1858.5 美国古物

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American Antiquity
MAY 1858 ISSUE
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ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.

VOL. I.—MAY, 1858.—NO. VII.

THE results of the past ten or fifteen years in historical investigation are exceedingly mortifying to any one who has been proud to call himself a student of History. We had thought, perhaps, that we knew something of the origin of human events and the gradual development from the past into the world of to-day. We had read Herodotus, and Gibbon, and Gillies, and done manful duty with Rollin. There were certain comfortable, definite facts in antiquity. Romulus and Remus were our friends; the transmission of the alphabet by the Phœnicians was a resting-spot; the destruction of Babylon and the date of the Flood were fixed stations in the wilderness. In more modern periods, we had a refuge in the date of the discovery of America; and if we were forced back into the wilds and uncertainties of American History, Mr. Prescott soon restored to us the buried empires, and led us easily back through a few plain centuries.


Beyond these dates, indeed, there was a shadowy land, through whose changing mists could be seen sometimes the grand outlines of abandoned cities, or the faint forms of temples, or the graceful column or massive tomb, which marked the distant path of the advancing race: but these were scarcely more than visions for a moment, before darkness again covered the view. Our mythology and philosophy of the past were almost equally misty and vague. History was to us a succession of facts ; empire succeeding empire, and one form of civilization another, with scarcely more connection than in the scenes of a theatre;—the great isolated fact of all being the existence of the Jews. All cosmic myths and noble conceptions of Deity and pure religious beliefs were only offshoots of Hebrew tradition.

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This, we are pained to say, is all changed now. Our beloved dates, our easy explanation, and popular narrative are half dissolved under the touch of modern investigation. Roman History abandons poor Romulus and Remus; the Flood sinks into a local inundation, and is pushed back nobody knows how many thousands of years; an Egyptian antiquity arises of which Herodotus never knew; and Josephus is proved ignorant of his own subject. Nothing is found separate from the current of the world’s history,—neither Hebrew law and religion, nor Phoenician commerce, nor Hindoo mythology, nor Grecian art. On the shadowy Past, over the deserted battle-fields, the burial-mounds, the mausolea, the temples, the altars, and the habitations of perished nations, new rays of light are cast. Peoples not heard of before, empires forgotten, conquests not recorded, arts unknown in their place at this day, and civilizations of which all has perished but tbe language, appear again. The world wakes to find itself much older than it thought. History is hardly the same study that it once was. Even more than the investigations of hieroglyphs and bass-reliefs and sculptures, during the past few years, have the researches in one especial direction changed the face of the ancient world.

LANGUAGE is found to be itself the best record of a nation’s origin, development, and relation to other races. Each vocabulary and grammar of a dead nation is a Nineveh, rich in pictures, inscriptions, and historical records, uncovering to the patient investigator not merely the external life and actions of the people, but their deepest internal life, and their connection with other peoples and times. The little defaced word, the cast-away root, the antique construction, picked up by the student among the vestiges of a language, may be a relic fresher from the past and older than a stone from the Pyramids, or the sculpture of the Assyrian temple.

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In American history, this work of investigation till recently had not been thorougnly entered upon. Within the last quarter of a century, Kingsborough and Gallatin and Prescott and Davis and Squier and Schoolcraft and Muller have each thrown some light over the mysterious antiquity of our own continent But of all, a French Abbé, an ethnologist and a careful investigator,— M. BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG,—has, in a history recently published, done the best service to this cause. It is entitled “Histoire des Nations Civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique Centrale.” (Paris, ]857.) M. dc Bourbourg spent many years in Central America, studying the face of the country and the languages of the Indian tribes, and investigating the ancient picture-writing and the remains of the wonderful ruins of that region. Probably no stranger has ever enjoyed better opportunities of reading the ancient manuscripts and studying the dialects of the Central American races. With these helps he has prepared a groundwork for the history of the early civilized peoples of our American continent,—a history, it should be remembered, ending where Prescott’s begins, —reaching back, possibly, as far as the earliest invasions of the Huns, and one of whose fixed dates is at the time of the Antonines. He has ventured to lift, at length, the veil from our mysterious and confused American antiquity. It is an especial merit of M. de Bourbourg, in this stage of tbe investigation, that he has attempted to do no more. He has collected and collated facts, but has sought to give us very few theories. The stable philosophical conclusions he leaves for later research, when time shall have been afforded for fuller comparison.


There is an incredible fascination to many minds in these investigations into the traditions and beliefs of antiquity. We feel in their presence that they are the oldest things; the most ancient, books, or buildings, or sculptures are modern by their side. They represent the childish instincts of the human mind,—its gropings after Truth,—its dim ideals and shadowings forth of what it hopes will be. They are the earliest answers of man to the great questions, WHENCE and WHITHER ?

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The most ancient people of Central America, according to M. de Bourbourg, —a people referred to in all the oldest traditions, but of whom everything except the memory has passed away,—are the Quinames. Their rule extended over Mexico and Guatemala, and there is reason to suppose that they attained to a considerable height of civilization. The only accounts of their origin are the oral traditions repeated to the Spaniards by the Indians of Yucatan,—traditions relating that the fathers of this great nation came from the East, and that God had delivered them from the pursuit of their enemies and had opened to them a way over the sea. Other traditions reveal to us the Qninames as delivered up to the most unnatural vices of ancient society. Whether the Cyclopean ruins scattered over the continent,—vast masses of stone placed one upon another without cement, which existed before the splendid cities whose ruins are yet seen in Central America,—whether these are the work of this race, or of one still older, is entirely uncertain.


The most ancient language of Central America, the ground on which all the succeeding languages have been planted, is the Maya. Even the Indian languages of to-day are only combinations of their own idioms with this ancient tongue. Its daughter, the Tzendale, transmits many of the oldest and most interesting religious beliefs of the Indian tribes.

