CHAPTER IV THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN.
In the Scandinavian mythology the chief god was Odin, the
Woden, Wotan, or Wuotan of the Germans. He is represented with
many of the attributes of the Greek god Zeus, and is supposed by
some to be identical with him. He dwelt with the twelve
Æsir, or gods, upon Asgard, the Norse Olympus, which arose
out of Midgard, a land half-way between the regions of frost and
fire (to wit, in a temperate climate).
The Scandinavian Olympus was probably Atlantis. Odin is
represented as a grave-looking elderly man with a long beard,
carrying in his hand a spear, and accompanied by two dogs and two
ravens. He was the father of poetry, and the inventor of Runic
writing.
The Chiapenese of Central America (the people whose language
we have seen furnishing such remarkable resemblances to Hebrew)
claim to have been the first people of the New World. Clavigero
tells us ("Hist. Antiq. del Messico," Eng. trans., 1807, vol. i.)
that according to the traditions of the Chiapenese there was a
Votan who was the grandson of the man who built the ark to save
himself and family from the Deluge; he was one of those who
undertook to build the tower that should reach to heaven., The
Lord ordered him to people America.
"He came from the
East." He brought seven families with him. He had been
preceded in America by two others, Igh and Imox. He built a great
city in America called "Nachan," City of the Serpents (the
serpent that tempted Eve was Nahash), from his own race, which
was named Chan, a serpent. This Nachan is supposed to have been
Palenque. The date of his journey is placed in the legends in the
year 3000 of the world, and in the tenth century B.C. He also
founded three tributary monarchies, whose capitals were Tulan,
Mayapan, and Chiquimala.
He wrote a book containing a history of
his deeds, and proofs that he belonged to the tribe of Chanes
(serpents). He states that "he is the third of the Votans; that
he conducted seven families from Valum-Votan to this continent,
and assigned lands to them; that be determined to travel until he
came to the root of heaven and found his relations, the Culebres,
and made himself known to them; that he accordingly made four
voyages to Chivim; that he arrived in Spain; that he went to
Rome; that he saw the house of God building; that be went by the
road which his brethren, the Culebres, had bored; that he marked
it, and that he passed by the houses of the thirteen Culebres.
He
relates that, in returning from one of his voyages, he found
seven other families of the Tzequil nation who had joined the
first inhabitants, and recognized in them the same origin as his
own, that is, of the Culebres; he speaks of the place where they
built the first town, which from its founders received the name
of Tzequil; he affirms that, having taught them the refinement of
manners in the use of the table, table-cloths, dishes, basins,
cups, and napkins, they taught him the knowledge of God and his
worship; his first ideas of a king, and obedience to him; that he
was chosen captain of all these united families."
It is probable that Spain and Rome are interpolations. Cabrera
claims that the Votanites were Carthaginians. He thinks the
Chivim of Votan were the Hivim, or Givim, who were descended of
Heth, son of Canaan, Phœnicians; they were the builders of
Accaron, Azotus, Ascalon, and Gaza. The Scriptures refer to them
as Hivites (Givim) in Deuteronomy (chap. ii., verse 32), and
Joshua (chap. xiii., verse 4). He claims that Cadmus and his wife
Hermione were of this stock; and according to Ovid they were
metamorphosed into snakes (Culebres). The name Hivites in
Phœnician signifies a snake.
Votan may not, possibly, have passed into Europe; be may have
travelled altogether in Africa. His singular allusion to "a way
which the Culebres had bored" seems at first inexplicable; but
Dr. Livingstone's last letters, published 8th November, 1869, in
the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," mention that
"tribes live in underground houses in Rua. Some excavations are
said to be thirty miles long, and have running rills in them; a
whole district can stand a siege in them. The 'writings' therein,
I have been told by some of the people, are drawings of animals,
and not letters; otherwise I should have gone to see them. People
very dark, well made, and outer angle of eyes slanting
inward."
And Captain Grant, who accompanied Captain Speke in his famous
exploration of the sources of the Nile, tells of a tunnel or
subway under the river Kaoma, on the highway between Loowemba and
Marunga, near Lake Tanganyika. His guide Manua describes it to
him:
"I asked Manua if he had ever seen any country resembling it.
His reply was, 'This country reminds me of what I saw in the
country to the south of the Lake Tanganyika, when travelling with
an Arab's caravan from Unjanyembeh. There is a river there called
the Kaoma, running into the lake, the sides of which are similar
in precipitousness to the rocks before us.' I then asked, 'Do the
people cross this river in boats?' 'No; they have no boats; and
even if they had, the people could not land, as the sides are too
steep: they pass underneath the river by a natural tunnel, or
subway.' He and all his party went through it on their way from
Loowemba to Ooroongoo, and returned by it. He described its
length as having taken them from sunrise till noon to pass
through it, and so high that, if mounted upon camels, they could
not touch the top. Tall reeds, the thickness of a walking-stick,
grew inside, the road was strewed with white pebbles, and so
wide--four hundred yards--that they could see their way tolerably
well while passing through it. The rocks looked as if they had
been planed by artificial means. Water never came through from
the river overhead; it was procured by digging wells. Manua added
that the people of Wambweh take shelter in this tunnel, and live
there with their families and cattle, when molested by the
Watuta, a warlike race, descended from the Zooloo Kafirs.
But it is interesting to find in this book of Votan, however
little reliance we may place in its dates or details, evidence
that there was actual intercourse between the Old World and the
New in remote ages.
Humboldt remarks:
"We have fixed the special attention of our readers upon this
Votan, or Wodan, an American who appears of the same family with
the Wods or Odins of the Goths and of the people of Celtic
origin. Since, according to the learned researches of Sir William
Jones, Odin and Buddha are probably the same person, it is
curious to see the names of Bondvar, Wodansday, and
Votan designating in India, Scandinavia, and in Mexico the day of
a brief period." ("Vues des Cordilleras," p. 148, ed. 1810.)
There are many things to connect the mythology of the Gothic
nations with Atlantis; they had, as we have seen, flood legends;
their gods Krodo and Satar were the Chronos and Saturn of
Atlantis; their Baal was the Bel of the Phœnicians, who
were closely connected with Poseidon and Atlas; and, as we shall
see hereafter, their language has a distinct relationship with
the tongues of the Arabians, Cushites, Chaldeans, and
Phœnicians.
CHAPTER V THE
PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN
