[IV-10]Dall's Alaska, pp. 422-3.[IV-11]Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 215.[IV-12]Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., p. 222.[IV-13]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 86.[IV-14]Hearne's Journey, p. 341.[IV-15]Villagutierre,Hist. Conq. Itza, p. 43.[IV-16]Charlton, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 209.[IV-17]Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 39-40, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.[IV-18]Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 54-5.[IV-19]Swinburne,Anactoria, has found an allied idea worthy of his sublime verse:—'Cast forth of heaven, with feet of awful gold,And plumeless wings that make the bright air blind,Lightning, with thunder for a hound behind,Hunting through fields unfurrowed and unsown—'[IV-20]Brinton's Myths, p. 205. The Norse belief is akin to this:—'The giant Hrsuelgur,At the end of heaven,Sits in an eagle's form;'Tis said that from his wingsThe cold winds sweepOver all the nations.'Vafthrudvers maal; Grenville Pigott's translation, inScandinavian Mythology, p. 27.Scott,Pirate, chap. v., in the 'Song of the Tempest,' which he translates from Norna's mouth, shows that the same idea is still found in the Shetland Islands:—'Stern eagle of the far north-west,Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt,Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness, ...Cease thou the waving of thy pinions,Let the ocean repose in her dark strength;Cease thou the flashing of thine eyes,Let the thunderbolt sleep in the armory of Odin.'[IV-21]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 5.[IV-22]Powers' Pomo, MS.[IV-23]Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 713: 'The entire tribes of the Californian Indiania [sic] appear to have had a great devotion and veneration for the Condor or Yellow-headed Vulture.'Taylor, inCal. Farmer, May 25th, 1860. 'Cathartes Californianus, the largest rapacious bird of North America.'Baird's Birds of N. Am., p. 5. 'This bird is an object of great veneration or worship among the Indian tribes of every portion of the state.'Reid, inLos Angeles Star.[IV-24]Brinton's Myths, p. 112.[IV-25]Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 46-71;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 14-15;Gama,Dos Piedras, pt. ii., pp. 76-7.[IV-26]Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 500.[IV-27]Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 217.[IV-28]Charlton, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 209.[IV-29]Virginia City Chronicle, inS. F. Daily Ev'g Post, of Aug. 12th, 1872.[IV-30]Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 271-2;Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 38-9, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Möllhausen,Tagebuch, p. 170;Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 164-5. Certain later travelers deny all the foregoing as 'fiction and fable;' meaning, probably, that they saw nothing of it, or that it does not exist at present.Wand, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 193;Meline's Two Thousand Miles, p. 256.[IV-31]Castañeda,Voy. de Cibola, inTernaux-Compans,Voyages, série i., tom. ix., p. 150.[IV-32]Bernal Diaz,Hist. Conq., fol. 3, 8.[IV-33]Bernal Diaz,Hist. Conq., fol. 136;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 105.[IV-34]Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 218.[IV-35]Powers' Pomo, MS.; Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., pp. 259-262, describes certain other Californians as worshiping for their chief god something in the form of a stuffed coyote.[V-1]Armstrong's Nar., pp. 102, 193;Richardson's Pol. Reg., pp. 319-20, 325;Richardson's Jour., vol. i., pp. 358, 385;Dall's Alaska, pp. 144-5.[V-2]Hardisty, inSmithsonian Rept., 1866, pp. 318-19;Jarvis' Religion, Ind. N. Am., p. 91;Kennicott, inWhymper's Alaska, p. 345;Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxviii.;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 178;Ross, inSmithsonian Rept., 1866, pp. 306-7;Franklin's Nar., vol. i., pp. 246-7;Harmon's Jour., p. 300;Hooper's Tuski, p. 317;Richardson's Jour., vol. i., pp. 385-6;Dall's Alaska, pp. 83-90;Whymper's Alaska, pp. 231-2.[V-3]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., pp. 140-1;Sauer,Billings' Ex., p. 174.[V-4]D'Orbigny,Voy., pp. 579-80;Coxe's Russ. Dis., p. 217;Dall's Alaska, pp. 335, 389; SeeBancroft's Nat. Races, vol. i., p. 93.[V-5]In Holmberg's account of these Thlinkeet supernatural powers, nothing is said of the sun or moon as indicating the possession of life by them or of any qualities not material. But Dunn,The Oregon Territory, p. 284, and Dixon,Voyage Round the World, pp. 189-90, describe at least some tribe or tribes of the Thlinkeets and many tribes of the Haidahs, that consider the sun to be a great spirit moving over the earth once every day, animating and keeping alive all creatures, and, apparently, as being the origin of all; the moon is a subordinate and night watcher.[V-6]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., pp. 52-73;Dall's Alaska, pp. 421-3;Kotzebue's New Voyage, vol. ii., p. 58;Dunn's Oregon, p. 280;Bendel's Alex. Arch., pp. 31-3. This last traveler gives us a variation of the history of Yehl and Khanukh, which is best presented in his own words:—'The Klinkits do not believe in one Supreme Being, but in a host of good and evil spirits, above whom are towering two lofty beings of godlike magnitude, who are the principal objects of Indian reverence. These are Yethl and Kanugh—two brothers; the former the benefactor and well-wisher of mankind, but of a very whimsical and unreliable nature; the latter the stern God of War, terrible in his wrath, but a true patron of every fearless brave. It is he who sends epidemics, bloodshed and war to those who have displeased him, while it seems to be the principal function of Yethl to cross the sinister purposes of his dark-minded brother. Yethl and Kanugh lived formerly on earth, and were born of a woman of a supernatural race now passed away, about the origin and nature of which many conflicting legends are told, hard to comprehend. When Yethl walked on earth and was quite young he acquired great skill in the use of the bow and arrow. He used to kill large birds, assume their shape and fly about. His favorite bird was the raven; hence its name, "Yethl," which signifies "raven" in the Klinkit language. He had also the fogs and clouds at his command, and he would often draw them around him to escape his enemies. His brother's name, Kanugh, signifies "wolf," consequently "raven" and "wolf" are the names of the two gods of the Klinkits, who are supposed to be the founders of the Indian race.'[V-7]Dunn's Oregon, pp. 253-9;Scouler, inLond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 223;Bancroft's Nat. Races, vol. i., pp. 170-71.[V-8]Jewitt's Nar., p. 83;Scouler, inLond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., pp. 223-4;Mofras,Explor., tom. i., p. 345;Sutil y Mexicana,Viage, p. 136;Meares' Voy., p. 270;Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. v., pp. 222-4;Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 433-441, 455;Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 51-3;Sproat's Scenes, pp. 40, 156-8, 167-75, 205-11;Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 317. As illustrating strongly the Nootka ideas with regard to the sanctity of the moon and sun, as well as the connection of the sun with the fire, it may be well to call attention to the two following customs:—'El Tays [chief] no puede hacer uso de sus mugeres sin ver enteramente iluminado el disco de la luna.'Sutil y Mexicana,Viage, p. 145. 'Girls at puberty ... are kept particularly from the sun or fire.'Bancroft's Nat. Races, vol. i., p. 197. In this connection it may be mentioned that Mr Lord,Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 257, saw among the Nootkas while at Fort Rupert, a very peculiar Indian "medicine," a solid piece of native copper, hammered flat, oval it would appear from the description, and painted with curious devices, eyes of all sizes being especially conspicuous. The Hudson-Bay traders call it an "Indian copper," and said it was only exhibited on extraordinary occasions, and that its value to the tribe was estimated at fifteen slaves or two hundred blankets. This "medicine" was preserved in an elaborately ornamented wooden case, and belonging to the tribe, not to the chief, was guarded by the medicine-men. Similar sheets of copper are described by Schoolcraft as in use among certain of the Vesperic aborigines: May they all be intended for symbols of the sun, such as that reverenced by the Peruvians?[V-9]Ross' Adven., pp. 287-9.[V-10]'The bravest woman of the tribe, one used to carrying ammunition to the warrior when engaged in fight, bared her breast to the person who for courage and conduct was deemed fit successor to the departed. From the breast he cut a small portion, which he threw into the fire. She then cut a small piece from the shoulder of the warrior, which was also thrown into the fire. A piece of bitter root, with a piece of meat, were next thrown into the fire, all these being intended as offerings to the Sun, the deity of the Flatheads.'Tolmie, inLord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 237-8. For references to the remaining matter of the paragraph seeId., vol. ii., pp. 237-43, 260.[V-11]Kane's Wand., pp. 218-9;Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab., p. 15.[V-12]This vol.,pp. 95-96.[V-13]Wilkes' Nar.inU. S. Ex. Ex., vol. v., pp. 124-5;Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 317;Dunn's Oregon, pp. 125-6;Franchère's Nar., p. 258;Mofras,Explor., tom. ii., p. 354;Ross' Adven., p. 96;Parker's Explor. Tour, pp. 139, 246, 254;Tolmie, inLord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 248;Gibbs' Chinook Vocab., pp. 11, 13;Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab., pp. 15, 29;Irving's Astoria, pp. 339-40;Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 253.[V-14]Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 254: 'The chiefs say, that they and their sons are too great to die of themselves, and although they may be sick, and decline, and die, as others do, yet some person, or some evil spirit instigated by some one, is the invisible cause of their death; and therefore when a chief, or chief's son dies, the supposed author of the deed must be killed.'[V-15]Alvord, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 652.[V-16]Stuart's Montana, pp. 64-6.[V-17]Powers' Pomo, MS.[V-18]Joaquin Miller's Life amongst the Modocs, pp. 21, 116, 259-60, 360.[V-19]Powers' Pomo, MS.[V-20]Beechey's Voy., vol. ii., p. 78.[V-21]Fages, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., vol. ci., pp. 316, 335.[V-22]Father Boscana, one of the earliest missionaries to Upper California, left behind him the short manuscript history from which the tradition following in the text has been taken—through the medium of a now rare translation by Mr Robinson. Filled with the prejudices of its age and of the profession of its author, it is yet marvelously truthlike; though a painstaking care has evidently been used with regard to its most apparently insignificant details, there are none of those too visible wrenchings after consistency, and fillings up of lacunae which so surely betray the hand of the sophisticator in so many monkish manuscripts on like and kindred subjects. There are found on the other hand frank confessions of ignorance on doubtful points, and many naïve and puzzled comments on the whole. It is apparently the longest and the most valuable notice in existence on the religion of a nation of the native Californians, as existing at the time of the Spanish conquest, and more worthy of confidence than the general run of such documents of any date whatever. The father procured his information as follows. He says: 'God assigned to me three aged Indians, the youngest of whom was over seventy years of age. They knew all the secrets, for two of them werecapitanes, and the other apul, who were well instructed in the mysteries. By gifts, endearments, and kindness, I elicited from them their secrets, with their explanations; and by witnessing the ceremonies which they performed, I learned by degrees, their mysteries. Thus, by devoting a portion of the nights to profound meditation, and comparing their actions with their disclosures, I was enabled after a long time, to acquire a knowledge of their religion.'Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., p. 236.[V-23]Seep. 113, of this volume, for a custom among the Mexicans not without analogies to this.[V-24]Seep. 134, of this volume.[V-25]Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., pp. 242-301.[V-26]The Christian leaven, whose workings are evident through this narrative, ferments here too violently to need pointing out.[V-27]Seepp. 83-4, this volume.[V-28]Venegas,Noticia de la Cal., tom. i., pp. 102-124;Clavigero,Storia della Cal., tom. i., pp. 135-141;Humboldt,Essai Pol., tom. i., p. 314.[V-29]Virginia City Chronicle, quoted inS. F. Daily Ev'g Post, of Oct. 12th, 1872;Browne's Lower Cal., p. 188.[V-30]De Smet's Letters, p. 41.[V-31]Parker, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 684;Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 35-6, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Barreiro,Ojeada sobre N. Mex., ap. p. 8;Filley's Life and Adven., p. 82;Marcy's Army Life, pp. 58, 64;Domenech,Jour. d'un Miss., pp. 13, 131, 469.[V-32]Barreiro,Ojeada sobre N. Mex., ap. pp. 2-3;Henry, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 212.[V-33]Crofutt's Western World, Aug. 1872, p. 27;Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., p. 42, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 91;Bristol, inInd. Aff. Rept., Special Com., 1867, p. 358;Brinton's Myths, p. 158;Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 402.[V-34]Seepp. 77-8, note 36, this volume.[V-35]Joaquin Miller's Californian.