{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34804/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34804","id":"gutenberg_34804","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34804","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Indian mythology -- Mexico","Indian mythology -- Peru","Paganism"],"text":"\n\n\n\nProduced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from scans of public domain material produced by\nMicrosoft for their Live Search Books site.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n _THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1884._\n\n LECTURES\n ON THE\n ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION\n AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE\n NATIVE RELIGIONS OF MEXICO\n AND PERU.\n\n DELIVERED AT OXFORD AND LONDON,\n IN APRIL AND MAY, 1884.\n\n BY\n ALBERT REVILLE, D.D.\n PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS AT THE COLLEGE DE FRANCE.\n\n TRANSLATED BY PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A.\n\n\n WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,\n 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON;\n AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.\n\n 1884.\n\n [_All Rights reserved._]\n\n\n\n\n LONDON:\n PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON,\n 178, STRAND.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n LECTURE I.\n\n INTRODUCTION.--CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. THEIR COMMON BASES\n OF CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION.\n\n PAGE\n\n Importance of the history of Religion 1\n\n The religions of Mexico and Peru, and the special importance\n of studying them 7\n\n Journey to another planet 8\n\n Parallelism of religious history in the New World and in\n the Old 9\n\n Central America and Mexico, and the authorities as to their\n history and religion 14\n\n Area and general character of this civilization 18\n\n The Mayas 20\n\n Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs 24\n\n The Aztec empire 29\n\n Character of the religious conceptions common to Central\n America and Mexico 35\n\n The serpent-god and the American cross 38\n\n Estimate of the character and significance of the parallelisms\n observed 39\n\n\n LECTURE II.\n\n THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO.\n\n PAGE\n\n The Sun and Moon 45\n\n The pyramidal Mexican temples 47\n\n The great temple of the city of Mexico 48\n\n The narrative of Bernal Diaz; and the two great Aztec deities,\n Uitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca 51\n\n Mythical significance of Uitzilopochtli 54\n\n Significance of Tezcatlipoca 60\n\n The serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, god of the east wind 62\n\n Netzalhuatcoyotl, the philosopher-king of Tezcuco 69\n\n Number of Mexican deities 70\n\n Tlaloc, god of rain 71\n\n Centeotl, goddess of maize 72\n\n Xiuhtecutli, god of fire 74\n\n The Mexican Venus 75\n\n Other deities 76\n\n The Tepitoton 77\n\n Mictlan, god of the dead 78\n\n Summary and reflections 79\n\n\n LECTURE III.\n\n THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY\n AND COSMOGONY OF MEXICO.\n\n PAGE\n\n Recapitulation 85\n\n Original meaning of sacrifice 86\n\n Human sacrifices and cannibalism 87\n\n Importance attached to the suffering of the victims 90\n\n Tragic and cruel character of the Mexican sacrifices 91\n\n The victims of Tezcatlipoca and Centeotl 93\n\n The children of Tlaloc 96\n\n The roasted victims of the god of fire 97\n\n Mexican asceticism 99\n\n Mexican \"communion\" 101\n\n Religious ethics 102\n\n The priesthood 106\n\n Convents, monks and nuns of ancient Mexico 109\n\n Mexican cosmogonies 112\n\n The great jubilee 116\n\n The future life 118\n\n Conversion of the Mexicans 121\n\n The Inquisition 122\n\n Conclusion 123\n\n\n LECTURE IV.\n\n PERU.--ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION.--THE LEGEND OF THE\n INCAS: THEIR POLICY AND HISTORY\n\n PAGE\n\n The Peru of the Incas 127\n\n Cortes and Pizarro 131\n\n The Inca hierocracy 132\n\n The Quipos 134\n\n Authorities for the history and religion of Peru 136\n\n Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega 137\n\n Peruvian civilization 139\n\n Huayna Capac's taxation 142\n\n Social, political and military organization of Peru 143\n\n Education 152\n\n Material well-being 153\n\n The legend of the Incas: Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo 156\n\n Were the Incas really the sole civilizers of Peru? 159\n\n Succession of the Incas and character of their rule 160\n\n Free-thinking Incas 161\n\n Huayna Capac's departure from traditional maxims 166\n\n\n LECTURE V.\n\n THE FALL OF THE INCAS.--PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY PRIESTHOOD.\n\n PAGE\n\n\n Recapitulation 171\n\n Atahualpa and Pizarro 172\n\n Father Valverde's discourse 174\n\n Atahualpa's imprisonment and death 176\n\n Inca pretenders 179\n\n Worship of the Sun and Moon 182\n\n Viracocha, god of fertilizing showers 184\n\n His consort, Mama Cocha 186\n\n Old Peruvian hymn 187\n\n Pachacamac, god of internal fire 188\n\n The myth of Pacari Tambo 191\n\n Cuycha, the rainbow 194\n\n Chasca, the planet Venus 194\n\n Worship of fire 195\n\n Worship of the thunder 196\n\n Worship of esculent plants 197\n\n Worship of animals 198\n\n The Huacas 199\n\n Peruvian priesthood 202\n\n The Virgins of the Sun 204\n\n Punishment of faithless nuns 206\n\n Independent parallelisms, illustrated by the \"couvade\" 208\n\n\n LECTURE VI.\n\n PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE\n LIFE.--CONCLUSIONS.\n\n PAGE\n\n Peruvian temples 215\n\n Sacrifices 218\n\n Columns of the Sun 222\n\n Hymns 223\n\n Religious dances 224\n\n The four great festivals 225\n\n Chasing the evil spirit 227\n\n Occasional and minor festivals 229\n\n Eclipses 230\n\n Sorcerers and priests 230\n\n Moral significance of the Peruvian religion 232\n\n Communion, baptism and sacerdotal confession 233\n\n Various ideas as to the future life 235\n\n Supay, the god of the departed 237\n\n Conversion of the Peruvians 239\n\n Are the origins of the American civilizations to be sought in\n the Old World? 241\n\n Real significance and importance of analogies observed 243\n\n Sacrifice 245\n\n Three stages of religious faith: animistic nature-worship,\n anthropomorphic polytheism and spiritual monotheism 246\n\n The genesis of the temple 249\n\n Primitive independence and subsequent mutual interpenetration\n of religion and morals 250\n\n Human nature invincibly religious 252\n\n The guiding principle 254\n\n Farewell 255\n\n\n\n\nADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.\n\n\n P. 16, _note_, under _Acosta_, add, \"E[dward] G[rimstone]'s\n translation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by\n Clements R. Markham, in 1880.\"\n\n P. 17, _note_, lines 4 and 5, to \"English translation\" add \"in\n epitome.\"\n\n \" lines 8 and 9, for \"Ixtilxochitl\" read \"Ixtlilxochitl.\"\n\n \" line 7 from below, for \"note\" read \"notes.\"\n\n P. 32, line 10 from below, for \"bases\" read \"basis.\"\n\n P. 34, line 1, for \"lama\" read \"llama.\"\n\n P. 35, last line, insert \"and\" after \"America.\"\n\n P. 77, _note_, last line, for \"caps.\" read \"capp.\"\n\n P. 92, line 9 from below, omit \"to\" before \"which.\"\n\n P. 113, _note_, last line, for \"Chichemeca\" read \"Chichimeca.\"\n\n P. 129, line 3, for \"East to West\" read \"West to East.\"\n\n P. 224, _note_, for \"_Rivero y Tschudi_, l.c.\" read \"_Rivero y\n Tschudi_: Antigueedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851.\" N. B. An English\n translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New York\n in 1853.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE I.\n\nINTRODUCTION.--CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. COMMON BASES OF CIVILIZATION\nAND RELIGION.\n\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN,\n\nMy first duty is to acknowledge the signal honour which the Hibbert\nTrustees have done me in inviting me to follow such a series of eminent\nmen as the previous occupiers of this Chair, and to address you, in the\nfree and earnest spirit of truth-loving and impartial research, on those\ngreat questions of religious history which so justly pre-occupy the\nchosen spirits of European society. Our age is not, as is sometimes\nsaid, an age of positive science and of industrial discoveries alone,\nbut also, and in a very high degree, an age of criticism and of history.\nIt is to history, indeed, more than to anything else, that it looks for\nthe lights which are to guide it in resolving the grave difficulties\npresented by the problems of the hour, in politics, in organization, and\nin social and religious life. Penetrated more deeply than the century\nthat preceded it by the truth that the development of humanity is not\narbitrary, that the law of continuity is no less rigorously applicable\nto the successive evolutions of the human mind than to the animal and\nvegetable transformations of the physical world, it perceives that the\npresent can be no other than the expansion of germs contained in the\npast; it attempts to pierce to the very essence of spiritual realities\nby investigating the methods and the laws of their historical\ndevelopment; it strives, here as elsewhere, to separate the permanent\nfrom the transient, the substance from the accident, and is urged on in\nthese laborious researches by no mere dilettante curiosity, but rather\nby the hope of arriving at a more accurate knowledge of all that is\ntrue, all that is truly precious, all that can claim, as the pure truth,\nour deliberate adhesion and our love. And in the domain of Religion,\nmore especially, we can never lose our confidence that, if historical\nresearch may sometimes compel us to sacrifice illusions, or even beliefs\nthat have been dear to us, it gives us in return the right to walk in\nthe paths of the Eternal with a firmer step, and reveals with growing\nclearness the marvellous aspiration of humanity towards a supreme\nreality, mysterious, nay incomprehensible, and yet in essential affinity\nwith itself, with its ideal, with its all that is purest and sublimest.\nThe history of religion is not only one of the branches of human\nknowledge, but a prophecy as well. After having shown us whence we come\nand the path we have trodden, it shadows forth the way we have yet to\ngo, or at the very least it effects the orientation by which we may know\nin which direction it lies.\n\nGentlemen, in these Lectures I shall be loyal to the principles of\nimpartial scholarship to which I understand this Chair to be\nconsecrated. Expect neither theological controversy nor dogmatic\ndiscussion of any kind from me. It is as a historian that I am here, and\nas a historian I shall speak. Only let me say at once, that, while\nretaining my own very marked preferences, I place religion itself, as a\nfaculty, an attribute, a tendency natural to the human mind, above all\nthe forms, even the most exalted, which it has assumed in time and\nspace. I can conceive a _Templum Serenum_ where shall meet in that love\nof truth, which at bottom is but one of the forms of love of God, all\nmen of upright heart and pure will. To me, religion is a natural\nproperty and tendency, and consequently an innate need of the human\nspirit. That spirit, accidentally and in individual cases, may indeed be\ndeprived of it; but if so, it is incomplete, mutilated, crippled. But\nobserve that the recognition of religion itself (in distinction from the\nvaried forms it may assume), as a natural tendency and essential need of\nthe human mind, implies the reality of its object, even if that sacred\nobject should withdraw itself from our understanding behind an\nimpenetrable veil, even could we say nothing concerning it save this one\nword: IT IS! For it would be irrational to the last degree to lay down\nthe existence of such a need and such a tendency, and yet believe that\nthe need corresponds to nothing, that the tendency has no goal.\nReligious history, by bringing clearly into light the universality, the\npersistency and the prodigious intensity of religion in human life, is\ntherefore, to my mind, one unbroken attestation to God.\n\nAnd now it remains for me to express my lively regret that I am unable\nto address you in your own tongue. I often read your authors: I profit\nmuch by them. But I have emphatically not received the gift of tongues.\nBy such an audience as I am now addressing, I am sure to be understood\nif I speak my mother-tongue; but were I to venture on mutilating yours,\nI should instantly become completely unintelligible! Let me throw\nmyself, then, upon your kind indulgence.\n\n\nI.\n\nI am about to speak to you on a subject little known in general, though\nit has already been studied very closely by specialists of great\nmerit--I mean the religions professed in Mexico and Peru when, in the\nsixteenth century, a handful of Spanish adventurers achieved that\nconquest, almost like a fairy tale, which still remains one of the most\nextraordinary chapters of history. But I shall perhaps do well at the\noutset briefly to explain the very special importance of these now\nvanished religions.\n\nThe intrinsic interest of all the strange, original, dramatic and even\ngrotesque features that they present to the historian, is in itself\nsufficiently great; for they possessed beliefs, institutions, and a\ndeveloped mythology, which would bear comparison with anything known to\nantiquity in the Old World. But we have another very special and weighty\nreason for interesting ourselves in these religions of a\ndemi-civilization, brusquely arrested in its development by the European\ninvasion.\n\nTo render this motive as clear as possible, allow me a supposition.\nSuppose, then, that by a miracle of human genius we had found means of\ntransporting ourselves to one of the neighbouring planets, Mars or Venus\nfor example, and had found it to be inhabited, like our earth, by\nintelligent beings. As soon as we had satisfied the first curiosity\nexcited by those physical and visible novelties which the planetary\ndifferences themselves could not fail to produce, we should turn with\nre-awakened interest to ask a host of such questions as the following:\nDo these intelligent inhabitants of Mars or Venus reason and feel as we\ndo? Have they history? Have they religion? Have they politics, arts,\nmorals? And if it should happen that after due examination we found\nourselves able to answer all these questions affirmatively, can you not\nimagine what interest there would be in comparing the history, politics,\narts, morals and religion of these beings with our own? And if we found\nthat the same fundamental principles, the same laws of evolution and\ntransformation, the same internal logic, had asserted itself in Mars, in\nVenus and on the Earth, is it not clear that the fact would constitute a\ngrand confirmation of our theories as to the fundamental identity of\nspiritual being, the conditions of its individual and collective\ngenesis--in a word, the universal character of the laws of mind?\n\nAnd now consider this. For the Europeans of the early sixteenth century,\nAmerica, especially continental America, was absolutely equivalent to\nanother planet upon which, thanks to the presaging genius of Christopher\nColumbus, the men of the Old World had at last set foot. At first they\nonly found certain islands inhabited by men of another type and another\ncolour than their own, still close upon the savage state. But before\nlong they had reason to suspect that immense regions stretched to the\nwest of the archipelago of the Antilles; they ventured ashore, and\nreturned with a vague notion that there existed in the interior of the\nunknown continent mighty empires, whose wealth and military organization\nsevered them widely indeed from the poor tribes of St. Domingo or Cuba,\nwhom they had already discovered and had so cruelly oppressed. It was\nthen that a bold captain conceived the apparently insane project of\nsetting out with a few hundred men to conquer what passed for the\nrichest and most powerful of these empires. His success demanded not\nonly all his courage, but all his cold cruelty and absolute\nunscrupulousness, together with those favours which fortune sometimes\nreserves for audacity. At any rate he succeeded, and the rumours that\nhad inflamed his imagination turned out to be true. On his way he came\nupon great cities, upon admirably cultivated lands, upon a complete\nsocial and military organization. He saw an unknown religion display\nitself before his eyes. There were temples, sacrifices, magnificent\nceremonies. There were priests, there were convents, there were monks\nand nuns. To his profound amazement, he noticed the cross carved upon a\ngreat number of religious edifices, and saw a goddess who bore her\ninfant in her arms. The natives had rites which closely recalled the\nChristian baptism and the Christian communion. As for our captain,\nneither he nor his contemporaries could see anything in all this parade\nof a religion, now so closely approaching, now so utterly remote, from\ntheir own, but a gigantic ruse of the devil, who had led these unhappy\nnatives astray in order to secure their worship. But for us, who know\nthat the devil cannot help us to the genesis of ancient mythologies and\nancient religions--who know likewise that the social and religious\ndevelopment of Central America was in the strictest sense native and\noriginal, and that all attempts to bring it into connection with a\nsupposed earlier intercourse with Asia or Europe have failed--the\nquestion presents itself under a very different aspect. In our Old\nWorld, the natural religious development of man has produced myths and\nmythologies, sacrificial rites and priesthoods, temples, ascetics, gods\nand goddesses; and on the basis of the Old World's experience we might\nalready feel entitled to say, \"Such are the steps and stages of\nreligious evolution; such were the processes of the human spirit before\nthe appearance of the higher religions which are in some sort grafted\nupon their elder sisters, and have in their turn absorbed or\nspiritualized them.\" But there would still be room to ask whether all\nthis development had been natural and spontaneous, whether successive\nimitations linking one contiguous people to another had not transformed\nsome local and isolated phenomenon into an apparently general and\ninternational fact--much as took place with the use of tea or\ncotton--without our being compelled to recognize any necessary law of\nhuman development in it. But what answer is possible to the argument\nfurnished by the discovery of the new planet--I mean to say of America?\nHow can we resist this evidence that the whole organism of mythologies,\ngods, goddesses, sacrifices, temples and priesthoods, while varying\nenormously from race to race and from nation to nation, yet, wherever\nhuman beings are found, develops itself under the same laws, the same\nprinciples and the same methods of deduction; that, in a word, given\nhuman nature anywhere, its religious development is reared on the same\nidentical bases and passes through the same phases?\n\nMr. Max Mueller, one of my most honoured masters, and one of those who\nhave best deserved the gratitude of the learned world, has declared,\nwith equal justice and penetration, in his Preface to Mr. Wyatt Gill's\n\"Myths and Songs,\" that the possibility of studying the Polynesian\nmythology is to the historian what an opportunity of spending a time in\nthe midst of the plesiosauri and the megatherions would be to the\nzoologist, or of walking in the shade of the vast arborescent ferns that\nlie buried under our present soil to the botanist. Polynesian mythology\nhas in fact preserved, down to our own day, the pre-historic ages. And,\nsimilarly, the religions of Mexico and Peru (for the empire of the Incas\nheld the same surprises and the same lessons in store for its explorers\nas that of Montezuma had done) has enabled history to carry to the\npoint of demonstration its fundamental thesis of the natural\ndevelopment, in subjection to fixed laws, of the religious tendency in\nman. All those curious resemblances, amidst the differences which we\nshall also bring out, between the religious history of the New World and\nthat of the Old, are not at bottom any more extraordinary than the fact\nthat, in spite of the differences of physical type which separated the\nnatives from their conquerors, they none the less saw with eyes, walked\non feet, ate with a mouth and digested with a stomach.\n\n * * * * *\n\nWe shall begin our study with Mexico. But a few preliminary\nethnographical remarks are indispensable. I spare you the catalogue of\nthe numerous sources and documents from which a detailed knowledge of\nthe Mexican religion may be drawn.[1] Such a list is in place in a book\nrather than in a lecture. I will only direct your attention to the noble\ncollection made in 1830 by one of your own compatriots, Lord\nKingsborough, under the title of \"Antiquities of Mexico,\" a work of\nextreme importance, which reproduces, in facsimile or engravings, the\nmonuments and ruins of ancient Mexico;[2] and the very remarkable work\nof Mr. H. H. Bancroft, \"Native Races of the Pacific States of North\nAmerica.\"[3]\n\n\nII.\n\nThe region with which we are now to occupy ourselves comprises the space\nbounded on the South by the Isthmus of Panama, washed East and West by\nthe oceans, and determined, roughly speaking, towards the North by a\nline starting from the head of the Gulf of California, and sweeping\nround to the mouths of the Mississippi with a curve that takes in\nArizona and Southern Texas. In our day, this southern portion of North\nAmerica is broken into two great divisions, the first and most southern\nof which is known collectively as Central America, and embraces the\nrepublics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, San Salvador\nand Panama. The great peninsula of Yucatan, which is now Mexican,\nformerly belonged to this group of Central American peoples. The second\nportion of the territory we are to study corresponds to the present\nrepublic of Mexico. I shall presently explain the sense in which it\nmight be called the Mexican empire in the time of Fernando Cortes. For\nthe present, let me ask you to remember that we are now about to speak,\nin a general and preliminary manner, of the region which pretty closely\ncorresponds to the present Central America and Mexico.\n\nTo begin with, we treat these two districts as a single whole, because\nthe Europeans found them inhabited by a race which was divided, it is\ntrue, into several varieties, but was distinguished clearly from the\nRed-skins on the North, and still more from the Eskimos, and alone of\nthe native races of North America had proved itself capable of rising by\nits own strength to a veritable civilization. The general physical type\nof the race is marked by a very brown skin, a medium stature, low brow,\nblack coarse hair, prominent jaw, heavy lips, thick eyebrows, and a\nnose generally large and often hooked. The noble families as a rule had\na clearer complexion. The women are thick-set and squab, but not without\ngrace in their movements. In their youth they are sometimes very pretty,\nbut they fade early. We must leave it to ethnological specialists to\ndecide whether this type is not the result of previous crossings.\n\nSo much is certain, that at an epoch the date of which it is impossible\nto fix, but which must have been remote, this race, cut off from all the\nworld by the sea and the profoundest savagery, developed a civilization\n_sui generis_, to which the traditional reminiscences of the natives\nand a series of most remarkable ruins, discovered especially in Central\nAmerica, bear witness. For it is in this southern district that we find\nthe monumental ruins of Palenque, of Chiapa, of Uxmal, of Utatlan, and\nof other places, the list of which has again begun to receive additions\nin recent years. When the Spaniards conquered the New World, the centre\nof this civilization had shifted further north, to Mexico proper, to the\ncity of Mexico, to Tezcuco and to Cholula. But the consciousness that\nthe Mexican civilization was affiliated to that of the isthmic region\nhad by no means been lost. It was a nation or race called Maya, the name\nof which seems to indicate that it considered itself indigenous, and the\nproper centre of which lay in Yucatan, that produced this American\ncivilization--capable of organizing states and priesthoods, of rearing\nimmense palaces, of carving stone in great perfection and with a true\nartistic sense, and of realizing a high degree of physical well-being.\nThere is reason to believe, however, that this civilization, resembling\nin some respects that of ancient Canaan, had more refinement in its\npursuit of material comfort than vigour in its morality. A certain\neffeminacy, and even the endemic practice of odious vices, appears to\nhave early enervated it. When the Spaniards arrived in America, wars and\ndevastating invasions had shattered the old and powerful monarchies of\nthe central region and reduced the great monuments of antiquity to\nruins, and that too so long ago that the natives themselves, while\nretaining a certain civilization, had lost all memory of the ancient\ncities and the ancient palaces that the Europeans rescued from oblivion.\nWe may still see figured amongst the monuments of Mexico those beautiful\nruins of Palenque, where stretches a superb gallery, vaulted with the\nbroad ogives that recal the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra; while\nat Tehuantepec an immense temple has been discovered, hollowed out of a\nhuge rock, like certain temples in India. The cultivation of maize was\nto this region what that of wheat was to Egypt and Mesopotamia, or of\nrice to India and China, the material condition, namely, of a precocious\ncivilization. For, as has been remarked, the primitive civilizations\ncould not be developed except where an abundant cereal raised man above\nimmediate anxiety for his subsistence, and rescued him from the\nall-engrossing fatigues and the dangerous uncertainties of the hunter's\nlife.\n\nThis Maya race, having adopted the agricultural and sedentary life,\nmultiplied so greatly as to send out many swarms of colonists towards\nthe North, where the _Nahuas_, that is to say, \"the skilled ones\" or\n\"experts\" (for so the emigrants from the Maya land were called), found\nmen of the same race as themselves, to whom they imparted their superior\nknowledge. They kept on pushing northwards, established themselves on\nthe great plateau of Anahuac, or \"lake country,\" where the city of\nMexico is situated, and advanced up to the somewhat indefinite limit\nopposed to their progress by the Red-skins. This migratory movement\ntowards the North was evidently not the affair of a day. It must have\ncontinued for centuries; and during its process the Maya civilization\nmay have experienced great developments and undergone numerous\nmodifications; so that, without venturing to pronounce categorically\nupon a problem yet unsolved, I should myself be inclined to ascribe to\na population, which either consisted of bands of emigrant Mayas or was\naffected by this Nahua movement, those \"Mounds\" which still throw their\ngalling defiance at the modern methods of research, powerless to explain\ntheir origin in regions which have since been under the reign of the\nmost absolute savagery.\n\nHowever this may be, the movement by which in a remote antiquity the\npeoples of Central America ascended towards the North, carrying with\nthem their relative civilization to Mexico and even beyond, was reversed\nat the epoch of our Middle Ages by a migration in the opposite\ndirection. In this case it was the peoples of the northern regions that\ntended to beat back upon the South. They invaded, conquered and brought\ninto subjection the peoples who had established themselves along the\npath followed by the previous migrations; and it is probably to\ninvasions of this description that we must ascribe the fall of the\nancient Maya society of the isthmic region. But the civilization of\nwhich it had sown the germs was not dead. Nay, the peoples who descended\nupon the South had in great measure themselves adopted it; and in the\ninvaded districts there remained groups and nuclei of Nahua populations\nwho maintained its principles, its arts and its spirit, to which their\nconquerors readily conformed. The last conquerors had been established\nas masters in the Mexican district for more than a century when the\nSpaniards arrived there. They were the _Aztecs_. They had conquered or\nshattered what was called the _Chichimec_ empire, which in its turn had\ndestroyed, some centuries earlier, the _Toltec_ empire. But it would be\na mistake to think of three successive empires, Toltec, Chichimec and\nAztec, one supplanting the other in the same way as the Frankish empire,\nfor example, took the place of that of Rome, which in its turn had\nreplaced divers others more ancient yet. What really took place was what\nfollows.\n\nThe prolonged migrations of the Nahuas towards the North had not spread\ncivilization uniformly amongst all the tribes encountered on the route.\nThus, down to the sixteenth century, there still existed in the heart of\nMexico tribes very little removed from the savage state, such as the\nOtomis or \"wanderers;\" whereas, in other districts, the Nahuas had\nestablished themselves on a footing of acknowledged supremacy and\ndeveloped a brilliant civilization. Thus they founded at the extreme\nnorth of the present Mexico the ancient city of Tulan or Tullan, the\nname of which passed into that of its inhabitants, the _Toltecs_, and\nthis latter, in its turn, became the designation of everything graceful,\nelegant, artistically refined and beautiful. Ethnographically, it simply\nindicates the most brilliant foci of the civilization imported from\nCentral America. In fact, there never was a Toltec empire at all, but\nsimply a confederation of the three cities of Tullan, Colhuacan and\nOtompan, all of which may be regarded as Toltec in the social sense\nwhich I have just described. Many other small states existed outside\nthis confederation. It was destroyed by the revolt or invasion of more\nnorthern tribes, hitherto held in vassalage and looked down upon as\nbelonging to a lower level of culture and manners. These tribes received\nor assumed the name of _Chichimecs_ or \"dogs,\" which may have been a\nterm of contempt converted into a title of honour, like that of the\n_Gueux_ of the Low Countries. Thus arose a Chichimec confederation, of\nwhich Colhuacan (the name given for a time to Tezcuco), Azcapulzalco,\nthe capital of the Tepanecs, and Tlacopan, were the principal cities. At\nTezcuco the Toltec element was still powerful. Cholula, a sacred city,\nremained essentially Toltec, and in general the Chichimecs readily\nadopted the superior civilization of the Toltecs. This was so much the\ncase that Tezcuco became the seat of an intellectual and artistic\ndevelopment, in virtue of which the Europeans called it the Athens of\nMexico. It was from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, according\nto the historians, that what may be called the Chichimec era lasted.\n\nAt the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Aztecs--that is to say\n_the white flamingos_ or _herons_ (from _aztatl_), the last comers from\nthe North, who had long been a poor and wretched tribe, and on reaching\nAnahuac had been obliged to accept the suzerainty of Tezcuco--began to\nassume great importance. They had founded, under the name of\nTenochtitlan, upon an island that is now united to the mainland, the\ncity which was afterwards called Mexico. But originally the name of\nMexico belonged to the quarter of the city which was dedicated to the\ngod of war, Mextli. At once warlike and commercial, the Aztecs grew in\nnumbers, wealth and military power; they saved Tezcuco from the dominion\nof the Tepanecs, who tried to bring the whole Chichimec confederation\ninto subjection; presently they threw off all vassalage, and in the\nfifteenth century they stood at the head of the new confederation which\ntook the place of that of the Chichimecs, and of which Mexico, Tezcuco\nand Tlacopan (or Tacuba), were the three capitals.\n\nThere was no Mexican empire, then, at the moment when Fernando Cortes\ndisembarked near Vera Cruz, but there was a federation. On certain days\nof religious festivity a solemn public dance was celebrated in Mexico,\nin which the sovereign families of the three states, together with their\nsubjects of the highest rank, took part. It began at noon before the\npalace of the Mexican king. They stood three and three. The king of\nMexico led the dance, holding with his right hand the king of Tezcuco,\nand with his left the king of Tlacopan, and the three confederate\nsovereigns or emperors thus symbolized for several hours the union of\ntheir three states by the harmonious cadence of their movements.[4]\n\n\nIII.\n\nThe widely-spread error that makes Montezuma, the Mexican sovereign that\nreceived Fernando Cortes, the absolute master of the whole district of\nthe present Mexico, is explained by the fact, that of the three\nconfederate states that of the Aztecs was by far the strongest, most\nwarlike and most dreaded. It was constantly extending its dominion by\nmeans of a numerous, disciplined and admirably organized army, and\nlittle by little the other two states were constantly approaching the\ncondition of vassalage. The Aztecs were no more recalcitrant to\ncivilization than the Chichimecs, but they were ruder, more\nmatter-of-fact and more cruel. They did no sacrifices to the Toltec\ngraces, but developed their civilization exclusively on its utilitarian\nand practical side. They were no artists, but essentially warriors and\nmerchants. And even their merchants were often at the same time spies\nwhom the kings of Mexico sent into the countries they coveted, to study\ntheir resources, their strength and their weakness. Their yoke was hard.\nThey raised heavy tributes. Their policy was one of extreme\ncentralization, and, without destroying the religion of the peoples\nconquered by their arms, they imposed upon them the worship and the\nsupremacy of their own national deities. Their warlike expeditions bore\na pronounced religious character. The priests marched at the head of the\nsoldiers, and bore Aztec idols on their backs. On the eve of a battle\nthey kindled fresh fire by the friction of wood; and it was they who\ngave the signal of attack. These wars had pillage and conquest as their\nobject, but also and very specially the capture of victims to sacrifice\nto the Aztec gods. For the Aztecs pushed the superstitious practice of\nhuman sacrifice to absolute frenzy. It was to these horrible sacrifices\nthat they attributed their successes in war and the prosperity of their\nempire. If they experienced a check or had suffered any disaster, they\nredoubled their blood-stained offerings. But note this trait, so\nessentially pagan and in such perfect accord with the polytheistic ideas\nof the ancient world--they sacrificed to the gods of the conquered\ncountry too, to show them that it was not against them they were\ncontending, and that the new regime would not rob them of the homage to\nwhich they were accustomed. The Aztec deities were not _jealous_. They\nconfined themselves to vindicating their own pre-eminence. After each\nfresh conquest, the Aztecs raised a temple at Mexico bearing the name of\nthe conquered country, and thither they transported natives of the place\nto carry on the worship after their own customs. It seems that they did\nnot consider even this precaution enough; for they constructed a special\nedifice near the great temple of Mexico, where the supreme deities of\nthe Aztec people were enthroned, and there they shut up the idols of the\nconquered countries. This was to prevent their escape, should the desire\ncome over them to return to their own peoples and help them to\nrevolt.