American Hero-Myths Part 19

Few of our hero-myths have given occasion for wilder speculation than that of Votan. He was the culture hero of the Tzendals, a branch of the Maya race, whose home was in Chiapas and Tabasco. Even the usually cautious Humboldt suggested that his name might be a form of Odin or Buddha! As for more imaginative writers, they have made not the least difficulty in discovering that it is identical with the Odon of the Tarascos, the Oton of the Othomis, the Poudan of the East Indian Tamuls, the Vaudoux of the Louisiana negroes, etc. All this has been done without any attempt having been made to ascertain the precise meaning and derivation of the name Votan. Superficial phonetic similarities have been the only guide.

We are not well acquainted with the Votan myth. It appears to have been written down some time in the seventeenth century, by a Christianized native. His ma.n.u.script of five or six folios, in the Tzendal tongue, came into the possession of Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, about 1690, and later into the hands of Don Ramon Ondonez y Aguiar, where it was seen by Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, about 1790. What has become of it is not known.

No complete translation of it was made; and the extracts or abstracts given by the authors just named are most unsatisfactory, and disfigured by ignorance and prejudice. None of them, probably, was familiar with the Tzendal tongue, especially in its ancient form. What they tell us runs as follows:--

At some indefinitely remote epoch, Votan came from the far East. He was sent by G.o.d to divide out and a.s.sign to the different races of men the earth on which they dwell, and to give to each its own language. The land whence he came was vaguely called _ualum uotan_, the land of Votan.

His message was especially to the Tzendals. Previous to his arrival they were ignorant, barbarous, and without fixed habitations. He collected them into villages, taught them how to cultivate the maize and cotton, and invented the hieroglyphic signs, which they learned to carve on the walls of their temples. It is even said that he wrote his own history in them.

He inst.i.tuted civil laws for their government, and imparted to them the proper ceremonials of religious worship. For this reason he was also called "Master of the Sacred Drum," the instrument with which they summoned the votaries to the ritual dances.

They especially remembered him as the inventor of their calendar. His name stood third in the week of twenty days, and was the first Dominical sign, according to which they counted their year, corresponding to the _Kan_ of the Mayas.

As a city-builder, he was spoken of as the founder of Palenque, Nachan, Huehuetlan--in fact, of any ancient place the origin of which had been forgotten. Near the last mentioned locality, Huehuetlan in Soconusco, he was reported to have constructed an underground temple by merely blowing with his breath. In this gloomy mansion he deposited his treasures, and appointed a priestess to guard it, for whose a.s.sistance he created the tapirs.

Votan brought with him, according to one statement, or, according to another, was followed from his native land by, certain attendants or subordinates, called in the myth _tzequil_, petticoated, from the long and flowing robes they wore. These aided him in the work of civilization. On four occasions he returned to his former home, dividing the country, when he was about to leave, into four districts, over which he placed these attendants.

When at last the time came for his final departure, he did not pa.s.s through the valley of death, as must all mortals, but he penetrated through a cave into the under-earth, and found his way to "the root of heaven." With this mysterious expression, the native myth closes its account of him.[1]

[Footnote 1: The references to the Votan myth are Nunez de la Vega, _Const.i.tuciones Diocesanas, Prologo_ (Romae, 1702); Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia de la America septentrional_, pp. 114, et seq., who discusses the former; Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_, translated, London, 1822; Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des Nations Civilisees de Mexique_, vol. i, chap, ii, who gives some additional points from Ordonez; and H. de Charencey, _Le Mythe de Votan; Etude sur les Origines Asiatiques de la Civilization Americaine_. (Alencon, 1871).]

He was worshiped by the Tzendals as their princ.i.p.al deity and their beneficent patron. But he had a rival in their religious observances, the feared _Yalahau_ Lord of Blackness, or Lord of the Waters. He was represented as a terrible warrior, cruel to the people, and one of the first of men.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Yalahau_ is referred to by Bishop Nunez de la Vega as venerated in Occhuc and other Tzendal towns of Chiapas. He translates it "Senor de los Negros." The terminal _ahau_ is pure Maya, meaning king, ruler, lord; _Yal_ is also Maya, and means water. The G.o.d of the waters, of darkness, night and blackness, is often one and the same in mythology, and probably had we the myth complete, he would prove to be Votan's brother and antagonist.]

According to an unpublished work by Fuentes, Votan was one of four brothers, the common ancestors of the southwestern branches of the Maya family.[1]

[Footnote 1: Quoted in Emeterio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco_, p. 9 (Mexico, 1845).]

All these traits of this popular hero are too exactly similar to those of the other representatives of this myth, for them to leave any doubt as to what we are to make of Votan. Like the rest of them, he and his long-robed attendants are personifications of the eastern light and its rays. Though but uncritical epitomes of a fragmentary myth about him remain, they are enough to stamp it as that which meets us so constantly, no matter where we turn in the New World.[1]

[Footnote 1: The t.i.tle of the Tzendal MSS., is said by Cabrera to be "Proof that I am a Chan." The author writes in the person of Votan himself, and proves his claim that he is a Chan, "because he is a Chivim."

