{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_36386/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_36386","id":"gutenberg_36386","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36386","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Indian mythology -- Mexico","Indian mythology -- Peru"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN\n\n  THE MYTHOLOGIES OF\n  ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU\n\n\n\n\nRELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN.\n\n\n  ANIMISM.\n    By EDWARD CLODD, Author of _The Story of Creation_.\n\n  PANTHEISM.\n    By JAMES ALLANSON PICTON, Author of _The Religion of the Universe_.\n\n  THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA.\n    By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University\n    of Cambridge.\n\n  THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE.\n    By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, Author\n    of _Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion_.\n\n  ISLAM.\n    By SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E., late of H.M.'s High Court of\n    Judicature in Bengal, Author of _The Spirit of Islam_ and _The\n    Ethics of Islam_.\n\n  MAGIC AND FETISHISM.\n    By Dr. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cambridge\n    University.\n\n  THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.\n    By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, F.R.S.\n\n  THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.\n    By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, late of the British Museum.\n\n  BUDDHISM. 2 vols.\n    By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal\n    Asiatic Society.\n\n  HINDUISM.\n    By Dr. L. D. BARNETT, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books\n    and MSS., British Museum.\n\n  SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION.\n    By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the _Oxford English\n    Dictionary_.\n\n  CELTIC RELIGION.\n    By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at University College,\n    Aberystwyth.\n\n  THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.\n    By CHARLES SQUIRE, Author of _The Mythology of the British\n    Islands_.\n\n  JUDAISM.\n    By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge\n    University, Author of _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_.\n\n  SHINTO. By W. G. ASTON, C.M.G.\n\n  THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU.\n    By LEWIS SPENCE, M.A.\n\n  THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS.\n    By Professor YASTROW.\n\n\n\n\n  THE MYTHOLOGIES\n  OF ANCIENT MEXICO\n  AND PERU\n\n  By\n  LEWIS SPENCE\n\n\n  LONDON\n  ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD\n  1907\n\n\n  Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nIt is difficult to understand the neglect into which the study of the\nMexican and Peruvian mythologies has fallen. A zealous host of\ninterpreters are engaged in the elucidation of the mythologies of Egypt\nand Assyria, but, if a few enthusiasts in the United States of America\nbe excepted, the mythologies of the ancient West have no following\nwhatsoever. That this little book may lead many to a fuller examination\nof those profoundly interesting faiths is the earnest hope of one in\nwhose judgment they are second in importance to no other mythological\nsystem. By a comparative study of the American mythologies the student\nof other systems will reap his reward in the shape of many a parallel\nand many an elucidation which otherwise would escape his notice; whilst\nthe general reader will introduce himself into a sphere of the most\nfascinating interest--the interest in the attitude towards the eternal\nverities of the peoples of a new and isolated world.      L. S.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAP.                                           PAGE\n\n    I. THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS,             1\n\n   II. MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY,                            9\n\n  III. THE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE\n         ANCIENT MEXICANS,                          27\n\n   IV. THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS,       44\n\n    V. PERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP,                 58\n\n   VI. THE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE\n        UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA,              71\n\n       A LIST OF SELECT BOOKS BEARING ON THE\n         SUBJECT,                                   79\n\n\n\n\n  THE MYTHOLOGIES OF\n  ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS\n\n\nThe question of the origin of the religions of ancient Mexico and Peru\nis unalterably associated with that of the origin of the native races of\nAmerica themselves--not that the two questions admit of simultaneous\nsettlement, but that in order to prove the indigenous nature of the\nAmerican mythologies it is necessary to show the extreme improbability\nof Asiatic or European influence upon them, and therefore of relatively\nlate foreign immigration into the Western Hemisphere. As regards the\nvexed question of the origin of the American races it has been thought\nbest to relegate all proof of a purely speculative or legendary\ncharacter to a chapter at the end of the book, and for the present to\ndeal with data concerning the trustworthiness of which there is little\ndivision of opinion.\n\nThe controversy as to the manner in which the American continent was\nfirst peopled is as old as its discovery. For four hundred years\nhistorians and antiquarians have disputed as to what race should have\nthe honour of first colonising the New World. To nearly every nation\nancient and modern has been credited the glory of peopling the two\nAmericas; and it is only within comparatively recent years that any\nreasonable theory has been advanced in connection with the subject. It\nis now generally admitted that the peopling of the American continent\nmust have taken place at a period little distant to the original\nsettlement of man in Europe. The geological epoch generally assumed for\nthe human settlement of America is the Pleistocene (Quaternary) in some\nof its interglacial conditions; that is, in some of the recurrent\nperiods of mildness during the Great Ice Age. There is, however, a\npossibility that the continent may have been peopled in Tertiary times.\nThe first inhabitants were, however, not of the Red Man type.\n\nDifficult as is this question, an even more difficult one has to be\nfaced when we come to consider the affinities of the races from whom the\nRed Man is descended. It must be remembered that at this early epoch in\nthe history of mankind in all likelihood the four great types of\nhumanity were not yet fully specialised, but were only differentiated\nfrom one another by more or less fundamental physiological\ncharacteristics. That the Indians of America are descended from more\nthan one human type is proved by the variety of shapes exhibited in\ntheir crania, and it is safe to assume that both Europe and Asia were\nresponsible for these early progenitors of the Red Man. At the period in\nquestion the American continent was united to Europe by a land-bridge\nwhich stretched by way of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroee Islands to\nNorthern Europe, and from the latter area there probably migrated to the\nwestern continent a portion of that human type which has been designated\nthe Proto-European--precursors of that race from which was finally\nevolved the peoples of modern Europe.\n\nWhen we come to the question of the settlement of America from the\nAsiatic side we can say with more certainty that immigration proceeded\nfrom that continent by way of Behring Strait, and was of a\nProto-Mongolian character, though the fact should not be lost sight of\nthat within a few hundred miles of the point of emigration there still\nexists the remains of an almost purely Caucasian type in the Ainu of\nSaghalien and the Kurile Islands. However, immigration on any extensive\nscale must have been discontinued at a very early period, as on the\ndiscovery of America the natives presented a highly specialised and\ndistinctive type, and bear such a resemblance one nation to another, as\nto draw from all authorities the conclusion that they are of common\norigin.\n\nAccording to all known anthropological standards the Amerind (as it has\nbeen agreed to designate the American Indian) bears a close affinity to\nthe Mongolian races of Asia, and it must be admitted that the most\nlikely origin that can be assigned to him is one in which Asiatic, or to\nbe more exact, Mongolian blood preponderates. The period of his\nemigration, which probably spread itself over generations, was in all\nlikelihood one at which the Mongolian type was not yet so fully\nspecialised as not to admit of the acquirement under specific conditions\nof very marked structural and physiological attributes.[1] In recent\nyears large numbers of Japanese have settled in Mexico, and in the\nnative dress can hardly be distinguished from the Mexican peasants.\n\nOf course it would be unsafe to assume that, once settled in the\nWestern Hemisphere, its populations were subject to none of those\nfluctuations or race-changes which are so marked a feature in the early\nhistory of European and Asiatic peoples. It is thought, and with\njustice, that some such race-movement convulsed the entire northern\ndivision of the continent at a period comparatively near to that of the\nColumbian discovery. Aztec history insists upon a prolonged migration\nfor the race which founded the Mexican Empire, and native maps are still\nextant in several continental collections, which depict the routes taken\nby the Aztec conquerors from Aztlan, and the Toltecs from Tlapallan,\ntheir respective fatherlands in the north, to the Mexican Tableland.\nThis, at least, would appear to be worthy of notice: that the\n'Skraelings' or native Americans mentioned in the accounts of the\ntenth-century Norse discoverers of America, by the description given of\nthem, do not appear to be the same race as that which inhabited the New\nEngland States upon their rediscovery.\n\nAs regards the origin of the American mythologies it is difficult to\ndiscover traces of foreign influence in the religion of either Mexico or\nPeru. At the time of their subjugation by the Spaniards legends were\nripe in both countries of beneficent white and bearded men, who brought\nwith them a fully developed culture. The question of Asiatic influences\nmust not altogether be cast aside as an untenable theory; but it is well\nto bear in mind that such influences, did they ever exist, must have\nbeen of the most transitory description, and could have left but few\ntraces upon the religion of the peoples in question. If any such contact\ntook place it was merely of an accidental nature, and, when speaking of\nfaiths carried from Asia into America at the period of its original\nsettlement, it is first necessary to premise that Pleistocene Man had\nalready arrived at that stage of mental development in which the\nexistence of supernatural beings is recognised--a premise with which\nmodern anthropology would scarcely find itself in agreement.\n\nAlmost exhaustive proof of the wholly indigenous nature of the American\nreligions is offered by the existence of the ruins of the large centres\nof culture and civilisation which are found scattered through Yucatan\nand Peru. These civilisations preceded those of the Aztecs and Incas by\na very considerable period, how long it is impossible in the present\nstate of our knowledge of the subject to say. Those huge, buried cities,\nthe Ninevehs and Thebeses of the West, have left not even a name, and\nof the peoples who dwelt in them we are almost wholly ignorant. That\nthey were of a race cognate with the Aztecs and Toltecs appears probable\nwhen we take into account the similarity of design which their\narchitecture bears to the later ruins of the Aztec structure. Yet there\nis equally strong evidence to the contrary. At what epoch in the history\nof the world these cities were erected it would at the present time be\nidle to speculate. The recent discovery of a buried city in the\nPanhandle region of Texas may throw some light upon this question, and\nindeed upon the dark places of American archaeology as a whole. In the\ncase of the buried cities of Uxmal and Palenquee a great antiquity is\ngenerally agreed upon. Indeed one writer on the subject goes so far as\nto place their foundation at the beginning of the second Glacial Epoch!