X. GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP…

X. GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP

REVENUES OF THE MEXICAN TEMPLES -- VAST NUMBER OF THE PRIESTS -- MEXICAN SACERDOTAL SYSTEM -- PRIESTESSES -- THE ORDERS OF TLAMAXCACAYOTL AND TELPOCHTILIZTLI -- RELIGIOUS DEVOTEES -- BAPTISM -- CIRCUMCISION -- COMMUNION -- FASTS AND PENANCE -- BLOOD-DRAWING -- HUMAN SACRIFICES -- THE GODS OF THE TARASCOS -- PRIESTS AND TEMPLE SERVICE OF MICHOACAN -- WORSHIP IN JALISCO AND OAJACA -- VOTAN AND QUETZALCOATL -- TRAVELS OF VOTAN -- THE APOSTLE WIXEPECOCHA -- CAVE NEAR XUSTLAHUACA -- THE PRINCESS PINOPIAA -- WORSHIP OF COSTAHUNTOX -- TREE WORSHIP.

We have seen in the preceding volume that the number of religious edifices was very great; that in addition to the temples in the cities--and Mexico alone is said to have contained two thousand sacred buildings--there were "on every isolated hill, along the roads, and in the fields, substantial structures consecrated to some deity." Torquemada estimates the whole number at eighty thousand.

[Sidenote: TEMPLE REVENUES.]

The vast revenues needed for the support and repair of the temples, and for the maintenance of the immense army of priests that officiated in them, were derived from various sources. The greatest part was supplied from large tracts of land which were the property of the church, and were held by vassals under certain conditions, or worked by slaves. Besides this, taxes of wine and grain, especially first fruits, were levied upon communities, and stored in granaries attached to the temples. The voluntary contributions, from a cake, feather, or robe to slaves or priceless gems, given in performance of a vow, or at the numerous festivals, formed no unimportant item. Quantities of food were provided by the parents of the children attending the schools, and there were never wanting devout women eager to prepare it. In the kingdom of Tezcuco, thirty towns were required to provide firewood for the temples and palaces;[X-1] in Meztitlan, says Chaves, every man gave four pieces of wood every five days; it is easy to believe that the supply of fuel must have been immense, when we consider that six hundred fires were kept continually blazing in the great temple of Mexico alone.[X-2] Whatever surplus remained of the revenues after all expenses had been defrayed, is said to have been devoted to the support of charitable institutions and the relief of the poor;[X-3] in this respect, at least the Holy Mother Church of contemporary Europe might have taken a lesson from her pagan sister in the New World.

Each temple had its complement of ministers to conduct and take part in the daily services, and of servants to attend to the cleansing, firing, and other menial offices. In the great temple at Mexico there were five thousand priests and attendants,[X-4] the total number of the ecclesiastical host must therefore have been immense; Clavigero places it at a million, which does not appear improbable if we accept Torquemada's statement that there were forty thousand temples as a basis for the computation. It should be remembered, however, that the sacerdotal body was not composed entirely of permanent members; some were merely engaged for a certain number of years, in fulfillment of a vow made by themselves or their parents; others were obliged to attend at intervals only, or at certain festivals, the rest of their time being passed in the pursuit of some profession, usually that of arms.[X-5]

The vast number of the priests, their enormous wealth, and the blind zeal of the people, all combined to render the sacerdotal power extremely formidable. The king himself performed the functions of high-priest on certain occasions, and frequently held some sacred office before succeeding to the throne. The heads of Church and State seem to have worked amicably together, and to have united their power to keep the masses in subjection. The sovereign took no step of importance without first consulting the high-priests to learn whether the gods were favorable to the project. The people were guided in the same manner by the inferior ministers, and this influence was not likely to decrease, for the priests as the possessors of all learning, the historians and poets of the nation, were intrusted with the education of the youth, whom they took care to mold to their purposes.

At the head of the Mexican priesthood were two supreme ministers; the Teotecuhtli or 'divine lord,' who seems to have attended more particularly to secular matters, and the Hueiteopixqui, who chiefly superintended religious affairs. These ministers were elected, ostensibly from among the priests most distinguished in point of birth, piety, and learning; but as the king and principal nobles were the electors, the preference was doubtless given to those who were most devoted to their interests, or to members of the royal family.[X-6] They were distinguished by a tuft of cotton, falling down upon the breast. Their robes of ceremony varied with the nature of the god whose festival they celebrated. In Tezcuco and Tlacopan, the pontifical dignity was always conferred upon the second son of the king. The Totonacs elected their pontiff from among the six chief priests, who seem to have risen from the ranks of the Centeotl monks; the ointment used at his consecration was composed partly of children's blood. High as was the high-priest's rank, he was not by any means exempt from punishment; in Ichatlan, for instance, where he was elected by his fellow-priests, if he violated his vow of celibacy he was cut in pieces, and the bloody limbs were given as a warning to his successor.[X-7]

[Sidenote: MEXICAN PRIESTHOOD.]

Next in rank to the two Mexican high-priests was the Mexicatlteohuatzin, who was appointed by them, and seems to have been a kind of Vicar General. His duties were to see that the worship of the gods was properly observed throughout the kingdom, and to supervise the priesthood, monasteries, and schools. His badge of office was a bag of incense of peculiar shape. Two coadjutors assisted him in the discharge of his duties; the Huitzuahuacteohuatzin, who acted in his place when necessary, and the Tepanteohuatzin, who attended chiefly to the schools.[X-8] Conquered provinces retained control over their own religious affairs.[X-9] Among other dignitaries of the church may be mentioned the Topiltzin, who held the hereditary office of sacrificer, in which he was aided by five assistants;[X-10] the Tlalquimiloltecuhtli, keeper of relics and ornaments; the Ometochtli, composer of hymns; the Tlapixcatzin, musical director; the Epcoaquacuiltzin, master of ceremonies; the treasurer; the master of temple properties; and a number of leaders of special celebrations. Besides these, every ward, or parish, had its rector, who performed divine service in the temple, assisted by a number of inferior priests and school-children. The nobles kept private chaplains to attend to the worship of the household gods, which everyone was required to have in his dwelling.[X-11] The statement of some writers indicate that the body of priests attached to the service of each god, was to a certain extent independent, and governed by its own rules. Thus in some wards the service of Huitzilopochtli was hereditary, and held in higher estimation than any other.

The distinguishing dress of the ordinary priests was a black cotton cloth, from five to six feet square, which hung from the back of the head like a veil. Their hair, which was never cut and frequently reached to the knees, was painted black and braided with cord; during many of their long fasts it was left unwashed, and it was a rule with some of the more ascetic orders never to cleanse their heads.[X-12] Reed sandals protected their feet. They frequently dyed their bodies with a black mixture made of ocotl-root, and painted themselves with ochre and cinnabar. They bathed every night in ponds set apart for the purpose within the temple enclosure. When they went out into the mountains to sacrifice, or do penance, they anointed their bodies with a mixture called teopatli, which consisted of the ashes of poisonous insects, snakes, and worms, mixed with ocotl-soot, tobacco, ololiuhqui, and sacred water. This filthy compound was supposed to be a safeguard against snakebites, and the attack of wild beasts.[X-13]

[Sidenote: MEXICAN PRIESTESSES.]

Sacred offices were not occupied by males only; females held positions in the temples, though they were excluded from the sacrificial and higher offices. The manner in which they were dedicated to the temple school has been already described.[X-14] Like the Roman vestals, their chief duty seems to have been to tend the sacred fires, though they were also required to place the meat offerings upon the altar, and to make sacerdotal vestments. The punishment inflicted upon those who violated their vow of chastity was death. They were divided into watches, and during the performance of their duties were required to keep at a proper distance from the male assistants, at whom they did not even dare to glance.[X-15]

Of the several religious orders the most renowned for its sanctity was the Tlamaxcacayotl, which was consecrated to the service of Quetzalcoatl. The superior of this order, who was named after the god, never deigned to issue from his seclusion except to confer with the king. Its members, called tlamacaxqui, led a very ascetic life, living on coarse fare, dressing in simple black robes,[X-16] and performing all manner of hard work. They bathed at midnight, and kept watch until an hour or two before dawn, singing hymns to Quetzalcoatl; on occasions some of them would retire into the desert to lead a life of prayer and penance in solitude. Children dedicated to this order were distinguished by a collar called yanuati, which they wore till their fourth year, the earliest age at which they were admitted as novices. The females who joined these orders were not necessarily virgins, for it seems that married women were admitted.[X-17]

The order of Telpochtiliztli, 'congregation of young men,' was composed of youths who lived with their parents, but met at sunset in a house set apart for them, to dance and chant hymns in honor of their patron god, Tezcatlipoca. Females also attended these meetings, and, according to report, strict decorum was maintained, at least while the services lasted.[X-18]

[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS DEVOTEES.]

Acosta makes mention of certain ascetics who dedicated themselves for a year to the most austere life; they assisted the priests at the hours of incensing, and drew much blood from their bodies in sacrifice. They dressed in white robes and lived by begging.[X-19] Camargo refers to a similar class of penitents in Tlascala, who called themselves tlamaceuhque, and sought to obtain divine favor by passing from temple to temple at night, carrying pans of fire upon their heads; this they kept up for a year or two, during which time they led a very strict life.[X-20] The Totonacs had a very strict sect, limited in number, devoted to Centeotl, to which none were admitted but widowers of irreproachable character, who had passed the age of sixty. It was they who made the historical and other paintings from which the high-priest drew his discourses. They were much respected by the people, and were applied to by all classes for advice, which they gave gravely, squatted upon their haunches and with lowered eyes. They dressed in skins, and ate no meat.[X-21]

The children, who were all required, says Las Casas, to attend school between the ages of six and nine, rendered valuable assistance to the priests by performing the minor duties about the temple. Those of the lower school performed much of the outside labor, such as carrying wood and drawing water, while the sons of the nobility were assigned higher tasks in the interior of the building.[X-22]

The daily routine of temple duties was performed by bodies of priests, who relieved each other at intervals of a few hours or days. The service, which chiefly consisted of hymn-chanting and incense-burning, was performed four times each day, at dawn, noon, sunset, and midnight. At the midnight service the priests drew blood from their bodies and bathed themselves. The sun received offerings of quails four times during the day, and five times during the night.[X-23] The priests of Quetzalcoatl sounded the hours of these watches with shell-trumpets and drums. Thrice every morning the Totonac pontiff wafted incense toward the sun; after which the elder priests, who followed him in a file, according to rank, waved their censers three times before the principal idols, and once before the others; finally, incense was burned in honor of the pontiff himself. The copal that remained was distributed in heaps upon the various altars. Later in the day, the high-priest delivered a lecture before the priests and nobles.[X-24] Their prayers were standard compositions, learned by rote at school;[X-25] while reciting them, they assumed a squatting posture,[X-26] usually with the face toward the east; on occasions of great solemnity they prostrated themselves. A test was sometimes applied to ascertain whether the deity was disposed to respond to the prayers of the nation, when offered for a particular purpose. This was done by sprinkling snuff upon the altar, and if, shortly afterwards, the foot-print of an animal, particularly that of an eagle, was found impressed in the snuff, it was regarded as a mark of divine favor, and great was the shouting when the priest announced the augury.[X-27]

Many rites and ceremonies were found to exist among the civilized nations of America that were very similar to certain others observed by Jews and Christians in the old world. The innumerable speculators on the origin of the aboriginal inhabitants of the new world, or at least on the origin of their civilization, have not neglected to bring forward these coincidences--there is no good reason to suppose them anything else--in support of their various theories.

[Sidenote: BAPTISM AND CIRCUMCISION.]

The cleansing virtue of water would naturally suggest its adaptability to the purification of spiritual stains; the priests and ascetics, plunging at midnight, with their self-inflicted wounds unclosed, into the icy pool within the temple inclosure, had this end in view; there is therefore no cause to wonder that baptism developed into an established rite. The fact that infants were baptized immediately after birth, proves that these people believed, with the Christians and Jews, that sin is inherited; but this, to my thinking at least, does not necessarily show that any communication or connection of any kind ever took place or existed between the inhabitants of the old world and those of the new. They saw that life was not all happiness; they saw that a man's suffering begins at his birth; they were peculiarly apt to regard every misfortune as a direct visitation of the offended gods, whose anger they continually deprecated by prayer and sacrifice; how, then, could they help but believe in the inherency of sin--in the visiting of the sins of the fathers upon the children--while the suffering entailed upon irresponsible infancy was continually before them?

The rite of circumcision has been the main-stay of the numerous theorists who have attempted to prove that the native Americans are descended from the Jews; but with the same evidence they may be proved to be descended from the Caffirs, the South Sea Islanders, the Ethiopians, the Egyptians, or from any Mohammedan people, who all either have practiced, or do now practice circumcision.[X-28] Brinton thinks that the rite was probably a symbolic renunciation of the lusts of the flesh;[X-29] but, as it would be difficult to find a more licentious race than the American, this supposition is unsatisfactory. After all, why need we grope among the recesses of an obscure cult for the meaning and origin of a custom which may have had no religious ideas connected with it? We know that several of the nations of the old world practiced circumcision merely for purposes of cleanliness and convenience, why not also the Americans?

A rite, analogous in some aspects to the Christian communion, was observed on certain occasions. Thus, in the fifteenth month, a dough statue of Huitzilopochtli was broken up and distributed among the men; this ceremony was called teoqualo, meaning 'the god is eaten.' At other times, sacred cakes of amaranth-seeds and honey, were stuck upon maguey-thorns and distributed. Mendieta states that tobacco was eaten in honor of Cihuacoatl. The Totonacs made a dough of first-fruits from the temple garden, ulli, and the blood of three infants sacrificed at a certain festival; of this the men above twenty-five years of age, and the women above sixteen, partook every six months; as the dough became stale, it was moistened with the heart's blood of ordinary victims.[X-30] The rite of confession has been already described.[X-31]

[Sidenote: FASTS AND PENANCE.]

Fasting was observed as an atonement for sin, as well as a preparation for solemn festivals. An ordinary fast consisted in abstaining from meat for a period of from one to ten days, and taking but one meal a day, at noon; at no other hour might so much as a drop of water be touched. In the 'divine year' a fast of eighty days was observed. Some of the fasts held by the priests lasted one hundred and sixty days, and, owing to the insufficient food allowed and terrible mutilations practiced, these long feasts not unfrequently resulted fatally to the devotees. The high-priest sometimes set a shining example to his subordinates by going into the mountains and there passing several months, in perfect solitude, praying, burning incense, drawing blood from his body, and supporting life upon uncooked maize.[X-32]

In Teotihuacan, four priests undertook a four years' penance, which, if strictly observed, entitled them to be regarded as saints forever after. A thin mantle and a breech-clout were all the dress allowed them, no matter what the weather might be; the bare ground was their only bed, a stone their softest pillow; their noonday and only meal was a two-ounce cake, and a small bowl of porridge made of meal and honey, except on the first of each month, when they were allowed to take part in the general banquets. Two of them watched every alternate night, drawing blood and praying. Every twentieth day they passed twenty sticks through the upper part of the ear; and these, Gomara solemnly assures us, were allowed to accumulate from month to month, so that at the end of the four years, the ear held four thousand three hundred and twenty sticks, which were burned in honor of the gods at the expiration of the time of penance.[X-33]

Blood-drawing was the favorite and most common mode of expiating sin and showing devotion. Chaves says that the people of Meztitlan drew blood every five days, staining pieces of paper with it, and offering them to the god.[X-34] The instruments used in ordinary scarification were maguey-thorns, which were offered to the idol, and afterwards burned, but for more severe discipline iztli knives were used, and cords or sticks were passed through the tongue, ears, or genitals.

[Sidenote: HUMAN SACRIFICES.]

The offering most acceptable to the Nahua divinities was human life, and without this no festival of any importance was complete. The origin of the rite of human sacrifice, as connected with sun-worship at least, dates back to the earliest times. It is mentioned in the story of the first appearance of the sun to the Mexicans, which relates how that luminary refused to proceed upon its daily circuit until appeased by the sacrifice of certain heroes who had offended it.[X-35] Some affirm that human sacrifice was first introduced by Tezcatlipoca; others again say that it was practiced before Quetzalcoatl's time, which is likely enough, if, as we are told, that prophet not only preached against it as an abomination, but shut his ears with both hands when it was even mentioned. Written, or painted, records show its existence in 1091, though some native writers assert that it was not practiced until after this date. The nations that encompass the Aztecs ascribe the introduction of human sacrifice to the latter people; a statement accepted by most of the early historians, who relate that the first human victims were four Xochimilcos, with whose blood the newly erected altar of Huitzilopochtli was consecrated.[X-36]

The number of human victims sacrificed annually in Mexico is not exactly known. Las Casas, the champion of the natives, places it at an insignificantly low figure, while Zumárraga states that twenty thousand were sacrificed in the capital alone every year. That the number was immense we can readily believe, when we read in Torquemada, Ixtlilxochitl, Boturini, and Acosta, that from seventy to eighty thousand human beings were slaughtered at the inauguration of the temple of Huitzilopochtli, and a proportionately large number at the other celebrations of the kind.[X-37]

The victims were mostly captives of war, and for the sole purpose of obtaining these wars were often made; a large proportion of the sacrificed, however, were of slaves and children, either bought or presented for the purpose, and condemned criminals. Moreover, instances are not wanting of devout people offering themselves voluntarily for the good of the people and the honor of the god.[X-38] The greater part of the victims died under the knife, in the manner so often described;[X-39] some, however, were, as we have seen in the preceding volume, burned alive; children were often buried, or immured alive, or drowned; in some cases criminals were crushed between stones. The Tlascaltecs frequently bound the doomed one to a pole and made his body a target for their spears and arrows.

It is difficult to determine what religious ideas were connected with the almost universal practice of anthropophagy. We have seen that several of the savage tribes ate portions of slain heroes, thinking thereby to inherit a portion of the dead man's good qualities; the same reason might be assigned for the cannibalism of the Aztecs, were it not for the fact that they ate the flesh of sacrificed slaves and children as well as that of warriors and notable persons. Whatever may have been the original significance of the rite, it is most probable that finally the body, the essence of which served to regale the god, was regarded merely as the remains of a divine feast, and, therefore, as sacred food. It is quite possible, however, that religious anthropophagy gradually degenerated into an unnatural appetite for human flesh and nothing more.

* * * * *

I here close the review of the Aztec gods. Like most of its branches, this great centre of North American mythology rests on natural phenomena and anthropomorphic creations, with an occasional euhemeristic development or apotheosis, but is attended by a worship so sanguinary and monstrous that it stands out an isolated spectacle of the extreme to which fanatical zeal and blind superstition can go. A glance at the Greek and Roman mythology is sufficient to show how much purer was the Nahua conception of divine character. The Nahua gods did not, like those of Greece, play with vice, but rather abhorred it. Tezcatlipoca is the only deity that can be fairly compared with the fitful Zeus of Homer--now moved with extreme passion, now governed by a noble impulse, now swayed by brutal lust, now drawn on by a vein of humor. But the polished Greek, poetic, refined, full of ideas, exulting in his strong, beautiful, immoral gods, and making his art immortal by his sublime representations of them, presents a picture very different from the Aztec, phlegmatic, bloody-minded, ferocious, broken in body and in spirit by the excesses of his worship, overshadowed by countless terrors of the imagination, quaking continually before gods who feast on his flesh and blood. Nevertheless there was one bright spot, set afar off on the horizon, upon which the Aztec might look and hope. Like the Brahmans, the Buddhists, and the Jews, he looked forward to a new era under a great leader, even Quetzalcoatl, who had promised to return from the glowing east, bringing with him all the prosperity, peace, and happiness of his former reign. The Totonacs, also, knew of one in heaven who pleaded unceasingly for them with the great god, and who was ultimately to bring about a gentler era.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN MICHOACAN.]

