Read Ebook: Archaic England An Essay in Deciphering Prehistory from Megalithic Monuments Earthworks Customs Coins Place-names and Faerie Superstitions by Bayley Harold

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Commentator: Friedrich Gerst??cker

Wenn junge Autoren ihr Erstlingsb?chlein in die Welt schicken, so pflegen sie es gew?hnlich irgend einer hohen oder ber?hmten Pers?nlichkeit zu widmen, um ihr geringes Opus zu Ehren zu bringen; wenn dagegen bereits bekannte Autoren schreiben, so ehren sie einen ihrer Freunde mit der Dedication.

Da nun aber gegenw?rtiges B?chlein weder so bedeutend ist, um Jemand durch seine Dedication zu ehren, noch ich so anmassend sein will, irgend eine hohe oder ber?hmte Pers?nlichkeit damit zu bel?stigen, sondern die darin enthaltenen Reisemittheilungen nichts Anderes als Lebens- und Liebeszeichen f?r Euch in der Heimath sein sollen, so eigne ich dieselben Dir zu.

Oft in einsamer Gebirgs?de, beim tr?ben Lagerfeuer, wenn das Geheul der Cayotas und Jaguars meine Nachtmusik bildete, flogen meine Gedanken der lieben Heimath zu, und ich dachte Deiner, wie Du mit liebender Sorge dem alternden Vater, der gramgebeugten Mutter zur Seite standest und den Platz ausf?lltest, den der ferne Sohn und Bruder leergelassen. Und so wird es auch wieder sein, und auf n?chtlicher Deckwache in fernen unbekannten Meeren werden wieder meine Gedanken in der Heimath weilen und meine heissen Segensw?nsche sie begleiten.

Nimm darum dies B?chlein als eine Liebesgabe von mir an; bitte Gott, dass er einst uns Allen ein fr?hliches Wiedersehen verleihen m?ge und gedenke stets in Liebe

Deines treuen Bruders Wilhelm.

Geschrieben an Bord der Dampffregatte Mississippi, in der Chasepeakbay, den 20. Nov. 1852, am Tage vor der Abfahrt der amerikanischen Expedition nach Japan.

Vorwort.

Der Leser soll hier zum ersten Mal mit einem jungen K?nstler bekannt werden, den nicht nur sein frischer fr?hlicher Muth und jene geheimnissvolle, aber doch auch so gewaltige Lust nach einem regen Leben, sondern auch der ernste Zweck, seinen Studien obzuliegen und seine Kenntnisse zu erweitern, in die Welt hineingetrieben, und der selbst in diesem Augenblicke bei unseren Antipoden herumschwimmt, oder mit der B?chse auf der Schulter und der Palette in der Mappe die K?sten des indischen Archipels durchforscht und die Sch?tze pl?ndert, die Mutter Natur da draussen ja mit vollen H?nden ausgestreut ?ber das wundervolle Land.

Wilhelm Heine, zuerst zum Architekten bestimmt, fand mehr Freude an der freien Malerkunst. Sein Talent hierzu offenbarte sich bald. Von dem K?nig von Sachsen in seinem Plane unterst?tzt, wandte er sich zuerst nach Paris, dort Decorationsmalerei zu studiren und sp?ter seine Kenntnisse der Dresdener Hofb?hne zu widmen. Die dort 1849 ausgebrochenen Unruhen warfen aber die Kunst weit in den Hintergrund und von seinem rastlosen Eifer f?r dieselbe angetrieben, zog der junge K?nstler dorthin, wohin es Tausende damals schon, wie noch jetzt, in unaufhaltsamer Sehnsucht hin?berdr?ngte ?ber das Meer, in dem fernen Lande des Westens, Studien zu sammeln, und das auszubilden in der freien Welt, was er in den Kunst-S?len von Paris vorbereitet hatte mit emsigem Fleisse.

Heine ergriff denn auch mit Freuden eine g?nstige Gelegenheit, die sich ihm bot, in Begleitung des, schon durch seine fr?heren arch?ologischen Forschungen in Nord- und Mittel-Amerika ber?hmten Herrn Squier, auch fr?herem Gesandten der Vereinigten Staaten in Mittel-Amerika, das letztere Land zu bereisen, um zu Mr. Squier's beabsichtigtem Werke ?ber diese Strecken die Illustrationen zu liefern.

