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

"Having delivered me the presents, he seated himself next to me and spoke as follows:–

"'We have known for a long time, by the writings handed down by our forefathers, that neither I nor any who inhabit this land are natives of it, but foreigners who came here from remote parts. We also know that we were led here by a ruler, whose subjects we all were, who returned to his country, and after a long time came here again and wished to take his people away. But they had married wives and built houses, and they would neither go with him nor recognize him as their king; therefore he went back. We have ever believed that those who were of his lineage would some time come and claim this land as his, and us as his vassals. From the direction whence you come, which is where the sun rises, and from what you tell me of this great lord who sent you, we believe and think it certain that he is our natural ruler, especially since you say that for a long time he has known about us. Therefore you may feel certain that we shall obey you, and shall respect you as holding the place of that great lord; and in all the land I rule you may give what orders you wish, and they shall be obeyed, and everything we have shall be put at your service. And since you are thus in your own heritage and your own house, take your ease and rest from the fatigue of the journey and the wars you have had on the way.'"[131]

Such was the extraordinary address with which the Spaniard, with his handful of men, was received by the most powerful war chief of the American continent. It confessed complete submission, without a struggle. But it was the expression of a general sentiment. When the Spanish ships for the first time reached the Mexican shores the natives kissed their sides and hailed the white and bearded strangers from the east as gods, sons and brothers of Quetzalcoatl, come back from their celestial home to claim their own on earth and bring again the days of Paradise; [132] a hope, dryly observes Father Mendieta, which the poor Indians soon gave up when they came to feel the acts of their visitors.[133]

Such presentiments were found scattered through America. They have excited the suspicion of historians and puzzled antiquaries to explain. But their interpretation is simple enough. The primitive myth of the sun which had sunk but should rise again, had in the lapse of time lost its peculiarly religious sense, and had been in part taken to refer to past historical events. The Light-God had become merged in the divine culture hero. He it was who was believed to have gone away, not to die, for he was immortal, but to dwell in the distant east, whence in the fullness of time he would return.

This was why Montezuma and his subjects received the whites as expected guests, and quoted to them prophecies of their coming. The Mayas of Yucatan, the Muyscas of Bogota, the Qquichuas of Peru, all did the same, and all on the same grounds–the confident hope of the return of the Light-God from the under world.

This hope is an integral part of this great Myth of Light, in whatever part of the world we find it. Osiris, though murdered, and his body cast into "the unclean sea," will come again from the eastern shores. Balder, slain by the wiles of Loki, is not dead forever, but at the appointed time will appear again in nobler majesty. So in her divine fury sings the prophetess of the Völuspa:–

"Shall arise a second time,Earth from ocean, green and fair,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: Alfredo Chavero, La Piedra del Sol, in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tom. II, p. 247.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 5: "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: Becerra, Felicidad de Méjico, 1685, quoted in Veitia, Historia del Origen de las Gentes que poblaron la América Septentrional, cap. XIX.]

[Footnote 7: 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: Sir George W. Cox, The Science of Comparative Mythology and Folk Lore, pp. 14, 83, 130, etc.]

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

[Footnote 10: "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: Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xvi.]

[Footnote 12: 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: All these titles are to be found in Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España.]

[Footnote 14: 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: Sahagun, Historia, Lib. ii, cap. xxxvii.]

[Footnote 16: Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 257.]

[Footnote 17: Sahagun, Historia. Lib. vi, caps. ix, xi, xii.]

[Footnote 18: 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: Torquemada, Monarquía Indiana, Lib. XIV, cap. XXII.]

[Footnote 20: 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: 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: 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: Popol Vuh, Le Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 193.]

[Footnote 24: 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: 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: 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: Alfredo Chavero, La Piedra del Sol, in the Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. i, p. 353, et seq.]

[Footnote 28: 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: Paul Haupt, Der Keilinschriftliche Sintfluthbericht, p. 17 (Leipzig, 1881).]

[Footnote 30: 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: 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: Dr. Schultz Sellack, Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden und ihre Tempel in Palenque, in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Bd. xi, (1879).]

[Footnote 33: "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: 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: Sahagun, Historia, Lib. iii, cap. iii.]

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

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

[Footnote 38: 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: 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: 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: "Discipulos," Duran, Historia, in Kingsborough, vol. vii, p. 260.]

[Footnote 42: Ibid.]