Worship in Michoacan, though on a smaller scale, was very similar to that in Mexico. The misty form of a Supreme Being that hovers through the latter, here assumes a more distinct outline, however. A First Cause, a Creator of All, a Ruler of the World, who bestows existence, and regulates the seasons, is recognized in the god Tucapacha; an invisible being whose abode is in the heaven above, an inconceivable being whom no image can represent, a merciful being to whom the people may hopefully pray.[X-40] But the very beauty and simplicity of the conception of this god seem to have operated against the popularity of his worship. The people needed a less shadowy personification of their ideas, and this they found in Curicaneri, originally the patron divinity of the Chichimec rulers of the country, and by them exalted over Xaratanga, the former head god of the Tarascos. Brasseur de Bourbourg thinks Curicaneri to be identical with the sun, and gives as his reason that the Chichimecs presented their offerings first to that luminary and then to the inferior deities. There is another point that seems to favor this view. The insignia of Curicaneri and Xaratanga were carried by the priests in the van of the army to inspire courage and confidence of victory. Before setting out on the march a fire was lighted before the idol, and as the incense rose to heaven, the priest addressed the god of fire, imploring him to accept the offering and favor the expedition.[X-41] The image of Curicaneri was profusely adorned with jewels, each one of which represented a human sacrifice made in honor of the god.

The goddess Xaratanga, though second in rank, seems to have occupied the first place in the affections of the Tarascos, in spite of the myth which associates her name with the downfall of the native dynasty, saying that she transformed their princes into snakes, because they appeared drunk at her festivals, and thus afforded the Chichimecs an opportunity to seize the sceptre. The priests did their utmost, besides, to maintain her prestige, and they were successful, as we have seen from the position of the goddess by the side of Curicaneri, in the van of the army.

Among the inferior gods were Manovapa, son of Xaratanga, and Taras, from whom, says Sahagun, the Tarascos took their name, and who corresponded to the Mexican Mixcoatl. The Matlaltzincas worshiped Coltzin, suffocating before his image the few human beings offered to him. They reverenced very highly, also, a great reformer, Surites, a high-priest, who preached morality, and, inspired by a prophetic spirit, is said to have prepared the people for a better faith, which was to come from the direction of the rising sun. The festivals of the Peranscuaro, which corresponded to our Christmas, and the Zitacuarencuaro, or 'resurrection,' were instituted by Surites. These ideas, however, bear traces of having been 'improved' by the padres.

The priests of Michoacan exercised even a greater influence over the people than those of Mexico. In order to retain this power they appealed to the religious side of the people's character by thundering sermons and solemn rites, and to their affections by practicing charity at every opportunity. The king himself, when he paid his annual visit to the high-priest to inaugurate the offering of first-fruits, set an example of humility by kneeling before the pontiff and reverently kissing his hand. The priests of Michoacan formed a distinct class, composed of three orders, at the head of which stood the high priest of Curicaneri.[X-42] Those who served the goddess Xaratanga were called watarecha, and were distinguished by their shaven crowns, long black hair, and tunics bordered with red fringe.[X-43] Marriage was one of their privileges.

The temple-service of Michoacan was much the same as in Mexico. Human sacrifices, which seem to have been introduced at a late period, were probably very numerous, since hundreds of human victims were immolated at the funeral of a monarch. The hearts of the sacrificed were eaten by the priests, says Beaumont, and this is not unlikely since the Otomí population of Michoacan sold flesh in the public market. During seasons of drought the Otomís sought to propitiate the rain gods by sacrificing a virgin on the top of a hill.[X-44]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN JALISCO.]

In Jalisco, several forms of worship appear, each with its special divinities. These were mostly genii of natural features. Thus, the towns about Chapala paid divine honors to the spirit of the lake, who was represented by a misshapen image with a miniature lake before it. The people of other places had idols mounted on rocks, or represented in the act of fighting with a wild animal or monster. In Zentipac and Acaponeta the stars were honored with offerings of the choicest fruit and flowers. Equally innocent were the offerings brought to Piltzinteolli, the 'child god,' whose youthful form was reared in several places. An instance of apotheosis occurred in Nayarit, where the skeleton of a king, enthroned in a cave, received divine honors.

Among the temples consecrated to the various idols, may be mentioned one in Jalisco, which was a square pyramid, decorated with breast-work and turrets, to which access was had by a staircase sixty feet in height. At each of the four corners was a hearth so arranged that the smoke from the sacred fire spread in a dense cloud over the temple. Another, at Teul, consisted of a stone building, five fathoms in length, by three in breadth, and gradually widening towards the top. Two entrances, one at the north corner, the other at the south, each with five steps, gave admission to the interior; close by were several piles, formed of the bones of the sacrificed.

The festivals which took place seem to have been disgraced not only by excesses of the most infamous character, but by the most horrible cruelties, if we are to believe Oviedo, who writes of furnaces filled with charred human remains. These sacrifices, however, if sacrifices they were, which were common in the north-eastern parts, where intercourse with Mexico had produced many changes, do not appear as we advance southward. Not only do they entirely vanish, but the chroniclers state that in Colima, which was reputed to have been at one time governed by a very wise prince, no outward worship of any kind could be found; moreover, they hint at an atheism having existed there, restricted only by moral precepts. But the reality of an oasis of this character, in the midst of the most degraded superstitions and the wildest fanaticism, is at the least, doubtful, and the work of the Fathers seems to be once more apparent.[X-45]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN OAJACA.]

The worship of Oajaca bore even a stronger resemblance to that of Mexico than did that of Michoacan, and the assertion of some modern writers that both nations have a common origin seems fully borne out by the records of the old chroniclers. The array of gods was, if possible, greater, for almost every feature of the grand, wild scenery, every want, every virtue, even every vice, says Burgoa, had one or more patron deities, to whom offerings were made on the household altars. This was especially the case in the upper district of Mizteca and Zapoteca, where the rugged, cloud-capped peaks, dense forests, boiling cataracts, and stealthy streams, all tended to fill the crude mind of the native with a superstitious awe that must have vent. Through all this may be discerned the vague shape of a Supreme Being, bearing many titles, such as Piyetao Piyexoo, 'one without being,' Pitao Cozaana, 'creator of beings,' Wichaana, 'creator of men and fishes,' Coquiza-Chibataya Cozaanatao, 'the sustainer and governor of all,' and a multitude of other titles, which merely serve to show how indefinite was the position this Invisible One occupied in the minds of a people unable to rise to a definite conception of his eminence, and groveling before the hideous gnomes bred of their own imagination.[X-46]

When the disciples of Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec god and lawgiver, went forth at the command of their master to preach his doctrines, some are said to have wended their way to Oajaca, where they founded several centres of worship,[X-47] and among them Achiuhtla, the headquarters of the Miztec religion, situated in the most rugged part of the mountains. Here, in a cave the interior of which was filled with idols, set up in niches upon stones dyed with human blood and smoke of incense, was a large transparent chalchiuite,[X-48] entwined by a snake whose head pointed toward a little bird perched on the apex. This relic, worshiped since time immemorial under the name of the 'heart of the people,' has all the chief attributes of Quetzalcoatl; the stone, the emblem of the air god, the snake and the bird; yet how mutilated the original myth, how much of its beautiful significance gone! Burgoa invests the relic with another attribute in making it the supporter of the earth, another Atlas in fact, whose movements produce earthquakes. This also accords with the character of Quetzalcoatl, who, under the name of Huemac, was supposed to produce earthquakes. The Zapotecs, besides, prayed to it for victory and wealth, and Quetzalcoatl as the 'peace god,' could doubtless influence the former, while the latter gift was always in his power.[X-49] In several other places were idols with the same name, as at Yangüistlan, Chalcatongo, and Coatlan, where the temples were caves, a fact worthy of note when we consider that Quetzalcoatl is stated by the myth to have erected temples to Mictlantecutli, the Mexican Pluto.[X-50]

[Sidenote: VOTAN AND QUETZALCOATL.]

The few authors, however, who have referred to this relic, nearly all hold it to represent Votan; the old writers doubtless because the name signifies 'heart'[X-51] in the Tzendal dialect of Chiapas, where he was the most prominent deity, the modern, because its attributes accord with those of this god. But Votan has so much in common with Quetzalcoatl that some writers are inclined to consider them identical, or at least related. Müller, however, declares him to be an original Maya snake-god, one of the thirteen chief snakes, to whom the bird attribute was given at a late period, borrowed, perhaps, from Quetzalcoatl. He is gradually anthropomorphized into one of the many leaders whose names have been given to the days of the month, Votan taking the third of the four names that designated days as well as years. Yet Professor Müller concedes that the god was brought from Cholula, and that certain special attributes of Quetzalcoatl may be recognized in the figures on the Palenque ruins, which probably refer to Votan; and further, that a phase of the myth seems to point to him as the grandson of Quetzalcoatl.[X-52] Brasseur de Bourbourg, while accepting his identity with the 'heart of the people,' considers that the double aspect of the tradition allows us to suppose that there were several Votans, or that this name was accorded to deserving men who came after him. At times he seems to be a mythic creation, the mediator between man and God, the representation of wisdom and power; at times a prince and legislator who introduced a higher culture among his people. The analogy presented by traditions between Votan, Gucumatz, Cukulcan, and Quetzalcoatl, would lead us to believe that one individual united in his person all these appellations. Nevertheless, a comparison of the different traditions admits of two, Votan and Quetzalcoatl, the other names having the same signification as the latter.

It is certain, however, that from them, whether heroes, priests, rulers, or warriors, Central America received the culture which their successors brought to such perfection. The knowledge of one supreme being appears to have been among the first dogmas instilled into the minds of their people; but in the tradition presented to us, the hero's name is often confounded with that of the divinities.[X-53] Like Quetzalcoatl, Votan was the first historian of his people, and wrote a book on the origin of the race, in which he declares himself a snake, a descendant of Imos, of the line of Chan, of the race of Chivim.[X-54] One of his titles was 'lord of the hollow tree,' the tepahuaste, or teponaztli.[X-55]

From the confused tradition of the Tzendals, as rendered by Nuñez de la Vega and Ordoñez y Aguiar, it seems that Votan, proceeded by divine command to America and there portioned out the land.[X-56] He accordingly departed from Valum Chivim, passed by the 'dwelling of the thirteen snakes,' and arrived in Valum Votan,[X-57] where he took with him several of his family to form the nucleus of the settlement. With them he passed through the island-strewn Laguna de Terminos, ascended the Usumacinta, and here, on one of its tributaries founded Nachan,[X-58] or Palenque, the future metropolis of a mighty kingdom, and one of the reputed cradles of American civilization. The Tzendal inhabitants bestowed upon the strange-looking new-comers the name Tzequiles, 'men with petticoats,' on account of their long robes, but soon exchanged ideas and customs with them, submitted to their rule, and gave them their daughters in marriage. This event is laid a thousand years before Christ.[X-59]

[Sidenote: TRAVELS OF VOTAN.]

Ordoñez proceeds to say that Votan, after the establishment of his government, made four or more visits to his former home. On his first voyage he came to a great city, wherein a magnificent temple was in course of erection; this city Ordoñez supposed to be Jerusalem; he next visited an edifice which had been originally intended to reach heaven, an object defeated by a confusion of tongues; finally he was allowed to penetrate by a subterranean passage to the root of heaven.[X-60] On returning to Palenque, Votan found that several more of his nations had arrived; these he recognized as snakes, and showed them many favors, in return for which his supremacy was made secure, and he was at last apotheosized.[X-61] Among the monuments left by the hero was a temple on the Huehuetan River, called 'house of darkness,' from its subterranean chambers, where the records of the nation were deposited under the charge of a fixed number of old men, termed tlapianes, or guardians, and an order of priestesses, whose superior was likewise the head of the male members. Here were also kept a number of tapirs, a sacred animal among the people.[X-62]

The claims of Votan to be considered as the 'heart of the people,' are supported, according to the above accounts, chiefly by his name, which means 'heart,' and by the fact that a chalchiuite, of which stone the relic was made, was placed by the Mexicans and other peoples between the lips of deceased. The other attributes accord more with the character of Quetzalcoatl, as we have seen, and the tradition is very similar; its confusion goes to show that it is a mutilated version of the Toltec myth. If we accept Votan as a grandson of Quetzalcoatl we may also suppose that he was one of the disciples sent out by the prophet to spread his doctrines, and that his own name has been substituted for that of his master. This view is favored by the fact that Quetzalcoatl is identified with the snake-heroes of Yucatan and Guatemala, countries that lie beside and beyond Chiapas. Then, again, we find that Votan's worship was known in Cholula, and that he landed in the very region where the former hero disappeared. However doubtful the preceding tradition may be, there is one among the Oajacans, which to me has all the appearance of a mutilated version of the myth of Quetzalcoatl, deformed still more by the orthodox Fathers. In very remote times, about the era of the apostles, according to the padres, an old white man, with long hair and beard, appeared suddenly at Huatulco, coming from the south-west by sea, and preached to the natives in their own tongue, but of things beyond their understanding. He lived a strict life, passing the greater part of the night in a kneeling posture, and eating but little. He disappeared shortly after as mysteriously as he had come, but left as a memento of his visit a cross, which he planted with his own hand, and admonished the people to preserve it sacredly, for one day they would be taught its significance.[X-63] Some authors describe a personage of the same appearance and character, coming from the same quarter, and appearing in the country shortly after, but it is doubtless the same old man, who, on leaving Huatulco, may have turned his steps to the interior. His voice is next heard in Mictlan,[X-64] inveighing in gentle but firm accents against the pleasures of this world, and enjoining repentance and expiation. His life was in strict accordance with his doctrines, and never, except at confession, did he approach a woman. But the lot of Wixepecocha, as the Zapotecs call him, was that of most reformers. Persecuted by those whose vice and superstitions he attacked, he was driven from one province to another, and at last took refuge on Mount Cempoaltepec. Even here his pursuers followed him, climbing its craggy sides to lay hands upon the prophet. Just as they reached the summit, he vanished like a shadow, leaving only the print of his feet upon the rock.[X-65]

[Sidenote: THE APOSTLE WIXEPECOCHA.]

Among the points in this myth that correspond to the character of Quetzalcoatl may be noticed the appearance of the prophet from the south-west, which agrees with the direction of the moisture-bearing winds, the chief attribute of the Toltec god; the cross, which indicates not only the four winds, but the rain of which they are the bearers, attributes recognized by the Mexicans who decorated the mantle of the god with crosses; the long beard, the white face, and the dress, which all accord with the Toltec Quetzalcoatl. Like him Wixepecocha taught gentle doctrines of reform, like him he was persecuted and forced to wander from place to place, and at last disappeared, leaving his followers the hope of a better future. The doctrine of Wixepecocha, took root and flourished in the land he had consecrated with his toils and prayers, and, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg, Wiyatao, the pontiff of Zapotecapan, was vicar and successor of the 'prophet of Monapostiac.'[X-66]

The early padres saw in this personage none other than St. Thomas, the apostle, who had walked across to plant the cross and prepare the way for christianity. There is, or was until recently, a statue of him in the village of Magdalena, four leagues from Tehuantepec, which represented him with long white beard, and muffled up in a long robe with a hood, secured by a cord round the waist; he was seated in a reflective attitude, listening to the confession of a woman kneeling by his side.[X-67] A similar statue is mentioned by Burgoa, as having existed in a cave not far from Xustlahuaca, in Mistecapan,[X-68] where it stood near the entrance, on a marble monolith eleven feet in height. The approach to the cavern appears to have formerly led through a beautiful garden; within were masses of stalactite of the most fantastic and varied forms, many of which the people had fashioned into images of different kinds, and of the most artistic execution, says the padre, whose fancy was doubtless aided by the twilight within. Here lay the embalmed bodies of kings and pontiffs, surrounded by treasures, for this was a supposed entrance to the flowered fields of heaven. The temple cave at Mictlan bore a similar reputation, and served as a sepulchre for the Zapotec grandees. It consisted of four chief divisions, the largest forming the sanctuary proper, the second and third the tombs of kings and pontiffs, and the fourth a vestibule to an immense labyrinthine grotto, in which brave warriors were occasionally buried. Into this, the very ante-room of paradise, frenzied devotees would at times enter, and seek in its dark mazes for the abode of the gods; none ever returned from this dread quest, for the entrance was closed with a great stone, and doubtless many a poor wretch as he touched in his last feeble gropings the bones of those who had preceded him, felt the light come in upon his soul in spite of the thick darkness, and knew he had been deluded; but the mighty stone at the mouth of the cave told no secrets.[X-69]

[Sidenote: GODS OF OAJACA.]

The prominence of the Plutonic element in the worship of Oajaca is shown by the fact that Pezelao, whose character corresponded to that of the Mexican Mictlantecutli, received high honors. The other conspicuous gods, as enumerated by Brasseur de Bourbourg, were Pitao-Cocobi, god of abundance, or of the harvest; Cociyo, the rain god; Cozaana, patron of hunters and fishermen; and Pitao-Xoo, god of earthquakes. Other deities controlled riches, misfortunes, auguries, poetic inspiration--even the hens had their patron divinity. As might be expected of a people who regarded even living kings and priests with adoration, apotheosis was common. Thus, Petela, an ancient Zapotec cacique whose name signified dog, was worshiped in the cavern of Coatlan. At one end of this subterranean temple a yawning abyss received the foaming waters of a mountain torrent, and into this slaves and captives, gaily dressed and adorned with flowers, were cast on certain occasions.[X-70]

At another place was a white stone shaped like a nine-pin, supposed to be the embodiment of Pinopiaa, a saintly princess of Zapotecapan, whose corpse had been miraculously conveyed to heaven and returned in this form for the benefit of the devout.[X-71]

In Chiapas they worshiped Costahuntox, who was represented with ram's horns on his head, and sat on a throne surrounded by thirteen grandees. In the district of Llanos, Yabalan, or Yahalan, and Canamlum were the chief gods. Even living beings held the position of deities, according to Diaz, who states that a fat old woman, dressed in richly decorated robes, whom the natives venerated as a goddess, led them against the Spanish invaders, but was killed.[X-72] Among the Mijes a green flat stone, with blood-red, lustrous rays, was held in much veneration. Although this is the only reference made by the chroniclers that may be connected with sun worship--which, by the way, could scarcely have claimed a very high position here, since the founder of the Miztec royal family is stated to have been victorious in a contest with the sun--it is worthy of note that the Zapotec word nuhu, fire, also denotes divinity, idol, everything sacred, the earth itself.[X-73] The household idols had their names, history, and worship depicted on bark, and smoked or painted hides, in order to keep them always before the people, and insure to the youth a knowledge of their god. How firmly rooted idolatry was, and how slow the work of eradicating it must have been, to the padres, notwithstanding they destroyed every idol they could lay hands on, is shown by the fact that among the Guechecoros a statue of Cortés served as an object of worship.[X-74] Nagualism is one of the ancient forms of worship which still flourish, and consists in choosing an animal as the tulelary divinity of child, whose existence will be so closely connected with it, that the life of one depends on that of the other. Burgoa states that the priest selected the animal by divination; when the boy grew up he was directed to proceed to a mountain to offer sacrifice, and there the animal would appear to him. Others say that at the hour of the mother's confinement, the father and friends drew on the floor of the hut the outline of various animals, effacing each figure as soon as they began the next, and the figure that remained at the moment of delivery represented the guardian of the infant; or, that the bird or beast first seen by the watchers after the confinement was accepted as the nagual. The bestowal of the sign of the day upon the infant as its name may perhaps be considered as a species of nagualism, since the name of animals often formed these signs.[X-75]

[Sidenote: TREE WORSHIP.]

