Books: Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel

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I come now to a most extraordinary record:

In the prayer of the Aztecs to the great god Tezcatlipoca, "the
supreme, invisible god," a prayer offered up in time of pestilence,
we have the most remarkable references to the destruction of the
people by stones and fire. It would almost seem as if this great
prayer, noble and sublime in its language, was first poured out in
the very midst of the Age of Fire, wrung from the human heart by the
most appalling calamity that ever overtook the race; and that it was
transmitted from age to age, as the hymns of the Vedas and the
prayers of the Hebrews have been preserved, for thousands of years,
down to our own times, when it was carefully transcribed by a
missionary priest. It is as follows:

"O mighty Lord, under whose wing we find defense and shelter, thou
art invisible and impalpable, even as night and the air. How can I,
that am so mean and worthless, dare to appear before thy majesty?
Stuttering

[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 232.]

{p. 187}

and with rude lips I speak, ungainly is the manner of my speech as
one leaping among furrows, as one advancing unevenly; for all this I
fear to raise thine anger, and to provoke instead of appeasing thee;
nevertheless, thou wilt do unto me as may please thee. O Lord, _thou
hast held it good to forsake us in these days_, according to the
counsel that thou hast as well in heaven as in hades,--alas for us,
in that thine _anger and indignation has descended upon us in these
days_; alas in that the many and grievous afflictions of thy wrath
have overgone, and swallowed us up, _coming down even as stones,
spears, and arrows upon the wretches that inhabit the earth!_--this
is the sore pestilence with which we are afflicted and _almost
destroyed_. O valiant and all-powerful Lord, the common people are
almost _made an end of and destroyed;_ a great destruction the ruin
and pestilence already make in this nation; and, what is most pitiful
of all, the little children, that are innocent and understand
nothing, only to play with _pebbles and to heap up little mounds of
earth, they too die, broken and dashed to pieces as against stones
and a wall_--a thing very pitiful and grievous to be seen, for there
remain of them not even those in the cradles, nor those that could
not walk or speak. Ah, Lord, how _all things become confounded!_ of
young and old and of men and women there _remains neither branch nor
root;_ thy nation, and thy people, and thy wealth, _are leveled down
and destroyed_.

"O our Lord, protector of all, most valiant and most kind, _what is
this?_

"Thine anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in
_hurling the stone, and arrow, and spear? The FIRE of the pestilence,
made exceeding hot, is upon thy nation_, as a fire in a hut, _burning
and smoking, leaving nothing upright or sound_. The grinders of thy
teeth," (the falling stones), "are employed, and thy bitter whips
upon the miserable of thy people, who have become lean, and of little
substance, even as a hollow green cane.

Yea, _what doest thou now_, O Lord, most strong, compassionate,
invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose
disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all are
subject,--what in thy divine breast

{p. 188}

hast thou decreed? Peradventure, hast thou altogether forsaken thy
nation and thy people? Hast thou verily determined that it _utterly
perish_, and that there be no more memory of it in the world, _that
the peopled place become a wooded hill, and_ A WILDERNESS OF STONES?
Peradventure, wilt thou permit that the temples, and the places of
prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, _be razed_ and
destroyed, and no memory of them left?

"Is it, indeed, possible that thy wrath and punishment and vexed
indignation are altogether implacable, and will go on to the end to
our destruction? Is it already fixed in thy divine counsel that there
is to be no mercy nor pity for us, _until the arrows of thy fury are
spent to our utter perdition and destruction?_ Is it possible that
this lash and chastisement is not given for our correction and
amendment, but only for _our total destruction and obliteration;_
that THE SUN SHALL NEVER MORE SHINE UPON US, _but that we must remain
in_ PERPETUAL DARKNESS and silence; that never more wilt thou look
upon us with eyes of mercy, neither little nor much?

"Wilt thou after this fashion destroy the wretched sick that can not
find rest, nor turn from side to side, whose mouth and teeth _are
filled with earth and scurf?_ It is a sore thing to tell how we are
all in darkness, having none understanding nor sense to watch for or
aid one another. We are all as drunken, and without understanding:
without hope of any aid, _already the little children perish of
hunger_, for there is none to give them food, nor drink, nor
consolation, nor caress; none to give the breast to them that suck,
_for their fathers and mothers have died and left them orphans_,
suffering for the sins of their fathers."

