Chapter 22

1. Prof. H. W. Haynes, inThe Narrative and Critical History of America, p. 329. Edited by Justin Winsor. Boston, 1889.

2. This paper was my address as vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, before the Section of Anthropology, at the meeting in 1887. I have added the foot notes, and revised the text.

3.Vues des Cordillières, et Monumens des Peuples Indigènes de l’Amérique.Introduction.

4. See F. Michel,Dix-huit Ans chez les Sauvages. Voyages et Missions de Mgr. Henry Faraud(Paris, 1866), and Emile Petitot,Monographie des Dènè-Dindjié? (Paris, 1876).

5. Professor Gustav Storm has rendered it probable that the Vineland of the Northmen was not further south than Nova Scotia. See hisStudies on the Vineland Voyages, inMems. de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord., 1888.

6. Such was the opinion of the late José Fernando Ramirez, one of the most acute and learned of Mexican antiquaries. See his words in Orozco y Berra’s Introduction to theCronicaof Tezozomoc, p. 213 (Mexico, 1878).

7.Die Spuren der Aztekischen Sprache in Nördlichen Mexiko, etc. (Berlin, 1859.)

8. I would refer the reader who cares to pursue this branch of the subject to my analysis of these stories inThe Myths of the New World(second ed., New York, 1876), andAmerican Hero-Myths(Philadelphia, 1882).

9. The results of the recent “Hemenway South-western Exploring Expedition” do not in the least invalidate this statement.

10. A brief but most interesting description of these monuments is preserved in a letter to the Emperor Charles V. by the Friar Lorenzo de Bienvenida, written from Yucatan in 1548.

11.Las Ruinas de Tiahuanaco.Por Bartolomé Mitre. (Buenos Ayres, 1879.)

12. This assertion was attacked by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in an address before the American Association in 1888 (Proceedings, Vol. XXXVII, p. 308). But if we assume the mediæval period of European history to have begun with the fall of the Western Empire, I do not retire from my position.

13. D. G. Brinton,The Floridian Peninsula, its Literary History, Indian Tribes and Antiquities, p. 177–181 (Philadelphia, 1859). The shell-heaps along the Tennessee River I described in theAnnual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, for 1866, p. 356.

14. His accounts were principally in the Fourth and SeventhReports of the Peabody Museum.

15. See theVerhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1886, 1887, 1888.

16. I have brought out the distinction between the epoch of simple implements and that of compound implements in an article which is reprinted in this collection. The expressions “early” and “late” applied to these epochs do not refer to absolute periods of time, but are relative to the progress of individual civilizations.

17. Exceptions are some of the Floridian shell-heaps and a limited number elsewhere.

18. Florentine Ameghino,La Antiguedad del Hombre en el Plata, Tomo II, p. 434,et al.(Buenos Ayres, 1881.) The bow and arrow, being a compound implement, nowhere belonged to the earliest stage of human culture. See also H. W. Haynes’ article, “The Bow and Arrow unknown to Palæolithic Man,” inProceedings of Boston Soc. Nat. History, Vol. XXIII.

19. Dr. C. C. Abbott, the discoverer and principal explorer of these gravels, reported his discoveries in numerous papers, and especially in his workPrimitive Industry, chap. xxxii.

20.Expedition durch Central-Brasilien, pp. 310–314 (Leipzig, 1886).

21. The reference is to Mr. Horatio Hale’s Address “On the Origin of Language and the Antiquity of Speaking Man.” SeeProc. of the Am. Assoc. for the Adv. of Science, vol. xxxv., p. 239, sq.

22.Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala, p. 157 (Zurich, 1884).

23. See Howse,Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 143, sqq.

24. This question is discussed in more detail in the next essay.

25.L’Homme Americain, Tome I, p. 126. The tribe is the Guarayos, an offshoot of the Guaranis.

26.Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1884, p. 181.