All the traditions, whether in the Quiche, the Mexican, or the Tzendale, unite in one somewhat remarkable belief,—in the reverent mention of an ancient Deliverer or Benefactor; a personage so enveloped in the halo of religious sentiment and the mist of remote antiquity, that it is difficult to distinguish his real form. With the Tzendale his name is VOTAN ; 1 among the many other names in other languages, QUETZALCOHUATL is the one most distinctive. Sometimes he appears as a wise and dignified legislator, arrived suddenly among an ignorant people from an unknown country, to instruct them in agriculture, the arts, and even in religion. He bears suffering in their behalf, patiently labors for them, and, when at length he has done his work, departs alone from amid the weeping crowd to the country of his birth. Sometimes he is the mediator between Deity and men ; then again, a personification of the Divine wisdom and glory; and still again, the noble features seem to be transmuted in the confused tradition into the countenance of Divinity. Whether this mysterious person is only the American embodiment of the Hope of all Nations, or whether he was truly a wise and noble legislator, driven by some accident to these shores from a foreign country, and afterwards glorified by the gratitude of his people, is uncertain, though our author inclines naturally to the latter supposition. The expression of the Tzendale tradition, "Votan is the first man whom God sent to divide and distribute these lands of America,” (Vol. I. p. 42.) indicates that he found the continent inhabited, and either originated the distribution of property or became a conqueror of the country. The evidence of tradition would clearly prove that at, the arrival of Votan the great proportion of the inhabitants, from the Isthmus of Panama to the territories of California, were in a savage condition. The builders of the Cyclopean ruins were the only exception.

The various traditions agree that this elevated being, the father of American civilization, inculcated first of all a belief in a Supreme Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth. It is a singular fact, that the ancient Quiche tradition represents the Deity as a Triad, or Trinity, with the deified heroes arranged in orders below,—a representation not improbably connected with the Hindoo conception. The belief in a Supreme Being seems to have been generally diffused among the Central American and Mexican tribes, even as late as the arrival of the Spaniards. The Mexicans adored Him under the name of IPALNEMOALONI, or “Him in whom and by whom we are and live.” This “God of all purity,” as he is addressed in a Mexican prayer, was too elevated for vulgar thought or representation. No altars or temples were erected to him; and it was only under one of the later kings of the Aztec monarchy that a temple was built to the “Unknown God.”—Vol. I. p. 46.

The founders of the early American civilization bear various titles: they are called. “The Master of the Mountain,” “ The Heart of the Lake,” “ The Master of the Azure Surface,” and the like. Even in the native traditions, the questions are often asked: “ Whence came these men ? ” “ Under what climate were they born?” One authority answers thus mysteriously : “ They have clearly come from the other shore of the sea,—from the place which is called ‘CAMUHIFAL,’— The place where is shadow." Why may not this singular expression refer to a Northern country,—a place where is a long shadow, a winter-night ?


A singular characteristic of the ancient Indian legends is the mingling of two separate courses of tradition. In their poetic conceptions, and perhaps under the hands of their priests, the old myths of the Creation are constantly confused with the accounts of the first periods of their civilization.

The following is the most ancient legend of the Creation, from the MSS. of Chichicastenango, in the Quiche text: “ When all that was necessary to be created in heaven and on earth was finished, the heaven being formed, its angles measured and lined, its limits fixed, the lines and parallels put in their place in heaven and on earth, heaven found itself created, and Heaven it was called by the Creator and Maker, the Father and Mother of Life and Existence, . .

the Mother of Thought and Wisdom, the excellence of all that is in heaven and on earth, in the lakes or the sea. It is thus that he called himself, when all was tranquil and calm, when all was peaceable and silent, when nothing had movement in the void of the heavens.”—Vol. I. p. 48.

In the narrative of the succeeding work of creation, says M. de Bourbourg, there is always a double sense. Creation and life are civilization; the silence and calm of Nature before the existence of animated beings are the calm and tranquillity of Ocean, over which a sail is flying towards an unknown shore; and the first aspect of the shores of America, with its mighty mountains and great rivers, is confounded with the first appearance of the earth from the chaos of waters.

“ This is the first word,” says the Quiche text. “ There were neither men, nor animals, nor birds, nor fishes, nor wood, nor stones, nor valleys, nor herbs, nor forests. There was only the heaven. The image of the earth did not yet show itself. There was only the sea, on all sides surrounded by the heaven. Nothing had motion, and not the least sigh agitated the air. . . In the

midst of this calm and this tranquillity, was only the Father and the Maker, in the obscurity of the night; there were only the Fathers and Generators on the whitening water, and they were clad in azure raiment. . . And it is on account of them that heaven, exists, and exists equally the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of God.”—Vol. I. p. 51.2

The legend then pictures a council between these “ Fathers ” and the Supreme Creator; after which,the word is spoken, and the earth bursts forth from the darkness, with its great mountains and forests and animals and birds, as they might to a voyager approaching the shore. An episode occurs, describing a deluge, but still bearing in it the traces of the double tradition,—the one referring to some primeval catastrophe, and the other to a local inundation, which had perhaps surprised the first legislators in the midst of their efforts. The Mexican tradition (Codex Chimalpopoca) shows more distinctly the united action of the Mediator (Quetzalcohuatl) and the Deity:—“From ashes had God created man and animated him, and they say it is Quetzalcohuatl who hath perfected him who had been made, and hath breathed into him, on the seventh day, the breath of life.”

“ Nor Aught nor Nought existed; yon bright

Was not, nor heaven’s broad roof outstretched

What covered all ? What sheltered? What concealed ?

Was it the waters’ fathomless abyss?

There was not death,—yet was there nought immortal.

There was no confine betwixt day and night The only One breathed breathless by itself;— Other than it there nothing since has been. Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled In gloom profound,—an ocean without light. The germ that still lay covered in the husk Burst fortli, one nature, from the fervent heat.”

