The Myths of the New World Part 7

When Father Buteux was a missionary among the Algonkins, in 1637, he asked them their opinion of the nature of lightning. "It is an immense serpent," they replied, "which the Manito is vomiting forth; you can see the twists and folds that he leaves on the trees which he strikes; and underneath such trees we have often found huge snakes." "Here is a novel philosophy for you!" exclaims the Father.[113-2] So the Shawnees called the thunder "the hissing of the great snake;"[113-3] and Tlaloc, the Toltec thunder G.o.d, held in his hand a serpent of gold to represent the lightning.[114-1] For this reason the Caribs spoke of the G.o.d of the thunder storm as a great serpent dwelling in the fruit forests,[114-2]

and in the Quiche legends other names for Hurakan, the hurricane or thunder-storm, are the Strong Serpent, He who hurls below, referring to the lightning.[114-3]

Among the Hurons, in 1648, the Jesuits found a legend current that there existed somewhere a monster serpent called Onniont, who wore on his head a horn that pierced rocks, trees, hills, in short everything he encountered. Whoever could get a piece of this horn was a fortunate man, for it was a sovereign charm and bringer of good luck. The Hurons confessed that none of them had had the good hap to find the monster and break his horn, nor indeed had they any idea of his whereabouts; but their neighbors, the Algonkins, furnished them at times small fragments for a large consideration.[114-4] Clearly the myth had been taught them for venal purposes by their trafficking visitors. Now among the Algonkins, the Shawnee tribe did more than all others combined to introduce and carry about religious legends and ceremonies. From the earliest times they seem to have had peculiar apt.i.tude for the ecstasies, deceits, and fancies that made up the spiritual life of their a.s.sociates. Their constantly roving life brought them in contact with the myths of many nations. And it is extremely probable that they first brought the tale of the horned serpent from the Creeks and Cherokees. It figured extensively in the legends of both these tribes.

The latter related that once upon a time among the glens of their mountains dwelt the prince of rattlesnakes. Obedient subjects guarded his palace, and on his head glittered in place of a crown a gem of marvellous magic virtues. Many warriors and magicians tried to get possession of this precious talisman, but were destroyed by the poisoned fangs of its defenders. Finally, one more inventive than the rest hit upon the bright idea of encasing himself in leather, and by this device marched unharmed through the hissing and snapping court, tore off the shining jewel, and bore it in triumph to his nation. They preserved it with religious care, brought it forth on state occasions with solemn ceremony, and about the middle of the last century, when Captain Timberlake penetrated to their towns, told him its origin.[115-1]

The charm which the Creeks presented their young men when they set out on the war path was of very similar character. It was composed of the bones of the panther and the horn of the fabulous horned snake.

According to a legend taken down by an unimpeachable authority toward the close of the last century, the great snake dwelt in the waters; the old people went to the brink and sang the sacred songs. The monster rose to the surface. The sages recommenced the mystic chants. He rose a little out o[TN-3] the water. Again they repeated the songs. This time he showed his horns and they cut one off. Still a fourth time did they sing, and as he rose to listen cut off the remaining horn. A fragment of these in the "war physic" protected from inimical arrows and gave success in the conflict.[116-1]

In these myths, which attribute good fortune to the horn of the snake, that horn which pierces trees and rocks, which rises from the waters, which glitters as a gem, which descends from the ravines of the mountains, we shall not overstep the bounds of prudent reasoning if we see the thunderbolt, sign of the fructifying rain, symbol of the strength of the lightning, horn of the heavenly serpent. They are strictly meteorological in their meaning. And when in later Algonkin tradition the hero Michabo appears in conflict with the shining prince of serpents who lives in the lake and floods the earth with its waters, and destroys the reptile with a dart, and further when the conqueror clothes himself with the skin of his foe and drives the rest of the serpents to the south where in that lat.i.tude the lightnings are last seen in the autumn;[116-2] or when in the traditional history of the Iroquois we hear of another great horned serpent rising out of the lake and preying upon the people until a similar hero-G.o.d destroys it with a thunderbolt,[116-3] we cannot be wrong in rejecting any historical or ethical interpretation, and in construing them as allegories which at first represented the atmospheric changes which accompany the advancing seasons and the ripening harvests. They are narratives conveying under agreeable personifications the tidings of that unending combat which the Dakotas said was being waged with varying fortunes by Unktahe against Wauhkeon, the G.o.d of Waters against the Thunder Bird.[117-1] They are the same stories which in the old world have been elaborated into the struggles of Ormuzd and Ahriman, of Thor and Midgard, of St. George and the Dragon, and a thousand others.

Yet it were but a narrow theory of natural religion that allowed no other meaning to these myths. Many another elemental warfare is being waged around us, and applications as various as nature herself lie in these primitive creations of the human fancy. Let it only be remembered that there was never any moral, never any historical purport in them in the infancy of religious life.

