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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9188-8.txt b/9188-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..102a856 --- /dev/null +++ b/9188-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3078 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Aboriginal American Authors, by Daniel G. Brinton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Aboriginal American Authors + +Author: Daniel G. Brinton + +Posting Date: September 20, 2014 [EBook #9188] +Release Date: October, 2005 +First Posted: September 13, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, David Garcia and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreaders. + + + + + + + + + + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS; + +ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGES. + +A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE. + +BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., + +Member of the American Philosophical Society; the American Antiquarian +Society; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, etc.; Vice-President +of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and of the +Congres International des Americanistes; Delegue-General de l'Institution +Ethnographique for the United States, etc.; Author of "The Myths of the +New World;" "The Religious Sentiment;" "American Hero Myths," etc. + + + + + + +NEW INTRODUCTION + +Aboriginal American Authors, published by the Anthropologist Daniel G. +Brinton in 1883, is a work that is particularly appropriate for our own +times. The native American movement has stressed the need for history +written from the Indian point of view. Interest in native American +literature has become an important component in reinforcing a sense of +identity among American Indians today. + +Brinton's work is a good summary of the better known traditional +writings of Indians from many regions of the Western hemisphere. This +bibliographical survey provides information on tribal histories that +would be particularly useful for Indian Study Programs in the states of +Oklahoma, New York and Wisconsin. + +Brinton was aware of the 19th century racism of many who wrote about the +American Indian and reacted against it in his writings by taking a +stance which in some ways anticipates Ruth Benedict's involvement in +similar questions half a century later. Aboriginal American +Authors is written as an early attempt at placing the literature of +the American Indian with the other great literary traditions of the +world; that is why its usefulness endures. + + John Hobgood + Social Science Department + Chicago State College + 1970 + + + + + + +PREFACE. + +The present memoir is an enlargement of a paper which I laid before the +_Congres International des Americanistes_, when acting as a delegate to +its recent session in Copenhagen, August, 1883. The changes are material, +the whole of the text having been re-written and the notes added. + +It does not pretend to be an exhaustive bibliographical essay, but was +designed merely to point out to an intelligent and sympathetic audience +a number of relics of Aboriginal American Literature, and to bespeak the +aid and influence of that learned body in the preservation and +publication of these rare documents. + +_Philadelphia, Nov. 1883._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +Section 1. _Introductory_ + + +Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_ + + Vivid imagination of the Indians. + Love of story telling. + Appreciation of style. + Power and resources of their languages. + Facility in acquiring foreign languages. + Native writers in the English tongue. + In Latin. + In Spanish. + Ancient books of Aztecs. + Of Mayas, etc. + Peruvian Quipus. + + +Section 3. _Narrative Literature_ + + Desire of preserving national history. + Eskimo legends and narratives. + The _Walum Olum_ of the Delawares. + The Iroquois _Book of Rites_. + Kaondinoketc's Narrative. + The National Legend of the Creeks. + Cherokee writings. + Destruction of Ancient Literature. + Boturini's collection. + Historians in Nahuatl. + The Maya _Books of Chilan Balam_. + Other Maya documents. + Writings in Cakchiquel. + _The Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_. + Authors in Cakchiquel and Kiche. + The _Popol Vuh_. + Votan, the Tzendal. + Writers in Qquichua. + Letters, etc., in native tongues. + Tales and stories of the Tupis and other tribes. + + +Section 4. _Didactic Literature_ + + Progress of natives in science. + Their calendars and rituals. + Their maps. + Scholastic works. + Theological writers. + Sermons in Guarani. + _Las Pasiones_. + + +Section 5. _Oratorical Literature_ + + Native admiration of eloquence. + The Oratorical style. + Custom of set orations. + Specimens in the Nahuatl tongue. + Ancient prayers and rhapsodies. + +Section 6. _Poetical Literature_ + + Form of the earliest poetry. + Unintelligible character of primitive songs explained. + A Chippeway love song. + A Taensa epithalamium. + Montaigne on Tupi poetry. + Ancient Aztec poetry. + Maya and Peruvian poems. + Tupi songs. + + +Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_ + + Development of the dramatic art in America. + Origin of the serious and comic dramas. + The Qquichua drama of Ollanta. + The Kiche drama of Rabinal Achi. + The Comic Ballet of the Gueegueence. + The _Logas_ of Central America. + Dramas of the Mangues. + + +Section 8. _Conclusion_ + + Ethnological value of literary productions. + Their general interest to scholars. + +_Footnotes_ + +_Index_ + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been moved from inline to end-of-text, +and the above "Footnotes" section added.] + + + + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS. + + * * * * * + +Section 1. _Introductory_. + + +When even a quite intelligent person hears about "Aboriginal American +Literature," he is very excusable for asking: What is meant by the term? +Where is this literature? In fine, Is there any such thing? + +To answer such inquiries, I propose to treat, with as much brevity as +practicable, of the literary efforts of the aborigines of this +continent, a chapter in the general History of Literature hitherto +wholly neglected. + +Indeed, it will be a surprise to many to learn that any members of these +rude tribes have manifested either taste or talent for scholarly +productions. All alike have been regarded as savages, capable, at best, +of but the most limited culture. + +Such an opinion has been fostered by prejudices of race, by the jealousy +of castes, and in our own day by preconceived theories of evolution. +That it is erroneous, can, I think, be easily shown. + +Let us first inquire into the existence of + + + + +Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_. + + +This faculty is indicated by a vivid imagination, a love of narration, +and an ample, appropriate, and logically developed vocabulary. That, as +a race, the aborigines of America possessed these qualifications to a +remarkable degree, is attested by many witnesses who have lived +intimately among them; and is only denied by those whose acquaintance +with them has been superficial, or derived from second-hand and doubtful +sources. + +The red man peoples air, earth, and the waters with countless creatures +of his fancy; his expressions are figurative and metaphorical; he is +quick to seize analogies; and when he cannot explain he is ever ready to +invent. This is shown in his inappeasable love of story telling. As a +_raconteur_ he is untiring. He has, in the highest degree, Goethe's +_Lust zu fabuliren_. In no Oriental city does the teller of strange +tales find a more willing audience than in the Indian wigwam. The folk +lore of every tribe which has been properly investigated has turned out +to be most ample. Tales of talking animals, of mythical warriors, of +giants, dwarfs, subtle women, potent magicians, impossible adventures, +abound to an extent that defies collection.[1] + +Nor are these narratives repeated in a slip-shod, negligent style. The +hearers permit no such carelessness. They are sticklers for nicety of +expression; for clear and well turned periods; for vivid and accurate +description; for flowing and sonorous sentences. As a rule, their +languages lend themselves readily to these demands. It is a singular +error, due wholly to ignorance of the subject, to maintain that the +American tongues are cramped in their vocabularies, or that their syntax +does not permit them to define the more delicate relationships of ideas. +Nor is it less a mistake to assert, as has been done repeatedly, and +even by authorities of eminence in our own day, that they are not +capable of supplying the expressions of abstract reasonings. Although +pure abstractions were rarely objects of interest to these children of +nature, many, if not most, of their tongues favor the formation of +expressions which are as thoroughly transcendental as any to be found in +the _Kritik der Reinen Vernunft_.[2] + +Their literary faculty is further demonstrated in the copiousness of +their vocabularies, their rare facility of expression, and their natural +aptitude for the acquisition of other languages. Theophilie Gautier used +to say, that the most profitable book for a professional writer to read +is the dictionary; that is, that a mastery of words is his most valuable +acquirement. The extraordinarily rich synonomy of some American tongues, +notably the Algonkin, the Aztec, and the Qquichua, attests how +sedulously their resources have been cultivated. Father Olmos, in his +grammar of the Aztec, gives many examples of twenty and thirty +synonymous expressions, all in current use in his day. A dictionary, in +my possession, of the Maya, one of the least plastic of American +tongues, gives over thirty thousand words, and scarcely a hundred of +them of foreign extraction. + +This linguistic facility is shown also in the ease with which they +acquire foreign languages. "It is not uncommon," says Dr. Washington +Matthews, speaking of the Hidatsa, by no means a specially brilliant +tribe, "to find persons among them, some even under twenty years of age, +who can speak fluently four or five different languages."[3] Mr. Stephen +Powers tells us that, in California, he found many Indians speaking +three, four, five or more languages, generally including English;[4] and +in South America, both Humboldt and D'Orbigny express their surprise at +the same fact, which they repeatedly observed.[5] + +But the most tangible evidence of both their linguistic and literary +ability is the work some of these natives have accomplished in European +tongues. It does not come within the limits of my plan to enter fully +into an examination of this branch of literature; but it is worth while +mentioning some of the more prominent native writers, who have composed +in European languages, as their productions are an easy test of what the +faculties of the red race are in this direction. + +As the colonizers of the New World have been chiefly from Spain and +Great Britain, so naturally the English and Spanish languages have been +brought most widely to the knowledge of the natives. The half-civilized +tribes, within the area of the United States, have produced several +authors of merit. Perhaps the earliest of these was David Cusick, who, +in 1825, printed his _Ancient History of the Six Nations_. He was a +full blood Tuscarora, and his English is far from correct. Yet the +arrangement of his matter is skillful, and some passages quaintly vivid +and forcible. Another member of the Iroquois confederacy, Peter +Dooyentate Clarke, has taken up the _Origin and Traditional History of +the Wyandotts_, and has made a readable little book (published at +Toronto, 1870); while still more lately, Chief Elias Johnson, of the +Tuscaroras, has published a _History of the Six Nations_, very +creditably composed. (Lockport, 1881.) + +The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers. +The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of +Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and +pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837. +The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the +Ojibways, on _The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_ +(London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written +that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost +equal merit is the _History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial +reference to their Conversion to Christianity_, by the Rev. Peter +Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.) + +In the southwest, the _Cherokee Phoenix_ offered a medium through +which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original +contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after +the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of +addresses and other documents, in English. + +But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the +best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico, +Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the +lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they +had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father +Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the +readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and +adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and +wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long +list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given +by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of +the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7] +Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the +Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who +became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who +won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and +distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents +and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such +examples in Peru and Brazil. + +The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one; +and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be +placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal +descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the +antiquities of his race. Among the many works which he wrote are the +_Relaciones Historicas_ and the _Historia Chichimeca_, which +were published by Lord Kingsborough; a _Historia de la Nueva +Espana_, a _Historia del Reyno de Tezcuco_, and a _Historia de +Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe_, which have not had the fortune to be +printed. Such an excellent critic as Mr. Prescott says of his style: +"His language is simple, and occasionally eloquent and touching. His +descriptions are highly picturesque. He abounds in familiar anecdote; +and the natural graces of his manner in detailing the more striking +events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him +to the name of the Livy of Anahuac." + +Ixtlilxochitl flourished about the year 1600, and among his +contemporaries was Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, also of native blood, +whose _Cronica Mexicana_ has been preserved, and is considered to +be well written, but less reliable. Of about the same date are the +_Relacion_ of Juan Bautista de Tomar, a native of Tezcuco, in which +he treats of the customs of his ancestors; the _Relaciones_ of Don +Antonio Pimentel, grandson of Nezahualpilli, lord of Tezcuco, an author +quoted and praised by the historian Torquemada; the _Historia de +Tlaxcallan_ of Diego Munoz Camargo, a noble Tlascalan mestizo, of +whose style Prescott remarks that it compares not unfavorably with that +of some of the missionaries themselves; and the _Relacion de los +Dioses y Ritos de la Gentilidad_ of Don Pedro Ponce, the cacique of +Tzumpahuacan. Somewhat later, about 1625, Don Domingo de San Anton Munon +Chimalpain wrote his _Historia Mexicana_ and his _Historia de la +Conquista_, which have been mentioned with respect by various +writers. + +Along with these examples of literary culture in Mexico may be named +several native Peruvian writers who made use of the language of their +conquerors; as Don Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui, whose +_Relacion de Antiguedades de Piru_ is a precious document, though +composed in very uncritical Spanish; as Don Luis Inca, whose +_Relacion_, prepared in Spanish, seems now to be lost, but is +referred to, with praise, by some of the older writers; and, above all +others, Inca Garcillasso de la Vega, whose vivid and attractive style, +and numerous historical writings place him easily in the first rank of +Spanish historians of America. + +From the above it would seem evident enough that the American aborigines +were endowed, as a race, with a turn for literary composition, and a +faculty for it. They were generally, however, an unlettered race. What +they composed was for oral use only. This might be carefully arranged, +committed to heart, and handed down from generation to generation; but +as for recording it in forms which would convey it to the mind through +the eye, that was a discovery they had but partially made. + +I say, "partially," because graphic methods, of some kind, were widely +used. We may as well omit from consideration, in this connection, the +merely pictographic signs of the hunting tribes, although they were used +for mnemonic purposes. Let us rather proceed, at once, to the highest +specimens of the graphic art in ancient America, and inquire their +scope. In Mexico, in Yucatan, in Nicaragua, and in one or two districts +of South America, the early explorers found systems of writing which +seemed to resemble that to which they were accustomed. + +The Aztecs manufactured, in large quantities, a useful paper from the +leaves of the maguey, and upon it they painted numerous figures and +signs, which conveyed ideas, and sometimes also sounds. An early +authority informs us that their books were of five kinds. The first +detailed their method of computing time; the second described their holy +days, festivals and religious epochs; the third gave the interpretation +of dreams, omens and signs; the fourth supplied directions for naming +children; and the fifth rehearsed the rites and ceremonies connected +with matrimony.[9] Besides these, we know they wrote out tribute rolls, +the ancient history of their tribes, the fables of their mythology, the +genealogy of their sovereigns, and the geographical descriptions of +territories. Of all these we have examples preserved, and many of them +have been published. + +Quite another and a more perfect method of writing prevailed among the +Mayas of Yucatan and Central America. Their books were exceedingly neat, +and strongly resembled an ordinary quarto volume, such as appears on +European bookshelves. I have so lately discussed their manufacture, and +the so-called alphabet in which they were written, and in a work of such +easy access, that it is enough if I quote the conclusions there arrived +at.[10] They are:-- + +1. The Maya graphic system was recognized, from the first, to be +distinct from the Mexican. + +2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few +nobles. + +3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which was +the preservation of their history and calendar. + +4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms +(caracteres), and phonetic signs (letras). + +The ruins of Palenque, Copan, and other Maya cities, abound in such +hieroglyphs. + +The natives of Nicaragua, those, at least, of Aztec lineage, made use of +parchment volumes, folded into a neat and portable compass, in which +they painted, in red and black ink, certain figures, "by means of +which," says the chronicler Oviedo, "they could express and understand +whatever they wished, with entire clearness."[11] + +In South America the Peruvians had their _quipus_, cords of +different lengths, sizes and colors, knotted in various ways, and +attached to a base cord, an arrangement that was a decided aid to the +memory, though it could not be connected with the sounds of words. There +are also faint traces of figures, with definite meaning, among the +Muyscas of Colombia; and the Moxos of Western Bolivia are said to have +employed, as late as the last century, a method of writing, consisting +of lines traced on wooden slabs.[12] + + + + +Section 3. _Narrative Literature_. + + +Of all forms of sustained discourse, we may reasonably suppose that of +narration to have been the earliest. The incidents of the hunt were +related at the return; the experiences of the past were told as a guide +to the present; and the first efforts of the imagination are the +depicting of fictitious occurrences, tradition and myth, story and +history; these make up most of the entertainment of conversation to +simple minds. + +Hence, in this primitive literature which I am describing, the narrative +portion is the most abundant. There was a natural aspiration on the part +of the natives, as soon as they had learned the art of writing, to +preserve in permanent form the records, more or less authentic, of their +tribes and ancestors. This desire of preserving the national history is +shown by the works of Copway, Jones, Cusick, Ixtlilxochitl, and others, +to whom I have already referred, who wrote in European tongues. + +If we begin our survey at the extreme north, we find the Eskimo, amid +his depressing surroundings of eternal frost and months-long nights, an +unwearied chatterbox, reciting his own and his ancestors' adventures, +and weaving from his fancy the most extraordinary web of fictitious +experiences. Once taught to write, hundreds of these tales were +committed to paper by native hands. The manuscript collection of such in +the possession of the learned and indefatigable Dr. Heinrich Rink +contains considerably over two thousand pages, and the charming +rendering into English, which has been published by his efforts, is a +storehouse of weird conceptions and partly historic traditions about the +past of Greenland and Labrador. What adds to their interest is that most +of the illustrations are wood-cuts by native artists, truthfully setting +forth their own mental pictures.[13] + +Another Eskimo composition, in the dialogue style, is before me as I +write. It is the description by Pok, a Greenlander, of his journey to +Europe and his return. The narrative forms a pamphlet of eighteen pages, +with several quaint colored illustrations, and it is one of the rare +products of the Godthaab press in Greenland to which we can assign a +genuine native origin.[14] + +Another, which reveals still more distinctly the artistic and +imaginative capacities of that strange race, was published at Godthaab, +in 1860. Mr. Field remarks of it:--"An Esquimau of Greenland, with his +pencil, has, in this work, attempted to give representations of the +traditions, manners, weapons and habits of life of his own race."[15] + +Among the tribes of the eastern United States there were a few +individuals who attempted to compose somewhat extensive records in their +native languages. + +One of the most curious examples is that known as the _Walum Olum_, +a short account of the early history of the Delaware tribe, written in +that idiom, with mnemonic symbols attached. Its history is not very +complete. A "Dr. Ward, of Indiana" is said to have obtained it from a +member of the nation, in 1822. From him it passed into the hands of +Prof. C.S. Rafinesque, an eccentric and visionary Frenchman, who passed +the later years of his life in Philadelphia. He undertook to translate +it, and after his death the translation, together with the original, +came into the possession of Mr. E.G. Squier. By him it was first +published, but in a partial and incomplete manner, much of the original +text and many of the mnemonic symbols being omitted, and no effort being +made to improve Rafinesque's translation.[16] + +The _Book of Rites_[17] of the Iroquois or Six Nations, lately +edited by Mr. Horatio Hale, is one of the most remarkable native +productions north of Mexico. Its authenticity and antiquity are +indisputable. The rites it describes are the ceremonies and set +speeches, the chants and formulas, of what is called "The Council of +Condolence," whose function is to express the national sense of loss at +the death of a chief, and to conduct the inauguration of his successor. +The publication of this ritual, supported as it is with the learned +notes of Mr. Hale, and an introduction by him, on the history, formation +and purpose of the famous League of the Iroquois, has thrown a +remarkable light, not merely on the ethnology of the district where the +Iroquois were located, but on the mental characteristics of the red race +in general. It is a refutation of the unscientific assumptions of a good +many would-be scientific men, who are self-blinded by their theories of +development to obvious facts in the mental powers of uncultivated +tribes. + +Of less general importance, but admirable also for competent editorship, +is the short narrative of the Nipissing Chief, Francois Kaondinoketc, +which was published a few years ago, both in the original and with a +French translation, by a Canadian missionary, eminent alike for his +piety and his learning. It recites the journey of a half-breed Christian +Indian into the country of the heathen tribe of Beaver Indians, and the +miraculous interposition by which his life was saved when these Pagans +had caught him. They told him he must kill an eagle flying far above +them; at his prayer, the bird descended and came within the reach of his +sabre. In turn, he asked them to shoot their arrows into a tree; but by +rubbing it with holy water, the bark was so hardened that not one of +their shafts could pierce it. So they confessed the greatness of the +Christian's God.[18] + +This charmingly naive narrative makes us doubly regret that the editor's +projected _Chrestomathie Algonquine_ has not been carried out in +full. + +The southern Atlantic coast of the United States was principally +occupied by the Muskokee or Creek tribe, who occupied the territory as +far west as the Mississippi. Their language was first reduced to writing +in the Greek alphabet, by the Moravian missionaries, about 1733; but at +present a modified form of the English alphabet is in use. They had a +very definite and curious tribal history, full of strange metaphors and +obscure references. It was, according to old authorities, "written in +red and black characters, on the skin of a young buffalo," and was read +off from this symbolic script by their head-chief, Chekilli, to the +English, in 1735, and skin and translation were both sent to London, and +both lost there. But, luckily, the Moravian missionaries preserved a +faithful translation of it, and this, some years ago, I brought to the +notice of students of these matters.[19] + +Its authenticity is beyond question, and to this day the chiefs of the +Creeks recollect many of the points it contains, and have repeated it to +the eminent linguist, Mr. A.S. Gatschet, who has taken it down afresh +from their lips, and is preparing it for publication. Collateral +evidence is also furnished by "General" Milfort, a French adventurer, +who lived among the Creeks several years, toward the close of the last +century, and testifies that they preserved, "by beads and belts," the +memory of the adventures of their ancestors, and recited to him a long +account of them, which he repeats with that negligence which everywhere +marks his carelessly prepared volume.[20] + +Their northern neighbors, the Cherokees, use an alphabet invented by +Sequoyah, one of themselves, in 1824. It is syllabic, of eighty-five +characters, and is used for printing. Sequoyah had no intention of +aiding the missionaries; he preferred the "old religion," and when he +saw the New Testament printed in his characters, he expressed regret +that he had ever invented them. What he wanted was to teach his people +useful arts, and to preserve the national traditions. I have little +doubt they were written down; but here, again, I have failed of success +in my inquiries. + +This is a poor showing of native literature for all the tribes in the +vast area of the United States. But, except some orations and poems, +hereafter to be mentioned, it is almost all that I can name. Passing +southward the harvest becomes richer. When Bishop Landa, in Yucatan, and +Bishop Zumarraga, in Mexico, made bonfires, in the public squares of +Mani and Tlaltilulco, of the priceless literary treasures of the Mayas +and Aztecs, their maps, their parchment rolls, their calendars on wood, +their painted paper books, their inscribed histories, it is recorded +that the natives bewailed bitterly this obliteration of their sciences +and their archives.[21] Some of them set to work to recover the memories +thus doomed to oblivion, and to write them out, as best they could. + +Most fertile of these were those who wrote in the Nahuatl tongue, +otherwise known as the Aztec or Mexican, this being most widely spoken +in Mexico, and the first cultivated by the missionaries. Many of these +memoirs were short descriptions of towns or tribes, with their +traditional histories. Others narrated the customs and mythologies of +the race before the arrival of the whites. None were printed, and little +or no care was taken to collect or preserve the manuscripts, so that +probably most of them were destroyed. At length, in 1736-45, an +enthusiastic Italian archaeologist, the Chevalier Lorenzo Boturini +Benaduci, devoted nearly ten years to collecting everything of the kind +which would throw light on ancient Mexican history. He was quite +successful, and his library, had it been preserved intact, would have +been to-day an invaluable source of information. But the jealous Spanish +government threw Boturini into prison; his library was scattered and +partly lost, and he died of chagrin and disappointment. Yet to him we +probably owe the preservation of the writings of Ixtlilxochitl, +Tezozomoc, and others who wrote in Spanish, and whose volumes have since +seen the light in the collections of Bustamente, Lord Kingsborough, +Ternaux-Compans, and elsewhere. + +The Nahuatl MSS. have remained unedited. Few took an interest in their +contents, fewer still in the language. The science of linguistics is +very modern, and that even so perfect an idiom as the Nahuatl could +command the attention of scholars for its own sake, had not dawned on +the minds of patrons of learning. + +Boturini catalogues some forty or fifty more or less fragmentary +anonymous MSS. in Nahuatl, which he had gathered together.[22] I shall +recall only those whose authors he names. Some three or four historical +works were written in Nahuatl by Don Domingo de San Anton Munon +Chimalpain, whom I have already mentioned as an author in Spanish also. +Of his Nahuatl works his _Cronica Mexicana_, which traces the +history of his nation from 1068 to 1597, would be the most worthy an +editor's labors. It is now in the possession of M. Aubin. + +The _Cronica de la muy noble y leal Ciudad de Tlaxcallan_, by Don +Juan Ventura Zapata y Mendoza, cacique of Quiahuiztlan, extends from the +earliest times to the year 1689. A copy of it, I have some reason to +think, is in Mexico. Boturini possessed the original, and it should, by +all means, be sought out and printed. + +The ancient history of the same city was also treated of by one of the +earliest native writers, and his work, in Nahuatl, alleged to have been +translated by the interpreter Francisco de Loaysa, was obtained from the +latter by Boturini. + +An account of Tezcuco and its rulers, after the Conquest until 1564, was +the work of a native, Juan de San Antonio; while Don Gabriel de Ayala, a +native noble of that city, composed a history of the Tezcucan and +Mexican events, extending from 1243 to 1562.[23] + +Of the anonymous MSS. in Boturini's list, I shall mention only one, as +it alone, of all his Nahuatl records, has succeeded in reaching +publication. He called it a _History of the Kingdoms of Culhuacan and +Mexico_. A copy of it passed to Mexico, where it was translated by +the Licentiate Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia, but in a very imperfect +and incorrect manner. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg copied the original +and the translation, and bestowed on the document both a new name, +_Codex Chimalpopoca_, and a whimsical geological signification. In +1879, the Museo Nacional of Mexico began in their _Anales_ the +publication of the original text, this time under still another title, +the _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, with two translations, that of +Galicia, and a new one by Profs. G. Mendoza and Felipe Sanchez Solis. Up +to the present time, 1883, the work is not completed; but its signal +importance to ancient history and mythology is amply indicated by the +part in type. + +Doubtless there were many MSS. which Boturini did not find, and there +are, probably, to this day, going to dust in private and public +libraries in Spain, valuable documents in the Nahuatl tongue.[24] For a +long time it was supposed that the Nahuatl original of Father Bernardino +de Sahagun's _History of New Spain_ was lost; but at the meeting of +the _Congres des Americanistes_, in Madrid, in 1881, a part of it, +at least, was exhibited. This work almost belongs to aboriginal +literature, for a considerable portion of it, notably the third, sixth +and twelfth books, treating, respectively, of the origin of the gods, +the Aztec oratory, and their ancient history, are mainly native +narratives and speeches, taken down, word for word, in the original +tongue. Spanish scholars could not render a greater service to American +ethnology and linguistics than in the publication of this valuable +monument. + +There is, also, or, at any rate, there was, in the Royal Library at +Madrid, a Mexican hieroglyphic work, "all painted," with a translation +apparently into the Nahuatl tongue.[25] I would inquire of the learned +linguists of Spain whether that document cannot be unearthed. And +further, I would ask whether all trace has been lost of the writings of +Don Gabriel Castaneda, Chief of Colomocho, who wrote, in Nahuatl, an +account of the conquest of the Chichimecs by the Viceroy Antonio de +Mendoza, in 1541. That Manuscript was last heard of in the library of +the Convent of San Ildefonso, in Mexico.[26] Perhaps it would tell us who +the Chichimecs were, about which there is disagreement enough among +ethnologists. + +Of the strictly hieroglyphic records I shall not take account. Their +interpretation is yet uncertain, and, as linguistic monuments, they +have, at present, no standing. + +Equal, or superior, in culture, to the Aztecs were the Maya tribes. +Their chief seat was in Yucatan, but they extended thence southwardly to +the shores of the Pacific, and westward along the Gulf coast to the +River Panuco. The language numbered about sixteen dialects, none very +remote from the parent stem, which linguists identify as the Maya proper +of the Yucatecan peninsula. While there are a number of verbal +similarities between Maya and Nahuatl, the radicals of the two idioms +and their grammatical structure are widely asunder. The Nahuatl is an +excessively pliable, polysyllabic and highly synthetic tongue; the Maya +is rigid, its words short, of one or two syllables generally, and is +scarcely more synthetic than French. This contrast is carried out in the +style of their writers. Those in Nahuatl were lovers of amplification, +of flowing periods, of Ciceronian fullness; the Mayas cultivated +sententious brevity, they are elliptical, often to obscurity, and may be +compared rather to Tacitus, in his _Annals_, than to Cicero. + +All the Maya tribes had strong literary tastes, but with characteristic +tenacity they clung entirely to their native tongues; and I know not a +single instance where one has left compositions in Spanish. Their +language is easy to learn; to a stranger to both, Maya comes easier than +Spanish, as intelligent writers in Yucatan have testified; and this +aided its survival. Their passion for learning to read and write was +strong, and had it been fed, instead of rigidly suppressed, there is +little doubt but that they would have become a highly enlightened +nation. The wretched system which smothered free thought in Spain killed +it in Yucatan.[27] + +The principal literary monument in the pure Maya is the collection known +as "The Books of Chilan Balam." I have described this collection at +length in previous publications, and shall content myself with a brief +reference to it.[28] The title "Chilan Balam" means, in this connection, +"the interpreting priest;" that is, the sacred official who, in the +ancient religion, revealed the will of the gods. There are at least +sixteen collections under this name in Maya, copies, probably, in part, +of each other. Their contents may be classified under four headings:-- + +1. Chronology, calendars, and history, before and after the Conquest. + +2. Prophecies and astrology. + +3. Medical recipes and directions. + +4. Christian narratives. + +Of these, the last two are modern. The Christian portions are lives of +saints, and prayers. The medical directions are often found separate, +under the title "The Book of the Jew." Its language is modern and +corrupt--_mestizado_, as the Spaniards express it. + +The "Prophecies" are alleged to have been delivered one or several +generations before the Conquest. Their style is extremely obscure, and +many of the forms are archaic. If not genuine originals, they are +unquestionably very early and faithful imitations of the oracular +deliveries of the ancient Maya priests. + +The historical portions include rude annals since the Conquest, and a +series of Chronicles, extending back to about the third century of the +Christian era. There are five versions of these, all of which I have +published, with translations and copious notes, as the first volume of +my "Library of Aboriginal American Literature." + +Another class of Maya historical documents embraces the surveys and land +titles, many of which date from the sixteenth century. I have in my +possession a copy of one as far back as 1542, unquestionably the oldest +monument of the Maya language extant. Sometimes these titles were +accompanied by a family history. Such is "The Chronicle of Chac Xulub +Chen," written by the Chief Nakuk Pech, in 1562, which I have published. +It gives, in a confused style, a history of the Conquest, and throws +light on the methods by which the Spaniards succeeded in overcoming the +various native tribes.[29] + +We owe the preservation of most of the Maya MSS. to the enlightened +labors of Don Juan Pio Perez, a distinguished Yucatecan scholar, and the +compiler of the best printed dictionary of the Maya tongue.[30] The most +complete collection now in existence is that of the Canon Crescencio +Carrillo y Ancona, a learned archaeologist, and author of an excellent +history of Maya literature.[31] + +After the Maya, the most important of these associated dialects was the +Cakchiquel. It was, and still is, spoken in Guatemala; and the Kiche +(Quiche), also current there, is so nearly allied to it that they may be +treated as one idiom. The Cakchiquel possesses an extensive Christian +literature, as it was cultivated assiduously by the early missionaries. +Indeed, there was, for many years, a chair in the University of +Guatemala created for teaching it, and it is often referred to as the +_lengua metropolitana_, Guatemala having been the see of an +archbishop. There are in existence extensive lexicons of Cakchiquel, and +in it, besides various collections of sermons, was written the once +celebrated work of Father Domingo de Vico, the _Theologia Indorum_, +probably the most complete theological treatise ever produced in a +native American tongue.[32] + +The most notable aboriginal production in Cakchiquel is one frequently +referred to by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg as the _Memorial de +Tecpan Atitlan_, The Records from Tecpan Atitlan.[33] It is an +historical account of his family and tribe, written in the sixteenth +century by a member of the junior branch of the ruling house of the +Cakchiquels. His name was Don Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila, and a +passage of the MS. informs us that he was writing in 1581. After his +death the work was continued by Don Francisco Tiaz Gebuta Queh. The +style is familiar and often vivid, and the work is addressed to his +children. It begins with the earliest myths and traditions of the tribe, +and follows their fortunes to the lifetime of the writer. In respect +both to mythology, history and language, it is one of the most +noteworthy monuments of American antiquity. A loose paraphrase of it was +made by Brasseur de Bourbourg, based upon which, a Spanish rendering was +published by the "Sociedad Economica de Guatemala," under the auspices +of Senor Gavarrete. Neither the original nor any correct translation has +been printed. + +A copy of this MS. is in my collection, and both the original and a +second copy are in Europe; but there were a number of similar historical +accounts, committed to writing by this people and their immediate +neighbors, of which we know little but the titles and a few extracts. +Thus, the historian of Guatemala, Don Domingo Juarros, quotes from the +MSS. of Don Francisco Gomez, _Ahzib Kiche_, or Chief Scribe of the +Kiches, of Don Francisco Garcia Calel Tzumpan, of Don Juan Macario, +nephew, and Don Juan Torres, son, of the Chief Chignavincelut, and "the +histories written by the Quiches, Cakchiquels, Pipils, Pocomans, and +others, who learned to write their tongues from their Spanish teachers." +These MSS. gave the genealogies of their families and the migrations of +their ancestors "from the time when the Toltecs, from whom they trace +descent, first entered the territory of Mexico, and found it inhabited +by the Chichimecs."[34] + +One of the motives prompting to the composition of these works was to +vindicate the claims of families to the sovereignty, or to the +possession of land. They were, in fact, a sort of briefs of titles to +real estate. One such is preserved, in the original, in the Brasseur +collection, and is catalogued as "The Royal Title of Don Francisco +Izquin, the last Ahpop Galel, or King, of Nehaib, granted by the lords +who invested him with his royal dignity, and confirmed by the last King +of Quiche, with other sovereigns, November 22, 1558."[35] A Spanish +translation of the title of a female branch of this same family was +printed at Guatemala in 1876, but the original text has never been put +to press, although it is said to be still preserved in one of the +ancient families of the Province of Totonicapam.[36] + +Another Kiche work, which has excited a lively but not very intelligent +interest among European scholars, is the _Popol Vuh_, National +Book, a compendious account of their mythology and traditional history. +A Spanish translation of it by Father Francisco Ximenez was edited in +Vienna, in 1857, by Dr. Carl Scherzer.[37] The Abbe Brasseur followed, in +1861, by a publication of the original text, and a new translation into +French.[38] This text fills 173 octavo pages, so that it will be seen +that it offers an ample specimen of the tongue. + +Neither of these translations is satisfactory. Ximenez wrote with all +the narrow prejudices of a Spanish monk, while Brasseur was a Euhemerist +of the most advanced type, and saw in every myth the statement of a +historical fact. There is need of a re-translation of the whole, with +critical linguistic notes attached. A few years ago, I submitted the +names and epithets of the divinities mentioned in the Popol Vuh to a +careful analysis, and I think the results obtained show clearly how +erroneous were the conceptions formed regarding them by both the +translators of the document.[39] I shall not here go into the question of +its age or authorship, about which diverse opinions have obtained; but I +will predict that the more sedulously it is studied, the more certainly +it will be shown to be a composition inspired by ideas and narratives +familiar to the native mind long before the advent of Christianity. + +I have been told that there are other versions of the _Popol Vuh_ +still preserved among the Kiches, and it were ardently to be desired +that they were sought out, as there are many reasons to believe that the +copy we have is incomplete, or, at any rate, omits some prominent +features of their mythology. + +One branch of the Maya race, the Tzendals, inhabited a portion of the +province of Chiapas. One of their hero-gods bore the name of +_Votan_, a word from a Maya root, signifying the breast or heart, +but from its faint resemblance to "Odin," and its still fainter +similarity to "Buddha," their myth about him has given rise to many +whimsical speculations. This myth was written down in the native tongue +by a Christianized native, in the seventeenth century. The MS. came into +the possession of Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who quotes from +it in his _Constituciones Diocesanas_, printed in Rome, in 1702. +The indefatigable Boturini tells us that he tried in vain to find it, +about 1740, and supposed it was lost.[40] But a copy of it was seen and +described by Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, in 1790.[41] Possibly it is still in +existence, and there are few fragments of American literature which +would better merit a diligent search. As to the meaning of the Votan +myth, I have ventured an explanation of it in another work.[42] + +In South America, the only native historical writers who employed their +own tongue appear to have been of the Peruvian Qquichua stock. None of +their productions have been published, but one or more are in existence +and accessible. Prominent among them and deserving of early editing by +competent hands, is an anonymous treatise, partly translated by Dr. +Francisco de Avila, in 1608, on the "Errors, False Gods, Superstitions +and Diabolical Rites" of the natives of the provinces of Huarochiri, +Mama and Chaclla. The original text is in Madrid, and Avila's +translation, as far as it goes, has been rendered into English by Mr. +Clements R. Markham, and published in one of the Hackluyt Society's +volumes.[43] + +A member of the Inca family, already referred to, Don Luis Inca, is +reported to have written a series of historical notes, _Advertencias_, +"with his own hand and in his own tongue;" but what became of his +manuscript is not known.[44] + +There is another class of historical documents, which profess to be the +production of native hands, and which are moderately numerous. These are +the official letters and petitions drawn up by the chiefs in their own +tongues, and forwarded to the Spanish authorities. Of these, two +interesting specimens, one in the "Abolachi" tongue (a dialect of +Muskokee), and the other in Timucuana, were published in fac-simile by +the late Mr. Buckingham Smith, but in a very limited number of copies +(only fifty in all). Others in Nahuatl and Maya, also in fac-simile, +appear in that magnificent volume, the _Cartas de Indias_, issued +by the Spanish Government in 1880. Doubtless more examples could be +found in the public Archives in Spain, and they should all be collected +into one volume. They were probably prompted by the Spanish local +authorities; but it is likely that they show the true structure of the +language, and, of course, they have a positive historical value. + +It is related in the Proceedings of the Municipal Council of Guatemala +that, in 1692, the Captain Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman laid before the +Council seven petitions, written in the native language, on the bark of +trees.