[1]
[Footnote 1: The principal authority for the mythology of the Mayscas, or
Chibchas, is Padre Pedro Simon, _Noticias Historiales de las Conquistas de
Tierra Firme en el Nuevo Reyno de Granada_, Pt. iv, caps. ii, iii, iv,
printed in Kingsborough, _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. viii, and Piedrahita
as above quoted.]
Wherever the widespread Tupi-Guaranay race extended--from the mouth of the
Rio de la Plata and the boundless plains of the Pampas, north to the
northernmost islands of the West Indian Archipelago--the early explorers
found the natives piously attributing their knowledge of the arts of life
to a venerable and benevolent old man whom they called "Our Ancestor,"
_Tamu_, or _Tume_, or _Zume_.
The early Jesuit missionaries to the Guaranis and affiliated tribes of
Paraguay and southern Brazil, have much to say of this personage, and some
of them were convinced that he could have been no other than the Apostle
St. Thomas on his proselytizing journey around the world.
The legend was that Pay Zume, as he was called in Paraguay (_Pay_ =
magician, diviner, priest), came from the East, from the Sun-rising, in
years long gone by. He instructed the people in the arts of hunting and
agriculture, especially in the culture and preparation of the manioca
plant, their chief source of vegetable food.
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