[V-36]Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 271-3;Davis' El Gringo, pp. 142, 396;Simpson's Overland Journ., pp. 21-3;Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 164-5, 418, vol. ii., pp. 62-3, 401;Möllhausen,Tagebuch, pp. 170, 219, 284;Meline's Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, pp. 202, 226;Ruxton's Adven. in Mex., p. 193;Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 73;Ward, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1864, pp. 192-3;Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 30;Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 384;Brinton's Myths, p. 190;Coronado, inHakluyt's Voy., vol. iii., p. 379. Fremont gives an account of the birth of Montezuma. His mother was, it is said, a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought after by all men, they making her presents of corn and skins and all that they had; but the fastidious beauty would accept nothing of them but their gifts. In process of time a season of drought brought on a famine and much distress; then it was that the rich lady showed her charity to be as great in one direction as it had been wanting in another. She opened her granaries and the gifts of the lovers she had not loved went to relieve the hungry she pitied. At last with rain, fertility returned to the earth; and on the chaste Artemis of the Pueblos its touch fell too. She bore a son to the thick summer shower and that son was Montezuma.[V-37]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 85-6.[V-38]Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 42-3, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Dodt, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1870, p. 129.[VI-1]Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 22;Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. iii., p. 86.[VI-2]Las Casas,Hist. Apologética, MS., tom. iii., cap. 168;Smith's Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, p. 177.[VI-3]Ribas,Hist. de los Triumphos, pp. 473-5;Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. iii., p. 48.[VI-4]Apparently the same as that Vairubi spoken of onp. 83of this volume.[VI-5]Ribas,Hist. de los Triumphos, pp. 16, 18, 40.'A uno de sus dioses llamaban Ouraba, que quiere decir fortaleza. Era como Marte, dios de la guerra. Ofrecíanle arcos, flechas y todo género de armas para el feliz éxito de sus batallas. A otro llamaban Sehuatoba, que quiere decir, deleite, á quien ofrecian plumas, mantas, cuentecillas de vidrio y adornos mugeriles. Al dios de las aguas llamaban Bamusehua. El mas venerado de todos era Cocohuame, que significa muerte.'Alegre,Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., p. 45.'They worship for their gods such things as they haue in their houses, as namely, hearbes, and birdes, and sing songs vnto them in their language.'Coronado, inHakluyt's Voy., vol. iii., p. 363.[VI-6]'Ils célébraient de grandes fêtes en l'honneur des femmes qui voulaient vivre dans le célibat. Les caciques d'un canton se réunissaient et dansaient tous nus, l'un après l'autre, avec la femme qui avait pris cette détermination. Quand la danse était terminée, ils la conduisaient dans une petite maison qu'on avait décorée à cet effet, et ils jouissaient de sa personne, les caciques d'abord et ensuite tous ceux qui le voulaient. A dater de ce moment, elles ne pouvaient rien refuser à quiconque leur offrait le prix fixé pour cela. Elles n'étaient jamais dispensées de cette obligation, même quand plus tard elles se mariaient.'Castañeda, inTernaux-Compans,Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 150-1.'Although these men were very immoral, yet such was their respect for all women who led a life of celibacy, that they celebrated grand festivals in their honour.' And there he makes an end.Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 170.[VI-7]This volume,pp. 55-6.[VI-8]I would call attention to the fact that Alvarado, the ruddy handsome Spanish captain, was called Tonatiuh by the Mexicans, just as Barnabas was called Jupiter, and Paul, Mercurius, by the people of Lystra—going to show how unfetish and anthropomorphic were the ideas connected with the sun-god by the Mexicans.[VI-9]Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 311.[VI-10]Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 473-4. The so-often discussed resemblance in form and signification between the two Mexican wordsteotlandcalli(seeMolina,Vocabulario) and the two Greek wordstheosandkalia, is completely enough noticed by Müller.'Die Mexikanischen Völker haben einen Appellativnamen für Gott, Teotl, welcher, da die Buchstaben tl blosse aztekische Endung sind, merkwürdiger Weise mit dem indogermanischen theos, Deus, Deva, Dew, zusammenstimmt. Dieses Wort wird zur Bildung mancher Götternamen oder Kultusgegenstände gebraucht. Hieher gehören die Götternamen Tcotlacozanqui, Teocipactli, Teotetl, Teoyamiqui, Tlozolteotl. Der Tempel heisst Teocalli (vgl. Kalia, Hütte, Kalias, Capelle) oder wörtlich Haus Gottes—das göttliche Buch, Teoamoxtli, Priester Teopuixqui, oder auch Teoteuktli, eine Prozession, Teonenemi, Göttermarsch. Dazu kommen noch manche Namen von Städten, die als Kultussitze ausgezeichnet waren, wie das uns schon früher bekannt gewordene Teotihuacan. Im Plural wurden die Götter Teules genannt und eben so, wie uns Bernal Diaz so oft erzählt, die Gefährten des Cortes, welche das gemeine Volk als Götter bezeichnen wollte.'Id., p. 472.[VI-11]Klemm,Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., pp. 114-5.[VI-12]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 45-6.[VI-13]Gallatin, inAmer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 352.[VI-14]Prescott's Conq. of Mex., vol. i., p. 57.[VI-15]Squier's Serpent Symbol, p. 47.[VI-16]Bussierre,L'Empire Mexicain, pp. 131-3.[VI-17]Brantz Mayer, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. vi., p. 585; see also,Brantz Mayer's Mexico as it was, p. 110.[VI-18]Carbajal Espinosa,Hist. de Mexico, tom. i., pp. 468-9;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 3-4.[VI-19]Hombre Buho.[VI-20]Pimentel,Mem. sobre la Raza Indígena, pp. 11-13.[VI-21]Solis,Hist. de la Conq. de Mex., tom. i., pp. 398-9, 431.[VI-22]Gallatin, inAmer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 350, identifies this god with Tezcatlipoca of whom he writes in the following terms: 'Tezcatlipoca. A true invisible god, dwells in heaven, earth, and hell; alone attends to the government of the world, gives and takes away wealth and prosperity. Called alsoTitlacoa(whence his starTitlacahuan). Under the name ofNecocyaotl, the author of wars and discords. According to Boturini, he is the god of providence. He seems to be the only equivalent for theTonacatlecottleof the interpreters of the Codices.'[VI-23]Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 135. I take this opportunity of cautioning the reader against Kingsborough's translation of the above codex, as well as against his translation of theSpiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano: every error that could vitiate a translation seems to have crept into these two.[VI-24]See this vol.p. 57, note 13. Onpages 55and56, and in the note pertaining thereto, will also be found many references bearing on the matter under present discussion.[VI-25]Herrera,Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. xviii., p. 253.[VI-26]Qües, Oviedo calls them, (spelledcuesby most writers) the following explanation being given in glossary ofVoces Americanas Empleadas por Oviedo, appended to the fourth volume of theHist. Gen.:'Qü: templo, casa de oracion. Esta voz era muy general en casi toda América, y muy principalmente en las comarcas de Yucatan y Mechuacan.'[VI-27]Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iii., p. 503.[VI-28]'Ypalnemoaloni, que quiere decir, Señor por quien se vive, y ai sèr en èl de Naturaleça.'Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. iii., p. 30.[VI-29]See this vol.p. 183.—Not, be it remarked that Acosta denies the knowledge by the Mexicans of a Supreme God; he only denies the existence of any name by which the said deity was generally known. This is clear from the following extract from theHist. Nat. Ind., p. 333: 'First, although the darkenesse of infidelitie holdeth these nations in blindenesse, yet in many thinges the light of truth and reason works somewhat in them. And they commonly acknowledge a supreame Lorde and Author of all things, which they of Peru called Viracocha.... Him they did worship, as the chiefest of all, whom they did honor in beholding the heaven. The like wee see amongest them of Mexico.'[VI-30]Acosta,Hist. Nat. Ind., pp. 334, 337-8.[VI-31]Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., pp. 88, 91, 107.[VI-32]The interpretation of the title Tloque Nahuaque is not only irreconcilable with another given by the same author a few lines above in our text, but it is also at utter variance with those of all other authors with which I am acquainted. It may not be amiss here to turn to the best authority accessible in matters of Mexican idiom: Molina,Vocabulario, describes the title to mean, 'He upon whom depends the existence of all things, preserving and sustaining them,'—a word used also to mean God, or Lord.'Tloque nauaque, cabe quien esta el ser de todas las cosas, conseruandolas y sustentandolas: y dizese de nro señor dios.'[VI-33]Camargo,Hist. de Tlax., inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 191, tom. xcix., p. 168.[VI-34]Motolinia,Hist. Indios, inIcazbalceta,Col., tom. i., pp. 4, 33-34.[VI-35]Ixtlilxochitl,Hist. ChichimecainKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 261.'Tuvo por falsos á todos los dioses que adoraban los de esta tierra, diciendo que eran estatuas ó demonios enemigos del género humano; por que fue muy sabio en las cosas morales, y el que mas vaciló buscando de donde tomar lumbre para certificarse del verdadero Dios y criador de todas las cosas, como se ha visto en el discurso de su historia, y dan testimonio sus cantos que compuso en razon de esto como es el decir que habia uno solo, y que este era el hacedor del cielo y de la tierra, y sustentaba todo lo hecho y criado por él, y que estaba donde no tenia segundo, sobre los nueve cielos, que él alcanzaba, que jamas se habia visto en forma humana, ni otra figura, que con él iban á parar las almas de los virtuosos despues de muertos, y que las de los malos iban á otro lugar, que era el mas ínfimo de la tierra, de trabajos y penas horribles. Nunca jamas (aunque habia muchos ídolos que representaban muchos dioses) cuando se ofrecia tratar de deidad, ni en general ni en particular, sino que decia yntloque in nauhaque y palne moalani, que significa lo que està atras declarado. Solo decia que reconocia al sol por padre; y á la tierra por madre.'See also theRelacionesof the same author, in the same volume, p. 454.[VI-36]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 241-2.[VI-37]'Por la freza de la comida.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 39.[VI-38]'Porque á la verdad no os engañais con lo que haceis.'SeeSahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 356, as the substitution of 'engañeis' for 'engañais' destroys the sense of the passage in Bustamante's ed. of the same,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.[VI-39]By an error and a solecism of Bustamante's ed. the words'gentes rojas'are substituted for the adjective 'generosos.' See, as in the preceding note,Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 357, andSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.[VI-40]'Es decir Comandantes ó Capitanes generales de ejército:'Bustamante, inSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 44.[VI-41]'Borlas,' seeSahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 358, given 'bollas' in Bustamante'sSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 45.[VI-42]'Dignidad,'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 359, misprinted 'diligencia' in Bustamante'sSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 46.[VI-43]This doubtful and involved sentence, with the contained clause touching the nature of the fire-god, runs exactly as follows in the two varying editions of the original:'Si alguna cosa aviesa ó mal heche hiciera en la dignidad que le habeis dado, y en la silla en que le habeis puesto, que és vuestra, donde està tratando los negocios populares, como quien lava cosas sucias con agua muy clara y muy limpia; en la qual silla y dignidad tiene el mismo oficio de lavar vuestro padre y madre de todos los Dioses, el Dios antiguo que és el Dios del fuego, que está en medio del albergue cerca de quatro paredes, y está cubierto con plumas resplandecientes que son como alas, lo que este electo hiciese mal hecho, con que provoque vuestra ira é indignacion, y despierte vuestro castigo contra si, no será de su albedrio ó de su querer, sino de vuestra permision, ó de algun otra sugestion vuestra, ó de otro; por lo cual os suplico tengais por bien de abrirle los ojos y darle lumbre y abrirle las orejas, y guiadle á este pobre electo, no tanto por lo que él és, sino principalmente por aquellos á quienes ha de regir y llevar á cuestas.'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 360-361.'Si alguna cosa aviesa ó mal hecha hiciere, en la dignidad que le habeis dado, y en la silla en que lo habeis puesto que es vuestra, donde está tratando los negocios populares, como quien laba cosas sucias, con agua muy clara y muy limpia, en la cual silla y dignidad tiene el mismo oficio de labar vuestro padre y madre, de todos los dioses, el dios antiguo, que es el dios del fuego que está en medio de las flores, y en medio del albergue cercado de cuatro paredes, y está cubierto con plumas resplandecientes que son somo álas; lo que este electo hiciere mal hecho con que provoque vuestra ira é indignacion, y despierte vuestro castigo contra sí, no será de su alvedrio de ó su querer, sino de vuestra permision, ó de alguna otra sugestion vuestra, ó de otro; por lo cual os suplico tengais por bien de abirle los ojos, y darle luz, y abridle tambien las orejas, y guiad á este pobre electo; no tanto por lo que es él, sino principalmente por aquellos á quien ha de regir y llevar a cuestas.' Bustamante'sSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 48.[VI-44]See this volumep. 60.[VI-45]Some of these names are differently spelt in Kingsborough's ed.,Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 362.'Uno de los quales fué Camapichtli, otro fué Tizocic, otro Avitzotl, otro el primero Motezuzoma, otro Axayaca, y los que ahora á la parte han muerto, como el segundo Motezuzoma, y tambien Ylhiycamina.'[VI-46]'Obejas,'in Bustamante's ed.Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 53;'abejas'inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 364.[VI-47]'Y como el loco de los beleños.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 54.[VI-48]Both editors of Sahagun agree here in using the word 'obejas.' As sheep were unknown in Mexico it is too evident that other hands than Mexican have been employed in the construction of this simile.