[Footnote 43: For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, see Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, and Veitia, Historia, passion.]

[Footnote 44: "Se metió (Quetzalcoatl) la tierra adentro hasta Tlapallan ó segun otros Huey Xalac, antigua patria de sus antepasados, en donde vivió muchos años." Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol. ix. Xalac, is from xalli, sand, with the locative termination. In Nahuatl xalli aquia, to enter the sand, means to die.]

[Footnote 45: "Dicen que caminó acia el Oriente, y que se fué á la ciudad del Sol, llamada Tlapallan, y fué llamado del sol." Libro. viii, Prologo.]

[Footnote 46: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Hist. de los Mexicanos, cap. viii.]

[Footnote 47: Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. Camaxtli is also found in the form Yoamaxtli; this shows that it is a compound of maxtli, covering, clothing, and ca, the substantive verb, or in the latter instance, yoalli, night; hence it is, "the Mantle," or, "the garb of night" ("la faja nocturna," Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 363).]

[Footnote 48: Codex Vaticanus, Tab. x; Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Pt. ii, Lam. ii. The name is from chalchihuitl, jade, and vitztli, the thorn used to pierce the tongue, ears and penis, in sacrifice. Chimalman, more correctly, Chimalmatl, is from chimalli, shield, and probably, matlalin, green.]

[Footnote 49: Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. vi.]

[Footnote 50: Ibid.]

[Footnote 51: Motolinia, Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Epistola Proemial, p. 10. The first wife was Ilancueitl, from ilantli, old woman, and cueitl, skirt. Gomara, Conquista de Méjico, p. 432.]

[Footnote 52: The derivation of Aztlan from aztatl, a heron, has been rejected by Buschmann and the best Aztec scholars. It is from the same root as izlac, white, with the local ending tlan, and means the White or Bright Land. See the subject discussed in Buschmann, Ueber die Atzekischen Ortsnamen. p. 612, and recently by Señor Orozco y Berra, in Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 56.]

[Footnote 53: Colhuacan, is a locative form. It is usually derived from coloa, to curve, to round. Father Duran says it is another name for Aztlan: "Estas cuevas son en Teoculacan, que por otro nombre se llama Aztlan." Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. i.]

[Footnote 54: Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xxxiii.]

[Footnote 55: See my work, The Myths of the New World, p. 242.]

[Footnote 56: "En esta tierra nunca envejecen los hombres. * * * Este cerro tiene esta virtud, que el que ya viejo se quiere remozar, sube hasta donde le parece, y vuelve de la edad que quiere." Duran, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 201.]

[Footnote 57: Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, p. 330, in Kingsborough, Vol. ix.]

[Footnote 58: In the work of Ramirez de Fuen-leal (cap. viii), Tezcatlipoca is said to have been the discoverer of pulque, the intoxicating wine of the Maguey. In Meztitlan he was associated with the gods of this beverage and of drunkenness. Hence it is probable that the name Meconetzin applied to Quetzalcoatl in this myth meant to convey that he was the son of Tezcatlipoca.]

[Footnote 59: Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. This was apparently the canonical doctrine in Cholula. Mendieta says: "El dios ó idolo de Cholula, llamado Quetzalcoatl, fué el mas celebrado y tenido por mejor y mas digno sobre los otro dioses, segun la reputacion de todos. Este, segun sus historias (aunque algunos digan que de Tula) vino de las partes de Yucatan á la ciudad de Cholula." Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. x.]

[Footnote 60: Historia Chichimeca, cap. i.]

[Footnote 61: Historia, cap. xv.]

[Footnote 62: Sahagun, Lib. ix, cap. xxix.]

[Footnote 63: The name of the bath of Quetzalcoatl is variously given as Xicàpoyan, from xicalli, vases made from gourds, and poyan, to paint (Sahagun, Lib. iii, cap. iii); Chalchiuhapan, from atl, water pan, in, and chalchiuitl, precious, brilliant, the jade stone (id., Lib. x, cap. xxix); and Atecpanamochco, from atl, water, tecpan, royal, amochtli, any shining white metal, as tin, and the locative co, hence, In the Shining Royal Water (Anales de Cuauhtitlan, p. 21). These names are interesting as illustrating the halo of symbolism which surrounded the history of the Light-God.]

[Footnote 64: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, cap. viii.]

