no omens which the sages of Mexico could not now match. To what extent the Spanish chroniclers have assisted the natives in the manufacture of marvels I leave the reader to judge, simply recommending to his consideration the accompanying lengthy note; neither, however, fell into the madness of Canute, who chose the time the tide was rising, instead of when it was falling, to order the stay of waters.
It was not alone in Mexico, but in distant parts, and on the islands, that man and nature were thus annoyed by the supernatural. There were found predictions centuries old, by priests widely separated, and the poems of wise men, all pointing in the one direction. The destruction of towns was predicted by a philosopher; the famine of 1505 spoke more plainly than words; Popocatepetl, choked by consternation, failed to emit his smoke for twenty days, which, however, was a good omen; an eclipse and an earthquake near together and the drowning of eighteen hundred soldiers were decidedly unfavorable. Most terrible of all, however, were a three-headed comet in open day, a Pyramidal light at night, and other portentous scenes, such as the furious uprising of the lake, the awakening of the dead, and visits to the spirit world.[1]
- ↑ The natives of Española are said to have received an oracle shortly before Columbus' arrival, announcing the coming of bearded men, with sharp, bright swords. Villagvtierre, Hist. Conq. Itza., 33. The Yucatec records abound in predictions to the same effect, more or less clear. The most widely quoted is that of Chilam Balam, high-priest of Mani, and reputed a great prophet, who foretold that, ere many years, there would come from the direction of the rising sun a bearded white people, bearing aloft the cross which he displayed to his listeners. Their gods would flee before the new-comers, and leave them to rule the land; but no harm would fall on the peaceful who adımitted the only true God. The priest had a cotton mantle woven, to be deposited in the temple at Mani, as a specimen of the tribute required by the new rulers, and he it was who erected the stone crosses found by the Spaniards, declaring them to be the true tree of the world. Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 99-101, gives the prophecy at length, which is not quite so clear as the version which he afterward quotes from Herrera. The latter calls the priest Chilam Cambal, and says: 'Esta fue la causa que preguntauan a Francisco Hernandez de Cordoua, y a los suyos, si yuan de donde nacia el Sol.' Dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. i. Alaman enters into a profound argument on the above, and interprets Chilam Cambal to be the Chinese for Saint Thomas. In seeking to give a date he mistakes the meaning of a Yucatec age and places the prophecy back at the beginning of the Christian era. The opening lines of the prophecy read, 'at the end of the thirteenth age,' which should be interpreted 'at the end of
