American Hero-Myths

AS--WHENCE IT ORIGINATE

ulture He

AS' SUPPOSED CHRIST MYTH--THE FOUR BACABS--ITZAMNA AS LORD OF THE WINDS AND RAINS--T

lture Hero

N'S HAPPY RULE AND MIRACULOUS DISAPPEARANCE--RELATION TO QUETZALCOATL--AZTEC AND MAYA MYTHOLOGY--KUK

of Vera Paz, Guatemala, and parts of Chiapas and Honduras, and had an outlying branch in the hot lowlands watered by the River Panuco, north of Vera Cruz. In all, it has been estimated that they numbered a

in peace by a confederation of several tribes, whose capital city was Mayapan, ten leagues south of where Mérida now stands, and whose ruins still cover many hundred acres of the plain. Som

ities, well built of stone and mortar, but their inhabitants were at war with each other and

it an offshoot of that of the Azt

at of them so far as they are connected with the mythology of the race. Incidentally, however, this will throw so

have said enough in the previous chapter to exorcise permanently from ancient American histo

Mayas themselves gave of the origi

Only fragments of their legends and hints of their history have been saved, almost by accident, from the general wreck of their civilization. From these,

he second, of later date and different origin, referring to Kukulcan. It is barely possible that these may be different ver

and most ancient immigration was from the East, across, or rather through, the ocean--for the gods had opened twelve paths through it--and this was conducted by the mythical civilizer

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s wherewith to please the gods and appease their ill-will; he was the patron of the healers and diviners, and had disclosed to them the mysterious virtues of plants; in the month Uo they assembled and made new fire and

ks, and which they carved in such profusion on the stone and wood of their edifices. He also devised th

s of Itzamal, which he laid out and constructed, and over which he ruled, enacting wi

various historians, even to the most recent[4]. But another form in which he appears proves him to have been an incarnation of

he forwarded a report to Las Casas, in which, among other matters, he noted a resemblance which seemed to exist between the myths recounted by the Maya priests and the Christian dogmas. They told him that the highest deity they worshiped was Izona, who had made men and all things. To him was born a son, named Bacab or Bacabab, by a virgin, Chibilias, whose mother was

nk not. It is not difficult to restore these names to their correct forms, and then the fancied rese

the four winds from the four cardinal points, and who presided over the four Dominical signs of the Calendar. As each year in the Calendar was supposed to be under the influence of one or the other of these brothers, one Bacab was said to die at the close of the year; and after the "nameless" or intercalary days had passed the nex

es. She was likewise believed to be the guardian of women in childbirth, and one of the patrons of the art of medicine. T

he course of mythological thought in the red race, and is founded on natural relations too evident to be misconstrued. The rainbow is

heir god of light, and her duty was to pour the refreshing rains on the soil parched by the glaring eye of her mi

icular care of those sick with fevers and of women in childbirth. She was also closely associated in their myth with their culture-hero Bochica, the story being that on one occasion, when an ill-natured divinity had inu

sily seen how Ixchel came to be the deity both of women in childbir

he victims of Ah-puchah, the Despoiler or Destroyer,[10] though the prec

hac, one of the rain gods, and Hobnel, also a god of the food supply. To this triad travelers, on stopping for the night, set on end three stones and placed in front of t

as had Trinitarian doctrines. When they said that the god of the merchants and planters supplied the wants of m

pe ears, was regarded as a favorable and promising hue; the augury of his year was propitious, and it was said of him, referring to some myth now lost, that he had never sinned as had his brothers. He answered to the day Kan. which was the first of th

tivals during the year, as narrated by Bishop Landa. Thus at the termination of the year, along with the sacrifices to the Bacab of the year were others to Itzamná, either under his surname Canil, which

undance, who watered the crops, and on whose favor depended the return of the harvests. They presided over the streams and wells, and were the divinities whose might is manifested in the thunder and lightning, gods of the storms, as well as of the gentle showers.[19] The festival to these gods of the harvest was in the mo

brated cross of Palenque is one of its representations, as I believe I was the first to point out, and has now been generally acknowledged to be correct.[22] There was another such cross, about eight feet high, in a temple on the island of Cozumel. This was worshiped as "the god of rain,

ted by the natives with reproductive signs[25]. It is probable, however, that actual phallic worship was not customary in Yucatan. The Bacabs and Itzamná were closely related to ideas of fertility and reproduction, indeed, but it appears to have been especially as gods of the rains, the harv