Ueber diese Reise, die Heine aber leider allein beenden musste, da Mr. Squier durch Verh?ltnisse gehindert wurde, ihm zu folgen, handelt, mit Ausnahme eines kurzen K?nstlerausflugs im Staat New-York, dies kleine B?ndchen, und der Leser folgt dem jungen lebensfrohen Manne vielleicht noch mit mehr Aufmerksamkeit und Interesse, wenn er erf?hrt, dass Wilhelm Heine auch selbst in diesem regen Leben nicht den Drang befriedigt f?hlte, der ihn weiter und weiter trieb auf der einmal betretenen Bahn, denn er befindet sich in diesem Augenblicke an Bord des amerikanischen Geschwaders, das zu einer Recognoscirungstour des indischen Archipels, vorz?glich aber der japanischen K?sten ausgesandt ist, und wohl nicht wiederkehren wird, ohne ein t?chtiges St?ck von der Welt gesehen, ja vielleicht auch ein St?ck in der Welt gethan zu haben.

Von dort werden seine Berichte f?r jetzt in der Allgemeinen Zeitung und dem Ausland erscheinen, seine Stellung an Bord eines der Kriegsschiffe, mit ehrenvollen Auftr?gen der amerikanischen Regierung f?r unterwegs anzustellende Sammlungen, sichert ihm dabei die Gewissheit, den gr?sstm?glichsten Nutzen von solch wilder Fahrt zu ziehen, und wir d?rfen hoffen, dass er uns noch manches Sch?ne von fernen L?ndern erz?hlen wird. Der Einzelne wird doch ja immer nur, m?ge seine Route liegen so weit sie will, auf einen verh?ltnism?ssig kleinen Kreis beschr?nkt, und dem Leser bleibt es ?berlassen, sich von den verschiedenen Ansichten und Bildern der draussen Herumstreifenden den Honig zu sammeln und seine Meinung festzustellen.

Heine's Styl ist leicht und ungezwungen, seine Schilderung lebendig und das Herzliche und Gem?thliche seines ganzen Wesens l?sst uns ihn bald liebgewinnen, und so hoffe ich denn, dass Dir, lieber Leser, diese Gabe eine willkommene sein wird, wie es mir selber eine besondere Freude gew?hrt hat, den jungen, noch gewissermassen vom Seewasser triefenden K?nstler bei Dir einzuf?hren.

Friedrich Gerst?cker.

Inhaltsverzeichniss.

Seite

K?nstlerausflug durch den Staat New-York 1

Ein Jahr in Central-Amerika 41

Vorwort. -- Zweck der Reise. -- Allgemeine Bemerkungen ?ber Central-Amerika. -- Canalproject zur Verbindung des atlantischen und stillen Oceans. 43

Abreise von New-York. -- Die Brig Rogelin. -- Ansicht von Haiti. -- Eintritt in die Wendekreise. -- Unbewohnte Insel. -- Mosquitok?ste. -- San Juan di Nicaragua. -- Deutsches Gasthaus. -- Lebensweise. 56

Vorbereitungen zur Flussfahrt. -- Das Bungo. -- Abreise von San Juan. -- San-Juan-River. -- Clima. -- Fruchtbarkeit. -- Die Machuca-Rapids. -- Verungl?ckte Tigerjagd. -- Unwetter. -- Aerztliche H?lfe. -- Castillo Viejo. -- Prophezeihung. -- Der Wundarzt wider Willen. -- San Carlos. -- Douane. -- See von Granada. -- Ankunft in Granada. -- Gastfreundlichkeit. -- Jahresfeier des 4. Juli. 66

Die Stadt Granada. -- Bauart. -- Einwohner. -- Lebensweise in Central-Amerika. -- Festtage. -- Reisezur?stungen. -- Unsicherheit der Strassen. -- Art zu reisen. -- Fleiss der Indianer. -- Massaga. -- Indisches Begr?bniss. 94

Lavafelder. -- Managua. -- Reisebekanntschaft. -- Landschaftliches. -- Puebla nuova. -- Ein Raubmord. -- N?chtliche St?rung. -- Ankunft in Leon. 109

Freundliche Aufnahme in Leon. -- General Munoz. -- Ein dem?thiger Apostel Christi. -- R?ckkehr nach Granada. 120