[45] Whatever of interest they contained was, no doubt, extracted +by that laborious but imaginative writer, and included in his +_History_, which has never been published, though several +manuscript copies of it are in existence. + +It will be seen that some of the so-called historical literature I have +mentioned rests uncertain on the border line between fact and fancy. +These old stories may be vague memories of past deeds, set in a frame of +mythical details; or they may be ancient myths, solar or meteorological, +which came to receive credence as actual occurrences. The task remains +for special students of such matters to sift and analyze them, and +settle this debateable point. + +There is another class of narrations, about which there can be no doubt +as to their purely imaginative origin. These are the animal myths, the +fairy stories, the fireside tales of giants and magicians, with which +the hours of leisure are whiled away. Several collections of these have +been made, the words and phrases taken down precisely as the native +story-teller delivered them, and thus they come strictly within the +lines of aboriginal literature. They are the spontaneous outgrowth of +the native mind, and are faithful examples of native speech. + +Over a hundred such tales have been collected by Dr. +Couto de Magalhaes, as narrated by the Tupis of Brazil, and +many of them have been published with all desirable fidelity, +and with a philosophical introduction and notes, in a volume +issued by the Brazilian government, under his editorial care.[46] + +A similar collection of Tupi stories was made by the late Prof. Charles +F. Hartt, whose early death was a loss to more than one branch of +science. It was his intention to edit them with the necessary notes and +vocabularies; but, so far as I know, the only specimens which appeared +in print were those he laid before the American Philological +Association, in 1872.[47] The inquiries I have instituted about his MSS. +have not been successful. + +Numerous texts of this description have been obtained from the Klamath +Indians by Mr. A.S. Gatschet, and from the Omaha by the Rev. J. Owen +Dorsey, both of which collections are in process of publication by the +Bureau of Ethnology at Washington. Scattered specimens of stories of +this kind have also been obtained by a number of travelers, and they are +always a welcome aid to the study both of the psychology and language of +a tribe. + + + + + + +Section 4. _Didactic Literature_. + + +The more civilized American tribes had made considerable advances in +some of the natural sciences, and in none more than in practical +astronomy. By close observation of the heavenly bodies they had +elaborated a complicated and remarkably exact system of chronology. They +had determined the length of the year with greater accuracy than the +white invaders; and the different cycles by which they computed time +allowed them to assign dates to occurrences many hundreds of years +anterior. + +Although there are local differences, the calendars in use in Central +and Southern Mexico and in Central America were evidently derived from +one and the same original. A great deal has been written upon them, but +for all that many questions about them remain unanswered. We do not know +the Maya method of intercalation; we do not understand the uses of the +shorter Mexican year, of 260 days; we are at a loss to explain the +purpose of doubling the length of certain months, as prevailed among the +Cakchiquels; we are in the dark about the significance of the names of +many days and months; we cannot see why the nations chose to begin the +count of the year at different seasons; and there are ever so many more +knotty problems about this remarkable system and its variations. + +What we imperatively need is a supply of authentic aboriginal calendars, +accurately reproduced, for purposes of comparison. Boturini collected a +number of these, which he describes, and long before his day some +specimens had been published by Valades and Gemelli Carreri.[48] They +were, in ancient times, usually depicted by circular drawings, called by +the Spaniards, Wheels (_ruedas_). After the Conquest they were +written out, more in the form of our almanacs. One such, in the Maya +tongue, with a translation, was contributed to Mr. Stephens' _Travels +in Yucatan_, by the eminent Maya scholar, Don Juan Pio Perez.[49] +Several others were in his collection, and are accessible. Dr. Berendt +succeeded in securing _fac similes_ of Kiche and Cakchiquel +calendars, written out in the seventeenth century, and these are now in +my possession. I fear we have no perfect examples of the Zapotec +calendar, nor of that of the Tarascos of Michoacan, although an +anonymous author, most of whose MS. has been preserved, reduced the +latter to writing, and it may some day turn up.[50] The Aztec calendars +collected by Boturini would, were they published, give us sufficient +material, probably, to understand clearly the methods of that tribe. + +One momentous purpose which the calendar served was for supplying omens +and predictions; another was for the appointment of fasts and festivals, +for the religious ritual. The calendar arranged for these objects was +called, in the Nahuatl, _tonalamatl_, "the book of days," and in +Maya _tzolante_, "that by which events are arranged." So intimately +were all the acts of individual and national life bound up with these +superstitions, that an understanding of them is indispensable to a +successful study of the psychology and history of the race. + +After the Conquest some of the notions about judicial astrology, then +prevalent in Europe, crept into the native understanding, and notably, +in the _Books of Chilan Balam_ we find forecastes of lucky and +unlucky days, and discussions of planetary influence, evidently borrowed +from the Spanish almanacs of the seventeenth century. + +Most of the Aborigines of the Continent possessed a keen sense of +locality, and often a certain rude skill in cartography. The relative +position of spots and proportionate distances were approximately +represented by rough drawings. They knew the boundaries of their lands, +the courses of streams, the trend of shores, and could display them +intelligently. These maps, as they are called, present a very different +appearance from ours. Those of the Aztecs are rather pictured diagrams, +something like those we find in fifteenth century books of travel. A +fair specimen, though of date later than the Conquest, was published not +long since, in Madrid.[51] + +The Maya maps are even more conventional. A central point is taken, +usually a town, around which is drawn either a circle or a square, on +the four sides of which are placed the figures of the four cardinal +points, and within the figures are the various symbols which denote the +villages, wells, ponds, and other objects which are to be designated. +Specimens of some of these, all after the Conquest, however, have been +published by Mr. Stephens and Canon Carrillo,[52] and others are found in +the various _Books of Chilan Balam_. + +Very few strictly scholastic works seem to have been produced by the +natives. Nearly all those which I have seen for use in the Mission +schools appear to be the productions of the white instructors, +generally, of course, aided by some intelligent native. I have in my +possession an _Ortografia en Lengua Kekchi_, picked up by Dr. +Berendt in Vera Paz, which was the work of Domingo Coy, an Indian of +Coban (MS. pp. 32). But on examination it proves to be merely an +adaptation of a _Manual de Ortografia Castellana_, in use in the +schools, and not an original effort. For all that, it is not without +linguistic value. In Mexico a useful little book of instruction in +Nahuatl has been prepared by the licentiate Faustino Chimalpopoca +Galicia, a scholar of indigenous extraction.[53] An older work, of a +similar character, by Don Antonio Tobar, a descendant of the Montezumas, +is mentioned by bibliographers, but never was printed, and has probably +perished.[54] + +It has always been part of the policy of both Catholic and Protestant +missions to permit the natives to enter the career of the church; in the +territories of both confessions instances are moderately numerous of +priests and preachers of half or full Indian blood. Most of these +educated men, however, rather shunned the cultivation of their maternal +tongues, and preferred, when they wrote at all, to choose that of their +white brethren, the Spanish, Portuguese or English. The extensive +theological literature which we possess, printed or in manuscript, in +American tongues, and in many it is quite ample, is scarcely ever the +result of the efforts of the Christian teachers of indigenous +affiliations. + +A notable exception was the licentiate Bartolome de Alva, a native +Mexican, descended from the Tezcucan kings, who composed, in Nahuatl and +Spanish, a _Confessionario_, which was printed at Mexico in 1634. +It contains some interesting references to the mythology and +superstitions of the natives.[55] + +The Indian Elias Boudinot and other Cherokees have printed many essays +and tracts in that tongue, but whether original or merely translated I +do not know. The sermons of the native Protestant missionaries to their +fellows were probably extempore addresses. At any rate, I have not seen +any in manuscript or print. A volume of the kind exists, however, in +manuscript, in the Library of the _Instituto Historico_ of Rio +Janeiro, which it would be very desirable to have printed. It is the +_Sermones e Exemplos em lengua Guarani_, by Nicolas Japuguay, cura +of the Parish of San Francisco in 1727.[56] But when it is edited, let us +hope that it will be a more favorable example of critical care than the +_Crestomathia da Lingua Brasilica_, edited by Dr. Ernesto Ferreira +Franca (Leipzig, 1859), which, according to Professor Hartt, is "badly +arranged, carelessly edited, and disfigured by innumerable typographical +errors."[57] + +A curious variety of religious literature is what are called the +Passions, _Las Pasiones_, which are found among the natives of the +Isthmus of Tehuantepec. These prose chants took their rise at an early +period among the sodalities (_cofradias_), organized under the name +of some particular saint. Each of these societies possessed a volume, +called its Regulations (_Ordenanzas_), containing, among other +matters, a series of invocations, founded on the history of the Passion +of Christ. During Holy Week, certain members of the fraternity, called +_fiscales_, gather in the church, around one of their number, who +reads a sentence in a loud voice. The fiscales repeat it in a chanting +tone, with a uniform and monotonous cadence. It is probable that these +chants are the compositions of the Indians themselves. Dr. Berendt +obtained several copies of these, some in the Chapaneca of Chiapas, and +others in the Zoque of the Isthmus, which are now in my hands. + + + + +Section 5. _Oratorical Literature._ + + +The love of the American Indian for oratorical display has been +commented on by almost all writers who have studied his disposition. +Specimens of native eloquence have been introduced into school books, +and declaimed by many an aspiring young Cicero. Most of them are, +doubtless, as fictitious as Logan's celebrated speech, which was exalted +by the great Jefferson almost to a level with the outbursts of +Demosthenes, to be reduced again to very small proportions by the +criticisms of Brantz Mayer.[58] + +In fact, in spite of all that has been said about the native oratory, +we are in a very inadequate position to judge of it correctly, and this +because we have no accurate reports in the original tongues of their +speeches. Translations, more or less loose, more or less imaginary, +we have in abundance; but, for critical purposes, they are simply +worthless. + +Yet that even the ruder tribes in both the northern and southern +continents, attached great weight to the cultivation of oratory, is +amply evident. James Adair, who is competent authority, tells us that +the southern Indians studied public speaking assiduously, and that their +speeches "abound with bolder tropes and figures than illiterate +interpreters can well comprehend or explain."[59] Mr. Howse writes that, +among the Crees, those who possess oratorical talent are in demand by +the Chiefs, who employ them to deliver the official harangues.[60] Among +the Aztecs, the very word for chief, _tlatoani_, literally means +"orator" (from the verb _tlatoa_, to harangue). In the far south, +among the Araucanians of Chili, and their relatives the migratory hordes +of the Pampas, no gift is in higher estimation than that of an easy and +perspicuous delivery. This alone enables the humblest to rise to the +position of chieftain.[61] So it was over the whole continent. + +In most of their languages, the oratorical was markedly different from +the familiar or colloquial style. The former was given to antithesis, +repetition, elaborate figures, unusual metaphors, and more sonorous and +lengthened expressions. The Rev. Mr. Byington gives a number of the +oratorical affectations in the Choctaw, as _akakano_ for _ak_, +_okakocha_ for _ok_, etc.[62] + +Some genuine specimens of the oratory of the northern tribes are +preserved by Mr. Hale, in the Iroquois _Book of Rites_, to which I +have referred on a previous page. The speeches it contains were learned +by heart, and transmitted from generation to generation, long before +they were committed to writing, and long after some of the words and +expressions they contain had become lost to the colloquial language of +the tribe. + +The ancient Mexicans were much given to this sort of formal +speech-making. They had a large number of cut-and-dried orations, which +professional rhetoricians delivered on all important occasions in life. +The new-born child was harangued at, in good set terms, when it was but +a few days old. Betrothals, marriages, festivals, the commencement of +puberty and of pregnancy, etc., were all celebrated by the delivery of +discourses. Fathers taught their children, teachers their pupils, +monarchs their vassals, war chiefs their soldiers, by such declamations. +The general name for these speeches was _huehuetlatolli_, ancient +orations.[63] + +Many have been preserved, and a tolerably complete collection could be +made in the original tongue. To effect this, we should have to have +recourse to the original Nahuatl MS. of Sahagun's history, which, I have +already said, exists in Madrid; next, to the extremely rare work of the +eminent Nahuatl scholar, Father Juan Baptista, _Platicas Morales_, +in which, according to Vetancurt, he gives, in the original, the ancient +addresses of fathers to their children, and of rulers to their +subjects;[64] and lastly, to the recently published, though very early +written, _Mexican Grammar_, of the Franciscan Andre de Olmos, which +contains a number of these discourses, carefully edited and translated +by the accomplished scholar, M. Remi Simeon.[65] + +The numerous prayers to the heathen gods, preserved by Sahagun, are, +doubtless, faithfully recorded, and are accurate examples of the +elevated literary style of the ancient Aztecs. They should, by all +means, be printed, so that they could be accessible to those who would +acquaint themselves with the genius of the language and the psychology +of the people. + +In the Qquichua of Peru, a few similar prayers to Viracocha have been +saved from oblivion, in the pages of Cristobal de Molina. One or more +copies of his _Relacion_ are in the United States, but it has only +appeared in print through a translation by Mr. Markham, in the Hackluyt +Society's publications.[66] Some modern prayers of the Mayas are to be +found in the collection of Brasseur,[67] and, doubtless, several of the +so-called ancient "prophecies," preserved in the _Books of Chilan +Balam_, are, in fact, specimens of the impassioned and mystic +rhapsodies with which the priests of their heathendom entertained their +hearers, as Cortes and his followers heard, one day, on the island of +Cozumel.[68] + + + + +Section 6. _Poetical Literature._ + + +Man, remarks Wilhelm von Humboldt, belongs to the singing species of +animals. True it is, that wherever found, he has some notion of music, +cultivates the accord of sounds by some sort of instrument, and gives +expression to his most acute emotions in modulations of vocal tone. + +The earliest and simplest poetry is nothing more than such modulated +sounds; it is not in definite words, and hence, is not capable of +translation; it is but the expression of feeling through the voice, as +is the wail of the infant, the rippling laughter of youth, the crooning +of senility, the groans of pain or sorrow. + +Perhaps this first is also the highest expression of the aesthetic +sense. The most admired cantatrices of to-day drown the words in a +wealth of vocalization, and the meaning is lost, even were the language +one known to their hearers, which it usually is not. I have heard a +living poet, himself of no mean eminence, maintain that the harmony of +versification is a far higher test of true poetic power than the ideas +conveyed. + +These principles must be borne in mind when we apply the canons of +criticism to the poetry of the ruder races. It is not composed to be +read, or even recited, but to be sung; its aim is, not to awaken thought +or convey information, but solely to excite emotion. It can have a +meaning only when heard, and only in the surroundings which gave it +birth. + +Hence it is, that the notices of the poetry of American nations are so +scant and unsatisfactory. While all travelers agree that the tribes have +songs and chants, war songs, peace songs, love songs, and others, few +satisfactory specimens have been recorded. Those who have examined the +subject most accurately have found that many so-called songs are mere +repetitions of a few words, or even of simple interjections, over and +over again, with an endless iteration, in a chanting voice. The Dakota +songs which have been preserved by Riggs, the Chippeway songs obtained +from the interpreter Tanner, and the numerous specimens of native +Californian chants recorded by Powers, as well as many others of this +class which might be mentioned, are mainly of this character. + +Consequently, they show very poorly in a translation, and +are apt to convey an unjustly depreciatory notion of the +nations which produce them. To estimate them aright, the +meter and the music must be taken into consideration, and also +their suitability to the minds to which they were addressed.[69] + +But the anthology of America is not limited to specimens of this kind. +In the Iroquois _Book of Rites_ there are funeral dirges of +considerable length, expressive and touching in meaning; and in the +Algonkin a few have been preserved in the original, which are authentic +and pleasing. Here, for instance, is a nearly literal version of a +Chippeway love song:-- + + "I will walk into somebody's dwelling, + Into somebody's dwelling will I walk. + + To thy dwelling, my dearly beloved, + Some night will I walk, will I walk. + + Some night in the winter, my beloved, + To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk. + + This very night, my beloved, + To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk."[70] + + +Much more striking, and to me strangely so, are the songs of the Taensa, +a small tribe who dwelt on the banks of the lower Mississippi. They are +now extinct, but a very curious account of their language, by a Spanish +missionary, has been preserved and recently published. The early +travelers speak of them as an unusually cultivated people, but one +cannot but be surprised to find them capable of composing an +epithalamium like the following:-- + + "Tikaens, thou buildest a house, thou bringest thy wife to live in it. + + "Thou art married, Tikaens, thou art married. + + "Thou wilt become famous; thy children will name thee among the elders. + Think of Tikaens as an old man! + + "By what name is thy bride known? Is she beautiful? Are her eyes soft + as the light of the moon? Is she a strong woman? Didst thou understand + her signs during the dance? + + "I know not whether thou lovest her, Tikaens. + + "What said the old man, her father, when thou askedst for his pretty + daughter? + + "What betrothal presents didst thou give? + + "Rejoice, Tikaens! be glad, be happy! + + "Build thyself a happy home. + + "This is the song of its building!" + + +Some of the songs of war and death are quite Ossianic in +style, and yet they appear to be accurate translations.[71] + +The comparatively elevated style of such poems need not cast doubt upon +them. The first European who wrote about the songs of the natives of +America, who was none other than the witty and learned Montaigne, paid a +high tribute to their true poetic spirit. Montaigne knew a man who had +lived among the Tupis of Brazil for ten or twelve years, and had learned +their language and customs. He remembered several of their songs of war +and love, and translated them to gratify the insatiable thirst for +knowledge of the famous essayist. The refrain of one of them, supposed +to be addressed to one of those beautiful serpents of the tropical +forests, ran thus:-- + + "O serpent, stay! stay, O serpent! that thy painted skin may serve my + sister as a pattern for the design and form of a rich cord, which I may + give to my love; for this favor, may thy beauty and grace be esteemed + beyond those of all other serpents." + + +"I have had enough to do with poetry," comments Montaigne on this +couplet, "to say about this that not only is there nothing barbarous in +this fancy, but that it is altogether worthy of Anacreon." Such is his +enthusiasm, indeed, that he finds in this simple and faithful expression +of sentiment the highest form of poesy; "the true, the supreme, the +divine; that which is above rules and beyond reasoning."[72] + +Scarcely can we call these words extravagant, when, in our own century, +another Frenchman, eminent as a scientific observer, and speaking from +the results of personal study on the spot, has said of the songs of a +tribe of this same Tupi stock, the Guarayos, that they cannot be +surpassed for grace of language and delicacy of expression.[73] + +Many interesting Klamath, Omaha and Zuni verses have been collected by +the efforts of Gatschet, Dorsey, Cushing and other zealous laborers +connected with the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, and these will +shortly be accessible to all through the accurate publications of the +government press. + +The melodious Nahuatl tongue lent itself readily to poetic composition, +and was cultivated enthusiastically in this direction long before the +Conquest. Apparently the poetic dialect never freed itself from the use +of unmeaning particles thrown in to complete the meter; as, indeed, may +also be said of the English popular song dialect, which retains to this +day very many such.[74] + +With this exception the Tezcucan poets, for it was in that province that +the muses were most assiduously worshiped, made use of a pure, +brilliant, figurative style, and had developed a large variety of +metrical forms. + +One of the most famous disciples of the lyre was Nezahualcoyotl, himself +sovereign of Tezcuco about the year 1460. He left seventy odes on +philosophical and religious subjects, which were borne in memory and +repeated after the Conquest. Translations of a few of them have come +down to us, but my inquiries as to the whereabouts of the originals, if, +indeed, they exist, have been fruitless.[75] The Jesuit, Horatio Carochi, +published some ancient verses in his grammar of the Nahuatl (Mexico, +1645). Several which appear in later works do not seem to merit the +credit of antiquity. They are more like those which Sahagun wrote and +published, in Nahuatl, at a very early period,[76] Christian songs, +intended to take the place of the ditties of love and chants of war, +which the natives had such a passion for singing. + +Under the title _Cantares de los Mexicanos_, there was long +preserved in the library of the University of Mexico a manuscript of the +sixteenth or seventeenth century, with a large number of supposed +ancient Aztec songs; but what has become of it now, nobody knows.[77] +Thus it is that these precious monuments of antiquity are allowed to lie +uncared for, through generations, until, at length, they fall a prey to +ignorance or theft. + +A few other fragments of Nahuatl poetry, all probably modern, but some +of them the versification of native bards, might be named; but the whole +of it, as now existing, could give us but a faint idea of the perfection +to which the art appears to have attained in the palmy days of the great +Tezcucan poet-prince. + +In the literature of the Maya group of dialects, there have been +preserved various sacred chants, some in the _Books of Chilan +Balam_, others in the Kiche _Popol Vuh_. What are known as the +"Maya Prophecies" are, as I have said, evidently the originals, or +echoes of the mystic songs of the priests of Kukulkan and Itzamna, +deities of the Maya pantheon, who were supposed to inspire their +devotees with the power of foretelling the future. + +The modern Maya lends itself very readily both to rhyme and rhythm, and +I have in my possession some quite neat specimens of versification in +it, from the pen of the Yucatecan historian, Apolinar Garcia y Garcia. + +When we reach Peru we find a race not less poetical in temperament than +the cultured Mexicans. Nothing but their ignorance of an alphabet, and +the indifference or fanatical hatred of the early explorers for the +productions of the native intellect, prevented the perpetuation of a +Qquichua literature, both extensive and noble. As it is, we may expect +many valuable examples of it when the learned Peruvian scholar, Senor +Gavino Pacheco Zegarra, shall publish his long promised _Tresor de la +Langue des Incas_. Among them he has announced the first appearance +of a number of _Yaravis_, or elegiac chants, composed by the +Indians themselves, and sung in memory of their departed friends. + +We know, from the testimony of Garcillaso de la Vega, that the Inca +bards formed a separate and highly respected class, and that in their +hands the supple Qquichua tongue had been brought under well recognized +rules of prosody. He mentions the different classes and subjects of +their poems, compares them to similar compositions in Spanish, and even +gives specimens of two short ones, of undoubted antiquity, and adds +that, when a boy, he knew many others. "What would not one now give," +exclaims Mr. Markham, "for those precious relics of Inca civilization, +which the half-caste lad allowed to slip from his memory."[78] All that +Mr. Markham could collect, in his extensive journeys in Peru, were not +above twenty songs of ancient date, and I regret to say that these have +not yet been published. + +Of those charming Tupi songs, to which I have already referred, I fear +that we have but very few preserved in the original tongue. Not that +there is any lack of poems in the _lingoa geral_, or "common +language" of Brazil, as the ordinary and corrupt Tupi there spoken is +called. It is a melodious idiom, lending itself easily to rhyme and +rhythm, and several Brazilian writers of European blood have gained +reputation by their compositions in it. But of genuine aboriginal +productions, there are not many. + +The entertaining old voyager, Jean de Lery, who visited Brazil with +Villegagnon in 1557, has recorded a few simple airs, which appear to be +merely choruses or refrains of songs, the delivery of which was, +however, so effective, that to hear them carried him out of himself; and +ever, when his memory recalled them, his heart beat, and it seemed that +he heard the wild cadence once again resounding in his ears through the +tropical forests.[79] + +Some strange old poetic invocations in archaic Tupi addressed to the +moon and to the god of love, Ruda, who dwells in the clouds, have been +collected and printed by Dr. Couto de Magalhaes, a writer whose studies +on Tupi poetry, its character and development, merit high praise.[80] +Both the songs and music of the modern natives of that country attracted +the attention of the learned Von Martius, and in his volumes of +_Travels in Brazil_ an appendix is devoted to their discussion.[81] +Many excellent hints for preparing a Tupi anthology are also contained +in an erudite note of Ferdinand Denis to his description of the visit of +fifty native Tupis to France, in 1550.[82] + + + + +Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_. + + +The development of the dramatic art can be clearly traced +in the American nations. When the Spaniards first explored +the West Indian Islands they found the inhabitants much +given to festivals which combined dancing with chanting, +and the introduction of figures with peculiar costumes. The +native name of these representations was adopted by the +Spaniards, and applied to such performances elsewhere. The +word is _areytos_, and is derived from the Arawack verb, _aririn_, +to rehearse, recite.[83] + +Such dramatic recitations were found among most of the tribes of North +and South America, and have been frequently described by travelers. +Often they were of a religious nature, having something to do with +devotional exercises; but not seldom they were simply for amusement. +Occasionally they were mere pantomimes, where the actors appeared in +costume and masks, and went through some ludicrous scene. Thus, to quote +one example out of many, Lieutenant Timberlake saw some among the +Cherokees, about the middle of the last century, which he speaks of as +"very diverting," where some of the actors dressed in the skins of wild +animals, and the simulated contest between these pretended beasts and +the men who hunted them, were the motives of the entertainment.[84] + +From the solemn religious representations on the one hand and these +diverting masquerades on the other, arose the two forms of tragedy and +comedy, both of which were widely popular among the American +aborigines.[85] The effete notion that they were either unimaginative or +insusceptible to humor is, to be sure, still retained by a few writers, +who are either ignorant or prejudiced; but it has been refuted so often +that I need not stop to attack it. In fact, so many tribes were of a gay +and frolicsome disposition, so much given to joking, to playing on +words, and to noticing the humorous aspect of occurrences, that they +have not unfrequently been charged by the whites best acquainted with +them, the missionaries, with levity and a frivolous temperament. + +Among the many losses which American ethnology has suffered, that of the +text of the native dramas is one of the most regretable. Is is, however, +not total. Two have been published which claim to be, and I think are, +faithful renditions of the ancient texts as they were transmitted +verbally, from one to another, in pre-Columbian times. + +The most celebrated of these is the drama of _Ollanta_,[86] in the +Qquichua language of Peru. No less than eight editions of this have been +published, the last and best of which is that by the meritorious +scholar, Senor Gavino Pacheco Zegarra. The internal evidence of the +antiquity of this drama has been pronounced conclusive by all competent +Qquichua students.[87] + +The plot is varied and ingenious, and the characters agreeably +contrasted. Ollanta is a warrior of low degree, who falls in love with +Cusi Coyllur, daughter of the Inca, who returns his affection. The +lovers have secret meetings, and Ollanta asks the sovereign to sanction +their union. The proud ruler rejects the proposal with scorn, and the +audacious warrior gathers his adherents and attacks the State, at first +with success. But Cusi Coyllur is thrown into prison and her child, the +fruit of her illicit love, is separated from her. The Inca dies, and +under his successor Ollanta is defeated and brought, a prisoner, to the +capital. Mindful, however, of his merits, the magnanimous victor pardons +him, restores him to his honors, and returns to his arms Cusi Coyllur +and her child. Minor characters are a facetious youth, who is constantly +punning and joking; and the dignified figure of the High Priest of the +Sun, who endeavors to dissuade the hero from his seemingly hopeless +love. + +The second drama to which I refer is that of _Rabinal Achi_, in the +Kiche tongue of Guatemala. The text was obtained by the Abbe Brasseur de +Bourbourg, and edited with a French translation. The plot is less +complete than that of the _Ollanta_, and the constant repetitions, +while they constitute strong evidence of its antiquity and native +origin, are tedious to a European reader.[88] + +Rabinal-Achi is a warrior who takes captive a distinguished foe, Canek, +and brings him before the ruler of Rabinal, King Hobtoh. The fate of the +prisoner is immediate death and he knows it, but his audacity and +bravery do not fail him. He boasts of his warlike exploits, and taunts +his captors, like an Iroquois in his death song, and his enemies listen +with respect. He even threatens the king, and has to be restrained from +attacking him. As his end draws near, he asks to drink from the royal +cup and eat from the royal dish; it is granted. Again, he asks to be +clothed in the royal robe; it is brought and put about him. Once more he +makes a request, and it is to kiss the virgin mouth of the daughter of +the king, and dance a measure with her, "as the last sign of his death +and his end." Even this is conceded, and one might think that it was his +uttermost petition. But no; he asks one year's grace, wherein to bid +adieu to his native mountains. The king hears this in silence, and Canek +disappears; but returning in a moment, he scornfully inquires whether +they supposed he had run away. He then, in a few strong words, bids a +last farewell to his bow, his shield, his war-club and battle-axe, and +is slain by the warriors of the king. + +The love of dramatic performances was not crushed out in the natives by +the Conquest. In fact, in the Spanish countries, it was turned to +account and cultivated by the missionaries as a means of instructing +their converts in religion, by "miracle plays" or _autos +sacramentales_, as they are called. It was even permitted to the more +intelligent natives to compose the text of plays. One such, manifestly, +I think, the work of a native author, in the mixed Nahuatl-Spanish +dialect of Nicaragua, I have prepared for publication. The original was +found by Dr. Berendt in Masaya, and his copy, without note or +translation, came into my hands. + +The play is a light comedy, and is called "The Ballet of the Gueegueence +or the Macho-Raton." The characters are a wily old rascal, Gueegueence, +and his two sons, the one a chip of the old block, the other a bitter +commentator on the family failings. They are brought before the Governor +for entering his province without a permit; but by bragging and promises +the foxy old man succeeds both in escaping punishment and in effecting a +marriage between his scapegrace son and the Governor's daughter. The +interest is not in the plot, which is trivial, but in the constant play +on words, and in the humor, often highly Rabelaisian, of the anything +but venerable parent. + +The "Zacicoxol," or Drama of Cortes and Montezuma, written in Kiche, of +which I have a copy, may possibly be the work of an Indian, but is +probably largely that of one of the Spanish curas, and appears to have +little in it of interest. + +Another and peculiar form of dramatic recitation is what are called the +Loas or _Logas_, of Central America. In these, a single individual +appears in some quaint costume, in a little theatre erected for the +purpose, and recites a burlesque poem, acting the different portions of +it to the best of his ability. At present, most of these _Logas_ +are of a semi-religious character. The one I have is entitled "The Loga +of the Child-God," _Loga del nino Dios_, and is written in Spanish +intermingled with words from the Mangue or Chorotegan language. This +tongue, spoken by a few persons in Nicaragua, is closely akin to the +Chapanec of Chiapas, and was a sonorous and rich idiom. Those who spoke +it were much given to scenic representations, as we learn from the +historian Oviedo, who lived among them for nearly a year, about 1527. +None of these remain, though as late as about 1820, one of great +antiquity, believed to be an original native production, continued to be +acted. Its title was _La Ollita_ or _El Canahuate_, the former +word meaning the peculiar musical instrument of that locality, the +"whistling jar." The subject was a tale of love, and one of these +primitive flutes was used as an accompaniment to the songs. + + + + +Section 8. _Conclusion_. + + +Thus do I answer the questions which I proposed at the outset of my +thesis. If I have failed to justify the expectations which I may have +raised, at least I have thrown into strong relief the cause of my +failure, to wit, the utter and incredible neglect which, up to this +hour, has prevailed with regard to the preservation of what relics of +native literature which we know have existed,--which do still exist. + +Time and money are spent in collecting remains in wood and stone, in +pottery and tissue and bone, in laboriously collating isolated words, +and in measuring ancient constructions. This is well, for all these +things teach us what manner of men made up the indigenous race, what +were their powers, their aspirations, their mental grasp. But closer to +very self, to thought and being, are the connected expressions of men in +their own tongues. The monuments of a nation's literature are more +correct mirrors of its mind than any merely material objects. I have at +least shown that there are some such, which have been the work of native +American authors. My object is to engage in their preservation and +publication the interest of scholarly men, of learned societies, of +enlightened governments, of liberal institutions and individuals, not +only in my own country, but throughout the world. Science is +cosmopolitan, and the study of man is confined by no geographical +boundaries. The languages of America and the literary productions in +those languages have every whit as high a claim on the attention of +European scholars as have the venerable documents of Chinese lore, the +mysterious cylinders of Assyria, or the painted and figured papyri of +the Nilotic tombs. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: What Dr. Washington Matthews says of one of the Sioux +tribes is, in substance, true of all on the Continent:-- + +"Long winter evenings are often passed in reciting and listening to +stories of various kinds. Some of these are simply the accounts given by +the men, of their own deeds of valor, their hunts and journeys; some are +narrations of the wonderful adventures of departed heroes; while many +are fictions, full of impossible incidents, of witchcraft and magic. The +latter class of stories are very numerous. Some of them have been handed +down through many generations; some are of recent origin; while a few +are borrowed from other tribes. Some old men acquire great reputation as +story tellers, and are invited to houses, and feasted, by those who are +desirous of listening to them. Good story tellers often originate tales, +and do not disclaim the authorship. When people of different tribes meet +they often exchange tales with one another. An old Indian will occupy +several hours in telling a tale, with much elegant and minute +description."--_Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, +pp. 62-3. (Washington, 1877.)] + +[Footnote 2: That these assertions are not merely my own, but those of +the most profound students of these tongues, will be seen from the +following extracts, which could easily be added to:-- + +"This language [the Cree] will be found to be adequate, not only to the +mere expression of their wants, but to that of every circumstance or +sentiment that can, in any way, interest or affect uncultivated +minds."--Joseph Howse, _A Grammar of the Cree Language_, p. 12. +(London, 1865.) + +"J'ai affirme que nos deux grandes langues du Nouveau Monde [the +Iroquois and the Algonkin] etaient tres claires, tres precises, +exprimant avec facilite non seulement les relations exterieures des +idees, mais encore leur relations metaphysiques. C'est ce qu' out +commence de demontrer mes premiers chapitres de grammaire, et ce +qu'achevera de faire voir ce que je vais dire sur les verbes."--Rev. M. +Cuoq, _Jugement Errone de M. Ernest Renan sur les Langues +Sauvages._ p. 32 (2d Ed. Montreal, 1869.) + +"Affermo che non e facile di trovare una lingua piu atta della Messicana +a trattar le materie metafisiche; poiche e difficile di trovarne +un' altra, che tanto abbondi, quanto quella, di nomi astratte."--Clavigero, +_Storia Antica del Messico_, Tomo IV, p. 244. (Cesena, 1781.) + +"Todos los bellisimos sentimientos que se albergan en los nobles +corazones en ninguna otra de aquellas lenguas (Europeas) pueden +encontrar una expresion tan viva tan patetica y energica como la que +tienen en Mexicano. ?En cual otra se habla con tanto acatamiento, con +veneracion tan profunda, de los altisimos mysterios de ineffable amor +que nos muestra el Cristianismo?"--Fr. Agustin de la Rosa, in the _Eco +de la Fe_. (Merida, 1870.) + +Alcide d'Orbigny argues forcibly to the same effect, of the South +American languages:--"Les Quichuas et les Aymaras civilises ont une +langue etendue, pleine de figures elegantes, de comparaisons naives, de +poesie, surtout lorsqu'il s'agit d'amour; et il ne faut pas croire +qu'isoles au sein des forets sauvages ou jetes au milieu des plaines +sans bornes, les peuples chasseurs, agriculteurs et guerriers, soient +prives de formes elegantes, de figures riches et variees."--_L'Homme +Americain_, Tome I, p. 154. + +For other evidence see Brinton, _American Hero Myths_, p. 25. +(Philadelphia, 1882.). Horatio Hale, _The Iroquois Book of Rites_, +p. 107. (Philadelphia, 1883.)] + +[Footnote 3: _Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, +p. 18.] + +[Footnote 4: _The Tribes of California_, p. 73. (Washington, +1877.)] + +[Footnote 5: "Il n'est pas rare de trouver des individus parlant jusqu'a +trois ou quatre langues, aussi distinctes entr'elles que le francais et +l'allemand."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, Tome I, p. +170. The generality of this fact in South America was noted by Humboldt, +_Voyage aux Regions Tropicales_, T. III, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 6: "Hay muchos de ellos buenos gramaticos, y componen +oraciones largas y bien autorizadas, y versos exametros y +pentametros."--Toribio de Motilinia, _Historia de los Indios de la +Nueva Espana_, Tratado III, cap. XII.] + +[Footnote 7: _Menologio Franciscano de los Varones mas Senalados de la +Provincia de Mexico_, Tomo IV, pp. 447-9. (Mexico, 1871.) + +In the Prologue to the _Sermonario Mexicano_ of F. Juan de Bautista +(Mexico, 1606), is a well-written letter, in Latin, by Don Antonio +Valeriano, a native of Atzcaputzalco, who was professor of grammar and +rhetoric in the College of Tlatilulco. Bautista says of him that he +spoke extempore in Latin with the eloquence of a Cicero or a Quintilian; +and his contemporary, the academician Francisco Cervantes Salazar, +writes: "Magistrum habent [Indi] ejusdem nationis, Antonium Valerianum, +nostris grammaticis nequaquam inferiorem, in legis christianae +observatione satis doctum et ad eloquentiam avidissimum."--_Tres +Dialogos Latinos de Francisco Cervantes Salazar_, p. 150 (Ed. +Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1875).] + +[Footnote 8: Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez, _Memorias para la +Historia del Antiguo Reyno de Guatemala_, Tomo III, pp. 201 and 221 +(Guatemala, 1852).] + +[Footnote 9: _Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los Indios +de la Nueva Espana_, in the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para +la Historia de Espana_, Tom. 53, p. 300.] + +[Footnote 10: _A Study of the Manuscript Troano_. By Cyrus Thomas, +Ph.D., with an Introduction by D.G. Brinton, M.D., p. xxvii. +(Washington, 1883.)] + +[Footnote 11: "Tenian libros de pergaminos que hacian de los cueros de +venados, tan anchos como una mano o mas, e tan luengos como diez o doce +passos, e mas e menos, que se encogian e doblaban e resumian en el +tamano e grandeza de una mano por sus dobleces uno contra otro (a +manera de reclamo); y en aquestos tenian pintados sus caracteres o +figuras de tinta roxa o negra, de tal manera que aunque no eran letura +ni escritura, significaban y se entendian por ellas todo lo que querian +muy claramente."--Oviedo, _Historia General y Natural de Indias_, +Lib. XLII, cap. I.] + +[Footnote 12: "Une ecriture consistant en raies tracees sur de petites +planchettes."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, Tomo L, p. +170, on the authority of Viedma, _Informe general de la Provincia de +Santa Cruz, MS_.] + +[Footnote 13: _Legends and Tales of the Eskimo_. (Edinburgh and +London, 1875.)] + +[Footnote 14: _Pok, Kalalek avalangnek, etc._, Nongme, 1857; or, +_Pok, en Groenlaender, som har reist og ved sin Hjemkomst, etc. Efter +gamle Handskrifter fundne hos Groenlaendere ved Godthaab._ Godthaab, +1857.] + +[Footnote 15: _Kaladlit Assilialit, etc._ See Thomas W. Field, +_Indian Bibliography_, p. 199. (New York, 1873.)] + +[Footnote 16: First printed in _The American Whig Review_, New York, +Feb. 1849; reprinted in _The Indian Miscellany_, edited by W.W. +Beach, Albany, 1877. I have not been able to find the original.] + +[Footnote 17: Horatio Hale, _The Iroquois Book of Rites_. +(Philadelphia, 1883.) It is No. II of my "Library of Aboriginal American +Literature." + +The introductory essay, in ten chapters, treats at considerable length +of the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois nations, the Iroquois +League and its founders (Hiawatha, Dekanawidah, and their associates), +the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, +the clan system, the laws of the League, and the historical traditions +relating to it, the Iroquois character and public policy, and the +Iroquois language. A map prefixed to the work shows the location of the +United Nations and of the surrounding tribes.] + +[Footnote 18: _Recit de Francois Kaondinoketc, Chef des Nipissingues +(tribu de race Algonquine) ecrit par lui-meme en 1848.--Traduit en +Francais et accompagne de notes par_ M.N.O., 8vo. pp. 8. (Paris, +1877.)] + +[Footnote 19: _The National Legend of the Chata-Muskokee Tribes_. By +Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. Morrisania, N.Y., 1870. 4to. pp. 13. Reprinted +from _The Historical Magazine_, February, 1870.] + +[Footnote 20: "Les chefs des vieillards m'avoient souvent parle de leurs +ancetres, des courses qu'ils avoient faites, et des combats qu'ils +avoient eu a soutenir, avant que la nation put se fixer ou elle est +aujourd'hui. L'histoire de ces premiers Creeks, qui portoient alors le +nom de Moskoquis, etoit conservee par des banderoles ou chapelets," +etc.--_Memoire ou Coup-d'Oeil Rapide sur mes different Voyages et mon +Sejour dans la Nation Creck,_ Par le Gen. Milfort, pp. 48, 229. +(Paris, An. XI, 1802).] + +[Footnote 21: "We burned all we could find of them," writes Bishop Landa, +"which pained the natives to an extraordinary degree."