[188-2] La Vega, _Hist. des Incas_, lib. ix. cap. 15. [188-3] Peter Martyr, _De Reb. Oceanicis_, Dec. iii. lib. vii. [189-1] Lizana, _Hist. de Nuestra Señora de Itzamal_, lib. ii. cap. i. in Brasseur, _Hist. du Mexique_, ii. p. 605. The prophecies are of the priest who bore the title--not name--_chilan balam_, and whose offices were those of divination and astrology. The verse claims to date from about 1450, and was very well known throughout Yucatan, so it is said. The number thirteen which in many of these prophecies is the supposed limit of the present order of things, is doubtless derived from the observation that thirteen moons complete one solar year. [190-1] Squier, _Travels in Nicaragua_, ii. p. 35. [191-1] Whipple, _Report on the Ind. Tribes_, p. 36. Emory, _Recon. of New Mexico_, p. 64. The latter adds that among the Pueblo Indians, the Apaches, and Navajos, the name of Montezuma is "as familiar as Washington to us." This is the more curious, as neither the Pueblo Indians nor either of the other tribes are in any way related to the Aztec race by language, as has been shown by Dr. Buschman, _Die Voelker und Sprachen Neu Mexico's_, p. 262. [191-2] Humboldt, _Essay on New Spain_, bk. ii. chap. vi, Eng. trans.; _Ansichten der Natur_, ii. pp. 357, 386. CHAPTER VII. THE MYTHS OF THE CREATION, THE DELUGE, THE EPOCHS OF NATURE, AND THE LAST DAY. Cosmogonies usually portray the action of the SPIRIT on the WATERS.--Those of the Muscogees, Athapascas, Quichés, Mixtecs, Iroquois, Algonkins, and others.--The Flood-Myth an unconscious attempt to reconcile a creation in time with the eternity of matter.--Proof of this from American mythology.--Characteristics of American Flood-Myths.--The person saved usually the first man.--The number seven.--Their Ararats.--The rôle of birds.--The confusion of tongues.--The Aztec, Quiché, Algonkin, Tupi, and earliest Sanscrit flood-myths.--The belief in Epochs of Nature a further result of this attempt at reconciliation.--Its forms among Peruvians, Mayas, and Aztecs.--The expectation of the End of the World a corollary of this belief.--Views of various nations. Could the reason rest content with the belief that the universe always was as it now is, it would save much beating of brains. Such is the comfortable condition of the Eskimos, the Rootdiggers of California, the most brutish specimens of humanity everywhere. Vain to inquire their story of creation, for, like the knife-grinder of anti-Jacobin renown, they have no story to tell. It never occurred to them that the earth had a beginning, or underwent any greater changes than those of the seasons.[193-1] But no sooner does the mind begin to reflect, the intellect to employ itself on higher themes than the needs of the body, than the law of causality exerts its power, and the man, out of such materials as he has at hand, manufactures for himself a Theory of Things.