GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.
GODS AND RELIGIOUS RITES OF CHIHUAHUA, SONORA, DURANGO, AND
SINALOA -- THE MEXICAN RELIGION, RECEIVED WITH DIFFERENT
DEGREES OF CREDULITY BY DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE PEOPLE --
OPINIONS OF DIFFERENT WRITERS AS TO ITS NATURE -- MONOTHEISM OF
NEZAHUALCOYOTL -- PRESENT CONDITION OF THE STUDY OF MEXICAN
MYTHOLOGY -- TEZCATLIPOCA -- PRAYERS TO HIM IN TIME OF
PESTILENCE, OF WAR, FOR THOSE IN AUTHORITY -- PRAYER USED BY AN
ABSOLVING PRIEST -- GENUINENESS OF THE FOREGOING PRAYERS --
CHARACTER AND WORKS OF SAHAGUN.
From the Pueblo cities let us now pass down into Mexico, glancing
first at the northern and north-western neighbors of this great people
that ruled on the plateau of Anáhuac. The Chihuahuans worshiped a
great god called by them the 'captain of heaven' and recognized a
lesser divinity as abiding in and inspiring their priests and
medicine-men. They rendered homage to the sun; and when any comet or
other phenomenon appeared in the heavens they offered sacrifice
thereto; their sacrifice being much after the Mexican fashion--fruits,
herbs, and such things as they had, together with blood drawn from
their bodies by the pricks of a thorn.[VI-1]
[Sidenote: GODS OF SONORA AND DURANGO.]
In Sonora--the great central heart of Mexico making its beatings more
and more clearly felt as we approach it nearer--the vague feelings of
awe and reverence with which the savage regards the unseen, unknown,
and unknowable powers, begin at last to somewhat lose their vagueness
and to crystallize into the recognition of a power to be represented
and symbolized by a god made with hands. The offerings thereto begin
also, more and more, to lose their primitive simple shape, and the
blood, without which is no remission of sins, stains the rude altar
that a more Arcadian race had only heaped with flowers and fruit. The
natives of Sonora bring, says Las Casas, "many deer, wolves, hares,
and birds before a large idol, with music of many flutes and other
instruments of theirs; then cutting open the animals through the
middle, they take out their hearts and hang them round the neck of the
image, wetting it with the flowing blood. It is certain that the only
offering made in all this province of Sonora was the hearts of
brutes."[VI-2] All this they did more especially in two great festivals
they had, the one at seed-time, the other at harvest; and we have
reason to rejoice that the thing was no worse, reason to be glad that
the hearts of brave men and fair women, and soft children not knowing
their right hand from their left, were not called for, as in the land
of the eagle and cactus banner, to feed that devil's Minotaur,
superstition.
The people of Durango called the principal power in which they
believed Meyuncame, that is to say, Maker of All Things; they had
another god, Cachiripa, whose name is all we know of him. They had
besides innumerable private idols, penates of all possible and
impossible figures; some being stone, shaped by nature only. In one
village they worshiped a great flint knife that their flint implements
of every kind might be good and sure. They had gods of storm and gods
of sunshine, gods of good and gods of evil, gods of everything in
heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.
Their idols received bloody sacrifices, not always of beasts; a bowl
containing beans and the cooked human flesh of an enemy was offered to
them for success in war.[VI-3]
Much of the preceding paragraph belongs also to Sinaloa or cannot be
exactly located more in the one province than in the other. The
Sinaloas are said to have venerated above all the other gods one
called Cocohuame, which is, being interpreted, Death. They worshiped
also a certain Ouraba,[VI-4] which is Valor, offering him bows, arrows,
and all kinds of instruments of war. To Sehuatoba, that is to say
Pleasure, they sacrificed feathers, raiment, beads of glass, and
women's ornaments. Bamusehua was the god of water. In some parts, it
is said, there was recognized a divine element in common herbs and
birds. One deity--or devil, as Ribas calls him with the exquisite
courtesy that distinguishes the theosophic historian--was the especial
patron of a class of wizards closely resembling the shamáns and
medicine-men of the north. No one seemed to know exactly the powers of
this deity, but everyone admitted their extent by recognizing with a
respectful awe their effects; effects brought about through the agency
of the wizards, by the use of bags, rattles, magic stones, blowings,
suckings, and all that routine of sorcery with which we are already
familiar. This deity was called Grandfather or Ancestor.[VI-5]
One Sinaloa nation, the Tahus, in the neighborhood of Culiacan, reared
great serpents for which they had a good deal of veneration. They
propitiated their gods with offerings of precious stones and rich
stuffs, but they did not sacrifice men. With an altogether
characteristic insinuation, the Abbé Domenech says, that though highly
immoral in the main, they so highly respected women who devoted
themselves to a life of celibacy, that they held great festivals in
their honor--leaving the reader to suppose that the Tahus had a class
of female religious who devoted themselves to a life of chastity and
were respected for that reason; the truth is found to be, on referring
to the author Castañeda--from whom apparently the abbé has taken this
half truth and whole falsehood--that these estimable celibate women
were the public prostitutes of the nation.[VI-6]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: THE MEXICAN RELIGION AND ITS HISTORIANS.]
The Mexican religion, as transmitted to us, is a confused and clashing
chaos of fragments. If ever the great nation of Anáhuac had its Hesiod
or its Homer, no ray of his light has reached the stumbling feet of
research in that direction; no echo of his harmony has been ever heard
by any ear less dull than that of a Zumárraga. It is given to few men
to rise above their age, and it is folly to expect grapes of thorns,
or figs of thistles; yet it is hard to suppress wholly some feelings
of regret, in poring upon those ponderous tomes of sixteenth and
seventeenth century history that touch upon Mexican religion; one
pities far less the inevitable superstition and childish ignorance of
the barbarian than the senility of his Christian historian and
critic--there was some element of hope and evidence of attainment in
what the half-civilized barbarian knew; but from what heights of
Athenian, Roman, and Alexandrian philosophy and eloquence, had
civilization fallen into the dull and arrogant nescience of the
chronicles of the clergy of Spain.
We have already noticed[VI-7] the existence of at least two schools of
religious philosophy in Mexico, two average levels of thought, the
one that of the vulgar and credulous, the other that of the more
enlightened and reflective. It has resulted from this that different
writers differ somewhat in their opinions with regard to the precise
nature and essence of that religion, some saying one thing and some
another. I cannot show this more shortly and--what is much more
important in a subject like this--more exactly, than by quoting a
number of these opinions:
"Turning from the simple faiths of savage tribes of America, to the
complex religion of the half-civilized Mexican nation, we find what we
might naturally expect, a cumbrous polytheism complicated by mixture
of several national pantheons, and beside and beyond this, certain
appearances of a doctrine of divine supremacy. But these doctrines
seem to have been spoken of more definitely than the evidence
warrants. A remarkable native development of Mexican theism must be
admitted, in so far as we may receive the native historian
Ixtlilxochitl's account of the worship paid by Nezahualcoyotl, the
poet-king of Tezcuco, to the invisible supreme Tloque-Nahuaque, he who
has all in him, the cause of causes, in whose star-roofed pyramid
stood an idol, and who there received no bloody sacrifice, but only
flowers and incense. Yet it would have been more satisfactory, were
the stories told by this Aztec panegyrist of his royal ancestors
confirmed by other records. Traces of divine supremacy in Mexican
religion are especially associated with Tezcatlipoca, 'Shining
Mirror,' a deity who seems in his original nature the Sun-god, and
thence by expansion to have become the soul of the world, creator of
heaven and earth, lord of all things, Supreme Deity. Such conceptions
may, in more or less measure, have arisen in native thought, but it
should be pointed out that the remarkable Aztec religious formulas
collected by Sahagun, in which the deity Tezcatlipoca is so prominent
a figure, show traces of Christian admixture in their material, as
well as of Christian influence in their style. In distinct and
absolute personality, the divine Sun in Aztec theology was
Tonatiuh[VI-8] whose huge pyramid-mound stands on the plain of
Teotihuacan, a witness of his worship for future ages. Beyond this the
religion of Mexico, in its complex system, or congeries of great gods,
such as results from the mixture and alliance of the deities of
several nations, shows the solar element rooted deeply and widely in
other personages of its divine mythology, and attributes especially to
the sun the title of Teotl, God."[VI-9]
[Sidenote: COMPLEXITY OF AZTEC THEOLOGY.]