--_Relacion de +las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 316. For a discussion of what was destroyed +at Mani see Cogolludo, _Historia de Yucatan_, 3d Ed., Vol. I, p. +604, note by the Editor. The efforts which have of late been made by +Senor Icazbalceta and the Reverend Canon Carrillo to modify the general +opinion of these acts of vandalism cannot possibly be successful. The +ruthless hostility of the Church to the ancient civilization, an +hostility founded on religious intolerance, could be proved by hundreds +of extracts from the early writers.] + +[Footnote 22: Boturini's work is entitled _Idea de una Nueva Historia +General de la America Septentrional fundada sobre material copioso +defiguras, Symbolos, Caracteres, y Geroglificos, Cantares y Manuscritos +de Autores Indios_. Madrid, 1746. The fate of his collection is +sketched by Brasseur de Bourbourg, in the introduction to his +_Histoire des Nations civilisees de Mexique et de l'Amerique +Centrale_, Vol I.] + +[Footnote 23: The following extract from Ixtlilxochitl sums up the native +authorities on which he relied for the particulars of the life of the +last prince of Tezcuco, and merits quotation as a bit of literary +history:-- + +"Autores son de todo lo referido, y de los demas de su vida y hechos los +infantes de Mexico Ytzcoatzin y Xiuhcozcatzin, y otros Poetas y +Historicos en los anales de las tres cabezas de esta Nueva Espana, y en +particular en los anales que hizo el infante Quauhtlazaciulotzin, primer +Senor del pueblo de Chiauhtla; y asimismo se halla en las relaciones que +escribieron los infantes de la ciudad de Tezcuco, Don Pablo, Don +Toribio, Don Hernando Pimentel y Juan de Pomar hijos y nietos del Rey +Nezalhualpiltzintli de Tezcuco, y asimismo el infante Don Alonso +Axiaicatzin Senor de Itztapalapan, hijo del rey de Cuitlahuac, y sobrino +del rey Motecutzomatzin."--Ixtlilxochitl, _Historia Chichimeca_, +cap. XLIX.] + +[Footnote 24: In the celebrated library of J.F. Ramirez, were two folio +volumes, containing 1022 pages, entitled _Anales Antiguos de Mexico y +sus Contornos_. They included, besides various Spanish accounts, 27 +fragments in the Nahuatl language, some translated and some not. The +titles of all are given by Don Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, in his +valuable and rare _Apuntes para un Catalogo de Escritores en Lenguas +Indigenas de America_, pp. 140-142. (Mexico, 1866.)] + +[Footnote 25: _Memorial del Pueblo de Teptlaustuque, en la Nueva +Espana; en que se refiere su Origen i Poblacion, i de los Tributos i +Servicios, antes i despues de la Conquista; todo pintado, i M.S._ En +la Libreria del Rei. Antonio de Leon i Pinelo, _Bibliotheca +Occidental_. The district of Tepetlaoztoc belonged to Tezcuco.] + +[Footnote 26: "Don Gabriel Castaneda, Indio principal, natural de +Michuacan Colomocho en la Provincia de Mejico. Escribio en Lengua +Megicana, _Relacion_ de la Jornada que hizo Sandoval Acaxitli, +Cacique y Senor de Tlalmanalco, con el Sr. Visorey Don Antonio de +Mendoza en la Conquista de los Chichimecas de Xuchipila, +1541."--Beristain y Souza, _Biblioteca Hispano-Americana +Septentrional_, s.v.] + +[Footnote 27: For testimony to this interesting fact see _The Maya +Chronicles_, Introduction, p. 28, note.] + +[Footnote 28: _The Books of Chilan Balam, The Prophetic and Historic +Records of the Mayas of Yucatan_. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D., +Philadelphia, 1882. Reprint from the _Penn Monthly_, March, 1882.] + +[Footnote 29: _Library of Aboriginal American Literature_, Vol. I, +p. 189. (Philadelphia, 1882.)] + +[Footnote 30: An intelligent appreciation of the linguistic labors of Pio +Perez was written by Dr. Berendt, in 1871, and printed in +Mexico.--_Los Trabajos Linguisticos de Don Juan Pio Perez_. 8vo. +pp. 6.] + +[Footnote 31: _Disertacion sobre la Historia de la Lengua Maya o +Yucateca_. Por Crescencio Carrillo. Published in the _Revista de +Merida_, 1870.] + +[Footnote 32: A fine manuscript of Vico's work, as well as a number of +other productions in Cakchiquel, by the missionaries, are in the library +of the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia.] + +[Footnote 33: Tecpan Atitlan is a village on the shore of Lake Atitlan, +in the province of Solola, Guatemala.] + +[Footnote 34: Don Domingo Juarros, _Compendio de la Historia de la +Ciudad de Guatemala_, Tomo, II pp. 6, 7, 12, 16, et al. (Ed. +Guatemala, 1857). A copy of Tzumpan's writings is said to be in a +private library in the United States. + +The native Cakchiquel writers were also the authorities on which Father +Vazquez depended, in part, in composing his history of Guatemala. He +gives a partial translation of one, beginning the passage: "Los Indios +de Zolola dizen en sus escritos," etc.--Fray Francisco Vazquez, +_Cronica de la Provincia de Guatemala_, Lib. III, Cap. XXXVI. +(Guatemala, 1714, 1716.)] + +[Footnote 35: Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Bibliotheque +Mexico-Guatemalienne_, p. 142. (Paris, 1871.)] + +[Footnote 36: _Titulos de la Casa de Ixcuin-Nehaib, Senora del +Territorio de Otzoya_. Guatemala, 1876. 8vo. pp. 15. Reprint from the +_Boletin de la Sociedad Economica de Guatemala_.] + +[Footnote 37: _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia +de Guatemala, traducidas de la lengua Quiche al Castellano_. Por el +R.P.F. Francisco Ximenez. 8vo. Vienna, 1857.] + +[Footnote 38: _Popol Vuh. Le Livre Sacre et les Mythes de l'Antiquite +Americaine, avec les livres heroiques et historiques des Quiches_. +Par l'Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. (Paris, 1861.)] + +[Footnote 39: _The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths of Central +America_. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 8vo. pp. 37. (Philadelphia, +1881.) Reprint from the _Proceedings_ of the American Philosophical +Society, 1881.] + +[Footnote 40: Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia de la America +Septentrional_, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 41: Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_, p 33.] + +[Footnote 42: _American Hero-Myths_, pp. 213-217. (Philadelphia, +1882.)] + +[Footnote 43: On this Qquichua MS. see Marcos Jimenez de la Espada, +_Tres Relaciones de Antiguedades Peruanas_. Introd. p. 34.] + +[Footnote 44: _Relacion de las Costumbres Antiguas de los Naturales del +Piru_, printed in the work last quoted, p. 142, note.] + +[Footnote 45: "En cabildo de 29 de Julio de 1692, el capitan Don Antonio +de Fuentes y Guzman trajo a esta sala siete peticiones escritas en +cortezas de arboles."--Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez, _Memorias +para la Historia del Antiguo Reyno de Guatemala_, Tom. II, p. 267. +(Guatemala, 1852.)] + +[Footnote 46: _O Selvagem. Trabalho Preparatorio para aproveitamento de +Selvagem e de solo por elle occupado no Brazil_. Rio de Janeiro, +1876.] + +[Footnote 47: _Notes on the Lingoa Geral, or Modern Tupi of the +Amazonas_, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philological +Association, for 1872.] + +[Footnote 48: Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia_, etc., App. pp. +57 et seq.; Didacus Valades, _Rhetorica Christiana_, Pars Secunda +(Perusia, 1579); Gemelli Carreri, _Giro del Mundo_.] + +[Footnote 49: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. I, p. 449 +(London, 1843).] + +[Footnote 50: _Relacion de las Ceremonias y Ritos de Mechoacan_. The +MS. of this work, in the Library of Congress, does not contain the +Calendar which the author, in the body of the work, promises to append; +nor apparently does the copy in Madrid, from which the work was printed, +in Vol. 53 of the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia +de Espana_.] + +[Footnote 51: _Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de Mexico. +Codex en Geroglificos Mexicanos y en lengua Castellana y Azteca._ +First published at Madrid, 1878. A specimen of the map, "Carte +Geographique Azteque," is given by Professor Leon de Rosny, in _Les +Documents Ecrit de l'Antiquite Americaine_, p. 70 (Paris, 1882).] + +[Footnote 52: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. II, p. 265, gives +a Maya map of Mani. A more complete study of the subject is that of +Carrillo, _Geografia Maya_, in the _Anales del Museo Nacional de +Mexico_, Tom. II, p. 435.] + +[Footnote 53: _Silabario de Idioma Mexicano, dispuesto por el_ Lic. +Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia, Mexico, 1849, 8vo. pp. 16. Second +edition, Mexico, 1859, 8vo. pp. 32. Also _Epitome o Modo Facil de +Aprender el Idioma Nahuatl_, 12mo. pp. 124, Mexico, 1869.] + +[Footnote 54: _Elementos de la Gramatica Megicana_, por Don Antonio +Tobar Cano y Moctezuma. Written about 1642.] + +[Footnote 55: _Confessionario Mayor y Menor en Lengua Mexicana, y +Platicas contra las Supersticiones de Idolatria, que el dia de oy an +quedado a los Naturales desta Nueva Espana_. Ano de 1634. Mexico. A +copy of this scarce volume is in my library.] + +[Footnote 56: Dr. Couto de Magalhaes remarks: "Como o nome indica, este +missionario devia ser algum mestico que, com o leite materno, beben os +primeiros rudimentos da grande lingua Sul-Americana."--_Origens, +Costumes e Regias Selvagem_, p. 62 (Rio de Janeiro, 1876). In 1876 M. +Varuhagen published, at Vienna, a _Historia da paixao de Christo e +taboa dos parentescos em lingua Tupi_, written by Yapuguay, an +extract, apparently, from the volume mentioned in the text. The edition +was only 100 copies.] + +[Footnote 57: C.F. Hartt, _On the Lingoa Geral of the Amazonas_, p. +3, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philological Association, +1872.] + +[Footnote 58: _Tah-gah-jute; or, Logan and Cresap. An Historical +Essay._ By Brantz Mayer. (Albany, 1867.)] + +[Footnote 59: _History of the American Indians_, pp. 52, 63. +(London, 1775.)] + +[Footnote 60: James Howse, A Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 11. +(London, 1865.)] + +[Footnote 61: "Piensan que un hombre que habla sin cortarse y con soltura +debe ser de una naturaleza superior y privilegiada. Por solo esta +circumstancia ascienden el grado de Ghulmenes o caciques, u hombres +notables." Federico Barbara, _Manual o Vocabulario de la Lengua +Pampa_, p. 164. (Buenos Aires, 1879.)] + +[Footnote 62: Rev. Cyrus Byington, _Grammar of the Choctaw +Language_, p. 20 (Philadelphia, 1870.)] + +[Footnote 63: _Huehue_, ancient; _tlatolli_, words, speeches. A +special variety were the _calmecatlatolli_, the declamations which +the youths of noble families were taught to deliver in the spacious +halls of the _calmecac_, or public schools. "Calmeca tlatolli, +palabras dichas en corredores largos. E tomase por los dichos y +fictiones de los viejos antiguos." Molina, _Vocabulario de la Lengua +Mexicana, sub voce_. The word _calmecac_ is a compound of _calli_, +house, and _mecana_, to give, it being the building furnished by +the State for purposes of public instruction.] + +[Footnote 64: Fr. Juan Baptista (or Bautista), _Platicas Morales en +Lengua Mexicana, intitulados Huehuetlatolli_, 8vo. Mexico (1599? or +1601?). This work is not mentioned by Icazbalceta, but is described in +Berendt's notes, and a copy was sold in Paris in 1869. It is enumerated +by Vetancurt, _Menologio Franciscano_, p. 446 (2d ed.).] + +[Footnote 65: Olmos, _Grammaire de la Langue Nahuatl_, pp. 231 sqq. +(Paris 1875.)] + +[Footnote 66: _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Incas._ +Translated by C. R. Markham. Printed for the Hackluyt Society (London, +1873).] + +[Footnote 67: _Chrestomathie de la Langue Maya_, in _Etude sur le +Systeme Graphique et la Langue des Mayas._ (Paris, 1870.)] + +[Footnote 68: Bernal Diaz gives an interesting account of this "black +sermon," as he calls it. The incident is significant, as it shows that +the natives were accustomed to gather around their places of worship, to +listen to addresses by the priests. See the _Historia Verdadera de la +Conquista de la Nueva Espana_, Cap. XXVII. (Madrid, 1632.)] + +[Footnote 69: Some judicious remarks on the origin and development of +aboriginal poetry are offered by Theodore Baker, in his excellent +monograph on the music of the North American Indians, but his field of +view was somewhat too restricted to do the subject full justice, as, +indeed, he acknowledges. _Über die Musik der Nord-Americanischen +Wilden_, von Theodor Baker, pp. 6-14. (Leipzig, 1882.)] + +[Footnote 70: Schoolcraft, _History, Condition and Prospects of the +Indian Tribes of the United States_, vol. V, p. 559.] + +[Footnote 71: _Grammaire et Vocabulaire de la Langue Taensa, avec +Textes traduits et commentes_. Par J.D. Haumonte, Parisot, et L. +Adam. Paris, 1882.] + +[Footnote 72: "Or, i'ay assez de commerce avec la poesie pour juger cecy, +que non seulement il n'y a rien de barbaric en cette imagination, mais +qu'elle est tout a faict anacreontique."--_Essais de Michel de +Montaigne_, Liv. I, cap. XXX, and comp. cap. XXXVI.] + +[Footnote 73: "Chez les Guarayos, ces hymnes religieux et allegoriques, +si riches en figures.--Il est impossible de trouver rien de plus +gracieux." + +"Quant a leurs poetes, le charme avec lequel ils peignent l'amour, +annonce, certainement en eux, une intelligence developpee et autant +d'esprit que de sensibilite."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme +Americain_, Tome I, pp. 155, 170.] + +[Footnote 74: "Negli avanci, che si restano della lor Poesia, vi sono +alcuni versi, ne'quali tra le parole significative si vedono frapposte +certe interjezioni, o sillabe prive d'ogni significazione, e soltanto +adoperate, per quel ch'appare, per aggiustarsi al metro. Il linguaggio +della lor Poesia era puro, ameno, brilliante, figurato, e fregiato di +frequenti comparazioni fatte colle cose piu piacevoli della natura, +siccome fiori, alberi, ruscelli, &c."--_Clavigero, Storia di +Messico_. Tom. II, p. 175.] + +[Footnote 75: The originals of some of these poems were in the hands of +Ixtlilxochitl, as is evident from his _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. +XLVII.] + +[Footnote 76: Sahagun, _Psalmodia Xpiana_. (Mexico, 1583?) An +extremely rare book, which I have never seen. Clavigero saw a copy, and +thinks it was printed about 1540. _Storia di Messico_, Tom. II, p, +178, Note.] + +[Footnote 77: It is mentioned by Icazbalceta, _Apuntes para un Catalogo +de Escritores en Lenguas Indigenas de America_, p. 146. (Mexico, +1866.) There are, however, two copies of it extant, somewhere.] + +[Footnote 78: See Mr. Clements R. Markham's Introductions to his edition +of the _Ollanta_ drama (London, 1871); and to his _Qquichua +Grammar and Dictionary_ (London, 1864).] + +[Footnote 79: "I'en demeurai tout rauy; mais aussi toutes les fois qu'il +m'en ressouuient, le coeur m'en tressaillant, il me semble que ie les +aye encor aux oreilles."--Jean de Lery, _Histoire d'un voyage faict en +la terre du Bresil, autrement dite Amerique_, pp. 258, 286. (Geneve, +1585.)] + +[Footnote 80: See his _Origens, Costumes e Regiaeo Selvagem_, pp. +78-82, 140-147. (Rio de Janeiro, 1876.)] + +[Footnote 81: Spix and Martius, _Reise in Brasilien, Brasilianische +Volkslieder und Indianische Melodien, Musikbeilage_.] + +[Footnote 82: _Une Fete Bresilienne celebree a Rouen en 1550 suivie +d'un Fragment du XVI'e Siecle roulant sur la Theogonie des anciens +Peuples du Bresil et des Poesies en Langue Tupique, de Christovam +Valente_. Par Ferdinand Denis, pp. 36-51, 98, sqq. (Paris, 1850.)] + +[Footnote 83: The Arawack language, which is now spoken in Guiana only, +at the time of the discovery extended over the Greater and Lesser +Antilles and the Bahama Islands, as I have shown in an essay on _The +Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological +Relations_, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philosophical +Society, 1870.] + +[Footnote 84: _The Memoirs of Lieutenant Henry Timberlake_, p. 80 +(London 1765).] + +[Footnote 85: In the ancient Qquichua literature the tragic dramas were +called _huancay_; those of a comic nature, _aranhuay_. Both +were composed in assonant verses of six and eight syllables, which were +not sung or chanted, but repeated with dramatic intonation.] + +[Footnote 86: On the bibliography of the drama see Zegarra, _Ollantai, +Drame en Vers Quechuas du temps des Incas_, Introd. p. CLXXIII. +(Paris, 1878.) The English translation is by Clements R. Markham, +_Ollanta, an Ancient Ynca Drama_ (London, 1871).] + +[Footnote 87: The recent attempt of General Don Bartolome Mitre, of +Buenos Ayres, to discredit the antiquity of the Ollanta drama (in the +_Nueva Revista de Buenos Ayres_, 1881), has been most thoroughly +and conclusively refuted by Mr. Clements R. Markham, in the volume of +the Hackluyt Society's Publications for 1883.] + +[Footnote 88: _Rabinal-Achi, ou le Drame Ballet du Tun_, published +as an appendix to the _Grammaire de la Langue Quiche_ (Paris, 1862). +The Abbe Brasseur asserts that he wrote down this drama from verbal +information, at the village of Rabinal in Guatemala; but a note by Dr. +Berendt in my possession characterizes this statement as incorrect, and +adds: "Brasseur found the MS. all written, in the hands of an hacendado, +on the road from Guatemala to Chiapas. The original exists still in the +same place." It was a weakness with the Abbe to throw, designedly, +considerable obscurity about his authorities and the sources of his +knowledge.] + + * * * * * + + + + + + +INDEX. + +Names of native authors and productions are in _italics_. + +Abolachi +Adair, James +Adam, L. +Algonkins +_Alva, B. de_ +_Anales de Cuauhtitlan_ +Anales del Museo Nacional +_Apes, Rev. Wm._ +Araucanians +Arawacks +Atitlan, Lake +Aubin, M. +Avila, F. de +_Ayala, G, de_ +Aymaras +Aztecs + +Baker, T. +Barbara, Fed. +Bautista, J. de +Beach, W.W. +Beaver Indians +Berendt, C.H. +Beristain y Souza +_Book of the Jew_ +_Book of Rites_ +_Books of Chilan Balam_ +Boturini, L. +_Boudinot, Elias_ +Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abbe +Brinton, D.G. +Byington, Rev. C. + +Cabrera, P.F. +Cakchiquels +Californian Indians +_Camargo, D.M._ +Carochi, H. +Carreri, G. +Carrillo, Rev. C. +_Cartas de Indias_ +_Castaneda, G._ +_Chac Xulub Chen_, Chronicle of +Chahta-Muskokees +Chapanec language +_Chekilli_ +_Cherokee Phoenix_ +Cherokees +Chiapas +Chichimecs +Chignavincelut +_Chilan Balam, Books of_ +Chili, Tribes of +_Chimalpain, D. Munon_ +_Chimalpopoca, F, Lic._ +Chippeways +Choctaws +Chorotegan language +_Clark, P. Dooyentate_ +Clavigero, F.S. +_Codex, Aztec_ +_Codex, Chimalpopoca_ +Cogolludo, D. +_Copway, George_ +Couto de Magalhaes, Dr. +_Coy, Domingo_ +Creeks +Crees +Cuoq, M. +Cushing, F.H. +_Cusick, David_ + +Dakotas +Delawares +Denis, F. +Diaz, B. +D'Orbigny, A. +Dorsey, J.O. + +Eskimo + +Field, T.W. +Franca, Dr. E.F. +Fuentes y Guzman + +Garcia, A. +Gatschet, A.S. +Gavarrete, Sr. +_Gomez, F._ +Guarani language +Guarayos +_Gueegueence, The_ + +Hale, H. +Hartt, C.F. +Hiawatha +Hidatsa Indians +Howse, J. +Humboldt, A. +Humboldt, W. von +Huron-Iroquois + +Icazbalceta, J.G. +Iroquois +Iroquois Book of Rites +_Ixtlilxochitl, F. de A._ +_Izquin, F._ + +_Japuguay, Nic._ +_Jew, The Book of the_ +Jimenez de la Espada +_Johnson, Elias_ +_Jones, Rev. Peter_ +Juarros, Dom. + +Kaladlit +_Kaondinoketc, F._ +Kekchi language +Kiches +Klamaths + +Landa, Bishop +Latinists, Indian +_La Vega, Garcilasso de_ +Leon i Pinelo, Ant. +Lery, Jean de +Lingoa Geral +_Loaysa, F. de_ +_Logan's Speech_ +_Logas, The_ +_Luis Inca_ + +_Macario, J._ +_Macho-Raton, The_ +Mangue language +_Maps, Native_ +Matthews, Dr. W. +Mayer, Brantz +Markham, C.R. +Martius, C. von +Mayas +_Maya Chronicles, The_ +Mendoza, Ant., de +Mendoza, G. +Mexicans +Michoacan +Milfort, Gen. +Mitre, B. +Molina, A. +Montaigne, M. +Motolinia, T. de +Moxos +Muskokees +Muyscas + +Nahuatl Language +Nahuatl-Spanish Dialect +_Nakuk Pech_ +_Nehaib, Titles of_ +_Nezahualcoyotl_ +_Nezahualpilli_ +Nicaraguans +Nipissings +Nunez de la Vega. + +Ojibways +_Ollanta, The_ +_Ollita, The_ +Olmos, Andre de +Omahas +Oviedo, F. + +_Pachacuti, Don J._ +Pampas, Tribes of +_Pasiones, Las_ +Pelaez, F.P. Garcia +Pequods +Perez, Juan Pio +Peruvians +_Pimentel, Ant._ +_Pimentel, H._ +Pipils +Pocomans +_Pok_ +_Ponce, Pedro_ +_Pomar, J. de_ +_Popol Vuh, The_ +Powers, S. +_Prophecies of Mayas_ + +_Queh, F.T.G._ +Quiches, see _Kiches_ +Qquichuas +Quipus + +_Rabinal Achi_ +Rafinesque, C.S. +Ramirez, J.F. +Rink, Dr. H. +_Rosa, A. de la_ +Rosny, Leon de + +Sahagun, B. de +Salazar, F.C. +_San Antonio, J. de_ +Sanchez Solis, F. +Scherzer, C. +Schoolcraft, H.R. +_Sequoyah_ +Simeon, Remi +Sioux +Six Nations +Smith, B. +Solola, Province +Squier, E.G. + +Taensas +_Tanner, J._ +Tarascos +_Tecpan Atitlan_ +Tezcuco +_Tezozomoc, F. de A._ +Theologia Indorum +Thomas, C. +Timberlake, H. +Timucuana +Tlatilulco, College of +_Tlaxcallan, History of_ +_Tobar, Ant_. +_Tomar, J.B. de_ +_Tonalamatl, The_ +_Torres, J._ +Tupis +Tuscaroras +_Tzolante, The_ +Tzendals +_Tzumpan, F.G.C._ + +Valades, D. +_Valeriano, Antonio_ +Varnhagen, M. +Vazquez, F. +Vetancurt, A. de +Vico, Domingo de +Viracocha +_Votan_ + +_Walum Olum_ +Ward, Dr. +Wyandotts + +_Xahila, F.E.A._ +Ximenez, F. + +_Zacicoxol, the_ +_Zapata y Mendoza, J.V._ +Zapotecs +Zegarra, G.P. +Zoque language +Zunis + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Library of Aboriginal American Literature. + +General Editor and Publisher, DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D., + +115 South Seventh St., Philadelphia, Pa., United States. + +The European Market will be supplied by + +NICHOLAS TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London, England. + +_The aim of this series is to put within the reach of scholars +authentic materials for the study of the languages, history and culture +of the native races of North and South America. Each of the works +selected will be the production of a native author, and will be printed +in the original tongue, with an English translation and notes. Most of +them will be from unpublished manuscripts, and they will form a series +indispensable to the future student of American archaeology, ethnology or +linguistics. They will be printed FROM TYPE, AND IN LIMITED EDITIONS +ONLY. The volumes will be sold SEPARATELY, at moderate prices, either in +paper or bound in cloth. They will all be planted on heavy laid paper, +of the best quality. The following have already appeared_:-- + + * * * * * + +NO. I. THE MAYA CHRONICLES. + +Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 279. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. + +This volume contains five brief chronicles in the Maya language of +Yucatan, written shortly after the Conquest, and carrying the history of +that people back many centuries. To these is added a history of the +Conquest, written in his native tongue, by a Maya Chief, in 1562. The +texts are preceded by an introduction on the history of the Mayas; their +language, calendar, numeral system, etc.; and a vocabulary is added at +the close. + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"We hope that Dr. Brinton will receive every encouragement in his labors +to disclose to Americans these literary antiquities of the Continent. He +eminently deserves it, both by the character of his undertaking and the +quality of his work."--_The American_ (Phila.) + +"It would be difficult to praise too highly the task Dr. Brinton has set +before him. Prepared by long studies in the same field, he does not +undertake the work as a novice. ... There should be no hesitation among +those who wish well to American antiquarianism in subscribing to the +series edited and published by Dr. Brinton."--_The Critic_. + +"Dr. Brinton's work upon the history of the Mayas or Aborigines of +Yucatan [the "Maya Chronicles"] is a most important contribution to the +literature of American antiquities. ... Comparative linguists, as well +as archaeologists, will find a new and very interesting subject of study +in these remains."--_The Saturday Review_ (London). + +"The efforts of Dr. Brinton will be welcomed by all antiquarian +students, for they are not only original contributions, but are also +presented in a readable and interesting manner."--_The American +Antiquarian_. + + * * * * * + +No. II. The IROQUOIS BOOK OF RITES. + +Edited by HORATIO HALE, Esq. + +1 vol., 8vo. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. + +The "BOOK OF RITES" is a native composition, which was preserved orally +for centuries, and was written down about a century ago. It gives the +speeches, songs and ceremonies which were rehearsed when a chief died +and his successor was appointed. The fundamental laws of the League, a +list of their ancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who composed +their first council, are also comprised in the work. It may be said to +carry the authentic history of Northern America back to a period fifty +years earlier than the era of Columbus. The introductory essay treats of +the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois League and its founders, +the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, +the clan system, the laws of the League, and the Iroquois character, +public policy, and language. + + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS AND OF EMINENT WRITERS. + +"This work may be said to open a field of Indian research new to +ethnologists. ... These precious relics of antiquity are concise in +their wording, and full of meaning. ... The additions made by Mr. Hall +are almost as valuable as the texts themselves."--_The Nation_ New +York, September 13, 1883. + +"The reputation of the author, added to this fascinating title, will +insure its favorable reception, not only by ethnologists, but also, the +reading public. ... A remarkable discovery, and indisputably of great +ethnological value. ... A book which is as suggestive as this must bear +good fruit."--_Science_, August 31,1883. + +"The work contains much new material of permanent interest and value to +the historical scholar and the scientist. ... "--_The Magazine of +American History_, September, 1883. + +"In this Book of Rites we have poetry, law, history, tradition and +genealogy, interesting and valuable for many reasons...."--_Good +Literature_, August 18, 1883. + +"The Book of Rites is edited by the eminent philologist, Mr. Horatio +Hale, who has done so much to elucidate the whole subject of Indian +ethnography and migrations, with the argument derived from language in +connection with established tradition; and especially to disentangle +Iroquois history from its complications with the legends of their +mythology."--_Auburn Daily Advertiser_, July 21, 1883. + +"The book is one of great ethnological value, in the light it casts on +the political and social life, as well as the character and capacity, of +the people with whom it originated."--_Popular Science Monthly_, +November 1883. + +"It is a philosophical and masterly treatise on the Iroquois league and +the cognate tribes, their relations, language, mental characteristics +and polity, such as we have never had of any nation of this +Continent...."--_Dr. J. Gilmary Shea_. + +"It is full of instructive hints, particularly as bearing on the state +of so-called savages before they are brought in contact with so-called +civilized men. Such evidence is, from the nature of the case, very +difficult to obtain, and therefore all the more valuable...."--_Prof. +F. Max Mueller_. + +"It gives us a much clearer insight into the formation and workings of +the Iroquois league than we before possessed."--_Hon. George S. +Conover_. + +"It contains more that is authentic and new, of the Iroquois nations, +than any other single work with which I am acquainted."--_Rev. Charles +Hawley, D.D._ + + * * * * * + +No. III. THE COMEDY-BALLET OF GÜEGÜENCE. + +Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +1 vol., 8vo. Paper, $2.00; Cloth, $2.50. + + +A curious and unique specimen of the native comic dances, with +dialogues, called _bailes_, formerly common in Central America. It +is in the mixed Nahuatl-Spanish jargon of Nicaragua, and shows +distinctive features of native authorship. The Introduction treats of +the ethnology of Nicaragua, and the local dialects, musical instruments, +and dramatic representations of that section of our continent. A map and +a number of illustrations are added. + +Other important works, in various native languages, are in the course of +preparation, under competent editorship. + +Of these may be mentioned-- + +THE NATIONAL LEGEND OF THE CREEKS. Edited by A.S. GATSCHET. + +The original account, written in 1735; an English translation, and a +re-translation into the Creek language, in which it was originally +delivered, by an educated native, and into the Hitchiti, a dialect +cognate to the Creek. + +THE ANNALS OF THE KAKCHIQUELS. By ERNANTEZ XAHILA. + +These chronicles are the celebrated _Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_ so +often quoted by the late Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. They are invaluable +for the ancient history and mythology of Gautemalan nations, and are of +undoubted authenticity and antiquity. + +THE ANNALS OF QUAUHTITLAN. Edited by A.F. BANDELIER. + +The original Aztec text, with a new translation. This is also known as +the _Codex Chimalpopoca_. It is one of the most curious and +valuable documents in Mexican archaeology. + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTHOLOGY. Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +A collection of the songs, chants and metrical compositions of the +Indians, designed to display the emotional and imaginative powers of the +race and the prosody of their languages. + + * * * * * + +_The following two works are not portions of the series, but are +related to it by their contents. They may be obtained from the same +publishers_. + +AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. + +A STUDY in the NATIVE RELIGIONS of the WESTERN CONTINENT. + +By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., etc. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 251. (Philad'a, 1882.) Cloth, Price, $1.75. + + + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"Dr. Brinton writes from a minute and extended knowledge of the original +sources. ... His work renders a signal service to the cause of +comparative mythology in our country."--_The Literary World_ +(Boston). + +"This study of certain of the most remarkable stories of American +mythology is exceedingly interesting."--_The Saturday Review_ +(London). + +"In his 'American Hero-Myths' Dr. Brinton gives us the clue to the +religious thought of the aboriginal Races. ... It is a learned and +careful book, clearly written, popular in style though scientific +in method, and must be a good deal fresher than a novel to most +readers."--_The American_ (Philadelphia). + +"This volume is the first attempt at what is entitled to be regarded as +a critically accurate presentation of the fundamental conceptions found +in the native beliefs of the tribes of America."--_The New England +Bibliopolist_. + +"This is a thoughtful and original contribution to the science of +comparative religion."--_The Boston Journal_. + +"We regard the 'Hero Myths' as a valuable contribution to the history of +religion and to comparative mythology."--_The Teacher_ (Philadelphia). + +"...These few extracts give no idea of the mass of legends in this +volume, and the queer, out-of-the-way information it supplies concerning +the ideas and usages of races now extinct or hastening to +extinction."--_The Dublin Evening Mail_. + +"Dr. Brinton, in his 'American Hero-Myths,' has applied the comparative +method soberly, and backed it by solid research in the original +authors."--_The Critic_ (New York). + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS, AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS. + +Especially those in the Native Languages. +A Contribution to the History of Literature. + +By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., etc. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 63. Boards. Price, $1.00. + +An essay founded on an address presented to the Congress of +Americanists, at Copenhagen, in 1883. It is an extended review of the +literary efforts of the red race, in their own tongues, and in English, +Latin and Spanish (both manuscript and printed). An entirely novel field +of inquiry is opened to view, of equal interest to ethnologists, +linguists and historians. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Aboriginal American Authors, by Daniel G. 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Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/9188-8.zip b/9188-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c611af0 --- /dev/null +++ b/9188-8.zip diff --git a/9188.txt b/9188.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5558476 --- /dev/null +++ b/9188.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3078 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Aboriginal American Authors, by Daniel G. Brinton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Aboriginal American Authors + +Author: Daniel G. Brinton + +Posting Date: September 20, 2014 [EBook #9188] +Release Date: October, 2005 +First Posted: September 13, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, David Garcia and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreaders. + + + + + + + + + + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS; + +ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGES. + +A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE. + +BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., + +Member of the American Philosophical Society; the American Antiquarian +Society; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, etc.; Vice-President +of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and of the +Congres International des Americanistes; Delegue-General de l'Institution +Ethnographique for the United States, etc.; Author of "The Myths of the +New World;" "The Religious Sentiment;" "American Hero Myths," etc. + + + + + + +NEW INTRODUCTION + +Aboriginal American Authors, published by the Anthropologist Daniel G. +Brinton in 1883, is a work that is particularly appropriate for our own +times. The native American movement has stressed the need for history +written from the Indian point of view. Interest in native American +literature has become an important component in reinforcing a sense of +identity among American Indians today. + +Brinton's work is a good summary of the better known traditional +writings of Indians from many regions of the Western hemisphere. This +bibliographical survey provides information on tribal histories that +would be particularly useful for Indian Study Programs in the states of +Oklahoma, New York and Wisconsin. + +Brinton was aware of the 19th century racism of many who wrote about the +American Indian and reacted against it in his writings by taking a +stance which in some ways anticipates Ruth Benedict's involvement in +similar questions half a century later. Aboriginal American +Authors is written as an early attempt at placing the literature of +the American Indian with the other great literary traditions of the +world; that is why its usefulness endures. + + John Hobgood + Social Science Department + Chicago State College + 1970 + + + + + + +PREFACE. + +The present memoir is an enlargement of a paper which I laid before the +_Congres International des Americanistes_, when acting as a delegate to +its recent session in Copenhagen, August, 1883. The changes are material, +the whole of the text having been re-written and the notes added. + +It does not pretend to be an exhaustive bibliographical essay, but was +designed merely to point out to an intelligent and sympathetic audience +a number of relics of Aboriginal American Literature, and to bespeak the +aid and influence of that learned body in the preservation and +publication of these rare documents. + +_Philadelphia, Nov. 1883._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +Section 1. _Introductory_ + + +Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_ + + Vivid imagination of the Indians. + Love of story telling. + Appreciation of style. + Power and resources of their languages. + Facility in acquiring foreign languages. + Native writers in the English tongue. + In Latin. + In Spanish. + Ancient books of Aztecs. + Of Mayas, etc. + Peruvian Quipus. + + +Section 3. _Narrative Literature_ + + Desire of preserving national history. + Eskimo legends and narratives. + The _Walum Olum_ of the Delawares. + The Iroquois _Book of Rites_. + Kaondinoketc's Narrative. + The National Legend of the Creeks. + Cherokee writings. + Destruction of Ancient Literature. + Boturini's collection. + Historians in Nahuatl. + The Maya _Books of Chilan Balam_. + Other Maya documents. + Writings in Cakchiquel. + _The Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_. + Authors in Cakchiquel and Kiche. + The _Popol Vuh_. + Votan, the Tzendal. + Writers in Qquichua. + Letters, etc., in native tongues. + Tales and stories of the Tupis and other tribes. + + +Section 4. _Didactic Literature_ + + Progress of natives in science. + Their calendars and rituals. + Their maps. + Scholastic works. + Theological writers. + Sermons in Guarani. + _Las Pasiones_. + + +Section 5. _Oratorical Literature_ + + Native admiration of eloquence. + The Oratorical style. + Custom of set orations. + Specimens in the Nahuatl tongue. + Ancient prayers and rhapsodies. + +Section 6. _Poetical Literature_ + + Form of the earliest poetry. + Unintelligible character of primitive songs explained. + A Chippeway love song. + A Taensa epithalamium. + Montaigne on Tupi poetry. + Ancient Aztec poetry. + Maya and Peruvian poems. + Tupi songs. + + +Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_ + + Development of the dramatic art in America. + Origin of the serious and comic dramas. + The Qquichua drama of Ollanta. + The Kiche drama of Rabinal Achi. + The Comic Ballet of the Gueegueence. + The _Logas_ of Central America. + Dramas of the Mangues. + + +Section 8. _Conclusion_ + + Ethnological value of literary productions. + Their general interest to scholars. + +_Footnotes_ + +_Index_ + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been moved from inline to end-of-text, +and the above "Footnotes" section added.] + + + + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS. + + * * * * * + +Section 1. _Introductory_. + + +When even a quite intelligent person hears about "Aboriginal American +Literature," he is very excusable for asking: What is meant by the term? +Where is this literature? In fine, Is there any such thing? + +To answer such inquiries, I propose to treat, with as much brevity as +practicable, of the literary efforts of the aborigines of this +continent, a chapter in the general History of Literature hitherto +wholly neglected. + +Indeed, it will be a surprise to many to learn that any members of these +rude tribes have manifested either taste or talent for scholarly +productions. All alike have been regarded as savages, capable, at best, +of but the most limited culture. + +Such an opinion has been fostered by prejudices of race, by the jealousy +of castes, and in our own day by preconceived theories of evolution. +That it is erroneous, can, I think, be easily shown. + +Let us first inquire into the existence of + + + + +Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_. + + +This faculty is indicated by a vivid imagination, a love of narration, +and an ample, appropriate, and logically developed vocabulary. That, as +a race, the aborigines of America possessed these qualifications to a +remarkable degree, is attested by many witnesses who have lived +intimately among them; and is only denied by those whose acquaintance +with them has been superficial, or derived from second-hand and doubtful +sources. + +The red man peoples air, earth, and the waters with countless creatures +of his fancy; his expressions are figurative and metaphorical; he is +quick to seize analogies; and when he cannot explain he is ever ready to +invent. This is shown in his inappeasable love of story telling. As a +_raconteur_ he is untiring. He has, in the highest degree, Goethe's +_Lust zu fabuliren_. In no Oriental city does the teller of strange +tales find a more willing audience than in the Indian wigwam. The folk +lore of every tribe which has been properly investigated has turned out +to be most ample. Tales of talking animals, of mythical warriors, of +giants, dwarfs, subtle women, potent magicians, impossible adventures, +abound to an extent that defies collection.[1] + +Nor are these narratives repeated in a slip-shod, negligent style. The +hearers permit no such carelessness. They are sticklers for nicety of +expression; for clear and well turned periods; for vivid and accurate +description; for flowing and sonorous sentences. As a rule, their +languages lend themselves readily to these demands. It is a singular +error, due wholly to ignorance of the subject, to maintain that the +American tongues are cramped in their vocabularies, or that their syntax +does not permit them to define the more delicate relationships of ideas. +Nor is it less a mistake to assert, as has been done repeatedly, and +even by authorities of eminence in our own day, that they are not +capable of supplying the expressions of abstract reasonings. Although +pure abstractions were rarely objects of interest to these children of +nature, many, if not most, of their tongues favor the formation of +expressions which are as thoroughly transcendental as any to be found in +the _Kritik der Reinen Vernunft_.[2] + +Their literary faculty is further demonstrated in the copiousness of +their vocabularies, their rare facility of expression, and their natural +aptitude for the acquisition of other languages. Theophilie Gautier used +to say, that the most profitable book for a professional writer to read +is the dictionary; that is, that a mastery of words is his most valuable +acquirement. The extraordinarily rich synonomy of some American tongues, +notably the Algonkin, the Aztec, and the Qquichua, attests how +sedulously their resources have been cultivated. Father Olmos, in his +grammar of the Aztec, gives many examples of twenty and thirty +synonymous expressions, all in current use in his day. A dictionary, in +my possession, of the Maya, one of the least plastic of American +tongues, gives over thirty thousand words, and scarcely a hundred of +them of foreign extraction. + +This linguistic facility is shown also in the ease with which they +acquire foreign languages. "It is not uncommon," says Dr. Washington +Matthews, speaking of the Hidatsa, by no means a specially brilliant +tribe, "to find persons among them, some even under twenty years of age, +who can speak fluently four or five different languages."[3] Mr. Stephen +Powers tells us that, in California, he found many Indians speaking +three, four, five or more languages, generally including English;[4] and +in South America, both Humboldt and D'Orbigny express their surprise at +the same fact, which they repeatedly observed.[5] + +But the most tangible evidence of both their linguistic and literary +ability is the work some of these natives have accomplished in European +tongues. It does not come within the limits of my plan to enter fully +into an examination of this branch of literature; but it is worth while +mentioning some of the more prominent native writers, who have composed +in European languages, as their productions are an easy test of what the +faculties of the red race are in this direction. + +As the colonizers of the New World have been chiefly from Spain and +Great Britain, so naturally the English and Spanish languages have been +brought most widely to the knowledge of the natives. The half-civilized +tribes, within the area of the United States, have produced several +authors of merit. Perhaps the earliest of these was David Cusick, who, +in 1825, printed his _Ancient History of the Six Nations_. He was a +full blood Tuscarora, and his English is far from correct. Yet the +arrangement of his matter is skillful, and some passages quaintly vivid +and forcible. Another member of the Iroquois confederacy, Peter +Dooyentate Clarke, has taken up the _Origin and Traditional History of +the Wyandotts_, and has made a readable little book (published at +Toronto, 1870); while still more lately, Chief Elias Johnson, of the +Tuscaroras, has published a _History of the Six Nations_, very +creditably composed. (Lockport, 1881.) + +The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers. +The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of +Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and +pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837. +The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the +Ojibways, on _The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_ +(London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written +that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost +equal merit is the _History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial +reference to their Conversion to Christianity_, by the Rev. Peter +Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.) + +In the southwest, the _Cherokee Phoenix_ offered a medium through +which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original +contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after +the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of +addresses and other documents, in English. + +But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the +best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico, +Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the +lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they +had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father +Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the +readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and +adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and +wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long +list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given +by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of +the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7] +Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the +Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who +became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who +won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and +distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents +and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such +examples in Peru and Brazil. + +The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one; +and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be +placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal +descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the +antiquities of his race. Among the many works which he wrote are the +_Relaciones Historicas_ and the _Historia Chichimeca_, which +were published by Lord Kingsborough; a _Historia de la Nueva +Espana_, a _Historia del Reyno de Tezcuco_, and a _Historia de +Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe_, which have not had the fortune to be +printed. Such an excellent critic as Mr. Prescott says of his style: +"His language is simple, and occasionally eloquent and touching. His +descriptions are highly picturesque. He abounds in familiar anecdote; +and the natural graces of his manner in detailing the more striking +events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him +to the name of the Livy of Anahuac." + +Ixtlilxochitl flourished about the year 1600, and among his +contemporaries was Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, also of native blood, +whose _Cronica Mexicana_ has been preserved, and is considered to +be well written, but less reliable. Of about the same date are the +_Relacion_ of Juan Bautista de Tomar, a native of Tezcuco, in which +he treats of the customs of his ancestors; the _Relaciones_ of Don +Antonio Pimentel, grandson of Nezahualpilli, lord of Tezcuco, an author +quoted and praised by the historian Torquemada; the _Historia de +Tlaxcallan_ of Diego Munoz Camargo, a noble Tlascalan mestizo, of +whose style Prescott remarks that it compares not unfavorably with that +of some of the missionaries themselves; and the _Relacion de los +Dioses y Ritos de la Gentilidad_ of Don Pedro Ponce, the cacique of +Tzumpahuacan. Somewhat later, about 1625, Don Domingo de San Anton Munon +Chimalpain wrote his _Historia Mexicana_ and his _Historia de la +Conquista_, which have been mentioned with respect by various +writers. + +Along with these examples of literary culture in Mexico may be named +several native Peruvian writers who made use of the language of their +conquerors; as Don Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui, whose +_Relacion de Antiguedades de Piru_ is a precious document, though +composed in very uncritical Spanish; as Don Luis Inca, whose +_Relacion_, prepared in Spanish, seems now to be lost, but is +referred to, with praise, by some of the older writers; and, above all +others, Inca Garcillasso de la Vega, whose vivid and attractive style, +and numerous historical writings place him easily in the first rank of +Spanish historians of America. + +From the above it would seem evident enough that the American aborigines +were endowed, as a race, with a turn for literary composition, and a +faculty for it. They were generally, however, an unlettered race. What +they composed was for oral use only. This might be carefully arranged, +committed to heart, and handed down from generation to generation; but +as for recording it in forms which would convey it to the mind through +the eye, that was a discovery they had but partially made. + +I say, "partially," because graphic methods, of some kind, were widely +used. We may as well omit from consideration, in this connection, the +merely pictographic signs of the hunting tribes, although they were used +for mnemonic purposes. Let us rather proceed, at once, to the highest +specimens of the graphic art in ancient America, and inquire their +scope. In Mexico, in Yucatan, in Nicaragua, and in one or two districts +of South America, the early explorers found systems of writing which +seemed to resemble that to which they were accustomed. + +The Aztecs manufactured, in large quantities, a useful paper from the +leaves of the maguey, and upon it they painted numerous figures and +signs, which conveyed ideas, and sometimes also sounds. An early +authority informs us that their books were of five kinds. The first +detailed their method of computing time; the second described their holy +days, festivals and religious epochs; the third gave the interpretation +of dreams, omens and signs; the fourth supplied directions for naming +children; and the fifth rehearsed the rites and ceremonies connected +with matrimony.