The realization that an inexhaustible fountain of water meant life to primitive nomadic people, enables us to understand the expression “fountain of life” and the constant associations of the sacred central mountain with pools of water and streams flowing in four directions. It is remarkable and highly suggestive how closely the following topographical details, given by Grote, of the original seat of the Macedonians (which were in the regions east of the chain of Skardus, north of the chain which connects Olympus with Pindus and which forms the northwestern boundary of Thessaly), coincide with the conception of Mt. Meru, for instance.
“Reckoning the basin of Thessaly as a fourth, here are four distinct inclosed plains on the east side of this long range of Skardus and Pindus,—each generally bounded by mountains which rise precipitously to an alpine height, and each leaving only one cleft for drainage by a single river,—the Axius, the Erigōn, the Haliakmōn and the Peneius respectively. All four plains ... are of distinguished fertility ...” (Grote, op. cit. vol. iv, p. 10). The close vicinity of Olympus, the Grecian “divine mountain,” is particularly suggestive, inasmuch as it proves to be geographically associated with four remarkable plains and rivers.
In a paper read to the Section of Anthropology of the New York meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Mr. Stansbury Hagar communicated the interesting results of his study of the Salcamayhua tablet which has been alluded to on p. [162] of the present publication. With his kind authorization I take pleasure in citing here his interpretation of the name of the Peruvian Creator, an abbreviation of which is inscribed on the plate or tablet. It will be found to accord with that given by Sir Clements B. Markham (History of Peru, p. 20), but to be more explicit. According to his view the name should be analyzed as follows: illa=light, lightning=fire; ticci=foundation, brick=earth; uayra i. e. huaii=air, wind; cocha=lake=water.
“Illa ticci uayra cocha would thus mean: the universal spirit defined by naming what seemed to a people unacquainted with scientific chemistry to be the four ultimate elements.”
Referring to the cognate Aymara language, Mr. Hagar interprets the name pachaya chachic as “source, lit. male ancestor, grandfather of all things,” and states that the opening inscription on the tablet should therefore read: “Spirit of Fire, Earth, Air and Water, source of all things” ... that is to say “image of the source whence heaven and earth have emanated.” Mr. Hagar states that this source seems to be appropriately figured by the oval form which he interprets as an egg (see fig. [28], c). On the other hand I point out that the flat plate of fine gold, which was set up by the Inca Manco Capac between images of the sun and moon, is figured as circular in shape (fig. [28], b).
I draw attention to Mr. Stansbury Hagar's interesting and suggestive paper on “The Celestial Bear,” which appeared in vol. xiii, no. xlix, of the Journal of American Folk-lore, in July, 1900. In this he relates the legend connected with Ursa Major by the Micmac Indians, that “this group of stars served to mark the divisions of the night and the seasons for the Micmacs.” A point of particular interest in connection with the Micmac legend is the fact, so clearly distinguishable, that the story was suggested to the minds of the Indians by the different positions assumed by the constellation in its annual circuit around Polaris.
“The Micmacs say,.... In all things as it was and is in the sky, so it is on earth.... In midspring the bear does actually seem to be climbing down out of her [celestial] den [corona borealis], which appears higher up to the northern horizon. In midsummer ... the bear runs along the northern horizon.... Soon after the bear assumes an erect position she topples over on her back [is slain] in the autumn. In midwinter she lies dead on her back, ... but the den [corona borealis] has re-appeared, with the bear of the new year lying therein, invisible. But this does not end the story of the bear, ... through the winter her skeleton lies upon its back in the sky, but her life spirit has entered another bear who also lies upon her back in the den, invisible and sleeping the winter sleep. When the spring comes around again, this bear will again issue forth from the den to be again pursued by the hunters, to be again slain, but again to send into the den her life-spirit, to issue forth yet again when the sun once more awakens the sleeping earth. And so the drama keeps on eternally.” Reasoning by induction, I am strongly tempted to assign the origin of the Egyptian myth of Osiris and of the “child in its cradle,” to the same source of inspiration—possibly also other myths of antiquity, such as the twelve labors of Hercules (held by O'Neil to be a pole-star god) may be assigned to the same source. At all events, the Micmac example is extremely instructive and suggestive.
The following extracts from Mr. Hagar's paper establish that Ursa Major was known as the Bear to several North American tribes, and generally served to mark time and seasons. “In a Blackfoot myth we read: The seven Persons slowly swung around and pointed downward. It was the middle of the night,” showing that they too marked the time at night by the position of these stars. So the Zuñis tell, when winter comes, how the bear, lying, sleeps, no longer guarding the West land from the cold of the Ice gods, etc., a story which demonstrates that in Zuñi mythology there was a marked association between the terrestrial bear [the “great white bear of the seven stars,” Cushing] and the seasons.
The Ojibways mention the constellation in connection with the four quarters in heaven, showing that they, at some time, were accustomed to mark their seasons not only by the position of the stars of the Bear, but also by the rising and setting of various fixed stars.
In conclusion I would state that Miss Alice Fletcher has informed me that, among the Omaha Indians, time is measured by Ursa Major, and that the pole-star is named the “Star which never travels.”