Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/46

 38 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

TRIQUE THEOGONY. 1

AN ALLEGED SPECIMEN OF ANCIENT MEXICAN FOLK-LORE.

Among various objects of uncommon archaeological value which were brought this spring from Mexico to the Museum of Natural History by Mr. Marshall Saville, was also one of no small literary interest. I refer to a little brochure of not more than eight octavo pages, bearing the title "Teogonia Trique " (or Theogony of the Trique Tribe).

Up to this day, nothing was known to us about this tribe than the bare name ; that its people lived in the sierra of Oaxaca, in the reduced cluster of only six villages, and that they speak a language which but recently has been classified as being a dialect of the Mixteco-Zapotean tongue. This knowledge we owe to the investi- gations of Don Francisco Belmar, who has just published an essay on the Trique language. It was, therefore, no small surprise to learn that this hitherto practically unknown tribe should have cre- ated a theogony of their own.

When opening the pages we found them, to our regret, without any introductory preface, and therefore nothing that would warrant the authenticity of the text presented, except a short inscription on the fly-page, made by the author to a patron of his, which runs as follows : " To Manuel Martinez Gracida, the distinguished and stu- dious statistician of Oaxaca, this first essay on ancient folk-lore is inscribed by his affectionate Cayetano Esteva."

Of the text I made a translation ; but for lack of time I shall only give an abstract, which I suppose will furnish, for the present, sufficient material to form a general idea about the said Trique the- ogony.

In the beginning, it is said, the earth was but a mass of mud and slime, floating in the air.

Nexhequiriac, when casting from above a glance at it, exclaimed : " Life must be begotten on this circling body ! I must have sons to help me in this glorious performance."

Nexhequiriac, therefore, proceeds to the creation of nine sons. These nine sons were (1) Naac Shishec, the earth-god ; (2) Naac Naac, the sun-god ; (3) Naac Yahui, the moon-god ; (4) Naac Cuhuf, the god of light ; (5) Naac Cunma, the god of water ; (6) Naac Nanec, the air-god ; (7) Naac Yuhuec, the frost-god ; (8) Naac-Nima, the god of death ; (9) Naac Chunguy, the god of hell.

Nexhequiriac then convokes his sons and says : " Your brother,

1 Paper read before the Tenth Annual Meeting of the American Folk-Lore Society, at Columbia University, New York, December 29, 1898.

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