[9] Besides these, we know they wrote out tribute rolls, +the ancient history of their tribes, the fables of their mythology, the +genealogy of their sovereigns, and the geographical descriptions of +territories. Of all these we have examples preserved, and many of them +have been published. + +Quite another and a more perfect method of writing prevailed among the +Mayas of Yucatan and Central America. Their books were exceedingly neat, +and strongly resembled an ordinary quarto volume, such as appears on +European bookshelves. I have so lately discussed their manufacture, and +the so-called alphabet in which they were written, and in a work of such +easy access, that it is enough if I quote the conclusions there arrived +at.[10] They are:-- + +1. The Maya graphic system was recognized, from the first, to be +distinct from the Mexican. + +2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few +nobles. + +3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which was +the preservation of their history and calendar. + +4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms +(caracteres), and phonetic signs (letras). + +The ruins of Palenque, Copan, and other Maya cities, abound in such +hieroglyphs. + +The natives of Nicaragua, those, at least, of Aztec lineage, made use of +parchment volumes, folded into a neat and portable compass, in which +they painted, in red and black ink, certain figures, "by means of +which," says the chronicler Oviedo, "they could express and understand +whatever they wished, with entire clearness."[11] + +In South America the Peruvians had their _quipus_, cords of +different lengths, sizes and colors, knotted in various ways, and +attached to a base cord, an arrangement that was a decided aid to the +memory, though it could not be connected with the sounds of words. There +are also faint traces of figures, with definite meaning, among the +Muyscas of Colombia; and the Moxos of Western Bolivia are said to have +employed, as late as the last century, a method of writing, consisting +of lines traced on wooden slabs.[12] + + + + +Section 3. _Narrative Literature_. + + +Of all forms of sustained discourse, we may reasonably suppose that of +narration to have been the earliest. The incidents of the hunt were +related at the return; the experiences of the past were told as a guide +to the present; and the first efforts of the imagination are the +depicting of fictitious occurrences, tradition and myth, story and +history; these make up most of the entertainment of conversation to +simple minds. + +Hence, in this primitive literature which I am describing, the narrative +portion is the most abundant. There was a natural aspiration on the part +of the natives, as soon as they had learned the art of writing, to +preserve in permanent form the records, more or less authentic, of their +tribes and ancestors. This desire of preserving the national history is +shown by the works of Copway, Jones, Cusick, Ixtlilxochitl, and others, +to whom I have already referred, who wrote in European tongues. + +If we begin our survey at the extreme north, we find the Eskimo, amid +his depressing surroundings of eternal frost and months-long nights, an +unwearied chatterbox, reciting his own and his ancestors' adventures, +and weaving from his fancy the most extraordinary web of fictitious +experiences. Once taught to write, hundreds of these tales were +committed to paper by native hands. The manuscript collection of such in +the possession of the learned and indefatigable Dr. Heinrich Rink +contains considerably over two thousand pages, and the charming +rendering into English, which has been published by his efforts, is a +storehouse of weird conceptions and partly historic traditions about the +past of Greenland and Labrador. What adds to their interest is that most +of the illustrations are wood-cuts by native artists, truthfully setting +forth their own mental pictures.[13] + +Another Eskimo composition, in the dialogue style, is before me as I +write. It is the description by Pok, a Greenlander, of his journey to +Europe and his return. The narrative forms a pamphlet of eighteen pages, +with several quaint colored illustrations, and it is one of the rare +products of the Godthaab press in Greenland to which we can assign a +genuine native origin.[14] + +Another, which reveals still more distinctly the artistic and +imaginative capacities of that strange race, was published at Godthaab, +in 1860. Mr. Field remarks of it:--"An Esquimau of Greenland, with his +pencil, has, in this work, attempted to give representations of the +traditions, manners, weapons and habits of life of his own race."[15] + +Among the tribes of the eastern United States there were a few +individuals who attempted to compose somewhat extensive records in their +native languages. + +One of the most curious examples is that known as the _Walum Olum_, +a short account of the early history of the Delaware tribe, written in +that idiom, with mnemonic symbols attached. Its history is not very +complete. A "Dr. Ward, of Indiana" is said to have obtained it from a +member of the nation, in 1822. From him it passed into the hands of +Prof. C.S. Rafinesque, an eccentric and visionary Frenchman, who passed +the later years of his life in Philadelphia. He undertook to translate +it, and after his death the translation, together with the original, +came into the possession of Mr. E.G. Squier. By him it was first +published, but in a partial and incomplete manner, much of the original +text and many of the mnemonic symbols being omitted, and no effort being +made to improve Rafinesque's translation.[16] + +The _Book of Rites_[17] of the Iroquois or Six Nations, lately +edited by Mr. Horatio Hale, is one of the most remarkable native +productions north of Mexico. Its authenticity and antiquity are +indisputable. The rites it describes are the ceremonies and set +speeches, the chants and formulas, of what is called "The Council of +Condolence," whose function is to express the national sense of loss at +the death of a chief, and to conduct the inauguration of his successor. +The publication of this ritual, supported as it is with the learned +notes of Mr. Hale, and an introduction by him, on the history, formation +and purpose of the famous League of the Iroquois, has thrown a +remarkable light, not merely on the ethnology of the district where the +Iroquois were located, but on the mental characteristics of the red race +in general. It is a refutation of the unscientific assumptions of a good +many would-be scientific men, who are self-blinded by their theories of +development to obvious facts in the mental powers of uncultivated +tribes. + +Of less general importance, but admirable also for competent editorship, +is the short narrative of the Nipissing Chief, Francois Kaondinoketc, +which was published a few years ago, both in the original and with a +French translation, by a Canadian missionary, eminent alike for his +piety and his learning. It recites the journey of a half-breed Christian +Indian into the country of the heathen tribe of Beaver Indians, and the +miraculous interposition by which his life was saved when these Pagans +had caught him. They told him he must kill an eagle flying far above +them; at his prayer, the bird descended and came within the reach of his +sabre. In turn, he asked them to shoot their arrows into a tree; but by +rubbing it with holy water, the bark was so hardened that not one of +their shafts could pierce it. So they confessed the greatness of the +Christian's God.[18] + +This charmingly naive narrative makes us doubly regret that the editor's +projected _Chrestomathie Algonquine_ has not been carried out in +full. + +The southern Atlantic coast of the United States was principally +occupied by the Muskokee or Creek tribe, who occupied the territory as +far west as the Mississippi. Their language was first reduced to writing +in the Greek alphabet, by the Moravian missionaries, about 1733; but at +present a modified form of the English alphabet is in use. They had a +very definite and curious tribal history, full of strange metaphors and +obscure references. It was, according to old authorities, "written in +red and black characters, on the skin of a young buffalo," and was read +off from this symbolic script by their head-chief, Chekilli, to the +English, in 1735, and skin and translation were both sent to London, and +both lost there. But, luckily, the Moravian missionaries preserved a +faithful translation of it, and this, some years ago, I brought to the +notice of students of these matters.[19] + +Its authenticity is beyond question, and to this day the chiefs of the +Creeks recollect many of the points it contains, and have repeated it to +the eminent linguist, Mr. A.S. Gatschet, who has taken it down afresh +from their lips, and is preparing it for publication. Collateral +evidence is also furnished by "General" Milfort, a French adventurer, +who lived among the Creeks several years, toward the close of the last +century, and testifies that they preserved, "by beads and belts," the +memory of the adventures of their ancestors, and recited to him a long +account of them, which he repeats with that negligence which everywhere +marks his carelessly prepared volume.[20] + +Their northern neighbors, the Cherokees, use an alphabet invented by +Sequoyah, one of themselves, in 1824. It is syllabic, of eighty-five +characters, and is used for printing. Sequoyah had no intention of +aiding the missionaries; he preferred the "old religion," and when he +saw the New Testament printed in his characters, he expressed regret +that he had ever invented them. What he wanted was to teach his people +useful arts, and to preserve the national traditions. I have little +doubt they were written down; but here, again, I have failed of success +in my inquiries. + +This is a poor showing of native literature for all the tribes in the +vast area of the United States. But, except some orations and poems, +hereafter to be mentioned, it is almost all that I can name. Passing +southward the harvest becomes richer. When Bishop Landa, in Yucatan, and +Bishop Zumarraga, in Mexico, made bonfires, in the public squares of +Mani and Tlaltilulco, of the priceless literary treasures of the Mayas +and Aztecs, their maps, their parchment rolls, their calendars on wood, +their painted paper books, their inscribed histories, it is recorded +that the natives bewailed bitterly this obliteration of their sciences +and their archives.[21] Some of them set to work to recover the memories +thus doomed to oblivion, and to write them out, as best they could. + +Most fertile of these were those who wrote in the Nahuatl tongue, +otherwise known as the Aztec or Mexican, this being most widely spoken +in Mexico, and the first cultivated by the missionaries. Many of these +memoirs were short descriptions of towns or tribes, with their +traditional histories. Others narrated the customs and mythologies of +the race before the arrival of the whites. None were printed, and little +or no care was taken to collect or preserve the manuscripts, so that +probably most of them were destroyed. At length, in 1736-45, an +enthusiastic Italian archaeologist, the Chevalier Lorenzo Boturini +Benaduci, devoted nearly ten years to collecting everything of the kind +which would throw light on ancient Mexican history. He was quite +successful, and his library, had it been preserved intact, would have +been to-day an invaluable source of information. But the jealous Spanish +government threw Boturini into prison; his library was scattered and +partly lost, and he died of chagrin and disappointment. Yet to him we +probably owe the preservation of the writings of Ixtlilxochitl, +Tezozomoc, and others who wrote in Spanish, and whose volumes have since +seen the light in the collections of Bustamente, Lord Kingsborough, +Ternaux-Compans, and elsewhere. + +The Nahuatl MSS. have remained unedited. Few took an interest in their +contents, fewer still in the language. The science of linguistics is +very modern, and that even so perfect an idiom as the Nahuatl could +command the attention of scholars for its own sake, had not dawned on +the minds of patrons of learning. + +Boturini catalogues some forty or fifty more or less fragmentary +anonymous MSS. in Nahuatl, which he had gathered together.[22] I shall +recall only those whose authors he names. Some three or four historical +works were written in Nahuatl by Don Domingo de San Anton Munon +Chimalpain, whom I have already mentioned as an author in Spanish also. +Of his Nahuatl works his _Cronica Mexicana_, which traces the +history of his nation from 1068 to 1597, would be the most worthy an +editor's labors. It is now in the possession of M. Aubin. + +The _Cronica de la muy noble y leal Ciudad de Tlaxcallan_, by Don +Juan Ventura Zapata y Mendoza, cacique of Quiahuiztlan, extends from the +earliest times to the year 1689. A copy of it, I have some reason to +think, is in Mexico. Boturini possessed the original, and it should, by +all means, be sought out and printed. + +The ancient history of the same city was also treated of by one of the +earliest native writers, and his work, in Nahuatl, alleged to have been +translated by the interpreter Francisco de Loaysa, was obtained from the +latter by Boturini. + +An account of Tezcuco and its rulers, after the Conquest until 1564, was +the work of a native, Juan de San Antonio; while Don Gabriel de Ayala, a +native noble of that city, composed a history of the Tezcucan and +Mexican events, extending from 1243 to 1562.[23] + +Of the anonymous MSS. in Boturini's list, I shall mention only one, as +it alone, of all his Nahuatl records, has succeeded in reaching +publication. He called it a _History of the Kingdoms of Culhuacan and +Mexico_. A copy of it passed to Mexico, where it was translated by +the Licentiate Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia, but in a very imperfect +and incorrect manner. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg copied the original +and the translation, and bestowed on the document both a new name, +_Codex Chimalpopoca_, and a whimsical geological signification. In +1879, the Museo Nacional of Mexico began in their _Anales_ the +publication of the original text, this time under still another title, +the _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, with two translations, that of +Galicia, and a new one by Profs. G. Mendoza and Felipe Sanchez Solis. Up +to the present time, 1883, the work is not completed; but its signal +importance to ancient history and mythology is amply indicated by the +part in type. + +Doubtless there were many MSS. which Boturini did not find, and there +are, probably, to this day, going to dust in private and public +libraries in Spain, valuable documents in the Nahuatl tongue.[24] For a +long time it was supposed that the Nahuatl original of Father Bernardino +de Sahagun's _History of New Spain_ was lost; but at the meeting of +the _Congres des Americanistes_, in Madrid, in 1881, a part of it, +at least, was exhibited. This work almost belongs to aboriginal +literature, for a considerable portion of it, notably the third, sixth +and twelfth books, treating, respectively, of the origin of the gods, +the Aztec oratory, and their ancient history, are mainly native +narratives and speeches, taken down, word for word, in the original +tongue. Spanish scholars could not render a greater service to American +ethnology and linguistics than in the publication of this valuable +monument. + +There is, also, or, at any rate, there was, in the Royal Library at +Madrid, a Mexican hieroglyphic work, "all painted," with a translation +apparently into the Nahuatl tongue.[25] I would inquire of the learned +linguists of Spain whether that document cannot be unearthed. And +further, I would ask whether all trace has been lost of the writings of +Don Gabriel Castaneda, Chief of Colomocho, who wrote, in Nahuatl, an +account of the conquest of the Chichimecs by the Viceroy Antonio de +Mendoza, in 1541. That Manuscript was last heard of in the library of +the Convent of San Ildefonso, in Mexico.[26] Perhaps it would tell us who +the Chichimecs were, about which there is disagreement enough among +ethnologists. + +Of the strictly hieroglyphic records I shall not take account. Their +interpretation is yet uncertain, and, as linguistic monuments, they +have, at present, no standing. + +Equal, or superior, in culture, to the Aztecs were the Maya tribes. +Their chief seat was in Yucatan, but they extended thence southwardly to +the shores of the Pacific, and westward along the Gulf coast to the +River Panuco. The language numbered about sixteen dialects, none very +remote from the parent stem, which linguists identify as the Maya proper +of the Yucatecan peninsula. While there are a number of verbal +similarities between Maya and Nahuatl, the radicals of the two idioms +and their grammatical structure are widely asunder. The Nahuatl is an +excessively pliable, polysyllabic and highly synthetic tongue; the Maya +is rigid, its words short, of one or two syllables generally, and is +scarcely more synthetic than French. This contrast is carried out in the +style of their writers. Those in Nahuatl were lovers of amplification, +of flowing periods, of Ciceronian fullness; the Mayas cultivated +sententious brevity, they are elliptical, often to obscurity, and may be +compared rather to Tacitus, in his _Annals_, than to Cicero. + +All the Maya tribes had strong literary tastes, but with characteristic +tenacity they clung entirely to their native tongues; and I know not a +single instance where one has left compositions in Spanish. Their +language is easy to learn; to a stranger to both, Maya comes easier than +Spanish, as intelligent writers in Yucatan have testified; and this +aided its survival. Their passion for learning to read and write was +strong, and had it been fed, instead of rigidly suppressed, there is +little doubt but that they would have become a highly enlightened +nation. The wretched system which smothered free thought in Spain killed +it in Yucatan.[27] + +The principal literary monument in the pure Maya is the collection known +as "The Books of Chilan Balam." I have described this collection at +length in previous publications, and shall content myself with a brief +reference to it.[28] The title "Chilan Balam" means, in this connection, +"the interpreting priest;" that is, the sacred official who, in the +ancient religion, revealed the will of the gods. There are at least +sixteen collections under this name in Maya, copies, probably, in part, +of each other. Their contents may be classified under four headings:-- + +1. Chronology, calendars, and history, before and after the Conquest. + +2. Prophecies and astrology. + +3. Medical recipes and directions. + +4. Christian narratives. + +Of these, the last two are modern. The Christian portions are lives of +saints, and prayers. The medical directions are often found separate, +under the title "The Book of the Jew." Its language is modern and +corrupt--_mestizado_, as the Spaniards express it. + +The "Prophecies" are alleged to have been delivered one or several +generations before the Conquest. Their style is extremely obscure, and +many of the forms are archaic. If not genuine originals, they are +unquestionably very early and faithful imitations of the oracular +deliveries of the ancient Maya priests. + +The historical portions include rude annals since the Conquest, and a +series of Chronicles, extending back to about the third century of the +Christian era. There are five versions of these, all of which I have +published, with translations and copious notes, as the first volume of +my "Library of Aboriginal American Literature." + +Another class of Maya historical documents embraces the surveys and land +titles, many of which date from the sixteenth century. I have in my +possession a copy of one as far back as 1542, unquestionably the oldest +monument of the Maya language extant. Sometimes these titles were +accompanied by a family history. Such is "The Chronicle of Chac Xulub +Chen," written by the Chief Nakuk Pech, in 1562, which I have published. +It gives, in a confused style, a history of the Conquest, and throws +light on the methods by which the Spaniards succeeded in overcoming the +various native tribes.[29] + +We owe the preservation of most of the Maya MSS. to the enlightened +labors of Don Juan Pio Perez, a distinguished Yucatecan scholar, and the +compiler of the best printed dictionary of the Maya tongue.[30] The most +complete collection now in existence is that of the Canon Crescencio +Carrillo y Ancona, a learned archaeologist, and author of an excellent +history of Maya literature.[31] + +After the Maya, the most important of these associated dialects was the +Cakchiquel. It was, and still is, spoken in Guatemala; and the Kiche +(Quiche), also current there, is so nearly allied to it that they may be +treated as one idiom. The Cakchiquel possesses an extensive Christian +literature, as it was cultivated assiduously by the early missionaries. +Indeed, there was, for many years, a chair in the University of +Guatemala created for teaching it, and it is often referred to as the +_lengua metropolitana_, Guatemala having been the see of an +archbishop. There are in existence extensive lexicons of Cakchiquel, and +in it, besides various collections of sermons, was written the once +celebrated work of Father Domingo de Vico, the _Theologia Indorum_, +probably the most complete theological treatise ever produced in a +native American tongue.[32] + +The most notable aboriginal production in Cakchiquel is one frequently +referred to by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg as the _Memorial de +Tecpan Atitlan_, The Records from Tecpan Atitlan.[33] It is an +historical account of his family and tribe, written in the sixteenth +century by a member of the junior branch of the ruling house of the +Cakchiquels. His name was Don Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila, and a +passage of the MS. informs us that he was writing in 1581. After his +death the work was continued by Don Francisco Tiaz Gebuta Queh. The +style is familiar and often vivid, and the work is addressed to his +children. It begins with the earliest myths and traditions of the tribe, +and follows their fortunes to the lifetime of the writer. In respect +both to mythology, history and language, it is one of the most +noteworthy monuments of American antiquity. A loose paraphrase of it was +made by Brasseur de Bourbourg, based upon which, a Spanish rendering was +published by the "Sociedad Economica de Guatemala," under the auspices +of Senor Gavarrete. Neither the original nor any correct translation has +been printed. + +A copy of this MS. is in my collection, and both the original and a +second copy are in Europe; but there were a number of similar historical +accounts, committed to writing by this people and their immediate +neighbors, of which we know little but the titles and a few extracts. +Thus, the historian of Guatemala, Don Domingo Juarros, quotes from the +MSS. of Don Francisco Gomez, _Ahzib Kiche_, or Chief Scribe of the +Kiches, of Don Francisco Garcia Calel Tzumpan, of Don Juan Macario, +nephew, and Don Juan Torres, son, of the Chief Chignavincelut, and "the +histories written by the Quiches, Cakchiquels, Pipils, Pocomans, and +others, who learned to write their tongues from their Spanish teachers." +These MSS. gave the genealogies of their families and the migrations of +their ancestors "from the time when the Toltecs, from whom they trace +descent, first entered the territory of Mexico, and found it inhabited +by the Chichimecs."[34] + +One of the motives prompting to the composition of these works was to +vindicate the claims of families to the sovereignty, or to the +possession of land. They were, in fact, a sort of briefs of titles to +real estate. One such is preserved, in the original, in the Brasseur +collection, and is catalogued as "The Royal Title of Don Francisco +Izquin, the last Ahpop Galel, or King, of Nehaib, granted by the lords +who invested him with his royal dignity, and confirmed by the last King +of Quiche, with other sovereigns, November 22, 1558."[35] A Spanish +translation of the title of a female branch of this same family was +printed at Guatemala in 1876, but the original text has never been put +to press, although it is said to be still preserved in one of the +ancient families of the Province of Totonicapam.[36] + +Another Kiche work, which has excited a lively but not very intelligent +interest among European scholars, is the _Popol Vuh_, National +Book, a compendious account of their mythology and traditional history. +A Spanish translation of it by Father Francisco Ximenez was edited in +Vienna, in 1857, by Dr. Carl Scherzer.[37] The Abbe Brasseur followed, in +1861, by a publication of the original text, and a new translation into +French.[38] This text fills 173 octavo pages, so that it will be seen +that it offers an ample specimen of the tongue. + +Neither of these translations is satisfactory. Ximenez wrote with all +the narrow prejudices of a Spanish monk, while Brasseur was a Euhemerist +of the most advanced type, and saw in every myth the statement of a +historical fact. There is need of a re-translation of the whole, with +critical linguistic notes attached. A few years ago, I submitted the +names and epithets of the divinities mentioned in the Popol Vuh to a +careful analysis, and I think the results obtained show clearly how +erroneous were the conceptions formed regarding them by both the +translators of the document.[39] I shall not here go into the question of +its age or authorship, about which diverse opinions have obtained; but I +will predict that the more sedulously it is studied, the more certainly +it will be shown to be a composition inspired by ideas and narratives +familiar to the native mind long before the advent of Christianity. + +I have been told that there are other versions of the _Popol Vuh_ +still preserved among the Kiches, and it were ardently to be desired +that they were sought out, as there are many reasons to believe that the +copy we have is incomplete, or, at any rate, omits some prominent +features of their mythology. + +One branch of the Maya race, the Tzendals, inhabited a portion of the +province of Chiapas. One of their hero-gods bore the name of +_Votan_, a word from a Maya root, signifying the breast or heart, +but from its faint resemblance to "Odin," and its still fainter +similarity to "Buddha," their myth about him has given rise to many +whimsical speculations. This myth was written down in the native tongue +by a Christianized native, in the seventeenth century. The MS. came into +the possession of Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who quotes from +it in his _Constituciones Diocesanas_, printed in Rome, in 1702. +The indefatigable Boturini tells us that he tried in vain to find it, +about 1740, and supposed it was lost.[40] But a copy of it was seen and +described by Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, in 1790.[41] Possibly it is still in +existence, and there are few fragments of American literature which +would better merit a diligent search. As to the meaning of the Votan +myth, I have ventured an explanation of it in another work.[42] + +In South America, the only native historical writers who employed their +own tongue appear to have been of the Peruvian Qquichua stock. None of +their productions have been published, but one or more are in existence +and accessible. Prominent among them and deserving of early editing by +competent hands, is an anonymous treatise, partly translated by Dr. +Francisco de Avila, in 1608, on the "Errors, False Gods, Superstitions +and Diabolical Rites" of the natives of the provinces of Huarochiri, +Mama and Chaclla. The original text is in Madrid, and Avila's +translation, as far as it goes, has been rendered into English by Mr. +Clements R. Markham, and published in one of the Hackluyt Society's +volumes.[43] + +A member of the Inca family, already referred to, Don Luis Inca, is +reported to have written a series of historical notes, _Advertencias_, +"with his own hand and in his own tongue;" but what became of his +manuscript is not known.[44] + +There is another class of historical documents, which profess to be the +production of native hands, and which are moderately numerous. These are +the official letters and petitions drawn up by the chiefs in their own +tongues, and forwarded to the Spanish authorities. Of these, two +interesting specimens, one in the "Abolachi" tongue (a dialect of +Muskokee), and the other in Timucuana, were published in fac-simile by +the late Mr. Buckingham Smith, but in a very limited number of copies +(only fifty in all). Others in Nahuatl and Maya, also in fac-simile, +appear in that magnificent volume, the _Cartas de Indias_, issued +by the Spanish Government in 1880. Doubtless more examples could be +found in the public Archives in Spain, and they should all be collected +into one volume. They were probably prompted by the Spanish local +authorities; but it is likely that they show the true structure of the +language, and, of course, they have a positive historical value. + +It is related in the Proceedings of the Municipal Council of Guatemala +that, in 1692, the Captain Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman laid before the +Council seven petitions, written in the native language, on the bark of +trees.[45] Whatever of interest they contained was, no doubt, extracted +by that laborious but imaginative writer, and included in his +_History_, which has never been published, though several +manuscript copies of it are in existence. + +It will be seen that some of the so-called historical literature I have +mentioned rests uncertain on the border line between fact and fancy. +These old stories may be vague memories of past deeds, set in a frame of +mythical details; or they may be ancient myths, solar or meteorological, +which came to receive credence as actual occurrences. The task remains +for special students of such matters to sift and analyze them, and +settle this debateable point. + +There is another class of narrations, about which there can be no doubt +as to their purely imaginative origin. These are the animal myths, the +fairy stories, the fireside tales of giants and magicians, with which +the hours of leisure are whiled away. Several collections of these have +been made, the words and phrases taken down precisely as the native +story-teller delivered them, and thus they come strictly within the +lines of aboriginal literature. They are the spontaneous outgrowth of +the native mind, and are faithful examples of native speech. + +Over a hundred such tales have been collected by Dr. +Couto de Magalhaes, as narrated by the Tupis of Brazil, and +many of them have been published with all desirable fidelity, +and with a philosophical introduction and notes, in a volume +issued by the Brazilian government, under his editorial care.[46] + +A similar collection of Tupi stories was made by the late Prof. Charles +F. Hartt, whose early death was a loss to more than one branch of +science. It was his intention to edit them with the necessary notes and +vocabularies; but, so far as I know, the only specimens which appeared +in print were those he laid before the American Philological +Association, in 1872.[47] The inquiries I have instituted about his MSS. +have not been successful. + +Numerous texts of this description have been obtained from the Klamath +Indians by Mr. A.S. Gatschet, and from the Omaha by the Rev. J. Owen +Dorsey, both of which collections are in process of publication by the +Bureau of Ethnology at Washington. Scattered specimens of stories of +this kind have also been obtained by a number of travelers, and they are +always a welcome aid to the study both of the psychology and language of +a tribe. + + + + + + +Section 4. _Didactic Literature_. + + +The more civilized American tribes had made considerable advances in +some of the natural sciences, and in none more than in practical +astronomy. By close observation of the heavenly bodies they had +elaborated a complicated and remarkably exact system of chronology. They +had determined the length of the year with greater accuracy than the +white invaders; and the different cycles by which they computed time +allowed them to assign dates to occurrences many hundreds of years +anterior. + +Although there are local differences, the calendars in use in Central +and Southern Mexico and in Central America were evidently derived from +one and the same original. A great deal has been written upon them, but +for all that many questions about them remain unanswered. We do not know +the Maya method of intercalation; we do not understand the uses of the +shorter Mexican year, of 260 days; we are at a loss to explain the +purpose of doubling the length of certain months, as prevailed among the +Cakchiquels; we are in the dark about the significance of the names of +many days and months; we cannot see why the nations chose to begin the +count of the year at different seasons; and there are ever so many more +knotty problems about this remarkable system and its variations. + +What we imperatively need is a supply of authentic aboriginal calendars, +accurately reproduced, for purposes of comparison. Boturini collected a +number of these, which he describes, and long before his day some +specimens had been published by Valades and Gemelli Carreri.[48] They +were, in ancient times, usually depicted by circular drawings, called by +the Spaniards, Wheels (_ruedas_). After the Conquest they were +written out, more in the form of our almanacs. One such, in the Maya +tongue, with a translation, was contributed to Mr. Stephens' _Travels +in Yucatan_, by the eminent Maya scholar, Don Juan Pio Perez.[49] +Several others were in his collection, and are accessible. Dr. Berendt +succeeded in securing _fac similes_ of Kiche and Cakchiquel +calendars, written out in the seventeenth century, and these are now in +my possession. I fear we have no perfect examples of the Zapotec +calendar, nor of that of the Tarascos of Michoacan, although an +anonymous author, most of whose MS. has been preserved, reduced the +latter to writing, and it may some day turn up.[50] The Aztec calendars +collected by Boturini would, were they published, give us sufficient +material, probably, to understand clearly the methods of that tribe. + +One momentous purpose which the calendar served was for supplying omens +and predictions; another was for the appointment of fasts and festivals, +for the religious ritual. The calendar arranged for these objects was +called, in the Nahuatl, _tonalamatl_, "the book of days," and in +Maya _tzolante_, "that by which events are arranged." So intimately +were all the acts of individual and national life bound up with these +superstitions, that an understanding of them is indispensable to a +successful study of the psychology and history of the race. + +After the Conquest some of the notions about judicial astrology, then +prevalent in Europe, crept into the native understanding, and notably, +in the _Books of Chilan Balam_ we find forecastes of lucky and +unlucky days, and discussions of planetary influence, evidently borrowed +from the Spanish almanacs of the seventeenth century. + +Most of the Aborigines of the Continent possessed a keen sense of +locality, and often a certain rude skill in cartography. The relative +position of spots and proportionate distances were approximately +represented by rough drawings. They knew the boundaries of their lands, +the courses of streams, the trend of shores, and could display them +intelligently. These maps, as they are called, present a very different +appearance from ours. Those of the Aztecs are rather pictured diagrams, +something like those we find in fifteenth century books of travel. A +fair specimen, though of date later than the Conquest, was published not +long since, in Madrid.[51] + +The Maya maps are even more conventional. A central point is taken, +usually a town, around which is drawn either a circle or a square, on +the four sides of which are placed the figures of the four cardinal +points, and within the figures are the various symbols which denote the +villages, wells, ponds, and other objects which are to be designated. +Specimens of some of these, all after the Conquest, however, have been +published by Mr. Stephens and Canon Carrillo,[52] and others are found in +the various _Books of Chilan Balam_. + +Very few strictly scholastic works seem to have been produced by the +natives. Nearly all those which I have seen for use in the Mission +schools appear to be the productions of the white instructors, +generally, of course, aided by some intelligent native. I have in my +possession an _Ortografia en Lengua Kekchi_, picked up by Dr. +Berendt in Vera Paz, which was the work of Domingo Coy, an Indian of +Coban (MS. pp. 32). But on examination it proves to be merely an +adaptation of a _Manual de Ortografia Castellana_, in use in the +schools, and not an original effort. For all that, it is not without +linguistic value. In Mexico a useful little book of instruction in +Nahuatl has been prepared by the licentiate Faustino Chimalpopoca +Galicia, a scholar of indigenous extraction.[53] An older work, of a +similar character, by Don Antonio Tobar, a descendant of the Montezumas, +is mentioned by bibliographers, but never was printed, and has probably +perished.[54] + +It has always been part of the policy of both Catholic and Protestant +missions to permit the natives to enter the career of the church; in the +territories of both confessions instances are moderately numerous of +priests and preachers of half or full Indian blood. Most of these +educated men, however, rather shunned the cultivation of their maternal +tongues, and preferred, when they wrote at all, to choose that of their +white brethren, the Spanish, Portuguese or English. The extensive +theological literature which we possess, printed or in manuscript, in +American tongues, and in many it is quite ample, is scarcely ever the +result of the efforts of the Christian teachers of indigenous +affiliations. + +A notable exception was the licentiate Bartolome de Alva, a native +Mexican, descended from the Tezcucan kings, who composed, in Nahuatl and +Spanish, a _Confessionario_, which was printed at Mexico in 1634. +It contains some interesting references to the mythology and +superstitions of the natives.[55] + +The Indian Elias Boudinot and other Cherokees have printed many essays +and tracts in that tongue, but whether original or merely translated I +do not know. The sermons of the native Protestant missionaries to their +fellows were probably extempore addresses. At any rate, I have not seen +any in manuscript or print. A volume of the kind exists, however, in +manuscript, in the Library of the _Instituto Historico_ of Rio +Janeiro, which it would be very desirable to have printed. It is the +_Sermones e Exemplos em lengua Guarani_, by Nicolas Japuguay, cura +of the Parish of San Francisco in 1727.[56] But when it is edited, let us +hope that it will be a more favorable example of critical care than the +_Crestomathia da Lingua Brasilica_, edited by Dr. Ernesto Ferreira +Franca (Leipzig, 1859), which, according to Professor Hartt, is "badly +arranged, carelessly edited, and disfigured by innumerable typographical +errors."[57] + +A curious variety of religious literature is what are called the +Passions, _Las Pasiones_, which are found among the natives of the +Isthmus of Tehuantepec. These prose chants took their rise at an early +period among the sodalities (_cofradias_), organized under the name +of some particular saint. Each of these societies possessed a volume, +called its Regulations (_Ordenanzas_), containing, among other +matters, a series of invocations, founded on the history of the Passion +of Christ. During Holy Week, certain members of the fraternity, called +_fiscales_, gather in the church, around one of their number, who +reads a sentence in a loud voice. The fiscales repeat it in a chanting +tone, with a uniform and monotonous cadence. It is probable that these +chants are the compositions of the Indians themselves. Dr. Berendt +obtained several copies of these, some in the Chapaneca of Chiapas, and +others in the Zoque of the Isthmus, which are now in my hands. + + + + +Section 5. _Oratorical Literature._ + + +The love of the American Indian for oratorical display has been +commented on by almost all writers who have studied his disposition. +Specimens of native eloquence have been introduced into school books, +and declaimed by many an aspiring young Cicero. Most of them are, +doubtless, as fictitious as Logan's celebrated speech, which was exalted +by the great Jefferson almost to a level with the outbursts of +Demosthenes, to be reduced again to very small proportions by the +criticisms of Brantz Mayer.[58] + +In fact, in spite of all that has been said about the native oratory, +we are in a very inadequate position to judge of it correctly, and this +because we have no accurate reports in the original tongues of their +speeches. Translations, more or less loose, more or less imaginary, +we have in abundance; but, for critical purposes, they are simply +worthless. + +Yet that even the ruder tribes in both the northern and southern +continents, attached great weight to the cultivation of oratory, is +amply evident. James Adair, who is competent authority, tells us that +the southern Indians studied public speaking assiduously, and that their +speeches "abound with bolder tropes and figures than illiterate +interpreters can well comprehend or explain."[59] Mr. Howse writes that, +among the Crees, those who possess oratorical talent are in demand by +the Chiefs, who employ them to deliver the official harangues.[60] Among +the Aztecs, the very word for chief, _tlatoani_, literally means +"orator" (from the verb _tlatoa_, to harangue). In the far south, +among the Araucanians of Chili, and their relatives the migratory hordes +of the Pampas, no gift is in higher estimation than that of an easy and +perspicuous delivery. This alone enables the humblest to rise to the +position of chieftain.[61] So it was over the whole continent. + +In most of their languages, the oratorical was markedly different from +the familiar or colloquial style. The former was given to antithesis, +repetition, elaborate figures, unusual metaphors, and more sonorous and +lengthened expressions. The Rev. Mr. Byington gives a number of the +oratorical affectations in the Choctaw, as _akakano_ for _ak_, +_okakocha_ for _ok_, etc.[62] + +Some genuine specimens of the oratory of the northern tribes are +preserved by Mr. Hale, in the Iroquois _Book of Rites_, to which I +have referred on a previous page. The speeches it contains were learned +by heart, and transmitted from generation to generation, long before +they were committed to writing, and long after some of the words and +expressions they contain had become lost to the colloquial language of +the tribe. + +The ancient Mexicans were much given to this sort of formal +speech-making. They had a large number of cut-and-dried orations, which +professional rhetoricians delivered on all important occasions in life. +The new-born child was harangued at, in good set terms, when it was but +a few days old. Betrothals, marriages, festivals, the commencement of +puberty and of pregnancy, etc., were all celebrated by the delivery of +discourses. Fathers taught their children, teachers their pupils, +monarchs their vassals, war chiefs their soldiers, by such declamations. +The general name for these speeches was _huehuetlatolli_, ancient +orations.[63] + +Many have been preserved, and a tolerably complete collection could be +made in the original tongue. To effect this, we should have to have +recourse to the original Nahuatl MS. of Sahagun's history, which, I have +already said, exists in Madrid; next, to the extremely rare work of the +eminent Nahuatl scholar, Father Juan Baptista, _Platicas Morales_, +in which, according to Vetancurt, he gives, in the original, the ancient +addresses of fathers to their children, and of rulers to their +subjects;[64] and lastly, to the recently published, though very early +written, _Mexican Grammar_, of the Franciscan Andre de Olmos, which +contains a number of these discourses, carefully edited and translated +by the accomplished scholar, M. Remi Simeon.[65] + +The numerous prayers to the heathen gods, preserved by Sahagun, are, +doubtless, faithfully recorded, and are accurate examples of the +elevated literary style of the ancient Aztecs. They should, by all +means, be printed, so that they could be accessible to those who would +acquaint themselves with the genius of the language and the psychology +of the people. + +In the Qquichua of Peru, a few similar prayers to Viracocha have been +saved from oblivion, in the pages of Cristobal de Molina. One or more +copies of his _Relacion_ are in the United States, but it has only +appeared in print through a translation by Mr. Markham, in the Hackluyt +Society's publications.