A form of worship particularly marked in this country was the veneration accorded to trees, as may be judged from the myth which attributes the origin of the Miztec, as well as a portion at least of the Zapotec people to two trees. This cult existed also in other parts of Mexico and Central America, where cypresses and palms growing near the temples, generally in groups of three, were tended with great care, and often received offerings of incense and other gifts. They do not, however, seem to have been dedicated to any particular god, as among the Romans, where Pluto claimed the cypress, and Victory the palm. One of the most sacred of these relics is a cypress standing at Santa María de Tule, the venerable trunk of which measures ninety feet in circumference, at a height of six feet from the ground.[X-76]

One of the chief offerings of the Zapotecs was the blood of the, to them sacred, turkey; straws and feathers smeared with blood from the back of the ear, and from beneath the tongue of persons, also constituted a large portion of the sacred offerings, and were presented in special grass vessels. Human sacrifices were not common with the Oajacan people, but in case of emergency, captives and slaves were generally the victims. The usual mode of offering them was to tear out the heart, but in some places, as at Coatlan, they were cast into an abyss. Herrera states that men were offered to the gods, women to goddesses, and children to inferior deities, and that their bodies were eaten, but the latter statement is doubtful.[X-77]

FOOTNOTES:

[X-1] 'Los Pueblos, que à los Templos de la Ciudad de Tetzcuco servian, con Leña, Carbon, y corteça de Roble, eran quince ... y otros quince Pueblos ... servian los otros seis meses del Año, con lo mismo, à las Casas Reales, y Templo Maior.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 164.

[X-2] Rapport, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. v., p. 305.

[X-3] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 164-6; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxxix., cxli. 'È da credersi, che quel tratto di paese, che avea il nome di Teotlalpan, (Terra degli Dei,) fosse così appellata, per esservi delle possesioni de' Tempj.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 36.

[X-4] Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 120.

[X-5] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 112; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 36-7.

[X-6] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 175-7; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 37. Sahagun calls them Quetzalcoatl Teoteztlamacazqui, who was also high-priest of Huitzilopochtli, and Tlaloctlamacazqui, who was Tlaloc's chief priest; they were equals, and elected from the most perfect, without reference to birth. Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 276-7. There are two inconsistencies in this, the only strong contradiction of the statement of the above, as well as several other authors, who form the authority of my text: first, Sahagun calls the first high-priest Quetzalcoatl Teotectlamacazqui, a name which scarcely accords with the title of Huitzilopochtli's high-priest; secondly, he ignores the almost unanimous evidence of old writers, who state that the latter office was hereditary in a certain district. 'Al Summo Pontìfice llamaban en la lengua mexicana Tehuatecolt.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxxiii. 'El mayor de todos que es superlado, Achcauhtli.' Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 323. But this was the title of the Tlascaltec high-priest. 'A los supremos Sacerdotes ... llamauan en su antigua lengua Papas.' Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 336. See also Chaves, Rapport, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. v., pp. 303-4.

[X-7] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 177, 180; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 41; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xv.; Las Casas, _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxxiii.

[X-8] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 218-19. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 549-51, whose chief authority is Hernandez, and who is not very clear in his description, holds that the Mexicatlteohuatzin was the supreme priest, and that he also bore the title of Teotecuhtli, the rank of chief priest of Huitzilopochtli, and was the right hand minister of the king. Quetzalcoatl's high-priest he places next in rank, but outside of the political sphere. On one page he states that the high-priest was elected by the two chief men in the hierarchy, and on another he distinctly implies that the king made the higher appointments in order to control the church. The sacrificing priest, whom he evidently holds to be the same as the high-priest, he invests with the rank of generalissimo, and heir to the throne.

[X-9] Carbajal states that a temple bearing the name of the people, or their chief town, was erected in the metropolis, and attended by a body of priests brought from the province. Discurso, p. 110. This may, however, be a misinterpretation of Torquemada, who gives a description of a building attached to the chief temple at Mexico, in which the idols of subjugated people were kept imprisoned, to prevent them from aiding their worshipers to regain their liberty.

[X-10] Some authors seem to associate this office with that of the pontiff, but it appears that the high-priest merely inaugurated the sacrifices on special occasions. 'Era esta vna dignidad suprema, y entre ellos tenida en mucho, la qual se heredaua como cosa de mayorazgo. El ministro que tenia oficio de matar ... era tenido y reuerenciado como supreme Sacerdote, o Pontifice.' Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 352. 'Era como decir, el Sumo Sacerdote, al qual, y no à otro, era dado este oficio de abrir los Hombres por los pechos, ... siendo comunmente los herederos, de este Patrimonio, y suerte Eclesiastica, los primogenitos.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 117. It is difficult to decide upon the interpretation of these sentences. The expression of his being 'held or reverenced as pontiff' certainly indicates that another priest held the office, so does the sentence, 'it was inherited by the first-born' of certain families. But the phrase, 'el Sumo Sacerdote, al qual y no à otro, era dado este oficio,' points very directly to the high-priest as the holder of the post.

[X-11] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 178-9; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 37-9; Sahagun, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 218-26; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p. 551.

[X-12] Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 323-4. He describes the dress as 'vna ropa de algodon blanca estrecha, y larga, y encima vna manta por capa añudada al hombro.... Tiznaunse los dios festiuales, y quando su regla mandaua de negro las piernas,' etc.

[X-13] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 39-40; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 369-71. Brasseur de Bourbourg thinks that the teopatli was the ointment used at the consecration of the high-priest, but it is not likely that a preparation which served monks and invalids as body paint, would be applied to the heads of high-priests and kings. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 558. Every priestly adornment had, doubtless, its mystic meaning. The custom of painting the body black was first done in honor of the god of Hades. Boturini, Idea, p. 117.

[X-14] See vol. ii., pp. 242, et seq.

[X-15] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 189-91; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 223-31; Motolinia, _Hist. Indios_, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., pp. 53-4. 'Sustentábanse del trabajo de sus manos ó por sus padres y parientes.' Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 107.

[X-16] 'Trahian en las cabeças coronas como frayles, poco cabello, aunque crezido hasta media oreja, y mas largo por el colodrillo hasta las espaldas, y a manera de trençado le atauan.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xvi.

[X-17] Clavigero asserts that at the age of two the boy was consecrated to the order of tlamacazcayotl by a cut in the breast, and at seven he was admitted. Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 44; Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 53.

[X-18] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 220-4. Whether this decorum was preserved after the adjournment of the meeting, is a point which some writers are inclined to doubt.

[X-19] Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 341-2.

[X-20] Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcix., pp. 134-5.

[X-21] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxxii.; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 90.

[X-22] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxxix.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 185-6.

[X-23] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 39. According to Torquemada, the night service was partly devoted to the god of night. Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 227.

[X-24] Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxv.; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 224-5, 275; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 336, 343; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xv.

[X-25] This was the answer given by Juan de Tovar, in his Hist. Ind., MS., to the doubts expressed by Acosta as to the authenticity of the long-winded prayers of the Mexicans, whose imperfect writing was not well adapted to reproduce orations. Helps' Span. Conq., vol. i., p. 282.

[X-26] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 93. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 24, certainly says: 'Taceano le loro preghiere comunemente inginocchione,' but we are told by Sahagun and others, that when they approached the deity with most humility, namely, at the confession, a squatting position was assumed; the same was done when they delivered orations. The greatest sign of adoration, according to Camargo, was to take a handful of earth and grass and eat it; very similar to the manner of taking an oath or greeting a superior, which consisted in touching the hand to the ground and then putting it to the lips. Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcix., p. 168.

[X-27] Ib.

[X-28] At the present day the rite of circumcision may be traced almost in an unbroken line from China to the Cape of Good Hope.

[X-29] Myths, p. 147.

[X-30] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 83; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., pp. 108-9; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxv.; Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 133.

[X-31] See this volume, pp. 380-4.

[X-32] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 212-13; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 343; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 275-6.

[X-33] Conq. Mex., fol. 336. Some of these sticks were thicker than a finger, 'y largos, como el tamaño de vn braço.' 'Eran en numero de quatrocientas.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 102-3; Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., pp. 51-2.

[X-34] Rapport, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. v., p. 305. The Mexican priests performed this sacrifice every five days. Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., p. 225, 'De la sangre que sacaban de las partes del Cuerpo en cada provincia tenian diferente costumbre.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxx.

[X-35] See this volume, p. 61.

[X-36] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 165-7. Torquemada, however, mentions one earlier sacrifice of some refractory Mexicans, who desired to leave their wandering countrymen and settle at Tula, contrary to the command of the god. Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 115-16, 50. 'On prétend que cet usage vint de la province de Chalco dans celle de Tlaxcallan.' Camargo, Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 199; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Quatre Lettres, p. 343. 'Quetzalcoatle was the first inventor of sacrifices of human blood.' Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., p. 201. It is conceded, however, by other writers, that Quetzalcoatl was opposed to all bloodshed. See this volume, p. 278. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 628, thinks that the Aztecs introduced certain rites of human sacrifice, which they connected with others already existing in Mexico.

[X-37] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 186. 'Eran cada año estos Niños sacrificados mas de veinte mil por cuenta.' Id., tom. ii., p. 120. A misconstruction of Zumárraga, who does not specify them as children. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 49, tom. i., p. 257; Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 268; Boturini, Idea, p. 28. 'Afirman que auia vez que passauan de cinco mil, y dia vuo que en diuersas partes fueron assi sacrificados mas de veynta mil.' Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 356. Gomara states that the conquerors counted 136,000 skulls in one skull-yard alone. Conq. Mex., fol. 122.

[X-38] 'Non furono mai veduti i Messicani sacriücare i propj lor Nazionali, se non coloro, che per li loro delitti erano rei di morte.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. iv., p. 299. A rather hasty assertion.

[X-39] See vol. ii., p. 307.

[X-40] Salazar y Olarte, Hist. Conq. Mex., p. 71; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.

[X-41] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 79-82. This author gives the name as Curicaweri.

[X-42] 'El Sumo Sacerdote Curinacanery.' Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., p. 52.

[X-43] 'Guirnaldas de fluecos colorados,' says Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.

[X-44] Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.; Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., pp. 52-3, 75; Alegre, Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. i., pp. 91-2; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 59, 64-5, 79-82; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 525; Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., pp. 291-2, thinks that the sacrifices were introduced by surrounding tribes, and that cannibalism was unknown to the Tarascos. 'Sacrificaban culebras, aves y conejos, y no los hombres, aunque fuesen cautivos, porque se servian de ellos, como de esclavos.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., lib. x., p. 138. See also vol. ii., pp. 620-1, of this work.

[X-45] Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., p. 232, tells of a Supreme Being in heaven, and with him an ever young virgin from whom all men descend; a belief which the child-god is said to have promulgated; but the account seems somewhat confused both as to place and authority. Alegre, Hist. Comp. de Jesus, tom. iii., p. 197, and Padilla, Conq. N. Galicia, MS., p. 8, mention additional gods, but give no description. Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro, tom. ii., pp. 269-70; Alcedo, Diccionario, tom. iii., p. 299; Tello, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. ii., p. 363; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., p. 566; Gil, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. viii., pp. 496-8.

[X-46] 'Les dieux, de quelque nature qu'ils fussent, avaient dans la langue zapotèque le nom de "Pitao," qui correspond à l'idée du grand-esprit, d'un esprit étendu.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 26-7.

[X-47] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 255-6, also refers to emigration of Toltec chiefs to found new states.

[X-48] 'Vna esmeralda tan grande como vn gruesso pimiento de esta tierra, tenia labrado encima vna auesita, ò pajarillo con grandissimo primor, y de arriba à baxo enroscada vna culebrilla con el mesmo arte, la piedra era tan transparente, que brillaba desde el fondo.' Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt i., fol. 156.

[X-49] Burgoa gives the relic in this instance a title which varies somewhat in the wording, although the former sense remains: 'El Alma, y coraçon del Reyno.' Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 396. Dávila Padilla, Hist. Fvnd. Mex., p. 639, mentions an idol among the Zapotecs in shape of a hand, which may have represented Huemac.

[X-50] The Zapotecs had other temples also, fashioned like those of Mexico in superimposed terraces of stone-cased earth. Burgoa describes one which measured 2000 paces in circumference, and rose to a height of 88-90 feet; on each terrace stood an adobe chapel with a well attached for the storage of water. On the occasion of a great victory another terrace was added to the pile. Geog. Descrip., tom. i., pt ii., fol. 198.

[X-51] Cabrera, Teatro, in Rio's Description, p. 37.

[X-52] He also calls him the Miztec Cultur god. Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 486-90.

[X-53] Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 44-5.

[X-54] Chan, 'snake,' was the name of a tribe of Lacandones, near Palenque, known also as Colhuas, Chanes, or Quinames. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 109. The book referred to or a copy of it, written in the Tzendal or Quiché language, was in the possession of Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who published short extracts of it in his Constitut. Diœces, but seems to have had it burned, together with other native relics, in 1691, at Huehuetan. Previous to this, however, Ordoñez y Aguiar had obtained a copy of it, written in Latin characters, and gave a résumé of the contents in his Hist. del Cielo, MS. This author contradicts himself by stating, in one part of his MS., that the original was written by a descendant of Votan. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. lxxxvii., cviii.; Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq., p. 12; Cabrera, Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., pp. 33-4. Cabrera, who bases his account of the myth on Ordoñez' rendering, which he at times seems to have misunderstood and mutilated, thinks that Chivim refers to Tripoli, and it is the same as Hivim or Givim, the Phœnician word for snake, which, again, refers to Hivites, the descendants of Heth, son of Canaan. Votan's expression, as given in his book, 'I am a snake, a Chivim,' signifies 'I am a Hivite from Tripoli.' Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., p. 34, et seq.

[X-55] Boturini, Idea, p. 115. It may be of interest to compare his name with Odon in the Michoacan calendar, and Oton, the Otomí god and chief. Humboldt was particularly struck with its resemblance to Odin, the Scandinavian god-hero. Vues, tom. i., p. 208; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. lxxvi.

[X-56] Equivalent to laying the foundation for civilization. According to Ordoñez he was sent to people the continent; a view also taken by Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 150-1. Torquemada's account of the spreading of the Toltecs southward, may throw some light on this subject. Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 256, et seq.

[X-57] Valum Chivim, Valum Votan, land of Chivim and Votan. See note 15. Cabrera considers two marble columns found at Tangier, with Phœnician inscriptions, a trace of his route; the dwellings of the thirteen snakes are thirteen islands of the Canary group, and Valum Votan, the Island of Santo Domingo. Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., p. 34, et seq. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 489, hints significantly at the worship of the snake-god Votan, on Santo Domingo Island, under the name of Vaudoux. Brasseur de Bourbourg's ideas on this point have already been made pretty evident in the account of Quetzalcoatl's myth. The thirteen snakes may mean thirteen chiefs of Xibalba. There is a ruin bearing the name of Valum Votan about nine leagues from Ciudad Real, Chiapas. Popol Vuh, p. lxxxviii. Ordoñez holds Valum Votan to be Cuba, whence he takes seven families with him. Cabrera, ubi sup.

[X-58] Ordoñez says the original Na-chan means 'place of snakes.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 69.

[X-59] A date which is confirmed by the Chimalpopoca MS. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. lxxxviii. One tradition makes the Tzequiles speak a Nahua dialect, but it is possible that Ordoñez confounds two epochs. Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 70.

[X-60] In the traditions presented on pp. 67-8, 50, of this volume, will be found reference to Cholula as the place where the tower of Babel was built, and to the confusion of tongues, which tends to connect this myth with those of the neighboring country. Ordoñez' orthodox ideas have probably added much to the native MS. from which he took his account, yet Nuñez de la Vega agrees with him in most respects. Cabrera, Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., p. 84, considers the great city to be Rome, but agrees with his authorities that the latter edifice is the tower of Babel. A Tzendal legend relates that a subterranean passage, leading from Palenque to Tulhá, near Ococingo, was constructed in commemoration of the celestial passage, or 'serpent hole,' into which Votan in his quality of snake, was admitted. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 72-3.

[X-61] Cabrera has it that the new-comers are seven Tzequiles, or shipwrecked countrymen of Votan. The voyages and other incidents he considers confirmed by the sculptures on the Palenque ruins, which shows Votan surrounded by symbols of travel, indications of the places visited in the old and new world; he recognizes the attributes of Osiris in the idol brought over by Votan, with the intention of establishing its worship in the new world. Lastly, Votan and his families are Carthaginians. Teatro, in Rio's Description, pp. 95, 34.

[X-62] The ruins of Huehuetan, 'city of old men,' are still to be seen. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 73-4; Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq., pp. 11-15; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 10-21. Vega mentions that at Teopixca in Chiapas he found several families who bore the hero's name and claimed to be descendants of his. This has little value, however, for we know that priests assumed the name of their god, and nearly all mythical heroes have had descendants, as Zeus, Herakles, and others. Boturini, Idea, p. 115.

[X-63] A portion of this relic was sent to Pope Paul V., in 1613; the remainder was deposited in the cathedral for safe keeping. Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 350-2.

[X-64] The place of the dead, or hades, also called Yopaa, land of tombs. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 9.

[X-65] Fray Juan de Ojedo saw and felt the indentation of two feet upon the rook, the muscles and toes as distinctly marked as if they had been pressed upon soft wax. The Mijes had this tradition written in characters on skin. Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 299.

[X-66] A name given to Wixepecocha by the tradition, which adds that he was seen on the island of Monapostiac, near Tehuantepec, previous to his final disappearance. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 411. Quetzalcoatl also disappeared seaward.

[X-67] He debarked near Tehuantepec, bearing a cross in his hand; Gondra, Rasgos y señales de la primera predicacion en el Nuevo-Mundo, MS.; Carriedo, Estudios, Hist. del Estado Oaxaqueño, tom. i., cap. i.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 9-10.

[X-68] Brasseur de Bourbourg seems to place it at Chalcatongo. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 19; Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt i., fol. 170.

[X-69] Escalera and Llana, Mej. Hist. Descrip., p. 330.

[X-70] 'Le tenian enterrado, seco, y embalsamado en su proporcion.' The cave was supposed to connect with the city of Chiapas, 200 leagues distant. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xiv.

[X-71] 'Piedra blanca, labrada al modo de vn acho de bolos ... vn gruesso taladro.' Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 362.

[X-72] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 179; Salazar y Olarte, Hist. Conq. Mex., p. 137. There were many among the padres who held Yabalan to have been an immediate descendant of Noah's son Ham, because the name signified 'chief black man, or negro.' Piñeda, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 419.

[X-73] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 17; Dávila Padilla, Hist. Fvnd. Mex., pp. 638-9. In Chiapas are found a number of representations of heavenly bodies, sculptured, or drawn, and at Palenque a sun temple is supposed to have existed. Piñeda, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 419.

[X-74] They 'worship his image in their own peculiar way, sometimes by cutting off a turkey's head.' 'The natives are about as far advanced in christianity as they were at the time of the conquest.' Hutchings' Cal. Mag., vol. ii., p. 542.

[X-75] Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 395; Ferry, Costal L'Indien, pp. 6-7.

[X-76] Some consider it to be composed of three trunks which have grown together, and the deep indentations certainly give it that appearance; but trees of this species generally present irregular forms. Escalera and Llana, Méj. Hist. Descrip., pp. 224-5; Charnay, Ruines Amér., phot. xviii.

[X-77] Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. xiv.; Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 282; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., p. 194. Pontelli, who claims to have paid a visit to the forbidden retreats of the mountain Lacandones, a few years ago, mentions, among other peculiarities, a stone of sacrifice, interlaced by serpents, and covered with hieroglyphics, on which the heart of human beings were torn out. Correo de Ultramar, Paris 1860; Cal. Farmer, Nov. 7, 1862.