[5]\n\nAll this will explain how it was that Fernando Cortes found numerous\nallies against Montezuma's despotism amongst the native peoples. For it\nis an error, generally received indeed, but contradicted by history,\nthat the Spanish captain decided the fate of so redoubtable an empire,\nand of a city so vigorously defended as Mexico, with the sole aid of his\nthousand Europeans.\n\nFor the rest, we are forced to acknowledge that the Aztecs had developed\ntheir civilization, in its political and material aspects, in a way that\ndoes the greatest credit to their sagacity. Property was organized on\nthe individual and hereditary basis for the noble families, and on the\ncollective basis for the people, divided into communities. The taxes\nwere raised in kind, according to fixed rules. Numbers of slaves were\ncharged with the most laborious kinds of work. The merchants, assembled\nin the cities, formed a veritable _tiers-etat_ which exercised a growing\npolitical influence. There were markets, the abundance and wealth of\nwhich stupefied the Spaniards. The luxury of the court and of the great\nfamilies was dazzling. No one dared to address the sovereign save with\nlowered voice, and--strange custom in our eyes!--no one appeared before\nhim save with naked feet and clad in sordid garments, in sign of\nhumility. Mexico had been joined to the mainland by causeways, along\nwhich an aqueduct conveyed the pure waters of distant springs to the\ncity. The irrigation works in the country were numerous and in good\nrepair. The streets were cleansed by day and lighted at night,\nadvantages in which none of the European capitals rejoiced in the\nsixteenth century. And finally, for we cannot dwell indefinitely upon\nthis subject, let us note the excellent roads that stretched from Mexico\nto the limits of the Aztec empire and the confederated states. Along\nthese roads the sovereigns of Mexico had established, at intervals of\ntwo leagues, courier posts for the transmission of important news to\nthem. Montezuma heard of the disembarkment of Fernando Cortes three days\nafter it took place.\n\nAnd now imagine that this people was always averse to navigation--was\nignorant of use of iron, knowing only of gold, silver and copper--had no\nbeast of traction or burden, neither horse, nor ass, nor camel, nor\nelephant, nor even the llama of Peru--was without writing (for though we\nfind a kind of hieroglyph on the monuments of Mexico and Central\nAmerica, yet the system was not of the smallest avail for ordinary\nlife)--and, finally, had no money except an inconsiderable number of\nsilver crosses and cacao berries, the mass of exchanges being effected\nby barter! On the other hand, they worked in stone with admirable skill.\nIn their knives and lance and arrow heads, made of obsidian, they\nachieved remarkable perfection, and they excelled in the art of\nsupplying the place of writing by pictures, painted on a kind of aloe\npaper or on cotton stuffs, representing the persons or things as to\nwhich they desired to convey information.\n\nSuch, then, is the singular people that Spain was destined to conquer in\nthe sixteenth century, and whose civilization, though modified by the\nspecial Aztec spirit, rested after all upon the same bases that had\nsustained the more ancient civilization of Central America. And this is\nequally true of the religion, which, with all the varieties impressed\nupon it by the special genius or inclinations of the diverse peoples,\nreveals itself as resting upon one common basis, from the Isthmus of\nPanama to the Gulf of California and the mouths of the Rio del Norte.\n\n\nIV.\n\nOne of the fundamental traits of this regional religion, then, is the\npre-eminence of the Sun, regarded as a personal and animated being, over\nall other divinities. At Guatemala, amongst the Lacandones, he was\nadored directly, without any images. Amongst their neighbours the Itzas,\nnot far from Vera Paz, he was represented as a round human head\nencircled by diverging rays and with a great open mouth. This symbol,\nindeed, was very widely spread in all that region. Often the Sun is\nrepresented putting out his tongue, which means that he lives and\nspeaks. For in the American hieroglyphics, a protruded tongue, or a\ntongue placed by the side of any object, is the emblem of life. A\nmountain with a tongue represents a volcano. The Sun was generally\nassociated with the Moon as spouse, and they were called _Grandfather_\nand _Grandmother_. In Central America, and in the territory of Mexico,\nmay be observed a number of stone columns which are likewise statues;\nbut the head is generally in the middle, and is so overlaid with\nornaments or attributes, that it is not very easy to discover it. These\nare _Sun-columns_. As he traced the shadow of these monoliths upon the\nsoil day after day, the Sun appeared to be caressing them, loving them,\ntaking them as his fellow-workers in measuring the time. These same\ncolumns were also symbols of fructifying power. Often the Sun has a\nchild, who is no other than a doublet of himself, but conceived in human\nform as the civilizer, legislator and conqueror, bearing diverse names\naccording to the peoples whose hero-god and first king he is represented\nas being. And for that matter, if we had but the time, we might long\ndwell on the myths of Yucatan, of Guatemala (amongst the Quiches), of\nHonduras, and of Nicaragua. By the side of the Sun and Moon, grandfather\nand grandmother, there were a number of great and small deities (some of\nthem extremely vicious), and amongst others a god of rain, who was\ncalled Tohil by the Quiches and Tlaloc at Mexico, where he took his\nplace amongst the most revered deities. His name signifies \"noise,\"\n\"rumbling.\" Amongst the Quiches he had a great temple at Utatlan,\npyramidal in form, like all others in this region of the world, where he\nwas the object of a \"perpetual adoration\" offered him by groups of from\nthirteen to eighteen worshippers, who relieved each other in relays day\nand night.\n\nHuman sacrifice was practised by all these peoples, though not to such\nan extent as amongst the Aztecs, for they only resorted to it on rare\noccasions. It was especially girls that they immolated, with the idea of\ngiving brides to the gods. They were to exercise their conjugal\ninfluence in favourably disposing their divine consorts towards the\nsacrificers. In this connection we find a tragi-comic story of a young\nvictim whose forced marriage was not in the least to her taste, and who\nthreatened to pronounce the most terrible maledictions from heaven upon\nher slaughterers. Her threats had so much effect that they let her go,\nand procured another and less recalcitrant bride for the deity.[6]\n\nFinally, we will mention a most characteristic deity (whom we shall\npresently recognize at Mexico under yet another name), variously known\nas Cuculkan (bird-serpent), Gucumatz (feathered-serpent),\nHurakan--whence our \"hurricane\"--Votan (serpent), &c. He is always a\nserpent, and generally feathered or flying. He is a personification of\nthe wind, especially of the east wind, which brings the fertilizing\nrains in that district. Almost everywhere he is credited with gentle and\nbeneficent dispositions, and therefore with a certain hostility to human\nsacrifice. It was this deity, in one of his forms, who was worshipped in\nthe sacred island of Cozumel, situated close to Yucatan, to which\npilgrimages were made from great distances. It was there that the\nSpaniards, to their great surprise, first observed a cross surmounting\nthe temple of this god of the wind. This was the starting-point of the\nlegend according to which the Apostle Thomas had of old evangelized\nAmerica. It is a pure illusion. The pagan cross of Central America and\nMexico is nothing whatever but the symbol of the four cardinal points of\nthe compass from which blow the four chief winds.\n\nSuch is the common religious basis, which we have simply sketched in its\nmost general outlines, and upon which the more elaborate and sombre\nreligion of the Aztecs, which we shall examine at our next meeting, was\nreared. Pray observe that we find in this group of connected beliefs and\nworships something quite analogous to the polytheism of the ancient\nworld. The only notable difference is, that the god of Heaven, Dyaus,\nVaruna, Zeus, Ahura Mazda, or (in China) Tien, does not occupy the same\npre-eminent place in the American mythology that he takes in its\nEuropean and Asiatic counterparts. For the rest, the processes of the\nhuman spirit are absolutely identical in the two continents. In both\nalike it is the phenomena of nature, regarded as animated and conscious,\nthat wake and stimulate the religious sentiment and become the objects\nof the adoration of man. At the same time, and in virtue of the same\nprocess of internal logic, these personified beings come to be regarded\nmore and more as possessed of a nature superior in power indeed, but in\nall other respects closely conforming, to that of man. If\nnature-worship, with the animism that it engenders, shapes the first\nlaw to which nascent religion submits in the human race,\nanthropomorphism furnishes the second, disengaging itself ever more and\nmore completely from the zoomorphism which generally serves as an\nintermediary. This is so _everywhere_. And thus we may safely leave to\nethnologists the task of deciding whether the whole human race descends\nfrom one original couple or from many; for, spiritually speaking,\nhumanity in any case is one. It is one same spirit that animates it and\nis developed in it; and this, the incontestable unity of our race, is\nlikewise the only unity we need care to insist on. Let us recognize it,\nthen, since indeed it imposes itself upon us, and let us confess that\nthe gospel did but anticipate the last word of science in proclaiming\nuniversal fraternity.\n\nAnd here, Gentlemen, we reach one of those grand generalizations which\nmust finally win over even those who are still inclined to distrust the\nphilosophical history of religions as a study that destroys the most\nprecious possessions of humanity. In setting forth the intellectual and\nmoral unity of mankind, everywhere directed by the same successive\nevolutions and the same spiritual laws, it brings into light the great\nprinciple of _human brotherhood_. In demonstrating that these\nevolutions, in spite of all the influences of ignorance, of selfishness\nand of grossness, converge towards a sublime, ideal goal, and are no\nother than the mysterious but mighty and unbroken attraction to that\nunfathomable Power of which the universe is the visible expression, it\nfounds on a basis of reason the august sentiment of the _divine\nfatherhood_. Brother-men and one Father-God!--what more does the thinker\nneed to raise the dignity of our nature, the promises of the future, the\nsublimity of our destiny, into a region where the inconstant waves of a\nsuperficial criticism can never reach them? Such is the vestibule of the\neternal Temple; and in approaching the sanctuary--albeit I may not know\nthe very title by which best to call the Deity who reigns in it--I bow\nmy head with that union of humility and of filial trust which\nconstitutes the pure essence of religion.\n\nBut from these general considerations we must return to our more\nimmediate subject. At our next meeting, Gentlemen, we are to study the\nspecial beliefs and mythology of ancient Mexico.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE II.\n\nTHE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO.\n\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN,\n\nIt will be my task to-day to give an account of the Mexican mythology\nand religion, resting as it does on the foundation common to the peoples\nof Central America, but inspired by the sombre, utilitarian,\nmatter-of-fact, yet vigorous and earnest, genius of the Aztecs. You will\nremember that this name belongs to the warlike and commercial people\nthat enjoyed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a military and\npolitical supremacy in the region that is now called Mexico, after the\nAztec capital of that name.\n\n\nI.\n\nTo begin with, we must note that the ancient Central-American cultus of\nthe Sun and Moon, considered as the two supreme deities, was by no\nmeans renounced by the Aztecs. Ometecutli (i.e. _twice Lord_) and\nOmecihuatl (_twice Lady_), or in other words supreme Lord and Lady, are\nthe designations under which they are always indicated in the first rank\nin the religious formulae. All the Mexicans called themselves \"children\nof the Sun,\" and greeted him every morning with hymns and with trumpet\npeals, accompanied with offerings. Four times by day and four times by\nnight, priests who were attached to the various temples addressed their\ndevotions to him. And yet he had no temple specially consecrated to him.\nThe fact was that all temples were really his, much as in our own\nChristian civilization all the churches are raised in honour of God,\nthough particular designations are severally given to them. The Sun was\nthe _teotl_ (i.e. the god) _par excellence_. I am informed that to this\nvery day the inhabitants of secluded parts of Mexico, as they go to\nmass, throw a kiss to the sun before entering the church.\n\nNotwithstanding all this, we have to observe that, by an inconsistency\nwhich again has its analogies in other religions, the cultus of the\nsupreme deity and his consort was pretty much effaced in the popular\ndevotions and practices by that of divinities who were perhaps less\naugust, and in some cases were even derived from the substance of the\nsupreme deity himself, but in any case seemed to stand nearer to\nhumanity than he did. More especially, the national deities of the\nAztecs, the guardians of their empire, whose worship they instituted\nwherever their arms had triumphed, practically took the first place. It\nis with these national deities that we are now to make acquaintance, and\nwe cannot do better than begin with the two great deities of the city of\nMexico, whose colossal statues were enthroned on its principal temple.\n\nBut first we must form some notion of what a Mexican temple was.\n\nThe word \"temple,\" if held to imply an enclosed and covered building, is\nvery improperly applied to the kind of edifice in question. Indeed, a\nMexican temple (and the same may be said of most of the sanctuaries of\nCentral America) was essentially a gigantic altar, of pyramidal form,\nbuilt in several stages, contracting as they approached the summit. The\nnumber of these retreating stories or terraces might vary. There were\nnever less than three, but there might be as many as five or six, and in\nTezcuco some of these quasi-pyramids even numbered nine. The one that\ntowered over all the rest in the city of Mexico was built in five\nstages. It measured, at its base, about three hundred and seventy-five\nfeet in length and three hundred in width, and was over eighty feet\nhigh. At a certain point in each terrace was the stair that sloped\nacross the side of the pyramid to the terrace above; but the successive\nascents were so arranged that it was necessary to make the complete\ncircuit of the edifice in order to mount from one stage to another, and\nconsequently the grand processions to which the Mexicans were so much\ndevoted must have encircled the whole edifice from top to bottom, like a\nhuge living serpent, before the van could reach the broad platform at\nthe top, and this must have added not a little to the picturesque effect\nof these religious ceremonies. Such an erection was called a _teocalli_\nor \"abode of the gods.\" The great teocalli of Mexico commanded the four\nchief roads that parted from its base to unite the capital to all the\ncountries beneath the sceptre of its rulers. It was the palladium of the\nempire, and, as at Jerusalem, it was the last refuge of the defenders of\nthe national independence.\n\nThe teocalli which Fernando Cortes and his companions saw at Mexico, and\nwhich the conqueror razed to the ground, to replace it by a Catholic\nchurch, was not of any great antiquity. It had been constructed\nthirty-four years before, in the place of another much smaller one that\ndated from the time when the Aztecs were but an insignificant tribe; and\nit seems that frightful human hecatombs had ensanguined the foundations\nof this more recent teocalli. Some authorities speak of seventy-two or\neighty thousand victims, while more moderate calculations reduce the\nnumber to twenty thousand, which is surely terrible enough. In front of\nthe temple there stretched a spacious court some twelve hundred feet\nsquare. All around were smaller buildings, which served as habitations\nfor the priests, and store-houses for the apparatus of worship, as well\nas arsenals, oratories for the sovereign and the grandees of the\nempire, chapels for the inferior deities and so on. Amongst these\nbuildings was the temple in which, as I have said, the gods of the\nconquered peoples were literally imprisoned. In another the Spaniards\ncould count a hundred and thirty-six thousand symmetrically-piled\nskulls. They were the skulls of all the victims that had been sacrificed\nsince the foundation of the sanctuary. And, by a contrast no less than\nmonstrous, side by side with this monument of the most atrocious\nbarbarism there were halls devoted to the care of the poor and sick, who\nwere tended gratuitously by priests.[7] What a tissue of contradictions\nis man!\n\nBut the Aztec religion does not allow us to dwell upon the note of\ntenderness. In the centre of the broad platform at the summit stood the\n_stone of sacrifices_, a monolith about three feet high, slightly ridged\non the surface. Upon this stone the victim was stretched supine, and\nwhile sundry subordinate priests held his head, arms and feet, the\nsacrificing pontiff raised a heavy knife, laid open his bosom with one\nterrific blow, and tore out his heart to offer it all bleeding and\npalpitating to the deity in whose honour the sacrifice was performed.\nAnd here you will recognize that idea, so widely spread in the two\nAmericas, and indeed almost everywhere amongst uncivilized peoples, that\nthe heart is the epitome, so to speak, of the individual--his soul in\nsome sense--so that to appropriate his heart is to appropriate his whole\nbeing.\n\nFinally, there rose on the same platform a kind of chapel in which were\nenthroned the two chief deities of the Aztecs, Uitzilopochtli and\nTezcatlipoca.[8] And here I will ask you to accompany Captain Bernal\nDiaz in the retinue of his chief, Fernando Cortes, to whom the king\nMontezuma himself had seen fit to do the honours of his \"cathedral.\"\nFor, as you are aware, Montezuma, divided between a rash confidence and\ncertain apprehensions which I shall presently explain, received Cortes\nfor a considerable time with the utmost distinction, lodged him in one\nof his palaces, and did everything in the world to please him. This,\nthen, is the narrative of Bernal Diaz:[9]\n\n \"Montezuma invited us to enter a little tower, where in a kind\n of chamber, or hall, stood what appeared like two altars covered\n with rich embroidery.\" (What Bernal Diaz compared to altars were\n the two _Teoicpalli_ (or _seats of the gods_), which were wooden\n pedestals, painted azure blue and bearing a serpent's head at\n each corner).... \"The first [idol], placed on the right, we were\n told represented Huichilobos, their god of war\" (this was as\n near as Bernal Diaz could get to Uitzilopochtli), \"with his face\n and countenance very broad, his eyes monstrous and terrible; all\n his body was covered with jewels, gold and pearls of various\n sizes.... His body was girt with things like great serpents,\n made with gold and precious stones, and in one hand he held a\n bow, and arrows in the other. And another little idol who stood\n by him, and, as they said, was his page, carried a short lance\n for him, and a very rich shield of gold and jewels. And\n Huichilobos had his neck hung round with faces of Indians, and\n what seemed to be the hearts of these same Indians, made of\n gold, or some of them of silver, covered with blue gems; and\n there stood some brasiers there, containing incense made with\n copal and the hearts of three Indians who had been slain that\n same day; and they were burning, and with the smoke and incense\n they had made that sacrifice to him; and all the walls of this\n oratory were so bathed and blackened with cakes of blood, as was\n the very ground itself, that the whole exhaled a very foul\n odour.\n\n \"Carrying our eyes to the left we perceived another great mass,\n as high as Huichilobos. Its face was like a bear's, and its\n shining eyes were made of mirrors called Tezcat. Its body was\n covered with rich gems like that of Huichilobos, for they said\n that they were brothers. And this Tescatepuca\" (the mutilated\n form under which Bernal Diaz presents Tezcatlipoca) \"was the god\n of hell\" (this is another mistake, for Tezcatlipoca was a\n celestial deity).... \"His body was surrounded with figures like\n little imps, with tails like serpents; and the walls were so\n caked and the ground so saturated with blood, that the\n slaughterhouses of Castile do not exhale such a stench; and\n indeed we saw the hearts of five victims who had been\n slaughtered that same day.... And since everything smelt of the\n shambles, we were impatient to escape from the foul odour and\n yet fouler sight.\"\n\n\nII.\n\nSuch was the impression made upon a Spanish soldier and a good Catholic\nby the sight of the two chief deities of the Mexican people. To him\nthey were simply two abominable inventions of Satan. Let us try to go a\nlittle further below the surface.\n\nUitzilopochtli signifies _Humming-bird to the left_, from _Uizilin_\n(Humming-bird), and _opochtli_ (to the left). The latter part of the\nname is probably due to the position we have just seen noticed to the\nleft of the other great deity, Tezcatlipoca. But why Humming-bird? What\ncan there be in common between this graceful little creature and the\nmonstrous idol of the Aztecs? The answer is given by the American\nmythology, in which the Humming-bird is a divine being, the messenger of\nthe Sun. In the Aztec language it is often called the \"sunbeam\" or the\n\"sun's hair.\" This charming little bird, with the purple, gold and topaz\nsheen of its lovely plumage, as it flits amongst the flowers like a\nbutterfly, darts out its long tongue before it to extract their juices,\nwith a burring of its wings like the humming of bees, whence it derives\nits English name. Moreover, it is extremely courageous, and will engage\nwith far larger birds than itself in defence of its nest. In the\nnorthern regions of Mexico, the humming-bird is the messenger of\nspring, as the swallow is with us. At the beginning of May, after a cold\nand dry season that has parched the soil and blighted all verdure, the\natmosphere becomes pregnant with rain, the sun regains his power, and a\nmarvellous transformation sets in. The land arrays itself, before the\nvery eyes, with verdure and flowers, the air is filled with perfumes,\nthe maize comes to a head, and hosts of humming-birds appear, as if to\nannounce that the fair season has returned. We may lay it down as\ncertain that the humming-bird was the object of a religious cultus\namongst the earliest Aztecs, as the divine messenger of the Spring, like\nthe wren amongst our own peasantry, the plover amongst the Latins, and\nthe crow amongst many tribes of the Red-skins. It was the emissary of\nthe Sun.\n\nIt was in this capacity, and under the law of anthropomorphism to which\nall the Mexican deities were subject, that the divine humming-bird, as a\nrevealing god, the protector of the Aztec nation, took the human form\nmore and more completely in the religious consciousness of his\nworshippers. And indeed the Mexican mythology gives form to this idea\nthat the divine humming-bird (of which those on earth were but the\nrelatives or little brothers) was a celestial man like an Aztec of the\nfirst rank, in the following legend of his incarnation.\n\nNear to Coatepec, that is to say the Mountain of Serpents,[10] lived the\npious widow _Coatlicue_ or _Coatlantona_ (the ultimate meaning of which\nis \"female serpent\"). One day, as she was going to the temple to worship\nthe Sun, she saw a little tuft of brilliantly coloured feathers fall at\nher feet. She picked it up and placed it in her bosom to present as an\noffering to the Sun. But when she was about to draw it forth, she knew\nnot what had come upon her. Soon afterwards she perceived that she was\nabout to become a mother. Her children were so enraged that they\ndetermined to kill her, but a voice from her womb cried out to her,\n\"Mother, have no fear, for I will save thee, to thy great honour and my\nown great glory.\" And in fact Coatlicue's children failed in their\nmurderous attempt. In due time Uitzilopochtli was born, grasping his\nshield and lance, with a plume of feathers shaped like a bird's beak on\nhis head, with humming-birds' feathers on his left leg, and his face,\narms and legs barred with blue. Endowed from his birth with\nextraordinary strength, while still an infant he put to death those who\nhad attempted to slay his mother, together with all who had taken their\npart. He gave her everything he could take from them; and after\naccomplishing mighty feats on behalf of the Aztecs, whom he had taken\nunder his protection, he re-ascended to heaven, bearing his mother with\nhim, and making her henceforth the goddess of flowers.[11]\n\nYou will be struck by the analogy between this myth and more than one\nGreek counterpart. There is the same method of reducing to the\nconditions of human life, and concentrating at a single point of time\nand space, a permanent or regularly recurrent and periodic natural\nphenomenon. Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird, has come from the Sun with\nthe purpose of making himself man, and he has therefore taken flesh in\nan Aztec woman, Coatlicue, the serpent, who is no other than the spring\nflorescence, and therefore the Mexican Flora. It is not only amongst the\nMexicans that the creeping progress of the spring vegetation, stretching\nalong the ground towards the North, has suggested the idea of a divine\nserpent crawling over the earth. The Athenian myth of Erichthonius is a\nconception of the same order. The celestial humming-bird, then,\noffspring of the Sun, valiant and warlike from the day of his birth,\nchampion of his mother, plundering and ever victorious, is the symbol\ninstinctively seized on by the Aztec people; for it, too, had sprung\nfrom humble beginnings, had been despised and menaced by its neighbours,\nand had grown so marvellously in power and in wealth as to have become\nthe invincible lord of Anahuac. Uitzilopochtli had grown with the Aztec\npeople. He bears, amongst other surnames, that of Mextli, the warrior,\nwhence the name of Mexico. He protects his people and ever extends the\nboundaries of its empire. And thus, in spite of his bearing the name of\na little bird, his statue as an incarnate deity had become colossal. Yet\nthe Aztecs did not lose the memory of his original minuteness of\nstature. Did you observe, in the account given by Bernal Diaz, that\nthere stood at the feet of the huge idol another quite small one, that\nserved, according to the Spanish Captain, as his page? This was the\n_Uitziton_, or \"little humming-bird,\" called also the _Paynalton_, or\nthe \"little quick one,\" whose image was borne by a priest at the head of\nthe soldiers as they charged the enemy. On the day of his festival, too,\nhe was borne at full speed along the streets of the city. He was,\ntherefore, the diminutive Uitzilopochtli, or, more correctly speaking,\nthe Uitzilopochtli of the early days, the portable idol of the still\nwandering tribe; and in fidelity to those memories, as well as to\npreserve the warlike rite to the efficacy of which they attached so much\nvalue, the Aztecs had kept the small statue by the side of the great\none.\n\nTo sum up: Uitzilopochtli was a derivative form or determination of the\nSun, and specifically of the Sun of the fair season. He had three great\nannual festivals. The first fell in May, at the moment of the return of\nthe flowering vegetation. The second was celebrated in August, when the\nfavourable season unfolded all its beauty. The third coincided with our\nmonth of December. It was the beginning of the cold and dry season. On\nthe day of this third festival they made a statue in Uitzilopochtli's\nlikeness, out of dough concocted with the blood of sacrificed infants,\nand, after all kinds of ceremonies, a priest pierced the statue with an\narrow. Uitzilopochtli would die with the verdure, the flowers and all\nthe beauteous adornments of spring and summer. But, like Adonis, like\nOsiris, like Atys, and so many other solar deities, he only died to live\nand to return again.[12]\n\nIt was now his brother Tezcatlipoca who took the direction of the world.\nHis name signifies \"Shining Mirror.\" As the Sun of the cold and sterile\nseason, he turned his impassive glance upon all the world, or gazed into\nthe mirror of polished crystal that he held in his hand, in which all\nthe actions of men were reflected. He was a stern god of judgment, with\nwhose being ideas of moral retribution were associated. He was therefore\nmuch dreaded. Up to a certain point he reminds us of the Vedic Varuna.\nHis statue was made of dark obsidian rock, and his face recalled that of\nthe bear or tapir. Suspended to his hair, which was plaited into a tail\nand enclosed in a golden net, there hung an ear, which was likewise made\nof gold, towards which there mounted flocks of smoke in the form of\ntongues. These were the prayers and supplications of mortals. Maladies,\nfamines and death, were the manifestations of Tezcatlipoca's justice.\nDry as the season over which he presided, he was not easily moved. And\nyet he was not absolutely inexorable. The ardent prayers, the sacrifices\nand the supplications of his priests might avert the strokes of his\nwrath. But in spite of all, he was pre-eminently the god of austere law.\nAnd this is why he was regarded as the civilizing and organizing deity\nof the Aztecs. It was he who had established the laws that governed the\npeople and who watched over their observance. In this capacity he made\nfrequent journeys of inspection, like an invisible prefect of police,\nthrough the city of Mexico, to see what was going on there. Stone seats\nhad been erected in the streets for him to rest upon on these\noccasions, and no mortal would have dared to occupy them. At the same\ntime a terrible and cruel subtlety in the means he employed to\naccomplish his ends was attributed to him; and the legend about him,\nwhich is far less brilliant than that of his brother Uitzilopochtli, led\nseveral Europeans to believe that he was simply an ancient magician who\nhad spread terror around him by his sorceries. All this we see\nexemplified in his conflicts with a third great deity whom we shall next\ndescribe. In any case we may define Tezcatlipoca as another\ndetermination of the Sun, and specifically of the winter Sun of the\ncold, dry, sterile season.[13]\n\nThe third great deity is Quetzalcoatl, that is to say \"the feathered\nserpent,\" or \"the serpent-bird;\" and it is specially noteworthy, in\nconnection with the elevated rank which he occupied in the Mexican\npantheon, that he was not an Aztec deity, but one of the ancient gods of\nthe invaded country. He was in fact a Toltec deity, and we recognize in\nhis name, as well as in the special notes in the legend concerning him,\nthat god of the wind whom we know already in Central America under the\nvarying names of Cuculcan, Hurakan, Gucumatz, Votan and so forth. He is\nalmost always a serpent, and a serpent with feathers. His temple at\nMexico departed altogether from the pyramidal type that we have\ndescribed. It was dome-shaped and covered. The entrance was formed by a\ngreat serpent-mouth, wide open and showing its fangs, so that the\nSpaniards thought it represented a gate of hell. Quetzalcoatl's priests\nwere clothed in white, whereas the ordinary garb of the Mexican priests\nwas black. There was something mysterious and occult about the\npriesthood of this deity, as though it were possessed of divine secrets\nor promises, the importance of which it would be dangerous to\nundervalue. A special aversion to human sacrifice, and especially to the\nfrightful abuse of the practice amongst the Aztecs, was attributed to\nthis god and his priests, in passive protest, as it were, against the\nsanguinary rites to which the Aztecs attributed the prosperity of their\nempire.\n\nThe legend of Quetzalcoatl, as the Aztecs transmitted it to the\nSpaniards, is a motley concatenation of euhemerized myths. Its\nhistorical basis is the continuous retreat of the Toltecs before the\nnorthern invaders, with their god Tezcatlipoca. This latter deity\nbecomes a magician, cunning and malicious enough to get the better of\nthe gentle Quetzalcoatl on every occasion. I regret that time will not\nallow me to tell in detail of the combat between Tezcatlipoca and\nQuetzalcoatl. The latter was a sovereign who lived long ago at Tulla,\nthe northern focus of Toltec civilization. Under his sceptre men lived\nin great happiness and enjoyed abundance of everything. He had taught\nthem agriculture, the use of the metals, the art of cutting stone, the\nmeans of fixing the calendar; and being opposed to the sacrifice of\nhuman victims--note this--he had advised their replacement by the\ndrawing of blood from the tongue, the lips, the chest, the legs, &c.\nTezcatlipoca succeeded by his enchantments in destroying this rule of\npeace and prosperity, and forced Quetzalcoatl to quit Tulla, which\nthereupon fell in ruins. He then pursued him into Cholula, the ancient\nsacred city of the Toltecs, in which he had sought refuge, and in which\nhe had again made happiness and abundance reign. Finally, he forced him\nto quit the continent altogether, and embark in a mysterious vessel not\nfar from Vera Cruz, near to the very spot where Cortes disembarked.\nSince then Quetzalcoatl had disappeared; \"But wait!\" said his priests,\n\"for he will return.\" This expectation of Quetzalcoatl's return\nfurnishes a kind of parallel to the Messianic hope, or more closely yet\nto the early Christian expectation of the _parousia_ or \"second coming\"\nof the Christ. For when he returned, it would be to punish his enemies,\nto chastise the wicked, the oppressors and the tyrants. And that is why\nthe Aztecs dreaded his return, and why they had not dared to proscribe\nhis cultus, but, on the contrary, recognized it and carried it on. And\nif you would know the real secret of the success of Fernando Cortes in\nhis wild enterprize--for, after all, the Mexican sovereign could easily\nhave crushed him and his handful of men, by making a hecatomb of them\nbefore they had had time to entrench themselves and make allies--you\nwill find it in the fact that Montezuma, whose conscience was oppressed\nwith more crimes than one, had a very lively dread of Quetzalcoatl's\nreturn; and when he was informed that at the very point where the\ndreaded god had embarked, to disappear in the unknown East, strange and\nterrible beings had been seen to disembark, bearing with them fragments\nof thunderbolts, in tubes that they could discharge whenever they\nwould--some of them having two heads and six legs, swifter of foot than\nthe fleetest men--Montezuma could not doubt that--it was Quetzalcoatl\nreturning, and instead of sending his troops against Cortes, he\npreferred to negotiate with him, to allow him to approach, and to\nreceive him in his own palace. And although doubts soon asserted\nthemselves in his mind, yet he long retained, perhaps even to the last,\na superstitious dread of Cortes, that enabled the latter to secure a\ncomplete ascendancy over him. This, I repeat, was the secret of the bold\nSpaniard's success; nor can we ever understand the matter rightly unless\nwe take into consideration the significance of this worship of\nQuetzalcoatl that the Aztecs had continued to respect, though all the\nwhile flattering themselves that their own god, Tezcatlipoca, would be\nable once more to protect them against his ancient adversary. Years\nafter the conquest, Father Sahagun had still to answer the question of\nthe natives, who asked him what he knew of the country of\nQuetzalcoatl.