PERSONS who are obliged to rely on memory find that memory develops with use and becomes more reliable. The Amerinds, having no written language, if we except the Nahuatl and Mayan tribes, had no way of preserving their tales, traditions, and legends except to remember them, and there can be no doubt that everywhere on the continent memory was highly developed. To assist in recalling them they had their picture-writing, already described. The method is well illustrated in the remarkable Walam Olum, or Red Score of the Lenapé, where a most poetic account of the origin of things is recorded by means of a few rude pictures made by lines and dots.[351] There has been some doubt as to the genuineness of this score, first recorded by Rafinesque, but Brinton, who was a scholar of fine intellect and calm judgment and thoroughly versed in all the intricacies of the situation, accepted it as a genuine Amerind production “which was repeated orally to someone indifferently conversant with the Delaware language, who wrote it down to the best of his ability. In its present form it can, as a whole, lay no claim either to antiquity, or to purity of linguistic form. Yet, as an authentic modern version, slightly coloured by European teachings, of the ancient tribal traditions, it is well worth preservation.... The narrator was probably one of the native chiefs or priests, who had spent his life in the Ohio and Indiana towns of the Lenapé, and who, though with some knowledge of Christian instruction, preferred the pagan rites, legends, and myths of his ancestors. Probably certain lines and passages were repeated in the archaic form in which they had been handed down for generations.... The cosmogony describes the formation of the world by the Great Manito, and its subsequent despoliation by the spirit of the waters, under the form of a serpent. The happy days are depicted, when men lived without wars or sickness, and food was at all times abundant. Evil beings of mysterious power introduced cold and war and sickness and premature death. Then began strife and long wanderings.”[352] We can readily understand how a few rude lines could recall to the Amerind mind a whole story, and especially to the mind of one trained to exercise his memory in such directions. It is not necessary for me to do more for the Christian reader than write “Xmas,” and he can from it review the whole wonderful story of Christ in all its details. So it was with the Amerind. Those entrusted with the preservation of the legends, etc., learned them perfectly and year by year repeated them on the proper occasion to their followers. Changes were probably sometimes made in the text of some to suit them to changed conditions, but the accuracy was so great that myths and legends have been found to contain archaic words which the members of the tribe were unable to explain, and which yielded only to the expert analysis of a white linguist.

With the Amerind a group of myths, traditions, and legends developed along with each particular stock. Each language had its own accumulation of these tales, etc., relating to animals, to natural forces personified, and sometimes to real personages. Savage races worship animal gods and natural objects personified as animals.[353] In the middle state called barbarism the religion becomes a worship of the phenomena of nature, pure and simple, frequently personified as animals or beings, as in the case of the thunder and lightning generally attributed by the Amerinds to the mysterious “thunder-bird,” which is also believed by some to be a great being who takes on the form of a bird. In civilisation the worship of one God takes the place of all the others, while the myths and legends of earlier days survive in mythological literature and in unconscious thoughts and acts of individuals. Looking at the moon over the right shoulder for luck, objections to a certain number, the belief that one stone is lucky and another unlucky, are all remnants of the era of zoötheism, physitheism, and other early beliefs.[354] Races cannot shake off earlier beliefs entirely, but continue them under changed forms. Thus we celebrate many pagan rites in our holidays, and pay a tribute to the Druid priests every time we suspend a branch of mistletoe in our parlours in the season when the sun turns his course towards the vernal equinox.

To primitive man night was a mysterious phenomenon, and dawn often became personified to him as a bright and fair deliverer, a beneficent being who comes out of the east bringing a train of blessings. Many myths recounting the coming of a hero, prophet, and teacher among the Amerinds and other races are accounted for as being dawn myths, but there is danger of overworking this convenient hypothesis.

