FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTES[II-1]In Vienna in 1857, the book now best known as the Popol Vuh was first brought to the notice of European scholars, under the following title:Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de Guatemala, traducidas de la Lengua Quiché al Castellano para mas Comodidad de los Ministros del S. Evangelio, por el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez, cura doctrinero por el real patronato del Pueblo de S. Thomas Chuila.—Exactamente segun el texto español del manuscrito original que se halla en la biblioteca de la Universidad de Guatemala, publicado por la primera vez, y aumentado con una introduccion y anotaciones por el Dr C. Scherzer.What Dr Scherzer says in a paper read before the Vienna Academy of Sciences, Feb. 20th, 1856; and repeats in his introduction, about its author, amounts to this: In the early part of the 18th century Francisco Ximenez, a Dominican Father of great repute for his learning and his love of truth, filled the office of curate in the little Indian town of Chichicastenango in the highlands of Guatemala. Neither the time of his birth nor that of his death can be exactly ascertained, but the internal evidence of one of his works shows that he was engaged upon it in 1721. He left many manuscripts, but it is supposed that the unpalatable truths some of them contain with regard to the ill-treatment of the Indians by the colonial authorities sufficed, as previously in the case of Las Casas, to ensure their partial destruction and total suppression. What remains of them lay long hid in an obscure corner of the Convent of the Dominicans in Guatemala, and passed afterwards, on the suppression of all the religious orders, into the library of the University of San Carlos (Guatemala). Here Dr Scherzer discovered them in June 1854, and carefully copied, and afterwards published as above the particular treatise with which we are now concerned. This, according to Father Ximenez himself, and according to its internal evidence, is a translation of aliteralcopy of an original book, written by one or more Quichés, in the Quiché language, in Roman letters, after the Christians had occupied Guatemala, and after the real original Popol Vuh—National Book—had been lost or destroyed—literally, was no more to be seen—and written toreplacethat lost book.'Quise trasladar todas las historiasá la letrade estos indios, y tambien traducirla en la lengua castellana.''Esto escribiremos ya en la ley de Dios en la cristiandad los sacaremos, porque ya no hay libro comun, original donde verlo,Ximenez,Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 1, 4, 5.'Voilà ce que nous écrirons depuis (qu'on a promulgué) la parole de Dieu, et en dedans du Christianisme; nous le reproduirons, parce qu'on ne voit plus ce Livre national,''Vae x-chi-ka tzibah chupan chic u chabal Dios, pa Christianoil chic; x-chi-k'-elezah, rumal ma-habi chic ilbal re Popol-Vuh,'Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 5. The evidence that the author was Quiché will be found in the numerous passages scattered through the narrative in which he speaks of the Quiché nation, and of the ancestors of that nation as 'our people,' 'our ancestors,' and so on. We pass now to what the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg has to say about the book. He says that Ximenes 'discovered this document, in the last years of the 17th century.' In 1855, at Guatemala, the abbé first saw Ximenez' manuscript containing this work. The manuscript contained the Quiché text and the Spanish curate's translation of that text. Brasseur de Bourbourg copied both at that time, but he was dissatisfied with the translation, believing it to be full of faults owing to the prejudices and the ignorance of the age in which it was made, as well as disfigured by abridgments and omissions. So in 1860 he settled himself among the Quichés and by the help of natives joined to his own practical knowledge of their language, he elaborated a new and literal translation, (aussi littérale qu'il a été possible de la faire). We seem justified then on the whole in taking this document for what Ximenez and its own evidence declare it to be, namely, a reproduction of an older work or body of Quiché traditional history, written because that older work had been lost and was likely to be forgotten, and written by a Quiché not long after the Spanish conquest. One consequence of the last fact would seem to be that a tinge of biblical expression has, consciously or unconsciously to the Quiché who wrote, influenced the form of the narrative. But these coincidences may be wholly accidental, the more as there are also striking resemblances to expressions in the Scandinavian Edda and in the Hindoo Veda. And even if they be not accidental, 'much remains,' adopting the language and the conclusion of Professor Max Müller, 'in these American traditions which is so different from anything else in the national literatures of other countries, that we may safely treat it as the genuine growth of the intellectual soil of America.'Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i., p. 328. For the foregoing, as well as further information on the subject see:—Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, pp. 5-31, 195-231;S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim., pp. 83-7;Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 47-61;Ximenez,Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 5-15;Scherzer, inSitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien, 20th Feb., 1856;Helps' Spanish Conquest, vol. iv., pp. 455-6. Professor Müller in his essay on the Popol Vuh, has in one or two places misunderstood the narrative. There was no such creation of man as that he gives as the second, while his third creation is the second of the original. Again, he makes the four Quiché ancestors to be the progenitors ofall tribes both white and black; while they were the parents of the Quiché and kindred races only. The course of the legend brings us to tribes of a strange blood, with which these four ancestors and their people were often at war. The narrative is, however, itself so confused and contradictory at points, that it is almost impossible to avoid such things; and, as a whole, the views of Professor Müller on the Popol Vuh seem just and well considered. Baldwin,Ancient America, pp. 191-7, gives a mere dilution of Professor Müller's essay, and that without acknowledgment.[II-2]The original Quiché runs as follows:'Are u tzihoxic vae ca ca tzinin-oc, ca ca chamam-oc, ca tzinonic; ca ca zilanic, ca ca lolinic, ca tolona puch u pa cah. Vae cute nabe tzih, nabe uchan.—Ma-habi-oc hun vinak, hun chicop; tziquin, car, tap, che, abah, hul, civan, quim, qichelah: xa-utuquel cah qolic. Mavi calah u vach uleu: xa-utnquel remanic palo, u pah cah ronohel. Ma-habi nakila ca molobic, ca cotzobic: hunta ca zilobic; ca mal ca ban-tah, ca cotz ca ban-tah pa cah. X-ma qo-vi nakila qolic yacalic; xa remanic ha, xa lianic palo, xa-utuquel remanic; x-ma qo-vi nakilalo qolic. Xa ca chamanic, ca tzininic chi gekum, chi agab.'This passage is rendered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg thus:'Voici le récit comme quoi tout était en suspens, tout était calme et silencieux; tout était immobile, tout était paisible, et vide était l'immensité des cieux. Voilà donc la première parole et le premier discours. Il n'y avait pas encore un seul homme, pas un animal, pas d'oiseaux, de poissons, d'écrevisses, de bois, de pierre, de fondrières, de ravins, d'herbe ou de bocages: seulement le ciel existait. La face de la terre ne se manifestait pas encore: seule la mer paisible était et tout l'espace des cieux. Il n'y avait encore rien qui fît corps, rien qui se cramponnât à autre chose: rien qui se balançât, qui fît (le moindre) frôlement, qui fît (entendre) un son dans le ciel. Il n'y avait rien qui existât debout; (il n'y avait) que l'eau paisible, que la mer calme et seule dans ses bornes; car il n'y avait rien qui existât. Ce n'était que l'immobilité et le silence dans les ténèbres, dans la nuit.'Popol Vuh, p. 7.And by Francisco Ximenez thus:'Este es su ser dicho cuando estaba suspenso en calma, en silencio, sin moverse, sin cosa sino vacio el cielo. Y esta es la primera palabra y elocuencia; aun no habia hombres, animales, pájaros, pescado, cangrejo, palo, piedra, hoya, barranca, paja ni monte, sino solo estaba el cielo; no se manifestaba la faz de la tierra; sino que solo estaba el mar represado, y todo lo del cielo; aun no habia cosa alguna junta, ni sonaba nada, ni cosa alguna se meneaba, ni cosa que hiciera mal, ni cosa que hiciera "cotz," (esto es ruido en el cielo), ni habia cosa que estuviese parada en pié; solo el agua represada, solo la mar sosegada, solo ella represada, ni cosa alguna habia que estuviese; solo estaba en silencio, y sosiego en la obscuridad, y la noche.'Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 5-6.[II-3]'Gucumatz, littéralement serpent emplumé, et dans un sens plus étendu, serpent revêtu de couleurs brillantes, de vert ou d'azur. Les plumes du guc ou quetzal offrent également les deux teintes. C'est exactment la même chose quequetzalcohuatldans la langue mexicaine.'Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 50.[II-4]A long rambling story is here introduced which has nothing to do with Creation, and which is omitted for the present.[II-5]Balam-Quitzé, the tiger with the sweet smile;Balam-Agab, the tiger of the night;Mahucutah, the distinguished name;Iqi-Balam, the tiger of the moon.'Telle est la signification littérale que Ximenez a donnée de ces quatre noms.'Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 199.[II-6]Caha-paluma, the falling water;Chomi-haorChomih-a, the beautiful house or the beautiful water; in the same way,Tzununihamay mean either the house or the water of the humming-birds; andCakixaha, either the house or the water of the aras [which are a kind of parrot].Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 205.[II-7]'Are ma-habi chi tzukun, qui coon; xavi chi cah chi qui pacaba qui vach; mavi qu'etaam x-e be-vi naht x-qui bano.''Alors ils ne servaient pas encore et ne soutenaient point (les autels des dieux); seulement ils tournaient leurs visages vers le ciel, et ils ne savaient ce qu'ils étaient venus faire si loin.'Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 209.It is right to add, however, that Ximenez gives a much more prosaic turn to the passage:'No cabian de sustento, sino que levantaban las caras al cielo y no se sabian alejar.'Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 84.[II-8]Or as Ximenez,Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 87, writes it—Tulanzú, (las siete cuevas y siete barrancas).[II-9]The following passage in a letter from the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, to Mr. Rafn of Copenhagen, bearing date 25th October, 1858, may be useful in this connection:—'On sait que la coutume toltèque et mexicaine était de conserver, comme chez les chrétiens, les reliques des héros de la patrie: on enveloppait leurs os avec des pierres précieuses dans un paquet d'étoffes auquel on donnait le nom de Tlaquimilolli; ces paquets demeuraient à jamais fermés et on les déposait au fond des sanctuaires où on les conservait comme des objects sacrés.'Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1858, tom. iv., p. 268.One of these 'bundles,' was given up to the Christians by a Tlascaltec some time after the conquest. It was reported to contain the remains of Camaxtli, the chief god of Tlascala. The native historian, Camargo, describes it as follows:'Quand on défit le paquet où se trouvaient les cendres de l'idole Camaxtle, on y trouva aussi un paquet de cheveux blonds, ... on y trouva aussi une émeraude, et de ses cendres on avait fait une pâte, en les pétrissant avec le sang des enfants que l'on avait sacrifiés.'Hist. de Tlaxcallan; inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcix., p. 179.[II-10]SeeCox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. i., p. 333.[II-11]Even supposing there were no special historical reasons for making this distinction, it seems convenient that such a division should be made in a country where the distinction of classes was so marked as in Mexico. As Reads puts the case,Martyrdom of Man, p. 177, 'In those countries where two distinct classes of men exist, the one intellectual and learned, the other illiterate and degraded, there will be in reality two religions, though nominally there may be only one.'[II-12]'Les prêtres et les nobles de Mexico avaient péri presque tous lors de la prise de cette ville, et ceux qui avaient échappé au massacre s'étaient réfugiés dans des lieux inaccessibles. Ce furent donc presque toujours des gens du peuple sans éducation et livrés aux plus grossiéres superstitions qui leur firent les récits qu'ils nous ont transmis; Les missionnaires, d'ailleurs, avaient plus d'intérêt à connaître les usages qu'ils voulaient déraciner de la masse du peuple qu'à comprendre le sens plus élevé que la partie éclairée de la nation pouvait y attacher.'Ternaux-Compans,Essai sur la Théogonie Mexicaine, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1840, tom. lxxxv., p. 274.[II-13]This last statement rests on the authority of Domingo Muñoz Camargo, a native of the city of Tlascala who wrote about 1585. See hisHist. de Tlaxcallanas translated by Ternaux Compans in theNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcix., p. 129.'Les Indiens ne croyaient pas que le monde eût été créé, mais pensaient qu'il était le produit du hazard. Ils disaient aussi que les cieux avaient toujours existé.''Estos, pues, alcanzaron con claridad el verdadero orígen y principio de todo el Universo, porque asientan que el cielo y la tierra y cuanto en ellos se halla es obra de la poderosa mano de un Dios Supremo y único, á quien daban el nombre de Tloque Nahuaque, que quiere decir, criador de todas las cosas. Llamábanle tambien Ipalnemohualoni, que quiere decir, por quien vivimos y somos, y fué la única deidad que adoraron en aquellos primitivos tiempos; y aun despues que se introdujo la idolatría y el falso culto, le creyeron siempre superior á todos sus dioses, y le invocaban levantando los ojos al cielo. En esta creencia se mantuvieron constantes hasta la llegada de los españoles, como afirma Herrera, no solo los mejicanos, sino tambien los de Michoacan.'Veytia,Historia Antigua de Méjico, tom. i., p. 7.'Los Tultecas alcanzaron y supieron la creacion del mundo, y como el Tloque Nahuaque lo crió y las demas cosas que hay en él, como son plantas, montes, animales, aves, agua y peces; asimismo supieron como crió Dios al hombre y una muger, de donde los hombres descendieron y se multiplicaron, y sobre esto añaden muchas fábulas que por escusar prolijidad no se ponen aqui.'Ixtlilxochitl,Relaciones, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., p. 321.'Dios Criador, que en lengua Indiana llamò Tlòque Nahuàque, queriendo dàr à entender, que este Solo, Poderoso, y Clementissimo Dios.'Boturini,Idea de una Hist., p. 79.'Confessauan los Mexicanos a vn supremo Dios, Señor, y hazedor de todo, y este era el principal que venerauan, mirando al cielo, llamandole criador del cielo y tierra.'Herrera,Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. 15, p. 85.'El dios que se llamaba Titlacaâon, (Tezcatlipuca), decian que era criador del cielo y de la tierra y era todo poderoso.'Sahagun,Hist. Ant. Mex., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 241.'Tezcatlipoca, Questo era il maggior Dio, che in que' paesi si adorava, dopo il Dio invisibile, o Supremo Essere, di cui abbiam ragionato.... Era il Dio della Providenza, l'anima del Mondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed il Signor di tutte le cose.'Clavigero,Storia Antica del Messico, tom. ii., p. 7.'La creacion del cielo y de la tierra aplicaban á diversos dioses, y algunos á Tezcatlipuca y á Uzilopuchtli, ó segun otros, Ocelopuchtli, y de los principales de Mexico.'Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., p. 81.