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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/36386-8.txt b/36386-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd90021 --- /dev/null +++ b/36386-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2192 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru, by +Lewis Spence + +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: The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru + +Author: Lewis Spence + +Release Date: June 11, 2011 [EBook #36386] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGIES--ANCIENT MEXICO, PERU *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN + + THE MYTHOLOGIES OF + ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU + + + + +RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN. + + + ANIMISM. + By EDWARD CLODD, Author of _The Story of Creation_. + + PANTHEISM. + By JAMES ALLANSON PICTON, Author of _The Religion of the Universe_. + + THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA. + By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University + of Cambridge. + + THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE. + By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, Author + of _Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion_. + + ISLAM. + By SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E., late of H.M.'s High Court of + Judicature in Bengal, Author of _The Spirit of Islam_ and _The + Ethics of Islam_. + + MAGIC AND FETISHISM. + By Dr. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cambridge + University. + + THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. + By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, F.R.S. + + THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. + By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, late of the British Museum. + + BUDDHISM. 2 vols. + By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal + Asiatic Society. + + HINDUISM. + By Dr. L. D. BARNETT, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books + and MSS., British Museum. + + SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. + By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the _Oxford English + Dictionary_. + + CELTIC RELIGION. + By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at University College, + Aberystwyth. + + THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. + By CHARLES SQUIRE, Author of _The Mythology of the British + Islands_. + + JUDAISM. + By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge + University, Author of _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_. + + SHINTO. By W. G. ASTON, C.M.G. + + THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU. + By LEWIS SPENCE, M.A. + + THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS. + By Professor YASTROW. + + + + + THE MYTHOLOGIES + OF ANCIENT MEXICO + AND PERU + + By + LEWIS SPENCE + + + LONDON + ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD + 1907 + + + Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + + + + +FOREWORD + + +It is difficult to understand the neglect into which the study of the +Mexican and Peruvian mythologies has fallen. A zealous host of +interpreters are engaged in the elucidation of the mythologies of Egypt +and Assyria, but, if a few enthusiasts in the United States of America +be excepted, the mythologies of the ancient West have no following +whatsoever. That this little book may lead many to a fuller examination +of those profoundly interesting faiths is the earnest hope of one in +whose judgment they are second in importance to no other mythological +system. By a comparative study of the American mythologies the student +of other systems will reap his reward in the shape of many a parallel +and many an elucidation which otherwise would escape his notice; whilst +the general reader will introduce himself into a sphere of the most +fascinating interest--the interest in the attitude towards the eternal +verities of the peoples of a new and isolated world. L. S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS, 1 + + II. MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY, 9 + + III. THE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE + ANCIENT MEXICANS, 27 + + IV. THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS, 44 + + V. PERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP, 58 + + VI. THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE + UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA, 71 + + A LIST OF SELECT BOOKS BEARING ON THE + SUBJECT, 79 + + + + + THE MYTHOLOGIES OF + ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS + + +The question of the origin of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru +is unalterably associated with that of the origin of the native races of +America themselves--not that the two questions admit of simultaneous +settlement, but that in order to prove the indigenous nature of the +American mythologies it is necessary to show the extreme improbability +of Asiatic or European influence upon them, and therefore of relatively +late foreign immigration into the Western Hemisphere. As regards the +vexed question of the origin of the American races it has been thought +best to relegate all proof of a purely speculative or legendary +character to a chapter at the end of the book, and for the present to +deal with data concerning the trustworthiness of which there is little +division of opinion. + +The controversy as to the manner in which the American continent was +first peopled is as old as its discovery. For four hundred years +historians and antiquarians have disputed as to what race should have +the honour of first colonising the New World. To nearly every nation +ancient and modern has been credited the glory of peopling the two +Americas; and it is only within comparatively recent years that any +reasonable theory has been advanced in connection with the subject. It +is now generally admitted that the peopling of the American continent +must have taken place at a period little distant to the original +settlement of man in Europe. The geological epoch generally assumed for +the human settlement of America is the Pleistocene (Quaternary) in some +of its interglacial conditions; that is, in some of the recurrent +periods of mildness during the Great Ice Age. There is, however, a +possibility that the continent may have been peopled in Tertiary times. +The first inhabitants were, however, not of the Red Man type. + +Difficult as is this question, an even more difficult one has to be +faced when we come to consider the affinities of the races from whom the +Red Man is descended. It must be remembered that at this early epoch in +the history of mankind in all likelihood the four great types of +humanity were not yet fully specialised, but were only differentiated +from one another by more or less fundamental physiological +characteristics. That the Indians of America are descended from more +than one human type is proved by the variety of shapes exhibited in +their crania, and it is safe to assume that both Europe and Asia were +responsible for these early progenitors of the Red Man. At the period in +question the American continent was united to Europe by a land-bridge +which stretched by way of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faröe Islands to +Northern Europe, and from the latter area there probably migrated to the +western continent a portion of that human type which has been designated +the Proto-European--precursors of that race from which was finally +evolved the peoples of modern Europe. + +When we come to the question of the settlement of America from the +Asiatic side we can say with more certainty that immigration proceeded +from that continent by way of Behring Strait, and was of a +Proto-Mongolian character, though the fact should not be lost sight of +that within a few hundred miles of the point of emigration there still +exists the remains of an almost purely Caucasian type in the Ainu of +Saghalien and the Kurile Islands. However, immigration on any extensive +scale must have been discontinued at a very early period, as on the +discovery of America the natives presented a highly specialised and +distinctive type, and bear such a resemblance one nation to another, as +to draw from all authorities the conclusion that they are of common +origin. + +According to all known anthropological standards the Amerind (as it has +been agreed to designate the American Indian) bears a close affinity to +the Mongolian races of Asia, and it must be admitted that the most +likely origin that can be assigned to him is one in which Asiatic, or to +be more exact, Mongolian blood preponderates. The period of his +emigration, which probably spread itself over generations, was in all +likelihood one at which the Mongolian type was not yet so fully +specialised as not to admit of the acquirement under specific conditions +of very marked structural and physiological attributes.[1] In recent +years large numbers of Japanese have settled in Mexico, and in the +native dress can hardly be distinguished from the Mexican peasants. + +Of course it would be unsafe to assume that, once settled in the +Western Hemisphere, its populations were subject to none of those +fluctuations or race-changes which are so marked a feature in the early +history of European and Asiatic peoples. It is thought, and with +justice, that some such race-movement convulsed the entire northern +division of the continent at a period comparatively near to that of the +Columbian discovery. Aztec history insists upon a prolonged migration +for the race which founded the Mexican Empire, and native maps are still +extant in several continental collections, which depict the routes taken +by the Aztec conquerors from Aztlan, and the Toltecs from Tlapallan, +their respective fatherlands in the north, to the Mexican Tableland. +This, at least, would appear to be worthy of notice: that the +'Skraelings' or native Americans mentioned in the accounts of the +tenth-century Norse discoverers of America, by the description given of +them, do not appear to be the same race as that which inhabited the New +England States upon their rediscovery. + +As regards the origin of the American mythologies it is difficult to +discover traces of foreign influence in the religion of either Mexico or +Peru. At the time of their subjugation by the Spaniards legends were +ripe in both countries of beneficent white and bearded men, who brought +with them a fully developed culture. The question of Asiatic influences +must not altogether be cast aside as an untenable theory; but it is well +to bear in mind that such influences, did they ever exist, must have +been of the most transitory description, and could have left but few +traces upon the religion of the peoples in question. If any such contact +took place it was merely of an accidental nature, and, when speaking of +faiths carried from Asia into America at the period of its original +settlement, it is first necessary to premise that Pleistocene Man had +already arrived at that stage of mental development in which the +existence of supernatural beings is recognised--a premise with which +modern anthropology would scarcely find itself in agreement. + +Almost exhaustive proof of the wholly indigenous nature of the American +religions is offered by the existence of the ruins of the large centres +of culture and civilisation which are found scattered through Yucatan +and Peru. These civilisations preceded those of the Aztecs and Incas by +a very considerable period, how long it is impossible in the present +state of our knowledge of the subject to say. Those huge, buried cities, +the Ninevehs and Thebeses of the West, have left not even a name, and +of the peoples who dwelt in them we are almost wholly ignorant. That +they were of a race cognate with the Aztecs and Toltecs appears probable +when we take into account the similarity of design which their +architecture bears to the later ruins of the Aztec structure. Yet there +is equally strong evidence to the contrary. At what epoch in the history +of the world these cities were erected it would at the present time be +idle to speculate. The recent discovery of a buried city in the +Panhandle region of Texas may throw some light upon this question, and +indeed upon the dark places of American archæology as a whole. In the +case of the buried cities of Uxmal and Palenqüe a great antiquity is +generally agreed upon. Indeed one writer on the subject goes so far as +to place their foundation at the beginning of the second Glacial Epoch! +He sees in these ruins the remnants of a civilisation which flourished +at a time when men, fleeing from the rigours of the glacial ice-cap, +huddled for warmth in the more central parts of the earth. It is +unnecessary to state that this is a wholly preposterous theory, but the +fact that the ruins of Palenqüe are at the present time lost in the +depths of a tropic forest goes far to prove their great antiquity. + +Arguing, then, from this antiquity, we may be justified in assuming that +in these now buried cities the mythology of Mexico was partly evolved; +that it was handed down to the Aztec conquerors who entered the country +some four hundred years before its subjugation by Cortes, and that it +received additions from the tribal deities. In the case of the Peruvian +mythology we may argue a similar evolution, which, as we shall see +later, had been spread over a considerably shorter period. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY + + +The Mexican Empire at the period of its conquest by Cortes had arrived +at a standard of civilisation comparable with that of those dynasties +which immediately preceded the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt. The +government was an elective monarchy, but princes of the blood alone were +eligible for royal honours. A complex system of jurisdiction prevailed, +and a form of district and family government was in vogue which was +somewhat similar to that of the Anglo-Saxons. In the arts a high state +of perfection had been reached, and the Aztec craftsman appears to have +been a step beyond the slavish conventionalism of the ancient Egyptian +artist. In architecture the Mexicans were highly skilled, and their +ability in this respect aroused the wonder of their Spanish conquerors, +who, however, did not hesitate to raze to the ground the splendid +edifices they professed so much to admire. As road-builders and +constructors of aqueducts they chiefly excelled, and a perfect system of +posts was established on each of the great highways of the empire. + +With the Aztecs the art of writing took the form of hieroglyphs, which +in some ways resembled those of the ancient Egyptians; but they had not +at the period of their conquest by Cortes evolved a more convenient, and +cursive method, such as the hieratic or demotic scripts employed in the +Nile valley. In astronomical science they were surprisingly advanced and +exact. The system in use by them was wonderfully accurate. It is, +however, quite erroneous to suppose that it has affinities with any +Asiatic system. They divided the year into eighteen periods of twenty +days each, adding five supplementary days, and providing for +intercalation every half-century. Each month contained four weeks of +five days each, and each of the months had a distinct name. That the +Aztecs were possessed of exact astronomical instruments cannot be +proved; but in the thirteenth plate of Dupaix's _Monuments_, (Part II.) +there is a representation of a man holding to his face an instrument +which might or might not be a telescope.[2] The astronomical dial was +certainly in use among them, and astrology, and divination in its every +shape were frequently resorted to. + +In the manual arts the Aztecs were far advanced. Papermaking was in a +moderate state of perfection, and the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of +cotton were crafts in which they excelled. Feather-work of supreme +beauty was a staple article of manufacture, but in the metallic arts the +absence of iron had to be compensated for by an alloy of copper, +siliceous powder, and tin--an admixture by the use of which the hardest +granite was cut and shaped, and the most beautiful gold and silver +ornaments fashioned. Sharp tools were also made from obsidian, and in +the barbers' shops of the city of Mexico razors of the same stone were +in use. + +To the art of war the Aztecs--a military nation who won and held all +they possessed by force of arms--attached great importance. Training in +the army was rigorous, and the knowledge of tactics displayed appears to +have been very considerable. + +Although the Aztecs had founded and adopted from other nations a +complete pantheon of their own, they were strongly influenced by the +ancient sun and moon worship of Central America. _Ometecutli_ (twice +Lord) and _Omecihuatl_ (twice Lady) were the names which they bestowed +upon these luminaries, and they were probably the first deities known to +the Aztecs upon their emergence from a condition of totemism. The sun +was the _teotl_, _the_ god of the Mexicans, but it will be seen in the +course of this chapter that the national deities and those acquired by +the Aztecs in their intercourse with the surrounding peoples of Tezcuco +and Tlacopan somewhat obscured the worship of those elementary gods. + +Through all the confusion of a mythology second only in richness to +those of Egypt and Hellas can be traced the idea of a supreme creator, a +'god behind the gods.' This was not the sun, but an Allfather, addressed +by the Mexican nations as 'the God by whom we live'; 'omnipotent, that +knoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts'; 'invisible, incorporeal, +one God, of perfect perfection and purity.' The universality of this +great being would seem (as in other mythologies) to have led to the +deification of his attributes, and thus we have a pantheon in which we +can trace all the various attributes of an anthropomorphic deity. This +subdivision of the deity was not, however, responsible for all the gods +embraced by the Mexican pantheon. Many of these were purely national +gods--and two at least had probably been raised to this rank from a +condition of symbolic totemism during a period of national expansion and +military success. + +Such a god was the Mexican Mars, Huitzilopochtli, a name which signifies +'Humming-bird on the left,' a designation concerning the exact +derivation of which there is considerable difference of opinion. The +general explanation of this peculiar name is that it may have arisen +from the fact that the god is usually represented as having the feathers +of a humming-bird on the left foot. Before attempting an elucidation of +the name, however, it will be well to examine the myth of +Huitzilopochtli. + +Huitzilopochtli was the principal tribal deity of the Aztecs. Another, +though evidently less popular name applied to him, was Mextli, which +signifies 'Hare of the Aloes.' Indeed a section of the city of Mexico +derived its name from this appellation. The myth concerning his origin +is one the peculiar features of which are common to many nations. His +mother, Coatlicue or Coatlantona (she-serpent), a devout widow, on +entering the Temple of the Sun one day for the purpose of adoring the +deity, beheld a ball of brightly coloured feathers fall at her feet. +Charmed with the brilliancy of the plumes, she picked it up and placed +it in her bosom with the intention of making an offering of it to the +sun-god. Soon afterwards she was aware of pregnancy, and her children, +enraged at the disgrace, were about to put her to death when her son +Huitzilopochtli was born, grasping a spear in his right hand and a +shield in his left, and wearing on his head a plume of humming-bird's +feathers. On his left leg there also sprouted the flights of the +humming-bird, whilst his face and limbs were barred with stripes of +blue. Falling upon the enemies of his mother he speedily slew them. He +became the leader of the Aztec nation, and after performing on its +behalf prodigies of valour, he and his mother were translated to heaven, +where she was assigned a place as the Goddess of Flowers. + +The Müllerism of fifteen or twenty years ago would have assigned +unhesitatingly the legend of Huitzilopochtli to that class of myths +which have their origin in natural phenomena. In the _Hibbert Lectures_ +for 1884, M. Réville, the French religionist, professes to see in the +Mexican war-god the offspring of the sun and the 'spring florescence.' +Mr. Tylor (_Primitive Culture_) calls Huitzilopochtli an 'inextricable +compound parthenogenetic deity.' A more satisfactory solution of the +myth would seem to the present writer to be that the origin of +Huitzilopochtli was partly totemic--that, in fact, the humming-bird was +the original totem of the wandering tribe of Aztecs prior to their +descent upon Anahuac. The humming-bird is of an extremely pugnacious +disposition, and will not hesitate to attack birds considerably larger +than itself. This courage would appeal to a warlike tribe bent on +conquest, and its adoption as a totem and as a standard in the wars of +the Aztecs would naturally follow. This standard was known as the +_Huitziton_ or _Paynalton_, the 'little humming-bird' or 'little quick +one,' and was a miniature of Huitzilopochtli borne by the priests in +front of the soldiers in battle. This totem, then, took rank as the +national war-god of the Aztecs. The commerce of the mortal woman with +the animal is common to many legends of a totemic origin, as may be +witnessed in the myths of many of the present-day American Indian tribes +who believe their ancestors to have been the progeny of bears or wolves +and mortal women, or as many Norse and Celtic families in Early Britain +believed themselves to be able to trace a similar ancestry. + +However, Huitzilopochtli had a certain solar connection. He had three +annual festivals, in May, August, and December. At the last of these +festivals, an image of him was modelled in dough, kneaded with the blood +of sacrificed children, and this was pierced by the presiding priest +with an arrow, in token that the sun had been slain, and was dead for a +season. The totem had, in fact, become confounded with the sun-god, the +deity of the older and more cultured races of Anahuac, who had been +adopted by the Aztecs on their settlement there. The myth had, in fact, +to be revised in the light of the later adoption of a solar cultus; so +that here as in so many of the myths of other lands we find an amicable +blending of rival beliefs which have been almost insensibly fused one +into another. + +But another originally totemic deity had gained high rank in the Aztec +pantheon. This was Tezcatlipoca, whose name signifies 'Shining Mirror.' +He was the brother of Huitzilopochtli, and in this brotherhood may be +discerned the twofold nature of the Huitzilopochtli legend. Tezcatlipoca +was not the blood-brother of the war-god of the Aztecs, but his brother +in so far as he was connected with the sun. Tezcatlipoca, then, was the +god of the cold season, and typified the dreary sun of that time of +year. But he was also (probably as an afterthought) the God of Justice, +in whose mirror the thoughts and actions of men were reflected. It seems +probable to the present writer that Tezcatlipoca may originally, and in +another clime, have been an ice-god. The facts which lead to this +assumption are the period of his coming into power at the end of summer, +and his possession of a shining mirror. Another of Tezcatlipoca's names +signifies 'Night Wind.' He was evidently regarded also as the 'Breath of +Life.' He may originally have been a wind demon of the prairies. + +Tezcatlipoca's plaited hair was enclosed in a golden net, and from this +plait was suspended an ear wrought in gold, towards which mounted a +cloud of tongues, representative of the prayers of mankind. The +ever-present nature of the 'Great Spirit' is also typified by +Tezcatlipoca, who wandered invisible through the city of Mexico to +observe the conduct of the inhabitants. That he might be enabled to rest +during his tour of inspection, stone seats were placed for his reception +at intervals in the streets. Needless to say no human being dared to +occupy those benches. + +But the most unique of all the gods of Mexico was Quetzalcoatl. This +name indicates 'Feathered Serpent,' and the deity who owned it was +probably adopted by the Aztecs upon their settlement in Mexico, called +by them Anahuac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl stood for a worship which +was eminently more advanced and humane than the degrading and sanguinary +idolatry of which Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were the prime +objects. That he was not of Aztec origin but a god of the Toltecs or of +the elder peoples who had preceded them in Anahuac is proved by a myth +of the Mexican nations, in which his strife with Tezcatlipoca is +related. Step by step Quetzalcoatl, the genius of Old Anahuac, resisted +the inroads of the newcomers as represented by Tezcatlipoca. But he was +forced to flee the country over which he had presided so long, and to +embark on a frail boat on the ocean, promising to return at some future +period. The Aztecs believed in and feared his ultimate return. He was +not one of their gods. But in their terror of his vengeance and return +they attempted to propitiate him by permitting his worship to flourish +as a distinct caste side by side with that of Huitzilopochtli and +Tezcatlipoca. + +Réville, writing in 'the mythical age,' as the decade of the 'eighties +of last century has wittily been designated, sees in Quetzalcoatl the +east wind, and quotes Sahagun to substantiate his theory.[3] But +Quetzalcoatl was 'Lord of the Dawn.' In fine he was a culture-god, and +was closely connected with the sun. It would be impossible in the space +assigned to me to enter fully into an analysis of the origin of this +most interesting figure. There is, however, reason to believe that +Quetzalcoatl was one of those early introducers of culture who sooner or +later find a place among the deities of the nation they have assisted in +its early struggles towards civilisation. The strife between +Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, according to Réville, typifies the +struggle between the wind and the cold and dry season. It is more +probable that it typifies the strife between culture and barbarism. The +same authority points out that it is Tezcatlipoca and not +Huitzilopochtli who attacks Quetzalcoatl. But Tezcatlipoca, was the god +of austerity, and perhaps of the cold north, and thus the proper +opponent of a luxurious southern civilisation. I have gone more fully +into the question of the origin of Quetzalcoatl in the last chapter of +this work, as a more prolonged consideration of the subject would be +somewhat out of the scope of the present chapter. + +The worship of Quetzalcoatl was antipathetic if not directly opposed to +that of the other deities of Anahuac. It had a separate priesthood of +its own who dressed in white in contradistinction to the sable garments +which the priests of the other divinities were in the habit of wearing, +and its ritual discountenanced if it did not forbid human sacrifice. +Quetzalcoatl possessed a high priest of his own, who was subservient, +however, to the Aztec pontiff, and who only joined the monarch's +deliberative council on rare and extraordinary occasions. There can be +no doubt that the good reception given to Cortes and the Spanish +conquerors was solely on account of the Quetzalcoatl legend, which +insisted upon his return at some future period, and the Aztecs +undoubtedly regarded the arrival of the strange white men as a +fulfilment of this prophecy. + +Tlaloc was the god of rain--an important deity for a country where a +droughty season was nothing less than a national disaster. His name +signifies 'the nourisher,' and from his seat among the mountains he +despatched the rain-bearing clouds to water the thirsty and sun-baked +plains of Anahuac. He was also the god of fertility or fecundity, and in +this respect appears to have been analogous to the Egyptian Amsu or +Khem, the ithyphallic deity of Panopolis. He was the wielder of the +thunder and lightning, and the worship connected with him was even more +cruel, if possible, than that of Huitzilopochtli. One-eyed and +open-mouthed, he delighted in the sacrifice of children, and in seasons +of drought hundreds of innocents were borne to his temple in open +litters, wreathed with blossoms and dressed in festal robes. Should they +weep, their tears were regarded as a happy augury for a rainy season; +and the old Spanish chroniclers record that even the heartless Aztecs, +used to scenes of massacre as they were, were moved to tears at the +spectacle of the infants hurried, amid the wild chants of frenzied +priests, to the maw of this Mexican Moloch. + +The statues of Tlaloc were usually cut in a greenish-white stone to +represent the colour of water. He had a wife, Chalchihuitlicue (the lady +Chalchihuit), and by her he possessed a numerous family which are +supposed to represent the clouds, and which bear the same name as +himself. At one of his festivals the priests plunged into a lake, +imitating the sounds and motions of frogs, which were supposed to be +under the special protection of the water-god. + +Xiuhtecutli (lord of fire), or Huehueteotl (the old god), was one of the +most ancient of the Mexican deities. He is usually represented as +typifying the nature of the element over which he had dominion, and in +his head-dress of green feathers, his blackened face, and the +yellow-feathered serpent which he carried on his back, the different +colours observed in fire, as well as its sinuous and snake-like nature, +are well depicted. Like Tezcatlipoca, he possessed a mirror, a shining +disc of gold, to show his connection with the sun, from which all heat +emanated, and to which all heat was subject. And here it will be well to +remind the reader of the statement made near the commencement of this +chapter that the god _par excellence_, the sun, was more or less +manifested in all the principal deities of Anahuac; that in fact these +deities _were_ the sun in conjunction with some attribute of a totemic +or naturalistic origin. + +The first duty of an Aztec family when rising in the morning was to +consecrate to Xiuhtecutli a piece of bread and a libation of drink. He +was thus analogous to Vulcan, who, besides being the creator of +thunderbolts and conflagration, was also the divinity of the domestic +hearth. Once a year the fire in every Mexican house was extinguished, +and was rekindled by friction before the statue of Xiuhtecutli by his +priests. + +The two principal goddesses of the Aztecs were Centeotl, the +maize-goddess, the Ceres of Mexico, and Tlazolteotl, the goddess of +love. The name Centeotl is derived from centli (maize) and teotl +(divinity), and is often confounded with that of her son, who bore the +same name. Like the Virgin or the Egyptian Hes, she bears in her arms a +child, who is the young maize, who afterwards grows to bearded manhood. +Centeotl was the goddess of sustenance, and was often represented as a +many-uddered frog, to typify the food-yielding soil. Her daughter, +Xilonen, was the tender ear of the maize. Appalling sacrificial rites +were celebrated in connection with the worship of this goddess, in which +women were the principal victims. These are dealt with in the chapter on +ritual and ceremonial. + +Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love, or, more correctly, of sensuality, was +the object concerning whom the deities of the Aztec Olympus waged a +terrible war. Her abode was a lovely garden, where she dwelt surrounded +by musicians and merrymakers, dwarfs and jesters. At one time she had +been the spouse of Tlaloc, the rain-god, but had eloped with +Tezcatlipoca, and thus she probably represents nature, who in one season +espouses the rain-god and in another the god of the cold season. The +myths concerning Tlazolteotl are most unsavoury, and consist chiefly of +tales concerning her seductive prowess. + +Mictlan was the Mexican Pluto. The name signifies 'Country of the +North'--the region of waste and hunger and death, and was used both of +the place and the deity. There, surrounded by fearful demons +(Tzitzimitles), he ruled over the shades of the departed much as did +Pluto, and, like his classical prototype, he possessed a consort, or +rather consorts, since he had several wives. The representations of him +naturally give to him a most repulsive aspect, and he is usually +depicted in the act of devouring his victims. + +The minor gods of the Aztecs were legion--indeed various authorities +estimate their numbers from two hundred and sixty to two thousand--and +of these it will only be possible to deal with a few of the more +important. + +Ixtlilton (brown one) was the god of healing, and was analogous to +Æsculapius. The priests connected with his worship vended a liquor which +purported to be a sort of 'cure-all.' Xipe (the bald) was the tutelar +deity of goldsmiths. He was, in reality, a form of Huitzilopochtli, and +probably indicated the idea that gold had some connection with the sun. +Mixcoatl (cloud serpent) was the spirit of the waterspout, and was +propitiated rather than worshipped by the semi-savage mountaineers in +the vicinity of Mexico. Omacatl (double reed) was the god or spirit of +mirth and festival. Yacatecutli (guiding lord) was the god of travellers +and merchants. Indeed the commercial class among the Aztecs were more +exact concerning his worship than in that of almost any other of their +deities. His symbol was the staff usually carried by the people of the +country when on a journey, and this stick was an object of veneration +among travellers, who usually prayed to it as representative of the god +when evening brought their day's march to a close. + +The Tepitoton, or diminutive deities, were household gods of the lares +and penates type, and were probably connected with a species of +Shamanism, the origin of which may either have been prior to or +contemporary with the adoption of the worship of the greater gods. +Their existence might appear to suggest the presence of fetishism in the +Aztec religion, but the theory of a Shamanistic origin for these +household deities seems the more likely one. