INDIRECT EXTERNAL EVIDENCES—AMERICAN TRADITIONS. Continued.
Always closely allied with the native American traditions of a deluge are those which bear close analogy to the Bible account of the existence of giants in the earth,[1] of the Tower of Babel,[2] the confusion of languages,[3] the dispersion of mankind throughout the earth,[4] including migrations to this western hemisphere. The first four items above enumerated will be recognized as Bible events; while the last will be remembered as a very important Book of Mormon event fulfilled in the migration of the Jaredite colony from the Tower of Babel to the western hemisphere.[5] But as the Nephite migration, as also that of Mulek's colony, is committed to the traditions of the native Americans, one must not be surprised if these several migrations are sometimes confounded, resulting in confusion that is quite perplexing.
III.
Tradition of the Tower of Babel
On the way between Vera Cruz and the capital not far from the modern city of Puebla, stands the venerable relic, with which the reader has become familiar in the course of this narrative—called the temple of Cholulua. It is, as he will remember, a pyramidal mound, built, or rather cased, with unburnt brick, rising to the height of nearly one hundred and eighty feet. The popular tradition of the natives is that it was erected by a family of giants, who had escaped the great inundation, and designed to raise the building to the clouds; but the gods, offended with their presumption, sent fires from heaven on the pyramid, and compelled them to abandon the attempt. The partial coincidence of this legend with the Hebrew account of the Tower of Babel, received also by other nations of the east, cannot be denied.[6]
Prescott also has a footnote on this passage, from which I make the following quotation:
A tradition, very similar to the Hebrew one, existed among the Chaldeans and the Hindoos. (Asiatic Researches, vol. III, mem. 16.) The natives of Chiapa, also, according to the bishop Nuez de la Vega, had a story, cited as genuine by Humboldt (Vues des Cordilleres, p. 148), which not only agrees with the scripture account of the manner in which Babel was built, but with that of the subsequent dispersion, and the confusion of tongues.[7]
Ixtlilxochitl the Christian descendant of the ancient rulers of Anahuac, relates that after the dispersion of the human race which succeeded the attempt at building the Tower of Babel (which he had learned from his Catholic instructors)[8] seven Toltecs reached America and became the parents of a numerous race. The Quiches speak of white men who came from the land of the sun. The people of Yucatan believe that their ancestors had come from the east, across a great body of water that God had dried up to let them pass over. [9]
The Mexicans round Cholula had a special legend, connecting the escape of a remnant from the great deluge with the often mentioned story of the origin of the people of Anahuac from Chicomoztoc, or the Seven Caves. At the time of the cataclysm, [i. e. the flood] the country, according to Pedro de los Rios, was inhabited by giants. Some of these perished utterly; others were changed into fishes; while seven brothers of them found safety by closing themselves into certain caves in a mountain called Tlaloc. When the waters were assuaged, one of the giants, Xelhua, surnamed the architect, went to Cholula and began to build an artificial mountain, as a monument and a memorial of the Tlaloc that had sheltered him and his when the angry waters swept through all the land. The bricks were made in Tlamanalco, at the foot of the Sierra de Cocotl, and passed to Chulua from hand to hand along a file of men—whence these came is not said—stretching between the two places. Then were the jealousy and the anger of the gods aroused, as the huge pyramid arose slowly up, threatening to reach the clouds and the great heaven itself; and the gods launched their fire upon the builders and slew many, so that the work was stopped. But the half-finished structure, afterwards dedicated by the Cholultecs to Quetzalcoatl, still remains to show how well Xelhua, the giant, deserved his surname of the Architect.[10]
"The Tower of Babel is," indeed, clearly remembered by several aboriginal nations of our continent," says P. DeRoo, "especially of Central America," and then he adds:
Ixtlilxochitl relates the tradition of the Toltecs, according to which the few men who escaped the deluge, after multiplying again, built a "zacuali" or tower of great height, in which to take refuge when the world should be destroyed a second time. After this their tongues became confused and, not understanding one another any longer, they went to different parts of the world. The Toltecs, seven in number, and their wives, who understood one another's speech, after crossing great lands and seas and undergoing many hardships, finally arrived in America, which they found to be a good land and fit for habitation. When Coxcox and his wife Xochiquetzal had landed on the peak of Calhuacan they increased and multiplied, and children began to gather about them; but these were all born dumb. A dove came, however, and gave them tongues, innumerable languages. On an ancient hieroglyphical map, first published by Carreri, who was vindicated from suspicion as to his integrity by Boturini, Clavigero, and von Humboldt, there is also depicted a dove with the hieroglyphic emblem of languages, which it is distributing to the children of Coxcox. Only fifteen of the descendants of Coxcox could not all understand one another, and these were the ancestors of the Nahua nations. Thus runs the Mexican tradition, which the learned Von Humboldt further relates when he says, "Wodan, one of the fifteen ancestors of the American nations, was a grandson of the venerable old man, who with his family escaped the fury of the flood, and was one of those who, according to the Chiapan legend, had helped in building the monument that was to reach heaven but remained unfinished through the anger of the gods. After each family had received a different language, Teotl ordered Wodan to go and settle Anahuac"[11]—(the Mexican table land).