"It is remarkable," says Professor J. G. Müller, "that the
well-instructed Acosta should have known nothing about the adoration
of a highest invisible God, under the name of Teotl. And yet this
adoration has been reported in the most certain manner by others, and
made evident from more exact statements regarding the nature of this
deity. He has been surnamed Ipalnemoan, that is, He through whom we
live, and Tloquenahuaque, that is, He who is all things through
himself. He has been looked upon as the originator and essence of all
things, and as especially throned in the high cloud-surrounded mountains.
Rightly does Wuttke contend against any conception of this deity as a
monotheistic one, the polytheism of the people being considered--for
polytheism and monotheism will not be yoked together; even if a
logical concordance were found, the inner spirits of the principles of
the two would still be opposed to each other. Another argument stands
also clearly out, in the total absence of any prayers, offerings,
feasts, or temples to or in the honor of this god. From this it is
evident that Teotl was not a god of the common people. Yet this, on
the other hand, cannot justify us--the so-frequently-occurring
statements of well-informed authorities being taken into account--in
denying in toto all traces of a pantheistic monotheism, as this latter
may easily spring up among cultivated polytheists as a logical result
and outcome of their natural religion. Nezahualcoyotl, the enlightened
king of Tezcuco, adored as the cause of causes, a god without an
image. The chief of the Totonac aborigines of Cempoallan had, if we
may credit the speech put in his mouth by Las Casas and Herrera, an
idea of a highest god and creator. This abstract idea has also here,
as in other parts of America, intertwined itself with the conception
of a sun-god. Hence the Mexicans named the sun-god pre-eminently
Teotl; and that enlightened king of Tezcuco, who built a temple of
nine stories--symbolizing the nine heavens--in honor of the stars,
called the sun-god his father."[VI-10]
"To the most ancient gods," says Klemm, "belonged the divinities of
nature, as well as a highest being called Teotl, God. He was perfect,
independent, and invisible, and consequently not represented by any
image. His qualities were represented by expressions like these: He
through whom we live, He who is all in himself. This god coincides
very nearly with the Master of Life of the North Americans. In
opposition to him is the evil spirit, the enemy of mankind, who often
appears to and terrifies them. He is called Tlacatecololotl, that is
to say, Rational Owl, and may possibly, like the Lame-foot of the
Peruvians, be a survival from the times when the old hunter-nations
inhabited the forests and mountains. Next to Teotl was Tezcatlipoca,
that is to say, Shining Mirror; he was the god of providence, the soul
of the world, and the creator of heaven and earth. Teotl was not
represented by any image, and was probably not worshiped with
offerings nor in any special temples; Tezcatlipoca was, however, so
represented, and that as a youth, because time could have no power
over his beauty and his splendor. He rewarded the righteous, and
punished the ungodly with sickness and misfortune. He created the
world, and mankind, and the sun, and the water, and he was himself in
a certain degree the overseer thereof."[VI-11]
[Sidenote: TLOQUE-NAHUAQUE.]
The Abbé Brasseur believes in the knowledge by the Mexicans and
certain neighboring or related nations, of a Supreme God; but he
thinks also that the names of great priests and legislators have often
been used for or confounded with the one Name above every name. He
says: "In the traditions that have reached us the name of the
legislator is often confused with that of the divinity; and behind the
symbolic veil that covers primitive history, he who civilized and
brought to light in the Americans a new life, is designedly identified
with the Father of the universal creation. The writers who treat of
the history of the ancient American nations avow that, at the time of
the landing of the Spaniards on the soil of the western continent,
there was not one that did not recognize the existence of a supreme
deity and arbiter of the universe. In that confusion of religious
ideas, which is the inevitable result of ignorance and superstition,
the notion of a unique immaterial being, of an invisible power, had
survived the shipwreck of pure primitive creeds. Under the name
Tloque-Nahuaque, the Mexicans adored Him who is the first cause of all
things, who preserves and sustains all by his providence; calling him
again, for the same reason, Ipalnemoaloni, He in whom and by whom we
are and live. This god was the same as that Kunab-Ku, the Alone Holy,
who was adored in Yucatan; the same again as that Hurakan, the Voice
that Cries, the Heart of Heaven, found with the Guatemalan nations of
Central America; and the same lastly as that Teotl, God, whom we find
named in the Tzendal and Mexican books. This "God of all purity," as
he was styled in a Mexican prayer, was, however, too elevated for the
thoughts of the vulgar. His existence was recognized, and sages
invoked him; but he had neither temples nor altars--perhaps because
no one knew how he should be represented--and it was only in the last
times of the Aztec monarchy that Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcuco,
dedicated to him a teocalli of nine terraces, without statues, under
the title of the unknown god."[VI-12]
Mr Gallatin says of the Mexicans: "Their mythology, as far as we know
it, presents a great number of unconnected gods, without apparent
system or unity of design. It exhibits no evidence of metaphysical
research or imaginative powers. Viewed only as a development of the
intellectual faculties of man, it is, in every respect, vastly
inferior to the religious systems of Egypt, India, Greece, or
Scandinavia. If imported, it must have been from some barbarous
country, and brought directly from such country to Mexico, since no
traces of a similar worship are found in the more northern parts of
America."[VI-13]
"The Aztecs," writes Prescott, "recognized the existence of a Supreme
Creator and Lord of the Universe. But the idea of unity--of a being,
with whom volition is action, who has no need of inferior ministers to
execute his purposes--was too simple, or too vast, for their
understandings; and they sought relief as usual, in a plurality of
deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the seasons,
and the various occupations of man. Of these, there were thirteen
principal deities, and more than two hundred inferior; to each of whom
some special day, or appropriate festival, was consecrated."[VI-14]
[Sidenote: PRIMITIVE WORSHIP.]