In snake charming as a proof of proficiency in magic, and in the symbol of the lightning, which brings both fire and water, which in its might controls victory in war, and in its frequency, plenteous crops at home, lies the secret of the serpent symbol. As the "war physic" among the tribes of the United States was a fragment of a serpent, and as thus signifying his incomparable skill in war, the Iroquois represent their mythical king Atatarho clothed in nothing but black snakes; so that when he wished to don a new suit he simply drove away one set and ordered another to take their places,[118-1] so, by a precisely similar mental process, the myth of the Nahuas a.s.signs as a mother to their war G.o.d Huitzilapochtli, Coatlicue, the robe of serpents; her dwelling place Coatepec, the hill of serpents; and at her lying-in say that she brought forth a serpent. Her son's image was surrounded by serpents, his sceptre was in the shape of one, his great drum was of serpents' skins, and his statue rested on four vermiform caryatides.

As the symbol of the fertilizing summer showers the lightning serpent was the G.o.d of fruitfulness. Born in the atmospheric waters, it was an appropriate attribute of the ruler of the winds. But we have already seen that the winds were often spoken of as great birds. Hence the union of these two emblems in such names as Quetzalcoatl, Guc.u.matz, Kukulkan, all t.i.tles of the G.o.d of the air in the languages of Central America, all signifying the "Bird-serpent." Here also we see the solution of that monument which has so puzzled American antiquaries, the cross at Palenque. It is a tablet on the wall of an altar representing a cross surmounted by a bird and supported by the head of a serpent. The latter is not well defined in the plate in Mr. Stephens' Travels, but is very distinct in the photographs taken by M. Charnay, which that gentleman was kind enough to show me. The cross I have previously shown was the symbol of the four winds, and the bird and serpent are simply the rebus of the air G.o.d, their ruler.[119-1] Quetzalcoatl, called also Yolcuat, the rattlesnake, was no less intimately a.s.sociated with serpents than with birds. The entrance to his temple at Mexico represented the jaws of one of these reptiles, and he finally disappeared in the province of Coatzacoalco, the hiding place of the serpent, sailing towards the east in a bark of serpents' skins. All this refers to his power over the lightning serpent.

He was also said to be the G.o.d of riches and the patron consequently of merchants. For with the summer lightning come the harvest and the ripening fruits, come riches and traffic. Moreover "the golden color of the liquid fire," as Lucretius expresses it, naturally led where this metal was known, to its being deemed the product of the lightning. Thus originated many of those tales of a dragon who watches a treasure in the earth, and of a serpent who is the dispenser of riches, such as were found among the Greeks and ancient Germans.[119-2] So it was in Peru where the G.o.d of riches was worshipped under the image of a rattlesnake horned and hairy, with a tail of gold. It was said to have descended from the heavens in the sight of all the people, and to have been seen by the whole army of the Inca.[119-3] Whether it was in reference to it, or as emblems of their prowess, that the Incas themselves chose as their arms two serpents with their tails interlaced, is uncertain; possibly one for each of these significations.

Because the rattlesnake, the lightning serpent, is thus connected with the food of man, and itself seems never to die but annually to renew its youth, the Algonkins called it "grandfather" and "king of snakes;" they feared to injure it; they believed it could grant prosperous breezes, or raise disastrous tempests; crowned with the lunar crescent it was the constant symbol of life in their picture writing; and in the meda signs the mythical grandmother of mankind _me suk k.u.m me go kwa_ was indifferently represented by an old woman or a serpent.[120-1] For like reasons Cihuacoatl, the Serpent Woman, in the myths of the Nahuas was also called Tonantzin, our mother.[120-2]

The serpent symbol in America has, however, been brought into undue prominence. It had such an ominous significance in Christian art, and one which chimed so well with the favorite proverb of the early missionaries--"the G.o.ds of the heathens are devils"--that wherever they saw a carving or picture of a serpent they at once recognized the sign manual of the Prince of Darkness, and inscribed the fact in their note-books as proof positive of their cherished theory. After going over the whole ground, I am convinced that none of the tribes of the red race attached to this symbol any ethical significance whatever, and that as employed to express atmospheric phenomena, and the recognition of divinity in natural occurrences, it far more frequently typified what was favorable and agreeable than the reverse.

FOOTNOTES:

[101-1] That these were the real views entertained by the Indians in regard to the brute creation, see Heckewelder, _Acc. of the Ind.

Nations_, p. 247; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iii. p. 520.

[101-2] Egede, _Nachrichten von Gronland_, p. 156.

[102-1] _Voiages aux Indes Occidentales_, pt. ii. p. 203: Amst. 1722.