What a graphic picture is all this of the remnant of a civilized
religious race hiding in some deep cavern, in darkness, their friends
slaughtered by the million by the falling stones, coming like arrows
and spears, and the pestilence of poisonous gases; their
food-supplies scanty; they themselves horrified, awe-struck,
despairing, fearing that they would never again see the light; that
this dreadful day was the end of the human race

{p. 189}

and of the world itself! And one of them, perhaps a priest, certainly
a great man, wrought up to eloquence, through the darkness and the
terror, puts up this pitiful and pathetic cry to the supreme God for
mercy, for protection, for deliverance from the awful visitation.

How wonderful to think that the priesthood of the Aztecs have through
ages preserved to us, down to this day, this cavern-hymn--one of the
most ancient of the utterances of the heart of man extant on the
earth--and have preserved it long after the real meaning of its words
was lost to them!

The prayer continues

"O our Lord, all-powerful, full of mercy, our refuge, though indeed
thine anger and indignation, thine arrows and stones, have sorely
hurt this poor people, let it be as a father or a mother that rebukes
children, pulling their ears, pinching their arms, whipping them with
nettles, pouring chill water upon them, all being done that they may
amend their puerility and childishness. Thy chastisement and
indignation have lorded and prevailed over these thy servants, over
this poor people, even as rain falling upon the trees and the green
canes, being touched of the wind, drops also upon those that are
below.

"O most compassionate Lord, thou knowest that the common folk are as
children, that being whipped they cry and sob and repent of what they
have done. Peradventure, already these poor people by reason of their
chastisement weep, sigh, blame, and murmur against themselves; in thy
presence they blame and bear witness against their bad deeds, and
punish themselves therefor. Our Lord, most compassionate, pitiful,
noble, and precious, let a time be given the people to repent; let
the past chastisement suffice; let it end here, to begin again if the
reform endure not. Pardon and overlook the sins of the people; cause
thine anger and thy resentment to cease; repress it again within thy
breast _that it destroy no further_; let it rest there; let it cease,
for of a surety _none can avoid death nor escape to anyplace_."

{p. 190}

"We owe tribute to death; and all that live in the world are vassals
thereof; this tribute shall every man pay with his life. None shall
avoid from following death, for it is thy messenger what hour soever
it may be sent, hungering and thirsting always to devour all that are
in the world and so powerful that none shall escape; then, indeed,
shall every man be judged according to his deeds. O most pitiful
Lord, at least take pity and have mercy upon the children that are in
the cradles, upon those that can not walk Have mercy also, O Lord,
upon the poor and very miserable, who have nothing to eat, nor to
cover themselves withal, nor a place to sleep, who do not know what
thing a happy day is, whose days pass altogether in pain, affliction,
and sadness. Than this, were it not better, O Lord, if thou shouldst
forget to have mercy upon the soldiers and upon the men of war whom
thou wilt have need of some time? Behold, it is better to die in war
and go to serve food and drink in the house of the Sun, than to die
in this pestilence and descend to hades. O most strong Lord,
protector of all, lord of the earth, governor of the world and
universal master, let the sport and satisfaction thou hast already
taken in this past punishment suffice; _make an end of this smoke and
fog_ of thy resentment; _quench also the burning and destroying fire
of thine anger;_ let _serenity come and clearness;_ let the small
birds of thy people begin to sing and" (to) "_approach the sun; give
them_ QUIET WEATHER; so that they may cause their voices to reach thy
highness, and thou mayest know them."[1]

Now it may be doubted by some whether this most extraordinary
supplication could have come down from the Glacial Age; but it must
be remembered that it may have been many times repeated in the deep
cavern before the terror fled from the souls of the desolate fragment
of the race; and, once established as a religious prayer, associated
with such dreadful events, who would dare to change a word of it?

[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 200.]

{p. 191}

Who would dare, among ourselves, to alter a syllable of the "Lord's
Prayer"? Even though Christianity should endure for ten thousand
years upon the face of the earth; even though the art of writing were
lost, and civilization itself had perished, it would pass unchanged
from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, crystallized
into imperishable diamonds of thought, by the conservative power of
the religious instinct.