According to Mr Squier: "The original deities of the Mexican pantheon
are few in number. Thus when the Mexicans engaged in a war, in defense
of the liberty or sovereignty of their country, they invoked the War
God, under his aspect and name Huitzlipochtli. When suddenly attacked
by enemies, they called upon the same god, under his aspect and name
of Paynalton, which implied God of Emergencies, etc. In fact, as
already elsewhere observed, all the divinities of the Mexican, as of
every other mythology, resolve themselves into the primeval God and
Goddess."[VI-15]
"The population of Central America," says the Vicomte de Bussierre,
"although they had preserved the vague notion of a superior eternal
God and creator, known by the name Teotl, had an Olympus as numerous
as that of the Greeks and the Romans. It would appear--the most
ancient, though, unfortunately, also the most obscure legends being
followed--that during the civilized period which preceded the
successive invasions of the barbarous hordes of the north, the
inhabitants of Anáhuac joined to the idea of a supreme being the
worship of the sun and the moon, offering them flowers, fruits, and
the first fruits of their fields. The most ancient monuments of the
country, such as the pyramids of Teotihuacan, were incontestably
consecrated to these luminaries. Let us now trace some of the most
striking features of these people. Among the number of their gods, is
found one represented under the figure of a man eternally young, and
considered as the symbol of the supreme and mysterious God. Two other
gods there were, watching over mortals from the height of a celestial
city, and charged with the accomplishment of their prayers. Air,
earth, fire, and water had their particular divinities. The woman of
the serpent, the prolific woman, she who never gave birth but to
twins, was adored as the mother of the human race. The sun and the
moon had their altars. Various divinities presided over the phenomena
of nature, over the day, the night, the mist, the thunder, the
harvest, the mountains, and so on. Souls, the place of the dead,
warriors, hunters, merchants, fishing, love, drunkenness, medicine,
flowers, and many other things had their special gods. A multitude of
heroes and of illustrious kings, whose apotheosis had been decreed,
took their place in this vast pantheon, where were besides seated two
hundred and sixty divinities of inferior rank, to each of whom
nevertheless one of the days of the year was consecrated. Lastly,
every city, every family, every individual, had its or his celestial
protector, to whom worship was rendered. The number of the temples
corresponded to that of the gods; these temples were found everywhere,
in the cities, in the fields, in the woods, along the roads, and all
of them had priests charged with their service. This complicated
mythology was common to all the nations of Anáhuac, even to those that
the empire had been unable to subjugate and with which it was at war;
but each country had its favorite god, such god being to it, what
Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, was to the Aztecs."[VI-16]
The Mexican religion, as summed up by Mr Brantz Mayer,[VI-17] "was a
compound of spiritualism and gross idolatry; for the Aztecs believed
in a Supreme Deity, whom they called Teotl, God; or Ipalnemoani, He by
whom we live; or Tloque Nahuaque, He who has all in himself; while
their evil spirit bore the name of Tlaleatcololotl, the Rational Owl.
These spiritual beings are surrounded by a number of lesser
divinities, who were probably the ministerial agents of Teotl. These
were Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and Teoyaomiqui, his spouse,
whose duty it was to conduct the souls of warriors who perished in
defense of their homes and religion to the 'house of the sun,' the
Aztec heaven. Huitzilopochtli, or Mextli, the god of war, was the
special protector of the Aztecs; and devoted as they were to war, this
deity was always invoked before battle, and recompensed after it by
the offering of numerous captives taken in conflict."
[Sidenote: MEXICAN RELIGION, GREEK AND ROMAN.]
"The religion of the Mexicans," writes Señor Carbajal Espinosa,[VI-18]
plagiarizing as literally as possible from Clavigero, "was a tissue of
errors and of cruel and superstitious rites. Similar infirmities of
the human mind are inseparable from a religious system originating in
caprice and fear, as we see even in the most cultured nations of
antiquity. If the religion of the Mexicans be compared with that of
the Greeks and Romans, it will be found that the latter is the more
superstitious and ridiculous and the former the more barbarous and
sanguinary. These celebrated nations of ancient Europe multiplied
excessively their gods because of the mean idea that they had of their
power; restricting their rule within narrow limits, attributing to
them the most atrocious crimes, and solemnizing their worship with
such execrable impurities as were so justly condemned by the fathers
of Christianity. The gods of the Mexicans were less imperfect, and
their worship although superstitious contained nothing repugnant to
decency. They had some idea, although imperfect, of a Supreme Being,
absolute, independent, believing that they owed him tribute,
adoration, and fear. They had no figure whereby to represent him,
believing him to be invisible, neither did they give him any other
name, save the generic one, God, which is in the Mexican tongue teotl,
resembling even more in sense than in pronunciation the theos of the
Greeks; they used, however, epithets, in the highest degree
expressive, to signify the grandeur and the power which they believed
him endowed with, calling him Ipalnemoani, that is to say, He by whom
we live, and Tloque-Nahuaque, which means, He that is all things in
himself. But the knowledge and the worship of this Supreme Essence
were obscured by the multitude of gods invented by superstition. The
people believed furthermore in an evil spirit, inimical to mankind,
calling him Tlacatecololotl, or Rational Owl, and saying that
oftentimes he revealed himself to men, to hurt or to terrify them."
"The Mexicans and the Tezcucans," following Señor Pimentel,
"recognized the existence of a Supreme Being, of a First Cause, and
gave him that generic title Teotl, God, the analogy of which with the
Theos of the Greeks, has been already noted by various authors. The
idea of God is one of those that appear radical to our very
existence.... With the Mexicans and Tezcucans this idea was darkened
by the adoration of a thousand gods, invoked in all emergencies; of
these gods there were thirteen principal, the most notable being the
god of providence, that of war, and that of the wind and waters. The
god of providence had his seat in the sky, and had in his care all
human affairs. The god of the waters was considered as the fertilizer
of earth, and his dwelling was in the highest of the mountains where
he arranged the clouds. The god of war was the principal protector of
the Mexicans, their guide in their wanderings from the mysterious
country of Aztlan, the god to whose favor they owed those great
victories that elevated them from the lowly estate of lake-fishermen
up to the lordship of Anáhuac. The god of the wind had an aspect more
benign.... The Mexicans also worshiped the sun and the moon, and even,
it would appear, certain animals considered as sacred. There figured
also in the Aztec mythology an evil genius called the Owl-man,[VI-19]
since in some manner the good and the bad, mixed up here on earth,
have to be explained. So the Persians had their Oromasdes and
Arimanes, the first the genius of good, and the second of evil, and
so, later, Manicheism presents us with analogous explanations."[VI-20]
[Sidenote: THE NAMELESS GOD.]