XI. GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP

MAYA PANTHEON -- ZAMNÁ -- CUKULCAN -- THE GODS OF YUCATAN -- THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS IN AMERICA -- HUMAN SACRIFICES IN YUCATAN -- PRIESTS OF YUCATAN -- GUATEMALAN PANTHEON -- TEPEU AND HURAKAN -- AVILIX AND HACAVITZ -- THE HEROES OF THE SACRED BOOK -- QUICHÉ GODS -- WORSHIP OF THE CHOLES, MANCHES, ITZAS, LACANDONES, AND OTHERS -- TRADITION OF COMIZAHUAL -- FASTS -- PRIESTS OF GUATEMALA -- GODS, WORSHIP, AND PRIESTS OF NICARAGUA -- WORSHIP ON THE MOSQUITO COAST -- GODS AND WORSHIP OF THE ISTHMIANS -- PHALLIC WORSHIP IN AMERICA.

The religion of the Mayas was fundamentally the same as that of the Nahuas, though it differed somewhat in outward forms. Most of the gods were deified heroes, brought more or less prominently to the front by their importance. Occasionally we find very distinct traces of an older sun-worship, which has succumbed to later forms, introduced, according to vague tradition, from Anáhuac. The generality of this cult is testified to by the numerous representations of sun-plates and sun-pillars found among the ruins of Central America.[XI-1]

In Yucatan, Hunab Ku, 'the only god', called also Kinehahau, 'the mouth or eyes of the sun',[XI-2] is represented as the Supreme Being, the Creator, the Invisible one, whom no image can represent.[XI-3] His spouse Ixazalvoh was honored as the inventor of weaving, and their son Zamná, or Yaxcocahmut, one of the culture-heroes of the people, is supposed to have been the inventor of the art of writing.[XI-4] The inquiries instituted by Las Casas revealed the existence of a trinity, the first person of which was Izona, the Great Father; the second was the Son of the Great Father, Bacab, born of the virgin Chibirias,[XI-5] scourged and crucified, he descended into the realms of the dead, rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; the third person of the trinity was Echuah, or Ekchuah, the Holy Ghost.[XI-6] Now, to accuse the reverend Fathers of deliberately concocting this and other statements of a similar character is to accuse them of acts of charlatanism which no religious zeal could justify. On the other hand, that this mysterious trinity, had any real existence in the original belief of the natives, is, to put it in its mildest form, exceedingly doubtful. It may be, however, that the natives, when questioned concerning their religion, endeavored to make it conform as nearly as possible to that of their conquerors, hoping by this means to gain the good will of their masters, and to lull suspicions of lurking idolatry.

Bacab, stated above to mean the Son of the Great Father, was in reality the name of four spirits who supported the firmament; while Echuah, or the Holy Ghost, was the patron god of merchants and travelers.

[Sidenote: ZAMNÁ.]

The goddess Ixcanleox was held to be the mother of the gods, but as Cogolludo states that she had several names, she may possibly be identical with Ixazaluoh, the wife of Hunab Ku, whose name implies generation.[XI-7] The Mayas were not behind their neighbors in the number of their lesser and special divinities, so that there was scarcely an animal or imaginary creature which they did not represent by sacred images. These idols, or zemes,[XI-8] as they were called, were generally made of terra cotta, though sometimes they were of stone, gold, or wood. In the front rank of the circle of gods, known by the name of ku, were the deified kings and heroes, whom we often find credited with attributes so closely connected as to imply identity, or representation of varied phases of the same element.[XI-9] The most popular names were Zamná and Cukulcan, both culture-heroes, and considered by some to be identical; a very probable supposition when we consider that Quetzalcoatl, who is admitted to be the same as Cukulcan, had the attribute of the strong hand, as well as Zamná. The tradition relates that some time after the fall of the Quinamean Empire, Zamná appeared in Yucatan, coming from the west, and was received with great respect wherever he stayed. Besides being the inventor of the alphabet, he is said to have named all points and places in the country. Over his grave rose a city called Izamal or Itzamat Ul, which soon became one of the chief centres of pilgrimage in the peninsula, especially for the afflicted, who sincerely believed that their prayers when accompanied by suitable presents would not fail to obtain a hearing. This class of devotees generally resorted to the temple where he was represented in the form of a hand, Kab Ul, or working hand, whose touch was sufficient to restore health.[XI-10]

Professor Müller thinks it very uncertain whether the creating or working hand referred to the sun, as was the case among the northern tribes, but the account given of the following idol seems to me to make this not improbable. In the same city was an image of Kinich Kakmo, 'face or eye of the sun', whom Landa represents to be the offspring of the sun, but who subsequently became identified with that luminary and received divine honors in the very temple that he had erected to his father. He is represented in the act of sacrifice, pointing the finger toward a ray from the midday sun, as if to draw a spark wherewith to kindle the sacred fire. To this idol the people resorted in times of calamity and sickness, bringing offerings to induce oracular advice.[XI-11] There are many things which seem to me to identify this personage with Zamná, although other writers hold them to be distinct. Cogolludo, for instance, implies that Zamná was the only son of the sun, or Supreme Being, while Landa and others declare Kinich Kakmo to be the son of that luminary; both are placed on or about the same level and considered as healers, and the uplifted hand of the latter reminds us strongly of the Kab Ul. Another form in which we may recognize Zamná is the image of Itzamat Ul, or 'the dew of heaven', who is said to have been a great ruler, the son of god, and who cured diseases, raised the dead, and pronounced oracles. When asked his name, he replied, ytzencaan, ytzenmuyal.[XI-12]

[Sidenote: CUKULCAN.]

The other culture-hero, Cukulcan, appeared in Yucatan from the west, with nineteen followers, two of whom were gods of fishes, two gods of farms, and one of thunder, all wearing full beard, long robes, and sandals, but no head-covering. This event is supposed to have occurred at the very time that Quetzalcoatl disappeared in the neighboring province of Goazacoalco, a conjecture which, in addition to the similarity of the names, character, and work of the heroes, forms the basis for their almost generally accepted identity. Cukulcan stopped at several places in Yucatan, but at last settled in Chichen Itza, where he governed for ten years, and framed laws. At the expiration of this period, he left without apparent reason to return to the country whence he had come. A grateful people erected temples at Mayapan and Chichen, to which pilgrims resorted from all quarters to worship him as a god, and to drink of the waters in which he had bathed. His worship, although pretty general throughout Yucatan at one time, was later on confined chiefly to the immediate scenes of his labors.[XI-13]

Besides Izamal and Chichen, there was a third great centre of worship in Yucatan, namely, the temple of Ahulneb, on Cozumel Island, said by some writers to have been the chief sanctuary, Chichen being second in importance. It consisted of a square tower of considerable size, within which was the gigantic terra-cotta statue of Ahulneb, dressed as a warrior, and holding an arrow in his hand. The statue was hollow and set up close against an aperture in the wall, by which the priest entered the figure to deliver the oracle; should the prediction not be fulfilled, which was scarcely likely as it was generally so worded that it might mean anything or nothing, the failure was ascribed to insufficient sacrifice or unatoned sin. So famous did this oracle become, and so great was the multitude of pilgrims continually flocking to it, that it was found necessary to construct roads leading from the chief cities of Yucatan, and even from Tabasco and Guatemala, to Polé, a town on the continent opposite the island. Before embarking, the genius of the sea was always propitiated by the sacrifice of a dog, which was slain with arrows amid music and dancing.[XI-14]

[Sidenote: YUCATEC DEITIES.]

The Bacabs were four brothers who supported the four corners of the firmament; they were also regarded as air gods. Cogolludo speaks of them as Zacal Bacab, Canal Bacab, Chacal Bacab, and Ekel Bacab, but they were also known by other names. Echuah was the patron-god of merchants and of roads; to him the traveler erected every night a rude altar of six stones, three laid flat, and three set upright, upon which he burned incense while he invoked the protection of the god. It was considered a religious duty by Yucatec wayfarers, when passing some prominent point on the road or spot where an image of Echuah stood, to add a stone or two to the heap already accumulated there, an act of devotion similar to that performed by the Romans in honor of Mercury. Yuncemil was Lord of Death, or, perhaps, the personification of death itself; this dread deity was propitiated with offerings of food.[XI-15] Acat was God of Life; he it was that formed the infant in the womb. At Tihoo, the present Mérida, stood the magnificent temple of Yahau Kuna in which Baklum Chaam, the Priapus of the Mayas and their most ancient god was worshiped. Chac, or Chaac, a former king of Izamal, was honored as the god of fields, and fertility, and the inventor of agriculture. Some distance south-west of this city was the temple of Hunpictok, 'commander of eight thousand lances', a title given also to the general of the army.[XI-16] Abchuy Kak was another apotheosized warrior-prince, whose statue, dressed in royal robes, was borne in the van of the army by four of the most illustrious captains, and received an ovation all along the route. Yxchebelyax is mentioned as the inventor of the art of interweaving figures in cloth, and of painting. Xibalba, 'he who disappears,' was the name of the evil spirit. Exquemelin relates that nagualism obtained on the coast. The naked child was placed on a bed of ashes in the temple, and the animal whose footprint was noticed in the ashes, was adopted as the nagual, and to it the child offered incense as it grew up.[XI-17]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS.]

One of the most remarkable emblems of Maya worship, in the estimation of the conquerors, was the cross, which has also been noticed in other parts of Central America and in Mexico,[XI-18] although less prominently than here. Among the many conjectures as to its origin it is supposed that it was received from Spaniards who were wrecked on the coast before Córdova discovered Yucatan, as, for instance, the pious Aguilar, Cortés' interpreter; but this would not account for the crosses that existed in other parts of Central America. The natives had a tradition, however, which placed the introduction of the cross a few years before the conquest. Among the many prophets who arose at that time was one who predicted the coming of a strange people from the direction of the rising sun, who would bring with them a monotheistic faith having the cross for its emblem. He admonished them to accept the new religion, and erected a cross as a token of his prophecy.[XI-19] Another tradition states that a very handsome man passed through the country and left the cross as a memento, and this many of the padres readily believed, declaring this personage to be none other than the wanderer St Thomas.[XI-20] The opinion that it was introduced by early Christians, or old-world pagans, is, however, opposed by the argument that other more practical features of their culture would have left their mark at the same time. The symbol itself is so simple and suggestive of so many ideas that it seems to me most reasonable to suppose that the natives adopted it without foreign aid. At all events, as the cross was in use both as a religious emblem and an instrument of punishment long before the Christian era, it is surely unnecessary to account for its presence in America by theories invented for the occasion, or, in fact, in any way to connect it with Christianity. The most common signification attributed to the symbol is fertility or generation. A piece of wood fastened horizontally to an upright beam indicated the height of the overflow of the Nile. If the flood reached this mark, the crops flourished; should it fail to do so, famine was the result; thus, we are told, in Egypt the cross came to be worshipped as a symbol of life and generation, or feared as an image of decay and death. By other peoples and for other reasons it was closely connected with phallic rites, of which I shall speak elsewhere, or was connected with the worship of that great fertilizer and life-giver, the sun. Among the Chinese the cross signifies conception. The cross of Thor may possibly be an exception, and refer merely to his hammer or thunderbolt.[XI-21]

With the Mexicans the cross was a symbol of rain, the fertilizing element, or rather of the four winds, the bearers of rain, and as such it was one of Quetzalcoatl's emblems. Chalchiuitlicue, the sister of the rain-gods, bore in her hands a cross-shaped vessel. The cross is to be found in Mexican MSS., and appears in that of Fejérvary with a bird, which, as an inhabitant of the air, may be said to accord with the character of the symbol. The Mexican name of the cross, tonacaquahuitl, 'tree of one life, or flesh,' certainly conveys the idea of fertility. It is nevertheless regarded by some writers merely as an astronomical sign.[XI-22] The first cross noticed by the Spaniards stood within the turreted court-yard of a temple on Cozumel Island; it was composed of lime and stone, and was ten spans (palmos) in height. To this cross the natives prayed for rain, and in times of drought went in procession to offer vahomche, as they called the symbol, quails and other propitiatory gifts. Another cross stood within the precincts of the Spanish cloister at Mérida, whither the pious monks had most likely brought it from Cozumel; it was about three feet high, six inches thick, and had another cross sculptured on its face.[XI-23] The sculptured cross at Palenque has the latin form; a bird is perched on its apex, and on either side stands a human figure, apparently priests, one of whom offers it a child.[XI-24]

[Sidenote: HUMAN SACRIFICES IN YUCATAN.]

The Yucatecs were as careful as the Mexicans to prepare for their numerous festivals by fasts marked by strict chastity and absence from salt and pepper.[XI-25] Scarification could not be omitted by the pious on these occasions, although women were not called upon to draw blood.[XI-26] Yet their gods were not by any means so blood-thirsty as the Mexican, being generally appeased by the blood of animals, and human sacrifices were called for only on extraordinary occasions. Cukulcan, like his prototype Quetzalcoatl, doubtless opposed the shedding of human blood, but after his departure the practice certainly existed, and the pit at Chichen Itza, whose waters he had consecrated with his person, was among the first places to be polluted. The victims here were generally young virgins, who were charged when they should come into the presence of the gods to entreat them for the needed blessings. Medel relates that on one occasion the victim threatened to invoke the most terrible evils upon the people, instead of blessings, if they sacrificed her against her will; the perplexed priests thought it prudent to let the girl go, and select another and more tractable sacrifice in her place. The victims who died under the knife, or were tied to a tree and shot, were usually enslaved captives, especially those of rank, but when these failed, criminals and even children were substituted. All contributed to these sacrifices, either by presenting slaves and children, or by subscribing to the purchase money. While awaiting this doom the victims were well treated, and conducted from town to town amid great rejoicings; care was taken, however, that no sinful act should detract from their purity or value.[XI-27] Sometimes the body was eaten, says Landa, the feet, hands and head being given to the priests, the rest to the chiefs and others; but Cogolludo and Gomara insist that cannibalism was not practiced. The latter statement can not apply to the whole of the peninsula, however, for on a preceding page Cogolludo relates that Aguilar's shipwrecked companions were sacrificed and eaten by the natives.[XI-28]

Confession, which Cukulcan is said to have introduced, was much resorted to, the more so as death and disease were thought to be direct punishments for sin committed. Married priests were the regular confessors, but these were not always applied to for spiritual aid; the wife would often confess to her husband, or a husband to his wife, or sometimes a public avowal was made. Mental sins however, says Landa, were not confessed.[XI-29]

[Sidenote: PRIESTS OF YUCATAN.]

The priesthood of Yucatan were divided into different factions, some of which regarded Zamná and Cukulcan as their respective founders, while others remained true to more ancient leaders. According to Landa the high-priest was termed Ahkin Mai, or Ahau Can Mai, and held in great veneration, as one whose advice was followed by the kings and grandees. The revenues of the office, which passed as an inheritance to the son or nearest relative, consisted of presents from the king and of tributes collected by the priests. The ordinary priests bore the title of ahkin,[XI-30] and were divided into several classes. Some of them preached, made offerings, kept records, and instructed the sons of nobles and those destined for the priesthood in the various branches of education. The chilanes who construed the oracles of the gods, and accordingly exercised great influence, held the highest place in the estimation of the people, before whom they appeared in state, borne in litters. The sorcerers and medicine men foretold fortunes and cured diseases. The chacs were four old men elected at every celebration to assist the priests, from which it would seem that the priesthood was not a very numerous body. Nacon was the title of the sacrificer, an office held for life, but little esteemed; this title was also borne by the general of the army, who assisted at certain festivals. Marriage seems to have been permitted to all, and confessors were actually required to have wives, yet there were doubtless a large number who lived in a state of celibacy, devoted to their sacred duties. Their dress varied according to their rank, the high-priest being distinguished by a mitre in addition to his peculiar robe; the most usual dress was, however, a large white cotton robe[XI-31] and a turban formed by wreathing the unwashed hair round the head, and keeping it pasted in that position with blood. Connected with the sun worship was an order of vestals, formed by princess Zuhui Kak, 'fire virgin,' the daughter of Kinich Kakmo, superioress of the vestals. The members were all volunteers, who generally enrolled themselves for a certain time, at the expiration of which they were allowed to leave and enter the married state; some, however, remained for ever in the service of the temple, and were apotheosized. Their duty was to tend the sacred fire, the emblem of the sun, and to keep strictly chaste; those who broke their vows were shot to death with arrows.[XI-32]

The chief account of Guatemalan worship is derived from the sacred book of the Quichés, the Popol Vuh, to which I have already referred in the opening pages of this volume, but the description given in it is so confused, the names and attributes of the gods so mixed, that no very reliable conclusions can be derived therefrom. This very confusion seems, however, to indicate that the imported names of Hurakan, Gucumatz, and others, were with their attributes attached to native heroes, who undergo the most varying fortunes and character, amid which now and then a glance is obtained at their original form.

[Sidenote: TEPEU AND HURAKAN.]

The most ancient of the gods are two persons called Hun Ahpu Vuch and Hun Ahpu Utïu, or Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, Creator and Protector, Grandfather and Grandmother of the sun and moon, who are often confounded under either gender and represented with big noses, like tapirs, an animal sacred to these people. Brasseur identifies them with the Mexican Oxomoco and Cipactonal,[XI-33] Tonacatlecutli and Tonacatepetl, Ometecutli and Omecihuatl, the female also with Centeotl and Toci, and places her in the Quiché calendar as Hun Ahpu, while the male heads the list of months under the name of Imox.[XI-34] Connected with them stands Tepeu, termed by the sacred book Dominator, He who Begets, and whose name means grand, majestic. Ximenez, by translating his name as buboes, or syphilis, connects him with Nanahuatzin, the Nahua hero who threw himself into the fire and rose as the sun.[XI-35] Tepeu is more generally known under the name of Gucumatz, 'feathered snake,' which is universally identified with Quetzalcoatl, the Nahua air god. In this character he is said to transform himself every seven days into four forms, snake, eagle, tiger, a mass of coagulated blood, one after the other, and every seven days he visits heaven and hell alternately. He is also held to be the introducer of culture in Guatemala, though more, as one who directs man in his search for improvement, than as a culture-hero.[XI-36] These two gods blending into one, often form a trinity with Hun Ahpu Vuch and Hun Ahpu Utïu, under the one name of Gucumatz, the Heart of Heaven. The assumption by this god of four forms may have reference to the divine quartette, and in the expression "they are enveloped in a mist of green and azure," Brasseur de Bourbourg sees a reference to the sacred bundle containing the four first men and sacrifices, transformed into gods.[XI-37]

Hurakan,[XI-38] although connected with the above quartette in the enumeration of titles of the supreme deity, keeps aloof from the lower sphere in which these move at times, and is even invoked by Gucumatz, who calls him, among other names, Creator, he who begets and gives being. That he was held to be distinct, and worshiped as such by the Quichés, may be seen from the fact that they had one high-priest for Gucumatz, and another for Tohil, another name of Hurakan, who seems to have ranked a degree above the former.[XI-39] He represented the thunder and lightning, and his particular title seems to have been Heart of Heaven, under which were included the three phases of his attribute, the thunder, the lightning, and the thunderbolt, or, as stated in another place, the flash, the track of the lightning, and the thunderbolt,[XI-40] another conception of a trinity. He is also called Centre of the Earth and is represented with thunder in his hand. The bird Voc was his messenger. Müller considers him a sun god, probably because of his title 'Heart of Heaven,' which determines nothing, while others hold him to be identical with the Tlalocs, the Mexican rain gods. He is doubtless the same as Tohil, the leader of the Quiché gods, who is represented by the sign of water, but whose name signifies rumble, clash.[XI-41] In him are also found united the three symbols of Quiché trinity, as will be seen shortly, and his priests address him: "Hail, Beauty of the Day, Hurakan, Heart of Heaven and of Earth! Thou who givest glory, riches and children! Thou Tohil, Avilix, Gagavitz, Bowels of Heaven, Bowels of Earth! Thou who dost constitute the four ends of Heaven!"[XI-42] He was also god of fire, and as such gave his people fire by shaking his sandals.[XI-43] According to the version of Brasseur de Bourbourg, his temple at Utatlan, where he seems to have taken the place of an ancient god, was a truncated pyramid with extremely steep steps in the façade. On its summit was a temple of great height, built of cut stone, and with a roof of precious woods; the walls within and without were covered with fine, brilliant stucco of extreme hardness. In the midst of the most splendid surroundings sat the idol, on a throne set with precious stones. His priests perpetually prayed and burnt precious incense before him, relieving each other in bands of thirteen, so that while some attended to his service, the others fasted to prepare for it. The chief men of the kingdom also attended in bands of eighteen, to invoke his blessing for them and their provinces, nine fasting, while nine offered incense.[XI-44] Tohil, and the other members of the trinity, Avilix and Hacavitz, or Gagavitz, who also represent the thunder, the lightning, and the thunderbolt, were the family gods given by the Creator to the founders of the Quiché race, and though they afterwards became stone, they could still assume other shapes in conformity with the supreme will. As family gods they had special temples in the palace of the princes, where their regular service was conducted, and three mountain peaks bearing their names, served to keep them before the people.[XI-45] The flint with which Brinton identifies Tohil may, perhaps, be the black stone brought from the far east, and venerated in the temple of Kahba, 'house of sacrifice,' at Utatlan, but there is no confirmation by the chroniclers. It is, besides, stated that the worship of Kahba had greatly declined, but was again restored to something like its former glory by Gucumatz; Tohil, on the other hand, always stood high, and his high-priest belonged to a different family.[XI-46] A similar stone existed in a temple situated in a deep ravine near Iximche, in whose polished face the gods made known their will. This stone was often used to determine the fate of those accused of crime; if the judges perceived no change in the stone the prisoner went free.[XI-47]

[Sidenote: HAVALITZ AND HACAVITZ.]