[Footnote 65: The original is–

Quetzal, quetzal, no calli,   Zacuan, no callin tapachNo callin nic yacahuaz   An ya, an ya, an quilmach.

Literally–

Beautiful, beautiful (is) my house   Zacuan, my house of coral;My house, I must leave it.   Alas, alas, they say.

Zacuan, instead of being a proper name, may mean a rich yellow leather from the bird called zacuantototl.]

[Footnote 66: It is not clear, at least in the translations, whether the myth intimates an incestuous relation between Quetzalcoatl and his sister. In the song he calls her "Nohueltiuh," which means, strictly, "My elder sister;" but Mendoza translates it "Querida esposa mia." Quetzalpetlatl means "the Beautiful Carpet," petlatl being the rug or mat used on floors, etc. This would be a most appropriate figure of speech to describe a rich tropical landscape, "carpeted with flowers," as we say; and as the earth is, in primitive cosmogony, older than the sun, I suspect that this story of Quetzalcoatl and his sister refers to the sun sinking from heaven, seemingly, into the earth. "Los Nahoas," remarks Chavero, "figuraban la tierra en forma de un cuadrilátero dividido en pequeños quatros, lo que semijaba una estera, petlatl" (Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 248).]

[Footnote 67: Designated in the Aztec original by the name Teoapan Ilhuicaatenco, from teotl, divine, atl, water, pan, in or near, ilhuicac, heaven, atenco, the waterside: "Near the divine water, where the sky meets the strand."]

[Footnote 68: The whole of this account is from the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, pp. 16-22.]

[Footnote 69: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Historia, cap. xx, p. 102.]

[Footnote 70: Sir George A. Cox, The Science of Mythology and Folk Lore, p. 96.]

[Footnote 71: Gabriel de Chaves, Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan, 1556, in the Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, Tom. iv, p. 536.]

[Footnote 72: Titlacauan was the common name of Tezcatlipoca. The three sorcerers were really Quetzalcoatl's three brothers, representing the three other cardinal points.]

[Footnote 73: From teotl, deity, divine, and metl, the maguey. Of the twenty-nine varieties of the maguey, now described in Mexico, none bears this name; but Hernandez speaks of it, and says it was so called because there was a superstition that a person soon to die could not hold a branch of it; but if he was to recover, or escape an impending danger, he could hold it with ease and feel the better for it. See Nieremberg, Historia Naturae, Lib. xiv, cap. xxxii. "Teomatl, vitae et mortis Index."]

[Footnote 74: Toveyome is the plural of toveyo, which Molina, in his dictionary, translates "foreigner, stranger." Sahagun says that it was applied particularly to the Huastecs, a Maya tribe living in the province of Panuco. Historia, etc., Lib. x, cap. xxix, §8.]

[Footnote 75: Huemac is a compound of uey, great, and maitl, hand. Tezozomoc, Duran, and various other writers assign this name to Quetzalcoatl.]

[Footnote 76: Texcalapan, from texcalli, rock, and apan, upon or over the water.]

[Footnote 77: Texcaltlauhco, from texcalli, rock, tlaulli, light, and the locative ending co, by, in or at.]

[Footnote 78: Clarence Mangan, Poems, "The Mariner's Bride."]

[Footnote 79: These myths are from the third book of Sahagun's Historia de las Cosas de Nueva España. They were taken down in the original Nahuatl, by him, from the mouth of the natives, and he gives them word for word, as they were recounted.]

[Footnote 80: For this version of the myth, see Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, caps, v and x.]

[Footnote 81: Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, p. 388, in Kingsborough, vol. ix.]

[Footnote 82: Torquemada gives a long but obscure description of it. Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xiv, cap. xii.]

[Footnote 83: Nieremberg, "De septuaginta et octo partibus maximi templi Mexicani," in his Historia Naturae, Lib. viii, cap. xxii (Antwerpt, 1635). One of these was called "The Ball Court of the Mirror," perhaps with special reference to this legend. "Trigesima secunda Tezcatlacho, locus erat ubi ludebatur pilâ ex gumi olli, inter templa." The name is from tezcatl, mirror, tlachtli, the game of ball, and locative ending co.]

[Footnote 84: "Citlaltlachtli," from citlalin, star, and tlachtli, the game of ball. Alvarado Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana, cap. lxxxii. The obscure passage in which Tezozomoc refers to this is ingeniously analyzed in the Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 388.]