Indigobereitung. -- Verfall des Landbaues. -- Schlimme Aussichten f?r Ansiedler. -- Gef?hrliche Galanterie. -- Zunahme der ?rztlichen Praxis. -- Einfluss des Mondes. -- Selbsth?lfe zu rechter Zeit. -- Die Schwefelquellen von Tipitapa. -- Gef?hrliche Begegnung. -- Kriegsanstalten. -- Militairische Exercitien. 126

Der geendigte Krieg in Nicaragua. -- Aufregung in Granada. -- Unangenehme Conflicte. -- Meeting in Massaga. -- Hauptquartier in Managua. -- Don Fruto Chamorro. -- Gefecht von Nagarote. -- Erkrankung. -- Gefecht von Chinandega. -- Missverh?ltniss der Streitkr?fte. -- Vertrag von Posolteja. -- Treubruch des Generals Lopez. -- Ehrenhaftes Benehmen des amerikanischen Gesandten. -- Traurige Aussichten. 143

Neue Erkrankung. -- Excursion in das Hochgebirge und die Minendistricte. -- Reiseanstalten. -- Aufbruch von Leon. -- Nachtlager. -- R?uberger?chte. -- N?chtlicher Ueberfall. -- Eintritt ins Gebirge. -- Trockenheit. -- Zuckererbauung. -- Aztekische Sage. -- Beschwerlicher Marsch. -- Heimathliche Erinnerung. 166

Aufenthalt in San Rafael. -- Viehzucht. -- Versuch mit dem Lasso. -- Weiterreise. -- N?chtliches Concert. -- Totogalpa. -- Der gastfreundliche Cura. -- Eine Hochzeit. -- Ocotal. -- General Guardiola. -- Hahnenk?mpfe. -- Spielwuth der Bewohner. 185

Dipilto. -- Mangelhafter Zustand des Bergbaues. -- Wiederkehrende Gesundheit. -- Taminos Feuer- und Wasserprobe zu Pferd. -- Erlegter Tiger. -- Der Staat Honduras. 200

Yuscaran. -- Don Pedro Xatrerha. -- Indianerst?mme. -- Gefahren eines Besuches bei ihnen. -- Gewaltsame Requisition. -- Tegucigalpa. -- Sennora L... -- General Cabannas. 217

K?nstlerausflug durch den Staat New-York.

Die Glocke des Steamers New-York l?utet zum drittenmale, der Ingenieur giebt das Zeichen, das sch?ne grosse Schiff setzt sich in Bewegung, an seinem Bord drei lustige deutsche Maler. Der Abend war angenehm und lieblich, wie die Abende im Monat August nach einem heissen Tage an den Ufern des Hudson in der Regel sind.

Die grosse wandernde Stadt, auf der wir uns befinden, Euch n?her zu beschreiben, erlasst Ihr mir wohl, meine Lieben; Fritz Gerst?cker hat es in seinen Mississippi-Bildern bereits besser gethan, als ich es im Stande sein w?rde. Die achthundert Pferdekraft der Dampfmaschine trieben uns rasch den prachtvollen, hier ziemlich sechshundert Fuss breiten Hudson stromaufw?rts. Zur Linken streckten sich hohe Felsw?nde in die H?he, die Palisaden genannt, zur Rechten lagen lachende Landh?user in ?ppig bl?henden G?rten, kleinere oder gr?ssere Dorfschaften dazwischen, hier und da ein Bach oder ein Fl?sschen, dessen Wasser sich entweder still und ger?uschlos mit dem Hudson verm?hlt, oder eine kleine Bucht bildet, an deren Saum freundliche Spazierg?nge den Reisenden zu l?ngerem Verweilen anzulocken scheinen.

Wahrlich, wer lose them. Using the same keys as hitherto, I shall attempt to explore further the darkness which is at present the only achieved goal of the much trumpeted Science of Language.