Chan has been translated _serpent_; on _chivim_ the commentators have almost given up. Supposing that the serpent was a totem of one of the Tzendal clans, then the effort would be to show that their hero-G.o.d was of that totem; but how this is shown by his being proved a _chivim_ is not obvious. The term _ualum chivim_, the land of the _chivim_. appears to be that applied, in the MS., to the country of the Tzendals, or a part of it.

The words _chi uinic_ would mean, "men of the sh.o.r.e," and might be a local name applied to a clan on the coast. But in default of the original text we can but surmise as to the precise meaning of the writer.]

It scarcely seems necessary for me to point out that his name Votan is in no way akin to Othomi or Tarasco roots, still less to the Norse Wodan or the Indian Buddha, but is derived from a radical in pure Maya. Yet I will do so, in order, if possible, to put a stop to such visionary etymologies.

As we are informed by Bishop Nunez de la Vega, _uotan_ in Tzendal means _heart_. Votan was spoken of as "the heart or soul of his people." This derivation has been questioned, because the word for the heart in the other Maya dialects is different, and it has been suggested that this was but an example of "otosis," where a foreign proper name was turned into a familiar common noun. But these objections do not hold good.

In regard to derivation, _uotan_ is from the pure Maya root-word _tan_, which means primarily "the breast," or that which is in front or in the middle of the body; with the possessive prefix it becomes _utan_. In Tzendal this word means both _breast_ and _heart_. This is well ill.u.s.trated by an ancient ma.n.u.script, dating from 1707, in my possession.

It is a guide to priests for administering the sacraments in Spanish and Tzendal. I quote the pa.s.sage in point[1]:--

[Footnote 1: _Modo de Administrar los Sacramentos en Castellano y Tzendal_, 1707. 4to MS., p. 13.]

"Con todo tu corazon, hiriendote en los pechos, di, conmigo."

_Ta zpizil auotan, xatigh zny auotan, zghoyoc, alagh ghoyoc_.--

Here, _a_ is the possessive of the second person, and _uotan_ is used both for heart and breast. Thus the derivation of the word from the Maya radical is clear.

The figure of speech by which the chief divinity is called "the heart of the earth," "the heart of the sky," is common in these dialects, and occurs repeatedly in the _Popol Vuh_, the sacred legend of the Kiches of Guatemala.[2]

[Footnote 2: Thus we have (_Popol Vuh_, Part i, p. 2) _u qux cho_, Heart of the Lakes, and _u qux palo_, Heart of the Ocean, as names of the highest divinity; later, we find _u qux cah_, Heart of the Sky (p. 8), _u qux uleu_, Heart of the Earth, p. 12, 14, etc.

I may here repeat what I have elsewhere written on this figurative expression in the Maya languages: "The literal or physical sense of the word heart is not that which is here intended. In these dialects this word has a richer metaphorical meaning than in our tongue. It stands for all the psychical powers, the memory, will and reasoning faculties, the life, the spirit, the soul. It would be more correct to render these names the 'Spirit' or 'Soul' of the lake, etc., than the 'Heart.' They indicate a dimly understood sense of the unity of spirit or energy in all the various manifestations of organic and inorganic existence." _The Names of the G.o.ds in the Kiche Myths, Central America_, by Daniel G. Brinton, in _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, vol. xix, 1881, p.

623.]

The immediate neighbors of the Tzendals were the Mixes and Zoques, the former resident in the central mountains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the latter rather in the lowlands and toward the eastern coast. The Mixes nowadays number but a few villages, whose inhabitants are reported as drunken and worthless, but the time was when they were a powerful and warlike nation. They are in nowise akin to the Maya stock, although they are so cla.s.sed in Mr. H.H. Bancroft's excellent work.[1] They have, however, a distinct relationship with the Zoques, about thirty per cent of the words in the two languages being similar.[2] The Zoques, whose mythology we unfortunately know little or nothing about, adjoined the Tzendals, and were in constant intercourse with them.

[Footnote 1: "Mijes, Maya nation," _The Native Races of the Pacific States_, Vol. v, p. 712.]

[Footnote 2: _Apuntes sobre la Lengua Mije_, por C.H. Berendt, M.D., MS., in my hands. The comparison is made of 158 words in the two languages, of which 44 have marked affinity, besides the numerals, eight out of ten of which are the same. Many of the remaining words are related to the Zapotec, and there are very few and faint resemblances to Maya dialects.

One of them may possibly be in this name, Votan (_uotan_), heart, however.

In Mixe the word for heart is _hot_. I note this merely to complete my observations on the Votan myth.]

We have but faint traces of the early mythology of these tribes; but they preserved some legends which show that they also partook of the belief, so general among their neighbors, of a beneficent culture-G.o.d.

This myth relates that their first father, who was also their Supreme G.o.d, came forth from a cave in a lofty mountain in their country, to govern and direct them. He covered the soil with forests, located the springs and streams, peopled them with fish and the woods with game and birds, and taught the tribe how to catch them. They did not believe that he had died, but that after a certain length of time, he, with his servants and captives, all laden with bright gleaming gold, retired into the cave and closed its mouth, not to remain there, but to reappear at some other part of the world and confer similar favors on other nations.

