Inclined to peace, and how reluctantly, Spake to the Azteca. The King look'd up; Lo! toward the rock, The sun came forth; it shone upon the rock; They felt the kindly beams; their strengthen'd blood Flow'd with a freer action. They arose, Speckled the ascent. Then Tlalala took hope, To the heights they went; Have we not life and strength? the Tiger cried. Then the King The word yet vibrated But where the strength of Aztlan? where her I heard it late in solitude, the voice Her marshall'd myriads where, whom yester Sun Of fate! It is Coanocotzin's soul But dark his brow, and gloomy was his frown. Then spake the King, and called a messenger, And bade him speed to Aztlan.-Seek the Lord Of Ocean; tell him that Yuhidthiton The wavy smoke hung lingering, like a mist Yields to the will of Heaven, and leaves the land On all sides spreading like a stately palm. His fathers won in war. Only one boon, The conqueror have not cast them to the winds. The herald went his way circuitous, So moveless were the winds. Upward it roll'd, They had their stand, draw nigh. The doubtful Wafting the Ocean Prince. He bore, preserved Answering, replied, Thus humbled, as thou seest, Shall I become a guest, where I was wont We bow before their will! To them we yield; He said, and call'd The Heralds of his pleasure. - Go ye forth To give the guest his welcome? - He pursued, To tempt strange paths, through swamp, and wil- And hostile tribes, for these Yuhidthiton Throughout the land: north, south, and east, and They may remember me without regret, west, Proclaim the ruin. Say to all who bear Yet not without affection. They shall be Their law upon the conqueror. With painful toil, through long and dangerous ways It is not for the conquered to impose He bade a pile be raised upon the top Then he turn'd, Which whoso would accept the Strangers' yoke Should pass. A multitude o'erpast the line; But all the youth of Aztlan crowded round Yuhidthiton, their own beloved King. So two days long, with unremitting toil, The barks of Britain to the adventurers Bore due supply; and to new habitants The city of the Cymry spread her gates; And in the vale around, and on the heights, Their numerous tents were pitch'd. Meantime the tale Of ruin went abroad, and how the Gods We counsell'd peace, together in the field As he spake, Did natural feeling strive within the King, Had driven her sons from Aztlan. To the King, Stood forth, obedient to his better mind, Companions of his venturous enterprise, The bold repair'd; the timid and the weak, All whom, averse from perilous wanderings, A gentler nature had disposed to peace, The mountain echoes to the busy sound The Pabas bear, enclosed from public sight, Nor weakly yielded to the wily priests, So saying, to his heart he held the youth, Then turn'd away. But then cried Tlalala, Farewell, Yuhidthiton! the Tiger cried; Then leads the marshall'd ranks, and by his side, For I too will not leave my native land, Silent and thoughtfully, went Tlalala. At the north gate of Aztlan, Malinal, Borne in a litter, waited their approach; And now alighting, as the train drew nigh, Propp'd by a friendly arm, with feeble step Advanced to meet the King. Yuhidthiton, With eye severe and darkening countenance, Met his advance. I did not think, quoth he, Thou wouldst have ventured this! and liefer far Should I have borne away with me the thought That Malinal had shunn'd his brother's sight, Because their common blood yet raised in him A sense of his own shame! Comest thou to show Those wounds, the marks of thine unnatural war Against thy country? Or to boast the meed Of thy dishonor, that thou tarriest here, Sharing the bounty of the Conqueror, While, with the remnant of his countrymen, Saving the Gods of Aztlan and the name, Thy brother and thy King goes forth to seek His fortune! Calm and low the youth replied, Ill dost thou judge of me, Yuhidthiton! Thou who wert King of Aztlan! Go thy way; Thus he said, And through the gate, regardless of the King, | Fighting with ceaseless zeal his country's cause, With that he took So in the land Madoc was left sole Lord; and far away Yuhidthiton led forth the Aztecas, To spread in other lands Mexitli's name, And rear a mightier empire, and set up Again their foul idolatry; till Heaven, Making blind Zeal and bloody Avarice Its ministers of vengeance, sent among them The heroic Spaniard's unrelenting sword. with the drums beating all the while. After this they take care to call it the Desert, or the Field of the Spirit. And thither they go in good earnest when they are in their enthusiastic fits, and there wait for inspiration from their pretended Deity. In the mean while, as they do this every year, it proves of no small advantage to them, for by this means they turn up all their land insensibly, and it becomes abundantly more fruitful. - TONTI. NOTES TO MADOC IN AZTLAN. Paria. We neighbor nearer to the Sun!