Another legend, after describing the creation of men of wood, and women of cibak, (the marrow of the corn-flag,) tells us that “ the fathers and the children, from want of intelligence, did not use the language which they had received to praise the benefaction of their creation, and never thought of raising their eyes to praise HURAKAN. Then were they destroyed in an inundation. There descended from heaven a rain of bitumen and resin. . . And on account of them, the earth was obscured; and it rained night and day. And men went and came, out of themselves, as if struck with madness. They wished to mount upon the roofs, and the houses fell beneath them ; when they took refuge in the caves and the grottoes, these closed over them. This was their punishment and destruction.”—Vol. I. p. 55.

In the Mexican tradition, instead of the rain we find a violent eruption of the volcanoes, and men are changed into fishes, and again into chicime,—which may designate the barbarian tribes that invaded Central America.

In still another tradition, the Deity and his associates are more plainly men of superior intelligence, laboring to civilize savage races; and finally, when they cannot inspire two essential elements of civilization,—a taste for labor, and the religions idea, — a sudden inundation delivers them from the indocile people. Then—so far as the mysterious language of the legend can be interpreted—they appear to have withdrawn themselves to a more teachable race. But with these the difficulty for the new law-givers is that they find nothing corresponding to the productions of the country from which they had come. Fruits are in abundance, but there is no grain which requires culture, and which would give origin to a continued industry. The legend relates, somewhat naively, the hunger and distress of these elevated beings, until at length they discover the maize, and other nutritious fruits and grains in the country of Paxil and Cayala.

Our author places these latter in the state of Chiapas, and the countries watered by the Usumasinta. The provinces of Mexico and the Atlantic border of Central America he supposes to he those where the first legislators of America landed, and where was the cradle of the first American civilization. In these regions, the great city attributed to Votan,—Pajenque,—the ruins of whose magnificent temples and palaces even yet astonish the traveller, was one of the first products of this civilization.


With regard to the much-vexed question of the origin of the Indian races, M. de Bourbourg offers no theory. In his view, the evidence from language establishes no certain connection between the Indian tribes and any other race whatever; though, as he justly remarks, the knowledge of the languages of the Northeast of Asia and of the interior of America is yet very limited, and more complete investigations must be waited for before any very satisfactory conclusions can be attained. The similarity of the Indian languages points without doubt to a common origin, while their variety and immense number are indications of a high antiquity ; for who can estimate the succession of years necessary to subdivide a common tongue into so many languages, and to give birth out of a savage or nomadic life to a civilization like that of the Aztecs?

In the passage of man from one hemisphere to another he sees no difficulty; as, without considering Behring’s Strait, the voyage from Mantchooria, or Japan, following the chain of the Koorile and the Aleutian Isles, even to the Peninsula of Alaska, would be an enterprise of no great hazard.

The traditions of the Indian tribes, as well as their monumental inscriptions, point to an Eastern origin. From whatever direction the particular tribe may have emigrated, they always speak of their fathers as having come from the rising of the sun. The Quiche, as well as the Chippeway traditions, allude to the voyages of their fathers from the East, from a cold and icy region, through a cloudy and wintry sea, to countries as cold and gloomy, from which they again turned towards the South.

Without committing himself to a theory, M. de Bourbourg supposes that one race—the Quiche—has passed through the whole North American continent, erecting at different stages of its civilization those gigantic and mysterious pyramids, the tumuli of the Mississippi Valley,—of whose origin the present Northern Indian tribes have preserved no trace, and for whose erection no single American tribe now would have the wealth or the superfluous labor. This race was continually driven towards the South by more savage tribes, and it at length reached its favorite seats and the height of its civilization in Central America. In comparing the similar monuments of Southern Siberia, and the dates of the immigration to the Aztec plateau, with those of the first movements of the Huns and the great revolutions in Asia, an indication is given, worthy of being followed up by the ethnologist, of the Asiatic origin of the Central American tribes. The traditions, monuments, customs, mythology, and astronomic systems all point to a similar source.

The thorough study of the aboriginal races reveals the fact, that the whole continent, from the Arctic regions to the Southern Pole, was divided irregularly between two distinct families ;—one nomadic and savage, the other agricultural and semi-civilized; one with no institutions or polity or organized religion, the other with regular forms of government and hierarchical and religious systems. Though differing so widely, and little associated with each other, they possessed an analogous physical constitution, analogous customs, idioms, and grammatical forms, many of which were entirely different from those of the Old World.


At the period of the discovery of America, not a single tribe west of the Rocky Mountains possessed the least agricultural skill. Whether the superiority of the Central American and Mexican tribes was due to more favorable circumstances and a more genial climate, or to the instructions of foreign legislators, as their traditions relate, our author does not decide. In his view, American agriculture originated in Central America, and was not one of the sciences brought over by the tribes who first emigrated from Asia.

Of the architectural ruins found in Central America M. de Bourbourg says: “ Among the edifices forgotten by Time in the forests of Mexico and Central America are found architectural characteristics so different from one another, that it is as impossible to attribute their construction to one and the same people, as it is to suppose that they were built at the same epoch. . . . The ruins that are the most ancient and that have the most resemblance to one another are those which have been discovered in the country of the Lacandous, the foundations of the city of Mayapan, some buildings of Tulha, and the greater part of those of Palenque ; it is probable that they belong to the first period of American civilization.”—Vol. I. p. 85.

The truly historical records of Central America go back to a period but little before the Christian era. Beyond that epoch, we behold through the mists of legends, and in the defaced pictures and sculptures, a hierarchical despotism sustained by the successors of the mysterious Votan. The empire of the Votanides is at length ruined by its own vices and by the attacks of a vigorous race, whose records and language have come down even to our day,—the only race on the American continent whose name has been preserved in the memory of the peoples after the ruin of its power, the only one whose institutions have survived its own existence,—the Nahoa, or TOLTEC.


Of all the American languages, the Nahuatl holds the highest place, for its richness of expression and its sonorous tone,—adapting itself with equal flexibility to the most sublime and analytic terms of metaphysics, and to the uses of ordinary life, so that even at this day the Englishman and the Spaniard employ its vocabulary for natural objects.

