CHAPTER IV.

ANIMAL MYTHOLOGY.

RÔLES ASSIGNED TO ANIMALS -- AUGURIES FROM THEIR MOVEMENTS -- THE ILL-OMENED OWL -- TUTELARY ANIMALS -- METAMORPHOSED MEN -- THE OGRESS-SQUIRREL OF VANCOUVER ISLAND -- MONKEYS AND BEAVERS -- FALLEN MEN -- THE SACRED ANIMALS -- PROMINENCE OF THE BIRD -- AN EMBLEM OF THE WIND -- THE SERPENT, AN EMBLEM OF THE LIGHTNING -- NOT SPECIALLY CONNECTED WITH EVIL -- THE SERPENT OF THE PUEBLOS -- THE WATER-SNAKE -- OPHIOLATRY -- PROMINENCE OF THE DOG, OR THE COYOTE -- GENERALLY THOUGH NOT ALWAYS A BENEVOLENT POWER -- HOW THE COYOTE LET SALMON UP THE KLAMATH -- DANSE MACABRE AND SAD DEATH OF THE COYOTE.

The reader must have already noticed the strange rôles filled by animals in the creeds of the Native Races of the Pacific States. Beasts and birds and fishes fetch and carry, talk and act, in a way that leaves even Æsop's heroes in the shade; while a mysterious and inexplicable influence over human destiny is often accorded to them. It is of course impossible to say precisely how much of all this is metaphorical, and how much is held as soberly and literally true. Probably the proportion varies all the way from one extreme to the other among different nations, and among peoples of different stages of culture in the same nation. They spake only in part, these priests and prophets of barbaric cults, and we can understand only in part; we cannot solve the dark riddle of the past; we can oftenest only repeat it, and even that in a more or less imperfect manner.

The Mexicans had their official augurs and soothsayers, who divined much as did their brethren of classic times. The people also drew omen and presage from many things: from the howling of wild beasts at night; the singing of certain birds; the hooting of the owl; a weasel crossing a traveler's path; a rabbit running into its burrow; from the chance movements of worms, beetles, ants, frogs, and mice; and so on in detail.[IV-1]

The owl seems to have been in many places considered a bird of ill omen. Among all the tribes visited by Mr Lord, from the Fraser River to the Saint Lawrence, this bird was portentously sacred, and was a favorite decoration of the medicine-men. To come on an owl at an unusual time, in daylight for example, and to hear its mystic cry, were things not desirable of any that loved fulness of pleasure and length of days.[IV-2] In California, by the tribes on the Russian River, owls were held to be devils or evil spirits incarnate.[IV-3]

We often find an animal adopted in much the same way as a patron saint was selected by the mediæval knight. The Hyperborean lad, for example, when he reaches manhood, takes some beast or fish or bird to be his patron, and the spirit connected with that animal is supposed to guard him. Unlike most Indians, the Eskimo will have no hesitation in killing an animal of his tutelary species: he is only careful to wear a piece of its skin or bone, which he regards as an amulet, which it were to him a serious misfortune to lose. Prolonged ill luck sometimes leads a man to change his patron beast for another. The spirits connected with the deer, the seal, the salmon, and the beluga are regarded by all with special veneration.[IV-4]

The Mexicans used to allot certain animals to certain parts of the body; perhaps in much the same way as astrologers and alchemists used to connect the stars of heaven with different substances and persons. The following twenty Mexican symbols were supposed to rule over the various members of the human body: The sign of the deer, over the right foot; of the tiger, over the left foot; of the eagle, over the right hand; of the monkey, over the left hand; of death--represented by a skull--over the skull; of water, over the hair; of the house, over the brow; of rain, over the eyes; of the dog, over the nose; of the vulture, over the right ear; of the rabbit, over the left ear; of the earthquake, over the tongue; of flint, over the teeth; of air, over the breath; of the rose, over the breast; of the cane, over the heart; of wind, over the lungs--as appears from the plate in the Codex Vaticanus, the Italian interpreter giving, however, "over the liver;" of the grass, over the intestines; of the lizard, over the loins; and of the serpent, over the genitals.[IV-5]

[Sidenote: THE HUMANITY OF ANIMALS.]

