In speaking of the scope of the comprehensive work of H. H. Bancroft we mentioned that beyond the larger part of the great Athapascan stock of the northern Indians his treatment did not extend. Such other general works as Brinton’s Myths of the New World, the sections of his American Hero-Myths on the hero-gods of the Algonquins and Iroquois, and the not wholly satisfactory book of Ellen R. Emerson, Indian myths; or, Legends, traditions, and symbols of the aborigines of America, compared with those of other countries, including Hindostan, Egypt, Persia, Assyria, and China (Boston, 1884), with aid from such papers as Major J. W. Powell’s “Philosophy of the North American Indians” in the Journal of the Amer. Geographical Society (vol. viii. p. 251, 1876), and his “Mythology of the North American Indians” in the First Annual Rept. of the Bureau of Ethnology (1881), and R. M. Dorman’s Origin of primitive superstition among the aborigines of America (Philad., 1881), must suffice in a general way to cover those great ethnic stocks of the more easterly part of North America, which comprise the Iroquois, centred in New York, and surrounded by the Algonquins, west of whom were the Dacotas, and south of whom were the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, sometimes classed together as Appalachians.[1903]
The mythology of the Aztecs is the richest mine, and Bancroft in his third volume finds the larger part of his space given to the Mexican religion.
Brinton (Amer. Hero Myths, 73, 78), referring to the “Historia de los Méxicanos por sus Pinturas” of Ramirez de Fuenleal, as printed in the Anales del Museo Nacional (ii. p. 86), says that in some respects it is to be considered the most valuable authority which we possess,[1904] as taken directly from the sacred books of the Aztecs, and as explained by the most competent survivors of the Conquest.[1905]
We must also look to Ixtlilxochitl and Sahagún as leading sources. From Sahagún we get the prayers which were addressed to the chief deity, of various names, but known best, perhaps, as Tezcatlipoca; and these invocations are translated for us in Bancroft (iii. 199, etc.), who supposes that, consciously or unconsciously, Sahagún has slipped into them a certain amount of “sophistication and adaptation to Christian ideas.” From the lofty side of Tezcatlipoca’s character, Bancroft (iii. ch. 7) passes to his meaner characteristics as the oppressor of Quetzalcoatl.
The most salient features of the mythology of the Aztecs arise from the long contest of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, the story of which modified the religion of their followers, and, as Chavero claims, greatly affected their history.[1906] This struggle, according as the interpreters incline, stands for some historic or physical rivalry, or for one between St. Thomas and the heathen;[1907] but Brinton explains it on his general principles as one between the powers of Light and Darkness (Am. Hero Myths, 65).
The main original sources on the character and career of Quetzalcoatl are Motolinía, Mendieta, Sahagún, Ixtlilxochitl, and Torquemada, and these are all summarized in Bancroft (iii. ch. 7).
It has been a question with later writers whether there is a foundation of history in the legend or myth of Quetzalcoatl. Brinton (Myths of the New World, 180) has perhaps only a few to agree with him when he calls that hero-god a “pure creature of the fancy, and all his alleged history nothing but a myth,” and he thinks some confusion has arisen from the priests of Quetzalcoatl being called by his name.
Bandelier (Archæol. Tour) takes issue with Brinton in deeming Quetzalcoatl on the whole an historical person, whom Ixtlilxochitl connects with the pre-Toltec tribes of Olmeca and Xicalanca, and whom Torquemada says came in while the Toltecs occupied the country. Bandelier thinks it safe to say that Quetzalcoatl began his career in the present state of Hidalgo as a leader of a migration moving southward, with a principal sojourn at Cholula, introducing arts and a purer worship. This is substantially the view taken by J. G. Müller, Prescott, and Wuttke.
