American Hero-Myths Part 15

The probability seems to be that Kukulcan was an original Maya divinity, one of their hero-G.o.ds, whose myth had in it so many similarities to that of Quetzalcoatl that the priests of the two nations came to regard the one as the same as the other. After the destruction of Mayapan, about the middle of the fifteenth century, when the Aztec mercenaries were banished to Canul, and the reigning family (the Xiu) who supported them became reduced in power, the worship of Kukulcan fell, to some extent, into disfavor. Of this we are informed by Landa, in an interesting pa.s.sage.

He tells us that many of the natives believed that Kukulcan, after his earthly labors, had ascended into Heaven and become one of their G.o.ds.

Previous to the destruction of Mayapan temples were built to him, and he was worshiped throughout the land, but after that event he was paid such honor only in the province of Mani (governed by the Xiu). Nevertheless, in grat.i.tude for what all recognized they owed to him, the kings of the neighboring provinces sent yearly to Mani, on the occasion of his annual festival, which took place on the 16th of the month Xul (November 8th), either four or five magnificent feather banners. These were placed in his temple, with appropriate ceremonies, such as fasting, the burning of incense, dancing, and with simple offerings of food cooked without salt or pepper, and drink from beans and gourd seeds. This lasted five nights and five days; and, adds Bishop Landa, they said, and held it for certain, that on the last day of the festival Kukulcan himself descended from Heaven and personally received the sacrifices and offerings which were made in his honor. The celebration itself was called the Festival of the Founder[1], with reference, I suppose, to the alleged founding of the cities of Mayapan and Chichen Itza by this hero-G.o.d. The five days and five sacred banners again bring to mind the close relation of this with the Quetzalcoatl symbolism.

[Footnote 1: "Llamaban a esta fiesta _Chic Kaban_;" Landa, _Relacion_, p.

302. I take it this should read _Chiic u Kaba_ (_Chiic_; fundar o poblar alguna cosa, casa, pueblo, etc. _Diccionario de Motul_, MS.)]

As Itzamna had disappeared without undergoing the pains of death, as Kukulcan had risen into the heavens and thence returned annually, though but for a moment, on the last day of the festival in his honor, so it was devoutly believed by the Mayas that the time would come when the worship of other G.o.ds should be done away with, and these mighty deities alone demand the adoration of their race. None of the American nations seems to have been more given than they to prognostics and prophecies, and of none other have we so large an amount of this kind of literature remaining.

Some of it has been preserved by the Spanish missionaries, who used it with good effect for their own purposes of proselyting; but that it was not manufactured by them for this purpose, as some late writers have thought, is proved by the existence of copies of these prophecies, made by native writers themselves, at the time of the Conquest and at dates shortly subsequent.

These prophecies were as obscure and ambiguous as all successful prophets are accustomed to make their predictions; but the one point that is clear in them is, that they distinctly referred to the arrival of white and bearded strangers from the East, who should control the land and alter the prevailing religion.[1]

[Footnote 1: Nakuk Pech, _Concixta yetel mapa_, 1562. MS.; _El Libro de Chilan Balam de Mani_, 1595, MS. The former is a history of the Conquest written in Maya, by a native n.o.ble, who was an adult at the time that Merida was founded (1542).]

Even that portion of the Itzas who had separated from the rest of their nation at the time of the destruction of Mayapan (about 1440-50) and wandered off to the far south, to establish a powerful nation around Lake Peten, carried with them a forewarning that at the "eighth age" they should be subjected to a white race and have to embrace their religion; and, sure enough, when that time came, and not till then, that is, at the close of the seventeenth century of our reckoning, they were driven from their island homes by Governor Ursua, and their numerous temples, filled with idols, leveled to the soil.[1]

[Footnote 1: Juan de Villagutierre Sotomayor, _Historia de la Provincia de el Itza_, pa.s.sim (Madrid, 1701).]

The ground of all such prophecies was, I have no doubt, the expected return of the hero-G.o.ds, whose myths I have been recording. Both of them represented in their original forms the light of day, which disappears at nightfall but returns at dawn with unfailing certainty. When the natural phenomenon had become lost in its personification, this expectation of a return remained and led the priests, who more than others retained the recollection of the ancient forms of the myth, to embrace this expectation in the prognostics which it was their custom and duty to p.r.o.nounce with reference to the future.

CHAPTER V.

THE QQUICHUA HERO-G.o.d VIRACOCHA.

VIRACOCHA AS THE FIRST CAUSE--HIS NAME, ILLA TICCI--QQUICHUA PRAYERS--OTHER NAMES AND t.i.tLES OF VIRACOCHA--HIS WORSHIP A TRUE MONOTHEISM--THE MYTH OF THE FOUR BROTHERS--MYTH OF THE TWIN BROTHERS.

VIRACOCHA AS TUNAPA, HE WHO PERFECTS--VARIOUS INCIDENTS IN HIS LIFE--RELATION TO MANCO CAPAC--HE DISAPPEARS IN THE WEST.