In our literature many Amerind myths and legends have become firmly implanted, and they are now as much a part of it as the tale of Orpheus, or of Theseus, or of Hercules. Some of them have been beautified by the diction of our poets, and Longfellow’s rendering of Hiawatha is admired the world over. This is good literature, but it is not good ethnology, because in it an Iroquois hero-god is placed in a setting of Algonquin legends, but this was not Longfellow’s mistake, but Schoolcraft’s, on whose work Longfellow based his poem. Jeremiah Curtin says: “Schoolcraft, with his amazing propensity to make mistakes, with his remarkable genius for missing the truth and confusing everything with which he came in contact, gave the name Hiawatha to his patchwork.... In the face of all this Schoolcraft makes Hiawatha, who is peculiarly Iroquois, the leading personage in his Algonkin conglomerate: Hiawatha being an Iroquois character of Central New York (he is connected more particularly with the region about Schenectady), while the actions to which Schoolcraft relates him pertain to the Algonkin Chippewas near Lake Superior. It is as if Europeans at some future age were to have placed before them a great epic narrative of French heroic adventure in which Prince Bismarck would appear as the chief and central Gallic figure in the glory and triumph of France.”[355]

But Hiawatha, nevertheless, is incorporated in our language and our literature, and altogether the conquered race, as was inevitable, has left an impress on our character, on our language, on our geography, and on our literature which can never, even if desired, be effaced. The mark of our contact with the red man is upon us indelibly and forever. George Bancroft is not quite right when he says, “The memorials of their former existence are found only in the names of the rivers and the mountains.” These memorials have not only permeated our poetry and literature generally, but they are perpetuated in our daily food, and every mention of “succotash,” of “mush,” of “chocolate,” is a tribute to their existence, while the fragrance of the “tobacco” we smoke is incense to their memory. Mrs. Sigourney touched this subject prettily in the little poem entitled Indian Names:

And she might have added that their gods have seated themselves with those of the Greeks in our libraries; that Michabo, Tlaloc, Quetzalcohuatl, and others are now companions of Jupiter and Neptune; in short, that their literature, which relied on oral transmission, has to a large extent been crystallised in our printed pages.

The Amerind, not fortified by our modern knowledge and philosophy, regarded the outer world in a far different way from what we do. To him it was not a place where a gold mine might be found, or good grazing or tillable soil, but he looked upon the far distance as the home of magical beings. Did the wind blow? It was the breath of some monster dwelling in a cave in the far west, or it was the beating of the wings of giant birds living at the four quarters of the compass. It was not to the sky alone that he looked for the abode of his gods; they came to him from every direction, even from the bowels of the earth. We know what the earth contains and we grope for the unknown. The Amerind did not know what the earth contains; it was still to him the abode of monsters and ghosts.

There is in some respects so great a similarity between the myths of the New World and those of the Old, that it was at first assumed that there must have been early communication with Europe, but more careful analysis has shown that this is but another evidence of what may be called the parallelism of human development. Even where the similarity is greatest there is nothing to prove that the myths did not originate independently, and they are merely the results of similar thoughts, in similar stages of ignorance, about the sun, the sky, and natural forces.