[VI-49]'Si es así ha hecho burla de V. M., y con desacato y grande ofensa, se ha arrojado á una cima, y en una profunda barranca.'Bustamante's ed. ofSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 58. The same passage runs as follows in Kingsborough's ed.:'Si és así ha hecho burla de vuestra magestad, y con desacato y grande ofensa de vuestra magestad será arrojado en una sima, y en una profunda barranca.'Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 367.[VI-50]'Poca' is misprinted for 'poza' in Bustamante's ed.,Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. v., p. 58.[VI-51]'Cosa que desciende del cielo, como agua clarísima y purísima par lavar los pecados.'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 368. See alsoSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 59.'The quality of mercy is not strain'd,It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath.'—Merchant of Venice, act. iv.[VI-52]'Mayormente á los enfermos porque son imágen de dios.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 63.[VI-53]'Los pasados señores y señoras que tuvieron cargo de éste reino.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 71.[VI-54]'Adornador de las criaturas.'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol v., p. 377.'Adornador de las almas.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 71.[VI-55]The precise force of much of this sentence it is hard to understand. It seems to show, at any rate, that the merchants were supposed to be very intimate with and especially favored by this deity. The original runs as follows:'En este lugar burlan y rien de nuestras boberías los negociantes, con los quales estais vos holgados, porque son vuestros amigos y vuestros conocidos, y allí inspirais é insuflais á vuestros devotos, que lloran y suspiran en vuestra presencia y os dan de verdad su corazon.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 73.[VI-56]'Para que vean como en espejo de dos hazes, donde se representa la imágen de cada uno'.Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 73.[VI-57]Nacochtli, orejeras (ear-rings);Tentetl, beçote de indio (lip-ornament).Molina,Vocabulario.Molina gives alsoMatemecatl, to mean a gold bracelet or something of that kind; Bustamante translates the word in the same way, explaining that the strap mentioned in the text was used to tie the bracelet on.Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 74.[VI-58]'Espaldar de vuestra silla.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.[VI-59]'He that delivered this prayer before Tezcatlipoca, stood on his feet, his feet close together, bending himself towards the earth. Those that were very devout were naked. Before they began the prayer they offered copal to the fire, or some other sacrifice, and if they were covered with a blanket, they pulled the knot of it round to the breast, so that they were naked in front. Some spoke this prayer squatting on their calves, and kept the knot of the blanket on the shoulder.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.[VI-60]Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was one of the first preachers sent to Mexico; where he was much employed in the instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the province of Tezcuco. While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known to us as theHistoria General de las Cosas de Nueva España, from which the above prayers have been translated, and from which we shall draw largely for further information. It would be hard to imagine a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of working than his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of which he wished to write. These learned Mexicans being collected, Father Sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology, and so on that he wanted; at the foot of the said pictures these learned Mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the Mexican tongue; and this explanation the Father Sahagun translated into Spanish: that translation purports to be what we now read as theHistoria General. Here follows a translation of the Prologo of his work, in which he describes all the foregoing in his own way: "All writers labor the best that they can to make their works authoritative; some by witnesses worthy of faith, others by the writings of previous writers held worthy of belief, others by the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures. To me are wanting all these foundations to make authoritative what I have written in these twelve books [of theHistoria General]. I have no other foundation, but to set down here the relation of the diligence that I made to know the truth of all that is written in these twelve books. As I have said in other prologues to this work, I was commanded in all holy obedience by my chief prelate to write in the Mexican language that which appeared to me to be useful for the doctrine, worship, and maintenance of Christianity among these natives of New Spain, and for the aid of the workers and ministers that taught them. Having received this commandment, I made in the Spanish language a minute or memorandum of all the matters that I had to treat of, which matters are what is written in the twelve books, ... which were begun in the pueblo of Tepeopulco, which is in the province of Culhuacán or Tezcuco. The work was done in the following way. In the aforesaid pueblo, I got together all the principal men, together with the lord of the place, who was called Don Diego de Mendoza, of great distinction and ability, well experienced in things ecclesiastic, military, political, and even relating to idolatry. They being come together, I set before them what I proposed to do, and prayed them to appoint me able and experienced persons, with whom I might converse and come to an understanding on such questions as I might propose. They answered me that they would talk the matter over and give their answer on another day; and with this they took their departure. So on another day the lord and his principal men came, and having conferred together with great solemnity, as they were accustomed at that time to do, they chose out ten or twelve of the principal old men, and told me that with these I might communicate and that these would instruct me in any matters I should inquire of. Of these there were as many as four instructed in Latin, to whom I, some few years before, had myself taught grammar in the college of Santa Cruz, in Tlaltelolco. With these appointed principal men, including the four instructed in grammar, I talked many days during about two years, following the order of the minute I had already made out. On all the subjects on which we conferred they gave me pictures—which were the writings anciently in use among them—and these the grammarians interpreted to me in their language, writing the interpretation at the foot of the picture. Even to this day I hold the originals of these.... When I went to the chapter, with which was ended the seven years' term of Fray Francisco Torál—he that had imposed the charge of this work upon me—I was removed from Tepeopulco, carrying all my writings. I went to reside at Santiago del Tlaltelolco. There I brought together the principal men, set before them the matter of my writings, and asked them to appoint me some able principal men, with whom I might examine and talk over the writings I had brought from Tepeopulco. The governor, with the alcaldes, appointed me as many as eight or ten principal men, selected from all the most able in their language, and in the things of their antiquities. With these and with four or five collegians, all trilinguists, and living for the space of a year or more secluded in the college, all that had been brought written from Tepeopulco was clearly emended and added to; and the whole was rewritten in small letters, for it was written with much haste. In this scrutiny or examination, he that worked the hardest of all the collegians was Martin Jacobita, who was then rector of the college, an inhabitant of the ward of Santa Ana. I, having done all as above said in Tlaltelolco, went, taking with me all my writings, to reside in San Francisco de México, where, by myself, for the space of three years, I examined over and over again the writings, emended them, divided them into twelve books, and each book into chapters and paragraphs. After this, Father Miguel Navarro being provincial, and Father Diego de Mendoza commissary-general in Mexico, with their favor I had all the twelve books clearly copied in a good hand, as also thePostillaand theCantáres[which were other works on which Sahagun was engaged]. I made out also an Art of the Mexican language with a vocabulary-appendix. Now the Mexicans added to and emended my twelve books [of theHistoria General] in many things while they were being copied out in full; so that the first sieve through which my work passed was that of Tepeopulco, the second that of Tlaltelolco, the third that of Mexico; and in all these scrutinies collegiate grammarians had been employed. The chief and most learned was Antonio Valeriano, a resident of Aztcapuzalco; another little less than the first, was Alonso Vegerano, resident of Cuauhtitlan; another was Martin Jacobita, above mentioned; another Pedro de Santa Buenaventura, resident of Cuauhtitlan; all expert in three languages, Latin, Spanish, and Indian [Mexican]. The scribes that made out the clear copies of all the works are Diego Degrado, resident of the ward of San Martin, Mateo Severino, resident of Xochimilco, of the part of Ullác. The clear copy being fully made out, by the favor of the fathers above mentioned and the expenditure of hard cash on the scribes, the author thereof asked of the delegate Father Francisco de Rivera that the work be submitted to three or four religious, so that they might give an opinion on it, and that in the provincial chapter, which was close at hand, they might attend and report on the matter to the assembly, speaking as the thing might appear to them. And these reported in the assembly that the writings were of much value and deserved such support as was necessary toward their completion. But to some of the assembly it seemed that it was contrary to their vows of poverty to spend money in copying these writings; so they commanded the author to dismiss his scribes, and that he alone with his own hand should do what copying he wanted done; but as he was more than seventy years old, and for the trembling of his hand not able to write anything, nor able to procure a dispensation from this mandate, there was nothing done with the writings for more than five years. During this interval, and at the next chapter, Father Miguel Navarro was elected by the general chapter for custos custodium, and Father Alonso de Escalona, for provincial. During this time the author made a summary of all the books and of all the chapters of each book, and prologues, wherein was said with brevity all that the books contained. This summary Father Miguel Navarro and his companion, Father Gerónimo de Mendieta, carried to Spain, and thus in Spain the things that had been written about this land made their appearance. In the mean time, the father provincial took all the books of the author and dispersed them through all the province, where they were seen by many religious and approved for very precious and valuable. After some years, the general chapter meeting again, Father Miguel Navarro, at the petition of the author, turned with censures to collect again the said books; which, from that collecting, came within about a year into the hands of the author. During that time nothing was done in them, nor was there any one to help to get them translated into the vernacular Spanish, until the delegate-general Father Rodrigo de Sequera came to these parts, saw and was much pleased with them, and commanded the author to translate them into Spanish; providing all that was necessary to their being re-written, the Mexican language in one column and the Spanish in another, so that they might be sent to Spain; for the most illustrious Señor Don Juan de Ovando, president of the Council of Indies, had inquired after them, he knowing of them by reason of the summary that the said Father Miguel Navarro had carried to Spain, as above said. And all the above-said is to show that this work has been examined and approved by many, and during many years has passed through many troubles and misfortunes before reaching the place it now has."Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., Prólogo, pp. iii. vii. As to the date at which Sahagun wrote he says: 'These twelve books and the Art and the vocabulary-appendix were finished in a clear copy in the year 1569; but not translated into Spanish.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. i., Introduccion, p. xv. The following scanty sketch of the life of Sahagun, is taken, after Bustamante, from theMenealógio Seráficoof Father Betancourt: 'Father Bernardino Sahagun, native of Sahagun, took the robe in the convent of Salamanca, being a student of that university. He passed into this province [Mexico] in the year 1529, in the company of Father Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo. While a youth he was endowed with a beauty and grace of person that corresponded with that of his soul. From his tenderest years he was very observant, self-contained, and given to prayer. Father Martin de Valencia held very close communion with him, owing to which he saw him many times snatched up into an ecstasy. Sahagun was very exact in his attendance in the choir, even in his old age, he never was absent at matins. He was gentle, humble, courteous in his converse with all. He was elected secondly with the learned Father Juan de Gaona, as professor at Tlaltelolco in the college of Santa Cruz; where he shone like a light on a candlestick, for he was perfect in all the sciences. His possession of the Mexican language was of a perfectness that has never to this day being equaled; he wrote many books in it that will be mentioned in the catalogue of authors. He had to strive with much opposition, for to some it did not seem good to write out in the language of the Mexicans their ancient rites, lest it should give occasion for their being persevered in. He watched over the honor of God against idolatry, and sought earnestly to impress the Christian faith upon the converted. He affirmed as a minister of much experience, that during the first twenty years [of his life in the province] the fervor of the natives was very great; but that afterward they inclined to idolatry, and became very lukewarm in the faith. This he says in the book of hisPostillasthat I have, in which I learnt much. During the first twenty years of his life [in the province] he was guardian of some convents; but after that he desired not to take upon himself any office or guardianship for more than forty years, so that he could occupy himself in preaching, confessing, and writing. During the sixty and one years that he lived in the province, for the most part in college, without resting a single day, he instructed the boys in civilization and good customs, teaching them reading, writing, grammar, music, and other things in the service of God and the state. This went on till the year 1590, when, the approach of death becoming apparent to every one, he entered the hospital of Mexico; where he died on the 23rd of October. There assembled to his funeral the collegians, trailing theirbecas, and the natives shedding tears, and the members of the different religious houses giving praises to God our Lord for this holy death, of which the martyrology treats—Gonzaga, Torquemada, Deza, Rampineo, and many others. In the library of Señor Eguiara, in the manuscript of the Turriana collection, I have read the article relating to Father Sahagun; in it a large catalogue of works that he wrote is given. I remember only the following:Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España;Arte de gramática mexicana;Diccionario trilingue de español, latin, y mexicano;Sermones para todo el año en mexicano, (poséo aunque sin nombre de autor);Postillas ó commentarios al evangelio, para las misas solemnes de dia de precepto;Historia de los primeros pobladores franciscanos en Mexico;Salmodia de la vida de Cristo, de la virgen y de los santos, que usaban los indios, y preceptos para los casados;Escala espiritual, que fué la primera obra que se imprimió en Mexico en la imprenta que trajo Hernan Cortés de España.