There can be no doubt of the authenticity of this and the other
ancient prayers to Tezcatlipoca, which I shall quote hereafter. I
repeat what H. H. Bancroft says, in a foot-note, in his great work:

"Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was _one of the
first preachers sent to Mexico_, where he was much employed in the
instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the
province of Tezcuco. While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known
to us as the 'Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España,' from
which the above prayers have been taken. It would be hard to imagine
a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of
working than his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in
which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a
number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of
which he proposed to write. These learned Mexicans being collected,
Father Sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their
native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology,
and so on, that he wanted; at the foot of the said. pictures these
learned Mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the
Mexican tongue; and this explanation the Father Sahagun translated
into Spanish. That translation purports to be what we now read as the
'Historia General.'"[1]

[1. "The Native Races of the Pacific States," vol. iii, p. 231.]

{p. 192}

Sahagun was a good and holy man, who was doubtless inspired of God,
in the face of much opposition and many doubts, to perpetuate, for
the benefit of the race, these wonderful testimonials of man's
existence, condition, opinions, and feelings in the last great
cataclysm which shook the whole world and nearly destroyed it.

Religions may perish; the name of the Deity may change with race and
time and tongue; but He can never despise such noble, exalted,
eloquent appeals from the hearts of millions of men, repeated through
thousands of generations, as these Aztec prayers have been. Whether
addressed to Tezcatlipoca, Zeus, Jove, Jehovah, or God, they pass
alike direct from the heart of the creature to the heart of the
Creator; they are of the threads that tie together matter and spirit.

In conclusion, let me recapitulate

1. The original surface-rocks, underneath the Drift, are, we have
seen, decomposed and changed, for varying depths of from one to one
hundred feet, by fire; they are metamorphosed, and their metallic
constituents vaporized out of them by heat.

2. Only tremendous heat could have lifted the water of the seas into
clouds, and formed the age of snow and floods evidenced by the
secondary Drift.

3. The traditions of the following races tell us that the earth was
once swept by a great conflagration:

_a_. The ancient Britons, as narrated in the mythology of the Druids.

_b_. The ancient Greeks, as told by Hesiod.

_c_. The ancient Scandinavians, as appears in the _Elder Edda_ and
_Younger Edda_.

_d_. The ancient Romans, as narrated by Ovid.

_e_. The ancient Toltecs of Central America, as told in their sacred
books.

{p. 193}

_f_. The ancient Aztecs of Mexico, as transcribed by Fray de Olmos.

_g_. The ancient Persians, as recorded in the Zend-Avesta.

_h_. The ancient Hindoos, as told in their sacred books.

_i_. The Tahoe Indians of California, as appears by their living
traditions.

Also by the legends of--

_j_. The Tupi Indians of Brazil.

_k_. The Tacullies of British America.

_1_. The Ute Indians of California and Utah.

_m_. The Peruvians.

_n_. The Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras.

_o_. The Mbocobi of Paraguay.

_p_. The Botocudos of Brazil.

_q_. The Ojibway Indians of the United States.

_r_. The Wyandot Indians of the United States.

_s_. Lastly, the Dog-rib Indians of British Columbia.

We must concede that these legends of a world-embracing conflagration
represent a race-remembrance of a great fact, or that they are a
colossal falsehood--an invention of man.

If the latter, then that invention and falsehood must have been
concocted at a time when the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans,
Hindoos, Persians, Goths, Toltecs, Aztecs, Peruvians, and the Indians
of Brazil, the United States, the west coast of South America, and
the northwestern extremity of North America, and the Polynesians,
(who have kindred traditions,) all dwelt together, as one people,
alike in language and alike in color of their hair, eyes, and skin.
At that time, therefore, all the widely separated regions, now
inhabited by these races, must have been without human inhabitants;
the race must have been a mere handful, and dwelling in one spot.

{p. 194}

What vast lapses of time must have been required before mankind
slowly overflowed to these remote regions of the earth, and changed
into these various races speaking such diverse tongues!

And if we take the ground that this universal tradition of a
world-conflagration was an invention, a falsehood, then we must
conclude that this handful of men, before they dispersed, in the very
infancy of the world, shared in the propagation of a prodigious lie,
and religiously perpetuated it for tens of thousands of years.