The traditions of the Nahoas describe their life in the distant Oriental country from which they came:—“There they multiplied to a considerable degree, and lived without civilization. They had not then acquired the habit of separating themselves from the places which had seen them born; they paid no tributes; and all spoke a single language. They worshipped neither wood nor stone; they contented themselves with raising them eyes to heaven and observing the law of the Creator. They waited with respect for the rising of the sun, saluting with their invocations the morning star.”

This is their prayer, handed down in Indian tradition,—the oldest piece extant of American liturgy:—“Hail, Creator and Former! Regard us ! Listen to us! Heart of Heaven! Heart of the Earth! do not leave us! Do not abandon us, God of Heaven and Earth! . . . Grant us repose, a glorious repose, peace and prosperity ! the perfection of life and of our being grant to us, O Hurakan ! ”

What country and what sun nourished this worship and gave origin to this great people is as uncertain as all other facts of the early American history. They came from the East, the tradition says; they landed, it seems certain, at Panuco, near the present port of Tampico, from seven barks or ships. Other traditions represent them as accompanied by sages with venerable beards and flowing robes. They finally settled somewhere on the coast between Campeacliy and the river Tabasco, and founded the ancient city of Xicalanco. Their chief, who in the reverent affection of the nation became afterwards their Deity, was Quetzalcohuatl. The myths which surround his name reveal to us a wise legislator and noble benefactor. He is seen instructing them in the arts, in religion, and finally in agriculture, by introducing the cultivation of maize and other cereals.

Whether he had become the object of envy among the people, or whether he felt that his work was done, it appears, so far as the vague traditions can he understood, that he at length determined to return to the unknown country whence he had come. He gathered his brethren around him and thus addressed them:—“Know,” said he, “ that the Lord your God commands you to dwell in these lands which he hath subjected to you this day. For him, he returns whence he has come. But he goes only to return later; for he will visit you again, when the time shall have arrived in which the world shall have come to an end.3 In the mean while wait, ye others, in these countries, with the hope of seeing him again ! . . . Thus farewell, while we depart with our God! ”

We will not follow the interesting narrative of the destruction of the ancient empire of the Votanides by the Nahoas or Toltecs; nor the account of the dispersion of these latter over Guatemala, Yucatan, and even among the mountains of California. This last revolution presents the first precise date which scholars have yet been able to assign to early American history; it probably occurred A. D. 174.

With the account of the invasion of the Aztec plateau by the Chichemecs, a barbarian tribe of the Toltec family, in the middle of the seventh century, or of the establishment of the Toltec monarchy in Anahuac, we will not delay our readers, as these events bring us down to the period of authentic history, on which we have information from other sources.

“ From the moment,” says M. de Bourbourg, "in which we see the supremacy of the cities of Culhuacan and Tollan rise over the cities of the Aztec plateau dates the true history of this country; but this history is, to speak the truth, only a grand episode in the annals of this powerful race [the Toltec]. In the course of a wandering of seven or eight centuries, it overturns and destroys everything in order to build on the ruins of ancient kingdoms its own civilization, science, and arts; it traverses all the provinces of Mexico and Central America, leaving everywhere traces of its superstitions, its culture, and its laws, sowing on its passage kingdoms and cities, whose names are forgotten to-day, but whose mysterious memorials are found again in the monuments scattered under the forest vegetation of ages and in the different languages of all the peoples of these countries.”—Vol. I. p. 209.

M. de Bourbourg fitly closes his interesting volumes — from which we have here given a résumé of only the opening chapters-—with a remarkable prophecy, made in the court of Yucatan by the high-priest of Mani. According to the tradition, this pontiff, inspired by a supernatural vision, betook himself to Mayapan and thus addressed the king:— “ At the end of the Third Period, [A. D. 1518-1542,] a nation, white and bearded, shall come from the side where the sun rises, bearing with it a sign, [the cross,] which shall make all the Gods to flee and fall. This nation shall rule all the earth, giving peace to those who shall receive it in peace and who will abandon vain images to adore an only God, whom these bearded men adore.” (Vol. II. p. 594.) M. de Bourbourg does not vouch, for the pure origin of the tradition, but suggests that the wise men of the Quiche empire already saw that it contained in itself the elements of destruction, and had already heard rumors ot the wonderful white race which was soon to sweep away the last vestiges ot the Central American governments.


[NOTE.—We cannot but think that our correspondent receives the traditions reported by M. de Bourbourg with too undoubting faith. Some of them seem to ns to bear plain marks of an origin subsequent to the Spanish Conquest, and we suspect that others have been considerably modified in passing through the lively fancy of the Abbd. liven Ixtlilxochitl, who, as a native and of roy al race, must have had access to all sources of information, and who had the advantage of writing more than three centuries ago, seems to have looked on the native traditions as extremely untrustworthy. See Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico, Vol. I. p. 12, NOTE.-EDD.]

The resemblance of this name to the Teutonic Wuotan or Odin is certainly striking, and will afford a new argument to the enthusiastic Rafn, and other advocates of a Scandinavian colonization of America. -EDD.↩
Compare the Hindoo conception, translated from one of the old Vedic legends, in Bunsen’s Philosophy of History :—↩
This is the expression of the legend, and certainly points to the ideas of the Eastern hemisphere. [ The coincidence with the legends of Hiawatha and the Finnish Wainamoinen will be REMARKED.-EDD.]↩


美国古物
1858年5月号
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大西洋月刊。

一本关于文学、艺术和政治的杂志。

一卷。I.-May, 1858.-No. VII.