Sometimes the whole life and being of a man was supposed to be bound up in the bundle with that of some animal. Thus, of the Guatemaltecs, old Gage quaintly enough writes: "Many are deluded by the Devil to believe that their life dependeth upon the life of such and such a beast (which they take unto them as their familiar spirit) and think that when that beast dieth they must die; when he is chased their hearts pant; when he is faint they are faint; nay it happeneth that by the devil's delusion they appear in the shape of that beast."[IV-6]

Animals are sometimes only men in disguise; and this is the idea often to be found at the bottom of that sacredness which among particular tribes is ascribed to particular animals.

The Thlinkeet will kill a bear only in case of great necessity, for the bear is supposed to be a man that has taken the shape of an animal. We do not know if they think the same of the albatross, but they certainly will not kill this bird, believing, like mariners ancient and modern, that such a misdeed would be followed by bad weather.[IV-7]

Among the natives seen by Mr Lord on Vancouver Island, ill-luck is supposed to attend the profane killing of the ogress-squirrel, and the conjurers wear its skin as a strong charm among their other trumpery. As tradition tells, there once lived there a monstrous old woman with wolfish teeth, and finger-nails like claws. She ate children, this old hag, wiling them to her with cunning and oily words, and many were the broken hearts and empty cradles that she left. One poor Rachel, weeping for her child and not to be comforted because it was not, cries aloud: Oh, Great Spirit, Great Medicine, save my son, in any way, in any form! And the great, good Father, looking down upon the red mother pities her; lo, the child's soft brown skin turns to fur, and there slides from the ogress's grip no child, but the happiest, liveliest, merriest little squirrel of all the west--but bearing, as its descendants still bear, those four dark lines along the back that show where the cruel claws plowed into it escaping.[IV-8]

Where monkeys are found, the idea seems often to have occurred to men, to account for the resemblance of the monkey to the man by making of the first a fallen or changed form of the latter. We have already seen how the third Quiché destruction of the human race terminated thus; and how the hurricane-ended Sun of the Air in Mexican mythology, also left men in the apish state. The intelligence of beavers may have been the means of winning them a similar distinction. The Flathead says these animals are a fallen race of Indians, condemned for their wickedness to this form, but who will yet, in the fulness of time, be restored to their humanity.[IV-9]

As we shall see more particularly, when we come to deal with the question of the future life, it was a common idea that the soul of the dead took an animal shape, sometimes inhabiting another world, sometimes this. The Thlinkeets, for example, believed that their shamáns used to have interviews with certain spirits of the dead that appeared to them in two forms, some as land animals, some as marine.[IV-10]

[Sidenote: SACREDNESS OF CERTAIN BRUTES.]

The Californians round San Diego will not eat the flesh of large game, believing such animals are inhabited by the souls of generations of people that have died ages ago; 'eater of venison!' is a term of reproach among them.[IV-11]

The Pimos and Maricopas had, if Bartlett's account be correct, some curious and unusual ideas regarding their future state; saying that the several parts of the body should be changed into separate animals; the head would perhaps take the form of an owl, the feet become wolves, and so on.[IV-12] The Moquis supposed that at death they should be severally changed into animals--bears, deer, and such beasts; which indeed, as we have already seen, they believed to have been their original form.[IV-13]

Different reasons are given by different tribes for holding certain animals sacred; some of these we have already had occasion to notice. Somewhat different from most, however, is that given by the Northern-Indian branch of the Tinneh, for not eating the flesh of foxes, wolves, ravens, and so on. This tribe are accustomed to abandon the bodies of their dead wherever they happen to fall, leaving them to the maws of kites or of any other animals of prey in the neighborhood; therefore nothing but the extremest necessity can force any member of the nation to make use of such animals as food.[IV-14]