[14]\n\nWhat, then, was the fundamental significance of this feathered Serpent\nthat so pre-occupied the religious consciousness of the Aztecs?\n\nHe was not the Sun. The Sun does not disappear in the East. He was a god\nof the wind, as Father Sahagun perfectly well understood, but of that\nwind in particular that brings over the parched land of Mexico the tepid\nand fertilizing exhalations of the Atlantic. And this is why\nTezcatlipoca, the god of the cold and dry season, rather than\nUitzilopochtli, is his personal enemy. It is towards the end of the dry\nseason that the fertilizing showers begin to fall on the eastern shores,\nand little by little to reach the higher lands of the interior. The\nflying Serpent, then, the wind that comes like a huge bird upon the air,\nbringing life and abundance with it, is a benevolent deity who spreads\nprosperity wherever he goes. But he does not always breathe over the\nland, and does not carry his blessed moisture everywhere. Tezcatlipoca\nappears. The lofty plateaux of Tulla, of Mexico and of Cholula, are the\nfirst victims of his desolating force. Quetzalcoatl withdraws ever\nfurther and further to the East, and at last disappears in the great\nocean.\n\nSuch is the natural basis of the myth of Quetzalcoatl, and the\njustification of my remark that we find in him the pendant of those\ndeities, serpents and birds in one, who were adored in Central America,\nand who answered, like Quetzalcoatl, to the idea of the Atlantic wind.\nHe was, in truth, the ancient deity that the Nahuas or Mayas of the\ncivilized immigrations brought with them when they settled in Anahuac\nand still further North. Like all the other gods of these regions,\nQuetzalcoatl had assumed the human shape more and more completely. We\nstill possess, especially in the Trocadero Museum at Paris, great blocks\nof stone on which he is represented as a serpent covered with feathers,\ncoiled up and sleeping till the time comes for him to wake. But there\nare also statues of him in human form, save that his body is surmounted\nby a bird's head, with the tongue projected. Now in the Mexican\nhieroglyphie this bird's head, with the tongue put out, is no other than\nthe symbol of the wind. Hence, too, his names of _Tohil_ \"the hummer\" or\n\"the whisperer,\" _Ehecatl_ \"the breeze,\" _Nauihehecatl_ \"the lord of the\nfour winds,\" &c. The naturalistic meaning of Quetzalcoatl, then, cannot\nadmit of the smallest doubt.\n\nIt is probably to the more gentle and humane religious tendency which\nwas kept alive by the priesthood of this deity, that we must attribute\nthe attempted reform of the king of Tezcuco, Netzalhuatcoyotl (the\nfasting coyote), who has been called the Mexican Solomon. He was a poet\nand philosopher as well as king, and had no love either of idolatry or\nof sanguinary sacrifices. He had a great pyramidal teocalli of nine\nstages erected in his capital for the worship of the god of heaven, to\nwhom he brought no offerings except flowers and perfumes. He died in\n1472, and, as far as we can see, his reformation made no progress. The\never-increasing preponderance of the Aztecs was as unfavourable as\npossible to this humane and spiritual tendency in religion.[15] Yet one\nloves to dwell upon the fact, that even in the midst of a religion\nsteeped in blood, a protest was inspired by the sentiment of humanity,\nlinked, as it should always be, with the progress of religious thought.\n\n\nIII.\n\nWe must now proceed with our review of the Mexican deities, but I must\nbe content with indicating the most important amongst them; for without\nadmitting, with Gomara--who registered many names and epithets belonging\nto one and the same divinity as indicating so many distinct\nbeings--that their number rose to two thousand, we find that the most\nmoderate estimate of the historians raises them to two hundred and\nsixty. We shall confine ourselves, then, to the most significant.\n\nThe importance of rain in the regions of Mexico, so marked in the myths\nwe have already considered, prepares us to find amongst the great gods\nthe figure of Tlaloc, whose name signifies \"the nourisher,\" and who was\nthe god of rain. He was believed to reside in the mountains, whence he\nsent the clouds. He was also the god of fecundity. Lightning and thunder\nwere amongst his attributes, and his character was no more amiable than\nthat of the Mexican deities in general. His cultus was extremely cruel.\nNumbers of children were sacrificed to him. His statues were cut in a\ngreenish white stone, of the colour of water. In one hand he held a\nsceptre, the symbol of lightning; in the other, a thunderbolt. He was a\ncyclops; that is to say, he had but one eye, which shows that he must be\nultimately identified as an ancient personification of the rainy sky,\nwhose one eye is the sun. His huge mouth, garnished with crimson teeth,\nwas always open, to signify his greed and his sanguinary tastes. His\nwife was _Chalchihuitlicue_, \"the lady Chalchihuit,\" whose name is\nidentical with that of a soft green jade stone that was much valued in\nMexico. Her numerous offspring, the Tlalocs, probably represent the\nclouds. Side by side with the hideous sacrifices of which Tlaloc's\nfestival was the occasion, we may note the grotesque ceremony in which\nhis priests flung themselves pell-mell into a pond, imitating the action\nand the note of frogs. This is but one of a thousand proofs that in the\nrites intended to conciliate the nature-gods, it was thought well to\nreproduce in mimicry the actions of those creatures who were supposed to\nbe their favourites or chosen servants. The frogs were manifestly loved\nby the god of the waters, and to secure his good graces his priests, as\nwas but natural, transformed themselves into frogs likewise. It was with\nthis cultus especially that the symbol of the Mexican cross was\nconnected, as indicating the four points of the horizon from which the\nwind might blow.\n\n_Centeotl_ was another great deity, a kind of Mexican Ceres or Demeter.\nShe was the goddess of Agriculture, and very specially of maize. Indeed,\nher name signifies \"maize-goddess,\" being derived from _centli_ (maize)\nand _teotl_ (divine being). Sometimes, however, inasmuch as this goddess\nhad a son who bore the same name as herself, Centeotl stands for a male\ndeity. The female deity is often represented with a child in her arms,\nlike a Madonna. This child, who is no other than the maize itself, grows\nup, becomes an adult god, and is the masculine Centeotl. The feminine\nCenteotl, moreover, bears many other names, such as _Tonantzin_ (our\nrevered mother), _Cihuatcoatl_ (lady serpent), and very often _Toci_ or\n_Tocitzin_ (our grandmother). She was sometimes represented in the form\nof a frog, the symbol of the moistened earth, with a host of mouths or\nbreasts on her body. She had also a daughter, _Xilonen_, the young\nmaize-ear, corresponding to the Persephone or Kore of the Greeks. Her\nface was painted yellow, the colour of the maize. Her character, at\nleast amongst the Aztecs, had nothing idyllic about it, and we shall\nhave to return presently to the frightful sacrifices which were\ncelebrated in her honour.\n\nNext comes the god of Fire, _Xiuhtecutli_ (the Lord Fire), a very\nancient deity, as we see by one of his many surnames, _Huehueteotl_ (the\nold god). He is represented naked, with his chin blackened, with a\nhead-dress of green feathers, carrying on his back a kind of serpent\nwith yellow feathers, thus combining the different fire colours. And\ninasmuch as he looked across a disk of gold, called \"the looking-plate,\"\nwe may ask whether his primitive significance was not very closely\nallied to that of Tezcatlipoca, the shining mirror of the cold season.\nSacrifice was offered to him daily. In every house the first libation\nand the first morsel of bread were consecrated to him. And finally, as\nan instance of the astounding resemblance that is forced upon our\nattention between the religious development of the Old World and that of\nthe New, only conceive that in Mexico, as in ancient Iran and other\ncountries of Asia and Europe, the fire in every house must be\nextinguished on a certain day in every year, and the priest of\nXiuhtecutli kindled fire anew by friction before the statue of his god.\nYou are aware that this rite, with which so many customs and\nsuperstitions are connected, rests on the idea that Fire is a divine\nbeing, of celestial and pure origin, which is shut up in the wood, and\nwhich is contaminated in the long run by contact with men and with human\naffairs. Hence it follows that in order for it to retain its virtues, to\ncontinue to act as a purifier and to spread its blessings amongst men,\nit must be brought down anew, from time to time, from its divine\nsource.[16]\n\nThe Aztecs also had a Venus, a goddess of Love, who bore the name of\n_Tlazolteotl_ (the goddess of Sensuality).[17] At Tlascala she was known\nby the more elegant name of _Xochiquetzal_ (the flowery plume). She\nlived in heaven, in a beautiful garden, spinning and embroidering,\nsurrounded by dwarfs and buffoons, whom she kept for her amusement. We\nhear of a battle of the gods of which she was the object. Though the\nwife of Tlaloc, she was loved and carried off by Tezcatlipoca. This\nprobably gives us the clue to her mythic origin. She must have been the\naquatic vegetation of the marsh lands, possessed by the god of waters,\ntill the sun dries her up and she disappears. The legend about her is\nnot very edifying. It was she--to mention only a single feat--who\nprevailed over the pious hermit Yappan, when he had victoriously\nresisted all other temptations. After his fall he was changed into a\nscorpion; and that is why the scorpion, full of wrath at the memory of\nhis fall and fleeing the daylight, is so poisonous and lives hidden\nunder stones.[18]\n\nWe have still to mention _Mixcoatl_, the cloud-serpent, whose name\nsurvives to our day as the designation of water-spouts in Mexico, and\nwho was specially worshipped by the still almost savage populations of\nthe secluded mountain districts,--_Omacatl_, \"the double reed,\" a kind\nof Momus, the god of good cheer, who may very well be a secondary form\nof Tlaloc, and who avenged himself, when defrauded of due homage, by\ninterspersing hairs and other disagreeable objects amongst the\nviands,--_Ixtlilton_, \"the brown,\" a sort of Esculapius, the healing\ngod, whose priest concocted a blackish liquid that passed as an\nefficacious remedy for every kind of disease,--_Yacatecutli_, \"the lord\nguide,\" the god of travellers and of commerce, whose ordinary symbol was\nthe stick with a carved handle carried by the Mexicans when on a\njourney, who was sedulously worshipped by the commercial and middle\nclasses of Mexico, and in connection with whom we may note that every\nMexican, when travelling, would be careful to fix his stick in the\nground every evening and pay his respectful devotions to it,[19]--and,\nfinally, _Xipe_, \"the bald,\" or \"the flayed,\" the god of goldsmiths,\nprobably another form of Uitzilopochtli (whose festival coincided with\nhis), deriving his name apparently from the polishing process to which\ngold (no doubt regarded as belonging to the substance of the sun) had to\nundergo to give it the required brilliance, and to whose hideous cultus\nwe shall have to return in our next Lecture.\n\nI must now be brief, and will only speak further of the _Tepitoton_,\nthat is to say, the \"little tiny ones,\" minute domestic idols, the\nnumber of which was incalculable. They insensibly lower to the level of\nanimism and fetishism that religion which, as we have seen, bears\ncomparison in its grander aspects with the most renowned mythologies of\nthe ancient world. I must, however, allow myself a few words on the god\n_Mictlan_, the Mexican Hades or Pluto. His name properly signifies\n\"region of the North;\" but inasmuch as the North was regarded as the\ncountry of mist, of barrenness and of death, his name easily passed into\nthe designation of the subterranean country of the dead. The Germanic\n_Helle_ has a similar history, for it was first localized in the wintry\nNorth and then carried underground. Mictlan, like Hades, was used as a\nname alike for the sojourn and for the god of the dead. This deity had a\nconsort who bore divers names, and he also had at his command a number\nof genii or servants, called _Tzitzimitles_, a sort of malicious demons\nheld in great dread by the living. Of course both Mictlan and his wives\nare always represented under a hideous aspect, with huge open mouths, or\nrather jaws, often in the act of devouring an infant.[20]\n\nAt last we have done! In the next Lecture we shall penetrate to the very\nheart of this singular religion, as we discuss its terrible sacrifices,\nits institutions, and its doctrines concerning this world and the life\nto come. And here, again, we shall find cause for amazement in the\nstriking analogies it presents to the rites and institutions of other\nreligions much nearer home. Meanwhile, observe that in examining the\npurely mythological portion of the subject which we have passed in\nreview to-day, we have seen that there is not a single law manifested by\nthe mythologies of the ancient world, which had not its parallel\nmanifestations in Mexico before it was discovered by the Europeans. The\ngreat gods, derived from a dramatized nature--animism, with the\nfetishism that springs from it, occupying the basement, if I may so\nexpress myself, beneath these mythological conceptions--in the midst of\nall a tendency manifested from time to time towards a purer and more\nspiritual conception of the adorable Being--all re-appears and all is\ncombined in Mexico, even down to something like an incarnation, and the\nhope of the coming of the god of justice and of goodness who will\nrestore all things. Indeed, I know not where else one could look for so\ncomplete a resume of what has constituted in all places, now the\nsmallness and wretchedness, now the grandeur and nobleness, of that\nincomprehensible and irresistible factor of human nature which we call\n_religion_. The \"eternally religious\" element in man had stamped its\nmark upon the unknown Mexico as upon all other lands; and when at last\nit was discovered, evidence might have been found, had men been able to\nappreciate it, that there too, however frightfully misinterpreted, the\nDivine breath had been felt.\n\nIt is the spiritually-minded who must learn the art of discerning the\nspirit wherever it reveals itself; and when the horrors rise up before\nus of which religion has more than once in the course of history been\nthe cause or the pretext, and we are almost tempted to ask whether this\nattribute of human nature has really worked more good than ill in the\ndestinies of our race, we may remember that the same question might be\nasked of all the proudest attributes of our humanity. Take polity or the\nart of governing human societies. To what monstrous aberrations has it\nnot given birth! Take science. Through what lamentable and woful errors\nhas it not pursued its way! Take art. How gross were its beginnings, and\nhow often has it served, not to elevate man, but to stimulate his vilest\nand most degrading passions! Yet, who would wish to live without\ngovernment, science or art?\n\nLet us apply the same test to religion. The horrors it has caused cannot\nweigh against the final and overmastering good which it produces; and\nits annals, too often written in blood, should teach us how to guide it,\nhow to purify it from all that corrupts and debases it. We shall see at\nthe close of our Lectures what that directing, normalizing, purifying\nprinciple is that must hold the helm of religion and guide it in its\nevolution. Meanwhile, let no imperfection, no repulsiveness--nay, no\natrocity even--blind us to the ideal value of what we have been\nconsidering, any more than we should allow the disasters that spring\nfrom the use of fire to make us cease to rank it amongst the great\nblessings of our earthly life.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE III.\n\nTHE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY AND\nCOSMOGONY OF MEXICO.\n\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN,\n\nIn our last Lecture we passed in review the chief gods and goddesses of\nancient Mexico, and you might see how, in spite of very characteristic\ndifferences, the Mexican mythology obeys the same law of formation that\nmanifests itself among the peoples of the Old World, thereby proving\nonce more that the religious development of humanity is not arbitrary,\nthat it proceeds in every case under the direction of the inherent and\ninalienable principles of the human mind.\n\nTo-day we are to complete the internal study of the Mexican religion, by\ndealing with its sacrifices, its institutions, and its eschatological\nand cosmogonical doctrines. We begin with those sacrifices of which I\nhave already spoken as so numerous and so horrible.\n\n\nI.\n\nWe have some little difficulty in our times, familiar as we are with\nspiritual conceptions of God and the divine purposes, in comprehending\nthe extreme importance which sacrifices, offerings, gifts to the divine\nbeing, assumed in the eyes of peoples who were still enveloped in the\ndarkness of polytheism and idolatry. And perhaps we may find it more\ndifficult yet to realize the primitive object and intention of these\nsacrifices. There can be no doubt that they were originally suggested by\nthe idea that the divine being, whatever it may have been--whether a\nnatural object, an animal, or a creature analogous to man--liked what we\nlike, was pleased with what pleases us, and had the same tastes and the\nsame proclivities as ours. This is the fundamental idea that urged the\npolytheistic peoples along the path of religious anthropomorphism.\n\nThis principle once established, and the object being to secure the\ngoodwill and the protection of the divine beings, what could be more\nnatural than to offer them the things in which men themselves took\npleasure, such as viands, drinks, perfumes, handsome ornaments, slaves\nand wives? We must not carry back to the origins of sacrifice the\nmeta-physical and moral ideas which did not really appear until much\nlater. And since the necessity of eating, and the pleasure of eating\nchoice food, take a foremost rank in the estimation of infant peoples,\nit is not surprising that the food-offering was the most frequent and\nthe most important amongst them, so as in some sort to absorb all the\nrest.\n\nAnd here we are compelled to bow before a fact which cannot possibly be\ndisputed, namely, that traces of the primitive sacrifice of human\nvictims meet us everywhere. And this shows that cannibalism, which is\nnow restricted to a few of the savage tribes who have remained closest\nto the animal life, was once universal to our race. For no one would\never have conceived the idea of offering to the gods a kind of food\nwhich excited nothing but disgust and horror amongst men.\n\nThis being granted, two rival tendencies must be reckoned with. In the\nfirst place, moral development, with its influence on religious ideas,\nworked towards the suppression of the horrible custom of human\nsacrifice, whilst at the same time extirpating the taste and desire for\nhuman flesh. For we must not forget that where cannibalism still reigns,\nhuman flesh is regarded as the most delicious of foods; and the Greek\nmythology has preserved legends and myths that are connected with the\nvery epoch at which human sacrifices first became an object of horror to\ngods and men. But, in the second place, in virtue of the strange\npersistency of rites and usages connected with religion, human\nsacrifices prevailed in many places when cannibalism had completely\ndisappeared from the habits and tastes of the population. Thus the\nSemites of Western Asia and the Civaite Hindus, the Celts, and some of\nthe populations of Greece and Italy, long after they had renounced\ncannibalism, still continued to sacrifice human beings to their deities.\n\nAnd this gives us the clue to a third phase, which was actually\nrealized in Mexico before the conquest. Cannibalism, in ordinary life,\nwas no longer practised. The city of Mexico underwent all the horrors of\nfamine during the siege conducted by Fernando Cortes. When the Spaniards\nfinally entered the city, they found the streets strewn with corpses,\nwhich is a sufficient proof that human flesh was not eaten even in dire\nextremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not only pushed human\nsacrifices to a frantic extreme, but they were _ritual cannibals_, that\nis to say, there were certain occasions on which they ate the flesh of\nthe human victims whom they had immolated.\n\nThis practice was connected with another religious conception, grafted\nupon the former one. Almost everywhere, but especially amongst the\nAztecs, we find the notion that the victim devoted to a deity, and\ntherefore destined to pass into his substance and to become by\nassimilation an integral part of him, is already co-substantial with\nhim, has already become part of him; so that the worshipper in his turn,\nby himself assimilating a part of the victim's flesh, unites himself in\nsubstance with the divine being. And now observe that in all religions\nthe longing, whether grossly or spiritually apprehended, to enter into\nthe closest possible union with the adored being is fundamental. This\nlonging is inseparable from the religious sentiment itself, and becomes\nimperious wherever that sentiment is warm; and this consideration is\nenough to convince us that it is in harmony with the most exalted\ntendencies of our nature, but may likewise, in times of ignorance, give\nrise to the most deplorable aberrations.\n\nNote this, again, that immolation or sacrifice cannot be accomplished\nwithout suffering to the victim. Yet more: the immense importance of\nsacrifice in the inferior religions raises the mere rite itself to a\nposition of unrivalled efficacy as gauged by the childlike notions that\nhave given it birth, so that at last it acquires an intrinsic and\nmagical virtue in the eyes of the sacrificers. They have lost all\ndistinct idea as to how their sacrifice gives pleasure to the gods, but\nthey retain the firm belief that as a matter of fact, it is the\nappointed means of acting upon their dispositions and modifying their\nwill. The civilized Greeks and Romans no longer believed that their gods\nate the flesh of the sacrifices, but this did not prevent their\ncontinuing them as the indispensable means of appeasing the wrath or\nconciliating the favour of the deities. To such a length was this\ncarried in India and Iran, that sacrifice finally came to be regarded as\na cosmic force, a creative act. The gods themselves sacrificed as a\nmeans of creation, or of modifying the existing order of the world. This\nidea of the intrinsic and magical virtue of sacrifice naturally re-acted\non the importance attached to the sufferings of the victim so\ninseparably connected with it, until the latter came to be regarded as\namongst the prime conditions of an efficacious sacrifice. For the rest,\nI need not do more than mention the notions of substitution, of\ncompensation, and of renunciation on the part of the sacrificer, which\nso readily attach themselves to the idea of sacrifice, and represent its\nmoral aspects.\n\nNow all these considerations will help us to understand both the fearful\nintensity and the special significance of the practice of human\nsacrifice established among the Aztecs. And here I must ask you to\nharden your hearts for a few moments while I conduct you through this\nveritable chamber of horrors.\n\nThe Mexican sacrifices were, in truth, of the most frightful\ndescription. It was an axiom amongst the Aztecs that none but human\nsacrifices were truly efficacious. They were continually making war in\norder to get a supply of victims. They regarded the victim, when once\nselected, as a kind of incarnation of the deity who was ultimately to\nconsume his flesh, or at any rate his heart. They retained the practice\nof cannibalism as a religious rite, and, as though they had had some of\nthe Red-skins' blood in their veins, they refined upon the tortures\nwhich they forced those victims, whom they had almost adored the moment\nbefore, to undergo at last.\n\nThese victims were regularly selected a considerable time in advance.\nThey were vigilantly watched, but in other respects were well cared for\nand fed with the choicest viands--in a word, fattened. There was not a\nsingle festival upon which at least one of these victims was not\nimmolated, and in many cases great numbers of them were flung upon the\n\"stone of sacrifices,\" where the priests laid their bosoms open, tore\nout their hearts, and placed them, as the epitome of the men themselves,\nin a vessel full of burning rezin or \"copal,\" before the statue of the\ndeity. Some few of these sacrifices it is my duty to describe to you.\n\nFor example: To celebrate the close of the annual rule of Tezcatlipoca,\nwhich fell at the beginning of May, they set apart a year beforehand the\nhandsomest of the prisoners of war captured during the preceding year.\nThey clothed him in a costume resembling that of the image of the god.\nHe might come and go in freedom, but he was always followed by eight\npages, who served at once as an escort and a guard. As he passed, I will\nnot say that the people either knelt or did not kneel before him, for in\nMexico the attitude expressive of religious adoration was that of\nsquatting down upon the haunches. As he passed, then, the people\nsquatted all along the streets as soon as they heard the sound of the\nbells that he carried on his hands and feet. Twenty days before the\nfestival, they redoubled their care and attention. They bathed him,\nanointed him with perfume, and gave him four beautiful damsels as\ncompanions, each one bearing the name of a goddess, and all of them\ninstructed to leave nothing undone to make their divine spouse as happy\nas possible. He then took part in splendid banquets, surrounded by the\ngreat Mexican nobles. But the day before the great festival, they placed\nhim and his four wives on board a royal canoe and carried them to the\nother side of the lake. In the evening the four goddesses quitted their\nunhappy god, and his eight guardians conducted him to a lonely\n_teocalli_, a league distant, where he was flung upon the stone of\nsacrifices and his heart torn from his bosom. He must disappear and die\nwith the god whom he represented, who must now make way for\nUitzilopochtli. This latter deity likewise had his human counterpart,\nwho had to lead a war-dance in his name before being sacrificed. He had\nthe grotesque privilege of choosing the hour of his own immolation, but\nunder the condition that the longer he delayed it the less would his\nsoul be favoured in the abode of Uitzilopochtli. For we must note that\nin the Mexican order of ideas, though the flesh of the victims was\ndestined to feed the gods to whom they were sacrificed, their souls\nbecame the blessed and favoured slaves or servants of these same gods.\n\nCenteotl, or Toci, the goddess of the harvest, had her human sacrifices\nalso, but in this case a woman figured as protagonist. She, too, was\ndressed like the goddess, and entrusted to the care of four midwives,\npriestesses of Centeotl, who were commissioned to pet and amuse her. A\nfortnight before the festival, they celebrated \"the arm dance\" before\nher, in which the dancers, without moving their feet, perpetually raised\nand lowered their arms, as a symbol of the vegetation fixed at its\nroots, but moving freely above. Then she had to take part in a mock\ncombat, after which she received the title of \"image of the mother of\nthe gods.\" The day before her execution, she went to pay what was called\nher \"farewell to the market,\" in which she was conducted to the market\nof Mexico, sowing maize all along the street as she went, and reverenced\nby the people as Toci, \"our grandmother.\" But the following midnight she\nwas carried to the top of a teocalli, perched upon the shoulders of a\npriest, and swiftly decapitated. Then they flayed her without loss of\ntime. The skin of the trunk was chopped off, and a priest, wrapping\nhimself in the bleeding spoil, traversed the streets in procession, and\nmade pretence of fighting with soldiers who were interspersed in the\ncortege. The skin of the legs was carried to the temple of Centeotl, the\nson, where another priest made himself a kind of mask with it, to\nrepresent his god, and sacrificed four captives in the ordinary way.\nAfter this, the priest, accompanied by some soldiers, bore the hideous\nshreds to a point on the frontier, where they were buried as a talisman\nto protect the empire.\n\nThe festivals of Tlaloc, god of rain, were perhaps yet more horrible. At\none of them they sacrificed a number of prisoners of war, one upon\nanother, clothed like the god himself. They tore out their hearts in the\nusual way, and then carried them in procession, enclosed in a vase, to\nthrow them into a whirlpool of the lake of Mexico, which they imagined\nto be one of the favoured residences of the aquatic deity. But it was\nworse still at the festival of this same Tlaloc which fell in February.\nOn this occasion a number of young children were got together, and\ndecked with feathers and precious stones. They put wings upon them, to\nenable them to fly up, and then placed them on litters, and bore them\nthrough the city in grand procession and with the sound of trumpets. The\npeople, says Sahagun,[21] could not choose but weep to see these poor\nlittle ones led off to the sacrifice. But if the children themselves\ncried freely, it was all the better, for it was a sign that the rain\nwould be abundant.[22]\n\nI will not try your nerves by dwelling much longer on this dismal\nsubject, though there is no lack of material. At the feast of Xipe, \"the\nflayed,\" for example, whole companies of men were wrapped in the skins\nof sacrificed captives, and engaged in mock battles in that costume. But\nthe only further instance I am compelled to mention is connected with\nthe festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, which was celebrated with\nelaborate ceremonies. At set of sun, all who had prisoners of war or\nslaves to offer to the deity brought forward their victims, painted\nwith the colours of the god, danced along by their side, and shut them\nup in a building attached to the teocalli of Fire. Then they mounted\nguard all round, singing hymns. At midnight, each owner entered and\nsevered a lock of the hair of his slave or slaves, to be carefully\npreserved as a talisman. At daybreak they brought out the victims and\nled them to the foot of the temple stair. There the priests took them\nupon their shoulders and carried them up to the higher platform, where\nthey had prepared a great brazier of burning embers. Here each priest\nflung his human burden upon the fire, and I leave you to imagine the\nindescribable scene that ensued. Nor is this all. The same priests,\narmed with long hooks, fished out the poor wretches before they were\nquite roasted to death, and despatched them in the usual fashion on the\nstone of sacrifices.[23]\n\nIt was after these offerings of private devotion that family and\nfriendly gatherings were held, at which a part of the victim's flesh was\neaten, under the idea that by thus sharing the food of the deity his\nworshippers entered into a closer union with him. We ought, however, to\nnote that a master never ate the flesh of his own slave, inasmuch as he\nhad been his guest, and as it were a member of his family. He waited\ntill his friends returned his attention.\n\n\nII.\n\nHuman sacrifice, Gentlemen, appears to have been a universal practice;\nbut wherever the human sympathies developed themselves rapidly, it was\nearly superseded by various substituted rites which it was supposed\nmight with advantage replace it. Such were flagellation, mutilation of\nsome unessential part of the body, or the emission of a certain quantity\nof blood. This last practice, in particular, might be regarded as an act\nof individual devotion, a gift made to the gods by the worshipper\nhimself out of his own very substance. The priesthood of Quetzalcoatl,\nwho had little taste for human sacrifices, seem to have introduced this\nmethod of propitiating the gods by giving them one's own blood; and the\npractice of drawing it from the tongue, the lips, the nose, the ears or\nthe bosom, came to be the chief form of expression of individual piety\nand penitence in Central America and in Mexico. The priests in\nparticular owed it to their special character to draw their blood for\nthe benefit of the gods, and nothing could be stranger than the refined\nmethods they adopted to accomplish this end. For instance, they would\npass strings or splinters through their lips or ears and so draw a\nlittle blood. But then a fresh string or a fresh splinter must be added\nevery day, and so it might go on indefinitely, for the more there were,\nthe more meritorious was the act; nor can we doubt that the idea of the\nsuffering endured enhancing the merit of the deed itself, was already\nwidely spread in Mexico. There was a system of Mexican _asceticism_,\ntoo, specially characterized by the long fasts which the faithful, and\nmore particularly the priests, endured. Indeed, fasting is one of the\nmost general and ancient forms of adoration. It rests, in the first\nplace, on an instinctive feeling that a man is more worthy to present\nhimself before the divine beings when fasting than when stuffed with\nfood; and, in the second place, on the fact that fasting is shown by\nexperience to promote dreams, hallucinations, extasies and so forth,\nwhich have always been considered as so many forms of communication with\nthe deity.[24] It was only later that fasting became the sign and index\nof mourning, and therefore of sincere repentance and profound sorrow.\nMexico had its solitaries or hermits, too, who sought to enter into\ncloser communion with the gods by living in the desert under conditions\nof the severest asceticism. Are we not once more tempted to exclaim that\nthere is nothing new under the sun?\n\nBut the devotees of the ancient Mexican religion had other methods of\nuniting themselves substantially and corporeally with their gods; and in\naccordance with the notions which we have seen were accredited by their\nreligion, they had developed a kind (or kinds) of _communion_ from\nwhich, with a little theology, a regular doctrine of transubstantiation\nmight have been drawn.\n\nThus, at the third great festival in honour of Uitzilopochtli\n(celebrated at the time of his death), they made an image of the deity\nin dough, steeped it in the blood of sacrificed children, and partook of\nthe pieces.[25] In the same way the priests of Tlaloc kneaded statuettes\nof their god in dough, cut them up, and gave them to eat to patients\nsuffering from the diseases caused by the cold and wet.[26] The\nstatuettes were first consecrated by a small sacrifice. And so, too, at\nthe yearly festival of the god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, an image of the\ndeity, made of dough, was fixed in the top of a great tree which had\nbeen brought into the city from the forest. At a certain moment the tree\nwas thrown down, on which of course the idol broke to pieces, and the\nworshippers all scrambled for a bit of him to eat.