[Sidenote: ADVENTURES OF XQUIQ, HUN AHPU, AND XBALANQUE.]

We now come to the heroes with whose adventures the Popol Vuh is chiefly occupied. From the union of the Grandfather and Grandmother who head the list of Quiché deities, proceeded two sons, Hunhun Ahpu and Vukab Hun Ahpu.[XI-48] They incur the suspicion and hatred of the princes of Xibalba, who plan their downfall and for this purpose invite them to their court, under the pretence of playing a game of ball with them. On their arrival they are subjected to various indignities and finally condemned to lose their heads. The head of Hunhun Ahpu is placed between the withered branches of a calabash-tree; but lo! a miracle takes place; the tree immediately becomes laden with fruit and the head turns into a calabash. Henceforth the tree is held sacred and the king commands that none shall touch it. Xquiq, however, a royal princess, Eve-like, disregards the injunction, and approaches to pluck the fruit. As she stretches forth her arm, Hunhun Ahpu spits into her hand, and Xquiq finds herself pregnant. Her father soon perceives her condition, and in a fury condemns her to death, telling the executioners to bring him the heart of his daughter to prove that they have done their duty. While being led to the wood Xquiq pleads earnestly for her life, and finally prevails upon her executioners to deceive her father by substituting for her heart the jelly-like resin of a tree, which she procures. Xquiq proceeds to Utatlan, to the Grandmother, Xmucane, and gives birth to the twins Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque,[XI-49] who develop rapidly; their superior talents soon make their elder brothers jealous, and they attempt their destruction, but the twins anticipate their designs and transform them into apes. These brothers Hun Batz and Hun Chouen, were the sons of Hunhun Ahpu by Xbakiyalo, and were invoked as the patrons of the fine arts[XI-50]. Brasseur de Bourbourg explains this myth by saying that Hunhun Ahpu denotes the Nahua immigrants who by their superiority gain the women of the country, and whose children carry on a successful struggle with the aboriginal race. The continuance of the contest and the triumph of the Nahuas is described in the adventures of Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque. A rat reveals to them their origin, and the place where the ball-game implements of their father are hidden. They play a match with the Xibalba princes who had challenged their father, and are successful in this as well as several herculean tasks assigned to them, but are nevertheless burned.[XI-51] The ashes, thrown into the water, are transformed into two handsome young men, and then into man-fishes, a reference, perhaps, to the arrival by sea of allies to help them. Again they make their appearance in Xibalba, this time as conjurers, and lay their plans so skillfully as to overthrow the Prince Vukub Cakix with his adherents, and obtain the apotheosis of their father and his adherents as sun, moon, and stars. Vukub Cakix, who represents the sun, may be taken as the representative of an older sun-worship replaced by the newer cult introduced by Hun Ahpu.[XI-52] The burning of this hero agrees with that of the Mexican Nanahuatzin who by this act became a sun. In fact, Brasseur de Bourbourg considers the whole as a version of the Nahua myth. From another point of view Hun Ahpu, whose name, signifying 'sarbacan-blower or air-shooter,' suits the attribute of the air-god, may be considered as the morning wind dispersing the clouds and disclosing the splendors of the sun.[XI-53]

In the Quatre Lettres, the Abbé takes another view of the myth, and sees in it but a version of the convulsions that take place in the Antilles, the Seven Grottos of the Mexican myth, of which I have spoken in a preceding chapter. Hunhun Ahpu, Vukub Hun Ahpu, and the two legitimate sons of the former are volcanoes, and their plays, death, and transformation, are earthquakes, extinction, and upheavals. The burning of Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque and the scattering of their ashes upon the waters is the final catastrophe, the sinking of the Atlantides, or the seven islands; and as the brothers rise again in the form of beautiful young men, so do new islands take the place of those destroyed. The confirmation of this he finds in a tradition current on the islands, which speaks of certain upheavals similar to the above.[XI-54]

[Sidenote: QUICHÉ GODS.]

The Quichés had a multitude of other gods and genii, who controlled the elements and exercised their influence upon the destinies of man. The places where they most loved to linger were dark quiet spots, in the undisturbed silence of the grotto, at the foot of some steep precipice, beneath the shade of mighty trees, especially where a spring trickled forth between its roots, and on the summit of the mountains; and here the simple native came to pour out his sorrow, and to offer his sacrifice. In some places this idea of seclusion was carried to such an extent that idols were kept hidden in subterranean chapels, that they might not be disturbed or the people become too familiar with them; another reason, however, was to prevent their being stolen by other villagers. The god of the road had sanctuaries, called mumah, all along the highways, especially at the junctions, and the traveler in passing never failed to rub his legs with a handful of grass, upon which he afterwards spat with great respect, and deposited it upon the altar together with a small stone, believing that this act of piety would give him renewed strength. He also left a small tribute from his stock of food or merchandise, which remained to decay before the idol, for none dared to remove it. This custom was also observed in Nicaragua.

The household gods were termed chahalha, 'guardian of the house,' and to them incense was burned and sacrifice made during the erection of a building; when finished, a corner in the interior was consecrated to their use. They seem to have been identified with the spirit of departed friends, for occasionally a corpse was buried beneath the house to insure their presence.[XI-55]

Among the more superstitious highlanders, the ancient worship has retained its hold upon the population to a great extent, in spite of the efforts of the padres. Scherzer tells us that the people of Istlavacan reverenced gods of reason, health, sowing, and others, under the names of Noj, Ajmak, Kanil, and Ik, who were generally embodied in natural features, as mountains, or big trees. They recognized an Ormuzd and an Ahriman in Kij, the god of light and good principle, opposed by Juiup, the god of earth and evil principle, who was represented by a rock, three feet high and one foot thick, supposed to be a distorted human face. The native priests generally took the horoscope, and appointed a nagual, or guardian spirit for their children, before the padres were allowed to baptize them. They are said to have sacrificed infants, scattering their heart's blood upon a stone before the idol, and burying the body in the woods to avoid detection.[XI-56]

The Choles and Manches of Vera Paz, impressed with the wild features of their country, venerated the mountains, and on one called Escurruchan, which stood at the junction of several branches of their principal river, they kept up a perpetual fire to which passers-by added fuel, and at which sacrifices were offered. At another place the padres found a rough altar of stone and clay surrounded by a fence, where they burned torches of black wax and resinous wood, and offered fowls, and blood from their bodies, to mountains, cross-roads and pools in the river, whence came all means of existence and all increase.[XI-57]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF A HORSE.]

The chief idol of the Itzas was Hubo, who was represented by a hollow metal figure with an opening between the shoulders, through which human beings were passed, charged to implore the favors of the gods. A fire was then lighted beneath the figure, and while the victims were roasting alive, their friends joined in a dance around it, drowning the cries of the victims with shouts and rattling of drums. No women were allowed to join in the temple ceremonies. On the chief island in the lake of Peten, the conquerors found twenty-one stone temples with stone roofs, the chief of which formed a kind of pyramid of nine steps. In this was found a large chalchiuite, representing one of their two battle-gods, Pakoc and Hunchunchan, who gave oracles and were supposed to join the people in their dances. This familiarity evidently bred contempt, however, for it is related that when a prediction of the oracle was not fulfilled, the priest without hesitation castigated the idol. In the same temple stood a gypsum image in the form of the sun, adorned with rays, inlaid with nacar, and having a gaping mouth set with human teeth. The bones of a horse, which hung from the rafters, were adored as sacred relics. These were the remains of a wounded horse left by Cortés among the natives when on his way to Honduras. Having seen the Spaniards fire from its back, they believed that the animal produced the flash and report, and hence adored it as Tziminchac, god of thunder, and brought it flowers, flesh, and incense; but such offerings did not sustain life, and it was not long before the bones of the apotheosized charger were all that remained to his worshipers. In another place was a stone and lime imitation of this horse, seated on the floor on its haunches, which the natives adored in the same manner. This animal-worship was the more readily admitted, since their gods was supposed to assume such forms.[XI-58]

Their idols were so numerous, say the conquerors, that it took over a hundred men a whole day to destroy those existing on the chief island alone; Cogolludo affirms that the priests had charge of all the idols.[XI-59] The chief god of the Cakchiquels, Chamalcan, or Chimalacan,[XI-60] had many of the attributes of Tohil, but took the form of a bat, the symbol of the royal house of Zotzil. Every seventh and thirteenth day of the month the priests placed before him blood-stained thorns, fresh white resin, bark and branches of pine, and a cat, the emblem of night, which were burned in his honor.[XI-61]

The purest form of sun-worship appears among the Lacandones, who adored the luminary without the intervention of an image, and sacrificed before it in the Mexican fashion. They had temples, however, the walls of which were decorated with hieroglyphs of the sun and moon, and with a figure in the act of praying to the sun.[XI-62] The Nahua tribe of the Pipiles also worshiped the sun, before which they prostrated themselves while offering incense and muttering invocations. Quetzalcoatl and the goddess Itzqueye were honored in the sacrifice,[XI-63] which generally consisted of a deer. The relative importance of Quetzalcoatl and Itzqueye, may be seen from the statement that the festival held in honor of the former on certain occasions lasted fifteen days, while that in honor of the latter was but of five days duration. The chief centre of worship was at Mictlan, near Huixa Lake, where now is the village of Santa Maria Mita, founded, according to tradition, by an old man, who in company with an exceedingly beautiful girl issued from the lake, both dressed in long blue robes, the man also wearing a mitre. He seated himself upon a stone on the hill, while the girl pursued her way and disappeared, and here, by his order, was built the temple of Mictlan, round which stately palaces afterwards arose; he also organized the government of the place.[XI-64]

[Sidenote: TRADITION OF COMIZAHUAL.]

Among the vestiges of older worship we find the natives of Cerquin in Honduras,[XI-65] venerating and praying for health to two idols, called respectively Great Father and Great Mother, which probably refer to the Grandfather and Grandmother of the Quichés. A faint idea of a Supreme Being, says Torquemada, was mixed up with the worship of the sun and stars, to which sacrifices were made. Their culture-tradition speaks of a beautiful white woman, called Comizahual, or 'flying tigress,' a reputed sorceress, as the introducer of civilization in Cerquin. She is said to have descended from heaven and to have been transported by an invisible hand to the city of Cealcoquin, where she built a palace adorned with monstrous figures of men and animals, and placed in the chief temple a stone having on each of its three sides three faces of strange and hideous aspect; by aid of this stone she conquered her enemies. She remained a virgin, yet three sons were born to her,[XI-66] among whom she divided the kingdom when she grew old. After arranging her affairs, she commanded her attendants to carry her on her bed to the highest part of the palace, whence she suddenly disappeared amid thunder and lightning, doubtless to resume her place among the gods; directly afterwards a beautiful bird was seen to fly upwards and disappear. The people erected a temple in her honor, where the priest delivered her oracles, and celebrated every year the anniversary of her disappearance with great feasts. Palacio refers to a stone, like the one with three faces, named Icelaca, in Cezori, which disclosed things past, present, and future, and before which the people sacrificed fowls, rabbits and various kinds of food, and smeared the face with blood drawn from the generative organs.[XI-67]

The religious fervor of the people is shown by the fact that whatever work they undertook they commenced by sanctifying it with prayers and offerings and by incensing their implements that they might acquire more efficacy; thus, before commencing to sow, the laborers killed a turkey whose blood they scattered over the field, and performed other ceremonies.[XI-68] Simple in their mode of life, they did not importune the gods for vain luxuries: their prayers were for long life, health, children, and the necessaries of life. The first they hoped to obtain by scarifications and penances; to guard against disease, they sent the priest a bird, generally a quail, to sacrifice. When actually attacked by sickness confession was resorted to as a powerful means of propitiation, as was also the case on all important occasions to secure divine blessings and avert immediate danger. It is related by an old chronicler that when a party of travelers met a jaguar or puma, each one immediately commended himself to the gods and confessed in a loud voice the sins he had committed, imploring pardon. If the object of their terror still advanced upon them, they cried, "we have committed as many more sins, do not kill us!" and sat down, saying one to another, "one of us has done some grievous deed, and him the wild beast will kill!"[XI-69]

[Sidenote: SPECIAL FASTS.]

In their scarifications, those who drew the most blood, especially from the secret organs, were held to be the most pious. Among the Pipiles the women joined in drawing blood from the ears and tongue, and smearing it on cotton, offered it to Quetzalcoatl, and then to Itzcueye.[XI-70] On extraordinary occasions, as in the event of a public calamity, the priests and chief men held a council to determine the propitiatory penance to be imposed on the people, and the kind of sacrifice to be offered; the Ahgih were called upon to trace magic circles and figures, and to cast grains, so as to determine the time when it should be made. The esteemed task of collecting the fuel for this celebration devolved upon a royal prince, who formed the boys of the district into bands to forage for the wood. The efforts of the people alone were not considered sufficient at such times to propitiate the gods; it required the sanctified presence and powerful influence of the high priest to secure remission of sins. This personage, whether king or pontiff, subjected himself to a very severe fast and penance during the twenty, or even hundred days determined upon. He removed to an arbor near the hidden sanctuary of the idols, and lived in entire solitude, subsisting on grains and fruit, touching no food prepared by fire, sacrificing the offerings brought him during the day, and drawing blood. The fast over, with its attendant separation of man and wife, bathing, painting in red, and other acts of penance, the nobles went in a body to the retreat of the idols, and having adorned them in the most splendid manner, conducted them in procession to the town, attended by the high priest and victims. In places where the idols were kept in the temples of the town, they marched with them round the city. The various rites closed with games of ball, played under the supervision of the idols, and with feasting and reveling.[XI-71]

The Popol Vuh ascribes the introduction of human sacrifices to Tohil, who exacted this offering from the first four men in return for the fire given to the Quichés, while Las Casas states that Xbalanque initiated them. Their knives of sacrifice, he says, had fallen from heaven, and were accordingly adored as 'hands of God,' and set in rich handles of gold or silver, ornamented with turquoises and emeralds. The ordinary sacrifices occurred several times a month, and among the Pipiles, the number and quality were indicated by the calendar and consisted chiefly of bastard boys from six to twelve years of age. Their most solemn offerings were made at the commencement and end of the rains, and were attended by the chief men only. Juarros states that human sacrifices were not offered by the Pipiles and that the attempt of caciques to introduce them resulted in an insurrection; and, although this will scarcely apply to later times, it seems that formerly the sacrifices were very few in number. The Cakchiquels are, however, said to have abstained from the rite. Cortés relates that at Acalá the fairest girls to be found were selected by the priests and brought up, in strict chastity, to be sacrificed, at the proper time, to the goddess of the place. The Itzas, who, when captives failed, took the fattest of their young men for victims, had several modes of immolation, as roasting the victims alive in the metal image; dispatching them with the knife on the stone of sacrifice, a large one of which was found at Taysal; impalement, followed by extraction of the heart, as at Prospero; and in earlier times shooting, as was done by their Yucatec ancestors. According to Cogolludo, three persons assisted at the sacrifices, the adkulel, master of ceremonies, the adkayom, and a virgin who must be the daughter of one of these; but Villagutierre mentions that the stone of sacrifice at the chief temple at Taysal, was surrounded by twelve seats for the attendant priests; and assistants to hold the victims were certainly required. Cannibalism seems to have attended all these sacrifices, the flesh being boiled and seasoned, and the choice bits reserved for the high priests and chiefs.[XI-72]

[Sidenote: THE PRIESTS OF GUATEMALA.]

Each of the numerous tribes of Guatemala had a distinct and separate body of priests, who by means of their oracles exercised a decided influence on the state, and some, the Quichés for instance, were spiritually governed by independent pontiffs. The high priests of Tohil and Gucumatz, Ahau Ah Tohil and Ahau Ah Gucumatz, belonged to the royal house of Cawek, and held the fourth and fifth rank respectively among the grandees of the Empire; Ahau-Avilix, the high-priest of Avilix, was a member of the Nihaïb family; Ahau Gagavitz came of the Ahau Quiché house; and the two high-priests of the Kahba temple in Utatlan were of the Zakik house, and each had a province allotted him for his support. The Tohil priests were vowed to perpetual continence and austere penitence, and were not permitted to taste meat or bread.[XI-73] The pontiff at Mictlan, in Salvador, who stood on nearly the same level as the king, bore the title of Teoti, 'divine'[XI-74] and was distinguished by a long blue robe, a diadem, and a baton like an episcopal cross; on solemn occasions he substituted a mitre of beautiful feathers for the diadem. Next to him came an ecclesiastical council composed of the Tehuamatlini, chief of the astrologers and learned priests, who acted as lieutenant of the high priest, and superintended the writings and divinations, and four other priests, teopixqui, who dressed in different colors. These ruled the rest of the priesthood, composed of keepers of properties, sacrificers, watchers, and the ordinary priests, termed teupas, who were all appointed by the high-priests from the sons of the ministers. When the high-priest died, the body was embalmed and placed in a crypt beneath the palace. After fifteen days of mourning, attended by fasts, the king and Tehuamatlini drew lots for his successor from among the four teopixqui, the vacancy in their ranks being filled by a son of the pontiff, or one of their own sons. The elected purified himself for the office by blood-letting and other observances, while the people celebrated his accession with feasting and dancing. In Vera Paz the chief priest was elected according to merit from a certain family by the people, and ranked next to the king.[XI-75] As an instance of the lasting influence possessed by the priesthood over the people, Scherzer relates that at Istlávacan there were a few years ago as many as sixty priests, diviners, and medicine-men, Ahgih, Ahqixb, and Ahqahb, as they used to be termed, who exercised their offices among them. At Coban, says Villagutierre, a priest was so highly respected that the person who presumed to touch him was expected to fall dead immediately.[XI-76]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: GODS OF THE NICARAGUANS.]

