Daniel Brinton - The Myths of the New World

Let no one suppose, however, that this was the only myth of the origin of man. Far from it. It was but one of many, for, as I shall hereafter attempt to show, the laws that governed the formations of such myths not only allowed but enjoined great divergence of form. Equally far was it from being the only image which the inventive fancy hit upon to express the action of the winds as the rain bringers. They too were many, but may all be included in a twofold division, either as the winds were supposed to flow in from the corners of the earth or outward from its central point. Thus they are spoken of under such figures as four tortoises at the angles of the earthly plane who vomit forth the rains, 97 97 Mandans in Catlin, Letts. and Notes , i. p. 181. or four gigantic caryatides who sustain the heavens and blow the winds from their capacious lungs, 98 98 The Mayas, Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucathan , lib. iv. cap. 8. or more frequently as four rivers flowing from the broken calabash on high, as the Haitians, draining the waters of the primitive world, 99 99 The Navajos, Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes , iv. p. 89. as four animals who bring from heaven the maize, 100 100 The Quichés, Ximenes, Or. de los Indios , p. 79. as four messengers whom the god of air sends forth, or under a coarser trope as the spittle he ejects toward the cardinal points which is straightway transformed into wild rice, tobacco, and maize. 101 101 The Iroquois, Müller, Amer. Urreligionen , p. 109.

Constantly from the palace of the lord of the world, seated on the high hill of heaven, blow four winds, pour four streams, refreshing and fecundating the earth. Therefore, in the myths of ancient Iran there is mention of a celestial fountain, Arduisur, the virgin daughter of Ormuzd, whence four all nourishing rivers roll their waves toward the cardinal points; therefore the Thibetans believe that on the sacred mountain Himavata grows the tree of life Zampu, from whose foot once more flow the waters of life in four streams to the four quarters of the world; and therefore it is that the same tale is told by the Chinese of the mountain Kouantun, by the Brahmins of Mount Meru, and by the Parsees of Mount Albors in the Caucasus. 102 102 For these myths see Sepp, Das Heidenthum und dessen Bedeutung für das Christenthum , i. p. 111 sqq. The interpretation is of course my own. Each nation called their sacred mountain “the navel of the earth;” for not only was it the supposed centre of the habitable world, but through it, as the fœtus through the umbilical cord, the earth drew her increase. Beyond all other spots were they accounted fertile, scenes of joyous plaisance, of repose, and eternal youth; there rippled the waters of health, there blossomed the tree of life; they were fit trysting spots of gods and men. Hence came the tales of the terrestrial paradise, the rose garden of Feridun, the Eden gardens of the world. The name shows the origin, for paradise (in Sanscrit, para desa

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Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvoelker , i. p. 256.

Carriere, Die Kunst im Zusammenhang der Culturentwickelung , i. p. 66.

It is said indeed that the Yebus, a people on the west coast of Africa, speak a polysynthetic language, and per contra , that the Otomis of Mexico have a monosyllabic one like the Chinese. Max Mueller goes further, and asserts that what is called the process of agglutination in the Turanian languages is the same as what has been named polysynthesis in America. This is not to be conceded. In the former the root is unchangeable, the formative elements follow it, and prefixes are not used; in the latter prefixes are common, and the formative elements are blended with the root, both undergoing changes of structure. Very important differences.

Grimm, Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache , p. 571.

Peter Martyr, De Insulis nuper Repertis , p. 354: Colon. 1574.

They may be found in Waitz, Anthrop. der Naturvoelker , iv. p. 173.

The only authority is Diego de Landa, Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan , ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1864, p. 318. The explanation is extremely obscure in the original. I have given it in the only sense in which the author’s words seem to have any meaning.

Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères , p. 72.

Desjardins, Le Pérou avant la Conquête Espagnole , p. 122: Paris, 1858.

An instance is given by Ximenes, Origen de los Indios de Guatemala , p. 186: Vienna, 1856.

George Copway, Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation , p. 130: London, 1850.

Morse, Report on the Indian Tribes , App. p. 352.

Gomara states that De Ayllon found tribes on the Atlantic shore not far from Cape Hatteras keeping flocks of deer ( ciervos ) and from their milk making cheese ( Hist. de las Indias , cap. 43). I attach no importance to this statement, and only mention it to connect it with some other curious notices of the tribe now extinct who occupied that locality. Both De Ayllon and Lawson mention their very light complexions, and the latter saw many with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fair skin; they cultivated when first visited the potato (or the groundnut), tobacco, and cotton (Humboldt); they reckoned time by disks of wood divided into sixty segments (Lederer); and just in this latitude the most careful determination fixes the mysterious White-man’s-land, or Great Ireland of the Icelandic Sagas (see the American Hist. Mag. , ix. p. 364), where the Scandinavian sea rovers in the eleventh century found men of their own color, clothed in long woven garments, and not less civilized than themselves.

The name Eskimo is from the Algonkin word Eskimantick , eaters of raw flesh. There is reason to believe that at one time they possessed the Atlantic coast considerably to the south. The Northmen, in the year 1000, found the natives of Vinland, probably near Rhode Island, of the same race as they were familiar with in Labrador. They call them Skralingar , chips, and describe them as numerous and short of stature (Eric Rothens Saga, in Mueller, Sagænbibliothek , p. 214). It is curious that the traditions of the Tuscaroras, who placed their arrival on the Virginian coast about 1300, spoke of the race they found there as eaters of raw flesh and ignorant of maize (Lederer, Account of North America , in Harris, Voyages).