The Popol Vuh, the great collection of Quiche myths, presents Gukumatz as one of the four principal gods who created the world. Gukumatz means shining or brilliant snake, and hence seems to be the same character as that known to the Nahuatls, or Aztecs, as Quetzalcohuatl, whose name also means bright or shining snake. But among the Aztecs Quetzalcohuatl is represented as a man, while Gukumatz is purely a god. Quetzalcohuatl was the third of the four Mexican or Aztec gods, and to him is ascribed all the wisdom which came to the Aztecs. He appears under two forms, as a god and as an historical personage. He has been frequently identified with the dawn, but there seems to be good reason for believing that he was a real character, who became deified as his good deeds passed down to successive generations. Such prophets and teachers rise up in all times, in all ages, by the wayside of tribal or national development, like some rare and favoured tree of the forest which out-tops all the others. A divine origin may be claimed for these teachers and prophets, but generally they are only men endowed with an extremely fine moral sense and with a perception and knowledge beyond their time. “Among the Tzendals of Chiapas, the tradition of Votan, who is said to have been the first founder of that tribe, bears great resemblance to Quetzalcohuatl.”[356] After an admirable discussion of the subject of the character and origin of Quetzalcohuatl, Bandelier sifts the matter down to this: that he was “a prominent gifted Indian leader, who certainly preceded the coming of those Nahuatl tribes that subsequently formed the valley confederacy, as well as that of the later tribe of Tlaxcallan. The claim to his origin accordingly rests between the so-called Toltecs on one side and the Olmeca and Xicalanca on the other.”[357] Brinton believed that Quetzalcohuatl was a pure personification of the dawn myth,[358] but there is too much testimony on the opposite side to permit the acceptance of this opinion as final. It must not be forgotten that there were very good, extremely good, almost saintly, men, and women, too, among the Amerinds. The historical Mexican tribes were preceded by other tribes, some of which had apparently reached a higher state of culture than the Aztecs, and Quetzalcohuatl possibly came from one of them as a teacher to the newer and less cultivated people; newer in the sense of having come into that region from some distance off. There is nothing preposterous in supposing that there were teachers and moralists in the early days of this continent. The character of a high-thinking teacher is not incompatible with some of the tribes that have lived and died on North-American soil. As stated previously, never were all the tribes of the continent in one culture condition; there were always tribes that could teach something to other tribes, and undoubtedly philanthropic individuals sometimes attempted the rôle of missionaries, just as they do in other races to-day. In fact, the recent “Resurrection Dance” or “Ghost Dance” had its prophet who preached to the natives that “the earth was to be all good hereafter; that we must be friends with one another.” Fighting, he declared, was “bad and all must keep from it.” “There is no doubt that his religious teachings rest on a well-ordained religious system, and in spite of the numerous false reports that are spread about him, he does not claim to be either God or Jesus Christ, the Messiah, or any divine, superhuman being whatever. ‘I am the annunciator of God’s message from the spiritual world and a prophet for the Indian people,’ is the way he defines the scope of his work among men.... Thus he considers himself a messenger of God appointed in a dream, and has on that account compared himself to St. John the Baptist.”[359] This man is a full-blood, and it is evident that such an inspiration might have seized a man of a similar temperament at any period of Amerind history, and given rise finally to legends and worship that would incorrectly be ascribed to the myth of the dawn.

Quetzalcohuatl at length departed with a promise to return, and it was the belief that he would return that caused Montezuma to at first mistake the bearded Spaniards for his emissaries. Quetzalcohuatl also wore a beard.

Michabo, the Algonquin counterpart of Quetzalcohuatl, was considered to be the ancestor of the whole tribe, the founder of their ceremonies, the inventor of picture-writing, the ruler of the weather, the creator and preserver of earth and heaven. “From a grain of sand,” says Brinton, “brought from the bottom of the primeval ocean he fashioned the habitable land and set it floating on the waters till it grew to such a size that a strong young wolf, running constantly, died of old age ere he reached its limits.”

Among the Iroquois the hero-god was called Ioskeha, and he possessed many of the qualities of Michabo and Quetzalcohuatl, etc., though in his case as well as that of Michabo there seems to be no historical evidence of existence, as there is with Quetzalcohuatl, and therefore they may be, as claimed by Brinton and others, merely dawn myths. It is possible that they may be compounds of a dawn myth and one or more actual personages.

The hero-god of the Mayas was Itzamna, and he was a beneficent personage like the others. Like Cadmus, he invented letters, and he also devised their calendar. He is spoken of as an historical personage and “is intimately associated with the noble edifices of Itzamal, which he laid out and constructed, and over which he ruled, enacting wise laws and extending the power and happiness of his people for an indefinite period.”[360] Brinton identifies him with the dawn myth, but here again it is not conclusive. It seems quite as probable that he was a real person, upon whose history certain myths have been engrafted.

In putting the Amerind stories into other languages, embellishments and variations have often been introduced, or the translators have been deceived by interpreters or by the Amerinds themselves, while sometimes both causes have operated to colour or to alter the tales. Schoolcraft has generally been regarded as a faithful recorder, but in some instances he has gone considerably astray. In his time the Amerinds were not so well understood, nor were they, in all their various stocks, so accessible as now.