\nHe sees in these ruins the remnants of a civilisation which flourished\nat a time when men, fleeing from the rigours of the glacial ice-cap,\nhuddled for warmth in the more central parts of the earth. It is\nunnecessary to state that this is a wholly preposterous theory, but the\nfact that the ruins of Palenquee are at the present time lost in the\ndepths of a tropic forest goes far to prove their great antiquity.\n\nArguing, then, from this antiquity, we may be justified in assuming that\nin these now buried cities the mythology of Mexico was partly evolved;\nthat it was handed down to the Aztec conquerors who entered the country\nsome four hundred years before its subjugation by Cortes, and that it\nreceived additions from the tribal deities. In the case of the Peruvian\nmythology we may argue a similar evolution, which, as we shall see\nlater, had been spread over a considerably shorter period.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nMEXICAN MYTHOLOGY\n\n\nThe Mexican Empire at the period of its conquest by Cortes had arrived\nat a standard of civilisation comparable with that of those dynasties\nwhich immediately preceded the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt. The\ngovernment was an elective monarchy, but princes of the blood alone were\neligible for royal honours. A complex system of jurisdiction prevailed,\nand a form of district and family government was in vogue which was\nsomewhat similar to that of the Anglo-Saxons. In the arts a high state\nof perfection had been reached, and the Aztec craftsman appears to have\nbeen a step beyond the slavish conventionalism of the ancient Egyptian\nartist. In architecture the Mexicans were highly skilled, and their\nability in this respect aroused the wonder of their Spanish conquerors,\nwho, however, did not hesitate to raze to the ground the splendid\nedifices they professed so much to admire. As road-builders and\nconstructors of aqueducts they chiefly excelled, and a perfect system of\nposts was established on each of the great highways of the empire.\n\nWith the Aztecs the art of writing took the form of hieroglyphs, which\nin some ways resembled those of the ancient Egyptians; but they had not\nat the period of their conquest by Cortes evolved a more convenient, and\ncursive method, such as the hieratic or demotic scripts employed in the\nNile valley. In astronomical science they were surprisingly advanced and\nexact. The system in use by them was wonderfully accurate. It is,\nhowever, quite erroneous to suppose that it has affinities with any\nAsiatic system. They divided the year into eighteen periods of twenty\ndays each, adding five supplementary days, and providing for\nintercalation every half-century. Each month contained four weeks of\nfive days each, and each of the months had a distinct name. That the\nAztecs were possessed of exact astronomical instruments cannot be\nproved; but in the thirteenth plate of Dupaix's _Monuments_, (Part II.)\nthere is a representation of a man holding to his face an instrument\nwhich might or might not be a telescope.[2] The astronomical dial was\ncertainly in use among them, and astrology, and divination in its every\nshape were frequently resorted to.\n\nIn the manual arts the Aztecs were far advanced. Papermaking was in a\nmoderate state of perfection, and the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of\ncotton were crafts in which they excelled. Feather-work of supreme\nbeauty was a staple article of manufacture, but in the metallic arts the\nabsence of iron had to be compensated for by an alloy of copper,\nsiliceous powder, and tin--an admixture by the use of which the hardest\ngranite was cut and shaped, and the most beautiful gold and silver\nornaments fashioned. Sharp tools were also made from obsidian, and in\nthe barbers' shops of the city of Mexico razors of the same stone were\nin use.\n\nTo the art of war the Aztecs--a military nation who won and held all\nthey possessed by force of arms--attached great importance. Training in\nthe army was rigorous, and the knowledge of tactics displayed appears to\nhave been very considerable.\n\nAlthough the Aztecs had founded and adopted from other nations a\ncomplete pantheon of their own, they were strongly influenced by the\nancient sun and moon worship of Central America. _Ometecutli_ (twice\nLord) and _Omecihuatl_ (twice Lady) were the names which they bestowed\nupon these luminaries, and they were probably the first deities known to\nthe Aztecs upon their emergence from a condition of totemism. The sun\nwas the _teotl_, _the_ god of the Mexicans, but it will be seen in the\ncourse of this chapter that the national deities and those acquired by\nthe Aztecs in their intercourse with the surrounding peoples of Tezcuco\nand Tlacopan somewhat obscured the worship of those elementary gods.\n\nThrough all the confusion of a mythology second only in richness to\nthose of Egypt and Hellas can be traced the idea of a supreme creator, a\n'god behind the gods.' This was not the sun, but an Allfather, addressed\nby the Mexican nations as 'the God by whom we live'; 'omnipotent, that\nknoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts'; 'invisible, incorporeal,\none God, of perfect perfection and purity.' The universality of this\ngreat being would seem (as in other mythologies) to have led to the\ndeification of his attributes, and thus we have a pantheon in which we\ncan trace all the various attributes of an anthropomorphic deity. This\nsubdivision of the deity was not, however, responsible for all the gods\nembraced by the Mexican pantheon. Many of these were purely national\ngods--and two at least had probably been raised to this rank from a\ncondition of symbolic totemism during a period of national expansion and\nmilitary success.\n\nSuch a god was the Mexican Mars, Huitzilopochtli, a name which signifies\n'Humming-bird on the left,' a designation concerning the exact\nderivation of which there is considerable difference of opinion. The\ngeneral explanation of this peculiar name is that it may have arisen\nfrom the fact that the god is usually represented as having the feathers\nof a humming-bird on the left foot. Before attempting an elucidation of\nthe name, however, it will be well to examine the myth of\nHuitzilopochtli.\n\nHuitzilopochtli was the principal tribal deity of the Aztecs. Another,\nthough evidently less popular name applied to him, was Mextli, which\nsignifies 'Hare of the Aloes.' Indeed a section of the city of Mexico\nderived its name from this appellation. The myth concerning his origin\nis one the peculiar features of which are common to many nations. His\nmother, Coatlicue or Coatlantona (she-serpent), a devout widow, on\nentering the Temple of the Sun one day for the purpose of adoring the\ndeity, beheld a ball of brightly coloured feathers fall at her feet.\nCharmed with the brilliancy of the plumes, she picked it up and placed\nit in her bosom with the intention of making an offering of it to the\nsun-god. Soon afterwards she was aware of pregnancy, and her children,\nenraged at the disgrace, were about to put her to death when her son\nHuitzilopochtli was born, grasping a spear in his right hand and a\nshield in his left, and wearing on his head a plume of humming-bird's\nfeathers. On his left leg there also sprouted the flights of the\nhumming-bird, whilst his face and limbs were barred with stripes of\nblue. Falling upon the enemies of his mother he speedily slew them. He\nbecame the leader of the Aztec nation, and after performing on its\nbehalf prodigies of valour, he and his mother were translated to heaven,\nwhere she was assigned a place as the Goddess of Flowers.\n\nThe Muellerism of fifteen or twenty years ago would have assigned\nunhesitatingly the legend of Huitzilopochtli to that class of myths\nwhich have their origin in natural phenomena. In the _Hibbert Lectures_\nfor 1884, M. Reville, the French religionist, professes to see in the\nMexican war-god the offspring of the sun and the 'spring florescence.'\nMr. Tylor (_Primitive Culture_) calls Huitzilopochtli an 'inextricable\ncompound parthenogenetic deity.' A more satisfactory solution of the\nmyth would seem to the present writer to be that the origin of\nHuitzilopochtli was partly totemic--that, in fact, the humming-bird was\nthe original totem of the wandering tribe of Aztecs prior to their\ndescent upon Anahuac. The humming-bird is of an extremely pugnacious\ndisposition, and will not hesitate to attack birds considerably larger\nthan itself. This courage would appeal to a warlike tribe bent on\nconquest, and its adoption as a totem and as a standard in the wars of\nthe Aztecs would naturally follow. This standard was known as the\n_Huitziton_ or _Paynalton_, the 'little humming-bird' or 'little quick\none,' and was a miniature of Huitzilopochtli borne by the priests in\nfront of the soldiers in battle. This totem, then, took rank as the\nnational war-god of the Aztecs. The commerce of the mortal woman with\nthe animal is common to many legends of a totemic origin, as may be\nwitnessed in the myths of many of the present-day American Indian tribes\nwho believe their ancestors to have been the progeny of bears or wolves\nand mortal women, or as many Norse and Celtic families in Early Britain\nbelieved themselves to be able to trace a similar ancestry.\n\nHowever, Huitzilopochtli had a certain solar connection. He had three\nannual festivals, in May, August, and December. At the last of these\nfestivals, an image of him was modelled in dough, kneaded with the blood\nof sacrificed children, and this was pierced by the presiding priest\nwith an arrow, in token that the sun had been slain, and was dead for a\nseason. The totem had, in fact, become confounded with the sun-god, the\ndeity of the older and more cultured races of Anahuac, who had been\nadopted by the Aztecs on their settlement there. The myth had, in fact,\nto be revised in the light of the later adoption of a solar cultus; so\nthat here as in so many of the myths of other lands we find an amicable\nblending of rival beliefs which have been almost insensibly fused one\ninto another.\n\nBut another originally totemic deity had gained high rank in the Aztec\npantheon. This was Tezcatlipoca, whose name signifies 'Shining Mirror.'\nHe was the brother of Huitzilopochtli, and in this brotherhood may be\ndiscerned the twofold nature of the Huitzilopochtli legend. Tezcatlipoca\nwas not the blood-brother of the war-god of the Aztecs, but his brother\nin so far as he was connected with the sun. Tezcatlipoca, then, was the\ngod of the cold season, and typified the dreary sun of that time of\nyear. But he was also (probably as an afterthought) the God of Justice,\nin whose mirror the thoughts and actions of men were reflected. It seems\nprobable to the present writer that Tezcatlipoca may originally, and in\nanother clime, have been an ice-god. The facts which lead to this\nassumption are the period of his coming into power at the end of summer,\nand his possession of a shining mirror. Another of Tezcatlipoca's names\nsignifies 'Night Wind.' He was evidently regarded also as the 'Breath of\nLife.' He may originally have been a wind demon of the prairies.\n\nTezcatlipoca's plaited hair was enclosed in a golden net, and from this\nplait was suspended an ear wrought in gold, towards which mounted a\ncloud of tongues, representative of the prayers of mankind. The\never-present nature of the 'Great Spirit' is also typified by\nTezcatlipoca, who wandered invisible through the city of Mexico to\nobserve the conduct of the inhabitants. That he might be enabled to rest\nduring his tour of inspection, stone seats were placed for his reception\nat intervals in the streets. Needless to say no human being dared to\noccupy those benches.\n\nBut the most unique of all the gods of Mexico was Quetzalcoatl. This\nname indicates 'Feathered Serpent,' and the deity who owned it was\nprobably adopted by the Aztecs upon their settlement in Mexico, called\nby them Anahuac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl stood for a worship which\nwas eminently more advanced and humane than the degrading and sanguinary\nidolatry of which Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were the prime\nobjects. That he was not of Aztec origin but a god of the Toltecs or of\nthe elder peoples who had preceded them in Anahuac is proved by a myth\nof the Mexican nations, in which his strife with Tezcatlipoca is\nrelated. Step by step Quetzalcoatl, the genius of Old Anahuac, resisted\nthe inroads of the newcomers as represented by Tezcatlipoca. But he was\nforced to flee the country over which he had presided so long, and to\nembark on a frail boat on the ocean, promising to return at some future\nperiod. The Aztecs believed in and feared his ultimate return. He was\nnot one of their gods. But in their terror of his vengeance and return\nthey attempted to propitiate him by permitting his worship to flourish\nas a distinct caste side by side with that of Huitzilopochtli and\nTezcatlipoca.