The Myths of the New World Part 10

[134-2] Humboldt, _Vues des Cordilleres_, p. 21.

[134-3] Spix and Martius, _Travels in Brazil_, ii. p. 247.

[134-4] _Hist. de la Medecine_, i. p. 34.

[134-5] Gama, _Des. de las dos Piedras_, etc., ii. pp. 100-102. Compare Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva Espana_, lib. i. cap. vi.

[135-1] Codex Chimalpopoca, in Bra.s.seur, _Hist. du Mexique_, i. p. 183.

Gama and others translate Nanahuatl by _el buboso_, Bra.s.seur by _le syphilitique_, and the latter founds certain medical speculations on the word. It is entirely unnecessary to say to a surgeon that it could not possibly have had the latter meaning, inasmuch as the diagnosis between secondary or tertiary syphilis and other similar diseases was unknown.

That it is so employed now is nothing to the purpose. The same or a similar myth was found in Central America and on the Island of Haiti.

[136-1] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, 1648, p. 75.

[136-2] Charlevoix is in error when he identifies Michabo with the Spirit of the Waters, and may be corrected from his own statements elsewhere.

Compare his _Journal Historique_, pp. 281 and 344: ed. Paris, 1740.

[137-1] Bradford, _American Antiquities_, p. 833; Martius, _Von dem Rechtszustande unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens_, p. 32; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, i. p. 271.

[138-1] La Vega, _Hist. des Incas_, liv. vi. cap. 9.

[138-2] _Lett. sur les Superst.i.tions du Perou_, p. 111.

[138-3] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. p. 224.

[139-1] Chantico, according to Gama, means "Wolf's Head," though I cannot verify this from the vocabularies within my reach. He is sometimes called Cohuaxolotl Chantico, the snake-servant Chantico, considered by Gama as one, by Torquemada as two deities (see Gama, _Des. de las dos Piedras_, etc., i. p. 12; ii. p. 66). The English word _cantico_ in the phrase, for instance, "to cut a cantico," though an Indian word, is not from this, but from the Algonkin Delaware _gentkehn_, to dance a sacred dance. The Dutch describe it as "a religious custom observed among them before death" (_Doc. Hist. of New York_, iv. p. 63). William Penn says of the Lenape, "their wors.h.i.+p consists of two parts, sacrifice and cantico," the latter "performed by round dances, sometimes words, sometimes songs, then shouts; their postures very antic and differing." (_Letter to the Free Society of Traders_, 1683, sec. 21.)

[139-2] Charlevoix, _Hist. Gen. de la Nouv. France_, i. p. 394: Paris, 1740. On the different species of dogs indigenous to America, see a note of Alex. von Humboldt, _Ansichten der Natur._, i. p. 134. It may be noticed that Chichimec, properly Chichimecatl, the name of the Aztec tribe who succeeded the ancient Toltecs in Mexico, means literally "people of the dog," and was probably derived from some mythological fable connected with that animal.

[140-1] _Narr. of the Captiv. of John Tanner_, p. 362. From the word for fire in many American tongues is formed the adjective _red_. Thus, Algonkin, _skoda_, fire, _miskoda_, red; Kolosch, _kan_, fire, _kan_, red; Ugalentz, _takak_, fire, _takak-uete_, red; Tahkali, _cun_, fire, _tenil-cun_, red; Quiche, _cak_, fire, _cak_, red, etc. From the adjective _red_ comes often the word for _blood_, and in symbolism the color red may refer to either of these ideas. It was the royal color of the Incas, brothers of the sun, and a llama swathed in a red garment was the Peruvian sacrifice to fire (Garcia, _Or. de los Indios_, lib. iv.

caps. 16, 19). On the other hand the war quipus, the war wampum, and the war paint were all of this hue, boding their sanguinary significance. The word for fire in the language of the Delawares, Nantic.o.kes, and neighboring tribes puzzles me. It is _taenda_ or _tinda_. This is the Swedish word _taenda_, from whose root comes our _tinder_. Yet it is found in vocabularies as early as 1650, and is universally current to-day. It has no resemblance to the word for fire in pure Algonkin. Was it adopted from the Swedes? Was it introduced by wandering Vikings in remote centuries? Or is it only a coincidence?

[141-1] Compare D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, i. p. 243, Muller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 51, and Squier, _Serpent Symbol in America_, p.

111. This is a striking instance of the confusion of ideas introduced by false systems of study, and also of the considerable misapprehension of American mythology which has. .h.i.therto prevailed.

[142-1] La Hontan, _Voy. dans l'Amer. Sept._, p. ii. 127; _Rel. Nouv.

France_, 1637, p. 54.

[142-2] Copway, _Trad. Hist. of the Ojibway Nation_, p. 165. _Kesuch_ in Algonkin signifies both sky and sun (Duponceau, _Langues de l'Amer. du Nord_, p. 312). So apparently does _kin_ in the Maya.

[142-3] Payne's ma.n.u.scripts quoted by Mr. Squier in his Serpent Symbol in America were compiled within this century, and from the extracts given can be of no great value.

