Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027052574 Cornell University Library E 51.B85 Essays of an American st 3 1924 027 052 574 Essays of an Americanist. I. Ethnologic and Arch^ologic. II. Mythology and Folk Lore. III. Graphic Systems and Literature. IV. Linguistic. BY DANIEL G. ERINTON, A. M., M. D., PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYL- VANIA, PRESIDENT OF THE NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF PHILADEL- PHIA, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY, MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, THE SOCIETE ROYALE DES ANTIQUAIRES DU NORD, THE SOCIETE AMERICAINE DE JfRANCE, THE BER- LINER ANTHROPOLOGISCHE GESELLSCHAFT, THE REAL ACADEMIA DE HIS- TORIA, MADRID, ETC., ETC. PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COATES. 1890. Copyright By D. G. BRINTON. PREFACE, 'T^HE word "Essays" appears on the title of this book in •*• the sense in which old Montaigne employed it — at- tempts, endeavors. The articles which make up the volume have been collected from many scattered sources, to which I have from time to time contributed them, for the definite purpose of endeavoring to vindicate certain opinions about debated subjects concerning the ancient population of the American continent. In a number of points, as for example in the antiquity of man upon this continent, in the specific distinction of an American race, in the generic similarity of its languages, in recognizing its mythology as often abstract and symbolic, in the phonetic character of some of its graphic methods, in be- lieving that its tribes possessed considerable poetic feeling, in maintaining the absolute autochthony of their culture — in these and in many other points referred to in the following pages I am at variance with most modern anthropologists ; and these essays are to show more fully and connectedly than could their separate publication, what are my grounds for such opinions. There is a prevailing tendency among ethnologists of to- ( iii .) IV PREFACE. day to underrate the psychology of savage life. This error arises partly from an unwillingness to go beyond merely physical investigations, partly from judging of the ancient condition of a tribe by that of its modern and degenerate representatives, partl5^ from inability to speak its tongue and to gain the real sense of its expressions, partly from precon- ceived theories as to what a savage might be expected to know and feel. As against this error I have essayed to show that among very rude tribes we find sentiments of a high character, proving a mental nature of excellent capacity in certain directions. Several of the Essays have not previously appeared in print, and others have been substantially re-written, so as to bring them up to the latest researches in their special fields. Nevertheless, the reader will find a certain amount of repeti- tion in several of them, a defect which I hope is compensated by the greater clearness which this repetition gives to the special subject discussed. Philadelphia, February, i8go. CONTENTS, PAGE Preface Hi, iv Table of Contents v-xii PART I. ETHNOLOGIC AND ARCH^OLOGIC. Introductory 17-19 A Review of the Data for the Study of the Pre-His- TORic Chronology of America 20-47 Classification of Data. I. Legendary: of northern tribes ; of Peruvians, Mexicans and Mayas ; limited range. II. Monu- mental: pueblos of New Mexico; stone and brick structures of Mexico, Central America and Peru ; ruins of Tiahuanaco ; artificial shell heaps; the sambaquis of Brazil. III. Indus- trial: palseolithic implements; early polished stone imple- ments; dissemination of cultivated food plants. IV. Lingu- istic : multitude and extension of linguistic stocks ; tenacity of linguistic form ; similarities of internal form ; study of in- ternal form. V. Physical: racial classifications ; traits of the American type; permanence of the type. VI. Geologic: date of the glacial epochs in North and South America ; the earliest Americans immigrants ; lines of migrations. Im- portance of archaeological studies. (v) VI CONTENTS. On Pai<^oi,iths, American and Other 48-55 The cutting instrument as the standard of culture ; the three ' ' Ages ' ' of Stone, Bronze and Iron ; subdivisions of the Age of Stone into Palaeolithic and Neolithic; a true "Palseo- lith"; subdivision of the Palseolithic period into the epochs of "simple" and "compound" implements; paleolithic finds along the Delaware river ; the glacial period in America ; earliest appearance of man in America. On the Ai,i,eged Mongoi, and Emile Petitot, Monographie des Dini-Dindjiel (Paris, 1876). 22 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. but the scientific student of mythology discovers such identities too frequently, and at points too remote, to ask any other explanation for them than the common nature of the human mind. The question has been often raised how long a savage tribe, ignorant of writing, is likely to retain the memory of past deeds. From a great many examples in America and elsewhere, it is probable that the lapse of five generations, or say two centuries, completely obliterates all recollection of historic occurrences. Of course, there are certain events of continuous influence which may be retained in memory longer — for example, the federation of prominent tribes ; and perhaps a genealogy- may run back farther. My friend, Dr. Franz Boas, informs me that some tribes on Vancou- ver's Island pretend to preserve their genealogies for twelve or fifteen generations back ; but he adds that the remoter Uiames are clearly of mythical purport. It appears obvious that all efforts to establish a pre-historic Qhronology by means of the legends of savage tribes, are and must be vain. The case is not much better with those semi-civilized American nations, the Mayas and Nahuas, who possessed a partially phonetic alphabet, or with the Quichuas, who pre- served their records by the ingenious device of the quipu. Manco Capac, the alleged founder of the Peruvian state, floats before us as a vague and mythical figure, though he is placed in time not earlier than the date when lycif, the son of Brik, anchored his war-ship on the Nova Scotian coast.* =*- Professor Gustav Storm has rendered it probable that the Vineland of the Northmen was not further south than Nova Scotia. See his Studies on the Vine- land Voyages, in Mems. de la Societe Royale des Antiquaires du Nord., 1888. I,EGENDARY DATA. 23 Historians are agreed that the long lists of Incas in the pages of Montesinos, extending about two thousand 3^ears anterior to the Conquest, are spurious, due to the imagina- tion or the easy credulit}- of that writer. The annals of Mexico fare no better before the fire of criti- cism. It is extremely doubtful that their earliest reminis- cences refer to any event outside the narrow valley parcelled out between the petty states of Tenochtitlan, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan.* The only fact that bears out the long and mysterious journey from the land of the Seven Caves, Chi- comoztoc, in the distant northwest, by the great water, is that the learned and indefatigable Buschmann has conclu- sively shown that the four languages of Sonora and all the dialects of the Shoshonian family reveal marks of continued and deep impressions of the Nahuatl tongue, f But the chronicles of Mexico proper contain no fixed date prior to that of the founding of the city of Tenochtitlan, in the year 1325 of our era. I am aware that there are still some writers who maintain that both the Mexican and the Maya astronomic cycles assume a commencement for their records centuries, even thousands of years, before the beginning of our era. These opinions, however, have not obtained the assent of other students. We are too ignorant both of the astronomy and the methods of writing of these nations to admit such claims ; and the facts advanced are capable of quite other interpreta- tion. * Such was the opinion of the late Jose Fernando Ramirez, one of the most acute" and learned of Mexican antiquaries. See his words in Orozco y Berra's Introduction to the Cronzca of Tezozomoc, p. 213 (Mexico, 1878). ^Die Spuren der Aztekischen Sprache in Nordlichen Mexiko, etc. (Berlin, 1859.) 24 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. It is, on the whole, rare for the American tribes to declare themselves autochthonous. The Mayas, on the peninsula of Yucatan, stated that their earliest ancestors came there from beyond the seas, some from the far east, others from the west. So the Toltecs, under Quetzalcoatl, were fabled to have entered Mexico from beyond the Eastern Ocean. The Creeks and Choctaws pointed to the west, the Algon- kins generally to the east, as their primal home.* These legends are chiefly mythical, not much truer than those of other tribes who claimed to have climbed up from some under-world. Sifting them all, we shall find in them little to enlighten us as to the pre-historic chronology of the tribes, though they may furnish interesting vistas in comparative mythology. That in which we may expect the legends of tribes to be of most avail is their later historj^, the record of their wars, migrations and social development within a few generations. The spirit of the uncivilized man is, however, very careless of the past. We have means of testing the exactness of such traditions in some instances, and the result is rarely such as to inspire confidence in verbal records. Those of you who were present at the last meeting will remember how diversely two able students of Iroquois tradition esti- mated its value. Even when remarkable events are not for- gotten, the dates of their occurrence are generally vague. The inference, therefore, is that very few data, dependent on legendary evidence alone, can be accepted. *I would refer the reader who cares to pursue this branch of the subject to my analysis of these stories in The Myths of the New World (second ed., New York, 1876), and Atnerican Hero-Myths (Philadelphia, 1882). DATA FROM MONUMENTS. 25 Monumental. When we turn to the monumental data, to the architecture and structural relics of the ancient Ameri- cans, we naturally think first of the imposing stone-built fortresses of Peru, the massive pyramids and temples of Yucatan and Mexico, and the vast brick-piles of the Pueblo Indians. It is doubtful if any of these notable monuments supply pre-historic dates of excessive antiquity. The pueblos, both those now occupied and the vastly greater number whose . ruins lie scattered over the valleys and mesas of New Mexico and Arizona, were constructed by the ancestors of the tribes who still inhabit that region, and this at no distant day. Though we cannot assign exact dates to the development of this peculiar civilization, there are abundant reasons, drawn from language, physical geography and the character of the architecture, to include all these structures within the period since the commencement of our era.* There is every reason to suppose that the same is true of all the stone and brick edifices of Mexico and Central Amer- ica. The majority of them were occupied at the period of the Conquest ; others were in process of building ; and of others the record of the date of their construction was clearly in memory and was not distant. Thus, the famous temple of Huitzilopochtli at Tenochtitlan, and the spacious palace — or, if you prefer the word, "communal house" — of the ruler of Tezcuco, had been completed within the lifetime of ■many who met the Spaniards. To be sure, even then there were once famous cities fallen to ruin and sunk to oblivion * The results of the recent "Hemenwaj South-western Exploring Expedition'' do not in the least invalidate this statement. 26 BSSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. in tte tropical forests. Such was Palenque, which could not have failed to attract the attention of Cortes had it been inhabited. Such also was T'Ho, on the site of the pres- ent city of Merida, Yucatan, where the earliest ex- plorers found lofty stone mounds and temples covered with a forest as heavy as the primitive growth around it.* But tradition and the present condition of such of these old cities as have been examined, unite in the probability that they do not antedate the Conquest more than a few centuries. In the opinion of some observers, the enigmatical ruins on the plain of Tiahuanaco, a few leagues from the shore of Lake Titicaca, in Peru, carry us far, very far, beyond any such modem date. "Even the memory of their builders," says one of the more recent visitors to these marvellous relics. General Bartolome Mitre, ' ' even their memory was lost thousands of years before the discovery of America, "f Such a statement is neither more nor less than a confes- sion of ignorance. We have not discovered the period nor the people concerned in the ruins of Tiahuanaco. It must be remembered that they are not the remains of a populous city, but merely the foundations and beginnings of some vast religious edifice which was left incomplete, probably owing to the death of the projector or to unforeseen difficul- ties. If this is borne in mind, much of the obscurity about the origin, the purpose and the position of these structures will be removed. They do not justify a claim to an age of * A brief but most interesting description of these monuments is preserved in a letter to the Emperor Charles V. by the Friar Lorenzo de Bienvenida, written from Yucatan in 1548. \ Las Ruinas de Tiahuanaco. Por Bartolome Mitre. (Buenos Ayres, 1879.) RUINS IN PERU AND OHIO. 27 thousands of years before the Conquest; hundreds will suf- fice. Nor is it necessary to assent to the opinion advanced by General Mitre, and supported by some other archaeolo- gists, that the most ancient monuments in America are those of most perfect construction, and, therefore, that in this continent there has been, in civilization, not progress but failure, not advance but retrogression. The uncertainty which rests over the age of the structures at Tiahuanaco is scarcely greater than that which still shrouds the origin of the mounds and earthworks of the Ohio and Upper Mississippi valleys. Yet I venture to say that the opinion is steadily gaining ground that these inter- esting memorials of vanished nations are not older than the mediseval period of European history. The condition of the arts which they reveal indicates a date that we must place among the more recent in American chronology. The simple fact that tobacco and maize were cultivated plants is evidence enough for this.* There is, however, a class of monuments of much greater antiquity than any I have mentioned. These are the artifi- cial shell-heaps which are found along the shores of both oceans and of many rivers in both North and South America. They correspond to the kitchen-middens of European archaeology. In several parts of the continent they have been examined by competent observers and the question of their date ap- proximately ascertained. I need not say this differs widely, *TIiis assertion was attacked by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in an address before the American Association in 1888 (Proceedings, Vol. XXXVII, p. 308). But if we assume the mediseval period of European history to have begun with the fall of the West- ern Empire, I do not retire from my position. 28 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. for these refuse heaps of ancient villages or stations were of course begun at wide intervals. Ivong ago I called attention to the singular size and anti- quity of those I found in Florida and along the Tennessee River;* and the later researches of Professor Jeffries Wyman would, in his opinion, measure the age of some of the former by tens of thousands of years. f Further to the south, in Costa Rica, Dr. Earl Flint has examined the extensive artificial shell deposits which are found along the shores of that republic. They are many feet in height, covered by a dense forest of primeval appear- ance, and are undoubtedly of human origin. In Brazil such shell-heaps are called sambaqids , and they are of frequent occurrence along the bays and inlets of the coast. Some of them are of extraordinary dimensions, rising occasionally to more than a hundred feet in height. The lower layers have been consolidated into a firm, stony brec- cia of shells and bones, while the surface stratum, from six to ten feet thick, is composed of sand and vegetable loam supporting a growth of the largest trees. Yet even the lowest layers of this breccia, or shell-conglomerate, yield tokens of human industry, as stone axes, flint arrow-heads, chisels, and fragments of very rude pottery, as well ds human bones, sometimes split to extract the marrow. The shells are by no means all of modern type. Many are of * D. G. Brinton, The Floridian Peninsula^ its Literary History, Indian Tribes and Antiquities, p. 177-181 (Philadelphia, 1859). The shell-heaps a;long the Tennessee River I described in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian \lnsiitution, for 1866, P- 356- t His accounts were principally in the Fourth and Seventh Reports of the Peabody Museum. ARTIFICIAL SHELL HEAPS. 29 species now wholly extinct, or extinct in the locality. This fact alone carries us back to an antiquity which probably should be counted by thousands of years before our era. At that remote period not only did a fishing and hunting race dwell along the Brazilian coast, but this race was fairly advanced on the path to culture; it was acquainted with potter)', with compound implements, and with the polishing of stone. We further know that this race was not that which occupied the land when the whites discovered it ; for the human skulls disinterred from the sambaquis are, crani- ologically, almost diametrically opposite those of the Boto- cudos and the Tupis. Yet if we can trust the researches of Dr. lyund in the caverns of Brazil, the oldest skulls in these deposits, found in immediate connection with the bones of extinct mammalia, belonged to the ancestors of these tribes. Markedly dolichocephalic, they present an entire contrast to the brachycephalic type from the sambaquis.* This class of monuments, therefore, supply us data which prove man's existence in America in what some call the "diluvial," others the "quaternary," and others again the "pleistocene" epoch — that characterized by the presence of some extinct species. Industrial. Let us now turn to the industrial activity of the American race, and see whether it will furnish us other data concerning the pre-historic life of the New World. We may reasonably look in this direction for aid, since it is now universally conceded that at no time did man spring into being fully armed and equipped for the struggle for exist- *See the Verhandlungen der Berliner CeselUchaft fur Anthropologie, 1886, 1887, 30 e;ssays op an Americanist. ence, but everywhere followed the same path of painful effort from absolute ignorance and utter feebleness to knowledge and power. At first, his only weapons or tools were such as he possessed in common with the anthropoid apes : to wit, an unshapen stone and a broken stick. Little by little, he learned to fit his stone to his hand and to chip it to an edge, and with this he could sharpen the end of his stick, thus providing himself with a spear and an axe. It was long before he learned to shape and adjust the stone to the end of the stick, and to hurl this by means of a cord attached to a second and elastic stick — in other words, a bow ; still longer before he discovered the art of fashioning clay into vessels and of polishing and boring stones. These simple arts are landmarks in the progress of the race : the latter divides the history of culture into the palaeolithic or rough stone period, and the neolithic or polished stone period; while the shaping of a stone for attachment to a handle or shaft marks the difference between the epoch of compound implements and the earlier epoch of simple im- plements, both included in the older or palaeolithic age.* With these principles as guides, we may ask how far back on this scale do the industrial relics in America carry us? I have spoken of the great antiquity of some of the American shell-heaps, how they carry us back to the dilu- vial epoch, and that of numerous extinct species. Yet it is generally true that in the oldest hitherto examined in Bra- *I -have brought out the distinction between the epoch of simple implements and that of compound implements in an article -which is reprinted in this collec- tion. The expressions " early " and " late " applied to these epochs do not refer to absolute periods of time, but are relative to the progress of individual civiliza- t ons. THE ANCIENT LAKE DEPOSITS. 31 zil, Guiana, Costa Rica and Florida, fragments of pottery, of polished stone, and compound implements, occur even in the lowest strata.* Venerable though they are, they supply no date older than what in Europe we should call the neo- lithic period. The arrow-heads which have been exhumed from the loess of the ancient lake-beds of Nebraska, the net- sinkers and celts which have been recovered from the aurif- erous gravels of California, prove by their form and finish that the tribes who fashioned them had already taken long strides beyond the culture of the earlier palseolithic age. The same is true, though in a less degree, of the chipped stones and bones which Ameghino exhumed from the lacrustine deposits of the Pampas, although he proves that these relics were the products of tribes contemporary with the extinct glyptodon and mylodon, as well as the fossil horse and dog. In the very oldest station which he exam- ined, there appears to have been found a quartz arrow-head ; yet he argues that this station dated from the pliocene divi- sion of the tertiary, long anterior to the austral glacial epoch, t This leaves another such open conflict between geology and the historj- of culture, as Professor Rau has already pointed out as existing in Californian archaeology. There is, however, one station in America which has furnished an ample line of specimens, and among them not * Exceptions are some of the Floridian shell-heaps and a limited number else- where. t Florentino Ameghino, La A ntiguedad del Hombre en el Plata, T omo II, p. 434, et al. (Buenos Ayres, 1881.) The bow and arrow, being a compound implement, no- where belonged to the earliest stage of human culture. See also H. W. Haynes' article, " The Bow and Arrow unknown to Palieolithlc Man." in Proceedings of Boston Soc. Nat. History, Vol. XXIII. 32 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. oue, SO far as I know, indicating a knowledge of compound implements. This is that of the "Trenton gravels," New Jersey. There we appear to be in face of a stage of culture as primitive as that of the stations of Chelles and St. Acheul in France, absolutely without pottery, without polished stone, without compound implements.* Assuming that these post-glacial gravels about Trenton supply one of the earliest authentic starting points in the history of culture on this continent, the later developments of industry will furnish a number of other data. This first date was long before the extinction of the native American horse, the elephant, the mammoth, and other animals im- portant to early man. There is nothing unlikely therefore in the reported discoveries of his pointed flints or his bones in place along with the remains of these quadrupeds. Not only the form but the material of implements supplies us data. If man in his earliest stage was, as some maintain, quite migratory, it is certain that he did not carry his stone implements with him, nor did he obtain by barter or capture those of other tribes. All the oldest implements are manu- factured from the rocks of the locality. When, therefore, we find a weapon of a material not obtainable in the vicinity, we have a sure indication that it belongs to a period of de- velopment considerably later than the earliest. When the obsidian of the Yellowstone Park is found in Ohio, when the black slate of Vancouver's Island is exhumed in Delaware, it is obvious we must assume for such extensive transits a very noticeable aesthetic and commercial development. * Dr. C. C. Abbott, the discoverer and principal explorer of these gravels, reported his discoveries in numerous papers, and especially in his work Primitive Industry, chap, xxxii. PRIMITIVE AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 33 I can but touch in the lightest manner on the data offered by the vast realm of industrial activity. The return it offers is abundant, but the harvesting delicate. In the dissemina- tion of certain kinds of arts, certain inventions, certain deco- rative designs and aesthetic conceptions from one tribe to another, we have a most valuable means of tracing the pre-historic intercourse of nations : but we must sedulously discriminate such borrowing from the synchronous and similar development of independent culture under like con- ditions. In one department of industry we shall be largely free from this danger, that is, in the extension of agriculture. One of America's ablest ethnologists. Dr. Charles Pickering, as the result of a lifetime devoted to his science, finally settled upon the extension of cultivated plants as the safest guide in the labyrinth of pre-historic migrations. Its value is easil3' seen in America when we reflect that the two tropi- cal plants, maize and tobacco, extended their area in most remote times from their limited local habitat about the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the north as far as the St. I^aw- rence river and to the south quite to the Archipelago ,of Chiloe. Their presence is easily traced by the stone or earthen-ware implements required for their use. How many ages it must have required for these plants to have thus extended their domain, amid hostile and savage tribes, through five thousand miles of space! The squash, the bean, the potato and the mandioca, are native food-plants of- fering in a less degree similar material for tracing ancient commerce and migration. Humboldt and others have claimed as much for the banana {Musa paradisiacal , but the 3 34 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. recent researches of Dr. Karl von den Steinen have removed that valued fruit from the list of native American plants. Both species of banana {M. paradisiaca and M. sapientiuni) were undoubtedly introduced into the New World after the discovery.* Indeed, summing up the reply to an inquiry which has often been addressed to the industrial evolution of the indigenes of our continent, I should say that they did not borrow a single art or invention nor a single cultivated plant from any part of the Old World previous to the arrival of Columbus. What they had was their own, developed from their own soil, the outgrowth of their own lives and needs. Linguistic. This individuality of the race is still more strongly expressed in their languages. You are all aware that it is upon linguistic data almost exclusively that American ethnology has been and must be based. The study of the native tongues becomes therefore of transcen- dent importance in the pre-historic chronology of the Conti- nent. But to obtain its best results, this study must be conducted in a much more thorough manner than has hitherto been the custom. In America we are confronted with an astonishing multi- plicity of linguistic stocks. They have been placed at about eighty in North and one hundred in South America. It is stated that there are that many radically diverse in ele- ments and structure. To appreciate the vista in time that this fact opens to our thoughts, we must recognize the tenacity of life manifested by these tongues. Some of them have scores of dialects, spoken by tribes wandering over the * Expedition durch Central-Brasilien, pp. 310-314 (I^eipzig, i886). THE NUMEROUS NATIVE DIALECTS. 35 widest areas. Take the Athapascan or Tinn6, for example, found in its greatest purity amid the tribes who dwell on the Arctic sea, and along the Mackenzie river, in British America, but which is also the tongue of the Apaches who carried it almost to the valley of Mexico. The Algonkin was spoken from Hudson Bay to the Savannah river and from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains. The Guarani of the Rio de la Plata underlies dialects which were current as far north as Florida. How, then, in spite of such tenacity of American languages, have so many stocks come into existence ? This was the question which my predecessor in this chair last year under- took to answer. His suggestions appear to me extremely valuable, and only in one point do I widely differ from him, and that is, in the length of time required for these numer- ous tongues to originate, to sever into dialects and to be carried to distant regions.* According to the able linguist. Dr. StoU, the difference which is presented between the Cakchiquel and Maya dialects could not have arisen in less than two thousand years ; f and any one who has carefully compared the earliest grammars of an American tongue with its present condition will acknowledge that the changes are surprisingly few. To me the exceeding diversity of lan- guages in America and the many dialects into which these have split, are cogent proofs of the vast antiquity of the race, an antiquity stretching back tens of thousands of years. *The reference is to Mr. Horatio Hale's Address "On the Origin of I,anguage and the Antiquity of Speaking Man." See Proc. of the Am. Assoc, for the Adv. of Science^ vol. xxxv., p. 239, sq. ^ Ethnographic der Repuhlik Guatemala, p. 157 (Zurich, 1884 36 RSSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. Nothing less can explain these multitudinous forms oi speech. Underlying all these varied forms of expression, however, I think future investigation will demonstrate some curious identities of internal form, traits almost or entirely peculiar to American languages, and never quite absent from any of them. Such was the opinion of the two earliest philosophical in- vestigators of these tongues, P. S. Duponceau and Wilhelm von Humboldt. They called these traits polysynthesis and incorporation, and it was proposed to apply the term incor- porative as a distinguishing adjective to all American lan- guages. Of late years this opinion has been earnestly com- batted by M. Lucien Adam and others ; but my own studies have led me to adopt the views of the older analysts against these modern critics. I do not think that the student can compare any two stocks on the continent without being im- pressed with the resemblance of their expression of the re- lations of Being, through the incorporative plan. ■ Along with this identity of plan, there coexists the utmost independence of expression. An American language is usually perfectly transparent. Nothing is easier than to re- duce it to its ultimate elements, its fundamental radicals. These are few in numbers and interjectional in character. The Athapascan, the Algonkin, whose wide extension I have referred to, have been reduced to half a dozen particles or sounds expressive of the simplest conceptions.* Upon these, by combination, repetition, imitation and other such processes, the astonishing structure of the tongue has been * See Howse, Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 143, sqq. THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF I^ANGUAGE. 37 erected, every portion of it displaying the mechanism of its origin. It is this transparency which renders these tongues so attractive to the philosophic student of human expression, and so valuable to him who would obtain from them the record of the progress of the nation. A thorough study of such a language would embrace its material, its formal and its psychologic contents. Its ma- terial elements include the peculiarities of its vocabulary : for example, its numerals and the system they indicate, its words for weights and measures, for color and direction, for relations of consanguinity and affinity, for articles of use and ornament, for social and domestic conditions, and the like. Few studies of American languages go beyond this ma- terial or lexicographic limit ; but in truth these are merely the externalities of a tongue, and have nothing to do with linguistic science proper. This concerns itself with the forms of the language, with the relation of parts of speech to each other and to the sentence, and with the historical de- velopment of the grammatical categories. Beyond this, again, is the determination of the psychical character of the tribe through the forms instinctively adopted for the ex- pression of its thoughts, and reciprocally the reaction ex- erted by these forms on the later intellectual growth of those who were taught them as their only means of articulate ex- pression. These are data of the highest value in the study of prehis- toric time ; but so far as America is concerned, I cculd name very few scholars who have pursued this promising line of research. 38 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. Physical. Much more attention has been paid to the ph3'sical than the linguistic data of the native Americans, but it may freely be said, with not more satisfactory results. This failure is partly owing to the preconceived notions which still govern the study of ethnology. Linnaeus offered the cautious division of the human species into races named from- the five great geographical areas it inhabited ; Blumen- bach pointed out that this roughly corresponded with the division into five colors, the white, black, yellow, brown and red races, occupying respectively Europe, Africa, Asia, Poly- nesia and America. Unfortunately, Cuvier chose to sim- plify this scheme, by merging the brown and red races, the Polynesian or Malayan and the American, into the yellow or Mongolian. The latest writers of the French school, and I am sorry to add various Americans, servilely follow this groundless rejection of the older scheme, and speak of Ma- layans and Americans alike as Mongolians or Mongoloids. Neither in language nor ethnic anatomy is there any more resemblance than between whites and Mongolians. It is gratifying to see that the more accurate German in- vestigators decided^ reject the blunder of Cuvier, and de- clare that the American race is as independent as any other of those named. Thus Dr. Paul Ehrenreich, who has lately published an admirable monograph on the Botocudos of Brazil, a tribe often quoted for its so-called "Mongoloid" aspect, declares that any such assertion must be contradicted in positive terms. Both in osteology and anatomy, in for- mation of the hair and shape of the skull, the differences are marked, permanent and radical. What is true of the Botocudos is not less so of the other THE PHYSICAL FEATURES. 39 American tribes which are claimed to present Mongolian traits. Such assertions are based on the superficial obser- vations of travellers, most of whom do not know the first principles of ethnic anatomy. This is sufficiently shown by the importance they attach to the oblique eye, a slight malformation of the skin of scarcely any weight.* The anatomy and physiology of the various American tribes present, indeed, great diversity, and yet, beneath it all is a really remarkable fixedness of type. We observe this diversity in the shape of the skull, which may be, as among the Botocudos, strictly dolichocephalic, while the Araucan- ians are brachycephalic ; the nasal index varies more than in the extremest members of the white race ; the tint of the skin may be a dark brown with an under-color of red, or of so light a hue that a blush is easily perceptible. The beard is usually absent, but D'Orbigny visited a tribe who wore it full and long.f The height varies from an average of six feet four inches for adult males in Patagonia to less than five feet among the Warraus of Guiana ; and so it is with all the other traits of the race. There is not one which is not sub- ject to extensive variation. On the other hand, these variations are not greater than can be adduced in various members of the white or black race. In spite of them all, there is a wonderful family like- ness among tribes of American origin. No observer well acquainted with the type would err in taking it for another. Darwin says that the Fuegians so closely resemble the Bo- *This question is discussed in more detail in the jiext essay. ^ U Homme Americain, Tome I, p. 126. The tribe is the Guarayos, an oifshoot of the Guaranis. 40 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. tocudos that they seem members of the same tribe. I have seen Arawacks from Guiana who in the northwest would have passed for Sioux. In spite of the total dissimilarity of climate and other physical surroundings, the tribes of the tropics differ no more from those near the Arctic circle than they do among themselves. This is a striking lesson how independent of environment are the essential characteristics of a race, and it is a sweeping refutation of those theories which make such characteristics dependent upon external agencies. A still more remarkable fact has been demonstrated by Professor J. Kollmann of Bale : to wit, that the essential physical identity of the American race is as extended in time as it is in space. This accurate student has analyzed the cranioscopic formulas of the most ancient American skulls, those from the alleged tertiary deposits of the Pam- pas, those from the caverns of Lagoa Santa in Brazil, that obtained from Rock Bluff, Illinois, the celebrated Calaveras skull from California, and one from Pontemelo in Buenos Ayres of geologic antiquity. His results are most interest- ing. These very ancient remains prove that in all import- ant craniologic indicia the earliest Americans, those who were contemporaries of the fossil horse and other long since extinct quadrupeds, possessed the same racial character as the natives of the present day, with similar skulls and a like physiognomy.* We reach therefore the momentous conclus- ion that the American race throughout the whole continent, and from its earliest appearance in time, is and has been one, as distinct in type as any other race, and from its isolation * Zeitschrift fUr Ethnologic, 1884, p. 181. GEOLOGIC AGE OF MAN. 41 probably the purest of all in its racial traits. This is a fact of the first order in establishing its prehistoric chronology. Geologic. I have left the geologic data to the last, as it is these which carry us with reasonable safety to the remotest periods. No one who examines the evidence will now deny that man lived in both North and South America during and after the glacial epochs, and that he was the contem- porary of many species of animals now extinct. As you are aware, the attempt has several times been made to fix the date for the final retrocession of the glaciers of North America. The estimates have varied from about 12,000 years ago up to 50,000, with a majority in favor of about 35,000 years. There have also been various discoveries which are said to place the human species in America previous to the appear- ance of the glaciers. Some remains of man's industry or of his skeleton have been reported from interglacial, others from tertiary deposits.