said to herself: "Why should I not go to see this tree; in
sooth, its fruits should be sweet, according to what I hear said
of it." She approached the tree in admiration: "Are such the
fruits of this tree? And should I die were I to pluck one?"
Then the head in the midst said: "Do you indeed desire it?
These round lumps among the branches of the tree are only
death's-heads!" Nevertheless, Xquiq was insistent, where-
upon Hunhun-Ahpu's head demanded that she stretch forth her
hand, and, by a violent effort, he spat into it, saying: "This
saliva and foam which I give thee is my posterity. Behold, my
head will cease to speak, for it is only a death's-head, with no
longer any flesh. So it is also with the head of even the greatest
of princes; for it is the flesh alone that adorneth the visage,
whence cometh the horror which besetteth men at the moment
of death." He then directed the maiden to flee to the upper
world, knowing that she would be pursued by the underworld-
powers; and these, indeed, when they heard that Xquiq was
enceinte^ demanded that she be sacrificed, sending Owl-Men
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to execute their doom. But the princess beguiled the Owls,
inducing them to substitute for her heart the coagulated sap of
the bloodwort, the odour of which they took to be the scent of
blood, while she herself fled to the protection of the mother of
Hunbatz and Hunchouen. The latter demanded proof that
the new comer was indeed her daughter-in-law and sent Xquiq
into the field for maize. There was but one hill in the field,
whereupon the maiden appealed for aid to the gods, by whose
miraculous help she was enabled to gather a full burden
without disturbing the single hill. This miracle satisfied the
mother-in-law; who said: ''It is a sign that thou art indeed my
daughter-in-law, and that those whom thou dost carry will
be wise"; and shortly after this, Xquiq gave birth to the twins,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
The new comers were welcomed by all excepting Hunbatz
and Hunchouen, who regarded their half-brothers as rivals
and plotted their death; but Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who
from birth had shown their prowess as magicians, transformed
the two flute-players into monkeys, condenming them to live
in the trees. Hunbatz and Hunchouen, says the chronicler,
''were invoked by musicians and singers aforetime, and also
by painters and sculptors; but they were changed into beasts
and became monkeys because of their pride and their mal-
treatment of their brothers." It is probable that the two were
monkey-form gods of the arts, though it is also possible that
the transformation is associated with that of the primeval age
which ended with the metamorphosis of men into monkeys.
The next episode in the career of the two youths was the
clearing of a field by means of magic tools which felled trees
and dug the soil while their owners amused themselves at the
chase; but at night the animals restored the vegetation. Ac-
cordingly the brothers concealed themselves to watch for the
undoers of their work; and when by night the lion (puma) and
the tiger (jaguar), the hare and the opossum, the deer^ the
coyote, the porcupine, and the peccary, together with the birds.
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appeared and called to the felled trees to raise themselves, the
brothers attempted to trap them. They succeeded only in
seizing the tails of the deer and the rabbit (which, of course,
explains the present decurtate state of these animals), but
finally they captured the rat, which, to save its life, revealed
to them the hiding-place of the rings and gloves and rubber
ball with which their fathers had played tlachtlij and which
their grandmother had concealed from them lest they, too,
become lost through the fatal lure of the game. By a ruse
the twins succeeded in getting possession of the apparatus,
and like their fathers became passionately devoted to the
sport.
When the Lords of Xibalba learned of this, they said: "Who,
then, are these that begin again to play above our heads, shak-
ing the earth without fear? Are not Hunhun-Ahpu and Vukub-
Hunahpu dead, who wished to exalt themselves before us?"
Forthwith they dispatched a challenge to the new champions
which the twins accepted; but before they departed for the
underworld, each planted a reed in the house of their grand-
mother, saying that if any ill befell either of them, his reed
would wither and die. They passed the underworld rivers,
and coming to the four roads (here named black, white, red, and
green), they set out upon the black path, though they took the
precaution to send in advance an animal called Xan, with in-
structions to prick the leg of each lord in the realm below. The
first two throned beings made no response, being manikins of
wood; but the third uttered a cry, and his neighbour said:
** What is it, Hun-Came? What has pricked you ? " The same
thing happened to Vukub-Came, Xiqiripat, Ahalpuh, Cuchuma-
quiq, Chamiabak, Ahalcana, Chamiaholom, Patau, Quiqxic,
Quiqrixgag, and Quiqre (for such were the names of these
princes): "it is thus that they revealed themselves, calling
one another by name," each in turn. When the hero twins
came, refusing to salute the wooden men, they addressed the
Lords of Xibalba each by his title, much to the chagrin of
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these; and, further, they declined a place on the heated stone,
saying, "It is not our seat."
In succeeding episodes Hunahpu and Xbalanque underwent
the ordeals of the houses of the underworld. The House of
Gloom was first; but the twins substituted red paint for the
fire on the torches given them and thus preserved these un-
diminished. "Whence indeed, are you come?" cried the as-
tonished Xibalbans; "who are you?" "Who can say whence
we are," they answered; "we ourselves do not know." So they
refused to reveal themselves and in the game of ball which
followed they altogether defeated the Xibalbans; but since
this only augmented the desire of the latter for the lives of the
pair, the underworld lords demanded of the two heroes that
they bring them four vases of flowers. Accordingly they sent
the youths under guard to the House of Lances; but the
brothers overcame the demons of this abode by promising them
the flesh of all animals, while at the same rime they persuaded
the ants to bring the needed flowers from the gardens of Hun-
Came and Vukub-Came. Having failed with this test, the
Xibalbans then dispatched their guests to the House of Cold,
which they survived by kindling pine-knots. The next trial
was the House of Tigers, but its ferocious denizens were diverted
by bones which the brothers cast to them. The House of Fire
was also harmless to them; but in the sixth, the House of Bats,
or House of Camazotz, as its lord was called, they met their
first discomfiture. All night the heroes lay prone, longing for
the dawn; but at last Hunahpu for a moment raised his head,
which was instantly shorn off by the vigilant Camazotz.
Xbalanque, in desperarion, summoned the animals to his
assistance; and the turtle, chancing to touch the bleeding neck
of Hunahpu and becoming attached to it, was transformed
into a head with the magic aid of the animals. The real head
the Lords of Xibalba had suspended in the ball court, where
they were reviling it when Xbalanque and Hunahpu, with his
turtle's head, appeared for the last round at the game; and
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with the assistance of the animals Xbalanque succeeded in
winning the victory once more, and recovering Hunahpu's
head, he restored it in place of the turtle's.
Having now met the ordeals set by the Xibalbans, the brothers
undertook to show their own prowess, and, first of all, their
contempt of death. Anticipating the action of the Lords of
Xibalba in condemning them to death, they sought the counsel
of two magicians, Xulu and Pacam, with whom they arranged
for their resurrection; after which, sentenced to be burned,
they mounted the funeral pyre and met their death, whereat
all the Xibalbans were filled with joy, crying, "We have tri-
umphed, indeed; and none too soon!" The bones, ground to
powder at the advice of the two magicians, were cast upon the
underworld waters; wherein on the fifth day two fish-men
were to be seen, while the next day a pair of wretched beggars,
poor and miserable, appeared among the Xibalbans. These
beggars, however, were wonder-workers: they burned houses
and immediately restored them; they even sacrificed and then
resuscitated one another. Their fame soon reached the ears
of Hun-Came and Vukub-Came, and when the mendicant-
magicians were brought before these lords, they were implored
by the Xibalban kings to perform their miracles. Thereupon
the beggars began their "dances": they killed and revivified
the dog of the underworld princes; they burned and restored
the royal palace; they sacrificed and brought to life a man —
each deed at the command of Hun-Came and Vukub-Came.
Finally, overcome with excitement, the Lords of Xibalba
cried, "Do likewise with us; immolate us also!" "Can death
exist for you ? " asked the beggars ironically. " Nevertheless, it is
your right that we amuse you. " But when they had sacrificed
Hun-Came and Vukub-Came, they restored them no more to
life. "Then fled all the princes of Xibalba, seeing their kings
dead, and their bodies laid open; but in a moment they them-
selves were sacrificed, two by two, a chastisement which was
their due." A single prince escaped, begging for pity, while the
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host of their vassals prostrated themselves before their con-
querors.
Then the heroes revealed themselves, disclosing their names
and the names of their fathers, saying, "We are the avengers
of the sufferings of our sires; harken, now to your doom, ye
of Xibalba! Since your fame and your power are no more, and
ye merit no clemency, your race shall have little rule, and never
-again shall ye play the Game of Ball. Yours it shall be to make
objects of burnt clay, pots and pans, and maize-grinders; and
the animals that live in the brushwood and in solitude shall be
your share. All the happy, all the cultivated, shall cease to be
yours; the bees alone will continue to reproduce before your
eyes. Ye, perverse, cruel, sad, wretched, who have done ill,
now lament it!" Thus were degraded those who had been of
bad faith, hypocritical, tyrannical; thus their power was
ruined.
Meanwhile, in the upper world, the grandmother of the
twins watching the two reeds, had mourned and rejoiced in
turn, twice seeing them wither and twice revive. " The Living
Reeds, the Level Earth, the Centre of the House, shall be the
names of this place," she said. The twins talked with the
heads of their father and uncle, paying them funeral honours
and elevating them to the sky, the one to become the sun, the
other the moon; and they raised up also the four hundred
youths buried by Zipacna, to become stars in heaven, saying:
"Henceforth ye shall be invoked by civilized peoples; ye shall
be adored; and your names shall not perish."
Such, in its general character, is the mythic portion of the
Popul Vuh. It is built up of elements found far and wide in
North America and it reflects ideas practically universal among
the civilized Nahuatlan and Mayan tribes; but it possesses
one great distinction — that of presenting these concepts with
an imaginative intensity unmatched by any other version, a
quality which in some measure argues that the whole cycle is
original with the Mayan stock. The myth certainly gives a
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CENTRAL AMERICA 177
broad view of the south Mayan pantheons; and most of the
elements in the proper names which can be interpreted are
indicative of the cosmic nature of the personalities. Accord-
ing to Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hun signifies ''one," Vukub is
the word for "seven"; Hunahpu is "One Blowgun-Shooter,"
and it is quite likely that the blowgun was associated with
celestial phenomena, as the game of tlachtli certainly is; Hun-
batz is "One Monkey"; Hun-Came is "One Dead," and so on.
Vukub-Cakix ("Seven Macaws"), Vukub-Hunahpu ("Seven
One-Blowgun-Shooter"), and Vukub-Came ("Seven Dead")
are clearly corresponding, or complementary, cosmic powers.
The Abbe believes that Hurakan (from which comes our word
"hurricane") and Cabrakan ("Earthquake") are deities im-
ported from the Antilles, Camazotz ("Ruler of Bats," —
Brasseur; "Death Bat," — Seler) is clearly the Elder of the
Bats — the bat-god known to have been a dread and potent
deity among the Maya, and, as the vampire, feared and
propitiated far into South America.' Balam means "tiger"
— that is, the jaguar, which, perhaps because of its spots, is
symbol of the star-studded night and of the west. The four
(}uiche ancestors are clearly cosmic deities — Balam-CJuitze
("Smiling Tiger") perhaps of the east; Balam-Agab ("Night
Tiger") of the west; Iqi-Balam ("Moon Tiger"); and Mahuca-
tah ("Renowned Name," an epithet, in the Abbe's opinion).
The Hero Brothers are, of course, familiar figures everywhere
in American myth.
IV. THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUEL^
The Cakchiquel Annals do not, like the Popul Fuhj form a
work of primarily literary or historical intent, but are, both in
form and in content, part of a brief, the purpose of which is to
establish certain territorial rights of members of the family of
Xahila, thus falling into the class of native titulos, written in
Spanish, several of which have been published. From its
nature the composition has not, therefore, the dramatic char-
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178 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
acter of a mythic narrative; nevertheless its very purpose,
as founding a title to lands anciently held, leads to the effort
to establish this by the right of first occupation, and hence to
stories of the first comers. That such accounts are reproduced
more or less exactly from mjrthic narratives there can be no
manner of doubt, internal traits showing near affinity with
the tales of the Popid Fuh and kindred cycles.
The narrative begins with a record of "the sayings of our
earliest fathers and ancestors, Gagavitz the name of one,
2^ctecauh the name of the other ... as we came from the
other side of the sea, from the land of Tulan, where we were
brought forth and begotten . . .
"These are the very words which Gagavitz and Zactecauh
spake : * Four men came from Tulan; one Tulan is at the sunrise,
and one is at Xibalbay, and one is at the sunset; and we came
from this one at the sunset; and one is where is God. There-
fore there are four Tulans, they say, O our sons; from the sun-
set we came; from Tulan from beyond the sea; and it was at
Tulan that, arriving, we were brought forth; coming, we were
produced, as they say, by our fathers and our mothers.
" * And now the Obsidian Stone is brought forth by the pre-
cious Xibalbay, the glorious Xibalbay; and man is made by
the Maker, the Creator. The Obsidian Stone was his sustainer
when man was made in misery and when man was formed; he
was fed with wood, he was fed with leaves; he wished only the
earth; he could not speak, he could not walk; he had no
blood, he had no flesh; so say our fathers, our ancestors, O ye
my sons. Nothing was found to feed him; at length something
was found to feed him. Two brutes knew that there was
food in the place called Paxil, where these creatures were, the
Coyote and the Crow by name. Even in the refuse of maize
it was found when the creature Coyote was killed as he was
separating his maize and was searching for bread to knead,
killed by the creature named Tiuh Tiuh; and from within the
sea, by means of Tiuh Tiuh, was brought the blood of the ser-
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PLATE XXV
Monumental stela, Piedras Negras. This superb
relief shows a divinity with quetzal-plume crest to
whom a priest is presenting the group of bound cap-
tives, shown at the base. After photograph in the
Peabody Museum.
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CENTRAL AMERICA 179
pent and of the tapir with which the maize was to be kneaded;
the flesh of man was formed of it by the Maker, the Creator;
and well did they, the Maker and the Creator, know him who
was bom, him who was begotten; they made man as he was
made, they formed man as they made him; so they tell. There
were thirteen men, fourteen women; they talked, they walked;
they had blood, they had flesh. They married, and one had
two wives. They brought forth daughters, they brought forth
sons, those first men. Thus men were made, and thus the Obsi-
dian Stone was made, for the enclosure of Tulan; thus we came
to where the Zotzils were at the gates of Tulan; arriving, we
were bom; coming, we were produced; coming, we gave the
tribute in the darkness, in the night, 0 our sons.' Thus spake
Gagavitz and Zactecauh, O my sons; and what they said hath
not been forgotten. They are our great ancestors; these are
the words with which they encouraged us of old.'*
These extracts indicate the style of the Annals^ full of rep-
etition and almost without relational expressions, but now
and again lighted with passages of extraordinary vividness.
The Obsidian Stone, Chay Abah, represented an important
civic fetish or oracular talisman, if we may credit the descrip-
tion of Iximche, the Cakchiquel capital, transmitted by Fuentes
y Guzman and quoted by Brinton.^ On the summit of a small
hill overlooking the town — so goes the account — "is a
circular wall, not unlike the curb of a well, about a full fathom
in height. The floor within is paved with cement, as the city
streets. In the centre is placed a socle or pedestal of a glittering
substance, like glass, but of what composition is not known.
This circular stmcture was the tribunal or consistory of the
Cakchiquel Indians, where not only was public hearing given
to causes, but also the sentences were carried out. Seated
around this wall, the judges heard the pleas and pronounced
the sentences, in both civil and criminal cases. After this
public decision, however, there remained an appeal for its
revocation or confirmation. Three messengers were chosen
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as deputies of the judges, and these went forth from the tri-
bunal to a deep ravine, north of the palace, to a small but
neatly fitted-up chapel or temple, where was located the oracle
of the demon. This was a black and semi-transparent stone,
of a finer grade than that called chay (obsidian). In its trans-
parency, the demon revealed to them what should be their
final decision." This passage is not the only indication of the
employment of divination by crystal gazing in primitive
America; and it is even possible that the translucent green
stones so widely valued were primarily sacred because of
divinatory properties. Not all sacred stones were of the emerald
hue, however; for in the Cakchiquel narrative one of the deeds
of Gagavitz is the ascent of a volcano where, it is said, he con-
quered the fire, bringing it captive in the form of a stone called
Gak Chog, which, the chronicler is at pains to state, is not a
green stone.
The mythic afiinities of the Cakchiquel narrative are already
apparent in the passages quoted. The city of Tulan (frequently
"TuUan" in the text) is clearly become a name for certain
cosmic stations, namely the houses of sunrise, sunset, zenith
("where is God"), and nadir (Tulan of Xibalbay, the under-
world). The successive creations of men, experimental men
first, and finally maize-formed men, is certainly the same myth
as that of the Popul Fuhy which is briefly described also by Las
Casas and which is probably intimately associated with a cult
of the maize-gods. "If one looks closely at these Indians,"
says an early writer quoted by Brinton,* (manuscript known as
the CrSnica Franciscana)y "he will find that everything they do
and say has something to do with maize. A little more, and
they would make a god of it. There is so much conjuring and
fussing about their com fields, that for them they will forget
wives and children and any other pleasure, as if the only end
and aim of life was to secure a crop of com."
There are numerous mythic incidents in the continuation
of the narrative after the creation. At Tulan the peoples were
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divided into seven tribes, and it was from Tulan that, with
idols of wood and of stone, they set out at the oracular com-
mand of the Obsidian Stone. The auguries were mostly evil:
"A bird called *the guard of the ravine' began to complain
within the gate of Tulan, as we were going forth from Tulan.
*Ye shall die, ye shall be lost, I am your portent,' the creature
said to us. *Do ye not believe me? Truly your state shall be
a sad one.'" The owl prophesied similar disaster, and another
bird, the parroquet, "complained in the sky and said, *I am
your portent; ye shall die.' But we said to the creature, * Speak
not thus; thou art but the sign of spring. Thou wailest first
when it is spring; when the rain ceaseth, thou wailest.'" They
arrived at the sea-coast, and there a great number perished while
they awaited a means of crossing, which finally came when "a
red tree, our staff, which we had taken in passing from the gate
of Tulan," was thrust into the sands, whereupon the waters
divided, and all passed over. Then it was that Gagavitz and
Zactecauh were elected leaders; and next they fought with
the people of Nonoualcat and Zuyva, but though at first suc-
cessful in the fight, they were eventually defeated: "Truly, it
was fearful there among the houses; truly, the noise was great,
the dust was oppressive; fighting was going on in the houses,
fighting with the dogs, the wasps, fighting with all. One attack,
two attack? we made, and we ourselves were routed; as truly
as they were in the air, they were in the earth; they ascended
and they descended, everywhere against us; and thus they
showed their magic and their sorcery." After this defeat, the
various tribes received the gods which were to be their pro-
tectors. "When we asked each other where our salvation was,
it was said to us by the Quiche men: *As it thundered and re-
sounded in the sky, truly the sky must be our salvation'; so
they said, and therefore the name Tohohil was given them."
The Zotzil received Cakix, the macaw, as their deity; and the
Cakchiquel said: "*Truly, in the middle of the valley lieth our
salvation, entering there into the earth.' Therefore the name
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Chitagah was given. Another, who said salvation was in the
water, was called Guciunatz"; and so on, down the roll. The
tribes then set forth and encounter "the spirit of the forest,
the fire called Zakiqozol," who kills many men. "Who are
these boys whom we see?" says the spirit (who, it seems, is a
giant); and Gagavitz and Zactecauh replied: "Let us see what
kind of a hideous mole thou art? Who art thou? We shall kill
thee. Why is it that thou guardest the road here?'* "Do not
kill me; I, who am here, I am the heart of the forest," and he
asked for clothing. "They shall give to thee wherewith to
clothe thjrself," they answered; and "then they gave him
wherewith to clothe himself, a change of garment, his blood-red
cuirass, his blood-red shoes, the dying raiment of Zakiqoxol."
The narrative continues with episodes that may be historical.
There are encounters, friendly and militant, with various
tribes; Zactecauh is killed by falling down a ravine; the wan-
derers are delayed a year by the volcano which Gagavitz con-
quers; a certain being named Tolgom, son of "the Mud that
Quivers," is captured and offered by the arrow sacrifice, this
being the beginning of an annual festival at which children
were similarly slain; and afterward the people come to the
place where their dawn is to be and there they behold the sun-
rise. The warriors took wives from neighbouring tribes and
"then also they began to adore the Demon. ... It is said that
the worship of the Demon increased with the face of our
prosperity." To Gagavitz were bom two sons, Cajmoh and
Caybatz, who were to be his successors; and "at that time
King Gagavitz died, the same who came from Tulan; his
children, our ancestors, Caynoh and Caybatz, were still very
young when their father died. They buried him in the same
place where their dawn appeared, in Paroxene."
Here the mythical part of the Annals ends. Caynoh and
Caybatz may be a pair of heroes like Hunahpu and Xbalanque,
as some authorities deem; but the situation in which they are
presented, subjects of a Quiche King, Tepeuh, indicates an
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CENTRAL AMERICA 183
historical situation, finally reversed, as the narrative later
shows, in sanguinary wars in which the Cakchiquel threw off the
Quiche yoke. And here, as elsewhere in the New World, the
coming Spaniard was enabled to profit by local dissensions;
for Alvarado, whose entrance into Izimche is described as by an
eyewitness, first allied himself with the Cakchiquel for the
destruction of their neighbours and then destroyed his allies
for the sake of their gold. So out of this broken past speaks the
Xahila narrative — the one native voice from a lost civili-
zation.
V. HONDURAS AND NICARAGUA"
South of the Mayan peoples, in the territories formed by the
projection of Central America between the Gulf of Honduras
and Lake Nicaragua, the aboriginal inhabitants were repre-
sented by some ten linguistic stocks. On the western coast were
several groups of Nahuatlan tribes who had come from far in
the north, probably in recent times; on the other hand, the
large Ulvan stock, back from the Mosquito Coast, are regarded
as probably of Chibchan kinship, and their territories were
contiguous with the Chibchans of Costa Rica, who brought
the influence of the southern continent as far northward as
the southern shores of the lake; the remaining tribal groups —
Lencan, Subtiaban, Payan, Mosquitoan, Chiapanecan, etc. —
have no certain linguistic afiinity with any other peoples.
Culturally, the whole region was aboriginally marked by an
obvious inferiority both to the Mayan peoples to the north and
the Chibchan to the south; though at the same time it reflected
something of the civilization of each of these regions. As a
whole, however, it possessed no single level, but ranged from
the primitive savagery of the Mosquito Coast to something
approaching a native culture in the western highlands.
The mythic lore of these peoples (not extensively reported)
is in no way remarkable. The Nahuatlan tribes — Pipil and
Niquiran — worshipped gods whose kinship with those of the
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Aztec is apparent. Of thePipil, Brasseur says **: "They adored
the rising sun, as also statues of Quetzalcohuatl and Itz-
cueye, to whom they offered almost all their sacrifices," Itzcueye
being a form of the earth goddess. Similarly the Niquiran
deities mentioned by Oviedo, especially the creator pair,
Tamagostad and Cipattonal, are identified with Ozomoco and
Cipactonal of the Mexicans; while the calendar of the same
tribe is Mexican in type. The chief centre of worship of the
Pipil was named Mictlan, but the myth which Brasseur nar-
rates in connexion with the establishment of this shrine is
curiously analogous to certain Chibcha tales. The sacred city
was on a promontory in Lake Huixa, and "it was there that
one day a venerable old man was beheld to advance, followed
by a girl of unequalled beauty, both clad in long blue robes,
while the man was crowned with a pontifical mitre. They
arose together from the lake, but they did not delay to sep-
arate; and the old man seated himself upon a stone on the sum-
mit of a high hill, where, by his order, was reared a beauti-
ful temple called Mictlan." Similar cults of lake-spirits are
indicated on the island of Zapatero, in Lake Nicaragua, where
Squier discovered a whole series of remarkable idols, pillars
surmounted by crudely carved crouching or seated figures,
while statues of a similar type were found on another island,
Pensacola. In several of these the human figure is hooded by
an animal's head or jaw, or appears within the mouth of the
monster — a motive which probably comes from the Mayan
north.
The Chiapanecan people north of the Niquirian Nahua con-
sulted an oracular Old Woman, who appears, as Oviedo relates
the story,** to have been the spirit of the volcano Masaya.
The caciques went in secret to consult her before undertaking
any enterprise and sacrificed to her human victims, who, says
Oviedo, offered themselves voluntarily. When Oviedo asked
how the Old Woman looked, they replied that "she was old
and wrinkled, with pendant breasts, thin, dishevelled hair.
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CENTRAL AMERICA 185
long teeth like those of a dog, a skin darker than that of the
Indians, and glowing eyes," a description which scarcely makes
the voluntary sacrifice plausible. With the coming of the
Christians her appearances were more and more rare.
Of such character were the ideas of the more advanced tribes
of the western coast. The Sumo (of the Ulvan stock) tell a tale
of their origin, reported by Lehmann*': "Between the Rio
Patuca and the Rio Coco is a hill named Kaun'apa, where is a
rock with the sign of a human umbilical cord. There in olden
time the Indians were bom; there is the source of the people.
A great Father, Maisahana, and a great Mother, Ituana, like-
wise existed, the latter being the same as Itoki, whom the
Mosquito know as Mother Scorpion. First, the Mosquito were
bom and instracted in all things; but they were disobedient to
their elders (as they still are) and departed toward the coast.
Thereafter the Tuachca were bom, and then the Yusco who live
on Rio Prinzapolca and Bambana; but since the Yusco were bad
and lewd, the rest of the Sumo fought against them and killed
all but a few, who live somewhere around the source of Rio
Coco, near the Spaniards. Last the Ulua were bom, who are
indeed the youngest; and they were instructed in all things,
especially medicine and song, wherefore they are known as
'Singers/"
%The Mother Scorpion of this myth is regarded by the Mos-
quito as dwelling at the end of the Milky Way, where she re-
ceives the souls of the dead; and from her, represented as a
mother with many breasts, at which children take suck, come
the souls of the new-bom — a belief which points to a notion
of reincarnation. The Mosquito" possess also a migration-
myth, with stories of a culture hero named Wakna, and an
ancient prophecy that they shall never be driven back from the
coasts to which he led them. Along with this are reminiscences
of the coming of cannibals — doubtless Carib — from overseas ;
and the usual quota of superstitions as to monsters of forest
and waters. They are said, moreover, to have vague notions
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of a supreme or superior god — which is altogether likely — and,
in general, these Central American religions are, doubtless, as
the early writers describe them, formed of an ill-defined belief
in a Heaven Father, with deities of sun and stars as objects of
worship, and spirits of earth and forest as objects of dread.
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CHAPTER VI
THE ANDEAN NORTH
I. THE CULTURED PEOPLES OF THE ANDES »
FROM the Isthmus of Panama the western coast of South
America is marked by one of the loftiest and most abrupt
mountain ranges of the world, culminating in the great vol-
canoes of Ecuador and the high peaks of western Argentina.
A narrow coastal strip, dry and torrid in tropical latitudes;
deep and narrow valleys; occasional plateaux or intramon-
tane plains, especially the great plateau of central Bolivia —
these are the primary diversifications from the high ranges
which, rising precipitously on the Pacific side, decline more
gradually toward the east into the vast forested regions of the
central part of the continent and into the plains and pam-
pas of the south.
Throughout this mountain region, from the plateau of
Bogota in the north to the neighbourhood of latitude 30® south,
was continued in pre-Columbian times the succession of groups
of civilized or semi-civilized peoples of which the most northerly
were the Nahua of Mexico, or perhaps the Pueblo tribes of New
Mexico. The ethnic boundary of the southern continent is to
be drawn in Central America. The Guetare of Costa Rica, and
perhaps the Sumo of Nicaragua, constitute northerly outposts
of the territorially great Chibchan culture, the centre of which
is to be found in the plateau of Bogota, while its southerly ex-
tension leads to the Barbacoa of northern Ecuador. South of
the Chibcha, in the Andean region lying between the Equator
and the Tropic of Capricorn, is the aboriginal home of the
Quechua-A}anara peoples, nearly the whole of which, at the
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time of the Conquest was embraced in the Empire of the Incas.
This empire had even reached into the confines of the third
culture area of the southern continent; for the Calchaqui of the
mountains of northern Argentina, who were the most repre-
sentative and probably the most advanced nation of the
Diaguite group, had even then passed under Inca subjection.
Other tribes of this most southerly of the civilized peoples of
America had never been conquered; but bounded, as they were,
by the aggressive empire of the north, by the warlike Arau-
canians to the south, and by the savages of the Gran Chaco
to the east, their opportunities for independent development
were slight; indeed, it is not improbable that the peoples of
this group represent the last stand of a race that had once ex-
tended far to the north and had played an important part in
the pre-Inca cultures of the central Andes. Beyond the Dia-
guite lay the domains of savagery, although the Araucanians
of the Chilean-Argentine region were not uninfluenced by the
northward civilizations and in most respects were superior
to the wild tribes that inhabited the great body of the South
American continent; but the indomitable love of liberty, which
has kept them unconquered through many wars, gave to their
territory a boundary-line marked no less by a sharp descent in
culture than by its untouched independence.
In Columbian times these three Andean groups — the
Chibchan tribes, the Quechua-Aymara, and the Diaguite-
Calchaqui — possessed a civilization marked by considerable
advancement in the arts of metallurgy (gold, silver, copper),
pottery, and weaving, by agriculture (fundamentally, culti-
vation of maize), and by domestication of the llama and al-
paca. In the art of building, in stone-work, and, generally,
in that plastic and pictorial expression which is a sign of in-
tellectual advancement, the central group far excelled its
neighbours. Nor was this due to the fact that it alone, under
Inca domination, had reached the stage of stable and diversi-
fied social organization; for the archaeology of Peru and
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 189
Bolivia shows that the Empire of the Incas was only the last in
a series of central Andean civilizations which it excelled, if at
all, in political power rather than in the arts, industrial or
aesthetic.
Our knowledge of the religious and mythic ideas of these
various groups reflects their relative importance at the time
of the Spanish conquests more than their natural diversity.
Of the Chibchan groups, only the ideas of a few tribes have
been described, and these fragmentarily; of the mythology of
the Calchaqui, who had yielded to Inca rule, even less has
come down to us; while what is known of the religious concep-
tions of the pre-Inca peoples of the central region is mainly in
the form of gleanings from the works of art left by these peoples,
or from such of their cults as survived under the Inca state or
in Inca tradition. Inevitably the central body of Andean myth,
as transmitted to us, is that of the Incas, who, having reached
the position of a great imperial clan, naturally glorified both
their own gods and their own legendary history.
11. THE ISTHMIANS'
The Isthmus of Panama (and northward perhaps as far as
the confines of Nicaragua) was aboriginally an outpost of the
great Chibchan stock. Tribes of other stocks, some certainly
northern in origin, dwelt within the region, but the predominant
group was akin to the peoples of the neighbouring southern con-
tinent; although whether they were immigrants from the south
or were parents of the southern stem can scarcely be known.
So far as traditions tell, the uniform account given by the
Bolivian tribes is of a northerly origin. The tales seem to
point to the Venezuelan coast, and perhaps remotely to the
Antilles, rather than to the Isthmus, and it is certain that there
are broad similarities in culture — especially in the forms and
use of ceremonial objects — pointing to the remote unity of
the whole region from Haiti to Ecuador, and from Venezuela to
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I90 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Nicaragua. It is entirely possible that within this region the
drift of influence has been southerly; though it is more likely
that counter-streams, northward and southward, must give
the full explanation of the civilization.
On the linguistic side it is agreed that the Guetare of Costa
Rica represent a branch of the Chibchan stock, while neigh-
bouring tribes of the same stock are either now extinct or little
known. The Spanish conquests in the Isthmian region were
as ruthlessly complete as anywhere in America, and for the
greater part our knowledge of the aborigines is the fruit of
archaeology. In the writings of Oviedo and Cieza de Leon
some facts may be gleaned — enough, indeed, to picture the
general character of the rituals of the Indian tribes — but there
is no competent contemporary relation of the native religion
and beliefs.
Oviedo's description • of the tribes about the Gulf of Nicoya,
where the civilizations of the two Americas meet, indicates a
religion in which the great rites were human sacrifices of the
Mexican tjrpe and feasts of intoxication. Archaeological re-
searches in the same region have brought to light amulets and
ornaments, some anthropomorphic in character, but many
representing animal forms, usually highly conventionalized —
alligators, jaguars and pumas, frogs, parrots, vampires, denizens
of earth, air, and sea, all indicative of a populous pantheon of
talismanic powers; while cruciform, swastika, and other sym-
bolic ornamentation implies a development in the direction of
abstraction sustained by Oviedo's mention of "folded books of
deerskin parchment," which are probably the southern exten-
sion of the art of writing as known in the northern civilization.
The archaeology of the Guetare region, in central, and of the
Chiriqui region, in southern Costa Rica, disclose the same
fantasy of grotesque and conventionalized animals — saurians,
armadilloes, the cat-tribe, composites — indicative of a simi-
larly zoomorphic pantheon. Benzoni, speaking of the tribes
of this region, states that they worshipped idols in the forms
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PLATE XXVI
Jade pendant representing a Vampire. After
Hartman, Archaeological Researches on the Pacific
Coast of Costa Rica^ Plate XLIV. For reference to
the significance of the bat, as a deity, sec page 177
and page 364, note 6.
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 191
of animals, which they kept hidden in caves; while Andagoya
declares that the priests of the Cuna or Cueva (dwelling at the
juncture of the Isthmus and the southern continent) oonmiuned
with the devil and that Chipiripa, a rain-god, was one of their
most important deities; they are said, too, to have known of
the deluge. Of the neighbouring Indians, about Uraba, Cieza
de Leon gives us to know that "they certainly talk with the
devil and do him all the honour they can. • • • He appears
to them (as I have been told by one of themselves) in frightful
and terrible visions, which cause them much alarm." Further-
more, "the devil gives them to understand that, in the place
to which they go [after death], they will come to life in another
kingdom which he has prepared for them, and that it is neces-
sary to take food with them for the journey. As if hell was so
very far off!"
Peter Martyr devotes the greater part of a book (the tenth of
the Seventh Decade)* to a description of the rites and beliefs of
the Indians of the region where the Isthmus joins the continent.
Dabaiba, he says, was the name both of a river and of a divinity
whose sanctuary was about forty leagues from Darien; and
thither at certain seasons the caciques, even of the most dis-
tant countries, sent slaves to be strangled and burnt before the
idol. "When the Spaniards asked them to what divinity they
addressed their prayers, they responded that it is to the god
who created the heavens, the sun, the moon, and all existing
things; and from whom every good thing proceeds. They be-
lieve that Dabaiba, the divinity universally venerated in the
country, is the mother of this creator." Their traditions told
of a great drought which, making the rivers dry, caused the
greater part of mankind to perish of thirst, while the survivors
emigrated from the mountains to the sea-coast; for this reason
they maintained priests and addressed prayers to their divinity,
who would seem to be a rain-goddess. Another legend recorded
by Peter Martyr tells of a frightful tempest which brought with
it two great birds, "similar to the harpies of the Strophades,"
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192 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
having "the face, chin, mouth, nose, teeth, eyes, brows, and
physiognomy of a virgin." One of these seized the people
and carried them off to the mountains to devour them, where-
fore, to slay the man-eating bird, certain heroes carved a human
figure on the end of a log, which they set in the ground so that
the figure alone was visible. The hunters concealed themselves
near by, and when the monster, mistaking the image for prey,
sunk its talons into the wood, falling upon it, they slew It
before it could release itself. "Those who killed the monster
were honoured as gods." Interesting, too, is Martyr's account
of the reason given for the sinfulness of incest: the dark spots
on the moon represent a man cast into that damp and freezing
planet to suffer perpetual cold in expiation of incest committed
with his sister — the very myth that is told in North Green-
land; and the belief that "only nobles have inmiortal souls" (or,
more likely, that they alone enjoy a paradise) is cited to explain
why numbers of servants gladly throw themselves into the
graves of their masters, since thus they gain the right to accom-
pany their lords into the afterworld of pleasure; all others,
apparently, go down to a gloomy hades, though there may be
truth in Martyr's statement that it is pollution which brings
this fate.
The account of the religion of the Isthmian tribes in later
times, by W. M. Gabb and Pittier de Fabrega,** probably repre-
sents faithfully their earlier beliefs. There are deities who are
the protectors of game-animals, suggesting the Elders of the
Kinds so characteristic of North American lore; though they
appear to men in human form, taking vengeance on those who
only wound in the chase: "When thou shootest, do it to kill,
so that the poor beast doth not fall a prey to the worms,"
is the command of the King of the Tapirs to the unlucky hunter
who is punished for his faulty work by being stricken with
dumbness during the period in which a cane grows from a
sprout to its full height. The Isthmian peoples recognize (as do
most other Americans) a faineant supreme being, Sibu, in the
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 193
world above, with a host of lesser, but dangerous, powers in
the realm of environing nature; and there is a paradise, at
least for the noble dead, situated at the zenith, though the way
thither is beset by perils, monsters, and precipices. Las Casas
also mentions the belief in a supreme deity, Chicuna, Lord of
All Things, as extending from Darien to Nicaragua; and he
says that along with this god the Sun, the Moon, and the
Morning Star were worshipped, as well as divinities of wood
and stone which presided over the elements and the sowings
(sementeras).
The allusion to deities of the sementeras is interesting in
connexion with the Bribri and Brunka (or Boruca) myths,
published by Pittier de Fabrega. According to thesfe tribes of
Indians, men and animal kinds were originally bom of seeds
kept in baskets which Sibu entrusted to the lesser gods; but
the evil powers were constantly hunting for these seeds, en-
deavouring to destroy them. One tale relates that after Sura,
the good deity to whom the seed had been committed, had
gone to his field of maize, Jaburu, the evil divinity, stole and
ate the seed; and when Sura returned, killed and buried him,
a cacao-tree and a calabash-tree growing from the grave.
Sibu, the almighty one, resolving to punish Jaburu and de-
manding of him a drink of chocolate, the wives of the
wicked deity roasted the cacao, and made a drinking-vessel of
the calabash. "Then Sibu, the almighty god, willed — and
whatever he wills has to be: 'May the first cup come to me!'
and as it so came to pass, he said, *My uncle, I present this
cup to thee, so that thou drink!' Jaburu swallowed the
chocolate at once, with such delight that his throat resounded,
tshaaaJ And he said, *My uncle! I have drunk Sura's first
fruit!' But just at this moment he began to swell, and he
swelled and swelled until he blew up. Then Sibu, the almighty
god, picked up again the seed of our kin, which was in Jaburu's
body, and willed, 'Let Sura wake up again!' And as it so
happened he gave him back the basket with the seed of our kin
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194 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
to keep." In another tale a duel between Sibu and Jaburu, in
which each should throw two cacao-pods at the other, and
he should lose in whose hand a pod first broke, was the pre-
liminary for the creation of men, which Sibu desired and Jaburu
opposed. The almighty god chose green pods, the evil one ripe
pods; and at the third throw the pod broke in Jaburu's hand,
mankind being then bom from the seed. A third legend, of a
man-stealing eagle who devoured his prey in company with a
jaguar (who is no true jaguar, but a bad spirit, having the form
of a stone until his prey approaches), is evidently a version of
the story of the bird-monster told by Peter Martyr.
III. EL DORADO
Not the quest of the Golden Fleece itself and the adventures
of the Argonauts with clashing rocks and Amazonian women
are so filled with extravagance and peril as is the search for El
Dorado.* The legend of the Gilded Man and of his treasure
city sprang from the soil of the New World in the very dawn of
its discovery — whether wholly in the imaginations of con-
quistadores dazzled with dreams of gold, or partly from some
custom, tale, or myth of the American Indians it is now im-
possible to say. In its earlier form it told of a priest, or king,
or priest-king, who once a year smeared his body with oil,
powdered himself with gold dust, and in gilded splendour, ac-
companied by nobles, floated to the centre of a lake, where, as
the onlookers from the shore sang and danced, he first made
offering of treasure to the waters .and then himself leaped in to
wash the gold from his body. Later, fostered by the readiness
of the aborigines to rid themselves of the plague of white men
by means of tales of treasure cities farther on, the story grew
into pictures of the golden empire of Omagua, or Manoa,
or Paytiti, or Enim, on the shores of a distant lake. Expedi-
tion after expedition journeyed in quest of the fabled capital.
As early as 1530, Ambros von Alfinger, a German knight, set
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 195
out from the coast of Venezuela in search of a golden city,
chaining his enslaved native carriers to one another by means
of neck-rings and cutting off the heads of those who succumbed
to fatigue to save the trouble of unlinking them; Alfinger him-
self was wounded in the neck by an arrow and died of the
wound. In 1 53 1 Diego de Ordaz conducted an expedition guided
by a lieutenant who claimed to have been entertained in the
city of Omoa by El Dorado himself; in 1536-38 George of
Spires, afterward governor of Venezuela, made a journey of
fifteen hundred miles into the interior; and another German, the
red-bearded Nicholas Federman, departed upon the same quest.
On the plains of Bogota in 1539 they met Quesada and Belal-
cazar, who, coming from the north and from the south respec-
tively, had subdued the Chibcha realm. Heman Perez de
Quesada, brother of the conqueror, led an unlucky expedi-
tion, behaving with such cruelty that his death from lightning
was regarded as a divine retribution; while the expeditions of
the chivalrous Philip von Hutten (1540-41) and of Orellana
down the Amazon (1540-41) were followed by others, down to
the time of Sir Walter Raleigh's quest in 1595, — all enlarging
the geographical knowledge of South America and accumulating
fables of cities of gold and nations of warlike women. Of all
these adventures, however, the most amazing was the " jomada
de Omagua y Dorado" which set out from Peru in 1559 under
the leadership of Don Pedro de Ursua, a knight of Navarre.
Ursua was a gentleman, worthy of his knighthood, but his
company was crowded with cut-throats, of whom he himself
was an early victim. Hernando de Guzman made himself
master of the mutineers, and renouncing allegiance to the
King of Castile, proclaimed himself Prince and King of all
Tierra Firme; but he, in turn fell before his tyrant successor.
Lope de Aguirre, whose fantastic and blood-thirsty insanity
caused half the continent to shudder at his name, which
is still remembered in Venezuelan folk-lore, where the phos-
phorescence of the swamp is called fuego de Aguirre in the
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196 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
belief that under sucH form the tortured soul of the tyrant
wanders abroad.
The true provenance of the story of the Gilded Man (if not
of the treasure city) seems certainly to be the region about Bo-
gota in the realm of the Chibcha. Possibly the myth may refer
to the practices of one of the nations conquered by the Muyscan
Zipas before the coming of the Spaniards, and legendary even
at that time; for as the tale is told, it seems to describe a cere-
mony in honour of such a water-spirit as we are everywhere
told the Colombian nations venerated; and it may actually
be that the Gilded Man was himself a sacrifice to or a persona-
tion of the deity. Whatever the origin, the legends of El Dorado
have their node in the lands of the Chibcha — a circumstance
not without its own poetic warrant, for from no other American
people have jewelleries of cunningly wrought gold come in
more abundance.
The Zipa of Bogota, at the period of the conquest, was the
most considerable of the native rulers in what is now Colombia,
having an empire only less in extent than those of the Peruvian
Incas and of the Aztec Kings. He also was a recent lord, en-
gaged at the very time of the coming of the whites in extend-
ing his power over neighbouring rulers; it is probable that
Guatavita, east of Bogota had fallen to the Zipa' not many
decades before the conquest and this Guatavita is supposed
to have been the scene of the rite of El Dorado; in any case
it had remained a famous shrine. Tunja was another power
to the east of Bogota declining before the rising power of
the Zipas, its Zaque (as the Tunjan caciques were called)
being saved from the Zipa's forces by the arrival of the
Spaniards.
Besides these — the Chibcha proper^ — there were in Colom-
bia in the sixteenth century other civilized peoples, akin in
culture and language, whose chief centres were in the elongated
Cauca valley paralleling the Pacific coast. Farthest north were
the tribes in the neighbourhood of Antioquia — the Tamahi and
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PLATE XXVII
(^)
Colombian gold work. Ornaments in the forms
of human and monstrous beings, doubtless mytho-
logical subjects. The originals are in the American
Museum of Natural History.
(B)
Colombian gold work. The human figure ap-
parently holds a staff or wand and may represent
Bochica or similar personage. The originals are in
the American Museum of Natural History.
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 197
Nutabi; south of these, about Cartago, were the most famous
of gold-workers, the Quimbaya; while near the borders of what
is now Ecuador dwelt the Coconuco and their kindred. All
these peoples possessed skill in pottery, metal-working, and
weaving; and the inhabitants of the Cauca valley were the
most advanced of the Colombians in these arts. Indeed, the
case of Peru seems to be in a measure repeated; for the Chibcha
surpassed their neighbours in the strength of their military
and political organization rather than in their knowledge of
the arts. It is even possible that the Chibcha had been driven
eastward by the western tribes, for the inhabitants of the
Cauca valley possessed traditions of a northern origin, claim-
ing to be immigrants; while the Chibcha still regarded certain
spots in the territories of their western enemies, the Muzo, as
sacred. Little is known of the mythic systems of any of these
peoples save the Chibcha. The Antioquians preserved a deluge-
myth (as doubtless did all the other Colombians); and they
recognized a creator-god, Abira, a spirit of evil, Canicuba,
and a goddess, Dabeciba, who was the same as Dabaiba, the
Darien Mother of the Creator. Cieza de Leon says * that the
Antioquians "carve the likeness of a devil, very fierce and in
human form, with other images and figures of cats which they
worship; when they require water or sunshine for their crops,
they seek aid from these idols." Of the Quimbaya Cieza tells
how there appeared to a group of women making salt beside
a spring the apparition of a disembowelled man who prophesied
a pestilence that soon came. "Many women and boys affirmed
that they saw the dead with their own eyes walking again.
These people well understand that there is something in man
besides the mortal body, though they do not hold that it is a
soul, but rather some kind of transfiguration." The Sun, the
Moon, and the Rainbow were important divinities with all
these tribes, and they made offerings of gold and jewels and
children to water-spirits in rivers and in springs. Human
sacrifice was probably universal, and too many of the Indians,
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198 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
as Cieza puts it, "not content with natural food, turned their
bellies into tombs of their neighbours."
IV. MYTHS OF THE CHIBCHA*
Fray Pedro Simon wrote his Noticias Historiales in 1623,
some four score years from the conquest, giving in his fourth
Noticia an account of the myths and rites of the Chibcha which
is our primary source for the beliefs of these tribes. Like other
American peoples the Chibcha recognized a Creator, apparently
the Heaven Father, but like most others their active cults
centred about lesser powers: the Sun (to whpm human sacri-
fices were made), the Moon, the Rainbow, spirits of lakes and
other genii locorum^ culture deities, male and female, and the
manes of ancestors. Idols of gold and copper, of wood and clay
and cotton, represented gods and fetishes, and to them offer-
ings were made, especially of emeralds and golden ornaments.
Fray Pedro says that the Pijaos aborigines and some of those of
Tunja had in their sanctuaries images having three heads or
three faces on a single body which, the natives said, represented
three persons with one heart; and he also records their use of
crosses to mark the graves of those dead of snake-bite, as well
as their belief that the souls of the dead fared to the centre of
the earth, crossing the Stygian river on balsas made of spiders'
webs, for which reason spiders were never killed. Like the
Aztec they held that the lot of men slain in battle and of women
dying in child-birth was especially delectable in the other
world.
The worship of mountains, serpents, and lakes was implied in
many of the Chibcha rites. Slaves were sacrificed, and their
bodies were buried on hill-tops; children, who were the par-
ticular offering to the Sun, were sometimes taken to mountain-
tops to be slain, their bodies being supposed to be consumed by
the Sun; and an interesting case of the surrogate for human
victims was the practice of sacrificing parrots which had been
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 199
taught to speak. In masked dances, addressed to the Sun,
tears were represented on the masks as a supplication for pity;
and another curious rite, apparently solar, was -performed at
Tunja, where twelve men in red, presumably typifying the
moons of the year, danced about a blue man, who was doubtless
the sky-god. The ceremony of El Dorado is only one of many
rites in which the divinities of the sacred lakes were propitiated;
and it is probable that these water-spirits were conceived in the
form of snakes, as when, at Lake Guatavita, a huge serpent
was supposed to issue from the depths to secure offerings left
upon the bank.
The same concept of serpentiform water-deities appears in
the curious and novel creation-myth of the Chibcha, briefly
told by Fray Simon. In the beginning all was darkness, for
light was imprisoned in a great house in charge of a being called
Chiminigagua, whom the friar names as the Supreme God,
omnipotent, ever good, and lord of all things. After creating
huge black birds, to whom he gave the light, commanding
them to carry it in their beaks until all the world was illu-
mined and resplendent, Chiminigagua formed the Sun, the
Moon (to be the Sun's wife and companion), and the rest of the
universe. The human race was of another origin, for shortly
after the creation of light, from Lake Iguaque, not far from
Tunja, emerged a woman named Bachue or Turachogue ("the
Good Woman")? bearing with her a boy just out of infancy.
When he was grown, Bachue married him; and their prolific
offspring — she brought forth four or six children at a birth —
peopled the earth; but finally the two returned beneath the
waters, Bachue enjoining upon the people to keep the peace,
to obey the laws which she had given them, and in particular to
preserve the cult of the gods; while the pair assumed the form
of serpents, in which they were supposed sometimes to reappear
to their worshippers.
The belief that the ancestors of men issued from a lake or
spring was common to many Andean tribes, being found far
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200 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
to the south, where the Indians of Cuzco pointed to Lake
Titicaca as the place whence they had come. The myth is easy
to explain for the obvious reason that lakesides are desirable
abodes and that migrating tribes would hark back to aban-
doned lakeside homes as their primal sites; however, another
suggestion is made plausible by various fragments of origin-
myths which have been preserved, namely, that the Andean
legends belong to the great cycle of American tales which make
men immigrants to the upper world from 4n under-earth realm
whence they have been driven by the malevolence of the water-
monster, a serpent or a dragon. There are many striking paral-
lels between the G>lombian tales and those of the Pueblo
tribes of North America — thie great underworld-goddess, the
serpent and the spider as subaqueous and subterranean powers,
the return of the dead to the realm below, the importance of
birds in cosmogony, the cult of the rainbow; and along
with these there are tales of a culture hero and of a pair of
divine brothers such as are common to nearly all American
peoples.