[143-1] The words for fire and sun in American languages are usually from distinct roots, but besides the example of the Natchez I may instance to the contrary the Kolosch of British America, in whose tongue fire is _kan_, sun, _kakan_ (_gake_, great), and the Tezuque of New Mexico, who use _tah_ for both sun and fire.

[144-1] _Doc. Hist. of New York_, ii. p. 634.

[144-2] Emory, _Milt'y Reconnoissance[TN-6] of New Mexico_, p. 30.

[144-3] _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 161.

[144-4] Loskiel, _Ges. der Miss. der evang. Bruder_, p. 55.

[144-5] _Nar. of John Tanner_, p. 351.

[144-6] Sahagun, _Hist. Nueva Espana_, lib. vi. cap. 4.

[145-1] _Letts. Edifiantes et Curieuses_, iv. p. 104, Oviedo; _Hist. du Nicaragua_, p. 49; Gomara, _Hist. del Orinoco_, ii. cap. 2.

[145-2] Oviedo, _Hist. Gen. de las Indias_, p. 16, in Barcia's _Hist.

Prim._

[145-3] _Presdt's Message and Docs._ for 1851, pt. iii. p. 506.

[146-1] Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva Espana_, i. cap. 13.

[147-1] _Voyage Pittoresque dans le Yucatan_, p. 49.

[147-2] Davila Padilla, _Hist. de la Prov. de Santiago de Mexico_, lib.

ii. cap. 88 (Brusselas, 1625); Palacios, _Des. de Guatemala_, p. 40; Garcia, _Or. de los Indios_, p. 124. To such an extent did the priests of the Algonkin tribes who lived near Manhattan Island carry their austerity, such uncompromising celibates were they, that it is said on authority as old as 1624, that they never so much as partook of food prepared by a married woman. (_Doc. Hist. New York_, iv. p. 28.)

[149-1] Martius, _Von dem Rechtzustande unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens_, p. 28, gives many references.

[149-2] Id. _ibid._, p. 61.

[149-3] _Le Livre Sacre des Quiches_, Introd., pp. clxi., clxix.

[149-4] _Travels in Yucatan_, i. p. 434.

[150-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. pp. 416, 417.

[150-2] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 161.

[151-1] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, 1634, p. 27; Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, ii. p. 116; _Ind. Tribes_, v. p. 420.

[151-2] De Smet, _Western Missions_, p. 135; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, i. p. 319.

[151-3] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 72. By another legend they claimed that their first ancestor obtained his fire from the sparks which a friendly panther struck from the rocks as he scampered up a stony hill (McCoy, _Hist. of Baptist Indian Missions_, p. 364).

[152-1] Mrs. Eastman, ubi sup., p. 158; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv.

p. 645.

[152-2] Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iii. p. 417; Muller, _Am. Urrelig._, p.

271.

[154-1] On the myth of Catequil see particularly the _Lettre sur les Superst.i.tions du Perou_, p. 95 sqq., and compare Montesinos, _Ancien Perou_, chaps. ii., xx. The letters g and j do not exist in Quichua, therefore Ataguju should doubtless read _Ata-chuchu_, which means lord, or ruler of the twins, from _ati_ root of _atini_, I am able, I control, and _chuchu_, twins. The change of the root _ati_ to _ata_, though uncommon in Quichua, occurs also in _ata-hualpa_, c.o.c.k, from _ati_ and _hualpa_, fowl. Apo-Catequil, or as given by Arriaga, another old writer on Peruvian idolatry, Apocatequilla, I take to be properly _apu-ccatec-quilla_, which literally means _chief of the followers of the moon_. Acosta mentions that the native name for various constellations was _catachillay_ or _catuchillay_, doubtless corruptions of _ccatec quilla_, literally "following the moon." Catequil, therefore, the dark spirit of the storm rack, was also appropriately enough, and perhaps primarily, lord of the night and stars. Piguerao, where the g appears again, is probably a compound of _piscu_, bird, and _uira_, white.

Guachemines seems clearly the word _huachi_, a ray of light or an arrow, with the negative suffix _ymana_, thus meaning rayless, as in the text, or _ymana_ may mean an excess as well as a want of anything beyond what is natural, which would give the signification "very bright s.h.i.+ning."

(Holguin, _Arte de la Lengua Quichua_, p. 106: Cuzco, 1607.) Is this sister of theirs the Dawn, who, as in the Rig Veda, brings forth at the cost of her own life the white and dark twins, the Day and the Night, the latter of whom drives from the heavens the far-shooting arrows of light, in order that he may restore his mother again to life? The answer may for the present be deferred. It is a coincidence perhaps worth mentioning that the Augustin monk who is our princ.i.p.al authority for this legend mentions two other twin deities, Yamo and Yama, whose names are almost identical with the twins Yama and Yami of the Veda.

[155-1] _Hist. des Incas_, liv. ii. cap. 28, and corrected in Markham's _Quichua Grammar_.