* Unfortunately, these finds have not al- ways been sufficient, or not of a character to convince the archaeologist. I have before adverted to the impossibility, for instance, of an archaeologist accepting the discovery of a finely-polished stone implement in a tertiary gravel, ex- cept as an intrusive deposit. It is a violent anachronism, which is without a parallel in other countries. Even the discovery of a compound implement, as a stemmed arrow- * since this address was delivered Mr. H. T. Cresson has reported the finding of chipped implements made of argillite in a deposit of mid-glacial age on the banks of the Delaware River — Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. xxiv ; and portions of two skeletons completely converted into limonite have been exhibited at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, from a deposit in Florida, below one containing the remains of the extinct giant bison. 42 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. head, in strata of tertiary date, is, with our present knowl- edge, quite out of the question. Although there are well recognized signs of glacial action in South America, it is not certain that the glacial epoch coincided in time in the two continents. That there was a reasonable approximation is probable from the appearance of later deposits. We may suppose therefore that the habit- able area of the New World was notably less at that period, and that the existing tribes were confined to a much narrower space. This would force them into closer relations, and tend powerfully to the production of that uniformity of type to which I have before referred. We might also expect to discover in the tropical regions of America more frequent evidence of the primitive Americans than in either temperate zone. This has not been the case, probably because the geologic deposits of the tropics have been less investigated. Throughout the West Indies there is an entire absence of palaeolithic remains. Those islands were first peopled by tribes in the polished stone stage of culture. In the valley of Mexico human remains have been disinterred from a volcanic deposit of supposed tertiary age, and you have all heard of those human footprints which Dr. Earl Flint has unearthed in Nicaragua. These are found under laj'ers of compact volcanac tufas, separated by strata of sand and vegetable loam. There can be no doubt of their human origin or of their great antiquity ; but no geologist need be informed of the difficulty of assigning an age to vol- canic strata, especially in a tropical country, subject to earthquakes, subsidence and floods.* * I have discussed this fully in a paper in the Proceedings of the Amer. Philosoph. Soc. for 1887, entitled " On an Ancient Human Footprint from Nicaragua." MAN NOT AUTOCHTHONOUS IN AMERICA. 43 It would not be in accordance with my present purpose to examine the numerous alleged finds of human remains in the strata of the tertiary and quaternary. All such furnish data for the pre-historic chronology of America, and should be carefully scrutinized by him who would obtain further light upon that chronology. I must hasten to some other considerations which touch the remote events to which I am now alluding. Since a comparison of the fauna of South America and Africa, and a survey of the sea-bottom between those conti- nents, have dispelled the dream of the ancient Atlantis, and relegated that land connection at least to the eocene period of the tertiary, no one can suppose the American man to have migrated from Africa or southwestern Europe. For other and equally solid reasons, no immigration of Polynesi- ans can be assumed. Yet zoologists, perfectly willing to derive man from an anthropoid, and polygenists to the ut- most, hesitate to consider man an autochthon in the New World. There is too wide a gap between the highest mon- keys and the human species in this continent.* Discoveries of fossil apes might bridge this, but none such has been re- ported. If we accept the theory that man as a species spread fi-om one primal centre, and in the higher plasticity of his early life separated into well defined races, which became unalter- ably fixed not much later than the close of the glacial epoch — and this theory appears to be that now most agreeable to anthropologists — then the earliest Americans made their ad- * Man must have descended from the catarrhine division of the anthropoids, none of which occur in the New World. See Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 153. 44 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. vent on this continent as immigrants. This is our first fact in their pre-historic chronology ; but before we can assign it an accurate position on the scale of geologic time, we must await more complete discoveries than we now have at our command. We must also wait until our friends the geologists have come to some better understanding among themselves as to what took place in the pleistocene age. You have heard me talking freely about the glacial epoch and its extension in America ; -but geologists are by no means of one mind as to this extension, and a respectable minority of them, led by Sir J. "William Dawson, deny the existence or even possibility of any continental glacier. What others point out as a terminal moraine they explain to be "nothing but the southern limit of the ice-drift of a period of submergence."* It is clear that when we speak about the migration of the Americans at a time when the polar half of each continent was either covered with a glacier thousands of feet thick, or submerged to that depth beneath an arctic sea, we have to do with geographical conditions totally unlike those of to- day. I call attention to this obvious fact because it has not been obvious to all writers. In your archaeological reading you will rarely come across a prettier piece of theoretical history than Mr. Lewis A. Morgan's description of the gradual peopling of the two Americas by tracing the lines of easiest subsistence. He begins at the fishy rivers of the northwest coast, and follows the original colony which he assumes landed at that point, * Address at the British Association for the Adv. of Science. 1887. LINES OF MIGRATION. 45 all the way to Patagonia and Florida.* But how baseless becomes this vision when we consider the geography of America as it is shown by geology to have been at a period contemporarj' with the earliest remains of man ! We know to a certainty that the human race had already spread far and wide over both its continental areas before Mr. Morgan's lines of easiest nutrition had come into existence. Properly employed, a study of those geologic features of a country which determine its geography will prove of vast advantage in ascertaining the events of pre-historic time. These features undoubtedly fixed the lines of migra- tion and of early commerce. Man in his wanderings has always been guided by the course of rivers, the trend of mountain chains, the direction of ocean currents, the position of deserts, passes and swamps. The railroad of to-day fol- lows the trail of the primitive man, and the rivers have ever been the natural highways of nations. The theories of Morgan therefore remain true as theories ; only in their ap- plication he fell into an error which was natural enough to the science of twenty years ago. Perhaps when twenty years more shall have elapsed, the post-tertiary geology of our continent will have been so clearly defined that the geography of its different epochs will be known sufficiently to trace these lines of migration at the various epochs of man's residence in the western world, from his first arrival. I have now set before you, in a superficial manner it is true, the various sources from which we may derive aid in establishing the pre-historic chronology of America. I have *IIis article, which was first printed in the North A merican Review, 1870, may be found in Beach's Indian Miscellany, p. 158 (Albany, 1877). ^6 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. also endeavored, to a limited extent, to express myself as to the relative value of these sources. None of them can be neglected, and it will be only from an exhaustive study of them all that we can expect to solve the numerous knotty problems, and lift the veil which hangs so darkly on all that concerns the existence of the American race before the sixteenth century. We are merely beginning the enormous labor which is before us ; we have yet to discover the methods by which we can analyze fruitfully the facts we already know. But I look forward with the utmost confidence to a rich return from such investigations. The day is coming, and that rapidly, when the pre-historic life of man in both the New and the Old World will be revealed to us in a thousand un- expected details. We have but to turn backward about thirty years to reach a time when the science of pre-historic archseology was unknown, and its early gropings were jeered at as absurdities. Already it has established for itself a position in the first rank of the sciences which have to do with the highest of problems. It has cast a light upon the pathway of the human race from the time that man first deserved his name down to the commencement of recorded history. Its conquests are but beginning. Year by year masses of new facts are brought to knowledge from unex- pected quarters, current errors are corrected, and novel methods of exploration devised. As Americans by adoption, it should be our first interest and duty to study the Americans by race, in both their pres- ent and past development. The task is long and the oppor- tunity is fleeting. A century more, and the anthropologist PROMPT ACTION NEEDED. 47 will scarcely find a native of pure blood ; the tribes and lan- guages of to-day will have been extinguished or corrupted. Nor will the archaeologist be in better case. Every day the progress of civilization, ruthless of the monuments of barbar- ism, is destroying the feeble vestiges of the ancient race ; mounds are levelled, embankments disappear, the stones of temples are built into factories, the holy places desecrated. We have assembled here to aid in recovering something from this wreck of a race and its monuments : let me urge upon you all the need of prompt action and earnest work, inasmuch as the opportunities we enjoy will never again present themselves in such fulness. ON PAL/EOLITHS, AMERICAN AND OTHER * THERE has been much talk in scientific circles lately about Palseoliths, and much misunderstanding about them. Let me try to explain in a few words what they are, what they tell, and what mistakes people make about them. Since man first appeared on this planet, his history has been a slow progress from the most rudimentary arts up to those which he now possesses. We know this, because in a given locality those remains of his art which are found un- disturbed in strata geologically the oldest are always the rudest. The exceptions to this rule are in appearance only, as for instance when a given locality was not occupied by men until they had alreadj^ acquired considerable knowledge of arts, or when a cultivated nation was overrun by a barbar- ous one. The general line of advance I have indicated shows, wherever we can trace it, many similarities — similarities not necessarily dependent on an ancient intercourse, but simply because primitive man felt everywhere the same wants, and satisfied them in pretty much the same manner. * The subject of an address before the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science in 1888, with revision. (48) THE THREE AGES. 49 He felt the need of defence and attack, and everywhere a stick and a stone offered themselves as the handiest and most effective weapons ; he used both wherever he was, and adapted them to like shapes. In casting about for some standard wherewith to measure the long progress from this simple beginning to the present day, antiquaries have hit upon a very excellent one — the choice of a material employed at any given epoch for obtain- ing a cutting edge — for manufacturing r instrument tran- cha7it. Man conquers nature as he does his enemy — by cutting her down. The world at present uses iron, or its next product steel, for that purpose ; before it came into vogue many nations employed bronze ; but in the earliest periods of man's history, and to-day in some savage tribes, stone was the substance almost exclusively wrought for this purpose. These distinctions divide the progress of man into the three great periods ; the Age of Iron, the Age of Bronze, and the Age of Stone. Do not make the mistake of supposing that the remains of human art reveal this sequence in every locality ; I have already hinted that this is not the case. And do not make that other mistake of supposing that all three are found in chronologic sequence over the whole world. On the con- trary, they are synchronous even to-day, as there are now tribes in Brazil in the Age of Stone and nations in Asia in the Age of Bronze. The word "Age" in this connection does not mean a definite period of time, but a recognized condition of art. In Western Europe, however, where these terms origi- nated, the three Ages were chronologic. Previous to 4 50 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. about two thousand years before the Christian era, all the nations in that region employed stone exclusively to manu- facture their cutting implements ; later, bronze was preferred for the same purpose; and still later, iron. I say "pre-, ferred, ' ' for do not imagine that the implement of stone or of bronze was straightway discarded when the better mater- ial was learned. We know that stone battle-axes were used in Ireland and Germany' down to the tenth century, and bronze was emploj'ed by Romans and Egyptians long after they became acquainted with iron. Each of these three Ages has various subdivisions. Those of the Age of Stone are particularly important. They are two, based upon the manner in which the stone was brought to an edge. All the specimens in geologically the oldest deposits have been brought to an edge by a process of chip- ping off small pieces, so as to produce a sharp line or crest on a part or the whole of the border of the stone. This artificial process leaves such peculiar traces that a practiced eye cannnot confound it with any accidental chipping which natural means effect. The later deposits of the Age of Stone show that the early workmen had acquired another manner of dressing their material ; they rubbed one stone against another, thus grind- ing it down to a sharp polished edge. These two methods give the names to the two periods of the Age of Stone, the Period of Chipped Stone and the Period of PoHshed Stone. Do not suppose, however, that the workmen in polished stone forgot the art of chipping stone. On the contrary, they continued it side by side with their new learning, and you will find on the sites of their SIMPLE AND COMPOUND IMPLEMENTS. 5 1 workshops plenty of stone implements in form and technical production like the chipped implements of the older period. We know that the polished or ground-stone implements came into use later than the earliest chipped implements, for in the oldest beds the latter are found exclusively. Hence the time when they were used exclusively is called the older stone implement period or the Palaeolithic period ; while, the time when both chipped and polished stones were used, metals were yet unknown, is named the newer stone imple- ment period, or the Neolithic period. A true "Palaeolith " is a typical chipped stone implement, the position of which when found leads us to believe that it was manufactured in the older of these periods. We are not entirely dependent on its position to decide its antiquity. The kind of stone it is, the amount of weather- wearing or patine it shows, certain characteristics of .shape and size, the indication that the chipping was done in a peculiar manner, all these aid the skilled observer in pro- nouncing definitely as to whether it is a true Palaeolith. Nor is position alwaj'S a guarantee of antiquity. A gen- uine Palaeolith may have been washed into newer strata, or be exposed by r^atural agencies on the surface of the ground, and in such cases it may not be possible to distinguish it from the products of Neolithic industry. A recent product of art may have sunk or been buried in an ancient stratum, and thus become what is termed an "intrusive deposit." The Palaeolithic period itself is advantageously subdivided further into two Epochs, an earlier one in which men made ' ' simple' ' implements only, and a later one in which they man- ufactured ' ' compound ' ' implements as well. I was the first 52 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. to point out this distinction, and as I have found it really use- ful, and as others have also expressed to me the value which it has been to them in this line of research, I will explain it fur- ther. * A " compound ' ' implement is one composed of sev- eral parts adapted to each other, as the bow and the arrow, the spear with its shaft and blade, or the axe with its head and helve and the means of fastening the one to the other. These were not early acquisitions. During long ages man con- tented himself with such tools or weapons as he could frame of a single piece of wood or stone, simply holding it in his hand. When he found he could increase its effectiveness by fitting it to a handle, the discovery marked an era in his culture. He may indeed in his rudest ages have- lashed a stone to the end of his club, or have inserted a spall of flint in the split end of a stick ; but these are not compound implements in the proper sense of the term. The expression means an art-product which clearly shows that it was but one part of a mechanical apparatus. The arrow-head with its stem, barbs and body, the stone axe with its grooves or drilled per- foration for the handle, are incomplete in themselves, they disclose a preconceived plan for the adjustment of parts which man in his earliest and rudest condition does not seem to have possessed. The most ancient strata in which the remains of human ,art have been found, either in Europe or America, yield ' ' simple ' ' implements only ; ' ' compound ' ' implements are a conquest of his inventive faculty at a later date. *Tlie earliest publication I made on this subject was in an article on Pre-historic Archaeology, contributed to The Iconographic Encyclopedia (Vol. II, p. 28, Philadel- phia, 1886). EXTENSION OF PALEOLITHIC MAN. 53 So far as America is concerned it is probable that the old- est remains of man yet discovered on the northern continent have been those exhumed in the valley of the Delaware River, in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela- ware. According to the most careful geological observers that large deposit of gravel covering about five thousand acres on both banks of the river below Trenton is a post- glacial deposit not less than twelve or fifteen thousand years old. Imbedded in this at various depths a large number of true palaeoliths have been discovered by Dr. C. C. Abbott, Professor F. A. Putnam, myself and others. Every one of them so far as I am aware belongs to the class of "simple" implements, not an arrowhead nor grooved axe nor stemmed scraper having been reported. Another deposit of gravel further down the Delaware River is much older: The best authorities in such matters believe that it was deposited, not after the recession of the great glacier which once covered Canada and the northern portion of the United States, but while that tremendous phenomen was at its height, and when all the streams of the central United States were periodically choked with vast masses of ice and snow. In this, which is called the Col- umbian gravel, chipped stone implements have been found by Mr. Cresson, all of the "simple" variety, and at such depths as to preclude the theory of an intrusive deposit. These discoveries carry the age of the appearance of man in the Delaware valley back to a date which is possibly over a hundred thousand years ago. The great glacier left its mass of boulders, pebbles and broken stone, which it pushed before it, or carried with it. 54 ESSAYS Olf AN AMERICANIST. in a long line of so-called "moraines," extending, roughly speaking, from New York to St. Louis. In this mass, at its edges where the great wash from the melting ice poured down, palaeoliths have been found in undisturbed position, proving that also there man had struggled with the inclem- ency of the ice-age, and, poorly provided as he was, had come out victorious. Here too all the irnplements he left are of the "simple" type, indicating at once the vast antiquity of the period and the presence of a race substan- tially the same as that to the east at the same date. No tribe has been known to history which was confined to the knowledge of " simple" implements, or which manufac^ tured stone implements exclusively in the Palaeolithic forms. Wherever, therefore, these are found without the admixture of artificially ground or polished stones we may be sure we face the remains of a time whose antiquity cannot be measured by any chronology applied to the historic records of human- ity. This enables us in a measure to define the limits of the re- gion known to the human race at this, its earliest epoch ; with our present deficient knowledge we can do so only par' tially and by exclusion. It is safe to state that in Europe Palaeolithic man did not occupy the central alpine area of Switzerland and its surroundings, nor the plains of Russia, nor any part of the Scandinavian peninsula, Scotland, Ire- land, nor Iceland. In North America he had no habitations north of the forty-first parallel of latitude except perhaps close to the shores of the two great oceans ; * it is not prob- *A possible exception may have been along the line of the Mississippi River, where a palaeolithic workshop appears to have been discovered above St. Paul, by Miss Babbitt. EXTENSION OF PALEOLITHIC MAN. 55 able that his foot pressed the soil of any of the West Indian Islands ; but when the great Austral Glacier was in its re- cession depositing the fertile loam of the pampas of Buenos Ayres human beings with their rude Palaeoliths were follow- ing up the retreating line of ice, as in the Northern Hemis- phere. Ages uncounted and uncountable have passed since then, but man has left indestructible evidences that even in that early morn of his existence he had explored and con- quered that continent which a late generation has chosen to call "the New World." ON THE ALLEGED MONGOLIAN AFFINITIES OF THE AMERICAN RACE* "V17ERE the question I am about to discuss one of merely •' » theoretical bearings, I should not approach it ; but the widespread belief that the American tribes are genealogically connected with the Mongolians is constantly directing and coloring the studies of many Americanists, very much as did at one time the belief that the red men are the present repre- sentatives of the ten lost tribes of Israel. It is practically worth while, therefore, to examine the grounds on which the American race is classed by these anthropologists as a branch of the Mongolian, and to inquire whether the ancient' culture of America betrayed any positive signs of Mongolian influence. You will permit me to avoid the discussion as to what constitutes races in anthropology. To me they are zoological sub-species, marked by fixed and correlated characteristics, impressed so firmly that they have suffered no appreciable alteration within the historic period either through time or environment. In this sense, Blumenbach, in the last cen- tury, recognized five races, corresponding to the five great land-areas of the globe, and to their characteristic faunal and * This Paper was read before the American Associatiou for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting in Cleveland, 1888. (56) CUVIER'S CLASSIFICATION OF MAN. 57 floral centres. This division was an eminently scientific one, and still remains the most in accord with anatomical and linguistic reasearch- About twenty years after the ap- pearance of Blumenbach's work, however, the eminent naturalist Cuvier published his great work on "The Animal Kingdom," in which he rejected Blumenbach's classification, and proposed one dividing the human species into three races,— the white or Caucasian, the black or Ethiopian, and the yellow or Mongolian. In the latter he included the Malays and the American Indians. This triple division has been very popular in France, and to some extent in other countries. It is not, and it was not in its inception, a scientific deduction from observed facts, but was a sort of a priori hypothesis based on the physiolog- ical theories of Bichat, and at a later day derived support from the philosophic dreams of Auguste Comte. Bichat, for instance, had recognized three fundamental physiologi- cal systems in man — the vegetative or visceral, the osso-mus- cular, and the cerebro-spinal. The anthropologists, in turn, considered it a happy thought to divide the human species into three races, each of which should show the predomi- nance of one or other of these systems. Thus the black race was to show the predominance of the vegetative system ; the yellow race, the osso-muscular system ; the white race, the nervous system.* As Bichat had not discovered any more physiological systems, so there could be no more human races on the earth : and thus the sacred triplets of the Com- tian philosophy could be vindicated. How little value attaches to any such generalizations you * See Foley, Des Trots Grandes Races Humaines, Paris, 1881. 58 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. will readily perceive, and you will be prepared, with me, to dismiss them all, and to turn to the facts of the case, inquir- ing- whether there are any traits of the red race which justify their being callled "Mongolian" or "Mongoloid." Such affinities have been asserted to exist in language, in culture, and in physical peculiarities, and I shall take these up seriatim for examination. First, as to language. The great Mongolian stock is divided into the southern branch, speaking monosyllabic, isolating languages, and the northern branch, whose dialects are polysyllabic and agglut- tinating. The latter are sometimes called Turanian or Ural- Altaic ; and as they are geographically contiguous to the Eskimo, and almost to the Athabascans, we might reasonably expect the linguistic kinship, if any exists, to be shown in this branch of Mongol speech. Is such the case ? Not in the least. To prove it, I think it enough to quote the posi- tive staternent of the best European authority on the Ural- Altaic languages. Dr. Heinrich Winkler. He emphatically says, that, in the present state of linguistic science, not only is there no connection apparent between any Ural-Altaic and any American language, but that such connection is shown to be highly improbable. The evidence is all the other way.* I need [not, therefore, delay over this part of my subject, but will proceed to inquire whether there are any American affinities to the monosyllabic, isolating languages of Asia. * Uralaliaische U"dlker und Spracken, p. 167. I do not think that the verbal coin- cidences pointed out by Petitot in his Monographie des Dene Dindje, and by Platz- mann in his Amerikanisch-Asiatische El^mologien, merit serious consideration. RELATIONSHIP OF LANGUAGES. 59 There is one prominent example, which has often been put forward, of a supposed monosyllabic American language ; and its relationship to the Chinese has frequently been as- serted—a relationship, it has been said, extending both to its vocabulary and its grammar. This is the Otomi, spoken in and near the valley of Mexico. It requires, however, but a brief analysis of the Otomi to see that it is not a monosyllabic language in the linguistic sense, and that in its sentence- building it is incorporative and polysynthetic, like the great majority of American tongues, and totally unlike the Chinese. I may refer to my own published study of the Otomi, and to that of the Count de Charencey, as proving what I say. * Some have thought that the Maya of Yucatan has in its vocabulary a certain number of Chinese elements ; but all these can readily be explained on the doctrine of coinciden- ces. The Mexican antiquary Mendoza has marshalled far more coincidences of like character and equal worth to show that the Nahuatl is an Aryan dialect descended from the Sanscrit, t In fine, any, even the remotest, linguistic con- nection between American and Mongolian languages has yet to be shown ; and any linguist who considers the radi- cally diverse genius of the two groups of tongues will not expect to find such relationship. I shall not detain you long with arguments touching sup- *Brinton, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, for 1885; Char- encey, Melanges de Philologie et Palaiographie Americaine, p, 80 (Paris,l883). See also a later Essay in this volume. fThis example of misdirected erudition maybe seen in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico. Tomo I. 6o ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. posed Mongolian elements of culture in ancient America. Any one at all intimately conversant with the progress of American archeology in the last twenty years must see how rapidly has grown the conviction that American culture was homebred, to the manor bom : that it was wholly indigenous and had borrowed nothing— nothing, from either Europe, Asia, or Africa. The peculiarities of native American culture are typical, and extend throughout the continent. Mr. I^ewis Morgan was perfectly right in the general outline of his theory to this effect, though, like all persons enamored of a theory, he carried it too far. This typical, racial American culture is as far as possible, in spirit and form, from the Mongolian. Compare the rich theology of Mexico or Peru with the barren myths of China. The theory of governments, the method of house-construc- tion, the position of woman, the art of war,* are all equally diverse, equally un-Mongolian. It is useless to bring up single art-products or devices, such as the calendar, and lay stress on certain similarities. The doctrine of the parallel- ism of human development explains far more satisfactorily all these coincidences. The sooner that Americanists gen- erally, and especially those in Europe, recognize the abso- lute autochthony of native American culture, the more valuable will their studies become. It is no longer in season to quote the opinions of Alex- ander von Humboldt and his contemporaries on this subject, * Prof. Morse has also poined out to me that the Mongolian arrow-release — one of the most characteristic of all releases — has been nowhere found on the American continent. This is an 'important fact, proving that neither as hunters nor con- querors did any stray Mongols leave a mark on American culture THE COLOR OF THE SKIN. 6 1 as I see is done in some recent works. The science of arch- aeology has virtually come into being since they wrote, and we now know that the development of human culture is governed by laws with which they were unacquainted. Civilization sprang up in certain centres in both continents, widely re- mote from each other ; but, as the conditions of its origin were everywhere the same, its early products were much alike. It is evident from what I have said, that the asserted Mongolian or Mongoloid connection of the American race finds no support either from linguistics or the history of cul- ture. If anywhere, it must be in physical resemblances. In fact, it has been mainly from these that the arguments have been drawn. Let us examine them. Cuvier, who, as I have said, is responsible for the confus- ion of the American with the Mongolian race, based his racial scheme on the color of the skin, and included the j American within the limits of the yellow race. Cuvier had seen very few pure Mongolians, and perhaps no pure- blooded Americans; otherwise he would not have main- tained that the hue of the latter is yellow. Certainly it is not. You may call it reddish, or coppery, or cinnamon, or burnt sugar, but you cannot call it yellow. Some individ- uals or small tribes may approach the peculiar dusky olive of the Chinaman, but so do some of the European peoples of Aryan descent ; and there are not wanting anthropologists who maintain that the Aryans are also Mongoloid. The one position is just as defensible as the other on the ground of color. Several of the most prominent classifications of mankind 62 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. are based upon the character of the hair ; the three great divisions being, as you know, into the straight, the curly, and the woolly haired varieties. These external features of the hair depend upon the form of the individual hairs as seen in cross-section. The nearer this approaches a circle, the straighter is the hair. It is true that both Mongolians and Americans belong to the straight haired varieties ; but of the two, the American has the straighter hair, that whose cross-section comes nearer to a perfect circle. So that by all the rules of terminology and logic, if we are to call either branch a variation from the other, we should say that the Mongol is a variety of the American race, and call it ' ' Americanoid, ' ' instead of vice versa. The color of the hair of the two races is, moreover, dis- tinctly different. Although superficially both seem black, yet, observed carefully by reflected light, it is seen that the ground-tone of the Mongolian is bluish, while that of the American is reddish. Of positive cranial characteristics of the red race, I call attention to the interparietal bone (the os Incce), which is found in its extreme development in the American, in its greatest rarity among the Mongolians ; also to the form of the glabella, found most prominent in American crania, least prominent in Altaic or northern Mongoloid crania; and the peculiar American characteristics of the occipital bone, flattened externally, and internally presenting in nearly forty per cent, of cases the " Aymarian depression," as it has been termed, instead of the internal occipital protuberance.* " Hovelacque et Herve, Anthropologie, pp. 231, 234, 236 ; and on the Inca bone, see Dr. Washington Matthews in the American Anthropologist, vol. II., p. 337. THE SHAPE OF THE SKULL. 63 The shape of the skull has been made another ground of race-distinction; and, although we have learned of late years that its value was greatly over-estimated by the earlier craniologists, we, have also learned that in the average, and throughout large numbers of peoples, it is a very persistent characteristic, and one potently indicative of descent or relationship. Now, of all the peoples of the world, the Mongols, especially the Turanian branch, are the most brachycephalic ; they have the roundest heads; and it is in a high degree noteworthy that precisely the Ameri- can nation dwelling nearest to these, having undoubted con- tact with them for unnumbered generations, are long-headed, or dolichocephalic, in a marked degree. I mean the Eski- mo, and I cannot but be surprised that such an eminent anthropologist as Virchow,* in spite of this anatomical fact, and in defiance of the linguistic evidence, should have re\ , peated the assertion that the Eskimo are of Mongolian descent. Throughout the American continent generally, the natives were not markedly brachycephalic. This was abundantly illustrated more than twenty years ago by the late Prof James Aitkins Meigs, in his " 01)servations on the Cranial Forms of the American Aborigines." They certainly, in this respect, show no greater Mongoloid affinities than do their white successors on the soil of the United States. If color, hair, and crania are thus shown to present such feeble similarities, what is it that has given rise to a notion*' of the Mongoloid origin of the American Indian ? Is it the so-called Mongolian eye, the oblique eye, with a seeming * In Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthrop. Gesellschafl, 1881-82. 64 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. droop at its inner canthus ? Yes, a good deal has been made of this by certain writers, especially by travellers who are not anatomists. The distinguished ethnologist Topinard says the Chinese are very often found without it, and I can confirm this opinion by those I have seen in this country. It is, indeed, a slight deformity, affecting the skin of the eyebrow only, and is not at all infrequent in the white race. Surgeons know it under the name epicanthus, and, as with us it is considered a disfigurement, it is usually removed in infancy by a slight operation. In a few American tribes it is rather prevalent, but in most of the pure Indians I have seen, no trace of it was visible. It certainly does not rank as a racial characteristic. * The nasal index has been recommended by some anato- mists as one of the most persistent and trustworthy of racial indications. The Mongolian origin of the red race derives faint support from this quarter. From the measurements given in the last edition of Topinard' s workf the Mon- golian index is 80, while that of the Eskimo and tribes of the United States and Canada, as far as observed, is 70, that of the average Parisian of to-day being 69 (omitting frac- tions). According to this test, the American is much closer to the white than to the yellow race. Most of the writers (for instance, Av6-l,allemant, St. Hilaire, Peschel, and Virchow) who have argued for the * Dr. Franz Boas, whose accurate studies of the Indians of the Northwest coast are weU known, informs me that he has rarely or never noted the oblique eye among them. Yet precisely on that coast we should look for it, if the Mongolian theory has any foundation. Dr. Ranke's recent studies have proved the oblique Veye to be merely an arrest of development. \ Elements rf' Anihropologie , p. 1003. SUPERFICIAL RESEMBLANCES. 65 Mongoloid character of the Americans, have quoted some one tribe which, it is asserted, shows marked Chinese traits. This has especially been said of the natives of three locali- ties, — the Eskimo, the tribes of the North Pacific coast, and the Botocudos of Brazil. So far as the last-mentioned are concerned, the Botocudos, any such similarity has been cate- gorically denied by the latest and most scientific traveller who has visited them, Dr. Paul Ehrenreich. It is enough if I refer j-ou to his paper in the Zeitschrift filr Ethnologic for 1887, where he dismisses, I should say once for all, the no- tion of any such resemblance existing. I have already pointed out that the Eskimo are totally un-Mongolian in cranial shape, in nasal index, and in linguistic character. They do possess in some instances a general physiognomical similarity, and this is all ; and this is not worth much, as against the dissimilarities mentioned. The same is true of the differences and similarities of some tribes of the north-west coast. In estimating the value of resemblances observed in this part of our continent, we should remember that we have sufficient evidence to believe that for many generations some slight intercourse has been going on between the ad- jacent mainlands and islands of the two continents in the re- gions of their nearest proximity. The same train of events led to a blending of the negro and the white races along the shores of the Red Sea ; but any one who recognizes the dis- tinction of races at all — and I am aware that certain eccen- tric anthropologists do not — will not, on that account, claim that the white race is negroid. With just as little reason, it 5 66 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. seems to me, has it been argued that the native Americans as a race are Mongoloid. * An acute philosopical writer has stated that the superficial observ'er is apt to be impressed with the similarities of ob- jects ; while the profounder student finds his attention more profitably attracted to their differences. By this maxim we may explain this theory of the afiBnities of the Ameri- can race as well as many another which has been broached. * When this paper appeared in Science {September 14th, 1888), it led to a reply from Dr. H. F. C. Ten Kate, of I.eyden, -who had published various studies endeav- oring to prove the Mongoloid character of the American race. His arguments, however, were merely a repetition of those which I believe I have refuted in the above article, and for that reason I do not include the discussion. THE PROBABLE NATIONALITY OF THE "MOUND- BUILDERS," [The following Essay is reprinted without alteration. It appeared in the American Antiquarian for October, 1881, and has certain degree of historic value as illustrating the progress of archEeologic study in the United States. It is, I believe, the first reasoned argu- ment that the constructors of the mounds of the Ohio Valley were the ancestors of tribes known and resident not remote from the sites of these ancient works. Though this opinion has not yet been fully accepted, the tendency of later studies is unquestionably in its favor. ] 'T^HE question, Who were the Mound-builders ? is one that -*■ still remains open in American archaeology. Among the most recent expressions of opinion I may quote Prof. John T. Short, who thinks that one or two thousand years may have elapsed since they deserted the Ohio valley, and prob- ably eight hundred since they finally retired from the Gulf coast.* Mr. J. P. Macl,ean continues to believe them to have been somehow related to the "Toltecs."t Dr. J. W. Foster, making a tremendous leap, connects them with a tribe "who, in times far remote, flourished in Brazil," and adds : "a broad chasm is to be spanned before we can link * The North Americans of Antiquity, p. 106, {18S0.) t The Mound Builders, chap, jrii, (Cinn. ,1879.) (67) 68 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. the kound-builders to the North American Indians. They were essentially different in their form of government, their habits and their daily pursuits. The latter were never known to erect structures which should survive the lapse of ■a generation." * On the other hand, we have the recent utterance of so able an ethnologist as Major J. W. Powell to the effect that, J ' ' With regard to the mounds so widely scattered between the two oceans, it may be said that mound-building tribes were known in the early history of discovery of this conti- nent, and that the vestiges of art discovered do not excel in any respect the arts of the Indian tribes known to history. There is, therefore, no reason for us to search for an extra- limital origin through lost tribes for the arts discovered in the mounds of North America. ' ' f Between opinions so discrepant the student in archaeology maj' well be at a loss, and it will therefore be worth while to inquire just how far the tribes who inhabited the Missis- sippi valley and the Atlantic slope at the time of the discov- ery were accustomed to heap up mounds, excavate trenches, or in other ways leave upon the soil permanent marks of their occupancy. Beginning with the warlike northern invaders, the Iro- quois, it clearly appears that they were accustomed to con- struct burial mounds. Colden states that the corpse was placed in a large round hole and that ' ' they then raise the Earth in a round Hill over it." J Further particulars are * Pre-Historic Races of the United States of America, pp. 388, 347, (Chicago, 1873.) f Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C, p. 116, (l88l.( X History of the Five Nations, Introduction, p. 16 (I^ondon, 1750). COMMUNAL BURIAL MOUNDS. 69 given by I^afitau : the grave was lined with bark, and the body roofed in with bark and branches in the shape of an arch, which was then covered with earth and stones so as to form an agger or iunmlus.'^ In these instances the mound was erected over a single corpse ; but it was also the custom among the Hurons and Iroquois, as we are informed by Charlevoix, to collect the bones of their dead every ten years, and inter them in one mass together, f The slain in a battle were also collected into one place and a large mound heaped over them, as is stated by Mr. Paul Kane, J and that such was an ancient custom of the Iroquois tribes, is further shown by a tradition handed down from the last centurj', according to which the Iroquois believed that the Ohio mounds were the memorials of a war which in ancient times they waged with the Cherokees. || Mr. E. G. Squier, who carefully examined many of the earthworks in the country of the ancient Iroquois, was inclined at first to suppose the remains he found there were parts of " a system of defence extending from the source of the Allegheny and Susque- hanna in New York, diagonally accross the country through central and northern Ohio to the Wabash," and hence drew the inference that ' ' the pressure of hostilities [upon the mound-builders] was from the north-east. "§ This opinion has been repeated by some recent writers ; but Mr. Squier * Meurs des Sativages A^nericains compares aux Meurs du Premiers Temps, chap; xiii. \ Journal Historigue, p. 377. X Wanderings 0/ an Artist among the Indians of North America, p. 3 (London, 1859)- !| H. r; Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, pp. 162, 163, compare pp. 66, 67. \%f^\s.T a.n&.'Dz.-ns, Anx:ient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, "p. 44. 70 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. himself substantially retracted it in a later work, and reached the conviction that whatever ancient remains there are in Western New York and Pennsylvania are to be attributed to the later Indian tribes and not to the Mound-builders.* The neighbors of the Iroquois, the various Algonkin tribes, were occasionally constructors of mounds. In com- paratively recent times we have a description of a "victory mound" raised by the Chippeways after a successful en- counter with the Sioux. The women and children threw up the adjacent surface soil into a heap about five feet higk and eight or ten feet in diameter, upon which a pole was erected, and to it tufts of grass were hung, one for each scalp taken, t Robert Beverly, in his History of Virginia, first published in 1705, describes some curious constructions by the tribes there located. He tells us that they erected "pyramids and columns" of stone, which they painted and decorated with wampum, and paid them a sort of worship. They also con- structed stone altars on which to offer sacrifices. | This adoration of stones and masses of rocks — or rather of the genius which was supposed to reside in them — prevailed also in Massachussetts and other Algonkin localities, and easily led to erecting such piles. || Another occasion for mound building among the Virgin-' ian Indians was to celebrate or make a memorial of a solemn '^Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York, p. 11. + Mr. S. Taylor, American Journal of Science, vol, xliv, p. 22. X History of Virginia, book ii, chap, iii, ch. viii. I See a well-prepared article on this subject by Prof. Finch, in the American Journal of Science, vol. vii, p. 153. TRIBES OF THE GULF STATES. 71 treat}'. On such an occasion they performed the time hon- ored ceremony of "burying the hatchet," a tomahawk be- ing literally put in the ground, " and they raise a pile of stones over it, as the Jews did over the body of Absalom."* I am not aware of any evidence that the Cherokees were mound-builders : but they appreciated the conveniences of such structures, and in one of their villages William Bartram found their council house situated on a large mound. He adds : ' ' But it may be proper to observe that this mount on which the rotunda stands is of a much an- cienter date than the building, and perhaps was raised for another purpose."! I/ieutenant Timberlake is about our best early authority on the Cherokees, and I believe he nowhere mentions that they built upon mounds of artificial construction. Adair, however, states that they were accus- tomed to heap up and add to piles of loose stones in memory of a departed chief, or as monuments of important events. J The tribes who inhabited what we now call the Gulf States, embracing the region between the eastern border of Texas and the Atlantic Ocean south of the Savannah River, belonged, with few and small exceptions, to the great Chahta-Muskokee family, embracing the tribes known as Choctaws, Chikasaws, Muskokees or Creeks, Seminoles, Allibamons, Natchez and others. The languages of all these have numerous and unmistakable aflSnities, the Choc- taw or Chahta presenting probably the most archaic form. It is among them, if anywhere within our limits, that we * History of Virginia, bk. iii, chap vii. t Travels, p. 367 (Dublin, 1793). X History of the North American Indians, p. 184. See note at end of this Bssay. y2 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. must look for the descendants of the mysterious ' ' Mound- builders." No other tribes can approach them in claims for this distinction. Their own traditions, it is true, do not point to a migration from the north, but from the west ; nor do they contain any reference to the construction of the great works in question ; but these people seem to have been a building race, and to have reared tumuli not con- temptible in comparison even with the mightiest of the Ohio Valley. The first explorer who has left us an account of his journey in this region was Cabeza de Vaca, who accom- panied the exposition of Pamfilo de Narvaez in 1527. He, however, kept close to the coast for fear of losing his way, and saw for the most part only the inferior fishing tribes. These he describes as generally in a miserable condition. Their huts were of mats erected on piles of oyster shells (the shell heaps now so frequent along the southern coast). Yet he mentions that in one part, which I judge to be some- where in lyouisiana, the natives were accustomed to erect their dwellings on steep hills and around their base to dig a ditch, as a means of defence. * Our next authorities are very important. They are the narrators of Captain Hernando de Soto's famous and ill starred expedition. Of this we have the brief account of Biedma, the longer story of "the gentleman of Elvas," a Portuguese soldier of fortune, intelligent and clear-headed, and the poetical and brilliant composition of Garcilasso de la * Relatione que fece Alvaro Nurez, detto Capo di Vacca^ Ramusio, Viaggi, torn, iii, fol. 317, 323 (Venice, 1556-) MOUNDS IN THE GULF STATES. 73 Vega. In all of these we find the southern tribes described as constructing artificial mounds, using earthworks for de- fence, excavating ditches and canals, etc. I quote the fol- lowing passage in illustration : "The town and the house of the Cacique Ossachile arc like those of the other caciques in Florida. * * * The Indians try to place their villages on elevated sites ; but inasmuch as in Florida there are not many sites of this kind where they can conveniently build, they erect elevations them- selves in the following manner : They select the spot and carrj' there a quantity of earth which they form into a kind of platform two or three pikes in height, the summit of which is large enough to give room for twelve, fifteen or twenty houses, to lodge the cacique and his attendants. At the foot of this elevation they mark out a square place ac- cording to the size of the village, around which the leading men have their houses. * * * To ascend the elevation they have a straight passage way from bottom to top, fifteen or twenty feet wide. Here steps are made by mas- sive beams, and others are planted firmly in the ground to serve as walls. On all other sides of the platform, the sides are cut steep."* Later on La Vega describes the village of Capaha : "This village is situated on a small hill, and it has about five hundred good houses, surrounded with a ditch ten or twelve cubits (brazas) deep, and a width of fifty paces in most places, in others forty. The ditch is filled with water from a canal which has been cut from the town to Chicagua. *La Vega, Historia de la Florida, Lib. ii, cap. xxii. 74 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. The canal is three leagues in length, at least a pike in depth, and so wide that two large boats could easily ascend or de- scend it, side by side. The ditch which is filled with water from this canal surrounds the town except in one spot, which is closed by heavy beams planted in the earth."* Biedma remarks in one passage, speaking of the provinces of Ycasqui and Pacaha : "The caciques of this region were accustomed to erect near the house where they lived very high mounds {tertres tres-elevees), and there were some who placed their houses on the top of these mounds, "f I cannot state precisely where these provinces and towns were situated ; the successful tracing of De Soto's journey has never yet been accomplished, but remains as an inter- esting problem for future antiquaries to solve. One thing I think is certain ; that until he crossed the Mississippi he at no time was outside the limits of the wide spread Chahta- Muskokee tribes. The proper names preserved, and the courses and distances given, both confirm this opinion. We find them therefore in his time accustomed to erect lofty mounds, terraces and platforms, and to protect their villages by extensive circumvallations. I shall proceed to inquire whether such statements are supported by later writers. Our next authorities in point of time are the French Huguenots, who undertook to make a settlement on the St. John River near where St. Augustine now stands in Florida. The short and sad history of this colony is familiar to all. *Ibid, Lib. vi, cap. vi. See for other examples from this work: Lib. ii, cap. XXX, Lib. iv, cap. xi, Lib. v, cap. iii, etc. ^Relation de ce qui arriva pendant le Voyage du Capitaine Soto, p. 88 (Ed. Ternaux Compaiis). MOUNDS IN FLORIDA. 75 The colonists have, however, left us some interesting descrip- tions of the aborigines. In the neighborhood of St. Augus- tine these belonged to the Timuquana tribe, specimens of whose language have been preserved to us, but which, ac- cording to the careful analysis recently published by Mr. A. S. Gatschet,'*' has no relationship with the Chahta-Musko- kee, nor, for that matter, with any other known tongue. Throughout the rest of the peninsula a Muskokee dialect probably prevailed. The ' ' Portuguese gentleman ' ' tells us that at the very spot where De Soto landed, generally supposed to be some- where about Tampa Bay, at a town called Ucita, the house of the chief ' ' stood near the shore upon a very high mound made by hand for strength. ' ' Such mounds are also spoken of by the Huguenot explorers. They served as the site of the chieftain's house in the villages, and from them led a broad, smooth road through the village to the water.f These descriptions correspond closely to those of the remains which the botanists, John and William Bartram, discovered and reported about a century ago. It would also appear that the natives of the peninsula erected mounds over their dead, as memorials. Thus the artist Ive Moyne de Morgues, writes : ' ' Defuncto aliquo rege ejus proviciae, magna solemnitate sepelitur, et ejus tumulo crater, e quo bibere solebat, imponitur, defixis circum ipsum tumulum multis sagittis."! The picture he gives of the ' ' tumulus ' ' does not represent it as more than three or four * Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1879-1880. t Histoire Notable de la Floride, pp. 138, 164, etc. XBrevis Narratio, in De Bry, Peregrinaiiones in Americam,'Si.ri. ii, Tab.xl, (1591.) 75 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. feet in height ; so that if this was intended as an accurate re- presentation, the structure scarcely rises to the dignity of a mound. After the destruction of the Huguenot colony in 1565, the Spanish priests at once went to work to plant their missions. The Jesuit fathers established themselves at various points south of the Savannah River, but their narratives, which have been preserved in full in a historic work of great rarity, describe the natives as broken up into small clans, waging constant wars, leading vagrant lives, and without fixed hab- itations.* Of these same tribes, however, Richard Blomes, an English traveler, who visited them about a century later, says that they erected piles or pyramids of stones, on the occasion of a successful conflict, or when they founded a new village, for the purpose of keeping the fact in long re- membrance, t About the same time another English trav- eler, by name Bristock, claimed to have visited the interior of the country and to have found in ' ' Apalacha ' ' a half- civilized nation, who constructed stone walls and had a developed sun worship ; but in a discussion of the authenti- city of his alleged narrative I have elsewhere shown that it cannot be relied upon, and is largely a fabrication. J A cor- rect estimate of the constructive powers of the Creeks is given by the botanist, William Bartram, who visited them twice in the latter half of the last century. He found they had ' ' chunk yards ' ' surrounded by low walls of earth, at * Alcazar, Chrono-Hisioria de la Compania de Jesus en la Provincia de Toledo^ Tom. ii, Dec, iii, cap. vi, (Madrid, 1710.) t The Present State of His Majestie's Isles and Territories in A merica, p. 156, (Lon- don, 1667.) X The Floridi^n Peninsula^ p. 95, sqq. (Phila. 1859.) MOUNDS IN LOUISIANA. 77 one end of which, sometimes on a moderate artificial eleva- tion, was the chief s dwelling and at the other end the public council house * His descriptions resemble so closely those in 1,3. Vega that evidently the latter was describing the same objects on a larger scale— or from magnified reports. Within the present century the Seminoles of Florida are said to have retained the custom of collecting the slain after a battle and interring them in one large mound. The writer on whose authority I state this, adds that he ' ' observed on the road from St. Augustine to Tomaka, one mound which must have covered two acres of ground, "f but this must surely have been a communal burial mound. Passing to the tribes nearer the Mississippi, most of them of Choctaw affiliation, we find considerable testimony in the French writers to their use of mounds. Thus M. de la Harpesays : "The cabins of the Yasous, Courous, Offogoula and Ouspie are dispersed over the country on mounds of earth made with their own hands. "J The Natchez were mostly of Choctaw lineage. In one of their villages Dumont notes that the cabin of the chief was elevated on a mound. § Father I^e Petit, a missionary who labored among them, gives the particulars that the residence of the great chief or "Brother of the Sun," as he was called, was erected on a mound (buttc) of earth carried for that purpose. When the chief died, the house was destroyed, and the same mound was not used as the site of the mansion of his successor, but *Bartrani MSS., in the Library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. ^Narrative of Occola JVikkanoche, Prince of Econchatti,, by his Guardian, pp. 71-2, (London, 1841.) \ Annals, in Louisiana Hist. Colls., p. 196. § Memoires Historiques de la Louisiane, Tome ii, p. 109. yg ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. was left vacant and a new one was constructed.* This inter-- esting fact goes to explain the great number of mounds in some localities ; and it also teaches us the important truth that we cannot form any correct estimate of the date when a mound-building tribe left a locality by counting the rings in trees, etc., because long before they departed, certain tumuli or earthworks may have been deserted and tabooed from superstitious notions, just as many were among the Natchez. We have the size of the Natchez mounds given approxi- mately by M. Le Page du Pratz. He observes that the one on which was the house of the Great Sun was ' ' about eight feet high and twenty feet over on the surface."! He adds that their temple, in which the perpetual fire was kept burn- ing, was on a mound about the same height. The custom of communal burial has been adverted to. At the time of the discovery it appears to have prevailed in most of the tribes from the Great I^akes to the Gulf. The bones of each phratry or gens — the former, probably — were collected every eight or ten years and convej^ed to the spot where they were to be finally interred. A mound was raised over them which gradually increased -in size with each additional interment. The particulars of this method of burial have often been described, and it is enough that I refer to a few authorities in the note. X Indeed it has not ^ Letters Edifiantes et Curieuses, Tome, i, p. 261. ^ History 0/ Louisiana , vol. ii, p. 188, (Kng. Trans, IvOndon, 1763.) I Adair, History of the North American Indians^ pp. 184, 185 : — William Bartram, Travels, p. 561 : Dumont, Memoires Historiques de la Louisiane, Tome i, pp. 246, 264, et al. : Bernard Romans, Natural and Civil History 0/ Florida, pp. 88-90, (a good ac- count.) The Relations des Jesuits describe the custom among the Northern Indians. SOUTHERN TRIBES AS MOUND-BUILDERS. 79 been pretended that such mounds necessarily date back to a race anterior to that which occupied the soil at the advent of the white man. I have not included in the above survey the important Dakota stock who once occupied an extended territory on the upper Mississippi and its affluents, and scattered clans of whom were resident on the Atlantic Coast in Virginia and Carolina. But, in fact, I have nowhere found that they erected earthworks of any pretentions whatever. From what I have collected, therefore, it would appear that the only resident Indians at the time of the discovery who showed anj^ evidence of mound-building comparable to that found in the Ohio valley were the Chahta-Muskokees. I believe that the evidence is sufficient to justify us in ac- cepting this race as the constructors of all those extensive mounds, terraces, platforms, artificial lakes and circumvalla- tions which are scattered over the Gulf States, Georgia and Florida. The earliest explorers distinctly state that such were used and constructed by these nations in the sixteenth century, and probably had been for many generations. Such too, is the opinion arrived at by Col. C. C. Jones, than whom no one is more competent to speak with authority on this point. Referring to the earthworks found in Georgia he writes : ' ' We do not concur in the opinion so often ex- pressed that the mound-builders were a race distinct from and superior in art, government, and religion, to the Southen Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. ' ' It is a Baconian rule which holds good in every depart- ment of science that the simplist explanation of a given fact or series of facts should always be accepted ; therefore if we 8o ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. can point out a well known race of Indians who, at the time of the discovery, raised mounds and other earthworks, not wholly dissimilar in character and not much inferior in size to those in the Ohio valley, and who resided not very far away from that region and directly in the line which the Mound Builders are believed by all to have followed in their emigration, then this rule constrains us to accept for the pres- sent this race as the most probable descendants of the Mound Tribes, and seek no further for Toltecs, Asiatics of Brazil- Hans. All these conditions are filled by the Chahta tribes.* It is true, as I have already said, that the traditions of their own origin do not point to the north but rather to the west or northwest ; but in one of these traditions it is notice- able that they claim their origin to have been from a large artificial mound, the celebrated Nanih Waiya, the Sloping Hill, an immense pile in the valley of the Big Black River ;t and it may be that this is a vague reminiscence of their re- mote migration from their majestic works in the north. The size of the southern mounds is often worthy of the descendants of those who raised the vast piles in the north- ern valleys. Thus one in the Etowah Valley, Georgia, has a cubical capacity of 1,000,000, cubic feet.j The Messier Mound, near the Chatahoochee River, contains about 700,000 cubic feet.§ Wholly artificial mounds 50 to 70 feet in height, •* Antiquities of the Southern Indians, particularly the Georgian Tribes, p. 135, (New York, 1873.) t For particulars of this see my Myths of the New M 'arid, pp. 241-2, (New York, 1876.) J C. C. Jones. Monumental Remains of Georgia, p, 32. g Ibid. Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 169. SIZE OF MOUNDS. 8 1 with base areas of about 200 by 400 feet, are by no means unusual in the river valleys of the Gulf States. With these figures we may compare the dimensions of the northern mounds. The massive one near Miamisburg, Ohio, 68 feet high, has been calculated to contain 311,350 cubic feet— about half the size of the Messier Mound. At Clark's Works, Ohio, the embankments and mounds together con- tain about 3,oeo,coo cubic feet;* but as the embankment is three miles long, most of this is not in the mounds them- selves. Greater than any of these is the truncated pyramid at Cahokia, Illinois, which has an altitude of 90 feet and a base area of 700 by 500 feet. It is, however, doubtful whether this is wholly an artificial construction. Professor Spencer Smith has shown that the once famous ' ' big mound ' ' of St. lyouis was largely a natural formation ; and he expresses the opinion that many of the mounds in Missouri and Illinois, popularly supposed to be artificial constructions, are wholly, or in great part, of geologic origin, f There is apparently therefore no such great difference between the earth struc- tures of the Chahta tribes, and those left us by the more northern mound-builders, that we need suppose for the latter any material superiority in culture over the former when first they became known to the whites ; nor is there any impro- bability in assuming that the Mound-builders of the Ohio were in fact the progenitors of the Chahta tribes, and were driven south probably about three or four hundred years be- fore the discovery. Such is the conviction to which the above reasoning leads us. *Squier & Davis, Ancient Monuments- of the Mississippi Valley^ p. 29. f Origin of the Big Mound of St. Louis, a paper read before the St. Louis'.Academy of Science. 6 82 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. In the course of it, I have said nothing about the condi- tion of the arts of the Mound-builders compared with that of the early southern Indians ; nor have I spoken of their sup- posed peculiar religious beliefs which a recent writer thinks to point to ' ' Toltec ' ' connections ;* nor have I discussed the comparative craniology of the Mound-builders, upon which some very remarkable hypotheses have been erected ; nor do I think it worth while to do so, for in the present state of anthropologic science, all the facts of these kinds relating to the Mound-builders which we have as yet learned, can have no appreciable weight to the investigator. *Thoinas E. Pickett, The Testimony of the Mounds : Considered with especial refer- ence to the Pre-historic ArchcEology of Kentucky and the Adjoining States, pp. 9, 28, (Maysville, 1876.) [Investigations conducted since the above EJssay was printed require some modi- fications in its statements. The researches of Professor Cyrus Thomas render it likely that the Cherokees were also Mound-builders, and that they occupied por- tions of Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia less than two centuries ago. (See also my work The Lenapi and their Legends, pp. 16-18. Philadelphia, 1885.) Probably the Ohio Valley Mound-builders were the ancestors of some of the Cher- okees as well as of the Chahta-Muskoki tribes. Craniologic data from the Ohio mounds are still too vague to permit inferences from them.] THE TOLTEGS AND THEIR FABULOUS EMPIRE. |N the first addition of my Myth^ of the New World, "^ pub- -•■ lished in 1868, I asserted that the story of the city of Tula and its inhabitants, the Toltecs, as currently related in an- cient Mexican history, is a myth, and fiot history. This opinion I have since repeated in various publications, f but writers on pre-Columbian American civilization have been very unwilling to give up their Toltecs, and lately M. Charnay has composed a laborious monograph to defend them. I Let me state the question squarely. The orthodox opinion is that the Toltecs, coming from the north (-west or -east), founded the city of Tula (about forty * Myths of the New World. By D. G. Brinton, chap. vi. passim. tEspecially in American Hero Myths, a study in the Native Religions of the West- ern Continent, pp. 35, 64,82, etc. (Philadelphia, 1882.) X M. Charnay, in his essay. La Civilisation Toltique, published in the Revue d^ Kthnographie , T.iv., p. 281, 1885, states his thesis as follows : " Je veux prouver I'existence du Tolteque que certains ont nice ; je veux prouver que les civilisations Americaines ne sont qu'une seule et meme civilisation ; eniin, je veux prouver que cette civilisation est tolteque." I consider each of these statements an utter error. In his A nciennes yilles du Nouveau Monde, M. Charnay has gone -so far as to give a map showing the migrations of the ancient Toltecs. As a translation of this work, with this map, has recently been published in this country, it appears to me the more needful that the baseless character of the Toltec legend be distinctly stated. (83) 84 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. miles north of the present city of Mexico) in the sixth cen- tury, A. D. ; that their State flourished for about five hun- dred years, until it numbered nearly four millions of inhab- itants, and extended its sway from ocean to ocean over the ■whole of central Mexico ;* that it reached a remarkably high, stage of culture in the arts ; that in the tenth or eleventh century it was almost totally destroyed by war and famine ; f and that its fragments, escaping in separate colonies, carried the civilization of Tula to the south, to Tabasco (Palenque), Yucatan, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Quetzalcoatl, the last ruler of Tula, himself went to the south-east, and reappears in Yucatan as the culture-hero Cukulkan, the traditional founder of the Maj^a civilization. This, I say, is the current opinion about the Toltecs. It is found in the works of Ixtlilxochitl, Veitia, Clavigero, Prescott, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Orozco y Berra, and scores of other reputable writers. The dispersion of the Toltecs has been offered as the easy solution of the origin of the civilization not only of Central America, but of New Mexico and the Mississippi valley. ;j: * Ixtlilxochitl, in his Relaciones Historicas (iu Lord Kingsborough's ^re//(7MiV:fj of Mexico, Vol. ix., p. 333), says that during the reign of Topiltzin, last king of Tula, the Toltec sovereignty extended a thousand leagues from north to south and eight hundred from east to west ; and in the wars that attended its downfall five million six hundred thousand persons were slain ! ! f Sahagun {Hist, de la Nueva Espana, I.ib. viii, cap. 5) places the destruction of Tula in the year 319 B. C. ; Ixtlilxochitl (Historia Chichmeca, iii, cap. 4) brings it down to 969 A. D. ; the Codex Ramirez (p. 25} to 1168 ; and so on. There is an equal yariation about the date of founding the city. X since writing the above I have received from the Cotnte de Charencey a reprint of his article on Xibalba, in which he sets forth the theory of the late M. I,. An- grand, that all ancient American civilization was due to two *' currents" of Tol- tecs, the western, straight-headed Toltecs, who entered Anahuac by land from the FABLED HISTORY OF TULA. 85 The opinion that I oppose to this, and which I hope to establish in this article, is as follows : Tula was merely one of the towns built and occupied by that tribe of the Nahuas known as Azteca or Mexica, whose tribal god was Huitzilopochtli, and who-finally settled at Mex- ico-Tenochtitlan (the present city of Mexico) ; its inhabitants were called Toltecs, but there was never any such distinct tribe or nationality ; they were merely the ancestors of this branch of the Azteca, and when Tula was destroyed by civil and foreign wars, these survivors removed to the valley of Mexico and became merged with their kindred; they en- joyed no supremacy, either in power or in the arts ; and the Toltec "empire" is a baseless faible. What gave them their singular fame in later legend was partly the tendency of the human mind to glorify the ' ' good old times ' ' and to merge ancestors into divinities, and especially the significance of the name Tula, "the Place of the Sun," leading to the con- founding and identification of a half-forgotten legend with the ever-living light-and-darkness myth of the gods Quetz- alcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. To support this view, let us inquire what we know about Tula as an historic site. Its location is on one of the great ancient trails leading from the north into the Valley of Mexico.^ The ruins of north-west, and the eastern, flat-headed Toltecs, who came by sea fom Florida. It is to criticise such vague theorizing that I have written this paper. * Motolinia, in his Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana, p. 5, calls the locality " el Puerto Uamado ToUan," the pass or gate called Tollan. Through it, he states, passed first the Colhua and later the Mexica, though he adds that some maintain these were the same people. In fact, Colhua is a form of a word which means " ancestors ; " colli, forefather; no-col-huan, my forefathers; Colkuacan, ' ' the place d6 ESSAYS OF AN AMKRICANIST. the old town are upon an elevation about loo feet in height, whose summit presents a level surface in the shape of an irregular triangle some 800 yards long, with a central width of 300 yards, the apex to the south-east, where the face of the hill is fortified by a rough stone wall/"" It is a natural hill, overlooking a small muddy creek, called the J^zo de Tula.'\ Yet this unpretending mound is the celebrated Coatepetl, Serpent-Mount, or Snake-Hill, famous in Nahuatl legend, and the central figure in all the wonderful stories about the Toltecs.J The remains of the artificial tumuli and of the forefathers," where they lived. In Aztec picture-writing this is represented by a hill with a bent top, on the " ikonoraatic " system, the verb coloa, meaning to bend, to stoop. Those Mexica who said the Colhua proceeded them at Tula, simply meant that their own ancestors dwelt there. The Anales de Cnauhiitlan (pp. 29, 33) distinctly states that what Toltecs survived the wars which drove them south- ward became merged in the Colhuas. As these wars largely aroFC from civil dis- sensions, the account no doubt is correct which states that others settled in Acol- huacan, on the eastern shore of the principal lake in the Valley of Mexico. The name means " Colhuacan by the water," and was the State of which the capital was Tezcoco. *This description is taken from the map of the location in M. Chamay's^na- ennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, p. 83. The measurements I have made from the map do not agree with those stated in the text of the book, but are, I take it, more accurate. fSometimes called the Rio de Montezuma, and also the Tollanail, water of Tula. This stream plays a conspicuous part in the Quetzalcoatl myths. It appears to be the same as the river Atoyac (= flowing or spreading water, alt, toyaua), or Xipa- coyan (= where precious stones are washed, from xiuiil, paca,yan), referred to by Sahagun, //xj^. rfg la Nueva Espaiia,^^!):^. ix., cap. 29. In it were the celebrated " Baths of Quetzalcoatl," called Atecpanamochco, "the water in the tin palace," probably from being adorned with this metal {Anales de Cuauhtitlan). t See the Codez Ramirez, p. 24. Why called Snake-Hill the legend says not. I need not recall how prominent an object is the serpent in Aztec mythology. The name is a compound of coail, snake, and tepetl, hill or mountain, but which may also may mean town or city, as such were usually built on elevations. The form Coatepec is this word with the postposition c, and means " at the snake-hill," or, perhaps. " at Snake-town." ARCHITECTURE OF TULA. 87 walls, which are abundantly scattered over the summit, show that, like the pueblos of New Mexico, they were built of large sun-baked bricks mingled with stones, rough or trimmed, and both walls and floors were laid in a firm ce- ment, which was usually painted of difierent colors. Hence probably the name Palpau, "amid the colors," which tra- dition says was applied to these structures on the Coatepetl.* The stone- work, represented by a few broken fragments, appears equal, but not superior, to that of the Valley of Mexico. Both the free and the attached column occur, and figure-carving was known, as a few weather-beaten relics testify. The houses contained many rooms, on difierent levels, and the roofs were flat. They were no doubt mostly communal structures. At the foot of the Serpent-Hill is a level plain, but little above the river, on which is the modern village with its corn-fields. These geographical particulars are necessary to under- stand the ancient legend, and with them in mind its real purport is evident, t That legend is as follows : When the Azteca or Mexica *0r to one of them. The name is preserved by Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones His- toricas, in Kingsborough, Mexico, Vol, ix., p. 326. Its derivation is from palli, a color (root;>a), and the postposition ;SaM. It is noteworthy that this legend states that Quetzalcoatl in his avatar as Ce Acatl was born in the Palpan, " House of Colors :'" while the usual story was that he came from Tla-pallan, the place of colors. This indicates that the two accounts are versions of the same myth. t There are two ancient Codices extant, giving in picture-writing the migrations of the Mexi. They have been repeatedly published in part or in whole, with vary- ing degrees of accuracy. Orozco y Berra gives tlieir bibliograpliy in his Bistoria Antigua de Mexico, Tom. iii. p. 61, note. These Codices differ widely, and seem contradictorj', but Orozco y Berra has reconciled tliem by the happy suggestion that they refer to sequent and not synchronous events. There is, however, yet much to do before their full meaning is ascertained. 