nd agriculture; that he, moreover, as a divinity, ruled the winds and rains, and sent at his will harvests and prosperity. Can we identi

word of contested meaning but which contains the same radicals as the words for the morning and the dawn[26], and points to his identification wit

l consecrated to him as Kin-ich-kak-mo, "the Eye of the Day, the Bird of Fire."[28] In a time of pestilence the people resorted to this temple, and at high noon a sacrifice was spread upon the altar. The moment the sun reached the zenith, a bird of brilliant pluma

e had cured many by merely touching them. This fane was extremely popular, and to it pilgrimages were made from even such remote regions as Tabasco, Guatemala an

lture Hero

al in character. The first reference to it we also owe to Father Francisco Hernandez, whom I have already quoted, and who reported it to Bishop Las Casas in 1545. Hi

another two as the gods of farms and fields, another was the thunder god, etc. They wore flowing robes and sandals on their feet, they had long beards, and their heads were bare. They ordered that the people should confess and f

d he done so, we should find them to be the names of the twenty days of the native calendar month. These are the visitors who come, one every morning, with flowing robes, full beard and hair, and bring with them our good or bad luck--whatever the day brings forth. Hernandez made the same mistake as did Father Francisco de

ation in Yucatan to the other divinities of the days as

to justify such a rendering. There is some variation in its orthography, and its original pronunciation may possibly be lost; but if we adop

ut it is true that the name could with equal correctness be translated "The God, the Mighty Serpent," f

nds who came from the four cardinal points and were ruled over by four brothers. These brothers chose no wives, but lived chastely and ruled righteously, until at a certain time one died or departed, and two began to act unjustly and were put to death. The one remaining was Kukulcan. He appeased the strife which his brothers' acts had aroused, directed the minds of the people to the arts of peace, and caused to be

n Mayapan and Chichen Itza, and nowhere else in Yucatan, the ruins of

harvests were abundant and the people turned cheerfully to their daily duties, to their families and the

t and wealthy family of the Cocoms. His arrangements completed, he is said, by some, to have journeyed westward, to Mexico, or to some other spot toward the sun-setting. But by the

d become familiar with the story of Quetzalcoatl and his alleged departure toward the east, identified him with Kukulcan, and that, following the notion of

rs; a small number of words, probably a hundred all told, have been borrowed by the one tongue from the other. Mexican merchants traded with Yucatan, and bands of Aztec warriors with their families, from Tabasco, dwelt in Mayapan b

rom the west or southwest may well have referred to the depopulation of Palenque, a city which undoubtedly was a product of Maya architects. The language of Yucatan is too absolutely dissimilar fr

e supposed when we recall how peculiarly this form was devoted to his worship. Again, one of the Maya chronicles--that translated by Pio Perez and published by Stephens in his Travels in Yucatan--opens with a distinct reference to Tula and Nonoal, names inseparable from the Quetzalcoatl myth. A s

he West--a version quoted by Landa, and which evidently originally referred to the westward course of the s

nations came to regard the one as the same as the other. After the destruction of Mayapan, about the middle of the fifteenth century, when the Aztec mercenaries were banished to Canul, and th

y to Mani, on the occasion of his annual festival, which took place on the 16th of the month Xul (November 8th), either four or five magnificent feather banners. These were placed in his temple, with appropriate ceremonies, such as fasting, the burning of incense, dancing, and with simple offerings of food cooked without salt or pepper, and drink from beans and gourd seeds. This lasted five nights and five days; and, adds Bishop Landa, they said, and held it f

away with, and these mighty deities alone demand the adoration of their race. None of the American nations seems to have been more given than they to prognostics and prophecies, and of none other have we so large an amount of this kind of literature remaining. Some of it has been preserved by the Spanish missionari

edictions; but the one point that is clear in them is, that they distinctly referred to the arrival of wh

round Lake Peten, carried with them a forewarning that at the "eighth age" they should be subjected to a white race and have to embrace their religion; and, sure enough, when that time came, and not till

disappears at nightfall but returns at dawn with unfailing certainty. When the natural phenomenon had become lost in its personification, this expectation of a return remained and led the priests, who

ndustry of its inhabitants. He writes to the King, in the report of his expedition: "La tierra es muy poblada y de muy grandes ciudades y villas muy frescas.

olludo's authority was the original MSS. of Gaspar Antonio, an educated native, of royal lineage, who wrote in 1582. Historia de Yucatan, Lib. iv, caps, iii, iv. Lizana gives the names of these arrivals as Nohnial and Cenial. These words are b

