the Mayscas, or
Chibchas, is Padre Pedro Simon, _Noticias Historiales de las Conquistas de
Tierra Firme en el Nuevo Reyno de Granada_, Pt. iv, caps. ii, iii, iv,
printed in Kingsborough, _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. viii, and Piedrahita
as above quoted.]

Wherever the widespread Tupi-Guaranay race extended--from the mouth of the
Rio de la Plata and the boundless plains of the Pampas, north to the
northernmost islands of the West Indian Archipelago--the early explorers
found the natives piously attributing their knowledge of the arts of life
to a venerable and benevolent old man whom they called "Our Ancestor,"
_Tamu_, or _Tume_, or _Zume_.

The early Jesuit missionaries to the Guaranis and affiliated tribes of
Paraguay and southern Brazil, have much to say of this personage, and some
of them were convinced that he could have been no other than the Apostle
St. Thomas on his proselytizing journey around the world.

The legend was that Pay Zume, as he was called in Paraguay (_Pay_ =
magician, diviner, priest), came from the East, from the Sun-rising, in
years long gone by. He instructed the people in the arts of hunting and
agriculture, especially in the culture and preparation of the manioca
plant, their chief source of vegetable food. Near the city of Assumption
is situated a lofty rock, around which, says the myth, he was accustomed
to gather the people, while he stood above them on its summit, and
delivered his instructions and his laws, just as did Quetzalcoatl from the
top of the mountain Tzatzitepec, the Hill of Shouting. The spot where he
stood is still marked by the impress of his feet, which the pious natives
of a later day took pride in pointing out as a convincing proof that their
ancestors received and remembered the preachings of St. Thomas.[1] This
was not a suggestion of their later learning, but merely a christianized
term given to their authentic ancient legend. As early as 1552, when
Father Emanuel Nobrega was visiting the missions of Brazil, he heard the
legend, and learned of a locality where not only the marks of the feet,
but also of the hands of the hero-god had been indelibly impressed upon
the hard rock. Not satisfied with the mere report, he visited the spot and
saw them with his own eyes, but indulged in some skepticism as to their
origin.[2]

[Footnote 1: "Juxta Paraquariae metropolim rupes utcumque cuspidata, sed
in modicam planitiem desinens cernitur, in cujus summitate vestigia pedum
huma