1881.] bJiO ' [Brinton. 



long green ones especiallj^ called gug (properly „np) were paid as 

 tribute by the inferior chiefs (Varea, Vocabulario, s. y.). 

 ■ A less likely derivation is from cJiu'a, strong or strength, and cumatz, 



the Strong Sei'pent. Probably " decorated with feathers" is the correct 

 interpretation. Gucumatz is said by Mr. H. H. Bancroft to be "the ac- 

 knowledged representative of Quetzalcoatl, " "'^ a hasty statement, as the 

 name is hardly more than a common adjective equivalent to royal or mag- 

 nificent. 



The names Qux clio, Qux palo, mean "the Heart of the Lake, the Heart 

 of the Sea." To them may be added Qux call, "tlie Heart of the Sky," 

 and Q'.xuleu, "the Heart of the Earth," found elsewhere in the Popol 

 Vuh (pp. 8, 12), and applied to divinity. The literal or physical sense of 

 the word heart was, however, not that Avhich was intended ; in those dia- 

 lects this word has a much richer metaphorical meaning than in our 

 tongue ; with them it stood for all the psychical powers, the memory, will 

 and reasoning faculties, the life, the spirit, the soul. This is fully set forth 

 by Goto : 



" Corazon, gux. * * Atribuenle todos los atfectos de las potencias, 

 "memoria y entendimiento y voluntad, * * unde ahgux, el cuida- 

 "doso, entendido, memorioso * *; toman este nombre gux por el 

 " alma de la persona, y por el spirito vital de todo viviente, v. g. xel ru 

 "gux Pedro, mur;6 Pedro, vel, salio el alma de Pedro. * * deste 

 "nombre gux se forma el verbo tin gux lah, por pensar, cuidar, 

 " imaginar." 



It would be more correct therefore, to render these names the " Spirit " 

 or "Soul " of the lake, etc., than the "Heart." Thej' represent broadly 

 the doctrine of "animism " as held by these people, and generally by man 

 in his early stages of religious development. They indicate also a dimlj^ 

 understood sense of the unity of spirit or energy in the different mani- 

 festations of organic and inorganic existence. 



This Avas not peculiar to the tribes under consideration. The heart was 

 very generally looked upon, not only as the seat of life, but as the source 

 of the feelings, intellect and passions, the very soul itself.f Hence, in 

 sacrificing victims it was torn out and offered to the god as representing 

 the immaterial part of the individual, that which survived the death of 

 the body. 



The last two names in the paragraph quoted Vi.vc Ah-raxa-lah, AJi-raxa- 



sel. To these Brasseur gives the high sounding renderings, "Master of 



the verdant Planisphere," "Master of the azure Surfoce." The literal 



■ translation is in laughable contrast to these turgid epithets : strictly speak- 



* Native Races of the Pacific Const, Vol. Ill, p. 477, note. 



t"De aclonde" remarks (iranados y Galvez, " viene que mis Otomites, de una 

 mlsmamanera llam.tn A, la alma que al corazon, aplicandoles k cntrambos la 

 voz //Ht.jy." Tardes ^Hier/canas, 'I'arde iv, p. 101. (JMexico, 1778.) 