Solis, writing of Mexico and the Mexicans says: "There was hardly a
street without its tutelary god; neither was there any calamity of
nature without its altar, to which they had recourse for remedy. They
imagined and made their gods out of their own fear; not understanding
that they lessened the power of some by what they attributed to
others.... But for all so many as were their gods, and so complete as
was the blindness of their idolatry, they were not without the
knowledge of a Superior Deity, to whom they attributed the creation of
the heavens and the earth. This original of things was, among the
Mexicans, a god without name; they had no word in their language with
which to express him, only they gave it to be understood that they
knew him, pointing reverently towards heaven, and giving to him after
their fashion the attribute of ineffable, with that sort of religious
uncertainty with which the Athenians venerated the Unknown God."[VI-21]
The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis calls the Supreme God
of the Mexicans by the name Tonacateotle.[VI-22] The interpreter says:
"God, Lord, Creator, Governor of all, Tloque, Nauaq, Tlalticpaque,
Teotlalale-Matlava-Tepeva--all these epithets they bestowed on their
god Tonacateotle, who, they said, was the god that created the world;
and him alone they painted with a crown as lord of all. They never
offered sacrifices to this god for they said he cared not for such
things. All the others to whom they sacrificed were men once on a
time, or demons."[VI-23]
We have already seen from Herrera that "the Mexicans confessed to a
Supreme God, Lord, and maker of all things, and the said God was the
principal that they venerated, looking towards heaven, and calling
him Creator of heaven and earth."[VI-24] In contradistinction to this
it may be well to consider the following extract from the same author:
"Such was the blindness of the Mexicans, even to the natural light,
that they did not think like men of good judgment that all created
things were the work and effect of some immense and infinite cause,
the which only the First Cause and true God is.... And in Mexico alone
(according to the common opinion) they had and adored two thousand
gods, of whom the principal were Vizilipuztli and Tezcatlipucatl, who
as supreme were set up in the height of the great temple, over two
altars.... Tezcatlipucatl was the god of providence, and Vizilipuztli
the god of war."[VI-25]
Speaking of Mexican temples[VI-26] and gods, Oviedo says: "But Montezuma
had the chief [temple], together with three other prayer-houses, in
which he sacrificed in honor of four gods, or idols, that he had; of
these they had one for god of war, as the Gentiles had Mars; to
another they gave honor and sacrifice as god of the waters, even as
the ancients gave to Neptune; another they adored for god of the wind,
as the lost heathen adored Æolus; and another still they revered as
their sovereign god, and this was the sun.... They had further other
gods; making one of them god of the maize-fields, attributing to him
the power of guarding and multiplying the same, as the fable-writing
poets and ancients of antiquity did to Ceres. They had gods for
everything, giving attributes to each according to their surmises,
investing them with that godhead which they had not, and with which it
was not right to invest any save only the true God."[VI-27]
Speaking in general terms of probably a large part of New Spain,
Torquemada, says: "These idolaters did not deny that they had a god
called Ypalnemoaloni, that is to say, Lord by whom we live, and his
nature is that his existence is in himself:[VI-28] the which is most
proper to God, who is in his essence life. But that in which these
people erred was in distributing this divinity and attributing it to
many gods; yet, in reality, and verily, they recognized a Supreme God,
to whom all the others were inferior. But for the greatness of their
sins, they lacked faith and ran into this error like the other nations
that have done so."
[Sidenote: ACOSTA AND TEOTL.]
Acosta, as has been already noticed by Professor J. G. Müller, either
never heard of or disbelieved in the existence of the name Teotl and
of the ideas connected therewith by so many historians.[VI-29] The said
Acosta says: "If wee shall seeke into the Indian tongue for a word to
answer to this name of God, as in Latin, Deus; in Greeke, Theos; in
Hebrew, El; in Arabike, Alla; but wee shall not finde any in the
Cuscan or Mexicaine tongues. So as such as preach, or write to the
Indians, vse our Spanish name Dios, fitting it to the accent or
pronounciation of the Indian tongues; the which differ much, whereby
appeares the small knowledge they had of God, seeing they cannot so
much as name him, if it be not by our very name: yet in trueth they
had some little knowledge.... The Mexicaines almost in the same manner
[as the Peruvians] after the supreame God, worshiped the Sunne: And
therefore they called Hernando Cortez, Sonne of the Sunne, for his
care and courage to compasse the earth. But they made their greatest
adoration to an Idol called Vitzilipuztli, the which in all this
region they called the most puissant and Lord of all things: for this
cause the Mexicaines built him a Temple, the greatest, the fairest,
the highest, and the most sumptuous of all others.... But heere the
Mexicaines Idolatrie hath bin more pernicious and hurtfull than that
of the Inguas, as wee shall see plainer heereafter, for that the
greatest part of their adoration and idolatrie, was employed to Idols,
and not to naturall things, although they did attribute naturall
effects to these Idolls, as raine, multiplication of cattell, warre,
and generation, even as the Greekes and Latins have forged Idolls of
Phœbus, Mercurie, Jupiter, Minerva, and of Mars. To conclude, who
so shall neerely looke into it, shall finde this manner which the
Divell hath vsed to deceive the Indians, to be the same wherewith hee
hath deceived the Greekes and Romans, and other ancient Gentiles,
giving them to vnderstand that these notable creatures, the Sunne,
Moone, Starres, and Elements, had power and authoritie to doe good or
harme to men."[VI-30]
[Sidenote: MENDIETA'S EUHEMERISTIC THEORY.]
Mendieta says: "It is to be noted for a general rule that, though
these people, in all the continent of these Indias, from the farthest
parts of New Spain to the parts of Florida, and farther still to the
kingdoms of Peru, had, as has been said, an infinity of idols that
they reverenced as gods, nevertheless, above all, they still held the
sun as chiefest and most powerful. And they dedicated to the sun the
greatest, richest, and most sumptuous of their temples. This should be
the power the Mexicans called Ipalnemohuani, that is to say, 'by whom
all live,' and Moyucuyatzin ayac oquiyocux ayac oquipic, that is to
say, 'he that no one created or formed, but who, on the contrary, made
all things by his own power and will.' ... So many are the fictions
and fables that the Indians invented about their gods, and so
differently are these related in the different towns, that neither can
they agree among themselves in recounting them, nor shall there be
found any one who shall understand them. In the principal provinces of
this New Spain, they had--after the sun, which was the common god of
them all--each province, its particular and principal god, to which
god above all others they offered their sacrifices; as the Mexicans to
Uzilopuchtli--a name that the Spaniards not being able to pronounce
called Ocholobos, 'eight wolves', or Uchilobos; as the Tezucans to
Tezcatlipuca; as the Tlaxcalans to Camaxtli, and as the Cholulans to
Quetzalcoatl; doubtless all these were famous men that performed some
notable feats, or invented some new thing, to the honor and benefit of
the state; or perhaps again these gave the people laws and a rule of
life, or taught them trades, or to offer up sacrifices, or some other
thing that appeared good and worthy to be rewarded with grateful
acknowledgements.... The demon, the old enemy, did not content himself
with the service that these people did him in the adoration of almost
every visible creature, in making idols of them, both carven and
painted, but he also kept them blinded with a thousand fashions of
witchcrafts, parodies of sacraments, and superstitions."[VI-31]
"It is well to remark," writes Camargo, "that although the Indians had
a divinity for each thing, they were aware of the existence of a
Supreme God that they named Tloque-Nahuaque, or He who contains all,
regarding the same as superior to all the other gods." This Tlascaltec
author has also preserved us a native prayer couched in the following
terms: "O, all-powerful gods, that inhabit the heavens, even as far as
the ninth, where abides your master and ours, the great
Tloque-Nahuaque (this name means, He that accompanies the other
gods[VI-32])--you that have all power over men forsake us not in
danger. We invoke you, as well also as the sun Nauholin, and the moon,
spouse of that brilliant luminary, the stars of heaven also, and the
wind of the night and of the day."[VI-33]
According to the somewhat vague and incomplete account of Fray Toribio
de Benavente, or Motolinia--the latter his adopted name and that by
which he is best known--another of the original and early authorities
in matter concerning the gentile Mexicans: "Tezcatlipoca was the god
or demon that they held for greatest and to whom most dignity was
attributed.... They had idols of stone, and of wood, and of baked
clay; they also made them of dough and of seeds kneaded into the
dough.... Some of them were shaped like men, ... some were like
women; ... some were like wild beasts, as lions, tigers, dogs, deer,
and such other animals as frequented the mountains and plains; ... some
like snakes of many fashions, large and coiling.... Of the owl and
other night-birds, and of others as the kite, and of every large bird,
or beautiful, or fierce, or preciously feathered--they had an idol.