Formerly the European was prepared to find in the Amerind rites evidences of the Lost Tribes of Israel, of the Chinese, or some other extraordinary or romantic idea. He was not content to take things as they were. Marquette on arriving at Green Bay was delighted with what he believed to be an evidence of Christianity, a large cross set up in the middle of the village, adorned with skins, bows, etc., which the people were offering to their gods. It was only one of the symbols of the Midē society, and was in use long before the Discovery. In the same way Coronado found crosses in New Mexico, and there were also in Yucatan the tablets of the cross referred to in a previous chapter. The early Spaniards turned loose their own myths in the New World and then started in pursuit of them. Columbus himself was the first to float the Amazon myth to these shores, for in a letter to Rafael Sanchez he speaks of an island inhabited solely by women, and the Spaniards had a long and fruitless chase after it.[361] Thus they also pursued the myth of the Seven Cities, El Dorado, and similar tales. El Dorado, or, “The Gilded Man,” really existed in a ceremony in New Granada, where a man was sprinkled with gold dust, but when the Spaniards had taken all the gold from these people they went on hunting for El Dorado just the same, though they never found him again.

Certain resemblances between the myths of the Amerinds and those of the Israelites increased the belief that the American race is the Lost Tribes. The Mormons specially hold to this opinion. But there is positively no ground for the belief. The peculiar interest, however, which attaches to a comparison of Amerind and Israelite myths lies in the fact that they resemble each other, not only genetically, but specifically. They are alike in their details. Mallery has given much attention to this subject, and he says that “an Ojibway tradition tells the adventures of eight, ten, and sometimes twelve brothers, the youngest of whom is the wisest and the most beloved of their father, and especially favoured by the high powers. He delivers his brothers from many difficulties which were brought about by their folly and disobedience. Particularly he supplies them with corn.... The Chahta have an elaborate story of their migrations, in which they were guided by a pole leaning in the direction which they should take, and remaining vertical at each place where they should encamp. A still closer resemblance to the guidance of the Israelites in the desert by a pillar of fire is found in the legendary migrations of the Tusayan (Mokis), when indication was made by the movement and the halting of a star. The Pai Utes were sustained in a great march through the desert by water that continually filled the magic cup given to the Sokus Waiunats in a dream until all were satisfied; and a similarly miraculous supply of food to the starving multitude is reported by the same people. In the genesis myth of the Tusayan, the culture hero was enabled to pass dry-shod through lakes and rivers by throwing a staff upon the waters, which were at once divided as by walls.... Mr. W. W. Warren, in his History of the Ojibway Nation, tells that he sometimes translated parts of Bible history to the old Ojibway men, and their expression invariably was, ‘The book must be true, for our ancestors have told us similar stories generation after generation since the earth was new.’” There is also a strong resemblance between many of the Amerind myths and stories, and those of the negro, as anyone may see who will compare them with Harris’s delightful Uncle Remus.

All races have malignant sprites that haunt rocks and watering places, and the Amerind was no exception. The Uinkarets of Arizona declared that a certain water-pocket where we camped was a favourite resort of the Woonupits, a little elf that is full of mischief, and Chuar one night insisted that he heard one whistling in the forest. He fired a shot out into the darkness to drive it away. He did this with great solemnity and deliberation, and there was no question as to his faith in the belief. The same little elf crops out in the Moki country in the form of the Kwokwuli, a malignant sprite lurking in out-of-the-way places. He is about knee-high and conceals himself behind a rock or bush, like the Breton Korrigans inhabiting the Dolmens, and when a Moki appears he calls out in a shrill falsetto voice, “Kwo-kwul-i-ul-i.” If the hearer gives no heed to the cry he may pass by in safety, but should he willingly or unwillingly express any notice he must approach the elf, who immediately climbs on his back and holds fast round his neck—Sindbad’s Old-Man-of-the-Sea over again. The elf has only rudimentary legs and no wings, and this is his method of journeying from place to place.