\n\nReville, writing in 'the mythical age,' as the decade of the 'eighties\nof last century has wittily been designated, sees in Quetzalcoatl the\neast wind, and quotes Sahagun to substantiate his theory.[3] But\nQuetzalcoatl was 'Lord of the Dawn.' In fine he was a culture-god, and\nwas closely connected with the sun. It would be impossible in the space\nassigned to me to enter fully into an analysis of the origin of this\nmost interesting figure. There is, however, reason to believe that\nQuetzalcoatl was one of those early introducers of culture who sooner or\nlater find a place among the deities of the nation they have assisted in\nits early struggles towards civilisation. The strife between\nQuetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, according to Reville, typifies the\nstruggle between the wind and the cold and dry season. It is more\nprobable that it typifies the strife between culture and barbarism. The\nsame authority points out that it is Tezcatlipoca and not\nHuitzilopochtli who attacks Quetzalcoatl. But Tezcatlipoca, was the god\nof austerity, and perhaps of the cold north, and thus the proper\nopponent of a luxurious southern civilisation. I have gone more fully\ninto the question of the origin of Quetzalcoatl in the last chapter of\nthis work, as a more prolonged consideration of the subject would be\nsomewhat out of the scope of the present chapter.\n\nThe worship of Quetzalcoatl was antipathetic if not directly opposed to\nthat of the other deities of Anahuac. It had a separate priesthood of\nits own who dressed in white in contradistinction to the sable garments\nwhich the priests of the other divinities were in the habit of wearing,\nand its ritual discountenanced if it did not forbid human sacrifice.\nQuetzalcoatl possessed a high priest of his own, who was subservient,\nhowever, to the Aztec pontiff, and who only joined the monarch's\ndeliberative council on rare and extraordinary occasions. There can be\nno doubt that the good reception given to Cortes and the Spanish\nconquerors was solely on account of the Quetzalcoatl legend, which\ninsisted upon his return at some future period, and the Aztecs\nundoubtedly regarded the arrival of the strange white men as a\nfulfilment of this prophecy.\n\nTlaloc was the god of rain--an important deity for a country where a\ndroughty season was nothing less than a national disaster. His name\nsignifies 'the nourisher,' and from his seat among the mountains he\ndespatched the rain-bearing clouds to water the thirsty and sun-baked\nplains of Anahuac. He was also the god of fertility or fecundity, and in\nthis respect appears to have been analogous to the Egyptian Amsu or\nKhem, the ithyphallic deity of Panopolis. He was the wielder of the\nthunder and lightning, and the worship connected with him was even more\ncruel, if possible, than that of Huitzilopochtli. One-eyed and\nopen-mouthed, he delighted in the sacrifice of children, and in seasons\nof drought hundreds of innocents were borne to his temple in open\nlitters, wreathed with blossoms and dressed in festal robes. Should they\nweep, their tears were regarded as a happy augury for a rainy season;\nand the old Spanish chroniclers record that even the heartless Aztecs,\nused to scenes of massacre as they were, were moved to tears at the\nspectacle of the infants hurried, amid the wild chants of frenzied\npriests, to the maw of this Mexican Moloch.\n\nThe statues of Tlaloc were usually cut in a greenish-white stone to\nrepresent the colour of water. He had a wife, Chalchihuitlicue (the lady\nChalchihuit), and by her he possessed a numerous family which are\nsupposed to represent the clouds, and which bear the same name as\nhimself. At one of his festivals the priests plunged into a lake,\nimitating the sounds and motions of frogs, which were supposed to be\nunder the special protection of the water-god.\n\nXiuhtecutli (lord of fire), or Huehueteotl (the old god), was one of the\nmost ancient of the Mexican deities. He is usually represented as\ntypifying the nature of the element over which he had dominion, and in\nhis head-dress of green feathers, his blackened face, and the\nyellow-feathered serpent which he carried on his back, the different\ncolours observed in fire, as well as its sinuous and snake-like nature,\nare well depicted. Like Tezcatlipoca, he possessed a mirror, a shining\ndisc of gold, to show his connection with the sun, from which all heat\nemanated, and to which all heat was subject. And here it will be well to\nremind the reader of the statement made near the commencement of this\nchapter that the god _par excellence_, the sun, was more or less\nmanifested in all the principal deities of Anahuac; that in fact these\ndeities _were_ the sun in conjunction with some attribute of a totemic\nor naturalistic origin.\n\nThe first duty of an Aztec family when rising in the morning was to\nconsecrate to Xiuhtecutli a piece of bread and a libation of drink. He\nwas thus analogous to Vulcan, who, besides being the creator of\nthunderbolts and conflagration, was also the divinity of the domestic\nhearth. Once a year the fire in every Mexican house was extinguished,\nand was rekindled by friction before the statue of Xiuhtecutli by his\npriests.\n\nThe two principal goddesses of the Aztecs were Centeotl, the\nmaize-goddess, the Ceres of Mexico, and Tlazolteotl, the goddess of\nlove. The name Centeotl is derived from centli (maize) and teotl\n(divinity), and is often confounded with that of her son, who bore the\nsame name. Like the Virgin or the Egyptian Hes, she bears in her arms a\nchild, who is the young maize, who afterwards grows to bearded manhood.\nCenteotl was the goddess of sustenance, and was often represented as a\nmany-uddered frog, to typify the food-yielding soil. Her daughter,\nXilonen, was the tender ear of the maize. Appalling sacrificial rites\nwere celebrated in connection with the worship of this goddess, in which\nwomen were the principal victims. These are dealt with in the chapter on\nritual and ceremonial.\n\nTlazolteotl, the goddess of love, or, more correctly, of sensuality, was\nthe object concerning whom the deities of the Aztec Olympus waged a\nterrible war. Her abode was a lovely garden, where she dwelt surrounded\nby musicians and merrymakers, dwarfs and jesters. At one time she had\nbeen the spouse of Tlaloc, the rain-god, but had eloped with\nTezcatlipoca, and thus she probably represents nature, who in one season\nespouses the rain-god and in another the god of the cold season. The\nmyths concerning Tlazolteotl are most unsavoury, and consist chiefly of\ntales concerning her seductive prowess.\n\nMictlan was the Mexican Pluto. The name signifies 'Country of the\nNorth'--the region of waste and hunger and death, and was used both of\nthe place and the deity. There, surrounded by fearful demons\n(Tzitzimitles), he ruled over the shades of the departed much as did\nPluto, and, like his classical prototype, he possessed a consort, or\nrather consorts, since he had several wives. The representations of him\nnaturally give to him a most repulsive aspect, and he is usually\ndepicted in the act of devouring his victims.\n\nThe minor gods of the Aztecs were legion--indeed various authorities\nestimate their numbers from two hundred and sixty to two thousand--and\nof these it will only be possible to deal with a few of the more\nimportant.\n\nIxtlilton (brown one) was the god of healing, and was analogous to\nAEsculapius. The priests connected with his worship vended a liquor which\npurported to be a sort of 'cure-all.' Xipe (the bald) was the tutelar\ndeity of goldsmiths. He was, in reality, a form of Huitzilopochtli, and\nprobably indicated the idea that gold had some connection with the sun.\nMixcoatl (cloud serpent) was the spirit of the waterspout, and was\npropitiated rather than worshipped by the semi-savage mountaineers in\nthe vicinity of Mexico. Omacatl (double reed) was the god or spirit of\nmirth and festival. Yacatecutli (guiding lord) was the god of travellers\nand merchants. Indeed the commercial class among the Aztecs were more\nexact concerning his worship than in that of almost any other of their\ndeities. His symbol was the staff usually carried by the people of the\ncountry when on a journey, and this stick was an object of veneration\namong travellers, who usually prayed to it as representative of the god\nwhen evening brought their day's march to a close.\n\nThe Tepitoton, or diminutive deities, were household gods of the lares\nand penates type, and were probably connected with a species of\nShamanism, the origin of which may either have been prior to or\ncontemporary with the adoption of the worship of the greater gods.\nTheir existence might appear to suggest the presence of fetishism in the\nAztec religion, but the theory of a Shamanistic origin for these\nhousehold deities seems the more likely one.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE PRIESTHOOD AND RITUAL OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS\n\n\nThe resemblance of the Mexican priesthood to that of Ancient Egypt was\nvery marked. However, the influence of the priests among the people of\nAnahuac was even greater than that of the analogous caste among the\npeople of Khemi. Their system of conventual education permitted them to\nimpress their doctrines upon the minds of the young in that indelible\nmanner which secures unfaltering adhesion in later life to the dogmas so\ninculcated; and no doubt the ever-present fear of human sacrifice\nassisted them mightily in their dealings with the people. In short, they\nwere all-powerful, and the Mexican, accustomed to their influence from\nthe period of childhood to that of death, submitted unquestioningly to\ntheir rule in all things, spiritual and temporal.\n\nThe religious ethics of the Mexican priesthood were lofty and sublime\nin the extreme, and had but little in common with their barbarous\npractices. They had been borrowed from the more cultured Toltecs, who\nduring their sole tenure of Anahuac had evolved a moral code to which it\nwould be difficult to take exception. But although this exalted\nphilosophy had been adopted by the fierce and uncultured Aztecs, it had\nbecome so obscured by the introduction of cruel and inhuman rites and\ncustoms as to be almost no longer recognisable as the pure faith of the\nrace they had succeeded in the land. The germ and core of the Aztec\nreligion was the idea of the constant necessity of propitiating the gods\nby means of human sacrifice, and to this aspect of their religion we\nwill return later.\n\nWe have already seen that underlying the mythology of the ancient\nMexicans was the idea of a supreme Being, a 'Great Spirit.' In the rites\nof confession and absolution particularly was this Being appealed to in\nprayer, and the similarity of these petitions to those offered up by\nthemselves so impressed the monkish companions of the Spanish conquerors\nthat their astonishment is very evident in their writings. It is\nunlikely that these priests would admit a soul of goodness in the evil\nthing it was their business to stamp out; and their testimony in this\nrespect is of the highest value as evidence that the Aztec Religion\npossessed at least the germ of the eternal verities.\n\nThe Aztecs believed that eternity was broken up into several distinct\ncycles, each of several thousand years' duration. There would seem to\nhave been four of these periods, concerning the length and nature of\nwhich the old Spanish writers on the subject differ very materially. The\nconclusion of each was (according to the Mexican tradition) to witness\nthe extinction of humanity in one mighty holocaust, and the blotting out\nof the sun in the heavens. Whether this universal upheaval applied only\nto the sons of men, or, like the Teutonic Gotterdaemmerung, or the\nScandinavian Raegnarok, had an equal significance for the gods, is not\nclear. It is worth remarking, however, that it premises the mortal\nnature of the sun, and, therefore, the existence of a creative agency\nwith the ability to set another sun in its place.