The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
The “Twain” ... guided men upwards to become the fathers of six kinds of
men (yellow or tawny, grey, red, white, mingled and black).... The nation
divided itself into the winter or Macaw and the summer or Raven people....
“The Twain beloved gathered in council for the naming and selection of man
groups and creature kinds, spaces and things. They determined that the
creatures and things of summer and the southern space pertained to the
southern people or children of the producing Earth-mother; and those of
the winter and northern space to the winter people or children of the
Forcing or Quickening Sky-father.”
It is impossible to do more than refer the reader to Mr. Cushing’s account
of the origin of totem clans and creature-kinds which bears such an
affinity to the Peruvian, and obviously arose for the same practical
reason, to serve as distinction marks for identification and
classification. “At first ... there were four bands of priest-keepers of
the mysteries: the Shiwana-kwe=priesthood of the priest-people;
Sa’niah’-ya-kwe=priesthood of the Hunt; Ach-iahya-kwe=great Knife people;
Newe-kwe=keepers of the magic medicines.” Out of these four divisions “all
societies were formed, both that of the Middle and the twain for each of
all six regions, constituting the tabooed and sacred 13.” In another
passage account is given of the marriage of a brother and sister, which
produced twelve children, the first of which, Hlamon, was man and woman
combined—the 12 thus constituting in reality 13.
One of the most interesting portions of the Zuñi narrative is one which
elucidates the motive which led to the migration of peoples in ancient
America. We are told how generations of the forefathers of the Zuñis
wandered about in search of the stable middle of the earth, on which they
wished to found their sacred city. The tribe divided; the winter-clan
journeyed to the northeast and the summer-clan to the southwest, a reunion
of the people took place, and a council was held for the determination of
the true Middle.... According to a myth the Sun-father requested the
water-skate to determine the Middle. This mythical monster lifted himself
up, stretched out and then settled downward, calling out: “Where my heart
and navel rest beneath them mark ye the spot and then build ye a town of
the midmost, for there shall be the midmost of the Earth-mother, even the
navel.... And when he descended squatting, his belly rested over the plain
and valley of Zuñi and when he drew in his finger-legs, lo! there were the
trail roads leading out and in like the stays of a spider’s net, into and
forth from the place he had covered.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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