The Nahua impress, noticeable in the languages and customs of Nicaragua, is still more strongly marked in the mythology of that country.[XI-77] Instead of obliterating the older forms of worship, however, as it seems to have done in the northern part of Central America, it has here and there passed by many of the distinct beliefs held by different tribes, and blended with the chief element of a system which is traced to the Muyscas in South America. The inquiries instituted by a Spanish friar among different classes of people in the Nagrando district go to prove that Tamagostat[XI-78] and Cipattonal, male and female deities who inhabit the regions of the rising sun, were the supreme beings. They created all things, stars as well as mortals, and re-created what had been destroyed by the flood, in which work they were aided by Ecalchot, surnamed Huehue, 'the aged,' and Ciagat 'the little.' In Tamagostat Müller at once recognizes Fomagata, the ancient sun-god of the Muyscas, who after his dethronement by a newer solar deity became more particularly the fire-god of that people, but retained more of his original preëminence in the countries to which his worship spread, as in Nicaragua. This view is supported by the statement that he inhabited the heavens above, or rather the region of sunrise. His consort Cipattonal, Müller, judging from their relationship, holds to be the moon; her name seems however, to be derived from a Mexican source, probably from xipalli, 'dark blue color,' and tonalli, 'sun,'[XI-79] which may be construed as referring to the sun in its blue element, or, as the fainter sun, to the moon. In either case the connection of the two is perfectly legitimate. Ecalchot, who is represented as a young man, yet is surnamed 'the aged,' seems to be the same as the Mexican Ehecatl, 'wind, air,' an element ever young, yet ever old, and Ciagat may mean 'moisture;'[XI-80] both forming with the sun the fertilizing forces that create.[XI-81] Oviedo gives the names of these deities as Tamagostat or Tamagostad, Zipattoval or Zipattonal, Calchithuehue, and Chicoziagat,[XI-82] 'father.' He further names Chiquinaut and Hecat as gods of the winds, which seems to be merely another version of Chicoziagat and Ehecatl.[XI-83]

The Guatemalan trinity reappears in the character of Omeyateite and Omeyatezigoat[XI-84]--easily recognizable in the Mexican Ometecutli and Omecihuatl--and their son Ruiatcot, the rain god,[XI-85] who sends forth thunder, lightning and rain. They are also supposed to live where the sun rises, doubtless because that seems the abode of bliss, and as fertilizing forces they are regarded as creators, but not connected with the two before mentioned. Quiateot was the most prominent, if not the supreme, member of the trinity, for the other two, as representing the thunder and lighting, the forerunners, or parents, of the showers, do not seem to have been invoked when rain was wanted, or to have participated in the sacrifices of young boys and girls offered on such occasions.[XI-86]

[Sidenote: THE GODDESS OF THE VOLCANO.]

The Nicaraguans had other deities presiding over the elements, seasons, and necessaries of life. Thus, Macat and Toste, also written Mazat and Teotost,[XI-87] the deer and rabbit, were gods of the chase. When a deer was killed, the hunter placed the head in a basket in his house, and regarded it as the representation of the god.[XI-88] Mixcoa was the god invoked by the traders, and those about to make purchases; Cacaguat was the patron of cacao-culture; Miquetanteot, god of hades, was evidently the same as Mictlantecutli of Mexico; there were, besides, others whose names have been given to the days of the month. In Martiari the chief deity was called Tipotani. In Nicaragua proper, they adored Tomaoteot, 'the great god,' whose son Teotbilche was sent down to mankind. This looks like another Christ-myth, especially when we read of attendant angels who had wings and flew about in heaven. The names of the two chief angels were Taraacazcati and Tamacaztobal.[XI-89] The Dirans revered in particular the goddess of the volcano Masaya; for her they placed food on the brink of the crater, into which they cast human beings, especially when she manifested her anger by earthquakes. On such occasions the chiefs and priests, who alone were permitted to look into the seething abyss, went to the summit and called upon the genius, who issued from the lake of fire in the form of an old woman and instructed them what to do. She is described as a naked, dark-skinned hag, with hanging breasts, scanty hair, long, sharp teeth, and sunken glaring eyeballs. The gods were invested with all the peculiarities of humanity, formed of flesh and blood, and lived on the food provided for man, besides blood and incense. They also appeared on earth dressed like the natives, but since the death of the cacique Xostoval these visits ceased.[XI-90] They were personified by idols of stone, clay, or wood, called teobat,[XI-91] whose forms their forefathers had transmitted; to them were brought offerings of food and other things, which were taken in at the door of the temple by boys serving there, for none except the consecrated were allowed to enter the sanctuary.[XI-92] To encourage the piety that prompted these offerings, the priests never failed to remind the people of the punishment inflicted on the inhabitants of the ancient capital of Nagrando, who having given themselves up to the pursuit of pleasure, and neglected the gods, were one night swallowed up, not a vestige of their city being left.[XI-93] The most acceptable offering was, of course, human blood. At certain times the favorite idol was set on a spear and planted in an open place amid gorgeously adorned attendants holding banners, and flowers. Here the priests gashed their tongues, and other parts, smearing the face of the image with the blood that flowed, while the devout approached to whisper their desires into the ear of the idol. Songs, dances, and games attended these ceremonies.

Before each temple was a conic or pyramidal mound of adobe, called tescuit, or tezarit, ascended by an interior staircase.[XI-94] From its summit, upon which there was room for about ten men to stand, the priest proclaimed the nature of the approaching festival, and the kind of sacrifice to be made, and here, upon a stone block, the victims, generally captives and slaves, had their hearts cut out, after which they were decapitated, the body to be cut up and prepared for the grand banquets, while the head, if that of a captive, was hung on a tree near the temple, a particular tree being reserved for each tribe from whom the victims were captured. The most prized victims were young boys and girls, who were brought up by the chiefs for the purpose and treated with great care and respect wherever they went, for they were supposed to become deified after death and to exercise great influence over the affairs of life. Women, who were held to be unworthy to perform any duty in connection with the temples, were immolated outside the temple ground of the large sanctuaries, and even their flesh was unclean food for the high-priest, who accordingly ate only of the flesh of males.[XI-95]

Fasts and baptismal rites, so prominent hitherto, do not appear to have been practiced in Nicaragua. A kind of sacrament was administered, however, by means of maize sprinkled with blood drawn from the generative organs, and confession was a recognized institution. The confessor was chosen from among the most aged and respected citizens; a calabash suspended from the neck was his badge of office. He was required to be a man of blameless life, unmarried, and not connected with the temple. Those who wished to confess went to his house, and there standing with humility before him unburdened their conscience. The confessor was forbidden to reveal any secret confided to him in his official capacity, under pain of punishment. The penance he imposed was generally some kind of labor to be performed for the benefit of the temple. Boys did not confess, but seem to have reserved the avowal of their peccadillos for maturer age.[XI-96]

[Sidenote: PRIESTS OF NICARAGUA.]

The office of high-priest was held by the caciques, who each in his turn left home and occupation and removed to the chief temple, there to remain for a year attending to religious matters and praying for the people. At the expiration of the term he received the honorable distinction of having his nose perforated. Subordinate duties were performed by boys. In the inferior temples other classes entered for a year's penance, living like the chief in strict seclusion, except at festivals perhaps, seeing none but the boys who brought food from their homes. The ordinary priests were called tamagast[XI-97] and lived on the offerings made to the idols, and perhaps by their own exertions, for the temples had no fixed revenues.[XI-98] They had sorcerers, texoxes, who sometimes caused the death of children by merely looking at them, and who could assume animal forms, for which reasons they were much feared by the people. To strengthen this belief they at times disguised themselves in skins of beasts.[XI-99] In Honduras the idea of a Supreme Being and Creator was connected with a worship of the sun, moon, and stars, to which the people made sacrifices.[XI-100] Near Truxillo were three chief temples[XI-101] in one of which was a chalchiuite in the form of a woman, to which the people prayed, and which answered them through the priests. Preparatory to any important undertaking, cocks, dogs, or even men, were sacrificed to secure the favor of the gods. In each of the sanctuaries presided a papa, or chief priest, to whom the education of the sons of the nobles was entrusted. These were unmarried men, distinguished by long hair reaching to the waist, though in some places they wound it round the head in plaits. Their sanctity and superior knowledge gave them great influence, and their advice was sought on all affairs of importance by the principal men, for none else dared to approach them. There were also sorcerers who could assume animal forms, in which guise they went about devouring men and spreading diseases.[XI-102]

[Sidenote: THE MOSQUITO PANTHEON.]

Among the barbarians of the Mosquito Coast, we find, of course, a much lower order of belief, and one which calls to mind the ghouls and ghosts of Californian mythology. The natives acknowledged a good spirit or principle, to which they gave no definite name[XI-103] and rendered no homage, for there was no necessity, they said, to pray to one who always did good; as for thanking him for mercies received, such an idea seems never to have occurred to them. In fact, they had neither temples nor idols, and the only ceremonies that partook of a religious character were the conjurations of their sukias, or sorceresses, who were constantly engaged in breaking the spells of evil spirits, with which the people's fancy, excited by grewsome stories told round the camp-fire, had filled every dark and dismal place, every stream and mountain top. These gnomes were known by the name of Wulasha,[XI-104] and were supposed to issue from their hiding-places, especially at night, to do all manner of evil; they were especially addicted to carrying off solitary wanderers; it was, therefore, say the chroniclers, almost impossible to induce a native to go out alone after dark.

Amid the underwood and fallen trees about the sources of rivers, big snakes were thought to dwell. These monsters were assisted by a resistless upward current and a strong wind which swept the unwary boatman within the reach of the red jaws and slimy folds. Patook, among other rivers, had this bad reputation, and a white man who despite the warnings of the natives started to explore its mysteries, returned in a few days with the story that his progress had been opposed by a big white cock. Leewa[XI-105] was the name of the water spirit, who sucked the bather into pools and eddies and sent forth devastating waterspouts and hurricanes. Wihwin, a spirit having the appearance of a horse,[XI-106] with tremendous teeth to devour human prey, haunted the hills during the summer, but retired with the winter to the sea, whence he originally issued. In mountain caves, guarded by fierce white boars, lived the patron deity of the warrees, the wild pigs of the country, of childish form but immense strength, who directed the movements of the droves. There were, besides, certain venomous lizards, who after biting a man ran immediately to the nearest water: if the wounded person did the same and succeeded in reaching the water first, he was saved, and the lizard died; otherwise the man was doomed.[XI-107] The Sukias who were called upon to exorcise these malignant beings on every occasion of sickness, or misfortune, were generally old hags, supposed to have a compact with the evil one, in whose name they exacted half their fee before commencing their enchantments. The Caribs held regular meetings or festivals to propitiate these spirits, and the Woolwas, who seem to have had many religious forms in common with the Nicaraguans, had "dances with the gods."[XI-108]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: GODS OF THE ISTHMIANS.]

Among the Isthmians several forms of worship appear, that in the vicinity of Panamá resembling the system prevalent in Hayti and Cuba, says Gomara.[XI-109] The heavenly bodies seem to have been very generally adored, especially in the northern part of the Isthmus, where all good things were thought to come from the sun and moon, which were considered as man and wife; but no accounts are given of temples, or forms of worship, except that prayers were addressed to the sun.[XI-110]

The most prominent personage in the Isthmian pantheon was Dabaiba, a goddess who controlled the thunder and lightning, and with their aid devastated the lands of those who displeased her. In South America, thunder and lightning were held to be the instruments used by the sun to inflict punishment upon its enemies, which makes it probable that Dabaiba was a transformed sun-goddess. Pilgrims resorted from afar to her temple at Urabá, bringing costly presents and human victims, who were first killed and then burned, that the savory odors of roasting flesh might be grateful in the delicate nostrils of the goddess. Some describe her as a native princess, whose reign was marked by great wisdom and many miracles, and who was apotheosized after death. She was also honored as the mother of the Creator, the maker of the sun, the moon, and all invisible things, and the sender of blessings, who seems to have acted as mediator between the people and his mother, for their prayers for rain were addressed to him, although she is described as controlling the showers, and once when her worship was neglected she inflicted a severe drought upon the country.

When the needs of the people were very urgent, the chiefs and priests remained in the temple fasting and praying with uplifted hands; the people meanwhile observed a four-days fast, lacerating their bodies and washing their faces, which were at other times covered with paint. So strict was this fast that no meat or drink was to be touched until the fourth day, and then only a soup made from maize-flour. The priests themselves were sworn to perpetual chastity and abstinence, and those who went astray in these matters were burned or stoned to death. Their temples were encompassed with walls and kept scrupulously clean; golden trumpets, and bells with bone clappers summoned the people to worship.[XI-111]

In the province of Pocorosa the existence of a rain-god called Chipiripe was recognized, who inhabited the heaven above, whence he regulated celestial movements; with him lived a beautiful woman with one child. Nothing else was known respecting this divine family. This ignorance of the deity was further manifested by the absence of any form of worship; the moral laws were well defined, however, so that adultery and even lying were regarded as sinful.[XI-112] Las Casas states that Chicune, 'the beginning of all,' who lived in heaven, was the one being to whom the people of Darien addressed their invocations and sacrifices, though a certain sect, or tribe, among them worshiped the water. In another chapter he declares that the Isthmians had little or no religion, for they had no temples and few or no gods or idols.[XI-113] According to Peter Martyr, the embalmed and bejeweled bodies of ancestors were worshiped in Comagre, and in Veragua gold was invested with divine qualities, so that the gathering of it was attended with fasting and penance.[XI-114] Tuira, whom the Spanish writers declared to have been the devil himself, was a widely known being who communed with his servants, tequina, 'masters,'[XI-115] in roofless huts kept for this purpose. Here the tequinas entered at night, and spoke in different voices, to induce the belief that the spirits were actually answering their questions; the result of the interview was communicated to their patrons. At times the evil one appeared in the guise of a handsome boy without hands[XI-116] and with three-toed feet, and accompanied the sorcerers upon their expeditions to work mischief, and supplied them with a protecting ointment. Among the evil deeds imputed to these sorcerers was that of sucking the navel of sleeping people until they died.[XI-117] These men naturally took care to foster ideas that tended to sustain or increase their influence, and circulated, besides, most extravagant stories of supernatural events and beings. Once a terrible hurricane, blowing from the east, devastated the country and brought with it two birds with maiden faces, one of which was of a size so great that it seized upon men and carried them off to its mountain nest. No tree could support it, and where it alighted upon the rocks, the imprint of its talons were left. The other bird was smaller and supposed to be the offspring of the first. After trying several plans to kill these man-eating harpies, they hit upon the device of fixing a large beam in the ground, near the place where they usually alighted, leaving only one end exposed, on which was carved the image of a man. With the dawn of day the larger bird came swooping down upon the decoy and imbedded its claws so firmly in the beam that it could not withdraw them, and thus the people were enabled to kill it.[XI-118]

The knowledge that the human mind, no matter how low its condition, can be capable of such puerile conceptions, must bring with it a sense of humiliation to the thinking man; and well were it for him could he comfort himself with the belief that such debasing superstitions were at least confined to humanity in its first and lowest stages; but this he cannot do. It is true that the belief of the civilized Aztec was far higher and nobler than that of the uncivilized Carib, but can he who has read the evidence upon which old women and young maidens were convicted of riding upon broomsticks to witches' Sabbaths, by the most learned judges of the most learned law-courts of modern Europe, deny that the coarsest superstition and the highest civilization have hitherto gone hand in hand.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: PHALLIC WORSHIP.]

Before leaving this division it will be well to say a few words concerning the existence of Phallic Worship in America.

One of the first problems of the primitive man is creation. If analogies lead him to conceive it as allied to a birth, and the joint result of some unknown male and female energy, then the symbolization of this power is liable to take the gross form of phallic worship. Thus it is that among the earliest nations of which we possess any knowledge, the life-giving and vivifying principle of nature has been always symbolized by the human organs of generation. The Lingham of India, the Phallus of Greece, the Priapus of Rome, the Baal-Peor of the Hebrew records, and the Peor-Apis of Egypt, all have plainly the same significance. In most mythologies the sun, the principle of fire, the moon, and the earth, were connected with this belief; the sun and moon as the celestial emblems of the generative and productive powers of nature, fire and the earth as the terrestrial emblems. These were the Father and the Mother, and their most obvious symbols, as already stated, were the phallus and wares, or the Skuas and yoni of Hindustan.

It is unnecessary to multiply quotations respecting the basal though often veiled idea of One, underlying the polytheistic systems. The difficulty to the human mind of considering anything in another than human aspect, and our natural delight in analogies, leads, however, in many cases to the consideration in certain aspects of this deity as a duality or joint essence of the masculine and the feminine. Take the learned Cory's summary of ancient mythology: "It recognizes, as the primary elements of all things, two independent principles, of the nature of male and female; and these, in mystic union, as the soul and body, constitute the Great Hermaphrodite Deity, The One, the universe itself, consisting still of the two separate elements of its composition, modified though combined in one individual.... If we investigate the Pantheons of the ancient nations, we shall find that each, notwithstanding the variety of names, acknowledged the same deities and the same system of Theology; and, however humble any of the deities may appear, each who has any claim to antiquity will be found ultimately, if not immediately, resolvable into one or other of the Primeval Principles, the Great God and Goddess of the Gentiles."[XI-119]

[Sidenote: RATIONALE OF PHALLIC WORSHIP.]

To the moral ideal of the present age, an ideal derived from acquired habit, not from nature, phallic worship will doubtless appear repulsive and indelicate in the extreme. It was, nevertheless, the most natural form of worship that the primitive man could adopt; for him the symbol had no impure meaning, and was associated with none of the disgusting excesses by means of which, as he became more sophisticated, he converted his reverence of Nature into a worship of Lust.

What could be more natural than that he should symbolize the fecundating principle, the creative power, by the immediate cause of reproduction, or as he doubtless took it, of creation, the phallus. He recognized no impurity or licentiousness in the moderate and regular gratification of any natural appetite; nor did it seem to him that the organs of one species of enjoyment were naturally to be considered as subjects of shame and concealment more than those of another. As Payne Knight remarks of the ancient nations of the old world: "In an age, therefore, when no prejudices of artificial decency existed, what more just and natural image could they find, by which to express their idea of the beneficent power of the great Creator than that organ which endowed them with the power of procreation, and made them partakers, not only of the felicity of the Deity, but of his great characteristic attribute, that of multiplying his own image, communicating his blessings, and extending them to the generations yet unborn." Nothing natural was to them offensively obscene. When the Egyptian matrons touched the phallus they did so with the pure wish of obtaining offspring. The gold lingam on the neck of the Hindoo wives was not an object of shame to them.

[Sidenote: RELICS OF PHALLIC WORSHIP.]

That the worship of the reciprocal principles of nature was recognized and practiced in America, there is in my mind no doubt. The almost universal prevalence of sun-worship, which is, as I have already intimated, closely connected with phallic rites, would alone go far to prove this, but an account of certain material relics and well known customs is still more satisfactory evidence.

In Yucatan, according to Stephens, "the ornaments upon the external cornice of several large buildings actually consisted of membra conjuncta in coitu, too plainly sculptured to be misunderstood. And, if this were not sufficient testimony, more was found in the isolated and scattered representations of the membrum virile, so accurate that even the Indians recognised the object, and invited the attention of Mr Catherwood to the originals of some of his drawings as yet unpublished."