\n\nWith the Mexicans the question of a future life was a very nebulous one,\nthough perhaps no more so than with the ancient Greeks or Romans. There\nwas more than one paradise. Mictlan, the shadowy sombre place of the\ndead, was the resting-place of the majority, for the Aztecs fully\nbelieved that the higher realms of bliss were preserves for the\naristocracy where the lowly might not enter. And this, in passing, is\nperhaps an explanation of the marvellously speedy adoption of\nChristianity by the Mexican natives subsequent to the conquest of\nAnahuac. Of the higher realms of bliss the 'Mansion of the Sun' was\nperhaps the most desirable. There the principal pleasures consisted in\naccompanying the sun in his course, and the amusement of choral dancing.\nSouls in this paradise might also enter the bodies of humming-birds, and\nflit from flower to flower. The exercise of the chase lent to this place\nsomething of the character of a Valhalla, and we hear something of\nGargantuan banquets. Here, too, the blessed might animate the clouds,\nand float deliciously over the world they had quitted.\n\nThe paradise of Tlaloc was the special dwelling of those who had lost\ntheir lives by drowning, of sacrificed children, and of those who had\ndied of disease caused by damp or moisture. But two exceptions were made\nas regarded the souls of others, and these related to warriors slain in\nbattle, and women who had died in child-bed, who were permitted to enter\nparadise as having forfeited their lives in the service of the state.\n\nAll the science and wisdom of the country was embodied in the priestly\ncaste. The priests understood the education of the people, and so\nforcibly impressed their students with their knowledge of the occult\narts that for the rest of their lives they quietly submitted to priestly\ninfluence. The priestly order was exceedingly numerous, as is proved by\nthe fact that no less than five thousand functionaries were attached to\nthe great temple of Mexico, the rank and offices of whom were\napportioned with the most minute exactitude. The basis of the priesthood\nwas eminently aristocratic, and its supreme pontiff was known by the\nappellation of _Mexicatl Teohuatzin_, or 'Mexican Lord of Divine\nMatters.' Next in rank to him was the high priest of Quetzalcoatl, whose\nauthority was limited to his own priesthood, and who lived a life of\nstrict seclusion, not unlike that of the Grand Lama of Tibet. This was\nprobably a remnant of old Toltec practice. The pontiff seems to have\nwielded a very considerable amount of political power, and to have had a\nseat on the royal council.\n\nThe life of an Aztec priest was rigorous in the extreme. Fasting and\npenance bulked largely among his duties, and the idea of the\nimplacability of the gods which was current in the priesthood appears\nto have driven many priests to great extremes of self-inflicted torture.\nThey dressed entirely in black (with the exception of the caste of\nQuetzalcoatl, who were clothed in white), and their cloaks covered their\nheads, falling down at each side like a mantilla. Their hair was\npermitted to grow very long. They bathed every evening at sunset, and\nrose several times during the night for the purpose of paying their\ndevotions. Some of their orders permitted marriage, while others were\ncelibate, but all, without distinction, passed an existence of severe\nasceticism. As has been said, departmental duties were strongly marked.\nSome were readers, others musicians, while others again, probably the\nlower orders, attended to the sacred fires, and the more menial offices,\nthe grand duty of human sacrifice devolving upon the higher orders of\nthe prelacy alone.\n\nThere was also an order of females who were admitted to the practice of\nall the sacerdotal functions, omitting only that of human sacrifice.\nThese appear to have been more of the description of nuns than of\npriestesses. Fakirs and religious beggars also abounded, but these seem\nto have taken upon themselves mendicant vows for a space only.\n\nEducation was wholly sacerdotal. That is, though secular studies were\ncommunicated to the young, the principal part of their training\nconsisted of religious instruction. The schools were situated in the\ntemple precincts, and entering these at an early age the boys were\ninstructed by priests, and the girls by nuns. They resided within the\ntemple buildings, and those who did not, and who probably consisted of\nthe lower orders, were enrolled in a society called the\n_Telpochtiliztli_, which met every evening at sunset to perform choral\ndances in honour of Tezcatlipoca. A secondary school also existed,\ncalled the _Calmecac_, in which the lore of the priests and the reading\nof the hieroglyphs, astrology, and the kindred sciences were taught the\nyoung men, whilst the girls became experts in the weaving of costly\ngarments for the adornment of the idols, and the wear of the higher\norders of the hierarchy.\n\nWhen the boys and girls left the school at the age of fifteen they were\neither sent back to their families, or to public service, to which they\nwere often recommended by the priests. Others remained to become in\ntheir turn priests or nuns in different convents.\n\nSevere educational tests were required for entrance into the\npriesthood, and grades were many. The priests, we have seen, might\noccupy one of several ranks, and the nuns could become abbesses, or\nmerely retain the position of simple sisters, according to their\nambition and abilities. The lower ranks were designated\n_Cihuaquaquilli_, or 'lady herb-eaters,' while the higher orders were\nknown as _Cihuatlamacasque_, or 'lady deaconesses.'\n\nThe Spanish conquerors of Mexico were astonished to find among this\npeculiar people a number of rites which appeared in many respects\nanalogous to some of those practised by Catholics. Such were the use of\nthe cross as a symbol, communion, baptism, and confession. The cross,\nwhich was designated, strangely enough, 'Tree of our Life,' was merely\nthe symbol of the four winds, which were indeed the life of Anahuac. As\nregards confession and absolution, these were permitted to a person only\nonce in his existence, and that at a late period of life, as any\nrepetition of the pardoned offence was held to be inexpiable. Penance\nwas apportioned, and absolution given much in the same manner as in the\nRoman Catholic Church. There appears to have been more than one kind of\ncommunion. At the third festival of Huitzilopochtli they made an image\nof him in dough kneaded with the blood of infants, and divided the\npieces among themselves. In the case of Xiuhtecutli a similar image was\nplaced on the top of a tree, which, like our Christmas trees, had been\ntransported from the forest to the town, and when the tree was thrown\ndown and the image broken, the people scrambled for the pieces, which\nthey devoured.\n\nIn the rite of baptism the principal functionary was the midwife. She\ntouched the mouth and breast of the infant with water in the presence of\nthe assembled relations, and invoked the blessing of the goddess\nCihuatcoatl, who presided over childbirth (and who was a variant of\nCenteotl, the maize-goddess) upon it. But it is unlikely that she did so\nin the devoutly Christian language ascribed to her by Sahagun.\n\nAt death the corpse of a Mexican was dressed in the robes peculiar to\nhis guardian deity, and in this can be perceived an analogy to every\ndead Egyptian becoming an Osirian, or Osiris himself. Covered with paper\ncharms, as the Egyptian mummy was covered with metal or faience symbols,\nthe body was cremated, the ashes placed in an urn, and preserved in the\nhouse of the deceased. At the death of a rich man many slaves were\nsacrificed to bear him company in the world beyond the grave. This was\nobviously a meaningless survival of a prehistoric custom. Valuable\ntreasures were often buried with the wealthy, and a rich man would often\nhave his private chaplain sacrificed at his tomb to assist him with\nghostly counsel and comfort in the other world.\n\nAmong the ancient Mexicans every month was consecrated to some\nparticular deity, and in their calendar every day marked a celebration\nof some greater or lesser divinity. Those differed considerably in their\ncharacter. Some were light and joyous, and their ritual abounded in the\nuse of flowers and song. Others (and these, unhappily, were in the\nmajority) were stained with the hideousness of human sacrifice.\n\nThe temples of the Ancient Mexicans were very numerous. They were called\n_teocallis_,[4] or 'houses of God,' and were constructed by facing huge\nmounds of earth with brick and stone. They were pyramidal in shape, and\nbuilt in stages which grew smaller as the summit was reached. The bases\nof some of these teocallis were more than one hundred feet square. The\ngreat teocalli at Mexico, for example, was three hundred and\nseventy-five feet long at the base, and three hundred feet in width.\nIts height was over eighty feet. It consisted of five stages, each\ncommunicating with the other by means of a staircase which wound around\nthe entire edifice. In the case of some teocallis, however, the\nstaircase led directly up the western face of the building. At the top\ntwo towers, between forty and fifty feet in height, stood perched upon a\nbroad area. Inside these were kept the idols of the gods to whom the\nteocalli was sacred. Before these towers stood the stone of sacrifice,\nand two altars upon which the fires blazed night and day. In the city of\nMexico six hundred of these fires rendered any artificial illumination\nat night superfluous. Through the very construction of these temples all\nreligious services were of a public nature. In front of the great\nteocalli of Mexico stretched a court twelve hundred feet square, around\nwhich clustered the chapels of minor deities, and those captured from\nconquered peoples, as well as the dwellings and offices set apart for\nthe attendant priests.\n\nAlthough it appears that the Toltecs, the forerunners of the Aztecs in\nMexico, had at one period of their history been prone to human\nsacrifice, they had almost entirely discarded the practice at the time\nof their downfall. Some two hundred years before the coming of the\nSpaniards the Aztecs had adopted this abomination, and were in the habit\nof sparing the lives of immense numbers of prisoners of war solely for\nthe purpose of offering them up to the national gods. As their empire\nextended, these holocausts became greater and more common. On the\nteocalli of Mexico the Spaniards could count one hundred and thirty-six\nthousand human skulls piled in a horrid pyramid.\n\nOf the sacrifices the most important was that signifying the annual\ndemise of Tezcatlipoca. The most handsome of the captives who chanced to\nbe in the hands of the Aztecs was chosen for the purpose. It was\nnecessary that he should be without spot or blemish, as it was intended\nthat he should represent Tezcatlipoca himself. He was taken in hand by a\nbody of tutors, who instructed him how to play his allotted part with\nthe dignity and grace to be expected from a divine being. Arrayed in\nmagnificent robes typical of his godhead, and surrounded by an\natmosphere of flowers and incense, he led the life of a voluptuary for\nthe space of nearly a year. On the occasion of his appearance in the\npublic streets he was received by the populace with all the homage due\nto a god, but was strictly guarded, nevertheless, by eight pages, who\nin reality were merely gaolers. Within a month's time of his immolation\nfour beautiful girls were given him as wives, and he was feasted and\nfeted by the nobility as the incarnation of Tezcatlipoca.\n\nOn the day preceding the sacrifice the victim was placed on one of the\nroyal canoes, and accompanied by his four wives, was rowed to the other\nside of the lake. That evening his wives bade him farewell, and he was\nstripped of his gorgeous apparel. He was then conducted to a teocalli\nsome three miles from the city of Mexico. In scaling this he threw away\nthe wreaths of flowers with which he had been adorned, and broke in\npieces the musical instruments with which he had amused his hours of\ncaptivity. Crowds thronged from the city to behold the act of sacrifice.\nOn reaching the summit of the teocalli the victim was met by six\npriests, five of whom led him to the sacrificial stone, a great block of\njasper with a convex surface. On this he was placed by the five priests,\nwho secured his head, arms, and legs, whilst the officiating priest,\nrobed in a blood-red mantle, dexterously opened his breast with a sharp\nflint knife. He then inserted his hand into the gaping wound, and\ntearing out the still palpitating heart, held it aloft towards the sun.