In a moment of noteworthy frankness Prof. Skeat has admitted that "Scientific etymology is usually clumsy and frequently wrong". Similarly, Prof. Sayce issues the warning: "Comparative philology has suffered as much from its friends as from its opponents; and now that it has at last won its way to general recognition and respect, there is a danger that its popularity may lead to the cessation of sound and honest work, and to an acquiescence in theories which, however plausible, are not yet placed upon a footing of scientific certainty. It is much easier for the ordinary man to fill in by patient elaboration what has already been sketched for him in outline, than to venture upon a new line of discovery, in which the sole clue must be the combinative powers of his own imagination and comprehensive learning. And yet, now as much as ever, comparative philology has need at once of bold and wide-reaching conceptions, of cautious verification, and of a mastery of facts. It is true the science is no longer struggling for mere life, and the time is gone by for proving the possibility of its existence. But it is still young, scarcely, indeed, out of its nursery; a small portion only of its province has hitherto been investigated, and much that is at present accepted without hesitation will have to be subjected to a searching inquiry, and possibly be found baseless after all."

The value of any system must be measured by its results, and the fruits of philology as formulated only a year or so ago were unquestionably false. Where now are the "successes" of the Max M?ller school which were advertised in such shrill and penetrating tones? Sanscrit is deposed from its pride of place, it being now recognised that primitive sounds are preserved more faithfully in Europe than elsewhere. Who to-day admits there is any basis for the Disease of Language theory, or that all fairy-tales and myths are resolvable into the Sun chasing the Dawn? What anthropologist accepts the theory of Aryan overland immigration from somewhere in Asia? The archaeologists of the last generation were, in the light of modern findings, quite justified when, contrary to the then stereotyped idea, they maintained that skulls were harder things than consonants. In short, large sections of the card-castle of German philology have more or less crumbled, and in the cruel words of a modern authority on Crete: "Happily, archaeology has emerged from the slough into which the philologists had led her".

For the causes of this fiasco it is unnecessary to seek further than the fundamental fallacy upon which the "Science of Language" has been erected. According to Max M?ller, "etymology is indeed a science in which identity, or even similarity, whether of sound or meaning, is of no importance whatever. Sound etymology has nothing to do with sound. We know words to be of the same origin which have not a single letter in common, and which differ in meaning as much as black and white."

The formidable Grimm's Law, any violation of which involves summary and immediate condemnation, is merely a statement of certain phonetic facts which happen invariably--unless they are interfered with by other facts. The permutations of sound codified by Grimm are as follows:--

That the Mysteries--or in other words dramatised mythology--Symbolism, and Etymology, are all closely connected with each other is a certitude beyond question. The theory, so pertinaciously put forward by Max M?ller, was that myths originated from a subsequent misunderstanding of words. Using the same data as Max M?ller, I suggest that words originated from the mysteries and not myths from the words.

As history must be constructed from facts, and facts must not be peremptorily suppressed simply because at present they clash with the meagre record of historians, I shall have no scruples in noting a word from Timbuctoo if it means precisely what it does in English, and proves reasonably to be a missing piece. As Gerald Massey thirty or forty years ago very properly observed: "We have to dig and descend mine under mine beneath the surface scratched with such complacent twitterings over their findings by those who have taken absolute possession of this field, and proceeded to fence it in for themselves, and put up a warning against everybody else as trespassers. We get volume after volume on the 'science of language' which only make us wonder when the 'science' is going to begin. At present it is an opera that is all overture. The comparative philologists have not gone deep enough, as yet, to see that there is a stage where likeness may afford guidance, because there was a common origin for the primordial stock of words. They assume that Grimm's Law goes all the way back. They cling to their limits, as the old Greek sailors hugged the shore, and continually insist upon imposing these on all other voyagers, by telling terrible tales of the unknown dangers beyond."

Tyndall has observed that imagination, bounded and conditioned by co-operant reason, is the mightiest instrument of the physical discoverer. It is to imagination that words born in the fantastic and romantic childhood of the world were due, and it is only by a certain measure of imagination that philology can hope to unravel them. The extent to which mythology has impressed place-names may be estimated from the fact that to King Arthur alone at least 600 localities owe their titles. That Arthur himself has not been transmogrified into a Saxon settler is due no doubt to the still existing "Bed," "Seat," "Stables," etc., with which popular imagination connected the mystic king.

"Geographical names," says Rice Holmes, "testify to the cult of various gods," and he adds: "it is probable that every British town had its eponymous hero. The deities, however, from whom towns derived their names, were doubtless often worshipped near the site long before the first foundations were laid: the goddess Bibracte was originally the spirit of a spring reverenced by the peasants of the mountain upon which the famous Aeduan town was built".