27. Since this address was delivered Mr. H. T. Cresson has reported the finding of chipped implements made of argillite in a deposit of mid-glacial age on the banks of the Delaware River—Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.vol. xxiv; and portions of two skeletons completely converted into limonite have been exhibited at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, from a deposit in Florida,belowone containing the remains of the extinct giant bison.

28. I have discussed this fully in a paper in theProceedingsof the Amer. Philosoph. Soc. for 1887, entitled “On an Ancient Human Footprint from Nicaragua.”

29. Man must have descended from the catarrhine division of the anthropoids, none of which occur in the New World. See Darwin,The Descent of Man, p. 153.

30. Address at the British Association for the Adv. of Science, 1887.

31. His article, which was first printed in theNorth American Review, 1870, may be found in Beach’sIndian Miscellany, p. 158 (Albany, 1877).

32. The subject of an address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1888, with revision.

33. The earliest publication I made on this subject was in an article on Pre-historic Archæology, contributed toThe Iconographic Encyclopædia(Vol. II, p. 28, Philadelphia, 1886).

34. A possible exception may have been along the line of the Mississippi River, where a palæolithic workshop appears to have been discovered above St. Paul, by Miss Babbitt.

35. This Paper was read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting in Cleveland, 1888.

36. See Foley,Des Trois Grandes Races Humaines, Paris, 1881.

37.Uralaltaische Völker und Sprachen, p. 167. I do not think that the verbal coincidences pointed out by Petitot in hisMonographie des Déné Dindjé, and by Platzmann in hisAmerikanisch-Asiatische Etymologien, merit serious consideration.

38. Brinton, inProceedings of the American Philosophical Society, for 1885; Charencey,Mélanges de Philologie et Palaéographie Américaine, p. 80 (Paris, 1883). See also a later Essay in this volume.

39. This example of misdirected erudition may be seen in theAnales del Museo Nacional de Mexico. Tomo I.

40. Prof. Morse has also pointed out to me that the Mongolian arrow-release—one of the most characteristic of all releases—has been nowhere found on the American continent. This is an important fact, proving that neither as hunters nor conquerors did any stray Mongols leave a mark on American culture.

41. Hovelacque et Hervé,Anthropologie, pp. 231, 234, 236; and on the Inca bone, see Dr. Washington Matthews in theAmerican Anthropologist, vol. II., p. 337.

42. InVerhandlungen der Berliner Anthrop. Gesellschaft, 1881–82.

43. Dr. Franz Boas, whose accurate studies of the Indians of the Northwest coast are well known, informs me that he has rarely or never noted the oblique eye among them. Yet precisely on that coast we should look for it, if the Mongolian theory has any foundation. Dr. Ranke’s recent studies have proved the oblique eye to be merely an arrest of development.

44.Elements d’ Anthropologie, p. 1003.

45. When this paper appeared inScience(September 14th, 1888), it led to a reply from Dr. H. F. C. Ten Kate, of Leyden, who had published various studies endeavoring to prove the Mongoloid character of the American race. His arguments, however, were merely a repetition of those which I believe I have refuted in the above article, and for that reason I do not include the discussion.

46.The North Americans of Antiquity, p. 106, (1880.)

47.The Mound-Builders, chap. xii, (Cinn., 1879.)

48.Pre-Historic Races of the United States of America, pp. 388, 347, (Chicago, 1873.)

49.Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C., p. 116, (1881.)

50.History of the Five Nations, Introduction, p. 16 (London, 1750).

51.Meurs des Sauvages Américains comparés aux Meurs du Premiers Temps, chap. xiii.

52.Journal Historique, p. 377.

53.Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America, p. 3 (London, 1859).

54. H. R. Schoolcraft,Notes on the Iroquois, pp. 162, 163, compare pp. 66, 67.

55. Squier and Davis,Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 44.

56.Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York, p. 11.

57. Mr. S. Taylor,American Journal of Science, vol. xliv, p. 22.

58.History of Virginia, book ii, chap. iii, ch. viii.

59. See a well-prepared article on this subject by Prof. Finch, in theAmerican Journal of Science, vol. vii, p. 153.

60.History of Virginia, bk. iii, chap. vii.

61.Travels, p. 367 (Dublin, 1793).

62.History of the North American Indians, p. 184. See note at end of this Essay.

63.Relatione que fece Alvaro Nurez, detto Capo di Vacca, Ramusio,Viaggi, tom. iii, fol. 317, 323 (Venice, 1556.)

64. La Vega,Historia de la Florida, Lib. ii, cap. xxii.

65. Ibid, Lib. vi, cap. vi. See for other examples from this work: Lib. ii, cap. xxx, Lib. iv, cap. xi, Lib. v, cap. iii, etc.

66.Relation de ce qui arriva pendant le Voyage du Capitaine Soto, p. 88 (Ed. Ternaux Compans).

67.Proceedingsof the American Philosophical Society, 1879–1880.

68.Histoire Notable de la Floride, pp. 138, 164, etc.

69.Brevis Narratio, in De Bry,Peregrinationes in Americam, Pars. ii, Tab. xl, (1591.)

70. Alcazar,Chrono-Historia de la Compania de Jesus en la Provincia de Toledo, Tom. ii, Dec. iii, cap. vi, (Madrid, 1710.)

71.The Present State of His Majestie’s Isles and Territories in America, p. 156, (London, 1667.)

72.The Floridian Peninsula, p. 95, sqq. (Phila. 1859.)

73. Bartram MSS., in the Library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

74.Narrative of Occola Nikkanoche, Prince of Econchatti, by his Guardian, pp. 71–2, (London, 1841.)

75.Annals, in LouisianaHist. Colls., p. 196.

76.Memoires Historiques de la Louisiane, Tome ii, p. 109.

77.Letters Edifiantes et Curieuses, Tome. i, p. 261.

78.History of Louisiana, vol. ii, p. 188, (Eng. Trans., London, 1763.)

79. Adair,History of the North American Indians, pp. 184, 185:—William Bartram,Travels, p. 561: Dumont,Memoires Historiques de la Louisiane, Tome i, pp. 246, 264, et al.: Bernard Romans,Natural and Civil History of Florida, pp. 88–90, (a good account.)TheRelations des Jesuitsdescribe the custom among the Northern Indians.

TheRelations des Jesuitsdescribe the custom among the Northern Indians.

80.Antiquities of the Southern Indians, particularly the Georgian Tribes, p. 135, (New York, 1873.)

81. For particulars of this see myMyths of the New World, pp. 241–2, (New York, 1876.)

82. C. C. Jones,Monumental Remains of Georgia, p. 32.

83. Ibid.,Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 169.

84. Squier & Davis,Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 29.

85.Origin of the Big Mound of St. Louis, a paper read before the St. Louis Academy of Science.

86. Thomas E. Pickett,The Testimony of the Mounds: Considered with especial reference to the Pre-historic Archæology of Kentucky and the Adjoining States, pp. 9, 28, (Maysville, 1876.)

87.Myths of the New World.By D. G. Brinton, chap. vi.passim.

88. Especially inAmerican Hero Myths, a study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent, pp. 35, 64, 82, etc. (Philadelphia, 1882.)

89. M. Charnay, in his essay,La Civilisation Toltèque, published in theRevue d’ Ethnographie, T. iv., p. 281, 1885, states his thesis as follows: “Je veux prouver l’existence du Toltèque que certains ont niée; je veux prouver que les civilisations Américaines ne sont qu’une seule et même civilisation; enfin, je veux prouver que cette civilisation est toltèque.” I consider each of these statements an utter error. In hisAnciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, M. Charnay has gone so far as to give a map showing the migrations of the ancient Toltecs. As a translation of this work, with this map, has recently been published in this country, it appears to me the more needful that the baseless character of the Toltec legend be distinctly stated.

90. Ixtlilxochitl, in hisRelaciones Historicas(in Lord Kingsborough’sAntiquities of Mexico, Vol. ix., p. 333), says that during the reign of Topiltzin, last king of Tula, the Toltec sovereignty extended a thousand leagues from north to south and eight hundred from east to west; and in the wars that attended its downfall five million six hundred thousand persons were slain!!

