The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History

293

'The monuments of the Mississippi present stronger internal evidence of great antiquity than any others in America, although it by no means follows that they are older than Palenque and Copan.' Vol. iv., p. 790.

294

Yucatan, vol. ii., pp. 454-5. By a careful study of Mr Stephens' conclusions, it will appear evident to the reader that he ascribes the Central American ruins to the Toltecs, simply as the oldest nations on the continent of America, of which we have any knowledge, and that he reconciles their condition at the time of his exploration with their recent origin, chiefly by a consideration of the Yucatan ruins, most of which doubtless do not date back to the Votanic empire, and many of which were still occupied at the coming of the first Spaniards.

295

Although in the 'general view,' vol. ii., chap. ii., I have classed the Toltecs among the Nahua nations, it will be noticed that the preceding conclusions of the present chapter are independent of such a classification, and are not necessarily opposed to the theory, held by some, that the cities of Central America were built by the Toltecs before they assumed a prominent position among the nations of Anáhuac. The following notes bear more or less directly on points involved in the preceding text. Mr Tylor, Anáhuac, pp. 189-93; Researches, p. 184, believes that the civilization of Mexico and Central America were originally independent although modified by contact one with the other, and attributes the Central American cities to a people who flourished long before the Toltecs, and whose descendants are the Mayas. Yet he favors the climatic theory of the origin and growth of civilization, according to which the culture of the south must have been brought from the Mexican tierra templada. I have no objection to offer to this theory. It is in the Usumacinta region that the Maya civilization has left its first record both traditional and monumental; and that is sufficient for my present purpose. Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 124-5, etc., concludes from his linguistic researches that the Palenque civilization was much older than the Toltec and distinct from it. Hellwald, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, pp. 340-1, pronounces the Palenque culture the oldest in America, with no resemblance to that of the Nahuas. He rejects the theory that the ruins were the work of migrating Toltecs. Palenque will probably some day decide the question of American civilization. It only awaits a Champollion. Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 439. The ruins in the south have undoubted claims to the highest antiquity. Bradford's Amer. Antiq., p. 199. The Usumacinta seems a kind of central point for the high culture of Central America. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 456.

296

See vol. iii., pp. 42-4, note 1, for a bibliographical notice of the Popol Vuh.

297

Popol Vuh, pp. 1-5; Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 4-5.

298

Vol. iii., pp. 44-7.

299

Popol Vuh, pp. 5-31; Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 5-14.

300

Popol Vuh, p. 195, et seq.

301

Or, as Brasseur translates, 'the remnant of those that were drowned,' etc.

302

pp. 31-67; Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 15-29.

303

Ximenez, p. 29, conveys the idea, however, that it is only from ignorance that so little is told, and not from a desire to be mysterious.

304

Ximenez renders this word by 'infierno,' or hell. No satisfactory meaning can be derived from its etymology.

305

Carchah is the name of an Indian town in Vera Paz.

306

Casa lobrega, maison ténébreuse. It will be remembered that Votan is said to have established a House of Gloom at Huehuetan. See p. 160 (#Page_160).

307

A ballet, according to Brasseur, still performed by the natives of Guatemala, clad in wooden masks and peculiar costumes.

308

The place whence the brothers started to contend against the princes of Xibalba, seems to have been Utatlan in Guatemala – see vol. iv., pp. 124-8 – for Gumarcaah the Quiché name of that place is said to signify 'house of old withered canes.' Moreover, Torquemada and Las Casas have preserved the tradition that Exbalanquen (Xbalanque) set out from Utatlan for the conquest of hell. Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 53; Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. 125. Xibalba doubtless had the signification of the infernal regions in the popular traditions.

309

Popol Vuh, pp. 68-192; Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 29-79.

310

See vol. ii., pp. 716-7.

311

See p. 172 (#Page_172).

312

Vol. iii., pp. 47-54.

313

Popol Vuh, pp. 221-2.

314

Popol Vuh, pp. 245-7; Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 98-9.

315

Notes to Popol Vuh, pp. lxxxv, ccliv.

316

Id., pp. xci-ii.

317

Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 139-45.