particular events of the zodiacal legend, they are entirely and manifestly fabulous, being, in all cases, suggested by, and precisely accommodated to, the symbolism or phenomena of the seasons, and the various arrangements of the year and cycle. You will have already perceived that this account of the primitive myth gives the essence of the Mexican legend. Some account of this legend will be necessary before I proceed farther, that I may not appear to have built a system on an isolated fable, or a fortuitous coïncidence. The story of the four ages is somewhat differently related by the several historians of Mexico. All, however, agree in the essential facts, and vary only in the particular order of the catastrophes, as in the greater or less detail with which they allude to them. The substance of their accounts is as follows. The Mexicans believed that besides the sun which now actually illumines the world, four others had existed in as many different ages, and had been successively destroyed, together with the greater part of mankind. According to the native pictorial representation of these ages in the Codex Vaticanus, No. 3783,* as read by Humboldt, the first of these periods was the age of Earth; the second, the age of Fire; the third, the age of Air; and the fourth, the age of Water. The age of earth was called Tlaltonatiuh literally Sun of Earth, (Tlalli, the earth, and Tonatiuh, the sun.) It lasted 5206 years, and terminated by terrific earthquakes and famine. The next age was named Tletonatiuh, the sun or age of fire, Tletl: its duration was 4804 years, and its catastrophe a conflagration which involved the whole earth, and even the sun. Ehecatonatiuh, the sun or age of air, Ehecatl, lasted 4010 years, and terminated with fearful hurricanes; and the fourth age, Atonatiuh, the sun of water, Atl, lasted 4008 years, and terminated with a universal deluge. In each age, a single pair, a man and a woman, was saved and became the progenitors of humanity in the succeeding era, while a portion of mankind was, in each case, changed into some animal form, typical, as will be seen hereafter, of the age. In the age of Fire they were changed into birds; in the age of Air into monkeys; in the age of Water into fish; while in the age of the Earth, pregnant women were changed into tigers, thus presenting us with an additional * Aglio, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. ii., pl. vii., etc. Wild Beasts is the term used by Torquemada, and by Clanigero, who copies him; from other accounts it would appear that these wild beasts were tigers. Compare Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres, 8o. tom ii., pp. 63, 64, and 224; Torque symbolism which, though very incongruous in appearance, is still, in reality, strictly accurate and very characteristic. It belongs to a particular stratum of ideas in the secondary era, though some of its elements are primitive. Nearly all the other particulars related of these ages are likewise mythically accurate, only that they belong to different symbolic epochs, and are, consequently, somewhat incongruous when amalgamated into a single mass.* The original legend simply consists of the succession of the four ages, named from the four elements, and characterized by four calamities respectively produced by those elements, these calamities succeeding each other in the reverse order of the seasons, beginning with the age of earth, the equivalent of autumn. All this belongs to the primitive era and to the oldest times of it; all beyond this is the superaddition of later epochs. As the order of the four catastrophes is variously stated by the different historians of Mexico, it may be thought that I have chosen the one here given merely because it best suits my purpose. Such is not the case. My purpose does not at all require that this tradition should be in one form rather than another. This is simply a question of Mexican archæology. My purpose has already been fully answered, and if I now assert that the arrangement in question was the one really adopted by the Mexican, it is simply because I conceive this point to admit of very clear proof; because this order is the only one consistent with the other traditions of the country; and because it is demonstrable that all who have departed from it have done so for theoretical reasons, and especially for the purpose of forcing these traditions into agreement with mada, Monarchia Indiana, 1723, tom ii., lib. x., cap. xxxiii., p. 293; and Clanigero, Storia Antica del Messico, tom ii., lib. vi., p. 84. *The term sun, as employed in this fable, seems to designate a solar period of time, on the same principle that the word moon designates a lunar period. The application of such a term to the divisions of the great year would easily lead to equivocal expressions and interpretations, and thus the passing away of four metaphorical or verbal suns, would, in time, be converted into the destruction of four real and material ones. The fable of the four ages is related by the following writers: Gomara, Historia general de las Indias, 1553, folio cxix.; Fernando d'Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Histoire des Chichimèques, published in the Collection of Ternaux-Compans, tom xii., p. 2; Boturini, Idea de una Nueva Historia general de la America Septentrional, p. 3; Vetia, Historia Antigua de Mejico, tom i., cap. iv., p. 33; Clanigero, Storia Antica Supra, p. 57; the anonymous historian quoted Gama, Discription Hist. y Cronol. de das Piedras, sec. 62, p. 94; Humboldt, as already referred to, and the Inter. preter of the Codex Vaticanus, No. 3783, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. vi., p. 172It is also twice alluded to by Torquemada, supra, lib. i., cap. xiv., and lib. vi., cap. xliv. those of Judaism and Christianity; for the Spanish writers firmly believed that the legends of Mexico had a genuine historic basis, and they were determined that this basis should harmonize with their own history. All these points will be fully considered in my work. The primitive legend, though presented in greater purity and completeness in Mexico than anywhere else yet known to me, is far from being exclusively Mexican. On the contrary, it may almost be said to be universal; for vestiges of it are found not only in every great mythic centre, but to some extent in almost every region which possesses a religious tradition. A very brief allusion to some of the most interesting of these vestiges, is all that I can indulge in at the present moment. This myth is one of the dominant fables in the cosmogony of the Buddhists, though there it is chiefly given in a “Triadie" form, and in an order suited to late tertiary