American Hero-Myths: A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent

The waters ebb, the eagles fly,
Snatch the fish from out the flood.

"Once again the wondrous runes,
Golden tablets, shall be found;
Mystic runes by Aesir carved,
Gods who ruled Fiolnir's line.

"Then shall fields unseeded bear,
Ill shall flee, and Balder come,
Dwell in Odin's highest hall,
He and all the happy gods.

"Outshines the sun that mighty hall,
Glitters gold on heaven's hill;
There shall god-like princes dwell,
And rule for aye a happy world."

[Footnote 1 (#x2_x_2_i56): Alfredo Chavero, La Piedra del Sol, in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tom. II, p. 247.]

[Footnote 2 (#x2_x_2_i59): Chavero, Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tom. II, p. 14, 243.]

[Footnote 3 (#x2_x_2_i59): Historia de las Cosas de Nueva España, Lib. VII, cap. II.]

[Footnote 4 (#x2_x_2_i59): "La barba longa entre cana y roja; el cabello largo, muy llano." Diego Duran, Historia, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 260.]

[Footnote 5 (#x2_x_2_i61): "Coatecalli, que quiere decir el templo de la culebra, que sin metáfora quiere decir templo de diversos dioses." Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España, cap. LVIII.]

[Footnote 6 (#x2_x_2_i62): Becerra, Felicidad de Méjico, 1685, quoted in Veitia, Historia del Origen de las Gentes que poblaron la América Septentrional, cap. XIX.]

[Footnote 7 (#x2_x_2_i62): In the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," Ra, the Sun-God, says, "I am a soul and its twins," or, "My soul is becoming two twins." "This means that the soul of the sun-god is one, but, now that it is born again, it divides into two principal forms. Ra was worshipped at An, under his two prominent manifestations, as Tum the primal god, or more definitely, god of the sun at evening, and as Harmachis, god of the new sun, the sun at dawn." Tiele, History of the Egyptian Religion, p. 80.]

[Footnote 8 (#x2_x_2_i63): Sir George W. Cox, The Science of Comparative Mythology and Folk Lore, pp. 14, 83, 130, etc.]

[Footnote 9 (#x2_x_2_i64): Gerónimo de Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana. Lib. II, cap. XIX.]

[Footnote 10 (#x2_x_2_i67): "Papachtic, guedejudo; Papachtli, guedeja o vedija de capellos, o de otra cosa assi." Molina, Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana. sub voce. Juan de Tobar, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 259, note.]

[Footnote 11 (#x2_x_2_i68): Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xvi.]

[Footnote 12 (#x2_x_2_i70): Moyocoyatzin, is the third person singular of yocoya, to do, to make, with the reverential termination tzin. Sahagun says this title was given him because he could do what he pleased, on earth or in heaven, and no one could prevent him. (Historia de Nueva España, Lib. III. cap. II.) It seems to me that it would rather refer to his demiurgic, creative power.]

[Footnote 13 (#x2_x_2_i70): All these titles are to be found in Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España.]

[Footnote 14 (#x2_x_2_i71): The description of Clavigero is worth quoting: "TEZCATLIPOCA: Questo era il maggior Dio, che in que paesi si adorava, dopo il Dio invisible, o Supremo Essere. Era il Dio della Providenza, l' anima del Mondo, il Creator del Cielo e della Terra, ed il Signor di tutle le cose. Rappresentavanlo tuttora giovane per significare, che non s' invecchiava mai, nè s' indeboliva cogli anni." Storia Antica di Messico, Lib. vi, p. 7.]

[Footnote 15 (#x2_x_2_i72): Sahagun, Historia, Lib. ii, cap. xxxvii.]

[Footnote 16 (#x2_x_2_i73): Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 257.]

[Footnote 17 (#x2_x_2_i75): Sahagun, Historia. Lib. vi, caps. ix, xi, xii.]

[Footnote 18 (#x2_x_2_i76): Señor Alfredo Chavero believes Tezcatlipoca to have been originally the moon, and there is little doubt at times this was one of his symbols, as the ruler of the darkness. M. Girard de Rialle, on the other hand, claims him as a solar deity. "Il est la personnification du soleil sous son aspect corrupteur et destructeur, ennemi des hommes et de la nature." La Mythologie Comparée, p. 334 (Paris, 1878). A closer study of the original authorities would, I am sure, have led M. de Rialle to change this opinion. He is singularly far from the conclusion reached by M. Ternaux-Compans, who says: "Tezcatlipoca fût la personnification du bon principe." Essai sur la Théogonie Mexicaine, p. 23 (Paris, 1840). Both opinions are equally incomplete. Dr. Schultz-Sellack considers him the "Wassergott," and assigns him to the North, in his essay, Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Bd. xi, 1879. This approaches more closely to his true character.]

[Footnote 19 (#x2_x_2_i77): Torquemada, Monarquía Indiana, Lib. XIV, cap. XXII.]

[Footnote 20 (#x2_x_2_i79): The chief authorities on the birth of the god Quetzalcoatl, are Ramirez de Fuen-leal Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, Cap. i, printed in the Anales del Museo Nacional; the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, and the Codex Vaticanus, both of which are in Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities.

[Footnote 21 (#x2_x_2_i82): The names Cipactli and Cipactonal have not been satisfactorily analyzed. The derivation offered by Señor Chavero (Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p.116), is merely fanciful; tonal is no doubt from tona, to shine, to warn; and I think cipactli is a softened form with the personal ending from chipauac, something beautiful or clear. Hence the meaning of the compound is The Beautiful Shining One. Oxomuco, which Chavero derives from xomitl, foot, is perhaps the same as Xmukane, the mother of the human race, according to the Popol Vuh, a name which, I have elsewhere shown, appears to be from a Maya root, meaning to conceal or bury in the ground. The hint is of the fertilizing action of the warm light on the seed hidden in the soil. See The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths, Trans. of the Amer. Phil. Soc. 1881.]