But the principal of all was the sun. Likewise had they idols of the
moon and stars, and of the great fishes, and of the water-lizards, and
of toads and frogs, and of other fishes; and these they said were the
gods of the fishes.... They had for gods fire, water, and earth; and
of all these they had painted figures.... Of many other things they
had figures and idols, carved or painted, even of butterflies, fleas,
and locusts."[VI-34]
[Sidenote: THE CREED OF NEZAHUALCOYOTL.]
Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcuco, was he who--according to the no doubt
somewhat partial account of his descendant Ixtlilxochitl--pushed the
farthest into overt speech and act his contempt of the vulgar idolatry
and his recognition of a high, holy, and to a great extent unknowable
supreme power. This thoughtful monarch "found for false all the gods
adored by the people of this land, saying that they were statues and
demons hostile to the human race; for he was very learned in moral
things, and he went to and fro more than any other, seeking if haply
he might find light to affirm the true God and creator of all things,
as has been seen in the discourse of his history, and as bear witness
the songs that he composed on this theme. He said that there was only
One, that this One was the maker of heaven and earth, that he
sustained all he had made and created, and that he was where was no
second, above the nine heavens; that no eye had ever seen this One, in
a human shape nor in any shape whatever; that the souls of the
virtuous went to him after death, while the souls of the bad went to
another place, some most infamous spot of earth, filled with horrible
hardships and sufferings. Never--though there were many gods
representing many idols--did the king neglect an opportunity of saying
when divinity was discussed, 'yntloque in nauhaque y palne moalani,'
which sentence sums up his convictions as above expressed.
Nevertheless he recognized the sun as his father and the earth as his
mother."[VI-35]
Now it is in the face of much that has been said denying or doubting
Ixtlilxochitl's account of the creed of Nezahualcoyotl that I have
selected the passage above translated, from among other passages
touching the same subject in the _Historia Chichimeca_ and in the
_Relaciones_. I have selected it not because it is the most clearly
worded, or the most eloquent, or the most complete; but solely on
account of the sentence with which it concludes: Nezahualcoyotl
"recognized the sun as his father and the earth as his mother." These
few words occurring at the end of a eulogy of the great Tezcucan by a
confessed admirer, these few words that have passed unnoticed amid the
din and hubbub raised over the lofty creed to which they form the last
article, these few words so insignificant apparently and yet so
significant in their connection--should go far to prove the
faithfulness of Ixtlilxochitl's record, and the greater or less
completeness of his portrait of his great ancestor. Were Ixtlilxochitl
dishonest, would he ever have allowed such a pagan chord as this to
come jangling into the otherwise perfect music of his description of a
perfect sage and Christian, who believed in a God alone and
all-sufficient, who believed in a creator of all things without any
help at all, much less the help of his dead material creatures the sun
and the earth? Let us admit the honesty of Ixtlilxochitl, and admit
with him a knowledge of that Unknown God, whom, as did the Athenians,
Nezahualcoyotl ignorantly worshiped; but let us not be blinded by a
glitter of words--which we may be sure lose nothing in the
repetition--as to the significance of that 'ignorantly;' let us never
lose sight across the shadow of that obscure Athenian altar to the
Unknown God, of the mighty columns of the Acropolis and the crest of
the Athena Promachos. Nezahualcoyotl seems a fair type of a
thoughtful, somewhat sceptical Mexican of that better-instructed class
which is ever and everywhere the horror of hypocrites and fanatics, of
that class never without its witnesses in all countries and at all
times, of that class two steps above the ignorant laity, and one step
above the learned priesthood, yet far still from that simple and
perfect truth which shall one day be patent enough to all.
[Sidenote: AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY.]
Turning from the discussion of a point so obscure and intangible as
the monotheism of Nezahualcoyotl and the school of which he was the
type, let us review the very palpable and indubitable polytheism of
the Mexicans. It seems radically to differ little from other
polytheisms better known, such as those of Greece, Rome, and
Scandinavia; it seems to have been a jumble of personified powers,
causes, and qualities, developed in the ordinary way from the mythical
corruption of that florid hyperbolical style of speech natural to all
peoples in days before the exact definition of words was either
possible or necessary; just such a jumble as the Aryan polytheisms
were in the days of the Euhemerists, and for too long after
unfortunately; such a jumble as Aryan mythology was till the brothers
Grimm led the van of the ripest talent and scholarship of the
nineteenth century into the paths of 'word-shunting,' which led again
into god or hero shunting, if the term may be invented. Unfortunately
the philologic and mythologic material for such an exhaustive
synthesis of the origin and relations of the American creeds as Mr
Cox, for example, has given to the world on the Aryan legends, in his
_Mythology of the Aryan Nations_, is yet far from complete; which fact
indeed makes the raison d'être of works like the present. There is
nothing for me at present but to gather, sift, and arrange, with such
sifting and arrangement as may be possible, all accessible materials
relating to the subject in hand; that done let more skilled workmen
find and give them their place in the wall of science. For they have a
place there, whether or no it be found to-day or to-morrow; a breach
is there that shall be empty until they fit and fill it.
* * * * *
Tezcatlipoca seems to have been considered on the whole, and the
patron-gods of different cities aside, as the most important of the
Mexican gods. We have seen him identified in several of the preceding
quotations with a supreme invisible god, and I now proceed,
illustrating this phase of his character, to translate as closely as
possible the various prayers given by Sahagun as addressed to this
great deity under his various names, Titlacoan, Yautl, Telpuchtli,
Tlamatzincatl, Moiocoiatzin, Iaotzin, Necociautl, Necaoalpilli, and
others:--
O, thou almighty God, that givest life to men, and art called
Titlacaoan, grant me in thy mercy everything needful to eat and to
drink, and to enjoy of thy soft and delicate things; for in grievous
toil and straitness I live in the world. Have mercy on me, so poor I
am and naked, I that labor in thy service, and for thy service sweep,
and clean, and put light in this poor house, where I await thine
orders; otherwise let me die soon and end this toilful and miserable
life, so that my body may find rest and a breathing-time.
In illness the people prayed to this deity as follows: O God, whose
name is Titlacaoan, be merciful and send away this sickness which is
killing me, and I will reform my life. Let me be once healed of this
infirmity and I swear to serve thee and to earn the right to live;
should I by hard toil gain something, I will not eat it nor employ it
in anything save only to thine honor; I will give a feast and a
banquet of dancing in this poor house.
But the sick man that could not recover, and that felt it so, used to
grow desperate and blaspheme saying: O Titlacaoan, since thou mockest
me, why dost thou not kill me?[VI-36]
[Sidenote: PRAYER IN TIME OF PESTILENCE.]
[Sidenote: SPARE THE GREEN AND TAKE THE RIPE.]
Then following is a prayer to Tezcatlipoca, used by the priest in time
of pestilence: O mighty Lord, under whose wing we find defense and
shelter, thou art invisible and impalpable even as night and the air.
How can I that am so mean and worthless dare to appear before thy
majesty? Stuttering and with rude lips I speak; ungainly is the manner
of my speech as one leaping among furrows, as one advancing unevenly;
for all this I fear to raise thine anger, and to provoke instead of
appeasing thee; nevertheless thou wilt do unto me as may please thee.