88 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. — for these names were applied to the same tribe* — left their early home in Aztlan — which Ramirez locates in Lake Chalco in the Valley of Mexico, and Orozco y Berra in Lake Chapallan in Michoacanf— they pursued their course for some generations in harmony ; but at a certain time, some- where between the eighth and the eleventh century of our era, they fell out and separated. The legend refers to this as a dispute between the followers of the tribal god Huitzil- opochtli and those of his sister Malinalxochitl. We may understand it to have been the separation of two ' ' totems. ' ' The latter entered at once the Valley of Mexico, while the • The name Aztlan is that of a place and Mexitl that of a person, and from these are derived Aziecail, plural, Azteca, and Mexicail, pi. Mexica. The Azteca are said to have left Aztlan under the guidance of Mexitl [Codex Ratmrez). The radi- cals of both words have now become somewhat obscured in the Nahuatl. My own opinion is that Father Duran {Hist, de Nueva Espana, Tom. i, p. 19) was right in translating' Aztlan as " the place of whiteness." el lugar de btancura, from the radical iztac, white. This may refer to the East, as the place of the dawn ; but there is also a temptation to look upon Aztlan as a syncope oi a-izta-ilan,=" hy the salt water." MexicatI is a nomen gentile derived from Mexitl^ which was another name for the tribal god or early leader Huitzilopochtli, as is positively stated by Torquemada {Monarguia Indiana, I^ib. viii, cap xi). Sahagun explains Mexitl as a compound of metl, the maguey, and citli, which means "hare" and "grandmother" {Hist, de Nueva Espaiia, I,ib. x. cap. 29). It is noteworthy that one of the names of Quetz- alcoatl is Mecotietzin, son of the maguey (Ixtilxochitl, Rel. Hist., in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 238). These two gods were originally brothers, though each had divers mythical ancestors. t Orozco y Berra, Historia A ntigua de Mexico, Tom. iii, cap. 4. But Albert Gallatin was the first to place Aztlan no further west than Michoacan (7>aKj. American Ethnolog. Society, Vol. ii, p. 202). Orozco thinks Aztlan was the small island called Mexcalla in Lake Chapallan, apparently because bethinks this name means " houses of the Mexi ;" but it may also signify " where there is abundance of ma- guey leaves," this delicacy being called mexcalli in Nahuatl, and the terminal a signfying location or abundance. (See Sahagun, Historia de Nueva Espana, Lib. vii, cap. 9.) At present, one of the smaller species of maguey is called mexcalli. WANDERINGS OF THE AZTECS. 89 ■■-=- followers of Huitzilopoclitli passed on to the plain of Tula ■^^'^^ and settled on the Coatepetl. Here, says the narrative, -"■'■' they constructed houses of stones and of rushes, built a temple for the worship of Huitzilopochtli, set up his image and those of the fifteen divinities (gentes ?) who were subject to him, and erected a large altar of sculptured stone and a court for their ball play.=i= The level ground at the foot of the hill they partly flooded by damming the river, and used the remainder for planting their crops. After an indeter- minate time they abandoned Tula and the Coatepetl, driven out b}' civil strife and warlike neighbors, and journeyed southward into the Valley of Mexico, there to found the famous city of that name. This is the simple narrative of Tulan, stripped of its con- tradictions, metaphors and confusion, as handed down by those highest authorities the Codex Ramirez, Tezozomoc and Father Duran.f It is a plain statement that Tula and its Snake -Hill were merely one of the stations of the Azteca in their migrations — an important station, indeed, with nat- ural strength, and one -that they fortified with care, where for some generations, probably, they maintained an inde- * It is quite likely that the stone image figured by Charnay, A nciennes I 'illes du Nouveau Monde, p. 72, and the stone ring used in the tladitli, ball play, which he figures, p. 73, are those refered to in the historic legend. fThe Codex Ramirez, p. 24, a most excellent authority, is quite clear. The pic- ture-writing — Tvhich is really phonetic, or, as I have termed it. ikonomatic — repre- sents the Coatepetl by the sign of a hill (tepetl) inclosing a serpent icoail). Tezozo- moc, in his Cronica Mexicana, cap. 2, presents a more detailed but more coufused account. Duran, Hisioria de las Indias de Nueva Espana, cap. 3, is worthy of com- parison. The artificial inundation of the plain to which the accounts refer proba- bly means that a ditch or moat was constructed to protect the foot of the hill. Her- rera says: " Cercaron de agua el cerro llaraado Coatepec." Decadas de Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. ii, cap. 11. 90 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. pendent existence, and which the story-tellers of the tribe recalled with pride and exaggeration. How long they occupied the site is uncertain.* Ixtlilxo- chitl gives a list of eight successive rulers of the "Toltecs," each of whom was computed to reign at least fifty-two years, or one cycle ; but it is noteworthy that he states these rulers were not of "Toltec " blood, but imposed upon them by the " Chichimecs." This does not reflect creditably on the sup- posed singular cultivation of the Toltecs. Probably the warrior Aztecs subjected a number of neighboring tribes and imposed upon them rulers, f If we accept the date given by the Codex Ramir'es for the departure of the Aztecs from the Coatepetl — A. D. 1168 — then it is quite possible that they might have controlled the site for a couple of centuries or longer, and that the number of successive chieftians named by Ixtlilxochitl should not be * The Annals of Cuauhtiilan, a chronicle written in the Nahuatl language, gives 309 years from the founding to the destruction of Tula, but names a dynasty of only four rulers. Veitia puts the founding of Tula in the year 713 A. D. {Historia de Nueva Espana, cap. 23.) Let us suppose, with the laborious and critical Orozco y Berra (notes to the Codex Ramirez, p. 210) that the Mexi left Aztlan A. D., 648. These three dates would fit into a rational chronology, remembering that there is an acknowledged hiatus of a number of years about the eleventh and twelfth cen- turies in the Aztec records (Orozco y Berra, notes to Codex Ramirez, p. 213). The Anales de Cuauhtitlan dates the founding of Tula after that of Tlaxcallan, Huexot- zinco and Cuauhtitlan (p. 29). f As usual, Ixtlilxochitl contradicts himself in his lists of rulers. Those given in his Historia Cliichimecaave by no means the same as those enumerated in his Rela- ciones Historicas (Kingsborough, Mexico, Vol. ix, contains all of Ixtitlxochitl'swrit- ings). Entirely different from both is the list in the A nales de Cuauhtitlan. How completely euhemeristic Ixtlilxochitl is in his interpretations of Mexican mythol- ogy is shown by his speaking of the two leading Nahuatl divinities Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopoclitli as "certain bold warriors" (" ciertos caballeros mny valer- osos." Relaciones Historicas, in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 326).' DESTRUCTION OF TULAN. gi "ar wrong. The destructive battles of which he speaks as Dreceding their departure— battles resulting in the slaughter )f more than five million souls — we may regard as the grossly overstated account of some really desperate conflicts. That the warriors of the Azteca, on leaving Tula, scat- :ered over Mexico, Yucatan and Central America, is iirectly contrary to the assertion of the high authorities I nave quoted, and also to most of the mythical descriptions )f the event, which declare they were all, or nearly all, mas- sacred.* The above I claim to be the real history of Tula and its :erpent-Hill, of the Toltecs and their dynasty. Now comes ;he question, if we accept this view, how did this ancient :own and its inhabitants come to have so wide a celebrity, lot merely in the myths of the Nahuas of Mexico, but in ;he sacred stories of Yucatan and Guatemala as well — which was unquestionably the case? To explain this, I must have recourse to some of those :urious principles of language which have had such influ- ;nce in building the fabric of mythology. In such inquiries we have more to do with words than with things, with lames than with persons, with phrases than with facts. First about these names, Tula, Tollan, Toltec — what do * See the note to page 84. But it is not at all likely that Tula was absolutely de- erted. On the contrary, Herrera asserts that after the foundation of Mexico and he adjacent cities (despues de la fundacion de Mexico i de toda la tierra) it reached Ls greatest celebrity for skilled workmen. Decadas de Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. ii, cap. I. The general statement is that the sites on the Coatepetl and the adjacent aeadows were unoccupied for a few years — the Anales de Cuauhiitlan says nine ears — after the civil strife and massacre, and then were settled again. The His- oria de los Mexicanos par sus Plnturas, cap. 11, says, " y ansi fueron muertos todos 3S de Tula, que no quedo ninguno." 92 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. they mean ? They are evidently from the same root. What idea did it convey ? We are first struck with the fact that the Tula I have been describing was not the only one in the Nahuatl district of Mexico. There are other Tulas and ToUans, one near Oco- cingo, another, now San Pedro Tula, in the State of Mexico, one in Guerrero, San Antonio Tula in Potosi,* etc. The name must have been one of common import. Herrera, who spells it Tulo, by an error, is just as erroneous in his suggestion of a meaning. He says it means ' ' place of the tuna, ' ' this be- ing a term used for the prickly pear.f But tuna was not a Nahuatl word ; it belongs to the dialect of Haiti, and was introduced into Mexico by the Spaniards. Therefore Her- rera' s derivation must be ruled out. Ixtlilxochitl pretends that the name ToUan was that of the first chieftain of the Toltecs, and that they were named after him ; but else- where himself contradicts this assertion. J Most writers follow the Codex Ramirez, and maintain that ToUan — of which Tula is but an abbreviation — is from tolin, the Nahuatl word for rush, the kind of which they made mats, and means " the place of rushes," or where the3' grow. The respectable authority of Buschmann is in favor of this derivation ; but according to the analogy of the Nahuatl lan- guage, the " place of rushes " should be Toltiilan or Tolinan, and there are localities with these names. § *See Buschmann, Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, ss. 682, 7S8. Orozco y Bena, Geograjia de las Lenguas de Afejtco, pp. 248, 255. \ Hisioria de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. iii, I^ib. ii, cap. 11. X Relaciones Historicas, in 'King^horou^h's Mexico, Vol. ix, p. 392. Compare his Hisioria Chichimeca. g Buschmann, Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, ss. 682, 797. DERIVATION OF TULA. 93 Without doubt, I think, we must accept the derivation of Tollan given by Tezozomoc, in his Cronica Mexicana. This writer, thoroughh- familiar with his native tongue, conveys to us its ancient form and real sense. Speaking of the early Aztecs, he says : "They arrived at the spot called Coatepec, on the borders of Tonalan, the place of the sun.'"''' This name, Tonallan, is still not unusual in Mexico. Buschmann enumerates four villages so called, besides a mining town, Tonatla?i,'\ "Place of the sun" is a literal rendering, and it would be equally accurate to translate it ' ' sunny-spot, " or " warm place, " or " summer-place. ' ' There is nothing very peculiar or distinctive about these meanings. The warm, sunny plain at the foot of the Snake- Hill was called, naturally enough, Tonallan, syncopated to Tollan, and thus to Tula. J * Cronica Mexicana, cap. 1. " Partieron de alii y vinieron a la parte que llaman Coatepec, teraiinos de Tonalan, lugar del sol." In Nahuatl tonallan usually means summer, sun-time. It is sj^ncopated from tonalli and ilan ; the latter is the locative termination ; tonalli means warmth, sunrtiness, akin to tonatiuh, sun ; but it also means soul, spirit, especially when combined with the possessive pronouns, as to- tonal, our soul, our immaterial essence. By a further syncope tonallan was reduced to Tollan or TuUan, and by the elision of the terminal semi-vowel, this again be- came Tula. This name may therefore mean "the place of souls," an accessory signification which doubtless had its influence on the growth of the myths concern- ing the locality. It may be of some importance to note that Tula or Tollan was not at first the name of the town, but of the locality— that is, of the warm and fertile meadow-lands at the foot of the Coatepetl. The town was at first called Xocotitlan, the place of fruit, from xocotl, fruit, ti, connective, and tlan, locative ending. (See Sahagun, Hisloria de Nueva Espana, Lib. x, cap. 29, sees. ^ and 12.) This name was also applied to one of the quarters of the city of Mexico when conquered by Cortes, as we learn from the same authority. t Buschmann, Ueber die Aztekischcn Ortsnamen, ss. 794, 797, (Berlin, 1852.) J The verbal radical is tona, to warm (hazer calor, Molina, Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, s. v.) ; from this root come many words signifying warmth, fer- 94 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. But the literal meaning of Tollan—" Place of the Sun "— brought it in later days into intimate connection with many a myth of light and of solar divinities, until this ancient Aztec pueblo became apotheosized, its inhabitants trans- formed into magicians and demigods, and the corn-fields of Tula stand forth as fruitful plains of Paradise. In the historic fragments to which I have alluded there is scant reference to miraculous events, and the gods play no part in the sober chronicle. But in the mythical cyclus we are at once translated into the sphere of the supernal. The Snake-Hill Coatepetl becomes the Aztec Olympus. On it dwells the great goddess " Our Mother amid the Serpents," Coatlan Tonan* otherwise called "The Serpent-skirted," Coatlicue, with her children, The Myriad Sages, the Centzon Huitsnalma.^ It was her duty to sweep the Snake- Hill tility, abundauce, the sun, the east, the summer, the day, and others expressing the soul, the vital principle, etc. Simeon, Did. de la Langue NakuatI, s. v. tonalH.) As in the Algonkin dialects the words for cold, night and death are from the same root, so in Nahuatl are those for warmth, day and life. (Comp. Duponceau, Memoire sur les Langues de I' ATnerique du Nord^ p. 327, Paris, 1836.) * Coatlan^ to-nan, from coail, serpent ; tlan, among ; io-nau, our mother. She was the goddess of flowers, and the florists paid her especial devotion (Sahagun, His- toria, Lib. ii, cap. 22). A precinct of the city of Mexico was named after her, and also one of the edifices in the great temple of the city. Here captives were sacrificed to her and to the Huitznahua. (Ibid., I,ib. ii. Appendix. See also Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana^ Lib. x. cap. 12.) \ Centzon Huitznahua^ "the Four Hundred Diviners with Thorns." Four hun- dred, however, in Nahuatl means any indeterminate large number, and hence is properly translated myriad, legion. Nahuatl means wise, skillful, a diviner, but is also the proper name of the Nahuatl-speaking tribes ; and as the Nahuas derived their word for south from huitzli, a thorn, the Huitznahua may mean "the south- ern Nahuas." Sahagun had this in his mind when he said the Huitznahua were goddesses who dwelt in the south (Hisioria de Nueva Espana, Lib. vii, cap. 5). The word is taken by Father Duran as the proper name of an individual, as we shall see in a later note. BIRTH OF THE HERO-GOD. 95 every day, that it might be kept clean for her children. One day while thus engaged, a little bunch of feathers fell upon her, and she hid it under her robe. It was the descent of the spirit, the divine Annunciation. When the Myriad Sages saw that their mother was pregnant, they were en- raged, and set about to kill her. But the unborn babe spake from her womb, and provided for her safety, until in due time he came forth armed with a blue javelin, his flesh painted blue, and with a blue shield. His left leg was thin and covered with the plumage of the humming-bird, Hence the name was given to him ' ' On the left, a humming-bird, ' ' Huitzilopochtli.* Four times around the Serpent-Mountain did he drive the Myriad Sages, until nearly all had fallen dead before his dart, and the remainder fled far to the south. Then all the Mexica chose Huitzilopochtli for their god, and paid honors to the Serpent-Hill by Tula as his birthplace. f * Huitzilopochtli, from kuitzilin, humming-bird, opochtli, the left side or hand. This is the usual derivation ; but I am quite sure that it is an error arising from the ikonomatic representation of the name. The name of his brother, Huitznahua, in- dicates strongly that the prefix of both names is identical. This, I doubt not, is from kuitz-tlan, the south ; ilo, is from iloa, to turn ; this gives us the meaning "the left hand turned toward the south." Orozco y Berra has pointed out that the Mex- ica regarded left-handed vrarriors as the more formidable {Hisioria Antigua de Mexico, Tom. i, p. 125). Along with this let it be remembered that the legend states that Huitzilopochtli was born in Tula, and insisted on leading the Mexica toward the south, the opposition to which by his brother led to the massacre and to the destruction of the town. fThis myth is recorded by Sahagun, Hisioria de Nueva Espana, Lib. iii, cap. i, " On the Origin of the Gods." It is preserved with some curious variations in the Hisioria de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, cap. 11. When the gods created the sun they also formed four hundred men and five women for him to eat. At the death of the women their robes were preserved, and when the people carried these to the Coatepec, the five women came again into being. One of these was Coatlicue, an untouched virgin, who after four years of fasting placed a bunch of white feathers 96 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. An equally ancient and authentic myth makes Huitzilo- pochtli one of four brothers, born at one time of the uncre- ated, bi-sexual divinity, the God of our Life, Tonacatecutli, who looms dimly at the head of the Aztec Pantheon. His brothers were the black and white Tezcatlipoca and the fair- skinned, bearded Quetzalcoatl. Yet a third myth places the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl directly in Tula, and names his mother, Chimalman, a virgin, divinely impregnated, like Coatlicue, by the descending spirit of the Father of All.=*= Tula was not only the birthplace, but the scene of the highest activity of all these greatest divinities of the ancient Nahuas. Around the Coatepetl and on the shores of the Tollanatl — "the "Water of Tula" — as the stream is called which laves the base of the hill, the mighty struggles of the gods took place which form the themes of almost all Aztec mythology. Tulan itself is no longer the hamlet of rush houses at the foot of the Coatepec, surmounted by its pueblo of rough stone and baked brick ; it is a glorious city, founded and governed b5' Quetzalcoatl himself, in his first avatar as Hueman, the strong-handed. "All its structures were in her bosom, and forthwith became pregnant. She brought forth Huitzilopochtli completely armed, who at once destroyed the Huitznahua. Father Duran translates all of this into plain history. His account is that wheii the Aztecs had occupied. Tollan for some time, and had fortified the hill and cultivated the plain, a dissen- sion arose. One party, followers of Huitzilopochtli, desired to move on ; the other, headed by a chieftain, Huitznahua, insisted on remaining. The former attacked the latter at night, massacred them, destroyed the water-dams and buildings, and marched away {Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana^ Tom. i, pp. 25, 26). Accord- ing to several accounts, Huitznahua was the brother of Huitzilopochtli. See my American Hero Myths^ p. 81. * I have discussed both these accounts in my A meriean Hero Myths, chap, iii., and need not repeat the authorities here. GLORIES OF TULAN. gy Stately and gracious, abounding in ornaments. The walls within were incrusted with precious stones or finished in beautiful stucco, presenting the appearance of a rich mosaic. Most wonderful of all was the temple of Quetzalcoatl, It had four chambers, one toward the east finished in pure gold, another toward the west lined with turquoise and emeralds, a third toward the south decorated with all manner of deli- cate sea-shells, and a fourth toward the north resplendent with red jasper and shells."* The descriptions of other buildings, equally wondrous, have been lovingly preserved by the ancient songs.f What a grief that our worthy friend, M. Chamay, digging away in 1880 on the Coatepec, at the head of a gang of forty-five men, as he tells us, J unearthed no sign of these ancient glories, in which, for one, he fully beUeved ! But, alas ! I fear that they are to be sought nowhere out of the golden realm of fancy and mythical dreaming. Nor, in that happy age, was the land unworthy such a glorious city. Where now the neglected corn-patches sur- * The most highly-colored descriptions of the mythical Tula are to be found in the third and tenth book of Sahagun's Historia de Nueva Espana, in the Anaies de CuauktiUan, and in the various writings of Ixtlilxochitl. Later authors, such as Veitia, Torquemada, etc., have copied from these. Ixtlilxochitl speaks of the " legions of fables " about Tulan and Quetzalcoatl which even in his day were still current ("otras trescientas fabulas que auu todavia corren." Relaciones Historicds^ in Kingsborough, Mexico^ Vol, ix, p. 332). t In the collection of A ncient Nahuail Poems, which forms the seventh volurti'e of va.y Library of Aboriginal American Literature, p. 104, I have printed the original text of one of the old songs recalling the glories of Tula, with its "house of be'ams " kuapalcalli, and its "house of plumed serpents," toatlaqitetzalli, attributed to Quetzalcoatl- XLes Anciennes Villes du. Nouveau Monde, p. 84 (Paris, 1885). 98 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. round the shabby huts of Tula, in the good old time "the crops of maize never failed, and each ear was as long as a man's arm; the cotton burst its pods, not white only, but spontaneously ready dyed to the hand in brilliant scarlet, green, blue and yellow ; the gourds were so large that they could not be clasped in the arms; and birds of brilliant plumage nested on every tree ! ' ' The subjects of Quetzalcoatl, the Toltecs, were not less marvelously qualified. They knew the virtues of plants and could read the forecast of the stars ; they could trace the veins of metals in the mountains, and discern the deposits of precioTis stones by the fine vapor which they emit ; they were orators, poets and magicians ; so swift were they that they could at once be in the place they wished to reach; as artisans their skill was unmatched, and they were not sub- ject to the attacks of disease. The failure and end of all this goodly time came about by a battle of the gods, by a contest between Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli on the one hand, and Quetzalcoatl on the other. Quetzalcoatl refused to make the sacrifices of human beings as required by Huitzilopochtli^ and the latter, with Tezcatlipoca, set about the destruction of Tula and its people. This was the chosen theme of the later Aztec bards. What the siege of Troy was to the Grecian poets, the fall of Tula was to the singers and story- tellers of Anahuac — an inexhaustible field for imagination, for glorification, for lamentation. It was placed in the re- mote past — according to Sahagun, perhaps the best author- ity, about the year 319 before Christ.* All arts and sci- * Hisioria de Nueva Espana, I^ib. viii, cap. 5. FAME OF THE TOLTECS. 99 ences, all knowledge and culture, were ascribed to this wonderful mythical people ; and wherever the natives were asked concerning the origin of ancient and unknown struc- tures, they would reply; "The Toltecs built them."* They fixedly believed that some day the immortal Quetz- alcoatl would appear in another avatar, and would bring again to the fields of Mexico the exuberant fertility of Tula, the peace and happiness of his former reign, and that the departed glories of the past should surround anew the homes of his votaries, t What I wish to point out in all this is the contrast between the dry and scanty historic narrative which shows Tula with its Snake-Hill to have been an early station of the Azteca, occupied in the eleventh and twelfth century by one of their clans, and the monstrous myth of the later priests and poets, which makes of it a birthplace and abode of the gods, and its inhabitants the semi-divine conquerors and civilizers of Mexico and Central America. For this latter fable there is not a vestige of solid foundation. The references to Tula and the Toltecs in the Chronicles of the * Father Duran relates, " Even to this day, when I ask the Indians, ' Who created this pass in the mountains? Who opened this spring? Who discovered this cave? or, Who built this edifice? ' they reply, ' The Toltecs, the disciples of Papa.' " Hii- toria de las Indias de Niieva Espana, cap. 79. Papa, from papachtic, the bushy-haired was one of the names of Quetzalcoatl. But the earlier missionary, Father Motilinia, distinctly states that the Mexica invented their own arts, and owed nothing to any imaginary teachers, Toltecs or others. ' ' Hay entre todos los Indios muchos oficios, y de todos dicen quefueron inventores los Mexicanos." Historia de las Indios de la Nueija Espana, Tratado iii, cap. viii. t Quetzalcoatl announced that his return should take place 5012 years after his final departure, as is mentioned by Ixtilxochitl (in Kingsborough, Mexico, Vol. ix, p. 332). This number has probably some my,stic relation to the calendar. lOO KSSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. Mayas and the Annals of the Kakchiquels are loans from the later mythology of the Nahuas. It is high time for this talk about the Toltecs as a mighty people, precursors of the Azteca, and their instructors in the arts of civilization, to disappear from the pages of history. The residents of ancient Tula, the Tolteca, were nothing more than a sept of the Nahuas themselves, the ancestors of those Mexica who built Tenochtitlan in 1325. This is stated as plainly as can be in the Aztec records, and should now be conceded by all. The mythical Tula, and all its rulers and inhabitants, -are the baseless dreams of poetic fancy, which we principally owe to the Tezcucan poets.* * Ainerican Hero Myths, p. 35. The only writer on ancient American history be- fore me who has wholly rej acted the Toltecs is, I believe, Albert Gallatin. In his able and critical study of the origin of American civilization {Transactions of the American Ethnologcal Society, Vol. i, p. 203) he dismissed them entirely from histor- ical consideration with the T,vords : " The tradition respecting the Toltecs ascends to so remote a date, and is so obscure and intermixed with mythological fables, that it is impossible to designate either the locality of their primitive abodes, the time when they first appeared in the vicinity of the Valley of Mexico, or whether they were preceded by nations speaking the same or different languages." Had this ■well-grounded skepticism gained the ears of writers since 1845, when it was pub- lished, we should have been saved a vast amount of rubbish which has been heaped up under the name of history. Dr. otto Stoll {Guatemala; Reisen und Sckilderungen, ss, 408, 409, I,eipzig, 1886) has joined in rejecting the ethnic existence of the Toltecs. As in later Nahuatl the •word toltecatl meant not only "resident of Tollan," but also "artificer" and "trader," Dr. Stoll thinks that the Central American legends which speak of "Toltecs " should be interpreted merely as referring to foreign mechanics or ped- !6rs, and not to any particular nationality. I quite agree with this view. PART II. MYTHOLOGY AND FOLK-LORE. INTRODUCTORY. PASHIONS in the study of mythology come and go with -*• something like the rapidity of change in costume femi- nine, subject to the autocracy of a Parisian man-modiste. Myths have been held in turn to be of some deep historical, or moral, or physical purport, and their content has been sought through psychologic or philologic analysis. Just now, all these methods are out of fashion. The newest theory is that myths generally mean nothing at all ; that they are merely funny or fearsome stories and never were much more ; and that at first they were not told of anybody in particular nor about anything in particular. As for philologic analysis, it is accused of failures and con- tradictory results ; the names which it makes its material are alleged not to have belonged to the original story ; and their etymology casts no more light on the meaning or the source of the myth than if they were Smith or Brown. According to this facile method, the secret of all mythol- (lOl) I02 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. ogy is an open one, because there is no secret at all. No painful preliminary study of language is necessary to the science, no laborious tracing of names through their various dialectic forms and phonetic changes to their first and orig- inal sense, for neither their earlier nor later sense is to the purpose. This new method goes still further. Some former myth- ologists had supposed that even in the savage state man feels a sense of awe before the mighty forces of nature and the terrible mysteries of life ; that joy in light and existence, dread of death and darkness, love of family and country, are emotions so intimate, so native to the soul, as nowhere to be absent — so potent as to find expressions in the highest imag- ative forms of thought and speech. Not so the latest teachers. They sneer at the possibility of such inspiration even in the divine legends of cultivated nations, and are ready to brand them all as but the later growths of ' ' myths, cruel, puerile and obscene, like the fancies of the savage myth-makers from which they sprang."* Like other fashions, this latest will also pass away, be- cause it is a fashion only, and not grounded on the perma- nent, the verifiable facts of human nature. Etymology is as yet far from an exact science, and comparative mytholo- gists in applying' it have made many blunders : they have often erred in asserting historical connections where none existed ; they have been slow in recognizing that primitive man works with very limited materials, both physical and mental, and as everywhere he has the same problems to solve, his physical and mental productions are necessarily * Andrew I.ang, Custom and Myth, p. 28. REAL SENSE OP MYTHS. 1 03 ven' similar. These are objections, not against the method, but against the manner of its application. Those who have studied savage races most intimately and with most unbiased minds have never found their religious fancies merely "puerile and obscene," as some writers sup- pose, but significant and didactic. Savage symbolism is rich and is expressed both in object and word ; and what ap- pears cruelty, puerility or obscenity assumes a very different aspect when regarded from the correct, the native, point of view, with a full knowledge of the surroundings and the intentions of the myth-makers themselves. In the sections which follow I have endeavored to illus- trate these opinions by some studies from American myth- ology. I have chosen a series of unpromising names from the sacred books of the Quiches of Guatemala, and endeav- ored to ascertain their exact definition and original purport. I have taken up the most unfavorable aspect of the Algon- kin hero-god, and shown how parallel it is to the tendencies of the human mind everywhere ; in the Journey of the Soul, the striking analogies of Egyptian, Aryan and Aztec myth have been brought together and an explanation oifered, which I .believe will not be gainsaid by any competent stu- dent of Egyptian symbolism. The Sacred Symbols found in all continents are explained by a similar train of reasoning ; while the modern folk-lore of two tribes of semi-Christianized Indians of to-day reveals some relics of the ancient usages. THE SACRED NAMES IN QUICHE MYTHOLOGY, =^ Contents.— Tti.& Quiches of Guatemala, and their relationship — Their Sacred Book, the PopoL Vuh—W.'s, opening words— The name; Hun-Ahpu-Vuch — Hun-Ahpu-Utiu — Nim-ak — Nim-tzyiz — Tepeu— Gucumatz — Qux-cho and Qux-palo — Ah-raxa-lak and Ah-raxa-sel — Xpiyacoc and Xmucane — Cakulha — Huracan— Chirakau— Xbalanque and his Journey to Xibalba. OF the ancient races of America, those which approached the nearest to a civilized condition spoke related dialects of a tongue, which from its principal members has been called the "Maya-Quiche" linguistic stock. Even to-day, it is estimated that about half a million persons use these dialects. They are scattered over Yucatan, Guate- mala and the adjacent territory, and one branch formerly occupied the hot lowlands on the Gulf of Mexico,_ north of Vera Cruz. The so-called ' ' metropolitan ' ' dialects are those spoken relatively near the city of Guatemala, and include the Cak- chiquel, the Quiche, the Pokonchi and the Tzutuhil. They are quite closely allied, and are mutually intelligible, re- sembling each other about as much as did in ancient Greece * Revised extracts from an article read before the American Philosophical Society in 1881, (104) THE "POPOL VUH." 105 the Attic, Ionic and Doric dialects. These closely related members of the Maya-Quiche family will be referred to under the sub-title of the Quiche-Cakchiquel dialects. The civilization of these people was such that they used various mnemonic signs, approaching our alphabet, to record and recall their mythology and history. Fragments, more or less complete, of these traditions have been pre- served. The most notable of them is the National I^egend of the Quiches of Guatemala, the so-called Popol Vuh. It was written at an unknown date in the Quiche dialect, by a native who was familiar with the ancient records. A Spanish translation of it was made early in the last century by a Spanish priest. Father Francisco Ximenez, and was first published at Vienna, 1857.* In 1861 the original text was printed in Paris, with a French translation by the Abbe Brasseur (de Bourbourg). This original covers about 175 octavo pages, and is therefore highly important as a lin- guistic as well as an archasologic monument. Both these translations are open to censure. It needs but little study to see that they are both strongly colored by the views which the respective translators entertained of the pur- pose of the original. Ximenez thought it was principally a satire of the devil on Christianity, and a snare spread by him to entrap souls ; Brasseur believed it to be a history of the ancient wars of the Quiches, and frequently carries his euhemerism so far as to distort the sense of the original. What has added to the difficulty of correcting these er- roneous impressions is the extreme paucity of material for * Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Pt^ovincia de Guatemala. Por el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez. I06 ESSAYS Of AN AMERICANIST. Studying the Quiche. A grammar written by Ximenez has indeed been published, but no dictionary is available, if we except a brief "Vocabulary of the Principal Roots" of these dialects by the same author, which is almost useless for critical purposes. It is not surprising, therefore, that some writers have re- garded this legend with suspicion, and have spoken of it as but little better than a late romance concocted by a shrewd native, who borrowed many of his incidents from Christian teachings. Such an opinion will pass away when the original is accurately translated. To one familiar with native American myths, this one bears undeniable marks of its aboriginal origin. Its frequent obscurities and inanities, its generally low and narrow range of thought and ex- pression, its occasional loftiness of both, its strange meta- phors, and the prominence of strictly heathen names and potencies, bring it into unmistakable relationship to the true native myth. This especially holds good of the first two-thirds of it, which are entirely mythological. As a contribution to the study of this interesting monu- ment, I shall undertake to analyze some of the proper names of the divinities which appear in its pages. The especial facilities that I have for doing so are furnished by two MS. Vocabularies of the Cakchiquel dialect, presented to the library of the American Philosophical Society by the Gov- ernor of Guatemala in 1836. One of these was written in 165 1, by Father Thomas Goto, and was based on the pre- vious work of Father Francisco Varea. It is Spanish-Cak- chiquel only, and the final pages, together with a grammar and an essay on the native calendar, promised in a body of THE "POPOLVUH." 