arrangements. According to the Buddhists the universe is successively destroyed, to a greater or less extent, by three great calamities, a conflagration, a deluge, and a hurricane, and these recur in endless succession. During the existence of each universe, there are, in all, sixty-four of these catastrophes; fifty-six of which are conflagrations, seven deluges, and only one a hurricane. Every eighth catastrophe is a deluge; and the sixty-fourth, the most terrific of all, is a hurricane, which, commencing with the gentlest breezes, increases by degrees, until it at last hurls about immense rocks and the tops of mountains; then convulsing the entire frame-work of the universe, it breaks up the whole vast apparatus of worlds, celestial and terrestrial, and scatters them through the immense extent of the skies. For an account of these curious and interesting legends I must refer to the valuable papers of Abel-Remusat,* and Deshauterays,† who give the Chinese version of them; to the work of Sangermano, on the Burmese Cosmography; while Schmidt,§ Bergman, and Pallas may be consulted for the special ideas of the Mongols and Kalmucks; and George,** for those of Thibet. *Journal des Savans for October, November, and December, 1831. Journal Asiatique, tom. vii. and viii. Cosmographia Burmana, trans. by Tandy; and also extracted from by Dr. Francis Buchanan, in the Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. Ges-chicte der Ost. Mongalen. Nomadische Streiferein unter den Kalmüken, tom. iii. Sammlung der historische Nachrichten, tom. ii. **Alphabetum Tibetanum, passim. The number and arrangement of these calamities imply a year and cycle of three divisions only, equivalent to summer, winter, and spring, the order of sequence both for the cycle and the year being that of the seasons. All this belongs, as will be seen hereafter, to late tertiary times. The Buddhists have likewise three other cyclical calamities of a minor order, which recur in the intervals of the greater catastrophes. These follow the course of the primitive fable, and also contain an allusion to the fourth element, though as a Triadic myth, only three are expressly admitted. These minor calamities are, famine, pestilence, and war, according to the account of Abel-Remusat; or according to Sangermano, famine, war, and "a horrid consumption, which wastes men away to mere skeletons." Famine is an obvious, as well as ancient calamity of the age of earth and autumn, and pestilence an equally obvious and also an ancient ærial catastrophe. War has also been rendered an attribute of the age of air, by a symbolism to be presently noticed, while the consumption is more ambiguous, though it seems here attached to the age of air. The existence of two ærial calamities, has reference to a special and very important arrangement of the secondary era; the same, in fact, to which belongs the symbolism of the monkey, the bird, the tiger, and the fish in the Mexican legend. This arrangement will be described in my second letter. The allusion to the fourth element is given in the Burmese account, which states that after almost the whole of mankind have perished by the consumption, a great rain falls, which sweeps away the bodies of the dead, and all other impurities, and thus prepares the world for a new cycle of similar revolutions. The Buddhist traditions speak likewise of another and still greater cycle, which embraces all the former ones, and which is, in essence, though not in symbolism, an exact equivalent of that of Mexico. It divides the duration of the universe into four periods of equal length, a period of formation, a stationary period, a period of destruction, and a period of annihilation. The first, by the whole tenor of its machinery, unequivocally indicates the age of earth; the second, for similar reasons, corresponds to that of fire; the third, in which occur all the catastrophes previously alluded to, is the age of air; while the fourth represents exactly the age of water and winter. In this period, the place of the universe is quite empty, all its substance being utterly destroyed with the exception of certain super-celestial heavens which are entirely removed out of the circle of vicissitudes. The general range of the Brahminical traditions refers to a later form of the primitive myth than that founded on the Elemental Symbolism; but this also is presented to us in a form very closely resembling the Mexican fable. I allude to a tradition of the Banians according to which the first generation of men perished by deluge, the second by tempest, the third by earthquake, and the fourth is to be destroyed by fire.* Allusions to the primitive legend may also be traced in various portions of the Celtic traditions, and a distinct version of it is given in one of the Welsh triads, as "The three awful events of the Island of Britain, which were, "First, the bursting of the Lake of Waters, and the overwhelming of the face of all lands; so that all mankind were drowned, excepting Dwyvan and Dwirach, who escaped in a naked vessel (without sails) and of them the island of Britain was re-peopled. "The second was the consternation of the tempestuous fire, when the earth split asunder to annun (the lower region) and the greatest part of all living was consumed. "The third was the scorching summer, when the woods and plants were set on fire by the intense heat of the sun, and multitudes of men and beasts and kinds of birds and reptiles, and trees and plants, were irrecoverably lost."t The second and third catastrophes are here somewhat confusedly related. The splitting asunder of the earth, is the equivalent of the earthquake, which is complicated with attributions belonging to the age of fire; for we shall find that summer and autumn coalesce in a particular portion of the secondary era, thus introducing the first important element of confusion in mythic history. The traditions of Arabia also bear a curious impress of the primitive legend, and the same may be said of several other histories; but these accounts would require too many remarks and adjustments for a sketch like the present. For a variety of important reasons, to which I can not now refer, the deluge and the conflagration have impressed the minds of men more emphatically than the catastrophes of earth and air, and their tradition is, therefore, more widely spread and more * Contant D'Orville, Histoire des Differens Peuples du Monde, tom. ii., pp. 238, 144, and 145. Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres, 80. tom. ii., p. 382, quoting Friedrich Maier, Mythologisches Taschenbuch, tom ií., p. 299; and Algemeines Mythol Lexion, tom. ii., p. 471. Davies, Celtic Researches, p. 157. |