\n\nIt has been asked how far any moral idea had penetrated this religion,\nthe repulsive aspects of which we have been describing. The question is\na legitimate one. I believe, Gentlemen, that in studying the religious\norigins of the different peoples of the earth, we shall come to the\nconclusion that the fusion of the religious and moral life--which has\nlong been an accomplished fact for us, especially since the Gospel, so\nthat we cannot admit the possibility of uniting immorality and piety for\na single instant--is not primitive, but is due to the development of the\nhuman spirit, and to healthier, more complete and more religious ideas\nconcerning the moral law. At the beginning of things, and in our own day\namongst savages, nay, even amongst the most ignorant strata of the\npopulation in civilized countries, it is obvious that religion and\nmorals have extremely little to do with each other. Some authors,\naccordingly, in the face of all the monstrous cruelty, selfishness and\ninhumanity of the Mexican religion, have concluded that no element of\nmorality entered into it at all, but that all was self-seeking and\nfanaticism.\n\nThis is an exaggeration. We have seen that amongst the nature-gods of\nMexico there was one, Tezcatlipoca, who was looked upon as the austere\nguardian of law and morals. If we are to believe Father Sahagun,--and\neven if we allow for strong suspicions as to the accuracy of his\ntranslations of the prayers and exhortations uttered under certain\ncircumstances by parents and priests,--it is evident that the Mexicans\nwere taught to consider a decent and virtuous life as required by the\ngods. Indeed, they had a system of confession, in which the priest\nreceived the statement of the penitent, laid a penance on him, and\nassured him of the pardon of the gods. Generally the penitents delayed\ntheir confession till they were advanced in age, for relapses were\nregarded as beyond the reach of pardon.[27] It would be nearer the truth\nto say that the religious ethics of the Mexicans had entered upon that\npath of dualism[28] by which alone, in almost every case, the normal\nsynthesis or rational reconciliation of the demands of physical nature\nand the moral life has been ultimately reached. For inasmuch as fidelity\nto duty often involves a certain amount of suffering, the suffering\ncomes to be regarded as the moral act itself, and artificial sufferings\nare voluntarily incurred under the idea that they are the appointed\nprice of access to a higher and more perfect life, in closer conformity\nwith the divine will. The cruel rites which entered into the very tissue\nof the Mexican religion could hardly fail to strengthen the same ascetic\ntendency, by encouraging the idea that pain itself was pleasant to the\neyes of the gods. But the truth is that in this matter we can discern no\nmore than tendencies. There are symptoms of men's minds being busy with\nthe relation of the moral to the religious life, but no fixed or\nsystematic conclusions had been reached. It might, perhaps, have been\notherwise in the sequel, and these tendencies might ultimately have\ntaken shape in corresponding theories and doctrines, had not the Spanish\nconquest intervened to put an end for ever to the evolution of the\nMexican religion.\n\nI have frequently spoken of the Mexican priests, and the time has now\ncome for dwelling more explicitly on this priesthood.\n\nIt was very numerous, and had a strong organization reared on an\naristocratic basis, into which political calculations manifestly\nentered. The noblest families (including that of the monarch) had the\nexclusive privilege of occupying the highest sacerdotal offices. The\npriests of Uitzilopochtli held the primacy. Their chief was sovereign\npontiff, with the title of _Mexicatl-Teohuatzin_, \"Mexican lord of\nsacred things,\" and _Teotecuhtli_, \"divine master.\" Next to him came the\nchief priest of Quetzalcoatl, who had no authority, however, except over\nhis own order of clergy. He lived as a recluse in his sanctuary, and the\nsovereign only sent to consult him on certain great occasions; whereas\nthe primate sat on the privy council and exercised disciplinary powers\nover all the other priests in the empire. Every temple and every\nquarter had its regular priests. No one could enter the priesthood until\nhe had passed satisfactorily through certain tests or examinations\nbefore the directors of the _Calmecac_, or houses of religious\neducation, of which we shall speak presently. The power of the clergy\nwas very great. They instructed youth, fixed the calendar, preserved the\nknowledge of the annals and traditions indicated by the hieroglyphics,\nsang and taught the religious and national hymns, intervened with\nspecial ceremonies at birth, marriage and burial, and were richly\nendowed by taxes raised in kind upon the products of the soil and upon\nindustries. Every successful aspirant to the priesthood, having passed\nthe requisite examinations, received a kind of unction, which\ncommunicated the sacred character to him. All this indicates a\ncivilization that had already reached a high point of development; but\nthe indelible stain of the Mexican religion re-appears every moment even\nwhere it seems to rise highest above the primitive religions: amongst\nthe ingredients of the fluid with which the new priest was anointed was\nthe blood of an infant!\n\nThe priests' costume in general was black. Their mantles covered their\nheads and fell down their sides like a veil. They never cut their hair,\nand the Spaniards saw some of them whose locks descended to their knees.\nProbably this was a part of the solar symbolism. The rays of the Sun are\ncompared to locks of hair, and we very often find the solar heroes or\nthe servants of the Sun letting their hair grow freely in order that\nthey may resemble their god. Their mode of life was austere and sombre.\nThey were subject to the rules of a severe asceticism, slept little,\nrose at night to chant their canticles, often fasted, often drew their\nown blood, bathed every night (in imitation of the Sun again), and in\nmany of the sacerdotal fraternities the most rigid celibacy was\nenforced. You will see, then, that I did not exaggerate when I spoke of\nthe belief that the gods were animated by cruel wills and took pleasure\nin human pain as having launched the Mexican religion on a path of a\nsystematic dualism and very stern asceticism.[29]\n\nBut the surprise we experience in noting all these points of resemblance\nto the religious institutions of the Old World, perhaps reaches its\nculminating point when we learn that the Mexican religion actually had\nits convents. These convents were often, but not always, places of\neducation for both sexes, to which all the free families sent their\nchildren from the age of six or nine years upwards. There the boys were\ntaught by monks, and the girls by nuns, the meaning of the\nhieroglyphics, the way to reckon time, the traditions, the religious\nchants and the ritual. Bodily exercises likewise had a place in this\ncourse of education, which was supposed to be complete when the children\nhad reached the age of fifteen. The majority of them were now sent back\nto their families, while the rest stayed behind to become priests or\nsimple monks. For there were religious orders, under the patronage of\nthe different gods, and convents for either sex. The monastic rule was\noften very severe. In many cases it involved abstinence from animal\nfood, and the people called the monks of these severer orders\n_Quaquacuiltin_, or \"herb-eaters.\" There were likewise associations\nresembling our half-secular, half-ecclesiastical fraternities. Thus we\nhear of the society of the \"_Telpochtiliztli_,\" an association of young\npeople who lived with their families, but met every evening at sunset to\ndance and sing in honour of Tezcatlipoca. And, finally, we know that\nancient Mexico had its hermits and its religious mendicants.[30] The\nlatter, however, only took the vow of mendicancy for a fixed term. These\nare the details which led von Humboldt and some other writers to believe\nthat Buddhism must have penetrated at some former period into Mexico.\nNot at all! What we have seen simply proves that asceticism, the war\nagainst nature, everywhere clothes itself in similar forms, suggested by\nthe very constitution of man; and there is certainly nothing in common\nbetween the gentle insipidity of Buddha's religion and the sanguinary\nfaith of the Aztecs.\n\nThe girls were under a rule similar to that of the boys. They led a hard\nenough life in the convents set apart for them, fasting often, sleeping\nwithout taking off their clothes, and (when it was their turn to be on\nduty) getting up several times in the night to renew the incense that\nburned perpetually before the gods. They learned to sew, to weave, and\nto embroider the garments of the idols and the priests. It was they who\nmade the sacred cakes and the dough idols, whose place in the public\nfestivals I have described to you. At the age of fifteen, the same\nselection took place among the girls as among the boys. Those who stayed\nin the convent became either priestesses, charged with the lower\nsacerdotal offices, or directresses of the convents set aside for\ninstruction, or simple nuns, who were known as _Cihuatlamacasque_, \"lady\ndeaconesses,\" or _Cihuaquaquilli_, \"lady herb-eaters,\" inasmuch as they\nabstained from meat. The most absolute continence was rigorously\nenforced, and breach of it was punished by death.[31]\n\nOne cannot but ask whether a priesthood so firmly organized, in which\nwas centred the whole intellectual life and all that can he called the\nscience of Mexico, had not elaborated any higher doctrines or cosmogonic\ntheories such as we owe to the priesthoods of the Old World, especially\nwhen we know that they regulated the calendar, which presupposes some\nastronomical conceptions.\n\nBut here we enter upon a region that has not yet been methodically\nreclaimed by the historians. We have often enough been presented with\nMexican cosmogonies, but the fundamental error of all these expositions\nis, that they present as a fixed and established body of doctrine what\nwas in reality a very loose and unformed mass of traditions and\nspeculations. The sponsors of these cosmogonies agree neither as to\ntheir number nor their order of succession, and it is obvious that a\nmistaken zeal to bring them as near as possible to the Biblical\ntradition has been at work. An attempt has even been made to find a\nMexican Noah, coming out of the ark, in a fish-god emerging from a kind\nof box floating on the waters.[32]\n\nOne thing, however, is certain, namely, that these cosmogonies are not\nAztec. The Aztec deities proper play no part in them. We may therefore\nsuppose that they are of Central American origin, or are due to that\npriesthood of Quetzalcoatl which continued its silent work in the depths\nof its mysterious retreats. The contradictions of our authorities as to\nthe number and order of these cosmogonies suggest the idea that their\narrangement one after another is no more than a harmonizing attempt to\nbring various originally distinct cosmogonies into connection with each\nother. The fact is that others yet are known, in addition to those which\nhave taken their place in what we may call the classical list\nestablished by Humboldt and Mueller.[33] In this classical list there\nare five ages of the world, separated from each other by universal\ncataclysms, something after the fashion of the successive creations of\nthe school of Cuvier. Each of these ages is called a Sun, and, according\nto the elements that preponderate during their respective courses, they\nare called, 1st, the Sun of the Earth; 2nd, the Sun of Fire; 3rd, the\nSun of the Air; and 4th, the Sun of Water. The fifth Sun, which is the\npresent one, has no special name. We cannot enter upon the details\nconcerning each of these Suns, and they are not very interesting in any\ncase. They contain confused reminiscences of primitive life, of the\nancient populations of Anahuac, of old and bygone worships, but nothing\nparticularly characteristic or original. The only specially striking\nfeature in this mass of cosmogonic traditions is the sense of the\ninstability of the established order alike of nature and society which\npervades them. What was it that inspired the Mexicans with this feeling?\nPerhaps the mighty destructive forces for which tropical countries,\nequatorial seas and volcanic regions, so often furnish a theatre, had\nshaken confidence in the permanence of the physical constitution of the\nworld. Perhaps the numerous political and social revolutions, the\nfrequent successions of peoples, rulers and subjects in turn, had\naccustomed the mind to conceive and anticipate perpetual changes, of\nwhich the successive ages of the world were but the supreme expression;\nand finally, perhaps that quasi-messianic expectation of the return of\nQuetzalcoatl, to be accompanied by a complete renewal of things, may\nhave given an additional point of attachment to this belief in the\ncaducity of the whole existing order. What is certain is that this\nsentiment itself was very widely spread. It served as a consolation to\nthe peoples who were crushed beneath the cruel yoke of the Aztecs. They\nmight well cherish the thought that all this would not last for ever;\nand even the Aztecs themselves had no unbounded confidence in the\nstability of their empire. The Spaniards profited greatly by this vague\nand all but universal distrust. After their victory they made much of\npretended prodigies that had shadowed it forth, and even of prophecies\nthat had announced it.[34] But the state of mind of the populations\nconcerned being given, at whatever moment the Spaniards had arrived they\nwould have been able to appeal to auguries of a like kind, by dint of\njust giving them that degree of precision and clearness which usually\ndistinguishes predictions that are recorded after their fulfilment!\n\nA further proof that the Mexican religion helped to spread this sense of\nthe instability of things is furnished by the grand jubilee festival\nwhich was celebrated every fifty-two years in the city of Mexico and\nthroughout the empire. The Mexican cycle, marking the coincidence of\nfour times thirteen lunar and four times thirteen solar years,[35]\ncounted two-and-fifty years, and was called a \"sheaf of years.\" Now\nwhenever the dawn of the fifty-third year drew near, the question was\nanxiously put, whether the world would last any longer, and preparations\nwere made for the great ceremony of the _Toxilmolpilia_, or \"binding up\nof years.\" The day before, every fire was extinguished. All the priests\nof the city of Mexico marched in procession to a mountain situated at\ntwo leagues' distance. The entire population followed them. They watched\nthe Pleiades intently. If the world was to come to an end, if the sun\nwas never to rise again, the Pleiades would not pass the zenith; but the\nmoment they passed it, it was known that a new era of fifty-two years\nhad been guaranteed to men. Fire was kindled anew by the friction of\nwood. But the wood rested on the bosom of the handsomest of the\nprisoners, and the moment it was lighted the victim's body was opened,\nhis heart torn out, and both heart and body burned upon a pile that was\nlit by the new fire. No sooner did the people, who had remained on the\nplain below, perceive the flame ascend, than they broke into delirious\njoy. Another fifty-two years was before the world. More victims were\nsacrificed in gratitude to the gods. Brands were lighted at the sacred\nflame on the mountain, from which the domestic fires were in their turn\nkindled, and swift couriers were despatched with torches, replaced\ncontinually on the route, to the very extremities of the empire. It was\nin the year 1507, twelve years before Cortes disembarked, that the\nToxilmolpilia was celebrated for the last time. In 1559, although the\nmass of the natives had meanwhile been converted to Roman Catholicism,\nthe Spanish government had to take severe measures to prevent its\nrepetition.[36]\n\nWe have far firmer footing, then, than is furnished by the shifting\nground of the cosmogonies, when we insist upon the general prevalence of\nthe feeling that the world might veritably come to an end as it had done\nbefore. Beyond this there was nothing fixed or generally accepted. Much\nthe same might be said of the future life. The Mexicans believed in\nman's survival after death. This we see from the practice of putting a\nnumber of useful articles into the tomb by the side of the corpse, after\nfirst breaking them, so that they too might die and their spirits might\naccompany that of the departed to his new abodes. They even gave him\nsome Tepitoton, or little household gods, to take with him, and as a\nrule they killed a dog to serve as his guide in the mysterious and\npainful journey which he was about to undertake. Sometimes a very rich\nman would go so far as to have his chaplain slaughtered, that he might\nnot be deprived of his support in the other world. But in all this there\nis nothing to distinguish the Mexican religion from the beliefs that\nstretched over the whole of America, and there is no indication that any\nmoral conception had as yet vivified and hallowed the prospect beyond\nthe grave. The mass of ordinary mortals remained in the sombre, dreary,\nmonotonous realm of Mictlan; for in Mexico, as in Polynesia, a really\nhappy immortality was a privilege reserved for the aristocracy. There\nwere several paradises, including that of Tlaloc, and above all the\n\"mansion of the Sun,\" destined to receive the kings, the nobles and the\nwarriors. There they hunt, they dance, they accompany the sun in his\ncourse, they can change themselves into clouds or humming-birds. An\nexception is made, however, irrespective of social rank, in favour of\nwarriors who fall in battle and women who die in child-bed, as well as\nfor the victims sacrificed in honour of the celestial deities and\ndestined to become their servants. So, too, the paradise of Tlaloc, a\nmost beauteous garden, is opened to all who have been drowned (for the\ngod of the waters has taken them to himself), to all who have died of\nthe diseases caused by moisture, and to the children who have been\nsacrificed to him. We recognize in these exceptions an unquestionable\ntendency to introduce the idea of justice as qualifying the desolating\ndoctrine of aristocratic privilege; and probably this principle of\njustice would have become preponderant, here as elsewhere, had not the\ndestinies of the Mexican religion been suddenly broken off. Nor is it\neasy to explain the asceticism and austerities of which we have spoken,\nexcept on the supposition that those who practised them all their lives\nbelieved they were thereby acquiring higher rights in the future life.\nIt must be admitted, however, that it is not in its doctrine of a future\nlife that the Mexican religion reached its higher developments.\n\nWe must postpone till we have examined the Peruvian religion, which\npresents so many analogies to that of Mexico, while at the same time\ndiffering from it so considerably, the final considerations suggested by\nthe strange compound of beliefs, now so barbarous and now so refined,\nwhich we have passed in review. Spanish monks, as we all know, succeeded\nwithin a few years in bringing the populations who had submitted to the\nhardy conquerors within the pale of their Church. It was no very\ndifficult task. The whole past had vanished. The royal families, the\nnobility, the clergy, all had perished. Faith in the national gods had\nbeen broken by events. The new occupants laid a grievous yoke upon the\nsubject peoples, whom they crushed and oppressed with hateful tyranny;\nbut we must do the Franciscan monks, who were first on the field in the\nwork of conversion, the justice of testifying that they did whatever in\nthem lay to soften the fate of their converts and to plead their cause\nbefore the Court of Spain. Nor were their efforts always unsuccessful.\nThey were rewarded by the unstinted confidence and affection of the\nunhappy natives, who found little pity or comfort save at the hands of\nthe good Fathers. Let us add that many of the peoples, especially those\nfrom whom the human tithes of which we have spoken had been exacted by\nthe Aztecs, were sensible of the humane and charitable aspects of a\nreligion that repudiated these hideous sacrifices in horror, and raised\nup the hearts of the oppressed by its promises of a future bliss\nconditioned by neither birth nor social rank.[37]\n\nBut the worthy monks could not give what they had not got. And the\nreligious education which they gave their converts reflected only too\nfaithfully their own narrow and punctilious monastic spirit, itself\nalmost as superstitious, though in another way, as what it supplanted.\nNay, more: in spite of the best dispositions on either side, it was\ninevitable that the ancient habits and beliefs should long maintain\nthemselves, though more or less shrouded beneath the new orthodoxy. In\n1571, the terrible Inquisition of Spain came and established itself in\nMexico to put an end to this state of things; and alas! it found as\nmany heretics as it could wish to show that it had not come for nothing.\nAnd when the natives saw the fearful tribunal at work, when the fires of\nthe _autos-da-fe_ were kindled on the plain of Mexico and consumed by\ntens or hundreds the victims condemned by the Holy Office, do you\nsuppose that the new converts felt well assured in their own hearts that\nthe God of the Gospel was, after all, much better than Uitzilopochtli\nand Tezcatlipoca?[38]\n\nBut we are stepping beyond the domain of history we have marked out for\nourselves. The religion of Mexico is dead, and we cannot desire a\nresurrection for it. But the memory it has left behind is at once\nmournful and instructive. It has enriched history with its confirmatory\nevidence as to the genesis, the power and the tragic force of religion\nin human nature; and he who inspects its annals, now so poetical and now\nso terror-laden, pauses in pensive thought before the grotesque but\nimposing monument which thrills him with admiration even while he\nrecoils with horror.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE IV.\n\nPERU.--ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION, THE LEGEND OF THE INCAS: THEIR\nPOLICY AND HISTORY.\n\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN,\n\nWe pass to-day from North to South America; and as in the former we\nconfined ourselves to the district which presented the Europeans of the\nsixteenth century with the unlooked-for spectacle of a native\ncivilization and religion in an advanced stage of development, so in the\nlatter we shall specially study that other indigenous civilization,\nlikewise supported and patronized by a very curious and original\nreligion, which established itself along the Cordilleras on the\nimmensely long but comparatively narrow strip of land between those\nmountains and the ocean. Peru, like Mexico, was the country of an\norganized solar religion; but the former, even more than the latter,\ndisplays this religion worked into the very tissues of a most remarkable\nsocial structure, with which it is so completely identified as not to be\nso much as conceivable without it. The empire of the Incas is one of the\nmost complete and absolute theocracies--perhaps the very most complete\nand absolute--that the world has seen. But in order to get a clear idea\nof what the Peruvian religion was, we must first say a word as to the\ncountry itself, its physical constitution and its history.\n\nThe Peru of the Incas, as discovered and conquered by the Spaniards,\ntranscended the boundaries of the country now so called, inasmuch as it\nincluded the more ancient kingdom of Quito (corresponding pretty closely\nto the modern republic of Ecuador), and extended over parts of the\npresent Chili and Bolivia. We learn from our ordinary maps that this\nwhole territory was narrowly confined between the mountains and the sea.\nObserve, however, that it was nearly two thousand five hundred miles in\nlength, four times as long as France, and that its breadth varied from\nabout two hundred and fifty to about five hundred miles. From West to\nEast it presents three very different regions. 1. A strip along the\ncoast where rain hardly ever falls, but where the night dews are very\nheavy and the produce of the soil tropical. 2. The _Sierra_ formed by\nthe first spurs of the Cordilleras, and already high enough above the\nlevel of the sea to produce the vegetation of the temperate regions.\nHere maize was cultivated on a large scale, and great herds of vicunias,\nalpacas and llamas were pastured. And here we may note a great point of\nadvantage enjoyed by Peru over Mexico; for the llama, though not very\nstrong, serves as a beast of burden and traction, its flesh is well\nflavoured and its wool most useful. 3. The _Montana_, consisting of a\nregion even yet imperfectly known, over which extend unmeasured forests,\nthe home of the jaguar and the chinchilla, of bright-plumed birds and of\ndreaded serpents. Above these forests stretch the dizzy peaks and the\nvolcanos. The most remarkable natural phenomenon of the country is the\nlake Titicaca, about seven times as great as the lake of Geneva, not\nfar distant from the ancient capital Cuzco, and serving, like Anahuac,\nthe lake district of Mexico, as the chief focus of Peruvian civilization\nand religion. The mysterious disappearance beneath the ground of the\nriver by which it empties itself, stimulated yet further the\nmyth-forming imagination of the dwellers on its shores.\n\nThere is a remarkable difference between the ways in which the two\ncivilizations of which we are speaking formed and consolidated\nthemselves in Mexico and Peru respectively. We have seen that in Mexico\nthe state of things to which the Spanish conquest put an end was the\nresult of a long series of revolutions and wars, in which successive\npeoples had ruled and served in turn; and the Aztecs had finally seized\nthe hegemony, while adopting a civilization the origins of which must be\nsought in Central America. In Peru things had followed a more regular\nand stable course. The dynasty of the Incas had maintained itself for\nabout six centuries as the patron of social progress and of a remarkably\nadvanced culture. Starting from its native soil on the shores of Lake\nTiticaca, and long confined in its authority to Cuzco and its immediate\nterritory, this family had finally succeeded in indefinitely extending\nits dominion between the mountains and the sea, sometimes by successful\nwars and sometimes by pacific means; for whole populations had more than\nonce been moved to range themselves of their own free will under the\nsceptre of the Incas, so as to enjoy the advantages assured to their\nsubjects by their equitable rule. When Pizarro and his companions\ndisembarked in Peru, the great Inca, Huayna Capac, had but recently\ncompleted the empire by the conquest of the kingdom of Quito.\n\nIt has been asked, which was the more marvellous feat, the conquest of\nMexico by Fernando Cortes, or that of Peru by Pizarro. One consideration\nweighs heavily in favour of Cortes. It is that he was the first. When\nFrancisco Pizarro threw himself with his handful of adventurers upon\nPeru in 1531, he had before him the example of his brilliant precursor,\nto teach him how a few Europeans might impose by sheer audacity on the\namazed and superstitious peoples; and in many respects he simply copied\nhis model. Like him, he took advantage of the divisions and rivalries\nof the natives; like him, he found means of securing the person of the\nsovereign, and was thereby enabled to quell the subjects. On the other\nhand, he had even fewer followers than Cortes. His company scarcely\nnumbered over two hundred men at first, and the Peruvian empire was more\ncompact and more wisely organized than that of Mexico. We shall\npresently see the principal cause to which his incredible success must\nbe ascribed; but the net result seems to be, that one hesitates to\npronounce the feats of either adventurer more astounding than those of\nthe other, especially when we remember that Pizarro was without the\npolitical genius of Fernando Cortes, and was so profoundly ignorant that\nhe could not so much as read!\n\nThe family of the Incas, whose scourge Pizarro proved to be, must have\nnumbered many fine politicians in its ranks. Never has what is called a\n\"dynastic policy\" been pursued more methodically and ably. The proofs\nassail us at every moment. The Incas were a family of priest-kings, who\nreigned, as children of the Sun, over the Peruvian land, and the Sun\nhimself was the great deity of the country. To obey the Incas was to\nobey the supreme god. Their person was the object of a veritable cultus,\nand they had succeeded so completely in identifying the interests of\ntheir own family with those of religion, of politics and of\ncivilization, that it was no longer possible to distinguish them one\nfrom another. And yet it was this very method, so essentially\ntheocratic, of insisting on the minute regulation of all the actions of\nhuman life in the name of religion, which finally ruined the Incas.\nPeru, in the sixteenth century, had become one enormous convent, in\nwhich everything was mechanically regulated, in which no one could take\nthe smallest initiative, in which everything depended absolutely upon\nthe will of the reigning Inca; so that the moment Pizarro succeeded in\nlaying hold of this Inca, this \"father Abbe,\" everything collapsed in a\nmoment, and nothing was left of the edifice constructed with such\nsagacity but a heap of sand. And indeed this is the fatal result of\nevery theocracy, for it can never really be anything but a _hierocracy_\nor rule of priests. On the one hand it must be absolute, for the\nsovereign priest rules in the name of God; and on the other hand it is\nfatally impelled to concern itself with every minutest affair, to\ninterfere vexatiously in all private concerns (since they too affect\nreligious ethics and discipline), and to multiply regulations against\nevery possible breach of the ruling religion. It is a general lesson of\nreligious history that is illustrated so forcibly by the fate of the\nInca priest-kings.\n\nI will not weary you in this case, any more than in that of Mexico, with\nthe enumeration of the authors to whom we must go for information on the\npolitical and religious history of the strange country with which we are\ndealing. I must, however, say a few words concerning a certain writer\nwho long enjoyed the highest of reputations, and was regarded throughout\nthe last century as the most trustworthy and complete authority in\nPeruvian matters. The Peruvians, far as their civilization had advanced\nin many respects, were behind even the Mexicans in the art of preserving\nthe memory of the past; for they had not so much as the imperfect\nhieroglyphics known to the latter. They made use of _Quipus_ or\n_Quipos_, indeed, which were fringes, the threads of which were\nvariously knotted according to what they were intended to represent; but\nunfortunately the Peruvians anticipated on a large scale what so often\nhappens on the small scale amongst ourselves to those persons of\nuncertain memory who tie knots on their handkerchiefs to remind them of\nsomething important. They find the knot, indeed, but have forgotten what\nit means! And so with the Peruvians. They were not always at one as to\nthe meaning of their ancient Quipos, and there were several ways of\ninterpreting them. Moreover, after the conquest, the few Peruvians who\nmight still have made some pretension to a knowledge of them did not\ntrouble themselves to initiate the Europeans into their filiform\nwriting. All that is left of it is the practice of the Peruvian women\nwho preserve this method of registering the sins they intend to record\nagainst themselves in the confessional.[39] Let us hope that they at\nleast never experience any analogous infirmity to that which besets the\nknot-tiers amongst ourselves.[40]\n\nTo return to the Peruvian author of whom I intended to speak. He is the\ncelebrated Garcilasso de la Vega, who published his _Commentarios\nreales_ in 1609 and 1617.[41] Garcilasso's father was a European, but\nhis mother was a Peruvian, and, what is more, a _Palla_, that is to say,\na princess of the family of the Incas. Born in 1540, this Garcilasso had\nreceived from his mother and a maternal uncle a great amount of\ninformation as to the family, the history and the persons of the ancient\nsovereigns. He was extremely proud of his origin; so much so, indeed,\nthat he issued his works under the name of \"Garcilasso _el Inca_ de la\nVega,\" though he had no real title to the name of Inca, which could not\nbe transmitted by women. A genuine fervour breathes through his accounts\nof the history of his Peruvian country and his glorious ancestors, and\nit is to him that we owe the knowledge of many facts that would\notherwise have been lost. The interest of his narrative explains the\nreputation so long enjoyed by his work, but the more critical spirit of\nrecent times has discovered that his filial zeal has betrayed him into\nlavish embellishments of the situation created by the clever and\ncautious policy of his forebears, the Incas. He has passed in silence\nover many of their faults, and has attributed more than one merit to\nthem to which they have no just claim. But in spite of all this, when we\nhave made allowance for his family weakness, we may consult him with\ngreat advantage as to the institutions and sovereigns of ancient Peru.\n\nWe must allow, with Garcilasso, that from the year 1000 A.D. onwards\n(for he places the origin of their power at about this date) the Incas\nhad accomplished a work that may well seem marvellous in many respects.\nHad there been any relations between Peru and Central America? Can we\nexplain the Peruvian civilization as the result of an emigration from\nthe isthmic region, or an imitation of what had already been realized\nthere? There is not the smallest trace of any such thing. No doubt it\nwould be difficult to justify a categorical assertion on a subject so\nobscure; but it is certain that when they were discovered, Peru and the\nkingdom of Quito were separated from North America by immense regions\nplunged in the deepest savagery. Beginning at the Isthmus of Panama,\nthis savage district stretched over the whole northern portion of South\nAmerica, broken only by the demi-civilization of the Muyscas or Chibchas\n(New Granada); and the Peruvians knew nothing of the Mexicans. Neither\nthe one nor the other were navigators, and nothing in the Peruvian\ntraditions betrays the least connection with Central America. The most\nprobable supposition is, that an indigenous civilization was\nspontaneously developed in Peru by causes analogous to those which had\nproduced a similar phenomenon in the Maya country. In Peru, as in\nCentral America, the richness of the soil, the variety of its products,\nthe abundance of vegetable food, especially maize, secured the first\nconditions of civilization. The Peruvian advance was further favoured by\nthe fact that it was protected towards the East by almost impassable\nmountains, and towards the West by the sea, while to the North and South\nit might concentrate its defensive forces upon comparatively narrow\nspaces.\n\nThe whole territory of the empire was divided into three parts. The\nfirst was the property of the Sun, that is to say of the priests who\nofficiated in his numerous temples; the second belonged to the reigning\nInca; and the third to the people. The people's land was divided out\nevery year in lots apportioned to the needs of each family, but the\nportions assigned to the _Curacas_, or nobles, were of a magnitude\nsuited to their superior dignity. Taxes were paid in days of labour\ndevoted to the lands of the Inca and those of the Sun, or in\nmanufactured articles of various kinds, for the cities contained a\nnumber of artizans. Indeed, it was one of the maxims of the Incas that\nno part of the empire, however poor, should be exempt from paying\ntribute of one kind or another. To such a length was this carried, that\nso grave a historian as Herrera tells us how the Inca Huayna Capac,\nwishing to determine what kind of tribute the inhabitants of Pasto were\nto pay, and being assured that they were so entirely without resources\nor capacity of any kind that they could give him nothing at all, laid on\nthem the annual tribute of a certain measure of vermine, preferring, as\nhe said, that they should pay this singular tax rather than nothing.