Other G>lombian legends of the origin of men include the
Pijaos belief, recorded by Fray Simon, that their ancestors
had issued from a mountain, and the tradition of the Muzo —
western neighbours of the Chibcha — that a shadow. Are,
formed faces from sand, which became men and women when
he sprinkled them with water. A true creation-story (as dis-
tinguished from tales of origin through generation) was told
also by the people of Tunja. In the beginning all was darkness
and fog, wherein dwelt the caciques of Ramiriqui and of
Sogamozo, nephew and uncle. From yellow clay they fashioned
men, and from an herb they created women; but since the
world was still unillumined, after enjoining worship upon their
creatures, they ascended to the sky, the uncle to become the
Sun, the nephew the Moon. It was at Sogamozo that the dance
of the twelve red men — each garlanded and carrying a cross,
and each with a young bird borne as a crest above his head —
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PLATE XXVIII
1. Ceremonial dish of black ware with monster
or animal forms found near Anoire, Antioquia.
The original is in the Museum of the University of
Nebraska.
2. Image of mother and child, red earthenware,
from the coastal regions of Colombia. The original
IS in the Museum of the University of Nebraska.
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 201
was danced about the blue sky-man, while all sang how human
beings are mortal and must change their bodies into dust with-
out knowing what shall be the fate of their souls.
Fray Simon relates an episode of these same Indians
which is enlightening both as to the missionary and as to
the aboriginal conception of the powers that be. After the
first missionary had laboured among the natives of Tunja and
Sogamozo, "the Demon there began to give contrary doctrines;
and among other matters he sought to discredit the teaching
of the Incarnation, telling them that such a thing had not yet
taken place. Nevertheless, it should happen that the Sun, as-
suming human flesh in the body of a virgin of the pueblo of
Guacheta, should cause her to bring forth that which she
should conceive from the rays of the sun, although remaining
virgin. This was bruited throughout the provinces, and the
cacique of the pueblo named, wishing to prove the miracle, took
two virgins, and leading them forth from his house every dawn,
caused them to dispose themselves upon a neighbouring hill,
where the first rays of the sun would shine upon them. Con-
tinuing this for some days, it was granted to the Demon by
Divine permission (whose judgements are incomprehensible)
that the event should issue according to his desire: in such
manner that in a few days one of the damsels became pregnant,
as she said, by the Sun." At the end of nine months the girl
brought forth a hacucUa, a large and beautiful emerald, which
was treated as an infant, and after being carried for several
days, became a living creature — "all by the order of the
Demon." The child was called Goranchacha, and when he was
grown he became cacique, with the title of "Child of the Sun."
It is to be suspected that the story of the virgin-bom son of the
Sun was older than the first preaching of the Incarnation, and
that Spanish ears had too eagerly misheard some tale of rites
or myths which must have been analogous to the Inca legends of
descent from the Sun and to their consecration of virgins to
his worship.
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202 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Like the other civilized American nations the Chibcha pre-
served the tradition of a bearded old man, clothed in long
robes who came from the east to instruct them in the arts of
life and to raise them from primeval barbarism; and like other
churchly writers Fray Pedro Simon regarded this as evidence
of the preaching of the Gospel by an apostle. Nemptereque-
teva, or Nemquetheba, and Xue, or Zuhe, are two of the
names of this culture hero, worshipped as the god Bochica. He
taught the weaving of cotton, the cultivation of fruits, the
building of houses, the adoration of the gods; and then he
passed on his mysterious way, leaving as proof of his mission
designs of crosses and serpents, and the custom of erecting
crosses over the graves of the victims of snake-bite — to
Fray Pedro an obvious reminiscence of the brazen serpent
raised on a cross by Moses in the Wilderness. One of the
epithets of this greybeard was Chiminizagagua, or "Messenger
of Chiminigagua," the supreme god; and when the Spaniards
appeared they were called Gagua, after the light-giver; but
later, when their cruelties had set them in a different context,
the aborigines changed the name to Suegagua ("Demon with
Light") after their principal devil, Suetiva, "and this they
give today to the Spaniards." Piedrahita says the Spaniards
were termed Zuhdy but he identifies the name as belonging to
the hero Bochica.
A curious episode follows the departure of the culture hero.
Among the people appeared a woman, beautiful and resplen-
dent — "or, better to say, a devil in her figure" — who taught
doctrines wholly opposed to the injunctions of Chiminizagagua.
Dancing and carousal were the tenets of her evangel; and in
displeasure at this, Chiminizagagua transformed the woman
(variously known as Chie, Huytaca, or Xubchasgagua) into
an owl, condemning her to walk the night. Humboldt says
that Bochica changed his wife Chia into the Moon {chia
signifies "moon" in the Chibchan tongue, says Acosta de
Samper); and it seems altogether likely that in the culture
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 203
hero, Messenger of Light, and the festal heroine, with their
opposite doctrines, we have a myth of sun and moon.
The Chibcha, of course, had their deluge-legend. In the
version given by Fray Pedro Simon it is associated with the
appearance of the rainbow as the symbol of hope; and since
the rainbow cult was important throughout the Andean region,
it may everywhere have been associated with some such myth
as the friar recounts. Chibchachum, the tutelary of the natives
of Bogota, being oflFended by the people, who murmured
against him and indeed openly offended, sent a flood to punish
them, whereupon they, in their peril, appealed to Bochica,
who appeared to them upon a rainbow, and, striking the
mountains with his staff, opened a conduit for the waters.
Chibchachum was punished, as Zeus punished the Titans, by
being thrust beneath the earth to take the place of the lignum-
vitae-trees which had hitherto upheld it, and his weary rest-
lessness is the cause of earthquakes; while the rainbow, Chucha-
viva, was thenceforth honoured as a deity, though not
without fear; for Chibchachum, in revenge for his disgrace,
announced that when it appeared, many would die. In the
version of this tale given by Piedrahita, Huytaca plays a part,
for it is as a result of her artifices that the waters rise; but
Bochica is again the deliverer, and the place opened for the
issuance of the waters was shown at the cataract of Tequen-
dama — "one of the wonders of the world."
The myth of Chibchachum, shaking the world which he
supports, has its analogue not only in the tale of Atlas but
also in the Tlingit legend of the Old Woman Below who jars
the post that upholds the world. It would seem, however, not
impossible that the story is an etymological myth, for Fray
Pedro Simon says that Chibchachum means "Staff of the
Chibcha," a name which might easily lend itself to the mytho-
poesy of the deluge-tale; nor is it unreasonable from the point
of view of cultural advancement, for the Chibcha were beyond
the stage in which it is profitable to refer all deifications to
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204 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
natural phenomena. Chibchachum, says the friar, was god of
commerce and industries — a complex divinity, not a mere
hero of myth — and Bochica, the most universally venerated of
Chibchan deities, was revered as a law-giver, divinity of
caciques and captains; served with sacrifices of gold and
tobacco, he was worshipped with fasts and hymns, and his
image was that of a man with the golden staff of authority.
There was a fox-god and a bear-god, but Nemcatacoa, the
bear-god, was patron of weavers and dyers, and, oddly, of
drunkards; in his bear's form he was supposed to sing and
dance with his followers. Chukem, deity of boundaries and
foot-races, must have been an American Hermes, and Bachue,
goddess of agriculture and of the springs of life, was, no doubt,
a personification of the earth itself, a Ge or Demeter. Chucha-
viva, the Rainbow, aided women in child-birth and those sick
with a fever — and we think of the images of the rainbow
goddess on the sweat lodges of the Navaho far to the north,
and of the rainbow insignia of the royal Incas in the imperial
south. Certain it is that here we have to do with a pantheon
that reflects the complexity of a life developed beyond the
primitive needs of those whom we call nature-folk.
V. THE MEN FROM THE SEA
The most picturesque account of the landing of gigantic
strangers on the desert-like Pacific coast, just south of the
equator, is that given by Cieza de Leon.^® "I will relate what
I have been told, without paying attention to the various
versions of the story current among the vulgar, who always
exaggerate everything." With this proclamation of modesty,
he proceeds with the tale which the natives, he says, have
received from their ancestors of a remote time.
"There arrived on the coast, in boats made of reeds, as big
as large ships, a party of men of such size that, from the knee
downwards, their height was as great as the entire height of an
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 205
ordinary man, though he might be of good stature.' Their
limbs were all in proportion to the deformed size of their bodies,
and it was a monstrous thing to see their heads, with hair reach-
ing to the shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates.
They had no beards and were dressed in the skins of animals,
others only in the dress which nature gave them, and they had
no women with them. When they arrived at this point [Santa
Elena], they made a sort of village, and even now the. sites of
their houses are pointed out. But as they found no water, in
order to remedy the want they made some very deep wells,
works which are truly worthy of remembrance, for such is their
magnitude that they certainly must have been executed
by very strong men. They dug these wells in the living
rock until they met with water, and then they lined them
with masonry from top to bottom in such sort that they will
endure for many ages. The water in these wells is very good and
wholesome, and always so cold that it is very pleasant to
drink it. Having built their village and made their wells or
cisterns where they could drink, these great men, or giants,
consumed all the provisions they could lay their hands upon
in the surrounding country, insomuch that one of them
ate more meat than fifty of the natives of the country could.
As all the food they could find was not sufiicient to sustain
them, they killed many fish with nets and other gear. They
were detested by the natives, because in using their women
they killed them, and the men also in another way; but the
Indians were not sufiiciently numerous to destroy this new
people who had come to occupy their lands. ... All the
natives declare that God, our Lord, brought upon them a
punishment in proportion to the enormity of their offence.
... A fearful and terrible fire came down from heaven
with a great noise, out of the midst of which there issued
a shining angel with a glittering sword, with which, at one
blow, they were all killed, and the fire consumed them. There
only remained a few bones and skulls, which God allowed to
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2o6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
remain without being consumed by the fire, as a memorial
of this punishment."
Cieza de Leon's story is only one among a number of accounts
of this race of giants, come from the sea and destroyed long
ago by flame from heaven for the sin of sodomy. To these
legends recent investigations have added a new interest; for
during excavations in the coast region to the north of Cape
Santa Elena the members of the George G. Heye Expeditions
(1906-08) discovered the remains of a unique aboriginal civili-
zation in this region, among its monuments being stone^faced
wells corresponding to those mentioned by the early narration.
Another and peculiarly interesting type of monument, found
here in abundance, is the stone seat, whether throne or altar,
carved with human or animal figures to support it, and remi-
niscent of the duhos of the Antilles and of carved metates and
seats found northward in the continent and beyond the Isth-
mus. It is the opinion of the excavators that these seats were
thrones for deities; possibly also for human dignitaries, espe-
cially as clay figures represent men sitting upon such seats
— images, perhaps, of household gods; while the figures of men,
pumas, serpents, birds, monkeys, and other figures crouching
caryatid-like are, no doubt, depictions of supporting powers,
divine auxiliaries or gods themselves. Monstrous forms, com-
posite animals, and grotesquely frog-like images of a female
goddess in bas-relief on stele-like slabs — mute emblems of a
forgotten pantheon — add curious interest to the vanished
race, remembered only in distorted legend when the first-
coming Spaniards received the tale from the aborigines.
Juan de Velasco," in the beginning of his history of Quito,
places the coming of the giants about the time of the Christian
era; and six or seven centuries later, he declares, another in-
cursion of men from the sea appeared on this coast, destined
to leave a more permanent trace, for the present city of Ca-
raques not only marks the site of their first power, but bears
the name of the Cara. These invaders are said to have come
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PLATE XXIX
Scene from a vase, Truxillo, showing balsa. The
drawing is in the Chimu style. After Joyce, Sou^
American Archaeology, page 126.
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 207
on balsas — the strange boats of this coast, formed of logs bound
together, the longest at the centre, into the form of a hull, on
which a platform was built, while masts bore cloth sails; and
it is stated that the Spaniards encountered such craft capable
of carrying forty or fifty men. The Cara were an adventurous
people, and after dwelling for a time upon the coast, they
advanced into the interior until, about 980 A. D., according to
Velasco, they eventually established their power in the neigh-
bourhood of Quito, where the Scyri (as the Cara king was
called) became a powerful overlord. From that time until
Quito was subdued by the Incas Tupac Yupanqui and Huayna
Capac in the latter part of the fifteenth century, the Scyris
reigned over the northern empire, constantly extending their
territories by war; but their power was finally broken when
the Inca added the emerald of the Scyris to the red fringe of
Cuzco to complete his imperial crown.
The followers of the Scyris, Velasco says, were mere idola-
ters, having at the head of their pantheon the Sun and the
Moon who had guided them on their journeys; and he describes
the temples built to these deities on two opposite hills at
Quito, that to the Sun having before the door two pillars
which served to measure the solar year, while twelve lesser
columns indicated the beginning of each month. Elsewhere in
their empire were the usual local cults, — worship of animals
and elements, with tales of descent from serpentiform water-
spirits and with adoration of fish and of food animals —
while on the coast the Sea was a great divinity, and the islands
of Puna and La Plata were the seats of famous sanctuaries,
at the former shrine prisoners being sacrificed to Tumbal, the
war-god, by having their hearts torn out. The neighbouring
coast was the seat of the veneration of the great emerald
(mentioned by Cieza de Leon and Garcilasso de la Vega)
which was famous as a god of healing; and it is altogether
probable that the Scyris brought their regard for the emerald
from this region in which the gem abounded, though this
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2o8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
may well have been merely a local intensification of that
belief in the magic of green and blue gems which is broadcast
in the two Americas.
Besides the stories of the giants and the Cara, there is a
third legend of an ancient descent of seamen upon the equa-
torial coast. Balboa^ is the narrator of the tale of the coming
of Naymlap and his people to Lambeyeque, a few degrees
south of Cape Santa Elena, and the story which he tells is given
with a minuteness as to name and description that leaves
no doubt of its native origin. At a very remote period there
arrived from the north a great fleet of balsas^ commanded by
a brave and renowned chieftain, Naymlap. His wife was
called Cetemi, and a list of court officers is given — Pitazofi,
the trumpeter; Ninacolla, warden of the chiefs litter and
throne; Ninagentue, the cup-bearer; Fongasigde, spreader of
shell-dust before the royal feet (a function which leads us to
suspect that the royal feet, for magic reasons, were never to
touch the earth); Ochocalo, chief of the cuisine; Xam, master
of face-paints; and LlapchiluUi, charged with the care of
vestments and plumes. From this account of the entourage^
one readily infers that the chieftain is more than man, him-
self a divinity; and, indeed, Balboa goes on to say that im-
mediately after the new comers had landed, they built a
temple, named Chot, wherein they placed an idol which they
had brought and which, carved of green stone in the image
of the chief, was called Llampallec, or "figure of Naymlap."
After a long reign Naymlap disappeared, leaving the report
that, given wings by his power, he had ascended to the skies;
and his followers, in their affliction, went everywhere in search
of their lord, while their children inhabited the territories which
had been acquired. Cium, the successor of Naymlap, at the
end of his reign, immured himself in a subterranean cham-
ber, where he perished of hunger in order that he might leave
the reputation of being immortal; and after Cium were nine
other kings, succeeded by Tempellec, who undertook to move
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THE ANDEAN NORTH 209
the statue of Naymlap. But when a demon, in the form of a
beautiful woman, had seduced him, it began to rain — a thing
hitherto unknown on that dry coast — and continued for
thirty days, this being followed by a year of famine, whereupon
the priests, binding Tempellec hand and foot, cast him into
the sea, after which the kindgom was changed into a republic.
This tale bears all the marks of authentic tradition. We may
well suppose that Naymlap and his successors were magic
kings, reigning during the period of their vigorous years and
then sacrificed to make way for a successor who should anew
incarnate the sacred life of Llampallec. Such rulers, as corn-
spirits and embodiments of the communal soul of their people,
have been made familiar by Sir James G. Frazer's monu-
mental Golden Bough; and in this case it would appear that
the sacred king was regarded as a marine divinity, probably
as the son of Mother Sea. Certainly this would not merely
explain the shell-dust spread beneath his feet, but it might
also account for the punishment of Tempellec, who had brought
the cataclysm of water to the land and so was cast back to his
own element; while it is even possible that the worship of the
emerald, which all writers mention in connexion with this
coast, may have here received its especial impetus from the
colour and translucency of the stone, suggesting the green
waters of the ocean.
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CHAPTER VII
THE ANDEAN SOUTH
I. THE EMPIRE OF THE INCAS*
IN this land of Peru/' wrote Cieza de Leon,* "are three desert
ranges where men can in no wise exist. One of these com-
prises the montana (forests) of the Andes, full of dense wilder-
nesses where men cannot live, nor ever have lived. The second
is the mountainous region, extending the whole length of the
Cordillera of the Andes, which is intensely cold, and its sum-
mits are covered with eternal snow, so that in no way can
people live in this region owing to the snow and the cold, and
also because there are no provisions, all things being destroyed
by the snow and the wind, which never ceases to blow. The
third range comprises the sandy deserts from Tumbez to the
other side of Tarapaca, in which there is nothing to be seen
but sand-hills and the fierce sun which dries them up, without
water, nor herb, nor tree, nor created thing, except birds which,
by the gift of their wings, wander wherever they list. This
kingdom, being so vast, has great deserts for the reasons I
have now given.
"The inhabited region is after this fashion. In parts of the
mountains of the Andes are ravines and dales, which open out
into deep valleys of such width as often to form great plains be-
tween the mountains; and although the snow falls, it all re-
mains on the higher part. As these valleys are closed in, they
are not molested by the winds, nor does the snow reach them,
and the land is so fruitful that all things which are sown yield
abundantly; and there are trees and many birds and animals.
The land being so fertile, is well peopled by the natives. They
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 211
make their villages with rows of stones roofed with straw, and
live healthily and in comfort. Thus the mountains of the Andes
form these dales and ravines in which there are populous vil-
lages, and rivers of excellent water flow near them, some of the
rivers send their waters to the South Sea, entering by the sandy
deserts which I have mentioned, and the humidity of their
water gives rise to very beautiful valleys with great rows of
trees. The valleys are two or three leagues broad, and great
quantities of algoroba trees [Prosopis horrida] grow in them,
which flourish even at great distances from any water.
Wherever there are groves of trees the land is free from
sand and very fertile and abundant. In ancient times these
valleys were very populous, and still there are Indians in them,
though not so many as in former days. As it never rains in
these sandy deserts and valleys of Peru, they do not roof their
houses as they do in the mountains, but build large houses of
adobes [sun-dried bricks] with pleasant terraced roofs of matting
to shade them from the sun, nor do the Spaniards use any other
roofing than these reed mats. To prepare their fields for sowing,
they lead channels from the rivers to irrigate the valleys, and
the channels are made so well and with so much regularity
that all the land is irrigated without any waste. This system
of irrigation makes the valleys very green and cheerful, and
they are full of fruit-trees both of Spain and of this country.
At all times they raise good harvests of maize and wheat, and
of everything that they sow. Thus, although I have described
Peru as being formed of three desert ridges, yet from them,
by the will of God, descend these valleys and rivers, without
which no man could live. This is the cause why the natives
were so easily conquered, for if they rebelled they would all
perish of cold and hunger. Except the land which they inhabit,
the whole country is full of snowy mountains, enormous and
very terrible."
Cieza de Leon's description brings vividly before the imagina-
tion the physical surroundings which made possible the evolu-
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212 UVTIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
tion and the long history of the greatest of native American
empires. Divided from one another by towering mountains
and inhospitable deserts, the tribes and clans that filtered into
this region at some remote period were compelled to develop in
relative isolation; while, further, the conditions of existence
were such that the inhabitants could not be nomadic huntsmen,
nor even fishermen. Along the shores are vestiges of ancient
shell-heaps, indicative of utterly primitive fisher-folk, and the
sea always remained an important source of food for the coastal
peoples; yet even here, as Cieza de Leon indicates, the growth
of population was dependent upon an intensive cultivation of
the narrow river-valleys rather than upon the conquest of new
territories. Thus, the whole environment of life in Peru, mon-
tane and littoral, is framed by the fact of more or less con-
stricted and protected valley centres, immensely productive in
response to toil, but yielding no idyllic fruits to unlaborious
ease. If the peoples who inhabited these valleys were not agri-
culturists when they entered them, they were compelled to
become such in order that they might live and increase; and
while the stupendous thrift of the aborigines, as evidenced by
their stone-terraced gardens, their elaborate aqueducts, and
their wonderful roads, still excites the astonishment of be-
holders, it is none the less intelligible as the inevitable conse-
quence of prolonged human habitation. It is certain that the
Peruvian peoples were the most accomplished of all Americans
in the working of the soil; and it is possible that they were the
originators of agriculture in America, for it was from Peru,
apparently, that the growing of maize spread throughout wide
regions of South America, Peru that developed the potato as a
food-crop, and in Peru that the cultivation of cotton and various
fruits and vegetables added greatest variety to the native farm-
ing. Peru, likewise, was the only American centre in which there
was a domestic animal more important than the dog; and the
antiquity of the taming of the llama and alpaca — useful not
only for food and wool, but also as beasts of burden — is shown
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PLATE XXX
Machu Picchu, in the valley of the Urubamba,
north of Cuzco. These ruins of an ancient Inca
city were discovered by Hiram Binghami of the
Yale University and National Geographical Society
expedition, in 191 1, and are by him identified with
the "Tampu-Tocco" of Inca tradition (sec pages
216-18, ^nd Plate XXXVIII). From photograph,
courtesy of Hiram Bingham, Director of the Yale
Peruvian Expedition.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 213
by the fact that these animals show marked differentiation
from the wild guanaco from which they are derived. The de-
velopment of domestic species of this animal and, even more,
the development of maize from its ancestral grasses (if indeed
this were Peruvian) • imply many centuries of settled and in-
dustrious life, a consideration which adds strongly to the ar-
chaeological and legendary indications of a civilization that
must be reckoned in millennia.
The conditions which thus fostered local and intensive cul-
tural evolutions were scarcely less favourable — once the local
valleys had reached a certain complexity — to the formation
of extensive empires. As Cieza de Leon remarks, conquest was
easy where refuge was difficult; and the Inca conquerors them-
selves found that the most effective weapon they could employ
against the coastal cities was mastery of their aqueducts. The
town which lost control of its water, drawn from the hills,
could only surrender; and thus, the segregated valleys fell
an easy prey to a powerful and aggressive people, gifted with
engineering skill, such as the Inca race; while the empire won
was not difficult to hold. At the time of the Spanish conquest
that empire was truly immense. Tahuantinsuyu ("the Four
Quarters *0 was the native name, and "the Quartered City**
(Cuzco), its capital, was regarded as the Navel of the World.
The four quarters, or provinces, were oriented from Cuzco:
the southerly was CoUasuyu, stretching from the neighbour-
hood of Lake Titicaca southward; the eastern province was
Antisuyu, extending down the slopes of the Andes into the
regions of savagery; to the west lay Cuntisuyu, reaching to
the coast and to the lands of the Yunca peoples; while to the
north was Chinchasuyu, following the Andean valleys. Shortly
before the Conquest the Inca dominion had been imposed
upon the realm of the Scyris of Quito, so that the northern
boundary lay beyond the equator; while the extreme southerly
border had recently been extended over the Calchaqui tribes
and down the coast to the edges of Araucania in the neigh-
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214 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
bourhcx>d of latitude 35° south. The imperial territories were
naturally narrowed to the Andean region, for the tropical
forests to the east offered no allurements to the mountain-
loving race which, indeed, could endure only temporarily the
heat of the western coast, so that Inca campaigners in this
direction resorted to frequent reliefs lest their men be de-
bilitated. On the other hand, the immense expanse north and
south, notwithstanding the perfection of the roads and for-
tresses built by astute rulers to facilitate communication,
caused a natural tension of the parts and a tendency to break
at the appearance of even the least weakness at the centre.
Such appears to have been the fatal defect underlying the
conflict of Huascar, at Cuzco, with Atahualpa, whose initial
strength lay in his possession of Quito, and whose career was
brought to an untimely end by the advent of Pizarro. Despite
the fact that Inca power had been clearly crescent within the
generation, it is by no means certain that the political con-
ditions which the Spaniards used to advantage might not,
if left to themselves, have disrupted the great empire.
There is reason to think that such a rupture had occurred
at least once before in the history of Andean civilization.
The list of more than a hundred Peruvian kings given by the
Licentiate Fernando Montesinos (writing about 1650)* was
formerly viewed with much distrust, chiefly for the reason that
the kings of the pre-Inca dynasties recorded by Montesinos
are almost without exception unnamed by earlier and prime
authorities on Peruvian history (including Garcilasso de la
Vega and Cieza de Leon). Recent discoveries, however, both
scholarly and archaeological, have brought a new plausibility
to Montesinos's lists, and it appears probable that he derived
them from the lost works of Bias Valera, one of the earliest
men in the field, known to have had exceptional opportuni-
ties for a study of native lore; while at the same time the
archaeological investigations of Max Uhle and the brilliant
achievements of the expeditions headed by Hiram Bingham
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 215
have given a new definiteness tx) knowledge of pre-Inca
conditions.*
It has long been known that Inca civilization was only the
last in a series of Peruvian culture periods. Back of it, in the
highlands, lay the Megalithic Age, so called from the great
size of the stone blocks in its cyclopean masonry, the earliest
centre of this culture being supposed to have been about
Lake Titicaca, and especially Tiahuanaco, at the south of the
lake — a site remarkable not only for the most extraordinary
of all ancient American monuments, the monolithic gate and
the surrounding precincts, but also for the importance ascribed
to it in legend as a place of origin of nations. Other highland
centres, however, hark back to the same period, and Cuzco
itself, in old cyclopean walls, shows evidence of an age of
Megalithic greatness upon which the later Inca civilization
had supervened. Again, in the coastal region from lea to
Truxillo — the realms of the Yunca, according to the older
chroniclers — there were several successive culture periods;
and though it is possible that traditions such as that of Naym-*
lap (see Chapter VI, Section V) indicate a foreign origin for
the Yunca peoples, in any case their differing environment
would account for much. The peoples of the littoral could
have no herds of llamas, since the animal was unable to live
in that region; and hence they looked mainly to cotton for
their fabrics, while the sea gave them fair compensation in
the matter of food. In the lesser arts, especially in that of
the potter, they surpassed the highlanders and, indeed, all
other Americans; but their building material was adobe, and
they have left no magnificent monuments, as have the stone-
workers of the hills. Nevertheless at some remote, pre-Inca
period the ideas of the coast and those of the highlands met
and interchanged : the art of Tiahuanaco is reflected in motive
at Truxillo, while the vases of Nasca repeat the bizarre decora-
tion of the monolith of Chavin de Huantar. The hoary sanctity
of the great temple of Pachacamac was such that its Inca
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conqueror adopted the god into his own pantheon; and it was
just here, at the Yunca shrine of Pachacamac, that Uhle
found evidence of a series of culture periods leading to a con-
siderable antiquity. The indigenous coastal art had already
passed its climax of expressive skill when the influence of
Tiahuanaco appeared; but this influence lasted long enough
to leave an enduring impress on the interregnum-like period
which followed, awaiting, as it were, the return of the hills'
influence, which came with the advent of the Inca. Such, in
brief, is the restoration, and it seems to fit remarkably with
Bingham's discoveries and with Montesinos's lists.
Of the one hundred and two kings in these lists, the last
ten form the Inca dynasty (a group with respect to which
Montesinos is in essential agreement with other chroniclers),
whose beginning is placed 1 100-1200 a. d.; back of these are
the twenty-eight lords of Tampu-Tocco; and still earlier the
sixty-four rulers of the ancient empire, forty-six of them
forming the amauta (or priest-king) dynasty which followed
after the primal line of eighteen Sons of the Gods. Were this
scheme of regal succession followed out in extenso the begin-
nings of the Megalithic Empire of the highlands should fall
near the beginning df the first millenium before Christ, and that
of the Tampu Tocco dynasty in the early years of our Era.
Archaeological and other considerations lead, however, to esti-
mates somewhat more conservative, placing the culmination
of the early empire in the first centuries of the Christian era,
and the sojourn at Tampu Tocco from about 600-1100 a. d.*
The Inca dsmasty, established at Cuzco toward 1200 a. d.,
was the creator of the great empire which the Spaniards found,
and its record is the traditional history of Peru, recounted by
Garcilasso and Cieza. According to the legend, the Inca tribes
had come to Cuzco from a place called Tampu-Tocco, a city
of refuge in an inaccessible valley, where for centuries their
ancestors had lived in seclusion, the cause of the retirement
being as follows : in past generations, it was said, the Amauta
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 217
dynasty held sway over a great highland realm, extending
from Tucuman in the south to Huanuco in the north, the
empire having been formed perhaps by the earlier royal house,
which was called Piruaj after the name of its first King. In
the reign of the forty-sixth Amauta, there came an invasion of
hordes from the south and east, preceded by comets, earth-
quakes, and dire divinations. The King Titu Yupanqui, borne
on a golden litter, led his soldiers out to battle; he was slain by
an arrow, and his discouraged followers retreated with his body.
Cuzco fell, and after war came pestilence, leaving city and
country uninhabitable, while the remnants of the Amauta
people fled away to Tampu-Tocco, where they established
themselves, leaving at Cuzco only a few priests who refused
to abandon the shrine of the Sun. It was said that the art of
writing was lost in this debacle^ and that the later art of reckon-
ing by quipusy or knotted and coloured cords, was invented at
Tampu-Tocco. Here, in a city free from pests and unmoved
by earthquakes, the Kings of Tampu-Tocco reigned in peace,
going occasionally to Cu2XO to worship at the ancient shrine,
over which, with its neighborhood, some shadowy authority
was preserved. Finally a woman, Siyu-Yacu, of noble birth
and high ambition, caused the report to be spread that her
son, Rocca, had been carried off to be instructed by the Sun
himself, and a few days later the youth, appearing in a garment
glittering with gold, told the people that corruption of the
ancient religion had caused their fall, but that their lost glories
should be restored to them under his leadership. Thus Rocca
became the first of the Incas, Cuzco was restored as capital,
and the new empire started on a career which was to exceed
the old in grandeur.
With the removal to Cuzco, Tampu-Tocco became no more
than a monumental shrine where priests and vestals preserved
the rites of the old religion and watched over the caves made
sacred by the bones of former monarchs. The native writer
Salcamayhua, who, like Garcilasso, makes Manco Capac the
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2i8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
founder of the Incas (Montesinos regards Manco Capac I as
the first native-born king of the Pima dynasty), tells how
"at the place of his birth he ordered works to be executed,
consisting of a masonry wall with three windows, which were
emblems of the house of his fathers, whence he descended";
and the name Tampu-Tocco actually means "Tavern of the
Windows," windows being an unusual feature of Peruvian
architecture. As the event proves, the commemorative wall
is still standing.
In 191 1, Hiram Bingham, the leader of the expedition sent
out by Yale University and the National Geographical Society,
discovered in the wild valley of the Urubamba, north of Cuzco,
the ruins of a mountain-seated city, one of the most wonder-
ful, and (in its natural context) beautiful ruins in the world.
Machu Picchu the place is called, and its discoverer identifies
it with the Tampu-Tocco of Inca tradition. One of its most
strildng features is a wall with three great windows; it con-
tains cave-made graves and temples; bones of the more recent
dead indicate that those who last dwelt in it were priestesses
and priests; and it gives evidence of long occupation. The
more ancient stonework is the more beautiful in execution,
seeming to hark back to the masterpieces of Megalithic civili-
zation; the later portion is in Inca style. Especially interest-
ing is the discovery of record stones, associated with the older
period, indicating that an earlier method of chronology had
been replaced in later times, for it is to the reign of the thir-
teenth King of Tampu-Tocco that the invention of quipus is
ascribed. Ideally placed as a city of refuge in a remote canon,
so that its very existence was unknown to the Spanish con-
querors; seated on a granite hill unmoved by earthquakes;
with its elaborate structures and complicated terraces indi-
ting generations of residence, Machu Picchu represents the
nnecting link between the old and the new empires in Peru
d gives a suddenly vivid plausibility to the traditions
:orded by Montesinos.
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PLATE XXXI
Sculptured monolith from Chavin de Huantar,
now in the Museum of Lima. The design appears
to be a deity armed with thunderbolts or elaborate
wands, with a monster head surmounted by an
elaborate head-dress. If the figure be viewed re-
versed the head-dress will be seen to consist of a
series of masks each pendent from the protruding
tongue of the mask above, a motive frequent in Nasca
pottery {cf. Plate XXXII). The figure strongly
suggests the central image of the Tiahuanaco mono«
lithic gateway, but it is to be observed that serpent
heads, from the girdle, the rays of the head-dress,
and in the caduceus-like termination of the head-
dress, take the place of the puma, fish and condor
accessories of the Tiahuanaco monument. The re-
lationship of this deity to those represented on
Plates XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXV, and
XXXVII, is scarcely to be doubted. Markham,
Incas of Peru J page 34.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 219
Thus, in shadowy fashion, the cycles of Andean civilization
are restored. There are two great regions, the highland and
the littoral, Inca and Yunca, each with a long history. The
primitive fisher-families of the coast gave way to a civili-
zation which may have received its impetus, as traditions
indicate, from tribes sailing southward in great balsas; at
any rate it had developed, doubtless before the Christian era,
important and characteristic culture centres — Truxillo in the
north, Nasca to the south — and great shrines, Pachacamac
and Rimac, venerable to the Incas; while long after its own
acme, and long before the Inca conquest, the coastal civiliza-
tion had had important commerce with the ancient culture
of the highlands. The origin of the pre-Inca empire from the
Megalithic culture of Tiahuanaco leads back toward the
middle of the first millenium b. c, perhaps to dimly remote
centuries. It passed its floruit, marked by the rise of Cuzco
as a great capital, and then followed barbarian migrations
and wars; the retirement of a defeated handful to Tampu-
Tocco; a long period of decline; and finally, about the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, a renaissance of culture, marked
by a religious reform amounting to a new dispensation and
stamping the revived power as essentially ecclesiastical in
its claims, — for all Inca conquests were undertaken with a
Crusader's plea for the expansion of the faith in the benefi-
cent Sun and for the spread of knowledge of the Way of Life
revealed through his children, the Inca.
It is impossible not to be struck with the resemblance be-
tween the development of this civilization and that of Europe
during the same period. Cuzco and Rome rise to empire
simultaneously; the ancient civilizations of Tiahuanaco, Nasca,
and Truxillo, excelling the new power in art, but inferior in
power of organization and engineering works, are the American
equivalents of Greece and the Orient. Almost synchronously,
Rome and Cuzco fall before barbarian invasions; and in each
case centuries follow which can only be known as dark, during
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220 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
which the empire breaks in chaos. Finally, both civilizations
rise, again during the same period, as leaders in a new move-
ment in religion, animated by a crusading zeal and basing
their authority upon divine will. It is true that Rome does
not attain the material power that was restored to Cuzco,
but Christendom, at least, does attain this power. Such is
the picture, — though it must be added that in the present
state of knowledge it is plausible restoration only, not proven
truth.
11. THE YUNCA PANTHEONS
It is not possible to reconstruct in any detail the religions
and mythologies of the pre-Inca civilizations of the central
Andes, but of the four culture centres which have been most
studied some traits are decipherable. Two of these centres
are montane, two coastal. Of the former, the Megalithic
highland civilization, whose first home is supposed to have
been the region of Lake Titicaca, is assuredly ancient; the
civilization of the Calchaqui, to the south of this, was a late
conquest of the Incas and was doubtless a contemporary of
Inca culture. On the coast, the Yunca developed in two
branches, both, apparently, as ancient as the Megalithic cul-
ture, and both, again, late conquests of the Incas. To the
north, extending from Tumbez to Paramunca, with Chimu
(Truxillo) as its capital, was the realm of the Grand Chimu
— a veritable empire, for it comprised some twenty coastal
valleys — while the twelve adjoining southern valleys, from
Chancay to Nasca, were the seat of the Chincha Confederacy,
a loose political organization with a characteristic culture of
its own, though clearly akin to that of the Chimu region. All
these centres having fallen under the sway of conquerors with
a creed to impose (the Incas even erected a shrine to the Sun
on the terraces of oracular Pachacamac), their religious tradi-
tions were waning in importance in the time of the conquis-
tadoresy who, unhappily, secured little of the lore that might
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 221
have been salved in their own day. There are fragments for
the Chimu region in Balboa and Calancha, for the Chincha
in Arriaga and Avila; but in the main it is upon the monu-
ments — vases, burials, ruins of temples — that, in any effort
to define the beliefs of these departed peoples, we must depend
for a supplementation of the meagre notices recorded in Inca
tradition or preserved by the early chroniclers.^
Fortunately these monuments permit of some interesting
guesses which, surely, are no unjustified indulgence of human
curiosity when the mute expression of dead souls is their
matter; and in particular the wonderful drawings of the
Truxillo and Nasca vases and the woven figures of their fabrics
suggest analogical interpretation. Despite their family like-
ness, the styles of the two regions are distinct; and, as the
investigations of Uhle show, they have undergone long and
changing developments, with apogees well in the past. The
zenith of Chimu art was marked by a variety and naturalism
of design rivaled, if at all in America, only by the best Maya
achievements; while Chincha expression realized its acme in
polychrome designs truly marvellous in complexity of con-
vention. That the art of both regions is profoundly mytho-
logical is obvious from the portrayals.
Striking features of this Yunca art are the monster-forms*
— man-bird, man-beast, man-fish, man-reptile — and, again,
the multiplication of faces or masks, both of men and of
animals. The repetition of the human countenance is especially
frequent in the art of Nasca, where series of masks are often
enchained in complex designs, one most grotesque form of
this concatenation representing a series of masks issuing, as
it were, from the successive mouths, and joined by the pro-
truding tongues. Again, there are dragon-like or serpentine
monsters having a head at each extremity, recalling not only
the two-headed serpent of Aztec and Maya art, but also the
Sisiutl of the North-West Coast of North America — a region
whose art, also, furnishes an impressive analogue, in complexity
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222 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of convention, to that of the Yunca. Frequently, in Nasca
art, the fundamental design is a man-headed bird, or fish, or
serpent, whose body and accoutrements are complexly adorned
with representations of the heads or forms of other animals
— the puma, for example, or even the mouse. Oftentimes
heads, apparently decapitations, are borne in the hands of the
central figure; and on one TruxiUo vase there is a depiction •
of what is surely a ceremonial dance in which the participants
are masked and disguised as birds and animals; the remark-
able Nasca robes in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (see
Plates XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV) also suggest
masked forms, the representations of the same personage vary-
ing in colour and in the arrangement of facial design.
The heads which are held in the hands and which adorn the
costumes of these figures are regarded by some authorities as
trophy heads, remotely related, perhaps, to those which are
prepared as tokens of prowess by some of the Brazilian tribes;
and, in fact, the discovery of the decapitated mummies of
women and girls, buried in the guano deposits of the sacred
islands of Guanape and Macabi, points to a remote period
when human sacrifices were made, perhaps to a marine power,
and certainly connected with some superstition as to the
head. Another suggestion, however, will account for a greater
variety of the forms. The dances with animal masks irre-
sistibly recall the ancestral and totemic masked dances of
such peoples as the Pueblo Indians of North America and
of the tribes of the North-West Coast; the figures of bird-
men, fish-men, and snake-men, with their bodies ornamented
with other animal figures, are again reminiscent of the totemic
emblems of the far North- West; and surely no image is better
adapted to suggest the descent of a series of generations from
an ancestral hero than the sequence of tongue-joined masks
figured on the Nasca vases, each generation receiving its
name, as it were, from* the mouth of the preceding. The
recurrence of certain constant designs, both on vases and in
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PLATE XXXII
Polychrome vase from the Nasca valley, showing
the multi-headed deity represented also by Plate
XXXI. The succession of masks connected by
protruded tongues is a striking form of Nasca
design. Examples are found elsewhere, even into
Calchaqui territory. The vase here pictured is in
the American Museum of Natural History.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 223
fabrics, is at least analogous to the use of totemic signs on
garments and utensils in the region of the North-West Coast.
It is certain that ancestor-worship was an important feature
of Yunca religion, for Arriaga, speaking of the Chincha peoples,
says that for festivals they gathered in ayllus (tribes or clans),
each with mummies of its kinsfolk to which were oflFered
vases, clothes, plumes, and the like. They had household gods
(called Conopa or Huasi-camayoc), as distinguished from the
communal deities, which were of several classes; more than
three thousand of these Conopas it is said, were destroyed
by the Spaniards. Garcilasso informs us that each coastal
province worshipped a special kind of fish, '^telling a pleasant
tale to the eflFect that the First of all the Fish dwells in the
sky" — a statement which is certainly in tone with a totemic
interpretation.
In addition to the special idols of each province, says Garci-
lasso,^^ all the peoples of the littoral from Truzillo to Tarapaca
adored the ocean in the form of a fish, out of gratitude for
the food that it yielded, naming it Mama Cocha (^^ Mother
Sea"); and it is indeed plausible that the Food-Giver of the
Sea was a great deity in this region, although some of the
Truzillo vases seem to indicate that the ocean was also re-
garded as the abode of dread and inimical monsters, since
they portray the conflicts of men or heroes with crustacean
and piscine monsters of the deep. Antonio de la Calancha,
who was prior of the Augustines at Truxillo in 1619, gives a
brief account of the Chimu pantheon.^^ The Ocean (Ni) and
the earth (Vis) were worshipped, prayers being oflFered to the
one for fish and to the other for good harvests. The great
deity, however, was the Moon (Si), to which sacrifices of
children were sometimes made; and this heavenly body, re-
garded as ruler of the elements and bringer of tempests, was
held to be more powerful than the Sun. Possibly the crescent-
or knife-shaped symbol which appears on the head-gear of
vase representations of chieftains, in Truxillo ware, is a token of
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224 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
this cult, which finds a parallel among the Araucanlans of the
far south, among whom, too, the Moon, not the Sun, is the
lofty deity.
The language of the subjects of the Grand Chimu was
Mochica, which was unrelated to any other in Peru; but
though they regarded the Quichua-speaking Chincha as
hereditary enemies, the religious conceptions of the two
groups were not very diflFerent. In Arriaga's account," the
Chincha worshipped the Earth (Mama Pacha) as well as
Mama Cocha (the Sea) ; and they also venerated the "Mamas,"
or Mothers, of maize and cacao. There were likewise tutelary
deities for their several villages — just as each family had its
Penates — and Garcilasso states that the god Chincha Camac
was adored as the creator and guardian of all the Chincha.
The worship of stones in fields and stones in irrigating channels
is also mentioned (both for Chimu and for Chincha), and
these may well have been in the nature of herms in valleys
where fields were narrowly limited; while in addition there
were innumerable huacas — sacred places, fetishes, oracles,
idols, and, in short, anything marvellous, for Garcilasso, in
explaining the meaning of the word, says that it was applied
to everything exciting wonder, from the great gods and the
peaks of the Andes to the birth of twins and the occurrence
of hare-lip. It is in this connexion that he speaks of "sepul-
chres made in the fields or at the comers of their houses,
where the devil spoke to them familiarly," a description sug-
gestive of ancestral shrines; and it is quite possible that the
word huaca is most properly applied in that sense in which
it has survived, to tombs.
In Chincha territory were located the two great shrines of
Rimac and Pachacamac, whose oracles even the Incas courted.
Rimac, says Garcilasso, signifies "He who Speaks"; he adds
that the valley was called Rimac from "an idol there, in the
shape of a man, which spoke and gave answers to questions,
like the oracle of the Delphic Apollo"; and Lima, which is in
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 225
the valley of Rimac, receives its appellation from a corruption
of this name. A greater shrine, however, and an older oracle
was Pachacamac. According to Garcilasso, the word means
"Maker and Sustainer of the Universe** (pachoj "earth,"
camaCy "maker"); and he is of opinion that the worship of
this divinity originated with the Incas, who, nevertheless,
regarded the god as invisible and hence built him no temples
and oflFered him no sacrifices, but "adored him inwardly with
the greatest veneration." Markham (not very convincingly)
identifies Pachacamac with the great fish-deity of the coast,
considering him as a supplanter of the older and purer deity,
Viracocha.
One of the most interesting of coastal myths, quoted by Uhle,
tells how Pachacamac, having created a man and a woman,
failed to provide them with food; but when the man died, the
woman was aided by the Sun, who gave her a son and taught
the pair to live upon wild fruits. Angered at this interference,
Pachacamac killed the youth, from whose buried body sprang
maize and other cultivated plants; the Sun gave the woman
another son, Wichama, whereupon Pachacamac slew the
mother; while Wichama, in revenge, pursued Pachacamac,
driving him into the sea, and thereafter burning up the lands
in passion, transformed men into stones. This legend has
been interpreted as a symbol of the seasons, but it is evident
that its elements belong to wide-spread American cycles, for
the mother and son suggest the Chibcha goddess, Bachue,
while the formation of cultivated plants from the body of the
slain youth is a familiar element in myths of the tropical
forests and, indeed, in both Americas. From the story it is
clear that Pachacamac is a creator god, antagonistic (if not
superior) to the Sun, who seems to supplant him in power;
but surely it is anomalous that the Earth-Maker should find
his end by being driven into the sea unless, indeed, Pachaca-
mac, spouse of Mother Sea, be the embodied Father Heaven,
descending in fog and damp and driven seaward by the dis-
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226 ;latin-american mythology
pelling Sun. Such an interpretation would make Pachacamac
simply a local form of Viracocha; and this, certainly, is sug-
gested in the descriptions, by Garcilasso and others, of the
reverence paid to this divinity.
From Francisco de Avila's account " of the myths of the
Huarochiri, in the valley of the Rimac, "we may infer that
Viracocha was known to the Chincha tribes, at one period
probably as a supreme god. An idol called Coniraya (mean-
ing according to Markham, "Pertaining to Heat") they ad-
dressed as "Coniraya Viracocha," saying, "Thou art Lord of
all; thine are the crops, and thine are all the people"; and in
every toil and difficulty they invoked this deity for aid.
One of the decorative designs that occui^ and recurs on the
vases of both the Chimu and Chincha regions — in the char-
acteristic style of each — is the plumed serpent. What is
apparently a modification of this is the man-headed serpent,
or the warrior with a serpent's or dragon's tail, a further
modification representing the man or deity as holding the
serpent in one hand, while frequently, in the other hand, is a
symbolic staflF or weapon that in certain forms is startlingly
like the classical thunderbolt in the hand of Jove. Another
step shows only the serpent's head held in the one hand, while
the staff, or thunderbolt, is made prominent; and, finally, in
the style known as that of Tiahuanaco, from its resemblance
to the ancient art of the highlands, a squat deity, holding a
winged or snake-headed wand in each hand gives the counterfeit
presentment of the central figure on the Tiahuanaco arch and
the monolith of Chavin. In Central and North America the
plumed serpent is a sky-symbol, associated with rainbow,
lightning, rain, and i;^eather; and it is not too much to follow
the guesses hitherto ventured that this cycle of images, ap-
pearing in various forms in the different periods of Yunca art,
is intimately associated with the ancient and nearly universal
Jovis Pater of America — Father Sky. As in the old world, the
eagle, so in South America the condor and the falcon are the
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PLATE XXXIII
Embroidered figure from a Nasca robe in the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Nasca fabrics repre-
sent the highest achievement in textile art of aborig-
inal America. Figures of the type here shown are
repeated with minor variations, each, no doubt, of
symbolic significance, in a chequered or "all-over**
design. The deity represented may be totemic,
but obviously belongs to the same group as those
shown in such pottery paintings as are represented
in Plates XXXII and XXXIV.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 227
especial ministers of this deity; as also are the most powerful
of the beasts of prey known in the region — the puma, or moun-
tain lion; and, again, a fish, which we may suppose to typify
lordship over the waters, as the condor and lion symbolize
dominion over air and earth. Thus, as it were, through their
grotesque masks and gorgeous fantasies, the pots and jars of
the Yunca peoples mutely attest the universal reverence of
mankind for the great powers of Nature,
III. THE MYTHS OF THE CHINCHA
What were the tales which the Yunca peoples told of their
gods? The little that we know is almost wholly due to the
unfinished manuscript of Francisco de Avila," composed in
1608; but brief and fragmentary though this treatise be, ending
abruptly with the heading of a Chapter VHI, which was
never written, it throws a curiously suggestive light upon the
archaeological discoveries of our own day, with their revela-
tion of successive civilizations and successive cults in the
coastal valleys.
Avila's narrative tells of a series of ages of the gods, each
marked by its new ruler, which he confesses he did not well
comprehend because of the contradictoriness of the legends.
At all events, however, in the most ancient period there were
^^ certain huacas, or idols, . . • supposed to have walked in the
form of men. These huacas were called Yananamca Intanamca ;
and in a certain encounter they had with another huaca, called
Huallallo Caruincho, they were conquered and destroyed by the
said Huallallo, who remained as Lord and God of the land.
He ordered that no woman should bring forth more than two
children, of which one was to be sacrificed for him to eat,
and the other, — whichever of the two the parents chose, —
might be brought up. It was also a tradition that, in those
days, all who died were brought to life again on the fifth day;
and that what was sown in that land also sprouted, grew, and
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228 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ripened on the fifth day; and that all these three provinces
[Huarochiri, Mama, ChacUa] were then a very hot country,
which the Indians call Yunca or Ande.^^ The last allusion
probably refers to some recollection of a migration from the
coast, for the Huarochiri region is in the highlands drained
by the Rimac and Lurin rivers.
The story goes on to record the overthrow of Huallallo by
another hero-god, Pariacaca; but before narrating this event,
Avila turns aside to tell the tale of Coniraya Viracocha, whom
he regards as certainly a great deity at one time, though
whether before or after the rise of Pariacaca is not evident.
In ancient times Coniraya appeared as a poor Indian,
clothed in rags, and reviled by all. Nevertheless, he was the
creator of all things, at whose command terraces arose to
support the fields and channels were formed to irrigate them
— feats which he accomplished by merely hurling his hollow
cane. He was also all-wise with respect to gods and oracles,
and the thoughts of others were open to him. This Coniraya
fell in love with a certain virgin, Cavillaca; and as she sat
weaving beneath a lucma-tree, he dropped near her a ripe
fruit, containing his own generative seed. Eating the fruit
unsuspectingly, she became with child; and when the babe
was old enough to crawl, she assembled all ^'the huacas and
principal idols of the land," determined to discover the child's
father; but as, to her amazement and disgust, the infant
crawled to the beggar-like Coniraya, she snatched it up and
fled away toward the sea. "But Coniraya Viracocha desired
the friendship and favour of the goddess; so, when he saw
her take flight, he put on magnificent golden robes, and
leaving the astonished assembly of the gods, he ran after her,
crying out: *0 my lady Cavillaca, turn your eyes and see how
handsome and gallant am I,' with other loving and courteous
words; and they say that his splendour illuminated the whole
country." But Cavillaca only increased her speed, and plun-
ging into the sea, mother and child were transformed into
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 229
two rocks, still to be seen. Coniraya, distanced, kept on his
quest. He met a condor, and the condor having promised
him success in his pursuit, he gave the condor the promise of
long life, power to traverse wildernesses and valleys, and the
right to prey; and upon those who should slay the condor he set
the curse of death. Next he met a fox, but the fox told him his
quest was vain; so he cursed the fox, telling it that it must hunt
at night and be slain by men. The lion next promised him well,
and he gave the lion power over prey and honour among men.
