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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34804-8.txt b/34804-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddcde62 --- /dev/null +++ b/34804-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5332 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on the Origin and Growth of +Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru, by Albert Réville + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru + +Author: Albert Réville + +Release Date: December 31, 2010 [EBook #34804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from scans of public domain material produced by +Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) + + + + + + + + + + _THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1884._ + + LECTURES + ON THE + ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION + AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE + NATIVE RELIGIONS OF MEXICO + AND PERU. + + DELIVERED AT OXFORD AND LONDON, + IN APRIL AND MAY, 1884. + + BY + ALBERT RÉVILLE, D.D. + PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE. + + TRANSLATED BY PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A. + + + WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, + 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; + AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. + + 1884. + + [_All Rights reserved._] + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON, + 178, STRAND. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + LECTURE I. + + INTRODUCTION.--CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. THEIR COMMON BASES + OF CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION. + + PAGE + + Importance of the history of Religion 1 + + The religions of Mexico and Peru, and the special importance + of studying them 7 + + Journey to another planet 8 + + Parallelism of religious history in the New World and in + the Old 9 + + Central America and Mexico, and the authorities as to their + history and religion 14 + + Area and general character of this civilization 18 + + The Mayas 20 + + Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs 24 + + The Aztec empire 29 + + Character of the religious conceptions common to Central + America and Mexico 35 + + The serpent-god and the American cross 38 + + Estimate of the character and significance of the parallelisms + observed 39 + + + LECTURE II. + + THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO. + + PAGE + + The Sun and Moon 45 + + The pyramidal Mexican temples 47 + + The great temple of the city of Mexico 48 + + The narrative of Bernal Diaz; and the two great Aztec deities, + Uitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca 51 + + Mythical significance of Uitzilopochtli 54 + + Significance of Tezcatlipoca 60 + + The serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, god of the east wind 62 + + Netzalhuatcoyotl, the philosopher-king of Tezcuco 69 + + Number of Mexican deities 70 + + Tlaloc, god of rain 71 + + Centeotl, goddess of maize 72 + + Xiuhtecutli, god of fire 74 + + The Mexican Venus 75 + + Other deities 76 + + The Tepitoton 77 + + Mictlan, god of the dead 78 + + Summary and reflections 79 + + + LECTURE III. + + THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY + AND COSMOGONY OF MEXICO. + + PAGE + + Recapitulation 85 + + Original meaning of sacrifice 86 + + Human sacrifices and cannibalism 87 + + Importance attached to the suffering of the victims 90 + + Tragic and cruel character of the Mexican sacrifices 91 + + The victims of Tezcatlipoca and Centeotl 93 + + The children of Tlaloc 96 + + The roasted victims of the god of fire 97 + + Mexican asceticism 99 + + Mexican "communion" 101 + + Religious ethics 102 + + The priesthood 106 + + Convents, monks and nuns of ancient Mexico 109 + + Mexican cosmogonies 112 + + The great jubilee 116 + + The future life 118 + + Conversion of the Mexicans 121 + + The Inquisition 122 + + Conclusion 123 + + + LECTURE IV. + + PERU.--ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION.--THE LEGEND OF THE + INCAS: THEIR POLICY AND HISTORY + + PAGE + + The Peru of the Incas 127 + + Cortes and Pizarro 131 + + The Inca hierocracy 132 + + The Quipos 134 + + Authorities for the history and religion of Peru 136 + + Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega 137 + + Peruvian civilization 139 + + Huayna Capac's taxation 142 + + Social, political and military organization of Peru 143 + + Education 152 + + Material well-being 153 + + The legend of the Incas: Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo 156 + + Were the Incas really the sole civilizers of Peru? 159 + + Succession of the Incas and character of their rule 160 + + Free-thinking Incas 161 + + Huayna Capac's departure from traditional maxims 166 + + + LECTURE V. + + THE FALL OF THE INCAS.--PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY PRIESTHOOD. + + PAGE + + + Recapitulation 171 + + Atahualpa and Pizarro 172 + + Father Valverde's discourse 174 + + Atahualpa's imprisonment and death 176 + + Inca pretenders 179 + + Worship of the Sun and Moon 182 + + Viracocha, god of fertilizing showers 184 + + His consort, Mama Cocha 186 + + Old Peruvian hymn 187 + + Pachacamac, god of internal fire 188 + + The myth of Pacari Tambo 191 + + Cuycha, the rainbow 194 + + Chasca, the planet Venus 194 + + Worship of fire 195 + + Worship of the thunder 196 + + Worship of esculent plants 197 + + Worship of animals 198 + + The Huacas 199 + + Peruvian priesthood 202 + + The Virgins of the Sun 204 + + Punishment of faithless nuns 206 + + Independent parallelisms, illustrated by the "couvade" 208 + + + LECTURE VI. + + PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE + LIFE.--CONCLUSIONS. + + PAGE + + Peruvian temples 215 + + Sacrifices 218 + + Columns of the Sun 222 + + Hymns 223 + + Religious dances 224 + + The four great festivals 225 + + Chasing the evil spirit 227 + + Occasional and minor festivals 229 + + Eclipses 230 + + Sorcerers and priests 230 + + Moral significance of the Peruvian religion 232 + + Communion, baptism and sacerdotal confession 233 + + Various ideas as to the future life 235 + + Supay, the god of the departed 237 + + Conversion of the Peruvians 239 + + Are the origins of the American civilizations to be sought in + the Old World? 241 + + Real significance and importance of analogies observed 243 + + Sacrifice 245 + + Three stages of religious faith: animistic nature-worship, + anthropomorphic polytheism and spiritual monotheism 246 + + The genesis of the temple 249 + + Primitive independence and subsequent mutual interpenetration + of religion and morals 250 + + Human nature invincibly religious 252 + + The guiding principle 254 + + Farewell 255 + + + + +ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. + + + P. 16, _note_, under _Acosta_, add, "E[dward] G[rimstone]'s + translation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by + Clements R. Markham, in 1880." + + P. 17, _note_, lines 4 and 5, to "English translation" add "in + epitome." + + " lines 8 and 9, for "Ixtilxochitl" read "Ixtlilxochitl." + + " line 7 from below, for "note" read "notes." + + P. 32, line 10 from below, for "bases" read "basis." + + P. 34, line 1, for "lama" read "llama." + + P. 35, last line, insert "and" after "America." + + P. 77, _note_, last line, for "caps." read "capp." + + P. 92, line 9 from below, omit "to" before "which." + + P. 113, _note_, last line, for "Chichemeca" read "Chichimeca." + + P. 129, line 3, for "East to West" read "West to East." + + P. 224, _note_, for "_Rivero y Tschudi_, l.c." read "_Rivero y + Tschudi_: Antigüedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851." N. B. An English + translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New York + in 1853. + + + + +LECTURE I. + +INTRODUCTION.--CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. COMMON BASES OF CIVILIZATION +AND RELIGION. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +My first duty is to acknowledge the signal honour which the Hibbert +Trustees have done me in inviting me to follow such a series of eminent +men as the previous occupiers of this Chair, and to address you, in the +free and earnest spirit of truth-loving and impartial research, on those +great questions of religious history which so justly pre-occupy the +chosen spirits of European society. Our age is not, as is sometimes +said, an age of positive science and of industrial discoveries alone, +but also, and in a very high degree, an age of criticism and of history. +It is to history, indeed, more than to anything else, that it looks for +the lights which are to guide it in resolving the grave difficulties +presented by the problems of the hour, in politics, in organization, and +in social and religious life. Penetrated more deeply than the century +that preceded it by the truth that the development of humanity is not +arbitrary, that the law of continuity is no less rigorously applicable +to the successive evolutions of the human mind than to the animal and +vegetable transformations of the physical world, it perceives that the +present can be no other than the expansion of germs contained in the +past; it attempts to pierce to the very essence of spiritual realities +by investigating the methods and the laws of their historical +development; it strives, here as elsewhere, to separate the permanent +from the transient, the substance from the accident, and is urged on in +these laborious researches by no mere dilettante curiosity, but rather +by the hope of arriving at a more accurate knowledge of all that is +true, all that is truly precious, all that can claim, as the pure truth, +our deliberate adhesion and our love. And in the domain of Religion, +more especially, we can never lose our confidence that, if historical +research may sometimes compel us to sacrifice illusions, or even beliefs +that have been dear to us, it gives us in return the right to walk in +the paths of the Eternal with a firmer step, and reveals with growing +clearness the marvellous aspiration of humanity towards a supreme +reality, mysterious, nay incomprehensible, and yet in essential affinity +with itself, with its ideal, with its all that is purest and sublimest. +The history of religion is not only one of the branches of human +knowledge, but a prophecy as well. After having shown us whence we come +and the path we have trodden, it shadows forth the way we have yet to +go, or at the very least it effects the orientation by which we may know +in which direction it lies. + +Gentlemen, in these Lectures I shall be loyal to the principles of +impartial scholarship to which I understand this Chair to be +consecrated. Expect neither theological controversy nor dogmatic +discussion of any kind from me. It is as a historian that I am here, and +as a historian I shall speak. Only let me say at once, that, while +retaining my own very marked preferences, I place religion itself, as a +faculty, an attribute, a tendency natural to the human mind, above all +the forms, even the most exalted, which it has assumed in time and +space. I can conceive a _Templum Serenum_ where shall meet in that love +of truth, which at bottom is but one of the forms of love of God, all +men of upright heart and pure will. To me, religion is a natural +property and tendency, and consequently an innate need of the human +spirit. That spirit, accidentally and in individual cases, may indeed be +deprived of it; but if so, it is incomplete, mutilated, crippled. But +observe that the recognition of religion itself (in distinction from the +varied forms it may assume), as a natural tendency and essential need of +the human mind, implies the reality of its object, even if that sacred +object should withdraw itself from our understanding behind an +impenetrable veil, even could we say nothing concerning it save this one +word: IT IS! For it would be irrational to the last degree to lay down +the existence of such a need and such a tendency, and yet believe that +the need corresponds to nothing, that the tendency has no goal. +Religious history, by bringing clearly into light the universality, the +persistency and the prodigious intensity of religion in human life, is +therefore, to my mind, one unbroken attestation to God. + +And now it remains for me to express my lively regret that I am unable +to address you in your own tongue. I often read your authors: I profit +much by them. But I have emphatically not received the gift of tongues. +By such an audience as I am now addressing, I am sure to be understood +if I speak my mother-tongue; but were I to venture on mutilating yours, +I should instantly become completely unintelligible! Let me throw +myself, then, upon your kind indulgence. + + +I. + +I am about to speak to you on a subject little known in general, though +it has already been studied very closely by specialists of great +merit--I mean the religions professed in Mexico and Peru when, in the +sixteenth century, a handful of Spanish adventurers achieved that +conquest, almost like a fairy tale, which still remains one of the most +extraordinary chapters of history. But I shall perhaps do well at the +outset briefly to explain the very special importance of these now +vanished religions. + +The intrinsic interest of all the strange, original, dramatic and even +grotesque features that they present to the historian, is in itself +sufficiently great; for they possessed beliefs, institutions, and a +developed mythology, which would bear comparison with anything known to +antiquity in the Old World. But we have another very special and weighty +reason for interesting ourselves in these religions of a +demi-civilization, brusquely arrested in its development by the European +invasion. + +To render this motive as clear as possible, allow me a supposition. +Suppose, then, that by a miracle of human genius we had found means of +transporting ourselves to one of the neighbouring planets, Mars or Venus +for example, and had found it to be inhabited, like our earth, by +intelligent beings. As soon as we had satisfied the first curiosity +excited by those physical and visible novelties which the planetary +differences themselves could not fail to produce, we should turn with +re-awakened interest to ask a host of such questions as the following: +Do these intelligent inhabitants of Mars or Venus reason and feel as we +do? Have they history? Have they religion? Have they politics, arts, +morals? And if it should happen that after due examination we found +ourselves able to answer all these questions affirmatively, can you not +imagine what interest there would be in comparing the history, politics, +arts, morals and religion of these beings with our own? And if we found +that the same fundamental principles, the same laws of evolution and +transformation, the same internal logic, had asserted itself in Mars, in +Venus and on the Earth, is it not clear that the fact would constitute a +grand confirmation of our theories as to the fundamental identity of +spiritual being, the conditions of its individual and collective +genesis--in a word, the universal character of the laws of mind? + +And now consider this. For the Europeans of the early sixteenth century, +America, especially continental America, was absolutely equivalent to +another planet upon which, thanks to the presaging genius of Christopher +Columbus, the men of the Old World had at last set foot. At first they +only found certain islands inhabited by men of another type and another +colour than their own, still close upon the savage state. But before +long they had reason to suspect that immense regions stretched to the +west of the archipelago of the Antilles; they ventured ashore, and +returned with a vague notion that there existed in the interior of the +unknown continent mighty empires, whose wealth and military organization +severed them widely indeed from the poor tribes of St. Domingo or Cuba, +whom they had already discovered and had so cruelly oppressed. It was +then that a bold captain conceived the apparently insane project of +setting out with a few hundred men to conquer what passed for the +richest and most powerful of these empires. His success demanded not +only all his courage, but all his cold cruelty and absolute +unscrupulousness, together with those favours which fortune sometimes +reserves for audacity. At any rate he succeeded, and the rumours that +had inflamed his imagination turned out to be true. On his way he came +upon great cities, upon admirably cultivated lands, upon a complete +social and military organization. He saw an unknown religion display +itself before his eyes. There were temples, sacrifices, magnificent +ceremonies. There were priests, there were convents, there were monks +and nuns. To his profound amazement, he noticed the cross carved upon a +great number of religious edifices, and saw a goddess who bore her +infant in her arms. The natives had rites which closely recalled the +Christian baptism and the Christian communion. As for our captain, +neither he nor his contemporaries could see anything in all this parade +of a religion, now so closely approaching, now so utterly remote, from +their own, but a gigantic ruse of the devil, who had led these unhappy +natives astray in order to secure their worship. But for us, who know +that the devil cannot help us to the genesis of ancient mythologies and +ancient religions--who know likewise that the social and religious +development of Central America was in the strictest sense native and +original, and that all attempts to bring it into connection with a +supposed earlier intercourse with Asia or Europe have failed--the +question presents itself under a very different aspect. In our Old +World, the natural religious development of man has produced myths and +mythologies, sacrificial rites and priesthoods, temples, ascetics, gods +and goddesses; and on the basis of the Old World's experience we might +already feel entitled to say, "Such are the steps and stages of +religious evolution; such were the processes of the human spirit before +the appearance of the higher religions which are in some sort grafted +upon their elder sisters, and have in their turn absorbed or +spiritualized them." But there would still be room to ask whether all +this development had been natural and spontaneous, whether successive +imitations linking one contiguous people to another had not transformed +some local and isolated phenomenon into an apparently general and +international fact--much as took place with the use of tea or +cotton--without our being compelled to recognize any necessary law of +human development in it. But what answer is possible to the argument +furnished by the discovery of the new planet--I mean to say of America? +How can we resist this evidence that the whole organism of mythologies, +gods, goddesses, sacrifices, temples and priesthoods, while varying +enormously from race to race and from nation to nation, yet, wherever +human beings are found, develops itself under the same laws, the same +principles and the same methods of deduction; that, in a word, given +human nature anywhere, its religious development is reared on the same +identical bases and passes through the same phases? + +Mr. Max Müller, one of my most honoured masters, and one of those who +have best deserved the gratitude of the learned world, has declared, +with equal justice and penetration, in his Preface to Mr. Wyatt Gill's +"Myths and Songs," that the possibility of studying the Polynesian +mythology is to the historian what an opportunity of spending a time in +the midst of the plesiosauri and the megatherions would be to the +zoologist, or of walking in the shade of the vast arborescent ferns that +lie buried under our present soil to the botanist. Polynesian mythology +has in fact preserved, down to our own day, the pre-historic ages. And, +similarly, the religions of Mexico and Peru (for the empire of the Incas +held the same surprises and the same lessons in store for its explorers +as that of Montezuma had done) has enabled history to carry to the +point of demonstration its fundamental thesis of the natural +development, in subjection to fixed laws, of the religious tendency in +man. All those curious resemblances, amidst the differences which we +shall also bring out, between the religious history of the New World and +that of the Old, are not at bottom any more extraordinary than the fact +that, in spite of the differences of physical type which separated the +natives from their conquerors, they none the less saw with eyes, walked +on feet, ate with a mouth and digested with a stomach. + + * * * * * + +We shall begin our study with Mexico. But a few preliminary +ethnographical remarks are indispensable. I spare you the catalogue of +the numerous sources and documents from which a detailed knowledge of +the Mexican religion may be drawn.[1] Such a list is in place in a book +rather than in a lecture. I will only direct your attention to the noble +collection made in 1830 by one of your own compatriots, Lord +Kingsborough, under the title of "Antiquities of Mexico," a work of +extreme importance, which reproduces, in facsimile or engravings, the +monuments and ruins of ancient Mexico;[2] and the very remarkable work +of Mr. H. H. Bancroft, "Native Races of the Pacific States of North +America."[3] + + +II. + +The region with which we are now to occupy ourselves comprises the space +bounded on the South by the Isthmus of Panama, washed East and West by +the oceans, and determined, roughly speaking, towards the North by a +line starting from the head of the Gulf of California, and sweeping +round to the mouths of the Mississippi with a curve that takes in +Arizona and Southern Texas. In our day, this southern portion of North +America is broken into two great divisions, the first and most southern +of which is known collectively as Central America, and embraces the +republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, San Salvador +and Panama. The great peninsula of Yucatan, which is now Mexican, +formerly belonged to this group of Central American peoples. The second +portion of the territory we are to study corresponds to the present +republic of Mexico. I shall presently explain the sense in which it +might be called the Mexican empire in the time of Fernando Cortes. For +the present, let me ask you to remember that we are now about to speak, +in a general and preliminary manner, of the region which pretty closely +corresponds to the present Central America and Mexico. + +To begin with, we treat these two districts as a single whole, because +the Europeans found them inhabited by a race which was divided, it is +true, into several varieties, but was distinguished clearly from the +Red-skins on the North, and still more from the Eskimos, and alone of +the native races of North America had proved itself capable of rising by +its own strength to a veritable civilization. The general physical type +of the race is marked by a very brown skin, a medium stature, low brow, +black coarse hair, prominent jaw, heavy lips, thick eyebrows, and a +nose generally large and often hooked. The noble families as a rule had +a clearer complexion. The women are thick-set and squab, but not without +grace in their movements. In their youth they are sometimes very pretty, +but they fade early. We must leave it to ethnological specialists to +decide whether this type is not the result of previous crossings. + +So much is certain, that at an epoch the date of which it is impossible +to fix, but which must have been remote, this race, cut off from all the +world by the sea and the profoundest savagery, developed a civilization +_sui generis_, to which the traditional reminiscences of the natives +and a series of most remarkable ruins, discovered especially in Central +America, bear witness. For it is in this southern district that we find +the monumental ruins of Palenque, of Chiapa, of Uxmal, of Utatlan, and +of other places, the list of which has again begun to receive additions +in recent years. When the Spaniards conquered the New World, the centre +of this civilization had shifted further north, to Mexico proper, to the +city of Mexico, to Tezcuco and to Cholula. But the consciousness that +the Mexican civilization was affiliated to that of the isthmic region +had by no means been lost. It was a nation or race called Maya, the name +of which seems to indicate that it considered itself indigenous, and the +proper centre of which lay in Yucatan, that produced this American +civilization--capable of organizing states and priesthoods, of rearing +immense palaces, of carving stone in great perfection and with a true +artistic sense, and of realizing a high degree of physical well-being. +There is reason to believe, however, that this civilization, resembling +in some respects that of ancient Canaan, had more refinement in its +pursuit of material comfort than vigour in its morality. A certain +effeminacy, and even the endemic practice of odious vices, appears to +have early enervated it. When the Spaniards arrived in America, wars and +devastating invasions had shattered the old and powerful monarchies of +the central region and reduced the great monuments of antiquity to +ruins, and that too so long ago that the natives themselves, while +retaining a certain civilization, had lost all memory of the ancient +cities and the ancient palaces that the Europeans rescued from oblivion. +We may still see figured amongst the monuments of Mexico those beautiful +ruins of Palenque, where stretches a superb gallery, vaulted with the +broad ogives that recal the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra; while +at Tehuantepec an immense temple has been discovered, hollowed out of a +huge rock, like certain temples in India. The cultivation of maize was +to this region what that of wheat was to Egypt and Mesopotamia, or of +rice to India and China, the material condition, namely, of a precocious +civilization. For, as has been remarked, the primitive civilizations +could not be developed except where an abundant cereal raised man above +immediate anxiety for his subsistence, and rescued him from the +all-engrossing fatigues and the dangerous uncertainties of the hunter's +life. + +This Maya race, having adopted the agricultural and sedentary life, +multiplied so greatly as to send out many swarms of colonists towards +the North, where the _Nahuas_, that is to say, "the skilled ones" or +"experts" (for so the emigrants from the Maya land were called), found +men of the same race as themselves, to whom they imparted their superior +knowledge. They kept on pushing northwards, established themselves on +the great plateau of Anahuac, or "lake country," where the city of +Mexico is situated, and advanced up to the somewhat indefinite limit +opposed to their progress by the Red-skins. This migratory movement +towards the North was evidently not the affair of a day. It must have +continued for centuries; and during its process the Maya civilization +may have experienced great developments and undergone numerous +modifications; so that, without venturing to pronounce categorically +upon a problem yet unsolved, I should myself be inclined to ascribe to +a population, which either consisted of bands of emigrant Mayas or was +affected by this Nahua movement, those "Mounds" which still throw their +galling defiance at the modern methods of research, powerless to explain +their origin in regions which have since been under the reign of the +most absolute savagery. + +However this may be, the movement by which in a remote antiquity the +peoples of Central America ascended towards the North, carrying with +them their relative civilization to Mexico and even beyond, was reversed +at the epoch of our Middle Ages by a migration in the opposite +direction. In this case it was the peoples of the northern regions that +tended to beat back upon the South. They invaded, conquered and brought +into subjection the peoples who had established themselves along the +path followed by the previous migrations; and it is probably to +invasions of this description that we must ascribe the fall of the +ancient Maya society of the isthmic region. But the civilization of +which it had sown the germs was not dead. Nay, the peoples who descended +upon the South had in great measure themselves adopted it; and in the +invaded districts there remained groups and nuclei of Nahua populations +who maintained its principles, its arts and its spirit, to which their +conquerors readily conformed. The last conquerors had been established +as masters in the Mexican district for more than a century when the +Spaniards arrived there. They were the _Aztecs_. They had conquered or +shattered what was called the _Chichimec_ empire, which in its turn had +destroyed, some centuries earlier, the _Toltec_ empire. But it would be +a mistake to think of three successive empires, Toltec, Chichimec and +Aztec, one supplanting the other in the same way as the Frankish empire, +for example, took the place of that of Rome, which in its turn had +replaced divers others more ancient yet. What really took place was what +follows. + +The prolonged migrations of the Nahuas towards the North had not spread +civilization uniformly amongst all the tribes encountered on the route. +Thus, down to the sixteenth century, there still existed in the heart of +Mexico tribes very little removed from the savage state, such as the +Otomis or "wanderers;" whereas, in other districts, the Nahuas had +established themselves on a footing of acknowledged supremacy and +developed a brilliant civilization. Thus they founded at the extreme +north of the present Mexico the ancient city of Tulan or Tullan, the +name of which passed into that of its inhabitants, the _Toltecs_, and +this latter, in its turn, became the designation of everything graceful, +elegant, artistically refined and beautiful. Ethnographically, it simply +indicates the most brilliant foci of the civilization imported from +Central America. In fact, there never was a Toltec empire at all, but +simply a confederation of the three cities of Tullan, Colhuacan and +Otompan, all of which may be regarded as Toltec in the social sense +which I have just described. Many other small states existed outside +this confederation. It was destroyed by the revolt or invasion of more +northern tribes, hitherto held in vassalage and looked down upon as +belonging to a lower level of culture and manners. These tribes received +or assumed the name of _Chichimecs_ or "dogs," which may have been a +term of contempt converted into a title of honour, like that of the +_Gueux_ of the Low Countries. Thus arose a Chichimec confederation, of +which Colhuacan (the name given for a time to Tezcuco), Azcapulzalco, +the capital of the Tepanecs, and Tlacopan, were the principal cities. At +Tezcuco the Toltec element was still powerful. Cholula, a sacred city, +remained essentially Toltec, and in general the Chichimecs readily +adopted the superior civilization of the Toltecs. This was so much the +case that Tezcuco became the seat of an intellectual and artistic +development, in virtue of which the Europeans called it the Athens of +Mexico. It was from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, according +to the historians, that what may be called the Chichimec era lasted. + +At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Aztecs--that is to say +_the white flamingos_ or _herons_ (from _aztatl_), the last comers from +the North, who had long been a poor and wretched tribe, and on reaching +Anahuac had been obliged to accept the suzerainty of Tezcuco--began to +assume great importance. They had founded, under the name of +Tenochtitlan, upon an island that is now united to the mainland, the +city which was afterwards called Mexico. But originally the name of +Mexico belonged to the quarter of the city which was dedicated to the +god of war, Mextli. At once warlike and commercial, the Aztecs grew in +numbers, wealth and military power; they saved Tezcuco from the dominion +of the Tepanecs, who tried to bring the whole Chichimec confederation +into subjection; presently they threw off all vassalage, and in the +fifteenth century they stood at the head of the new confederation which +took the place of that of the Chichimecs, and of which Mexico, Tezcuco +and Tlacopan (or Tacuba), were the three capitals. + +There was no Mexican empire, then, at the moment when Fernando Cortes +disembarked near Vera Cruz, but there was a federation. On certain days +of religious festivity a solemn public dance was celebrated in Mexico, +in which the sovereign families of the three states, together with their +subjects of the highest rank, took part. It began at noon before the +palace of the Mexican king. They stood three and three. The king of +Mexico led the dance, holding with his right hand the king of Tezcuco, +and with his left the king of Tlacopan, and the three confederate +sovereigns or emperors thus symbolized for several hours the union of +their three states by the harmonious cadence of their movements.[4] + + +III. + +The widely-spread error that makes Montezuma, the Mexican sovereign that +received Fernando Cortes, the absolute master of the whole district of +the present Mexico, is explained by the fact, that of the three +confederate states that of the Aztecs was by far the strongest, most +warlike and most dreaded. It was constantly extending its dominion by +means of a numerous, disciplined and admirably organized army, and +little by little the other two states were constantly approaching the +condition of vassalage. The Aztecs were no more recalcitrant to +civilization than the Chichimecs, but they were ruder, more +matter-of-fact and more cruel. They did no sacrifices to the Toltec +graces, but developed their civilization exclusively on its utilitarian +and practical side. They were no artists, but essentially warriors and +merchants. And even their merchants were often at the same time spies +whom the kings of Mexico sent into the countries they coveted, to study +their resources, their strength and their weakness. Their yoke was hard. +They raised heavy tributes. Their policy was one of extreme +centralization, and, without destroying the religion of the peoples +conquered by their arms, they imposed upon them the worship and the +supremacy of their own national deities. Their warlike expeditions bore +a pronounced religious character. The priests marched at the head of the +soldiers, and bore Aztec idols on their backs. On the eve of a battle +they kindled fresh fire by the friction of wood; and it was they who +gave the signal of attack. These wars had pillage and conquest as their +object, but also and very specially the capture of victims to sacrifice +to the Aztec gods. For the Aztecs pushed the superstitious practice of +human sacrifice to absolute frenzy. It was to these horrible sacrifices +that they attributed their successes in war and the prosperity of their +empire. If they experienced a check or had suffered any disaster, they +redoubled their blood-stained offerings. But note this trait, so +essentially pagan and in such perfect accord with the polytheistic ideas +of the ancient world--they sacrificed to the gods of the conquered +country too, to show them that it was not against them they were +contending, and that the new régime would not rob them of the homage to +which they were accustomed. The Aztec deities were not _jealous_. They +confined themselves to vindicating their own pre-eminence. After each +fresh conquest, the Aztecs raised a temple at Mexico bearing the name of +the conquered country, and thither they transported natives of the place +to carry on the worship after their own customs. It seems that they did +not consider even this precaution enough; for they constructed a special +edifice near the great temple of Mexico, where the supreme deities of +the Aztec people were enthroned, and there they shut up the idols of the +conquered countries. This was to prevent their escape, should the desire +come over them to return to their own peoples and help them to +revolt.[5] + +All this will explain how it was that Fernando Cortes found numerous +allies against Montezuma's despotism amongst the native peoples. For it +is an error, generally received indeed, but contradicted by history, +that the Spanish captain decided the fate of so redoubtable an empire, +and of a city so vigorously defended as Mexico, with the sole aid of his +thousand Europeans. + +For the rest, we are forced to acknowledge that the Aztecs had developed +their civilization, in its political and material aspects, in a way that +does the greatest credit to their sagacity. Property was organized on +the individual and hereditary basis for the noble families, and on the +collective basis for the people, divided into communities. The taxes +were raised in kind, according to fixed rules. Numbers of slaves were +charged with the most laborious kinds of work. The merchants, assembled +in the cities, formed a veritable _tiers-état_ which exercised a growing +political influence. There were markets, the abundance and wealth of +which stupefied the Spaniards. The luxury of the court and of the great +families was dazzling. No one dared to address the sovereign save with +lowered voice, and--strange custom in our eyes!--no one appeared before +him save with naked feet and clad in sordid garments, in sign of +humility. Mexico had been joined to the mainland by causeways, along +which an aqueduct conveyed the pure waters of distant springs to the +city. The irrigation works in the country were numerous and in good +repair. The streets were cleansed by day and lighted at night, +advantages in which none of the European capitals rejoiced in the +sixteenth century. And finally, for we cannot dwell indefinitely upon +this subject, let us note the excellent roads that stretched from Mexico +to the limits of the Aztec empire and the confederated states. Along +these roads the sovereigns of Mexico had established, at intervals of +two leagues, courier posts for the transmission of important news to +them. Montezuma heard of the disembarkment of Fernando Cortes three days +after it took place. + +And now imagine that this people was always averse to navigation--was +ignorant of use of iron, knowing only of gold, silver and copper--had no +beast of traction or burden, neither horse, nor ass, nor camel, nor +elephant, nor even the llama of Peru--was without writing (for though we +find a kind of hieroglyph on the monuments of Mexico and Central +America, yet the system was not of the smallest avail for ordinary +life)--and, finally, had no money except an inconsiderable number of +silver crosses and cacao berries, the mass of exchanges being effected +by barter! On the other hand, they worked in stone with admirable skill. +In their knives and lance and arrow heads, made of obsidian, they +achieved remarkable perfection, and they excelled in the art of +supplying the place of writing by pictures, painted on a kind of aloe +paper or on cotton stuffs, representing the persons or things as to +which they desired to convey information. + +Such, then, is the singular people that Spain was destined to conquer in +the sixteenth century, and whose civilization, though modified by the +special Aztec spirit, rested after all upon the same bases that had +sustained the more ancient civilization of Central America. And this is +equally true of the religion, which, with all the varieties impressed +upon it by the special genius or inclinations of the diverse peoples, +reveals itself as resting upon one common basis, from the Isthmus of +Panama to the Gulf of California and the mouths of the Rio del Norte. + + +IV. + +One of the fundamental traits of this regional religion, then, is the +pre-eminence of the Sun, regarded as a personal and animated being, over +all other divinities. At Guatemala, amongst the Lacandones, he was +adored directly, without any images. Amongst their neighbours the Itzas, +not far from Vera Paz, he was represented as a round human head +encircled by diverging rays and with a great open mouth. This symbol, +indeed, was very widely spread in all that region. Often the Sun is +represented putting out his tongue, which means that he lives and +speaks. For in the American hieroglyphics, a protruded tongue, or a +tongue placed by the side of any object, is the emblem of life. A +mountain with a tongue represents a volcano. The Sun was generally +associated with the Moon as spouse, and they were called _Grandfather_ +and _Grandmother_. In Central America, and in the territory of Mexico, +may be observed a number of stone columns which are likewise statues; +but the head is generally in the middle, and is so overlaid with +ornaments or attributes, that it is not very easy to discover it. These +are _Sun-columns_. As he traced the shadow of these monoliths upon the +soil day after day, the Sun appeared to be caressing them, loving them, +taking them as his fellow-workers in measuring the time. These same +columns were also symbols of fructifying power. Often the Sun has a +child, who is no other than a doublet of himself, but conceived in human +form as the civilizer, legislator and conqueror, bearing diverse names +according to the peoples whose hero-god and first king he is represented +as being. And for that matter, if we had but the time, we might long +dwell on the myths of Yucatan, of Guatemala (amongst the Quichés), of +Honduras, and of Nicaragua. By the side of the Sun and Moon, grandfather +and grandmother, there were a number of great and small deities (some of +them extremely vicious), and amongst others a god of rain, who was +called Tohil by the Quichés and Tlaloc at Mexico, where he took his +place amongst the most revered deities. His name signifies "noise," +"rumbling." Amongst the Quichés he had a great temple at Utatlan, +pyramidal in form, like all others in this region of the world, where he +was the object of a "perpetual adoration" offered him by groups of from +thirteen to eighteen worshippers, who relieved each other in relays day +and night. + +Human sacrifice was practised by all these peoples, though not to such +an extent as amongst the Aztecs, for they only resorted to it on rare +occasions. It was especially girls that they immolated, with the idea of +giving brides to the gods. They were to exercise their conjugal +influence in favourably disposing their divine consorts towards the +sacrificers. In this connection we find a tragi-comic story of a young +victim whose forced marriage was not in the least to her taste, and who +threatened to pronounce the most terrible maledictions from heaven upon +her slaughterers. Her threats had so much effect that they let her go, +and procured another and less recalcitrant bride for the deity.[6] + +Finally, we will mention a most characteristic deity (whom we shall +presently recognize at Mexico under yet another name), variously known +as Cuculkan (bird-serpent), Gucumatz (feathered-serpent), +Hurakan--whence our "hurricane"--Votan (serpent), &c. He is always a +serpent, and generally feathered or flying. He is a personification of +the wind, especially of the east wind, which brings the fertilizing +rains in that district. Almost everywhere he is credited with gentle and +beneficent dispositions, and therefore with a certain hostility to human +sacrifice. It was this deity, in one of his forms, who was worshipped in +the sacred island of Cozumel, situated close to Yucatan, to which +pilgrimages were made from great distances. It was there that the +Spaniards, to their great surprise, first observed a cross surmounting +the temple of this god of the wind. This was the starting-point of the +legend according to which the Apostle Thomas had of old evangelized +America. It is a pure illusion. The pagan cross of Central America and +Mexico is nothing whatever but the symbol of the four cardinal points of +the compass from which blow the four chief winds. + +Such is the common religious basis, which we have simply sketched in its +most general outlines, and upon which the more elaborate and sombre +religion of the Aztecs, which we shall examine at our next meeting, was +reared. Pray observe that we find in this group of connected beliefs and +worships something quite analogous to the polytheism of the ancient +world. The only notable difference is, that the god of Heaven, Dyaus, +Varuna, Zeus, Ahura Mazda, or (in China) Tien, does not occupy the same +pre-eminent place in the American mythology that he takes in its +European and Asiatic counterparts. For the rest, the processes of the +human spirit are absolutely identical in the two continents. In both +alike it is the phenomena of nature, regarded as animated and conscious, +that wake and stimulate the religious sentiment and become the objects +of the adoration of man. At the same time, and in virtue of the same +process of internal logic, these personified beings come to be regarded +more and more as possessed of a nature superior in power indeed, but in +all other respects closely conforming, to that of man. If +nature-worship, with the animism that it engenders, shapes the first +law to which nascent religion submits in the human race, +anthropomorphism furnishes the second, disengaging itself ever more and +more completely from the zoomorphism which generally serves as an +intermediary. This is so _everywhere_. And thus we may safely leave to +ethnologists the task of deciding whether the whole human race descends +from one original couple or from many; for, spiritually speaking, +humanity in any case is one. It is one same spirit that animates it and +is developed in it; and this, the incontestable unity of our race, is +likewise the only unity we need care to insist on. Let us recognize it, +then, since indeed it imposes itself upon us, and let us confess that +the gospel did but anticipate the last word of science in proclaiming +universal fraternity. + +And here, Gentlemen, we reach one of those grand generalizations which +must finally win over even those who are still inclined to distrust the +philosophical history of religions as a study that destroys the most +precious possessions of humanity. In setting forth the intellectual and +moral unity of mankind, everywhere directed by the same successive +evolutions and the same spiritual laws, it brings into light the great +principle of _human brotherhood_. In demonstrating that these +evolutions, in spite of all the influences of ignorance, of selfishness +and of grossness, converge towards a sublime, ideal goal, and are no +other than the mysterious but mighty and unbroken attraction to that +unfathomable Power of which the universe is the visible expression, it +founds on a basis of reason the august sentiment of the _divine +fatherhood_. Brother-men and one Father-God!--what more does the thinker +need to raise the dignity of our nature, the promises of the future, the +sublimity of our destiny, into a region where the inconstant waves of a +superficial criticism can never reach them? Such is the vestibule of the +eternal Temple; and in approaching the sanctuary--albeit I may not know +the very title by which best to call the Deity who reigns in it--I bow +my head with that union of humility and of filial trust which +constitutes the pure essence of religion. + +But from these general considerations we must return to our more +immediate subject. At our next meeting, Gentlemen, we are to study the +special beliefs and mythology of ancient Mexico. + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +It will be my task to-day to give an account of the Mexican mythology +and religion, resting as it does on the foundation common to the peoples +of Central America, but inspired by the sombre, utilitarian, +matter-of-fact, yet vigorous and earnest, genius of the Aztecs. You will +remember that this name belongs to the warlike and commercial people +that enjoyed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a military and +political supremacy in the region that is now called Mexico, after the +Aztec capital of that name. + + +I. + +To begin with, we must note that the ancient Central-American cultus of +the Sun and Moon, considered as the two supreme deities, was by no +means renounced by the Aztecs. Ometecutli (i.e. _twice Lord_) and +Omecihuatl (_twice Lady_), or in other words supreme Lord and Lady, are +the designations under which they are always indicated in the first rank +in the religious formulæ. All the Mexicans called themselves "children +of the Sun," and greeted him every morning with hymns and with trumpet +peals, accompanied with offerings. Four times by day and four times by +night, priests who were attached to the various temples addressed their +devotions to him. And yet he had no temple specially consecrated to him. +The fact was that all temples were really his, much as in our own +Christian civilization all the churches are raised in honour of God, +though particular designations are severally given to them. The Sun was +the _teotl_ (i.e. the god) _par excellence_. I am informed that to this +very day the inhabitants of secluded parts of Mexico, as they go to +mass, throw a kiss to the sun before entering the church. + +Notwithstanding all this, we have to observe that, by an inconsistency +which again has its analogies in other religions, the cultus of the +supreme deity and his consort was pretty much effaced in the popular +devotions and practices by that of divinities who were perhaps less +august, and in some cases were even derived from the substance of the +supreme deity himself, but in any case seemed to stand nearer to +humanity than he did. More especially, the national deities of the +Aztecs, the guardians of their empire, whose worship they instituted +wherever their arms had triumphed, practically took the first place. It +is with these national deities that we are now to make acquaintance, and +we cannot do better than begin with the two great deities of the city of +Mexico, whose colossal statues were enthroned on its principal temple. + +But first we must form some notion of what a Mexican temple was. + +The word "temple," if held to imply an enclosed and covered building, is +very improperly applied to the kind of edifice in question. Indeed, a +Mexican temple (and the same may be said of most of the sanctuaries of +Central America) was essentially a gigantic altar, of pyramidal form, +built in several stages, contracting as they approached the summit. The +number of these retreating stories or terraces might vary. There were +never less than three, but there might be as many as five or six, and in +Tezcuco some of these quasi-pyramids even numbered nine. The one that +towered over all the rest in the city of Mexico was built in five +stages. It measured, at its base, about three hundred and seventy-five +feet in length and three hundred in width, and was over eighty feet +high. At a certain point in each terrace was the stair that sloped +across the side of the pyramid to the terrace above; but the successive +ascents were so arranged that it was necessary to make the complete +circuit of the edifice in order to mount from one stage to another, and +consequently the grand processions to which the Mexicans were so much +devoted must have encircled the whole edifice from top to bottom, like a +huge living serpent, before the van could reach the broad platform at +the top, and this must have added not a little to the picturesque effect +of these religious ceremonies. Such an erection was called a _teocalli_ +or "abode of the gods." The great teocalli of Mexico commanded the four +chief roads that parted from its base to unite the capital to all the +countries beneath the sceptre of its rulers. It was the palladium of the +empire, and, as at Jerusalem, it was the last refuge of the defenders of +the national independence. + +The teocalli which Fernando Cortes and his companions saw at Mexico, and +which the conqueror razed to the ground, to replace it by a Catholic +church, was not of any great antiquity. It had been constructed +thirty-four years before, in the place of another much smaller one that +dated from the time when the Aztecs were but an insignificant tribe; and +it seems that frightful human hecatombs had ensanguined the foundations +of this more recent teocalli. Some authorities speak of seventy-two or +eighty thousand victims, while more moderate calculations reduce the +number to twenty thousand, which is surely terrible enough. In front of +the temple there stretched a spacious court some twelve hundred feet +square. All around were smaller buildings, which served as habitations +for the priests, and store-houses for the apparatus of worship, as well +as arsenals, oratories for the sovereign and the grandees of the +empire, chapels for the inferior deities and so on. Amongst these +buildings was the temple in which, as I have said, the gods of the +conquered peoples were literally imprisoned. In another the Spaniards +could count a hundred and thirty-six thousand symmetrically-piled +skulls. They were the skulls of all the victims that had been sacrificed +since the foundation of the sanctuary. And, by a contrast no less than +monstrous, side by side with this monument of the most atrocious +barbarism there were halls devoted to the care of the poor and sick, who +were tended gratuitously by priests.[7] What a tissue of contradictions +is man! + +But the Aztec religion does not allow us to dwell upon the note of +tenderness. In the centre of the broad platform at the summit stood the +_stone of sacrifices_, a monolith about three feet high, slightly ridged +on the surface. Upon this stone the victim was stretched supine, and +while sundry subordinate priests held his head, arms and feet, the +sacrificing pontiff raised a heavy knife, laid open his bosom with one +terrific blow, and tore out his heart to offer it all bleeding and +palpitating to the deity in whose honour the sacrifice was performed. +And here you will recognize that idea, so widely spread in the two +Americas, and indeed almost everywhere amongst uncivilized peoples, that +the heart is the epitome, so to speak, of the individual--his soul in +some sense--so that to appropriate his heart is to appropriate his whole +being. + +Finally, there rose on the same platform a kind of chapel in which were +enthroned the two chief deities of the Aztecs, Uitzilopochtli and +Tezcatlipoca.[8] And here I will ask you to accompany Captain Bernal +Diaz in the retinue of his chief, Fernando Cortes, to whom the king +Montezuma himself had seen fit to do the honours of his "cathedral." +For, as you are aware, Montezuma, divided between a rash confidence and +certain apprehensions which I shall presently explain, received Cortes +for a considerable time with the utmost distinction, lodged him in one +of his palaces, and did everything in the world to please him. This, +then, is the narrative of Bernal Diaz:[9] + + "Montezuma invited us to enter a little tower, where in a kind + of chamber, or hall, stood what appeared like two altars covered + with rich embroidery." (What Bernal Diaz compared to altars were + the two _Teoicpalli_ (or _seats of the gods_), which were wooden + pedestals, painted azure blue and bearing a serpent's head at + each corner).... "The first [idol], placed on the right, we were + told represented Huichilobos, their god of war" (this was as + near as Bernal Diaz could get to Uitzilopochtli), "with his face + and countenance very broad, his eyes monstrous and terrible; all + his body was covered with jewels, gold and pearls of various + sizes.... His body was girt with things like great serpents, + made with gold and precious stones, and in one hand he held a + bow, and arrows in the other. And another little idol who stood + by him, and, as they said, was his page, carried a short lance + for him, and a very rich shield of gold and jewels. And + Huichilobos had his neck hung round with faces of Indians, and + what seemed to be the hearts of these same Indians, made of + gold, or some of them of silver, covered with blue gems; and + there stood some brasiers there, containing incense made with + copal and the hearts of three Indians who had been slain that + same day; and they were burning, and with the smoke and incense + they had made that sacrifice to him; and all the walls of this + oratory were so bathed and blackened with cakes of blood, as was + the very ground itself, that the whole exhaled a very foul + odour. + + "Carrying our eyes to the left we perceived another great mass, + as high as Huichilobos. Its face was like a bear's, and its + shining eyes were made of mirrors called Tezcat. Its body was + covered with rich gems like that of Huichilobos, for they said + that they were brothers. And this Tescatepuca" (the mutilated + form under which Bernal Diaz presents Tezcatlipoca) "was the god + of hell" (this is another mistake, for Tezcatlipoca was a + celestial deity).... "His body was surrounded with figures like + little imps, with tails like serpents; and the walls were so + caked and the ground so saturated with blood, that the + slaughterhouses of Castile do not exhale such a stench; and + indeed we saw the hearts of five victims who had been + slaughtered that same day.... And since everything smelt of the + shambles, we were impatient to escape from the foul odour and + yet fouler sight." + + +II. + +Such was the impression made upon a Spanish soldier and a good Catholic +by the sight of the two chief deities of the Mexican people. To him +they were simply two abominable inventions of Satan. Let us try to go a +little further below the surface. + +Uitzilopochtli signifies _Humming-bird to the left_, from _Uizilin_ +(Humming-bird), and _opochtli_ (to the left). The latter part of the +name is probably due to the position we have just seen noticed to the +left of the other great deity, Tezcatlipoca. But why Humming-bird? What +can there be in common between this graceful little creature and the +monstrous idol of the Aztecs? The answer is given by the American +mythology, in which the Humming-bird is a divine being, the messenger of +the Sun. In the Aztec language it is often called the "sunbeam" or the +"sun's hair." This charming little bird, with the purple, gold and topaz +sheen of its lovely plumage, as it flits amongst the flowers like a +butterfly, darts out its long tongue before it to extract their juices, +with a burring of its wings like the humming of bees, whence it derives +its English name. Moreover, it is extremely courageous, and will engage +with far larger birds than itself in defence of its nest. In the +northern regions of Mexico, the humming-bird is the messenger of +spring, as the swallow is with us. At the beginning of May, after a cold +and dry season that has parched the soil and blighted all verdure, the +atmosphere becomes pregnant with rain, the sun regains his power, and a +marvellous transformation sets in. The land arrays itself, before the +very eyes, with verdure and flowers, the air is filled with perfumes, +the maize comes to a head, and hosts of humming-birds appear, as if to +announce that the fair season has returned. We may lay it down as +certain that the humming-bird was the object of a religious cultus +amongst the earliest Aztecs, as the divine messenger of the Spring, like +the wren amongst our own peasantry, the plover amongst the Latins, and +the crow amongst many tribes of the Red-skins. It was the emissary of +the Sun. + +It was in this capacity, and under the law of anthropomorphism to which +all the Mexican deities were subject, that the divine humming-bird, as a +revealing god, the protector of the Aztec nation, took the human form +more and more completely in the religious consciousness of his +worshippers. And indeed the Mexican mythology gives form to this idea +that the divine humming-bird (of which those on earth were but the +relatives or little brothers) was a celestial man like an Aztec of the +first rank, in the following legend of his incarnation. + +Near to Coatepec, that is to say the Mountain of Serpents,[10] lived the +pious widow _Coatlicue_ or _Coatlantona_ (the ultimate meaning of which +is "female serpent"). One day, as she was going to the temple to worship +the Sun, she saw a little tuft of brilliantly coloured feathers fall at +her feet. She picked it up and placed it in her bosom to present as an +offering to the Sun. But when she was about to draw it forth, she knew +not what had come upon her. Soon afterwards she perceived that she was +about to become a mother. Her children were so enraged that they +determined to kill her, but a voice from her womb cried out to her, +"Mother, have no fear, for I will save thee, to thy great honour and my +own great glory." And in fact Coatlicue's children failed in their +murderous attempt. In due time Uitzilopochtli was born, grasping his +shield and lance, with a plume of feathers shaped like a bird's beak on +his head, with humming-birds' feathers on his left leg, and his face, +arms and legs barred with blue. Endowed from his birth with +extraordinary strength, while still an infant he put to death those who +had attempted to slay his mother, together with all who had taken their +part. He gave her everything he could take from them; and after +accomplishing mighty feats on behalf of the Aztecs, whom he had taken +under his protection, he re-ascended to heaven, bearing his mother with +him, and making her henceforth the goddess of flowers.[11] + +You will be struck by the analogy between this myth and more than one +Greek counterpart. There is the same method of reducing to the +conditions of human life, and concentrating at a single point of time +and space, a permanent or regularly recurrent and periodic natural +phenomenon. Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird, has come from the Sun with +the purpose of making himself man, and he has therefore taken flesh in +an Aztec woman, Coatlicue, the serpent, who is no other than the spring +florescence, and therefore the Mexican Flora. It is not only amongst the +Mexicans that the creeping progress of the spring vegetation, stretching +along the ground towards the North, has suggested the idea of a divine +serpent crawling over the earth. The Athenian myth of Erichthonius is a +conception of the same order. The celestial humming-bird, then, +offspring of the Sun, valiant and warlike from the day of his birth, +champion of his mother, plundering and ever victorious, is the symbol +instinctively seized on by the Aztec people; for it, too, had sprung +from humble beginnings, had been despised and menaced by its neighbours, +and had grown so marvellously in power and in wealth as to have become +the invincible lord of Anahuac. Uitzilopochtli had grown with the Aztec +people. He bears, amongst other surnames, that of Mextli, the warrior, +whence the name of Mexico. He protects his people and ever extends the +boundaries of its empire. And thus, in spite of his bearing the name of +a little bird, his statue as an incarnate deity had become colossal. Yet +the Aztecs did not lose the memory of his original minuteness of +stature. Did you observe, in the account given by Bernal Diaz, that +there stood at the feet of the huge idol another quite small one, that +served, according to the Spanish Captain, as his page? This was the +_Uitziton_, or "little humming-bird," called also the _Paynalton_, or +the "little quick one," whose image was borne by a priest at the head of +the soldiers as they charged the enemy. On the day of his festival, too, +he was borne at full speed along the streets of the city. He was, +therefore, the diminutive Uitzilopochtli, or, more correctly speaking, +the Uitzilopochtli of the early days, the portable idol of the still +wandering tribe; and in fidelity to those memories, as well as to +preserve the warlike rite to the efficacy of which they attached so much +value, the Aztecs had kept the small statue by the side of the great +one. + +To sum up: Uitzilopochtli was a derivative form or determination of the +Sun, and specifically of the Sun of the fair season. He had three great +annual festivals. The first fell in May, at the moment of the return of +the flowering vegetation. The second was celebrated in August, when the +favourable season unfolded all its beauty. The third coincided with our +month of December. It was the beginning of the cold and dry season. On +the day of this third festival they made a statue in Uitzilopochtli's +likeness, out of dough concocted with the blood of sacrificed infants, +and, after all kinds of ceremonies, a priest pierced the statue with an +arrow. Uitzilopochtli would die with the verdure, the flowers and all +the beauteous adornments of spring and summer. But, like Adonis, like +Osiris, like Atys, and so many other solar deities, he only died to live +and to return again.[12] + +It was now his brother Tezcatlipoca who took the direction of the world. +His name signifies "Shining Mirror." As the Sun of the cold and sterile +season, he turned his impassive glance upon all the world, or gazed into +the mirror of polished crystal that he held in his hand, in which all +the actions of men were reflected. He was a stern god of judgment, with +whose being ideas of moral retribution were associated. He was therefore +much dreaded. Up to a certain point he reminds us of the Vedic Varuna. +His statue was made of dark obsidian rock, and his face recalled that of +the bear or tapir. Suspended to his hair, which was plaited into a tail +and enclosed in a golden net, there hung an ear, which was likewise made +of gold, towards which there mounted flocks of smoke in the form of +tongues. These were the prayers and supplications of mortals. Maladies, +famines and death, were the manifestations of Tezcatlipoca's justice. +Dry as the season over which he presided, he was not easily moved. And +yet he was not absolutely inexorable. The ardent prayers, the sacrifices +and the supplications of his priests might avert the strokes of his +wrath. But in spite of all, he was pre-eminently the god of austere law. +And this is why he was regarded as the civilizing and organizing deity +of the Aztecs. It was he who had established the laws that governed the +people and who watched over their observance. In this capacity he made +frequent journeys of inspection, like an invisible prefect of police, +through the city of Mexico, to see what was going on there. Stone seats +had been erected in the streets for him to rest upon on these +occasions, and no mortal would have dared to occupy them. At the same +time a terrible and cruel subtlety in the means he employed to +accomplish his ends was attributed to him; and the legend about him, +which is far less brilliant than that of his brother Uitzilopochtli, led +several Europeans to believe that he was simply an ancient magician who +had spread terror around him by his sorceries. All this we see +exemplified in his conflicts with a third great deity whom we shall next +describe. In any case we may define Tezcatlipoca as another +determination of the Sun, and specifically of the winter Sun of the +cold, dry, sterile season.[13] + +The third great deity is Quetzalcoatl, that is to say "the feathered +serpent," or "the serpent-bird;" and it is specially noteworthy, in +connection with the elevated rank which he occupied in the Mexican +pantheon, that he was not an Aztec deity, but one of the ancient gods of +the invaded country. He was in fact a Toltec deity, and we recognize in +his name, as well as in the special notes in the legend concerning him, +that god of the wind whom we know already in Central America under the +varying names of Cuculcan, Hurakan, Gucumatz, Votan and so forth. He is +almost always a serpent, and a serpent with feathers. His temple at +Mexico departed altogether from the pyramidal type that we have +described. It was dome-shaped and covered. The entrance was formed by a +great serpent-mouth, wide open and showing its fangs, so that the +Spaniards thought it represented a gate of hell. Quetzalcoatl's priests +were clothed in white, whereas the ordinary garb of the Mexican priests +was black. There was something mysterious and occult about the +priesthood of this deity, as though it were possessed of divine secrets +or promises, the importance of which it would be dangerous to +undervalue. A special aversion to human sacrifice, and especially to the +frightful abuse of the practice amongst the Aztecs, was attributed to +this god and his priests, in passive protest, as it were, against the +sanguinary rites to which the Aztecs attributed the prosperity of their +empire. + +The legend of Quetzalcoatl, as the Aztecs transmitted it to the +Spaniards, is a motley concatenation of euhemerized myths. Its +historical basis is the continuous retreat of the Toltecs before the +northern invaders, with their god Tezcatlipoca. This latter deity +becomes a magician, cunning and malicious enough to get the better of +the gentle Quetzalcoatl on every occasion. I regret that time will not +allow me to tell in detail of the combat between Tezcatlipoca and +Quetzalcoatl. The latter was a sovereign who lived long ago at Tulla, +the northern focus of Toltec civilization. Under his sceptre men lived +in great happiness and enjoyed abundance of everything. He had taught +them agriculture, the use of the metals, the art of cutting stone, the +means of fixing the calendar; and being opposed to the sacrifice of +human victims--note this--he had advised their replacement by the +drawing of blood from the tongue, the lips, the chest, the legs, &c. +Tezcatlipoca succeeded by his enchantments in destroying this rule of +peace and prosperity, and forced Quetzalcoatl to quit Tulla, which +thereupon fell in ruins. He then pursued him into Cholula, the ancient +sacred city of the Toltecs, in which he had sought refuge, and in which +he had again made happiness and abundance reign. Finally, he forced him +to quit the continent altogether, and embark in a mysterious vessel not +far from Vera Cruz, near to the very spot where Cortes disembarked. +Since then Quetzalcoatl had disappeared; "But wait!" said his priests, +"for he will return." This expectation of Quetzalcoatl's return +furnishes a kind of parallel to the Messianic hope, or more closely yet +to the early Christian expectation of the _parousia_ or "second coming" +of the Christ. For when he returned, it would be to punish his enemies, +to chastise the wicked, the oppressors and the tyrants. And that is why +the Aztecs dreaded his return, and why they had not dared to proscribe +his cultus, but, on the contrary, recognized it and carried it on. And +if you would know the real secret of the success of Fernando Cortes in +his wild enterprize--for, after all, the Mexican sovereign could easily +have crushed him and his handful of men, by making a hecatomb of them +before they had had time to entrench themselves and make allies--you +will find it in the fact that Montezuma, whose conscience was oppressed +with more crimes than one, had a very lively dread of Quetzalcoatl's +return; and when he was informed that at the very point where the +dreaded god had embarked, to disappear in the unknown East, strange and +terrible beings had been seen to disembark, bearing with them fragments +of thunderbolts, in tubes that they could discharge whenever they +would--some of them having two heads and six legs, swifter of foot than +the fleetest men--Montezuma could not doubt that--it was Quetzalcoatl +returning, and instead of sending his troops against Cortes, he +preferred to negotiate with him, to allow him to approach, and to +receive him in his own palace. And although doubts soon asserted +themselves in his mind, yet he long retained, perhaps even to the last, +a superstitious dread of Cortes, that enabled the latter to secure a +complete ascendancy over him. This, I repeat, was the secret of the bold +Spaniard's success; nor can we ever understand the matter rightly unless +we take into consideration the significance of this worship of +Quetzalcoatl that the Aztecs had continued to respect, though all the +while flattering themselves that their own god, Tezcatlipoca, would be +able once more to protect them against his ancient adversary. Years +after the conquest, Father Sahagun had still to answer the question of +the natives, who asked him what he knew of the country of +Quetzalcoatl.[14] + +What, then, was the fundamental significance of this feathered Serpent +that so pre-occupied the religious consciousness of the Aztecs? + +He was not the Sun. The Sun does not disappear in the East. He was a god +of the wind, as Father Sahagun perfectly well understood, but of that +wind in particular that brings over the parched land of Mexico the tepid +and fertilizing exhalations of the Atlantic. And this is why +Tezcatlipoca, the god of the cold and dry season, rather than +Uitzilopochtli, is his personal enemy. It is towards the end of the dry +season that the fertilizing showers begin to fall on the eastern shores, +and little by little to reach the higher lands of the interior. The +flying Serpent, then, the wind that comes like a huge bird upon the air, +bringing life and abundance with it, is a benevolent deity who spreads +prosperity wherever he goes. But he does not always breathe over the +land, and does not carry his blessed moisture everywhere. Tezcatlipoca +appears. The lofty plateaux of Tulla, of Mexico and of Cholula, are the +first victims of his desolating force. Quetzalcoatl withdraws ever +further and further to the East, and at last disappears in the great +ocean. + +Such is the natural basis of the myth of Quetzalcoatl, and the +justification of my remark that we find in him the pendant of those +deities, serpents and birds in one, who were adored in Central America, +and who answered, like Quetzalcoatl, to the idea of the Atlantic wind. +He was, in truth, the ancient deity that the Nahuas or Mayas of the +civilized immigrations brought with them when they settled in Anahuac +and still further North. Like all the other gods of these regions, +Quetzalcoatl had assumed the human shape more and more completely. We +still possess, especially in the Trocadero Museum at Paris, great blocks +of stone on which he is represented as a serpent covered with feathers, +coiled up and sleeping till the time comes for him to wake. But there +are also statues of him in human form, save that his body is surmounted +by a bird's head, with the tongue projected. Now in the Mexican +hieroglyphie this bird's head, with the tongue put out, is no other than +the symbol of the wind. Hence, too, his names of _Tohil_ "the hummer" or +"the whisperer," _Ehecatl_ "the breeze," _Nauihehecatl_ "the lord of the +four winds," &c. The naturalistic meaning of Quetzalcoatl, then, cannot +admit of the smallest doubt. + +It is probably to the more gentle and humane religious tendency which +was kept alive by the priesthood of this deity, that we must attribute +the attempted reform of the king of Tezcuco, Netzalhuatcoyotl (the +fasting coyote), who has been called the Mexican Solomon. He was a poet +and philosopher as well as king, and had no love either of idolatry or +of sanguinary sacrifices. He had a great pyramidal teocalli of nine +stages erected in his capital for the worship of the god of heaven, to +whom he brought no offerings except flowers and perfumes. He died in +1472, and, as far as we can see, his reformation made no progress. The +ever-increasing preponderance of the Aztecs was as unfavourable as +possible to this humane and spiritual tendency in religion.[15] Yet one +loves to dwell upon the fact, that even in the midst of a religion +steeped in blood, a protest was inspired by the sentiment of humanity, +linked, as it should always be, with the progress of religious thought. + + +III. + +We must now proceed with our review of the Mexican deities, but I must +be content with indicating the most important amongst them; for without +admitting, with Gomara--who registered many names and epithets belonging +to one and the same divinity as indicating so many distinct +beings--that their number rose to two thousand, we find that the most +moderate estimate of the historians raises them to two hundred and +sixty. We shall confine ourselves, then, to the most significant. + +The importance of rain in the regions of Mexico, so marked in the myths +we have already considered, prepares us to find amongst the great gods +the figure of Tlaloc, whose name signifies "the nourisher," and who was +the god of rain. He was believed to reside in the mountains, whence he +sent the clouds. He was also the god of fecundity. Lightning and thunder +were amongst his attributes, and his character was no more amiable than +that of the Mexican deities in general. His cultus was extremely cruel. +Numbers of children were sacrificed to him. His statues were cut in a +greenish white stone, of the colour of water. In one hand he held a +sceptre, the symbol of lightning; in the other, a thunderbolt. He was a +cyclops; that is to say, he had but one eye, which shows that he must be +ultimately identified as an ancient personification of the rainy sky, +whose one eye is the sun. His huge mouth, garnished with crimson teeth, +was always open, to signify his greed and his sanguinary tastes. His +wife was _Chalchihuitlicue_, "the lady Chalchihuit," whose name is +identical with that of a soft green jade stone that was much valued in +Mexico. Her numerous offspring, the Tlalocs, probably represent the +clouds. Side by side with the hideous sacrifices of which Tlaloc's +festival was the occasion, we may note the grotesque ceremony in which +his priests flung themselves pell-mell into a pond, imitating the action +and the note of frogs. This is but one of a thousand proofs that in the +rites intended to conciliate the nature-gods, it was thought well to +reproduce in mimicry the actions of those creatures who were supposed to +be their favourites or chosen servants. The frogs were manifestly loved +by the god of the waters, and to secure his good graces his priests, as +was but natural, transformed themselves into frogs likewise. It was with +this cultus especially that the symbol of the Mexican cross was +connected, as indicating the four points of the horizon from which the +wind might blow. + +_Centeotl_ was another great deity, a kind of Mexican Ceres or Demeter. +She was the goddess of Agriculture, and very specially of maize. Indeed, +her name signifies "maize-goddess," being derived from _centli_ (maize) +and _teotl_ (divine being). Sometimes, however, inasmuch as this goddess +had a son who bore the same name as herself, Centeotl stands for a male +deity. The female deity is often represented with a child in her arms, +like a Madonna. This child, who is no other than the maize itself, grows +up, becomes an adult god, and is the masculine Centeotl. The feminine +Centeotl, moreover, bears many other names, such as _Tonantzin_ (our +revered mother), _Cihuatcoatl_ (lady serpent), and very often _Toci_ or +_Tocitzin_ (our grandmother). She was sometimes represented in the form +of a frog, the symbol of the moistened earth, with a host of mouths or +breasts on her body. She had also a daughter, _Xilonen_, the young +maize-ear, corresponding to the Persephone or Kore of the Greeks. Her +face was painted yellow, the colour of the maize. Her character, at +least amongst the Aztecs, had nothing idyllic about it, and we shall +have to return presently to the frightful sacrifices which were +celebrated in her honour. + +Next comes the god of Fire, _Xiuhtecutli_ (the Lord Fire), a very +ancient deity, as we see by one of his many surnames, _Huehueteotl_ (the +old god). He is represented naked, with his chin blackened, with a +head-dress of green feathers, carrying on his back a kind of serpent +with yellow feathers, thus combining the different fire colours. And +inasmuch as he looked across a disk of gold, called "the looking-plate," +we may ask whether his primitive significance was not very closely +allied to that of Tezcatlipoca, the shining mirror of the cold season. +Sacrifice was offered to him daily. In every house the first libation +and the first morsel of bread were consecrated to him. And finally, as +an instance of the astounding resemblance that is forced upon our +attention between the religious development of the Old World and that of +the New, only conceive that in Mexico, as in ancient Iran and other +countries of Asia and Europe, the fire in every house must be +extinguished on a certain day in every year, and the priest of +Xiuhtecutli kindled fire anew by friction before the statue of his god. +You are aware that this rite, with which so many customs and +superstitions are connected, rests on the idea that Fire is a divine +being, of celestial and pure origin, which is shut up in the wood, and +which is contaminated in the long run by contact with men and with human +affairs. Hence it follows that in order for it to retain its virtues, to +continue to act as a purifier and to spread its blessings amongst men, +it must be brought down anew, from time to time, from its divine +source.[16] + +The Aztecs also had a Venus, a goddess of Love, who bore the name of +_Tlazolteotl_ (the goddess of Sensuality).[17] At Tlascala she was known +by the more elegant name of _Xochiquetzal_ (the flowery plume). She +lived in heaven, in a beautiful garden, spinning and embroidering, +surrounded by dwarfs and buffoons, whom she kept for her amusement. We +hear of a battle of the gods of which she was the object. Though the +wife of Tlaloc, she was loved and carried off by Tezcatlipoca. This +probably gives us the clue to her mythic origin. She must have been the +aquatic vegetation of the marsh lands, possessed by the god of waters, +till the sun dries her up and she disappears. The legend about her is +not very edifying. It was she--to mention only a single feat--who +prevailed over the pious hermit Yappan, when he had victoriously +resisted all other temptations. After his fall he was changed into a +scorpion; and that is why the scorpion, full of wrath at the memory of +his fall and fleeing the daylight, is so poisonous and lives hidden +under stones.[18] + +We have still to mention _Mixcoatl_, the cloud-serpent, whose name +survives to our day as the designation of water-spouts in Mexico, and +who was specially worshipped by the still almost savage populations of +the secluded mountain districts,--_Omacatl_, "the double reed," a kind +of Momus, the god of good cheer, who may very well be a secondary form +of Tlaloc, and who avenged himself, when defrauded of due homage, by +interspersing hairs and other disagreeable objects amongst the +viands,--_Ixtlilton_, "the brown," a sort of Esculapius, the healing +god, whose priest concocted a blackish liquid that passed as an +efficacious remedy for every kind of disease,--_Yacatecutli_, "the lord +guide," the god of travellers and of commerce, whose ordinary symbol was +the stick with a carved handle carried by the Mexicans when on a +journey, who was sedulously worshipped by the commercial and middle +classes of Mexico, and in connection with whom we may note that every +Mexican, when travelling, would be careful to fix his stick in the +ground every evening and pay his respectful devotions to it,[19]--and, +finally, _Xipe_, "the bald," or "the flayed," the god of goldsmiths, +probably another form of Uitzilopochtli (whose festival coincided with +his), deriving his name apparently from the polishing process to which +gold (no doubt regarded as belonging to the substance of the sun) had to +undergo to give it the required brilliance, and to whose hideous cultus +we shall have to return in our next Lecture. + +I must now be brief, and will only speak further of the _Tepitoton_, +that is to say, the "little tiny ones," minute domestic idols, the +number of which was incalculable. They insensibly lower to the level of +animism and fetishism that religion which, as we have seen, bears +comparison in its grander aspects with the most renowned mythologies of +the ancient world. I must, however, allow myself a few words on the god +_Mictlan_, the Mexican Hades or Pluto. His name properly signifies +"region of the North;" but inasmuch as the North was regarded as the +country of mist, of barrenness and of death, his name easily passed into +the designation of the subterranean country of the dead. The Germanic +_Helle_ has a similar history, for it was first localized in the wintry +North and then carried underground. Mictlan, like Hades, was used as a +name alike for the sojourn and for the god of the dead. This deity had a +consort who bore divers names, and he also had at his command a number +of genii or servants, called _Tzitzimitles_, a sort of malicious demons +held in great dread by the living. Of course both Mictlan and his wives +are always represented under a hideous aspect, with huge open mouths, or +rather jaws, often in the act of devouring an infant.[20] + +At last we have done! In the next Lecture we shall penetrate to the very +heart of this singular religion, as we discuss its terrible sacrifices, +its institutions, and its doctrines concerning this world and the life +to come. And here, again, we shall find cause for amazement in the +striking analogies it presents to the rites and institutions of other +religions much nearer home. Meanwhile, observe that in examining the +purely mythological portion of the subject which we have passed in +review to-day, we have seen that there is not a single law manifested by +the mythologies of the ancient world, which had not its parallel +manifestations in Mexico before it was discovered by the Europeans. The +great gods, derived from a dramatized nature--animism, with the +fetishism that springs from it, occupying the basement, if I may so +express myself, beneath these mythological conceptions--in the midst of +all a tendency manifested from time to time towards a purer and more +spiritual conception of the adorable Being--all re-appears and all is +combined in Mexico, even down to something like an incarnation, and the +hope of the coming of the god of justice and of goodness who will +restore all things. Indeed, I know not where else one could look for so +complete a résumé of what has constituted in all places, now the +smallness and wretchedness, now the grandeur and nobleness, of that +incomprehensible and irresistible factor of human nature which we call +_religion_. The "eternally religious" element in man had stamped its +mark upon the unknown Mexico as upon all other lands; and when at last +it was discovered, evidence might have been found, had men been able to +appreciate it, that there too, however frightfully misinterpreted, the +Divine breath had been felt. + +It is the spiritually-minded who must learn the art of discerning the +spirit wherever it reveals itself; and when the horrors rise up before +us of which religion has more than once in the course of history been +the cause or the pretext, and we are almost tempted to ask whether this +attribute of human nature has really worked more good than ill in the +destinies of our race, we may remember that the same question might be +asked of all the proudest attributes of our humanity. Take polity or the +art of governing human societies. To what monstrous aberrations has it +not given birth! Take science. Through what lamentable and woful errors +has it not pursued its way! Take art. How gross were its beginnings, and +how often has it served, not to elevate man, but to stimulate his vilest +and most degrading passions! Yet, who would wish to live without +government, science or art? + +Let us apply the same test to religion. The horrors it has caused cannot +weigh against the final and overmastering good which it produces; and +its annals, too often written in blood, should teach us how to guide it, +how to purify it from all that corrupts and debases it. We shall see at +the close of our Lectures what that directing, normalizing, purifying +principle is that must hold the helm of religion and guide it in its +evolution. Meanwhile, let no imperfection, no repulsiveness--nay, no +atrocity even--blind us to the ideal value of what we have been +considering, any more than we should allow the disasters that spring +from the use of fire to make us cease to rank it amongst the great +blessings of our earthly life. + + + + +LECTURE III. + +THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY AND +COSMOGONY OF MEXICO. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +In our last Lecture we passed in review the chief gods and goddesses of +ancient Mexico, and you might see how, in spite of very characteristic +differences, the Mexican mythology obeys the same law of formation that +manifests itself among the peoples of the Old World, thereby proving +once more that the religious development of humanity is not arbitrary, +that it proceeds in every case under the direction of the inherent and +inalienable principles of the human mind. + +To-day we are to complete the internal study of the Mexican religion, by +dealing with its sacrifices, its institutions, and its eschatological +and cosmogonical doctrines. We begin with those sacrifices of which I +have already spoken as so numerous and so horrible. + + +I. + +We have some little difficulty in our times, familiar as we are with +spiritual conceptions of God and the divine purposes, in comprehending +the extreme importance which sacrifices, offerings, gifts to the divine +being, assumed in the eyes of peoples who were still enveloped in the +darkness of polytheism and idolatry. And perhaps we may find it more +difficult yet to realize the primitive object and intention of these +sacrifices. There can be no doubt that they were originally suggested by +the idea that the divine being, whatever it may have been--whether a +natural object, an animal, or a creature analogous to man--liked what we +like, was pleased with what pleases us, and had the same tastes and the +same proclivities as ours. This is the fundamental idea that urged the +polytheistic peoples along the path of religious anthropomorphism. + +This principle once established, and the object being to secure the +goodwill and the protection of the divine beings, what could be more +natural than to offer them the things in which men themselves took +pleasure, such as viands, drinks, perfumes, handsome ornaments, slaves +and wives? We must not carry back to the origins of sacrifice the +meta-physical and moral ideas which did not really appear until much +later. And since the necessity of eating, and the pleasure of eating +choice food, take a foremost rank in the estimation of infant peoples, +it is not surprising that the food-offering was the most frequent and +the most important amongst them, so as in some sort to absorb all the +rest. + +And here we are compelled to bow before a fact which cannot possibly be +disputed, namely, that traces of the primitive sacrifice of human +victims meet us everywhere. And this shows that cannibalism, which is +now restricted to a few of the savage tribes who have remained closest +to the animal life, was once universal to our race. For no one would +ever have conceived the idea of offering to the gods a kind of food +which excited nothing but disgust and horror amongst men. + +This being granted, two rival tendencies must be reckoned with. In the +first place, moral development, with its influence on religious ideas, +worked towards the suppression of the horrible custom of human +sacrifice, whilst at the same time extirpating the taste and desire for +human flesh. For we must not forget that where cannibalism still reigns, +human flesh is regarded as the most delicious of foods; and the Greek +mythology has preserved legends and myths that are connected with the +very epoch at which human sacrifices first became an object of horror to +gods and men. But, in the second place, in virtue of the strange +persistency of rites and usages connected with religion, human +sacrifices prevailed in many places when cannibalism had completely +disappeared from the habits and tastes of the population. Thus the +Semites of Western Asia and the Çivaïte Hindus, the Celts, and some of +the populations of Greece and Italy, long after they had renounced +cannibalism, still continued to sacrifice human beings to their deities. + +And this gives us the clue to a third phase, which was actually +realized in Mexico before the conquest. Cannibalism, in ordinary life, +was no longer practised. The city of Mexico underwent all the horrors of +famine during the siege conducted by Fernando Cortes. When the Spaniards +finally entered the city, they found the streets strewn with corpses, +which is a sufficient proof that human flesh was not eaten even in dire +extremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not only pushed human +sacrifices to a frantic extreme, but they were _ritual cannibals_, that +is to say, there were certain occasions on which they ate the flesh of +the human victims whom they had immolated. + +This practice was connected with another religious conception, grafted +upon the former one. Almost everywhere, but especially amongst the +Aztecs, we find the notion that the victim devoted to a deity, and +therefore destined to pass into his substance and to become by +assimilation an integral part of him, is already co-substantial with +him, has already become part of him; so that the worshipper in his turn, +by himself assimilating a part of the victim's flesh, unites himself in +substance with the divine being. And now observe that in all religions +the longing, whether grossly or spiritually apprehended, to enter into +the closest possible union with the adored being is fundamental. This +longing is inseparable from the religious sentiment itself, and becomes +imperious wherever that sentiment is warm; and this consideration is +enough to convince us that it is in harmony with the most exalted +tendencies of our nature, but may likewise, in times of ignorance, give +rise to the most deplorable aberrations. + +Note this, again, that immolation or sacrifice cannot be accomplished +without suffering to the victim. Yet more: the immense importance of +sacrifice in the inferior religions raises the mere rite itself to a +position of unrivalled efficacy as gauged by the childlike notions that +have given it birth, so that at last it acquires an intrinsic and +magical virtue in the eyes of the sacrificers. They have lost all +distinct idea as to how their sacrifice gives pleasure to the gods, but +they retain the firm belief that as a matter of fact, it is the +appointed means of acting upon their dispositions and modifying their +will. The civilized Greeks and Romans no longer believed that their gods +ate the flesh of the sacrifices, but this did not prevent their +continuing them as the indispensable means of appeasing the wrath or +conciliating the favour of the deities. To such a length was this +carried in India and Iran, that sacrifice finally came to be regarded as +a cosmic force, a creative act. The gods themselves sacrificed as a +means of creation, or of modifying the existing order of the world. This +idea of the intrinsic and magical virtue of sacrifice naturally re-acted +on the importance attached to the sufferings of the victim so +inseparably connected with it, until the latter came to be regarded as +amongst the prime conditions of an efficacious sacrifice. For the rest, +I need not do more than mention the notions of substitution, of +compensation, and of renunciation on the part of the sacrificer, which +so readily attach themselves to the idea of sacrifice, and represent its +moral aspects. + +Now all these considerations will help us to understand both the fearful +intensity and the special significance of the practice of human +sacrifice established among the Aztecs. And here I must ask you to +harden your hearts for a few moments while I conduct you through this +veritable chamber of horrors. + +The Mexican sacrifices were, in truth, of the most frightful +description. It was an axiom amongst the Aztecs that none but human +sacrifices were truly efficacious. They were continually making war in +order to get a supply of victims. They regarded the victim, when once +selected, as a kind of incarnation of the deity who was ultimately to +consume his flesh, or at any rate his heart. They retained the practice +of cannibalism as a religious rite, and, as though they had had some of +the Red-skins' blood in their veins, they refined upon the tortures +which they forced those victims, whom they had almost adored the moment +before, to undergo at last. + +These victims were regularly selected a considerable time in advance. +They were vigilantly watched, but in other respects were well cared for +and fed with the choicest viands--in a word, fattened. There was not a +single festival upon which at least one of these victims was not +immolated, and in many cases great numbers of them were flung upon the +"stone of sacrifices," where the priests laid their bosoms open, tore +out their hearts, and placed them, as the epitome of the men themselves, +in a vessel full of burning rezin or "copal," before the statue of the +deity. Some few of these sacrifices it is my duty to describe to you. + +For example: To celebrate the close of the annual rule of Tezcatlipoca, +which fell at the beginning of May, they set apart a year beforehand the +handsomest of the prisoners of war captured during the preceding year. +They clothed him in a costume resembling that of the image of the god. +He might come and go in freedom, but he was always followed by eight +pages, who served at once as an escort and a guard. As he passed, I will +not say that the people either knelt or did not kneel before him, for in +Mexico the attitude expressive of religious adoration was that of +squatting down upon the haunches. As he passed, then, the people +squatted all along the streets as soon as they heard the sound of the +bells that he carried on his hands and feet. Twenty days before the +festival, they redoubled their care and attention. They bathed him, +anointed him with perfume, and gave him four beautiful damsels as +companions, each one bearing the name of a goddess, and all of them +instructed to leave nothing undone to make their divine spouse as happy +as possible. He then took part in splendid banquets, surrounded by the +great Mexican nobles. But the day before the great festival, they placed +him and his four wives on board a royal canoe and carried them to the +other side of the lake. In the evening the four goddesses quitted their +unhappy god, and his eight guardians conducted him to a lonely +_teocalli_, a league distant, where he was flung upon the stone of +sacrifices and his heart torn from his bosom. He must disappear and die +with the god whom he represented, who must now make way for +Uitzilopochtli. This latter deity likewise had his human counterpart, +who had to lead a war-dance in his name before being sacrificed. He had +the grotesque privilege of choosing the hour of his own immolation, but +under the condition that the longer he delayed it the less would his +soul be favoured in the abode of Uitzilopochtli. For we must note that +in the Mexican order of ideas, though the flesh of the victims was +destined to feed the gods to whom they were sacrificed, their souls +became the blessed and favoured slaves or servants of these same gods. + +Centeotl, or Toci, the goddess of the harvest, had her human sacrifices +also, but in this case a woman figured as protagonist. She, too, was +dressed like the goddess, and entrusted to the care of four midwives, +priestesses of Centeotl, who were commissioned to pet and amuse her. A +fortnight before the festival, they celebrated "the arm dance" before +her, in which the dancers, without moving their feet, perpetually raised +and lowered their arms, as a symbol of the vegetation fixed at its +roots, but moving freely above. Then she had to take part in a mock +combat, after which she received the title of "image of the mother of +the gods." The day before her execution, she went to pay what was called +her "farewell to the market," in which she was conducted to the market +of Mexico, sowing maize all along the street as she went, and reverenced +by the people as Toci, "our grandmother." But the following midnight she +was carried to the top of a teocalli, perched upon the shoulders of a +priest, and swiftly decapitated. Then they flayed her without loss of +time. The skin of the trunk was chopped off, and a priest, wrapping +himself in the bleeding spoil, traversed the streets in procession, and +made pretence of fighting with soldiers who were interspersed in the +cortége. The skin of the legs was carried to the temple of Centeotl, the +son, where another priest made himself a kind of mask with it, to +represent his god, and sacrificed four captives in the ordinary way. +After this, the priest, accompanied by some soldiers, bore the hideous +shreds to a point on the frontier, where they were buried as a talisman +to protect the empire. + +The festivals of Tlaloc, god of rain, were perhaps yet more horrible. At +one of them they sacrificed a number of prisoners of war, one upon +another, clothed like the god himself. They tore out their hearts in the +usual way, and then carried them in procession, enclosed in a vase, to +throw them into a whirlpool of the lake of Mexico, which they imagined +to be one of the favoured residences of the aquatic deity. But it was +worse still at the festival of this same Tlaloc which fell in February. +On this occasion a number of young children were got together, and +decked with feathers and precious stones. They put wings upon them, to +enable them to fly up, and then placed them on litters, and bore them +through the city in grand procession and with the sound of trumpets. The +people, says Sahagun,[21] could not choose but weep to see these poor +little ones led off to the sacrifice. But if the children themselves +cried freely, it was all the better, for it was a sign that the rain +would be abundant.[22] + +I will not try your nerves by dwelling much longer on this dismal +subject, though there is no lack of material. At the feast of Xipe, "the +flayed," for example, whole companies of men were wrapped in the skins +of sacrificed captives, and engaged in mock battles in that costume. But +the only further instance I am compelled to mention is connected with +the festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, which was celebrated with +elaborate ceremonies. At set of sun, all who had prisoners of war or +slaves to offer to the deity brought forward their victims, painted +with the colours of the god, danced along by their side, and shut them +up in a building attached to the teocalli of Fire. Then they mounted +guard all round, singing hymns. At midnight, each owner entered and +severed a lock of the hair of his slave or slaves, to be carefully +preserved as a talisman. At daybreak they brought out the victims and +led them to the foot of the temple stair. There the priests took them +upon their shoulders and carried them up to the higher platform, where +they had prepared a great brazier of burning embers. Here each priest +flung his human burden upon the fire, and I leave you to imagine the +indescribable scene that ensued. Nor is this all. The same priests, +armed with long hooks, fished out the poor wretches before they were +quite roasted to death, and despatched them in the usual fashion on the +stone of sacrifices.[23] + +It was after these offerings of private devotion that family and +friendly gatherings were held, at which a part of the victim's flesh was +eaten, under the idea that by thus sharing the food of the deity his +worshippers entered into a closer union with him. We ought, however, to +note that a master never ate the flesh of his own slave, inasmuch as he +had been his guest, and as it were a member of his family. He waited +till his friends returned his attention. + + +II. + +Human sacrifice, Gentlemen, appears to have been a universal practice; +but wherever the human sympathies developed themselves rapidly, it was +early superseded by various substituted rites which it was supposed +might with advantage replace it. Such were flagellation, mutilation of +some unessential part of the body, or the emission of a certain quantity +of blood. This last practice, in particular, might be regarded as an act +of individual devotion, a gift made to the gods by the worshipper +himself out of his own very substance. The priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, +who had little taste for human sacrifices, seem to have introduced this +method of propitiating the gods by giving them one's own blood; and the +practice of drawing it from the tongue, the lips, the nose, the ears or +the bosom, came to be the chief form of expression of individual piety +and penitence in Central America and in Mexico. The priests in +particular owed it to their special character to draw their blood for +the benefit of the gods, and nothing could be stranger than the refined +methods they adopted to accomplish this end. For instance, they would +pass strings or splinters through their lips or ears and so draw a +little blood. But then a fresh string or a fresh splinter must be added +every day, and so it might go on indefinitely, for the more there were, +the more meritorious was the act; nor can we doubt that the idea of the +suffering endured enhancing the merit of the deed itself, was already +widely spread in Mexico. There was a system of Mexican _asceticism_, +too, specially characterized by the long fasts which the faithful, and +more particularly the priests, endured. Indeed, fasting is one of the +most general and ancient forms of adoration. It rests, in the first +place, on an instinctive feeling that a man is more worthy to present +himself before the divine beings when fasting than when stuffed with +food; and, in the second place, on the fact that fasting is shown by +experience to promote dreams, hallucinations, extasies and so forth, +which have always been considered as so many forms of communication with +the deity.[24] It was only later that fasting became the sign and index +of mourning, and therefore of sincere repentance and profound sorrow. +Mexico had its solitaries or hermits, too, who sought to enter into +closer communion with the gods by living in the desert under conditions +of the severest asceticism. Are we not once more tempted to exclaim that +there is nothing new under the sun? + +But the devotees of the ancient Mexican religion had other methods of +uniting themselves substantially and corporeally with their gods; and in +accordance with the notions which we have seen were accredited by their +religion, they had developed a kind (or kinds) of _communion_ from +which, with a little theology, a regular doctrine of transubstantiation +might have been drawn. + +Thus, at the third great festival in honour of Uitzilopochtli +(celebrated at the time of his death), they made an image of the deity +in dough, steeped it in the blood of sacrificed children, and partook of +the pieces.[25] In the same way the priests of Tlaloc kneaded statuettes +of their god in dough, cut them up, and gave them to eat to patients +suffering from the diseases caused by the cold and wet.[26] The +statuettes were first consecrated by a small sacrifice. And so, too, at +the yearly festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, an image of the +deity, made of dough, was fixed in the top of a great tree which had +been brought into the city from the forest. At a certain moment the tree +was thrown down, on which of course the idol broke to pieces, and the +worshippers all scrambled for a bit of him to eat. + +It has been asked how far any moral idea had penetrated this religion, +the repulsive aspects of which we have been describing. The question is +a legitimate one. I believe, Gentlemen, that in studying the religious +origins of the different peoples of the earth, we shall come to the +conclusion that the fusion of the religious and moral life--which has +long been an accomplished fact for us, especially since the Gospel, so +that we cannot admit the possibility of uniting immorality and piety for +a single instant--is not primitive, but is due to the development of the +human spirit, and to healthier, more complete and more religious ideas +concerning the moral law. At the beginning of things, and in our own day +amongst savages, nay, even amongst the most ignorant strata of the +population in civilized countries, it is obvious that religion and +morals have extremely little to do with each other. Some authors, +accordingly, in the face of all the monstrous cruelty, selfishness and +inhumanity of the Mexican religion, have concluded that no element of +morality entered into it at all, but that all was self-seeking and +fanaticism. + +This is an exaggeration. We have seen that amongst the nature-gods of +Mexico there was one, Tezcatlipoca, who was looked upon as the austere +guardian of law and morals. If we are to believe Father Sahagun,--and +even if we allow for strong suspicions as to the accuracy of his +translations of the prayers and exhortations uttered under certain +circumstances by parents and priests,--it is evident that the Mexicans +were taught to consider a decent and virtuous life as required by the +gods. Indeed, they had a system of confession, in which the priest +received the statement of the penitent, laid a penance on him, and +assured him of the pardon of the gods. Generally the penitents delayed +their confession till they were advanced in age, for relapses were +regarded as beyond the reach of pardon.[27] It would be nearer the truth +to say that the religious ethics of the Mexicans had entered upon that +path of dualism[28] by which alone, in almost every case, the normal +synthesis or rational reconciliation of the demands of physical nature +and the moral life has been ultimately reached. For inasmuch as fidelity +to duty often involves a certain amount of suffering, the suffering +comes to be regarded as the moral act itself, and artificial sufferings +are voluntarily incurred under the idea that they are the appointed +price of access to a higher and more perfect life, in closer conformity +with the divine will. The cruel rites which entered into the very tissue +of the Mexican religion could hardly fail to strengthen the same ascetic +tendency, by encouraging the idea that pain itself was pleasant to the +eyes of the gods. But the truth is that in this matter we can discern no +more than tendencies. There are symptoms of men's minds being busy with +the relation of the moral to the religious life, but no fixed or +systematic conclusions had been reached. It might, perhaps, have been +otherwise in the sequel, and these tendencies might ultimately have +taken shape in corresponding theories and doctrines, had not the Spanish +conquest intervened to put an end for ever to the evolution of the +Mexican religion. + +I have frequently spoken of the Mexican priests, and the time has now +come for dwelling more explicitly on this priesthood. + +It was very numerous, and had a strong organization reared on an +aristocratic basis, into which political calculations manifestly +entered. The noblest families (including that of the monarch) had the +exclusive privilege of occupying the highest sacerdotal offices. The +priests of Uitzilopochtli held the primacy. Their chief was sovereign +pontiff, with the title of _Mexicatl-Teohuatzin_, "Mexican lord of +sacred things," and _Teotecuhtli_, "divine master." Next to him came the +chief priest of Quetzalcoatl, who had no authority, however, except over +his own order of clergy. He lived as a recluse in his sanctuary, and the +sovereign only sent to consult him on certain great occasions; whereas +the primate sat on the privy council and exercised disciplinary powers +over all the other priests in the empire. Every temple and every +quarter had its regular priests. No one could enter the priesthood until +he had passed satisfactorily through certain tests or examinations +before the directors of the _Calmecac_, or houses of religious +education, of which we shall speak presently. The power of the clergy +was very great. They instructed youth, fixed the calendar, preserved the +knowledge of the annals and traditions indicated by the hieroglyphics, +sang and taught the religious and national hymns, intervened with +special ceremonies at birth, marriage and burial, and were richly +endowed by taxes raised in kind upon the products of the soil and upon +industries. Every successful aspirant to the priesthood, having passed +the requisite examinations, received a kind of unction, which +communicated the sacred character to him. All this indicates a +civilization that had already reached a high point of development; but +the indelible stain of the Mexican religion re-appears every moment even +where it seems to rise highest above the primitive religions: amongst +the ingredients of the fluid with which the new priest was anointed was +the blood of an infant! + +The priests' costume in general was black. Their mantles covered their +heads and fell down their sides like a veil. They never cut their hair, +and the Spaniards saw some of them whose locks descended to their knees. +Probably this was a part of the solar symbolism. The rays of the Sun are +compared to locks of hair, and we very often find the solar heroes or +the servants of the Sun letting their hair grow freely in order that +they may resemble their god. Their mode of life was austere and sombre. +They were subject to the rules of a severe asceticism, slept little, +rose at night to chant their canticles, often fasted, often drew their +own blood, bathed every night (in imitation of the Sun again), and in +many of the sacerdotal fraternities the most rigid celibacy was +enforced. You will see, then, that I did not exaggerate when I spoke of +the belief that the gods were animated by cruel wills and took pleasure +in human pain as having launched the Mexican religion on a path of a +systematic dualism and very stern asceticism.