Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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32 BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. diluvian traditions of all ancient peoplesg while, in the sacred books of the Mexicans, the true history has been preserved with it all the episodes, even to their smallest details. Such is the theory, and fascinating was the enthusiasm with which through hundreds of pages he devoted himself to its elaboration and illustration. ' To a believer in a primeval Arctic Eden the result is full of interest. In a field where the traditions of prehistoric times 'arc so confused, as they confessedly are in the case of the Aztecs, one must not expect too mucl1. Mr. H. H. Bancroft has warned us against that? But, on the other hand, when it is an enthu- siastic advocate of a south-eastern Caribbean Paradise, who, in his descriptions, repeatedly brings out points which evidently and of 'necessity belong to a north-polar one, the force of the evidence is signally enhanced. In H Paradise Found, in the chapter on t' The Quadrifurcate River, striking facts are adduced, sl1owing that many peoples, in their traditions, mark the spot of their earliest home, by connecting it with the spot where the divine river descending from heaven, divides, parting into four earthly rivers for the watering of the whole earth. It is at least an interesting fact, that, in the traditions ofthe prehistoric Americans, the mother- region ofthe human race was also precisely at 'f the place where the waters in falling divide. The strangeness of the expres- sion leads our learned guide to devote a foot-note to itg but he declares himself uncertain as to whether it if can -be under- 1 The migration of the Aztecs is described much more fully than that of the tribes that preceded them: but in the details of this journey, so far as dates, names, and events are concerned, the traditions are inextricably confused .... We have no means of determining in a manner at all satis- factory, whether Aztlan and Chicomoztoc were in Central America, or in the region of Zacatecas and Jaliscog nor indeed of proving that they were not in Alaska, New Mexico, or on the Mississippi . . . The record, as a whole, is exactly what might be expected were the traditions of half a, dozen kindred bands respecting their wanderings about the central plateau, and efforts to establish themselves in permanent homes, united in one con- secutive narrativeg and I have little doubt that such was substantially the process by which the Spanish version of the Aztec migration was formed. . . . It is utterly useless to attempt its clearing np tTlte Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. v. p. 322J. The same suggestion is made by Brassenr de Bourbourg in note 1 to p. 232 of his Popul Vuh. See also his preface, p. lxv.

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ALL ROADS LEAD T0 TIIULE. 31 language, was one of the richest ever brought together. I-Ie wrote many volumes upon these themes, drawing from aborigi- nal sources. At the time of his recent death, he was probably regarded the world over as the most eminent and able of that class of archaeologists and antiquarians known in Europe as Americanists. I-Iis last great work was his H Four Letters upon Mexico. 1 In this he claims to have unlocked the profound symbolism of the ancient hicroglyphies of Mexico, and to have found the Cradle of the Human Race. On the basis of indigenous texts, he sets forth the theory that this cradle was in Central America, and that from this centre, in the world's morning, the first pio- neer settlers of Egypt and Asia and Europe went forth. To him, therefore, the New World was older than the Old. t In fuller form his doctrine is, that originally the American con- tinent was almost twice as large as at present. It filled all the space now covered by the vast Gulf' of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and adjacent portions of' the Atlantic Ocean. It reached far out toward the west coast of Africa and Europe. It was the Atlantis of Plato. All parts were Eden-like, but the pre-emi- nently Paradisaic centre' was the primitive capital-city, Tollan 