过去10年或15年的历史调查的结果，对任何一个自豪地称自己为历史学生的人来说，都是非常令人沮丧的。我们曾以为，也许我们对人类事件的起源和从过去到今天的世界的逐步发展有所了解。我们读过希罗多德、吉本和吉利斯的书，并对罗林做了大量的工作。在古代，有一些舒适的、明确的事实。罗慕路斯和雷默斯是我们的朋友；菲尼克斯人传播的字母是一个休息点；巴比伦的毁灭和洪水的日期是旷野上的固定站点。在更现代的时期，我们在发现美洲的日期中得到了庇护；如果我们被迫回到美国历史的荒野和不确定性中，普雷斯科特先生很快就为我们恢复了被埋葬的帝国，并带领我们轻松地回到几个简单的世纪。


的确，在这些日期之外，还有一片朦胧的土地，透过其变化的薄雾，有时可以看到被遗弃的城市的宏伟轮廓，或寺庙的微弱形式，或优雅的柱子或巨大的坟墓，这标志着前进的种族的遥远道路：但这些几乎只是片刻的幻觉，然后黑暗再次覆盖了视野。我们过去的神话和哲学几乎同样是虚无缥缈和模糊的。对我们来说，历史是一连串的事实；帝国接连着帝国，一种文明形式接连着另一种文明形式，几乎没有比剧院里的场景更多的联系；所有这些伟大的孤立的事实就是犹太人的存在。所有的宇宙神话和崇高的神性概念以及纯粹的宗教信仰都只是希伯来传统的分支。

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我们痛心地说，这一切现在已经改变了。我们所钟爱的日期，我们的简单解释，以及流行的叙述，在现代调查的触动下，有一半被溶解了。罗马历史放弃了可怜的罗慕路斯和雷穆斯；洪水沉入了局部的淹没，而且不知被推回了多少万年；出现了希罗多德从来不知道的埃及古代；约瑟夫被证明对自己的主题一无所知。在世界历史的洪流中，没有发现任何东西是独立的，无论是希伯来的法律和宗教，还是腓尼基的商业，还是印度的神话，还是希腊的艺术。在阴暗的过去，在荒废的战场、坟冢、陵墓、庙宇、祭坛和灭亡国家的居住地上，投下了新的光辉。以前没有听说过的民族，被遗忘的帝国，没有记录的征服，不为人知的艺术，以及除了语言以外都已消亡的文明，再次出现。世界醒来时发现自己比想象的要古老得多。历史几乎不再是它曾经的研究。在过去的几年里，对象形文字、浮雕和雕塑的研究甚至超过了对象形文字的研究，在一个特别的方向上的研究改变了古代世界的面貌。

人们发现，语言本身就是一个民族的起源、发展和与其他种族关系的最好记录。一个死去的民族的每一个词汇和语法都是一个尼尼微，有丰富的图片、铭文和历史记录，向耐心的调查者揭示的不仅仅是这个民族的外部生活和行动，还有他们最深层的内部生活，以及他们与其他民族和时代的联系。学生在一种语言的遗迹中找到的那个被玷污的小词、被抛弃的词根、古老的结构，可能是过去的遗物，比金字塔的石头或亚述神庙的雕塑更古老。

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在美国历史上，这项调查工作直到最近才被深入开展。在过去的四分之一个世纪里，金斯伯勒、加勒廷、普雷斯科特、戴维斯、斯奎尔、学府和穆勒都对我们自己大陆的神秘古国提出了一些看法，但在所有这些人中，一位法国神父，一位民族学家和一位仔细的调查员--布拉索尔-德-布尔布尔先生，在最近出版的一部历史中对这项事业做出了最好的贡献。它的题目是 "墨西哥和中美洲国家文明史"。(dc Bourbourg先生在中美洲呆了很多年，研究了这个国家的面貌和印第安部落的语言，并调查了该地区的古代图画文字和奇妙的遗迹。可能没有哪个陌生人能享有更好的机会来阅读古代手稿和研究中美洲种族的方言。有了这些帮助，他为我们美洲大陆早期文明民族的历史打下了基础，--应该记住，这段历史的终点是普雷斯科特的起点，--可能可以追溯到匈奴人最早的入侵，其中一个固定日期是在安东尼时代。他大胆地揭开了我们神秘而混乱的美国古代的面纱。在调查的这个阶段，德布尔先生的一个特别的优点是，他没有试图做更多的事情。他收集和整理了一些事实，但试图给我们提供很少的理论。他把稳定的哲学结论留给以后的研究，当有时间进行更充分的比较时。


在这些对古代传统和信仰的调查中，有一种令人难以置信的魅力。在它们面前，我们感到它们是最古老的东西；最古老的书籍、建筑或雕塑在它们身边是现代的。它们代表了人类心灵的幼稚本能--它对真理的摸索--它对希望成为的东西的朦胧理想和阴影。它们是人类对伟大问题的最早回答，即 "为什么 "和 "为什么"？

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根据德-布尔先生的说法，中美洲最古老的民族--在所有最古老的传统中都提到了这个民族，但除了记忆之外，他们的一切都已经消失了--是基纳姆族。他们的统治范围遍及墨西哥和危地马拉，有理由认为他们达到了相当高的文明程度。关于他们的起源，唯一的记载是尤卡坦的印第安人向西班牙人重复的口头传统--关于这个伟大民族的祖先来自东方，上帝把他们从敌人的追捕中解救出来，并为他们开辟了一条渡海之路。其他传统向我们揭示了Qninames人是被古代社会最不自然的恶习所抛弃的。散落在大陆上的独眼巨人遗迹--巨大的石块在没有水泥的情况下堆积在一起，这些遗迹在辉煌的城市之前就已经存在，在中美洲还能看到这些遗迹，这些遗迹是这个种族的作品，还是更古老的种族的作品，完全不确定。


中美洲最古老的语言是玛雅语，它是所有后续语言的根基。即使是今天的印第安人语言，也只是他们自己的习语与这种古老语言的组合。它的女儿Tzendale，传播了印第安部落许多最古老和最有趣的宗教信仰。

