The Myths of the New World

Hist. des Incas, liv. ii. cap. 28, and corrected in Markham’s Quichua Grammar.

230

The latter is a compound of tici or ticcu, a vase, and ylla, the root of yllani, to shine, yllapantac, it thunders and lightens. The former is from tici and cun or con, whence by reduplication cun-un-un-an, it thunders. From cun and tura, brother, is probably derived cuntur, the condor, the flying thunder-cloud being looked upon as a great bird also. Dr. Waitz has pointed out that the Araucanians call by the title con, the messenger who summons their chieftains to a general council.

231

Le Livre Sacré, p. 9. The name of the lightning in Quiché is cak ul ha, literally, “fire coming from water.”

232

Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 158.

233

“El rayo, el relámpago, y el trueno.” Gama, Des. de las dos Piedras, etc., ii. p. 76: Mexico, 1832.

234

Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. vi. cap. 23. Gama, ubi sup. ii. 76, 77.

235

Torquemada, ibid., lib. vi. cap. 41.

236

Senate Report on the Indian Tribes, p. 358: Washington, 1867.

237

Brasseur, Histdu Mexique, i. p. 201, and on the extent of his worship Waitz, Anthropol., iv. p. 144.

238

Oviedo, Hist. du Nicaragua, p. 47.

239

The meda worship is the ordinary religious ritual of the Algonkins. It consists chiefly in exhibitions of legerdemain, and in conjuring and exorcising demons. A jossakeed is an inspired prophet who derives his power directly from the higher spirits, and not as the medawin, by instruction and practice.

240

For these particulars see the Rel. de la Nouv. France, 1667, p. 12, 1670, p. 93; Charlevoix, Journal Historique, p. 344; Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. pp. 420 sqq., and Alex. Henry, Travs. in Canada and the Ind. Territories, pp. 212 sqq. These are decidedly the best references of the many that could be furnished. Peter Jones’ History of the Ojibway Indians, p. 35, may also be consulted.

241

Science of Language, Second Series, p. 518.

242

Dialectic forms in Algonkin for white, are wabi, wape, wompi, waubish, oppai; for morning, wapan, wapaneh, opah; for east, wapa, waubun, waubamo; for dawn, wapa, waubun; for day, wompan, oppan; for light, oppung; and many others similar. In the Abnaki dialect, wanbighen, it is white, is the customary idiom to express the breaking of the day (Vetromile, The Abnakis and their History, p. 27: New York, 1866). The loss in composition of the vowel sound represented by the English w, and in the French writers by the figure 8, is supported by frequent analogy.

243

Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, i. pp. 135-142.

244

The names of the four brothers, Wabun, Kabun, Kabibonokka, and Shawano, express in Algonkin both the cardinal points and the winds which blow from them. In another version of the legend, first reported by Father De Smet and quoted by Schoolcraft without acknowledgment, they are Nanaboojoo, Chipiapoos, Wabosso, and Chakekenapok. See for the support of the text, Schoolcraft, Algic Res., ii. p. 214; De Smet, Oregon Missions, p. 347.

245

Narrative of John Tanner, p. 351.

246

Schoolcraft, Algic Res., i. p. 216.

247

Narrative of John Tanner, p. 354.

248

Compare the Rel. de la Nouv. France, 1634 p. 14, 1637, p. 46, with Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, v. p. 419. Kichigouai is the same word as Gizhigooke, according to a different orthography.

249

The names I8skeha and Ta8iscara I venture to identify with the Oneida owisske or owiska, white, and tetiucalas (tyokaras, tewhgarlars, Mohawk), dark or darkness. The prefix i to owisske is the impersonal third person singular; the suffix ha gives a future sense, so that i-owisske-ha or iouskeha means “it is going to become white.” Brebeuf gives a similar example of gaon, old; a-gaon-ha, il va devenir vieux (Rel. Nouv. France, 1636, p. 99). But “it is going to become white,” meant to the Iroquois that the dawn was about to appear, just as wanbighen, it is white, did to the Abnakis (see note on page 166), and as the Eskimos say, kau ma wok, it is white, to express that it is daylight (Richardson’s Vocab. of Labrador Eskimo in his Arctic Expedition). Therefore, that Ioskeha is an impersonation of the light of the dawn admits of no dispute.

250

The orthography of Brebeuf is aataentsic. This may be analyzed as follows: root aouen, water; prefix at, il y a quelque chose là dedans; ataouen, se baigner; from which comes the form ataouensere. (See Bruyas, Rad. Verb. Iroquæor., pp. 30, 31.) Here again the mythological role of the moon as the goddess of water comes distinctly to light.

251

This offers an instance of the uniformity which prevailed in symbolism in the New World. The Aztecs adored the goddess of water under the figure of a frog carved from a single emerald; or of human form, but holding in her hand the leaf of a water lily ornamented with frogs. (Brasseur, Hist. du Mexique, i. p. 324.)

252

Rel. de la Nouv. France, 1636, p. 101.

253

Rel. de la Nouv. France, 1671, p. 17. Cusic spells it Tarenyawagon, and translates it Holder of the Heavens. But the name is evidently a compound of garonhia, sky, softened in the Onondaga dialect to taronhia (see Gallatin’s Vocabs. under the word sky), and wagin, I come.

254