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., pp. vii.-ix. As to the manner in which theHistoria Generalof Sahagun, 'whom,' says Prescott,Mex., vol. i., p. 67, 'I have followed as the highest authority' in matters of Mexican religion—at last saw the light of publication, I give Prescott's account,Mex., vol. i., p. 88, as exact save in one point, for which see the correction in brackets:—'At length, toward the close of the last century, the indefatigable Muñoz succeeded in disinterring the long lost manuscript from the place tradition had assigned to it—the library of a convent at Tolosa, in Navarre, the northern extremity of Spain. With his usual ardor, he transcribed the whole work with his own hands, and added it to the inestimable collection, of which, alas! he was destined not to reap the full benefit himself. From this transcript Lord Kingsborough was enabled to procure the copy which was published in 1830, in the sixth volume of his magnificent compilation. [It was published in two parts, in the fifth and seventh volumes of that compilation, and the exact date of the publication was 1831.] In it he expresses an honest satisfaction at being the first to give Sahagun's work to the world. But in this supposition he was mistaken. The very year preceding, an edition of it, with annotations, appeared in Mexico, in three volumes 8vo. It was prepared by Bustamante—a scholar to whose editorial activity his country is largely indebted—from a copy of the Muñoz manuscript which came into his possession. Thus this remarkable work, which was denied the honors of the press during the author's lifetime, after passing into oblivion, reappeared, at the distance of nearly three centuries, not in his own country, but in foreign lands widely remote from each other, and that almost simultaneously.... Sahagun divided his history into twelve books. The first eleven are occupied with the social institutions of Mexico, and the last with the Conquest. On the religion of the country he is particularly full. His great object evidently was, to give a clear view of its mythology, and of the burdensome ritual which belonged to it. Religion entered so intimately into the most private concerns and usages of the Aztecs, that Sahagun's work must be a text-book for every student of their antiquities. Torquemada availed himself of a manuscript copy, which fell into his hands before it was sent to Spain, to enrich his own pages—a circumstance more fortunate for his readers than for Sahagun's reputation, whose work, now that it is published, loses much of the originality and interest which would otherwise attach to it. In one respect it is invaluable; as presenting a complete collection of the various forms of prayer, accommodated to every possible emergency, in use by the Mexicans. They are often clothed in dignified and beautiful language, showing that sublime speculative tenets are quite compatible with the most degrading practices of superstition. It is much to be regretted that we have not the eighteen hymns, inserted by the author in his book, which would have particular interest, as the only specimen of devotional poetry preserved of the Aztecs. The hieroglyphical paintings, which accompanied the text are also missing. If they have escaped the hands of fanaticism, both may reappear at some future day.' As may have been noticed, the editions of Sahagun by both Bustamante and Kingsborough have been constantly used together and collated during the course of this present work. They differ, especially in many minor points of typography, Bustamante's being the more carelessly edited in this respect. Notwithstanding, however, the opinion to the contrary of Mr Harrisse, Bustamante's edition is on the whole the more complete; Kingsborough having avowedly omitted divers parts of the original which he thought unimportant or uninteresting—a fault also of Bustamante's, but to a lesser extent. Fortunately what is absent in the one I have always found in the other; and indeed, as a whole, and all circumstances being considered, they agree tolerably well. The criticism of Mr Harrisse, just referred to, runs as follows,Bib. Am. Vet., p. 208, note 52: 'Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España; Mexico, 3 vols., 4to, 1829 (edited and castrated by Bustamente [Bustamante] in such a manner as to require for a perfect understanding of that dry but important work, the reading of the parts also published in vols. v. and vi. [v. and vii.], of Kingsborough'sAntiquities.)' We are not yet done, however, with editions of Sahagun. A third edition of part of his work has seen the light. It is Bustamante himself that attempts to supersede a part of his first edition. He affirms, that book xii. of that first edition of his, as of course also book xii. of Kingsborough's edition, is spurious and has been garbled and glossed by Spanish hands quite away from the original as written by Sahagun. Exactly how or when this corruption took place he does not show; but he leaves it to be inferred that it was immediately after the original manuscript had been taken from its author, and that it was done because that twelfth book, which treats more immediately of the Conquest, reflected too hardly on the Conquerors. Bustamante having procured, in a manner now to be given in his own words, a correct and genuine copy of the twelfth book, a copy written and signed by the hand of Sahagun himself, proceeded in 1840 to give it to the world under the extraordinary title ofLa Aparicion de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Mexico, comprobada con la refutacion del argumento negativo que presenta D. Juan Bautista Muñoz, fundandose en el testimonio del P. Fr. Bernardino Sahagun; ó sea, Historia Original de este Escritor, que altera la publicada en 1829 en el equivocado concepto de ser la unica y original del dicho autor. All of which means to say that he, Bustamante, having already published in 1829-30, a complete edition of Sahagun'sHistoria General, in twelve books, according to the best manuscript he could then find, has found the twelfth book of that history to be not genuine, has found the genuine original of said twelfth book, and now, in 1840, publishes said genuine twelfth book under the above extraordinary name, inasmuch as it contains some reference to what is supposed to be uppermost in every religious Mexican's mind, to wit, the miraculous appearance of the Blessed Virgin to a certain native Mexican, la aparicion de nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Mexico. Bustamante's own account of all the foregoing, being translated from the above-mentionedNra. Señora de Guadalupe, pp. iv., viii., xxiii., runs as follows: 'As he [Sahagun] wrote with the frankness proper to truth, and as this was not pleasing to the heads of the then government, nor even to some of his brother friars, he was despoiled of his writings. These were sent to Spain, and ordered to be stored away in the archives of the convent of San Francisco de Tolosa de Navarra, so that no one should ever be able to read them; there they lay hid for more than two centuries. During the reign of Carlos iii., Señor Muñoz was commissioned to write the history of the New World. But he found himself without this work [of Sahagun's] so necessary to his purpose; and he was ignorant of its whereabouts, till, reading the index of the Biblioteca Franciscana he came to know about it, and, furnished by the government with all powers, he took it out of the said monastery. Colonel D. Diego Garcia Panes having come to Madrid at the same time, to publish the works of Señor Veytia, this gentleman contracted a friendship with Muñoz who allowed him to copy the two thick volumes in which Sahagun's work was written.... These two volumes, then, that Colonel Panes had copied, were what was held to be solely the work of Father Sahagun, and as such esteemed; still it does not appear to be proved by attestation that this was the author's originalautographhistory. Had it been so, the circumstance would hardly have been left without definite mention, when the relation was given of the way in which the book was got hold of, and when the guarantee of the exactness of the copy was procured. I, to-day, possess an original manuscript, written altogether and signed by the hand of Father Sahagun; in which is to be noted an essential variation in certain of the chapters which I now present, from those that I before published in the twelfth book of hisHistoria General; which is the book treating of the Conquest. Sahagun wrote this manuscript in the year 1585, that is to say, five years before his death, and he wrote it without doubt under a presentiment of the alterations that his work would suffer. He had already made alterations therein himself, since he confesses (they are his words) that certain defects existed in them, that certain things had been put into the narrative of that Conquest that should not have been put there, while other things were left out that should not have been omitted. Therefore [says Bustamante], this autograph manuscript discovers the alterations that his writings underwent and gives us good reason to doubt the authenticity and exactness of the text seen by Muñoz.... During the revolution of Madrid, in May, 1808, caused by the entrance of the French and the removal of the royal family to Bayonne, the office of the secretary of the Academy of History was robbed, and from it were taken various bundles of the works of Father Sahagun. These an old lawyer of the court bought, and among them one entitled:Relacion de la conquista de esta Nueva España, como la contaron los soldados indios que se hallaron presentes. Convertióse en lengua española llana é inteligible y bien enmendada en este año de 1585. Unfortunately there had only remained [of theRelacion, etc., (?)] a single volume of manuscript, which Señor D. José Gomez de la Cortina, ex-count of that title, bought, giving therefor the sum of a hundred dollars. He allowed me the use of it, and I have made an exact copy of it, adding notes for the better understanding of the Conquest; the before-mentioned being altogether written, as I have said, and signed by the hands of Father Sahagun. This portion, which the said ex-count has certified to, induces us to believe that the other works of Sahagun, relating both to the Conquest and to the Aparicion Guadalupana have been adulterated because they did little honor to the first Conquerors. That they have at all come to be discussed with posterity, has been because a knowledge of them was generally scattered, and in such a way that it was no longer possible to keep them hidden; or, perhaps, because the faction interested in their concealment had disappeared. In proof of the authenticity and identity of this manuscript, we refer to Father Betancur in his Chronicle of the province of the Santo Evangelio de México, making a catalogue of the illustrious men thereof; speaking of Sahagun, he says on page 138: "The ninth book that this writer composed was the Conquest of Mexico by Cortés; which book afterward, in the year 1585, he re-wrote and emended; the [emended] original of this I saw signed with his hand in the possession of Señor D. Juan Francisco de Montemayor, president of the Royal Audiencia, who carried it to Spain with the intention of having it printed; and of this I have a translation wherein it is said that the Marquis of Villa-Manrique, viceroy of Mexico, took from him [Sahagun] the twelve books and sent them to his majesty for the royal chronicler." Bustamante lastly gives a certificate of the authenticity of the manuscript under discussion and published by him. The certificate is signed by José Gomez de la Cortina, and runs as follows: 'Mexico, 1st April, 1840. I certify that, being in Madrid in the year 1828, I bought from D. Lorenzo Ruiz de Artieda, through the agency of my friend and companion, D. José Musso Valiente, member of the Spanish Academies of language and of history, the original manuscript of Father Sahagun, of which mention is made in this work by his Excellency Señor D. Cárlos María Bustamante, as constated by the receipts of the seller, and by other documents in my possession.' So much for Bustamante's new position as a reëditor of a part of Sahagun'sHistoria General; we have stated it in his own words, and in those of his own witnesses as brought forward by him. The changes referred to do not involve any matter bearing on mythology; it may be not out of place to say however, that the evidence in favor of Bustamante's new views seems strong and truth-like.
[IV-10]Dall's Alaska, pp. 422-3.
[IV-11]Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 215.
[IV-12]Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., p. 222.
[IV-13]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 86.
[IV-14]Hearne's Journey, p. 341.
[IV-15]Villagutierre,Hist. Conq. Itza, p. 43.