[42]\nWe cannot congratulate the officials commissioned to collect the\ntribute, but we cite this sample in proof of the rigour with which the\nIncas carried out the principles which they considered essential to the\ngovernment of the country. The special principle we have just\nillustrated was founded on the idea that the Sun journeys and shines for\nevery one, and that accordingly every one should contribute towards the\npayment of his services. For the rest, the great herds of llamas, which\nconstituted a regular branch of the national wealth, could only be owned\nby the temples of the Sun and by the Inca. Every province, every town\nor village, had the exact nature and the exact quantity of the products\nit must furnish assigned, and the Incas possessed great depots in which\nwere stored provisions, arms and clothes for the army. All this was\nregulated, accounted for and checked by means of official Quipos.\n\nThe numerous body of officials charged with the general superintendence\nand direction of affairs was organized in a very remarkable manner, well\ncalculated to consolidate the Inca's power. All the officials held their\nauthority from him, and represented him to the people, just as he\nhimself represented the Sun-god. At the bottom of the scale was an\nofficial overseer for every ten families, next above an overseer of a\nhundred families, then another placed over a thousand, and another over\nten thousand. Each province had a governor who generally belonged to the\nfamily of the Incas. All this constituted a marvellous system of\nsurveillance and espionage, descending from the sovereign himself to the\nmeanest of his subjects, and founded on the principle that the rays of\nthe Sun pierce everywhere. The lowest members of this official\nhierarchy, the superintendents of ten families, were responsible to\ntheir immediate superiors for all that went on amongst those under their\ncharge, and those superiors again were responsible to the next above\nthem, and so on up to the Inca himself, who thus held the threads of the\nwhole vast net-work in the depths of his palace. It was another maxim of\nthe Peruvian state that every one must work, even old men and children.\nInfants under five alone were excepted. It was the duty of the\nsuperintendents of ten families to see that this was carried out\neverywhere, and they were armed with disciplinary powers to chastise\nseverely any one who remained idle, or who ordered his house ill, or\ngave rise to any scandal. Individual liberty then was closely\nrestrained. No one could leave his place of residence without leave. The\ntime for marriage was fixed for both sexes--for women at eighteen to\ntwenty, for men at twenty-four or upwards. The unions of the noble\nfamilies were arranged by the Inca himself, and those of the inferior\nclasses by his officers, who officially assigned the young people one\nto another. Each province had its own costume, which might not be\nchanged for any other, and every one's birthplace was marked by a ribbon\nof a certain colour surrounding his head.[43] In a word, the Jesuits\nappear to have copied the constitution of the Peruvian society when they\norganized their famous Paraguay missions, and perhaps this fact may help\nus to trace the profound motives which in either case suggested so\nminutely precise a system of inserting individuals into assigned places\nwhich left no room for self-direction. The Incas and the Jesuits alike\nhad to contend against the disconnected, incoherent turbulence of savage\nlife, and both alike were thereby thrown upon an exaggerated system of\nregulations, in which each individual was swaddled and meshed in\nsupervisions and ordinances from which it was impossible to escape.\n\nHaving said so much, we must acknowledge that, generally speaking, the\nIncas made a very humane and paternal use of their absolute power. They\nstrove to moderate the desolating effects of war, and generally treated\nthe conquered peoples with kindness. But we note that in the century\npreceding that of the European conquest, they had devised a means of\nguarding against revolts exactly similar to the measures enforced\nagainst rebellious peoples by the despotic sovereigns of Nineveh and\nBabylon; that is to say, they transported a great part of the conquered\npopulations into other parts of their empire, and it appears that Cuzco,\nlike Babylon, presented an image in miniature of the whole empire.\nThere, as at Babylon, a host of different languages might be heard, and\nit was amongst the children of the deported captives that Pizarro, like\nCyrus at Babylon, found allies who rejoiced in the fall of the empire\nthat had crushed their fathers. For the rest, the Incas endeavoured to\nspread the language of Cuzco, the _Quechua_, throughout their\nempire.[44] Nothing need surprise us in the way of political sagacity\nand insight on the part of this priestly dynasty. Its monarchs seem to\nhave hit upon every device which has been imagined elsewhere for\nattaching the conquered peoples to themselves or rendering their\nhostility harmless. Thus you will remember that at Mexico there was a\nchapel that served as a prison for the idols of the conquered. In the\nsame way there stood in the neighbourhood of Cuzco a great temple with\nseventy-eight chapels in it, where the images of all the gods worshipped\nin Peru were assembled. Each country had its altar there, on which\nsacrifice was made according to the local customs.[45]\n\nThe Spaniards, amongst whom respect for the royal person was\nsufficiently profound, were amazed by the marks of extreme deference of\nwhich the Inca was the object. They could not understand at first that\nactual religious worship was paid to him. He alone had the inherent\nright to be carried on a litter, and he never went out in any other\nway, imitating the Sun, his ancestor, who traverses the world without\never putting his foot to the ground. Some few men and women of the\nhighest rank might rejoice in the same distinction, but only if they had\nobtained the Inca's sanction. In the same way, it was only the members\nof the Inca family and the nobles of most exalted rank who were allowed\nto wear their hair long, for this was a distinctive sign of the\nfavourites of the Sun. None could enter the presence of the reigning\nInca save bare-footed, clad in the most simple garments and bearing a\nburden on his shoulders, all in token of humility; nor must he raise his\neyes throughout the audience, for no man looks upon the face of the Sun.\nIt seems that the Incas possessed \"the art of royal majesty\" in a high\ndegree. They could retain the impassive air of indifference, whatever\nmight be going on before their eyes, like the Sun, who passes without\nemotion over everything that takes place below. It was thus that\nAtahualpa appeared to the Spaniards, who remarked the all but stony\nfixity of the Peruvian monarch's features in the presence of all the new\nsights--horses, riding, fire-arms--which filled his subjects with\nsurprise and terror.[46] And such was the superhuman character of the\nInca, that even the base office of a spittoon--excuse such a detail--was\nsupplied by the hand of one of his ladies.[47] The salute was given to\nthe Inca by kissing one's hand and then raising it towards the Sun. At\nhis death the whole country went into mourning for a year. The young\nIncas were educated together, under conditions of great austerity, and\nwere never allowed to mingle with young people of the inferior\nclasses.[48]\n\nThe army of the Incas was the army of the Sun. The obligation to\nmilitary service was universal, since the Sun shines for all men. Every\nsound man from twenty-five to fifty might be called on to serve in his\ncompany. Thus numerous and highly-disciplined armies were raised, for\nthe spirit of obedience had penetrated all classes of the people. The\nIncas had abolished the use of poisoned arrows, which is so common\namongst the natives of the New World.[49]\n\nJustice was organized after fixed laws, and, as is usually the case in\ntheocracies, these laws were severe. For in theocracies, to the social\nevil of the offence is added the impiety committed against the Deity and\nhis representative on earth. The culprit has been guilty not only of\ncrime, but of sacrilege. The penalty of death was freely inflicted even\nin the case of offences that implied no evil disposition.[50] The\npalanquin-bearer, for instance, who should stumble under his august\nburden when carrying the Inca, or any one who should speak with the\nsmallest disrespect of him, must die. But we must also note certain\nprinciples of sound justice which the Incas had likewise succeeded in\nintroducing. The judges were controlled, and, in case of unjust\njudgments, punished. The law was more lenient to a first offence than to\na second, to crimes committed in the heat of the moment than to those of\nmalise prepense; more lenient to children than to adults, and (mark\nthis) more lenient to the common people than to the great.[51] The\nmembers of the Inca family alone were exempted from the penalty of\ndeath, which in their case was replaced by imprisonment for life. They\nalone might, and indeed must, marry their sisters, for a reason that we\nshall see further on. Thus everything was calculated to set this divine\nfamily apart. Polygamy, too, was only allowed to the Incas and to the\nfamilies of next highest rank after them, who, however, might not marry\nat all without the personal assent of the sovereign.[52] But the Incas\nstrove to make themselves loved. Herrera tells us of establishments in\nwhich orphans and foundlings were brought up at the Inca's charges, and\nof the alms he bestowed on widows who had no means of subsistence.[53]\n\nThe same deliberate system shows itself in the attempts to spread\neducation. The Incas founded schools, but they were opened only to the\nchildren of the Incas and of the nobility. This is a genuine theocratic\ntrait. Garcilasso tells us naively that his ancestor the Inca Roca\n(1200--1249) in founding public schools had no idea of allowing _the\npeople_ \"to get information, grow proud, and disturb the state.\"[54] The\ninstruction, which was given by the _amautas_ (sages), turned on the\nhistory or traditions of the country, on the laws, and on religion. We\nhave said that writing was unknown. There were only the mnemonic Quipos,\npictures on linen representing great events, and some rudimentary\nattempts at hieroglyphics which the Incas do not seem to have\nencouraged. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the hieroglyphics\nfound graven on the rocks of Yonan are anterior to the Inca\nsupremacy;[55] and it is said that a certain _amauta_ who had attempted\nto introduce a hieroglyphic alphabet, was burned to death for impiety at\nthe order of the Inca.[56]\n\nThe most remarkable results of the rule of the Incas are seen in the\nmaterial well-being which they secured to their people. All the\nhistorians speak of the really extraordinary perfection to which\nPeruvian agriculture had been carried, though the use of iron was quite\nunknown. The solar religion fits perfectly with the habits of an\nagricultural people, and the Incas thought it became them, as children\nof the Sun, to encourage the cultivation of the soil. They ordered the\nexecution of great public works, such as supporting walls to prevent the\nsloping ground from being washed away; irrigation canals, some of which\nmeasured five hundred miles, and which were preserved with scrupulous\ncare; magazines of guano, the fertilizing virtues of which were known in\nPeru long before they were learned in Europe.[57] The Spaniards are far\nfrom having maintained Peruvian agriculture at the level it had reached\nunder the Incas. Splendid roads stretched from Cuzco towards the four\nquarters of heaven; and Humboldt still traced some of them, paved with\nblack porphyry, or in other cases cemented or rather macadamized, and\noften launched over ravines and pierced through hills with remarkable\nboldness.[58] The Incas had established reservoirs of drinking water for\nthe public use from place to place along these roads, and likewise\npavilions for their own accommodation when they were traversing their\nrealms, on which occasions they never travelled more than three or four\nleagues a day. Bridges were thrown across the rivers, sometimes built of\nstone, but more often constructed on the method, so frequently\ndescribed, that consists in uniting the opposing banks by two parallel\nropes, along which a great basket is slung.[59] A system of royal\ncourier posts measured the great roads as in Mexico. There were many\nimportant cities in Peru, and, according to a contemporary estimate\ncited by Prescott, the capital, Cuzco, even without including its\nsuburbs, must have embraced at least two hundred thousand\ninhabitants.[60] Architecture was in a developed stage. We shall have to\nspeak of the temples presently. The Inca's palaces--and there was at\nleast one in every city of any importance--were of imposing dimensions,\nand a high degree of comfort and luxury was displayed within them. Gold\nglittered on the walls and beneath the roofs which were generally\nthatched with straw. They were provided with inner courts, spacious\nhalls, sculptures in abundance, but inferior, it would seem, to those of\nCentral America, and baths in which hot or cold water could be turned on\nat will.[61] In a word, when we remember from how many resources the\nPeruvians were still cut off by their ignorance and isolation, we cannot\nbut admit that a genuine civilization is opening before our eyes, the\ndefects of which must not blind us to its splendour. And since this\ncivilization was in great part due (we shall see the force of the\nqualification presently) to the continuous efforts of the Incas, our\nnext task must be to ascend to the mythic origin of that family, which\nwe borrow from the narrative of their descendant, Garcilasso de la\nVega.[62]\n\nProperly speaking, this narrative is the local myth of the Lake\nTiticaca and of Cuzco, transformed into an imperial myth.\n\nBefore the Incas, we are told, men lived in the most absolute savagery.\nThey were addicted to cannibalism and offered human victims to gods who\nwere gross like themselves. At last the Sun took pity on them, and sent\nthem two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo (or Oullo, Ocollo,\nOolle, &c.), to establish the worship of the Sun and alleviate their\nlot. The two emissaries, son and daughter of the Sun and Moon, rose one\nday from the depths of the Lake Titicaca. They had been told that a\ngolden splinter which they bore with them would pierce the earth at the\nspot in which they were to establish themselves, and the augury was\nfulfilled on the site of Cuzco, the name of which signifies _navel._[63]\nObserve that, in classical antiquity, Babylon, Athens, Delphi, Paphos,\nJerusalem, and so forth, each passed for the navel of the earth. Manco\nCapac and Mama Ogllo, then, established the worship of the Sun. They\ntaught the savage inhabitants of the place agriculture and the principal\ntrades, the art of building cities, roads and aqueducts. Mama Ogllo\ntaught the women to spin and weave. They appointed a number of overseers\nto take care that every one did his duty; and when they had thus\nregulated everything in Cuzco, they re-ascended to heaven. But they left\na son and daughter to continue their work. Like their parents, the\nbrother and sister became husband and wife, and from them descends the\nsovereign family of the Incas, that is to say, the Lord-rulers, or\nMaster-rulers.\n\nSuch is the legend, from which the first deduction must be that the Inca\nfamily has nothing in common with the other denizens of earth. It is\nsuper-imposed, as it were, on humanity. It is because of this difference\nof origin that the laws which restrain the rest of mankind are not\nalways applicable to the Incas. For example, they marry their sisters,\nas Manco Capac did, and as the Sun does, for the Moon is at once his\nwife and his sister. It is thus that they are enabled to preserve the\ndivine character of their unique family.\n\nFor ourselves, we can entertain no doubt that this is a cosmic myth.\nMama Ogllo, or \"the mother egg,\" and Manco Capac, or \"the mighty man,\"\nare two creators. The myth indicates that there existed an ancient solar\npriesthood on one of the islands or on the shores of the Lake of\nTiticaca (at an early date the focus of a certain civilization), and\nthat this priestly family became at a given period the ruling power at\nCuzco. It was thence that it radiated over the small states which\nsurrounded Cuzco, embracing them one after another under its prestige\nand its power, until it had become the redoubtable dynasty that we know\nit. Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo, the creator and the cosmic egg, have\nbecome the Sun and Moon, represented by their Inca high-priest and his\nwife. There is no practice towards which a more wide-spread tendency\nexists in America than that of conferring the name of a deity on his\nchief priest. And if Garcilasso fixes the appearance of Manco Capac at\nabout 1000 A.D., it is simply because the historical recollections of\nhis family mounted no higher, and that about that time it began to rise\nout of its obscurity. It had the advantage of numbering in its royal\nline both successful warriors and, what is more, consummate\npoliticians, instances of whose ability we have already seen and shall\nsee again.\n\nThe point at which the legend preserved by Garcilasso is clearly at\nfault, is in its claim for the Incas as the first and only civilizers of\nPeru. We shall presently meet with other Peruvian myths of civilization\nwhich do not stand in the least connection with Manco Capac and the\nIncas. The kingdom of Quito, which the Inca Huayna Capac had recently\nconquered when the Spaniards arrived, though not on the same level as\nPeru proper, was far removed from the savage state, while as yet a\nstranger to the influence of the Incas. The country of the Muyscas, the\npresent New Granada or land of Bogota, though standing in no connection\nwith Peru, was the theatre of another sacerdotal and solar religion _sui\ngeneris_, which, though very little known, is highly interesting. The\nvalley of the Rimac, or Lima, and the coast lands in general, were\nlikewise centres of a pre-Inca civilization. The Chimus especially,\nthemselves dwellers on the coast, were possessed of an original\ncivilization differing from that of the Incas. They were the last to be\nconquered. To sum up, everything leads us to suppose that various\ncentres of social development had long existed, up and down the whole\nregion, but that, under the presiding genius of the priesthood of Manco\nCapac, the civilization of Cuzco had gradually acquired the\npreponderance, till it consecutively eclipsed and absorbed all the\nothers.\n\nGarcilasso labours hard to impress us with the belief that the\nsovereigns of his family maintained an unbroken age of gold, by dint of\ntheir wisdom and virtues. But we know, both from himself and from other\nsources, that as a matter of fact the Incas' sky was not always\ncloudless. They had numbered both bad and incapable rulers in their\nline. More than once they had had to suppress terrible insurrections,\nand their palaces had witnessed more than one tragedy.\"[64] But after\nmaking all allowances, we must admit that they succeeded in governing\nwell, and more especially in maintaining intact their own religious and\npolitical prestige.\n\nNow this very cleverness, this conscious and often extremely deliberate\nand astutely calculated policy, compels us to ask how far the Incas\nthemselves were sincere in their pretension to be descended from the\nSun, and their faith in the very special favour in which the great\nluminary held them. There is so much rationalism in their habitual\ntactics, that one cannot help suspecting a touch of it in their beliefs.\nAnd the truth is that their descendant, Garcilasso, has recorded certain\ntraditions to that effect, which he has perhaps dressed up a little too\nmuch in European style, with a view to convincing us that his ancestors\nwere monotheistic philosophers, but which nevertheless bear the marks of\na certain authenticity. For the reasoning which Garcilasso puts into the\nmouth of the Incas closely resembles what would naturally commend itself\nto the mind of a pagan who should once ask himself whether the visible\nphenomenon, the Sun, which he adored, was really as living, as\nconscious, as personal, as they said. Thus the Inca Tupac Yupanqui\n(fifteenth century) is said to have reasoned thus:[65]\n\n \"They say that the Sun lives, and that he does everything. But\n when one does anything, he is near to the thing he does; whereas\n many things take place while the Sun is absent. It therefore\n cannot be he who does everything. And again, if he were a living\n being, would he not be wearied by his perpetual journeyings? If\n he were alive, he would experience fatigue, as we do; and if he\n were free, he would visit other parts of the heavens which he\n never traverses. In truth, he seems like a thing held to its\n task that always measures the same course, or like an arrow that\n flies where it is shot and not where it wills itself.\"\n\nNote this line of reasoning, Gentlemen, which must have repeated itself\nin many minds when once they had acquired enough independence and power\nof thought calmly to examine those natural phenomena which primitive\nnaivete had animated, personified and adored as the lords of destiny.\nTheir fixity and their mechanical and unvarying movements, when once\nobserved, could not fail to strike a mortal blow at the faith of which\nthey were the object. That faith was transformed without being radically\nchanged when it was no longer the phenomenon itself, but the personal\nand directing spirit, the genius, the deity that was behind the\nphenomenon, but distinct from it and capable of detaching itself from\nit, which drew to itself the worship of the faithful. But in his turn\nthis god, shaped in the image of man, must either be refined into pure\nspirit, or must fall below the rational and moral ideal ultimately\nconceived by man himself. When all is said and done, Gentlemen, Buddhism\nis still a religion of Nature. It is the last word of that order of\nreligions, and exists to show us that, at any rate in its authentic and\nprimitive form, that last word is _nothingness_. And that is why\nBuddhism has never existed in its pure form as a popular religion. For\nin religion, and at every stage of religion, mind seeks mind. Without\nthat, religion is nothing. Note, too, the observant Inca's remark, that\nif the Sun were alive he must be dreadfully tired. You may find the same\nidea in more than one European mythology, in which the Sun appears as an\nunhappy culprit condemned to a toilsome service for some previous fault;\nor, again, an iron constitution is given him, to explain why he is not\nworn out by his ceaseless journeying.\n\nNow Tupac Yupanqui would not be the only Inca who cherished a certain\nscepticism concerning his ancestor the Sun. Herrera tells us that the\nInca Viracocha denied that the Sun was God;[66] and according to a story\npreserved by Garcilasso,[67] the Inca Huayna Capac, the conqueror of\nQuito, who died shortly after Pizarro's first disembarkment, must have\nbeen quite as much of a rationalist. One day, during the celebration of\na festival in honour of the Sun, he is said to have gazed at the great\nluminary so long and fixedly that the chief priest ventured on some\nrespectful remarks to the effect that so irreverent a proceeding must\nsurprise the people. \"I will ask you two questions,\" replied the\nmonarch. \"I am your king and universal lord. Would any one of you have\nthe hardihood to order me to rise from my seat and take a long journey\nfor his pleasure?... And would the richest and most powerful of my\nvassals dare to disobey if I should command him on the spot to set out\nin all speed for Chili?\" And when the priest answered in the negative,\nthe Inca continued: \"Then I tell you there must be a greater and a more\nmighty lord above our father the Sun, who orders him to take the course\nhe follows day by day. For if he were himself the sovereign lord, he\nwould now and again omit his journey and rest, for his pleasure, even if\nhe experienced no necessity for doing so.\"\n\nOnce more: I will not vouch for the exact form of these audacious\nspeculations of the free-thinking Inca. But such reminiscences,\ncollected independently by various authors, correspond to the\nconjectures forced upon us by the extreme political sagacity of the\nIncas. None but theocrats, in whose own hearts faith in their central\nprinciple was waning, could develop such astuteness and diplomacy. A\nsincere and untried faith has not recourse to so many expedients\ndictated by policy and the fear lest the joint in the armour should be\nfound. It is to be presumed, however, that these heterodox speculations\nof the Incas themselves never passed beyond the narrow circle of the\nfamily and its immediate surroundings. Nothing of the kind would ever be\ncaught by the ear of the people. But the evidence as to Huayna Capac's\nscepticism derives a certain confirmation from the fact that he was the\nfirst Inca who departed (to the woe of his empire, as it turned out)\nfrom some of the hereditary maxims that had always been scrupulously\nobserved by his ancestors.\n\nHuayna Capac had considerably extended the Peruvian empire by the\nconquest of the kingdom of Quito. In the hope, presumably, of\nconsolidating his conquest, he resided for a long time in the\nnewly-acquired territory, and married the conquered king's daughter, to\nwhom he became passionately attached. This was absolutely contrary to\none of the statutes of the Inca family, no member of which was allowed\nto marry a stranger. By his foreign wife he had a son called Atahualpa,\nand whether it was that he thought it good policy to allow a certain\nautonomy to the kingdom of Quito, or whether it was due to his\ntenderness towards Atahualpa's mother and the son she had borne him,\ncertain it is that when he died at Quito in 1525, he decided that\nAtahualpa should reign over this newly-acquired kingdom, whilst his\nother son Huascar, the unimpeachably legitimate Inca, was to succeed him\nas sovereign of Peru proper. This, again, was a violation of the maxim\nthat the kingdom of the Incas, which was the kingdom of the Sun, was\nnever to be parted. It was in the midst of the struggles provoked by the\nhostility of the two brothers that Pizarro fell like a meteor amongst\nthe Peruvians, who did not so much as know of the existence of any other\nland than the one they inhabited.\n\nBut the hour warns me that I must pause. When next we meet, I shall\nhave to recount the fall of the great religious dynasty of the Incas,\nand we shall then examine more closely that Peruvian religion of which\nwe have to-day but sketched the outline.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE V.\n\nFALL OF THE INCAS.--PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY, PRIESTHOOD.\n\n\nI.\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN,\n\nYou will remember that when last we met we traced out the legendary\norigin of the royal house of the Incas. Starting from the shores of the\nLake Titicaca and the city of Cuzco, and progressively extending its\ncombined religious and political dominion over the numerous countries\nsituated west of the Cordilleras, it had welded them into one vast\nempire, centralized and organized in a way that, in spite of its\ndefects, extorts our admiration. You had occasion to notice the\nextraordinary degree to which the consummate practical sagacity which\ndistinguished the sacerdotal and imperial family of the Sun for\nsuccessive centuries, was combined with purely mythological principles\nof faith; and we were compelled to ask whether so much diplomacy was\nreally consistent with unreserved belief. Finally we saw that, according\nto the historians, more than one of the Incas had in fact expressed and\njustified a doubt as to the living and conscious personality of that\nSun-god whose descendants they were supposed to be. The position of\naffairs when the Spaniards disembarked on the shores of Peru is already\nknown to you. The Inca Huayna Capac, conqueror of Quito, had broken with\nthe constitutional maxims of his dynasty, in the first place by marrying\na stranger, the daughter of a deposed king; and in the second place by\nleaving the kingdom of Quito to the son, Atahualpa, whom she bore him;\nwhile he allowed Huascar, the heir-apparent to the empire, to succeed\nhim in Peru proper, thus severing into two parts the kingdom of the Sun,\nin defiance of the principle hitherto recognized, which forbad the\ndivision of that kingdom under any circumstances.\n\nThe war which speedily arose between Atahualpa and his half-brother\nHuascar was the great cause that made it possible for Pizarro and his\nminiature army to get a footing in the Peruvian territory. The military\nforces of both sections of the empire were engaged with each other far\naway from the place of landing, and the inhabitants, wholly unaccustomed\nto take any initiative, made no resistance to the strange invaders,\nwhose appearance, arms and horses, struck terror into their hearts, and\nin whom (like the Mexicans in the case of Cortes and his followers) they\nthought they saw supernatural beings. Pizarro, who knew how things\nstood, had but one idea, viz., to imitate Cortes in laying hold of the\nsovereign's person. Atahualpa returned victorious. He had defeated\nHuascar, slaughtered many members of the Inca family, and thrown his\nconquered brother into prison, so as to govern Peru in his name, for he\nwas not sure that he himself would be recognized and obeyed as a\nlegitimate descendant of the Sun. Pizarro found means of making his\narrival known to him, and at the same time offered him his alliance\nagainst his enemies.[68] Atahualpa was delighted with these overtures,\nand invited his pretended allies to a conference near Caxamarca, where\nthe Spaniards had installed themselves. The Inca advanced, parading all\nthe pomp and splendour of his solar divinity. Four hundred richly-clad\nattendants preceded his palanquin, which sparkled at a thousand points\nwith gold and precious stones, and was borne on the shoulders of\nofficers drawn from amongst the highest nobles, while troops of male and\nfemale dancers followed the child of the Sun and plied their art. Then\nensued one of those unique scenes of history upon which, as indignation\ncontends with amazement for the mastery in our minds, we must pause for\na moment to gaze.\n\nPizarro's almoner, Father Valverde, drew near to the Inca, a crucifix in\none hand and a missal in the other, and by means of an interpreter\ndelivered a regular discourse to him, in which he announced that Pope\nAlexander VI. had given all the lands of America to the King of Spain,\nwhich he had a right to do as the successor of St. Peter, who was\nhimself the Vicar of the Son of God. Then he expounded the chief\narticles of Christian orthodoxy, and summoned the Inca there and then\nto abjure the religion of his ancestors, receive baptism, and submit to\nthe sovereignty of the King of Spain. On these conditions he might\ncontinue to reign. Otherwise he must look for every kind of disaster.\n\nAtahualpa was literally stupefied. Much of the discourse, no doubt, he\nfailed to follow, but what he did understand filled him with\nindignation. He answered that he reigned over his peoples by hereditary\nright, and could not see how a foreign priest could dispose of lands\nthat were not his. He should remain faithful to the religion of his\nfathers, \"especially,\" he added, as he pointed to the crucifix grasped\nby the monk, \"since my god, the Sun, is at any rate alive; whereas the\none you propose for my acceptance, as far as I gather, is dead.\"\nFinally, he desired to know whence his interlocutor had derived all the\nstrange things that he had told him. \"Hence!\" cried Valverde, holding\nout his missal. The Inca, who had never seen a book in all his life,\ntook this object, so new to him, in his hands, opened it, put it to his\near, and finding that it said nothing, flung it contemptuously on the\nground.\n\nPizarro saw the moment for striking the blow he contemplated. Crying out\nat the sacrilege, he gave his soldiers the signal of attack. Their\nhorses and fire-arms caused an instant panic. In vain did some of his\nofficers attempt to defend the Inca. Pizarro broke through to him,\nseized him by the arm and dragged him to his quarters. All his escort\nfled in terror.\n\nAtahualpa, then, was in the immediate power of Pizarro, who (still\nimitating Cortes) surrounded his prisoner with every comfort and\nattention, though confining him strictly to one chamber, and warning him\nthat any attempt at escape or resistance would be the signal for his\ndeath. Atahualpa soon perceived that thirst for gold was the great\nmotive that had impelled the Spaniards to their audacious enterprize. He\nhoped to disarm them by offering as ransom gold enough to fill the\nchamber in which he was confined up to the height of a man. He gave the\nnecessary orders for collecting the precious metal in the requisite\namount, and to secure the good reception of the emissaries whom Pizarro\ndespatched everywhere to receive it. One of these detachments even\nentered into relations with the captive Inca, Huascar, and the latter\nhastened to offer the Spaniards yet more gold than Atahualpa was giving\nthem if they would take his part. Atahualpa heard of this, was alarmed,\nregarded his conquered brother's attempts in the light of high-treason,\ngave orders for his death--and was obeyed.[69]\n\nHe was not aware how precarious was his own tenure of life. Pizarro saw\nmore and more clearly that, in order to become the real master of Peru,\nhe must get rid of the reigning Inca, and put some child in his place,\nwho would be a passive instrument in his hands. He was fairly alarmed by\nthe religious obedience, timid but absolute, that the \"child of the\nSun,\" even in his captivity, received from all classes of his subjects.\nHe fancied that from the recesses of his prison, and even while paying\noff his enormous ransom,[70] Atahualpa had sent secret orders to the\nmost distant populations to arm themselves and come to his rescue. The\ninterpreter through whom he communicated with his captive was out of\ntemper with his master, for his head had been so turned by ambition,\nthat he had demanded the hand of a _coya_, that is to say, one of the\nInca's women, and had been haughtily refused. In revenge, he made\nmalicious reports to Pizarro. But it was an accidental circumstance that\nbrought the latter's ill-will towards his captive to a point. The Inca\ngreatly admired the art of writing when he discovered all the uses the\nSpaniards made of it. One day it occurred to him to get one of the\nsoldiers on guard over him to write the word _Dio_ upon his nail, and he\nwas delighted and astonished to find that every one to whom he showed it\nread it in the same way. So they told him that every one a little above\nthe common herd could read and write in Europe. His evil star would\nhave it that he showed his thumb one day to Pizarro, who could make\nnothing of it. Pizarro, then, could not read! Atahualpa concluded that\nhe was merely one of the common herd, and found an opportunity of\ntelling him so. Pizarro, stung to the quick, hesitated no longer. A mock\njudgment condemned Atahualpa to the extreme penalty for the crimes of\nidolatry, polygamy, usurpation, fratricide and rebellion. In vain he\nappealed to the King of Spain. He was led to the stake, and Father\nValverde made him purchase by a baptism _in extremis_ the privilege of\nbeing strangled instead of burned alive.