[66] Some modern prayers of the Mayas are to be +found in the collection of Brasseur,[67] and, doubtless, several of the +so-called ancient "prophecies," preserved in the _Books of Chilan +Balam_, are, in fact, specimens of the impassioned and mystic +rhapsodies with which the priests of their heathendom entertained their +hearers, as Cortes and his followers heard, one day, on the island of +Cozumel.[68] + + + + +Section 6. _Poetical Literature._ + + +Man, remarks Wilhelm von Humboldt, belongs to the singing species of +animals. True it is, that wherever found, he has some notion of music, +cultivates the accord of sounds by some sort of instrument, and gives +expression to his most acute emotions in modulations of vocal tone. + +The earliest and simplest poetry is nothing more than such modulated +sounds; it is not in definite words, and hence, is not capable of +translation; it is but the expression of feeling through the voice, as +is the wail of the infant, the rippling laughter of youth, the crooning +of senility, the groans of pain or sorrow. + +Perhaps this first is also the highest expression of the aesthetic +sense. The most admired cantatrices of to-day drown the words in a +wealth of vocalization, and the meaning is lost, even were the language +one known to their hearers, which it usually is not. I have heard a +living poet, himself of no mean eminence, maintain that the harmony of +versification is a far higher test of true poetic power than the ideas +conveyed. + +These principles must be borne in mind when we apply the canons of +criticism to the poetry of the ruder races. It is not composed to be +read, or even recited, but to be sung; its aim is, not to awaken thought +or convey information, but solely to excite emotion. It can have a +meaning only when heard, and only in the surroundings which gave it +birth. + +Hence it is, that the notices of the poetry of American nations are so +scant and unsatisfactory. While all travelers agree that the tribes have +songs and chants, war songs, peace songs, love songs, and others, few +satisfactory specimens have been recorded. Those who have examined the +subject most accurately have found that many so-called songs are mere +repetitions of a few words, or even of simple interjections, over and +over again, with an endless iteration, in a chanting voice. The Dakota +songs which have been preserved by Riggs, the Chippeway songs obtained +from the interpreter Tanner, and the numerous specimens of native +Californian chants recorded by Powers, as well as many others of this +class which might be mentioned, are mainly of this character. + +Consequently, they show very poorly in a translation, and +are apt to convey an unjustly depreciatory notion of the +nations which produce them. To estimate them aright, the +meter and the music must be taken into consideration, and also +their suitability to the minds to which they were addressed.[69] + +But the anthology of America is not limited to specimens of this kind. +In the Iroquois _Book of Rites_ there are funeral dirges of +considerable length, expressive and touching in meaning; and in the +Algonkin a few have been preserved in the original, which are authentic +and pleasing. Here, for instance, is a nearly literal version of a +Chippeway love song:-- + + "I will walk into somebody's dwelling, + Into somebody's dwelling will I walk. + + To thy dwelling, my dearly beloved, + Some night will I walk, will I walk. + + Some night in the winter, my beloved, + To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk. + + This very night, my beloved, + To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk."[70] + + +Much more striking, and to me strangely so, are the songs of the Taensa, +a small tribe who dwelt on the banks of the lower Mississippi. They are +now extinct, but a very curious account of their language, by a Spanish +missionary, has been preserved and recently published. The early +travelers speak of them as an unusually cultivated people, but one +cannot but be surprised to find them capable of composing an +epithalamium like the following:-- + + "Tikaens, thou buildest a house, thou bringest thy wife to live in it. + + "Thou art married, Tikaens, thou art married. + + "Thou wilt become famous; thy children will name thee among the elders. + Think of Tikaens as an old man! + + "By what name is thy bride known? Is she beautiful? Are her eyes soft + as the light of the moon? Is she a strong woman? Didst thou understand + her signs during the dance? + + "I know not whether thou lovest her, Tikaens. + + "What said the old man, her father, when thou askedst for his pretty + daughter? + + "What betrothal presents didst thou give? + + "Rejoice, Tikaens! be glad, be happy! + + "Build thyself a happy home. + + "This is the song of its building!" + + +Some of the songs of war and death are quite Ossianic in +style, and yet they appear to be accurate translations.[71] + +The comparatively elevated style of such poems need not cast doubt upon +them. The first European who wrote about the songs of the natives of +America, who was none other than the witty and learned Montaigne, paid a +high tribute to their true poetic spirit. Montaigne knew a man who had +lived among the Tupis of Brazil for ten or twelve years, and had learned +their language and customs. He remembered several of their songs of war +and love, and translated them to gratify the insatiable thirst for +knowledge of the famous essayist. The refrain of one of them, supposed +to be addressed to one of those beautiful serpents of the tropical +forests, ran thus:-- + + "O serpent, stay! stay, O serpent! that thy painted skin may serve my + sister as a pattern for the design and form of a rich cord, which I may + give to my love; for this favor, may thy beauty and grace be esteemed + beyond those of all other serpents." + + +"I have had enough to do with poetry," comments Montaigne on this +couplet, "to say about this that not only is there nothing barbarous in +this fancy, but that it is altogether worthy of Anacreon." Such is his +enthusiasm, indeed, that he finds in this simple and faithful expression +of sentiment the highest form of poesy; "the true, the supreme, the +divine; that which is above rules and beyond reasoning."[72] + +Scarcely can we call these words extravagant, when, in our own century, +another Frenchman, eminent as a scientific observer, and speaking from +the results of personal study on the spot, has said of the songs of a +tribe of this same Tupi stock, the Guarayos, that they cannot be +surpassed for grace of language and delicacy of expression.[73] + +Many interesting Klamath, Omaha and Zuni verses have been collected by +the efforts of Gatschet, Dorsey, Cushing and other zealous laborers +connected with the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, and these will +shortly be accessible to all through the accurate publications of the +government press. + +The melodious Nahuatl tongue lent itself readily to poetic composition, +and was cultivated enthusiastically in this direction long before the +Conquest. Apparently the poetic dialect never freed itself from the use +of unmeaning particles thrown in to complete the meter; as, indeed, may +also be said of the English popular song dialect, which retains to this +day very many such.[74] + +With this exception the Tezcucan poets, for it was in that province that +the muses were most assiduously worshiped, made use of a pure, +brilliant, figurative style, and had developed a large variety of +metrical forms. + +One of the most famous disciples of the lyre was Nezahualcoyotl, himself +sovereign of Tezcuco about the year 1460. He left seventy odes on +philosophical and religious subjects, which were borne in memory and +repeated after the Conquest. Translations of a few of them have come +down to us, but my inquiries as to the whereabouts of the originals, if, +indeed, they exist, have been fruitless.[75] The Jesuit, Horatio Carochi, +published some ancient verses in his grammar of the Nahuatl (Mexico, +1645). Several which appear in later works do not seem to merit the +credit of antiquity. They are more like those which Sahagun wrote and +published, in Nahuatl, at a very early period,[76] Christian songs, +intended to take the place of the ditties of love and chants of war, +which the natives had such a passion for singing. + +Under the title _Cantares de los Mexicanos_, there was long +preserved in the library of the University of Mexico a manuscript of the +sixteenth or seventeenth century, with a large number of supposed +ancient Aztec songs; but what has become of it now, nobody knows.[77] +Thus it is that these precious monuments of antiquity are allowed to lie +uncared for, through generations, until, at length, they fall a prey to +ignorance or theft. + +A few other fragments of Nahuatl poetry, all probably modern, but some +of them the versification of native bards, might be named; but the whole +of it, as now existing, could give us but a faint idea of the perfection +to which the art appears to have attained in the palmy days of the great +Tezcucan poet-prince. + +In the literature of the Maya group of dialects, there have been +preserved various sacred chants, some in the _Books of Chilan +Balam_, others in the Kiche _Popol Vuh_. What are known as the +"Maya Prophecies" are, as I have said, evidently the originals, or +echoes of the mystic songs of the priests of Kukulkan and Itzamna, +deities of the Maya pantheon, who were supposed to inspire their +devotees with the power of foretelling the future. + +The modern Maya lends itself very readily both to rhyme and rhythm, and +I have in my possession some quite neat specimens of versification in +it, from the pen of the Yucatecan historian, Apolinar Garcia y Garcia. + +When we reach Peru we find a race not less poetical in temperament than +the cultured Mexicans. Nothing but their ignorance of an alphabet, and +the indifference or fanatical hatred of the early explorers for the +productions of the native intellect, prevented the perpetuation of a +Qquichua literature, both extensive and noble. As it is, we may expect +many valuable examples of it when the learned Peruvian scholar, Senor +Gavino Pacheco Zegarra, shall publish his long promised _Tresor de la +Langue des Incas_. Among them he has announced the first appearance +of a number of _Yaravis_, or elegiac chants, composed by the +Indians themselves, and sung in memory of their departed friends. + +We know, from the testimony of Garcillaso de la Vega, that the Inca +bards formed a separate and highly respected class, and that in their +hands the supple Qquichua tongue had been brought under well recognized +rules of prosody. He mentions the different classes and subjects of +their poems, compares them to similar compositions in Spanish, and even +gives specimens of two short ones, of undoubted antiquity, and adds +that, when a boy, he knew many others. "What would not one now give," +exclaims Mr. Markham, "for those precious relics of Inca civilization, +which the half-caste lad allowed to slip from his memory."[78] All that +Mr. Markham could collect, in his extensive journeys in Peru, were not +above twenty songs of ancient date, and I regret to say that these have +not yet been published. + +Of those charming Tupi songs, to which I have already referred, I fear +that we have but very few preserved in the original tongue. Not that +there is any lack of poems in the _lingoa geral_, or "common +language" of Brazil, as the ordinary and corrupt Tupi there spoken is +called. It is a melodious idiom, lending itself easily to rhyme and +rhythm, and several Brazilian writers of European blood have gained +reputation by their compositions in it. But of genuine aboriginal +productions, there are not many. + +The entertaining old voyager, Jean de Lery, who visited Brazil with +Villegagnon in 1557, has recorded a few simple airs, which appear to be +merely choruses or refrains of songs, the delivery of which was, +however, so effective, that to hear them carried him out of himself; and +ever, when his memory recalled them, his heart beat, and it seemed that +he heard the wild cadence once again resounding in his ears through the +tropical forests.[79] + +Some strange old poetic invocations in archaic Tupi addressed to the +moon and to the god of love, Ruda, who dwells in the clouds, have been +collected and printed by Dr. Couto de Magalhaes, a writer whose studies +on Tupi poetry, its character and development, merit high praise.[80] +Both the songs and music of the modern natives of that country attracted +the attention of the learned Von Martius, and in his volumes of +_Travels in Brazil_ an appendix is devoted to their discussion.[81] +Many excellent hints for preparing a Tupi anthology are also contained +in an erudite note of Ferdinand Denis to his description of the visit of +fifty native Tupis to France, in 1550.[82] + + + + +Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_. + + +The development of the dramatic art can be clearly traced +in the American nations. When the Spaniards first explored +the West Indian Islands they found the inhabitants much +given to festivals which combined dancing with chanting, +and the introduction of figures with peculiar costumes. The +native name of these representations was adopted by the +Spaniards, and applied to such performances elsewhere. The +word is _areytos_, and is derived from the Arawack verb, _aririn_, +to rehearse, recite.[83] + +Such dramatic recitations were found among most of the tribes of North +and South America, and have been frequently described by travelers. +Often they were of a religious nature, having something to do with +devotional exercises; but not seldom they were simply for amusement. +Occasionally they were mere pantomimes, where the actors appeared in +costume and masks, and went through some ludicrous scene. Thus, to quote +one example out of many, Lieutenant Timberlake saw some among the +Cherokees, about the middle of the last century, which he speaks of as +"very diverting," where some of the actors dressed in the skins of wild +animals, and the simulated contest between these pretended beasts and +the men who hunted them, were the motives of the entertainment.[84] + +From the solemn religious representations on the one hand and these +diverting masquerades on the other, arose the two forms of tragedy and +comedy, both of which were widely popular among the American +aborigines.[85] The effete notion that they were either unimaginative or +insusceptible to humor is, to be sure, still retained by a few writers, +who are either ignorant or prejudiced; but it has been refuted so often +that I need not stop to attack it. In fact, so many tribes were of a gay +and frolicsome disposition, so much given to joking, to playing on +words, and to noticing the humorous aspect of occurrences, that they +have not unfrequently been charged by the whites best acquainted with +them, the missionaries, with levity and a frivolous temperament. + +Among the many losses which American ethnology has suffered, that of the +text of the native dramas is one of the most regretable. Is is, however, +not total. Two have been published which claim to be, and I think are, +faithful renditions of the ancient texts as they were transmitted +verbally, from one to another, in pre-Columbian times. + +The most celebrated of these is the drama of _Ollanta_,[86] in the +Qquichua language of Peru. No less than eight editions of this have been +published, the last and best of which is that by the meritorious +scholar, Senor Gavino Pacheco Zegarra. The internal evidence of the +antiquity of this drama has been pronounced conclusive by all competent +Qquichua students.[87] + +The plot is varied and ingenious, and the characters agreeably +contrasted. Ollanta is a warrior of low degree, who falls in love with +Cusi Coyllur, daughter of the Inca, who returns his affection. The +lovers have secret meetings, and Ollanta asks the sovereign to sanction +their union. The proud ruler rejects the proposal with scorn, and the +audacious warrior gathers his adherents and attacks the State, at first +with success. But Cusi Coyllur is thrown into prison and her child, the +fruit of her illicit love, is separated from her. The Inca dies, and +under his successor Ollanta is defeated and brought, a prisoner, to the +capital. Mindful, however, of his merits, the magnanimous victor pardons +him, restores him to his honors, and returns to his arms Cusi Coyllur +and her child. Minor characters are a facetious youth, who is constantly +punning and joking; and the dignified figure of the High Priest of the +Sun, who endeavors to dissuade the hero from his seemingly hopeless +love. + +The second drama to which I refer is that of _Rabinal Achi_, in the +Kiche tongue of Guatemala. The text was obtained by the Abbe Brasseur de +Bourbourg, and edited with a French translation. The plot is less +complete than that of the _Ollanta_, and the constant repetitions, +while they constitute strong evidence of its antiquity and native +origin, are tedious to a European reader.[88] + +Rabinal-Achi is a warrior who takes captive a distinguished foe, Canek, +and brings him before the ruler of Rabinal, King Hobtoh. The fate of the +prisoner is immediate death and he knows it, but his audacity and +bravery do not fail him. He boasts of his warlike exploits, and taunts +his captors, like an Iroquois in his death song, and his enemies listen +with respect. He even threatens the king, and has to be restrained from +attacking him. As his end draws near, he asks to drink from the royal +cup and eat from the royal dish; it is granted. Again, he asks to be +clothed in the royal robe; it is brought and put about him. Once more he +makes a request, and it is to kiss the virgin mouth of the daughter of +the king, and dance a measure with her, "as the last sign of his death +and his end." Even this is conceded, and one might think that it was his +uttermost petition. But no; he asks one year's grace, wherein to bid +adieu to his native mountains. The king hears this in silence, and Canek +disappears; but returning in a moment, he scornfully inquires whether +they supposed he had run away. He then, in a few strong words, bids a +last farewell to his bow, his shield, his war-club and battle-axe, and +is slain by the warriors of the king. + +The love of dramatic performances was not crushed out in the natives by +the Conquest. In fact, in the Spanish countries, it was turned to +account and cultivated by the missionaries as a means of instructing +their converts in religion, by "miracle plays" or _autos +sacramentales_, as they are called. It was even permitted to the more +intelligent natives to compose the text of plays. One such, manifestly, +I think, the work of a native author, in the mixed Nahuatl-Spanish +dialect of Nicaragua, I have prepared for publication. The original was +found by Dr. Berendt in Masaya, and his copy, without note or +translation, came into my hands. + +The play is a light comedy, and is called "The Ballet of the Gueegueence +or the Macho-Raton." The characters are a wily old rascal, Gueegueence, +and his two sons, the one a chip of the old block, the other a bitter +commentator on the family failings. They are brought before the Governor +for entering his province without a permit; but by bragging and promises +the foxy old man succeeds both in escaping punishment and in effecting a +marriage between his scapegrace son and the Governor's daughter. The +interest is not in the plot, which is trivial, but in the constant play +on words, and in the humor, often highly Rabelaisian, of the anything +but venerable parent. + +The "Zacicoxol," or Drama of Cortes and Montezuma, written in Kiche, of +which I have a copy, may possibly be the work of an Indian, but is +probably largely that of one of the Spanish curas, and appears to have +little in it of interest. + +Another and peculiar form of dramatic recitation is what are called the +Loas or _Logas_, of Central America. In these, a single individual +appears in some quaint costume, in a little theatre erected for the +purpose, and recites a burlesque poem, acting the different portions of +it to the best of his ability. At present, most of these _Logas_ +are of a semi-religious character. The one I have is entitled "The Loga +of the Child-God," _Loga del nino Dios_, and is written in Spanish +intermingled with words from the Mangue or Chorotegan language. This +tongue, spoken by a few persons in Nicaragua, is closely akin to the +Chapanec of Chiapas, and was a sonorous and rich idiom. Those who spoke +it were much given to scenic representations, as we learn from the +historian Oviedo, who lived among them for nearly a year, about 1527. +None of these remain, though as late as about 1820, one of great +antiquity, believed to be an original native production, continued to be +acted. Its title was _La Ollita_ or _El Canahuate_, the former +word meaning the peculiar musical instrument of that locality, the +"whistling jar." The subject was a tale of love, and one of these +primitive flutes was used as an accompaniment to the songs. + + + + +Section 8. _Conclusion_. + + +Thus do I answer the questions which I proposed at the outset of my +thesis. If I have failed to justify the expectations which I may have +raised, at least I have thrown into strong relief the cause of my +failure, to wit, the utter and incredible neglect which, up to this +hour, has prevailed with regard to the preservation of what relics of +native literature which we know have existed,--which do still exist. + +Time and money are spent in collecting remains in wood and stone, in +pottery and tissue and bone, in laboriously collating isolated words, +and in measuring ancient constructions. This is well, for all these +things teach us what manner of men made up the indigenous race, what +were their powers, their aspirations, their mental grasp. But closer to +very self, to thought and being, are the connected expressions of men in +their own tongues. The monuments of a nation's literature are more +correct mirrors of its mind than any merely material objects. I have at +least shown that there are some such, which have been the work of native +American authors. My object is to engage in their preservation and +publication the interest of scholarly men, of learned societies, of +enlightened governments, of liberal institutions and individuals, not +only in my own country, but throughout the world. Science is +cosmopolitan, and the study of man is confined by no geographical +boundaries. The languages of America and the literary productions in +those languages have every whit as high a claim on the attention of +European scholars as have the venerable documents of Chinese lore, the +mysterious cylinders of Assyria, or the painted and figured papyri of +the Nilotic tombs. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: What Dr. Washington Matthews says of one of the Sioux +tribes is, in substance, true of all on the Continent:-- + +"Long winter evenings are often passed in reciting and listening to +stories of various kinds. Some of these are simply the accounts given by +the men, of their own deeds of valor, their hunts and journeys; some are +narrations of the wonderful adventures of departed heroes; while many +are fictions, full of impossible incidents, of witchcraft and magic. The +latter class of stories are very numerous. Some of them have been handed +down through many generations; some are of recent origin; while a few +are borrowed from other tribes. Some old men acquire great reputation as +story tellers, and are invited to houses, and feasted, by those who are +desirous of listening to them. Good story tellers often originate tales, +and do not disclaim the authorship. When people of different tribes meet +they often exchange tales with one another. An old Indian will occupy +several hours in telling a tale, with much elegant and minute +description."--_Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, +pp. 62-3. (Washington, 1877.)] + +[Footnote 2: That these assertions are not merely my own, but those of +the most profound students of these tongues, will be seen from the +following extracts, which could easily be added to:-- + +"This language [the Cree] will be found to be adequate, not only to the +mere expression of their wants, but to that of every circumstance or +sentiment that can, in any way, interest or affect uncultivated +minds."--Joseph Howse, _A Grammar of the Cree Language_, p. 12. +(London, 1865.) + +"J'ai affirme que nos deux grandes langues du Nouveau Monde [the +Iroquois and the Algonkin] etaient tres claires, tres precises, +exprimant avec facilite non seulement les relations exterieures des +idees, mais encore leur relations metaphysiques. C'est ce qu' out +commence de demontrer mes premiers chapitres de grammaire, et ce +qu'achevera de faire voir ce que je vais dire sur les verbes."--Rev. M. +Cuoq, _Jugement Errone de M. Ernest Renan sur les Langues +Sauvages._ p. 32 (2d Ed. Montreal, 1869.) + +"Affermo che non e facile di trovare una lingua piu atta della Messicana +a trattar le materie metafisiche; poiche e difficile di trovarne +un' altra, che tanto abbondi, quanto quella, di nomi astratte."--Clavigero, +_Storia Antica del Messico_, Tomo IV, p. 244. (Cesena, 1781.) + +"Todos los bellisimos sentimientos que se albergan en los nobles +corazones en ninguna otra de aquellas lenguas (Europeas) pueden +encontrar una expresion tan viva tan patetica y energica como la que +tienen en Mexicano. ?En cual otra se habla con tanto acatamiento, con +veneracion tan profunda, de los altisimos mysterios de ineffable amor +que nos muestra el Cristianismo?"--Fr. Agustin de la Rosa, in the _Eco +de la Fe_. (Merida, 1870.) + +Alcide d'Orbigny argues forcibly to the same effect, of the South +American languages:--"Les Quichuas et les Aymaras civilises ont une +langue etendue, pleine de figures elegantes, de comparaisons naives, de +poesie, surtout lorsqu'il s'agit d'amour; et il ne faut pas croire +qu'isoles au sein des forets sauvages ou jetes au milieu des plaines +sans bornes, les peuples chasseurs, agriculteurs et guerriers, soient +prives de formes elegantes, de figures riches et variees."--_L'Homme +Americain_, Tome I, p. 154. + +For other evidence see Brinton, _American Hero Myths_, p. 25. +(Philadelphia, 1882.). Horatio Hale, _The Iroquois Book of Rites_, +p. 107. (Philadelphia, 1883.)] + +[Footnote 3: _Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, +p. 18.] + +[Footnote 4: _The Tribes of California_, p. 73. (Washington, +1877.)] + +[Footnote 5: "Il n'est pas rare de trouver des individus parlant jusqu'a +trois ou quatre langues, aussi distinctes entr'elles que le francais et +l'allemand."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, Tome I, p. +170. The generality of this fact in South America was noted by Humboldt, +_Voyage aux Regions Tropicales_, T. III, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 6: "Hay muchos de ellos buenos gramaticos, y componen +oraciones largas y bien autorizadas, y versos exametros y +pentametros."--Toribio de Motilinia, _Historia de los Indios de la +Nueva Espana_, Tratado III, cap. XII.] + +[Footnote 7: _Menologio Franciscano de los Varones mas Senalados de la +Provincia de Mexico_, Tomo IV, pp. 447-9. (Mexico, 1871.) + +In the Prologue to the _Sermonario Mexicano_ of F. Juan de Bautista +(Mexico, 1606), is a well-written letter, in Latin, by Don Antonio +Valeriano, a native of Atzcaputzalco, who was professor of grammar and +rhetoric in the College of Tlatilulco. Bautista says of him that he +spoke extempore in Latin with the eloquence of a Cicero or a Quintilian; +and his contemporary, the academician Francisco Cervantes Salazar, +writes: "Magistrum habent [Indi] ejusdem nationis, Antonium Valerianum, +nostris grammaticis nequaquam inferiorem, in legis christianae +observatione satis doctum et ad eloquentiam avidissimum."--_Tres +Dialogos Latinos de Francisco Cervantes Salazar_, p. 150 (Ed. +Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1875).] + +[Footnote 8: Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez, _Memorias para la +Historia del Antiguo Reyno de Guatemala_, Tomo III, pp. 201 and 221 +(Guatemala, 1852).] + +[Footnote 9: _Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los Indios +de la Nueva Espana_, in the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para +la Historia de Espana_, Tom. 53, p. 300.] + +[Footnote 10: _A Study of the Manuscript Troano_. By Cyrus Thomas, +Ph.D., with an Introduction by D.G. Brinton, M.D., p. xxvii. +(Washington, 1883.)] + +[Footnote 11: "Tenian libros de pergaminos que hacian de los cueros de +venados, tan anchos como una mano o mas, e tan luengos como diez o doce +passos, e mas e menos, que se encogian e doblaban e resumian en el +tamano e grandeza de una mano por sus dobleces uno contra otro (a +manera de reclamo); y en aquestos tenian pintados sus caracteres o +figuras de tinta roxa o negra, de tal manera que aunque no eran letura +ni escritura, significaban y se entendian por ellas todo lo que querian +muy claramente."--Oviedo, _Historia General y Natural de Indias_, +Lib. XLII, cap. I.] + +[Footnote 12: "Une ecriture consistant en raies tracees sur de petites +planchettes."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, Tomo L, p. +170, on the authority of Viedma, _Informe general de la Provincia de +Santa Cruz, MS_.] + +[Footnote 13: _Legends and Tales of the Eskimo_. (Edinburgh and +London, 1875.)] + +[Footnote 14: _Pok, Kalalek avalangnek, etc._, Nongme, 1857; or, +_Pok, en Groenlaender, som har reist og ved sin Hjemkomst, etc. Efter +gamle Handskrifter fundne hos Groenlaendere ved Godthaab._ Godthaab, +1857.] + +[Footnote 15: _Kaladlit Assilialit, etc._ See Thomas W. Field, +_Indian Bibliography_, p. 199. (New York, 1873.)] + +[Footnote 16: First printed in _The American Whig Review_, New York, +Feb. 1849; reprinted in _The Indian Miscellany_, edited by W.W. +Beach, Albany, 1877. I have not been able to find the original.] + +[Footnote 17: Horatio Hale, _The Iroquois Book of Rites_. +(Philadelphia, 1883.) It is No. II of my "Library of Aboriginal American +Literature." + +The introductory essay, in ten chapters, treats at considerable length +of the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois nations, the Iroquois +League and its founders (Hiawatha, Dekanawidah, and their associates), +the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, +the clan system, the laws of the League, and the historical traditions +relating to it, the Iroquois character and public policy, and the +Iroquois language. A map prefixed to the work shows the location of the +United Nations and of the surrounding tribes.] + +[Footnote 18: _Recit de Francois Kaondinoketc, Chef des Nipissingues +(tribu de race Algonquine) ecrit par lui-meme en 1848.--Traduit en +Francais et accompagne de notes par_ M.N.O., 8vo. pp. 8. (Paris, +1877.)] + +[Footnote 19: _The National Legend of the Chata-Muskokee Tribes_. By +Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. Morrisania, N.Y., 1870. 4to. pp. 13. Reprinted +from _The Historical Magazine_, February, 1870.] + +[Footnote 20: "Les chefs des vieillards m'avoient souvent parle de leurs +ancetres, des courses qu'ils avoient faites, et des combats qu'ils +avoient eu a soutenir, avant que la nation put se fixer ou elle est +aujourd'hui. L'histoire de ces premiers Creeks, qui portoient alors le +nom de Moskoquis, etoit conservee par des banderoles ou chapelets," +etc.--_Memoire ou Coup-d'Oeil Rapide sur mes different Voyages et mon +Sejour dans la Nation Creck,_ Par le Gen. Milfort, pp. 48, 229. +(Paris, An. XI, 1802).] + +[Footnote 21: "We burned all we could find of them," writes Bishop Landa, +"which pained the natives to an extraordinary degree."--_Relacion de +las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 316. For a discussion of what was destroyed +at Mani see Cogolludo, _Historia de Yucatan_, 3d Ed., Vol. I, p. +604, note by the Editor. The efforts which have of late been made by +Senor Icazbalceta and the Reverend Canon Carrillo to modify the general +opinion of these acts of vandalism cannot possibly be successful. The +ruthless hostility of the Church to the ancient civilization, an +hostility founded on religious intolerance, could be proved by hundreds +of extracts from the early writers.] + +[Footnote 22: Boturini's work is entitled _Idea de una Nueva Historia +General de la America Septentrional fundada sobre material copioso +defiguras, Symbolos, Caracteres, y Geroglificos, Cantares y Manuscritos +de Autores Indios_. Madrid, 1746. The fate of his collection is +sketched by Brasseur de Bourbourg, in the introduction to his +_Histoire des Nations civilisees de Mexique et de l'Amerique +Centrale_, Vol I.] + +[Footnote 23: The following extract from Ixtlilxochitl sums up the native +authorities on which he relied for the particulars of the life of the +last prince of Tezcuco, and merits quotation as a bit of literary +history:-- + +"Autores son de todo lo referido, y de los demas de su vida y hechos los +infantes de Mexico Ytzcoatzin y Xiuhcozcatzin, y otros Poetas y +Historicos en los anales de las tres cabezas de esta Nueva Espana, y en +particular en los anales que hizo el infante Quauhtlazaciulotzin, primer +Senor del pueblo de Chiauhtla; y asimismo se halla en las relaciones que +escribieron los infantes de la ciudad de Tezcuco, Don Pablo, Don +Toribio, Don Hernando Pimentel y Juan de Pomar hijos y nietos del Rey +Nezalhualpiltzintli de Tezcuco, y asimismo el infante Don Alonso +Axiaicatzin Senor de Itztapalapan, hijo del rey de Cuitlahuac, y sobrino +del rey Motecutzomatzin."--Ixtlilxochitl, _Historia Chichimeca_, +cap. XLIX.] + +[Footnote 24: In the celebrated library of J.F. Ramirez, were two folio +volumes, containing 1022 pages, entitled _Anales Antiguos de Mexico y +sus Contornos_. They included, besides various Spanish accounts, 27 +fragments in the Nahuatl language, some translated and some not. The +titles of all are given by Don Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, in his +valuable and rare _Apuntes para un Catalogo de Escritores en Lenguas +Indigenas de America_, pp. 140-142. (Mexico, 1866.)] + +[Footnote 25: _Memorial del Pueblo de Teptlaustuque, en la Nueva +Espana; en que se refiere su Origen i Poblacion, i de los Tributos i +Servicios, antes i despues de la Conquista; todo pintado, i M.S._ En +la Libreria del Rei. Antonio de Leon i Pinelo, _Bibliotheca +Occidental_. The district of Tepetlaoztoc belonged to Tezcuco.] + +[Footnote 26: "Don Gabriel Castaneda, Indio principal, natural de +Michuacan Colomocho en la Provincia de Mejico. Escribio en Lengua +Megicana, _Relacion_ de la Jornada que hizo Sandoval Acaxitli, +Cacique y Senor de Tlalmanalco, con el Sr. Visorey Don Antonio de +Mendoza en la Conquista de los Chichimecas de Xuchipila, +1541."--Beristain y Souza, _Biblioteca Hispano-Americana +Septentrional_, s.v.] + +[Footnote 27: For testimony to this interesting fact see _The Maya +Chronicles_, Introduction, p. 28, note.] + +[Footnote 28: _The Books of Chilan Balam, The Prophetic and Historic +Records of the Mayas of Yucatan_. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D., +Philadelphia, 1882. Reprint from the _Penn Monthly_, March, 1882.] + +[Footnote 29: _Library of Aboriginal American Literature_, Vol. I, +p. 189. (Philadelphia, 1882.)] + +[Footnote 30: An intelligent appreciation of the linguistic labors of Pio +Perez was written by Dr. Berendt, in 1871, and printed in +Mexico.--_Los Trabajos Linguisticos de Don Juan Pio Perez_. 8vo. +pp. 6.] + +[Footnote 31: _Disertacion sobre la Historia de la Lengua Maya o +Yucateca_. Por Crescencio Carrillo. Published in the _Revista de +Merida_, 1870.] + +[Footnote 32: A fine manuscript of Vico's work, as well as a number of +other productions in Cakchiquel, by the missionaries, are in the library +of the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia.] + +[Footnote 33: Tecpan Atitlan is a village on the shore of Lake Atitlan, +in the province of Solola, Guatemala.] + +[Footnote 34: Don Domingo Juarros, _Compendio de la Historia de la +Ciudad de Guatemala_, Tomo, II pp. 6, 7, 12, 16, et al. (Ed. +Guatemala, 1857). A copy of Tzumpan's writings is said to be in a +private library in the United States. + +The native Cakchiquel writers were also the authorities on which Father +Vazquez depended, in part, in composing his history of Guatemala. He +gives a partial translation of one, beginning the passage: "Los Indios +de Zolola dizen en sus escritos," etc.--Fray Francisco Vazquez, +_Cronica de la Provincia de Guatemala_, Lib. III, Cap. XXXVI. +(Guatemala, 1714, 1716.)] + +[Footnote 35: Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Bibliotheque +Mexico-Guatemalienne_, p. 142. (Paris, 1871.)] + +[Footnote 36: _Titulos de la Casa de Ixcuin-Nehaib, Senora del +Territorio de Otzoya_. Guatemala, 1876. 8vo. pp. 15. Reprint from the +_Boletin de la Sociedad Economica de Guatemala_.] + +[Footnote 37: _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia +de Guatemala, traducidas de la lengua Quiche al Castellano_. Por el +R.P.F. Francisco Ximenez. 8vo. Vienna, 1857.] + +[Footnote 38: _Popol Vuh. Le Livre Sacre et les Mythes de l'Antiquite +Americaine, avec les livres heroiques et historiques des Quiches_. +Par l'Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. (Paris, 1861.)] + +[Footnote 39: _The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths of Central +America_. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 8vo. pp. 37. (Philadelphia, +1881.) Reprint from the _Proceedings_ of the American Philosophical +Society, 1881.] + +[Footnote 40: Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia de la America +Septentrional_, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 41: Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_, p 33.] + +[Footnote 42: _American Hero-Myths_, pp. 213-217. (Philadelphia, +1882.)] + +[Footnote 43: On this Qquichua MS. see Marcos Jimenez de la Espada, +_Tres Relaciones de Antiguedades Peruanas_. Introd. p. 34.] + +[Footnote 44: _Relacion de las Costumbres Antiguas de los Naturales del +Piru_, printed in the work last quoted, p. 142, note.] + +[Footnote 45: "En cabildo de 29 de Julio de 1692, el capitan Don Antonio +de Fuentes y Guzman trajo a esta sala siete peticiones escritas en +cortezas de arboles."--Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez, _Memorias +para la Historia del Antiguo Reyno de Guatemala_, Tom. II, p. 267. +(Guatemala, 1852.)] + +[Footnote 46: _O Selvagem. Trabalho Preparatorio para aproveitamento de +Selvagem e de solo por elle occupado no Brazil_. Rio de Janeiro, +1876.] + +[Footnote 47: _Notes on the Lingoa Geral, or Modern Tupi of the +Amazonas_, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philological +Association, for 1872.] + +[Footnote 48: Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia_, etc., App. pp. +57 et seq.; Didacus Valades, _Rhetorica Christiana_, Pars Secunda +(Perusia, 1579); Gemelli Carreri, _Giro del Mundo_.] + +[Footnote 49: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. I, p. 449 +(London, 1843).] + +[Footnote 50: _Relacion de las Ceremonias y Ritos de Mechoacan_. The +MS. of this work, in the Library of Congress, does not contain the +Calendar which the author, in the body of the work, promises to append; +nor apparently does the copy in Madrid, from which the work was printed, +in Vol. 53 of the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia +de Espana_.] + +[Footnote 51: _Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de Mexico. +Codex en Geroglificos Mexicanos y en lengua Castellana y Azteca._ +First published at Madrid, 1878. A specimen of the map, "Carte +Geographique Azteque," is given by Professor Leon de Rosny, in _Les +Documents Ecrit de l'Antiquite Americaine_, p. 70 (Paris, 1882).] + +[Footnote 52: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. II, p. 265, gives +a Maya map of Mani. A more complete study of the subject is that of +Carrillo, _Geografia Maya_, in the _Anales del Museo Nacional de +Mexico_, Tom. II, p. 435.] + +[Footnote 53: _Silabario de Idioma Mexicano, dispuesto por el_ Lic. +Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia, Mexico, 1849, 8vo. pp. 16. Second +edition, Mexico, 1859, 8vo. pp. 32. Also _Epitome o Modo Facil de +Aprender el Idioma Nahuatl_, 12mo. pp. 124, Mexico, 1869.] + +[Footnote 54: _Elementos de la Gramatica Megicana_, por Don Antonio +Tobar Cano y Moctezuma. Written about 1642.] + +[Footnote 55: _Confessionario Mayor y Menor en Lengua Mexicana, y +Platicas contra las Supersticiones de Idolatria, que el dia de oy an +quedado a los Naturales desta Nueva Espana_. Ano de 1634. Mexico. A +copy of this scarce volume is in my library.] + +[Footnote 56: Dr. Couto de Magalhaes remarks: "Como o nome indica, este +missionario devia ser algum mestico que, com o leite materno, beben os +primeiros rudimentos da grande lingua Sul-Americana."--_Origens, +Costumes e Regias Selvagem_, p. 62 (Rio de Janeiro, 1876). In 1876 M. +Varuhagen published, at Vienna, a _Historia da paixao de Christo e +taboa dos parentescos em lingua Tupi_, written by Yapuguay, an +extract, apparently, from the volume mentioned in the text. The edition +was only 100 copies.] + +[Footnote 57: C.F. Hartt, _On the Lingoa Geral of the Amazonas_, p. +3, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philological Association, +1872.] + +[Footnote 58: _Tah-gah-jute; or, Logan and Cresap. An Historical +Essay._ By Brantz Mayer. (Albany, 1867.)] + +[Footnote 59: _History of the American Indians_, pp. 52, 63. +(London, 1775.)] + +[Footnote 60: James Howse, A Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 11. +(London, 1865.)] + +[Footnote 61: "Piensan que un hombre que habla sin cortarse y con soltura +debe ser de una naturaleza superior y privilegiada. Por solo esta +circumstancia ascienden el grado de Ghulmenes o caciques, u hombres +notables." Federico Barbara, _Manual o Vocabulario de la Lengua +Pampa_, p. 164. (Buenos Aires, 1879.)] + +[Footnote 62: Rev. Cyrus Byington, _Grammar of the Choctaw +Language_, p. 20 (Philadelphia, 1870.)] + +[Footnote 63: _Huehue_, ancient; _tlatolli_, words, speeches. A +special variety were the _calmecatlatolli_, the declamations which +the youths of noble families were taught to deliver in the spacious +halls of the _calmecac_, or public schools. "Calmeca tlatolli, +palabras dichas en corredores largos. E tomase por los dichos y +fictiones de los viejos antiguos." Molina, _Vocabulario de la Lengua +Mexicana, sub voce_. The word _calmecac_ is a compound of _calli_, +house, and _mecana_, to give, it being the building furnished by +the State for purposes of public instruction.] + +[Footnote 64: Fr. Juan Baptista (or Bautista), _Platicas Morales en +Lengua Mexicana, intitulados Huehuetlatolli_, 8vo. Mexico (1599? or +1601?). This work is not mentioned by Icazbalceta, but is described in +Berendt's notes, and a copy was sold in Paris in 1869. It is enumerated +by Vetancurt, _Menologio Franciscano_, p. 446 (2d ed.).] + +[Footnote 65: Olmos, _Grammaire de la Langue Nahuatl_, pp. 231 sqq. +(Paris 1875.)] + +[Footnote 66: _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Incas._ +Translated by C. R. Markham. Printed for the Hackluyt Society (London, +1873).] + +[Footnote 67: _Chrestomathie de la Langue Maya_, in _Etude sur le +Systeme Graphique et la Langue des Mayas._ (Paris, 1870.)] + +[Footnote 68: Bernal Diaz gives an interesting account of this "black +sermon," as he calls it. The incident is significant, as it shows that +the natives were accustomed to gather around their places of worship, to +listen to addresses by the priests. See the _Historia Verdadera de la +Conquista de la Nueva Espana_, Cap. XXVII. (Madrid, 1632.)] + +[Footnote 69: Some judicious remarks on the origin and development of +aboriginal poetry are offered by Theodore Baker, in his excellent +monograph on the music of the North American Indians, but his field of +view was somewhat too restricted to do the subject full justice, as, +indeed, he acknowledges. _Ueber die Musik der Nord-Americanischen +Wilden_, von Theodor Baker, pp. 6-14. (Leipzig, 1882.)] + +[Footnote 70: Schoolcraft, _History, Condition and Prospects of the +Indian Tribes of the United States_, vol. V, p. 559.] + +[Footnote 71: _Grammaire et Vocabulaire de la Langue Taensa, avec +Textes traduits et commentes_. Par J.D. Haumonte, Parisot, et L. +Adam. Paris, 1882.] + +[Footnote 72: "Or, i'ay assez de commerce avec la poesie pour juger cecy, +que non seulement il n'y a rien de barbaric en cette imagination, mais +qu'elle est tout a faict anacreontique."--_Essais de Michel de +Montaigne_, Liv. I, cap. XXX, and comp. cap. XXXVI.] + +[Footnote 73: "Chez les Guarayos, ces hymnes religieux et allegoriques, +si riches en figures.--Il est impossible de trouver rien de plus +gracieux." + +"Quant a leurs poetes, le charme avec lequel ils peignent l'amour, +annonce, certainement en eux, une intelligence developpee et autant +d'esprit que de sensibilite."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme +Americain_, Tome I, pp. 155, 170.] + +[Footnote 74: "Negli avanci, che si restano della lor Poesia, vi sono +alcuni versi, ne'quali tra le parole significative si vedono frapposte +certe interjezioni, o sillabe prive d'ogni significazione, e soltanto +adoperate, per quel ch'appare, per aggiustarsi al metro. Il linguaggio +della lor Poesia era puro, ameno, brilliante, figurato, e fregiato di +frequenti comparazioni fatte colle cose piu piacevoli della natura, +siccome fiori, alberi, ruscelli, &c."--_Clavigero, Storia di +Messico_. Tom. II, p. 175.] + +[Footnote 75: The originals of some of these poems were in the hands of +Ixtlilxochitl, as is evident from his _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. +XLVII.] + +[Footnote 76: Sahagun, _Psalmodia Xpiana_. (Mexico, 1583?) An +extremely rare book, which I have never seen. Clavigero saw a copy, and +thinks it was printed about 1540. _Storia di Messico_, Tom. II, p, +178, Note.] + +[Footnote 77: It is mentioned by Icazbalceta, _Apuntes para un Catalogo +de Escritores en Lenguas Indigenas de America_, p. 146. (Mexico, +1866.) There are, however, two copies of it extant, somewhere.] + +[Footnote 78: See Mr. Clements R. Markham's Introductions to his edition +of the _Ollanta_ drama (London, 1871); and to his _Qquichua +Grammar and Dictionary_ (London, 1864).] + +[Footnote 79: "I'en demeurai tout rauy; mais aussi toutes les fois qu'il +m'en ressouuient, le coeur m'en tressaillant, il me semble que ie les +aye encor aux oreilles."