; Navarrete,
_Viages_, iii. p. 444.

[220-2] _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, An 1637, p. 54; Schoolcraft, _Ind.
Tribes_, i. p. 319, iv. p. 420.

[220-3] Schoolcraft, ibid., iv. p. 240.

[221-1] Cogolludo, _Hist. de Yucathan_, lib. iv. cap. 7.

[221-2] The Spanish of Lizana is--

"En la ultima edad, segun esta determinado,
Avra fin el culto de dioses vanos;
Y el mundo sera purificado con fuego.
El que esto viere sera llamado dichoso
Si con dolor llorare sus pecados."

(_Hist. de Nuestra Senora de Itzamal_, in Brasseur, _Hist. du Mexique_,
ii. p. 603). I have attempted to obtain a more literal rendering from the
original Maya, but have not been successful.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ORIGIN OF MAN.

Usually man is the EARTH-BORN, both in language and
myths.--Illustrations from the legends of the Caribs, Apalachians,
Iroquois, Quichuas, Aztecs, and others.--The underworld.--Man the
product of one of the primal creative powers, the Spirit, or the
Water, in the myths of the Athapascas, Eskimos, Moxos, and
others.--Never literally derived from an inferior species.

No man can escape the importunate question, whence am I? The first
replies framed to meet it possess an interest to the thoughtful mind,
beyond that of mere fables. They illustrate the position in creation
claimed by our race, and the early workings of self-consciousness. Often
the oldest terms for man are synopses of these replies, and merit a more
than passing contemplation.

The seed is hidden in the earth. Warmed by the sun, watered by the rain,
presently it bursts its dark prison-house, unfolds its delicate leaves,
blossoms, and matures its fruit. Its work done, the earth draws it to
itself again, resolves the various structures into their original mould,
and the unending round recommences.

This is the marvellous process that struck the primitive mind. Out of
the Earth rises life, to it it returns. She it is who guards all germs,
nourishes all beings. The Aztecs painted her as a woman with countless
breasts, the Peruvians called her Mama Allpa, _mother_ Earth. _Homo_,
_Adam_, _chamaigen[=e]s_, what do all these words mean but the
earth-born, the son of the soil, repeated in the poetic language of
Attica in _anthropos_, he who springs up as a flower?

The word that corresponds to the Latin _homo_ in American languages has
such singular uniformity in so many of them, that we might be tempted to
rega