\n\nFrom this moment the fate of Peru was decided. The head once struck from\nthe great body, long convulsions ensued, but no serious resistance was\npossible. Pizarro set up as Inca a young brother of Huascar's, who was\nat first a mere instrument in the hands of his country's bleeders, but\nafterwards escaped and raised insurrections which ended in his total\ndefeat. The Spaniards had been reinforced, and had found allies amongst\nthe peoples who had been torn from their native soils by the victorious\nIncas.[71] Other attempts, still attaching themselves to the name of\nsome Inca, failed in like manner. And yet the mass of the Peruvians, in\nspite of their conversion to Roman Catholicism, remained obstinately\nattached to the memory of their Incas. One of their real or pretended\ndescendants, in the eighteenth century, did not shrink from serving as a\ndomestic at Madrid and Rome, as the only means of learning the secret of\nthat European power which had so cruelly crushed his ancestors.[72] But\non his return to Peru (1744 A.D.) his efforts only ended in his\ndestruction. But this did not prevent a certain Tupac Amarou, who was\ndescended from the Incas through a female line, from fomenting a\nrebellion in 1780, which it cost the Spaniards an effort to\nsuppress.[73] Later on, after the revolution that broke the bond of\nsubjection to Spain, this stubborn hostility of the Peruvians changed\nits character; but in 1867, Bustamente still tried to make capital out\nof the historical attachment of the natives to the Incas by declaring\nhimself their descendant. The opposition, however, had long lost all\nvestige of a religious character. The legend of Manco Capac, which is\nstill current amongst the people, has been euhemerized. It is now no\nmore than the story of a just and enlightened prince, the benefactor of\nthe country. The natives, it seems, are fond of playing a kind of drama,\nin which the trial and death of Atahualpa are represented. Superstitious\nto the last degree, they accept the practices of Catholicism with a\nsubmission that has in it more of a melancholy and hopeless resignation\nthan an ardent or trusting faith. The glorious age of the Incas is gone,\nand will never return, but it is still regretted.[74]\n\n\nII.\n\nAnd now it is high time that we examined that religion which was so\nclosely associated with the whole national life of Peru.\n\nFrom all that I have said already, you will easily understand that the\nSun has never been worshipped more directly or with more devotion than\nin Peru. It was he whom the Peruvians regarded as sovereign lord of the\nworld, king of the heaven and the earth. His Peruvian name was _Inti_,\n\"Light.\" The villages were usually built so as to look eastward, in\norder that the inhabitants might salute the supreme god as soon as he\nappeared in the morning. The most usual representation of him was a\ngolden disk representing a human face surrounded by rays and flames. In\nPeru, as everywhere else, a feeling existed that there was a certain\nrelation between the substance of gold and that of the great luminary.\nIn the nuggets torn from the mountain sides they thought they saw the\nSun's tears.[75] The great periodic fetes of the year, the imperial and\nnational festivals in which every one took part, were those held in\nhonour of the Sun.\n\nImmediately after him came his sister and consort the Moon, Mama Quilla.\nHer image was a disk of silver bearing human features, and silver played\nthe same part in her worship that gold did in that of the Sun. It\nappears, however, that they performed fewer sacrifices to her than to\nher august consort, which is quite in harmony with the inferior position\nassigned to woman in the Peruvian civilization.[76] Like Selene amongst\nthe Greeks, Mama Quilla, and her incarnation in human form, Mama Ogllo,\nwere weavers. And that is why the latter was said to have taught the\nPeruvian women the art of spinning and weaving. This is a mythological\nconception suggested by likening the moonbeams to twisted threads, out\nof which on fair clear nights the brilliant verdure in which the earth\nis clad is spun.\n\nBut before going on to the gods who form the usual retinue of these two\nofficial and imperial deities, I must speak of two great Peruvian gods\nwhose worship was likewise widely spread, but who nevertheless are not\nattached to the solar family, or at least are only so attached by an\nafter-thought and by dint of harmonizing efforts which the Incas had\ntheir motives of policy for favouring: I mean the two great deities,\n_Viracocha_ and _Pachacamac_.\n\nThe myth of Viracocha is the first instance we shall cite of traces of a\ncertain civilization prior to the Incas, or at any rate of a belief\nwidely spread in some parts of Peru that civilization had not really\nbeen, as the legend of the Incas would have it, the sole work of that\nsacerdotal family. The name of Viracocha must be very ancient, for it\nbecame a generic name to signify divine beings. It was given to Manco\nCapac himself as a title of honour, and the Spaniards on their arrival\npassed as _Viracochas_ in the eyes of the people. This name, according\nto Spanish authorities, followed by Prescott,[77] signifies _Foam of the\nsea_ or of the _lake_. This would make the deity a male Aphrodite. He\nwas represented with a long beard, and human victims were sacrificed to\nhim. At the same time, they said that he had neither flesh nor bone,\nthat he ran swiftly, and that he lowered mountains and lifted up\nvalleys. The following legend was told of him.[78]\n\nThere were men on the earth before the Sun appeared, and the temples of\nViracocha, for instance, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, are older than\nthe Sun. One day Viracocha rose out of the lake. He made the sun, the\nmoon, the stars, and prescribed their course for them. Then he made\nstone statues, put life into them, and commanded them to go out of the\ncaverns in which he had made them and follow him to Cuzco. There he\nsummoned the inhabitants, and set a man over them called Allca Vica, who\nwas the common ancestor of the Incas. Then he departed and disappeared\nin the water.\n\nEvidently this myth belongs to a different body of tradition from that\nof the Incas. When it says that the earth was peopled before the Sun\nappeared, it is only a mythical way of asserting that there were men and\neven cities in Peru before the establishment of Sun-worship by the\nIncas. Now the latter claimed direct descent from the Sun, the supreme\ngod, and they would not have readily allowed that this supreme deity had\nbeen made by another. One is rather tempted to find in this myth the\necho of the claims put forward with equal resignation and persistency by\na priesthood of Viracocha, that bowed its head before the supremacy\nacquired by the solar priesthood, but insisted all the same upon the\nfact that it was itself its elder brother.\n\nBut to what element can we affiliate the god Viracocha himself?\n\nHis aquatic name, _Foam of the sea_ or _lake_, in itself leads us to\nsuppose that he was closely related to the water. The supposition is\nconfirmed by the saying that he had neither flesh nor bone, and yet ran\nswiftly. We can understand, too, why he lowers mountains and raises\nvalleys. He rises from the water and disappears in it. He is bearded,\nlike all aquatic gods, with their fringes of reeds. Finally, his consort\nand sister Cocha is the lake itself, and also the goddess of rain. An\nold Peruvian hymn that was chanted under the Incas, and has fortunately\nbeen preserved, raises the character we have assigned to Viracocha\nabove all doubt.[79] The goddess Cocha is represented as carrying an urn\nfull of water and snow on her head. Her brother Viracocha breaks the\nurn, that its contents may spread over the earth. Here is the hymn,\nwhich is composed in nineteen short verses or lines:\n\n 1. Fair Princess,\n 3. Thy urn\n 2. Thy brother\n 4. Shatters.\n 5. At the blow\n 6. It thunders, lightens\n 7. Flashes;\n 8. But thou, Princess,\n 10. Rainest down\n 9. Thy waters.\n 11. At the same time\n 12. Hailest,\n 13. Snowest.\n 14. World-former,\n 15. World-animator,\n 16. Viracocha,\n 17. To this office\n 18. Thee has destined,\n 19. Consecrated.\n\nIt admits of no doubt, therefore, that Viracocha held a place in the\nPeruvian Pantheon closely analogous to that of Tlaloc, the rain-god, in\nits Mexican counterpart. The blow with which he breaks his sister's urn\nis the thunder-stroke. Inasmuch as rain is a fertilizing agent,\nViracocha represents its generative force. His resemblance to Tlaloc\nextends to his demand for human victims, in which he is less ferociously\ninsatiable, but quite as pronounced, as his Mexican analogue. Since his\nlegend makes him rise out of the Lake of Titicaca, we must think of him\nas the chief god of the religion in honour before that of the Incas rose\nto supremacy. When it is said that after accomplishing his task he\ndisappeared, we are reminded that the river Desaguadero, which carries\noff the waters of Lake Titicaca, sinks into the earth and is lost to\nsight.\n\nBut there was yet another great deity whose pretensions the Incas had\nallowed by making room for him in the official religion, although he\nreally belonged to a totally different group of mythical formations: I\nrefer to Pachacamac, whose name signifies \"animator of the earth,\" from\n_caman_, \"to animate,\" and _pacha_, \"earth.\"[80] The primitive centre of\nhis worship was in the valley of Lurin, south of Lima, as well as in\nthat valley of Rimac which has given its name to the city of Lima\nitself, for the latter is but a transformation of _Rimac_. It was there\nthat Pachacamac's colossal temple rose. It was left standing by the\nIncas, but is now in ruins.[81] The branch of the Yuncas who resided\nthere were already possessed of a certain civilization when the Inca\nPachacutec annexed their country, at the close of the fourteenth\ncentury, partly by persuasion and partly by terror. Pachacamac was the\ndivine civilizer who had taught this people the arts and crafts.[82] It\nwould even seem that he had supplanted a still more ancient worship of\nViracocha in these same valleys, for it is said that the latter was\nworsted in war by him and put to flight, upon which the new god renewed\nthe world by changing the people he found on the earth into jaguars and\nmonkeys, and creating a new and higher race. This opposition to\nViracocha, god of the waters, puts us on the traces of Pachacamac's\noriginal significance. He must have been a god of fire, and especially\nof the internal fire of the earth, which displays itself in the volcanos\nand warms the spirit of man. He was a kind of Peruvian Dionysus. There\nwas something gloomy and violent about his worship. He demanded human\nvictims. The valley of Rimac really means the valley of the _Speaker_,\nof him who answers when questioned. There was a kind of oracle inspired\nby the god of internal fire there. A certain feeling of mystery, as\nthough in Pachacamac they had to do with a god less visible, less\npalpable, more spiritual than the rest, seems to have impressed itself\nupon his Peruvian worshippers. Garcilasso, who perhaps exaggerates a\nlittle, here as elsewhere, goes near to making him a god who could only\nbe adored in the heart, without temple and without sacrifices.[83]\n\nThus, if the myth of Viracocha, god of the waters, makes the stars and\nthe earth rise out of the moist element which he has fertilized and\norganized, the myth of Pachacamac makes him a kind of demiurge working\nwithin to form the world and enlighten mankind. I need not stay to point\nout what close analogies these two conceptions find in several of the\ncosmogonies of the Old World.\n\nThis confusion and rivalry of the Peruvian gods has left its traces in\nthe crude and obscure legend of the Collas, or mountaineers of Pacari\nTambo, to the south-west of Cuzco. \"From the caves of Pacari Tambo (i.e.\n'the house of the dawn') issued one day four brothers and four sisters.\nThe eldest ascended a mountain, and flung stones towards the four\ncardinal points, which was his way of taking possession of all the land.\nThis aroused the displeasure of the other three. The youngest of all was\nthe cunningest, and he resolved to get rid of his three brothers and\nreign alone. He persuaded his eldest brother to enter a cave, and as\nsoon as he had done so closed the mouth with an enormous stone, and\nimprisoned him there for ever.\" This seems to refer to the\nquasi-subterranean cultus of Pachacamac, the internal fire, the first\nrevelation of whom must have been a volcano hurling stones in every\ndirection.--\"The youngest brother then persuaded the second to ascend a\nhigh mountain with him, to seek their lost brother, and when they stood\non the summit he hurled him down the precipice and changed him into a\nstone by a spell.\" I cannot say to what special deity this part of the\nlegend alludes, unless it simply refers to an ancient worship of stones\nor rocks, many vestiges of which remained under the Incas, though it\nceased to have any official importance in presence of the radiant\nworship of the Sun promulgated and favoured by the ruling family.--\"Then\nthe third brother fled in terror.\" This fleeing god must be Viracocha,\nthe god of showers, who flees before the Sun.--\"Then the youngest\nbrother built Cuzco, caused himself to be adored as child of the Sun\nunder the name of Pirrhua Manco, and likewise built other cities on the\nsame model.\"[84]\n\nThis last trait puts it out of doubt that the legend is really an\nattempt to explain how the religion of Manco Capac established at Cuzco\nhad succeeded in eclipsing all others, owing to the superior skill of\nits priesthood. It is a formal confirmation of all that I have told you\nof the consummate art with which the Incas gradually extended the circle\nof their political and religious dominion. _Pirrhua_ is the contraction\nof Viracocha, taken in the generic sense of \"divine being.\" Pirrhua\nManco was an alternative name of Manco Capac.\n\nOf course this legend was not officially received under the Incas. The\nlatter, being unable or unwilling to abolish the worship of Viracocha\nand of Pachacamac, took up a far more conciliatory attitude than that of\nthe legends I have given. The supreme god, the Sun, was admitted to have\nhad three sons, Kon or Viracocha, Pachacamac and Manco Capac; but the\nlatter was declared to have been quite specially designed by the common\nfather to instruct and govern men. By this arrangement every one was\nsatisfied,--and especially the Incas.\n\n\nIII.\n\nWe may now return to the other deities who were officially incorporated\nin the family or retinue of the Sun.\n\nThe rainbow, _Cuycha_, was the object of great veneration as the servant\nof the Sun and Moon. He had his chapel contiguous with the temple of the\nSun, and his image was made of plates of gold of various shades, which\ncovered a whole wall of the edifice. When a rainbow appeared in the\nclouds, the Peruvian closed his mouth for fear of having all his teeth\nspoilt.[85]\n\nThe planet Venus, _Chasca_ or the \"long-haired star,\" so called from its\nextraordinary radiance, was looked upon as a male being and as the page\nof the Sun, sometimes preceding and sometimes following his master. The\nPleiades were next most venerated. Comets foreboded the wrath of the\ngods. The other stars were the Moon's maids of honour.[86]\n\nThe worship of the elements, too, held a prominent place in this\ncomplicated system of nature-worship. For example, Fire, considered as\nderived from the Sun, was the object of profound veneration, and the\nworship rendered it must have served admirably as a link between the\nreligion of the Incas and that of Pachacamac. Strange as it may seem at\nfirst sight, the symbols of fire were stones. But our surprise will\ncease when we remember that stones were thought, in a high antiquity, to\nbe animated by the fire that was supposed to be shut up within them,\nsince it could be made to issue forth by a sharp blow. The Peruvian\nreligion likewise adds its testimony to that of all the religions of the\nOld World, as to the importance which long attached to the preservation\namongst the tribes of men of that living fire which it was so difficult\nto recover if once it had been allowed to escape. A perpetual fire\nburned in the temple of the Sun and in the abode of the Virgins of the\nSun, of whom we shall have to speak presently. The wide-spread idea that\nfire becomes polluted at last and loses its divine virtue by too long\ncontact with men, meets us once more. The fire must be renewed from\ntime to time, and this act was performed yearly by the chief-priest of\nPeru, who kindled wood by means of a concave golden mirror. This miracle\nis very easy for us to explain, but we cannot doubt that the priests and\npeople of Peru saw something supernatural in the phenomenon.[87]\n\nThe thunder, likewise, was personified and adored in certain provinces\nunder the name of _Catequil_, but it is a peculiarity of the Peruvian\nreligion that it assigns a subordinate rank in the hierarchy to the god\nof thunder, who elsewhere generally takes the supreme place. In Peru, he\nwas but one of the Sun's servants, though the most redoubtable of them\nall. The Peruvians are remarkable for their childish dread of thunder. A\ngreat projecting rock, often one that had been struck by the thunder,\npassed for the deity's favoured residence. Catequil appears in three\nforms: _Chuquilla_ (thunder), _Catuilla_ (lightning), and _Intiallapa_\n(thunderbolt). His remaining name, _Illapa_, also means thunder. He had\nspecial temples, in which he was represented as armed with a sling and a\nclub.[88] They sacrificed children, but more especially llamas, to him.\nTwins were regarded as children of the lightning, and if they died young\ntheir skeletons were preserved as precious relics. And, finally, we find\nin Peru the same idea that prevails in a great part of southern Africa,\nviz. that a house or field that has been struck by lightning cannot be\nused again. Catequil has taken possession of it, and it would be\ndangerous to dispute it with him.[89]\n\nWe have seen how the element of water was adored under the names of\nViracocha and his sister Mama Cocha. The earth was worshipped in grottos\nor caves, often considered as the places whence men and gods had taken\ntheir origin, and as giving oracles.[90] There were also trees and\nplants that were clothed with a divine character, especially the\nesculent plants, such as the maize, personified as _Zarap Conopa_, and\nthe potato, as _Papap Conopa_. A female statue was often made of maize\nor coca leaves, and adored as the mother of plants.[91]\n\nThus we descend quite gently from the official heights of the religion\nof the Incas towards those substrata of religious thought which always\nmaintain themselves beneath the higher religion that more or less\nexpressly patronizes them, but to which they are not really bound by any\nnecessary tie. They are the survivals of old superstitions, to which the\ncommon people are often far more attached than they are to the exalted\ndoctrines which they are taught officially. And it is thus, for example,\nthat we note in Peru the very popular worship of numerous animals,\nmounting, without doubt, to a much higher antiquity than was reached by\nthe religion of the Incas. Indeed, I should be inclined to ascribe to\nthe religious diplomacy of the children of the Sun the Peruvian belief\nwhich established a connection of origin between each kind of animal and\na particular star. The serpent, especially, seems to have been, in Peru\nas in Africa, the object of great veneration. We find it reproduced in\nwood and stone on an enormous number of the greater and smaller relics\nof Peruvian art. The god of subterranean treasures, _Urcaguay_, was a\ngreat serpent, with little chains of gold at his tail, and a head\nadorned with stag-like horns. The dwellers by the shore worshipped the\nwhale and the shark. There were fish-gods, too, in the temple of\nPachacamac, no doubt because of the enormous power of reproduction\npossessed by fishes. The condor was a messenger of the Sun, and his\nimage was graven on the sceptre of the Incas.[92] It is remarkable that\nthe llama does not appear amongst these divine animals, probably because\nit was so completely domesticated and wholly subject to man.\n\nAnd finally, when we come to the _Guacas_, or _Huacas_, we reach the\npoint where the Peruvian religion sinks into absolute fetichism.\n\nThe meaning of the word _Guaca_, or _Huaca_, was not very precise in the\nmouths of the Peruvians themselves. On the one hand, it was applied to\neverything that bore a religious character, whether an object of\nworship, the person of the priests, a temple, a tomb, or what not. The\nSun himself was _Huaca_. The chief priest of Cuzco bore amongst other\nnames that of _Huacapvillac_, \"he who converses with huaca beings.\"[93]\nOn the other hand, in ordinary language, this same term was used to\nsignify those wood, stone and metal objects which were so abundant in\nPeru, of which we still possess numerous specimens, and of which we must\nnow say a few words. Some of these huacas, especially the stone ones,\nwere of considerable size, and no doubt dated from the pre-historic\nreligion before the Incas. But as a rule they were small and portable,\nwere private and hereditary property, and were regarded as veritable\nfetiches, that is to say, as the dwelling-places of spirits. Animism, in\nfact, never ceased to haunt the imaginations of the Peruvians,\nespecially amongst the lower orders, whether the spirits were dreaded as\nmalevolent sprites, or courted as protectors and revealers. These huacas\nrepresented (as true fetiches should) forms which were sometimes\nanimal, sometimes human, sometimes simply grotesque, but always ugly and\nexaggerated. Every valley, every tribe, every temple, every chief, had a\nguardian spirit. Those which were analogous to _paenates publici_ were\nrecognized by the Incas, who endowed them with flocks and various\npresents. Often a stone in the middle of the village passed as the abode\nof the patron spirit of the place. It was the _huacacoal_, the stone of\nthe huaca, whereas the huacas of the family or house were distinguished\nas _conopas_. Meteorites or thunderbolts were in great demand as huacas,\nand especially amongst lovers, since they were supposed to inspire a\nreciprocity of affection. The Christian missionaries had more difficulty\nin rooting out the worship of the Huacas than in abolishing that of the\nSun and Moon, and we may still detect numerous traces of this ancient\nsuperstition amongst the natives of Peru.[94]\n\n\nIV.\n\nLet us now turn to the priesthood which presided over the worship of\nthese numerous deities.\n\nThere was no sacerdotal caste in Peru, or, to speak more correctly, the\nInca family constituted the only sacerdotal caste in the strict sense of\nthe word. This family retained for itself all the highest positions in\nthe priesthood, as well as in the army and administration. These priests\nof the higher rank bore special garments and insignia, while the lower\nclergy wore the ordinary costume. At the head of all the priests of the\nempire, first after the reigning Inca, stood the _Villac Oumau_, \"the\nchief sacrificer,\" also, as we have seen, called the _Huacapvillac_. He\nwas nominated by the reigning Inca, and in his turn nominated all his\nsubordinates. His name indicates that he was the living oracle, the\ninterpreter of the will of the Sun. You can understand, therefore, how\nimportant it was for the policy of the Incas that he should himself be\nsubject to the authority and discretion of the sovereign. After him came\nthe rest of the chief priests, also members of the Inca family, whom he\nput in charge of the provincial temples of the Sun. At Cuzco itself all\nthe priests had to be Incas. They were divided into squadrons, which\nattended in succession, according to the quarters of the moon, to the\nelaborate ritual of the service. And here we must admire the consummate\nart with which the Incas had planned everything in their empire to\nsecure their supremacy against all attaint, in religion as in all else,\nwhile still leaving the successively annexed populations a certain\nmeasure of religious freedom. In the provinces, the Inca family,\nnumerous as it was, could not have provided priests for all the\nsanctuaries; and, moreover, there would be local rites, traditions,\nperhaps even priesthoods, which could not well be fitted into the\nframework of the official religion. The Incas therefore had decided that\nthe priests of the local deities should be affiliated to the imperial\npriesthood, but in such a way that the chief priests of the local\ndeities should at the same time be subordinate priests of the deities of\nthe empire. What a wonderful stroke of political genius! What happier\nmethod could have been found of teaching the subject populations, while\nstill maintaining their traditional forms of worship, to regard the\nimperial cultus patronized by the reigning Inca as superior to all\nothers? And what an invaluable guarantee of obedience was obtained by\nthis association of the non-Inca priests with the official priesthood,\nthe honours and advantages of which they were thus made to share,\nwithout any room for an aspiration after independence! I regard this\norganization of the priesthood in ancient Peru as one of the most\nstriking proofs of the political genius of the Incas, and as one of the\nfacts which best explain how a theocracy, which was after all based on\nthe absolute and exclusive pretensions of one special mythology, was\nable to consolidate itself and endure for centuries, while exercising a\nlarge toleration towards other traditions and forms of worship.[95]\n\nBy the side of the priests there were also priestesses; and they were\nclothed with a very special function. I refer to those _Virgins of the\nSun_ (_acllia_ = chosen ones), those Peruvian nuns, who so much\nimpressed the early historians of Peru. There were convents of these\nVirgins at Cuzco and in the chief cities of the empire. At Cuzco there\nwere five hundred of them, drawn for the most part from the families of\nthe Incas and the _Curacas_ or nobles, although (for a reason which will\nbe apparent presently) great beauty gave even a daughter of the people a\nsufficient title to enter the sacred abode. They had a lady president--I\nhad almost said a \"mother abbess\"--who selected them while yet quite\nyoung; and under her superior direction, matrons, or _Mamaconas_,\nsuperintended the young flock. They lived encloistered, in absolute\nretreat, without any relationship with the outside world. Only the\nreigning Inca, his chief wife, the _Coya_, and the chief priest, were\nallowed to penetrate this sanctuary of the virgins. Now these visits of\nthe Inca's were not exactly disinterested. The fact is, that it was here\nhe generally looked for recruits for his harem. You will ask how that\ncould be reconciled with the vow of chastity which the maidens had\ntaken; but their promise had been never to take any consort except the\nSun, or _him to whom the Sun should give them_. Now the Inca, the child\nof the Sun, his representative and incarnation upon earth, began by\nassigning the most beautiful to himself, after which he might give some\nof those who had not found special favour in his eyes to his Curacas.\nAnd thus the vow was kept intact. In other respects, the most absolute\nchastity was sternly enforced. If any nun violated her vow, or was\nunhappy enough to allow the sacred fire that burned day and night in the\naustere abode to be extinguished, the penalty was death. And the strange\nthing is, that the mode of death was identical with that which awaited\nthe Roman vestal guilty of the same offences. The culprit was buried\nalive. This illustrates the value of the theories started by those\nauthors who can never discover any resemblance of rites or beliefs\nbetween two peoples without forthwith setting about to inquire which of\nthe two borrowed from the other! It will hardly be maintained that the\nPeruvians borrowed this cruel custom from the ancient Romans, and\nassuredly the Romans did not get it from Peru. Whence, then, can the\nresemblance spring? From the same train of ideas leading to the same\nconclusion. By the sacrilege of the culprit, the gods of heaven and of\nlight, the protecting and benevolent deities, were offended and\nincensed, and the whole country would feel the tokens of their wrath. To\ndisarm their anger, its unhappy cause must expiate her guilt, and at the\nsame time must be removed from their sight and given over to the powers\nof darkness, for she was no longer worthy to see the light. And that is\nwhy the dark tomb must swallow her. She had betrayed her spouse the\nSun--let her henceforth be the spouse and the slave of darkness; and let\nher be sent alive to those dark powers, that they might do with her as\nthey would. We must add that the guilty nun's accomplice was strangled,\nand that her whole family from first to last was put to death.\n\nThe ordinary occupations of the Virgins of the Sun consisted in making\ngarments for the members of the imperial family and tapestries destined\nto adorn the temples and palaces, in kneading and baking the sacred\nloaves, preparing the sacred drinks, and, finally, in watching and\nfeeding the sacred fire. You perceive that it was not exactly the\nascetic principle which had given rise to these convents--as in the\ncase of the Buddhist and Christian institutions, for example--but rather\nthe desire to do honour to the Sun, the supreme god, by consecrating\nseraglios to him, in which his numerous consorts, protected by a severe\nrule, could be kept from all except himself and those to whom he might\ngive them; accomplishing, meanwhile, those menial tasks which,\nespecially under the rule of polygamy, woman is required to perform in\nthe abode of her lord and master.[96]\n\nAll this shows us once more, Gentlemen, how the same fundamental logic\nof the human mind asserts itself across a thousand diversities, and\nre-appears under every conceivable form in every climate and every race.\nOnly let us look close enough and with the requisite information, and we\nshall find in every case that all is explained, that all holds together,\nthat all is justified, by some underlying principle, and that \"that\nidiot of a word,\" _chance_, is never anything but a veil for our\nignorance. And thus, when we notice anything paradoxical, grotesque, and\nunexplained by the resources we command at present, we must be very\ncareful not to pronounce it inexplicable. We should rather suspend our\njudgment, wait till wider reflection and renewed investigation have\nshown us the middle terms, and meanwhile keep silence rather than\nattribute to chance or to influences which escape all human reason the\nphenomena that seem abnormal.\n\nFor instance, you have heard sometimes of the strange custom in\naccordance with which the father of a new-born child goes to bed and is\nnursed as an invalid. You are perhaps aware that this custom, that\nappears so strange to us and is now restricted to a few savage tribes,\nwas noted in ancient times in Europe itself, and has been preserved\nalmost to our own time in certain cantons of the Pyrenees. It must\ntherefore have been extremely wide-spread. Yet for a long time it seemed\ninexplicable. But now, thanks to investigations and comparisons, the\nexplanation has been found. There is no doubt that the custom in\nquestion rested on the idea that there was a close solidarity between\nthe health of the father and that of the new-born babe, so that if the\nfather should fall sick, his far weaker child would die. The father,\ntherefore, must be guarded from all over-exertion, must abstain from all\nexcess--in short, was best in bed!\n\nSo, too, in the present case. How are we to explain the resemblance\nbetween the treatment of the Vestals at Rome and the Virgins of the Sun\nat Cuzco? It was once impossible, but now that we are better acquainted\nwith the genesis, the spirit, the inner logic of the primitive\nreligions, and the modes of life, the wants and the apprehensions proper\nto the pre-historic ages, we have no difficulty in attaching two\nparallel customs to a single religious principle which had found\nacceptance alike in Italy and Peru. And this is one of the chief tasks,\nand one of the greatest charms, of the branch of study which I have the\nhonour of professing. It shows us that even in human error, human reason\nhas never abdicated its throne.\n\nWe have still to speak of the temples, the ritual and the chief\nfestivals of ancient Peru. To these subjects we shall devote the first\npart of our sixth and last Lecture, reserving the closing portion for\nthe conclusions and the general lessons suggested by our two-fold study\nof Mexico and Peru.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE VI.\n\nPERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE\nLIFE.--CONCLUSIONS.\n\n\nLADIES AND GENTLEMEN,\n\nTo complete my account of the native religion of Peru, I have still to\nspeak of the cultus, the festivals, the religious ethics, and the ideas\nof a future life.\n\n\nI.\n\nThe Peruvian cultus had given birth to the _temple;_ and, indeed, it is\nhighly interesting to witness what one may call the \"genesis of the\ntemple\" on this soil, so different from those of the Old World. There\nwere temples, indeed, before the Incas, but they differed both in style\nand in signification from those reared under their patronage. In Peru,\nas in Mexico, the temples were originally neither more nor less than\nextremely lofty altars; that is to say, artificial elevations, on the\nsummit of which the sacrifices were presented, while a little chapel\nserved to contain the image of the god or gods adored. Round this great\naltar were grouped other chapels, galleries and columns, as though to\naccompany the great central altar formed by the eminence itself. Under\nthe Incas, the crowning chapel increased so enormously that it encircled\nthe altar and became the essential part of the sacred structure. The\nInca temples were veritable palaces, destined as abodes for the gods.\nNone of them remain; but their ruins attest the fact that the architects\naimed rather at colossal than at beautiful effects. They contained\ngigantic stone statues, gates cut out of monoliths, and the well-known\npyramidal structures of which we have spoken already. The most imposing\nof the temples was the one at Cuzco, which consisted in a vast central\nedifice, flanked with a number of adjacent buildings. Gold was so\nprodigally lavished on its interior that it bore the name of\n_Coricancha,_ that is to say, \"the place of gold.\" The roof was formed\nby timber-work of precious woods plated with gold, but was covered, as\nin the case of all the houses of the land, with a simple thatch of maize\nstraw. The doors opened to the East, and at the far end, above the\naltar, was the golden disk of the Sun, placed so as to reflect the first\nrays of the morning on its brilliant surface, and, as it were, reproduce\nthe great luminary. And note that the mummies of the departed Incas,\nchildren of the Sun, were ranged in a semicircle round the sacred disk\non golden thrones, so that the morning rays came day by day to shine on\ntheir august remains. The adjacent buildings were abodes of the deities\nwho formed the retinue of the Sun. The principal one was sacred to the\nMoon, his consort, who had her disk of silver, and ranged around her the\nancient queens, the departed _Coyas_. Others served as the abodes of\nChaska, our planet Venus, the Pleiades, the Thunder, the Rainbow, and\nfinally the officiating priests of the temple. In the provinces, the\nIncas reared a number of temples of the Sun on the model of that at\nCuzco, but on a smaller scale.[97]\n\nThe Incas, however, had been anticipated in this striking development of\nthe temple by the religions anterior or adjacent to their own. Witness\nthe great temple of Pachacamac, which they left standing in the valley\nof Lurin, and the remarkable ruins of another great temple situated at\nsome miles distance from Lake Titicaca, which has quite recently been\nmade the subject of a careful reconstructive study by your compatriot\nMr. Inwards.