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS + + +The resemblance of the Mexican priesthood to that of Ancient Egypt was +very marked. However, the influence of the priests among the people of +Anahuac was even greater than that of the analogous caste among the +people of Khemi. Their system of conventual education permitted them to +impress their doctrines upon the minds of the young in that indelible +manner which secures unfaltering adhesion in later life to the dogmas so +inculcated; and no doubt the ever-present fear of human sacrifice +assisted them mightily in their dealings with the people. In short, they +were all-powerful, and the Mexican, accustomed to their influence from +the period of childhood to that of death, submitted unquestioningly to +their rule in all things, spiritual and temporal. + +The religious ethics of the Mexican priesthood were lofty and sublime +in the extreme, and had but little in common with their barbarous +practices. They had been borrowed from the more cultured Toltecs, who +during their sole tenure of Anahuac had evolved a moral code to which it +would be difficult to take exception. But although this exalted +philosophy had been adopted by the fierce and uncultured Aztecs, it had +become so obscured by the introduction of cruel and inhuman rites and +customs as to be almost no longer recognisable as the pure faith of the +race they had succeeded in the land. The germ and core of the Aztec +religion was the idea of the constant necessity of propitiating the gods +by means of human sacrifice, and to this aspect of their religion we +will return later. + +We have already seen that underlying the mythology of the ancient +Mexicans was the idea of a supreme Being, a 'Great Spirit.' In the rites +of confession and absolution particularly was this Being appealed to in +prayer, and the similarity of these petitions to those offered up by +themselves so impressed the monkish companions of the Spanish conquerors +that their astonishment is very evident in their writings. It is +unlikely that these priests would admit a soul of goodness in the evil +thing it was their business to stamp out; and their testimony in this +respect is of the highest value as evidence that the Aztec Religion +possessed at least the germ of the eternal verities. + +The Aztecs believed that eternity was broken up into several distinct +cycles, each of several thousand years' duration. There would seem to +have been four of these periods, concerning the length and nature of +which the old Spanish writers on the subject differ very materially. The +conclusion of each was (according to the Mexican tradition) to witness +the extinction of humanity in one mighty holocaust, and the blotting out +of the sun in the heavens. Whether this universal upheaval applied only +to the sons of men, or, like the Teutonic Gotterdämmerung, or the +Scandinavian Rägnarok, had an equal significance for the gods, is not +clear. It is worth remarking, however, that it premises the mortal +nature of the sun, and, therefore, the existence of a creative agency +with the ability to set another sun in its place. + +With the Mexicans the question of a future life was a very nebulous one, +though perhaps no more so than with the ancient Greeks or Romans. There +was more than one paradise. Mictlan, the shadowy sombre place of the +dead, was the resting-place of the majority, for the Aztecs fully +believed that the higher realms of bliss were preserves for the +aristocracy where the lowly might not enter. And this, in passing, is +perhaps an explanation of the marvellously speedy adoption of +Christianity by the Mexican natives subsequent to the conquest of +Anahuac. Of the higher realms of bliss the 'Mansion of the Sun' was +perhaps the most desirable. There the principal pleasures consisted in +accompanying the sun in his course, and the amusement of choral dancing. +Souls in this paradise might also enter the bodies of humming-birds, and +flit from flower to flower. The exercise of the chase lent to this place +something of the character of a Valhalla, and we hear something of +Gargantuan banquets. Here, too, the blessed might animate the clouds, +and float deliciously over the world they had quitted. + +The paradise of Tlaloc was the special dwelling of those who had lost +their lives by drowning, of sacrificed children, and of those who had +died of disease caused by damp or moisture. But two exceptions were made +as regarded the souls of others, and these related to warriors slain in +battle, and women who had died in child-bed, who were permitted to enter +paradise as having forfeited their lives in the service of the state. + +All the science and wisdom of the country was embodied in the priestly +caste. The priests understood the education of the people, and so +forcibly impressed their students with their knowledge of the occult +arts that for the rest of their lives they quietly submitted to priestly +influence. The priestly order was exceedingly numerous, as is proved by +the fact that no less than five thousand functionaries were attached to +the great temple of Mexico, the rank and offices of whom were +apportioned with the most minute exactitude. The basis of the priesthood +was eminently aristocratic, and its supreme pontiff was known by the +appellation of _Mexicatl Teohuatzin_, or 'Mexican Lord of Divine +Matters.' Next in rank to him was the high priest of Quetzalcoatl, whose +authority was limited to his own priesthood, and who lived a life of +strict seclusion, not unlike that of the Grand Lama of Tibet. This was +probably a remnant of old Toltec practice. The pontiff seems to have +wielded a very considerable amount of political power, and to have had a +seat on the royal council. + +The life of an Aztec priest was rigorous in the extreme. Fasting and +penance bulked largely among his duties, and the idea of the +implacability of the gods which was current in the priesthood appears +to have driven many priests to great extremes of self-inflicted torture. +They dressed entirely in black (with the exception of the caste of +Quetzalcoatl, who were clothed in white), and their cloaks covered their +heads, falling down at each side like a mantilla. Their hair was +permitted to grow very long. They bathed every evening at sunset, and +rose several times during the night for the purpose of paying their +devotions. Some of their orders permitted marriage, while others were +celibate, but all, without distinction, passed an existence of severe +asceticism. As has been said, departmental duties were strongly marked. +Some were readers, others musicians, while others again, probably the +lower orders, attended to the sacred fires, and the more menial offices, +the grand duty of human sacrifice devolving upon the higher orders of +the prelacy alone. + +There was also an order of females who were admitted to the practice of +all the sacerdotal functions, omitting only that of human sacrifice. +These appear to have been more of the description of nuns than of +priestesses. Fakirs and religious beggars also abounded, but these seem +to have taken upon themselves mendicant vows for a space only. + +Education was wholly sacerdotal. That is, though secular studies were +communicated to the young, the principal part of their training +consisted of religious instruction. The schools were situated in the +temple precincts, and entering these at an early age the boys were +instructed by priests, and the girls by nuns. They resided within the +temple buildings, and those who did not, and who probably consisted of +the lower orders, were enrolled in a society called the +_Telpochtiliztli_, which met every evening at sunset to perform choral +dances in honour of Tezcatlipoca. A secondary school also existed, +called the _Calmecac_, in which the lore of the priests and the reading +of the hieroglyphs, astrology, and the kindred sciences were taught the +young men, whilst the girls became experts in the weaving of costly +garments for the adornment of the idols, and the wear of the higher +orders of the hierarchy. + +When the boys and girls left the school at the age of fifteen they were +either sent back to their families, or to public service, to which they +were often recommended by the priests. Others remained to become in +their turn priests or nuns in different convents. + +Severe educational tests were required for entrance into the +priesthood, and grades were many. The priests, we have seen, might +occupy one of several ranks, and the nuns could become abbesses, or +merely retain the position of simple sisters, according to their +ambition and abilities. The lower ranks were designated +_Cihuaquaquilli_, or 'lady herb-eaters,' while the higher orders were +known as _Cihuatlamacasque_, or 'lady deaconesses.' + +The Spanish conquerors of Mexico were astonished to find among this +peculiar people a number of rites which appeared in many respects +analogous to some of those practised by Catholics. Such were the use of +the cross as a symbol, communion, baptism, and confession. The cross, +which was designated, strangely enough, 'Tree of our Life,' was merely +the symbol of the four winds, which were indeed the life of Anahuac. As +regards confession and absolution, these were permitted to a person only +once in his existence, and that at a late period of life, as any +repetition of the pardoned offence was held to be inexpiable. Penance +was apportioned, and absolution given much in the same manner as in the +Roman Catholic Church. There appears to have been more than one kind of +communion. At the third festival of Huitzilopochtli they made an image +of him in dough kneaded with the blood of infants, and divided the +pieces among themselves. In the case of Xiuhtecutli a similar image was +placed on the top of a tree, which, like our Christmas trees, had been +transported from the forest to the town, and when the tree was thrown +down and the image broken, the people scrambled for the pieces, which +they devoured. + +In the rite of baptism the principal functionary was the midwife. She +touched the mouth and breast of the infant with water in the presence of +the assembled relations, and invoked the blessing of the goddess +Cihuatcoatl, who presided over childbirth (and who was a variant of +Centeotl, the maize-goddess) upon it. But it is unlikely that she did so +in the devoutly Christian language ascribed to her by Sahagun. + +At death the corpse of a Mexican was dressed in the robes peculiar to +his guardian deity, and in this can be perceived an analogy to every +dead Egyptian becoming an Osirian, or Osiris himself. Covered with paper +charms, as the Egyptian mummy was covered with metal or faïence symbols, +the body was cremated, the ashes placed in an urn, and preserved in the +house of the deceased. At the death of a rich man many slaves were +sacrificed to bear him company in the world beyond the grave. This was +obviously a meaningless survival of a prehistoric custom. Valuable +treasures were often buried with the wealthy, and a rich man would often +have his private chaplain sacrificed at his tomb to assist him with +ghostly counsel and comfort in the other world. + +Among the ancient Mexicans every month was consecrated to some +particular deity, and in their calendar every day marked a celebration +of some greater or lesser divinity. Those differed considerably in their +character. Some were light and joyous, and their ritual abounded in the +use of flowers and song. Others (and these, unhappily, were in the +majority) were stained with the hideousness of human sacrifice. + +The temples of the Ancient Mexicans were very numerous. They were called +_teocallis_,[4] or 'houses of God,' and were constructed by facing huge +mounds of earth with brick and stone. They were pyramidal in shape, and +built in stages which grew smaller as the summit was reached. The bases +of some of these teocallis were more than one hundred feet square. The +great teocalli at Mexico, for example, was three hundred and +seventy-five feet long at the base, and three hundred feet in width. +Its height was over eighty feet. It consisted of five stages, each +communicating with the other by means of a staircase which wound around +the entire edifice. In the case of some teocallis, however, the +staircase led directly up the western face of the building. At the top +two towers, between forty and fifty feet in height, stood perched upon a +broad area. Inside these were kept the idols of the gods to whom the +teocalli was sacred. Before these towers stood the stone of sacrifice, +and two altars upon which the fires blazed night and day. In the city of +Mexico six hundred of these fires rendered any artificial illumination +at night superfluous. Through the very construction of these temples all +religious services were of a public nature. In front of the great +teocalli of Mexico stretched a court twelve hundred feet square, around +which clustered the chapels of minor deities, and those captured from +conquered peoples, as well as the dwellings and offices set apart for +the attendant priests. + +Although it appears that the Toltecs, the forerunners of the Aztecs in +Mexico, had at one period of their history been prone to human +sacrifice, they had almost entirely discarded the practice at the time +of their downfall. Some two hundred years before the coming of the +Spaniards the Aztecs had adopted this abomination, and were in the habit +of sparing the lives of immense numbers of prisoners of war solely for +the purpose of offering them up to the national gods. As their empire +extended, these holocausts became greater and more common. On the +teocalli of Mexico the Spaniards could count one hundred and thirty-six +thousand human skulls piled in a horrid pyramid. + +Of the sacrifices the most important was that signifying the annual +demise of Tezcatlipoca. The most handsome of the captives who chanced to +be in the hands of the Aztecs was chosen for the purpose. It was +necessary that he should be without spot or blemish, as it was intended +that he should represent Tezcatlipoca himself. He was taken in hand by a +body of tutors, who instructed him how to play his allotted part with +the dignity and grace to be expected from a divine being. Arrayed in +magnificent robes typical of his godhead, and surrounded by an +atmosphere of flowers and incense, he led the life of a voluptuary for +the space of nearly a year. On the occasion of his appearance in the +public streets he was received by the populace with all the homage due +to a god, but was strictly guarded, nevertheless, by eight pages, who +in reality were merely gaolers. Within a month's time of his immolation +four beautiful girls were given him as wives, and he was feasted and +fêted by the nobility as the incarnation of Tezcatlipoca. + +On the day preceding the sacrifice the victim was placed on one of the +royal canoes, and accompanied by his four wives, was rowed to the other +side of the lake. That evening his wives bade him farewell, and he was +stripped of his gorgeous apparel. He was then conducted to a teocalli +some three miles from the city of Mexico. In scaling this he threw away +the wreaths of flowers with which he had been adorned, and broke in +pieces the musical instruments with which he had amused his hours of +captivity. Crowds thronged from the city to behold the act of sacrifice. +On reaching the summit of the teocalli the victim was met by six +priests, five of whom led him to the sacrificial stone, a great block of +jasper with a convex surface. On this he was placed by the five priests, +who secured his head, arms, and legs, whilst the officiating priest, +robed in a blood-red mantle, dexterously opened his breast with a sharp +flint knife. He then inserted his hand into the gaping wound, and +tearing out the still palpitating heart, held it aloft towards the sun. +Then he cast the bleeding offering into a vessel containing burning +copal, which lay at the feet of the image of Tezcatlipoca. A species of +sermon was then delivered by one of the priests to the people in which +he drew a moral from the fate of the victim illustrative of the +inevitable conclusion of all human pleasure by the hand of death. + +Huitzilopochtli had also a representative sacrificed every year who had +to take part in a sort of war-dance immediately before his immolation, +and a woman was annually sacrificed to Centeotl, the maize-goddess. +Before her death she took part in several symbolic representations which +were expressions of the various processes in the growth of the harvest. +The day before her sacrifice she sowed maize in the streets, and on the +arrival of midnight she was decapitated and flayed. A priest arrayed +himself in the still warm skin and engaged in mimic combat with soldiers +who were scattered through the streets. Part of the skin was then +carried to the temple of Centeotl the Son, where a priest made a mask of +it in the likeness of the presiding deity, and afterwards sacrificed +four captives in honour of the occasion. The skin was then carried to +the frontiers of the empire, and buried. It was supposed that its +presence there acted as a talisman against invasion. + +We have before described the sacrifices of children to Tlaloc. Even more +gruesome were the awful doings at the festival of Xiuhtecutli, when the +unhappy victims were half-roasted and finally despatched by having their +hearts torn out. Cannibal feasts often followed these sacrifices--feasts +which were the more horrible in that they were accompanied by all the +accessories of a high standard of civilisation; but it must be +remembered that their purport was essentially symbolic, and in no way +partook of the nature of the orgies of flesh-famished savages. + +When the great temple of Huitzilopochtli was dedicated in 1486, the +chain of victims sacrificed on that occasion extended for the length of +two miles. In this terrible massacre the hearts of no less than seventy +thousand human beings were offered up! In the light of such appalling +wickedness it is difficult to blame the Spanish conquerors of Anahuac in +their zeal to blot out the worship of the deities whom they designated +'horrible demons.' These victims were nearly always captive warriors of +rival nations, and it was on rare occasions only that native Mexicans +were led to the stone of sacrifice unless, indeed, they were +malefactors. + +The great jubilee festival, which was celebrated every fifty-two years +throughout the empire, marked the coincidence of four times thirteen +solar and four times thirteen lunar years. This the Mexicans called a +'sheaf of years,' and when the first day of the fifty-third year dawned, +the ceremony of _Toxilmolpilia_, or 'the binding-up of years,' was held. +Priests and people gazed feverishly at the Pleiades to see if they would +pass the zenith. Should they do so the world would hold on its course +for another similar period; if not, extinction would instantly follow. +Fire was kindled upon a victim's breast by the friction of wood, and +whenever it was alight the prisoner's heart was plucked out, and along +with his body was consumed upon a pile of wood kindled by the new fire. +As the flames ascended, and it was seen that the Pleiades had crossed +the zenith, cries of joy burst from the assembled people below. Faggots +were lighted at the sacred pyre, and domestic fires rekindled from them. +Humanity had been respited for a generation. + +It is difficult to believe that a people so imbrued in a religion of +bloodshed could have been punctilious in matters of morality, and it is +still more difficult to believe the evidence of Sahagun and Clavigero +concerning their personal piety. It seems certain, however, that as a +race the Aztecs were austerely moral, pious, truth-loving, and loyal as +citizens, and even the sanguinary priests do not appear to have reaped +any benefit from their terrible offices. All the evidence would seem to +show that it was the belief in the existence of cruel and insatiable +gods which rendered the priests and people alike callous and insensible +to the taking of human life, and this is the more easily understood when +it is remembered that the Aztecs had at a comparatively late period +emerged from a state of migratory savagery into the heirship of an +ancient and complex civilisation.[5] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS + + +The civilisation of the Ancient Peruvians, although in many ways +analogous to that of the Aztecs, was strangely dissimilar in some of its +aspects. The peoples of the two empires were totally unaware of each +other's existence, and were divided by dense tracts of mountain, plain, +and forest, where the most intense savagery prevailed. It seems probable +that the Peruvian culture had its origin in the region of Lake Titicaca, +and that it was of an indigenous character admits of little doubt. Like +the Mexicans, the Peruvians had displaced an older civilisation and an +older race. What was the nature of that civilisation, and thanks to what +people it flourished, it is at present impossible to say. Scattered over +the surface of the Peruvian slope are Cyclopean ruins, the sole remnants +of the works of a more primeval people. These ruins are chiefly to be +found in the neighbourhood of Lake Titicaca and Cuzco, the ancient +metropolis of the Incas. Whatever may have been the architectural +ability of this ancient people, the usurpers had little to learn from +them in this respect, or, more strictly speaking, having borrowed their +methods, continued faithful to them. The temples and mansions of the +Peruvians were massive and handsome, but for the most part covered only +with a thatch of Indian maize straw. They made long, straight, +macadamised roads which they pushed with surprising engineering skill +through tunnelled mountains, spanning seemingly impassable gorges with +marvellously constructed bridges. The temples and the palaces of the +Incas were adorned with gold and silver ornaments of fabulous value and +skilful design. Sumptuous baths, supplied with hot and cold water by +means of pipes laid in the earth, were to be found in the houses of the +aristocracy, and a high state of comfort and luxury prevailed. + +To describe the social polity of the Peruvians is to describe their +religion, for the two were one and the same. The empire of Peru was the +most absolute theocracy the world has ever seen, much more absolute, for +example, than that of Israel under the Judges. The Inca was the direct +representative of the sun upon earth. He was the head, the very +keystone of a socio-religious edifice to equal which in intricacy of +design and organisation the entire history of man has no parallel to +offer. + +The Inca was the head of a colossal bureaucracy which had ramifications +into the very homes of the people themselves. Thus after the Inca came +the governors of provinces, who were of the blood-royal; then officials +were placed above ten thousand families, a thousand families, a hundred, +and even ten families, upon the principle that the rays of the sun enter +everywhere. Personal freedom was a thing unknown. Each individual was +under direct surveillance, as it were, branded and numbered like the +herds of llamas which were the special property of the sun incarnate, +the Inca. Rules and regulations abounded in a manner unheard of even in +police-ridden Prussia, and no one had the opportunity in this vast +social machine of thinking or acting for himself. His walk in life was +marked out for him from the time he was five years of age, and even the +woman he was to marry was selected for him by the responsible officials; +the age at which he should enter the matrimonial state being fixed at +not earlier than twenty-four years in the case of a man and eighteen in +that of a woman. Even the place of his birth was indicated by a coloured +ribbon (which he dared not remove) tied round his head. + +The Peruvian legend of the coming to earth of the sun-race, of whom the +Inca was held to be the direct descendant, told how two beings, Manco +Capac and Mama Ogllo or Oullo, the offspring of the Sun and Moon, +descended from heaven in the region of Lake Titicaca. They had received +commands from their parent, the sun-god, to traverse the country until +they came to a spot where a golden wedge they possessed should sink into +the ground, and at this place to found a culture-centre. The wedge +disappeared at Cuzco, which Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega (the most +important of the ancient chroniclers of Peru) interprets as meaning +'navel,' or, in twentieth-century idiom, 'Hub of the Universe,' but +which possibly possesses a more exact rendering in the words 'cleared +space.' + +The city founded, Manco Capac instructed the men in the arts of +civilisation, and his consort busied herself in teaching the women the +domestic virtues, as weaving and spinning. Leaving behind them as +earthly representatives their son and daughter, they reascended to +heaven, and from the children they left upon earth the race of Incas +was said to have sprung. Thus it was that all Peruvian monarchs must +marry their sisters, as it was not permissible to defile the offspring +of the blood of the Son by mortal union--the breaking of which law +assisted in the ruin of the Peruvian empire. + +Like the Mexicans, the Peruvians appear to have acknowledged the +existence of a Supreme Being. The attributes of this Supreme Being, +through the fostering care of a special cultus, soon developed the rank +of deities, each having a strongly marked identity. + +The most important individual deities next to the Sun were Viracocha and +Pachacamac, and these, curiously enough, were deities who had been +admitted to the Peruvian pantheon from a still older faith. + +The name Viracocha was, besides being the specific appellation of a +certain deity, a generic name for divine beings. It signifies 'Foam of +the Water,' thus alluding to the legend that the god had arisen out of +the depths of Lake Titicaca. On his appearance from the sacred waters +Viracocha created the sun, moon, and stars, and mapped out for them the +courses which they were to hold in the heavens. He then created men +carved out of stone statues made by himself, and bade them follow him to +Cuzco. Arrived there he collected the inhabitants, and placed over them +one, Allca Vica, who subsequently became the ancestor of the Incas. He +then returned into Lake Titicaca, into the waters of which he +disappeared. + +It is evident that this legend clashes strongly with that of the solar +origin of the Incas, and it would seem to have been put forward by a +rival priesthood which had survived the introduction of solar worship, +but which was not powerful enough to combat it. + +Viracocha was usually represented as a god bearded with water-rushes, +and this hirsute adornment is so far significant in that it may have +some connection with the older legends of the Peruvians which tell of a +white and bearded race which advanced to Cuzco, the centre of +civilisation, from the regions of Lake Titicaca. He is also spoken of as +being without flesh or bone, yet swift in movement, and this description +does not leave us long in doubt as to his real nature. He was the +water-god, the fertiliser of all plant life. In the somewhat arid +country surrounding Lake Titicaca that great body of water would +undoubtedly come to be regarded as the generator of all fertility to be +found in its vicinity. Hence Viracocha's origin. His consort was his +sister Cocha, the lake itself. He, like Tlaloc among the Mexicans, had a +penchant for human sacrifice, but his worship was by no means so +sanguinary as was that of his Mexican prototype. + +We must then regard Viracocha as the god of a faith anterior to the +sun-worship which obtained in Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest. +But we shall also be forced to admit that Pachacamac (whose name we +bracketed with that of Viracocha a few paragraphs back), although a +member of the Peruvian pantheon and a great god, was but there on +sufferance. The name Pachacamac signifies 'earth-generator,' and the +primitive centres of the worship of this deity were in the valleys of +Lurin and Rimac, near the city of Lima. In the latter once stood a great +temple to Pachacamac, the ruins of which, alone, now remain. Pachacamac +would seem to have borne the reputation of a great civiliser, and to +some extent he usurped the claims of Viracocha to this honour. +Viracocha, so runs the legend, was defeated by him in combat, and fled, +whereupon the victor created a new world more to his liking by the +simple expedient of transferring the race of men then upon earth into +wild animals, and creating a new and higher humanity. He was also a god +of fertility, as on the remains of his temples fishes are to be found +evidently symbolising this attribute. + +The hostility of Pachacamac and Viracocha has a mythical significance. +Pachacamac was the god of volcanoes, earthquakes, and subterranean fire, +and was therefore hostile to water. His worship was much more mysterious +than that of Viracocha. The Peruvians, in fact, regarded Pachacamac as a +dreaded and unseen deity, at whose mutterings in the centre of the earth +they prostrated themselves in dread. Rimac, indeed, where the worship of +this god had its focus, means 'the speaker,' 'the murmurer,' and a kind +of oracular character appears ultimately to have been associated with +the name of this terrible deity, who on occasion demanded to be appeased +by human sacrifice. + +The myth of Pacari Tambo, the 'house of the dawn,' a legend of the +Collas, a tribe of mountaineers dwelling to the south-west of Cuzco, +throws some light on this strife between Viracocha and Pachacamac. Four +brothers and sisters (runs the legend) issued one day from the caverns +of Pacari Tambo. The eldest ascended a mountain, and cast stones to all +the cardinal points of the compass to show that he had taken possession +of the land. The other three were averse to this, especially the +youngest, who was the most cunning of all. By dint of persuasion he +managed to get the obnoxious brother to enter a cave. As soon as he had +done so he closed the mouth of the cave with a great stone, and +imprisoned him there for ever. He then, on pretence of seeking his lost +brother, persuaded the second to ascend a high mountain, from which he +cast him, and, as he fell, by dint of magic art changed him into a +stone. The third brother, having no desire to share the fate of the +other two, then fled. The first brother appears to be the oldest +religion, that of Pachacamac; the second, that of an intermediate +fetishism, or stone worship; and the third, Viracocha. The fourth is the +worship of the Sun, pure and simple, the youngest brother, but the +victor over the other older faiths of the land. This is proved by the +circumstance that the name applied to the youngest brother is Pirrhua +Manca, an equivalent to that of Manco Capac, the Son of the Sun. + +This, however, does not altogether tally with what might be called the +'official' legend, the myth promulgated by the Incas themselves. +According to this the Sun had three sons, Viracocha, Pachacamac, and +Manco Capac. This stroke of policy at once blended all three religions; +but by another stroke of politic genius, the earthly power was vested in +Manco Capac, the other two deities being placed in subordinate +positions, where they were concerned chiefly with the workings of +nature. To Manco Capac, and his representatives, the Incas, alone, was +left the dominion of mankind. + +We will now pass to a consideration of the minor deities of the Peruvian +mythology. These were numerous, and had been mostly evolved from nature +forces and natural phenomena. Among the more important was Chasca, the +planet Venus, the 'long-haired,' the 'Page of the Sun.' Cuycha, the +rainbow, was the servant of the sun and moon. He was represented in a +private chapel of his own, contiguous to that of the Sun, by large +plates of gold so fired as to represent the various colours in the +prismatic hues of the rainbow. Fire, also, was an object of profound +veneration with the Peruvians, derived, as it was believed to be, from +the sun. Its preservation was scrupulously attended to in the Temple of +the Sun and in the House of the Virgins of the Sun, of which an account +will be found in the next chapter. + +Catequil was the god of thunder. He is represented as possessing a club +and sling, the latter evidently being intended to symbolise the +thunderbolt. He was a servant of the Sun, and had three distinct +forms--Chuquilla (thunder), Catuilla (lightning), and Intiallapa +(thunderbolt). Temples were erected to him in which children and llamas +were sacrificed at his altars. The Peruvians had, and still have, a +great dread of thunder, and sought to pacify Catequil in every possible +manner. Their children were sacred to him as the supposed offspring of +the lightning. + +We now descend gradually and almost insensibly in the scale of deism, +until little by little we reach a condition of gross idolatry, not far +removed from that still practised by many African tribes. Here we find +even vegetables adored as symbols of sustenance. The potato was +glorified under the appellation of acsumama, and the maize as saramama. +Trees partook of divine attributes, and we seem to see in this condition +of things a state analogous to the reverence paid by the early Greeks +and Romans to Sylvanus and his train, and the vivification of trees by +the presence within them of dryads. + +Certain animals were treated with much reverence by the Peruvians. Thus +we find the serpent, especially Urcaguay, the keeper of subterranean +gold, an object of great veneration. The condor or vulture of the Andes +Mountains was the messenger or Mercury of the Sun, and he held the same +place on the sceptre of the Incas as the eagle on the sceptre of the +Emperor of Germany or Russia. Whales and sharks were also worshipped by +the people who lived near the sea. + +But in all this nature and animal worship it is difficult to detect a +totemic origin.[6] The basis of totemism is the idea of blood-kinship +with an animal or plant, which idea in the course of generations evolves +into an exaggerated respect, and finally (under conditions favourable +for development) into a full-blown mythology. At first it would appear +as if the perfect organisation of the Peruvian state and its peculiar +marriage laws had originated in a condition of totemism; but had +totemism ever entered into the constitution of the Peruvian religion at +any period of its development, it would have left as deep an impression +upon it as it did in the case of the Egyptian religion--that is, some of +the more important deities would have betrayed a totemic origin. That +they betray an origin wholly naturalistic there is no room for doubt. +And here the root difference between the Mexican and Peruvian +mythologies may be pointed out--that although both systems had grown up +from various constituents grouping themselves around the central worship +of the Sun, the constituents of the Aztec religion were almost wholly +totemic, whereas those of the Peruvian religion were naturalistic.[7] + +But the factor of fetishism was not wanting in the construction of the +Peruvian religion. All that was sacred, from the sun himself to the tomb +of a righteous person, was _Huaca_, or sacred. The chief priest of Cuzco +was designated Huacapvillac, or 'he who speaks with sacred beings,' but +the principal use to which the term _Huaca_ was put was in reference to +objects of metal, wood, and stone, which cannot be better described than +as closely resembling those African fetishes so common in our museums. +These differed considerably in size. The reverence for them was probably +of prehistoric origin, and in this cultus we have the second brother +whom Pirrhua Manca changed into a stone. They were believed by the +Peruvians to be the veritable dwelling-places of spirits. Many of these +Huacas were public property, and had gifts of flocks of llamas dedicated +to them. The majority, however, were private property. + +It will be necessary to mention one more deity. This is Supay, god of +the dead, who dwelt in a dreary underworld. He was the Pluto of Peruvian +mythology, and is usually portrayed as an open-mouthed monster of +voracious appetite, into whose maw are thrown the souls of the departed. + +For the study of the worship of old Peru the materials are less +plentiful than in the case of the Mexican mythology. Stratum upon +stratum of belief is discovered, like those in the ruins of some ancient +city where each yard of earth holds the story of a dynasty. To the +student of comparative religion an exhaustive study of the complex +mythology of the ancient Peruvians offers an almost unparalleled +opportunity for comparison with and elucidation of other mythologies, +since in it the process of its evolution is exhibited with greater +clearness than in the case of any other belief, ancient or modern. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP + + +With the Peruvians, as with the Mexicans, paradise was a preserve of the +aristocrats. The poor might languish in the gloomy shades of the Hades +presided over by Supay, Lord of the Dead, but for the Incas and their +immediate relatives, by whom was embraced the entire nobility, the +Mansions of the Sun were retained, where they might dwell with the Sun, +their father, in undisturbed felicity. In a community where everything +was ordered with military exactitude, sin meant disobedience, and +consequently death. Indeed it took the form of direct blasphemy against +the Inca, and was thus stripped of the purely ethical sense it holds for +a free population. The sinner expiated his crime at once, and was +consigned to the grey shades of the underworld, there to pass the same +nebulous existence as his more meritorious companions. Some writers upon +Peru refer to a belief on the part of the people in a place of +retribution where the wicked would expiate their offences by ages of +arduous toil. But there is little ground for the acceptance of these +statements. + +Strictly speaking, there was no priesthood in Peru. The ecclesiastical +caste consisted of the Inca and his relatives, who were also known as +Incas. These assumed all the principal positions in the national +religion, but were unable, of course, to fill all the lesser provincial +posts. These were undertaken by the priests of the local deities, who +were at the same time priests of the imperial deities, a policy which +permitted the conquered peoples to retain their own form of worship, and +at the same time led them to recognise the paramountcy of the religion +of the Incas. Nothing could be more intense than the devotion shown by +all ranks of the population to the person of the Inca. He was the sun +incarnate upon earth, and his presence must be entered with humble mien +and beggarly apparel, and a further show of humility must also be made +by carrying a bundle upon the back. + +The High Priest, who has been already alluded to as holding the title of +Huacapvillac, or 'He who converses with divine beings!' also held the +more general one of Villac Oumau, or 'Chief Sacrificer.' He derived his +position solely from the Inca, but made all inferior appointments, and +was answerable to the monarch alone. He was invariably an Inca of +exalted rank, as were all the priests who officiated at Cuzco, the +capital. Only those ecclesiastics of the higher grades wore any +distinguishing garb, the lower order dressing in the same manner as the +people. + +The existence of a Peruvian priest was an arduous one. It was necessary +for him to master a ritual as complex as any ever evolved by a +hierarchy. At regular intervals he was relieved by his fellow-priests, +who were organised in companies, each of which took duty for a specified +period of the day or night. The duties of the Peruvian priesthood, +whilst even more exacting than that of the Mexican, did not appear to +have been lightened in a similar manner by the acquirement of knowledge, +or by mental exercise of any description, and this may be partly +accounted for by the fact that the art of writing was discouraged among +them, probably on the assumption that the whole duty of man culminated +in unfailing obedience to the Inca and his representatives, and that the +acquirement of further knowledge was the work of supererogation. + +It is deeply interesting to notice (isolated as was everything Peruvian) +that it was in this far corner of America that the native evolution of +the temple took place, as distinguished from the altar or teocalli. +Originally the Peruvian priesthood had adopted that pyramidal form of +structure now familiar to us as that in use by the Mexicans, but as time +went on they began to roof over these high altars, and this practice at +length culminated in the erection of huge temples like that at Cuzco. + +The great temple of Cuzco, known as _Coricancha_, or 'The Place of +Gold,' was the greatest and most magnificent example of Peruvian +ecclesiastical architecture. The exterior gave an impression of +massiveness and solidity rather than of grace. Round the outer +circumference of the building ran a frieze of the purest gold, and the +interior was profusely ornamented with plates of the same metal. The +doorways were formed from huge monoliths, and the whole aspect of the +building was Cyclopean. In the dressing of stone and the fitting of +masonry the Peruvians were expert, and the placing of immense blocks of +stone appears to have had no difficulties for them. So accurately indeed +were these fitted that the blade of a knife could not be inserted +between them. Inside the Temple of the Sun was placed a great plate of +gold, upon which was engraved the features of the god of the luminary, +and this was so placed that the rays of the rising sun fell full upon +it, and bathed it in a flood of radiance. The scintillations from a +thousand gems, with which its surface was enriched, lent to it a +brilliance which eye-witnesses declare to have been almost +insupportable. Enthroned around this dazzling object were the mummified +bodies of the monarchs of the Inca dynasty, giving to the place an air +of holy mystery which must have deeply impressed the pious and simple +people. The roof was composed of rafters of choice woods, but was merely +covered in by a thatching of maize straw. The principle of the arch had +never been thoroughly grasped by the Peruvians, and that of adequate +roofing appears to have been equally unknown to them. + +Surrounding this, the principal temple, were others dedicated to the +moon; Cuycha, the rainbow; Chasca, the planet Venus; the Pleiades; and +Catequil, the thunder-god. In that of the moon, the mother of the Incas, +a plate of silver, similar to that which represented the face of the sun +in his own sanctuary, was placed, and was surrounded by the mummified +forms of the dead queens of the Incas. In that of Cuycha, the rainbow, +as already explained, a golden representation of the arch of heaven was +to be found, and the remaining buildings in the precincts of the great +temple were set apart for the residences of the priests. + +The most ancient of the temples of Peru was that on the island of +Titicaca, to which extraordinary veneration was paid. Everything in +connection with it was sacred in the extreme, and in the surrounding +maize-fields was annually raised a crop which was distributed among the +various public granaries, in order to leaven the entire crop of the +country with sanctity. + +All the utensils in use in these temples were of solid gold and silver. +In that of Cuzco twelve large jars of silver held the sacred grain, and +censers, ewers, and even the pipes which