[29] + +But the surprise we experience in noting all these points of resemblance +to the religious institutions of the Old World, perhaps reaches its +culminating point when we learn that the Mexican religion actually had +its convents. These convents were often, but not always, places of +education for both sexes, to which all the free families sent their +children from the age of six or nine years upwards. There the boys were +taught by monks, and the girls by nuns, the meaning of the +hieroglyphics, the way to reckon time, the traditions, the religious +chants and the ritual. Bodily exercises likewise had a place in this +course of education, which was supposed to be complete when the children +had reached the age of fifteen. The majority of them were now sent back +to their families, while the rest stayed behind to become priests or +simple monks. For there were religious orders, under the patronage of +the different gods, and convents for either sex. The monastic rule was +often very severe. In many cases it involved abstinence from animal +food, and the people called the monks of these severer orders +_Quaquacuiltin_, or "herb-eaters." There were likewise associations +resembling our half-secular, half-ecclesiastical fraternities. Thus we +hear of the society of the "_Telpochtiliztli_," an association of young +people who lived with their families, but met every evening at sunset to +dance and sing in honour of Tezcatlipoca. And, finally, we know that +ancient Mexico had its hermits and its religious mendicants.[30] The +latter, however, only took the vow of mendicancy for a fixed term. These +are the details which led von Humboldt and some other writers to believe +that Buddhism must have penetrated at some former period into Mexico. +Not at all! What we have seen simply proves that asceticism, the war +against nature, everywhere clothes itself in similar forms, suggested by +the very constitution of man; and there is certainly nothing in common +between the gentle insipidity of Buddha's religion and the sanguinary +faith of the Aztecs. + +The girls were under a rule similar to that of the boys. They led a hard +enough life in the convents set apart for them, fasting often, sleeping +without taking off their clothes, and (when it was their turn to be on +duty) getting up several times in the night to renew the incense that +burned perpetually before the gods. They learned to sew, to weave, and +to embroider the garments of the idols and the priests. It was they who +made the sacred cakes and the dough idols, whose place in the public +festivals I have described to you. At the age of fifteen, the same +selection took place among the girls as among the boys. Those who stayed +in the convent became either priestesses, charged with the lower +sacerdotal offices, or directresses of the convents set aside for +instruction, or simple nuns, who were known as _Cihuatlamacasque_, "lady +deaconesses," or _Cihuaquaquilli_, "lady herb-eaters," inasmuch as they +abstained from meat. The most absolute continence was rigorously +enforced, and breach of it was punished by death.[31] + +One cannot but ask whether a priesthood so firmly organized, in which +was centred the whole intellectual life and all that can he called the +science of Mexico, had not elaborated any higher doctrines or cosmogonic +theories such as we owe to the priesthoods of the Old World, especially +when we know that they regulated the calendar, which presupposes some +astronomical conceptions. + +But here we enter upon a region that has not yet been methodically +reclaimed by the historians. We have often enough been presented with +Mexican cosmogonies, but the fundamental error of all these expositions +is, that they present as a fixed and established body of doctrine what +was in reality a very loose and unformed mass of traditions and +speculations. The sponsors of these cosmogonies agree neither as to +their number nor their order of succession, and it is obvious that a +mistaken zeal to bring them as near as possible to the Biblical +tradition has been at work. An attempt has even been made to find a +Mexican Noah, coming out of the ark, in a fish-god emerging from a kind +of box floating on the waters.[32] + +One thing, however, is certain, namely, that these cosmogonies are not +Aztec. The Aztec deities proper play no part in them. We may therefore +suppose that they are of Central American origin, or are due to that +priesthood of Quetzalcoatl which continued its silent work in the depths +of its mysterious retreats. The contradictions of our authorities as to +the number and order of these cosmogonies suggest the idea that their +arrangement one after another is no more than a harmonizing attempt to +bring various originally distinct cosmogonies into connection with each +other. The fact is that others yet are known, in addition to those which +have taken their place in what we may call the classical list +established by Humboldt and Müller.[33] In this classical list there +are five ages of the world, separated from each other by universal +cataclysms, something after the fashion of the successive creations of +the school of Cuvier. Each of these ages is called a Sun, and, according +to the elements that preponderate during their respective courses, they +are called, 1st, the Sun of the Earth; 2nd, the Sun of Fire; 3rd, the +Sun of the Air; and 4th, the Sun of Water. The fifth Sun, which is the +present one, has no special name. We cannot enter upon the details +concerning each of these Suns, and they are not very interesting in any +case. They contain confused reminiscences of primitive life, of the +ancient populations of Anahuac, of old and bygone worships, but nothing +particularly characteristic or original. The only specially striking +feature in this mass of cosmogonic traditions is the sense of the +instability of the established order alike of nature and society which +pervades them. What was it that inspired the Mexicans with this feeling? +Perhaps the mighty destructive forces for which tropical countries, +equatorial seas and volcanic regions, so often furnish a theatre, had +shaken confidence in the permanence of the physical constitution of the +world. Perhaps the numerous political and social revolutions, the +frequent successions of peoples, rulers and subjects in turn, had +accustomed the mind to conceive and anticipate perpetual changes, of +which the successive ages of the world were but the supreme expression; +and finally, perhaps that quasi-messianic expectation of the return of +Quetzalcoatl, to be accompanied by a complete renewal of things, may +have given an additional point of attachment to this belief in the +caducity of the whole existing order. What is certain is that this +sentiment itself was very widely spread. It served as a consolation to +the peoples who were crushed beneath the cruel yoke of the Aztecs. They +might well cherish the thought that all this would not last for ever; +and even the Aztecs themselves had no unbounded confidence in the +stability of their empire. The Spaniards profited greatly by this vague +and all but universal distrust. After their victory they made much of +pretended prodigies that had shadowed it forth, and even of prophecies +that had announced it.[34] But the state of mind of the populations +concerned being given, at whatever moment the Spaniards had arrived they +would have been able to appeal to auguries of a like kind, by dint of +just giving them that degree of precision and clearness which usually +distinguishes predictions that are recorded after their fulfilment! + +A further proof that the Mexican religion helped to spread this sense of +the instability of things is furnished by the grand jubilee festival +which was celebrated every fifty-two years in the city of Mexico and +throughout the empire. The Mexican cycle, marking the coincidence of +four times thirteen lunar and four times thirteen solar years,[35] +counted two-and-fifty years, and was called a "sheaf of years." Now +whenever the dawn of the fifty-third year drew near, the question was +anxiously put, whether the world would last any longer, and preparations +were made for the great ceremony of the _Toxilmolpilia_, or "binding up +of years." The day before, every fire was extinguished. All the priests +of the city of Mexico marched in procession to a mountain situated at +two leagues' distance. The entire population followed them. They watched +the Pleiades intently. If the world was to come to an end, if the sun +was never to rise again, the Pleiades would not pass the zenith; but the +moment they passed it, it was known that a new era of fifty-two years +had been guaranteed to men. Fire was kindled anew by the friction of +wood. But the wood rested on the bosom of the handsomest of the +prisoners, and the moment it was lighted the victim's body was opened, +his heart torn out, and both heart and body burned upon a pile that was +lit by the new fire. No sooner did the people, who had remained on the +plain below, perceive the flame ascend, than they broke into delirious +joy. Another fifty-two years was before the world. More victims were +sacrificed in gratitude to the gods. Brands were lighted at the sacred +flame on the mountain, from which the domestic fires were in their turn +kindled, and swift couriers were despatched with torches, replaced +continually on the route, to the very extremities of the empire. It was +in the year 1507, twelve years before Cortes disembarked, that the +Toxilmolpilia was celebrated for the last time. In 1559, although the +mass of the natives had meanwhile been converted to Roman Catholicism, +the Spanish government had to take severe measures to prevent its +repetition.[36] + +We have far firmer footing, then, than is furnished by the shifting +ground of the cosmogonies, when we insist upon the general prevalence of +the feeling that the world might veritably come to an end as it had done +before. Beyond this there was nothing fixed or generally accepted. Much +the same might be said of the future life. The Mexicans believed in +man's survival after death. This we see from the practice of putting a +number of useful articles into the tomb by the side of the corpse, after +first breaking them, so that they too might die and their spirits might +accompany that of the departed to his new abodes. They even gave him +some Tepitoton, or little household gods, to take with him, and as a +rule they killed a dog to serve as his guide in the mysterious and +painful journey which he was about to undertake. Sometimes a very rich +man would go so far as to have his chaplain slaughtered, that he might +not be deprived of his support in the other world. But in all this there +is nothing to distinguish the Mexican religion from the beliefs that +stretched over the whole of America, and there is no indication that any +moral conception had as yet vivified and hallowed the prospect beyond +the grave. The mass of ordinary mortals remained in the sombre, dreary, +monotonous realm of Mictlan; for in Mexico, as in Polynesia, a really +happy immortality was a privilege reserved for the aristocracy. There +were several paradises, including that of Tlaloc, and above all the +"mansion of the Sun," destined to receive the kings, the nobles and the +warriors. There they hunt, they dance, they accompany the sun in his +course, they can change themselves into clouds or humming-birds. An +exception is made, however, irrespective of social rank, in favour of +warriors who fall in battle and women who die in child-bed, as well as +for the victims sacrificed in honour of the celestial deities and +destined to become their servants. So, too, the paradise of Tlaloc, a +most beauteous garden, is opened to all who have been drowned (for the +god of the waters has taken them to himself), to all who have died of +the diseases caused by moisture, and to the children who have been +sacrificed to him. We recognize in these exceptions an unquestionable +tendency to introduce the idea of justice as qualifying the desolating +doctrine of aristocratic privilege; and probably this principle of +justice would have become preponderant, here as elsewhere, had not the +destinies of the Mexican religion been suddenly broken off. Nor is it +easy to explain the asceticism and austerities of which we have spoken, +except on the supposition that those who practised them all their lives +believed they were thereby acquiring higher rights in the future life. +It must be admitted, however, that it is not in its doctrine of a future +life that the Mexican religion reached its higher developments. + +We must postpone till we have examined the Peruvian religion, which +presents so many analogies to that of Mexico, while at the same time +differing from it so considerably, the final considerations suggested by +the strange compound of beliefs, now so barbarous and now so refined, +which we have passed in review. Spanish monks, as we all know, succeeded +within a few years in bringing the populations who had submitted to the +hardy conquerors within the pale of their Church. It was no very +difficult task. The whole past had vanished. The royal families, the +nobility, the clergy, all had perished. Faith in the national gods had +been broken by events. The new occupants laid a grievous yoke upon the +subject peoples, whom they crushed and oppressed with hateful tyranny; +but we must do the Franciscan monks, who were first on the field in the +work of conversion, the justice of testifying that they did whatever in +them lay to soften the fate of their converts and to plead their cause +before the Court of Spain. Nor were their efforts always unsuccessful. +They were rewarded by the unstinted confidence and affection of the +unhappy natives, who found little pity or comfort save at the hands of +the good Fathers. Let us add that many of the peoples, especially those +from whom the human tithes of which we have spoken had been exacted by +the Aztecs, were sensible of the humane and charitable aspects of a +religion that repudiated these hideous sacrifices in horror, and raised +up the hearts of the oppressed by its promises of a future bliss +conditioned by neither birth nor social rank.[37] + +But the worthy monks could not give what they had not got. And the +religious education which they gave their converts reflected only too +faithfully their own narrow and punctilious monastic spirit, itself +almost as superstitious, though in another way, as what it supplanted. +Nay, more: in spite of the best dispositions on either side, it was +inevitable that the ancient habits and beliefs should long maintain +themselves, though more or less shrouded beneath the new orthodoxy. In +1571, the terrible Inquisition of Spain came and established itself in +Mexico to put an end to this state of things; and alas! it found as +many heretics as it could wish to show that it had not come for nothing. +And when the natives saw the fearful tribunal at work, when the fires of +the _autos-da-fé_ were kindled on the plain of Mexico and consumed by +tens or hundreds the victims condemned by the Holy Office, do you +suppose that the new converts felt well assured in their own hearts that +the God of the Gospel was, after all, much better than Uitzilopochtli +and Tezcatlipoca?[38] + +But we are stepping beyond the domain of history we have marked out for +ourselves. The religion of Mexico is dead, and we cannot desire a +resurrection for it. But the memory it has left behind is at once +mournful and instructive. It has enriched history with its confirmatory +evidence as to the genesis, the power and the tragic force of religion +in human nature; and he who inspects its annals, now so poetical and now +so terror-laden, pauses in pensive thought before the grotesque but +imposing monument which thrills him with admiration even while he +recoils with horror. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +PERU.--ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION, THE LEGEND OF THE INCAS: THEIR +POLICY AND HISTORY. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +We pass to-day from North to South America; and as in the former we +confined ourselves to the district which presented the Europeans of the +sixteenth century with the unlooked-for spectacle of a native +civilization and religion in an advanced stage of development, so in the +latter we shall specially study that other indigenous civilization, +likewise supported and patronized by a very curious and original +religion, which established itself along the Cordilleras on the +immensely long but comparatively narrow strip of land between those +mountains and the ocean. Peru, like Mexico, was the country of an +organized solar religion; but the former, even more than the latter, +displays this religion worked into the very tissues of a most remarkable +social structure, with which it is so completely identified as not to be +so much as conceivable without it. The empire of the Incas is one of the +most complete and absolute theocracies--perhaps the very most complete +and absolute--that the world has seen. But in order to get a clear idea +of what the Peruvian religion was, we must first say a word as to the +country itself, its physical constitution and its history. + +The Peru of the Incas, as discovered and conquered by the Spaniards, +transcended the boundaries of the country now so called, inasmuch as it +included the more ancient kingdom of Quito (corresponding pretty closely +to the modern republic of Ecuador), and extended over parts of the +present Chili and Bolivia. We learn from our ordinary maps that this +whole territory was narrowly confined between the mountains and the sea. +Observe, however, that it was nearly two thousand five hundred miles in +length, four times as long as France, and that its breadth varied from +about two hundred and fifty to about five hundred miles. From West to +East it presents three very different regions. 1. A strip along the +coast where rain hardly ever falls, but where the night dews are very +heavy and the produce of the soil tropical. 2. The _Sierra_ formed by +the first spurs of the Cordilleras, and already high enough above the +level of the sea to produce the vegetation of the temperate regions. +Here maize was cultivated on a large scale, and great herds of vicunias, +alpacas and llamas were pastured. And here we may note a great point of +advantage enjoyed by Peru over Mexico; for the llama, though not very +strong, serves as a beast of burden and traction, its flesh is well +flavoured and its wool most useful. 3. The _Montaña_, consisting of a +region even yet imperfectly known, over which extend unmeasured forests, +the home of the jaguar and the chinchilla, of bright-plumed birds and of +dreaded serpents. Above these forests stretch the dizzy peaks and the +volcanos. The most remarkable natural phenomenon of the country is the +lake Titicaca, about seven times as great as the lake of Geneva, not +far distant from the ancient capital Cuzco, and serving, like Anahuac, +the lake district of Mexico, as the chief focus of Peruvian civilization +and religion. The mysterious disappearance beneath the ground of the +river by which it empties itself, stimulated yet further the +myth-forming imagination of the dwellers on its shores. + +There is a remarkable difference between the ways in which the two +civilizations of which we are speaking formed and consolidated +themselves in Mexico and Peru respectively. We have seen that in Mexico +the state of things to which the Spanish conquest put an end was the +result of a long series of revolutions and wars, in which successive +peoples had ruled and served in turn; and the Aztecs had finally seized +the hegemony, while adopting a civilization the origins of which must be +sought in Central America. In Peru things had followed a more regular +and stable course. The dynasty of the Incas had maintained itself for +about six centuries as the patron of social progress and of a remarkably +advanced culture. Starting from its native soil on the shores of Lake +Titicaca, and long confined in its authority to Cuzco and its immediate +territory, this family had finally succeeded in indefinitely extending +its dominion between the mountains and the sea, sometimes by successful +wars and sometimes by pacific means; for whole populations had more than +once been moved to range themselves of their own free will under the +sceptre of the Incas, so as to enjoy the advantages assured to their +subjects by their equitable rule. When Pizarro and his companions +disembarked in Peru, the great Inca, Huayna Capac, had but recently +completed the empire by the conquest of the kingdom of Quito. + +It has been asked, which was the more marvellous feat, the conquest of +Mexico by Fernando Cortes, or that of Peru by Pizarro. One consideration +weighs heavily in favour of Cortes. It is that he was the first. When +Francisco Pizarro threw himself with his handful of adventurers upon +Peru in 1531, he had before him the example of his brilliant precursor, +to teach him how a few Europeans might impose by sheer audacity on the +amazed and superstitious peoples; and in many respects he simply copied +his model. Like him, he took advantage of the divisions and rivalries +of the natives; like him, he found means of securing the person of the +sovereign, and was thereby enabled to quell the subjects. On the other +hand, he had even fewer followers than Cortes. His company scarcely +numbered over two hundred men at first, and the Peruvian empire was more +compact and more wisely organized than that of Mexico. We shall +presently see the principal cause to which his incredible success must +be ascribed; but the net result seems to be, that one hesitates to +pronounce the feats of either adventurer more astounding than those of +the other, especially when we remember that Pizarro was without the +political genius of Fernando Cortes, and was so profoundly ignorant that +he could not so much as read! + +The family of the Incas, whose scourge Pizarro proved to be, must have +numbered many fine politicians in its ranks. Never has what is called a +"dynastic policy" been pursued more methodically and ably. The proofs +assail us at every moment. The Incas were a family of priest-kings, who +reigned, as children of the Sun, over the Peruvian land, and the Sun +himself was the great deity of the country. To obey the Incas was to +obey the supreme god. Their person was the object of a veritable cultus, +and they had succeeded so completely in identifying the interests of +their own family with those of religion, of politics and of +civilization, that it was no longer possible to distinguish them one +from another. And yet it was this very method, so essentially +theocratic, of insisting on the minute regulation of all the actions of +human life in the name of religion, which finally ruined the Incas. +Peru, in the sixteenth century, had become one enormous convent, in +which everything was mechanically regulated, in which no one could take +the smallest initiative, in which everything depended absolutely upon +the will of the reigning Inca; so that the moment Pizarro succeeded in +laying hold of this Inca, this "father Abbé," everything collapsed in a +moment, and nothing was left of the edifice constructed with such +sagacity but a heap of sand. And indeed this is the fatal result of +every theocracy, for it can never really be anything but a _hierocracy_ +or rule of priests. On the one hand it must be absolute, for the +sovereign priest rules in the name of God; and on the other hand it is +fatally impelled to concern itself with every minutest affair, to +interfere vexatiously in all private concerns (since they too affect +religious ethics and discipline), and to multiply regulations against +every possible breach of the ruling religion. It is a general lesson of +religious history that is illustrated so forcibly by the fate of the +Inca priest-kings. + +I will not weary you in this case, any more than in that of Mexico, with +the enumeration of the authors to whom we must go for information on the +political and religious history of the strange country with which we are +dealing. I must, however, say a few words concerning a certain writer +who long enjoyed the highest of reputations, and was regarded throughout +the last century as the most trustworthy and complete authority in +Peruvian matters. The Peruvians, far as their civilization had advanced +in many respects, were behind even the Mexicans in the art of preserving +the memory of the past; for they had not so much as the imperfect +hieroglyphics known to the latter. They made use of _Quipus_ or +_Quipos_, indeed, which were fringes, the threads of which were +variously knotted according to what they were intended to represent; but +unfortunately the Peruvians anticipated on a large scale what so often +happens on the small scale amongst ourselves to those persons of +uncertain memory who tie knots on their handkerchiefs to remind them of +something important. They find the knot, indeed, but have forgotten what +it means! And so with the Peruvians. They were not always at one as to +the meaning of their ancient Quipos, and there were several ways of +interpreting them. Moreover, after the conquest, the few Peruvians who +might still have made some pretension to a knowledge of them did not +trouble themselves to initiate the Europeans into their filiform +writing. All that is left of it is the practice of the Peruvian women +who preserve this method of registering the sins they intend to record +against themselves in the confessional.[39] Let us hope that they at +least never experience any analogous infirmity to that which besets the +knot-tiers amongst ourselves.[40] + +To return to the Peruvian author of whom I intended to speak. He is the +celebrated Garcilasso de la Vega, who published his _Commentarios +reales_ in 1609 and 1617.[41] Garcilasso's father was a European, but +his mother was a Peruvian, and, what is more, a _Palla_, that is to say, +a princess of the family of the Incas. Born in 1540, this Garcilasso had +received from his mother and a maternal uncle a great amount of +information as to the family, the history and the persons of the ancient +sovereigns. He was extremely proud of his origin; so much so, indeed, +that he issued his works under the name of "Garcilasso _el Inca_ de la +Vega," though he had no real title to the name of Inca, which could not +be transmitted by women. A genuine fervour breathes through his accounts +of the history of his Peruvian country and his glorious ancestors, and +it is to him that we owe the knowledge of many facts that would +otherwise have been lost. The interest of his narrative explains the +reputation so long enjoyed by his work, but the more critical spirit of +recent times has discovered that his filial zeal has betrayed him into +lavish embellishments of the situation created by the clever and +cautious policy of his forebears, the Incas. He has passed in silence +over many of their faults, and has attributed more than one merit to +them to which they have no just claim. But in spite of all this, when we +have made allowance for his family weakness, we may consult him with +great advantage as to the institutions and sovereigns of ancient Peru. + +We must allow, with Garcilasso, that from the year 1000 A.D. onwards +(for he places the origin of their power at about this date) the Incas +had accomplished a work that may well seem marvellous in many respects. +Had there been any relations between Peru and Central America? Can we +explain the Peruvian civilization as the result of an emigration from +the isthmic region, or an imitation of what had already been realized +there? There is not the smallest trace of any such thing. No doubt it +would be difficult to justify a categorical assertion on a subject so +obscure; but it is certain that when they were discovered, Peru and the +kingdom of Quito were separated from North America by immense regions +plunged in the deepest savagery. Beginning at the Isthmus of Panama, +this savage district stretched over the whole northern portion of South +America, broken only by the demi-civilization of the Muyscas or Chibchas +(New Granada); and the Peruvians knew nothing of the Mexicans. Neither +the one nor the other were navigators, and nothing in the Peruvian +traditions betrays the least connection with Central America. The most +probable supposition is, that an indigenous civilization was +spontaneously developed in Peru by causes analogous to those which had +produced a similar phenomenon in the Maya country. In Peru, as in +Central America, the richness of the soil, the variety of its products, +the abundance of vegetable food, especially maize, secured the first +conditions of civilization. The Peruvian advance was further favoured by +the fact that it was protected towards the East by almost impassable +mountains, and towards the West by the sea, while to the North and South +it might concentrate its defensive forces upon comparatively narrow +spaces. + +The whole territory of the empire was divided into three parts. The +first was the property of the Sun, that is to say of the priests who +officiated in his numerous temples; the second belonged to the reigning +Inca; and the third to the people. The people's land was divided out +every year in lots apportioned to the needs of each family, but the +portions assigned to the _Curacas_, or nobles, were of a magnitude +suited to their superior dignity. Taxes were paid in days of labour +devoted to the lands of the Inca and those of the Sun, or in +manufactured articles of various kinds, for the cities contained a +number of artizans. Indeed, it was one of the maxims of the Incas that +no part of the empire, however poor, should be exempt from paying +tribute of one kind or another. To such a length was this carried, that +so grave a historian as Herrera tells us how the Inca Huayna Capac, +wishing to determine what kind of tribute the inhabitants of Pasto were +to pay, and being assured that they were so entirely without resources +or capacity of any kind that they could give him nothing at all, laid on +them the annual tribute of a certain measure of vermine, preferring, as +he said, that they should pay this singular tax rather than nothing.[42] +We cannot congratulate the officials commissioned to collect the +tribute, but we cite this sample in proof of the rigour with which the +Incas carried out the principles which they considered essential to the +government of the country. The special principle we have just +illustrated was founded on the idea that the Sun journeys and shines for +every one, and that accordingly every one should contribute towards the +payment of his services. For the rest, the great herds of llamas, which +constituted a regular branch of the national wealth, could only be owned +by the temples of the Sun and by the Inca. Every province, every town +or village, had the exact nature and the exact quantity of the products +it must furnish assigned, and the Incas possessed great depôts in which +were stored provisions, arms and clothes for the army. All this was +regulated, accounted for and checked by means of official Quipos. + +The numerous body of officials charged with the general superintendence +and direction of affairs was organized in a very remarkable manner, well +calculated to consolidate the Inca's power. All the officials held their +authority from him, and represented him to the people, just as he +himself represented the Sun-god. At the bottom of the scale was an +official overseer for every ten families, next above an overseer of a +hundred families, then another placed over a thousand, and another over +ten thousand. Each province had a governor who generally belonged to the +family of the Incas. All this constituted a marvellous system of +surveillance and espionage, descending from the sovereign himself to the +meanest of his subjects, and founded on the principle that the rays of +the Sun pierce everywhere. The lowest members of this official +hierarchy, the superintendents of ten families, were responsible to +their immediate superiors for all that went on amongst those under their +charge, and those superiors again were responsible to the next above +them, and so on up to the Inca himself, who thus held the threads of the +whole vast net-work in the depths of his palace. It was another maxim of +the Peruvian state that every one must work, even old men and children. +Infants under five alone were excepted. It was the duty of the +superintendents of ten families to see that this was carried out +everywhere, and they were armed with disciplinary powers to chastise +severely any one who remained idle, or who ordered his house ill, or +gave rise to any scandal. Individual liberty then was closely +restrained. No one could leave his place of residence without leave. The +time for marriage was fixed for both sexes--for women at eighteen to +twenty, for men at twenty-four or upwards. The unions of the noble +families were arranged by the Inca himself, and those of the inferior +classes by his officers, who officially assigned the young people one +to another. Each province had its own costume, which might not be +changed for any other, and every one's birthplace was marked by a ribbon +of a certain colour surrounding his head.[43] In a word, the Jesuits +appear to have copied the constitution of the Peruvian society when they +organized their famous Paraguay missions, and perhaps this fact may help +us to trace the profound motives which in either case suggested so +minutely precise a system of inserting individuals into assigned places +which left no room for self-direction. The Incas and the Jesuits alike +had to contend against the disconnected, incoherent turbulence of savage +life, and both alike were thereby thrown upon an exaggerated system of +regulations, in which each individual was swaddled and meshed in +supervisions and ordinances from which it was impossible to escape. + +Having said so much, we must acknowledge that, generally speaking, the +Incas made a very humane and paternal use of their absolute power. They +strove to moderate the desolating effects of war, and generally treated +the conquered peoples with kindness. But we note that in the century +preceding that of the European conquest, they had devised a means of +guarding against revolts exactly similar to the measures enforced +against rebellious peoples by the despotic sovereigns of Nineveh and +Babylon; that is to say, they transported a great part of the conquered +populations into other parts of their empire, and it appears that Cuzco, +like Babylon, presented an image in miniature of the whole empire. +There, as at Babylon, a host of different languages might be heard, and +it was amongst the children of the deported captives that Pizarro, like +Cyrus at Babylon, found allies who rejoiced in the fall of the empire +that had crushed their fathers. For the rest, the Incas endeavoured to +spread the language of Cuzco, the _Quechua_, throughout their +empire.[44] Nothing need surprise us in the way of political sagacity +and insight on the part of this priestly dynasty. Its monarchs seem to +have hit upon every device which has been imagined elsewhere for +attaching the conquered peoples to themselves or rendering their +hostility harmless. Thus you will remember that at Mexico there was a +chapel that served as a prison for the idols of the conquered. In the +same way there stood in the neighbourhood of Cuzco a great temple with +seventy-eight chapels in it, where the images of all the gods worshipped +in Peru were assembled. Each country had its altar there, on which +sacrifice was made according to the local customs.[45] + +The Spaniards, amongst whom respect for the royal person was +sufficiently profound, were amazed by the marks of extreme deference of +which the Inca was the object. They could not understand at first that +actual religious worship was paid to him. He alone had the inherent +right to be carried on a litter, and he never went out in any other +way, imitating the Sun, his ancestor, who traverses the world without +ever putting his foot to the ground. Some few men and women of the +highest rank might rejoice in the same distinction, but only if they had +obtained the Inca's sanction. In the same way, it was only the members +of the Inca family and the nobles of most exalted rank who were allowed +to wear their hair long, for this was a distinctive sign of the +favourites of the Sun. None could enter the presence of the reigning +Inca save bare-footed, clad in the most simple garments and bearing a +burden on his shoulders, all in token of humility; nor must he raise his +eyes throughout the audience, for no man looks upon the face of the Sun. +It seems that the Incas possessed "the art of royal majesty" in a high +degree. They could retain the impassive air of indifference, whatever +might be going on before their eyes, like the Sun, who passes without +emotion over everything that takes place below. It was thus that +Atahualpa appeared to the Spaniards, who remarked the all but stony +fixity of the Peruvian monarch's features in the presence of all the new +sights--horses, riding, fire-arms--which filled his subjects with +surprise and terror.[46] And such was the superhuman character of the +Inca, that even the base office of a spittoon--excuse such a detail--was +supplied by the hand of one of his ladies.[47] The salute was given to +the Inca by kissing one's hand and then raising it towards the Sun. At +his death the whole country went into mourning for a year. The young +Incas were educated together, under conditions of great austerity, and +were never allowed to mingle with young people of the inferior +classes.[48] + +The army of the Incas was the army of the Sun. The obligation to +military service was universal, since the Sun shines for all men. Every +sound man from twenty-five to fifty might be called on to serve in his +company. Thus numerous and highly-disciplined armies were raised, for +the spirit of obedience had penetrated all classes of the people. The +Incas had abolished the use of poisoned arrows, which is so common +amongst the natives of the New World.[49] + +Justice was organized after fixed laws, and, as is usually the case in +theocracies, these laws were severe. For in theocracies, to the social +evil of the offence is added the impiety committed against the Deity and +his representative on earth. The culprit has been guilty not only of +crime, but of sacrilege. The penalty of death was freely inflicted even +in the case of offences that implied no evil disposition.[50] The +palanquin-bearer, for instance, who should stumble under his august +burden when carrying the Inca, or any one who should speak with the +smallest disrespect of him, must die. But we must also note certain +principles of sound justice which the Incas had likewise succeeded in +introducing. The judges were controlled, and, in case of unjust +judgments, punished. The law was more lenient to a first offence than to +a second, to crimes committed in the heat of the moment than to those of +malise prepense; more lenient to children than to adults, and (mark +this) more lenient to the common people than to the great.[51] The +members of the Inca family alone were exempted from the penalty of +death, which in their case was replaced by imprisonment for life. They +alone might, and indeed must, marry their sisters, for a reason that we +shall see further on. Thus everything was calculated to set this divine +family apart. Polygamy, too, was only allowed to the Incas and to the +families of next highest rank after them, who, however, might not marry +at all without the personal assent of the sovereign.[52] But the Incas +strove to make themselves loved. Herrera tells us of establishments in +which orphans and foundlings were brought up at the Inca's charges, and +of the alms he bestowed on widows who had no means of subsistence.[53] + +The same deliberate system shows itself in the attempts to spread +education. The Incas founded schools, but they were opened only to the +children of the Incas and of the nobility. This is a genuine theocratic +trait. Garcilasso tells us naively that his ancestor the Inca Roca +(1200--1249) in founding public schools had no idea of allowing _the +people_ "to get information, grow proud, and disturb the state."[54] The +instruction, which was given by the _amautas_ (sages), turned on the +history or traditions of the country, on the laws, and on religion. We +have said that writing was unknown. There were only the mnemonic Quipos, +pictures on linen representing great events, and some rudimentary +attempts at hieroglyphics which the Incas do not seem to have +encouraged. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the hieroglyphics +found graven on the rocks of Yonan are anterior to the Inca +supremacy;[55] and it is said that a certain _amauta_ who had attempted +to introduce a hieroglyphic alphabet, was burned to death for impiety at +the order of the Inca.[56] + +The most remarkable results of the rule of the Incas are seen in the +material well-being which they secured to their people. All the +historians speak of the really extraordinary perfection to which +Peruvian agriculture had been carried, though the use of iron was quite +unknown. The solar religion fits perfectly with the habits of an +agricultural people, and the Incas thought it became them, as children +of the Sun, to encourage the cultivation of the soil. They ordered the +execution of great public works, such as supporting walls to prevent the +sloping ground from being washed away; irrigation canals, some of which +measured five hundred miles, and which were preserved with scrupulous +care; magazines of guano, the fertilizing virtues of which were known in +Peru long before they were learned in Europe.[57] The Spaniards are far +from having maintained Peruvian agriculture at the level it had reached +under the Incas. Splendid roads stretched from Cuzco towards the four +quarters of heaven; and Humboldt still traced some of them, paved with +black porphyry, or in other cases cemented or rather macadamized, and +often launched over ravines and pierced through hills with remarkable +boldness.[58] The Incas had established reservoirs of drinking water for +the public use from place to place along these roads, and likewise +pavilions for their own accommodation when they were traversing their +realms, on which occasions they never travelled more than three or four +leagues a day. Bridges were thrown across the rivers, sometimes built of +stone, but more often constructed on the method, so frequently +described, that consists in uniting the opposing banks by two parallel +ropes, along which a great basket is slung.[59] A system of royal +courier posts measured the great roads as in Mexico. There were many +important cities in Peru, and, according to a contemporary estimate +cited by Prescott, the capital, Cuzco, even without including its +suburbs, must have embraced at least two hundred thousand +inhabitants.[60] Architecture was in a developed stage. We shall have to +speak of the temples presently. The Inca's palaces--and there was at +least one in every city of any importance--were of imposing dimensions, +and a high degree of comfort and luxury was displayed within them. Gold +glittered on the walls and beneath the roofs which were generally +thatched with straw. They were provided with inner courts, spacious +halls, sculptures in abundance, but inferior, it would seem, to those of +Central America, and baths in which hot or cold water could be turned on +at will.[61] In a word, when we remember from how many resources the +Peruvians were still cut off by their ignorance and isolation, we cannot +but admit that a genuine civilization is opening before our eyes, the +defects of which must not blind us to its splendour. And since this +civilization was in great part due (we shall see the force of the +qualification presently) to the continuous efforts of the Incas, our +next task must be to ascend to the mythic origin of that family, which +we borrow from the narrative of their descendant, Garcilasso de la +Vega.[62] + +Properly speaking, this narrative is the local myth of the Lake +Titicaca and of Cuzco, transformed into an imperial myth. + +Before the Incas, we are told, men lived in the most absolute savagery. +They were addicted to cannibalism and offered human victims to gods who +were gross like themselves. At last the Sun took pity on them, and sent +them two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo (or Oullo, Ocollo, +Oolle, &c.), to establish the worship of the Sun and alleviate their +lot. The two emissaries, son and daughter of the Sun and Moon, rose one +day from the depths of the Lake Titicaca. They had been told that a +golden splinter which they bore with them would pierce the earth at the +spot in which they were to establish themselves, and the augury was +fulfilled on the site of Cuzco, the name of which signifies _navel._[63] +Observe that, in classical antiquity, Babylon, Athens, Delphi, Paphos, +Jerusalem, and so forth, each passed for the navel of the earth. Manco +Capac and Mama Ogllo, then, established the worship of the Sun. They +taught the savage inhabitants of the place agriculture and the principal +trades, the art of building cities, roads and aqueducts. Mama Ogllo +taught the women to spin and weave. They appointed a number of overseers +to take care that every one did his duty; and when they had thus +regulated everything in Cuzco, they re-ascended to heaven. But they left +a son and daughter to continue their work. Like their parents, the +brother and sister became husband and wife, and from them descends the +sovereign family of the Incas, that is to say, the Lord-rulers, or +Master-rulers. + +Such is the legend, from which the first deduction must be that the Inca +family has nothing in common with the other denizens of earth. It is +super-imposed, as it were, on humanity. It is because of this difference +of origin that the laws which restrain the rest of mankind are not +always applicable to the Incas. For example, they marry their sisters, +as Manco Capac did, and as the Sun does, for the Moon is at once his +wife and his sister. It is thus that they are enabled to preserve the +divine character of their unique family. + +For ourselves, we can entertain no doubt that this is a cosmic myth. +Mama Ogllo, or "the mother egg," and Manco Capac, or "the mighty man," +are two creators. The myth indicates that there existed an ancient solar +priesthood on one of the islands or on the shores of the Lake of +Titicaca (at an early date the focus of a certain civilization), and +that this priestly family became at a given period the ruling power at +Cuzco. It was thence that it radiated over the small states which +surrounded Cuzco, embracing them one after another under its prestige +and its power, until it had become the redoubtable dynasty that we know +it. Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo, the creator and the cosmic egg, have +become the Sun and Moon, represented by their Inca high-priest and his +wife. There is no practice towards which a more wide-spread tendency +exists in America than that of conferring the name of a deity on his +chief priest. And if Garcilasso fixes the appearance of Manco Capac at +about 1000 A.D., it is simply because the historical recollections of +his family mounted no higher, and that about that time it began to rise +out of its obscurity. It had the advantage of numbering in its royal +line both successful warriors and, what is more, consummate +politicians, instances of whose ability we have already seen and shall +see again. + +The point at which the legend preserved by Garcilasso is clearly at +fault, is in its claim for the Incas as the first and only civilizers of +Peru. We shall presently meet with other Peruvian myths of civilization +which do not stand in the least connection with Manco Capac and the +Incas. The kingdom of Quito, which the Inca Huayna Capac had recently +conquered when the Spaniards arrived, though not on the same level as +Peru proper, was far removed from the savage state, while as yet a +stranger to the influence of the Incas. The country of the Muyscas, the +present New Granada or land of Bogota, though standing in no connection +with Peru, was the theatre of another sacerdotal and solar religion _sui +generis_, which, though very little known, is highly interesting. The +valley of the Rimac, or Lima, and the coast lands in general, were +likewise centres of a pre-Inca civilization. The Chimus especially, +themselves dwellers on the coast, were possessed of an original +civilization differing from that of the Incas. They were the last to be +conquered. To sum up, everything leads us to suppose that various +centres of social development had long existed, up and down the whole +region, but that, under the presiding genius of the priesthood of Manco +Capac, the civilization of Cuzco had gradually acquired the +preponderance, till it consecutively eclipsed and absorbed all the +others. + +Garcilasso labours hard to impress us with the belief that the +sovereigns of his family maintained an unbroken age of gold, by dint of +their wisdom and virtues. But we know, both from himself and from other +sources, that as a matter of fact the Incas' sky was not always +cloudless. They had numbered both bad and incapable rulers in their +line. More than once they had had to suppress terrible insurrections, +and their palaces had witnessed more than one tragedy."[64] But after +making all allowances, we must admit that they succeeded in governing +well, and more especially in maintaining intact their own religious and +political prestige. + +Now this very cleverness, this conscious and often extremely deliberate +and astutely calculated policy, compels us to ask how far the Incas +themselves were sincere in their pretension to be descended from the +Sun, and their faith in the very special favour in which the great +luminary held them. There is so much rationalism in their habitual +tactics, that one cannot help suspecting a touch of it in their beliefs. +And the truth is that their descendant, Garcilasso, has recorded certain +traditions to that effect, which he has perhaps dressed up a little too +much in European style, with a view to convincing us that his ancestors +were monotheistic philosophers, but which nevertheless bear the marks of +a certain authenticity. For the reasoning which Garcilasso puts into the +mouth of the Incas closely resembles what would naturally commend itself +to the mind of a pagan who should once ask himself whether the visible +phenomenon, the Sun, which he adored, was really as living, as +conscious, as personal, as they said. Thus the Inca Tupac Yupanqui +(fifteenth century) is said to have reasoned thus:[65] + + "They say that the Sun lives, and that he does everything. But + when one does anything, he is near to the thing he does; whereas + many things take place while the Sun is absent. It therefore + cannot be he who does everything. And again, if he were a living + being, would he not be wearied by his perpetual journeyings? If + he were alive, he would experience fatigue, as we do; and if he + were free, he would visit other parts of the heavens which he + never traverses. In truth, he seems like a thing held to its + task that always measures the same course, or like an arrow that + flies where it is shot and not where it wills itself." + +Note this line of reasoning, Gentlemen, which must have repeated itself +in many minds when once they had acquired enough independence and power +of thought calmly to examine those natural phenomena which primitive +naïveté had animated, personified and adored as the lords of destiny. +Their fixity and their mechanical and unvarying movements, when once +observed, could not fail to strike a mortal blow at the faith of which +they were the object. That faith was transformed without being radically +changed when it was no longer the phenomenon itself, but the personal +and directing spirit, the genius, the deity that was behind the +phenomenon, but distinct from it and capable of detaching itself from +it, which drew to itself the worship of the faithful. But in his turn +this god, shaped in the image of man, must either be refined into pure +spirit, or must fall below the rational and moral ideal ultimately +conceived by man himself. When all is said and done, Gentlemen, Buddhism +is still a religion of Nature. It is the last word of that order of +religions, and exists to show us that, at any rate in its authentic and +primitive form, that last word is _nothingness_. And that is why +Buddhism has never existed in its pure form as a popular religion. For +in religion, and at every stage of religion, mind seeks mind. Without +that, religion is nothing. Note, too, the observant Inca's remark, that +if the Sun were alive he must be dreadfully tired. You may find the same +idea in more than one European mythology, in which the Sun appears as an +unhappy culprit condemned to a toilsome service for some previous fault; +or, again, an iron constitution is given him, to explain why he is not +worn out by his ceaseless journeying. + +Now Tupac Yupanqui would not be the only Inca who cherished a certain +scepticism concerning his ancestor the Sun. Herrera tells us that the +Inca Viracocha denied that the Sun was God;[66] and according to a story +preserved by Garcilasso,[67] the Inca Huayna Capac, the conqueror of +Quito, who died shortly after Pizarro's first disembarkment, must have +been quite as much of a rationalist. One day, during the celebration of +a festival in honour of the Sun, he is said to have gazed at the great +luminary so long and fixedly that the chief priest ventured on some +respectful remarks to the effect that so irreverent a proceeding must +surprise the people. "I will ask you two questions," replied the +monarch. "I am your king and universal lord. Would any one of you have +the hardihood to order me to rise from my seat and take a long journey +for his pleasure?... And would the richest and most powerful of my +vassals dare to disobey if I should command him on the spot to set out +in all speed for Chili?" And when the priest answered in the negative, +the Inca continued: "Then I tell you there must be a greater and a more +mighty lord above our father the Sun, who orders him to take the course +he follows day by day. For if he were himself the sovereign lord, he +would now and again omit his journey and rest, for his pleasure, even if +he experienced no necessity for doing so." + +Once more: I will not vouch for the exact form of these audacious +speculations of the free-thinking Inca. But such reminiscences, +collected independently by various authors, correspond to the +conjectures forced upon us by the extreme political sagacity of the +Incas. None but theocrats, in whose own hearts faith in their central +principle was waning, could develop such astuteness and diplomacy. A +sincere and untried faith has not recourse to so many expedients +dictated by policy and the fear lest the joint in the armour should be +found. It is to be presumed, however, that these heterodox speculations +of the Incas themselves never passed beyond the narrow circle of the +family and its immediate surroundings. Nothing of the kind would ever be +caught by the ear of the people. But the evidence as to Huayna Capac's +scepticism derives a certain confirmation from the fact that he was the +first Inca who departed (to the woe of his empire, as it turned out) +from some of the hereditary maxims that had always been scrupulously +observed by his ancestors. + +Huayna Capac had considerably extended the Peruvian empire by the +conquest of the kingdom of Quito. In the hope, presumably, of +consolidating his conquest, he resided for a long time in the +newly-acquired territory, and married the conquered king's daughter, to +whom he became passionately attached. This was absolutely contrary to +one of the statutes of the Inca family, no member of which was allowed +to marry a stranger. By his foreign wife he had a son called Atahualpa, +and whether it was that he thought it good policy to allow a certain +autonomy to the kingdom of Quito, or whether it was due to his +tenderness towards Atahualpa's mother and the son she had borne him, +certain it is that when he died at Quito in 1525, he decided that +Atahualpa should reign over this newly-acquired kingdom, whilst his +other son Huascar, the unimpeachably legitimate Inca, was to succeed him +as sovereign of Peru proper. This, again, was a violation of the maxim +that the kingdom of the Incas, which was the kingdom of the Sun, was +never to be parted. It was in the midst of the struggles provoked by the +hostility of the two brothers that Pizarro fell like a meteor amongst +the Peruvians, who did not so much as know of the existence of any other +land than the one they inhabited. + +But the hour warns me that I must pause. When next we meet, I shall +have to recount the fall of the great religious dynasty of the Incas, +and we shall then examine more closely that Peruvian religion of which +we have to-day but sketched the outline. + + + + +LECTURE V. + +FALL OF THE INCAS.--PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY, PRIESTHOOD. + + +I. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +You will remember that when last we met we traced out the legendary +origin of the royal house of the Incas. Starting from the shores of the +Lake Titicaca and the city of Cuzco, and progressively extending its +combined religious and political dominion over the numerous countries +situated west of the Cordilleras, it had welded them into one vast +empire, centralized and organized in a way that, in spite of its +defects, extorts our admiration. You had occasion to notice the +extraordinary degree to which the consummate practical sagacity which +distinguished the sacerdotal and imperial family of the Sun for +successive centuries, was combined with purely mythological principles +of faith; and we were compelled to ask whether so much diplomacy was +really consistent with unreserved belief. Finally we saw that, according +to the historians, more than one of the Incas had in fact expressed and +justified a doubt as to the living and conscious personality of that +Sun-god whose descendants they were supposed to be. The position of +affairs when the Spaniards disembarked on the shores of Peru is already +known to you. The Inca Huayna Capac, conqueror of Quito, had broken with +the constitutional maxims of his dynasty, in the first place by marrying +a stranger, the daughter of a deposed king; and in the second place by +leaving the kingdom of Quito to the son, Atahualpa, whom she bore him; +while he allowed Huascar, the heir-apparent to the empire, to succeed +him in Peru proper, thus severing into two parts the kingdom of the Sun, +in defiance of the principle hitherto recognized, which forbad the +division of that kingdom under any circumstances. + +The war which speedily arose between Atahualpa and his half-brother +Huascar was the great cause that made it possible for Pizarro and his +miniature army to get a footing in the Peruvian territory. The military +forces of both sections of the empire were engaged with each other far +away from the place of landing, and the inhabitants, wholly unaccustomed +to take any initiative, made no resistance to the strange invaders, +whose appearance, arms and horses, struck terror into their hearts, and +in whom (like the Mexicans in the case of Cortes and his followers) they +thought they saw supernatural beings. Pizarro, who knew how things +stood, had but one idea, viz., to imitate Cortes in laying hold of the +sovereign's person. Atahualpa returned victorious. He had defeated +Huascar, slaughtered many members of the Inca family, and thrown his +conquered brother into prison, so as to govern Peru in his name, for he +was not sure that he himself would be recognized and obeyed as a +legitimate descendant of the Sun. Pizarro found means of making his +arrival known to him, and at the same time offered him his alliance +against his enemies.[68] Atahualpa was delighted with these overtures, +and invited his pretended allies to a conference near Caxamarca, where +the Spaniards had installed themselves. The Inca advanced, parading all +the pomp and splendour of his solar divinity. Four hundred richly-clad +attendants preceded his palanquin, which sparkled at a thousand points +with gold and precious stones, and was borne on the shoulders of +officers drawn from amongst the highest nobles, while troops of male and +female dancers followed the child of the Sun and plied their art. Then +ensued one of those unique scenes of history upon which, as indignation +contends with amazement for the mastery in our minds, we must pause for +a moment to gaze. + +Pizarro's almoner, Father Valverde, drew near to the Inca, a crucifix in +one hand and a missal in the other, and by means of an interpreter +delivered a regular discourse to him, in which he announced that Pope +Alexander VI. had given all the lands of America to the King of Spain, +which he had a right to do as the successor of St. Peter, who was +himself the Vicar of the Son of God. Then he expounded the chief +articles of Christian orthodoxy, and summoned the Inca there and then +to abjure the religion of his ancestors, receive baptism, and submit to +the sovereignty of the King of Spain. On these conditions he might +continue to reign. Otherwise he must look for every kind of disaster. + +Atahualpa was literally stupefied. Much of the discourse, no doubt, he +failed to follow, but what he did understand filled him with +indignation. He answered that he reigned over his peoples by hereditary +right, and could not see how a foreign priest could dispose of lands +that were not his. He should remain faithful to the religion of his +fathers, "especially," he added, as he pointed to the crucifix grasped +by the monk, "since my god, the Sun, is at any rate alive; whereas the +one you propose for my acceptance, as far as I gather, is dead." +Finally, he desired to know whence his interlocutor had derived all the +strange things that he had told him. "Hence!" cried Valverde, holding +out his missal. The Inca, who had never seen a book in all his life, +took this object, so new to him, in his hands, opened it, put it to his +ear, and finding that it said nothing, flung it contemptuously on the +ground. + +Pizarro saw the moment for striking the blow he contemplated. Crying out +at the sacrilege, he gave his soldiers the signal of attack. Their +horses and fire-arms caused an instant panic. In vain did some of his +officers attempt to defend the Inca. Pizarro broke through to him, +seized him by the arm and dragged him to his quarters. All his escort +fled in terror. + +Atahualpa, then, was in the immediate power of Pizarro, who (still +imitating Cortes) surrounded his prisoner with every comfort and +attention, though confining him strictly to one chamber, and warning him +that any attempt at escape or resistance would be the signal for his +death. Atahualpa soon perceived that thirst for gold was the great +motive that had impelled the Spaniards to their audacious enterprize. He +hoped to disarm them by offering as ransom gold enough to fill the +chamber in which he was confined up to the height of a man. He gave the +necessary orders for collecting the precious metal in the requisite +amount, and to secure the good reception of the emissaries whom Pizarro +despatched everywhere to receive it. One of these detachments even +entered into relations with the captive Inca, Huascar, and the latter +hastened to offer the Spaniards yet more gold than Atahualpa was giving +them if they would take his part. Atahualpa heard of this, was alarmed, +regarded his conquered brother's attempts in the light of high-treason, +gave orders for his death--and was obeyed.[69] + +He was not aware how precarious was his own tenure of life. Pizarro saw +more and more clearly that, in order to become the real master of Peru, +he must get rid of the reigning Inca, and put some child in his place, +who would be a passive instrument in his hands. He was fairly alarmed by +the religious obedience, timid but absolute, that the "child of the +Sun," even in his captivity, received from all classes of his subjects. +He fancied that from the recesses of his prison, and even while paying +off his enormous ransom,[70] Atahualpa had sent secret orders to the +most distant populations to arm themselves and come to his rescue. The +interpreter through whom he communicated with his captive was out of +temper with his master, for his head had been so turned by ambition, +that he had demanded the hand of a _coya_, that is to say, one of the +Inca's women, and had been haughtily refused. In revenge, he made +malicious reports to Pizarro. But it was an accidental circumstance that +brought the latter's ill-will towards his captive to a point. The Inca +greatly admired the art of writing when he discovered all the uses the +Spaniards made of it. One day it occurred to him to get one of the +soldiers on guard over him to write the word _Dio_ upon his nail, and he +was delighted and astonished to find that every one to whom he showed it +read it in the same way. So they told him that every one a little above +the common herd could read and write in Europe. His evil star would +have it that he showed his thumb one day to Pizarro, who could make +nothing of it. Pizarro, then, could not read! Atahualpa concluded that +he was merely one of the common herd, and found an opportunity of +telling him so. Pizarro, stung to the quick, hesitated no longer. A mock +judgment condemned Atahualpa to the extreme penalty for the crimes of +idolatry, polygamy, usurpation, fratricide and rebellion. In vain he +appealed to the King of Spain. He was led to the stake, and Father +Valverde made him purchase by a baptism _in extremis_ the privilege of +being strangled instead of burned alive. + +From this moment the fate of Peru was decided. The head once struck from +the great body, long convulsions ensued, but no serious resistance was +possible. Pizarro set up as Inca a young brother of Huascar's, who was +at first a mere instrument in the hands of his country's bleeders, but +afterwards escaped and raised insurrections which ended in his total +defeat. The Spaniards had been reinforced, and had found allies amongst +the peoples who had been torn from their native soils by the victorious +Incas.[71] Other attempts, still attaching themselves to the name of +some Inca, failed in like manner. And yet the mass of the Peruvians, in +spite of their conversion to Roman Catholicism, remained obstinately +attached to the memory of their Incas. One of their real or pretended +descendants, in the eighteenth century, did not shrink from serving as a +domestic at Madrid and Rome, as the only means of learning the secret of +that European power which had so cruelly crushed his ancestors.[72] But +on his return to Peru (1744 A.D.) his efforts only ended in his +destruction. But this did not prevent a certain Tupac Amarou, who was +descended from the Incas through a female line, from fomenting a +rebellion in 1780, which it cost the Spaniards an effort to +suppress.[73] Later on, after the revolution that broke the bond of +subjection to Spain, this stubborn hostility of the Peruvians changed +its character; but in 1867, Bustamente still tried to make capital out +of the historical attachment of the natives to the Incas by declaring +himself their descendant. The opposition, however, had long lost all +vestige of a religious character. The legend of Manco Capac, which is +still current amongst the people, has been euhemerized. It is now no +more than the story of a just and enlightened prince, the benefactor of +the country. The natives, it seems, are fond of playing a kind of drama, +in which the trial and death of Atahualpa are represented. Superstitious +to the last degree, they accept the practices of Catholicism with a +submission that has in it more of a melancholy and hopeless resignation +than an ardent or trusting faith. The glorious age of the Incas is gone, +and will never return, but it is still regretted.[74] + + +II. + +And now it is high time that we examined that religion which was so +closely associated with the whole national life of Peru. + +From all that I have said already, you will easily understand that the +Sun has never been worshipped more directly or with more devotion than +in Peru. It was he whom the Peruvians regarded as sovereign lord of the +world, king of the heaven and the earth. His Peruvian name was _Inti_, +"Light." The villages were usually built so as to look eastward, in +order that the inhabitants might salute the supreme god as soon as he +appeared in the morning. The most usual representation of him was a +golden disk representing a human face surrounded by rays and flames. In +Peru, as everywhere else, a feeling existed that there was a certain +relation between the substance of gold and that of the great luminary. +In the nuggets torn from the mountain sides they thought they saw the +Sun's tears.[75] The great periodic fêtes of the year, the imperial and +national festivals in which every one took part, were those held in +honour of the Sun. + +Immediately after him came his sister and consort the Moon, Mama Quilla. +Her image was a disk of silver bearing human features, and silver played +the same part in her worship that gold did in that of the Sun. It +appears, however, that they performed fewer sacrifices to her than to +her august consort, which is quite in harmony with the inferior position +assigned to woman in the Peruvian civilization.[76] Like Selene amongst +the Greeks, Mama Quilla, and her incarnation in human form, Mama Ogllo, +were weavers. And that is why the latter was said to have taught the +Peruvian women the art of spinning and weaving. This is a mythological +conception suggested by likening the moonbeams to twisted threads, out +of which on fair clear nights the brilliant verdure in which the earth +is clad is spun. + +But before going on to the gods who form the usual retinue of these two +official and imperial deities, I must speak of two great Peruvian gods +whose worship was likewise widely spread, but who nevertheless are not +attached to the solar family, or at least are only so attached by an +after-thought and by dint of harmonizing efforts which the Incas had +their motives of policy for favouring: I mean the two great deities, +_Viracocha_ and _Pachacamac_. + +The myth of Viracocha is the first instance we shall cite of traces of a +certain civilization prior to the Incas, or at any rate of a belief +widely spread in some parts of Peru that civilization had not really +been, as the legend of the Incas would have it, the sole work of that +sacerdotal family. The name of Viracocha must be very ancient, for it +became a generic name to signify divine beings. It was given to Manco +Capac himself as a title of honour, and the Spaniards on their arrival +passed as _Viracochas_ in the eyes of the people. This name, according +to Spanish authorities, followed by Prescott,[77] signifies _Foam of the +sea_ or of the _lake_. This would make the deity a male Aphrodite. He +was represented with a long beard, and human victims were sacrificed to +him. At the same time, they said that he had neither flesh nor bone, +that he ran swiftly, and that he lowered mountains and lifted up +valleys. The following legend was told of him.[78] + +There were men on the earth before the Sun appeared, and the temples of +Viracocha, for instance, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, are older than +the Sun. One day Viracocha rose out of the lake. He made the sun, the +moon, the stars, and prescribed their course for them. Then he made +stone statues, put life into them, and commanded them to go out of the +caverns in which he had made them and follow him to Cuzco. There he +summoned the inhabitants, and set a man over them called Allca Vica, who +was the common ancestor of the Incas. Then he departed and disappeared +in the water. + +Evidently this myth belongs to a different body of tradition from that +of the Incas. When it says that the earth was peopled before the Sun +appeared, it is only a mythical way of asserting that there were men and +even cities in Peru before the establishment of Sun-worship by the +Incas. Now the latter claimed direct descent from the Sun, the supreme +god, and they would not have readily allowed that this supreme deity had +been made by another. One is rather tempted to find in this myth the +echo of the claims put forward with equal resignation and persistency by +a priesthood of Viracocha, that bowed its head before the supremacy +acquired by the solar priesthood, but insisted all the same upon the +fact that it was itself its elder brother. + +But to what element can we affiliate the god Viracocha himself? + +His aquatic name, _Foam of the sea_ or _lake_, in itself leads us to +suppose that he was closely related to the water. The supposition is +confirmed by the saying that he had neither flesh nor bone, and yet ran +swiftly. We can understand, too, why he lowers mountains and raises +valleys. He rises from the water and disappears in it. He is bearded, +like all aquatic gods, with their fringes of reeds. Finally, his consort +and sister Cocha is the lake itself, and also the goddess of rain. An +old Peruvian hymn that was chanted under the Incas, and has fortunately +been preserved, raises the character we have assigned to Viracocha +above all doubt.[79] The goddess Cocha is represented as carrying an urn +full of water and snow on her head. Her brother Viracocha breaks the +urn, that its contents may spread over the earth. Here is the hymn, +which is composed in nineteen short verses or lines: + + 1. Fair Princess, + 3. Thy urn + 2. Thy brother + 4. Shatters. + 5. At the blow + 6. It thunders, lightens + 7. Flashes; + 8. But thou, Princess, + 10. Rainest down + 9. Thy waters. + 11. At the same time + 12. Hailest, + 13. Snowest. + 14. World-former, + 15. World-animator, + 16. Viracocha, + 17. To this office + 18. Thee has destined, + 19. Consecrated. + +It admits of no doubt, therefore, that Viracocha held a place in the +Peruvian Pantheon closely analogous to that of Tlaloc, the rain-god, in +its Mexican counterpart. The blow with which he breaks his sister's urn +is the thunder-stroke. Inasmuch as rain is a fertilizing agent, +Viracocha represents its generative force. His resemblance to Tlaloc +extends to his demand for human victims, in which he is less ferociously +insatiable, but quite as pronounced, as his Mexican analogue. Since his +legend makes him rise out of the Lake of Titicaca, we must think of him +as the chief god of the religion in honour before that of the Incas rose +to supremacy. When it is said that after accomplishing his task he +disappeared, we are reminded that the river Desaguadero, which carries +off the waters of Lake Titicaca, sinks into the earth and is lost to +sight. + +But there was yet another great deity whose pretensions the Incas had +allowed by making room for him in the official religion, although he +really belonged to a totally different group of mythical formations: I +refer to Pachacamac, whose name signifies "animator of the earth," from +_caman_, "to animate," and _pacha_, "earth."[80] The primitive centre of +his worship was in the valley of Lurin, south of Lima, as well as in +that valley of Rimac which has given its name to the city of Lima +itself, for the latter is but a transformation of _Rimac_. It was there +that Pachacamac's colossal temple rose. It was left standing by the +Incas, but is now in ruins.[81] The branch of the Yuncas who resided +there were already possessed of a certain civilization when the Inca +Pachacutec annexed their country, at the close of the fourteenth +century, partly by persuasion and partly by terror. Pachacamac was the +divine civilizer who had taught this people the arts and crafts.[82] It +would even seem that he had supplanted a still more ancient worship of +Viracocha in these same valleys, for it is said that the latter was +worsted in war by him and put to flight, upon which the new god renewed +the world by changing the people he found on the earth into jaguars and +monkeys, and creating a new and higher race. This opposition to +Viracocha, god of the waters, puts us on the traces of Pachacamac's +original significance. He must have been a god of fire, and especially +of the internal fire of the earth, which displays itself in the volcanos +and warms the spirit of man. He was a kind of Peruvian Dionysus. There +was something gloomy and violent about his worship. He demanded human +victims. The valley of Rimac really means the valley of the _Speaker_, +of him who answers when questioned. There was a kind of oracle inspired +by the god of internal fire there. A certain feeling of mystery, as +though in Pachacamac they had to do with a god less visible, less +palpable, more spiritual than the rest, seems to have impressed itself +upon his Peruvian worshippers. Garcilasso, who perhaps exaggerates a +little, here as elsewhere, goes near to making him a god who could only +be adored in the heart, without temple and without sacrifices.[83] + +Thus, if the myth of Viracocha, god of the waters, makes the stars and +the earth rise out of the moist element which he has fertilized and +organized, the myth of Pachacamac makes him a kind of demiurge working +within to form the world and enlighten mankind. I need not stay to point +out what close analogies these two conceptions find in several of the +cosmogonies of the Old World. + +This confusion and rivalry of the Peruvian gods has left its traces in +the crude and obscure legend of the Collas, or mountaineers of Pacari +Tambo, to the south-west of Cuzco. "From the caves of Pacari Tambo (i.e. +'the house of the dawn') issued one day four brothers and four sisters. +The eldest ascended a mountain, and flung stones towards the four +cardinal points, which was his way of taking possession of all the land. +This aroused the displeasure of the other three. The youngest of all was +the cunningest, and he resolved to get rid of his three brothers and +reign alone. He persuaded his eldest brother to enter a cave, and as +soon as he had done so closed the mouth with an enormous stone, and +imprisoned him there for ever." This seems to refer to the +quasi-subterranean cultus of Pachacamac, the internal fire, the first +revelation of whom must have been a volcano hurling stones in every +direction.--"The youngest brother then persuaded the second to ascend a +high mountain with him, to seek their lost brother, and when they stood +on the summit he hurled him down the precipice and changed him into a +stone by a spell." I cannot say to what special deity this part of the +legend alludes, unless it simply refers to an ancient worship of stones +or rocks, many vestiges of which remained under the Incas, though it +ceased to have any official importance in presence of the radiant +worship of the Sun promulgated and favoured by the ruling family.--"Then +the third brother fled in terror." This fleeing god must be Viracocha, +the god of showers, who flees before the Sun.--"Then the youngest +brother built Cuzco, caused himself to be adored as child of the Sun +under the name of Pirrhua Manco, and likewise built other cities on the +same model."[84] + +This last trait puts it out of doubt that the legend is really an +attempt to explain how the religion of Manco Capac established at Cuzco +had succeeded in eclipsing all others, owing to the superior skill of +its priesthood. It is a formal confirmation of all that I have told you +of the consummate art with which the Incas gradually extended the circle +of their political and religious dominion. _Pirrhua_ is the contraction +of Viracocha, taken in the generic sense of "divine being." Pirrhua +Manco was an alternative name of Manco Capac. + +Of course this legend was not officially received under the Incas. The +latter, being unable or unwilling to abolish the worship of Viracocha +and of Pachacamac, took up a far more conciliatory attitude than that of +the legends I have given. The supreme god, the Sun, was admitted to have +had three sons, Kon or Viracocha, Pachacamac and Manco Capac; but the +latter was declared to have been quite specially designed by the common +father to instruct and govern men. By this arrangement every one was +satisfied,--and especially the Incas. + + +III. + +We may now return to the other deities who were officially incorporated +in the family or retinue of the Sun. + +The rainbow, _Cuycha_, was the object of great veneration as the servant +of the Sun and Moon. He had his chapel contiguous with the temple of the +Sun, and his image was made of plates of gold of various shades, which +covered a whole wall of the edifice. When a rainbow appeared in the +clouds, the Peruvian closed his mouth for fear of having all his teeth +spoilt.[85] + +The planet Venus, _Chasca_ or the "long-haired star," so called from its +extraordinary radiance, was looked upon as a male being and as the page +of the Sun, sometimes preceding and sometimes following his master. The +Pleiades were next most venerated. Comets foreboded the wrath of the +gods. The other stars were the Moon's maids of honour.[86] + +The worship of the elements, too, held a prominent place in this +complicated system of nature-worship. For example, Fire, considered as +derived from the Sun, was the object of profound veneration, and the +worship rendered it must have served admirably as a link between the +religion of the Incas and that of Pachacamac. Strange as it may seem at +first sight, the symbols of fire were stones. But our surprise will +cease when we remember that stones were thought, in a high antiquity, to +be animated by the fire that was supposed to be shut up within them, +since it could be made to issue forth by a sharp blow. The Peruvian +religion likewise adds its testimony to that of all the religions of the +Old World, as to the importance which long attached to the preservation +amongst the tribes of men of that living fire which it was so difficult +to recover if once it had been allowed to escape. A perpetual fire +burned in the temple of the Sun and in the abode of the Virgins of the +Sun, of whom we shall have to speak presently. The wide-spread idea that +fire becomes polluted at last and loses its divine virtue by too long +contact with men, meets us once more. The fire must be renewed from +time to time, and this act was performed yearly by the chief-priest of +Peru, who kindled wood by means of a concave golden mirror. This miracle +is very easy for us to explain, but we cannot doubt that the priests and +people of Peru saw something supernatural in the phenomenon.[87] + +The thunder, likewise, was personified and adored in certain provinces +under the name of _Catequil_, but it is a peculiarity of the Peruvian +religion that it assigns a subordinate rank in the hierarchy to the god +of thunder, who elsewhere generally takes the supreme place. In Peru, he +was but one of the Sun's servants, though the most redoubtable of them +all. The Peruvians are remarkable for their childish dread of thunder. A +great projecting rock, often one that had been struck by the thunder, +passed for the deity's favoured residence. Catequil appears in three +forms: _Chuquilla_ (thunder), _Catuilla_ (lightning), and _Intiallapa_ +(thunderbolt). His remaining name, _Illapa_, also means thunder. He had +special temples, in which he was represented as armed with a sling and a +club.[88] They sacrificed children, but more especially llamas, to him. +Twins were regarded as children of the lightning, and if they died young +their skeletons were preserved as precious relics. And, finally, we find +in Peru the same idea that prevails in a great part of southern Africa, +viz. that a house or field that has been struck by lightning cannot be +used again. Catequil has taken possession of it, and it would be +dangerous to dispute it with him.[89] + +We have seen how the element of water was adored under the names of +Viracocha and his sister Mama Cocha. The earth was worshipped in grottos +or caves, often considered as the places whence men and gods had taken +their origin, and as giving oracles.[90] There were also trees and +plants that were clothed with a divine character, especially the +esculent plants, such as the maize, personified as _Zarap Conopa_, and +the potato, as _Papap Conopa_. A female statue was often made of maize +or coca leaves, and adored as the mother of plants.[91] + +Thus we descend quite gently from the official heights of the religion +of the Incas towards those substrata of religious thought which always +maintain themselves beneath the higher religion that more or less +expressly patronizes them, but to which they are not really bound by any +necessary tie. They are the survivals of old superstitions, to which the +common people are often far more attached than they are to the exalted +doctrines which they are taught officially. And it is thus, for example, +that we note in Peru the very popular worship of numerous animals, +mounting, without doubt, to a much higher antiquity than was reached by +the religion of the Incas. Indeed, I should be inclined to ascribe to +the religious diplomacy of the children of the Sun the Peruvian belief +which established a connection of origin between each kind of animal and +a particular star. The serpent, especially, seems to have been, in Peru +as in Africa, the object of great veneration. We find it reproduced in +wood and stone on an enormous number of the greater and smaller relics +of Peruvian art. The god of subterranean treasures, _Urcaguay_, was a +great serpent, with little chains of gold at his tail, and a head +adorned with stag-like horns. The dwellers by the shore worshipped the +whale and the shark. There were fish-gods, too, in the temple of +Pachacamac, no doubt because of the enormous power of reproduction +possessed by fishes. The condor was a messenger of the Sun, and his +image was graven on the sceptre of the Incas.[92] It is remarkable that +the llama does not appear amongst these divine animals, probably because +it was so completely domesticated and wholly subject to man. + +And finally, when we come to the _Guacas_, or _Huacas_, we reach the +point where the Peruvian religion sinks into absolute fetichism. + +The meaning of the word _Guaca_, or _Huaca_, was not very precise in the +mouths of the Peruvians themselves. On the one hand, it was applied to +everything that bore a religious character, whether an object of +worship, the person of the priests, a temple, a tomb, or what not. The +Sun himself was _Huaca_. The chief priest of Cuzco bore amongst other +names that of _Huacapvillac_, "he who converses with huaca beings."[93] +On the other hand, in ordinary language, this same term was used to +signify those wood, stone and metal objects which were so abundant in +Peru, of which we still possess numerous specimens, and of which we must +now say a few words. Some of these huacas, especially the stone ones, +were of considerable size, and no doubt dated from the pre-historic +religion before the Incas. But as a rule they were small and portable, +were private and hereditary property, and were regarded as veritable +fetiches, that is to say, as the dwelling-places of spirits. Animism, in +fact, never ceased to haunt the imaginations of the Peruvians, +especially amongst the lower orders, whether the spirits were dreaded as +malevolent sprites, or courted as protectors and revealers. These huacas +represented (as true fetiches should) forms which were sometimes +animal, sometimes human, sometimes simply grotesque, but always ugly and +exaggerated. Every valley, every tribe, every temple, every chief, had a +guardian spirit. Those which were analogous to _pænates publici_ were +recognized by the Incas, who endowed them with flocks and various +presents. Often a stone in the middle of the village passed as the abode +of the patron spirit of the place. It was the _huacacoal_, the stone of +the huaca, whereas the huacas of the family or house were distinguished +as _conopas_. Meteorites or thunderbolts were in great demand as huacas, +and especially amongst lovers, since they were supposed to inspire a +reciprocity of affection. The Christian missionaries had more difficulty +in rooting out the worship of the Huacas than in abolishing that of the +Sun and Moon, and we may still detect numerous traces of this ancient +superstition amongst the natives of Peru.[94] + + +IV. + +Let us now turn to the priesthood which presided over the worship of +these numerous deities. + +There was no sacerdotal caste in Peru, or, to speak more correctly, the +Inca family constituted the only sacerdotal caste in the strict sense of +the word. This family retained for itself all the highest positions in +the priesthood, as well as in the army and administration. These priests +of the higher rank bore special garments and insignia, while the lower +clergy wore the ordinary costume. At the head of all the priests of the +empire, first after the reigning Inca, stood the _Villac Oumau_, "the +chief sacrificer," also, as we have seen, called the _Huacapvillac_. He +was nominated by the reigning Inca, and in his turn nominated all his +subordinates. His name indicates that he was the living oracle, the +interpreter of the will of the Sun. You can understand, therefore, how +important it was for the policy of the Incas that he should himself be +subject to the authority and discretion of the sovereign. After him came +the rest of the chief priests, also members of the Inca family, whom he +put in charge of the provincial temples of the Sun. At Cuzco itself all +the priests had to be Incas. They were divided into squadrons, which +attended in succession, according to the quarters of the moon, to the +elaborate ritual of the service. And here we must admire the consummate +art with which the Incas had planned everything in their empire to +secure their supremacy against all attaint, in religion as in all else, +while still leaving the successively annexed populations a certain +measure of religious freedom. In the provinces, the Inca family, +numerous as it was, could not have provided priests for all the +sanctuaries; and, moreover, there would be local rites, traditions, +perhaps even priesthoods, which could not well be fitted into the +framework of the official religion. The Incas therefore had decided that +the priests of the local deities should be affiliated to the imperial +priesthood, but in such a way that the chief priests of the local +deities should at the same time be subordinate priests of the deities of +the empire. What a wonderful stroke of political genius! What happier +method could have been found of teaching the subject populations, while +still maintaining their traditional forms of worship, to regard the +imperial cultus patronized by the reigning Inca as superior to all +others? And what an invaluable guarantee of obedience was obtained by +this association of the non-Inca priests with the official priesthood, +the honours and advantages of which they were thus made to share, +without any room for an aspiration after independence! I regard this +organization of the priesthood in ancient Peru as one of the most +striking proofs of the political genius of the Incas, and as one of the +facts which best explain how a theocracy, which was after all based on +the absolute and exclusive pretensions of one special mythology, was +able to consolidate itself and endure for centuries, while exercising a +large toleration towards other traditions and forms of worship.[95] + +By the side of the priests there were also priestesses; and they were +clothed with a very special function. I refer to those _Virgins of the +Sun_ (_acllia_ = chosen ones), those Peruvian nuns, who so much +impressed the early historians of Peru. There were convents of these +Virgins at Cuzco and in the chief cities of the empire. At Cuzco there +were five hundred of them, drawn for the most part from the families of +the Incas and the _Curacas_ or nobles, although (for a reason which will +be apparent presently) great beauty gave even a daughter of the people a +sufficient title to enter the sacred abode. They had a lady president--I +had almost said a "mother abbess"--who selected them while yet quite +young; and under her superior direction, matrons, or _Mamaconas_, +superintended the young flock. They lived encloistered, in absolute +retreat, without any relationship with the outside world. Only the +reigning Inca, his chief wife, the _Coya_, and the chief priest, were +allowed to penetrate this sanctuary of the virgins. Now these visits of +the Inca's were not exactly disinterested. The fact is, that it was here +he generally looked for recruits for his harem. You will ask how that +could be reconciled with the vow of chastity which the maidens had +taken; but their promise had been never to take any consort except the +Sun, or _him to whom the Sun should give them_. Now the Inca, the child +of the Sun, his representative and incarnation upon earth, began by +assigning the most beautiful to himself, after which he might give some +of those who had not found special favour in his eyes to his Curacas. +And thus the vow was kept intact. In other respects, the most absolute +chastity was sternly enforced. If any nun violated her vow, or was +unhappy enough to allow the sacred fire that burned day and night in the +austere abode to be extinguished, the penalty was death. And the strange +thing is, that the mode of death was identical with that which awaited +the Roman vestal guilty of the same offences. The culprit was buried +alive. This illustrates the value of the theories started by those +authors who can never discover any resemblance of rites or beliefs +between two peoples without forthwith setting about to inquire which of +the two borrowed from the other! It will hardly be maintained that the +Peruvians borrowed this cruel custom from the ancient Romans, and +assuredly the Romans did not get it from Peru. Whence, then, can the +resemblance spring? From the same train of ideas leading to the same +conclusion. By the sacrilege of the culprit, the gods of heaven and of +light, the protecting and benevolent deities, were offended and +incensed, and the whole country would feel the tokens of their wrath. To +disarm their anger, its unhappy cause must expiate her guilt, and at the +same time must be removed from their sight and given over to the powers +of darkness, for she was no longer worthy to see the light. And that is +why the dark tomb must swallow her. She had betrayed her spouse the +Sun--let her henceforth be the spouse and the slave of darkness; and let +her be sent alive to those dark powers, that they might do with her as +they would. We must add that the guilty nun's accomplice was strangled, +and that her whole family from first to last was put to death. + +The ordinary occupations of the Virgins of the Sun consisted in making +garments for the members of the imperial family and tapestries destined +to adorn the temples and palaces, in kneading and baking the sacred +loaves, preparing the sacred drinks, and, finally, in watching and +feeding the sacred fire. You perceive that it was not exactly the +ascetic principle which had given rise to these convents--as in the +case of the Buddhist and Christian institutions, for example--but rather +the desire to do honour to the Sun, the supreme god, by consecrating +seraglios to him, in which his numerous consorts, protected by a severe +rule, could be kept from all except himself and those to whom he might +give them; accomplishing, meanwhile, those menial tasks which, +especially under the rule of polygamy, woman is required to perform in +the abode of her lord and master.[96] + +All this shows us once more, Gentlemen, how the same fundamental logic +of the human mind asserts itself across a thousand diversities, and +re-appears under every conceivable form in every climate and every race. +Only let us look close enough and with the requisite information, and we +shall find in every case that all is explained, that all holds together, +that all is justified, by some underlying principle, and that "that +idiot of a word," _chance_, is never anything but a veil for our +ignorance. And thus, when we notice anything paradoxical, grotesque, and +unexplained by the resources we command at present, we must be very +careful not to pronounce it inexplicable. We should rather suspend our +judgment, wait till wider reflection and renewed investigation have +shown us the middle terms, and meanwhile keep silence rather than +attribute to chance or to influences which escape all human reason the +phenomena that seem abnormal. + +For instance, you have heard sometimes of the strange custom in +accordance with which the father of a new-born child goes to bed and is +nursed as an invalid. You are perhaps aware that this custom, that +appears so strange to us and is now restricted to a few savage tribes, +was noted in ancient times in Europe itself, and has been preserved +almost to our own time in certain cantons of the Pyrenees. It must +therefore have been extremely wide-spread. Yet for a long time it seemed +inexplicable. But now, thanks to investigations and comparisons, the +explanation has been found. There is no doubt that the custom in +question rested on the idea that there was a close solidarity between +the health of the father and that of the new-born babe, so that if the +father should fall sick, his far weaker child would die. The father, +therefore, must be guarded from all over-exertion, must abstain from all +excess--in short, was best in bed! + +So, too, in the present case. How are we to explain the resemblance +between the treatment of the Vestals at Rome and the Virgins of the Sun +at Cuzco? It was once impossible, but now that we are better acquainted +with the genesis, the spirit, the inner logic of the primitive +religions, and the modes of life, the wants and the apprehensions proper +to the pre-historic ages, we have no difficulty in attaching two +parallel customs to a single religious principle which had found +acceptance alike in Italy and Peru. And this is one of the chief tasks, +and one of the greatest charms, of the branch of study which I have the +honour of professing. It shows us that even in human error, human reason +has never abdicated its throne. + +We have still to speak of the temples, the ritual and the chief +festivals of ancient Peru. To these subjects we shall devote the first +part of our sixth and last Lecture, reserving the closing portion for +the conclusions and the general lessons suggested by our two-fold study +of Mexico and Peru. + + + + +LECTURE VI. + +PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE +LIFE.--CONCLUSIONS. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +To complete my account of the native religion of Peru, I have still to +speak of the cultus, the festivals, the religious ethics, and the ideas +of a future life. + + +I. + +The Peruvian cultus had given birth to the _temple;_ and, indeed, it is +highly interesting to witness what one may call the "genesis of the +temple" on this soil, so different from those of the Old World. There +were temples, indeed, before the Incas, but they differed both in style +and in signification from those reared under their patronage. In Peru, +as in Mexico, the temples were originally neither more nor less than +extremely lofty altars; that is to say, artificial elevations, on the +summit of which the sacrifices were presented, while a little chapel +served to contain the image of the god or gods adored. Round this great +altar were grouped other chapels, galleries and columns, as though to +accompany the great central altar formed by the eminence itself. Under +the Incas, the crowning chapel increased so enormously that it encircled +the altar and became the essential part of the sacred structure. The +Inca temples were veritable palaces, destined as abodes for the gods. +None of them remain; but their ruins attest the fact that the architects +aimed rather at colossal than at beautiful effects. They contained +gigantic stone statues, gates cut out of monoliths, and the well-known +pyramidal structures of which we have spoken already. The most imposing +of the temples was the one at Cuzco, which consisted in a vast central +edifice, flanked with a number of adjacent buildings. Gold was so +prodigally lavished on its interior that it bore the name of +_Coricancha,_ that is to say, "the place of gold." The roof was formed +by timber-work of precious woods plated with gold, but was covered, as +in the case of all the houses of the land, with a simple thatch of maize +straw. The doors opened to the East, and at the far end, above the +altar, was the golden disk of the Sun, placed so as to reflect the first +rays of the morning on its brilliant surface, and, as it were, reproduce +the great luminary. And note that the mummies of the departed Incas, +children of the Sun, were ranged in a semicircle round the sacred disk +on golden thrones, so that the morning rays came day by day to shine on +their august remains. The adjacent buildings were abodes of the deities +who formed the retinue of the Sun. The principal one was sacred to the +Moon, his consort, who had her disk of silver, and ranged around her the +ancient queens, the departed _Coyas_. Others served as the abodes of +Chaska, our planet Venus, the Pleiades, the Thunder, the Rainbow, and +finally the officiating priests of the temple. In the provinces, the +Incas reared a number of temples of the Sun on the model of that at +Cuzco, but on a smaller scale.[97] + +The Incas, however, had been anticipated in this striking development of +the temple by the religions anterior or adjacent to their own. Witness +the great temple of Pachacamac, which they left standing in the valley +of Lurin, and the remarkable ruins of another great temple situated at +some miles distance from Lake Titicaca, which has quite recently been +made the subject of a careful reconstructive study by your compatriot +Mr. Inwards.[98] + +The offerings presented to the gods were very varied in kind. Flowers, +fragrant incense, especially from preparations of coca, vegetables, +fruits, maize, prepared drinks offered in cups of gold. At some of the +feasts the officiating priest moistened the tips of his fingers in the +cup and flung the drops towards the Sun. We also find in Peru a very +special form of that remnant of self-immolation which enters, in more or +less reduced and restricted shape, into the devotions of so many peoples +and assumes such varied forms. The Red-skin offers his sweat; the Black +offers his saliva or his teeth; the more poetical Greek, a lock of his +hair, or even all of it. The Peruvian pulled out a hair from his eyebrow +and blew it towards the idol![99] + +But there were also sacrifices of blood. A llama was sacrificed every +day at Cuzco. Before setting out on war, the Peruvians sacrificed a +black llama that they had previously kept fasting, that the heart of +their enemies might fail as did his. This was the Peruvian application +of the principle that lies at the base of all those superstitious +ceremonies intended to provoke or stimulate a desired effect by +reproducing its analogue in advance. Small birds, rabbits, and, for the +health of the Inca, black dogs, were also sacrificed frequently. All +these offerings were as a rule burned, that they might so be transmitted +to the gods.[100] It should be noted that they only sacrificed edible +animals,[101] which is a clear proof that the intention was to feed the +gods. The sacrificing priest turned the animal's eyes towards the Sun, +and opened its body to take out its heart, lungs and viscera, and offer +them to the idols. It is a characteristic fact that when the victim was +not burned, its flesh was divided amongst the sacrificers and _eaten +raw_. The Peruvians had long learned to cook their meat, but this rite +carries us back to a high antiquity, when cooking food was still an +innovation which the power of tradition excluded from the ritual. It is +to analogous causes that we must attribute the continued use of stone +instruments in the religious ceremonies of peoples who are acquainted +with iron and use it in ordinary life. In conclusion, they smeared the +idols and the doors of the temples with the blood of the victims in +order to appease the gods.[102] + +All this is sufficiently crude and material, and rests upon the same +premisses as those which drove the Mexicans to the frightful excesses +which I have previously described. But humanity was far less outraged +in the Peruvian than in the Mexican religion. Garcilasso deceives +himself, or is attempting to deceive his readers, when he gives his +ancestors, the Incas, the honour of having put an end to human +sacrifices.[103] It is certain that in the religion of Pachacamac more +especially this kind of sacrifice was frequent, and for that matter we +know that it was universal in the primitive epochs. All that we can +allow to the descendant of the Incas is, that they did not encourage, +and were rather disposed to restrain, human sacrifice. But for all that, +when the reigning Inca was ill, they sacrificed one of his sons to the +Sun, and prayed him to accept the substitution of the son for the +father. At certain feasts a young infant was immolated. Others were +sacrificed to the subterranean spirits when a new Inca was enthroned. To +the same category we must attach the custom which enjoined upon wives, +especially those of the Incas, the duty of burying themselves alive on +the death of their husbands. It is asserted that when Huayna Capac +died, a thousand members of his household incurred a voluntary death +that they might go with him to serve him. The widows, however, were not +compelled to take this step, and we know that the Incas had organized +the support of widows without resources. But public opinion was not +favourable to those who refused to follow their husbands to the tomb. It +was regarded as a species of infidelity.[104] We see, however, from +other well-established facts, that the Peruvian religion had been +gradually softened. In Peru, as in China, instead of the living beings +that they used formerly to bury with the dead, they now placed +statuettes of men and women with him in his tomb to represent his wives +and his servants.[105] + +We must also mention those "columns of the Sun" which appear never to +have been absent in countries dominated by a solar worship. We have +already seen them in Central America and in Mexico, and we also find +them in Egypt, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Palestine, at Carthage and +elsewhere. In these columns the idea of fertilization is associated with +that of the pleasure the Sun must feel in tracing out their shadows as +he caresses their faces and summits with his rays. The earliest +quadrants were traced at the foot of these columns. In Peru, they were +levelled at the top, and were regarded as "seats of the Sun," who loved +to rest upon them. At the equinoxes and solstices they placed golden +thrones upon them for him to sit upon. Those nearest to the equator were +held in greatest veneration, because the shadows were shorter there than +elsewhere, and the Sun appeared to rest vertically upon them.[106] + +Prayer, in the proper sense of the word, asserted its place but feebly +in the Peruvian religion. But hymns to the Sun were chanted at the great +festivals and by the people as they went to cultivate the lands of the +Sun. Every strophe ended with the cry, _Hailly_, or "triumph." It was +the Peruvian _Io Pæan_. These chants, as far as they are still known to +us, have something soft and sad about them. The rule of the Incas, +paternal indeed, but monotonous in the extreme, must have tended to +produce melancholy. In 1555, a Spanish composer wrote a mass upon the +themes of these indigenous airs. It was sung in chorus, and it is +chiefly to it that we owe the preservation of these chants.[107] + +But the grand form of religious demonstration among the Peruvians was +the dance. They were very assiduous in this form of devotion, and indeed +we know what a large place the earliest of the arts occupied in the +primitive religions generally. The dance was the first and chief means +adopted by pre-historic humanity of entering into active union with the +deity adored. The first idea was to imitate the measured movements of +the god, or at any rate what were supposed to be such. Afterwards, this +fundamental motive was more or less forgotten; but the rite remained in +force, like so many other religious forms which tradition and habit +sustained even when the spirit was gone. In Peru, this tradition was +still full of life. The name of the principal Peruvian festivals, +_Raymi_, signifies "dance." The performances were so animated, that the +dancers seemed to the Europeans to be out of their senses. It is +noteworthy that the Incas themselves took no part in these violent +dances, but had an "Incas' dance" of their own, which was grave and +measured.[108] + +There were four great official festivals in the year, coinciding with +the equinoxes and the solstices. The first was the festival of the +Winter solstice, which fell in June. It was the _Raymi_, or festival +_par excellence_, the _Citoc Raymi_, the feast of the diminished and +(henceforth) growing Sun. It lasted nine days, the first three of which +were given up to fasting. On the morning of the great day, a grand +procession, led by the reigning Inca and his family, followed by the +nobles and the people, proceeded, with insignia, banners and symbolic +masks, towards the place of the dawn and the rising Sun. When the +luminary appeared, the crowd fell to the earth and threw him kisses. The +Inca presented the sacred beverage to the Sun, drank some of it himself, +and passed it on to his suite. This was a sort of solar communion. Then +they went to the temple of the Sun to sacrifice a black llama there. +After this, they kindled the new fire by means of the concave mirror, +and slaughtered a number of llamas, representing the Sun's present to +the people. The pieces were distributed to the families, where they were +eaten with the sacred cakes prepared by the Virgins of the Sun. This was +the second act of communion with the luminary to whom the day was +sacred. The remaining days of the festival were passed in rejoicings, +when the people seem to have made themselves ample amends for the fast +with which they had begun.