91. Sahagun (Hist. de la Nueva España, Lib. viii, cap. 5) places the destruction of Tula in the year 319 B. C.; Ixtlilxochitl (Historia Chichimeca, iii, cap. 4) brings it down to 969 A. D.; theCodex Ramirez(p. 25) to 1168; and so on. There is an equal variation about the date of founding the city.

92. Since writing the above I have received from the Comte de Charencey a reprint of his article onXibalba, in which he sets forth the theory of the late M. L. Angrand, that all ancient American civilization was due to two “currents” of Toltecs, the western, straight-headed Toltecs, who entered Anahuac by land from the north-west, and the eastern, flat-headed Toltecs, who came by sea from Florida. It is to criticise such vague theorizing that I have written this paper.

93. Motolinia, in hisHistoria de los Indios de Nueva España, p. 5, calls the locality “el puerto llamado Tollan,” the pass or gate called Tollan. Through it, he states, passed first the Colhua and later the Mexica, though he adds that some maintain these were the same people. In fact, Colhua is a form of a word which means “ancestors:”colli, forefather;no-col-huan, my forefathers;Colhuacan, “the place of the forefathers,” where they lived. In Aztec picture-writing this is represented by a hill with a bent top, on the “ikonomatic” system, the verbcoloa, meaning to bend, to stoop. Those Mexica who said the Colhua proceeded them at Tula, simply meant that their own ancestors dwelt there. TheAnales de Cuauhtitlan(pp. 29, 33) distinctly states that what Toltecs survived the wars which drove them southward became merged in the Colhuas. As these wars largely arose from civil dissensions, the account no doubt is correct which states that others settled in Acolhuacan, on the eastern shore of the principal lake in the Valley of Mexico. The name means “Colhuacan by the water,” and was the State of which the capital was Tezcoco.

94. This description is taken from the map of the location in M. Charnay’sAnciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, p. 83. The measurements I have made from the map do not agree with those stated in the text of the book, but are, I take it, more accurate.

95. Sometimes called theRio de Montezuma, and also theTollanatl, water of Tula. This stream plays a conspicuous part in the Quetzalcoatl myths. It appears to be the same as the riverAtoyac(= flowing or spreading water,alt,toyaua), orXipacoyan(= where precious stones are washed, fromxiuitl,paca,yan), referred to by Sahagun,Hist. de la Nueva España, Lib. ix., cap. 29. In it were the celebrated “Baths of Quetzalcoatl,” calledAtecpanamochco, “the water in the tin palace,” probably from being adorned with this metal (Anales de Cuauhtitlan).

96. See theCodez Ramirez, p. 24. Why called Snake-Hill the legend says not. I need not recall how prominent an object is the serpent in Aztec mythology. The name is a compound ofcoatl, snake, andtepetl, hill or mountain, but which may also may mean town or city, as such were usually built on elevations. The formCoatepecis this word with the postpositionc, and means “at the snake-hill,” or, perhaps, “at Snake-town.”

97. Or to one of them. The name is preserved by Ixtlilxochitl,Relaciones Historicas, in Kingsborough,Mexico, Vol. ix., p. 326. Its derivation is frompalli, a color (rootpa), and the postpositionpan. It is noteworthy that this legend states that Quetzalcoatl in his avatar asCe Acatlwas born in the Palpan, “House of Colors;” while the usual story was that he came from Tla-pallan, the place of colors. This indicates that the two accounts are versions of the same myth.

98. There are two ancient Codices extant, giving in picture-writing the migrations of the Mexi. They have been repeatedly published in part or in whole, with varying degrees of accuracy. Orozco y Berra gives their bibliography in hisHistoria Antigua de Mexico, Tom. iii. p. 61, note. These Codices differ widely, and seem contradictory, but Orozco y Berra has reconciled them by the happy suggestion that they refer to sequent and not synchronous events. There is, however, yet much to do before their full meaning is ascertained.