107 the work, are unfortunately missing. What remains, how- ever, makes a folio volume of 972 double columned pages, and contains a mass of information about the language. The second MS. is a copy of the Cakchiquel-Spanish Vo- cabulary of Varea, made by Fray Francisco Ceron in 1699. It is a quarto of 493 pages. I have also in my possession copies of the Compendio de Nombj'es en Lengua Cakchiquel, by P. F. Pantaleon de Guzman (1704), and of the Arte y Vocabulario de la Lengua Cakchiquel, by the R. P. F. Benito de Villacaiias, composed about 1580. Father Goto observes that the natives loved to tell long stories, and to repeat chants, keeping time to them in their dances. These chants were called nugum tzih, garlands of words, from tzih, word, and tiug, to fasten flowers into wreaths, to set in order a dance, to arrange the heads of a discourse, etc. As preserved to us in the Popol Viih, the rhythmical form is mostly lost, but here and there one finds passages, retained intact by memory no doubt, where a dis- tinct balance in diction, and an eflFort at harmony are noted. The name Popol Vuh given to this work is that applied by the natives themselves. It is translated by Ximenez "libro del comun," by Brasseur " livre national." The word popol is applied to something held in common owner- ship by a number ; thus food belonging to a number is popol naim; a task to be worked out by many, popol zamah ; the native council where the elders met to discuss public affairs was popol Izih, the common speech or talk. The word pop means the mat or rug of woven rushes or bark on which the family or company sat, and from the community of interests thus typified, the word came to mean anything in common. loS ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. Vuh OX uuh is in Quiche and Cakchiquel the word for paper and book. It is an original term in these and con- nected dialects, the Maya having uooh, a letter, writing; uoch, to write. There is a school of writers who deprecate such researches as I am about to make. They are of opinion that the appel- lations of the native gods were derived from trivial or acci- dental circumstances, and had no recondite or symbolic meaning. In fact, this assertion has been made with refer- ence to the very names which I am about to discuss. I do not share this opinion. Many of the sacred names among the American tribes I feel sure had occult and meta- \J phorical significance. This is proved by the profound re- searches of Gushing among the Zunis ; of Dorsey among the Dakotas ; and others. But to reach this hidden purport, one must study all the ideas which the name connotes, espec- ially those which are archaic. I begin with the mysterious opening words of the Popol Vuh. They introduce us at once to the mighty and manifold divinity who is the source and cause of all things, and to the original couple, male and female, who in their persons and their powers tj'pify the sexual and reproductive principles of organic life. These words are as follows : " Here begins the record of what happened in old times in the land of the Quiches. "Here will we begin and set forth the story of past time, the out- set and starting point of all that took place in the city of Quiche, in the dwelling of the Quiche people. " Here we shall bring to knowledge the explanation and the disclo- sure of the Disappearance and the Reappearance through the might THE NAME HUN-AHPU-VUCH. 109 of the builders and creators, the bearers of children and the begetters of children, whose names are Hun-ahpu-vuch, Hun-ahpuutiu, Zaki- nima-tzyiz, Tepeu, Gucumatz, u Qux-cho, u Qux-palo, Ah-raxa-lak, Ah-raxa-tzel. "And along with these it is sung and related of the grandmother- grandfather, whose name is Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, the Concealer and Protector; two -fold grandmother and two-fold grandfather are they called in the legen ds of the Quiches. ' ' * It will be here observed that the declaration of the at- tributes of the highest divinity sets forth distinctly sexual ideas, and, as was often the case in Grecian, Egyptian and Oriental mythology, this divinity is represented as embrac- ing the powers and functions of both sexes in his own person ; and it is curious that both here and in the second paragraph, 'Cos. female attributes are namedTSrji". First in the specific names of divinity given is Hun-ahpu- vuch. To derive any appropriate signification for this has baffled students of this mythology. Hmi is the numeral one, but which also, as in most tongues, has the other mean- ings of first, foremost, self, unique, most prominent, "the one," etc. Ah pu is derived both by Ximenez and Brasseur from the prefix ah, which is used to signify knowledge or possession of, or control over, mastership or skill in, origin from or practice in that to which it is prefixed ; and ub, or pub, the sarbacana or blowpipe, which these Indians used to employ as a weapon in war and the chase. Ah pu, there- fore, they take to mean. He who uses the sarbacane, a •See Dr. Otfo Stoll, EthnograpMe der Republik Guatemala, p. 118. I regret to differ from this able writer, whose studies of the Quiche und Cakchiquel are the most thorough yet made, and from whose version the above translation of the opening lines of the Popol Vuh is taken. no ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. hunter. Vuch, the last member of this compound name, is understood by both to mean the opossum. In accordance with these deriviations the name is trans- lated "an opossum hunter." Such a name bears little meaning in this relation ; little relevancy to the nature and functions of deity ; and if a more appropriate and not less plausible composition could be sug- gested, it would have intrinsic claims for adoption. There is such a composition, and it is this : The derivation of Ahpu from ah-pub is not only unnecessary but hardly defen- sible. In Cakchiquel the sarbacane is pub, but in Quiche the initial p is dropped, as can be seen in many passages of the Popol Vuh. The true composition of this word I take to be ah-puz, for pus has a signification associated with the mysteries of religion ; it expressed the divine power which the native priests and prophets claimed to have received from the gods, and the essentially supernatural attributes of divinity itself. It was the word which at first the natives applied to the power of forgiving sins claimed by the Catho- lic missionaries; but as it was associated with so many heathen notions, the clergy decided to drop it altogether from religious language, and to leave it the meaning of necromancy and unholy power. Thus Goto gives it as the Cakchiquel word for magic or necromancy *^ *In his MS. Dictionary is the following entry : " PODER : vtzi}ii<;abal,v^\ viziniagibal ; deste norabre usa la Cariilla en el Credo para decir por obra v£l poder del Spirito Santo. Al poder que tienen los Sacerdotes de perdonar pecados y dar sacramentos, se llaraan, o an Uamado, puz, naual. Asi el Ph. Varea en su Diccionario y el Sancto Vico en la Theologia Indoruni usa en muchas partes destos vocablos en este sentido. Ya no estan tan en uso, pues entieuden por el nombre poder y vtzinta^ibal ; y son vocablos que antiguamente aplicaban a sus idolos, y oy se procura que vayan olbidando todo aquello con que se lee puede hacer menioria dellos." AN OPOSSUM MYTH. Ill The word pzis is used in various passages of the Popol Vvh to express the supernatural power of the gods and priests ; but probabh' by the time that Ximenez wrote, it had, in the current dialect of his parish, lost its highest signification, and hence it did not suggest itself to him as the true deriva- tion of the name I am discussing. The third term, Vnch or Vugh, was chosen according to Ximenez because this animal is notoriously cunning, ' 'porsu astiida." This may be correct, and we may have here a reminiscence of an animal myth. But the word has several other significations which should be considered. It was the name of a sacred dance ; it expressed the trembling in the ague chill ; the warmth of water ; and the darkness which comes before the dawn.* Of these various meanings one is tempted to take the last, and connect Hun-ahpu-vuch with the auroral gods, the fore- runners of the light, like the ' ' Kichigouai, those who make the day," of Algonkin mythology. There is a curious passage in the Popol Vuh which is in support of such an opinion. It occurs at a certain period of the history of the mythical hero Hunahpu. The text reads : "Are cut ta chi r'ah zakiric, "And now it was about to become white, " Chi zaktarin, And the dawn came, " U xecah ca xaquinuchic. The day opened. " Ama x-u ch'ux ri Vuch ? ' Is the Vuch about to be ? ' * Goto says, " Vugh ; nota que esta mesmo nombre tiene un genero de baile en que con los pies dan bueltas a un palo ; tambien signfica el temblor de cuerpo que da con la terciana, o la misma cission ; significa asi mesnio quaudo quiere ya amanescer aquel ponerse escuro el cielo ; tambien quando suele estar el agua del rio o laguna, por antiparastassis, caliente, al tal calorsillo llaman Vugh." IJ2 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. " Ve, x-cha ri mama. Yes, answered the old man. " Ta chi xaquinic ; Then he spread apart his legs ; " Quate ta chi gekumar chic ; Again the darkness appeared ; " Cahmul xaquiu ri mama. Four times the old man spread his legs. "Caxaquin-Vttch," cachavinak " Now the opossum ( Fmc/z) spreads vacamic. his legs," say the people yet (meaning that the day ap- proaches). As the same word Vuch meant both the opossum and the atmospheric change which in that cHmate precedes the dawn, the text may be translated either way, and the hom- ophony would give rise to a double meaning of the name. This homophony contains, indeed, rich material for the de- velopment of an animal myth, identifying the Vuch with the God of I/ight, just as the similarity of the Algonkin wau- bisch, the dawn, and waubos, the rabbit, gave occasion to a whole cycle of curious myths in which the Great Hare or the Mighty Rabbit figures as the Creator of the world, the Day Maker, and the chief God of the widely spread Algon- kin tribes.* In the second name, Hun-ahpu-utiu, the last member utiu means the coyote, the native wolf, an animal which plays an important symbolic part in the cosmogonical myths of Californian, Mexican and Central American tribes. It ap- *I have traced the growth of this myth in detail in The Myths of the New World, a Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of A merica, chap, vi, ^New York, 1876.) Dr. Otto Stoll in his most recent discussion of the myth of Hunahpu does not urge the meaning "opossum haunter," and remarks that in the Pokonchi dialect ^ 38. HEART AND SOUL. 1 1 7 cah, "the Heart of the Sky," and u Qttx idm, "the Heart of the Earth," found elsewhere in \.\\e Popol Viih, and ap- plied to divinity. The literal sense of the word heart was, however, not that which was intended; in those dialects this word had a much richer metaphorical meaning than in our tongue ; in them it stood for all the psychical powers, the memory, will and reasoning faculties, the life, the spirit, the soul.* It would be more correct, therefore, to render these names the "spirit" or "soul" of the lake, etc., than the "heart." They represent broadly the doctrine of " animism " as held by these people, and generally by man in his early stages of religious development. They indicate also a dimly under- stood sense of the unity of spirit or energy in the different manifestations of organic and inorganic existence. This was not peculiar to the tribes under consideration. The heart was very generally looked upon, not only as the seat of life, but as the source of the feelings, intellect and passions, the very soul itselff Hence, in sacrificing vic- tims it was torn out and offered to the god as representing the immaterial part of the individual, that which survived the death of the body. The two names Ah-raxa-lak and Ah-raxa-sel literally * The MS. Dictionary of Goto says, s, v. Corazon ; " Attribuenle todos los affectos de las potencias, memoria y entendimiento y voluntad, * * unde ahgux, el cui- dadoso, entendido, memorioso ^ * ; toman este uombre gux por el alma de la persona, y por el spirito vital de todo viviente, v. %. xel ru gux Pedro, murio Pedro, vel, salio el alma de Pedro, * * deste nombre^MJir se forma elverbo /M^^iJ^ /a/z, por pensar, cuidar, imaginar, ' ' f'Deadonde," remarks Granados y Galvez, "viene que mis Otomites, de una misma manera Uaman i la alma que al corazon, aplicandoles i entrambos la voz muy." Tardes Americanas, Tarde iv, p. lol. (Mexico, 1778.) Il8 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. mean, "He of the green dish," "He of the green cup." Thus Ximenez gives them, and adds that forms oi speech with rax signify things of beauty, fit for kings and lords, as are brightly colored cups and dishes. Rax is the name of the colors blue and green, which it is said by many writers cannot be distinguished apart by these Indians ; or at least that they have no word to express the difference. Rax, by extension, means new, strong, rough, violent, etc. * Coming immediately after the names "Soul of the Lake," "Soul of the Sea," it is possible that the ' ' blue plate ' ' is the azure surface of the tropical sea. In the second paragraph I have quoted, the narrator in- troduces us to "the ancestress (iyoni), the ancestor {inamoin) , by name Xpiyacoc, Xmucane." These were prominent figures in Quiche mythology ; they were the embodiments of the paternal and maternal powers of organic life; they were invoked elsewhere in the Popol Vuh to favor the germ- ination of seeds, and the creation of mankind ; they are addressed as "ancestress of the sun, ancestress of the light." The old man, Xpiyacoc, is spoken of as the master of divina- tion by the tzite, or sacred beans ; the old woman, Xmucane, as she who could forecast days and seasons {ahgiti) ; they were the parents of those mighty ones "whose name was Ahpu," masters of magic, f From this ancient couple, Ximenez tells us the native magicians and medicine men of his day claimed to draw their inspiration, and they were especially consulted touching the birth of infants, in which they were still called upon to assist in spite of the efforts oi * ximenez, Gramatica de la Lengua Quiche, p. 17. \ Popol Vuh, pp. 18, 20, 23, 69, etc. THE CONCEALED GODDESS. 119 the padres. It is clear throughout that they represented mainly the peculiar functions of the two sexes. Their names perhaps belonged to an archaic dialect, and the Quiches either could not or would not explain them. All that Ximenez says is that Xmucane ineans tomb or grave, deriving it from the verb tin mtck, I bury. In most or all of the languages of this stock the root muk or muc means to cover or cover up. In Maya the passive form of the verbal noun \= mucaan, of which the Diccionario de Motul* gives the translation "something covered or buried," the second meaning arising naturally from the cus- tom of covering the dead body with earth, and indicated that the mortuary rites among them were by means of in- terment ; as, indeed, we are definitely informed by Bishop Landa. f The feminine prefix and the terminal euphonic e give precisel3' X-wiucaan-e, meaning "She who is covered up," or buried. But while etymologically satisfactorj^ the appropriateness of this derivation is not at once apparent. Can it have reference to the seed covered by the soil, the child buried in the womb, the eL^% hidden in the nest, etc., and thus typify one of the principles or phases of reproduction ? For there is no doubt, but that it is in the category of divinities pre- siding over reproduction this deity belongs. Not only is she called "primal mother of the sun and the light,"! * " Cosa que esta encubierta 6 enterrada." The Diccionario de Moiul is the most complete dictionary of the Maya ever made. It dates from about 1590 and has its name from the town of Motul, Yucatan, -where it was written. The author is un- known. Only two copies of it are in existence, one, very carefully made, with numerous notes, by Dr. Berendt, is in my possession. It is a thick 4to of 1500 pages. iRelacian de las Cosas de Yucatan, § XXXIII. X " R'atit zih, r'atit zak," Popol Vuh, pp. 18, 20. I20 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. but it is she who cooks the pounded maize from which the first of men were formed. Both names may be interpreted with appropriateness to the sphere and functions of their supposed powers, from radicals common to the Maya and Quiche dialects. Xmu- cane may be composed of the fe'minine prefix x (the same in sound and meaning as the English pronominal adjective she in such terms as she-bear, she-cat): and mukanil, vigor, force, power. Xpiyacoc is not so easy of solution, but I believe it to be a derivative from the root xib, the male, whence xipbil, masculinity, * and oc or ococ, to enter, to accouple in the act of generation, t We can readily see, with these meanings hidden in them, the subtler sense of which the natives had probably lost, that these names would be difficult of satisfactory explana- tion to the missionaries, and that they would be left by them as of undetermined origin. The second fragment of Quiche mythology which I shall analyze is one that relates to the Gods of the Storm. These are introduced as the three manifestations of Qux-cha, the Soul of the Sky, and collectively " their name is Hurakan :" " Cakulha Hurakan is the first; Chipi-cakulha is the second ; the third is Raxa-cakulha ; and these three are the Soul of the Sky." Elsewhere we read : * Especially the membruni virile^ Fio Perez, Diccionario de la Lengua Maya, s. v. f " Etitrar, juntarse el macho con la hembra." Brasseur, Vocabulaire Mava rancais, ». v. THE GOD OF THE TORNADO. 121 "Speak therefore our name, honor your mother, your father; call ye upon Hurakan, Chipi-cakulha, Raxa-cakulha, Soul of the Earth, Soul of the Sky, Creator, Maker, Her who brings forth, Him who begets ; speak, call upon us, salute us." * Cakulha (Cakchiquel, cokolhay) is the ordinary word for the lightning; Raxa-cakulha, is rendered by Goto as "the flash of the lightning" {el resplandor del rayd) ; Chipi- cakulha is stated by Brasseur to mean "le sillonnement de I'eclair;" chip is used to designate the latest, youngest or least of children, or fingers, etc., and the expression there- fore is "the track of the lightning." There remains the name Hurakan, and it is confessedly difficult. Brasseur says that no explanation of it can be found in the Quiche or Cakchiquel dictionaries, and that it must have been brought from the Antilles, where it was the name applied to the terrible tornado of the West Indian latitudes, and, borrowed from the Haytians by early navi- gators, has under the forms ouragan, huracan, hurricane, passed into European languages. I am convinced, however, that the word Hurakan belongs in its etymology to the Maya group of dialects, and must be analyzed by them. One such etymology is indeed offered by Ximenez, but an absurd one. He supposed the word was compounded of hmi, one; ru his; and rakan, foot, and translates it "of one foot." This has very properly been rejected,. On collating the proper names in the Popol Vuh there are several of them which are evidently allied to Hurakan. Thus we have Cabrakan, who is represented as the god of the earthquake, he who shakes the solid earth in his might ^ Popol Vuh, pp. 8, 14. 122 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. and topples over the lofty mountains. His name is the common word for earthquake in these dialects. Again, one of the titles of Xmucane is Chirakan Xmucane. The terminal rakan in these names is a word used to ex- press greatness in size, height or bigness. Many examples are found in Coto's Vocabulario .'^ For a person tall in stature he gives the expression togam rakan : for large in body, the Cakchiquel is naki rakan, and for gigantic, or a giant, hu rakan. This idea of strength and might is of course very appro- priate to the deity who presides over the appalling forces of the tropical thunder-storm, who flashes the lightning and hurls the thunderbolt. It is also germane to the conception of the earthquake god. The first syllable, cab, means twice, or two, or second ; and apparently' has reference to hun, one or first, in hiirakan. As the thunderstorm was the most terrifying display of power, so next in order came the earthquake. The name Chirakan as applied to Xmucane may have many meanings ; chi in all these dialects means primarily mouth ; but it has a vast number of secondary meanings, as in all languages. Thus, according to Goto, it is currently *I take the following entries from Coto's MSS.: " IvARGA COSA : Lo ordinario es poner rakan para significar la largura de pale, cordel, etc. " GiGANTE : hu rapah rakan chi vinak, hu chogah rakan chi vanak ; este nombre se usa de todo animal que en su specie es mas alto que los otros. Meo. P« Saz, serm. de circumsciss, dice del Gigante Golias : lugotic rogoric rakan chiachi Gigante Golias." Ignorant, apparently, of this meaning, Dr Stoll continues in his latest work to interpret Hurakan "with one foot." Die Eihnologie der Indianer Stdntmevon Guatemala, p. 31, (Leiden, 1889.) The chapter on mythology is the least satisfactory in this important work. THE DESCBNT INTO HEIvI,. 123 used to designate the mouth of a jar, the crater of a volcano, the eye of a needle, the door of a house, a window, a gate to a field, in fact, almost any opening whatever. I suspect that as here used as part of the name of the mythical mother of the race and the representation of the female principle, it is to be understood as referring to the ostium vagina, from which, as from an immeasurable vagina gentiicm, all animate life was believed to have drawn its existence. If the derivation of Hurakan here presented is correct, we can hardly refuse to explain the word as it occurs elsewhere with the same meaning as an evidence of the early influence of the Maya race on other tribes. It would appear to have been through the Caribs that it was carried to the West India islands, where it was first heard by the European navigators. Thus the Bidionaire Gah6i (Taris, 1743,) gives for " diable," iroucan, jeroucan, hyorokan, precisely as Goto gives the Cakchiquel equivalent of " diablo " as hurakan. This god was said by the Caribs to have torn the islands of the West Indian archipelago from the mainland, and to have heaped up the sand hills and bluffs along the shores.* As an associate or ' ' captain ' ' of the hurricane, they spoke of a huge bird who makes the winds, by name Savacon, in the middle syllable of which it is possible we may recognize the bird vaku, which the Quiches spoke of as the messenger of Hurakan. I now pass to the myth of the descent of the hero-god, Xbalanque, into the underworld, Xibalba, his victory over *De la Borde, Relation de I'origine, etc., des Caraibes, p. 7. (Paris, 1674.) 124 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. the inhabitants, and triumphant return to the realm of light. The exploits of this demigod are the principal theme of the earlier portion of the Popol Vuh. It was the vague similarity of this myth to the narrative of the descent of Christ into hell, and his ascent into heaven, to which we owe the earliest reference to these religious beliefs of the Guatemalan tribes ; and it is a gratifying proof of their genuine antiquity that we have this reference. Our authority is the Bishop of Chiapas, Bartolome de las Casas, with other contemporary writers. The Bishop writes that the natives of Guatemala alleged that Xbalanque was born at Utlatlan, the ancient Quiche capital, and having governed it a certain time with success, went down to hell to fight the devils. Having conquered them, he returned to the upper world, but the Quiches refused to receive him, so he passed on into another province. * As related in the Popol Vuh, the myth runs thus : The divine pair, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane had as sons Hunhun-Ahpu and Vukub-Hun-Ahpu (Each-one-a-Magi- cian and Seven-times-a-Magician). They were invited to visit Xibalba, the Underworld, by its lords, Hun-Came and Vukub-Catiie (One-Death and Seven-Deaths), and accepting the invitation, were treacherously murdered. The head of Hunhun-Ahpu was cut off and suspended on a tree. A maiden, byname Xquiq, (Blood,) passed that way, and look- ing at the tree, longed for its fruit ; then the head of Hun- hun-Ahpu cast forth spittle into the outstretched palm of ♦Las Casas, Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occi'deniales, cap cxxiv (Madrid edition): P. F. Alonzo Fernandez, Historia EccUsiastica de Nvestros Tiempos, p. 137 (Toledo, 1611). THE STORY OP THE HERO GOD. 125 the maiden, and forthwith she became pregnant. Angered at her condition, her father set about to slay her, but she escaped to the upper world and there brought forth the twins Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque. They grew in strength, and performed various deeds of prowess, which are related at length in the Popol Vtth, and were at last invited by the lords of the Underworld to visit them. It was the intention of the rulers of this dark land that the youths should meet the same fate as their father and uncle. But, prepared by warnings, and skilled in magic power, Xbalanque and his brother foiled the murderous designs of the lords of Xibalba ; pretending to be burned, and their ashes cast into the river, they rose from its waves unharmed, and by a stratagem slew Hun-Came and Vukub-Came. Then the inhabitants of the Underworld were terrified and fled, and Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque released the prisoners and restored to life those who had been slain. The latter rose to the sk}' to become its countless stars, while Hunhun-Ahpu and Vukub-Hun- Ahpu ascended to dwell the one in the sun, the other in the moon. The portion of the legend which narrates the return of Xbalanque to the upper world, and what befell him there, as referred to in the myth preserved by I,as Casas, is not preser^'ed in the Popol Vuh. The faint resemblance which the early missionaries noticed in this religious tradition to that of Christ would not lead any one who has at all closely studied mythology to assume that this is an echo of Christian teachings. Both in America and the Orient the myths of the hero god, born of a virgin, and that of the descent into Hades, are among the most 126 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. common. Their explanation rests on the universality and prominence of the processes of nature which are typified under these narratives. It is unscientific to attempt to de- rive one from the other, and it is not less so to endeavor to invest them with the character of history, as has been done in this instance by the Abbe Brasseur and various other writers. The Abbe maintained that Xibalba was the name of an ancient State in the valley of the Usumasinta in Tabasco, the capital of which was Palenque.=^ He inclined to the belief that the original form was tzibalba, which would mean painted mole, in the Tzendal dialect and might have refer- ence to a custom of painting the face. This far-fetched deri- vation is unnecessary. The word Xibalba, (Cakchiquel Xibalbay, Maya Xibalba, Xabalba, or Xubalba) was the com- mon term throughout the Maya stock of languages to de- note the abode of the spirits of the dead, or Hades, which with them was held to be under the surface of the earth, and not, as the Mexicans often supposed, in the far north. Hence the Cakchiquels used as synonymous with it the expression "the centre or heart of the earth, "f After the conquest the word was and is in common use in Guatemalan dialects to mean hell, and in Maya for the devil. Cogolludo states that it was the original Maya term for the * Dissertation sur les Mythes de V Antiquite Atnericane, g 8 (Paris, 1861) ; see also his note to the Popol Vuh, p. 70. f CA'm gux uleu, "in its heart the earth." (Coto, Dice. s. v.) Coto adds that the ancient meaning of the word was a ghost or vision of a de- parted spirit — " antiguamente este nombre Xibalbay significaba el demonio, vel los dififuntos 6 visiones que se les aperescian, y asi decian, y aun algunos ay que lo di- cen oy xuqutzii xibalbay ri cetzam chi nu vach, se me aperecio el diifunto." THE NATIVE HADES. 1 27 Evil Spirit, and that it means " He who disappears, or van- ishes."* He evidently derived it from the Maya verb, xibil, and I believe this derivation is correct ; but the signification he gives is incomplete. The original sense of the word was ' ' to melt, ' ' hence ' ' to disappear. ' ' f This became connected with the idea of disappearance in death, and of ghosts and specters. It is interesting to note how the mental processes of these secluded and semi-barbarous tribes led them to the same association of ideas which our greatest dramatist expresses in Hamlet's soliloquy : " O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew ; " and which Cicero records in the phrase dissolutio tiatum, in the sense of death. J The natural terror and fright with which death and ghosts are everywhere regarded, and especially, as Landa remarks, by this people, explain how this secondary meaning be- came predominant in the word. The termination ba means in the Guatemalan dialects, where, whence, whither, bey, a path or road ; Xibilbay thus signifies, in the locative sense, "the place where they {i. e. the dead) disappear," the '"ElDemonio se Uamaba^ViJi/Aa, quequiere decir el que se desparece 6 desban- ece." Historia de Yucathan, Lib. iv, cap. vii. CogoUudo had lived in Yucatan twenty-one years when he was making the final revision of his History, and was moderately well acquainted with the Maya tongue. fThe Diccionario de Moiul, MS., gives : " XiBiL, xibi, xibic : cundir como gota de aceita ; esparcirse la comida en la di- gestion, y deshacerse la sal, nieve 6 yelo, humo 6 niebla. Hem ; desparecerse una vision 6 fantasma. Hem : temblar de miedo y espantarse." t De Legibus, Lib. ii, cap. 2. 128 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. Hades, the Invisible Realm, which was supposed to be under the ground. It was a common belief among many tribes in America, that their earliest ancestors emerged from a world which underlies this one on which we live, and in ancient Cakchi- quel legend, the same or a similar notion seems to have pre- vailed. The name of the hero-god Xbalanque is explained by the Abbe Brasseur as a compound of the diminutive prefix x, balam, a. tig&r, and the plural termination que."^ Ivike so many of his derivations, this is quite incorrect. There is no plural termination qtce, either in the Quiche or in any re- lated dialect; and the signification "tiger" {]&gna.r, Felix unca L,in. in Mexican oceloU), which he assigns to the word balam, is only one of several which belong to it. The name is compounded of the prefix, either feminine or diminutive, x ; balam, or, as given by Guzman, balan;] and qiieh, deer. This is the composition given by Ximenez, who translates it literally as " a diminutive form of tiger and deer."t The name balam, was also that of a class of warriors : of a congregation of priests or diviners ; and of one of the inferior orders of deities. In composition it was applied to a spotted butterfly, as it is in our tongue to the ' ' tiger-lilj^ ; " to the king-bee ; to certain rapacious birds of prey, etc. None of the significations concerns us here ; but we do see our way when we learn that both balam and queh are names * " Les petits Tigres," Mythes de V Aniiquiti Americane, g viii, Popol Vuh, p. 34. note, t Compendio de Nomhres en Lengua Cakchiquel^ MS. X Las Historias del Origen de los Indios, p. 16. THE DIVINITY OF LIGHT. 129 of days in the Quiche- Cakchiquel calendar. The former stood for the twelfth, the latter for the seventh in their week of twenty days. * Each of the days was sacred to a par- ticular divinity, but owing to the inadequate material pre- served for the study of the ancient calendars of Guatemala, we are much in the dark as to the relationship of these divinities. Suffice it to say that the hero-god whose name is thus compounded of two signs in the calendar, who is born of a virgin, who performs many surprising feats of prowess on the earth, who descends into the world of darkness and sets free the sun, moon and stars to perform their daily and nightly journeys through the heavens, presents in these and other traits such numerous resemblances to the Divinity of Ivight, reappearing in so many American myths, the Day- maker of the northern hunting tribes, that I do not hesitate to identify the narrative of Xbalanque and his deeds as one of the presentations of this widespread, this well-nigh uni- versal myth — ^guarding my words by the distinct statement, however, that the identity may be solely a psychological, not a historical one. * Father Varea, in his Calepino de la Lengua Cakchiquel, MS., gives the following entries : "Balam: el tigre, zakbalam, tigre pequeno de su naturelezo ; gana balayn, el grande, tambein sig* un signo de los Indios, Maceval gih P° balam, 6 Maria xbalam. Balam se llama el echizero." " Queh : el veuado. Sig* un cierto dia ; otras veces dos dias ; otras veces es signo de trece, otras veces cinco 6 seis dias a la quenta de los Indios : jra hun queh vos gih, 6, cay queh, voo queh, vahaki, 6, oxlahuh queh. Q THE HERO-GOD OF THE ALGONKINS AS A CHEAT AND LIAR* IN, the pleasant volume which Mr. Charles G. Iceland has written on the surviving aboriginal folk-lore of New Eng- land, f the chief divinity of the Micmacs and Penobscpts ap- pears under what seems at first the outrageously incongruous name of Gluskap, the Liar ! This is the translation of the name as given by the Rev. S. T. Rand, late missionary among the Micmacs, and the best authority on that lan- guage. From a comparison of the radicals of the name in related dialects of the Algonkin stock, I should say that a more strictly literal rendering would be ' ' word-breaker, ' ' or ' ' deceiver with words. ' ' In the Penobscot dialect the word is divided thus, — Glus-Gahbe , where the component parts are more distinctly visible. J The explanation of this epithet, as quoted from native sources by Mr. Iceland, is that he was called the liar because "when he left earth, like King Arthur, for fairy land, he promised to return, and has never done so. ' ' It is true that the Algonkian Hero-God, like all the Amer- can culture-heroes, loskeha, Quetzalcoatl, Zamna, Bochica, ♦Published in the Amoican Antiquarian^ for May, 1885. t The Algonquin Legends of New England, (Boston, 1S84.) X The Micmac word kUooskdbawe, means "he is a cheat, " probably one who cheats by lying. See Rand, Micmac Dictionary, s. v. A cheat. (130) THE CHEATING DIVINITY. 131 Viracocha, and the rest, disappeared in some mysterious way, promising again to visit his people, and has long de- layed his coming. But it was not for that reason that he was called the "deceiver in words." Had Mr. Leland made himself acquainted with Algonkin mythology in general, he would have found tha't this is but one of several, to our thinking, opprobrious names they applied to their highest divinity, their national hero, and the reputed saviour and benefactor of their race. The Crees, living northwest of the Micmacs, call this di- vine personage, whom, as Father Lacombe tells us, they regard as "The principal deity and the founder of these nations, ' ' by the name Wisakketjdk, which means ' ' the trickster, " " the deceiver. ' ' * The Chipeways apply to him a similar term, Nenaboj, or as it is usually written, Nanabo- joo, and Najiaboshoo, "the Cheat," perhaps allied to Nan- abanisi, he is cheated. f This is the same deity that reappears under the names Matmbozfw, Michabo, and Messou, among the Chipeway tribes ; as Napiw among the Blackfeet ; and as Wetucks among the New England Indians where he is mentioned by Roger Williams as "A man that wrought great miracles among them, with some kind of broken resemblance to the Sonne of God. "J *Dictionaire de la Langue des Cris, sub. voce Wisakketj&k. '• Homme fabuleux des difiereutes tribus du Nord, auquel elles attribuent une puissance sumaturelle, avec un grand norabre de ruses, de tours, et de folies. H est regarde comme le principal genie et le fondateur de ces nations. Chez les Sauteux on I'appelle Nenaboj, chea les Pieds-Noirs, N&piw. Wisakketjakow, C'est un fourbe, un trompeur." t Baraga, Olchipwe Dictionary. I Key into the language of America, p. 24. 132 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. These appellations have various significations. The last mentioned is apparently from ock or ogh, father, with the prefix wit, which conveys the sense "in common" or "gen- eral." Hence it would be "the common father." Michabo, constantly translated by writers "the Great Hare," as if derived from michi, great, and wabos, hare, is really a verbal form from viichi and wabi, white, and should be translated, ' ' the Great White One. ' ' The reference is to the white light of the dawn, he, like most of the other American hero-gods, being an impersonation of the light. The name Wisakketjdk, though entirely Algonkin in aspect, offers serious etymological difficulties, so unmanage- able indeed that one of the best authorities, M. Cuoq, abandons the attempt.* Its most apparent root is wisak, which conveys the sense of annoyance, hurt or bitterness, and the name would thus seem to be applied to one who causes these disagreeable sensations. In all the pure and ancient Algonkin cosmogonical legends, this divinity creates the world by his magic powers, peoples it with game and animals, places m^an upon it, teaches his favorite people the arts of the chase, and gives them the corn and beans. His work is disturbed by enemies of various kinds, sometimes his own brothers, sometimes by a formidable serpent and his minions. These myths, when analyzed through the proper names they contain, and compared with those of the better known mythologies of the old world, show plainly that their original purport was to recount, under metaphorical language, on the * Leixque de la Langiie Algonquine^ p. 443. (Montreal, 1886.) MICHABO THE TRICKSTER. 133 one hand the unceasing struggle of day with night, light with darkness, and on the other, that no less important con- flict which is ever waging between the storm and sunshine, the winter and summer, the rain and the clear sky. Writers whose knowledge of religions was confined to that of the Semitic race, as represented in our Bible, have maintained that the story of Michabo's battles with the ser- pent, who is certainly represented as a master of magic and subtlety, and hence dangerous to the human race, must have come from contact with the missionaries. A careful study of the myth will dispel all doubts on this point. Years ago, Mr. E. G. Squier showed that this legend was unquestion- ably of aboriginal source ; but he failed to perceive its sig- nificance. * The serpent, typical of the sinuous lightning, symbolizes the storm, the rains and the water. But to return to the class of names with which we began. The struggles of Michabo with these various powerful enemies I have just named, constitute the principal theme of the countless tales which are told of him by the native story-tellers, only a small part of which, and those much disfigured, came under the notice of Mr. Iceland, among the long civilized eastern tribes. Mr. Schoolcraft frequently refers to these "innumerable tales of personal achievement, sagacity, endurance, miracle and trick which place him in almost every scene of deep interest which can be imagined, "f These words express the spirit of the greater number of these legends. Michabo does not conquer his enemies by brute * See his article in The American Review^ for 184S, entitled " Manabozho and the Great Serpent, an Algonquin legend." ^ Algic Researches, Vol. I, p. 134. 134 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. force, nor by superior strength, but by craft and ruses, by transforming himself into unsuspected shapes, by cunning and strategy. He thus comes to be represented as the arch- deceiver ; but in a good sense, as his enemies on whom he practices these wiles are also those of the human race, and he exercises his powers with a benevolent intention. Thus it comes to pass that this highest divinity of these nations, their chief god and culture-hero, bears in familiar narrative the surprising titles, "the liar," "the cheat," and ' ' the deceiver. ' ' It would be an interesting literary and psychological study to compare this form of the Michabo myth with some in the old world, which closelj^ resemble it in what artists call mo- tive. I would name particularly the story of the "wily Ulysses" of the Greeks, the "transformations of Ebu Seid of Serug" and the like in Arabic, and the famous tale of Reynard the Fox in medieval literature. The same spirit breathes in all of them ; all minister to the delight with which the mind contemplates mere physical strength beaten in the struggle with intelligence. They are all peans sung for the victory of mind over matter. In none of them is there much nicety about the means used to accomplish the ends. Deceit by word and action is the general resource of the heroes. They all act on the Italian maxim : "O per fortuna, o per ingano, II veneer sempre e laudabil cosa." THE JOURNEY OF THE SOUL* T AM about to invite your attention to one of the many -•• curious results of comparative mythology. This science, which is still in its infancy, may be regarded by some of you, as it is by the world at large, as one of little practical importance, and quite remote from the interests of daily life and thought. But some of the results it attains are so startling, and throw such a singular light on various famil- iar customs and popular beliefs, that the time is not far off when it will be recognized as one of the most potent solvents in the crucible of intelligence. The point to which I shall address myself to-night is the opinion entertained by three ancient nations, very wide apart in space, time and blood, concerning the journey of the soul when it leaves the body. These nations are the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Aryans, and the Aztecs or Nahua of Central Mexico. All these people believed, with equal faith, in the exist- ence of a soul or spirit in man, and in its continuing life after the death of the body. How they came by this belief does not concern my present thesis; that they held it in unquestioning faith none can deny who has studied even superficially their surviving monuments. They supposed * An address delivered at the annual meeting of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and published in its Proceedings tor 1883. ( 135 ) ~ 136 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. this assumed after-life was continued under varying con- ditions in some other locality than this present world, and that it required a journey of some length for the disem- bodied spirit to reach its destined abode. It is the events which were supposed to take place on this journey, and the goals to which it led, that I am about to narrate. It will be seen that there are several curious similarities in the opinions of these widely diverse peoples, which can only be explained by the supposition that they based their theories of the soul's journey and goal on some analogy familiar to them all. I begin with the Kgyptian theory. It appears in its most complete form in the sepulchral records of the New Kingdom, after the long period of anarchy of the Shepherd Kings had passed, and when under the i8th, 19th and 20th dynasties, Egypt may be said to have risen to the very pinnacle of her greatness. The collection of the sacred funerary texts into the famous ritual known as "The Book of the Dead," dates from this time. Many of its chapters are, indeed, very much older; but Egyptian religion, which was not stationary, but con- stantly progressive toward higher intellectual forms and purer ethical standards, can best be judged as it was in this period, that of the Theban dynasties of the New Kingdom. To assign a date, we may say in round numbers, two thou- sand years before the Christian era. From that invaluable document, therefore, the "Book of the Dead," we learn what this ancient people expected to happen to the soul when it left the body. Of the millions of mummies which were zealously prepared in those ages, none was complete unless it had folded with it one or a THE SUN AND THE SOUL. 137 number of chapters of this holy book, the formulas in which were safeguards and' passwords to the spirit on its perilous journey. The general statement is that the soul on leaving the corpse passes toward the West, where it descends into the divine inferior region called Amenti, over which presides Osiris, " chief of chiefs divine," who represents the Sun-god in his absence, in other words the sun at night, the sun which has sunk in the west and stays somewhere all night. In this place of darkness the soul undergoes its various tests. The deeds done in the flesh, the words spoken in life, the thoughts of the heart, are brought up against it by different accusers, who appear in the form of monsters of the deep. As the sun has to combat the darkness of the night and to overcome it before it can again rise, so the soul has to combat the record of its sins, and conquer the frightful images which represent them. This was to be done in the Egyptian, as in almost all religions, by the power of magic formulas, in other words by prayers, and the invocation of hol}^ names. Having succeeded, the soul saw the nightly constellations and the heavenlj stars, and reached the great celestial river, whose name was Nun. This was the self-created, primordial element. From its green depths all created things, even the gods themselves, took their origin. It is called in the texts, " father of all gods. " From it rose Ra, the Sun-god, in his brightness. In its dark depths lies bound in chains of iron the serpent Refref, the symbol of evil, otherwise called Apap. But, though bound, this monster endeavors to seize each soul that crosses the river. 