And then the question arises, How did they hit upon a lie that
accords so completely with the revelations of science? They possessed
no great public works, in that infant age, which would penetrate
through hundreds of feet of _débris_, and lay bare the decomposed
rocks beneath; therefore they did not make a theory to suit an
observed fact.

And how did mankind come to be reduced to a handful? If men grew, in
the first instance, out of bestial forms, mindless and speechless,
they would have propagated and covered the world as did the bear and
the wolf. But after they had passed this stage, and had so far
developed as to be human in speech and brain, some cause reduced them
again to a handful. What was it? Something, say these legends, some
fiery object, some blazing beast or serpent, which appeared in the
heavens, which filled the world with conflagrations, and which
destroyed the human race, except a remnant, who saved themselves in
caverns or in the water; and from this seed, this handful, mankind
again replenished the earth, and spread gradually to all the
continents and the islands of the sea.

{p. 195}

CHAPTER VII.

LEGENDS OF THE CAVE-LIFE.

I HAVE shown that man could only have escaped the fire, the poisonous
gases, and the falling stones and clay-dust, by taking refuge in the
water or in the deep caves of the earth.

And hence everywhere in the ancient legends we find the races
claiming that they came up out of the earth. Man was earth-born. The
Toltecs and Aztecs traced back their origin to "the seven caves." We
have seen the ancestors of the Peruvians emerging from the primeval
cave, _Pacarin-Tampu_; and the Aztec Nanahuatzin taking refuge in a
cave; and the ancestors of the Yurucares, the Takahlis, and the
Mbocobi of America, all biding themselves from the conflagration in a
cave; and we have seen the tyrannical and cruel race of the Tahoe
legend buried in a cave. And, passing to a far-distant region, we
find the Bungogees and Pankhoos, Hill tribes, of the most ancient
races of Chittagong, in British India, relating that "their ancestors
came out of a cave in the earth, under the guidance of a chief named
Tlandrokpah."[1]

We read in the Toltec legends that a dreadful hurricane visited the
earth in the early age, and carried away trees, mounds, horses, etc.,
and the people escaped by _seeking safety in caves_ and places where
the great hurricane

[1. Captain Lewin, "The Hill Tribes of Chittagong" p. 95, 1869.]

{p. 196}

could not reach them. After a few days they came forth "to see what
had become of the earth, when they found it all populated with
monkeys. All this time they were in darkness, without the light of
the sun Or the moon, which the wind had brought them."[1]

A North American tribe, a branch of the Tinneh of British America,
have a legend that "the earth existed first in a chaotic state, with
only one human inhabitant, a woman, _who dwelt in a cave_ and lived
on berries." She met one day a mysterious animal, like a dog, who
transformed himself into a handsome young man, and they became the
parents of a giant race."[2]

There seems to be an allusion to the cave-life in Ovid, where,
detailing the events that followed soon after the creation, he says:

"Then for the first time did the parched air _glow with sultry heat_,
and the _ice_, bound up by the winds, was pendent. Then for the first
time did men enter houses; those houses were _caverns_, and thick
shrubs, and twigs fastened together with bark."[3]

But it is in the legends of the Navajo Indians of North America that
we find the most complete account of the cave-life.

It is as follows:

"The Navajos, living north of the Pueblos, say that at one time all
the nations, Navajos, Pueblos, Coyoteros, and white people, lived
together tinder ground, in the heart of a mountain, near the river
San Juan. _Their food was meat, which they had in abundance, for all
kinds of game were closed up with them in their cave;_ but their
light was dim, and only endured for a few hours each day. There were,
happily, two dumb men among the Navajos, flute-players,

[1. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 239.

2. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 105.

3. "The Metamorphoses," Fable IV.]

{p. 197}

who enlivened the darkness with music. One of these, striking by
chance on the roof of the limbo with his flute, brought out a hollow
sound, upon which the elders of the tribe determined to bore in the
direction whence the sound came. The flute was then set up against
the roof, and the Raccoon sent up the tube _to dig a way out_, but he
could not. Then the Moth-worm mounted into the breach, and bored and
bored till he found himself suddenly on the outside of the mountain,
and _surrounded by water_."