VIRACOCHA RISES FROM LAKE t.i.tICACA AND JOURNEYS TO THE WEST--DERIVATION OF HIS NAME--HE WAS REPRESENTED AS WHITE AND BEARDED--THE MYTH OF CON AND PACHACAMAC--CONTICE VIRACOCHA--PROPHECIES OF THE PERUVIAN SEERS--THE WHITE MEN CALLED VIRACOCHAS--SIMILARITIES TO AZTEC MYTHS.

The most majestic empire on this continent at the time of its discovery was that of the Incas. It extended along the Pacific, from the parallel of 2 north lat.i.tude to 20 south, and may be roughly said to have been 1500 miles in length, with an average width of 400 miles. The official and princ.i.p.al tongue was the Qquichua, the two other languages of importance being the Yunca, spoken by the coast tribes, and the Aymara, around Lake t.i.ticaca and south of it. The latter, in phonetics and in many root-words, betrays a relationship to the Qquichua, but a remote one.

The Qquichuas were a race of considerable cultivation. They had a developed metrical system, and were especially fond of the drama. Several specimens of their poetical and dramatic compositions have been preserved, and indicate a correct taste. Although they did not possess a method of writing, they had various mnemonic aids, by which they were enabled to recall their verses and their historical traditions.

In the mythology of the Qquichuas, and apparently also of the Aymaras, the leading figure is _Viracocha_. His august presence is in one cycle of legends that of Infinite Creator, the Primal Cause; in another he is the beneficent teacher and wise ruler; in other words, he too, like Quetzalcoatl and the others whom I have told about, is at one time G.o.d, at others the incarnation of G.o.d.

As the first cause and ground of all things, Viracocha's distinctive epithet was _Ticci_, the Cause, the Beginning, or _Illa ticci_, the Ancient Cause[1], the First Beginning, an endeavor in words to express the absolute priority of his essence and existence. He it was who had made and moulded the Sun and endowed it with a portion of his own divinity, to wit, the glory of its far-shining rays; he had formed the Moon and given her light, and set her in the heavens to rule over the waters and the winds, over the queens of the earth and the parturition of women; and it was still he, the great Viracocha, who had created the beautiful Chasca, the Aurora, the Dawn, G.o.ddess of all unspotted maidens like herself, her who in turn decked the fields and woods with flowers, whose time was the gloaming and the twilight, whose messengers were the fleecy clouds which sail through the sky, and who, when she shakes her cl.u.s.tering hair, drops noiselessly pearls of dew on the green gra.s.s fields.[2]

[Footnote 1: "_Ticci_, origen, principio, fundamento, cimiento, causa.

_Ylla_; todo lo que es antiguo." Holguin, _Vocabulario de la Lengua Qquichua o del Inga_ (Ciudad de los Reyes, 1608). _Ticci_ is not to be confounded with _aticsi_, he conquers, from _atini_, I conquer, a term also occasionally applied to Viracocha.]

[Footnote 2: _Relacion Anonyma, de los Costumbres Antiguos de los Naturales del Piru_, p. 138. 1615. (Published, Madrid, 1879).]

Invisible and incorporeal himself, so, also, were his messengers (the light-rays), called _huaminca_, the faithful soldiers, and _hayhuaypanti_, the shining ones, who conveyed his decrees to every part.[1] He himself was omnipresent, imparting motion and life, form and existence, to all that is. Therefore it was, says an old writer, with more than usual insight into man's moral nature, with more than usual charity for a persecuted race, that when these natives worshiped some swift river or pellucid spring, some mountain or grove, "it was not that they believed that some particular divinity was there, or that it was a living thing, but because they believed that the great G.o.d, Illa Ticci, had created and placed it there and impressed upon it some mark of distinction, beyond other objects of its cla.s.s, that it might thus be designated as an appropriate spot whereat to worship the maker of all things; and this is manifest from the prayers they uttered when engaged in adoration, because they are not addressed to that mountain, or river, or cave, but to the great Illa Ticci Viracocha, who, they believed, lived in the heavens, and yet was invisibly present in that sacred object."[2]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., p. 140.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 147.]

In the prayers for the dead, Illa Ticci was appealed to, to protect the body, that it should not see corruption nor become lost in the earth, and that he should not allow the soul to wander aimlessly in the infinite s.p.a.ces, but that it should be conducted to some secure haven of contentment, where it might receive the sacrifices and offerings which loving hands laid upon the tomb.[1] Were other G.o.ds also called upon, it was that they might intercede with the Supreme Divinity in favor of these pet.i.tions of mortals.

[Footnote 1: Ibid., p. 154.]

To him, likewise, the chief priest at certain times offered a child of six years, with a prayer for the prosperity of the Inca, in such terms as these:--

"Oh, Lord, we offer thee this child, in order that thou wilt maintain us in comfort, and give us victory in war, and keep to our Lord, the Inca, his greatness and his state, and grant him wisdom that he may govern us righteously."[1]

[Footnote 1: Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. v, Lib. iv, cap. i.]