Certain natives of Guatemala in the province of Acalán, called by Villagutierre Mazotecas, kept deer in so tame a state that they were easily killed by the least active soldiers. These deer were held as sacred by the inhabitants; for tradition told them that their greatest god had visited them in this figure.[IV-15] The Apaches greatly respect the bear, neither killing him nor tasting his flesh. They think that there are spirits of divine origin within or connected with the eagle, the owl, and all birds perfectly white. Swine, they hold to be wholly unclean.[IV-16] Some animals are sacred to particular gods: with the Zuñis, the frog, the turtle, and the rattlesnake were either considered as specially under the protection of Montezuma--here considered as the god of rain--or they were themselves the lesser divinities of water.[IV-17]

It is sometimes necessary to guard against being misled by names. Thus the natives of Nicaragua had gods whose name was that of a rabbit or a deer; yet these animals were not considered as gods. The identity of name went only to say that such and such were the gods to be invoked in hunting such and such animals.[IV-18]

[Sidenote: THE WIND OR THUNDER BIRD.]

The reader must have already noticed how important is the part assigned to birds in our mythology, especially in creation-myths. A great bird is the agent of the chief deity, perhaps the chief deity himself. The sweep of his wings is thunder; the lightnings are the glances of his eyes.[IV-19] Chipewyans, Thlinkeets, Atnas, Koltschanes, Kenai, and other nations give this being great prominence in their legends.

Brinton believes this bird to be the emblem of the wind, to be "a relic of the cosmogonal myth which explained the origin of the world from the action of the winds, under the image of the bird, on the primeval ocean;"[IV-20] and his view is probably correct in many cases.

The savage is ever ready to be smitten by natural powers. Ignorant and agape with wonder, is it unnatural that he should regard, with a superstitious awe and respect, the higher and more peculiar animal gifts, relating them to like physical powers, and managing to mix and confuse the whole by a strange synthesis of philosophy? Birds flew, the winds flew; the birds were of the kith of the winds, and the winds were of the kin of the gods who are over all. Poor, weary, painted man, who could only toil dustily along, foot-sore and perhaps heart-sore, with strange longings that venison and bear-meat could not satisfy--was it very wonderful if the throbbing music and upward flight of the clear-throated and swift-winged were to him very mysterious and sacred things? "All living beings," say the north-eastern Eskimos, "have the faculty of soul, but especially the bird." From the flight and song of birds, the Mexican divined and shadowed forth the unborn shapes of the to-come. He died too, if he died in an odor of warlike sanctity, in the strong faith that his soul should ultimately take the form of a bird and twitter through the ages in the purple shadows of the trees of paradise.[IV-21]

The Kailtas on the south fork of the Trinity in California, though they do not turn the soul into a bird, do say that as it leaves the body a little bird carries it up to the spirit-land.[IV-22]

The Spaniards of Vizcaino's expedition, in 1602, found the Californians of Santa Catalina Island venerating two great black crows, which, according to Señor Galan, were probably a species of bird known in Mexico as _rey de los zopilotes_, or king of turkey-buzzards; he adding that these birds are still the objects of respect and devotion among most Californian tribes.[IV-23]

As another symbol, sign, or type of the supernatural, the serpent would naturally suggest itself at an early date to man. Its stealthy, subtle, sinuous motion, the glittering fascination of its eyes, the silent deathly thrust of its channeled fangs--what marvel if the foolishest of men, like the wisest of kings, should say "I know it not; it is a thing too wonderful for me?" It seems to be immortal: every spring-time it cast off and crept from its former skin, a crawling unburnt phœnix, a new animal.