所有的传统，无论是在基切语、墨西哥语还是特赞达勒语中，都统一于一个有点令人瞩目的信仰，即虔诚地提到一个古老的救世主或恩人；这个人被宗教情感的光环和遥远古代的迷雾所笼罩，以至于很难分辨出他的真实形态。在Tzendale人那里，他的名字是VOTAN；1在其他语言的许多其他名字中，QUETZALCOHUATL是最有特色的一个。有时，他作为一个明智而庄重的立法者出现，突然从一个未知的国家来到一个无知的民族中，在农业、艺术甚至宗教方面指导他们。他为他们忍受痛苦，耐心地为他们工作，当他完成了他的工作后，独自离开哭泣的人群，回到他出生的国家。有时他是神与人之间的调解人；然后又是神的智慧和荣耀的化身；还有一次，高贵的特征似乎在混乱的传统中被转化为神的面孔。这个神秘的人是否只是万国希望的美国化身，或者他是否真的是一位明智而高尚的立法者，由于某种意外从外国被赶到这里，之后又被他的人民的感激之情所颂扬，这是不确定的，尽管我们的作者自然倾向于后一种推测。Tzendale传统的表述是："Votan是上帝派来划分和分配美洲这些土地的第一个人，"（第一卷第42页）表明他发现这块大陆有人居住，并且要么开始分配财产，要么成为这个国家的一个征服者。传统的证据将清楚地证明，在沃坦到达时，从巴拿马地峡到加利福尼亚领土的大部分居民都处于野蛮的状态。独眼巨人废墟的建造者是唯一的例外。

各种传统都认为，这位高高在上的人，美洲文明之父，首先灌输了对最高造物主、天地之主的信仰。一个奇怪的事实是，古老的基切传统将神灵表现为三位一体或三位一体，神化的英雄按顺序排列在下面，这一表现与印度教的概念不无关系。在中美洲和墨西哥部落中，对最高神的信仰似乎已经普遍传播，甚至晚于西班牙人的到来。墨西哥人以IPALNEMOALONI的名义崇拜他，或 "我们赖以生存的他"。在墨西哥人的祷告中，这位 "所有纯洁的上帝 "被称为 "所有纯洁的上帝"，他的地位太高了，不适合庸俗的思想或表现。没有为他建立祭坛或庙宇；只有在阿兹特克君主国后来的一位国王手下，才为 "无名神 "建造了一座庙宇。

美国早期文明的创始人有各种头衔：他们被称为。"山的主人"，" 湖的心脏"，" 蔚蓝表面的主人"，诸如此类。即使在本土传统中，人们也经常提出这样的问题。"这些人是从哪里来的？""他们是在什么气候下出生的？" 一位权威人士这样神秘地回答："他们显然是从海的另一边来的，从被称为'CAMUHIFAL'的地方来的，也就是有阴影的地方。" 为什么这个奇特的表达方式不可能是指北方的一个国家--一个有长长阴影的地方，一个冬天的夜晚？


古代印度传说的一个奇特特点是混合了两种不同的传统路线。在他们的诗歌概念中，也许是在他们的祭司手中，古老的创世神话不断地与他们文明的最初时期的描述相混淆。

以下是最古老的创世传说，来自奇奇卡斯特南戈的MSS，是基切文的。"当所有需要在天上和地上创造的东西都完成后，天就形成了，它的角度被测量和排列，它的界限被固定，天上和地上的线和平行线被归位，天发现自己被创造了，天被创造者和制造者称为天堂，是生命和存在的父亲和母亲，......。

思想和智慧之母，天上和地上、湖里或海里的一切的卓越。他就是这样称呼自己的，当时一切都很平静，一切都很安宁，一切都很安静，在天堂的虚空中没有任何动静。"--第一卷第48页。

德布尔先生说，在对创造的后续工作的叙述中，总是有一种双重意义。创造和生命是一种文明；在有生命的生物存在之前，自然界的寂静和平静是海洋的平静和安宁，在海洋上，帆正飞向一个未知的海岸；美洲海岸的第一面，及其强大的山脉和大河，与地球从水的混沌中第一次出现混淆起来。

" 这是第一个词，"基切文说。"当时既没有人，也没有动物，也没有鸟，也没有鱼，也没有木材，也没有石头，也没有山谷，也没有草药，也没有森林。只有天。大地的形象还没有显示出来。只有大海，四面被天包围。一切都没有动静，空气中没有丝毫的叹息。. 在这

在这平静和安宁中，只有父亲和造物主，在夜色朦胧中；只有父亲和造物主在发白的水面上，他们身穿天蓝色的衣服。. . 正是由于他们的存在，天堂，也同样存在着天心，这就是上帝的名字。"--第一卷第51页2。

然后，这个传说描绘了这些 "父亲 "和至高无上的造物主之间的会议；之后，话音刚落，地球就从黑暗中迸发出来，有大山、森林、动物和鸟类，就像一个接近海岸的旅行者一样。其中有一段描述洪水的情节，但仍带有双重传统的痕迹--一个是指某种原始灾难，另一个是指当地的洪水，这也许让第一批立法者在努力中感到惊讶。墨西哥的传统（Codex Chimalpopoca）更清楚地显示了调解人（Quetzalcohuatl）和神的联合行动："上帝从灰烬中创造了人，使他有了活力，他们说是Quetzalcohuatl完善了被造之人，并在第七天向他吹了生命之气。"

" 没有Aught也没有Nought；Yon bright

不存在，天堂的宽大屋顶也没有伸展开来

是什么覆盖了一切？是什么遮蔽了？是什么隐藏了？

是水的无底深渊吗？

没有死亡，但也没有不朽的东西。

白天和黑夜之间没有任何限制，只有一个人自己在呼吸；除了它之外，没有任何东西存在。黑暗是存在的，起初所有的一切都被掩盖在深邃的阴暗中，这是一个没有光的海洋。仍旧躺在壳中的胚胎从热浪中幸运地迸发出来，成为一个整体。"