16. The latter has a particularly valuable extract from the now lost Maya Dictionary of F. Gabriel de San Buenaventura. "El primero que halló las letras de la lengua Maya é hizo el computo de los a?os, meses y edades

defatigable archaeologist, I must not omit to state my appreciation and respect for his earnest interest in the language and antiquities

oria Apologetica de las Indi

ort, The North American

e las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 288. Cogolludo also mentions Ix chel, Historia de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. vi. The word in Maya fo

imbrium beneficio recreare. Cum enim viderent arcum illum non nisi pluvio tempore in conspectu venire, et tunc arborum cacuminibus velut insidere, persuadebant sibi aq

but simply that it, as they, are both the mythological expressions of the same natural phenomenon. In Norse mythology, Freya is the rainbow goddess. She wears the bow as a neck

from the cob, to spoil; hence puk, spoiled, rotten, podrida, and possibly ppuch, to flog, to beat

the Maya alphabet). Cogolludo mentions a goddess Ix chebel yax, one of whose functions was to preside over

lacion de las Cosas de

nt subsistence, life, as we use in both these senses the word "vitals." Among the Kiches of Guatemala, a tribe of Maya stock, we find, as terms applied to t

s canil, may mean a serpent, or the yellow one, or the

n, the day; ich,

whence the name Cocomes, for the ancient royal family of Chichen Itza, an appellation correc

, por meses y habla de tiempo pasado." Diccionario Maya-Espa?ol del Convento de Motul, MS. Metun (Land

enic representations of the supposed doings of the gods in the ritual ceremonies. The proper form of the word is uacab or vacab, which the dictionary mentioned renders "cosa que esta en pié ó enhiesta delante de otra

iccionario Maya-Espa?ol del Conven

e, hombre de g

pues por Dios de los panes, del agua, de los truenos y relámpagos. Y asi se dice

: Relacion,

generic word for tree. I cannot find any particular tree called Homche. Hom was the name applied to a wind instrument, a sort of trumpet. In the Codex Troano, Plates xxv, xxvii, xxxiv, it is represented in use. The four Bacabs were probably imagined to

z-Sellack, although he omits to state whence he derived it. His article is entitled Die Amerikanischen G?tter der Vier Weltgegenden und i

la cual tenian y adoraban por dios de la lluvia, porque quando no llovia y habia falta de agua, iban á ella en procesion y muy devotos; ofrescianle codornices sacrificadas por a

and tun, stone. But it may have another meaning. The word acan meant wine, or rather, mead, the intoxicating hydromel the natives manufactured. The god of this drink a

ns, Travels in Yucat

k from teats, and semen ("leche de amor," Dicc. de Motul, MS.). He says: "Itzamna, esto es, rocio diario, ó sustancia cuotidiana del cielo, es el mismo nombre del fundador (de Itzamal)." Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 145. (Mérida, 1881.) This does not explain the last syllable, ná, which is always strongly accented. It is said that Itzamná spoke of himself only in the words Itz en caan, "

ahau and Itzamná (Hist. de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. viii), may be

a, the red macaw. This was adopted as the title of the ruler of Itzamal, as we learn from the Chronicle of Chichen Itza--"Ho ahau paxci u cah yahau ah Itz

o, Historia de Yucatan

such meaning can be made out of the name thus written. The proper word is kabil, which is defined in the Diccionario del Convento de

toria Apologetica de las Ind

toria General de las Indi

. 44. The Abbé Brasseur, in his Vocabulaire Maya, boldly states that kukul means "emplumado ó adornado con plumas." This rendering is absolutely without authority, either modern or ancient. The word for feathers in Maya is kukum; kul, in composition,

Kukulkan, and have it refer to the

, MS.; Landa, Relacion, pp. 34-38. and 299; Herrer

Incidents of Travel in Y

hilan Balam de Chumayel, MS

ed in Yucatan, called Cum-ahau, lord of the vase, whom the Diccionario de Motul, MS. terms, "Lucifer, principal de los demónios." The name is also given by Pio Perez in his manuscript dictionary in my possession, but is omitted in the printed copy. As Lucifer, the mor

, p. 302. I take it this should read Chiic u Kaba (Chiic; fundar ó

lam de Mani, 1595, MS. The former is a history of the Conquest written in Maya,

Sotomayor, Historia de la Provinci