Or such a prayer as this was offered up by the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude:--

"Oh, Viracocha ever present, Viracocha Cause of All, Viracocha the Helper, the Ceaseless Worker, Viracocha who gives the beginnings, Viracocha who encourages, Viracocha the always fortunate, Viracocha ever near, listen to this our prayer, send health, send prosperity to us thy people."[1]

[Footnote 1: Christoval de Molina, _The Fables and Rites of the Incas_, p.

29. Molina gives the original Qquichua, the translation of which is obviously incomplete, and I have extended it.]

Thus Viracocha was placed above and beyond all other G.o.ds, the essential First Cause, infinite, incorporeal, invisible, above the sun, older than the beginning, but omnipresent, accessible, beneficent.

Does this seem too abstract, too elevated a notion of G.o.d for a race whom we are accustomed to deem gross and barbaric? I cannot help it. The testimony of the earliest observers, and the living proof of language, are too strong to allow of doubt. The adjectives which were applied to this divinity by the native priests are still on record, and that they were not a loan from Christian theology is conclusively shown by the fact that the very writers who preserved them often did not know their meaning, and translated them incorrectly.

Thus even Garcila.s.so de la Vega, himself of the blood of the Incas, tells us that neither he nor the natives of that day could translate _Ticci_.[1]

Thus, also, Garcia and Acosta inform us that Viracocha was surnamed _Usapu_, which they translate "admirable,"[2] but really it means "he who accomplishes all that he undertakes, he who is successful in all things;"

Molina has preserved the term _Ymamana_, which means "he who controls or owns all things;"[3] the t.i.tle _Pachayachachi_, which the Spanish writers render "Creator," really means the "Teacher of the World;" that of _Caylla_ signifies "the Ever-present one;" _Taripaca_, which has been guessed to be the same as _tarapaca_, an eagle, is really a derivative of _taripani_, to sit in judgment, and was applied to Viracocha as the final arbiter of the actions and destinies of man. Another of his frequent appellations for which no explanation has been offered, was _Tokay_ or _Tocapo_, properly _Tukupay_.[4] It means "he who finishes," who completes and perfects, and is ant.i.thetical to _Ticci_, he who begins. These two terms express the eternity of divinity; they convey the same idea of mastery over time and the things of time, as do those words heard by the Evangelist in his vision in the isle called Patmos, "I am Alpha and Omega; I am the Beginning and the End."

[Footnote 1: "Dan (los Indios), otro nombre a Dios, que es Tici Viracocha, que yo no se que signifique, ni ellos tampoco." Garcila.s.so de la Vega, _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. ii, cap. ii.]

[Footnote 2: Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, Lib. iii, cap. vi; Acosta, _Historia, Natural y Moral de las Indias_, fol. 199 (Barcelona 1591).]

[Footnote 3: Christoval de Molina, _The Fables and Rites of the Incas_, Eng. Trans., p. 6.]

[Footnote 4: Melchior Hernandez, one of the earliest writers, whose works are now lost, but who is quoted in the _Relacion Anonima_, gives this name _Tocapu_; Christoval de Molina (ubi sup.) spells it _Tocapo_; La Vega _Tocay_; Molina gives its signification, "the maker." It is from the word _tukupay_ or _tucuychani_, to finish, complete, perfect.]

Yet another epithet of Viracocha was _Zapala_.[1] It conveys strongly and positively the monotheistic idea. It means "The One," or, more strongly, "The Only One."

[Footnote 1: Gomara, _Historia de las Indias_, p. 232 (ed. Paris, 1852).]

Nor must it be supposed that this monotheism was unconscious; that it was, for example, a form of "henotheism," where the devotion of the adorer filled his soul, merely to the forgetfulness of other deities; or that it was simply the logical law of unity a.s.serting itself, as was the case with many of the apparently monotheistic utterances of the Greek and Roman writers.

No; the evidence is such that we are obliged to acknowledge that the religion of Peru was a consciously monotheistic cult, every whit as much so as the Greek or Roman Catholic Churches of Christendom.

Those writers who have called the Inca religion a "sun worship" have been led astray by superficial resemblances. One of the best early authorities, Christoval de Molina, repeats with emphasis the statement, "They did not recognize the Sun as their Creator, but as created by the Creator," and this creator was "not born of woman, but was unchangeable and eternal."[1]

For conclusive testimony on this point, however, we may turn to an _Informacion_ or Inquiry as to the ancient belief, inst.i.tuted in 1571, by order of the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo. The oldest Indians, especially those of n.o.ble birth, including many descendants of the Incas, were a.s.sembled at different times and in different parts of the country, and carefully questioned, through the official interpreter, as to just what the old religion was. The questions were not leading ones, and the replies have great uniformity. They all agreed that Viracocha was worshiped as creator, and as the ever-present active divinity; he alone answered prayers, and aided in time of need; he was the sole efficient G.o.d. All prayers to the Sun or to the deceased Incas, or to idols, were directed to them as intercessors only. On this point the statements were most positive[2]. The Sun was but one of Viracocha's creations, not itself the Creator.

[Footnote 1: Christoval de Molina, _The Fables and Rites of the Incas_, pp. 8, 17. Eng. Trans. ]