The Miztecs placed the gates of paradise within the cavern of Chalcatongo, and the grandees of the kingdom were therefore eager to be buried within its precincts, in order to be near the abode of bliss. The Zapotecs placed the heavenly portals within the cave of Mictlan. Their heaven must accordingly have been situated within the earth, although the custom of placing the dead with their feet towards the east indicates that it lay toward the sunny morning land. The common people at least seem, like the Aztecs, to have been required to pass a probationary term before entering the holy place, and during this period they were permitted to visit their friends on earth once a year, and partake of the repast spread for them. The Zapotecs gave as a reason for interring the dead, that those who were burned failed to reach heaven.[XII-95]
The Mayas believed in a place of everlasting delight, where the good should recline in voluptuous repose beneath the shade of the yaxché,[XII-96] indulging in dainty food and delicious drinks. Those who died by hanging were especially sure of admittance to this paradise, for their goddess Ixtab carried them thither herself, and many enthusiasts committed suicide with this expectation. The wicked, on the other hand, descended into Mitnal,[XII-97] a sphere below this, where hunger and other torments awaited them. Cacao money was laid with the body to pay its way, and frequent offerings of food were made, but the funeral was not proceeded with until the fifth day, when the soul had entered its sphere. A trace of metempsychosis may be noticed in the superstitious belief that sorcerers transformed people into animals.[XII-98]
Whether the Quichés believed in a future reward and punishment is uncertain, for on the one hand we are told that Xibalba, which implies a place of terror, was their hell, where ruled two princes bearing the suggestive names of One Death and Seven Deaths; while, on the other hand, the sacrifice of slaves and other objects, implies a negative punishment. A gentle, unwarlike tribe of Guatemala is said to have had a belief similar to that of the Pericuis, namely that a future life was accorded to those only who died a natural death, and, therefore, they left the bodies of the slain to beasts and vultures.[XII-99] The Pipiles appear to have looked forward to the same future abodes as the Mexicans, and to the same dreadful journey after death. During the four days and four nights that the soul was on the road, the mourners wailed deeply, probably with fear for its safety, but on the fifth day, when the priest announced that it had reached the goal, the lamentation ceased. During this time also, the mother whose infant had departed withheld the milk from all other children, lest the thirsty little wanderer should be angry, and smite the usurper.[XII-100] The probationary routine of the spirits appears to have called them to the earth at intervals, for a legend of the isles of Lake Ilopango recounts that at certain times of the year spectre barks glide in silence over the tranquil waters of the lake, anointing every island from the least to the greatest, offering upon each to some bloody divinity of past times a human victim, an infant chosen by lot.[XII-101]
FUTURE OF THE NICARAGUANS.
The same view of futurity was taken by the Nicaraguans, who thought that the souls[XII-102] of slain warriors went to the sunrise regions, the abode of Tamagostat and Cipattonal, who welcomed them with the title of 'our children.' But all the good, that is those who had obeyed and reverenced the gods, were admitted here, whether warriors or not, and strong must have been their faith in the bliss that awaited them, for the virgins, says Andagoya, who were cast as offerings into the seething lava streams of the volcano met their fate without fear.[XII-103] The wicked were doomed to annihilation in the abode of Miquetanteot.[XII-104] Infants who died before they were weaned returned to the house of their parents to be cared for, evidently in spirit form.[XII-105] The Mosquitos believe in one heaven only, and this is open to all; for it they prepare at the very beginning of life by tying a little bag of seeds round the neck of the infant, wherewith to pay the ferriage across the great river beyond which paradise lies.[XII-106] In and about Veragua death means annihilation, and no food is left for the dead. In some places the dying are carried out to the woods and abandoned to wild beasts.[XII-107] In Costa Rica and Darien slaves and even wives are sacrificed that their souls may serve their lords in heaven.[XII-108]
Writing on the customs of Dabaiba, Peter Martyr says: 'They are such simple men, that they know not how to call the soule, nor vnderstand the power thereof: whereupon, they often talk among themselues with admiration what that inuisible and not intelligible essence might bee, whereby the members of men and brute beastes should be moued: I know not what secret thing they say, should liue after the corporall life. That (I know not what) they beleeue that after this peregrination, if it liued without spott, and reserued that masse committed vnto it without iniury done to any, it shoulde goe to a certayne æternall felicity: contrary, if it shall suffer the same to be corrupted with any filthy lust, violent rapine, or raging furie, they say, it shall finde a thousande tortures in rough and vnpleasant places vnder the Center: and speaking these things, lifting vpp their the handes they shewe the heauens, and after that casting right hand down, they poynt to the wombe of the earth'! Their belief in a future punishment he further illustrates by relating that 'the thicke spott seene in the globe of the Moone, at the full, is a mann, and they beleeue hee was cast out to the moyst, and colde Circle of the Moone, that hee might perpetually bee tormented betweene those two passions, in suffering colde, and moysture, for incest committed with his sister.'[XII-109]
The following myths, for which I am indebted to the kindness and industrious investigation of Mr Powers, having come to hand too late for insertion in their proper places I avail myself of the opportunity to give them here:—There dwells, say the Neeshenams, upon the hills and in the forests, a ghost named Bóhem Cülleh, which is at once man and woman. It is a bad spirit, but nevertheless a useful one to those who seek its aid, and these are mostly bad people. Sometimes in the night its wierd eldritch cry is heard in the forest, and then some woman about to be overtaken in dishonest childbirth goes out into the woods alone, with her shame and her pangs upon her, and having brought forth, presently returns, crying and lamenting that the wicked ghost met and overcame her and that she has conceived of the spirit. Or perhaps it is a man who has wrought an evil thing who makes this bad spirit responsible for his wickedness. Either a man or a woman wandering alone in the forest is exposed to the enticements of the ghost Bóhem Cülleh, to commit fornication with it.
THE COYOTE'S ELOPEMENT.
'The Coyote's Elopement' forms the subject of another Neeshenam tale. It is as follows—The coyote and the bat were one day gathering the soft-shelled nuts of the sugar pine, when there came along two women-deer (the only way they have of expressing 'female deer'), who were the wives of pigeons. The coyote, upon this, took a handful of pitch and besmeared the bat's eyes so that it could not see. The poor bat was totally blinded, but it called upon the wind to blow, and its eyes were opened a little, as we see them to-day. Meantime the rascally coyote eloped with the two women-deer. But it was not long before they came to a bridge so extremely narrow that they could not pass over it. Just then there came along a quail, and he took the two women-deer and led them across, leaving the bigamous coyote in the lurch. No sooner had they crossed than the sister of the pigeons took the quail away to his mother's camp, and thus the women-deer were set at liberty, and recovered by their husbands, the pigeons.
"In this story," says Mr Powers, "as in many others, we have something analogous to the were-wolves and swan-maidens of the medieval legends. It also illustrates the Indian belief in the common origin of all animals. Their favorite theory is, that the man originated from the coyote, and the woman from the deer. Wherefore this story probably gives us a glimpse of the first courtship recorded of the human race, when the animals had so developed, strictly in accordance with the Darwinian programme, that man was about to appear upon the scene. The failure of the coyote's elopement delayed that auspicious event a little while."