Schwartz, of Berlin, affirms, from deep research in Greek and German mythology, that the paramount germinal idea in this wide-spread serpent-emblem is the lightning, and Dr. Brinton develops the same opinion at some length.[IV-24]

Tlaloc, the Aztec rain-god, held in his hand a serpent-shaped piece of gold, representing most probably the lightning. Hurakan, of the Quiché legends, is otherwise the Strong Serpent, he who hurls below, referring in all likelihood to storm powers as thunderer.[IV-25] This view being accepted, the lightning-serpent is the type of fruitfulness; the thunder storm being inseparably joined with the thick, fertilizing summer showers.[IV-26] Born, too, in the middle heaven, of a cloud mother and of an Ixion upon whom science cannot yet place her finger, amid moaning breeze and threatening tempest, the lightning is surely also akin to the wind and to the bird that is their symbol. The amalgamation of these powers in one deity seems to be what is indicated by such names as Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz, Cukulcan, all titles of the God of the Air in different American languages, and all signifying 'Bird-Serpent.'

[Sidenote: THE CROSS AND THE FOUR WINDS.]

In a tablet on the wall of a room at Palenque is a cross surmounted by a bird, and supported by what appears to be the head of a serpent: "The cross," says Brinton, "is the symbol of the four winds; the bird and serpent, the rebus of the air god, their ruler."

It does not appear that savages attach any special significance of evil to the snake, though the prepossessions of early writers almost invariably blind them on this point.[IV-27] This rule is not without its exceptions however; the Apaches hold that every rattlesnake contains the soul of a bad man or is an emissary of the Evil Spirit.[IV-28] The Piutes of Nevada have a demon-deity in the form of a serpent still supposed to exist in the waters of Pyramid Lake. The wind when it sweeps down among the nine islands of the lake drives the waters into the most fantastic swirls and eddies, even when the general surface of the lake is tolerably placid. This, say the Piutes, is the devil-snake causing the deep to boil like a pot; this is the old serpent seeking whom he may devour; and no native in possession of his five sober wits will be found steering toward those troubled waters at such a time.[IV-29]

In the Pueblo cities, among the Pecos especially, there existed in early times an immense serpent, supposed to be sacred, and which, according to some accounts, was fed with the flesh of his devotees. Gregg heard an "honest ranchero" relate how, one snowy morning, he had come upon this terrible reptile's trail, "large as that of a dragging ox;" the ranchero did not pursue the investigation farther, not obtruding his science, such as it was, upon his religion. This serpent was supposed to be specially connected with Montezuma, and with rain phenomena: it is often called "the great water-snake." It was described to Whipple "as being as large round as a man's body; and of exceeding great length, slowly gliding upon the water, with long wavy folds" like the Nahant sea-serpent--to Möllhausen, as being a great rattlesnake, possessor of power over seas, lakes, rivers and rain; as thick as many men put together, and much longer than all the snakes in the world; moving in great curves and destroying wicked men. The Pueblo Indians prayed to it for rain and revered its mysterious powers.[IV-30]

A people, called by Castañeda Tahus, apparently of Sinaloa in the neighborhood of Culiacan, regarded certain large serpents with sentiments of great veneration if not of worship.[IV-31] These reptiles seem also to have been regarded with considerable reverence in Yucatan. In 1517, Bernal Diaz noticed many figures of serpents in a temple he saw at Campeche. Juan de Grijalva, also, found at the same time many such figures at Champoton, among other idols of clay and wood.[IV-32]

We have already spoken of the Mexican Tlaloc and of the frequent appearance of the serpent in his worship; it does not appear, however, notwithstanding Mr Squier's assertion to the contrary, that the serpent was actually worshiped either in Yucatan or Mexico. Bernal Diaz, indeed, says positively in one passage, speaking of a town called Tenayuca, that "they worshiped here, in their chief temple, three serpents;" but the stout soldier was not one to make fine distinctions between gods and their attributes or symbols; nor, even with the best intentions, was he or any other of the conquistadores in a position to do justice to the faith of 'gentiles.'[IV-33]

We shall hereafter find the serpent closely connected with Quetzalcoatl in many of his manifestations, as well as with others of the Mexican gods.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE DOG OF AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY.]