另一个传说在描述了用木头创造的男人和用cibak（玉米旗的骨髓）创造的女人之后，告诉我们："父亲和孩子们由于缺乏智慧，没有用他们所接受的语言来赞美他们创造的恩惠，也从未想过要抬眼赞美HURAKAN。然后，他们在一场洪水中被摧毁。从天上降下了沥青和树脂的雨。. . 由于他们的缘故，大地被遮蔽了，而且日夜下雨。人们去了又来，从他们自己身上出来，好像发了疯似的。他们想爬上屋顶，房屋就倒在他们脚下；他们躲在山洞和石窟里，山洞就盖住他们。这是他们的惩罚和毁灭。"--第一卷第55页。

在墨西哥的传统中，我们看到的不是下雨，而是火山的猛烈爆发，人变成了鱼，又变成了奇奇姆，这可能是指入侵中美洲的野蛮部落。

在另一个传统中，神和他的伙伴们更明显地是具有卓越智慧的人，他们努力使野蛮的种族文明化；最后，当他们不能激发文明的两个基本要素--劳动的乐趣和宗教的理念--时，突然的洪水将他们从愚昧的人们手中救出。然后--就传说中的神秘语言所能解释的而言--他们似乎已经撤回到一个更易受教育的种族。但对于这些人来说，新的法律制定者的困难在于，他们没有发现任何与他们所来自的国家的产品相对应的东西。水果很丰富，但却没有需要培养的谷物，也没有能让人持续发展的产业。传说有些天真地描述了这些高人的饥饿和痛苦，直到最后他们在Paxil和Cayala的国家发现了玉米以及其他有营养的水果和谷物。

我们的作者把后者放在恰帕斯州，以及由乌苏马辛塔河浇灌的国家。他认为墨西哥省和中美洲的大西洋边界是美洲第一批立法者登陆的地方，也是第一个美洲文明的摇篮。在这些地区，被认为是沃坦的伟大城市--帕亨克--其宏伟的寺庙和宫殿的废墟甚至还让旅行者感到吃惊，它是这种文明的最初产物之一。


关于印度人种的起源这个备受困扰的问题，德-布尔先生没有提出任何理论。在他看来，语言方面的证据不能确定印第安部落与任何其他种族之间的联系；不过，正如他所言，对亚洲东北部和美洲内陆的语言的了解还非常有限，必须等待更全面的调查才能得出任何令人满意的结论。印第安人语言的相似性毫无疑问地指向一个共同的起源，而它们的多样性和巨大的数量则表明其高度的古老性；因为谁能估计到将一种共同的语言细分为如此多的语言，并从野蛮或游牧生活中诞生出像阿兹特克人那样的文明所需的连续年限？

在人类从一个半球到另一个半球的航行中，他认为没有任何困难；因为，如果不考虑贝林海峡，从曼彻斯特或日本出发，沿着科里尔和阿留申群岛的链条，甚至到阿拉斯加半岛的航行，将是一个没有很大危险的事业。

印第安部落的传统，以及他们的纪念碑铭文，都指向了东方的起源。无论特定部落从哪个方向移居，他们总是说自己的父亲来自太阳升起的地方。基切人和奇普威人的传统都提到他们的祖先从东方出发，从一个寒冷和冰冷的地区出发，穿过阴云密布、寒风刺骨的大海，来到同样寒冷和阴暗的国家，然后他们又从那里转向南方。

德-布尔先生没有将自己的理论付诸实施，他认为有一个种族--基切族--穿过了整个北美大陆，在其文明的不同阶段建造了那些巨大而神秘的金字塔，即密西西比河谷的古墓--现在的北方印第安部落对其起源没有保留任何痕迹，而且现在没有一个美洲部落会有财富或多余的劳动力来建造这些东西。这个种族不断地被更多的野蛮部落驱赶到南方，最后在中美洲达到了它最喜欢的地方和它的文明高度。在比较西伯利亚南部的类似遗迹和移民到阿兹特克高原的日期，以及匈奴人的第一次运动和亚洲的大革命的日期时，可以看出中美洲部落的亚洲起源，这值得民族学家继续研究。传统、纪念碑、习俗、神话和天文系统都指向一个类似的来源。

对原住民种族的彻底研究揭示了这样一个事实：整个大陆，从北极地区到南极，被不规则地划分为两个不同的家族；一个是游牧和野蛮的，另一个是农业和半文明的；一个没有机构或政体或有组织的宗教，另一个有正规的政府形式和等级制度和宗教制度。虽然差异如此之大，而且彼此之间几乎没有联系，但他们拥有类似的身体结构、类似的习俗、习语和语法形式，其中许多与旧世界的完全不同。


在发现美洲的时期，落基山脉以西没有一个部落拥有最起码的农业技能。中美洲和墨西哥部落的优势是由于更有利的环境和更温和的气候，还是由于外国立法者的指示，正如他们的传统所描述的那样，我们的作者并没有决定。在他看来，美洲农业起源于中美洲，并不是最早从亚洲移民过来的部落所带来的科学之一。

关于在中美洲发现的建筑遗迹，德-布尔先生说："在墨西哥和中美洲森林中被时间遗忘的建筑中，发现了彼此不同的建筑特征，以至于不可能把它们归于同一个民族，就像假设它们是在同一时代建造的一样。. . . 最古老和最相似的遗迹是在Lacandous国家发现的那些遗迹、Mayapan城市的地基、Tulha的一些建筑以及Palenque的大部分建筑；它们很可能属于美洲文明的第一个时期"-第一卷第85页。

中美洲真正的历史记录可以追溯到基督教时代之前不久的时期。在那个时代之外，我们透过传说的迷雾，在被玷污的图片和雕塑中，看到了由神秘的沃坦人的继承人所维持的等级专制。沃坦尼德人的帝国最终被其自身的恶习和一个充满活力的种族的攻击所毁，其记录和语言甚至流传到了我们的今天，这是美洲大陆上唯一一个在其权力毁灭后名字还保留在人民记忆中的种族，也是唯一一个其制度在其自身存在后还能继续存在的种族，即纳霍亚人或托尔泰人。