-I. p. 375, col. 2. Columbus inferred this from the elevation of the Pole at "How it cometh to pass," says Pietro Martire," that at the beginning of the evening twilight it is elevate in that region only five degrees in the month of June, and in the morning twilight to be elevate fifteen degrees by the same quadrant, I do not understand, nor yet do the reasons which he bringeth in any point satisfy me. For he saith that he hereby conjectured that the Earth is not perfectly round, but that, when it was created, there was a certain heap raised thereon, much higher than the other parts of the same. So that, as he sayth, it is not round after the form of an apple or a ball, as others think, but rather like a pear as it hangeth on the tree, and that Paria is the region which possesseth the supereminent or highest part thereof, nearest unto heaven. In so much, that he earnestly contendeth the earthly Paradise to be situate in the tops of those three hills which the Watchmen saw out of the top castle of the ship; and that the outrageous streams of the fresh waters which so violently issue out of the said gulfs, and strive so with the salt water, fall head long from the tops of the said mountains."-PIETRO MARTIRE, Dec. 1, Book 6. A devout worshipper of this Deity once set out to see if he could find him; he reached the sea-coast, and there the God appeared to him, and bade him call the Whale, and the Mermaid, and the Tortoise, to make a bridge for him, over which he might pass to the house of the Sun, and bring back from thence instruments of music and singers to celebrate his festivals. The Whale, the Mermaid, and the Tortoise accordingly made the bridge, and the man went over it, singing, as he went, a song which the God taught him. As soon as the Sun heard him, he cautioned all his servants and people not to answer to the song, for they who answered would be obliged to abandon his House and follow the Singer. Some there were, however, who could not resist the voice of the charmer, and these he brought back with him to earth, together with the drum called Huahuneth and the Tepunaztli.-TORQUEMADA, 1. 6, c. 43. The particular sacrifice related in the poem is described by this author, 1. 10, c. 14. It is sufficient merely to refer to my authorities in such instances as these, where no other liberty has been taken than that of omission. Before these things I was. — III. p. 378, col. 2. "The manner in which, he says, he obtained the spirit of divination was this: He was admitted into the presence of a Great Man, who informed him that he loved, pitied, and desired to do him good. It was not in this world that he saw the Great Man, but in a world above, at a vast distance from this. The Great Man, he says, was clothed with the Day, yea with the brightest Day, he ever saw; a Day of many years, yea of everlasting continuance! This whole world, he says, was drawn upon him, so that in him the Earth and all things in it might be seen. I asked him if rocks, mountains, and seas were drawn upon or appeared in him? he replied, that every thing that was beautiful and lovely in the earth was upon him, and might be seen by looking on him, as well as if one was on the earth to take a view of them there. By the side of the Great Man, he says, stood his Shadow or Spirit, for he used chichung, the word they commonly make use of to express that of the man which survives the body, which word properly signifies a shadow. This shadow, he says, was as lovely as the Man himself, and filled all places, and was most agreeable as well as wonderful to him. Here, he says, he tarried some time, and was unspeakably entertained and delighted with a view of the Great Man, of his Shadow, and of all things in him. And what is most of all astonishing, he imagines all this to have passed before he was born; he never had been, he says, in this world at that time, and what confirms him in the belief of this is, that the Great Man told him, that he must come down to earth, be born of such a woman, meet with such and such things, and in particular that he should once in his life be guilty of murder; at this he was displeased, and told the Great Man he would never murder. But the Great Man replied, I have said it, and it shall be so; which has accordingly happened. At this time, he says, the Great Man asked him what he would choose in life; he replied, first to be a Hunter, and afterwards to be a Powwow, or Divine; whereupon the Great Man told him, he should have what he desired, and that his Shadow should go along with him down to earth, and be with him for There was, he says, all this time no word spoken between them; the conference was not carried on by any human language, but they had a kind of