The Cholulan tradition, as told by Duran, differs somewhat from the foregoing version. "I inquired," he says, "about the ancient Mexican legends, from a native of Cholula who was a hundred years old, and well versed in the antiquities of his tribe. 'Take pen and paper,' he answered me, 'because you could not remember all that I am to tell you: At first, there was nothing but a dark world, without any creature in it; but as soon as light was made with the sun rising in the east, gigantic men with ugly features made their appearance and took possession of this earth. Desirous of knowing the rising and the setting of the sun, they divided themselves into two groups, those of one group traveling east on their search, and the others west, until the ocean prevented them from going any further. They returned, therefore, and, unable to get at the sun by his rising or sinking, whilst, however, they were enamoured with his light and beauty, they decided to build a tower tall enough to reach him in his course. They set out gathering materials, found clay and a very sticky bitumen, and they hurried on to erect the tower, and raised it so high that, they say, it seemed to attain to the sky. And the Lord above, annoyed at their work, spoke to the inhabitants of heaven: 'You have noticed how those of the world have built a high and superb tower to climb up higher, after the beauty and light of the sun; come and let us confound them, for it is not right that those of the world living in the flesh, should mix up with us.' The inhabitants of heaven sallied forth at once, like thunderbolts, by the four corners of the earth and demolished the monument. Terrified and trembling, the giants fled in every direction.'"[12]
Passages of like description to these might be multiplied, but the foregoing are sufficient for our purpose here.[13]
I have already called attention to the fact that authorities upon the subject of traditions and legends of the new world are as much divided and as irreconcilable as they are upon the origin and antiquity of American ruins. A number of writers, especially those of recent date, seek to discount the value of the analogy which is plainly evident between these native American accounts of the creation, the flood, the building of the Tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues, the dispersion of mankind, and the Bible accounts of the same events; but I fail to find any reason advanced sufficiently strong to discredit the obvious analogy, and the significance there is in such analogy, viz., that the native Americans in ancient times were acquainted with the Bible facts concerning these several things. Those who accept the Book of Mormon know by what means and how the ancient Americans became acquainted with these scriptural truths. Those writers who seek to discredit the native traditions resort in the main to the theory that these so-called creation, flood, and tower legends have not escaped the "renovating touch of the Spanish priests and chroniclers, who, throughout their writings, seem to think it their bounden duty to make the ideas of the history of the new world correspond to those of the old;"[14] while others see in them an adaptation by pious fraud of Indian mythologies to Bible statements.[15] Such Nadaillac represents the theories of some other writers to be; but he himself, in speaking of a number of traditions which resemble Bible historical incidents, disclaims the necessity of accrediting them to Christian origin:
A general belief * * * * in a deluge or flood is widely spread among the American races, and can hardly be attributed to Christian teachings. * * * * * * It is probable that all these traditions have some foundations in truth. * * * * No dissemination of merely Christian ideas since the conquest is sufficient to account for these myths.[16]
With the Book of Mormon in hand, however, one does not need to accept these strained explanations nor this wholesale repudiation of the writings of respectable authorities on the validity of these legends among native Americans, derived—not as some would have us believe, from picture-paintings of the natives alone, but from these, supplemented by the oral traditions of the natives. The source of traditions here referred to is made clear by the Book of Mormon.
IV.
Migrations.
As already stated, some confusion exists in native American traditions relative to migrations. This doubtless arises from the fact that the native traditions confound the three great migrations of which the Book of Mormon speaks, viz., the Jaredite, Nephite and Mulek migrations, and also the subsequent intercontinental movements among both Nephites and Lamanites, especially those following the disaster at Cumorah, with the general migrations from the old world. This confusion in the native traditions results in dividing the writers on American antiquities, both in respect of the number of migrations and the direction whence they came, as also the time of them. It should be stated that there are some respectable authorities who doubt ancient migrations at all, holding the native population of America, and also its civilization, to be indigenous.
