Part 19 (2/2)
[Footnote 2: Thus we have (_Popol Vuh_, Part i, p. 2) _u qux cho_, Heart of the Lakes, and _u qux palo_, Heart of the Ocean, as names of the highest divinity; later, we find _u qux cah_, Heart of the Sky (p. 8), _u qux uleu_, Heart of the Earth, p. 12, 14, etc.
I may here repeat what I have elsewhere written on this figurative expression in the Maya languages: ”The literal or physical sense of the word heart is not that which is here intended. In these dialects this word has a richer metaphorical meaning than in our tongue. It stands for all the psychical powers, the memory, will and reasoning faculties, the life, the spirit, the soul. It would be more correct to render these names the 'Spirit' or 'Soul' of the lake, etc., than the 'Heart.' They indicate a dimly understood sense of the unity of spirit or energy in all the various manifestations of organic and inorganic existence.” _The Names of the G.o.ds in the Kiche Myths, Central America_, by Daniel G. Brinton, in _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, vol. xix, 1881, p.
623.]
The immediate neighbors of the Tzendals were the Mixes and Zoques, the former resident in the central mountains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the latter rather in the lowlands and toward the eastern coast. The Mixes nowadays number but a few villages, whose inhabitants are reported as drunken and worthless, but the time was when they were a powerful and warlike nation. They are in nowise akin to the Maya stock, although they are so cla.s.sed in Mr. H.H. Bancroft's excellent work.[1] They have, however, a distinct relations.h.i.+p with the Zoques, about thirty per cent of the words in the two languages being similar.[2] The Zoques, whose mythology we unfortunately know little or nothing about, adjoined the Tzendals, and were in constant intercourse with them.
[Footnote 1: ”Mijes, Maya nation,” _The Native Races of the Pacific States_, Vol. v, p. 712.]
[Footnote 2: _Apuntes sobre la Lengua Mije_, por C.H. Berendt, M.D., MS., in my hands. The comparison is made of 158 words in the two languages, of which 44 have marked affinity, besides the numerals, eight out of ten of which are the same. Many of the remaining words are related to the Zapotec, and there are very few and faint resemblances to Maya dialects.
One of them may possibly be in this name, Votan (_uotan_), heart, however.
In Mixe the word for heart is _hot_. I note this merely to complete my observations on the Votan myth.]
We have but faint traces of the early mythology of these tribes; but they preserved some legends which show that they also partook of the belief, so general among their neighbors, of a beneficent culture-G.o.d.
This myth relates that their first father, who was also their Supreme G.o.d, came forth from a cave in a lofty mountain in their country, to govern and direct them. He covered the soil with forests, located the springs and streams, peopled them with fish and the woods with game and birds, and taught the tribe how to catch them. They did not believe that he had died, but that after a certain length of time, he, with his servants and captives, all laden with bright gleaming gold, retired into the cave and closed its mouth, not to remain there, but to reappear at some other part of the world and confer similar favors on other nations.
The name, or one of the names, of this benefactor was Condoy, the meaning of which my facilities do not enable me to ascertain.[1]
[Footnote 1: Juan B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos y Estadisticos del Estado Libre de Oaxaca_, p. 3 (Oaxaca, 1847).]
There is scarcely enough of this to reveal the exact lineaments of their hero; but if we may judge from these fragments as given by Carriedo, it appears to be of precisely the same cla.s.s as the other hero-myths I have collected in this volume. Historians of authority a.s.sure us that the Mixes, Zoques and Zapotecs united in the expectation, founded on their ancient myths and prophecies, of the arrival, some time, of men from the East, fair of hue and mighty in power, masters of the lightning, who would occupy the land.[1]
[Footnote 1: Ibid., p. 94, _note_, quoting from the works of Las Casas and Francis...o...b..rgoa.]