\nThen he cast the bleeding offering into a vessel containing burning\ncopal, which lay at the feet of the image of Tezcatlipoca. A species of\nsermon was then delivered by one of the priests to the people in which\nhe drew a moral from the fate of the victim illustrative of the\ninevitable conclusion of all human pleasure by the hand of death.\n\nHuitzilopochtli had also a representative sacrificed every year who had\nto take part in a sort of war-dance immediately before his immolation,\nand a woman was annually sacrificed to Centeotl, the maize-goddess.\nBefore her death she took part in several symbolic representations which\nwere expressions of the various processes in the growth of the harvest.\nThe day before her sacrifice she sowed maize in the streets, and on the\narrival of midnight she was decapitated and flayed. A priest arrayed\nhimself in the still warm skin and engaged in mimic combat with soldiers\nwho were scattered through the streets. Part of the skin was then\ncarried to the temple of Centeotl the Son, where a priest made a mask of\nit in the likeness of the presiding deity, and afterwards sacrificed\nfour captives in honour of the occasion. The skin was then carried to\nthe frontiers of the empire, and buried. It was supposed that its\npresence there acted as a talisman against invasion.\n\nWe have before described the sacrifices of children to Tlaloc. Even more\ngruesome were the awful doings at the festival of Xiuhtecutli, when the\nunhappy victims were half-roasted and finally despatched by having their\nhearts torn out. Cannibal feasts often followed these sacrifices--feasts\nwhich were the more horrible in that they were accompanied by all the\naccessories of a high standard of civilisation; but it must be\nremembered that their purport was essentially symbolic, and in no way\npartook of the nature of the orgies of flesh-famished savages.\n\nWhen the great temple of Huitzilopochtli was dedicated in 1486, the\nchain of victims sacrificed on that occasion extended for the length of\ntwo miles. In this terrible massacre the hearts of no less than seventy\nthousand human beings were offered up! In the light of such appalling\nwickedness it is difficult to blame the Spanish conquerors of Anahuac in\ntheir zeal to blot out the worship of the deities whom they designated\n'horrible demons.' These victims were nearly always captive warriors of\nrival nations, and it was on rare occasions only that native Mexicans\nwere led to the stone of sacrifice unless, indeed, they were\nmalefactors.\n\nThe great jubilee festival, which was celebrated every fifty-two years\nthroughout the empire, marked the coincidence of four times thirteen\nsolar and four times thirteen lunar years. This the Mexicans called a\n'sheaf of years,' and when the first day of the fifty-third year dawned,\nthe ceremony of _Toxilmolpilia_, or 'the binding-up of years,' was held.\nPriests and people gazed feverishly at the Pleiades to see if they would\npass the zenith. Should they do so the world would hold on its course\nfor another similar period; if not, extinction would instantly follow.\nFire was kindled upon a victim's breast by the friction of wood, and\nwhenever it was alight the prisoner's heart was plucked out, and along\nwith his body was consumed upon a pile of wood kindled by the new fire.\nAs the flames ascended, and it was seen that the Pleiades had crossed\nthe zenith, cries of joy burst from the assembled people below. Faggots\nwere lighted at the sacred pyre, and domestic fires rekindled from them.\nHumanity had been respited for a generation.\n\nIt is difficult to believe that a people so imbrued in a religion of\nbloodshed could have been punctilious in matters of morality, and it is\nstill more difficult to believe the evidence of Sahagun and Clavigero\nconcerning their personal piety. It seems certain, however, that as a\nrace the Aztecs were austerely moral, pious, truth-loving, and loyal as\ncitizens, and even the sanguinary priests do not appear to have reaped\nany benefit from their terrible offices. All the evidence would seem to\nshow that it was the belief in the existence of cruel and insatiable\ngods which rendered the priests and people alike callous and insensible\nto the taking of human life, and this is the more easily understood when\nit is remembered that the Aztecs had at a comparatively late period\nemerged from a state of migratory savagery into the heirship of an\nancient and complex civilisation.[5]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS\n\n\nThe civilisation of the Ancient Peruvians, although in many ways\nanalogous to that of the Aztecs, was strangely dissimilar in some of its\naspects. The peoples of the two empires were totally unaware of each\nother's existence, and were divided by dense tracts of mountain, plain,\nand forest, where the most intense savagery prevailed. It seems probable\nthat the Peruvian culture had its origin in the region of Lake Titicaca,\nand that it was of an indigenous character admits of little doubt. Like\nthe Mexicans, the Peruvians had displaced an older civilisation and an\nolder race. What was the nature of that civilisation, and thanks to what\npeople it flourished, it is at present impossible to say. Scattered over\nthe surface of the Peruvian slope are Cyclopean ruins, the sole remnants\nof the works of a more primeval people. These ruins are chiefly to be\nfound in the neighbourhood of Lake Titicaca and Cuzco, the ancient\nmetropolis of the Incas. Whatever may have been the architectural\nability of this ancient people, the usurpers had little to learn from\nthem in this respect, or, more strictly speaking, having borrowed their\nmethods, continued faithful to them. The temples and mansions of the\nPeruvians were massive and handsome, but for the most part covered only\nwith a thatch of Indian maize straw. They made long, straight,\nmacadamised roads which they pushed with surprising engineering skill\nthrough tunnelled mountains, spanning seemingly impassable gorges with\nmarvellously constructed bridges. The temples and the palaces of the\nIncas were adorned with gold and silver ornaments of fabulous value and\nskilful design. Sumptuous baths, supplied with hot and cold water by\nmeans of pipes laid in the earth, were to be found in the houses of the\naristocracy, and a high state of comfort and luxury prevailed.\n\nTo describe the social polity of the Peruvians is to describe their\nreligion, for the two were one and the same. The empire of Peru was the\nmost absolute theocracy the world has ever seen, much more absolute, for\nexample, than that of Israel under the Judges. The Inca was the direct\nrepresentative of the sun upon earth. He was the head, the very\nkeystone of a socio-religious edifice to equal which in intricacy of\ndesign and organisation the entire history of man has no parallel to\noffer.\n\nThe Inca was the head of a colossal bureaucracy which had ramifications\ninto the very homes of the people themselves. Thus after the Inca came\nthe governors of provinces, who were of the blood-royal; then officials\nwere placed above ten thousand families, a thousand families, a hundred,\nand even ten families, upon the principle that the rays of the sun enter\neverywhere. Personal freedom was a thing unknown. Each individual was\nunder direct surveillance, as it were, branded and numbered like the\nherds of llamas which were the special property of the sun incarnate,\nthe Inca. Rules and regulations abounded in a manner unheard of even in\npolice-ridden Prussia, and no one had the opportunity in this vast\nsocial machine of thinking or acting for himself. His walk in life was\nmarked out for him from the time he was five years of age, and even the\nwoman he was to marry was selected for him by the responsible officials;\nthe age at which he should enter the matrimonial state being fixed at\nnot earlier than twenty-four years in the case of a man and eighteen in\nthat of a woman. Even the place of his birth was indicated by a coloured\nribbon (which he dared not remove) tied round his head.\n\nThe Peruvian legend of the coming to earth of the sun-race, of whom the\nInca was held to be the direct descendant, told how two beings, Manco\nCapac and Mama Ogllo or Oullo, the offspring of the Sun and Moon,\ndescended from heaven in the region of Lake Titicaca. They had received\ncommands from their parent, the sun-god, to traverse the country until\nthey came to a spot where a golden wedge they possessed should sink into\nthe ground, and at this place to found a culture-centre. The wedge\ndisappeared at Cuzco, which Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega (the most\nimportant of the ancient chroniclers of Peru) interprets as meaning\n'navel,' or, in twentieth-century idiom, 'Hub of the Universe,' but\nwhich possibly possesses a more exact rendering in the words 'cleared\nspace.'\n\nThe city founded, Manco Capac instructed the men in the arts of\ncivilisation, and his consort busied herself in teaching the women the\ndomestic virtues, as weaving and spinning. Leaving behind them as\nearthly representatives their son and daughter, they reascended to\nheaven, and from the children they left upon earth the race of Incas\nwas said to have sprung. Thus it was that all Peruvian monarchs must\nmarry their sisters, as it was not permissible to defile the offspring\nof the blood of the Son by mortal union--the breaking of which law\nassisted in the ruin of the Peruvian empire.\n\nLike the Mexicans, the Peruvians appear to have acknowledged the\nexistence of a Supreme Being. The attributes of this Supreme Being,\nthrough the fostering care of a special cultus, soon developed the rank\nof deities, each having a strongly marked identity.\n\nThe most important individual deities next to the Sun were Viracocha and\nPachacamac, and these, curiously enough, were deities who had been\nadmitted to the Peruvian pantheon from a still older faith.\n\nThe name Viracocha was, besides being the specific appellation of a\ncertain deity, a generic name for divine beings. It signifies 'Foam of\nthe Water,' thus alluding to the legend that the god had arisen out of\nthe depths of Lake Titicaca. On his appearance from the sacred waters\nViracocha created the sun, moon, and stars, and mapped out for them the\ncourses which they were to hold in the heavens. He then created men\ncarved out of stone statues made by himself, and bade them follow him to\nCuzco. Arrived there he collected the inhabitants, and placed over them\none, Allca Vica, who subsequently became the ancestor of the Incas. He\nthen returned into Lake Titicaca, into the waters of which he\ndisappeared.\n\nIt is evident that this legend clashes strongly with that of the solar\norigin of the Incas, and it would seem to have been put forward by a\nrival priesthood which had survived the introduction of solar worship,\nbut which was not powerful enough to combat it.\n\nViracocha was usually represented as a god bearded with water-rushes,\nand this hirsute adornment is so far significant in that it may have\nsome connection with the older legends of the Peruvians which tell of a\nwhite and bearded race which advanced to Cuzco, the centre of\ncivilisation, from the regions of Lake Titicaca. He is also spoken of as\nbeing without flesh or bone, yet swift in movement, and this description\ndoes not leave us long in doubt as to his real nature. He was the\nwater-god, the fertiliser of all plant life. In the somewhat arid\ncountry surrounding Lake Titicaca that great body of water would\nundoubtedly come to be regarded as the generator of all fertility to be\nfound in its vicinity. Hence Viracocha's origin. His consort was his\nsister Cocha, the lake itself. He, like Tlaloc among the Mexicans, had a\npenchant for human sacrifice, but his worship was by no means so\nsanguinary as was that of his Mexican prototype.\n\nWe must then regard Viracocha as the god of a faith anterior to the\nsun-worship which obtained in Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest.\nBut we shall also be forced to admit that Pachacamac (whose name we\nbracketed with that of Viracocha a few paragraphs back), although a\nmember of the Peruvian pantheon and a great god, was but there on\nsufferance. The name Pachacamac signifies 'earth-generator,' and the\nprimitive centres of the worship of this deity were in the valleys of\nLurin and Rimac, near the city of Lima. In the latter once stood a great\ntemple to Pachacamac, the ruins of which, alone, now remain. Pachacamac\nwould seem to have borne the reputation of a great civiliser, and to\nsome extent he usurped the claims of Viracocha to this honour.\nViracocha, so runs the legend, was defeated by him in combat, and fled,\nwhereupon the victor created a new world more to his liking by the\nsimple expedient of transferring the race of men then upon earth into\nwild animals, and creating a new and higher humanity. He was also a god\nof fertility, as on the remains of his temples fishes are to be found\nevidently symbolising this attribute.