The falcon was similarly blessed for fair promises, and parrots
cursed for their ill omen. Arrived at the seaside, Coniraya
discovered the vanity of his pursuit, but he was easily con-
soled; for on the beach he met two daughters of Pachacamac.
In the absence of their mother, who was visiting Cavillaca
in the sea, they were guarded by a great serpent, but
Coniraya quieted the serpent by his wisdom. One of the
maidens flew away in the form of a dove, — whence their
mother was called Urpihuachac, "Mother of Doves"; but the
other was more complaisant. ^^In those days it is said that
there were no fishes in the sea, but that this Urpihuachac
reared a few in a small pond. Coniraya was enraged that
Urpihuachac should be absent in the sea, visiting Cavillaca;
so he emptied the fishes out of her pond into the sea, and
thence all the fishes now in the sea have been propagated."
That Coniraya is a deity of sun or sky appears evident from
this tale; and he is, clearly, at the same time a demiurgic
transformer, with not a little of the mere trickster about him.
The condor, falcon, and lion are his servants and beneficiaries;
foxes and parrots are his antipathies; he has something to do
with the provision of fish, and he conquers the serpent of the
sea-goddess. Avila says that the tradition is rooted in the
customs of the province: the people venerate the condor,
which they never kill, as also the lion; they have a horror of
the fox, slaying it where they can; "as to the falcon, there is
scarcely a festival in which one does not appear on the heads
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230 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of the dancers and singers; and we all know that they detest
the parrots, which is not wonderful considering the mischief
they do, though their chief reason is to comply with the tradi-
tion."
Cataclysmic events which apparently followed the deeds of
the Demiurge were a five-day deluge, in which all men were
destroyed save one who was led by a speaking llama to a
mountain height where he was safe; and a five-day darkness,
during which stones knocked together, while both the stones
with which they ground grain and the animals of their herds
arose against their masters. It was after these cataclysms, in
the days when there were as yet no kings, that five eggs ap-
peared on a certain mountain, called Condor-coto: round them
a wind blew, for until that time there had been no wind. These
eggs were the birth-place of Pariacaca and his four brothers;
but before the hero had come forth from his egg, one of his
brothers, a great and rich lord, built his house on Anchicocha,
adorning it with the red and yellow feathers of certain birds.
This lord had llamas whose natural wool was of brilliant
colours — some red, some blue, some yellow — so that it was
unnecessary to dye it for weaving; but notwithstanding he
was very wise, and even pretended to be God, the Creator,
misfortune befell him in the form of a disgusting disease of
which he was unable to cure himself, though he sought aid
in every direction. Now at this time there was a poor and ill-
clad Indian named Huathiacuri, "who, they say, was a son of
Pariacaca and who learned many arts from his father," whom,
in his egg, he visited in search of advice. This youth, having
fallen in love with a daughter of the rich man, one day over-
heard foxes conversing about the great lord's illness. "The
real cause," said a fox, "is that, when his wife was toasting a
little maize, one grain fell on her skirt, as happens every day.
She gave it to a man who ate it, and afterward she committed
adultery with him. This is the reason that the rich man is sick,
and a serpent is now hovering over his beautiful house to eat
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PLATE XXXIV
Vase from Nasca representing a deity with
serpentiform body. The commonest motive in
Nasca designs is the multiplication, in grotesque
forms, of human masks. The deity here represented
is commonly shown with a mask head-dress, masks
upon either cheek, with a girdle of masks or trophy
heads, and with masks elsewhere; while either the
body is shown as serpentiform or serpent-like wands
are wielded by the hands. It is probable that a
sky-god is represented, possibly a local form of
Viracocha. Compare Plates XXXI, XXXVI,
XXXVII. The vase pictured is in the American
Museum of Natural History.
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TEIE ANDEAN SOUTH 231
it, while a toad with two heads is waiting under his grinding-
stone with the same object/* When Huathiacuri learned this,
he told the girl that he knew the cure for her parent's malady;
and though she did not believe him, she informed her father,
who had the young man brought before him. Promised the
price he demanded — the maiden's hand — the youth re-
vealed her mother's iniquity and gave orders to kill two ser-
pents, which were found in the roof, as well as a two-headed
toad, which hopped forth when the grinding-stone was lifted.
After this the rich man became well, and Huathiacuri received
his bride. The sister of this girl, however, was married to a
man who, resenting so beggarly a person in the family as
Huathiacuri, challenged the latter to a series of contests —
first, to a drinking-bout; next, to a match in splendour of
costume, at which the youth appeared in a dress of snow;
then to a dance, in lions' skins, wherein he won because of a
rainbow that appeared round the head of the magic lion's
skin which he wore; and, finally, to a contest in house-build-
ing, wherein all the animals aided him at night. Thus having
vanquished his brother-in-law, Huathiacuri in turn issued a
challenge to a dance, ending it in a wild race during which he
transformed the brother-in-law into a deer and his wife into
rock. The deer lived for some time by devouring people, but
finally deer began to be eaten by men, not men by deer.
Subsequent to all this, Pariacaca and his brothers issued from
the eggs, causing a great tempest in which the rich man and
his house were swept into the sea. Pariacaca is also said to
have destroyed by a torrent a village of revellers who refused
him drink when he appeared among them as a thirsty beggar,
all but one girl who took pity upon him; and there is a story
of his love for Choque Suso, a maiden whom he found in tears
beside her withering maize-fields and for whom he opened
an irrigation-channel, converting the girl herself into a stone
which still guards the headwaters. After this, in Avila's nar-
rative, comes a heading: "How the Indians of the Ayllu of
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232 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Copara still worship Choque Suso and this channel, a fact
which I know not only from their stories, but also from judi-
cial depositions which I have taken on the subject*' — and
there the manuscript abruptly ends.
Nevertheless, this fragment has given us enough to see, if
not the system, at least the character of Chincha mythology.
There are the generations of the elder gods, with transforma-
tions and cataclysms. There are the cosmic eggs — perhaps
earth's centre and the four winds symbolized in the five of
them. There is the toad-symbol of the underworld, and the
serpent-symbol of the sky-world. The Rich Man, in his house
of red and yellow feathers, is surely a sky-being — perhaps
a sun-god, perhaps a lunar divinity whose ceaseless crescence
and senescence, to and from its glory, may be imaged in his
cureless disease. Pariacaca is clearly a deity of waters, prob-
ably a divine mountain, giving rain and irrigating streams,
and clothing his son in the snow and the rainbow; while the
women — Cavillaca, and the Mother of Doves, and Choque
Suso, the Nymph of the Channel — who were turned into
rocks speak again the hoary sanctity of these images of per-
durability.
IV. VIRACOCHA AND TONAPA
The Yunca peoples, both Chimu and Chincha, recalled a
time when their ancestors entered the coastal valleys to make
them their own, 'destroying the former inhabitants, • • • a
vile and feeble race," as Chincha tradition has it. In the
uplands the followers of the Scyris of Quito were remembered
as coming from the littoral; but for the rest, highland legends
point almost uniformly to a southerly or south-easterly origin
— where, indeed, the tale is not of an autochthonous begin-
ning — and with general agreement it is to the plains about
Titicaca that the stories lead, as to the most ancient seat of
mankind. These traditions, coupled with the immemorial
and wonderful ruins of the sacred place at Tiahuanaco —
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 233
whether the precinct of a city or of a temple — give a special
fascination to this region as being plausibly the key to the
solution of the problem of central Andean civilization.
Certainly no more puzzling key was ever given for the un-
locking of a mystery, since the basin of Lake Titicaca is a
plateau, some thirteen to fourteen thousand feet above sea-
level, where cereals will not ripen, so that only potatoes and a
few other roots, along with droves of hardy llamas and alpacas,
form the reliance for subsistence of a population which at
best is sparse. Yet in the midst of this plateau are ruins
characterized by the use of enormous stones — only less than
the great monoliths of Egypt — and by a skill in stone-working
which implies an extraordinary development of the mason's
art. It is the judgement of archaeologists who have visited
the scene that nothing less than the huge endeavour of a
dense population could have created the visible works; and
there is a tradition, derived from an Indian quipu-TCSideT
and recorded by Oliva, that the real Tiahuanaco is a sub-
terranean city, in vastness far exceeding the one above the
ground. The apparent discrepancy between the capacity of
the region for the support of population and the eflFort re-
quired to produce the megalithic works has led Sir Clements
Markham to suggest that these structures may date from a
period when the plateau was several thousand feet lower
than at present (for the elevation of the Andes is geologically
recent); it would seem, however, in view of the huge tasks
which Inca engineers accomplished, and of the fact that
sacred cities in remote sites were venerated by the Andeans,
more reasonable to assume that the ruins of Tiahuanaco and
the islands represent, in part at least, the devotion of distant
princes, who here maintained another Delphi or Lhassa.
The speaking monument of this ancient shrine (and there is
no more remarkable monolith in the world) is the carved mon-
olithic gate, now broken. Above the portal (see Plate XXXV)
is the decoration, a broad band in low relief; while a central
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234 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
figure, elevated above the others, is a divine image — the god
with rayed head and with wands or bolts in each hand, whose
likeness is met in the Yunca region and on the Chavin stele.
On either side, in three ranks of eight each, are forty-eight
obeisant figures — kings, some have called them, but others
see in them totemic symbols of clan ancestors, although it is
not impossible that they are genii of earth and air and water:
all are winged, all bear wands, and those of the middle tier
are condor-headed, while the wand and crest and garb of each
is adorned with heads of condor and puma and fish. In case
of the central figure the two wands are adorned with condors'
heads, and some of the rays of the head-dress terminate in
pumas' heads, while on his dress are not only heads of condors,
pumas, and human beings, but centrally, on the breast, is a
crescent design most resembling a fish. Another curious feature,
alike of the forty-eight and of the central god, are circles under
the eyes, seemingly tears, which recall the wide-spread trope
that rain is heaven's tears, and the fact that tears were some-
times painted on ceremonial masks used in supplications for
rain. Beneath the design just described is a meander, perhaps
the symbol of earth,^ adorned with the same condor-heads
and framing plaque-like representations of what are surely
celestial divinities (still with tearful eyes) ; and it is not beyond
reason to suppose that the tiny trumpeter who appears above
one of these rayed masks may be the Morning Star, herald of
the day.
There is little ground to doubt that this monument is
cosmical in meaning (it may also be totemic, for at least the
ruling Andeans became "Children of the Sun"), and that the
central figure is a heaven-god or a sun-god. The most curious
of its emblems, taking into account the nature of the region,
is the fish; for while there are fish in Lake Titicaca, the natives
(at least today) are little given to taking them. It is possible,
as suggested by the crescent on the breast of the god, that the
fish is here a symbol of the moon, which may have been mis-
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PLATE XXXV
Monolithic Gateway, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia. This
is regarded by many as the most remarkable pre-
historic monument in America. It is approximately
ten by twelve and a half feet in front dimension,
and is estimated to weigh nine to twelve tons. The
decoration consists of a central figure, above the
doorway, which is certainly a sky-god and probably
Viracocha, and a banded frieze showing groups of
mythic beings. For description see pages 233-34.
After a photograph in the Peabody Museum.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 235
tress of the waves; and this would lead us, analogically, to
the capital of the Grand Chimu and the temple of Si An,
where were the great deities, the Moon above and the Sea be-
low. Certainly, if an animal form were sought to symbolize
the crescent of the skies, none could be found more perfect
than that of the fish; or, by extension, the bark by which man
conquers the piscine realm might be conceived and imaged
as symbol of the lunar ship.
Such an hypothesis implies a relation of Tiahuanaco to
the coastal regions as well as to the mountain valleys; and
this relationship, in a period long past, is demonstrated, repre-
sentations of the deity of Tiahuanaco being found, drawn in
Tiahuanaco style, on the Yunca vases. But what of its exten-
sion in the highlands? The Chavin stone (see Plate XXXI)
from the region of the headwaters of Rio Maranon far to the
north of Cuzco is, as monumental evidence of the ancient
cult, second in importance only to the Tiahuanaco arch. The
figure on this monument is in Nasca rather than in Tiahuanaco
style, having as its head-dress an elaborate structure which,
when viewed reversed, is found to be formed of that series of
masks, each depending from the lolling tongue of its prede-
cessor, which is so common on Nasca vases; while snakes'
heads replace the condor-puma-fish adornments of the southern
monument, and it is interesting to note that the whole structure
terminates in a caduceus-like twist of serpents. The main
figure, however, with its elaborate wands, ending exactly in
the form of Jove's bolt, certainly follows the style of the cen-
tral figure of Tiahuanaco, so that we are justified in assuming
that it represents a similar conception — a celestial deity,
from which proceed the serpentine rays, sunlight or lightning.
To the far south, in the Calchaqui-Diaguite region, potsherds
have been discovered implying the same central conception —
the deity with mask and bolt, the dragon with head at each
extremity, and a series of dragons' heads united by protruding
tongues (a design whose far extension leads into the country
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236 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of the unconquered Araucanians in the Chilean Andes).^
More remarkable are the ceremonial and votive objects dis-
covered in this region, among them certain plaques which in-
clude a masterpiece (Plate XXXVI) bearing many traits that
identify it with the monumental images: the rayed head, the
tears beneath the eyes, the crescent-shaped breast-ornament,
and, on either side of the central image, crested dragons which
appear to take the place of the wands in the type figures.
The names of this heaven-god, ancient in origin and wide in
the range of his cult, have doubtless been many in the course
of history; but though several of them have survived in the
traditions which have been recorded, paramount among them
all is that by which the divinity was known to the Inca —
Viracocha (or Uiracocha). Montesinos's list of kings com-
mences, says Markham,*^ "with the names of the deity, Ilia
Tici Uiracocha. We are told that the first word. Ilia, means
Might.* Tlci means * foundation or beginning of things.' The
word Uira is said to be a corruption of Pirua, meaning the
* depository or store-house of creation/ . . . The ordinary
meaning of Cocha is a lake, but here it is said to signify an
abyss — profundity. The whole meaning of the words would
be, *The splendour, the foundation, the creator, the infinite
God/ The word Yachachic was occasionally added — *the
Teacher.'"
Molina, Salcamayhua, Huaman Poma, all give Inca prayers
addressed to Viracocha — prayers which are our best evidence
for the character in which he was regarded. In the group re-
corded by Molina " the deity appears as lord of generation of
plants and animals and humankind; and to him are addressed
supplications for increase. But he is very clearly, also, a
supreme creator: "O conquering Viracocha! Ever-present
Viracocha! Thou who art in the ends of the earth without
equal! Thou gavest life and valour to men, saying, *Let this
be a man!' and to women, saying, 'Let this be a woman!'
Thou madest them and gavest them being! Watch over them
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PLATE XXXVI
Plaque probably representing Viracocha. The
head is surmounted by a rayed disk, doubtless the
sun; tearsy symbolic of rain, stream from the
eyes; above the hands, on either side, are dragon-
like creatures which are doubtless the equivalent
of the wands or serpents shown in the hands of
similar figures, and which may represent the two
servants of the god, as they appear in legend.
After CA xii, Plate VIII.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 237
that they may live iii health and peace. Thou who art in the
high heavens, and among the clouds of the tempest, grant
this with long life, and accept this sacrifice, O Creator!"
In other prayers Viracocha is represented as creator of the sun,
and hence as supreme over the great national god of the Incas;
and in the rites which Molina describes, Viracocha (the
creator), the Sun, and the Thunder form a triad, addressed in
the order named. The same supremacy of Viracocha is recog-
nized in the elaborate hymn recorded by Salcamayhua and
translated by Markham after the emended text of Dr. Mossi
and the Spanish version of Lafone Quevado: *•
**0 Uira-cocha! Lord of the universe;
Whether thou art male,
Whether thou art female,
Lord of reproduction,
Whatsoever thou mayest be,
O Lord of divination,
Where art thou?
Thou mayest be above,
Thou mayest be below,
Or perhaps around
Thy splendid throne and sceptre*
Oh, hear me!
From the sky above,
In which thou mayest be,
From the sea beneath,
In which thou mayest be.
Creator of the world.
Maker of all men;
Lord of all Lords,
My eyes fail me
For longing to see thee;
For the sole desire to know thee.
Might I behold thee,
Might I know thee.
Might I consider thee,
Might I understand thee.
Oh, look down upon me.
For thou knowest me.
The sun — the moon —
The day — the night —
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238 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Spring — winter,
Are not ordained in vain
By thee, O Uira-cocha!
They all travel
To the assigned place;
They all arrive
At their destined ends,
Whithersoever thou pleasest.
Thy royal sceptre
Thou holdest.
Oh hear me!
Oh choose me!
Let it not be
That I should tire.
That I should die."
It were easy to accept a pantheistic interpretation of a
divinity so addressed; it is plausible to regard that deity as
androgynous, as Lafone Quevado suggests. What is certain is
that here we have a creator-god superior to the world of visible
nature, so that he was represented, according to Salcamay-
hua, by an oval plate of fine gold above the symbols of the
heavenly bodies in the great temple at Cuzco. Salcamayhua,
moreover, connects with Viracocha two other names, Tonapa
and Tarapaca, which, he declares, are appellatives of a servant
(or servants) of Viracocha; and here we have a glimpse into
another cycle of mythic history.
The story, as Salcamayhua tells it,*^ begins with the remote
Puninpacha — the time when all the nations were at war with
each other, and there was no rest from tumults. **Then, in
the middle of the night, they heard the Hapi-nunos [harpy-
like daemones] disappearing with mournful complaints, and
crying, — *We are conquered, we are conquered, alas that
we should lose our bands!'" This Salcamayhua interprets
as a New-World equivalent of the death-cry of Old-World
paganism, "Great Pan is dead!" — for from their cry, he says,
"it must be understood that the devils were conquered by
Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross on Mount Calvary."
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THE ANDEAN SOUTO 239
Some time after the devils departed, there appeared "a bearded
man, of middle height, with long hair, and a rather long shirt.
They say that he was somewhat past his prime, for he already
had grey hairs, and he was lean. He travelled by aid of a staflF,
teaching the natives with much love and calling them all his
sons and daughters. As he went through the land, he per-
formed many miracles. The sick were healed by his touch.
He spoke all languages better than the natives." They called
him, Salcamayhua says, Tonapa or Tarapaca {^^Tarapaca
means an eagle"), associating these names with that of Vira-
cocha; "but was he not the glorious apostle, St. Thomas?"
Many tales are told of the miracles performed by Tonapa,
among others the story, which Avila narrates of Pariacaca,
of the overwhelming by flood of a village, the inhabitants
of which had abused him; and similar legends in which the
offenders were transformed into stones. "They further say
that thi^ Tonapa, in his wanderings, came to the mountains
of Caravaya, where he erected a very large cross; and he
carried it on his shoulders to the mountain of Carapucu,
where he preached in a loud voice, and shed tears." In 1897
Bandelier ^ visited the village of Carabuco, on Lake Tlticaca,
and there saw the ancient cross, known for more than three
centuries, which tradition associates with pre-G)lumbian
times. "The meaning of Carapucu," Salcamayhua continues,
"is when a bird called pucu^pucu sings four times at early
dawn." May there not be here a clue to the meaning both of
the myth and of the emblem? At dawn, when the herald birds
first sing, the four quarters of the world, of which the cross is
symbol, are shaped by the light of day — a token and a rem-
iniscence of the first creation of Earth by shining Heaven.
Molina, Cieza de Leon, Sarmiento, Huaman Poma ^ tell of
the making of sun and moon, and of the generations of men,
associating this creation with the lake of Titicaca, its islands,
and its neighbourhood. Viracocha is almost universally repre-
sented as the creator, and the story follows the main plot of
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240 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the genesis narratives known to the civilized nations of both
Americas — a succession of world aeons, each ending in cata-
clysm. As told by Huaman Poma, five such ages had pre-
ceded that in which he lived. The first was an age of Viracochas,
an age of gods, of holiness, of life without death, although at
the same time it was devoid of inventions and refinements; the
second was an age of skin-clad giants, the Huari Runa, or
"Indigenes," worshippers of Viracocha; third came the age
of Puron Runa, or "Common Men,'* living without culture;
fourth, that of the Auca Runa, "Warriors," and fifth that of
the Inca rule, ended by the coming of the Spaniards. As
related by Sarmiento the first age was that of a sunless world
inhabited by a race of giants, who, owing to the sin of diso-
bedience, were cataclysmically destroyed; but two brothers,
surviving on a hill-top, married two women descended from
heaven (in Molina's version these are bird-women) and re-
peopled a part of the world. Viracocha, however, undertook
a second creation at Lake Titicaca, this time with sun, moon,
and stars; but out of jealousy, since at first the moon was the
brighter orb, the sun threw a handful of ashes over his rival's
face, thus giving the shaded colour which the moon now pre-
sents. Viracocha, we are told, was assisted by three servants,
one of whom, Taguapaca, rebelled against him; for this he was
bound and set adrift upon the lake (an event which, in a
different form, is given by Salcamayhua as a part of the perse-
cution of Tonapa); and then, taking his two remaining ser-
vitors with him, the deity "went to a place now called Tiahua-
nacu . . . and in this place he sculptured and designed on a
great piece of stone all the nations that he intended to create,"
after which he sent his servants forth to command all tribes
and all nations to multiply. The last act of Viracocha's career
was his miraculous departure across the western sea, "travelling
over the water as if it were land, without sinking," and leaving
behind him the prophecy that he would send his messengers
once again to protect and to teach his people.
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PLATE XXXVII
Vase painting of the sky-god, Tiahuanaco style,
from Pachacamac. Compare Plates XXXI, XXXIV,
XXXV, XXXVI. After Baessler, Contributions to
the Archaeology of the Empire of the Incas^ Vol. IV,
Plate CIV.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 241
The tales are surely explanatory of the monuments; and in
both we see the general outlines of the ancient Peruvian religion.
Supreme in the pantheon was the great creator-god, High
Heaven itself, Ilia Tici Viracocha, Attendant upon this
divinity (perhaps ancient doublets in some cases) was a group
of two or three servants or sons, who were assuredly also
celestial — Sun and Moon, or Sun and Moon and Morning
Star, or Sun and Thunder (for in Peru bidentalia were every-
where). Tonapa (whom Markham regards as properly Conapa^
** Heat-Bearing," and the same being as Coniraya) is the Pe-
ruvian equivalent of Quetzalcoatl and Bochica * — the robed
and bearded white man, bearing a magic staff, who comes
from the east and after teaching men the way of life, departs
over the sea. It is no marvel that the first missionaries and
their converts saw in this being, with his cruciform symbol,
an apostle of their own faith who had journeyed by way of the
Orient to preach the Gospel. Yet certainly it is no mere imagi-
nation to find another interpretation of the story — what better
image could fancy suggest for the daily course of the sun than
that of a bright-faced man, bearded with rays, mantled in
light, transforming the world of darkness into a world of beauty
and the domain of the concealed into a domain of things known,
before his departure across the western waters, promising to
return, or to send again his messengers of light, to renew the
luminous mission? When the Spaniards came, bearded and
white, in shining mail and weaponed with fire, the Indians
beheld the embodied form of the mythic hero, and so they ap-
plied to them the name which is still theirs for a white man —
viracocha. In such devious ways have the faiths and the fancies
of Earth's two worlds commingled.
What ground there is for the ascription of something ap-
proaching monotheism to the Peruvians centres in the sky-deity
rather than in the Sun, whose cult under the Incas, to some
extent replaced that of the elder supreme god. "No one can
doubt," says Lafone Quevado,^ "that Pachacamac and Vira-
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242 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
cocha were gods who correspond to our idea of a Supreme
Being and that they were adored in America before the coming
of Columbus; and it is logical to attribute to the same American
soil the idea of such a conception, even when it occurs among
the most savage tribes, since that simply presupposes an ethnic
contact to which are opposed no insuperable difficulties of
geography. The solar cult is farther from fetishism than is the
idea of the Yahveh of the Jews from the solar cult: from this to
the true God is a step, and the most savage nations of America
found themselves surrounded by worshippers of the light of
day."
V. THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
The most striking feature of the Inca conquests is their
professed motive — professed, that is, in Inca tradition, es-
pecially as represented by the writings of Garcilasso de la
Vega — for the Incas proclaimed themselves apostles of a new
creed and teachers of a new way of life; they were Children of
the Sun, sent by their divine parent to bring to a darkened and
barbarous world a purer faith and a more enlightened conduct.
Garcilasso tells* how, when a boy, he inquired of his Inca
uncle the origin of their race. "Know," said his kinsman,
**that in ancient times all this region which you see was covered
with forests and thickets, and the people lived like brute
beasts without religion nor government, nor towns, nor houses,
without cultivating the land nor covering their bodies, for they
knew how to weave neither cotton nor wool to make garments.
They dwelt two or three together in caves or clefts of the rocks,
or in caverns under ground; they ate the herbs of the field and
roots or fruit like wild beasts, and they also devoured himian
flesh; they covered their bodies with leaves and with the bark of
trees, or with the skins of animals; in fine they lived like deer
or other game, and even in their intercourse with women they
were like brutes, for they knew nothing of cohabiting with
separate wives. . . . Our Father, the Sun, seeing the human
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 243
race in the condition I have described, had compassion upon
them and from heaven he sent down to earth a son and daughter
to instruct them in the knowledge of our Father, the Sun, that
adoring Him, they might adopt Him as their God; and also
to give them precepts and laws by which to live as reasonable
and civilized men, and to teach them to dwell in houses and
towns, to cultivate maize and other crops, to breed flocks,
and to use the fruits of the earth as rational beings, instead of
existing like beasts. With these commands and intentions our
Father, the Sun, placed his two children in the lake of Titicaca,
saying to them that they might go where they pleased and that
at every place where they stopped to eat or sleep they were to
thrust into the ground a sceptre of gold which was half a yard
long and two fingers in thickness, giving them this staff as a
sign and a token that in the place where, by one blow on the
earth, it should sink down and disappear, there it was the desire
of our Father, the Sun, that they should remain and establish
their court. Finally He said to them: *When you have reduced
these people to our service, you shall maintain them in habits
of reason and justice by the practice of piety, clemency, and
meekness, assuming in all things the office of a pious father
toward his beloved and tender children; for thus you will form
a likeness and reflection of me. I do good to the whole world,
giving light that men may see and do their business, making
them warm when they are cold, cherishing their pastures and
crops, ripening their fruits and increasing their flocks, water-
ing their lands with dew and bringing fine weather in proper
season. I take care to go around the earth each day that I
may see the necessities that exist in the world and supply them,
as the sustainer and benefactor of the heathen. I desire that
you shall imitate this example as my children, sent to earth
solely for the instruction and benefit of these men who live
like beasts; and from this time I constitute and name you as
kings and lords over all the tribes that you may instruct them
in your rational works and government.'"
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244 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Viewed as theology, this utterance is remarkable. Even if
it be taken (as perhaps it should be) rather as an excuse for
conquests made than as their veritable pretext, the story still
reflects an advanced stage of moral thinking, since utterly
barbarous races demand no such justification for seizing from
others what they desire; and in this broader scope the succes-
sors of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo soon interpreted their
liberal commission. The third Inca, Lloque Yupanqui, decided,
Garcilasso says,* that "all their policy should not be one of
prayer and persuasion, but that arms and power should form a
part, at least with those who were stubborn and pertinaceous."
Having assembled an army, the Inca crossed the border,
and entering a province called Cana, he sent messengers to
the inhabitants, "requiring them to submit to and obey the
child of the Sun, abandoning their own vain and evil sacrifices,
and bestial customs" — a formula that became thenceforth
the Inca preliminary to a declaration of war. The Cana sub-
mitted, but, the chronicler says, when he passed to the province
of Ayaviri, the natives "were so stubborn and rebellious that
neither promises, nor persuasion, nor the examples of the
other subjugated aborigines were of any avail; they all pre-
ferred to die defending their liberty." And so fell many a
province, after vainly endeavouring to protect its native gods,
as the realm of the Incas grew, always advancing under the
pretext of religious reform, the mandate of the Sun.
But while the extension of the solar cult was made the excuse
for the creation of an empire, it was more than a political
device; for the Incas called themselves "children of the Sun"
in the belief that they were directiy descended from this deity
and under his special care. Molina *^ tells of an adventure
which he ascribes to Inca Yupanqui, meaning, apparentiy, Pa-
chacuti, the greatest of the Incas. While, as a young man, the
Inca prince was journeying to visit his father, Viracocha Inca,
he passed a spring in which he saw a piece of crystal fall,
wherein appeared the figure of an Indian. From the back of
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 245
his head issued three very brilliant rays, even as those of the
Sun; serpents were twined round his arms, and on his head
there was a llautu [the fringe, symbol of the sun's rays, worn
on the forehead by the Incas as token of royalty] like that of the
Inca. His ears were bored, and ear-pieces, resembling those
used by the Incas, were inserted; he was also dressed in the
manner of the Inca. The head of a lion came from between his
legs, and on his shoulders there was another lion whose legs
appeared to join over the shoulders of the man; while, further-
more, a sort of serpent was twined about his shoulders. This
apparition said to the youth: "Come hither, my son, and fear
not, for I am the Sun, thy father. Thou shalt conquer many
nations; therefore be careful to pay great reverence to me and
remember me in thy sacrifices." The vision vanished, but the
piece of crystal remained, "and they say that he afterward saw
in it everything he wanted.** The solar imagery and the analogy
of this figure, with its lions and serpents, to the monumental
representations of celestial deities, are at once apparent; and
there is, too, in the tale, with its prophecy and its crystal-
gazing more than a suggestion of the fast in the wilderness by
which the North American Indian youth seeks a revelation of
his personal medicine-helper, or totem. The Incas all had such
personal tutelaries. That of Manco Capac was said to have
been a falcon, called Inti; and the word came to mean the Sun
itself in its character as deity — or, perhaps, as tutelary of the
Inca clan, since the name Inti appears in the epithets applied
to the "brothers" of more than one later Inca. Serpents,
birds, and golden images were forms of these totemic familiars,
each buried with the body of the Inca to whom it had pertained.
Just as individuals had their personal Genii of this character,
so each clan had for ancestor its Genius, or tutelary, which
might be a star, a mountain, a rock, or a spring. The Sun
was such a Genius of the Incas, and it came to be an ever
greater deity as Inca power spread by very reason of the
growing importance of their clan; while its recognition by
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246 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
members of allied and conquered septs came to be demanded
very much, we may suppose, as the cultic acknowledgement of
the Genius of the Roman Emperor was required in expression
of loyalty to the reigning race.
The Inca pantheon was not narrow.* Besides the ancestral
deities, there were innumerable huacas — sacred places, ora-
cles, or idols — and whole classes of nature-powers; the genera-
tive Earth (Pacha Mama) and '^mamas'' of plant and animal
kinds; meteorological potencies, especially the Rainbow and
Thunder and Lightning, conceived as servants of the Sun;
and, in the heaven itself, the Moon and the Constellations, by
which the seasons were computed. Remote over all was the
heaven-god and creator, Viracocha, with respect to whom the
Sun itself was but a servitor. Salcamayhua declares that
Manco Capac had set up a plate of fine gold, oval in shape,
"which signified that there was a Creator of heaven and
earth." Majrta Capac renewed this image — despising, tradi-
tion said, all created objects, even the highest, such as men and
the sun and moon — and "he caused things to be placed
round the plate, which I have shown that it may be perceived
what these heathen thought." In illustration Salcamayhua
gives a drawing which many authorities regard as the key to
Peruvian m)rthology. At the top is a representation of the
Southern Cross, the pole of the austral heavens. Below this
is the oval symbol of the Creator, on one side of which is an
image of the Sun, with the Morning Star beneath, while
opposite is the Moon above the Evening Star. Under these is
a group of twelve signs — a leaping puma, a tree, "Mama
Cocha," a chart of this mountainous Earth surmounted by a
rainbow and serving as source for a river into which levin
falls, a group of seven circles called "shining eyes," and other
emblems — the whole representing, so Stansbury Hagar
argues, the Peruvian zodiac. Salcamayhua goes on to say
that Huascar placed an image of the Sun in the place where
the symbol of the Creator had been, and it was as thus
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 247
altered that the Spaniards found the great Temple of the Sun
at Cuzco.
It would appear, Indeed, that the action of Huascar was
only a final step in the rise of the solar cult to pre-eminence
in Peru. Doubtless the sun had been a principal deity from
an early period, but its close relation to the Inca clan made
it progressively more and more important, so that by the time
of the coming of the Spaniards it had risen, as a national
divinity, to a position analogous to that of Ashur in the later
Assyrian empire. Meantime the older heaven-god, Viracocha,
presumably the tutelary of the pre-Inca empire and of Tia-
huanaco, had faded into obscurity. To be sure, there was a tem-
ple to this god in Cuzco (so Molina and Salcamayhua attest);
but to the Sun there were shrines all over the land, with
priests and priestesses; while Cuzco was the centre of a mag-
nificent imperial cult, the sanctuary honoured by royalty
itself and served not only by the sacerdotal head of all Inca
temple-service, a high priest of blood royal, but also by hun-
dreds of devoted Virgins of the Sun, who, like the Roman
Vestals, kept an undying fire on the altars of the solar god.
Yet Viracocha was not forgotten, even by the Incas who
subordinated him ofiicially to the Sun; and few passages in
American lore are more striking than are the records of Inca
doubt as to the Sun's divinity and power. Molina says of
that very Inca to whom the vision of the crystal appeared
that "he reflected upon the respect and reverence shown by
his ancestors to the Sun, who worshipped it as a god; he
observed that it never had any rest, and that it daily
journeyed round the earth; and he said to those of his council
that it was not possible that the Sun could be the God who
created all things, for if he was, he would not permit a small
cloud to obscure his splendour; and that if he was creator of all
things, he would sometimes rest, and light up the whole
world from one spot. Thus, it cannot be otherwise but there
is someone who directs him, and this is the Pacha-yachachi,
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248 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the Creator." Garcilasso (quoting Bias Valera) states that
the Inca Tupac Yupanqui likened the Sun rather to a tethered
beast or to a shot arrow than to a free divinity, while Huayna
Capac is credited with a similar judgement. In the prayers
recorded by Molina, Viracocha is supreme, even over the Sun;
and these petitions, it must be supposed, represent the deepest
conviction of Inca religion.
VI. LEGENDS OF THE INCAS
Stories of Inca origins, as told by the chroniclers, present a
certain confusion of incident that probably goes back to the
native versions. There are obviously historical narratives
mingled with clearly mythic materials and influencing each
other. The islands of Titicaca and the ruins of Tiahuanaco
appear as the source of remote provenance of the Incas; a place
called Paccari-Tampu ("Tavern of the Dawn"), not far from
Cuzco, and the mysterious hill of Tampu-Tocco ("Tavern of
the Windows") are recorded as sites associated with their
more immediate rise; yet as Manco Capac is associated with
both origins, and as the narratives pertaining to both contain
cosmogonic elements, the tales give the impression of blending
and duplication.
With different degrees of confusion all the chroniclers (Cieza
de Leon, Garcilasso, Molina, Salcamayhua, Betanzos, Mon-
tesinos, HuamanPomo, and others) tell the story of the coming
forth of Manco Capac and his brothers from Tampu-Tocco to
create the empire; but of all the accounts Markham regards
that given by Sarmiento as the most authentic.** According
to this version, Tampu-Tocco was a house on a hill, provided
with three windows, named Maras, Sutic, and Capac. Through
the first of these came the Maras tribe, through Sutic came the
Tampu tribe, and through Capac, the regal window, came four
Ayars with their four wives — Ayar Manco and Mama OcUo;
Ayar Auca (the "joyous," or "fighting," Ayar) and Mama
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PLATE XXXVIII
"Temple of the three Windows," Machu Picchu.
Windows are not a frequent feature of Inca archi-
tecture, and when Bingham discovered at Machu
Picchu the temple with three conspicuous windows,
here shown, this discovery seemed to give added
plausibility to the theory that Machu Picchu is
indeed the Tampu-Tocco of the Incas. See pages
248 ff. and compare Plate XXX. From photograph,
courtesy of Hiram Bingham, Director of the Yale
Peruvian Expedition.
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 249
Huaco (the "warlike"); Ayar Cachi (the "Salt" Ayar) and
Mama Ipacura (the "Elder Aunt") ; Ayar Uchu (the "Pepper"
Ayar) and Mama Raua. The four pairs "knew no father nor
mother, beyond the story they told that they came out of the
said window by order of Ticci Viracocha; and they declared
that Viracocha created them to be lords"; but it was believed
that by the counsel of the fierce Mama Huaco they decided to
go forth and subjugate peoples and lands. Besides the Maras
and Tampu peoples, eight other tribes were associated with
the Ayars, as vassals, when they began their quest, taking with
them their goods and their families. Manco Capac carrying
with him, as a palladium, a falcon, called Indi, or Inti — the
name of the Sun-god — bore also a golden rod which was to
sink into the land at the site where they were to abide; and
Salcamayhua says that, in setting out, the hero was wreathed
in rain-bows, this being regarded as an omen of success.
The journey was leisurely, and in course of it Sinchi Rocca,
who was to be the second Inca, was bom to Mama OcUo and
Manco Capac; but then came a series of magic transformations
by which the three brothers disappeared, leaving the elder with-
out a rival. Ayar Cachi (who, Cieza de Leon says,** "had such
great power that, with stones hurled from his sling, he split the
hills and hurled them up to the clouds") was the first to excite
the envy of his brothers; and on the pretext that certain royal
treasures had been forgotten in a cave of Tampu-Tocco, he was
sent back to secure them, accompanied by a follower who had
secret instructions from the brothers to immure him in the cave,
once he was inside. This was done, and though Ayar Cachi made
the earth shake in his efforts to break through, he could not
do so. Nevertheless (Cieza tells us) he appeared to his brothers,
"coming in the air with great wings of coloured feathers";
and despite their terror, he commanded them to go on to their
destiny, found Cuzco, and establish the empire. "I shall re-
main in the form and fashion that ye shall see on a hill not
distant from here; and it will be for your descendants a place
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2SO LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of sanctity and worship, and its name shall be Guanacaure
[Huanacauri]. And in return for the good things that ye will
have received from me, I pray that ye will always adore me as
god and in that place will set up altars whereat to offer sacri-
fices. If ye do this, ye shall receive help from me in war; and
as a sign that from henceforth ye are to be esteemed, honoured,
and feared, your ears shall be bored in the manner that ye now
behold mine." It was from this custom of boring and enlarg-
ing the ears that the Spaniards called the ruling caste Orejones
("Big-Ears"); and it was at the hill of Huanacauri that the
Ayar instructed the Incas in the rites by which they initiated
youths into the warrior caste.
At this mount, which became one of the great Inca shrines,
both the Salt and the Pepper Ayars were reputed to have been
transformed into stones, or idols, and it was here that the rain-
bow sign of promise was given. As they approached the hill —
so the legend states — they saw near the rainbow what ap-
peared to be a man-shaped idol; and "Ayar Uchu offered him-
self to go to it, for they said that he was very like it." He did
so, sat upon the stone, and himself became stone, crying: "O
Brothers, an evil work ye have wrought for me. It was for
your sakes that I came where I must remain forever, apart from
your company. Go! go! happy brethren, I announce to you
that ye shall be great lords. I therefore pray that, in recogni-
tion of the desire I have always had to please you, ye shall
honour and venerate me in all your festivals and ceremonies,
and that I shall be the first to whom ye make offerings, since
I remain here for your sakes. When ye celebrate the huarochico
(which is the arming of the sons as knights), ye shall adore me
as their father, for I shall remain here forever."
Finally Manco Capac's staff sank into the ground — "two
shots of an arquebus from Cuzco" — and from their camp the
hero pointed to a heap of stones on the site of Cuzco. " Showing
this to his brother, Ayar Auca, he said, 'Brother! thou remem-
berest how it was arranged between us that thou shouldst go to
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THE ANDEAN SOUTH 251
take possession of the land where we are to settle. Well! behold
that stone.' Pointing it out, he continued, *Go thither flying,'
for they say that Ayar Auca had developed some wings; *and
seating thyself there, take possession of the land seen from
that heap of rocks. We will presently come and settle and re-
side.' When Ayar Auca heard the words of his brother, opening
his wings, he flew to that place which Manco CajJac had pointed
out; and seating himself there, he was presently turned into
stone, being made the stone of possession. In the ancient
language of this valley the heap was called cozco^ whence the
site has had the name of Cuzco to this day."
Markham placed the events commemorated in this myth
at about iioo a. d., and Bingham's remarkable discoveries of
Machu Picchu and of the Temple of the Three Windows appear
to prove the truth of tales of a Tampu-Tocco dynasty, pre-
ceding the coming to Cuzco. The tribal divisions (in their
numbers, three and ten, strikingly suggestive of Roman legend)
are surely in part historical, for Sarmiento gives names of mem-
bers of the various ayllus in Cuzco in his own day. Yet it is
clear that the Ayars are mythical beings. Garcilasso says " that
the four pairs came forth in the beginning of the world; that
in the various legends about them the three brothers disappear
in allegory, leaving Manco Capac alone; and that the Salt
Ayar signifies "instruction in the rational life," while the
Pepper Ayar means "delight received in this instruction."
The association of the two Ayars with initiation ceremonies
and civic destiny points, in fact, to the character of culture
heroes; and their names. Salt and Pepper, again suggest associ-
ation with economic life, perhaps, in some way, as genii of
earth and vegetation, though in the myth of Ayar Cachi the
suggestion of a volcanic power is almost irresistible. Ayar
Auca is clearly the genius loci of Cuzco, while Manco Capac
himself, conceived as an Ayar, is little more than a culture hero.
Perhaps the solution is to be found in Montesinos's lists, where
Manco Capac is the first ruler of the dynasty of the oldest
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252 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
emperors, after the god Viracocha himself, while the first Inca
is Sinchi Rocca. The myth of the Ayars would then hark back
to the Megalithic age and to the cosmogonies associated with
Titicaca, while their connexion with the Incas, after the dynasty
of Tampu-Tocco, would be, as it were, but a natural telescoping
of ancient myth and later history, adding to Inca prestige.
In Inca lore there are other legends — the tale of the prince
who was stolen by his father's enemies and who wept tears of
blood, by this portent saving his life; the legend of the virgin
of the Sun who loved a pipe-playing shepherd and of their
transformation into rocks; the story of OUantay, the general,
who loved the Inca's daughter, preserved in the drama which
Markham has translated; and along with these are many frag-
ments of creation-stories and aetiological myths chronicled
by the early writers. History and poetic fancy combine in
these to give materials into which are woven beliefs and prac-
tices far more ancient than the Inca race, just as Hellenic myth
contains distorted reflections of the pre-Greek age of the Aegean.
By means of such tales the ancient shrines are made to speak
again, as through oracles.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE TROPICAL FORESTS: THE ORINOCO
AND GUIANA
I. LANDS AND PEOPLES
AMONG earth's great continental bodies South America
jlJL is second only to Australia in isolation. This is true not
only geographically, but also in regard to flora and fauna, and
in respect of its human aborigines and their cultures. To be
sure, within itself the continent shows a diversity as wide,
perhaps, as that of any; and certainly no continent affords a
sharper contrast both of environment and of culture than is
that of the Andes and the civilized Andeans to the tropical
forests with their hordes of unqualified savages. There are,
moreover, streams of influence reaching from the southern
toward the northern America — the one, by way of the
Isthmus, tenuously extending the bond of civilization in the
direction of the cultured nations of Central America and
Mexico; the other carrying northward the savagery of the
tropics by the thin line of the Lesser Antilles; and it is, of
course, possible that this double movement, under way in
Columbian days, was the retroaction of influences that had
at one time moved in the contrary direction. Yet, on the
whole, South America has its own distinct character, whether
of savagery or of civilization, showing little certain evidence
of recent influence from other parts of the globe. Au fond
the cultural traits — implements, social organization, ideas —
are of the types common to mankind at similar levels; but
their special developments have a distinctly South American
character, so that, whether we compare Inca with Aztec, or
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254 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Amazonian with Mississippian, we perceive without hesitanqr
the continental idiosyncracy of each. It is certain that South
America has been inhabited from remote times; it is certain,
too, that her aboriginal civilizations are ancient, reckoned
even by the Old World scale. A daring hypothesis would
make this continent an early, and perhaps the first home of
the human species — a theory that would not implausibly
solve certain difficulties, assuming that the differences which
mark aboriginal North from aboriginal South America are
due to the fact that the former continent was the meeting-
place and confluence of two streams — a vastly ancient, but
continuous, northward flow from the south, turned and
coloured by a thinner and later wash of Asiatic source.*
The peoples of South America are grouped by d'Orbigny,*
as result of his ethnic studies of rhomme americain made dur-
ing the expedition of 1826-33, ^^^^ three great divisions, or
races: the Ando-Peruvian, comprising all the peoples of the
west coast as far as Tierra del Fuego; the Pampean, including
the tribes of the open countries of the south; and the Brasilio-
Guaranian, composed of the stocks of those tropical forests
which form the great body of the South American continent.
With modifications this threefold grouping of the South Amer-
ican aborigines has been maintained by later ethnologists.
One of the most recent studies in this field (W. Schmidt,
"Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Sudamerika," in ZE
xlv [1913I), while still maintaining the triple classification,
nevertheless shows that the different groups have mingled
and intermingled in confusing complexity, following succes-
sive cycles of cultural influence. Schmidt's division is primarily
on the basis of cultural traits, with reference to which he dis-
tinguishes three primary groups: (i) Peoples of the "collective
grade," who live by hunting, fishing, and the gathering of
plants, with the few exceptions of tribes that have learned
some agriculture from neighbours of a higher culture. In this
group are the Gez, or Botocudo, and the Puri-Coroados stocks
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 255
of the east and south-east of Brazil; the stocks of the Gran
Chaco, the Pampas, and Tierra del Fuego; while the Arau-
canians and certain tribes of the eastern Cordilleras of the
Andes are also placed in this class. (2) Groups of peoples of
the Hackbaustufe, mostly practicing agriculture and marked
by a general advance in the arts, as well as by the presence of
a well-defined patriarchy and evidences of totemism in their
social organization. In this group are included the great
South American linguistic stocks — the Cariban, Arawakan,
and Tupi-Guaranian, inhabiting the forests and semi-steppes
of the regions drained by the Orinoco and Amazon and their
tributaries, as well as the tribes of the north-east coast of the
continent. (3) Groups of the cultured peoples of the Andes
— Chibcha, Incaic, and Calchaqui.
The general arrangement of these three divisions follows
the contour of the continent. The narrow mountain ridge
of the west coast is the seat of the civilized peoples; the home
of the lowest culture is the east coast, extending in a broad
band of territory from the highlands of the Brazilian provinces
of Pemambuco and Bahia south-westward to the Chilean
Andes and Patagonia; between these two, occupying the
whole centre of the continent, with a broad base along the
northern coast and narrowing wedge-like to the south, is the
region of the intermediate culture group.
Most of what is known of the mythology of South American
peoples comes from tribes and nations of the second and third
groups — from the Andeans whose myths have been sketched
in preceding chapters, and from the peoples of the tropic
forests. The region inhabited by the latter group is too vast
to be treated as a simple unit; nor is there, in the chaotic
intermixture of tongues and tribes, any clear ethnic demarca-
tion of ideas. In default of other principle, it is appropriate
and expedient, therefore, to follow the natural division of the
territory into the geographical regions broadly determined by
the great river-systems that traverse the continent. These
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256 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLCXSY
are three: in the north the Orinoco, with its tributaries, drain-
ing the region bounded on the west by the Colombian plateau
and the Llanos of the Orinoco, and on the south by the Guiana
Highlands; in the centre the Amazon, the world's greatest
river, the mouth of which is crossed by the Equator, while the
stream itself closely follows the equatorial line straight across
the continent to the Andes, though its great tributaries drain •
the central continent, many degrees to the south; and in the
south the Rio de la Plata, formed by the confluence of the
Parana and Uruguay, and receiving the waters of the territories
extending from El Gran Chaco to the Pampas, beyond which
the Patagonian plains and Chilean Andes taper southward
to the Horn. In general, the Orinoco region is the home of the
Carib and Arawak tribes; the Amazonian region is the seat
and centre of the Tupi-Guaranians; while the region extend-
ing from the Rio de la Plata to the Horn is the aboriginal
abode of various peoples, mostly of inferior culture. It should
be borne in mind, however, that the simplicity of this plan is
largely factitious. Linguistically, aboriginal South America
is even more complex than North America (at least above
Mexico) ; and the whole central region is a melange of verbally
unrelated stocks, of which, for the continent as a whole.
Chamberlain's incomplete list gives no less than eighty-three.'
11. SPIRITS AND SHAMANS
"The aborigines of Guiana," writes Brett,* "in their naturally
wild and untaught condition, have had a confused idea of the
existence of one good and supreme Being, and of many inferior
spirits, who are supposed to be of various kinds, but generally
of malignant character. The Good Spirit they regard as the
Creator of all, and, as far as we could learn, they believe Him
to be immortal and invisible, omnipotent and omniscient.
But notwithstanding this, we have never discovered any trace
of religious worship or adoration paid to Him by any tribe while
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 257
in its natural condition. They consider Him as a Being too high
to notice them; and, not knowing Him as a God that heareth
prayer, they concern themselves but little about Him.'* In
another passage the same writer states that the natives of
Guiana "all maintain the Invisibility of the Eternal Father.
In their traditionary legends they never confound Him — the
Creator, — the ^Ancient of Heaven^ — with the mythical per-
sonages of what, for want of a better term, we must call their
heroic age; and though sorcerers claim familiarity with, and
power to control, the inferior (and malignant) spirits, none
would ever pretend to hold intercourse with Him^ or that it
were possible for mortal man to behold HimJ* A missionary to
the same region. Fray Ruiz Blanco,*^ earlier by some two hundred
years, says of the religion of these aborigines that, "The false
rites and diableries with which the multitude are readily duped
are innumerable . . . briefly . . . there is the seated fact that
all are idolaters, and there is the particular fact that all abhor
and greatly fear the devil, whom they call Iboroquiamio."
Minds of a scientific stamp see the matter somewhat differ-
ently. "The natives of the Orinoco," Humboldt declares,*
" know no other worship than that of the powers of nature; like
the ancient Germans they deify the mysterious object which
excites their simple admiration (deorum nominibus appellant
secretum illudy quod sola reverentia vident).^* From the point
of view of an ethnologist of the school of Tylor, im Thum de-
scribes the religion of the Indians of Guiana: Having no belief
in a hierarchy of spirits, they can have, he says, "none in any
such beings as in higher religions are called gods. • • • It is
true that various words have been found in all, or nearly all,
the languages, not only of Guiana, but also of the whole world,
which have been supposed to be the names of a great spirit,
supreme being, or god"; nevertheless, he concludes, "the con-
ception of a God is not only totally foreign to Indian habits of
thought, but belongs to a much higher stage of intellectual
development than any attained by them."