The sculptured pillars to be seen at Copan and other ruins in Central America, which are acknowledged to be connected with sun worship, are very similar to the sculptured phallus-pillars of the East.[XI-120] Mr Squier is of the opinion that they may be considered as such, and the Abbé Brasseur takes the same view in making the plain cylindrical pillar found in so many places the representation of the volcano, the goddess of love, and whence it issues as the symbol of new life. On another page he terms the phallus the Crescent, the land whence the Nahuas originated, and the continent of America the body.[XI-121] Some of the pillars appear without ornament, as the picote at Uxmal, a round stone of irregular form, which stood in front of one of the ruins, but the worshipers of Priapus at Thespia and other places were content with a rude stone for an image in early times. In Mexico according to Gama, the presiding god of spring, Xopancalehuey Tlalloc, was often represented without a human body, having instead a pilaster or square column, upon a pedestal covered with various sculptured designs.[XI-122] In Pánuco images of the generative organs were kept in the temples as objects of worship, and statues representing men and women performing the sexual act in various postures stood in the temple-courts.[XI-123] Near Laguna de Terminos, on the coast of Yucatan, Grijalva found images of men committing acts of indescribable beastliness, while close by lay the bodies of victims recently sacrificed in their honor.[XI-124] The united symbols of the sexual organs were publicly worshiped in Tlascala, and in the month of Quecholli a grand festival was held in honor of Xochiquetzal, Xochitecatl, and Tlazolteotl, goddesses of sensual delights, when the prostitutes and young men addicted to sodomy were allowed to solicit custom on the public streets.[XI-125] On Zapatero Island, around Lake Nicaragua, and in Costa Rica, a number of idols have been found of which the disproportionately large membrum generationis virile in erectione was the most prominent feature. Palacio relates that at Cezori, in Honduras, the natives offered blood drawn from the organs of generation and circumcised boys before an idol called Icelaca, which was simply a round stone,[XI-126] with two faces and a number of eyes, and was supposed to know all things, past, present, and future.[XI-127] The frequent occurrence of the cross, which has served in so many and such widely separated parts of the earth as the symbol of the life-giving, creative, and fertilizing principle in nature, is, perhaps, one of the most striking evidences of the former recognition of the reciprocal principles of nature by the Americans; especially when we remember that the Mexican name for the emblem, tonacaquahuitl, signifies 'tree of one life, or flesh.'[XI-128] Of two terra-cotta relics found at Ococingo, in the state of Chiapas, one would certainly attract the attention of any one who had investigated the subject of phallic worship or had seen the phallic amulets and ornaments of the old world.[XI-129] In the Museum at Mexico are two small images which were evidently used as ornaments. Each of these represents a human figure in a crouching posture, clasping with both hands an enormous phallus. Col. Brantz Mayer kindly showed me drawings of these made by himself. One of these figures is reproduced in another volume of this work.

[Sidenote: PHALLIC RITES.]

The Pipiles abstained from their wives for four days previous to sowing, in order to indulge in the marital act to the fullest extent on the eve of that day, evidently with a view to initiate or urge the fecundating powers of nature. It is even said that certain persons were appointed to perform the sexual act at the moment of planting the first seed. During the bitter cold nights of the Hyperborean winter, the Aleuts, both men and women, joined hands in the open air and whirled perfectly naked round certain idols, lighted only by the pale moon. The spirit was supposed to hallow the dance with his presence. There certainly could have been no licentious element in this ceremony, for setting aside the discomfort of dancing naked with the thermometer at zero, we read that the dancers were blindfolded, and that decorum was strictly enforced. In Nicaragua, maize sprinkled with blood drawn from the genitals was regarded as sacred food.[XI-130] The custom of drawing blood from this part of the body was observed as a religious rite by almost every tribe from Mexico to Panamá, though this, of course, does not prove that it was in all cases connected with phallic worship. Circumcision is regarded by Squier as a phallic rite, but there is not sufficient testimony to support this view. Tezcatlipoca, the chief god of the Nahuas, who has been frequently identified with the sun, was adored as a love-god, according to Boturini, who adds that the Nahua Lotharios held disorderly festivals in his honor, to induce him to favor their designs.[XI-131] Orgies, characterized by the grossest licentiousness are met with at different places along the coast, as among the Nootkas, the Upper and Lower Californians, in Sinaloa, Nicaragua, and especially in Yucatan, where every festival ended in a debauch. During a certain annual festival held in Nicaragua, women, of whatever condition, could abandon themselves to the embrace of whomever they pleased, without incurring any disgrace.[XI-132]

The feast of the Mexican month Xocotlhuetzin, 'fall, or maturity of fruit,' is to me a most striking evidence of the former existence of phallic worship, or at least recognition of the fecundating principle in nature. I will, however, leave the reader to draw his own conclusions. This feast of the 'maturity of fruit' was dedicated to Xiuhtecutli, god of fire, and, therefore, of fertility, or fecundity. The principal feature of the feast was a tall, straight tree, which was stripped of all its branches except those close to the top and set up in the court of the temple. Within a few feet of its top a cross-yard thirty feet long was fastened; thus a perfect cross was formed. Above all, a dough image of the god of fire curiously dressed was fixed. After certain horrible sacrifices had been made to the deity of the day, the people assembled about the pole, and the youth scrambled up for the image, which they broke in pieces and scattered upon the ground.[XI-133] A great number of similar analogies may be detected in the rites and customs of the people, and it is almost reluctantly that I refrain from giving my views in full. I have made it my aim, however, to deal with facts, and leave speculation to others. Those who wish to thoroughly investigate this most interesting subject, cannot do better than study Mr Squier's learned and exhaustive treatise on the Serpent Symbol.

FOOTNOTES:

[XI-1] 'Toda esta Tierra, con estotra, ... tenia vna misma manera de religion, y ritos, y si en algo diferenciaba, era, en mui poco.' 'Lo mismo fue de las Provincias de Quatimala, Nicaragua, y Honduras.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 54, 191. Tylor thinks that 'the civilizations of Mexico and Central America were originally independent, but that they came much in contact, and thus modified one another to no small extent.' Anahuac, p. 191. 'On reconnaît facilement que le culte y était partout basé sur le rituel toltèque, et que les formes mêmes ne différaient guère les unes des autres.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 559.

[XI-2] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 42, calls him the sun.

[XI-3] Representations of the sun, with whom he seems to be identified, are not impossible to these peoples if we may judge from the sun-plates with lapping tongues and other representations found on the ruins in Mexico and Central America.

[XI-4] 'Porque à este le llamaban tambien Ytzamnà.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 196, 192.

[XI-5] The daughter of Ixchel, the Yucatec medicine goddess. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 43. He writes the virgin's name as Chiribias. Ixchel seems to be the same as the Guatemalan Xmucané, mother of the gods.' Id., Quatre Lettres, p. 243.

[XI-6] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiii.; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 190; Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, p. 246; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. iii., p. 133.

[XI-7] 'Celle de l'eau matrice d'embryon, ix-a-zal-uoh.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, MS. Troano, tom. ii., p. 258.

[XI-8] 'Idolo, ò Zemì.' Villagutierre, Hist. Conq. Itza, p. 33. 'Zemes which are the Images of their familiar and domesticall spirites.' Peter Martyr, dec. iv., lib. vi.

[XI-9] 'Les dieux de l'Yucatan, disent Lizana et Cogolludo, étaient presque tous des rois plus ou moins bons que la gratitude ou la terreur avait fait placer au rang des divinités.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 20; Landa, Relacion, p. 158; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 198.

[XI-10] Lizana, in Landa, Relacion, p. 356; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 197; Brinton, Myths, p. 188, speaks of 'Zamna, or Cukulcan, lord of the dawn and four winds,' and connects him with Votan also. 'Il y a toute apparence qu'il était de la même race (as Votan) et que son arrivée eut lieu peu d'années après la fondation de la monarchie palenquéenne.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 76, et seq. The hand in picture-writing signifies strength, power, mastery, and is frequently met with on Central American ruins, impressed in red color. Among the North American savages it was the symbol of supplication. Their doctors sometimes smeared the hand with paint and daubed it over the patient. Schoolcraft, in Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii., pp. 476-8.

[XI-11] Lizana, in Landa, Relacion, p. 360, translates the name as 'Sol con rostro que sus rayos eran de fuego,' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 198, 178; Brasseur de Bourbourg, MS. Troano, p. 270; Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 5-6; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 475. In the syllable mo of the hero's name is found another reference to the sun, for moo is the Maya term for the bird ara, the symbol of the sun.

[XI-12] 'El que recibe, y possee la gracia, ò rozio del Cielo.' 'No conocian otro Dios Autor de la vida, sino à este.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 179. 'Celui qui demande ou obtient la rosée ou la glace, ou rempli de l'eau en bras de glace, itz-m-a-tul.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, MS. Troano, tom. ii., p. 257; Landa, Relacion, pp. 284-5.

[XI-13] After staying a short time at Potonchan, he embarked and nothing more was heard of him. The Codex Chimalpopoca states, however, that he died in Tlapallan, four days after his return. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 18. In another place this writer refers to three brothers, itzaob, 'saintly man,' who were probably sent by Quetzalcoatl to spread his doctrines, but who ultimately founded a monarchy. They also seem to throw a doubt on the identity of Cukulcan with Quetzalcoatl. 'Il n'y a pas à douter, toutefois, que, s'il est le même que Quetzalcohuatl, la doctrine aura été la même.' Id., pp. 10-1, 43. Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 52, states that the Cocomes were his descendants, but as the hero never married, his disciples must rather be accepted as their ancestors. Landa, Relacion, pp. 35-9, 300-1; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. ii. Veytia connects him with St. Thomas. Hist. Antig. Mej., tom. i., pp. 195-8. Speaking of Cukulcan and his companions Las Casas says: 'A este llamaron Dios de las fiebres ò Calenturas.... Los cuales mandaban que se confesasen las gentes y ayunasen; y que algunos ayunaban el viernes porque habia muerto aquel dia Bacab; y tiene por nombre aquel dia Himis.' Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiii. 'Kukulcan, vient de kuk, oiseau qui paraît être le même que le quetzal; son déterminatif est kukul qui uni à can, serpent, fait exactement le même mot que Quetzal Cohuatl, serpent aux plumes vertes, ou de Quetzal.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, in Landa, Relacion, p. 35.

[XI-14] Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 22; Landa, Relacion, p. 158; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 202; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 46-7. 'Se tenian por santificados los que alla auian estado,' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. iv.

[XI-15] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 50, calls the god of death Rakalku. Baeza, in Registro Yuc., tom. i., pp. 168-9, mentions a transparent stone called zatzun, by means of which hidden things and causes of diseases could be discovered.

[XI-16] 'Cette divinité paraît être la même que le Tihax des Quichés et Cakchiquels, le Tecpatl des Mexicains, la lance ou la flèche.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, in Landa, Relacion, p. 363.

[XI-17] Zee-Rovers, p. 64; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 178, 190-1, 196-7; Landa, Relacion, pp. 206-8; Lizana, in Id., pp. 356-64; Ternaux-Compans, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., pp. 40-4; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 17, 32; Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, pp. 245-6; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 4-10, 20, 42-50.

[XI-18] 'Tra le Croci sono celebri quelle di Jucatan, della Mizteca, di Queretaro, di Tepique, e di Tianquiztepec.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 14. There were also crosses at Palenque, on San Juan de Ulloa, at Copan, in Nicaragua, and other places. 'Die Tolteken haben nämlich die Verehrung des Kreuzes mit durchaus bewusster Beziehung desselben auf den Regen, von der alten Urbevölkerung aufgenommen.' Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 498-9; Palacio, Carta, p. 88.

[XI-19] This and other prophecies, which, if not mere fabrications, bear at least marks of mutilation and addition, may be found in Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. iii., pp. 132-3; Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, pp. 245-6; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 99-100; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 603-6. Brinton thinks that they may refer to 'the return of Zamná, or Kuckulcan, lord of the dawn and the four winds, worshipped at Cozumel ... under the sign of the cross.' Myths, p. 188. The report circulated by Aguilar of his people and of the cross, may have given the prophets a clue.

[XI-20] 'The formation of such an opinion by the Spaniards seems to shew almost conclusively, that the aborigines of the country did not retain any traditional history on the subject that would justify the simple belief, that Catholic Europeans had ever possessed influence enough among them to have established so important a feature in their superstitious observances.' McCulloh, Researches in Amer., p. 327. 'Afirmaban que por que habia muerto en ella un hombre mas replandeciente que el sol.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiii.; Peter Martyr, dec. iv., lib. i.

[XI-21] Mr Godfrey Higgins, in his Celtic Druids, p. 126, says: 'Few causes have been more powerful in producing mistakes in ancient history, than the idea, hastily taken up by Christians in all ages, that every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, or with any of those symbols which they conceived to be monograms of Christ, were of Christian origin.... The cross is as common in India as in Egypt, and Europe,' Mr Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 361, writes: 'Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian be offended at the preceding assertion that the cross was one of the most usual symbols among the hieroglyphics of Egypt and India.' The emblem of universal nature is equally honored in the Gentile and Christian world. 'In the cave at Elephanta, in India, over the head of the principal figure, again may be seen this figure (the cross), and a little in the front the huge Lingham (phallus).'

[XI-22] Constantio holds it to be a symbol of the solstices. Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 464-5; Humboldt, Exam. Crit., tom. ii., pp. 354-6; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 24; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 497-500; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. iii., pp. 133, 200-6, 299; McCulloh's Researches, pp. 331-6; Klemm, Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., p. 143; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 63. Brinton refers to a statement that the Mexicans had cruciform graves, and supposes that this referred to four spirits of the world who were to carry the deceased to heaven, but there seems to be a mistake on both of these points. Myths, pp. 95-8; Gould's Curious Myths, vol. ii., p. 79, et seq.; Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii., pp. 369-72. Some of the crosses referred to lack the head piece, and being of this shape, "T", resemble, somewhat, a Mexican coin.

[XI-23] 'No solo se hallò vna Cruz, sino algunas.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 199-302; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 3; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. i.; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 24. Stephens found a cross at the church of Mejorada, in Mérida, which an old monk had dug out of the ruins of a church on Cozumel Island. 'The connecting of the "Cozumel Cross" with the ruined church on the island completely invalidates the strongest proof offered at this day that the cross was ever recognized by the Indians as a symbol of worship.' Yucatan, vol. ii., pp. 377-8. Rather a hasty assertion when made in the face of so many old authorities.

[XI-24] This seems to confirm the idea that it was worshiped, yet Constantio regards it as a representation of the birth of the sun in the winter solstice, and holds the ruin to which the cross belongs to be a sun temple. Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 464-5; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 498; Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 345-8. Squier, who denies that the Tonacaquahuitl was intended to represent a cross, thinks that the Palenque cross merely represents one of these trees with the branches placed crosswise. Palacio, Carta, pp. 120-1. Jones, Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 149, et seq., who identifies almost every feature of Central American worship with the Phœnician, asserts that the Palenque cross proves the Tyrian origin of the aborigines.

[XI-25] Cogolludo says, however: 'Solian ayunar dos, y tres dias, sin comer cosa alguna.' Hist. Yuc., p. 194.

[XI-26] These mutilations were at times very severe. 'Otras vezes hazian un suzio y penoso sacrificio añudandose los que lo hazian en el templo, donde puestas en rengla, se hazian sendos aguzeros en los miembros viriles al soslayo por el lado, y hechos passavan toda la mas cantidad de hilo que podian, quedando assi todos asidos.' Landa, Relacion, pp. 162-3. This author thinks that the practice of slitting the prepuce gave rise to the idea that circumcision existed in Yucatan.

[XI-27] Landa, Relacion, pp. 164-8; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 193-4; Medel, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., p. 43; vol. ii., pp. 704-5, of this work. 'For want of children they sacrifice dogges.' Peter Martyr, dec. iv., lib. vi. 'El numero de la gente sacrificada era mucho: y esta costumbre fue introduzida en Yucatan, por los Mexicanos.' 'Flechauan algunas vezes al sacrificado ... desollauanlos, vestiase el sacerdote el pellejo, y baylauo, y enterrauan el cuerpo en el patio del templo.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. iii., iv. Tradition relates that in a cave near Uxmal existed a well like that of Chichen, guarded by an old woman, the builder of the dwarf palace in that city, who sold the water for infants, and these she cast before the snake at her side. Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. ii., p. 425.

[XI-28] Landa, Relacion, p. 165; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 25, 180; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 62.

[XI-29] Relacion, p. 154; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. iv. For description of baptismal rites, see vol. ii., pp. 682-4, of this work.

[XI-30] 'Que se deriva de un verbo kinyah, que significa "sortear ó echar suertes."' Lizana, in Landa, Relacion, p. 362.

[XI-31] 'Longues robes noires.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 168.

[XI-32] Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 198; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 6; Ternaux-Compans, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., pp. 39-41. Temples are described in vol. ii., pp. 791-3, of this work.

[XI-33] 'Célèbres dans toutes les traditions d'origine toltèque, comme les pères du soleil et de la magie.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 120.

[XI-34] 'Hun-Ahpu-Vuch un Tireur de Sarbacane au Sarigue et Hun-Ahpu-Utïu un Tireur de Sarbacane au Chacal.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. cxviii., cxix., pp. 2-5. They are also referred to as conjurers. Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 54. Ximenez spells the latter name Hun-ahpu-uhú, and states that they are held as oracles. Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 4, 156-8, 82. Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiv., refers to these beings as having been adored under the name of grandfather and grandmother before the deluge, but later on a woman appeared who taught them to call the gods by other names. This woman, Brasseur de Bourbourg holds to be the traditional and celebrated queen Atit, from whom Atitlan volcano obtained its name, and from whom the princely families of Guatemala have descended. The natives still recall her name, but as that of a phantom. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 74-5. He further finds considerable similarity between her and Aditi of the Veda. In his solution of the Antilles cataclysm he identifies Xmucane as the South American part of the continent and Xpiyacoc as North America. Quatre Lettres, pp. 223-4, 235-8. Garcia, Origen de los Ind., pp. 329-30, calls these first beings Xchmel and Xtmana, and gives them three sons, who create all things. In the younger of these we recognize the two legitimate sons of Hunhun Ahpu, who will be described later on as the patrons of the fine arts.

[XI-35] To be afflicted with buboes implied the possession of many women and consequently wealth and grandeur. Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 157; see this vol. p. 60; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 3.

[XI-36] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 315, does not understand why Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 125, translates heaven and Xibalba as heaven and hell, but as both terms doubtless refer to provinces, or towns, it is better to retain the figurative name. Xibalba is, besides, derived from the same source as the Insomuch 'demon' of the Yucatecs. Brasseur translates: 'Chaque sept (jours) il montait au ciel et en sept (jours) il faisait le chemin pour descendre à Xibalba;' while Ximenez with more apparent correctness renders: 'Siete dias se subia al cielo y siete dias se iba al infierno.' In Quatre Lettres, p. 228, the Abbé explains Xibalba as hell. See also vol. ii., pp. 715-7, of this work.

[XI-37] Popol Vuh, p. cxvii.-cxx., 7, 9; see this vol., pp. 48-54. The occurrence of the number 4 in mythical and historical accounts of Mexico and Central America is very frequent.

[XI-38] 'Parait venir des Antilles, où il désignait la tempête et le grondement de l'orage.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 8.

[XI-39] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 496.

[XI-40] Garcilaso says: 'C'est encore l'idée du Tonnerre, de l'Eclair et de la Foudre, contenus dans un seul Hurakan, le centre, le coeur du ciel, la tempête, le vent, le souffle.' Comentarios Reales, lib. ii., cap. xxiii., lib. iii., cap. xxi., lib. iii.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. ccxxxv., 9; Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 51.

[XI-41] 'Ximenez dit qu'il signifie Pluie, Averse: mais il confond ici le nom du dieu avec le signe. Toh, ... est rendu par le mot paga, paie, pagar, payer. Mais le MS. Cakehiquel ... dit que les Quichés reçurent celui de Tohohil, qui signifie grondement, bruit,' etc. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 214. He seems identical with the Maya Hunpictok.

[XI-42] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 553, tom. i., p. 128.

[XI-43] Brinton, Myths, pp. 156-7, who holds Hurakan to be the Tlaloc, connects Tohil with Quetzalcoatl--ideas taken most likely from Brasseur de Bourbourg--states that he was represented by a flint. This must refer to his traditional transformation into a stone, for the Abbé declares that no description of his idol is given by the chroniclers. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 552. Now, although the Abbé declares Tohil to be the same as Quetzalcoatl, in the Popol Vuh, p. 214, and other places, he acknowledges that the tradition positively identifies him with Hurakan, and confirms this by explaining on p. cclxvii., that Tohil, sometimes in himself, sometimes in connection with the two other members of the trinity, combines the attributes of thunder, flash, and thunderbolt; further, he gives a prayer by the Tohil priests in which this god is addressed as Hurakan. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 553. Gucumatz, the acknowledged representative of Quetzalcoatl, is, besides, shown to be distinct from Tohil. Every point, therefore, tradition, name, attributes, connect Tohil and Hurakan, and identify them with Tlaloc.

