ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN POETRY. 19 



American intellectual development. There is, however, no clearly marked line of partition 

 between the culture of the central region and that which lay to the north and to the south 

 of it.' The names of the prevailing forms of cultivated speech, the Maya-Quiche and the 

 Nahua, seem to point respectively to Peru and to Mexico. Passing through the many 

 scattered tribes of the Isthmus and Costa Rica, we reach, near Lake Nicaragua, the first 

 sign of Central American culture among men of Nahuatl speech. Father Vasquez derives 

 Nicaragua itself from the words nican and anahuacos, as though it were the abode of men 

 of Mexican descent. The Nicaraguans showed their relationship to the Aztecs by identity 

 of language, mythology, religious rites, calendai's, manners and customs. The Mangues, 

 of Nicaragua, whose name is preserved in Lake Managua, were there when the Nahuas 

 arrived. They are related to the Chapanecs or people of Chiapas, one of the actual States 

 of Mexico, but are not akin either to the Nahuas or the Mayas. To-day hardly any unmixed 

 descendants of either race remain in Nicaragua. Beuzoni records that in the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, four languages were spoken in Nicaragua, of which the Mexican or 

 Nahuatl was the most extended and the easiest to learn. At an early date, however, a 

 mixed dialect came into use, " composed of a brokeu-dowu Nahuatl and a corrupt Spanish." 

 The comedy-ballet of Giiegiience, which forms the third volume of Dr. Brinton's " Library 

 of Aboriginal Literature," is an illustration, not only of that mongrel dialect — the greater 

 part of which, however, is easily intelligible Spanish — but also of the dances, songs, 

 music, traditions, social manners and humour of the Central American half-breeds. Con- 

 fining his attention to Nicaragua, Dr. Briuton says in his introduction, that the bailes (as 

 these song-dances are called) are divided into five classes — simple dances, dances with 

 songs, dances with prose recitations, logas or scenic recitations with music by a single 

 actor, and complete dramas with music, ballets, dialogues and costumes. The log'a or loa 

 is peculiar to the Mangues. It is a rhymed monologue, recited with music and in costume 

 and, though generally of a religious character, it is, like the medieval mystery plays, 

 more like a burlesque than a serious composition. It is impossible to avoid the conclusion 

 that some of the usages associated with part, if not all, of these classes of dances, are 

 more Spanish than aboriginal. Some of them may, however, be as much Indian as 

 Spanish, as for instance, the vow to dance masked before the image of a saint.^ It is 

 quite possible that some religious customs of the Spaniards themselves may be survivals 

 from heathendom, at least, as much as they are Catholic or Christian. The point of 

 interest in connection with the subject of the paper is that, whether Nahua or Mangue 

 in their origin, these dances can be traced back to pre-European times. In vain the 

 invaders laid the foundations of their cities with the broken images of the Indian deities. 

 The spirit of the old religion refused to die, and it is still clearly discernible all over 

 Spanish and Portuguese America. The instruments used in the bailes and other entertain- 



' AVriting of the wild tribes of Central America, with special reference to the Indians of Guatemala, Mr. Hubert 

 Howe Bancroft says : " Original lyric jioetry seems to flourish among them, and is not wanting in grace, althousrh 

 the rendering of it may not be exactly operatic. The subject generally refers to victorious encounters with mon- 

 sters, but contains also sarcasms on government and society." Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 701. Again 

 he writes : " The song language of the Mosquitos diflers greatly from that employed in conversation, a quaint 

 old-time style being apparently preserved in their lyrics. IIAd., p. 727. 



^ In an article, " From the Atlantic to the Andes", in Scribner's Monthly for December, 1S77, p. 190, there is 

 an account of a singular combination of heathen with Christian usage in the celebration of the festival of the 

 Exaltation of the Cross. 