From the serpent let us turn to the dog, with his relations the wolf and coyote, an animal holding a respectable place in American mythology. We have seen how many tribes derive, figuratively or literally, their origin from him, and how often he becomes legendarily important as the hero of some adventure or the agent of some deity. He is generally brought before us in a rather benevolent aspect, though an exception occurs to this in the case of the Chinooks at the mouth of the Columbia. With these the coyote figures as the chosen medium for the action of the Evil Spirit toward any given malevolent end--as the form taken by the Evil One to counteract some beneficence of the Good Spirit toward the poor Indian whom he loves.[IV-34]

Very different from this is the character of that Coyote of the Cahrocs whose good deeds we have so often had occasion to set forth. One feat of his yet remains to be told--how he stocked the river with salmon. Chareya, the creator, had made salmon, but he had put them in the big-water, and made a great fish-dam at the mouth of the Klamath, so that they could not go up; and this dam was closed with something of the nature of a white man's key, which key was given in charge to two old hags, not wholly unfamiliar to us, to keep and watch over it night and day, so that no Cahroc should get near it. Now fish being wanting to the Cahrocs, they were sorely pushed by hunger, and the voice of women and little children was heard imploring food. The Coyote determined to help them; he swore by the stool of Chareya that before another moon their lodges should drip with salmon, and the very dogs be satisfied withal. So he traveled down the Klamath many days' journey till he came to the mouth of the river and saw the big-water and heard the thunder of its waves. Up he went to the hut of the old women, rapped, and asked hospitality for the night; and he was so polite and debonair that the crones could find no excuse for refusing him. He entered the place and threw himself down by the fire, warming himself while they prepared salmon for supper, which they ate without offering him a bite. All night long he lay by the fire pretending to sleep, but thinking over his plans and waiting for the event that should put him in possession of the mighty key that he saw hanging so high above his reach. In the morning one of the hags took down the key and started off toward the dam to get some fish for breakfast. Like a flash the Coyote leaped at her, hurling himself between her feet; heels over head she pitched, and the key flew far from her hands. Before she well knew what had hurt her the Coyote stood at the dam with the key in his teeth, wrenching at the fastenings. They gave way; and with a great roar the green water raced through, all ashine with salmon, utterly destroying and breaking down the dam, so that ever after fish found free way up the Klamath.

[Sidenote: COYOTES MUST NOT DANCE WITH STARS.]

The end of the poor Coyote was rather sad, considering his kindness of heart and the many services he had rendered the Cahrocs. Like too many great personages, he grew proud and puffed up with the adulation of flatterers and sycophants--proud of his courage and cunning, and of the success that had crowned his great enterprises for the good of mankind--proud that he had twice deceived and outwitted the guardian hags to whom Chareya had entrusted the fire and the salmon--so proud that he determined to have a dance through heaven itself, having chosen as his partner a certain star that used to pass quite close by a mountain where he spent a good deal of his time. So he called out to the star to take him by the paw and they would go round the world together for a night; but the star only laughed, and winked in an excessively provoking way from time to time. The Coyote persisted angrily in his demand, and barked and barked at the star all round heaven, till the twinkling thing grew tired of his noise and told him to be quiet and he should be taken next night. Next night the star came quite up close to the cliff where the Coyote stood, who leaping was able to catch on. Away they danced together through the blue heavens. Fine sport it was for a while; but oh, it grew bitter cold up there for a Coyote of the earth, and it was an awful sight to look down to where the broad Klamath lay like a slack bowstring and the Cahroc villages like arrow-heads. Woe for the Coyote! his numb paws have slipped their hold on his bright companion; dark is the partner that leads the dance now, and the name of him is Death. Ten long snows the Coyote is in falling, and when he strikes the earth he is "smashed as flat as a willow-mat".--Coyotes must not dance with stars.[IV-35]

FOOTNOTES:

[IV-1] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. v., pp. 1-14, ap. pp. 25-6.