[109] + +The second great festival, that of Spring, which fell in September, was +the _Citua Raymi_, the feast of Purification. But do not attach any +essentially moral significance to the idea of purification. The object +in view was to purify the territory from all influences hostile to the +health, security and prosperity of the inhabitants. Ball-shaped cakes +were eaten on this occasion, in which was mixed the blood of victims or +of young children, who were not slaughtered however, but bled above the +nose, which is evidence of a previous custom of far greater ferocity, +and of the gradual softening of the Peruvian ritual. With this bread the +people rubbed their bodies all over, and the doors of their houses +likewise. Then, a little before sunset, a very strange ceremony was +performed. An Inca, clad in precious armour and lance in hand, descended +from the fortress of Cuzco, followed by four relatives whom the Sun had +specially charged with the task of chasing away by open force all the +maladies from the city and its environs. They traversed the chief +streets of Cuzco at full speed, amid the acclamations of the +inhabitants, and then surrendered their lances to others, who were +relieved in their turn, till the limits of the ancient state of Cuzco +were reached. There the lances were fixed in the ground, as so many +talismans against evil influences. At night there was a great +torch-light procession, at the close of which the torches were hurled +into the river, and thus the evil spirits of the night were expelled, as +those of the day had been by the lancers of the Sun.[110] Observe that +in Africa, amongst the Blacks, a kind of "chase of the evil spirits" is +practised (though accompanied with far fewer ceremonies than in Peru), +in which the inhabitants of a village, armed with sticks and uttering +formulæ of exorcism, expel the evil spirits from their houses and from +their streets, and pursue them into the desert or the interior of a +forest. But notice here, again, with what art the Incas had contrived to +turn an old superstition to account in the interests of their own +prestige. If maladies did not decimate the people of Cuzco, it was to +their Incas that they owed their safety. + +The third great festival, the Aymorai, which fell in May, celebrated the +Harvest. A statue was constructed out of grains of corn glued together, +and was adored under the name of _Pirrhua_, which in this case may well +be a contraction of Viracocha, the god of fertilizing moisture. On this +occasion a number of sacrifices were made at home by the +householders.[111] + +The fourth great feast fell in December. It was the _Capac Raymi_, the +festival of Power, in which the god of thunder was the object of a +special worship by the side of the Sun. On this occasion the young +Incas, after fasts, tournaments and other tests, received the +investiture of manhood by having their ears pierced, and receiving a +scarf, an axe and a crown of flowers. The young Curacas of the same age +were also admitted to the privileges and duties of their rank, and +shared with the Inca the sacred bread in token of indissoluble communion +with him.[112] + +There were also a number of other and less important feasts. Each month +had one of its own. Then there were occasional feasts, to celebrate the +triumphal return of a victorious Inca for example, or when the +tournaments of the young nobles, to which a religious value was +attached, took place, or when silent processions lasting a day and +night, and followed by dances, were instituted to avert threatening +calamities, and so forth.[113] In Peru, as in so many other regions, +eclipses were the subject of great terror. The eclipses of the Sun were +attributed to his own anger, those of the Moon to an illness caused by +the attack of an evil spirit, to frighten which away and put it to +flight a hideous yelling was raised.[114] + +There were sorcerers in Peru as everywhere else; but in Peru too, as +everywhere else where a priesthood has acquired a regular organization +and made its authority respected, sorcery was hardly resorted to save by +the lower classes.[115] In fact, the sorcerer is the priest of backward +tribes, and the priest is the developed sorcerer. By his superior +knowledge, by the more stable guarantees which he can give as the member +of an imposing organization, by the nature of the religion of which he +is the organ, and which raises him above the incoherent puerilities of +animism, the priest eclipses the sorcerer and relegates him to the lower +strata of society, which is just where his own titles to superiority are +least appreciated. The sorcerer sinks in proportion as the priest +rises.[116] For the rest, the official priesthood had its own diviners, +who could foretel the future, the _Huacarimachi_, or "they who make the +gods speak." The oracles of the valley of Rimac or Lima were much +frequented; and, moreover, the Peruvians, like so many peoples of the +Old World, thought that they could read the future in the entrails of +the victims offered in sacrifice.[117] This wide-spread belief rests on +the idea that immolation unites the victim so closely to the deity that +it enters into communion with his thoughts and intentions, so that its +heart, liver, and all other organs supposed to be affected by mental and +moral dispositions, receive the impress of the divine prevision. Is it +not passing strange, Gentlemen, that this mode of divination, which +appears so absurd to us, which has no rational basis whatever, which +rests on a singularly subtle conception of the relations between the +creature sacrificed and the being to whom it is offered, has secured the +prolonged confidence of the peoples of the Old World, and appears again +in Peru, where it cannot have been imitated from any one? + + +II. + +It has been asked whether the native religion of Peru rested any system +of elevated morals on its fundamental principles. Gentlemen, I am +persuaded that religion and morals unite together and interpenetrate +each other in the higher regions of thought and life. Perhaps the most +distinct result of our Christian education is the full comprehension of +the fact that what is moral is religious, and that immorality cannot on +any pretext be allowed as legitimately religious. But we must certainly +yield to the overwhelming evidence that in the lower stages of religion +this union of the two sisters is present only in germ. Religion, still +quite selfish in its character, pursues its own way and seeks its own +satisfactions independently of all moral considerations, and almost +always lives in a state of separation from morality. We ought therefore +to expect that in systems such as that of Peru--which have already risen +much above the low level of the primitive religions, but are still far +below that of the higher ones--we should find a certain religious ethic, +a certain moral tendency in religion, but likewise all kinds of +inconsistencies, and constant relapses towards the ancient separation of +the two sisters. As a general rule, we may say that even where the +Peruvian religion seems to undertake the elevation and protection of +morals, it does so rather with a utilitarian and selfish view, than with +any real purpose of sanctifying the heart and will. + +Thus we have noted ceremonies which forcibly recal the Communion. But +the great object in view was to secure to the communicants the safety +and well-being that would result from their union with the Sun or his +representatives. The moral idea occupies but a small place in this +communion, though it is but right to add that the great social laws +were placed under the patronage and sanction of the Sun, whose +legislation the Incas were held responsible for enforcing. In the same +way we find in Peru something that closely resembles baptism. From +fifteen to twenty days after birth the child received its first name, +after being plunged into water. But this purification had nothing to do +with the ideas of sin and regeneration. It was but a form of exorcism, +destined to secure the child from the evil spirits and their malign +influences. Between the ages of ten and twelve, the child's definitive +name was conferred. On this occasion his hair and nails were cut off, +and offered to the Sun and the guardian spirits.[118] This represented +the consecration of his person, but its main object was to secure him +the protection of the divine power. + +There was likewise a sacerdotal confession, but it was an institution of +state and of police rather than a sacrament with a moral purpose. The +great object was to discover all actions, whether voluntary or not, +which might bring misfortune upon the state if not expiated by the +appropriate penances and rites. The father confessors of Peru were +inquisitors charged with the searching out of secret faults and the +exaction of their avowal. A refusal to confess might provoke severe +measures. A proof of the small influence of the moral element in the +whole system of inquisition may be found in the fact that the priest +relied on purely fortuitous tests in deciding whether or not to give +absolution. For instance, he would take a pinch of maize grains, and if +the number turned out to be even, he would declare the confession good, +and give absolution, otherwise he would say the penitent must have +concealed something, and would make him confess again.[119] + +Our conviction that the Peruvian religion had but a very elementary +moral significance, receives a final confirmation from the beliefs +concerning the future life. + +It is clear that no very definite ideas on this point had become +generally established. In fact, we find amongst the Peruvians at the +time of the conquest the underlying conceptions of the most widely +severed peoples, all mingled together. Thus the common people of Peru, +like all savages, thought of the future life as a continuation, pure and +simple, of the present life. This explains the custom of burying all +kinds of useful and desirable objects with the dead--giving him an +emigrant's outfit, in short. The worship of ancestors is easily grafted +upon this conception of the life beyond the grave. These ancestors may +still succour, protect and inspire their descendants. I am assured at +first hand that to this very day, and in spite of the efforts of the +Catholic clergy, the worship of ancestors is still widely practised by +the native population. There was not the least idea of a resurrection of +the body. If the corpse was preserved, especially in the case of +departed Incas, it was because the Peruvians believed that the soul +which had left it still retained a marked predilection for its ancient +abode and liked to return to it from time to time; and also because they +attributed magic virtues to the remains thus preserved. No idea of +recompense is as yet associated with this purely animistic and primitive +conception of the life beyond the tomb.[120] + +Amongst the higher classes, the ideas entertained on this same subject +had become a little less naive. The Incas were supposed to be +transported to the mansion of the Sun, their father, where they still +lived together as his family. The Curacas or nobles would either follow +them there, or would still live under the earth beneath the sceptre of +the god of the dead, Supay, the Hades or Pluto of the Peruvian +mythology. Do not identify this deity with a Satan or Ahriman of any +kind. He was not a wicked, but rather a sinister god, the conception of +whom could wake no joyous or even serene emotions. He was a voracious +deity, of insatiable appetite. At Quito, at any rate before the conquest +of the country by the Incas, a hundred children were sacrificed to him +every year. There is no idea of positive suffering inflicted on the +wicked under his direction. But the subterranean abode is gloomy and +dismal, like the place of shades in the Odyssey. Exceptional +considerations of birth, rank or valour in war, determine the passage of +chosen souls to heaven, where their lot will of course be far more +brilliant and happy than that of the souls that remain in the +subterranean regions. Thus the aristocratic point of view, barely +modified by the high importance attributed to the warlike virtues, still +dominates the ideas of a future life in ancient Peru, as in Mexico, in +Polynesia and in Africa. This is a final proof that the moral element +was but feebly present in the ancient Peruvian religion. For wherever a +clear and definite belief in a conscious life beyond the grave is united +to a sense of the religious character of morality, it is likewise held, +by an obvious connection of ideas, that the lot of departed souls will +depend completely upon their moral condition, without distinction of +birth or rank.[121] + +This Peruvian religion, then, in spite of its elevation and refinement +in some respects, forcibly reminds us of the walls of its own temples, +all plated with gold, but covered in with straw, and poor and unvaried +in architecture. A monotonous, unformed, gloomy spirit seems to pervade +the whole institution, in spite of its brilliant exterior. The air of +the convent broods over it. Those thousands of functionaries who spent +their lives in superintending the furniture, the dress, the work, the +very cookery, of the families under their charge, and inflicting +corporal chastisement on those whom they surprised in a fault, might +succeed in forming a correct and regular society, drilled like the bees +in a hive, might form a nation of submissive slaves, but could never +make a nation of _men_; and this is the deep cause that explains the +irremediable collapse of this Peruvian society under the vigorous blows +of a handful of unscrupulous Spaniards. It was a skilfully constructed +machine, which worked like a chronometer; but when once the mainspring +was broken, all was over. + +It is no part of our task to tell the story of the conversion of the +natives to Roman Catholic Christianity. It was comparatively easily +effected. The fall of the Incas was a mortal blow to the religious, no +less than to the political, edifice in which they were the key-stone of +the arch. It was evident that the Sun had been unable or unwilling to +protect his children. The conqueror imposed his religion on Peru, as on +Mexico, by open force; and the Spanish Inquisition, though not giving +rise to such numerous and terrible spectacles in the former as in the +latter country, yet carried out its work of terror and oppression there +too. The result was that peculiar character of the Catholicism of the +natives of Peru which strikes every traveller, and consists in a kind of +timid and superstitious submission, without confidence and without zeal, +associated with the obstinate preservation of customs which mount back +to the former religious régime, and with memories of the golden age of +the Inca rule under which their ancestors were privileged to live, but +which has gone to return no more. + + +III. + +And now it only remains for us to draw the inferences and conclusions +suggested by our examination of the ancient religions of Mexico and +Peru, so closely associated with the remarkable though imperfect +civilizations to which the two nations had attained. + +We have not stayed to discuss the hypotheses that have so often been put +forward, to attach these religions and civilizations to some immigration +from the Old World. The fact is that all these attempts rest on the +arbitrary selection of some few traits of resemblance, on which +exclusive stress is laid, to the neglect of still more characteristic +differences. The best proof that the work of affiliation has been +abortive, in spite of the high authority of some of the names that have +been lent to it, may be found in the fact that every possible nation of +the Old World has in its turn been selected as the true parent of the +Peruvians and Mexicans. The Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the +Hindus, the Buddhists of India and China, the Romans, even the Celts and +the Chaldeans, have been put forward one after the other. Nay, the +English themselves have been tried! There is a gratifying legend which +brings the story of Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo into connection with the +results of the shipwreck of an _Englishman_, whose national name was +transformed into _Inga Man_, which again, in conjunction with _Cocapac_, +the name of the father of the native wife whom the Englishman had taken +to himself, made _Inca Manco Capac_! The sequel is obvious. The two +fair-skinned children that sprang from this union were of course the +founders of the Inca family and the state of Cuzco.[122] I need not tell +you that all this will not bear a moment's examination. Everything shows +that the civilizations and religions of Mexico and Peru are +autochthonous, springing from the soil itself. + +There is surely something very strange in this passion for localizing +all origins at some single point of the globe. Why not admit that what +took place there may have taken place elsewhere also, that the same +concourse of events which called forth such and such a result in a +certain given place may have been reproduced somewhere else, and +consequently given rise to identical or closely analogous results there +too? Does not our own experience teach us that the contact of a +civilized with an uncivilized people is not enough in itself to ensure +the adoption by the latter of the civilization that is brought to it? It +is the exception, not the rule, for the Red-skin, the Kafir, the +Australian or the Papuan, to become civilized. Civilization can only be +handed on if the invaded race possesses a special disposition and +aptitude for civilized life; and this aptitude may have existed to such +a degree as to be capable of independent development in the New-World as +we know it did in the Old; and if there were centres of such nascent +civilization in Central America, in Mexico and in Peru, it is absolutely +superfluous to search elsewhere than in America itself for the origins +of American civilization. + +But the mistake into which so many historians and travellers have fallen +is explained, to a certain extent, by the fact that, in examining the +beliefs, the monuments and the customs of Peru and Mexico, we come upon +phenomena at every moment which are identical with or analogous to +something we have observed in the Old World. The temples, with their +successive terraces, remind us of ancient Chaldea, and the hieroglyphics +of ancient Egypt. The convents recal the Indian and Chinese Buddhism. +The cruel and bloody sacrifices and the preponderance of the Sun-worship +have a Semitic tinge. There are myths and curious resemblances of words +which wake thoughts of Hellenic civilization; and sacerdotal castes and +sacrificial rites which bring us round to the Celts! Nay, are there not +even beliefs as to the arrival or return of a deity who will restore +order and avenge outraged justice, round which there breathes a kind of +Messianic air? So much so, indeed, that I must add to the list of +supposed ancestors of American civilization the ten lost tribes of +Israel, who must have fled from the yoke of their Ninevite oppressors +right across Asia into America! The partizans of this ingenious +hypothesis have, it is true, forgotten to inquire how far these +Israelites of the North, whose enthusiasm for the house of Judah was, to +say the least of it, decidedly subdued, had ever heard of the Messianic +hopes at all! + +The real result of all these wild speculations, however, is to bring out +the fact very clearly, that in the native religions of Mexico, of +Central America and of Peru, we find a number of traits united which are +scattered amongst the most celebrated religions of our own ancient +world; so that this new and well-defined region gives us a precious +opportunity of testing the value of the explanations of religious ideas +and practices deduced from the comparative study of religions. + +Let us take the question of sacrifice, for instance. In both religions +sacrifice is frequent, often cruel,--in Mexico even frightful. But it is +easy to trace the original idea that inspired it. It is by no means the +sense of guilt, or the idea that the culprit, terrified by the account +that he must render to the divine justice, can transfer to a victim the +penalty he has himself incurred. It is simply the idea that by offering +the gods the things they like--that is to say, whatever will satisfy and +gratify their senses--it is possible to secure their goodwill, their +protection and their favour, while at the same time disarming their +wrath, if need be, and appeasing their dangerous appetites. It is only +at a later stage that the extreme importance attributed to this rite, +the very essence of the worship rendered to the gods, leads to the +association of mystic and ultimately of moral ideas with the +circumstance of the pain inseparably connected with sacrifice. And when +this stage is reached, men will either refine upon the suffering with +frantic intensity, as they did in Mexico, or, if the sentiment of +humanity has made itself felt in religion, as was the case in Peru and +in the special worship of Quetzalcoatl, they will try to restrain the +number and mitigate the horror of the human sacrifices, while still +inflexibly maintaining the principle they involve. + +Again: there is not the smallest trace of an earlier monotheism +preceding the polytheism of either the one or the other nation. On the +other hand, we may trace in both alike three stages of religious faith +superimposed, so to speak, one upon the other. At the bottom of all +still lies the religion that we find to-day amongst peoples that are +strangers to all civilization. It is an incoherent and confused jumble +of nature-worship and of animism or the worship of spirits, but +especially the latter; for the primitive nature-worship has been +developed, enlarged and more or less organized, on a higher level, +whereas animism has remained what it was. The spirits of nature, which +may often be anonymous--spirits of forests, of plants, of rocks, of +waters, of animals, generally with the addition of the spirits of +ancestors--make up a confused and inorganic mass that may assume almost +any form. Fetichism is not the base, as it has been called, but the +consequence and application of this animistic view. It is enough to +secure adoration for any worthless object, natural or artificial, if it +strikes the ignorant imagination forcibly enough to induce the belief +that it is the residence of a spirit. Magic, founded on the pretension +of certain individuals to stand in special relations with the spirits, +equips the priesthood of this lowest stage. But above this, through the +action of the higher minds amongst the people, nature-worship develops +itself into the adoration of the most important, most general and most +imposing phenomena of nature. In the tropical countries, at once warm +and fertile, it is the Sun that reigns supreme, though not without +leaving a very exalted place to other phenomena, such as wind, rain, +vegetation and so on, personified as so many special deities. But in all +this there is no indication of an antecedent and primitive monotheism. +It is quite true that each one of these deities receives in his turn +epithets which seem to attribute omnipotence to him and to make him the +sole creator. But this is the case in all polytheistic systems, whether +in Greece, Persia, and India, or in Mexico and Peru. It only proves that +when man worships, he never limits the homage he renders to the object +of his adoration; but if he is a polytheist, he has no scruple in +attributing the same omnipotence to each of his gods in turn. It is much +the same with the worthy curés in our rural districts, whose sermons +systematically exalt the saint of the day, whoever he may be, to the +chief place in Paradise! And here in Mexico and in Peru, as in Greece +and in India, we observe the ever growing tendency towards +_anthropomorphism_, transforming into men, of enormous strength, stature +and power, those natural phenomena which at the earlier stage were +rather assimilated to animals. Uitzilopochtli still bears the traces of +his ancient nature as a humming-bird, and Tezcatlipoca of the time when +he was no more than a celestial tapir. Their cultus, like their +functions in the order of nature, must be regular and subject to fixed +rules. And thus the priesthood, organized and regulated in its turn, +emerges from the earlier stage of sorcery, and becomes a great +institution to protect and foster the nascent civilization. The third +stage was not actually reached in ancient Mexico and Peru. One can but +divine its beginnings in the mysterious priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, or +trace it in the traditions of the philosopher king of Tezcuco, and the +sceptical Incas of whom Garcilasso and others tell us. In such traits as +these we may discover a certain dissatisfaction with the established +polytheism, striving to raise itself higher in the direction of a +spiritual monotheism. But this tendency is obviously the last term of +the evolution, and in no sense its first. + +The history of the temple in Mexico and Peru suggests similar +reflections. Its point of departure is the altar, and not the tomb,--the +altar on which, as on a sacred table, the flesh destined for their food +was placed before the gods. Little by little, as the developed and +organized nature-worship substitutes gods of imposing might and +greatness for the contemptible deities of the period when nature-worship +and animism were confounded together, these altars assumed huge and at +last gigantic proportions; and in Mexico, except in the case of +Quetzalcoatl, there the development stopped, save that a little chapel, +destined to serve as the abode of the national gods, was reared on the +summit. Peru passes through the same phases, but goes further. There the +surmounting chapel grows, assumes vast dimensions, and ends by embracing +the altar itself, of which at first it was but an adjunct. + +The two religions alike exhibit an initial penetration of religion by +the moral idea. They are at bottom two theocracies, the laws and +institutions of which rest upon the gods themselves, though the +theocratic form is far more prominent in Peru than in Mexico. They share +the advantages of a theocracy for a nascent civilization, and its +disadvantages for one that has already reached a certain development. +It was the theocratic and sacerdotal conception that maintained and +enforced the religious butchery of which you have heard in Mexico, and +which transformed Peru into one enormous convent, where no one had any +will or any initiative of his own. For the same reason, asceticism, the +principle that confuses, through an illusion we can easily understand, +the moral act itself with the suffering that accompanies it, shows +itself in both religions, but especially in that of Mexico; and convents +that startle us by their resemblance to those of Buddhism and +Christianity rise in either realm. But this mutual interpenetration of +the religious and moral ideas is still quite rudimentary. The prevailing +tone of the religion is given by the self-seeking and purely calculating +principle, aiming no doubt at a certain mystic satisfaction (for at +every stage of religion this moving principle has been most powerful and +fruitful), but likewise seeking material advantages without any scruple +as to the means; and those monstrous forms of transubstantiation which +the Mexican thought he was bringing about when he ate of the same human +flesh which he offered to his gods, are typical of the period in which +religion pursued its purpose of union with the deity, regardless of the +protests of the moral sense and of humanity. + +It was reserved for the higher religions, and especially for that of +which our Bible is the monument, to realize the intimate alliance of the +religious and moral sentiments,--that priceless alliance, without which +morals remain for the most part almost barren, and religion falls into +monstrous aberrations. That the roots of religion pierce to the very +cradles of humanity, may now be taken as demonstrated. Its principle is +found in the necessity we feel of surmounting the uncertainties and the +limitations of destiny, by attaching ourselves individually to the +loftier Spirit revealed by nature outside us and within; and this +principle has always remained the same; nor am I one of those who hold +that we must now renounce it in the name of philosophy and science. For +neither philosophy nor science can make us other than the poor creatures +we are, with an unquenchable thirst for blessedness and life, yet +constantly broken, crushed at every moment, by the very elements on the +bosom of which we are forced to live. Philosophy and science may guide +religion, may reveal its true object in ever-growing purity, may cleanse +it from the pollutions in which ignorance and sin still plunge it, but +they cannot replace and they cannot destroy it. There is a Dutch +proverb, the profundity of which it would be difficult to exaggerate, +"De natuur gaat boven de leer"--_Nature is too strong for doctrine._ The +evolutions of philosophy may seem to make the heavens void, and inspire +man with the idea that all is over with the poetic or terrific visions +that rocked the cradle of his infancy. But stay! Nature, human nature, +is still there; and under the impulse of the indestructible thirst for +religion, human nature renews her efforts, looks deeper and looks +higher, and finds her God once more. + + Jérusalem renait plus brillante et plus belle. + +But let not this conclusion, confirmed as it seems to me by the whole +history of religion, prevent our boldly declaring how much that is +small, puerile, often even immoral and deplorable, there is in the +religious past of humanity. It is no otherwise with art, with +legislation, with science herself, with all that constitutes the +privilege, the power, the joy of our race. It is just the knowledge of +these aberrations which should serve to keep us from falling back into +the errors and false principles of which they were the consequence. And +in this respect the study of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru is +profoundly instructive. It teaches us that there is a principle, +bordering closely upon that of religion itself, which must serve as the +torch to guide the religious idea in its development--not to supplant +it, but to direct it to the true path. It is the principle of humanity. +The truer a religion is, the more absolute the homage it will render to +the principle of humanity, and the more will he who lives by its light +feel himself impelled to goodness, loving and loved, trustful and free. +The last word of religious history is, that there exists an affinity, a +mysterious relationship, between our spirit and the Spirit of the +universe; that this nobility of human nature embraces in itself all the +promises, all the hopes, all the latent perfections, all the infinite +ideals of the future; that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, +the Supreme Will is good to each one of the beings which it summons and +draws to itself; and that man, in spite of his errors, his failures, +his corruptions, his miseries, was never wrong in following the sacred +instinct that raised him slowly from the mire, was always right in +renewing his efforts, so constant, so toilsome--often, too, so woful--to +mount the rounds + + De cette échelle d'or qui va se perdre en Dieu. + + * * * * * + +And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, it only remains for me to bid you +farewell, while giving you my warmest thanks for the perseverance, the +encouragement and the sympathy, with which you have supported me. The +reception you have given me has touched me deeply, and my stay in 1884 +in your imposing and splendid capital will always remain amongst the +most prized and the pleasantest recollections of my life. You have been +good enough to pardon my linguistic infirmity. You have spared from your +business or pleasure the time needed to listen to a stranger, who has +come to speak to you of matters having no direct utility, and of purely +historical and theoretical interest. This is far more to your honour +than to mine. I thank you, but at the same time I congratulate you; for +it is a trait in the nobleness in our human nature to be able thus to +snatch ourselves from the vulgar pre-occupations of life, to contemplate +the truth on those serene heights where it reveals itself to all who +seek it with an upright heart. Cease not to love these noble studies, +which touch upon all that is most exalted and most precious in us! If we +search history for light in politics and the higher interests of our +fatherlands, and learn thereby to understand, to appreciate, to love +them more, let us turn to history no less for light on the path which we +must tread in that order of sublime realities, necessities and +aspirations, in which the soul of each one of us becomes a temple and a +sanctuary, lying open to the Eternal Spirit that fills the universe. + + * * * * * + +And now to the Eternal, the Invisible, to Him whose name we can but +stammer, whose infinite perfections we can but feel after, be rendered +all our homage and our hearts! + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The second, third and fourth despatches (the first is lost) from +_Fernando Cortes_ to Charles V., written in 1520, 1522 and 1524 +respectively. Original editions as follows: "Carta de relacio_n_ +e_m_biada a su S. majestad del e_m_p_er_ador n_ues_tro señor ... por el +capita_n_ general de la nueva spaña: Llamado ferna_n_do cortes," &c.: +Seville, 1522. "Carta tercera de relacio_n_: embiada por Ferna_n_do +cortes," &c.: Seville, 1523. "La quarta relacion q_ue_ Ferna_n_do cortes +gouernador y capitan general ... embio al muy alto ... rey de España," +&c.: Toledo, 1525. Recent edition, with notes, &c.: "Cartas y Relaciones +de Hernan Cortés al Emperador Carlos V. colegidas é ilustradas por Don +Pascual de Gayangos," &c.: Paris, 1866. English translation: "The +Despatches of Hernando Cortes," &c., translated by George Folsom: New +York and London, 1843.--_Francisco Lopez de Gómara_ (Cortes' chaplain): +"Hispania Victrix. Primera y segunda parte de la historia general de las +Indias co_n_ todo el descubrimiento, y cosas notables que han acaescido +dende que se ganaron hasta el año de 1551. Con la conquista de Mexico y +dela nueva España:" Modina del Campo, 1553. Also printed in Vol. XXII. +of the "Biblioteca de Autores Españoles:" Madrid, 1852 (to the +pagination of which references in future notes will be made). There is +an old English translation of Part II. of this work, entitled, "The +Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the Weast India, now called new +Spayne, Atchieved by the worthy Prince Hernando Cortes, Marques of the +Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to Reade: Translated out of the +Spanishe tongue by T. N. [Thomas Nicholas], Anno 1578:" London.--_Bernal +Diaz_: "Historia Verdadera de la Nueva España escrita por el Capitan +Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Uno de sus Conquistadores. Sacada a luz por el +P. M. Fr. Alonso Remon," &c.: Madrid, 1632. English translation: "The +Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, written by +Himself," &c.: translated by John Ingram Lockhart, F.R.A.S. 2 vols.: +London, 1844. There is also a good French translation: "Histoire +Véridique de la conquête ... par le Capitaine Bernal Diaz del Castillo," +&c., by Dr. Jourdanet. Second edition: Paris, 1877.--_Las Casas._ +Numerous works collected by Llorente: "Collecion de las obras del +Venerable Obispo de Chiapa, Don Bartolomé de las Casas, Defensor de la +Libertad de los Americanos." 2 vols.: Paris, 1822. Also translated into +French, with some additional matter, by the same Llorente, and published +in the same year at Paris. His "Historia de las Crueldades de los +Españoles," &c., was translated into English in 1655 by J. Phillips, +under the title of "The Tears of the Indians," &c., and dedicated to +Oliver Cromwell. [N.B. Translations in full or epitomized of several of +the above works, together with others, may be found in Vols. III. and +IV. of "Purchas his Pilgimes," &c.: London, 1625-26.]--_Sahagun's_ +history of New Spain, a work of the utmost importance for the religious +history of Mexico, remained unpublished till the present century, and +appeared almost simultaneously in Mexico and London: "Historia General +de las Cosas de Nueva España ... escribió el R. P. Fr. Bernardino de +Sahagun ... uno de los primeros predicadores del santo evangelio en +aquellas regiones," &c. 3 vols.: Mexico, 1829-30. The same work appeared +in Vols. V. and VII. of Lord Kingsborough's collection. Vid. infr. A +French translation by Jourdanet appeared in 1880.--_Acosta_: "Historia +Natural y Moral de las Indias ... compuesta por el Padre Joseph de +Acosta Religioso de la Campañia de Jesus," &c.: Seville, 1590. English +translation: "The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West +Indies," &c.: translated by E. G.: London, 1604. E[dward] G[rimstone]'s +translation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by Clements +R. Markham, in 1880.--_Torquemada_: "Los veynte y un libros Rituales y +Monarchia Yndiana ... Compuesto por Fray Ivan de Torquemada," &c. 3 +vols.: Seville, 1615. Printed again at Madrid in 1723.--_Herrera_ +(official historiographer of Philip II.): "Historia General de los +Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del mar Oceano," +&c., by Antonio de Herrera; to which is prefixed, "Descripcion de las +Indias Ocidentales," &c., by the same. 4 vols.: Madrid, 1601. English +translation in epitome by Capt. John Stevens, "The General History of +the vast Continent and Islands of America," &c. 6 vols.: London, +1725-26. + +The following native writers may also be consulted. _Ixlilxochitl_ +(Fernando de Alva): "Historia Chichimeca" and "Relaciones," in Lord +Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," Vol. IX. (vid. infr.). French +translations in Vols. VIII. XII. and XIII. of H. Ternaux-Compans' +collection: "Voyages, Relations et Memoires originaux pour servir a +l'histoire de la Découverte de l'Amérique:" Paris, 1837-41.--_Camargo_: +"Histoire de la République de Tlaxcallan, par Domingo Muñoz Camargo, +Indien, natif de cette ville," translated from the Spanish MS. in Vols. +XCVIII. and XCIX. of the "Nouvelles Annales des Voyages," &c.: Paris, +1843.--_Pomar (J. B. de)_: "Relacion de las Antiquedades de los Indios." +Pomar was a descendant of the royal house of Tezcuco, and his memoirs +were made use of in MS. by Torquemada. + +Amongst later authorities may be mentioned (in addition to Prescott's +well-known work, and those cited in the following notes): _W. +Robertson_: "History of America."--_Alx. von Humboldt_: "Vues des +Cordillières et Monuments des peuples de l'Amérique:" Paris, 1810; +forming the "Atlas Pittoresque" of Part III. of "Voyage de Humboldt et +Bonpland."--_Francesco Saverio Clavigero_: "Storia antica del Messico," +&c. 4 vols.: Cesena, 1780-81. English translation by Charles Cullen: +"The History of Mexico," &c. 2 vols.: London, 1787.--_Th. Waitz_: +"Anthropologie der Naturvölker," Vol. IV.: Leipzig, 1864.--_Brasseur de +Bourbourg_: "Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de +L'Amérique-centrale," &c. 4 vols: Paris, 1857-59.--_Müller (Joh. +George)_, Professor at Bâle: "Geschichte der Amerikanischen +Urreligionen." Second edition: Basel, 1867.--To these should be added +the narratives and works of M. _D. Charnay_, still in the course of +publication. + +References will be given to the originals, but in such a form, wherever +possible, as to serve equally well for the English and French +translations. Where, as is not unfrequently the case, the chapters or +sections of the translations do not correspond to the originals, a note +of the vol. and page of the former will generally be added. + +[2] The original collection is in seven magnificent folio volumes. +"Antiquities of Mexico: comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Mexican +Paintings and Hieroglyphics ... together with The Monuments of New +Spain, by M. Dupaix ... the whole illustrated by many valuable inedited +Manuscripts by Augustine Aglio:" London, 1830. Two supplementary +volumes, on the title-page of which Lord Kingsborough's own name +appears, were added in 1848, and a tenth volume was projected, but only +a small portion of it (appended to Vol. IX.) was printed. + +[3] Five volumes: New York, 1875-76. + +[4] See _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 311, 312. + +[5] See _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 201, Appendix to Lib. ii. (Vol. II. p. +174, in Jourdanet's translation). + +[6] The story is given by _Bancroft_, Vol. III. p. 471, on the authority +of _Lopez Medel_. + +[7] See _Torquemada_, Lib. viii. cap. xx. at the end. On the Mexican +temples in general, see _Müller_, pp. 644-646. + +[8] On the great temple of Mexico and its annexes, see _Waitz_, IV. 148 +sqq., where the scattered data of Sahagun, Acosta, Gomara, Bernal Diaz, +Ixtlilxochitl, Clavigero, &c., are drawn together. See also _Bancroft_, +II. 577-587, III. 430 sq. + +[9] Op. cit. cap. xcii. + +[10] Compare the German "Schlangenberg" and the old French "Guivremont." + +[11] See the legend in _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. § 6. + +[12] See _Müller_, pp. 602 sqq., and _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 1, 237, +sqq., Lib. i. cap. i., and Lib. iii. cap. i., &c. + +[13] See _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. § 2. _Acosta_, pp. 324 sqq., Lib. v. cap. +ix. (pp. 353 sq. in E. G.'s translation); _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 2 sq., +241 sq., Lib. i. cap. iii., Lib. iii. cap. ii. See also +_Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XII. p. 18. + +[14] On Quetzalcoatl, see _Müller_, pp. 577-590; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. +pp. 239-287; _Torquemada_, Lib. vi. cap. xxiv., Lib. iii. cap. vii.; +_Clavigero_, Lib. vi. § 4; _Ixtlilxochitl_ in _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. +XII. pp. 5-8 (further, pp. 9-27 of the same volume on the Toltecs); +_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap, iii., Bk. iv. chap, v., and elsewhere; +_Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 3-4, 245-6, 255-259, Lib. i, cap. v., Lib. iii. +cap p. iv. xii.-xiv. + +[15] See _Clavigero_, Lib. iv. §§ 4, 15, Lib. vii. § 42; _Humboldt_, pp. +319-20, cf. p. 95; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. i. and elsewhere; +_Bancroft_, Vol. V. pp. 427-429; _Müller_, pp. 526 sq. + +[16] _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. §§ 5, 15, 34; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 16-19, +Lib. i. cap. xiii.; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. p. 385. + +[17] See _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 10-16, Lib. i. cap. xii. + +[18] See _Boturini_, "Idea de una nueva historia general de la America +Septentrional," &c.: Madrid, 1746, pp. 63-65. + +[19] _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 403-417; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 22-25, +29-33, Lib. i. capp. xv. xvi. xix. + +[20] _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 396-402; _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. §§ 1, 5. + +[21] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 86 (cf. p. 88), Lib. ii. cap. xx. + +[22] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 50, Lib. ii. cap. i. + +[23] Compare the detailed description of the festivals of the ancient +religion of Mexico in _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 302-341, Vol. III. pp. +297-300, 330-348, 354-362, 385-396. + +[24] Amongst all the indigenous races of North America, prolonged +fasting is regarded as the means _par excellence_ of securing +supernatural inspiration. The Red-skin to become a sorcerer or to secure +a revelation from his _totem_, or the Eskimo to become _Angekok_, will +endure the most appalling fasts. + +[25] _Torquemada_, Lib. vi. cap. xxxviii.; cf. _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. +174, Lib. ii. cap. xxiv. + +[26] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 35--39, Lib. i. cap. xxi. + +[27] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 11-16, Tom. II. pp. 57-64, Lib. i. cap. +xii., Lib. vi. cap. vii. + +[28] Elements were not wanting for the formation of a dualistic system +analogous to Mazdeism. The _Tzitzimitles_ nearly corresponded to the +Iranian _Devas_. They were a kind of demon servants of Mictlan, who +delighted in springing upon men to devour them, and the protection of +the celestial gods was needed to escape from their attacks. _Sahagun_, +Tom. II. p. 67, Lib. vi. cap. viii. (in the middle of a prayer to +Tlaloc). Cf. also Tom. II. pp. 14 sqq., Lib. v. capp. xi.-xiii. + +[29] On the Mexican priesthood, see _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 200-207, +Vol. III. pp. 430-441; _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. §§ 13--17; cf. Lib. iv. § +4; _Humboldt_, pp. 98, 194, 290; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; +_Torquemada_, Lib. ix. capp. i.-xxxiv. + +[30] _Camargo_ (in Nouv. An. d. Voy. xcix.), pp. 134-5. + +[31] _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 204-206, Vol. III. pp. 435-436; +_Torquemada_, Lib. ix. capp. xiv. xv.; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 227-8 +(last section of Appendix to Lib. ii.); _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xvi.; +_Clavigero_, Lib. vi. capp. xvi. xxii. + +[32] See the "Cuadro historico-geroglifico," &c., contributed by Don +_José Fernando Ramirez_ (curator of the national Museum at Mexico) to +_Garcia y Cubas_, "Altas geographico, estadistico e historico de la +Republica Mexicana," Entrega 29a (1858). + +[33] On all that concerns the Mexican cosmogonies, see _Müller_, pp. 477 +sq., 509--519; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 57--65; _Ixtlilxochitl_, +"Historia Chichimeca," capp. i. ii.; _Kingsborough_, "Mexican +Antiquities," Vol. V. pp. 164-167; _Humboldt_, pp. 202--211. + +[34] See _Sahagun_, Tom. II. pp. 281--283, Lib. viii. cap. vi. + +[35] The sacerdotal year was lunar. The civil year, which was doubtless +of later origin, and had been adopted as better suited to the purposes +of agriculture, was solar. Every thirteenth year the two coincided. The +number _four_, which plays an important part in Mexican symbolism (cf. +the Mexican cross) gave a kind of cosmic significance to 13 × 4 = 52. + +[36] See _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 393-396. + +[37] Compare the Appendix to Jourdanet's translation of Bernal Diaz, pp. +912 sqq. + +[38] On the conversion of the Mexicans, &c., compare the anonymous +treatise at the end of _Kingsborough's_ "Mexican Antiquities," Vol. IX. +Cf. also _Torquemada,_ Lib. xvii. cap. xx., Lib. xix. cap. xxix. + +[39] See _P. Pauke,_ "Reise in d. Missionen von Paraguay:" Vienna, 1829, +p. 111. + +[40] In addition to the works of _Acosta_, _Gomara_, _Herrera_, +_Humboldt_, _Waitz_ and _Müller_, already cited in connection with +Mexico, and _Prescott's_ "Conquest of Peru," we may mention the +following authorities for the political and religious history of Peru: + +_Xeres_ (Pizarro's secretary): "Verdadera relacion de la conquista del +Peru y provincia del Cuzco llamada la nueva Castilla ... por Francisco +de Xeres," &c.: Seville, 1534. English translation by Markham in +"Reports on the Discovery of Peru:" printed for the Hakluyt Society, +London, 1872.--_Zarate_ (official Spanish "auditor" in Peru): "Historia +del descubrimiento y conquista del Peru.... La qual escriua Augustin de +Çarate," &c.: Antwerp, 1555. English translation: "The strange and +delectable History, &c.: translated out of the Spanish Tongue by T. +Nicholas:" London, 1581.--_Cieza de Leon_ (served in Peru for seventeen +years): "Parte Primera Dela chronica del Peru," &c.: Seville, 1553. The +second and third Parts have never been printed. English translation by +Markham: Hakluyt Society, 1864. [N. B. _Xeres_ (or _Jeres_), _Cieza de +Leon_ and _Zarate_, are all contained in Tom. XXVI. of Aribau's +"Biblioteca de autores Españoles."]--_Diego Fernandez_ of Palencia +(historiographer of Peru under the vice-royalty of Mendoza): "Primera, y +Segunda Parte, de la Historia del Peru," &c.: Seville, 1571.--_Miguel +Cavello Balboa:_ "Histoire du Pérou," in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. +XV.--_Arriaga_: "Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru ... Por el Padre +Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compañia de Jesus:" Lima, 1621. Extracts +are given in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII.--_Fernando Montesinos_: +"Memoires historiques sur l'Ancien Pérou:" translated from the Spanish +MS. in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. Montesinos rectifies Garcilasso de la +Vega on more points than one.--_Johannes de Laet_: "Novus Orbis," &c.: +Leiden, 1633.--Velasco: "Historia del Reino de Quito," &c.: Quito, 1844. +This work is in three Parts, the second of which, the "Historia +Antigua," is the one referred to in future notes. This second Part is +translated in Ternaux-Compans, Vols. XVIII. XIX. + +The Abbé _Raynal's_ "Histoire philosophique et politique des +établissements ... des Européens dans les deux Indes" (10 vols.: Geneva, +1770) made a great stir in its time, the English translation by +Justamond reaching a third edition in 1777; but it is now completely +forgotten, and has no real value for our purposes. I cannot refrain from +a passing notice of a romance which is now almost as completely +forgotten as the Abbé Raynal's History, in spite of its long popularity: +I mean _Marmontel's_ "Les Incas et la Destruction de l'empire du Pérou:" +Paris, 1777. The author derived his materials from Garcilasso de la +Vega. In spite of the florid style and innumerable offences against +historical and psychological fact which characterize this work, it +cannot be denied that Marmontel has disengaged with great skill the +profound causes of the irremediable ruin of the Peruvian state. + +_Lacroix_: "Pérou," in Vol. IV. of "L'Amérique" in "L'Univers +Pittoresque."--_Paul Chaix_: "Histoire de l'Amerique méridionale au +XVI^e siècle," Part I.: Geneva, 1853.--_Wuttke_: "Geschichte des +Heidenthums," Theil I., 1852.--_J. J. von Tschudi_: "Peru. Reiseskizzen +aus den Jahren 1838-1842:" St. Gallen, 1846.--_Thos. J. Hutchinson_: +"Two Years in Peru, with explorations of its Antiquities:" London, 1873. +Hutchinson had good reason to point out the exaggerations in which +Garcilasso indulges with reference to his ancestors the Incas, but he +himself speaks too slightingly of their government. Had it not been in +the main beneficent and popular, it could not have left such +affectionate and enduring memories in the minds of the native +population. + +For the method of citation, see end of note on p. 18. + +[41] This work is in two Parts, the first of which (Lisbon, 1609) gives +an account of the native traditions, customs and history prior to the +Spanish conquest, while the second (published under the separate title +of _Historia General del Peru_: Cordova, 1617) deals with the Spanish +conquest, &c. English translation by Sir Paul Rycaut: London, 1688, not +at all to be trusted; both imperfect (omitting and condensing in an +arbitrary fashion) and incorrect. As it may be in the possession of some +of my readers, however, reference will be made to it in future notes. +The earlier and more important part of Garcilasso's work has recently +been translated for the _Hakluyt Society_ by _Clements R. Markham_, 2 +vols.: London, 1869, 1871. References are to the _Commentarios reales_ +(Part I.), unless otherwise stated. + +[42] _Herrera_, Decada v. Libro iv. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 335, in +Stevens's epitomized translation). + +[43] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. viii., Lib. v. capp. vi. vii. viii. +xiii.; _Acosta_, Lib. vi. capp. xiii. xvi.; _Montesinos_, p. 57. + +[44] _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. xxxv. + +[45] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. +iv. (Vol. IV. p. 344, in Stevens's translation). See also _Hazart_, +"Historie van Peru," Part II. chap. iv.; in his "Kerckelijcke Historie +van de Gheheele Wereldt," Vol. I. p. 315: Antwerp, 1682. + +[46] See _Gomara_ (in Vol. XXII. of the Bibliotheca de Autores +Españoles), p. 228a; _Garcillasso_, "Historia General," &c., Lib. i. +cap. xviii.; cf. _Prescott_, Bk. iii. chaps. v. vi., and Appendices +viii. ix. + +[47] _Gomara_, p. 232 a. + +[48] Cf. _Waitz_, Theil IV. S. 411, 418. + +[49] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xiii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. ii. + +[50] _Müller_, p. 406. + +[51] See _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 337 sqq. in +Stevens's translation); _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. xii. xiii. xiv. (p. +35 of Rycaut's translation, in which the passage is much shortened), +Lib. v. cap. xi.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 6. + +[52] _Acosta_, Lib. vi. cap. xviii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. i. +and end of cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 329 sq., 342, in Stevens's +translation). + +[53] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. vii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. capp. +ii. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 334, 341, in Stevens's translation); cf. +_Montesinos_, p. 56. + +[54] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. xix.; cf. Lib. viii. cap. viii. (ad +fin.). + +[55] Cf. _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 387; _Hutchinson_, Vol. II. pp. 175-6. + +[56] _Montesinos_, p. 119, cf. pp. 33, 108. + +[57] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. iii. + +[58] _Humboldt_, pp. 108, 294. + +[59] _Gomara_, p. 277 b. + +[60] _Prescott_, Bk. iii. chap. viii. + +[61] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. iv. + +[62] _Garcilasso_, Lib. i. capp. ix.-xvii.; cf. Lib. ii. cap. ix., Lib. +iii. cap. xxv. + +[63] Such at least is the etymology proposed by Garcilasso (Lib. i. cap. +xviii.). Modern Peruvian scholars rather incline to refer _Cuzco_ to the +same root as _cuzcani_ ("to clear the ground"). + +[64] See the critical summary of the history of the Incas in _Waitz_, +Theil. IV. S. 396 sq. The following table of the successive Incas +follows Garcilasso: + + Manco Capac, died about 1000 + Sinchi Roca, " 1091 + Lloque Yupanqui, " 1126 + Mayta Capac, " 1156 + Capac Yupanqui, " 1197 + Inca Roca, " 1249 + Yahuar Huacac, " 1289 + Viracocha Inca Ripac, " 1340 + [Inca Urco, who only reigned 11 days, is omitted by Garcilasso] + Tito Manco Capac Pachacutec, " 1400 + Yupanqui, " 1438 + Tupac Yupanqui, " 1475 + Huayna Capac, " 1525 + Huascar, } " {1532 + Atahualpa,} " {1533 + +[65] _Garcilasso_, Lib. viii. cap. viii. Garcilasso says that he +translates this passage, word for word, from the Latin MS. of the Jesuit +Father, _Blas Valera_. + +[66] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iv. (Vol. IV. p. 346, in Stevens's +translation). + +[67] Lib. ix. cap. x. + +[68] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. i. capp. ii. iii., Lib. iii. cap. xvii. +(Vol. IV. pp. 240 sqq., 325 sqq., in Stevens's translation). + +[69] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iii. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 266, in +Stevens's translation); _Gomara_, p. 231 a. + +[70] In the course of a few months, Pizarro amassed such immense wealth +that, after deducting the _fifth_ for the king and a large sum for the +reinforcements brought him by Almagro, he was still able to give £4000 +to each of his foot-soldiers, and double that sum to each horseman. The +calculation is made by Robertson, who estimates the _peso_ at a pound +sterling. To obtain the equivalent purchasing power in our own times, +these sums would have to be more than quadrupled! + +[71] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. viii. capp. i. sqq. (Vol. V. pp. 23 sqq. in +Stevens's translation). + +[72] See _Alcedo_, "Diccionario Geográfico-Historico de las Indias +Occidentales," &c.: Madrid, 1786-9: article _Chunchos_. + +[73] See _Waitz_, Vol. IV. pp. 477-497; _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 346-351; +cf. _Castelnau_, "Expedition dans les Parties centrales de l'Amerique du +Sud," &c.: Paris, 1850, &c., Part I. Vol. III. p. 282. + +[74] _Tschudi_, ibid. + +[75] Cf. Spanish MS. cited by _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Velasco_, +Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 15. + +[76] _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. + +[77] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xxi., where the current etymology of +the word is rejected. + +[78] See _Müller_, pp. 313 sqq., where all the views concerning him are +collected and discussed. + +[79] This hymn was found by _Garcilasso_ (see Lib. ii. cap. xvii., pp. +50, 51, in Rycaut's translation) among the papers of Father _Blas +Valera_, and has been freed by _Tschudi_ from the misprints, &c., that +disfigured it in the printed editions of Garcilasso and all subsequent +reproductions. See _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 381. + +[80] _Johannes de Laet_, Lib. x. cap. i. (p. 398, ll. 51, 52). + +[81] _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. i.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. xxx. + +[82] _Gomara_, p. 233a; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 2, sec. 4. + +[83] _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. ii. iii. + +[84] See _Montesinos_, pp. 3 sqq., whose version of the legend has been +mainly followed in the text. Cf. however, for some of the details, +_Garcilasso_, Lib. i. cap. xviii. (omitted by Rycaut); _Acosta_, Lib. i. +cap. xxv.; _Balboa_, pp. 4 sqq., &c. + +[85] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 17; _Ph. H. Külb_ in _Widenmann_ and +_Hauff's_ "Reisen u. Länderbeshreibungen," Lief, xxvii.: Stuttgart, +1843, pp. 186-7. + +[86] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. iv.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 16; +_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Külb_, ibid. + +[87] _Prescott_, ibid. In cloudy weather they had recourse to the method +of friction. + +[88] _Prescott_, ibid. + +[89] _Arriaga_, pp. 17, 32; _Külb_, ibid. + +[90] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 10-17, &c. (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. +pp. 13, 14). + +[91] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. v.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 2; +_Arriaga_, ibid. + +[92] _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 396-7. + +[93] _Arriaga_, p. 18 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. p. 15). + +[94] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 10-17 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. pp. 13, +14); _Acosta_, Lib. v; cap. v.; _Montesinos_, pp. 161-2; _Velasco_, Lib. +ii. § 3, sec. 1. + +[95] On the priesthood, cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 17 sqq. (cf. +_Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. p. 15); _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; +_Balboa_, p. 29; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 8; _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. +capp. viii. (ad fin.) xii. xiii.; _Müller_, p. 387; _Külb_, l.c. p. 187. + +[96] Cf. _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xv.; _Montesinos_, p. 56; _Velasco_, +Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 12, § 9, sec. 10; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. and +elsewhere. + +[97] Cf. _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. iii. capp. +xx.-xxiv.; _Paul Chaix_, Vol. I. pp. 249 sqq. On the temples of +Pachacamac, which must have attained gigantic proportions before the +time of the Incas, see _Hutchinson_, Vol. I. pp. 147-176. + +[98] _Richard Inwards_, "The Temple of the Andes:" London, 1884. + +[99] _Acosta_, Lib, v. cap. xviii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. cap. viii. +(p. 31 in Rycaut), Lib. vi. cap. xxi.; _Arriaga_, p. 77. + +[100] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Arriaga_, pp. 24-27 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. +XVII. pp. 15, 16); _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. + +[101] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 20. + +[102] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Arriaga_, ibid. + +[103] _Garcilasso_, Lib. i. cap. xi., Lib. ii. cap. xviii., Lib. iv. +cap. xv., and elsewhere (pp. 6, &c., in Rycaut, who omits some of the +passages). + +[104] _Montesinos_, p. 121; _Acosta_, Lib. v. capp. v. xix., Lib. vi. +cap. xxii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chaps, i. ii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. +cap. v.; _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. vii.; _Velasco_, Lib. iii. § 1, sec. 1. + +[105] _Gomara_, p. 234 a. Cf. _Montesinos_, p. 68, and _Pöppig_ in Ersch +u. Gruber's "Encyklopädie," art. _Incas_, p. 287 b, note 35. + +[106] _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. xxii, xxiii. (pp. 43, 44, in Rycaut); +_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iv.; _Acosta_, Lib. vi. cap. iii. + +[107] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. ii.; _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 382; +_Rivero y Tschudi_: Antigüedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851. pp. 135-141. N. +B. An English translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New +York in 1853. + +[108] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 5, secc. 4, 17 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVIII. +pp. 137, 148-9); _Külb_, l.c. p. 190. + +[109] _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. capp. xx.-xxii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. +iii. + +[110] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xxviii. [wrongly numbered xxvii. in the +original edition]; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vii. capp. vi. vii. + +[111] _Acosta_, ibid. + +[112] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. capp. xxiv.-xxvii. + +[113] Cf. _Acosta_, ibid.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 5. + +[114] _Gomara_, p. 233 b; _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. cap. xxiii.; cf. +_Montesinos_, pp. 67, 68. + +[115] _Balboa_, pp. 29, 30. + +[116] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 17-23, and _passim_ (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. +XVII. p. 15). + +[117] See _Prescott_, ibid. + +[118] Cf. _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 3, secc. 4, 5. + +[119] _Balboa_, p. 3; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 6; _Arriaga_, pp. +28, 29 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. pp. 16, 17). + +[120] Cf. _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 355-6, 397-8. + +[121] _Acosta_, Lib. v. capp. vi. vii.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 3; +_Arriaga_, p. 15 (cf. Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. p. 14); _Garcilasso_, +Lib. ii. capp. ii. (Supay), vii. (omitted by Rycaut); _Prescott_, Bk. i. +chap. iii. + +[122] Compare _W. B. Stevenson_, "A Historical and Descriptive Narrative +of Twenty Years' Residence in South America:" London, 1825, Vol. I. pp. +394 sqq. + + + + +PRINTED BY C. GREEN & SON, 178, STRAND. + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + Changes listed in the Addenda et Corrigenda on page ix have + been made. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru + +Author: Albert Réville + +Release Date: December 31, 2010 [EBook #34804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from scans of public domain material produced by +Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<hr /> + +<h1>THE HIBBERT LECTURES,<br /> + +<span class="sub">1884</span>.</h1> + + +<hr class="hr3a" /> + + +<p class="center"><span class="title1"><i>THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1884.</i></span></p> + +<hr class="double" /> + +<p class="center mt"><span class="title2 ls">LECTURES</span><br /><br /> +<span class="title5">ON THE</span><br /><br /> +<span class="title3 ws">ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION</span><br /><br /> +<span class="title5">AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE</span><br /><br /> +<span class="title4 ws">NATIVE RELIGIONS OF MEXICO<br /> +AND PERU.</span><br /><br /> +<br /> +<span class="title7">DELIVERED AT OXFORD AND LONDON,</span><br /><br /> +<span class="smcap title5">In APRIL and MAY, 1884</span>.<br /><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap title5">By</span><br /><br /> +<span class="title6 ws ls">ALBERT RÉVILLE, D.D.</span><br /> +<span class="title5">PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE.</span> +<br /><br /> +<span class="smcap title7">Translated by PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A.</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="150" height="145" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap title7 ws ls">WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,</span><br /> +<span class="title5 smcap">14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON;<br /> +And 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.</span></p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="date">1884.</span><br /> +<span class="reserved">[<i>All Rights reserved.</i>]</span></p> + + +<hr class="hrwhite" /> + +<p class="center">LONDON:<br /> +PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON,<br /> +178, STRAND.</p> + +<hr class="hrwhite" /> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table class="contents" summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="smcap sub"><a href="#LECTURE_I">Lecture I.</a></span><br /> +<br /> +INTRODUCTION.—CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. +THEIR COMMON BASES OF CIVILIZATION +AND RELIGION.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr2" colspan="2"><span class="title5">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Importance of the history of Religion</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#LECTURE_I">1</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The religions of Mexico and Peru, and the special importance +of studying them</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Journey to another planet</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Parallelism of religious history in the New World and in +the Old</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Central America and Mexico, and the authorities as to their +history and religion</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Area and general character of this civilization</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Mayas</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Aztec empire</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Character of the religious conceptions common to Central +America and Mexico</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The serpent-god and the American cross</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Estimate of the character and significance of the parallelisms +observed</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc pt" colspan="2"><span class="smcap sub"><a href="#LECTURE_II">Lecture II.</a></span><br /> +<br /> +THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr2" colspan="2"><span class="title5">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Sun and Moon</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The pyramidal Mexican temples</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The great temple of the city of Mexico</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The narrative of Bernal Diaz; and the two great Aztec deities, +Uitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Mythical significance of Uitzilopochtli</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Significance of Tezcatlipoca</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, god of the east wind</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Netzalhuatcoyotl, the philosopher-king of Tezcuco</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Number of Mexican deities</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Tlaloc, god of rain</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Centeotl, goddess of maize</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Xiuhtecutli, god of fire</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Mexican Venus</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Other deities</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Tepitoton</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Mictlan, god of the dead</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Summary and reflections</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdc pt" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +<span class="smcap sub"><a href="#LECTURE_III">Lecture III.</a></span><br /> +<br /> +THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC +INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY AND COSMOGONY +OF MEXICO.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr2" colspan="2"><span class="title5">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Recapitulation</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Original meaning of sacrifice</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Human sacrifices and cannibalism</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Importance attached to the suffering of the victims</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Tragic and cruel character of the Mexican sacrifices</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The victims of Tezcatlipoca and Centeotl</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The children of Tlaloc</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The roasted victims of the god of fire</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Mexican asceticism</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Mexican "communion"</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Religious ethics</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The priesthood</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Convents, monks and nuns of ancient Mexico</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Mexican cosmogonies</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The great jubilee</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The future life</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Conversion of the Mexicans</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Inquisition</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Conclusion</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc pt" colspan="2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +<span class="smcap sub"><a href="#LECTURE_IV">Lecture IV.</a></span><br /> +<br /> +PERU.—ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION.—THE +LEGEND OF THE INCAS: THEIR POLICY +AND HISTORY</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr2" colspan="2"><span class="title5">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Peru of the Incas</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Cortes and Pizarro</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Inca hierocracy</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Quipos</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Authorities for the history and religion of Peru</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Peruvian civilization</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Huayna Capac's taxation</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Social, political and military organization of Peru</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Education</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Material well-being</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The legend of the Incas: Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Were the Incas really the sole civilizers of Peru?</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Succession of the Incas and character of their rule</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Free-thinking Incas</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Huayna Capac's departure from traditional maxims</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc pt" colspan="2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_V">Lecture V.</a></span><br /> +<br /> +THE FALL OF THE INCAS.—PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY +PRIESTHOOD.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr2" colspan="2"><span class="title5">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Recapitulation</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Atahualpa and Pizarro</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Father Valverde's discourse</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Atahualpa's imprisonment and death</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Inca pretenders</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Worship of the Sun and Moon</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Viracocha, god of fertilizing showers</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">His consort, Mama Cocha</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Old Peruvian hymn</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Pachacamac, god of internal fire</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The myth of Pacari Tambo</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Cuycha, the rainbow</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Chasca, the planet Venus</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Worship of fire</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Worship of the thunder</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Worship of esculent plants</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Worship of animals</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Huacas</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Peruvian priesthood</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The Virgins of the Sun</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Punishment of faithless nuns</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Independent parallelisms, illustrated by the "couvade"</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc pt" colspan="2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#LECTURE_VI">Lecture VI.</a></span><br /> +<br /> +PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.—MORALS +AND THE FUTURE LIFE.—CONCLUSIONS.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr2" colspan="2"><span class="title5">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Peruvian temples</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Sacrifices</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Columns of the Sun</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Hymns</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Religious dances</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The four great festivals</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Chasing the evil spirit</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Occasional and minor festivals</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Eclipses</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Sorcerers and priests</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Moral significance of the Peruvian religion</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Communion, baptism and sacerdotal confession</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Various ideas as to the future life</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Supay, the god of the departed</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Conversion of the Peruvians</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Are the origins of the American civilizations to be sought in +the Old World?</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Real significance and importance of analogies observed</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Sacrifice</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Three stages of religious faith: animistic nature-worship, +anthropomorphic polytheism and spiritual monotheism</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The genesis of the temple</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Primitive independence and subsequent mutual interpenetration +of religion and morals</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Human nature invincibly religious</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">The guiding principle</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl2">Farewell</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr /> + +<div class="block"> +<h2><a name="ADDENDA_ET_CORRIGENDA" id="ADDENDA_ET_CORRIGENDA"></a><a name="addenda" id="addenda"></a>ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.</h2> + + +<p class="hang">P. 16, <i>note</i>, under <i>Acosta</i>, add, "E[dward] G[rimstone]'s translation was +edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by Clements R. Markham, +in 1880."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 17, <a href="#addenda17a"><i>note</i></a>, lines 4 and 5, to "English translation" add "in epitome."</p> + +<p class="hang"> " <a href="#addenda17b">lines 8 and 9</a>, for "Ixtilxochitl" read "Ixtlilxochitl."</p> + +<p class="hang"> " <a href="#addenda17c">line 7</a> from below, for "note" read "notes."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 32, <a href="#addenda32">line 10</a> from below, for "bases" read "basis."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 34, <a href="#addenda34">line 1</a>, for "lama" read "llama."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 35, <a href="#addenda35">last line</a>, insert "and" after "America."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 77, <a href="#addenda77"><i>note</i>, last line</a>, for "caps." read "capp."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 92, <a href="#addenda92">line 9 from below</a>, omit "to" before "which."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 113, <a href="#addenda113"><i>note</i>, last line</a>, for "Chichemeca" read "Chichimeca."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 129, <a href="#addenda129">line 3</a>, for "East to West" read "West to East."</p> + +<p class="hang">P. 224, <a href="#addenda224"><i>note</i></a>, for "<i>Rivero y Tschudi</i>, l.c." read "<i>Rivero y Tschudi</i>: Antigüedades +Peruanas: Viena, 1851." N. B. An English translation of this +work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New York in 1853.</p> +</div> + + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +<a name="LECTURE_I" id="LECTURE_I"></a><span class="sub">LECTURE I.</span><br /><br /> + +INTRODUCTION.—CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. COMMON BASES OF CIVILIZATION +AND RELIGION.</h2> + + +<p class="indent2"><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>My first duty is to acknowledge the signal honour which the Hibbert +Trustees have done me in inviting me to follow such a series of eminent +men as the previous occupiers of this Chair, and to address you, in the +free and earnest spirit of truth-loving and impartial research, on those +great questions of religious history which so justly pre-occupy the +chosen spirits of European society. Our age is not, as is sometimes +said, an age of positive science and of industrial discoveries alone, +but also, and in a very high degree, an age of criticism and of history. +It is to history, indeed, more than to anything else,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> that it looks for +the lights which are to guide it in resolving the grave difficulties +presented by the problems of the hour, in politics, in organization, and +in social and religious life. Penetrated more deeply than the century +that preceded it by the truth that the development of humanity is not +arbitrary, that the law of continuity is no less rigorously applicable +to the successive evolutions of the human mind than to the animal and +vegetable transformations of the physical world, it perceives that the +present can be no other than the expansion of germs contained in the +past; it attempts to pierce to the very essence of spiritual realities +by investigating the methods and the laws of their historical +development; it strives, here as elsewhere, to separate the permanent +from the transient, the substance from the accident, and is urged on in +these laborious researches by no mere dilettante curiosity, but rather +by the hope of arriving at a more accurate knowledge of all that is +true, all that is truly precious, all that can claim, as the pure truth, +our deliberate adhesion and our love. And in the domain of Religion, +more especially, we can never lose our confidence that, if historical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +research may sometimes compel us to sacrifice illusions, or even beliefs +that have been dear to us, it gives us in return the right to walk in +the paths of the Eternal with a firmer step, and reveals with growing +clearness the marvellous aspiration of humanity towards a supreme +reality, mysterious, nay incomprehensible, and yet in essential affinity +with itself, with its ideal, with its all that is purest and sublimest. +The history of religion is not only one of the branches of human +knowledge, but a prophecy as well. After having shown us whence we come +and the path we have trodden, it shadows forth the way we have yet to +go, or at the very least it effects the orientation by which we may know +in which direction it lies.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, in these Lectures I shall be loyal to the principles of +impartial scholarship to which I understand this Chair to be +consecrated. Expect neither theological controversy nor dogmatic +discussion of any kind from me. It is as a historian that I am here, and +as a historian I shall speak. Only let me say at once, that, while +retaining my own very marked preferences, I place religion itself, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> a +faculty, an attribute, a tendency natural to the human mind, above all +the forms, even the most exalted, which it has assumed in time and +space. I can conceive a <i>Templum Serenum</i> where shall meet in that love +of truth, which at bottom is but one of the forms of love of God, all +men of upright heart and pure will. To me, religion is a natural +property and tendency, and consequently an innate need of the human +spirit. That spirit, accidentally and in individual cases, may indeed be +deprived of it; but if so, it is incomplete, mutilated, crippled. But +observe that the recognition of religion itself (in distinction from the +varied forms it may assume), as a natural tendency and essential need of +the human mind, implies the reality of its object, even if that sacred +object should withdraw itself from our understanding behind an +impenetrable veil, even could we say nothing concerning it save this one +word: IT IS! For it would be irrational to the last degree to lay down +the existence of such a need and such a tendency, and yet believe that +the need corresponds to nothing, that the tendency has no goal. +Religious history, by bringing clearly into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> light the universality, the +persistency and the prodigious intensity of religion in human life, is +therefore, to my mind, one unbroken attestation to God.</p> + +<p>And now it remains for me to express my lively regret that I am unable +to address you in your own tongue. I often read your authors: I profit +much by them. But I have emphatically not received the gift of tongues. +By such an audience as I am now addressing, I am sure to be understood +if I speak my mother-tongue; but were I to venture on mutilating yours, +I should instantly become completely unintelligible! Let me throw +myself, then, upon your kind indulgence.</p> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>I am about to speak to you on a subject little known in general, though +it has already been studied very closely by specialists of great +merit—I mean the religions professed in Mexico and Peru when, in the +sixteenth century, a handful of Spanish adventurers achieved that +conquest, almost like a fairy tale, which still remains one of the most +extraordinary chapters of history. But I shall perhaps do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> well at the +outset briefly to explain the very special importance of these now +vanished religions.</p> + +<p>The intrinsic interest of all the strange, original, dramatic and even +grotesque features that they present to the historian, is in itself +sufficiently great; for they possessed beliefs, institutions, and a +developed mythology, which would bear comparison with anything known to +antiquity in the Old World. But we have another very special and weighty +reason for interesting ourselves in these religions of a +demi-civilization, brusquely arrested in its development by the European +invasion.</p> + +<p>To render this motive as clear as possible, allow me a supposition. +Suppose, then, that by a miracle of human genius we had found means of +transporting ourselves to one of the neighbouring planets, Mars or Venus +for example, and had found it to be inhabited, like our earth, by +intelligent beings. As soon as we had satisfied the first curiosity +excited by those physical and visible novelties which the planetary +differences themselves could not fail to produce, we should turn with +re-awakened interest to ask a host of such questions as the following:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +Do these intelligent inhabitants of Mars or Venus reason and feel as we +do? Have they history? Have they religion? Have they politics, arts, +morals? And if it should happen that after due examination we found +ourselves able to answer all these questions affirmatively, can you not +imagine what interest there would be in comparing the history, politics, +arts, morals and religion of these beings with our own? And if we found +that the same fundamental principles, the same laws of evolution and +transformation, the same internal logic, had asserted itself in Mars, in +Venus and on the Earth, is it not clear that the fact would constitute a +grand confirmation of our theories as to the fundamental identity of +spiritual being, the conditions of its individual and collective +genesis—in a word, the universal character of the laws of mind?</p> + +<p>And now consider this. For the Europeans of the early sixteenth century, +America, especially continental America, was absolutely equivalent to +another planet upon which, thanks to the presaging genius of Christopher +Columbus, the men of the Old World had at last set foot. At first they +only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> found certain islands inhabited by men of another type and another +colour than their own, still close upon the savage state. But before +long they had reason to suspect that immense regions stretched to the +west of the archipelago of the Antilles; they ventured ashore, and +returned with a vague notion that there existed in the interior of the +unknown continent mighty empires, whose wealth and military organization +severed them widely indeed from the poor tribes of St. Domingo or Cuba, +whom they had already discovered and had so cruelly oppressed. It was +then that a bold captain conceived the apparently insane project of +setting out with a few hundred men to conquer what passed for the +richest and most powerful of these empires. His success demanded not +only all his courage, but all his cold cruelty and absolute +unscrupulousness, together with those favours which fortune sometimes +reserves for audacity. At any rate he succeeded, and the rumours that +had inflamed his imagination turned out to be true. On his way he came +upon great cities, upon admirably cultivated lands, upon a complete +social and military organization. He saw an unknown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> religion display +itself before his eyes. There were temples, sacrifices, magnificent +ceremonies. There were priests, there were convents, there were monks +and nuns. To his profound amazement, he noticed the cross carved upon a +great number of religious edifices, and saw a goddess who bore her +infant in her arms. The natives had rites which closely recalled the +Christian baptism and the Christian communion. As for our captain, +neither he nor his contemporaries could see anything in all this parade +of a religion, now so closely approaching, now so utterly remote, from +their own, but a gigantic ruse of the devil, who had led these unhappy +natives astray in order to secure their worship. But for us, who know +that the devil cannot help us to the genesis of ancient mythologies and +ancient religions—who know likewise that the social and religious +development of Central America was in the strictest sense native and +original, and that all attempts to bring it into connection with a +supposed earlier intercourse with Asia or Europe have failed—the +question presents itself under a very different aspect. In our Old +World, the natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> religious development of man has produced myths and +mythologies, sacrificial rites and priesthoods, temples, ascetics, gods +and goddesses; and on the basis of the Old World's experience we might +already feel entitled to say, "Such are the steps and stages of +religious evolution; such were the processes of the human spirit before +the appearance of the higher religions which are in some sort grafted +upon their elder sisters, and have in their turn absorbed or +spiritualized them." But there would still be room to ask whether all +this development had been natural and spontaneous, whether successive +imitations linking one contiguous people to another had not transformed +some local and isolated phenomenon into an apparently general and +international fact—much as took place with the use of tea or +cotton—without our being compelled to recognize any necessary law of +human development in it. But what answer is possible to the argument +furnished by the discovery of the new planet—I mean to say of America? +How can we resist this evidence that the whole organism of mythologies, +gods, goddesses, sacrifices, temples and priesthoods, while varying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +enormously from race to race and from nation to nation, yet, wherever +human beings are found, develops itself under the same laws, the same +principles and the same methods of deduction; that, in a word, given +human nature anywhere, its religious development is reared on the same +identical bases and passes through the same phases?</p> + +<p>Mr. Max Müller, one of my most honoured masters, and one of those who +have best deserved the gratitude of the learned world, has declared, +with equal justice and penetration, in his Preface to Mr. Wyatt Gill's +"Myths and Songs," that the possibility of studying the Polynesian +mythology is to the historian what an opportunity of spending a time in +the midst of the plesiosauri and the megatherions would be to the +zoologist, or of walking in the shade of the vast arborescent ferns that +lie buried under our present soil to the botanist. Polynesian mythology +has in fact preserved, down to our own day, the pre-historic ages. And, +similarly, the religions of Mexico and Peru (for the empire of the Incas +held the same surprises and the same lessons in store for its explorers +as that of Monte<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>zuma had done) has enabled history to carry to the +point of demonstration its fundamental thesis of the natural +development, in subjection to fixed laws, of the religious tendency in +man. All those curious resemblances, amidst the differences which we +shall also bring out, between the religious history of the New World and +that of the Old, are not at bottom any more extraordinary than the fact +that, in spite of the differences of physical type which separated the +natives from their conquerors, they none the less saw with eyes, walked +on feet, ate with a mouth and digested with a stomach.</p> + +<hr class="hrwhite" /> + +<p>We shall begin our study with Mexico. But a few preliminary +ethnographical remarks are indispensable. I spare you the catalogue of +the numerous sources and documents from which a detailed knowledge of +the Mexican religion may be drawn.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Such a list is in place in a book +rather than in a lecture. I will only direct your attention to the noble +collection made in 1830 by one of your own compatriots, Lord +Kingsborough, under the title of "Antiquities of Mexico," a work of +extreme importance, which reproduces, in facsimile or engravings, the +monuments and ruins of ancient Mexico;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and the very remarkable work +of Mr. H. H. Bancroft, "Native Races of the Pacific States of North +America."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>II.</h3> + +<p>The region with which we are now to occupy ourselves comprises the space +bounded on the South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> by the Isthmus of Panama, washed East and West by +the oceans, and determined, roughly speaking, towards the North by a +line starting from the head of the Gulf of California, and sweeping +round to the mouths of the Mississippi with a curve that takes in +Arizona and Southern Texas. In our day, this southern portion of North +America is broken into two great divisions, the first and most southern +of which is known collectively as Central America, and embraces the +republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, San Salvador +and Panama. The great peninsula of Yucatan, which is now Mexican, +formerly belonged to this group of Central American peoples. The second +portion of the territory we are to study corresponds to the present +republic of Mexico. I shall presently explain the sense in which it +might be called the Mexican empire in the time of Fernando Cortes. For +the present, let me ask you to remember that we are now about to speak, +in a general and preliminary manner, of the region which pretty closely +corresponds to the present Central America and Mexico.</p> + +<p>To begin with, we treat these two districts as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> single whole, because +the Europeans found them inhabited by a race which was divided, it is +true, into several varieties, but was distinguished clearly from the +Red-skins on the North, and still more from the Eskimos, and alone of +the native races of North America had proved itself capable of rising by +its own strength to a veritable civilization. The general physical type +of the race is marked by a very brown skin, a medium stature, low brow, +black coarse hair, prominent jaw, heavy lips, thick eyebrows, and a +nose generally large and often hooked. The noble families as a rule had +a clearer complexion. The women are thick-set and squab, but not without +grace in their movements. In their youth they are sometimes very pretty, +but they fade early. We must leave it to ethnological specialists to +decide whether this type is not the result of previous crossings.</p> + +<p>So much is certain, that at an epoch the date of which it is impossible +to fix, but which must have been remote, this race, cut off from all the +world by the sea and the profoundest savagery, developed a civilization +<i>sui generis</i>, to which the traditional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> reminiscences of the natives +and a series of most remarkable ruins, discovered especially in Central +America, bear witness. For it is in this southern district that we find +the monumental ruins of Palenque, of Chiapa, of Uxmal, of Utatlan, and +of other places, the list of which has again begun to receive additions +in recent years. When the Spaniards conquered the New World, the centre +of this civilization had shifted further north, to Mexico proper, to the +city of Mexico, to Tezcuco and to Cholula. But the consciousness that +the Mexican civilization was affiliated to that of the isthmic region +had by no means been lost. It was a nation or race called Maya, the name +of which seems to indicate that it considered itself indigenous, and the +proper centre of which lay in Yucatan, that produced this American +civilization—capable of organizing states and priesthoods, of rearing +immense palaces, of carving stone in great perfection and with a true +artistic sense, and of realizing a high degree of physical well-being. +There is reason to believe, however, that this civilization, resembling +in some respects that of ancient Canaan, had more refinement in its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +pursuit of material comfort than vigour in its morality. A certain +effeminacy, and even the endemic practice of odious vices, appears to +have early enervated it. When the Spaniards arrived in America, wars and +devastating invasions had shattered the old and powerful monarchies of +the central region and reduced the great monuments of antiquity to +ruins, and that too so long ago that the natives themselves, while +retaining a certain civilization, had lost all memory of the ancient +cities and the ancient palaces that the Europeans rescued from oblivion. +We may still see figured amongst the monuments of Mexico those beautiful +ruins of Palenque, where stretches a superb gallery, vaulted with the +broad ogives that recal the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra; while +at Tehuantepec an immense temple has been discovered, hollowed out of a +huge rock, like certain temples in India. The cultivation of maize was +to this region what that of wheat was to Egypt and Mesopotamia, or of +rice to India and China, the material condition, namely, of a precocious +civilization. For, as has been remarked, the primitive civilizations +could not be developed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> except where an abundant cereal raised man above +immediate anxiety for his subsistence, and rescued him from the +all-engrossing fatigues and the dangerous uncertainties of the hunter's +life.</p> + +<p>This Maya race, having adopted the agricultural and sedentary life, +multiplied so greatly as to send out many swarms of colonists towards +the North, where the <i>Nahuas</i>, that is to say, "the skilled ones" or +"experts" (for so the emigrants from the Maya land were called), found +men of the same race as themselves, to whom they imparted their superior +knowledge. They kept on pushing northwards, established themselves on +the great plateau of Anahuac, or "lake country," where the city of +Mexico is situated, and advanced up to the somewhat indefinite limit +opposed to their progress by the Red-skins. This migratory movement +towards the North was evidently not the affair of a day. It must have +continued for centuries; and during its process the Maya civilization +may have experienced great developments and undergone numerous +modifications; so that, without venturing to pronounce categorically +upon a problem yet unsolved, I should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> myself be inclined to ascribe to +a population, which either consisted of bands of emigrant Mayas or was +affected by this Nahua movement, those "Mounds" which still throw their +galling defiance at the modern methods of research, powerless to explain +their origin in regions which have since been under the reign of the +most absolute savagery.</p> + +<p>However this may be, the movement by which in a remote antiquity the +peoples of Central America ascended towards the North, carrying with +them their relative civilization to Mexico and even beyond, was reversed +at the epoch of our Middle Ages by a migration in the opposite +direction. In this case it was the peoples of the northern regions that +tended to beat back upon the South. They invaded, conquered and brought +into subjection the peoples who had established themselves along the +path followed by the previous migrations; and it is probably to +invasions of this description that we must ascribe the fall of the +ancient Maya society of the isthmic region. But the civilization of +which it had sown the germs was not dead. Nay, the peoples who descended +upon the South had in great measure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> themselves adopted it; and in the +invaded districts there remained groups and nuclei of Nahua populations +who maintained its principles, its arts and its spirit, to which their +conquerors readily conformed. The last conquerors had been established +as masters in the Mexican district for more than a century when the +Spaniards arrived there. They were the <i>Aztecs</i>. They had conquered or +shattered what was called the <i>Chichimec</i> empire, which in its turn had +destroyed, some centuries earlier, the <i>Toltec</i> empire. But it would be +a mistake to think of three successive empires, Toltec, Chichimec and +Aztec, one supplanting the other in the same way as the Frankish empire, +for example, took the place of that of Rome, which in its turn had +replaced divers others more ancient yet. What really took place was what +follows.</p> + +<p>The prolonged migrations of the Nahuas towards the North had not spread +civilization uniformly amongst all the tribes encountered on the route. +Thus, down to the sixteenth century, there still existed in the heart of +Mexico tribes very little removed from the savage state, such as the +Otomis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> or "wanderers;" whereas, in other districts, the Nahuas had +established themselves on a footing of acknowledged supremacy and +developed a brilliant civilization. Thus they founded at the extreme +north of the present Mexico the ancient city of Tulan or Tullan, the +name of which passed into that of its inhabitants, the <i>Toltecs</i>, and +this latter, in its turn, became the designation of everything graceful, +elegant, artistically refined and beautiful. Ethnographically, it simply +indicates the most brilliant foci of the civilization imported from +Central America. In fact, there never was a Toltec empire at all, but +simply a confederation of the three cities of Tullan, Colhuacan and +Otompan, all of which may be regarded as Toltec in the social sense +which I have just described. Many other small states existed outside +this confederation. It was destroyed by the revolt or invasion of more +northern tribes, hitherto held in vassalage and looked down upon as +belonging to a lower level of culture and manners. These tribes received +or assumed the name of <i>Chichimecs</i> or "dogs," which may have been a +term of contempt converted into a title of honour, like that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> of the +<i>Gueux</i> of the Low Countries. Thus arose a Chichimec confederation, of +which Colhuacan (the name given for a time to Tezcuco), Azcapulzalco, +the capital of the Tepanecs, and Tlacopan, were the principal cities. At +Tezcuco the Toltec element was still powerful. Cholula, a sacred city, +remained essentially Toltec, and in general the Chichimecs readily +adopted the superior civilization of the Toltecs. This was so much the +case that Tezcuco became the seat of an intellectual and artistic +development, in virtue of which the Europeans called it the Athens of +Mexico. It was from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, according +to the historians, that what may be called the Chichimec era lasted.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Aztecs—that is to say +<i>the white flamingos</i> or <i>herons</i> (from <i>aztatl</i>), the last comers from +the North, who had long been a poor and wretched tribe, and on reaching +Anahuac had been obliged to accept the suzerainty of Tezcuco—began to +assume great importance. They had founded, under the name of +Tenochtitlan, upon an island that is now united<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> to the mainland, the +city which was afterwards called Mexico. But originally the name of +Mexico belonged to the quarter of the city which was dedicated to the +god of war, Mextli. At once warlike and commercial, the Aztecs grew in +numbers, wealth and military power; they saved Tezcuco from the dominion +of the Tepanecs, who tried to bring the whole Chichimec confederation +into subjection; presently they threw off all vassalage, and in the +fifteenth century they stood at the head of the new confederation which +took the place of that of the Chichimecs, and of which Mexico, Tezcuco +and Tlacopan (or Tacuba), were the three capitals.</p> + +<p>There was no Mexican empire, then, at the moment when Fernando Cortes +disembarked near Vera Cruz, but there was a federation. On certain days +of religious festivity a solemn public dance was celebrated in Mexico, +in which the sovereign families of the three states, together with their +subjects of the highest rank, took part. It began at noon before the +palace of the Mexican king. They stood three and three. The king of +Mexico<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> led the dance, holding with his right hand the king of Tezcuco, +and with his left the king of Tlacopan, and the three confederate +sovereigns or emperors thus symbolized for several hours the union of +their three states by the harmonious cadence of their movements.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>The widely-spread error that makes Montezuma, the Mexican sovereign that +received Fernando Cortes, the absolute master of the whole district of +the present Mexico, is explained by the fact, that of the three +confederate states that of the Aztecs was by far the strongest, most +warlike and most dreaded. It was constantly extending its dominion by +means of a numerous, disciplined and admirably organized army, and +little by little the other two states were constantly approaching the +condition of vassalage. The Aztecs were no more recalcitrant to +civilization than the Chichimecs, but they were ruder, more +matter-of-fact and more cruel. They did no sacrifices to the Toltec +graces, but developed their civilization exclusively on its utilitarian +and prac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>tical side. They were no artists, but essentially warriors and +merchants. And even their merchants were often at the same time spies +whom the kings of Mexico sent into the countries they coveted, to study +their resources, their strength and their weakness. Their yoke was hard. +They raised heavy tributes. Their policy was one of extreme +centralization, and, without destroying the religion of the peoples +conquered by their arms, they imposed upon them the worship and the +supremacy of their own national deities. Their warlike expeditions bore +a pronounced religious character. The priests marched at the head of the +soldiers, and bore Aztec idols on their backs. On the eve of a battle +they kindled fresh fire by the friction of wood; and it was they who +gave the signal of attack. These wars had pillage and conquest as their +object, but also and very specially the capture of victims to sacrifice +to the Aztec gods. For the Aztecs pushed the superstitious practice of +human sacrifice to absolute frenzy. It was to these horrible sacrifices +that they attributed their successes in war and the prosperity of their +empire. If they experienced a check or had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> suffered any disaster, they +redoubled their blood-stained offerings. But note this trait, so +essentially pagan and in such perfect accord with the polytheistic ideas +of the ancient world—they sacrificed to the gods of the conquered +country too, to show them that it was not against them they were +contending, and that the new régime would not rob them of the homage to +which they were accustomed. The Aztec deities were not <i>jealous</i>. They +confined themselves to vindicating their own pre-eminence. After each +fresh conquest, the Aztecs raised a temple at Mexico bearing the name of +the conquered country, and thither they transported natives of the place +to carry on the worship after their own customs. It seems that they did +not consider even this precaution enough; for they constructed a special +edifice near the great temple of Mexico, where the supreme deities of +the Aztec people were enthroned, and there they shut up the idols of the +conquered countries. This was to prevent their escape, should the desire +come over them to return to their own peoples and help them to +revolt.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> +<p>All this will explain how it was that Fernando Cortes found numerous +allies against Montezuma's despotism amongst the native peoples. For it +is an error, generally received indeed, but contradicted by history, +that the Spanish captain decided the fate of so redoubtable an empire, +and of a city so vigorously defended as Mexico, with the sole aid of his +thousand Europeans.</p> + +<p>For the rest, we are forced to acknowledge that the Aztecs had developed +their civilization, in its political and material aspects, in a way that +does the greatest credit to their sagacity. Property was organized on +the individual and hereditary basis for the noble families, and on the +collective <a name="addenda32" id="addenda32"></a><ins title="Addenda page 32, bases changed to basis">basis</ins> for the people, divided into communities. The taxes +were raised in kind, according to fixed rules. Numbers of slaves were +charged with the most laborious kinds of work. The merchants, assembled +in the cities, formed a veritable <i>tiers-état</i> which exercised a growing +political influence. There were markets, the abundance and wealth of +which stupefied the Spaniards. The luxury of the court and of the great +families was dazzling. No one dared to address the sovereign save with +lowered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> voice, and—strange custom in our eyes!—no one appeared before +him save with naked feet and clad in sordid garments, in sign of +humility. Mexico had been joined to the mainland by causeways, along +which an aqueduct conveyed the pure waters of distant springs to the +city. The irrigation works in the country were numerous and in good +repair. The streets were cleansed by day and lighted at night, +advantages in which none of the European capitals rejoiced in the +sixteenth century. And finally, for we cannot dwell indefinitely upon +this subject, let us note the excellent roads that stretched from Mexico +to the limits of the Aztec empire and the confederated states. Along +these roads the sovereigns of Mexico had established, at intervals of +two leagues, courier posts for the transmission of important news to +them. Montezuma heard of the disembarkment of Fernando Cortes three days +after it took place.</p> + +<p>And now imagine that this people was always averse to navigation—was +ignorant of use of iron, knowing only of gold, silver and copper—had no +beast of traction or burden, neither horse, nor ass,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> nor camel, nor +elephant, nor even the <a name="addenda34" id="addenda34"></a><ins title="Addenda page 34, changed lama to llama">llama</ins> of Peru—was without writing (for though we +find a kind of hieroglyph on the monuments of Mexico and Central +America, yet the system was not of the smallest avail for ordinary +life)—and, finally, had no money except an inconsiderable number of +silver crosses and cacao berries, the mass of exchanges being effected +by barter! On the other hand, they worked in stone with admirable skill. +In their knives and lance and arrow heads, made of obsidian, they +achieved remarkable perfection, and they excelled in the art of +supplying the place of writing by pictures, painted on a kind of aloe +paper or on cotton stuffs, representing the persons or things as to +which they desired to convey information.</p> + +<p>Such, then, is the singular people that Spain was destined to conquer in +the sixteenth century, and whose civilization, though modified by the +special Aztec spirit, rested after all upon the same bases that had +sustained the more ancient civilization of Central America. And this is +equally true of the religion, which, with all the varieties impressed +upon it by the special genius or inclinations of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> diverse peoples, +reveals itself as resting upon one common basis, from the Isthmus of +Panama to the Gulf of California and the mouths of the Rio del Norte.