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258 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
It 18 from such contrary evidences as these that the true
character of aboriginal beliefs must be reconstructed. Im
Thum says of the native names that they "to some extent
acquired a sense which the nussionaries imparted to them";
and when we meet, in such passages as that quoted from Brett,
the ascription of attributes like omniscience and omnipotence
to primitive divinities, there is indeed cause for humour at the
missionary's expense. But there are logical idols in more than
one trade; the ethnologists have their full share of them. Im
Thum gives us a list of indigenous appellations of the Great
Spirit of Guiana:
Tamosi ("the Ancient One").
True Caribs: ■ Tamosi kabotano ("the Ancient One
Carib Tribes: J [ in the Sky*')-
Ackawoi: Mackonaima (meaning unknown).
Macusi: Kutti (probably only Macusi-Dutch for
"God").
IWa murreta kwonci ("our Maker").
Wa cinaci ("our Father").
Ifilici wacinaci ("our Great Father").
„, „, . f Kononatoo ("our Maker").
WaTrau.Wapiana:|^^^.^^g^^^ (meaning unknown).
Of all these names im Thum remarks that in those whose
meanings are known "only three ideas are expressed — (i) One
who lived long ago and is now in sky-land; (2) the maker of
the Indians; and (3) their father; None of these ideas," he
continues, "in any way involve the attributes of a god ..." *
Obviously, acceptance of this negation turns upon one's under-
standing of the meaning of "god."
The Cariban Makonaima (there are many variants, such as
Makanaima, Makunaima, and the like) is a creator-god and
the hero of a cosmogony. It is possible that his name connects
him with the class of Kenaima (or Kanaima), avengers of
murder and bringers of death, who are often regarded as en-
dowed with magical or mysterious powers; and in this case
the term may be analogous to the Wakanda and Manito of the
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 259
northern continent. Schomburgk ^ states that Makunaima
means '^one who works in the night''; and if this be true, it is
curious to compare with such a conception the group of Ara*
wakan demiurgic beings whom he describes. According to the
Arawak myths, a being Kururumany was the creator of men,
while Kulimina formed women. Kururumany was the author
of all good, but coming to earth to survey his creation, he dis-
covered that the human race had become wicked and corrupt;
wherefore he deprived them of everlasting life, leaving among
them serpents, lizards, and other vermin. Wurekaddo ("She
Who Works in the Dark*') and Emisiwaddo ("She Who Bores
Through the Earth") are the wives of Kururumany; and
Emisiwaddo is identified as the cushi-SLnt, so that we have here
an interesting suggestion of world-building ants, for which
analogues are to be found far north in America, in the Pueblos
and on the North-West Coast. There is, however, a faineant
god high above Kururumany, one Aluberi, pre-«minent over
all, who has no concern for the affairs of men; while other
supreme beings mentioned by Schomburgk are Amalivaca —
who is, however, rather a Trickster-Hero — and the group that,
among the Maipuri, corresponds to the Arawakan family of
divine beings, Purrunaminari ("He Created Men"), Tapari-
marru, his wife, and Sisiri, his son, whom she, without being
touched by him, conceived to him from the mere love he bore
her — a m3rth in which, as Schomburgk observes, we should
infer European influence.
Humboldt, in describing the religion of the Orinoco aborigines
says • of them that "they call the good spirit Cachimana; it is
the Manitou, the Great Spirit, that regulates the seasons and
favours the harvests. Along with Cachimana there is an evil
principle, lolokiamo, less powerful, but more artful, and in
particular more active." On the whole, this characterization
represents the consensus of observation of traveller, missionary,
and scientist from Columbian days to the present and for the
wilder tribes of the whole of both South and North America.
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26o LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
There is a good being, the Great Spirit, more or less remote from
men, often little concerned with human or terrene affairs, but
the ultimate giver of life and light, of harvest food and game
food. There is an evil principle, sometimes personified as a
Lord of Darkness, although more often conceived not as a
person, but as a mischievous power, or horde of powers, mani-
fested in multitudes of annoying forms. Among shamanistic
tribes little attention is paid to the Good Power; it is too remote
to be seriously courted; or, if it is worshipped, solemn festivals,
elaborate mysteries, and priestly rites are the proper agents
for attracting its attention. On the other hand, the Evil Power
in all its innumerable and tricky embodiments, must be warded
off by constant endeavour — by shamanism, "medicine,"
magic. The tribes of the Orinoco region are, ab origine, mainly
in the shamanistic stage. The peaiman is at once priest, doctor,
and magician, whose main duty is to discover the deceptive
concealment of the malicious Kenaima and, by his exorcisms,
to free men from the plague. That the Kenaima is of the nature
of a spirit appears from the fact that the term is applied to
human malevolences, especially when these find magic mani*
festation, as well as to evils emanating from other sources.
Thus, the avenger of a murder is a Kenaima, and he must not
only exact life for life; he must achieve his end by certain
means and with rites insuring himself against the ill will of
his victim's spirit. Again, the Were-Jaguar is a Kenaima.
"A jaguar which displays unusual audacity," says Brett,*
"will often unnerve even a brave hunter by the fear that it
may be a Kanaima tiger. *This,' reasons the Indian, * if it be
but an ordinary wild beast, I may kill with bullet or arrow;
but what will be my fate if I assail the man-destroyer — the
terrible Kanaima?^ ^^
The Kenaima, the man-killer, whether he be the human
avenger upon whom the law of a primitive society has imposed
the task of exacting retribution, or whether he be the no less
dreaded inflicter of death through disease, or magically induced
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 261
accident, or by shifting skins with a man-slaying beast, is only
one type of the spirits of evil. Others are the Yauhahu and
Orehu (Arawak names for beings which are known to the other
tribes by other titles). The Yauhahu are the familiars of
sorcerers, the peaimen, who undergo a long period of proba-
tionary preparation in order to win their favour and who hold
it only by observing the most stringent tabus in the matter of
diet. The Orehu are water-sprites, female like the mermaids,
and they sometimes drag man and canoe down to the depths
of their aquatic haunts; yet they are not altogether evil, for
Brett tells a story, characteristically American Indian, of the
origin of a medicine-mystery. In very ancient times, when
the Yauhahu inflicted continual misery on mankind, an Ara-
wak, walking besides the water and brooding over the sad case
of his people, beheld an Orehu rise from the stream, bearing
in her hand a branch which he planted as she bade him, its
fruit being the calabash, till then unknown. Again she ap-
peared, bringing small white pebbles, which she instructed
him to enclose in the gourd, thus making the magic-working
rattle; and instructing him in its use and in the mysteries of the
Semecihi, this order was established among the tribes. The
"Semecihi" are of course, the medicine-men of the Arawak,
corresponding to the Carib peaimen, though the word itself
would seem to be related to the Taino zemi. Relation to the
Islanders is, indeed, suggested by the whole myth, for the
Orehu is surely only the mainland equivalent for the Haitian
woman-of-the-«ea, Guabonito, who taught the medicine-hero,
Guagugiana, the use of amulets of white stones and of gold.
III. HOW EVILS BEFELL MANKIND
Not many primitive legends are more dramatically vivid than
the Carib story of Maconaura and Anuanaitu,^® and few myths
give a wider insight into the ideas and customs of a people. The
theme of the tale is very clearly the coming of evil as the conse-
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262 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
quence of a woman's deed, although the motive of her action
is not mere curiosity, as in the tale of Pandora, but the more
potent passion of revenge — or, rather, of that vengeful retribu-
tion of the lex talionis which is the primitive image of justice.
In an intimate fashion, too, the story gives us the spirit of
Kenaima at work, while its denouemerU suggests that the rest-
less Orehu, the Woman of the Waters, may be none other than
the authoress of evil, the liberatress of ills.
In a time long past, so long past that even the grandmothers
of our grandmothers were not yet bom, the Caribs of Surinam
say, the world was quite other than what it is today: the trees
were forever in fruit; the animals lived in perfect harmony,
and the little agouti played fearlessly with the beard of the
jaguar; the serpents had no venom; the rivers flowed evenly,
without drought or flood; and even the waters of cascades
glided gently down from the high rocks. No human creature
had as yet come into life, and Adaheli, whom now we invoke as
God, but who then was called the Sun, was troubled. He de-
scended from the skies, and shortly after man was bom from
the cayman, bom, men and women, in the two sexes. The
females were all of a ravishing beauty, but many of the males
had repellent features; and this was the cause of their dis-
persion, since the men of fair visage, unable to endure dwelling
with their ugly fellows, separated from them, going to the West,
while the hideous men went to the East, each party taking
the wives whom they had chosen.
Now in the tribe of the handsome Indians lived a certain
young man, Maconaura, and his aged mother. The youth was
altogether charming — tall and graceful, with no equal in hunt-
ing and fishing, while all men brought their baskets to him for
the final touch; nor was his old mother less skilled in the mak-
ing of hammocks, preparation of cassava, or brewing of tapana.
They lived in harmony with one another and with all their
tribe, suiFering neither from excessive heat nor from foggy
chill, and free from evil beasts, for none existed in that region.
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 263
One day, however, Maconaura found his basket-net broken
and his fish devoured, a thing such as had never happened in
the history of the tribe; and so he placed a woodpecker on
guard when next he set his trap; but though he ran with all
haste when he heard the toe! toe! of the signal, he came too
late; again the fish were devoured, and the net was broken^
With cuckoo as guard he fared better, for when he heard the
pon! pon! which was this bird^s signal, he arrived in time to
send an arrow between the ugly eyes of a cayman, which dis-
appeared beneath the waters with a glou! glou! Maconaura
repaired his basket-net and departed, only to hear again the
signal, pon! pon! Returning, he found a beautiful Indian
maiden in tears. "Who are you?" he asked. "Anuanaitu,"
she replied. "Whence come you?" "From far, far." "Who
are your kindred?" "Oh, ask me not that!" and she covered
her face with her hands.
The maiden, who was little more than a child, lived with
Maconaura and his mother; and as she grew, she increased in
beauty, so that Maconaura desired to wed her. At first she re-
fused with tears, but finally she consented, though the union
lacked correctness in that Maconaura had not secured the
consent of her parents, whose name she still refused to divulge.
For a while the married pair lived happily until Anuanaitu was
seized with a great desire to visit her mother; but when Ma-
conaura would go with her, she, in terror, urged the abandon-
ment of the trip, only to find her husband so determined that
he said, "Then I will go alone to ask you in marriage of your
kin." "Never, never that!" cried Anuanaitu; "That would
be to destroy us all, us two and your dear mother!" But Ma-
conaura was not to be dissuaded, for he had consulted a peaiman
who had assured him that he would return safely; and so he
set forth with his bride.
After several weeks their canoe reached an encampment,
and Anuanaitu said: "We are arrived; I will go in search of my
mother. She will bring to you a gourd filled with blood and
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264 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
raw meat, and another filled with beltiri [a fermented liquor]
and cassava bread. Our lot depends on your choice," The
young man, when his mother-in-law appeared, unhesitatingly
took the bdtiri and bread, whereupon the old woman said,
"You have chosen well; I give my consent to your marriage,
but I fear that my husband will oppose it strongly." Kai-
koutji ("Jaguar") was the husband's name. The two women
went in advance to test his temper toward Maconaura's suit;
but his rage was great, and it was necessary to hide the youth
in the forest until at last Kaikoutji was mollified to such a
degree that he consented to see the young man, only to have
his anger roused again at the sight, so that he cried, "How
dare you approach me?" Maconaura responded: "True, my
marriage with your daughter is not according to the rites. But
I am come to make reparation. I will make for you whatever
you desire." "Make me, then," cried the other contemptuously,
"a halla [sorcerer's stool] with the head of a jaguar on one
side and my portrait on the other." By midnight Maconaura
had completed the work, excepting for the portrait; but here
was a difficulty, for Kaikoutji kept his head covered with a
calabash, pierced only with eye-holes; and when Maconaura
asked his wife to describe her parent, she replied: "Impossible!
My father is a peaiman; he knows all; he would kill us both."
Maconaura concealed himself near the hammock of his father-
in-law, in hopes of seeing his face; and first, a louse, then, a
spider, came to annoy Kaikoutji, who killed them both with-
out showing his visage. Finally, however, an army of ants
attacked him furiously, and the peaiman, rising up in conster-
nation, revealed himself — his whole horrible head. Ma-
conaura appeared with the hallCy completed, when morning
came. "That will not suffice," said Kaikoutji, "in a single
night you must make for me a lodge formed entirely of the
most beautiful feathers." The young man felt himself lost,
but multitudes of humming-birds and jacamars and others of
brilliant plumage cast their feathers down to him, so that the
..\
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PLATE XXXIX
1. Stone seat from Manabi, Ecuador. See page
206. After Saville, Antiquities of Manabi, Ecuadotj
Vol. II, Plate XXXVIII.
2. Painted wooden seat from Guiana — such a
holla as is referred to in the tale of Maconaura and
Anuanaitu, page 264. After 30 ARBE, Plate V.
3. Central American carved stone metate in the
collection of Geo. S. Walsh, Lincoln, Neb.
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 265
lodge was finished before daybreak, whereupon Maconaura
was received as the recognized husband of Anuanaitu.
The time soon came, however, when he wished again to see
his mother, but as Kaikoutji refused to allow Anuanaitu to
accompany the youth, he set off alone. Happy days were spent
at home, he telling his adventures, the mother recounting the
tales of long ago which had been dimly returning to her troubled
memory; and when Maconaura would return to his wife, the
old mother begged him to stay, while the peaiman warned him
of danger; but he was resolved and departed once more, telling
his mother that he would send her each day a bird to apprise
her of his condition: if the owl came, she would know him
lost. Arrived at the home of Anuanaitu, he was met by his
wife and mother-in-law, in tears, with the warning: "Away!
quickly! Kaikoutji is furious at the news he has received!"
Nevertheless Maconaura went on, and at the threshold of the
lodge was met by Kaikoutji, who felling him with a blow, thrust
an arrow between his eyes. Meantime Maconaura's mother
had been hearing daily the mournful bouta! bouta! of the oto-
lin; but one day this was succeeded by the dismal popopo! of
the owl, and knowing that her son was dead, she, led by the
bird of ill tidings, found first the young man's canoe and
then his hidden body, with which she returned sadly to her
own people.
The men covered the corpse with a pall of beautiful feathers,
placing about it Maconaura's arms and utensils; the women
prepared the tapana for the funeral feast; and all assembled to
hear the funeral chant, the last farewell of mother to son.
She recounted the tragic tale of his love and death, and then,
raising the cup of tapana to her lips, she cried: "Who has ex-
tinguished the light of my son? Who has sent him into the
valley of shades? Woe! woe to him! . . . Alas! you see in me,
O friends and brothers, only a poor, weak old woman. I can
do nothing. Who of you will avenge me?" Forthwith two men
sprang forward, seized the cup, and emptied it; beside the
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266 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
corpse they intoned the Kenaima song, dancing the dance of
vengeance; and into one of them the soul of a boa constrictor
entered, into the other that of a jaguar.
The great feast of tapana was being held at the village of
Kaikoutji, where hundreds of natives were gathered, men,
women, and children. They drank and vomited; drank and
vomited again; till finally all were drunken. Then two men
came, one in the hide of a jaguar, the other in the mottled
scales of a boa constrictor; and in an instant Kaikoutji and all
about him were struck down, some crushed by the jaguar's
blows, others strangled in snaky folds. Nevertheless fear had
rescued some from their drunkenness; and they seized their
bows, threatening the assailants with hundreds of arrows,
whereupon the two Kenaima ceased their attack, while one of
them cried: ^^Hold, friends! we are in your hands, but let us
first speak!'* Then he recounted the tale of Maconaura, and
when he had ceased, an old peaiman advanced, saying: '^ Young
men, you have spoken well. We receive you as friends."
The feast was renewed more heartily than ever, but though
Anuanaitu, in her grief, had remained away, she now advanced,
searching among the corpses. She examined them, one by one,
with dry eyes; but at last she paused beside a body, her eyes
filled with tears, and seating herself, long, long she chanted
plaintively the praises of the dead. Suddenly she leaped up,
with hair bristling and with face of fire, in vibrant voice in-
toning the terrible Kenaima; and as she danced, the soul of a
rattlesnake entered into her.
Meantime, in the other village, the people were celebrating
the tapana, delirious with joy for the vengeance taken, while
the mother of Maconaura, overcome by drink, lay in her ham-
mock, dreaming of her son. Anuanaitu entered, possessed,
but she drew back moved when she heard her name pronounced
by the dreaming woman: "Anuanaitu, my child, you are good,
as was also your mother! But why come you hither? My son,
whom you have lost, is no more . . . O son Maconaura, re-
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 267
joice! Thou art happy, now, for thou art avenged in the blood of
thy murderers! Ah, yes, thou art well avenged!" During this
Anuanai'tu felt in her soul a dread conflict, the call of love
struggling with the call of duty; but at the words, "avenged
in blood," she restrained herself no longer, and throwing her-
self upon the old woman, she drew her tongue from her mouth,
striking it with venomous poison; and leaning over her agonized
victim, she spoke: "The cayman which your son killed beside
the basket-net was my brother. Like my father, he had a cay-
man's head. I would pardon that. My father avenged his
son's death in inflicting on yours the same doom that he had
dealt — aft arrow between the eyes. Your kindred have slain
my father and all mine. I would have pardoned that, too,
had they but spared my mother. Maconaura is the cause that
what is most dear to me in the world is perished; and robbing
him in my turn, I immolate what he held most precious!"
Uttering a terrible cry, she fled into the forest; and at the
sound a change unprecedented occurred throughout all nature.
The winds responded with a tempest which struck down the
trees and uprooted the very oaks; thick clouds veiled the face
of Adaheli, while sinister lightnings and the roar of thunders
filled the tenebrous world; a deluge of rain mingled with the
fioods of rivers. The animals, until then peaceable, fell upon
and devoured one another: the serpent struck with his venom,
the cayman made his terrible jaws to crash, the jaguar tore
the flesh of the harmless agouti. Anuanaitu, followed by the
savage hosts of the forest, pursued her insensate course until
she arrived at the summit of an enormous rock, whence gushed
a cascade; and there, on the brink of the precipice, she stretched
forth her arms, leaned forward, and plunged into the depths.
The waters received her and closed over her; nought was to be
seen but a terrifying whirlpool.
If today some stranger pass beside a certain cascade, the
Carib native will warn him not to speak its name. That would
be his infallible death, for at the bottom of these waters Ma-
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268 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
conaura and Anuanaitu dwell together in the marvellous
palace of her who is the Soul of the Waters.
It is not merely the artistic symmetry of this tale — which
may be due as much to the clever rendering by Father van
Coll as to the genius of the savage raconteur — that justifies
giving it at length. It is a wonderfully instructive picture of
savage life, emotions, and customs; and a full commentary
upon it would lead to an exposition of most that we know of
the customs and thought of the Orinoco aborigines — such
practices, for example, as im Thum describes : the putting of
red pepper in one's eyes to propitiate the spirits of rapids one
is about to shoot; the method of Kenaima murder by pricking
the tongue with poison; the perpetual vendetta which to the
savage seems to hold not only between tribe and tribe of men,
but also between tribe and tribe of animals; the tapana feasts
in which men become inspired; or again, such myxhic and
religious conceptions as the cult of the jaguar and cayman,
extending far throughout South and Central America; the still
more universal notion of a community of First People, part
man, part animal; the ominous birds and animal helpers; the
central story of the visit of the hero-youth to the ogreish father-
in-law, and of the trials to which he is subjected. In these and
in other respects the story is of interest; but its chief attraction
is surely in the fact that here we have an American Job or
(EdipuSy presenting, as Job presents, the problem of evil; and,
like Greek tragedy, portraying the harsh conflict between the
inexorable justice of the law of retribution and the loves and
mercies which combat it, in the savage heart perhaps not less
than in the civilized.
IV. CREATION AND CATACLYSM
Both creation and cataclysm appear in the story of Maco-
naura and Anuanaitu, but this legend is only one among sev-
eral tales of the kind gathered from various groups of Orinoco
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 269
natives, the fullest collection, "*old peoples^ stories,* as the
rising race somewhat contemptuously call them," being given
by Brett. The creation myths are of the two familiar American
types: true creations out of the void, and migrations of First
Beings into a new land; while transformation-incidents, and
especially the doughty deeds of the Transformer-Hero, a true
demiurge, are characteristic of traditions of each type.
The Ackawoi make their Makonaima the creator, and Sign,
his son, the hero, in a tale which, says Brett," they repeat
"while striving to maintain a very grave aspect, as befitting
the general nature of the subject." "In the beginning of this
world the birds and beasts were created by Makonaima, —
the great spirit whom no man hath seen. They, at that time,
were all endowed with the gift of speech. Sign, the son of
Makonaima, was placed to rule over them. All lived in har-
mony together and submitted to his gentle dominion." Here
we have the usual sequence: the generation of the world, fol-
lowed by the Golden Age, with its vocal animals and universal
peace; while as a surprise to his subject creatures, Makonaima
caused a wonderful tree, bearing all good fruits, to spring from
the earth — the tree which was the origin of all cultivated
plants. The acouri first discovered this tree, selfishly trying
to keep the secret to himself; and the woodpecker, set by Sign
to trace the acouri, proved a poor spy, since his tapping warned
it of his presence; but when the rat solved the mystery. Sign
determined to fell the tree and plant its fruits broadcast.
Only the lazy monkey refused to assist, and even mischie-
vously hindered the others, so that Sign, provoked, put him at
the task of the Danaides — to fetch water in a basket-sieve.
The stump of the tree proved to be filled with water, stocked
with every kind of fish and from its riches Sigu proposed to
supply all streams; but the waters began of themselves to flow
so copiously that he was compelled hastily to cover the top
with a basket which the mischievous monkey discovered; and
raising it, the deluge poured forth. To save the animals, Sigu
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270 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
sealed in a cave those which could not climb; the others he
took with him into a high cocorite tree, where they remained
through a long and uncomfortable night, Sigu dropping cocorite
seeds from time to time to judge by the splash if the waters
were receding, until finally the sound was no longer heard,
and with the return of day the animals descended to repeople
the earth. But they were no longer the same. The arauta still
howls his discomfort from the trees; the trumpeter-bird, too
greedily descending into the food-rich mud, had his legs, till
then respectable, so devoured by ants that they have ever
since been bonily thin; the bush-fowl snapped up the spark of
fire which Sigu laboriously kindled, and got his red wattle for
his greed; while the alligator had his tongue pulled out for
lying (it is a common belief that the cayman is tongueless)*
Thus the world became what it is.
A second part of the tale tells how Sigu was persecuted by
two wicked brothers who beat him to death, burned him to
ashes, and buried him. Nevertheless, each time he rose again
to life and finally ascended a high hill which grew upward as he
mounted until he disappeared in the sky.
Probably the most far-known m5rthic hero of this region is
Amalivaca, a Carib demiurge, concerning whom Humboldt
reports various beliefs of the Tamanac (a Cariban tribe).
According to Humboldt," "the name Amalivaca is spread over
a region of more than five thousand square leagues; he is
found designated as * the father of mankind,' or * our great-grand-
father* as far as the Caribbee nations"; and he likens him to
the Aztec Quetzalcoatl. It is in connexion with the petro-
glyphs of their territory (similar rock-carvings are found far
into the Antilles, the "painted cave*' in which the Earth God-
dess was worshipped in Haiti being, no doubt, an example)
that the Tamanac give motive to their tale. Amalivaca, father
of the Tamanac, arrived in a canoe in the time of the deluge,
and he engraved images, still to be seen, of the sun and the
moon and the animals high upon the rocks of Encaramada.
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 271
From this deluge one man and one woman were saved on a
mountain called Tamancu — the Tamanac Ararat — and
** casting behind them, over their heads, the fruits of the mauri-
tia palm-tree, they saw the seeds contained in those fruits pro-
duce men and women, who repeopled the earth." After many
deeds, in which Amalivaca regulated the world in true heroic
fashion, he departed to the'shores beyond the seas, whence he
came and where he is supposed still to dwell.
Another m5rth, of the Cariban stock," tells how Makonaima,
having created heaven and earth, sat on a silk-cotton-tree by a
river, and cutting off pieces of its bark, cast them about, those
which touched the water becoming fish, and others flying in the
air as birds, while from those that fell on land arose animals
and men. Boddam-Whetham gives a later addition, account-
ing for the races of men: "The Great Spirit Makanaima made
a large mould, and out of this fresh, clean clay the white man
stepped. After it got a little dirty the Indian was formed, and
the Spirit being called away on business for a long period the
mould became black and unclean, and out of it walked the
negro.'* As in case of other demiurges, there are many stories
of the transformations wrought by Makonaima.
It is from the Warau that Brett obtains a story of a descent
from the sky-world — a tale which has many replications in
other parts of America, and of which there are other Orinoco
variants. Long ago, when the Warau lived in the happy hunt-
ing-grounds above the sky, Okonorote, a young hunter, shot an
arrow which missed its mark and was lost; searching for it,
he found a hole through which it had fallen; and looking down,
he beheld the earth beneath, with game-filled forests and sa-
vannahs. By means of a cotton rope he visited the lands below,
and upon his return his reports were such as to induce the
whole Warau tribe to follow him thither; but one unlucky dame,
too stout to squeeze through, was stuck in the hole, and the
Warau were thus prevented from ever returning to the sky-
world. Since the lower world was exceedingly arid, the great
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Spirit created a small lake of delicious water, but forbade the
people to bathe in it — this to test their obedience. A certain
family, consisting of four brothers — Kororoma, Kororomana,
Kororomatu, and Kororomatitu — and two sisters — Korobona
and Korobonako — dwelt beside this mere; the men obeyed
the injunction as to bathing, but the two sisters entered the
water, and one of them swimming to the centre of the lake,
touched a pole which was planted there. The spirit of the pool,
who had been bound by the pole, was immediately released;
and seizing the maiden, he bore her to his sub-aquatic den,
whence she returned home pregnant; but the child, when bom,
was normal and was allowed to live. Again she visited the
water demon and once more brought forth a child, but this
one was only partly human, the lower portion of the body being
that of a serpent. The brothers slew the monster with arrows;
but after Korobona had nursed it to life in the concealment of
the forest, the brothers, having discovered the secret, again
killed the serpent-being, this time cutting it in pieces. Koro-
bona carefully collected and buried all the fragments of her
offspring's body, covering them with leaves and vegetable
mould; and she guarded the grave assiduously until finally
from it arose a terrible warrior, brilliant red in colour, armed
for battle, this warrior being the first Carib, who forthwith
drove from their ancient hunting-grounds the whole Warau
tribe.
This myth contains a number of interesting features. It is
obviously invented in part to explain why the Warau (who are
execrated by whites and natives alike for their dirtiness) do not
bathe; and it no doubt reflects their actual yielding before the
invading Carib tribes. The Kororomana of the story can
scarcely be other in origin that the Kururumany whom Schom-
burgk states to be the Arawak creator; while the whole group
of four brothers are plausibly continental forms of the Haitian
Caracarols, the shell-people who brought about the flood. The
incident of the corpulent or pregnant woman (im Thum gives
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TEIE ORDSrOCX) AND GUIANA 273
the latter version) stopping the egress of the primitive people
from their first home appears in Kiowa, Mandan, and Pueblo
tales in North America; while the pole rising from the lake has
analogues in the Califomian and North-West Coast regions.
Im Thum states that the Carib have a variant of this same
story, in which they assign as the reason for the descent of
their forefathers from Paradise their desire to cleanse the dirty
and disordered world below — an amusing complement to the
Warau notion!
The Warau have also their national hero, Abore, who has
something of the character of a true culture hero. Wowta, the
evil Frog- Woman, made Abore her slave while he was yet a boy,
and when he grew up, she wished to marry him; but he cleverly
trapped her by luring her into a hollow tree filled with honey, of
which she was desperately fond, and there wedging her fast.
He then made a canoe and paddled to sea to appear no more,
though the Warau believe that he reached the land of the
white men and taught them the arts of life; Wowta escaped
from the tree only by taking the form of a frog, and her dismal
croaking is still heard in the woods.
From the tribes of this region come various other myths, be-
longing, apparently, to the cosmogonic and demiurgic cycles.
The Arawak tell of two destructions of the earth, once by
flame and once by fire, each because men disobeyed the will
of the Dweller-on-High, Aiomun Kondi; and they also have
a Noachian hero, Marerewana, who saved himself and his
family during the deluge by tying his canoe with a rope of
great length to a large tree. Another Arawak tale begins with
the incident which opens the story of Maconaura. The Sun
built a dam to retain the fish in a certain place; but since,
during his absence, it was broken, so that the fish escaped, he
set the Woodpecker to watch, and, summoned by the bird's
loud tapping, arrived in time to slay the alligator that was de-
stroying his preserves, the reptile's scales being marks made by
the club wielded by the Sun. Another tale, of which there are
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both Arawak and Carib versions, tells how a young man married
a vulture and lived in the sky-land, revisiting his own people
by means of a rope which the spiders spun for him; but as the
vultures would thereafter have nothing to do with him, with
the aid of other birds he made war upon them and burned
their settlement. In this combat the various birds, by injury
or guile, received the marks which they yet bear; the owl
found a package which he greedily kept to himself; opening it,
the darkness came out, and has been his ever since. In the
Surinam version, given by van Q)ll,** the hero of the tale is a
peaiman, Maconaholo, and the story contains some of the
incidents of the Maconaura tale. Two other traditions given
by the same author are of special interest from the comparative
point of view. One is the legend of an anchorite who had a
wonderfully faithful dog. Wandering in the forest, the hermit
discovered a finely cultivated field, with cassava and other food
plants, and thinking, "Who has prepared all this for me?" he
concealed himself in order to discover who might be his bene-
factor, when behold! his faithful dog appeared, transformed
herself into a human being, laid aside her dog's skin, busied
herself with the toil of cultivation, and, the task accomplished,
again resumed her canine form. The native, carefully preparing,
concealed himself anew, and when the dog came once more, he
slyly stole the skin, carried it away in a courovrcourou (a woman's
harvesting basket), and burned it, after which the cultivator,
compelled to retain woman's form, became his faithful wife
and the mother of a large family. It would appear that, from
an aboriginal point of view, both dog and woman are compli-
mented by this tale.
The second tale of special interest is a Surinam equivalent
of the story of Cain and Abel. Of three brothers, Halwanli, the
eldest, was lord of all things inanimate and irrational; Our-
wanama, the second, was a tiller of fields, a brewer of liquors,
and the husband of two wives; Hiwanama, the youngest, was a
huntsman. One day Hiwanama, chancing upon the territory of
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Ourwanama, met one of his brother's wives, who first intoxi-
cated him and then seduced him, while in revenge for this
injury Ourwanama banished his brother, lying to his mother
when she demanded the lost son. Afterward Ourwanama's
wives were transformed, the one into a bird, the other into a
fish; he himself, seized by the sea, was dragged to its depth;
and the desolate mother bemoaned her lost children till finally
Halwanli, going in search of Hiwanama, whom he found among
the serpents and other reptiles of the lower world, brought him
back to become the greatest of peaimen.
V. NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE
A missionary whom Humboldt quotes declares that a native
said to him: ^ *' Your God keeps himself shut up in a house, as
if he were old and infirm; ours is in the forest, in the fields, and
on the mountains of Sipapu, whence the rains come"; and
Humboldt remarks in comment that the Indians conceive with
difficulty the idea of a temple or an image : "on the banks of the
Orinoco there exists no idol, as among all the nations who have
remained faithful to the first worship of nature."
There is an echo of the eighteenth century philosophy of an
idyllic primitive age in this statement, but there is truth in it,
too; for throughout the forest regions of tropical America
idols are of rare occurrence, while shrines, if such they may be
called, are confined to places of natural marvel, the wandering
tribes being true nature worshippers, with eyes ever open for
tokens of mysterious power. Fetishes or talismans are, how-
ever, common; and in this very connexion Humboldt mentions
the botutOy or sacred trumpet, as an object of veneration to
which fruits and intoxicating liquors were offered; sometimes
the Great Spirit himself makes the botuto to resound, and, as
in so many other parts of the world, women are put to death
if they but see this sacrosanct instrument or the ceremonies
of its cult (and here we are in the very presence of Mumbo
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Jumbo!). Certainly the use of the fetish-trumpet was wide-
spread in South America and northward. Garcilasso tells of
the use of dog-headed battle-trumpets by the wild tribes of
Andean regions; while Boddam-Whetham affords us another
indication of the trumpet's significance:^ "Horn-blowing was
a very useful accomplishment of our guide, as it kept us straight
and frightened away the various evil spirits, from a water-
mama to a wood-demon."
This latter author gives a vivid picture of the Orinoco Indian
in the life of nature: "Above all other localities, an Indian is
fond of an open, sandy beach whereon to pass the night. . . .
There in the open, away from the dark, shadowy forest, he feels
secure from the stealthy approach of the dreaded ^kanaima';
. . . the magic rattle of the ^peaiman' • • • has less terror
for him when unaccompanied by the rustling of the waving
branches; and there even the wild hooting of the Midi' (the
^didi' is supposed to be a wild man of the woods, possessed of
immense strength and covered with hair) is bereft of that
intensity with which it pierces the gloomy depths of the sur-
rounding woodland. It is strange that the superstitious fear
of these Indians, who are bred and bom in the forest and hills,
should be chiefly based on natural forms and sounds. Certain
rocks they will never point at with a finger, although your at-
tention may be drawn to them by an inclination of the head.
Some rocks they will not even look at, and others again they
beat with green boughs. Common bird-cries become spirit-
voices. Any place of diflScult access, or little known, is in-
variably tenanted by huge snakes or horrible four-footed
animals. Otters are transformed into mermaids, and water-
tigers inhabit the deep pools and caves of their rivers."
This is the familiar picture of the animist, surrounded by
monster-haunted marches, for which, in the works of many
writers, the Guiana aborigines have afforded the repeated
model. No description of the beliefs of these natives would be
complete without mention of the superstitions and adorations
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associated with Mt. Roraima, by which all travellers seem to be
impressed. Schomburgk *^ says that the native loves Roraima
as the Swiss loves his Alps : "Ail their festal songs have Roraima
for object. . • . Each morning and each evening came old
and young ... to greet us with bakong baimong (*good day')
or saponUng (*good night') • . . adding each time the words,
matti Roraima^taUy RoTaimar4au (* there, see our Roraima !')>
with the word tau very slowly and solemnly drawled"; and
one of their songs, which might be a fragment out of the Greek,
runs:
"Roraima of the red rocks, wrapped in clouds, ever-fertile source
of streams!"
On Roraima, says im Thum, the natives declare there are
huge white jaguars, white eagles, and other such creatures;
and to this class he would add the "didis," half man, half
monkey, who may very likely be a mere personification of the
howling monkeys which, as Humboldt states, the aborigines
so heartily detest. Boddam-Whetham, who ascended the moun-
tain, tells of many superstitions, as of a magic circle which
surrounds it, and of a demon-guarded sanctuary on the sum-
mit: "About half way up we met an unpleasant-looking Indian
who informed us that he was a great *peaiman,' and the spirit
which he possessed ordered us not to go to Roraima. The
mountain, he said, was guarded by an enormous ^camoodi,'
which could entwine a hundred people in its folds. He himself
had once approached its den and seen demons running about
as numerous as quails. . . . Our Indians were rejoiced to see
us back again, as they had not expected that the mountain-
demons would allow us to return."
Like great mountains, the orbs of heaven excite the native's
adoration, though it is by no means necessary, on that account,
to follow certain theorists and to solarize or astralize all his
myths. Fray Ruiz Blanco states that "the supreme gods of
the Indians are the sun and the moon, at eclipses of which they
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make great demonstrations^ sounding warlike instruments and
laying hold of weapons as a sign that they seek to defend them;
they water their maize in order to placate them and in loud
voice tell them that they will amend their ways, labour, and
not be idle; and grasping their tools, they set themselves to
toil at the hour of eclipse." Of similar reference is an observa-
tion of Humboldt's: "Some Indians who were acquainted with
Spanish, assured us that zis signified not only the sun, but also
the Deity. This appeared to me the more extraordinary since
among all other American nations we find distinct words for
God and the sun. The Carib does not confound TamoussicdbOj
*the Ancient of Heaven,' with veyou, *the sun.'" In a similar
connexion he remarks that in American idioms the moon is
often called "the sun of night," or "the sun of sleep"; but that
"our missionary asserted that jama^ in Maco, indicated at
the same time both the Supreme Being and the great orbs of
night and day; while many other American tongues, for in-
stance Tamanac and Caribbee, have distinct words to desig-
nate God, the Moon, and the Sun." It is, of course, quite
possible that such terms as %is and jama belong to the class
of Manito, Wakan, Huaca, and the like.
Humboldt records names for the Southern Cross and the
Belt of Orion, and Brett mentions a constellation called Camudi
from its fancied resemblance to the snake, though he does not
identify it. The Carib, he says, call the Milky Way by two
names, one of which signifies "the path of the tapir," while
the other means "the path of the bearers of white clay" — a
clay from which they make vessels: "The nebulous spots are
supposed to be the track of spirits whose feet are smeared with
that material" — a conceit which surely points to the well-
nigh universal American idea of the Milky Way as the path of
souls. The Carib also have names for Venus and Jupiter; and
the Macusi, im Thum says, regard the dew as the spittle of
stars.
In a picturesque passage Humboldt describes the beliefs
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THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA 279
connected with the Grotto of Caripe, the source of the river
of the same name. The cave is inhabited by nocturnal birds,
guacharos {Steatomis caripensis); and the natives are con-
vinced that the souls of their ancestors sojourn in its deep
recesses. "Man," they say, "should avoid places which are
enlightened neither by the sun nor by the moon"; and they
maintain that poisoners and magicians conjure evil spirits
before the entrance; while "to join the guacharos" is a phrase
equivalent to being gathered to one's fathers in the tomb.
Fray Ruiz records an analogous tenet: "They believe in the
immortality of the soul and that departing from the body,
it goes to another place — some souls to their own lands
{heredades), but the most to a lake that they call Machira,
where great serpents swallow them and carry them to a land of
pleasure in which they entertain themselves with dancing and
feasting." That ghosts of strong men return is an article of
common credence: the soul of Lope de Aguirre, as reported
not only by Humboldt, but by writers of our own day," still
haunts the savannahs in the form of a tongue of flame; and it
may be supposed that the similar idea which Boddam-Whetham
records among the negroes of Martinique with respect to the
soul of Pere Labat may be of American Indian origin. One
striking statement, which Brett quotes from a Mr. M*Clintock,
deserves repetition, as being perhaps as clear a statement as we
have of that ambiguity of life and death, body and soul, from
which the savage mind rarely works itself free: "He says that
the Kapohn or Acawoio races (those who have embraced
Christianity excepted) like to bury their dead in a standing
posture, assigning this reason, — * Although my brother be in
appearance dead, he (i. e. his soul) is still alive.' Therefore, to
maintain by an outward sign this belief in immortality some
of them bury their dead erecty which they say represents life,
whereas lying down represents death. Others bury their dead
in a sitting posture, assigning the same reason." It is unlikely
that the Orinoco Indians have in mind such clear-cut sym-
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holism of their custom as this passage suggests; but it is alto-
gether probable that the true reason for disposing the bodies
of the dead in life-like postures is man's fundamental diflSculty
wholly to dissociate life from the stark and unresponsive body;
and doubtless it is this very attitude of mind which leads them
also to what Fray Ruiz calls the error of ascribing souls to even
irrational beings — the same underlying theory which makes
of primitive men animists, and of philosophers idealists.
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CHAPTER IX
THE TROPICAL FORESTS: THE AMAZON
AND BRAZIL
I. THE AMAZONS!
ON his second voyage Columbus began to hear of an island
inhabited by rich and warlike women, who permitted
occasional visits from men, but endured no permanent residence
of males among them. The valour of Carib women, who fought
resolutely along with their husbands and brothers gave plausi-
bility to this legend; and soon the myth of an island or country
of Amazons became accepted truth, a dogma with wonder-
tellers and a lure to adventurers. At first the fabulous island
seemed near at hand — "Matenino which lies next to His-
panola on the side toward the Indies''; but as island after island
was visited and the fabled women not found, their seat was
pushed further and further on, till it came to be thought of as a
country lying far in the interior of the continent or — for the
notion of its insular nature persisted — as an island somewhere
in the course of the great river of the Amazons. By the middle
of the sixteenth century, explorers from the north, from the
south, from the east, from the west, were all on the lookout for
the kingdom of women and all hearing and repeating tales
about them with such conviction that, as the Padre de Acufia
remarks,* "it is not credible that a lie could have been spread
throughout so many languages, and so many nations, with such
appearance of truth."
In 1540-41 Francisco de Orellana sailed down the Amazon
to the sea, hearing tales of the women warriors, and, as his
cleric companion. Fray Caspar Carvajal, is credited with saying,
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on one occasion encountering some of them; for they fought
with Indians who defended themselves resolutely '^ because
they were tributaries of the Amazons," and he, and other
Spaniards, saw ten or twelve Amazons fighting in front of the
Indians, as if they commanded them • • . "very tall, robust,
fair, with long hair twisted over their heads, skins round their
loins, and bows and arrows in their hands, with which they
killed seven or eight Spaniards." The description, in the cir-
cumstances described, does not inspire unlimited confidence
in the friar's certainty of vision, but there is nothing incredi-
ble even in Indian women leading their husbands in combat.
Pedro de Magelhaes de Gandavo g^ves a very interesting ac-
count • (still sixteenth century) of certain Indian women who,
as he says, take the vow of chastity, facing death rather than
its violation. These women follow no occupation of their sex,
but imitate the ways of men, as if they had ceased to be women,
going to war and to the hunt along with the men. Each of them,
he adds, is served and followed by an Indian woman with whom
she says she is married, and they live together like spouses.
Parallels for this custom, (and for the reverse, in which men
assume the costume, labours, and way of life of women) are to
be found far and wide in America, — indeed, to the Arctic
Zone. Magelhaes de Gandavo is authority, too, for the state-
ment that the coastal tribes of Brazil, like the Carib of the
north, have a dual speech, differing for the two sexes, at least
in some words; but this is no extremely rare phenomenon.
More truly in the mythical vein is the account given in the
tale of the adventures of Ulrich Schmidel. Journeying north-
ward from the city of Asuncion, in a company under the com-
mand of Hernando de Ribera, Schmidel and his companions
heard tales of the Amazons — whose land of gold and silver,
the Indians astutely placed at a two months' journey from their
own land. "The Amazons have only one breast," says Schmidel,
"and they receive visits from men only twice or thrice a year.
If a boy is bom to them, they send him to the father; if a girl,
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 283
they raise her, burning the right breast that it may not grow,
to the end that they may the more readily draw the bow, for
they are very valiant and make war against their enemies.
These women dwell in an isle, which can only be reached by
canoes." In the same credulous vein, but with quaintly
learned embellishments, is Sir Walter Raleigh's account: "I
had knowledge of all the rivers between Orenoque and Ama-
zones, and was very desirous to understand the truth of those
warlike women, because of some it is believed, of others not.
And though I digress from my purpose, yet I will set down
that which hath been delivered me for truth of those women,
and I spake with a cacique or lord of people, that told me he
had been in the river, and beyond it also. The nations of these
women are on the south side of the river in the provinces of
Topago, and their chiefest strengths and retracts are in the
islands situate on the south side of the entrance some sixty
leagues within the mouth of the said river. The memories of
the like women are very ancient as well in Africa as in Asia: In
Africa these had Medusa for queen: others in Scithia near the
rivers of Tanais and Themodon: we find also that Lampedo
and Marethesia were queens of the Amazons : in many histories
they are verified to have been, and in divers ages and provinces :
but they which are not far from Guiana do accompany with
men but once in a year, and for the time of one month, which
I gather by their relation, to be in April: and that time all
kings of the border assemble, and queens of the Amazons; and
after the queens have chosen, the rest cast lots for their Valen-
tines. This one month they feast, dance, and drink of their
wines in abundance; and the moon being done, they all depart
to their own provinces. If they conceive, and be delivered of a
son, they return him to the father; if of a daughter, they nourish
it, and retain it: and as many as have daughters send unto the
begetters a present: all being desirous to increase their sex
and kind: but that they cut off the right dug of the breast,
I do not find to be true. It was farther told me, that if in these
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wars they took any prisoners that they used to accompany
with these also at what time soever, but in the end for certain
they put them to death: for they are said to be very cruel and
bloodthirsty, especially to such as offer to invade their ter-
ritories. These Amazons have likewise great store of these
plates of gold which they recover by exchange^ chiefly for a
kind of green stones, which the Spaniards call Piedras hijadas,
and we use for spleen stones: and for the disease of the stone we
also esteem them. Of these I saw divers in Guiana: and com-
monly every king or cacique hath one, which their wives for
the most part wear; and they esteem them as great jewels."
The Amazon stone, or piedra de la hijadaj came to be im-
mensely valued in Europe for wonderful medicinal effects, —
a veritable panacea. Such stones were found treasured by the
tribes of northern and north-central South America, passing
by barter from people to people. "The form given to them most
frequently," wrote Humboldt,* "is that of the Babylonian
cylinders, longitudinally perforated, and loaded with inscrip-
tions and figures. But this is not the work of the Indians of
our day. . . . The Amazon stones, like the perforated and
sculptured emeralds, found in the Cordilleras of New Grenada
and Quito, are vestiges of anterior civilization." Later writers
and investigators have identified the Amazon stones as green
jade, probably the chalchihuitl which formed the esteemed
jewel of the Aztecs; and it has been supposed that the centre
from which spread the veneration for greenish and bluish stones
— chiefly jade and turquoise — was somewhere in Mayan or
Nahuatlan territory. Certainly it was widespread, extending
from the Pueblos of New Mexico to the land of the Incas, and
eastward into Brazil and the Antilles. That the South American
tribes should have ascribed the origin of these treasures (at any
rate, when questioned) to the Amazons, the treasure women,
is altogether plausible. Nearly a century and a half after
Raleigh's day, de la Condamine found the green jade stones
still employed by the Indians to cure colic and epilepsy, —
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 285
heirlooms, they said, from their fathers who had received them
from the husbandless women. That the Indians themselves have
names for the Amazons is not strange — names with such mean-
ings as the Women-Living-Alone, the Husbandless-Women,
the Masterful-Women, — for the Europeans have been in-
quiring about such women ever since their coming; it is, how-
ever, worthy of note that Orellana, to whom is credited the
first use of "Amazon" as a name for the great river, also heard
a native name for the fabulous women; for Aparia, a native
chief, after listening to Orellana^s discourse on the law of God
and the grandeur of the Castillean monarch, asked, as it were
in rebuttal, whether Orellana had seen the Amazons, "whom
in his language they call Coniapuyara, meaning Great Lord."
Modem investigators ascribe the myth of the Amazons,
undeniably widespread at an early date, to various causes.
The warlike character of many Indian women, already ob-
served in the first encounters with Carib tribes by Columbus,
is still attested by Spruce (1855): "I have myself seen that
Indian women can fight . . . the women pile up heaps of
stones to serve as missiles for the men. If, as sometimes hap-
pens, the men are driven back to and beyond their piles of
stones, the women defend the latter obstinately, and generally
hold them until the men are able to rally to the combat."
Another factor in the myth is supposed to have been rumours
of the golden splendour of the Incaic empire, with perhaps
vague tales of the Vestals of the Sun; and still another is the
occurrence of anomalous social and sexual relationships of
women, easily exaggerated in passing from tribe to tribe.
A special group of myths of the latter type is of pertinent
interest. Ramon Pane and Peter Martyr give an example in
the tale of Guagugiana enticing the women away to Matenino.
A somewhat similar story is reported by Barboza Rodriguez
from the Rio Jamunda: the women, led away by an elder or
chief, were accustomed to destroy their male children; but one
mother spared her boy, casting him into the water where he
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lived as a fish by day, returning to visit her at night in human
form; and the other women, discovering this, seduced the youth,
who was finally disposed of by the jealous old nuin, whereupon
the angry women fled, leaving the chief womanless. A like
story is reported by Ehrenreich from Amazonas: The women
gather beside the waters, where they make familiar with a
water-monster, crocodilean in form, which is slain by the
jealous men; then, the women rise in revolt, slay the men
through deceit, and fare away on the stream. From Guiana
Brett reports a myth on the same theme, the lover being,
however, in jaguar form. Very likely the story of Maconaura
and Anuanaitu belongs to the same cycle; and it is of more
than passing interest to observe that the story extends, along
with the veneration of green and blue stones, to the Navaho
and Pueblo tribes of North America, in the cosmogonies of
which appears the tale of the revolt of the women, their un-
natural relations with a water-monster, and their eventual
return to the men.*
Possibly the whole mythic cycle is associated with fertil-
ity ideas. Even in the arid Pueblo regions it is water from be-
low, welling up from Mother Earth, that appears in the mjrth,
and a water-dwelling being that is the agent of seduction.
In South America and the Antilles, where fish-food is important
and where the fish and the tortoise are recurring symbols of
fertility, it is natural to find the fabled women in this associa-
tion. And in this connexion it may be well to recall the dis-
coveries of L. Netto on the island of Marajo, at the mouth of the
Amazon.* There he found two mounds, a greater and a smaller,
in such proportion that he regarded them as forming the image
of a tortoise. Within the greater, which he regarded as the seat
of a chieftain's or chieftainess's residence, — commanding the
country in every direction, — he discovered funeral urns and
other objects of a quality far superior to those known to tribes
of the neighbouring districts, — urns, hominiform in character,
many of them highly decorated, and very many of the finest
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PLATE XL
Vase from the Island of Marajo, with character*
istic decoration. The funeral vases and other re-
mains from this region have suggested to L. Netto
that here was the fabled Isle of the Amazons (see
pages 286-87). The vase pictured is in the American
Museum of Natural History.
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acter-
!^r^
S'ctto
riofl
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 287
holding the bones of women. "If the tradition of a veritable
Amazonian Gyneocraty has ever had any raison d^eirey'^ said
Netto, "certainly we see something enough like it in this
nation of women ceramists, probably both powerful and nu-
merous, and among whom the women-chiefs enjoyed the
highest honours of the country."