[Footnote 22 (#x2_x_2_i88): The name Chichimeca has been a puzzle. The derivation appears to be from chichi, a dog, mecatl, a rope. According to general tradition the Chichimecs were a barbarous people who inhabited Mexico before the Aztecs came. Yet Sahagun says the Toltecs were the real Chichimecs (Lib. x, cap. xxix). In the myth we are now considering, they were plainly the stars.]

[Footnote 23 (#x2_x_2_i89): Popol Vuh, Le Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 193.]

[Footnote 24 (#x2_x_2_i90): See H. de Charencey, Des Couleurs Considérées comme Symboles des Points de l'Horizon chez les Peuples du Nouveau Monde, in the Actes de la Société Philologiques, Tome vi. No. 3.]

[Footnote 25 (#x2_x_2_i91): These frightful beings were called the Tzitzimime, a word which Molina in his Vocabulary renders "cosa espantosa ó cosa de aguero." For a thorough discussion of their place in Mexican mythology, see Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, pp. 358-372.]

[Footnote 26 (#x2_x_2_i91): The whole of this version of the myth is from the work of Ramirez de Fuen-leal, which I consider in some respects the most valuable authority we possess. It was taken directly from the sacred books of the Aztecs, as explained by the most competent survivors of the Conquest.]

[Footnote 27 (#x2_x_2_i93): Alfredo Chavero, La Piedra del Sol, in the Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. i, p. 353, et seq.]

[Footnote 28 (#x2_x_2_i93): A.S. Gatschet, The Four Creations of Mankind, a Tualati myth, in Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, Vol. i, p. 60 (1881).]

[Footnote 29 (#x2_x_2_i93): Paul Haupt, Der Keilinschriftliche Sintfluthbericht, p. 17 (Leipzig, 1881).]

[Footnote 30 (#x2_x_2_i100): Gabriel de Chaves, Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan, 1556, in the Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, Tom. iv, pp. 535 and 536. The translations of the names are not given by Chaves, but I think they are correct, except, possibly, the third, which may be a compound of tentetl, lipstone, temictli, dream, instead of with temicti, slayer.]

[Footnote 31 (#x2_x_2_i101): Ixcuina was also the name of the goddess of pleasure. The derivation is from ixtli, face, cui, to take, and na, four. See the note of MM. Jourdanet and Simeon to their translation of Sahagun, Historia p. 22.]

[Footnote 32 (#x2_x_2_i107): Dr. Schultz Sellack, Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden und ihre Tempel in Palenque, in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Bd. xi, (1879).]

[Footnote 33 (#x2_x_2_i111): "Tonalan, ô lugar del sol," says Tezozomoc (Cronica Mexicana, chap. i). The full form is Tonatlan, from tona, "hacer sol," and the place ending tlan. The derivation from tollin, a rush, is of no value, and it is nothing to the point that in the picture writing Tollan was represented by a bundle of rushes (Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 177, note), as that was merely in accordance with the rules of the picture writing, which represented names by rebuses. Still more worthless is the derivation given by Herrera (Historia de las Indias Occidentals, Dec. iii, Lib. i, cap. xi), that it means "Lugar de Tuna" or the place where the tuna (the fruit of the Opuntia) is found; inasmuch as the word tuna is not from the Aztec at all, but belongs to that dialect of the Arawack spoken by the natives of Cuba and Haiti.]

[Footnote 34 (#x2_x_2_i112): The Books of Chilan Balam, of the Mayas, the Record from Tecpan Atitlan, of the Cakchiquels, and the Popol vuh, National Book, of the Kiches, have much to say about Tulan. These works were all written at a very early date, by natives, and they have all been preserved in the original tongues, though unfortunately only the last mentioned has been published.]

[Footnote 35 (#x2_x_2_i112): Sahagun, Historia, Lib. iii, cap. iii.]

[Footnote 36 (#x2_x_2_i112): Duran, Historia de los Indios, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 267.]

[Footnote 37 (#x2_x_2_i115): Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila, Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan. MS. in Cakchiquel, in my possession.]

[Footnote 38 (#x2_x_2_i116): Le Popol Vuh, p. 247. The name Yaqui means in Kiche civilized or polished, and was applied to the Aztecs, but it is, in its origin, from an Aztec root yauh, whence yaque, travelers, and especially merchants. The Kiches recognizing in the Aztec merchants a superior and cultivated class of men, adopted into their tongue the name which the merchants gave themselves, and used the word in the above sense. Compare Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. ix, cap. xii.]

[Footnote 39 (#x2_x_2_i121): Toltecatl, according to Molina, is "oficial de arte mecanica ò maestro," (Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, s.v.). This is a secondary meaning. Veitia justly says, "Toltecatl quiere decir artifice, porque en Thollan comenzaron a enseñar, aunque a Thollan llamaron Tula, y por decir Toltecatl dicen Tuloteca" (Historia, cap. xv).]

[Footnote 40 (#x2_x_2_i121): Their title was Tlanqua cemilhuique, compounded of tlanqua, to set the teeth, as with strong determination, and cemilhuitia, to run during a whole day. Sahagun, Historia, Lib. iii, cap. iii, and Lib. x, cap. xxix; compare also the myth of Tezcatlipoca disguised as an old woman parching corn, the odor of which instantly attracted the Toltecs, no matter how far off they were. When they came she killed them. Id. Lib. iii, cap. xi.]

[Footnote 41 (#x2_x_2_i122): "Discipulos," Duran, Historia, in Kingsborough, vol. vii, p. 260.]