</p> + + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<p>One of the fundamental traits of this regional religion, then, is the +pre-eminence of the Sun, regarded as a personal and animated being, over +all other divinities. At Guatemala, amongst the Lacandones, he was +adored directly, without any images. Amongst their neighbours the Itzas, +not far from Vera Paz, he was represented as a round human head +encircled by diverging rays and with a great open mouth. This symbol, +indeed, was very widely spread in all that region. Often the Sun is +represented putting out his tongue, which means that he lives and +speaks. For in the American hieroglyphics, a protruded tongue, or a +tongue placed by the side of any object, is the emblem of life. A +mountain with a tongue represents a volcano. The Sun was generally +associated with the Moon as spouse, and they were called <i>Grandfather</i> +and <i>Grandmother</i>. In Central America, <a name="addenda35" id="addenda35"></a><ins title="Addenda page 35, +added and">and</ins> in the territory of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> Mexico, may be observed a number of +stone columns which are likewise statues; but the head is generally in +the middle, and is so overlaid with ornaments or attributes, that it is +not very easy to discover it. These are <i>Sun-columns</i>. As he traced the +shadow of these monoliths upon the soil day after day, the Sun appeared +to be caressing them, loving them, taking them as his fellow-workers in +measuring the time. These same columns were also symbols of fructifying +power. Often the Sun has a child, who is no other than a doublet of +himself, but conceived in human form as the civilizer, legislator and +conqueror, bearing diverse names according to the peoples whose hero-god +and first king he is represented as being. And for that matter, if we +had but the time, we might long dwell on the myths of Yucatan, of +Guatemala (amongst the Quichés), of Honduras, and of Nicaragua. By the +side of the Sun and Moon, grandfather and grandmother, there were a +number of great and small deities (some of them extremely vicious), and +amongst others a god of rain, who was called Tohil by the Quichés and +Tlaloc at Mexico,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> where he took his place amongst the most revered +deities. His name signifies "noise," "rumbling." Amongst the Quichés he +had a great temple at Utatlan, pyramidal in form, like all others in +this region of the world, where he was the object of a "perpetual +adoration" offered him by groups of from thirteen to eighteen +worshippers, who relieved each other in relays day and night.</p> + +<p>Human sacrifice was practised by all these peoples, though not to such +an extent as amongst the Aztecs, for they only resorted to it on rare +occasions. It was especially girls that they immolated, with the idea of +giving brides to the gods. They were to exercise their conjugal +influence in favourably disposing their divine consorts towards the +sacrificers. In this connection we find a tragi-comic story of a young +victim whose forced marriage was not in the least to her taste, and who +threatened to pronounce the most terrible maledictions from heaven upon +her slaughterers. Her threats had so much effect that they let her go, +and procured another and less recalcitrant bride for the deity.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> +<p>Finally, we will mention a most characteristic deity (whom we shall +presently recognize at Mexico under yet another name), variously known +as Cuculkan (bird-serpent), Gucumatz (feathered-serpent), +Hurakan—whence our "hurricane"—Votan (serpent), &c. He is always a +serpent, and generally feathered or flying. He is a personification of +the wind, especially of the east wind, which brings the fertilizing +rains in that district. Almost everywhere he is credited with gentle and +beneficent dispositions, and therefore with a certain hostility to human +sacrifice. It was this deity, in one of his forms, who was worshipped in +the sacred island of Cozumel, situated close to Yucatan, to which +pilgrimages were made from great distances. It was there that the +Spaniards, to their great surprise, first observed a cross surmounting +the temple of this god of the wind. This was the starting-point of the +legend according to which the Apostle Thomas had of old evangelized +America. It is a pure illusion. The pagan cross of Central America and +Mexico is nothing whatever but the symbol of the four cardinal points of +the compass from which blow the four chief winds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>Such is the common religious basis, which we have simply sketched in its +most general outlines, and upon which the more elaborate and sombre +religion of the Aztecs, which we shall examine at our next meeting, was +reared. Pray observe that we find in this group of connected beliefs and +worships something quite analogous to the polytheism of the ancient +world. The only notable difference is, that the god of Heaven, Dyaus, +Varuna, Zeus, Ahura Mazda, or (in China) Tien, does not occupy the same +pre-eminent place in the American mythology that he takes in its +European and Asiatic counterparts. For the rest, the processes of the +human spirit are absolutely identical in the two continents. In both +alike it is the phenomena of nature, regarded as animated and conscious, +that wake and stimulate the religious sentiment and become the objects +of the adoration of man. At the same time, and in virtue of the same +process of internal logic, these personified beings come to be regarded +more and more as possessed of a nature superior in power indeed, but in +all other respects closely conforming, to that of man. If +nature-worship, with the animism that it engenders, shapes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> the first +law to which nascent religion submits in the human race, +anthropomorphism furnishes the second, disengaging itself ever more and +more completely from the zoomorphism which generally serves as an +intermediary. This is so <i>everywhere</i>. And thus we may safely leave to +ethnologists the task of deciding whether the whole human race descends +from one original couple or from many; for, spiritually speaking, +humanity in any case is one. It is one same spirit that animates it and +is developed in it; and this, the incontestable unity of our race, is +likewise the only unity we need care to insist on. Let us recognize it, +then, since indeed it imposes itself upon us, and let us confess that +the gospel did but anticipate the last word of science in proclaiming +universal fraternity.</p> + +<p>And here, Gentlemen, we reach one of those grand generalizations which +must finally win over even those who are still inclined to distrust the +philosophical history of religions as a study that destroys the most +precious possessions of humanity. In setting forth the intellectual and +moral unity of mankind, everywhere directed by the same successive +evolutions and the same spiritual laws, it brings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> into light the great +principle of <i>human brotherhood</i>. In demonstrating that these +evolutions, in spite of all the influences of ignorance, of selfishness +and of grossness, converge towards a sublime, ideal goal, and are no +other than the mysterious but mighty and unbroken attraction to that +unfathomable Power of which the universe is the visible expression, it +founds on a basis of reason the august sentiment of the <i>divine +fatherhood</i>. Brother-men and one Father-God!—what more does the thinker +need to raise the dignity of our nature, the promises of the future, the +sublimity of our destiny, into a region where the inconstant waves of a +superficial criticism can never reach them? Such is the vestibule of the +eternal Temple; and in approaching the sanctuary—albeit I may not know +the very title by which best to call the Deity who reigns in it—I bow +my head with that union of humility and of filial trust which +constitutes the pure essence of religion.</p> + +<p>But from these general considerations we must return to our more +immediate subject. At our next meeting, Gentlemen, we are to study the +special beliefs and mythology of ancient Mexico. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +<a name="LECTURE_II" id="LECTURE_II"></a><span class="sub">LECTURE II.</span><br /><br /> + +THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO.</h2> + + + +<p class="indent2"><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>It will be my task to-day to give an account of the Mexican mythology +and religion, resting as it does on the foundation common to the peoples +of Central America, but inspired by the sombre, utilitarian, +matter-of-fact, yet vigorous and earnest, genius of the Aztecs. You will +remember that this name belongs to the warlike and commercial people +that enjoyed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a military and +political supremacy in the region that is now called Mexico, after the +Aztec capital of that name.</p> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>To begin with, we must note that the ancient Central-American cultus of +the Sun and Moon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> considered as the two supreme deities, was by no +means renounced by the Aztecs. Ometecutli (i.e. <i>twice Lord</i>) and +Omecihuatl (<i>twice Lady</i>), or in other words supreme Lord and Lady, are +the designations under which they are always indicated in the first rank +in the religious formulæ. All the Mexicans called themselves "children +of the Sun," and greeted him every morning with hymns and with trumpet +peals, accompanied with offerings. Four times by day and four times by +night, priests who were attached to the various temples addressed their +devotions to him. And yet he had no temple specially consecrated to him. +The fact was that all temples were really his, much as in our own +Christian civilization all the churches are raised in honour of God, +though particular designations are severally given to them. The Sun was +the <i>teotl</i> (i.e. the god) <i>par excellence</i>. I am informed that to this +very day the inhabitants of secluded parts of Mexico, as they go to +mass, throw a kiss to the sun before entering the church.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all this, we have to observe that, by an inconsistency +which again has its ana<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>logies in other religions, the cultus of the +supreme deity and his consort was pretty much effaced in the popular +devotions and practices by that of divinities who were perhaps less +august, and in some cases were even derived from the substance of the +supreme deity himself, but in any case seemed to stand nearer to +humanity than he did. More especially, the national deities of the +Aztecs, the guardians of their empire, whose worship they instituted +wherever their arms had triumphed, practically took the first place. It +is with these national deities that we are now to make acquaintance, and +we cannot do better than begin with the two great deities of the city of +Mexico, whose colossal statues were enthroned on its principal temple.</p> + +<p>But first we must form some notion of what a Mexican temple was.</p> + +<p>The word "temple," if held to imply an enclosed and covered building, is +very improperly applied to the kind of edifice in question. Indeed, a +Mexican temple (and the same may be said of most of the sanctuaries of +Central America) was essentially a gigantic altar, of pyramidal form, +built in several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> stages, contracting as they approached the summit. The +number of these retreating stories or terraces might vary. There were +never less than three, but there might be as many as five or six, and in +Tezcuco some of these quasi-pyramids even numbered nine. The one that +towered over all the rest in the city of Mexico was built in five +stages. It measured, at its base, about three hundred and seventy-five +feet in length and three hundred in width, and was over eighty feet +high. At a certain point in each terrace was the stair that sloped +across the side of the pyramid to the terrace above; but the successive +ascents were so arranged that it was necessary to make the complete +circuit of the edifice in order to mount from one stage to another, and +consequently the grand processions to which the Mexicans were so much +devoted must have encircled the whole edifice from top to bottom, like a +huge living serpent, before the van could reach the broad platform at +the top, and this must have added not a little to the picturesque effect +of these religious ceremonies. Such an erection was called a <i>teocalli</i> +or "abode of the gods." The great teocalli<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> of Mexico commanded the four +chief roads that parted from its base to unite the capital to all the +countries beneath the sceptre of its rulers. It was the palladium of the +empire, and, as at Jerusalem, it was the last refuge of the defenders of +the national independence.</p> + +<p>The teocalli which Fernando Cortes and his companions saw at Mexico, and +which the conqueror razed to the ground, to replace it by a Catholic +church, was not of any great antiquity. It had been constructed +thirty-four years before, in the place of another much smaller one that +dated from the time when the Aztecs were but an insignificant tribe; and +it seems that frightful human hecatombs had ensanguined the foundations +of this more recent teocalli. Some authorities speak of seventy-two or +eighty thousand victims, while more moderate calculations reduce the +number to twenty thousand, which is surely terrible enough. In front of +the temple there stretched a spacious court some twelve hundred feet +square. All around were smaller buildings, which served as habitations +for the priests, and store-houses for the apparatus of worship, as well +as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> arsenals, oratories for the sovereign and the grandees of the +empire, chapels for the inferior deities and so on. Amongst these +buildings was the temple in which, as I have said, the gods of the +conquered peoples were literally imprisoned. In another the Spaniards +could count a hundred and thirty-six thousand symmetrically-piled +skulls. They were the skulls of all the victims that had been sacrificed +since the foundation of the sanctuary. And, by a contrast no less than +monstrous, side by side with this monument of the most atrocious +barbarism there were halls devoted to the care of the poor and sick, who +were tended gratuitously by priests.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> What a tissue of contradictions +is man!</p> + +<p>But the Aztec religion does not allow us to dwell upon the note of +tenderness. In the centre of the broad platform at the summit stood the +<i>stone of sacrifices</i>, a monolith about three feet high, slightly ridged +on the surface. Upon this stone the victim was stretched supine, and +while sundry subordinate priests held his head, arms and feet, the +sacrificing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> pontiff raised a heavy knife, laid open his bosom with one +terrific blow, and tore out his heart to offer it all bleeding and +palpitating to the deity in whose honour the sacrifice was performed. +And here you will recognize that idea, so widely spread in the two +Americas, and indeed almost everywhere amongst uncivilized peoples, that +the heart is the epitome, so to speak, of the individual—his soul in +some sense—so that to appropriate his heart is to appropriate his whole +being.</p> + +<p>Finally, there rose on the same platform a kind of chapel in which were +enthroned the two chief deities of the Aztecs, Uitzilopochtli and +Tezcatlipoca.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> And here I will ask you to accompany Captain Bernal +Diaz in the retinue of his chief, Fernando Cortes, to whom the king +Montezuma himself had seen fit to do the honours of his "cathedral." +For, as you are aware, Montezuma, divided between a rash confidence and +certain apprehensions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> which I shall presently explain, received Cortes +for a considerable time with the utmost distinction, lodged him in one +of his palaces, and did everything in the world to please him. This, +then, is the narrative of Bernal Diaz:<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"Montezuma invited us to enter a little tower, where in a kind +of chamber, or hall, stood what appeared like two altars covered +with rich embroidery." (What Bernal Diaz compared to altars were +the two <i>Teoicpalli</i> (or <i>seats of the gods</i>), which were wooden +pedestals, painted azure blue and bearing a serpent's head at +each corner).... "The first [idol], placed on the right, we were +told represented Huichilobos, their god of war" (this was as +near as Bernal Diaz could get to Uitzilopochtli), "with his face +and countenance very broad, his eyes monstrous and terrible; all +his body was covered with jewels, gold and pearls of various +sizes.... His body was girt with things like great serpents, +made with gold and precious stones, and in one hand he held a +bow, and arrows in the other. And another little idol who stood +by him, and, as they said, was his page, carried a short lance +for him, and a very rich shield of gold and jewels. And +Huichilobos had his neck hung round with faces of Indians, and +what seemed to be the hearts of these same Indians, made of +gold, or some of them of silver, covered with blue gems; and +there stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> some brasiers there, containing incense made with +copal and the hearts of three Indians who had been slain that +same day; and they were burning, and with the smoke and incense +they had made that sacrifice to him; and all the walls of this +oratory were so bathed and blackened with cakes of blood, as was +the very ground itself, that the whole exhaled a very foul +odour.</p> + +<p>"Carrying our eyes to the left we perceived another great mass, +as high as Huichilobos. Its face was like a bear's, and its +shining eyes were made of mirrors called Tezcat. Its body was +covered with rich gems like that of Huichilobos, for they said +that they were brothers. And this Tescatepuca" (the mutilated +form under which Bernal Diaz presents Tezcatlipoca) "was the god +of hell" (this is another mistake, for Tezcatlipoca was a +celestial deity).... "His body was surrounded with figures like +little imps, with tails like serpents; and the walls were so +caked and the ground so saturated with blood, that the +slaughterhouses of Castile do not exhale such a stench; and +indeed we saw the hearts of five victims who had been +slaughtered that same day.... And since everything smelt of the +shambles, we were impatient to escape from the foul odour and +yet fouler sight."</p> +</blockquote> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>Such was the impression made upon a Spanish soldier and a good Catholic +by the sight of the two chief deities of the Mexican people. To him +they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> were simply two abominable inventions of Satan. Let us try to go a +little further below the surface.</p> + +<p>Uitzilopochtli signifies <i>Humming-bird to the left</i>, from <i>Uizilin</i> +(Humming-bird), and <i>opochtli</i> (to the left). The latter part of the +name is probably due to the position we have just seen noticed to the +left of the other great deity, Tezcatlipoca. But why Humming-bird? What +can there be in common between this graceful little creature and the +monstrous idol of the Aztecs? The answer is given by the American +mythology, in which the Humming-bird is a divine being, the messenger of +the Sun. In the Aztec language it is often called the "sunbeam" or the +"sun's hair." This charming little bird, with the purple, gold and topaz +sheen of its lovely plumage, as it flits amongst the flowers like a +butterfly, darts out its long tongue before it to extract their juices, +with a burring of its wings like the humming of bees, whence it derives +its English name. Moreover, it is extremely courageous, and will engage +with far larger birds than itself in defence of its nest. In the +northern regions of Mexico, the humming-bird is the messenger of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +spring, as the swallow is with us. At the beginning of May, after a cold +and dry season that has parched the soil and blighted all verdure, the +atmosphere becomes pregnant with rain, the sun regains his power, and a +marvellous transformation sets in. The land arrays itself, before the +very eyes, with verdure and flowers, the air is filled with perfumes, +the maize comes to a head, and hosts of humming-birds appear, as if to +announce that the fair season has returned. We may lay it down as +certain that the humming-bird was the object of a religious cultus +amongst the earliest Aztecs, as the divine messenger of the Spring, like +the wren amongst our own peasantry, the plover amongst the Latins, and +the crow amongst many tribes of the Red-skins. It was the emissary of +the Sun.</p> + +<p>It was in this capacity, and under the law of anthropomorphism to which +all the Mexican deities were subject, that the divine humming-bird, as a +revealing god, the protector of the Aztec nation, took the human form +more and more completely in the religious consciousness of his +worshippers. And indeed the Mexican mythology gives form to this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> idea +that the divine humming-bird (of which those on earth were but the +relatives or little brothers) was a celestial man like an Aztec of the +first rank, in the following legend of his incarnation.</p> + +<p>Near to Coatepec, that is to say the Mountain of Serpents,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> lived the +pious widow <i>Coatlicue</i> or <i>Coatlantona</i> (the ultimate meaning of which +is "female serpent"). One day, as she was going to the temple to worship +the Sun, she saw a little tuft of brilliantly coloured feathers fall at +her feet. She picked it up and placed it in her bosom to present as an +offering to the Sun. But when she was about to draw it forth, she knew +not what had come upon her. Soon afterwards she perceived that she was +about to become a mother. Her children were so enraged that they +determined to kill her, but a voice from her womb cried out to her, +"Mother, have no fear, for I will save thee, to thy great honour and my +own great glory." And in fact Coatlicue's children failed in their +murderous attempt. In due time Uitzilopochtli was born, grasping his +shield and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> lance, with a plume of feathers shaped like a bird's beak on +his head, with humming-birds' feathers on his left leg, and his face, +arms and legs barred with blue. Endowed from his birth with +extraordinary strength, while still an infant he put to death those who +had attempted to slay his mother, together with all who had taken their +part. He gave her everything he could take from them; and after +accomplishing mighty feats on behalf of the Aztecs, whom he had taken +under his protection, he re-ascended to heaven, bearing his mother with +him, and making her henceforth the goddess of flowers.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>You will be struck by the analogy between this myth and more than one +Greek counterpart. There is the same method of reducing to the +conditions of human life, and concentrating at a single point of time +and space, a permanent or regularly recurrent and periodic natural +phenomenon. Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird, has come from the Sun with +the purpose of making himself man, and he has therefore taken flesh in +an Aztec woman, Coatlicue, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> serpent, who is no other than the spring +florescence, and therefore the Mexican Flora. It is not only amongst the +Mexicans that the creeping progress of the spring vegetation, stretching +along the ground towards the North, has suggested the idea of a divine +serpent crawling over the earth. The Athenian myth of Erichthonius is a +conception of the same order. The celestial humming-bird, then, +offspring of the Sun, valiant and warlike from the day of his birth, +champion of his mother, plundering and ever victorious, is the symbol +instinctively seized on by the Aztec people; for it, too, had sprung +from humble beginnings, had been despised and menaced by its neighbours, +and had grown so marvellously in power and in wealth as to have become +the invincible lord of Anahuac. Uitzilopochtli had grown with the Aztec +people. He bears, amongst other surnames, that of Mextli, the warrior, +whence the name of Mexico. He protects his people and ever extends the +boundaries of its empire. And thus, in spite of his bearing the name of +a little bird, his statue as an incarnate deity had become colossal. Yet +the Aztecs did not lose the memory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> of his original minuteness of +stature. Did you observe, in the account given by Bernal Diaz, that +there stood at the feet of the huge idol another quite small one, that +served, according to the Spanish Captain, as his page? This was the +<i>Uitziton</i>, or "little humming-bird," called also the <i>Paynalton</i>, or +the "little quick one," whose image was borne by a priest at the head of +the soldiers as they charged the enemy. On the day of his festival, too, +he was borne at full speed along the streets of the city. He was, +therefore, the diminutive Uitzilopochtli, or, more correctly speaking, +the Uitzilopochtli of the early days, the portable idol of the still +wandering tribe; and in fidelity to those memories, as well as to +preserve the warlike rite to the efficacy of which they attached so much +value, the Aztecs had kept the small statue by the side of the great +one.</p> + +<p>To sum up: Uitzilopochtli was a derivative form or determination of the +Sun, and specifically of the Sun of the fair season. He had three great +annual festivals. The first fell in May, at the moment of the return of +the flowering vegetation. The second was celebrated in August, when the +favourable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> season unfolded all its beauty. The third coincided with our +month of December. It was the beginning of the cold and dry season. On +the day of this third festival they made a statue in Uitzilopochtli's +likeness, out of dough concocted with the blood of sacrificed infants, +and, after all kinds of ceremonies, a priest pierced the statue with an +arrow. Uitzilopochtli would die with the verdure, the flowers and all +the beauteous adornments of spring and summer. But, like Adonis, like +Osiris, like Atys, and so many other solar deities, he only died to live +and to return again.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>It was now his brother Tezcatlipoca who took the direction of the world. +His name signifies "Shining Mirror." As the Sun of the cold and sterile +season, he turned his impassive glance upon all the world, or gazed into +the mirror of polished crystal that he held in his hand, in which all +the actions of men were reflected. He was a stern god of judgment, with +whose being ideas of moral retribution were associated. He was therefore +much dreaded. Up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> to a certain point he reminds us of the Vedic Varuna. +His statue was made of dark obsidian rock, and his face recalled that of +the bear or tapir. Suspended to his hair, which was plaited into a tail +and enclosed in a golden net, there hung an ear, which was likewise made +of gold, towards which there mounted flocks of smoke in the form of +tongues. These were the prayers and supplications of mortals. Maladies, +famines and death, were the manifestations of Tezcatlipoca's justice. +Dry as the season over which he presided, he was not easily moved. And +yet he was not absolutely inexorable. The ardent prayers, the sacrifices +and the supplications of his priests might avert the strokes of his +wrath. But in spite of all, he was pre-eminently the god of austere law. +And this is why he was regarded as the civilizing and organizing deity +of the Aztecs. It was he who had established the laws that governed the +people and who watched over their observance. In this capacity he made +frequent journeys of inspection, like an invisible prefect of police, +through the city of Mexico, to see what was going on there. Stone seats +had been erected in the streets for him to rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> upon on these +occasions, and no mortal would have dared to occupy them. At the same +time a terrible and cruel subtlety in the means he employed to +accomplish his ends was attributed to him; and the legend about him, +which is far less brilliant than that of his brother Uitzilopochtli, led +several Europeans to believe that he was simply an ancient magician who +had spread terror around him by his sorceries. All this we see +exemplified in his conflicts with a third great deity whom we shall next +describe. In any case we may define Tezcatlipoca as another +determination of the Sun, and specifically of the winter Sun of the +cold, dry, sterile season.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The third great deity is Quetzalcoatl, that is to say "the feathered +serpent," or "the serpent-bird;" and it is specially noteworthy, in +connection with the elevated rank which he occupied in the Mexican +pantheon, that he was not an Aztec deity, but one of the ancient gods of +the invaded country. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> was in fact a Toltec deity, and we recognize in +his name, as well as in the special notes in the legend concerning him, +that god of the wind whom we know already in Central America under the +varying names of Cuculcan, Hurakan, Gucumatz, Votan and so forth. He is +almost always a serpent, and a serpent with feathers. His temple at +Mexico departed altogether from the pyramidal type that we have +described. It was dome-shaped and covered. The entrance was formed by a +great serpent-mouth, wide open and showing its fangs, so that the +Spaniards thought it represented a gate of hell. Quetzalcoatl's priests +were clothed in white, whereas the ordinary garb of the Mexican priests +was black. There was something mysterious and occult about the +priesthood of this deity, as though it were possessed of divine secrets +or promises, the importance of which it would be dangerous to +undervalue. A special aversion to human sacrifice, and especially to the +frightful abuse of the practice amongst the Aztecs, was attributed to +this god and his priests, in passive protest, as it were, against the +sanguinary rites to which the Aztecs attributed the prosperity of their +empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>The legend of Quetzalcoatl, as the Aztecs transmitted it to the +Spaniards, is a motley concatenation of euhemerized myths. Its +historical basis is the continuous retreat of the Toltecs before the +northern invaders, with their god Tezcatlipoca. This latter deity +becomes a magician, cunning and malicious enough to get the better of +the gentle Quetzalcoatl on every occasion. I regret that time will not +allow me to tell in detail of the combat between Tezcatlipoca and +Quetzalcoatl. The latter was a sovereign who lived long ago at Tulla, +the northern focus of Toltec civilization. Under his sceptre men lived +in great happiness and enjoyed abundance of everything. He had taught +them agriculture, the use of the metals, the art of cutting stone, the +means of fixing the calendar; and being opposed to the sacrifice of +human victims—note this—he had advised their replacement by the +drawing of blood from the tongue, the lips, the chest, the legs, &c. +Tezcatlipoca succeeded by his enchantments in destroying this rule of +peace and prosperity, and forced Quetzalcoatl to quit Tulla, which +thereupon fell in ruins. He then pursued him into Cholula, the ancient +sacred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> city of the Toltecs, in which he had sought refuge, and in which +he had again made happiness and abundance reign. Finally, he forced him +to quit the continent altogether, and embark in a mysterious vessel not +far from Vera Cruz, near to the very spot where Cortes disembarked. +Since then Quetzalcoatl had disappeared; "But wait!" said his priests, +"for he will return." This expectation of Quetzalcoatl's return +furnishes a kind of parallel to the Messianic hope, or more closely yet +to the early Christian expectation of the <i>parousia</i> or "second coming" +of the Christ. For when he returned, it would be to punish his enemies, +to chastise the wicked, the oppressors and the tyrants. And that is why +the Aztecs dreaded his return, and why they had not dared to proscribe +his cultus, but, on the contrary, recognized it and carried it on. And +if you would know the real secret of the success of Fernando Cortes in +his wild enterprize—for, after all, the Mexican sovereign could easily +have crushed him and his handful of men, by making a hecatomb of them +before they had had time to entrench themselves and make allies—you +will find it in the fact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> that Montezuma, whose conscience was oppressed +with more crimes than one, had a very lively dread of Quetzalcoatl's +return; and when he was informed that at the very point where the +dreaded god had embarked, to disappear in the unknown East, strange and +terrible beings had been seen to disembark, bearing with them fragments +of thunderbolts, in tubes that they could discharge whenever they +would—some of them having two heads and six legs, swifter of foot than +the fleetest men—Montezuma could not doubt that—it was Quetzalcoatl +returning, and instead of sending his troops against Cortes, he +preferred to negotiate with him, to allow him to approach, and to +receive him in his own palace. And although doubts soon asserted +themselves in his mind, yet he long retained, perhaps even to the last, +a superstitious dread of Cortes, that enabled the latter to secure a +complete ascendancy over him. This, I repeat, was the secret of the bold +Spaniard's success; nor can we ever understand the matter rightly unless +we take into consideration the significance of this worship of +Quetzalcoatl that the Aztecs had continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> to respect, though all the +while flattering themselves that their own god, Tezcatlipoca, would be +able once more to protect them against his ancient adversary. Years +after the conquest, Father Sahagun had still to answer the question of +the natives, who asked him what he knew of the country of +Quetzalcoatl.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>What, then, was the fundamental significance of this feathered Serpent +that so pre-occupied the religious consciousness of the Aztecs?</p> + +<p>He was not the Sun. The Sun does not disappear in the East. He was a god +of the wind, as Father Sahagun perfectly well understood, but of that +wind in particular that brings over the parched land of Mexico the tepid +and fertilizing exhalations of the Atlantic. And this is why +Tezcatlipoca, the god of the cold and dry season, rather than +Uitzilopochtli, is his personal enemy. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> towards the end of the dry +season that the fertilizing showers begin to fall on the eastern shores, +and little by little to reach the higher lands of the interior. The +flying Serpent, then, the wind that comes like a huge bird upon the air, +bringing life and abundance with it, is a benevolent deity who spreads +prosperity wherever he goes. But he does not always breathe over the +land, and does not carry his blessed moisture everywhere. Tezcatlipoca +appears. The lofty plateaux of Tulla, of Mexico and of Cholula, are the +first victims of his desolating force. Quetzalcoatl withdraws ever +further and further to the East, and at last disappears in the great +ocean.</p> + +<p>Such is the natural basis of the myth of Quetzalcoatl, and the +justification of my remark that we find in him the pendant of those +deities, serpents and birds in one, who were adored in Central America, +and who answered, like Quetzalcoatl, to the idea of the Atlantic wind. +He was, in truth, the ancient deity that the Nahuas or Mayas of the +civilized immigrations brought with them when they settled in Anahuac +and still further North.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> Like all the other gods of these regions, +Quetzalcoatl had assumed the human shape more and more completely. We +still possess, especially in the Trocadero Museum at Paris, great blocks +of stone on which he is represented as a serpent covered with feathers, +coiled up and sleeping till the time comes for him to wake. But there +are also statues of him in human form, save that his body is surmounted +by a bird's head, with the tongue projected. Now in the Mexican +hieroglyphie this bird's head, with the tongue put out, is no other than +the symbol of the wind. Hence, too, his names of <i>Tohil</i> "the hummer" or +"the whisperer," <i>Ehecatl</i> "the breeze," <i>Nauihehecatl</i> "the lord of the +four winds," &c. The naturalistic meaning of Quetzalcoatl, then, cannot +admit of the smallest doubt.</p> + +<p>It is probably to the more gentle and humane religious tendency which +was kept alive by the priesthood of this deity, that we must attribute +the attempted reform of the king of Tezcuco, Netzalhuatcoyotl (the +fasting coyote), who has been called the Mexican Solomon. He was a poet +and philosopher as well as king, and had no love either of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> idolatry or +of sanguinary sacrifices. He had a great pyramidal teocalli of nine +stages erected in his capital for the worship of the god of heaven, to +whom he brought no offerings except flowers and perfumes. He died in +1472, and, as far as we can see, his reformation made no progress. The +ever-increasing preponderance of the Aztecs was as unfavourable as +possible to this humane and spiritual tendency in religion.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Yet one +loves to dwell upon the fact, that even in the midst of a religion +steeped in blood, a protest was inspired by the sentiment of humanity, +linked, as it should always be, with the progress of religious thought.</p> + + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>We must now proceed with our review of the Mexican deities, but I must +be content with indicating the most important amongst them; for without +admitting, with Gomara—who registered many names and epithets belonging +to one and the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> divinity as indicating so many distinct +beings—that their number rose to two thousand, we find that the most +moderate estimate of the historians raises them to two hundred and +sixty. We shall confine ourselves, then, to the most significant.</p> + +<p>The importance of rain in the regions of Mexico, so marked in the myths +we have already considered, prepares us to find amongst the great gods +the figure of Tlaloc, whose name signifies "the nourisher," and who was +the god of rain. He was believed to reside in the mountains, whence he +sent the clouds. He was also the god of fecundity. Lightning and thunder +were amongst his attributes, and his character was no more amiable than +that of the Mexican deities in general. His cultus was extremely cruel. +Numbers of children were sacrificed to him. His statues were cut in a +greenish white stone, of the colour of water. In one hand he held a +sceptre, the symbol of lightning; in the other, a thunderbolt. He was a +cyclops; that is to say, he had but one eye, which shows that he must be +ultimately identified as an ancient personification of the rainy sky, +whose one eye is the sun. His huge mouth, garnished with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> crimson teeth, +was always open, to signify his greed and his sanguinary tastes. His +wife was <i>Chalchihuitlicue</i>, "the lady Chalchihuit," whose name is +identical with that of a soft green jade stone that was much valued in +Mexico. Her numerous offspring, the Tlalocs, probably represent the +clouds. Side by side with the hideous sacrifices of which Tlaloc's +festival was the occasion, we may note the grotesque ceremony in which +his priests flung themselves pell-mell into a pond, imitating the action +and the note of frogs. This is but one of a thousand proofs that in the +rites intended to conciliate the nature-gods, it was thought well to +reproduce in mimicry the actions of those creatures who were supposed to +be their favourites or chosen servants. The frogs were manifestly loved +by the god of the waters, and to secure his good graces his priests, as +was but natural, transformed themselves into frogs likewise. It was with +this cultus especially that the symbol of the Mexican cross was +connected, as indicating the four points of the horizon from which the +wind might blow.</p> + +<p><i>Centeotl</i> was another great deity, a kind of Mexican<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> Ceres or Demeter. +She was the goddess of Agriculture, and very specially of maize. Indeed, +her name signifies "maize-goddess," being derived from <i>centli</i> (maize) +and <i>teotl</i> (divine being). Sometimes, however, inasmuch as this goddess +had a son who bore the same name as herself, Centeotl stands for a male +deity. The female deity is often represented with a child in her arms, +like a Madonna. This child, who is no other than the maize itself, grows +up, becomes an adult god, and is the masculine Centeotl. The feminine +Centeotl, moreover, bears many other names, such as <i>Tonantzin</i> (our +revered mother), <i>Cihuatcoatl</i> (lady serpent), and very often <i>Toci</i> or +<i>Tocitzin</i> (our grandmother). She was sometimes represented in the form +of a frog, the symbol of the moistened earth, with a host of mouths or +breasts on her body. She had also a daughter, <i>Xilonen</i>, the young +maize-ear, corresponding to the Persephone or Kore of the Greeks. Her +face was painted yellow, the colour of the maize. Her character, at +least amongst the Aztecs, had nothing idyllic about it, and we shall +have to return presently to the frightful sacrifices which were +celebrated in her honour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>Next comes the god of Fire, <i>Xiuhtecutli</i> (the Lord Fire), a very +ancient deity, as we see by one of his many surnames, <i>Huehueteotl</i> (the +old god). He is represented naked, with his chin blackened, with a +head-dress of green feathers, carrying on his back a kind of serpent +with yellow feathers, thus combining the different fire colours. And +inasmuch as he looked across a disk of gold, called "the looking-plate," +we may ask whether his primitive significance was not very closely +allied to that of Tezcatlipoca, the shining mirror of the cold season. +Sacrifice was offered to him daily. In every house the first libation +and the first morsel of bread were consecrated to him. And finally, as +an instance of the astounding resemblance that is forced upon our +attention between the religious development of the Old World and that of +the New, only conceive that in Mexico, as in ancient Iran and other +countries of Asia and Europe, the fire in every house must be +extinguished on a certain day in every year, and the priest of +Xiuhtecutli kindled fire anew by friction before the statue of his god. +You are aware that this rite, with which so many customs and +superstitions are connected, rests on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> idea that Fire is a divine +being, of celestial and pure origin, which is shut up in the wood, and +which is contaminated in the long run by contact with men and with human +affairs. Hence it follows that in order for it to retain its virtues, to +continue to act as a purifier and to spread its blessings amongst men, +it must be brought down anew, from time to time, from its divine +source.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>The Aztecs also had a Venus, a goddess of Love, who bore the name of +<i>Tlazolteotl</i> (the goddess of Sensuality).<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> At Tlascala she was known +by the more elegant name of <i>Xochiquetzal</i> (the flowery plume). She +lived in heaven, in a beautiful garden, spinning and embroidering, +surrounded by dwarfs and buffoons, whom she kept for her amusement. We +hear of a battle of the gods of which she was the object. Though the +wife of Tlaloc, she was loved and carried off by Tezcatlipoca. This +probably gives us the clue to her mythic origin. She must have been the +aquatic vegetation of the marsh lands,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> possessed by the god of waters, +till the sun dries her up and she disappears. The legend about her is +not very edifying. It was she—to mention only a single feat—who +prevailed over the pious hermit Yappan, when he had victoriously +resisted all other temptations. After his fall he was changed into a +scorpion; and that is why the scorpion, full of wrath at the memory of +his fall and fleeing the daylight, is so poisonous and lives hidden +under stones.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>We have still to mention <i>Mixcoatl</i>, the cloud-serpent, whose name +survives to our day as the designation of water-spouts in Mexico, and +who was specially worshipped by the still almost savage populations of +the secluded mountain districts,—<i>Omacatl</i>, "the double reed," a kind +of Momus, the god of good cheer, who may very well be a secondary form +of Tlaloc, and who avenged himself, when defrauded of due homage, by +interspersing hairs and other disagreeable objects amongst the +viands,—<i>Ixtlilton</i>, "the brown," a sort of Esculapius, the healing +god, whose priest concocted a blackish liquid that passed as an +efficacious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> remedy for every kind of disease,—<i>Yacatecutli</i>, "the lord +guide," the god of travellers and of commerce, whose ordinary symbol was +the stick with a carved handle carried by the Mexicans when on a +journey, who was sedulously worshipped by the commercial and middle +classes of Mexico, and in connection with whom we may note that every +Mexican, when travelling, would be careful to fix his stick in the +ground every evening and pay his respectful devotions to it,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>—and, +finally, <i>Xipe</i>, "the bald," or "the flayed," the god of goldsmiths, +probably another form of Uitzilopochtli (whose festival coincided with +his), deriving his name apparently from the polishing process to which +gold (no doubt regarded as belonging to the substance of the sun) had to +undergo to give it the required brilliance, and to whose hideous cultus +we shall have to return in our next Lecture.</p> + +<p>I must now be brief, and will only speak further of the <i>Tepitoton</i>, +that is to say, the "little tiny ones," minute domestic idols, the +number of which was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> incalculable. They insensibly lower to the level of +animism and fetishism that religion which, as we have seen, bears +comparison in its grander aspects with the most renowned mythologies of +the ancient world. I must, however, allow myself a few words on the god +<i>Mictlan</i>, the Mexican Hades or Pluto. His name properly signifies +"region of the North;" but inasmuch as the North was regarded as the +country of mist, of barrenness and of death, his name easily passed into +the designation of the subterranean country of the dead. The Germanic +<i>Helle</i> has a similar history, for it was first localized in the wintry +North and then carried underground. Mictlan, like Hades, was used as a +name alike for the sojourn and for the god of the dead. This deity had a +consort who bore divers names, and he also had at his command a number +of genii or servants, called <i>Tzitzimitles</i>, a sort of malicious demons +held in great dread by the living. Of course both Mictlan and his wives +are always represented under a hideous aspect, with huge open mouths, or +rather jaws, often in the act of devouring an infant.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> +<p>At last we have done! In the next Lecture we shall penetrate to the very +heart of this singular religion, as we discuss its terrible sacrifices, +its institutions, and its doctrines concerning this world and the life +to come. And here, again, we shall find cause for amazement in the +striking analogies it presents to the rites and institutions of other +religions much nearer home. Meanwhile, observe that in examining the +purely mythological portion of the subject which we have passed in +review to-day, we have seen that there is not a single law manifested by +the mythologies of the ancient world, which had not its parallel +manifestations in Mexico before it was discovered by the Europeans. The +great gods, derived from a dramatized nature—animism, with the +fetishism that springs from it, occupying the basement, if I may so +express myself, beneath these mythological conceptions—in the midst of +all a tendency manifested from time to time towards a purer and more +spiritual conception of the adorable Being—all re-appears and all is +combined in Mexico, even down to something like an incarnation, and the +hope of the coming of the god of justice and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> goodness who will +restore all things. Indeed, I know not where else one could look for so +complete a résumé of what has constituted in all places, now the +smallness and wretchedness, now the grandeur and nobleness, of that +incomprehensible and irresistible factor of human nature which we call +<i>religion</i>. The "eternally religious" element in man had stamped its +mark upon the unknown Mexico as upon all other lands; and when at last +it was discovered, evidence might have been found, had men been able to +appreciate it, that there too, however frightfully misinterpreted, the +Divine breath had been felt.</p> + +<p>It is the spiritually-minded who must learn the art of discerning the +spirit wherever it reveals itself; and when the horrors rise up before +us of which religion has more than once in the course of history been +the cause or the pretext, and we are almost tempted to ask whether this +attribute of human nature has really worked more good than ill in the +destinies of our race, we may remember that the same question might be +asked of all the proudest attributes of our humanity. Take polity or the +art<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> of governing human societies. To what monstrous aberrations has it +not given birth! Take science. Through what lamentable and woful errors +has it not pursued its way! Take art. How gross were its beginnings, and +how often has it served, not to elevate man, but to stimulate his vilest +and most degrading passions! Yet, who would wish to live without +government, science or art?</p> + +<p>Let us apply the same test to religion. The horrors it has caused cannot +weigh against the final and overmastering good which it produces; and +its annals, too often written in blood, should teach us how to guide it, +how to purify it from all that corrupts and debases it. We shall see at +the close of our Lectures what that directing, normalizing, purifying +principle is that must hold the helm of religion and guide it in its +evolution. Meanwhile, let no imperfection, no repulsiveness—nay, no +atrocity even—blind us to the ideal value of what we have been +considering, any more than we should allow the disasters that spring +from the use of fire to make us cease to rank it amongst the great +blessings of our earthly life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +<a name="LECTURE_III" id="LECTURE_III"></a><span class="sub">LECTURE III.</span><br /><br /> + +THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY AND +COSMOGONY OF MEXICO.</h2> + + +<p class="indent2"><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>In our last Lecture we passed in review the chief gods and goddesses of +ancient Mexico, and you might see how, in spite of very characteristic +differences, the Mexican mythology obeys the same law of formation that +manifests itself among the peoples of the Old World, thereby proving +once more that the religious development of humanity is not arbitrary, +that it proceeds in every case under the direction of the inherent and +inalienable principles of the human mind.</p> + +<p>To-day we are to complete the internal study of the Mexican religion, by +dealing with its sacrifices,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> its institutions, and its eschatological +and cosmogonical doctrines. We begin with those sacrifices of which I +have already spoken as so numerous and so horrible.</p> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>We have some little difficulty in our times, familiar as we are with +spiritual conceptions of God and the divine purposes, in comprehending +the extreme importance which sacrifices, offerings, gifts to the divine +being, assumed in the eyes of peoples who were still enveloped in the +darkness of polytheism and idolatry. And perhaps we may find it more +difficult yet to realize the primitive object and intention of these +sacrifices. There can be no doubt that they were originally suggested by +the idea that the divine being, whatever it may have been—whether a +natural object, an animal, or a creature analogous to man—liked what we +like, was pleased with what pleases us, and had the same tastes and the +same proclivities as ours. This is the fundamental idea that urged the +polytheistic peoples along the path of religious anthropomorphism.</p> + +<p>This principle once established, and the object<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> being to secure the +goodwill and the protection of the divine beings, what could be more +natural than to offer them the things in which men themselves took +pleasure, such as viands, drinks, perfumes, handsome ornaments, slaves +and wives? We must not carry back to the origins of sacrifice the +meta-physical and moral ideas which did not really appear until much +later. And since the necessity of eating, and the pleasure of eating +choice food, take a foremost rank in the estimation of infant peoples, +it is not surprising that the food-offering was the most frequent and +the most important amongst them, so as in some sort to absorb all the +rest.</p> + +<p>And here we are compelled to bow before a fact which cannot possibly be +disputed, namely, that traces of the primitive sacrifice of human +victims meet us everywhere. And this shows that cannibalism, which is +now restricted to a few of the savage tribes who have remained closest +to the animal life, was once universal to our race. For no one would +ever have conceived the idea of offering to the gods a kind of food +which excited nothing but disgust and horror amongst men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>This being granted, two rival tendencies must be reckoned with. In the +first place, moral development, with its influence on religious ideas, +worked towards the suppression of the horrible custom of human +sacrifice, whilst at the same time extirpating the taste and desire for +human flesh. For we must not forget that where cannibalism still reigns, +human flesh is regarded as the most delicious of foods; and the Greek +mythology has preserved legends and myths that are connected with the +very epoch at which human sacrifices first became an object of horror to +gods and men. But, in the second place, in virtue of the strange +persistency of rites and usages connected with religion, human +sacrifices prevailed in many places when cannibalism had completely +disappeared from the habits and tastes of the population. Thus the +Semites of Western Asia and the Çivaïte Hindus, the Celts, and some of +the populations of Greece and Italy, long after they had renounced +cannibalism, still continued to sacrifice human beings to their deities.</p> + +<p>And this gives us the clue to a third phase, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> was actually +realized in Mexico before the conquest. Cannibalism, in ordinary life, +was no longer practised. The city of Mexico underwent all the horrors of +famine during the siege conducted by Fernando Cortes. When the Spaniards +finally entered the city, they found the streets strewn with corpses, +which is a sufficient proof that human flesh was not eaten even in dire +extremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not only pushed human +sacrifices to a frantic extreme, but they were <i>ritual cannibals</i>, that +is to say, there were certain occasions on which they ate the flesh of +the human victims whom they had immolated.</p> + +<p>This practice was connected with another religious conception, grafted +upon the former one. Almost everywhere, but especially amongst the +Aztecs, we find the notion that the victim devoted to a deity, and +therefore destined to pass into his substance and to become by +assimilation an integral part of him, is already co-substantial with +him, has already become part of him; so that the worshipper in his turn, +by himself assimilating a part of the victim's flesh, unites himself in +substance with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> divine being. And now observe that in all religions +the longing, whether grossly or spiritually apprehended, to enter into +the closest possible union with the adored being is fundamental. This +longing is inseparable from the religious sentiment itself, and becomes +imperious wherever that sentiment is warm; and this consideration is +enough to convince us that it is in harmony with the most exalted +tendencies of our nature, but may likewise, in times of ignorance, give +rise to the most deplorable aberrations.</p> + +<p>Note this, again, that immolation or sacrifice cannot be accomplished +without suffering to the victim. Yet more: the immense importance of +sacrifice in the inferior religions raises the mere rite itself to a +position of unrivalled efficacy as gauged by the childlike notions that +have given it birth, so that at last it acquires an intrinsic and +magical virtue in the eyes of the sacrificers. They have lost all +distinct idea as to how their sacrifice gives pleasure to the gods, but +they retain the firm belief that as a matter of fact, it is the +appointed means of acting upon their dispositions and modify<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>ing their +will. The civilized Greeks and Romans no longer believed that their gods +ate the flesh of the sacrifices, but this did not prevent their +continuing them as the indispensable means of appeasing the wrath or +conciliating the favour of the deities. To such a length was this +carried in India and Iran, that sacrifice finally came to be regarded as +a cosmic force, a creative act. The gods themselves sacrificed as a +means of creation, or of modifying the existing order of the world. This +idea of the intrinsic and magical virtue of sacrifice naturally re-acted +on the importance attached to the sufferings of the victim so +inseparably connected with it, until the latter came to be regarded as +amongst the prime conditions of an efficacious sacrifice. For the rest, +I need not do more than mention the notions of substitution, of +compensation, and of renunciation on the part of the sacrificer, which +so readily attach themselves to the idea of sacrifice, and represent its +moral aspects.</p> + +<p>Now all these considerations will help us to understand both the fearful +intensity and the special significance of the practice of human +sacrifice esta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>blished among the Aztecs. And here I must ask you to +harden your hearts for a few moments while I conduct you through this +veritable chamber of horrors.</p> + +<p>The Mexican sacrifices were, in truth, of the most frightful +description. It was an axiom amongst the Aztecs that none but human +sacrifices were truly efficacious. They were continually making war in +order to get a supply of victims. They regarded the victim, when once +selected, as a kind of incarnation of the deity who was ultimately to +consume his flesh, or at any rate his heart. They retained the practice +of cannibalism as a religious rite, and, as though they had had some of +the Red-skins' blood in their veins, they refined upon the tortures <a +name="addenda92" id="addenda92"></a><ins title="Addenda page 92, omit word +to before which">which</ins> they forced those victims, whom they had almost +adored the moment before, to undergo at last.</p> + +<p>These victims were regularly selected a considerable time in advance. +They were vigilantly watched, but in other respects were well cared for +and fed with the choicest viands—in a word, fattened. There was not a +single festival upon which at least one of these victims was not +immolated, and in many cases<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> great numbers of them were flung upon the +"stone of sacrifices," where the priests laid their bosoms open, tore +out their hearts, and placed them, as the epitome of the men themselves, +in a vessel full of burning rezin or "copal," before the statue of the +deity. Some few of these sacrifices it is my duty to describe to you.</p> + +<p>For example: To celebrate the close of the annual rule of Tezcatlipoca, +which fell at the beginning of May, they set apart a year beforehand the +handsomest of the prisoners of war captured during the preceding year. +They clothed him in a costume resembling that of the image of the god. +He might come and go in freedom, but he was always followed by eight +pages, who served at once as an escort and a guard. As he passed, I will +not say that the people either knelt or did not kneel before him, for in +Mexico the attitude expressive of religious adoration was that of +squatting down upon the haunches. As he passed, then, the people +squatted all along the streets as soon as they heard the sound of the +bells that he carried on his hands and feet. Twenty days before the +festival, they redoubled their care and attention.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> They bathed him, +anointed him with perfume, and gave him four beautiful damsels as +companions, each one bearing the name of a goddess, and all of them +instructed to leave nothing undone to make their divine spouse as happy +as possible. He then took part in splendid banquets, surrounded by the +great Mexican nobles. But the day before the great festival, they placed +him and his four wives on board a royal canoe and carried them to the +other side of the lake. In the evening the four goddesses quitted their +unhappy god, and his eight guardians conducted him to a lonely +<i>teocalli</i>, a league distant, where he was flung upon the stone of +sacrifices and his heart torn from his bosom. He must disappear and die +with the god whom he represented, who must now make way for +Uitzilopochtli. This latter deity likewise had his human counterpart, +who had to lead a war-dance in his name before being sacrificed. He had +the grotesque privilege of choosing the hour of his own immolation, but +under the condition that the longer he delayed it the less would his +soul be favoured in the abode of Uitzilopochtli. For we must note that +in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> Mexican order of ideas, though the flesh of the victims was +destined to feed the gods to whom they were sacrificed, their souls +became the blessed and favoured slaves or servants of these same gods.</p> + +<p>Centeotl, or Toci, the goddess of the harvest, had her human sacrifices +also, but in this case a woman figured as protagonist. She, too, was +dressed like the goddess, and entrusted to the care of four midwives, +priestesses of Centeotl, who were commissioned to pet and amuse her. A +fortnight before the festival, they celebrated "the arm dance" before +her, in which the dancers, without moving their feet, perpetually raised +and lowered their arms, as a symbol of the vegetation fixed at its +roots, but moving freely above. Then she had to take part in a mock +combat, after which she received the title of "image of the mother of +the gods." The day before her execution, she went to pay what was called +her "farewell to the market," in which she was conducted to the market +of Mexico, sowing maize all along the street as she went, and reverenced +by the people as Toci, "our grandmother." But the following midnight she +was carried to the top of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> teocalli, perched upon the shoulders of a +priest, and swiftly decapitated. Then they flayed her without loss of +time. The skin of the trunk was chopped off, and a priest, wrapping +himself in the bleeding spoil, traversed the streets in procession, and +made pretence of fighting with soldiers who were interspersed in the +cortége. The skin of the legs was carried to the temple of Centeotl, the +son, where another priest made himself a kind of mask with it, to +represent his god, and sacrificed four captives in the ordinary way. +After this, the priest, accompanied by some soldiers, bore the hideous +shreds to a point on the frontier, where they were buried as a talisman +to protect the empire.</p> + +<p>The festivals of Tlaloc, god of rain, were perhaps yet more horrible. At +one of them they sacrificed a number of prisoners of war, one upon +another, clothed like the god himself. They tore out their hearts in the +usual way, and then carried them in procession, enclosed in a vase, to +throw them into a whirlpool of the lake of Mexico, which they imagined +to be one of the favoured residences of the aquatic deity. But it was +worse still at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> festival of this same Tlaloc which fell in February. +On this occasion a number of young children were got together, and +decked with feathers and precious stones. They put wings upon them, to +enable them to fly up, and then placed them on litters, and bore them +through the city in grand procession and with the sound of trumpets. The +people, says Sahagun,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> could not choose but weep to see these poor +little ones led off to the sacrifice. But if the children themselves +cried freely, it was all the better, for it was a sign that the rain +would be abundant.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>I will not try your nerves by dwelling much longer on this dismal +subject, though there is no lack of material. At the feast of Xipe, "the +flayed," for example, whole companies of men were wrapped in the skins +of sacrificed captives, and engaged in mock battles in that costume. But +the only further instance I am compelled to mention is connected with +the festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, which was celebrated with +elaborate ceremonies. At set of sun, all who had prisoners of war or +slaves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> to offer to the deity brought forward their victims, painted +with the colours of the god, danced along by their side, and shut them +up in a building attached to the teocalli of Fire. Then they mounted +guard all round, singing hymns. At midnight, each owner entered and +severed a lock of the hair of his slave or slaves, to be carefully +preserved as a talisman. At daybreak they brought out the victims and +led them to the foot of the temple stair. There the priests took them +upon their shoulders and carried them up to the higher platform, where +they had prepared a great brazier of burning embers. Here each priest +flung his human burden upon the fire, and I leave you to imagine the +indescribable scene that ensued. Nor is this all. The same priests, +armed with long hooks, fished out the poor wretches before they were +quite roasted to death, and despatched them in the usual fashion on the +stone of sacrifices.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>It was after these offerings of private devotion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> that family and +friendly gatherings were held, at which a part of the victim's flesh was +eaten, under the idea that by thus sharing the food of the deity his +worshippers entered into a closer union with him. We ought, however, to +note that a master never ate the flesh of his own slave, inasmuch as he +had been his guest, and as it were a member of his family. He waited +till his friends returned his attention.</p> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>Human sacrifice, Gentlemen, appears to have been a universal practice; +but wherever the human sympathies developed themselves rapidly, it was +early superseded by various substituted rites which it was supposed +might with advantage replace it. Such were flagellation, mutilation of +some unessential part of the body, or the emission of a certain quantity +of blood. This last practice, in particular, might be regarded as an act +of individual devotion, a gift made to the gods by the worshipper +himself out of his own very substance. The priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, +who had little taste for human sacrifices, seem to have introduced this +method of propitiating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> the gods by giving them one's own blood; and the +practice of drawing it from the tongue, the lips, the nose, the ears or +the bosom, came to be the chief form of expression of individual piety +and penitence in Central America and in Mexico. The priests in +particular owed it to their special character to draw their blood for +the benefit of the gods, and nothing could be stranger than the refined +methods they adopted to accomplish this end. For instance, they would +pass strings or splinters through their lips or ears and so draw a +little blood. But then a fresh string or a fresh splinter must be added +every day, and so it might go on indefinitely, for the more there were, +the more meritorious was the act; nor can we doubt that the idea of the +suffering endured enhancing the merit of the deed itself, was already +widely spread in Mexico. There was a system of Mexican <i>asceticism</i>, +too, specially characterized by the long fasts which the faithful, and +more particularly the priests, endured. Indeed, fasting is one of the +most general and ancient forms of adoration. It rests, in the first +place, on an instinctive feeling that a man is more worthy to present +himself before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> the divine beings when fasting than when stuffed with +food; and, in the second place, on the fact that fasting is shown by +experience to promote dreams, hallucinations, extasies and so forth, +which have always been considered as so many forms of communication with +the deity.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> It was only later that fasting became the sign and index +of mourning, and therefore of sincere repentance and profound sorrow. +Mexico had its solitaries or hermits, too, who sought to enter into +closer communion with the gods by living in the desert under conditions +of the severest asceticism. Are we not once more tempted to exclaim that +there is nothing new under the sun?</p> + +<p>But the devotees of the ancient Mexican religion had other methods of +uniting themselves substantially and corporeally with their gods; and in +accordance with the notions which we have seen were accredited by their +religion, they had developed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> kind (or kinds) of <i>communion</i> from +which, with a little theology, a regular doctrine of transubstantiation +might have been drawn.</p> + +<p>Thus, at the third great festival in honour of Uitzilopochtli +(celebrated at the time of his death), they made an image of the deity +in dough, steeped it in the blood of sacrificed children, and partook of +the pieces.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> In the same way the priests of Tlaloc kneaded statuettes +of their god in dough, cut them up, and gave them to eat to patients +suffering from the diseases caused by the cold and wet.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> The +statuettes were first consecrated by a small sacrifice. And so, too, at +the yearly festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, an image of the +deity, made of dough, was fixed in the top of a great tree which had +been brought into the city from the forest. At a certain moment the tree +was thrown down, on which of course the idol broke to pieces, and the +worshippers all scrambled for a bit of him to eat.</p> + +<p>It has been asked how far any moral idea had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> penetrated this religion, +the repulsive aspects of which we have been describing. The question is +a legitimate one. I believe, Gentlemen, that in studying the religious +origins of the different peoples of the earth, we shall come to the +conclusion that the fusion of the religious and moral life—which has +long been an accomplished fact for us, especially since the Gospel, so +that we cannot admit the possibility of uniting immorality and piety for +a single instant—is not primitive, but is due to the development of the +human spirit, and to healthier, more complete and more religious ideas +concerning the moral law. At the beginning of things, and in our own day +amongst savages, nay, even amongst the most ignorant strata of the +population in civilized countries, it is obvious that religion and +morals have extremely little to do with each other. Some authors, +accordingly, in the face of all the monstrous cruelty, selfishness and +inhumanity of the Mexican religion, have concluded that no element of +morality entered into it at all, but that all was self-seeking and +fanaticism.</p> + +<p>This is an exaggeration. We have seen that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> amongst the nature-gods of +Mexico there was one, Tezcatlipoca, who was looked upon as the austere +guardian of law and morals. If we are to believe Father Sahagun,—and +even if we allow for strong suspicions as to the accuracy of his +translations of the prayers and exhortations uttered under certain +circumstances by parents and priests,—it is evident that the Mexicans +were taught to consider a decent and virtuous life as required by the +gods. Indeed, they had a system of confession, in which the priest +received the statement of the penitent, laid a penance on him, and +assured him of the pardon of the gods. Generally the penitents delayed +their confession till they were advanced in age, for relapses were +regarded as beyond the reach of pardon.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> It would be nearer the truth +to say that the religious ethics of the Mexicans had entered upon that +path of dualism<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> by which alone, in almost every case, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> normal +synthesis or rational reconciliation of the demands of physical nature +and the moral life has been ultimately reached. For inasmuch as fidelity +to duty often involves a certain amount of suffering, the suffering +comes to be regarded as the moral act itself, and artificial sufferings +are voluntarily incurred under the idea that they are the appointed +price of access to a higher and more perfect life, in closer conformity +with the divine will. The cruel rites which entered into the very tissue +of the Mexican religion could hardly fail to strengthen the same ascetic +tendency, by encouraging the idea that pain itself was pleasant to the +eyes of the gods. But the truth is that in this matter we can discern no +more than tendencies. There are symptoms of men's minds being busy with +the relation of the moral to the religious life, but no fixed or +systematic conclusions had been reached. It might, perhaps, have been +otherwise in the sequel, and these ten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>dencies might ultimately have +taken shape in corresponding theories and doctrines, had not the Spanish +conquest intervened to put an end for ever to the evolution of the +Mexican religion.</p> + +<p>I have frequently spoken of the Mexican priests, and the time has now +come for dwelling more explicitly on this priesthood.</p> + +<p>It was very numerous, and had a strong organization reared on an +aristocratic basis, into which political calculations manifestly +entered. The noblest families (including that of the monarch) had the +exclusive privilege of occupying the highest sacerdotal offices. The +priests of Uitzilopochtli held the primacy. Their chief was sovereign +pontiff, with the title of <i>Mexicatl-Teohuatzin</i>, "Mexican lord of +sacred things," and <i>Teotecuhtli</i>, "divine master." Next to him came the +chief priest of Quetzalcoatl, who had no authority, however, except over +his own order of clergy. He lived as a recluse in his sanctuary, and the +sovereign only sent to consult him on certain great occasions; whereas +the primate sat on the privy council and exercised disciplinary powers +over all the other priests in the empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> Every temple and every +quarter had its regular priests. No one could enter the priesthood until +he had passed satisfactorily through certain tests or examinations +before the directors of the <i>Calmecac</i>, or houses of religious +education, of which we shall speak presently. The power of the clergy +was very great. They instructed youth, fixed the calendar, preserved the +knowledge of the annals and traditions indicated by the hieroglyphics, +sang and taught the religious and national hymns, intervened with +special ceremonies at birth, marriage and burial, and were richly +endowed by taxes raised in kind upon the products of the soil and upon +industries. Every successful aspirant to the priesthood, having passed +the requisite examinations, received a kind of unction, which +communicated the sacred character to him. All this indicates a +civilization that had already reached a high point of development; but +the indelible stain of the Mexican religion re-appears every moment even +where it seems to rise highest above the primitive religions: amongst +the ingredients of the fluid with which the new priest was anointed was +the blood of an infant!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>The priests' costume in general was black. Their mantles covered their +heads and fell down their sides like a veil. They never cut their hair, +and the Spaniards saw some of them whose locks descended to their knees. +Probably this was a part of the solar symbolism. The rays of the Sun are +compared to locks of hair, and we very often find the solar heroes or +the servants of the Sun letting their hair grow freely in order that +they may resemble their god. Their mode of life was austere and sombre. +They were subject to the rules of a severe asceticism, slept little, +rose at night to chant their canticles, often fasted, often drew their +own blood, bathed every night (in imitation of the Sun again), and in +many of the sacerdotal fraternities the most rigid celibacy was +enforced. You will see, then, that I did not exaggerate when I spoke of +the belief that the gods were animated by cruel wills and took pleasure +in human pain as having launched the Mexican religion on a path of a +systematic dualism and very stern asceticism.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> +<p>But the surprise we experience in noting all these points of resemblance +to the religious institutions of the Old World, perhaps reaches its +culminating point when we learn that the Mexican religion actually had +its convents. These convents were often, but not always, places of +education for both sexes, to which all the free families sent their +children from the age of six or nine years upwards. There the boys were +taught by monks, and the girls by nuns, the meaning of the +hieroglyphics, the way to reckon time, the traditions, the religious +chants and the ritual. Bodily exercises likewise had a place in this +course of education, which was supposed to be complete when the children +had reached the age of fifteen. The majority of them were now sent back +to their families, while the rest stayed behind to become priests or +simple monks. For there were religious orders, under the patronage of +the different gods, and convents for either sex. The monastic rule was +often very severe. In many cases it involved absti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>nence from animal +food, and the people called the monks of these severer orders +<i>Quaquacuiltin</i>, or "herb-eaters." There were likewise associations +resembling our half-secular, half-ecclesiastical fraternities. Thus we +hear of the society of the "<i>Telpochtiliztli</i>," an association of young +people who lived with their families, but met every evening at sunset to +dance and sing in honour of Tezcatlipoca. And, finally, we know that +ancient Mexico had its hermits and its religious mendicants.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> The +latter, however, only took the vow of mendicancy for a fixed term. These +are the details which led von Humboldt and some other writers to believe +that Buddhism must have penetrated at some former period into Mexico. +Not at all! What we have seen simply proves that asceticism, the war +against nature, everywhere clothes itself in similar forms, suggested by +the very constitution of man; and there is certainly nothing in common +between the gentle insipidity of Buddha's religion and the sanguinary +faith of the Aztecs.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> +<p>The girls were under a rule similar to that of the boys. They led a hard +enough life in the convents set apart for them, fasting often, sleeping +without taking off their clothes, and (when it was their turn to be on +duty) getting up several times in the night to renew the incense that +burned perpetually before the gods. They learned to sew, to weave, and +to embroider the garments of the idols and the priests. It was they who +made the sacred cakes and the dough idols, whose place in the public +festivals I have described to you. At the age of fifteen, the same +selection took place among the girls as among the boys. Those who stayed +in the convent became either priestesses, charged with the lower +sacerdotal offices, or directresses of the convents set aside for +instruction, or simple nuns, who were known as <i>Cihuatlamacasque</i>, "lady +deaconesses," or <i>Cihuaquaquilli</i>, "lady herb-eaters," inasmuch as they +abstained from meat. The most absolute continence was rigorously +enforced, and breach of it was punished by death.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> +<p>One cannot but ask whether a priesthood so firmly organized, in which +was centred the whole intellectual life and all that can he called the +science of Mexico, had not elaborated any higher doctrines or cosmogonic +theories such as we owe to the priesthoods of the Old World, especially +when we know that they regulated the calendar, which presupposes some +astronomical conceptions.</p> + +<p>But here we enter upon a region that has not yet been methodically +reclaimed by the historians. We have often enough been presented with +Mexican cosmogonies, but the fundamental error of all these expositions +is, that they present as a fixed and established body of doctrine what +was in reality a very loose and unformed mass of traditions and +speculations. The sponsors of these cosmogonies agree neither as to +their number nor their order of succession, and it is obvious that a +mistaken zeal to bring them as near as possible to the Biblical +tradition has been at work. An attempt has even been made to find a +Mexican Noah, coming out of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> ark, in a fish-god emerging from a kind +of box floating on the waters.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>One thing, however, is certain, namely, that these cosmogonies are not +Aztec. The Aztec deities proper play no part in them. We may therefore +suppose that they are of Central American origin, or are due to that +priesthood of Quetzalcoatl which continued its silent work in the depths +of its mysterious retreats. The contradictions of our authorities as to +the number and order of these cosmogonies suggest the idea that their +arrangement one after another is no more than a harmonizing attempt to +bring various originally distinct cosmogonies into connection with each +other. The fact is that others yet are known, in addition to those which +have taken their place in what we may call the classical list +established by Humboldt and Müller.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> In this clas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>sical list there are +five ages of the world, separated from each other by universal +cataclysms, something after the fashion of the successive creations of +the school of Cuvier. Each of these ages is called a Sun, and, according +to the elements that preponderate during their respective courses, they +are called, 1st, the Sun of the Earth; 2nd, the Sun of Fire; 3rd, the +Sun of the Air; and 4th, the Sun of Water. The fifth Sun, which is the +present one, has no special name. We cannot enter upon the details +concerning each of these Suns, and they are not very interesting in any +case. They contain confused reminiscences of primitive life, of the +ancient populations of Anahuac, of old and bygone worships, but nothing +particularly characteristic or original. The only specially striking +feature in this mass of cosmogonic traditions is the sense of the +instability of the established order alike of nature and society which +pervades them. What was it that inspired the Mexicans with this feeling? +Perhaps the mighty destructive forces for which tropical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> countries, +equatorial seas and volcanic regions, so often furnish a theatre, had +shaken confidence in the permanence of the physical constitution of the +world. Perhaps the numerous political and social revolutions, the +frequent successions of peoples, rulers and subjects in turn, had +accustomed the mind to conceive and anticipate perpetual changes, of +which the successive ages of the world were but the supreme expression; +and finally, perhaps that quasi-messianic expectation of the return of +Quetzalcoatl, to be accompanied by a complete renewal of things, may +have given an additional point of attachment to this belief in the +caducity of the whole existing order. What is certain is that this +sentiment itself was very widely spread. It served as a consolation to +the peoples who were crushed beneath the cruel yoke of the Aztecs. They +might well cherish the thought that all this would not last for ever; +and even the Aztecs themselves had no unbounded confidence in the +stability of their empire. The Spaniards profited greatly by this vague +and all but universal distrust. After their victory they made much of +pretended prodigies that had shadowed it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> forth, and even of prophecies +that had announced it.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> But the state of mind of the populations +concerned being given, at whatever moment the Spaniards had arrived they +would have been able to appeal to auguries of a like kind, by dint of +just giving them that degree of precision and clearness which usually +distinguishes predictions that are recorded after their fulfilment!</p> + +<p>A further proof that the Mexican religion helped to spread this sense of +the instability of things is furnished by the grand jubilee festival +which was celebrated every fifty-two years in the city of Mexico and +throughout the empire. The Mexican cycle, marking the coincidence of +four times thirteen lunar and four times thirteen solar years,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> +counted two-and-fifty years, and was called a "sheaf of years." Now +whenever the dawn of the fifty-third year drew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> near, the question was +anxiously put, whether the world would last any longer, and preparations +were made for the great ceremony of the <i>Toxilmolpilia</i>, or "binding up +of years." The day before, every fire was extinguished. All the priests +of the city of Mexico marched in procession to a mountain situated at +two leagues' distance. The entire population followed them. They watched +the Pleiades intently. If the world was to come to an end, if the sun +was never to rise again, the Pleiades would not pass the zenith; but the +moment they passed it, it was known that a new era of fifty-two years +had been guaranteed to men. Fire was kindled anew by the friction of +wood. But the wood rested on the bosom of the handsomest of the +prisoners, and the moment it was lighted the victim's body was opened, +his heart torn out, and both heart and body burned upon a pile that was +lit by the new fire. No sooner did the people, who had remained on the +plain below, perceive the flame ascend, than they broke into delirious +joy. Another fifty-two years was before the world. More victims were +sacrificed in gratitude to the gods. Brands were lighted at the sacred +flame<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> on the mountain, from which the domestic fires were in their turn +kindled, and swift couriers were despatched with torches, replaced +continually on the route, to the very extremities of the empire. It was +in the year 1507, twelve years before Cortes disembarked, that the +Toxilmolpilia was celebrated for the last time. In 1559, although the +mass of the natives had meanwhile been converted to Roman Catholicism, +the Spanish government had to take severe measures to prevent its +repetition.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>We have far firmer footing, then, than is furnished by the shifting +ground of the cosmogonies, when we insist upon the general prevalence of +the feeling that the world might veritably come to an end as it had done +before. Beyond this there was nothing fixed or generally accepted. Much +the same might be said of the future life. The Mexicans believed in +man's survival after death. This we see from the practice of putting a +number of useful articles into the tomb by the side of the corpse, after +first breaking them, so that they too might die and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> their spirits might +accompany that of the departed to his new abodes. They even gave him +some Tepitoton, or little household gods, to take with him, and as a +rule they killed a dog to serve as his guide in the mysterious and +painful journey which he was about to undertake. Sometimes a very rich +man would go so far as to have his chaplain slaughtered, that he might +not be deprived of his support in the other world. But in all this there +is nothing to distinguish the Mexican religion from the beliefs that +stretched over the whole of America, and there is no indication that any +moral conception had as yet vivified and hallowed the prospect beyond +the grave. The mass of ordinary mortals remained in the sombre, dreary, +monotonous realm of Mictlan; for in Mexico, as in Polynesia, a really +happy immortality was a privilege reserved for the aristocracy. There +were several paradises, including that of Tlaloc, and above all the +"mansion of the Sun," destined to receive the kings, the nobles and the +warriors. There they hunt, they dance, they accompany the sun in his +course, they can change themselves into clouds or humming-birds. An +excep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>tion is made, however, irrespective of social rank, in favour of +warriors who fall in battle and women who die in child-bed, as well as +for the victims sacrificed in honour of the celestial deities and +destined to become their servants. So, too, the paradise of Tlaloc, a +most beauteous garden, is opened to all who have been drowned (for the +god of the waters has taken them to himself), to all who have died of +the diseases caused by moisture, and to the children who have been +sacrificed to him. We recognize in these exceptions an unquestionable +tendency to introduce the idea of justice as qualifying the desolating +doctrine of aristocratic privilege; and probably this principle of +justice would have become preponderant, here as elsewhere, had not the +destinies of the Mexican religion been suddenly broken off. Nor is it +easy to explain the asceticism and austerities of which we have spoken, +except on the supposition that those who practised them all their lives +believed they were thereby acquiring higher rights in the future life. +It must be admitted, however, that it is not in its doctrine of a future +life that the Mexican religion reached its higher developments.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>We must postpone till we have examined the Peruvian religion, which +presents so many analogies to that of Mexico, while at the same time +differing from it so considerably, the final considerations suggested by +the strange compound of beliefs, now so barbarous and now so refined, +which we have passed in review. Spanish monks, as we all know, succeeded +within a few years in bringing the populations who had submitted to the +hardy conquerors within the pale of their Church. It was no very +difficult task. The whole past had vanished. The royal families, the +nobility, the clergy, all had perished. Faith in the national gods had +been broken by events. The new occupants laid a grievous yoke upon the +subject peoples, whom they crushed and oppressed with hateful tyranny; +but we must do the Franciscan monks, who were first on the field in the +work of conversion, the justice of testifying that they did whatever in +them lay to soften the fate of their converts and to plead their cause +before the Court of Spain. Nor were their efforts always unsuccessful. +They were rewarded by the unstinted confidence and affection of the +unhappy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> natives, who found little pity or comfort save at the hands of +the good Fathers. Let us add that many of the peoples, especially those +from whom the human tithes of which we have spoken had been exacted by +the Aztecs, were sensible of the humane and charitable aspects of a +religion that repudiated these hideous sacrifices in horror, and raised +up the hearts of the oppressed by its promises of a future bliss +conditioned by neither birth nor social rank.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>But the worthy monks could not give what they had not got. And the +religious education which they gave their converts reflected only too +faithfully their own narrow and punctilious monastic spirit, itself +almost as superstitious, though in another way, as what it supplanted. +Nay, more: in spite of the best dispositions on either side, it was +inevitable that the ancient habits and beliefs should long maintain +themselves, though more or less shrouded beneath the new orthodoxy. In +1571, the terrible Inquisition of Spain came and established itself in +Mexico to put an end to this state of things; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> alas! it found as +many heretics as it could wish to show that it had not come for nothing. +And when the natives saw the fearful tribunal at work, when the fires of +the <i>autos-da-fé</i> were kindled on the plain of Mexico and consumed by +tens or hundreds the victims condemned by the Holy Office, do you +suppose that the new converts felt well assured in their own hearts that +the God of the Gospel was, after all, much better than Uitzilopochtli +and Tezcatlipoca?<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>But we are stepping beyond the domain of history we have marked out for +ourselves. The religion of Mexico is dead, and we cannot desire a +resurrection for it. But the memory it has left behind is at once +mournful and instructive. It has enriched history with its confirmatory +evidence as to the genesis, the power and the tragic force of religion +in human nature; and he who inspects its annals, now so poetical and now +so terror-laden, pauses in pensive thought before the grotesque but +imposing monument which thrills him with admiration even while he +recoils with horror.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +<a name="LECTURE_IV" id="LECTURE_IV"></a><span class="sub">LECTURE IV.</span><br /><br /> + +PERU.—ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION, THE LEGEND OF THE INCAS: THEIR +POLICY AND HISTORY.</h2> + + +<p class="indent2"><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>We pass to-day from North to South America; and as in the former we +confined ourselves to the district which presented the Europeans of the +sixteenth century with the unlooked-for spectacle of a native +civilization and religion in an advanced stage of development, so in the +latter we shall specially study that other indigenous civilization, +likewise supported and patronized by a very curious and original +religion, which established itself along the Cordilleras on the +immensely long but comparatively narrow strip of land between those +mountains and the ocean. Peru, like Mexico, was the country of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> an +organized solar religion; but the former, even more than the latter, +displays this religion worked into the very tissues of a most remarkable +social structure, with which it is so completely identified as not to be +so much as conceivable without it. The empire of the Incas is one of the +most complete and absolute theocracies—perhaps the very most complete +and absolute—that the world has seen. But in order to get a clear idea +of what the Peruvian religion was, we must first say a word as to the +country itself, its physical constitution and its history.</p> + +<p>The Peru of the Incas, as discovered and conquered by the Spaniards, +transcended the boundaries of the country now so called, inasmuch as it +included the more ancient kingdom of Quito (corresponding pretty closely +to the modern republic of Ecuador), and extended over parts of the +present Chili and Bolivia. We learn from our ordinary maps that this +whole territory was narrowly confined between the mountains and the sea. +Observe, however, that it was nearly two thousand five hundred miles in +length, four times as long as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> France, and that its breadth varied from +about two hundred and fifty to about five hundred miles. From <a +name="addenda129" id="addenda129"></a><ins title="Addenda page 129, East to +West change to West to East">West to East</ins> it presents three very +different regions. 1. A strip along the coast where rain hardly ever +falls, but where the night dews are very heavy and the produce of the +soil tropical. 2. The <i>Sierra</i> formed by the first spurs of the +Cordilleras, and already high enough above the level of the sea to +produce the vegetation of the temperate regions. Here maize was +cultivated on a large scale, and great herds of vicunias, alpacas and +llamas were pastured. And here we may note a great point of advantage +enjoyed by Peru over Mexico; for the llama, though not very strong, +serves as a beast of burden and traction, its flesh is well flavoured +and its wool most useful. 3. The <i>Montaña</i>, consisting of a region even +yet imperfectly known, over which extend unmeasured forests, the home of +the jaguar and the chinchilla, of bright-plumed birds and of dreaded +serpents. Above these forests stretch the dizzy peaks and the volcanos. +The most remarkable natural phenomenon of the country is the lake +Titicaca, about seven times as great as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> lake of Geneva, not far +distant from the ancient capital Cuzco, and serving, like Anahuac, the +lake district of Mexico, as the chief focus of Peruvian civilization and +religion. The mysterious disappearance beneath the ground of the river +by which it empties itself, stimulated yet further the myth-forming +imagination of the dwellers on its shores.</p> + +<p>There is a remarkable difference between the ways in which the two +civilizations of which we are speaking formed and consolidated +themselves in Mexico and Peru respectively. We have seen that in Mexico +the state of things to which the Spanish conquest put an end was the +result of a long series of revolutions and wars, in which successive +peoples had ruled and served in turn; and the Aztecs had finally seized +the hegemony, while adopting a civilization the origins of which must be +sought in Central America. In Peru things had followed a more regular +and stable course. The dynasty of the Incas had maintained itself for +about six centuries as the patron of social progress and of a remarkably +advanced culture. Starting from its native soil on the shores of Lake +Titicaca, and long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> confined in its authority to Cuzco and its immediate +territory, this family had finally succeeded in indefinitely extending +its dominion between the mountains and the sea, sometimes by successful +wars and sometimes by pacific means; for whole populations had more than +once been moved to range themselves of their own free will under the +sceptre of the Incas, so as to enjoy the advantages assured to their +subjects by their equitable rule. When Pizarro and his companions +disembarked in Peru, the great Inca, Huayna Capac, had but recently +completed the empire by the conquest of the kingdom of Quito.</p> + +<p>It has been asked, which was the more marvellous feat, the conquest of +Mexico by Fernando Cortes, or that of Peru by Pizarro. One consideration +weighs heavily in favour of Cortes. It is that he was the first. When +Francisco Pizarro threw himself with his handful of adventurers upon +Peru in 1531, he had before him the example of his brilliant precursor, +to teach him how a few Europeans might impose by sheer audacity on the +amazed and superstitious peoples; and in many respects he simply copied +his model. Like him, he took advantage of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> the divisions and rivalries +of the natives; like him, he found means of securing the person of the +sovereign, and was thereby enabled to quell the subjects. On the other +hand, he had even fewer followers than Cortes. His company scarcely +numbered over two hundred men at first, and the Peruvian empire was more +compact and more wisely organized than that of Mexico. We shall +presently see the principal cause to which his incredible success must +be ascribed; but the net result seems to be, that one hesitates to +pronounce the feats of either adventurer more astounding than those of +the other, especially when we remember that Pizarro was without the +political genius of Fernando Cortes, and was so profoundly ignorant that +he could not so much as read!</p> + +<p>The family of the Incas, whose scourge Pizarro proved to be, must have +numbered many fine politicians in its ranks. Never has what is called a +"dynastic policy" been pursued more methodically and ably. The proofs +assail us at every moment. The Incas were a family of priest-kings, who +reigned, as children of the Sun, over the Peruvian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> land, and the Sun +himself was the great deity of the country. To obey the Incas was to +obey the supreme god. Their person was the object of a veritable cultus, +and they had succeeded so completely in identifying the interests of +their own family with those of religion, of politics and of +civilization, that it was no longer possible to distinguish them one +from another. And yet it was this very method, so essentially +theocratic, of insisting on the minute regulation of all the actions of +human life in the name of religion, which finally ruined the Incas. +Peru, in the sixteenth century, had become one enormous convent, in +which everything was mechanically regulated, in which no one could take +the smallest initiative, in which everything depended absolutely upon +the will of the reigning Inca; so that the moment Pizarro succeeded in +laying hold of this Inca, this "father Abbé," everything collapsed in a +moment, and nothing was left of the edifice constructed with such +sagacity but a heap of sand. And indeed this is the fatal result of +every theocracy, for it can never really be anything but a <i>hierocracy</i> +or rule of priests. On the one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> hand it must be absolute, for the +sovereign priest rules in the name of God; and on the other hand it is +fatally impelled to concern itself with every minutest affair, to +interfere vexatiously in all private concerns (since they too affect +religious ethics and discipline), and to multiply regulations against +every possible breach of the ruling religion. It is a general lesson of +religious history that is illustrated so forcibly by the fate of the +Inca priest-kings.</p> + +<p>I will not weary you in this case, any more than in that of Mexico, with +the enumeration of the authors to whom we must go for information on the +political and religious history of the strange country with which we are +dealing. I must, however, say a few words concerning a certain writer +who long enjoyed the highest of reputations, and was regarded throughout +the last century as the most trustworthy and complete authority in +Peruvian matters. The Peruvians, far as their civilization had advanced +in many respects, were behind even the Mexicans in the art of preserving +the memory of the past; for they had not so much as the imperfect +hieroglyphics known to the latter. They made use of <i>Quipus</i> or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +<i>Quipos</i>, indeed, which were fringes, the threads of which were +variously knotted according to what they were intended to represent; but +unfortunately the Peruvians anticipated on a large scale what so often +happens on the small scale amongst ourselves to those persons of +uncertain memory who tie knots on their handkerchiefs to remind them of +something important. They find the knot, indeed, but have forgotten what +it means! And so with the Peruvians. They were not always at one as to +the meaning of their ancient Quipos, and there were several ways of +interpreting them. Moreover, after the conquest, the few Peruvians who +might still have made some pretension to a knowledge of them did not +trouble themselves to initiate the Europeans into their filiform +writing. All that is left of it is the practice of the Peruvian women +who preserve this method of registering the sins they intend to record +against themselves in the confessional.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Let us hope that they at +least never experience any analo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>gous infirmity to that which besets the +knot-tiers amongst ourselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p> +<p>To return to the Peruvian author of whom I intended to speak. He is the +celebrated Garcilasso de la Vega, who published his <i>Commentarios +reales</i> in 1609 and 1617.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Garcilasso's father was a European, but his +mother was a Peruvian, and, what is more, a <i>Palla</i>, that is to say, a +princess of the family of the Incas. Born in 1540, this Garcilasso had +received from his mother and a maternal uncle a great amount of +information as to the family, the history and the persons of the ancient +sovereigns. He was extremely proud of his origin; so much so, indeed, +that he issued his works under the name of "Garcilasso <i>el Inca</i> de la +Vega," though he had no real title to the name of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> Inca, which could not +be transmitted by women. A genuine fervour breathes through his accounts +of the history of his Peruvian country and his glorious ancestors, and +it is to him that we owe the knowledge of many facts that would +otherwise have been lost. The interest of his narrative explains the +reputation so long enjoyed by his work, but the more critical spirit of +recent times has discovered that his filial zeal has betrayed him into +lavish embellishments of the situation created by the clever and +cautious policy of his forebears, the Incas. He has passed in silence +over many of their faults, and has attributed more than one merit to +them to which they have no just claim. But in spite of all this, when we +have made allowance for his family weakness, we may consult him with +great advantage as to the institutions and sovereigns of ancient Peru.</p> + +<p>We must allow, with Garcilasso, that from the year 1000 A.D. onwards +(for he places the origin of their power at about this date) the Incas +had accomplished a work that may well seem marvellous in many respects. +Had there been any relations between Peru<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> and Central America? Can we +explain the Peruvian civilization as the result of an emigration from +the isthmic region, or an imitation of what had already been realized +there? There is not the smallest trace of any such thing. No doubt it +would be difficult to justify a categorical assertion on a subject so +obscure; but it is certain that when they were discovered, Peru and the +kingdom of Quito were separated from North America by immense regions +plunged in the deepest savagery. Beginning at the Isthmus of Panama, +this savage district stretched over the whole northern portion of South +America, broken only by the demi-civilization of the Muyscas or Chibchas +(New Granada); and the Peruvians knew nothing of the Mexicans. Neither +the one nor the other were navigators, and nothing in the Peruvian +traditions betrays the least connection with Central America. The most +probable supposition is, that an indigenous civilization was +spontaneously developed in Peru by causes analogous to those which had +produced a similar phenomenon in the Maya country. In Peru, as in +Central America, the richness of the soil, the variety of its products, +the abun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>dance of vegetable food, especially maize, secured the first +conditions of civilization. The Peruvian advance was further favoured by +the fact that it was protected towards the East by almost impassable +mountains, and towards the West by the sea, while to the North and South +it might concentrate its defensive forces upon comparatively narrow +spaces.</p> + +<p>The whole territory of the empire was divided into three parts. The +first was the property of the Sun, that is to say of the priests who +officiated in his numerous temples; the second belonged to the reigning +Inca; and the third to the people. The people's land was divided out +every year in lots apportioned to the needs of each family, but the +portions assigned to the <i>Curacas</i>, or nobles, were of a magnitude +suited to their superior dignity. Taxes were paid in days of labour +devoted to the lands of the Inca and those of the Sun, or in +manufactured articles of various kinds, for the cities contained a +number of artizans. Indeed, it was one of the maxims of the Incas that +no part of the empire, however poor, should be exempt from paying +tribute of one kind or another.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> To such a length was this carried, that +so grave a historian as Herrera tells us how the Inca Huayna Capac, +wishing to determine what kind of tribute the inhabitants of Pasto were +to pay, and being assured that they were so entirely without resources +or capacity of any kind that they could give him nothing at all, laid on +them the annual tribute of a certain measure of vermine, preferring, as +he said, that they should pay this singular tax rather than nothing.