I shall not lead the reader into the intricacies of British mythology deeper than is requisite for an understanding of the words and place-names under consideration, nor shall I enlarge more than is necessary upon the mystic elements in that vast and little known mythology.

It has been said that the mediaeval story-teller is not unlike a peasant building his hut on the site of Ephesus or Halicarnassus with the stones of an older and more majestical architecture. That Celtic mythology exhibits all the indications of a vast ruin is the opinion not only of Matthew Arnold, but of every competent student of the subject, and it is a matter of discredit that educated Englishmen know so little about it.

Among the phenomena of Celtic mythology are numerous identities with tales related by Homer. Sir Walter Scott, alluding to one of these many instances, expresses his astonishment at a fact which, as he says, seems to argue some connection or communication between these remote highlands of Scotland, and the readers of Homer of former days which one cannot account for. His explanation that "After all, perhaps, some Churchman, more learned than his brethren, may have transferred the legend from Sicily to Duncrune, from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of Loch Lomond," is not in accord with any of the probabilities, and it is more likely that both Greek and Highlander drew independently from some common source. The astonishing antiquity of these tales may be glimpsed by the fact that the Homeric poems themselves speak of a store of older legends from an even more brilliant past.

I venture to put forward the suggestion that primeval stone-worship, tree-worship, and the veneration paid to innumerable birds and beasts was largely based upon symbolism. In symbolism alone can one find any rational explanation for the intricacies of those ancient mysteries the debris of which has come down to us degraded into between symbolism and burial customs. Among some prehistoric graves disclosed at Dunstable was one containing the relics of a woman and of a child. The authorities superstitious "custom" and it is probable that in symbolism may also be found the origin of totemism.

Is symbol the husk, the dry bone, Of the dead soul of ages agone? Finger-post of a pilgrimage way Untrodden for many a day? A derelict shrine in the fane Of an ancient faith, long since profane? A gew-gaw, once amulet? A forgotten creed's alphabet? Or is it....

In the opinion of those best able to judge, Druidism originated in neolithic times. Just as the Druid sacrificed white bulls before he ascended the sacred oak, so did the Latin priest in the grove, which was the holy place of Jupiter. "But," says Rice Holmes, "while every ancient people had its priests, the Druids alone were a veritable clergy". The clergy of to-day would find it profitable to study the symbolism which flourished so luxuriously among their predecessors, but, unfortunately, with the exception of a few time-honoured symbols such as the Dove, the Anchor, and the Lamb, symbolism in the ecclesiastical and philosophic world is now quite dead. It still, however, lingers to a limited extent in Art, and it will always be the many-coloured radiancy which colours Poetry. The ancient and the at-one-time generally accepted idea that mythology veiled Theology, has now been discarded owing to the disconcerting discovery that myths were seemingly not taught to the common people by the learned, but on the contrary spread upwards from the vulgar to the learned. This latter process has usually been the doom of Religion, and it is quite unthinkable that fairy-tales could survive its blighting effect. As a random instance of the modern attitude towards Imagination, one may cite the Rev. Prof. Skeat, who, commenting upon the Music of the Spheres, gravely informs the world that: "Modern astronomy has exploded the singular notion of revolving hollow concentric spheres". "These spheres," he adds, "have disappeared and their music with them except in poetry."

Is it wonderful that again and again the romantic soul of the Celtic peasantry has risen against the grey dogmas of official Theology, and has expressed itself in terms such as those taken down from the mouth of a Gaelic old woman in 1877: "We would dance there till we were seven times tired. The people of those times were full of music and dancing stories, and traditions. The clerics have extinguished these. May ill befall them! And what have the clerics put in their place? Beliefs about creeds and disputations about denominations and churches! May lateness be their lot! It is they who have put the cross round the heads and the entanglements round the feet of the people. The people of the Gaeldom of to-day are anear perishing for lack of the famous feats of their fathers. The black clerics have suppressed every noble custom among the people of the Gaeldom--precious customs that will never return, no, never again return."

The theory here assumed grossly defies the elementary laws of logic, for every act of ritual must essentially have been preceded by a thought: Act is the outcome and offspring of Thought: Idea was never the idiot-child of Act. The assumption that the first idea of God evolved from the personation of the Sun God in a mystery play or harvest dance is not really or fundamentally a mental tracking of that God right home, but rather an inane confession that the idea of God cannot be traced further backward than the ritual of ancient festivals.

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