[II-14]'Lorsque le ciel et la terre s'étaient faits, quatre fois déjà l'homme avait été formé ... de cendres Dieu l'avait formé et animé.' TheCodex Chimalpopoca, orChimalpopoca MS., afterBrasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 53.This Codex Chimalpopoca, so called by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, is an anonymous manuscript in the Mexican language. What we really know of this much-talked-of document is little, and will be best given in the original form. The following is the first notice I find of this manuscript, with its appurtenances, being Boturini's description of it as possessed at one time by him.Catálogo, pp. 17-18.'Una historia de los Reynos de Culhuàcan, y Mexico en lengua Nàhuatl, y papel Europèo de Autor Anonymo, y tiene añadida una Breve Relacion de los Dioses, y Ritos de la Gentilidad en lengua Castellana que escribiò el Bachiller Don Pedro Ponce, Indio Cazique Beneficiado, que fuè del Partido de Tzumpauàcan. Está todo copiado de letra de Don Fernando de Alba, y le falta la primera foja.'With regard to the termNahuatlused in thisCatalogue, seeId., p. 85:'Los Manuscritos en lengua Nàhuatl, que en este Catálogo se citan, se entiende ser en lengua Mexicana!'This manuscript, or a copy of it, fell into the hands of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the city of Mexico, in the year 1850,Brasseur de Bourbourg,Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, Introduction, p. xxi., and the learned Abbé describes it as follows:—'Codex Chimalpopoca (Copie du), contenant les Epoques, dites Histoire des Soleils et l'Histoire des Royaumes de Colhuacan et de Mexico, texte Mexicain (corrigé d'après celui de M. Aubin), avec un essai de traduction française en regard. gr. in 4o—Manuscrit de 93 ff., copié et traduit par le signataire de la bibliothèque. C'est la copie du document marqué au no13, § viii., du catalogue de Boturini, sous le titre de:Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y Mexico, etc.Ce document, où pour la première fois j'ai soulevé le voile énigmatique qui recouvrait les symboles de la religion et de l'histoire du Mexique est le plus important de tous ceux qui nous soient restés des annales antiques mexicaines. Il renferme chronologiquement l'histoire géologique du monde, par séries de 13 ans, à commencer de plus de dix mille ans avant l'ère chrétienne, suivant les calculs mexicains.'Id., p. 47.[II-15]Otherwise called, according to Clavigero, the godOmeteuctli, and the goddessOmecihuatl. Ternaux-Compans says:'Les noms d'Ometeuctli et d'Omecihuatl ne se trouvent nulle part ailleurs dans la mythologie mexicaine; mais on pourrait les expliquer par l'étymologie.Omesignifie deux en mexicain, et tous les auteurs sont d'accord pour traduire littéralement leur nom par deux seigneurs et deux dames.'Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1840, tom. lxxxvi., p. 7.[II-16]Xolotl, 'servant or page.'—Molina,Vocabulario en lengua Castellana Mexicana. Not 'eye' as some scholiasts have it.[II-17]Literally, in the earliest copy of the myth that I have seen,the milk of the thistle,'la leche de cardo,'which term has been repeated blindly, and apparently without any idea of its meaning, by the various writers that have followed. The old authorities, however, and especially Mendieta, from whom I take the legend, were in the habit of calling the maguey a thistle; and indeed the tremendous prickles of the Mexican plant may lay good claim to theNemo me impune lacessitof the Scottish emblem.'Maguey, que es el cardon de donde sacan la miel.'Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., p. 110.'Metl es un arbol ó cardo que en lengua de las Islas se llama maguey.'Motolinia,Hist. de los Ind., inIcazbalceta,Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 243.'Et similmente-cogliono le foglie di questo albero, ò cardo che si tengono là, come qua le vigne, et chiamanlo magueis.'Relatione fatta per un Gentil'huomo del Signor Cortese, inRamusio,Viaggi, tom. iii., fol. 307.[II-18]Motolinia inIcazbalceta,Col., tom. i., pp. 6-10, says this first man and woman were begotten between the rain and the dust of the earth—'engendrada de la lluvia y del polvo de la tierra'—and in other ways adds to the perplexity; so that I am well inclined to agree with Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 518, when he says these cosmogonical myths display marks of local origin and of the subsequent fusion of several legends into an incongruous whole.'Aus dieser Menge von Verschiedenheiten in diesen Kosmogonien ist ersichtlich, dass viele Lokalmythen hier wie in Peru unabhängig von einander entstanden die man äusserlich mit einander verband, die aber in mancherlei Widersprüchen auch noch später ihre ursprüngliche Unabhängigkeit zu erkennen geben.'[II-19]Here, as elsewhere in this legend we follow Andres de Olmos' account as given by Mendieta. Sahagun, however differs from it a good deal in places. At this point for example, he mentions some notable personages who guessed right about the rising of the sun:—'Otros se pusieron á mirar ácia el oriente, y digeron aquí, de esta parte ha de salir el Sol. El dicho de estos fué verdadero. Dicen que los que miraron ácia el Oriente, fueron Quetzalcoatl, que tambien se llama Ecatl, y otro que se llama Totec, y por otro nombre Anaoatlytecu, y por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y otros que se llaman Minizcoa,'or as in Kingsborough's edition,Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 186.'Por otro nombre Anaoatl y Tecu, y por otro nombre Tlatavictezcatlipuca, y otros que se llaman Mimizcoa, que son inumerables; y cuatro mugeres, la una se llama Tiacapan, la otra Teicu, la tercera Tlacoeoa, la cuarta Xocoyotl.'Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 248.[II-20]Besides differences of authorities already noticed, I may add that Sahagun describes the personage who became the sun—as well as him who, as we shall soon see, became the moon—as belonging before his transformation to the number of the gods, and not as one of the men who served them. Further, in recounting the death of the gods, Sahagun says that to the Air, Ecatl, Quetzalcoatl, was alloted the task of killing the rest; nor does it appear that Quetzalcoatl killed himself. As to Xolotl, he plays quite a cowardly part in this version; trying to elude his death, he transformed himself into various things, and was only at last taken and killed under the form of a fish calledAxolotl.[II-21]This kind of idol answers evidently to the mysterious 'Envelope' of the Quiché myth. See alsonote 9.[II-22]Besides the Chimalpopoca manuscript, the earliest summaries of the Mexican creation-myths are to be found inMendieta,Hist. Ecles., pp. 77-81;Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 233, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 246-250;Boturini,Idea de una Hist., pp. 37-43;Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 31-5, tom. ii., pp. 76-8;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 8-10.[II-23]Ixtlilxochitl,Hist. ChichimecainKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 205-6. The same author, in hisRelaciones,Ib.pp. 321-2, either through his own carelessness or that of a transcriber, transposes the second and third Ages. To see that it is an oversight of some sort, we have but to pass to the summary he gives at the end of these sameRelaciones,Ib., p. 459, where the account is again found in strict agreement with the version given in the text. Camargo,Hist. de Tlax.inNouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xcix., 1843, p. 132, giving as we may suppose the Tlascaltec version of the general Mexican myth, agrees with Ixtlilxochitl as to the whole number of Ages, following, however, the order of the error above noticed in theRelaciones. The Tlascaltec historian, moreover, affirms that only two of these Ages are past, and that the third and fourth destructions are yet to come. M. Ternaux-Compans,Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. lxxxvi., 1840, p. 5, adopts this Tlascaltec account as the general Mexican tradition; he is followed by Dr. Prichard,Researches, vol. v., pp. 360-1. Dr. Prichard cites Bradford as supporting the same opinion, but erroneously, as Bradford,Am. Antiq., p. 328, follows Humboldt. Boturini,Idea de una Hist., p. 3. and Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 57, agree exactly with the text. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg also accepts the version of three past destructions.S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim., pp. 26-7. Professor J. G. Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 510-12, admits that the version of three past destructions and one to come, as given in the text, and in the order there given, 'seems to be the most ancient Mexican version;' though he decides to follow Humboldt, and adopts what he calls the 'latest and fullest form of the myth.' TheSpiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano[Vaticano] contradicts itself, giving first two past destructions, and farther on four,Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 163-7; as does also theExplic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis,Ib., pp. 134-6. Kingsborough himself seems to favor the idea of three past destructions and four ages in all; seeMex. Antiq., vol. vi., p. 171, note. Gomara,Hist. Mex., fol. 297-8; Leon y Gama,Dos Piedras, parte i., pp. 94-5; Humboldt,Vues, tom. ii., pp. 118-129; Prescott,Conq. of Mex., vol. i., p. 61; Gallatin, inAm. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 325—describe four past destructions and one yet to come, or five Ages, and the Chimalpopoca MS., seenote 13, seems also to favor this opinion. Lastly, Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., p. 81, declares that the Mexicans believe in five Suns, or Ages, in times past; but these suns were of inferior quality, so that the soil produced its fruits only in a crude and imperfect state. The consequence was that in every case the inhabitants of the world died through the eating of divers things. This present and sixth Sun was good, however, and under its influence all things were produced properly. Torquemada—who has, indeed, been all along appropriating, by whole chapters, the so long inedited work of Mendieta; and that, if we believe Icazbalceta,Hist. Ecles.,Noticias del Autor., pp. xxx. to xlv., under circumstances of peculiar turpitude—of course gives also five past Ages, repeating Mendieta word for word with the exception of a single 'la.'Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 79.[II-24]Professor J. G. Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 568, remarks of these two personages:'Rein nordisch ist der chichimekische Coxcox, der schon bei der Fluthsage genannt wurde, der Tezpi der Mechoakaner. Das ist auch ursprünglich ein Wassergott und Fischgott, darum trägt er auch den Namen Cipactli, Fisch, Teocipactli, göttlicher Fisch, Huehuetonacateocipactli, alter Fischgott von unserem Fleisch. Darum ist auch seine Gattin eine Pflanzengöttin mit Namen Xochiquetzal d. h. geflügelte Blume.'[II-25]Boturini,Idea de una Hist., pp. 113-4;Id.,Catálogo, pp. 39-40;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 129-30, tom. ii., p. 6;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. vii., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 164-5;Gemelli Carreri, inChurchill's Col. Voy., vol. iv., p. 481;Humboldt,Vues, tom. i., pp. 114-15, tom. ii., pp. 175-8;Tylor's Anahuac, pp. 276-7;Gondra, inPrescott,Conquista de Mexico, tom. iii., pp. 1-10. A careful comparison of the passages given above will show that this whole story of the escape of Coxcox and his wife in a boat from a great deluge, and of the distribution by a bird of different languages to their descendants, rests on the interpretation of certain Aztec paintings, containing supposed pictures of a flood, of Coxcox and his wife, of a canoe or rude vessel of some kind, of the mountain Culhuacan, which was the Mexican Ararat, and of a bird distributing languages to a number of men. Not one of the earliest writers on Mexican mythology, none of those personally familiar with the natives and with their oral traditions as existing at the time of, or immediately after the conquest, seems to have known this legend; Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta, Ixtlilxochitl, and Camargo, are all of them silent with regard to it. These facts must give rise to grave suspicions with regard to the accuracy of the commonly accepted version, notwithstanding its apparently implicit reception up to this time by the most critical historians. These suspicions will not be lessened by the result of the researches of Don José Fernando Ramirez, Conservator of the Mexican National Museum, a gentleman not less remarkable for his familiarity with the language and antiquities of Mexico than for the moderation and calmness of his critical judgments, as far as these are known. In a communication dated April, 1858, to Garcia y Cubas,Atlas Geográfico, Estadístico e Histórico de la Republica Mejicana, entrega 29, speaking of the celebrated Mexican picture there for the first time, as he claims, accurately given to the public—Sigüenza's copy of it, as given by Gemelli Carreri, that given by Clavigero in hisStoria del Messico, that given by Humboldt in hisAtlas Pittoresque, and that given by Kingsborough being all incorrect—Señor Ramirez says:—'The authority of writers so competent as Sigüenza and Clavigero imposed silence on the incredulous, and after the illustrious Baron von Humboldt added his irresistible authority, adopting that interpretation, nobody doubted that "the traditions of the Hebrews were found among the people of America;" that, as the wise Baron thought, "their Coxcox, Teocipactli, or Tezpi is the Noah, Xisutrus, or Menou of the Asiatic families;" and that "the Cerro of Culhuacan is the Ararat of the Mexicans." Grand and magnificent thought, but unfortunately only a delusion. The blue square No. 1, with its bands or obscure lines of the same color, cannot represent the terrestrial globe covered with the waters of the flood, because we should have to suppose a repetition of the same deluge in the figure No. 40, where it is reproduced with some of its principal accidents. Neither, for the same reason, do the human heads and the heads of birds which appear to float there, denote the submerging of men and animals, for it would be necessary to give the same explanation to those seen in group No. 39. It might be argued that the group to the left (of No. 1), made up of a human head placed under the head of a bird, represented phonetically the name Coxcox, and denoted the Aztec Noah; but the group on the right, formed of a woman's head with other symbolic figures above it, evidently does not express the name Xochiquetzal, which is said to have been that of his wife.... Let us now pass on to the dove giving tongues to the primitive men who were born mute. The commas which seem to come from the beak of the bird there represented, form one of the most complex and varied symbols, in respect to their phonetic force, which are found in our hieroglyphic writing. In connection with animated beings they designate generically the emission of the voice.... In the group before us they denote purely and simply that the bird was singing or speaking—to whom?—to the group of persons before it, who by the direction of their faces and bodies show clearly and distinctly the attention with which they listened. Consequently the designer of the before-mentioned drawing for Clavigero, pre-occupied with the idea of signifying by it the pretended confusion of tongues, changed with his pencil the historic truth, giving to these figures opposite directions. Examining attentively the inexactitudes and errors of the graver and the pencil in all historical engravings relating to Mexico, it is seen that they are no less numerous and serious than those of the pen. The interpretations given to the ancient Mexican paintings by ardent imaginations led away by love of novelty or by the spirit of system, justify to a certain point the distrust and disfavor with which the last and most distinguished historian of the Conquest of Mexico (W. H. Prescott) has treated this interesting and precious class of historical documents.' Señor Ramirez goes on thus at some length to his conclusions, which reduce the original painting to a simple record of a wandering of the Mexicans among the lakes of the Mexican valley—that journey beginning at a place 'not more than nine miles from the gutters of Mexico,'—a record having absolutely no connection either with the mythical deluge, already described as one of the four destructions of the world, or with any other. The bird speaking in the picture, he connects with a well-known Mexican fable given by Torquemada, in which a bird is described as speaking from a tree to the leaders of the Mexicans at a certain stage of their migration, and repeating the workTihui, that is to say, 'Let us go.' A little bird called theTihuitochan, with a cry that the vulgar still interpret in a somewhat similar sense, is well known in Mexico, and is perhaps at the bottom of the tradition. It may be added that Torquemada gives a painted manuscript, possibly that under discussion, as his authority for the story. The boat, the mountain, and the other adjuncts of the picture are explained in a like simple way, as the hieroglyphics, for the most part, of various proper names. Our space here will not permit further details—though another volume will contain this picture and a further discussion of the subject—but I may remark in concluding that the moderation with which Señor Ramirez discusses the question, as well as his great experience and learning in matters of Mexican antiquity, seem to claim for his views the serious consideration of future students.