\n\nThe hostility of Pachacamac and Viracocha has a mythical significance.\nPachacamac was the god of volcanoes, earthquakes, and subterranean fire,\nand was therefore hostile to water. His worship was much more mysterious\nthan that of Viracocha. The Peruvians, in fact, regarded Pachacamac as a\ndreaded and unseen deity, at whose mutterings in the centre of the earth\nthey prostrated themselves in dread. Rimac, indeed, where the worship of\nthis god had its focus, means 'the speaker,' 'the murmurer,' and a kind\nof oracular character appears ultimately to have been associated with\nthe name of this terrible deity, who on occasion demanded to be appeased\nby human sacrifice.\n\nThe myth of Pacari Tambo, the 'house of the dawn,' a legend of the\nCollas, a tribe of mountaineers dwelling to the south-west of Cuzco,\nthrows some light on this strife between Viracocha and Pachacamac. Four\nbrothers and sisters (runs the legend) issued one day from the caverns\nof Pacari Tambo. The eldest ascended a mountain, and cast stones to all\nthe cardinal points of the compass to show that he had taken possession\nof the land. The other three were averse to this, especially the\nyoungest, who was the most cunning of all. By dint of persuasion he\nmanaged to get the obnoxious brother to enter a cave. As soon as he had\ndone so he closed the mouth of the cave with a great stone, and\nimprisoned him there for ever. He then, on pretence of seeking his lost\nbrother, persuaded the second to ascend a high mountain, from which he\ncast him, and, as he fell, by dint of magic art changed him into a\nstone. The third brother, having no desire to share the fate of the\nother two, then fled. The first brother appears to be the oldest\nreligion, that of Pachacamac; the second, that of an intermediate\nfetishism, or stone worship; and the third, Viracocha. The fourth is the\nworship of the Sun, pure and simple, the youngest brother, but the\nvictor over the other older faiths of the land. This is proved by the\ncircumstance that the name applied to the youngest brother is Pirrhua\nManca, an equivalent to that of Manco Capac, the Son of the Sun.\n\nThis, however, does not altogether tally with what might be called the\n'official' legend, the myth promulgated by the Incas themselves.\nAccording to this the Sun had three sons, Viracocha, Pachacamac, and\nManco Capac. This stroke of policy at once blended all three religions;\nbut by another stroke of politic genius, the earthly power was vested in\nManco Capac, the other two deities being placed in subordinate\npositions, where they were concerned chiefly with the workings of\nnature. To Manco Capac, and his representatives, the Incas, alone, was\nleft the dominion of mankind.\n\nWe will now pass to a consideration of the minor deities of the Peruvian\nmythology. These were numerous, and had been mostly evolved from nature\nforces and natural phenomena. Among the more important was Chasca, the\nplanet Venus, the 'long-haired,' the 'Page of the Sun.' Cuycha, the\nrainbow, was the servant of the sun and moon. He was represented in a\nprivate chapel of his own, contiguous to that of the Sun, by large\nplates of gold so fired as to represent the various colours in the\nprismatic hues of the rainbow. Fire, also, was an object of profound\nveneration with the Peruvians, derived, as it was believed to be, from\nthe sun. Its preservation was scrupulously attended to in the Temple of\nthe Sun and in the House of the Virgins of the Sun, of which an account\nwill be found in the next chapter.\n\nCatequil was the god of thunder. He is represented as possessing a club\nand sling, the latter evidently being intended to symbolise the\nthunderbolt. He was a servant of the Sun, and had three distinct\nforms--Chuquilla (thunder), Catuilla (lightning), and Intiallapa\n(thunderbolt). Temples were erected to him in which children and llamas\nwere sacrificed at his altars. The Peruvians had, and still have, a\ngreat dread of thunder, and sought to pacify Catequil in every possible\nmanner. Their children were sacred to him as the supposed offspring of\nthe lightning.\n\nWe now descend gradually and almost insensibly in the scale of deism,\nuntil little by little we reach a condition of gross idolatry, not far\nremoved from that still practised by many African tribes. Here we find\neven vegetables adored as symbols of sustenance. The potato was\nglorified under the appellation of acsumama, and the maize as saramama.\nTrees partook of divine attributes, and we seem to see in this condition\nof things a state analogous to the reverence paid by the early Greeks\nand Romans to Sylvanus and his train, and the vivification of trees by\nthe presence within them of dryads.\n\nCertain animals were treated with much reverence by the Peruvians. Thus\nwe find the serpent, especially Urcaguay, the keeper of subterranean\ngold, an object of great veneration. The condor or vulture of the Andes\nMountains was the messenger or Mercury of the Sun, and he held the same\nplace on the sceptre of the Incas as the eagle on the sceptre of the\nEmperor of Germany or Russia. Whales and sharks were also worshipped by\nthe people who lived near the sea.\n\nBut in all this nature and animal worship it is difficult to detect a\ntotemic origin.[6] The basis of totemism is the idea of blood-kinship\nwith an animal or plant, which idea in the course of generations evolves\ninto an exaggerated respect, and finally (under conditions favourable\nfor development) into a full-blown mythology. At first it would appear\nas if the perfect organisation of the Peruvian state and its peculiar\nmarriage laws had originated in a condition of totemism; but had\ntotemism ever entered into the constitution of the Peruvian religion at\nany period of its development, it would have left as deep an impression\nupon it as it did in the case of the Egyptian religion--that is, some of\nthe more important deities would have betrayed a totemic origin. That\nthey betray an origin wholly naturalistic there is no room for doubt.\nAnd here the root difference between the Mexican and Peruvian\nmythologies may be pointed out--that although both systems had grown up\nfrom various constituents grouping themselves around the central worship\nof the Sun, the constituents of the Aztec religion were almost wholly\ntotemic, whereas those of the Peruvian religion were naturalistic.[7]\n\nBut the factor of fetishism was not wanting in the construction of the\nPeruvian religion. All that was sacred, from the sun himself to the tomb\nof a righteous person, was _Huaca_, or sacred. The chief priest of Cuzco\nwas designated Huacapvillac, or 'he who speaks with sacred beings,' but\nthe principal use to which the term _Huaca_ was put was in reference to\nobjects of metal, wood, and stone, which cannot be better described than\nas closely resembling those African fetishes so common in our museums.\nThese differed considerably in size. The reverence for them was probably\nof prehistoric origin, and in this cultus we have the second brother\nwhom Pirrhua Manca changed into a stone. They were believed by the\nPeruvians to be the veritable dwelling-places of spirits. Many of these\nHuacas were public property, and had gifts of flocks of llamas dedicated\nto them. The majority, however, were private property.\n\nIt will be necessary to mention one more deity. This is Supay, god of\nthe dead, who dwelt in a dreary underworld. He was the Pluto of Peruvian\nmythology, and is usually portrayed as an open-mouthed monster of\nvoracious appetite, into whose maw are thrown the souls of the departed.\n\nFor the study of the worship of old Peru the materials are less\nplentiful than in the case of the Mexican mythology. Stratum upon\nstratum of belief is discovered, like those in the ruins of some ancient\ncity where each yard of earth holds the story of a dynasty. To the\nstudent of comparative religion an exhaustive study of the complex\nmythology of the ancient Peruvians offers an almost unparalleled\nopportunity for comparison with and elucidation of other mythologies,\nsince in it the process of its evolution is exhibited with greater\nclearness than in the case of any other belief, ancient or modern.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nPERUVIAN RITUAL AND WORSHIP\n\n\nWith the Peruvians, as with the Mexicans, paradise was a preserve of the\naristocrats. The poor might languish in the gloomy shades of the Hades\npresided over by Supay, Lord of the Dead, but for the Incas and their\nimmediate relatives, by whom was embraced the entire nobility, the\nMansions of the Sun were retained, where they might dwell with the Sun,\ntheir father, in undisturbed felicity. In a community where everything\nwas ordered with military exactitude, sin meant disobedience, and\nconsequently death. Indeed it took the form of direct blasphemy against\nthe Inca, and was thus stripped of the purely ethical sense it holds for\na free population. The sinner expiated his crime at once, and was\nconsigned to the grey shades of the underworld, there to pass the same\nnebulous existence as his more meritorious companions. Some writers upon\nPeru refer to a belief on the part of the people in a place of\nretribution where the wicked would expiate their offences by ages of\narduous toil. But there is little ground for the acceptance of these\nstatements.\n\nStrictly speaking, there was no priesthood in Peru. The ecclesiastical\ncaste consisted of the Inca and his relatives, who were also known as\nIncas. These assumed all the principal positions in the national\nreligion, but were unable, of course, to fill all the lesser provincial\nposts. These were undertaken by the priests of the local deities, who\nwere at the same time priests of the imperial deities, a policy which\npermitted the conquered peoples to retain their own form of worship, and\nat the same time led them to recognise the paramountcy of the religion\nof the Incas. Nothing could be more intense than the devotion shown by\nall ranks of the population to the person of the Inca. He was the sun\nincarnate upon earth, and his presence must be entered with humble mien\nand beggarly apparel, and a further show of humility must also be made\nby carrying a bundle upon the back.\n\nThe High Priest, who has been already alluded to as holding the title of\nHuacapvillac, or 'He who converses with divine beings!' also held the\nmore general one of Villac Oumau, or 'Chief Sacrificer.' He derived his\nposition solely from the Inca, but made all inferior appointments, and\nwas answerable to the monarch alone. He was invariably an Inca of\nexalted rank, as were all the priests who officiated at Cuzco, the\ncapital. Only those ecclesiastics of the higher grades wore any\ndistinguishing garb, the lower order dressing in the same manner as the\npeople.\n\nThe existence of a Peruvian priest was an arduous one. It was necessary\nfor him to master a ritual as complex as any ever evolved by a\nhierarchy. At regular intervals he was relieved by his fellow-priests,\nwho were organised in companies, each of which took duty for a specified\nperiod of the day or night. The duties of the Peruvian priesthood,\nwhilst even more exacting than that of the Mexican, did not appear to\nhave been lightened in a similar manner by the acquirement of knowledge,\nor by mental exercise of any description, and this may be partly\naccounted for by the fact that the art of writing was discouraged among\nthem, probably on the assumption that the whole duty of man culminated\nin unfailing obedience to the Inca and his representatives, and that the\nacquirement of further knowledge was the work of supererogation.\n\nIt is deeply interesting to notice (isolated as was everything Peruvian)\nthat it was in this far corner of America that the native evolution of\nthe temple took place, as distinguished from the altar or teocalli.\nOriginally the Peruvian priesthood had adopted that pyramidal form of\nstructure now familiar to us as that in use by the Mexicans, but as time\nwent on they began to roof over these high altars, and this practice at\nlength culminated in the erection of huge temples like that at Cuzco.