conducted the water-supply +through the earth to the temple, were of silver. In the surrounding +gardens, the hoes, spades, and other implements in use were also of +silver, and hundreds of representations of plants and animals executed +in the precious metals were to be found in them. These facts are vouched +for by numerous eye-witnesses, among whom was Pedro Pizarro himself, and +subsequent historians have seen no reason to regard their descriptions +as in any way untrustworthy. + +As in Mexico, so in Peru, the Spanish conquerors were astonished to find +among the religious customs of the people practices which appeared to +them identical with some of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic faith. +Among these were confession, communion, and baptism. Confession appears +to have been practised in a somewhat loose and irregular manner, but +penance for ill-doing was apportioned, and absolution granted. At the +festival of Raymi, which we will later examine, bread and wine were +distributed in much the same manner as that prescribed in Christian +communities. Baptism also was practised. Some three months after birth +the child was plunged into water after having received its name. The +ceremony, however, appears to have partaken more of the nature of an +exorcism of evil spirits than of a cleansing from original sin. + +Like the ancient Egyptians, the Peruvians practised the art of embalming +the dead, but it does not appear that they did so with any idea in view +of corporeal resurrection as did the former. As to the method by which +they preserved the remains of the dead, authorities are not agreed, +some believing that the cold of the mountains to which the corpses were +subjected was sufficient to produce a state of mummification, and others +that a process akin to that of the Ancient Egyptians was gone through. + +Burnt offerings were very popular among the Peruvians. They were chiefly +made to the sun, and were, in general, not unlike those made by the +Semites. + +As with the Mexicans, the sacred dance was a striking feature of the +Peruvian religion. These choral dances were brought to a very high state +of perfection, and in the case of the common people were often wild and +full of the fire of abandoned fanaticism. The Incas, however, possessed +a dance of their own, which was sufficiently grave and stately. At great +festivals two choral dances and hymns were rendered to the sun, each +strophe of which ended with the cry of _Hailly_, or 'triumph.' Some of +those Peruvian hymns were preserved in the work of a Spanish composer, +who in 1555 wrote a mass, into the body of which he introduced these +curious waifs of American melody. That choral dances are still in favour +with the aborigines of Peru is proved by the evidence of Baron Eland +Nordenskjöld, who arrived (August 1907) from an eight months' +ethnological expedition to some of the Andes tribes. He states that the +'so-called civilised Indians--the Quichuas and Aymaras--living around +Titicaca ... have retained many customs unaltered or but slightly +modified since the time of the Incas.... Thus it was found that the +Indians often worship Christ and the Virgin Mary by dances, in which the +sun is used as the symbol for Christ, and the moon for the Virgin Mary.' + +With the Peruvians each month had its appropriate festival. The +solstices and equinoxes were of course the occasions of the most +remarkable of these, and four times a year the feast of Raymi or the +dance was celebrated with all the pomp and circumstance of which this +strange and bizarre civilisation was capable. The most important of +these was held in June, when nine days were given up to the celebration +of the Citoc Raymi, or gradually increasing sun. For three days previous +to this event all fasted, and no fire might be kindled in any house. On +the fourth great day the Inca, accompanied in procession by his court +and the people, who followed _en masse_, proceeded to the great square +to hail the rising sun. The scene must have been one of intense +brilliance. Clad in their most costly robes, and sheltered beneath +canopies of cunning feather-work in which the gay plumage of tropical +birds was æsthetically arranged, the vast crowd awaited the rising of +the sun in eager silence. When he came, shouts of joy and triumph broke +from the multitude, and the cries of delight were swelled by the crash +of wild melody from a thousand instruments. Louder and louder arose the +joyous tumult, until topping the eastern mountains the luminary shone in +full splendour on his worshippers. The riot of sound culminated in a +mighty pæan of thanksgiving. Libations of maguey, or maize-spirit, were +made to the deity, after first having touched the sacred lips of the +Inca. Then marshalling itself once more in order of procession, all +pressed with one accord to the golden Temple of the Sun, where black +llamas were sacrificed, and a new fire kindled by means of a concave +mirror. Divested of their sandals the Inca and his suite spent some time +in prayer. Occasionally a human victim--a maiden or a beautiful +child--was offered up in sacrifice, but happily this was a rare +occurrence, and only took place on great public occasions, such as a +coronation, or the celebration of a national victory. These sacrifices +never ended in cannibal feasts, as did those of the Aztecs. Grain, +flowers, animals, and aromatic gums were the usual sacrificial offerings +of the Peruvians. + +The Citua Raymi was the festival of the spring, and fell in September. +It was known as the Feast of Purification. The country must be purified +from pestilence, and to secure this, round cakes, kneaded in the blood +of children, were eaten. To secure this blood the children were merely +bled above the nose, and not slaughtered, as with the more ferocious +Aztecs--almost an example of the substitution of the part for the whole. +These cakes were also rubbed upon the doorways, and the people smeared +them all over their bodies as a preventive against disease. The circuit +of the state of Cuzco was then made by relays of armed Incas, who +planted their spears on the boundaries as talismans against evil. A +torchlight procession followed, after which the torches were cast into +the river as symbolic of the destruction of evil spirits. + +The festival of the Aymorai, or harvest, fell in May, when a statue made +of corn was worshipped under the name of Pirrhua, who seems to be an +admixture of Manco Capac and Viracocha in his rôle of fertiliser. The +fourth great festival, Capac Raymi, fell in December, when the +thunder-god shared the honours paid to the Sun. It was then that the +younger generation of Incas after a vigorous training received an honour +equivalent to that of knighthood. + +The Peruvians possessed a fully developed conventual system. A number of +maidens, selected for their beauty and their birth, were dedicated to +the deity as 'Virgins of the Sun.' Under the guidance of _mamacones_, or +matrons, these maidens were instructed in the nature of their religious +duties, which chiefly consisted in the weaving of priestly garments and +temple-hangings. They also watched over the sacred fire which had been +kindled at the feast of Raymi. No communication with the outside world +was permitted to them, and detection in a love-affair meant living +burial, the execution of the lover, and the entire destruction of the +place of his birth. In the convent of Cuzco were lodged between one and +two thousand maidens of the royal blood, and at a marriageable age these +became brides of the Sun in his incarnate shape of the Inca, the most +beautiful being selected for the harem of the monarch. + +Sorcery and divination were frequently employed by the Peruvians, and +the _Huacarimachi_, 'They who make the gods speak,' were held in great +veneration by the ignorant masses. The oracles in the valleys of Lima +and Rimac were much resorted to, and auguries of all descriptions were +in popular favour. + +The Peruvians were ignorant of morality as we appreciate the term. That +they were, however, a most moral people there is every evidence. But as +has been before pointed out, all crime was a direct offence against the +majesty of the Inca, who, as viceroy of the Sun on earth, had been +blasphemed by the breaking of his law. Under such a régime the true +significance of sin was bound to be obscured, if not altogether lost. +Terror took the place of conscience, and the necessity for implicit +obedience gave no scope to the true moral sense--probably to the +detriment of the entire community. + +The political and religious history of Peru is unique in the annals of +mankind, and its study offers a startling instance of what prolonged +isolation may work in the mind of man. That the Peruvian mind, isolated +in a remote part of the world as it was, was never wholly blind to the +existence of a great and beneficent creative Power, the degradation of a +cramping theocracy notwithstanding, is triumphant proof that the +knowledge of that Power is a thing inalienable from the mind of man. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA + + +The space at my disposal for dealing with this most difficult of all +questions is such as will enable me only to outline its salient points. +As I pointed out at the beginning of the first chapter, the question of +the origins of the American religions was almost identical with that of +the origins of the American race itself. + +That the Red Man was not the aboriginal inhabitant of the American +continent, but supplanted a race with Eskimo affinities, is extremely +probable. At all events, the 'Skraelings,' with whom the early Norse +discoverers of America had dealings, were not described by them as in +any way resembling the North American Indian of later times. If this be +granted--and Indian folklore would seem to strengthen the hypothesis--we +must then find some other home for the Red Man than the prairies of +North-east America for the five centuries between the Norse and +Columbian discoveries. He may, of course, have dwelt in the north-west +of the continent, a solution of the problem which appears to me highly +feasible. That his affinities are Mongolian it would be absurd to +dispute; but--and this is of supreme importance--these affinities are of +so archaic an origin as to preclude all likelihood of any important or +numerous Asiatic immigration occurring for many centuries before either +the Norse or Columbian discovery. + +Coming to a period within the ken of history, there is just the +possibility that Mexico, or some adjacent country of Central America, +was visited by Asiatic Buddhist priests in the fifth century. The story +is told in the Chinese annals of the wanderings of five Buddhist +priests, natives of Cabul, who journeyed to America (which they +designate Fusang) _viâ_ the Aleutian Islands and Kamchatka, a region +then well known to the Chinese. Their description of the country, +however, is no more convincing than are the arguments of their +protagonist, Professor Fryer of San Francisco, who sees Asiatic +influence in various elephant-headed gods and Buddha-esque statuary in +the National Mexican Museum. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon +that any foreign influence arriving in the American continent in +pre-Columbian times was not sufficiently powerful to have more than a +merely transitory influence upon the customs or religious beliefs of the +inhabitants. + +This leads us to the conclusion that the religions of Mexico and Peru +were of indigenous origin. Any attempt to prove them offshoots of +Chinese or other Asiatic religion on the basis of a similarity of art or +custom is doomed to failure. + +But however satisfactory it may be to brush aside unsubstantial theories +which aspire to the honour of facthood, it would be a thousand pities to +ignore the numerous intensely interesting myths which have grown up +round the idea of foreign contact with the American races in +pre-Columbian times. Let us briefly examine these, and attempt to +discover any point of contact between them and similar American myths. + +I have previously alluded to the myth of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was +a Mexican deity, but in reality he was one of the older pre-Aztecan gods +of Anahuac. He is sometimes represented as a being of white complexion +and fair-bearded, with blue eyes, and altogether of European appearance. +It will be remembered that on the entrance into Anahuac of Tezcatlipoca +he waged a war with that god in which he was worsted, and eventually +forced to depart for 'Tlapallan' in a canoe, promising to return at some +future date. It will also be recollected how the legend of +Quetzalcoatl's return influenced the whole of Montezuma's policy towards +the Spanish conquistadores, and how the fear of his vengeance was ever +before the Aztec priesthood. Quetzalcoatl, strangely enough, was reputed +to have sailed for 'Tlapallan' from almost the identical spot first set +foot upon by Cortes on his arrival on the Mexican coast. + +The Max Müller school of mythologists see nothing in Quetzalcoatl but a +god of the wind. With them Minos was a myth. So was his palace with its +labyrinth until its recent discovery at Knossos. I am fain to see in +Quetzalcoatl a real personality--a culture-hero; but I will suggest +nothing concerning his non-American nationality. At the same time it +will be interesting to examine, firstly, those European myths which +speak of men who set out for America; and, secondly, those American +myths which speak of the existence of 'white men,' or 'white tribes,' +dwelling upon the American continent. + +Passing over the sagas of the Norse discovery of America, which are by +no means mythical, we come to the Celtic story of the finding of the +great continent. When the Norsemen drove the Irish Celts from Iceland, +these fugitives sought refuge in 'Great Ireland,' by which, it is +supposed, is intended America. The Irish _Book of Lismore_ tells of the +voyage of St. Brendan, abbot of Cluainfert in Ireland, to an island in +the ocean destined for the abode of saints, and of his numerous +discoveries during a seven years' cruise. The Norse sagas which tell of +this 'Great Ireland' speak of the language of its inhabitants as +'resembling Irish,' but as the Irish were the nation with which the +Norsemen were best acquainted, this 'resemblance' appears to smack of +the linguistic classification of the British sailorman who applies the +term 'Portugee' to all languages not his own. The people of this country +were attired in white dresses, 'and had poles borne before them on which +were fastened lappets, and who shouted with a loud voice.' + +But another Celtic people claimed the honour of first setting foot upon +American soil. The Welsh Prince Madoc in the year 1170 sailed westwards +with a fleet of several ships, and coming to a large and fertile +country, landed one hundred and twenty men. Returning to Wales he once +more set out with ten vessels, but concerning his further adventures +Powell and Hakluyt are silent. Nor does the authority of the bard +Meredith ap Rees concerning him rest upon any more substantial basis.[8] +Stories of Welsh-speaking Indians, too, are not uncommon. Two slaves +whom the Norsemen of 1007 sent on a foraging expedition into the +interior of Massachusetts were Scots, although their names--Haki and +Hakia--hardly sound Celtic.[9] + +Innumerable are the legends of 'white Indians'--the 'white Panis,'[10] +dwelling south of the Missouri, the 'Blanco Barbus, or white Indians +with beards,' the Boroanes, the Guatosos of Costa Rica, the Malapoques +in Brazil, the Guaranies in Paraguay, the Guiacas of Guiana, the +Scheries of La Plata--but modern anthropology scarcely bears out the +stories of the 'whiteness' of these tribes. On a similar footing are the +travellers' tales concerning the existence of Indian Jews--to prove +which Lord Kingsborough squandered a fortune and compiled a work on +Mexican antiquities the parallel of which has not been known in the +entire history of bibliography.[11] + +More convincing are the Mexican and Peruvian legends concerning the +appearance of white and bearded culture-bringers. These legends are, it +must be admitted, shadowy enough, but are so persistent and resemble +each other so closely as to give some grounds for the supposition that +at some period in the history of Mexico or Peru a member or members of +the 'Caucasian' race may have stumbled into these civilisations through +the accidents of shipwreck. But it is exceedingly dangerous to premise +anything of the sort; and, as has been said before, the influence of +such wanderers could only have been infinitesimal. + +Enough, then, has been said to show that the origins of the religions of +Mexico and Peru could not have been of any other than an indigenous +nature. Their evolution took place wholly upon American soil, and if +resemblances appear in their systems to the mythologies or religions of +Asia, they are explicable by that law now so well known to +anthropologists and students of comparative religion, that, given +similar circumstances, and similar environments, the evolution of the +religious beliefs of widely separated peoples will proceed upon similar +lines. + + + + +SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY + +(_Those authorities marked with an asterisk are also applicable to the +subject of Peruvian Mythology_). + + SAHAGUN, _Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España_. (English + translation edited for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham + in 1880.) + + TORQUEMADA, _Los veynte y un libros Rituales y Monarchia Yndiana_. + + IXTLILXOCHITL, _'Historia Chichimeca' and 'Relaciones' in_ Lord + Kingsborough's _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. ix. + + PRESCOTT, _Conquest of Mexico_. + + *HUMBOLDT, _Vues des Cordillères et Monuments des Peuples de + l'Amérique_. + + CLAVIGERO, _Storia antica del Messico_. (English translation by + Charles Cullen. London, 1787.) + + BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, _Histoires des Nations civilisées du + Mexique et de l'Amérique-centrale_, and _Quatre Lettres sur le + Mexique_. + + BANCROFT, _Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_. + + KINGSBOROUGH, _Antiquities of Mexico_. + + *RÉVILLE, _The Hibbert Lectures_, 1884. + + *PAYNE, _History of the New World_, vols. i. and ii. + + TYLOR, _Anahuac_. + + BRINTON, _The Myths of the New World_. + + WINSOR, _Narrative and Critical History of America_. + + +PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY + + MONTESINOS, _Mémoires historiques sur l'Ancien Perou_. (Translated + from the Spanish MS. in Ternaux-Compans, vol. xvii.) + + GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA, _Comentarios reales_. (English translation + for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham. London, 1869, 1871.) + + LACROIX, '_Perou_,' in vol. iv. of _L'Amérique_ in _L'Univers + Pittoresque_. + + HUTCHINSON, _Two Years in Peru, with Explorations of its + Antiquities_. London, 1873. + + PRESCOTT, _Conquest of Peru_, 1848 (or better, Sonnenschein's new + edition, or that in Everyman's Library). + + MARKHAM, _A History of Peru_, 1892; and _Rites and Laws of the Incas_. + + LORENTE, _Historia Antigua del Perú_, 1860-3. + + + The works of Prescott upon Mexico and Peru (which are perhaps the + most popular and accessible upon the antiquities of these + countries) are nevertheless sadly meagre in their accounts of the + respective mythologies of the Nahuatlaca and the Incas. Indeed in + each of them but a few pages is given to the faith of the + aborigines. In some later editions, however (notably in the recent + popular editions of Mr. Sonnenschein), excellent variorum notes + have been added by the editors. A great deal of Prescott's work is + now quite obsolete and misleading. The works of Mr. Brinton have + superseded them; but it is doubtful if Prescott will ever be + surpassed in narrative charm. The best English work on the subject + is Mr. Payne's _History of the New World called America_, cited + above, a work which is a veritable storehouse of knowledge upon + aboriginal America. These works are, however, rather too erudite + in tone for the general reader, and by no means easy to come by. A + most excellent catalogue of American historical and mythological + literature is published by Mr. Karl Hiersemann of Leipsic. + + +Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh +University Press + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] The fact of the rapid approximation of the European colonists to the +American type might, however, be quoted against this view. + +[2] It must be borne in mind that the science and arts of the Aztecs +were almost immediately lost in consequence of the intolerance of the +Spanish Conquistadores. + +[3] An absolutely erroneous one. + +[4] The temple, with all its purlieus and courts, was named _teopan_; +the central pyramid, _teocalli_. + +[5] There is reason to believe, however, that the sacrifices of the +Aztecs were made not so much for the purpose of placating the gods as +for the imagined necessity of rejuvenating them and keeping them alive. +Of some of the sacrifices, at least, this is certain. + +[6] The veneration of an animal or plant _which does not identify a +tribe_ is not 'totemism' but 'naturalism,' or nature-worship. + +[7] The evidence of Garcilasso would seem to show that the early +Peruvians possessed a totem-system; this, however, would appear to have +been by some process totally eliminated. It will be seen that I +differentiate between 'naturalism' and 'totemism.' 'Totemism' is the +adoption of an animal or plant symbol by a _tribe_ originally for the +purpose of identification. It later grows into the belief in +blood-kinship with the symbol. 'Naturalism' is the worship of the wind, +the sun, or other natural phenomena. + +[8] The legend is the basis of some hundred of lines of bookish fustian +by Southey, who follows Hakluyt in making Mexico the theatre of the +prince's adventures. + +[9] _Antiquitates Americanæ._ Were they Picts? + +[10] Pawnees. + +[11] This monumental work, which, apart from its letterpress, is +exceedingly valuable in respect of numerous splendid plates representing +Aztec MSS., is in nine huge volumes, and was published in London in +1831. Its original price was £175 coloured, and £120 uncoloured. Its +noble author sought to prove that the Mexicans were the Lost Ten Tribes +of Israel. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + + Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and +Peru, by Lewis Spence + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGIES--ANCIENT MEXICO, PERU *** + +***** This file should be named 36386-8.txt or 36386-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/3/8/36386/ + +Produced by David E. 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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: The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru + +Author: Lewis Spence + +Release Date: June 11, 2011 [EBook #36386] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGIES--ANCIENT MEXICO, PERU *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><span class="smcap">Religions Ancient and Modern</span></span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">THE MYTHOLOGIES OF<br/> +ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN.</span></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>ANIMISM.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Edward Clodd</span>, Author of <i>The Story of Creation</i>.</span></p> + +<p>PANTHEISM.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">James Allanson Picton</span>, Author of <i>The Religion of the +Universe</i>.</span></p> + +<p>THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor <span class="smcap">Giles</span>, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University +of Cambridge.</span></p> + +<p>THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Jane Harrison</span>, Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, Author +of <i>Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion</i>.</span></p> + +<p>ISLAM.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Syed Ameer Ali</span>, M.A., C.I.E., late of H.M.'s High Court of +Judicature in Bengal, Author of <i>The Spirit of Islam</i> and <i>The +Ethics of Islam</i>.</span></p> + +<p>MAGIC AND FETISHISM.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Dr. <span class="smcap">A. C. Haddon</span>, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cambridge +University.</span></p> + +<p>THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor <span class="smcap">W. M. Flinders Petrie</span>, F.R.S.</span></p> + +<p>THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Theophilus G. Pinches</span>, late of the British Museum.</span></p> + +<p>BUDDHISM. 2 vols.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor <span class="smcap">Rhys Davids</span>, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal +Asiatic Society.</span></p> + +<p>HINDUISM.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Dr. <span class="smcap">L. D. Barnett</span>, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books +and MSS., British Museum.</span></p> + +<p>SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">William A. Craigie</span>, Joint Editor of the <i>Oxford English +Dictionary</i>.</span></p> + +<p>CELTIC RELIGION.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor <span class="smcap">Anwyl</span>, Professor of Welsh at University College, +Aberystwyth.</span></p> + +<p>THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Charles Squire</span>, Author of <i>The Mythology of the British +Islands</i>.</span></p> + +<p>JUDAISM.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Israel Abrahams</span>, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge +University, Author of <i>Jewish Life in the Middle Ages</i>.</span></p> + +<p>SHINTO. By <span class="smcap">W. G. Aston</span>, C.M.G.</p> + +<p>THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By <span class="smcap">Lewis Spence</span>, M.A.</span></p> + +<p>THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS.<br/> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Professor <span class="smcap">Yastrow</span>.</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">THE MYTHOLOGIES<br /> +OF ANCIENT MEXICO<br /> +AND PERU</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">By</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">LEWIS SPENCE</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">LONDON<br /> +ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO <span class="smcap">Ltd</span><br /> +1907</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">Edinburgh: T. and <span class="smcap">A. Constable</span>, Printers to His Majesty</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">FOREWORD</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>It is difficult to understand the neglect into which the study of the +Mexican and Peruvian mythologies has fallen. A zealous host of +interpreters are engaged in the elucidation of the mythologies of Egypt +and Assyria, but, if a few enthusiasts in the United States of America +be excepted, the mythologies of the ancient West have no following +whatsoever. That this little book may lead many to a fuller examination +of those profoundly interesting faiths is the earnest hope of one in +whose judgment they are second in importance to no other mythological +system. By a comparative study of the American mythologies the student +of other systems will reap his reward in the shape of many a parallel +and many an elucidation which otherwise would escape his notice; whilst +the general reader will introduce himself into a sphere of the most +fascinating interest—the interest in the attitude towards the eternal +verities of the peoples of a new and isolated world.</p> + +<p class="right">L. S.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CONTENTS</span></p> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" summary="table"> + +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAP.</small></td><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1"><small>I.</small></a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Origin of American Religions</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1"> 1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9"><small>II.</small></a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Mexican Mythology</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9"> 9</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#Page_27"><small>III.</small></a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Priesthood and Ritual of the Ancient Mexicans</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_27"> 27</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#Page_44"><small>IV.</small></a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Religion of the Ancient Peruvians</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_44"> 44</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#Page_58"><small>V.</small></a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Peruvian Ritual and Worship</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_58"> 58</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#Page_71"><small>VI.</small></a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Question of Foreign Influence upon the Religions of America</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_71"> 71</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">A List of Select Books bearing on the Subject</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_79"> 79</a></td></tr></table> + + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">THE MYTHOLOGIES OF<br/> +ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER I</span></p> + +<p class="center">THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The question of the origin of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru +is unalterably associated with that of the origin of the native races of +America themselves—not that the two questions admit of simultaneous +settlement, but that in order to prove the indigenous nature of the +American mythologies it is necessary to show the extreme improbability +of Asiatic or European influence upon them, and therefore of relatively +late foreign immigration into the Western Hemisphere. As regards the +vexed question of the origin of the American races it has been thought +best to relegate all proof of a purely speculative or legendary +character to a chapter at the end of the book, and for the present to +deal with data concerning the trustworthiness of which there is little +division of opinion.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>The controversy as to the manner in which the American continent was +first peopled is as old as its discovery. For four hundred years +historians and antiquarians have disputed as to what race should have +the honour of first colonising the New World. To nearly every nation +ancient and modern has been credited the glory of peopling the two +Americas; and it is only within comparatively recent years that any +reasonable theory has been advanced in connection with the subject. It +is now generally admitted that the peopling of the American continent +must have taken place at a period little distant to the original +settlement of man in Europe. The geological epoch generally assumed for +the human settlement of America is the Pleistocene (Quaternary) in some +of its interglacial conditions; that is, in some of the recurrent +periods of mildness during the Great Ice Age. There is, however, a +possibility that the continent may have been peopled in Tertiary times. +The first inhabitants were, however, not of the Red Man type.</p> + +<p>Difficult as is this question, an even more difficult one has to be +faced when we come to consider the affinities of the races from whom the +Red Man is descended. It must be remembered that at this early epoch in +the history of mankind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> in all likelihood the four great types of +humanity were not yet fully specialised, but were only differentiated +from one another by more or less fundamental physiological +characteristics. That the Indians of America are descended from more +than one human type is proved by the variety of shapes exhibited in +their crania, and it is safe to assume that both Europe and Asia were +responsible for these early progenitors of the Red Man. At the period in +question the American continent was united to Europe by a land-bridge +which stretched by way of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faröe Islands to +Northern Europe, and from the latter area there probably migrated to the +western continent a portion of that human type which has been designated +the Proto-European—precursors of that race from which was finally +evolved the peoples of modern Europe.</p> + +<p>When we come to the question of the settlement of America from the +Asiatic side we can say with more certainty that immigration proceeded +from that continent by way of Behring Strait, and was of a +Proto-Mongolian character, though the fact should not be lost sight of +that within a few hundred miles of the point of emigration there still +exists the remains of an almost purely Caucasian type in the Ainu of +Saghalien and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> Kurile Islands. However, immigration on any extensive +scale must have been discontinued at a very early period, as on the +discovery of America the natives presented a highly specialised and +distinctive type, and bear such a resemblance one nation to another, as +to draw from all authorities the conclusion that they are of common +origin.</p> + +<p>According to all known anthropological standards the Amerind (as it has +been agreed to designate the American Indian) bears a close affinity to +the Mongolian races of Asia, and it must be admitted that the most +likely origin that can be assigned to him is one in which Asiatic, or to +be more exact, Mongolian blood preponderates. The period of his +emigration, which probably spread itself over generations, was in all +likelihood one at which the Mongolian type was not yet so fully +specialised as not to admit of the acquirement under specific conditions +of very marked structural and physiological attributes.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> In recent +years large numbers of Japanese have settled in Mexico, and in the +native dress can hardly be distinguished from the Mexican peasants.</p> + +<p>Of course it would be unsafe to assume that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> once settled in the +Western Hemisphere, its populations were subject to none of those +fluctuations or race-changes which are so marked a feature in the early +history of European and Asiatic peoples. It is thought, and with +justice, that some such race-movement convulsed the entire northern +division of the continent at a period comparatively near to that of the +Columbian discovery. Aztec history insists upon a prolonged migration +for the race which founded the Mexican Empire, and native maps are still +extant in several continental collections, which depict the routes taken +by the Aztec conquerors from Aztlan, and the Toltecs from Tlapallan, +their respective fatherlands in the north, to the Mexican Tableland. +This, at least, would appear to be worthy of notice: that the +'Skraelings' or native Americans mentioned in the accounts of the +tenth-century Norse discoverers of America, by the description given of +them, do not appear to be the same race as that which inhabited the New +England States upon their rediscovery.</p> + +<p>As regards the origin of the American mythologies it is difficult to +discover traces of foreign influence in the religion of either Mexico or +Peru. At the time of their subjugation by the Spaniards legends were +ripe in both countries of beneficent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> white and bearded men, who brought +with them a fully developed culture. The question of Asiatic influences +must not altogether be cast aside as an untenable theory; but it is well +to bear in mind that such influences, did they ever exist, must have +been of the most transitory description, and could have left but few +traces upon the religion of the peoples in question. If any such contact +took place it was merely of an accidental nature, and, when speaking of +faiths carried from Asia into America at the period of its original +settlement, it is first necessary to premise that Pleistocene Man had +already arrived at that stage of mental development in which the +existence of supernatural beings is recognised—a premise with which +modern anthropology would scarcely find itself in agreement.</p> + +<p>Almost exhaustive proof of the wholly indigenous nature of the American +religions is offered by the existence of the ruins of the large centres +of culture and civilisation which are found scattered through Yucatan +and Peru. These civilisations preceded those of the Aztecs and Incas by +a very considerable period, how long it is impossible in the present +state of our knowledge of the subject to say. Those huge, buried cities, +the Ninevehs and Thebeses of the West, have left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> not even a name, and +of the peoples who dwelt in them we are almost wholly ignorant. That +they were of a race cognate with the Aztecs and Toltecs appears probable +when we take into account the similarity of design which their +architecture bears to the later ruins of the Aztec structure. Yet there +is equally strong evidence to the contrary. At what epoch in the history +of the world these cities were erected it would at the present time be +idle to speculate. The recent discovery of a buried city in the +Panhandle region of Texas may throw some light upon this question, and +indeed upon the dark places of American archæology as a whole. In the +case of the buried cities of Uxmal and Palenqüe a great antiquity is +generally agreed upon. Indeed one writer on the subject goes so far as +to place their foundation at the beginning of the second Glacial Epoch! +He sees in these ruins the remnants of a civilisation which flourished +at a time when men, fleeing from the rigours of the glacial ice-cap, +huddled for warmth in the more central parts of the earth. It is +unnecessary to state that this is a wholly preposterous theory, but the +fact that the ruins of Palenqüe are at the present time lost in the +depths of a tropic forest goes far to prove their great antiquity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>Arguing, then, from this antiquity, we may be justified in assuming that +in these now buried cities the mythology of Mexico was partly evolved; +that it was handed down to the Aztec conquerors who entered the country +some four hundred years before its subjugation by Cortes, and that it +received additions from the tribal deities. In the case of the Peruvian +mythology we may argue a similar evolution, which, as we shall see +later, had been spread over a considerably shorter period.