[IV-16]Charlton, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 209.
[IV-17]Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 39-40, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.
[IV-18]Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 54-5.
[IV-19]Swinburne,Anactoria, has found an allied idea worthy of his sublime verse:—
'Cast forth of heaven, with feet of awful gold,And plumeless wings that make the bright air blind,Lightning, with thunder for a hound behind,Hunting through fields unfurrowed and unsown—'
[IV-20]Brinton's Myths, p. 205. The Norse belief is akin to this:—
'The giant Hrsuelgur,At the end of heaven,Sits in an eagle's form;'Tis said that from his wingsThe cold winds sweepOver all the nations.'Vafthrudvers maal; Grenville Pigott's translation, inScandinavian Mythology, p. 27.
Scott,Pirate, chap. v., in the 'Song of the Tempest,' which he translates from Norna's mouth, shows that the same idea is still found in the Shetland Islands:—
'Stern eagle of the far north-west,Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt,Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness, ...Cease thou the waving of thy pinions,Let the ocean repose in her dark strength;Cease thou the flashing of thine eyes,Let the thunderbolt sleep in the armory of Odin.'
[IV-21]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 5.
[IV-22]Powers' Pomo, MS.
[IV-23]Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 713: 'The entire tribes of the Californian Indiania [sic] appear to have had a great devotion and veneration for the Condor or Yellow-headed Vulture.'Taylor, inCal. Farmer, May 25th, 1860. 'Cathartes Californianus, the largest rapacious bird of North America.'Baird's Birds of N. Am., p. 5. 'This bird is an object of great veneration or worship among the Indian tribes of every portion of the state.'Reid, inLos Angeles Star.
[IV-24]Brinton's Myths, p. 112.
[IV-25]Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 46-71;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 14-15;Gama,Dos Piedras, pt. ii., pp. 76-7.
[IV-26]Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 500.
[IV-27]Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 217.
[IV-28]Charlton, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 209.
[IV-29]Virginia City Chronicle, inS. F. Daily Ev'g Post, of Aug. 12th, 1872.
[IV-30]Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 271-2;Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 38-9, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Möllhausen,Tagebuch, p. 170;Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 164-5. Certain later travelers deny all the foregoing as 'fiction and fable;' meaning, probably, that they saw nothing of it, or that it does not exist at present.Wand, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 193;Meline's Two Thousand Miles, p. 256.
[IV-31]Castañeda,Voy. de Cibola, inTernaux-Compans,Voyages, série i., tom. ix., p. 150.
[IV-32]Bernal Diaz,Hist. Conq., fol. 3, 8.
[IV-33]Bernal Diaz,Hist. Conq., fol. 136;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 105.
[IV-34]Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 218.
[IV-35]Powers' Pomo, MS.; Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., pp. 259-262, describes certain other Californians as worshiping for their chief god something in the form of a stuffed coyote.
[V-1]Armstrong's Nar., pp. 102, 193;Richardson's Pol. Reg., pp. 319-20, 325;Richardson's Jour., vol. i., pp. 358, 385;Dall's Alaska, pp. 144-5.
[V-2]Hardisty, inSmithsonian Rept., 1866, pp. 318-19;Jarvis' Religion, Ind. N. Am., p. 91;Kennicott, inWhymper's Alaska, p. 345;Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxviii.;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 178;Ross, inSmithsonian Rept., 1866, pp. 306-7;Franklin's Nar., vol. i., pp. 246-7;Harmon's Jour., p. 300;Hooper's Tuski, p. 317;Richardson's Jour., vol. i., pp. 385-6;Dall's Alaska, pp. 83-90;Whymper's Alaska, pp. 231-2.
[V-3]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., pp. 140-1;Sauer,Billings' Ex., p. 174.
[V-4]D'Orbigny,Voy., pp. 579-80;Coxe's Russ. Dis., p. 217;Dall's Alaska, pp. 335, 389; SeeBancroft's Nat. Races, vol. i., p. 93.
[V-5]In Holmberg's account of these Thlinkeet supernatural powers, nothing is said of the sun or moon as indicating the possession of life by them or of any qualities not material. But Dunn,The Oregon Territory, p. 284, and Dixon,Voyage Round the World, pp. 189-90, describe at least some tribe or tribes of the Thlinkeets and many tribes of the Haidahs, that consider the sun to be a great spirit moving over the earth once every day, animating and keeping alive all creatures, and, apparently, as being the origin of all; the moon is a subordinate and night watcher.
[V-6]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., pp. 52-73;Dall's Alaska, pp. 421-3;Kotzebue's New Voyage, vol. ii., p. 58;Dunn's Oregon, p. 280;Bendel's Alex. Arch., pp. 31-3. This last traveler gives us a variation of the history of Yehl and Khanukh, which is best presented in his own words:—'The Klinkits do not believe in one Supreme Being, but in a host of good and evil spirits, above whom are towering two lofty beings of godlike magnitude, who are the principal objects of Indian reverence. These are Yethl and Kanugh—two brothers; the former the benefactor and well-wisher of mankind, but of a very whimsical and unreliable nature; the latter the stern God of War, terrible in his wrath, but a true patron of every fearless brave. It is he who sends epidemics, bloodshed and war to those who have displeased him, while it seems to be the principal function of Yethl to cross the sinister purposes of his dark-minded brother. Yethl and Kanugh lived formerly on earth, and were born of a woman of a supernatural race now passed away, about the origin and nature of which many conflicting legends are told, hard to comprehend. When Yethl walked on earth and was quite young he acquired great skill in the use of the bow and arrow. He used to kill large birds, assume their shape and fly about. His favorite bird was the raven; hence its name, "Yethl," which signifies "raven" in the Klinkit language. He had also the fogs and clouds at his command, and he would often draw them around him to escape his enemies. His brother's name, Kanugh, signifies "wolf," consequently "raven" and "wolf" are the names of the two gods of the Klinkits, who are supposed to be the founders of the Indian race.'
[V-7]Dunn's Oregon, pp. 253-9;Scouler, inLond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 223;Bancroft's Nat. Races, vol. i., pp. 170-71.
[V-8]Jewitt's Nar., p. 83;Scouler, inLond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., pp. 223-4;Mofras,Explor., tom. i., p. 345;Sutil y Mexicana,Viage, p. 136;Meares' Voy., p. 270;Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. v., pp. 222-4;Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 433-441, 455;Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 51-3;Sproat's Scenes, pp. 40, 156-8, 167-75, 205-11;Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 317. As illustrating strongly the Nootka ideas with regard to the sanctity of the moon and sun, as well as the connection of the sun with the fire, it may be well to call attention to the two following customs:—'El Tays [chief] no puede hacer uso de sus mugeres sin ver enteramente iluminado el disco de la luna.'Sutil y Mexicana,Viage, p. 145. 'Girls at puberty ... are kept particularly from the sun or fire.'Bancroft's Nat. Races, vol. i., p. 197. In this connection it may be mentioned that Mr Lord,Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 257, saw among the Nootkas while at Fort Rupert, a very peculiar Indian "medicine," a solid piece of native copper, hammered flat, oval it would appear from the description, and painted with curious devices, eyes of all sizes being especially conspicuous. The Hudson-Bay traders call it an "Indian copper," and said it was only exhibited on extraordinary occasions, and that its value to the tribe was estimated at fifteen slaves or two hundred blankets. This "medicine" was preserved in an elaborately ornamented wooden case, and belonging to the tribe, not to the chief, was guarded by the medicine-men. Similar sheets of copper are described by Schoolcraft as in use among certain of the Vesperic aborigines: May they all be intended for symbols of the sun, such as that reverenced by the Peruvians?
[V-9]Ross' Adven., pp. 287-9.
[V-10]'The bravest woman of the tribe, one used to carrying ammunition to the warrior when engaged in fight, bared her breast to the person who for courage and conduct was deemed fit successor to the departed. From the breast he cut a small portion, which he threw into the fire. She then cut a small piece from the shoulder of the warrior, which was also thrown into the fire. A piece of bitter root, with a piece of meat, were next thrown into the fire, all these being intended as offerings to the Sun, the deity of the Flatheads.'Tolmie, inLord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 237-8. For references to the remaining matter of the paragraph seeId., vol. ii., pp. 237-43, 260.
[V-11]Kane's Wand., pp. 218-9;Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab., p. 15.
[V-12]This vol.,pp. 95-96.
[V-13]Wilkes' Nar.inU. S. Ex. Ex., vol. v., pp. 124-5;Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 317;Dunn's Oregon, pp. 125-6;Franchère's Nar., p. 258;Mofras,Explor., tom. ii., p. 354;Ross' Adven., p. 96;Parker's Explor. Tour, pp. 139, 246, 254;Tolmie, inLord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 248;Gibbs' Chinook Vocab., pp. 11, 13;Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab., pp. 15, 29;Irving's Astoria, pp. 339-40;Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 253.
[V-14]Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 254: 'The chiefs say, that they and their sons are too great to die of themselves, and although they may be sick, and decline, and die, as others do, yet some person, or some evil spirit instigated by some one, is the invisible cause of their death; and therefore when a chief, or chief's son dies, the supposed author of the deed must be killed.'
[V-15]Alvord, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 652.
[V-16]Stuart's Montana, pp. 64-6.
[V-17]Powers' Pomo, MS.
[V-18]Joaquin Miller's Life amongst the Modocs, pp. 21, 116, 259-60, 360.
[V-19]Powers' Pomo, MS.
[V-20]Beechey's Voy., vol. ii., p. 78.
[V-21]Fages, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., vol. ci., pp. 316, 335.
[V-22]Father Boscana, one of the earliest missionaries to Upper California, left behind him the short manuscript history from which the tradition following in the text has been taken—through the medium of a now rare translation by Mr Robinson. Filled with the prejudices of its age and of the profession of its author, it is yet marvelously truthlike; though a painstaking care has evidently been used with regard to its most apparently insignificant details, there are none of those too visible wrenchings after consistency, and fillings up of lacunae which so surely betray the hand of the sophisticator in so many monkish manuscripts on like and kindred subjects. There are found on the other hand frank confessions of ignorance on doubtful points, and many naïve and puzzled comments on the whole. It is apparently the longest and the most valuable notice in existence on the religion of a nation of the native Californians, as existing at the time of the Spanish conquest, and more worthy of confidence than the general run of such documents of any date whatever. The father procured his information as follows. He says: 'God assigned to me three aged Indians, the youngest of whom was over seventy years of age. They knew all the secrets, for two of them werecapitanes, and the other apul, who were well instructed in the mysteries. By gifts, endearments, and kindness, I elicited from them their secrets, with their explanations; and by witnessing the ceremonies which they performed, I learned by degrees, their mysteries. Thus, by devoting a portion of the nights to profound meditation, and comparing their actions with their disclosures, I was enabled after a long time, to acquire a knowledge of their religion.'Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., p. 236.
[V-23]Seep. 113, of this volume, for a custom among the Mexicans not without analogies to this.
[V-24]Seep. 134, of this volume.
[V-25]Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., pp. 242-301.
[V-26]The Christian leaven, whose workings are evident through this narrative, ferments here too violently to need pointing out.
[V-27]Seepp. 83-4, this volume.
[V-28]Venegas,Noticia de la Cal., tom. i., pp. 102-124;Clavigero,Storia della Cal., tom. i., pp. 135-141;Humboldt,Essai Pol., tom. i., p. 314.
[V-29]Virginia City Chronicle, quoted inS. F. Daily Ev'g Post, of Oct. 12th, 1872;Browne's Lower Cal., p. 188.
[V-30]De Smet's Letters, p. 41.
[V-31]Parker, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 684;Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 35-6, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Barreiro,Ojeada sobre N. Mex., ap. p. 8;Filley's Life and Adven., p. 82;Marcy's Army Life, pp. 58, 64;Domenech,Jour. d'un Miss., pp. 13, 131, 469.
[V-32]Barreiro,Ojeada sobre N. Mex., ap. pp. 2-3;Henry, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 212.
[V-33]Crofutt's Western World, Aug. 1872, p. 27;Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., p. 42, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 91;Bristol, inInd. Aff. Rept., Special Com., 1867, p. 358;Brinton's Myths, p. 158;Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 402.
