" _Historia
Eclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. x.]
Such presentiments were found scattered through America. They have excited
the suspicion of historians and puzzled antiquaries to explain. But their
interpretation is simple enough. The primitive myth of the sun which had
sunk but should rise again, had in the lapse of time lost its peculiarly
religious sense, and had been in part taken to refer to past historical
events. The Light-God had become merged in the divine culture hero. He it
was who was believed to have gone away, not to die, for he was immortal,
but to dwell in the distant east, whence in the fullness of time he would
return.
This was why Montezuma and his subjects received the whites as expected
guests, and quoted to them prophecies of their coming. The Mayas of
Yucatan, the Muyscas of Bogota, the Qquichuas of Peru, all did the same,
and all on the same grounds--the confident hope of the return of the
Light-God from the under world.
This hope is an integral part of this great Myth of Light, in whatever
part of the world we find it. Osiris, though murdered, and his body cast
into "the unclean sea," will come again from the eastern shores. Balder,
slain by the wiles of Loki, is not dead forever, but at the appointed time
will appear again in nobler majesty. So in her divine fury sings the
prophetess of the Voeluspa:--
"Shall arise a second time,
Earth from ocean, green and fair,
The waters ebb, the eagles fly,
Snatch the fish from out the flood.
Pages:
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164