11. FOOD-MAKERS AND DANCE-MASKS
"The rites of these infidels are almost the same," says the
Padre de Acuna.^ "They worship idols which they make with
their own hands; attributing power over the waters to some,
and, therefore, place a fish in their hands for distinction; others
they choose as lords of the harvests; and others as gods of their
battles. They say that these gods came down from Heaven
to be their companions, and to do them good. They do not
use any ceremony in worshipping them, and often leave them
forgotten in a comer, until the time when they become neces-
sary; thus, when they are going to war, they carry an idol in
the bows of their canoes, in which they place their hopes of
victory; and when they go out fishing, they take the idol
which is charged with dominion over the waters; but they do
not trust in the one or the other so much as not to recognize
another mightier God."
This seventeenth century description is on the whole true to
the results obtained by later observers of the rites and beliefs of
the Amazonian Indians. To be sure, a certain amount of inter-
pretation is desirable: the idolos of Acuna are hardly idols in the
classical sense; rather they are in the nature of charms, fetishes,
ritual paraphernalia, trophies, — all that goes under the name
"medicine," as applied to Indian custom. And it is true, too,
that in so vast a territory, and among peoples who, although
all savages, differ widely in habit of life, there are indefinite
variations both in custom and mental attitude. Some tribes
are but hunters, fishers, and root-gatherers; others practice
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288 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY.
agriculture also. Some are clothed; many are naked. Some
practice cannibalism; others abhor the eaters of human flesh.
Any student of the miscellaneous observations on the beliefs
of the South American wild tribes, noted down by missionaries,
ofiicials, naturalists, adventurers, professional ethnologists,
will at first surely feel himself lost in a chaos of contradiction.
Nevertheless, granted a decent detachment and cool perspec-
tive, eventually he will be led to the opinion that these con-
tradictions are not all due to the Indian; the prepossessions
and understandings of the observers is no small factor; and
even where the variation is aboriginal, it is likely to be in the
local colour rather than in the underlying fact. In this broad
sense Acuna*s free characterization hits the essential features
of Indian belief, in the tropical forests.
More than one later writer is in accord with the implicit em-
phasis which the Padre de Acuiia places upon the importance of
the food-giving animals and plants in Indian lore and rite. Of
these food sources in many parts of South America the abun-
dant fish and other fluvial life is primary. Hugo Kunike has,
indeed, argued that the fish is the great symbol of fertility
among the wild forest tribes, supporting the contention with
analysis of the dances and songs, fishing customs, ornamenta-
tion-motives, and myths of these tribes.® Certainly he has
shown that the fish plays an outstanding role in the imaginative
as well as in the economic life of the Indian, appearing, in one
group of myths, even as a culture hero and the giver of tobacco.
Even more than the fish, the turtle ("the beef of the Amazon")*
which is a symbol of generation in many parts of America, ap-
pears in Amazonian myth, where in versions of the Hare and
the Tortoise (here the Deer replaces the Hare), of the contest
of the Giant and the Whale pulling contrari-wise, and in simi-
lar fables the turtle appears as the Trickster. So, also, the frog,
which appears in magical and cosmogonical roles^ — as in the
Canopus myth narrated by Teschauer, where a man married a
frog, and, becoming angered, cut off her leg and cast it into
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 289
the river, where the leg became the fish surubim {Pimelodes
tigrinus)^ while the body rose to heaven to appear in the con-
stellation. The like tale is told by other tribes with respect to
Serpens and to the Southern Cross.
But important as water-life is to the Amazonian, it would ap-
pear from Pere Tastevin's rebuttal of Kunike's contention that
the Indian does not regard the fish with any speaking venera-
tion. The truth would seem to be that in South America, as in
North, it is the Elders of the Kinds, the ancestral guardians
and perpetuators of the various species, both of plants and
animals, that are appealed to, — dimly and magically by the
tribes lower in intelligence, with conscious ritual by the others.
Garcilasso de la Vegans description of the religions of the more
primitive stratum of Peruvian times and peoples applies equally
to the whole of America: "They venerated divers animals,
some for their cruelty, as the tiger, the lion, the bear; . . .
others for their craft, as the monkeys and the fox; others for
fidelity, as the dog; for quickness, as the lynx; . • . eagles and
hawks for their power to fly and supply themselves with game;
the owl for its power to see in the dark. . . . They adored
the earth, as giving them its fruits; the air, for the breath of
life; the fire which warmed them and enabled them to eat
properly; the llama which supplied troops of food animals; . . .
the maize which gave them bread, and the other fruits of their
country. Those dwelling on the coast had many divinities, but
regarded the sea as the most potent of all, calling it their
mother, because of the fish which it furnished with which they
nourished their lives. All these, in general, venerated the whale
because of its hugeness; but beside this, commonly in each
province they devoted a particular cult to the fish which they
took in greatest abundance, telling a pleasant tale to the eflFect
that the First of all the Fish dwells in the sky, engendering
all of its species, and taking care, each season, to send them a
suflSciency of its kind for their good." Pere Tastevin bears wit-
ness to the same belief today: "To be successful in fishing, it is
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290 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
not to the fish that the Indian addresses himself, but to the
mother of the animal he would take. If he goes to fish the turtle,
he must first strike the prow of his canoe with the leaf of a small
caladium which is called yurard lay a, caladium of the turtle; he
will strike in the same fashion the end of his turtle harpoon and
the point of his arrow, and often he will cany the plant in his
canoe. But let him beware lest he take the first turtle! She is
the grandmother of the others; she is of a size which confounds
the imagination, and she will drag down with her the imprudent
fisherman to the bottom of the waters, where she will give him a
fever without recovery. But if he respect her, he will be suc-
cessful in his fishing for the rest of the day."
Universal among the tropical wild tribes is the love of dancing.
In many of the tribes the dances are mask dances, the masks
representing animals of all kinds; and the masks are frequently
regarded as sacrCy and are tabu to the women. In other cases,
it is just the imitative powers of the child of nature that are
called upon, and authorities agree that the Indian can and
does imitate every kind of bird, beast, and fish with a bodily
and vocal verisimilitude that gives to these dances, where
many participate, the proper quality of a pandemonium.
Authorities disagree as to the intent of the dancing; it is obvious
to all that they are occasions of hilarity and fun; it is evident
again that they lead to excitement, and especially when ac-
companied by the characteristic potations of native liquors, to
warlike, sexual, or imaginative enthusiasm. Whether there is
conscious magic underlying them (as cannot be doubted in the
case of the similar dances of North America) is a matter of
diflFerence of opinion, and may well be a matter of diflFering
fact, — the less intellectual tribes following blindly that in-
stinct for rhythm and imitation which, says Aristotle, is native
to all men, while with the others the dance has become con-
sciously ritualized. Cook says • of the Bororo bakororo — a
medley of hoots, squeaks, snorts, chirps, growls, and hisses,
accompanied with appropriate actions, — that it "is always
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 291
sung on the vesper of a hunting expedition, and seems to be in
honor of the animal the savages intend to hunt the following
day. . • • After the singing of the bakororo that I witnessed,
all the savages went outside the great hut, where they cleared
a space of black ground, then formed animals in relief with
ashes, especially the figure of the tapir, which they purposed to
hunt the next day." This looks like magic, ^— though, to be
sure, one need not press the similia similibus doctrine too far:
human beings are gifted with imagination and the power of
expressing it, and it is perhaps enough to assume that imitative
and mask dances, images like to those described, or like the
bark-cut figures and other animal signs described by von den
Steinen among the Bakairi and other tribes, are all but the
natural exteriorization of fantasy, perhaps vaguely, perhaps
vividly, coloured with anticipations of the fruits of the chase.
If anything, there seems to be a clearer magical association
In rites and games connected with plants than with those that
mimic animals. Especially is this true of the manioc, or cassava,
which is important not only as a food-giving plant, but as the
source of a liquor, and, again, is dangerous for its poison, —
which, as Teschauer remarks, must have caused the death of
many during the long period in which the use of the plant was
developed. Pere Tastevin describes men and women gathering
about a trough filled with manioc roots, each with a grater,
and as they grate rapidly and altogether, a woman strikes up
the song: "A spider has bitten me! A spider has bitten me!
From under the leaf of the kard a spider has bitten me!*' The
one opposite answers: "A spider has bitten me! Bring the
cure! Quick, make haste! A spider has bitten me!*' And all
break in with Yandu se suUy by which is understood nothing
more than just the rhythmic tom-tom on the grater. Similar
is the song of the sudor ari — a plant whose root resembles
the manioc, which multiplies with wonderful rapidity, and
the presence of which in a manioc field is regarded as insuring
large manioc roots : "Permit, O patroness, that we sing during
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292 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
this beautiful night!" with the refrain, ''Sudararir This,
says Pere Tastevin, is the true symbol of the fertility of fields,
shared in a lesser way by certain other roots.
It is small wonder that the spirit or genius of the manioc fig-
ures in mjrth, nor is it surprising to find that the predominant
myth is based on the motive of the North American Mondamin
story. WhifFen remarks, of the north-western Amazonians:^®
"What I cannot but consider the most important of their
stories are the many myths that deal with the essential
and now familiar details of everyday life in connexion with the
manihot utilissima and other fruits"; and he goes on to tell a
typical story: The Good Spirit came to earth, showed the
manioc to the Indians, and taught them to extract its evils;
but he failed to teach them how the plant might be reproduced.
Long afterward a virgin of the tribe, wandering in the woods,
was seduced by a beautiful young hunter, who was none other
than the manioc metamorphosed. A daughter bom of this
union led the tribe to a fine plantation of manioc, and taught
them how to reproduce it from bits of the stalk. Since then the
people have had bread. The more elaborate version of Couto
de MagalhSes tells howachief whowas about to kill his daughter
when he found her to be with child, was warned in a dream by
a white man not to do so, for his daughter was truly innocent
and a virgin. A beautiful white boy was bom to the maiden,
and received the name Mani; but at the end of a year, with no
apparent sign of ailing, he died. A strange plant grew upon his
grave, whose fruit intoxicated the birds; the Indians then
open^ed the grave, and in place of the body of Mani discovered
the manioc root, which is thence called Mani-oka^ "House of
Mani." Teschauer gives another version in which Mani lived
many years and taught his people many things, and at the last,
when about to die told them that after his death they should
find, when a year had passed, the greatest treasure of all, the
bread-yielding root.
It is probable that some form of the Mani myth first sug-
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 293
gested to pious missionaries the extension of the legendary
journeys of Saint Thomas among the wild tribes of the tropics.
From Brazil to Peru, says Granada,^^ footprints and seats of
Santo Tomds Apostoly or Santo Tome, are shown; and he associ-
ates these tales with the dissemination and cultivation of the
all-useful herb, as probably formed by a Christianizing of the
older culture myth. Three gifts are ascribed to the apostle, —
the treasure of the faith, the cultivation of the manioc, and re-
lief from epidemics. "Keep this in your houses," quoth the
saint, "and the divine mercy will never withhold the good."
The three gifts — a faith, a food, and a medicine, — are the
almost universal donations of Indian culture heroes, and it is
small wonder if minds piously inclined have found here a
meeting-ground of religions. An interesting suggestion made by
Sefior Lafone Quevado would make Tupan, Tupa, Tumpa, —
the widespread Brazilian name for god, — if not a derivative, at
least a cognate form of Tonapa, the culture hero of the Lake
Titicaca region, who was certainly identified as Saint Thomas
by missionaries and Christian Indians at a very early date. That
the myth itself is aboriginal there can be no manner of doubt, —
Bochica and Quetzalcoatl are northern forms of it; nor need
we doubt that Tupa or Tonapa is a native high deity — in all
probability celestial or solar, as Lafone Quevado believes.
The union of native god and Christian apostle is but the pretty
marriage of Indian and missionary faiths.
One of the most poetical of Brazilian vegetation myths is
told by Koch-Griinberg in connexion with the Yurupari festi-
val,— a mask dance (ywrttpari means just "mask" according
to Pere Tastevin, although some have given it the signifi-
cance of "demon") celebrated in conjunction with the ripening
of fruits of certain palms. Women and small boys are excluded
from the fete; indeed, it is death for women even to see the
flutes and pipes, — as Humboldt said was true of the sacred
trumpet of the Orinoco Indians in his day. The legend turns
on the music of the pipes, and is truly Orphic in spirit. . . .
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294 LATDsf-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Many, many years ago there came from the great Water-
House, the home of the Sun, a little boy who sang with such
wondrous charm that folk came from far and near to see him
and harken. Milomaki, he was called, the Son of Milo. But
when the folk had heard him, and were returned home, and ate
of fish, they fell down and died. So their kinsfolk seized
Milomaki, and built a funeral pyre, and burnt him, because he
had brought death amongst them. But the youth went to his
death still with song on his lips, and as the flames licked about
his body, he sang: "Now I die, my son! now I leave this
world!" And as his body began to break with the heat, still he
sang in lordly tones: "Now bursts my body! now I am dead!"
And his body was destroyed by the flames, but his soul as-
cended to heaven. From the ashes on the same day sprang a
long green blade, which grew and grew, and even in another
day had become a high tree, the first paxiuba palm. From its
wood the people made great flutes, which gave forth as won-
derful melodies as Milomaki had aforetime sung; and to this
day the men blow upon them whenever the fruits are ripe. But
women and little boys must not look upon the flutes, lest
they die. This Milomaki, say the Yahuna, is the Tupana of
the Indians, the Spirit Above, whose mask is the sky.
The region about the headwaters of the Rio Negro and the
Yapura — the scene of Koch-Grunberg's travels — is the
centre of the highest development of the mask dances, which
seem to be recent enough with some of the tribes. In the
legends of the Kabeua it is Kuai, the mythic hero and fertility
spirit of the Arawak tribes, who is regarded as the introducer
of the mask dances, — Kuai, who came with his brethren from
their stone-houses in the hills to teach the dances to his chil-
dren, and who now lives and dances in the sky-world. This is
a myth which immediately suggests the similar tales of Zuni
and the other Pueblos, and the analogy suggested is more than
borne out by what Koch-Griinberg " tells of the Katcina-like
character of the masks. They all represent spirits or daemones.
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PLATE XLI
Dance or ceremonial masks of Brazilian Indians,
now in the Peabody Museum.
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TEIE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 295
They are used in ceremonies in honour of the ancestral dead,
as well as in rituals addressed to nature powers. Furthermore,
the spirit or daemon is temporarily embodied in the mask, —
**the mask is for the Indian the daemon"; though, when the
mask is destroyed at the end of a ceremonial, the Daemon of
the Mask does not perish; rather he becomes maskarar-anga^ the
Soul of tlie Mask; and, now invisible, though still powerful, he
flies away to the Stone-house of the Daemones, whence only
the art of the magician may summon him. "All masks are
Daemones," said Koch-Grunberg's informant, "and all Dae-
mones are lords of the mask."
III. GODS, GHOSTS, AND BOGEYS
What are the native beliefs of the wild tribes of South
America about gods, and what is their natural religion.? If an
answer to this question may be fairly summarized from the
expressions of observers, early and recent, it is this: The In-
dians generally believe in good powers and in evil powers, super-
human in character. The good powers are fewer and less active
than the evil; at their head is the Ancient of Heaven. Little
attention is paid to the Ancient of Heaven, or to any of the
good powers, — they are good, and do not need attention. The
evil powers are numerous and busy; the wise man must be ever
on the alert to evade them, — turn them when he can, placate
when he must.
Cardim is an early witness as to the beliefs of the Brazilian
Indians.^' "They are greatly afraid of the Devil, whom they
call Curupira, Taguain, Pigtangua, Machchera, Anhanga: and
their fear of him is so great, that only with the imagination of
him they die, as many times already it hath happened." . . .
^*They have no proper name to express God, but they say the
Tupan is the thunder and lightning, and that this is he that
gave them the mattocks and the food, and because they have
no other name more natural and proper, they call God Tupan."
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296 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Thevet says that "Toupan" is a name for the thunder or for
the Great Spirit. Keane says of the Botocudo, perhaps the low-
est of the Brazilian tribes: "The terms Yanchang, Tapan, etc.,
said to mean God, stand merely for spirit, demon, thunder, or
at the most the thunder-god." Of these same people Ehren-
reich reports: "The conception of God is wanting; they have no
word for it. The word Tupan, appearing in some vocabularies,
is the well-known Tupi-Guaranian word, spread by missionaries
far over South America. The Botocudo understand by it, not
God, but the Christian priest himself!" Neither have they a
word for an evil principle; but they have a term for those souls
of the departed which, wandering among men at night, can do
them every imaginable ill, and "this raw animism is the only
trace of religion — if one can so call it — as yet observed
among them." Hans Staden's account of the religion of the
Tupinambi, among whom he fell captive, drops the scale even
lower: their god, he says, was a calabash rattle, called tarn-
marakay with which they danced; each man had his own, but
once a year the paygisy or "prophets," pretended that a spirit
come from a far country had endowed them with the power of
conversing with all Tammarakas, and they would interpret
what these said. Women as well as men could become paygis,
through the usual Indian road to such endowment, the trance.
Similar in tenor is a recent account of the religion of the
Bororo.** The principal element in it is the fear of evil spirits,
especially the spirits of the dead. Bope and Mareba are
the chief spirits recognized. "The missionaries spoke of the
Bororos believing in a good spirit (Mareba) who lives in the
fourth heaven, and who has a filha Mareba (son), who lives in
the first heaven, but it is apparent that the priest merely
heard the somewhat disfigured doctrines that had been learned
from some missionary" . . . But why, asks the reader, should
this conception come from the missionary rather than the
Bororo in South America, when its North American parallel
comes from the Chippewa rather than from the missionary?
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TEIE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 297
... "In reality Bope is nothing else than the Digichibi of the
Camacoco, Nenigo of the Kadioeo men, or Idmibi of the
Kadioeo women, the Ichaumra or Ighamba of the Matsl-
kui, i. e., the human soul, which is regarded as a bad spirit.
. . . The Bororo often make images of animals and Bope
out of wax. After they have been made they are beaten and
destroyed."
Of the Camacan, a people of the southern part of Bahia, the
Abbe Ignace says that while they recognize a supreme being,
Gueggiahora, who dwells, invisible, above the stars which he
governs, yet they give him no veneration, reserving their
prayers for the crowd of spirits and bogeys — ghosts of the
dead, thunderers and storm-makers, were-beasts, and the
like, — that inhabit their immediate environment, forming,
as it were, earth's atmosphere. The Chorotes, too, believe in
good and in bad spirits, paying their respects to the latter;
while their neighbours, the Chiriguano, hold that the soul,
after death, goes to the kingdom of the Great Spirit, Tumpa,
where for a time he enjoys the pleasures of earth in a magnified
degree; but this state cannot last, and in a series of degenera-
tions the spirit returns to earth as a fox, as a rat, as a branch
of a tree, finally to fall into dissolution with the tree's decay.
Tumpa is,>ccording to Pierini, the same as Tupa, the benefi-
cent supreme spirit being known by these names among the
Guarayo, although in their myths the principal personages are
the hero brothers, Abaangui and Zaguaguayu, lords of the east
and the west, and two other personages, Mbiracucha (perhaps
the same as the Peruvian Viracocha) and Candir, the last two,
like Abaangui, being shapers of lands and fathers of men.
D'Orbigny ^ describes a ritual dance of the Guarayo, men
and women together, in which hymns were addressed to
Tamoi, the Grandfather or Ancient of the Skies, who is called
upon to descend and listen. "These hymns," he says, "are full
of naive figures and similitudes. They are accompanied by
sounding reeds, for the reason that Tamoi ascended toward the
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298 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
east from the top of a bamboo, while spirits struck the earth
with its reeds. Moreover, the bamboo being one of the chief
benefactions of Tamoi, they consider it as the intermediary
between them and the divinity." Tamoi is besought in times of
seeding, that he may send rain to revive the thirsting earth; his
temple is a simple octagonal hut in the forest. "I have heard
them ask of nature, in a most figurative and poetic style, that it
clothe itself in magnificent vestments; of the flowers, that they
bloomy of the birds, that they take on their richest plumage
and resume their joyous song; of the trees, that they bedeck
themselves with verdure; all to the end that these might join
with them in calling upon Tamoi, whom they never implored
in vain."
In another connexion d'Orbigny says: "The Guarani, from
the Rio de la Plata to the Antilles and from the coasts of Brazil
to the Bolivian Andes, revere, without fearing him, a benefi-
cent being, their first father, Tamoi, or the Ancient of the
Skies, who once dwelt among them, taught them agriculture,
and afterwards disappeared toward the East, from whence he
still protects them." Doubtiess, this is too broad a generaliza-
tion, and d'Orbigny's own reports contain numerous references
to tribes who fear the evil rather than adore the good in nature.
Nevertheless, there is not wanting evidence looking in the
other direction. One of the most recent of observers, Thomas
Whiffen, says of the northwest Brazilian tribes:" "On the
whole their religion is a theism, inasmuch as their God has a
vague, personal, anthropomorphic existence. His habitat is
above the skies, the blue dome of heaven, which they look
upon as the roof of the world that descends on all sides in con-
tact with the earth. Yet again it is pantheism, this God being
represented in all beneficent nature; for every good thing is
imbued with his spirit, or with individual spirits subject to
him."
According to Whiffen's account the Boro Good Spirit, Neva
(in the same tribe Navena is the representative of all evil).
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 299
once came to earth, assuming human guise. The savannahs
and other natural open places, where the sun shines freely and
the sky is open above, are the spots where he spoke to men.
But a certain Indian vexed Neva, the Good Spirit, so that he
went again to live on the roof of the world; but before he went,
he whispered to the tigers, which up to that time had hunted
with men as with brothers, to kill the Indians and their
brethren.
It is easy to see, from such a myth as this, how thin is the
line that separates good and evil in the Indian's conception, —
indeed, how hazy is his idea of virtue. Probably the main truth
is that the Amazonian and other wild tribes generally believe in
a Tupan or Tamoi, who is on the whole beneficent, is mainly
remote and Indifferent to mankind, and who, when he does
reveal himself, is most likely to assume the form of (to borrow
Whiffen's phrase) " a tempestipresent deity." "Although with-
out temples, altars or idols," says Church, of the tribes of the
Gran Chaco, "they recognize superior powers, one of whom is
supreme and thunders from the sierras and sends the rain."
Olympian Zeus himself is the Thunderer; in Scandinavia Tiu
grows remote, and Thor with his levin is magnified. Similarly,
in North America, the Thunderbirds loom huger in men's ima-
gination than does Father Sky. On the whole for the South
American tribes, the judgement of Couto de Magalhaes seems
sane; that the aboriginals of Brazil possessed no idea of a single
and powerful God, at the time of the discovery, and indeed
that their languages were incapable of expressing the idea; but
that they did recognize a being superior to the others, whose
name was Tupan. Observers from Acuiia to Whiffen have
noted individual sceptics among the Indians; certain tribes
even (though the information is most likely from individuals)
are said to believe in no gods and no spirits; and in some
tribes the beliefs are obviously more inchoate than in others.
But in the large, the South Americans are at one with all man-
kind in their belief in a Spirit of Good, whose abode is the
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300 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Above, and in their further belief in multitudes of dangerous
spirit neighbours sharing with them the Here.
IV. IMPS, WERE-BEASTS, AND CANNIBALS
It would be a mistake to assume that all of these dangerous
neighbours are invariably evil, just as it is erroneous to expect
even the Ancient of the Skies to be invariably beneficent. In
Cardim's list of the Brazilian names of the Devil he places first
the Curupira.^^ But Curupira, or Korupira (as Teschauer
spells it), is nearer to the god Pan than to Satan. Korupira is a
daemon of the woods, guardian of all wild things, mischievous
and teasing even to the point of malice and harm at times, but
a giver of much good to those who approach him properly:
he knows the forest's secrets and may be a wonderful helper to
the hunter, and he knows, too, the healing properties of herbs.
Like Pan he is not afoot like a normal man; and some say his
feet turn backward, giving a deceptive trail; some say that
his feet are double; some that he has but one rounded hoof.
He is described as a dwarf, bald and one-eyed, with huge ears,
hairy body, and blue-green teeth, and he rides a deer or a
rabbit or a pig. He insists that game animals be killed, not
merely wounded, and he may be induced to return lost cattle, —
for he is a propitiable sprite, with a fondness for tobacco. A
tale which illustrates his character, both for good and evil, is
of the unlucky hunter, whom, in return for a present of tobacco,
the Korupira helps; but the hunter must not tell his wife, and
when she, suspecting a secret, follows her husband, the Koru-
pira kills her. In another story the hunter, using the familiar
ruse of pretended self-injury by means of which Jack induces
the Giant to stab himself (an incident in which Coyote often
figures in North America), gets the Korupira to slay himself;
after a month he goes back to get the blue teeth of his victim,
but as he strikes them the Korupira comes to life. He gives the
hunter a magic bow, warning him not to use it against birds;
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 301
the injunction is disobeyed, the hunter is torn to pieces by the
angry flocks, but the Korupira replaces the lost flesh with wax
and brings the hunter to life. Again, he warns the hunter not
to eat hot things; the latter disobeys, and forthwith melts
away.
Another "devil" mentioned by Cardim is the Anhanga.
The Anhanga is formless, and lives indeed only in thought,
especially in dreams; in reality, he is the Incubus, the Night-
mare. The Anhanga steals a child from its mother's hammock,
and puts it on the ground beneath. The child cries, " Mother 1
Mother! Beware the Anhanga which lies beneath us!" The
mother strikes, hitting the child; while the laughing Anhanga
departs, calling back, "I have fooled you! I have fooled you!"
In another tale, which recalls to us the tragedy of Pentheus and
Agave, a hunter meets a doe and a fawn in the forest. He wounds
the fawn, which calls to its mother; the mother returns, and
the hunter slays her, only to discover that it is his own mother,
whom the wicked sprite (here the Yurupari) had transformed
into a doe.
But even more to be feared than the daemones are the ghosts
and beast-embodied souls.^® Like most other peoples in a
parallel stage of mental life, the South American Indians very
generally believe in metempsychosis, souls of men returning to
earth in animal and even vegetal forms, and quite consistently
with the malevolent purpose of wreaking vengeance upon
olden foes. The belief has many characteristic modifications:
in some cases the soul does not leave the body until the flesh
is decayed; in many instances it passes for a time to a life of
joy and dancing, a kind of temporary Paradisal limbo; but
always it comes sooner or later back to fulfill its destiny as a
were-beast.^* The South American tiger, or jaguar, is naturally
the form in which the reincarnate foe is most dreaded, and no
mythic conception is wider spread in the continent than is
that of the were-jaguar, lying in wait for his human foe, —
who, if Garcilasso's account of jaguar-worshipping tribes is
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302 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
correct, offered themselves unresistingly when the beast was
encountered.
It is probable that the conception of the were-jaguar, or of
beast reincarnations, is associated in part at least with the
enigmatical question of tropical American cannibalism.^ A
recent traveller, J. D. Haseman, who visited a region of reputed
cannibalism, and found no trace of the practice, is of the opinion
that it has no present existence, if indeed it ever had any. But
against this view is the unanimous testimony of nearly all ob-
servers, with explicit descriptions of the custom, from Hans
Staden and Cardim down to Koch-Grunberg and Whiffen.
Hans Staden, who was held as a slave among the Tupinambi
of the Brazilian coast, describes a visit which he made to his
Indian master for the purpose of begging that certain prisoners
be ransomed. "He had before him a great basket of human
flesh, and was busy gnawing a bone. He put it to my mouth
and asked if I did not wish to eat. I said to him: 'There is
hardly a wild animal that will eat its kind; how then shall I
eat human flesh?* Then he, resuming his meal: *I am a tiger,
and I find it good.*" Cardim's description of cannibal rites
is in many ways reminiscent of the Aztec sacrifice of the de-
voted youth to Tezcatlipoca : the victim is painted and adorned,
is given a wife, and indeed so honoured that he does not even
seek to escape, — "for they say that it is a wretched thing to
die, and lie stinking, and eaten with worms**; throughout, the
ritual element is obvious. On the other hand, the conception of
degradation is clearly a strong factor. Whiffen makes this the
foremost reason for the practice. The Indian, he says, has very
definite notions as to the inferiority of the brute creation. To
resemble animals in any way is regarded as degrading; and this,
he regards as the reason for the widespread South American
custom of removing from the body all hair except from the
scalp, and again for the disgrace attendant upon the birth of
twins. But animals are slaughtered as food for men: what
disgrace, then to the captured enemy comparable with being
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 303
used as food by his captor? Undoubtedly, the vengeful nature
of anthropophagy is a strong factor in maintaining the custom;
from Hans Staden on, writers tell us that while the captive
takes his lot fatalistically his last words are a reminder to his
slayers that his kindred are preparing a like end for them.
Probably the unique and curious South American method of
preparing the heads of slain enemies as trophies, by a process
of removing the bones, shrinking, and decorating, is a practice
with the same end — the degradation of the enemy, — corre-
sponding, of course, to the scalping and head-taking habits of
other American tribes.
It is to be expected that with the custom of anthropophagy
widespread, it should be constantly reflected in myth. A
curious and enlightening instance is in the Bakairi hero-tale
reported by von den Steinen:** A jaguar married a Bakairi
maiden; while he was gone ahunting, his mother, Mero, the
mother of all the tiger kind, killed the maiden, whose twin sons
were saved from her body by a Caesarian section. The girl's
body was then served up to the jaguar husband, without his
knowledge. When he discovered the trick — infuriated at the
trick and at having eaten his wife's flesh, — he was about to
attack Mero: "I am thy mother!*' she cried, and he desisted.
Here we have the whole moral problem of the house of Pelops
primitively adumbrated.
More in the nature of the purely ogreish is the tale related
by Couto de Magalhaes,^ the tale of Ceiuci, the Famished Old
Woman (who he says, is none other than the Pleiades). A
young man sat in a tree-rest, when Ceiuci came to the waters
beneath to fish. She saw the youth's shadow, and cast in her
line. He laughed. She looked up. "Descend," she cried; and
when he refused, she sent biting ants after him, compelling
him to drop into the water. Thence she snared him, and went
home with her game. While she was gone for wood to cook her
take, her daughter looked into the catch, and saw the youth,
at his request concealing him. " Show me my game or I will
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304 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
kill you," commanded the ogress. In company with the youth
the maiden takes flight — the "magic flight,** which figures
in many mjrths, South American and North. As they flee,
they drop palm branches which are transformed into animals,
and these Ceiuci stops to devour. But in time all kinds of
animals have been formed, and the girl can help the youth no
longer. "When you hear a bird singing kan kan, kan kan^
kan kariy^ she says, in leaving him, "my mother is not far."
He goes on till he hears the warning. The monkeys hide him,
and Ceiuci passes. He resumes his journey, and again hears the
warning chant. He begs the serpents to hide him; they do so,
and the ogress passes once more. But the serpents now plan to
devour the youth; he hears them laying their plot and calls
upon the macauhau, a snake-eating bird, to help him; and the
bird eats the serpents. Finally, the youth reaches a river, where
he is aided by the herons to cross. From a tree he beholds a
house, and going thither he finds an old woman complaining
that her maniocs are being stolen by the agouti. The man
tells her his story. He had started out as a youth; he is now old
and white-haired. The woman recognizes him as her son, and
she takes him in to live with her. Couto de Magalhaes sees in
"this tale an image of the journey of life with its perils and its
loves; the love of man for woman is the first solace sought, but
abiding rest is found only in mother love. At least the story
will bear this interpretation; nor will it be alone as a South
American tale in which the moral meaning is conscious.
V. SUN, MOON, AND STARS
When the Greeks began to speculate about "the thing the
Sophists call the world," they named it sometimes the Heaven,
Ouranos, sometimes the Realm of Order, Cosmos; and the
two terms seemed to them one in meaning, for the first and
striking evidence of law and order in nature which man discov-
ers is in the regular and recurrent movements of the heavenly
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PLATE XLII
Trophy head prepared by Jivaro Indians, Ecuador,
now in the Peabody Museum. In the preparation
of such trophies the bones are carefully removed,
the head shrunken and dried, and frequently, as
in this example, ornamented with brilliant feathers.
The custom of preparing the heads of slain enemies
or of sacrificial victims as trophies was widespread
in aboriginal America, North and South, the North
American custom of scalping being probably a late
development from this earlier practice. It is pos-
sible that some at least of the masks which appear
upon mythological figures in Nasca and other repre-
sentations are meant to betoken trophy heads.
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 305
bodies. But it takes a knowledge of number and a sense of
time to be able to truly discern this orderliness of the celestial
sequences; and both of these come most naturally to peoples
dwelling in zones wherein the celestial changes are reflected in
seasonal variations of vegetation and animal life. In the well-
nigh seasonless tropics, and among peoples gifted with no
powers of enumeration (for there are many South American
tribes that cannot number the ten digits), it is but natural to
expect that the cycles of the heavens should seem as lawless as
does their own instable environment, and the stars themselves
to be actuated by whims and lusts analogous to their own.
"I wander, always wander; and when I get where I want to be,
I shall not stop, but still go on. . . ."
This Song of the Turtle, of the Paumari tribes, says Steere,^
reflects their own aimless life, wandering from flat to flat of the
ever-shifting river; and it might be taken, too, as the image of
the heavenly motions, as these appear to peoples for whom
there is no art of counting. Some writers, to be sure, have
sought to asterize the greater portion of South American myth,
on the general hypothesis that sun-worship dominates the two
Americas; but this is fancy, with little warrant in the evidence.
Sun, moon, and stars, darkness and day, all find mythic ex-
pression; but there is little trace among the wild tribes of any-
thing approaching ritual devoted to these, or of aught save
mythopoesy in the thought of them.
The most rudimentary level is doubtless represented by the
Botocudo, with whom, says Ehrenreich,** taru signifies either sun
or moon, but principally the shining vault of heaven, whether
illuminated by either of these bodies or by lightning; further,
the same word, in suitable phrase, comes to mean both wind
and weather, and even night. In contrast with this we have
the extraordinary assurance that the highly intelligent Passe
tribe believes (presumably by their own induction) that the
earth moves and the sun is stationary. The intermediate, and
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3o6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
perhaps most truly mythic stage of speculation is represented
in the Bakairi tales told by von den Steinen, in which the sun
is placed in a pot in the moving heaven; every evening, Evaki,
the wife of the bat who is the lord of darkness, claps to the lid,
concealing the sun while the heaven returns to its former posi-
tion. Night and sleep are often personified in South American
stories, — as in the tale of the stork who tried to kill sleep, —
and here Evaki, the mistress of night, is represented as stealing
sleep from the eyes of lizards, and dividing it among all living
beings.
A charming allegory of the Amazon and its seasons is re-
corded by Barboza Rodriguez. Many years ago the Moon
would become the bride of the Sun; but when they thought to
wed, they found that this would destroy the earth: the burning
love of the Sun would consume it, the tears of the Moon would
flood it; and fire and water would mutually destroy each other,
the one extinguished, the other evaporated. Hence, they sep-
arated, going on either side. The Moon wept a day and a night,
so that her tears fell to earth and flowed down to the sea. But
the sea rose up against them, refusing to mingle the Moon's
tears with its waters; and hence it comes that the tears still
flow, half a year outward, half a year inward. Myths of the
Pleiades are known to the Indians throughout Brazil, who re-
gard the first appearance of this constellation in the firmament
as the sign of renewing life, after the dry season, — "Mother of
the Thirsty" is one interpretation of its name. One myth tells
of an earthly hunter who pierced the sky with arrows and
climbed to heaven in quest of his beloved. Being athirst he
asked water of the Pleiades. She gave it him, saying: "Now
thou hast drunk water, thou shalt see whence I come and
whither I go. One month long I disappear and the following
month I shine again to the measure of my appointed time. All
that beholds me is renewed." Teschauer credits many Brazil-
ian Indians with an extensive knowledge of the stars — their
course, ascension, the time of their appearance and disappear-
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 307
ance, and the changes of the year that correspond, but this
seems somewhat exaggerated in view of the limited amount
of the lore cited in its support, — legends of the Pleiades
and Canopus already mentioned, and in addition only Orion,
Venus, and Sirius. Of course the Milky Way is observed, and
as in North America it is regarded as the pathway of souls.
So, in the odd Taulipang legend given by Koch-Griinberg, the
Moon, banished from its house by a magician, reflects : " Shall I
become a tapir, a wild-pig, a beast of the chase, a bird? All
these are eaten! I will ascend to the sky! It is better there
than here; I will go there, from thence to light my brothers
below." So with his two daughters he ascended the skies, and
the first daughter he sent to a heaven above the first heaven,
and the second to a third heaven; but he himself remained in
the first heaven. "I will remain here," he said, "to shine upon
my brothers below. But ye shall illuminate the Way for the
people who die, that the soul shall not remain in darkness!"
On an analogous theme but in a vein that is indeed grim is
the Cherentes star legend reported by de Oliveira.* The sun
is the supreme object of worship in this tribe, while the moon
and the stars, especially the Pleiades, are his cult companions.
In the festival of the dead there is a high pole up which the
souls of the shamans are supposed to climb to hold intercourse
with kinsfolk who are with the heavenly spheres; and it is this
pole and the beliefs which attach to it that is, doubtless, the
subject of the myth. The tale is of a young man who, as he
gazed up at the stars, was attracted by the exceptional beauty
of one of them: "What a pity that I cannot shut you up in
my gourd to admire you to my heart's content!" he cried; and
when sleep came, he dreamed of the star. He awoke suddenly,
amazed to find standing beside him a young girl with shining
eyes: "I am the bright star you wished to keep in your gourd,"
she said ; and at her insistence he put her into the gourd, whence
he could see her beautiful eyes gazing upward. After this the
young man had no rest, for he was filled with apprehension
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because of his supermundane guest; only at night the star would
come from her hiding-place and the young man would feast
his eyes on her beauty. But one day the star asked the young
man to go hunting, and at a palm-tree she required that he
climb and gather for her a cluster of fruit; as he did so, she
leaped upon the tree and struck it with a wand, and immedi-
ately it grew until it touched the sky, whereto she tied it by its
thick leaves and they both jumped into the sky-world. The
youth £ound himself in the midst of a desolate field, and the
star, commanding him not to stir, went in quest of food. Pres-
ently he seemed to hear the sound of festivity, songs and dances,
but the star, returning, bade him above all not to go to see the
dancing. Nevertheless, when she was gone again, the youth
could not repress his curiosity and he went toward the sound.
• . . "What he saw was fearful! It was a new sort of dance of
the dead! A crowd of skeletons whirled around, weird and
shapeless, their putrid flesh hanging from their bones and their
eyes dried up in their sunken orbits. The air was heavy with
their foul odour." The young man ran away in horror. On his
way he met the star who blamed him for his disobedience and
made him take a bath to cleanse him of the pollution. But he
could no longer endure the sky-world, but ran to the spot where
the leaves were tied to the sky and jumped on to the palm-tree,
which immediately began to shrink back toward the earth:
"You run away in vain, you shall soon return," the star called
after him; and so indeed it was, for he had barely time to tell
his kindred of his adventure before he died. And "thus it was
known among the Indians that no heaven of delight awaits
them above, even though the stars shine and charm us."
The uniting of heaven and earth by a tree or rock which
grows from the lower to the upper world is found in many forms,
and is usually associated with cosmogonic mjrths (true crea-
tion stories are not common in Brazil). Such a story is the
Mundurucu tale, reported by Teschauer," which begins with
a chaotic darkness from which came two men, Karusakahiby,
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 309
and his son, Rairu. Rairu stumbled on a bowl-shaped stone;
the father commanded him to carry it; he put it upon his head,
and immediately it began to grow. It grew until it formed the
heavens, wherein the sun appeared and began to shine. Rairu,
recognizing his father as the heaven-maker, knelt before him;
but Karu was angry because the son knew more than did he.
Rairu was compelled to hide in the earth. The father found
him and was about to strike him, but Rairu said: "Strike me
not, for in the hollow of the earth I have found people, who will
come forth and labour for us.^' So the First People were allowed
to issue forth, and were separated into their tribes and kinds
according to colour and beauty. The lazy ones were trans-
formed into birds, bats, pigs, and butterflies, A somewhat
similar Kaduveo genesis, narrated by Fri£, tells how the various
tribes of men were led from the underground world and suc-
cessively assigned their several possessions; last of all came the
Kaduveo, but there were no more possessions to distribute;
accordingly to them was assigned the right to war upon the
other Indians and to steal their lands, wives, and children.
The Mundurucu genesis opens : " In the beginning the world
lay in darkness." In an opposite and indeed very unusual way
begins the cosmogonic myth recorded by Couto de Magalhaes :*^
"In the beginning there was no night; the day was unbroken.
Night slept at the bottom of the waters. There were no animals,
but all things could speak.'' It is said, proceeds the tale, that
at this time the daughter of the Great Serpent married a youth
who had three faithful servants. One day he said to these serv-
ants: "Begone! My wife desires no longer to lie with me."
The servants departed, and the husband called upon his wife
to lie with him. She replied: "It is not yet night." He an-
swered: "There is no night; day is without end." She: "My
father owns the night. If you wish to lie with me, seek it at
the river's source." So he called his three servants, and the
wife dispatched them to secure a nut of the tucuma (a palm of
bright orange colour, important to the Indians as a food and
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3IO LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
industrial plant). When they reached the Great Serpent he
gave them the nut, tightly sealed: "Take it. Depart. But if
you open it, you are lost." They set out in their canoe, but
presently heard from within the nut: " TVn ten teUj ten ten tenJ^
It was the noise of the insects of the night. "What is this
noise? Let us see," said one. The leader answered: "No; we
will be lost. Make haste." But the noise continued and finally
all drew together in the canoe, and with fire melted the sealing
of the fruit. The imprisoned night streamed forth! The leader
cried: "We are lost! Our mistress already knows that we have
freed the night!" At the same time the mistress, in her house,
said to her husband: "They have loosed the night. Let us
await the day." Then all things in the forests metamorphosed
themselves into animals and birds; all things in the waters
became water-fowl and fishes; and even the fisherman in his
canoe was transformed into a duck, his head into the duck's
head, his paddle into its web feet, his boat into its body.
When the daughter of the Great Serpent saw Venus rise, she
said: "The dawn is come. I shall divide day from night."
Then she unravelled a thread, saying: "Thou shalt be cubuju
[a kind of pheasant]; thou shalt sing as dawn breaks." She
whitened its head and reddened its feathers, saying: "Thou
shalt sing always at dawn of day." Then she unravelled another
thread, saying: "Thou shalt be inambu" [a perdrix that sings
at certain hours of the night]; and powdering it with cinders:
"Thou shalt sing at eve, at midnight, and at early morn."
From that time forth the birds sang at the time appropriate to
them, in day or night. But when the three servants returned,
their mistress said to them : " Ye have been unfaithful. Ye have
loosed the night. Ye have caused the loss of all. For this ye
shall become monkeys, and swing among the branches for all
time."
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 311
VI. FIRE, FLOOD, AND TRANSFORMATIONS
Purchases translation of Cardim begins: ** "It seemeth that
this people had no knowledge of the beginning and creation of
the world, but of the deluge it seemeth they have some notice:
but as they have no writings nor characters such notice is ob-
scure and confused; for they say that the waters drowned all
men, and that one only escaped upon a Janipata with a sister
of his that was with child and that from these two they have
their beginning and from thence began their multiplying and
increase/'
This is a fair characterization of the general cosmogonical
ideas of the South American wild tribes. There is seldom any
notion of creation; there is universally, it would seem, some
legend of a cataclysm, or series of them, fire and flood, offering
such general analogies to the Noachian story as naturally to
suggest to men unacquainted with comparative mythology
the inference that the tale of Noah was indeed the source of all.
Following the deluge or conflagration there is a series of inci-
dents which might be regarded as dispersal stories, — tales of
transformations and migrations by means of which the tribes
of animals and men came to assume their present form. Very
generally, too, the Transformer-Heroes are the divine pair,
sometimes father and son, but commonly twin brothers, who
give the animals their lasting forms, instruct men in the arts,
and after Herculean labors depart, the one to become lord of
the east and the day, the other lord of the west and the night,
the one lord of life, the other lord of death and the ghost-
world. It is not unnatural to see in this hero pair the sun and
the moon, as some authorities do, though it would surely be a
mistake to read into the Indian's thought the simple identifi-
cation which such a statement implies: a tale is first of all a
tale, with the primitive man; and if it have an allegorical
meaning this is rarely one which his language can express in
other terms than the tale itself.
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312 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
One of the best known of the South American deluge stories
is the Caingang legend ^* which the native narrator had heard
"from the mother of the mother of his mother, who had heard
it in her day from her ancient progenitors." The story is the
common one of people fleeing before the flood to a hill and cling-
ing to the branches of a tree while they await the subsidence
of the waters, — an incident of a kind which may be common
enough in flood seasons, and which might be taken as a mere
reflection of ordinary experience but for the fact of the series
of transformations which follow the return to dry land; and
these include not only the formation of the animal kinds, but
the gift of song from a singing gourd and a curious process of
divination, taught by the ant-eater, by means of which the sex
of children is foretold.
The flood is only one incident in a much more comprehen-
sive cycle of events, assembled variously by various peoples,
but having such a family likeness that one may without im-
propriety regard the group as the tropical American Genesis.
Of this cycle the fullest versions are those of the Yuracare, as
reported by d'Orbigny, and of the Bakairi, as reported by von
den Steinen.*®
In the Bakairi tale the action begins in the sky-world. A cer-
tain hunter encountered Oka, the jaguar, and agreed to make
wives for Oka if the latter would spare him. He made two
wives out of wood, blowing upon them. One of these wives
swallowed two finger-bones, and became with child. Mero,
the mother of Oka and of the jaguar kind, slew the woman, but
Kuara, the brother of Oka, performed the Caesarian operation
and saved the twins, who were within her body. These twins
were the heroes, Keri and Kame. To avenge their mother
they started a conflagration which destroyed Mero, them-
selves hiding in a burrow in the earth. Kame came forth too
soon and was burned, but Keri blew upon his ashes and restored
him to life. Keri in his turn was burned and restored by Kame.
First, in their resurrected lives did these two assume human
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 313
fbnn. Now begins the cycle of their labours. They stole the sun
and the moon from the red and the white vultures, and gave
order to their way in the heavens, keeping them in pots, cover-
able, when the light of these bodies should be concealed : sun,
moon, and ruddy dawn were all regarded as made of feathers.
Next, heaven and earth, which were as yet close together, were
separated. Keri said to the heavens: "Thou shalt not remain
here. My people are dying. I wish not that my people die."
The heavens answered: "I will remain here!" "We shall ex-
change places," said Keri; whereupon he came to earth and the
sky rose to where it now is. The theft of fire from the fox, who
kept it in his eye; the stealing of water from the Great Serpent,
with the formation of rivers ; the swallowing of Kame by a water
monster, and his revivescence by Keri; the institution of the
arts of house-building, fishery, dancing; and the separation of
human kinds; — all these are incidents leading up to the final
departure of Keri and Kami, who at the last ascend a hill, and
go thence on their separate ways. "Whither are they gone?
Who knows? Our ancestors knew not whither they went. To-
day no one knows where they are."
The Bakairi dwell in the central regions of Brazil; the Yura-
care are across the continent, near the base of the Andes. From
them d'Orbigny obtained a version of the same cosmogony,
but fuller and with more incidents. The world began with
sombre forests, inhabited by the Yuracare. Then came Sara-
ruma and burned the whole country. One man only escaped,
he having constructed an underground refuge. After the con-
flagration he was wandering sadly through the ruined world
when he met Sararuma. "Although I am the cause of this ill,
yet I have pity on you," said the latter, and he gave him a
handful of seeds from whose planting sprang, as by magic, a
magnificent forest. A wife appeared, as it were ex nihtlo, and
bore sons and a daughter to this man. One day the maiden
encountered a beautiful tree with purple flowers, called Ule.
Were it but a man, how she would love it! And she painted
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314 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
and adorned the tree in her devotion, with sighs and hopes, —
hopes that were not in vain, for the tree became a beautiful
youth. Though at first she had to bind him to keep him from
wandering away, the two became happy spouses. But one
day Ule, hunting with his brothers, was slain by a jaguar. His
bride, in her grief like Isis, gathered together the morsels of his
torn body. Again, her love was rewarded and Ule was restored
to life, but as they journeyed he glanced in a pool, saw a dis-
figured face, where a bit of flesh had not been recovered, and
despite the bride's tears took his departure, telling her not to
look behind, no matter what noise she heard. But she was
startled into doing this, became lost, and wandered into a
jaguar's lair. The mother of the jaguars took pity upon her,
but her four sons were for killing her. To test her obedience
they commanded her to eat the poisonous ants that infested
their bodies; she deceived three of them by substituting seeds
for the ants, which she cast to the ground; but the fourth had
eyes in the back of his head, detected the ruse and killed her.
From her body was torn the child which she was carrying. Tin,
who was raised in secret by the jaguar mother.
When Tlri was grown he one day wounded a paca, which
said: "You live in peace with the murderers of your mother,
but me, who have done j^u no harm, you wish to kill.*' Tin
demanded the meaning of this, and the paca told him the tale.
Tiri then lay in wait for the jaguar brothers, slaying the first
three with arrows, but the jaguar with eyes in the back of his
head, climbed into a tree, calling upon the trees, the sun, stars,
and moon to save him. The moon snatched him up, and since
that time he can be seen upon her bosom, while all jaguars love
the night. Tiri, who was the master of all nature, taught culti-
vation to his foster-mother, who now had no sons to hunt
for her. He longed for a companion, and created Cam, to be his
brother, from his own finger-nail; and the two lived in great
amity, performing many deeds. Once, invited to a feast, they
spilled a vase of liquor which flooded the whole earth and
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THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL 315
drowned Cam; but when the waters were subsided, Tiri found
his brother's bones and revived him. The brothers then married
birds, by whom they had children. The son of Cam died and
was buried. Tiri then told Cam at the end of a certain time
to go seek his son, who would be revived, but to be careful not
to eat him. Cam, finding a manioc plant on the grave, ate of it.
Immediately a great noise was heard, and Tiri said: "Cam has
disobeyed and eaten his son; in punishment he and all men shall
be mortal, and subject to all toils and all sufferings."
In following adventures the usual transformations take place,
and mankind, in their tribes, are led forth from a great rock,
Tiri saying to them: "Ye must divide and people all the earth,
and that ye shall do so I create discord and make you enemies
of one another." Thus arose the hostility of tribes. Tiri now
decided to depart, and he sent birds in the several directions to
discover in which the earth extends farthest. Those sent to the
east and the north speedily returned, but the bird sent toward
the setting sun was gone a long time, and when at last it re-
turned it brought with it beautiful feathers. So Tiri departed
into the West, and disappeared.