Migration passages already quoted in connection with the Tower of Babel matter, are as follows: "The Toltecs reached America [from the Tower] and became the founders of a numerous race." "The Quiches speak of white men who came from the land of the sun. The people of Yucatan believe that their ancestors had come from the east across a great body of water that God had dried up to let them pass over."[17] Here it will be observed that with these traditions of the migration from the east has been coupled the Bible story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, through which God opened a way to let them pass.[18]
It is also to be observed that in some instances the American traditions fix the building of the notable tower to escape floods in the western world.[19] Not a surprising variation when one considers how oral tradition, unchecked by written annals, distorts facts. From another passage already given,[20] after referring to the facts of the confusion of languages, it is stated that the people went to different parts of the world; then, "the Toltecs, seven in number, and their wives, who understood one another's speech, after crossing great lands and seas and undergoing great hardships, finally arrived in America, which they found to be good land and fit for habitation. * * * Only fifteen of the descendants of Coxcox could at all understand one another, and these were the ancestors of the Nahuac nations."[21] In this last quotation one perceives very clearly in outline the story of the Jaredite migration as follows: First, the number of the colony is small. The Book of Ether represents that the Jaredite colony crossed the great waters between their native land and America in eight barges;[22] and they were small.[23] The two principal families of this colony, that of Moriancumr and Jared, some time after reaching America, are set down as follows: The former had of sons and daughters twenty-two; while the number of sons and daughters of the latter were twelve, he having four sons. Some of these sons and daughters may, of course, have been born en route to, and after the arrival in, America—that, at least, is a very great probability—and hence the original colony would be cut down by as many as were so born.[24] The number of "friends" of Jared and his brother who accompanied them from Babel to America are set down at "about twenty and two souls, and they also begat sons and daughters before they came to the promised land.[25] This may mean that the twenty-two friends were all adults, while the number of children is not given; or it may mean that they numbered twenty-two including children. In any event the Jaredite colony was not large, and it is quite possible that the families were not more than seven in number as held in the native tradition before us.
Second, the American traditions represent that the colony which came from the tower and peopled America all understood each other's language, and the number of them was fifteen; which, if this number represents the adult members of the colony, we have again about the seven families indicated in the foregoing passage; and it will be remembered that when the Lord made known to the prophet Moriancumr that he was about to confound the languages of the people, his brother Jared suggested to him that he ask the Lord not to confound their language; "and it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared, therefore he did not confound the language of Jared."[26] A second appeal was made in behalf of their friends (who we have already learned numbered twenty-two) that their language might not be confounded; "and the Lord had compassion upon their friends, and upon their families also, that they were not confounded."[27]
Third, this colony, of the American traditions, crossed great lands and seas and underwent many hardships before finally arriving in America. Now Ether's account of the Jaredite journey: "And it came to pass that they did travel in the wilderness, and did build barges, in which they did cross many waters, being directed continually by the hand of the Lord. And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise"—America.[28] Arriving on the shores of the great ocean which separated them from the land of their destination they received a commandment to build barges for crossing this ocean. "And it came to pass that when they had done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God. And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind."[29] This journey continued three hundred and forty-four days upon the water. This surely was "crossing great lands and seas and undergoing many hardships."
Fourth, the American tradition says that the Toltec colony finally arrived in America, which they found to be a good land, "and fit for habitation." Concerning the land to which the Jaredite colony came Ether says that it is "a land of promise, which is choice above all other lands which the Lord had preserved for a righteous people."[30] In other words, to use the language of the native American tradition, it was "a land fit for habitation."
Other passages on the fact of ancient migrations to America follow; but I caution the reader again concerning the confusion existing in the traditions on this subject, which arises, as I believe, from the traditions mingling indiscriminately together the three migrations of the Book of Mormon, and later movements of native tribes since the overthrow of the Nephites at Cumorah.
One fact appears probable, and that is that there was a tendency of population extending over a long period from the north toward the south, one driving another before it as one wave of the sea follows that in advance of it. We cannot do better than compare these successive invasions, with those of the barbarous races that quarreled over the parts of the dismembered Roman empire, or with that of the Aryans, who from the farther end of Asia fell in hordes first upon India and Persia and then upon the different countries of Europe, giving to the vanquished as the price of their defeat a culture undoubtedly superior to that they had formerly possessed. [31]
That successive waves of migration occurred there is no reason to doubt, and that these successive bodies of immigrants differed to some extent in culture and in race is highly probable.[32] * * * The ancient American races preserved the tradition of distinct migrations, in their hieroglyphics and pictographs.[33]
That America was peopled from Asia, the cradle of the human race, can no longer be doubted, but how and when they came is a problem that cannot be solved.[34]
The testimony "of migration to the western coast of America from the eastern coast of Asia," Rivero and Tschudi hold to be strong and conclusive; and further "that it explains many facts in America, which long perplexed our archaeologists;" but "it by no means aids us in determining the origin of our earliest population."[35] On the same subject Gallatin remarks:
After making every proper allowance, I can see no possible reason that should have prevented those who, after the dispersion of mankind, moved towards the east and northeast from having reached the extremities of Asia and passed over to America within five hundred years after the flood. However small may have been the number of those first emigrants, an equal number of years would have been more than sufficient to occupy in their own way every part of America.[36]
Bancroft, quoting the substance of a passage from Sahagun, whom he pronounces one of the best of authorities, says:
Countless years ago the first settlers arrived in New Spain. Coming in ships by sea, they approached a northern port and because they disembarked there it was called Panutla, or Panoaia, "place where they arrived who came by sea," now corruptly called Pantlan (Panuco); and from this port they began............