Aboriginal American Authors Part 6

(London, 1865.)]

[Footnote 61: "Piensan que un hombre que habla sin corta.r.s.e y con soltura debe ser de una naturaleza superior y privilegiada. Por solo esta circ.u.mstancia 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 n.o.ble families were taught to deliver in the s.p.a.cious 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, int.i.tulados 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 a.s.sez 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. x.x.x, and comp. cap. x.x.xVI.]

[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 a.s.sonant 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 Bra.s.seur a.s.serts 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: "Bra.s.seur 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.]

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 ma.n.u.scripts, 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.

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_.