[IV-2] _Lord's Naturalist in Vancouver Island_, vol. ii., pp. 32-4.

[IV-3] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV-4] _Dall's Alaska_, p. 145.

[IV-5] _Codex Vaticanus_ (_Mex._), in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. ii., plate 75; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_ (Vaticano), in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 197, tav. lxxv.; _Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vi., pp. 222-3, plate lxxv. It will be seen that I have trusted more to the plate itself than to the Italian explanation. As to Kingsborough's translation of that explanation, it is nothing but a gloss with additions to and omissions from the original.

[IV-6] _Gage's New Survey_, p. 334.

[IV-7] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, p. 30.

[IV-8] _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 52-4.

[IV-9] _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 253.

[IV-10] _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 422-3.

[IV-11] _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 215.

[IV-12] _Bartlett's Pers. Nar._, vol. ii., p. 222.

[IV-13] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 86.

[IV-14] _Hearne's Journey_, p. 341.

[IV-15] _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 43.

[IV-16] _Charlton_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[IV-17] _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 39-40, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.

[IV-18] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 54-5.

[IV-19] Swinburne, _Anactoria_, has found an allied idea worthy of his sublime verse:--

'Cast forth of heaven, with feet of awful gold, And plumeless wings that make the bright air blind, Lightning, with thunder for a hound behind, Hunting through fields unfurrowed and unsown--'

[IV-20] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 205. The Norse belief is akin to this:--

'The giant Hrsuelgur, At the end of heaven, Sits in an eagle's form; 'Tis said that from his wings The cold winds sweep Over all the nations.'

_Vafthrudvers maal_; Grenville Pigott's translation, in _Scandinavian Mythology_, p. 27.

Scott, _Pirate_, chap. v., in the 'Song of the Tempest,' which he translates from Norna's mouth, shows that the same idea is still found in the Shetland Islands:--

'Stern eagle of the far north-west, Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt, Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness, ... Cease thou the waving of thy pinions, Let the ocean repose in her dark strength; Cease thou the flashing of thine eyes, Let the thunderbolt sleep in the armory of Odin.'

[IV-21] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 5.

[IV-22] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[IV-23] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 713: 'The entire tribes of the Californian Indiania [sic] appear to have had a great devotion and veneration for the Condor or Yellow-headed Vulture.' _Taylor_, in _Cal. Farmer_, May 25th, 1860. 'Cathartes Californianus, the largest rapacious bird of North America.' _Baird's Birds of N. Am._, p. 5. 'This bird is an object of great veneration or worship among the Indian tribes of every portion of the state.' _Reid_, in _Los Angeles Star_.

[IV-24] _Brinton's Myths_, p. 112.

[IV-25] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 46-71; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 14-15; _Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, pt. ii., pp. 76-7.

[IV-26] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 500.

[IV-27] _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 217.

[IV-28] _Charlton_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 209.

[IV-29] _Virginia City Chronicle_, in _S. F. Daily Ev'g Post_, of Aug. 12th, 1872.

[IV-30] _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., pp. 271-2; _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 38-9, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.; _Möllhausen_, _Tagebuch_, p. 170; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 164-5. Certain later travelers deny all the foregoing as 'fiction and fable;' meaning, probably, that they saw nothing of it, or that it does not exist at present. _Wand_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, p. 193; _Meline's Two Thousand Miles_, p. 256.

[IV-31] _Castañeda_, _Voy. de Cibola_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voyages_, série i., tom. ix., p. 150.

[IV-32] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 3, 8.

[IV-33] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 136; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 105.

[IV-34] _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 218.

[IV-35] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.; Boscana, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 259-262, describes certain other Californians as worshiping for their chief god something in the form of a stuffed coyote.