ns of Nicaragua, the record of
question and answer in an inquest held by Father Francisco de Bobadilla in
the early days of the Spanish conquest. Asked, among other things,
concerning death, the Indians said: "Those who die in their houses go
underground, but those who are killed in war go to serve the gods
(_teotes_). When men die, there comes forth from their mouth something
which resembles a person, and is called _julio_ (Aztec _yuli_, 'to live').
This being is like a person, but does not die, and the corpse remains
here." The Spanish ecclesiastics inquired whether those who go on high
keep the same body, features, and limbs as here below; to which the
Indians answered, "No, there is only the heart." "But," said the
Spaniards, "as the hearts are torn out" (they meant in the case of
warriors who fell into the hands of the enemy), "what happens then?"
Hereupon the Indians replied: "It is not precisely the heart, but that
which is in them, and makes them live, and which quits the body when they
die;" and again they said, "It is not their heart which goes up on high,
but that which makes them live, that is, the breath coming out from their
mouth, which is called _julio_." "Then," asked the Spaniards, "does this
heart, _julio_, or soul, die with the body?" "When the deceased has lived
well," replied the Indians, "the _julio_ goes up on high with our gods;
but when he has lived ill, the _julio_ perishes with the body, and there
is an end of it."

The Greeks expressed the same idea by saying that the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~} had left the
body,(27) had fled through the mouth, or even through a bleeding
wound,(28) and had gone into Hades, which meant literally no more than the
place of the Invisible ({~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}). That the breath had become invisible was
matter of fact; that it had gone to the house of Hades, was mythology
springing spontaneously from the fertile soil of language.

The primitive mythology was by no means necessarily religious. In the very
case which we have chosen, philosophical mythology sprang up by the side
of religious mythology. The religious mythology consisted in speaking of
the spirits of the departed as ghosts, as mere breath and air, as
fluttering about the