01' Tulan, situated-as the Abbe believed -to the south-east of Mexieof in the region now covered by the Caribbean Sea, not far from the inner shore of the Antilles? In one of the great geologic catastrophes of' the early world, all this immense tract was volcanically upheavedg then, in the sudden collapse, sunken and submerged beneath the waters of the ocean. Echoes of, the stupendous disaster live on in Plato, and in the 1 Quatre Leltres sur le Mcatique .' Exposition absolue du Systeme hierogly- phique mexicaing la Fin de l'Age dc Pierre. Epoque Glaciaire temporaire. Commencement dc l'Age ole Bronze. Origines de la Civilisation et des Religions de l'Ant'iqutte2 cl'aprEs le Yeo-Amoxtli et autre documents mexicains. Con- stituting the fourth volume of his Uoltection de Documents dans les Langue.: Indigenes. Paris,18tS8. 2 Au sud-est du Mexiqne, p 110. 3 The old Spanish writers give us many spellings : Tula Tulan, Tullan, Tnlha, Tulla, Tollan, etc. H. H. Bancroft tin Native Races, vol. v. p. 1825 refers to the variety. Dr. Brinton tin his Library of Aboriginal American Literature, vol. vi. p. Ill says the word is properly Yhnatlan. But he most unscientiilcally denies all historic basis to the Aztec myths, resolving them into pure creations of the fancy. 1

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ALL ROADS LEAD T0 TIIULE. 33 stood to indicate any particular region of actual geography. So the beautiful significance of the passage to one acquainted with the Sacred Ilydrograpliy of the oldest Asiatic and Europe- an tradition, is entirely lost to the advocate of this Caribbean Paradise? Again, our Abbe associates H the primitive Mexico with Atlas's Pillar, with the Navel ofthe Earth, with the Head-spring of all the world's Waters, and with the H Tree of the WVorld. 2 But the primitive connection of all these with the North Pole has been irreiiitably demonstrated in the pages of ff Paradise Found. Many other incidental evidences ofthe naturalness and neces- sity of a north-polar interpretation of the Abb6's traditions could be given g but, for lack of space, three only will be adduced. And, first, the author admits that all the most competent and serious writers, in accord with all the traditions, unanimously locate the traclitionary Paradise, not to the 'F South-east, in the direction of the Antilles, but in a region far to the North of Mexico. To M. Brasseur this is, of course, a somewhat 1 Paxil en Cayal-a, nom de lieu oh fut ddconvert le mais. Ordonez tradult ces inots par Lieu oh les eaum sc dlrriscat an tombant. Dans la langue flllichee, ces mots signifient entre la division, entre Ia. fetidite des eaux. Si cola peut indiqner une region, il n'y en a pas it laqnelle ceei s'applique aussi bien que la region arrosee par les allluents de l'Uzumacinta et du Tabasco, entre la mer et les montagnesg ces deux fieuves se partagent en une multitude de branches et 8lDllOl.1Clllll6lltS flfopol Vuh, p. 194 n. Coin- Pare also the preface, p. cliiij. On the sacred water-system of ancient Asiatic tradition, see next note but one. . 2 Quatre Lettrcs, pp. 187-201, 354, 359, 360, el passim. 3 A veteran Arestan scholar of Germany, generally held to he the high- est living authority in all questions of Iranian antiquities, has lately written to the author of Paradise Found the following unconditional indorsenient of its novel interpretations of Old-Persian and Indian ideas: Soweit der Kreis ineiner Studicn in Betracht kOlIllLll3, kann ich xneine vollkoinniene Uebereinsliinxnung versiehern .... Qlhre Darlegung iiber die Anordnung der indischen Dvipas und eranisehen Kareshvares hat ineine eigenen unklaren Vorstellungen iiher diesen Punkt wesentlieh be1'if.-litigt. Auch von der Riehtigkeit Ihrer Ansicht iiber das altindische und alt- eranische NVassersystein bin ich vollkonnnen iiberzengt. Alles Wasser der Erde konimt vom Hinnnel und fliesst von Norden her. 4 Les ecrivalus les plus sdrieux, d'accord avec l'6llSOIlllll6 des traditions, placent nnanlmement Ilutfhue-Tlupullan dans les regions qui s'etendent au Nord du Mexiqne, a une distance considerable, et que Torquemuda se hasarde it evaluer a six cents ruilles cuviron CQaatre.Lellrcs, p. 1095. In