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER II</span></p> + +<p class="center">MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The Mexican Empire at the period of its conquest by Cortes had arrived +at a standard of civilisation comparable with that of those dynasties +which immediately preceded the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt. The +government was an elective monarchy, but princes of the blood alone were +eligible for royal honours. A complex system of jurisdiction prevailed, +and a form of district and family government was in vogue which was +somewhat similar to that of the Anglo-Saxons. In the arts a high state +of perfection had been reached, and the Aztec craftsman appears to have +been a step beyond the slavish conventionalism of the ancient Egyptian +artist. In architecture the Mexicans were highly skilled, and their +ability in this respect aroused the wonder of their Spanish conquerors, +who, however, did not hesitate to raze to the ground the splendid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +edifices they professed so much to admire. As road-builders and +constructors of aqueducts they chiefly excelled, and a perfect system of +posts was established on each of the great highways of the empire.</p> + +<p>With the Aztecs the art of writing took the form of hieroglyphs, which +in some ways resembled those of the ancient Egyptians; but they had not +at the period of their conquest by Cortes evolved a more convenient, and +cursive method, such as the hieratic or demotic scripts employed in the +Nile valley. In astronomical science they were surprisingly advanced and +exact. The system in use by them was wonderfully accurate. It is, +however, quite erroneous to suppose that it has affinities with any +Asiatic system. They divided the year into eighteen periods of twenty +days each, adding five supplementary days, and providing for +intercalation every half-century. Each month contained four weeks of +five days each, and each of the months had a distinct name. That the +Aztecs were possessed of exact astronomical instruments cannot be +proved; but in the thirteenth plate of Dupaix's <i>Monuments</i>, (Part <small>II.</small>) +there is a representation of a man holding to his face an instrument +which might or might not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> be a telescope.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The astronomical dial was +certainly in use among them, and astrology, and divination in its every +shape were frequently resorted to.</p> + +<p>In the manual arts the Aztecs were far advanced. Papermaking was in a +moderate state of perfection, and the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of +cotton were crafts in which they excelled. Feather-work of supreme +beauty was a staple article of manufacture, but in the metallic arts the +absence of iron had to be compensated for by an alloy of copper, +siliceous powder, and tin—an admixture by the use of which the hardest +granite was cut and shaped, and the most beautiful gold and silver +ornaments fashioned. Sharp tools were also made from obsidian, and in +the barbers' shops of the city of Mexico razors of the same stone were +in use.</p> + +<p>To the art of war the Aztecs—a military nation who won and held all +they possessed by force of arms—attached great importance. Training in +the army was rigorous, and the knowledge of tactics displayed appears to +have been very considerable.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>Although the Aztecs had founded and adopted from other nations a +complete pantheon of their own, they were strongly influenced by the +ancient sun and moon worship of Central America. <i>Ometecutli</i> (twice +Lord) and <i>Omecihuatl</i> (twice Lady) were the names which they bestowed +upon these luminaries, and they were probably the first deities known to +the Aztecs upon their emergence from a condition of totemism. The sun +was the <i>teotl</i>, <i>the</i> god of the Mexicans, but it will be seen in the +course of this chapter that the national deities and those acquired by +the Aztecs in their intercourse with the surrounding peoples of Tezcuco +and Tlacopan somewhat obscured the worship of those elementary gods.</p> + +<p>Through all the confusion of a mythology second only in richness to +those of Egypt and Hellas can be traced the idea of a supreme creator, a +'god behind the gods.' This was not the sun, but an Allfather, addressed +by the Mexican nations as 'the God by whom we live'; 'omnipotent, that +knoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts'; 'invisible, incorporeal, +one God, of perfect perfection and purity.' The universality of this +great being would seem (as in other mythologies) to have led to the +deification of his attributes, and thus we have a pantheon in which we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +can trace all the various attributes of an anthropomorphic deity. This +subdivision of the deity was not, however, responsible for all the gods +embraced by the Mexican pantheon. Many of these were purely national +gods—and two at least had probably been raised to this rank from a +condition of symbolic totemism during a period of national expansion and +military success.</p> + +<p>Such a god was the Mexican Mars, Huitzilopochtli, a name which signifies +'Humming-bird on the left,' a designation concerning the exact +derivation of which there is considerable difference of opinion. The +general explanation of this peculiar name is that it may have arisen +from the fact that the god is usually represented as having the feathers +of a humming-bird on the left foot. Before attempting an elucidation of +the name, however, it will be well to examine the myth of +Huitzilopochtli.</p> + +<p>Huitzilopochtli was the principal tribal deity of the Aztecs. Another, +though evidently less popular name applied to him, was Mextli, which +signifies 'Hare of the Aloes.' Indeed a section of the city of Mexico +derived its name from this appellation. The myth concerning his origin +is one the peculiar features of which are common to many nations. His +mother, Coatlicue or Coatlantona<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> (she-serpent), a devout widow, on +entering the Temple of the Sun one day for the purpose of adoring the +deity, beheld a ball of brightly coloured feathers fall at her feet. +Charmed with the brilliancy of the plumes, she picked it up and placed +it in her bosom with the intention of making an offering of it to the +sun-god. Soon afterwards she was aware of pregnancy, and her children, +enraged at the disgrace, were about to put her to death when her son +Huitzilopochtli was born, grasping a spear in his right hand and a +shield in his left, and wearing on his head a plume of humming-bird's +feathers. On his left leg there also sprouted the flights of the +humming-bird, whilst his face and limbs were barred with stripes of +blue. Falling upon the enemies of his mother he speedily slew them. He +became the leader of the Aztec nation, and after performing on its +behalf prodigies of valour, he and his mother were translated to heaven, +where she was assigned a place as the Goddess of Flowers.</p> + +<p>The Müllerism of fifteen or twenty years ago would have assigned +unhesitatingly the legend of Huitzilopochtli to that class of myths +which have their origin in natural phenomena. In the <i>Hibbert Lectures</i> +for 1884, M. Réville, the French religionist, professes to see in the +Mexican war-god<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> the offspring of the sun and the 'spring florescence.' +Mr. Tylor (<i>Primitive Culture</i>) calls Huitzilopochtli an 'inextricable +compound parthenogenetic deity.' A more satisfactory solution of the +myth would seem to the present writer to be that the origin of +Huitzilopochtli was partly totemic—that, in fact, the humming-bird was +the original totem of the wandering tribe of Aztecs prior to their +descent upon Anahuac. The humming-bird is of an extremely pugnacious +disposition, and will not hesitate to attack birds considerably larger +than itself. This courage would appeal to a warlike tribe bent on +conquest, and its adoption as a totem and as a standard in the wars of +the Aztecs would naturally follow. This standard was known as the +<i>Huitziton</i> or <i>Paynalton</i>, the 'little humming-bird' or 'little quick +one,' and was a miniature of Huitzilopochtli borne by the priests in +front of the soldiers in battle. This totem, then, took rank as the +national war-god of the Aztecs. The commerce of the mortal woman with +the animal is common to many legends of a totemic origin, as may be +witnessed in the myths of many of the present-day American Indian tribes +who believe their ancestors to have been the progeny of bears or wolves +and mortal women, or as many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> Norse and Celtic families in Early Britain +believed themselves to be able to trace a similar ancestry.</p> + +<p>However, Huitzilopochtli had a certain solar connection. He had three +annual festivals, in May, August, and December. At the last of these +festivals, an image of him was modelled in dough, kneaded with the blood +of sacrificed children, and this was pierced by the presiding priest +with an arrow, in token that the sun had been slain, and was dead for a +season. The totem had, in fact, become confounded with the sun-god, the +deity of the older and more cultured races of Anahuac, who had been +adopted by the Aztecs on their settlement there. The myth had, in fact, +to be revised in the light of the later adoption of a solar cultus; so +that here as in so many of the myths of other lands we find an amicable +blending of rival beliefs which have been almost insensibly fused one +into another.</p> + +<p>But another originally totemic deity had gained high rank in the Aztec +pantheon. This was Tezcatlipoca, whose name signifies 'Shining Mirror.' +He was the brother of Huitzilopochtli, and in this brotherhood may be +discerned the twofold nature of the Huitzilopochtli legend. Tezcatlipoca +was not the blood-brother of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> war-god of the Aztecs, but his brother +in so far as he was connected with the sun. Tezcatlipoca, then, was the +god of the cold season, and typified the dreary sun of that time of +year. But he was also (probably as an afterthought) the God of Justice, +in whose mirror the thoughts and actions of men were reflected. It seems +probable to the present writer that Tezcatlipoca may originally, and in +another clime, have been an ice-god. The facts which lead to this +assumption are the period of his coming into power at the end of summer, +and his possession of a shining mirror. Another of Tezcatlipoca's names +signifies 'Night Wind.' He was evidently regarded also as the 'Breath of +Life.' He may originally have been a wind demon of the prairies.</p> + +<p>Tezcatlipoca's plaited hair was enclosed in a golden net, and from this +plait was suspended an ear wrought in gold, towards which mounted a +cloud of tongues, representative of the prayers of mankind. The +ever-present nature of the 'Great Spirit' is also typified by +Tezcatlipoca, who wandered invisible through the city of Mexico to +observe the conduct of the inhabitants. That he might be enabled to rest +during his tour of inspection, stone seats were placed for his reception +at intervals in the streets. Needless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> to say no human being dared to +occupy those benches.</p> + +<p>But the most unique of all the gods of Mexico was Quetzalcoatl. This +name indicates 'Feathered Serpent,' and the deity who owned it was +probably adopted by the Aztecs upon their settlement in Mexico, called +by them Anahuac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl stood for a worship which +was eminently more advanced and humane than the degrading and sanguinary +idolatry of which Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were the prime +objects. That he was not of Aztec origin but a god of the Toltecs or of +the elder peoples who had preceded them in Anahuac is proved by a myth +of the Mexican nations, in which his strife with Tezcatlipoca is +related. Step by step Quetzalcoatl, the genius of Old Anahuac, resisted +the inroads of the newcomers as represented by Tezcatlipoca. But he was +forced to flee the country over which he had presided so long, and to +embark on a frail boat on the ocean, promising to return at some future +period. The Aztecs believed in and feared his ultimate return. He was +not one of their gods. But in their terror of his vengeance and return +they attempted to propitiate him by permitting his worship to flourish +as a distinct caste side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> by side with that of Huitzilopochtli and +Tezcatlipoca.</p> + +<p>Réville, writing in 'the mythical age,' as the decade of the 'eighties +of last century has wittily been designated, sees in Quetzalcoatl the +east wind, and quotes Sahagun to substantiate his theory.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> But +Quetzalcoatl was 'Lord of the Dawn.' In fine he was a culture-god, and +was closely connected with the sun. It would be impossible in the space +assigned to me to enter fully into an analysis of the origin of this +most interesting figure. There is, however, reason to believe that +Quetzalcoatl was one of those early introducers of culture who sooner or +later find a place among the deities of the nation they have assisted in +its early struggles towards civilisation. The strife between +Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, according to Réville, typifies the +struggle between the wind and the cold and dry season. It is more +probable that it typifies the strife between culture and barbarism. The +same authority points out that it is Tezcatlipoca and not +Huitzilopochtli who attacks Quetzalcoatl. But Tezcatlipoca, was the god +of austerity, and perhaps of the cold north, and thus the proper +opponent of a luxurious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> southern civilisation. I have gone more fully +into the question of the origin of Quetzalcoatl in the last chapter of +this work, as a more prolonged consideration of the subject would be +somewhat out of the scope of the present chapter.</p> + +<p>The worship of Quetzalcoatl was antipathetic if not directly opposed to +that of the other deities of Anahuac. It had a separate priesthood of +its own who dressed in white in contradistinction to the sable garments +which the priests of the other divinities were in the habit of wearing, +and its ritual discountenanced if it did not forbid human sacrifice. +Quetzalcoatl possessed a high priest of his own, who was subservient, +however, to the Aztec pontiff, and who only joined the monarch's +deliberative council on rare and extraordinary occasions. There can be +no doubt that the good reception given to Cortes and the Spanish +conquerors was solely on account of the Quetzalcoatl legend, which +insisted upon his return at some future period, and the Aztecs +undoubtedly regarded the arrival of the strange white men as a +fulfilment of this prophecy.</p> + +<p>Tlaloc was the god of rain—an important deity for a country where a +droughty season was nothing less than a national disaster. His name +signifies 'the nourisher,' and from his seat among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> the mountains he +despatched the rain-bearing clouds to water the thirsty and sun-baked +plains of Anahuac. He was also the god of fertility or fecundity, and in +this respect appears to have been analogous to the Egyptian Amsu or +Khem, the ithyphallic deity of Panopolis. He was the wielder of the +thunder and lightning, and the worship connected with him was even more +cruel, if possible, than that of Huitzilopochtli. One-eyed and +open-mouthed, he delighted in the sacrifice of children, and in seasons +of drought hundreds of innocents were borne to his temple in open +litters, wreathed with blossoms and dressed in festal robes. Should they +weep, their tears were regarded as a happy augury for a rainy season; +and the old Spanish chroniclers record that even the heartless Aztecs, +used to scenes of massacre as they were, were moved to tears at the +spectacle of the infants hurried, amid the wild chants of frenzied +priests, to the maw of this Mexican Moloch.</p> + +<p>The statues of Tlaloc were usually cut in a greenish-white stone to +represent the colour of water. He had a wife, Chalchihuitlicue (the lady +Chalchihuit), and by her he possessed a numerous family which are +supposed to represent the clouds, and which bear the same name as +himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> At one of his festivals the priests plunged into a lake, +imitating the sounds and motions of frogs, which were supposed to be +under the special protection of the water-god.</p> + +<p>Xiuhtecutli (lord of fire), or Huehueteotl (the old god), was one of the +most ancient of the Mexican deities. He is usually represented as +typifying the nature of the element over which he had dominion, and in +his head-dress of green feathers, his blackened face, and the +yellow-feathered serpent which he carried on his back, the different +colours observed in fire, as well as its sinuous and snake-like nature, +are well depicted. Like Tezcatlipoca, he possessed a mirror, a shining +disc of gold, to show his connection with the sun, from which all heat +emanated, and to which all heat was subject. And here it will be well to +remind the reader of the statement made near the commencement of this +chapter that the god <i>par excellence</i>, the sun, was more or less +manifested in all the principal deities of Anahuac; that in fact these +deities <i>were</i> the sun in conjunction with some attribute of a totemic +or naturalistic origin.</p> + +<p>The first duty of an Aztec family when rising in the morning was to +consecrate to Xiuhtecutli a piece of bread and a libation of drink. He +was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> thus analogous to Vulcan, who, besides being the creator of +thunderbolts and conflagration, was also the divinity of the domestic +hearth. Once a year the fire in every Mexican house was extinguished, +and was rekindled by friction before the statue of Xiuhtecutli by his +priests.</p> + +<p>The two principal goddesses of the Aztecs were Centeotl, the +maize-goddess, the Ceres of Mexico, and Tlazolteotl, the goddess of +love. The name Centeotl is derived from centli (maize) and teotl +(divinity), and is often confounded with that of her son, who bore the +same name. Like the Virgin or the Egyptian Hes, she bears in her arms a +child, who is the young maize, who afterwards grows to bearded manhood. +Centeotl was the goddess of sustenance, and was often represented as a +many-uddered frog, to typify the food-yielding soil. Her daughter, +Xilonen, was the tender ear of the maize. Appalling sacrificial rites +were celebrated in connection with the worship of this goddess, in which +women were the principal victims. These are dealt with in the chapter on +ritual and ceremonial.</p> + +<p>Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love, or, more correctly, of sensuality, was +the object concerning whom the deities of the Aztec Olympus waged a +terrible war. Her abode was a lovely garden,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> where she dwelt surrounded +by musicians and merrymakers, dwarfs and jesters. At one time she had +been the spouse of Tlaloc, the rain-god, but had eloped with +Tezcatlipoca, and thus she probably represents nature, who in one season +espouses the rain-god and in another the god of the cold season. The +myths concerning Tlazolteotl are most unsavoury, and consist chiefly of +tales concerning her seductive prowess.</p> + +<p>Mictlan was the Mexican Pluto. The name signifies 'Country of the +North'—the region of waste and hunger and death, and was used both of +the place and the deity. There, surrounded by fearful demons +(Tzitzimitles), he ruled over the shades of the departed much as did +Pluto, and, like his classical prototype, he possessed a consort, or +rather consorts, since he had several wives. The representations of him +naturally give to him a most repulsive aspect, and he is usually +depicted in the act of devouring his victims.</p> + +<p>The minor gods of the Aztecs were legion—indeed various authorities +estimate their numbers from two hundred and sixty to two thousand—and +of these it will only be possible to deal with a few of the more +important.</p> + +<p>Ixtlilton (brown one) was the god of healing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> and was analogous to +Æsculapius. The priests connected with his worship vended a liquor which +purported to be a sort of 'cure-all.' Xipe (the bald) was the tutelar +deity of goldsmiths. He was, in reality, a form of Huitzilopochtli, and +probably indicated the idea that gold had some connection with the sun. +Mixcoatl (cloud serpent) was the spirit of the waterspout, and was +propitiated rather than worshipped by the semi-savage mountaineers in +the vicinity of Mexico. Omacatl (double reed) was the god or spirit of +mirth and festival. Yacatecutli (guiding lord) was the god of travellers +and merchants. Indeed the commercial class among the Aztecs were more +exact concerning his worship than in that of almost any other of their +deities. His symbol was the staff usually carried by the people of the +country when on a journey, and this stick was an object of veneration +among travellers, who usually prayed to it as representative of the god +when evening brought their day's march to a close.</p> + +<p>The Tepitoton, or diminutive deities, were household gods of the lares +and penates type, and were probably connected with a species of +Shamanism, the origin of which may either have been prior to or +contemporary with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> adoption of the worship of the greater gods. +Their existence might appear to suggest the presence of fetishism in the +Aztec religion, but the theory of a Shamanistic origin for these +household deities seems the more likely one.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER III</span></p> + +<p class="center">THE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The resemblance of the Mexican priesthood to that of Ancient Egypt was +very marked. However, the influence of the priests among the people of +Anahuac was even greater than that of the analogous caste among the +people of Khemi. Their system of conventual education permitted them to +impress their doctrines upon the minds of the young in that indelible +manner which secures unfaltering adhesion in later life to the dogmas so +inculcated; and no doubt the ever-present fear of human sacrifice +assisted them mightily in their dealings with the people. In short, they +were all-powerful, and the Mexican, accustomed to their influence from +the period of childhood to that of death, submitted unquestioningly to +their rule in all things, spiritual and temporal.</p> + +<p>The religious ethics of the Mexican priesthood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> were lofty and sublime +in the extreme, and had but little in common with their barbarous +practices. They had been borrowed from the more cultured Toltecs, who +during their sole tenure of Anahuac had evolved a moral code to which it +would be difficult to take exception. But although this exalted +philosophy had been adopted by the fierce and uncultured Aztecs, it had +become so obscured by the introduction of cruel and inhuman rites and +customs as to be almost no longer recognisable as the pure faith of the +race they had succeeded in the land. The germ and core of the Aztec +religion was the idea of the constant necessity of propitiating the gods +by means of human sacrifice, and to this aspect of their religion we +will return later.</p> + +<p>We have already seen that underlying the mythology of the ancient +Mexicans was the idea of a supreme Being, a 'Great Spirit.' In the rites +of confession and absolution particularly was this Being appealed to in +prayer, and the similarity of these petitions to those offered up by +themselves so impressed the monkish companions of the Spanish conquerors +that their astonishment is very evident in their writings. It is +unlikely that these priests would admit a soul of goodness in the evil +thing it was their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> business to stamp out; and their testimony in this +respect is of the highest value as evidence that the Aztec Religion +possessed at least the germ of the eternal verities.</p> + +<p>The Aztecs believed that eternity was broken up into several distinct +cycles, each of several thousand years' duration. There would seem to +have been four of these periods, concerning the length and nature of +which the old Spanish writers on the subject differ very materially. The +conclusion of each was (according to the Mexican tradition) to witness +the extinction of humanity in one mighty holocaust, and the blotting out +of the sun in the heavens. Whether this universal upheaval applied only +to the sons of men, or, like the Teutonic Gotterdämmerung, or the +Scandinavian Rägnarok, had an equal significance for the gods, is not +clear. It is worth remarking, however, that it premises the mortal +nature of the sun, and, therefore, the existence of a creative agency +with the ability to set another sun in its place.</p> + +<p>With the Mexicans the question of a future life was a very nebulous one, +though perhaps no more so than with the ancient Greeks or Romans. There +was more than one paradise. Mictlan, the shadowy sombre place of the +dead, was the resting-place of the majority, for the Aztecs fully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +believed that the higher realms of bliss were preserves for the +aristocracy where the lowly might not enter. And this, in passing, is +perhaps an explanation of the marvellously speedy adoption of +Christianity by the Mexican natives subsequent to the conquest of +Anahuac. Of the higher realms of bliss the 'Mansion of the Sun' was +perhaps the most desirable. There the principal pleasures consisted in +accompanying the sun in his course, and the amusement of choral dancing. +Souls in this paradise might also enter the bodies of humming-birds, and +flit from flower to flower. The exercise of the chase lent to this place +something of the character of a Valhalla, and we hear something of +Gargantuan banquets. Here, too, the blessed might animate the clouds, +and float deliciously over the world they had quitted.</p> + +<p>The paradise of Tlaloc was the special dwelling of those who had lost +their lives by drowning, of sacrificed children, and of those who had +died of disease caused by damp or moisture. But two exceptions were made +as regarded the souls of others, and these related to warriors slain in +battle, and women who had died in child-bed, who were permitted to enter +paradise as having forfeited their lives in the service of the state.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>All the science and wisdom of the country was embodied in the priestly +caste. The priests understood the education of the people, and so +forcibly impressed their students with their knowledge of the occult +arts that for the rest of their lives they quietly submitted to priestly +influence. The priestly order was exceedingly numerous, as is proved by +the fact that no less than five thousand functionaries were attached to +the great temple of Mexico, the rank and offices of whom were +apportioned with the most minute exactitude. The basis of the priesthood +was eminently aristocratic, and its supreme pontiff was known by the +appellation of <i>Mexicatl Teohuatzin</i>, or 'Mexican Lord of Divine +Matters.' Next in rank to him was the high priest of Quetzalcoatl, whose +authority was limited to his own priesthood, and who lived a life of +strict seclusion, not unlike that of the Grand Lama of Tibet. This was +probably a remnant of old Toltec practice. The pontiff seems to have +wielded a very considerable amount of political power, and to have had a +seat on the royal council.</p> + +<p>The life of an Aztec priest was rigorous in the extreme. Fasting and +penance bulked largely among his duties, and the idea of the +implacability of the gods which was current in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> priesthood appears +to have driven many priests to great extremes of self-inflicted torture. +They dressed entirely in black (with the exception of the caste of +Quetzalcoatl, who were clothed in white), and their cloaks covered their +heads, falling down at each side like a mantilla. Their hair was +permitted to grow very long. They bathed every evening at sunset, and +rose several times during the night for the purpose of paying their +devotions. Some of their orders permitted marriage, while others were +celibate, but all, without distinction, passed an existence of severe +asceticism. As has been said, departmental duties were strongly marked. +Some were readers, others musicians, while others again, probably the +lower orders, attended to the sacred fires, and the more menial offices, +the grand duty of human sacrifice devolving upon the higher orders of +the prelacy alone.</p> + +<p>There was also an order of females who were admitted to the practice of +all the sacerdotal functions, omitting only that of human sacrifice. +These appear to have been more of the description of nuns than of +priestesses. Fakirs and religious beggars also abounded, but these seem +to have taken upon themselves mendicant vows for a space only.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>Education was wholly sacerdotal. That is, though secular studies were +communicated to the young, the principal part of their training +consisted of religious instruction. The schools were situated in the +temple precincts, and entering these at an early age the boys were +instructed by priests, and the girls by nuns. They resided within the +temple buildings, and those who did not, and who probably consisted of +the lower orders, were enrolled in a society called the +<i>Telpochtiliztli</i>, which met every evening at sunset to perform choral +dances in honour of Tezcatlipoca. A secondary school also existed, +called the <i>Calmecac</i>, in which the lore of the priests and the reading +of the hieroglyphs, astrology, and the kindred sciences were taught the +young men, whilst the girls became experts in the weaving of costly +garments for the adornment of the idols, and the wear of the higher +orders of the hierarchy.</p> + +<p>When the boys and girls left the school at the age of fifteen they were +either sent back to their families, or to public service, to which they +were often recommended by the priests. Others remained to become in +their turn priests or nuns in different convents.</p> + +<p>Severe educational tests were required for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> entrance into the +priesthood, and grades were many. The priests, we have seen, might +occupy one of several ranks, and the nuns could become abbesses, or +merely retain the position of simple sisters, according to their +ambition and abilities. The lower ranks were designated +<i>Cihuaquaquilli</i>, or 'lady herb-eaters,' while the higher orders were +known as <i>Cihuatlamacasque</i>, or 'lady deaconesses.'</p> + +<p>The Spanish conquerors of Mexico were astonished to find among this +peculiar people a number of rites which appeared in many respects +analogous to some of those practised by Catholics. Such were the use of +the cross as a symbol, communion, baptism, and confession. The cross, +which was designated, strangely enough, 'Tree of our Life,' was merely +the symbol of the four winds, which were indeed the life of Anahuac. As +regards confession and absolution, these were permitted to a person only +once in his existence, and that at a late period of life, as any +repetition of the pardoned offence was held to be inexpiable. Penance +was apportioned, and absolution given much in the same manner as in the +Roman Catholic Church. There appears to have been more than one kind of +communion. At the third festival of Huitzilopochtli they made an image +of him in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> dough kneaded with the blood of infants, and divided the +pieces among themselves. In the case of Xiuhtecutli a similar image was +placed on the top of a tree, which, like our Christmas trees, had been +transported from the forest to the town, and when the tree was thrown +down and the image broken, the people scrambled for the pieces, which +they devoured.</p> + +<p>In the rite of baptism the principal functionary was the midwife. She +touched the mouth and breast of the infant with water in the presence of +the assembled relations, and invoked the blessing of the goddess +Cihuatcoatl, who presided over childbirth (and who was a variant of +Centeotl, the maize-goddess) upon it. But it is unlikely that she did so +in the devoutly Christian language ascribed to her by Sahagun.</p> + +<p>At death the corpse of a Mexican was dressed in the robes peculiar to +his guardian deity, and in this can be perceived an analogy to every +dead Egyptian becoming an Osirian, or Osiris himself. Covered with paper +charms, as the Egyptian mummy was covered with metal or faïence symbols, +the body was cremated, the ashes placed in an urn, and preserved in the +house of the deceased. At the death of a rich man many slaves were +sacrificed to bear him company in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> world beyond the grave. This was +obviously a meaningless survival of a prehistoric custom. Valuable +treasures were often buried with the wealthy, and a rich man would often +have his private chaplain sacrificed at his tomb to assist him with +ghostly counsel and comfort in the other world.</p> + +<p>Among the ancient Mexicans every month was consecrated to some +particular deity, and in their calendar every day marked a celebration +of some greater or lesser divinity. Those differed considerably in their +character. Some were light and joyous, and their ritual abounded in the +use of flowers and song. Others (and these, unhappily, were in the +majority) were stained with the hideousness of human sacrifice.</p> + +<p>The temples of the Ancient Mexicans were very numerous. They were called +<i>teocallis</i>,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> or 'houses of God,' and were constructed by facing huge +mounds of earth with brick and stone. They were pyramidal in shape, and +built in stages which grew smaller as the summit was reached. The bases +of some of these teocallis were more than one hundred feet square. The +great teocalli at Mexico, for example, was three hundred and +seventy-five<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> feet long at the base, and three hundred feet in width. +Its height was over eighty feet. It consisted of five stages, each +communicating with the other by means of a staircase which wound around +the entire edifice. In the case of some teocallis, however, the +staircase led directly up the western face of the building. At the top +two towers, between forty and fifty feet in height, stood perched upon a +broad area. Inside these were kept the idols of the gods to whom the +teocalli was sacred. Before these towers stood the stone of sacrifice, +and two altars upon which the fires blazed night and day. In the city of +Mexico six hundred of these fires rendered any artificial illumination +at night superfluous. Through the very construction of these temples all +religious services were of a public nature. In front of the great +teocalli of Mexico stretched a court twelve hundred feet square, around +which clustered the chapels of minor deities, and those captured from +conquered peoples, as well as the dwellings and offices set apart for +the attendant priests.</p> + +<p>Although it appears that the Toltecs, the forerunners of the Aztecs in +Mexico, had at one period of their history been prone to human +sacrifice, they had almost entirely discarded the practice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> at the time +of their downfall. Some two hundred years before the coming of the +Spaniards the Aztecs had adopted this abomination, and were in the habit +of sparing the lives of immense numbers of prisoners of war solely for +the purpose of offering them up to the national gods. As their empire +extended, these holocausts became greater and more common. On the +teocalli of Mexico the Spaniards could count one hundred and thirty-six +thousand human skulls piled in a horrid pyramid.</p> + +<p>Of the sacrifices the most important was that signifying the annual +demise of Tezcatlipoca. The most handsome of the captives who chanced to +be in the hands of the Aztecs was chosen for the purpose. It was +necessary that he should be without spot or blemish, as it was intended +that he should represent Tezcatlipoca himself. He was taken in hand by a +body of tutors, who instructed him how to play his allotted part with +the dignity and grace to be expected from a divine being. Arrayed in +magnificent robes typical of his godhead, and surrounded by an +atmosphere of flowers and incense, he led the life of a voluptuary for +the space of nearly a year. On the occasion of his appearance in the +public streets he was received by the populace with all the homage due +to a god, but was strictly guarded, nevertheless, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> eight pages, who +in reality were merely gaolers. Within a month's time of his immolation +four beautiful girls were given him as wives, and he was feasted and +fêted by the nobility as the incarnation of Tezcatlipoca.</p> + +<p>On the day preceding the sacrifice the victim was placed on one of the +royal canoes, and accompanied by his four wives, was rowed to the other +side of the lake. That evening his wives bade him farewell, and he was +stripped of his gorgeous apparel. He was then conducted to a teocalli +some three miles from the city of Mexico. In scaling this he threw away +the wreaths of flowers with which he had been adorned, and broke in +pieces the musical instruments with which he had amused his hours of +captivity. Crowds thronged from the city to behold the act of sacrifice. +On reaching the summit of the teocalli the victim was met by six +priests, five of whom led him to the sacrificial stone, a great block of +jasper with a convex surface. On this he was placed by the five priests, +who secured his head, arms, and legs, whilst the officiating priest, +robed in a blood-red mantle, dexterously opened his breast with a sharp +flint knife. He then inserted his hand into the gaping wound, and +tearing out the still palpitating heart, held it aloft towards the sun. +Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> he cast the bleeding offering into a vessel containing burning +copal, which lay at the feet of the image of Tezcatlipoca. A species of +sermon was then delivered by one of the priests to the people in which +he drew a moral from the fate of the victim illustrative of the +inevitable conclusion of all human pleasure by the hand of death.