[II-26]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 425-7.[II-27]Fr. Gregorio Garcia,Origen de los Ind., pp. 327-9, took this narrative from a book he found in a convent in Cuilapa, a little Indian town about a league and a half south of Oajaca. The book had been compiled by the vicar of that convent, and—'escrito con sus Figuras, como los Indios de aquel Reino Mixteco las tenian en sus Libros, ò Pergaminos arrollados, con la declaracion de lo que significaban las Figuras, en que contaban su Origen, la Creacion del Mundo, i Diluvio General.'[II-28]'Que aparecieron visiblemente un Dios, que tuvo por Nombreun Ciervo, i por sobrenombreCulebra de Leon; i una Diosa mui linda, i hermosa, que su Nombre fueun Ciervo, i por sobrenombreCulebra de Tigre,'Garcia,Id., pp. 327-9.[II-29]Burgoa,Geog. Descrip., tom. i., fol. 128, 176.[II-30]Burgoa,Geog. Descrip., fol. 196-7.[II-31]One of the Las Casas MSS. gives, according to Helps, 'trece hijos' instead of 'tres hijos;' the latter, however, being the correct reading, as the list of names in the same manuscript shows, and as Father Roman gives it. Seenote 33.[II-32]This tradition, says the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 74-5, has indubitably reference to a queen whose memory has become attached to very many places in Guatemala, and Central America generally. She was calledAtit, Grandmother; and from her the volcano of Atitlan, received the nameAtital-huyu, by which it is still known to the aborigines. This Atit lived during four centuries, and from her are descended all the royal and princely families of Guatemala.[II-33]Roman,República de los Indios Occidentales, part 1, lib. 2, cap. 15, afterGarcia,Origen de los Ind., pp. 329-30;Las Casas,Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. 235, afterHelps' Span. Conq., vol. ii., p. 140;Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 53-4;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 74-5.[II-34]The first of these two names is erroneously spelt 'Famagoztad' by M. Ternaux-Compans, Mr. Squier, and the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, the two latter perhaps led astray by the error of M. Ternaux-Compans, an error which first appeared in that gentleman's translation of Oviedo.Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 40.Peter Martyr, dec. vi., cap. 4.[II-35]This tradition was 'gathered principally from the relations of Con Quien, the intelligent chief of the central Papagos.'Davidson, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1865, pp. 131-3.[II-36]The legendary Montezuma, whom we shall meet so often in the mythology of the Gila valley, must not be confounded with the two Mexican monarchs of the same title. The name itself would seem, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to have been carried into Arizona and New Mexico by the Spaniards or their Mexican attendants, and to have become gradually associated in the minds of some of the New Mexican and neighboring tribes, with a vague, mythical, and departed grandeur. The name Montezuma became thus, to use Mr. Tylor's words, that of the great 'Somebody' of the tribe. This being once the case, all the lesser heroes would be gradually absorbed in the greater, and their names forgotten. Their deeds would become his deeds, their fame his fame. There is evidence enough that this is a general tendency of tradition, even in historical times. The pages of Mr. Cox's scholarly and comprehensive work,The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, teem with examples of it. In Persia, deeds of every kind and date are referred to Antar. In Russia, buildings of every age are declared to be the work of Peter the Great. All over Europe, in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland, the exploits of the oldest mythological heroes figuring in the Sagas, Eddas, and Nibelungen Lied have been ascribed in the folk-lore and ballads of the people to Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Boabdil, Charles V., William Tell, Arthur, Robin Hood, Wallace, and St. Patrick. The connection of the name of Montezuma with ancient buildings and legendary adventures in the mythology of the Gila valley seems to be simply another example of the same kind.[II-37]I am indebted for these particulars of the belief of the Pimas to the kindness of Mr. J. H. Stout of the Pima agency, who procured me a personal interview with five chiefs of that nation, and their very intelligent and obliging interpreter, Mr. Walker, at San Francisco, in October, 1873.[II-38]For the killing of this Great Eagle Szeukha had to do a kind of penance, which was never to scratch himself with his nails, but always with a small stick. This custom is still observed by all Pimas; and a bit of wood, renewed every fourth day, is carried for this purpose stuck in their long hair.[II-39]With the reader, as with myself, this clause will probably call up something more than a mere suspicion of Spanish influence tinging the incidents of the legend. The Pimas themselves, however, asserted that this tradition existed among them long before the arrival of the Spaniards and was not modified thereby. One fact that seems to speak for the comparative purity of their traditions is that the name of Montezuma is nowhere to be found in them, although Cremony,Apaches, p. 102, states the contrary.[II-40]Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, vol. i., p. 268.[II-41]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 85-6.[II-42]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 89-90; andEaton,Ib., pp. 218-9. The latter account differs a little from that given in the text, and makes the following addition: After the Navajos came up from the cave, there came a time when, by the ferocity of giants and rapacious animals, their numbers were reduced to three—an old man, an old woman, and a young woman. The stock was replenished by the latter bearing a child to the sun.[II-43]Ribas,Hist., pp. 18, 40.[II-44]Clavigero,Storia della Cal., tom. i., p. 139.[II-45]Clavigero,Storia della Cal., tom. i., pp. 135-7.[II-46]Hugo Reid, inLos Angeles Star.[II-47]Hugo Reid,Ib.[II-48]Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.[II-49]Powers' Pomo, MS.[II-50]Humboldt County.[II-51]Powers' Pomo, MS.[II-52]Powers' Pomo, MS.[II-53]Powers' Pomo, MS.[II-54]Johnston, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 224-5.[II-55]H. B. D.inHesperian Mag., vol. iii., 1859, p. 326.[II-56]Wadsworth, inHutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. ii., 1858, pp. 356-8.[II-57]Powers' Pomo, MS.[II-58]Joaquin Miller's Life Amongst the Modocs, pp. 235-236, 242-6.[II-59]Ruxton's Adven. in Mex., pp. 244-6.[II-60]Wilkes' Nar.inU. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., p. 496.[II-61]Franchère's Nar., p. 258;Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 317;Gibbs' Chinook Vocab., pp. 11-13;Id.,Clallam and Lummi Vocab., pp. 15-29;Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 139.[II-62]Sproat's Scenes, pp. 176-85, 203-14.[II-63]To the examples already given of this we may add the case of the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island, of whom Mr. Poole,Q. Char. Isl., p. 136, says: 'Their descent from the crows is quite gravely affirmed and steadfastly maintained.'[II-64]Anderson, inLord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 240.[II-65]Harmon's Jour., pp. 302-3.[II-66]This Khanukh was the progenitor of the Wolf family of the Thlinkeets even as Yehl was that of the Raven family. The influence of this wolf-deity seems to have been generally malign, but except in connection with this water-legend, he is little mentioned in the Thlinkeet myths.[II-67]'Seit der Zeit, entgegnete Khanukh, als von unten die Leber herauskam.'Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 61.What is meant by the term 'die Leber,' literally the particular gland of the body called in English 'the liver,' I cannot say; neither Holmberg or any one else, as far as my knowledge goes, attempting any explanation.