[V-34]Seepp. 77-8, note 36, this volume.
[V-35]Joaquin Miller's Californian.
[V-36]Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., pp. 271-3;Davis' El Gringo, pp. 142, 396;Simpson's Overland Journ., pp. 21-3;Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 164-5, 418, vol. ii., pp. 62-3, 401;Möllhausen,Tagebuch, pp. 170, 219, 284;Meline's Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, pp. 202, 226;Ruxton's Adven. in Mex., p. 193;Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 73;Ward, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1864, pp. 192-3;Emory's Reconnoissance, p. 30;Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 384;Brinton's Myths, p. 190;Coronado, inHakluyt's Voy., vol. iii., p. 379. Fremont gives an account of the birth of Montezuma. His mother was, it is said, a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought after by all men, they making her presents of corn and skins and all that they had; but the fastidious beauty would accept nothing of them but their gifts. In process of time a season of drought brought on a famine and much distress; then it was that the rich lady showed her charity to be as great in one direction as it had been wanting in another. She opened her granaries and the gifts of the lovers she had not loved went to relieve the hungry she pitied. At last with rain, fertility returned to the earth; and on the chaste Artemis of the Pueblos its touch fell too. She bore a son to the thick summer shower and that son was Montezuma.
[V-37]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 85-6.
[V-38]Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept., pp. 42-3, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii.;Dodt, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1870, p. 129.
[VI-1]Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 22;Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. iii., p. 86.
[VI-2]Las Casas,Hist. Apologética, MS., tom. iii., cap. 168;Smith's Relation of Cabeza de Vaca, p. 177.
[VI-3]Ribas,Hist. de los Triumphos, pp. 473-5;Doc. Hist. Mex., série iv., tom. iii., p. 48.
[VI-4]Apparently the same as that Vairubi spoken of onp. 83of this volume.
[VI-5]Ribas,Hist. de los Triumphos, pp. 16, 18, 40.'A uno de sus dioses llamaban Ouraba, que quiere decir fortaleza. Era como Marte, dios de la guerra. Ofrecíanle arcos, flechas y todo género de armas para el feliz éxito de sus batallas. A otro llamaban Sehuatoba, que quiere decir, deleite, á quien ofrecian plumas, mantas, cuentecillas de vidrio y adornos mugeriles. Al dios de las aguas llamaban Bamusehua. El mas venerado de todos era Cocohuame, que significa muerte.'Alegre,Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., p. 45.'They worship for their gods such things as they haue in their houses, as namely, hearbes, and birdes, and sing songs vnto them in their language.'Coronado, inHakluyt's Voy., vol. iii., p. 363.
[VI-6]'Ils célébraient de grandes fêtes en l'honneur des femmes qui voulaient vivre dans le célibat. Les caciques d'un canton se réunissaient et dansaient tous nus, l'un après l'autre, avec la femme qui avait pris cette détermination. Quand la danse était terminée, ils la conduisaient dans une petite maison qu'on avait décorée à cet effet, et ils jouissaient de sa personne, les caciques d'abord et ensuite tous ceux qui le voulaient. A dater de ce moment, elles ne pouvaient rien refuser à quiconque leur offrait le prix fixé pour cela. Elles n'étaient jamais dispensées de cette obligation, même quand plus tard elles se mariaient.'Castañeda, inTernaux-Compans,Voy., série i., tom. ix., pp. 150-1.'Although these men were very immoral, yet such was their respect for all women who led a life of celibacy, that they celebrated grand festivals in their honour.' And there he makes an end.Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 170.
[VI-7]This volume,pp. 55-6.
[VI-8]I would call attention to the fact that Alvarado, the ruddy handsome Spanish captain, was called Tonatiuh by the Mexicans, just as Barnabas was called Jupiter, and Paul, Mercurius, by the people of Lystra—going to show how unfetish and anthropomorphic were the ideas connected with the sun-god by the Mexicans.
[VI-9]Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 311.
[VI-10]Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 473-4. The so-often discussed resemblance in form and signification between the two Mexican wordsteotlandcalli(seeMolina,Vocabulario) and the two Greek wordstheosandkalia, is completely enough noticed by Müller.'Die Mexikanischen Völker haben einen Appellativnamen für Gott, Teotl, welcher, da die Buchstaben tl blosse aztekische Endung sind, merkwürdiger Weise mit dem indogermanischen theos, Deus, Deva, Dew, zusammenstimmt. Dieses Wort wird zur Bildung mancher Götternamen oder Kultusgegenstände gebraucht. Hieher gehören die Götternamen Tcotlacozanqui, Teocipactli, Teotetl, Teoyamiqui, Tlozolteotl. Der Tempel heisst Teocalli (vgl. Kalia, Hütte, Kalias, Capelle) oder wörtlich Haus Gottes—das göttliche Buch, Teoamoxtli, Priester Teopuixqui, oder auch Teoteuktli, eine Prozession, Teonenemi, Göttermarsch. Dazu kommen noch manche Namen von Städten, die als Kultussitze ausgezeichnet waren, wie das uns schon früher bekannt gewordene Teotihuacan. Im Plural wurden die Götter Teules genannt und eben so, wie uns Bernal Diaz so oft erzählt, die Gefährten des Cortes, welche das gemeine Volk als Götter bezeichnen wollte.'Id., p. 472.
[VI-11]Klemm,Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., pp. 114-5.
[VI-12]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 45-6.
[VI-13]Gallatin, inAmer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 352.
[VI-14]Prescott's Conq. of Mex., vol. i., p. 57.
[VI-15]Squier's Serpent Symbol, p. 47.
[VI-16]Bussierre,L'Empire Mexicain, pp. 131-3.
[VI-17]Brantz Mayer, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. vi., p. 585; see also,Brantz Mayer's Mexico as it was, p. 110.
[VI-18]Carbajal Espinosa,Hist. de Mexico, tom. i., pp. 468-9;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 3-4.
[VI-19]Hombre Buho.
[VI-20]Pimentel,Mem. sobre la Raza Indígena, pp. 11-13.
[VI-21]Solis,Hist. de la Conq. de Mex., tom. i., pp. 398-9, 431.
[VI-22]Gallatin, inAmer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 350, identifies this god with Tezcatlipoca of whom he writes in the following terms: 'Tezcatlipoca. A true invisible god, dwells in heaven, earth, and hell; alone attends to the government of the world, gives and takes away wealth and prosperity. Called alsoTitlacoa(whence his starTitlacahuan). Under the name ofNecocyaotl, the author of wars and discords. According to Boturini, he is the god of providence. He seems to be the only equivalent for theTonacatlecottleof the interpreters of the Codices.'
[VI-23]Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 135. I take this opportunity of cautioning the reader against Kingsborough's translation of the above codex, as well as against his translation of theSpiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano: every error that could vitiate a translation seems to have crept into these two.
[VI-24]See this vol.p. 57, note 13. Onpages 55and56, and in the note pertaining thereto, will also be found many references bearing on the matter under present discussion.
[VI-25]Herrera,Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. xviii., p. 253.
[VI-26]Qües, Oviedo calls them, (spelledcuesby most writers) the following explanation being given in glossary ofVoces Americanas Empleadas por Oviedo, appended to the fourth volume of theHist. Gen.:'Qü: templo, casa de oracion. Esta voz era muy general en casi toda América, y muy principalmente en las comarcas de Yucatan y Mechuacan.'
[VI-27]Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iii., p. 503.
[VI-28]'Ypalnemoaloni, que quiere decir, Señor por quien se vive, y ai sèr en èl de Naturaleça.'Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. iii., p. 30.
[VI-29]See this vol.p. 183.—Not, be it remarked that Acosta denies the knowledge by the Mexicans of a Supreme God; he only denies the existence of any name by which the said deity was generally known. This is clear from the following extract from theHist. Nat. Ind., p. 333: 'First, although the darkenesse of infidelitie holdeth these nations in blindenesse, yet in many thinges the light of truth and reason works somewhat in them. And they commonly acknowledge a supreame Lorde and Author of all things, which they of Peru called Viracocha.... Him they did worship, as the chiefest of all, whom they did honor in beholding the heaven. The like wee see amongest them of Mexico.'
[VI-30]Acosta,Hist. Nat. Ind., pp. 334, 337-8.
[VI-31]Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., pp. 88, 91, 107.
[VI-32]The interpretation of the title Tloque Nahuaque is not only irreconcilable with another given by the same author a few lines above in our text, but it is also at utter variance with those of all other authors with which I am acquainted. It may not be amiss here to turn to the best authority accessible in matters of Mexican idiom: Molina,Vocabulario, describes the title to mean, 'He upon whom depends the existence of all things, preserving and sustaining them,'—a word used also to mean God, or Lord.'Tloque nauaque, cabe quien esta el ser de todas las cosas, conseruandolas y sustentandolas: y dizese de nro señor dios.'
[VI-33]Camargo,Hist. de Tlax., inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 191, tom. xcix., p. 168.
[VI-34]Motolinia,Hist. Indios, inIcazbalceta,Col., tom. i., pp. 4, 33-34.
[VI-35]Ixtlilxochitl,Hist. ChichimecainKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 261.'Tuvo por falsos á todos los dioses que adoraban los de esta tierra, diciendo que eran estatuas ó demonios enemigos del género humano; por que fue muy sabio en las cosas morales, y el que mas vaciló buscando de donde tomar lumbre para certificarse del verdadero Dios y criador de todas las cosas, como se ha visto en el discurso de su historia, y dan testimonio sus cantos que compuso en razon de esto como es el decir que habia uno solo, y que este era el hacedor del cielo y de la tierra, y sustentaba todo lo hecho y criado por él, y que estaba donde no tenia segundo, sobre los nueve cielos, que él alcanzaba, que jamas se habia visto en forma humana, ni otra figura, que con él iban á parar las almas de los virtuosos despues de muertos, y que las de los malos iban á otro lugar, que era el mas ínfimo de la tierra, de trabajos y penas horribles. Nunca jamas (aunque habia muchos ídolos que representaban muchos dioses) cuando se ofrecia tratar de deidad, ni en general ni en particular, sino que decia yntloque in nauhaque y palne moalani, que significa lo que està atras declarado. Solo decia que reconocia al sol por padre; y á la tierra por madre.'See also theRelacionesof the same author, in the same volume, p. 454.
[VI-36]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 241-2.
[VI-37]'Por la freza de la comida.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 39.
[VI-38]'Porque á la verdad no os engañais con lo que haceis.'SeeSahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 356, as the substitution of 'engañeis' for 'engañais' destroys the sense of the passage in Bustamante's ed. of the same,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.
[VI-39]By an error and a solecism of Bustamante's ed. the words'gentes rojas'are substituted for the adjective 'generosos.' See, as in the preceding note,Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 357, andSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.
[VI-40]'Es decir Comandantes ó Capitanes generales de ejército:'Bustamante, inSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 44.
[VI-41]'Borlas,' seeSahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 358, given 'bollas' in Bustamante'sSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 45.
[VI-42]'Dignidad,'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 359, misprinted 'diligencia' in Bustamante'sSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 46.