[98]\n\nThe offerings presented to the gods were very varied in kind. Flowers,\nfragrant incense, especially from preparations of coca, vegetables,\nfruits, maize, prepared drinks offered in cups of gold. At some of the\nfeasts the officiating priest moistened the tips of his fingers in the\ncup and flung the drops towards the Sun. We also find in Peru a very\nspecial form of that remnant of self-immolation which enters, in more or\nless reduced and restricted shape, into the devotions of so many peoples\nand assumes such varied forms. The Red-skin offers his sweat; the Black\noffers his saliva or his teeth; the more poetical Greek, a lock of his\nhair, or even all of it. The Peruvian pulled out a hair from his eyebrow\nand blew it towards the idol![99]\n\nBut there were also sacrifices of blood. A llama was sacrificed every\nday at Cuzco. Before setting out on war, the Peruvians sacrificed a\nblack llama that they had previously kept fasting, that the heart of\ntheir enemies might fail as did his. This was the Peruvian application\nof the principle that lies at the base of all those superstitious\nceremonies intended to provoke or stimulate a desired effect by\nreproducing its analogue in advance. Small birds, rabbits, and, for the\nhealth of the Inca, black dogs, were also sacrificed frequently. All\nthese offerings were as a rule burned, that they might so be transmitted\nto the gods.[100] It should be noted that they only sacrificed edible\nanimals,[101] which is a clear proof that the intention was to feed the\ngods. The sacrificing priest turned the animal's eyes towards the Sun,\nand opened its body to take out its heart, lungs and viscera, and offer\nthem to the idols. It is a characteristic fact that when the victim was\nnot burned, its flesh was divided amongst the sacrificers and _eaten\nraw_. The Peruvians had long learned to cook their meat, but this rite\ncarries us back to a high antiquity, when cooking food was still an\ninnovation which the power of tradition excluded from the ritual. It is\nto analogous causes that we must attribute the continued use of stone\ninstruments in the religious ceremonies of peoples who are acquainted\nwith iron and use it in ordinary life. In conclusion, they smeared the\nidols and the doors of the temples with the blood of the victims in\norder to appease the gods.[102]\n\nAll this is sufficiently crude and material, and rests upon the same\npremisses as those which drove the Mexicans to the frightful excesses\nwhich I have previously described. But humanity was far less outraged\nin the Peruvian than in the Mexican religion. Garcilasso deceives\nhimself, or is attempting to deceive his readers, when he gives his\nancestors, the Incas, the honour of having put an end to human\nsacrifices.[103] It is certain that in the religion of Pachacamac more\nespecially this kind of sacrifice was frequent, and for that matter we\nknow that it was universal in the primitive epochs. All that we can\nallow to the descendant of the Incas is, that they did not encourage,\nand were rather disposed to restrain, human sacrifice. But for all that,\nwhen the reigning Inca was ill, they sacrificed one of his sons to the\nSun, and prayed him to accept the substitution of the son for the\nfather. At certain feasts a young infant was immolated. Others were\nsacrificed to the subterranean spirits when a new Inca was enthroned. To\nthe same category we must attach the custom which enjoined upon wives,\nespecially those of the Incas, the duty of burying themselves alive on\nthe death of their husbands. It is asserted that when Huayna Capac\ndied, a thousand members of his household incurred a voluntary death\nthat they might go with him to serve him. The widows, however, were not\ncompelled to take this step, and we know that the Incas had organized\nthe support of widows without resources. But public opinion was not\nfavourable to those who refused to follow their husbands to the tomb. It\nwas regarded as a species of infidelity.[104] We see, however, from\nother well-established facts, that the Peruvian religion had been\ngradually softened. In Peru, as in China, instead of the living beings\nthat they used formerly to bury with the dead, they now placed\nstatuettes of men and women with him in his tomb to represent his wives\nand his servants.[105]\n\nWe must also mention those \"columns of the Sun\" which appear never to\nhave been absent in countries dominated by a solar worship. We have\nalready seen them in Central America and in Mexico, and we also find\nthem in Egypt, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Palestine, at Carthage and\nelsewhere. In these columns the idea of fertilization is associated with\nthat of the pleasure the Sun must feel in tracing out their shadows as\nhe caresses their faces and summits with his rays. The earliest\nquadrants were traced at the foot of these columns. In Peru, they were\nlevelled at the top, and were regarded as \"seats of the Sun,\" who loved\nto rest upon them. At the equinoxes and solstices they placed golden\nthrones upon them for him to sit upon. Those nearest to the equator were\nheld in greatest veneration, because the shadows were shorter there than\nelsewhere, and the Sun appeared to rest vertically upon them.[106]\n\nPrayer, in the proper sense of the word, asserted its place but feebly\nin the Peruvian religion. But hymns to the Sun were chanted at the great\nfestivals and by the people as they went to cultivate the lands of the\nSun. Every strophe ended with the cry, _Hailly_, or \"triumph.\" It was\nthe Peruvian _Io Paean_. These chants, as far as they are still known to\nus, have something soft and sad about them. The rule of the Incas,\npaternal indeed, but monotonous in the extreme, must have tended to\nproduce melancholy. In 1555, a Spanish composer wrote a mass upon the\nthemes of these indigenous airs. It was sung in chorus, and it is\nchiefly to it that we owe the preservation of these chants.[107]\n\nBut the grand form of religious demonstration among the Peruvians was\nthe dance. They were very assiduous in this form of devotion, and indeed\nwe know what a large place the earliest of the arts occupied in the\nprimitive religions generally. The dance was the first and chief means\nadopted by pre-historic humanity of entering into active union with the\ndeity adored. The first idea was to imitate the measured movements of\nthe god, or at any rate what were supposed to be such. Afterwards, this\nfundamental motive was more or less forgotten; but the rite remained in\nforce, like so many other religious forms which tradition and habit\nsustained even when the spirit was gone. In Peru, this tradition was\nstill full of life. The name of the principal Peruvian festivals,\n_Raymi_, signifies \"dance.\" The performances were so animated, that the\ndancers seemed to the Europeans to be out of their senses. It is\nnoteworthy that the Incas themselves took no part in these violent\ndances, but had an \"Incas' dance\" of their own, which was grave and\nmeasured.[108]\n\nThere were four great official festivals in the year, coinciding with\nthe equinoxes and the solstices. The first was the festival of the\nWinter solstice, which fell in June. It was the _Raymi_, or festival\n_par excellence_, the _Citoc Raymi_, the feast of the diminished and\n(henceforth) growing Sun. It lasted nine days, the first three of which\nwere given up to fasting. On the morning of the great day, a grand\nprocession, led by the reigning Inca and his family, followed by the\nnobles and the people, proceeded, with insignia, banners and symbolic\nmasks, towards the place of the dawn and the rising Sun. When the\nluminary appeared, the crowd fell to the earth and threw him kisses. The\nInca presented the sacred beverage to the Sun, drank some of it himself,\nand passed it on to his suite. This was a sort of solar communion. Then\nthey went to the temple of the Sun to sacrifice a black llama there.\nAfter this, they kindled the new fire by means of the concave mirror,\nand slaughtered a number of llamas, representing the Sun's present to\nthe people. The pieces were distributed to the families, where they were\neaten with the sacred cakes prepared by the Virgins of the Sun. This was\nthe second act of communion with the luminary to whom the day was\nsacred. The remaining days of the festival were passed in rejoicings,\nwhen the people seem to have made themselves ample amends for the fast\nwith which they had begun.[109]\n\nThe second great festival, that of Spring, which fell in September, was\nthe _Citua Raymi_, the feast of Purification. But do not attach any\nessentially moral significance to the idea of purification. The object\nin view was to purify the territory from all influences hostile to the\nhealth, security and prosperity of the inhabitants. Ball-shaped cakes\nwere eaten on this occasion, in which was mixed the blood of victims or\nof young children, who were not slaughtered however, but bled above the\nnose, which is evidence of a previous custom of far greater ferocity,\nand of the gradual softening of the Peruvian ritual. With this bread the\npeople rubbed their bodies all over, and the doors of their houses\nlikewise. Then, a little before sunset, a very strange ceremony was\nperformed. An Inca, clad in precious armour and lance in hand, descended\nfrom the fortress of Cuzco, followed by four relatives whom the Sun had\nspecially charged with the task of chasing away by open force all the\nmaladies from the city and its environs. They traversed the chief\nstreets of Cuzco at full speed, amid the acclamations of the\ninhabitants, and then surrendered their lances to others, who were\nrelieved in their turn, till the limits of the ancient state of Cuzco\nwere reached. There the lances were fixed in the ground, as so many\ntalismans against evil influences. At night there was a great\ntorch-light procession, at the close of which the torches were hurled\ninto the river, and thus the evil spirits of the night were expelled, as\nthose of the day had been by the lancers of the Sun.[110] Observe that\nin Africa, amongst the Blacks, a kind of \"chase of the evil spirits\" is\npractised (though accompanied with far fewer ceremonies than in Peru),\nin which the inhabitants of a village, armed with sticks and uttering\nformulae of exorcism, expel the evil spirits from their houses and from\ntheir streets, and pursue them into the desert or the interior of a\nforest. But notice here, again, with what art the Incas had contrived to\nturn an old superstition to account in the interests of their own\nprestige. If maladies did not decimate the people of Cuzco, it was to\ntheir Incas that they owed their safety.\n\nThe third great festival, the Aymorai, which fell in May, celebrated the\nHarvest. A statue was constructed out of grains of corn glued together,\nand was adored under the name of _Pirrhua_, which in this case may well\nbe a contraction of Viracocha, the god of fertilizing moisture. On this\noccasion a number of sacrifices were made at home by the\nhouseholders.[111]\n\nThe fourth great feast fell in December. It was the _Capac Raymi_, the\nfestival of Power, in which the god of thunder was the object of a\nspecial worship by the side of the Sun. On this occasion the young\nIncas, after fasts, tournaments and other tests, received the\ninvestiture of manhood by having their ears pierced, and receiving a\nscarf, an axe and a crown of flowers. The young Curacas of the same age\nwere also admitted to the privileges and duties of their rank, and\nshared with the Inca the sacred bread in token of indissoluble communion\nwith him.[112]\n\nThere were also a number of other and less important feasts. Each month\nhad one of its own. Then there were occasional feasts, to celebrate the\ntriumphal return of a victorious Inca for example, or when the\ntournaments of the young nobles, to which a religious value was\nattached, took place, or when silent processions lasting a day and\nnight, and followed by dances, were instituted to avert threatening\ncalamities, and so forth.[113] In Peru, as in so many other regions,\neclipses were the subject of great terror. The eclipses of the Sun were\nattributed to his own anger, those of the Moon to an illness caused by\nthe attack of an evil spirit, to frighten which away and put it to\nflight a hideous yelling was raised.[114]\n\nThere were sorcerers in Peru as everywhere else; but in Peru too, as\neverywhere else where a priesthood has acquired a regular organization\nand made its authority respected, sorcery was hardly resorted to save by\nthe lower classes.[115] In fact, the sorcerer is the priest of backward\ntribes, and the priest is the developed sorcerer. By his superior\nknowledge, by the more stable guarantees which he can give as the member\nof an imposing organization, by the nature of the religion of which he\nis the organ, and which raises him above the incoherent puerilities of\nanimism, the priest eclipses the sorcerer and relegates him to the lower\nstrata of society, which is just where his own titles to superiority are\nleast appreciated. The sorcerer sinks in proportion as the priest\nrises.[116] For the rest, the official priesthood had its own diviners,\nwho could foretel the future, the _Huacarimachi_, or \"they who make the\ngods speak.\" The oracles of the valley of Rimac or Lima were much\nfrequented; and, moreover, the Peruvians, like so many peoples of the\nOld World, thought that they could read the future in the entrails of\nthe victims offered in sacrifice.[117] This wide-spread belief rests on\nthe idea that immolation unites the victim so closely to the deity that\nit enters into communion with his thoughts and intentions, so that its\nheart, liver, and all other organs supposed to be affected by mental and\nmoral dispositions, receive the impress of the divine prevision. Is it\nnot passing strange, Gentlemen, that this mode of divination, which\nappears so absurd to us, which has no rational basis whatever, which\nrests on a singularly subtle conception of the relations between the\ncreature sacrificed and the being to whom it is offered, has secured the\nprolonged confidence of the peoples of the Old World, and appears again\nin Peru, where it cannot have been imitated from any one?\n\n\nII.\n\nIt has been asked whether the native religion of Peru rested any system\nof elevated morals on its fundamental principles. Gentlemen, I am\npersuaded that religion and morals unite together and interpenetrate\neach other in the higher regions of thought and life. Perhaps the most\ndistinct result of our Christian education is the full comprehension of\nthe fact that what is moral is religious, and that immorality cannot on\nany pretext be allowed as legitimately religious. But we must certainly\nyield to the overwhelming evidence that in the lower stages of religion\nthis union of the two sisters is present only in germ. Religion, still\nquite selfish in its character, pursues its own way and seeks its own\nsatisfactions independently of all moral considerations, and almost\nalways lives in a state of separation from morality. We ought therefore\nto expect that in systems such as that of Peru--which have already risen\nmuch above the low level of the primitive religions, but are still far\nbelow that of the higher ones--we should find a certain religious ethic,\na certain moral tendency in religion, but likewise all kinds of\ninconsistencies, and constant relapses towards the ancient separation of\nthe two sisters. As a general rule, we may say that even where the\nPeruvian religion seems to undertake the elevation and protection of\nmorals, it does so rather with a utilitarian and selfish view, than with\nany real purpose of sanctifying the heart and will.\n\nThus we have noted ceremonies which forcibly recal the Communion. But\nthe great object in view was to secure to the communicants the safety\nand well-being that would result from their union with the Sun or his\nrepresentatives. The moral idea occupies but a small place in this\ncommunion, though it is but right to add that the great social laws\nwere placed under the patronage and sanction of the Sun, whose\nlegislation the Incas were held responsible for enforcing. In the same\nway we find in Peru something that closely resembles baptism. From\nfifteen to twenty days after birth the child received its first name,\nafter being plunged into water. But this purification had nothing to do\nwith the ideas of sin and regeneration. It was but a form of exorcism,\ndestined to secure the child from the evil spirits and their malign\ninfluences. Between the ages of ten and twelve, the child's definitive\nname was conferred. On this occasion his hair and nails were cut off,\nand offered to the Sun and the guardian spirits.[118] This represented\nthe consecration of his person, but its main object was to secure him\nthe protection of the divine power.\n\nThere was likewise a sacerdotal confession, but it was an institution of\nstate and of police rather than a sacrament with a moral purpose. The\ngreat object was to discover all actions, whether voluntary or not,\nwhich might bring misfortune upon the state if not expiated by the\nappropriate penances and rites. The father confessors of Peru were\ninquisitors charged with the searching out of secret faults and the\nexaction of their avowal. A refusal to confess might provoke severe\nmeasures. A proof of the small influence of the moral element in the\nwhole system of inquisition may be found in the fact that the priest\nrelied on purely fortuitous tests in deciding whether or not to give\nabsolution. For instance, he would take a pinch of maize grains, and if\nthe number turned out to be even, he would declare the confession good,\nand give absolution, otherwise he would say the penitent must have\nconcealed something, and would make him confess again.[119]\n\nOur conviction that the Peruvian religion had but a very elementary\nmoral significance, receives a final confirmation from the beliefs\nconcerning the future life.\n\nIt is clear that no very definite ideas on this point had become\ngenerally established. In fact, we find amongst the Peruvians at the\ntime of the conquest the underlying conceptions of the most widely\nsevered peoples, all mingled together. Thus the common people of Peru,\nlike all savages, thought of the future life as a continuation, pure and\nsimple, of the present life. This explains the custom of burying all\nkinds of useful and desirable objects with the dead--giving him an\nemigrant's outfit, in short. The worship of ancestors is easily grafted\nupon this conception of the life beyond the grave. These ancestors may\nstill succour, protect and inspire their descendants. I am assured at\nfirst hand that to this very day, and in spite of the efforts of the\nCatholic clergy, the worship of ancestors is still widely practised by\nthe native population. There was not the least idea of a resurrection of\nthe body. If the corpse was preserved, especially in the case of\ndeparted Incas, it was because the Peruvians believed that the soul\nwhich had left it still retained a marked predilection for its ancient\nabode and liked to return to it from time to time; and also because they\nattributed magic virtues to the remains thus preserved. No idea of\nrecompense is as yet associated with this purely animistic and primitive\nconception of the life beyond the tomb.[120]\n\nAmongst the higher classes, the ideas entertained on this same subject\nhad become a little less naive. The Incas were supposed to be\ntransported to the mansion of the Sun, their father, where they still\nlived together as his family. The Curacas or nobles would either follow\nthem there, or would still live under the earth beneath the sceptre of\nthe god of the dead, Supay, the Hades or Pluto of the Peruvian\nmythology. Do not identify this deity with a Satan or Ahriman of any\nkind. He was not a wicked, but rather a sinister god, the conception of\nwhom could wake no joyous or even serene emotions. He was a voracious\ndeity, of insatiable appetite. At Quito, at any rate before the conquest\nof the country by the Incas, a hundred children were sacrificed to him\nevery year. There is no idea of positive suffering inflicted on the\nwicked under his direction. But the subterranean abode is gloomy and\ndismal, like the place of shades in the Odyssey. Exceptional\nconsiderations of birth, rank or valour in war, determine the passage of\nchosen souls to heaven, where their lot will of course be far more\nbrilliant and happy than that of the souls that remain in the\nsubterranean regions. Thus the aristocratic point of view, barely\nmodified by the high importance attributed to the warlike virtues, still\ndominates the ideas of a future life in ancient Peru, as in Mexico, in\nPolynesia and in Africa. This is a final proof that the moral element\nwas but feebly present in the ancient Peruvian religion. For wherever a\nclear and definite belief in a conscious life beyond the grave is united\nto a sense of the religious character of morality, it is likewise held,\nby an obvious connection of ideas, that the lot of departed souls will\ndepend completely upon their moral condition, without distinction of\nbirth or rank.[121]\n\nThis Peruvian religion, then, in spite of its elevation and refinement\nin some respects, forcibly reminds us of the walls of its own temples,\nall plated with gold, but covered in with straw, and poor and unvaried\nin architecture. A monotonous, unformed, gloomy spirit seems to pervade\nthe whole institution, in spite of its brilliant exterior. The air of\nthe convent broods over it. Those thousands of functionaries who spent\ntheir lives in superintending the furniture, the dress, the work, the\nvery cookery, of the families under their charge, and inflicting\ncorporal chastisement on those whom they surprised in a fault, might\nsucceed in forming a correct and regular society, drilled like the bees\nin a hive, might form a nation of submissive slaves, but could never\nmake a nation of _men_; and this is the deep cause that explains the\nirremediable collapse of this Peruvian society under the vigorous blows\nof a handful of unscrupulous Spaniards. It was a skilfully constructed\nmachine, which worked like a chronometer; but when once the mainspring\nwas broken, all was over.\n\nIt is no part of our task to tell the story of the conversion of the\nnatives to Roman Catholic Christianity. It was comparatively easily\neffected. The fall of the Incas was a mortal blow to the religious, no\nless than to the political, edifice in which they were the key-stone of\nthe arch. It was evident that the Sun had been unable or unwilling to\nprotect his children. The conqueror imposed his religion on Peru, as on\nMexico, by open force; and the Spanish Inquisition, though not giving\nrise to such numerous and terrible spectacles in the former as in the\nlatter country, yet carried out its work of terror and oppression there\ntoo. The result was that peculiar character of the Catholicism of the\nnatives of Peru which strikes every traveller, and consists in a kind of\ntimid and superstitious submission, without confidence and without zeal,\nassociated with the obstinate preservation of customs which mount back\nto the former religious regime, and with memories of the golden age of\nthe Inca rule under which their ancestors were privileged to live, but\nwhich has gone to return no more.\n\n\nIII.\n\nAnd now it only remains for us to draw the inferences and conclusions\nsuggested by our examination of the ancient religions of Mexico and\nPeru, so closely associated with the remarkable though imperfect\ncivilizations to which the two nations had attained.\n\nWe have not stayed to discuss the hypotheses that have so often been put\nforward, to attach these religions and civilizations to some immigration\nfrom the Old World. The fact is that all these attempts rest on the\narbitrary selection of some few traits of resemblance, on which\nexclusive stress is laid, to the neglect of still more characteristic\ndifferences. The best proof that the work of affiliation has been\nabortive, in spite of the high authority of some of the names that have\nbeen lent to it, may be found in the fact that every possible nation of\nthe Old World has in its turn been selected as the true parent of the\nPeruvians and Mexicans. The Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the\nHindus, the Buddhists of India and China, the Romans, even the Celts and\nthe Chaldeans, have been put forward one after the other. Nay, the\nEnglish themselves have been tried! There is a gratifying legend which\nbrings the story of Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo into connection with the\nresults of the shipwreck of an _Englishman_, whose national name was\ntransformed into _Inga Man_, which again, in conjunction with _Cocapac_,\nthe name of the father of the native wife whom the Englishman had taken\nto himself, made _Inca Manco Capac_! The sequel is obvious. The two\nfair-skinned children that sprang from this union were of course the\nfounders of the Inca family and the state of Cuzco.[122] I need not tell\nyou that all this will not bear a moment's examination. Everything shows\nthat the civilizations and religions of Mexico and Peru are\nautochthonous, springing from the soil itself.\n\nThere is surely something very strange in this passion for localizing\nall origins at some single point of the globe. Why not admit that what\ntook place there may have taken place elsewhere also, that the same\nconcourse of events which called forth such and such a result in a\ncertain given place may have been reproduced somewhere else, and\nconsequently given rise to identical or closely analogous results there\ntoo? Does not our own experience teach us that the contact of a\ncivilized with an uncivilized people is not enough in itself to ensure\nthe adoption by the latter of the civilization that is brought to it? It\nis the exception, not the rule, for the Red-skin, the Kafir, the\nAustralian or the Papuan, to become civilized. Civilization can only be\nhanded on if the invaded race possesses a special disposition and\naptitude for civilized life; and this aptitude may have existed to such\na degree as to be capable of independent development in the New-World as\nwe know it did in the Old; and if there were centres of such nascent\ncivilization in Central America, in Mexico and in Peru, it is absolutely\nsuperfluous to search elsewhere than in America itself for the origins\nof American civilization.\n\nBut the mistake into which so many historians and travellers have fallen\nis explained, to a certain extent, by the fact that, in examining the\nbeliefs, the monuments and the customs of Peru and Mexico, we come upon\nphenomena at every moment which are identical with or analogous to\nsomething we have observed in the Old World. The temples, with their\nsuccessive terraces, remind us of ancient Chaldea, and the hieroglyphics\nof ancient Egypt. The convents recal the Indian and Chinese Buddhism.\nThe cruel and bloody sacrifices and the preponderance of the Sun-worship\nhave a Semitic tinge. There are myths and curious resemblances of words\nwhich wake thoughts of Hellenic civilization; and sacerdotal castes and\nsacrificial rites which bring us round to the Celts! Nay, are there not\neven beliefs as to the arrival or return of a deity who will restore\norder and avenge outraged justice, round which there breathes a kind of\nMessianic air? So much so, indeed, that I must add to the list of\nsupposed ancestors of American civilization the ten lost tribes of\nIsrael, who must have fled from the yoke of their Ninevite oppressors\nright across Asia into America! The partizans of this ingenious\nhypothesis have, it is true, forgotten to inquire how far these\nIsraelites of the North, whose enthusiasm for the house of Judah was, to\nsay the least of it, decidedly subdued, had ever heard of the Messianic\nhopes at all!\n\nThe real result of all these wild speculations, however, is to bring out\nthe fact very clearly, that in the native religions of Mexico, of\nCentral America and of Peru, we find a number of traits united which are\nscattered amongst the most celebrated religions of our own ancient\nworld; so that this new and well-defined region gives us a precious\nopportunity of testing the value of the explanations of religious ideas\nand practices deduced from the comparative study of religions.\n\nLet us take the question of sacrifice, for instance. In both religions\nsacrifice is frequent, often cruel,--in Mexico even frightful. But it is\neasy to trace the original idea that inspired it. It is by no means the\nsense of guilt, or the idea that the culprit, terrified by the account\nthat he must render to the divine justice, can transfer to a victim the\npenalty he has himself incurred. It is simply the idea that by offering\nthe gods the things they like--that is to say, whatever will satisfy and\ngratify their senses--it is possible to secure their goodwill, their\nprotection and their favour, while at the same time disarming their\nwrath, if need be, and appeasing their dangerous appetites. It is only\nat a later stage that the extreme importance attributed to this rite,\nthe very essence of the worship rendered to the gods, leads to the\nassociation of mystic and ultimately of moral ideas with the\ncircumstance of the pain inseparably connected with sacrifice. And when\nthis stage is reached, men will either refine upon the suffering with\nfrantic intensity, as they did in Mexico, or, if the sentiment of\nhumanity has made itself felt in religion, as was the case in Peru and\nin the special worship of Quetzalcoatl, they will try to restrain the\nnumber and mitigate the horror of the human sacrifices, while still\ninflexibly maintaining the principle they involve.\n\nAgain: there is not the smallest trace of an earlier monotheism\npreceding the polytheism of either the one or the other nation. On the\nother hand, we may trace in both alike three stages of religious faith\nsuperimposed, so to speak, one upon the other. At the bottom of all\nstill lies the religion that we find to-day amongst peoples that are\nstrangers to all civilization. It is an incoherent and confused jumble\nof nature-worship and of animism or the worship of spirits, but\nespecially the latter; for the primitive nature-worship has been\ndeveloped, enlarged and more or less organized, on a higher level,\nwhereas animism has remained what it was. The spirits of nature, which\nmay often be anonymous--spirits of forests, of plants, of rocks, of\nwaters, of animals, generally with the addition of the spirits of\nancestors--make up a confused and inorganic mass that may assume almost\nany form. Fetichism is not the base, as it has been called, but the\nconsequence and application of this animistic view. It is enough to\nsecure adoration for any worthless object, natural or artificial, if it\nstrikes the ignorant imagination forcibly enough to induce the belief\nthat it is the residence of a spirit. Magic, founded on the pretension\nof certain individuals to stand in special relations with the spirits,\nequips the priesthood of this lowest stage. But above this, through the\naction of the higher minds amongst the people, nature-worship develops\nitself into the adoration of the most important, most general and most\nimposing phenomena of nature. In the tropical countries, at once warm\nand fertile, it is the Sun that reigns supreme, though not without\nleaving a very exalted place to other phenomena, such as wind, rain,\nvegetation and so on, personified as so many special deities. But in all\nthis there is no indication of an antecedent and primitive monotheism.\nIt is quite true that each one of these deities receives in his turn\nepithets which seem to attribute omnipotence to him and to make him the\nsole creator. But this is the case in all polytheistic systems, whether\nin Greece, Persia, and India, or in Mexico and Peru. It only proves that\nwhen man worships, he never limits the homage he renders to the object\nof his adoration; but if he is a polytheist, he has no scruple in\nattributing the same omnipotence to each of his gods in turn. It is much\nthe same with the worthy cures in our rural districts, whose sermons\nsystematically exalt the saint of the day, whoever he may be, to the\nchief place in Paradise! And here in Mexico and in Peru, as in Greece\nand in India, we observe the ever growing tendency towards\n_anthropomorphism_, transforming into men, of enormous strength, stature\nand power, those natural phenomena which at the earlier stage were\nrather assimilated to animals. Uitzilopochtli still bears the traces of\nhis ancient nature as a humming-bird, and Tezcatlipoca of the time when\nhe was no more than a celestial tapir. Their cultus, like their\nfunctions in the order of nature, must be regular and subject to fixed\nrules. And thus the priesthood, organized and regulated in its turn,\nemerges from the earlier stage of sorcery, and becomes a great\ninstitution to protect and foster the nascent civilization. The third\nstage was not actually reached in ancient Mexico and Peru. One can but\ndivine its beginnings in the mysterious priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, or\ntrace it in the traditions of the philosopher king of Tezcuco, and the\nsceptical Incas of whom Garcilasso and others tell us. In such traits as\nthese we may discover a certain dissatisfaction with the established\npolytheism, striving to raise itself higher in the direction of a\nspiritual monotheism. But this tendency is obviously the last term of\nthe evolution, and in no sense its first.\n\nThe history of the temple in Mexico and Peru suggests similar\nreflections. Its point of departure is the altar, and not the tomb,--the\naltar on which, as on a sacred table, the flesh destined for their food\nwas placed before the gods. Little by little, as the developed and\norganized nature-worship substitutes gods of imposing might and\ngreatness for the contemptible deities of the period when nature-worship\nand animism were confounded together, these altars assumed huge and at\nlast gigantic proportions; and in Mexico, except in the case of\nQuetzalcoatl, there the development stopped, save that a little chapel,\ndestined to serve as the abode of the national gods, was reared on the\nsummit. Peru passes through the same phases, but goes further. There the\nsurmounting chapel grows, assumes vast dimensions, and ends by embracing\nthe altar itself, of which at first it was but an adjunct.\n\nThe two religions alike exhibit an initial penetration of religion by\nthe moral idea. They are at bottom two theocracies, the laws and\ninstitutions of which rest upon the gods themselves, though the\ntheocratic form is far more prominent in Peru than in Mexico. They share\nthe advantages of a theocracy for a nascent civilization, and its\ndisadvantages for one that has already reached a certain development.\nIt was the theocratic and sacerdotal conception that maintained and\nenforced the religious butchery of which you have heard in Mexico, and\nwhich transformed Peru into one enormous convent, where no one had any\nwill or any initiative of his own. For the same reason, asceticism, the\nprinciple that confuses, through an illusion we can easily understand,\nthe moral act itself with the suffering that accompanies it, shows\nitself in both religions, but especially in that of Mexico; and convents\nthat startle us by their resemblance to those of Buddhism and\nChristianity rise in either realm. But this mutual interpenetration of\nthe religious and moral ideas is still quite rudimentary. The prevailing\ntone of the religion is given by the self-seeking and purely calculating\nprinciple, aiming no doubt at a certain mystic satisfaction (for at\nevery stage of religion this moving principle has been most powerful and\nfruitful), but likewise seeking material advantages without any scruple\nas to the means; and those monstrous forms of transubstantiation which\nthe Mexican thought he was bringing about when he ate of the same human\nflesh which he offered to his gods, are typical of the period in which\nreligion pursued its purpose of union with the deity, regardless of the\nprotests of the moral sense and of humanity.