</p> + +<p>Huitzilopochtli had also a representative sacrificed every year who had +to take part in a sort of war-dance immediately before his immolation, +and a woman was annually sacrificed to Centeotl, the maize-goddess. +Before her death she took part in several symbolic representations which +were expressions of the various processes in the growth of the harvest. +The day before her sacrifice she sowed maize in the streets, and on the +arrival of midnight she was decapitated and flayed. A priest arrayed +himself in the still warm skin and engaged in mimic combat with soldiers +who were scattered through the streets. Part of the skin was then +carried to the temple of Centeotl the Son, where a priest made a mask of +it in the likeness of the presiding deity, and afterwards sacrificed +four captives in honour of the occasion. The skin was then carried to +the frontiers of the empire, and buried. It was supposed that its +presence there acted as a talisman against invasion.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>We have before described the sacrifices of children to Tlaloc. Even more +gruesome were the awful doings at the festival of Xiuhtecutli, when the +unhappy victims were half-roasted and finally despatched by having their +hearts torn out. Cannibal feasts often followed these sacrifices—feasts +which were the more horrible in that they were accompanied by all the +accessories of a high standard of civilisation; but it must be +remembered that their purport was essentially symbolic, and in no way +partook of the nature of the orgies of flesh-famished savages.</p> + +<p>When the great temple of Huitzilopochtli was dedicated in 1486, the +chain of victims sacrificed on that occasion extended for the length of +two miles. In this terrible massacre the hearts of no less than seventy +thousand human beings were offered up! In the light of such appalling +wickedness it is difficult to blame the Spanish conquerors of Anahuac in +their zeal to blot out the worship of the deities whom they designated +'horrible demons.' These victims were nearly always captive warriors of +rival nations, and it was on rare occasions only that native Mexicans +were led to the stone of sacrifice unless, indeed, they were +malefactors.</p> + +<p>The great jubilee festival, which was celebrated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> every fifty-two years +throughout the empire, marked the coincidence of four times thirteen +solar and four times thirteen lunar years. This the Mexicans called a +'sheaf of years,' and when the first day of the fifty-third year dawned, +the ceremony of <i>Toxilmolpilia</i>, or 'the binding-up of years,' was held. +Priests and people gazed feverishly at the Pleiades to see if they would +pass the zenith. Should they do so the world would hold on its course +for another similar period; if not, extinction would instantly follow. +Fire was kindled upon a victim's breast by the friction of wood, and +whenever it was alight the prisoner's heart was plucked out, and along +with his body was consumed upon a pile of wood kindled by the new fire. +As the flames ascended, and it was seen that the Pleiades had crossed +the zenith, cries of joy burst from the assembled people below. Faggots +were lighted at the sacred pyre, and domestic fires rekindled from them. +Humanity had been respited for a generation.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to believe that a people so imbrued in a religion of +bloodshed could have been punctilious in matters of morality, and it is +still more difficult to believe the evidence of Sahagun and Clavigero +concerning their personal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> piety. It seems certain, however, that as a +race the Aztecs were austerely moral, pious, truth-loving, and loyal as +citizens, and even the sanguinary priests do not appear to have reaped +any benefit from their terrible offices. All the evidence would seem to +show that it was the belief in the existence of cruel and insatiable +gods which rendered the priests and people alike callous and insensible +to the taking of human life, and this is the more easily understood when +it is remembered that the Aztecs had at a comparatively late period +emerged from a state of migratory savagery into the heirship of an +ancient and complex civilisation.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER IV</span></p> + +<p class="center">THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The civilisation of the Ancient Peruvians, although in many ways +analogous to that of the Aztecs, was strangely dissimilar in some of its +aspects. The peoples of the two empires were totally unaware of each +other's existence, and were divided by dense tracts of mountain, plain, +and forest, where the most intense savagery prevailed. It seems probable +that the Peruvian culture had its origin in the region of Lake Titicaca, +and that it was of an indigenous character admits of little doubt. Like +the Mexicans, the Peruvians had displaced an older civilisation and an +older race. What was the nature of that civilisation, and thanks to what +people it flourished, it is at present impossible to say. Scattered over +the surface of the Peruvian slope are Cyclopean ruins, the sole remnants +of the works of a more primeval people. These ruins are chiefly to be +found in the neighbourhood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> of Lake Titicaca and Cuzco, the ancient +metropolis of the Incas. Whatever may have been the architectural +ability of this ancient people, the usurpers had little to learn from +them in this respect, or, more strictly speaking, having borrowed their +methods, continued faithful to them. The temples and mansions of the +Peruvians were massive and handsome, but for the most part covered only +with a thatch of Indian maize straw. They made long, straight, +macadamised roads which they pushed with surprising engineering skill +through tunnelled mountains, spanning seemingly impassable gorges with +marvellously constructed bridges. The temples and the palaces of the +Incas were adorned with gold and silver ornaments of fabulous value and +skilful design. Sumptuous baths, supplied with hot and cold water by +means of pipes laid in the earth, were to be found in the houses of the +aristocracy, and a high state of comfort and luxury prevailed.</p> + +<p>To describe the social polity of the Peruvians is to describe their +religion, for the two were one and the same. The empire of Peru was the +most absolute theocracy the world has ever seen, much more absolute, for +example, than that of Israel under the Judges. The Inca was the direct +representative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> of the sun upon earth. He was the head, the very +keystone of a socio-religious edifice to equal which in intricacy of +design and organisation the entire history of man has no parallel to +offer.</p> + +<p>The Inca was the head of a colossal bureaucracy which had ramifications +into the very homes of the people themselves. Thus after the Inca came +the governors of provinces, who were of the blood-royal; then officials +were placed above ten thousand families, a thousand families, a hundred, +and even ten families, upon the principle that the rays of the sun enter +everywhere. Personal freedom was a thing unknown. Each individual was +under direct surveillance, as it were, branded and numbered like the +herds of llamas which were the special property of the sun incarnate, +the Inca. Rules and regulations abounded in a manner unheard of even in +police-ridden Prussia, and no one had the opportunity in this vast +social machine of thinking or acting for himself. His walk in life was +marked out for him from the time he was five years of age, and even the +woman he was to marry was selected for him by the responsible officials; +the age at which he should enter the matrimonial state being fixed at +not earlier than twenty-four years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> in the case of a man and eighteen in +that of a woman. Even the place of his birth was indicated by a coloured +ribbon (which he dared not remove) tied round his head.</p> + +<p>The Peruvian legend of the coming to earth of the sun-race, of whom the +Inca was held to be the direct descendant, told how two beings, Manco +Capac and Mama Ogllo or Oullo, the offspring of the Sun and Moon, +descended from heaven in the region of Lake Titicaca. They had received +commands from their parent, the sun-god, to traverse the country until +they came to a spot where a golden wedge they possessed should sink into +the ground, and at this place to found a culture-centre. The wedge +disappeared at Cuzco, which Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega (the most +important of the ancient chroniclers of Peru) interprets as meaning +'navel,' or, in twentieth-century idiom, 'Hub of the Universe,' but +which possibly possesses a more exact rendering in the words 'cleared +space.'</p> + +<p>The city founded, Manco Capac instructed the men in the arts of +civilisation, and his consort busied herself in teaching the women the +domestic virtues, as weaving and spinning. Leaving behind them as +earthly representatives their son and daughter, they reascended to +heaven,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> and from the children they left upon earth the race of Incas +was said to have sprung. Thus it was that all Peruvian monarchs must +marry their sisters, as it was not permissible to defile the offspring +of the blood of the Son by mortal union—the breaking of which law +assisted in the ruin of the Peruvian empire.</p> + +<p>Like the Mexicans, the Peruvians appear to have acknowledged the +existence of a Supreme Being. The attributes of this Supreme Being, +through the fostering care of a special cultus, soon developed the rank +of deities, each having a strongly marked identity.</p> + +<p>The most important individual deities next to the Sun were Viracocha and +Pachacamac, and these, curiously enough, were deities who had been +admitted to the Peruvian pantheon from a still older faith.</p> + +<p>The name Viracocha was, besides being the specific appellation of a +certain deity, a generic name for divine beings. It signifies 'Foam of +the Water,' thus alluding to the legend that the god had arisen out of +the depths of Lake Titicaca. On his appearance from the sacred waters +Viracocha created the sun, moon, and stars, and mapped out for them the +courses which they were to hold in the heavens. He then created<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> men +carved out of stone statues made by himself, and bade them follow him to +Cuzco. Arrived there he collected the inhabitants, and placed over them +one, Allca Vica, who subsequently became the ancestor of the Incas. He +then returned into Lake Titicaca, into the waters of which he +disappeared.</p> + +<p>It is evident that this legend clashes strongly with that of the solar +origin of the Incas, and it would seem to have been put forward by a +rival priesthood which had survived the introduction of solar worship, +but which was not powerful enough to combat it.</p> + +<p>Viracocha was usually represented as a god bearded with water-rushes, +and this hirsute adornment is so far significant in that it may have +some connection with the older legends of the Peruvians which tell of a +white and bearded race which advanced to Cuzco, the centre of +civilisation, from the regions of Lake Titicaca. He is also spoken of as +being without flesh or bone, yet swift in movement, and this description +does not leave us long in doubt as to his real nature. He was the +water-god, the fertiliser of all plant life. In the somewhat arid +country surrounding Lake Titicaca that great body of water would +undoubtedly come to be regarded as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> the generator of all fertility to be +found in its vicinity. Hence Viracocha's origin. His consort was his +sister Cocha, the lake itself. He, like Tlaloc among the Mexicans, had a +penchant for human sacrifice, but his worship was by no means so +sanguinary as was that of his Mexican prototype.</p> + +<p>We must then regard Viracocha as the god of a faith anterior to the +sun-worship which obtained in Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest. +But we shall also be forced to admit that Pachacamac (whose name we +bracketed with that of Viracocha a few paragraphs back), although a +member of the Peruvian pantheon and a great god, was but there on +sufferance. The name Pachacamac signifies 'earth-generator,' and the +primitive centres of the worship of this deity were in the valleys of +Lurin and Rimac, near the city of Lima. In the latter once stood a great +temple to Pachacamac, the ruins of which, alone, now remain. Pachacamac +would seem to have borne the reputation of a great civiliser, and to +some extent he usurped the claims of Viracocha to this honour. +Viracocha, so runs the legend, was defeated by him in combat, and fled, +whereupon the victor created a new world more to his liking by the +simple expedient of transferring the race of men then upon earth into +wild animals, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> creating a new and higher humanity. He was also a god +of fertility, as on the remains of his temples fishes are to be found +evidently symbolising this attribute.</p> + +<p>The hostility of Pachacamac and Viracocha has a mythical significance. +Pachacamac was the god of volcanoes, earthquakes, and subterranean fire, +and was therefore hostile to water. His worship was much more mysterious +than that of Viracocha. The Peruvians, in fact, regarded Pachacamac as a +dreaded and unseen deity, at whose mutterings in the centre of the earth +they prostrated themselves in dread. Rimac, indeed, where the worship of +this god had its focus, means 'the speaker,' 'the murmurer,' and a kind +of oracular character appears ultimately to have been associated with +the name of this terrible deity, who on occasion demanded to be appeased +by human sacrifice.</p> + +<p>The myth of Pacari Tambo, the 'house of the dawn,' a legend of the +Collas, a tribe of mountaineers dwelling to the south-west of Cuzco, +throws some light on this strife between Viracocha and Pachacamac. Four +brothers and sisters (runs the legend) issued one day from the caverns +of Pacari Tambo. The eldest ascended a mountain, and cast stones to all +the cardinal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> points of the compass to show that he had taken possession +of the land. The other three were averse to this, especially the +youngest, who was the most cunning of all. By dint of persuasion he +managed to get the obnoxious brother to enter a cave. As soon as he had +done so he closed the mouth of the cave with a great stone, and +imprisoned him there for ever. He then, on pretence of seeking his lost +brother, persuaded the second to ascend a high mountain, from which he +cast him, and, as he fell, by dint of magic art changed him into a +stone. The third brother, having no desire to share the fate of the +other two, then fled. The first brother appears to be the oldest +religion, that of Pachacamac; the second, that of an intermediate +fetishism, or stone worship; and the third, Viracocha. The fourth is the +worship of the Sun, pure and simple, the youngest brother, but the +victor over the other older faiths of the land. This is proved by the +circumstance that the name applied to the youngest brother is Pirrhua +Manca, an equivalent to that of Manco Capac, the Son of the Sun.</p> + +<p>This, however, does not altogether tally with what might be called the +'official' legend, the myth promulgated by the Incas themselves. +According to this the Sun had three sons, Viracocha,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> Pachacamac, and +Manco Capac. This stroke of policy at once blended all three religions; +but by another stroke of politic genius, the earthly power was vested in +Manco Capac, the other two deities being placed in subordinate +positions, where they were concerned chiefly with the workings of +nature. To Manco Capac, and his representatives, the Incas, alone, was +left the dominion of mankind.</p> + +<p>We will now pass to a consideration of the minor deities of the Peruvian +mythology. These were numerous, and had been mostly evolved from nature +forces and natural phenomena. Among the more important was Chasca, the +planet Venus, the 'long-haired,' the 'Page of the Sun.' Cuycha, the +rainbow, was the servant of the sun and moon. He was represented in a +private chapel of his own, contiguous to that of the Sun, by large +plates of gold so fired as to represent the various colours in the +prismatic hues of the rainbow. Fire, also, was an object of profound +veneration with the Peruvians, derived, as it was believed to be, from +the sun. Its preservation was scrupulously attended to in the Temple of +the Sun and in the House of the Virgins of the Sun, of which an account +will be found in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>Catequil was the god of thunder. He is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> represented as possessing a club +and sling, the latter evidently being intended to symbolise the +thunderbolt. He was a servant of the Sun, and had three distinct +forms—Chuquilla (thunder), Catuilla (lightning), and Intiallapa +(thunderbolt). Temples were erected to him in which children and llamas +were sacrificed at his altars. The Peruvians had, and still have, a +great dread of thunder, and sought to pacify Catequil in every possible +manner. Their children were sacred to him as the supposed offspring of +the lightning.</p> + +<p>We now descend gradually and almost insensibly in the scale of deism, +until little by little we reach a condition of gross idolatry, not far +removed from that still practised by many African tribes. Here we find +even vegetables adored as symbols of sustenance. The potato was +glorified under the appellation of acsumama, and the maize as saramama. +Trees partook of divine attributes, and we seem to see in this condition +of things a state analogous to the reverence paid by the early Greeks +and Romans to Sylvanus and his train, and the vivification of trees by +the presence within them of dryads.</p> + +<p>Certain animals were treated with much reverence by the Peruvians. Thus +we find the serpent, especially Urcaguay, the keeper of subterranean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +gold, an object of great veneration. The condor or vulture of the Andes +Mountains was the messenger or Mercury of the Sun, and he held the same +place on the sceptre of the Incas as the eagle on the sceptre of the +Emperor of Germany or Russia. Whales and sharks were also worshipped by +the people who lived near the sea.</p> + +<p>But in all this nature and animal worship it is difficult to detect a +totemic origin.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The basis of totemism is the idea of blood-kinship +with an animal or plant, which idea in the course of generations evolves +into an exaggerated respect, and finally (under conditions favourable +for development) into a full-blown mythology. At first it would appear +as if the perfect organisation of the Peruvian state and its peculiar +marriage laws had originated in a condition of totemism; but had +totemism ever entered into the constitution of the Peruvian religion at +any period of its development, it would have left as deep an impression +upon it as it did in the case of the Egyptian religion—that is, some of +the more important deities would have betrayed a totemic origin. That +they betray an origin wholly naturalistic there is no room for doubt. +And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> here the root difference between the Mexican and Peruvian +mythologies may be pointed out—that although both systems had grown up +from various constituents grouping themselves around the central worship +of the Sun, the constituents of the Aztec religion were almost wholly +totemic, whereas those of the Peruvian religion were naturalistic.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>But the factor of fetishism was not wanting in the construction of the +Peruvian religion. All that was sacred, from the sun himself to the tomb +of a righteous person, was <i>Huaca</i>, or sacred. The chief priest of Cuzco +was designated Huacapvillac, or 'he who speaks with sacred beings,' but +the principal use to which the term <i>Huaca</i> was put was in reference to +objects of metal, wood, and stone, which cannot be better described than +as closely resembling those African fetishes so common in our museums. +These differed considerably in size. The reverence for them was probably +of prehistoric origin, and in this cultus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> we have the second brother +whom Pirrhua Manca changed into a stone. They were believed by the +Peruvians to be the veritable dwelling-places of spirits. Many of these +Huacas were public property, and had gifts of flocks of llamas dedicated +to them. The majority, however, were private property.</p> + +<p>It will be necessary to mention one more deity. This is Supay, god of +the dead, who dwelt in a dreary underworld. He was the Pluto of Peruvian +mythology, and is usually portrayed as an open-mouthed monster of +voracious appetite, into whose maw are thrown the souls of the departed.</p> + +<p>For the study of the worship of old Peru the materials are less +plentiful than in the case of the Mexican mythology. Stratum upon +stratum of belief is discovered, like those in the ruins of some ancient +city where each yard of earth holds the story of a dynasty. To the +student of comparative religion an exhaustive study of the complex +mythology of the ancient Peruvians offers an almost unparalleled +opportunity for comparison with and elucidation of other mythologies, +since in it the process of its evolution is exhibited with greater +clearness than in the case of any other belief, ancient or modern.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER V</span></p> + +<p class="center">PERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>With the Peruvians, as with the Mexicans, paradise was a preserve of the +aristocrats. The poor might languish in the gloomy shades of the Hades +presided over by Supay, Lord of the Dead, but for the Incas and their +immediate relatives, by whom was embraced the entire nobility, the +Mansions of the Sun were retained, where they might dwell with the Sun, +their father, in undisturbed felicity. In a community where everything +was ordered with military exactitude, sin meant disobedience, and +consequently death. Indeed it took the form of direct blasphemy against +the Inca, and was thus stripped of the purely ethical sense it holds for +a free population. The sinner expiated his crime at once, and was +consigned to the grey shades of the underworld, there to pass the same +nebulous existence as his more meritorious companions. Some writers upon +Peru refer to a belief on the part of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> people in a place of +retribution where the wicked would expiate their offences by ages of +arduous toil. But there is little ground for the acceptance of these +statements.</p> + +<p>Strictly speaking, there was no priesthood in Peru. The ecclesiastical +caste consisted of the Inca and his relatives, who were also known as +Incas. These assumed all the principal positions in the national +religion, but were unable, of course, to fill all the lesser provincial +posts. These were undertaken by the priests of the local deities, who +were at the same time priests of the imperial deities, a policy which +permitted the conquered peoples to retain their own form of worship, and +at the same time led them to recognise the paramountcy of the religion +of the Incas. Nothing could be more intense than the devotion shown by +all ranks of the population to the person of the Inca. He was the sun +incarnate upon earth, and his presence must be entered with humble mien +and beggarly apparel, and a further show of humility must also be made +by carrying a bundle upon the back.</p> + +<p>The High Priest, who has been already alluded to as holding the title of +Huacapvillac, or 'He who converses with divine beings!' also held the +more general one of Villac Oumau, or 'Chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> Sacrificer.' He derived his +position solely from the Inca, but made all inferior appointments, and +was answerable to the monarch alone. He was invariably an Inca of +exalted rank, as were all the priests who officiated at Cuzco, the +capital. Only those ecclesiastics of the higher grades wore any +distinguishing garb, the lower order dressing in the same manner as the +people.</p> + +<p>The existence of a Peruvian priest was an arduous one. It was necessary +for him to master a ritual as complex as any ever evolved by a +hierarchy. At regular intervals he was relieved by his fellow-priests, +who were organised in companies, each of which took duty for a specified +period of the day or night. The duties of the Peruvian priesthood, +whilst even more exacting than that of the Mexican, did not appear to +have been lightened in a similar manner by the acquirement of knowledge, +or by mental exercise of any description, and this may be partly +accounted for by the fact that the art of writing was discouraged among +them, probably on the assumption that the whole duty of man culminated +in unfailing obedience to the Inca and his representatives, and that the +acquirement of further knowledge was the work of supererogation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>It is deeply interesting to notice (isolated as was everything Peruvian) +that it was in this far corner of America that the native evolution of +the temple took place, as distinguished from the altar or teocalli. +Originally the Peruvian priesthood had adopted that pyramidal form of +structure now familiar to us as that in use by the Mexicans, but as time +went on they began to roof over these high altars, and this practice at +length culminated in the erection of huge temples like that at Cuzco.</p> + +<p>The great temple of Cuzco, known as <i>Coricancha</i>, or 'The Place of +Gold,' was the greatest and most magnificent example of Peruvian +ecclesiastical architecture. The exterior gave an impression of +massiveness and solidity rather than of grace. Round the outer +circumference of the building ran a frieze of the purest gold, and the +interior was profusely ornamented with plates of the same metal. The +doorways were formed from huge monoliths, and the whole aspect of the +building was Cyclopean. In the dressing of stone and the fitting of +masonry the Peruvians were expert, and the placing of immense blocks of +stone appears to have had no difficulties for them. So accurately indeed +were these fitted that the blade of a knife could not be inserted +between them. Inside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> the Temple of the Sun was placed a great plate of +gold, upon which was engraved the features of the god of the luminary, +and this was so placed that the rays of the rising sun fell full upon +it, and bathed it in a flood of radiance. The scintillations from a +thousand gems, with which its surface was enriched, lent to it a +brilliance which eye-witnesses declare to have been almost +insupportable. Enthroned around this dazzling object were the mummified +bodies of the monarchs of the Inca dynasty, giving to the place an air +of holy mystery which must have deeply impressed the pious and simple +people. The roof was composed of rafters of choice woods, but was merely +covered in by a thatching of maize straw. The principle of the arch had +never been thoroughly grasped by the Peruvians, and that of adequate +roofing appears to have been equally unknown to them.</p> + +<p>Surrounding this, the principal temple, were others dedicated to the +moon; Cuycha, the rainbow; Chasca, the planet Venus; the Pleiades; and +Catequil, the thunder-god. In that of the moon, the mother of the Incas, +a plate of silver, similar to that which represented the face of the sun +in his own sanctuary, was placed, and was surrounded by the mummified +forms of the dead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> queens of the Incas. In that of Cuycha, the rainbow, +as already explained, a golden representation of the arch of heaven was +to be found, and the remaining buildings in the precincts of the great +temple were set apart for the residences of the priests.</p> + +<p>The most ancient of the temples of Peru was that on the island of +Titicaca, to which extraordinary veneration was paid. Everything in +connection with it was sacred in the extreme, and in the surrounding +maize-fields was annually raised a crop which was distributed among the +various public granaries, in order to leaven the entire crop of the +country with sanctity.</p> + +<p>All the utensils in use in these temples were of solid gold and silver. +In that of Cuzco twelve large jars of silver held the sacred grain, and +censers, ewers, and even the pipes which conducted the water-supply +through the earth to the temple, were of silver. In the surrounding +gardens, the hoes, spades, and other implements in use were also of +silver, and hundreds of representations of plants and animals executed +in the precious metals were to be found in them. These facts are vouched +for by numerous eye-witnesses, among whom was Pedro Pizarro himself, and +subsequent historians have seen no reason to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> regard their descriptions +as in any way untrustworthy.</p> + +<p>As in Mexico, so in Peru, the Spanish conquerors were astonished to find +among the religious customs of the people practices which appeared to +them identical with some of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic faith. +Among these were confession, communion, and baptism. Confession appears +to have been practised in a somewhat loose and irregular manner, but +penance for ill-doing was apportioned, and absolution granted. At the +festival of Raymi, which we will later examine, bread and wine were +distributed in much the same manner as that prescribed in Christian +communities. Baptism also was practised. Some three months after birth +the child was plunged into water after having received its name. The +ceremony, however, appears to have partaken more of the nature of an +exorcism of evil spirits than of a cleansing from original sin.</p> + +<p>Like the ancient Egyptians, the Peruvians practised the art of embalming +the dead, but it does not appear that they did so with any idea in view +of corporeal resurrection as did the former. As to the method by which +they preserved the remains of the dead, authorities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> are not agreed, +some believing that the cold of the mountains to which the corpses were +subjected was sufficient to produce a state of mummification, and others +that a process akin to that of the Ancient Egyptians was gone through.</p> + +<p>Burnt offerings were very popular among the Peruvians. They were chiefly +made to the sun, and were, in general, not unlike those made by the +Semites.</p> + +<p>As with the Mexicans, the sacred dance was a striking feature of the +Peruvian religion. These choral dances were brought to a very high state +of perfection, and in the case of the common people were often wild and +full of the fire of abandoned fanaticism. The Incas, however, possessed +a dance of their own, which was sufficiently grave and stately. At great +festivals two choral dances and hymns were rendered to the sun, each +strophe of which ended with the cry of <i>Hailly</i>, or 'triumph.' Some of +those Peruvian hymns were preserved in the work of a Spanish composer, +who in 1555 wrote a mass, into the body of which he introduced these +curious waifs of American melody. That choral dances are still in favour +with the aborigines of Peru is proved by the evidence of Baron Eland<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +Nordenskjöld, who arrived (August 1907) from an eight months' +ethnological expedition to some of the Andes tribes. He states that the +'so-called civilised Indians—the Quichuas and Aymaras—living around +Titicaca ... have retained many customs unaltered or but slightly +modified since the time of the Incas.... Thus it was found that the +Indians often worship Christ and the Virgin Mary by dances, in which the +sun is used as the symbol for Christ, and the moon for the Virgin Mary.'</p> + +<p>With the Peruvians each month had its appropriate festival. The +solstices and equinoxes were of course the occasions of the most +remarkable of these, and four times a year the feast of Raymi or the +dance was celebrated with all the pomp and circumstance of which this +strange and bizarre civilisation was capable. The most important of +these was held in June, when nine days were given up to the celebration +of the Citoc Raymi, or gradually increasing sun. For three days previous +to this event all fasted, and no fire might be kindled in any house. On +the fourth great day the Inca, accompanied in procession by his court +and the people, who followed <i>en masse</i>, proceeded to the great square +to hail the rising sun. The scene must have been one of intense +brilliance. Clad in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> most costly robes, and sheltered beneath +canopies of cunning feather-work in which the gay plumage of tropical +birds was æsthetically arranged, the vast crowd awaited the rising of +the sun in eager silence. When he came, shouts of joy and triumph broke +from the multitude, and the cries of delight were swelled by the crash +of wild melody from a thousand instruments. Louder and louder arose the +joyous tumult, until topping the eastern mountains the luminary shone in +full splendour on his worshippers. The riot of sound culminated in a +mighty pæan of thanksgiving. Libations of maguey, or maize-spirit, were +made to the deity, after first having touched the sacred lips of the +Inca. Then marshalling itself once more in order of procession, all +pressed with one accord to the golden Temple of the Sun, where black +llamas were sacrificed, and a new fire kindled by means of a concave +mirror. Divested of their sandals the Inca and his suite spent some time +in prayer. Occasionally a human victim—a maiden or a beautiful +child—was offered up in sacrifice, but happily this was a rare +occurrence, and only took place on great public occasions, such as a +coronation, or the celebration of a national victory. These sacrifices +never ended in cannibal feasts, as did those of the Aztecs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> Grain, +flowers, animals, and aromatic gums were the usual sacrificial offerings +of the Peruvians.</p> + +<p>The Citua Raymi was the festival of the spring, and fell in September. +It was known as the Feast of Purification. The country must be purified +from pestilence, and to secure this, round cakes, kneaded in the blood +of children, were eaten. To secure this blood the children were merely +bled above the nose, and not slaughtered, as with the more ferocious +Aztecs—almost an example of the substitution of the part for the whole. +These cakes were also rubbed upon the doorways, and the people smeared +them all over their bodies as a preventive against disease. The circuit +of the state of Cuzco was then made by relays of armed Incas, who +planted their spears on the boundaries as talismans against evil. A +torchlight procession followed, after which the torches were cast into +the river as symbolic of the destruction of evil spirits.</p> + +<p>The festival of the Aymorai, or harvest, fell in May, when a statue made +of corn was worshipped under the name of Pirrhua, who seems to be an +admixture of Manco Capac and Viracocha in his rôle of fertiliser. The +fourth great festival, Capac Raymi, fell in December, when the +thunder-god shared the honours paid to the Sun. It was then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> that the +younger generation of Incas after a vigorous training received an honour +equivalent to that of knighthood.</p> + +<p>The Peruvians possessed a fully developed conventual system. A number of +maidens, selected for their beauty and their birth, were dedicated to +the deity as 'Virgins of the Sun.' Under the guidance of <i>mamacones</i>, or +matrons, these maidens were instructed in the nature of their religious +duties, which chiefly consisted in the weaving of priestly garments and +temple-hangings. They also watched over the sacred fire which had been +kindled at the feast of Raymi. No communication with the outside world +was permitted to them, and detection in a love-affair meant living +burial, the execution of the lover, and the entire destruction of the +place of his birth. In the convent of Cuzco were lodged between one and +two thousand maidens of the royal blood, and at a marriageable age these +became brides of the Sun in his incarnate shape of the Inca, the most +beautiful being selected for the harem of the monarch.</p> + +<p>Sorcery and divination were frequently employed by the Peruvians, and +the <i>Huacarimachi</i>, 'They who make the gods speak,' were held in great +veneration by the ignorant masses. The oracles in the valleys of Lima +and Rimac were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> much resorted to, and auguries of all descriptions were +in popular favour.</p> + +<p>The Peruvians were ignorant of morality as we appreciate the term. That +they were, however, a most moral people there is every evidence. But as +has been before pointed out, all crime was a direct offence against the +majesty of the Inca, who, as viceroy of the Sun on earth, had been +blasphemed by the breaking of his law. Under such a régime the true +significance of sin was bound to be obscured, if not altogether lost. +Terror took the place of conscience, and the necessity for implicit +obedience gave no scope to the true moral sense—probably to the +detriment of the entire community.</p> + +<p>The political and religious history of Peru is unique in the annals of +mankind, and its study offers a startling instance of what prolonged +isolation may work in the mind of man. That the Peruvian mind, isolated +in a remote part of the world as it was, was never wholly blind to the +existence of a great and beneficent creative Power, the degradation of a +cramping theocracy notwithstanding, is triumphant proof that the +knowledge of that Power is a thing inalienable from the mind of man.