mental intelligence of each other's thoughts, dispositions, and proposals. After this, he says, he saw the Great Man no more, but supposes he now came down to earth to be born; but the Shadow of the Great Man still attended him, and ever after continued to appear to him in dreams and other ways. This Shadow used sometimes to direct him in dreams to go to such a place and hunt, assuring him he should there meet with success, which accordingly proved so; and when he had been there some time, the Spirit would order him to another place, so that he had success in hunting, according to the Great Man's promise, made to him at the time of his choosing this employment. ever. "There were some times when this Spirit came upon him in a special manner, and he was full of what he saw in the Great Man, and then, he says, he was all light, and not only light himself, but it was light all around him, so that he could see through men, and knew the thoughts of their hearts. These depths of Satan I leave to others to fathom or to dive into as they please, and do not pretend, for my own part, to know what ideas to affix to such terms, and cannot well guess what conceptions of things these creatures have at these times when they call themselves all light."-DAVID BRAINERD'S Journal. Had Brainerd been a Jesuit, his superiors would certainly have thought him a fit candidate for the crown of martyrdom, and worthy to be made a Saint. He found one of the Indian conjurers who seemed to have something like grace in him, only he would not believe in the Devil. "Of all the sights," says he, "I ever saw among hatred of innovation which is to be found in all ignorant persons, and in some wise ones. "An old country fellow in Livonia being condemned, for faults enormous enough, to lie along upon the ground to receive his punishment, and Madam de la Barre, pitying his almost decrepit age, having so far interceded for him, as that his corporal punishment should be changed into a pecuniary mulet of about fifteen or sixteen pence; he thanked her for her kindness, and said, that, for his part, being an old man, he would not introduce any novelty, nor suffer the customs of the country to be altered, but was ready to receive the chastisement which his predecessors had not thought much to undergo; put off his clothes, laid himself upon the ground, and received the blows according to his condemnation."Ambassador's Travels. her golden curls, Bright eyes of heavenly blue, and that clear skin. IV. p. 379, col. 2. A good description of Welsh beauty is given by Mr. Yorke, from one of their original chronicles, in the account of Grufydd ab Cynan and his Queen. "Grufydd, in his person, was of moderate stature, having yellow hair, a round face, and a fair and agreeable complexion; eyes rather large, light eyebrows, a comely beard, a round neck, white skin, strong limbs, long fingers, straight legs, and handsome feet. He was, moreover, skilful in divers languages, courteous and civil to his friends, fierce to his enemies, and resolute in battle; of a passionate temper, and fertile imagination. - Angharad, his wife, was an accomplished person: her hair was long, and of a flaxen color; her eyes large and rolling; and her features brilliant and beautiful. She was tall and well proportioned; her leg and foot handsome; her fingers long, and her nails thin and transparent. She was good-tempered, cheerful, discreet, witty, and gave good advice as well as alms to her needy dependents, and never transgressed the laws of duty." them, or indeed any where else, none appeared so frightful, or so near akin to what is usually imagined of infernal powers! none ever excited such images of terror in my mind as the appearance of one, who was a devout and zealous reformer, or rather restorer, of what he supposed was the ancient religion of the Indians. He made his appearance in his pontifical garb, which was a coat of bears' skins, dressed with the hair on, and hanging down to his toes, a pair of bear-skin stockings, and a great wooden face, painted the one half black, and the other tawny, about the color of an Indian's skin, with an extravagant mouth, cut very much awry; the face fastened to a bear-skin cap, which was drawn over his head. He advanced towards me with the instrument in his hand that he used for music in his idolatrous worship, which was a dry tortoiseshell, with some corn in it, and the neck of it drawn on to a piece of wood, which made a very convenient handle. As he came forward, he beat his tune with the rattle, and danced with all his might, but did not suffer any part of his body, not so much as his fingers, to be seen; and no man would have guessed, by his appearance and actions, that he could have been a human creature, if they had not had some intimation of it otherwise. When he