use one of those nice grammatical distinctions so
frequent in American aboriginal languages and which can only be
imitated, not interpreted, in ours, signifying "when it will be near its
end," "when it will no longer be available for man."[220-2]

An ancient prophecy handed down from their ancestors warns the
Winnebagoes that their nation shall be annihilated at the close of the
thirteenth generation. Ten have already passed, and that now living has
appointed ceremonies to propitiate the powers of heaven, and mitigate
its stern decree.[220-3] Well may they be about it, for there is a
gloomy probability that the warning came from no false prophet. Few
tribes were destitute of such presentiments. The Chikasaw, the Mandans
of the Missouri, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the Muyscas of
Bogota, the Botocudos of Brazil, the Araucanians of Chili, have been
asserted on testimony that leaves no room for scepticism, to have
entertained such forebodings from immemorial time. Enough for the
purpose if the list is closed with the prediction of a Maya priest,
cherished by the inhabitants of Yucatan long before the Spaniard
desolated their stately cities. It is one of those preserved by Father
Lizana, cure of Itzamal, and of which he gives the original. Other
witnesses inform us that this nation "had a tradition that the world
would end,"[221-1] and probably, like the Greeks and Aztecs, they
supposed the gods would perish with it.

"At the close of the ages, it hath been decreed,
Shall perish and vanish each weak god of men,
And the world shall be purged with a ravening fire.
Happy the man in that terrible day,
Who bewails with contrition the sins of his life,[221-2]
And meets without flinching the fiery ordeal."

FOOTNOTES:

[193-1] So far as this applies to the Eskimos, it might be questioned on
the authority of Paul Egede, whose valuable _Nachrichten von Groenland_
contains several flood-myths, &c. But these Eskimos had had for
generations intercourse with European missionaries and sailors, and as
the other tribes of their stock were singularly devoid of corresponding
traditions, it is likely that in Greenland they were of foreign origin.

[194-1] Pictet, _Origines Indo-Europeennes_ in Michelet, _La Mer_. The
latter has many eloquent and striking remarks on the impressions left by
the great ocean.

[195-1] "Spiritus Dei incubuit superficei aquarum" is the translation of
one writer. The word for s