138 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. The fortunate soul repels the serpent by blows and incanta- tions which destroy its power, but the unfortunate one is swallowed up and annihilated. This danger passed, the soul reaches the farther strand, and rises from the waters, as Horus, who represents the sun at dawn, rises from the eastern waves. This is the purpose of all the rites and prayers — to have the soul, as the expres- sion is, "rise at day" or "rise in the daytime." In other words, to rise as the sun and with the sun, or, to use again the constant formula of the "Book of the Dead," to "enter the boat of the Sun ; " for the Sun was supposed to sail through celestial and translucent waters on its grand journey from horizon to zenith and zenith to horizon. Starting at dawn as the child Horus, son of the slain and lost Osiris, the orb of light became at midday the mighty Ra, and as even- ing approached, was transformed into Khep-Ra or Har- machis, again to become Osiris when it had sunk beneath the western verge. So strict and absolute was the analogy supposed by the Egyptians to exist between the course of the sun and the destiny of the soul, that every soul was said to become Osiris at the moment of death, and in the copies of the "Book of the Dead," enclosed in a mummy, the proper name of the defunct is always preceded by the name ' ' Osi- ris, ' ' as we might say ' ' Osiris Rameses "or " Osiris Sesos- tris." To illustrate further what I have said, I will translate a few passages from the most recent and correct version of the " Book of the Dead," that published at Paris a few months ago, and made by Prof. Paul Pierret, of the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre. the; invocation to OSIRIS. 139 The following is an extract from the first chapter of this Ritual : " O ye who open the roads ! O ye who make smooth the paths to the souls in the abode of Osiris ! Make smooth the paths, open the roads to Osiris Such-a-one that he may enter, by the aid of this chapter, into the abode of Osiris ; that he may enter with zeal and emerge with joy ; that this Osiris Such-a-one be not repulsed, nor miss his way, that he may enter as he wishes and leave when he wills. Let his words be made true and his orders executed in the abode of Osiris. "This Osiris Such-a-one is journeying toward the west with good fortune. When weighed in the balance he is found to be without sin ; of numerous mouths, none has condemned him ; his soul stands erect before Osiris ; out of his mouth when on earth no impurity proceeded." (Here the soul speaks : ) " I place myself before the master of the gods ; I reach the divine abode ; I raise myself as a living god ; I shine among the gods of heaven ; I am become as one of you, O ye gods. I witness the progress of the holy stars. I cross the river Nun. I am not far removed from the fellowship of the gods. I eat of the food of the gods. I sit among them. I am invoked as a divine being ; I hear the prayers offered to me ; I enter the boat of the sun ; my soul is not far from its lord. Hail to thee, Osiris ! Grant that I sail joyously to the west, that I be received by the lords of the west ; that they say to me, 'Adoration, adoration and peace be thine ; ' and that they prepare a place for me near to the chief of chiefs divine. ' ' Through the rhetoric of this mystic rhapsody we see that I40 ESSAYS OE AN AMERICANIST. the soul goes to the abode of Osiris, is judged and tested as to its merits, and if approved crosses in safety the river Nun and becomes as one of the gods themselves ; a companion of Osiris and Ra. Such, in broad outline, was the orthodox Egyptian doc- trine. There was a vast amount of accessory matter and mysticism added to this simple statement, but the founda- tion is always the same. To one or two points I will call attention for later refer- ence in this paper. In the 1 3th Chapter of the ' ' Book of the Dead, ' ' the defunct is supposed to repeat the following formula : "I arrive as a hawk, I depart as, a phenix. I am the God of the morning. I have finished the journey and wor- shipped the sun in the lower world. Heavily braided is the hair of Osiris. I am one of the dogs of Horus. I have fin- ished the journey and worshipped Osiris." The reference to the hair of Osiris and the transformation of the soul into a dog, are incidents to which I shall refer in another connection. Another interesting fact is the frequent recurrence of the numbers four and eight in the Egyptian theories of the spir- itual world. In the i6th Chapter of the "Book of the Dead," it is prescribed that four pictures as set forth should be painted on the sarcophagus, in order that the soul may pass through the four apertures of the sky. The chapter identifies these with the cardinal points from which blow the four winds. In chapter 17th, which is one of the oldest texts in the book, reference is made to the eight gods of Hermapolis ; elsewhere the number is mentioned. This THE ROAD TO HADES, 141 illustrates the easy transfer of the plan of terrestrial geog- raph}^ to that of the spiritual world. Passing now to the mythology of the Aryan nations, we find that the three great cj-cles of its poetry, the Indian, the Greek, and the Norse, agree closely in their opinions of the destination of the soul. After death, according to their belief, the soul descended into a world below the surface of the earth. The Greeks called it the realm of Hades, from the name of its ruler, otherwise known as Pluto. The latter name signifies the wealthy, because sooner or later all the children of men and all their possessions come under his power. The meaning of Hades is unknown, as its derivation from aidos, unseen, is now generally doubted by the best Greek scholars. The entrance to this realm was supposed to be guarded by two dogs, the more famous of which, Cerberus in Greek, is in the Vedas spoken of by the same name, Carvara. The soul must pacify these dogs and pass them without injury if it would enjoy the delights that lay beyond. Within the gates stretched a broad desert through which flowed the river Acheron, which in later myths came to have various branches, the Styx, Lethe, Polyphegmon, etc. This was to be crossed in the boat of Charon, the silent ferryman, who spake no word but exacted of each ghost a toll. The dark river crossed, the spirit appeared before the judges, and by them its future fate was decided. An ad- verse decision condemned it to wander lonely in the dark- ness, but a favorable verdict authorized its entrance into the happy fields of Elysium. This joyous abode was in the far west, in that land beyond the shining waters and the purple 142 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. sunset sea, where the orb of light goes to rest himself at night. Its light is eternal, its joys perennial, its happiness perfect. With little difference, this faith was shared by ancient In- dians and ancient Norsemen. The latter often buried with the dead a canoe or boat, destined to convey the soul across the waves to the happy land beyond. Even the ancient Kelt of Cornwall or Brittany had this same myth of the Islands of the Blessed, lying somewhere far out in the Western Sea. What to the Greek was the Garden of the Hesperides with its fruit of golden quinces, was to the Kelt the Isle of Avalon, with its orchards of apples. Thither was conveyed the noble Arthur when slain on the field of Lyoness. He was borne away in a royal boat by the fairy women of the strand. There Ogier the Dane, worn by the wars of a hundred years, was carried by his divine god- mother to be restored to youth and strength, and to return again to wield his battle-axe under the Oriflamme of France. Wherever we turn, whether in the most ancient chants of the Vedas, in the graceful forms of the Greek religious fancj^ in the gaunt and weird imaginings of the Norse poets, or in the complex but brilliant pictures of mediaeval romance, we find the same distinct plan of this journey of the soul. I pass now to the New World, almost to the antipodes of India, and take up the doctrines of the Aztecs. We have sufficiently ample accounts of their notions, preserved by various early writers, especially by Father Sahagun, who took down the words of the priests in their own tongue, and at a date when their knowledge was not dimmed or distorted THE PATH TO MICTLAN. 143 by Christian teaching. Something may also be learned from Tezozomoc, a native chronicler, and others. From these it appear that the Aztecs held that after death the souls of all people pass downward into the under-world, to the place called Midlan. This is translated by the mis- sionaries as "hell" or "inferno," but by derivation it means .simply " the place of the slain," from an active verb mean- ing "to kill." To explain this further, I add that in all primitive Amer- ican tribes, there is no notion of natural death. No man ' ' dies, " he is always ' ' killed. ' ' Death as a necessary incident in the course of nature is entirely unknown to them. When a person dies by disease, they suppose he has been killed by some sorcery, or some unknown venomous creature. The journey to Mictlan was long and perilous. The soul first passed through a narrow defile between two mountains which touched each other, where it was liable to be crushed ; it then reached a path by which lay in wait a serpent ; next was a spot where a huge green lizard whose name was "The Flower of Heat," was concealed. After this, eight deserts stretched their wild wastes, and beyond these, eight steep hills reared their toilsome sides into the region of snow. Over their summits blew a wind so keen that it was called "The Wind of Knives." Much did the poor soul suffer, exposed to this bitter cold, unless many coats of cotton and other clothing were burnt upon his tomb for use at this lofty pass. These hills descended, the shivering ghost reached the river called ' ' By the Nine Waters. ' ' It was broad, and deep, and swift. I^ittle chance had the soul of crossing its dark 144 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. current, was the aid for this purpose forgotten during life, or by the mourners. This aid was a dog, of the species trained by the Aztecs and held in high esteem by them. But the dog must be of a particular color ; white would not answer, else he would say, when brought to the brink, "As for me, I am already washed." Black would fail as much, for the animal would say, " I am too black myself to help another wash." The only color was red, and for this reason great numbers of reddish curs were fostered by the Aztecs, and one was sacrificed at each funeral. Clinging to it, the soul crossed the river and reached the further brink in safety, being purged and cleansed in the transit of all that would make it unfit for the worlds beyond. These worlds were threefold. One was called "The nine Abodes of the Dead," where the ordinary mass of mankind were said to go and forever abide. The second was para- dise, Tlalocan, the dwelling-place of the Tlalocs, the gods of fertility and rain. It was full of roses and fruits. No pain was there, and no sorrow. Scorching heat and cold were alike unknown. Green fields, rippling brooks, balmy airs and perpetual joy, filled the immortal days of the happy souls in Tlalocan. Those who were destined for its elysian years were divinely designated by the diseases or accidents of which they died. These were of singular varietJ^ All struck by lightning or wounded, the leprous, the gouty, the dropsical, and what at first sight seems curious, all those who died of the forms of venereal diseases, were believed to pass directly to this Paradise. The third and highest reward was reserved for the brave who died upon the field of battle, or, as captives, perished by THE lyORD OF THE SIXAIN. I45 the malice of public enemies, and for women who died in childbirth. These went to the sun in the sk)', and dwelt up in the bright heavens. After four years they returned to earth, and under the form of bright-plumaged singing birds rejoiced the hearts of men, and were again spectators of human life. In this Aztec doctrine the ruler of the underworld is spoken of as Afidlantecutli, which the obtuse missionaries persistently render as the devil. The name means simply ' ' I^ord of the Abode of the Slain," or of the dead. In several of myths he is brought into close relation with the Aztec national hero-god, Quet- zalcoatl, I are usually only pictures, while most of the records of the Aztec communities are in picture-writing. The genealogical development of Sound-writing begins by the substitution of the sign of one idea for that of another whose sound is nearly or quite the same. Such was the early graphic system of Egypt, and such substantially to-day * Originally published as an introduction to Dr. Cyrus Thomas' Study of the Man- uscript Troatio, issued by the U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, Washington, 1882, (revised with additions for the present volume). t Dr. Friedrich Miiller, Grundriss der Sprachwissenchafi, Band i, pp. 151-156. (230) EVOLUTION OF THE ALPHABET. 23 1 is that of the Chinese. Above stands syllabic writing, this as that of the Japenese, and the semi-syllabic signs of the old Semitic alphabet ; while, as the perfected result of these various attempts, we reach at last the invention of a true alphabet, in which a definite figure corresponds to a definite elementary sound. It is a primary question in American archaeology, How far did the most cultivated nations of the western continent ascend this scale of graphic development ? This question is as yet unanswered. All agree, however, that the highest evolution took place among the Nahuatl-speaking tribes of Mexico and the Maya race of Yucatan. I do not go too far in saying that it is proved that the Aztecs used to a certain extent a phonetic system of writing, one in which the figures refer not to the thought, but to the sound of the thought as expressed in spoken language. This has been demonstrated by the researches of M. Aubin, and, of late, by the studies of Seiior Orozco y Berra.* Two evolutionar3^ steps can be distinguished in the Aztec writing. In the earlier the plan is that of the rebus in com- bination with ideograms, which latter are nothing more than the elements of picture-writing. Examples of this plan are the familiar ' ' tribute rolls ' ' and the names of towns and kings, as shown in several of the codices published by Lord Kingsborough. The second step is where a conven- tional image is employed to represent the sound of its first * Aubin, Mimoire, sur la Peiniure didactique et V Ecriture figurative des anciens Mexicains, in the introduction to Brasseur (de Bourbour8:)'s Hisioire des Nations civilisies du Mexiqne et de VAmerique Centrale, torn, i ; Manuel Orozco y Berra En- sayo de Descifracion geroglifica, in the Anales del Museo nacional de Mexico, torn, i, ii. 232 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. syllable. This advances actually to the level of the syllabic alphabet ; but it is doubtful if there are any Aztec records entirely, or even largely, in this form of writing. They had only reached the commencement of its development. The graphic system of the Mayas of Yucatan was very different from that of the Aztecs. No one at all familiar with the two could fail at once to distinguish between the manuscripts of the two nations. They are plainly in- dependent developments. We know much more about the ancient civilization of Mexico than of Yucatan ; we have many more Aztec than Maya manuscripts, and hence we are more at a loss to speak with positiveness about the Maya system of writing than about the Mexican. We must depend on the brief and un- satisfactory statements of the early Spanish writers, and on what little modern research has accomplished, for means to form a correct opinion ; and there is at present a justifiable discrepancy of opinion about it among those who have given the subject most attention. 2. — Descriptions by Spanish Writers. The earliest exploration of the coast of Yucatan was that of Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, in 1517. The year fol- lowing, a second expedition, under Juan de Grijalva, visited a number of points between the island of Cozumel and the Bahia de Terminos. Several accounts of Grijalva's voyage have been preserved, but they make no distinct reference to the method of writing they found in use. Some native books were obtained, how- EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN YUCATAN. 233 ever, probably from the Mayas, and were sent to Spain, where they were seen by the historian Peter Martyr. He describes them in general terms, and compares the characters in which they were written to the Elgyptian hieroglyphics, some of which he had seen in Rome. He supposes that they contain the laws and ceremonies of the people, astronomical calculations, the deeds of their kings, and other events of their history. He also speaks in commendation of the neat- ness of their general appearance, the skill with which the drawing and painting were carried out. He further mentions that the natives used this method of writing or drawing in the afifairs of common life.* Although Yucatan became thus early known to the Span- iards, it was not until 1541 that a permanent settlement was effected, in which year Francisco de Montejo, the younger, advanced into the central province of Ceh Pech, and estab- lished a city on the site of the ancient town called Ichcanziho, which means ' ' the five (temples) of man}' oracles (or ser- pents)," to which he gave the name Merida, on account of the magnificent ancient edifices he found there. Previous to this date, however, in 1534, Father Jacobo de Testera, with four other missionaries, proceeded from Tabas- co up the west coast to the neighborhood of the Bay of Cam- peachy. They were received amicably by the natives, and instructed them in the articles of the Christian faith. They also obtained from the chiefs a submission to the King of Spain ; and I mention this early missionary expedition for the fact stated that each chief signed this act of submission "with a certain mark, like an autograph." This document * Peter Martyr, Decad. iv, cap. viii. 234 ESSAYS OP AN AMERICANIST. was subsequently taken to Spain by the celebrated Bishop Las Casas* It is clear from the account that some definite form of signature was at that time in use among the chiefs. It might be objected that these signatures were nothing more than rude totem marks, such as were found even among the hunting tribes of the Northern Mississippi Valley. But I^as Casas himself, in whose possession the documents were, here comes to our aid to refute this opinion. He was famil- iar with the picture-writing of Mexico, and recognized in the hieroglyphics of the Mayas something different and superior. He says expressly that the.se had inscriptions, writings, in certain characters, the like of which were found nowhere else.f One of the early visitors to Yucatan after the conquest was the Pope's commissary-general, Father Alonzo Ponce, who was there in 1588. Many natives who had grown to adult years in heathenism must have been living then. He makes the following interesting observation : " The natives of Yucatan are, among all the inhabitants of New Spain, especially deserving of praise for three things : First, that before the Spaniards came they made use ot char- acters and letters, with which they wrote out their histories, their ceremonies, the order of sacrifices to their idols, and their calendars, in books made of bark of a certain tree. * " Se sujetaron de su propria voluntad al Senorio de los Reies de Castilla, recibi- endo al Emperador, como Rei de Espaiia, por Senor supremo y universal, e hicieron ciertas senales, como Firmas ; las quales, con testiniouio de los Religiosos Francis cos, que alii estaban, Uevu consigo el bueu Obispo de Chiapa, Don Fr. Bartolome de las Casas, amparo, y defensa de estos ludios, quando se fue a Kspana." Torque- mada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. xix, cap. xiii. t " Letrerosde ciertos caracteres que en otra niuguna parte." Las Casas, Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occidentales. cap. exxiii. BOOKS OP THE MAYAS. 235 These were on very long strips, a qiiarter or a third (of a yard) in width, doubled and folded, so that they resembled a bound book in quarto, a little larger or smaller. These letters and characters were understood only by the priests of the idols (who in that language are called Ahkins) and a few principal natives. Afterwards some of our friars learned to understand and read them, and even wrote them."* The interesting fact here stated, that some of the early missionaries not only learned to read these characters, but employed them to instruct the Indians, has been authenti- cated by a recent discovery of a devotional work written in this way. The earliest historian of Yucatan is Fr. Bernardo de lyizana.f But I do not know of a single complete copy of his work, and only one imperfect copy, which is, or was, in the city of Mexico, from which the Abbe Brasseur (de Bourbourg) copied and republished a few chapters. Lizana was himself not much of an antiquary, but he had in his hands the manuscripts left by Father Alonso de Solana, who came to Yucatan in 1565, and remained there till his death, in 1599. Solana was an able man, acquiring thoroughly the Maya tongue, and left in his writings many notes on the antiquities of the country. J Therefore we may put * ReJacion Breve y Verdadera de Algunas Cosas de las muchas que sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce, Commissario General, en las Provincias de la Nueva Es- paha, in the Coleccion de Documenios para la Historia de Espana, torn. Iviii, p. 392. The other traits he praises in the natives of Yucatan are their freedom from sodomy and cannibalism, (For the text see later, p. 255,) t Bernardo de Wzana, Historia de Yucatan. Devocionario de Nuesira Senora de Izamal, y Conguista Espiritual, 8vo. Pinciie (Valladolid), 1633. JFor these facts see Diego Lopez CogoUudo, Historia de Yucatan, lib ix, cap. xv. Cogolludo adds that in his time (i650-'6o) Solana's MSS. could not be found ; Lizana may have sent them to Spain. 236 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. considerable confidence in what Lizana writes on these matters. The reference which I find in his work to the Ma5'a writ- ings is as follows : "The most celebrated and revered sanctuary in this land, and that to which they resorted from all parts, was this town and temples of Ytzamal, as they are now called ; and that it was founded in most ancient times, and that it is still known who did found it, will be set forth in the next chapter. "III. The history and the authorities which we can cite are certain ancient characters, scarcely understood by many, and explained by some old Indians, sons of the priests of their gods, who alone knew how to read and expound them, and who were believed in and revered as much as the gods themselves, etc.^" We have here the positive statement that these hiero- glyphic inscriptions were used by the priests for recording their national history, and that by means of them they pre- served the recollection of events which took place in a very remote past. Another valuable early witness, who testifies to the same effect, is the Dr. Don Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, who was cura of Valladolid, in Yucatan, in 1596, and, later, dean of the chapter of the cathedral at Merida. His book, too, is extremely scarce, and I have never seen a copy ; but I have * I add the original of the most important passage : " I c^-A-- j»A csJft . ...vwwvA/t^ '-I^S U '^'^^'^^'^ .wo pvvVi fM. <»^^--; — : t-JaUs^/r*. r4ft„ ^h:,^^ ^v^eU^ v,.^.e^.,Ar*- t^-i-ftSTa^ ? «/>-e-il-6T_- ,-y -)5/L. -v4» 'Vl^u.^ fxt/zA. -v^ji-tu*- JJt^^i^ Fig, I. — Fac Simile of Landa's Manuscript, The alphabet which he inserts has been engraved and printed several times, but nowhere with the fidelity desirable for so important a monument in American archseology. For that reason I insert a photographic reproduction of it from the original MS. in the library of the Academia de la His- toria of Madrid. A comparison of this with the alphabet as given in Bras seur's edition of Landa discloses several variations of im- CRITICISMS ON LANDA'S ALPHABET. 243 portance. Thus the Abbe places the first form of the letter C horizontally instead of upright. Again in the MS. , the two figures for the letter U stand, the first at the end of one line, the second at the beginning of the next. From their strong analogy with the sign of the sky at night, I am of opinion that they belong together as members of one com- posite sign, not separately as Brasseur gives them. Both in it and in the inscriptions, manuscripts, and paint- ings the forms of the letters are rounded, and a row of them presents the outlines of a number of pebbles cut in two. Hence the S3'stem of writing has been called "calculiform," ironx' calculus , a pebble. The expression has been criticised, but I agree with Dr. Forstemann in thinking it a very ap- propriate one. It was suggested, I believe, by the Abb6 Brasseur (de Bourbourg). This alphabet of course, can not be used as the Latin a, b, c. It is surprising that any scholar should have ever thought so. It would be an exception, even a contradiction, to the history of the evolution of human intelligence, to find such an alpha- bet among nations of the stage of cultivation of the Mayas or Aztecs. The severest criticism which Landa's figures have met ha; been from Dr. Phillip J. J. Valentini. He discovered that many of the sounds of the Spanish alphabet were represented by signs or pictures of objects whose names in the Maya begin with that sound. Thus he supposes that Landa asked an Indian to write in the native character the Spanish letter a, and the Indian drew an obsidian knife, which, says Dr. Valentini, is in the Maya ach ; in other words, it begins with the vowel a. So for the sound ki, the Indian gave the sign of the day named kinich. 244 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. Such is Dr. Valentini's theory of the formation of lyanda's alphabet ; and not satisfied with lashing with considerable sharpness those who have endeavored by its aid to decipher the manuscripts and mural inscriptions, he goes so far as to term it " a Spanish fabrication." I shall not enter into a close examination of Dr. Valentini's siipposed identification of these figures. It is evident that it has been done by running over the Maya dictionary to find some word beginning with the letter under criticism, the figurative representation of which word might bear some resemblance to Danda's letter. When the Maya fails, such a word is sought for in the Kiche or other dialect of the stock ; and the resemblances of the pictures to the supposed originals are sometimes greatly strained. But I pass by these dubious methods of criticism, as well as several lexicographic objections which might be raised. I believe, indeed, that Dr. Valentin! is not wrong in a number of his identifications. But the conclusion I draw is a differ- ent one. Instead of proving that this is picture-writing, it indicates that the Mayas used the second or higher grade of phonetic syllabic writing, which, as I have before observed, has been shown by M. Aubin to have been developed to some extent by the Aztecs in some of their histories and connected compositions (see above, page 231). Therefore th^ importance and authenticity of Luanda's alphabet are, I think, vindicated by this attempt to treat it as a " fabrica- tion."* * Dr. Valeutiui's article was published in the Proceedings of the American Anti- quarian Society, iS8o. More recently Dr. Ed. Seler has condemned the I,anda alpha- bet as " ein Versuch von Ladinos, von in die Spanische Wissenschaft eiugeweihteu SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION. 245 Landa also gives some interesting details about their books. He writes : "The sciences that they taught were the reckoning of the years, months, and days, the feasts and ceremonies, the ad- ministration of their sacraments, the fatal days and seasons, their methods of divination and prophecies, e^^ents about to happen, remedies for diseases, their ancient history, together with the art of reading and writing their books with characters which were written, and pictures which represented the things written. They wrote their books on a large sheet doubled into folds, which was afterwards inclosed between two boards, which they decorated handsomely. They were written from side to side in columns, as they were folded. They manu- factured this paper from the root of a tree and gave it a white surface on which one could write. Some of the principal nobles cultivated these sciences out of a taste for them, and although they did not make public use of them, as did the priests, yet they were the more highly esteemed for this knowledge. ' ' * From the above extracts from Spanish writers we may in- fer that— 1. The Maya graphic system was recognized from the first to be distinct from the Mexican. 1/' 2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few nobles. Eingebornen iu der Art, wie sie die Spanier ihre I^etteru verwenden saJien, auch mit den Eingebornen gelaufigen Bildern und Charaktera zu hantlren." Ver- hatidlungen der Berliner authropologischen Gesellschafi, 1887, ». 227- I am far from adopting this sweeping statement, which I believe is contradicted by the whole tenor of Landa's words and the testimony of other writers. * Diego de Landa. Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 44. 246 ESSAYS OF AN AMEEICANIST. 3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among whicli was the preservation of their history and calendar. 4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (7?^- uras), ideograms {caraderes), and phonetic signs [letras). J. — References from Native Sources. We might reasonably expect that the Maya language should contain terms relating to their books and writings which would throw light on their methods. So, no doubt, it did. But it was a part of the narrow and crushing policy of the missionaries not only to destroy everything that related to the times of heathendom, but even to drop all words which referred to ancient usages. Hence the diction- aries are more sterile in this respect than we might have sup- posed. The verb ' ' to write ' ' is dzib, which like the Greek ypdfccv, meant also to draw and to paint. From this are de- rived the terms dziban, something written ; dzibal, a signa- ture, etc. Another word, meaning to write, or to paint in black, is zabac. As a noun, this was in ancient times applied to a black fluid extracted from the zabacche, a species of tree, and used for dyeing and painting. In the sense of "to write," zabac is no longer found in the language, and instead of its old meaning, it now refers to ordinary ink. The word for letter or character is uooh. This is a primi- tive root found with the same or a closel}' allied meaning in other branches of this linguistic stock, as, for instance, in the Kiche and Cakchiquel. As a verb, pret. uootli, fut. uoote., it WORDS FOR BOOK AND WRITING. 247 also means to form letters, to write ; and from tlae passive form, uoohal, we have the participial noun, uoohan, some- thing written, a manuscript. The ordinary word for book, paper, or letter, is huun, in which the aspirate is almost mute, and is dropped in the forms denoting possession, as u min, my hook, yuunil Dios, the book of God, il being the so-called "determinative" ending. It occurs to me as not unlikely that 7mn, book, is a syncopated form of jcoohan, something written, given above. To read a book is xochzm, literally to coimt a book. According to Villagutierre vSoto-Mayor, the name of the sacred books of the Itzas was analU. In the printed Dic- donario de la Lengua Maya, by Don Juan Pio Perez, this is spelled anahU, which seems to be a later form. The term is not found in several early Maya dictionaries in my possession, of dates previous to 1700. The Abbe Bras- seur indeed, in a note to Landa, explains it to mean "a book of wood," but it can have no such signification. Per- haps it should read hunilte, this being composed of hunil, the "determinative" form of huun, a book, and the termin- ation te, which added to nouns, gives them a specific sense, e.g. amayie, a square figure, from amay, an angle; tzucubte, a province, from tsuc, a portion separated from the rest. It would mean especially the sacred or national books. The particular class of books which were occupied with the calendar and the ritual were called tzolante, which is a participial noun from the verb tzol, passive tzolal, to set in order, to arrange, with the sufiix U. By these books were set in order and arranged the various festivals and fasts. When the conquest was an accomplished fact and the 248 ESSAYS OF AN AMP;rICANIST. priests had got the upper hand, the natives did not dare use their ancient characters. They exposed themselves to the suspicion of heresy and the risk of- being burnt alive, as more than once happened. But their strong passion for lit- erature remained, and they gratified it as far as they dared by writing in their own tongue with the Spanish alphabet volumes whose contents are very similar to those described by Ivanda. A number of these .are still in existence, and offer an inter- esting field for antiquarian and linguistic study. Although, as I say, they are no longer in the Maya letters, they contain quite a number of ideograms, as the signs of the days and the months, and occasional cartouches and paintings, which show that they were made to resemble the ancient manu- scripts as closely as possible. They also contain not infrequent references to the ' ' writ- ing " of the ancients, and what are alleged to be extracts from the old records, chiefljr of a mystic character. Tlie same terms are employed in speaking of the ancient graphic system as of the present one. Thus in one of them, known as "The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel," occurs this phrase : Bay dzibanil iiimenel Evangelistas yetel pro/eta Ba- lam — " as it was written by the Evangelists, and also by the prophet Balam," this Balam being one of their own cele- brated ancient seers. Among the predictions preserved from a time anterior to the Conquest, there are occasional references to their books and their contents. I quote, as an example, a short prophecy attributed to Ahkul Chel, ' ' priest of the idols. " It is found in several of the oldest Maya manuscripts, and is in all pro- A MAYA PROPHECY. 249 bability authentic, as it contains nothing which would lead us to suppose that it was one of the "pious frauds" of the missionaries. " Etihi dbte kahme yumc, maixtan a. naaU ,- Uatac u talel, mac bin ca 3 abac tu co^ pop; Katune yume bin nine, holom nil tucalya; Tali ti xaman, tali ti chikine ; ahkinob nil yane yume ; Mac to ahkin, mac to ahbobat, bin alic u than uoohe ; Yhcil Bolon Ahau, fnaixiati a naatef" "The lord of the cycle has been written down, but ye will not understand ; " He has come, who will give the enrolling of the years ; "The lord of the cycle will arrive, he will come on ac- count of his love ; "He came from the north, from the west. There are priests, there are fathers, "But what priest, what prophet, shall explain the words of the books, " In the Ninth Ahau, which ye will not understand?" * * I add a fe-w notes on this text : Enkiis the preterit of the irregular verb, hal, to be, pret. enhi, fut. anac. Katun yum, father or lord of the Katun or cycle. Each Katun was under the protection of a special deity or lord, who controlled the events which occurred in it. Tu coo pop, lit., " for the rolling up of Pop," which was the first month in the Maya year. Holoin is an archaic future from h ul ; this form in om is mentioned by Buenaven- tura, Arte de la Lengua Maya, 1684, and is frequent in the sacred langu.\ge, but does not occur elsewhere. Tucal ya, on account of his love ; but ya means also "suffer- ing," " wound," and " strength," and there is no clue which of these significations is meant. Ahkinob ; the original has lukinob, which I suspect is an error ; it would alter the phrase to mean " In that day there are fathers " or lords, the word rww;, father, being constantly used for lord or ruler. The ahkin was the priest ; the ahbobat was a diviner or prophet. The 9th Ahau Katun was the period of 20 years which began in 1541, according to "most native authors, but according to I^anda's reckoning in the year 1561. 