In the West, as in the East, traces of the primitive sacredness of the
threshold and the doorway are to be found. The stepped pyramid, or
uplifted threshold, with the sanctuary at its summit, was the earliest
form of temple or place of worship in Mexico, and in Central and South
America. In the later and more elaborate temples there was no altar
within the building, although an image of the god was there.
The altar, or stone of sacrifice, was without, before the door of the
sanctuary.[419] When a sacrifice was offered on the altar, the blood of
that sacrifice was smeared on the doors of the temple of the god.[420]
Human sacrifices were included in these offerings, in earlier
times.[421] Even when larger temples were erected, and altars were
enclosed within them, human victims were brought to the temple entrance
into the hands of the priests; and from the threshold they were borne by
the priests themselves, to be laid on the altar.[422]
Among the Pipiles, a Maya people, in Central America, there were “two
principal and very solemn sacrifices; one at the commencement of summer,
and the other at the beginning of winter.” Little boys, from six to
twelve years old, were the victims of sacrifice. At the sound of
trumpets and drums, which assembled the people, four priests came out of
the temple with braziers of coals on which incense was burning, and
after various ceremonies and religious exercises they proceeded to the
house of the high-priest, near the temple, and took from it the boy
victim of the sacrifice. He was then conducted four times round the
court of the temple, with dancing and singing.
When this ceremony was finished, the high-priest came out of his house
with the second priest and his major-domo, and they proceeded to the
temple steps, accompanied by the principal men of the locality, who,
however, stopped at the threshold of the temple. Then and there the four
priests “seized the victim by his extremities, and the major-domo coming
out, with little bells on his wrists and ankles, opened the left breast
of the boy, tore out his heart, and handed it to the high-priest, who
put it into a little embroidered purse, which he closed.”
The blood of the victim was received by the priests in a vessel made of
a gourd, and was by them sprinkled in the direction of the four cardinal
points. Then the heart, in its purse, was put back into the body of the
victim, and the body itself was interred inside of the temple. This
sacrifice, at the threshold altar, was performed at the threshold, or
the beginning, of each of the two chief seasons of the year.[423]
In the temples of Central America, generally, the doorway was hardly
less prominent than in the temples of Egypt. There were massive
decorations on and above the lintels; the door jams were richly
sculptured; and there were male and female figures, or figures of
animals, as guardians on either side of the entrance. In some instances
a winged globe was above the door; and the uplifted hand was found over
the doorway or at the sides.[424]
Among the Natchez Indians, along the lower Mississippi, there was an
annual “Harvest Festival,” or “Festival of New Fire,” which was
celebrated with great ceremony. An altar was in front of the temple,
just before the door. On this occasion the priest of the sun stood on
the threshold of the temple in the early morning, watching for the first
rays of the rising sun. The chiefs, and braves old and young, stood near
the altar. The women with infants in their arms stood in a semicircle
facing the priest. When he gave the signal of his recognition of the
sun, by rubbing two pieces of wood to start a new fire for the altar,
they faced about to the east and held up their infants to the sun. Other
exercises of worship followed. The priest’s place in this ceremony was
on the threshold, before the altar of that temple.[425]
In America, as in the other continents, there are survivals of the
primal sacredness of the threshold of a place of public worship, in the
formal ceremonies attending the laying of the corner-stone, or
threshold-stone, of a new church building of any denomination; and in
the use of holy water at the doorway on entering Roman Catholic
churches. More or less importance is attached in Protestant Episcopal
churches to the location of the baptismal font near the door, and to the
beginning of the marriage service before the bridal party approaches the
threshold of the sanctuary proper.
If indeed, there be found no trace of the fountain of life flowing from
under the threshold sanctuary of the gods worshiped by the aborigines of
America, such a fountain was searched for in this land by Ponce de Leon
and his followers.