[102-2] Beverly, _Hist. de la Virginie_, liv. iii. chap. viii.

[103-1] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. p. 420.

[103-2] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, p. 191: New York, 1849.

This is a trustworthy and meritorious book, which can be said of very few collections of Indian traditions. They were collected during a residence of seven years in our northwestern territories, and are usually verbally faithful to the native narrations.

[104-1] Muller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 222, after De la Borde.

[105-1] _Acc. of the Inds. of California_, ch. ix. Eng. trans. by Robinson: New York, 1847. The Acagchemem were a branch of the Netela tribe, who dwelt near the mission San Juan Capistrano (see Buschmann, _Spuren der Aztek. Sprache_, etc., p. 548).

[106-1] Called in the Aztec tongue _Tecolotl_, night owl; literally, the stone scorpion. The transfer was mythological. The Christians prefixed to this word _tlaca_, man, and thus formed a name for Satan, which Prescott and others have translated "rational owl." No such deity existed in ancient Anahuac (see Buschmann, _Die Voelker und Sprachen Neu Mexico's_, p. 262).

[106-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. p. 420.

[106-3] William Bartram, Travels, p. 504. Columbus found the natives of the Antilles wearing tunics with figures of these birds embroidered upon them. Prescott, _Conq. of Mexico_, i. p. 58, note.

[107-1] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, An 1636, ch. ix. Catlin, _Letters and notes_, Lett. 22.

[108-1] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, An 1648, p. 75; Cusic, _Trad. Hist. of the Six Nations_, pt. iii. The latter is the work of a native Tuscarora chief. It is republished in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, but is of little value.

[109-1] For example, in Brazil, Muller, _Amer. Urrelig._, p. 277; in Yucatan, Cogolludo, _Hist. de Yucathan_, lib. iv. cap. 4; among the western Algonkins, _Hennepin, Decouverte dans l'Amer. Septen_. chap. 33.

Dr. Hammond has expressed the opinion that the North American Indians enjoy the same immunity from the virus of the rattlesnake, that certain African tribes do from some vegetable poisons (_Hygiene_, p. 73). But his observation must be at fault, for many travellers mention the dread these serpents inspired, and the frequency of death from their bites, e. g.

_Rel. Nouv. France_. 1667, p. 22.

[109-2] _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_, p.

356.

[110-1] See Gallatin's vocabularies in the second volume of the _Trans.

Am. Antiq. Soc._ under the word _Snake_. In Arabic _dzann_ is serpent; _dzanan_ a spirit, a soul, or the heart. So in Hebrew _nachas_, serpent, has many derivatives signifying to hold intercourse with demons, to conjure, a magician, etc. See Noldeke in the _Zeitschrift fur Voelkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft_, i. p. 413.

[111-1] Alexander Henry, _Travels_, p. 117.

[111-2] _Bost. Med. and Surg. Journal_, vol. 76, p. 21.

[113-1] Schwarz, _Der Ursprung der Mythologie dargelegt an Griechischer und Deutscher Sage_: Berlin, 1860, _pa.s.sim_.

[113-2] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_: An 1637, p. 53.

[113-3] _Sagen der Nord-Amer. Indianer_, p. 21. This is a German translation of part of Jones's _Legends of the N. Am. Inds._: London, 1820. Their value as mythological material is very small.

[114-1] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. vi. cap. 37.

[114-2] Muller, _Amer. Urrelig._, 221, after De la Borde.

[114-3] _Le Livre Sacre des Quiches_, p. 3.

[114-4] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, 1648, p. 75.

[115-1] _Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake_, p. 48: London, 1765. This little book gives an account of the Cherokees at an earlier date than is elsewhere found.

[116-1] Hawkins, _Sketch of the Creek Country_, p. 80.

[116-2] Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, i. p. 179 sq.; compare ii. p.

117.

[116-3] Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 159; Cusic, _Trad. Hist. of the Six Nations_, pt. ii.

[117-1] Mrs. Eastman, _Legends of the Sioux_, pp. 161, 212. In this explanation I depart from Prof. Schwarz, who has collected various legends almost identical with these of the Indians (with which he was not acquainted), and interpreted the precious crown or horn to be the summer sun, brought forth by the early vernal lightning. _Ursprung der Mythologie_, p. 27, note.

[118-1] Cusic, u. s., pt. ii.

[119-1] This remarkable relic has been the subject of a long and able article in the _Revue Americaine_ (tom. ii. p. 69), by the venerable traveller De Waldeck. Like myself--and I had not seen his opinion until after the above was written--he explains the cruciform design as indicating the four cardinal points, but offers the explanation merely as a suggestion, and without referring to these symbols as they appear in so many other connections.

[119-2] Schwarz, _Ursprung der Mythologie_, pp. 62 sqq.