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> +We cannot congratulate the officials commissioned to collect the +tribute, but we cite this sample in proof of the rigour with which the +Incas carried out the principles which they considered essential to the +government of the country. The special principle we have just +illustrated was founded on the idea that the Sun journeys and shines for +every one, and that accordingly every one should contribute towards the +payment of his services. For the rest, the great herds of llamas, which +constituted a regular branch of the national wealth, could only be owned +by the temples of the Sun and by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> Inca. Every province, every town +or village, had the exact nature and the exact quantity of the products +it must furnish assigned, and the Incas possessed great depôts in which +were stored provisions, arms and clothes for the army. All this was +regulated, accounted for and checked by means of official Quipos.</p> + +<p>The numerous body of officials charged with the general superintendence +and direction of affairs was organized in a very remarkable manner, well +calculated to consolidate the Inca's power. All the officials held their +authority from him, and represented him to the people, just as he +himself represented the Sun-god. At the bottom of the scale was an +official overseer for every ten families, next above an overseer of a +hundred families, then another placed over a thousand, and another over +ten thousand. Each province had a governor who generally belonged to the +family of the Incas. All this constituted a marvellous system of +surveillance and espionage, descending from the sovereign himself to the +meanest of his subjects, and founded on the principle that the rays of +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> Sun pierce everywhere. The lowest members of this official +hierarchy, the superintendents of ten families, were responsible to +their immediate superiors for all that went on amongst those under their +charge, and those superiors again were responsible to the next above +them, and so on up to the Inca himself, who thus held the threads of the +whole vast net-work in the depths of his palace. It was another maxim of +the Peruvian state that every one must work, even old men and children. +Infants under five alone were excepted. It was the duty of the +superintendents of ten families to see that this was carried out +everywhere, and they were armed with disciplinary powers to chastise +severely any one who remained idle, or who ordered his house ill, or +gave rise to any scandal. Individual liberty then was closely +restrained. No one could leave his place of residence without leave. The +time for marriage was fixed for both sexes—for women at eighteen to +twenty, for men at twenty-four or upwards. The unions of the noble +families were arranged by the Inca himself, and those of the inferior +classes by his officers, who officially assigned the young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> people one +to another. Each province had its own costume, which might not be +changed for any other, and every one's birthplace was marked by a ribbon +of a certain colour surrounding his head.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> In a word, the Jesuits +appear to have copied the constitution of the Peruvian society when they +organized their famous Paraguay missions, and perhaps this fact may help +us to trace the profound motives which in either case suggested so +minutely precise a system of inserting individuals into assigned places +which left no room for self-direction. The Incas and the Jesuits alike +had to contend against the disconnected, incoherent turbulence of savage +life, and both alike were thereby thrown upon an exaggerated system of +regulations, in which each individual was swaddled and meshed in +supervisions and ordinances from which it was impossible to escape.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> +<p>Having said so much, we must acknowledge that, generally speaking, the +Incas made a very humane and paternal use of their absolute power. They +strove to moderate the desolating effects of war, and generally treated +the conquered peoples with kindness. But we note that in the century +preceding that of the European conquest, they had devised a means of +guarding against revolts exactly similar to the measures enforced +against rebellious peoples by the despotic sovereigns of Nineveh and +Babylon; that is to say, they transported a great part of the conquered +populations into other parts of their empire, and it appears that Cuzco, +like Babylon, presented an image in miniature of the whole empire. +There, as at Babylon, a host of different languages might be heard, and +it was amongst the children of the deported captives that Pizarro, like +Cyrus at Babylon, found allies who rejoiced in the fall of the empire +that had crushed their fathers. For the rest, the Incas endeavoured to +spread the language of Cuzco, the <i>Quechua</i>, throughout their empire.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> +Nothing need surprise us in the way of political sagacity and insight on +the part of this priestly dynasty. Its monarchs seem to have hit upon +every device<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> which has been imagined elsewhere for attaching the +conquered peoples to themselves or rendering their hostility harmless. +Thus you will remember that at Mexico there was a chapel that served as +a prison for the idols of the conquered. In the same way there stood in +the neighbourhood of Cuzco a great temple with seventy-eight chapels in +it, where the images of all the gods worshipped in Peru were assembled. +Each country had its altar there, on which sacrifice was made according +to the local customs.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>The Spaniards, amongst whom respect for the royal person was +sufficiently profound, were amazed by the marks of extreme deference of +which the Inca was the object. They could not understand at first that +actual religious worship was paid to him. He alone had the inherent +right to be carried on a litter, and he never went out in any other +way,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> imitating the Sun, his ancestor, who traverses the world without +ever putting his foot to the ground. Some few men and women of the +highest rank might rejoice in the same distinction, but only if they had +obtained the Inca's sanction. In the same way, it was only the members +of the Inca family and the nobles of most exalted rank who were allowed +to wear their hair long, for this was a distinctive sign of the +favourites of the Sun. None could enter the presence of the reigning +Inca save bare-footed, clad in the most simple garments and bearing a +burden on his shoulders, all in token of humility; nor must he raise his +eyes throughout the audience, for no man looks upon the face of the Sun. +It seems that the Incas possessed "the art of royal majesty" in a high +degree. They could retain the impassive air of indifference, whatever +might be going on before their eyes, like the Sun, who passes without +emotion over everything that takes place below. It was thus that +Atahualpa appeared to the Spaniards, who remarked the all but stony +fixity of the Peruvian monarch's features in the presence of all the new +sights—horses, riding, fire-arms—which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> filled his subjects with +surprise and terror.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> And such was the superhuman character of the +Inca, that even the base office of a spittoon—excuse such a detail—was +supplied by the hand of one of his ladies.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> The salute was given to +the Inca by kissing one's hand and then raising it towards the Sun. At +his death the whole country went into mourning for a year. The young +Incas were educated together, under conditions of great austerity, and +were never allowed to mingle with young people of the inferior +classes.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>The army of the Incas was the army of the Sun. The obligation to +military service was universal, since the Sun shines for all men. Every +sound man from twenty-five to fifty might be called on to serve in his +company. Thus numerous and highly-disciplined armies were raised, for +the spirit of obedience had penetrated all classes of the people. The +Incas had abolished the use of poisoned arrows, which is so common +amongst the natives of the New World.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p><p>Justice was organized after fixed laws, and, as is usually the case in +theocracies, these laws were severe. For in theocracies, to the social +evil of the offence is added the impiety committed against the Deity and +his representative on earth. The culprit has been guilty not only of +crime, but of sacrilege. The penalty of death was freely inflicted even +in the case of offences that implied no evil disposition.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> The +palanquin-bearer, for instance, who should stumble under his august +burden when carrying the Inca, or any one who should speak with the +smallest disrespect of him, must die. But we must also note certain +principles of sound justice which the Incas had likewise succeeded in +introducing. The judges were controlled, and, in case of unjust +judgments, punished. The law was more lenient to a first offence than to +a second, to crimes committed in the heat of the moment than to those of +malise prepense; more lenient to children than to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> adults, and (mark +this) more lenient to the common people than to the great.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The +members of the Inca family alone were exempted from the penalty of +death, which in their case was replaced by imprisonment for life. They +alone might, and indeed must, marry their sisters, for a reason that we +shall see further on. Thus everything was calculated to set this divine +family apart. Polygamy, too, was only allowed to the Incas and to the +families of next highest rank after them, who, however, might not marry +at all without the personal assent of the sovereign.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> But the Incas +strove to make themselves loved. Herrera tells us of establishments in +which orphans and foundlings were brought up at the Inca's +charges, and of the alms he bestowed on widows who had no means of +subsistence.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p><p>The same deliberate system shows itself in the attempts to spread +education. The Incas founded schools, but they were opened only to the +children of the Incas and of the nobility. This is a genuine theocratic +trait. Garcilasso tells us naively that his ancestor the Inca Roca +(1200—1249) in founding public schools had no idea of allowing <i>the +people</i> "to get information, grow proud, and disturb the state."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> The +instruction, which was given by the <i>amautas</i> (sages), turned on the +history or traditions of the country, on the laws, and on religion. We +have said that writing was unknown. There were only the mnemonic Quipos, +pictures on linen representing great events, and some rudimentary +attempts at hieroglyphics which the Incas do not seem to have +encouraged. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the hieroglyphics +found graven on the rocks of Yonan are anterior to the Inca +supremacy;<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> and it is said that a certain <i>amauta</i> who had attempted +to introduce a hieroglyphic alphabet, was burned to death for impiety at +the order of the Inca.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p><p>The most remarkable results of the rule of the Incas are seen in the +material well-being which they secured to their people. All the +historians speak of the really extraordinary perfection to which +Peruvian agriculture had been carried, though the use of iron was quite +unknown. The solar religion fits perfectly with the habits of an +agricultural people, and the Incas thought it became them, as children +of the Sun, to encourage the cultivation of the soil. They ordered the +execution of great public works, such as supporting walls to prevent the +sloping ground from being washed away; irrigation canals, some of which +measured five hundred miles, and which were preserved with scrupulous +care; magazines of guano, the fertilizing virtues of which were known in +Peru long before they were learned in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> The Spaniards are far +from having maintained Peruvian agriculture at the level it had reached +under the Incas. Splendid roads stretched from Cuzco towards the four +quarters of heaven; and Humboldt still traced some of them, paved with +black porphyry,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> or in other cases cemented or rather macadamized, and +often launched over ravines and pierced through hills with remarkable +boldness.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> The Incas had established reservoirs of drinking water for +the public use from place to place along these roads, and likewise +pavilions for their own accommodation when they were traversing their +realms, on which occasions they never travelled more than three or four +leagues a day. Bridges were thrown across the rivers, sometimes built of +stone, but more often constructed on the method, so frequently +described, that consists in uniting the opposing banks by two parallel +ropes, along which a great basket is slung.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> A system of royal courier +posts measured the great roads as in Mexico. There were many important +cities in Peru, and, according to a contemporary estimate cited by +Prescott, the capital, Cuzco, even without including its suburbs, must +have embraced at least two hundred thousand inhabitants.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> Architecture +was in a developed stage. We shall have to speak of the temples +presently. The Inca's palaces—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> there was at least one in every city +of any importance—were of imposing dimensions, and a high degree of +comfort and luxury was displayed within them. Gold glittered on the +walls and beneath the roofs which were generally thatched with straw. +They were provided with inner courts, spacious halls, sculptures in +abundance, but inferior, it would seem, to those of Central America, and +baths in which hot or cold water could be turned on at will.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> In a +word, when we remember from how many resources the Peruvians were still +cut off by their ignorance and isolation, we cannot but admit that a +genuine civilization is opening before our eyes, the defects of which +must not blind us to its splendour. And since this civilization was in +great part due (we shall see the force of the qualification presently) +to the continuous efforts of the Incas, our next task must be to ascend +to the mythic origin of that family, which we borrow from the narrative +of their descendant, Garcilasso de la Vega.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>Properly speaking, this narrative is the local myth of the Lake Titicaca +and of Cuzco, transformed into an imperial myth.</p> + +<p>Before the Incas, we are told, men lived in the most absolute savagery. +They were addicted to cannibalism and offered human victims to gods who +were gross like themselves. At last the Sun took pity on them, and sent +them two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo (or Oullo, Ocollo, +Oolle, &c.), to establish the worship of the Sun and alleviate their +lot. The two emissaries, son and daughter of the Sun and Moon, rose one +day from the depths of the Lake Titicaca. They had been told that a +golden splinter which they bore with them would pierce the earth at the +spot in which they were to establish themselves, and the augury was +fulfilled on the site of Cuzco, the name of which signifies <i>navel.</i><a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> +Observe that, in classical antiquity, Babylon, Athens, Delphi, Paphos, +Jerusalem, and so forth, each passed for the navel of the earth. Manco +Capac and Mama<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> Ogllo, then, established the worship of the Sun. They +taught the savage inhabitants of the place agriculture and the principal +trades, the art of building cities, roads and aqueducts. Mama Ogllo +taught the women to spin and weave. They appointed a number of overseers +to take care that every one did his duty; and when they had thus +regulated everything in Cuzco, they re-ascended to heaven. But they left +a son and daughter to continue their work. Like their parents, the +brother and sister became husband and wife, and from them descends the +sovereign family of the Incas, that is to say, the Lord-rulers, or +Master-rulers.</p> + +<p>Such is the legend, from which the first deduction must be that the Inca +family has nothing in common with the other denizens of earth. It is +super-imposed, as it were, on humanity. It is because of this difference +of origin that the laws which restrain the rest of mankind are not +always applicable to the Incas. For example, they marry their sisters, +as Manco Capac did, and as the Sun does, for the Moon is at once his +wife and his sister. It is thus that they are enabled to preserve the +divine character of their unique family.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> + +<p>For ourselves, we can entertain no doubt that this is a cosmic myth. +Mama Ogllo, or "the mother egg," and Manco Capac, or "the mighty man," +are two creators. The myth indicates that there existed an ancient solar +priesthood on one of the islands or on the shores of the Lake of +Titicaca (at an early date the focus of a certain civilization), and +that this priestly family became at a given period the ruling power at +Cuzco. It was thence that it radiated over the small states which +surrounded Cuzco, embracing them one after another under its prestige +and its power, until it had become the redoubtable dynasty that we know +it. Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo, the creator and the cosmic egg, have +become the Sun and Moon, represented by their Inca high-priest and his +wife. There is no practice towards which a more wide-spread tendency +exists in America than that of conferring the name of a deity on his +chief priest. And if Garcilasso fixes the appearance of Manco Capac at +about 1000 A.D., it is simply because the historical recollections of +his family mounted no higher, and that about that time it began to rise +out of its obscurity. It had the advantage of numbering in its royal +line both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> successful warriors and, what is more, consummate +politicians, instances of whose ability we have already seen and shall +see again.</p> + +<p>The point at which the legend preserved by Garcilasso is clearly at +fault, is in its claim for the Incas as the first and only civilizers of +Peru. We shall presently meet with other Peruvian myths of civilization +which do not stand in the least connection with Manco Capac and the +Incas. The kingdom of Quito, which the Inca Huayna Capac had recently +conquered when the Spaniards arrived, though not on the same level as +Peru proper, was far removed from the savage state, while as yet a +stranger to the influence of the Incas. The country of the Muyscas, the +present New Granada or land of Bogota, though standing in no connection +with Peru, was the theatre of another sacerdotal and solar religion <i>sui +generis</i>, which, though very little known, is highly interesting. The +valley of the Rimac, or Lima, and the coast lands in general, were +likewise centres of a pre-Inca civilization. The Chimus especially, +themselves dwellers on the coast, were possessed of an original +civilization differing from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> that of the Incas. They were the last to be +conquered. To sum up, everything leads us to suppose that various +centres of social development had long existed, up and down the whole +region, but that, under the presiding genius of the priesthood of Manco +Capac, the civilization of Cuzco had gradually acquired the +preponderance, till it consecutively eclipsed and absorbed all the +others.</p> + +<p>Garcilasso labours hard to impress us with the belief that the +sovereigns of his family maintained an unbroken age of gold, by dint of +their wisdom and virtues. But we know, both from himself and from other +sources, that as a matter of fact the Incas' sky was not always +cloudless. They had numbered both bad and incapable rulers in their +line. More than once they had had to suppress terrible insurrections, +and their palaces had witnessed more than one tragedy."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> But after +making all allowances, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> must admit that they succeeded in governing +well, and more especially in maintaining intact their own religious and +political prestige.</p> + +<p>Now this very cleverness, this conscious and often extremely deliberate +and astutely calculated policy, compels us to ask how far the Incas +themselves were sincere in their pretension to be descended from the +Sun, and their faith in the very special favour in which the great +luminary held them. There is so much rationalism in their habitual +tactics, that one cannot help suspecting a touch of it in their beliefs. +And the truth is that their descendant, Garcilasso, has recorded certain +traditions to that effect, which he has perhaps dressed up a little too +much in Euro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>pean style, with a view to convincing us that his ancestors +were monotheistic philosophers, but which nevertheless bear the marks of +a certain authenticity. For the reasoning which Garcilasso puts into the +mouth of the Incas closely resembles what would naturally commend itself +to the mind of a pagan who should once ask himself whether the visible +phenomenon, the Sun, which he adored, was really as living, as +conscious, as personal, as they said. Thus the Inca Tupac Yupanqui +(fifteenth century) is said to have reasoned thus:<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"They say that the Sun lives, and that he does everything. But +when one does anything, he is near to the thing he does; whereas +many things take place while the Sun is absent. It therefore +cannot be he who does everything. And again, if he were a living +being, would he not be wearied by his perpetual journeyings? If +he were alive, he would experience fatigue, as we do; and if he +were free, he would visit other parts of the heavens which he +never traverses. In truth, he seems like a thing held to its +task that always measures the same course, or like an arrow that +flies where it is shot and not where it wills itself."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +Note this line of reasoning, Gentlemen, which must have repeated itself +in many minds when once they had acquired enough independence and power +of thought calmly to examine those natural phenomena which primitive +naïveté had animated, personified and adored as the lords of destiny. +Their fixity and their mechanical and unvarying movements, when once +observed, could not fail to strike a mortal blow at the faith of which +they were the object. That faith was transformed without being radically +changed when it was no longer the phenomenon itself, but the personal +and directing spirit, the genius, the deity that was behind the +phenomenon, but distinct from it and capable of detaching itself from +it, which drew to itself the worship of the faithful. But in his turn +this god, shaped in the image of man, must either be refined into pure +spirit, or must fall below the rational and moral ideal ultimately +conceived by man himself. When all is said and done, Gentlemen, Buddhism +is still a religion of Nature. It is the last word of that order of +religions, and exists to show us that, at any rate in its authentic and +primitive form, that last word<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> is <i>nothingness</i>. And that is why +Buddhism has never existed in its pure form as a popular religion. For +in religion, and at every stage of religion, mind seeks mind. Without +that, religion is nothing. Note, too, the observant Inca's remark, that +if the Sun were alive he must be dreadfully tired. You may find the same +idea in more than one European mythology, in which the Sun appears as an +unhappy culprit condemned to a toilsome service for some previous fault; +or, again, an iron constitution is given him, to explain why he is not +worn out by his ceaseless journeying.</p> + +<p>Now Tupac Yupanqui would not be the only Inca who cherished a certain +scepticism concerning his ancestor the Sun. Herrera tells us that the +Inca Viracocha denied that the Sun was God;<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> and according to a story +preserved by Garcilasso,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> the Inca Huayna Capac, the conqueror of +Quito, who died shortly after Pizarro's first disembarkment, must have +been quite as much of a rationalist. One day,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> during the celebration of +a festival in honour of the Sun, he is said to have gazed at the great +luminary so long and fixedly that the chief priest ventured on some +respectful remarks to the effect that so irreverent a proceeding must +surprise the people. "I will ask you two questions," replied the +monarch. "I am your king and universal lord. Would any one of you have +the hardihood to order me to rise from my seat and take a long journey +for his pleasure?... And would the richest and most powerful of my +vassals dare to disobey if I should command him on the spot to set out +in all speed for Chili?" And when the priest answered in the negative, +the Inca continued: "Then I tell you there must be a greater and a more +mighty lord above our father the Sun, who orders him to take the course +he follows day by day. For if he were himself the sovereign lord, he +would now and again omit his journey and rest, for his pleasure, even if +he experienced no necessity for doing so."</p> + +<p>Once more: I will not vouch for the exact form of these audacious +speculations of the free-thinking Inca. But such reminiscences, +collected indepen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>dently by various authors, correspond to the +conjectures forced upon us by the extreme political sagacity of the +Incas. None but theocrats, in whose own hearts faith in their central +principle was waning, could develop such astuteness and diplomacy. A +sincere and untried faith has not recourse to so many expedients +dictated by policy and the fear lest the joint in the armour should be +found. It is to be presumed, however, that these heterodox speculations +of the Incas themselves never passed beyond the narrow circle of the +family and its immediate surroundings. Nothing of the kind would ever be +caught by the ear of the people. But the evidence as to Huayna Capac's +scepticism derives a certain confirmation from the fact that he was the +first Inca who departed (to the woe of his empire, as it turned out) +from some of the hereditary maxims that had always been scrupulously +observed by his ancestors.</p> + +<p>Huayna Capac had considerably extended the Peruvian empire by the +conquest of the kingdom of Quito. In the hope, presumably, of +consolidating his conquest, he resided for a long time in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +newly-acquired territory, and married the conquered king's daughter, to +whom he became passionately attached. This was absolutely contrary to +one of the statutes of the Inca family, no member of which was allowed +to marry a stranger. By his foreign wife he had a son called Atahualpa, +and whether it was that he thought it good policy to allow a certain +autonomy to the kingdom of Quito, or whether it was due to his +tenderness towards Atahualpa's mother and the son she had borne him, +certain it is that when he died at Quito in 1525, he decided that +Atahualpa should reign over this newly-acquired kingdom, whilst his +other son Huascar, the unimpeachably legitimate Inca, was to succeed him +as sovereign of Peru proper. This, again, was a violation of the maxim +that the kingdom of the Incas, which was the kingdom of the Sun, was +never to be parted. It was in the midst of the struggles provoked by the +hostility of the two brothers that Pizarro fell like a meteor amongst +the Peruvians, who did not so much as know of the existence of any other +land than the one they inhabited.</p> + +<p>But the hour warns me that I must pause. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> next we meet, I shall +have to recount the fall of the great religious dynasty of the Incas, +and we shall then examine more closely that Peruvian religion of which +we have to-day but sketched the outline.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +<a name="LECTURE_V" id="LECTURE_V"></a><span class="sub">LECTURE V.</span><br /><br /> + +FALL OF THE INCAS.—PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY, PRIESTHOOD.</h2> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p class="indent2"><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>You will remember that when last we met we traced out the legendary +origin of the royal house of the Incas. Starting from the shores of the +Lake Titicaca and the city of Cuzco, and progressively extending its +combined religious and political dominion over the numerous countries +situated west of the Cordilleras, it had welded them into one vast +empire, centralized and organized in a way that, in spite of its +defects, extorts our admiration. You had occasion to notice the +extraordinary degree to which the consummate practical sagacity which +distinguished the sacerdotal and imperial family of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> Sun for +successive centuries, was combined with purely mythological principles +of faith; and we were compelled to ask whether so much diplomacy was +really consistent with unreserved belief. Finally we saw that, according +to the historians, more than one of the Incas had in fact expressed and +justified a doubt as to the living and conscious personality of that +Sun-god whose descendants they were supposed to be. The position of +affairs when the Spaniards disembarked on the shores of Peru is already +known to you. The Inca Huayna Capac, conqueror of Quito, had broken with +the constitutional maxims of his dynasty, in the first place by marrying +a stranger, the daughter of a deposed king; and in the second place by +leaving the kingdom of Quito to the son, Atahualpa, whom she bore him; +while he allowed Huascar, the heir-apparent to the empire, to succeed +him in Peru proper, thus severing into two parts the kingdom of the Sun, +in defiance of the principle hitherto recognized, which forbad the +division of that kingdom under any circumstances.</p> + +<p>The war which speedily arose between Atahualpa and his half-brother +Huascar was the great cause<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> that made it possible for Pizarro and his +miniature army to get a footing in the Peruvian territory. The military +forces of both sections of the empire were engaged with each other far +away from the place of landing, and the inhabitants, wholly unaccustomed +to take any initiative, made no resistance to the strange invaders, +whose appearance, arms and horses, struck terror into their hearts, and +in whom (like the Mexicans in the case of Cortes and his followers) they +thought they saw supernatural beings. Pizarro, who knew how things +stood, had but one idea, viz., to imitate Cortes in laying hold of the +sovereign's person. Atahualpa returned victorious. He had defeated +Huascar, slaughtered many members of the Inca family, and thrown his +conquered brother into prison, so as to govern Peru in his name, for he +was not sure that he himself would be recognized and obeyed as a +legitimate descendant of the Sun. Pizarro found means of making his +arrival known to him, and at the same time offered him his alliance +against his enemies.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> Atahualpa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> was delighted with these overtures, +and invited his pretended allies to a conference near Caxamarca, where +the Spaniards had installed themselves. The Inca advanced, parading all +the pomp and splendour of his solar divinity. Four hundred richly-clad +attendants preceded his palanquin, which sparkled at a thousand points +with gold and precious stones, and was borne on the shoulders of +officers drawn from amongst the highest nobles, while troops of male and +female dancers followed the child of the Sun and plied their art. Then +ensued one of those unique scenes of history upon which, as indignation +contends with amazement for the mastery in our minds, we must pause for +a moment to gaze.</p> + +<p>Pizarro's almoner, Father Valverde, drew near to the Inca, a crucifix in +one hand and a missal in the other, and by means of an interpreter +delivered a regular discourse to him, in which he announced that Pope +Alexander VI. had given all the lands of America to the King of Spain, +which he had a right to do as the successor of St. Peter, who was +himself the Vicar of the Son of God. Then he expounded the chief +articles of Christian orthodoxy, and sum<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>moned the Inca there and then +to abjure the religion of his ancestors, receive baptism, and submit to +the sovereignty of the King of Spain. On these conditions he might +continue to reign. Otherwise he must look for every kind of disaster.</p> + +<p>Atahualpa was literally stupefied. Much of the discourse, no doubt, he +failed to follow, but what he did understand filled him with +indignation. He answered that he reigned over his peoples by hereditary +right, and could not see how a foreign priest could dispose of lands +that were not his. He should remain faithful to the religion of his +fathers, "especially," he added, as he pointed to the crucifix grasped +by the monk, "since my god, the Sun, is at any rate alive; whereas the +one you propose for my acceptance, as far as I gather, is dead." +Finally, he desired to know whence his interlocutor had derived all the +strange things that he had told him. "Hence!" cried Valverde, holding +out his missal. The Inca, who had never seen a book in all his life, +took this object, so new to him, in his hands, opened it, put it to his +ear, and finding that it said nothing, flung it contemptuously on the +ground.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>Pizarro saw the moment for striking the blow he contemplated. Crying out +at the sacrilege, he gave his soldiers the signal of attack. Their +horses and fire-arms caused an instant panic. In vain did some of his +officers attempt to defend the Inca. Pizarro broke through to him, +seized him by the arm and dragged him to his quarters. All his escort +fled in terror.</p> + +<p>Atahualpa, then, was in the immediate power of Pizarro, who (still +imitating Cortes) surrounded his prisoner with every comfort and +attention, though confining him strictly to one chamber, and warning him +that any attempt at escape or resistance would be the signal for his +death. Atahualpa soon perceived that thirst for gold was the great +motive that had impelled the Spaniards to their audacious enterprize. He +hoped to disarm them by offering as ransom gold enough to fill the +chamber in which he was confined up to the height of a man. He gave the +necessary orders for collecting the precious metal in the requisite +amount, and to secure the good reception of the emissaries whom Pizarro +despatched everywhere to receive it. One of these detachments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> even +entered into relations with the captive Inca, Huascar, and the latter +hastened to offer the Spaniards yet more gold than Atahualpa was giving +them if they would take his part. Atahualpa heard of this, was alarmed, +regarded his conquered brother's attempts in the light of high-treason, +gave orders for his death—and was obeyed.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>He was not aware how precarious was his own tenure of life. Pizarro saw +more and more clearly that, in order to become the real master of Peru, +he must get rid of the reigning Inca, and put some child in his place, +who would be a passive instrument in his hands. He was fairly alarmed by +the religious obedience, timid but absolute, that the "child of the +Sun," even in his captivity, received from all classes of his subjects. +He fancied that from the recesses of his prison, and even while paying +off his enormous ransom,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Atahualpa had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> sent secret orders to the +most distant populations to arm themselves and come to his rescue. The +interpreter through whom he communicated with his captive was out of +temper with his master, for his head had been so turned by ambition, +that he had demanded the hand of a <i>coya</i>, that is to say, one of the +Inca's women, and had been haughtily refused. In revenge, he made +malicious reports to Pizarro. But it was an accidental circumstance that +brought the latter's ill-will towards his captive to a point. The Inca +greatly admired the art of writing when he discovered all the uses the +Spaniards made of it. One day it occurred to him to get one of the +soldiers on guard over him to write the word <i>Dio</i> upon his nail, and he +was delighted and astonished to find that every one to whom he showed it +read it in the same way. So they told him that every one a little above +the common herd could read and write in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> Europe. His evil star would +have it that he showed his thumb one day to Pizarro, who could make +nothing of it. Pizarro, then, could not read! Atahualpa concluded that +he was merely one of the common herd, and found an opportunity of +telling him so. Pizarro, stung to the quick, hesitated no longer. A mock +judgment condemned Atahualpa to the extreme penalty for the crimes of +idolatry, polygamy, usurpation, fratricide and rebellion. In vain he +appealed to the King of Spain. He was led to the stake, and Father +Valverde made him purchase by a baptism <i>in extremis</i> the privilege of +being strangled instead of burned alive.</p> + +<p>From this moment the fate of Peru was decided. The head once struck from +the great body, long convulsions ensued, but no serious resistance was +possible. Pizarro set up as Inca a young brother of Huascar's, who was +at first a mere instrument in the hands of his country's bleeders, but +afterwards escaped and raised insurrections which ended in his total +defeat. The Spaniards had been reinforced, and had found allies amongst +the peoples who had been torn from their native soils by the victorious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +Incas.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> Other attempts, still attaching themselves to the name of some +Inca, failed in like manner. And yet the mass of the Peruvians, in spite +of their conversion to Roman Catholicism, remained obstinately attached +to the memory of their Incas. One of their real or pretended +descendants, in the eighteenth century, did not shrink from serving as a +domestic at Madrid and Rome, as the only means of learning the secret of +that European power which had so cruelly crushed his ancestors.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> But +on his return to Peru (1744 A.D.) his efforts only ended in his +destruction. But this did not prevent a certain Tupac Amarou, who was +descended from the Incas through a female line, from fomenting a +rebellion in 1780, which it cost the Spaniards an effort to suppress.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> +Later on, after the revolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> that broke the bond of subjection to +Spain, this stubborn hostility of the Peruvians changed its character; +but in 1867, Bustamente still tried to make capital out of the +historical attachment of the natives to the Incas by declaring himself +their descendant. The opposition, however, had long lost all vestige of +a religious character. The legend of Manco Capac, which is still current +amongst the people, has been euhemerized. It is now no more than the +story of a just and enlightened prince, the benefactor of the country. +The natives, it seems, are fond of playing a kind of drama, in which the +trial and death of Atahualpa are represented. Superstitious to the last +degree, they accept the practices of Catholicism with a submission that +has in it more of a melancholy and hopeless resignation than an ardent +or trusting faith. The glorious age of the Incas is gone, and will never +return, but it is still regretted.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>And now it is high time that we examined that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> religion which was so +closely associated with the whole national life of Peru.</p> + +<p>From all that I have said already, you will easily understand that the +Sun has never been worshipped more directly or with more devotion than +in Peru. It was he whom the Peruvians regarded as sovereign lord of the +world, king of the heaven and the earth. His Peruvian name was <i>Inti</i>, +"Light." The villages were usually built so as to look eastward, in +order that the inhabitants might salute the supreme god as soon as he +appeared in the morning. The most usual representation of him was a +golden disk representing a human face surrounded by rays and flames. In +Peru, as everywhere else, a feeling existed that there was a certain +relation between the substance of gold and that of the great luminary. +In the nuggets torn from the mountain sides they thought they saw the +Sun's tears.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> The great periodic fêtes of the year, the imperial and +national festivals in which every one took part, were those held in +honour of the Sun.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p> +<p>Immediately after him came his sister and consort the Moon, Mama Quilla. +Her image was a disk of silver bearing human features, and silver played +the same part in her worship that gold did in that of the Sun. It +appears, however, that they performed fewer sacrifices to her than to +her august consort, which is quite in harmony with the inferior position +assigned to woman in the Peruvian civilization.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> Like Selene amongst +the Greeks, Mama Quilla, and her incarnation in human form, Mama Ogllo, +were weavers. And that is why the latter was said to have taught the +Peruvian women the art of spinning and weaving. This is a mythological +conception suggested by likening the moonbeams to twisted threads, out +of which on fair clear nights the brilliant verdure in which the earth +is clad is spun.</p> + +<p>But before going on to the gods who form the usual retinue of these two +official and imperial deities, I must speak of two great Peruvian gods +whose worship was likewise widely spread, but who nevertheless are not +attached to the solar family, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> at least are only so attached by an +after-thought and by dint of harmonizing efforts which the Incas had +their motives of policy for favouring: I mean the two great deities, +<i>Viracocha</i> and <i>Pachacamac</i>.</p> + +<p>The myth of Viracocha is the first instance we shall cite of traces of a +certain civilization prior to the Incas, or at any rate of a belief +widely spread in some parts of Peru that civilization had not really +been, as the legend of the Incas would have it, the sole work of that +sacerdotal family. The name of Viracocha must be very ancient, for it +became a generic name to signify divine beings. It was given to Manco +Capac himself as a title of honour, and the Spaniards on their arrival +passed as <i>Viracochas</i> in the eyes of the people. This name, according +to Spanish authorities, followed by Prescott,<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> signifies <i>Foam of the +sea</i> or of the <i>lake</i>. This would make the deity a male Aphrodite. He +was represented with a long beard, and human victims were sacrificed to +him. At the same time, they said that he had neither flesh nor bone, +that he ran swiftly, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> he lowered mountains and lifted up +valleys. The following legend was told of him.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>There were men on the earth before the Sun appeared, and the temples of +Viracocha, for instance, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, are older than +the Sun. One day Viracocha rose out of the lake. He made the sun, the +moon, the stars, and prescribed their course for them. Then he made +stone statues, put life into them, and commanded them to go out of the +caverns in which he had made them and follow him to Cuzco. There he +summoned the inhabitants, and set a man over them called Allca Vica, who +was the common ancestor of the Incas. Then he departed and disappeared +in the water.</p> + +<p>Evidently this myth belongs to a different body of tradition from that +of the Incas. When it says that the earth was peopled before the Sun +appeared, it is only a mythical way of asserting that there were men and +even cities in Peru before the establishment of Sun-worship by the +Incas. Now the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> latter claimed direct descent from the Sun, the supreme +god, and they would not have readily allowed that this supreme deity had +been made by another. One is rather tempted to find in this myth the +echo of the claims put forward with equal resignation and persistency by +a priesthood of Viracocha, that bowed its head before the supremacy +acquired by the solar priesthood, but insisted all the same upon the +fact that it was itself its elder brother.</p> + +<p>But to what element can we affiliate the god Viracocha himself?</p> + +<p>His aquatic name, <i>Foam of the sea</i> or <i>lake</i>, in itself leads us to +suppose that he was closely related to the water. The supposition is +confirmed by the saying that he had neither flesh nor bone, and yet ran +swiftly. We can understand, too, why he lowers mountains and raises +valleys. He rises from the water and disappears in it. He is bearded, +like all aquatic gods, with their fringes of reeds. Finally, his consort +and sister Cocha is the lake itself, and also the goddess of rain. An +old Peruvian hymn that was chanted under the Incas, and has fortunately +been preserved, raises the character we have assigned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> to Viracocha +above all doubt.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> The goddess Cocha is represented as carrying an urn +full of water and snow on her head. Her brother Viracocha breaks the +urn, that its contents may spread over the earth. Here is the hymn, +which is composed in nineteen short verses or lines:</p> + +<div class="block2"> +<ul> +<li> 1. Fair Princess,</li> +<li> 3. Thy urn</li> +<li> 2. Thy brother</li> +<li> 4. Shatters.</li> +<li> 5. At the blow</li> +<li> 6. It thunders, lightens</li> +<li> 7. Flashes;</li> +<li> 8. But thou, Princess,</li> +<li>10. Rainest down</li> +<li> 9. Thy waters.</li> +<li>11. At the same time</li> +<li>12. Hailest,</li> +<li>13. Snowest.</li> +<li>14. World-former,</li> +<li>15. World-animator,</li> +<li>16. Viracocha,</li> +<li>17. To this office</li> +<li>18. Thee has destined,</li> +<li>19. Consecrated.</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> +<p>It admits of no doubt, therefore, that Viracocha held a place in the +Peruvian Pantheon closely analogous to that of Tlaloc, the rain-god, in +its Mexican counterpart. The blow with which he breaks his sister's urn +is the thunder-stroke. Inasmuch as rain is a fertilizing agent, +Viracocha represents its generative force. His resemblance to Tlaloc +extends to his demand for human victims, in which he is less ferociously +insatiable, but quite as pronounced, as his Mexican analogue. Since his +legend makes him rise out of the Lake of Titicaca, we must think of him +as the chief god of the religion in honour before that of the Incas rose +to supremacy. When it is said that after accomplishing his task he +disappeared, we are reminded that the river Desaguadero, which carries +off the waters of Lake Titicaca, sinks into the earth and is lost to +sight.</p> + +<p>But there was yet another great deity whose pretensions the Incas had +allowed by making room for him in the official religion, although he +really belonged to a totally different group of mythical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> formations: I +refer to Pachacamac, whose name signifies "animator of the earth," from +<i>caman</i>, "to animate," and <i>pacha</i>, "earth."<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> The primitive centre of +his worship was in the valley of Lurin, south of Lima, as well as in +that valley of Rimac which has given its name to the city of Lima +itself, for the latter is but a transformation of <i>Rimac</i>. It was there +that Pachacamac's colossal temple rose. It was left standing by the +Incas, but is now in ruins.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> The branch of the Yuncas who resided +there were already possessed of a certain civilization when the Inca +Pachacutec annexed their country, at the close of the fourteenth +century, partly by persuasion and partly by terror. Pachacamac was the +divine civilizer who had taught this people the arts and crafts.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> It +would even seem that he had supplanted a still more ancient worship of +Viracocha in these same valleys, for it is said that the latter was +worsted in war by him and put to flight, upon which the new god renewed +the world by changing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> the people he found on the earth into jaguars and +monkeys, and creating a new and higher race. This opposition to +Viracocha, god of the waters, puts us on the traces of Pachacamac's +original significance. He must have been a god of fire, and especially +of the internal fire of the earth, which displays itself in the volcanos +and warms the spirit of man. He was a kind of Peruvian Dionysus. There +was something gloomy and violent about his worship. He demanded human +victims. The valley of Rimac really means the valley of the <i>Speaker</i>, +of him who answers when questioned. There was a kind of oracle inspired +by the god of internal fire there. A certain feeling of mystery, as +though in Pachacamac they had to do with a god less visible, less +palpable, more spiritual than the rest, seems to have impressed itself +upon his Peruvian worshippers. Garcilasso, who perhaps exaggerates a +little, here as elsewhere, goes near to making him a god who could only +be adored in the heart, without temple and without sacrifices.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>Thus, if the myth of Viracocha, god of the waters,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> makes the stars and +the earth rise out of the moist element which he has fertilized and +organized, the myth of Pachacamac makes him a kind of demiurge working +within to form the world and enlighten mankind. I need not stay to point +out what close analogies these two conceptions find in several of the +cosmogonies of the Old World.</p> + +<p>This confusion and rivalry of the Peruvian gods has left its traces in +the crude and obscure legend of the Collas, or mountaineers of Pacari +Tambo, to the south-west of Cuzco. "From the caves of Pacari Tambo (i.e. +'the house of the dawn') issued one day four brothers and four sisters. +The eldest ascended a mountain, and flung stones towards the four +cardinal points, which was his way of taking possession of all the land. +This aroused the displeasure of the other three. The youngest of all was +the cunningest, and he resolved to get rid of his three brothers and +reign alone. He persuaded his eldest brother to enter a cave, and as +soon as he had done so closed the mouth with an enormous stone, and +imprisoned him there for ever." This seems to refer to the +quasi-subterranean cultus of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> Pachacamac, the internal fire, the first +revelation of whom must have been a volcano hurling stones in every +direction.—"The youngest brother then persuaded the second to ascend a +high mountain with him, to seek their lost brother, and when they stood +on the summit he hurled him down the precipice and changed him into a +stone by a spell." I cannot say to what special deity this part of the +legend alludes, unless it simply refers to an ancient worship of stones +or rocks, many vestiges of which remained under the Incas, though it +ceased to have any official importance in presence of the radiant +worship of the Sun promulgated and favoured by the ruling family.—"Then +the third brother fled in terror." This fleeing god must be Viracocha, +the god of showers, who flees before the Sun.—"Then the youngest +brother built Cuzco, caused himself to be adored as child of the Sun +under the name of Pirrhua Manco, and likewise built other cities on the +same model."<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> +<p>This last trait puts it out of doubt that the legend is really an +attempt to explain how the religion of Manco Capac established at Cuzco +had succeeded in eclipsing all others, owing to the superior skill of +its priesthood. It is a formal confirmation of all that I have told you +of the consummate art with which the Incas gradually extended the circle +of their political and religious dominion. <i>Pirrhua</i> is the contraction +of Viracocha, taken in the generic sense of "divine being." Pirrhua +Manco was an alternative name of Manco Capac.</p> + +<p>Of course this legend was not officially received under the Incas. The +latter, being unable or unwilling to abolish the worship of Viracocha +and of Pachacamac, took up a far more conciliatory attitude than that of +the legends I have given. The supreme god, the Sun, was admitted to have +had three sons, Kon or Viracocha, Pachacamac and Manco Capac; but the +latter was declared to have been quite specially designed by the common +father to instruct and govern men. By this arrangement every one was +satisfied,—and especially the Incas.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>We may now return to the other deities who were officially incorporated +in the family or retinue of the Sun.</p> + +<p>The rainbow, <i>Cuycha</i>, was the object of great veneration as the servant +of the Sun and Moon. He had his chapel contiguous with the temple of the +Sun, and his image was made of plates of gold of various shades, which +covered a whole wall of the edifice. When a rainbow appeared in the +clouds, the Peruvian closed his mouth for fear of having all his teeth +spoilt.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<p>The planet Venus, <i>Chasca</i> or the "long-haired star," so called from its +extraordinary radiance, was looked upon as a male being and as the page +of the Sun, sometimes preceding and sometimes following his master. The +Pleiades were next most venerated. Comets foreboded the wrath of the +gods. The other stars were the Moon's maids of honour.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p><p>The worship of the elements, too, held a prominent place in this +complicated system of nature-worship. For example, Fire, considered as +derived from the Sun, was the object of profound veneration, and the +worship rendered it must have served admirably as a link between the +religion of the Incas and that of Pachacamac. Strange as it may seem at +first sight, the symbols of fire were stones. But our surprise will +cease when we remember that stones were thought, in a high antiquity, to +be animated by the fire that was supposed to be shut up within them, +since it could be made to issue forth by a sharp blow. The Peruvian +religion likewise adds its testimony to that of all the religions of the +Old World, as to the importance which long attached to the preservation +amongst the tribes of men of that living fire which it was so difficult +to recover if once it had been allowed to escape. A perpetual fire +burned in the temple of the Sun and in the abode of the Virgins of the +Sun, of whom we shall have to speak presently. The wide-spread idea that +fire becomes polluted at last and loses its divine virtue by too long +contact with men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> meets us once more. The fire must be renewed from +time to time, and this act was performed yearly by the chief-priest of +Peru, who kindled wood by means of a concave golden mirror. This miracle +is very easy for us to explain, but we cannot doubt that the priests and +people of Peru saw something supernatural in the phenomenon.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>The thunder, likewise, was personified and adored in certain provinces +under the name of <i>Catequil</i>, but it is a peculiarity of the Peruvian +religion that it assigns a subordinate rank in the hierarchy to the god +of thunder, who elsewhere generally takes the supreme place. In Peru, he +was but one of the Sun's servants, though the most redoubtable of them +all. The Peruvians are remarkable for their childish dread of thunder. A +great projecting rock, often one that had been struck by the thunder, +passed for the deity's favoured residence. Catequil appears in three +forms: <i>Chuquilla</i> (thunder), <i>Catuilla</i> (lightning), and <i>Intiallapa</i> +(thunderbolt). His remaining name, <i>Illapa</i>, also means thunder. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> had +special temples, in which he was represented as armed with a sling and a +club.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> They sacrificed children, but more especially llamas, to him. +Twins were regarded as children of the lightning, and if they died young +their skeletons were preserved as precious relics. And, finally, we find +in Peru the same idea that prevails in a great part of southern Africa, +viz. that a house or field that has been struck by lightning cannot be +used again. Catequil has taken possession of it, and it would be +dangerous to dispute it with him.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> + +<p>We have seen how the element of water was adored under the names of +Viracocha and his sister Mama Cocha. The earth was worshipped in grottos +or caves, often considered as the places whence men and gods had taken +their origin, and as giving oracles.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> There were also trees and plants +that were clothed with a divine character, especially the esculent +plants, such as the maize, personified as <i>Zarap Conopa</i>, and the +potato, as <i>Papap Conopa</i>. A female<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> statue was often made of maize or +coca leaves, and adored as the mother of plants.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p> + +<p>Thus we descend quite gently from the official heights of the religion +of the Incas towards those substrata of religious thought which always +maintain themselves beneath the higher religion that more or less +expressly patronizes them, but to which they are not really bound by any +necessary tie. They are the survivals of old superstitions, to which the +common people are often far more attached than they are to the exalted +doctrines which they are taught officially. And it is thus, for example, +that we note in Peru the very popular worship of numerous animals, +mounting, without doubt, to a much higher antiquity than was reached by +the religion of the Incas. Indeed, I should be inclined to ascribe to +the religious diplomacy of the children of the Sun the Peruvian belief +which established a connection of origin between each kind of animal and +a particular star. The serpent, especially, seems to have been, in Peru +as in Africa, the object of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> great veneration. We find it reproduced in +wood and stone on an enormous number of the greater and smaller relics +of Peruvian art. The god of subterranean treasures, <i>Urcaguay</i>, was a +great serpent, with little chains of gold at his tail, and a head +adorned with stag-like horns. The dwellers by the shore worshipped the +whale and the shark. There were fish-gods, too, in the temple of +Pachacamac, no doubt because of the enormous power of reproduction +possessed by fishes. The condor was a messenger of the Sun, and his +image was graven on the sceptre of the Incas.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> It is remarkable that +the llama does not appear amongst these divine animals, probably because +it was so completely domesticated and wholly subject to man.</p> + +<p>And finally, when we come to the <i>Guacas</i>, or <i>Huacas</i>, we reach the +point where the Peruvian religion sinks into absolute fetichism.</p> + +<p>The meaning of the word <i>Guaca</i>, or <i>Huaca</i>, was not very precise in the +mouths of the Peruvians themselves. On the one hand, it was applied to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +everything that bore a religious character, whether an object of +worship, the person of the priests, a temple, a tomb, or what not. The +Sun himself was <i>Huaca</i>. The chief priest of Cuzco bore amongst other +names that of <i>Huacapvillac</i>, "he who converses with huaca beings."<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> +On the other hand, in ordinary language, this same term was used to +signify those wood, stone and metal objects which were so abundant in +Peru, of which we still possess numerous specimens, and of which we must +now say a few words. Some of these huacas, especially the stone ones, +were of considerable size, and no doubt dated from the pre-historic +religion before the Incas. But as a rule they were small and portable, +were private and hereditary property, and were regarded as veritable +fetiches, that is to say, as the dwelling-places of spirits. Animism, in +fact, never ceased to haunt the imaginations of the Peruvians, +especially amongst the lower orders, whether the spirits were dreaded as +malevolent sprites, or courted as protectors and revealers. These huacas +represented (as true fetiches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> should) forms which were sometimes +animal, sometimes human, sometimes simply grotesque, but always ugly and +exaggerated. Every valley, every tribe, every temple, every chief, had a +guardian spirit. Those which were analogous to <i>pænates publici</i> were +recognized by the Incas, who endowed them with flocks and various +presents. Often a stone in the middle of the village passed as the abode +of the patron spirit of the place. It was the <i>huacacoal</i>, the stone of +the huaca, whereas the huacas of the family or house were distinguished +as <i>conopas</i>. Meteorites or thunderbolts were in great demand as huacas, +and especially amongst lovers, since they were supposed to inspire a +reciprocity of affection. The Christian missionaries had more difficulty +in rooting out the worship of the Huacas than in abolishing that of the +Sun and Moon, and we may still detect numerous traces of this ancient +superstition amongst the natives of Peru.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>IV.</h3> + +<p>Let us now turn to the priesthood which presided over the worship of +these numerous deities.</p> + +<p>There was no sacerdotal caste in Peru, or, to speak more correctly, the +Inca family constituted the only sacerdotal caste in the strict sense of +the word. This family retained for itself all the highest positions in +the priesthood, as well as in the army and administration. These priests +of the higher rank bore special garments and insignia, while the lower +clergy wore the ordinary costume. At the head of all the priests of the +empire, first after the reigning Inca, stood the <i>Villac Oumau</i>, "the +chief sacrificer," also, as we have seen, called the <i>Huacapvillac</i>. He +was nominated by the reigning Inca, and in his turn nominated all his +subordinates. His name indicates that he was the living oracle, the +interpreter of the will of the Sun. You can understand, therefore, how +important it was for the policy of the Incas that he should himself be +subject to the authority and discretion of the sovereign. After him came +the rest of the chief priests, also members of the Inca family, whom he +put in charge of the provincial temples of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> Sun. At Cuzco itself all +the priests had to be Incas. They were divided into squadrons, which +attended in succession, according to the quarters of the moon, to the +elaborate ritual of the service. And here we must admire the consummate +art with which the Incas had planned everything in their empire to +secure their supremacy against all attaint, in religion as in all else, +while still leaving the successively annexed populations a certain +measure of religious freedom. In the provinces, the Inca family, +numerous as it was, could not have provided priests for all the +sanctuaries; and, moreover, there would be local rites, traditions, +perhaps even priesthoods, which could not well be fitted into the +framework of the official religion. The Incas therefore had decided that +the priests of the local deities should be affiliated to the imperial +priesthood, but in such a way that the chief priests of the local +deities should at the same time be subordinate priests of the deities of +the empire. What a wonderful stroke of political genius! What happier +method could have been found of teaching the subject populations, while +still maintaining their traditional forms of worship,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> to regard the +imperial cultus patronized by the reigning Inca as superior to all +others? And what an invaluable guarantee of obedience was obtained by +this association of the non-Inca priests with the official priesthood, +the honours and advantages of which they were thus made to share, +without any room for an aspiration after independence! I regard this +organization of the priesthood in ancient Peru as one of the most +striking proofs of the political genius of the Incas, and as one of the +facts which best explain how a theocracy, which was after all based on +the absolute and exclusive pretensions of one special mythology, was +able to consolidate itself and endure for centuries, while exercising a +large toleration towards other traditions and forms of worship.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> + +<p>By the side of the priests there were also priestesses; and they were +clothed with a very special function. I refer to those <i>Virgins of the +Sun</i> (<i>acllia</i> = chosen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> ones), those Peruvian nuns, who so much +impressed the early historians of Peru. There were convents of these +Virgins at Cuzco and in the chief cities of the empire. At Cuzco there +were five hundred of them, drawn for the most part from the families of +the Incas and the <i>Curacas</i> or nobles, although (for a reason which will +be apparent presently) great beauty gave even a daughter of the people a +sufficient title to enter the sacred abode. They had a lady president—I +had almost said a "mother abbess"—who selected them while yet quite +young; and under her superior direction, matrons, or <i>Mamaconas</i>, +superintended the young flock. They lived encloistered, in absolute +retreat, without any relationship with the outside world. Only the +reigning Inca, his chief wife, the <i>Coya</i>, and the chief priest, were +allowed to penetrate this sanctuary of the virgins. Now these visits of +the Inca's were not exactly disinterested. The fact is, that it was here +he generally looked for recruits for his harem. You will ask how that +could be reconciled with the vow of chastity which the maidens had +taken; but their promise had been never to take any consort except the +Sun,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> or <i>him to whom the Sun should give them</i>. Now the Inca, the child +of the Sun, his representative and incarnation upon earth, began by +assigning the most beautiful to himself, after which he might give some +of those who had not found special favour in his eyes to his Curacas. +And thus the vow was kept intact. In other respects, the most absolute +chastity was sternly enforced. If any nun violated her vow, or was +unhappy enough to allow the sacred fire that burned day and night in the +austere abode to be extinguished, the penalty was death. And the strange +thing is, that the mode of death was identical with that which awaited +the Roman vestal guilty of the same offences. The culprit was buried +alive. This illustrates the value of the theories started by those +authors who can never discover any resemblance of rites or beliefs +between two peoples without forthwith setting about to inquire which of +the two borrowed from the other! It will hardly be maintained that the +Peruvians borrowed this cruel custom from the ancient Romans, and +assuredly the Romans did not get it from Peru. Whence, then, can the +resemblance spring? From the same train<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> of ideas leading to the same +conclusion. By the sacrilege of the culprit, the gods of heaven and of +light, the protecting and benevolent deities, were offended and +incensed, and the whole country would feel the tokens of their wrath. To +disarm their anger, its unhappy cause must expiate her guilt, and at the +same time must be removed from their sight and given over to the powers +of darkness, for she was no longer worthy to see the light. And that is +why the dark tomb must swallow her. She had betrayed her spouse the +Sun—let her henceforth be the spouse and the slave of darkness; and let +her be sent alive to those dark powers, that they might do with her as +they would. We must add that the guilty nun's accomplice was strangled, +and that her whole family from first to last was put to death.</p> + +<p>The ordinary occupations of the Virgins of the Sun consisted in making +garments for the members of the imperial family and tapestries destined +to adorn the temples and palaces, in kneading and baking the sacred +loaves, preparing the sacred drinks, and, finally, in watching and +feeding the sacred fire. You perceive that it was not exactly the +ascetic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> principle which had given rise to these convents—as in the +case of the Buddhist and Christian institutions, for example—but rather +the desire to do honour to the Sun, the supreme god, by consecrating +seraglios to him, in which his numerous consorts, protected by a severe +rule, could be kept from all except himself and those to whom he might +give them; accomplishing, meanwhile, those menial tasks which, +especially under the rule of polygamy, woman is required to perform in +the abode of her lord and master.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>All this shows us once more, Gentlemen, how the same fundamental logic +of the human mind asserts itself across a thousand diversities, and +re-appears under every conceivable form in every climate and every race. +Only let us look close enough and with the requisite information, and we +shall find in every case that all is explained, that all holds together, +that all is justified, by some underlying principle, and that "that +idiot of a word,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> <i>chance</i>, is never anything but a veil for our +ignorance. And thus, when we notice anything paradoxical, grotesque, and +unexplained by the resources we command at present, we must be very +careful not to pronounce it inexplicable. We should rather suspend our +judgment, wait till wider reflection and renewed investigation have +shown us the middle terms, and meanwhile keep silence rather than +attribute to chance or to influences which escape all human reason the +phenomena that seem abnormal.</p> + +<p>For instance, you have heard sometimes of the strange custom in +accordance with which the father of a new-born child goes to bed and is +nursed as an invalid. You are perhaps aware that this custom, that +appears so strange to us and is now restricted to a few savage tribes, +was noted in ancient times in Europe itself, and has been preserved +almost to our own time in certain cantons of the Pyrenees. It must +therefore have been extremely wide-spread. Yet for a long time it seemed +inexplicable. But now, thanks to investigations and comparisons, the +explanation has been found. There is no doubt that the custom in +question rested on the idea that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> there was a close solidarity between +the health of the father and that of the new-born babe, so that if the +father should fall sick, his far weaker child would die. The father, +therefore, must be guarded from all over-exertion, must abstain from all +excess—in short, was best in bed!</p> + +<p>So, too, in the present case. How are we to explain the resemblance +between the treatment of the Vestals at Rome and the Virgins of the Sun +at Cuzco? It was once impossible, but now that we are better acquainted +with the genesis, the spirit, the inner logic of the primitive +religions, and the modes of life, the wants and the apprehensions proper +to the pre-historic ages, we have no difficulty in attaching two +parallel customs to a single religious principle which had found +acceptance alike in Italy and Peru. And this is one of the chief tasks, +and one of the greatest charms, of the branch of study which I have the +honour of professing. It shows us that even in human error, human reason +has never abdicated its throne.</p> + +<p>We have still to speak of the temples, the ritual and the chief +festivals of ancient Peru. To these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> subjects we shall devote the first +part of our sixth and last Lecture, reserving the closing portion for +the conclusions and the general lessons suggested by our two-fold study +of Mexico and Peru.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +<a name="LECTURE_VI" id="LECTURE_VI"></a><span class="sub">LECTURE VI.</span><br /><br /> + +PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.—MORALS AND THE FUTURE +LIFE.—CONCLUSIONS.</h2> + + +<p class="indent2"><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>To complete my account of the native religion of Peru, I have still to +speak of the cultus, the festivals, the religious ethics, and the ideas +of a future life.</p> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>The Peruvian cultus had given birth to the <i>temple;</i> and, indeed, it is +highly interesting to witness what one may call the "genesis of the +temple" on this soil, so different from those of the Old World. There +were temples, indeed, before the Incas, but they differed both in style +and in signification from those reared under their patronage. In Peru, +as in Mexico, the temples were originally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> neither more nor less than +extremely lofty altars; that is to say, artificial elevations, on the +summit of which the sacrifices were presented, while a little chapel +served to contain the image of the god or gods adored. Round this great +altar were grouped other chapels, galleries and columns, as though to +accompany the great central altar formed by the eminence itself. Under +the Incas, the crowning chapel increased so enormously that it encircled +the altar and became the essential part of the sacred structure. The +Inca temples were veritable palaces, destined as abodes for the gods. +None of them remain; but their ruins attest the fact that the architects +aimed rather at colossal than at beautiful effects. They contained +gigantic stone statues, gates cut out of monoliths, and the well-known +pyramidal structures of which we have spoken already. The most imposing +of the temples was the one at Cuzco, which consisted in a vast central +edifice, flanked with a number of adjacent buildings. Gold was so +prodigally lavished on its interior that it bore the name of +<i>Coricancha,</i> that is to say, "the place of gold." The roof was formed +by timber-work of precious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> woods plated with gold, but was covered, as +in the case of all the houses of the land, with a simple thatch of maize +straw. The doors opened to the East, and at the far end, above the +altar, was the golden disk of the Sun, placed so as to reflect the first +rays of the morning on its brilliant surface, and, as it were, reproduce +the great luminary. And note that the mummies of the departed Incas, +children of the Sun, were ranged in a semicircle round the sacred disk +on golden thrones, so that the morning rays came day by day to shine on +their august remains. The adjacent buildings were abodes of the deities +who formed the retinue of the Sun. The principal one was sacred to the +Moon, his consort, who had her disk of silver, and ranged around her the +ancient queens, the departed <i>Coyas</i>. Others served as the abodes of +Chaska, our planet Venus, the Pleiades, the Thunder, the Rainbow, and +finally the officiating priests of the temple. In the provinces, the +Incas reared a number of temples of the Sun on the model of that at +Cuzco, but on a smaller scale.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> +<p>The Incas, however, had been anticipated in this striking development of +the temple by the religions anterior or adjacent to their own. Witness +the great temple of Pachacamac, which they left standing in the valley +of Lurin, and the remarkable ruins of another great temple situated at +some miles distance from Lake Titicaca, which has quite recently been +made the subject of a careful reconstructive study by your compatriot +Mr. Inwards.<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p>The offerings presented to the gods were very varied in kind. Flowers, +fragrant incense, especially from preparations of coca, vegetables, +fruits, maize, prepared drinks offered in cups of gold. At some of the +feasts the officiating priest moistened the tips of his fingers in the +cup and flung the drops towards the Sun. We also find in Peru a very +special form of that remnant of self-immolation which enters, in more or +less reduced and restricted shape, into the devotions of so many peoples +and assumes such varied forms. The Red-skin offers his sweat; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> Black +offers his saliva or his teeth; the more poetical Greek, a lock of his +hair, or even all of it. The Peruvian pulled out a hair from his eyebrow +and blew it towards the idol!<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>But there were also sacrifices of blood. A llama was sacrificed every +day at Cuzco. Before setting out on war, the Peruvians sacrificed a +black llama that they had previously kept fasting, that the heart of +their enemies might fail as did his. This was the Peruvian application +of the principle that lies at the base of all those superstitious +ceremonies intended to provoke or stimulate a desired effect by +reproducing its analogue in advance. Small birds, rabbits, and, for the +health of the Inca, black dogs, were also sacrificed frequently. All +these offerings were as a rule burned, that they might so be transmitted +to the gods.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> It should be noted that they only sacrificed edible +animals,<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> which is a clear proof<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> that the intention was to feed the +gods. The sacrificing priest turned the animal's eyes towards the Sun, +and opened its body to take out its heart, lungs and viscera, and offer +them to the idols. It is a characteristic fact that when the victim was +not burned, its flesh was divided amongst the sacrificers and <i>eaten +raw</i>. The Peruvians had long learned to cook their meat, but this rite +carries us back to a high antiquity, when cooking food was still an +innovation which the power of tradition excluded from the ritual. It is +to analogous causes that we must attribute the continued use of stone +instruments in the religious ceremonies of peoples who are acquainted +with iron and use it in ordinary life. In conclusion, they smeared the +idols and the doors of the temples with the blood of the victims in +order to appease the gods.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + +<p>All this is sufficiently crude and material, and rests upon the same +premisses as those which drove the Mexicans to the frightful excesses +which I have previously described. But humanity was far less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> outraged +in the Peruvian than in the Mexican religion. Garcilasso deceives +himself, or is attempting to deceive his readers, when he gives his +ancestors, the Incas, the honour of having put an end to human +sacrifices.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> It is certain that in the religion of Pachacamac more +especially this kind of sacrifice was frequent, and for that matter we +know that it was universal in the primitive epochs. All that we can +allow to the descendant of the Incas is, that they did not encourage, +and were rather disposed to restrain, human sacrifice. But for all that, +when the reigning Inca was ill, they sacrificed one of his sons to the +Sun, and prayed him to accept the substitution of the son for the +father. At certain feasts a young infant was immolated. Others were +sacrificed to the subterranean spirits when a new Inca was enthroned. To +the same category we must attach the custom which enjoined upon wives, +especially those of the Incas, the duty of burying themselves alive on +the death of their husbands. It is asserted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> that when Huayna Capac +died, a thousand members of his household incurred a voluntary death +that they might go with him to serve him. The widows, however, were not +compelled to take this step, and we know that the Incas had organized +the support of widows without resources. But public opinion was not +favourable to those who refused to follow their husbands to the tomb. It +was regarded as a species of infidelity.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> We see, however, from other +well-established facts, that the Peruvian religion had been gradually +softened. In Peru, as in China, instead of the living beings that they +used formerly to bury with the dead, they now placed statuettes of men +and women with him in his tomb to represent his wives and his +servants.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> + +<p>We must also mention those "columns of the Sun" which appear never to +have been absent in countries dominated by a solar worship. We have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +already seen them in Central America and in Mexico, and we also find +them in Egypt, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Palestine, at Carthage and +elsewhere. In these columns the idea of fertilization is associated with +that of the pleasure the Sun must feel in tracing out their shadows as +he caresses their faces and summits with his rays. The earliest +quadrants were traced at the foot of these columns. In Peru, they were +levelled at the top, and were regarded as "seats of the Sun," who loved +to rest upon them. At the equinoxes and solstices they placed golden +thrones upon them for him to sit upon. Those nearest to the equator were +held in greatest veneration, because the shadows were shorter there than +elsewhere, and the Sun appeared to rest vertically upon them.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>Prayer, in the proper sense of the word, asserted its place but feebly +in the Peruvian religion. But hymns to the Sun were chanted at the great +festivals and by the people as they went to cultivate the lands of the +Sun. Every strophe ended with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> the cry, <i>Hailly</i>, or "triumph." It was +the Peruvian <i>Io Pæan</i>. These chants, as far as they are still known to +us, have something soft and sad about them. The rule of the Incas, +paternal indeed, but monotonous in the extreme, must have tended to +produce melancholy. In 1555, a Spanish composer wrote a mass upon the +themes of these indigenous airs. It was sung in chorus, and it is +chiefly to it that we owe the preservation of these chants.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> + +<p>But the grand form of religious demonstration among the Peruvians was +the dance. They were very assiduous in this form of devotion, and indeed +we know what a large place the earliest of the arts occupied in the +primitive religions generally. The dance was the first and chief means +adopted by pre-historic humanity of entering into active union with the +deity adored. The first idea was to imitate the measured movements of +the god, or at any rate what were supposed to be such. Afterwards, this +fundamental motive was more or less forgotten; but the rite remained in +force, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> so many other religious forms which tradition and habit +sustained even when the spirit was gone. In Peru, this tradition was +still full of life. The name of the principal Peruvian festivals, +<i>Raymi</i>, signifies "dance." The performances were so animated, that the +dancers seemed to the Europeans to be out of their senses. It is +noteworthy that the Incas themselves took no part in these violent +dances, but had an "Incas' dance" of their own, which was grave and +measured.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + +<p>There were four great official festivals in the year, coinciding with +the equinoxes and the solstices. The first was the festival of the +Winter solstice, which fell in June. It was the <i>Raymi</i>, or festival +<i>par excellence</i>, the <i>Citoc Raymi</i>, the feast of the diminished and +(henceforth) growing Sun. It lasted nine days, the first three of which +were given up to fasting. On the morning of the great day, a grand +procession, led by the reigning Inca and his family, followed by the +nobles and the people, proceeded, with insignia, banners and symbolic +masks,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> towards the place of the dawn and the rising Sun. When the +luminary appeared, the crowd fell to the earth and threw him kisses. The +Inca presented the sacred beverage to the Sun, drank some of it himself, +and passed it on to his suite. This was a sort of solar communion. Then +they went to the temple of the Sun to sacrifice a black llama there. +After this, they kindled the new fire by means of the concave mirror, +and slaughtered a number of llamas, representing the Sun's present to +the people. The pieces were distributed to the families, where they were +eaten with the sacred cakes prepared by the Virgins of the Sun. This was +the second act of communion with the luminary to whom the day was +sacred. The remaining days of the festival were passed in rejoicings, +when the people seem to have made themselves ample amends for the fast +with which they had begun.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></p> + +<p>The second great festival, that of Spring, which fell in September, was +the <i>Citua Raymi</i>, the feast of Purification. But do not attach any +essentially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> moral significance to the idea of purification. The object +in view was to purify the territory from all influences hostile to the +health, security and prosperity of the inhabitants. Ball-shaped cakes +were eaten on this occasion, in which was mixed the blood of victims or +of young children, who were not slaughtered however, but bled above the +nose, which is evidence of a previous custom of far greater ferocity, +and of the gradual softening of the Peruvian ritual. With this bread the +people rubbed their bodies all over, and the doors of their houses +likewise. Then, a little before sunset, a very strange ceremony was +performed. An Inca, clad in precious armour and lance in hand, descended +from the fortress of Cuzco, followed by four relatives whom the Sun had +specially charged with the task of chasing away by open force all the +maladies from the city and its environs. They traversed the chief +streets of Cuzco at full speed, amid the acclamations of the +inhabitants, and then surrendered their lances to others, who were +relieved in their turn, till the limits of the ancient state of Cuzco +were reached. There the lances were fixed in the ground, as so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> many +talismans against evil influences. At night there was a great +torch-light procession, at the close of which the torches were hurled +into the river, and thus the evil spirits of the night were expelled, as +those of the day had been by the lancers of the Sun.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> Observe that in +Africa, amongst the Blacks, a kind of "chase of the evil spirits" is +practised (though accompanied with far fewer ceremonies than in Peru), +in which the inhabitants of a village, armed with sticks and uttering +formulæ of exorcism, expel the evil spirits from their houses and from +their streets, and pursue them into the desert or the interior of a +forest. But notice here, again, with what art the Incas had contrived to +turn an old superstition to account in the interests of their own +prestige. If maladies did not decimate the people of Cuzco, it was to +their Incas that they owed their safety.</p> + +<p>The third great festival, the Aymorai, which fell in May, celebrated the +Harvest. A statue was constructed out of grains of corn glued together, +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> was adored under the name of <i>Pirrhua</i>, which in this case may well +be a contraction of Viracocha, the god of fertilizing moisture. On this +occasion a number of sacrifices were made at home by the +householders.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p>The fourth great feast fell in December. It was the <i>Capac Raymi</i>, the +festival of Power, in which the god of thunder was the object of a +special worship by the side of the Sun. On this occasion the young +Incas, after fasts, tournaments and other tests, received the +investiture of manhood by having their ears pierced, and receiving a +scarf, an axe and a crown of flowers. The young Curacas of the same age +were also admitted to the privileges and duties of their rank, and +shared with the Inca the sacred bread in token of indissoluble communion +with him.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>There were also a number of other and less important feasts. Each month +had one of its own. Then there were occasional feasts, to celebrate the +triumphal return of a victorious Inca for example, or when the +tournaments of the young nobles, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> which a religious value was +attached, took place, or when silent processions lasting a day and +night, and followed by dances, were instituted to avert threatening +calamities, and so forth.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> In Peru, as in so many other regions, +eclipses were the subject of great terror. The eclipses of the Sun were +attributed to his own anger, those of the Moon to an illness caused by +the attack of an evil spirit, to frighten which away and put it to +flight a hideous yelling was raised.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + +<p>There were sorcerers in Peru as everywhere else; but in Peru too, as +everywhere else where a priesthood has acquired a regular organization +and made its authority respected, sorcery was hardly resorted to save by +the lower classes.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> In fact, the sorcerer is the priest of backward +tribes, and the priest is the developed sorcerer. By his superior +knowledge, by the more stable guarantees which he can give as the member +of an imposing organization, by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> nature of the religion of which he +is the organ, and which raises him above the incoherent puerilities of +animism, the priest eclipses the sorcerer and relegates him to the lower +strata of society, which is just where his own titles to superiority are +least appreciated. The sorcerer sinks in proportion as the priest +rises.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> For the rest, the official priesthood had its own diviners, +who could foretel the future, the <i>Huacarimachi</i>, or "they who make the +gods speak." The oracles of the valley of Rimac or Lima were much +frequented; and, moreover, the Peruvians, like so many peoples of the +Old World, thought that they could read the future in the entrails of +the victims offered in sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> This wide-spread belief rests on +the idea that immolation unites the victim so closely to the deity that +it enters into communion with his thoughts and intentions, so that its +heart, liver, and all other organs supposed to be affected by mental and +moral dispositions, receive the impress of the divine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> prevision. Is it +not passing strange, Gentlemen, that this mode of divination, which +appears so absurd to us, which has no rational basis whatever, which +rests on a singularly subtle conception of the relations between the +creature sacrificed and the being to whom it is offered, has secured the +prolonged confidence of the peoples of the Old World, and appears again +in Peru, where it cannot have been imitated from any one?</p> + + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>It has been asked whether the native religion of Peru rested any system +of elevated morals on its fundamental principles. Gentlemen, I am +persuaded that religion and morals unite together and interpenetrate +each other in the higher regions of thought and life. Perhaps the most +distinct result of our Christian education is the full comprehension of +the fact that what is moral is religious, and that immorality cannot on +any pretext be allowed as legitimately religious. But we must certainly +yield to the overwhelming evidence that in the lower stages of religion +this union of the two sisters is present only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> in germ. Religion, still +quite selfish in its character, pursues its own way and seeks its own +satisfactions independently of all moral considerations, and almost +always lives in a state of separation from morality. We ought therefore +to expect that in systems such as that of Peru—which have already risen +much above the low level of the primitive religions, but are still far +below that of the higher ones—we should find a certain religious ethic, +a certain moral tendency in religion, but likewise all kinds of +inconsistencies, and constant relapses towards the ancient separation of +the two sisters. As a general rule, we may say that even where the +Peruvian religion seems to undertake the elevation and protection of +morals, it does so rather with a utilitarian and selfish view, than with +any real purpose of sanctifying the heart and will.</p> + +<p>Thus we have noted ceremonies which forcibly recal the Communion. But +the great object in view was to secure to the communicants the safety +and well-being that would result from their union with the Sun or his +representatives. The moral idea occupies but a small place in this +communion, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> it is but right to add that the great social laws +were placed under the patronage and sanction of the Sun, whose +legislation the Incas were held responsible for enforcing. In the same +way we find in Peru something that closely resembles baptism. From +fifteen to twenty days after birth the child received its first name, +after being plunged into water. But this purification had nothing to do +with the ideas of sin and regeneration. It was but a form of exorcism, +destined to secure the child from the evil spirits and their malign +influences. Between the ages of ten and twelve, the child's definitive +name was conferred. On this occasion his hair and nails were cut off, +and offered to the Sun and the guardian spirits.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> This represented the +consecration of his person, but its main object was to secure him the +protection of the divine power.</p> + +<p>There was likewise a sacerdotal confession, but it was an institution of +state and of police rather than a sacrament with a moral purpose. The +great object was to discover all actions, whether voluntary or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> not, +which might bring misfortune upon the state if not expiated by the +appropriate penances and rites. The father confessors of Peru were +inquisitors charged with the searching out of secret faults and the +exaction of their avowal. A refusal to confess might provoke severe +measures. A proof of the small influence of the moral element in the +whole system of inquisition may be found in the fact that the priest +relied on purely fortuitous tests in deciding whether or not to give +absolution. For instance, he would take a pinch of maize grains, and if +the number turned out to be even, he would declare the confession good, +and give absolution, otherwise he would say the penitent must have +concealed something, and would make him confess again.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> + +<p>Our conviction that the Peruvian religion had but a very elementary +moral significance, receives a final confirmation from the beliefs +concerning the future life.</p> + +<p>It is clear that no very definite ideas on this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> point had become +generally established. In fact, we find amongst the Peruvians at the +time of the conquest the underlying conceptions of the most widely +severed peoples, all mingled together. Thus the common people of Peru, +like all savages, thought of the future life as a continuation, pure and +simple, of the present life. This explains the custom of burying all +kinds of useful and desirable objects with the dead—giving him an +emigrant's outfit, in short. The worship of ancestors is easily grafted +upon this conception of the life beyond the grave. These ancestors may +still succour, protect and inspire their descendants. I am assured at +first hand that to this very day, and in spite of the efforts of the +Catholic clergy, the worship of ancestors is still widely practised by +the native population. There was not the least idea of a resurrection of +the body. If the corpse was preserved, especially in the case of +departed Incas, it was because the Peruvians believed that the soul +which had left it still retained a marked predilection for its ancient +abode and liked to return to it from time to time; and also because they +attributed magic virtues to the remains thus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> preserved. No idea of +recompense is as yet associated with this purely animistic and primitive +conception of the life beyond the tomb.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + +<p>Amongst the higher classes, the ideas entertained on this same subject +had become a little less naive. The Incas were supposed to be +transported to the mansion of the Sun, their father, where they still +lived together as his family. The Curacas or nobles would either follow +them there, or would still live under the earth beneath the sceptre of +the god of the dead, Supay, the Hades or Pluto of the Peruvian +mythology. Do not identify this deity with a Satan or Ahriman of any +kind. He was not a wicked, but rather a sinister god, the conception of +whom could wake no joyous or even serene emotions. He was a voracious +deity, of insatiable appetite. At Quito, at any rate before the conquest +of the country by the Incas, a hundred children were sacrificed to him +every year. There is no idea of positive suffering inflicted on the +wicked under his direction. But the subterranean abode is gloomy and +dismal, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> the place of shades in the Odyssey. Exceptional +considerations of birth, rank or valour in war, determine the passage of +chosen souls to heaven, where their lot will of course be far more +brilliant and happy than that of the souls that remain in the +subterranean regions. Thus the aristocratic point of view, barely +modified by the high importance attributed to the warlike virtues, still +dominates the ideas of a future life in ancient Peru, as in Mexico, in +Polynesia and in Africa. This is a final proof that the moral element +was but feebly present in the ancient Peruvian religion. For wherever a +clear and definite belief in a conscious life beyond the grave is united +to a sense of the religious character of morality, it is likewise held, +by an obvious connection of ideas, that the lot of departed souls will +depend completely upon their moral condition, without distinction of +birth or rank.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></p> + +<p>This Peruvian religion, then, in spite of its ele<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>vation and refinement +in some respects, forcibly reminds us of the walls of its own temples, +all plated with gold, but covered in with straw, and poor and unvaried +in architecture. A monotonous, unformed, gloomy spirit seems to pervade +the whole institution, in spite of its brilliant exterior. The air of +the convent broods over it. Those thousands of functionaries who spent +their lives in superintending the furniture, the dress, the work, the +very cookery, of the families under their charge, and inflicting +corporal chastisement on those whom they surprised in a fault, might +succeed in forming a correct and regular society, drilled like the bees +in a hive, might form a nation of submissive slaves, but could never +make a nation of <i>men</i>; and this is the deep cause that explains the +irremediable collapse of this Peruvian society under the vigorous blows +of a handful of unscrupulous Spaniards. It was a skilfully constructed +machine, which worked like a chronometer; but when once the mainspring +was broken, all was over.</p> + +<p>It is no part of our task to tell the story of the conversion of the +natives to Roman Catholic Chris<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>tianity. It was comparatively easily +effected. The fall of the Incas was a mortal blow to the religious, no +less than to the political, edifice in which they were the key-stone of +the arch. It was evident that the Sun had been unable or unwilling to +protect his children. The conqueror imposed his religion on Peru, as on +Mexico, by open force; and the Spanish Inquisition, though not giving +rise to such numerous and terrible spectacles in the former as in the +latter country, yet carried out its work of terror and oppression there +too. The result was that peculiar character of the Catholicism of the +natives of Peru which strikes every traveller, and consists in a kind of +timid and superstitious submission, without confidence and without zeal, +associated with the obstinate preservation of customs which mount back +to the former religious régime, and with memories of the golden age of +the Inca rule under which their ancestors were privileged to live, but +which has gone to return no more.</p> + + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>And now it only remains for us to draw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> inferences and conclusions +suggested by our examination of the ancient religions of Mexico and +Peru, so closely associated with the remarkable though imperfect +civilizations to which the two nations had attained.</p> + +<p>We have not stayed to discuss the hypotheses that have so often been put +forward, to attach these religions and civilizations to some immigration +from the Old World. The fact is that all these attempts rest on the +arbitrary selection of some few traits of resemblance, on which +exclusive stress is laid, to the neglect of still more characteristic +differences. The best proof that the work of affiliation has been +abortive, in spite of the high authority of some of the names that have +been lent to it, may be found in the fact that every possible nation of +the Old World has in its turn been selected as the true parent of the +Peruvians and Mexicans. The Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the +Hindus, the Buddhists of India and China, the Romans, even the Celts and +the Chaldeans, have been put forward one after the other. Nay, the +English themselves have been tried! There is a gratifying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> legend which +brings the story of Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo into connection with the +results of the shipwreck of an <i>Englishman</i>, whose national name was +transformed into <i>Inga Man</i>, which again, in conjunction with <i>Cocapac</i>, +the name of the father of the native wife whom the Englishman had taken +to himself, made <i>Inca Manco Capac</i>! The sequel is obvious. The two +fair-skinned children that sprang from this union were of course the +founders of the Inca family and the state of Cuzco.<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> I need not tell +you that all this will not bear a moment's examination. Everything shows +that the civilizations and religions of Mexico and Peru are +autochthonous, springing from the soil itself.</p> + +<p>There is surely something very strange in this passion for localizing +all origins at some single point of the globe. Why not admit that what +took place there may have taken place elsewhere also, that the same +concourse of events which called forth such and such a result in a +certain given place may have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> been reproduced somewhere else, and +consequently given rise to identical or closely analogous results there +too? Does not our own experience teach us that the contact of a +civilized with an uncivilized people is not enough in itself to ensure +the adoption by the latter of the civilization that is brought to it? It +is the exception, not the rule, for the Red-skin, the Kafir, the +Australian or the Papuan, to become civilized. Civilization can only be +handed on if the invaded race possesses a special disposition and +aptitude for civilized life; and this aptitude may have existed to such +a degree as to be capable of independent development in the New-World as +we know it did in the Old; and if there were centres of such nascent +civilization in Central America, in Mexico and in Peru, it is absolutely +superfluous to search elsewhere than in America itself for the origins +of American civilization.</p> + +<p>But the mistake into which so many historians and travellers have fallen +is explained, to a certain extent, by the fact that, in examining the +beliefs, the monuments and the customs of Peru and Mexico, we come upon +phenomena at every moment which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> are identical with or analogous to +something we have observed in the Old World. The temples, with their +successive terraces, remind us of ancient Chaldea, and the hieroglyphics +of ancient Egypt. The convents recal the Indian and Chinese Buddhism. +The cruel and bloody sacrifices and the preponderance of the Sun-worship +have a Semitic tinge. There are myths and curious resemblances of words +which wake thoughts of Hellenic civilization; and sacerdotal castes and +sacrificial rites which bring us round to the Celts! Nay, are there not +even beliefs as to the arrival or return of a deity who will restore +order and avenge outraged justice, round which there breathes a kind of +Messianic air? So much so, indeed, that I must add to the list of +supposed ancestors of American civilization the ten lost tribes of +Israel, who must have fled from the yoke of their Ninevite oppressors +right across Asia into America! The partizans of this ingenious +hypothesis have, it is true, forgotten to inquire how far these +Israelites of the North, whose enthusiasm for the house of Judah was, to +say the least of it, decidedly subdued, had ever heard of the Messianic +hopes at all!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p> + +<p>The real result of all these wild speculations, however, is to bring out +the fact very clearly, that in the native religions of Mexico, of +Central America and of Peru, we find a number of traits united which are +scattered amongst the most celebrated religions of our own ancient +world; so that this new and well-defined region gives us a precious +opportunity of testing the value of the explanations of religious ideas +and practices deduced from the comparative study of religions.</p> + +<p>Let us take the question of sacrifice, for instance. In both religions +sacrifice is frequent, often cruel,—in Mexico even frightful. But it is +easy to trace the original idea that inspired it. It is by no means the +sense of guilt, or the idea that the culprit, terrified by the account +that he must render to the divine justice, can transfer to a victim the +penalty he has himself incurred. It is simply the idea that by offering +the gods the things they like—that is to say, whatever will satisfy and +gratify their senses—it is possible to secure their goodwill, their +protection and their favour, while at the same time disarming their +wrath, if need be, and appeasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> their dangerous appetites. It is only +at a later stage that the extreme importance attributed to this rite, +the very essence of the worship rendered to the gods, leads to the +association of mystic and ultimately of moral ideas with the +circumstance of the pain inseparably connected with sacrifice. And when +this stage is reached, men will either refine upon the suffering with +frantic intensity, as they did in Mexico, or, if the sentiment of +humanity has made itself felt in religion, as was the case in Peru and +in the special worship of Quetzalcoatl, they will try to restrain the +number and mitigate the horror of the human sacrifices, while still +inflexibly maintaining the principle they involve.