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CHAPTER X
THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE
I. THE FAR SOUTH*
THE Rio de la Plata is the third of the great river systems
which drain the South American continent. It combines
the waters of the Uruguay, draining the hilly region of southern
Brazil, with those of the Parana, which through its numerous
tributaries taps the heart of the south central portion of the
continent. The Parana and its continuation, the Paraguay,
flowing almost due south from the centre of the continent, form
a kind of axis, dividing the hilly lands on the east from the
great woodland plains known as the Chaco, stretching west-
ward to the Andes, from whose age-worn detritus they were
doubtless formed. The northern boundary of the Chaco is in
the neighbourhood of the Tropic of Capricorn; southward the
plains extend far into Argentina, narrowing with the encroach-
ing mountains, and finally giving way to the grassy pampas,
in the latitude of Buenos Aires. These, in turn, extend south-
ward to the Patagonian plains — geologically one of earth's
youngest regions, — of which the terminus is the mountain
region meeting the southern straits. Parallel with this stretch
of open country, which diminishes in width as the southern
latitudes are approached, is the Andean ridge, almost due
north and south in sense, scarcely varying the width of the
western coastal region which it marks off, but eastward extend-
ing in heavier lines of ridges and broader plateaus as the centre
of the continent is approached. South of latitude 40® the
western coastal region, with the sinking of the Andean range,
merges in a long archipelago leading on to Tierra del Fuego and
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its satellite islands, beyond the Straits of Magellan, — an ar-
chipelago which is the far southern counterpart of that reaching
along North America from Puget Sound to the Aleutian Isles.
The aboriginal peoples of the region thus described fall into
a number of groups of exceptional interest to the ethnologist.
In the Chaco, to the north, are to be found, to this day, tribes
practically untouched by the influence of civilization — tribes
in the state which for untold centuries must have been that
of the peoples of central South America. Some of them show
signs of having been under the influence of the cultured peoples
of the Andean regions, preserving in their fabrics, for example,
figured designs strikingly like those of Incaic Peru, It has even
been suggested that the region is in no small part peopled by
descendants of Indians who in former times fled from the west,
first before the armies of the Incas, later before the advance
of Spanish power.
This constant pressure, which can in a measure be followed in
historic times, has had its effect in pushing southward peoples
whose origin must be sought in the central region. Such a
people are the Abipone — a group of tribes which owe their
especial fame among South American Indians perhaps more
to the fact that. they were so faithfully pictured by Father
Dobrizhoffer, during the period in which they were gathered in
missions, than to their own qualities, striking as these are.
In any case, the Abipone, who in the eighteenth century had
become an equestrian people of the open country, had, ac-
cording to their own tradition, moved southward out of the
forests, bearing with them many of the traits still to be found
among the tribes of the Chaco.
The Calchaqui civilization, of the Andean region just north
of latitude 30® was one of the latest conquests of the Inca
power, and represents its southerly extension. The actual
dividing line, as recorded by Garcilasso, was the river Rapel,
latitude 34**, where, according to the historian, the Inca Tupac
Yupanqui was held in his southward advance by the Arau-
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3i8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
canian (or Aucanian) tribes who formed the population of
Chile and west central Argentina. The Araucanians enjoy the
proud distinction of being to this day an unconquered people;
for they held their own in long and bloody wars with the Span-
iards, as before they had held against the aggressive Incas.
Further, in their general culture, and in intellectual vigor, they
stand at the head of the peoples of southerly South America.
Scarcely less in romantic interest is the group of peoples —
the Puelche and Tehuelche tribal stocks — forming the Pata-
gonian race, whose tall stature, exaggerated in the imagination
of early discoverers, made of them a race of giants. Like the
Pampean tribes they early become horsemen, expert with the
bolas; and with no permanent villages and no agriculture, they
remain equestrian nomads of the southern plains. The Ona
of Tierra del Fuego represent a non-equestrian as they are also
a non-canoe-using branch of the Patagonian race. Altogether
different are the canoe peoples of the southern archipelago,
the Alakaluf and the Yahgan. These have shared with the
Australian Blacks, with the Botocudo, and with one or two
other groups of human beings, the reputation of representing
the lowest grade of human intelligence and attainment. They
were long thought .to be hopelessly imbruted, though this
judgement is being somewhat revised in the face of the achieve-
ments of missionary workers among them. Still there are few
more striking contrasts in the field of ethnology than is that
between the culture of the peoples of the Pacific archipelago
of the northern America, with their elaborate society, art, and
mythology, and the mentally de^cient and culturally destitute
savages of the island region of austral America.
II. EL CHACO AND THE PAMPEANS
In d'Orbigny's classification the Pampean race is divided
into three groups. Of these the most northerly is the Moxean,
comprising tribes about the headwaters of the Madeira. Next
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southward is the Chiquitean branch, with their centre on the
divide between the headwaters of the Madeira and those of the
southward flowing Paraguay and Pilcomayo rivers; hence
marking the division of the Amazonian and La Plata systems.
Still south of these is the main Pampean branch, its northerly
reach being represented by the Toba, Lengua, and other Chaco
stocks; its centre by the Mocobi, Abipone, and the Charrua
of Uruguay (whom other authorities ally with the Brazilian
stocks) ; its southerly division comprising the Puelche and the
Tehuelche, or Patagonians proper. So far as the Pampean
branch is concerned, this grouping corresponds with ideas still
received.
D'Orbigny gives scant materials as to the mythic beliefs of
the Indians of the Pampean tribes, yet some are of more than
ordinary interest. Thus, of the Mataguaya, he says * that they
regard eclipses as due to a great bird, with spread wings, assail-
ing the star eclipsed, — which is in harmony with widespread
South American notions; so, for example, in the Chiquitean
idea, recorded by Father Fernandez, the eclipsed moon is
darkened by its own blood drawn by savage dogs. Still more
interesting is the statement, drawn from Guevara's Historia
del Paraguay, that the Mocobi regard the Southern Cross as
the image of a rhea pursued by dogs. This is the very form in
which the Great Wain is interpreted in North America; as far
as north Greenland it is regarded as a bear or deer pursued by
dogs or by hunters. Fragments of a Mocobi cosmic myth are
also given: The Sun is a man, the Moon is a woman. Once,
long ago, the Sun fell from the sky. The Mocobi raised it and
placed it again in the sky, but it fell a second time and burned
all the forests. The Mocobi saved themselves by changing
themselves into caymans and other amphibians. A man and a
woman climbed a tree to save themselves, a flame singed their
faces, and they were changed into apes. . . . This tale is
obviously related to the hero cycle of which the Bakairi and
Yuracare stories are versions.
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320 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
But among the Indians of this region it is of the Abipone,
neighbours of the Mocobi, that our knowledge is fullest, owing
to the classical narrative of Martin DobrizhofFer • who, in the
eighteenth century, was for eighteen years a Jesuit missionary
in Paraguay. In general Dobrizhoffer's account of the Abipone
corresponds so closely with what is now familiar knowledge
of Indian ideas — animism, shamanism, necromancy, and in
their own region belief in were-jaguars and the like, — that
it is valuable rather for verification than interpretation. In
the field of religion, the Father is' interested in superstitions
rather than in myth, of which he gives little. His comments,
however, have a quality of personality that imparts an entirely
dramatic verve to his narrative of the encounter of the two
minds — Jesuit and savage.
^^Haec est summa delicti^ nolle recognoscere quern ignorare non
possity are the words of TertuUian, in his Apology for the Chris-
tians. Theologians agree in denying that any man in possession
of his reason can, without a crime, remain ignorant of God for
any length of time. This opinion I warmly defended in the
University of Cordoba, where I finished the four years' course
of theology begun at Gratz in Styria. But what was my as-
tonishment, when on removing from thence to a colony of
Abipones, I found that the whole language of these savages does
not contain a single word which expresses God or a divinity.
To instruct them in religion, it was necessary to borrow the
Spanish word for God, and insert into the catechism Dios ecnam
coagarik, God the creator of things." He goes on to tell how,
camped in the open with a party of Indians, the serene sky
delighting the eyes with its twinkling stars, he began a conver-
sation with the Cacique Ychoalay : "Do you behold the splen-
dour of the Heaven, with its magnificent arrangement of stars ?
Who can suppose that all this is produced by chance? . . .Who
can be mad enough to imagine that all these beauties of the
Heavens are the effect of chance, and that the revolutions and
vicissitudes of the celestial bodies are regulated without the
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direction of an omniscient mind? Whom do you believe to be
their creator and governor?" "My father," replied Ychoalay,
"our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were wont to con-
template the earth alone, solicitous only to see whether the
plain afforded grass and water for their horses. They never
troubled themselves about what went on in the Heavens, and
who was the creator and governor of the stars."
Such incomprehension of things theological seemed to the
missionaries to argue a sub-human nature in the Indians, and
Dobrizhoffer, after remarking that Paul III was obliged to
issue a bull in which he pronounced Indians to be really men,
capable of understanding the Catholic faith and of receiving its
sacraments, goes on himself to argue that they are in fact in-
telligent human beings in spite of this incredible density. And
then he continues : " I said that the Abipones were commend-
able for their wit and strength of mind; but ashamed of my
too hasty praise, I retract my words and pronounce them fools,
idiots, and madmen. Lo! this is the proof of their insanity 1
They are unacquainted with God, and with the very name of
God, yet they affectionately salute the evil spirit, whom they
call Jharaigichi, or Queevet^ with the title of grandfather,
Groaperikie. Him they declare to be their grandfather, and
that of the Spaniards, but with this difference, that to the
latter he gives gold and silver and fine clothes, but to them he
transmits valour." Here the lips of the reader begin to flicker
with amusement, — it is easy to see the devil under the mask
of strange gods ! Father Dobrizhoffer continues : "The Abipones
think the Pleiades to be the representation of their grandfather;
and as that constellation disappears at certain periods from the
sky of South America, upon such occasions, they suppose that
their grandfather is sick, and are under a yearly apprehension
that he is going to die: but as soon as those seven stars are
again visible in the month of May, they welcome their grand-
father, as if returned and restored from sickness, with joyful
shouts, and the festive sound of pipes and trumpets, congratu-
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lating him on the recovery of his health. 'What thanks do we
owe thee! and art thou returned at last? Ah! thou hast happily
recovered!* With such exclamations, expressive of their joy
and folly, do they fill the air."
DobrizhoflFer devotes a learned and amusing chapter to "Con-
jectures why the Abipones take the Evil Spirit for their Grand-
father and the Pleiades for the representation of him"; in which,
finding no Scriptural explanation, he concludes that the cult
came ultimately from Peru (the Peruvian's knowledge of God
did not come along with it because "vice is more easily learnt
than virtue"). As a matter of fact the Pleiades cult extends
throughout Brazil, its seasonal reappearance being the occasion,
as Dobrizhoffer narrates, of a great feast of intoxication and
joy, a veritable Dionysia. And it is hardly to be doubted that
the Abipone, as their own traditions indicate, came from the
north, probably from the Chaco. It is to a contemporary mis-
sionary, Barbrooke Grubb, who has spent an even longer time
in the Chaco than did the Jesuit among the Abipone, that we
owe the completer interpretation of the ideas which Dobriz-
hoffer sketched. The Chaco Indians are as near untouched
savages as any people on the globe, so that their beliefs are
essentially uncontaminated.
The mythology of the Chaco tribes, says Grubb,* is founded
on the idea of a Creator, symbolized by the beetle. First, the
material universe was made; then the Beetle-Creator sent
forth from its hole in the earth a race of First Beings, who for a
time ruled all. Afterward the Beetle formed a man and a
woman from the clay which it threw up from its hole, the two
being joined like the Siamese twins. They were persecuted by
the beings who preceded them, whereupon the Beetle separated
them and endowed them with the power of reproduction,
whence the world was peopled and came to its present state.
Whether or no the First Beings, hostile to man, are to be
identified with the Kilyikhama, a class of nature daemones,
Grubb does not make clear. He does, however, describe
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numerous of these daemonic forms, — the white Kilyikhama,
heard whistling in his little craft on the swampy waters; the boy
Kilyikhama with lights on each side of his head, the thieving
Kilyikhama; and most dreaded of all the daemon, immensely
tall and extremely thin, with eyes like balls of fire, whose ap-
pearance presages instant death. In addition to these daemones,
Aphangak, ghosts of men, are intensely feared, and there are
ghosts of animals, too, to be dreaded, — though, curiously,
none of fish or serpents. The Milky Way is supposed to be the
path of the Kilyikhama, some of whom, in the form of large
white birds, are believed there to await their opportunity to
descend into the bodies of men. A very curious burial custom
is also associated with the Galaxy: when a person is laid out
(sometimes even before the dying has breathed his last) an
incision is made in the side of the body and heated stones are
inserted; these stones are supposed to ascend into the Milky
Way whence they await their opportunity to fall upon the
person (wizard or other) who has caused the death. "Conse-
quently the Indians are very frightened when they see a falling
star." Whirlwinds are believed to be the passing of spirits,
and the whole realm of the meteorological is full of portents, —
the rainbow, oddly enough, conceived as a serpentine monster,
being a sign of calamity rather than an arc of hope.
Of the Pleiades Grubb says that they are known by two
names — M6unting-in-the-South and Holders-Together. "Their
rising is connected with the beginning of spring, and feasts
are held at this time, generally of a markedly immoral
character." That they call the constellation Aksak, Grand-
father, is not, in the missionary's opinion, due to the fact that
it is the image or embodiment of the devil (as DobrizhofFer
supposed of the similar Abiponean custom). Aksak is rather a
term applied to any person or thing whose nature is not quite
understood or with whom power and authority rest: "what is
most important of all, they term the creator beetle aksak. *^
Grubb concludes: "In my opinion, the statement of Dobriz-
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324 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
hoflFer that the Abipones looked upon themselves as descend-
ants, or, it may be, the creation of their 'grandfather the devil,*
is nothing more nor less than the widespread tradition that
man was created by the beetle, and, therefore, their originator,
instead of being a devil, was rather a creating god." Perhaps,
after all, Tertullian is right.
The missionary also speaks of "a remarkable theory" held
by the Indians, that among the stars there are countries similar
to their own, with forests and lakes, which he would explain
either as tales of the mirage or as due to "a childlike notion that
the sky is solid." The "childlike notion" is, of course, but
another instance of a conception that prevails among the
native tribes of the two Americas, as far as north Greenland;
and along with this notion is that of an underworld to which
ghosts descend, which he elsewhere mentions as characteristic
of the Chaco, — though his account of their varying ideas as
to the habitations of the dead shows well enough that these
savage theorists are as uncertain in their location of the abode
of shades as was Homer himself.
III. THE ARAUCANIANS
The Araucanian, or Auca, tribes — of which the Mapuche,
Pehuenche, and Huiliche are the more important divisions,
while the southerly Chono and Chiloe are remote branches —
are the aborigines of the southern Andean region, inhabiting
both slopes of the mountains, extending to the sea on the
Pacific side and out into the Patagonian plains on the Atlantic
side. Of all the extreme austral Indians they represent from
pre-Columbian times the highest culture, though it is evident
that the process of acculturation was recent when the whites
first appeared, resulting from contact with Inca and Cai-
chaqui civilizations. The whole group of Araucanians proper
was organized into a confederacy, with four principal divisions,
uniting for common defence, — an organization very similar
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to that of the Iroquois Confederacy in North America, and
equally eflFective; for the Araucanians not only put a stop to
the southerly aggressions of the Incas, but they also successfully
resisted the Spaniards, establishing for themselves a unique
place in the history of American aborigines in contact with the
white race. In manner of life the Araucanians were originally
little if any in advance of their Patagonian neighbours; but as
a result of their contact with the northerly Andean peoples,
their own northern branches had acquired, when the Spaniards
first came, a rudimentary agriculture, the potter's and the
weaver's arts, some skill with gold and silver, and the habit of
domesticating the guanaco, — and this culture was gradually
extending to the south. As a whole, however, Araucanian
culture represents a sharp descent, marked by the boundaries
of the Incaic empire.
The romantic history of the Araucanians, and especially
their heroic wars with the Spaniards, have naturally attracted
to them an unusual measure of historical and anthropological
investigation, so the literature is copious. Molina's History y
written in the middle of the eighteenth century, is the best-
known work in the field, and is, in a sense, the classic exposition
of Araucanian institutions, though both for extent and ac-
curacy it has been superseded by later works, pre-eminently
those of Jose Medina and Tomas Guevara.* The first volume
of the latter's great Historia de la Civilizacion de Araucania is
devoted to "Antropolojia Araucana," and in it is given a
summary of the native pantheon.
First of the gods is Pillan, often regarded as the Araucanian
equivalent of the Tupan of the forest regions of Brazil, god of
thunder and spirit of fire. "This conception represents a sur-
vival of the prehistoric idea which considers fire as the life-
principle, carried to the point of adoring it as an invisible and
personal power . . . forces of nature, such as this, being per-
sonified in the mind of the barbarian." Pillan, however, while
a personal, is also a collective power: caciques at their death
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326 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
and warriors who fall in battle pass into the category of Pilli,
some being converted into volcanic forces, others ascending to
the clouds. "From this source," says Guevara, "is due the
belief, conserved almost to this time, that a tempest is a battle
between their ancestors and their enemies, and the custom of
encouraging their own and imprecating the others according
to the turn of the battle: if the clouds move toward the south
victory pertains to those of their race; if to the north — the
country of the Spaniards — they suppose the latter to be
victorious." . . . Inevitably one recalls the bodeful thunder-
storm in Julius Caesar^ —
"Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds.
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets."
Pillan, as the supreme god of a warlike people, was naturally
regarded as the god of war. "They made his habitation," says
our author, "in all those parts whence breaks the thunder: on
the crest of high mountains, in the clouds, and in the volcanoes,
whose eruptions are so often accompanied by electrical phe-
nomena." The deity's name is, as a matter of fact, preserved
in the names of various peaks.
Molina* states that the word Pillan is derived from pUli,
meaning "soul," and that the god has various attributive de-
signations, such as Spirit-of-Heaven (Guenu-pillan), the Great
Being, the Thunderer; and along with these, suspiciously
European, such epithets as the Creator, the Omnipotent, the
Eternal. On the whole, it is not unreasonable to assume that
the true aboriginal meaning of the word is "mysterious
power" and that the idea itself belongs with the group of
conceptions of a semi-pantheistic nature power, of which
Wakanda and Manito are the best-known names.
That Pillan stands at the head of a hierarchy of nature
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powers is the unanimous testimony of authorities. Molina
believes that the government of Pillan is modelled on that of
the Araucanian confederaq^. He is the great chief of the in-
visible world, having under him his high-chiefs and under-
chiefs to conduct cosmic affairs. As with most primitive folk,
the great majority of these lesser deities are considered as
malignant, or at least as dangerous, rather than as beneficent
powers. The Huecuvu (Guecubu, in Molina) are a group of
daemones capable of assuming animal and human forms. The
Indians '^ attribute natural phenomena to the implacable
hatred of these agents of Pillan. They sow the fields with
caterpillars, weaken animals with disease, quake the earth, and
devour the fish in rivers and lakes. The Huecuvu corresponds
with great exactness to the idea of demon." Evil also is Epuna-
mun (whom Molina regarded as a war-god, apparently on the
strength of the Padre Olivares's statement that he presided
at councils of war, where "though they have no confidence in
his councils, they frequently follow them, rather than offend
through disobedience"). Epunamun is represented as having
deformed legs, and he probably belongs to that extraordinary
group of South American monster-bogeys having feet reversed
or knees that bend backward. The Chemive are the spirits
or senders of shooting-stars and comets, figured (quite to the
taste of the Mediaeval European) as man-headed serpents.
Similar is the Ihuaivilu, a seven-headed fire-monster, inhabiting
volcanic neighbourhoods. Meulen appears to be anything
but the benevolent deity that Molina deemed it; he is the
spirit of the whirlwind, disappearing in the ground in the form
of a lizard when the whirlwind is dissipated; in modem folklore
he appears as El Destolanado, devouring all children who cross
his path.
The category of demonic beings is by no means exhausted
with these wind and fire powers. The old Chilean mythic lore
is filled with composite and metamorphosing beast-bogeys and
witch-beings, many of which have been handed on to the mod-
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328 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
em peasantry; so that it is now often impossible to tell what
elements are native and what communicated. Many still bear
native names. Perimontum is a phantom appearing from the
other world to announce some extraordinary event. The Am is
the ghost of a murdered man; the Alhue is a mischievous sprite
whose sport is to frighten men. Colocolo is a small, invisible
or subterranean animal or bird, whose cry, colo colo! is some-
times heard; anyone drinking its saliva will die. Neguruvilu, or
Guirivilo, is a cat-like monster armed with a claw-pointed tail;
it lives in the depths of the waters, whence it sallies forth to kill
men and animals, assuming a serpentine form as It envelops
them. There are numerous other water-monsters, some marine,
some amphibians, their most various forms being naturally
found among the Chiletes of the southern archipelago. El
Caleuche, the witch-boat, is interesting for the fact that here,
in the far Pacific south, it represents what might almost be
called an outcropping of the similar conceptions found among
the Eskimo and the pelagic tribes of the North-West Coast.
The witch-boat is seen at night, illuminated, and it carries
fishermen down to the treasure-houses at the bottom of the
sea. Another monster of this region is Camahueto, capable of
wrecking large boats; while Cuero, known to the Araucanians
as Trelquehuecuve, is a sort of huge octopus, whose arms end
in claws and whose ears are covered with eyes; it has great pow-
ers of dilation and contraction, and seizes and slays all that fall
within its reach; when it goes ashore to sun itself and wishes
to return to its element, it raises a gale which pushes it into
the water. Huaillepeii, or Guallipen, is in the form of a calf-
headed sheep, with deformed legs; it issues from streams and
pools on misty mornings and frightens pregnant women, caus-
ing their children to be bom deformed. The Imbunche are
monsters into which babes stolen by witches have been trans-
formed; the Trauco is an old witch aprpearing in the form of
a child and having the habits of an incubus; the Pihuicheio, or
Piguchen, is a vampire-like serpent that can transform itself
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into a frog, a blood-sucker and death-bringer, while the Chon-
chofi, a vampire having the form of a human head whose huge
ears serve as wings for its nocturnal flights, is reminiscent of
the travelling heads which form so important a group of bogeys
on the North American continent.
With such an array of demons surrounding them, it is small
marvel that for the Chilean peasant of today the devil is not an
interesting person in popular mythology, as Senor Vicuna
Cifuentes tells us,^ playing a role altogether inferior to those
of the local demons. Beneficent powers are rare in the Arauca-
nian pantheon. Pillan may be regarded in this light, as also
Ngunemapun, a higher power recognized by the Araucans of
today, says Guevara, although not mentioned in the older
chronicles. He seems to be a doublet of Pillan, and may repre-
sent an epithet of this god, or even a still higher power to
whom invocations were formerly addressed which the Spaniards
supposed to be addressed to Pillan. Like the latter, Ngunema-
pun dwells on high mountains, has the power of rendering
himself invisible, and is given the customary form of a warrior.
Beneficent also is Huitranalhue, friend of strangers and the
protector of herds from thieves.
A curious feature of Araucanian religion is the absence of any
cult of the sun. Possibly this is due to the fact that the sun
was the great deity of their enemies, the Incas; so that even if
it had been adored in the primitive period, it might have been
degraded after the Incaic defeat on the same principle that
caused a Florida tribe to establish a cult of the Devil, because
he was the enemy of the Spaniard. The fact that the Arauca-
nians had measured the solar year, which they divided into
twelve months of thirty days each, adding five intercalary
days or epagomenae, argues a sun-cult. Molina tells us that
they began their year immediately after the December solstice,
which they called the Head-and-Tail-of-the-Year, while the
June solstice was called the Divider-of-the-Year. DobrizhofFer
says that the Picunche, or Moluche (Araucanians), like the
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330 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Puelche, had no name for God.* "These ascribe all the good
things they either possess or desire to the sun, and to the sun
they pray for them"; and one of their priests, he says, when told
of God, said: "Till this hour we never knew nor acknowledged
anything greater or better than the sun." This certainly
points to the probability that in primitive times the sun was an
Araucanian god, though it appears that the moon has assumed
the place of celestial importance in the later pantheon. Her
ancient name, Anchimalguen, signifies, says Guevara, Woman
(i. e., wife)-of-the-Sun; Anchimallen is the contemporary form.
She is implored in adversity and praised in prosperity, say the
chroniclers. Sometimes Anchimallen is of ill omen, appearing
at night in the form of a stray guanaco and luring travellers
to vain pursuit; but she also serves to give warning of enemies
and to frighten away evil spirits. Molina gives a very interest-
ing suggestion, namely, that all the female powers of the in-
visible world form a class of beneficent nymphs called Amchi-
malghen. ^'There is not an Araucanian but imagines he has
one of these in his service. Nien cai gni Amchirmalghenj *I
keep my nymph still,' is a common expression when they suc-
ceed in any undertaking."
The mythic tales of the Araucanians are (judging from some-
what meagre materials) of a class with those prevalent in
neighbouring regions, — a cosmogony in which volcanic forces
destroy the world by fire, while a deluge causes all to perish
save a few who flee to the three-peaked mountain Thegtheg,
the Mount of Levin, which moves upon the waters; a hero
cycle in which two brothers, Konkel and Pediu, figure as trans-
formers; and there are stories of a Sky-World above, and of
seaward Islands of the Dead.* One of the most interesting
elements of their mythology is their version of the oft-recurring
conception of a Way Perilous to the abode of the departed. An
old woman, in the form of a whale, bears the soul out to sea;
but before his arrival in the Araucanian Hades he is obliged
to pay toll for passing a narrow strait, where sits another
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 331
malignant hag who exacts an eye from any poor wretch who
has nothing better to pay.
IV. THE PATAGONIANS
Few peoples have had fame thrust upon them with so little
reason as have the Patagonian Indians, and few myths have
been more widely credited than that Patagonia was the home
of a race of giants. The Tehuelche are, as a matter of fact, men
of large size, probably averaging above six feet; and they are
noted for the large development, especially of the upper parts
of their body. Keane states that they are second in size among
South American peoples, being exceeded by the Bororo. Possi-
bly it was due to the fact that the first navigators of this region
were men of south Europe, themselves short, which gave rise
to the myth of Patagonian giants. Pigafetta,^® the chief chroni-
cler of Magellan's voyage, says of one of these "giants" that
he was "so tall that our heads scarcely came up to his waist,"
and the anonymous "Genoese pilot" who has left an account of
the same navigation reports that where they wintered, in 1520,
"there were people like savages, and the men are from nine to
ten spans in height, very well made." It is, indeed, possible
that the stature of the modem Tehuelche is modified slightly
from that of the Patagon, or "Big-Foot" ("the captain named
this kind of people Pataghom," wrote Pigafetta) ; for since the
middle of the eighteenth century the Tehuelche have been an
equestrian people, living on horseback, one might say; and a
recent observer says of them that "the lower limbs are some-
times disappointing, being, in fact, the lower limbs of a race of
riders." Such an influence may well have produced a small
diminution of the average stature over that at the time of the
first observations.
In no other respect is the Patagonian remarkable. The race
is divided into two great divisions, the northerly Puelche and
the Tehuelche, of Patagonia proper, now both equestrian
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332 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
peoples. Across the Strait of Magellan, in eastern Tierra del
Fuego, dwell the Ona, still a pedestrian branch of the Pata-
gonian race.
The Patagonians are a sluggish and peaceable people, quite
self-sufficient when left to themselves, and in the south little
influenced by the arts of civilization. Except for the changes
which the introduction of horses has brought into their life,
the description of the Genoese pilot is essentially true to this
day: ^® "They have not got houses; they only go about from
one place to another . . . and eat meat nearly raw: they are
all archers and kill many animals with arrows, and with the
skins they make clothes. . . . Wherever night finds them,
there they sleep; they carry their wives along with them with
all the chattels they possess."
Accounts of Patagonian religion are all meagre; perhaps be-
cause the ideational content of their belief is itself meagre,
for authorities agree that they arc slow and unimaginative.
The little information given by Pigafetta, chronicler of Magel-
lan's voyage, has, to be sure, a moving background. Two of
the "giants," he says, were lured on shipboard, and there,
while being entertained with gauds, were clamped with irons,
the intention being to take them for a show to the Castilian
king. "When they saw the trick which had been played them,
they began to be enraged, and to foam like bulls, crying out
very loud SeUhos^ that is to say, the great devil, that he should
help them." It is from this passage that Shakespeare derived
his conception of the god of Caliban. Pigafetta adds that the
lesser devils, under Setebos, are called Cheleule. "This one
who was in the ship with us, told us by signs that he had seen
devils with two horns on their heads, and long hair down to
their feet, who threw out fire from their mouths and rumps," —
but we can hardly doubt that the navigators' imaginations
were here potent interpreters of the signs. Dobrizhoffer's
eighteenth century description of Patagonian beliefs is essen-
tially the same as that of Prichard in the twentieth century."
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 333
"They are all acquainted with the devil, whom they call
Balichu [Falichuj Gualichu, are variants found in other
sources]. They believe that there is an innumerable crowd of
demons, the chief of whom they name El El, and all the in-
ferior ones Quezubu [probably a form of the Araucanian
Huecuvu]. They think, however, every kind of demon hostile
and mischievous to the human race, and the origin of all evil,
regarding them in consequence with dread and abhorrence."
Dobrizhoffer goes on to state that the Puelche and the Arau-
canian Picunche alike revere the Sun, indicating the aiHnity
of the beliefs of the two groups, which are probably at least
remotely related. He continues: "The Patagonians call God
Soychu [Soucha is Pennant's variant], to-wit, that which can-
not be seen, which is worthy of all veneration, which does not
live in the world; hence they call the dead Soychufut, men that
dwell with God beyond the world. They seem to hold two
principles in common with the Gnostics and Manichaeans,
for they say that God created both good and evil demons.
The latter they greatly fear, but never worship. They believe
every sick person to be possessed of an evil demon; hence their
physicians always carry a drum with figures of devils painted
on it, which they strike at the beds of sick persons, to drive the
evil demon, which causes the disorder, from the body."
Prichard's description adds nothing to this." The religion of
the Indians consists "in the old simple beliefs in good spirits
and devils, but chiefly devils. . . . The dominant Spirit of
Evil is called Gualicho. And he abides as an ever-present
terror behind their strange, free, and superstitious lives. They
spend no small portion of their time in either fleeing from his
wrath or in propitiating it. You may wake in the dawn to see
a band of Indians suddenly rise and leap upon their horses,
and gallop away across the pampa, howling and gesticulating.
They are merely scaring the Gualicho away from their tents
back to his haunts in the Cordillera — the wild and unpene-
trated mountains, where he and his subordinate demons groan
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334 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
in chosen spots the long nights through/' The Good Spirit of
the Tehuelche, says Prichard, is far more quiescent. Long ago
he made one effort to benefit mankind, when he created the
animals in the caves of "God's Hill" and gave them to his
people for food, but since then he has shown little interest in
earthly matters. Of the practices of the Tehuelche shaman —
perhaps an iimovation since the day of Dobrizhoffer — Prichard
gives an odd instance, narrated by another white observer: "In
the middle of the level white pampa two figures upon galloping
horses were visible. As we came nearer we saw that one was a
man clothed in a ckiripa and a capa in which brown was the
predominating colour. He was mounted on a heavy-necked
powerful cehruno horse, his stirrups were of silver, and his gear
of raw-hide seemed smart and good. As he rode he yelled with
all his' strength, producing a series of the most horrible and
piercing shrieks. But strange as was this wild figure, his com-
panion, victim or quarry, was stranger and more striking stilL
For on an ancient laino sat perched a little brown maiden,
whose aspect was forelom and pathetic to the last degree. She
rode absolutely naked in the teeth of the bitter cold, her breast,
face and limbs blotched and smeared with the rash of some
eruptive disease, and her heavy-lidded eyes, strained and open,
staring ahead across the leagues of empty snow-patched plain.
Presently the man redoubled his howls, and bearing down upon
the xaino flogged and frightened it into yet greater speed. The
whole scene might have been mistaken for some ancient bar-
baric and revolting form of punishment; whereas, in real truth,
it was an anxious Indian father trying, according to his lights,
to cure his daughter of measles!" Devils are known to dislike
noise and cold, says Prichard; hence, the unlucky parient
without a shred to protect her and "the almost incredible up-
roar made by the old gentleman upon the dark brown horse."
D'Orbigny says " of the Tehuelche, "they fear rather than
revere their Achekanet-kanet, turn by turn genius of ill and
genius of good," and of the Puelche that, like the Patagonians,
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 335
they believe in a genius of ill, named Gualichu, or Arraken,
who sometimes becomes beneficent, without need of prayer.
Falkner (cited by King in The Voyage of the Beagle, vol. ii,
p. 161) mentions "at the head of their good deities," Guayara-
kunny, lord of the dead. "They think," he says, "that the
good deities have habitations in vast caverns under the earth,
and that when an Indian dies his soul goes to live with the
deity who presides over his particular family. They believe
that their good deities made the world, and that they first
created the Indians in the subterranean caverns above men-
tioned; gave them the lance, bow and arrows, and the balls
[bolas]j to fight and hunt with, and then turned them out to
shift for themselves. They imagine that the deities of the
Spaniards created them in a similar manner, but that, instead
of lances, bows, etc., they gave them guns and swords. They
say that when the beasts, birds, and lesser animals were created,
those of the more nimble kind came immediately out of the
caverns; but that the bulls and cows being the last, the Indians
were so frightened at the sight of their horns, that they stopped
the entrances of their caves with great stones. This is the grave
reason why they had lio black cattle in their country, till the
Spaniards brought them over; who, more wisely, had let them
out of their caves."
A more recent account of what is a kindred, if not the same
myth is given by Ramon Lista.^* The creator-hero, in this ver-
sion, is named El-lal. "El-lal came into the world in a strange
way. His father Nosjthej (a kind of Saturn), wishing to devour
him, had snatched him from his mother's womb. He owed his
rescue to the intervention of the terguerr (a rodent) which
carried him away to its cave; this his father tried in vain to
enter. After having learned from the famous rodent the proper-
ties of different plants and the directions of the mountain-paths,
El-lal himself invented the bow and arrow, and with these
weapons began the struggle against the wild animals — puma,
fox, condor, — and conquered them all. But the father re-
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336 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
turned. Forgetting the past El-lal taught him how to manipu-
late the bow and the sling, and joyfully showed him the trophies
of the chase — tortoise shells, condor's wings, etc. Nosjthej
took up his abode in the cave and soon acted as master of it.
Faithful to his fierce instincts, he wanted to kilf his son; he
followed him across the Andes, but, when on the point of reach-
ing him, he saw a dense forest arise between him and his son.
El-lal was saved; he descended to the plain, which meanwhile
had become peopled with men. Among them was a giant,
Goshy-e, who devoured children; El-lal tried to fight him, but
he was invulnerable; the arrows broke against his body. Then
El-lal transformed himself into a gadfly, entered the giant's
stomach, and wounded him fatally with this sting. It was not
until he had accomplished all these feats, and had proved him-
self a clever huntsman, that El-lal thought of marrying. He
asked the hand of the daughter of the Sun, but she did not think
him worthy of her and escaped him by a subterfuge. Disen-
chanted, El-lal decided to leave the earth, where, he considered,
his mission was at an end, since man, who had in the meantime
appeared in the plain and in the mountain valleys, had learned
from him the use of fire, weapons, etc. Borne on the wings
of a swan across the ocean towards the east, he found eternal
rest in the verdant island which rose among the waves at the
places where the arrows shot by him had fallen on the surface
of the water."
This cosmogony is of the familiar primitive Indian type.
Falkner, in the passage cited, goes on to describe Patagonian
beliefs in regard to the fates of human souls : " Some say that the
stars are old Indians; that the Milky Way is the field where the
old Indians hunt ostriches [more likely, this myth attaches to
the Southern Cross, as Guevara says it does with the Indians
of Paraguay; and as, in North America, it attaches to the Ursa
Major], and that the Magellan clouds are the feathers of the
ostriches which they kill. They have an opinion that the crea-
tion is not yet exhausted; nor is all of it yet come out to the
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 337
daylight of this upper world. The wizards, beating their drums,
and rattling their hide bags full of shells or stones, pretend to
see into other regions under the earth. Each wizard is supposed
to have familiar spirits in attendance, who give supernatural
information, and execute the conjurer's will. They believe
that the souls of their wizards, after death, are of the number
of these demons, called Valichu, to whom every evil, or un-
pleasant event is attributed."
Mutatis mutandis this description would apply perfectly to
the shamanistic beliefs and practices of the Polar North, and it
is not without significance that Prichard is drawn to point the
essential analogy between the austral and boreal aborigines of
America. Substitute the kayak for the horse, the seal for the
guanaco, with such differences in habit as these imply, and
the differences of the two peoples (psychologically, for it must
be owned that in stature they are antipodes) become slight.
Certainly their beliefs are almost identical: a beneficent, but
precarious food-giver; a host of spiteful and dangerous powers
of wind and weather; a sky-world and an underworld, with
hunter-souls pursuing their earthly vocation; fey-sighted
wizards and medicine-men with drums. To be sure this repre-
sents the foundation stratum of Indian ideas throughout the
two Americas, the simplest form of American religious myth;
but there is surely a dramatic propriety in finding this simplest
form, almost in its first purity, at the wide extremes of the two
continents.
Have the conceptions travelled, from pole almost to pole?
or are they separate inspirations to a universal human nature
from a never vastly varying environmental nature? This is a
riddle not easy to solve; for while it is not difficult to imagine
unrelated peoples severally framing the notion that men and
animals are bom out of the womb of Earth or that the image
of their own hunting parties is written in the constellations —
for, as Molina remarks, more than one people have "regulated
the things of heaven by those of the earth," — still it is odd to
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338 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
find such particular agreements constant from latitude to
latitude throughout a hemisphere.
V. THE FUEGIANS
The Yahgan and Alakaluf tribes of Tierra del Fuego and the
adjacent archipelago enjoy the unenviable distinction of being
rated as among the lowest of human beings both as to actual
culture and possible development. The earlier navigators re-
garded them as little more than animals — and often, unfor-
tunately, treated them no better. Even Darwin, viewing them
with the naturalist's eye, saw little but annoyance in their
presence and formed a dismal estimate of their powers. "We
were always much surprised at the little notice, or rather none
whatever, which was evinced respecting many things, even such
as boats, the use of which must have been evident. Simple
circumstances, — such as the whiteness of our skins, the beauty
of scarlet cloth or blue beads, the absence of women, our care
in washing ourselves, — excited their admiration far more than
a grand or complicated object, such as the ship.*' " Darwin,
however, noted that the Indians had a sense of fairness in trade,
and when missionaries settled among them other good quali-
ties appeared. Thomas Bridges, who lived with the Yahgan
as missionary for years, wrote of them, in 1891 : "We find the
natives work well and happily when assured of adequate reward.
They shear our sheep, make fences, saw out boards and planks
of all kinds, work well with the pick and spade, are good boat-
men and pleasant companions." With such a tribute from one
who had lived long with them it can hardly be doubted that
the Yahgan are better than the common report of them, —
indeed, quite the children of nature which the not unaffecting
anecdotes of York Minster and Jemmy Button, among the
voyages of the Beagle^ should lead us to expect.
"Jemmy Button," says Captain Fitzroy," "was very super-
stitious and a great believer in omens and dreams. He would
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 339
not talk of a dead person, saying, with a grave shake of the
head, *no good, no good talk; my country never talk of dead
man/ While at sea, on board the Beagle^ about the middle of
the year 1832, he said one morning to Mr. Bynoe, that in the
night some man came to the side of his hammock, and whispered
in his ear that his father was dead. Mr. Bynoe tried to laugh
him out of the idea, but ineffectually. He fully believed that
such was the case, and maintained his opinion up to the tinie
of finding his relations in the Beagle Channel, when, I regret to
say, he found that his father had died some months previously.
He did not forget to remind Mr. Bynoe (his most confidential
friend) of their former conversation, and, with a significant
shake of the head said, it was *bad — very bad.' Yet these
simple words seemed to express the extent of his sorrow." . . .
Here is surely as good a case of the "veridical" apparition as
any Researcher could desire.
"Ideas of a spiritual existence — of beneficent and evil pow-
ers," describes the nearest notion Captain Fitzroy could get of
Fuegian religion. The powers of evil are especially the powers
of wind and weather — naturally enough in a part of the globe
world-famous for its bitter gales and treacherous waters. "If
anything was said or done that was wrong, in their opinion it
was certain to cause bad weather. Even the shooting of young
birds, before they were able to fly, was thought a heinous of-
fence. I remember York Minster saying one day to Mr. Bynoe,
when he had shot some young ducks with the old bird — *0h,
Mr: Bynoe, very bad to shoot little duck — come wind —
come rain — blow — very much blow.*" Primitive as they
are, here are moral ideas — whether one explain, reconditely,
the sparing of the young of game as an instinctive conservation
of the food supply, or, simply, as due to a natural and chival-
rous pity for the helpless young.
Our information in regard to the spirit-beings believed in by
the Fuegians is at best nebulous. Captain Fitzroy tells of "a
great black man . . . supposed to be always wandering about
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340 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the woods and mountains, who is certain of knowing every word
and action, who cannot be escaped, and who influences the
weather according to men's conduct," and again of thin wild
men, "who have no belly," (surely, the "skeleton men" of the
Eskimo and of other North American tribes). Dr. Hyades,"
in his report of the gleanings of the French Mission to Cape
Horn, half a century after the famous expeditions of the Adven-
ture and BeagUy gives a fuller, though still meagre description
of these wild folk of Yahgan fancy, — irresistibly reminiscent
of the Fog People and the Inland Dwellers of the Eskimo at the
other extreme of the hemisphere. The Oualapatou, Wild Men
from the West, are ever-present terrors. They are heard in
the noises of the night, and hearing them, the Yahgan incon-
tinently flee. These Wild Men, they say, enter their huts at
night, cut the throats of the occupants and devour their limbs.
From their confused accounts, says Dr. Hyades,it would appear
,that the Oualapatou are the dead returned to earth to eat the
living; they are invisible, except at the moment of seizing their
victims, but they are heard imitating the cries of birds and
animals. Another class of wild beings are the ICachpikh, fan-
tastic beings that live in desert caves or in thick forests. These,
too, are invisible, but they hate man and cause disease and
death. Still another class (reported by the Missionary Bridges)
are called Hannouch. Some of these are supposed to have an
eye in the back of their heads; others are hairless and sleep
standing up supported by a tree; they hold in hand a white
stone which they hurl with inevitable aim at any object soever,
and they sometimes attack and wound men. One man, said to
have been stolen away as a child by the Hannouch, was named
Hannouchmachaatnan, "stolen-by-the-Hannouch." Any man
who goes off to live by himself is called a Hannouch, while a
demented person is regarded as tormented by one of these
beings.
The Fuegian's equivalent for the Eskimo^s Angakok is the
Yakamouch. Bridges' account is quoted by Hyades: "Nearly
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 341
every old man of the people is a Yakamouch, for it is very easy
to become one; they are recognizable at a glance from the gray
colour of their hair, a colour produced by the daily application of
a whitish clay. They make frequent incantations in which they
appear to address a mysterious being named Aiapakal; they
claim to possess, from a spirit called Hoakils, a supernatural
power of life and death; they recount their dreams, and when
they have eaten in dream any person, this signifies that that
person will die. It is believed that they can draw from the
bodies of the sick the cause of their ill, called atkouch^ visible
in the form of an arrow or a harpoon point of flint, which they
cause, moreover, to issue from their own stomachs at will. . . .
They seem to believe that these sorcerers can influence the
weather for good or bad; they throw shells into the wind to
cause it to cease and they give themselves over to incan-
tations and contortions." Women also may be Yakamouch,
and there is even a report that formerly none but women
professed the art.
The Fuegians are a vanishing people, — even in a vanishing
race. They have long and often been cited as a people with-
out religion. After recounting what is here narrated of their
beliefs. Dr. Hyades concludes: "In all these legends, we see no
reason seriously to admit a belief in supernatural beings or in a
future life, and consequently a religious sentiment, among the
Fuegians." This judgement, however, is not wholly supported
by the observations of others. According to the fathers of the
Salesian mission" the Alakaluf believe in "an invisible being
called Taquatu, whom they imagine to be a giant who travels
by day and night in a big canoe, over the sea and rivers, and
who glides as well through the air over the tops of the trees
without bending their branches; if he finds any men or women
idle or not on the alert he takes them without more ado into
his great boat and carries them far away from home." Captain
Low, of the Fitzroy expedition, asserted that there was not
only a belief in "an immense black man" (Yaccy-ma) responsi-
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342 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ble for all sorts of evil, among the west Patagonlan channel
natives, but also that they believed in "a good spirit whom
they called Yerri Yuppon,** invoked in time of distress and
danger. On the other point, of belief in a future life, there is no
doubt but that the Fuegians recognize some form of ghost, or
breath-spirit, which haunts the walks of men. One missionary
says of the Yahgan that he thinks that ''when a man dies, his
breath goes up to heaven''; nothing similar occurs in the case
of animals.
Of myth in the legendary form only meagre fragments have
been gathered from the Fuegians, and of these the greater part
come from the Ona, who are akin to the Tehuelche.^* According
to Ona lore there formerly "lived on earth bearded white men;
the sun and moon were then husband and wife; when men began
to war, the sun and moon returned to the sky and sent down a
red star, the planet Mars, which turned into a giant on the way;
the giant killed all men, then made two mountains or clods of
clay, from one of which rose the first Ona man and from the
other the first Ona woman." The same tribe have a tradition
of a cataclysm which separated the island on which they dwell
from the mainland. Both the Ona and the Yahgan have tradi-
tions of a flood and tales of earth-bom men; and each of these
peoples has also a mythic hero (Kuanip is the Ona, Oumoara
the Yahgan name) concerning whom tales are told. Some of
their stories appear to relate to historical transformations in the
mode of tribal life, as the tradition (maintained by both tribes)
that in former times the women were the tribal rulers, that
the men rebelled, and invented initiation rites and the ruse
of masked spirits in order to keep the women in subjection —
a type of myth which, however, is rather more plausibly of an
aetiological than of an historical character. In the main,
nature is the theme of mythic thought, and there is perhaps
no more unique a group of ideas among these peoples of the Far
South than the Yahgan conception of the relations of the
celestial beings: the moon, they say, is the wife of the rainbow.
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THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE 343
while the sun is elder brother to the moon and to shining
Venus.
There is much in the culture and fancies of these peoples of
austral America to recall the culture and fancies of their remote
kinsmen of the Polar North. The two Americas measure, as it
were, the longitude of human habitation, marked off zone by
zone into every Variety of climate and terrain to which men's
lives can be accommodated. Moreover, the native peoples of
this New World show a oneness of race nowhere else to be
found over so great an area; so that, in spite of differences
in culture almost as great as those which mark the heights and
depths of human condition in the more anciently peopled hemi-
sphere, there is a recognizable unity binding together Eskimo
and Aztec, Inca and Yahgan. Now what is surely most im-
pressive is that this unity is best represented neither by physical
appearance nor material achievement (where, indeed, the dif-
ferences are most magnified), but by a conservation of ideas
and of the symbolic language of myth which is at bottom one.
Not that there is any single level of thought common to all,
for there is surely a world of intelligence between the imagina-
tive splendour of Mayan art and science and tradition and the
dimly haunted soul of the Fuegian who "supposes the sun and
moon, male and female, to be very old indeed, and that some
old man, who knew their maker, had died without leaving in-
formation on this subject"; ^ but that no matter what the
failure to build or the erosion of superstructure, or indeed no
matter what the variety of superstructures as, for example,
made apparent in the characteristic colours of North American
and South American mythologies, there is still aujond a single
racial complexion of mind, with a recognizable kinship of the
spiritual life. Through vast geographical distances, among
peoples long mutually forgotten if ever mutually known, in
every variety of natural garb, polar and tropical, forest and sea,
this kinship persists, not favoured by, but in spite of, environ-
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344 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ments the most changing. It is not necessary here invariably
to assume migrations of ideas, passed externally from tribe to
tribe, although evidence of these, recent and remote, is frequent
enough; it is not sufficient to postulate merely the psychical
unity of our common human nature, although this, too, is a
factor which we should not neglect; but along with these we
may reasonably conceive that the American race, through its
long isolation, even in its most tenuously connected branches
retains a certain deep communion of thought and feeling, a
lasting participation in its own mode of insight and its own
quest of inspiration, which unites it across the stretches of
time and space. The arctic tern is said to sunmier in the two
polar zones, arctic and antarctic, trued to its enormous flight
by the most mystifying of all animal instincts. Perhaps it is
some human instinct as profound and as mystifying which
joins in one thought the scattered peoples of the two continents,
charting in modes more subtle than their obvious forms can
suggest the impulses which lead men to see their environmental
world not as their physical eyes perceive it, but, belied by their
eyes, as inner and whispering voices proclaim it to be.
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NOTES
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NOTES
Introduction
1. That there is an ultimate community of culture and thought
between the Andean and Mexican regions can hardly be doubted.
Furthermore, it is not merely primitive, but belongs to an era of
some advancement in the arts. Spinden {Ancient Civilizations of
Mexico and Central America [New York, 191 7], and elsewhere) has
termed the early stage the ^^ archaic period," and he plausibly argues
for its Mexican origination and southward migration. But at any
rate since near the beginning of the Christian Era the civilizations of
the two regions have developed in virtual independence.
2. The most admirable general introduction to the whole subject
of American ethnography is Wissler, The American Indian (New
York, 191 7).
3. The transition from the Antilles to Guiana is, however, rather
more marked than is that from the Orinoco to the Amazonian regions.
Virtually the whole South American region bounded by the Andes,
the Caribbean Sea, and the Argentinian Pampas is one ethnographi-
cally; so that, in the present work. Chapters VIII and IX are de-
scriptive of a single region. However, the great rivers have always
been natural routes of exploration, and this has given to the river
systems an ethnographically factitious, but bibliographically real
differentiation.
4. Wm. Henry Brett, Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians
of British Guiana (London, no date).
. 5. For a history of this interesting movement in certain phases of
European culture see Gilbert Chinard, UExotisme americain (Paris,
1911).
Chapter I
I. Among early writers on Antillean religion the most important
are Christopher Columbus, Ramon Pane, and Peter Martyr d'Anghi-
era. Columbus left Fray Ramon Pane in Haiti with instructions to
report on the religious beliefs of the natives; and in Fernando Colum-
bus's Historic, ch. Ixii, Pane's narrative is incorporated, introduced
by a brief quotation from Christopher Columbus, describing Zemiism.
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348 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
After Pane, the account of Haitian religion in Peter Martyr*8 "First
Decade" is the most important source, although Benzoni, Gomara,
Herrera, Las Casas, and Oviedo give additional or corroborative
information. Of recent writings those of J. W. Fewkes, embodying
the results of careful archaeological studies, form the most important
contribution. Part ii of Joyce's Central American and West Indian
Archaeology gives a general survey of the field, which is more briefly
treated in livre ii, 3* partie, of Beuchat's Manuel^ and in its com-
parative aspects by Wissler, The American Indian.