250 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. From this designedly obscure chant we perceive that the ancient priests inscribed their predictions in books, which were afterward explained to the people. The expression bin alic u than z/w/ze— literally, "he will speak the words of the letters" — seems to point to a phonetic writing, but as it may be used in a figurative sense, I shall not lay stress on it.* ^. — The Existing Codices. The word Codex ought to be confined, in American arch- seology, to manuscripts in the original writing of the na- tives. Some writers have spoken of the "Codex Chimalpo- poca," the " Codex Zumarraga," and the " Codex Perez," which are nothing more than manuscripts either in the na- tive or Spanish tongues written with the Latin alphabet. Of the Maya Codices known, only four have been pub- lished, which I will mention in the order of their appear- ance. The Dresden Codex. — This is an important Maya manu- script preserved in the Royal Library at Dresden. How or when it came to Europe is not known. It was obtained from some unknown person in Vienna in 1739. This Codex corresponds in size, appearance, and manner of folding to the descriptions of the Maya books which I have presented above from Spanish sources. It has thirty- nine leaves, thirty-five of which are colored and inscribed on * In quoting and explaining Maya words and phrases in this article, I have in all instances followed the Diccionario Maya-Espanol del Convenio de Motul (Yucatan) ; a copy of which in manuscript (one of the only two in existence) is in my pos- session. It was composed about 1580. The still older Maya dictionai-y of Father Villalpando, printed in Mexico in 1571, is yet in existence in one or two copies, but I have never seen it. THE MAYA CODICES. 25 1 both sides, and four on one side only, so tbat there are only seventy-four pages of matter. The total length of the sheet is 3.5 meters, and the height of each page is 0.295 meter, the width 0.085 meter. The first publication of any portion of this Codex was by Alexander von Humboldt, who had five pages of it copied for his work, Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples Indigenes de rAmerique, issued at Paris in 1813 (not 1810, as the title-page has it). It was next very carefully copied in full by the Italian artist, Agostino Aglio, for the. third volume of Il rt sj- "o vo tv 00 w u ■I ^ s 3 « J >o /^^ CO O^ S c^ rJ n> -* ^ iSSH i=j s> 0^1 n@i SIGNS OF THE DAYS. 271 'g y JL r p- 5 ^ I ^ 3 2j: f^ % 3 + 3+1 7\ CO i I . J ^ a? 3^ ^ <^ S 55 ^ 00^ Iej: i 1 3 H . $ d. -a ■w in. bo •n 272 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. one of the most interesting which have been preserved to us ; but to enter upon its explanation in this connection would be too far from my present topic. A favorite theme with the writers of the "Books of Chilan Balam ' ' was the cure of diseases. Bishop Landa explains the " chilanes" as "sorcerers and doctors," and adds that one of their prominent duties was to diagnose diseases and point out their appropriate remedies. * As we might expect, therefore, considerable prominence is given to the descrip- tion of sj-mptoms and suggestions for their alleviation. Bleeding and the administration of preparations of native plants are the usual prescriptions ; but there are others which have probabl3' been borrowed from some domestic medicine-book of Buropean origin. The late Don Pio Perez gave a great deal of attention to collecting these native recipes, and his manuscripts were carefully examined by Dr. Berendt, who combined all the necessary knowledge, botanical, linguistic and medical, and who has left a large manuscript, entitled " Recetai-ios de Indies," which presents the subject fully. He considers the scientific value of these remedies to be next to nothing, and the language in which they are recorded to be distinctly inferior to that of the remainder of the "Books of Chilan Balam. ' ' Hence, he believes that this portion of the ancient records was supplanted some time in the last century by medical notions introduced from European sources. Such, in fact, is the statement of the copyists of the books them- '*'' Declarar las necesidades y sus remedios.^' — Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, page 160. Like much of panda's Spanish, this use of the word " necesidad" is col- loquial, and not classical. THE BOOK OF THE JEW. 273 selves, as these recipes, etc. , are sometimes found in a sepa- rate volume, entitled "The Book of the Jew," — El Libra del Judio. ' ' Who this alleged Jewish physician was, who left so wide-spread and durable a renown among the Yucatecan natives, none of the archaeologists has been able to find out.* The language and style of most of these books are aphor- istic, elliptical and obscure. The Maya language has naturally undergone considerable alteration since they were written ; therefore, even to competent readers of ordinary Maya, they are not readily intelligible. Fortunately, how- ever, there are in existence excellent dictionaries, which, were they published, would be sufiScient for this purpose. *A Medicina Domesiica, under the name of "Don Ricardo Ossado, (alias, el Jiidio,) " was published at Merida in 1834 ; but this appears to have been merely a bookseller's device to aid the sale of the book by attributing it to the " great un- known." 18 ON THE "STONE OF THE GIANTS."* AT the last meeting of this Society, a photograph was received of the Piedra de los Gigantes, or ' ' Stone of the Giants, ' ' now situated at Escamela, near the city of Orizaba, Mexico. It was obligingly forwarded by the Mexican antiquary. Father Damaso Sotomayor, and was referred by the Society to me for a possible interpretation of the figures represented. The sender accompained the envoy with a copy of a news- paper published in Orizaba, entitled El Siglo que Acaba, which contained a lengthy interpretation of the figure by Father Sotomayor in accordance with the principles laid down in his recently published work on the decipherment of Aztec hieroglyphics, t The Father sees in the inscribed figures a mystical allusion to the coming of Christ to the Gentiles, and to the occurrences supposed in Hebrew myth to have taken place in the Garden of Eden. As I cannot agree in the remotest with his hypothesis, I shall say noth- ing further about it, but proceed to give what I consider the true significance of the inscribed figures. I should preface my remarks by mentioning that this stone' * Read before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia in 1889. t Los Aziecas, Mexico, 18S8. (274) POSITION OF THE STONE. 275 is not a recent discovery in Mexican archseology. It was examined by Captain Dupaix in the year 1808, and is figured in the illustrations to his voluminous narrative.* The figure he gives is however so erroneous that it yields but a faint idea of the real character and meaning of the drawing. It omits the ornament on the breast, and also the lines along the right of the giant's face, which as I shall show are distinc- tive traits. It gives him a girdle where none is delineated, and the relative size and proportions of all the three figures are quite distorted. Dupaix informs us, however, of several particulars which the Rev. Sotomayor omitted to state. From the former's description we learn that the stone, or rather rock, on which the inscription is found is roughly 1:ri- angular in shape, presenting a nearly staight border of thirty feet on each side. It is hard and uniform in texture, and of a dark color. The length or height of the principal figure is twenty-seven feet, and the incised lines which designate the various objects are deeply and clearly cnt. In the present position of the stone, which is the same as that stated by Captain Dupaix, the head of the principal figure, called "the giant," lies toward the east, while the right hand is extended toward the north and the left toward the west. It is open to doubt whether this disposition was accidental or intentional, as there is reason to believe that the stone is not * Dupaix, AntiquiUs Mexicaincs. ist Exped., p. 7, H. vi, vii, fig. 6, 7- At that time the flat surface of the rock was the floor of a cabin built upon it. At present the cabin has disappeared, Mr. Bandelier does not seem to have visited this stone when he was at Orizaba, although he refers to Dupaix's explorations. Report of an Arch^ological Tour in Mexico in iSSi, p. 26 (Boston, 1884). Nor does M. H. Strebel, though he also refers to it, give any fresh information about it. See his A U-Mexika, Band I, s. 30, 276 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. now in its original position, or not in that for which it was intended. Along the base of the stone, which is in thickness some five feet, at the feet of the giant, there are a series of figures inscribed which are now almost obliterated ; at least the photographs sent the Society give no clear idea of them, and the cuts of Dupaix are plainl}' for the most part fanciful. Their presence there, however, proves that the block was not intended to have been set up on edge, or inserted verti- cally into a wall, as either of these arrangements would have obscured these hieroglyphs.* I now approach the decipherment of the inscriptions. Any one versed in the signs of the Mexican calendar will at once perceive that it contains the date of a certain year and day. On the left of the giant is seen a rabbit surrounded with ten circular depressions. These depressions are the well-known Aztec marks for numerals, and the rabbit represents one of the four astronomic signs by which they adjusted their chron- ologic cycle of fifty-two years. The three others were a house, a reed, and a flint. Each one of these recurred thirteen times in their cycle, making, as I have said, a term of fifty-two years in all. A year was designated by one of the four names with its appropriate number; as ''3 house," "12 flipt, " "4 reed, ' ' etc. , the sequence being regularly preserved. The days were arranged in zones or weeks of twenty, the different series being numbered, and also named from a ''■■One appears to be a g^igantic full face ; another an animal like a frog, with ex- tended legs ; two others are geometrical designs, the outlines of which have evi- dently been recently freshened with a steel implement. Future observers should be^^ their guard that this procedure shall not have mutilated the early ■workman- ship. THE AZTEC CALENDAR. 277 sequence of eighteen astronomical signs called "wind," "lizard," " snake," "deer," etc. The five days lacking to complete the 365 were intercalated. A second or ritual sys- tem had thirteen weeks of twenty days each; but as thirteen times twenty makes only two hundred and sixty, in this computation there remained 105 days to be named and num- bered. Their device to accomplish this was simple: they merely recommenced the numbering and naming of the weeks for this remainder, adding a third series of appella- tions drawn from a list of nine signs, called ' ' rulers of the night." At the close of the solar year they recommenced as at the beginning of the previous year.* With these facts in our mind, we can approach our task with confidence. The stone bears a carefully dated record, with the year and day clearly set forth. The year is repre- sented to the left of the figure, and is that numbered "ten" under the sign of the rabbit, in Nahuatl, xilmitl matladh tochtli; the day of the year is numbered ' 'one' ' under the sign of the fish, ce cipadli. These precise dates recurred once, and only once, every fifty-two years; and had recurred only once between the year of our era 1450 and the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519-20. We may begin our investigations with that one epoch, as from other circumstances, such as local traditiont * It is needless to expand this explanation of the Aztec Calendar ; but it is worth while to warn the student of the subject that the problem is an intricate one and has never yet been satisfactorily solved, because the information presented is both incomplete and contradictory. I consider the most instructive discussion of the Calendar is that in Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de Mexico, Lib. iv., Cap. 1-6. + Father Sotomayor, in the newspaper account above referred to, states that tra- dition assigned the inscription to the time of Cortes' march to the City of Mexico; a 278 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. and the character of the work, it is not likely that the in- scription was previous to the middle of the fifteenth century. Within the period named, the year " 10 rabbit" of the Aztec calendar corresponded with the year 1502 of the Gregorian calendar. It is more difficult to fix the day, as the mathe- matical problems relating to the Aztec diurnal reckonings are extremely complicated, and have not yet been satisfac- torily worked out; but it is, I think, safe to say, that accord- ing to both the most probable computations the day ' ' one fish" — ce cipadli — occurred in the first month of the year 1502, which month coincided in whole or in part with our February. Such is the date on the inscription. Now, what is inti- mated to have occurred on that date ? The clue to this is furnished by the figure of the giant. On looking at it closely we perceive that it represents an ogre of horrid mien with a death-head grin and formidable teeth, his hair wild and long, the locks falling down upon the neck ; and suspended on the breast as an ornament is the bone of a human lower jaw with its incisor teeth. The left leg is thrown forward as in the act of walking, and the arms are uplifted, the hands open, and the fingers extended, as at the moment of seizing the prey or the victim. The lines about the umbilicus represent the knot of the girdle which supported the maxtli or breech-cloth. There is no doubt as to which personage of the Aztec pantheon this fear-inspiring figure represents ; it is Tzon- date which he quite properly ridicules as impossible. The vicinity of Orizaba was, moreover, not a part of the Mexican State until some time after the middle of the 15th century. See Bandelier, ArchcEological Tour in Mexico, pp. 22, sqq. THE TWO CODICES. 279 Z' ^, .«* » / Fig. I. The Stone of the Giants. 28o ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. temoc MidlantecutU, "the lyOrd of the Realm of the Dead, He of the Falling Hair," the dread god of death and the dead. * His distinctive marks are there, the death-head, the failing hair, the jaw bone, the terrible aspect, the giant size. There can be no question but that the Piedra de los Gip;a7ites establishes a date of death; that it is a necrological tablet, a mortuary monument, and from its size and workmanship, that it was intended as a memorial of the decease of some very important personage in ancient Mexico. Provided with these deductions from the stone itself, let us turn to the records of old Mexico and see if they cor- roborate the opinion stated. Fortunately we possess several of these venerable documents, chronicles of the empire before Cortes destroyed it, written in the hieroglyphs which the inventive genius of the natives had devised. Taking- two of these chronicles, the one known as the Codex Teller- iano-Remensis, the other as the Codex Vaticanus,'\ and turning to the year numbered ' ' ten ' ' under the sign of the rabbit, I find that both pi-esent the same record, which I copy in the following figure. * Tzontemoc, a compound oi Lzontli^ hair, and tenioa^ to fall; mictlan, locative from mictli, to die; tecuttt, lord, noble. For a description of this deity see Sahagun, Historii3.de la Nueva Espana, Lib. iii, Appendix, chap. I. I have elsewhere sug- gested that the falling hair had reference to the long slanting rays of the setting snn. See above, p. 146. fBoth are reproduced in Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities. But I would warn against the explanations in Spanish of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. They are the work ofsome ignorant and careless clerk, who often applies the explanation of one plate and date to another, through sheer negligence. EXPLANATION OF HIEROGLYPHS. 281 . 00 Fig. 2. Extract from the Vatican Codex. You will observe the sign of the year, the rabbit, shown merely by his head for brevity. The ten dots which give its number are beside it. Immediately beneath is a curious quadruped with what are intended as water-drops dripping from him. The animal is the hedge-hog and the figure is to be construed iconomatically , that is, it must be read as a rebus through the medium of the Nahuatl lan- guage. In that language water is atl, in composition a, and hedge-hog is uitzotl. Combine these and you get ahuitzotl, or, with the reverential termination, ahuitzotzin. This was the name of the ruler or emperor, if you allow the word, of ancient Mexico before the accession to the throne 282 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. of that Montezuma whom the Spanish conquistador Cortes put to death. His hieroglyph, as I have described it, is well known in Mexican codices.* Returning to the page from the chronicle, we observe that the hieroglyph of Ahuitzotzin is placed immediately over a corpse swathed in its mummy cloths, as was the custom of interment with the highest classes in Mexico. This signi- fies that the death of Ahuitzotzin took place in that year. Adjacent to it is the figure of his successor, his name icono- matically represented by the head-dress of the nobles; the tecuhtli, giving the middle syllables of ' ' Mo-fe^, anAhilppiz, measuring rods {Ml, a species, of cane, and ppiz, to measure. Dice. MotuV). On this as a unit, the customary land measure was based. It was the kaan, one shorter, hun kaan tah ox zapalche, a kaan of three zap, and one longer, hun kaan tah can zapal- che, a kaan of four zap. The former is stated to be thirty- 438 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. six fathoms square, the latter forty-eight fathoms square. Twenty kaan made a vinic, man, that amount of land being considered the area requisite to support one family in maize. The uncertainty about this measure is increased by the evident error of Bishop Landa, or more probably his copyist, in making the vinic equal to 400 square feet, which even in the most favored soils would never support a family. He probably said "400 feet square," which in that climate would be sufficient. The kaan is said by Spanish writers to be equal to the Mexican mecate, which contains 5184 square feet. I acknowledge, however, that I have not reconciled all the statements reported by authors about these land measures. Greater measures of length are rarely mentioned. Jour- ne3'S were measured by lub, which the Spaniards translated "leagues," but by derivation it means "resting places," and I have not ascertained" that it had a fixed length. The Mayas were given to the drawing of maps, and the towns had the boundaries of their common lands laid out in definite lines. I have manuscripts, some dated as early in 1542, which describe these town lands. In mo.st of them only the courses are given, but not the distances. In one, a title to a domain -in Acanceh, there are distances given, but in a measure quite unknown to me, sicina, preceded by the numeral and its termination indicating_ measures, Milucppiz sicina, eleven sicinas.* The maps indicate relative position only, and were evi- dently not designed by a scale, or laid off in proportion to distance. The distinguished Yucatecan antiquary, the Rev. ^Acanceh Cheltun, Titulo de un solar y Monte in Acanceh, 1767, MvS. METRICAL STANDARDS. 439 Don Crescendo Carrillo, in his essay on the cartography of the ancient Mayas,* apparently came to the same conclusion, as he does not not mention any method of measurement. I do not know of any measurements undertaken in Yuca- tan to ascertain the metrical standard employed by the an- cient architects. It is true that Dr. Augustus LePlongeon asserts positively that they knew and used the metric system, and that the metre and its divisions are the only dimensions that can be applied to the remains of the edifices, t But apart from the eccentricity of this statement, I do not see from Dr. !LePlongeon's own measurements that the metre is in any sense a common divisor for them. From the linguistic evidence, I incline to believe that the oc, the foot, was their chief lineal unit. This name was also applied to the seventh day of the series of twenty which made up the Maya month; and there may be some connec- tion between these facts and the frequent recurrence of the number seven in the details of their edifices. J THE CAKCHIQUELS. The root-word for measuring length is, in Cakchiquel, et. Its primitive meaning is, a sign, a mark, a characteristic. From this root are derived the verbal etah, to measure length, to lay out a plan, to define limits; etal, a sign, mark, * Geografia Maya. A nales del Museo Nadonal de Mexico, Tomo ii, p. 435. f'The metre is the only measure of dimension which agrees with that adopted by these most ancient artists and architects,"— Dr. Le Plongeon, Mayapan ayid Maya Inscriptions, in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April, 1881. X Nearly all the monuments of Yucatan bear evidence that the Mayas had a pre- dilection for the number seven," etc. Le Plongeon, Vestiges of the Mayas, p. 63 (New York, 18S1). Of course, this may have other symbolic meanings also. 440 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. limit; etabal, measuring field; etamah, to know, i. e., to re- cognize the signs and characters of things; etamanizah, to cause to know, to teach, to instruct, etc. My authorities do not furnish evidence that the Cakchi- quels used the foot as the unit of measurement, differing in this from the Mayas. They had, however, like the latter, a series of measurements from the ground to certain points of the body, and they used a special terminal particle, bem (pro- bably from be, to go^, ' ' up to' ' to indicate such measure- ments, as vexibem, up to the girdle (vex, girdle, i, connective, bem, up to, or "it goes to"). These body measures, as far as I have found them named, are as follows : quequebem, from the ground to the knee. ru-vach a, from the ground to the middle of the thigh; lit- erally "its front, the thigh," ru, its, vach, face, front, a, the muscles of the thigh).) vexibem, from the ground to the girdle, vex. qaalqaxibem, from the ground to the first true ribs. kulim, from the ground to the neck {kul). The more exact Cakchiquel measures were derived from the upper extremity. The smallest was the finger breadth, and was spoken of as one, two, three, four fingers, han ca, cay ca, ox ca, cah ca {ca = finger). This was used in connection with the measure called tuvzc, the same that I have described as the Maya kok, obtained by closing the hand and extending the thumb. They combined these in such expressions as ca hivic raqin han ca, two tuvics with (plus) one finger breadth.* * Coto, Diccionario de la Lengua Cakchiquel, MS. CA.ICCHIQUEL MBASURES. 44I The span of the Cakchiquels was solely that obtained by extending the thumb and fingers and including the space between the extremities of the thumb and middle finger. It was called qutu, from the radical qui, which means to show, to make manifest, and is hence akin in meaning to the root et, mentioned above. The cubit, chiimay, was measured from the point of the elbow to the extremities of the fingers. We are expresslj^ informed by Father Goto that this was a customary building measure. ' ' When they build their houses they use this cubit to measure the length of the logs. They also measure ropes in the same manner, and say, Tin chiiviaih retaxic riqam, I lay out in cubits the rope with which I am to measure." The difierent measures drawn from the arms were : chimiay, from the elbow to the end of the fingers of the same hand. hahmehl, from the elbow to the ends of the fingers of the opposite hand, the arms being outstretched. telen, from the point of the shoulder of one side to the ends of the fingers of the outstretched arm on the other side. izam telen, from the point of the shoulder to the ends of the fingers on the same side. Tzam means nose, point, beak, etc. ru vach qux, from the middle of the breast to the end of the outstretched hand. hah, from the tips of the fingers of one hand to those of the other, the arms outstretched. Another measure was from the point of the shoulder to the wrist. 442 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. The hah, or fathom, was one of the units of land measure, and the corn fields and cacao plantations were surveyed and laid out with ropes, qam, marked off in fathoms. The fields are described as of five ropes, ten ropes, etc., but I have not found how many fathoms each rope contained. Another unit of land measure in frequent use was the tnaaoh. This was the circumference of the human figure. A man stood erect, his feet together, and both arms ex- tended. The end of a rope was placed under his feet and its slack passed over one hand, then on top of his head, then over the other hand, and finally brought to touch the be- ginning. This gives somewhat less than three times the height. This singular unit is described by both Varea and Goto as in common use by the natives. There were no accurate measures of long distances. As among the Mayas, journeys were counted by resting places, called in Cakchiquel uxlam'bal, literally "breathing places," from uxla, the breath, itself, a derivative of the radical ux\ to exist, to be, to live, the breath being taken as the most evident sign of life. There was originally no word in Cakchiquel meaning "to weigh," as in a balance, and therefore they adopted the Spanish peso, as tin pesoih, I weigh. Nor, although they constructed stone walls of considerable height, did they have any knowledge of the plumb line or plummet. The name they gave it even shows that they had no idea what its use was, as they called it "the piece of metal for fastening to- gether," supposing it to be an aid in cementing the stone work, rather than in adjusting its lines.* *Coto, Dicclonario, M.S., s. v. " Ploma de albanil." methods of measuring. 443 The Aztecs. In turning to the Mexicans or Aztecs, some interesting problems present themselves. As far as I can judge by the Nahuatl language, measures drawn from the upper extrem- ity were of secondary importance, and were not the bases of their metrical standards, and, as I shall show, this is borne out by a series of proofs from other directions. The fingers, mapilli, appear to have been customary measures. Thej' are mentioned in the early writers as one equal to an inch. The name mapilli, is a synthesis of maitl, hand, dLudpilli, child, offspring, addition, etc. The span Avas called miztetl or miztitl, a word of obvious derivation, meaning "between the fingernails," from iztetl, finger nail. This span, however, was not like ours, from the extremity of the thumb to the extremity of the little finger, nor yet like that of the Cakchiquels, from the extremity of the thumb to that of the middle finger, but like that now in use among the Mayas (see above), from the extremity of the thumb to that of the index finger.* There were four measures from the point of the elbow ; one to the wrist of the same arm, a second to the wrist of the opposite arm, a third to the ends of the fingers of the same arm, and the fourth to the ends of the fingers of the oppo- site arm, the arms always considered as extended at right angles to the body. The terms for these are given some- what confusedly in my authorities, but I believe the follow- ing are correct. I. From the elbow to the wrist of the same arm ; cemmat- * " Cuanto se mide con el pulgar y el indice." Molina, Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana. 444 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. zotzopatzli, "a little arm measure," from ce, a, one, ma from maitl, arm or liand, tzotzoca, small, inferior, patsoa, to make small, to diminish. 2. From the elbow to the wrist of the opposite arm, cem- mitl, an arrow, a shaft, from ce, and mitl, arrow, this dis- tance being the approved length of an arrow. We may- compare the old English expression, a "cloth-yard shaft." 3. From the elbow to the ends of the iingers of the same arm, cemmolicpitl, one elbow, ce, one, molicpitl, elbow. This is the cubit. 4. From the elbow to the ends of the fingers of the oppo- site arm. The following were the arm measures : Cemafolli, from the tip of the shoulder to the end of the hand (cifjOne, ma^oa, to extend the arm). Cemmatl, from the tip of the fingers of one hand to those of the other. Although this word is apparently a synthesis of cf, one, maitl, arm, and means "one arm," it is uniformly rendered by the early writers una braza, a fathom. Cenyollotli, from the middle of the breast to the end of the fingers (ce, one, yollotl, breast). It is known that the Aztecs had a standard measure of length which they employed in laying out grounds and con- structing buildings. It was called the octacatl, but neither the derivation of this word, nor the exact length of the measure it represented, has been positively ascertained. The first syllable, oc, it will be noticed, is the same as the Maya word for foot, and in Nahuatl xocopalli is ' ' the sole of the foot." This was used as a measure by the decimal system, and there were in Nahuatl two separate and apparently AZTEC MEASUJIES. 445 original words to express a meastire of ten foot-lengths. One was : Matlaxocpallatamachiualoni, which formidable synthesis is analyzed as follows : matla, from matlactli, ten, xocpal, from xocpalli, foot-soles, tamachiuia, to measure (from machiotl, a sign or mark, like the Cakchiquel etal), /, for lo, sign of the passive, oni, a verbal termination "equivalent to the I^atin bills or dus."* Thus the word means that which is measur- able by ten foot-lengths. The second word was matlacyxitlatamachiualoni. The composition of this is similar to the former, except that in the place of the perhaps foreign root xoc, foot, yxill, foot, is used, which seems to have been the proper Nahuatl term. As these words prove that the foot-length was one of the standards of the Aztecs, it remains to be seen whether they enlighten us as to the odacail. I quote in connection an in- teresting passage by the native historian, Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl in his Historia Chichimeca, published in Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexico (Vol. ix., p. 242). Ixtlilxochitl is describing the vast communal dwelling built by the Tezcucan chieftain Nezahualcoyotl, capable of accom- modating over two thousand persons. He writes : ' ' These houses were in length from east to west four hundred and eleven and a half [native] measures, which reduced to our [Spanish] measures make twelve hundred and thirty-four and a half yards {varus), and in breadth, from north to south three hundred and twenty- six measures, which are nine hundred and seventy-eight yards." * Carochi, Arte de la Lengua Mextcana, p. 123. 446 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. This passage has been analyzed by the learned antiquary, Senor Orozco y Berra.* The native measure referred to by Ixtlilxochitl was that of Tezcuco, which was identical with that of Mexico. The yard was the vara de Burgos^ which had been ordered to be adopted throughout the colony by an ordinance of the viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. This vara was in length 0.838 metre, and, as according to the chronicler, the native measurement was just three times this (41114 X 3= i234>^, and 326 X 3 = 978), it must have been 2.514 metre. This is equal in our measure to 9.842 feet, or, say, nine feet ten inches. This would make the odacatl identical with those long- named ten-foot measures, which, as I have shown, were multiples of the length of the foot, as is proved by an analy- sis of their component words. This result is as interesting as it is new, since it demon- strates that the metrical unit of ancient Mexico was the same as that of ancient Rome — the length of the foot-print. Some testimony of another kind may be brought to illus- trate this point. In 1864, the Mexican government appointed a commission to survey the celebrated ruins of Teotihuacan, ander the care of Don Ramon Almaraz. At the suggestion of vSefior Orozco, this able engineer ran a number of lines of construc- tion to determine what had been the metrical standard of the builders. His decision was that it was "about" met. 0.8, or, say, 315-^ inches.! This is very close to an even * Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de la Conguisia de Mexico, Tomo i, pp. 557-8, {Mexico, 1880). \Memoria de los Trabajos efecuiadns por la comision scieniifica de Pachuca en elatio MOUiND-BUILDEES' MEASURES. 447 third of the odacatl, and would thus be a common divisor of lengths laid off by it. I may here turn aside from my immediate topic to com- pare these metrical standards with that of the Mound-Build- ers of the Ohio valle}'. In the American Antiquarian, April, 1881, Prof. W. J. McGee applied Mr. Petrie's arithmetical system of "induc- tive metrologjf " to a large number of measurements of mounds and earthworks in Iowa, with the result of ascer- taining a common standard of 25.716 inches. In 1883, Col. Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, analyzed eighty-seven measurements of Ohio earthworks by the method of even divisors and concluded that thirty inches was about the length, or was one of the multiples, of their metrical standard.* Moreover, fifty-seven per cent, of all the lines were divisi- ble without remainder by ten feet. How much of this may have been owing to the tendency of hurried measurers to average on fives and tens, I cannot say; but leaving this out of the question, there is a probability that a ten foot-length rule was used by the "mound-builders" to lay out their works. It may not be out of place to add a suggestion here as to the applicability of the methods of inductive metrology to American monuments. The proportions given above by Ixtlilxochitl, it will be noted, are strikingly irregular de 1861, p. 357, quoted by Orozco. Almaraz's words are not at all precise: " la unidad lineal, con pequenas modificacicnes, debio ser cosa de o. m 8, 6 cuatro palmos proximamente." « The Metrical Standard of the Mound-Builders. Reduced by the Method of Even Divisors. By Col. Chas. Whittlesey (Cleveland, 1S83). 448 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. (4.11)4, 326). Was this accident or design? Very likely the latter, based upon some superstitious or astrological motive. It is far from a solitary example. It recurs every- where in the remarkable ruins of Mitla. "Careful atten- tion," says Mr. Louis H. Ayme, "has been paid to make the whole asymmetrical. * * * This asymmetry of Mitla is not accidental, I am certain, but made designedly. M. Desir6 Chamay tells me he has observed the same thing at Palenque. ' ' These examples should be a warning against placing implicit reliance on the mathematical procedures for obtaining the lineal standards of these forgotten nations.* Whatever the lineal standard of the Aztecs may have been, we have ample evidence that it was widely recognized, very exact, and officially defined and protected. In the great market of Mexico, to which thousands flocked from the neighboring country (seventy thousand in a day, says Cortes, but we can cut this down one-half in allowance for the exaggeration of an enthusiast), there were regularly ap- pointed government officers to examine the measures used by the merchants and compare them with the correct stand- ard. Did they fall short, the measures were broken and the merchant severely punished as an enemy to the public weal.f The road-measures of the Aztecs was by the stops of the carriers, as we have seen was also the case in Guatemala. In Nahuatl these were called neceuilli, resting places, or * Notes on Mitla, in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April, 1882, P-97- fSee Herrera, Decadas de Indias, Dec. ii, Lib. vii, cap. xvi, and Dec. iii, Lib. iv. cap. xvii. " Castigaban mucho alque falseaba medidas, diciendo que era enemigo de todos i ladron publico," etc. WEIGHTS UNKNOWN. 449 netlatolli, sitting places ; and distances were reckoned nu- merically by these, as one, two, three, etc., resting places. Although this seems a vague and inaccurate method, usage had attached comparatively definite ideas of distance to these terms. Father Duran tells us that along the highways there were posts or stones erected with marks upon them showing how many of these stops there were to the next market-towns — a sort of mile-stones, in fact. As the com- petition between the various markets was very active, each set up its own posts, giving its distance, and adding a curse on all who did not attend, or were led away b}' the superior attractions of its rivals.* So far as I have learned, the lineal measures above men- tioned were those applied to estimate superficies. In some of the plans of fields, etc., handed down, the size is marked by the native numerals on one side of the plan, which are understood to indicate the square measure of the included tract. The word in Nahuatl meaning to survey or measure lands is tlalpoa, literally "to count land," from tlalli land, poa to count. The Aztecs were entirely ignorant of balances, scales or weights. Cortes says distinctly that when he visited the great market of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, he saw all articles sold by number and measure, and nothing by weight.f * " Habian terminos seiialados de cuantas leguas habiau dc acudir 4 los mercados," etc. Dieg-o Duran, Historia de la Nueva Espaiia, Vol. ii, pp, 215, 217. Both the terms in the text are translated legua in Molina's Vocabnlary, so that it is probable that the resting places were something near two and a half to three miles apart, f " Todo lo venden por cuenta y medida, excepto que fasta agora no se ha visto vender cosa alguna por peso." Cartas y Relaciones de Hernan Cortes, p. 105. (Ed. Gayangos.) 29 450 ESSAYS OF AN AMERICANIST. The historian Herrera confirms this from other authorities, and adds that when grass or hay was sold, it was estimated by the length of a cord which could be passed around the bundle.* The plumb-line must have been unknown to the Mex- icans also. They called it temetztepilolli, ' ' the piece of lead which is hung from on high," from temetzli, lead, andipiloa, to fasten something high up. I^ead was not unknown to the Aztecs before the conquest. They collected it in the Provinces of Tlachco and Itzmiquilpan, but did not esteem it of much value, and their first knowledge of it as a plum- met must have been when they saw it in the hands of the Spaniards. Hence their knowledge of the instrument itself could not have been earlier. The conclusions to which the above facts tend are as fol- lows : 1. In the Maya system of lineal measures, foot, hand, arid body measures were nearly equally prominent, but the foot unit was the customary standard. 2. In the Cakchiquel system, hand and body measures were almost exclusively used, and of these, those of the hand prevailed. 3. In the Aztec system, body measurements were unim- portant, hand and arm measures held a secondary position, while the foot measure was adopted as the official and obli- gatory standard both in commerce and architecture. * " Teiiiau nielida para todas .las cosas; hastala ierva, que era tauta, quanta se podia atar con una cuerda de una braza por un tomin." Herrera. Decadas de Indias, Dec. ii, Lib. vii, cap. xvi. In another passage where this hi.5torian speaks of \veights (Dec. iii, Lib.iv, cap. xvii), it is cue of his not infrequent slips of the pen. INFERENCES. 