</p> + +<p>Again: there is not the smallest trace of an earlier monotheism +preceding the polytheism of either the one or the other nation. On the +other hand, we may trace in both alike three stages of religious faith +superimposed, so to speak, one upon the other. At the bottom of all +still lies the religion that we find to-day amongst peoples that are +strangers to all civilization. It is an incoherent and confused jumble +of nature-worship<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> and of animism or the worship of spirits, but +especially the latter; for the primitive nature-worship has been +developed, enlarged and more or less organized, on a higher level, +whereas animism has remained what it was. The spirits of nature, which +may often be anonymous—spirits of forests, of plants, of rocks, of +waters, of animals, generally with the addition of the spirits of +ancestors—make up a confused and inorganic mass that may assume almost +any form. Fetichism is not the base, as it has been called, but the +consequence and application of this animistic view. It is enough to +secure adoration for any worthless object, natural or artificial, if it +strikes the ignorant imagination forcibly enough to induce the belief +that it is the residence of a spirit. Magic, founded on the pretension +of certain individuals to stand in special relations with the spirits, +equips the priesthood of this lowest stage. But above this, through the +action of the higher minds amongst the people, nature-worship develops +itself into the adoration of the most important, most general and most +imposing phenomena of nature. In the tropical countries, at once warm +and fertile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> it is the Sun that reigns supreme, though not without +leaving a very exalted place to other phenomena, such as wind, rain, +vegetation and so on, personified as so many special deities. But in all +this there is no indication of an antecedent and primitive monotheism. +It is quite true that each one of these deities receives in his turn +epithets which seem to attribute omnipotence to him and to make him the +sole creator. But this is the case in all polytheistic systems, whether +in Greece, Persia, and India, or in Mexico and Peru. It only proves that +when man worships, he never limits the homage he renders to the object +of his adoration; but if he is a polytheist, he has no scruple in +attributing the same omnipotence to each of his gods in turn. It is much +the same with the worthy curés in our rural districts, whose sermons +systematically exalt the saint of the day, whoever he may be, to the +chief place in Paradise! And here in Mexico and in Peru, as in Greece +and in India, we observe the ever growing tendency towards +<i>anthropomorphism</i>, transforming into men, of enormous strength, stature +and power, those natural phenomena which at the earlier stage were +rather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> assimilated to animals. Uitzilopochtli still bears the traces of +his ancient nature as a humming-bird, and Tezcatlipoca of the time when +he was no more than a celestial tapir. Their cultus, like their +functions in the order of nature, must be regular and subject to fixed +rules. And thus the priesthood, organized and regulated in its turn, +emerges from the earlier stage of sorcery, and becomes a great +institution to protect and foster the nascent civilization. The third +stage was not actually reached in ancient Mexico and Peru. One can but +divine its beginnings in the mysterious priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, or +trace it in the traditions of the philosopher king of Tezcuco, and the +sceptical Incas of whom Garcilasso and others tell us. In such traits as +these we may discover a certain dissatisfaction with the established +polytheism, striving to raise itself higher in the direction of a +spiritual monotheism. But this tendency is obviously the last term of +the evolution, and in no sense its first.</p> + +<p>The history of the temple in Mexico and Peru suggests similar +reflections. Its point of departure is the altar, and not the tomb,—the +altar on which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> as on a sacred table, the flesh destined for their food +was placed before the gods. Little by little, as the developed and +organized nature-worship substitutes gods of imposing might and +greatness for the contemptible deities of the period when nature-worship +and animism were confounded together, these altars assumed huge and at +last gigantic proportions; and in Mexico, except in the case of +Quetzalcoatl, there the development stopped, save that a little chapel, +destined to serve as the abode of the national gods, was reared on the +summit. Peru passes through the same phases, but goes further. There the +surmounting chapel grows, assumes vast dimensions, and ends by embracing +the altar itself, of which at first it was but an adjunct.</p> + +<p>The two religions alike exhibit an initial penetration of religion by +the moral idea. They are at bottom two theocracies, the laws and +institutions of which rest upon the gods themselves, though the +theocratic form is far more prominent in Peru than in Mexico. They share +the advantages of a theocracy for a nascent civilization, and its +disadvantages for one that has already reached a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> development. +It was the theocratic and sacerdotal conception that maintained and +enforced the religious butchery of which you have heard in Mexico, and +which transformed Peru into one enormous convent, where no one had any +will or any initiative of his own. For the same reason, asceticism, the +principle that confuses, through an illusion we can easily understand, +the moral act itself with the suffering that accompanies it, shows +itself in both religions, but especially in that of Mexico; and convents +that startle us by their resemblance to those of Buddhism and +Christianity rise in either realm. But this mutual interpenetration of +the religious and moral ideas is still quite rudimentary. The prevailing +tone of the religion is given by the self-seeking and purely calculating +principle, aiming no doubt at a certain mystic satisfaction (for at +every stage of religion this moving principle has been most powerful and +fruitful), but likewise seeking material advantages without any scruple +as to the means; and those monstrous forms of transubstantiation which +the Mexican thought he was bringing about when he ate of the same human +flesh which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> he offered to his gods, are typical of the period in which +religion pursued its purpose of union with the deity, regardless of the +protests of the moral sense and of humanity.</p> + +<p>It was reserved for the higher religions, and especially for that of +which our Bible is the monument, to realize the intimate alliance of the +religious and moral sentiments,—that priceless alliance, without which +morals remain for the most part almost barren, and religion falls into +monstrous aberrations. That the roots of religion pierce to the very +cradles of humanity, may now be taken as demonstrated. Its principle is +found in the necessity we feel of surmounting the uncertainties and the +limitations of destiny, by attaching ourselves individually to the +loftier Spirit revealed by nature outside us and within; and this +principle has always remained the same; nor am I one of those who hold +that we must now renounce it in the name of philosophy and science. For +neither philosophy nor science can make us other than the poor creatures +we are, with an unquenchable thirst for blessedness and life, yet +constantly broken, crushed at every moment, by the very ele<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>ments on the +bosom of which we are forced to live. Philosophy and science may guide +religion, may reveal its true object in ever-growing purity, may cleanse +it from the pollutions in which ignorance and sin still plunge it, but +they cannot replace and they cannot destroy it. There is a Dutch +proverb, the profundity of which it would be difficult to exaggerate, +"De natuur gaat boven de leer"—<i>Nature is too strong for doctrine.</i> The +evolutions of philosophy may seem to make the heavens void, and inspire +man with the idea that all is over with the poetic or terrific visions +that rocked the cradle of his infancy. But stay! Nature, human nature, +is still there; and under the impulse of the indestructible thirst for +religion, human nature renews her efforts, looks deeper and looks +higher, and finds her God once more.</p> + +<p class="center">Jérusalem renait plus brillante et plus belle.</p> + +<p>But let not this conclusion, confirmed as it seems to me by the whole +history of religion, prevent our boldly declaring how much that is +small, puerile, often even immoral and deplorable, there is in the +religious past of humanity. It is no otherwise with art, with +legislation, with science herself, with all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> that constitutes the +privilege, the power, the joy of our race. It is just the knowledge of +these aberrations which should serve to keep us from falling back into +the errors and false principles of which they were the consequence. And +in this respect the study of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru is +profoundly instructive. It teaches us that there is a principle, +bordering closely upon that of religion itself, which must serve as the +torch to guide the religious idea in its development—not to supplant +it, but to direct it to the true path. It is the principle of humanity. +The truer a religion is, the more absolute the homage it will render to +the principle of humanity, and the more will he who lives by its light +feel himself impelled to goodness, loving and loved, trustful and free. +The last word of religious history is, that there exists an affinity, a +mysterious relationship, between our spirit and the Spirit of the +universe; that this nobility of human nature embraces in itself all the +promises, all the hopes, all the latent perfections, all the infinite +ideals of the future; that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, +the Supreme Will is good to each one of the beings which it summons and +draws to itself; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> that man, in spite of his errors, his failures, +his corruptions, his miseries, was never wrong in following the sacred +instinct that raised him slowly from the mire, was always right in +renewing his efforts, so constant, so toilsome—often, too, so woful—to +mount the rounds</p> + +<p class="center">De cette échelle d'or qui va se perdre en Dieu.</p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p>And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, it only remains for me to bid you +farewell, while giving you my warmest thanks for the perseverance, the +encouragement and the sympathy, with which you have supported me. The +reception you have given me has touched me deeply, and my stay in 1884 +in your imposing and splendid capital will always remain amongst the +most prized and the pleasantest recollections of my life. You have been +good enough to pardon my linguistic infirmity. You have spared from your +business or pleasure the time needed to listen to a stranger, who has +come to speak to you of matters having no direct utility, and of purely +historical and theoretical interest. This is far more to your honour +than to mine. I thank you, but at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> the same time I congratulate you; for +it is a trait in the nobleness in our human nature to be able thus to +snatch ourselves from the vulgar pre-occupations of life, to contemplate +the truth on those serene heights where it reveals itself to all who +seek it with an upright heart. Cease not to love these noble studies, +which touch upon all that is most exalted and most precious in us! If we +search history for light in politics and the higher interests of our +fatherlands, and learn thereby to understand, to appreciate, to love +them more, let us turn to history no less for light on the path which we +must tread in that order of sublime realities, necessities and +aspirations, in which the soul of each one of us becomes a temple and a +sanctuary, lying open to the Eternal Spirit that fills the universe.</p> + +<hr class="hrwhite" /> + +<p>And now to the Eternal, the Invisible, to Him whose name we can but +stammer, whose infinite perfections we can but feel after, be rendered +all our homage and our hearts!</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The second, third and fourth despatches (the first is lost) +from <i>Fernando Cortes</i> to Charles V., written in 1520, 1522 and 1524 +respectively. Original editions as follows: "Carta de relacio<i>n</i> +e<i>m</i>biada a su S. majestad del e<i>m</i>p<i>er</i>ador n<i>ues</i>tro señor ... por el +capita<i>n</i> general de la nueva spaña: Llamado ferna<i>n</i>do cortes," &c.: +Seville, 1522. "Carta tercera de relacio<i>n</i>: embiada por Ferna<i>n</i>do +cortes," &c.: Seville, 1523. "La quarta relacion q<i>ue</i> Ferna<i>n</i>do cortes +gouernador y capitan general ... embio al muy alto ... rey de España," +&c.: Toledo, 1525. Recent edition, with notes, &c.: "Cartas y Relaciones +de Hernan Cortés al Emperador Carlos V. colegidas é ilustradas por Don +Pascual de Gayangos," &c.: Paris, 1866. English translation: "The +Despatches of Hernando Cortes," &c., translated by George Folsom: New +York and London, 1843.—<i>Francisco Lopez de Gómara</i> (Cortes' chaplain): +"Hispania Victrix. Primera y segunda parte de la historia general de las +Indias co<i>n</i> todo el descubrimiento, y cosas notables que han acaescido +dende que se ganaron hasta el año de 1551. Con la conquista de Mexico y +dela nueva España:" Modina del Campo, 1553. Also printed in Vol. XXII. +of the "Biblioteca de Autores Españoles:" Madrid, 1852 (to the +pagination of which references in future notes will be made). There is +an old English translation of Part II. of this work, entitled, "The +Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the Weast India, now called new +Spayne, Atchieved by the worthy Prince Hernando Cortes, Marques of the +Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to Reade: Translated out of the +Spanishe tongue by T. N. [Thomas Nicholas], Anno 1578:" London.—<i>Bernal +Diaz</i>: "Historia Verdadera de la Nueva España escrita por el Capitan +Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Uno de sus Conquistadores. Sacada a luz por el +P. M. Fr. Alonso Remon," &c.: Madrid, 1632. English translation: "The +Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, written by +Himself," &c.: translated by John Ingram Lockhart, F.R.A.S. 2 vols.: +London, 1844. There is also a good French translation: "Histoire +Véridique de la conquête ... par le Capitaine Bernal Diaz del Castillo," +&c., by Dr. Jourdanet. Second edition: Paris, 1877.—<i>Las Casas.</i> +Numerous works collected by Llorente: "Collecion de las obras del +Venerable Obispo de Chiapa, Don Bartolomé de las Casas, Defensor de la +Libertad de los Americanos." 2 vols.: Paris, 1822. Also translated into +French, with some additional matter, by the same Llorente, and published +in the same year at Paris. His "Historia de las Crueldades de los +Españoles," &c., was translated into English in 1655 by J. Phillips, +under the title of "The Tears of the Indians," &c., and dedicated to +Oliver Cromwell. [N.B. Translations in full or epitomized of several of +the above works, together with others, may be found in Vols. III. and +IV. of "Purchas his Pilgimes," &c.: London, 1625-26.]—<i>Sahagun's</i> +history of New Spain, a work of the utmost importance for the religious +history of Mexico, remained unpublished till the present century, and +appeared almost simultaneously in Mexico and London: "Historia General +de las Cosas de Nueva España ... escribió el R. P. Fr. Bernardino de +Sahagun ... uno de los primeros predicadores del santo evangelio en +aquellas regiones," &c. 3 vols.: Mexico, 1829-30. The same work appeared +in Vols. V. and VII. of Lord Kingsborough's collection. Vid. infr. A +French translation by Jourdanet appeared in 1880.—<i>Acosta</i>: "Historia +Natural y Moral de las Indias ... compuesta por el Padre Joseph de +Acosta Religioso de la Campañia de Jesus," &c.: Seville, 1590. English +translation: "The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West +Indies," &c.: translated by E. G.: London, 1604. <a name="addenda16" id="addenda16"></a><ins title="Addenda +page 16, added >E[dward] G[rimstone]'s translation was edited, with +notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by Clements R. Markham, in +1880.">E[dward] G[rimstone]'s translation was edited, with notes, for +the Hakluyt Society, by Clements R. Markham, in 1880.</ins>—<i>Torquemada</i>: +"Los veynte y un libros Rituales y Monarchia Yndiana ... Compuesto por +Fray Ivan de Torquemada," &c. 3 vols.: Seville, 1615. Printed again at +Madrid in 1723.—<i>Herrera</i> (official historiographer of Philip II.): +"Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra +Firme del mar Oceano," &c., by Antonio de Herrera; to which is prefixed, +"Descripcion de las Indias Ocidentales," &c., by the same. 4 vols.: +Madrid, 1601. English translation <a name="addenda17a" id="addenda17a"></a><ins title="Addenda page 17a, added in epitome">in epitome</ins> by Capt. John Stevens, "The +General History of the vast Continent and Islands of America," &c. 6 +vols.: London, 1725-26.</p> + +<p>The following native writers may also be consulted. <a name="addenda17b" id="addenda17b"></a><ins title="Addenda +page 17b, changed Ixtilxochitl to Ixlilxochitl"><i>Ixlilxochitl</i></ins> (Fernando +de Alva): "Historia Chichimeca" and "Relaciones," in Lord Kingsborough's +"Mexican Antiquities," Vol. IX. (vid. infr.). French translations in +Vols. VIII. XII. and XIII. of H. Ternaux-Compans' collection: "Voyages, +Relations et Memoires originaux pour servir a l'histoire de la +Découverte de l'Amérique:" Paris, 1837-41.—<i>Camargo</i>: "Histoire de la +République de Tlaxcallan, par Domingo Muñoz Camargo, Indien, natif de +cette ville," translated from the Spanish MS. in Vols. XCVIII. and XCIX. +of the "Nouvelles Annales des Voyages," &c.: Paris, 1843.—<i>Pomar (J. B. +de)</i>: "Relacion de las Antiquedades de los Indios." Pomar was a +descendant of the royal house of Tezcuco, and his memoirs were made use +of in MS. by Torquemada.</p> + +<p>Amongst later authorities may be mentioned (in addition to Prescott's +well-known work, and those cited in the following <a name="addenda17c" id="addenda17c"></a><ins title="Addenda +page 17c note changed to notes">notes</ins>): <i>W. Robertson</i>: "History of +America."—<i>Alx. von Humboldt</i>: "Vues des Cordillières et Monuments des +peuples de l'Amérique:" Paris, 1810; forming the "Atlas Pittoresque" of +Part III. of "Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland."—<i>Francesco Saverio +Clavigero</i>: "Storia antica del Messico," &c. 4 vols.: Cesena, 1780-81. +English translation by Charles Cullen: "The History of Mexico," &c. 2 +vols.: London, 1787.—<i>Th. Waitz</i>: "Anthropologie der Naturvölker," Vol. +IV.: Leipzig, 1864.—<i>Brasseur de Bourbourg</i>: "Histoire des Nations +civilisées du Mexique et de L'Amérique-centrale," &c. 4 vols: Paris, +1857-59.—<i>Müller (Joh. George)</i>, Professor at Bâle: "Geschichte der +Amerikanischen Urreligionen." Second edition: Basel, 1867.—To these +should be added the narratives and works of M. <i>D. Charnay</i>, still in +the course of publication.</p> + +<p>References will be given to the originals, but in such a form, wherever +possible, as to serve equally well for the English and French +translations. Where, as is not unfrequently the case, the chapters or +sections of the translations do not correspond to the originals, a note +of the vol. and page of the former will generally be added.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The original collection is in seven magnificent folio +volumes. "Antiquities of Mexico: comprising Facsimiles of Ancient +Mexican Paintings and Hieroglyphics ... together with The Monuments of +New Spain, by M. Dupaix ... the whole illustrated by many valuable +inedited Manuscripts by Augustine Aglio:" London, 1830. Two +supplementary volumes, on the title-page of which Lord Kingsborough's +own name appears, were added in 1848, and a tenth volume was projected, +but only a small portion of it (appended to Vol. IX.) was printed.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Five volumes: New York, 1875-76.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. II. pp. 311, 312.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. p. 201, Appendix to Lib. ii. (Vol. +II. p. 174, in Jourdanet's translation).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The story is given by <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. III. p. 471, on the +authority of <i>Lopez Medel</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>Torquemada</i>, Lib. viii. cap. xx. at the end. On the +Mexican temples in general, see <i>Müller</i>, pp. 644-646.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> On the great temple of Mexico and its annexes, see <i>Waitz</i>, +IV. 148 sqq., where the scattered data of Sahagun, Acosta, Gomara, +Bernal Diaz, Ixtlilxochitl, Clavigero, &c., are drawn together. See also +<i>Bancroft</i>, II. 577-587, III. 430 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Op. cit. cap. xcii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Compare the German "Schlangenberg" and the old French +"Guivremont."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See the legend in <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. § 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <i>Müller</i>, pp. 602 sqq., and <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. 1, +237, sqq., Lib. i. cap. i., and Lib. iii. cap. i., &c.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. § 2. <i>Acosta</i>, pp. 324 sqq., Lib. +v. cap. ix. (pp. 353 sq. in E. G.'s translation); <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. +2 sq., 241 sq., Lib. i. cap. iii., Lib. iii. cap. ii. See also +<i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, Vol. XII. p. 18.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> On Quetzalcoatl, see <i>Müller</i>, pp. 577-590; <i>Bancroft</i>, +Vol. III. pp. 239-287; <i>Torquemada</i>, Lib. vi. cap. xxiv., Lib. iii. cap. +vii.; <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. § 4; <i>Ixtlilxochitl</i> in <i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, +Vol. XII. pp. 5-8 (further, pp. 9-27 of the same volume on the Toltecs); +<i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap, iii., Bk. iv. chap, v., and elsewhere; +<i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. 3-4, 245-6, 255-259, Lib. i, cap. v., Lib. iii. +cap p. iv. xii.-xiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. iv. §§ 4, 15, Lib. vii. § 42; +<i>Humboldt</i>, pp. 319-20, cf. p. 95; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. i. and +elsewhere; <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. V. pp. 427-429; <i>Müller</i>, pp. 526 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. §§ 5, 15, 34; <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. +16-19, Lib. i. cap. xiii.; <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. III. p. 385.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. 10-16, Lib. i. cap. xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See <i>Boturini</i>, "Idea de una nueva historia general de la +America Septentrional," &c.: Madrid, 1746, pp. 63-65.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. III. pp. 403-417; <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. +22-25, 29-33, Lib. i. <a name="addenda77" id="addenda77"></a><ins title="Addenda page 77, caps. changed to capp.">capp.</ins> xv. xvi. xix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. III. pp. 396-402; <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. §§ +1, 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. p. 86 (cf. p. 88), Lib. ii. cap. xx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. p. 50, Lib. ii. cap. i.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Compare the detailed description of the festivals of the +ancient religion of Mexico in <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. II. pp. 302-341, Vol. +III. pp. 297-300, 330-348, 354-362, 385-396.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Amongst all the indigenous races of North America, +prolonged fasting is regarded as the means <i>par excellence</i> of securing +supernatural inspiration. The Red-skin to become a sorcerer or to secure +a revelation from his <i>totem</i>, or the Eskimo to become <i>Angekok</i>, will +endure the most appalling fasts.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Torquemada</i>, Lib. vi. cap. xxxviii.; cf. <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. +I. p. 174, Lib. ii. cap. xxiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. 35—39, Lib. i. cap. xxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. 11-16, Tom. II. pp. 57-64, Lib. i. +cap. xii., Lib. vi. cap. vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Elements were not wanting for the formation of a dualistic +system analogous to Mazdeism. The <i>Tzitzimitles</i> nearly corresponded to +the Iranian <i>Devas</i>. They were a kind of demon servants of Mictlan, who +delighted in springing upon men to devour them, and the protection of +the celestial gods was needed to escape from their attacks. <i>Sahagun</i>, +Tom. II. p. 67, Lib. vi. cap. viii. (in the middle of a prayer to +Tlaloc). Cf. also Tom. II. pp. 14 sqq., Lib. v. capp. xi.-xiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> On the Mexican priesthood, see <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. II. pp. +200-207, Vol. III. pp. 430-441; <i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. §§ 13—17; cf. +Lib. iv. § 4; <i>Humboldt</i>, pp. 98, 194, 290; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. +iii.; <i>Torquemada</i>, Lib. ix. capp. i.-xxxiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Camargo</i> (in Nouv. An. d. Voy. xcix.), pp. 134-5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. II. pp. 204-206, Vol. III. pp. 435-436; +<i>Torquemada</i>, Lib. ix. capp. xiv. xv.; <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. I. pp. 227-8 +(last section of Appendix to Lib. ii.); <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. cap. xvi.; +<i>Clavigero</i>, Lib. vi. capp. xvi. xxii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> See the "Cuadro historico-geroglifico," &c., contributed by +Don <i>José Fernando Ramirez</i> (curator of the national Museum at Mexico) +to <i>Garcia y Cubas</i>, "Altas geographico, estadistico e historico de la +Republica Mexicana," Entrega 29a (1858).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> On all that concerns the Mexican cosmogonies, see <i>Müller</i>, +pp. 477 sq., 509—519; <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. III. pp. 57—65; +<i>Ixtlilxochitl</i>, "Historia <a name="addenda113" id="addenda113"></a><ins title="Addenda page 113, Chichemeca +changed to Chichimeca">Chichimeca</ins>," capp. i. ii.; <i>Kingsborough</i>, +"Mexican Antiquities," Vol. V. pp. 164-167; <i>Humboldt</i>, pp. 202—211.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See <i>Sahagun</i>, Tom. II. pp. 281—283, Lib. viii. cap. vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> The sacerdotal year was lunar. The civil year, which was +doubtless of later origin, and had been adopted as better suited to the +purposes of agriculture, was solar. Every thirteenth year the two +coincided. The number <i>four</i>, which plays an important part in Mexican +symbolism (cf. the Mexican cross) gave a kind of cosmic significance to +13 × 4 = 52.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> See <i>Bancroft</i>, Vol. III. pp. 393-396.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Compare the Appendix to Jourdanet's translation of Bernal +Diaz, pp. 912 sqq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> On the conversion of the Mexicans, &c., compare the +anonymous treatise at the end of <i>Kingsborough's</i> "Mexican Antiquities," +Vol. IX. Cf. also <i>Torquemada,</i> Lib. xvii. cap. xx., Lib. xix. cap. +xxix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> See <i>P. Pauke,</i> "Reise in d. Missionen von Paraguay:" +Vienna, 1829, p. 111.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> In addition to the works of <i>Acosta</i>, <i>Gomara</i>, <i>Herrera</i>, +<i>Humboldt</i>, <i>Waitz</i> and <i>Müller</i>, already cited in connection with +Mexico, and <i>Prescott's</i> "Conquest of Peru," we may mention the +following authorities for the political and religious history of Peru: +</p><p> +<i>Xeres</i> (Pizarro's secretary): "Verdadera relacion de la conquista del +Peru y provincia del Cuzco llamada la nueva Castilla ... por Francisco +de Xeres," &c.: Seville, 1534. English translation by Markham in +"Reports on the Discovery of Peru:" printed for the Hakluyt Society, +London, 1872.—<i>Zarate</i> (official Spanish "auditor" in Peru): "Historia +del descubrimiento y conquista del Peru.... La qual escriua Augustin de +Çarate," &c.: Antwerp, 1555. English translation: "The strange and +delectable History, &c.: translated out of the Spanish Tongue by T. +Nicholas:" London, 1581.—<i>Cieza de Leon</i> (served in Peru for seventeen +years): "Parte Primera Dela chronica del Peru," &c.: Seville, 1553. The +second and third Parts have never been printed. English translation by +Markham: Hakluyt Society, 1864. [N. B. <i>Xeres</i> (or <i>Jeres</i>), <i>Cieza de +Leon</i> and <i>Zarate</i>, are all contained in Tom. XXVI. of Aribau's +"Biblioteca de autores Españoles."]—<i>Diego Fernandez</i> of Palencia +(historiographer of Peru under the vice-royalty of Mendoza): "Primera, y +Segunda Parte, de la Historia del Peru," &c.: Seville, 1571.—<i>Miguel +Cavello Balboa:</i> "Histoire du Pérou," in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. +XV.—<i>Arriaga</i>: "Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru ... Por el Padre +Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compañia de Jesus:" Lima, 1621. Extracts +are given in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII.—<i>Fernando Montesinos</i>: +"Memoires historiques sur l'Ancien Pérou:" translated from the Spanish +MS. in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. Montesinos rectifies Garcilasso de la +Vega on more points than one.—<i>Johannes de Laet</i>: "Novus Orbis," &c.: +Leiden, 1633.—Velasco: "Historia del Reino de Quito," &c.: Quito, 1844. +This work is in three Parts, the second of which, the "Historia +Antigua," is the one referred to in future notes. This second Part is +translated in Ternaux-Compans, Vols. XVIII. XIX. +</p><p> +The Abbé <i>Raynal's</i> "Histoire philosophique et politique des +établissements ... des Européens dans les deux Indes" (10 vols.: Geneva, +1770) made a great stir in its time, the English translation by +Justamond reaching a third edition in 1777; but it is now completely +forgotten, and has no real value for our purposes. I cannot refrain from +a passing notice of a romance which is now almost as completely +forgotten as the Abbé Raynal's History, in spite of its long popularity: +I mean <i>Marmontel's</i> "Les Incas et la Destruction de l'empire du Pérou:" +Paris, 1777. The author derived his materials from Garcilasso de la +Vega. In spite of the florid style and innumerable offences against +historical and psychological fact which characterize this work, it +cannot be denied that Marmontel has disengaged with great skill the +profound causes of the irremediable ruin of the Peruvian state. +</p><p> +<i>Lacroix</i>: "Pérou," in Vol. IV. of "L'Amérique" in "L'Univers +Pittoresque."—<i>Paul Chaix</i>: "Histoire de l'Amerique méridionale au +XVI^e siècle," Part I.: Geneva, 1853.—<i>Wuttke</i>: "Geschichte des +Heidenthums," Theil I., 1852.—<i>J. J. von Tschudi</i>: "Peru. Reiseskizzen +aus den Jahren 1838-1842:" St. Gallen, 1846.—<i>Thos. J. Hutchinson</i>: +"Two Years in Peru, with explorations of its Antiquities:" London, 1873. +Hutchinson had good reason to point out the exaggerations in which +Garcilasso indulges with reference to his ancestors the Incas, but he +himself speaks too slightingly of their government. Had it not been in +the main beneficent and popular, it could not have left such +affectionate and enduring memories in the minds of the native +population. +</p><p> +For the method of citation, see end of note on p. 18.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> This work is in two Parts, the first of which (Lisbon, +1609) gives an account of the native traditions, customs and history +prior to the Spanish conquest, while the second (published under the +separate title of <i>Historia General del Peru</i>: Cordova, 1617) deals with +the Spanish conquest, &c. English translation by Sir Paul Rycaut: +London, 1688, not at all to be trusted; both imperfect (omitting and +condensing in an arbitrary fashion) and incorrect. As it may be in the +possession of some of my readers, however, reference will be made to it +in future notes. The earlier and more important part of Garcilasso's +work has recently been translated for the <i>Hakluyt Society</i> by <i>Clements +R. Markham</i>, 2 vols.: London, 1869, 1871. References are to the +<i>Commentarios reales</i> (Part I.), unless otherwise stated.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Herrera</i>, Decada v. Libro iv. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 335, +in Stevens's epitomized translation).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. iv. cap. viii., Lib. v. capp. vi. vii. +viii. xiii.; <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. vi. capp. xiii. xvi.; <i>Montesinos</i>, p. 57.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vi. cap. xxxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. v. cap. xii.; <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. +iv. cap. iv. (Vol. IV. p. 344, in Stevens's translation). See also +<i>Hazart</i>, "Historie van Peru," Part II. chap. iv.; in his "Kerckelijcke +Historie van de Gheheele Wereldt," Vol. I. p. 315: Antwerp, 1682.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> See <i>Gomara</i> (in Vol. XXII. of the Bibliotheca de Autores +Españoles), p. 228a; <i>Garcillasso</i>, "Historia General," &c., Lib. i. +cap. xviii.; cf. <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. iii. chaps. v. vi., and Appendices +viii. ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Gomara</i>, p. 232 a.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Cf. <i>Waitz</i>, Theil IV. S. 411, 418.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Cf. <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. v. cap. xiii.; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. +chap. ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Müller</i>, p. 406.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 337 +sqq. in Stevens's translation); <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. ii. capp. xii. xiii. +xiv. (p. 35 of Rycaut's translation, in which the passage is much +shortened), Lib. v. cap. xi.; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. vi. cap. xviii.; <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. iv. +cap. i. and end of cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 329 sq., 342, in Stevens's +translation).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. iv. cap. vii.; <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. +iv. capp. ii. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 334, 341, in Stevens's translation); +cf. <i>Montesinos</i>, p. 56.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. iv. cap. xix.; cf. Lib. viii. cap. viii. +(ad fin.).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Cf. <i>Tschudi</i>, Vol. II. p. 387; <i>Hutchinson</i>, Vol. II. pp. +175-6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Montesinos</i>, p. 119, cf. pp. 33, 108.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. v. cap. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Humboldt</i>, pp. 108, 294.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Gomara</i>, p. 277 b.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. iii. chap. viii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Cf. <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vi. cap. iv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. i. capp. ix.-xvii.; cf. Lib. ii. cap. +ix., Lib. iii. cap. xxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Such at least is the etymology proposed by Garcilasso (Lib. +i. cap. xviii.). Modern Peruvian scholars rather incline to refer +<i>Cuzco</i> to the same root as <i>cuzcani</i> ("to clear the ground").</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> See the critical summary of the history of the Incas in +<i>Waitz</i>, Theil. IV. S. 396 sq. The following table of the successive +Incas follows Garcilasso: +</p> + +<table summary="Incas"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Manco Capac,</td> +<td class="tdc">died about</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1000</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Sinchi Roca,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1091</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Lloque Yupanqui,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1126</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mayta Capac,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1156</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Capac Yupanqui,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1197</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Inca Roca,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1249</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Yahuar Huacac,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1289</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Viracocha Inca Ripac,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1340</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc" colspan="5">[Inca Urco, who only reigned 11 days, is omitted by Garcilasso]</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Tito Manco Capac Pachacutec,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1400</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Yupanqui,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1438</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Tupac Yupanqui,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1475</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Huayna Capac,</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr" colspan="2">1525</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Huascar,</td> +<td class="tdl">}</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr">{</td> +<td class="tdr">1532</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl rb">Atahualpa,</td> +<td class="tdl">}</td> +<td class="tdc">"</td> +<td class="tdr">{</td> +<td class="tdr">1533</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. viii. cap. viii. Garcilasso says that he +translates this passage, word for word, from the Latin MS. of the Jesuit +Father, <i>Blas Valera</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iv. (Vol. IV. p. 346, in +Stevens's translation).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Lib. ix. cap. x.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. i. capp. ii. iii., Lib. iii. cap. +xvii. (Vol. IV. pp. 240 sqq., 325 sqq., in Stevens's translation).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. iii. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 266, in +Stevens's translation); <i>Gomara</i>, p. 231 a.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> In the course of a few months, Pizarro amassed such immense +wealth that, after deducting the <i>fifth</i> for the king and a large sum +for the reinforcements brought him by Almagro, he was still able to give +£4000 to each of his foot-soldiers, and double that sum to each +horseman. The calculation is made by Robertson, who estimates the <i>peso</i> +at a pound sterling. To obtain the equivalent purchasing power in our +own times, these sums would have to be more than quadrupled!</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> <i>Herrera</i>, Dec. v. Lib. viii. capp. i. sqq. (Vol. V. pp. 23 +sqq. in Stevens's translation).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> See <i>Alcedo</i>, "Diccionario Geográfico-Historico de las +Indias Occidentales," &c.: Madrid, 1786-9: article <i>Chunchos</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> See <i>Waitz</i>, Vol. IV. pp. 477-497; <i>Tschudi</i>, Vol. II. pp. +346-351; cf. <i>Castelnau</i>, "Expedition dans les Parties centrales de +l'Amerique du Sud," &c.: Paris, 1850, &c., Part I. Vol. III. p. 282.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> <i>Tschudi</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Cf. Spanish MS. cited by <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iii.; +<i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Cf. <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. v. cap. xxi., where the current +etymology of the word is rejected.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> See <i>Müller</i>, pp. 313 sqq., where all the views concerning +him are collected and discussed.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> This hymn was found by <i>Garcilasso</i> (see Lib. ii. cap. +xvii., pp. 50, 51, in Rycaut's translation) among the papers of Father +<i>Blas Valera</i>, and has been freed by <i>Tschudi</i> from the misprints, &c., +that disfigured it in the printed editions of Garcilasso and all +subsequent reproductions. See <i>Tschudi</i>, Vol. II. p. 381.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> <i>Johannes de Laet</i>, Lib. x. cap. i. (p. 398, ll. 51, 52).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. i.; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vi. cap. +xxx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>Gomara</i>, p. 233a; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 2, sec. 4.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. ii. capp. ii. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> See <i>Montesinos</i>, pp. 3 sqq., whose version of the legend +has been mainly followed in the text. Cf. however, for some of the +details, <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. i. cap. xviii. (omitted by Rycaut); +<i>Acosta</i>, Lib. i. cap. xxv.; <i>Balboa</i>, pp. 4 sqq., &c.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 17; <i>Ph. H. Külb</i> in +<i>Widenmann</i> and <i>Hauff's</i> "Reisen u. Länderbeshreibungen," Lief, xxvii.: +Stuttgart, 1843, pp. 186-7.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. cap. iv.; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. +16; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iii.; <i>Külb</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>Prescott</i>, ibid. In cloudy weather they had recourse to +the method of friction.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> <i>Prescott</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> <i>Arriaga</i>, pp. 17, 32; <i>Külb</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Cf. <i>Arriaga</i>, pp. 10-17, &c. (cf. <i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, Vol. +XVII. pp. 13, 14).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. cap. v.; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 2; +<i>Arriaga</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> <i>Tschudi</i>, Vol. II. pp. 396-7.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> <i>Arriaga</i>, p. 18 (cf. <i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, Vol. XVII. p. +15).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Cf. <i>Arriaga</i>, pp. 10-17 (cf. <i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, Vol. XVII. +pp. 13, 14); <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v; cap. v.; <i>Montesinos</i>, pp. 161-2; +<i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> On the priesthood, cf. <i>Arriaga</i>, pp. 17 sqq. (cf. +<i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, Vol. XVII. p. 15); <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iii.; +<i>Balboa</i>, p. 29; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 8; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. v. +capp. viii. (ad fin.) xii. xiii.; <i>Müller</i>, p. 387; <i>Külb</i>, l.c. p. +187.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Cf. <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. cap. xv.; <i>Montesinos</i>, p. 56; +<i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 12, § 9, sec. 10; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. +iii. and elsewhere.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Cf. <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iii.; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. iii. +capp. xx.-xxiv.; <i>Paul Chaix</i>, Vol. I. pp. 249 sqq. On the temples of +Pachacamac, which must have attained gigantic proportions before the +time of the Incas, see <i>Hutchinson</i>, Vol. I. pp. 147-176.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>Richard Inwards</i>, "The Temple of the Andes:" London, +1884.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, Lib, v. cap. xviii.; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. ii. cap. +viii. (p. 31 in Rycaut), Lib. vi. cap. xxi.; <i>Arriaga</i>, p. 77.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, ibid.; <i>Arriaga</i>, pp. 24-27 (cf. +<i>Ternaux-Compans</i>, Vol. XVII. pp. 15, 16); <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. +iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 4, sec. 20.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, ibid.; <i>Arriaga</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. i. cap. xi., Lib. ii. cap. xviii., Lib. +iv. cap. xv., and elsewhere (pp. 6, &c., in Rycaut, who omits some of +the passages).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> <i>Montesinos</i>, p. 121; <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. capp. v. xix., Lib. +vi. cap. xxii.; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chaps, i. ii.; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vi. +cap. v.; <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. cap. vii.; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. iii. § 1, sec. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Gomara</i>, p. 234 a. Cf. <i>Montesinos</i>, p. 68, and <i>Pöppig</i> +in Ersch u. Gruber's "Encyklopädie," art. <i>Incas</i>, p. 287 b, note 35.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. ii. capp. xxii, xxiii. (pp. 43, 44, in +Rycaut); <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iv.; <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. vi. cap. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. v. cap. ii.; <i>Tschudi</i>, Vol. II. p. 382; +<a name="addenda224" id="addenda224"></a><ins title="Addenda page 224, Rivero y Tschudi, l.c. changed to +Rivero y Tschudi: Antigüedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851. pp. 135-141. N. +B. An English translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New +York in 1853."><i>Rivero y Tschudi</i>: Antigüedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851. +pp. 135-141. N. B. An English translation of this work by F. L. Hawks +appeared at New York in 1853.</ins></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 5, secc. 4, 17 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. +XVIII. pp. 137, 148-9); <i>Külb</i>, l.c. p. 190.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vi. capp. xx.-xxii.; <i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. +chap. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. cap. xxviii. [wrongly numbered xxvii. in +the original edition]; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vii. capp. vi. vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, ibid.; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. vi. capp. xxiv.-xxvii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Cf. <i>Acosta</i>, ibid.; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> <i>Gomara</i>, p. 233 b; <i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. ii. cap. xxiii.; cf. +<i>Montesinos</i>, pp. 67, 68.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> <i>Balboa</i>, pp. 29, 30.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> Cf. <i>Arriaga</i>, pp. 17-23, and <i>passim</i> (Ternaux-Compans, +Vol. XVII. p. 15).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> See <i>Prescott</i>, ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Cf. <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, secc. 4, 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> <i>Balboa</i>, p. 3; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, sec. 6; <i>Arriaga</i>, +pp. 28, 29 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. pp. 16, 17).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> Cf. <i>Tschudi</i>, Vol. II. pp. 355-6, 397-8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> <i>Acosta</i>, Lib. v. capp. vi. vii.; <i>Velasco</i>, Lib. ii. § 3, +sec. 3; <i>Arriaga</i>, p. 15 (cf. Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. p. 14); +<i>Garcilasso</i>, Lib. ii. capp. ii. (Supay), vii. (omitted by Rycaut); +<i>Prescott</i>, Bk. i. chap. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> Compare <i>W. B. Stevenson</i>, "A Historical and Descriptive +Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America:" London, 1825, +Vol. I. pp. 394 sqq.</p> + +</div> + + + +<hr class="hr4" /> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Printed by C. Green & Son, 178, Strand.</span></p> + +<hr class="hrwhite" /> + +<div class="tnbox"> +<p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> + +<p class="noi">Changes listed in the Addenda et Corrigenda on <a href="#addenda">page ix</a> have +been made. Spelling and spelling variations have been retained as in the +original publication.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on the Origin and Growth of +Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru, by Albert Réville + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES *** + +***** This file should be named 34804-h.htm or 34804-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/8/0/34804/ + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from scans of public domain material produced by +Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru + +Author: Albert Reville + +Release Date: December 31, 2010 [EBook #34804] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from scans of public domain material produced by +Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) + + + + + + + + + + _THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1884._ + + LECTURES + ON THE + ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION + AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE + NATIVE RELIGIONS OF MEXICO + AND PERU. + + DELIVERED AT OXFORD AND LONDON, + IN APRIL AND MAY, 1884. + + BY + ALBERT REVILLE, D.D. + PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS AT THE COLLEGE DE FRANCE. + + TRANSLATED BY PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A. + + + WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, + 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; + AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. + + 1884. + + [_All Rights reserved._] + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON, + 178, STRAND. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + LECTURE I. + + INTRODUCTION.--CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. THEIR COMMON BASES + OF CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION. + + PAGE + + Importance of the history of Religion 1 + + The religions of Mexico and Peru, and the special importance + of studying them 7 + + Journey to another planet 8 + + Parallelism of religious history in the New World and in + the Old 9 + + Central America and Mexico, and the authorities as to their + history and religion 14 + + Area and general character of this civilization 18 + + The Mayas 20 + + Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs 24 + + The Aztec empire 29 + + Character of the religious conceptions common to Central + America and Mexico 35 + + The serpent-god and the American cross 38 + + Estimate of the character and significance of the parallelisms + observed 39 + + + LECTURE II. + + THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO. + + PAGE + + The Sun and Moon 45 + + The pyramidal Mexican temples 47 + + The great temple of the city of Mexico 48 + + The narrative of Bernal Diaz; and the two great Aztec deities, + Uitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca 51 + + Mythical significance of Uitzilopochtli 54 + + Significance of Tezcatlipoca 60 + + The serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, god of the east wind 62 + + Netzalhuatcoyotl, the philosopher-king of Tezcuco 69 + + Number of Mexican deities 70 + + Tlaloc, god of rain 71 + + Centeotl, goddess of maize 72 + + Xiuhtecutli, god of fire 74 + + The Mexican Venus 75 + + Other deities 76 + + The Tepitoton 77 + + Mictlan, god of the dead 78 + + Summary and reflections 79 + + + LECTURE III. + + THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY + AND COSMOGONY OF MEXICO. + + PAGE + + Recapitulation 85 + + Original meaning of sacrifice 86 + + Human sacrifices and cannibalism 87 + + Importance attached to the suffering of the victims 90 + + Tragic and cruel character of the Mexican sacrifices 91 + + The victims of Tezcatlipoca and Centeotl 93 + + The children of Tlaloc 96 + + The roasted victims of the god of fire 97 + + Mexican asceticism 99 + + Mexican "communion" 101 + + Religious ethics 102 + + The priesthood 106 + + Convents, monks and nuns of ancient Mexico 109 + + Mexican cosmogonies 112 + + The great jubilee 116 + + The future life 118 + + Conversion of the Mexicans 121 + + The Inquisition 122 + + Conclusion 123 + + + LECTURE IV. + + PERU.--ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION.--THE LEGEND OF THE + INCAS: THEIR POLICY AND HISTORY + + PAGE + + The Peru of the Incas 127 + + Cortes and Pizarro 131 + + The Inca hierocracy 132 + + The Quipos 134 + + Authorities for the history and religion of Peru 136 + + Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega 137 + + Peruvian civilization 139 + + Huayna Capac's taxation 142 + + Social, political and military organization of Peru 143 + + Education 152 + + Material well-being 153 + + The legend of the Incas: Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo 156 + + Were the Incas really the sole civilizers of Peru? 159 + + Succession of the Incas and character of their rule 160 + + Free-thinking Incas 161 + + Huayna Capac's departure from traditional maxims 166 + + + LECTURE V. + + THE FALL OF THE INCAS.--PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY PRIESTHOOD. + + PAGE + + + Recapitulation 171 + + Atahualpa and Pizarro 172 + + Father Valverde's discourse 174 + + Atahualpa's imprisonment and death 176 + + Inca pretenders 179 + + Worship of the Sun and Moon 182 + + Viracocha, god of fertilizing showers 184 + + His consort, Mama Cocha 186 + + Old Peruvian hymn 187 + + Pachacamac, god of internal fire 188 + + The myth of Pacari Tambo 191 + + Cuycha, the rainbow 194 + + Chasca, the planet Venus 194 + + Worship of fire 195 + + Worship of the thunder 196 + + Worship of esculent plants 197 + + Worship of animals 198 + + The Huacas 199 + + Peruvian priesthood 202 + + The Virgins of the Sun 204 + + Punishment of faithless nuns 206 + + Independent parallelisms, illustrated by the "couvade" 208 + + + LECTURE VI. + + PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE + LIFE.--CONCLUSIONS. + + PAGE + + Peruvian temples 215 + + Sacrifices 218 + + Columns of the Sun 222 + + Hymns 223 + + Religious dances 224 + + The four great festivals 225 + + Chasing the evil spirit 227 + + Occasional and minor festivals 229 + + Eclipses 230 + + Sorcerers and priests 230 + + Moral significance of the Peruvian religion 232 + + Communion, baptism and sacerdotal confession 233 + + Various ideas as to the future life 235 + + Supay, the god of the departed 237 + + Conversion of the Peruvians 239 + + Are the origins of the American civilizations to be sought in + the Old World? 241 + + Real significance and importance of analogies observed 243 + + Sacrifice 245 + + Three stages of religious faith: animistic nature-worship, + anthropomorphic polytheism and spiritual monotheism 246 + + The genesis of the temple 249 + + Primitive independence and subsequent mutual interpenetration + of religion and morals 250 + + Human nature invincibly religious 252 + + The guiding principle 254 + + Farewell 255 + + + + +ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. + + + P. 16, _note_, under _Acosta_, add, "E[dward] G[rimstone]'s + translation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by + Clements R. Markham, in 1880." + + P. 17, _note_, lines 4 and 5, to "English translation" add "in + epitome." + + " lines 8 and 9, for "Ixtilxochitl" read "Ixtlilxochitl." + + " line 7 from below, for "note" read "notes." + + P. 32, line 10 from below, for "bases" read "basis." + + P. 34, line 1, for "lama" read "llama." + + P. 35, last line, insert "and" after "America." + + P. 77, _note_, last line, for "caps." read "capp." + + P. 92, line 9 from below, omit "to" before "which." + + P. 113, _note_, last line, for "Chichemeca" read "Chichimeca." + + P. 129, line 3, for "East to West" read "West to East." + + P. 224, _note_, for "_Rivero y Tschudi_, l.c." read "_Rivero y + Tschudi_: Antigueedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851." N. B. An English + translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New York + in 1853. + + + + +LECTURE I. + +INTRODUCTION.--CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. COMMON BASES OF CIVILIZATION +AND RELIGION. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +My first duty is to acknowledge the signal honour which the Hibbert +Trustees have done me in inviting me to follow such a series of eminent +men as the previous occupiers of this Chair, and to address you, in the +free and earnest spirit of truth-loving and impartial research, on those +great questions of religious history which so justly pre-occupy the +chosen spirits of European society. Our age is not, as is sometimes +said, an age of positive science and of industrial discoveries alone, +but also, and in a very high degree, an age of criticism and of history. +It is to history, indeed, more than to anything else, that it looks for +the lights which are to guide it in resolving the grave difficulties +presented by the problems of the hour, in politics, in organization, and +in social and religious life. Penetrated more deeply than the century +that preceded it by the truth that the development of humanity is not +arbitrary, that the law of continuity is no less rigorously applicable +to the successive evolutions of the human mind than to the animal and +vegetable transformations of the physical world, it perceives that the +present can be no other than the expansion of germs contained in the +past; it attempts to pierce to the very essence of spiritual realities +by investigating the methods and the laws of their historical +development; it strives, here as elsewhere, to separate the permanent +from the transient, the substance from the accident, and is urged on in +these laborious researches by no mere dilettante curiosity, but rather +by the hope of arriving at a more accurate knowledge of all that is +true, all that is truly precious, all that can claim, as the pure truth, +our deliberate adhesion and our love. And in the domain of Religion, +more especially, we can never lose our confidence that, if historical +research may sometimes compel us to sacrifice illusions, or even beliefs +that have been dear to us, it gives us in return the right to walk in +the paths of the Eternal with a firmer step, and reveals with growing +clearness the marvellous aspiration of humanity towards a supreme +reality, mysterious, nay incomprehensible, and yet in essential affinity +with itself, with its ideal, with its all that is purest and sublimest. +The history of religion is not only one of the branches of human +knowledge, but a prophecy as well. After having shown us whence we come +and the path we have trodden, it shadows forth the way we have yet to +go, or at the very least it effects the orientation by which we may know +in which direction it lies. + +Gentlemen, in these Lectures I shall be loyal to the principles of +impartial scholarship to which I understand this Chair to be +consecrated. Expect neither theological controversy nor dogmatic +discussion of any kind from me. It is as a historian that I am here, and +as a historian I shall speak. Only let me say at once, that, while +retaining my own very marked preferences, I place religion itself, as a +faculty, an attribute, a tendency natural to the human mind, above all +the forms, even the most exalted, which it has assumed in time and +space. I can conceive a _Templum Serenum_ where shall meet in that love +of truth, which at bottom is but one of the forms of love of God, all +men of upright heart and pure will. To me, religion is a natural +property and tendency, and consequently an innate need of the human +spirit. That spirit, accidentally and in individual cases, may indeed be +deprived of it; but if so, it is incomplete, mutilated, crippled. But +observe that the recognition of religion itself (in distinction from the +varied forms it may assume), as a natural tendency and essential need of +the human mind, implies the reality of its object, even if that sacred +object should withdraw itself from our understanding behind an +impenetrable veil, even could we say nothing concerning it save this one +word: IT IS! For it would be irrational to the last degree to lay down +the existence of such a need and such a tendency, and yet believe that +the need corresponds to nothing, that the tendency has no goal. +Religious history, by bringing clearly into light the universality, the +persistency and the prodigious intensity of religion in human life, is +therefore, to my mind, one unbroken attestation to God. + +And now it remains for me to express my lively regret that I am unable +to address you in your own tongue. I often read your authors: I profit +much by them. But I have emphatically not received the gift of tongues. +By such an audience as I am now addressing, I am sure to be understood +if I speak my mother-tongue; but were I to venture on mutilating yours, +I should instantly become completely unintelligible! Let me throw +myself, then, upon your kind indulgence. + + +I. + +I am about to speak to you on a subject little known in general, though +it has already been studied very closely by specialists of great +merit--I mean the religions professed in Mexico and Peru when, in the +sixteenth century, a handful of Spanish adventurers achieved that +conquest, almost like a fairy tale, which still remains one of the most +extraordinary chapters of history. But I shall perhaps do well at the +outset briefly to explain the very special importance of these now +vanished religions. + +The intrinsic interest of all the strange, original, dramatic and even +grotesque features that they present to the historian, is in itself +sufficiently great; for they possessed beliefs, institutions, and a +developed mythology, which would bear comparison with anything known to +antiquity in the Old World. But we have another very special and weighty +reason for interesting ourselves in these religions of a +demi-civilization, brusquely arrested in its development by the European +invasion. + +To render this motive as clear as possible, allow me a supposition. +Suppose, then, that by a miracle of human genius we had found means of +transporting ourselves to one of the neighbouring planets, Mars or Venus +for example, and had found it to be inhabited, like our earth, by +intelligent beings. As soon as we had satisfied the first curiosity +excited by those physical and visible novelties which the planetary +differences themselves could not fail to produce, we should turn with +re-awakened interest to ask a host of such questions as the following: +Do these intelligent inhabitants of Mars or Venus reason and feel as we +do? Have they history? Have they religion? Have they politics, arts, +morals? And if it should happen that after due examination we found +ourselves able to answer all these questions affirmatively, can you not +imagine what interest there would be in comparing the history, politics, +arts, morals and religion of these beings with our own? And if we found +that the same fundamental principles, the same laws of evolution and +transformation, the same internal logic, had asserted itself in Mars, in +Venus and on the Earth, is it not clear that the fact would constitute a +grand confirmation of our theories as to the fundamental identity of +spiritual being, the conditions of its individual and collective +genesis--in a word, the universal character of the laws of mind? + +And now consider this. For the Europeans of the early sixteenth century, +America, especially continental America, was absolutely equivalent to +another planet upon which, thanks to the presaging genius of Christopher +Columbus, the men of the Old World had at last set foot. At first they +only found certain islands inhabited by men of another type and another +colour than their own, still close upon the savage state. But before +long they had reason to suspect that immense regions stretched to the +west of the archipelago of the Antilles; they ventured ashore, and +returned with a vague notion that there existed in the interior of the +unknown continent mighty empires, whose wealth and military organization +severed them widely indeed from the poor tribes of St. Domingo or Cuba, +whom they had already discovered and had so cruelly oppressed. It was +then that a bold captain conceived the apparently insane project of +setting out with a few hundred men to conquer what passed for the +richest and most powerful of these empires. His success demanded not +only all his courage, but all his cold cruelty and absolute +unscrupulousness, together with those favours which fortune sometimes +reserves for audacity. At any rate he succeeded, and the rumours that +had inflamed his imagination turned out to be true. On his way he came +upon great cities, upon admirably cultivated lands, upon a complete +social and military organization. He saw an unknown religion display +itself before his eyes. There were temples, sacrifices, magnificent +ceremonies. There were priests, there were convents, there were monks +and nuns. To his profound amazement, he noticed the cross carved upon a +great number of religious edifices, and saw a goddess who bore her +infant in her arms. The natives had rites which closely recalled the +Christian baptism and the Christian communion. As for our captain, +neither he nor his contemporaries could see anything in all this parade +of a religion, now so closely approaching, now so utterly remote, from +their own, but a gigantic ruse of the devil, who had led these unhappy +natives astray in order to secure their worship. But for us, who know +that the devil cannot help us to the genesis of ancient mythologies and +ancient religions--who know likewise that the social and religious +development of Central America was in the strictest sense native and +original, and that all attempts to bring it into connection with a +supposed earlier intercourse with Asia or Europe have failed--the +question presents itself under a very different aspect. In our Old +World, the natural religious development of man has produced myths and +mythologies, sacrificial rites and priesthoods, temples, ascetics, gods +and goddesses; and on the basis of the Old World's experience we might +already feel entitled to say, "Such are the steps and stages of +religious evolution; such were the processes of the human spirit before +the appearance of the higher religions which are in some sort grafted +upon their elder sisters, and have in their turn absorbed or +spiritualized them." But there would still be room to ask whether all +this development had been natural and spontaneous, whether successive +imitations linking one contiguous people to another had not transformed +some local and isolated phenomenon into an apparently general and +international fact--much as took place with the use of tea or +cotton--without our being compelled to recognize any necessary law of +human development in it. But what answer is possible to the argument +furnished by the discovery of the new planet--I mean to say of America? +How can we resist this evidence that the whole organism of mythologies, +gods, goddesses, sacrifices, temples and priesthoods, while varying +enormously from race to race and from nation to nation, yet, wherever +human beings are found, develops itself under the same laws, the same +principles and the same methods of deduction; that, in a word, given +human nature anywhere, its religious development is reared on the same +identical bases and passes through the same phases? + +Mr. Max Mueller, one of my most honoured masters, and one of those who +have best deserved the gratitude of the learned world, has declared, +with equal justice and penetration, in his Preface to Mr. Wyatt Gill's +"Myths and Songs," that the possibility of studying the Polynesian +mythology is to the historian what an opportunity of spending a time in +the midst of the plesiosauri and the megatherions would be to the +zoologist, or of walking in the shade of the vast arborescent ferns that +lie buried under our present soil to the botanist. Polynesian mythology +has in fact preserved, down to our own day, the pre-historic ages. And, +similarly, the religions of Mexico and Peru (for the empire of the Incas +held the same surprises and the same lessons in store for its explorers +as that of Montezuma had done) has enabled history to carry to the +point of demonstration its fundamental thesis of the natural +development, in subjection to fixed laws, of the religious tendency in +man. All those curious resemblances, amidst the differences which we +shall also bring out, between the religious history of the New World and +that of the Old, are not at bottom any more extraordinary than the fact +that, in spite of the differences of physical type which separated the +natives from their conquerors, they none the less saw with eyes, walked +on feet, ate with a mouth and digested with a stomach. + + * * * * * + +We shall begin our study with Mexico. But a few preliminary +ethnographical remarks are indispensable. I spare you the catalogue of +the numerous sources and documents from which a detailed knowledge of +the Mexican religion may be drawn.[1] Such a list is in place in a book +rather than in a lecture. I will only direct your attention to the noble +collection made in 1830 by one of your own compatriots, Lord +Kingsborough, under the title of "Antiquities of Mexico," a work of +extreme importance, which reproduces, in facsimile or engravings, the +monuments and ruins of ancient Mexico;[2] and the very remarkable work +of Mr. H. H. Bancroft, "Native Races of the Pacific States of North +America."[3] + + +II. + +The region with which we are now to occupy ourselves comprises the space +bounded on the South by the Isthmus of Panama, washed East and West by +the oceans, and determined, roughly speaking, towards the North by a +line starting from the head of the Gulf of California, and sweeping +round to the mouths of the Mississippi with a curve that takes in +Arizona and Southern Texas. In our day, this southern portion of North +America is broken into two great divisions, the first and most southern +of which is known collectively as Central America, and embraces the +republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, San Salvador +and Panama. The great peninsula of Yucatan, which is now Mexican, +formerly belonged to this group of Central American peoples. The second +portion of the territory we are to study corresponds to the present +republic of Mexico. I shall presently explain the sense in which it +might be called the Mexican empire in the time of Fernando Cortes. For +the present, let me ask you to remember that we are now about to speak, +in a general and preliminary manner, of the region which pretty closely +corresponds to the present Central America and Mexico. + +To begin with, we treat these two districts as a single whole, because +the Europeans found them inhabited by a race which was divided, it is +true, into several varieties, but was distinguished clearly from the +Red-skins on the North, and still more from the Eskimos, and alone of +the native races of North America had proved itself capable of rising by +its own strength to a veritable civilization. The general physical type +of the race is marked by a very brown skin, a medium stature, low brow, +black coarse hair, prominent jaw, heavy lips, thick eyebrows, and a +nose generally large and often hooked. The noble families as a rule had +a clearer complexion. The women are thick-set and squab, but not without +grace in their movements. In their youth they are sometimes very pretty, +but they fade early. We must leave it to ethnological specialists to +decide whether this type is not the result of previous crossings. + +So much is certain, that at an epoch the date of which it is impossible +to fix, but which must have been remote, this race, cut off from all the +world by the sea and the profoundest savagery, developed a civilization +_sui generis_, to which the traditional reminiscences of the natives +and a series of most remarkable ruins, discovered especially in Central +America, bear witness. For it is in this southern district that we find +the monumental ruins of Palenque, of Chiapa, of Uxmal, of Utatlan, and +of other places, the list of which has again begun to receive additions +in recent years. When the Spaniards conquered the New World, the centre +of this civilization had shifted further north, to Mexico proper, to the +city of Mexico, to Tezcuco and to Cholula. But the consciousness that +the Mexican civilization was affiliated to that of the isthmic region +had by no means been lost. It was a nation or race called Maya, the name +of which seems to indicate that it considered itself indigenous, and the +proper centre of which lay in Yucatan, that produced this American +civilization--capable of organizing states and priesthoods, of rearing +immense palaces, of carving stone in great perfection and with a true +artistic sense, and of realizing a high degree of physical well-being. +There is reason to believe, however, that this civilization, resembling +in some respects that of ancient Canaan, had more refinement in its +pursuit of material comfort than vigour in its morality. A certain +effeminacy, and even the endemic practice of odious vices, appears to +have early enervated it. When the Spaniards arrived in America, wars and +devastating invasions had shattered the old and powerful monarchies of +the central region and reduced the great monuments of antiquity to +ruins, and that too so long ago that the natives themselves, while +retaining a certain civilization, had lost all memory of the ancient +cities and the ancient palaces that the Europeans rescued from oblivion. +We may still see figured amongst the monuments of Mexico those beautiful +ruins of Palenque, where stretches a superb gallery, vaulted with the +broad ogives that recal the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra; while +at Tehuantepec an immense temple has been discovered, hollowed out of a +huge rock, like certain temples in India. The cultivation of maize was +to this region what that of wheat was to Egypt and Mesopotamia, or of +rice to India and China, the material condition, namely, of a precocious +civilization. For, as has been remarked, the primitive civilizations +could not be developed except where an abundant cereal raised man above +immediate anxiety for his subsistence, and rescued him from the +all-engrossing fatigues and the dangerous uncertainties of the hunter's +life. + +This Maya race, having adopted the agricultural and sedentary life, +multiplied so greatly as to send out many swarms of colonists towards +the North, where the _Nahuas_, that is to say, "the skilled ones" or +"experts" (for so the emigrants from the Maya land were called), found +men of the same race as themselves, to whom they imparted their superior +knowledge. They kept on pushing northwards, established themselves on +the great plateau of Anahuac, or "lake country," where the city of +Mexico is situated, and advanced up to the somewhat indefinite limit +opposed to their progress by the Red-skins. This migratory movement +towards the North was evidently not the affair of a day. It must have +continued for centuries; and during its process the Maya civilization +may have experienced great developments and undergone numerous +modifications; so that, without venturing to pronounce categorically +upon a problem yet unsolved, I should myself be inclined to ascribe to +a population, which either consisted of bands of emigrant Mayas or was +affected by this Nahua movement, those "Mounds" which still throw their +galling defiance at the modern methods of research, powerless to explain +their origin in regions which have since been under the reign of the +most absolute savagery. + +However this may be, the movement by which in a remote antiquity the +peoples of Central America ascended towards the North, carrying with +them their relative civilization to Mexico and even beyond, was reversed +at the epoch of our Middle Ages by a migration in the opposite +direction. In this case it was the peoples of the northern regions that +tended to beat back upon the South. They invaded, conquered and brought +into subjection the peoples who had established themselves along the +path followed by the previous migrations; and it is probably to +invasions of this description that we must ascribe the fall of the +ancient Maya society of the isthmic region. But the civilization of +which it had sown the germs was not dead. Nay, the peoples who descended +upon the South had in great measure themselves adopted it; and in the +invaded districts there remained groups and nuclei of Nahua populations +who maintained its principles, its arts and its spirit, to which their +conquerors readily conformed. The last conquerors had been established +as masters in the Mexican district for more than a century when the +Spaniards arrived there. They were the _Aztecs_. They had conquered or +shattered what was called the _Chichimec_ empire, which in its turn had +destroyed, some centuries earlier, the _Toltec_ empire. But it would be +a mistake to think of three successive empires, Toltec, Chichimec and +Aztec, one supplanting the other in the same way as the Frankish empire, +for example, took the place of that of Rome, which in its turn had +replaced divers others more ancient yet. What really took place was what +follows. + +The prolonged migrations of the Nahuas towards the North had not spread +civilization uniformly amongst all the tribes encountered on the route. +Thus, down to the sixteenth century, there still existed in the heart of +Mexico tribes very little removed from the savage state, such as the +Otomis or "wanderers;" whereas, in other districts, the Nahuas had +established themselves on a footing of acknowledged supremacy and +developed a brilliant civilization. Thus they founded at the extreme +north of the present Mexico the ancient city of Tulan or Tullan, the +name of which passed into that of its inhabitants, the _Toltecs_, and +this latter, in its turn, became the designation of everything graceful, +elegant, artistically refined and beautiful. Ethnographically, it simply +indicates the most brilliant foci of the civilization imported from +Central America. In fact, there never was a Toltec empire at all, but +simply a confederation of the three cities of Tullan, Colhuacan and +Otompan, all of which may be regarded as Toltec in the social sense +which I have just described. Many other small states existed outside +this confederation. It was destroyed by the revolt or invasion of more +northern tribes, hitherto held in vassalage and looked down upon as +belonging to a lower level of culture and manners. These tribes received +or assumed the name of _Chichimecs_ or "dogs," which may have been a +term of contempt converted into a title of honour, like that of the +_Gueux_ of the Low Countries. Thus arose a Chichimec confederation, of +which Colhuacan (the name given for a time to Tezcuco), Azcapulzalco, +the capital of the Tepanecs, and Tlacopan, were the principal cities. At +Tezcuco the Toltec element was still powerful. Cholula, a sacred city, +remained essentially Toltec, and in general the Chichimecs readily +adopted the superior civilization of the Toltecs. This was so much the +case that Tezcuco became the seat of an intellectual and artistic +development, in virtue of which the Europeans called it the Athens of +Mexico. It was from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, according +to the historians, that what may be called the Chichimec era lasted. + +At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Aztecs--that is to say +_the white flamingos_ or _herons_ (from _aztatl_), the last comers from +the North, who had long been a poor and wretched tribe, and on reaching +Anahuac had been obliged to accept the suzerainty of Tezcuco--began to +assume great importance. They had founded, under the name of +Tenochtitlan, upon an island that is now united to the mainland, the +city which was afterwards called Mexico. But originally the name of +Mexico belonged to the quarter of the city which was dedicated to the +god of war, Mextli. At once warlike and commercial, the Aztecs grew in +numbers, wealth and military power; they saved Tezcuco from the dominion +of the Tepanecs, who tried to bring the whole Chichimec confederation +into subjection; presently they threw off all vassalage, and in the +fifteenth century they stood at the head of the new confederation which +took the place of that of the Chichimecs, and of which Mexico, Tezcuco +and Tlacopan (or Tacuba), were the three capitals. + +There was no Mexican empire, then, at the moment when Fernando Cortes +disembarked near Vera Cruz, but there was a federation. On certain days +of religious festivity a solemn public dance was celebrated in Mexico, +in which the sovereign families of the three states, together with their +subjects of the highest rank, took part. It began at noon before the +palace of the Mexican king. They stood three and three. The king of +Mexico led the dance, holding with his right hand the king of Tezcuco, +and with his left the king of Tlacopan, and the three confederate +sovereigns or emperors thus symbolized for several hours the union of +their three states by the harmonious cadence of their movements.[4] + + +III. + +The widely-spread error that makes Montezuma, the Mexican sovereign that +received Fernando Cortes, the absolute master of the whole district of +the present Mexico, is explained by the fact, that of the three +confederate states that of the Aztecs was by far the strongest, most +warlike and most dreaded. It was constantly extending its dominion by +means of a numerous, disciplined and admirably organized army, and +little by little the other two states were constantly approaching the +condition of vassalage. The Aztecs were no more recalcitrant to +civilization than the Chichimecs, but they were ruder, more +matter-of-fact and more cruel. They did no sacrifices to the Toltec +graces, but developed their civilization exclusively on its utilitarian +and practical side. They were no artists, but essentially warriors and +merchants. And even their merchants were often at the same time spies +whom the kings of Mexico sent into the countries they coveted, to study +their resources, their strength and their weakness. Their yoke was hard. +They raised heavy tributes. Their policy was one of extreme +centralization, and, without destroying the religion of the peoples +conquered by their arms, they imposed upon them the worship and the +supremacy of their own national deities. Their warlike expeditions bore +a pronounced religious character. The priests marched at the head of the +soldiers, and bore Aztec idols on their backs. On the eve of a battle +they kindled fresh fire by the friction of wood; and it was they who +gave the signal of attack. These wars had pillage and conquest as their +object, but also and very specially the capture of victims to sacrifice +to the Aztec gods. For the Aztecs pushed the superstitious practice of +human sacrifice to absolute frenzy. It was to these horrible sacrifices +that they attributed their successes in war and the prosperity of their +empire. If they experienced a check or had suffered any disaster, they +redoubled their blood-stained offerings. But note this trait, so +essentially pagan and in such perfect accord with the polytheistic ideas +of the ancient world--they sacrificed to the gods of the conquered +country too, to show them that it was not against them they were +contending, and that the new regime would not rob them of the homage to +which they were accustomed. The Aztec deities were not _jealous_. They +confined themselves to vindicating their own pre-eminence. After each +fresh conquest, the Aztecs raised a temple at Mexico bearing the name of +the conquered country, and thither they transported natives of the place +to carry on the worship after their own customs. It seems that they did +not consider even this precaution enough; for they constructed a special +edifice near the great temple of Mexico, where the supreme deities of +the Aztec people were enthroned, and there they shut up the idols of the +conquered countries. This was to prevent their escape, should the desire +come over them to return to their own peoples and help them to +revolt.[5] + +All this will explain how it was that Fernando Cortes found numerous +allies against Montezuma's despotism amongst the native peoples. For it +is an error, generally received indeed, but contradicted by history, +that the Spanish captain decided the fate of so redoubtable an empire, +and of a city so vigorously defended as Mexico, with the sole aid of his +thousand Europeans. + +For the rest, we are forced to acknowledge that the Aztecs had developed +their civilization, in its political and material aspects, in a way that +does the greatest credit to their sagacity. Property was organized on +the individual and hereditary basis for the noble families, and on the +collective basis for the people, divided into communities. The taxes +were raised in kind, according to fixed rules. Numbers of slaves were +charged with the most laborious kinds of work. The merchants, assembled +in the cities, formed a veritable _tiers-etat_ which exercised a growing +political influence. There were markets, the abundance and wealth of +which stupefied the Spaniards. The luxury of the court and of the great +families was dazzling. No one dared to address the sovereign save with +lowered voice, and--strange custom in our eyes!--no one appeared before +him save with naked feet and clad in sordid garments, in sign of +humility. Mexico had been joined to the mainland by causeways, along +which an aqueduct conveyed the pure waters of distant springs to the +city. The irrigation works in the country were numerous and in good +repair. The streets were cleansed by day and lighted at night, +advantages in which none of the European capitals rejoiced in the +sixteenth century. And finally, for we cannot dwell indefinitely upon +this subject, let us note the excellent roads that stretched from Mexico +to the limits of the Aztec empire and the confederated states. Along +these roads the sovereigns of Mexico had established, at intervals of +two leagues, courier posts for the transmission of important news to +them. Montezuma heard of the disembarkment of Fernando Cortes three days +after it took place. + +And now imagine that this people was always averse to navigation--was +ignorant of use of iron, knowing only of gold, silver and copper--had no +beast of traction or burden, neither horse, nor ass, nor camel, nor +elephant, nor even the llama of Peru--was without writing (for though we +find a kind of hieroglyph on the monuments of Mexico and Central +America, yet the system was not of the smallest avail for ordinary +life)--and, finally, had no money except an inconsiderable number of +silver crosses and cacao berries, the mass of exchanges being effected +by barter! On the other hand, they worked in stone with admirable skill. +In their knives and lance and arrow heads, made of obsidian, they +achieved remarkable perfection, and they excelled in the art of +supplying the place of writing by pictures, painted on a kind of aloe +paper or on cotton stuffs, representing the persons or things as to +which they desired to convey information. + +Such, then, is the singular people that Spain was destined to conquer in +the sixteenth century, and whose civilization, though modified by the +special Aztec spirit, rested after all upon the same bases that had +sustained the more ancient civilization of Central America. And this is +equally true of the religion, which, with all the varieties impressed +upon it by the special genius or inclinations of the diverse peoples, +reveals itself as resting upon one common basis, from the Isthmus of +Panama to the Gulf of California and the mouths of the Rio del Norte. + + +IV. + +One of the fundamental traits of this regional religion, then, is the +pre-eminence of the Sun, regarded as a personal and animated being, over +all other divinities. At Guatemala, amongst the Lacandones, he was +adored directly, without any images. Amongst their neighbours the Itzas, +not far from Vera Paz, he was represented as a round human head +encircled by diverging rays and with a great open mouth. This symbol, +indeed, was very widely spread in all that region. Often the Sun is +represented putting out his tongue, which means that he lives and +speaks. For in the American hieroglyphics, a protruded tongue, or a +tongue placed by the side of any object, is the emblem of life. A +mountain with a tongue represents a volcano. The Sun was generally +associated with the Moon as spouse, and they were called _Grandfather_ +and _Grandmother_. In Central America, and in the territory of Mexico, +may be observed a number of stone columns which are likewise statues; +but the head is generally in the middle, and is so overlaid with +ornaments or attributes, that it is not very easy to discover it. These +are _Sun-columns_. As he traced the shadow of these monoliths upon the +soil day after day, the Sun appeared to be caressing them, loving them, +taking them as his fellow-workers in measuring the time. These same +columns were also symbols of fructifying power. Often the Sun has a +child, who is no other than a doublet of himself, but conceived in human +form as the civilizer, legislator and conqueror, bearing diverse names +according to the peoples whose hero-god and first king he is represented +as being. And for that matter, if we had but the time, we might long +dwell on the myths of Yucatan, of Guatemala (amongst the Quiches), of +Honduras, and of Nicaragua. By the side of the Sun and Moon, grandfather +and grandmother, there were a number of great and small deities (some of +them extremely vicious), and amongst others a god of rain, who was +called Tohil by the Quiches and Tlaloc at Mexico, where he took his +place amongst the most revered deities. His name signifies "noise," +"rumbling." Amongst the Quiches he had a great temple at Utatlan, +pyramidal in form, like all others in this region of the world, where he +was the object of a "perpetual adoration" offered him by groups of from +thirteen to eighteen worshippers, who relieved each other in relays day +and night. + +Human sacrifice was practised by all these peoples, though not to such +an extent as amongst the Aztecs, for they only resorted to it on rare +occasions. It was especially girls that they immolated, with the idea of +giving brides to the gods. They were to exercise their conjugal +influence in favourably disposing their divine consorts towards the +sacrificers. In this connection we find a tragi-comic story of a young +victim whose forced marriage was not in the least to her taste, and who +threatened to pronounce the most terrible maledictions from heaven upon +her slaughterers. Her threats had so much effect that they let her go, +and procured another and less recalcitrant bride for the deity.[6] + +Finally, we will mention a most characteristic deity (whom we shall +presently recognize at Mexico under yet another name), variously known +as Cuculkan (bird-serpent), Gucumatz (feathered-serpent), +Hurakan--whence our "hurricane"--Votan (serpent), &c. He is always a +serpent, and generally feathered or flying. He is a personification of +the wind, especially of the east wind, which brings the fertilizing +rains in that district. Almost everywhere he is credited with gentle and +beneficent dispositions, and therefore with a certain hostility to human +sacrifice. It was this deity, in one of his forms, who was worshipped in +the sacred island of Cozumel, situated close to Yucatan, to which +pilgrimages were made from great distances. It was there that the +Spaniards, to their great surprise, first observed a cross surmounting +the temple of this god of the wind. This was the starting-point of the +legend according to which the Apostle Thomas had of old evangelized +America. It is a pure illusion. The pagan cross of Central America and +Mexico is nothing whatever but the symbol of the four cardinal points of +the compass from which blow the four chief winds. + +Such is the common religious basis, which we have simply sketched in its +most general outlines, and upon which the more elaborate and sombre +religion of the Aztecs, which we shall examine at our next meeting, was +reared. Pray observe that we find in this group of connected beliefs and +worships something quite analogous to the polytheism of the ancient +world. The only notable difference is, that the god of Heaven, Dyaus, +Varuna, Zeus, Ahura Mazda, or (in China) Tien, does not occupy the same +pre-eminent place in the American mythology that he takes in its +European and Asiatic counterparts. For the rest, the processes of the +human spirit are absolutely identical in the two continents. In both +alike it is the phenomena of nature, regarded as animated and conscious, +that wake and stimulate the religious sentiment and become the objects +of the adoration of man. At the same time, and in virtue of the same +process of internal logic, these personified beings come to be regarded +more and more as possessed of a nature superior in power indeed, but in +all other respects closely conforming, to that of man. If +nature-worship, with the animism that it engenders, shapes the first +law to which nascent religion submits in the human race, +anthropomorphism furnishes the second, disengaging itself ever more and +more completely from the zoomorphism which generally serves as an +intermediary. This is so _everywhere_. And thus we may safely leave to +ethnologists the task of deciding whether the whole human race descends +from one original couple or from many; for, spiritually speaking, +humanity in any case is one. It is one same spirit that animates it and +is developed in it; and this, the incontestable unity of our race, is +likewise the only unity we need care to insist on. Let us recognize it, +then, since indeed it imposes itself upon us, and let us confess that +the gospel did but anticipate the last word of science in proclaiming +universal fraternity. + +And here, Gentlemen, we reach one of those grand generalizations which +must finally win over even those who are still inclined to distrust the +philosophical history of religions as a study that destroys the most +precious possessions of humanity. In setting forth the intellectual and +moral unity of mankind, everywhere directed by the same successive +evolutions and the same spiritual laws, it brings into light the great +principle of _human brotherhood_. In demonstrating that these +evolutions, in spite of all the influences of ignorance, of selfishness +and of grossness, converge towards a sublime, ideal goal, and are no +other than the mysterious but mighty and unbroken attraction to that +unfathomable Power of which the universe is the visible expression, it +founds on a basis of reason the august sentiment of the _divine +fatherhood_. Brother-men and one Father-God!--what more does the thinker +need to raise the dignity of our nature, the promises of the future, the +sublimity of our destiny, into a region where the inconstant waves of a +superficial criticism can never reach them? Such is the vestibule of the +eternal Temple; and in approaching the sanctuary--albeit I may not know +the very title by which best to call the Deity who reigns in it--I bow +my head with that union of humility and of filial trust which +constitutes the pure essence of religion. + +But from these general considerations we must return to our more +immediate subject. At our next meeting, Gentlemen, we are to study the +special beliefs and mythology of ancient Mexico. + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +It will be my task to-day to give an account of the Mexican mythology +and religion, resting as it does on the foundation common to the peoples +of Central America, but inspired by the sombre, utilitarian, +matter-of-fact, yet vigorous and earnest, genius of the Aztecs. You will +remember that this name belongs to the warlike and commercial people +that enjoyed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a military and +political supremacy in the region that is now called Mexico, after the +Aztec capital of that name. + + +I. + +To begin with, we must note that the ancient Central-American cultus of +the Sun and Moon, considered as the two supreme deities, was by no +means renounced by the Aztecs. Ometecutli (i.e. _twice Lord_) and +Omecihuatl (_twice Lady_), or in other words supreme Lord and Lady, are +the designations under which they are always indicated in the first rank +in the religious formulae. All the Mexicans called themselves "children +of the Sun," and greeted him every morning with hymns and with trumpet +peals, accompanied with offerings. Four times by day and four times by +night, priests who were attached to the various temples addressed their +devotions to him. And yet he had no temple specially consecrated to him. +The fact was that all temples were really his, much as in our own +Christian civilization all the churches are raised in honour of God, +though particular designations are severally given to them. The Sun was +the _teotl_ (i.e. the god) _par excellence_. I am informed that to this +very day the inhabitants of secluded parts of Mexico, as they go to +mass, throw a kiss to the sun before entering the church. + +Notwithstanding all this, we have to observe that, by an inconsistency +which again has its analogies in other religions, the cultus of the +supreme deity and his consort was pretty much effaced in the popular +devotions and practices by that of divinities who were perhaps less +august, and in some cases were even derived from the substance of the +supreme deity himself, but in any case seemed to stand nearer to +humanity than he did. More especially, the national deities of the +Aztecs, the guardians of their empire, whose worship they instituted +wherever their arms had triumphed, practically took the first place. It +is with these national deities that we are now to make acquaintance, and +we cannot do better than begin with the two great deities of the city of +Mexico, whose colossal statues were enthroned on its principal temple. + +But first we must form some notion of what a Mexican temple was. + +The word "temple," if held to imply an enclosed and covered building, is +very improperly applied to the kind of edifice in question. Indeed, a +Mexican temple (and the same may be said of most of the sanctuaries of +Central America) was essentially a gigantic altar, of pyramidal form, +built in several stages, contracting as they approached the summit. The +number of these retreating stories or terraces might vary. There were +never less than three, but there might be as many as five or six, and in +Tezcuco some of these quasi-pyramids even numbered nine. The one that +towered over all the rest in the city of Mexico was built in five +stages. It measured, at its base, about three hundred and seventy-five +feet in length and three hundred in width, and was over eighty feet +high. At a certain point in each terrace was the stair that sloped +across the side of the pyramid to the terrace above; but the successive +ascents were so arranged that it was necessary to make the complete +circuit of the edifice in order to mount from one stage to another, and +consequently the grand processions to which the Mexicans were so much +devoted must have encircled the whole edifice from top to bottom, like a +huge living serpent, before the van could reach the broad platform at +the top, and this must have added not a little to the picturesque effect +of these religious ceremonies. Such an erection was called a _teocalli_ +or "abode of the gods." The great teocalli of Mexico commanded the four +chief roads that parted from its base to unite the capital to all the +countries beneath the sceptre of its rulers. It was the palladium of the +empire, and, as at Jerusalem, it was the last refuge of the defenders of +the national independence. + +The teocalli which Fernando Cortes and his companions saw at Mexico, and +which the conqueror razed to the ground, to replace it by a Catholic +church, was not of any great antiquity. It had been constructed +thirty-four years before, in the place of another much smaller one that +dated from the time when the Aztecs were but an insignificant tribe; and +it seems that frightful human hecatombs had ensanguined the foundations +of this more recent teocalli. Some authorities speak of seventy-two or +eighty thousand victims, while more moderate calculations reduce the +number to twenty thousand, which is surely terrible enough. In front of +the temple there stretched a spacious court some twelve hundred feet +square. All around were smaller buildings, which served as habitations +for the priests, and store-houses for the apparatus of worship, as well +as arsenals, oratories for the sovereign and the grandees of the +empire, chapels for the inferior deities and so on. Amongst these +buildings was the temple in which, as I have said, the gods of the +conquered peoples were literally imprisoned. In another the Spaniards +could count a hundred and thirty-six thousand symmetrically-piled +skulls. They were the skulls of all the victims that had been sacrificed +since the foundation of the sanctuary. And, by a contrast no less than +monstrous, side by side with this monument of the most atrocious +barbarism there were halls devoted to the care of the poor and sick, who +were tended gratuitously by priests.[7] What a tissue of contradictions +is man! + +But the Aztec religion does not allow us to dwell upon the note of +tenderness. In the centre of the broad platform at the summit stood the +_stone of sacrifices_, a monolith about three feet high, slightly ridged +on the surface. Upon this stone the victim was stretched supine, and +while sundry subordinate priests held his head, arms and feet, the +sacrificing pontiff raised a heavy knife, laid open his bosom with one +terrific blow, and tore out his heart to offer it all bleeding and +palpitating to the deity in whose honour the sacrifice was performed. +And here you will recognize that idea, so widely spread in the two +Americas, and indeed almost everywhere amongst uncivilized peoples, that +the heart is the epitome, so to speak, of the individual--his soul in +some sense--so that to appropriate his heart is to appropriate his whole +being. + +Finally, there rose on the same platform a kind of chapel in which were +enthroned the two chief deities of the Aztecs, Uitzilopochtli and +Tezcatlipoca.[8] And here I will ask you to accompany Captain Bernal +Diaz in the retinue of his chief, Fernando Cortes, to whom the king +Montezuma himself had seen fit to do the honours of his "cathedral." +For, as you are aware, Montezuma, divided between a rash confidence and +certain apprehensions which I shall presently explain, received Cortes +for a considerable time with the utmost distinction, lodged him in one +of his palaces, and did everything in the world to please him. This, +then, is the narrative of Bernal Diaz:[9] + + "Montezuma invited us to enter a little tower, where in a kind + of chamber, or hall, stood what appeared like two altars covered + with rich embroidery." (What Bernal Diaz compared to altars were + the two _Teoicpalli_ (or _seats of the gods_), which were wooden + pedestals, painted azure blue and bearing a serpent's head at + each corner).... "The first [idol], placed on the right, we were + told represented Huichilobos, their god of war" (this was as + near as Bernal Diaz could get to Uitzilopochtli), "with his face + and countenance very broad, his eyes monstrous and terrible; all + his body was covered with jewels, gold and pearls of various + sizes.... His body was girt with things like great serpents, + made with gold and precious stones, and in one hand he held a + bow, and arrows in the other. And another little idol who stood + by him, and, as they said, was his page, carried a short lance + for him, and a very rich shield of gold and jewels. And + Huichilobos had his neck hung round with faces of Indians, and + what seemed to be the hearts of these same Indians, made of + gold, or some of them of silver, covered with blue gems; and + there stood some brasiers there, containing incense made with + copal and the hearts of three Indians who had been slain that + same day; and they were burning, and with the smoke and incense + they had made that sacrifice to him; and all the walls of this + oratory were so bathed and blackened with cakes of blood, as was + the very ground itself, that the whole exhaled a very foul + odour. + + "Carrying our eyes to the left we perceived another great mass, + as high as Huichilobos. Its face was like a bear's, and its + shining eyes were made of mirrors called Tezcat. Its body was + covered with rich gems like that of Huichilobos, for they said + that they were brothers. And this Tescatepuca" (the mutilated + form under which Bernal Diaz presents Tezcatlipoca) "was the god + of hell" (this is another mistake, for Tezcatlipoca was a + celestial deity).... "His body was surrounded with figures like + little imps, with tails like serpents; and the walls were so + caked and the ground so saturated with blood, that the + slaughterhouses of Castile do not exhale such a stench; and + indeed we saw the hearts of five victims who had been + slaughtered that same day.... And since everything smelt of the + shambles, we were impatient to escape from the foul odour and + yet fouler sight." + + +II. + +Such was the impression made upon a Spanish soldier and a good Catholic +by the sight of the two chief deities of the Mexican people. To him +they were simply two abominable inventions of Satan. Let us try to go a +little further below the surface. + +Uitzilopochtli signifies _Humming-bird to the left_, from _Uizilin_ +(Humming-bird), and _opochtli_ (to the left). The latter part of the +name is probably due to the position we have just seen noticed to the +left of the other great deity, Tezcatlipoca. But why Humming-bird? What +can there be in common between this graceful little creature and the +monstrous idol of the Aztecs? The answer is given by the American +mythology, in which the Humming-bird is a divine being, the messenger of +the Sun. In the Aztec language it is often called the "sunbeam" or the +"sun's hair." This charming little bird, with the purple, gold and topaz +sheen of its lovely plumage, as it flits amongst the flowers like a +butterfly, darts out its long tongue before it to extract their juices, +with a burring of its wings like the humming of bees, whence it derives +its English name. Moreover, it is extremely courageous, and will engage +with far larger birds than itself in defence of its nest. In the +northern regions of Mexico, the humming-bird is the messenger of +spring, as the swallow is with us. At the beginning of May, after a cold +and dry season that has parched the soil and blighted all verdure, the +atmosphere becomes pregnant with rain, the sun regains his power, and a +marvellous transformation sets in. The land arrays itself, before the +very eyes, with verdure and flowers, the air is filled with perfumes, +the maize comes to a head, and hosts of humming-birds appear, as if to +announce that the fair season has returned. We may lay it down as +certain that the humming-bird was the object of a religious cultus +amongst the earliest Aztecs, as the divine messenger of the Spring, like +the wren amongst our own peasantry, the plover amongst the Latins, and +the crow amongst many tribes of the Red-skins. It was the emissary of +the Sun. + +It was in this capacity, and under the law of anthropomorphism to which +all the Mexican deities were subject, that the divine humming-bird, as a +revealing god, the protector of the Aztec nation, took the human form +more and more completely in the religious consciousness of his +worshippers. And indeed the Mexican mythology gives form to this idea +that the divine humming-bird (of which those on earth were but the +relatives or little brothers) was a celestial man like an Aztec of the +first rank, in the following legend of his incarnation. + +Near to Coatepec, that is to say the Mountain of Serpents,[10] lived the +pious widow _Coatlicue_ or _Coatlantona_ (the ultimate meaning of which +is "female serpent"). One day, as she was going to the temple to worship +the Sun, she saw a little tuft of brilliantly coloured feathers fall at +her feet. She picked it up and placed it in her bosom to present as an +offering to the Sun. But when she was about to draw it forth, she knew +not what had come upon her. Soon afterwards she perceived that she was +about to become a mother. Her children were so enraged that they +determined to kill her, but a voice from her womb cried out to her, +"Mother, have no fear, for I will save thee, to thy great honour and my +own great glory." And in fact Coatlicue's children failed in their +murderous attempt. In due time Uitzilopochtli was born, grasping his +shield and lance, with a plume of feathers shaped like a bird's beak on +his head, with humming-birds' feathers on his left leg, and his face, +arms and legs barred with blue. Endowed from his birth with +extraordinary strength, while still an infant he put to death those who +had attempted to slay his mother, together with all who had taken their +part. He gave her everything he could take from them; and after +accomplishing mighty feats on behalf of the Aztecs, whom he had taken +under his protection, he re-ascended to heaven, bearing his mother with +him, and making her henceforth the goddess of flowers.[11] + +You will be struck by the analogy between this myth and more than one +Greek counterpart. There is the same method of reducing to the +conditions of human life, and concentrating at a single point of time +and space, a permanent or regularly recurrent and periodic natural +phenomenon. Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird, has come from the Sun with +the purpose of making himself man, and he has therefore taken flesh in +an Aztec woman, Coatlicue, the serpent, who is no other than the spring +florescence, and therefore the Mexican Flora. It is not only amongst the +Mexicans that the creeping progress of the spring vegetation, stretching +along the ground towards the North, has suggested the idea of a divine +serpent crawling over the earth. The Athenian myth of Erichthonius is a +conception of the same order. The celestial humming-bird, then, +offspring of the Sun, valiant and warlike from the day of his birth, +champion of his mother, plundering and ever victorious, is the symbol +instinctively seized on by the Aztec people; for it, too, had sprung +from humble beginnings, had been despised and menaced by its neighbours, +and had grown so marvellously in power and in wealth as to have become +the invincible lord of Anahuac. Uitzilopochtli had grown with the Aztec +people. He bears, amongst other surnames, that of Mextli, the warrior, +whence the name of Mexico. He protects his people and ever extends the +boundaries of its empire. And thus, in spite of his bearing the name of +a little bird, his statue as an incarnate deity had become colossal. Yet +the Aztecs did not lose the memory of his original minuteness of +stature. Did you observe, in the account given by Bernal Diaz, that +there stood at the feet of the huge idol another quite small one, that +served, according to the Spanish Captain, as his page? This was the +_Uitziton_, or "little humming-bird," called also the _Paynalton_, or +the "little quick one," whose image was borne by a priest at the head of +the soldiers as they charged the enemy. On the day of his festival, too, +he was borne at full speed along the streets of the city. He was, +therefore, the diminutive Uitzilopochtli, or, more correctly speaking, +the Uitzilopochtli of the early days, the portable idol of the still +wandering tribe; and in fidelity to those memories, as well as to +preserve the warlike rite to the efficacy of which they attached so much +value, the Aztecs had kept the small statue by the side of the great +one. + +To sum up: Uitzilopochtli was a derivative form or determination of the +Sun, and specifically of the Sun of the fair season. He had three great +annual festivals. The first fell in May, at the moment of the return of +the flowering vegetation. The second was celebrated in August, when the +favourable season unfolded all its beauty. The third coincided with our +month of December. It was the beginning of the cold and dry season. On +the day of this third festival they made a statue in Uitzilopochtli's +likeness, out of dough concocted with the blood of sacrificed infants, +and, after all kinds of ceremonies, a priest pierced the statue with an +arrow. Uitzilopochtli would die with the verdure, the flowers and all +the beauteous adornments of spring and summer. But, like Adonis, like +Osiris, like Atys, and so many other solar deities, he only died to live +and to return again.