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">CHAPTER VI</span></p> + +<p class="center">THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The space at my disposal for dealing with this most difficult of all +questions is such as will enable me only to outline its salient points. +As I pointed out at the beginning of the first chapter, the question of +the origins of the American religions was almost identical with that of +the origins of the American race itself.</p> + +<p>That the Red Man was not the aboriginal inhabitant of the American +continent, but supplanted a race with Eskimo affinities, is extremely +probable. At all events, the 'Skraelings,' with whom the early Norse +discoverers of America had dealings, were not described by them as in +any way resembling the North American Indian of later times. If this be +granted—and Indian folklore would seem to strengthen the hypothesis—we +must then find some other home for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> Red Man than the prairies of +North-east America for the five centuries between the Norse and +Columbian discoveries. He may, of course, have dwelt in the north-west +of the continent, a solution of the problem which appears to me highly +feasible. That his affinities are Mongolian it would be absurd to +dispute; but—and this is of supreme importance—these affinities are of +so archaic an origin as to preclude all likelihood of any important or +numerous Asiatic immigration occurring for many centuries before either +the Norse or Columbian discovery.</p> + +<p>Coming to a period within the ken of history, there is just the +possibility that Mexico, or some adjacent country of Central America, +was visited by Asiatic Buddhist priests in the fifth century. The story +is told in the Chinese annals of the wanderings of five Buddhist +priests, natives of Cabul, who journeyed to America (which they +designate Fusang) <i>viâ</i> the Aleutian Islands and Kamchatka, a region +then well known to the Chinese. Their description of the country, +however, is no more convincing than are the arguments of their +protagonist, Professor Fryer of San Francisco, who sees Asiatic +influence in various elephant-headed gods and Buddha-esque statuary in +the National Mexican Museum. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> cannot be too strongly insisted upon +that any foreign influence arriving in the American continent in +pre-Columbian times was not sufficiently powerful to have more than a +merely transitory influence upon the customs or religious beliefs of the +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>This leads us to the conclusion that the religions of Mexico and Peru +were of indigenous origin. Any attempt to prove them offshoots of +Chinese or other Asiatic religion on the basis of a similarity of art or +custom is doomed to failure.</p> + +<p>But however satisfactory it may be to brush aside unsubstantial theories +which aspire to the honour of facthood, it would be a thousand pities to +ignore the numerous intensely interesting myths which have grown up +round the idea of foreign contact with the American races in +pre-Columbian times. Let us briefly examine these, and attempt to +discover any point of contact between them and similar American myths.</p> + +<p>I have previously alluded to the myth of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was +a Mexican deity, but in reality he was one of the older pre-Aztecan gods +of Anahuac. He is sometimes represented as a being of white complexion +and fair-bearded, with blue eyes, and altogether of European appearance. +It will be remembered that on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> entrance into Anahuac of Tezcatlipoca +he waged a war with that god in which he was worsted, and eventually +forced to depart for 'Tlapallan' in a canoe, promising to return at some +future date. It will also be recollected how the legend of +Quetzalcoatl's return influenced the whole of Montezuma's policy towards +the Spanish conquistadores, and how the fear of his vengeance was ever +before the Aztec priesthood. Quetzalcoatl, strangely enough, was reputed +to have sailed for 'Tlapallan' from almost the identical spot first set +foot upon by Cortes on his arrival on the Mexican coast.</p> + +<p>The Max Müller school of mythologists see nothing in Quetzalcoatl but a +god of the wind. With them Minos was a myth. So was his palace with its +labyrinth until its recent discovery at Knossos. I am fain to see in +Quetzalcoatl a real personality—a culture-hero; but I will suggest +nothing concerning his non-American nationality. At the same time it +will be interesting to examine, firstly, those European myths which +speak of men who set out for America; and, secondly, those American +myths which speak of the existence of 'white men,' or 'white tribes,' +dwelling upon the American continent.</p> + +<p>Passing over the sagas of the Norse discovery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> of America, which are by +no means mythical, we come to the Celtic story of the finding of the +great continent. When the Norsemen drove the Irish Celts from Iceland, +these fugitives sought refuge in 'Great Ireland,' by which, it is +supposed, is intended America. The Irish <i>Book of Lismore</i> tells of the +voyage of St. Brendan, abbot of Cluainfert in Ireland, to an island in +the ocean destined for the abode of saints, and of his numerous +discoveries during a seven years' cruise. The Norse sagas which tell of +this 'Great Ireland' speak of the language of its inhabitants as +'resembling Irish,' but as the Irish were the nation with which the +Norsemen were best acquainted, this 'resemblance' appears to smack of +the linguistic classification of the British sailorman who applies the +term 'Portugee' to all languages not his own. The people of this country +were attired in white dresses, 'and had poles borne before them on which +were fastened lappets, and who shouted with a loud voice.'</p> + +<p>But another Celtic people claimed the honour of first setting foot upon +American soil. The Welsh Prince Madoc in the year 1170 sailed westwards +with a fleet of several ships, and coming to a large and fertile +country, landed one hundred and twenty men. Returning to Wales<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> he once +more set out with ten vessels, but concerning his further adventures +Powell and Hakluyt are silent. Nor does the authority of the bard +Meredith ap Rees concerning him rest upon any more substantial basis.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +Stories of Welsh-speaking Indians, too, are not uncommon. Two slaves +whom the Norsemen of 1007 sent on a foraging expedition into the +interior of Massachusetts were Scots, although their names—Haki and +Hakia—hardly sound Celtic.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>Innumerable are the legends of 'white Indians'—the 'white Panis,'<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +dwelling south of the Missouri, the 'Blanco Barbus, or white Indians +with beards,' the Boroanes, the Guatosos of Costa Rica, the Malapoques +in Brazil, the Guaranies in Paraguay, the Guiacas of Guiana, the +Scheries of La Plata—but modern anthropology scarcely bears out the +stories of the 'whiteness' of these tribes. On a similar footing are the +travellers' tales concerning the existence of Indian Jews—to prove +which Lord Kingsborough squandered a fortune and compiled a work on +Mexican antiquities the parallel of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> which has not been known in the +entire history of bibliography.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>More convincing are the Mexican and Peruvian legends concerning the +appearance of white and bearded culture-bringers. These legends are, it +must be admitted, shadowy enough, but are so persistent and resemble +each other so closely as to give some grounds for the supposition that +at some period in the history of Mexico or Peru a member or members of +the 'Caucasian' race may have stumbled into these civilisations through +the accidents of shipwreck. But it is exceedingly dangerous to premise +anything of the sort; and, as has been said before, the influence of +such wanderers could only have been infinitesimal.</p> + +<p>Enough, then, has been said to show that the origins of the religions of +Mexico and Peru could not have been of any other than an indigenous +nature. Their evolution took place wholly upon American soil, and if +resemblances appear in their systems to the mythologies or religions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +Asia, they are explicable by that law now so well known to +anthropologists and students of comparative religion, that, given +similar circumstances, and similar environments, the evolution of the +religious beliefs of widely separated peoples will proceed upon similar +lines.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Mexican Mythology</span></span></p> + +<p class="center">(<i>Those authorities marked with an asterisk are also applicable to the +subject of Peruvian Mythology</i>).</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Sahagun</span>, <i>Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España</i>. (English +translation edited for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham +in 1880.)</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Torquemada</span>, <i>Los veynte y un libros Rituales y Monarchia Yndiana</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Ixtlilxochitl</span>, <i>'Historia Chichimeca' and 'Relaciones' in</i> Lord +Kingsborough's <i>Mexican Antiquities</i>, vol. ix.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Prescott</span>, <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Humboldt</span>, <i>Vues des Cordillères et Monuments des Peuples de +l'Amérique</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Clavigero</span>, <i>Storia antica del Messico</i>. (English translation by +Charles Cullen. London, 1787.)</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Brasseur de Bourbourg</span>, <i>Histoires des Nations civilisées du +Mexique et de l'Amérique-centrale</i>, and <i>Quatre Lettres sur le +Mexique</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Bancroft</span>, <i>Native Races of the Pacific States of North America</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Kingsborough</span>, <i>Antiquities of Mexico</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Réville</span>, <i>The Hibbert Lectures</i>, 1884.</p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Payne</span>, <i>History of the New World</i>, vols. i. and ii.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Tylor</span>, <i>Anahuac</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Brinton</span>, <i>The Myths of the New World</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Winsor</span>, <i>Narrative and Critical History of America</i>.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Peruvian Mythology</span></span></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Montesinos</span>, <i>Mémoires historiques sur l'Ancien Perou</i>. (Translated +from the Spanish MS. in Ternaux-Compans, vol. xvii.)</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span><span class="smcap">Garcilasso de la Vega</span>, <i>Comentarios reales</i>. (English translation +for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham. London, 1869, +1871.)</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Lacroix</span>, '<i>Perou</i>,' in vol. iv. of <i>L'Amérique</i> in <i>L'Univers +Pittoresque</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Hutchinson</span>, <i>Two Years in Peru, with Explorations of its +Antiquities</i>. London, 1873.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Prescott</span>, <i>Conquest of Peru</i>, 1848 (or better, Sonnenschein's new +edition, or that in Everyman's Library).</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Markham</span>, <i>A History of Peru</i>, 1892; and <i>Rites and Laws of the +Incas</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Lorente</span>, <i>Historia Antigua del Perú</i>, 1860-3.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="blockquot">The works of Prescott upon Mexico and Peru (which are perhaps the +most popular and accessible upon the antiquities of these +countries) are nevertheless sadly meagre in their accounts of the +respective mythologies of the Nahuatlaca and the Incas. Indeed in +each of them but a few pages is given to the faith of the +aborigines. In some later editions, however (notably in the recent +popular editions of Mr. Sonnenschein), excellent variorum notes +have been added by the editors. A great deal of Prescott's work is +now quite obsolete and misleading. The works of Mr. Brinton have +superseded them; but it is doubtful if Prescott will ever be +surpassed in narrative charm. The best English work on the subject +is Mr. Payne's <i>History of the New World called America</i>, cited +above, a work which is a veritable storehouse of knowledge upon +aboriginal America. These works are, however, rather too erudite +in tone for the general reader, and by no means easy to come by. A +most excellent catalogue of American historical and mythological +literature is published by Mr. Karl Hiersemann of Leipsic.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">Printed by T. and <span class="smcap">A. Constable</span>, Printers to His Majesty +at the Edinburgh University Press</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">FOOTNOTES:</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<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 fact of the rapid approximation of the European +colonists to the American type might, however, be quoted against this +view.</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> It must be borne in mind that the science and arts of the +Aztecs were almost immediately lost in consequence of the intolerance of +the Spanish Conquistadores.</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> An absolutely erroneous one.</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> The temple, with all its purlieus and courts, was named +<i>teopan</i>; the central pyramid, <i>teocalli</i>.</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> There is reason to believe, however, that the sacrifices of +the Aztecs were made not so much for the purpose of placating the gods +as for the imagined necessity of rejuvenating them and keeping them +alive. Of some of the sacrifices, at least, this is certain.</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 veneration of an animal or plant <i>which does not +identify a tribe</i> is not 'totemism' but 'naturalism,' or +nature-worship.</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> The evidence of Garcilasso would seem to show that the +early Peruvians possessed a totem-system; this, however, would appear to +have been by some process totally eliminated. It will be seen that I +differentiate between 'naturalism' and 'totemism.' 'Totemism' is the +adoption of an animal or plant symbol by a <i>tribe</i> originally for the +purpose of identification. It later grows into the belief in +blood-kinship with the symbol. 'Naturalism' is the worship of the wind, +the sun, or other natural phenomena.</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> The legend is the basis of some hundred of lines of bookish +fustian by Southey, who follows Hakluyt in making Mexico the theatre of +the prince's adventures.</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> <i>Antiquitates Americanæ.</i> Were they Picts?</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> Pawnees.</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> This monumental work, which, apart from its letterpress, +is exceedingly valuable in respect of numerous splendid plates +representing Aztec MSS., is in nine huge volumes, and was published in +London in 1831. Its original price was £175 coloured, and £120 +uncoloured. Its noble author sought to prove that the Mexicans were the +Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.</p></div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and +Peru, by Lewis Spence + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGIES--ANCIENT MEXICO, PERU *** + +***** This file should be named 36386-h.htm or 36386-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/3/8/36386/ + +Produced by David E. 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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: The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru + +Author: Lewis Spence + +Release Date: June 11, 2011 [EBook #36386] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGIES--ANCIENT MEXICO, PERU *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN + + THE MYTHOLOGIES OF + ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU + + + + +RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN. + + + ANIMISM. + By EDWARD CLODD, Author of _The Story of Creation_. + + PANTHEISM. + By JAMES ALLANSON PICTON, Author of _The Religion of the Universe_. + + THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA. + By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University + of Cambridge. + + THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE. + By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, Author + of _Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion_. + + ISLAM. + By SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E., late of H.M.'s High Court of + Judicature in Bengal, Author of _The Spirit of Islam_ and _The + Ethics of Islam_. + + MAGIC AND FETISHISM. + By Dr. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cambridge + University. + + THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. + By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, F.R.S. + + THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. + By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, late of the British Museum. + + BUDDHISM. 2 vols. + By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal + Asiatic Society. + + HINDUISM. + By Dr. L. D. BARNETT, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books + and MSS., British Museum. + + SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. + By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the _Oxford English + Dictionary_. + + CELTIC RELIGION. + By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at University College, + Aberystwyth. + + THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. + By CHARLES SQUIRE, Author of _The Mythology of the British + Islands_. + + JUDAISM. + By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge + University, Author of _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_. + + SHINTO. By W. G. ASTON, C.M.G. + + THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU. + By LEWIS SPENCE, M.A. + + THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS. + By Professor YASTROW. + + + + + THE MYTHOLOGIES + OF ANCIENT MEXICO + AND PERU + + By + LEWIS SPENCE + + + LONDON + ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD + 1907 + + + Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + + + + +FOREWORD + + +It is difficult to understand the neglect into which the study of the +Mexican and Peruvian mythologies has fallen. A zealous host of +interpreters are engaged in the elucidation of the mythologies of Egypt +and Assyria, but, if a few enthusiasts in the United States of America +be excepted, the mythologies of the ancient West have no following +whatsoever. That this little book may lead many to a fuller examination +of those profoundly interesting faiths is the earnest hope of one in +whose judgment they are second in importance to no other mythological +system. By a comparative study of the American mythologies the student +of other systems will reap his reward in the shape of many a parallel +and many an elucidation which otherwise would escape his notice; whilst +the general reader will introduce himself into a sphere of the most +fascinating interest--the interest in the attitude towards the eternal +verities of the peoples of a new and isolated world. L. S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS, 1 + + II. MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY, 9 + + III. THE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE + ANCIENT MEXICANS, 27 + + IV. THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS, 44 + + V. PERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP, 58 + + VI. THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE + UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA, 71 + + A LIST OF SELECT BOOKS BEARING ON THE + SUBJECT, 79 + + + + + THE MYTHOLOGIES OF + ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS + + +The question of the origin of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru +is unalterably associated with that of the origin of the native races of +America themselves--not that the two questions admit of simultaneous +settlement, but that in order to prove the indigenous nature of the +American mythologies it is necessary to show the extreme improbability +of Asiatic or European influence upon them, and therefore of relatively +late foreign immigration into the Western Hemisphere. As regards the +vexed question of the origin of the American races it has been thought +best to relegate all proof of a purely speculative or legendary +character to a chapter at the end of the book, and for the present to +deal with data concerning the trustworthiness of which there is little +division of opinion. + +The controversy as to the manner in which the American continent was +first peopled is as old as its discovery. For four hundred years +historians and antiquarians have disputed as to what race should have +the honour of first colonising the New World. To nearly every nation +ancient and modern has been credited the glory of peopling the two +Americas; and it is only within comparatively recent years that any +reasonable theory has been advanced in connection with the subject. It +is now generally admitted that the peopling of the American continent +must have taken place at a period little distant to the original +settlement of man in Europe. The geological epoch generally assumed for +the human settlement of America is the Pleistocene (Quaternary) in some +of its interglacial conditions; that is, in some of the recurrent +periods of mildness during the Great Ice Age. There is, however, a +possibility that the continent may have been peopled in Tertiary times. +The first inhabitants were, however, not of the Red Man type. + +Difficult as is this question, an even more difficult one has to be +faced when we come to consider the affinities of the races from whom the +Red Man is descended. It must be remembered that at this early epoch in +the history of mankind in all likelihood the four great types of +humanity were not yet fully specialised, but were only differentiated +from one another by more or less fundamental physiological +characteristics. That the Indians of America are descended from more +than one human type is proved by the variety of shapes exhibited in +their crania, and it is safe to assume that both Europe and Asia were +responsible for these early progenitors of the Red Man. At the period in +question the American continent was united to Europe by a land-bridge +which stretched by way of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroee Islands to +Northern Europe, and from the latter area there probably migrated to the +western continent a portion of that human type which has been designated +the Proto-European--precursors of that race from which was finally +evolved the peoples of modern Europe. + +When we come to the question of the settlement of America from the +Asiatic side we can say with more certainty that immigration proceeded +from that continent by way of Behring Strait, and was of a +Proto-Mongolian character, though the fact should not be lost sight of +that within a few hundred miles of the point of emigration there still +exists the remains of an almost purely Caucasian type in the Ainu of +Saghalien and the Kurile Islands. However, immigration on any extensive +scale must have been discontinued at a very early period, as on the +discovery of America the natives presented a highly specialised and +distinctive type, and bear such a resemblance one nation to another, as +to draw from all authorities the conclusion that they are of common +origin. + +According to all known anthropological standards the Amerind (as it has +been agreed to designate the American Indian) bears a close affinity to +the Mongolian races of Asia, and it must be admitted that the most +likely origin that can be assigned to him is one in which Asiatic, or to +be more exact, Mongolian blood preponderates. The period of his +emigration, which probably spread itself over generations, was in all +likelihood one at which the Mongolian type was not yet so fully +specialised as not to admit of the acquirement under specific conditions +of very marked structural and physiological attributes.[1] In recent +years large numbers of Japanese have settled in Mexico, and in the +native dress can hardly be distinguished from the Mexican peasants. + +Of course it would be unsafe to assume that, once settled in the +Western Hemisphere, its populations were subject to none of those +fluctuations or race-changes which are so marked a feature in the early +history of European and Asiatic peoples. It is thought, and with +justice, that some such race-movement convulsed the entire northern +division of the continent at a period comparatively near to that of the +Columbian discovery. Aztec history insists upon a prolonged migration +for the race which founded the Mexican Empire, and native maps are still +extant in several continental collections, which depict the routes taken +by the Aztec conquerors from Aztlan, and the Toltecs from Tlapallan, +their respective fatherlands in the north, to the Mexican Tableland. +This, at least, would appear to be worthy of notice: that the +'Skraelings' or native Americans mentioned in the accounts of the +tenth-century Norse discoverers of America, by the description given of +them, do not appear to be the same race as that which inhabited the New +England States upon their rediscovery. + +As regards the origin of the American mythologies it is difficult to +discover traces of foreign influence in the religion of either Mexico or +Peru. At the time of their subjugation by the Spaniards legends were +ripe in both countries of beneficent white and bearded men, who brought +with them a fully developed culture. The question of Asiatic influences +must not altogether be cast aside as an untenable theory; but it is well +to bear in mind that such influences, did they ever exist, must have +been of the most transitory description, and could have left but few +traces upon the religion of the peoples in question. If any such contact +took place it was merely of an accidental nature, and, when speaking of +faiths carried from Asia into America at the period of its original +settlement, it is first necessary to premise that Pleistocene Man had +already arrived at that stage of mental development in which the +existence of supernatural beings is recognised--a premise with which +modern anthropology would scarcely find itself in agreement. + +Almost exhaustive proof of the wholly indigenous nature of the American +religions is offered by the existence of the ruins of the large centres +of culture and civilisation which are found scattered through Yucatan +and Peru. These civilisations preceded those of the Aztecs and Incas by +a very considerable period, how long it is impossible in the present +state of our knowledge of the subject to say. Those huge, buried cities, +the Ninevehs and Thebeses of the West, have left not even a name, and +of the peoples who dwelt in them we are almost wholly ignorant. That +they were of a race cognate with the Aztecs and Toltecs appears probable +when we take into account the similarity of design which their +architecture bears to the later ruins of the Aztec structure. Yet there +is equally strong evidence to the contrary. At what epoch in the history +of the world these cities were erected it would at the present time be +idle to speculate. The recent discovery of a buried city in the +Panhandle region of Texas may throw some light upon this question, and +indeed upon the dark places of American archaeology as a whole. In the +case of the buried cities of Uxmal and Palenquee a great antiquity is +generally agreed upon. Indeed one writer on the subject goes so far as +to place their foundation at the beginning of the second Glacial Epoch! +He sees in these ruins the remnants of a civilisation which flourished +at a time when men, fleeing from the rigours of the glacial ice-cap, +huddled for warmth in the more central parts of the earth. It is +unnecessary to state that this is a wholly preposterous theory, but the +fact that the ruins of Palenquee are at the present time lost in the +depths of a tropic forest goes far to prove their great antiquity. + +Arguing, then, from this antiquity, we may be justified in assuming that +in these now buried cities the mythology of Mexico was partly evolved; +that it was handed down to the Aztec conquerors who entered the country +some four hundred years before its subjugation by Cortes, and that it +received additions from the tribal deities. In the case of the Peruvian +mythology we may argue a similar evolution, which, as we shall see +later, had been spread over a considerably shorter period. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY + + +The Mexican Empire at the period of its conquest by Cortes had arrived +at a standard of civilisation comparable with that of those dynasties +which immediately preceded the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt. The +government was an elective monarchy, but princes of the blood alone were +eligible for royal honours. A complex system of jurisdiction prevailed, +and a form of district and family government was in vogue which was +somewhat similar to that of the Anglo-Saxons. In the arts a high state +of perfection had been reached, and the Aztec craftsman appears to have +been a step beyond the slavish conventionalism of the ancient Egyptian +artist. In architecture the Mexicans were highly skilled, and their +ability in this respect aroused the wonder of their Spanish conquerors, +who, however, did not hesitate to raze to the ground the splendid +edifices they professed so much to admire. As road-builders and +constructors of aqueducts they chiefly excelled, and a perfect system of +posts was established on each of the great highways of the empire. + +With the Aztecs the art of writing took the form of hieroglyphs, which +in some ways resembled those of the ancient Egyptians; but they had not +at the period of their conquest by Cortes evolved a more convenient, and +cursive method, such as the hieratic or demotic scripts employed in the +Nile valley. In astronomical science they were surprisingly advanced and +exact. The system in use by them was wonderfully accurate. It is, +however, quite erroneous to suppose that it has affinities with any +Asiatic system. They divided the year into eighteen periods of twenty +days each, adding five supplementary days, and providing for +intercalation every half-century. Each month contained four weeks of +five days each, and each of the months had a distinct name. That the +Aztecs were possessed of exact astronomical instruments cannot be +proved; but in the thirteenth plate of Dupaix's _Monuments_, (Part II.) +there is a representation of a man holding to his face an instrument +which might or might not be a telescope.[2] The astronomical dial was +certainly in use among them, and astrology, and divination in its every +shape were frequently resorted to. + +In the manual arts the Aztecs were far advanced. Papermaking was in a +moderate state of perfection, and the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of +cotton were crafts in which they excelled. Feather-work of supreme +beauty was a staple article of manufacture, but in the metallic arts the +absence of iron had to be compensated for by an alloy of copper, +siliceous powder, and tin--an admixture by the use of which the hardest +granite was cut and shaped, and the most beautiful gold and silver +ornaments fashioned. Sharp tools were also made from obsidian, and in +the barbers' shops of the city of Mexico razors of the same stone were +in use. + +To the art of war the Aztecs--a military nation who won and held all +they possessed by force of arms--attached great importance. Training in +the army was rigorous, and the knowledge of tactics displayed appears to +have been very considerable. + +Although the Aztecs had founded and adopted from other nations a +complete pantheon of their own, they were strongly influenced by the +ancient sun and moon worship of Central America. _Ometecutli_ (twice +Lord) and _Omecihuatl_ (twice Lady) were the names which they bestowed +upon these luminaries, and they were probably the first deities known to +the Aztecs upon their emergence from a condition of totemism. The sun +was the _teotl_, _the_ god of the Mexicans, but it will be seen in the +course of this chapter that the national deities and those acquired by +the Aztecs in their intercourse with the surrounding peoples of Tezcuco +and Tlacopan somewhat obscured the worship of those elementary gods. + +Through all the confusion of a mythology second only in richness to +those of Egypt and Hellas can be traced the idea of a supreme creator, a +'god behind the gods.' This was not the sun, but an Allfather, addressed +by the Mexican nations as 'the God by whom we live'; 'omnipotent, that +knoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts'; 'invisible, incorporeal, +one God, of perfect perfection and purity.' The universality of this +great being would seem (as in other mythologies) to have led to the +deification of his attributes, and thus we have a pantheon in which we +can trace all the various attributes of an anthropomorphic deity. This +subdivision of the deity was not, however, responsible for all the gods +embraced by the Mexican pantheon. Many of these were purely national +gods--and two at least had probably been raised to this rank from a +condition of symbolic totemism during a period of national expansion and +military success. + +Such a god was the Mexican Mars, Huitzilopochtli, a name which signifies +'Humming-bird on the left,' a designation concerning the exact +derivation of which there is considerable difference of opinion. The +general explanation of this peculiar name is that it may have arisen +from the fact that the god is usually represented as having the feathers +of a humming-bird on the left foot. Before attempting an elucidation of +the name, however, it will be well to examine the myth of +Huitzilopochtli. + +Huitzilopochtli was the principal tribal deity of the Aztecs. Another, +though evidently less popular name applied to him, was Mextli, which +signifies 'Hare of the Aloes.' Indeed a section of the city of Mexico +derived its name from this appellation. The myth concerning his origin +is one the peculiar features of which are common to many nations. His +mother, Coatlicue or Coatlantona (she-serpent), a devout widow, on +entering the Temple of the Sun one day for the purpose of adoring the +deity, beheld a ball of brightly coloured feathers fall at her feet. +Charmed with the brilliancy of the plumes, she picked it up and placed +it in her bosom with the intention of making an offering of it to the +sun-god. Soon afterwards she was aware of pregnancy, and her children, +enraged at the disgrace, were about to put her to death when her son +Huitzilopochtli was born, grasping a spear in his right hand and a +shield in his left, and wearing on his head a plume of humming-bird's +feathers. On his left leg there also sprouted the flights of the +humming-bird, whilst his face and limbs were barred with stripes of +blue. Falling upon the enemies of his mother he speedily slew them. He +became the leader of the Aztec nation, and after performing on its +behalf prodigies of valour, he and his mother were translated to heaven, +where she was assigned a place as the Goddess of Flowers. + +The Muellerism of fifteen or twenty years ago would have assigned +unhesitatingly the legend of Huitzilopochtli to that class of myths +which have their origin in natural phenomena. In the _Hibbert Lectures_ +for 1884, M. Reville, the French religionist, professes to see in the +Mexican war-god the offspring of the sun and the 'spring florescence.' +Mr. Tylor (_Primitive Culture_) calls Huitzilopochtli an 'inextricable +compound parthenogenetic deity.' A more satisfactory solution of the +myth would seem to the present writer to be that the origin of +Huitzilopochtli was partly totemic--that, in fact, the humming-bird was +the original totem of the wandering tribe of Aztecs prior to their +descent upon Anahuac. The humming-bird is of an extremely pugnacious +disposition, and will not hesitate to attack birds considerably larger +than itself. This courage would appeal to a warlike tribe bent on +conquest, and its adoption as a totem and as a standard in the wars of +the Aztecs would naturally follow. This standard was known as the +_Huitziton_ or _Paynalton_, the 'little humming-bird' or 'little quick +one,' and was a miniature of Huitzilopochtli borne by the priests in +front of the soldiers in battle. This totem, then, took rank as the +national war-god of the Aztecs. The commerce of the mortal woman with +the animal is common to many legends of a totemic origin, as may be +witnessed in the myths of many of the present-day American Indian tribes +who believe their ancestors to have been the progeny of bears or wolves +and mortal women, or as many Norse and Celtic families in Early Britain +believed themselves to be able to trace a similar ancestry. + +However, Huitzilopochtli had a certain solar connection. He had three +annual festivals, in May, August, and December. At the last of these +festivals, an image of him was modelled in dough, kneaded with the blood +of sacrificed children, and this was pierced by the presiding priest +with an arrow, in token that the sun had been slain, and was dead for a +season. The totem had, in fact, become confounded with the sun-god, the +deity of the older and more cultured races of Anahuac, who had been +adopted by the Aztecs on their settlement there. The myth had, in fact, +to be revised in the light of the later adoption of a solar cultus; so +that here as in so many of the myths of other lands we find an amicable +blending of rival beliefs which have been almost insensibly fused one +into another. + +But another originally totemic deity had gained high rank in the Aztec +pantheon. This was Tezcatlipoca, whose name signifies 'Shining Mirror.' +He was the brother of Huitzilopochtli, and in this brotherhood may be +discerned the twofold nature of the Huitzilopochtli legend. Tezcatlipoca +was not the blood-brother of the war-god of the Aztecs, but his brother +in so far as he was connected with the sun. Tezcatlipoca, then, was the +god of the cold season, and typified the dreary sun of that time of +year. But he was also (probably as an afterthought) the God of Justice, +in whose mirror the thoughts and actions of men were reflected. It seems +probable to the present writer that Tezcatlipoca may originally, and in +another clime, have been an ice-god. The facts which lead to this +assumption are the period of his coming into power at the end of summer, +and his possession of a shining mirror. Another of Tezcatlipoca's names +signifies 'Night Wind.' He was evidently regarded also as the 'Breath of +Life.' He may originally have been a wind demon of the prairies. + +Tezcatlipoca's plaited hair was enclosed in a golden net, and from this +plait was suspended an ear wrought in gold, towards which mounted a +cloud of tongues, representative of the prayers of mankind. The +ever-present nature of the 'Great Spirit' is also typified by +Tezcatlipoca, who wandered invisible through the city of Mexico to +observe the conduct of the inhabitants. That he might be enabled to rest +during his tour of inspection, stone seats were placed for his reception +at intervals in the streets. Needless to say no human being dared to +occupy those benches. + +But the most unique of all the gods of Mexico was Quetzalcoatl. This +name indicates 'Feathered Serpent,' and the deity who owned it was +probably adopted by the Aztecs upon their settlement in Mexico, called +by them Anahuac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl stood for a worship which +was eminently more advanced and humane than the degrading and sanguinary +idolatry of which Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were the prime +objects. That he was not of Aztec origin but a god of the Toltecs or of +the elder peoples who had preceded them in Anahuac is proved by a myth +of the Mexican nations, in which his strife with Tezcatlipoca is +related. Step by step Quetzalcoatl, the genius of Old Anahuac, resisted +the inroads of the newcomers as represented by Tezcatlipoca. But he was +forced to flee the country over which he had presided so long, and to +embark on a frail boat on the ocean, promising to return at some future +period. The Aztecs believed in and feared his ultimate return. He was +not one of their gods. But in their terror of his vengeance and return +they attempted to propitiate him by permitting his worship to flourish +as a distinct caste side by side with that of Huitzilopochtli and +Tezcatlipoca. + +Reville, writing in 'the mythical age,' as the decade of the 'eighties +of last century has wittily been designated, sees in Quetzalcoatl the +east wind, and quotes Sahagun to substantiate his theory.