O Lord, that hast held it good to forsake us in these days, according
to the counsel thou hast as well in heaven as in hades--alas for us,
in that thine anger and indignation has descended in these days upon
us; alas, in that the many and grievous afflictions of thy wrath have
overgone and swallowed us up, coming down even as stones, spears, and
arrows upon the wretches that inhabit the earth--this is the sore
pestilence with which we are afflicted and almost destroyed. Alas, O
valiant and all-powerful Lord, the common people are almost made an
end of and destroyed; a great destruction and ruin the pestilence
already makes in this nation; and, what is most pitiful of all, the
little children that are innocent and understand nothing, only to play
with pebbles and to heap up little mounds of earth, they too die,
broken and dashed to pieces as against stones and a wall--a thing very
pitiful and grievous to be seen, for there remain of them not even
those in the cradles, nor those that could not walk nor speak. Ah,
Lord, how all things become confounded; of young and old and of men
and women there remains neither branch nor root; thy nation and thy
people and thy wealth are leveled down and destroyed. O our Lord,
protector of all, most valiant and most kind, what is this? Thine
anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in hurling the
stone and arrow and spear? The fire of the pestilence, made exceeding
hot, is upon thy nation, as a fire in a hut, burning and smoking,
leaving nothing upright or sound. The grinders of thy teeth are
employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of thy people, who
have become lean and of little substance, even as a hollow green cane.
Yea, what doest thou now, O Lord, most strong, compassionate,
invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose
disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all is subject--what
in thy divine breast hast thou decreed? Peradventure hast thou
altogether forsaken thy nation and thy people? Hast thou verily
determined that it utterly perish, and that there be no more memory of
it in the world, that the peopled place become a wooded hill and a
wilderness of stones? Peradventure wilt thou permit that the temples,
and the places of prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, be
razed and destroyed and no memory of them be left? Is it indeed
possible that thy wrath and punishment, and vexed indignation are
altogether implacable and will go on to the end to our destruction?
Is it already fixed in thy divine counsel that there is to be no mercy
nor pity for us, until the arrows of thy fury are spent to our utter
perdition and destruction? Is it possible that this lash and
chastisement is not given for our correction and amendment, but only
for our total destruction and obliteration; that the sun shall
nevermore shine upon us, but that we must remain in perpetual darkness
and silence; that nevermore thou wilt look upon us with eyes of mercy,
neither little nor much? Wilt thou after this fashion destroy the
wretched sick that cannot find rest nor turn from side to side, whose
mouth and teeth are filled with earth and scurf? It is a sore thing to
tell how we are all in darkness, having none understanding nor sense
to watch for or aid one another. We are all as drunken and without
understanding, without hope of any aid; already the little children
perish of hunger, for there is none to give them food, nor drink, nor
consolation, nor caress--none to give the breast to them that suck;
for their fathers and mothers have died and left them orphans,
suffering for the sins of their fathers. O our Lord, all-powerful,
full of mercy, our refuge, though indeed thine anger and indignation,
thine arrows and stones, have sorely hurt this poor people, let it be
as a father or a mother that rebukes children, pulling their ears,
pinching their arms, whipping them with nettles, pouring chill water
upon them; all being done that they may amend their puerility and
childishness. Thy chastisement and indignation have lorded and
prevailed over these thy servants, over this poor people, even as rain
falling upon the trees and the green canes, being touched of the wind,
drops also upon those that are below. O most compassionate Lord, thou
knowest that the common folk are as children, that being whipped they
cry and sob and repent of what they have done. Peradventure, already
these poor people by reason of thy chastisement weep, sigh, blame, and
murmur against themselves; in thy presence they blame and bear witness
against their bad deeds and punish themselves therefor. Our Lord most
compassionate, pitiful, noble, and precious, let a time be given the
people to repent; let the past chastisement suffice, let it end here,
to begin again if the reform endure not. Pardon and overlook the sins
of the people; cause thine anger and thy resentment to cease; repress
it again within thy breast that it destroy no farther; let it rest
there; let it cease, for of a surety none can avoid death nor escape
to any place. We owe tribute to death; and all that live in the world
are the vassals thereof; this tribute shall every man pay with his
life. None shall avoid from following death, for it is thy messenger
what hour soever it may be sent, hungering and thirsting always to
devour all that are in the world and so powerful that none shall
escape: then indeed shall every man be punished according to his
deeds. O most pitiful Lord, at least take pity and have mercy upon the
children that are in the cradles, upon those that cannot walk. Have
mercy also, O Lord, upon the poor and very miserable, who have nothing
to eat, nor to cover themselves withal, nor a place to sleep, who do
not know what thing a happy day is, whose days pass altogether in
pain, affliction, and sadness. Than this, were it not better, O Lord,
if thou should forget to have mercy upon the soldiers and upon the men
of war, whom thou wilt have need of sometime; behold it is better to
die in war and go to serve food and drink in the house of the sun,
than to die in this pestilence and descend to hades. O most strong
Lord, protector of all, lord of the earth, governor of the world, and
universal master, let the sport and satisfaction thou hast already
taken in this past punishment suffice; make an end of this smoke and
fog of thy resentment; quench also the burning and destroying fire of
thine anger: let serenity come and clearness; let the small birds of
thy people begin to sing and to approach the sun; give them quiet
weather so that they may cause their voices to reach thy highness and
thou mayest know them. O our Lord, most strong, most compassionate,
and most noble, this little have I said before thee, and I have
nothing more to say, only to prostrate and throw myself at thy feet,
seeking pardon for the faults of this my prayer; certainly I would not
remain in thy displeasure, and I have no other thing to say.
[Sidenote: PRAYER FOR AID AGAINST POVERTY.]