came near me, I could not but shrink away from him, although it was then noonday, and I knew who it was, his appearance and gestures were so prodigiously frightful. He had a house consecrated to religious uses, with divers images cut out upon the several parts of it; I went in, and found the ground beat almost as hard as a rock, with their frequent dancing on it. I discoursed with him about Christianity, and some of my discourse he seemed to like, but some of it he disliked entirely. He told me that God had taught him his religion, and that he never would turn from it, but wanted to find some that would join heartily with him in it; for the Indians, he said, were grown very degenerate and corrupt. He had thought, he said, of leaving all his friends, and travelling abroad, in order to find some that would join with him; for he believed God had some good people somewhere, that felt as he did. He had not always, he said, felt as he now did, but had formerly been like the rest of the Indians, until about four or five years before that time; then, he said, his heart was very much distressed, so that he could not live among the Indians, but got away into the woods, and lived alone for some months. At length, he said, God comforted his heart, and showed him what he should do, and since that time he had known God, and tried to serve him; and loved all men, be they who they would, so as he never did before. He treated me with uncommon courtesy, and seemed to be hearty in it; and I was told by the Indians, that he opposed their drinking strong liquor with all his power; and if, at any time, he could not dissuade them from it by all he could say, he would leave them, and go crying "The town-house, in which are transacted all public busiinto the woods. It was manifest he had a set of religiousness and diversions, is raised with wood and covered over with notions that he had looked into for himself, and not taken for granted upon bare tradition; and he relished or disrelished whatever was spoken of a religious nature, according as it either agreed cr disagreed with his standard. And while I was discoursing, he would sometimes say, "Now, that I like; so God has taught me ;" and some of his sentiments seemed very just. Yet he utterly denied the being of a Devil, and declared there was no such creature known among the Indians of old times, whose religion, he supposes, he was attempting to revive. He likewise told me, that departed souls all went southward, and that the difference between the good and bad was this, that the former were admitted into a beautiful town with spiritual walls, or walls agreeable to the nature of souls; and that the latter would for ever hover round those walls, and in vain attempt to get in. He seemed to be sincere, honest, and conscientious in his own way, and according to his own religious notions, which was more than I ever saw in any other Pagan; and I perceived he was looked upon and derided by most of the Indians as a precise zealot, who made a needless noise about religious matters. But I must say, there was something in his temper and disposition, that looked more like true religion than any thing I ever observed amongst other heathens."- BRAINERD. Why should we forsake Thus let their blood be shed. — V. p. 381, col. 2. This ceremony of declaring war with fire and water is rep. resented by De Bry, in the eleventh print of the description of Florida, by Le Moyne de Morgues. The Council Hall. - VI. p. 381, col. 2. earth, and has all the appearance of a small mount, at a little distance. It is built in the form of a sugar-loaf, and large enough to contain 500 persons, but extremely dark, having (besides the door which is so narrow that but one at a time can pass, and that, after much winding and turning) but one small aperture to let the smoke out, which is so ill-contrived, that most of it settles in the roof of the house. Within, it has the appearance of an ancient amphitheatre, the seats being raised one above another, leaving an area in the middle, in the centre of which stands the fire: the seats of the head warriors are nearest it."-Memoirs of Lieutenant HENRY TIMBERLAKE, who accompanied the Cherokee Indians to England, in 1762. The Feast of Souls. VI. p. 381, col. 2. Lafitau. Charlevoix. It is a custom among the Greeks at this time, some twelve months or more, after the death of a friend, to open the grave, collect the bones, have prayers read over them, and then re-inter them. The Sarbacan. - VI. p. 381, col. 2. "The children, at eight or ten years old, are very expert at killing birds and smaller game with a sarbacan, or hollow cane, through which they blow a small dart, whose weakness obliges them to shoot at the eye of the larger sort of prey, which they The worship of our fathers?· - III. p. 379, col. 1. |