We shall see hereafter that, in the early ages, mankind, all over the
world, was divided into totemic septs or families, bearing animal
names. It was out of this fact that the fables of animals possessing
human speech arose. When we are told that the Fox talked to the Crow
or the Wolf, it simply means that a man of the Fox totem talked to a
man of the Crow or Wolf totem. And, consequently, when we read, in
the foregoing legend, that the Raccoon went up to dig a way out of
the cave and could not, it signifies that a man of the Raccoon totem
made the attempt and failed, while a man of the Moth-worm totem
succeeded. We shall see hereafter that these totemic distinctions
probably represented original race or ethnic differences.

The Navajo legend continues:

"Under these novel circumstances, he, (the Moth-worm,) heaped up a
little mound, and set himself down on it to observe and ponder the
situation. A critical situation enough!--for from the four corners of
the universe four great white Swans bore down upon him, every one
with two arrows, one under each wing. The Swan from the north reached
him first, and, having pierced him with two arrows, drew them out and
examined their points, exclaiming, as the result, 'He is of my race.'
So, also, in succession, did all the others. Then they went away; and
toward the directions in which they departed, to the north, south,
east, and west, were found four great _arroyos_,

{p. 198}

by which _all the water flowed off, leaving only_ MUD. The Worm now
returned to the cave, and the Raccoon went up into the mud, _sinking
in it mid-leg deep_, as the marks on his fur show to this day. And
the wind began to rise, sweeping up the four great _arroyos_, and
_the mud was dried away_.

"_Then the men and the animals began to come up from their cave_, and
their coming up required several days. First came the Navajos, and no
sooner had they reached the surface than they commenced gaming at
_patole_, their favorite game. Then came the Pueblos and other
Indians, who _crop their hair and build houses_. Lastly came _the
white people_, who started off at once _for the rising sun_, and were
lost sight of for many winters.

"When these nations lived under ground they all _spake one tongue_;
but, with the light of day and the level of earth, came many
languages. The earth was at this time very small, and _the light was
quite as scanty as it had been down below, for there was as yet no
heaven, no sun, nor moon, nor stars_. So another council of the
ancients was held, and a committee of their number appointed to
manufacture these luminaries."[1]

Here we have the same story:

In an ancient age, before the races of men had differentiated, a
remnant of mankind was driven, by some great event, into a cave; all
kinds of animals had sought shelter in. the same place;
something--the Drift--had closed up the mouth of the cavern; the men
subsisted on the animals. At last they dug their way out, to find the
world covered with mud and water. Great winds cut the mud into deep
valleys, by which the waters ran off. The mud was everywhere;
gradually it dried up. But outside the cave it was nearly as dark as
it was within it; the clouds covered the world; neither sun, moon,
nor stars could be seen; the earth was very small, that is, but
little of it was above the waste of waters.

[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 81.]

{p. 199}

And here we have the people longing for the return of the sun. The
legend proceeds to give an account of the making of the sun and moon.
The dumb fluter, who had charge of the construction of the sun,
through his clumsiness, _came near setting fire to the world_.

"_The old men_, however, either more lenient than Zeus, or lacking
his thunder, contented themselves with forcing the offender back by
puffing the smoke of their pipes into his face."

Here we have the event, which properly should have preceded the
cave-story, brought in subsequent to it. The sun nearly burns up the
earth, and the earth is saved amid the smoke of incense from the
pipes of the old men--the gods. And we are told that the increasing
size of the earth has four times rendered it necessary that the sun
should be put farther back from the earth. The clearer the
atmosphere, the farther away the sun has appeared.

"At night, also, the other dumb man issues from this cave, bearing
the moon under his arm, and lighting up such part of the world as he
can. Next, the old men set to work to make the heavens, intending to
_broider in the stars in beautiful patterns of bears, birds, and such
things_."

That is to say, a civilized race 'began to divide up the heavens into
constellations, to which they gave the names of the Great and Little
Bear, the Wolf, the Serpent, the Dragon, the Eagle, the Swan, the
Crane, the Peacock, the Toucan, the Crow, etc.; some of which names
they retain among ourselves to this day.

"But, just as they had made a beginning, a prairie-wolf rushed in,
and, crying out, 'Why all this trouble and embroidery?' scattered the
pile of stars over all the floor of heaven, just as they still lie."

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