2. Beuchat, Joyce [a], and Fewkes [b] describe the condition of
the Antilleans at the time of the discovery as reconstructed from
early accounts and archaeological investigations. Of the early writ-
ings, the descriptions of Las Casas are the most detailed. The use of
Talno to designate the island Arawakan tribes follows Fewkes [b],
p. 26: "Among the first words heard by the comrades of Columbus
when they landed in Guadeloupe were *Taino! talnoP — * Peace!
peace!' or *We are friends.* The designation ^ talno* has been used
by several writers as a characteristic name for the Antillean race.
Since it is both significant and euphonious, it may be adopted as a
convenient substitute for the adjective ^Antillean' to designate a
cultural type. The author applies the term to the original sedentary
people of the West Indies, as distinguished from the Carib." The
incident to which reference is made is described in Select Letters of
Columbus {HS)y p. 28. It is perhaps worth while to note that Peter
Martyr (tr. MacNutt, i. 66, 81) says that talno signifies "a virtuous
man." The word cariby caniba^ is the source of our cannibal. It is
possible that it means "man-eater" and is of Taino origin. Colum-
bus, in the Journal of the first voyage (tr. Bourne, p. 223), is author-
ity for the statement that "Carib" is the Hispaniolan form of the
name. Im Thum (p. 163) says that the Guiana Carib call themselves
Carinyaj which would seem to show that the word is an autonym, in
which case it may mean, as Herrera says (III. v), "valiant." It is
rather curious, if the insular Carib were the inveterate cannibals the
earlier writers make them to be, that those of the mainland should
have held the practice in abhorrence, for which we have Humboldt's
statement. Voyage (tr. Ross, ii. 413).
3. A term of some interest is cacique ^ which is generally regarded
as Haitian in origin, being, says Peter Martyr (tr. MacNutt, i. 82)
their word for " king." Bastian, however, afiirms that it is Arabic
(ii. 293, note): "Das Wort Cazique ist nicht amerikanisch, sine
arabigo, usado entre los alarabes de Africa en el Reyno de Mazagan,
con el qual nombran al principal y cabe^as de los aduares, como
tambien le nombran Xeque (meint Simon)."
4. The literature of the discovery is summarized by Beuchat,
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NOTES 349
"Bibliographic," ch. iv. Christopher Columbus*8 Letters and Jour--
naly tr. Major, Markham, and Bourne, are here quoted.
5. The question of Amazons (cf. infrOy Ch. IX, i), is a curious
commingling of Old and New World myth, with, perhaps, some
foundation in primitive custom, especially linguistic. Thus Beuchat,
P* 509 (citing Raymond Breton and Lucien Adam; cf. also Ballet,
citing du Tertre, pp. 398-99), states that the Caribs of the Isles had
separate vocabularies, in part at least, for men and women, and that
the women*s speech contained a majority of Arawak words. This
argument should not be pushed too far, however, for there are a num*
ber of South American languages with well-differentiated man-tongue
and woman-tongue, where a similar origin of the difference is not
shown. On his first voyage Columbus (letters to de Santangel and
Sanchez), though he did not meet them, heard of "ferocious men,
eaters of human flesh, wearing their hair long like women." On the
second voyage — as described by Chanca in his "Letter to the Chap-
ter of Seville" (Select Letters) — the Caribs were encountered and
found to be holding in slavery many Talno women: "In their attacks
upon the neighbouring islands, these people capture as many of the
women as they can, especially those who are young and beautiful,
and keep them as concubines; and so great a number do they carry
off, that in fifty houses no men were to be seen" (p. 31). It is added
that the Caribs ate the children bom of these captive women (a cus-
tom ascribed also to some South American cannibalistic tribes) ; but
as it is said in the same connexion that captive boys were not de-
voured until they grew up, "for they say that the flesh of boys and
women is not good to eat," the story is scarcely plausible. Herrera
repeats that the Caribs ate no women, but kept them as slaves, in
association with the statement that the natives of Dominica ate a
friar, and dying of a flux caused by his flesh, gave over their canni-
balism. These stories seem to point to a ritualistic element in the
cannibalism, for to the Carib the flesh of warriors was the only man's
meat. Of course, in the notion of Amazons there was an element of
myth as well as of custom, and the myth was certainly known to
Columbus, if we may trust the authenticity (and there is small reason
to doubt it) of the paragraph with which Ramon Pane's narrative
is introduced. For the mydi in question see supra^ pp. 31-32, and
cf. Pane, chh. iii-v.
6. The story of the search for the Fountain of Youth and
of the colony of Antillean Indians in Florida is to be found in
Fontaneda, pp. 17-19. The influence of Antillean culture has been
traced well to the north of Florida, where it may have been ex-
tended by the pre-Muskhogean population; see also Herrera,
HI. V-
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3SO LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
7. The story of Hathvey, or Hatuey, is given by Fewkes [b], pp.
211-12, and by Joyce [a], p. 244; its source is Las Casas [a], III. xxv.
8. West Indian idolatry, called Zemiism, is earliest described in
the passage attributed to Christopher Columbus (Fernando Colum*
bus, ch. Ixi); other authorities here quoted are Benzoni, pp. 7&-80;
Peter Martyr, "First Decade," ix (tr. MacNutt, i. 167-78); Ramon
Pane, ch. xix-xxiv (tr. Pinkerton, xii. 87-89); and Las Casas [b],
chh. clxvi-vii; cf. also Fewkes, especially [b], [e], Joyce [a], and
Beuchat.
9. The most interesting artifacts from the Antilles are the stone
rings, triangles, and elbows, which must be regarded as certainly
ritualistic in character, and probably as used in fertility rites. This
is not only indicated by Columbus and Ramon Pane, but is sup-
ported by numerous analogies. Ramon Pane (ch. ziz) says: "The
stone cemis are of several sorts: some there are which, they say, the
physicians take out of the body of the sick, and those they look upon
as best to help women in labour. Others there are that speak, which
are shaped like a long turnip, with the leaves long and extended, like
the shrub-bearing capers. Those leaves, for the most part, are like
those of the elm. Others have three points, and they think they
cause the yucca to thrive." It is perhaps not far-fetched to see in
the triangular stones analogues of the mountain-man images of
the Tlaloque in Mexico, or of the similar images from South
America, certainly used in connexion with rain ceremonies. Very
likely separate forms were employed for different plants, as maize
or yucca. The stone rings, again, could very reasonably be those
which were supposed to help women in labour, as seems to have
been the case with the analogous rings and yokes from Yucatan
(see Fewkes, 25 ARBE^ pp. 259-61). Even if the two types of
stones were combined, as seems altogether likely, at least for magic
and divination, there is congruity in the relationship of both types
to fertility, animal and vegetable respectively. Seiior J. J. Acosta
has suggested that the Antillean stone rings represent the bodies,
and the triangular stones the heads, of serpents; and this is not
without plausibility in view of the frequency with which serpents are
regarded as fertility emblems. It may be worth recalling, too, that
an Antillean name for doctor, or medicine-man, signified "serpent."
10. There is no reason to assume any essential difference in char-
acter in the shamans or medicine-men of the North and South Ameri-
can Indians. In general, the lower the tribe in the scale of political
organization, the more important is the shaman or doctor, and the
more distinctly individual and the less tribal are the offices which he
performs; as organization grows in social complexity, the function of
priest emerges as distinct from that of doctor, the priest becoming
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NOTES 351
the depository of ritual, and the doctor or shaman, on a somewhat
lower level, attending the sick or practising magic and prophecy.
Apparently in the Antilles the two offices were on the way to differ-
entiation, if, indeed, they were not already distinct. The bohutisj
buhuitihus^ boiiy or, as Peter Martyr latinizes, bovites of this region
were evidently both doctors and priests. Certainly bbth Ramon
Pane's and Peter Martyr's descriptions imply this; though there are
some hints which would seem to point to a special class of ritual
priests, who may or may not have been doctors, as when priests are
said to act as mouthpieces of the cacique in giving oracles from
hollow statues, or as when Martyr (following Pane) says that "only
the sons of chiefs" are allowed to learn the traditional chants of the
great ceremonials (p. 172). The term peaimafiy applied to the sha-
mans of the Guiana tribes, is, says im Thum (p. 328), an Anglicized
form of the Carib word puyai or peartzan. The peaimarij im Thum
states, " is not simply the doctor, but also, in some sense, the priest
or magician." As matter of fact, the priestly element is slight among
the continental Caribs, their practice being pure shamanism; and
Fewkes ([b], p. 54) says that they " still speak of their priests as ceci^
semV^ — a term clearly related to ztmi. "The prehistoric Porto
Ricans," he says again (ib. p. 59), "had a well-developed priesthood,
called boii (serpents), mabouyay and buhiti, which are apparently
dialect or other forms of the same word." It was in Porto Rico, of
course, that Carib and Taino elements were most mixed. Brett [a],
p. 363,. in a note, derives the word piai from Carib putaiy which, he
says, is in Ackawoi piatsan; while the Arawak use semecihi^ and the
Warau tvisidaa^ for the same functionary. Certainly the resemblance
of boye and puiaiy and of ztmi and semecihij or ceci-semij indicates
identities of origin, though the particular meanings are not alto-
gether the same.
1 1 . Little is preserved of Antillean myth, and that little is contained
almost wholly in the narrative of Ramon Pane. The authorities here
quoted are [Ramon Pane, chh. i, ix-xi, ii-vii (tr. Pinkerton, xii);
Peter Martyr (tr. MacNutt, i. 167-70); Benzoni; and Ling Roth, in
JAI xvi. 264-65. Stoddard gives free versions of several of the tales.
12. Peter Martyr, loc. ciu (quoting pp. 166-67, 172-76)'.
13. Gomara [a], ch. xxvii, p. 173, ed. Vedia (tr. Fewkes [b], pp.
66-67); cf. Benzoni, pp. 79-82; Las Casas [b], ch. clxvii. The plate
representing the Earth Spirit ceremony is taken from (cf. Fewkes
[b], Plate IX) Picart, The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the
Several Nations of the known frorld^ London, 1731-37, Plate No. 78.
' 14. Im Thum, pp. 335-38; cf. Fewkes [e], p. 355.
15. Ramon Pane, chh. xiv, xxv; G6mara [a], ch. xzxiii, pp. 175-
76, ed. Vedia, gives supplementary information.
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352 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
1 6. Authorities cited for Carib lore are Columbus, Select Letters^
pp. 29-37; 1°^ Thum, pp. 192, 217, 222; Fewkes [b], pp. 27, 217-20,
68; Ballet, citing du Tertre and others, pp. 421-22, 433-38, 400-01;
Davies, cited by Fewkes [b], pp. 60, 65; Currier, citing la Borde,
pp. So8r-09.
Chapter II
1. Holmes, "Areas of American Culture** (in AA^ new series, rvi,
1914) gives a chart of North America showing five culture areas for
Mexico and Central America, in general corresponding to the group-
ing here made. The American Indian of Wissler, the Ancient Civiliza^
tions of Spinden, the Manuel of Beuchat and the Mexican Archae-
ology of Joyce follow approximately the same lines. E. G. Tarayre's
"Report" in Archives de la commission scientifique du Mexique^ iii
(Paris, 1867) contains "Notes ethnographiques sur les regions mexi-
caines.** For linguistic divisions the standard works are Orozco y
Berra [b], Nicolas Leon [a], and especially Thomas and Swanton,
Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America {44 BBE); cf.
Mechling [b]. Contemporary ethnography is described in Lumholtz
[a]> [b], [c], in McGee, and in Starr [a], [b].
2. Doubtless it should be stated at the outset that there is serious
and reasonable question on the part of not a few students of aborig-
inal Mexico as to whether Aztec institutions merit the name "em-
pire" in any sense analogous to those of the imperial states of the
Old World. "A loose confederacy of democratic Indians" is the
phrase employed by Waterman [a], p. 250, in describing the form of
the Mexican state as it is pictured by Morgan, Bandelier, Fiske, and
others (see Waterman, loc, cit., for sources); and it is altogether rea-
sonable to expect that Americanist studies will eventually show that
the great Middle American nations were developed from, and re-
tained characteristics of, communities resembling the Pueblos of our
own Southwest rather than the European states which the Spaniards
had in the eye when they made their first observations. It is to be
expected, too, that a changed complexion put upon the interpretation
of Mexican society will eventually modify the interpretation of
Mexican ritual and mythology, giving it, for example, something
less of the uranian significance upon which scholars of the school of
Forstemann and Seler put so great weight, and something more, if
not of the Euhemerism of Brasseur de Bourbourg, at least of reliance
upon social motives and historical traditions.
3. Of all regions of primitive America, ancient Mexico is repre-
sented by the most extensive literature; and here, too, more has been
transmitted directly from native sources than is the case elsewhere.
The hieroglyphic codices, the anonymous Historia de los Mexicanos
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NOTES 353
por sus pitituras and Hisioria de los Reynos de Colhuacan y de Mexico
(better known and commonly cited as The Annals of Quauhtitlan)^
and the writings of men of native blood in the Spanish period, notably
Iztlilzochitl, Tezozomoc, and Chimalpahin, are the most important
of these sources; unless, as is doubtless proper, the works of Sahagun,
originally written in Nahuatl from native sources, be here included
— undoubtedly the single source of greatest importance. Among
Spanish writers of the early period, after Sahagun, the most im-
portant are Cristobal del Castillo, Diego Duran, Gomara, Herrera,
Mendieta, Motolinia, Tobar, and Torquemada. Boturini, Clavigero,
Veytia, Kingsborough, Prescott, and Brasseur de Bourbourg are
important names of the intermediate period; while recent scholarship
is represented by Brinton, Bancroft, Hamy, Garcia Icazbalceta, Orozco
y Berra, Penafiel, Ramirez, Rosny, and most conspicuously by Seler.
The most convenient recent introductions to the subject are afforded
by Beuchat, Manuel; Joyce, Mexican Archaeology; Spinden, Ancient
Civilizations of Mexico; while the best guide to the whole literature
is Lehmann's '^Ergebnisse und Aufgaben der mezikanistischen
Forschung," in Archiv fur Anthropologies new series, vi, 1907 (trans-
lated as Methods and Results in Mexican Research^ Paris, 1909). But
while the material is relatively abundant, it is so only for the dom-
inant race represented by the Aztec. For the non-Nahuatlan
civilizations of Mexico the literature is sparse, especially upon
the side of mythology. Sahagun gives certain details, mainly in-
cidental, except in X. xxix, which is devoted to a brief description
of the peoples of Mexico. Gomara, Herrera, and Torquemada
afford added materials, touching several regions. For the Totonac-
Huastec region the sources are particularly scanty, except for
such descriptions of externals as naturally appear in the chronicles
of Cortez, Bemal Diaz, and other conquistadores who here made
their first intimate acquaintance with the mainland natives.
Fewkes [g] deals with the monuments of the Totonac region, and
expresses the opinion (p. 241, note) that the Codex Tro-Cortesianus,
commonly said to be Maya, was obtained in this region, near Cem-
poalan; Holmes [b], and Seler, in numerous places, are also material
sources for interpretation of the monuments. For the Tarascans of
Michoacan the most important source is an anonymous Relacion de
las ceremoniaSj rictoSy poblacion y gobemacion de los Indios de Michua-
can hecha al illmo. Sr. D. Ant. de Mendoza (Madrid, 1875; Morelia,
1903), while of recent studies Nicolas Leon's Los Tarascos (see
Leon [c]) is the most comprehensive. The Mixtec-Zapotec area fares
better, both as to number of sources and later studies. Burgoa, Juan
de Cordoba, Gregorio Garcia, Balsalobre, Herrera, Las Casas, and
Torquemada are the primary authorities; while the most significant
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354 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
later studies are doubtless those of Seler, "The Mexican Chronology
with Special Reference to the Zapotec Calendar/* and "Wall Paint-
ings of Mitla," both in 28 BBE. Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], bk. ix,
deals with the Miztec-Zapotec and Tarascan peoples, and is still a
good introduction to the literature- Cf. also Alvarez; Castellanos
(himself a Zapotec); Genin; Leon [d]; Mechling; Portillo; Radin.
4. The works of Clavigero, Helps, Prescott, Orozco y Berra [b],
and Veytia are the best-known histories narrating the Spanish con-
quest of Mexico. Of the earlier writers Bemal Diaz, who took part
in the expeditions of Cordova and Grijalva, as well as in that of
Cortez, is the most important (of his work there are several English
translations besides that of Maudsley in HS — by Maurice Keatinge,
London, iSoo, by John G. Lockhart, London, 1844, and a condensed
version by Kate Stephens, The Mastering of Mexico^ New York, 191 5).
5. Bemal Diaz, ch. xcii (quoted), describes the ascent of the
temple overlooking Tlatelolco. Seleri [a], ii. 769-70, says that on
the upper platform were two shrines, one to Tlaloc, tJhe other to the
three idols described by Bemal Diaz, of which the principal was not
"Huichilobos" (Huitzilopochtli), but Coatlicue, the earth goddess.
The "page" Seler regards as the tutelary of Tlatelolco, called Tla-
cauepan. The great temple of Huitzilopochtli was in the centre of
the city, on the site of the present Cathedral. See Leon y Gama;
Seler [a], loc. cit,; and cf. Zelia Nuttall, "L'£veque Zumarraga et les
principales idoles du Templo Mayor de Mexico," in SocAA xxx
(1911).
6. General descriptions of the Aztec pantheon are given by Beu-
chat, livre ii, !• partie, chh. v, vi, and by Joyce [b], ch. ii. The most
important early source is Sahagun, bk. i; other primary sources are
Mendieta, bk. ii (derived from de Olmos), Leon y Gama (in part
from Cristobal del Castillo), Ruiz de Alarcon, Jacinto de la Sema,
. the Tratado de los ritos y ceremonias y dioses of the Codice Ramirez
(see Tobar, in Bibliography), and the explanations of the Codices
Vaticanus A and Telleriano-Remensis (Kingsborough, v, vi). Of
recent works the most significant are Seler [a] (collected essays), and
[b]> [c], [d], [e] (analyses of divinatory or astrological codices).
7. For data conceming the use of these numbers by American
peoples north of Mexico, see Mythology of J II Races, Boston, 1916, z,
Ch. IX, iv, and Notes 11, 31, 42, 50, with references there given.
Further allusions to the nine and thirteen of Mexican cosmology will
be found infraj Ch. Ill, i, iii. The origin of the peculiar uses of the
number thirteen is a puzzle without satisfactory solution. In the
explanation of Vaticanus A (Kingsborough, vi. 198, note), it is said —
referring to the statement that "Tonacatecotle" presides over the
"thirteen causes" — that "the causes are really only nine, cor-
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NOTES 355
responding in number with the heavens. But since four of them
are reckoned twice in every series of thirteen days, in order that
each day might be placed under some peculiar influence, they are
said to be thirteen." This, however, is probably assuming eflFect for
cause (cf. Ch. Ill, iii).
8. Sahagun, VI. xxxii. Other references to Sahagun are. III, Ap-
pendix i; X. zxi.
9. Seler [b], p. 31; [c], pp. 5, 10, 14.
10. Seler [c], pp. 5-31, where he discusses the whole problem of
cruciform and caryatid figures; as also in [e], ii., 107, 126-34; [d], pp.
76-93-
11. Seler [a], index, s. w., is a guide to the manifold attributes of
the Aztec gods. The most important myths concerning them are
related by Sahagun, bk. iii, and by the authorities cited with respect
to cosmogonies, infra^ Ch. Ill, i, ii.
12. See especially Seler [a], ii, "Die Ausgrabungen am Orte des
Haupttempels in Mexico"; [c], p. 112; Sahagun, III. i; Tratado de los
RiioSy etc. (see Tobar, in Bibliography) ; Robelo [a], j. v.; and Charency,
UOrigine de la ligende d*Huitzilopocfuli (Paris, 1897); cf. also infray
Ch. Ill, v. The story of Tlahuicol is given by Clavigero, V. vi.
13. See Seler [b], p. 60; [c], pp. 33, 205; [d], pp. 77, 95*96; [e], index.
The prayers quoted are in Sahagun, VI. i, iv, v, vi; while the
famous sacrifice is described in II. v, xxiv (also by Torquemada,
VII. xix and X. xiv; and picturesquely by Prescott, I. iii). The
myths are in Sahagun, III. iv flF.; a version with a different list of
magicians (Ihuimecatl and Toltecatl are the companions of Tezcatli-
poca) is given by Ramirez, AnaUs de Cuaufuitlan^ pp. 17-18.
14. See Seler, indexes, and the picturesque and romantic treat-
ment by Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], iii. The more striking early
sources are Sahagun, III. iii-xv; VI. vii, xxv (quoted), xxxiv
(quoted); IX. xxix; X. iii, iv; Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimecaj
I. i, ii; Anales de Cuauhtitlan, pp. 17-23; Mendieta, II. v; and
Explicacion del Codex Tellefiano-Remensis (Kingsborough, v). For
later discussions see Leon de Rosny, "Le Mythe de Quetzalcoatl," in
Archives de la societe des americanistes de France (Paris, 1878); Seler
[a], iii, "Ueber die naturlichen Grundlagen mexikanischer Mythen";
[b], pp. 41-48 (p. 45 here quoted); and Joyce [b], pp. 46-51. Dupli-
cates or analogues of Quetzalcoatl are described in Mythology of All
Races J Boston, 1916, x, Ch. IX, iii, v; Ch. XI, ii (p. 243); and infray
Ch. IV, ii; Ch. V, iv; Ch. VI, iv; Ch. VII, iv; Ch. VIII, ii.
15. For Tlaloc see especially Seler [a], iii. ioa-03; [b], pp. 62-67;
Sahagun, I. iv, xxi; II. i, iii, xx (quoted), and Appendix, where is
given the description of the curious octennial festival in which the
rain-gods were honoured with a dance at which live frogs and snakes
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3S6 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
were eaten; the feast was accompanied by a fast viewed as a means
of permitting the deities to resuscitate their food-creating energies,
which were regarded as overworked or exhausted by their eight years'
labour. See also Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas^ chh. ii,
vi; and Hamy [b]. References to Chalchiuhtlicue will be found
in Seler [a], index; [b], pp. 56-58; etc. The ritual prayer is recorded
by Sahagun, VI. xxxii.
16. Sahagun, bk. i; Seler [a], index; and Robelo [a], are guides to
the analysis and grouping of the Aztec deities.
17. See Seler [d], pp. 130-13 1.
i8. Seler [a], ii. 1071-78, and CJ xiii. 171-74 (hymn to Xipe Totec,
here freely rendered). See, also, Seler [b], pp. 100-104, ^^^ [^1> ">
"Die religiosen Gesange der alten Mexikaner" (cf. Brinton [d], [e]),
where a number of deities are characterized by translations and
studies of hymns preserved in a Sahagun MS. A description of the
Pawnee form of the arrow sacrifice will be found in Mythology of All
RaceSj Boston, 1916, x. 76 (with plate), and Note 58. The Aztec
form is pictured in Codex Nuttall, No. 83, as is also the famous
sacrificio gladiatorio (as the Spaniards called it), of which Duran,
AlbuMy gives several drawings. The sacrificio gladiatorio was appar-
ently in some rites a first stage leading to the arrow sacrifice (see
Seler [e], i. 170-^3, where several figures are reproduced).
19. Tonacatecutli is treated by Seler [d], pp. 130 ff. See also,
supra^ Ch. II, iii; infra^ Ch. Ill, 1,
20. Seler [d], p. 133; and for discussion of Xochiquetzal, Seler [b],
pp. 118-24.
21. Sahagun, I. vi, xii. Seler [b], pp. 92-100, discusses Tlazolteotl,
on p. 93 giving the story of the sacrifice of the Huastec, taken from
Ramirez, AnaltSy pp. 25-26.
22. The conception of sacrifice as instituted to keep the world
vivified, and especially to preserve the life of the Sun, appears in a
number of documents, particularly in connexion with cosmogony
(see Ch. Ill, 1, ii), as Sahagun, III, Appendix, iv; VI. iii; VII. ii;
Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis (Kingsborough, v. 135);
and especially in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus PitUuras; see
also Payne, i. 577-82; Seler [a], iii. 285; [b], pp. 37-41; "Die Sage von
Quetzalcouatl," in CJ xvi (Vienna, 1910).
23. Sahagun, III, Appendix, i (quoted); cf. Seler [b], pp. 82-86.
See also Sahagun, loc. cit.^ ch. ii, for a description of Tlalocan, and
ch. iii. for a description of the celestial paradise (cf . I. x and VI. xxix).
24. The meaning of Tamoanchan is discussed by Preuss, "Feuer-
gotter," who regards it as an underworld region; by Beyer, in Anthro^
poSy iii, who explains it as the Milky Way; and by Seler [a], ii, "Die
religiosen Gesange der alten Mexikaner," and [e] (see index), who
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NOTES 357
identifies it with the western region, the house of the evening sun.
Xolotl is discussed, in the same connexions, by Seler; see especially
[b], pp. 108-12. The myth from Sahagun is in VII. ii; those from
Mendieta in II. i, ii.
25. The limbo of children's souls is described in the Spiegazione
deUe tavole del Codice Mexicano (here quoting Kingsborough, vi. 171).
Chapter III
1. Mexican cosmogonies are discussed by Robelo [a], art. '*Cos«
mogonia," in AnMM, 2a epoca, iii; Bancroft, III. ii (full biblio-
graphical notes); R. H. Lowie, art. ^^ Cosmogony and Cosmology
(Mexican and South American)," in ERE; Bruhl, pp. 398-401;
Brinton [a], vii; Charency [a]; Miiller, pp. 510-12; Spence [b], iii.
A literary version of some of the old cosmogonic stories is given by
Castellanos [b].
2. Herrera, III. iii. 10 (quoted by Leon, in AnMM, 2a epoca, i.
395).
3. Mixtec and Zapotec myth are studied by Seler, 28 BBE^ pp.
285-305 (pp. 289, 286 are here quoted) ; the source cited for the Mixtec
myth is Gregorio Garcia, OHgen de las Indios, V. iv; for Zapotec,
Juan de Cordoba, ArU del Idioma ZapoUca.
4. Sahagun, VI. vii, with reference to the Chichimec (elsewhere
he speaks of Mixcoatl as an Otomian god); X. xxix. i, with reference
to the Toltec; III. i, ii, and VII. ii, with reference to the origin of
the sun, etc.
5. Seler [b], p. 38.
6. Mendieta (after Fray Andres de Olmos), II. i-iv,
7. The fullest versions of the Mexican cosmic ages, or "Suns," are:
(a) Ixtlilxochitl {Historia Chichimeca^ I. i; RelacioneSj ed. Kings-
borough, ix. 321 ff., 459); (b) Historia de los Mexicanos pot su^ Piti^
turaSj i-viii — the narrative which most resembles a primitive
myth; (c) Ancles de Cuauhtitlan (ed. Ramirez, pp. 9-1 1), partly
translated into French by Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], i. Appendice,
pp. 425-27, where the version of the deluge myth is given; (d) Spie-
gazione delle tavole del Codice Mexicano (i. e. Codex Vaticanus A),
where Plates VII-X are described as symbols of the Suns; though a
discordant explanation is given in connexion with Plate V. Other
authorities are Gomara [b], p. 431; Munoz Camargo, p. 132; Hum-
boldt [a], ii, Plate XXVI; and especially Charency [a], who makes a
comparative study of the myth. Monumental evidences are discussed
by Seler [a], ii, "Die Ausgrabungen am Orte des Haupttempels in Mex-
ico,** and by MacCurdy [a]. Maya forms of the myth are sketched
infraj pp. 1 53*55; cf- PP- ^59 ff-
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3S8 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
8. The Spiegazione contains the description of the deluge (Kings-
borough, vi. 195-96), chiefly in connexion with Plate XVI. Similar
material, briefly treated, is in the Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-
Remensis.
9. The literature dealing with the Mexican calendar is voluminous.
Summary treatments of the subject, based on recent studies, are to
be found in Beuchat, IL i. 5; Joyce [b], iii.; Preuss, art. "Calendar
(Mexican and Mayan)," in ERE, The primary sources for knowledge
of the calendar are three: (i) writings of the early chroniclers, among
whom the most noteworthy are Sahagun, books ii, iv, vii, and Leon
y Gama, who derives in part from Cristobal del Castillo; (2) calendric
codices, the more important being Codex Borgia, studied by Fabrega,
in AnMM v, and by Seler [a], i, and [e]; Codex Borbonicus, studied
by Hamy [a], and de Jonghe; Codex Vaticanus B (3773), studied by
Seler [d]; Codex Fejervary-Mayer, studied by Seler [c]; Codex Bologna
(or Cospianus), studied by Seler [a], i; Codex Nuttall, studied by
Nuttall; and the Tonalamatl of the Aubin Collection^ studied by Seler
[b]; (3) monuments, especially calendar stones: Leon y Gama, Dos
Piedras; Chavero [a]; MacCurdy [a]; and Robelo [b] are studies of
such monliments. Recent investigations of importance, in addition
to papers by Seler ([a] and elsewhere), are Z. Nuttall, "The Periodical
Adjustments of the Ancient Mexican Calendar," in AA^ new series,
vi (1904), and Preuss, "Kosmische Hieroglyphen der Mexikaner,"
in ZE xxxiii (1901). Studies of the Maya calendar (especially the
important contributions of Forstemann, in 28 BBE) and of that of
the Zapotec (Seler, "The Mexican Chronology, with Special Refer-
ence to the Zapotec Calendar," ib.) are, of course, intimately related
to the Aztec system. For statement of current problems, see Leh-
mann [a], pp. 164-66.
10. For Mexican astronomy, in addition to the studies of the
codices, see Sahagun, bk. vii; Tezozomoc, Ixxxii; Seler, 28 BBE^ "The
Venus Period in the Picture Writings of the Borgian Codex Group"
(tr. from art. in Berliner Geselbchaft fur Anthropologies Ethnologie und
UrgeschichU, 1898); Hagar [a], [b]; Chavero [b]; and Nuttall [a],
especially pp. 245-59. On the question of the zodiac, advocated by
Hagar, see H. J. Spinden, "The Question of the Zodiac in America,"
in A Ay new series, xviii (191 6), and the bibliography there given.
11. Accounts of the archaeology of Tollan, or Tula, are to be found
in Charnay [a], iv-vi, and in Joyce [b], especially in the Appendix.
Sahagun's description of the Toltec is in X. xxix. i . The Spiegazione
of Codex Vaticanus A, Plate X, gives interesting additions (here
quoted from Kingsborough, vi. 178), The chief authority, however,
is Ixtlilxochitl, whose accounts of the Toltec, Chichimec, and espe-
cially Tezcucan powers have frequently been regarded with sus-
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NOTES 359
picion, as coloured by too free a fancy. Nevertheless, as Lehmann
points out ([a]y p. I2i), it is certain that Iztlilxochitl had at his com-
mand sources now lost. Much of his material is clearly in a native
vein, and there is no impossibility that it is a version of history which
is only slightly exalted.
12. Spanish and French versions of the elegy of Nezahualcoyotl
(here rather freely adapted) are in TC xiv. 368-73.
13. The Aztec migration is a conspicuous feature of native tradi-
tion, and is, therefore, prominent in the histories, being figured by
several of the codices, as well as in Duran's Album. An early narra-
tion of the Aztec myth forms chh. ix ff. of the Historia de los Mexi^
canos por sus Pinturas, while the Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan
y de Mexico J the narrative of the "Anonimo Mexicano," and Tezo-
zomoc, i-iii, give other native versions. Mendieta, Sahagun, and
Duran, are other sources for the myth. Seler [a], ii, "Wo lag Aztlan,
die Heimat der Azteken?" gives a careful study of the mythical ele-
ments in the migration-story as displayed in the Codex Boturini and
elsewhere. Orozco y Berra [a], iv, presents a comparative study of
the Aztec rulers, drawn from the various accounts. Buelna*8 Pete-
grinacion is generally regarded as the completest study of the migra-
tion from both legendary and archaeological evidence. Brasseur de
Bourbourg [a], VI. iv, contains an account of the Aztlan myth, while
VII sketches the development of Nahuatlan power in Tezcuco and
Mexico; in ii. 598-602, the Abbe gives his chronological restoration
of the history of Anahuac. Motezuma's Corona Mexicana should be
mentioned as a partly native source for the records of the Aztec
monarchs; while Chimalpahin represents not only a native record,
but one composed in the native tongue.
■ 14. Mendieta, II. xxxiii-xxxiv.
15. Sahagun, X. xxix. 12.
16. Best known is the Codex Boturini (reproduced in Kings-
borough, i; see also Garcia Cubas [b], where Codex Boturini is com-
pared with a supplementary historical painting; interesting repro-
ductions of related Acolhua paintings, the "Mappe Tlotzin" and the
"Mappe Quinatzin," are in Aubin [a]).
17. Duran, xxvii.
18. Accounts of the portents that preceded the coming of Cortez
are conspicuous in nearly all the early narratives; among them
Acosta, VI. xxii; Clavigero, V. xii, etc.; Chimalpahin, "Septieme
relation*'; Duran, Ixi, Ixiii, etc.; Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimecay
II. Ixxii; Sahagun, XII. i; Tezozomoc, xcvii; Torquemada, III. xci.
19. The Papago myth is given by Bancroft, III. ii (after Davidson,
Report on Indian Affairs [Washington, 1865], pp. 131-33); cf. Lum-
holtz [c], p. 42.
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s6o LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
20. For identification of the Nicaraguan divinities (originally
described by Oviedo) see Seler [a], ii. 1029-30. Phases of contem-
porary pagan myth in Mexico are treated by Lumholtz (passim)j
Preuss, Mechling [a], Mason, and Radin. Interesting ritualistic anal-
ogies are suggested by Fewkes, Evans, Genin, Nuttall, and Preuss.
21. Preuss [a], [b], and Lumholtz [b], L zzix.
22. Preuss, "Die magische Denkweise der Cora-Indianer," in CA
xviii (London, 1913), pp. 129-34.
23. Seler [a], iii. 376, regards the Huichol Tamats as the Morning
Star, which is certainly plausible in view of his similarity to Chuvalete
of the Cora. Huichol myth and deities are described by Lumholtz
[a], ii (p. 12 here quoted); [b], II. iz; cf., also, Preuss.
24. Lumholtz [b], i. 356.
Chapter IV
1. The physiography and ethnography of the Maya region are
summarized in Spinden [aj; Beuchat, II, ii; and in Joyce [b], ch. viii.
Wissler, The American Indian in this, as in other fields, most eflFec-
tively presents the relations — ethnical, cultural, historical — to the
other American groups. Recent special studies of importance are
Tozzer [a]; Starr, In Indian Mexico^ etc.; Sapper [b]; and the more
distinctively archaeological studies of Holmes, Morley, Spinden, and
others.
2. It is unfortunate that the region of Maya culture was the sub-
ject of no such full reports, dating from the immediate post-Conquest
period, as we possess from Mexico. The more important of the
Spanish writers who deal with the Yucatec centres are Aguilar,
Cogolludo, Las Casas, Landa, Lizana, Nunez de la Vega, Ordonez y
Aguiar, Pio Perez, Pedro Ponce, and Villagutierre, with Landa easily
first in significance. The histories of Eligio Ancona and of Carrillo y
Ancona are the leading Spanish works of later date. Native writings
are represented by three hieroglyphic pre-Cortezian codices, namely,
Codex Dresdensis, Codex Tro-Cortesianus, and Codex Peresianus,
as well as by the important Books of Chilam Balam and the Chronicle
of Nakuk Pech from the early Spanish period (for description of
thirteen manuscripts and bibliography of published works relating
to their interpretation, see Tozzer, "The Chilam Balam Books," in
CA xix [Washington, 191 7]). Yet what Mayan civilization lacks in
the way of literary monuments is more than compensated by the
remains of its art and architecture, to which an immense amount of
shrewd study has been devoted. The more conspicuous names of
those who have advanced this study are mentioned in connexion with
the literature of the Maya calendar, Note 22, infra. The region has
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NOTES 361
been explored archaeologically with great care, the magnificent re-
ports of Maudsley (in Biologia CentralinAmericana) and of the Pea-'
body Museum expeditions {Memoirs)^ prepared by Gordon, Maler,
Thompson, and others, being the collections of eminence. Brasseur
de Bourbourg can scarcely be mentioned too often in connexion with
this field. His fault is that of Euhemerus, but he is neither the first nor
the last of the tribe of this sage; while for his virtues, he shows more
constructive imagination than any other Americanist: probably the
picture which he presents would be less criticized were it less vivid.
3. Landa, chh. v-xi (vi, ix, being here quoted).
4. The sources for the history of the Maya are primarily the native
chronicles (the Books of Chilam Bdlam)j the Relaciones de Yucatan^
and the histories of CogoUudo, Landa, Lizana, and Villagutierre.
The deciphering of the monumental dates of the southern centres
has furnished an additional group of facts, the correlation of which
to the history of the north has become a special problem, with its own
literature. The most important attempts to synchronize Maya dates
with the years of our era are by Pio Perez (reproduced both by
Stephens [b] and by Brasseur de Bourbourg [b]); Seler [a], i, "Bedeu-
tung des Maya-Kalenders fiir die historische Chronologic"; Good-
man [a], [b]; Bowditch [a]; Spinden [a], pp. 130-35; [b] (with chart);
Joyce [b]. Appendix iii (with chart); and Morley [a], [b], [c] and [d].
Bowditch, Spinden, Joyce, and Morley are not radically divergent
and may be regarded as representing the conservative view — here
accepted as obviously the plausible one. Carrillo y Ancona, ch. ii,
analyses some of the earlier opinions; while the first part of Ancona*8
Historia de Yucatan is devoted to ancient Yucatec history and is
doubtless the best general work on the subject.
5. Brinton [f], p. 100 ("Introduction" to the Book of Chilan Balam
of Mant).
6. Spinden [b]; Joyce [b], ch. viii. But cf. Morley*s chronological
scheme, infra; and Spinden [a], pp. 130-35.
7. Morley [c], ch. i.
8. Morley [b], p. 140. In this connection (p. 144) Morley sum-
marizes the various speculations as to the causes which led to the
abandonment of the southern centres, as reduction of the land by
primitive agricultural methods (Cook), climatic changes (Hunting-
ton), physical, moral and political decadence (Spinden). He adds:
** Probably the decline of civilization in the south was not due to any
one of these factors operating singly, but to a combination of adverse
' influences, before which the Maya finally gave way."
9. The culture heroes of Maya myth have taken possession of
the imaginations of the Spanish chroniclers, and indeed of not a few
later commentators, rather as clues to native history than to myth-
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362 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ology. Bancroft, lii. 450-5 S> 461-67, summarizes the materials from
Spanish sources; which is treated also, from the point of view of
possible historical elucidation, by Ancona,.!. iii; Carrillo y Ancona,
ii, iii; Comte de Charency [bj; Garcia Cubas, in SocAA xxx, nos.
3-6; and Santibanez, in CA xvii. 2.
ID. The primary sources for the Votan stories are CogoUudo,
Ordonez y Aguiar, and Nuiiez de la Vega, whose narratives are
liberally summarized by Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], I. i, ii (pp.
6&-72 containing the passages from Ordonez here quoted).
11. For Zamna (or Itzamna) the sources are Cogolludo, Landa,
and Lizana, summarized by Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], I. pp. 76-80.
Quotations are here made from Cogolludo, IV. iii, vi; Brasseur de
Bourbourg [f], ii, ^^Vocabulaire generale"; and Lizana (ed. Brasseur
de Bourbourg), pp. 356-59; cf. also Seler [a], index; Landa, chh.
XXXV, xxxvi.
12. Identifications of images of Itzamna and Kukulcan are dis-
cussed by DieseldorflF, in ZE xxvii. 770-83; Spinden [a], pp. 60-70;
Joyce [b], ch. ix, and Morley [c], pp. 16-19.
13. Cogolludo, Landa, and Lizana are the chief sources for the
Kukulcan stories, — especially Landa, chh. vi, xl, being here quoted.
Tozzer [a], p. 96, is quoted; cf., for Yucatec survival, p. 157.
14. Citations from Landa in this section are from chh. xxvii, xl
(which records the new year*s festivals), xxxiii (describing the future
world), and xxxiv. Landa is our chief source for knowledge of the
Yucatec rites and of the deities associated with them; additional or
corroborative details being furnished by Aguilar, Cogolludo, Lizana,
Las Casas, Ponce, and Pio Perez.
15. Interpretations of the names of the Maya deities, as here
given, are from Brasseur de Bourbourg [f], ii, "Vocabulaire"; and
Seler [a], index.
16. Lizana (ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg), pp. 360-61.
17. Schellhas [b] gives his identifications and descriptions of the
gods of the codices; additional mat^als are contained in Fewkes
{1]; Forstemann [b]; Joyce [b], ch. ix; Morley [c], pp. 16-19; Spinden
[b], pp. 60-70; and Bancroft, iii, ch. xi.
18. Tozzer [a], pp. 150 flF.; also, for the Lacandones, pp. 93-99.
The names of the deities, Maya and Lacandone, are here in several
cases altered slightly from the form in which Tozzer gives them, for
the sake of avoiding the use of unfamiliar phonetic symbols; the
result is, of course, phonetic approximation only.
19. Landa, chh. xxvi, xxvii.
20. Las Casas [b], ch. cxxiii.
21. Landa, ch. xxxiv. In chh. iii, xxxii, he gives information in
regard to the goddess Ixchel.
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NOTES 363
22. The literature of the Maya calendar system is, of course, inti->
mately connected with that of the Mexican (see Note 9, Chapter III).
The native sources for its study are the Codices and the monumental
inscriptions, while of early Spanish expositions the most important
are those of Landa and Pio Perez. In recent times a considerable body
of scholars have devoted special attention to the Maya inscriptions
and to the elucidation of the calendar, foremost among them being,
in America, Ancona, Bowditch, Chavero, Goodman, Morley, Spinden,
Cyrus Thomas, and in Europe, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Forstemann,
Rosny, and Seler. The foundation of the elucidation of Maya as-
tronomical knowledge is Forstemann^s studies of the Dresden Codex,
while the study of mythic elements associated with the calendar is
represented by Charency, especially "Des ages ou soleils d'apres la
mythologie des peuples de la Nouvelle Espagne," section ii, in CA
iv* 2; and by J. H. Martinez, "Los Grandes Ciclos de la histdria
Maya," in CA xvii. 2. Summary accounts of the Maya calendar are
to be found in Spinden [a], Beuchat, Joyce [b], Arnold, and Frost,
while Bowditch [b] and Morley [c] are in the nature of text-book
introductions to the subject.
23. Morley [d], "The Hotun," in CA xix (Washington, 1917).
24. Morley [c], p. 32.
25. Tozzer [a], pp. 153-54-
26. J. Martinez Hernandez, "La Creacion del Mundo segun los
Mayas," in CA xviii (London, 1913), pp. 164-71. Senor Hernandez
notes that the tense of the verb in the first sentence of the myth is
for the sake of literal translation.
Chapter V
1. For ethnic analysis Thomas and Swanton is followed here and
throughout the chapter. Of the earlier Spanish authors Las Casas
(especially [b], chh. cxxii-cxxv, clxxx, ccxxxiv flF.) is the most
weighty. See also Morley [e], "The Rise and Fall of the Maya Civil-
izations,*' in CA XIX (Washington, 1 91 7).
2. Brinton [h], p. 69.
3. ib. p. 149.
4. Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], pp. Ixxx-lxxxiii.
5. The Popul Fuhj described by Brasseur de Bourbourg in his
Histoire du Mexique under the title Manuscrit Quiche de Chichi--
castenango ([a], i. pp. Ixxx flF.), is a Quiche document, part myth and
part legendary history, supposed to have been put in writing in the
seventeenth century, when it was copied and translated into Spanish
by Francisco Ximenes, of the Order of Predicadores. The manu-
script was found by C.Scherzer in 1855 in the library of the uni-
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364 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
versity of San Carlos, Guatemala. The Spanish text of Ximenes was
published at Vienna in 1856, and again, with French translation and
notes, by Brasseur de Bourbourg, Paris, 1861; a second Spanish ver-
sion, by Barberena, appeared in San Salvador, 1905. None of these
translations is regarded as accurate, or indeed as other than filled
with error and misinterpretation; but pending the appearance of a
scholarly rendering from the native text they are our only sources
for a document of profound interest. The edition of Brasseur de
Bourbourg is that here employed, translations being from parts i, ii,
and iii, while interpretations of names are drawn chiefly from Bras-
seur's footnotes. Las Casas [b], ch. czxiv, contains some account
of the gods and heroes mentioned in the Popul Fuh.
6. For discussion of the bat-god, Zotz, see Seler, 28 BBE, pp.
231 ff., "The Bat God of the Maya Race"; also, Dieseldorff, ib., p.
665, "A Qay Vessel with a Picture of a Vampire-headed Deity";
cf. Giglioli, CA xvi (Vienna and Leipzig, 1910).
7. The Manuscrit Cakchiquelj or Memorial de Tecpan-Atitlan^ as
he calls it, was given to Brasseur de Bourbourg by Juan Gavarrete,
of the Convent of Franciscans of Guatemala. Its author, says the
Abbe ([a], i. p. Ixxxiii) was Don Francisco Emandez Arana Xahila, of
the Princes Ahpotzotziles of Guatemala, grandson of King Hunyg,
who died of the plague, five years before the Spaniards set foot in
this country, in 1519. The manuscript was brought down to 1582 by
this author, and thence carried forward to 1597 by Don Francisco
Diaz Gebuta Queh, of the same family. Brinton published his trans-
lation under the title. The Annals of the CakchiquelSy in Philadelphia,
1885, and the work now commonly is referred to under this name.
It is Brinton's version which is here followed, with some inconse-
quential alterations of phraseology. In his introduction Brinton
gives (pp. 39-48) interesting comments on the "Religious Notions."
8. Brinton [h], pp. 25-26.
9. ib. p. 14.
10. Of works dealing with the religious beliefs of the natives of
Honduras and Nicaragua, the writings of Oviedo and of Las Casas
(especially [b], ch. clxxx) are the most important of early date.
Among works of later date Squier's books are of the first significance.
Bancroft, iii, ch. xi, gives a summary of most that is known of the
myths of this region; Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], Hvre v, ch. iii,
livre viii, ch. iv, contains additional materials. The archaeology is
described by Squier [a], [b], [c], passim; Joyce [a], part 1; Brinton [h],
introduction; and, with ethnological analysis, Lehmann [c].
11. Brasseur de Bourbourg [a], ii. p. 556. The Mictlan myth is
given, ib. p. 105.
12. Oviedo, rCxiv, p. 133.
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NOTES 365
13. Lehmann [c], p. 717.
14. See Lehmann [c], pp. 715-16.
Chapter VI
1. The ethnology of the Andean region is treated by Joyce [c],
Wissler, The American Indian^ and Beuchat, 11. iv. Bastian, Culture
Idndetj and Payne, History^ give more extended views; while tribal
distribution in its cultural relations is probably best presented by
Schmidt, in ZE xlv. Spinden, "The Origin and Distribution of
Agriculture in America," and Means, "An Outline of the Culture-
Sequence in the Andean Area," both in CA xix (Washington, 191 7),
are significant contributions to the problem of origins and history;
with these should be placed, "Origenes Etnograficos de Colombia,"
by Carlos Cuervo Marquez, in the Proceedings of the Second Pan
American Scientific Congress^ i (Washington, 1917). Spinden con-
ceives an archaic American culture, probably originating in Mexico
and thence spreading north and south, which was based upon agri-
culture and characterized by the use of pottery, textiles, etc., and
which, in the course of time, made its influence felt from the mouth
of the St. Lawrence to that of La Plata. This hypothesis admirably
accounts for the obvious affinities of the civilizations of the two
continents.
2. The linguistic and cultural affinities of the Isthmian tribes are
described by Wissler, Beuchat, Joyce [c], and Thomas and Swanton;
and on the archaeological side especially by Hartman [a], [b], and
Holmes [c], [d]. For the broader analogies of the Central American,
North Andean, and Antillean regions see also Saville, Cuervo Mar-
quez, and Spinden's article mentioned in Note i, supra, Spinden,
Maya Art (MPM)y argues against the conception of extensive bor-
rowing. Of the earlier authorities for this region, the important are
Peter Martyr, Benzoni, Oviedo, Herrera, and Las Casas. Among
writers of later times, Humboldt holds first place.
3. Oviedo (TC)f pp. 211-22. Other references in this paragraph
are: Benzoni (HS)^ ii; Andagoya (HS), pp. 14-15; Cieza de Leon
(HS), 1864, ch. viii.
4. Peter Martyr, 1912, ii (pp. 319, 326 quoted).
5. Gabb, pp. 503-06; Pittier de Fabrega [b], pp. 1-9; Las Casas
[b], ch. cxxv.
6. The most recent work, summarizing the legend of El Dorado,
is Zahm [b]; and the earliest versions of the tale are those of Simon,
Fresle, Piedrahita, Cavarjal, and Castellanos, the latter of whom
incorporated the story in his poetical Elejias de Varones Ilustres de
Indias, which was printed at Madrid, in 1850. Critical accounts, in
addition to Zahm, are Bollaert's "Introduction" to Simon*s Expedu-
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366 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
tion of Pedro de Urstui (Spanish in Serrano y Sanz, Historiadores de
Indias^ ii) and in Bandelier's The Gilded Man. On the historical side,
especially as regards the period of the Conquest, Andagoya, Cas-
tellanos, Carvajal, Fresle, Simon, give unforgettable pictures of the
adventurous extravagance and bizarrerie of a time scarcely to be
paralleled in human annals. Father Zahm's Quest of El Dorado is an
inviting introduction to this literature.
7. For Chibchan ethnology and archaeology, see Joyce [c], Acosta
de Samper, and Cuervo Marquez.
8. Cieza de Leon (/TS), 1864, pp. 59, 88, loi.
9. The primary sources for the mythology of the Chibchan tribes
at the time of the Conquest are Pedro Simon, Lucas Fernandez
Piedrahita (especially I, iii, iv), and Cieza de Ledn. Simon's "Cuarta
Noticia," in eighteen chapters, is the fullest exposition of Chibcha
beliefs and history; along with the "Tercera Noticia" it is printed
in Kingsborough, viii, which is here cited (pp. 244, zS^-^ quoted).
Other authorities include Humboldt, Joyce [c], chh. 1, ii; Acosta de
Samper, ch. viii; Sir Clements Markham, art. "Andeans," in ERE;
and Beuchat, pp. 549-50. On the deluge myth see also Bandelier [c].
