CHAPTER VIII THE TROPICAL FORESTS: THE ORINOCO AND GUIANA
CHAPTER IX THE TROPICAL FORESTS: THE AMAZON AND BRAZIL
II. FOOD-MAKERS AND DANCE-MASKS
IV. IMPS, WERE-BEASTS, AND CANNIBALS
VI. FIRE, FLOOD, AND TRANSFORMATIONS
CHAPTER X THE PAMPAS TO THE LAND OF FIRE
PLATE I.
Top face of the monolith known as the "Dragon" or the "Great Turtle" of Quirigua. This is one of the group of stelae and "altars" which mark the ceremonial courts of this vanished Maya city (see Plate XXIII); and is perhaps the master-work not only of Mayan, but of aboriginal American art. The top of the stone here figured shows a highly conventionalized daemon or dragon mask, surrounded by a complication of ornament. The north and south (here lower and upper) faces of the monument contain representations of divinities; on the south face is a mask of the "god with the ornamented nose" (possibly Ahpuch, the death god), and on the north, seated within the open mouth of the Dragon, the teeth of whose upper jaw appear on the top face of the monument, is carved a serene, Buddha-like divinity shown in Plate XXV. The Maya date corresponding, probably, to 525 a. d. appears in a glyphic inscription on the shoulder of the Dragon. The monument is fully described by W. H. Holmes, Art and Archaeology, Vol. IV, No. 6.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
In aim and plan the present volume is made to accord as nearly as may be with the earlier-written volume on the mythology of the North American Indians. Owing to divergence of the materials, some deviations of method have been necessary, but in their main lines the two books correspond in form as they are continuous in matter. In each case the author has aimed primarily at a descriptive treatment, following regional divisions, and directed to essential conceptions rather than to exhaustive classification; and in each case it has been, not the specialist in the field, but the scholar with kindred interests and the reader of broadly humane tastes whom the author has had before him.
The difficulties besetting the composition of both books have been analogous, growing chiefly from the vast diversities of the sources of material; but these difficulties are decidedly greater for the Latin-American field. The matter of spelling is one of the more immediate. In general, the author has endeavoured to adhere to such of the rules given in Note 1 of Mythology of All Races, Vol. X (pp. 267-68), as may be applicable, seeking the simplest plausible English forms and continuing literary usage wherever it is well established, both for native and for Spanish names (as Montezuma, Cortez). Consistency is pragmatically impossible in such a matter; but it is hoped that the foundational need, that of identification, is not evaded.
The problem of an appropriate bibliography has proven to be of the hardest. To the best of the author's belief, there exists, aside from that here given, no bibliography aiming at a systematic classification of the sources and discussions of the mythology of the Latin-American Indians, as a whole. There are, indeed, a considerable number of special bibliographies, regional in character, for which every student must be grateful; and it is hoped that not many of the more important of these have failed of inclusion in the bibliographical division devoted to "Guides"; but for the whole field, the appended bibliography is pioneer work, and subject to the weaknesses of all such attempts. The principles of inclusion are: (1) All works upon which the text of the volume directly rests. These will be found cited in the Notes, where are also a few references to works cited for points of an adventitious character, and therefore not included in the general bibliography. (2) A more liberal inclusion of English and Spanish than of works in other languages, the one for accessibility, the other for source importance. (3) An effort to select only such works as have material directly pertinent to the mythology, not such as deal with the general culture, of the peoples under consideration,—a line most difficult to draw. In respect to bibliography, it should be further stated that it is the intent to enter the names of Spanish authors in the forms approved by the rules of the Real Academia, while it has not seemed important to follow other than the English custom in either text or notes. It is certainly the author's hope that the labour devoted to the assembling of the bibliography will prove helpful to students generally, and it is his belief that