The name, or one of the names, of this benefactor was Condoy, the meaning of which my facilities do not enable me to ascertain.[1]

[Footnote 1: Juan B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos y Estadisticos del Estado Libre de Oaxaca_, p. 3 (Oaxaca, 1847).]

There is scarcely enough of this to reveal the exact lineaments of their hero; but if we may judge from these fragments as given by Carriedo, it appears to be of precisely the same cla.s.s as the other hero-myths I have collected in this volume. Historians of authority a.s.sure us that the Mixes, Zoques and Zapotecs united in the expectation, founded on their ancient myths and prophecies, of the arrival, some time, of men from the East, fair of hue and mighty in power, masters of the lightning, who would occupy the land.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., p. 94, _note_, quoting from the works of Las Casas and Francis...o...b..rgoa.]

On the lofty plateau of the Andes, in New Granada, where, though nearly under the equator, the temperature is that of a perpetual spring, was the fortunate home of the Muyscas. It is the true El Dorado of America; every mountain stream a Pactolus, and every hill a mine of gold. The natives were peaceful in disposition, skilled in smelting and beating the precious metal that was everywhere at hand, lovers of agriculture, and versed in the arts of spinning, weaving and dying cotton. Their remaining sculptures prove them to have been of no mean ability in designing, and it is a.s.serted that they had a form of writing, of which their signs for the numerals have alone been preserved.

The knowledge of these various arts they attributed to the instructions of a wise stranger who dwelt among them many cycles before the arrival of the Spaniards. He came from the East, from the llanos of Venezuela or beyond them, and it was said that the path he made was broad and long, a hundred leagues in length, and led directly to the holy temple at his shrine at Sogamoso. In the province of Ubaque his footprints on the solid rock were reverently pointed out long after the Conquest. His hair was abundant, his beard fell to his waist, and he dressed in long and flowing robes. He went among the nations of the plateaux, addressing each in its own dialect, taught them to live in villages and to observe just laws. Near the village of Coto was a high hill held in special veneration, for from its prominent summit he was wont to address the people who gathered round its base.

Therefore it was esteemed a sanctuary, holy to the living and the dead.

Princely families from a distance carried their dead there to be interred, because this teacher had said that man does not perish when he dies, but shall rise again. It was held that this would be more certain to occur in the very spot where he announced this doctrine. Every sunset, when he had finished his discourse, he retired into a cave in the mountain, not to reappear again until the next morning.

For many years, some said for two thousand years, did he rule the people with equity, and then he departed, going back to the East whence he came, said some authorities, but others averred that he rose up to heaven. At any rate, before he left, he appointed a successor in the sovereignty, and recommended him to pursue the paths of justice.[1]

[Footnote 1: "Afirman que fue trasladado al cielo, y que al tiempo de su partida dexo al Cacique de aquella Provincia por heredero de su santidad i poderio." Lucas Fernaudez Piedrahita, _Historia General de las Conquistas del Nueoo Reyno de Granada_, Lib. i, cap. iii (Amberes, 1688).]

What led the Spanish missionaries to suspect that this was one of the twelve apostles, was not only these doctrines, but the undoubted fact that they found the symbol of the cross already a religious emblem among this people. It appeared in their sacred paintings, and especially, they erected one over the grave of a person who had died from the bite of a serpent.

A little careful investigation will permit us to accept these statements as quite true, and yet give them a very different interpretation.

That this culture-hero arrives from the East and returns to the East are points that at once excite the suspicion that he was the personification of the Light. But when we come to his names, no doubt can remain. These were various, but one of the most usual was _Chimizapagua_, which, we are told, means "a messenger from _Chiminigagua_." In the cosmogonical myths of the Muyscas this was the home or source of Light, and was a name applied to the demiurgic force. In that mysterious dwelling, so their account ran, light was shut up, and the world lay in primeval gloom. At a certain time the light manifested itself, and the dawn of the first morning appeared, the light being carried to the four quarters of the earth by great black birds, who blew the air and winds from their beaks.

Modern grammarians profess themselves unable to explain the exact meaning of the name _Chiminigagua_, but it is a compound, in which, evidently, appear the words _chie_, light, and _gagua_, Sun.[1]

[Footnote 1: Uricoechea says, "al principio del mundo la luz estaba encerrada en una cosa que no podian describir i que llamaban _Chiminigague_, o El Criador." _Gramatica de la Lengua Chibcha_, Introd., p. xix. _Chie_ in this tongue means light, moon, month, honor, and is also the first person plural of the personal p.r.o.noun. _Ibid_., p. 94. Father Simon says _gagua_ is "el nombre del mismo sol," though ordinarily Sun is _Sua_.]

Other names applied to this hero-G.o.d were Nemterequeteba, Bochica, and Zuhe, or Sua, the last mentioned being also the ordinary word for the Sun.

He was reported to have been of light complexion, and when the Spaniards first arrived they were supposed to be his envoys, and were called _sua_ or _gagua_, just as from the memory of a similar myth in Peru they were addressed as Viracochas.