10. The story of the giants is given by Cieza de Le&n [a], ch. lii;
see also Velasco, p. 12; Bandelier [b], where the literature of the sub-
ject is assembled; and Saville, 1907, p. 9. The archaeology of the
region, with numerous plates, is presented in Saville's reports; ii.
88-123 (1910) contains a description and discussion of the stone
seats; while brief accounts are to be found in Beuchat and in Joyce [c].
11. Velasco is the chief authority for the career of the people of
Cara. The discoveries of Dorsey on the island of La Plata give an
added significance to these tales of men from the sea.
12. Balboa (TC), ch. vii; cf. Joyce [c], ch. iii.
Chapter VH
I. The history and archaeology of aboriginal Peru is summarized
by Markham, The Incas of Peru (1910), to which his notes and in-
troductions to his many translations of Spanish works, published by
the Hakluyt Society, form a varied supplementation. Among earlier
authorities E. G. Squier, Travel and Exploration in the Land of the In-
cas (1877), and Castelnau, Expedition (1850-52), are eminent; while
of later authorities the more conspicuous are: for Inca monuments,
Bingham, of the Yale Expedition, and Baessler; for Tiahuanaco,
Crequi-Montfort, of the Mission scientifique frangaise a Tiahuan-
aco, Bandelier, Gonzalez de la Rosa, Posnansky, Uhle and Stubel;
for the coastal regions, Baessler, Reiss and Stubel, Uhle, Tello;
and for the Calchaqui territories, Ambrosetti, Boman, and Lafone
Quevado. General and comparative studies are presented in Wissler,
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NOTES
367
The American Indian; Beuchat, Manuel; Joyce, South American
Archeology; Spinden, Handbook; while a careful effort to restore the
sequences of cultures in Peru is Means, "Outline of the Culture-
Sequence in the Andean Area," in CA xix (Washington, 191 7).
2. Cieza de Leon [a], ch. zzxvi.
3. The origin of agriculture in America is regarded by Spinden,
"The Origin and Distribution of Agriculture in America," CA xix
(Washington, 1917), as probably Mexican. From Mexico it passed
north and south, reaching its limiting areas in the neighbourhoods of
the St. Lawrence and of La Plata. Cf. Wissler, The American Indian.
4. Montesinos's lists are analyzed by Markham [a]. See, also,
Means; cf. Pietschmann.
5. Uhle, especially [a], [c], and art., CA xviii (London, 1913), "Die
Muschelhiigel von Ancon, Peru"; Bingham [b], [c].
6. Means, CA xix (Washington, 1917), p. 237, gives as the general
chronological background of Peruvian culture:
1-circa 200 b.c.
circa 20ob.c.-6ooa.d.
" 600-1 100 A. D.
" 1 100-1530 A. D.
Preliminary migrations.
Megalithic Empire.
Tampu-Tocco Period, decadence.
Inca Empire.
He also gives in the same article, p. 241, a most interesting com-
parative restoration of the chronologies of the sequence of culture in
the several Peruvian and Mexican centres, namely:
I
I
I
s
i
Archaic
period
E3
OrcAf
OLD MAVA tMPIAC
NEW MA'tACMPIRC
Transi
rional
Lc*ftu« of
Nahu*
iahu* p« n
iod;
m
QUITO (JL< uador)
Th« Qdifu
Th«
Cara
^
TRUJILLO
Proro-Chi
TiaKu unacoTi
DtcMi nrfbrrwoFI iah^MM»M-
Rtal ChimM
Inca
PNOiACM^C
r ?
[TiahuMMicol
..£n££rj_
DetJMknc*
of
of laUr
1 lahyaiMMo
?r>-lnca
i orma ;
foi ma
Inca
^acol
!1-L
0 cadenca ol
Raeof ~
TiaKuanao >
fermt
NASCA
Proto-Naa< J?
u
iTIahu inacd
:^ra-!f»ca
Inca
DIAGUITE
Draconii n
I* iTiahuhnacJ Dao idanca «f 1 ahaaaacA.
Inca
I
I
Tiahuai aco or Um§ Jit-hic
Tamp « Ibcco par od
Inoa Ennptri
TABLE DB5IG11BD TO SHOW TBB 8BQUBNCB OT ABOUGIWAL AMBBICAN CULTUBBS AMD TBBIB
CBRONOLOGIC RELATIONS
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368 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
7. For the myths and religion of the coastal peoples of Peru the
important early authorities are Arriaga, Avila, Balboa, Cieza de
Leon, and Garcilasso de la Vega. Markham [a], especially chh. ziv,
XV, is the primary authority here followed. For archaeological de-
tails the authorities are Baessler; Bastian; Joyce [c], ch. viii; Squicr
[e]; Tello; Putnam; and Uhle. It is from this coastal region that the
most striking Peruvian pottery comes, the Truxillo and Nasca styles
respectively typifying the Chimu and Chincha groups.
8. Tello, "Los antiguos cementerios del valle de Nasca," p. 287,
suggests three criteria by means of which the mythological nature
of such figures is to be inferred: When symbolical attributes are
indicated by the animal's carrying mystical or thaumaturgical ob-
jects; when the figure retains, through a variety of representations,
certain constant, individualizing traits; and when the same image is
used repeatedly on the more notable types of cultural and artistic
objects. Senor Tello believes Nasca religion to have been totemic in
character.
9. It is reproduced by Joyce [c], p. 155.
ID. Garcilasso's accounts of the coastal religion are scattered
through his inchoate work, the more important passages being bk. ii,
ch. iv; bk. vi, chh. rvii, xviii.
11. Summarized by Markham [a], p. 216.
12. Summarized by Markham [a], pp. 235-36.
13. Avila [b].
14. Avila's Naffoiive in Rius and Laws of the Yncas (^S), 1883,
pp. 121-47, is the authority for the myths given in the text; but
several of the stories appear also in Molina, Salcamayhua, and Sar-
miento, showing that the mythic cycle was widespread, extending
into the highlands as well as along the coast. The people from whom
Avila received his tales were of a tribe that had migrated from the
coast to higher valleys.
15. The Tiahuanaco monolith is interpreted by Squier [e], ch. xv;
Markham [a], ch. ii; Gonzalez de la Rosa, ^'Les deux Tiahuanaco,'*
CA xvi (1910); and by Posnansky, "El signo escalonado," CA xviii
(1913). The latter regards the meander design, or its element, the
stair-design in its various forms, as a symbol of the earth; and he
believes Tiahuanaco to be the place of origin of this symbol, whence
it spread northward into Mexico. It is, of course, among the Pueblo
Indians of the United States an earth-symbol. If this be the correct
interpretation, the central figure is the sun, rising or standing above
the earth. Bandelier [e] gives ancient and modem myths in regard
to Titicaca and its environs.
16. Representations of pottery and other designs from the Dia-
guite region showing the influence of Tiahuanaco and possibly Nasca
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NOTES 369
influence are to be found in the publications of Ambrosetti, Boman,
Lafone Quevado and others. Perhaps the most interesting Is the
potsherd showing the figure of a deity (?) bearing an axe with a
trident-like handle, while near him is what seems clearly to be a
representation of a thunderbolt; a trophy head is at his girdle.
17. Markham [a], pp. 41-42. Caparo y Perez, Proceedings of the
Second Pan American Scientific Congress y section i, pp. 121-22, in-
terprets the name "Uirakocha" as composed of uira, "grease," and
kochay "sea"; and, since grease is a symbol for richness and the sea
for greatness, it "signified that which was great and rich."
18. Molina (Markham, Rites and Lazvs)^ p. 33.
19. Markham [a], ch. viii; another version is given by Markham
[c]; while the text and Spanish translation are in Lafone Quevado [a].
Cf. the fragments from Huaman Poma given by Pietschmann [b],
especially the prayer, p. 512: "Supreme utmost Huiracocha, wherever
thou mayest be, whether in heaven, whether in this world, whether
in the world beneath, whether in the utmost world. Greater of this
world, where thou mayest be, oh, hear me!"
20. Salcamayhua (Markham, Rites and Laws)y pp. 70-72.
21. Bandelier [d], [e], especially pp. 291-329.
22. Molina, op. cit.; Cieza de Leon [b], ch. v, pp. 5-10; Sarmiento,
pp. 27-39; AA<^ ^oi* summary of the narrative of Huaman Poma,
Pietschmann, CA xviii (London, 1913), pp. 511-12.
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370 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
23. Viracocha and Tonapa obviously belong to the group, or chain,
of hero-deities of a like character, extending from Peru to Mexico,
and, in modified forms, far to the north and far to the south of each
of these centres. This personage, as a hero, is a man, bearded, white,
aided by a magic wand or staff, who brings some essential element
of culture and departs; as a god, he is a creator, who appeared after
the barbaric ages of the world and introduced a new age (there are
exceptions to this, as the narrative of Huaman Poma) ; further, he is a
deity of the heavens, the plumed- or the double-headed serpent is
his emblem, perhaps his incarnation, and he is closely associated
with the sun, which seems to be his servant. Is it not entirely pos-
sible that this interesting mythic complex is historically associated,
in its spread, with the spread of the cultivation of maize at some
early period? In the Navaho representations of Hastsheyalti, the
white god of the east, bearded with pollen, and himself creator and
maize-god, with the Yei as his servants, and his two sons (in the tale
of "The Stricken Twins") genii respectively of rain (vegetation) and
of animals (see Mythology of All Races, Boston, 1916, x, ch. viii,
sections ii, iv) we have the essential attributes of this deity and at
the same time an image of his probable function, as sky-god asso-
ciated especially with the whiteness of dawn, with rain-giving, and
hence with growing com. The staff, which is the conspicuous at-
tribute of Tonapa and Bochica in particular, may well bear a double
significance: in the hands of the hero, as the dibble of the maize-
planter; in the hands of the god, as the lightning. In any case, there
are a multitude of analogies, not only in the myths, but also in the
art-motives and symbolisms of the group of tribes which extends from
the Diaguite to the North American Pueblo regions that powerfully
suggest a common origin of the ideas which centre about the cult of
heaven and earth, of descending rain and upspringing maize. Many
partial parallels for the same group of ideas are to be found among
the less advanced tribes of the plains and forest regions of both South
and North America. Possibly, the myth, or at least the rites upon
which it rests, accompanied the knowledge of agriculture into these
regions.
24. Lafone Quevado [a], p. 378.
25. Garcilasso de la Vega, bk. i, chh. xv, xvi. The myth is also
given by Acosta, bk. i, ch. xxv; bk. vi, ch. xx; by Sarmiento, chh.
xi-xiv; and by Salcamayhua (Markham, Rites and Laws), pp. 74-75.
26. Garcilasso de la Vega, bk. ii, ch. xviii; bk. viii, ch. viii; cf.
bk. ix, ch. X.
27. Molina, pp. 11-12.
28. The Inca pantheon is described by Markham [a], chh. viii,
IX, and by Joyce [c], ch. vii. The primary sources are Garcilasso de
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NOTES 371
la Vega, Cieza de Leon, Molina, Salcamayhua, and Sarmiento, and
perhaps most important of all Bias Valera, the "Anonymous Jesuit**
whose writings were utilized by various early narrators. Salcamay-
hua's chart is published by Markham, in a corrected form, in Rites
and Laws of the YncaSj p. 84. The literal reproduction accompanies
Hagar's discussion of it, CA xii, and it has been several times repro-
duced. Its interpretation is discussed by Hagar, loc. ciU; Spinden,
AA^ new series, xviii (1916); Lafone Quevado [b], and "Los Ojos de
Imaymana," with a reproduction of the chart which he characterizes
as "the key to Peruvian symbolism"; cf., also, Ambrosetti, CA xix
(Washington, 191 3).
29. The myth of the Ayars is recorded by Sarmiento, x-xiii; it is
discussed by Markham [a], ch. iv, where are the interpretations of
the names adopted in this text.
30. Cieza de Leon [b], chh. vi-viii (pp. 13, 16, quoted).
31. Garcilasso de la Vega, bk. i, ch. xviii.
Chapter VIII
1. The argument for the antiquity of man in South America rests
mainly upon the discoveries and theories of Ameghino, especially.
La Antiguedad del hombre en la Plata (2 vols., Buenos Aires and
Paris, 1880) and artt. in AnMBj who is followed by other Argen-
tinian savants. Ales Hrdlicka, Early Man in South America (j2
BBEj Washington, 1912), examines the claims made for the sev-
eral discoveries and uniformly rejects the assumption of their great
age, in which opinion he is generally followed by North American
anthropologists; as cf. Wissler, The American Indian (New York,
1917). The theory favored by Hrdlicka and others is of the peopling
of the Americas by successive waves of immigrants from north-
eastern Asia, with possible minor intrusions of Oceanic peoples along
the Pacific coasts of the southern continent.
2. The sketch of South American ethnography in d'Orbigny's
U Homme americain is, of course, now superseded in a multitude of
details; it appears, however, to conform, in broad lines, to the deduc-
tions of later students. In addition to d'Orbigny and Schmidt {ZE
xlv, 1913), Brinton, The American Race^ Beuchat, Manuel^ and
Wissler, The American Indian^ present the most available ethno-
graphic analyses.
3. "Linguistic Stocks of South American Indians," in AA, new
series, xv (1913); also, Wissler, The American Indian^ pp. 381-85,
listing eighty-four stocks. It must be borne in mind, however, that
the tendency of minute study is eventually to diminish the number of
linguistic stocks having no detectable relationships, and that, in any
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372 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
case, classifications based upon cultural grade are more important for
the student of mythology than are those based upon language alone«
4. Brett [a], p. 36; other quotations from this work are from pp.
374, 401, 403.
5. King Blanco, pp. 63-64. The lack of significant early authorities
for the mythologies of the region of Guiana and the Orinoco (Gumilla
is as important as any) is compensated by the careful work of later
observers of the native tribes, especially of Guiana. Among these,
Humboldt, Sir Richard and Robert H. Schomburgk, and Brett, in
the early and middle years of the nineteenth century, and im Thum,
at a later period, hold first place, while the contributions of van Coll,
in Anthropos ii, iii (1907, 1908), are no less noteworthy. Latest of
all is Walter Roth's "Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-Lore of the
Guiana Indians," in jo ARBE (191 5), which, as a careful study of
the myth-literature of a South American group, stands in a class by
itself; it is furnished with a careful bibliography. The reader will
understand that the intimate relation between the Antillean and
Continental Carib (and, to a less extent, Arawakan) ideas brings the
subject-matter of this chapter into direct connexion with that of
Chapter I; while it should also be obvious that the Orinoco region is
only separated from the Amazonian for convenience, and that Chap-
ter X is virtually but a further study of the same level and type of
thought. The bibliographies of Chh. I, VI, and X are supplementary,
for this same region, to that given for Chapter VIII.
6. Humboldt [b] (Ross), iii. 69; im Thum, pp. 365-66.
7. Surely one may indulge a wry smile when told that "heavenly
father" and "creator" are no attributes of God, and may be reason-
ably justified in preferring Sir Richard Schomburgk^s judgment,
where he says (i. 170): "Almost all stocks of British Guiana are one
in their religious convictions, at least in the main; the Creator of the
world and of mankind is an infinitely exalted being, but his energy is
so occupied in ruling and maintaining the earth that he can give no
special care to individual men." This unusual reason for the in-
difference of the Supreme Being toward the affairs of ordinary men
is probably an inference of the author's. Roth commences his study
of Guiana Indian beliefs with a chapter entitled, "No Evidence of
Belief in a Supreme Being," and begins his discussion with the state-
ment: "Careful investigation forces one to the conclusion that, on
the evidence, the native tribes of Guiana had no idea of a Supreme
Being in the modem conception of the term," quoting evidence, from
Gumilla and others, which to the present writer seems to point in
just the opposite direction. Of course, the phrase "in the modem
conception of the term" is the key to much difference in judgement.
If it means that savages have no conception of a Divine Ens, Esse,
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NOTES 373
Actus Funis, or the like, definable by highly abstract attributes,
fa va sans dire; but if the intention is to say that there is no primitive
belief in a luminous Sky Father, creator and ruler, good on the whole,
though not preoccupied with the small details of earthly and human
affairs, such a conclusion is directly opposed to all evidence, early
and late. North American and South American, missionary and
anthropological. Cf. Mythology of AU Races^ x, Note 6, and refer-
ences there given; and, in the present volume, not only Ch. I, iii
(Ramon Fane is surely among the earliest), but also — passing over
the numerous allusions in descriptions of the pantheons of the more
advanced tribes (Chh. II-VII) — Ch. IX, iii (early and late for the
low Brazilian tribes); Ch. X, ii, iii, iv.
8. Sir Richard Schomburgk, ii. 319-20; i. 170-72. Roth gives
legends from many sources touching these deities and others of a
similar character.
9. Humboldt [b] (Ross), ii. 362.
10. This tale is translated and abridged from van Coll, in ^n-
thropoSy ii, 682-89; Roth, chh. vii, xviii, affords an excellent com-
mentary.
11. Brett [a], ch. x, pp. 377-78.
12. Humboldt [b] (Ross), ii. 182-83, 473"7S* Descriptions of the
petroglyphs are to be found in Sir Richard Schomburgk, i. 319-21,
and im Thum, ch. xix.
13. Boddam-Whetham, /ott-Zof^, V. 317 (im Thurn, p. 376, mis-
quoting Brett, calls this an ArawakaH tale); for other creation leg-
ends, see Roth, ch. iv.
14. Van Coll, JnthropoSf iii. 482-86.
15. Humboldt [b] (Ross), iii. 362-63; other citations from Hum-
boldt in this section are, id. op.^ iii. 70; ii. 321 ; iii. 293, 305; ii. 259-60,
in order.
16. Boddam-Whetham, Folk-Lore, v. 317-21.
17. Sir Richard Schomburgk, i. 239-41; im Thum, p. 384. Other
quotations are from Ruiz Blanco, pp. 66-67; Brett [a], pp. 278, 107,
356.
18. For contemporary beliefs about Lope de Aguirre, see Mozans
Q. A. Zahm), [a], pp. 264-67.
Chapter IX
I. The myth of the Amazons is not only the earliest European
legend to become acclimated in America (cf. Ch. I, ii [with Note 5],
iv; Ch. Vin, iii), it is also one of the most obstinate and recurrent,
and a perennial subject of the interest of commentators. For general
discussions of the question, see Chamberlain, ^'Recent Literature
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374 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
on the South American Amazons," in JAFL xxiv. 16-20 (1911)9 and
Rotheiy, The Amazons in Antiquity and Modem Times (London,
1910), which reviews the world-wide scope and forms of the myth,
chh. viii, iz, being devoted to the South American instances. Still
more recent is Whiffen, The Northwest Amazons (New York, 1916),
pp. 239-40.
2. Markham [e], p. 122. Carvajal is cited in the same work, pp.
34,26.
3. Magalhaes de Gandavo, ch. x (TC, pp. 1 16-17); Schmidel
(Hulsius), ch. zxxiii; Raleigh (in Hakluyfs Voyages^ vol. x), pp.
366-68.
4. Humboldt [b] (Ross), ii. 395 ff.; iii. 79. Lore pertaining to the
Amazon stone is hardly second to that dealing with the Amazons
themselves. Authorities here cited are La Condamine, pp. 102-113;
Spruce, ii, ch. xzvi (p. 458 quoted); Ehrenreich [b], especially pp.
64, 65, with references to Barbosa Rodrigues and to Brett [b]. Others
to consult are Rothery, ch. ix; T. Wilson, "Jade in America," in CA
xii (Paris, 1902); J. E. Pogue, "Aboriginal Use of Turquoise in
North America," in AA^ new series, xiv (191 2); and L B. Moura,
"Sur le progres de TAmazonie," in CA xvi (Vienna, 1910).
5. See Mythology of All Nations, x. 160, 203, 205, 210, and Note 64.
6. Netto, CA vii (Berlin, 1890), pp. 201 ff.
7. Acuna (Markham [e]), p. 83. The literature of a region so vast
as that of the basin of the Amazon and the coasts of Brazil is itself
naturally great and scattered. The earlier narratives — such as
those of Acuna, Cardim, Carvajal, Orellana, Ortiguerra, de Lery,
Ulrich Schmidel, and Hans Staden — are valuable chiefly for the
hints which they give of the aboriginal prevalence of ideas studied
with more understanding by later investigators. Among the more
important later writers are d'Orbigny, Couto de Magalhaes, Ehren-
reich, Koch-Griinberg, von den Steinen, Whiffen, and Miller; while
Teschauer's contributions to AnthropoSy i, furnish the best collection
for the Brazilian region as a whole.
8. Kunike, "Der Fisch als Fruchtbarkeitssymbol," in Anthropos
vii (191 2), especially section vi; Teschauer [a], part i, texts (mainly
derived from Couto de Magalhaes); Tastevin, sections iii, vi; Gar-
cilasso de la Vega, bk. i, chh. ix, x (quoted).
9. Cook, p. 385; cf. Whiffen, chh. xv, xvi, xviii; and von den
Steinen [b], pp. 239-41.
10. Whiffen, pp. 385-86. The myths of manioc and other vegeta-
tion are from Teschauer [a], p. 743; Couto de Magalhaes, ii. 134-35;
Whiffen, loc. cit.; and Koch-Griinberg [a], ii. 292-93.
11. The legends of St. Thomas are discussed by Granada, ch. xv,
especially pp. 210-15 (cf. also, ch. xx, ^^Origen mitico y excelencias
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NOTES 375
del urutafi/' with accounts of the vegetation-spirit Reambifi). The
suggested relationship of Brazilian and Peruvian myth is considered
by Lafone Quevado in RevMP iii. 332-36; cf, also, Wissler, The
American Indian^ pp. 198-99. It may be worth noting that there is a
group of South American names of mythic heroes or deities which
mighty in one form or another, suggest or be confounded with Tomdsy
among them the Guarani Tamoi (same as Tupan, and perhaps re-
lated to Tonapa), the Tupi Zume. The legend has been discussed in
the present work in Qi. VII, iv.
12. Koch-Griinberg [a], ii. 173-34; for details regarding the use of
masks and mask^lances, see also Whiff en; Tastevin; M. Schmidt,
ch. ziv; Cook, ch. zziii; Spruce, ch. zxv; von den Steinen [b]; and
Stradelli.
13. Cardim (Purchas, xvi), pp. 419-20; Thevet [b], pp. 136-39;
Keane, p. 209; Ehrenreich [c], p. 34; Hans Staden [b], ch. zzii.
14. Fri£ and Radin, p. 391; Ignace, pp. 952-53; von Rosen, pp.
656-67; Pierini, pp. 703 ff.
15. D'Orbigny, vii, ch. xxxi, pp. 12-24; iv, 109-15; cf. also pp.
265, 296-99, 337, 502-10.
16. Whiffen, ch. xvii (p. 218 quoted); Church, p. 235. The subject
here is a continuation of that discussed in Ch. VIII, ii (with Note 7);
in connexion with which, with reference to Brazil, the comment of
Couto de Magalhaes is significant (part ii, p. 122): ^'Como quer que
seja, a idea de un Deus todo poderoso, e unico, nao foi possuida pelos
nossos selvagens ao tempo da descoberta da America; e pois nao era
possival que sua lingua tivesse uma palvra que a podesse ezpressar.
Ha no entretanto um principio superior qualificado com o nome
de Tupan a quem parece que attribuiam maior poder do que aos
outras.'' The real question to be resolved is what are the necessary
attributes of a "supreme being." Cf. Mythology of All Nations, x,
Note 6.
17. On wood-demons and the like, in addition to Cardim, see
Teschauer [a], pp. 24-34; Koch-Grunberg, [a], i. 190; ii. 157; and
Granada, ch. zzxi, "Demonios, apariciones, fantasmas, etc."
18. On ghosts and metamorphoses, see Ignace, pp. 952-53; Fri£
and Radin; FriJ [a]; von Rosen, p. 657; and Cook, p. 122.
19. On were-beasts, see Ambrosetti [b]; cf. Garcilasso de la Vega,
bk. i, ch. iz.
20. Loci citati touching cannibalism are Haseman, pp. 345-46;
Staden [a], ch. xliii; [b], chh. zxv, zxviii; Cardim (Purchas), ii.
431-40; and Whiffen, pp. 118-24.
21. Von den Steinen [b], p. 323.
22. Couto de Magalhies, part i, texts.
23. Steere, "Narrative of a Visit to the Indian tribes on the Purus
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376 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
River,*' in Riport of the U. S. National Museum^ 1901 (Washington,
1903).
24. Loci citati are Ehrenreich [b], pp. 34-40; [c], p. 34; Markham
[d], p. 119; von den Steinen [a], p. 283; [b], pp. 322 ff.; Teschauer [a],
pp. 731 ff. (citing Barbosa Rodrigues and others); Koch-Grunberg
[b], no. I.
25. Feliciano de Oliveira, CA zviii (London, 1913), pp. 394-96.
26. Teschauer [a], p. 731. The Kaduveo genesis is given by Fri£,
in CJ xviii, 397 ff. Stories of both types are widespread through-
out the two Americas.
27. Couto de Magalh&es, part i, texts. This is among the most
interesting of all American myths; it is clearly cosmogonic in char-
acter, yet it reverses the customary procedure of cosmogonies, be-
ginning with an illuminated world rather than a chaotic gloom.
Possibly this is an indication of primitiveness, for the conception of
night and chaos as the antecedent of cosmic order would seem to call
for a certain degree of imaginative austerity; it is not simple nor
childlike.
28. Cardim (Purchas), p. 418.
29. Adam [b], p. 319. Other sources for tales of the deluge are
Borba [b], pp. 223-25; Kissenberth, in ZE zl. 49; Ehrenreich [b],
pp. 30-31; Teschauer; and von Martins.
30. D*Orbigny, iii. 209-14; von den Steinen [a], pp. 282-85; [bj,
pp. 322-27; and cf. the Kapoi legends in Koch-Grunbeig [a]. The
Yuracara tale narrated by d'Orbigny is one of the best and most
fully reported of South American myths.
Chapter X
1. On the physical and ethnological conditions of the Chaco and
the Abiponean districts the important authorities are Dobrizhoffer;
Grubb [a], [b]; Koch, "Zur Ethnographie der Paraguay-Gebiete,**
in MilAGW zzziii (1903); for the southern region important are.
Voyages of tlu Adventure and the Beagle; the publications of the
Mission scientifique du Cap Horn; Cooper, Analytical and Critical
Bibliography of tiu Tribes of Tierra del Fuego and Adjacent Territory
{63 BBE)f with map; and El Norte de la Patagonia^ with map, pub-
lished by the Argentine Ministry of Public Works, Buenos Aires, 1914.
2. D'Orbigny, VHomme americain, p. 233; J. Guevara, Historia^
pp. 32, 265 (citing Fernandez, Relacion historial, p. 39).
3. Dobrizhoffer, ii, ch. viii (pp. 57-59, 64-65 quoted); ch. z (p. 94
quoted).
4. Grubb [b], chh. », xii, xiv (pp. 139-41 quoted), xvi (p. 163
quoted); cf. Karsten, sections i, iii.
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NOTES 377
5. T. Guevara [a], i, ch. viii, ''Los mitos 7 las ideas relijiosas de
los Indios/' pp. 223-25. Latcham, JAI zzzix, gives an account of
Araucanian ideas, in general corresponding to Guevara, to whom
he is apparently indebted.
6. Molina, ch. v (pp. 84, 86, 91 quoted).
7. Vicuna Cifuentes, especially sections vi-xi, xiv-xvi, zzi-zziii.
This work is particularly valuable in that it collects the statements
of many authorities in regard to the creatures of Chilean folk-lore.
8. DobrizhoflFer, ii. 89-90.
9. The cosmogony is in Molina, ch. v; the tale of the two brothers
in Lenz, p. 225.
10. Pigafetta, in The First Voyage Around ih^ World by Magellan
(HS, series i, 1874), pp. 50-55; the "Genoese Pilot,*' ib, p. 5.
11. Dobrizhoffcr, ii. 89-90.
12. Prichard, pp. 85-86, 97-98. To Prichard's evidence may be
added that of Captain R. N. Musters, another recent traveller,
quoted by Church, Aborigines of South America, pp. 294-95: "The
religion of the Tehuelches is distinguished from that of the Arau-
canians and Pampas by the absence of any trace of sun worship. • • •
There is no doubt that they do believe in a good Spirit, though they
think he lives 'careless of mankind"'; Captain Musters regards the
gualichu as a class of daemonic powers — an altogether probable
interpretation.
13. D'Orbigny, VHomme americain^ pp. 220, 225; Voyage of the
Beagle, ii. 161-62; cf. also i, ch. vi.
14. Deniker [b] gives the myth of El-lal, after Lista.
15. Darwin, pp. 240-42; Bridges, in RevMP iii, p. 24.
16. Fitzroy, ch. ix, pp. 180-81.
17. Hyades and Deniker, ch. v, pp. 254-57.
18. Cooper, 63 BBEf pp. 145 ff., summarizes the scanty gleanings
from the notes of travellers and missionaries touching Fuegian re-
ligious conceptions. The reference to the Salesian fathers (p. 147)
is quoted from Cojazzi (p. 124); that to Captain Low is from Fitzroy
(p. 190).
19. Cooper, op. cit,, pp. 162-64, citing various authorities.
20. Despard, quotcul by Cooper, op. cit., p. 148.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
A A . .
AnMB
AnMM
AnMG.
ARBE.
BBE .
CA .
ERE
HS .
JAFL
JAI.
JSAP .
MitAGW
MPM .
PaPM.
RevMP.
SocAA .
TC
ZE
I. ABBREVIATIONS
American Anthropologist.
Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires.
Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico.
Annates du Musee Guimet.
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnol-
ogy, Washington.
Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington.
Comptes rendus du Congres des Americanistes.
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.
Works issued by the Hakluyt Society.
Journal of American Folklore.
Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland.
Journal de la Societe des Americanistes de Paris.
Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft
in Wien.
Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge.
Papers of the Peabody Museum.
Revista del Museo de La Plata.
Memorias y Revista de la Sociedad cientifica
"Antonio Alzate."
Voyages, Relations et Memoires originaux pour
servir a Thistoire de la decouverte de TAmerique,
H. Temaux-Compans, editor.
2^Itschrift fur Ethnologie.
II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDES
Analytical and Critical Bibliography of the Tribes of Tierra del Fuego
and Adjacent Territory {63 BBE). By John M. Cooper. Wash-
ington, 1 91 7.
A Study of Maya Art, "Bibliography." By H. J. Spinden. In MPM
VI (1913)-
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382 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Bibliografia Mexicana del sigh XVI . By JoaquIn GarcIa Icaz-
BALCETA. Mexico, 1866.
Bibliography of the Anihropology of Peru. By Geo. A, Dorset.
Publications of the Field Columbian Museum^ Anthropological
Series f 11, 1898.
Bibliography of Peru. A. D. 1526-1007. By Sir Clements Markham.
HSf series ii. Vol. xxii. Cambridge, 1907.
Bibliotheca Americana Fetustissima, By H. Harisse. New York,
1866. Additions, Paris, 1872.
Bibliotheque americaine ou catalogue des outrages relatifs a FAmerigtu
qui ont paru depuis sa decouverte jusqu*d Fan 1700. By H.
Ternaihl-Compans. Paris, 1837.
Catalogue de litres rares et precieuxj manuscrits et imprimis j principale-
ment sur PAmerique et sur Us langues du monde entier, composant
la bibliotheque de M, Alph.-L. Pinart. Paris, 1883.
Dictionary of Works Relating to America from the Discovery to the
Present Time. By Joseph Sabin. Vols. i-xx. New York,
1868-92.
Die My then und Legenden der sudamerikanischtn Urvolker. "Litera-
turverzeichnis." By Paul Ehrenreich. Beriin, 1905.
Ensayo bibliogrdfico Mexicano del siglo XVII. By Vincente de P.
Andrade. Mexico, 1900.
^'Ergebnisse und Aufgaben der mexikanistischen Forschung." By
Walter Lehmann. In Archiv fur Anthropologies neue Folge,
Band vi (1907). Tr. Seymour de Ricci, Methods and Results
in Mexican Researchy Paris, 1909.
£ssai sur les sources de Vhistoire des Antilles frangaise (14Q2-1664).
By Jacques de Dampierre. Paris, 1904.
Historiadores de Yucatan. By Gustavo MartInez AlomIa. Cam-
peche, 1906.
History of Spanish Literature. By George Ticknor. 3 vols. Boston,
1854. 4th ed., Boston, no date.
Idea de una nueva hisioria general de la America septentrional^ with
Catalogo del Museo Historico Indiano. By Lorenzo Boturini
Benaducci. Madrid, 1746; also, Mexico, 1887.
Las Pvblicaciones del Museo Nacional de Arqueologia. By Juan B.
IcufNEZ. Mexico, 1913.
List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology (j8 BBE).
Washington, 1914.
Manuel d^archeologie americaine. ^'Bibliographie." By H. Beuchat.
Paris, 1912.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 383
^^Museo MUre,^^ Catalogo de la biblioteca. Published by the Minis-
terio de Justicia e Instruccion Publica. Buenos Aires.
Nanative and Critical History of America. By Justin Winsor. Vol. i.
Aboriginal America, *^ Bibliographical Appendix." Boston, 1 889.
Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By H. H. Ban-
croft. Vol. i, "Authorities Quoted." New York, 1785.
** Notes on the Bibliography of Yucatan and Central America." By
A. F. Bandelier. In American Antiquarian, new series, i (1882).
'* Recent Literature on the South American Amazons." By A. F.
Chamberlain. In/^iFJL, zxiv (1911).
Note. — Where important bibliographies are attached to works here below listed
the fact is indicated: ** Bibliography.
III. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL GUIDES
Aborigines of South America. By Col. G. E. Church. London, 191 2.
"A list of the Tribes of the Valley of the Amazons." By Sir Clements
Markham. In JAI zl (1910).
Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America {American
Museum of Natural History, Handbook Series, No. 5). By H. J.
Spinden. New York, 191 7.
** Areas of American Culture.'* By W. H. Holmes. In A A, new series,
xvi (1914). Also in Anthropology in North America, by F. Boas
and others; New York, 1915. With map.
A Study of Maya Art. By H. J. Spinden. In ilfPA/ vi (1913).
Beitrdge zur Ethnographic und Sprachenkunde Amerikas. By C. P.
VON Martius. Leipzig, 1867.
Biologia Centrali-Americana. Archaeology. By A. P. Maudsley.
4 vols. London, 1 889-1 902.
Catalogo de la coleccion de Antropologia del Museo Nacional. By
Alonso Herrera and Ricardo E. Qcero. Mexico. 1895.
Central and South America. By A. H. Keane. 2 vols. London, 1 901 .
Early Man in South America (j2 BBE). By Ales Hrdlicka.
Washington, 1912.
Familias linguisticas de Mexico. By Nicolas Le6n. Mexico, 1877;
2d ed., 1902. Also in AnMM vii (1903). With map.
Geografia de las lenguas y carta etnogrdfica de Mexico. By Manuel
Orozco T Berra. Mexico, 1864. With map.
Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America {44 BBE). By
Cyrus Thomas and John R. Swanton. Washington, 1911.
♦♦Bibliography and map. .
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384 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
In Indian Mexico. By Frederick Starr. Chicago, 1908. Also,
Nous Upon the Ethnography of Southern Mexico {Proceedings of
the Davenport Academy of Science^ ix), Davenport, 1902.
Introduction to the Study of North American Archeology. By Cyrus
Thomas. Cmcinnati, 1903.
" Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Sudamerika." By W. Schmidt.
In ZE xlv (1913). ** Bibliography and map.
VHomme Americain. By Alcide Dessaunes d'Orbignt. Tome iv
of Voyage dans FAmerique miridionale . . • execute pendant les
annees 1826-18 33; 9 vols., Paris, 1835-47.
'' Linguistic Stocks of South American Indians." By A. F. Chamber-
lain. In AA^ new series, xv (1913). Also, *^ South American
Linguistic Stocks," in CA zv. 2 (1908).
Manuel d'archeologie americaine. By H. Beuchat. Paris, 1912.
Moseteno Vocabulary and Treatises. By Benigno Bibolotti; with
introduction by R. Schuller. Evanston and Chicago, 191 7.
^^Bibliography and map (Bolivian Indians).
^'Origenes Etnograficos de Colombia." By Carlos Cuervo Mar-
QUEZ. In Proceedings of the Second Pan American Scientific
Congress^ Vol. i. Washington, 1917.
Pre-Historic America. By the Marquis de Nadaillac; ed. W. H.
Dall, London and New York, 1884.
South American Archaeology^ London, 191 2; Mexican Archaeology ,
London, 1914; Central American and West Indian Archaeology^
London, 1916. By T. A. Joyce.
The American Indian. An Introduction to the Anthropology of the
New World. By Clark Wissler. New York, 191 7.
"The Indian Linguistic Stocks of Gazaca, Mexico." By Wm. H.
Mechling. In AA^ new series, xiv (1912). *♦ Bibliography.
"The Origin and Distribution of Agriculture in America." By H. J.
Spinden. In CA xix (Washington, 1917).
IV. GENERAL WORKS
(tf ) Critical and Comparative
Bavcroft J U.U.j The Native Races of the Pacific States. 5 vols. New
York, 1875.
Bastian, a.. Die Culturldnder des AlUn America. 3 vols. Berlin,
1878-89.
Boas, Franz, The Mind of Primitive Man. New York, 1911.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 385
Brinton, Daniel G., [a], Myths of the New World. 3d ecL Philadel-
phia, 1896.
[b], American Hero Myths. Philadelphia, 1882.
[c], Essays of an Americanist. Philadelphia, 1890.
Ehrenreich, Paul, [a]. Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnolo-
gischen Grundlagen. Leipzig, 1910.
FAuis, Louis, £tudes historiques et philosophiques sur Us civilisa-
tions. 2 vols. Paris, no date.
Graebner, Fritz, Methode der Ethnologic. Heidelberg, 1911.
Lafitau, J. F., Moeurs des sauvages amiriquains. Tomes i-ii. Paris,
1724. (An edition in 4 vols, was issued simultaneously.)
Muller, J. G., Geschichie der amerikanischcn Urreligionen. Basel,
1867.
NuTTALL, Zelia, [a], The Fundamental Principles of Old and New
World Civilizations (JPaPM ii). Cambridge, 1901.
Payne, Edward J., History of the New World called America. 2 vols.
Oxford and New York, 1892, 1899.
Sapir, E., TiwrC Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture^ A Study
in Method (G. S. C, Anthropological Series^ No. 13). Ottawa,
1916.
Thevet, Andr£, Cosmographie universelle. Paris, 1575.
(Jb) Important Collections
Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires. Vols, i-iii, 1864-91;
second series. Vols, t-iv, 1 895-1 902; third series. Vols, i ff.,
1902 fiF. Buenos Aires.
Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico. Vols, i-vii, 1 877-1903; sec-
ond series. Vols, i-v, 1903-09; third series. Vols, i ff., 1909 ff.
Mexico.
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology {Smithsonian
Institution). Washington, 1881 ff.
Anthropological Publications^ University of Pennsylvania, The Mu-
seum. Vols, i ff., 1909 ff. Philadelphia.
Antiquities of Mexico, comprising facsimiles of Ancient Mexican
Paintings and Hieroglyphics . . . together with the Monuments of
New Spain, by M. Dupaix . . . the whole illustrated by many
valuable inedited manuscripts, by Lord Kingsborough. Vols. i-ix.
London, 1831-48.
Biblioteca maritima espanola. Ed. Martin FernAndez de Navar-
RETE. 2 vols. Madrid, 1 85 1.
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386 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Bibliothique de linguistique et d^ethnographie amiricaines. Ed. A.
PiNART. Vols. i-iv. San Francisco, 1876-82.
Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Smithsonian Institu-
tion). Washington, 1887 flF.
CoUccion de documentos ineditos para la historia de Espana y de sus
Indias. Vols, i-xlii, 1864-84; second series, Vols, i-xiii, 1885-
1900. Madrid. Also, Nueva coleccion^ etc., Vols, i-vi, 1892-96.
Madrid.
Coleccion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimientOy conquistOj
y organizacion de las antiguas posesiones espanolas de America y
Oceania. Vols, i.-xlii. Madrid, 1864-84. Second series [Co/^rcion
de documentos ineditos . n . de ultramar]^ Vols, i fip., 1885 ff.
Coleccion de documentos ineditos para la historia de Espana. Vols.
i-cxii. Ed. M. F. DE Navarrete and others. Madrid, 1842-95.
Coleccion de libros raros 6 curiosos que tratan de America. Vols. 1 flF.
Madrid, 1891 flF.
Coleccion de los viages y descvhrimientos que hicieron por mar los
•Espanoles desde fines del siglo XV. Ed. MARTfN Fernandez
DE Navarrete. 5 vols. Madrid, 1835-37.
Coleccion de documentos para la historia de Mexico. Ed. J. GARcfA
IcAZBALCETA. 2 vols. Mexico, 1858, 1866. Also^ Nueva CoUccionj
etc., 4 vols., Mexico, 1 886-1 892; and ed. A. Penafiel, Coleccion
de documentos para la historia mexicanay Vols. i-vi. Mexico,
1897-1903.
Comptes rendus du Congres intemattotuil des Americanistes. Paris and
elsewhere (biennially), 1878 flF.
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Ed. Jas. Hastings. Vols, i flF.,
1908 flF. Edinburgh and New York.
Hakluyfs Voyages. Vols, i-xii. Glasgow, 1904.
Hakluytus PosthumuSy or Purchas his Pilgrimes. Vols. i-xx. Glasgow,
1905-1907.
Historiadores de las Indias. (Nueva biblioteca de autores EspanoUsy
Nos. 13, 14.) Ed. Manuel Serrano t Sanz. 2 vols. Madrid,
1909. Tomo 1, Apologetica historia de las IndiaSy de Fr, Bar-
tolome de las Casas. Tomo ii, Guerra de QuitOy de Cieza de Leon;
Jornada del Rio Maranony de Toribio de Ortiguera; Jornada de
Omagua y Dorado; Descripcion del Peruy Tucumdn, Rio de la
Plata y ChiUy de Fr. Reginaldo de Lizdrraga.
Historiadores primitives de las Indias Occidentales. Ed. A. G. Barcia.
3 vols. Madrid, 1749.
Historiadores primitives de Indias (Biblioteca de autores Espanoles).
Ed. Enrique de Vedia. 2 vols. Madrid, 1852, 1862. Tomo i.
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BIBLICX5RAPHY 387
Cartas de relacion^ de Cortes; Hispania VictriXj de Lopez de
Gomara; Natural historia de las IndiaSy de Ouiedo y Valdes; etc.
Tomo ii, Ferdadera historiaj de Berrud Diaz del Castillo; Con-
quista del Peniy de Francisco de Jerez; Cronica del Peniy de Cieza
de Leon; Historia . . . del Peru^ de Augustin de Zdrate.
Journal de la Societe des Americanistes de Paris. Vols, i-v, 1895-1904;
new series, Vols, i ff., 1908 ff. Paris.
Library of Aboriginal American Literature, Ed. Daniel G. Brinton.
8 vols. Philadelphia, 1882--90.
Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1896 ff.
Papers of the Peabody Museum. Cambridge, 1888 ff.
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. New series. Worces-
ter, 1882 ff.
Proceedings of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress. Vol. i.
Section /, Anthropology. Washington, 1917.
Publications of the Field Columbian Museum^ Anthropological Series.
Vols, i ff. Chicago, 1895 ff.
Relaciones historicas de America. Primera mitad del siglo XVI . With
introduction by Manuel Serrano y Sanz. Madrid, 1916.
Relaciones historicas y geogrdficas de America Central. With intro-
duction by Manuel Serrano y Sanz. Madrid, 1908.
Revista del Museo de la Plata. La Plata, 1890 ff.
Voyages^ relations et memoires originaux pour servir a Phistoire de la
decouverU de PAmerique. Ed. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vols. i-xx.
Paris, 1837-41. Also, with other editors, Nouvelles annales des
Voyages^ etc., in six series, Paris, 1819-65.
Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society. Vols. i-c. London, 1847-98.
Second series, Vols, i ff., 1899 ff.
V. SELECT AUTHORITIES
Chapter I
Abbad y Lasierra, Fray Inigo, Historia geogrdficay civil y natural
de la isla de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico. With notes
by Josfe Julian de Acosta y Calbo. Porto Rico, 1866.
Adam, Lucien, [a], Le parler des hommes et desfemmes dans la langue
Caraibe. Paris, 1890.
Ballet, J., "Les Caraibes," in CA i. i (Nancy, 1875).
Bachiller y Morales, Antonio, Cuba primitioa. 2d ed. Havana,
1883.
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388 LATIN-AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
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[b], Histoire de la nation mexicaine depuis le depart d^Aztlan
jusqu'd Parrivee des conquerants espagnols. Manuscrit figuratif
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Balsalobre, G0N9ALO DE, Relacion autentica de las idolotriaSy super^
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[b], Manuscrit Ramirez. Histoire de Porigine des Indiens,
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dric and divinatory, and (b) post-Columbian writings, Nahuatl
and Spanish, sometimes accompanied by drawings. References to
codices and expositions of them in the present bibliography are:
AfUigHedades Mexicanas (containing reproductions of Manu-
scripts in the Mexican National Museum); Aubin ("Codex
Aubin"); Buelna; Duran ("Album"); Fabrega; Garc! a Cu-
BAS [b] (reproductions); Hamy [a]; Historia de los Mexicanos
por sus pinturas; Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y de Mixico;
Humboldt [a]; Kingsborough; Loubat; Nuttall [b]; Orozco
Y Berra [d]; Penafiel [b]; Seler, passim; Sotomayor; Tobar.
A bibliography of the more important reproductions of Mexican
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of Recent Reproductions," in AAy new series, iii (1901), and in
Lehmann [a], below; while a detailed bibliography, covering the
eariier collections and publications, is given by JesOs Galindo
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SEUR DE BouRBOURG [a], Introduction, for analysis of sources and
account of his own discoveries.
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veridique de la conguete de la Nouvelle-Espagnej 2d ed., Paris,
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New Spain (/TS, series ii, Vols, xxiii-v, xxx, xl), London, 1908-16.
DurAn, Diego, Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana y islas de
tierra firme. 2 vols, and album. Mexico, 1 867-1 880.
Fabrega, Jos£ Lino, S. J., Interpretacion del codice Borgiano. Italian
text with Spanish tr. and notes by A. Chavero and F. del Paso
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Fewkes, J. W., [g], "Certain Antiquities of Eastern Mexico," in 2^
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[h], "Ancient Pueblo and Mexican Water Symbol," and "A
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[b], "Estudio comparativo de dos documentos historicos," in
CA xvii. 2 (Mexico, 191 2).
Garc!a Icazbalceta, Joaqu! n, [a], Coleccion de documentos para la
hisioria de Mexico. 2 vols. Mexico, 1858-1866. (Contains writ-
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authors.)
[b], Nueva coleccion de documentos para la historia de Mexico.
S vols. Mexico, 1 886-1 892. (Writings of early missionaries,
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and Day Signs," in CA xvii. 2 (Mexico, 1912).
Hamy, E. T., [a], Codex Borbonicus. Paris, 1899.
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documentos para la historia de Mexico^ Tomo iii (Mexico, 1897),
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known as Codex Zumdrraga and Codex Fuenleal. Tr. Henry
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in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society y xxi (1884).
Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y de Mexico, Nahuatl text with
Latin tr. by Walter Lehmann, in JSAPy new series, iii (1906).
The first part of this important document was published with
Spanish trs. by Josi Fernando Ramirez in AnMM iii (Mexico,
1885), under the title Anales de Cuauhtitlan (The Annals of
Quauhtitlan is the usual English form) by which it is usually
cited. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg gives the text and
translation of a small portion of the document, called by him.
Codex Chimalpopocay in [b], Tome i, Appendice. An analysis and
bibliographical discussion of the document is given by Lehmann
in ZE xxxviii (1906), pp. 752-60.
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Cities of Mexico (Publications of the Field Columbian Museum^
Anthropological Series y i). Chicago, 1895-97.
Humboldt, Alexander von, [a] Vues des Cordilleres. Paris, 1802.
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Icazbalceta. See GarcIa Icazbalceta, supra.
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1891-92. Tr., Histoire des Chichimeques (TC xii, xiii), Paris, 1840.
JoNGHE, E. DE, "Le calendrier mexicain," in JSAP, new series, iii
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Joyce, T. A., [b]. Mexican Archaeology. London, 1916.
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[bj, Compendia de la kistoria general de Mexico, desde los
tiempos prekistoricos kasta el ano de IQOO. Mexico, 1902.
[c], Los Tarascos. Notas kistoricasy etnicas y antropologiccLS.
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i-ii, with continuation in AnMM, segunda epoca, i (Mexico,
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[d], Lyobsa 6 Micilan, Quia kistorico^scriptiva. Mejdco,
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Also articles in AnMMy CA, and elsewhere, dealing with the
antiquities of the Zapotec and Tarascan regions.
Le6n y Gama, Antonio de, Descripcion kistSrica y cronologica de las
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mando en la plaza principal de Mexico, se kallaron en el ano de
1790. Mexico, 1792.
LouBAT, LE Due DE. Chromophotographic reproductions of Codices
Vaticanus 3773, Borgia, Bologna, Telleriano-Remensis, Vati-
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Memoirs of tke American Museum of Natural History iii (New
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[b], Unknoum Mexico. 2 vols. New York, 1902.
[c]. New Trails in Mexico. New York, 191 2.
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[b], "The Indian Linguistic Stocks of Oaxaca, Mexico," in
AAy new series, xiv (1912). (Contains some corrections of 44
BBE.)
Mendieta, Ger6niico db, Hisioria eclesidstica Indiana^ obra escrita
d fines del siglo XFI par Fray GerSnimo de Mendieta de la Orden
de San Francisco. La publica por primera vez, Ed. J. GARcfA
Icazbalceta. Mexico, 1870.
Mendo2:a, G., "Cosmogonia Azteca,** in AnMM i (Mexico, 1877);
"Mitos de los Nahoas," in AnMM ii (Mexico, 1882).
Mexican and Central American AntiquiHeSy Calender Systems^ and
History {28 BBE). Papers, mostly by E. Seler and E. Forste-
MANN, translated from the German under the supervision of
Charles P. Bowditch. Washington, 1904.
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last Montezuma, died in 1699.)
MoTOLiNiA, ToRiBio DE Benavente, Historia de los Indios de la
Nueva Espana. In GarcIa Icazbalceta [a], Mexico, 1858; also,
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lier and neariy identical work is Memoriales de Fray Toribio de
Motoliniay ed. L. Garcia Pimentel, Paris, 1903. For biblio-
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MuNOZ Camargo, Diego, Historia de Tlaxcala. Ed. A. Chavero.
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Olmos, Andres de. Author of a compendious work, now lost, pre-
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