[II-68]Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 54-7;Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., pp. 14, 52-63;Baer,Stat. u. Ethn., pp. 93-100;Dall's Alaska, pp. 421-22;Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 452-5;Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 405;Mayne's B. C., p. 272.[II-69]Baer,Stat. u. Ethn., p. 116;Lisiansky's Voy., pp. 197-8;Dall's Alaska, p. 405;Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 140.[II-70]Choris,Voy. Pitt., pt. vii., p. 7;Kotzebue's Voy., vol. ii., p. 165.[II-71]Dunn's Oregon, pp. 102,et seq.;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 173;Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxviii.;Franklin's Nar., vol. i., pp. 249-50.[II-72]Hearne's Journey, pp. 342-3.[II-73]Keightley's Myth. of Ancient Greece and Italy, p. 14.[III-1]North Am. Rev., vol. ciii., p. 1.[III-2]Alegre,Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. i., p. 279;Apostólicos Afanes, p. 68.[III-3]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 74-5, 200-18;Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, parte ii., lam. x., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 139;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. xxv. and xxxiii., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 178, 181-2;Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., pp. 80-1;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 9, 11, 17, 34-5.[III-4]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 301;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Quatre Lettres, p. 156;Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., pp. 259, 262-3;Squier's Serpent Symbol, pp. 18-20;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 60, vol. iv., p. 639, vol. v., pp. 29-87, vol. vi., pp. 594, 626, 636.[III-5]Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 474.[III-6]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 244-5. In Campeche, in 1834, M. Waldeck witnessed an eclipse of the moon during which the Yucatecs conducted themselves much as their fathers might have done in their gentile days, howling frightfully and making every effort to part the celestial combatants. The only apparent advance made on the old customs was the firing off of muskets, 'to prove' in the words of the sarcastic artist, 'that the Yucatecs of to-day are not strangers to the progress of civilization.'Waldeck,Voy. Pitt., p. 14.[III-7]Camargo,Hist. de Tlaxcallan, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., p. 193.[III-8]Alegre,Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., p. 218;Ribas,Hist. de los Triumphos, p. 202;Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., pp. 296-300.[III-9]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 250.[III-10]Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, part. ii., lam. x., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 139;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. xxvi., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 179;Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., p. 250;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 9-17.[III-11]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Quatre Lettres, pp. 155-6.[III-12]Explicacion delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, part. i., lam. ii., part. ii., lam. xiv., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 132, 140;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. xvii., xxxi.,Ib., vol. v., pp. 175, 181;Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 250-252;Camargo,Hist. de Tlaxcallan, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 193;Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., p. 81. The wordtecutliis of frequent occurrence as a termination in the names of Mexican gods. It signifies 'lord' and is written with various spellings. I follow that given by Molina's Vocabulary.[III-13]Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 259.[III-14]Brinton's Myths, p. 143.[III-15]Ward, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 193.[III-16]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., p. 16;Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 56-7;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 491-2.[III-17]Powers' Pomo, MS.[III-18]Eaton, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 218-19.[III-19]Powers' Pomo, MS.[III-20]Brasseur de Bourbourg,S'il Existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim. du Mexique, p. 101.[III-21]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 485;Brinton's Myths, p. 51.[III-22]Brinton's Myths, pp. 66-98.[III-23]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 141.[III-24]Ximenez,Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 6;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 9.[III-25]Gama,Dos Piedras, pt. ii., p. 76.[III-26]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 197.[III-27]Singularly apt in this connection are the wise words that Carlyle,Past and Present Chartism, book i., p. 233, puts into the mouth of his mythical friend Sauerteig—'Strip thyself, go into the bath, or were it into the limpid pool and running brook, and there wash and be clean; thou wilt step out again a purer and a better man. This consciousness of perfect outer pureness, that to thy skin there now adheres no foreign speck of imperfection, how it radiates in on thee with cunning symbolic influences, to the very soul!... It remains a religious duty from oldest time in the East.... Even the dull English feel something of this; they have a saying, "cleanliness is near of kin to Godliness."'[III-28]Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 15-16. 'Era conosciuta con altri nomi assai espressive, i quali o significavano i diversi effetti, che cagionano l'acque, o le diverse apparenze, colori, che formano col loro moto. I Tlascallesi la chiamavano Matlalcueje, cioè, vestita di gonna turchina.'See alsoMüller,Reisen in Mex., tom. iii., p. 89.[III-29]Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 46, 55.[III-30]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 91;Bristol, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1867, p. 358.[III-31]Backus, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 213.[III-32]Whipple, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 39.[III-33]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.[III-34]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. v., ap., pp. 21-2.[III-35]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 70.[III-36]Camargo,Hist. de Tlaxcallan, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1834, tom. xcviii., p. 192.[III-37]Reid, inLos Angeles Star.[III-38]Landa,Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 206.[III-39]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 141.[III-40]Villagutierre,Hist. Conq. de Itza, pp. 151-2.[III-41]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 177.[III-42]Powers' Pomo, MS. This is a tradition of the Yocuts, a Californian tribe, occupying the Kern and Tulare basins, the middle San Joaquin, and the various streams running into Lake Tulare.[III-43]Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. iv., pp. 197-9.[III-44]Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. iv., p. 243.[IV-1]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. v., pp. 1-14, ap. pp. 25-6.[IV-2]Lord's Naturalist in Vancouver Island, vol. ii., pp. 32-4.[IV-3]Powers' Pomo, MS.[IV-4]Dall's Alaska, p. 145.[IV-5]Codex Vaticanus(Mex.), inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ii., plate 75;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 197, tav. lxxv.;Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., pp. 222-3, plate lxxv. It will be seen that I have trusted more to the plate itself than to the Italian explanation. As to Kingsborough's translation of that explanation, it is nothing but a gloss with additions to and omissions from the original.[IV-6]Gage's New Survey, p. 334.[IV-7]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 30.[IV-8]Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 52-4.[IV-9]Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 253.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[II-5]Balam-Quitzé, the tiger with the sweet smile;Balam-Agab, the tiger of the night;Mahucutah, the distinguished name;Iqi-Balam, the tiger of the moon.'Telle est la signification littérale que Ximenez a donnée de ces quatre noms.'Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 199.