The following is a prayer to the same deity, under his names
Tezcatlipuca and Yoalliehecatl, for succor against poverty: O our
Lord, protector most strong and compassionate, invisible, and
impalpable, thou art the giver of life; lord of all, and lord of
battles, I present myself here before thee to say some few words
concerning the need of the poor people, the people of none estate nor
intelligence. When they lie down at night they have nothing, nor when
they rise up in the morning; the darkness and the light pass alike in
great poverty. Know, O Lord, that thy subjects and servants, suffer a
sore poverty that cannot be told of more than that it is a sore
poverty and desolateness. The men have no garments nor the women to
cover themselves with, but only certain rags rent in every part that
allow the air and the cold to pass everywhere. With great toil and
weariness they scrape together enough for each day, going by mountain
and wilderness seeking their food; so faint and enfeebled are they
that their bowels cleave to the ribs, and all their body reëchoes with
hollowness; and they walk as people affrighted, the face and the body
in likeness of death. If they be merchants, they now sell only cakes
of salt and broken pepper; the people that have something despise
their wares, so that they go out to sell from door to door and from
house to house; and when they sell nothing they sit down sadly by some
fence, or wall, or in some corner, licking their lips and gnawing the
nails of their hands for the hunger that is in them; they look on the
one side and on the other at the mouths of those that pass by, hoping
peradventure that one may speak some word to them. O compassionate
God, the bed on which they lie down is not a thing to rest upon, but
to endure torment in; they draw a rag over them at night and so sleep;
there they throw down their bodies and the bodies of children that
thou hast given them. For the misery they grow up in, for the
filth[VI-37] of their food, for the lack of covering, their faces are
yellow and all their bodies of the color of earth. They tremble with
cold, and for leanness they stagger in walking. They go weeping, and
sighing, and full of sadness, and all misfortunes are joined to them;
though they stay by a fire they find little heat. O our Lord, most
clement, invisible, and impalpable, I supplicate thee to see good to
have pity upon them as they move in thy presence wailing and clamoring
and seeking mercy with anguish of heart. O our Lord, in whose power it
is to give all content, consolation, sweetness, softness, prosperity
and riches, for thou alone art lord of all good--have mercy upon them
for they are thy servants. I supplicate thee, O Lord, that thou prove
them a little with tenderness, indulgence, sweetness, and softness,
which indeed they sorely lack and require. I supplicate thee that thou
will lift up their heads with thy favor and aid, that thou will see
good that they enjoy some days of prosperity and tranquillity, so they
may sleep and know repose, having prosperous and peaceable days of
life. Should they still refuse to serve thee, thou afterwards canst
take away what thou hast given; they having enjoyed it but a few days,
as those that enjoy a fragrant and beautiful flower and find it wither
presently. Should this nation, for whom I pray and entreat thee to do
them good, not understand what thou hast given, thou canst take away
the good and pour out cursing; so that all evil may come upon them,
and they become poor, in need, maimed, lame, blind, and deaf: then
indeed they shall waken and know the good that they had and have not,
and they shall call upon thee and lean towards thee; but thou wilt not
listen, for in the day of abundance they would not understand thy
goodness towards them. In conclusion, I supplicate thee, O most kind
and benificent Lord, that thou will see good to give this people to
taste of the goods and riches that thou art wont to give, and that
proceed from thee, things sweet and soft and bringing content, and
joy, although it be but for a little while, and as a dream that
passes. For it is certain that for a long time the people go sadly
before thee, weeping and thoughtful, because of the anguish, hardship,
and anxiety that fill their bodies and hearts, taking away all ease
and rest. Verily, it is not doubtful that to this poor nation, needy
and shelterless, happens all I have said. If thou answerest my
petition it will be only of thy liberality and magnificence, for no
one is worthy to receive thy bounty for any merit of his, but only
through thy grace. Search below the dung-hills and in the mountains
for thy servants, friends, and acquaintance, and raise them to riches
and dignities. O our Lord, most clement, let thy will be done as it is
ordained in thy heart, and we shall have nothing to say. I, a rude man
and common, would not by importunity and prolixity disgust and annoy
thee, detailing my sickness, destruction, and punishment. Whom do I
speak to? Where am I? Lo I speak with thee, O King; well do I know
that I stand in an eminent place, and that I talk with one of great
majesty, before whose presence flows a river through a chasm, a gulf
sheer down of awful depth; this also is a slippery place, whence many
precipitate themselves, for there shall not be found one without error
before thy majesty. I myself, a man of little understanding and
lacking speech, dare to address my words to thee; I put myself in
peril of falling into the gorge and cavern of this river. I, Lord,
have come to take with my hands blindness to mine eyes, rottenness and
shrivelling to my members, poverty and affliction to my body; for my
meanness and rudeness this it is that I merit to receive. Live and
rule for ever in all quietness and tranquillity, O thou that art our
lord, our shelter, our protector, most compassionate, most pitiful,
invisible, impalpable.
[Sidenote: PRAYER IN TIME OF WAR.]
[Sidenote: PRAYER TO THE GOD OF BATTLES.]
This following is a petition in time of war to the same principal god,
under his name of Tezcatlipoca Yautlnecociautlmonenequi, praying favor
against the enemy: O our Lord, most compassionate, protector,
defender, invisible, impalpable, by whose will and wisdom we are
directed and governed, beneath whose rule we live--O, Lord of
battles, it is a thing very certain and settled that war begins to be
arranged and prepared for. The god of the earth opens his mouth,
thirsty to drink the blood of them that shall die in this strife. It
seems that they wish to be merry, the sun and the god of the earth
called Tlaltecutli; they wish to give to eat and drink to the gods of
heaven and hades, making them a banquet with the blood and flesh of
the men that have to die in this war. Already do they look, the gods
of heaven and hades, to see who they are that have to conquer, and who
to be conquered; who they are that have to slay, and who to be slain;
whose blood it is that has to be drunken, and whose flesh it is that
has to be eaten;--which things the noble fathers and mothers whose
sons have to die, are ignorant of. Even so are ignorant all their kith
and kin, and the nurses that gave them suck--ignorant also are the
fathers that toiled for them, seeking things needful for their food
and drink and raiment until they reached the age they now have.
Certainly they could not foretell how those sons should end whom they
reared so anxiously, or that they should be one day left captives or
dead upon the field. See good, O our Lord, that the nobles who die in
the shock of war be peacefully and agreeably received, and with bowels
of love, by the sun and the earth that are father and mother of all.
For verily thou dost not deceive thyself in what thou doest,[VI-38] to
wit, in wishing them to die in war; for certainly for this didst thou
send them into the world, so that with their flesh and their blood
they might be for meat and drink to the sun and the earth. Be not
wroth, O Lord, anew against those of the profession of war, for in the
same place where they will die have died many generous[VI-39] and noble
lords and captains, and valiant men. The nobility and generosity of
the nobles and the great-heartedness of the warriors is made apparent,
and thou makest manifest, O Lord, how estimable and precious is each
one, so that as such he may be held and honored, even as a stone of
price or a rich feather. O Lord, most clement, lord of battles,
emperor of all, whose name is Tezcatlipoca, invisible and impalpable,
we supplicate thee that he or they that thou wilt permit to die in
this war may be received into the house of the sun in heaven, with
love and honor, and may be placed and lodged between the brave and
famous warriors already dead in war, to wit, the lords Quitzicquaquatzin,
Maceuhcatzin, Tlacahuepantzin, Ixtlilcuechavac, Ihuitltemuc,
Chavacuetzin, and all the other valiant and renowned men that died in
former times--who are rejoicing with and praising our lord the sun,
who are glad and eternally rich through him, and shall be for ever;
they go about sucking the sweetness of all flowers delectable and
pleasant to the taste. This is a great dignity for the stout and
valiant ones that died in war; for this they are drunken with delight,
keeping no account of night, nor day, nor years, nor times; their joy
and their wealth is without end; the nectarous flowers they sip never
fade, and for the desire thereof men of high descent strengthen
themselves to die. In conclusion, I entreat thee, O Lord, that art our
lord most clement, our emperor most invincible, to see good that those
that die in this war be received with bowels of pity and love by our
father the sun, and our mother the earth; for thou only livest and
rulest and art our most compassionate lord. Nor do I supplicate alone
for the illustrious and noble, but also for the other soldiers, who
are troubled and tormented in heart, who clamor, calling upon thee,
holding their lives as nothing, and who fling themselves without fear
upon the enemy, seeking death. Grant them at least some small part of
their desire, some rest and repose in this life; or if here, in this
world, they are not destined to prosperity, appoint them for servants
and officers of the sun, to give food and drink to those in hades and
to those in heaven. As for those whose charge it is to rule the state
and to be tlacateccatl or tlacochcalatl,[VI-40] make them to be fathers
and mothers to the men of war that wander by field and mountain, by
height and ravine--in their hand is the sentence of death for enemies
and criminals, as also the distribution of dignities, the offices and
the arms of war, the badges, the granting privileges to those that
wear visors and tassels[VI-41] on the head, and ear-rings, pendants, and
bracelets, and have yellow skins tied to their ankles--with them is
the privilege of appointing the fashion of the raiment that every one
shall wear. It is to these also to give permission to certain to use
and wear precious stones, as chalchivetes, turquoises, and rich
feathers in the dances, and to wear necklaces and jewels of gold: all
of which things are delicate and precious gifts proceeding from thy
riches, and which thou givest to those that perform feats and valiant
deeds in war. I entreat thee also, O Lord, to make grace of thy
largess to the common soldiers, give them some shelter and good
lodging in this world, make them stout and brave, and take away all
cowardice from their heart, so that not only shall they meet death
with cheerfulness, but even desire it as a sweet thing, as flowers and
dainty food, nor dread at all the hoots and shouts of their enemies:
this do to them as to thy friend. Forasmuch as thou art lord of
battles, on whose will depends the victory, aiding whom thou wilt,
needing not that any counsel thee--I entreat thee, O Lord, to make
mad and drunken our enemies so that without hurt to us they may cast
themselves into our hands, into the hands of our men of war enduring
so much hardship and poverty. O our Lord, since thou art God,
all-powerful, all-knowing, disposer of all things, able to make this
land rich, prosperous, praised, honored, famed in the art and feats of
war, able to make the warriors now in the field to live and be
prosperous, if, in the days at hand, thou see good that they die in
war, let it be to go to the house of the sun, among all the heroes
that are there and that died upon the battle-field.
