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THE MYTHOLOGY OF ALL RACES

_IN THIRTEEN VOLUMES_

LOUIS HERBERT GRAY, A.M., PH.D., EDITOR

GEORGE FOOT MOORE, A.M., D.D., LL.D., CONSULTING EDITOR


LATIN-AMERICAN

BY

HARTLEY BURR ALEXANDER, PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA

VOLUME XI


BOSTON MARSHALL JONES COMPANY

M DCCCC XX




[Illustration: PLATE I.]

 Top face of the monolith known as the "Dragon" or the "Great Turtle"
 of Quirigua. This is one of the group of stelae and "altars" which
 mark the ceremonial courts of this vanished Maya city (see Plate
 XXIII); and is perhaps the master-work not only of Mayan, but of
 aboriginal American art. The top of the stone here figured shows
 a highly conventionalized daemon or dragon mask, surrounded by a
 complication of ornament. The north and south (here lower and upper)
 faces of the monument contain representations of divinities; on the
 south face is a mask of the "god with the ornamented nose" (possibly
 Ahpuch, the death god), and on the north, seated within the open mouth
 of the Dragon, the teeth of whose upper jaw appear on the top face of
 the monument, is carved a serene, Buddha-like divinity shown in Plate
 XXV. The Maya date corresponding, probably, to 525 A. D. appears in
 a glyphic inscription on the shoulder of the Dragon. The monument is
 fully described by W. H. Holmes, _Art and Archaeology_, Vol. IV, No. 6.




TO

ALICE CUNNINGHAM FLETCHER

IN APPRECIATION OF HER INTERPRETATIONS OF AMERICAN INDIAN LIFE AND
LORE




AUTHOR'S PREFACE


In aim and plan the present volume is made to accord as nearly as
may be with the earlier-written volume on the mythology of the North
American Indians. Owing to divergence of the materials, some deviations
of method have been necessary, but in their main lines the two books
correspond in form as they are continuous in matter. In each case
the author has aimed primarily at a descriptive treatment, following
regional divisions, and directed to essential conceptions rather than
to exhaustive classification; and in each case it has been, not the
specialist in the field, but the scholar with kindred interests and the
reader of broadly humane tastes whom the author has had before him.

The difficulties besetting the composition of both books have been
analogous, growing chiefly from the vast diversities of the sources
of material; but these difficulties are decidedly greater for the
Latin-American field. The matter of spelling is one of the more
immediate. In general, the author has endeavoured to adhere to such
of the rules given in Note 1 of _Mythology of All Races_, Vol. X (pp.
267-68), as may be applicable, seeking the simplest plausible English
forms and continuing literary usage wherever it is well established,
both for native and for Spanish names (as _Montezuma, Cortez_).
Consistency is pragmatically impossible in such a matter; but it is
hoped that the foundational need, that of identification, is not evaded.

The problem of an appropriate bibliography has proven to be of the
hardest. To the best of the author's belief, there exists, aside from
that here given, no bibliography aiming at a systematic classification
of the sources and discussions of the mythology of the Latin-American
Indians, as a whole. There are, indeed, a considerable number of
special bibliographies, regional in character, for which every student
must be grateful; and it is hoped that not many of the more important
of these have failed of inclusion in the bibliographical division
devoted to "Guides"; but for the whole field, the appended bibliography
is pioneer work, and subject to the weaknesses of all such attempts.
The principles of inclusion are: (1) All works upon which the text of
the volume directly rests. These will be found cited in the _Notes_,
where are also a few references to works cited for points of an
adventitious character, and therefore not included in the general
bibliography. (2) A more liberal inclusion of English and Spanish than
of works in other languages, the one for accessibility, the other for
source importance. (3) An effort to select only such works as have
material directly pertinent to the mythology, not such as deal with
the general culture, of the peoples under consideration,--a line most
difficult to draw. In respect to bibliography, it should be further
stated that it is the intent to enter the names of Spanish