The Amerinds of the straits of Fuca have distinct traditions of the Eskimo as a race of dwarfs, who live in the “always dark country,” on the ice, dive and catch whales with their hands, and produce the aurora by boiling out the blubber, the fires reflecting on the sky. The Iroquois had legends of great giants, as also had other tribes, which were due probably to the same cause as the dwarf Eskimo myths: ignorance of the outside world. These were stone giants, and they inhabited the west. Once upon a time they started to come and destroy the Senecas, and a war party of the latter proceeded to the encounter. Before the battle came off a mighty wind came out of the west and swept all the giants into a vast abyss from which they could not escape, and because of this friendly act the West Wind became one of the Seneca gods, and was revered ever after. And the Eskimo, while themselves furnishing the material for more southerly tribes to build myths on, have their own tales of a tribe called Ardnainiq, living in the extreme North-west. The men of this people are small as children, but entirely covered with hair. They are carried about in the hoods of their wives like babies, the wives being of normal size. They have also stories of a race of women. The Iroquois believed that there was a strange creature consisting simply of a head with large eyes and long hair, called “Great Head.” When he saw any live thing he growled, “I see thee, I see thee, thou shalt die.” They also had their race of dwarfs with wonderful powers, who carved the cliffs and caves and could destroy monster animals.

The coyote, the bear, the sun, and all the animals are endowed with speech and great cunning, the coyote especially so among some of the Western tribes, and are conceived as possessing human attributes, like the “Brer Rabbit” and other animals whose prowess is related by Uncle Remus. But the Eskimo, according to A. L. Kroeber, have comparatively few animal stories. Examples of these animal stories may be found in the reports of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology and other publications. Lack of space prevents me from introducing any here.

The slightest misunderstood noise is sufficient to rouse the Amerind imagination, of which I had an illustration in Arizona. I arrived at an out-of-the-way mine one night with two Amerind guides. It was winter and a stone cabin was placed at my disposal, to which I sent the natives while my white companions and I visited the men in charge. The natives presently came in, saying there was something wrong at the cabin, and they would not stay in it or even near it. When we investigated we discovered that the whole trouble arose from the ticking of a small clock, which we forthwith stopped; but nevertheless they would not remain there alone.

Flood stories are numerous with all tribes, and whether they arose in local inundations or in some vast and general flood cannot now be determined. If in the latter, it would be melting ice of the glacial period. A fabulous being in Eskimo mythology is Kalopaling, who lives in the sea. His body is like that of a human being and he wears clothing made out of eider ducks’ skins. His jacket has an enormous hood, into which he thrusts any boatman that may be drowned. He cannot speak, but merely cry, “Be! be! be! be!” An Eskimo flood tale relates how the ocean long ago rose till it covered the whole land, even to the tops of the mountains, till the ice drifted over them. When the flood subsided the ice stranded and has ever since formed a cap on their summits.

The keepers of the mythological tales were the shamans, and they are the real powers, generally, in a tribe. Had Cortes understood this point he would have seized, not the war-chief, Montezuma, but one of the shamans, who would have been more valuable as a hostage. Many of the shamans are believed to be able to pass through fire unharmed, and to handle it with impunity; to be able to change themselves into coyotes, etc., and then return to their normal shape, all at their own pleasure.

A legend of Montezuma’s coming has been attributed to the Pueblos of New Mexico, but this is an error, for they knew nothing about Montezuma till the whites came into the country. There are a great many legends concerning the occupation of this or that place, and one of these, the legend of the former occupation of the Mesa Encantada, or, “Enchanted Mesa,” New Mexico, has recently caused a lively discussion between two distinguished ethnologists, as to whether some Puebloans did or did not once live on top of the mesa as related. Both succeeded in reaching the top. One found no evidence of any continued occupation of the mesa top; the other found what he accepted as sufficient evidence of the truth of the legend that Pueblos had once lived there and had been cut off from the world below and destroyed by a fearful storm.

Large portions of the Maya chronicles relate the predictions of the astrologers, seers, or prophets, and after the habit of the class they foretold all manner of evil, but strangely enough they seem to have foretold the arrival of the Spaniards, for they said that white and bearded strangers would come and control the land and alter the prevailing religion. What was it that instilled them with this faith or fear? Was it coincidence, or was it what is now termed telepathy? Whatever it was, the terrible fulfilment came upon their race like a cyclone; and when one more century has passed away the Amerind race will be more truly even than now, the North-Americans of Yesterday.[362]