[1903] In studying the mythology of these tribes we must depend mainly on confined monographs. Mrs. E. A. Smith treats the myths of the Iroquois in the Second Annual Rept. Bureau of Ethnology. Charles Godfrey Leland has covered The Algonquin legends of New England; or, myths and folk-lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot tribes (Boston, 1884). Brinton has a book on The Lenâpé and their legends (Philad., 1885); and one may refer to the Life and Journals of David Brainard. S. D. Peet has a paper on “The religious beliefs and traditions of the aborigines of North America” in the Journal of the Victoria Institute (London, 1888, vol. xxi. 229); one on “Animal worship and Sun worship in the east and west compared” in the American Antiquarian, Mar., 1888; and a paper on the religion of the moundbuilders in Ibid. vi. 393. The Dahcotah, or life and legends of the Sioux around Fort Snelling (N. Y., 1849) of Mrs. Mary Eastman has been a serviceable book. S. R. Riggs covers the mythology of the Dakotas in the Amer. Antiquarian (v. 147), and in this periodical will be found various studies concerning other tribes.
[1904] Bandelier, Archæol. Tour, 185, calls it the earliest statement of the Nahua mythology.
[1905] There is more or less of original importance on the Aztec myths in Alfredo Chavero’s “La Piedra del Sol,” likewise in the Anales (vol. i.). Cf. also the “Ritos Antiguos, sacrificios e idolatrias de los indios de la Nueva España,” as printed in the Coleccion de doc. ined. para la hist. de España (liii. 300).
Bancroft (vol. iii. ch. 6-10), who is the best source for reference, gives also the best compassed survey of the entire field; but among writers in English he may be supplemented by Prescott (i. ch. 3, introd.); Helps in his Spanish Conquest (vol. ii.); Tylor’s Primitive Culture; Albert Réville’s Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by the native religions of Mexico and Peru, translated by P. H. Wicksteed (London, 1884, being the Hibbert lectures for 1884); on the analogies of the Mexican belief, a condensed statement in Short’s No. America of Antiq., 459; a popular paper in The Galaxy, May, 1876. Bandelier intended a fourth paper to be added to the three printed in the Peabody Mus. Repts. (vol. ii.), namely, one on “The Creeds and Beliefs of the Ancient Mexicans,” which has never, I think, been printed.
Among the French, we may refer to Ternaux-Compans’ Essai sur la théogonie Méxicaine (Paris, 1840) and the works of Brasseur. Klemm’s Cultur-Geschichte and Müller’s Urreligionen will mainly cover the German views. Of the Mexican writers, it may be worth while to name J. M. Melgar’s Examen comparativa entre los signos simbolicos de las Teogonias y Cosmogonias antiguas y los que existen en los manuscritos Méxicanos (Vera Cruz, 1872).
The readiest description of their priesthood and festivals will be found in Bancroft (ii. 201, 303, with references). Tenochtitlan is said to have had 2,000 sacred buildings, and Torquemada says there were 80,000 throughout Mexico; while Clavigero says that a million priests attended upon them. Bancroft (iii. ch. 10) describes this service. There is a chance in all this of much exaggeration.
The history of human sacrifice as a part of this service is the subject of disagreement among the earlier as well as with the later writers. Bancroft (iii. 413, 442) gives some leading references. Cf. Prescott (i. 77) and Nadaillac (p. 296). Las Casas in his general defence of the natives places the number of sacrifices very low. Zumárraga says there were 20,000 a year. The Aztecs, if not originating the practice, as is disputed by some, certainly made much use of it.
[1906] Anales del Museo Nacional, ii. 247; Bancroft, iii. 240, 248.
[1907] Bandelier thinks Durán the earliest to connect St. Thomas with Quetzalcoatl. Cf. Bancroft, iii. 456.
[1908] Müller agrees with Ixtlilxochitl that Quetzalcoatl and Huemac were one and the same, and that Ternaux erred in supposing them respectively Olmec and Toltec deities. Cf. Brasseur’s Palenqué, 40, 66. Cf. D. Daly on “Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican Messiah” in Gentleman’s Mag., n. a., xli. 236.