45 1 4. The Aztec terms for their lineal standard being appa- rently of Maya origin, suggest that their standard was de- rived from that nation. 5. Neither, of the three nations was acquainted with a system of estimation by weight, nor with the use of the plumb-line, nor with an accurate measure of long distances. THE CURIODS HOAX OF THE TAENSA LANGUAGE * ONE might think it a difficult task to manufacture a new language "from the whole cloth;" but, in fact, it is no great labor. We have but to remember that within the last dozen years more than a dozen "world-languages" have been framed and offered for acceptance, and we at once per- ceive that a moderate knowledge of tongues and some lin- guistic ingenuity are all that is required. It is an innocent amusement so long as no fraudulent use is made of the manufactured product ; but the temptation to play a practical joke, and to palm off a deception on over- eager linguists, is as great in languages as it is in archae- ology — and every antiquary knows how suspiciously he has to scrutinize each new specimen. A curious hoax, which deceived some of the best linguists of Europe and America, was perpetrated about a decade ago by two young French seminarists, Jean Parisot and A. Dejouy. Interested by reading Chateaubriand, and by var- ious publications on American languages which appeared in France about that time, they made up a short grammar and a list of words of what they called the Tansa language, from a name they found in Chateaubriand's Voyage en Amerique, and into this invented tongue they translated the I,ord's (452)' THE TAENSA SONG-BOOK. 453 Prayer, the Creed, an Algonkin hymn published in Paris, and other material. At first, the two students pursued this occupation merely as an amusement, but it soon occurred to them that more could be made of it ; so M. Parisot sent a batch of the al- leged "fragments" of the "Tansa" to the piJblishers, Maisonneuve et Cie, Paris, for publication. The manus- cripts were passed over to M. Julien Vinson, editor of the Rivue de Linguistique, who addressed the young author for further particulars. M. Parisot replied that these pieces were copies of originals obtained many years before by his grandfather, from what source he knew not, and on the strength of this vague statement, they duly appeared in the Revue. Their publication attracted the attention of the eminent French linguist, M. I 389- Du Pratz, Lepage, 462. Duran, Diego, 88, 89, 99, 159, 449. Ehrenreich, Paul, 38, 65. Eliot, John, 190. El Siglo que Acaba, 274. Ettwein, J., 183, 191. Faraud, Henry, 21, 394, 395. Fernandez, Alonzo, 124. Finch, Prof., 70. Flint, Earl, 28, 42. Foley, Dr., 57. Fomeri, R. P., 329. Fostermann, Dr. E., 2Qpj 243, 251. Foster, J. W.,,67. Franga, E. F., 430. Gabb, William M., 374-37?- Gage, Thomas, 170. Gallatin, Albert, 88, 100. Garcia y Garcia, Ap. J65. Gatschet, A. S., 75, 454 -s?- Gaya,ngos, P. de, 449. Goethe, J. W. von, 260, 284, 316. Granados y Galvez, I. J., 117. Gravier, P., 462. Guzman, Pantaleon de, 107, 128. Haeckel, E., 390. Hale, Horatio, 35, 393. Hamann, 284. Hamy, E. T., 148, 140, 210, 367. Harpe, M. de la, 77. Hartmann, W., 189. Hartt, Charles F., 380, 382. Haumonte, J. D., 455 sg. Haynes. H. W., 18, 31. Heckewelder, John, 191, 315. Hegel, 403. Henry, V., 405, 467. Herder, 284, 403. Herrera, Antonio de, 89, 91, 92, 448, 450. Hervas, Abbe, 330. Herv6, Georges, 62. Holden, 196, 197. Holguin, R. P., 426, 428. Holmes, W. H., 148. Hovelacque, Abel, 62. Howse, James, 36, 383, 395, 399, 401, 414, 415- Humboldt, Alexander von, 20, 33, 60, 251, 338, 374, 377. Hijmboldt, Wilhelm von, 36, 284, 318, 328-348, 353, 405- Hunter, Archdeacon, 403. Iconographic Encyclopaedia, The, 52. Ixtlilxochitl, F., 84, 87, 90, 92, 97, 283, 445- Jesuits, Relations des, 78. Jones, C. C, 79, 80. Kalm, Peter, 185. Kane, Paul, 69. Kingsborough, Lord, 84, 87, 90, 99, 155, 210, 221, 231, 251, 280, 445- Kollmann, J., 40. Lacombe, Al.; 131. 364> 366, 4i4- Lafitau, J. F., 69. Landa, Diegode, 119, 127, 159, 166, 199, 227, 240 sg., 256, 257, .265, 438. 472 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND AUTHORITIES. Lang, Andrew, 102. Lelaud, Charles G., 130, 133. Le Plongeon, A., 439. Ivieber, Francis, 355, 357. Ivindstrom, 183. Linnaeus, C, 38, 349. Lizana, Bernardo de, 235, 260, 261. Lower, M. A., 219. Lopez, J. M., 164. Luchan, von, 149. Lund, Dr., 29. Macedo, F. de, 148, 157, 159. MacLean, J. P., 67. Magalhaes, Dr. Couto de, 381, 430. Magio, R. P., 397. Mallery, Garrick, 156, 159. Manuscrito Hieratico, 225. Martyr, Peter, 233. Matthews, Washington, 62, 407. McGee, W. J., 447. Meigs, James A., 63. Mendoza, Gumesindo, 59. Michel, F., 21. Mitre, Bartolome, 26, 27. Molina, Alonso de, 93, 325, 41S, 443- Montesinos, H., 23. Monti gny, M. de, 462. Montoya, Ruiz de, 381-5, 398, 400, 429. Morgan, Lewis A., 44, 45, 60. Morgues, Le Moyue de, 75. Morse, E. G., 60. Mortillet, G. de, 390, 391. Motolinia, P., 85, 99. Motul, Diccionario de, MS., 119, 127, 177, 250, 325, 421 sq., 435 sg. Miiller, Frederick, 230, 357, 374, 379. 380, 386, 465. MuUer, Max, 338. Narvaez, Pamfilo de, 72. Naxera, Emanuel, 366, 371. Neve y Molina, Luis de, 366, 370, 371- Nikkanoche, Oceola, his narrative, 77- Nogueira, D. C. Da., 381. Nostradamus, Michael, 301. OUanta, Drama of, 300, 425 sq. Olshausen, 149. Orozco y Berra, 23, 84, 87, 90, 95, 196, 210, 231, 277, 282, 446. Ossado, Ricardo, 273. Paredes, R. P., 420. Parisot, J., 452 sq. Penafiel, Antonio, 210. Perez, Francisco, 366, 370. Perez, Pio, 120, 263, 264, 272. Peschel, Oscar, 64. Petit, Pere C, 77. Petitot, Emile, 21, 58, 394, 398, 401. Petrie, Prof., 447. Piccolomini, Count, 367. Pickering, Charles, 33. Pickett, Thomas E., 82. Pierret, Paul, 138. Pimentel, Francisco, 368, 373. Platzmaun, Julius, 58. Ponce, Alonzo, 234, 255. "Popol Vuh," the, 105 sq., 171, 424. Powell, J. W., 68, 319, 358. Pratz, Le Page du, 78. Prescott, W. H., 84. Psalmanazar, George, 462, 466. Putnam, F. A., 53. Rada y Delgada, J. de D., 226, 227. INDEX OF AUTHORS AND AUTHORITIES. 473 Rajeudalala, 146. Ramirez, J. F., 23, 88, 196, 210. Ramusio, 72, note. Raud, S. T., 130. Ranke, Dr., 64. Rau, Charles, 31. Recetarios de Indios, MS., 272. Reichelt, G. H., 430. Registro Yucateco, 164, 263. RenuenkanipfF, A. von, 330. Rink, Heiurich, 287, 289. Romans, Bernard, 78. Rosa, Agostin de la, 326, 366, 420. Rosny, Leon de, 196, 199, 226, 252, 253, 265. Ruiz de Montoya, Antonio, 381 sg. Saint Hilaire, J. G. de, 164. Santa Rosa, Beltran de, 238. Sahagun, Bernardino de, 84, 86, 88, 93, 94, 97, 142, 280, 298. Saz, P., 122. Schasler, Max, 329. Schellhas, Dr., 196, 200, 202. Scherzer, Karl, 114. Schoolcraft, H. R., 69, 133, 294, 354. Schuhmann, T. S., 430. Schweinitz, E. de, 430. Seler, Ed., 196, 244. Sequoyah, 198. Shakespeare, .W., 127, 219, 220, 320. Shea, John G., 386. Short, John T., 67. Simeon, R^mi, 94, 283. Smith, Spencer, 81. Solana, Alonso de, 235. Soriano, Juan G., 373- Sosa, F. de P., 164. Sotomayor, Damaso, 272, 277. Sotomayor, J. de Villagutierre de, 239. 247. Spinoza, B., 411. Squier, E. G., 69, 81, 133. Steinen, Karl von den, 34. Steinthal, H., 329, 355, 390, 403. Stephens, J. L., 164, 16S, 263. Stoll, Dr. Otto, 35, 100, log, 112, 122, 423. Storm, Gustav, 22. Strebel, M. H., 275. Suagimoto, K., 151. Tanner, John, 157. Tapia Zenteno, Carlos de, 423. Taylor, S., 70. Ten Kate, Dr. H. F. C, 66. Testera, Jacobo de, 233. Tetlapan Quetzauitzin, 299. Teza, E., 332- Tezozomoc, A., 23, 89, 93, 143, 283. Thavenet, AbbS, 332. Thiel, B. A., 375, 379. Thomas, Cyrus, 82, 106, 200, 204, 230, 269. Timberlake, Lieutenant, 71. Tolmie, W. F., 396. Topiuard, Paul, 64. Torquemada, J. de, 94, 234. Tro y Ortolano, Juan de, 252. Tschudi, J. J. von, 365, 397, 404. Uricoechea, E., 400, 401. Vaca, Cabeza de, 72. Valades, D., 206. Valentini, P. J. J., 197, 227, 228, 243. 263, 375. Varea, Francisco, 106, no, 129,442. Vedas, the, 142. Vega, Garcilasso de la, 73, 77. Veitia, E., 84, 90, 97. 474 INDEX OF AUTHORS AND AUTHORITIES. Vico, R. P., Iio.t ^ Villacanas, Benito de, 107. Villalpando, R- P., 250. Villagutierre Soto.-Mayorj Juan de, 239, 247. Vinson, Julien, 453, 467. Virchow, Rudolph, .63, 64, 153, 158. Waitz, Thee, 260. Waldeck, Baron de, 254. "Whitney, William D., 327. Whittlesey, Charles, 447.. Williams, Roger, 131. Winkler, Heinrich, 58, 350, 351, 386, 399. Winsor, Justin, 18. Woodham, 219. Worsaae, J. J. A., 153, 158. Wuttke, Dr., 250J 252. Wyman, Jeffries, 28. Ximepez, Francisco, 105, iii, etc. Zegarra, G. Pacheco, 426. Zeisberger, D., 187, 189. Zetina, I/ic. ,164^ 172^ 175. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. AbaSeenga, language, 381. Abipones, language of, 336. Abundance, the house of, 145. Acheron, the river of Hades, 141. Acolhuacan, 86. Acozpa, hieroglyph of, 224. Adjectives, absence of, 405. Adjidjiatig, or grave posts of Chip- eways, 228. Age of Iron, Bronze, and Stone, 49- Agglutination in language, 340, 361. Ahau katuns .of Mayas, 264, 268, 269. Ahkul Chel, a Maya priest, 248. Ahpu, magicians, 118. Ah-raxa-lak, a sacred name, 117. Ah-raxai-sel, a sacred name, 117. Ahuitzotzin, Emperor of Mexico, 281-3. Akahal tribe, 423. Algonkin grammar, remarks on, 190, 364, 366. Algonkin language, extension ©f, 35; radicals of, 36, 332, 400; "love words" in, 413. Algonkins, hero-god of, 130-134. Algonkin stock, area of, 311. Algonkin tribes, their "grand- father," 184 ; as mound-builders, 70 ; legendary origin of, 24. Alliteration, rare in primitive poe- try, 285. Allibamons, 71. Alphabet, of Cherokees, 199; of Valades, 200 ; in early speech, 393 ; of Landa, 199, 240-245 ; of Chinese, etc., 214. Alternating consonants, 398. Amenti, the Egyptian Hades, 137. American languages, tenacity of, 35 ; diversity pf, 35 ; traits of, 36 ; study of, 37, 308 sgr. American Indians, origin of, 17. Anahuac, 84. Analtes, sacred books of Itzas, 239. 247- Andover, a rebus of, 223. Animals, transformation into, 114, 170, 171. Animate and inanimate conjuga- tions, 406. Animism, doctrine of, 117. Anthropoid apes, not found in America, 43. Anthropology, classification in, 349- Apaches, language of, 35, 394. Apalacha, fabulous description of, 76. Apap, god of evil, in Egypt, 137. Araucanian language, 398. Araucanians, skulls of, 39. (475) 476 INDEX OP SUBJECTS. Arawacks, tribe, 40; language, 430. Argillite implements, 41. Arithmetic of Mayas, 268. Arizona, ruins in, 25. Arrhenic gender, 406. Arrow, in Lenape, 183. Arrow heads, ancient forms of, 31. Arrow-release, the American, 60. Arsut, a song of 290. Art, American, wholly indigenous, 60. Arthur, King, story of, 130, 142. Artificial shell-heaps, age of 27. Aryan languages, the, 312, 323, 344, 358 ; dialects, alleged, in America, 59; nations, mythol- ogy of, 141. Assumptive arms, in heraldry, 219. Astrology, native Yucatecan, 259. Astronomic cycles of Mexicans and Mayas, 23. Asymmetry, intentional, 448. Athapascan language, the, 21, 58, 394 ; extension of the, 35 ; ele- ments of, 36. Atecpanamochco, 86. Atlantis, the fabled, 43. Atoyac, the river, 86. Auroral gods, iii, 113. Autochthony of American culture, 60. Avalon, the Isle of, 142. Aymarian depression in American skulls, 62. Azteca or Aztecs, 85, 87, 367. Aztec calendar explained, 276-9 ; codices, 221 ; love songs, 295-7 ; war songs, 298 ; year cycles of, 159, see Nahuatl, Mexican. Aztlau, derivation of, 88. Bacab, Maya deities, 173. Baf&n's Land, natives of, 286. Balam, meaning of, 128, 25S ; the Maya prophet, 248. Balams, Maya deities, 172-176. Ball play in Mexico, 89. Banana, not an American plant, 33, 34- Basque language, the, 316, 351. Bat, as a totemic animal, 114. Baures, language of, 397. Beard in American Indians, 39. Being and Not-Being, in language, 401. Biceitas, tribe, 375. Bilderschrift, 207. Birds as winds, 123, 175 ; symbol- ism of, 169, 179. Bi-sexual diyinities, 96, 109. Blackfeet, myths of, 131. Black-tail, a fabulous snake, 178. Blood, in myths, 114, 124. Blowpipe, use of, 109. Blue, as sacred color, 95, Ii8. Boat of the Sun, 138 ; of Charon, 141. Bokol k'otoch, a Maya imp, 178. Bones, collection of, 78. Book, Maya word for, 247. Books of Chilan Balam, 255 sqq. Books of Mayas described, 232, 235. 237. Bolivia, tribes of, 397, 405. Boruca language, the, 375 sq. Botocudos, traits of, 38, 39, 40, 65. Bow-and-arrow, modern use of, 31, 183. Brachycephalism in America, 63. Brazil, designs of pottery from, I57> 159 ; mound-builders from, 67 ; ethnology of, 38, 40 ; Ian- INDEX OF STJBJECTS. 477 guages of, 380 sgt., 428 sg'.; shell heaps in, 28. Bri-bri language, the, 374 stf. Bronka or Brunka language, 375 sq. Bronze, Age of, 49, 50. Brush-net, use of, 184. Buenos Ayres, archaeology of, 31, 40. Buffalo, Lenapi name for, 184. Burial customs, 75, 77, 78, 119. Burial mounds in Florida, 75. Cabecar language, the, 375 sg. Cabrakan, god of earthquakes, 121, 122. Cachis, tribe, 375. Cahokia, pyramid at, 81. Cakchiquels, totemic animals, 114; language, 35, 104, 106, 107, 345, 347. 37°! 423 ; lineal measures of, 433, 439 ; -writing of, 228. Cakulha-Hurakan, a Quiche god, 120, 121. Calaveras skull, the, 40. Calculiform writing expl ained, 243 , 253- Calendar, mystic relations of, 99, 129; of Mexicans, 276-8; the Quiche-Cakchiquel, 129 ; of the Taensas, 469. California, languages of, 386; auriferous gravels of, 31 ; re- mains from, 40. Campeachy, Bay of, 233. Canals, ancient, in Florida, 73. Canek, chief of Itzas, 239. Cannibalism, unknown in Yuca- tan, 235. Canoes, manufacture of, 185. Cantico, meaning of, 187. Canting arms, in heraldry, 218. Capaha, the village of, 73. Caracaracol, a Haytian divinity, 116. Cardinal points, sacred characters, 154, 161, 166, 167, 172, 175 ; signs for in Maya, 203. Carib language, 331, 337. Caribs, mythology of, 123. Carvara, the dog, 141. Catarrhine monkeys not found in America, 43. Ceh Pech, a province of Yucatau, 233- Central America, poetry of, 288. Centzon Huitznahua, the, 94. Cerberus, the dog, 141, 146. Chiapas, dialects of, 420. Cincalco, in Aztec myth, 145. Civilization, centers of, 61. Chac, Maya deities, 173. Chahta-Muskokee family, the, 71, 79- Chahta tribes, the, 80, 81 ; see Choctaws. Chan Pal, a Maya imp, 177. Chapallan, Lake, 88. Chapanec language, 398. Charon, the ferryman, 141. Chelles, objects from, 32. Cherokees, wars with Iroquois, 69; as mound-builders, 71, 82 ; al- phabet, 198. Che Vinic, a Maya ogre, 176. Chibcha language, 400. Chicagua, a village, 73. Chichen Itza, 254, 302. Chichimecs, tribe, 90, 298. Chicomoztoc, land of, 23. Chikasaws, 71. Chilan, signification of, 258, 260, 272 ; prophecy of, 303. 478 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Chilan Balara, books of, 255. Chile, languages of, 398. Chimalman, the virgin, 96. Chinese, alphabet of, 214, 215 ; lan- guage, the, 323, 336 ; supposed presence in America, 59 ; phil- osophy and symbolism, 150, 151. Chipi-cakulha, a Quiche god, 120. Chipeways, build mounds, 70 ; myths of, 131. Chipeway pronouns, 324 ; picto- graphy, 228. Chipeways, their "grandfather," 188. Chipeway love song, 294 ; love words, 418. Chipped Stone, period of, 50. Chiquita language, 405. Chirakan Xmucane, a Quiche goddess, 122. Choctaws, 24, 71, 77, 461 ; see Chahta. Choctaw language, the, 364. Chronological system of Mayas, 263. Chumayel, book of, 248, 257, 291. "Chunk yards" of the Creeks, 76. Clark's Works, mounds at, 81. Classification of languages, 339. Coatepetl, the, 86, 89. Coatlan Tonan, an Aztec goddess, 94- Codices, the existing Maya, 250. Coatlicue, an Aztec goddess, 94, 95. Colhua, Colhuacan, 85. Color of American Indians, 39, 61. Colors in races of men, 38 ; pho- netic value in hieroglyphs, 223 ; symbolism of, 166, 167. Columbian gravel, relics found in, 53- Communal burial, 78. Communal dwellings, 185, 445. Conjunctions, in American lan- guages, 345, 404. Connecticut, Indian names ifl, 309. Consonants, alternating, 398 ; sig- nificance of, 394. Copan, calendar stone from, 155, 254- Coptic, ancient, 215, 402. Cordova, Hernandez de, his ex- pedition, 232. Cortes, H., his conquest, 280, 282. Costa Rica, age of shell-heaps in, 28, 31 ; languages of, 374 sq. Counter-sense in language, 401. Courous, tribe, 77. Coyote, as sacred animal, 112. Cozumel, island of, 232. Cranial characteristics of red race, 62, 63. Craniologic data from the mojinds; 82. Cranioscopic formulas of Ameri- can Indians, 40. Cree, language, 21, 363, 383, 395, 401, 403 ; love words in, 413. Crees, myths of, 131. Creeks, 24, 71, 76. Criteria of languages, 336. Cross, as a sacred symbol, 148 sqq. Cubit, as a measure, 441. Cukulkan, 84. Culcalkin, a Maya ogre, 177. Culture-heroes, American, 130. Cycles, of Aztecs and Mayas, 159, 264. Dakotas, 79 ; winter counts of, 159 ; dialects, 407. Dawn, master of the, 113. IPfDRX OF StrBjBCTS. 479 Day-maker, the, iii, 129. Days, signs of, in Maya MSS., 270. Death, prognostics of, 169 ; lord of, 170 ; primitive notion of, 143; river of, 147. Deer, as totemic animal, 114, 128. Delaware, State, discoveries in, 32, 53- Delaware river, relics from, 41, 53. Delaware Indians, see LenapS. D^ne Dindji^, tribe, 21 ; language, 395- Dependent clauses, 404. Determinatives, their use in writ- ing, 2 1 5. Devil, words for, 126. Diluvial epoch, human remains in, 29. Divination, by beans, 118; by thorns, 94 ; by stones, 165. Diviners, of Mayas, 165. Dogs, as sacred animals, 140, 141, 144, 146. Dresden, the Maya MS. at, 250. Dwarfs, fabulous, of Mayas, 177. Dyes used by the Mayas, 246. Earth, the heart of the, ii6. Ego, phonetic element of; 396. Egyptian theory of the soul, 136- 140 ; hieroglyphic origin of, 216 ; alphabet, 217. Eight, as sacred number, 140, 146. Ekoneil, a fabulous snake, 179. Elephant, the American, 32. Elysium, fields of, 141. Epicanthus, in America, 64. English language, the, 336. Epochs of the Palseolithic Period, 51- Bscamela, inscribed stoiie at, 274. Eskimo, skulls of, 63 ; physical traits of, 65 ; songs of, 286-290 ; language, 58, 538, 340. Etowah valley, mound in, 80. Eye, oblique or Mongolian, in America, 63, 64. Fac-simile of Lauda's MS., 242. Father, the great, 175. Feathers, as symbolic ornaments, Ii5. Female line, hereditary, 189. Fire, earliest knowledge of, 391 ; festival of, among Mayas, 168. Fish, the, in Aztec calendar, 283. Fishing, ancient methods of, 184 Fleur-de-lys, origin of, 220. Flores, island, capture of, 239. Florida, ancient mounds in, 73, 75, 77 ; shell heaps in, 28, 31 ; lim- onite skeletons from, 41. Folk-lore of Yucatan, 163 ; of L,en- ap6, 181. Food-plants of native Americans, 33- Foot, as measure of length, 434 sq. , 444. Four, as sacred number, 140, 146, 157- Four Ages of World, 161. Four hundred, meaning of, 94. Friendship, native words for, 420, 428. Fuegians, appearance of, 39 ; lan- guage, 338. Games, of Lenap^, 186. Generation, gods of, 120. Georgia, antiquities in, 80. Ghosts, superstitions about, 127. Giant bisoUj the American, 41, note. 48o INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Giaut Grab, 176 ; Stone of the, 274 sq. Glacial age in North America, date of, 41, 44, 54 ; ill South America, 42, 55. Gluskap the Liar, a Micmac hero 130. Grammatic forms, origin of, 331. Grammatical categories, the, 405. Graphic S5'stems, phonetic ele- ments of, 195 sg. Graphic system of Mayas, 245. Greek language, the, 344, 348. Green, as a color symbol, 118. Greenland, poetry from, 287-290. Grijalva, Juan de, his expedition, 232. Guadalajara, University of, 326. Guarani, language, 35, 380 sg., 398, 399, 400 ; love words in, 428. Guarayos, bearded Indians, 39, note. Guatemala, dialects in, 104 ; tribes of, 105, 420. Gucumatz, derivation of, 1 16 ; transformations of, 171. Gucumatz Catulia, a king, 114. Guiana, shell-heaps in, 31 ; eth- nology of, 39, 40. Gulf States, antiquities of, 72-80. Hades, derivation of, 141 ; descent to, 125-6. Hair, of American Indians, 62 ; of the Sun-god, 99, 140, 146 ; long, as symbol, 146, 280. Hare, the Great, 132. Harmachis, Egyptian divinity, 138. Hatchet, burying the, 71. Haj'ti, mythology of, 116, 121. "Heart of the Lake," a sacred name, 116. Heart, as a symbol, 117. Hell, -words for, 126, 127 ; descent to, 123-130. Hemenway Exploring Expedition, 25- Heraldry, methods of, 218, 219. Hermapolis, eight gods of, 140. Hesperides, garden of the, 142. Hidatsa language, 407. Hieroglyphs, Maya, 201, 265-7. Hog, the. as a god, 113. Holophrasis, explained, 322, 354 sq. Homo alalus, the, 390-392. Homophones in languages, 198, 215, 216. Hooks, used in fishing, 184. Horus, the Egyptian, 138. Horse, Delaware word for, 321; fossil, in America, 31, 32, 42. Houses, of beams, 97 ; communal, 185. Huasteca language, the, 221, 331, 343 ; love words in, 422. Hueman, an Aztec hero-god, 96. Huguenots, settlement of, 74. Huitzilopochtli, an Aztec god, 85, 88 ; derivation of, 95 ; birth of, 96 ; temple of, 25. Huitznahua, Aztec divinities, 94, 95- Human species, divisions of, 38. Humor, among native Americans, 2S8. Huu-ahpu, birth of, 125. Hun-ahpu-utiu, derivation, 112. Hun-ahpu-vuch, derivation of, 109. Hun-came, a Quiche god, 124. Hunhun-ahpu, a Quiche god, 124. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 481 Hunting, ancient methods of, 184. Hunyecil, meaning of, 237. Hurakan, god of the storm, 120- 123. Hurons, burial customs, 69. Hurricane, derivation of, 121, 122; lord of, 167. Ichcanziho, ancient name of Mer- ida, 233. Ideograms in phonetic writing, 197 ; of Mayas, 248. Idols of Lenape, 187 ; of Itzas, 240; priest of, 248. Idols, superstitions concerning, 177. Ikonographic writing, 213. Ikonomatic method of phonetic writing, 86, 89, 207, 211, 213-229, 281. Illinois, archaeology of, 40, 81. Implements, simple and com- pound, 30. 51, 52. Inca bone, the, 62. Incas of Peru, false lists of, 23. Incorporative character of Ameri- can languages, 36. Incorporation, explained, 321, 340, 341, 352-357. 403- Indo-Aryans, myths of, 146. Industrial art in ancient America, 29. loskeha, Iroquois hero-god, 130. Iron, Age of, 49, 50. Iroquois, 24, 68, 69 ; Ivcnape name for, 184. Itza, town in Yucatan, 302. Itzamul, temples of, 236. Itzamna, hero-god of Mayas, 238. Itzas, the tribe of, 239. Iztimquilpan, hieroglyph of, 223. 31 Jaguar, as sacred animal, 12S. Japanese writing, 231. Jesuits, settlement near Savannah, 76. Jew, Book of the, 273. Jonaz language, the, 368. Katun, lord of the, 249 ; of Mayas, 260. Katuns, of Mayas, 159. Kaua, Book of Chilan Balam of, 268. Kentucky, archaeology of, 82. Khetsua language, see Qquichua. Kiches, see Quiches. Kichigouai, Algonkin divinities, III. Kin Ich, a Maya deity, 170. Kinich-ahau, hero-god of Mayas, 238. Kioways, songs of, 293. Klamath language, the, 321, 398. Koouak, Mt., poem about, 290. Kitchen-middens, in America, 27. Labrador, natives of, 311. Lacandon, province of, 239. Lagoa Santa, skulls from, 40. La Naulette, jaw from, 390. Language, ethnologic value of, 193 ; origin of, 390. Languages discussed : See tribal names. Laws of Thought, 402. Lead, known to Mexicans, 450. Leif Erikson, his voyage, 22. Left hand, as stronger, 95. Legends, value in savage tribes, 24. Lenape, Folk-lore of the, 181 ; derivation of, 183. 482 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Lenape dialect, pronunciation of, iSg ; grammar of, 190, 191, 313. Letters, single, significant, 394. Life, the Tree of, 161. Light, the mother of, 119; divin- ity of, 112, 129. Lightning, as a deity, 121, 133, 174. Lingoa Geral, of Brazil, 380. Limonite skeletons from Florida, 41- Lineal measures, American, 433 sg. Lingviistic stocks, number of in America, 34 ; origin of, 392. Lithuanian dialect, the, 316. Lorelei, an American, 178. Love, songs of, 293-7 ; concep- tions of in American languages, 410 sg., definition of, 432. Lule language, the, 331, 342. Mbaya language, the, 331, 342, 343- Mackenzie River, tribes of, 35. Madrid, Maya MSS. at, 253. Maguey, the, a sacred plant, 88 ; paper, 253. Maize, origin and extension of, ^^i- Malayan race, the, 349. Malinalxochitl, an Aztec goddess, 88. Mammoth, remains of, 32. Manabozho, a Chipeway hero, 131. 133- Man, not developed in America, 43 ; oldest remains of, in Amer- ica, 53 ; a singing animal, 2S4 ; subdivisions of, 348. Manco Capac, his date, 22. Mandioca, a native food-plant, 33. Manhattan, derivation of, 183. Mani, the Book of Chilan of, 264. Manuscripts in Maya characters, 250. Mapachtepec, hieroglyph of, 222. Maps of Mayas, 438. Markets, Mexican, 449. Marriage song, 460. Masks, used in rites, 114, 187. Mass, the field, 165. Maya language, the, 181, 345 ; love ■words in, 420 ; civilization, 84 ; witch story, 171 ; year-counts, 159 ; phonetic characters, 199 , hieroglyphic system, 227, 228 ; Mayas, ancient, writings and rec- ords of, 230-254 ; earliest ances- tors of, 24 ; the, traditions of, 22 ; conversion of, 164 ; folk-lore of, 162 ; burial customs of, 119; lineal measures of, 434 ; maps of, 438. Mayacimil, meaning of, 237. Mayapan, ancient city of, 239. Maya-Quiche linguistic stock, 104. Mazahua language, the, 368, 372 sg. Meco language, the, 368. Meconetzin, a name of Quetzal- coatl, 88. Meday magic, figures in, 157. Meda sticks of Chipeways, 228. Medical practice among Dela- wares, 187. Medicines of the Mayas, 272. Medicine-songs, native, 292. Mengwe, name of Iroquois, mean- ing of, 184. Merida, ancient ruins at, 26, 233. Messier Mound, the, 80. Messianic hope, among natives, 183. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 483 Messou, see Michabo. Meta river, tribes of, 329. Metrical standards, native, 446-8. Mexcalla, an island, 88. Mexi Of Mexica, 85, 87. Mexican phonetic writing, 205. Mexitl, an Aztec chief, 88. Mexico, ancient, 23, 84, 88, 282 ; human remains in, 42. Mexican grammar, 324, 341, 344, 346. See Aztec, Nahuatl. Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 85. Micmacs, mythology of, 130. Michabo, a Chipeway deity, 131, 132-4. Michoacan, 88. Mictlan, the Aztec Hades, 143. Mictlantecutli, the Aztec Pluto, 145: Migration, lines of in America, 44, 45- Minsi tribe, 181 ; derivation of, 189. Mississippi, the, 74, 77. Mitla, ruins of, 448. Mixteca language, the, 331, 345. Mongolian affinities, alleged, of the American race, 56. Mongolian eye, the, in America, 63. Mongoloid traits in Americans, 38, 39> 56- Monosyllabism in languages, 215. Montejo, Francisco de, 233. Montezuma, his hieroglyphs, 208, 209, 282 ; his forebodings, 302. Montezuma, Rio de, 86. Months, hieroglyphs of, of Mayas, 265-7. Moon, origin of, 125. Moraines, the line of, in North America, 54. Motexiczomatzin, 283. Mound-Builders, their nationality, 67; their metrical standard, 447. Mounds in Ohio and Mississippi valleys, age of, 27. Mural paintings, of Mayas, 254. Muskokees, 71, 75. Mutsun language, 386 sq. Mythology, interpretations of, loi. Nabula, the book of, 259. Nagualism, in Central America, 170. Nahua oUin, the, 161. Nahuatl hieroglyphs, dictionary of, 210; geographic names, 210; lineal measures, 444. Nahuatl language, 23, 59, 205, 363, 366, 399 ; love words in, 417. Nahuas, tribes of, 22, 85, 418. See Aztecs, Mexicans. Names, bestowal of, 114. Nanabojoo, a Chipeway hero, 131. Nanahuatl, an Aztec divinity, 116. Nanih Waiya, the Sloping Hill, 80. Nanticokes, native name of, 189. Napiw, a Blackfoot hero, 131. Nasal index in American Indians, 39. 64. Natchez, 71, 77, 78, 463. Navaho language, 394. Nebraska, ancient lake-beds of, 31. Nenaboj, a Chipeway hero, 131. Neolithic period, the, 30, 51. New England Indians, 131. Newfoundland, natives of, 311. New Granada, tribes of, 330 ; lan- guages, 400. New Jersey, archseology of, 32, 53- New Mexico, ruins in, 25. 484 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. New York State, earth-works in, 69. Nezahualcoyotl, a chief, 445. Nicaragua, ancient human foot- prints in, 42. Night, master of the, 113. Nim-ak, meaning of, 113. Nine Waters, river of, 143. Nith songs of Eskimo, 287. Norsemen, myths of, 142. North Pacific coast, tribes of, 65. Northmen, voyages of, 22, note. Nova Scotia, discovered by North- men, 22. Nun, the celestial river, 137, 139. Numbers, sacred or mystic, 99. See Four, Seven, Twelve, etc. Numerals, deficiency of, 326. Numeration, Maya signs of, 268 ; words for, 406. Oblique eye as racial trait, 39, 63, 64. Obsidian found in Ohio, 32. Occipital bone in American skulls, 62. Ocelotl, or jaguar, in myths,. 128. Ocnakuchil, meaning of 237. Ogier the Dane, 142. Ohio, mounds in, 27, 67-81 ; ob- sidian in, 32. Ojibway picture writing, 153, 154. Offogoula, tribe, 77. OUanta, drama of, 300. Omagua language, 405. Oriental symbols in America, 148 sqq. Origin of language, 317. Orinoco, tribes of, 405. Orizaba, inscribed stone at, 274. Orosi, natives at, 375. Os Incse, the, in Americans, 62. Osiris, the Egyptian god, 137-140. Otchipwe language, the, 364. Otherness, how expressed, 396. Otomis, or Othomis, the tribe, 117 : war songs, 298. Otomi language, the, 59, 366 sq. Ouspie, tribe, 77. Owl, superstitions concerning, 114, 169. Pacaha, a province, 74. Paducas, tribe of, 291. Pah ah tun, Maya deities, 166, 173. Paloeoliths, American and other, 48. Palaeolithic period, the, 30, 51, 39°- Palaeolithic man, his habitat, 54 ; language, 390 sq. Palenque, the ruins of, 26, 84, 126, 254, 448. Palpan, a place name, 87. Pame language, the, 368, 373. Pampas, lacustrine deposits of, 31 ; skulls from, 40. Papa, name of Quetzalcoatl, 99. Paper of Maya MSS., 253. Paradise, the Aztec, 144. Patagonians, height of, 39. Patine, as a sign of age, 51. Pavant Indians, the, 321. Pawnees, poetry of, 291-2. Pech, a Maya priest, 302. Pennsylvania, ancient works in, 70 ; Indian names in, 309 ; relics . found in, 53. Penobscots, mythology of, 130. Personality, idea of in language, 320. Peru, ruined cities of, 26. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 485 Peruvians, language of, 397 ; songs of, 300. Peten, Lake, conquest of, 239. Petroglypli, near Orizaba, 274. Philosophy of language, 32S. Phonetic elements, origin of 393, Phonetics of Mexican and Maya writing, 195. Phoneticism in writing, origin of, 216. Picture writing, 213, 231 ; Ojib- ways, 153, 154, 228 ; of Mexi- cans, 221 sg. Pirinda language, the, 368, 372. Pisote, the white, 113. Pleasure, physiological principle of, 285. Pleistocene epoch, human remains in, 29. Plumed serpents, house of, 97. Plummet, unknown in America, 442> 450. Pluto, the Greek god, 141. Poetry, native American, 284 sg. Pokonchi dialect, the, 104, 112. Polished stone, period of, 50. Polychromatic hieroglyphs, 223. Polynesians, alleged migrations of, 18, 43. Polysynthesis, explained, 36, 321, 351 sq. Pontemelo, ancient skull»from, 40. Pop, name of a Maya month, 249. Popol vuh, the, 105 sg. Potato, the, its extension, 33. Pottery, designs on, 157, 159 Lenape, 185. Pound-the-stones, Miss, 179. Prehistoric archaeology, 392. Prepositions, in American guages, 345. of Ian- Pronominal languages, 320. Pronouns, in American languages, 396-8. Proper names, in early times, 218. Prophecies of Mexicans and Ma- yas, 302. Pueblo Indians, 25, 87. Pulque, liquor made from, 254. Quetzalcoatl, 24, 84.5^.; baths of, 86 ; absent, 145. Quiches, myths of, 104 sg., 124, 171 ; dialect of the, 104, 423 ; king of, 114; lineal measures of, 433 ; writing of 228 ; sacred book of 105 sg., 171. Qquichua language," the, 346, 365, 425 ; traditions, 22 ; love-words in, 425 sg. Qux cah, a sacred name, 116. Qux cho, a sacred name, 116, 120. Qux palo, a sacred name, ii5. Ra, the stm-god, 137, 140. Rabbit myths, 112, 132, 179, 276. Races of men, 348. Rain, the gods of, 175. "Rakau," meaning of, 122. Rattlesnake bites, cure for, 188. ' ' Rax, ' ' in Quiche, meaning of, 118. Raxacakulha, a Quiche god, 120. Rebus, method of writing by, 211, 215, 219. Red, as sacred color, 144, 166, 176. Refref, serpent in Egyptian myth, 137- Relative pronouns, in American languages, 346. Religious sentiment, the, 432. • Remedies, native, 272. 486 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Repetition, in poetry, 285. Reprodiictive principle, worship of, 119. Rhyme, unknown in native poe- try, 285. Ring-cross, the, 158. Rio de Montezuma, 85. Rio de Tula, 86. Ritual of the dead, in Egypt, 139. Rituals of Mayas, 247. River, the celestial and infernal, 137-145. Rock Bluff, skulls from, 40. Rosetta stone, the, 218. St. Augustine, Florida, 74, 75, 77. St. John River, 74. St. Louis, "big mound" at, 81. San Isidro, stone relics from, 391. Sacred book of the Quiches, 105, 107. Saliva, in myths, 124. Salouge, an ogre, 176. Salt, magic power of, 171. Sanscrit language, the, 340, 344, 415 ; alleged affinity with Na- liuatl, 57. Sambaquis, shell heaps in Brazil, 28, 29. Sarbacane, the, log. Sauteus, language of, 400. Savacon, a Carib deity, 123. Schipka cave, bones from, 390. Sciences of the Mayas, 245. Seminoles, 71, 77. Semitic traditions, supposed in America, 21. Serpent, as sacred animal, 116, 132, 133- Serpent mount, the, 86. Serpent, fabulous, of Mayas, 179. Seven, as sacred number, 124, 129, 171, 439- Seven Caves, land of the, 23. Sex distinctions in grammar, 406. Shell-heaps, the age of, 27 ; in Florida, Tennessee, Costa Rica, Brazil, 28 ; in Gulf States, 72. Shooting stars, in myths, 174. Shoshonian family, languages of, 23. Signatures of natives, 234. Skin, color of, in American In- dians, 39. Skull, shape of, in Americans, 63. Skulls, types of, in Brazil, 29. Sky, soul of the, 120. Snake-Hill, the, 86. Sodomy, not found in Yucatan, 235- Sonora, languages of, 23. Soto, Hernando de, his expedi- tion, 72, 74. Soul, seat of, 117; food of the, 168 ; Journey of the, 135-145. Sound-writing, 213, 230. Span, as measure, 441. Speech, earliest form of, 390 sq. Speechless man, 390-392. Spiral, development of the, 159, note. Spittle, as genetic fluid, 124. Squaw, word for, 181. Stars', origin of, 125. Stature of American Indians, 39. Stone, age of, its subdivisions, 50 ; survivals of, 183. Stone and brick edifices, 25. Stone of the Giants, 274 sq. Stone implements, oldest speci- mens, 391. Stone, the clear, divination by, 165. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 487 Stones, adoration of, 40; column of, 70. Storm, Quiche gods of, 120. Straw bird, the, 179. Sun-god, Aztec myth of, 116; in Yucatan, 167. Sun, origin of, 125; worship in Egypt, 137-140; in America, 146; in picture writing, 156-8. Sun worship in Apalacha, 76 ; "brother of," 77, 78 ; the mother of, 119; four motions of, 157, i5i ; worship, 170; place of the, 93 ; creation of, 95 ; rays of in symbolism, 146, 280. Svastika, the, as a symbol, ii\S,sgg. Sweat lodge, of Lenap^, 187. Syllabic writing, 231. Symbols, phonetic, 197; the sacred, in America, 149 sgg. Symbolic writing, 213. Syncope in American languages, 371- Syphilis, sacred associations of, 115, 116, 144. Taensa language, the hoax of, 452 sg. Ta Ki, a Chinese symbol, 148 sgg. Tales, Indian, 182. Tamauaca language, the, 331. Tamaulipas, Sierra of, 295. Tampa Bay, mound at, 75. Tamuch, a Huasteca town, 221. Tarascas, a tribe, 228. Tat Acmo, a Maya deity, 175. Tata Polin, a Maya sprite, 170. Tat Ich, a Maya sprite, 170. Tennessee River, shell heaps on, 28. Tenochtitlan, 25, 85, 100. Tenochtitlan, state of, 23, 283. Teotihiiacan, ruins of, 446. Tepeu, sacred name, meaning of, "5- Terminos, Bahia de, 232. Terraba language, the, 375 sg. Tertiary, human remains in, 43. Tezcatlipoca, 85, 90 ; the black and white, 96 ; contests of, 98. Tezcuco, State of, 23, 25, 86, 445. Tezcucans, the, 367 ; philosophy of, 154. Thirteen, as sacred number, 161, 167. T'Ho, native name of Merida, 26. Thought-writing, 213, 230. Three-legged figures, 149. Thunder, in m\tholog3', 174. Tiahuanaco, ruins near, 26. Tiger, as totemic animal, 114, 128. Time, idea of, absent, 404. Time-wheel, Mexican, 160, 161. Timuquana tribe, 75. Tin, use of, 86. Tinne language, 35, 394, 400. Tiribi language, the, 375 sg. Titicaca, Lake, ruins near, 26. Tlacopan, State of, 23, 299. Tlalocan, the Aztec Paradise, 144. Tlalocs, Aztec rain-gods, 144. Tlamapa, hieroglyph of, 225. Tlapallan, the place of colors, 87. Tlapan, hieroglyph of, 224. Tobacco, its origin and extension, 33- Tollan, 93. TollanatI, the, 86, 96. Toltecs, supposed mound-builders, 67 ; their fabulous history, 24, 83-100 ; their mythical home,. 145- 488 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Tomahawk, word for, 183. Tomaka, a town, 77. Tonacatecutli, an Aztec god, 96. Tonalau, the sunny place, 93. Topiltzin, kuig of Tula, 84. Totem marks, as autographs, 234. Totemic deities, 88, 113, 114; di- visions of Lenape, 189. Tradition, permanence of, in sav- ages, 22. Transitions in verbs, 370. Tree of Life, in Maya and Mexican art, 161. Trenton gravels, objects discov- ered in, 32, 53. Trepanned skulls from Peru, 188. Trephining, among the LenapS, 188. Tribute rolls of ancient Mexicans, 231. Triplicate constitution of things, 154- Triple division of the human race, 57- Triquetrum, as a symbol, 149 sqq. Triskeles, a sacred symbol, 149 sqq. Tucurrique, tribes at, 375. Tula, the story of, 83-100 ; deriva- tion, 93. Tupi, the language, 323, 343, 380 sq., 400 ; love words in, 428. Turanian languages, 58. Turtle totem of LenapS, 189. Twins, the divine, 125. Twelve, as sacred number, 187. Tzendal dialect, 126. Tzontemoc, Aztec deity, 146. Tzontemoc mictlan tecutli, 278-9. Tzutuhil dialect, the, 104, 434. Ila ua pach, a Maya god, 176. Ucita, a town in Florida, 75. Underworld, the, in Quiche myth, 125 ; in other tribes, 128. Uniter, the Great, 150. Unwritten languages, study of, 305- Ural-Altaic languages, 58. Ursua, General, expedition of, 239. Usumasinta, river, 126. Ute language, the, 323. Utlatlan, a Quiche city, 124. Vaku, a Quiche god, 123. Valladolid, in Yucatan, 236, "Vancouver's Island, tribes on, 22 ; black slate from, 32. Vara, Spanish, length of, 436, 446. Verb, the American, 347, 405. Verb, in Algonkin grammar, igo. Vineland, its position, 22, note. Virginia, antiquities of, 70. Virginia, West, Cherokees in, 82. Virgin-mother, the myths of, 95, 96, 124, 125. Visuaires, primitive men were, 408. Vizeitas, tribe, 375. Vowels, permutable, 398 ; signifi- cance of, 394. Vuch, the opossum, etc., iii. Vukub-came, a Quiche god, 124. Vukub-hun-ahpu, a Quiche god, 124. Wampum, use among LenapS, 188. Warraus, height of, 39. War clubs, 183. War Songs of Aztecs, 299 sq. War-whoop, name for, 184. Way cot, a Maya imp, 178. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 489 Weighing, unknown in America, 434, 449- West, as abode of souls, 141- 144. West Indies, no palaeolitlis in, 42, 55; native tribes of, 310. Wetucks, a hero-god, 131. Wheels, of Mayas, for computing time, 264. Wheel-cross, the, 158. White, as sacred color, 113, 132, 166, 186, 188. Wigwams of Lenape, 185. Winds, the gods of, 123, 175. Winter-counts, of Dakotas, 139. Wisakketjak, a Cree hero, 131, 132. Wives, buying, 424. Wooden utensils of Lenape, 185. Woods, the Man of the, 176. Words, number of in American tongues, 325. Writing,, different methods of, 213, 230. Xbalanque, the Quiche hero-god, 123-129. Xbolonthoroch, a Maya imp, 178. Xkanleox, a Maya goddess, i56. Xibalba, the Quiche Hades, 84, 123-129. Xipacoyan, a river, 86. Xmucane, a Quiche goddess, 118, 119, 122, 124. Xocotitlan, a place name, 93. Xochicalco, hieroglyph of, 282. Xpiyacoc, a Quiche deity, 118, 119, 124. Xquiq, the Virgin mother, 124. Xtabai, a Maya sprite, 178. Xthol Chaltun, a Maya sprite, 178. Yancopek, a Maya imp, 178. Yasous, tribe, 77. Ycasqui, a province, 74. Year counts, of natives, 159, 160. Yellow, symbolism of, i65, 167. Yin and Yang, 151. Yucatan, ancient, 302 ; folk-lore of, 163 ; dialects in, 104 ; civili- zation of, 84 ; ruins in, 26 ; le- gendary peopling of, 24. Yum cimil, a Maya divinity, T69. Yurari, the language, 329. Zaki-nim-ak, name of a god, 113. Zaki-nami-tzyiz, 113. Zapote, superstition concerning, 169. Zapotecs, a Mexican tribe, 228. Zaztun, the, of Mayas, 165. Zohol chich, a phantom bird, 179. Zuiiis, the, 108.