\n\nThe great temple of Cuzco, known as _Coricancha_, or 'The Place of\nGold,' was the greatest and most magnificent example of Peruvian\necclesiastical architecture. The exterior gave an impression of\nmassiveness and solidity rather than of grace. Round the outer\ncircumference of the building ran a frieze of the purest gold, and the\ninterior was profusely ornamented with plates of the same metal. The\ndoorways were formed from huge monoliths, and the whole aspect of the\nbuilding was Cyclopean. In the dressing of stone and the fitting of\nmasonry the Peruvians were expert, and the placing of immense blocks of\nstone appears to have had no difficulties for them. So accurately indeed\nwere these fitted that the blade of a knife could not be inserted\nbetween them. Inside the Temple of the Sun was placed a great plate of\ngold, upon which was engraved the features of the god of the luminary,\nand this was so placed that the rays of the rising sun fell full upon\nit, and bathed it in a flood of radiance. The scintillations from a\nthousand gems, with which its surface was enriched, lent to it a\nbrilliance which eye-witnesses declare to have been almost\ninsupportable. Enthroned around this dazzling object were the mummified\nbodies of the monarchs of the Inca dynasty, giving to the place an air\nof holy mystery which must have deeply impressed the pious and simple\npeople. The roof was composed of rafters of choice woods, but was merely\ncovered in by a thatching of maize straw. The principle of the arch had\nnever been thoroughly grasped by the Peruvians, and that of adequate\nroofing appears to have been equally unknown to them.\n\nSurrounding this, the principal temple, were others dedicated to the\nmoon; Cuycha, the rainbow; Chasca, the planet Venus; the Pleiades; and\nCatequil, the thunder-god. In that of the moon, the mother of the Incas,\na plate of silver, similar to that which represented the face of the sun\nin his own sanctuary, was placed, and was surrounded by the mummified\nforms of the dead queens of the Incas. In that of Cuycha, the rainbow,\nas already explained, a golden representation of the arch of heaven was\nto be found, and the remaining buildings in the precincts of the great\ntemple were set apart for the residences of the priests.\n\nThe most ancient of the temples of Peru was that on the island of\nTiticaca, to which extraordinary veneration was paid. Everything in\nconnection with it was sacred in the extreme, and in the surrounding\nmaize-fields was annually raised a crop which was distributed among the\nvarious public granaries, in order to leaven the entire crop of the\ncountry with sanctity.\n\nAll the utensils in use in these temples were of solid gold and silver.\nIn that of Cuzco twelve large jars of silver held the sacred grain, and\ncensers, ewers, and even the pipes which conducted the water-supply\nthrough the earth to the temple, were of silver. In the surrounding\ngardens, the hoes, spades, and other implements in use were also of\nsilver, and hundreds of representations of plants and animals executed\nin the precious metals were to be found in them. These facts are vouched\nfor by numerous eye-witnesses, among whom was Pedro Pizarro himself, and\nsubsequent historians have seen no reason to regard their descriptions\nas in any way untrustworthy.\n\nAs in Mexico, so in Peru, the Spanish conquerors were astonished to find\namong the religious customs of the people practices which appeared to\nthem identical with some of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic faith.\nAmong these were confession, communion, and baptism. Confession appears\nto have been practised in a somewhat loose and irregular manner, but\npenance for ill-doing was apportioned, and absolution granted. At the\nfestival of Raymi, which we will later examine, bread and wine were\ndistributed in much the same manner as that prescribed in Christian\ncommunities. Baptism also was practised. Some three months after birth\nthe child was plunged into water after having received its name. The\nceremony, however, appears to have partaken more of the nature of an\nexorcism of evil spirits than of a cleansing from original sin.\n\nLike the ancient Egyptians, the Peruvians practised the art of embalming\nthe dead, but it does not appear that they did so with any idea in view\nof corporeal resurrection as did the former. As to the method by which\nthey preserved the remains of the dead, authorities are not agreed,\nsome believing that the cold of the mountains to which the corpses were\nsubjected was sufficient to produce a state of mummification, and others\nthat a process akin to that of the Ancient Egyptians was gone through.\n\nBurnt offerings were very popular among the Peruvians. They were chiefly\nmade to the sun, and were, in general, not unlike those made by the\nSemites.\n\nAs with the Mexicans, the sacred dance was a striking feature of the\nPeruvian religion. These choral dances were brought to a very high state\nof perfection, and in the case of the common people were often wild and\nfull of the fire of abandoned fanaticism. The Incas, however, possessed\na dance of their own, which was sufficiently grave and stately. At great\nfestivals two choral dances and hymns were rendered to the sun, each\nstrophe of which ended with the cry of _Hailly_, or 'triumph.' Some of\nthose Peruvian hymns were preserved in the work of a Spanish composer,\nwho in 1555 wrote a mass, into the body of which he introduced these\ncurious waifs of American melody. That choral dances are still in favour\nwith the aborigines of Peru is proved by the evidence of Baron Eland\nNordenskjoeld, who arrived (August 1907) from an eight months'\nethnological expedition to some of the Andes tribes. He states that the\n'so-called civilised Indians--the Quichuas and Aymaras--living around\nTiticaca ... have retained many customs unaltered or but slightly\nmodified since the time of the Incas.... Thus it was found that the\nIndians often worship Christ and the Virgin Mary by dances, in which the\nsun is used as the symbol for Christ, and the moon for the Virgin Mary.'\n\nWith the Peruvians each month had its appropriate festival. The\nsolstices and equinoxes were of course the occasions of the most\nremarkable of these, and four times a year the feast of Raymi or the\ndance was celebrated with all the pomp and circumstance of which this\nstrange and bizarre civilisation was capable. The most important of\nthese was held in June, when nine days were given up to the celebration\nof the Citoc Raymi, or gradually increasing sun. For three days previous\nto this event all fasted, and no fire might be kindled in any house. On\nthe fourth great day the Inca, accompanied in procession by his court\nand the people, who followed _en masse_, proceeded to the great square\nto hail the rising sun. The scene must have been one of intense\nbrilliance. Clad in their most costly robes, and sheltered beneath\ncanopies of cunning feather-work in which the gay plumage of tropical\nbirds was aesthetically arranged, the vast crowd awaited the rising of\nthe sun in eager silence. When he came, shouts of joy and triumph broke\nfrom the multitude, and the cries of delight were swelled by the crash\nof wild melody from a thousand instruments. Louder and louder arose the\njoyous tumult, until topping the eastern mountains the luminary shone in\nfull splendour on his worshippers. The riot of sound culminated in a\nmighty paean of thanksgiving. Libations of maguey, or maize-spirit, were\nmade to the deity, after first having touched the sacred lips of the\nInca. Then marshalling itself once more in order of procession, all\npressed with one accord to the golden Temple of the Sun, where black\nllamas were sacrificed, and a new fire kindled by means of a concave\nmirror. Divested of their sandals the Inca and his suite spent some time\nin prayer. Occasionally a human victim--a maiden or a beautiful\nchild--was offered up in sacrifice, but happily this was a rare\noccurrence, and only took place on great public occasions, such as a\ncoronation, or the celebration of a national victory. These sacrifices\nnever ended in cannibal feasts, as did those of the Aztecs. Grain,\nflowers, animals, and aromatic gums were the usual sacrificial offerings\nof the Peruvians.\n\nThe Citua Raymi was the festival of the spring, and fell in September.\nIt was known as the Feast of Purification. The country must be purified\nfrom pestilence, and to secure this, round cakes, kneaded in the blood\nof children, were eaten. To secure this blood the children were merely\nbled above the nose, and not slaughtered, as with the more ferocious\nAztecs--almost an example of the substitution of the part for the whole.\nThese cakes were also rubbed upon the doorways, and the people smeared\nthem all over their bodies as a preventive against disease. The circuit\nof the state of Cuzco was then made by relays of armed Incas, who\nplanted their spears on the boundaries as talismans against evil. A\ntorchlight procession followed, after which the torches were cast into\nthe river as symbolic of the destruction of evil spirits.\n\nThe festival of the Aymorai, or harvest, fell in May, when a statue made\nof corn was worshipped under the name of Pirrhua, who seems to be an\nadmixture of Manco Capac and Viracocha in his role of fertiliser. The\nfourth great festival, Capac Raymi, fell in December, when the\nthunder-god shared the honours paid to the Sun. It was then that the\nyounger generation of Incas after a vigorous training received an honour\nequivalent to that of knighthood.\n\nThe Peruvians possessed a fully developed conventual system. A number of\nmaidens, selected for their beauty and their birth, were dedicated to\nthe deity as 'Virgins of the Sun.' Under the guidance of _mamacones_, or\nmatrons, these maidens were instructed in the nature of their religious\nduties, which chiefly consisted in the weaving of priestly garments and\ntemple-hangings. They also watched over the sacred fire which had been\nkindled at the feast of Raymi. No communication with the outside world\nwas permitted to them, and detection in a love-affair meant living\nburial, the execution of the lover, and the entire destruction of the\nplace of his birth. In the convent of Cuzco were lodged between one and\ntwo thousand maidens of the royal blood, and at a marriageable age these\nbecame brides of the Sun in his incarnate shape of the Inca, the most\nbeautiful being selected for the harem of the monarch.\n\nSorcery and divination were frequently employed by the Peruvians, and\nthe _Huacarimachi_, 'They who make the gods speak,' were held in great\nveneration by the ignorant masses. The oracles in the valleys of Lima\nand Rimac were much resorted to, and auguries of all descriptions were\nin popular favour.\n\nThe Peruvians were ignorant of morality as we appreciate the term. That\nthey were, however, a most moral people there is every evidence. But as\nhas been before pointed out, all crime was a direct offence against the\nmajesty of the Inca, who, as viceroy of the Sun on earth, had been\nblasphemed by the breaking of his law. Under such a regime the true\nsignificance of sin was bound to be obscured, if not altogether lost.\nTerror took the place of conscience, and the necessity for implicit\nobedience gave no scope to the true moral sense--probably to the\ndetriment of the entire community.\n\nThe political and religious history of Peru is unique in the annals of\nmankind, and its study offers a startling instance of what prolonged\nisolation may work in the mind of man. That the Peruvian mind, isolated\nin a remote part of the world as it was, was never wholly blind to the\nexistence of a great and beneficent creative Power, the degradation of a\ncramping theocracy notwithstanding, is triumphant proof that the\nknowledge of that Power is a thing inalienable from the mind of man.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE QUESTION OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE UPON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA\n\n\nThe space at my disposal for dealing with this most difficult of all\nquestions is such as will enable me only to outline its salient points.\nAs I pointed out at the beginning of the first chapter, the question of\nthe origins of the American religions was almost identical with that of\nthe origins of the American race itself.\n\nThat the Red Man was not the aboriginal inhabitant of the American\ncontinent, but supplanted a race with Eskimo affinities, is extremely\nprobable. At all events, the 'Skraelings,' with whom the early Norse\ndiscoverers of America had dealings, were not described by them as in\nany way resembling the North American Indian of later times. If this be\ngranted--and Indian folklore would seem to strengthen the hypothesis--we\nmust then find some other home for the Red Man than the prairies of\nNorth-east America for the five centuries between the Norse and\nColumbian discoveries. He may, of course, have dwelt in the north-west\nof the continent, a solution of the problem which appears to me highly\nfeasible. That his affinities are Mongolian it would be absurd to\ndispute; but--and this is of supreme importance--these affinities are of\nso archaic an origin as to preclude all likelihood of any important or\nnumerous Asiatic immigration occurring for many centuries before either\nthe Norse or Columbian discovery.