The human hand, "that divine
tool," as it has been called, might well be regarded by the reflective
mind as the teacher of the arts and the amulet whose magic power has won
for man what vantage he has gained in his long combat with nature and
his fellows.
I might next discuss the culture myth of the Muyscas, whose hero Bochica
or Nemqueteba bore the other name SUA, the White One, the Day, the
East, an appellation they likewise gave the Europeans on their arrival.
He had taught them in remotest times how to manufacture their clothing,
build their houses, cultivate the soil, and reckon time. When he
disappeared, he divided the land between four chiefs, and laid down many
minute rules of government which ever after were religiously
observed.[184-1] Or I might choose that of the Caribs, whose patron Tamu
called Grandfather, and Old Man of the Sky, was a man of light
complexion, who in the old times came from the east, instructed them in
agriculture and arts, and disappeared in the same direction, promising
them assistance in the future, and that at death he would receive their
souls on the summit of the sacred tree, and transport them safely to his
home in the sky.
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