[VI-43]This doubtful and involved sentence, with the contained clause touching the nature of the fire-god, runs exactly as follows in the two varying editions of the original:'Si alguna cosa aviesa ó mal heche hiciera en la dignidad que le habeis dado, y en la silla en que le habeis puesto, que és vuestra, donde està tratando los negocios populares, como quien lava cosas sucias con agua muy clara y muy limpia; en la qual silla y dignidad tiene el mismo oficio de lavar vuestro padre y madre de todos los Dioses, el Dios antiguo que és el Dios del fuego, que está en medio del albergue cerca de quatro paredes, y está cubierto con plumas resplandecientes que son como alas, lo que este electo hiciese mal hecho, con que provoque vuestra ira é indignacion, y despierte vuestro castigo contra si, no será de su albedrio ó de su querer, sino de vuestra permision, ó de algun otra sugestion vuestra, ó de otro; por lo cual os suplico tengais por bien de abrirle los ojos y darle lumbre y abrirle las orejas, y guiadle á este pobre electo, no tanto por lo que él és, sino principalmente por aquellos á quienes ha de regir y llevar á cuestas.'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 360-361.'Si alguna cosa aviesa ó mal hecha hiciere, en la dignidad que le habeis dado, y en la silla en que lo habeis puesto que es vuestra, donde está tratando los negocios populares, como quien laba cosas sucias, con agua muy clara y muy limpia, en la cual silla y dignidad tiene el mismo oficio de labar vuestro padre y madre, de todos los dioses, el dios antiguo, que es el dios del fuego que está en medio de las flores, y en medio del albergue cercado de cuatro paredes, y está cubierto con plumas resplandecientes que son somo álas; lo que este electo hiciere mal hecho con que provoque vuestra ira é indignacion, y despierte vuestro castigo contra sí, no será de su alvedrio de ó su querer, sino de vuestra permision, ó de alguna otra sugestion vuestra, ó de otro; por lo cual os suplico tengais por bien de abirle los ojos, y darle luz, y abridle tambien las orejas, y guiad á este pobre electo; no tanto por lo que es él, sino principalmente por aquellos á quien ha de regir y llevar a cuestas.' Bustamante'sSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 48.
[VI-44]See this volumep. 60.
[VI-45]Some of these names are differently spelt in Kingsborough's ed.,Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 362.'Uno de los quales fué Camapichtli, otro fué Tizocic, otro Avitzotl, otro el primero Motezuzoma, otro Axayaca, y los que ahora á la parte han muerto, como el segundo Motezuzoma, y tambien Ylhiycamina.'
[VI-46]'Obejas,'in Bustamante's ed.Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 53;'abejas'inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 364.
[VI-47]'Y como el loco de los beleños.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 54.
[VI-48]Both editors of Sahagun agree here in using the word 'obejas.' As sheep were unknown in Mexico it is too evident that other hands than Mexican have been employed in the construction of this simile.
[VI-49]'Si es así ha hecho burla de V. M., y con desacato y grande ofensa, se ha arrojado á una cima, y en una profunda barranca.'Bustamante's ed. ofSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 58. The same passage runs as follows in Kingsborough's ed.:'Si és así ha hecho burla de vuestra magestad, y con desacato y grande ofensa de vuestra magestad será arrojado en una sima, y en una profunda barranca.'Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 367.
[VI-50]'Poca' is misprinted for 'poza' in Bustamante's ed.,Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. v., p. 58.
[VI-51]'Cosa que desciende del cielo, como agua clarísima y purísima par lavar los pecados.'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 368. See alsoSahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 59.
'The quality of mercy is not strain'd,It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath.'—Merchant of Venice, act. iv.
[VI-52]'Mayormente á los enfermos porque son imágen de dios.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 63.
[VI-53]'Los pasados señores y señoras que tuvieron cargo de éste reino.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 71.
[VI-54]'Adornador de las criaturas.'Sahagun, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol v., p. 377.'Adornador de las almas.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 71.
[VI-55]The precise force of much of this sentence it is hard to understand. It seems to show, at any rate, that the merchants were supposed to be very intimate with and especially favored by this deity. The original runs as follows:'En este lugar burlan y rien de nuestras boberías los negociantes, con los quales estais vos holgados, porque son vuestros amigos y vuestros conocidos, y allí inspirais é insuflais á vuestros devotos, que lloran y suspiran en vuestra presencia y os dan de verdad su corazon.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 73.
[VI-56]'Para que vean como en espejo de dos hazes, donde se representa la imágen de cada uno'.Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 73.
[VI-57]Nacochtli, orejeras (ear-rings);Tentetl, beçote de indio (lip-ornament).Molina,Vocabulario.Molina gives alsoMatemecatl, to mean a gold bracelet or something of that kind; Bustamante translates the word in the same way, explaining that the strap mentioned in the text was used to tie the bracelet on.Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 74.
[VI-58]'Espaldar de vuestra silla.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.
[VI-59]'He that delivered this prayer before Tezcatlipoca, stood on his feet, his feet close together, bending himself towards the earth. Those that were very devout were naked. Before they began the prayer they offered copal to the fire, or some other sacrifice, and if they were covered with a blanket, they pulled the knot of it round to the breast, so that they were naked in front. Some spoke this prayer squatting on their calves, and kept the knot of the blanket on the shoulder.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 75.
[VI-60]Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was one of the first preachers sent to Mexico; where he was much employed in the instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the province of Tezcuco. While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known to us as theHistoria General de las Cosas de Nueva España, from which the above prayers have been translated, and from which we shall draw largely for further information. It would be hard to imagine a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of working than his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of which he wished to write. These learned Mexicans being collected, Father Sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology, and so on that he wanted; at the foot of the said pictures these learned Mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the Mexican tongue; and this explanation the Father Sahagun translated into Spanish: that translation purports to be what we now read as theHistoria General. Here follows a translation of the Prologo of his work, in which he describes all the foregoing in his own way: "All writers labor the best that they can to make their works authoritative; some by witnesses worthy of faith, others by the writings of previous writers held worthy of belief, others by the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures. To me are wanting all these foundations to make authoritative what I have written in these twelve books [of theHistoria General]. I have no other foundation, but to set down here the relation of the diligence that I made to know the truth of all that is written in these twelve books. As I have said in other prologues to this work, I was commanded in all holy obedience by my chief prelate to write in the Mexican language that which appeared to me to be useful for the doctrine, worship, and maintenance of Christianity among these natives of New Spain, and for the aid of the workers and ministers that taught them. Having received this commandment, I made in the Spanish language a minute or memorandum of all the matters that I had to treat of, which matters are what is written in the twelve books, ... which were begun in the pueblo of Tepeopulco, which is in the province of Culhuacán or Tezcuco. The work was done in the following way. In the aforesaid pueblo, I got together all the principal men, together with the lord of the place, who was called Don Diego de Mendoza, of great distinction and ability, well experienced in things ecclesiastic, military, political, and even relating to idolatry. They being come together, I set before them what I proposed to do, and prayed them to appoint me able and experienced persons, with whom I might converse and come to an understanding on such questions as I might propose. They answered me that they would talk the matter over and give their answer on another day; and with this they took their departure. So on another day the lord and his principal men came, and having conferred together with great solemnity, as they were accustomed at that time to do, they chose out ten or twelve of the principal old men, and told me that with these I might communicate and that these would instruct me in any matters I should inquire of. Of these there were as many as four instructed in Latin, to whom I, some few years before, had myself taught grammar in the college of Santa Cruz, in Tlaltelolco. With these appointed principal men, including the four instructed in grammar, I talked many days during about two years, following the order of the minute I had already made out. On all the subjects on which we conferred they gave me pictures—which were the writings anciently in use among them—and these the grammarians interpreted to me in their language, writing the interpretation at the foot of the picture. Even to this day I hold the originals of these.... When I went to the chapter, with which was ended the seven years' term of Fray Francisco Torál—he that had imposed the charge of this work upon me—I was removed from Tepeopulco, carrying all my writings. I went to reside at Santiago del Tlaltelolco. There I brought together the principal men, set before them the matter of my writings, and asked them to appoint me some able principal men, with whom I might examine and talk over the writings I had brought from Tepeopulco. The governor, with the alcaldes, appointed me as many as eight or ten principal men, selected from all the most able in their language, and in the things of their antiquities. With these and with four or five collegians, all trilinguists, and living for the space of a year or more secluded in the college, all that had been brought written from Tepeopulco was clearly emended and added to; and the whole was rewritten in small letters, for it was written with much haste. In this scrutiny or examination, he that worked the hardest of all the collegians was Martin Jacobita, who was then rector of the college, an inhabitant of the ward of Santa Ana. I, having done all as above said in Tlaltelolco, went, taking with me all my writings, to reside in San Francisco de México, where, by myself, for the space of three years, I examined over and over again the writings, emended them, divided them into twelve books, and each book into chapters and paragraphs. After this, Father Miguel Navarro being provincial, and Father Diego de Mendoza commissary-general in Mexico, with their favor I had all the twelve books clearly copied in a good hand, as also thePostillaand theCantáres[which were other works on which Sahagun was engaged]. I made out also an Art of the Mexican language with a vocabulary-appendix. Now the Mexicans added to and emended my twelve books [of theHistoria General] in many things while they were being copied out in full; so that the first sieve through which my work passed was that of Tepeopulco, the second that of Tlaltelolco, the third that of Mexico; and in all these scrutinies collegiate grammarians had been employed. The chief and most learned was Antonio Valeriano, a resident of Aztcapuzalco; another little less than the first, was Alonso Vegerano, resident of Cuauhtitlan; another was Martin Jacobita, above mentioned; another Pedro de Santa Buenaventura, resident of Cuauhtitlan; all expert in three languages, Latin, Spanish, and Indian [Mexican]. The scribes that made out the clear copies of all the works are Diego Degrado, resident of the ward of San Martin, Mateo Severino, resident of Xochimilco, of the part of Ullác. The clear copy being fully made out, by the favor of the fathers above mentioned and the expenditure of hard cash on the scribes, the author thereof asked of the delegate Father Francisco de Rivera that the work be submitted to three or four religious, so that they might give an opinion on it, and that in the provincial chapter, which was close at hand, they might attend and report on the matter to the assembly, speaking as the thing might appear to them. And these reported in the assembly that the writings were of much value and deserved such support as was necessary toward their completion. But to some of the assembly it seemed that it was contrary to their vows of poverty to spend money in copying these writings; so they commanded the author to dismiss his scribes, and that he alone with his own hand should do what copying he wanted done; but as he was more than seventy years old, and for the trembling of his hand not able to write anything, nor able to procure a dispensation from this mandate, there was nothing done with the writings for more than five years. During this interval, and at the next chapter, Father Miguel Navarro was elected by the general chapter for custos custodium, and Father Alonso de Escalona, for provincial. During this time the author made a summary of all the books and of all the chapters of each book, and prologues, wherein was said with brevity all that the books contained. This summary Father Miguel Navarro and his companion, Father Gerónimo de Mendieta, carried to Spain, and thus in Spain the things that had been written about this land made their appearance. In the mean time, the father provincial took all the books of the author and dispersed them through all the province, where they were seen by many religious and approved for very precious and valuable. After some years, the general chapter meeting again, Father Miguel Navarro, at the petition of the author, turned with censures to collect again the said books; which, from that collecting, came within about a year into the hands of the author. During that time nothing was done in them, nor was there any one to help to get them translated into the vernacular Spanish, until the delegate-general Father Rodrigo de Sequera came to these parts, saw and was much pleased with them, and commanded the author to translate them into Spanish; providing all that was necessary to their being re-written, the Mexican language in one column and the Spanish in another, so that they might be sent to Spain; for the most illustrious Señor Don Juan de Ovando, president of the Council of Indies, had inquired after them, he knowing of them by reason of the summary that the said Father Miguel Navarro had carried to Spain, as above said. And all the above-said is to show that this work has been examined and approved by many, and during many years has passed through many troubles and misfortunes before reaching the place it now has."Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., Prólogo, pp. iii. vii. As to the date at which Sahagun wrote he says: 'These twelve books and the Art and the vocabulary-appendix were finished in a clear copy in the year 1569; but not translated into Spanish.