--Jean de Lery, _Histoire d'un voyage faict en +la terre du Bresil, autrement dite Amerique_, pp. 258, 286. (Geneve, +1585.)] + +[Footnote 80: See his _Origens, Costumes e Regiaeo Selvagem_, pp. +78-82, 140-147. (Rio de Janeiro, 1876.)] + +[Footnote 81: Spix and Martius, _Reise in Brasilien, Brasilianische +Volkslieder und Indianische Melodien, Musikbeilage_.] + +[Footnote 82: _Une Fete Bresilienne celebree a Rouen en 1550 suivie +d'un Fragment du XVI'e Siecle roulant sur la Theogonie des anciens +Peuples du Bresil et des Poesies en Langue Tupique, de Christovam +Valente_. Par Ferdinand Denis, pp. 36-51, 98, sqq. (Paris, 1850.)] + +[Footnote 83: The Arawack language, which is now spoken in Guiana only, +at the time of the discovery extended over the Greater and Lesser +Antilles and the Bahama Islands, as I have shown in an essay on _The +Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological +Relations_, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philosophical +Society, 1870.] + +[Footnote 84: _The Memoirs of Lieutenant Henry Timberlake_, p. 80 +(London 1765).] + +[Footnote 85: In the ancient Qquichua literature the tragic dramas were +called _huancay_; those of a comic nature, _aranhuay_. Both +were composed in assonant verses of six and eight syllables, which were +not sung or chanted, but repeated with dramatic intonation.] + +[Footnote 86: On the bibliography of the drama see Zegarra, _Ollantai, +Drame en Vers Quechuas du temps des Incas_, Introd. p. CLXXIII. +(Paris, 1878.) The English translation is by Clements R. Markham, +_Ollanta, an Ancient Ynca Drama_ (London, 1871).] + +[Footnote 87: The recent attempt of General Don Bartolome Mitre, of +Buenos Ayres, to discredit the antiquity of the Ollanta drama (in the +_Nueva Revista de Buenos Ayres_, 1881), has been most thoroughly +and conclusively refuted by Mr. Clements R. Markham, in the volume of +the Hackluyt Society's Publications for 1883.] + +[Footnote 88: _Rabinal-Achi, ou le Drame Ballet du Tun_, published +as an appendix to the _Grammaire de la Langue Quiche_ (Paris, 1862). +The Abbe Brasseur asserts that he wrote down this drama from verbal +information, at the village of Rabinal in Guatemala; but a note by Dr. +Berendt in my possession characterizes this statement as incorrect, and +adds: "Brasseur found the MS. all written, in the hands of an hacendado, +on the road from Guatemala to Chiapas. The original exists still in the +same place." It was a weakness with the Abbe to throw, designedly, +considerable obscurity about his authorities and the sources of his +knowledge.] + + * * * * * + + + + + + +INDEX. + +Names of native authors and productions are in _italics_. + +Abolachi +Adair, James +Adam, L. +Algonkins +_Alva, B. de_ +_Anales de Cuauhtitlan_ +Anales del Museo Nacional +_Apes, Rev. Wm._ +Araucanians +Arawacks +Atitlan, Lake +Aubin, M. +Avila, F. de +_Ayala, G, de_ +Aymaras +Aztecs + +Baker, T. +Barbara, Fed. +Bautista, J. de +Beach, W.W. +Beaver Indians +Berendt, C.H. +Beristain y Souza +_Book of the Jew_ +_Book of Rites_ +_Books of Chilan Balam_ +Boturini, L. +_Boudinot, Elias_ +Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abbe +Brinton, D.G. +Byington, Rev. C. + +Cabrera, P.F. +Cakchiquels +Californian Indians +_Camargo, D.M._ +Carochi, H. +Carreri, G. +Carrillo, Rev. C. +_Cartas de Indias_ +_Castaneda, G._ +_Chac Xulub Chen_, Chronicle of +Chahta-Muskokees +Chapanec language +_Chekilli_ +_Cherokee Phoenix_ +Cherokees +Chiapas +Chichimecs +Chignavincelut +_Chilan Balam, Books of_ +Chili, Tribes of +_Chimalpain, D. Munon_ +_Chimalpopoca, F, Lic._ +Chippeways +Choctaws +Chorotegan language +_Clark, P. Dooyentate_ +Clavigero, F.S. +_Codex, Aztec_ +_Codex, Chimalpopoca_ +Cogolludo, D. +_Copway, George_ +Couto de Magalhaes, Dr. +_Coy, Domingo_ +Creeks +Crees +Cuoq, M. +Cushing, F.H. +_Cusick, David_ + +Dakotas +Delawares +Denis, F. +Diaz, B. +D'Orbigny, A. +Dorsey, J.O. + +Eskimo + +Field, T.W. +Franca, Dr. E.F. +Fuentes y Guzman + +Garcia, A. +Gatschet, A.S. +Gavarrete, Sr. +_Gomez, F._ +Guarani language +Guarayos +_Gueegueence, The_ + +Hale, H. +Hartt, C.F. +Hiawatha +Hidatsa Indians +Howse, J. +Humboldt, A. +Humboldt, W. von +Huron-Iroquois + +Icazbalceta, J.G. +Iroquois +Iroquois Book of Rites +_Ixtlilxochitl, F. de A._ +_Izquin, F._ + +_Japuguay, Nic._ +_Jew, The Book of the_ +Jimenez de la Espada +_Johnson, Elias_ +_Jones, Rev. Peter_ +Juarros, Dom. + +Kaladlit +_Kaondinoketc, F._ +Kekchi language +Kiches +Klamaths + +Landa, Bishop +Latinists, Indian +_La Vega, Garcilasso de_ +Leon i Pinelo, Ant. +Lery, Jean de +Lingoa Geral +_Loaysa, F. de_ +_Logan's Speech_ +_Logas, The_ +_Luis Inca_ + +_Macario, J._ +_Macho-Raton, The_ +Mangue language +_Maps, Native_ +Matthews, Dr. W. +Mayer, Brantz +Markham, C.R. +Martius, C. von +Mayas +_Maya Chronicles, The_ +Mendoza, Ant., de +Mendoza, G. +Mexicans +Michoacan +Milfort, Gen. +Mitre, B. +Molina, A. +Montaigne, M. +Motolinia, T. de +Moxos +Muskokees +Muyscas + +Nahuatl Language +Nahuatl-Spanish Dialect +_Nakuk Pech_ +_Nehaib, Titles of_ +_Nezahualcoyotl_ +_Nezahualpilli_ +Nicaraguans +Nipissings +Nunez de la Vega. + +Ojibways +_Ollanta, The_ +_Ollita, The_ +Olmos, Andre de +Omahas +Oviedo, F. + +_Pachacuti, Don J._ +Pampas, Tribes of +_Pasiones, Las_ +Pelaez, F.P. Garcia +Pequods +Perez, Juan Pio +Peruvians +_Pimentel, Ant._ +_Pimentel, H._ +Pipils +Pocomans +_Pok_ +_Ponce, Pedro_ +_Pomar, J. de_ +_Popol Vuh, The_ +Powers, S. +_Prophecies of Mayas_ + +_Queh, F.T.G._ +Quiches, see _Kiches_ +Qquichuas +Quipus + +_Rabinal Achi_ +Rafinesque, C.S. +Ramirez, J.F. +Rink, Dr. H. +_Rosa, A. de la_ +Rosny, Leon de + +Sahagun, B. de +Salazar, F.C. +_San Antonio, J. de_ +Sanchez Solis, F. +Scherzer, C. +Schoolcraft, H.R. +_Sequoyah_ +Simeon, Remi +Sioux +Six Nations +Smith, B. +Solola, Province +Squier, E.G. + +Taensas +_Tanner, J._ +Tarascos +_Tecpan Atitlan_ +Tezcuco +_Tezozomoc, F. de A._ +Theologia Indorum +Thomas, C. +Timberlake, H. +Timucuana +Tlatilulco, College of +_Tlaxcallan, History of_ +_Tobar, Ant_. +_Tomar, J.B. de_ +_Tonalamatl, The_ +_Torres, J._ +Tupis +Tuscaroras +_Tzolante, The_ +Tzendals +_Tzumpan, F.G.C._ + +Valades, D. +_Valeriano, Antonio_ +Varnhagen, M. +Vazquez, F. +Vetancurt, A. de +Vico, Domingo de +Viracocha +_Votan_ + +_Walum Olum_ +Ward, Dr. +Wyandotts + +_Xahila, F.E.A._ +Ximenez, F. + +_Zacicoxol, the_ +_Zapata y Mendoza, J.V._ +Zapotecs +Zegarra, G.P. +Zoque language +Zunis + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Library of Aboriginal American Literature. + +General Editor and Publisher, DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D., + +115 South Seventh St., Philadelphia, Pa., United States. + +The European Market will be supplied by + +NICHOLAS TRUeBNER & CO., 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London, England. + +_The aim of this series is to put within the reach of scholars +authentic materials for the study of the languages, history and culture +of the native races of North and South America. Each of the works +selected will be the production of a native author, and will be printed +in the original tongue, with an English translation and notes. Most of +them will be from unpublished manuscripts, and they will form a series +indispensable to the future student of American archaeology, ethnology or +linguistics. They will be printed FROM TYPE, AND IN LIMITED EDITIONS +ONLY. The volumes will be sold SEPARATELY, at moderate prices, either in +paper or bound in cloth. They will all be planted on heavy laid paper, +of the best quality. The following have already appeared_:-- + + * * * * * + +NO. I. THE MAYA CHRONICLES. + +Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 279. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. + +This volume contains five brief chronicles in the Maya language of +Yucatan, written shortly after the Conquest, and carrying the history of +that people back many centuries. To these is added a history of the +Conquest, written in his native tongue, by a Maya Chief, in 1562. The +texts are preceded by an introduction on the history of the Mayas; their +language, calendar, numeral system, etc.; and a vocabulary is added at +the close. + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"We hope that Dr. Brinton will receive every encouragement in his labors +to disclose to Americans these literary antiquities of the Continent. He +eminently deserves it, both by the character of his undertaking and the +quality of his work."--_The American_ (Phila.) + +"It would be difficult to praise too highly the task Dr. Brinton has set +before him. Prepared by long studies in the same field, he does not +undertake the work as a novice. ... There should be no hesitation among +those who wish well to American antiquarianism in subscribing to the +series edited and published by Dr. Brinton."--_The Critic_. + +"Dr. Brinton's work upon the history of the Mayas or Aborigines of +Yucatan [the "Maya Chronicles"] is a most important contribution to the +literature of American antiquities. ... Comparative linguists, as well +as archaeologists, will find a new and very interesting subject of study +in these remains."--_The Saturday Review_ (London). + +"The efforts of Dr. Brinton will be welcomed by all antiquarian +students, for they are not only original contributions, but are also +presented in a readable and interesting manner."--_The American +Antiquarian_. + + * * * * * + +No. II. The IROQUOIS BOOK OF RITES. + +Edited by HORATIO HALE, Esq. + +1 vol., 8vo. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. + +The "BOOK OF RITES" is a native composition, which was preserved orally +for centuries, and was written down about a century ago. It gives the +speeches, songs and ceremonies which were rehearsed when a chief died +and his successor was appointed. The fundamental laws of the League, a +list of their ancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who composed +their first council, are also comprised in the work. It may be said to +carry the authentic history of Northern America back to a period fifty +years earlier than the era of Columbus. The introductory essay treats of +the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois League and its founders, +the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, +the clan system, the laws of the League, and the Iroquois character, +public policy, and language. + + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS AND OF EMINENT WRITERS. + +"This work may be said to open a field of Indian research new to +ethnologists. ... These precious relics of antiquity are concise in +their wording, and full of meaning. ... The additions made by Mr. Hall +are almost as valuable as the texts themselves."--_The Nation_ New +York, September 13, 1883. + +"The reputation of the author, added to this fascinating title, will +insure its favorable reception, not only by ethnologists, but also, the +reading public. ... A remarkable discovery, and indisputably of great +ethnological value. ... A book which is as suggestive as this must bear +good fruit."--_Science_, August 31,1883. + +"The work contains much new material of permanent interest and value to +the historical scholar and the scientist. ... "--_The Magazine of +American History_, September, 1883. + +"In this Book of Rites we have poetry, law, history, tradition and +genealogy, interesting and valuable for many reasons...."--_Good +Literature_, August 18, 1883. + +"The Book of Rites is edited by the eminent philologist, Mr. Horatio +Hale, who has done so much to elucidate the whole subject of Indian +ethnography and migrations, with the argument derived from language in +connection with established tradition; and especially to disentangle +Iroquois history from its complications with the legends of their +mythology."--_Auburn Daily Advertiser_, July 21, 1883. + +"The book is one of great ethnological value, in the light it casts on +the political and social life, as well as the character and capacity, of +the people with whom it originated."--_Popular Science Monthly_, +November 1883. + +"It is a philosophical and masterly treatise on the Iroquois league and +the cognate tribes, their relations, language, mental characteristics +and polity, such as we have never had of any nation of this +Continent...."--_Dr. J. Gilmary Shea_. + +"It is full of instructive hints, particularly as bearing on the state +of so-called savages before they are brought in contact with so-called +civilized men. Such evidence is, from the nature of the case, very +difficult to obtain, and therefore all the more valuable...."--_Prof. +F. Max Mueller_. + +"It gives us a much clearer insight into the formation and workings of +the Iroquois league than we before possessed."--_Hon. George S. +Conover_. + +"It contains more that is authentic and new, of the Iroquois nations, +than any other single work with which I am acquainted."--_Rev. Charles +Hawley, D.D._ + + * * * * * + +No. III. THE COMEDY-BALLET OF GUeEGUeENCE. + +Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +1 vol., 8vo. Paper, $2.00; Cloth, $2.50. + + +A curious and unique specimen of the native comic dances, with +dialogues, called _bailes_, formerly common in Central America. It +is in the mixed Nahuatl-Spanish jargon of Nicaragua, and shows +distinctive features of native authorship. The Introduction treats of +the ethnology of Nicaragua, and the local dialects, musical instruments, +and dramatic representations of that section of our continent. A map and +a number of illustrations are added. + +Other important works, in various native languages, are in the course of +preparation, under competent editorship. + +Of these may be mentioned-- + +THE NATIONAL LEGEND OF THE CREEKS. Edited by A.S. GATSCHET. + +The original account, written in 1735; an English translation, and a +re-translation into the Creek language, in which it was originally +delivered, by an educated native, and into the Hitchiti, a dialect +cognate to the Creek. + +THE ANNALS OF THE KAKCHIQUELS. By ERNANTEZ XAHILA. + +These chronicles are the celebrated _Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_ so +often quoted by the late Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. They are invaluable +for the ancient history and mythology of Gautemalan nations, and are of +undoubted authenticity and antiquity. + +THE ANNALS OF QUAUHTITLAN. Edited by A.F. BANDELIER. + +The original Aztec text, with a new translation. This is also known as +the _Codex Chimalpopoca_. It is one of the most curious and +valuable documents in Mexican archaeology. + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTHOLOGY. Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +A collection of the songs, chants and metrical compositions of the +Indians, designed to display the emotional and imaginative powers of the +race and the prosody of their languages. + + * * * * * + +_The following two works are not portions of the series, but are +related to it by their contents. They may be obtained from the same +publishers_. + +AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. + +A STUDY in the NATIVE RELIGIONS of the WESTERN CONTINENT. + +By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., etc. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 251. (Philad'a, 1882.) Cloth, Price, $1.75. + + + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"Dr. Brinton writes from a minute and extended knowledge of the original +sources. ... His work renders a signal service to the cause of +comparative mythology in our country."--_The Literary World_ +(Boston). + +"This study of certain of the most remarkable stories of American +mythology is exceedingly interesting."--_The Saturday Review_ +(London). + +"In his 'American Hero-Myths' Dr. Brinton gives us the clue to the +religious thought of the aboriginal Races. ... It is a learned and +careful book, clearly written, popular in style though scientific +in method, and must be a good deal fresher than a novel to most +readers."--_The American_ (Philadelphia). + +"This volume is the first attempt at what is entitled to be regarded as +a critically accurate presentation of the fundamental conceptions found +in the native beliefs of the tribes of America."--_The New England +Bibliopolist_. + +"This is a thoughtful and original contribution to the science of +comparative religion."--_The Boston Journal_. + +"We regard the 'Hero Myths' as a valuable contribution to the history of +religion and to comparative mythology."--_The Teacher_ (Philadelphia). + +"...These few extracts give no idea of the mass of legends in this +volume, and the queer, out-of-the-way information it supplies concerning +the ideas and usages of races now extinct or hastening to +extinction."--_The Dublin Evening Mail_. + +"Dr. Brinton, in his 'American Hero-Myths,' has applied the comparative +method soberly, and backed it by solid research in the original +authors."--_The Critic_ (New York). + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS, AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS. + +Especially those in the Native Languages. +A Contribution to the History of Literature. + +By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., etc. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 63. Boards. Price, $1.00. + +An essay founded on an address presented to the Congress of +Americanists, at Copenhagen, in 1883. It is an extended review of the +literary efforts of the red race, in their own tongues, and in English, +Latin and Spanish (both manuscript and printed). An entirely novel field +of inquiry is opened to view, of equal interest to ethnologists, +linguists and historians. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Aboriginal American Authors, by Daniel G. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Aboriginal American Authors + +Author: Daniel G. Brinton + +Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9188] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 13, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, David Garcia and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreaders. + + + + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS; + +ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGES. + +A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE. + +BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., + +Member of the American Philosophical Society; the American Antiquarian +Society; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, etc.; Vice-President +of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and of the +Congres International des Americanistes; Delegue-General de l'Institution +Ethnographique for the United States, etc.; Author of "The Myths of the +New World;" "The Religious Sentiment;" "American Hero Myths," etc. + + + + + + +NEW INTRODUCTION + +Aboriginal American Authors, published by the Anthropologist Daniel G. +Brinton in 1883, is a work that is particularly appropriate for our own +times. The native American movement has stressed the need for history +written from the Indian point of view. Interest in native American +literature has become an important component in reinforcing a sense of +identity among American Indians today. + +Brinton's work is a good summary of the better known traditional +writings of Indians from many regions of the Western hemisphere. This +bibliographical survey provides information on tribal histories that +would be particularly useful for Indian Study Programs in the states of +Oklahoma, New York and Wisconsin. + +Brinton was aware of the 19th century racism of many who wrote about the +American Indian and reacted against it in his writings by taking a +stance which in some ways anticipates Ruth Benedict's involvement in +similar questions half a century later. Aboriginal American +Authors is written as an early attempt at placing the literature of +the American Indian with the other great literary traditions of the +world; that is why its usefulness endures. + + John Hobgood + Social Science Department + Chicago State College + 1970 + + + + + + +PREFACE. + +The present memoir is an enlargement of a paper which I laid before the +_Congres International des Americanistes_, when acting as a delegate to +its recent session in Copenhagen, August, 1883. The changes are material, +the whole of the text having been re-written and the notes added. + +It does not pretend to be an exhaustive bibliographical essay, but was +designed merely to point out to an intelligent and sympathetic audience +a number of relics of Aboriginal American Literature, and to bespeak the +aid and influence of that learned body in the preservation and +publication of these rare documents. + +_Philadelphia, Nov. 1883._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +Section 1. _Introductory_ + + +Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_ + + Vivid imagination of the Indians. + Love of story telling. + Appreciation of style. + Power and resources of their languages. + Facility in acquiring foreign languages. + Native writers in the English tongue. + In Latin. + In Spanish. + Ancient books of Aztecs. + Of Mayas, etc. + Peruvian Quipus. + + +Section 3. _Narrative Literature_ + + Desire of preserving national history. + Eskimo legends and narratives. + The _Walum Olum_ of the Delawares. + The Iroquois _Book of Rites_. + Kaondinoketc's Narrative. + The National Legend of the Creeks. + Cherokee writings. + Destruction of Ancient Literature. + Boturini's collection. + Historians in Nahuatl. + The Maya _Books of Chilan Balam_. + Other Maya documents. + Writings in Cakchiquel. + _The Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_. + Authors in Cakchiquel and Kiche. + The _Popol Vuh_. + Votan, the Tzendal. + Writers in Qquichua. + Letters, etc., in native tongues. + Tales and stories of the Tupis and other tribes. + + +Section 4. _Didactic Literature_ + + Progress of natives in science. + Their calendars and rituals. + Their maps. + Scholastic works. + Theological writers. + Sermons in Guarani. + _Las Pasiones_. + + +Section 5. _Oratorical Literature_ + + Native admiration of eloquence. + The Oratorical style. + Custom of set orations. + Specimens in the Nahuatl tongue. + Ancient prayers and rhapsodies. + +Section 6. _Poetical Literature_ + + Form of the earliest poetry. + Unintelligible character of primitive songs explained. + A Chippeway love song. + A Taensa epithalamium. + Montaigne on Tupi poetry. + Ancient Aztec poetry. + Maya and Peruvian poems. + Tupi songs. + + +Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_ + + Development of the dramatic art in America. + Origin of the serious and comic dramas. + The Qquichua drama of Ollanta. + The Kiche drama of Rabinal Achi. + The Comic Ballet of the Gueegueence. + The _Logas_ of Central America. + Dramas of the Mangues. + + +Section 8. _Conclusion_ + + Ethnological value of literary productions. + Their general interest to scholars. + +_Footnotes_ + +_Index_ + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been moved from inline to end-of-text, +and the above "Footnotes" section added.] + + + + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS. + + * * * * * + +Section 1. _Introductory_. + + +When even a quite intelligent person hears about "Aboriginal American +Literature," he is very excusable for asking: What is meant by the term? +Where is this literature? In fine, Is there any such thing? + +To answer such inquiries, I propose to treat, with as much brevity as +practicable, of the literary efforts of the aborigines of this +continent, a chapter in the general History of Literature hitherto +wholly neglected. + +Indeed, it will be a surprise to many to learn that any members of these +rude tribes have manifested either taste or talent for scholarly +productions. All alike have been regarded as savages, capable, at best, +of but the most limited culture. + +Such an opinion has been fostered by prejudices of race, by the jealousy +of castes, and in our own day by preconceived theories of evolution. +That it is erroneous, can, I think, be easily shown. + +Let us first inquire into the existence of + + + + +Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_. + + +This faculty is indicated by a vivid imagination, a love of narration, +and an ample, appropriate, and logically developed vocabulary. That, as +a race, the aborigines of America possessed these qualifications to a +remarkable degree, is attested by many witnesses who have lived +intimately among them; and is only denied by those whose acquaintance +with them has been superficial, or derived from second-hand and doubtful +sources. + +The red man peoples air, earth, and the waters with countless creatures +of his fancy; his expressions are figurative and metaphorical; he is +quick to seize analogies; and when he cannot explain he is ever ready to +invent. This is shown in his inappeasable love of story telling. As a +_raconteur_ he is untiring. He has, in the highest degree, Goethe's +_Lust zu fabuliren_. In no Oriental city does the teller of strange +tales find a more willing audience than in the Indian wigwam. The folk +lore of every tribe which has been properly investigated has turned out +to be most ample. Tales of talking animals, of mythical warriors, of +giants, dwarfs, subtle women, potent magicians, impossible adventures, +abound to an extent that defies collection.[1] + +Nor are these narratives repeated in a slip-shod, negligent style. The +hearers permit no such carelessness. They are sticklers for nicety of +expression; for clear and well turned periods; for vivid and accurate +description; for flowing and sonorous sentences. As a rule, their +languages lend themselves readily to these demands. It is a singular +error, due wholly to ignorance of the subject, to maintain that the +American tongues are cramped in their vocabularies, or that their syntax +does not permit them to define the more delicate relationships of ideas. +Nor is it less a mistake to assert, as has been done repeatedly, and +even by authorities of eminence in our own day, that they are not +capable of supplying the expressions of abstract reasonings. Although +pure abstractions were rarely objects of interest to these children of +nature, many, if not most, of their tongues favor the formation of +expressions which are as thoroughly transcendental as any to be found in +the _Kritik der Reinen Vernunft_.[2] + +Their literary faculty is further demonstrated in the copiousness of +their vocabularies, their rare facility of expression, and their natural +aptitude for the acquisition of other languages. Theophilie Gautier used +to say, that the most profitable book for a professional writer to read +is the dictionary; that is, that a mastery of words is his most valuable +acquirement. The extraordinarily rich synonomy of some American tongues, +notably the Algonkin, the Aztec, and the Qquichua, attests how +sedulously their resources have been cultivated. Father Olmos, in his +grammar of the Aztec, gives many examples of twenty and thirty +synonymous expressions, all in current use in his day. A dictionary, in +my possession, of the Maya, one of the least plastic of American +tongues, gives over thirty thousand words, and scarcely a hundred of +them of foreign extraction. + +This linguistic facility is shown also in the ease with which they +acquire foreign languages. "It is not uncommon," says Dr. Washington +Matthews, speaking of the Hidatsa, by no means a specially brilliant +tribe, "to find persons among them, some even under twenty years of age, +who can speak fluently four or five different languages."[3] Mr. Stephen +Powers tells us that, in California, he found many Indians speaking +three, four, five or more languages, generally including English;[4] and +in South America, both Humboldt and D'Orbigny express their surprise at +the same fact, which they repeatedly observed.[5] + +But the most tangible evidence of both their linguistic and literary +ability is the work some of these natives have accomplished in European +tongues. It does not come within the limits of my plan to enter fully +into an examination of this branch of literature; but it is worth while +mentioning some of the more prominent native writers, who have composed +in European languages, as their productions are an easy test of what the +faculties of the red race are in this direction. + +As the colonizers of the New World have been chiefly from Spain and +Great Britain, so naturally the English and Spanish languages have been +brought most widely to the knowledge of the natives. The half-civilized +tribes, within the area of the United States, have produced several +authors of merit. Perhaps the earliest of these was David Cusick, who, +in 1825, printed his _Ancient History of the Six Nations_. He was a +full blood Tuscarora, and his English is far from correct. Yet the +arrangement of his matter is skillful, and some passages quaintly vivid +and forcible. Another member of the Iroquois confederacy, Peter +Dooyentate Clarke, has taken up the _Origin and Traditional History of +the Wyandotts_, and has made a readable little book (published at +Toronto, 1870); while still more lately, Chief Elias Johnson, of the +Tuscaroras, has published a _History of the Six Nations_, very +creditably composed. (Lockport, 1881.) + +The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers. +The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of +Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and +pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837. +The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the +Ojibways, on _The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_ +(London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written +that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost +equal merit is the _History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial +reference to their Conversion to Christianity_, by the Rev. Peter +Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.) + +In the southwest, the _Cherokee Phoenix_ offered a medium through +which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original +contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after +the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of +addresses and other documents, in English. + +But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the +best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico, +Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the +lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they +had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father +Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the +readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and +adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and +wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long +list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given +by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of +the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7] +Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the +Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who +became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who +won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and +distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents +and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such +examples in Peru and Brazil. + +The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one; +and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be +placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal +descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the +antiquities of his race. Among the many works which he wrote are the +_Relaciones Historicas_ and the _Historia Chichimeca_, which +were published by Lord Kingsborough; a _Historia de la Nueva +Espana_, a _Historia del Reyno de Tezcuco_, and a _Historia de +Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe_, which have not had the fortune to be +printed. Such an excellent critic as Mr. Prescott says of his style: +"His language is simple, and occasionally eloquent and touching. His +descriptions are highly picturesque. He abounds in familiar anecdote; +and the natural graces of his manner in detailing the more striking +events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him +to the name of the Livy of Anahuac." + +Ixtlilxochitl flourished about the year 1600, and among his +contemporaries was Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, also of native blood, +whose _Cronica Mexicana_ has been preserved, and is considered to +be well written, but less reliable. Of about the same date are the +_Relacion_ of Juan Bautista de Tomar, a native of Tezcuco, in which +he treats of the customs of his ancestors; the _Relaciones_ of Don +Antonio Pimentel, grandson of Nezahualpilli, lord of Tezcuco, an author +quoted and praised by the historian Torquemada; the _Historia de +Tlaxcallan_ of Diego Munoz Camargo, a noble Tlascalan mestizo, of +whose style Prescott remarks that it compares not unfavorably with that +of some of the missionaries themselves; and the _Relacion de los +Dioses y Ritos de la Gentilidad_ of Don Pedro Ponce, the cacique of +Tzumpahuacan. Somewhat later, about 1625, Don Domingo de San Anton Munon +Chimalpain wrote his _Historia Mexicana_ and his _Historia de la +Conquista_, which have been mentioned with respect by various +writers. + +Along with these examples of literary culture in Mexico may be named +several native Peruvian writers who made use of the language of their +conquerors; as Don Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui, whose +_Relacion de Antiguedades de Piru_ is a precious document, though +composed in very uncritical Spanish; as Don Luis Inca, whose +_Relacion_, prepared in Spanish, seems now to be lost, but is +referred to, with praise, by some of the older writers; and, above all +others, Inca Garcillasso de la Vega, whose vivid and attractive style, +and numerous historical writings place him easily in the first rank of +Spanish historians of America. + +From the above it would seem evident enough that the American aborigines +were endowed, as a race, with a turn for literary composition, and a +faculty for it. They were generally, however, an unlettered race. What +they composed was for oral use only. This might be carefully arranged, +committed to heart, and handed down from generation to generation; but +as for recording it in forms which would convey it to the mind through +the eye, that was a discovery they had but partially made. + +I say, "partially," because graphic methods, of some kind, were widely +used. We may as well omit from consideration, in this connection, the +merely pictographic signs of the hunting tribes, although they were used +for mnemonic purposes. Let us rather proceed, at once, to the highest +specimens of the graphic art in ancient America, and inquire their +scope. In Mexico, in Yucatan, in Nicaragua, and in one or two districts +of South America, the early explorers found systems of writing which +seemed to resemble that to which they were accustomed. + +The Aztecs manufactured, in large quantities, a useful paper from the +leaves of the maguey, and upon it they painted numerous figures and +signs, which conveyed ideas, and sometimes also sounds. An early +authority informs us that their books were of five kinds. The first +detailed their method of computing time; the second described their holy +days, festivals and religious epochs; the third gave the interpretation +of dreams, omens and signs; the fourth supplied directions for naming +children; and the fifth rehearsed the rites and ceremonies connected +with matrimony.[9] Besides these, we know they wrote out tribute rolls, +the ancient history of their tribes, the fables of their mythology, the +genealogy of their sovereigns, and the geographical descriptions of +territories. Of all these we have examples preserved, and many of them +have been published. + +Quite another and a more perfect method of writing prevailed among the +Mayas of Yucatan and Central America. Their books were exceedingly neat, +and strongly resembled an ordinary quarto volume, such as appears on +European bookshelves. I have so lately discussed their manufacture, and +the so-called alphabet in which they were written, and in a work of such +easy access, that it is enough if I quote the conclusions there arrived +at.[10] They are:-- + +1. The Maya graphic system was recognized, from the first, to be +distinct from the Mexican. + +2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few +nobles. + +3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which was +the preservation of their history and calendar. + +4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms +(caracteres), and phonetic signs (letras). + +The ruins of Palenque, Copan, and other Maya cities, abound in such +hieroglyphs. + +The natives of Nicaragua, those, at least, of Aztec lineage, made use of +parchment volumes, folded into a neat and portable compass, in which +they painted, in red and black ink, certain figures, "by means of +which," says the chronicler Oviedo, "they could express and understand +whatever they wished, with entire clearness."[11] + +In South America the Peruvians had their _quipus_, cords of +different lengths, sizes and colors, knotted in various ways, and +attached to a base cord, an arrangement that was a decided aid to the +memory, though it could not be connected with the sounds of words. There +are also faint traces of figures, with definite meaning, among the +Muyscas of Colombia; and the Moxos of Western Bolivia are said to have +employed, as late as the last century, a method of writing, consisting +of lines traced on wooden slabs.[12] + + + + +Section 3. _Narrative Literature_. + + +Of all forms of sustained discourse, we may reasonably suppose that of +narration to have been the earliest. The incidents of the hunt were +related at the return; the experiences of the past were told as a guide +to the present; and the first efforts of the imagination are the +depicting of fictitious occurrences, tradition and myth, story and +history; these make up most of the entertainment of conversation to +simple minds. + +Hence, in this primitive literature which I am describing, the narrative +portion is the most abundant. There was a natural aspiration on the part +of the natives, as soon as they had learned the art of writing, to +preserve in permanent form the records, more or less authentic, of their +tribes and ancestors. This desire of preserving the national history is +shown by the works of Copway, Jones, Cusick, Ixtlilxochitl, and others, +to whom I have already referred, who wrote in European tongues. + +If we begin our survey at the extreme north, we find the Eskimo, amid +his depressing surroundings of eternal frost and months-long nights, an +unwearied chatterbox, reciting his own and his ancestors' adventures, +and weaving from his fancy the most extraordinary web of fictitious +experiences. Once taught to write, hundreds of these tales were +committed to paper by native hands. The manuscript collection of such in +the possession of the learned and indefatigable Dr. Heinrich Rink +contains considerably over two thousand pages, and the charming +rendering into English, which has been published by his efforts, is a +storehouse of weird conceptions and partly historic traditions about the +past of Greenland and Labrador. What adds to their interest is that most +of the illustrations are wood-cuts by native artists, truthfully setting +forth their own mental pictures.[13] + +Another Eskimo composition, in the dialogue style, is before me as I +write. It is the description by Pok, a Greenlander, of his journey to +Europe and his return. The narrative forms a pamphlet of eighteen pages, +with several quaint colored illustrations, and it is one of the rare +products of the Godthaab press in Greenland to which we can assign a +genuine native origin.[14] + +Another, which reveals still more distinctly the artistic and +imaginative capacities of that strange race, was published at Godthaab, +in 1860. Mr. Field remarks of it:--"An Esquimau of Greenland, with his +pencil, has, in this work, attempted to give representations of the +traditions, manners, weapons and habits of life of his own race."[15] + +Among the tribes of the eastern United States there were a few +individuals who attempted to compose somewhat extensive records in their +native languages. + +One of the most curious examples is that known as the _Walum Olum_, +a short account of the early history of the Delaware tribe, written in +that idiom, with mnemonic symbols attached. Its history is not very +complete. A "Dr. Ward, of Indiana" is said to have obtained it from a +member of the nation, in 1822. From him it passed into the hands of +Prof. C.S. Rafinesque, an eccentric and visionary Frenchman, who passed +the later years of his life in Philadelphia. He undertook to translate +it, and after his death the translation, together with the original, +came into the possession of Mr. E.G. Squier. By him it was first +published, but in a partial and incomplete manner, much of the original +text and many of the mnemonic symbols being omitted, and no effort being +made to improve Rafinesque's translation.[16] + +The _Book of Rites_[17] of the Iroquois or Six Nations, lately +edited by Mr. Horatio Hale, is one of the most remarkable native +productions north of Mexico. Its authenticity and antiquity are +indisputable. The rites it describes are the ceremonies and set +speeches, the chants and formulas, of what is called "The Council of +Condolence," whose function is to express the national sense of loss at +the death of a chief, and to conduct the inauguration of his successor. +The publication of this ritual, supported as it is with the learned +notes of Mr. Hale, and an introduction by him, on the history, formation +and purpose of the famous League of the Iroquois, has thrown a +remarkable light, not merely on the ethnology of the district where the +Iroquois were located, but on the mental characteristics of the red race +in general. It is a refutation of the unscientific assumptions of a good +many would-be scientific men, who are self-blinded by their theories of +development to obvious facts in the mental powers of uncultivated +tribes. + +Of less general importance, but admirable also for competent editorship, +is the short narrative of the Nipissing Chief, Francois Kaondinoketc, +which was published a few years ago, both in the original and with a +French translation, by a Canadian missionary, eminent alike for his +piety and his learning. It recites the journey of a half-breed Christian +Indian into the country of the heathen tribe of Beaver Indians, and the +miraculous interposition by which his life was saved when these Pagans +had caught him. They told him he must kill an eagle flying far above +them; at his prayer, the bird descended and came within the reach of his +sabre. In turn, he asked them to shoot their arrows into a tree; but by +rubbing it with holy water, the bark was so hardened that not one of +their shafts could pierce it. So they confessed the greatness of the +Christian's God.[18] + +This charmingly naive narrative makes us doubly regret that the editor's +projected _Chrestomathie Algonquine_ has not been carried out in +full. + +The southern Atlantic coast of the United States was principally +occupied by the Muskokee or Creek tribe, who occupied the territory as +far west as the Mississippi. Their language was first reduced to writing +in the Greek alphabet, by the Moravian missionaries, about 1733; but at +present a modified form of the English alphabet is in use. They had a +very definite and curious tribal history, full of strange metaphors and +obscure references. It was, according to old authorities, "written in +red and black characters, on the skin of a young buffalo," and was read +off from this symbolic script by their head-chief, Chekilli, to the +English, in 1735, and skin and translation were both sent to London, and +both lost there. But, luckily, the Moravian missionaries preserved a +faithful translation of it, and this, some years ago, I brought to the +notice of students of these matters.[19] + +Its authenticity is beyond question, and to this day the chiefs of the +Creeks recollect many of the points it contains, and have repeated it to +the eminent linguist, Mr. A.S. Gatschet, who has taken it down afresh +from their lips, and is preparing it for publication. Collateral +evidence is also furnished by "General" Milfort, a French adventurer, +who lived among the Creeks several years, toward the close of the last +century, and testifies that they preserved, "by beads and belts," the +memory of the adventures of their ancestors, and recited to him a long +account of them, which he repeats with that negligence which everywhere +marks his carelessly prepared volume.[20] + +Their northern neighbors, the Cherokees, use an alphabet invented by +Sequoyah, one of themselves, in 1824. It is syllabic, of eighty-five +characters, and is used for printing. Sequoyah had no intention of +aiding the missionaries; he preferred the "old religion," and when he +saw the New Testament printed in his characters, he expressed regret +that he had ever invented them. What he wanted was to teach his people +useful arts, and to preserve the national traditions. I have little +doubt they were written down; but here, again, I have failed of success +in my inquiries. + +This is a poor showing of native literature for all the tribes in the +vast area of the United States. But, except some orations and poems, +hereafter to be mentioned, it is almost all that I can name. Passing +southward the harvest becomes richer. When Bishop Landa, in Yucatan, and +Bishop Zumarraga, in Mexico, made bonfires, in the public squares of +Mani and Tlaltilulco, of the priceless literary treasures of the Mayas +and Aztecs, their maps, their parchment rolls, their calendars on wood, +their painted paper books, their inscribed histories, it is recorded +that the natives bewailed bitterly this obliteration of their sciences +and their archives.[21] Some of them set to work to recover the memories +thus doomed to oblivion, and to write them out, as best they could. + +Most fertile of these were those who wrote in the Nahuatl tongue, +otherwise known as the Aztec or Mexican, this being most widely spoken +in Mexico, and the first cultivated by the missionaries. Many of these +memoirs were short descriptions of towns or tribes, with their +traditional histories. Others narrated the customs and mythologies of +the race before the arrival of the whites. None were printed, and little +or no care was taken to collect or preserve the manuscripts, so that +probably most of them were destroyed. At length, in 1736-45, an +enthusiastic Italian archaeologist, the Chevalier Lorenzo Boturini +Benaduci, devoted nearly ten years to collecting everything of the kind +which would throw light on ancient Mexican history. He was quite +successful, and his library, had it been preserved intact, would have +been to-day an invaluable source of information. But the jealous Spanish +government threw Boturini into prison; his library was scattered and +partly lost, and he died of chagrin and disappointment. Yet to him we +probably owe the preservation of the writings of Ixtlilxochitl, +Tezozomoc, and others who wrote in Spanish, and whose volumes have since +seen the light in the collections of Bustamente, Lord Kingsborough, +Ternaux-Compans, and elsewhere. + +The Nahuatl MSS. have remained unedited. Few took an interest in their +contents, fewer still in the language. The science of linguistics is +very modern, and that even so perfect an idiom as the Nahuatl could +command the attention of scholars for its own sake, had not dawned on +the minds of patrons of learning. + +Boturini catalogues some forty or fifty more or less fragmentary +anonymous MSS. in Nahuatl, which he had gathered together.[22] I shall +recall only those whose authors he names. Some three or four historical +works were written in Nahuatl by Don Domingo de San Anton Munon +Chimalpain, whom I have already mentioned as an author in Spanish also. +Of his Nahuatl works his _Cronica Mexicana_, which traces the +history of his nation from 1068 to 1597, would be the most worthy an +editor's labors. It is now in the possession of M. Aubin. + +The _Cronica de la muy noble y leal Ciudad de Tlaxcallan_, by Don +Juan Ventura Zapata y Mendoza, cacique of Quiahuiztlan, extends from the +earliest times to the year 1689. A copy of it, I have some reason to +think, is in Mexico. Boturini possessed the original, and it should, by +all means, be sought out and printed. + +The ancient history of the same city was also treated of by one of the +earliest native writers, and his work, in Nahuatl, alleged to have been +translated by the interpreter Francisco de Loaysa, was obtained from the +latter by Boturini. + +An account of Tezcuco and its rulers, after the Conquest until 1564, was +the work of a native, Juan de San Antonio; while Don Gabriel de Ayala, a +native noble of that city, composed a history of the Tezcucan and +Mexican events, extending from 1243 to 1562.