[3] But +Quetzalcoatl was 'Lord of the Dawn.' In fine he was a culture-god, and +was closely connected with the sun. It would be impossible in the space +assigned to me to enter fully into an analysis of the origin of this +most interesting figure. There is, however, reason to believe that +Quetzalcoatl was one of those early introducers of culture who sooner or +later find a place among the deities of the nation they have assisted in +its early struggles towards civilisation. The strife between +Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, according to Reville, typifies the +struggle between the wind and the cold and dry season. It is more +probable that it typifies the strife between culture and barbarism. The +same authority points out that it is Tezcatlipoca and not +Huitzilopochtli who attacks Quetzalcoatl. But Tezcatlipoca, was the god +of austerity, and perhaps of the cold north, and thus the proper +opponent of a luxurious southern civilisation. I have gone more fully +into the question of the origin of Quetzalcoatl in the last chapter of +this work, as a more prolonged consideration of the subject would be +somewhat out of the scope of the present chapter. + +The worship of Quetzalcoatl was antipathetic if not directly opposed to +that of the other deities of Anahuac. It had a separate priesthood of +its own who dressed in white in contradistinction to the sable garments +which the priests of the other divinities were in the habit of wearing, +and its ritual discountenanced if it did not forbid human sacrifice. +Quetzalcoatl possessed a high priest of his own, who was subservient, +however, to the Aztec pontiff, and who only joined the monarch's +deliberative council on rare and extraordinary occasions. There can be +no doubt that the good reception given to Cortes and the Spanish +conquerors was solely on account of the Quetzalcoatl legend, which +insisted upon his return at some future period, and the Aztecs +undoubtedly regarded the arrival of the strange white men as a +fulfilment of this prophecy. + +Tlaloc was the god of rain--an important deity for a country where a +droughty season was nothing less than a national disaster. His name +signifies 'the nourisher,' and from his seat among the mountains he +despatched the rain-bearing clouds to water the thirsty and sun-baked +plains of Anahuac. He was also the god of fertility or fecundity, and in +this respect appears to have been analogous to the Egyptian Amsu or +Khem, the ithyphallic deity of Panopolis. He was the wielder of the +thunder and lightning, and the worship connected with him was even more +cruel, if possible, than that of Huitzilopochtli. One-eyed and +open-mouthed, he delighted in the sacrifice of children, and in seasons +of drought hundreds of innocents were borne to his temple in open +litters, wreathed with blossoms and dressed in festal robes. Should they +weep, their tears were regarded as a happy augury for a rainy season; +and the old Spanish chroniclers record that even the heartless Aztecs, +used to scenes of massacre as they were, were moved to tears at the +spectacle of the infants hurried, amid the wild chants of frenzied +priests, to the maw of this Mexican Moloch. + +The statues of Tlaloc were usually cut in a greenish-white stone to +represent the colour of water. He had a wife, Chalchihuitlicue (the lady +Chalchihuit), and by her he possessed a numerous family which are +supposed to represent the clouds, and which bear the same name as +himself. At one of his festivals the priests plunged into a lake, +imitating the sounds and motions of frogs, which were supposed to be +under the special protection of the water-god. + +Xiuhtecutli (lord of fire), or Huehueteotl (the old god), was one of the +most ancient of the Mexican deities. He is usually represented as +typifying the nature of the element over which he had dominion, and in +his head-dress of green feathers, his blackened face, and the +yellow-feathered serpent which he carried on his back, the different +colours observed in fire, as well as its sinuous and snake-like nature, +are well depicted. Like Tezcatlipoca, he possessed a mirror, a shining +disc of gold, to show his connection with the sun, from which all heat +emanated, and to which all heat was subject. And here it will be well to +remind the reader of the statement made near the commencement of this +chapter that the god _par excellence_, the sun, was more or less +manifested in all the principal deities of Anahuac; that in fact these +deities _were_ the sun in conjunction with some attribute of a totemic +or naturalistic origin. + +The first duty of an Aztec family when rising in the morning was to +consecrate to Xiuhtecutli a piece of bread and a libation of drink. He +was thus analogous to Vulcan, who, besides being the creator of +thunderbolts and conflagration, was also the divinity of the domestic +hearth. Once a year the fire in every Mexican house was extinguished, +and was rekindled by friction before the statue of Xiuhtecutli by his +priests. + +The two principal goddesses of the Aztecs were Centeotl, the +maize-goddess, the Ceres of Mexico, and Tlazolteotl, the goddess of +love. The name Centeotl is derived from centli (maize) and teotl +(divinity), and is often confounded with that of her son, who bore the +same name. Like the Virgin or the Egyptian Hes, she bears in her arms a +child, who is the young maize, who afterwards grows to bearded manhood. +Centeotl was the goddess of sustenance, and was often represented as a +many-uddered frog, to typify the food-yielding soil. Her daughter, +Xilonen, was the tender ear of the maize. Appalling sacrificial rites +were celebrated in connection with the worship of this goddess, in which +women were the principal victims. These are dealt with in the chapter on +ritual and ceremonial. + +Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love, or, more correctly, of sensuality, was +the object concerning whom the deities of the Aztec Olympus waged a +terrible war. Her abode was a lovely garden, where she dwelt surrounded +by musicians and merrymakers, dwarfs and jesters. At one time she had +been the spouse of Tlaloc, the rain-god, but had eloped with +Tezcatlipoca, and thus she probably represents nature, who in one season +espouses the rain-god and in another the god of the cold season. The +myths concerning Tlazolteotl are most unsavoury, and consist chiefly of +tales concerning her seductive prowess. + +Mictlan was the Mexican Pluto. The name signifies 'Country of the +North'--the region of waste and hunger and death, and was used both of +the place and the deity. There, surrounded by fearful demons +(Tzitzimitles), he ruled over the shades of the departed much as did +Pluto, and, like his classical prototype, he possessed a consort, or +rather consorts, since he had several wives. The representations of him +naturally give to him a most repulsive aspect, and he is usually +depicted in the act of devouring his victims. + +The minor gods of the Aztecs were legion--indeed various authorities +estimate their numbers from two hundred and sixty to two thousand--and +of these it will only be possible to deal with a few of the more +important. + +Ixtlilton (brown one) was the god of healing, and was analogous to +AEsculapius. The priests connected with his worship vended a liquor which +purported to be a sort of 'cure-all.' Xipe (the bald) was the tutelar +deity of goldsmiths. He was, in reality, a form of Huitzilopochtli, and +probably indicated the idea that gold had some connection with the sun. +Mixcoatl (cloud serpent) was the spirit of the waterspout, and was +propitiated rather than worshipped by the semi-savage mountaineers in +the vicinity of Mexico. Omacatl (double reed) was the god or spirit of +mirth and festival. Yacatecutli (guiding lord) was the god of travellers +and merchants. Indeed the commercial class among the Aztecs were more +exact concerning his worship than in that of almost any other of their +deities. His symbol was the staff usually carried by the people of the +country when on a journey, and this stick was an object of veneration +among travellers, who usually prayed to it as representative of the god +when evening brought their day's march to a close. + +The Tepitoton, or diminutive deities, were household gods of the lares +and penates type, and were probably connected with a species of +Shamanism, the origin of which may either have been prior to or +contemporary with the adoption of the worship of the greater gods. +Their existence might appear to suggest the presence of fetishism in the +Aztec religion, but the theory of a Shamanistic origin for these +household deities seems the more likely one. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS + + +The resemblance of the Mexican priesthood to that of Ancient Egypt was +very marked. However, the influence of the priests among the people of +Anahuac was even greater than that of the analogous caste among the +people of Khemi. Their system of conventual education permitted them to +impress their doctrines upon the minds of the young in that indelible +manner which secures unfaltering adhesion in later life to the dogmas so +inculcated; and no doubt the ever-present fear of human sacrifice +assisted them mightily in their dealings with the people. In short, they +were all-powerful, and the Mexican, accustomed to their influence from +the period of childhood to that of death, submitted unquestioningly to +their rule in all things, spiritual and temporal. + +The religious ethics of the Mexican priesthood were lofty and sublime +in the extreme, and had but little in common with their barbarous +practices. They had been borrowed from the more cultured Toltecs, who +during their sole tenure of Anahuac had evolved a moral code to which it +would be difficult to take exception. But although this exalted +philosophy had been adopted by the fierce and uncultured Aztecs, it had +become so obscured by the introduction of cruel and inhuman rites and +customs as to be almost no longer recognisable as the pure faith of the +race they had succeeded in the land. The germ and core of the Aztec +religion was the idea of the constant necessity of propitiating the gods +by means of human sacrifice, and to this aspect of their religion we +will return later. + +We have already seen that underlying the mythology of the ancient +Mexicans was the idea of a supreme Being, a 'Great Spirit.' In the rites +of confession and absolution particularly was this Being appealed to in +prayer, and the similarity of these petitions to those offered up by +themselves so impressed the monkish companions of the Spanish conquerors +that their astonishment is very evident in their writings. It is +unlikely that these priests would admit a soul of goodness in the evil +thing it was their business to stamp out; and their testimony in this +respect is of the highest value as evidence that the Aztec Religion +possessed at least the germ of the eternal verities. + +The Aztecs believed that eternity was broken up into several distinct +cycles, each of several thousand years' duration. There would seem to +have been four of these periods, concerning the length and nature of +which the old Spanish writers on the subject differ very materially. The +conclusion of each was (according to the Mexican tradition) to witness +the extinction of humanity in one mighty holocaust, and the blotting out +of the sun in the heavens. Whether this universal upheaval applied only +to the sons of men, or, like the Teutonic Gotterdaemmerung, or the +Scandinavian Raegnarok, had an equal significance for the gods, is not +clear. It is worth remarking, however, that it premises the mortal +nature of the sun, and, therefore, the existence of a creative agency +with the ability to set another sun in its place. + +With the Mexicans the question of a future life was a very nebulous one, +though perhaps no more so than with the ancient Greeks or Romans. There +was more than one paradise. Mictlan, the shadowy sombre place of the +dead, was the resting-place of the majority, for the Aztecs fully +believed that the higher realms of bliss were preserves for the +aristocracy where the lowly might not enter. And this, in passing, is +perhaps an explanation of the marvellously speedy adoption of +Christianity by the Mexican natives subsequent to the conquest of +Anahuac. Of the higher realms of bliss the 'Mansion of the Sun' was +perhaps the most desirable. There the principal pleasures consisted in +accompanying the sun in his course, and the amusement of choral dancing. +Souls in this paradise might also enter the bodies of humming-birds, and +flit from flower to flower. The exercise of the chase lent to this place +something of the character of a Valhalla, and we hear something of +Gargantuan banquets. Here, too, the blessed might animate the clouds, +and float deliciously over the world they had quitted. + +The paradise of Tlaloc was the special dwelling of those who had lost +their lives by drowning, of sacrificed children, and of those who had +died of disease caused by damp or moisture. But two exceptions were made +as regarded the souls of others, and these related to warriors slain in +battle, and women who had died in child-bed, who were permitted to enter +paradise as having forfeited their lives in the service of the state. + +All the science and wisdom of the country was embodied in the priestly +caste. The priests understood the education of the people, and so +forcibly impressed their students with their knowledge of the occult +arts that for the rest of their lives they quietly submitted to priestly +influence. The priestly order was exceedingly numerous, as is proved by +the fact that no less than five thousand functionaries were attached to +the great temple of Mexico, the rank and offices of whom were +apportioned with the most minute exactitude. The basis of the priesthood +was eminently aristocratic, and its supreme pontiff was known by the +appellation of _Mexicatl Teohuatzin_, or 'Mexican Lord of Divine +Matters.' Next in rank to him was the high priest of Quetzalcoatl, whose +authority was limited to his own priesthood, and who lived a life of +strict seclusion, not unlike that of the Grand Lama of Tibet. This was +probably a remnant of old Toltec practice. The pontiff seems to have +wielded a very considerable amount of political power, and to have had a +seat on the royal council. + +The life of an Aztec priest was rigorous in the extreme. Fasting and +penance bulked largely among his duties, and the idea of the +implacability of the gods which was current in the priesthood appears +to have driven many priests to great extremes of self-inflicted torture. +They dressed entirely in black (with the exception of the caste of +Quetzalcoatl, who were clothed in white), and their cloaks covered their +heads, falling down at each side like a mantilla. Their hair was +permitted to grow very long. They bathed every evening at sunset, and +rose several times during the night for the purpose of paying their +devotions. Some of their orders permitted marriage, while others were +celibate, but all, without distinction, passed an existence of severe +asceticism. As has been said, departmental duties were strongly marked. +Some were readers, others musicians, while others again, probably the +lower orders, attended to the sacred fires, and the more menial offices, +the grand duty of human sacrifice devolving upon the higher orders of +the prelacy alone. + +There was also an order of females who were admitted to the practice of +all the sacerdotal functions, omitting only that of human sacrifice. +These appear to have been more of the description of nuns than of +priestesses. Fakirs and religious beggars also abounded, but these seem +to have taken upon themselves mendicant vows for a space only. + +Education was wholly sacerdotal. That is, though secular studies were +communicated to the young, the principal part of their training +consisted of religious instruction. The schools were situated in the +temple precincts, and entering these at an early age the boys were +instructed by priests, and the girls by nuns. They resided within the +temple buildings, and those who did not, and who probably consisted of +the lower orders, were enrolled in a society called the +_Telpochtiliztli_, which met every evening at sunset to perform choral +dances in honour of Tezcatlipoca. A secondary school also existed, +called the _Calmecac_, in which the lore of the priests and the reading +of the hieroglyphs, astrology, and the kindred sciences were taught the +young men, whilst the girls became experts in the weaving of costly +garments for the adornment of the idols, and the wear of the higher +orders of the hierarchy. + +When the boys and girls left the school at the age of fifteen they were +either sent back to their families, or to public service, to which they +were often recommended by the priests. Others remained to become in +their turn priests or nuns in different convents. + +Severe educational tests were required for entrance into the +priesthood, and grades were many. The priests, we have seen, might +occupy one of several ranks, and the nuns could become abbesses, or +merely retain the position of simple sisters, according to their +ambition and abilities. The lower ranks were designated +_Cihuaquaquilli_, or 'lady herb-eaters,' while the higher orders were +known as _Cihuatlamacasque_, or 'lady deaconesses.' + +The Spanish conquerors of Mexico were astonished to find among this +peculiar people a number of rites which appeared in many respects +analogous to some of those practised by Catholics. Such were the use of +the cross as a symbol, communion, baptism, and confession. The cross, +which was designated, strangely enough, 'Tree of our Life,' was merely +the symbol of the four winds, which were indeed the life of Anahuac. As +regards confession and absolution, these were permitted to a person only +once in his existence, and that at a late period of life, as any +repetition of the pardoned offence was held to be inexpiable. Penance +was apportioned, and absolution given much in the same manner as in the +Roman Catholic Church. There appears to have been more than one kind of +communion. At the third festival of Huitzilopochtli they made an image +of him in dough kneaded with the blood of infants, and divided the +pieces among themselves. In the case of Xiuhtecutli a similar image was +placed on the top of a tree, which, like our Christmas trees, had been +transported from the forest to the town, and when the tree was thrown +down and the image broken, the people scrambled for the pieces, which +they devoured. + +In the rite of baptism the principal functionary was the midwife. She +touched the mouth and breast of the infant with water in the presence of +the assembled relations, and invoked the blessing of the goddess +Cihuatcoatl, who presided over childbirth (and who was a variant of +Centeotl, the maize-goddess) upon it. But it is unlikely that she did so +in the devoutly Christian language ascribed to her by Sahagun. + +At death the corpse of a Mexican was dressed in the robes peculiar to +his guardian deity, and in this can be perceived an analogy to every +dead Egyptian becoming an Osirian, or Osiris himself. Covered with paper +charms, as the Egyptian mummy was covered with metal or faience symbols, +the body was cremated, the ashes placed in an urn, and preserved in the +house of the deceased. At the death of a rich man many slaves were +sacrificed to bear him company in the world beyond the grave. This was +obviously a meaningless survival of a prehistoric custom. Valuable +treasures were often buried with the wealthy, and a rich man would often +have his private chaplain sacrificed at his tomb to assist him with +ghostly counsel and comfort in the other world. + +Among the ancient Mexicans every month was consecrated to some +particular deity, and in their calendar every day marked a celebration +of some greater or lesser divinity. Those differed considerably in their +character. Some were light and joyous, and their ritual abounded in the +use of flowers and song. Others (and these, unhappily, were in the +majority) were stained with the hideousness of human sacrifice. + +The temples of the Ancient Mexicans were very numerous. They were called +_teocallis_,[4] or 'houses of God,' and were constructed by facing huge +mounds of earth with brick and stone. They were pyramidal in shape, and +built in stages which grew smaller as the summit was reached. The bases +of some of these teocallis were more than one hundred feet square. The +great teocalli at Mexico, for example, was three hundred and +seventy-five feet long at the base, and three hundred feet in width. +Its height was over eighty feet. It consisted of five stages, each +communicating with the other by means of a staircase which wound around +the entire edifice. In the case of some teocallis, however, the +staircase led directly up the western face of the building. At the top +two towers, between forty and fifty feet in height, stood perched upon a +broad area. Inside these were kept the idols of the gods to whom the +teocalli was sacred. Before these towers stood the stone of sacrifice, +and two altars upon which the fires blazed night and day. In the city of +Mexico six hundred of these fires rendered any artificial illumination +at night superfluous. Through the very construction of these temples all +religious services were of a public nature. In front of the great +teocalli of Mexico stretched a court twelve hundred feet square, around +which clustered the chapels of minor deities, and those captured from +conquered peoples, as well as the dwellings and offices set apart for +the attendant priests. + +Although it appears that the Toltecs, the forerunners of the Aztecs in +Mexico, had at one period of their history been prone to human +sacrifice, they had almost entirely discarded the practice at the time +of their downfall. Some two hundred years before the coming of the +Spaniards the Aztecs had adopted this abomination, and were in the habit +of sparing the lives of immense numbers of prisoners of war solely for +the purpose of offering them up to the national gods. As their empire +extended, these holocausts became greater and more common. On the +teocalli of Mexico the Spaniards could count one hundred and thirty-six +thousand human skulls piled in a horrid pyramid. + +Of the sacrifices the most important was that signifying the annual +demise of Tezcatlipoca. The most handsome of the captives who chanced to +be in the hands of the Aztecs was chosen for the purpose. It was +necessary that he should be without spot or blemish, as it was intended +that he should represent Tezcatlipoca himself. He was taken in hand by a +body of tutors, who instructed him how to play his allotted part with +the dignity and grace to be expected from a divine being. Arrayed in +magnificent robes typical of his godhead, and surrounded by an +atmosphere of flowers and incense, he led the life of a voluptuary for +the space of nearly a year. On the occasion of his appearance in the +public streets he was received by the populace with all the homage due +to a god, but was strictly guarded, nevertheless, by eight pages, who +in reality were merely gaolers. Within a month's time of his immolation +four beautiful girls were given him as wives, and he was feasted and +feted by the nobility as the incarnation of Tezcatlipoca. + +On the day preceding the sacrifice the victim was placed on one of the +royal canoes, and accompanied by his four wives, was rowed to the other +side of the lake. That evening his wives bade him farewell, and he was +stripped of his gorgeous apparel. He was then conducted to a teocalli +some three miles from the city of Mexico. In scaling this he threw away +the wreaths of flowers with which he had been adorned, and broke in +pieces the musical instruments with which he had amused his hours of +captivity. Crowds thronged from the city to behold the act of sacrifice. +On reaching the summit of the teocalli the victim was met by six +priests, five of whom led him to the sacrificial stone, a great block of +jasper with a convex surface. On this he was placed by the five priests, +who secured his head, arms, and legs, whilst the officiating priest, +robed in a blood-red mantle, dexterously opened his breast with a sharp +flint knife. He then inserted his hand into the gaping wound, and +tearing out the still palpitating heart, held it aloft towards the sun. +Then he cast the bleeding offering into a vessel containing burning +copal, which lay at the feet of the image of Tezcatlipoca. A species of +sermon was then delivered by one of the priests to the people in which +he drew a moral from the fate of the victim illustrative of the +inevitable conclusion of all human pleasure by the hand of death. + +Huitzilopochtli had also a representative sacrificed every year who had +to take part in a sort of war-dance immediately before his immolation, +and a woman was annually sacrificed to Centeotl, the maize-goddess. +Before her death she took part in several symbolic representations which +were expressions of the various processes in the growth of the harvest. +The day before her sacrifice she sowed maize in the streets, and on the +arrival of midnight she was decapitated and flayed. A priest arrayed +himself in the still warm skin and engaged in mimic combat with soldiers +who were scattered through the streets. Part of the skin was then +carried to the temple of Centeotl the Son, where a priest made a mask of +it in the likeness of the presiding deity, and afterwards sacrificed +four captives in honour of the occasion. The skin was then carried to +the frontiers of the empire, and buried. It was supposed that its +presence there acted as a talisman against invasion. + +We have before described the sacrifices of children to Tlaloc. Even more +gruesome were the awful doings at the festival of Xiuhtecutli, when the +unhappy victims were half-roasted and finally despatched by having their +hearts torn out. Cannibal feasts often followed these sacrifices--feasts +which were the more horrible in that they were accompanied by all the +accessories of a high standard of civilisation; but it must be +remembered that their purport was essentially symbolic, and in no way +partook of the nature of the orgies of flesh-famished savages. + +When the great temple of Huitzilopochtli was dedicated in 1486, the +chain of victims sacrificed on that occasion extended for the length of +two miles. In this terrible massacre the hearts of no less than seventy +thousand human beings were offered up! In the light of such appalling +wickedness it is difficult to blame the Spanish conquerors of Anahuac in +their zeal to blot out the worship of the deities whom they designated +'horrible demons.' These victims were nearly always captive warriors of +rival nations, and it was on rare occasions only that native Mexicans +were led to the stone of sacrifice unless, indeed, they were +malefactors. + +The great jubilee festival, which was celebrated every fifty-two years +throughout the empire, marked the coincidence of four times thirteen +solar and four times thirteen lunar years. This the Mexicans called a +'sheaf of years,' and when the first day of the fifty-third year dawned, +the ceremony of _Toxilmolpilia_, or 'the binding-up of years,' was held. +Priests and people gazed feverishly at the Pleiades to see if they would +pass the zenith. Should they do so the world would hold on its course +for another similar period; if not, extinction would instantly follow. +Fire was kindled upon a victim's breast by the friction of wood, and +whenever it was alight the prisoner's heart was plucked out, and along +with his body was consumed upon a pile of wood kindled by the new fire. +As the flames ascended, and it was seen that the Pleiades had crossed +the zenith, cries of joy burst from the assembled people below. Faggots +were lighted at the sacred pyre, and domestic fires rekindled from them. +Humanity had been respited for a generation. + +It is difficult to believe that a people so imbrued in a religion of +bloodshed could have been punctilious in matters of morality, and it is +still more difficult to believe the evidence of Sahagun and Clavigero +concerning their personal piety. It seems certain, however, that as a +race the Aztecs were austerely moral, pious, truth-loving, and loyal as +citizens, and even the sanguinary priests do not appear to have reaped +any benefit from their terrible offices. All the evidence would seem to +show that it was the belief in the existence of cruel and insatiable +gods which rendered the priests and people alike callous and insensible +to the taking of human life, and this is the more easily understood when +it is remembered that the Aztecs had at a comparatively late period +emerged from a state of migratory savagery into the heirship of an +ancient and complex civilisation.[5] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS + + +The civilisation of the Ancient Peruvians, although in many ways +analogous to that of the Aztecs, was strangely dissimilar in some of its +aspects. The peoples of the two empires were totally unaware of each +other's existence, and were divided by dense tracts of mountain, plain, +and forest, where the most intense savagery prevailed. It seems probable +that the Peruvian culture had its origin in the region of Lake Titicaca, +and that it was of an indigenous character admits of little doubt. Like +the Mexicans, the Peruvians had displaced an older civilisation and an +older race. What was the nature of that civilisation, and thanks to what +people it flourished, it is at present impossible to say. Scattered over +the surface of the Peruvian slope are Cyclopean ruins, the sole remnants +of the works of a more primeval people. These ruins are chiefly to be +found in the neighbourhood of Lake Titicaca and Cuzco, the ancient +metropolis of the Incas. Whatever may have been the architectural +ability of this ancient people, the usurpers had little to learn from +them in this respect, or, more strictly speaking, having borrowed their +methods, continued faithful to them. The temples and mansions of the +Peruvians were massive and handsome, but for the most part covered only +with a thatch of Indian maize straw. They made long, straight, +macadamised roads which they pushed with surprising engineering skill +through tunnelled mountains, spanning seemingly impassable gorges with +marvellously constructed bridges. The temples and the palaces of the +Incas were adorned with gold and silver ornaments of fabulous value and +skilful design. Sumptuous baths, supplied with hot and cold water by +means of pipes laid in the earth, were to be found in the houses of the +aristocracy, and a high state of comfort and luxury prevailed. + +To describe the social polity of the Peruvians is to describe their +religion, for the two were one and the same. The empire of Peru was the +most absolute theocracy the world has ever seen, much more absolute, for +example, than that of Israel under the Judges. The Inca was the direct +representative of the sun upon earth. He was the head, the very +keystone of a socio-religious edifice to equal which in intricacy of +design and organisation the entire history of man has no parallel to +offer. + +The Inca was the head of a colossal bureaucracy which had ramifications +into the very homes of the people themselves. Thus after the Inca came +the governors of provinces, who were of the blood-royal; then officials +were placed above ten thousand families, a thousand families, a hundred, +and even ten families, upon the principle that the rays of the sun enter +everywhere. Personal freedom was a thing unknown. Each individual was +under direct surveillance, as it were, branded and numbered like the +herds of llamas which were the special property of the sun incarnate, +the Inca. Rules and regulations abounded in a manner unheard of even in +police-ridden Prussia, and no one had the opportunity in this vast +social machine of thinking or acting for himself. His walk in life was +marked out for him from the time he was five years of age, and even the +woman he was to marry was selected for him by the responsible officials; +the age at which he should enter the matrimonial state being fixed at +not earlier than twenty-four years in the case of a man and eighteen in +that of a woman. Even the place of his birth was indicated by a coloured +ribbon (which he dared not remove) tied round his head. + +The Peruvian legend of the coming to earth of the sun-race, of whom the +Inca was held to be the direct descendant, told how two beings, Manco +Capac and Mama Ogllo or Oullo, the offspring of the Sun and Moon, +descended from heaven in the region of Lake Titicaca. They had received +commands from their parent, the sun-god, to traverse the country until +they came to a spot where a golden wedge they possessed should sink into +the ground, and at this place to found a culture-centre. The wedge +disappeared at Cuzco, which Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega (the most +important of the ancient chroniclers of Peru) interprets as meaning +'navel,' or, in twentieth-century idiom, 'Hub of the Universe,' but +which possibly possesses a more exact rendering in the words 'cleared +space.' + +The city founded, Manco Capac instructed the men in the arts of +civilisation, and his consort busied herself in teaching the women the +domestic virtues, as weaving and spinning. Leaving behind them as +earthly representatives their son and daughter, they reascended to +heaven, and from the children they left upon earth the race of Incas +was said to have sprung. Thus it was that all Peruvian monarchs must +marry their sisters, as it was not permissible to defile the offspring +of the blood of the Son by mortal union--the breaking of which law +assisted in the ruin of the Peruvian empire. + +Like the Mexicans, the Peruvians appear to have acknowledged the +existence of a Supreme Being. The attributes of this Supreme Being, +through the fostering care of a special cultus, soon developed the rank +of deities, each having a strongly marked identity. + +The most important individual deities next to the Sun were Viracocha and +Pachacamac, and these, curiously enough, were deities who had been +admitted to the Peruvian pantheon from a still older faith. + +The name Viracocha was, besides being the specific appellation of a +certain deity, a generic name for divine beings. It signifies 'Foam of +the Water,' thus alluding to the legend that the god had arisen out of +the depths of Lake Titicaca. On his appearance from the sacred waters +Viracocha created the sun, moon, and stars, and mapped out for them the +courses which they were to hold in the heavens. He then created men +carved out of stone statues made by himself, and bade them follow him to +Cuzco. Arrived there he collected the inhabitants, and placed over them +one, Allca Vica, who subsequently became the ancestor of the Incas. He +then returned into Lake Titicaca, into the waters of which he +disappeared. + +It is evident that this legend clashes strongly with that of the solar +origin of the Incas, and it would seem to have been put forward by a +rival priesthood which had survived the introduction of solar worship, +but which was not powerful enough to combat it. + +Viracocha was usually represented as a god bearded with water-rushes, +and this hirsute adornment is so far significant in that it may have +some connection with the older legends of the Peruvians which tell of a +white and bearded race which advanced to Cuzco, the centre of +civilisation, from the regions of Lake Titicaca. He is also spoken of as +being without flesh or bone, yet swift in movement, and this description +does not leave us long in doubt as to his real nature. He was the +water-god, the fertiliser of all plant life. In the somewhat arid +country surrounding Lake Titicaca that great body of water would +undoubtedly come to be regarded as the generator of all fertility to be +found in its vicinity. Hence Viracocha's origin. His consort was his +sister Cocha, the lake itself. He, like Tlaloc