\n\nIt was reserved for the higher religions, and especially for that of\nwhich our Bible is the monument, to realize the intimate alliance of the\nreligious and moral sentiments,--that priceless alliance, without which\nmorals remain for the most part almost barren, and religion falls into\nmonstrous aberrations. That the roots of religion pierce to the very\ncradles of humanity, may now be taken as demonstrated. Its principle is\nfound in the necessity we feel of surmounting the uncertainties and the\nlimitations of destiny, by attaching ourselves individually to the\nloftier Spirit revealed by nature outside us and within; and this\nprinciple has always remained the same; nor am I one of those who hold\nthat we must now renounce it in the name of philosophy and science. For\nneither philosophy nor science can make us other than the poor creatures\nwe are, with an unquenchable thirst for blessedness and life, yet\nconstantly broken, crushed at every moment, by the very elements on the\nbosom of which we are forced to live. Philosophy and science may guide\nreligion, may reveal its true object in ever-growing purity, may cleanse\nit from the pollutions in which ignorance and sin still plunge it, but\nthey cannot replace and they cannot destroy it. There is a Dutch\nproverb, the profundity of which it would be difficult to exaggerate,\n\"De natuur gaat boven de leer\"--_Nature is too strong for doctrine._ The\nevolutions of philosophy may seem to make the heavens void, and inspire\nman with the idea that all is over with the poetic or terrific visions\nthat rocked the cradle of his infancy. But stay! Nature, human nature,\nis still there; and under the impulse of the indestructible thirst for\nreligion, human nature renews her efforts, looks deeper and looks\nhigher, and finds her God once more.\n\n Jerusalem renait plus brillante et plus belle.\n\nBut let not this conclusion, confirmed as it seems to me by the whole\nhistory of religion, prevent our boldly declaring how much that is\nsmall, puerile, often even immoral and deplorable, there is in the\nreligious past of humanity. It is no otherwise with art, with\nlegislation, with science herself, with all that constitutes the\nprivilege, the power, the joy of our race. It is just the knowledge of\nthese aberrations which should serve to keep us from falling back into\nthe errors and false principles of which they were the consequence. And\nin this respect the study of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru is\nprofoundly instructive. It teaches us that there is a principle,\nbordering closely upon that of religion itself, which must serve as the\ntorch to guide the religious idea in its development--not to supplant\nit, but to direct it to the true path. It is the principle of humanity.\nThe truer a religion is, the more absolute the homage it will render to\nthe principle of humanity, and the more will he who lives by its light\nfeel himself impelled to goodness, loving and loved, trustful and free.\nThe last word of religious history is, that there exists an affinity, a\nmysterious relationship, between our spirit and the Spirit of the\nuniverse; that this nobility of human nature embraces in itself all the\npromises, all the hopes, all the latent perfections, all the infinite\nideals of the future; that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary,\nthe Supreme Will is good to each one of the beings which it summons and\ndraws to itself; and that man, in spite of his errors, his failures,\nhis corruptions, his miseries, was never wrong in following the sacred\ninstinct that raised him slowly from the mire, was always right in\nrenewing his efforts, so constant, so toilsome--often, too, so woful--to\nmount the rounds\n\n De cette echelle d'or qui va se perdre en Dieu.\n\n * * * * *\n\nAnd now, Ladies and Gentlemen, it only remains for me to bid you\nfarewell, while giving you my warmest thanks for the perseverance, the\nencouragement and the sympathy, with which you have supported me. The\nreception you have given me has touched me deeply, and my stay in 1884\nin your imposing and splendid capital will always remain amongst the\nmost prized and the pleasantest recollections of my life. You have been\ngood enough to pardon my linguistic infirmity. You have spared from your\nbusiness or pleasure the time needed to listen to a stranger, who has\ncome to speak to you of matters having no direct utility, and of purely\nhistorical and theoretical interest. This is far more to your honour\nthan to mine. I thank you, but at the same time I congratulate you; for\nit is a trait in the nobleness in our human nature to be able thus to\nsnatch ourselves from the vulgar pre-occupations of life, to contemplate\nthe truth on those serene heights where it reveals itself to all who\nseek it with an upright heart. Cease not to love these noble studies,\nwhich touch upon all that is most exalted and most precious in us! If we\nsearch history for light in politics and the higher interests of our\nfatherlands, and learn thereby to understand, to appreciate, to love\nthem more, let us turn to history no less for light on the path which we\nmust tread in that order of sublime realities, necessities and\naspirations, in which the soul of each one of us becomes a temple and a\nsanctuary, lying open to the Eternal Spirit that fills the universe.\n\n * * * * *\n\nAnd now to the Eternal, the Invisible, to Him whose name we can but\nstammer, whose infinite perfections we can but feel after, be rendered\nall our homage and our hearts!\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The second, third and fourth despatches (the first is lost) from\n_Fernando Cortes_ to Charles V., written in 1520, 1522 and 1524\nrespectively. Original editions as follows: \"Carta de relacio_n_\ne_m_biada a su S. majestad del e_m_p_er_ador n_ues_tro senor ... por el\ncapita_n_ general de la nueva spana: Llamado ferna_n_do cortes,\" &c.:\nSeville, 1522. \"Carta tercera de relacio_n_: embiada por Ferna_n_do\ncortes,\" &c.: Seville, 1523. \"La quarta relacion q_ue_ Ferna_n_do cortes\ngouernador y capitan general ... embio al muy alto ... rey de Espana,\"\n&c.: Toledo, 1525. Recent edition, with notes, &c.: \"Cartas y Relaciones\nde Hernan Cortes al Emperador Carlos V. colegidas e ilustradas por Don\nPascual de Gayangos,\" &c.: Paris, 1866. English translation: \"The\nDespatches of Hernando Cortes,\" &c., translated by George Folsom: New\nYork and London, 1843.--_Francisco Lopez de Gomara_ (Cortes' chaplain):\n\"Hispania Victrix. Primera y segunda parte de la historia general de las\nIndias co_n_ todo el descubrimiento, y cosas notables que han acaescido\ndende que se ganaron hasta el ano de 1551. Con la conquista de Mexico y\ndela nueva Espana:\" Modina del Campo, 1553. Also printed in Vol. XXII.\nof the \"Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles:\" Madrid, 1852 (to the\npagination of which references in future notes will be made). There is\nan old English translation of Part II. of this work, entitled, \"The\nPleasant Historie of the Conquest of the Weast India, now called new\nSpayne, Atchieved by the worthy Prince Hernando Cortes, Marques of the\nValley of Huaxacac, most delectable to Reade: Translated out of the\nSpanishe tongue by T. N. [Thomas Nicholas], Anno 1578:\" London.--_Bernal\nDiaz_: \"Historia Verdadera de la Nueva Espana escrita por el Capitan\nBernal Diaz del Castillo, Uno de sus Conquistadores. Sacada a luz por el\nP. M. Fr. Alonso Remon,\" &c.: Madrid, 1632. English translation: \"The\nMemoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, written by\nHimself,\" &c.: translated by John Ingram Lockhart, F.R.A.S. 2 vols.:\nLondon, 1844. There is also a good French translation: \"Histoire\nVeridique de la conquete ... par le Capitaine Bernal Diaz del Castillo,\"\n&c., by Dr. Jourdanet. Second edition: Paris, 1877.--_Las Casas._\nNumerous works collected by Llorente: \"Collecion de las obras del\nVenerable Obispo de Chiapa, Don Bartolome de las Casas, Defensor de la\nLibertad de los Americanos.\" 2 vols.: Paris, 1822. Also translated into\nFrench, with some additional matter, by the same Llorente, and published\nin the same year at Paris. His \"Historia de las Crueldades de los\nEspanoles,\" &c., was translated into English in 1655 by J. Phillips,\nunder the title of \"The Tears of the Indians,\" &c., and dedicated to\nOliver Cromwell. [N.B. Translations in full or epitomized of several of\nthe above works, together with others, may be found in Vols. III. and\nIV. of \"Purchas his Pilgimes,\" &c.: London, 1625-26.]--_Sahagun's_\nhistory of New Spain, a work of the utmost importance for the religious\nhistory of Mexico, remained unpublished till the present century, and\nappeared almost simultaneously in Mexico and London: \"Historia General\nde las Cosas de Nueva Espana ... escribio el R. P. Fr. Bernardino de\nSahagun ... uno de los primeros predicadores del santo evangelio en\naquellas regiones,\" &c. 3 vols.: Mexico, 1829-30. The same work appeared\nin Vols. V. and VII. of Lord Kingsborough's collection. Vid. infr. A\nFrench translation by Jourdanet appeared in 1880.--_Acosta_: \"Historia\nNatural y Moral de las Indias ... compuesta por el Padre Joseph de\nAcosta Religioso de la Campania de Jesus,\" &c.: Seville, 1590. English\ntranslation: \"The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West\nIndies,\" &c.: translated by E. G.: London, 1604. E[dward] G[rimstone]'s\ntranslation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by Clements\nR. Markham, in 1880.--_Torquemada_: \"Los veynte y un libros Rituales y\nMonarchia Yndiana ... Compuesto por Fray Ivan de Torquemada,\" &c. 3\nvols.: Seville, 1615. Printed again at Madrid in 1723.--_Herrera_\n(official historiographer of Philip II.): \"Historia General de los\nHechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del mar Oceano,\"\n&c., by Antonio de Herrera; to which is prefixed, \"Descripcion de las\nIndias Ocidentales,\" &c., by the same. 4 vols.: Madrid, 1601. English\ntranslation in epitome by Capt. John Stevens, \"The General History of\nthe vast Continent and Islands of America,\" &c. 6 vols.: London,\n1725-26.\n\nThe following native writers may also be consulted. _Ixlilxochitl_\n(Fernando de Alva): \"Historia Chichimeca\" and \"Relaciones,\" in Lord\nKingsborough's \"Mexican Antiquities,\" Vol. IX. (vid. infr.). French\ntranslations in Vols. VIII. XII. and XIII. of H. Ternaux-Compans'\ncollection: \"Voyages, Relations et Memoires originaux pour servir a\nl'histoire de la Decouverte de l'Amerique:\" Paris, 1837-41.--_Camargo_:\n\"Histoire de la Republique de Tlaxcallan, par Domingo Munoz Camargo,\nIndien, natif de cette ville,\" translated from the Spanish MS. in Vols.\nXCVIII. and XCIX. of the \"Nouvelles Annales des Voyages,\" &c.: Paris,\n1843.--_Pomar (J. B. de)_: \"Relacion de las Antiquedades de los Indios.\"\nPomar was a descendant of the royal house of Tezcuco, and his memoirs\nwere made use of in MS. by Torquemada.\n\nAmongst later authorities may be mentioned (in addition to Prescott's\nwell-known work, and those cited in the following notes): _W.\nRobertson_: \"History of America.\"--_Alx. von Humboldt_: \"Vues des\nCordillieres et Monuments des peuples de l'Amerique:\" Paris, 1810;\nforming the \"Atlas Pittoresque\" of Part III. of \"Voyage de Humboldt et\nBonpland.\"--_Francesco Saverio Clavigero_: \"Storia antica del Messico,\"\n&c. 4 vols.: Cesena, 1780-81. English translation by Charles Cullen:\n\"The History of Mexico,\" &c. 2 vols.: London, 1787.--_Th. Waitz_:\n\"Anthropologie der Naturvoelker,\" Vol. IV.: Leipzig, 1864.--_Brasseur de\nBourbourg_: \"Histoire des Nations civilisees du Mexique et de\nL'Amerique-centrale,\" &c. 4 vols: Paris, 1857-59.--_Mueller (Joh.\nGeorge)_, Professor at Bale: \"Geschichte der Amerikanischen\nUrreligionen.\" Second edition: Basel, 1867.--To these should be added\nthe narratives and works of M. _D. Charnay_, still in the course of\npublication.\n\nReferences will be given to the originals, but in such a form, wherever\npossible, as to serve equally well for the English and French\ntranslations. Where, as is not unfrequently the case, the chapters or\nsections of the translations do not correspond to the originals, a note\nof the vol. and page of the former will generally be added.\n\n[2] The original collection is in seven magnificent folio volumes.\n\"Antiquities of Mexico: comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Mexican\nPaintings and Hieroglyphics ... together with The Monuments of New\nSpain, by M. Dupaix ... the whole illustrated by many valuable inedited\nManuscripts by Augustine Aglio:\" London, 1830. Two supplementary\nvolumes, on the title-page of which Lord Kingsborough's own name\nappears, were added in 1848, and a tenth volume was projected, but only\na small portion of it (appended to Vol. IX.) was printed.\n\n[3] Five volumes: New York, 1875-76.\n\n[4] See _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 311, 312.\n\n[5] See _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 201, Appendix to Lib. ii. (Vol. II. p.\n174, in Jourdanet's translation).\n\n[6] The story is given by _Bancroft_, Vol. III. p. 471, on the authority\nof _Lopez Medel_.\n\n[7] See _Torquemada_, Lib. viii. cap. xx. at the end. On the Mexican\ntemples in general, see _Mueller_, pp. 644-646.\n\n[8] On the great temple of Mexico and its annexes, see _Waitz_, IV. 148\nsqq., where the scattered data of Sahagun, Acosta, Gomara, Bernal Diaz,\nIxtlilxochitl, Clavigero, &c., are drawn together. See also _Bancroft_,\nII. 577-587, III. 430 sq.\n\n[9] Op. cit. cap. xcii.\n\n[10] Compare the German \"Schlangenberg\" and the old French \"Guivremont.\"\n\n[11] See the legend in _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec. 6.\n\n[12] See _Mueller_, pp. 602 sqq., and _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 1, 237,\nsqq., Lib. i. cap. i., and Lib. iii. cap. i., &c.\n\n[13] See _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec. 2. _Acosta_, pp. 324 sqq., Lib. v. cap.\nix. (pp. 353 sq. in E. G.'s translation); _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 2 sq.,\n241 sq., Lib. i. cap. iii., Lib. iii. cap. ii. See also\n_Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XII. p. 18.\n\n[14] On Quetzalcoatl, see _Mueller_, pp. 577-590; _Bancroft_, Vol. III.\npp. 239-287; _Torquemada_, Lib. vi. cap. xxiv., Lib. iii. cap. vii.;\n_Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec. 4; _Ixtlilxochitl_ in _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol.\nXII. pp. 5-8 (further, pp. 9-27 of the same volume on the Toltecs);\n_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap, iii., Bk. iv. chap, v., and elsewhere;\n_Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 3-4, 245-6, 255-259, Lib. i, cap. v., Lib. iii.\ncap p. iv. xii.-xiv.\n\n[15] See _Clavigero_, Lib. iv. Sec.Sec. 4, 15, Lib. vii. Sec. 42; _Humboldt_, pp.\n319-20, cf. p. 95; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. i. and elsewhere;\n_Bancroft_, Vol. V. pp. 427-429; _Mueller_, pp. 526 sq.\n\n[16] _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec.Sec. 5, 15, 34; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 16-19,\nLib. i. cap. xiii.; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. p. 385.\n\n[17] See _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 10-16, Lib. i. cap. xii.\n\n[18] See _Boturini_, \"Idea de una nueva historia general de la America\nSeptentrional,\" &c.: Madrid, 1746, pp. 63-65.\n\n[19] _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 403-417; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 22-25,\n29-33, Lib. i. capp. xv. xvi. xix.\n\n[20] _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 396-402; _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec.Sec. 1, 5.\n\n[21] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 86 (cf. p. 88), Lib. ii. cap. xx.\n\n[22] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p. 50, Lib. ii. cap. i.\n\n[23] Compare the detailed description of the festivals of the ancient\nreligion of Mexico in _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 302-341, Vol. III. pp.\n297-300, 330-348, 354-362, 385-396.\n\n[24] Amongst all the indigenous races of North America, prolonged\nfasting is regarded as the means _par excellence_ of securing\nsupernatural inspiration. The Red-skin to become a sorcerer or to secure\na revelation from his _totem_, or the Eskimo to become _Angekok_, will\nendure the most appalling fasts.\n\n[25] _Torquemada_, Lib. vi. cap. xxxviii.; cf. _Sahagun_, Tom. I. p.\n174, Lib. ii. cap. xxiv.\n\n[26] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 35--39, Lib. i. cap. xxi.\n\n[27] _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 11-16, Tom. II. pp. 57-64, Lib. i. cap.\nxii., Lib. vi. cap. vii.\n\n[28] Elements were not wanting for the formation of a dualistic system\nanalogous to Mazdeism. The _Tzitzimitles_ nearly corresponded to the\nIranian _Devas_. They were a kind of demon servants of Mictlan, who\ndelighted in springing upon men to devour them, and the protection of\nthe celestial gods was needed to escape from their attacks. _Sahagun_,\nTom. II. p. 67, Lib. vi. cap. viii. (in the middle of a prayer to\nTlaloc). Cf. also Tom. II. pp. 14 sqq., Lib. v. capp. xi.-xiii.\n\n[29] On the Mexican priesthood, see _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 200-207,\nVol. III. pp. 430-441; _Clavigero_, Lib. vi. Sec.Sec. 13--17; cf. Lib. iv. Sec.\n4; _Humboldt_, pp. 98, 194, 290; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.;\n_Torquemada_, Lib. ix. capp. i.-xxxiv.\n\n[30] _Camargo_ (in Nouv. An. d. Voy. xcix.), pp. 134-5.\n\n[31] _Bancroft_, Vol. II. pp. 204-206, Vol. III. pp. 435-436;\n_Torquemada_, Lib. ix. capp. xiv. xv.; _Sahagun_, Tom. I. pp. 227-8\n(last section of Appendix to Lib. ii.); _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xvi.;\n_Clavigero_, Lib. vi. capp. xvi. xxii.\n\n[32] See the \"Cuadro historico-geroglifico,\" &c., contributed by Don\n_Jose Fernando Ramirez_ (curator of the national Museum at Mexico) to\n_Garcia y Cubas_, \"Altas geographico, estadistico e historico de la\nRepublica Mexicana,\" Entrega 29a (1858).\n\n[33] On all that concerns the Mexican cosmogonies, see _Mueller_, pp. 477\nsq., 509--519; _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 57--65; _Ixtlilxochitl_,\n\"Historia Chichimeca,\" capp. i. ii.; _Kingsborough_, \"Mexican\nAntiquities,\" Vol. V. pp. 164-167; _Humboldt_, pp. 202--211.\n\n[34] See _Sahagun_, Tom. II. pp. 281--283, Lib. viii. cap. vi.\n\n[35] The sacerdotal year was lunar. The civil year, which was doubtless\nof later origin, and had been adopted as better suited to the purposes\nof agriculture, was solar. Every thirteenth year the two coincided. The\nnumber _four_, which plays an important part in Mexican symbolism (cf.\nthe Mexican cross) gave a kind of cosmic significance to 13 x 4 = 52.\n\n[36] See _Bancroft_, Vol. III. pp. 393-396.\n\n[37] Compare the Appendix to Jourdanet's translation of Bernal Diaz, pp.\n912 sqq.\n\n[38] On the conversion of the Mexicans, &c., compare the anonymous\ntreatise at the end of _Kingsborough's_ \"Mexican Antiquities,\" Vol. IX.\nCf. also _Torquemada,_ Lib. xvii. cap. xx., Lib. xix. cap. xxix.\n\n[39] See _P. Pauke,_ \"Reise in d. Missionen von Paraguay:\" Vienna, 1829,\np. 111.\n\n[40] In addition to the works of _Acosta_, _Gomara_, _Herrera_,\n_Humboldt_, _Waitz_ and _Mueller_, already cited in connection with\nMexico, and _Prescott's_ \"Conquest of Peru,\" we may mention the\nfollowing authorities for the political and religious history of Peru:\n\n_Xeres_ (Pizarro's secretary): \"Verdadera relacion de la conquista del\nPeru y provincia del Cuzco llamada la nueva Castilla ... por Francisco\nde Xeres,\" &c.: Seville, 1534. English translation by Markham in\n\"Reports on the Discovery of Peru:\" printed for the Hakluyt Society,\nLondon, 1872.--_Zarate_ (official Spanish \"auditor\" in Peru): \"Historia\ndel descubrimiento y conquista del Peru.... La qual escriua Augustin de\nCarate,\" &c.: Antwerp, 1555. English translation: \"The strange and\ndelectable History, &c.: translated out of the Spanish Tongue by T.\nNicholas:\" London, 1581.--_Cieza de Leon_ (served in Peru for seventeen\nyears): \"Parte Primera Dela chronica del Peru,\" &c.: Seville, 1553. The\nsecond and third Parts have never been printed. English translation by\nMarkham: Hakluyt Society, 1864. [N. B. _Xeres_ (or _Jeres_), _Cieza de\nLeon_ and _Zarate_, are all contained in Tom. XXVI. of Aribau's\n\"Biblioteca de autores Espanoles.\"]--_Diego Fernandez_ of Palencia\n(historiographer of Peru under the vice-royalty of Mendoza): \"Primera, y\nSegunda Parte, de la Historia del Peru,\" &c.: Seville, 1571.--_Miguel\nCavello Balboa:_ \"Histoire du Perou,\" in Ternaux-Compans, Vol.\nXV.--_Arriaga_: \"Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Piru ... Por el Padre\nPablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compania de Jesus:\" Lima, 1621. Extracts\nare given in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII.--_Fernando Montesinos_:\n\"Memoires historiques sur l'Ancien Perou:\" translated from the Spanish\nMS. in Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. Montesinos rectifies Garcilasso de la\nVega on more points than one.--_Johannes de Laet_: \"Novus Orbis,\" &c.:\nLeiden, 1633.--Velasco: \"Historia del Reino de Quito,\" &c.: Quito, 1844.\nThis work is in three Parts, the second of which, the \"Historia\nAntigua,\" is the one referred to in future notes. This second Part is\ntranslated in Ternaux-Compans, Vols. XVIII. XIX.\n\nThe Abbe _Raynal's_ \"Histoire philosophique et politique des\netablissements ... des Europeens dans les deux Indes\" (10 vols.: Geneva,\n1770) made a great stir in its time, the English translation by\nJustamond reaching a third edition in 1777; but it is now completely\nforgotten, and has no real value for our purposes. I cannot refrain from\na passing notice of a romance which is now almost as completely\nforgotten as the Abbe Raynal's History, in spite of its long popularity:\nI mean _Marmontel's_ \"Les Incas et la Destruction de l'empire du Perou:\"\nParis, 1777. The author derived his materials from Garcilasso de la\nVega. In spite of the florid style and innumerable offences against\nhistorical and psychological fact which characterize this work, it\ncannot be denied that Marmontel has disengaged with great skill the\nprofound causes of the irremediable ruin of the Peruvian state.\n\n_Lacroix_: \"Perou,\" in Vol. IV. of \"L'Amerique\" in \"L'Univers\nPittoresque.\"--_Paul Chaix_: \"Histoire de l'Amerique meridionale au\nXVI^e siecle,\" Part I.: Geneva, 1853.--_Wuttke_: \"Geschichte des\nHeidenthums,\" Theil I., 1852.--_J. J. von Tschudi_: \"Peru. Reiseskizzen\naus den Jahren 1838-1842:\" St. Gallen, 1846.--_Thos. J. Hutchinson_:\n\"Two Years in Peru, with explorations of its Antiquities:\" London, 1873.\nHutchinson had good reason to point out the exaggerations in which\nGarcilasso indulges with reference to his ancestors the Incas, but he\nhimself speaks too slightingly of their government. Had it not been in\nthe main beneficent and popular, it could not have left such\naffectionate and enduring memories in the minds of the native\npopulation.\n\nFor the method of citation, see end of note on p. 18.\n\n[41] This work is in two Parts, the first of which (Lisbon, 1609) gives\nan account of the native traditions, customs and history prior to the\nSpanish conquest, while the second (published under the separate title\nof _Historia General del Peru_: Cordova, 1617) deals with the Spanish\nconquest, &c. English translation by Sir Paul Rycaut: London, 1688, not\nat all to be trusted; both imperfect (omitting and condensing in an\narbitrary fashion) and incorrect. As it may be in the possession of some\nof my readers, however, reference will be made to it in future notes.\nThe earlier and more important part of Garcilasso's work has recently\nbeen translated for the _Hakluyt Society_ by _Clements R. Markham_, 2\nvols.: London, 1869, 1871. References are to the _Commentarios reales_\n(Part I.), unless otherwise stated.\n\n[42] _Herrera_, Decada v. Libro iv. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 335, in\nStevens's epitomized translation).\n\n[43] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. viii., Lib. v. capp. vi. vii. viii.\nxiii.; _Acosta_, Lib. vi. capp. xiii. xvi.; _Montesinos_, p. 57.\n\n[44] _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. xxxv.\n\n[45] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap.\niv. (Vol. IV. p. 344, in Stevens's translation). See also _Hazart_,\n\"Historie van Peru,\" Part II. chap. iv.; in his \"Kerckelijcke Historie\nvan de Gheheele Wereldt,\" Vol. I. p. 315: Antwerp, 1682.\n\n[46] See _Gomara_ (in Vol. XXII. of the Bibliotheca de Autores\nEspanoles), p. 228a; _Garcillasso_, \"Historia General,\" &c., Lib. i.\ncap. xviii.; cf. _Prescott_, Bk. iii. chaps. v. vi., and Appendices\nviii. ix.\n\n[47] _Gomara_, p. 232 a.\n\n[48] Cf. _Waitz_, Theil IV. S. 411, 418.\n\n[49] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xiii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. ii.\n\n[50] _Mueller_, p. 406.\n\n[51] See _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 337 sqq. in\nStevens's translation); _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. xii. xiii. xiv. (p.\n35 of Rycaut's translation, in which the passage is much shortened),\nLib. v. cap. xi.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 6.\n\n[52] _Acosta_, Lib. vi. cap. xviii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. i.\nand end of cap. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 329 sq., 342, in Stevens's\ntranslation).\n\n[53] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. vii.; _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. capp.\nii. iii. (Vol. IV. pp. 334, 341, in Stevens's translation); cf.\n_Montesinos_, p. 56.\n\n[54] _Garcilasso_, Lib. iv. cap. xix.; cf. Lib. viii. cap. viii. (ad\nfin.).\n\n[55] Cf. _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 387; _Hutchinson_, Vol. II. pp. 175-6.\n\n[56] _Montesinos_, p. 119, cf. pp. 33, 108.\n\n[57] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. iii.\n\n[58] _Humboldt_, pp. 108, 294.\n\n[59] _Gomara_, p. 277 b.\n\n[60] _Prescott_, Bk. iii. chap. viii.\n\n[61] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. iv.\n\n[62] _Garcilasso_, Lib. i. capp. ix.-xvii.; cf. Lib. ii. cap. ix., Lib.\niii. cap. xxv.\n\n[63] Such at least is the etymology proposed by Garcilasso (Lib. i. cap.\nxviii.). Modern Peruvian scholars rather incline to refer _Cuzco_ to the\nsame root as _cuzcani_ (\"to clear the ground\").\n\n[64] See the critical summary of the history of the Incas in _Waitz_,\nTheil. IV. S. 396 sq. The following table of the successive Incas\nfollows Garcilasso:\n\n Manco Capac, died about 1000\n Sinchi Roca, \" 1091\n Lloque Yupanqui, \" 1126\n Mayta Capac, \" 1156\n Capac Yupanqui, \" 1197\n Inca Roca, \" 1249\n Yahuar Huacac, \" 1289\n Viracocha Inca Ripac, \" 1340\n [Inca Urco, who only reigned 11 days, is omitted by Garcilasso]\n Tito Manco Capac Pachacutec, \" 1400\n Yupanqui, \" 1438\n Tupac Yupanqui, \" 1475\n Huayna Capac, \" 1525\n Huascar, } \" {1532\n Atahualpa,} \" {1533\n\n[65] _Garcilasso_, Lib. viii. cap. viii. Garcilasso says that he\ntranslates this passage, word for word, from the Latin MS. of the Jesuit\nFather, _Blas Valera_.\n\n[66] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iv. cap. iv. (Vol. IV. p. 346, in Stevens's\ntranslation).\n\n[67] Lib. ix. cap. x.\n\n[68] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. i. capp. ii. iii., Lib. iii. cap. xvii.\n(Vol. IV. pp. 240 sqq., 325 sqq., in Stevens's translation).\n\n[69] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. iii. cap. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 266, in\nStevens's translation); _Gomara_, p. 231 a.\n\n[70] In the course of a few months, Pizarro amassed such immense wealth\nthat, after deducting the _fifth_ for the king and a large sum for the\nreinforcements brought him by Almagro, he was still able to give L4000\nto each of his foot-soldiers, and double that sum to each horseman. The\ncalculation is made by Robertson, who estimates the _peso_ at a pound\nsterling. To obtain the equivalent purchasing power in our own times,\nthese sums would have to be more than quadrupled!\n\n[71] _Herrera_, Dec. v. Lib. viii. capp. i. sqq. (Vol. V. pp. 23 sqq. in\nStevens's translation).\n\n[72] See _Alcedo_, \"Diccionario Geografico-Historico de las Indias\nOccidentales,\" &c.: Madrid, 1786-9: article _Chunchos_.\n\n[73] See _Waitz_, Vol. IV. pp. 477-497; _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 346-351;\ncf. _Castelnau_, \"Expedition dans les Parties centrales de l'Amerique du\nSud,\" &c.: Paris, 1850, &c., Part I. Vol. III. p. 282.\n\n[74] _Tschudi_, ibid.\n\n[75] Cf. Spanish MS. cited by _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Velasco_,\nLib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 15.\n\n[76] _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.\n\n[77] Cf. _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. xxi., where the current etymology of\nthe word is rejected.\n\n[78] See _Mueller_, pp. 313 sqq., where all the views concerning him are\ncollected and discussed.\n\n[79] This hymn was found by _Garcilasso_ (see Lib. ii. cap. xvii., pp.\n50, 51, in Rycaut's translation) among the papers of Father _Blas\nValera_, and has been freed by _Tschudi_ from the misprints, &c., that\ndisfigured it in the printed editions of Garcilasso and all subsequent\nreproductions. See _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 381.\n\n[80] _Johannes de Laet_, Lib. x. cap. i. (p. 398, ll. 51, 52).\n\n[81] _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. i.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. cap. xxx.\n\n[82] _Gomara_, p. 233a; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 2, sec. 4.\n\n[83] _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. ii. iii.\n\n[84] See _Montesinos_, pp. 3 sqq., whose version of the legend has been\nmainly followed in the text. Cf. however, for some of the details,\n_Garcilasso_, Lib. i. cap. xviii. (omitted by Rycaut); _Acosta_, Lib. i.\ncap. xxv.; _Balboa_, pp. 4 sqq., &c.\n\n[85] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 17; _Ph. H. Kuelb_ in _Widenmann_ and\n_Hauff's_ \"Reisen u. Laenderbeshreibungen,\" Lief, xxvii.: Stuttgart,\n1843, pp. 186-7.\n\n[86] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. iv.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 16;\n_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Kuelb_, ibid.\n\n[87] _Prescott_, ibid. In cloudy weather they had recourse to the method\nof friction.\n\n[88] _Prescott_, ibid.\n\n[89] _Arriaga_, pp. 17, 32; _Kuelb_, ibid.\n\n[90] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 10-17, &c. (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII.\npp. 13, 14).\n\n[91] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. v.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 2;\n_Arriaga_, ibid.\n\n[92] _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 396-7.\n\n[93] _Arriaga_, p. 18 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. p. 15).\n\n[94] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 10-17 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. pp. 13,\n14); _Acosta_, Lib. v; cap. v.; _Montesinos_, pp. 161-2; _Velasco_, Lib.\nii. Sec. 3, sec. 1.\n\n[95] On the priesthood, cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 17 sqq. (cf.\n_Ternaux-Compans_, Vol. XVII. p. 15); _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.;\n_Balboa_, p. 29; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 8; _Garcilasso_, Lib. v.\ncapp. viii. (ad fin.) xii. xiii.; _Mueller_, p. 387; _Kuelb_, l.c. p. 187.\n\n[96] Cf. _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xv.; _Montesinos_, p. 56; _Velasco_,\nLib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 12, Sec. 9, sec. 10; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii. and\nelsewhere.\n\n[97] Cf. _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. iii. capp.\nxx.-xxiv.; _Paul Chaix_, Vol. I. pp. 249 sqq. On the temples of\nPachacamac, which must have attained gigantic proportions before the\ntime of the Incas, see _Hutchinson_, Vol. I. pp. 147-176.\n\n[98] _Richard Inwards_, \"The Temple of the Andes:\" London, 1884.\n\n[99] _Acosta_, Lib, v. cap. xviii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. cap. viii.\n(p. 31 in Rycaut), Lib. vi. cap. xxi.; _Arriaga_, p. 77.\n\n[100] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Arriaga_, pp. 24-27 (cf. _Ternaux-Compans_, Vol.\nXVII. pp. 15, 16); _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iii.\n\n[101] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 4, sec. 20.\n\n[102] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Arriaga_, ibid.\n\n[103] _Garcilasso_, Lib. i. cap. xi., Lib. ii. cap. xviii., Lib. iv.\ncap. xv., and elsewhere (pp. 6, &c., in Rycaut, who omits some of the\npassages).\n\n[104] _Montesinos_, p. 121; _Acosta_, Lib. v. capp. v. xix., Lib. vi.\ncap. xxii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chaps, i. ii.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi.\ncap. v.; _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. vii.; _Velasco_, Lib. iii. Sec. 1, sec. 1.\n\n[105] _Gomara_, p. 234 a. Cf. _Montesinos_, p. 68, and _Poeppig_ in Ersch\nu. Gruber's \"Encyklopaedie,\" art. _Incas_, p. 287 b, note 35.\n\n[106] _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. capp. xxii, xxiii. (pp. 43, 44, in Rycaut);\n_Prescott_, Bk. i. chap. iv.; _Acosta_, Lib. vi. cap. iii.\n\n[107] _Garcilasso_, Lib. v. cap. ii.; _Tschudi_, Vol. II. p. 382;\n_Rivero y Tschudi_: Antigueedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851. pp. 135-141. N.\nB. An English translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New\nYork in 1853.\n\n[108] _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 5, secc. 4, 17 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVIII.\npp. 137, 148-9); _Kuelb_, l.c. p. 190.\n\n[109] _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. capp. xx.-xxii.; _Prescott_, Bk. i. chap.\niii.\n\n[110] _Acosta_, Lib. v. cap. xxviii. [wrongly numbered xxvii. in the\noriginal edition]; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vii. capp. vi. vii.\n\n[111] _Acosta_, ibid.\n\n[112] _Acosta_, ibid.; _Garcilasso_, Lib. vi. capp. xxiv.-xxvii.\n\n[113] Cf. _Acosta_, ibid.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 5.\n\n[114] _Gomara_, p. 233 b; _Garcilasso_, Lib. ii. cap. xxiii.; cf.\n_Montesinos_, pp. 67, 68.\n\n[115] _Balboa_, pp. 29, 30.\n\n[116] Cf. _Arriaga_, pp. 17-23, and _passim_ (Ternaux-Compans, Vol.\nXVII. p. 15).\n\n[117] See _Prescott_, ibid.\n\n[118] Cf. _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, secc. 4, 5.\n\n[119] _Balboa_, p. 3; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 6; _Arriaga_, pp.\n28, 29 (Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. pp. 16, 17).\n\n[120] Cf. _Tschudi_, Vol. II. pp. 355-6, 397-8.\n\n[121] _Acosta_, Lib. v. capp. vi. vii.; _Velasco_, Lib. ii. Sec. 3, sec. 3;\n_Arriaga_, p. 15 (cf. Ternaux-Compans, Vol. XVII. p. 14); _Garcilasso_,\nLib. ii. capp. ii. (Supay), vii. (omitted by Rycaut); _Prescott_, Bk. i.\nchap. iii.\n\n[122] Compare _W. B. Stevenson_, \"A Historical and Descriptive Narrative\nof Twenty Years' Residence in South America:\" London, 1825, Vol. I. pp.\n394 sqq.\n\n\n\n\nPRINTED BY C. GREEN & SON, 178, STRAND.\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber's Note:\n\n Changes listed in the Addenda et Corrigenda on page ix have\n been made. Spelling and spelling variations have been retained\n as in the original publication.\n\n\n\n\n\n
","title":"Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":47770}