[23] + +Of the anonymous MSS. in Boturini's list, I shall mention only one, as +it alone, of all his Nahuatl records, has succeeded in reaching +publication. He called it a _History of the Kingdoms of Culhuacan and +Mexico_. A copy of it passed to Mexico, where it was translated by +the Licentiate Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia, but in a very imperfect +and incorrect manner. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg copied the original +and the translation, and bestowed on the document both a new name, +_Codex Chimalpopoca_, and a whimsical geological signification. In +1879, the Museo Nacional of Mexico began in their _Anales_ the +publication of the original text, this time under still another title, +the _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, with two translations, that of +Galicia, and a new one by Profs. G. Mendoza and Felipe Sanchez Solis. Up +to the present time, 1883, the work is not completed; but its signal +importance to ancient history and mythology is amply indicated by the +part in type. + +Doubtless there were many MSS. which Boturini did not find, and there +are, probably, to this day, going to dust in private and public +libraries in Spain, valuable documents in the Nahuatl tongue.[24] For a +long time it was supposed that the Nahuatl original of Father Bernardino +de Sahagun's _History of New Spain_ was lost; but at the meeting of +the _Congres des Americanistes_, in Madrid, in 1881, a part of it, +at least, was exhibited. This work almost belongs to aboriginal +literature, for a considerable portion of it, notably the third, sixth +and twelfth books, treating, respectively, of the origin of the gods, +the Aztec oratory, and their ancient history, are mainly native +narratives and speeches, taken down, word for word, in the original +tongue. Spanish scholars could not render a greater service to American +ethnology and linguistics than in the publication of this valuable +monument. + +There is, also, or, at any rate, there was, in the Royal Library at +Madrid, a Mexican hieroglyphic work, "all painted," with a translation +apparently into the Nahuatl tongue.[25] I would inquire of the learned +linguists of Spain whether that document cannot be unearthed. And +further, I would ask whether all trace has been lost of the writings of +Don Gabriel Castaneda, Chief of Colomocho, who wrote, in Nahuatl, an +account of the conquest of the Chichimecs by the Viceroy Antonio de +Mendoza, in 1541. That Manuscript was last heard of in the library of +the Convent of San Ildefonso, in Mexico.[26] Perhaps it would tell us who +the Chichimecs were, about which there is disagreement enough among +ethnologists. + +Of the strictly hieroglyphic records I shall not take account. Their +interpretation is yet uncertain, and, as linguistic monuments, they +have, at present, no standing. + +Equal, or superior, in culture, to the Aztecs were the Maya tribes. +Their chief seat was in Yucatan, but they extended thence southwardly to +the shores of the Pacific, and westward along the Gulf coast to the +River Panuco. The language numbered about sixteen dialects, none very +remote from the parent stem, which linguists identify as the Maya proper +of the Yucatecan peninsula. While there are a number of verbal +similarities between Maya and Nahuatl, the radicals of the two idioms +and their grammatical structure are widely asunder. The Nahuatl is an +excessively pliable, polysyllabic and highly synthetic tongue; the Maya +is rigid, its words short, of one or two syllables generally, and is +scarcely more synthetic than French. This contrast is carried out in the +style of their writers. Those in Nahuatl were lovers of amplification, +of flowing periods, of Ciceronian fullness; the Mayas cultivated +sententious brevity, they are elliptical, often to obscurity, and may be +compared rather to Tacitus, in his _Annals_, than to Cicero. + +All the Maya tribes had strong literary tastes, but with characteristic +tenacity they clung entirely to their native tongues; and I know not a +single instance where one has left compositions in Spanish. Their +language is easy to learn; to a stranger to both, Maya comes easier than +Spanish, as intelligent writers in Yucatan have testified; and this +aided its survival. Their passion for learning to read and write was +strong, and had it been fed, instead of rigidly suppressed, there is +little doubt but that they would have become a highly enlightened +nation. The wretched system which smothered free thought in Spain killed +it in Yucatan.[27] + +The principal literary monument in the pure Maya is the collection known +as "The Books of Chilan Balam." I have described this collection at +length in previous publications, and shall content myself with a brief +reference to it.[28] The title "Chilan Balam" means, in this connection, +"the interpreting priest;" that is, the sacred official who, in the +ancient religion, revealed the will of the gods. There are at least +sixteen collections under this name in Maya, copies, probably, in part, +of each other. Their contents may be classified under four headings:-- + +1. Chronology, calendars, and history, before and after the Conquest. + +2. Prophecies and astrology. + +3. Medical recipes and directions. + +4. Christian narratives. + +Of these, the last two are modern. The Christian portions are lives of +saints, and prayers. The medical directions are often found separate, +under the title "The Book of the Jew." Its language is modern and +corrupt--_mestizado_, as the Spaniards express it. + +The "Prophecies" are alleged to have been delivered one or several +generations before the Conquest. Their style is extremely obscure, and +many of the forms are archaic. If not genuine originals, they are +unquestionably very early and faithful imitations of the oracular +deliveries of the ancient Maya priests. + +The historical portions include rude annals since the Conquest, and a +series of Chronicles, extending back to about the third century of the +Christian era. There are five versions of these, all of which I have +published, with translations and copious notes, as the first volume of +my "Library of Aboriginal American Literature." + +Another class of Maya historical documents embraces the surveys and land +titles, many of which date from the sixteenth century. I have in my +possession a copy of one as far back as 1542, unquestionably the oldest +monument of the Maya language extant. Sometimes these titles were +accompanied by a family history. Such is "The Chronicle of Chac Xulub +Chen," written by the Chief Nakuk Pech, in 1562, which I have published. +It gives, in a confused style, a history of the Conquest, and throws +light on the methods by which the Spaniards succeeded in overcoming the +various native tribes.[29] + +We owe the preservation of most of the Maya MSS. to the enlightened +labors of Don Juan Pio Perez, a distinguished Yucatecan scholar, and the +compiler of the best printed dictionary of the Maya tongue.[30] The most +complete collection now in existence is that of the Canon Crescencio +Carrillo y Ancona, a learned archaeologist, and author of an excellent +history of Maya literature.[31] + +After the Maya, the most important of these associated dialects was the +Cakchiquel. It was, and still is, spoken in Guatemala; and the Kiche +(Quiche), also current there, is so nearly allied to it that they may be +treated as one idiom. The Cakchiquel possesses an extensive Christian +literature, as it was cultivated assiduously by the early missionaries. +Indeed, there was, for many years, a chair in the University of +Guatemala created for teaching it, and it is often referred to as the +_lengua metropolitana_, Guatemala having been the see of an +archbishop. There are in existence extensive lexicons of Cakchiquel, and +in it, besides various collections of sermons, was written the once +celebrated work of Father Domingo de Vico, the _Theologia Indorum_, +probably the most complete theological treatise ever produced in a +native American tongue.[32] + +The most notable aboriginal production in Cakchiquel is one frequently +referred to by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg as the _Memorial de +Tecpan Atitlan_, The Records from Tecpan Atitlan.[33] It is an +historical account of his family and tribe, written in the sixteenth +century by a member of the junior branch of the ruling house of the +Cakchiquels. His name was Don Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila, and a +passage of the MS. informs us that he was writing in 1581. After his +death the work was continued by Don Francisco Tiaz Gebuta Queh. The +style is familiar and often vivid, and the work is addressed to his +children. It begins with the earliest myths and traditions of the tribe, +and follows their fortunes to the lifetime of the writer. In respect +both to mythology, history and language, it is one of the most +noteworthy monuments of American antiquity. A loose paraphrase of it was +made by Brasseur de Bourbourg, based upon which, a Spanish rendering was +published by the "Sociedad Economica de Guatemala," under the auspices +of Senor Gavarrete. Neither the original nor any correct translation has +been printed. + +A copy of this MS. is in my collection, and both the original and a +second copy are in Europe; but there were a number of similar historical +accounts, committed to writing by this people and their immediate +neighbors, of which we know little but the titles and a few extracts. +Thus, the historian of Guatemala, Don Domingo Juarros, quotes from the +MSS. of Don Francisco Gomez, _Ahzib Kiche_, or Chief Scribe of the +Kiches, of Don Francisco Garcia Calel Tzumpan, of Don Juan Macario, +nephew, and Don Juan Torres, son, of the Chief Chignavincelut, and "the +histories written by the Quiches, Cakchiquels, Pipils, Pocomans, and +others, who learned to write their tongues from their Spanish teachers." +These MSS. gave the genealogies of their families and the migrations of +their ancestors "from the time when the Toltecs, from whom they trace +descent, first entered the territory of Mexico, and found it inhabited +by the Chichimecs."[34] + +One of the motives prompting to the composition of these works was to +vindicate the claims of families to the sovereignty, or to the +possession of land. They were, in fact, a sort of briefs of titles to +real estate. One such is preserved, in the original, in the Brasseur +collection, and is catalogued as "The Royal Title of Don Francisco +Izquin, the last Ahpop Galel, or King, of Nehaib, granted by the lords +who invested him with his royal dignity, and confirmed by the last King +of Quiche, with other sovereigns, November 22, 1558."[35] A Spanish +translation of the title of a female branch of this same family was +printed at Guatemala in 1876, but the original text has never been put +to press, although it is said to be still preserved in one of the +ancient families of the Province of Totonicapam.[36] + +Another Kiche work, which has excited a lively but not very intelligent +interest among European scholars, is the _Popol Vuh_, National +Book, a compendious account of their mythology and traditional history. +A Spanish translation of it by Father Francisco Ximenez was edited in +Vienna, in 1857, by Dr. Carl Scherzer.[37] The Abbe Brasseur followed, in +1861, by a publication of the original text, and a new translation into +French.[38] This text fills 173 octavo pages, so that it will be seen +that it offers an ample specimen of the tongue. + +Neither of these translations is satisfactory. Ximenez wrote with all +the narrow prejudices of a Spanish monk, while Brasseur was a Euhemerist +of the most advanced type, and saw in every myth the statement of a +historical fact. There is need of a re-translation of the whole, with +critical linguistic notes attached. A few years ago, I submitted the +names and epithets of the divinities mentioned in the Popol Vuh to a +careful analysis, and I think the results obtained show clearly how +erroneous were the conceptions formed regarding them by both the +translators of the document.[39] I shall not here go into the question of +its age or authorship, about which diverse opinions have obtained; but I +will predict that the more sedulously it is studied, the more certainly +it will be shown to be a composition inspired by ideas and narratives +familiar to the native mind long before the advent of Christianity. + +I have been told that there are other versions of the _Popol Vuh_ +still preserved among the Kiches, and it were ardently to be desired +that they were sought out, as there are many reasons to believe that the +copy we have is incomplete, or, at any rate, omits some prominent +features of their mythology. + +One branch of the Maya race, the Tzendals, inhabited a portion of the +province of Chiapas. One of their hero-gods bore the name of +_Votan_, a word from a Maya root, signifying the breast or heart, +but from its faint resemblance to "Odin," and its still fainter +similarity to "Buddha," their myth about him has given rise to many +whimsical speculations. This myth was written down in the native tongue +by a Christianized native, in the seventeenth century. The MS. came into +the possession of Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who quotes from +it in his _Constituciones Diocesanas_, printed in Rome, in 1702. +The indefatigable Boturini tells us that he tried in vain to find it, +about 1740, and supposed it was lost.[40] But a copy of it was seen and +described by Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, in 1790.[41] Possibly it is still in +existence, and there are few fragments of American literature which +would better merit a diligent search. As to the meaning of the Votan +myth, I have ventured an explanation of it in another work.[42] + +In South America, the only native historical writers who employed their +own tongue appear to have been of the Peruvian Qquichua stock. None of +their productions have been published, but one or more are in existence +and accessible. Prominent among them and deserving of early editing by +competent hands, is an anonymous treatise, partly translated by Dr. +Francisco de Avila, in 1608, on the "Errors, False Gods, Superstitions +and Diabolical Rites" of the natives of the provinces of Huarochiri, +Mama and Chaclla. The original text is in Madrid, and Avila's +translation, as far as it goes, has been rendered into English by Mr. +Clements R. Markham, and published in one of the Hackluyt Society's +volumes.[43] + +A member of the Inca family, already referred to, Don Luis Inca, is +reported to have written a series of historical notes, _Advertencias_, +"with his own hand and in his own tongue;" but what became of his +manuscript is not known.[44] + +There is another class of historical documents, which profess to be the +production of native hands, and which are moderately numerous. These are +the official letters and petitions drawn up by the chiefs in their own +tongues, and forwarded to the Spanish authorities. Of these, two +interesting specimens, one in the "Abolachi" tongue (a dialect of +Muskokee), and the other in Timucuana, were published in fac-simile by +the late Mr. Buckingham Smith, but in a very limited number of copies +(only fifty in all). Others in Nahuatl and Maya, also in fac-simile, +appear in that magnificent volume, the _Cartas de Indias_, issued +by the Spanish Government in 1880. Doubtless more examples could be +found in the public Archives in Spain, and they should all be collected +into one volume. They were probably prompted by the Spanish local +authorities; but it is likely that they show the true structure of the +language, and, of course, they have a positive historical value. + +It is related in the Proceedings of the Municipal Council of Guatemala +that, in 1692, the Captain Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman laid before the +Council seven petitions, written in the native language, on the bark of +trees.[45] Whatever of interest they contained was, no doubt, extracted +by that laborious but imaginative writer, and included in his +_History_, which has never been published, though several +manuscript copies of it are in existence. + +It will be seen that some of the so-called historical literature I have +mentioned rests uncertain on the border line between fact and fancy. +These old stories may be vague memories of past deeds, set in a frame of +mythical details; or they may be ancient myths, solar or meteorological, +which came to receive credence as actual occurrences. The task remains +for special students of such matters to sift and analyze them, and +settle this debateable point. + +There is another class of narrations, about which there can be no doubt +as to their purely imaginative origin. These are the animal myths, the +fairy stories, the fireside tales of giants and magicians, with which +the hours of leisure are whiled away. Several collections of these have +been made, the words and phrases taken down precisely as the native +story-teller delivered them, and thus they come strictly within the +lines of aboriginal literature. They are the spontaneous outgrowth of +the native mind, and are faithful examples of native speech. + +Over a hundred such tales have been collected by Dr. +Couto de Magalhaes, as narrated by the Tupis of Brazil, and +many of them have been published with all desirable fidelity, +and with a philosophical introduction and notes, in a volume +issued by the Brazilian government, under his editorial care.[46] + +A similar collection of Tupi stories was made by the late Prof. Charles +F. Hartt, whose early death was a loss to more than one branch of +science. It was his intention to edit them with the necessary notes and +vocabularies; but, so far as I know, the only specimens which appeared +in print were those he laid before the American Philological +Association, in 1872.[47] The inquiries I have instituted about his MSS. +have not been successful. + +Numerous texts of this description have been obtained from the Klamath +Indians by Mr. A.S. Gatschet, and from the Omaha by the Rev. J. Owen +Dorsey, both of which collections are in process of publication by the +Bureau of Ethnology at Washington. Scattered specimens of stories of +this kind have also been obtained by a number of travelers, and they are +always a welcome aid to the study both of the psychology and language of +a tribe. + + + + + + +Section 4. _Didactic Literature_. + + +The more civilized American tribes had made considerable advances in +some of the natural sciences, and in none more than in practical +astronomy. By close observation of the heavenly bodies they had +elaborated a complicated and remarkably exact system of chronology. They +had determined the length of the year with greater accuracy than the +white invaders; and the different cycles by which they computed time +allowed them to assign dates to occurrences many hundreds of years +anterior. + +Although there are local differences, the calendars in use in Central +and Southern Mexico and in Central America were evidently derived from +one and the same original. A great deal has been written upon them, but +for all that many questions about them remain unanswered. We do not know +the Maya method of intercalation; we do not understand the uses of the +shorter Mexican year, of 260 days; we are at a loss to explain the +purpose of doubling the length of certain months, as prevailed among the +Cakchiquels; we are in the dark about the significance of the names of +many days and months; we cannot see why the nations chose to begin the +count of the year at different seasons; and there are ever so many more +knotty problems about this remarkable system and its variations. + +What we imperatively need is a supply of authentic aboriginal calendars, +accurately reproduced, for purposes of comparison. Boturini collected a +number of these, which he describes, and long before his day some +specimens had been published by Valades and Gemelli Carreri.[48] They +were, in ancient times, usually depicted by circular drawings, called by +the Spaniards, Wheels (_ruedas_). After the Conquest they were +written out, more in the form of our almanacs. One such, in the Maya +tongue, with a translation, was contributed to Mr. Stephens' _Travels +in Yucatan_, by the eminent Maya scholar, Don Juan Pio Perez.[49] +Several others were in his collection, and are accessible. Dr. Berendt +succeeded in securing _fac similes_ of Kiche and Cakchiquel +calendars, written out in the seventeenth century, and these are now in +my possession. I fear we have no perfect examples of the Zapotec +calendar, nor of that of the Tarascos of Michoacan, although an +anonymous author, most of whose MS. has been preserved, reduced the +latter to writing, and it may some day turn up.[50] The Aztec calendars +collected by Boturini would, were they published, give us sufficient +material, probably, to understand clearly the methods of that tribe. + +One momentous purpose which the calendar served was for supplying omens +and predictions; another was for the appointment of fasts and festivals, +for the religious ritual. The calendar arranged for these objects was +called, in the Nahuatl, _tonalamatl_, "the book of days," and in +Maya _tzolante_, "that by which events are arranged." So intimately +were all the acts of individual and national life bound up with these +superstitions, that an understanding of them is indispensable to a +successful study of the psychology and history of the race. + +After the Conquest some of the notions about judicial astrology, then +prevalent in Europe, crept into the native understanding, and notably, +in the _Books of Chilan Balam_ we find forecastes of lucky and +unlucky days, and discussions of planetary influence, evidently borrowed +from the Spanish almanacs of the seventeenth century. + +Most of the Aborigines of the Continent possessed a keen sense of +locality, and often a certain rude skill in cartography. The relative +position of spots and proportionate distances were approximately +represented by rough drawings. They knew the boundaries of their lands, +the courses of streams, the trend of shores, and could display them +intelligently. These maps, as they are called, present a very different +appearance from ours. Those of the Aztecs are rather pictured diagrams, +something like those we find in fifteenth century books of travel. A +fair specimen, though of date later than the Conquest, was published not +long since, in Madrid.[51] + +The Maya maps are even more conventional. A central point is taken, +usually a town, around which is drawn either a circle or a square, on +the four sides of which are placed the figures of the four cardinal +points, and within the figures are the various symbols which denote the +villages, wells, ponds, and other objects which are to be designated. +Specimens of some of these, all after the Conquest, however, have been +published by Mr. Stephens and Canon Carrillo,[52] and others are found in +the various _Books of Chilan Balam_. + +Very few strictly scholastic works seem to have been produced by the +natives. Nearly all those which I have seen for use in the Mission +schools appear to be the productions of the white instructors, +generally, of course, aided by some intelligent native. I have in my +possession an _Ortografia en Lengua Kekchi_, picked up by Dr. +Berendt in Vera Paz, which was the work of Domingo Coy, an Indian of +Coban (MS. pp. 32). But on examination it proves to be merely an +adaptation of a _Manual de Ortografia Castellana_, in use in the +schools, and not an original effort. For all that, it is not without +linguistic value. In Mexico a useful little book of instruction in +Nahuatl has been prepared by the licentiate Faustino Chimalpopoca +Galicia, a scholar of indigenous extraction.[53] An older work, of a +similar character, by Don Antonio Tobar, a descendant of the Montezumas, +is mentioned by bibliographers, but never was printed, and has probably +perished.[54] + +It has always been part of the policy of both Catholic and Protestant +missions to permit the natives to enter the career of the church; in the +territories of both confessions instances are moderately numerous of +priests and preachers of half or full Indian blood. Most of these +educated men, however, rather shunned the cultivation of their maternal +tongues, and preferred, when they wrote at all, to choose that of their +white brethren, the Spanish, Portuguese or English. The extensive +theological literature which we possess, printed or in manuscript, in +American tongues, and in many it is quite ample, is scarcely ever the +result of the efforts of the Christian teachers of indigenous +affiliations. + +A notable exception was the licentiate Bartolome de Alva, a native +Mexican, descended from the Tezcucan kings, who composed, in Nahuatl and +Spanish, a _Confessionario_, which was printed at Mexico in 1634. +It contains some interesting references to the mythology and +superstitions of the natives.[55] + +The Indian Elias Boudinot and other Cherokees have printed many essays +and tracts in that tongue, but whether original or merely translated I +do not know. The sermons of the native Protestant missionaries to their +fellows were probably extempore addresses. At any rate, I have not seen +any in manuscript or print. A volume of the kind exists, however, in +manuscript, in the Library of the _Instituto Historico_ of Rio +Janeiro, which it would be very desirable to have printed. It is the +_Sermones e Exemplos em lengua Guarani_, by Nicolas Japuguay, cura +of the Parish of San Francisco in 1727.[56] But when it is edited, let us +hope that it will be a more favorable example of critical care than the +_Crestomathia da Lingua Brasilica_, edited by Dr. Ernesto Ferreira +Franca (Leipzig, 1859), which, according to Professor Hartt, is "badly +arranged, carelessly edited, and disfigured by innumerable typographical +errors."[57] + +A curious variety of religious literature is what are called the +Passions, _Las Pasiones_, which are found among the natives of the +Isthmus of Tehuantepec. These prose chants took their rise at an early +period among the sodalities (_cofradias_), organized under the name +of some particular saint. Each of these societies possessed a volume, +called its Regulations (_Ordenanzas_), containing, among other +matters, a series of invocations, founded on the history of the Passion +of Christ. During Holy Week, certain members of the fraternity, called +_fiscales_, gather in the church, around one of their number, who +reads a sentence in a loud voice. The fiscales repeat it in a chanting +tone, with a uniform and monotonous cadence. It is probable that these +chants are the compositions of the Indians themselves. Dr. Berendt +obtained several copies of these, some in the Chapaneca of Chiapas, and +others in the Zoque of the Isthmus, which are now in my hands. + + + + +Section 5. _Oratorical Literature._ + + +The love of the American Indian for oratorical display has been +commented on by almost all writers who have studied his disposition. +Specimens of native eloquence have been introduced into school books, +and declaimed by many an aspiring young Cicero. Most of them are, +doubtless, as fictitious as Logan's celebrated speech, which was exalted +by the great Jefferson almost to a level with the outbursts of +Demosthenes, to be reduced again to very small proportions by the +criticisms of Brantz Mayer.[58] + +In fact, in spite of all that has been said about the native oratory, +we are in a very inadequate position to judge of it correctly, and this +because we have no accurate reports in the original tongues of their +speeches. Translations, more or less loose, more or less imaginary, +we have in abundance; but, for critical purposes, they are simply +worthless. + +Yet that even the ruder tribes in both the northern and southern +continents, attached great weight to the cultivation of oratory, is +amply evident. James Adair, who is competent authority, tells us that +the southern Indians studied public speaking assiduously, and that their +speeches "abound with bolder tropes and figures than illiterate +interpreters can well comprehend or explain."[59] Mr. Howse writes that, +among the Crees, those who possess oratorical talent are in demand by +the Chiefs, who employ them to deliver the official harangues.[60] Among +the Aztecs, the very word for chief, _tlatoani_, literally means +"orator" (from the verb _tlatoa_, to harangue). In the far south, +among the Araucanians of Chili, and their relatives the migratory hordes +of the Pampas, no gift is in higher estimation than that of an easy and +perspicuous delivery. This alone enables the humblest to rise to the +position of chieftain.[61] So it was over the whole continent. + +In most of their languages, the oratorical was markedly different from +the familiar or colloquial style. The former was given to antithesis, +repetition, elaborate figures, unusual metaphors, and more sonorous and +lengthened expressions. The Rev. Mr. Byington gives a number of the +oratorical affectations in the Choctaw, as _akakano_ for _ak_, +_okakocha_ for _ok_, etc.[62] + +Some genuine specimens of the oratory of the northern tribes are +preserved by Mr. Hale, in the Iroquois _Book of Rites_, to which I +have referred on a previous page. The speeches it contains were learned +by heart, and transmitted from generation to generation, long before +they were committed to writing, and long after some of the words and +expressions they contain had become lost to the colloquial language of +the tribe. + +The ancient Mexicans were much given to this sort of formal +speech-making. They had a large number of cut-and-dried orations, which +professional rhetoricians delivered on all important occasions in life. +The new-born child was harangued at, in good set terms, when it was but +a few days old. Betrothals, marriages, festivals, the commencement of +puberty and of pregnancy, etc., were all celebrated by the delivery of +discourses. Fathers taught their children, teachers their pupils, +monarchs their vassals, war chiefs their soldiers, by such declamations. +The general name for these speeches was _huehuetlatolli_, ancient +orations.[63] + +Many have been preserved, and a tolerably complete collection could be +made in the original tongue. To effect this, we should have to have +recourse to the original Nahuatl MS. of Sahagun's history, which, I have +already said, exists in Madrid; next, to the extremely rare work of the +eminent Nahuatl scholar, Father Juan Baptista, _Platicas Morales_, +in which, according to Vetancurt, he gives, in the original, the ancient +addresses of fathers to their children, and of rulers to their +subjects;[64] and lastly, to the recently published, though very early +written, _Mexican Grammar_, of the Franciscan Andre de Olmos, which +contains a number of these discourses, carefully edited and translated +by the accomplished scholar, M. Remi Simeon.[65] + +The numerous prayers to the heathen gods, preserved by Sahagun, are, +doubtless, faithfully recorded, and are accurate examples of the +elevated literary style of the ancient Aztecs. They should, by all +means, be printed, so that they could be accessible to those who would +acquaint themselves with the genius of the language and the psychology +of the people. + +In the Qquichua of Peru, a few similar prayers to Viracocha have been +saved from oblivion, in the pages of Cristobal de Molina. One or more +copies of his _Relacion_ are in the United States, but it has only +appeared in print through a translation by Mr. Markham, in the Hackluyt +Society's publications.[66] Some modern prayers of the Mayas are to be +found in the collection of Brasseur,[67] and, doubtless, several of the +so-called ancient "prophecies," preserved in the _Books of Chilan +Balam_, are, in fact, specimens of the impassioned and mystic +rhapsodies with which the priests of their heathendom entertained their +hearers, as Cortes and his followers heard, one day, on the island of +Cozumel.[68] + + + + +Section 6. _Poetical Literature._ + + +Man, remarks Wilhelm von Humboldt, belongs to the singing species of +animals. True it is, that wherever found, he has some notion of music, +cultivates the accord of sounds by some sort of instrument, and gives +expression to his most acute emotions in modulations of vocal tone. + +The earliest and simplest poetry is nothing more than such modulated +sounds; it is not in definite words, and hence, is not capable of +translation; it is but the expression of feeling through the voice, as +is the wail of the infant, the rippling laughter of youth, the crooning +of senility, the groans of pain or sorrow. + +Perhaps this first is also the highest expression of the aesthetic +sense. The most admired cantatrices of to-day drown the words in a +wealth of vocalization, and the meaning is lost, even were the language +one known to their hearers, which it usually is not. I have heard a +living poet, himself of no mean eminence, maintain that the harmony of +versification is a far higher test of true poetic power than the ideas +conveyed. + +These principles must be borne in mind when we apply the canons of +criticism to the poetry of the ruder races. It is not composed to be +read, or even recited, but to be sung; its aim is, not to awaken thought +or convey information, but solely to excite emotion. It can have a +meaning only when heard, and only in the surroundings which gave it +birth. + +Hence it is, that the notices of the poetry of American nations are so +scant and unsatisfactory. While all travelers agree that the tribes have +songs and chants, war songs, peace songs, love songs, and others, few +satisfactory specimens have been recorded. Those who have examined the +subject most accurately have found that many so-called songs are mere +repetitions of a few words, or even of simple interjections, over and +over again, with an endless iteration, in a chanting voice. The Dakota +songs which have been preserved by Riggs, the Chippeway songs obtained +from the interpreter Tanner, and the numerous specimens of native +Californian chants recorded by Powers, as well as many others of this +class which might be mentioned, are mainly of this character. + +Consequently, they show very poorly in a translation, and +are apt to convey an unjustly depreciatory notion of the +nations which produce them. To estimate them aright, the +meter and the music must be taken into consideration, and also +their suitability to the minds to which they were addressed.[69] + +But the anthology of America is not limited to specimens of this kind. +In the Iroquois _Book of Rites_ there are funeral dirges of +considerable length, expressive and touching in meaning; and in the +Algonkin a few have been preserved in the original, which are authentic +and pleasing. Here, for instance, is a nearly literal version of a +Chippeway love song:-- + + "I will walk into somebody's dwelling, + Into somebody's dwelling will I walk. + + To thy dwelling, my dearly beloved, + Some night will I walk, will I walk. + + Some night in the winter, my beloved, + To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk. + + This very night, my beloved, + To thy dwelling will I walk, will I walk."[70] + + +Much more striking, and to me strangely so, are the songs of the Taensa, +a small tribe who dwelt on the banks of the lower Mississippi. They are +now extinct, but a very curious account of their language, by a Spanish +missionary, has been preserved and recently published. The early +travelers speak of them as an unusually cultivated people, but one +cannot but be surprised to find them capable of composing an +epithalamium like the following:-- + + "Tikaens, thou buildest a house, thou bringest thy wife to live in it. + + "Thou art married, Tikaens, thou art married. + + "Thou wilt become famous; thy children will name thee among the elders. + Think of Tikaens as an old man! + + "By what name is thy bride known? Is she beautiful? Are her eyes soft + as the light of the moon? Is she a strong woman? Didst thou understand + her signs during the dance? + + "I know not whether thou lovest her, Tikaens. + + "What said the old man, her father, when thou askedst for his pretty + daughter? + + "What betrothal presents didst thou give? + + "Rejoice, Tikaens! be glad, be happy! + + "Build thyself a happy home. + + "This is the song of its building!" + + +Some of the songs of war and death are quite Ossianic in +style, and yet they appear to be accurate translations.[71] + +The comparatively elevated style of such poems need not cast doubt upon +them. The first European who wrote about the songs of the natives of +America, who was none other than the witty and learned Montaigne, paid a +high tribute to their true poetic spirit. Montaigne knew a man who had +lived among the Tupis of Brazil for ten or twelve years, and had learned +their language and customs. He remembered several of their songs of war +and love, and translated them to gratify the insatiable thirst for +knowledge of the famous essayist. The refrain of one of them, supposed +to be addressed to one of those beautiful serpents of the tropical +forests, ran thus:-- + + "O serpent, stay! stay, O serpent! that thy painted skin may serve my + sister as a pattern for the design and form of a rich cord, which I may + give to my love; for this favor, may thy beauty and grace be esteemed + beyond those of all other serpents." + + +"I have had enough to do with poetry," comments Montaigne on this +couplet, "to say about this that not only is there nothing barbarous in +this fancy, but that it is altogether worthy of Anacreon." Such is his +enthusiasm, indeed, that he finds in this simple and faithful expression +of sentiment the highest form of poesy; "the true, the supreme, the +divine; that which is above rules and beyond reasoning."[72] + +Scarcely can we call these words extravagant, when, in our own century, +another Frenchman, eminent as a scientific observer, and speaking from +the results of personal study on the spot, has said of the songs of a +tribe of this same Tupi stock, the Guarayos, that they cannot be +surpassed for grace of language and delicacy of expression.[73] + +Many interesting Klamath, Omaha and Zuni verses have been collected by +the efforts of Gatschet, Dorsey, Cushing and other zealous laborers +connected with the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, and these will +shortly be accessible to all through the accurate publications of the +government press. + +The melodious Nahuatl tongue lent itself readily to poetic composition, +and was cultivated enthusiastically in this direction long before the +Conquest. Apparently the poetic dialect never freed itself from the use +of unmeaning particles thrown in to complete the meter; as, indeed, may +also be said of the English popular song dialect, which retains to this +day very many such.[74] + +With this exception the Tezcucan poets, for it was in that province that +the muses were most assiduously worshiped, made use of a pure, +brilliant, figurative style, and had developed a large variety of +metrical forms. + +One of the most famous disciples of the lyre was Nezahualcoyotl, himself +sovereign of Tezcuco about the year 1460. He left seventy odes on +philosophical and religious subjects, which were borne in memory and +repeated after the Conquest. Translations of a few of them have come +down to us, but my inquiries as to the whereabouts of the originals, if, +indeed, they exist, have been fruitless.[75] The Jesuit, Horatio Carochi, +published some ancient verses in his grammar of the Nahuatl (Mexico, +1645). Several which appear in later works do not seem to merit the +credit of antiquity. They are more like those which Sahagun wrote and +published, in Nahuatl, at a very early period,[76] Christian songs, +intended to take the place of the ditties of love and chants of war, +which the natives had such a passion for singing. + +Under the title _Cantares de los Mexicanos_, there was long +preserved in the library of the University of Mexico a manuscript of the +sixteenth or seventeenth century, with a large number of supposed +ancient Aztec songs; but what has become of it now, nobody knows.[77] +Thus it is that these precious monuments of antiquity are allowed to lie +uncared for, through generations, until, at length, they fall a prey to +ignorance or theft. + +A few other fragments of Nahuatl poetry, all probably modern, but some +of them the versification of native bards, might be named; but the whole +of it, as now existing, could give us but a faint idea of the perfection +to which the art appears to have attained in the palmy days of the great +Tezcucan poet-prince. + +In the literature of the Maya group of dialects, there have been +preserved various sacred chants, some in the _Books of Chilan +Balam_, others in the Kiche _Popol Vuh_. What are known as the +"Maya Prophecies" are, as I have said, evidently the originals, or +echoes of the mystic songs of the priests of Kukulkan and Itzamna, +deities of the Maya pantheon, who were supposed to inspire their +devotees with the power of foretelling the future. + +The modern Maya lends itself very readily both to rhyme and rhythm, and +I have in my possession some quite neat specimens of versification in +it, from the pen of the Yucatecan historian, Apolinar Garcia y Garcia. + +When we reach Peru we find a race not less poetical in temperament than +the cultured Mexicans. Nothing but their ignorance of an alphabet, and +the indifference or fanatical hatred of the early explorers for the +productions of the native intellect, prevented the perpetuation of a +Qquichua literature, both extensive and noble. As it is, we may expect +many valuable examples of it when the learned Peruvian scholar, Senor +Gavino Pacheco Zegarra, shall publish his long promised _Tresor de la +Langue des Incas_. Among them he has announced the first appearance +of a number of _Yaravis_, or elegiac chants, composed by the +Indians themselves, and sung in memory of their departed friends. + +We know, from the testimony of Garcillaso de la Vega, that the Inca +bards formed a separate and highly respected class, and that in their +hands the supple Qquichua tongue had been brought under well recognized +rules of prosody. He mentions the different classes and subjects of +their poems, compares them to similar compositions in Spanish, and even +gives specimens of two short ones, of undoubted antiquity, and adds +that, when a boy, he knew many others. "What would not one now give," +exclaims Mr. Markham, "for those precious relics of Inca civilization, +which the half-caste lad allowed to slip from his memory."[78] All that +Mr. Markham could collect, in his extensive journeys in Peru, were not +above twenty songs of ancient date, and I regret to say that these have +not yet been published. + +Of those charming Tupi songs, to which I have already referred, I fear +that we have but very few preserved in the original tongue. Not that +there is any lack of poems in the _lingoa geral_, or "common +language" of Brazil, as the ordinary and corrupt Tupi there spoken is +called. It is a melodious idiom, lending itself easily to rhyme and +rhythm, and several Brazilian writers of European blood have gained +reputation by their compositions in it. But of genuine aboriginal +productions, there are not many. + +The entertaining old voyager, Jean de Lery, who visited Brazil with +Villegagnon in 1557, has recorded a few simple airs, which appear to be +merely choruses or refrains of songs, the delivery of which was, +however, so effective, that to hear them carried him out of himself; and +ever, when his memory recalled them, his heart beat, and it seemed that +he heard the wild cadence once again resounding in his ears through the +tropical forests.[79] + +Some strange old poetic invocations in archaic Tupi addressed to the +moon and to the god of love, Ruda, who dwells in the clouds, have been +collected and printed by Dr. Couto de Magalhaes, a writer whose studies +on Tupi poetry, its character and development, merit high praise.[80] +Both the songs and music of the modern natives of that country attracted +the attention of the learned Von Martius, and in his volumes of +_Travels in Brazil_ an appendix is devoted to their discussion.[81] +Many excellent hints for preparing a Tupi anthology are also contained +in an erudite note of Ferdinand Denis to his description of the visit of +fifty native Tupis to France, in 1550.[82] + + + + +Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_. + + +The development of the dramatic art can be clearly traced +in the American nations. When the Spaniards first explored +the West Indian Islands they found the inhabitants much +given to festivals which combined dancing with chanting, +and the introduction of figures with peculiar costumes. The +native name of these representations was adopted by the +Spaniards, and applied to such performances elsewhere. The +word is _areytos_, and is derived from the Arawack verb, _aririn_, +to rehearse, recite.[83] + +Such dramatic recitations were found among most of the tribes of North +and South America, and have been frequently described by travelers. +Often they were of a religious nature, having something to do with +devotional exercises; but not seldom they were simply for amusement. +Occasionally they were mere pantomimes, where the actors appeared in +costume and masks, and went through some ludicrous scene. Thus, to quote +one example out of many, Lieutenant Timberlake saw some among the +Cherokees, about the middle of the last century, which he speaks of as +"very diverting," where some of the actors dressed in the skins of wild +animals, and the simulated contest between these pretended beasts and +the men who hunted them, were the motives of the entertainment.[84] + +From the solemn religious representations on the one hand and these +diverting masquerades on the other, arose the two forms of tragedy and +comedy, both of which were widely popular among the American +aborigines.[85] The effete notion that they were either unimaginative or +insusceptible to humor is, to be sure, still retained by a few writers, +who are either ignorant or prejudiced; but it has been refuted so often +that I need not stop to attack it. In fact, so many tribes were of a gay +and frolicsome disposition, so much given to joking, to playing on +words, and to noticing the humorous aspect of occurrences, that they +have not unfrequently been charged by the whites best acquainted with +them, the missionaries, with levity and a frivolous temperament. + +Among the many losses which American ethnology has suffered, that of the +text of the native dramas is one of the most regretable. Is is, however, +not total. Two have been published which claim to be, and I think are, +faithful renditions of the ancient texts as they were transmitted +verbally, from one to another, in pre-Columbian times. + +The most celebrated of these is the drama of _Ollanta_,[86] in the +Qquichua language of Peru. No less than eight editions of this have been +published, the last and best of which is that by the meritorious +scholar, Senor Gavino Pacheco Zegarra. The internal evidence of the +antiquity of this drama has been pronounced conclusive by all competent +Qquichua students.