99. The name Aztlan is that of a place and Mexitl that of a person, and from these are derivedAztecatl, plural,Azteca, andMexicatl, pl.Mexica. The Azteca are said to have left Aztlan under the guidance of Mexitl (Codex Ramirez). The radicals of both words have now become somewhat obscured in the Nahuatl. My own opinion is that Father Duran (Hist. de Nueva España, Tom. i, p. 19) was right in translating Aztlan as “the place of whiteness,”el lugar de blancura, from the radicaliztac, white. This may refer to the East, as the place of the dawn; but there is also a temptation to look upon Aztlan as a syncope ofa-izta-tlan, = “by the salt water.”Mexicatl is anomen gentilederived fromMexitl, which was another name for the tribal god or early leader Huitzilopochtli, as is positively stated by Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, Lib. viii, cap. xi). Sahagun explains Mexitl as a compound ofmetl, the maguey, andcitli, which means “hare” and “grandmother” (Hist. de Nueva España, Lib. x. cap. 29). It is noteworthy that one of the names of Quetzalcoatl isMeconetzin, son of the maguey (Ixtlilxochitl,Rel. Hist., in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 238). These two gods were originally brothers, though each had divers mythical ancestors.

Mexicatl is anomen gentilederived fromMexitl, which was another name for the tribal god or early leader Huitzilopochtli, as is positively stated by Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, Lib. viii, cap. xi). Sahagun explains Mexitl as a compound ofmetl, the maguey, andcitli, which means “hare” and “grandmother” (Hist. de Nueva España, Lib. x. cap. 29). It is noteworthy that one of the names of Quetzalcoatl isMeconetzin, son of the maguey (Ixtlilxochitl,Rel. Hist., in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 238). These two gods were originally brothers, though each had divers mythical ancestors.

100. Orozco y Berra,Historia Antigua de Mexico, Tom. iii, cap. 4. But Albert Gallatin was the first to place Aztlan no further west than Michoacan (Trans. American Ethnolog. Society, Vol. ii, p. 202). Orozco thinks Aztlan was the small island called Mexcalla in Lake Chapallan, apparently because he thinks this name means “houses of the Mexi;” but it may also signify “where there is abundance of maguey leaves,” this delicacy being calledmexcalliin Nahuatl, and the terminalasignifying location or abundance. (See Sahagun,Historia de Nueva España, Lib. vii, cap. 9.) At present, one of the smaller species of maguey is calledmexcalli.

101. It is quite likely that the stone image figured by Charnay,Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, p. 72, and the stone ring used in thetlachtli, ball play, which he figures, p. 73, are those referred to in the historic legend.

102. TheCodex Ramirez, p. 24, a most excellent authority, is quite clear. The picture-writing—which is really phonetic, or, as I have termed it,ikonomatic—represents the Coatepetl by the sign of a hill (tepetl) inclosing a serpent (coatl). Tezozomoc, in hisCronica Mexicana, cap. 2, presents a more detailed but more confused account. Duran,Historia de las Indias de Nueva España, cap. 3, is worthy of comparison. The artificial inundation of the plain to which the accounts refer probably means that a ditch or moat was constructed to protect the foot of the hill. Herrera says: “Cercaron de agua el cerro llamado Coatepec.”Decadas de Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. ii, cap. 11.

103. TheAnnals of Cuauhtitlan, a chronicle written in the Nahuatl language, gives 309 years from the founding to the destruction of Tula, but names a dynasty of only four rulers. Veitia puts the founding of Tula in the year 713 A. D. (Historia de Nueva España, cap. 23.) Let us suppose, with the laborious and critical Orozco y Berra (notes to theCodex Ramirez, p. 210) that the Mexi left Aztlan A. D. 648. These three dates would fit into a rational chronology, remembering that there is an acknowledged hiatus of a number of years about the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the Aztec records (Orozco y Berra, notes toCodex Ramirez, p. 213). TheAnales de Cuauhtitlandates the founding of Tulaafterthat of Tlaxcallan, Huexotzinco and Cuauhtitlan (p. 29).