[12] + +It was now his brother Tezcatlipoca who took the direction of the world. +His name signifies "Shining Mirror." As the Sun of the cold and sterile +season, he turned his impassive glance upon all the world, or gazed into +the mirror of polished crystal that he held in his hand, in which all +the actions of men were reflected. He was a stern god of judgment, with +whose being ideas of moral retribution were associated. He was therefore +much dreaded. Up to a certain point he reminds us of the Vedic Varuna. +His statue was made of dark obsidian rock, and his face recalled that of +the bear or tapir. Suspended to his hair, which was plaited into a tail +and enclosed in a golden net, there hung an ear, which was likewise made +of gold, towards which there mounted flocks of smoke in the form of +tongues. These were the prayers and supplications of mortals. Maladies, +famines and death, were the manifestations of Tezcatlipoca's justice. +Dry as the season over which he presided, he was not easily moved. And +yet he was not absolutely inexorable. The ardent prayers, the sacrifices +and the supplications of his priests might avert the strokes of his +wrath. But in spite of all, he was pre-eminently the god of austere law. +And this is why he was regarded as the civilizing and organizing deity +of the Aztecs. It was he who had established the laws that governed the +people and who watched over their observance. In this capacity he made +frequent journeys of inspection, like an invisible prefect of police, +through the city of Mexico, to see what was going on there. Stone seats +had been erected in the streets for him to rest upon on these +occasions, and no mortal would have dared to occupy them. At the same +time a terrible and cruel subtlety in the means he employed to +accomplish his ends was attributed to him; and the legend about him, +which is far less brilliant than that of his brother Uitzilopochtli, led +several Europeans to believe that he was simply an ancient magician who +had spread terror around him by his sorceries. All this we see +exemplified in his conflicts with a third great deity whom we shall next +describe. In any case we may define Tezcatlipoca as another +determination of the Sun, and specifically of the winter Sun of the +cold, dry, sterile season.[13] + +The third great deity is Quetzalcoatl, that is to say "the feathered +serpent," or "the serpent-bird;" and it is specially noteworthy, in +connection with the elevated rank which he occupied in the Mexican +pantheon, that he was not an Aztec deity, but one of the ancient gods of +the invaded country. He was in fact a Toltec deity, and we recognize in +his name, as well as in the special notes in the legend concerning him, +that god of the wind whom we know already in Central America under the +varying names of Cuculcan, Hurakan, Gucumatz, Votan and so forth. He is +almost always a serpent, and a serpent with feathers. His temple at +Mexico departed altogether from the pyramidal type that we have +described. It was dome-shaped and covered. The entrance was formed by a +great serpent-mouth, wide open and showing its fangs, so that the +Spaniards thought it represented a gate of hell. Quetzalcoatl's priests +were clothed in white, whereas the ordinary garb of the Mexican priests +was black. There was something mysterious and occult about the +priesthood of this deity, as though it were possessed of divine secrets +or promises, the importance of which it would be dangerous to +undervalue. A special aversion to human sacrifice, and especially to the +frightful abuse of the practice amongst the Aztecs, was attributed to +this god and his priests, in passive protest, as it were, against the +sanguinary rites to which the Aztecs attributed the prosperity of their +empire. + +The legend of Quetzalcoatl, as the Aztecs transmitted it to the +Spaniards, is a motley concatenation of euhemerized myths. Its +historical basis is the continuous retreat of the Toltecs before the +northern invaders, with their god Tezcatlipoca. This latter deity +becomes a magician, cunning and malicious enough to get the better of +the gentle Quetzalcoatl on every occasion. I regret that time will not +allow me to tell in detail of the combat between Tezcatlipoca and +Quetzalcoatl. The latter was a sovereign who lived long ago at Tulla, +the northern focus of Toltec civilization. Under his sceptre men lived +in great happiness and enjoyed abundance of everything. He had taught +them agriculture, the use of the metals, the art of cutting stone, the +means of fixing the calendar; and being opposed to the sacrifice of +human victims--note this--he had advised their replacement by the +drawing of blood from the tongue, the lips, the chest, the legs, &c. +Tezcatlipoca succeeded by his enchantments in destroying this rule of +peace and prosperity, and forced Quetzalcoatl to quit Tulla, which +thereupon fell in ruins. He then pursued him into Cholula, the ancient +sacred city of the Toltecs, in which he had sought refuge, and in which +he had again made happiness and abundance reign. Finally, he forced him +to quit the continent altogether, and embark in a mysterious vessel not +far from Vera Cruz, near to the very spot where Cortes disembarked. +Since then Quetzalcoatl had disappeared; "But wait!" said his priests, +"for he will return." This expectation of Quetzalcoatl's return +furnishes a kind of parallel to the Messianic hope, or more closely yet +to the early Christian expectation of the _parousia_ or "second coming" +of the Christ. For when he returned, it would be to punish his enemies, +to chastise the wicked, the oppressors and the tyrants. And that is why +the Aztecs dreaded his return, and why they had not dared to proscribe +his cultus, but, on the contrary, recognized it and carried it on. And +if you would know the real secret of the success of Fernando Cortes in +his wild enterprize--for, after all, the Mexican sovereign could easily +have crushed him and his handful of men, by making a hecatomb of them +before they had had time to entrench themselves and make allies--you +will find it in the fact that Montezuma, whose conscience was oppressed +with more crimes than one, had a very lively dread of Quetzalcoatl's +return; and when he was informed that at the very point where the +dreaded god had embarked, to disappear in the unknown East, strange and +terrible beings had been seen to disembark, bearing with them fragments +of thunderbolts, in tubes that they could discharge whenever they +would--some of them having two heads and six legs, swifter of foot than +the fleetest men--Montezuma could not doubt that--it was Quetzalcoatl +returning, and instead of sending his troops against Cortes, he +preferred to negotiate with him, to allow him to approach, and to +receive him in his own palace. And although doubts soon asserted +themselves in his mind, yet he long retained, perhaps even to the last, +a superstitious dread of Cortes, that enabled the latter to secure a +complete ascendancy over him. This, I repeat, was the secret of the bold +Spaniard's success; nor can we ever understand the matter rightly unless +we take into consideration the significance of this worship of +Quetzalcoatl that the Aztecs had continued to respect, though all the +while flattering themselves that their own god, Tezcatlipoca, would be +able once more to protect them against his ancient adversary. Years +after the conquest, Father Sahagun had still to answer the question of +the natives, who asked him what he knew of the country of +Quetzalcoatl.[14] + +What, then, was the fundamental significance of this feathered Serpent +that so pre-occupied the religious consciousness of the Aztecs? + +He was not the Sun. The Sun does not disappear in the East. He was a god +of the wind, as Father Sahagun perfectly well understood, but of that +wind in particular that brings over the parched land of Mexico the tepid +and fertilizing exhalations of the Atlantic. And this is why +Tezcatlipoca, the god of the cold and dry season, rather than +Uitzilopochtli, is his personal enemy. It is towards the end of the dry +season that the fertilizing showers begin to fall on the eastern shores, +and little by little to reach the higher lands of the interior. The +flying Serpent, then, the wind that comes like a huge bird upon the air, +bringing life and abundance with it, is a benevolent deity who spreads +prosperity wherever he goes. But he does not always breathe over the +land, and does not carry his blessed moisture everywhere. Tezcatlipoca +appears. The lofty plateaux of Tulla, of Mexico and of Cholula, are the +first victims of his desolating force. Quetzalcoatl withdraws ever +further and further to the East, and at last disappears in the great +ocean. + +Such is the natural basis of the myth of Quetzalcoatl, and the +justification of my remark that we find in him the pendant of those +deities, serpents and birds in one, who were adored in Central America, +and who answered, like Quetzalcoatl, to the idea of the Atlantic wind. +He was, in truth, the ancient deity that the Nahuas or Mayas of the +civilized immigrations brought with them when they settled in Anahuac +and still further North. Like all the other gods of these regions, +Quetzalcoatl had assumed the human shape more and more completely. We +still possess, especially in the Trocadero Museum at Paris, great blocks +of stone on which he is represented as a serpent covered with feathers, +coiled up and sleeping till the time comes for him to wake. But there +are also statues of him in human form, save that his body is surmounted +by a bird's head, with the tongue projected. Now in the Mexican +hieroglyphie this bird's head, with the tongue put out, is no other than +the symbol of the wind. Hence, too, his names of _Tohil_ "the hummer" or +"the whisperer," _Ehecatl_ "the breeze," _Nauihehecatl_ "the lord of the +four winds," &c. The naturalistic meaning of Quetzalcoatl, then, cannot +admit of the smallest doubt. + +It is probably to the more gentle and humane religious tendency which +was kept alive by the priesthood of this deity, that we must attribute +the attempted reform of the king of Tezcuco, Netzalhuatcoyotl (the +fasting coyote), who has been called the Mexican Solomon. He was a poet +and philosopher as well as king, and had no love either of idolatry or +of sanguinary sacrifices. He had a great pyramidal teocalli of nine +stages erected in his capital for the worship of the god of heaven, to +whom he brought no offerings except flowers and perfumes. He died in +1472, and, as far as we can see, his reformation made no progress. The +ever-increasing preponderance of the Aztecs was as unfavourable as +possible to this humane and spiritual tendency in religion.[15] Yet one +loves to dwell upon the fact, that even in the midst of a religion +steeped in blood, a protest was inspired by the sentiment of humanity, +linked, as it should always be, with the progress of religious thought. + + +III. + +We must now proceed with our review of the Mexican deities, but I must +be content with indicating the most important amongst them; for without +admitting, with Gomara--who registered many names and epithets belonging +to one and the same divinity as indicating so many distinct +beings--that their number rose to two thousand, we find that the most +moderate estimate of the historians raises them to two hundred and +sixty. We shall confine ourselves, then, to the most significant. + +The importance of rain in the regions of Mexico, so marked in the myths +we have already considered, prepares us to find amongst the great gods +the figure of Tlaloc, whose name signifies "the nourisher," and who was +the god of rain. He was believed to reside in the mountains, whence he +sent the clouds. He was also the god of fecundity. Lightning and thunder +were amongst his attributes, and his character was no more amiable than +that of the Mexican deities in general. His cultus was extremely cruel. +Numbers of children were sacrificed to him. His statues were cut in a +greenish white stone, of the colour of water. In one hand he held a +sceptre, the symbol of lightning; in the other, a thunderbolt. He was a +cyclops; that is to say, he had but one eye, which shows that he must be +ultimately identified as an ancient personification of the rainy sky, +whose one eye is the sun. His huge mouth, garnished with crimson teeth, +was always open, to signify his greed and his sanguinary tastes. His +wife was _Chalchihuitlicue_, "the lady Chalchihuit," whose name is +identical with that of a soft green jade stone that was much valued in +Mexico. Her numerous offspring, the Tlalocs, probably represent the +clouds. Side by side with the hideous sacrifices of which Tlaloc's +festival was the occasion, we may note the grotesque ceremony in which +his priests flung themselves pell-mell into a pond, imitating the action +and the note of frogs. This is but one of a thousand proofs that in the +rites intended to conciliate the nature-gods, it was thought well to +reproduce in mimicry the actions of those creatures who were supposed to +be their favourites or chosen servants. The frogs were manifestly loved +by the god of the waters, and to secure his good graces his priests, as +was but natural, transformed themselves into frogs likewise. It was with +this cultus especially that the symbol of the Mexican cross was +connected, as indicating the four points of the horizon from which the +wind might blow. + +_Centeotl_ was another great deity, a kind of Mexican Ceres or Demeter. +She was the goddess of Agriculture, and very specially of maize. Indeed, +her name signifies "maize-goddess," being derived from _centli_ (maize) +and _teotl_ (divine being). Sometimes, however, inasmuch as this goddess +had a son who bore the same name as herself, Centeotl stands for a male +deity. The female deity is often represented with a child in her arms, +like a Madonna. This child, who is no other than the maize itself, grows +up, becomes an adult god, and is the masculine Centeotl. The feminine +Centeotl, moreover, bears many other names, such as _Tonantzin_ (our +revered mother), _Cihuatcoatl_ (lady serpent), and very often _Toci_ or +_Tocitzin_ (our grandmother). She was sometimes represented in the form +of a frog, the symbol of the moistened earth, with a host of mouths or +breasts on her body. She had also a daughter, _Xilonen_, the young +maize-ear, corresponding to the Persephone or Kore of the Greeks. Her +face was painted yellow, the colour of the maize. Her character, at +least amongst the Aztecs, had nothing idyllic about it, and we shall +have to return presently to the frightful sacrifices which were +celebrated in her honour. + +Next comes the god of Fire, _Xiuhtecutli_ (the Lord Fire), a very +ancient deity, as we see by one of his many surnames, _Huehueteotl_ (the +old god). He is represented naked, with his chin blackened, with a +head-dress of green feathers, carrying on his back a kind of serpent +with yellow feathers, thus combining the different fire colours. And +inasmuch as he looked across a disk of gold, called "the looking-plate," +we may ask whether his primitive significance was not very closely +allied to that of Tezcatlipoca, the shining mirror of the cold season. +Sacrifice was offered to him daily. In every house the first libation +and the first morsel of bread were consecrated to him. And finally, as +an instance of the astounding resemblance that is forced upon our +attention between the religious development of the Old World and that of +the New, only conceive that in Mexico, as in ancient Iran and other +countries of Asia and Europe, the fire in every house must be +extinguished on a certain day in every year, and the priest of +Xiuhtecutli kindled fire anew by friction before the statue of his god. +You are aware that this rite, with which so many customs and +superstitions are connected, rests on the idea that Fire is a divine +being, of celestial and pure origin, which is shut up in the wood, and +which is contaminated in the long run by contact with men and with human +affairs. Hence it follows that in order for it to retain its virtues, to +continue to act as a purifier and to spread its blessings amongst men, +it must be brought down anew, from time to time, from its divine +source.[16] + +The Aztecs also had a Venus, a goddess of Love, who bore the name of +_Tlazolteotl_ (the goddess of Sensuality).[17] At Tlascala she was known +by the more elegant name of _Xochiquetzal_ (the flowery plume). She +lived in heaven, in a beautiful garden, spinning and embroidering, +surrounded by dwarfs and buffoons, whom she kept for her amusement. We +hear of a battle of the gods of which she was the object. Though the +wife of Tlaloc, she was loved and carried off by Tezcatlipoca. This +probably gives us the clue to her mythic origin. She must have been the +aquatic vegetation of the marsh lands, possessed by the god of waters, +till the sun dries her up and she disappears. The legend about her is +not very edifying. It was she--to mention only a single feat--who +prevailed over the pious hermit Yappan, when he had victoriously +resisted all other temptations. After his fall he was changed into a +scorpion; and that is why the scorpion, full of wrath at the memory of +his fall and fleeing the daylight, is so poisonous and lives hidden +under stones.[18] + +We have still to mention _Mixcoatl_, the cloud-serpent, whose name +survives to our day as the designation of water-spouts in Mexico, and +who was specially worshipped by the still almost savage populations of +the secluded mountain districts,--_Omacatl_, "the double reed," a kind +of Momus, the god of good cheer, who may very well be a secondary form +of Tlaloc, and who avenged himself, when defrauded of due homage, by +interspersing hairs and other disagreeable objects amongst the +viands,--_Ixtlilton_, "the brown," a sort of Esculapius, the healing +god, whose priest concocted a blackish liquid that passed as an +efficacious remedy for every kind of disease,--_Yacatecutli_, "the lord +guide," the god of travellers and of commerce, whose ordinary symbol was +the stick with a carved handle carried by the Mexicans when on a +journey, who was sedulously worshipped by the commercial and middle +classes of Mexico, and in connection with whom we may note that every +Mexican, when travelling, would be careful to fix his stick in the +ground every evening and pay his respectful devotions to it,[19]--and, +finally, _Xipe_, "the bald," or "the flayed," the god of goldsmiths, +probably another form of Uitzilopochtli (whose festival coincided with +his), deriving his name apparently from the polishing process to which +gold (no doubt regarded as belonging to the substance of the sun) had to +undergo to give it the required brilliance, and to whose hideous cultus +we shall have to return in our next Lecture. + +I must now be brief, and will only speak further of the _Tepitoton_, +that is to say, the "little tiny ones," minute domestic idols, the +number of which was incalculable. They insensibly lower to the level of +animism and fetishism that religion which, as we have seen, bears +comparison in its grander aspects with the most renowned mythologies of +the ancient world. I must, however, allow myself a few words on the god +_Mictlan_, the Mexican Hades or Pluto. His name properly signifies +"region of the North;" but inasmuch as the North was regarded as the +country of mist, of barrenness and of death, his name easily passed into +the designation of the subterranean country of the dead. The Germanic +_Helle_ has a similar history, for it was first localized in the wintry +North and then carried underground. Mictlan, like Hades, was used as a +name alike for the sojourn and for the god of the dead. This deity had a +consort who bore divers names, and he also had at his command a number +of genii or servants, called _Tzitzimitles_, a sort of malicious demons +held in great dread by the living. Of course both Mictlan and his wives +are always represented under a hideous aspect, with huge open mouths, or +rather jaws, often in the act of devouring an infant.[20] + +At last we have done! In the next Lecture we shall penetrate to the very +heart of this singular religion, as we discuss its terrible sacrifices, +its institutions, and its doctrines concerning this world and the life +to come. And here, again, we shall find cause for amazement in the +striking analogies it presents to the rites and institutions of other +religions much nearer home. Meanwhile, observe that in examining the +purely mythological portion of the subject which we have passed in +review to-day, we have seen that there is not a single law manifested by +the mythologies of the ancient world, which had not its parallel +manifestations in Mexico before it was discovered by the Europeans. The +great gods, derived from a dramatized nature--animism, with the +fetishism that springs from it, occupying the basement, if I may so +express myself, beneath these mythological conceptions--in the midst of +all a tendency manifested from time to time towards a purer and more +spiritual conception of the adorable Being--all re-appears and all is +combined in Mexico, even down to something like an incarnation, and the +hope of the coming of the god of justice and of goodness who will +restore all things. Indeed, I know not where else one could look for so +complete a resume of what has constituted in all places, now the +smallness and wretchedness, now the grandeur and nobleness, of that +incomprehensible and irresistible factor of human nature which we call +_religion_. The "eternally religious" element in man had stamped its +mark upon the unknown Mexico as upon all other lands; and when at last +it was discovered, evidence might have been found, had men been able to +appreciate it, that there too, however frightfully misinterpreted, the +Divine breath had been felt. + +It is the spiritually-minded who must learn the art of discerning the +spirit wherever it reveals itself; and when the horrors rise up before +us of which religion has more than once in the course of history been +the cause or the pretext, and we are almost tempted to ask whether this +attribute of human nature has really worked more good than ill in the +destinies of our race, we may remember that the same question might be +asked of all the proudest attributes of our humanity. Take polity or the +art of governing human societies. To what monstrous aberrations has it +not given birth! Take science. Through what lamentable and woful errors +has it not pursued its way! Take art. How gross were its beginnings, and +how often has it served, not to elevate man, but to stimulate his vilest +and most degrading passions! Yet, who would wish to live without +government, science or art? + +Let us apply the same test to religion. The horrors it has caused cannot +weigh against the final and overmastering good which it produces; and +its annals, too often written in blood, should teach us how to guide it, +how to purify it from all that corrupts and debases it. We shall see at +the close of our Lectures what that directing, normalizing, purifying +principle is that must hold the helm of religion and guide it in its +evolution. Meanwhile, let no imperfection, no repulsiveness--nay, no +atrocity even--blind us to the ideal value of what we have been +considering, any more than we should allow the disasters that spring +from the use of fire to make us cease to rank it amongst the great +blessings of our earthly life. + + + + +LECTURE III. + +THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY AND +COSMOGONY OF MEXICO. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +In our last Lecture we passed in review the chief gods and goddesses of +ancient Mexico, and you might see how, in spite of very characteristic +differences, the Mexican mythology obeys the same law of formation that +manifests itself among the peoples of the Old World, thereby proving +once more that the religious development of humanity is not arbitrary, +that it proceeds in every case under the direction of the inherent and +inalienable principles of the human mind. + +To-day we are to complete the internal study of the Mexican religion, by +dealing with its sacrifices, its institutions, and its eschatological +and cosmogonical doctrines. We begin with those sacrifices of which I +have already spoken as so numerous and so horrible. + + +I. + +We have some little difficulty in our times, familiar as we are with +spiritual conceptions of God and the divine purposes, in comprehending +the extreme importance which sacrifices, offerings, gifts to the divine +being, assumed in the eyes of peoples who were still enveloped in the +darkness of polytheism and idolatry. And perhaps we may find it more +difficult yet to realize the primitive object and intention of these +sacrifices. There can be no doubt that they were originally suggested by +the idea that the divine being, whatever it may have been--whether a +natural object, an animal, or a creature analogous to man--liked what we +like, was pleased with what pleases us, and had the same tastes and the +same proclivities as ours. This is the fundamental idea that urged the +polytheistic peoples along the path of religious anthropomorphism. + +This principle once established, and the object being to secure the +goodwill and the protection of the divine beings, what could be more +natural than to offer them the things in which men themselves took +pleasure, such as viands, drinks, perfumes, handsome ornaments, slaves +and wives? We must not carry back to the origins of sacrifice the +meta-physical and moral ideas which did not really appear until much +later. And since the necessity of eating, and the pleasure of eating +choice food, take a foremost rank in the estimation of infant peoples, +it is not surprising that the food-offering was the most frequent and +the most important amongst them, so as in some sort to absorb all the +rest. + +And here we are compelled to bow before a fact which cannot possibly be +disputed, namely, that traces of the primitive sacrifice of human +victims meet us everywhere. And this shows that cannibalism, which is +now restricted to a few of the savage tribes who have remained closest +to the animal life, was once universal to our race. For no one would +ever have conceived the idea of offering to the gods a kind of food +which excited nothing but disgust and horror amongst men. + +This being granted, two rival tendencies must be reckoned with. In the +first place, moral development, with its influence on religious ideas, +worked towards the suppression of the horrible custom of human +sacrifice, whilst at the same time extirpating the taste and desire for +human flesh. For we must not forget that where cannibalism still reigns, +human flesh is regarded as the most delicious of foods; and the Greek +mythology has preserved legends and myths that are connected with the +very epoch at which human sacrifices first became an object of horror to +gods and men. But, in the second place, in virtue of the strange +persistency of rites and usages connected with religion, human +sacrifices prevailed in many places when cannibalism had completely +disappeared from the habits and tastes of the population. Thus the +Semites of Western Asia and the Civaite Hindus, the Celts, and some of +the populations of Greece and Italy, long after they had renounced +cannibalism, still continued to sacrifice human beings to their deities. + +And this gives us the clue to a third phase, which was actually +realized in Mexico before the conquest. Cannibalism, in ordinary life, +was no longer practised. The city of Mexico underwent all the horrors of +famine during the siege conducted by Fernando Cortes. When the Spaniards +finally entered the city, they found the streets strewn with corpses, +which is a sufficient proof that human flesh was not eaten even in dire +extremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not only pushed human +sacrifices to a frantic extreme, but they were _ritual cannibals_, that +is to say, there were certain occasions on which they ate the flesh of +the human victims whom they had immolated. + +This practice was connected with another religious conception, grafted +upon the former one. Almost everywhere, but especially amongst the +Aztecs, we find the notion that the victim devoted to a deity, and +therefore destined to pass into his substance and to become by +assimilation an integral part of him, is already co-substantial with +him, has already become part of him; so that the worshipper in his turn, +by himself assimilating a part of the victim's flesh, unites himself in +substance with the divine being. And now observe that in all religions +the longing, whether grossly or spiritually apprehended, to enter into +the closest possible union with the adored being is fundamental. This +longing is inseparable from the religious sentiment itself, and becomes +imperious wherever that sentiment is warm; and this consideration is +enough to convince us that it is in harmony with the most exalted +tendencies of our nature, but may likewise, in times of ignorance, give +rise to the most deplorable aberrations. + +Note this, again, that immolation or sacrifice cannot be accomplished +without suffering to the victim. Yet more: the immense importance of +sacrifice in the inferior religions raises the mere rite itself to a +position of unrivalled efficacy as gauged by the childlike notions that +have given it birth, so that at last it acquires an intrinsic and +magical virtue in the eyes of the sacrificers. They have lost all +distinct idea as to how their sacrifice gives pleasure to the gods, but +they retain the firm belief that as a matter of fact, it is the +appointed means of acting upon their dispositions and modifying their +will. The civilized Greeks and Romans no longer believed that their gods +ate the flesh of the sacrifices, but this did not prevent their +continuing them as the indispensable means of appeasing the wrath or +conciliating the favour of the deities. To such a length was this +carried in India and Iran, that sacrifice finally came to be regarded as +a cosmic force, a creative act. The gods themselves sacrificed as a +means of creation, or of modifying the existing order of the world. This +idea of the intrinsic and magical virtue of sacrifice naturally re-acted +on the importance attached to the sufferings of the victim so +inseparably connected with it, until the latter came to be regarded as +amongst the prime conditions of an efficacious sacrifice. For the rest, +I need not do more than mention the notions of substitution, of +compensation, and of renunciation on the part of the sacrificer, which +so readily attach themselves to the idea of sacrifice, and represent its +moral aspects. + +Now all these considerations will help us to understand both the fearful +intensity and the special significance of the practice of human +sacrifice established among the Aztecs. And here I must ask you to +harden your hearts for a few moments while I conduct you through this +veritable chamber of horrors. + +The Mexican sacrifices were, in truth, of the most frightful +description. It was an axiom amongst the Aztecs that none but human +sacrifices were truly efficacious. They were continually making war in +order to get a supply of victims. They regarded the victim, when once +selected, as a kind of incarnation of the deity who was ultimately to +consume his flesh, or at any rate his heart. They retained the practice +of cannibalism as a religious rite, and, as though they had had some of +the Red-skins' blood in their veins, they refined upon the tortures +which they forced those victims, whom they had almost adored the moment +before, to undergo at last. + +These victims were regularly selected a considerable time in advance. +They were vigilantly watched, but in other respects were well cared for +and fed with the choicest viands--in a word, fattened. There was not a +single festival upon which at least one of these victims was not +immolated, and in many cases great numbers of them were flung upon the +"stone of sacrifices," where the priests laid their bosoms open, tore +out their hearts, and placed them, as the epitome of the men themselves, +in a vessel full of burning rezin or "copal," before the statue of the +deity. Some few of these sacrifices it is my duty to describe to you. + +For example: To celebrate the close of the annual rule of Tezcatlipoca, +which fell at the beginning of May, they set apart a year beforehand the +handsomest of the prisoners of war captured during the preceding year. +They clothed him in a costume resembling that of the image of the god. +He might come and go in freedom, but he was always followed by eight +pages, who served at once as an escort and a guard. As he passed, I will +not say that the people either knelt or did not kneel before him, for in +Mexico the attitude expressive of religious adoration was that of +squatting down upon the haunches. As he passed, then, the people +squatted all along the streets as soon as they heard the sound of the +bells that he carried on his hands and feet. Twenty days before the +festival, they redoubled their care and attention. They bathed him, +anointed him with perfume, and gave him four beautiful damsels as +companions, each one bearing the name of a goddess, and all of them +instructed to leave nothing undone to make their divine spouse as happy +as possible. He then took part in splendid banquets, surrounded by the +great Mexican nobles. But the day before the great festival, they placed +him and his four wives on board a royal canoe and carried them to the +other side of the lake. In the evening the four goddesses quitted their +unhappy god, and his eight guardians conducted him to a lonely +_teocalli_, a league distant, where he was flung upon the stone of +sacrifices and his heart torn from his bosom. He must disappear and die +with the god whom he represented, who must now make way for +Uitzilopochtli. This latter deity likewise had his human counterpart, +who had to lead a war-dance in his name before being sacrificed. He had +the grotesque privilege of choosing the hour of his own immolation, but +under the condition that the longer he delayed it the less would his +soul be favoured in the abode of Uitzilopochtli. For we must note that +in the Mexican order of ideas, though the flesh of the victims was +destined to feed the gods to whom they were sacrificed, their souls +became the blessed and favoured slaves or servants of these same gods. + +Centeotl, or Toci, the goddess of the harvest, had her human sacrifices +also, but in this case a woman figured as protagonist. She, too, was +dressed like the goddess, and entrusted to the care of four midwives, +priestesses of Centeotl, who were commissioned to pet and amuse her. A +fortnight before the festival, they celebrated "the arm dance" before +her, in which the dancers, without moving their feet, perpetually raised +and lowered their arms, as a symbol of the vegetation fixed at its +roots, but moving freely above. Then she had to take part in a mock +combat, after which she received the title of "image of the mother of +the gods." The day before her execution, she went to pay what was called +her "farewell to the market," in which she was conducted to the market +of Mexico, sowing maize all along the street as she went, and reverenced +by the people as Toci, "our grandmother." But the following midnight she +was carried to the top of a teocalli, perched upon the shoulders of a +priest, and swiftly decapitated. Then they flayed her without loss of +time. The skin of the trunk was chopped off, and a priest, wrapping +himself in the bleeding spoil, traversed the streets in procession, and +made pretence of fighting with soldiers who were interspersed in the +cortege. The skin of the legs was carried to the temple of Centeotl, the +son, where another priest made himself a kind of mask with it, to +represent his god, and sacrificed four captives in the ordinary way. +After this, the priest, accompanied by some soldiers, bore the hideous +shreds to a point on the frontier, where they were buried as a talisman +to protect the empire. + +The festivals of Tlaloc, god of rain, were perhaps yet more horrible. At +one of them they sacrificed a number of prisoners of war, one upon +another, clothed like the god himself. They tore out their hearts in the +usual way, and then carried them in procession, enclosed in a vase, to +throw them into a whirlpool of the lake of Mexico, which they imagined +to be one of the favoured residences of the aquatic deity. But it was +worse still at the festival of this same Tlaloc which fell in February. +On this occasion a number of young children were got together, and +decked with feathers and precious stones. They put wings upon them, to +enable them to fly up, and then placed them on litters, and bore them +through the city in grand procession and with the sound of trumpets. The +people, says Sahagun,[21] could not choose but weep to see these poor +little ones led off to the sacrifice. But if the children themselves +cried freely, it was all the better, for it was a sign that the rain +would be abundant.[22] + +I will not try your nerves by dwelling much longer on this dismal +subject, though there is no lack of material. At the feast of Xipe, "the +flayed," for example, whole companies of men were wrapped in the skins +of sacrificed captives, and engaged in mock battles in that costume. But +the only further instance I am compelled to mention is connected with +the festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, which was celebrated with +elaborate ceremonies. At set of sun, all who had prisoners of war or +slaves to offer to the deity brought forward their victims, painted +with the colours of the god, danced along by their side, and shut them +up in a building attached to the teocalli of Fire. Then they mounted +guard all round, singing hymns. At midnight, each owner entered and +severed a lock of the hair of his slave or slaves, to be carefully +preserved as a talisman. At daybreak they brought out the victims and +led them to the foot of the temple stair. There the priests took them +upon their shoulders and carried them up to the higher platform, where +they had prepared a great brazier of burning embers. Here each priest +flung his human burden upon the fire, and I leave you to imagine the +indescribable scene that ensued. Nor is this all. The same priests, +armed with long hooks, fished out the poor wretches before they were +quite roasted to death, and despatched them in the usual fashion on the +stone of sacrifices.[23] + +It was after these offerings of private devotion that family and +friendly gatherings were held, at which a part of the victim's flesh was +eaten, under the idea that by thus sharing the food of the deity his +worshippers entered into a closer union with him. We ought, however, to +note that a master never ate the flesh of his own slave, inasmuch as he +had been his guest, and as it were a member of his family. He waited +till his friends returned his attention. + + +II. + +Human sacrifice, Gentlemen, appears to have been a universal practice; +but wherever the human sympathies developed themselves rapidly, it was +early superseded by various substituted rites which it was supposed +might with advantage replace it. Such were flagellation, mutilation of +some unessential part of the body, or the emission of a certain quantity +of blood. This last practice, in particular, might be regarded as an act +of individual devotion, a gift made to the gods by the worshipper +himself out of his own very substance. The priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, +who had little taste for human sacrifices, seem to have introduced this +method of propitiating the gods by giving them one's own blood; and the +practice of drawing it from the tongue, the lips, the nose, the ears or +the bosom, came to be the chief form of expression of individual piety +and penitence in Central America and in Mexico. The priests in +particular owed it to their special character to draw their blood for +the benefit of the gods, and nothing could be stranger than the refined +methods they adopted to accomplish this end. For instance, they would +pass strings or splinters through their lips or ears and so draw a +little blood. But then a fresh string or a fresh splinter must be added +every day, and so it might go on indefinitely, for the more there were, +the more meritorious was the act; nor can we doubt that the idea of the +suffering endured enhancing the merit of the deed itself, was already +widely spread in Mexico. There was a system of Mexican _asceticism_, +too, specially characterized by the long fasts which the faithful, and +more particularly the priests, endured. Indeed, fasting is one of the +most general and ancient forms of adoration. It rests, in the first +place, on an instinctive feeling that a man is more worthy to present +himself before the divine beings when fasting than when stuffed with +food; and, in the second place, on the fact that fasting is shown by +experience to promote dreams, hallucinations, extasies and so forth, +which have always been considered as so many forms of communication with +the deity.[24] It was only later that fasting became the sign and index +of mourning, and therefore of sincere repentance and profound sorrow. +Mexico had its solitaries or hermits, too, who sought to enter into +closer communion with the gods by living in the desert under conditions +of the severest asceticism. Are we not once more tempted to exclaim that +there is nothing new under the sun? + +But the devotees of the ancient Mexican religion had other methods of +uniting themselves substantially and corporeally with their gods; and in +accordance with the notions which we have seen were accredited by their +religion, they had developed a kind (or kinds) of _communion_ from +which, with a little theology, a regular doctrine of transubstantiation +might have been drawn. + +Thus, at the third great festival in honour of Uitzilopochtli +(celebrated at the time of his death), they made an image of the deity +in dough, steeped it in the blood of sacrificed children, and partook of +the pieces.[25] In the same way the priests of Tlaloc kneaded statuettes +of their god in dough, cut them up, and gave them to eat to patients +suffering from the diseases caused by the cold and wet.[26] The +statuettes were first consecrated by a small sacrifice. And so, too, at +the yearly festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, an image of the +deity, made of dough, was fixed in the top of a great tree which had +been brought into the city from the forest. At a certain moment the tree +was thrown down, on which of course the idol broke to pieces, and the +worshippers all scrambled for a bit of him to eat. + +It has been asked how far any moral idea had penetrated this religion, +the repulsive aspects of which we have been describing. The question is +a legitimate one. I believe, Gentlemen, that in studying the religious +origins of the different peoples of the earth, we shall come to the +conclusion that the fusion of the religious and moral life--which has +long been an accomplished fact for us, especially since the Gospel, so +that we cannot admit the possibility of uniting immorality and piety for +a single instant--is not primitive, but is due to the development of the +human spirit, and to healthier, more complete and more religious ideas +concerning the moral law. At the beginning of things, and in our own day +amongst savages, nay, even amongst the most ignorant strata of the +population in civilized countries, it is obvious that religion and +morals have extremely little to do with each other. Some authors, +accordingly, in the face of all the monstrous cruelty, selfishness and +inhumanity of the Mexican religion, have concluded that no element of +morality entered into it at all, but that all was self-seeking and +fanaticism. + +This is an exaggeration. We have seen that amongst the nature-gods of +Mexico there was one, Tezcatlipoca, who was looked upon as the austere +guardian of law and morals. If we are to believe Father Sahagun,--and +even if we allow for strong suspicions as to the accuracy of his +translations of the prayers and exhortations uttered under certain +circumstances by parents and priests,--it is evident that the Mexicans +were taught to consider a decent and virtuous life as required by the +gods. Indeed, they had a system of confession, in which the priest +received the statement of the penitent, laid a penance on him, and +assured him of the pardon of the gods. Generally the penitents delayed +their confession till they were advanced in age, for relapses were +regarded as beyond the reach of pardon.[27] It would be nearer the truth +to say that the religious ethics of the Mexicans had entered upon that +path of dualism[28] by which alone, in almost every case, the normal +synthesis or rational reconciliation of the demands of physical nature +and the moral life has been ultimately reached. For inasmuch as fidelity +to duty often involves a certain amount of suffering, the suffering +comes to be regarded as the moral act itself, and artificial sufferings +are voluntarily incurred under the idea that they are the appointed +price of access to a higher and more perfect life, in closer conformity +with the divine will. The cruel rites which entered into the very tissue +of the Mexican religion could hardly fail to strengthen the same ascetic +tendency, by encouraging the idea that pain itself was pleasant to the +eyes of the gods. But the truth is that in this matter we can discern no +more than tendencies. There are symptoms of men's minds being busy with +the relation of the moral to the religious life, but no fixed or +systematic conclusions had been reached. It might, perhaps, have been +otherwise in the sequel, and these tendencies might ultimately have +taken shape in corresponding theories and doctrines, had not the Spanish +conquest intervened to put an end for ever to the evolution of the +Mexican religion. + +I have frequently spoken of the Mexican priests, and the time has now +come for dwelling more explicitly on this priesthood. + +It was very numerous, and had a strong organization reared on an +aristocratic basis, into which political calculations manifestly +entered. The noblest families (including that of the monarch) had the +exclusive privilege of occupying the highest sacerdotal offices. The +priests of Uitzilopochtli held the primacy. Their chief was sovereign +pontiff, with the title of _Mexicatl-Teohuatzin_, "Mexican lord of +sacred things," and _Teotecuhtli_, "divine master." Next to him came the +chief priest of Quetzalcoatl, who had no authority, however, except over +his own order of clergy. He lived as a recluse in his sanctuary, and the +sovereign only sent to consult him on certain great occasions; whereas +the primate sat on the privy council and exercised disciplinary powers +over all the other priests in the empire. Every temple and every +quarter had its regular priests. No one could enter the priesthood until +he had passed satisfactorily through certain tests or examinations +before the directors of the _Calmecac_, or houses of religious +education, of which we shall speak presently. The power of the clergy +was very great. They instructed youth, fixed the calendar, preserved the +knowledge of the annals and traditions indicated by the hieroglyphics, +sang and taught the religious and national hymns, intervened with +special ceremonies at birth, marriage and burial, and were richly +endowed by taxes raised in kind upon the products of the soil and upon +industries. Every successful aspirant to the priesthood, having passed +the requisite examinations, received a kind of unction, which +communicated the sacred character to him. All this indicates a +civilization that had already reached a high point of development; but +the indelible stain of the Mexican religion re-appears every moment even +where it seems to rise highest above the primitive religions: amongst +the ingredients of the fluid with which the new priest was anointed was +the blood of an infant! + +The priests' costume in general was black. Their mantles covered their +heads and fell down their sides like a veil. They never cut their hair, +and the Spaniards saw some of them whose locks descended to their knees. +Probably this was a part of the solar symbolism. The rays of the Sun are +compared to locks of hair, and we very often find the solar heroes or +the servants of the Sun letting their hair grow freely in order that +they may resemble their god. Their mode of life was austere and sombre. +They were subject to the rules of a severe asceticism, slept little, +rose at night to chant their canticles, often fasted, often drew their +own blood, bathed every night (in imitation of the Sun again), and in +many of the sacerdotal fraternities the most rigid celibacy was +enforced. You will see, then, that I did not exaggerate when I spoke of +the belief that the gods were animated by cruel wills and took pleasure +in human pain as having launched the Mexican religion on a path of a +systematic dualism and very stern asceticism.[29] + +But the surprise we experience in noting all these points of resemblance +to the religious institutions of the Old World, perhaps reaches its +culminating point when we learn that the Mexican religion actually had +its convents. These convents were often, but not always, places of +education for both sexes, to which all the free families sent their +children from the age of six or nine years upwards. There the boys were +taught by monks, and the girls by nuns, the meaning of the +hieroglyphics, the way to reckon time, the traditions, the religious +chants and the ritual. Bodily exercises likewise had a place in this +course of education, which was supposed to be complete when the children +had reached the age of fifteen. The majority of them were now sent back +to their families, while the rest stayed behind to become priests or +simple monks. For there were religious orders, under the patronage of +the different gods, and convents for either sex. The monastic rule was +often very severe. In many cases it involved abstinence from animal +food, and the people called the monks of these severer orders +_Quaquacuiltin_, or "herb-eaters." There were likewise associations +resembling our half-secular, half-ecclesiastical fraternities. Thus we +hear of the society of the "_Telpochtiliztli_," an association of young +people who lived with their families, but met every evening at sunset to +dance and sing in honour of Tezcatlipoca. And, finally, we know that +ancient Mexico had its hermits and its religious mendicants.[30] The +latter, however, only took the vow of mendicancy for a fixed term. These +are the details which led von Humboldt and some other writers to believe +that Buddhism must have penetrated at some former period into Mexico. +Not at all! What we have seen simply proves that asceticism, the war +against nature, everywhere clothes itself in similar forms, suggested by +the very constitution of man; and there is certainly nothing in common +between the gentle insipidity of Buddha's religion and the sanguinary +faith of the Aztecs. + +The girls were under a rule similar to that of the boys. They led a hard +enough life in the convents set apart for them, fasting often, sleeping +without taking off their clothes, and (when it was their turn to be on +duty) getting up several times in the night to renew the incense that +burned perpetually before the gods. They learned to sew, to weave, and +to embroider the garments of the idols and the priests. It was they who +made the sacred cakes and the dough idols, whose place in the public +festivals I have described to you. At the age of fifteen, the same +selection took place among the girls as among the boys. Those who stayed +in the convent became either priestesses, charged with the lower +sacerdotal offices, or directresses of the convents set aside for +instruction, or simple nuns, who were known as _Cihuatlamacasque_, "lady +deaconesses," or _Cihuaquaquilli_, "lady herb-eaters," inasmuch as they +abstained from meat. The most absolute continence was rigorously +enforced, and breach of it was punished by death.[31] + +One cannot but ask whether a priesthood so firmly organized, in which +was centred the whole intellectual life and all that can he called the +science of Mexico, had not elaborated any higher doctrines or cosmogonic +theories such as we owe to the priesthoods of the Old World, especially +when we know that they regulated the calendar, which presupposes some +astronomical conceptions. + +But here we enter upon a region that has not yet been methodically +reclaimed by the historians. We have often enough been presented with +Mexican cosmogonies, but the fundamental error of all these expositions +is, that they present as a fixed and established body of doctrine what +was in reality a very loose and unformed mass of traditions and +speculations. The sponsors of these cosmogonies agree neither as to +their number nor their order of succession, and it is obvious that a +mistaken zeal to bring them as near as possible to the Biblical +tradition has been at work. An attempt has even been made to find a +Mexican Noah, coming out of the ark, in a fish-god emerging from a kind +of box floating on the waters.[32] + +One thing, however, is certain, namely, that these cosmogonies are not +Aztec. The Aztec deities proper play no part in them. We may therefore +suppose that they are of Central American origin, or are due to that +priesthood of Quetzalcoatl which continued its silent work in the depths +of its mysterious retreats. The contradictions of our authorities as to +the number and order of these cosmogonies suggest the idea that their +arrangement one after another is no more than a harmonizing attempt to +bring various originally distinct cosmogonies into connection with each +other. The fact is that others yet are known, in addition to those which +have taken their place in what we may call the classical list +established by Humboldt and Mueller.[33] In this classical list there +are five ages of the world, separated from each other by universal +cataclysms, something after the fashion of the successive creations of +the school of Cuvier. Each of these ages is called a Sun, and, according +to the elements that preponderate during their respective courses, they +are called, 1st, the Sun of the Earth; 2nd, the Sun of Fire; 3rd, the +Sun of the Air; and 4th, the Sun of Water. The fifth Sun, which is the +present one, has no special name. We cannot enter upon the details +concerning each of these Suns, and they are not very interesting in any +case. They contain confused reminiscences of primitive life, of the +ancient populations of Anahuac, of old and bygone worships, but nothing +particularly characteristic or original. The only specially striking +feature in this mass of cosmogonic traditions is the sense of the +instability of the established order alike of nature and society which +pervades them. What was it that inspired the Mexicans with this feeling? +Perhaps the mighty destructive forces for which tropical countries, +equatorial seas and volcanic regions, so often furnish a theatre, had +shaken confidence in the permanence of the physical constitution of the +world. Perhaps the numerous political and social revolutions, the +frequent successions of peoples, rulers and subjects in turn, had +accustomed the mind to conceive and anticipate perpetual changes, of +which the successive ages of the world were but the supreme expression; +and finally, perhaps that quasi-messianic expectation of the return of +Quetzalcoatl, to be accompanied by a complete renewal of things, may +have given an additional point of attachment to this belief in the +caducity of the whole existing order. What is certain is that this +sentiment itself was very widely spread. It served as a consolation to +the peoples who were crushed beneath the cruel yoke of the Aztecs. They +might well cherish the thought that all this would not last for ever; +and even the Aztecs themselves had no unbounded confidence in the +stability of their empire. The Spaniards profited greatly by this vague +and all but universal distrust. After their victory they made much of +pretended prodigies that had shadowed it forth, and even of prophecies +that had announced it.[34] But the state of mind of the populations +concerned being given, at whatever moment the Spaniards had arrived they +would have been able to appeal to auguries of a like kind, by dint of +just giving them that degree of precision and clearness which usually +distinguishes predictions that are recorded after their fulfilment! + +A further proof that the Mexican religion helped to spread this sense of +the instability of things is furnished by the grand jubilee festival +which was celebrated every fifty-two years in the city of Mexico and +throughout the empire. The Mexican cycle, marking the coincidence of +four times thirteen lunar and four times thirteen solar years,[35] +counted two-and-fifty years, and was called a "sheaf of years." Now +whenever the dawn of the fifty-third year drew near, the question was +anxiously put, whether the world would last any longer, and preparations +were made for the great ceremony of the _Toxilmolpilia_, or "binding up +of years." The day before, every fire was extinguished. All the priests +of the city of Mexico marched in procession to a mountain situated at +two leagues' distance. The entire population followed them. They watched +the Pleiades intently. If the world was to come to an end, if the sun +was never to rise again, the Pleiades would not pass the zenith; but the +moment they passed it, it was known that a new era of fifty-two years +had been guaranteed to men. Fire was kindled anew by the friction of +wood. But the wood rested on the bosom of the handsomest of the +prisoners, and the moment it was lighted the victim's body was opened, +his heart torn out, and both heart and body burned upon a pile that was +lit by the new fire. No sooner did the people, who had remained on the +plain below, perceive the flame ascend, than they broke into delirious +joy. Another fifty-two years was before the world. More victims were +sacrificed in gratitude to the gods. Brands were lighted at the sacred +flame on the mountain, from which the domestic fires were in their turn +kindled, and swift couriers were despatched with torches, replaced +continually on the route, to the very extremities of the empire. It was +in the year 1507, twelve years before Cortes disembarked, that the +Toxilmolpilia was celebrated for the last time. In 1559, although the +mass of the natives had meanwhile been converted to Roman Catholicism, +the Spanish government had to take severe measures to prevent its +repetition.[36] + +We have far firmer footing, then, than is furnished by the shifting +ground of the cosmogonies, when we insist upon the general prevalence of +the feeling that the world might veritably come to an end as it had done +before. Beyond this there was nothing fixed or generally accepted. Much +the same might be said of the future life. The Mexicans believed in +man's survival after death. This we see from the practice of putting a +number of useful articles into the tomb by the side of the corpse, after +first breaking them, so that they too might die and their spirits might +accompany that of the departed to his new abodes. They even gave him +some Tepitoton, or little household gods, to take with him, and as a +rule they killed a dog to serve as his guide in the mysterious and +painful journey which he was about to undertake. Sometimes a very rich +man would go so far as to have his chaplain slaughtered, that he might +not be deprived of his support in the other world. But in all this there +is nothing to distinguish the Mexican religion from the beliefs that +stretched over the whole of America, and there is no indication that any +moral conception had as yet vivified and hallowed the prospect beyond +the grave. The mass of ordinary mortals remained in the sombre, dreary, +monotonous realm of Mictlan; for in Mexico, as in Polynesia, a really +happy immortality was a privilege reserved for the aristocracy. There +were several paradises, including that of Tlaloc, and above all the +"mansion of the Sun," destined to receive the kings, the nobles and the +warriors. There they hunt, they dance, they accompany the sun in his +course, they can change themselves into clouds or humming-birds. An +exception is made, however, irrespective of social rank, in favour of +warriors who fall in battle and women who die in child-bed, as well as +for the victims sacrificed in honour of the celestial deities and +destined to become their servants. So, too, the paradise of Tlaloc, a +most beauteous garden, is opened to all who have been drowned (for the +god of the waters has taken them to himself), to all who have died of +the diseases caused by moisture, and to the children who have been +sacrificed to him. We recognize in these exceptions an unquestionable +tendency to introduce the idea of justice as qualifying the desolating +doctrine of aristocratic privilege; and probably this principle of +justice would have become preponderant, here as elsewhere, had not the +destinies of the Mexican religion been suddenly broken off. Nor is it +easy to explain the asceticism and austerities of which we have spoken, +except on the supposition that those who practised them all their lives +believed they were thereby acquiring higher rights in the future life. +It must be admitted, however, that it is not in its doctrine of a future +life that the Mexican religion reached its higher developments. + +We must postpone till we have examined the Peruvian religion, which +presents so many analogies to that of Mexico, while at the same time +differing from it so considerably, the final considerations suggested by +the strange compound of beliefs, now so barbarous and now so refined, +which we have passed in review. Spanish monks, as we all know, succeeded +within a few years in bringing the populations who had submitted to the +hardy conquerors within the pale of their Church. It was no very +difficult task. The whole past had vanished. The royal families, the +nobility, the clergy, all had perished. Faith in the national gods had +been broken by events. The new occupants laid a grievous yoke upon the +subject peoples, whom they crushed and oppressed with hateful tyranny; +but we must do the Franciscan monks, who were first on the field in the +work of conversion, the justice of testifying that they did whatever in +them lay to soften the fate of their converts and to plead their cause +before the Court of Spain. Nor were their efforts always unsuccessful. +They were rewarded by the unstinted confidence and affection of the +unhappy natives, who found little pity or comfort save at the hands of +the good Fathers. Let us add that many of the peoples, especially those +from whom the human tithes of which we have spoken had been exacted by +the Aztecs, were sensible of the humane and charitable aspects of a +religion that repudiated these hideous sacrifices in horror, and raised +up the hearts of the oppressed by its promises of a future bliss +conditioned by neither birth nor social rank.[37] + +But the worthy monks could not give what they had not got. And the +religious education which they gave their converts reflected only too +faithfully their own narrow and punctilious monastic spirit, itself +almost as superstitious, though in another way, as what it supplanted. +Nay, more: in spite of the best dispositions on either side, it was +inevitable that the ancient habits and beliefs should long maintain +themselves, though more or less shrouded beneath the new orthodoxy. In +1571, the terrible Inquisition of Spain came and established itself in +Mexico to put an end to this state of things; and alas! it found as +many heretics as it could wish to show that it had not come for nothing. +And when the natives saw the fearful tribunal at work, when the fires of +the _autos-da-fe_ were kindled on the plain of Mexico and consumed by +tens or hundreds the victims condemned by the Holy Office, do you +suppose that the new converts felt well assured in their own hearts that +the God of the Gospel was, after all, much better than Uitzilopochtli +and Tezcatlipoca?[38] + +But we are stepping beyond the domain of history we have marked out for +ourselves. The religion of Mexico is dead, and we cannot desire a +resurrection for it. But the memory it has left behind is at once +mournful and instructive. It has enriched history with its confirmatory +evidence as to the genesis, the power and the tragic force of religion +in human nature; and he who inspects its annals, now so poetical and now +so terror-laden, pauses in pensive thought before the grotesque but +imposing monument which thrills him with admiration even while he +recoils with horror. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +PERU.--ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION, THE LEGEND OF THE INCAS: THEIR +POLICY AND HISTORY. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +We pass to-day from North to South America; and as in the former we +confined ourselves to the district which presented the Europeans of the +sixteenth century with the unlooked-for spectacle of a native +civilization and religion in an advanced stage of development, so in the +latter we shall specially study that other indigenous civilization, +likewise supported and patronized by a very curious and original +religion, which established itself along the Cordilleras on the +immensely long but comparatively narrow strip of land between those +mountains and the ocean. Peru, like Mexico, was the country of an +organized solar religion; but the former, even more than the latter, +displays this religion worked into the very tissues of a most remarkable +social structure, with which it is so completely identified as not to be +so much as conceivable without it. The empire of the Incas is one of the +most complete and absolute theocracies--perhaps the very most complete +and absolute--that the world has seen. But in order to get a clear idea +of what the Peruvian religion was, we must first say a word as to the +country itself, its physical constitution and its history. + +The Peru of the Incas, as discovered and conquered by the Spaniards, +transcended the boundaries of the country now so called, inasmuch as it +included the more ancient kingdom of Quito (corresponding pretty closely +to the modern republic of Ecuador), and extended over parts of the +present Chili and Bolivia. We learn from our ordinary maps that this +whole territory was narrowly confined between the mountains and the sea. +Observe, however, that it was nearly two thousand five hundred miles in +length, four times as long as France, and that its breadth varied from +about two hundred and fifty to about five hundred miles. From West to +East it presents three very different regions. 1. A strip along the +coast where rain hardly ever falls, but where the night dews are very +heavy and the produce of the soil tropical. 2. The _Sierra_ formed by +the first spurs of the Cordilleras, and already high enough above the +level of the sea to produce the vegetation of the temperate regions. +Here maize was cultivated on a large scale, and great herds of vicunias, +alpacas and llamas were pastured. And here we may note a great point of +advantage enjoyed by Peru over Mexico; for the llama, though not very +strong, serves as a beast of burden and traction, its flesh is well +flavoured and its wool most useful. 3. The _Montana_, consisting of a +region even yet imperfectly known, over which extend unmeasured forests, +the home of the jaguar and the chinchilla, of bright-plumed birds and of +dreaded serpents. Above these forests stretch the dizzy peaks and the +volcanos. The most remarkable natural phenomenon of the country is the +lake Titicaca, about seven times as great as the lake of Geneva, not +far distant from the ancient capital Cuzco, and serving, like Anahuac, +the lake district of Mexico, as the chief focus of Peruvian civilization +and religion. The mysterious disappearance beneath the ground of the +river by which it empties itself, stimulated yet further the +myth-forming imagination of the dwellers on its shores. + +There is a remarkable difference between the ways in which the two +civilizations of which we are speaking formed and consolidated +themselves in Mexico and Peru respectively. We have seen that in Mexico +the state of things to which the Spanish conquest put an end was the +result of a long series of revolutions and wars, in which successive +peoples had ruled and served in turn; and the Aztecs had finally seized +the hegemony, while adopting a civilization the origins of which must be +sought in Central America. In Peru things had followed a more regular +and stable course. The dynasty of the Incas had maintained itself for +about six centuries as the patron of social progress and of a remarkably +advanced culture. Starting from its native soil on the shores of Lake +Titicaca, and long confined in its authority to Cuzco and its immediate +territory, this family had finally succeeded in indefinitely extending +its dominion between the mountains and the sea, sometimes by successful +wars and sometimes by pacific means; for whole populations had more than +once been moved to range themselves of their own free will under the +sceptre of the Incas, so as to enjoy the advantages assured to their +subjects by their equitable rule. When Pizarro and his companions +disembarked in Peru, the great Inca, Huayna Capac, had but recently +completed the empire by the conquest of the kingdom of Quito. + +It has been asked, which was the more marvellous feat, the conquest of +Mexico by Fernando Cortes, or that of Peru by Pizarro. One consideration +weighs heavily in favour of Cortes. It is that he was the first. When +Francisco Pizarro threw himself with his handful of adventurers upon +Peru in 1531, he had before him the example of his brilliant precursor, +to teach him how a few Europeans might impose by sheer audacity on the +amazed and superstitious peoples; and in many respects he simply copied +his model. Like him, he took advantage of the divisions and rivalries +of the natives; like him, he found means of securing the person of the +sovereign, and was thereby enabled to quell the subjects. On the other +hand, he had even fewer followers than Cortes. His company scarcely +numbered over two hundred men at first, and the Peruvian empire was more +compact and more wisely organized than that of Mexico. We shall +presently see the principal cause to which his incredible success must +be ascribed; but the net result seems to be, that one hesitates to +pronounce the feats of either adventurer more astounding than those of +the other, especially when we remember that Pizarro was without the +political genius of Fernando Cortes, and was so profoundly ignorant that +he could not so much as read! + +The family of the Incas, whose scourge Pizarro proved to be, must have +numbered many fine politicians in its ranks. Never has what is called a +"dynastic policy" been pursued more methodically and ably. The proofs +assail us at every moment. The Incas were a family of priest-kings, who +reigned, as children of the Sun, over the Peruvian land, and the Sun +himself was the great deity of the country. To obey the Incas was to +obey the supreme god. Their person was the object of a veritable cultus, +and they had succeeded so completely in identifying the interests of +their own family with those of religion, of politics and of +civilization, that it was no longer possible to distinguish them one +from another. And yet it was this very method, so essentially +theocratic, of insisting on the minute regulation of all the actions of +human life in the name of religion, which finally ruined the Incas. +Peru, in the sixteenth century, had become one enormous convent, in +which everything was mechanically regulated, in which no one could take +the smallest initiative, in which everything depended absolutely upon +the will of the reigning Inca; so that the moment Pizarro succeeded in +laying hold of this Inca, this "father Abbe," everything collapsed in a +moment, and nothing was left of the edifice constructed with such +sagacity but a heap of sand. And indeed this is the fatal result of +every theocracy, for it can never really be anything but a _hierocracy_ +or rule of priests. On the one hand it must be absolute, for the +sovereign priest rules in the name of God; and on the other hand it is +fatally impelled to concern itself with every minutest affair, to +interfere vexatiously in all private concerns (since they too affect +religious ethics and discipline), and to multiply regulations against +every possible breach of the ruling religion. It is a general lesson of +religious history that is illustrated so forcibly by the fate of the +Inca priest-kings. + +I will not weary you in this case, any more than in that of Mexico, with +the enumeration of the authors to whom we must go for information on the +political and religious history of the strange country with which we are +dealing. I must, however, say a few words concerning a certain writer +who long enjoyed the highest of reputations, and was regarded throughout +the last century as the most trustworthy and complete authority in +Peruvian matters. The Peruvians, far as their civilization had advanced +in many respects, were behind even the Mexicans in the art of preserving +the memory of the past; for they had not so much as the imperfect +hieroglyphics known to the latter. They made use of _Quipus_ or +_Quipos_, indeed, which were fringes, the threads of which were +variously knotted according to what they were intended to represent; but +unfortunately the Peruvians anticipated on a large scale what so often +happens on the small scale amongst ourselves to those persons of +uncertain memory who tie knots on their handkerchiefs to remind them of +something important. They find the knot, indeed, but have forgotten what +it means! And so with the Peruvians. They were not always at one as to +the meaning of their ancient Quipos, and there were several ways of +interpreting them. Moreover, after the conquest, the few Peruvians who +might still have made some pretension to a knowledge of them did not +trouble themselves to initiate the Europeans into their filiform +writing. All that is left of it is the practice of the Peruvian women +who preserve this method of registering the sins they intend to record +against themselves in the confessional.[39] Let us hope that they at +least never experience any analogous infirmity to that which besets the +knot-tiers amongst ourselves.[40] + +To return to the Peruvian author of whom I intended to speak. He is the +celebrated Garcilasso de la Vega, who published his _Commentarios +reales_ in 1609 and 1617.[41] Garcilasso's father was a European, but +his mother was a Peruvian, and, what is more, a _Palla_, that is to say, +a princess of the family of the Incas. Born in 1540, this Garcilasso had +received from his mother and a maternal uncle a great amount of +information as to the family, the history and the persons of the ancient +sovereigns. He was extremely proud of his origin; so much so, indeed, +that he issued his works under the name of "Garcilasso _el Inca_ de la +Vega," though he had no real title to the name of Inca, which could not +be transmitted by women. A genuine fervour breathes through his accounts +of the history of his Peruvian country and his glorious ancestors, and +it is to him that we owe the knowledge of many facts that would +otherwise have been lost. The interest of his narrative explains the +reputation so long enjoyed by his work, but the more critical spirit of +recent times has discovered that his filial zeal has betrayed him into +lavish embellishments of the situation created by the clever and +cautious policy of his forebears, the Incas. He has passed in silence +over many of their faults, and has attributed more than one merit to +them to which they have no just claim. But in spite of all this, when we +have made allowance for his family weakness, we may consult him with +great advantage as to the institutions and sovereigns of ancient Peru. + +We must allow, with Garcilasso, that from the year 1000 A.D. onwards +(for he places the origin of their power at about this date) the Incas +had accomplished a work that may well seem marvellous in many respects. +Had there been any relations between Peru and Central America? Can we +explain the Peruvian civilization as the result of an emigration from +the isthmic region, or an imitation of what had already been realized +there? There is not the smallest trace of any such thing. No doubt it +would be difficult to justify a categorical assertion on a subject so +obscure; but it is certain that when they were discovered, Peru and the +kingdom of Quito were separated from North America by immense regions +plunged in the deepest savagery. Beginning at the Isthmus of Panama, +this savage district stretched over the whole northern portion of South +America, broken only by the demi-civilization of the Muyscas or Chibchas +(New Granada); and the Peruvians knew nothing of the Mexicans. Neither +the one nor the other were navigators, and nothing in the Peruvian +traditions betrays the least connection with Central America. The most +probable supposition is, that an indigenous civilization was +spontaneously developed in Peru by causes analogous to those which had +produced a similar phenomenon in the Maya country. In Peru, as in +Central America, the richness of the soil, the variety of its products, +the abundance of vegetable food, especially maize, secured the first +conditions of civilization. The Peruvian advance was further favoured by +the fact that it was protected towards the East by almost impassable +mountains, and towards the West by the sea, while to the North and South +it might concentrate its defensive forces upon comparatively narrow +spaces. + +The whole territory of the empire was divided into three parts. The +first was the property of the Sun, that is to say of the priests who +officiated in his numerous temples; the second belonged to the reigning +Inca; and the third to the people. The people's land was divided out +every year in lots apportioned to the needs of each family, but the +portions assigned to the _Curacas_, or nobles, were of a magnitude +suited to their superior dignity. Taxes were paid in days of labour +devoted to the lands of the Inca and those of the Sun, or in +manufactured articles of various kinds, for the cities contained a +number of artizans. Indeed, it was one of the maxims of the Incas that +no part of the empire, however poor, should be exempt from paying +tribute of one kind or another. To such a length was this carried, that +so grave a historian as Herrera tells us how the Inca Huayna Capac, +wishing to determine what kind of tribute the inhabitants of Pasto were +to pay, and being assured that they were so entirely without resources +or capacity of any kind that they could give him nothing at all, laid on +them the annual tribute of a certain measure of vermine, preferring, as +he said, that they should pay this singular tax rather than nothing.[42] +We cannot congratulate the officials commissioned to collect the +tribute, but we cite this sample in proof of the rigour with which the +Incas carried out the principles which they considered essential to the +government of the country. The special principle we have just +illustrated was founded on the idea that the Sun journeys and shines for +every one, and that accordingly every one should contribute towards the +payment of his services. For the rest, the great herds of llamas, which +constituted a regular branch of the national wealth, could only be owned +by the temples of the Sun and by the Inca. Every province, every town +or village, had the exact nature and the exact quantity of the products +it must furnish assigned, and the Incas possessed great depots in which +were stored provisions, arms and clothes for the army. All this was +regulated, accounted for and checked by means of official Quipos. + +The numerous body of officials charged with the general superintendence +and direction of affairs was organized in a very remarkable manner, well +calculated to consolidate the Inca's power. All the officials held their +authority from him, and represented him to the people, just as he +himself represented the Sun-god. At the bottom of the scale was an +official overseer for every ten families, next above an overseer of a +hundred families, then another placed over a thousand, and another over +ten thousand. Each province had a governor who generally belonged to the +family of the Incas. All this constituted a marvellous system of +surveillance and espionage, descending from the sovereign himself to the +meanest of his subjects, and founded on the principle that the rays of +the Sun pierce everywhere. The lowest members of this official +hierarchy, the superintendents of ten families, were responsible to +their immediate superiors for all that went on amongst those under their +charge, and those superiors again were responsible to the next above +them, and so on up to the Inca himself, who thus held the threads of the +whole vast net-work in the depths of his palace. It was another maxim of +the Peruvian state that every one must work, even old men and children. +Infants under five alone were excepted. It was the duty of the +superintendents of ten families to see that this was carried out +everywhere, and they were armed with disciplinary powers to chastise +severely any one who remained idle, or who ordered his house ill, or +gave rise to any scandal. Individual liberty then was closely +restrained. No one could leave his place of residence without leave. The +time for marriage was fixed for both sexes--for women at eighteen to +twenty, for men at twenty-four or upwards. The unions of the noble +families were arranged by the Inca himself, and those of the inferior +classes by his officers, who officially assigned the young people one +to another. Each province had its own costume, which might not be +changed for any other, and every one's birthplace was marked by a ribbon +of a certain colour surrounding his head.[43] In a word, the Jesuits +appear to have copied the constitution of the Peruvian society when they +organized their famous Paraguay missions, and perhaps this fact may help +us to trace the profound motives which in either case suggested so +minutely precise a system of inserting individuals into assigned places +which left no room for self-direction. The Incas and the Jesuits alike +had to contend against the disconnected, incoherent turbulence of savage +life, and both alike were thereby thrown upon an exaggerated system of +regulations, in which each individual was swaddled and meshed in +supervisions and ordinances from which it was impossible to escape. + +Having said so much, we must acknowledge that, generally speaking, the +Incas made a very humane and paternal use of their absolute power. They +strove to moderate the desolating effects of war, and generally treated +the conquered peoples with kindness. But we note that in the century +preceding that of the European conquest, they had devised a means of +guarding against revolts exactly similar to the measures enforced +against rebellious peoples by the despotic sovereigns of Nineveh and +Babylon; that is to say, they transported a great part of the conquered +populations into other parts of their empire, and it appears that Cuzco, +like Babylon, presented an image in miniature of the whole empire. +There, as at Babylon, a host of different languages might be heard, and +it was amongst the children of the deported captives that Pizarro, like +Cyrus at Babylon, found allies who rejoiced in the fall of the empire +that had crushed their fathers. For the rest, the Incas endeavoured to +spread the language of Cuzco, the _Quechua_, throughout their +empire.[44] Nothing need surprise us in the way of political sagacity +and insight on the part of this priestly dynasty. Its monarchs seem to +have hit upon every device which has been imagined elsewhere for +attaching the conquered peoples to themselves or rendering their +hostility harmless. Thus you will remember that at Mexico there was a +chapel that served as a prison for the idols of the conquered. In the +same way there stood in the neighbourhood of Cuzco a great temple with +seventy-eight chapels in it, where the images of all the gods worshipped +in Peru were assembled. Each country had its altar there, on which +sacrifice was made according to the local customs.[45] + +The Spaniards, amongst whom respect for the royal person was +sufficiently profound, were amazed by the marks of extreme deference of +which the Inca was the object. They could not understand at first that +actual religious worship was paid to him. He alone had the inherent +right to be carried on a litter, and he never went out in any other +way, imitating the Sun, his ancestor, who traverses the world without +ever putting his foot to the ground. Some few men and women of the +highest rank might rejoice in the same distinction, but only if they had +obtained the Inca's sanction. In the same way, it was only the members +of the Inca family and the nobles of most exalted rank who were allowed +to wear their hair long, for this was a distinctive sign of the +favourites of the Sun. None could enter the presence of the reigning +Inca save bare-footed, clad in the most simple garments and bearing a +burden on his shoulders, all in token of humility; nor must he raise his +eyes throughout the audience, for no man looks upon the face of the Sun. +It seems that the Incas possessed "the art of royal majesty" in a high +degree. They could retain the impassive air of indifference, whatever +might be going on before their eyes, like the Sun, who passes without +emotion over everything that takes place below. It was thus that +Atahualpa appeared to the Spaniards, who remarked the all but stony +fixity of the Peruvian monarch's features in the presence of all the new +sights--horses, riding, fire-arms--which filled his subjects with +surprise and terror.[46] And such was the superhuman character of the +Inca, that even the base office of a spittoon--excuse such a detail--was +supplied by the hand of one of his ladies.[47] The salute was given to +the Inca by kissing one's hand and then raising it towards the Sun. At +his death the whole country went into mourning for a year. The young +Incas were educated together, under conditions of great austerity, and +were never allowed to mingle with young people of the inferior +classes.[48] + +The army of the Incas was the army of the Sun. The obligation to +military service was universal, since the Sun shines for all men. Every +sound man from twenty-five to fifty might be called on to serve in his +company. Thus numerous and highly-disciplined armies were raised, for +the spirit of obedience had penetrated all classes of the people. The +Incas had abolished the use of poisoned arrows, which is so common +amongst the natives of the New World.[49] + +Justice was organized after fixed laws, and, as is usually the case in +theocracies, these laws were severe. For in theocracies, to the social +evil of the offence is added the impiety committed against the Deity and +his representative on earth. The culprit has been guilty not only of +crime, but of sacrilege. The penalty of death was freely inflicted even +in the case of offences that implied no evil disposition.[50] The +palanquin-bearer, for instance, who should stumble under his august +burden when carrying the Inca, or any one who should speak with the +smallest disrespect of him, must die. But we must also note certain +principles of sound justice which the Incas had likewise succeeded in +introducing. The judges were controlled, and, in case of unjust +judgments, punished. The law was more lenient to a first offence than to +a second, to crimes committed in the heat of the moment than to those of +malise prepense; more lenient to children than to adults, and (mark +this) more lenient to the common people than to the great.[51] The +members of the Inca family alone were exempted from the penalty of +death, which in their case was replaced by imprisonment for life. They +alone might, and indeed must, marry their sisters, for a reason that we +shall see further on. Thus everything was calculated to set this divine +family apart. Polygamy, too, was only allowed to the Incas and to the +families of next highest rank after them, who, however, might not marry +at all without the personal assent of the sovereign.[52] But the Incas +strove to make themselves loved. Herrera tells us of establishments in +which orphans and foundlings were brought up at the Inca's charges, and +of the alms he bestowed on widows who had no means of subsistence.[53] + +The same deliberate system shows itself in the attempts to spread +education. The Incas founded schools, but they were opened only to the +children of the Incas and of the nobility. This is a genuine theocratic +trait. Garcilasso tells us naively that his ancestor the Inca Roca +(1200--1249) in founding public schools had no idea of allowing _the +people_ "to get information, grow proud, and disturb the state."[54] The +instruction, which was given by the _amautas_ (sages), turned on the +history or traditions of the country, on the laws, and on religion. We +have said that writing was unknown. There were only the mnemonic Quipos, +pictures on linen representing great events, and some rudimentary +attempts at hieroglyphics which the Incas do not seem to have +encouraged. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the hieroglyphics +found graven on the rocks of Yonan are anterior to the Inca +supremacy;[55] and it is said that a certain _amauta_ who had attempted +to introduce a hieroglyphic alphabet, was burned to death for impiety at +the order of the Inca.[56] + +The most remarkable results of the rule of the Incas are seen in the +material well-being which they secured to their people. All the +historians speak of the really extraordinary perfection to which +Peruvian agriculture had been carried, though the use of iron was quite +unknown. The solar religion fits perfectly with the habits of an +agricultural people, and the Incas thought it became them, as children +of the Sun, to encourage the cultivation of the soil. They ordered the +execution of great public works, such as supporting walls to prevent the +sloping ground from being washed away; irrigation canals, some of which +measured five hundred miles, and which were preserved with scrupulous +care; magazines of guano, the fertilizing virtues of which were known in +Peru long before they were learned in Europe.[57] The Spaniards are far +from having maintained Peruvian agriculture at the level it had reached +under the Incas. Splendid roads stretched from Cuzco towards the four +quarters of heaven; and Humboldt still traced some of them, paved with +black porphyry, or in other cases cemented or rather macadamized, and +often launched over ravines and pierced through hills with remarkable +boldness.[58] The Incas had established reservoirs of drinking water for +the public use from place to place along these roads, and likewise +pavilions for their own accommodation when they were traversing their +realms, on which occasions they never travelled more than three or four +leagues a day. Bridges were thrown across the rivers, sometimes built of +stone, but more often constructed on the method, so frequently +described, that consists in uniting the opposing banks by two parallel +ropes, along which a great basket is slung.[59] A system of royal +courier posts measured the great roads as in Mexico. There were many +important cities in Peru, and, according to a contemporary estimate +cited by Prescott, the capital, Cuzco, even without including its +suburbs, must have embraced at least two hundred thousand +inhabitants.[60] Architecture was in a developed stage. We shall have to +speak of the temples presently. The Inca's palaces--and there was at +least one in every city of any importance--were of imposing dimensions, +and a high degree of comfort and luxury was displayed within them. Gold +glittered on the walls and beneath the roofs which were generally +thatched with straw. They were provided with inner courts, spacious +halls, sculptures in abundance, but inferior, it would seem, to those of +Central America, and baths in which hot or cold water could be turned on +at will.[61] In a word, when we remember from how many resources the +Peruvians were still cut off by their ignorance and isolation, we cannot +but admit that a genuine civilization is opening before our eyes, the +defects of which must not blind us to its splendour. And since this +civilization was in great part due (we shall see the force of the +qualification presently) to the continuous efforts of the Incas, our +next task must be to ascend to the mythic origin of that family, which +we borrow from the narrative of their descendant, Garcilasso de la +Vega.[62] + +Properly speaking, this narrative is the local myth of the Lake +Titicaca and of Cuzco, transformed into an imperial myth. + +Before the Incas, we are told, men lived in the most absolute savagery. +They were addicted to cannibalism and offered human victims to gods who +were gross like themselves. At last the Sun took pity on them, and sent +them two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo (or Oullo, Ocollo, +Oolle, &c.), to establish the worship of the Sun and alleviate their +lot. The two emissaries, son and daughter of the Sun and Moon, rose one +day from the depths of the Lake Titicaca. They had been told that a +golden splinter which they bore with them would pierce the earth at the +spot in which they were to establish themselves, and the augury was +fulfilled on the site of Cuzco, the name of which signifies _navel._[63] +Observe that, in classical antiquity, Babylon, Athens, Delphi, Paphos, +Jerusalem, and so forth, each passed for the navel of the earth. Manco +Capac and Mama Ogllo, then, established the worship of the Sun. They +taught the savage inhabitants of the place agriculture and the principal +trades, the art of building cities, roads and aqueducts. Mama Ogllo +taught the women to spin and weave. They appointed a number of overseers +to take care that every one did his duty; and when they had thus +regulated everything in Cuzco, they re-ascended to heaven. But they left +a son and daughter to continue their work. Like their parents, the +brother and sister became husband and wife, and from them descends the +sovereign family of the Incas, that is to say, the Lord-rulers, or +Master-rulers. + +Such is the legend, from which the first deduction must be that the Inca +family has nothing in common with the other denizens of earth. It is +super-imposed, as it were, on humanity. It is because of this difference +of origin that the laws which restrain the rest of mankind are not +always applicable to the Incas. For example, they marry their sisters, +as Manco Capac did, and as the Sun does, for the Moon is at once his +wife and his sister. It is thus that they are enabled to preserve the +divine character of their unique family. + +For ourselves, we can entertain no doubt that this is a cosmic myth. +Mama Ogllo, or "the mother egg," and Manco Capac, or "the mighty man," +are two creators. The myth indicates that there existed an ancient solar +priesthood on one of the islands or on the shores of the Lake of +Titicaca (at an early date the focus of a certain civilization), and +that this priestly family became at a given period the ruling power at +Cuzco. It was thence that it radiated over the small states which +surrounded Cuzco, embracing them one after another under its prestige +and its power, until it had become the redoubtable dynasty that we know +it. Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo, the creator and the cosmic egg, have +become the Sun and Moon, represented by their Inca high-priest and his +wife. There is no practice towards which a more wide-spread tendency +exists in America than that of conferring the name of a deity on his +chief priest. And if Garcilasso fixes the appearance of Manco Capac at +about 1000 A.D., it is simply because the historical recollections of +his family mounted no higher, and that about that time it began to rise +out of its obscurity. It had the advantage of numbering in its royal +line both successful warriors and, what is more, consummate +politicians, instances of whose ability we have already seen and shall +see again. + +The point at which the legend preserved by Garcilasso is clearly at +fault, is in its claim for the Incas as the first and only civilizers of +Peru. We shall presently meet with other Peruvian myths of civilization +which do not stand in the least connection with Manco Capac and the +Incas. The kingdom of Quito, which the Inca Huayna Capac had recently +conquered when the Spaniards arrived, though not on the same level as +Peru proper, was far removed from the savage state, while as yet a +stranger to the influence of the Incas. The country of the Muyscas, the +present New Granada or land of Bogota, though standing in no connection +with Peru, was the theatre of another sacerdotal and solar religion _sui +generis_, which, though very little known, is highly interesting. The +valley of the Rimac, or Lima, and the coast lands in general, were +likewise centres of a pre-Inca civilization. The Chimus especially, +themselves dwellers on the coast, were possessed of an original +civilization differing from that of the Incas. They were the last to be +conquered. To sum up, everything leads us to suppose that various +centres of social development had long existed, up and down the whole +region, but that, under the presiding genius of the priesthood of Manco +Capac, the civilization of Cuzco had gradually acquired the +preponderance, till it consecutively eclipsed and absorbed all the +others. + +Garcilasso labours hard to impress us with the belief that the +sovereigns of his family maintained an unbroken age of gold, by dint of +their wisdom and virtues. But we know, both from himself and from other +sources, that as a matter of fact the Incas' sky was not always +cloudless. They had numbered both bad and incapable rulers in their +line. More than once they had had to suppress terrible insurrections, +and their palaces had witnessed more than one tragedy."[64] But after +making all allowances, we must admit that they succeeded in governing +well, and more especially in maintaining intact their own religious and +political prestige. + +Now this very cleverness, this conscious and often extremely deliberate +and astutely calculated policy, compels us to ask how far the Incas +themselves were sincere in their pretension to be descended from the +Sun, and their faith in the very special favour in which the great +luminary held them. There is so much rationalism in their habitual +tactics, that one cannot help suspecting a touch of it in their beliefs. +And the truth is that their descendant, Garcilasso, has recorded certain +traditions to that effect, which he has perhaps dressed up a little too +much in European style, with a view to convincing us that his ancestors +were monotheistic philosophers, but which nevertheless bear the marks of +a certain authenticity. For the reasoning which Garcilasso puts into the +mouth of the Incas closely resembles what would naturally commend itself +to the mind of a pagan who should once ask himself whether the visible +phenomenon, the Sun, which he adored, was really as living, as +conscious, as personal, as they said. Thus the Inca Tupac Yupanqui +(fifteenth century) is said to have reasoned thus:[65] + + "They say that the Sun lives, and that he does everything. But + when one does anything, he is near to the thing he does; whereas + many things take place while the Sun is absent. It therefore + cannot be he who does everything. And again, if he were a living + being, would he not be wearied by his perpetual journeyings? If + he were alive, he would experience fatigue, as we do; and if he + were free, he would visit other parts of the heavens which he + never traverses. In truth, he seems like a thing held to its + task that always measures the same course, or like an arrow that + flies where it is shot and not where it wills itself." + +Note this line of reasoning, Gentlemen, which must have repeated itself +in many minds when once they had acquired enough independence and power +of thought calmly to examine those natural phenomena which primitive +naivete had animated, personified and adored as the lords of destiny. +Their fixity and their mechanical and unvarying movements, when once +observed, could not fail to strike a mortal blow at the faith of which +they were the object. That faith was transformed without being radically +changed when it was no longer the phenomenon itself, but the personal +and directing spirit, the genius, the deity that was behind the +phenomenon, but distinct from it and capable of detaching itself from +it, which drew to itself the worship of the faithful. But in his turn +this god, shaped in the image of man, must either be refined into pure +spirit, or must fall below the rational and moral ideal ultimately +conceived by man himself. When all is said and done, Gentlemen, Buddhism +is still a religion of Nature. It is the last word of that order of +religions, and exists to show us that, at any rate in its authentic and +primitive form, that last word is _nothingness_. And that is why +Buddhism has never existed in its pure form as a popular religion. For +in religion, and at every stage of religion, mind seeks mind. Without +that, religion is nothing. Note, too, the observant Inca's remark, that +if the Sun were alive he must be dreadfully tired. You may find the same +idea in more than one European mythology, in which the Sun appears as an +unhappy culprit condemned to a toilsome service for some previous fault; +or, again, an iron constitution is given him, to explain why he is not +worn out by his ceaseless journeying. + +Now Tupac Yupanqui would not be the only Inca who cherished a certain +scepticism concerning his ancestor the Sun. Herrera tells us that the +Inca Viracocha denied that the Sun was God;[66] and according to a story +preserved by Garcilasso,[67] the Inca Huayna Capac, the conqueror of +Quito, who died shortly after Pizarro's first disembarkment, must have +been quite as much of a rationalist. One day, during the celebration of +a festival in honour of the Sun, he is said to have gazed at the great +luminary so long and fixedly that the chief priest ventured on some +respectful remarks to the effect that so irreverent a proceeding must +surprise the people. "I will ask you two questions," replied the +monarch. "I am your king and universal lord. Would any one of you have +the hardihood to order me to rise from my seat and take a long journey +for his pleasure?... And would the richest and most powerful of my +vassals dare to disobey if I should command him on the spot to set out +in all speed for Chili?" And when the priest answered in the negative, +the Inca continued: "Then I tell you there must be a greater and a more +mighty lord above our father the Sun, who orders him to take the course +he follows day by day. For if he were himself the sovereign lord, he +would now and again omit his journey and rest, for his pleasure, even if +he experienced no necessity for doing so." + +Once more: I will not vouch for the exact form of these audacious +speculations of the free-thinking Inca. But such reminiscences, +collected independently by various authors, correspond to the +conjectures forced upon us by the extreme political sagacity of the +Incas. None but theocrats, in whose own hearts faith in their central +principle was waning, could develop such astuteness and diplomacy. A +sincere and untried faith has not recourse to so many expedients +dictated by policy and the fear lest the joint in the armour should be +found. It is to be presumed, however, that these heterodox speculations +of the Incas themselves never passed beyond the narrow circle of the +family and its immediate surroundings. Nothing of the kind would ever be +caught by the ear of the people. But the evidence as to Huayna Capac's +scepticism derives a certain confirmation from the fact that he was the +first Inca who departed (to the woe of his empire, as it turned out) +from some of the hereditary maxims that had always been scrupulously +observed by his ancestors. + +Huayna Capac had considerably extended the Peruvian empire by the +conquest of the kingdom of Quito. In the hope, presumably, of +consolidating his conquest, he resided for a long time in the +newly-acquired territory, and married the conquered king's daughter, to +whom he became passionately attached. This was absolutely contrary to +one of the statutes of the Inca family, no member of which was allowed +to marry a stranger. By his foreign wife he had a son called Atahualpa, +and whether it was that he thought it good policy to allow a certain +autonomy to the kingdom of Quito, or whether it was due to his +tenderness towards Atahualpa's mother and the son she had borne him, +certain it is that when he died at Quito in 1525, he decided that +Atahualpa should reign over this newly-acquired kingdom, whilst his +other son Huascar, the unimpeachably legitimate Inca, was to succeed him +as sovereign of Peru proper. This, again, was a violation of the maxim +that the kingdom of the Incas, which was the kingdom of the Sun, was +never to be parted. It was in the midst of the struggles provoked by the +hostility of the two brothers that Pizarro fell like a meteor amongst +the Peruvians, who did not so much as know of the existence of any other +land than the one they inhabited. + +But the hour warns me that I must pause. When next we meet, I shall +have to recount the fall of the great religious dynasty of the Incas, +and we shall then examine more closely that Peruvian religion of which +we have to-day but sketched the outline. + + + + +LECTURE V. + +FALL OF THE INCAS.--PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY, PRIESTHOOD. + + +I. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +You will remember that when last we met we traced out the legendary +origin of the royal house of the Incas. Starting from the shores of the +Lake Titicaca and the city of Cuzco, and progressively extending its +combined religious and political dominion over the numerous countries +situated west of the Cordilleras, it had welded them into one vast +empire, centralized and organized in a way that, in spite of its +defects, extorts our admiration. You had occasion to notice the +extraordinary degree to which the consummate practical sagacity which +distinguished the sacerdotal and imperial family of the Sun for +successive centuries, was combined with purely mythological principles +of faith; and we were compelled to ask whether so much diplomacy was +really consistent with unreserved belief. Finally we saw that, according +to the historians, more than one of the Incas had in fact expressed and +justified a doubt as to the living and conscious personality of that +Sun-god whose descendants they were supposed to be. The position of +affairs when the Spaniards disembarked on the shores of Peru is already +known to you. The Inca Huayna Capac, conqueror of Quito, had broken with +the constitutional maxims of his dynasty, in the first place by marrying +a stranger, the daughter of a deposed king; and in the second place by +leaving the kingdom of Quito to the son, Atahualpa, whom she bore him; +while he allowed Huascar, the heir-apparent to the empire, to succeed +him in Peru proper, thus severing into two parts the kingdom of the Sun, +in defiance of the principle hitherto recognized, which forbad the +division of that kingdom under any circumstances. + +The war which speedily arose between Atahualpa and his half-brother +Huascar was the great cause that made it possible for Pizarro and his +miniature army to get a footing in the Peruvian territory. The military +forces of both sections of the empire were engaged with each other far +away from the place of landing, and the inhabitants, wholly unaccustomed +to take any initiative, made no resistance to the strange invaders, +whose appearance, arms and horses, struck terror into their hearts, and +in whom (like the Mexicans in the case of Cortes and his followers) they +thought they saw supernatural beings. Pizarro, who knew how things +stood, had but one idea, viz., to imitate Cortes in laying hold of the +sovereign's person. Atahualpa returned victorious. He had defeated +Huascar, slaughtered many members of the Inca family, and thrown his +conquered brother into prison, so as to govern Peru in his name, for he +was not sure that he himself would be recognized and obeyed as a +legitimate descendant of the Sun. Pizarro found means of making his +arrival known to him, and at the same time offered him his alliance +against his enemies.