[87] + +The plot is varied and ingenious, and the characters agreeably +contrasted. Ollanta is a warrior of low degree, who falls in love with +Cusi Coyllur, daughter of the Inca, who returns his affection. The +lovers have secret meetings, and Ollanta asks the sovereign to sanction +their union. The proud ruler rejects the proposal with scorn, and the +audacious warrior gathers his adherents and attacks the State, at first +with success. But Cusi Coyllur is thrown into prison and her child, the +fruit of her illicit love, is separated from her. The Inca dies, and +under his successor Ollanta is defeated and brought, a prisoner, to the +capital. Mindful, however, of his merits, the magnanimous victor pardons +him, restores him to his honors, and returns to his arms Cusi Coyllur +and her child. Minor characters are a facetious youth, who is constantly +punning and joking; and the dignified figure of the High Priest of the +Sun, who endeavors to dissuade the hero from his seemingly hopeless +love. + +The second drama to which I refer is that of _Rabinal Achi_, in the +Kiche tongue of Guatemala. The text was obtained by the Abbe Brasseur de +Bourbourg, and edited with a French translation. The plot is less +complete than that of the _Ollanta_, and the constant repetitions, +while they constitute strong evidence of its antiquity and native +origin, are tedious to a European reader.[88] + +Rabinal-Achi is a warrior who takes captive a distinguished foe, Canek, +and brings him before the ruler of Rabinal, King Hobtoh. The fate of the +prisoner is immediate death and he knows it, but his audacity and +bravery do not fail him. He boasts of his warlike exploits, and taunts +his captors, like an Iroquois in his death song, and his enemies listen +with respect. He even threatens the king, and has to be restrained from +attacking him. As his end draws near, he asks to drink from the royal +cup and eat from the royal dish; it is granted. Again, he asks to be +clothed in the royal robe; it is brought and put about him. Once more he +makes a request, and it is to kiss the virgin mouth of the daughter of +the king, and dance a measure with her, "as the last sign of his death +and his end." Even this is conceded, and one might think that it was his +uttermost petition. But no; he asks one year's grace, wherein to bid +adieu to his native mountains. The king hears this in silence, and Canek +disappears; but returning in a moment, he scornfully inquires whether +they supposed he had run away. He then, in a few strong words, bids a +last farewell to his bow, his shield, his war-club and battle-axe, and +is slain by the warriors of the king. + +The love of dramatic performances was not crushed out in the natives by +the Conquest. In fact, in the Spanish countries, it was turned to +account and cultivated by the missionaries as a means of instructing +their converts in religion, by "miracle plays" or _autos +sacramentales_, as they are called. It was even permitted to the more +intelligent natives to compose the text of plays. One such, manifestly, +I think, the work of a native author, in the mixed Nahuatl-Spanish +dialect of Nicaragua, I have prepared for publication. The original was +found by Dr. Berendt in Masaya, and his copy, without note or +translation, came into my hands. + +The play is a light comedy, and is called "The Ballet of the Gueegueence +or the Macho-Raton." The characters are a wily old rascal, Gueegueence, +and his two sons, the one a chip of the old block, the other a bitter +commentator on the family failings. They are brought before the Governor +for entering his province without a permit; but by bragging and promises +the foxy old man succeeds both in escaping punishment and in effecting a +marriage between his scapegrace son and the Governor's daughter. The +interest is not in the plot, which is trivial, but in the constant play +on words, and in the humor, often highly Rabelaisian, of the anything +but venerable parent. + +The "Zacicoxol," or Drama of Cortes and Montezuma, written in Kiche, of +which I have a copy, may possibly be the work of an Indian, but is +probably largely that of one of the Spanish curas, and appears to have +little in it of interest. + +Another and peculiar form of dramatic recitation is what are called the +Loas or _Logas_, of Central America. In these, a single individual +appears in some quaint costume, in a little theatre erected for the +purpose, and recites a burlesque poem, acting the different portions of +it to the best of his ability. At present, most of these _Logas_ +are of a semi-religious character. The one I have is entitled "The Loga +of the Child-God," _Loga del nino Dios_, and is written in Spanish +intermingled with words from the Mangue or Chorotegan language. This +tongue, spoken by a few persons in Nicaragua, is closely akin to the +Chapanec of Chiapas, and was a sonorous and rich idiom. Those who spoke +it were much given to scenic representations, as we learn from the +historian Oviedo, who lived among them for nearly a year, about 1527. +None of these remain, though as late as about 1820, one of great +antiquity, believed to be an original native production, continued to be +acted. Its title was _La Ollita_ or _El Canahuate_, the former +word meaning the peculiar musical instrument of that locality, the +"whistling jar." The subject was a tale of love, and one of these +primitive flutes was used as an accompaniment to the songs. + + + + +Section 8. _Conclusion_. + + +Thus do I answer the questions which I proposed at the outset of my +thesis. If I have failed to justify the expectations which I may have +raised, at least I have thrown into strong relief the cause of my +failure, to wit, the utter and incredible neglect which, up to this +hour, has prevailed with regard to the preservation of what relics of +native literature which we know have existed,--which do still exist. + +Time and money are spent in collecting remains in wood and stone, in +pottery and tissue and bone, in laboriously collating isolated words, +and in measuring ancient constructions. This is well, for all these +things teach us what manner of men made up the indigenous race, what +were their powers, their aspirations, their mental grasp. But closer to +very self, to thought and being, are the connected expressions of men in +their own tongues. The monuments of a nation's literature are more +correct mirrors of its mind than any merely material objects. I have at +least shown that there are some such, which have been the work of native +American authors. My object is to engage in their preservation and +publication the interest of scholarly men, of learned societies, of +enlightened governments, of liberal institutions and individuals, not +only in my own country, but throughout the world. Science is +cosmopolitan, and the study of man is confined by no geographical +boundaries. The languages of America and the literary productions in +those languages have every whit as high a claim on the attention of +European scholars as have the venerable documents of Chinese lore, the +mysterious cylinders of Assyria, or the painted and figured papyri of +the Nilotic tombs. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: What Dr. Washington Matthews says of one of the Sioux +tribes is, in substance, true of all on the Continent:-- + +"Long winter evenings are often passed in reciting and listening to +stories of various kinds. Some of these are simply the accounts given by +the men, of their own deeds of valor, their hunts and journeys; some are +narrations of the wonderful adventures of departed heroes; while many +are fictions, full of impossible incidents, of witchcraft and magic. The +latter class of stories are very numerous. Some of them have been handed +down through many generations; some are of recent origin; while a few +are borrowed from other tribes. Some old men acquire great reputation as +story tellers, and are invited to houses, and feasted, by those who are +desirous of listening to them. Good story tellers often originate tales, +and do not disclaim the authorship. When people of different tribes meet +they often exchange tales with one another. An old Indian will occupy +several hours in telling a tale, with much elegant and minute +description."--_Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, +pp. 62-3. (Washington, 1877.)] + +[Footnote 2: That these assertions are not merely my own, but those of +the most profound students of these tongues, will be seen from the +following extracts, which could easily be added to:-- + +"This language [the Cree] will be found to be adequate, not only to the +mere expression of their wants, but to that of every circumstance or +sentiment that can, in any way, interest or affect uncultivated +minds."--Joseph Howse, _A Grammar of the Cree Language_, p. 12. +(London, 1865.) + +"J'ai affirme que nos deux grandes langues du Nouveau Monde [the +Iroquois and the Algonkin] etaient tres claires, tres precises, +exprimant avec facilite non seulement les relations exterieures des +idees, mais encore leur relations metaphysiques. C'est ce qu' out +commence de demontrer mes premiers chapitres de grammaire, et ce +qu'achevera de faire voir ce que je vais dire sur les verbes."--Rev. M. +Cuoq, _Jugement Errone de M. Ernest Renan sur les Langues +Sauvages._ p. 32 (2d Ed. Montreal, 1869.) + +"Affermo che non e facile di trovare una lingua piu atta della Messicana +a trattar le materie metafisiche; poiche e difficile di trovarne +un' altra, che tanto abbondi, quanto quella, di nomi astratte."--Clavigero, +_Storia Antica del Messico_, Tomo IV, p. 244. (Cesena, 1781.) + +"Todos los bellisimos sentimientos que se albergan en los nobles +corazones en ninguna otra de aquellas lenguas (Europeas) pueden +encontrar una expresion tan viva tan patetica y energica como la que +tienen en Mexicano. ?En cual otra se habla con tanto acatamiento, con +veneracion tan profunda, de los altisimos mysterios de ineffable amor +que nos muestra el Cristianismo?"--Fr. Agustin de la Rosa, in the _Eco +de la Fe_. (Merida, 1870.) + +Alcide d'Orbigny argues forcibly to the same effect, of the South +American languages:--"Les Quichuas et les Aymaras civilises ont une +langue etendue, pleine de figures elegantes, de comparaisons naives, de +poesie, surtout lorsqu'il s'agit d'amour; et il ne faut pas croire +qu'isoles au sein des forets sauvages ou jetes au milieu des plaines +sans bornes, les peuples chasseurs, agriculteurs et guerriers, soient +prives de formes elegantes, de figures riches et variees."--_L'Homme +Americain_, Tome I, p. 154. + +For other evidence see Brinton, _American Hero Myths_, p. 25. +(Philadelphia, 1882.). Horatio Hale, _The Iroquois Book of Rites_, +p. 107. (Philadelphia, 1883.)] + +[Footnote 3: _Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, +p. 18.] + +[Footnote 4: _The Tribes of California_, p. 73. (Washington, +1877.)] + +[Footnote 5: "Il n'est pas rare de trouver des individus parlant jusqu'a +trois ou quatre langues, aussi distinctes entr'elles que le francais et +l'allemand."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, Tome I, p. +170. The generality of this fact in South America was noted by Humboldt, +_Voyage aux Regions Tropicales_, T. III, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 6: "Hay muchos de ellos buenos gramaticos, y componen +oraciones largas y bien autorizadas, y versos exametros y +pentametros."--Toribio de Motilinia, _Historia de los Indios de la +Nueva Espana_, Tratado III, cap. XII.] + +[Footnote 7: _Menologio Franciscano de los Varones mas Senalados de la +Provincia de Mexico_, Tomo IV, pp. 447-9. (Mexico, 1871.) + +In the Prologue to the _Sermonario Mexicano_ of F. Juan de Bautista +(Mexico, 1606), is a well-written letter, in Latin, by Don Antonio +Valeriano, a native of Atzcaputzalco, who was professor of grammar and +rhetoric in the College of Tlatilulco. Bautista says of him that he +spoke extempore in Latin with the eloquence of a Cicero or a Quintilian; +and his contemporary, the academician Francisco Cervantes Salazar, +writes: "Magistrum habent [Indi] ejusdem nationis, Antonium Valerianum, +nostris grammaticis nequaquam inferiorem, in legis christianae +observatione satis doctum et ad eloquentiam avidissimum."--_Tres +Dialogos Latinos de Francisco Cervantes Salazar_, p. 150 (Ed. +Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1875).] + +[Footnote 8: Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez, _Memorias para la +Historia del Antiguo Reyno de Guatemala_, Tomo III, pp. 201 and 221 +(Guatemala, 1852).] + +[Footnote 9: _Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los Indios +de la Nueva Espana_, in the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para +la Historia de Espana_, Tom. 53, p. 300.] + +[Footnote 10: _A Study of the Manuscript Troano_. By Cyrus Thomas, +Ph.D., with an Introduction by D.G. Brinton, M.D., p. xxvii. +(Washington, 1883.)] + +[Footnote 11: "Tenian libros de pergaminos que hacian de los cueros de +venados, tan anchos como una mano o mas, e tan luengos como diez o doce +passos, e mas e menos, que se encogian e doblaban e resumian en el +tamano e grandeza de una mano por sus dobleces uno contra otro (a +manera de reclamo); y en aquestos tenian pintados sus caracteres o +figuras de tinta roxa o negra, de tal manera que aunque no eran letura +ni escritura, significaban y se entendian por ellas todo lo que querian +muy claramente."--Oviedo, _Historia General y Natural de Indias_, +Lib. XLII, cap. I.] + +[Footnote 12: "Une ecriture consistant en raies tracees sur de petites +planchettes."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, Tomo L, p. +170, on the authority of Viedma, _Informe general de la Provincia de +Santa Cruz, MS_.] + +[Footnote 13: _Legends and Tales of the Eskimo_. (Edinburgh and +London, 1875.)] + +[Footnote 14: _Pok, Kalalek avalangnek, etc._, Nongme, 1857; or, +_Pok, en Groenlaender, som har reist og ved sin Hjemkomst, etc. Efter +gamle Handskrifter fundne hos Groenlaendere ved Godthaab._ Godthaab, +1857.] + +[Footnote 15: _Kaladlit Assilialit, etc._ See Thomas W. Field, +_Indian Bibliography_, p. 199. (New York, 1873.)] + +[Footnote 16: First printed in _The American Whig Review_, New York, +Feb. 1849; reprinted in _The Indian Miscellany_, edited by W.W. +Beach, Albany, 1877. I have not been able to find the original.] + +[Footnote 17: Horatio Hale, _The Iroquois Book of Rites_. +(Philadelphia, 1883.) It is No. II of my "Library of Aboriginal American +Literature." + +The introductory essay, in ten chapters, treats at considerable length +of the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois nations, the Iroquois +League and its founders (Hiawatha, Dekanawidah, and their associates), +the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, +the clan system, the laws of the League, and the historical traditions +relating to it, the Iroquois character and public policy, and the +Iroquois language. A map prefixed to the work shows the location of the +United Nations and of the surrounding tribes.] + +[Footnote 18: _Recit de Francois Kaondinoketc, Chef des Nipissingues +(tribu de race Algonquine) ecrit par lui-meme en 1848.--Traduit en +Francais et accompagne de notes par_ M.N.O., 8vo. pp. 8. (Paris, +1877.)] + +[Footnote 19: _The National Legend of the Chata-Muskokee Tribes_. By +Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. Morrisania, N.Y., 1870. 4to. pp. 13. Reprinted +from _The Historical Magazine_, February, 1870.] + +[Footnote 20: "Les chefs des vieillards m'avoient souvent parle de leurs +ancetres, des courses qu'ils avoient faites, et des combats qu'ils +avoient eu a soutenir, avant que la nation put se fixer ou elle est +aujourd'hui. L'histoire de ces premiers Creeks, qui portoient alors le +nom de Moskoquis, etoit conservee par des banderoles ou chapelets," +etc.--_Memoire ou Coup-d'Oeil Rapide sur mes different Voyages et mon +Sejour dans la Nation Creck,_ Par le Gen. Milfort, pp. 48, 229. +(Paris, An. XI, 1802).] + +[Footnote 21: "We burned all we could find of them," writes Bishop Landa, +"which pained the natives to an extraordinary degree."--_Relacion de +las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 316. For a discussion of what was destroyed +at Mani see Cogolludo, _Historia de Yucatan_, 3d Ed., Vol. I, p. +604, note by the Editor. The efforts which have of late been made by +Senor Icazbalceta and the Reverend Canon Carrillo to modify the general +opinion of these acts of vandalism cannot possibly be successful. The +ruthless hostility of the Church to the ancient civilization, an +hostility founded on religious intolerance, could be proved by hundreds +of extracts from the early writers.] + +[Footnote 22: Boturini's work is entitled _Idea de una Nueva Historia +General de la America Septentrional fundada sobre material copioso +defiguras, Symbolos, Caracteres, y Geroglificos, Cantares y Manuscritos +de Autores Indios_. Madrid, 1746. The fate of his collection is +sketched by Brasseur de Bourbourg, in the introduction to his +_Histoire des Nations civilisees de Mexique et de l'Amerique +Centrale_, Vol I.] + +[Footnote 23: The following extract from Ixtlilxochitl sums up the native +authorities on which he relied for the particulars of the life of the +last prince of Tezcuco, and merits quotation as a bit of literary +history:-- + +"Autores son de todo lo referido, y de los demas de su vida y hechos los +infantes de Mexico Ytzcoatzin y Xiuhcozcatzin, y otros Poetas y +Historicos en los anales de las tres cabezas de esta Nueva Espana, y en +particular en los anales que hizo el infante Quauhtlazaciulotzin, primer +Senor del pueblo de Chiauhtla; y asimismo se halla en las relaciones que +escribieron los infantes de la ciudad de Tezcuco, Don Pablo, Don +Toribio, Don Hernando Pimentel y Juan de Pomar hijos y nietos del Rey +Nezalhualpiltzintli de Tezcuco, y asimismo el infante Don Alonso +Axiaicatzin Senor de Itztapalapan, hijo del rey de Cuitlahuac, y sobrino +del rey Motecutzomatzin."--Ixtlilxochitl, _Historia Chichimeca_, +cap. XLIX.] + +[Footnote 24: In the celebrated library of J.F. Ramirez, were two folio +volumes, containing 1022 pages, entitled _Anales Antiguos de Mexico y +sus Contornos_. They included, besides various Spanish accounts, 27 +fragments in the Nahuatl language, some translated and some not. The +titles of all are given by Don Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, in his +valuable and rare _Apuntes para un Catalogo de Escritores en Lenguas +Indigenas de America_, pp. 140-142. (Mexico, 1866.)] + +[Footnote 25: _Memorial del Pueblo de Teptlaustuque, en la Nueva +Espana; en que se refiere su Origen i Poblacion, i de los Tributos i +Servicios, antes i despues de la Conquista; todo pintado, i M.S._ En +la Libreria del Rei. Antonio de Leon i Pinelo, _Bibliotheca +Occidental_. The district of Tepetlaoztoc belonged to Tezcuco.] + +[Footnote 26: "Don Gabriel Castaneda, Indio principal, natural de +Michuacan Colomocho en la Provincia de Mejico. Escribio en Lengua +Megicana, _Relacion_ de la Jornada que hizo Sandoval Acaxitli, +Cacique y Senor de Tlalmanalco, con el Sr. Visorey Don Antonio de +Mendoza en la Conquista de los Chichimecas de Xuchipila, +1541."--Beristain y Souza, _Biblioteca Hispano-Americana +Septentrional_, s.v.] + +[Footnote 27: For testimony to this interesting fact see _The Maya +Chronicles_, Introduction, p. 28, note.] + +[Footnote 28: _The Books of Chilan Balam, The Prophetic and Historic +Records of the Mayas of Yucatan_. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D., +Philadelphia, 1882. Reprint from the _Penn Monthly_, March, 1882.] + +[Footnote 29: _Library of Aboriginal American Literature_, Vol. I, +p. 189. (Philadelphia, 1882.)] + +[Footnote 30: An intelligent appreciation of the linguistic labors of Pio +Perez was written by Dr. Berendt, in 1871, and printed in +Mexico.--_Los Trabajos Linguisticos de Don Juan Pio Perez_. 8vo. +pp. 6.] + +[Footnote 31: _Disertacion sobre la Historia de la Lengua Maya o +Yucateca_. Por Crescencio Carrillo. Published in the _Revista de +Merida_, 1870.] + +[Footnote 32: A fine manuscript of Vico's work, as well as a number of +other productions in Cakchiquel, by the missionaries, are in the library +of the American Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia.] + +[Footnote 33: Tecpan Atitlan is a village on the shore of Lake Atitlan, +in the province of Solola, Guatemala.] + +[Footnote 34: Don Domingo Juarros, _Compendio de la Historia de la +Ciudad de Guatemala_, Tomo, II pp. 6, 7, 12, 16, et al. (Ed. +Guatemala, 1857). A copy of Tzumpan's writings is said to be in a +private library in the United States. + +The native Cakchiquel writers were also the authorities on which Father +Vazquez depended, in part, in composing his history of Guatemala. He +gives a partial translation of one, beginning the passage: "Los Indios +de Zolola dizen en sus escritos," etc.--Fray Francisco Vazquez, +_Cronica de la Provincia de Guatemala_, Lib. III, Cap. XXXVI. +(Guatemala, 1714, 1716.)] + +[Footnote 35: Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Bibliotheque +Mexico-Guatemalienne_, p. 142. (Paris, 1871.)] + +[Footnote 36: _Titulos de la Casa de Ixcuin-Nehaib, Senora del +Territorio de Otzoya_. Guatemala, 1876. 8vo. pp. 15. Reprint from the +_Boletin de la Sociedad Economica de Guatemala_.] + +[Footnote 37: _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia +de Guatemala, traducidas de la lengua Quiche al Castellano_. Por el +R.P.F. Francisco Ximenez. 8vo. Vienna, 1857.] + +[Footnote 38: _Popol Vuh. Le Livre Sacre et les Mythes de l'Antiquite +Americaine, avec les livres heroiques et historiques des Quiches_. +Par l'Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. (Paris, 1861.)] + +[Footnote 39: _The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths of Central +America_. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 8vo. pp. 37. (Philadelphia, +1881.) Reprint from the _Proceedings_ of the American Philosophical +Society, 1881.] + +[Footnote 40: Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia de la America +Septentrional_, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 41: Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_, p 33.] + +[Footnote 42: _American Hero-Myths_, pp. 213-217. (Philadelphia, +1882.)] + +[Footnote 43: On this Qquichua MS. see Marcos Jimenez de la Espada, +_Tres Relaciones de Antiguedades Peruanas_. Introd. p. 34.] + +[Footnote 44: _Relacion de las Costumbres Antiguas de los Naturales del +Piru_, printed in the work last quoted, p. 142, note.] + +[Footnote 45: "En cabildo de 29 de Julio de 1692, el capitan Don Antonio +de Fuentes y Guzman trajo a esta sala siete peticiones escritas en +cortezas de arboles."--Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez, _Memorias +para la Historia del Antiguo Reyno de Guatemala_, Tom. II, p. 267. +(Guatemala, 1852.)] + +[Footnote 46: _O Selvagem. Trabalho Preparatorio para aproveitamento de +Selvagem e de solo por elle occupado no Brazil_. Rio de Janeiro, +1876.] + +[Footnote 47: _Notes on the Lingoa Geral, or Modern Tupi of the +Amazonas_, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philological +Association, for 1872.] + +[Footnote 48: Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia_, etc., App. pp. +57 et seq.; Didacus Valades, _Rhetorica Christiana_, Pars Secunda +(Perusia, 1579); Gemelli Carreri, _Giro del Mundo_.] + +[Footnote 49: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. I, p. 449 +(London, 1843).] + +[Footnote 50: _Relacion de las Ceremonias y Ritos de Mechoacan_. The +MS. of this work, in the Library of Congress, does not contain the +Calendar which the author, in the body of the work, promises to append; +nor apparently does the copy in Madrid, from which the work was printed, +in Vol. 53 of the _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia +de Espana_.] + +[Footnote 51: _Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de Mexico. +Codex en Geroglificos Mexicanos y en lengua Castellana y Azteca._ +First published at Madrid, 1878. A specimen of the map, "Carte +Geographique Azteque," is given by Professor Leon de Rosny, in _Les +Documents Ecrit de l'Antiquite Americaine_, p. 70 (Paris, 1882).] + +[Footnote 52: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. II, p. 265, gives +a Maya map of Mani. A more complete study of the subject is that of +Carrillo, _Geografia Maya_, in the _Anales del Museo Nacional de +Mexico_, Tom. II, p. 435.] + +[Footnote 53: _Silabario de Idioma Mexicano, dispuesto por el_ Lic. +Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia, Mexico, 1849, 8vo. pp. 16. Second +edition, Mexico, 1859, 8vo. pp. 32. Also _Epitome o Modo Facil de +Aprender el Idioma Nahuatl_, 12mo. pp. 124, Mexico, 1869.] + +[Footnote 54: _Elementos de la Gramatica Megicana_, por Don Antonio +Tobar Cano y Moctezuma. Written about 1642.] + +[Footnote 55: _Confessionario Mayor y Menor en Lengua Mexicana, y +Platicas contra las Supersticiones de Idolatria, que el dia de oy an +quedado a los Naturales desta Nueva Espana_. Ano de 1634. Mexico. A +copy of this scarce volume is in my library.] + +[Footnote 56: Dr. Couto de Magalhaes remarks: "Como o nome indica, este +missionario devia ser algum mestico que, com o leite materno, beben os +primeiros rudimentos da grande lingua Sul-Americana."--_Origens, +Costumes e Regias Selvagem_, p. 62 (Rio de Janeiro, 1876). In 1876 M. +Varuhagen published, at Vienna, a _Historia da paixao de Christo e +taboa dos parentescos em lingua Tupi_, written by Yapuguay, an +extract, apparently, from the volume mentioned in the text. The edition +was only 100 copies.] + +[Footnote 57: C.F. Hartt, _On the Lingoa Geral of the Amazonas_, p. +3, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philological Association, +1872.] + +[Footnote 58: _Tah-gah-jute; or, Logan and Cresap. An Historical +Essay._ By Brantz Mayer. (Albany, 1867.)] + +[Footnote 59: _History of the American Indians_, pp. 52, 63. +(London, 1775.)] + +[Footnote 60: James Howse, A Grammar of the Cree Language, p. 11. +(London, 1865.)] + +[Footnote 61: "Piensan que un hombre que habla sin cortarse y con soltura +debe ser de una naturaleza superior y privilegiada. Por solo esta +circumstancia ascienden el grado de Ghulmenes o caciques, u hombres +notables." Federico Barbara, _Manual o Vocabulario de la Lengua +Pampa_, p. 164. (Buenos Aires, 1879.)] + +[Footnote 62: Rev. Cyrus Byington, _Grammar of the Choctaw +Language_, p. 20 (Philadelphia, 1870.)] + +[Footnote 63: _Huehue_, ancient; _tlatolli_, words, speeches. A +special variety were the _calmecatlatolli_, the declamations which +the youths of noble families were taught to deliver in the spacious +halls of the _calmecac_, or public schools. "Calmeca tlatolli, +palabras dichas en corredores largos. E tomase por los dichos y +fictiones de los viejos antiguos." Molina, _Vocabulario de la Lengua +Mexicana, sub voce_. The word _calmecac_ is a compound of _calli_, +house, and _mecana_, to give, it being the building furnished by +the State for purposes of public instruction.] + +[Footnote 64: Fr. Juan Baptista (or Bautista), _Platicas Morales en +Lengua Mexicana, intitulados Huehuetlatolli_, 8vo. Mexico (1599? or +1601?). This work is not mentioned by Icazbalceta, but is described in +Berendt's notes, and a copy was sold in Paris in 1869. It is enumerated +by Vetancurt, _Menologio Franciscano_, p. 446 (2d ed.).] + +[Footnote 65: Olmos, _Grammaire de la Langue Nahuatl_, pp. 231 sqq. +(Paris 1875.)] + +[Footnote 66: _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Incas._ +Translated by C. R. Markham. Printed for the Hackluyt Society (London, +1873).] + +[Footnote 67: _Chrestomathie de la Langue Maya_, in _Etude sur le +Systeme Graphique et la Langue des Mayas._ (Paris, 1870.)] + +[Footnote 68: Bernal Diaz gives an interesting account of this "black +sermon," as he calls it. The incident is significant, as it shows that +the natives were accustomed to gather around their places of worship, to +listen to addresses by the priests. See the _Historia Verdadera de la +Conquista de la Nueva Espana_, Cap. XXVII. (Madrid, 1632.)] + +[Footnote 69: Some judicious remarks on the origin and development of +aboriginal poetry are offered by Theodore Baker, in his excellent +monograph on the music of the North American Indians, but his field of +view was somewhat too restricted to do the subject full justice, as, +indeed, he acknowledges. _Ueber die Musik der Nord-Americanischen +Wilden_, von Theodor Baker, pp. 6-14. (Leipzig, 1882.)] + +[Footnote 70: Schoolcraft, _History, Condition and Prospects of the +Indian Tribes of the United States_, vol. V, p. 559.] + +[Footnote 71: _Grammaire et Vocabulaire de la Langue Taensa, avec +Textes traduits et commentes_. Par J.D. Haumonte, Parisot, et L. +Adam. Paris, 1882.] + +[Footnote 72: "Or, i'ay assez de commerce avec la poesie pour juger cecy, +que non seulement il n'y a rien de barbaric en cette imagination, mais +qu'elle est tout a faict anacreontique."--_Essais de Michel de +Montaigne_, Liv. I, cap. XXX, and comp. cap. XXXVI.] + +[Footnote 73: "Chez les Guarayos, ces hymnes religieux et allegoriques, +si riches en figures.--Il est impossible de trouver rien de plus +gracieux." + +"Quant a leurs poetes, le charme avec lequel ils peignent l'amour, +annonce, certainement en eux, une intelligence developpee et autant +d'esprit que de sensibilite."--Alcide D'Orbigny, _L'Homme +Americain_, Tome I, pp. 155, 170.] + +[Footnote 74: "Negli avanci, che si restano della lor Poesia, vi sono +alcuni versi, ne'quali tra le parole significative si vedono frapposte +certe interjezioni, o sillabe prive d'ogni significazione, e soltanto +adoperate, per quel ch'appare, per aggiustarsi al metro. Il linguaggio +della lor Poesia era puro, ameno, brilliante, figurato, e fregiato di +frequenti comparazioni fatte colle cose piu piacevoli della natura, +siccome fiori, alberi, ruscelli, &c."--_Clavigero, Storia di +Messico_. Tom. II, p. 175.] + +[Footnote 75: The originals of some of these poems were in the hands of +Ixtlilxochitl, as is evident from his _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. +XLVII.] + +[Footnote 76: Sahagun, _Psalmodia Xpiana_. (Mexico, 1583?) An +extremely rare book, which I have never seen. Clavigero saw a copy, and +thinks it was printed about 1540. _Storia di Messico_, Tom. II, p, +178, Note.] + +[Footnote 77: It is mentioned by Icazbalceta, _Apuntes para un Catalogo +de Escritores en Lenguas Indigenas de America_, p. 146. (Mexico, +1866.) There are, however, two copies of it extant, somewhere.] + +[Footnote 78: See Mr. Clements R. Markham's Introductions to his edition +of the _Ollanta_ drama (London, 1871); and to his _Qquichua +Grammar and Dictionary_ (London, 1864).] + +[Footnote 79: "I'en demeurai tout rauy; mais aussi toutes les fois qu'il +m'en ressouuient, le coeur m'en tressaillant, il me semble que ie les +aye encor aux oreilles."--Jean de Lery, _Histoire d'un voyage faict en +la terre du Bresil, autrement dite Amerique_, pp. 258, 286. (Geneve, +1585.)] + +[Footnote 80: See his _Origens, Costumes e Regiaeo Selvagem_, pp. +78-82, 140-147. (Rio de Janeiro, 1876.)] + +[Footnote 81: Spix and Martius, _Reise in Brasilien, Brasilianische +Volkslieder und Indianische Melodien, Musikbeilage_.] + +[Footnote 82: _Une Fete Bresilienne celebree a Rouen en 1550 suivie +d'un Fragment du XVI'e Siecle roulant sur la Theogonie des anciens +Peuples du Bresil et des Poesies en Langue Tupique, de Christovam +Valente_. Par Ferdinand Denis, pp. 36-51, 98, sqq. (Paris, 1850.)] + +[Footnote 83: The Arawack language, which is now spoken in Guiana only, +at the time of the discovery extended over the Greater and Lesser +Antilles and the Bahama Islands, as I have shown in an essay on _The +Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological +Relations_, in the _Transactions_ of the American Philosophical +Society, 1870.] + +[Footnote 84: _The Memoirs of Lieutenant Henry Timberlake_, p. 80 +(London 1765).] + +[Footnote 85: In the ancient Qquichua literature the tragic dramas were +called _huancay_; those of a comic nature, _aranhuay_. Both +were composed in assonant verses of six and eight syllables, which were +not sung or chanted, but repeated with dramatic intonation.] + +[Footnote 86: On the bibliography of the drama see Zegarra, _Ollantai, +Drame en Vers Quechuas du temps des Incas_, Introd. p. CLXXIII. +(Paris, 1878.) The English translation is by Clements R. Markham, +_Ollanta, an Ancient Ynca Drama_ (London, 1871).] + +[Footnote 87: The recent attempt of General Don Bartolome Mitre, of +Buenos Ayres, to discredit the antiquity of the Ollanta drama (in the +_Nueva Revista de Buenos Ayres_, 1881), has been most thoroughly +and conclusively refuted by Mr. Clements R. Markham, in the volume of +the Hackluyt Society's Publications for 1883.] + +[Footnote 88: _Rabinal-Achi, ou le Drame Ballet du Tun_, published +as an appendix to the _Grammaire de la Langue Quiche_ (Paris, 1862). +The Abbe Brasseur asserts that he wrote down this drama from verbal +information, at the village of Rabinal in Guatemala; but a note by Dr. +Berendt in my possession characterizes this statement as incorrect, and +adds: "Brasseur found the MS. all written, in the hands of an hacendado, +on the road from Guatemala to Chiapas. The original exists still in the +same place." It was a weakness with the Abbe to throw, designedly, +considerable obscurity about his authorities and the sources of his +knowledge.] + + * * * * * + + + + + + +INDEX. + +Names of native authors and productions are in _italics_. + +Abolachi +Adair, James +Adam, L. +Algonkins +_Alva, B. de_ +_Anales de Cuauhtitlan_ +Anales del Museo Nacional +_Apes, Rev. Wm._ +Araucanians +Arawacks +Atitlan, Lake +Aubin, M. +Avila, F. de +_Ayala, G, de_ +Aymaras +Aztecs + +Baker, T. +Barbara, Fed. +Bautista, J. de +Beach, W.W. +Beaver Indians +Berendt, C.H. +Beristain y Souza +_Book of the Jew_ +_Book of Rites_ +_Books of Chilan Balam_ +Boturini, L. +_Boudinot, Elias_ +Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abbe +Brinton, D.G. +Byington, Rev. C. + +Cabrera, P.F. +Cakchiquels +Californian Indians +_Camargo, D.M._ +Carochi, H. +Carreri, G. +Carrillo, Rev. C. +_Cartas de Indias_ +_Castaneda, G._ +_Chac Xulub Chen_, Chronicle of +Chahta-Muskokees +Chapanec language +_Chekilli_ +_Cherokee Phoenix_ +Cherokees +Chiapas +Chichimecs +Chignavincelut +_Chilan Balam, Books of_ +Chili, Tribes of +_Chimalpain, D. Munon_ +_Chimalpopoca, F, Lic._ +Chippeways +Choctaws +Chorotegan language +_Clark, P. Dooyentate_ +Clavigero, F.S. +_Codex, Aztec_ +_Codex, Chimalpopoca_ +Cogolludo, D. +_Copway, George_ +Couto de Magalhaes, Dr. +_Coy, Domingo_ +Creeks +Crees +Cuoq, M. +Cushing, F.H. +_Cusick, David_ + +Dakotas +Delawares +Denis, F. +Diaz, B. +D'Orbigny, A. +Dorsey, J.O. + +Eskimo + +Field, T.W. +Franca, Dr. E.F. +Fuentes y Guzman + +Garcia, A. +Gatschet, A.S. +Gavarrete, Sr. +_Gomez, F._ +Guarani language +Guarayos +_Gueegueence, The_ + +Hale, H. +Hartt, C.F. +Hiawatha +Hidatsa Indians +Howse, J. +Humboldt, A. +Humboldt, W. von +Huron-Iroquois + +Icazbalceta, J.G. +Iroquois +Iroquois Book of Rites +_Ixtlilxochitl, F. de A._ +_Izquin, F._ + +_Japuguay, Nic._ +_Jew, The Book of the_ +Jimenez de la Espada +_Johnson, Elias_ +_Jones, Rev. Peter_ +Juarros, Dom. + +Kaladlit +_Kaondinoketc, F._ +Kekchi language +Kiches +Klamaths + +Landa, Bishop +Latinists, Indian +_La Vega, Garcilasso de_ +Leon i Pinelo, Ant. +Lery, Jean de +Lingoa Geral +_Loaysa, F. de_ +_Logan's Speech_ +_Logas, The_ +_Luis Inca_ + +_Macario, J._ +_Macho-Raton, The_ +Mangue language +_Maps, Native_ +Matthews, Dr. W. +Mayer, Brantz +Markham, C.R. +Martius, C. von +Mayas +_Maya Chronicles, The_ +Mendoza, Ant., de +Mendoza, G. +Mexicans +Michoacan +Milfort, Gen. +Mitre, B. +Molina, A. +Montaigne, M. +Motolinia, T. de +Moxos +Muskokees +Muyscas + +Nahuatl Language +Nahuatl-Spanish Dialect +_Nakuk Pech_ +_Nehaib, Titles of_ +_Nezahualcoyotl_ +_Nezahualpilli_ +Nicaraguans +Nipissings +Nunez de la Vega. + +Ojibways +_Ollanta, The_ +_Ollita, The_ +Olmos, Andre de +Omahas +Oviedo, F. + +_Pachacuti, Don J._ +Pampas, Tribes of +_Pasiones, Las_ +Pelaez, F.P. Garcia +Pequods +Perez, Juan Pio +Peruvians +_Pimentel, Ant._ +_Pimentel, H._ +Pipils +Pocomans +_Pok_ +_Ponce, Pedro_ +_Pomar, J. de_ +_Popol Vuh, The_ +Powers, S. +_Prophecies of Mayas_ + +_Queh, F.T.G._ +Quiches, see _Kiches_ +Qquichuas +Quipus + +_Rabinal Achi_ +Rafinesque, C.S. +Ramirez, J.F. +Rink, Dr. H. +_Rosa, A. de la_ +Rosny, Leon de + +Sahagun, B. de +Salazar, F.C. +_San Antonio, J. de_ +Sanchez Solis, F. +Scherzer, C. +Schoolcraft, H.R. +_Sequoyah_ +Simeon, Remi +Sioux +Six Nations +Smith, B. +Solola, Province +Squier, E.G. + +Taensas +_Tanner, J._ +Tarascos +_Tecpan Atitlan_ +Tezcuco +_Tezozomoc, F. de A._ +Theologia Indorum +Thomas, C. +Timberlake, H. +Timucuana +Tlatilulco, College of +_Tlaxcallan, History of_ +_Tobar, Ant_. +_Tomar, J.B. de_ +_Tonalamatl, The_ +_Torres, J._ +Tupis +Tuscaroras +_Tzolante, The_ +Tzendals +_Tzumpan, F.G.C._ + +Valades, D. +_Valeriano, Antonio_ +Varnhagen, M. +Vazquez, F. +Vetancurt, A. de +Vico, Domingo de +Viracocha +_Votan_ + +_Walum Olum_ +Ward, Dr. +Wyandotts + +_Xahila, F.E.A._ +Ximenez, F. + +_Zacicoxol, the_ +_Zapata y Mendoza, J.V._ +Zapotecs +Zegarra, G.P. +Zoque language +Zunis + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Library of Aboriginal American Literature. + +General Editor and Publisher, DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D., + +115 South Seventh St., Philadelphia, Pa., United States. + +The European Market will be supplied by + +NICHOLAS TRUeBNER & CO., 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London, England. + +_The aim of this series is to put within the reach of scholars +authentic materials for the study of the languages, history and culture +of the native races of North and South America. Each of the works +selected will be the production of a native author, and will be printed +in the original tongue, with an English translation and notes. Most of +them will be from unpublished manuscripts, and they will form a series +indispensable to the future student of American archaeology, ethnology or +linguistics. They will be printed FROM TYPE, AND IN LIMITED EDITIONS +ONLY. The volumes will be sold SEPARATELY, at moderate prices, either in +paper or bound in cloth. They will all be planted on heavy laid paper, +of the best quality. The following have already appeared_:-- + + * * * * * + +NO. I. THE MAYA CHRONICLES. + +Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 279. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. + +This volume contains five brief chronicles in the Maya language of +Yucatan, written shortly after the Conquest, and carrying the history of +that people back many centuries. To these is added a history of the +Conquest, written in his native tongue, by a Maya Chief, in 1562. The +texts are preceded by an introduction on the history of the Mayas; their +language, calendar, numeral system, etc.; and a vocabulary is added at +the close. + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"We hope that Dr. Brinton will receive every encouragement in his labors +to disclose to Americans these literary antiquities of the Continent. He +eminently deserves it, both by the character of his undertaking and the +quality of his work."--_The American_ (Phila.) + +"It would be difficult to praise too highly the task Dr. Brinton has set +before him. Prepared by long studies in the same field, he does not +undertake the work as a novice. ... There should be no hesitation among +those who wish well to American antiquarianism in subscribing to the +series edited and published by Dr. Brinton."--_The Critic_. + +"Dr. Brinton's work upon the history of the Mayas or Aborigines of +Yucatan [the "Maya Chronicles"] is a most important contribution to the +literature of American antiquities. ... Comparative linguists, as well +as archaeologists, will find a new and very interesting subject of study +in these remains."--_The Saturday Review_ (London). + +"The efforts of Dr. Brinton will be welcomed by all antiquarian +students, for they are not only original contributions, but are also +presented in a readable and interesting manner."--_The American +Antiquarian_. + + * * * * * + +No. II. The IROQUOIS BOOK OF RITES. + +Edited by HORATIO HALE, Esq. + +1 vol., 8vo. Price, paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. + +The "BOOK OF RITES" is a native composition, which was preserved orally +for centuries, and was written down about a century ago. It gives the +speeches, songs and ceremonies which were rehearsed when a chief died +and his successor was appointed. The fundamental laws of the League, a +list of their ancient towns, and the names of the chiefs who composed +their first council, are also comprised in the work. It may be said to +carry the authentic history of Northern America back to a period fifty +years earlier than the era of Columbus. The introductory essay treats of +the ethnology and history of the Huron-Iroquois League and its founders, +the origin of the Book of Rites, the composition of the Federal Council, +the clan system, the laws of the League, and the Iroquois character, +public policy, and language. + + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS AND OF EMINENT WRITERS. + +"This work may be said to open a field of Indian research new to +ethnologists. ... These precious relics of antiquity are concise in +their wording, and full of meaning. ... The additions made by Mr. Hall +are almost as valuable as the texts themselves." --_The Nation_ New +York, September 13, 1883. + +"The reputation of the author, added to this fascinating title, will +insure its favorable reception, not only by ethnologists, but also, the +reading public. ... A remarkable discovery, and indisputably of great +ethnological value. ... A book which is as suggestive as this must bear +good fruit."--_Science_, August 31,1883. + +"The work contains much new material of permanent interest and value to +the historical scholar and the scientist. ... "--_The Magazine of +American History_, September, 1883. + +"In this Book of Rites we have poetry, law, history, tradition and +genealogy, interesting and valuable for many reasons...."--_Good +Literature_, August 18, 1883. + +"The Book of Rites is edited by the eminent philologist, Mr. Horatio +Hale, who has done so much to elucidate the whole subject of Indian +ethnography and migrations, with the argument derived from language in +connection with established tradition; and especially to disentangle +Iroquois history from its complications with the legends of their +mythology."--_Auburn Daily Advertiser_, July 21, 1883. + +"The book is one of great ethnological value, in the light it casts on +the political and social life, as well as the character and capacity, of +the people with whom it originated."--_Popular Science Monthly_, +November 1883. + +"It is a philosophical and masterly treatise on the Iroquois league and +the cognate tribes, their relations, language, mental characteristics +and polity, such as we have never had of any nation of this +Continent...."--_Dr. J. Gilmary Shea_. + +"It is full of instructive hints, particularly as bearing on the state +of so-called savages before they are brought in contact with so-called +civilized men. Such evidence is, from the nature of the case, very +difficult to obtain, and therefore all the more valuable...."--_Prof. +F. Max Mueller_. + +"It gives us a much clearer insight into the formation and workings of +the Iroquois league than we before possessed."--_Hon. George S. +Conover_. + +"It contains more that is authentic and new, of the Iroquois nations, +than any other single work with which I am acquainted."--_Rev. Charles +Hawley, D.D._ + + * * * * * + +No. III. THE COMEDY-BALLET OF GUeEGUeENCE. + +Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +1 vol., 8vo. Paper, $2.00; Cloth, $2.50. + + +A curious and unique specimen of the native comic dances, with +dialogues, called _bailes_, formerly common in Central America. It +is in the mixed Nahuatl-Spanish jargon of Nicaragua, and shows +distinctive features of native authorship. The Introduction treats of +the ethnology of Nicaragua, and the local dialects, musical instruments, +and dramatic representations of that section of our continent. A map and +a number of illustrations are added. + +Other important works, in various native languages, are in the course of +preparation, under competent editorship. + +Of these may be mentioned-- + +THE NATIONAL LEGEND OF THE CREEKS. Edited by A.S. GATSCHET. + +The original account, written in 1735; an English translation, and a +re-translation into the Creek language, in which it was originally +delivered, by an educated native, and into the Hitchiti, a dialect +cognate to the Creek. + +THE ANNALS OF THE KAKCHIQUELS. By ERNANTEZ XAHILA. + +These chronicles are the celebrated _Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_ so +often quoted by the late Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. They are invaluable +for the ancient history and mythology of Gautemalan nations, and are of +undoubted authenticity and antiquity. + +THE ANNALS OF QUAUHTITLAN. Edited by A.F. BANDELIER. + +The original Aztec text, with a new translation. This is also known as +the _Codex Chimalpopoca_. It is one of the most curious and +valuable documents in Mexican archaeology. + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTHOLOGY. Edited by DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. + +A collection of the songs, chants and metrical compositions of the +Indians, designed to display the emotional and imaginative powers of the +race and the prosody of their languages. + + * * * * * + +_The following two works are not portions of the series, but are +related to it by their contents. They may be obtained from the same +publishers_. + +AMERICAN HERO-MYTHS. + +A STUDY in the NATIVE RELIGIONS of the WESTERN CONTINENT. + +By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., etc. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 251. (Philad'a, 1882.) Cloth, Price, $1.75. + + + +NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"Dr. Brinton writes from a minute and extended knowledge of the original +sources. ... His work renders a signal service to the cause of +comparative mythology in our country."--_The Literary World_ +(Boston). + +"This study of certain of the most remarkable stories of American +mythology is exceedingly interesting."--_The Saturday Review_ +(London). + +"In his 'American Hero-Myths' Dr. Brinton gives us the clue to the +religious thought of the aboriginal Races. ... It is a learned and +careful book, clearly written, popular in style though scientific +in method, and must be a good deal fresher than a novel to most +readers."--_The American_ (Philadelphia). + +"This volume is the first attempt at what is entitled to be regarded as +a critically accurate presentation of the fundamental conceptions found +in the native beliefs of the tribes of America."--_The New England +Bibliopolist_. + +"This is a thoughtful and original contribution to the science of +comparative religion."--_The Boston Journal_. + +"We regard the 'Hero Myths' as a valuable contribution to the history of +religion and to comparative mythology."--_The Teacher_ (Philadelphia). + +"...These few extracts give no idea of the mass of legends in this +volume, and the queer, out-of-the-way information it supplies concerning +the ideas and usages of races now extinct or hastening to +extinction."--_The Dublin Evening Mail_. + +"Dr. Brinton, in his 'American Hero-Myths,' has applied the comparative +method soberly, and backed it by solid research in the original +authors."--_The Critic_ (New York). + + +ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS, AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS. + +Especially those in the Native Languages. +A Contribution to the History of Literature. + +By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., etc. + +1 vol., 8vo, pp. 63. Boards. Price, $1.00. + +An essay founded on an address presented to the Congress of +Americanists, at Copenhagen, in 1883. It is an extended review of the +literary efforts of the red race, in their own tongues, and in English, +Latin and Spanish (both manuscript and printed). An entirely novel field +of inquiry is opened to view, of equal interest to ethnologists, +linguists and historians. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Aboriginal American Authors, by Daniel G. 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