在所有美洲语言中，纳瓦特尔语因其丰富的表达方式和铿锵有力的音调而占据了最高地位，它以同样的灵活性适应了最崇高和分析性的形而上学术语，以及普通生活的用途，因此，即使在今天，英国人和西班牙人也会使用它的词汇来表达自然对象。

Nahoas人的传统描述了他们在遥远的东方国家的生活，他们来自那里："在那里，他们的数量达到了相当高的程度，没有文明的生活。他们当时还没有养成把自己从见证他们出生的地方分离出来的习惯；他们不交纳贡品；所有人都说一种语言。他们既不崇拜木头，也不崇拜石头；他们只满足于举目望天，遵守造物主的法律。他们恭敬地等待着太阳的升起，用他们的祈祷向晨星致敬。

这是他们的祈祷词，在印第安人的传统中流传下来，是现存美国礼仪中最古老的一段："万岁，造物主和前任！请保佑我们！"。请关注我们! 倾听我们的声音! 天堂之心! 大地之心！不要离开我们！不要抛弃我们，天主！"。不要抛弃我们，天地之神！......。. . . 赐予我们安息，光荣的安息，和平与繁荣！生命的完美和我们的存在赐予我们，哦，Hurakan! "

什么国家和什么太阳滋养了这种崇拜，并给这个伟大的民族带来了起源，就像美国早期历史的所有其他事实一样，是不确定的。传统上说，他们来自东方；似乎可以肯定的是，他们从七条树皮或船在帕努科登陆，就在现在的坦皮科港口附近。其他传统认为他们是由长着可敬的胡须、穿着飘逸的长袍的圣人陪同。他们最终定居在坎佩阿克利和塔巴斯科河之间的某个海岸，并建立了西卡兰科古城。他们的首领是克萨尔科瓦特尔（Quetzalcohuatl），在民族的崇敬之情中，他后来成为他们的神灵。围绕他名字的神话向我们揭示了一个明智的立法者和高尚的施主。人们看到他在艺术、宗教方面对他们进行指导，最后在农业方面引入了玉米和其他谷物的种植。

无论他是否已成为人们嫉妒的对象，还是他觉得他的工作已经完成，就他能理解的模糊传统而言，似乎他最终决定返回他来时的未知国家。他把他的弟兄们聚集在一起，这样对他们说："你们要知道，"他说，"主你们的神命令你们居住在他今天所赐给你们的这些土地上。对他来说，他从哪里来就从哪里回。但他去只是为了以后回来；因为当世界末日来临的时候，他将再次拜访你们。. . . 就这样，在我们与我们的上帝一起离开的时候，告别了! "

我们将不再关注沃塔尼德人的古老帝国被纳霍斯人或托尔特克人摧毁的有趣叙述；也不再叙述后者分散在危地马拉、尤卡坦甚至加利福尼亚的山区的情况。这最后一次革命是学者们能够为早期美洲历史确定的第一个精确日期；它可能发生在公元174年。

关于七世纪中叶托尔特克家族的一个野蛮部落奇切梅克人对阿兹特克高原的入侵，或托尔特克君主在阿纳瓦克的建立，我们不会耽误读者的时间，因为这些事件使我们进入了真实的历史时期，我们从其他来源获得了相关的信息。

" de Bourbourg先生说："从我们看到Culhuacan和Tollan的城市超越阿兹特克高原的城市的那一刻起，这个国家的真实历史就开始了；但说实话，这段历史只是这个强大种族[托尔泰克]的历史中的一个重要插曲。在七八个世纪的漂泊过程中，它推翻并摧毁了一切，以便在古代王国的废墟上建立自己的文明、科学和艺术。它穿越了墨西哥和中美洲的所有省份，到处都留下了它的迷信、文化和法律的痕迹，在它经过的地方播下了王国和城市的种子，它们的名字今天已经被遗忘，但在散落在古老的森林植被下的纪念碑和这些国家所有民族的不同语言中，又能找到它们神秘的纪念意义。 "--第一卷，第209页。

德-布尔先生在他有趣的书卷中--我们在这里只给出了开头几章的概要--以一个非凡的预言作为结尾，这个预言是由玛尼的大祭司在尤卡坦的法庭上做出的。根据传统，这位教皇受到超自然异象的启发，前往玛雅潘，并这样对国王说："在第三时期的末尾，[公元1518-1542年]，一个白色的、有胡子的民族将从太阳升起的那一边过来，带着一个标志，[十字架，]这将使所有的神灵都逃亡和堕落。这个国家将统治整个地球，把和平赐给那些将和平接受它的人，以及那些将放弃虚妄的形象而崇拜唯一的上帝的人，这些长胡子的人所崇拜的上帝。" (Vol. II. p. 594)德-布尔先生并不保证这一传统的纯正来源，但他认为基切帝国的智者已经看到它本身包含着毁灭的因素，并且已经听到了关于奇妙的白人种族的传言，这个种族很快就会扫除中美洲政府的最后残余。


[我们不能不认为，我们的通讯员对德布尔先生报告的传统太过相信了。在我们看来，其中一些传统似乎带有西班牙征服之后的明显痕迹，我们怀疑其他传统在经过伊文-伊克斯利克斯奇特尔神父的生动想象后被大大地修改了，他作为本地人和王族，一定有机会接触到所有的信息来源，而且他在三个多世纪前就有写作优势，似乎把本地的传统看得极其不可信。见普雷斯科特的《墨西哥征服史》，第一卷，第12页，注-EDD。］

这个名字与日耳曼人的Wuotan或Odin相似，这无疑是引人注目的，并将为热情的Rafn和其他主张斯堪的纳维亚人在美洲殖民的人提供一个新的论据。-EDD.
比较一下本生的《历史哲学》中从古老的吠陀传说中翻译出来的印度人的概念：--
这是传说中的表述，当然也指向了东半球的观念。[与希瓦塔和芬兰的韦纳莫宁的传说的巧合将被指出。］