[XI-44] Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 552-3.

[XI-45] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. cclxvii., 235; Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 554. The turning into stone 'veut dire que les trois principaux volcans s'éteignirent ou cessèrent de lancer leurs feux.' Id., Quatre Lettres, p. 331.

[XI-46] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 497, 75; Id., Popol Vuh, p. cclxii.; see note 7.

[XI-47] Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 521; Juarros' Hist. Guat., p. 384.

[XI-48] 'Hunhun-Ahpu signifie Chaque Tireur de Sarbacane; Vukub-Hun-Ahpu, Sept un Tireur de Sarbacane.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. cxxxv. Their chief name, Ahpu, 'désigne la puissance volcanique.' Id., Quatre Lettres, p. 225.

[XI-49] Hun Ahpu, a sarbacan shooter. 'Xbalenque, de balam, tigre, jaguar; le que final est un signe pluriel, et le x qui précède, prononcez sh (anglais), est alternativement un diminutif ou un signe féminin.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. cxxxv. Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 146-7, 156, remarks the similarity of these personages to the God, son, and virgin of the Christians.

[XI-50] 'Hun-Batz, Un Singe (ou un Fileur); Hun-Chouen, un qui se blanchit, ou s'embellit.' They seem to correspond to the Mexican Ozomatli and Piltzintecutli. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. cxxxv., 69, 117. The ba in Hun-Batz refers to something underground, or deep down, and Hun-Chouen '"Une Souris cachée" ou "un lac en sentinelle."' Both names indicate the disordered condition and movement of a region (the Antilles). Id., Quatre Lettres, pp. 227-9.

[XI-51] 'Les deux frères, s'étant embrassés, s'élancent dans les flammes.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 137.

[XI-52] Vukub Cakix, 'seven aras,' a type of the sun, although declared in one place to have usurped the solar attribute, seems to have been worshiped as the sun; his two sons, Zipacna and Cabrakan, represent respectively the creator of the earth and the earthquake, which confirms their father's high position. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. 31-9, cciv., ccliii.

[XI-53] The allegorical account of these events is related on pp. 31 to 192 of Popol Vuh, and Brasseur's remarks are given on pages cxxxiv. to cxl. Juarros, Hist. Guat., p. 164, states that Hun Ahpu discovered the use of cacao and cotton, which is but another indication of the introduction of culture. According to Las Casas, Xbalanque descends into hell, Xibalba, where he captures Satan and his chief men, and when the devil implores the hero not to bring him to the light, he kicks him back with the curse that all things rotten and abhorrent may cling to him. When he returns, his people do not receive him with due honor, and he accordingly leaves for other parts. Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiv.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 53-4.

[XI-54] Quatre Lettres, pp. 225-53; see this vol. 261-4.

[XI-55] On one occasion the people 'égorgèrent chacun un de leurs fils, dont ils mirent les cadavres dans les fondations.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 561-4.

[XI-56] Indianer von Istlávacan, pp. 11-3. The natives believed that they would have to share all the sufferings and emotions of their naguals. Gage's New Survey, p. 334; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. iv., also refers to naguals, and states that the Honduras protégé made his compact with it in the mountains by offerings and blood-letting.

[XI-57] Espinosa, Chrón. Apost., pp. 344-5; Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, p. 726; Villagutierre, Hist. Conq. Itza, pp. 151-3.

[XI-58] 'Tenian por sus Dioses à los Venados.' Villagutierre, Hist. Conq. Itza, p. 43.

[XI-59] Hist. Yuc., pp. 699, 489-93, 509; Villagutierre, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 100-2, 182, 500-2; Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 32; McCulloh's Researches in Amer., p. 318.

[XI-60] 'Cha-malcan serait donc Flèche ou Dard frotté d'ocre jaune,' etc. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. 248-9.

[XI-61] Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 173.

[XI-62] Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 475. In their want of idols they contrasted strongly with their neighbors. Villagutierre, Hist. Conq. Itza, p. 74; Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 79.

[XI-63] 'C'est à eux qu'elles offraient presque tous leurs sacrifices.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 556; Palacio, Carta, pp. 66-70.

[XI-64] 'L'époque que les événements paraissent assigner à cette légende coïncide avec la période de la grande émigration toltèque et la fondation des divers royaumes guatémaliens.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 81; Id., Popol Vuh, p. cxxviii. Near the village of Coatan was a small lake which they regarded as oracular, into which none dared to peer least he should be smitten with dumbness and death. Palacio, Carta, p. 50.

[XI-65] 'Aujourd'hui de Gracias.... Il y a encore aujourd'hui un village du même nom, paroisse à 12 l. de Comayagua.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 106.

[XI-66] 'Aunque otros dicen, que eran sus Hermanos.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 336.

[XI-67] Carta, pp. 82-4. As an instance of the respect entertained for the idols, Las Casas relates that on the Spaniards once profaning them with their touch, the natives brought censers with which they incensed them, and then carried them back to their altar with great respect, shedding their blood upon the road traversed by the idols. Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxx.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., 326; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. iv.

[XI-68] See vol. ii. of this work, pp. 719-20.

[XI-69] Roman, Republica de los Indios, in Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 176-81; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 564-566; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxix.; Juarros, Hist. Guat., p. 196.

[XI-70] The ancient Quichés 'recueillirent leur sang avec des éponges,' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 259.

[XI-71] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 559-63; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxvii.; vol. ii. of this work, pp. 688.

[XI-72] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. 226-7; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiv., clxxvii.; Juarros' Hist. Guat., p. 225; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 54; Palacio, Carta, p. 66; Squier, in Id., pp. 116-7; Cortés, Cartas, pp. 417-8; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 699; Villagutierre, Hist. Conq. Itza, pp. 392, 502; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 268; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 40; see also, this vol. pp. 688-9, 706-10, 735; Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. ii., pp. 184-5. Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., p. 210, states, that in case of a severe illness, a father would not hesitate to sacrifice his son to obtain relief. The very fact of such a tale passing current, shows how little human life was valued.

[XI-73] 'Ils n'avaient pour toute nourriture que des fruits.' MS., Quiché de Chichicastenango, in Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 552-553, 496-7; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxxiii.

[XI-74] Ternaux-Compans renders it tuti, Recueil de Doc., p. 29, while Squier gives it as tecti. Palacio, Carta, p. 62. But as an Aztec word, it ought to be written teoti.

[XI-75] Palacio, Carta, pp. 62-6; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. x.; Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., pp. 200-1; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 105, 555-6; Salazar y Olarte, Hist. Conq. Mex., pp. 315-6.

[XI-76] Hist. Conq. Itza, p. 61; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. cxviii., cclxvi.; Scherzer, Indianer von Istlávacan, p. 10.

[XI-77] Gomara says with regard to this: 'Religion de Nicaragua que casi es la mesma Mexicana.' Hist. Ind., fol. 63.

[XI-78] The similarity of the name of tamachaz and tamagast, names given to angels and priests, is striking. The ending tat might also be regarded as a contraction of the Aztec tatli, father. Buschmann, Ortsnamen, pp. 164-5.

[XI-79] Buschmann, Ortsnamen, p. 163.

[XI-80] 'Ich bringe es in Verbindung mit dem Stammworte ciahua oder ciyahua befeuchten, bewässern.' Ib. It is to be noticed that the Aztec h frequently changes into g, in these countries.

[XI-81] Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 435-8, 503; Squier's Nicaragua, (Ed. 1856), vol. ii., pp. 349-60; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 112; this author identifies Tamagostat and Cipaltona with the solar deities Oxomoc and Cipactonal of the Toltecs, but places them in rather an inferior position.

[XI-82] Oxomogo is also introduced, which tends to throw doubt on Brasseur's identification of Jamagostad with this personage.

[XI-83] 'Ehecatl oder verkürzt Ecatl ... ist die Berichtigung für Oviedo's Hecat.' Buschmann, Ortsnamen, p. 163; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 40-5, 52.

[XI-84] In Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. iii., p. 40, they are written Homey-Atelïte and Homey-Ateciguat, but the above spelling corresponds better with other similar Aztec names in Nicaragua. Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 46.

[XI-85] 'Von quiahui oder quiyahui regnen: mit teotl Gott verbunden.' Buschmann, Ortsnamen, p. 167.

[XI-86] Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 46.

[XI-87] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 113. The latter seems to be the same as the Mexican Teotochtli, 'rabbit god.'

[XI-88] 'Y esso tenemos por el dios de los venados.' Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 55.

[XI-89] All probably derived from tlamacazqui, priest. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 112-4. This author, following Oviedo, Hist. Nic., spells the names somewhat differently. Buschmann, Ortsnamen, pp. 165-8; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 48, 52, 101.

[XI-90] These remarks appear inconsistent with the statement that the spirit only of men ascended to heaven. Id., pp. 41-2.

[XI-91] 'Téobat vient probablement de Téohuatl, être divin.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 113.

[XI-92] 'En toda la plaça, ni en el templo donde están, entran allí hombre ni muger en tanto que allí están, sino solamente los muchachos pequeños que les llevan é dan de comer.' Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 47.

[XI-93] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 330.

[XI-94] Peter Martyr describes this edifice as follows: 'Within the viewe of their Temples there are diuers Bases or Pillers like the Pulpittes ... which Bases consist of eight steppes or stayres in some places twelue, and in another fifteene.' Dec. vi., lib. vi.

[XI-95] Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 46-7, 53, 56, 93-4, 98, 101; Peter Martyr, dec. vi., lib. vii.; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 265-6; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec., iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.; vol. ii., pp. 708-10, 715, of this work.

[XI-96] Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 55-6; Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., lib. v., cap. xii.; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 256.

[XI-97] Brasseur de Bourbourg says: 'Tamagoz, c'est encore une autre corruption du mot tlamacazqui.' Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 114.

[XI-98] Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 46-7, 53; Andagoya, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., p. 414; vol. ii., p. 728, of this work. Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 265, states that the priests were all married, while Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., asserts the contrary. The latter view seems more correct when we consider that women were not permitted to enter the temples, and that the high priest and devotees were obliged to leave their wives when they passed into the sanctuary. It is even probable that there was no distinct priesthood, since the temples had no revenues, and the temple service was performed in part at least by volunteers; to this must be added the fact, that although the confessor might not be connected with the temple, yet he ordered penance for its benefit. It must be considered, however, that without regular ministers it would have been difficult to keep up the routine of feasts and ceremonies, write the books of records, teach the children, and maintain discipline.

[XI-99] Arricivita, Crónica Seráfica, p. 57; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 101, 107. 'Sous le nom de "Texoxé" on désignait les naguals, les génies mauvais de toute espèce, ainsi que les sorciers.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 113.

[XI-100] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 63.

[XI-101] At Cape Honduras they consisted of long, narrow houses, raised above the ground, containing idols with heads of animals. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. v.

[XI-102] Id., and dec. iv., lib. i., cap. vi.; see vol. i., p. 740, of this work.

[XI-103] 'Es ist dafür das Wort God aus dem Englischen aufgenommen.' Mosquitoland, Bericht, p. 142.

[XI-104] Bard's Waikna, p. 243. 'Devils, the chief of whom they call the Woolsaw, or evil principle, witchcraft.' Strangeways' Mosquito Shore, p. 331. Young writes Oulasser. Narrative, p. 72.

[XI-105] Bell, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxxii., p. 254.

[XI-106] A shape which assigns the story a comparatively recent date, unless a deer was originally meant.

[XI-107] Bell, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxxii., pp. 253-4; Young's Narrative, p. 79.

[XI-108] Froebel's Cent. Amer., p. 137; see also vol. i., pp. 740-1, of this work.

[XI-109] Hist. Ind., fol. 255.

[XI-110] Id., fol. 89; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., pp. 20, 125.

[XI-111] Peter Martyr, dec. vii., lib. x.; Irving's Columbus, vol. iii., pp. 173-4; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 421.

[XI-112] Andagoya, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., p. 401; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. i., cap. xi., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. v.

[XI-113] Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiv., ccxlii.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 63.

[XI-114] Dec. iii., lib. iv., dec. ii., lib. iii.

[XI-115] A name applied in Cueba to all who excelled in an art. Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., pp. 126-7.

[XI-116] 'Las manos no se las vian.' Andagoya, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., p. 400.

[XI-117] For further account of sorcerers, see vol. i., pp. 779-80. Gomara writes: 'Tauira, que es el Diablo.' Hist. Ind., fol. 255; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. ii., cap. x., lib. iii., cap. v., dec. iv., lib. i., cap. x.

[XI-118] Peter Martyr, dec. vii., lib. x.

[XI-119] Ancient Fragments, introduction, p. 34. M. Pictet says of the primitive Celtic religion: "From a primitive duality, constituting the fundamental forces of the universe, there arises a double progression of cosmical powers, which, after having crossed each other by a mutual transition, at last proceed to blend in One Supreme Unity, as in their essential principles." Says Sir William Jones: "We must not be surprised at finding, on a close examination, that the characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two, for it seems a well-founded opinion that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses in ancient Rome and modern Váránes, mean only the Powers of Nature, and principally those of the SUN, expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names." On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, p. 273.

[XI-120] 'This suggestion was first publicly made in a communication read,' says Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 49, 'before the American Ethnological Society, by a distinguished member of that body; from which the following passages are extracted. After noticing several facts tending to show the former existence of Phallic worship in America, the author of the paper proceeds as follows:--"We come now to Central America. Upon a perusal of the first journey of our fellow-members, Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood, into Guatemala and the central territories of the Continent, I was forcibly struck with the monolithic idols of Copan. We knew nothing before, save of Mexican, Palenque, and Uxmal remains; and those of Copan appeared to me to be unlike them all, and probably of an older date. My reading furnishes me with but one parallel to those singular monolithic sculptures, and that was seen in Ceylon, in 1796, by Captain Colin McKenzie, and described in the 6th volume of the Asiatic Researches. As the description is short, I transcribe it: 'The figure is cut out of stone in relievo; but the whole is sunk in a hollow, scooped out, so that it is defended from injury on the sides. It may be about fourteen feet high, the countenance wild, a full round visage, the eyes large, the nose round and long; it has no beard; nor the usual distinguishing marks of the Gentoo casts. He holds up both his hands, with the forefingers and thumbs bent; the head-dress is high, and seems ornamented with jewels; on the little finger of the left hand is a ring; on the arms bracelets; a belt high about the waist; the lower dress or drapery fixed with a girdle much lower than the Gentoo dress, from which something like tassels depend; a collar and ornaments on the neck and shoulders; and rings seem to hang low from the ears. No appearance of any arms or weapons.' This was the nearest approximation I could make to the Copan idols; for idols I took them to be, from the fact that an altar was invariably placed before them. From a close inspection of Mr. Catherwood's drawings, I found that though no single figure presented all the foregoing characteristics, yet in the various figures I could find every particular enumerated in the Ceylon sculpture. It then occurred to me that one of the most usual symbols of the Phallus was an erect stone, often in its rough state, sometimes sculptured, and that no other object of heathen worship was so often shadowed forth by a single stone placed on end, as the Phallus. That the worship of the Priapus, [Lingam] existed in Ceylon, has long since been satisfactorily established; and hence I was led to suspect that these monuments at Copan, might be vestiges of a similar idolatry. A further inspection confirmed my suspicions; for, as I supposed, I found sculptured on the American ruins the organs of generation, and on the back of one of the emblems relative to uterine existence, parturition, etc. I should, however, have wanted entire confidence in the correctness of my suspicions, had the matter rested here. On the return of Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood from their second expedition, every doubt of the existence of Phallic worship, especially in Yucatan, was removed."

[XI-121] Quatre Lettres, pp. 290, 301; Squier's Serpent Symbol, pp. 47-50.

[XI-122] Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, part i., p. 40.

[XI-123] In Pánuco and other provinces 'adorano il membro che portano gli huomini fra le gambe, & lo tengono nella meschita, & posto similmente sopra la piazza insieme con le imagini de rilieuo di tutti modi di piacere che possono essere fra l'huomo & la donna, & gli hanno di ritratto con le gambe di alzate in diuersi modi.' Relatione fatta per un Gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortése, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 307.

[XI-124] 'Hallaron entre vnos arboles vn idolillo de oro y muchos de barro, dos hombres de palo, caualgando vno sobre otro, a fuer Sodoma, y otro de tierra cozida con ambas manos a lo suyo, que lo tenia retajado, como son casi todos los Indios de Yucatan.' Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 58.

[XI-125] See vol. ii., pp. 336-7, concerning this festival.

[XI-126] 'Un idolo de piedra redondo,' which may mean a 'cylindrical stone,' as the translator of Palacio's Carta has rendered it.

[XI-127] Palacio, Carta, p. 84.

[XI-128] Concerning the cross in America, see this vol. p. 468.

[XI-129] I refer to the left hand figure in the cut on p. 348, vol. iv., of this work. For examples of the amulets mentioned, see illustrations in Payne Knight's Worship of Priapus.

[XI-130] See vol. i., of this work, p. 93; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 48; See vol. ii., of this work, pp. 719-20.

[XI-131] Boturini, Idea, p. 13; see also this volume, pp. 243-4.

[XI-132] See vol. i., of this work, pp. 200, 414, 566-6; vol. ii., p. 676, and account of Yucatec feasts in chap. xxii. In citing these brutish orgies I do not presume, or wish to assert, that they were in any way connected with phallus worship, or indeed, that there was anything of a religious nature in them. Still, as they certainly were indulged in during, or immediately after the great religious festivals, and as we know how the phallic cult degenerated from its original purity into just such bestiality in Greece and Rome, I have thought it well to mention them. There is much truth in the following remarks on this point, by Mr. Brinton, though with his statement that the proofs of a recognition of the fecundating principle in Nature by the Americans are 'altogether wanting,' I cannot agree. He says: 'There is no ground whatever to invest these debauches with any recondite meaning. They are simply indications of the thorough and utter immorality which prevailed throughout the race. And a still more disgusting proof of it is seen in the frequent appearance among diverse tribes of men dressed as women and yielding themselves to indescribable vices. There was at first nothing of a religious nature in such exhibitions. Lascivious priests chose at times to invest them with some such meaning.... The pretended phallic worship of the Natchez and of Culhuacan, cited by the Abbé Brasseur, rests on no good authority, and if true, is like that of the Huastecs of Panuco, nothing but an unrestrained and boundless profligacy which it were an absurdity to call a religion. That which Mr. Stephens attempts to show existed once in Yucatan, rests entirely by his own statement on a fancied resemblance of no value whatever, and the arguments of Lafitau to the same effect are quite insufficient. There is a decided indecency in the remains of ancient American art, especially in Peru, (Meyen) and great lubricity in many ceremonies, but the proof is altogether wanting to bind these with the recognition of fecundating principle throughout nature, or, indeed, to suppose for them any other origin than the promptings of an impure fancy. I even doubt whether they often referred to fire as the deity of sexual love. By a flight of fancy inspired by a study of oriental mythology, the worship of the reciprocal principle in America has been connected with that of the sun and moon, as the primitive pair from whose fecund union all creatures proceeded. It is sufficient to say if such a myth exists among the Indians--which is questionable--it justifies no such deduction; that the moon is often mentioned in their languages merely as the "night sun;" and that in such important stocks as the Iroquois, Athapascas, Cherokees, and Tupis, the sun is said to be a feminine noun; while the myths represent them more frequently as brother and sister than as man and wife; nor did at least the northern tribes regard the sun as the cause of fecundity in nature at all, but solely as giving light and warmth.' Myths, pp. 149-50; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., pp. 416-17.

[XI-133] For a full account of this feast see vol. ii., of this work, pp. 329-30.