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. i., Introduccion, p. xv. The following scanty sketch of the life of Sahagun, is taken, after Bustamante, from theMenealógio Seráficoof Father Betancourt: 'Father Bernardino Sahagun, native of Sahagun, took the robe in the convent of Salamanca, being a student of that university. He passed into this province [Mexico] in the year 1529, in the company of Father Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo. While a youth he was endowed with a beauty and grace of person that corresponded with that of his soul. From his tenderest years he was very observant, self-contained, and given to prayer. Father Martin de Valencia held very close communion with him, owing to which he saw him many times snatched up into an ecstasy. Sahagun was very exact in his attendance in the choir, even in his old age, he never was absent at matins. He was gentle, humble, courteous in his converse with all. He was elected secondly with the learned Father Juan de Gaona, as professor at Tlaltelolco in the college of Santa Cruz; where he shone like a light on a candlestick, for he was perfect in all the sciences. His possession of the Mexican language was of a perfectness that has never to this day being equaled; he wrote many books in it that will be mentioned in the catalogue of authors. He had to strive with much opposition, for to some it did not seem good to write out in the language of the Mexicans their ancient rites, lest it should give occasion for their being persevered in. He watched over the honor of God against idolatry, and sought earnestly to impress the Christian faith upon the converted. He affirmed as a minister of much experience, that during the first twenty years [of his life in the province] the fervor of the natives was very great; but that afterward they inclined to idolatry, and became very lukewarm in the faith. This he says in the book of hisPostillasthat I have, in which I learnt much. During the first twenty years of his life [in the province] he was guardian of some convents; but after that he desired not to take upon himself any office or guardianship for more than forty years, so that he could occupy himself in preaching, confessing, and writing. During the sixty and one years that he lived in the province, for the most part in college, without resting a single day, he instructed the boys in civilization and good customs, teaching them reading, writing, grammar, music, and other things in the service of God and the state. This went on till the year 1590, when, the approach of death becoming apparent to every one, he entered the hospital of Mexico; where he died on the 23rd of October. There assembled to his funeral the collegians, trailing theirbecas, and the natives shedding tears, and the members of the different religious houses giving praises to God our Lord for this holy death, of which the martyrology treats—Gonzaga, Torquemada, Deza, Rampineo, and many others. In the library of Señor Eguiara, in the manuscript of the Turriana collection, I have read the article relating to Father Sahagun; in it a large catalogue of works that he wrote is given. I remember only the following:Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España;Arte de gramática mexicana;Diccionario trilingue de español, latin, y mexicano;Sermones para todo el año en mexicano, (poséo aunque sin nombre de autor);Postillas ó commentarios al evangelio, para las misas solemnes de dia de precepto;Historia de los primeros pobladores franciscanos en Mexico;Salmodia de la vida de Cristo, de la virgen y de los santos, que usaban los indios, y preceptos para los casados;Escala espiritual, que fué la primera obra que se imprimió en Mexico en la imprenta que trajo Hernan Cortés de España.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., pp. vii.-ix. As to the manner in which theHistoria Generalof Sahagun, 'whom,' says Prescott,Mex., vol. i., p. 67, 'I have followed as the highest authority' in matters of Mexican religion—at last saw the light of publication, I give Prescott's account,Mex., vol. i., p. 88, as exact save in one point, for which see the correction in brackets:—'At length, toward the close of the last century, the indefatigable Muñoz succeeded in disinterring the long lost manuscript from the place tradition had assigned to it—the library of a convent at Tolosa, in Navarre, the northern extremity of Spain. With his usual ardor, he transcribed the whole work with his own hands, and added it to the inestimable collection, of which, alas! he was destined not to reap the full benefit himself. From this transcript Lord Kingsborough was enabled to procure the copy which was published in 1830, in the sixth volume of his magnificent compilation. [It was published in two parts, in the fifth and seventh volumes of that compilation, and the exact date of the publication was 1831.] In it he expresses an honest satisfaction at being the first to give Sahagun's work to the world. But in this supposition he was mistaken. The very year preceding, an edition of it, with annotations, appeared in Mexico, in three volumes 8vo. It was prepared by Bustamante—a scholar to whose editorial activity his country is largely indebted—from a copy of the Muñoz manuscript which came into his possession. Thus this remarkable work, which was denied the honors of the press during the author's lifetime, after passing into oblivion, reappeared, at the distance of nearly three centuries, not in his own country, but in foreign lands widely remote from each other, and that almost simultaneously.... Sahagun divided his history into twelve books. The first eleven are occupied with the social institutions of Mexico, and the last with the Conquest. On the religion of the country he is particularly full. His great object evidently was, to give a clear view of its mythology, and of the burdensome ritual which belonged to it. Religion entered so intimately into the most private concerns and usages of the Aztecs, that Sahagun's work must be a text-book for every student of their antiquities. Torquemada availed himself of a manuscript copy, which fell into his hands before it was sent to Spain, to enrich his own pages—a circumstance more fortunate for his readers than for Sahagun's reputation, whose work, now that it is published, loses much of the originality and interest which would otherwise attach to it. In one respect it is invaluable; as presenting a complete collection of the various forms of prayer, accommodated to every possible emergency, in use by the Mexicans. They are often clothed in dignified and beautiful language, showing that sublime speculative tenets are quite compatible with the most degrading practices of superstition. It is much to be regretted that we have not the eighteen hymns, inserted by the author in his book, which would have particular interest, as the only specimen of devotional poetry preserved of the Aztecs. The hieroglyphical paintings, which accompanied the text are also missing. If they have escaped the hands of fanaticism, both may reappear at some future day.' As may have been noticed, the editions of Sahagun by both Bustamante and Kingsborough have been constantly used together and collated during the course of this present work. They differ, especially in many minor points of typography, Bustamante's being the more carelessly edited in this respect. Notwithstanding, however, the opinion to the contrary of Mr Harrisse, Bustamante's edition is on the whole the more complete; Kingsborough having avowedly omitted divers parts of the original which he thought unimportant or uninteresting—a fault also of Bustamante's, but to a lesser extent. Fortunately what is absent in the one I have always found in the other; and indeed, as a whole, and all circumstances being considered, they agree tolerably well. The criticism of Mr Harrisse, just referred to, runs as follows,Bib. Am. Vet., p. 208, note 52: 'Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España; Mexico, 3 vols., 4to, 1829 (edited and castrated by Bustamente [Bustamante] in such a manner as to require for a perfect understanding of that dry but important work, the reading of the parts also published in vols. v. and vi. [v. and vii.], of Kingsborough'sAntiquities.)' We are not yet done, however, with editions of Sahagun. A third edition of part of his work has seen the light. It is Bustamante himself that attempts to supersede a part of his first edition. He affirms, that book xii. of that first edition of his, as of course also book xii. of Kingsborough's edition, is spurious and has been garbled and glossed by Spanish hands quite away from the original as written by Sahagun. Exactly how or when this corruption took place he does not show; but he leaves it to be inferred that it was immediately after the original manuscript had been taken from its author, and that it was done because that twelfth book, which treats more immediately of the Conquest, reflected too hardly on the Conquerors. Bustamante having procured, in a manner now to be given in his own words, a correct and genuine copy of the twelfth book, a copy written and signed by the hand of Sahagun himself, proceeded in 1840 to give it to the world under the extraordinary title ofLa Aparicion de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Mexico, comprobada con la refutacion del argumento negativo que presenta D. Juan Bautista Muñoz, fundandose en el testimonio del P. Fr. Bernardino Sahagun; ó sea, Historia Original de este Escritor, que altera la publicada en 1829 en el equivocado concepto de ser la unica y original del dicho autor. All of which means to say that he, Bustamante, having already published in 1829-30, a complete edition of Sahagun'sHistoria General, in twelve books, according to the best manuscript he could then find, has found the twelfth book of that history to be not genuine, has found the genuine original of said twelfth book, and now, in 1840, publishes said genuine twelfth book under the above extraordinary name, inasmuch as it contains some reference to what is supposed to be uppermost in every religious Mexican's mind, to wit, the miraculous appearance of the Blessed Virgin to a certain native Mexican, la aparicion de nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Mexico. Bustamante's own account of all the foregoing, being translated from the above-mentionedNra. Señora de Guadalupe, pp. iv., viii., xxiii., runs as follows: 'As he [Sahagun] wrote with the frankness proper to truth, and as this was not pleasing to the heads of the then government, nor even to some of his brother friars, he was despoiled of his writings. These were sent to Spain, and ordered to be stored away in the archives of the convent of San Francisco de Tolosa de Navarra, so that no one should ever be able to read them; there they lay hid for more than two centuries. During the reign of Carlos iii., Señor Muñoz was commissioned to write the history of the New World. But he found himself without this work [of Sahagun's] so necessary to his purpose; and he was ignorant of its whereabouts, till, reading the index of the Biblioteca Franciscana he came to know about it, and, furnished by the government with all powers, he took it out of the said monastery. Colonel D. Diego Garcia Panes having come to Madrid at the same time, to publish the works of Señor Veytia, this gentleman contracted a friendship with Muñoz who allowed him to copy the two thick volumes in which Sahagun's work was written.... These two volumes, then, that Colonel Panes had copied, were what was held to be solely the work of Father Sahagun, and as such esteemed; still it does not appear to be proved by attestation that this was the author's originalautographhistory. Had it been so, the circumstance would hardly have been left without definite mention, when the relation was given of the way in which the book was got hold of, and when the guarantee of the exactness of the copy was procured. I, to-day, possess an original manuscript, written altogether and signed by the hand of Father Sahagun; in which is to be noted an essential variation in certain of the chapters which I now present, from those that I before published in the twelfth book of hisHistoria General; which is the book treating of the Conquest. Sahagun wrote this manuscript in the year 1585, that is to say, five years before his death, and he wrote it without doubt under a presentiment of the alterations that his work would suffer. He had already made alterations therein himself, since he confesses (they are his words) that certain defects existed in them, that certain things had been put into the narrative of that Conquest that should not have been put there, while other things were left out that should not have been omitted. Therefore [says Bustamante], this autograph manuscript discovers the alterations that his writings underwent and gives us good reason to doubt the authenticity and exactness of the text seen by Muñoz.... During the revolution of Madrid, in May, 1808, caused by the entrance of the French and the removal of the royal family to Bayonne, the office of the secretary of the Academy of History was robbed, and from it were taken various bundles of the works of Father Sahagun. These an old lawyer of the court bought, and among them one entitled:Relacion de la conquista de esta Nueva España, como la contaron los soldados indios que se hallaron presentes. Convertióse en lengua española llana é inteligible y bien enmendada en este año de 1585. Unfortunately there had only remained [of theRelacion, etc., (?)] a single volume of manuscript, which Señor D. José Gomez de la Cortina, ex-count of that title, bought, giving therefor the sum of a hundred dollars. He allowed me the use of it, and I have made an exact copy of it, adding notes for the better understanding of the Conquest; the before-mentioned being altogether written, as I have said, and signed by the hands of Father Sahagun. This portion, which the said ex-count has certified to, induces us to believe that the other works of Sahagun, relating both to the Conquest and to the Aparicion Guadalupana have been adulterated because they did little honor to the first Conquerors. That they have at all come to be discussed with posterity, has been because a knowledge of them was generally scattered, and in such a way that it was no longer possible to keep them hidden; or, perhaps, because the faction interested in their concealment had disappeared. In proof of the authenticity and identity of this manuscript, we refer to Father Betancur in his Chronicle of the province of the Santo Evangelio de México, making a catalogue of the illustrious men thereof; speaking of Sahagun, he says on page 138: "The ninth book that this writer composed was the Conquest of Mexico by Cortés; which book afterward, in the year 1585, he re-wrote and emended; the [emended] original of this I saw signed with his hand in the possession of Señor D. Juan Francisco de Montemayor, president of the Royal Audiencia, who carried it to Spain with the intention of having it printed; and of this I have a translation wherein it is said that the Marquis of Villa-Manrique, viceroy of Mexico, took from him [Sahagun] the twelve books and sent them to his majesty for the royal chronicler." Bustamante lastly gives a certificate of the authenticity of the manuscript under discussion and published by him. The certificate is signed by José Gomez de la Cortina, and runs as follows: 'Mexico, 1st April, 1840. I certify that, being in Madrid in the year 1828, I bought from D. Lorenzo Ruiz de Artieda, through the agency of my friend and companion, D. José Musso Valiente, member of the Spanish Academies of language and of history, the original manuscript of Father Sahagun, of which mention is made in this work by his Excellency Señor D. Cárlos María Bustamante, as constated by the receipts of the seller, and by other documents in my possession.' So much for Bustamante's new position as a reëditor of a part of Sahagun'sHistoria General; we have stated it in his own words, and in those of his own witnesses as brought forward by him. The changes referred to do not involve any matter bearing on mythology; it may be not out of place to say however, that the evidence in favor of Bustamante's new views seems strong and truth-like.