[68] Atahualpa was delighted with these overtures, +and invited his pretended allies to a conference near Caxamarca, where +the Spaniards had installed themselves. The Inca advanced, parading all +the pomp and splendour of his solar divinity. Four hundred richly-clad +attendants preceded his palanquin, which sparkled at a thousand points +with gold and precious stones, and was borne on the shoulders of +officers drawn from amongst the highest nobles, while troops of male and +female dancers followed the child of the Sun and plied their art. Then +ensued one of those unique scenes of history upon which, as indignation +contends with amazement for the mastery in our minds, we must pause for +a moment to gaze. + +Pizarro's almoner, Father Valverde, drew near to the Inca, a crucifix in +one hand and a missal in the other, and by means of an interpreter +delivered a regular discourse to him, in which he announced that Pope +Alexander VI. had given all the lands of America to the King of Spain, +which he had a right to do as the successor of St. Peter, who was +himself the Vicar of the Son of God. Then he expounded the chief +articles of Christian orthodoxy, and summoned the Inca there and then +to abjure the religion of his ancestors, receive baptism, and submit to +the sovereignty of the King of Spain. On these conditions he might +continue to reign. Otherwise he must look for every kind of disaster. + +Atahualpa was literally stupefied. Much of the discourse, no doubt, he +failed to follow, but what he did understand filled him with +indignation. He answered that he reigned over his peoples by hereditary +right, and could not see how a foreign priest could dispose of lands +that were not his. He should remain faithful to the religion of his +fathers, "especially," he added, as he pointed to the crucifix grasped +by the monk, "since my god, the Sun, is at any rate alive; whereas the +one you propose for my acceptance, as far as I gather, is dead." +Finally, he desired to know whence his interlocutor had derived all the +strange things that he had told him. "Hence!" cried Valverde, holding +out his missal. The Inca, who had never seen a book in all his life, +took this object, so new to him, in his hands, opened it, put it to his +ear, and finding that it said nothing, flung it contemptuously on the +ground. + +Pizarro saw the moment for striking the blow he contemplated. Crying out +at the sacrilege, he gave his soldiers the signal of attack. Their +horses and fire-arms caused an instant panic. In vain did some of his +officers attempt to defend the Inca. Pizarro broke through to him, +seized him by the arm and dragged him to his quarters. All his escort +fled in terror. + +Atahualpa, then, was in the immediate power of Pizarro, who (still +imitating Cortes) surrounded his prisoner with every comfort and +attention, though confining him strictly to one chamber, and warning him +that any attempt at escape or resistance would be the signal for his +death. Atahualpa soon perceived that thirst for gold was the great +motive that had impelled the Spaniards to their audacious enterprize. He +hoped to disarm them by offering as ransom gold enough to fill the +chamber in which he was confined up to the height of a man. He gave the +necessary orders for collecting the precious metal in the requisite +amount, and to secure the good reception of the emissaries whom Pizarro +despatched everywhere to receive it. One of these detachments even +entered into relations with the captive Inca, Huascar, and the latter +hastened to offer the Spaniards yet more gold than Atahualpa was giving +them if they would take his part. Atahualpa heard of this, was alarmed, +regarded his conquered brother's attempts in the light of high-treason, +gave orders for his death--and was obeyed.[69] + +He was not aware how precarious was his own tenure of life. Pizarro saw +more and more clearly that, in order to become the real master of Peru, +he must get rid of the reigning Inca, and put some child in his place, +who would be a passive instrument in his hands. He was fairly alarmed by +the religious obedience, timid but absolute, that the "child of the +Sun," even in his captivity, received from all classes of his subjects. +He fancied that from the recesses of his prison, and even while paying +off his enormous ransom,[70] Atahualpa had sent secret orders to the +most distant populations to arm themselves and come to his rescue. The +interpreter through whom he communicated with his captive was out of +temper with his master, for his head had been so turned by ambition, +that he had demanded the hand of a _coya_, that is to say, one of the +Inca's women, and had been haughtily refused. In revenge, he made +malicious reports to Pizarro. But it was an accidental circumstance that +brought the latter's ill-will towards his captive to a point. The Inca +greatly admired the art of writing when he discovered all the uses the +Spaniards made of it. One day it occurred to him to get one of the +soldiers on guard over him to write the word _Dio_ upon his nail, and he +was delighted and astonished to find that every one to whom he showed it +read it in the same way. So they told him that every one a little above +the common herd could read and write in Europe. His evil star would +have it that he showed his thumb one day to Pizarro, who could make +nothing of it. Pizarro, then, could not read! Atahualpa concluded that +he was merely one of the common herd, and found an opportunity of +telling him so. Pizarro, stung to the quick, hesitated no longer. A mock +judgment condemned Atahualpa to the extreme penalty for the crimes of +idolatry, polygamy, usurpation, fratricide and rebellion. In vain he +appealed to the King of Spain. He was led to the stake, and Father +Valverde made him purchase by a baptism _in extremis_ the privilege of +being strangled instead of burned alive. + +From this moment the fate of Peru was decided. The head once struck from +the great body, long convulsions ensued, but no serious resistance was +possible. Pizarro set up as Inca a young brother of Huascar's, who was +at first a mere instrument in the hands of his country's bleeders, but +afterwards escaped and raised insurrections which ended in his total +defeat. The Spaniards had been reinforced, and had found allies amongst +the peoples who had been torn from their native soils by the victorious +Incas.[71] Other attempts, still attaching themselves to the name of +some Inca, failed in like manner. And yet the mass of the Peruvians, in +spite of their conversion to Roman Catholicism, remained obstinately +attached to the memory of their Incas. One of their real or pretended +descendants, in the eighteenth century, did not shrink from serving as a +domestic at Madrid and Rome, as the only means of learning the secret of +that European power which had so cruelly crushed his ancestors.[72] But +on his return to Peru (1744 A.D.) his efforts only ended in his +destruction. But this did not prevent a certain Tupac Amarou, who was +descended from the Incas through a female line, from fomenting a +rebellion in 1780, which it cost the Spaniards an effort to +suppress.[73] Later on, after the revolution that broke the bond of +subjection to Spain, this stubborn hostility of the Peruvians changed +its character; but in 1867, Bustamente still tried to make capital out +of the historical attachment of the natives to the Incas by declaring +himself their descendant. The opposition, however, had long lost all +vestige of a religious character. The legend of Manco Capac, which is +still current amongst the people, has been euhemerized. It is now no +more than the story of a just and enlightened prince, the benefactor of +the country. The natives, it seems, are fond of playing a kind of drama, +in which the trial and death of Atahualpa are represented. Superstitious +to the last degree, they accept the practices of Catholicism with a +submission that has in it more of a melancholy and hopeless resignation +than an ardent or trusting faith. The glorious age of the Incas is gone, +and will never return, but it is still regretted.[74] + + +II. + +And now it is high time that we examined that religion which was so +closely associated with the whole national life of Peru. + +From all that I have said already, you will easily understand that the +Sun has never been worshipped more directly or with more devotion than +in Peru. It was he whom the Peruvians regarded as sovereign lord of the +world, king of the heaven and the earth. His Peruvian name was _Inti_, +"Light." The villages were usually built so as to look eastward, in +order that the inhabitants might salute the supreme god as soon as he +appeared in the morning. The most usual representation of him was a +golden disk representing a human face surrounded by rays and flames. In +Peru, as everywhere else, a feeling existed that there was a certain +relation between the substance of gold and that of the great luminary. +In the nuggets torn from the mountain sides they thought they saw the +Sun's tears.[75] The great periodic fetes of the year, the imperial and +national festivals in which every one took part, were those held in +honour of the Sun. + +Immediately after him came his sister and consort the Moon, Mama Quilla. +Her image was a disk of silver bearing human features, and silver played +the same part in her worship that gold did in that of the Sun. It +appears, however, that they performed fewer sacrifices to her than to +her august consort, which is quite in harmony with the inferior position +assigned to woman in the Peruvian civilization.[76] Like Selene amongst +the Greeks, Mama Quilla, and her incarnation in human form, Mama Ogllo, +were weavers. And that is why the latter was said to have taught the +Peruvian women the art of spinning and weaving. This is a mythological +conception suggested by likening the moonbeams to twisted threads, out +of which on fair clear nights the brilliant verdure in which the earth +is clad is spun. + +But before going on to the gods who form the usual retinue of these two +official and imperial deities, I must speak of two great Peruvian gods +whose worship was likewise widely spread, but who nevertheless are not +attached to the solar family, or at least are only so attached by an +after-thought and by dint of harmonizing efforts which the Incas had +their motives of policy for favouring: I mean the two great deities, +_Viracocha_ and _Pachacamac_. + +The myth of Viracocha is the first instance we shall cite of traces of a +certain civilization prior to the Incas, or at any rate of a belief +widely spread in some parts of Peru that civilization had not really +been, as the legend of the Incas would have it, the sole work of that +sacerdotal family. The name of Viracocha must be very ancient, for it +became a generic name to signify divine beings. It was given to Manco +Capac himself as a title of honour, and the Spaniards on their arrival +passed as _Viracochas_ in the eyes of the people. This name, according +to Spanish authorities, followed by Prescott,[77] signifies _Foam of the +sea_ or of the _lake_. This would make the deity a male Aphrodite. He +was represented with a long beard, and human victims were sacrificed to +him. At the same time, they said that he had neither flesh nor bone, +that he ran swiftly, and that he lowered mountains and lifted up +valleys. The following legend was told of him.[78] + +There were men on the earth before the Sun appeared, and the temples of +Viracocha, for instance, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, are older than +the Sun. One day Viracocha rose out of the lake. He made the sun, the +moon, the stars, and prescribed their course for them. Then he made +stone statues, put life into them, and commanded them to go out of the +caverns in which he had made them and follow him to Cuzco. There he +summoned the inhabitants, and set a man over them called Allca Vica, who +was the common ancestor of the Incas. Then he departed and disappeared +in the water. + +Evidently this myth belongs to a different body of tradition from that +of the Incas. When it says that the earth was peopled before the Sun +appeared, it is only a mythical way of asserting that there were men and +even cities in Peru before the establishment of Sun-worship by the +Incas. Now the latter claimed direct descent from the Sun, the supreme +god, and they would not have readily allowed that this supreme deity had +been made by another. One is rather tempted to find in this myth the +echo of the claims put forward with equal resignation and persistency by +a priesthood of Viracocha, that bowed its head before the supremacy +acquired by the solar priesthood, but insisted all the same upon the +fact that it was itself its elder brother. + +But to what element can we affiliate the god Viracocha himself? + +His aquatic name, _Foam of the sea_ or _lake_, in itself leads us to +suppose that he was closely related to the water. The supposition is +confirmed by the saying that he had neither flesh nor bone, and yet ran +swiftly. We can understand, too, why he lowers mountains and raises +valleys. He rises from the water and disappears in it. He is bearded, +like all aquatic gods, with their fringes of reeds. Finally, his consort +and sister Cocha is the lake itself, and also the goddess of rain. An +old Peruvian hymn that was chanted under the Incas, and has fortunately +been preserved, raises the character we have assigned to Viracocha +above all doubt.[79] The goddess Cocha is represented as carrying an urn +full of water and snow on her head. Her brother Viracocha breaks the +urn, that its contents may spread over the earth. Here is the hymn, +which is composed in nineteen short verses or lines: + + 1. Fair Princess, + 3. Thy urn + 2. Thy brother + 4. Shatters. + 5. At the blow + 6. It thunders, lightens + 7. Flashes; + 8. But thou, Princess, + 10. Rainest down + 9. Thy waters. + 11. At the same time + 12. Hailest, + 13. Snowest. + 14. World-former, + 15. World-animator, + 16. Viracocha, + 17. To this office + 18. Thee has destined, + 19. Consecrated. + +It admits of no doubt, therefore, that Viracocha held a place in the +Peruvian Pantheon closely analogous to that of Tlaloc, the rain-god, in +its Mexican counterpart. The blow with which he breaks his sister's urn +is the thunder-stroke. Inasmuch as rain is a fertilizing agent, +Viracocha represents its generative force. His resemblance to Tlaloc +extends to his demand for human victims, in which he is less ferociously +insatiable, but quite as pronounced, as his Mexican analogue. Since his +legend makes him rise out of the Lake of Titicaca, we must think of him +as the chief god of the religion in honour before that of the Incas rose +to supremacy. When it is said that after accomplishing his task he +disappeared, we are reminded that the river Desaguadero, which carries +off the waters of Lake Titicaca, sinks into the earth and is lost to +sight. + +But there was yet another great deity whose pretensions the Incas had +allowed by making room for him in the official religion, although he +really belonged to a totally different group of mythical formations: I +refer to Pachacamac, whose name signifies "animator of the earth," from +_caman_, "to animate," and _pacha_, "earth."[80] The primitive centre of +his worship was in the valley of Lurin, south of Lima, as well as in +that valley of Rimac which has given its name to the city of Lima +itself, for the latter is but a transformation of _Rimac_. It was there +that Pachacamac's colossal temple rose. It was left standing by the +Incas, but is now in ruins.[81] The branch of the Yuncas who resided +there were already possessed of a certain civilization when the Inca +Pachacutec annexed their country, at the close of the fourteenth +century, partly by persuasion and partly by terror. Pachacamac was the +divine civilizer who had taught this people the arts and crafts.[82] It +would even seem that he had supplanted a still more ancient worship of +Viracocha in these same valleys, for it is said that the latter was +worsted in war by him and put to flight, upon which the new god renewed +the world by changing the people he found on the earth into jaguars and +monkeys, and creating a new and higher race. This opposition to +Viracocha, god of the waters, puts us on the traces of Pachacamac's +original significance. He must have been a god of fire, and especially +of the internal fire of the earth, which displays itself in the volcanos +and warms the spirit of man. He was a kind of Peruvian Dionysus. There +was something gloomy and violent about his worship. He demanded human +victims. The valley of Rimac really means the valley of the _Speaker_, +of him who answers when questioned. There was a kind of oracle inspired +by the god of internal fire there. A certain feeling of mystery, as +though in Pachacamac they had to do with a god less visible, less +palpable, more spiritual than the rest, seems to have impressed itself +upon his Peruvian worshippers. Garcilasso, who perhaps exaggerates a +little, here as elsewhere, goes near to making him a god who could only +be adored in the heart, without temple and without sacrifices.[83] + +Thus, if the myth of Viracocha, god of the waters, makes the stars and +the earth rise out of the moist element which he has fertilized and +organized, the myth of Pachacamac makes him a kind of demiurge working +within to form the world and enlighten mankind. I need not stay to point +out what close analogies these two conceptions find in several of the +cosmogonies of the Old World. + +This confusion and rivalry of the Peruvian gods has left its traces in +the crude and obscure legend of the Collas, or mountaineers of Pacari +Tambo, to the south-west of Cuzco. "From the caves of Pacari Tambo (i.e. +'the house of the dawn') issued one day four brothers and four sisters. +The eldest ascended a mountain, and flung stones towards the four +cardinal points, which was his way of taking possession of all the land. +This aroused the displeasure of the other three. The youngest of all was +the cunningest, and he resolved to get rid of his three brothers and +reign alone. He persuaded his eldest brother to enter a cave, and as +soon as he had done so closed the mouth with an enormous stone, and +imprisoned him there for ever." This seems to refer to the +quasi-subterranean cultus of Pachacamac, the internal fire, the first +revelation of whom must have been a volcano hurling stones in every +direction.--"The youngest brother then persuaded the second to ascend a +high mountain with him, to seek their lost brother, and when they stood +on the summit he hurled him down the precipice and changed him into a +stone by a spell." I cannot say to what special deity this part of the +legend alludes, unless it simply refers to an ancient worship of stones +or rocks, many vestiges of which remained under the Incas, though it +ceased to have any official importance in presence of the radiant +worship of the Sun promulgated and favoured by the ruling family.--"Then +the third brother fled in terror." This fleeing god must be Viracocha, +the god of showers, who flees before the Sun.--"Then the youngest +brother built Cuzco, caused himself to be adored as child of the Sun +under the name of Pirrhua Manco, and likewise built other cities on the +same model."[84] + +This last trait puts it out of doubt that the legend is really an +attempt to explain how the religion of Manco Capac established at Cuzco +had succeeded in eclipsing all others, owing to the superior skill of +its priesthood. It is a formal confirmation of all that I have told you +of the consummate art with which the Incas gradually extended the circle +of their political and religious dominion. _Pirrhua_ is the contraction +of Viracocha, taken in the generic sense of "divine being." Pirrhua +Manco was an alternative name of Manco Capac. + +Of course this legend was not officially received under the Incas. The +latter, being unable or unwilling to abolish the worship of Viracocha +and of Pachacamac, took up a far more conciliatory attitude than that of +the legends I have given. The supreme god, the Sun, was admitted to have +had three sons, Kon or Viracocha, Pachacamac and Manco Capac; but the +latter was declared to have been quite specially designed by the common +father to instruct and govern men. By this arrangement every one was +satisfied,--and especially the Incas. + + +III. + +We may now return to the other deities who were officially incorporated +in the family or retinue of the Sun. + +The rainbow, _Cuycha_, was the object of great veneration as the servant +of the Sun and Moon. He had his chapel contiguous with the temple of the +Sun, and his image was made of plates of gold of various shades, which +covered a whole wall of the edifice. When a rainbow appeared in the +clouds, the Peruvian closed his mouth for fear of having all his teeth +spoilt.[85] + +The planet Venus, _Chasca_ or the "long-haired star," so called from its +extraordinary radiance, was looked upon as a male being and as the page +of the Sun, sometimes preceding and sometimes following his master. The +Pleiades were next most venerated. Comets foreboded the wrath of the +gods. The other stars were the Moon's maids of honour.[86] + +The worship of the elements, too, held a prominent place in this +complicated system of nature-worship. For example, Fire, considered as +derived from the Sun, was the object of profound veneration, and the +worship rendered it must have served admirably as a link between the +religion of the Incas and that of Pachacamac. Strange as it may seem at +first sight, the symbols of fire were stones. But our surprise will +cease when we remember that stones were thought, in a high antiquity, to +be animated by the fire that was supposed to be shut up within them, +since it could be made to issue forth by a sharp blow. The Peruvian +religion likewise adds its testimony to that of all the religions of the +Old World, as to the importance which long attached to the preservation +amongst the tribes of men of that living fire which it was so difficult +to recover if once it had been allowed to escape. A perpetual fire +burned in the temple of the Sun and in the abode of the Virgins of the +Sun, of whom we shall have to speak presently. The wide-spread idea that +fire becomes polluted at last and loses its divine virtue by too long +contact with men, meets us once more. The fire must be renewed from +time to time, and this act was performed yearly by the chief-priest of +Peru, who kindled wood by means of a concave golden mirror. This miracle +is very easy for us to explain, but we cannot doubt that the priests and +people of Peru saw something supernatural in the phenomenon.[87] + +The thunder, likewise, was personified and adored in certain provinces +under the name of _Catequil_, but it is a peculiarity of the Peruvian +religion that it assigns a subordinate rank in the hierarchy to the god +of thunder, who elsewhere generally takes the supreme place. In Peru, he +was but one of the Sun's servants, though the most redoubtable of them +all. The Peruvians are remarkable for their childish dread of thunder. A +great projecting rock, often one that had been struck by the thunder, +passed for the deity's favoured residence. Catequil appears in three +forms: _Chuquilla_ (thunder), _Catuilla_ (lightning), and _Intiallapa_ +(thunderbolt). His remaining name, _Illapa_, also means thunder. He had +special temples, in which he was represented as armed with a sling and a +club.[88] They sacrificed children, but more especially llamas, to him. +Twins were regarded as children of the lightning, and if they died young +their skeletons were preserved as precious relics. And, finally, we find +in Peru the same idea that prevails in a great part of southern Africa, +viz. that a house or field that has been struck by lightning cannot be +used again. Catequil has taken possession of it, and it would be +dangerous to dispute it with him.[89] + +We have seen how the element of water was adored under the names of +Viracocha and his sister Mama Cocha. The earth was worshipped in grottos +or caves, often considered as the places whence men and gods had taken +their origin, and as giving oracles.[90] There were also trees and +plants that were clothed with a divine character, especially the +esculent plants, such as the maize, personified as _Zarap Conopa_, and +the potato, as _Papap Conopa_. A female statue was often made of maize +or coca leaves, and adored as the mother of plants.[91] + +Thus we descend quite gently from the official heights of the religion +of the Incas towards those substrata of religious thought which always +maintain themselves beneath the higher religion that more or less +expressly patronizes them, but to which they are not really bound by any +necessary tie. They are the survivals of old superstitions, to which the +common people are often far more attached than they are to the exalted +doctrines which they are taught officially. And it is thus, for example, +that we note in Peru the very popular worship of numerous animals, +mounting, without doubt, to a much higher antiquity than was reached by +the religion of the Incas. Indeed, I should be inclined to ascribe to +the religious diplomacy of the children of the Sun the Peruvian belief +which established a connection of origin between each kind of animal and +a particular star. The serpent, especially, seems to have been, in Peru +as in Africa, the object of great veneration. We find it reproduced in +wood and stone on an enormous number of the greater and smaller relics +of Peruvian art. The god of subterranean treasures, _Urcaguay_, was a +great serpent, with little chains of gold at his tail, and a head +adorned with stag-like horns. The dwellers by the shore worshipped the +whale and the shark. There were fish-gods, too, in the temple of +Pachacamac, no doubt because of the enormous power of reproduction +possessed by fishes. The condor was a messenger of the Sun, and his +image was graven on the sceptre of the Incas.[92] It is remarkable that +the llama does not appear amongst these divine animals, probably because +it was so completely domesticated and wholly subject to man. + +And finally, when we come to the _Guacas_, or _Huacas_, we reach the +point where the Peruvian religion sinks into absolute fetichism. + +The meaning of the word _Guaca_, or _Huaca_, was not very precise in the +mouths of the Peruvians themselves. On the one hand, it was applied to +everything that bore a religious character, whether an object of +worship, the person of the priests, a temple, a tomb, or what not. The +Sun himself was _Huaca_. The chief priest of Cuzco bore amongst other +names that of _Huacapvillac_, "he who converses with huaca beings."[93] +On the other hand, in ordinary language, this same term was used to +signify those wood, stone and metal objects which were so abundant in +Peru, of which we still possess numerous specimens, and of which we must +now say a few words. Some of these huacas, especially the stone ones, +were of considerable size, and no doubt dated from the pre-historic +religion before the Incas. But as a rule they were small and portable, +were private and hereditary property, and were regarded as veritable +fetiches, that is to say, as the dwelling-places of spirits. Animism, in +fact, never ceased to haunt the imaginations of the Peruvians, +especially amongst the lower orders, whether the spirits were dreaded as +malevolent sprites, or courted as protectors and revealers. These huacas +represented (as true fetiches should) forms which were sometimes +animal, sometimes human, sometimes simply grotesque, but always ugly and +exaggerated. Every valley, every tribe, every temple, every chief, had a +guardian spirit. Those which were analogous to _paenates publici_ were +recognized by the Incas, who endowed them with flocks and various +presents. Often a stone in the middle of the village passed as the abode +of the patron spirit of the place. It was the _huacacoal_, the stone of +the huaca, whereas the huacas of the family or house were distinguished +as _conopas_. Meteorites or thunderbolts were in great demand as huacas, +and especially amongst lovers, since they were supposed to inspire a +reciprocity of affection. The Christian missionaries had more difficulty +in rooting out the worship of the Huacas than in abolishing that of the +Sun and Moon, and we may still detect numerous traces of this ancient +superstition amongst the natives of Peru.[94] + + +IV. + +Let us now turn to the priesthood which presided over the worship of +these numerous deities. + +There was no sacerdotal caste in Peru, or, to speak more correctly, the +Inca family constituted the only sacerdotal caste in the strict sense of +the word. This family retained for itself all the highest positions in +the priesthood, as well as in the army and administration. These priests +of the higher rank bore special garments and insignia, while the lower +clergy wore the ordinary costume. At the head of all the priests of the +empire, first after the reigning Inca, stood the _Villac Oumau_, "the +chief sacrificer," also, as we have seen, called the _Huacapvillac_. He +was nominated by the reigning Inca, and in his turn nominated all his +subordinates. His name indicates that he was the living oracle, the +interpreter of the will of the Sun. You can understand, therefore, how +important it was for the policy of the Incas that he should himself be +subject to the authority and discretion of the sovereign. After him came +the rest of the chief priests, also members of the Inca family, whom he +put in charge of the provincial temples of the Sun. At Cuzco itself all +the priests had to be Incas. They were divided into squadrons, which +attended in succession, according to the quarters of the moon, to the +elaborate ritual of the service. And here we must admire the consummate +art with which the Incas had planned everything in their empire to +secure their supremacy against all attaint, in religion as in all else, +while still leaving the successively annexed populations a certain +measure of religious freedom. In the provinces, the Inca family, +numerous as it was, could not have provided priests for all the +sanctuaries; and, moreover, there would be local rites, traditions, +perhaps even priesthoods, which could not well be fitted into the +framework of the official religion. The Incas therefore had decided that +the priests of the local deities should be affiliated to the imperial +priesthood, but in such a way that the chief priests of the local +deities should at the same time be subordinate priests of the deities of +the empire. What a wonderful stroke of political genius! What happier +method could have been found of teaching the subject populations, while +still maintaining their traditional forms of worship, to regard the +imperial cultus patronized by the reigning Inca as superior to all +others? And what an invaluable guarantee of obedience was obtained by +this association of the non-Inca priests with the official priesthood, +the honours and advantages of which they were thus made to share, +without any room for an aspiration after independence! I regard this +organization of the priesthood in ancient Peru as one of the most +striking proofs of the political genius of the Incas, and as one of the +facts which best explain how a theocracy, which was after all based on +the absolute and exclusive pretensions of one special mythology, was +able to consolidate itself and endure for centuries, while exercising a +large toleration towards other traditions and forms of worship.[95] + +By the side of the priests there were also priestesses; and they were +clothed with a very special function. I refer to those _Virgins of the +Sun_ (_acllia_ = chosen ones), those Peruvian nuns, who so much +impressed the early historians of Peru. There were convents of these +Virgins at Cuzco and in the chief cities of the empire. At Cuzco there +were five hundred of them, drawn for the most part from the families of +the Incas and the _Curacas_ or nobles, although (for a reason which will +be apparent presently) great beauty gave even a daughter of the people a +sufficient title to enter the sacred abode. They had a lady president--I +had almost said a "mother abbess"--who selected them while yet quite +young; and under her superior direction, matrons, or _Mamaconas_, +superintended the young flock. They lived encloistered, in absolute +retreat, without any relationship with the outside world. Only the +reigning Inca, his chief wife, the _Coya_, and the chief priest, were +allowed to penetrate this sanctuary of the virgins. Now these visits of +the Inca's were not exactly disinterested. The fact is, that it was here +he generally looked for recruits for his harem. You will ask how that +could be reconciled with the vow of chastity which the maidens had +taken; but their promise had been never to take any consort except the +Sun, or _him to whom the Sun should give them_. Now the Inca, the child +of the Sun, his representative and incarnation upon earth, began by +assigning the most beautiful to himself, after which he might give some +of those who had not found special favour in his eyes to his Curacas. +And thus the vow was kept intact. In other respects, the most absolute +chastity was sternly enforced. If any nun violated her vow, or was +unhappy enough to allow the sacred fire that burned day and night in the +austere abode to be extinguished, the penalty was death. And the strange +thing is, that the mode of death was identical with that which awaited +the Roman vestal guilty of the same offences. The culprit was buried +alive. This illustrates the value of the theories started by those +authors who can never discover any resemblance of rites or beliefs +between two peoples without forthwith setting about to inquire which of +the two borrowed from the other! It will hardly be maintained that the +Peruvians borrowed this cruel custom from the ancient Romans, and +assuredly the Romans did not get it from Peru. Whence, then, can the +resemblance spring? From the same train of ideas leading to the same +conclusion. By the sacrilege of the culprit, the gods of heaven and of +light, the protecting and benevolent deities, were offended and +incensed, and the whole country would feel the tokens of their wrath. To +disarm their anger, its unhappy cause must expiate her guilt, and at the +same time must be removed from their sight and given over to the powers +of darkness, for she was no longer worthy to see the light. And that is +why the dark tomb must swallow her. She had betrayed her spouse the +Sun--let her henceforth be the spouse and the slave of darkness; and let +her be sent alive to those dark powers, that they might do with her as +they would. We must add that the guilty nun's accomplice was strangled, +and that her whole family from first to last was put to death. + +The ordinary occupations of the Virgins of the Sun consisted in making +garments for the members of the imperial family and tapestries destined +to adorn the temples and palaces, in kneading and baking the sacred +loaves, preparing the sacred drinks, and, finally, in watching and +feeding the sacred fire. You perceive that it was not exactly the +ascetic principle which had given rise to these convents--as in the +case of the Buddhist and Christian institutions, for example--but rather +the desire to do honour to the Sun, the supreme god, by consecrating +seraglios to him, in which his numerous consorts, protected by a severe +rule, could be kept from all except himself and those to whom he might +give them; accomplishing, meanwhile, those menial tasks which, +especially under the rule of polygamy, woman is required to perform in +the abode of her lord and master.[96] + +All this shows us once more, Gentlemen, how the same fundamental logic +of the human mind asserts itself across a thousand diversities, and +re-appears under every conceivable form in every climate and every race. +Only let us look close enough and with the requisite information, and we +shall find in every case that all is explained, that all holds together, +that all is justified, by some underlying principle, and that "that +idiot of a word," _chance_, is never anything but a veil for our +ignorance. And thus, when we notice anything paradoxical, grotesque, and +unexplained by the resources we command at present, we must be very +careful not to pronounce it inexplicable. We should rather suspend our +judgment, wait till wider reflection and renewed investigation have +shown us the middle terms, and meanwhile keep silence rather than +attribute to chance or to influences which escape all human reason the +phenomena that seem abnormal. + +For instance, you have heard sometimes of the strange custom in +accordance with which the father of a new-born child goes to bed and is +nursed as an invalid. You are perhaps aware that this custom, that +appears so strange to us and is now restricted to a few savage tribes, +was noted in ancient times in Europe itself, and has been preserved +almost to our own time in certain cantons of the Pyrenees. It must +therefore have been extremely wide-spread. Yet for a long time it seemed +inexplicable. But now, thanks to investigations and comparisons, the +explanation has been found. There is no doubt that the custom in +question rested on the idea that there was a close solidarity between +the health of the father and that of the new-born babe, so that if the +father should fall sick, his far weaker child would die. The father, +therefore, must be guarded from all over-exertion, must abstain from all +excess--in short, was best in bed! + +So, too, in the present case. How are we to explain the resemblance +between the treatment of the Vestals at Rome and the Virgins of the Sun +at Cuzco? It was once impossible, but now that we are better acquainted +with the genesis, the spirit, the inner logic of the primitive +religions, and the modes of life, the wants and the apprehensions proper +to the pre-historic ages, we have no difficulty in attaching two +parallel customs to a single religious principle which had found +acceptance alike in Italy and Peru. And this is one of the chief tasks, +and one of the greatest charms, of the branch of study which I have the +honour of professing. It shows us that even in human error, human reason +has never abdicated its throne. + +We have still to speak of the temples, the ritual and the chief +festivals of ancient Peru. To these subjects we shall devote the first +part of our sixth and last Lecture, reserving the closing portion for +the conclusions and the general lessons suggested by our two-fold study +of Mexico and Peru. + + + + +LECTURE VI. + +PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE +LIFE.--CONCLUSIONS. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +To complete my account of the native religion of Peru, I have still to +speak of the cultus, the festivals, the religious ethics, and the ideas +of a future life. + + +I. + +The Peruvian cultus had given birth to the _temple;_ and, indeed, it is +highly interesting to witness what one may call the "genesis of the +temple" on this soil, so different from those of the Old World. There +were temples, indeed, before the Incas, but they differed both in style +and in signification from those reared under their patronage. In Peru, +as in Mexico, the temples were originally neither more nor less than +extremely lofty altars; that is to say, artificial elevations, on the +summit of which the sacrifices were presented, while a little chapel +served to contain the image of the god or gods adored. Round this great +altar were grouped other chapels, galleries and columns, as though to +accompany the great central altar formed by the eminence itself. Under +the Incas, the crowning chapel increased so enormously that it encircled +the altar and became the essential part of the sacred structure. The +Inca temples were veritable palaces, destined as abodes for the gods. +None of them remain; but their ruins attest the fact that the architects +aimed rather at colossal than at beautiful effects. They contained +gigantic stone statues, gates cut out of monoliths, and the well-known +pyramidal structures of which we have spoken already. The most imposing +of the temples was the one at Cuzco, which consisted in a vast central +edifice, flanked with a number of adjacent buildings. Gold was so +prodigally lavished on its interior that it bore the name of +_Coricancha,_ that is to say, "the place of gold." The roof was formed +by timber-work of precious woods plated with gold, but was covered, as +in the case of all the houses of the land, with a simple thatch of maize +straw. The doors opened to the East, and at the far end, above the +altar, was the golden disk of the Sun, placed so as to reflect the first +rays of the morning on its brilliant surface, and, as it were, reproduce +the great luminary. And note that the mummies of the departed Incas, +children of the Sun, were ranged in a semicircle round the sacred disk +on golden thrones, so that the morning rays came day by day to shine on +their august remains. The adjacent buildings were abodes of the deities +who formed the retinue of the Sun. The principal one was sacred to the +Moon, his consort, who had her disk of silver, and ranged around her the +ancient queens, the departed _Coyas_. Others served as the abodes of +Chaska, our planet Venus, the Pleiades, the Thunder, the Rainbow, and +finally the officiating priests of the temple. In the provinces, the +Incas reared a number of temples of the Sun on the model of that at +Cuzco, but on a smaller scale.[97] + +The Incas, however, had been anticipated in this striking development of +the temple by the religions anterior or adjacent to their own. Witness +the great temple of Pachacamac, which they left standing in the valley +of Lurin, and the remarkable ruins of another great temple situated at +some miles distance from Lake Titicaca, which has quite recently been +made the subject of a careful reconstructive study by your compatriot +Mr. Inwards.[98] + +The offerings presented to the gods were very varied in kind. Flowers, +fragrant incense, especially from preparations of coca, vegetables, +fruits, maize, prepared drinks offered in cups of gold. At some of the +feasts the officiating priest moistened the tips of his fingers in the +cup and flung the drops towards the Sun. We also find in Peru a very +special form of that remnant of self-immolation which enters, in more or +less reduced and restricted shape, into the devotions of so many peoples +and assumes such varied forms. The Red-skin offers his sweat; the Black +offers his saliva or his teeth; the more poetical Greek, a lock of his +hair, or even all of it. The Peruvian pulled out a hair from his eyebrow +and blew it towards the idol![99] + +But there were also sacrifices of blood. A llama was sacrificed every +day at Cuzco. Before setting out on war, the Peruvians sacrificed a +black llama that they had previously kept fasting, that the heart of +their enemies might fail as did his. This was the Peruvian application +of the principle that lies at the base of all those superstitious +ceremonies intended to provoke or stimulate a desired effect by +reproducing its analogue in advance. Small birds, rabbits, and, for the +health of the Inca, black dogs, were also sacrificed frequently. All +these offerings were as a rule burned, that they might so be transmitted +to the gods.[100] It should be noted that they only sacrificed edible +animals,[101] which is a clear proof that the intention was to feed the +gods. The sacrificing priest turned the animal's eyes towards the Sun, +and opened its body to take out its heart, lungs and viscera, and offer +them to the idols. It is a characteristic fact that when the victim was +not burned, its flesh was divided amongst the sacrificers and _eaten +raw_. The Peruvians had long learned to cook their meat, but this rite +carries us back to a high antiquity, when cooking food was still an +innovation which the power of tradition excluded from the ritual. It is +to analogous causes that we must attribute the continued use of stone +instruments in the religious ceremonies of peoples who are acquainted +with iron and use it in ordinary life. In conclusion, they smeared the +idols and the doors of the temples with the blood of the victims in +order to appease the gods.[102] + +All this is sufficiently crude and material, and rests upon the same +premisses as those which drove the Mexicans to the frightful excesses +which I have previously described. But humanity was far less outraged +in the Peruvian than in the Mexican religion. Garcilasso deceives +himself, or is attempting to deceive his readers, when he gives his +ancestors, the Incas, the honour of having put an end to human +sacrifices.[103] It is certain that in the religion of Pachacamac more +especially this kind of sacrifice was frequent, and for that matter we +know that it was universal in the primitive epochs. All that we can +allow to the descendant of the Incas is, that they did not encourage, +and were rather disposed to restrain, human sacrifice. But for all that, +when the reigning Inca was ill, they sacrificed one of his sons to the +Sun, and prayed him to accept the substitution of the son for the +father. At certain feasts a young infant was immolated. Others were +sacrificed to the subterranean spirits when a new Inca was enthroned. To +the same category we must attach the custom which enjoined upon wives, +especially those of the Incas, the duty of burying themselves alive on +the death of their husbands. It is asserted that when Huayna Capac +died, a thousand members of his household incurred a voluntary death +that they might go with him to serve him. The widows, however, were not +compelled to take this step, and we know that the Incas had organized +the support of widows without resources. But public opinion was not +favourable to those who refused to follow their husbands to the tomb. It +was regarded as a species of infidelity.[104] We see, however, from +other well-established facts, that the Peruvian religion had been +gradually softened. In Peru, as in China, instead of the living beings +that they used formerly to bury with the dead, they now placed +statuettes of men and women with him in his tomb to represent his wives +and his servants.[105] + +We must also mention those "columns of the Sun" which appear never to +have been absent in countries dominated by a solar worship. We have +already seen them in Central America and in Mexico, and we also find +them in Egypt, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Palestine, at Carthage and +elsewhere. In these columns the idea of fertilization is associated with +that of the pleasure the Sun must feel in tracing out their shadows as +he caresses their faces and summits with his rays. The earliest +quadrants were traced at the foot of these columns. In Peru, they were +levelled at the top, and were regarded as "seats of the Sun," who loved +to rest upon them. At the equinoxes and solstices they placed golden +thrones upon them for him to sit upon. Those nearest to the equator were +held in greatest veneration, because the shadows were shorter there than +elsewhere, and the Sun appeared to rest vertically upon them.[106] + +Prayer, in the proper sense of the word, asserted its place but feebly +in the Peruvian religion. But hymns to the Sun were chanted at the great +festivals and by the people as they went to cultivate the lands of the +Sun. Every strophe ended with the cry, _Hailly_, or "triumph." It was +the Peruvian _Io Paean_. These chants, as far as they are still known to +us, have something soft and sad about them. The rule of the Incas, +paternal indeed, but monotonous in the extreme, must have tended to +produce melancholy. In 1555, a Spanish composer wrote a mass upon the +themes of these indigenous airs. It was sung in chorus, and it is +chiefly to it that we owe the preservation of these chants.[107] + +But the grand form of religious demonstration among the Peruvians was +the dance. They were very assiduous in this form of devotion, and indeed +we know what a large place the earliest of the arts occupied in the +primitive religions generally. The dance was the first and chief means +adopted by pre-historic humanity of entering into active union with the +deity adored. The first idea was to imitate the measured movements of +the god, or at any rate what were supposed to be such. Afterwards, this +fundamental motive was more or less forgotten; but the rite remained in +force, like so many other religious forms which tradition and habit +sustained even when the spirit was gone. In Peru, this tradition was +still full of life. The name of the principal Peruvian festivals, +_Raymi_, signifies "dance." The performances were so animated, that the +dancers seemed to the Europeans to be out of their senses. It is +noteworthy that the Incas themselves took no part in these violent +dances, but had an "Incas' dance" of their own, which was grave and +measured.[108] + +There were four great official festivals in the year, coinciding with +the equinoxes and the solstices. The first was the festival of the +Winter solstice, which fell in June. It was the _Raymi_, or festival +_par excellence_, the _Citoc Raymi_, the feast of the diminished and +(henceforth) growing Sun. It lasted nine days, the first three of which +were given up to fasting. On the morning of the great day, a grand +procession, led by the reigning Inca and his family, followed by the +nobles and the people, proceeded, with insignia, banners and symbolic +masks, towards the place of the dawn and the rising Sun. When the +luminary appeared, the crowd fell to the earth and threw him kisses. The +Inca presented the sacred beverage to the Sun, drank some of it himself, +and passed it on to his suite. This was a sort of solar communion. Then +they went to the temple of the Sun to sacrifice a black llama there. +After this, they kindled the new fire by means of the concave mirror, +and slaughtered a number of llamas, representing the Sun's present to +the people. The pieces were distributed to the families, where they were +eaten with the sacred cakes prepared by the Virgins of the Sun. This was +the second act of communion with the luminary to whom the day was +sacred. The remaining days of the festival were passed in rejoicings, +when the people seem to have made themselves ample amends for the fast +with which they had begun.[109] + +The second great festival, that of Spring, which fell in September, was +the _Citua Raymi_, the feast of Purification. But do not attach any +essentially moral significance to the idea of purification. The object +in view was to purify the territory from all influences hostile to the +health, security and prosperity of the inhabitants. Ball-shaped cakes +were eaten on this occasion, in which was mixed the blood of victims or +of young children, who were not slaughtered however, but bled above the +nose, which is evidence of a previous custom of far greater ferocity, +and of the gradual softening of the Peruvian ritual. With this bread the +people rubbed their bodies all over, and the doors of their houses +likewise. Then, a little before sunset, a very strange ceremony was +performed. An Inca, clad in precious armour and lance in hand, descended +from the fortress of Cuzco, followed by four relatives whom the Sun had +specially charged with the task of chasing away by open force all the +maladies from the city and its environs. They traversed the chief +streets of Cuzco at full speed, amid the acclamations of the +inhabitants, and then surrendered their lances to others, who were +relieved in their turn, till the limits of the ancient state of Cuzco +were reached. There the lances were fixed in the ground, as so many +talismans against evil influences. At night there was a great +torch-light procession, at the close of which the torches were hurled +into the river, and thus the evil spirits of the night were expelled, as +those of the day had been by the lancers of the Sun.[110] Observe that +in Africa, amongst the Blacks, a kind of "chase of the evil spirits" is +practised (though accompanied with far fewer ceremonies than in Peru), +in which the inhabitants of a village, armed with sticks and uttering +formulae of exorcism, expel the evil spirits from their houses and from +their streets, and pursue them into the desert or the interior of a +forest. But notice here, again, with what art the Incas had contrived to +turn an old superstition to account in the interests of their own +prestige. If maladies did not decimate the people of Cuzco, it was to +their Incas that they owed their safety. + +The third great festival, the Aymorai, which fell in May, celebrated the +Harvest. A statue was constructed out of grains of corn glued together, +and was adored under the name of _Pirrhua_, which in this case may well +be a contraction of Viracocha, the god of fertilizing moisture. On this +occasion a number of sacrifices were made at home by the +householders.[111] + +The fourth great feast fell in December. It was the _Capac Raymi_, the +festival of Power, in which the god of thunder was the object of a +special worship by the side of the Sun. On this occasion the young +Incas, after fasts, tournaments and other tests, received the +investiture of manhood by having their ears pierced, and receiving a +scarf, an axe and a crown of flowers. The young Curacas of the same age +were also admitted to the privileges and duties of their rank, and +shared with the Inca the sacred bread in token of indissoluble communion +with him.[112] + +There were also a number of other and less important feasts. Each month +had one of its own. Then there were occasional feasts, to celebrate the +triumphal return of a victorious Inca for example, or when the +tournaments of the young nobles, to which a religious value was +attached, took place, or when silent processions lasting a day and +night, and followed by dances, were instituted to avert threatening +calamities, and so forth.[113] In Peru, as in so many other regions, +eclipses were the subject of great terror. The eclipses of the Sun were +attributed to his own anger, those of the Moon to an illness caused by +the attack of an evil spirit, to frighten which away and put it to +flight a hideous yelling was raised.[114] + +There were sorcerers in Peru as everywhere else; but in Peru too, as +everywhere else where a priesthood has acquired a regular organization +and made its authority respected, sorcery was hardly resorted to save by +the lower classes.[115] In fact, the sorcerer is the priest of backward +tribes, and the priest is the developed sorcerer. By his superior +knowledge, by the more stable guarantees which he can give as the member +of an imposing organization, by the nature of the religion of which he +is the organ, and which raises him above the incoherent puerilities of +animism, the priest eclipses the sorcerer and relegates him to the lower +strata of society, which is just where his own titles to superiority are +least appreciated. The sorcerer sinks in proportion as the priest +rises.[116] For the rest, the official priesthood had its own diviners, +who could foretel the future, the _Huacarimachi_, or "they who make the +gods speak." The oracles of the valley of Rimac or Lima were much +frequented; and, moreover, the Peruvians, like so many peoples of the +Old World, thought that they could read the future in the entrails of +the victims offered in sacrifice.[117] This wide-spread belief rests on +the idea that immolation unites the victim so closely to the deity that +it enters into communion with his thoughts and intentions, so that its +heart, liver, and all other organs supposed to be affected by mental and +moral dispositions, receive the impress of the divine prevision. Is it +not passing strange, Gentlemen, that this mode of divination, which +appears so absurd to us, which has no rational basis whatever, which +rests on a singularly subtle conception of the relations between the +creature sacrificed and the being to whom it is offered, has secured the +prolonged confidence of the peoples of the Old World, and appears again +in Peru, where it cannot have been imitated from any one? + + +II. + +It has been asked whether the native religion of Peru rested any system +of elevated morals on its fundamental principles. Gentlemen, I am +persuaded that religion and morals unite together and interpenetrate +each other in the higher regions of thought and life. Perhaps the most +distinct result of our Christian education is the full comprehension of +the fact that what is moral is religious, and that immorality cannot on +any pretext be allowed as legitimately religious. But we must certainly +yield to the overwhelming evidence that in the lower stages of religion +this union of the two sisters is present only in germ. Religion, still +quite selfish in its character, pursues its own way and seeks its own +satisfactions independently of all moral considerations, and almost +always lives in a state of separation from morality. We ought therefore +to expect that in systems such as that of Peru--which have already risen +much above the low level of the primitive religions, but are still far +below that of the higher ones--we should find a certain religious ethic, +a certain moral tendency in religion, but likewise all kinds of +inconsistencies, and constant relapses towards the ancient separation of +the two sisters. As a general rule, we may say that even where the +Peruvian religion seems to undertake the elevation and protection of +morals, it does so rather with a utilitarian and selfish view, than with +any real purpose of sanctifying the heart and will. + +Thus we have noted ceremonies which forcibly recal the Communion. But +the great object in view was to secure to the communicants the safety +and well-being that would result from their union with the Sun or his +representatives. The moral idea occupies but a small place in this +communion, though it is but right to add that the great social laws +were placed under the patronage and sanction of the Sun, whose +legislation the Incas were held responsible for enforcing. In the same +way we find in Peru something that closely resembles baptism. From +fifteen to twenty days after birth the child received its first name, +after being plunged into water. But this purification had nothing to do +with the ideas of sin and regeneration. It was but a form of exorcism, +destined to secure the child from the evil spirits and their malign +influences. Between the ages of ten and twelve, the child's definitive +name was conferred. On this occasion his hair and nails were cut off, +and offered to the Sun and the guardian spirits.[118] This represented +the consecration of his person, but its main object was to secure him +the protection of the divine power. + +There was likewise a sacerdotal confession, but it was an institution of +state and of police rather than a sacrament with a moral purpose. The +great object was to discover all actions, whether voluntary or not, +which might bring misfortune upon the state if not expiated by the +appropriate penances and rites. The father confessors of Peru were +inquisitors charged with the searching out of secret faults and the +exaction of their avowal. A refusal to confess might provoke severe +measures. A proof of the small influence of the moral element in the +whole system of inquisition may be found in the fact that the priest +relied on purely fortuitous tests in deciding whether or not to give +absolution. For instance, he would take a pinch of maize grains, and if +the number turned out to be even, he would declare the confession good, +and give absolution, otherwise he would say the penitent must have +concealed something, and would make him confess again.[119] + +Our conviction that the Peruvian religion had but a very elementary +moral significance, receives a final confirmation from the beliefs +concerning the future life. + +It is clear that no very definite ideas on this point had become +generally established. In fact, we find amongst the Peruvians at the +time of the conquest the underlying conceptions of the most widely +severed peoples, all mingled together. Thus the common people of Peru, +like all savages, thought of the future life as a continuation, pure and +simple, of the present life. This explains the custom of burying all +kinds of useful and desirable objects with the dead--giving him an +emigrant's outfit, in short. The worship of ancestors is easily grafted +upon this conception of the life beyond the grave. These ancestors may +still succour, protect and inspire their descendants. I am assured at +first hand that to this very day, and in spite of the efforts of the +Catholic clergy, the worship of ancestors is still widely practised by +the native population. There was not the least idea of a resurrection of +the body. If the corpse was preserved, especially in the case of +departed Incas, it was because the Peruvians believed that the soul +which had left it still retained a marked predilection for its ancient +abode and liked to return to it from time to time; and also because they +attributed magic virtues to the remains thus preserved. No idea of +recompense is as yet associated with this purely animistic and primitive +conception of the life beyond the tomb.[120] + +Amongst the higher classes, the ideas entertained on this same subject +had become a little less naive. The Incas were supposed to be +transported to the mansion of the Sun, their father, where they still +lived together as his family. The Curacas or nobles would either follow +them there, or would still live under the earth beneath the sceptre of +the god of the dead, Supay, the Hades or Pluto of the Peruvian +mythology. Do not identify this deity with a Satan or Ahriman of any +kind. He was not a wicked, but rather a sinister god, the conception of +whom could wake no joyous or even serene emotions. He was a voracious +deity, of insatiable appetite. At Quito, at any rate before the conquest +of the country by the Incas, a hundred children were sacrificed to him +every year. There is no idea of positive suffering inflicted on the +wicked under his direction. But the subterranean abode is gloomy and +dismal, like the place of shades in the Odyssey. Exceptional +considerations of birth, rank or valour in war, determine the passage of +chosen souls to heaven, where their lot will of course be far more +brilliant and happy than that of the souls that remain in the +subterranean regions. Thus the aristocratic point of view, barely +modified by the high importance attributed to the warlike virtues, still +dominates the ideas of a future life in ancient Peru, as in Mexico, in +Polynesia and in Africa. This is a final proof that the moral element +was but feebly present in the ancient Peruvian religion. For wherever a +clear and definite belief in a conscious life beyond the grave is united +to a sense of the religious character of morality, it is likewise held, +by an obvious connection of ideas, that the lot of departed souls will +depend completely upon their moral condition, without distinction of +birth or rank.[121] + +This Peruvian religion, then, in spite of its elevation and refinement +in some respects, forcibly reminds us of the walls of its own temples, +all plated with gold, but covered in with straw, and poor and unvaried +in architecture. A monotonous, unformed, gloomy spirit seems to pervade +the whole institution, in spite of its brilliant exterior. The air of +the convent broods over it. Those thousands of functionaries who spent +their lives in superintending the furniture, the dress, the work, the +very cookery, of the families under their charge, and inflicting +corporal chastisement on those whom they surprised in a fault, might +succeed in forming a correct and regular society, drilled like the bees +in a hive, might form a nation of submissive slaves, but could never +make a nation of _men_; and this is the deep cause that explains the +irremediable collapse of this Peruvian society under the vigorous blows +of a handful of unscrupulous Spaniards. It was a skilfully constructed +machine, which worked like a chronometer; but when once the mainspring +was broken, all was over. + +It is no part of our task to tell the story of the conversion of the +natives to Roman Catholic Christianity. It was comparatively easily +effected. The fall of the Incas was a mortal blow to the religious, no +less than to the political, edifice in which they were the key-stone of +the arch. It was evident that the Sun had been unable or unwilling to +protect his children. The conqueror imposed his religion on Peru, as on +Mexico, by open force; and the Spanish Inquisition, though not giving +rise to such numerous and terrible spectacles in the former as in the +latter country, yet carried out its work of terror and oppression there +too. The result was that peculiar character of the Catholicism of the +natives of Peru which strikes every traveller, and consists in a kind of +timid and superstitious submission, without confidence and without zeal, +associated with the obstinate preservation of customs which mount back +to the former religious regime, and with memories of the golden age of +the Inca rule under which their ancestors were privileged to live, but +which has gone to return no more. + + +III. + +And now it only remains for us to draw the inferences and conclusions +suggested by our examination of the ancient religions of Mexico and +Peru, so closely associated with the remarkable though imperfect +civilizations to which the two nations had attained. + +We have not stayed to discuss the hypotheses that have so often been put +forward, to attach these religions and civilizations to some immigration +from the Old World. The fact is that all these attempts rest on the +arbitrary selection of some few traits of resemblance, on which +exclusive stress is laid, to the neglect of still more characteristic +differences. The best proof that the work of affiliation has been +abortive, in spite of the high authority of some of the names that have +been lent to it, may be found in the fact that every possible nation of +the Old World has in its turn been selected as the true parent of the +Peruvians and Mexicans. The Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the +Hindus, the Buddhists of India and China, the Romans, even the Celts and +the Chaldeans, have been put forward one after the other. Nay, the +English themselves have been tried! There is a gratifying legend which +brings the story of Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo into connection with the +results of the shipwreck of an _Englishman_, whose national name was +transformed into _Inga Man_, which again, in conjunction with _Cocapac_, +the name of the father of the native wife whom the Englishman had taken +to himself, made _Inca Manco Capac_! The sequel is obvious. The two +fair-skinned children that sprang from this union were of course the +founders of the Inca family and the state of Cuzco.[122] I need not tell +you that all this will not bear a moment's examination. Everything shows +that the civilizations and religions of Mexico and Peru are +autochthonous, springing from the soil itself. + +There is surely something very strange in this passion for localizing +all origins at some single point of the globe. Why not admit that what +took place there may have taken place elsewhere also, that the same +concourse of events which called forth such and such a result in a +certain given place may have been reproduced somewhere else, and +consequently given rise to identical or closely analogous results there +too? Does not our own experience teach us that the contact of a +civilized with an uncivilized people is not enough in itself to ensure +the adoption by the latter of the civilization that is brought to it? It +is the exception, not the rule, for the Red-skin, the Kafir, the +Australian or the Papuan, to become civilized. Civilization can only be +handed on if the invaded race possesses a special disposition and +aptitude for civilized life; and this aptitude may have existed to such +a degree as to be capable of independent development in the New-World as +we know it did in the Old; and if there were centres of such nascent +civilization in Central America, in Mexico and in Peru, it is absolutely +superfluous to search elsewhere than in America itself for the origins +of American civilization. + +But the mistake into which so many historians and travellers have fallen +is explained, to a certain extent, by the fact that, in examining the +beliefs, the monuments and the customs of Peru and Mexico, we come upon +phenomena at every moment which are identical with or analogous to +something we have observed in the Old World. The temples, with their +successive terraces, remind us of ancient Chaldea, and the hieroglyphics +of ancient Egypt. The convents recal the Indian and Chinese Buddhism. +The cruel and bloody sacrifices and the preponderance of the Sun-worship +have a Semitic tinge. There are myths and curious resemblances of words +which wake thoughts of Hellenic civilization; and sacerdotal castes and +sacrificial rites which bring us round to the Celts! Nay, are there not +even beliefs as to the arrival or return of a deity who will restore +order and avenge outraged justice, round which there breathes a kind of +Messianic air? So much so, indeed, that I must add to the list of +supposed ancestors of American civilization the ten lost tribes of +Israel, who must have fled from the yoke of their Ninevite oppressors +right across Asia into America! The partizans of this ingenious +hypothesis have, it is true, forgotten to inquire how far these +Israelites of the North, whose enthusiasm for the house of Judah was, to +say the least of it, decidedly subdued, had ever heard of the Messianic +hopes at all! + +The real result of all these wild speculations, however, is to bring out +the fact very clearly, that in the native religions of Mexico, of +Central America and of Peru, we find a number of traits united which are +scattered amongst the most celebrated religions of our own ancient +world; so that this new and well-defined region gives us a precious +opportunity of testing the value of the explanations of religious ideas +and practices deduced from the comparative study of religions. + +Let us take the question of sacrifice, for instance. In both religions +sacrifice is frequent, often cruel,--in Mexico even frightful. But it is +easy to trace the original idea that inspired it. It is by no means the +sense of guilt, or the idea that the culprit, terrified by the account +that he must render to the divine justice, can transfer to a victim the +penalty he has himself incurred. It is simply the idea that by offering +the gods the things they like--that is to say, whatever will satisfy and +gratify their senses--it is possible to secure their goodwill, their +protection and their favour, while at the same time disarming their +wrath, if need be, and appeasing their dangerous appetites. It is only +at a later stage that the extreme importance attributed to this rite, +the very essence of the worship rendered to the gods, leads to the +association of mystic and ultimately of moral ideas with the +circumstance of the pain inseparably connected with sacrifice. And when +this stage is reached, men will either refine upon the suffering with +frantic intensity, as they did in Mexico, or, if the sentiment of +humanity has made itself felt in religion, as was the case in Peru and +in the special worship of Quetzalcoatl, they will try to restrain the +number and mitigate the horror of the human sacrifices, while still +inflexibly maintaining the principle they involve. + +Again: there is not the smallest trace of an earlier monotheism +preceding the polytheism of either the one or the other nation. On the +other hand, we may trace in both alike three stages of religious faith +superimposed, so to speak, one upon the other. At the bottom of all +still lies the religion that we find to-day amongst peoples that are +strangers to all civilization. It is an incoherent and confused jumble +of nature-worship and of animism or the worship of spirits, but +especially the latter; for the primitive nature-worship has been +developed, enlarged and more or less organized, on a higher level, +whereas animism has remained what it was. The spirits of nature, which +may often be anonymous--spirits of forests, of plants, of rocks, of +waters, of animals, generally with the addition of the spirits of +ancestors--make up a confused and inorganic mass that may assume almost +any form. Fetichism is not the base, as it has been called, but the +consequence and application of this animistic view. It is enough to +secure adoration for any worthless object, natural or artificial, if it +strikes the ignorant imagination forcibly enough to induce the belief +that it is the residence of a spirit. Magic, founded on the pretension +of certain individuals to stand in special relations with the spirits, +equips the priesthood of this lowest stage. But above this, through the +action of the higher minds amongst the people, nature-worship develops +itself into the adoration of the most important, most general and most +imposing phenomena of nature. In the tropical countries, at once warm +and fertile, it is the Sun that reigns supreme, though not without +leaving a very exalted place to other phenomena, such as wind, rain, +vegetation and so on, personified as so many special deities. But in all +this there is no indication of an antecedent and primitive monotheism. +It is quite true that each one of these deities receives in his turn +epithets which seem to attribute omnipotence to him and to make him the +sole creator. But this is the case in all polytheistic systems, whether +in Greece, Persia, and India, or in Mexico and Peru. It only proves that +when man worships, he never limits the homage he renders to the object +of his adoration; but if he is a polytheist, he has no scruple in +attributing the same omnipotence to each of his gods in turn. It is much +the same with the worthy cures in our rural districts, whose sermons +systematically exalt the saint of the day, whoever he may be, to the +chief place in Paradise! And here in Mexico and in Peru, as in Greece +and in India, we observe the ever growing tendency towards +_anthropomorphism_, transforming into men, of enormous strength, stature +and power, those natural phenomena which at the earlier stage were +rather assimilated to animals. Uitzilopochtli still bears the traces of +his ancient nature as a humming-bird, and Tezcatlipoca of the time when +he was no more than a celestial tapir. Their cultus, like their +functions in the order of nature, must be regular and subject to fixed +rules. And thus the priesthood, organized and regulated in its turn, +emerges from the earlier stage of sorcery, and becomes a great +institution to protect and foster the nascent civilization. The third +stage was not actually reached in ancient Mexico and Peru. One can but +divine its beginnings in the mysterious priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, or +trace it in the traditions of the philosopher king of Tezcuco, and the +sceptical Incas of whom Garcilasso and others tell us. In such traits as +these we may discover a certain dissatisfaction with the established +polytheism, striving to raise itself higher in the direction of a +spiritual monotheism. But this tendency is obviously the last term of +the evolution, and in no sense its first. + +The history of the temple in Mexico and Peru suggests similar +reflections. Its point of departure is the altar, and not the tomb,--the +altar on which, as on a sacred table, the flesh destined for their food +was placed before the gods. Little by little, as the developed and +organized nature-worship substitutes gods of imposing might and +greatness for the contemptible deities of the period when nature-worship +and animism were confounded together, these altars assumed huge and at +last gigantic proportions; and in Mexico, except in the case of +Quetzalcoatl, there the development stopped, save that a little chapel, +destined to serve as the abode of the national gods, was reared on the +summit. Peru passes through the same phases, but goes further. There the +surmounting chapel grows, assumes vast dimensions, and ends by embracing +the altar itself, of which at first it was but an adjunct. + +The two religions alike exhibit an initial penetration of religion by +the moral idea. They are at bottom two theocracies, the laws and +institutions of which rest upon the gods themselves, though the +theocratic form is far more prominent in Peru than in Mexico. They share +the advantages of a theocracy for a nascent civilization, and its +disadvantages for one that has already reached a certain development. +It was the theocratic and sacerdotal conception that maintained and +enforced the religious butchery of which you have heard in Mexico, and +which transformed Peru into one enormous convent, where no one had any +will or any initiative of his own. For the same reason, asceticism, the +principle that confuses, through an illusion we can easily understand, +the moral act itself with the suffering that accompanies it, shows +itself in both religions, but especially in that of Mexico; and convents +that startle us by their resemblance to those of Buddhism and +Christianity rise in either realm. But this mutual interpenetration of +the religious and moral ideas is still quite rudimentary. The prevailing +tone of the religion is given by the self-seeking and purely calculating +principle, aiming no doubt at a certain mystic satisfaction (for at +every stage of religion this moving principle has been most powerful and +fruitful), but likewise seeking material advantages without any scruple +as to the means; and those monstrous forms of transubstantiation which +the Mexican thought he was bringing about when he ate of the same human +flesh which he offered to his gods, are typical of the period in which +religion pursued its purpose of union with the deity, regardless of the +protests of the moral sense and of humanity. + +It was reserved for the higher religions, and especially for that of +which our Bible is the monument, to realize the intimate alliance of the +religious and moral sentiments,--that priceless alliance, without which +morals remain for the most part almost barren, and religion falls into +monstrous aberrations. That the roots of religion pierce to the very +cradles of humanity, may now be taken as demonstrated. Its principle is +found in the necessity we feel of surmounting the uncertainties and the +limitations of destiny, by attaching ourselves individually to the +loftier Spirit revealed by nature outside us and within; and this +principle has always remained the same; nor am I one of those who hold +that we must now renounce it in the name of philosophy and science. For +neither philosophy nor science can make us other than the poor creatures +we are, with an unquenchable thirst for blessedness and life, yet +constantly broken, crushed at every moment, by the very elements on the +bosom of which we are forced to live. Philosophy and science may guide +religion, may reveal its true object in ever-growing purity, may cleanse +it from the pollutions in which ignorance and sin still plunge it, but +they cannot replace and they cannot destroy it. There is a Dutch +proverb, the profundity of which it would be difficult to exaggerate, +"De natuur gaat boven de leer"--_Nature is too strong for doctrine._ The +evolutions of philosophy may seem to make the heavens void, and inspire +man with the idea that all is over with the poetic or terrific visions +that rocked the cradle of his infancy. But stay! Nature, human nature, +is still there; and under the impulse of the indestructible thirst for +religion, human nature renews her efforts, looks deeper and looks +higher, and finds her God once more. + + Jerusalem renait plus brillante et plus belle. + +But let not this conclusion, confirmed as it seems to me by the whole +history of religion, prevent our boldly declaring how much that is +small, puerile, often even immoral and deplorable, there is in the +religious past of humanity. It is no otherwise with art, with +legislation, with science herself, with all that constitutes the +privilege, the power, the joy of our race. It is just the knowledge of +these aberrations which should serve to keep us from falling back into +the errors and false principles of which they were the consequence. And +in this respect the study of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru is +profoundly instructive. It teaches us that there is a principle, +bordering closely upon that of religion itself, which must serve as the +torch to guide the religious idea in its development--not to supplant +it, but to direct it to the true path. It is the principle of humanity. +The truer a religion is, the more absolute the homage it will render to +the principle of humanity, and the more will he who lives by its light +feel himself impelled to goodness, loving and loved, trustful and free. +The last word of religious history is, that there exists an affinity, a +mysterious relationship, between our spirit and the Spirit of the +universe; that this nobility of human nature embraces in itself all the +promises, all the hopes, all the latent perfections, all the infinite +ideals of the future; that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, +the Supreme Will is good to each one of the beings which it summons and +draws to itself; and that man, in spite of his errors, his failures, +his corruptions, his miseries, was never wrong in following the sacred +instinct that raised him slowly from the mire, was always right in +renewing his efforts, so constant, so toilsome--often, too, so woful--to +mount the rounds + + De cette echelle d'or qui va se perdre en Dieu. + + * * * * * + +And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, it only remains for me to bid you +farewell, while giving you my warmest thanks for the perseverance, the +encouragement and the sympathy, with which you have supported me. The +reception you have given me has touched me deeply, and my stay in 1884 +in your imposing and splendid capital will always remain amongst the +most prized and the pleasantest recollections of my life. You have been +good enough to pardon my linguistic infirmity. You have spared from your +business or pleasure the time needed to listen to a stranger, who has +come to speak to you of matters having no direct utility, and of purely +historical and theoretical interest. This is far more to your honour +than to mine. I thank you, but at the same time I congratulate you; for +it is a trait in the nobleness in our human nature to be able thus to +snatch ourselves from the vulgar pre-occupations of life, to contemplate +the truth on those serene heights where it reveals itself to all who +seek it with an upright heart. Cease not to love these noble studies, +which touch upon all that is most exalted and most precious in us! If we +search history for light in politics and the higher interests of our +fatherlands, and learn thereby to understand, to appreciate, to love +them more, let us turn to history no less for light on the path which we +must tread in that order of sublime realities, necessities and +aspirations, in which the soul of each one of us becomes a temple and a +sanctuary, lying open to the Eternal Spirit that fills the universe. + + * * * * * + +And now to the Eternal, the Invisible, to Him whose name we can but +stammer, whose infinite perfections we can but feel after, be rendered +all our homage and our hearts! + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The second, third and fourth despatches (the first is lost) from +_Fernando Cortes_ to Charles V., written in 1520, 1522 and 1524 +respectively. Original editions as follows: "Carta de relacio_n_ +e_m_biada a su S. majestad del e_m_p_er_ador n_ues_tro senor ... por el +capita_n_ general de la nueva spana: Llamado ferna_n_do cortes," &c.: +Seville, 1522. "Carta tercera de relacio_n_: embiada por Ferna_n_do +cortes," &c.: Seville, 1523. "La quarta relacion q_ue_ Ferna_n_do cortes +gouernador y capitan general ... embio al muy alto ... rey de Espana," +&c.: Toledo, 1525. Recent edition, with notes, &c.: "Cartas y Relaciones +de Hernan Cortes al Emperador Carlos V. colegidas e ilustradas por Don +Pascual de Gayangos," &c.: Paris, 1866. English translation: "The +Despatches of Hernando Cortes," &c., translated by George Folsom: New +York and London, 1843.--_Francisco Lopez de Gomara_ (Cortes' chaplain): +"Hispania Victrix. Primera y segunda parte de la historia general de las +Indias co_n_ todo el descubrimiento, y cosas notables que han acaescido +dende que se ganaron hasta el ano de 1551. Con la conquista de Mexico y +dela nueva Espana:" Modina del Campo, 1553. Also printed in Vol. XXII. +of the "Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles:" Madrid, 1852 (to the +pagination of which references in future notes will be made). There is +an old English translation of Part II. of this work, entitled, "The +Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the Weast India, now called new +Spayne, Atchieved by the worthy Prince Hernando Cortes, Marques of the +Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to Reade: Translated out of the +Spanishe tongue by T. N. [Thomas Nicholas], Anno 1578:" London.--_Bernal +Diaz_: "Historia Verdadera de la Nueva Espana escrita por el Capitan +Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Uno de sus Conquistadores. Sacada a luz por el +P. M. Fr. Alonso Remon," &c.: Madrid, 1632. English translation: "The +Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, written by +Himself," &c.: translated by John Ingram Lockhart, F.R.A.S. 2 vols.: +London, 1844. There is also a good French translation: "Histoire +Veridique de la conquete ... par le Capitaine Bernal Diaz del Castillo," +&c., by Dr. Jourdanet. Second edition: Paris, 1877.--_Las Casas._ +Numerous works collected by Llorente: "Collecion de las obras del +Venerable Obispo de Chiapa, Don Bartolome de las Casas, Defensor de la +Libertad de los Americanos." 2 vols.: Paris, 1822. Also translated into +French, with some additional matter, by the same Llorente, and published +in the same year at Paris. His "Historia de las Crueldades de los +Espanoles," &c., was translated into English in 1655 by J. Phillips, +under the title of "The Tears of the Indians," &c., and dedicated to +Oliver Cromwell. [N.B. Translations in full or epitomized of several of +the above works, together with others, may be found in Vols. III. and +IV. of "Purchas his Pilgimes," &c.: London, 1625-26.]--_Sahagun's_ +history of New Spain, a work of the utmost importance for the religious +history of Mexico, remained unpublished till the present century, and +appeared almost simultaneously in Mexico and London: "Historia General +de las Cosas de Nueva Espana ... escribio el R. P. Fr. Bernardino de +Sahagun ... uno de los primeros predicadores del santo evangelio en +aquellas regiones," &c. 3 vols.: Mexico, 1829-30. The same work appeared +in Vols. V. and VII. of Lord Kingsborough's collection. Vid. infr. A +French translation by Jourdanet appeared in 1880.--_Acosta_: "Historia +Natural y Moral de las Indias ... compuesta por el Padre Joseph de +Acosta Religioso de la Campania de Jesus," &c.: Seville, 1590. English +translation: "The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West +Indies," &c.: translated by E. G.: London, 1604. E[dward] G[rimstone]'s +translation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by Clements +R. Markham, in 1880.--_Torquemada_: "Los veynte y un libros Rituales y +Monarchia Yndiana ... Compuesto por Fray Ivan de Torquemada," &c. 3 +vols.: Seville, 1615. Printed again at Madrid in 1723.--_Herrera_ +(official historiographer of Philip II.): "Historia General de los +Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del mar Oceano," +&c., by Antonio de Herrera; to which is prefixed, "Descripcion de las +Indias Ocidentales," &c., by the same. 4 vols.: Madrid, 1601. English +translation in epitome by Capt. John Stevens, "The General History of +the vast Continent and Islands of America," &c. 6 vols.: London, +1725-26. + +The following native writers may also be consulted. _Ixlilxochitl_ +(Fernando de Alva): "Historia Chichimeca" and "Relaciones," in Lord +Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," Vol. IX. (vid. infr.). French +translations in Vols. VIII. XII. and XIII. of H. Ternaux-Compans' +collection: "Voyages, Relations et Memoires originaux pour servir a +l'histoire de la Decouverte de l'Amerique:" Paris, 1837-41.--_Camargo_: +"Histoire de la Republique de Tlaxcallan, par Domingo Munoz Camargo, +Indien, natif de cette ville," translated from the Spanish MS. in Vols. +XCVIII. and XCIX. of the "Nouvelles Annales des Voyages," &c.: Paris, +1843.--_Pomar (J. B. de)_: "Relacion de las Antiquedades de los Indios." +Pomar was a descendant of the royal house of Tezcuco, and his memoirs +were made use of in MS. by Torquemada. + +Amongst later authorities may be mentioned (in addition to Prescott's +well-known work, and those cited in the following notes): _W. +Robertson_: "History of America."--_Alx. von Humboldt_: "Vues des +Cordillieres et Monuments des peuples de l'Amerique:" Paris, 1810; +forming the "Atlas Pittoresque" of Part III. of "Voyage de Humboldt et +Bonpland."--_Francesco Saverio Clavigero_: "Storia antica del Messico," +&c. 4 vols.: Cesena, 1780-81. English translation by Charles Cullen: +"The History of Mexico," &c. 2 vols.: London, 1787.--_Th. Waitz_: +"Anthropologie der Naturvoelker," Vol. IV.: Leipzig, 1864.--_Brasseur de +Bourbourg_: "Histoire des Nations civilisees du Mexique et de +L'Amerique-centrale," &c. 4 vols: Paris, 1857-59.--_Mueller (Joh. +George)_, Professor at Bale: "Geschichte der Amerikanischen +Urreligionen." Second edition: Basel, 1867.--To these should be added +the narratives and works of M. _D. Charnay_, still in the course of +publication. + +References will be given to the originals, but in such a form, wherever +possible, as to serve equally well for the English and French +translations. Where, as is not unfrequently the case, the chapters or +sections of the translations do not correspond to the originals, a note +of the vol. and page of the former will generally be added. + +[2] The original collection is in seven magnificent folio volumes. +"Antiquities of Mexico: comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Mexican +Paintings and Hieroglyphics ... together with The Monuments of New +Spain, by M. Dupaix ... the whole illustrated by many valuable inedited +Manuscripts by Augustine Aglio:" London, 1830. Two supplementary +volumes, on the title-page of which Lord Kingsborough's own name +appears, were added in 1848, and a tenth volume was projected, but only +a small portion of it (appended to Vol. IX.) was printed. + +[3] Five volumes: New York, 1875-76. + +[4] See _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 311, 312. + +[5] See _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 201, Appendix to Lib. ii. (Vol. II. p. +174, in Jourdanet's translation). + +[6] The story is given by _Bancroft_, Vol. III. p. 471, on the authority +of _Lopez Medel_. + +[7] See _Torquemada_, Lib. viii. cap. xx. at the end. On the Mexican +temples in general, see _Mueller_, pp. 644-646. + +[8] On the great temple of Mexico and its annexes, see _Waitz_, IV. 148 +sqq., where the scattered data of Sahagun, Acosta, Gomara, Bernal Diaz, +Ixtlilxochitl, Clavigero, &c., are drawn together. See also _Bancroft_, +II. 577-587, III. 430 sq. + +[9] Op. cit. cap. xcii. + +[10] Compare the German "Schlangenberg" and the old French "Guivremont." + +[11] See the legend in _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec. 6. + +[12] See _Mueller_, pp. 602 sqq., and _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 1, 237, +sqq., Lib. i. cap. i., and Lib. iii. cap. i., &c. + +[13] See _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec. 2. _Acosta_, pp. 324 sqq., Lib. v. cap. +ix. (pp. 353 sq. in E. G.'s translation); _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 2 sq., +241 sq., Lib. i. cap. iii., Lib. iii. cap. ii. See also +_Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XII. p. 18. + +[14] On Quetzalcoatl, see _Mueller_, pp. 577-590; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. +pp. 239-287; _Torquemada_, Lib. vi. cap. xxiv., Lib. iii. cap. vii.; +_Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec. 4; _Ixtlilxochitl_ in _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. +XII. pp. 5-8 (further, pp. 9-27 of the same volume on the Toltecs); +_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap, iii., Bk. iv. chap, v., and elsewhere; +_Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 3-4, 245-6, 255-259, Lib. i, cap. v., Lib. iii. +cap p. iv. xii.-xiv. + +[15] See _Clavigero_, Lib. iv. Sec.Sec. 4, 15, Lib. vii. Sec. 42; _Humboldt_, pp. +319-20, cf. p. 95; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. i. and elsewhere; +_Bancroft_, Vol. V. pp. 427-429; _Mueller_, pp. 526 sq. + +[16] _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec.Sec. 5, 15, 34; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 16-19, +Lib. i. cap. xiii.; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. p. 385. + +[17] See _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 10-16, Lib. i. cap. xii. + +[18] See _Boturini_, "Idea de una nueva historia general de la America +Septentrional," &c.: Madrid, 1746, pp. 63-65. + +[19] _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 403-417; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 22-25, +29-33, Lib. i. capp. xv. xvi. xix. + +[20] _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 396-402; _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec.Sec. 1, 5. + +[21] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 86 (cf. p. 88), Lib. ii. cap. xx. + +[22] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 50, Lib. ii. cap. i. + +[23] Compare the detailed description of the festivals of the ancient +religion of Mexico in _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 302-341, Vol. III. pp. +297-300, 330-348, 354-362, 385-396. + +[24] Amongst all the indigenous races of North America, prolonged +fasting is regarded as the means _par excellence_ of securing +supernatural inspiration. The Red-skin to become a sorcerer or to secure +a revelation from his _totem_, or the Eskimo to become _Angekok_, will +endure the most appalling fasts. + +[25] _Torquemada_, Lib. vi. cap. xxxviii.; cf. _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. +174, Lib. ii. cap. xxiv. + +[26] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 35--39, Lib. i. cap. xxi. + +[27] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 11-16, Tom. II. pp. 57-64, Lib. i. cap. +xii., Lib. vi. cap. vii. + +[28] Elements were not wanting for the formation of a dualistic system +analogous to Mazdeism. The _Tzitzimitles_ nearly corresponded to the +Iranian _Devas_. They were a kind of demon servants of Mictlan, who +delighted in springing upon men to devour them, and the protection of +the celestial gods was needed to escape from their attacks. _Sahagun_, +Tom. II. p. 67, Lib. vi. cap. viii. (in the middle of a prayer to +Tlaloc). Cf. also Tom. II. pp. 14 sqq., Lib. v. capp. xi.-xiii. + +[29] On the Mexican priesthood, see _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 200-207, +Vol. III. pp. 430-441; _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec.Sec. 13--17; cf. Lib. iv. Sec. +4; _Humboldt_, pp. 98, 194, 290; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; +_Torquemada_, Lib. ix. capp. i.-xxxiv. + +[30] _Camargo_ (in Nouv. An. d. Voy. xcix.), pp. 134-5. + +[31] _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 204-206, Vol. III. pp. 435-436; +_Torquemada_, Lib. ix. capp. xiv. xv.; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 227-8 +(last section of Appendix to Lib. ii.); _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xvi.; +_Clavigero_, Lib. vi. capp. xvi. xxii. + +[32] See the "Cuadro historico-geroglifico," &c., contributed by Don +_Jose Fernando Ramirez_ (curator of the national Museum at Mexico) to +_Garcia y Cubas_, "Altas geographico, estadistico e historico de la +Republica Mexicana," Entrega 29a (1858). + +[33] On all that concerns the Mexican cosmogonies, see _Mueller_, pp. 477 +sq., 509--519; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 57--65; _Ixtlilxochitl_, +"Historia Chichimeca," capp. i. ii.; _Kingsborough_, "Mexican +Antiquities," Vol. V. pp. 164-167; _Humboldt_, pp. 202--211. + +[34] See _Sahagun_, Tom. II. pp. 281--283, Lib. viii. cap. vi. + +[35] The sacerdotal year was lunar. The civil year, which was doubtless +of later origin, and had been adopted as better suited to the purposes +of agriculture, was solar. Every thirteenth year the two coincided. The +number _four_, which plays an important part in Mexican symbolism (cf. +the Mexican cross) gave a kind of cosmic significance to 13 x 4 = 52. + +[36] See _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 393-396. + +[37] Compare the Appendix to Jourdanet's translation of Bernal Diaz, pp. +912 sqq. + +[38] On the conversion of the Mexicans, &c., compare the anonymous +treatise at the end of _Kingsborough's_ "Mexican Antiquities," Vol. IX. +Cf. also _Torquemada,_ Lib. xvii. cap. xx., Lib. xix. cap. xxix. + +[39] See _P. Pauke,_ "Reise in d. Missionen von Paraguay:" Vienna, 1829, +p. 111. + +[40] In addition to the works of _Acosta_, _Gomara_, _Herrera_, +_Humboldt_, _Waitz_ and _Mueller_, already cited in connection with +Mexico, and _Prescott's_ "Conquest of Peru," we may mention the +following authorities for the political and religious history of Peru: + +_Xeres_ (Pizarro's secretary): "Verdadera relacion de la conquista del +Peru y provincia del Cuzco llamada la nueva Castilla ... por Francisco +de Xeres," &c.: Seville, 1534. English translation by Markham in +"Reports on the Discovery of Peru:" printed for the Hakluyt Society, +London, 1872.--_Zarate_ (official Spanish "auditor" in Peru): "Historia +del descubrimiento y conquista del Peru.... La qual escriua Augustin de +Carate," &c.: Antwerp, 1555. English translation: "The strange and +delectable History, &c.: translated out of the Spanish Tongue by T. +Nicholas:" London, 1581.--_Cieza de Leon_ (served in Peru for seventeen +years): "Parte Primera Dela chronica del Peru," &c.: Seville, 1553. The +second and third Parts have never been printed. English translation by +Markham: Hakluyt Society, 1864. [N. B. _Xeres_ (or _Jeres_), _Cieza de +Leon_ and _Zarate_, are all contained in Tom. XXVI. of Aribau's +"Biblioteca de autores Espanoles."]--_Diego Fernandez_ of Palencia +(historiographer of Peru under the vice-royalty of Mendoza): "Primera, y +Segunda Parte, de la Historia del Peru," &c.: Seville, 1571.--_Miguel +Cavello Balboa:_ "Histoire du Perou," in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. +XV.--_Arriaga_: "Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru ... Por el Padre +Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compania de Jesus:" Lima, 1621. Extracts +are given in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII.--_Fernando Montesinos_: +"Memoires historiques sur l'Ancien Perou:" translated from the Spanish +MS. in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. Montesinos rectifies Garcilasso de la +Vega on more points than one.--_Johannes de Laet_: "Novus Orbis," &c.: +Leiden, 1633.--Velasco: "Historia del Reino de Quito," &c.: Quito, 1844. +This work is in three Parts, the second of which, the "Historia +Antigua," is the one referred to in future notes. This second Part is +translated in Ternaux-Compans, Vols. XVIII. XIX. + +The Abbe _Raynal's_ "Histoire philosophique et politique des +etablissements ... des Europeens dans les deux Indes" (10 vols.: Geneva, +1770) made a great stir in its time, the English translation by +Justamond reaching a third edition in 1777; but it is now completely +forgotten, and has no real value for our purposes. I cannot refrain from +a passing notice of a romance which is now almost as completely +forgotten as the Abbe Raynal's History, in spite of its long popularity: +I mean _Marmontel's_ "Les Incas et la Destruction de l'empire du Perou:" +Paris, 1777. The author derived his materials from Garcilasso de la +Vega. In spite of the florid style and innumerable offences against +historical and psychological fact which characterize this work, it +cannot be denied that Marmontel has disengaged with great skill the +profound causes of the irremediable ruin of the Peruvian state. + +_Lacroix_: "Perou," in Vol. IV. of "L'Amerique" in "L'Univers +Pittoresque."--_Paul Chaix_: "Histoire de l'Amerique meridionale au +XVI^e siecle," Part I.: Geneva, 1853.--_Wuttke_: "Geschichte des +Heidenthums," Theil I., 1852.--_J. J. von Tschudi_: "Peru. Reiseskizzen +aus den Jahren 1838-1842:" St. Gallen, 1846.--_Thos. J. Hutchinson_: +"Two Years in Peru, with explorations of its Antiquities:" London, 1873. +Hutchinson had good reason to point out the exaggerations in which +Garcilasso indulges with reference to his ancestors the Incas, but he +himself speaks too slightingly of their government. Had it not been in +the main beneficent and popular, it could not have left such +affectionate and enduring memories in the minds of the native +population. + +For the method of citation, see end of note on p. 18. + +[41] This work is in two Parts, the first of which (Lisbon, 1609) gives +an account of the native traditions, customs and history prior to the +Spanish conquest, while the second (published under the separate title +of _Historia General del Peru_: Cordova, 1617) deals with the Spanish +conquest, &c. English translation by Sir Paul Rycaut: London, 1688, not +at all to be trusted; both imperfect (omitting and condensing in an +arbitrary fashion) and incorrect. As it may be in the possession of some +of my readers, however, reference will be made to it in future notes. +The earlier and more important part of Garcilasso's work has recently +been translated for the _Hakluyt Society_ by _Clements R. Markham_, 2 +vols.: London, 1869, 1871. References are to the _Commentarios reales_ +(Part I.), unless otherwise stated. + +[42] _Herrera_, Decada v. Libro iv. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 335, in +Stevens's epitomized translation). + +[43] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. viii., Lib. v. capp. vi. vii. viii. +xiii.; _Acosta_, Lib. vi. capp. xiii. xvi.; _Montesinos_, p. 57. + +[44] _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. xxxv. + +[45] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. +iv. (Vol. IV. p. 344, in Stevens's translation). See also _Hazart_, +"Historie van Peru," Part II. chap. iv.; in his "Kerckelijcke Historie +van de Gheheele Wereldt," Vol. I. p. 315: Antwerp, 1682. + +[46] See _Gomara_ (in Vol. XXII. of the Bibliotheca de Autores +Espanoles), p. 228a; _Garcillasso_, "Historia General," &c., Lib. i. +cap. xviii.; cf. _Prescott_, Bk. iii. chaps. v. vi., and Appendices +viii. ix. + +[47] _Gomara_, p. 232 a. + +[48] Cf. _Waitz_, Theil IV. S. 411, 418. + +[49] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xiii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. ii. + +[50] _Mueller_, p. 406. + +[51] See _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 337 sqq. in +Stevens's translation); _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. xii. xiii. xiv. (p. +35 of Rycaut's translation, in which the passage is much shortened), +Lib. v. cap. xi.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 6. + +[52] _Acosta_, Lib. vi. cap. xviii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. i. +and end of cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 329 sq., 342, in Stevens's +translation). + +[53] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. vii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. capp. +ii. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 334, 341, in Stevens's translation); cf. +_Montesinos_, p. 56. + +[54] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. xix.; cf. Lib. viii. cap. viii. (ad +fin.). + +[55] Cf. _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 387; _Hutchinson_, Vol. II. pp. 175-6. + +[56] _Montesinos_, p. 119, cf. pp. 33, 108. + +[57] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. iii. + +[58] _Humboldt_, pp. 108, 294. + +[59] _Gomara_, p. 277 b. + +[60] _Prescott_, Bk. iii. chap. viii. + +[61] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. iv. + +[62] _Garcilasso_, Lib. i. capp. ix.-xvii.; cf. Lib. ii. cap. ix., Lib. +iii. cap. xxv. + +[63] Such at least is the etymology proposed by Garcilasso (Lib. i. cap. +xviii.). Modern Peruvian scholars rather incline to refer _Cuzco_ to the +same root as _cuzcani_ ("to clear the ground"). + +[64] See the critical summary of the history of the Incas in _Waitz_, +Theil. IV. S. 396 sq. The following table of the successive Incas +follows Garcilasso: + + Manco Capac, died about 1000 + Sinchi Roca, " 1091 + Lloque Yupanqui, " 1126 + Mayta Capac, " 1156 + Capac Yupanqui, " 1197 + Inca Roca, " 1249 + Yahuar Huacac, " 1289 + Viracocha Inca Ripac, " 1340 + [Inca Urco, who only reigned 11 days, is omitted by Garcilasso] + Tito Manco Capac Pachacutec, " 1400 + Yupanqui, " 1438 + Tupac Yupanqui, " 1475 + Huayna Capac, " 1525 + Huascar, } " {1532 + Atahualpa,} " {1533 + +[65] _Garcilasso_, Lib. viii. cap. viii. Garcilasso says that he +translates this passage, word for word, from the Latin MS. of the Jesuit +Father, _Blas Valera_. + +[66] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iv. (Vol. IV. p. 346, in Stevens's +translation). + +[67] Lib. ix. cap. x. + +[68] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. i. capp. ii. iii., Lib. iii. cap. xvii. +(Vol. IV. pp. 240 sqq., 325 sqq., in Stevens's translation). + +[69] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iii. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 266, in +Stevens's translation); _Gomara_, p. 231 a. + +[70] In the course of a few months, Pizarro amassed such immense wealth +that, after deducting the _fifth_ for the king and a large sum for the +reinforcements brought him by Almagro, he was still able to give L4000 +to each of his foot-soldiers, and double that sum to each horseman. The +calculation is made by Robertson, who estimates the _peso_ at a pound +sterling. To obtain the equivalent purchasing power in our own times, +these sums would have to be more than quadrupled! + +[71] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. viii. capp. i. sqq. (Vol. V. pp. 23 sqq. in +Stevens's translation). + +[72] See _Alcedo_, "Diccionario Geografico-Historico de las Indias +Occidentales," &c.: Madrid, 1786-9: article _Chunchos_. + +[73] See _Waitz_, Vol. IV. pp. 477-497; _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 346-351; +cf. _Castelnau_, "Expedition dans les Parties centrales de l'Amerique du +Sud," &c.: Paris, 1850, &c., Part I. Vol. III. p. 282. + +[74] _Tschudi_, ibid. + +[75] Cf. Spanish MS. cited by _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Velasco_, +Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 15. + +[76] _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. + +[77] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xxi., where the current etymology of +the word is rejected. + +[78] See _Mueller_, pp. 313 sqq., where all the views concerning him are +collected and discussed. + +[79] This hymn was found by _Garcilasso_ (see Lib. ii. cap. xvii., pp. +50, 51, in Rycaut's translation) among the papers of Father _Blas +Valera_, and has been freed by _Tschudi_ from the misprints, &c., that +disfigured it in the printed editions of Garcilasso and all subsequent +reproductions. See _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 381. + +[80] _Johannes de Laet_, Lib. x. cap. i. (p. 398, ll. 51, 52). + +[81] _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. i.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. xxx. + +[82] _Gomara_, p. 233a; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 2, sec. 4. + +[83] _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. ii. iii. + +[84] See _Montesinos_, pp. 3 sqq., whose version of the legend has been +mainly followed in the text. Cf. however, for some of the details, +_Garcilasso_, Lib. i. cap. xviii. (omitted by Rycaut); _Acosta_, Lib. i. +cap. xxv.; _Balboa_, pp. 4 sqq., &c. + +[85] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 17; _Ph. H. Kuelb_ in _Widenmann_ and +_Hauff's_ "Reisen u. Laenderbeshreibungen," Lief, xxvii.: Stuttgart, +1843, pp. 186-7. + +[86] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. iv.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 16; +_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Kuelb_, ibid. + +[87] _Prescott_, ibid. In cloudy weather they had recourse to the method +of friction. + +[88] _Prescott_, ibid. + +[89] _Arriaga_, pp. 17, 32; _Kuelb_, ibid. + +[90] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 10-17, &c. (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. +pp. 13, 14). + +[91] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. v.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 2; +_Arriaga_, ibid. + +[92] _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 396-7. + +[93] _Arriaga_, p. 18 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. p. 15). + +[94] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 10-17 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. pp. 13, +14); _Acosta_, Lib. v; cap. v.; _Montesinos_, pp. 161-2; _Velasco_, Lib. +ii. Sec. 3, sec. 1. + +[95] On the priesthood, cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 17 sqq. (cf. +_Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. p. 15); _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; +_Balboa_, p. 29; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 8; _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. +capp. viii. (ad fin.) xii. xiii.; _Mueller_, p. 387; _Kuelb_, l.c. p. 187. + +[96] Cf. _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xv.; _Montesinos_, p. 56; _Velasco_, +Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 12, Sec. 9, sec. 10; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. and +elsewhere. + +[97] Cf. _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. iii. capp. +xx.-xxiv.; _Paul Chaix_, Vol. I. pp. 249 sqq. On the temples of +Pachacamac, which must have attained gigantic proportions before the +time of the Incas, see _Hutchinson_, Vol. I. pp. 147-176. + +[98] _Richard Inwards_, "The Temple of the Andes:" London, 1884. + +[99] _Acosta_, Lib, v. cap. xviii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. cap. viii. +(p. 31 in Rycaut), Lib. vi. cap. xxi.; _Arriaga_, p. 77. + +[100] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Arriaga_, pp. 24-27 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. +XVII. pp. 15, 16); _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. + +[101] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 20. + +[102] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Arriaga_, ibid. + +[103] _Garcilasso_, Lib. i. cap. xi., Lib. ii. cap. xviii., Lib. iv. +cap. xv., and elsewhere (pp. 6, &c., in Rycaut, who omits some of the +passages). + +[104] _Montesinos_, p. 121; _Acosta_, Lib. v. capp. v. xix., Lib. vi. +cap. xxii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chaps, i. ii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. +cap. v.; _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. vii.; _Velasco_, Lib. iii. Sec. 1, sec. 1. + +[105] _Gomara_, p. 234 a. Cf. _Montesinos_, p. 68, and _Poeppig_ in Ersch +u. Gruber's "Encyklopaedie," art. _Incas_, p. 287 b, note 35. + +[106] _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. xxii, xxiii. (pp. 43, 44, in Rycaut); +_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iv.; _Acosta_, Lib. vi. cap. iii. + +[107] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. ii.; _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 382; +_Rivero y Tschudi_: Antigueedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851. pp. 135-141. N. +B. An English translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New +York in 1853. + +[108] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 5, secc. 4, 17 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVIII. +pp. 137, 148-9); _Kuelb_, l.c. p. 190. + +[109] _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. capp. xx.-xxii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. +iii. + +[110] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xxviii. [wrongly numbered xxvii. in the +original edition]; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vii. capp. vi. vii. + +[111] _Acosta_, ibid. + +[112] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. capp. xxiv.-xxvii. + +[113] Cf. _Acosta_, ibid.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 5. + +[114] _Gomara_, p. 233 b; _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. cap. xxiii.; cf. +_Montesinos_, pp. 67, 68. + +[115] _Balboa_, pp. 29, 30. + +[116] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 17-23, and _passim_ (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. +XVII. p. 15). + +[117] See _Prescott_, ibid. + +[118] Cf. _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, secc. 4, 5. + +[119] _Balboa_, p. 3; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 6; _Arriaga_, pp. +28, 29 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. pp. 16, 17). + +[120] Cf. _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 355-6, 397-8. + +[121] _Acosta_, Lib. v. capp. vi. vii.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 3; +_Arriaga_, p. 15 (cf. Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. p. 14); _Garcilasso_, +Lib. ii. capp. ii. (Supay), vii. (omitted by Rycaut); _Prescott_, Bk. i. +chap. iii. + +[122] Compare _W. B. Stevenson_, "A Historical and Descriptive Narrative +of Twenty Years' Residence in South America:" London, 1825, Vol. I. pp. +394 sqq. + + + + +PRINTED BY C. GREEN & SON, 178, STRAND. + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + Changes listed in the Addenda et Corrigenda on page ix have + been made. 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