104. As usual, Ixtlilxochitl contradicts himself in his lists of rulers. Those given in hisHistoria Chichimecaare by no means the same as those enumerated in hisRelaciones Historicas(Kingsborough,Mexico, Vol. ix, contains all of Ixtlilxochitl’s writings). Entirely different from both is the list in theAnales de Cuauhtitlan. How completely euhemeristic Ixtlilxochitl is in his interpretations of Mexican mythology is shown by his speaking of the two leading Nahuatl divinities Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli as “certain bold warriors” (“ciertos caballeros muy valerosos.”Relaciones Historicas, in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 326).

105. See the note to page84. But it is not at all likely that Tula was absolutely deserted. On the contrary, Herrera asserts thatafterthe foundation of Mexico and the adjacent cities (despues de la fundacion de Mexico i de toda la tierra) it reached its greatest celebrity for skilled workmen.Decadas de Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. ii, cap. 11. The general statement is that the sites on the Coatepetl and the adjacent meadows were unoccupied for a few years—theAnales de Cuauhtitlansays nine years—after the civil strife and massacre, and then were settled again. TheHistoria de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, cap. 11, says, “y ansi fueron muertos todos los de Tula, que no quedó ninguno.”

106. See Buschmann,Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, ss. 682, 788. Orozco y Berra,Geografia de las Lenguas de Mejico, pp. 248, 255.

107.Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. iii, Lib. ii, cap. II.

108.Relaciones Historicas, in Kingsborough’sMexico, Vol. ix, p. 392. Compare hisHistoria Chichimeca.

109. Buschmann,Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, ss. 682, 797.

110.Cronica Mexicana, cap. 1, “Partieron de alli y vinieron á la parte que llaman Coatepec, términos de Tonalan, lugar del sol.” In Nahuatltonallanusually means summer, sun-time. It is syncopated fromtonalliandtlan; the latter is the locative termination;tonallimeans warmth,sunniness, akin totonatiuh, sun; but it also means soul, spirit, especially when combined with the possessive pronouns, astotonal, our soul, our immaterial essence. By a further syncopetonallanwas reduced toTollanorTullan, and by the elision of the terminal semi-vowel, this again became Tula. This name may therefore mean “the place of souls,” an accessory signification which doubtless had its influence on the growth of the myths concerning the locality.It may be of some importance to note that Tula or Tollan was not at first the name of the town, but of the locality—that is, of the warm and fertile meadow-lands at the foot of the Coatepetl. The town was at first called Xocotitlan, the place of fruit, fromxocotl, fruit,ti, connective, andtlan, locative ending. (See Sahagun,Historia de Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 29, secs. 1 and 12.) This name was also applied to one of the quarters of the city of Mexico when conquered by Cortes, as we learn from the same authority.

It may be of some importance to note that Tula or Tollan was not at first the name of the town, but of the locality—that is, of the warm and fertile meadow-lands at the foot of the Coatepetl. The town was at first called Xocotitlan, the place of fruit, fromxocotl, fruit,ti, connective, andtlan, locative ending. (See Sahagun,Historia de Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 29, secs. 1 and 12.) This name was also applied to one of the quarters of the city of Mexico when conquered by Cortes, as we learn from the same authority.

111. Buschmann,Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, ss. 794, 797, (Berlin, 1852.)

112. The verbal radical istona, to warm (hazer calor, Molina,Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, s. v.); from this root come many words signifying warmth, fertility, abundance, the sun, the east, the summer, the day, and others expressing the soul, the vital principle, etc. Siméon,Dict. de la Langue Nahuatl, s. v.tonalli. As in the Algonkin dialects the words for cold, night and death are from the same root, so in Nahuatl are those for warmth, day and life. (Comp. Duponceau,Mémoire sur les Langues de l’Amérique du Nord, p. 327, Paris, 1836.)

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