among the Mexicans, had a +penchant for human sacrifice, but his worship was by no means so +sanguinary as was that of his Mexican prototype. + +We must then regard Viracocha as the god of a faith anterior to the +sun-worship which obtained in Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest. +But we shall also be forced to admit that Pachacamac (whose name we +bracketed with that of Viracocha a few paragraphs back), although a +member of the Peruvian pantheon and a great god, was but there on +sufferance. The name Pachacamac signifies 'earth-generator,' and the +primitive centres of the worship of this deity were in the valleys of +Lurin and Rimac, near the city of Lima. In the latter once stood a great +temple to Pachacamac, the ruins of which, alone, now remain. Pachacamac +would seem to have borne the reputation of a great civiliser, and to +some extent he usurped the claims of Viracocha to this honour. +Viracocha, so runs the legend, was defeated by him in combat, and fled, +whereupon the victor created a new world more to his liking by the +simple expedient of transferring the race of men then upon earth into +wild animals, and creating a new and higher humanity. He was also a god +of fertility, as on the remains of his temples fishes are to be found +evidently symbolising this attribute. + +The hostility of Pachacamac and Viracocha has a mythical significance. +Pachacamac was the god of volcanoes, earthquakes, and subterranean fire, +and was therefore hostile to water. His worship was much more mysterious +than that of Viracocha. The Peruvians, in fact, regarded Pachacamac as a +dreaded and unseen deity, at whose mutterings in the centre of the earth +they prostrated themselves in dread. Rimac, indeed, where the worship of +this god had its focus, means 'the speaker,' 'the murmurer,' and a kind +of oracular character appears ultimately to have been associated with +the name of this terrible deity, who on occasion demanded to be appeased +by human sacrifice. + +The myth of Pacari Tambo, the 'house of the dawn,' a legend of the +Collas, a tribe of mountaineers dwelling to the south-west of Cuzco, +throws some light on this strife between Viracocha and Pachacamac. Four +brothers and sisters (runs the legend) issued one day from the caverns +of Pacari Tambo. The eldest ascended a mountain, and cast stones to all +the cardinal points of the compass to show that he had taken possession +of the land. The other three were averse to this, especially the +youngest, who was the most cunning of all. By dint of persuasion he +managed to get the obnoxious brother to enter a cave. As soon as he had +done so he closed the mouth of the cave with a great stone, and +imprisoned him there for ever. He then, on pretence of seeking his lost +brother, persuaded the second to ascend a high mountain, from which he +cast him, and, as he fell, by dint of magic art changed him into a +stone. The third brother, having no desire to share the fate of the +other two, then fled. The first brother appears to be the oldest +religion, that of Pachacamac; the second, that of an intermediate +fetishism, or stone worship; and the third, Viracocha. The fourth is the +worship of the Sun, pure and simple, the youngest brother, but the +victor over the other older faiths of the land. This is proved by the +circumstance that the name applied to the youngest brother is Pirrhua +Manca, an equivalent to that of Manco Capac, the Son of the Sun. + +This, however, does not altogether tally with what might be called the +'official' legend, the myth promulgated by the Incas themselves. +According to this the Sun had three sons, Viracocha, Pachacamac, and +Manco Capac. This stroke of policy at once blended all three religions; +but by another stroke of politic genius, the earthly power was vested in +Manco Capac, the other two deities being placed in subordinate +positions, where they were concerned chiefly with the workings of +nature. To Manco Capac, and his representatives, the Incas, alone, was +left the dominion of mankind. + +We will now pass to a consideration of the minor deities of the Peruvian +mythology. These were numerous, and had been mostly evolved from nature +forces and natural phenomena. Among the more important was Chasca, the +planet Venus, the 'long-haired,' the 'Page of the Sun.' Cuycha, the +rainbow, was the servant of the sun and moon. He was represented in a +private chapel of his own, contiguous to that of the Sun, by large +plates of gold so fired as to represent the various colours in the +prismatic hues of the rainbow. Fire, also, was an object of profound +veneration with the Peruvians, derived, as it was believed to be, from +the sun. Its preservation was scrupulously attended to in the Temple of +the Sun and in the House of the Virgins of the Sun, of which an account +will be found in the next chapter. + +Catequil was the god of thunder. He is represented as possessing a club +and sling, the latter evidently being intended to symbolise the +thunderbolt. He was a servant of the Sun, and had three distinct +forms--Chuquilla (thunder), Catuilla (lightning), and Intiallapa +(thunderbolt). Temples were erected to him in which children and llamas +were sacrificed at his altars. The Peruvians had, and still have, a +great dread of thunder, and sought to pacify Catequil in every possible +manner. Their children were sacred to him as the supposed offspring of +the lightning. + +We now descend gradually and almost insensibly in the scale of deism, +until little by little we reach a condition of gross idolatry, not far +removed from that still practised by many African tribes. Here we find +even vegetables adored as symbols of sustenance. The potato was +glorified under the appellation of acsumama, and the maize as saramama. +Trees partook of divine attributes, and we seem to see in this condition +of things a state analogous to the reverence paid by the early Greeks +and Romans to Sylvanus and his train, and the vivification of trees by +the presence within them of dryads. + +Certain animals were treated with much reverence by the Peruvians. Thus +we find the serpent, especially Urcaguay, the keeper of subterranean +gold, an object of great veneration. The condor or vulture of the Andes +Mountains was the messenger or Mercury of the Sun, and he held the same +place on the sceptre of the Incas as the eagle on the sceptre of the +Emperor of Germany or Russia. Whales and sharks were also worshipped by +the people who lived near the sea. + +But in all this nature and animal worship it is difficult to detect a +totemic origin.[6] The basis of totemism is the idea of blood-kinship +with an animal or plant, which idea in the course of generations evolves +into an exaggerated respect, and finally (under conditions favourable +for development) into a full-blown mythology. At first it would appear +as if the perfect organisation of the Peruvian state and its peculiar +marriage laws had originated in a condition of totemism; but had +totemism ever entered into the constitution of the Peruvian religion at +any period of its development, it would have left as deep an impression +upon it as it did in the case of the Egyptian religion--that is, some of +the more important deities would have betrayed a totemic origin. That +they betray an origin wholly naturalistic there is no room for doubt. +And here the root difference between the Mexican and Peruvian +mythologies may be pointed out--that although both systems had grown up +from various constituents grouping themselves around the central worship +of the Sun, the constituents of the Aztec religion were almost wholly +totemic, whereas those of the Peruvian religion were naturalistic.[7] + +But the factor of fetishism was not wanting in the construction of the +Peruvian religion. All that was sacred, from the sun himself to the tomb +of a righteous person, was _Huaca_, or sacred. The chief priest of Cuzco +was designated Huacapvillac, or 'he who speaks with sacred beings,' but +the principal use to which the term _Huaca_ was put was in reference to +objects of metal, wood, and stone, which cannot be better described than +as closely resembling those African fetishes so common in our museums. +These differed considerably in size. The reverence for them was probably +of prehistoric origin, and in this cultus we have the second brother +whom Pirrhua Manca changed into a stone. They were believed by the +Peruvians to be the veritable dwelling-places of spirits. Many of these +Huacas were public property, and had gifts of flocks of llamas dedicated +to them. The majority, however, were private property. + +It will be necessary to mention one more deity. This is Supay, god of +the dead, who dwelt in a dreary underworld. He was the Pluto of Peruvian +mythology, and is usually portrayed as an open-mouthed monster of +voracious appetite, into whose maw are thrown the souls of the departed. + +For the study of the worship of old Peru the materials are less +plentiful than in the case of the Mexican mythology. Stratum upon +stratum of belief is discovered, like those in the ruins of some ancient +city where each yard of earth holds the story of a dynasty. To the +student of comparative religion an exhaustive study of the complex +mythology of the ancient Peruvians offers an almost unparalleled +opportunity for comparison with and elucidation of other mythologies, +since in it the process of its evolution is exhibited with greater +clearness than in the case of any other belief, ancient or modern. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP + + +With the Peruvians, as with the Mexicans, paradise was a preserve of the +aristocrats. The poor might languish in the gloomy shades of the Hades +presided over by Supay, Lord of the Dead, but for the Incas and their +immediate relatives, by whom was embraced the entire nobility, the +Mansions of the Sun were retained, where they might dwell with the Sun, +their father, in undisturbed felicity. In a community where everything +was ordered with military exactitude, sin meant disobedience, and +consequently death. Indeed it took the form of direct blasphemy against +the Inca, and was thus stripped of the purely ethical sense it holds for +a free population. The sinner expiated his crime at once, and was +consigned to the grey shades of the underworld, there to pass the same +nebulous existence as his more meritorious companions. Some writers upon +Peru refer to a belief on the part of the people in a place of +retribution where the wicked would expiate their offences by ages of +arduous toil. But there is little ground for the acceptance of these +statements. + +Strictly speaking, there was no priesthood in Peru. The ecclesiastical +caste consisted of the Inca and his relatives, who were also known as +Incas. These assumed all the principal positions in the national +religion, but were unable, of course, to fill all the lesser provincial +posts. These were undertaken by the priests of the local deities, who +were at the same time priests of the imperial deities, a policy which +permitted the conquered peoples to retain their own form of worship, and +at the same time led them to recognise the paramountcy of the religion +of the Incas. Nothing could be more intense than the devotion shown by +all ranks of the population to the person of the Inca. He was the sun +incarnate upon earth, and his presence must be entered with humble mien +and beggarly apparel, and a further show of humility must also be made +by carrying a bundle upon the back. + +The High Priest, who has been already alluded to as holding the title of +Huacapvillac, or 'He who converses with divine beings!' also held the +more general one of Villac Oumau, or 'Chief Sacrificer.' He derived his +position solely from the Inca, but made all inferior appointments, and +was answerable to the monarch alone. He was invariably an Inca of +exalted rank, as were all the priests who officiated at Cuzco, the +capital. Only those ecclesiastics of the higher grades wore any +distinguishing garb, the lower order dressing in the same manner as the +people. + +The existence of a Peruvian priest was an arduous one. It was necessary +for him to master a ritual as complex as any ever evolved by a +hierarchy. At regular intervals he was relieved by his fellow-priests, +who were organised in companies, each of which took duty for a specified +period of the day or night. The duties of the Peruvian priesthood, +whilst even more exacting than that of the Mexican, did not appear to +have been lightened in a similar manner by the acquirement of knowledge, +or by mental exercise of any description, and this may be partly +accounted for by the fact that the art of writing was discouraged among +them, probably on the assumption that the whole duty of man culminated +in unfailing obedience to the Inca and his representatives, and that the +acquirement of further knowledge was the work of supererogation. + +It is deeply interesting to notice (isolated as was everything Peruvian) +that it was in this far corner of America that the native evolution of +the temple took place, as distinguished from the altar or teocalli. +Originally the Peruvian priesthood had adopted that pyramidal form of +structure now familiar to us as that in use by the Mexicans, but as time +went on they began to roof over these high altars, and this practice at +length culminated in the erection of huge temples like that at Cuzco. + +The great temple of Cuzco, known as _Coricancha_, or 'The Place of +Gold,' was the greatest and most magnificent example of Peruvian +ecclesiastical architecture. The exterior gave an impression of +massiveness and solidity rather than of grace. Round the outer +circumference of the building ran a frieze of the purest gold, and the +interior was profusely ornamented with plates of the same metal. The +doorways were formed from huge monoliths, and the whole aspect of the +building was Cyclopean. In the dressing of stone and the fitting of +masonry the Peruvians were expert, and the placing of immense blocks of +stone appears to have had no difficulties for them. So accurately indeed +were these fitted that the blade of a knife could not be inserted +between them. Inside the Temple of the Sun was placed a great plate of +gold, upon which was engraved the features of the god of the luminary, +and this was so placed that the rays of the rising sun fell full upon +it, and bathed it in a flood of radiance. The scintillations from a +thousand gems, with which its surface was enriched, lent to it a +brilliance which eye-witnesses declare to have been almost +insupportable. Enthroned around this dazzling object were the mummified +bodies of the monarchs of the Inca dynasty, giving to the place an air +of holy mystery which must have deeply impressed the pious and simple +people. The roof was composed of rafters of choice woods, but was merely +covered in by a thatching of maize straw. The principle of the arch had +never been thoroughly grasped by the Peruvians, and that of adequate +roofing appears to have been equally unknown to them. + +Surrounding this, the principal temple, were others dedicated to the +moon; Cuycha, the rainbow; Chasca, the planet Venus; the Pleiades; and +Catequil, the thunder-god. In that of the moon, the mother of the Incas, +a plate of silver, similar to that which represented the face of the sun +in his own sanctuary, was placed, and was surrounded by the mummified +forms of the dead queens of the Incas. In that of Cuycha, the rainbow, +as already explained, a golden representation of the arch of heaven was +to be found, and the remaining buildings in the precincts of the great +temple were set apart for the residences of the priests. + +The most ancient of the temples of Peru was that on the island of +Titicaca, to which extraordinary veneration was paid. Everything in +connection with it was sacred in the extreme, and in the surrounding +maize-fields was annually raised a crop which was distributed among the +various public granaries, in order to leaven the entire crop of the +country with sanctity. + +All the utensils in use in these temples were of solid gold and silver. +In that of Cuzco twelve large jars of silver held the sacred grain, and +censers, ewers, and even the pipes which conducted the water-supply +through the earth to the temple, were of silver. In the surrounding +gardens, the hoes, spades, and other implements in use were also of +silver, and hundreds of representations of plants and animals executed +in the precious metals were to be found in them. These facts are vouched +for by numerous eye-witnesses, among whom was Pedro Pizarro himself, and +subsequent historians have seen no reason to regard their descriptions +as in any way untrustworthy. + +As in Mexico, so in Peru, the Spanish conquerors were astonished to find +among the religious customs of the people practices which appeared to +them identical with some of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic faith. +Among these were confession, communion, and baptism. Confession appears +to have been practised in a somewhat loose and irregular manner, but +penance for ill-doing was apportioned, and absolution granted. At the +festival of Raymi, which we will later examine, bread and wine were +distributed in much the same manner as that prescribed in Christian +communities. Baptism also was practised. Some three months after birth +the child was plunged into water after having received its name. The +ceremony, however, appears to have partaken more of the nature of an +exorcism of evil spirits than of a cleansing from original sin. + +Like the ancient Egyptians, the Peruvians practised the art of embalming +the dead, but it does not appear that they did so with any idea in view +of corporeal resurrection as did the former. As to the method by which +they preserved the remains of the dead, authorities are not agreed, +some believing that the cold of the mountains to which the corpses were +subjected was sufficient to produce a state of mummification, and others +that a process akin to that of the Ancient Egyptians was gone through. + +Burnt offerings were very popular among the Peruvians. They were chiefly +made to the sun, and were, in general, not unlike those made by the +Semites. + +As with the Mexicans, the sacred dance was a striking feature of the +Peruvian religion. These choral dances were brought to a very high state +of perfection, and in the case of the common people were often wild and +full of the fire of abandoned fanaticism. The Incas, however, possessed +a dance of their own, which was sufficiently grave and stately. At great +festivals two choral dances and hymns were rendered to the sun, each +strophe of which ended with the cry of _Hailly_, or 'triumph.' Some of +those Peruvian hymns were preserved in the work of a Spanish composer, +who in 1555 wrote a mass, into the body of which he introduced these +curious waifs of American melody. That choral dances are still in favour +with the aborigines of Peru is proved by the evidence of Baron Eland +Nordenskjoeld, who arrived (August 1907) from an eight months' +ethnological expedition to some of the Andes tribes. He states that the +'so-called civilised Indians--the Quichuas and Aymaras--living around +Titicaca ... have retained many customs unaltered or but slightly +modified since the time of the Incas.... Thus it was found that the +Indians often worship Christ and the Virgin Mary by dances, in which the +sun is used as the symbol for Christ, and the moon for the Virgin Mary.' + +With the Peruvians each month had its appropriate festival. The +solstices and equinoxes were of course the occasions of the most +remarkable of these, and four times a year the feast of Raymi or the +dance was celebrated with all the pomp and circumstance of which this +strange and bizarre civilisation was capable. The most important of +these was held in June, when nine days were given up to the celebration +of the Citoc Raymi, or gradually increasing sun. For three days previous +to this event all fasted, and no fire might be kindled in any house. On +the fourth great day the Inca, accompanied in procession by his court +and the people, who followed _en masse_, proceeded to the great square +to hail the rising sun. The scene must have been one of intense +brilliance. Clad in their most costly robes, and sheltered beneath +canopies of cunning feather-work in which the gay plumage of tropical +birds was aesthetically arranged, the vast crowd awaited the rising of +the sun in eager silence. When he came, shouts of joy and triumph broke +from the multitude, and the cries of delight were swelled by the crash +of wild melody from a thousand instruments. Louder and louder arose the +joyous tumult, until topping the eastern mountains the luminary shone in +full splendour on his worshippers. The riot of sound culminated in a +mighty paean of thanksgiving. Libations of maguey, or maize-spirit, were +made to the deity, after first having touched the sacred lips of the +Inca. Then marshalling itself once more in order of procession, all +pressed with one accord to the golden Temple of the Sun, where black +llamas were sacrificed, and a new fire kindled by means of a concave +mirror. Divested of their sandals the Inca and his suite spent some time +in prayer. Occasionally a human victim--a maiden or a beautiful +child--was offered up in sacrifice, but happily this was a rare +occurrence, and only took place on great public occasions, such as a +coronation, or the celebration of a national victory. These sacrifices +never ended in cannibal feasts, as did those of the Aztecs. Grain, +flowers, animals, and aromatic gums were the usual sacrificial offerings +of the Peruvians. + +The Citua Raymi was the festival of the spring, and fell in September. +It was known as the Feast of Purification. The country must be purified +from pestilence, and to secure this, round cakes, kneaded in the blood +of children, were eaten. To secure this blood the children were merely +bled above the nose, and not slaughtered, as with the more ferocious +Aztecs--almost an example of the substitution of the part for the whole. +These cakes were also rubbed upon the doorways, and the people smeared +them all over their bodies as a preventive against disease. The circuit +of the state of Cuzco was then made by relays of armed Incas, who +planted their spears on the boundaries as talismans against evil. A +torchlight procession followed, after which the torches were cast into +the river as symbolic of the destruction of evil spirits. + +The festival of the Aymorai, or harvest, fell in May, when a statue made +of corn was worshipped under the name of Pirrhua, who seems to be an +admixture of Manco Capac and Viracocha in his role of fertiliser. The +fourth great festival, Capac Raymi, fell in December, when the +thunder-god shared the honours paid to the Sun. It was then that the +younger generation of Incas after a vigorous training received an honour +equivalent to that of knighthood. + +The Peruvians possessed a fully developed conventual system. A number of +maidens, selected for their beauty and their birth, were dedicated to +the deity as 'Virgins of the Sun.' Under the guidance of _mamacones_, or +matrons, these maidens were instructed in the nature of their religious +duties, which chiefly consisted in the weaving of priestly garments and +temple-hangings. They also watched over the sacred fire which had been +kindled at the feast of Raymi. No communication with the outside world +was permitted to them, and detection in a love-affair meant living +burial, the execution of the lover, and the entire destruction of the +place of his birth. In the convent of Cuzco were lodged between one and +two thousand maidens of the royal blood, and at a marriageable age these +became brides of the Sun in his incarnate shape of the Inca, the most +beautiful being selected for the harem of the monarch. + +Sorcery and divination were frequently employed by the Peruvians, and +the _Huacarimachi_, 'They who make the gods speak,' were held in great +veneration by the ignorant masses. The oracles in the valleys of Lima +and Rimac were much resorted to, and auguries of all descriptions were +in popular favour. + +The Peruvians were ignorant of morality as we appreciate the term. That +they were, however, a most moral people there is every evidence. But as +has been before pointed out, all crime was a direct offence against the +majesty of the Inca, who, as viceroy of the Sun on earth, had been +blasphemed by the breaking of his law. Under such a regime the true +significance of sin was bound to be obscured, if not altogether lost. +Terror took the place of conscience, and the necessity for implicit +obedience gave no scope to the true moral sense--probably to the +detriment of the entire community. + +The political and religious history of Peru is unique in the annals of +mankind, and its study offers a startling instance of what prolonged +isolation may work in the mind of man. That the Peruvian mind, isolated +in a remote part of the world as it was, was never wholly blind to the +existence of a great and beneficent creative Power, the degradation of a +cramping theocracy notwithstanding, is triumphant proof that the +knowledge of that Power is a thing inalienable from the mind of man. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA + + +The space at my disposal for dealing with this most difficult of all +questions is such as will enable me only to outline its salient points. +As I pointed out at the beginning of the first chapter, the question of +the origins of the American religions was almost identical with that of +the origins of the American race itself. + +That the Red Man was not the aboriginal inhabitant of the American +continent, but supplanted a race with Eskimo affinities, is extremely +probable. At all events, the 'Skraelings,' with whom the early Norse +discoverers of America had dealings, were not described by them as in +any way resembling the North American Indian of later times. If this be +granted--and Indian folklore would seem to strengthen the hypothesis--we +must then find some other home for the Red Man than the prairies of +North-east America for the five centuries between the Norse and +Columbian discoveries. He may, of course, have dwelt in the north-west +of the continent, a solution of the problem which appears to me highly +feasible. That his affinities are Mongolian it would be absurd to +dispute; but--and this is of supreme importance--these affinities are of +so archaic an origin as to preclude all likelihood of any important or +numerous Asiatic immigration occurring for many centuries before either +the Norse or Columbian discovery. + +Coming to a period within the ken of history, there is just the +possibility that Mexico, or some adjacent country of Central America, +was visited by Asiatic Buddhist priests in the fifth century. The story +is told in the Chinese annals of the wanderings of five Buddhist +priests, natives of Cabul, who journeyed to America (which they +designate Fusang) _via_ the Aleutian Islands and Kamchatka, a region +then well known to the Chinese. Their description of the country, +however, is no more convincing than are the arguments of their +protagonist, Professor Fryer of San Francisco, who sees Asiatic +influence in various elephant-headed gods and Buddha-esque statuary in +the National Mexican Museum. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon +that any foreign influence arriving in the American continent in +pre-Columbian times was not sufficiently powerful to have more than a +merely transitory influence upon the customs or religious beliefs of the +inhabitants. + +This leads us to the conclusion that the religions of Mexico and Peru +were of indigenous origin. Any attempt to prove them offshoots of +Chinese or other Asiatic religion on the basis of a similarity of art or +custom is doomed to failure. + +But however satisfactory it may be to brush aside unsubstantial theories +which aspire to the honour of facthood, it would be a thousand pities to +ignore the numerous intensely interesting myths which have grown up +round the idea of foreign contact with the American races in +pre-Columbian times. Let us briefly examine these, and attempt to +discover any point of contact between them and similar American myths. + +I have previously alluded to the myth of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was +a Mexican deity, but in reality he was one of the older pre-Aztecan gods +of Anahuac. He is sometimes represented as a being of white complexion +and fair-bearded, with blue eyes, and altogether of European appearance. +It will be remembered that on the entrance into Anahuac of Tezcatlipoca +he waged a war with that god in which he was worsted, and eventually +forced to depart for 'Tlapallan' in a canoe, promising to return at some +future date. It will also be recollected how the legend of +Quetzalcoatl's return influenced the whole of Montezuma's policy towards +the Spanish conquistadores, and how the fear of his vengeance was ever +before the Aztec priesthood. Quetzalcoatl, strangely enough, was reputed +to have sailed for 'Tlapallan' from almost the identical spot first set +foot upon by Cortes on his arrival on the Mexican coast. + +The Max Mueller school of mythologists see nothing in Quetzalcoatl but a +god of the wind. With them Minos was a myth. So was his palace with its +labyrinth until its recent discovery at Knossos. I am fain to see in +Quetzalcoatl a real personality--a culture-hero; but I will suggest +nothing concerning his non-American nationality. At the same time it +will be interesting to examine, firstly, those European myths which +speak of men who set out for America; and, secondly, those American +myths which speak of the existence of 'white men,' or 'white tribes,' +dwelling upon the American continent. + +Passing over the sagas of the Norse discovery of America, which are by +no means mythical, we come to the Celtic story of the finding of the +great continent. When the Norsemen drove the Irish Celts from Iceland, +these fugitives sought refuge in 'Great Ireland,' by which, it is +supposed, is intended America. The Irish _Book of Lismore_ tells of the +voyage of St. Brendan, abbot of Cluainfert in Ireland, to an island in +the ocean destined for the abode of saints, and of his numerous +discoveries during a seven years' cruise. The Norse sagas which tell of +this 'Great Ireland' speak of the language of its inhabitants as +'resembling Irish,' but as the Irish were the nation with which the +Norsemen were best acquainted, this 'resemblance' appears to smack of +the linguistic classification of the British sailorman who applies the +term 'Portugee' to all languages not his own. The people of this country +were attired in white dresses, 'and had poles borne before them on which +were fastened lappets, and who shouted with a loud voice.' + +But another Celtic people claimed the honour of first setting foot upon +American soil. The Welsh Prince Madoc in the year 1170 sailed westwards +with a fleet of several ships, and coming to a large and fertile +country, landed one hundred and twenty men. Returning to Wales he once +more set out with ten vessels, but concerning his further adventures +Powell and Hakluyt are silent. Nor does the authority of the bard +Meredith ap Rees concerning him rest upon any more substantial basis.[8] +Stories of Welsh-speaking Indians, too, are not uncommon. Two slaves +whom the Norsemen of 1007 sent on a foraging expedition into the +interior of Massachusetts were Scots, although their names--Haki and +Hakia--hardly sound Celtic.[9] + +Innumerable are the legends of 'white Indians'--the 'white Panis,'[10] +dwelling south of the Missouri, the 'Blanco Barbus, or white Indians +with beards,' the Boroanes, the Guatosos of Costa Rica, the Malapoques +in Brazil, the Guaranies in Paraguay, the Guiacas of Guiana, the +Scheries of La Plata--but modern anthropology scarcely bears out the +stories of the 'whiteness' of these tribes. On a similar footing are the +travellers' tales concerning the existence of Indian Jews--to prove +which Lord Kingsborough squandered a fortune and compiled a work on +Mexican antiquities the parallel of which has not been known in the +entire history of bibliography.[11] + +More convincing are the Mexican and Peruvian legends concerning the +appearance of white and bearded culture-bringers. These legends are, it +must be admitted, shadowy enough, but are so persistent and resemble +each other so closely as to give some grounds for the supposition that +at some period in the history of Mexico or Peru a member or members of +the 'Caucasian' race may have stumbled into these civilisations through +the accidents of shipwreck. But it is exceedingly dangerous to premise +anything of the sort; and, as has been said before, the influence of +such wanderers could only have been infinitesimal. + +Enough, then, has been said to show that the origins of the religions of +Mexico and Peru could not have been of any other than an indigenous +nature. Their evolution took place wholly upon American soil, and if +resemblances appear in their systems to the mythologies or religions of +Asia, they are explicable by that law now so well known to +anthropologists and students of comparative religion, that, given +similar circumstances, and similar environments, the evolution of the +religious beliefs of widely separated peoples will proceed upon similar +lines. + + + + +SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY + +(_Those authorities marked with an asterisk are also applicable to the +subject of Peruvian Mythology_). + + SAHAGUN, _Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana_. (English + translation edited for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham + in 1880.) + + TORQUEMADA, _Los veynte y un libros Rituales y Monarchia Yndiana_. + + IXTLILXOCHITL, _'Historia Chichimeca' and 'Relaciones' in_ Lord + Kingsborough's _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. ix. + + PRESCOTT, _Conquest of Mexico_. + + *HUMBOLDT, _Vues des Cordilleres et Monuments des Peuples de + l'Amerique_. + + CLAVIGERO, _Storia antica del Messico_. (English translation by + Charles Cullen. London, 1787.) + + BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, _Histoires des Nations civilisees du + Mexique et de l'Amerique-centrale_, and _Quatre Lettres sur le + Mexique_. + + BANCROFT, _Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_. + + KINGSBOROUGH, _Antiquities of Mexico_. + + *REVILLE, _The Hibbert Lectures_, 1884. + + *PAYNE, _History of the New World_, vols. i. and ii. + + TYLOR, _Anahuac_. + + BRINTON, _The Myths of the New World_. + + WINSOR, _Narrative and Critical History of America_. + + +PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY + + MONTESINOS, _Memoires historiques sur l'Ancien Perou_. (Translated + from the Spanish MS. in Ternaux-Compans, vol. xvii.) + + GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA, _Comentarios reales_. (English translation + for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham. London, 1869, 1871.) + + LACROIX, '_Perou_,' in vol. iv. of _L'Amerique_ in _L'Univers + Pittoresque_. + + HUTCHINSON, _Two Years in Peru, with Explorations of its + Antiquities_. London, 1873. + + PRESCOTT, _Conquest of Peru_, 1848 (or better, Sonnenschein's new + edition, or that in Everyman's Library). + + MARKHAM, _A History of Peru_, 1892; and _Rites and Laws of the Incas_. + + LORENTE, _Historia Antigua del Peru_, 1860-3. + + + The works of Prescott upon Mexico and Peru (which are perhaps the + most popular and accessible upon the antiquities of these + countries) are nevertheless sadly meagre in their accounts of the + respective mythologies of the Nahuatlaca and the Incas. Indeed in + each of them but a few pages is given to the faith of the + aborigines. In some later editions, however (notably in the recent + popular editions of Mr. Sonnenschein), excellent variorum notes + have been added by the editors. A great deal of Prescott's work is + now quite obsolete and misleading. The works of Mr. Brinton have + superseded them; but it is doubtful if Prescott will ever be + surpassed in narrative charm. The best English work on the subject + is Mr. Payne's _History of the New World called America_, cited + above, a work which is a veritable storehouse of knowledge upon + aboriginal America. These works are, however, rather too erudite + in tone for the general reader, and by no means easy to come by. A + most excellent catalogue of American historical and mythological + literature is published by Mr. Karl Hiersemann of Leipsic. + + +Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh +University Press + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] The fact of the rapid approximation of the European colonists to the +American type might, however, be quoted against this view. + +[2] It must be borne in mind that the science and arts of the Aztecs +were almost immediately lost in consequence of the intolerance of the +Spanish Conquistadores. + +[3] An absolutely erroneous one. + +[4] The temple, with all its purlieus and courts, was named _teopan_; +the central pyramid, _teocalli_. + +[5] There is reason to believe, however, that the sacrifices of the +Aztecs were made not so much for the purpose of placating the gods as +for the imagined necessity of rejuvenating them and keeping them alive. +Of some of the sacrifices, at least, this is certain. + +[6] The veneration of an animal or plant _which does not identify a +tribe_ is not 'totemism' but 'naturalism,' or nature-worship. + +[7] The evidence of Garcilasso would seem to show that the early +Peruvians possessed a totem-system; this, however, would appear to have +been by some process totally eliminated. It will be seen that I +differentiate between 'naturalism' and 'totemism.' 'Totemism' is the +adoption of an animal or plant symbol by a _tribe_ originally for the +purpose of identification. It later grows into the belief in +blood-kinship with the symbol. 'Naturalism' is the worship of the wind, +the sun, or other natural phenomena. + +[8] The legend is the basis of some hundred of lines of bookish fustian +by Southey, who follows Hakluyt in making Mexico the theatre of the +prince's adventures. + +[9] _Antiquitates Americanae._ Were they Picts? + +[10] Pawnees. + +[11] This monumental work, which, apart from its letterpress, is +exceedingly valuable in respect of numerous splendid plates representing +Aztec MSS., is in nine huge volumes, and was published in London in +1831. Its original price was L175 coloured, and L120 uncoloured. Its +noble author sought to prove that the Mexicans were the Lost Ten Tribes +of Israel. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + + Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and +Peru, by Lewis Spence + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGIES--ANCIENT MEXICO, PERU *** + +***** This file should be named 36386.txt or 36386.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/3/8/36386/ + +Produced by David E. 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