[II-6]Caha-paluma, the falling water;Chomi-haorChomih-a, the beautiful house or the beautiful water; in the same way,Tzununihamay mean either the house or the water of the humming-birds; andCakixaha, either the house or the water of the aras [which are a kind of parrot].Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 205.

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

[II-8]Or as Ximenez,Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 87, writes it—Tulanzú, (las siete cuevas y siete barrancas).

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

[II-10]SeeCox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. i., p. 333.

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

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

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

[II-14]'Lorsque le ciel et la terre s'étaient faits, quatre fois déjà l'homme avait été formé ... de cendres Dieu l'avait formé et animé.' TheCodex Chimalpopoca, orChimalpopoca MS., afterBrasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 53.This Codex Chimalpopoca, so called by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, is an anonymous manuscript in the Mexican language. What we really know of this much-talked-of document is little, and will be best given in the original form. The following is the first notice I find of this manuscript, with its appurtenances, being Boturini's description of it as possessed at one time by him.Catálogo, pp. 17-18.'Una historia de los Reynos de Culhuàcan, y Mexico en lengua Nàhuatl, y papel Europèo de Autor Anonymo, y tiene añadida una Breve Relacion de los Dioses, y Ritos de la Gentilidad en lengua Castellana que escribiò el Bachiller Don Pedro Ponce, Indio Cazique Beneficiado, que fuè del Partido de Tzumpauàcan. Está todo copiado de letra de Don Fernando de Alba, y le falta la primera foja.'With regard to the termNahuatlused in thisCatalogue, seeId., p. 85:'Los Manuscritos en lengua Nàhuatl, que en este Catálogo se citan, se entiende ser en lengua Mexicana!'This manuscript, or a copy of it, fell into the hands of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the city of Mexico, in the year 1850,Brasseur de Bourbourg,Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, Introduction, p. xxi., and the learned Abbé describes it as follows:—'Codex Chimalpopoca (Copie du), contenant les Epoques, dites Histoire des Soleils et l'Histoire des Royaumes de Colhuacan et de Mexico, texte Mexicain (corrigé d'après celui de M. Aubin), avec un essai de traduction française en regard. gr. in 4o—Manuscrit de 93 ff., copié et traduit par le signataire de la bibliothèque. C'est la copie du document marqué au no13, § viii., du catalogue de Boturini, sous le titre de:Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y Mexico, etc.Ce document, où pour la première fois j'ai soulevé le voile énigmatique qui recouvrait les symboles de la religion et de l'histoire du Mexique est le plus important de tous ceux qui nous soient restés des annales antiques mexicaines. Il renferme chronologiquement l'histoire géologique du monde, par séries de 13 ans, à commencer de plus de dix mille ans avant l'ère chrétienne, suivant les calculs mexicains.'Id., p. 47.

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

[II-16]Xolotl, 'servant or page.'—Molina,Vocabulario en lengua Castellana Mexicana. Not 'eye' as some scholiasts have it.

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

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

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

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

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

[II-22]Besides the Chimalpopoca manuscript, the earliest summaries of the Mexican creation-myths are to be found inMendieta,Hist. Ecles., pp. 77-81;Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 233, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 246-250;Boturini,Idea de una Hist., pp. 37-43;Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 31-5, tom. ii., pp. 76-8;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 8-10.

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

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

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

[II-26]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 425-7.

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

[II-28]'Que aparecieron visiblemente un Dios, que tuvo por Nombreun Ciervo, i por sobrenombreCulebra de Leon; i una Diosa mui linda, i hermosa, que su Nombre fueun Ciervo, i por sobrenombreCulebra de Tigre,'Garcia,Id., pp. 327-9.

[II-29]Burgoa,Geog. Descrip., tom. i., fol. 128, 176.

[II-30]Burgoa,Geog. Descrip., fol. 196-7.

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

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

[II-33]Roman,República de los Indios Occidentales, part 1, lib. 2, cap. 15, afterGarcia,Origen de los Ind., pp. 329-30;Las Casas,Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. 235, afterHelps' Span. Conq., vol. ii., p. 140;Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 53-4;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 74-5.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[II-41]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 85-6.

[II-42]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 89-90; andEaton,Ib., pp. 218-9. The latter account differs a little from that given in the text, and makes the following addition: After the Navajos came up from the cave, there came a time when, by the ferocity of giants and rapacious animals, their numbers were reduced to three—an old man, an old woman, and a young woman. The stock was replenished by the latter bearing a child to the sun.

[II-43]Ribas,Hist., pp. 18, 40.

[II-44]Clavigero,Storia della Cal., tom. i., p. 139.

[II-45]Clavigero,Storia della Cal., tom. i., pp. 135-7.

[II-46]Hugo Reid, inLos Angeles Star.

[II-47]Hugo Reid,Ib.

[II-48]Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.

[II-49]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[II-50]Humboldt County.

[II-51]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[II-52]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[II-53]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[II-54]Johnston, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 224-5.

[II-55]H. B. D.inHesperian Mag., vol. iii., 1859, p. 326.

[II-56]Wadsworth, inHutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. ii., 1858, pp. 356-8.

[II-57]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[II-58]Joaquin Miller's Life Amongst the Modocs, pp. 235-236, 242-6.

[II-59]Ruxton's Adven. in Mex., pp. 244-6.

[II-60]Wilkes' Nar.inU. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., p. 496.

[II-61]Franchère's Nar., p. 258;Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 317;Gibbs' Chinook Vocab., pp. 11-13;Id.,Clallam and Lummi Vocab., pp. 15-29;Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 139.

[II-62]Sproat's Scenes, pp. 176-85, 203-14.

[II-63]To the examples already given of this we may add the case of the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island, of whom Mr. Poole,Q. Char. Isl., p. 136, says: 'Their descent from the crows is quite gravely affirmed and steadfastly maintained.'

[II-64]Anderson, inLord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 240.