[Sidenote: PRAYER THAT A RULER MAY RULE WELL.]
[Sidenote: THAT A RULER MAY NOT ABUSE HIS POWER.]
The following prayer is one addressed to the principal deity, under
his name Tezcatlipoca Teiocoiani Tehimatini, asking favor for a newly
elected ruler: To-day, a fortunate day, the sun has risen upon us,
warming us, so that in it a precious stone may be wrought, and a
handsome sapphire. To us has appeared a new light, has arrived a new
brightness, to us has been given a glittering axe to rule and govern
our nation--has been given a man to take upon his shoulders the
affairs and troubles of the state. He is to be the image and
substitute of the lords and governors that have already passed away
from this life, who for some days labored, bearing the burden of thy
people, possessing thy throne and seat, which is the principal
dignity[VI-42] of this thy nation, province, and kingdom; having and
holding the same in thy name and person some few days. These have now
departed from this life, put off their shoulders the great load and
burden that so few are able to suffer. Now, O Lord, we marvel that
thou hast indeed set thine eyes on this man, rude and of little
knowledge, to make him for some days, for some little time, the
governor of this state, nation, province, and kingdom. O our Lord,
most clement, art thou peradventure in want of persons and
friends?--nay verily, thou that hast thereof more than can be counted!
Is it, peradventure, by error, or that thou dost not know him; or is
it that thou hast taken him for the nonce, while thou seekest among
many for another and a better than he, unwise, indiscrete,
unprofitable, a superfluous man in the world. Finally, we give thanks
to thy majesty for the favor thou hast done us. What thy designs
therein are thou alone knowest; perhaps beforehand this office has
been provided for: thy will be done as it is determined in thy heart;
let this man serve for some days and times. It may be that he will
fill this office defectively, giving unrest and fear to his subjects,
doing things without counsel or consideration, deeming himself worthy
of the dignity he has, thinking that he will remain in it for a long
time, making a sad dream of it, making the occupation and dignity thou
hast given him an occasion of pride and presumption, making little of
everybody and going about with pomp and pageantry. Within a few days,
thou wilt know the event of all, for all men are thy spectacle and
theatre, at which thou laughest and makest thyself merry. Perhaps this
ruler will lose his office through his childishness, or it will happen
through his carelessness and laziness; for verily nothing is hidden
from thee, thy sight makes way through stone and wood, and thine
hearing. Or perhaps his arrogance, and the secret boasting of his
thoughts will destroy him. Then thou wilt throw him among the filth
and upon the dung-hills, and his reward will be blindness, and
shrivellings, and extreme poverty till the hour of his death, when
thou wilt put him under thy feet. Since this poor man is put in this
risk and peril, we supplicate thee, who art our Lord, our invisible
and impalpable protector, under whose will and pleasure we are, who
alone disposes of and provides for all--we supplicate thee that thou
see good to deal mercifully with him; inasmuch as he is needy, thy
subject and servant, and blind; deign to provide him with thy light,
that he may know what he has to think, what he has to do, and the road
he has to follow, so as to commit no error in his office, contrary to
thy disposition and will. Thou knowest what is to happen to him in
this office both by day and night; we know, O our Lord, most clement,
that our ways and deeds are not so much in our hands as in the hands
of our ruler. If this ruler after an evil and perverse fashion, in the
place to which thou hast elevated him, and in the seat in which thou
hast put him--which is thine--where he manages the affairs of the
people, as one that washes filthy things with clean and clear water,
(yea in the same seat holds a similar cleansing office the ancient
god, who is father and mother to thyself, and is god of fire, who
stands in the midst of flowers, in the midst of the place bounded by
four walls, who is covered with shining feathers that are as
wings)--if this ruler-elect of ours do evil with which to provoke
thine ire and indignation, and to awaken thy chastisement against
himself, it will not be of his own will or seeking, but by thy
permission or by some impulse from without; for which I entreat thee
to see good to open his eyes to give him light; open also his ears and
guide him, not so much for his own sake as for that of those whom he
has to rule over and carry on his shoulders.[VI-43] I supplicate thee,
that now, from the beginning, thou inspire him with what he is to
conceive in his heart, and the road he is to follow, inasmuch as thou
hast made of him a seat on which to seat thyself, and also as it were
a flute that, being played upon, may signify thy will. Make him, O
Lord, a faithful image of thyself, and permit not that in thy throne
and hall he make himself proud and haughty; but rather see good, O
Lord, that quietly and prudently he rule and govern those in his
charge who are common people: do not permit him to insult and oppress
his subjects, nor to give over without reason any of them to
destruction. Neither permit, O Lord, that he spot and defile thy
throne and hall with any injustice or oppression, for in so doing he
will stain also thine honor and fame. Already, O Lord, has this poor
man accepted and received the honor and lordship that thou hast given
him; already he possesses the glory and riches thereof; already thou
hast adorned his hands, feet, head, ears, and lips, with visor,
ear-rings, and bracelets, and put yellow leather upon his ankles.
Permit it not, O Lord, that these decorations, badges, and ornaments
be to him a cause of pride and presumption; but rather that he serve
thee with humility and plainness. May it please thee, O our Lord, most
clement, that he rule and govern this, thy seignory, that thou hast
committed to him, with all prudence and wisdom. May it please thee
that he do nothing wrong or to thine offense; deign to walk with him
and direct him in all his ways. But if thou wilt not do this, ordain
that from this day henceforth he be abhorred and disliked, and that he
die in war at the hands of his enemies, that he depart to the house of
the sun; where he will be taken care of as a precious stone, and his
heart esteemed by the sun-lord; he dying in the war like a stout and
valiant man. This would be much better than to be dishonored in the
world, to be disliked and abhorred of his people for his faults or
defects. O our Lord, thou that providest to all the things needful for
them, let this thing be done as I have entreated and supplicated
thee.
[Sidenote: THAT A RULER BE SET OVER THE NATION.]