On the lofty plateau of the Andes, in New Granada, where, though nearly under the equator, the temperature is that of a perpetual spring, was the fortunate home of the Muyscas. It is the true El Dorado of America; every mountain stream a Pactolus, and every hill a mine of gold. The natives were peaceful in disposition, skilled in smelting and beating the precious metal that was everywhere at hand, lovers of agriculture, and versed in the arts of spinning, weaving and dying cotton. Their remaining sculptures prove them to have been of no mean ability in designing, and it is a.s.serted that they had a form of writing, of which their signs for the numerals have alone been preserved.
The knowledge of these various arts they attributed to the instructions of a wise stranger who dwelt among them many cycles before the arrival of the Spaniards. He came from the East, from the llanos of Venezuela or beyond them, and it was said that the path he made was broad and long, a hundred leagues in length, and led directly to the holy temple at his shrine at Sogamoso. In the province of Ubaque his footprints on the solid rock were reverently pointed out long after the Conquest. His hair was abundant, his beard fell to his waist, and he dressed in long and flowing robes. He went among the nations of the plateaux, addressing each in its own dialect, taught them to live in villages and to observe just laws. Near the village of Coto was a high hill held in special veneration, for from its prominent summit he was wont to address the people who gathered round its base.
Therefore it was esteemed a sanctuary, holy to the living and the dead.
Princely families from a distance carried their dead there to be interred, because this teacher had said that man does not perish when he dies, but shall rise again. It was held that this would be more certain to occur in the very spot where he announced this doctrine. Every sunset, when he had finished his discourse, he retired into a cave in the mountain, not to reappear again until the next morning.
For many years, some said for two thousand years, did he rule the people with equity, and then he departed, going back to the East whence he came, said some authorities, but others averred that he rose up to heaven. At any rate, before he left, he appointed a successor in the sovereignty, and recommended him to pursue the paths of justice.[1]
[Footnote 1: ”Afirman que fue trasladado al cielo, y que al tiempo de su partida dexo al Cacique de aquella Provincia por heredero de su santidad i poderio.” Lucas Fernaudez Piedrahita, _Historia General de las Conquistas del Nueoo Reyno de Granada_, Lib. i, cap. iii (Amberes, 1688).]
What led the Spanish missionaries to suspect that this was one of the twelve apostles, was not only these doctrines, but the undoubted fact that they found the symbol of the cross already a religious emblem among this people. It appeared in their sacred paintings, and especially, they erected one over the grave of a person who had died from the bite of a serpent.
A little careful investigation will permit us to accept these statements as quite true, and yet give them a very different interpretation.
That this culture-hero arrives from the East and returns to the East are points that at once excite the suspicion that he was the personification of the Light. But when we come to his names, no doubt can remain. These were various, but one of the most usual was _Chimizapagua_, which, we are told, means ”a messenger from _Chiminigagua_.” In the cosmogonical myths of the Muyscas this was the home or source of Light, and was a name applied to the demiurgic force. In that mysterious dwelling, so their account ran, light was shut up, and the world lay in primeval gloom. At a certain time the light manifested itself, and the dawn of the first morning appeared, the light being carried to the four quarters of the earth by great black birds, who blew the air and winds from their beaks.
Modern grammarians profess themselves unable to explain the exact meaning of the name _Chiminigagua_, but it is a compound, in which, evidently, appear the words _chie_, light, and _gagua_, Sun.[1]
[Footnote 1: Uricoechea says, ”al principio del mundo la luz estaba encerrada en una cosa que no podian describir i que llamaban _Chiminigague_, o El Criador.” _Gramatica de la Lengua Chibcha_, Introd., p. xix. _Chie_ in this tongue means light, moon, month, honor, and is also the first person plural of the personal p.r.o.noun. _Ibid_., p. 94. Father Simon says _gagua_ is ”el nombre del mismo sol,” though ordinarily Sun is _Sua_.]
Other names applied to this hero-G.o.d were Nemterequeteba, Bochica, and Zuhe, or Sua, the last mentioned being also the ordinary word for the Sun.
He was reported to have been of light complexion, and when the Spaniards first arrived they were supposed to be his envoys, and were called _sua_ or _gagua_, just as from the memory of a similar myth in Peru they were addressed as Viracochas.
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