[II-65]Harmon's Jour., pp. 302-3.

[II-66]This Khanukh was the progenitor of the Wolf family of the Thlinkeets even as Yehl was that of the Raven family. The influence of this wolf-deity seems to have been generally malign, but except in connection with this water-legend, he is little mentioned in the Thlinkeet myths.

[II-67]'Seit der Zeit, entgegnete Khanukh, als von unten die Leber herauskam.'Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 61.What is meant by the term 'die Leber,' literally the particular gland of the body called in English 'the liver,' I cannot say; neither Holmberg or any one else, as far as my knowledge goes, attempting any explanation.

[II-68]Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 54-7;Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., pp. 14, 52-63;Baer,Stat. u. Ethn., pp. 93-100;Dall's Alaska, pp. 421-22;Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 452-5;Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 405;Mayne's B. C., p. 272.

[II-69]Baer,Stat. u. Ethn., p. 116;Lisiansky's Voy., pp. 197-8;Dall's Alaska, p. 405;Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 140.

[II-70]Choris,Voy. Pitt., pt. vii., p. 7;Kotzebue's Voy., vol. ii., p. 165.

[II-71]Dunn's Oregon, pp. 102,et seq.;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 173;Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxviii.;Franklin's Nar., vol. i., pp. 249-50.

[II-72]Hearne's Journey, pp. 342-3.

[II-73]Keightley's Myth. of Ancient Greece and Italy, p. 14.

[III-1]North Am. Rev., vol. ciii., p. 1.

[III-2]Alegre,Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. i., p. 279;Apostólicos Afanes, p. 68.

[III-3]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 74-5, 200-18;Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, parte ii., lam. x., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 139;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. xxv. and xxxiii., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 178, 181-2;Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., pp. 80-1;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 9, 11, 17, 34-5.

[III-4]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 301;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Quatre Lettres, p. 156;Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., pp. 259, 262-3;Squier's Serpent Symbol, pp. 18-20;Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 60, vol. iv., p. 639, vol. v., pp. 29-87, vol. vi., pp. 594, 626, 636.

[III-5]Müller,Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 474.

[III-6]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 244-5. In Campeche, in 1834, M. Waldeck witnessed an eclipse of the moon during which the Yucatecs conducted themselves much as their fathers might have done in their gentile days, howling frightfully and making every effort to part the celestial combatants. The only apparent advance made on the old customs was the firing off of muskets, 'to prove' in the words of the sarcastic artist, 'that the Yucatecs of to-day are not strangers to the progress of civilization.'Waldeck,Voy. Pitt., p. 14.

[III-7]Camargo,Hist. de Tlaxcallan, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., p. 193.

[III-8]Alegre,Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. ii., p. 218;Ribas,Hist. de los Triumphos, p. 202;Boscana, inRobinson's Life in Cal., pp. 296-300.

[III-9]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 250.

[III-10]Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, part. ii., lam. x., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 139;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. xxvi., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 179;Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., p. 250;Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 9-17.

[III-11]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Quatre Lettres, pp. 155-6.

[III-12]Explicacion delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, part. i., lam. ii., part. ii., lam. xiv., inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 132, 140;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), tav. xvii., xxxi.,Ib., vol. v., pp. 175, 181;Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 250-252;Camargo,Hist. de Tlaxcallan, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 193;Mendieta,Hist. Ecles., p. 81. The wordtecutliis of frequent occurrence as a termination in the names of Mexican gods. It signifies 'lord' and is written with various spellings. I follow that given by Molina's Vocabulary.

[III-13]Tylor's Prim. Cult., vol. ii., p. 259.

[III-14]Brinton's Myths, p. 143.

[III-15]Ward, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 193.

[III-16]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., p. 16;Torquemada,Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 56-7;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 491-2.

[III-17]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[III-18]Eaton, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., pp. 218-19.

[III-19]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[III-20]Brasseur de Bourbourg,S'il Existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim. du Mexique, p. 101.

[III-21]Brasseur de Bourbourg,Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 485;Brinton's Myths, p. 51.

[III-22]Brinton's Myths, pp. 66-98.

[III-23]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 141.

[III-24]Ximenez,Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 6;Brasseur de Bourbourg,Popol Vuh, p. 9.

[III-25]Gama,Dos Piedras, pt. ii., p. 76.

[III-26]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 197.

[III-27]Singularly apt in this connection are the wise words that Carlyle,Past and Present Chartism, book i., p. 233, puts into the mouth of his mythical friend Sauerteig—'Strip thyself, go into the bath, or were it into the limpid pool and running brook, and there wash and be clean; thou wilt step out again a purer and a better man. This consciousness of perfect outer pureness, that to thy skin there now adheres no foreign speck of imperfection, how it radiates in on thee with cunning symbolic influences, to the very soul!... It remains a religious duty from oldest time in the East.... Even the dull English feel something of this; they have a saying, "cleanliness is near of kin to Godliness."'

[III-28]Clavigero,Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 15-16. 'Era conosciuta con altri nomi assai espressive, i quali o significavano i diversi effetti, che cagionano l'acque, o le diverse apparenze, colori, che formano col loro moto. I Tlascallesi la chiamavano Matlalcueje, cioè, vestita di gonna turchina.'See alsoMüller,Reisen in Mex., tom. iii., p. 89.

[III-29]Oviedo,Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 46, 55.

[III-30]Ten Broeck, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 91;Bristol, inInd. Aff. Rept., 1867, p. 358.

[III-31]Backus, inSchoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 213.

[III-32]Whipple, inPac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 39.

[III-33]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 43.

[III-34]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. v., ap., pp. 21-2.

[III-35]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 70.

[III-36]Camargo,Hist. de Tlaxcallan, inNouvelles Annales des Voy., 1834, tom. xcviii., p. 192.

[III-37]Reid, inLos Angeles Star.

[III-38]Landa,Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 206.

[III-39]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 141.

[III-40]Villagutierre,Hist. Conq. de Itza, pp. 151-2.

[III-41]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 177.

[III-42]Powers' Pomo, MS. This is a tradition of the Yocuts, a Californian tribe, occupying the Kern and Tulare basins, the middle San Joaquin, and the various streams running into Lake Tulare.

[III-43]Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. iv., pp. 197-9.

[III-44]Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. iv., p. 243.

[IV-1]Sahagun,Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. v., pp. 1-14, ap. pp. 25-6.

[IV-2]Lord's Naturalist in Vancouver Island, vol. ii., pp. 32-4.

[IV-3]Powers' Pomo, MS.

[IV-4]Dall's Alaska, p. 145.

[IV-5]Codex Vaticanus(Mex.), inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ii., plate 75;Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano(Vaticano), inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 197, tav. lxxv.;Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus, inKingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., pp. 222-3, plate lxxv. It will be seen that I have trusted more to the plate itself than to the Italian explanation. As to Kingsborough's translation of that explanation, it is nothing but a gloss with additions to and omissions from the original.

[IV-6]Gage's New Survey, p. 334.

[IV-7]Holmberg,Ethn. Skiz., p. 30.

[IV-8]Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 52-4.

[IV-9]Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 253.

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