\n\nComing to a period within the ken of history, there is just the\npossibility that Mexico, or some adjacent country of Central America,\nwas visited by Asiatic Buddhist priests in the fifth century. The story\nis told in the Chinese annals of the wanderings of five Buddhist\npriests, natives of Cabul, who journeyed to America (which they\ndesignate Fusang) _via_ the Aleutian Islands and Kamchatka, a region\nthen well known to the Chinese. Their description of the country,\nhowever, is no more convincing than are the arguments of their\nprotagonist, Professor Fryer of San Francisco, who sees Asiatic\ninfluence in various elephant-headed gods and Buddha-esque statuary in\nthe National Mexican Museum. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon\nthat any foreign influence arriving in the American continent in\npre-Columbian times was not sufficiently powerful to have more than a\nmerely transitory influence upon the customs or religious beliefs of the\ninhabitants.\n\nThis leads us to the conclusion that the religions of Mexico and Peru\nwere of indigenous origin. Any attempt to prove them offshoots of\nChinese or other Asiatic religion on the basis of a similarity of art or\ncustom is doomed to failure.\n\nBut however satisfactory it may be to brush aside unsubstantial theories\nwhich aspire to the honour of facthood, it would be a thousand pities to\nignore the numerous intensely interesting myths which have grown up\nround the idea of foreign contact with the American races in\npre-Columbian times. Let us briefly examine these, and attempt to\ndiscover any point of contact between them and similar American myths.\n\nI have previously alluded to the myth of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was\na Mexican deity, but in reality he was one of the older pre-Aztecan gods\nof Anahuac. He is sometimes represented as a being of white complexion\nand fair-bearded, with blue eyes, and altogether of European appearance.\nIt will be remembered that on the entrance into Anahuac of Tezcatlipoca\nhe waged a war with that god in which he was worsted, and eventually\nforced to depart for 'Tlapallan' in a canoe, promising to return at some\nfuture date. It will also be recollected how the legend of\nQuetzalcoatl's return influenced the whole of Montezuma's policy towards\nthe Spanish conquistadores, and how the fear of his vengeance was ever\nbefore the Aztec priesthood. Quetzalcoatl, strangely enough, was reputed\nto have sailed for 'Tlapallan' from almost the identical spot first set\nfoot upon by Cortes on his arrival on the Mexican coast.\n\nThe Max Mueller school of mythologists see nothing in Quetzalcoatl but a\ngod of the wind. With them Minos was a myth. So was his palace with its\nlabyrinth until its recent discovery at Knossos. I am fain to see in\nQuetzalcoatl a real personality--a culture-hero; but I will suggest\nnothing concerning his non-American nationality. At the same time it\nwill be interesting to examine, firstly, those European myths which\nspeak of men who set out for America; and, secondly, those American\nmyths which speak of the existence of 'white men,' or 'white tribes,'\ndwelling upon the American continent.\n\nPassing over the sagas of the Norse discovery of America, which are by\nno means mythical, we come to the Celtic story of the finding of the\ngreat continent. When the Norsemen drove the Irish Celts from Iceland,\nthese fugitives sought refuge in 'Great Ireland,' by which, it is\nsupposed, is intended America. The Irish _Book of Lismore_ tells of the\nvoyage of St. Brendan, abbot of Cluainfert in Ireland, to an island in\nthe ocean destined for the abode of saints, and of his numerous\ndiscoveries during a seven years' cruise. The Norse sagas which tell of\nthis 'Great Ireland' speak of the language of its inhabitants as\n'resembling Irish,' but as the Irish were the nation with which the\nNorsemen were best acquainted, this 'resemblance' appears to smack of\nthe linguistic classification of the British sailorman who applies the\nterm 'Portugee' to all languages not his own. The people of this country\nwere attired in white dresses, 'and had poles borne before them on which\nwere fastened lappets, and who shouted with a loud voice.'\n\nBut another Celtic people claimed the honour of first setting foot upon\nAmerican soil. The Welsh Prince Madoc in the year 1170 sailed westwards\nwith a fleet of several ships, and coming to a large and fertile\ncountry, landed one hundred and twenty men. Returning to Wales he once\nmore set out with ten vessels, but concerning his further adventures\nPowell and Hakluyt are silent. Nor does the authority of the bard\nMeredith ap Rees concerning him rest upon any more substantial basis.[8]\nStories of Welsh-speaking Indians, too, are not uncommon. Two slaves\nwhom the Norsemen of 1007 sent on a foraging expedition into the\ninterior of Massachusetts were Scots, although their names--Haki and\nHakia--hardly sound Celtic.[9]\n\nInnumerable are the legends of 'white Indians'--the 'white Panis,'[10]\ndwelling south of the Missouri, the 'Blanco Barbus, or white Indians\nwith beards,' the Boroanes, the Guatosos of Costa Rica, the Malapoques\nin Brazil, the Guaranies in Paraguay, the Guiacas of Guiana, the\nScheries of La Plata--but modern anthropology scarcely bears out the\nstories of the 'whiteness' of these tribes. On a similar footing are the\ntravellers' tales concerning the existence of Indian Jews--to prove\nwhich Lord Kingsborough squandered a fortune and compiled a work on\nMexican antiquities the parallel of which has not been known in the\nentire history of bibliography.[11]\n\nMore convincing are the Mexican and Peruvian legends concerning the\nappearance of white and bearded culture-bringers. These legends are, it\nmust be admitted, shadowy enough, but are so persistent and resemble\neach other so closely as to give some grounds for the supposition that\nat some period in the history of Mexico or Peru a member or members of\nthe 'Caucasian' race may have stumbled into these civilisations through\nthe accidents of shipwreck. But it is exceedingly dangerous to premise\nanything of the sort; and, as has been said before, the influence of\nsuch wanderers could only have been infinitesimal.\n\nEnough, then, has been said to show that the origins of the religions of\nMexico and Peru could not have been of any other than an indigenous\nnature. Their evolution took place wholly upon American soil, and if\nresemblances appear in their systems to the mythologies or religions of\nAsia, they are explicable by that law now so well known to\nanthropologists and students of comparative religion, that, given\nsimilar circumstances, and similar environments, the evolution of the\nreligious beliefs of widely separated peoples will proceed upon similar\nlines.\n\n\n\n\nSHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\nMEXICAN MYTHOLOGY\n\n(_Those authorities marked with an asterisk are also applicable to the\nsubject of Peruvian Mythology_).\n\n  SAHAGUN, _Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana_. (English\n    translation edited for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham\n    in 1880.)\n\n  TORQUEMADA, _Los veynte y un libros Rituales y Monarchia Yndiana_.\n\n  IXTLILXOCHITL, _'Historia Chichimeca' and 'Relaciones' in_ Lord\n    Kingsborough's _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. ix.\n\n  PRESCOTT, _Conquest of Mexico_.\n\n  *HUMBOLDT, _Vues des Cordilleres et Monuments des Peuples de\n    l'Amerique_.\n\n  CLAVIGERO, _Storia antica del Messico_. (English translation by\n    Charles Cullen. London, 1787.)\n\n  BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, _Histoires des Nations civilisees du\n    Mexique et de l'Amerique-centrale_, and _Quatre Lettres sur le\n    Mexique_.\n\n  BANCROFT, _Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_.\n\n  KINGSBOROUGH, _Antiquities of Mexico_.\n\n  *REVILLE, _The Hibbert Lectures_, 1884.\n\n  *PAYNE, _History of the New World_, vols. i. and ii.\n\n  TYLOR, _Anahuac_.\n\n  BRINTON, _The Myths of the New World_.\n\n  WINSOR, _Narrative and Critical History of America_.\n\n\nPERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY\n\n  MONTESINOS, _Memoires historiques sur l'Ancien Perou_. (Translated\n    from the Spanish MS. in Ternaux-Compans, vol. xvii.)\n\n  GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA, _Comentarios reales_. (English translation\n    for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham. London, 1869, 1871.)\n\n  LACROIX, '_Perou_,' in vol. iv. of _L'Amerique_ in _L'Univers\n    Pittoresque_.\n\n  HUTCHINSON, _Two Years in Peru, with Explorations of its\n    Antiquities_. London, 1873.\n\n  PRESCOTT, _Conquest of Peru_, 1848 (or better, Sonnenschein's new\n    edition, or that in Everyman's Library).\n\n  MARKHAM, _A History of Peru_, 1892; and _Rites and Laws of the Incas_.\n\n  LORENTE, _Historia Antigua del Peru_, 1860-3.\n\n\n  The works of Prescott upon Mexico and Peru (which are perhaps the\n  most popular and accessible upon the antiquities of these\n  countries) are nevertheless sadly meagre in their accounts of the\n  respective mythologies of the Nahuatlaca and the Incas. Indeed in\n  each of them but a few pages is given to the faith of the\n  aborigines. In some later editions, however (notably in the recent\n  popular editions of Mr. Sonnenschein), excellent variorum notes\n  have been added by the editors. A great deal of Prescott's work is\n  now quite obsolete and misleading. The works of Mr. Brinton have\n  superseded them; but it is doubtful if Prescott will ever be\n  surpassed in narrative charm. The best English work on the subject\n  is Mr. Payne's _History of the New World called America_, cited\n  above, a work which is a veritable storehouse of knowledge upon\n  aboriginal America. These works are, however, rather too erudite\n  in tone for the general reader, and by no means easy to come by. A\n  most excellent catalogue of American historical and mythological\n  literature is published by Mr. Karl Hiersemann of Leipsic.\n\n\nPrinted by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh\nUniversity Press\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1] The fact of the rapid approximation of the European colonists to the\nAmerican type might, however, be quoted against this view.\n\n[2] It must be borne in mind that the science and arts of the Aztecs\nwere almost immediately lost in consequence of the intolerance of the\nSpanish Conquistadores.\n\n[3] An absolutely erroneous one.\n\n[4] The temple, with all its purlieus and courts, was named _teopan_;\nthe central pyramid, _teocalli_.\n\n[5] There is reason to believe, however, that the sacrifices of the\nAztecs were made not so much for the purpose of placating the gods as\nfor the imagined necessity of rejuvenating them and keeping them alive.\nOf some of the sacrifices, at least, this is certain.\n\n[6] The veneration of an animal or plant _which does not identify a\ntribe_ is not 'totemism' but 'naturalism,' or nature-worship.\n\n[7] The evidence of Garcilasso would seem to show that the early\nPeruvians possessed a totem-system; this, however, would appear to have\nbeen by some process totally eliminated. It will be seen that I\ndifferentiate between 'naturalism' and 'totemism.' 'Totemism' is the\nadoption of an animal or plant symbol by a _tribe_ originally for the\npurpose of identification. It later grows into the belief in\nblood-kinship with the symbol. 'Naturalism' is the worship of the wind,\nthe sun, or other natural phenomena.\n\n[8] The legend is the basis of some hundred of lines of bookish fustian\nby Southey, who follows Hakluyt in making Mexico the theatre of the\nprince's adventures.\n\n[9] _Antiquitates Americanae._ Were they Picts?\n\n[10] Pawnees.\n\n[11] This monumental work, which, apart from its letterpress, is\nexceedingly valuable in respect of numerous splendid plates representing\nAztec MSS., is in nine huge volumes, and was published in London in\n1831. Its original price was L175 coloured, and L120 uncoloured. Its\nnoble author sought to prove that the Mexicans were the Lost Ten Tribes\nof Israel.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\n  Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":16575}