CHAPTER II

Travellers' tales not to be trusted. Prejudice perverts

facts. The Esquimaux. Cause of reverence for parents. The

Red Indian in the presence of immigration is a moral

murderer. Inquiry into Indian religion. O. KEE. PA. Indian

reverence for phenomena of nature. Ruins of a past

civilization in America. Cairns and human sacrifices.

Manufactured goods. Bronze in Yucatan. Resemblance between

the ancient American people and certain Orientals. Abbe

Domenech's travels. Sacrifice at obsequies, idea involved

thereby. Scythian proceedings. Mexico and its theology. Two

different conceptions of deity. The Unity subdivided by

Mexicans, Jews, and Christians. The God of war and the Lord

of Hosts. The God of air a deity in Mexico, a devil in Judea

or Ephesus. Mexican baptismal regeneration. Resemblances

between the Occidental and Oriental people in many curious

doctrines. Particulars. Mexican Heaven, Hell, and Limbo.

Mexican baptism and prayers. Priests and their duties. A

parallel. Romanists and Mexicans. Confession. Expiation.

Human sacrifice to obtain pardon of sin. A comparison

suggested. Mexican education. Purity of life in the Mexican

priestesses. Father Acosta's opinion thereon. Tartary, Rome,

and Mexico have something common in culture. Education of

youth. Policy of the priesthood. Reflections thereupon.

Teocallis or houses of God. Worship. Festivals. Human

sacrifice. No sexual deities or rites. Question of

credibility--God and the Devil act alike! Aztecs and

Europeans compared. Christians have offered human sacrifice

from the time of Peter downwards. Transubstantiation is a

cannibal doctrine. Christian gods in Mexico as bad as the

Aztec deities. History of Peru. The policy of its rulers.

Roads and magazines. Nature of its government Governors were

instructed in their duties. Civil service examination.

Inauguration of youths into honourable manhood. Travelling

compulsory in rulers. Postal system--division of the people

--local magistrates--law speedy. Code of law. Punishment

without torture. Peruvians and inquisitors. Reports required

of lands and families. Register of births, &c. Rapidity of

communication. Plunder not permitted. Peace the motive for

war. The vanquished incorporated with the victors. A

paternal government. Peruvian religion. Difference between

political institutions and priestcraft. Peruvian sun god. An

invisible God recognised. Priests. Eternal life. Heaven

and Hell. Temple of the sun magnificent. Golden

ornaments. Huge urns of silver. Number of priests.

Festivals. Cannibalism not permitted. Fire made from rays of

sun and concave mirror, or by friction. Virgins of the sun.

Concubines of the Inca. Matrimony. Reflexions.

When the philosopher reads over the histories which adventurous

travellers, or Christian missionaries, have given of the religions of

the savage, or uncivilized, people whom they have visited, he feels

painfully conscious that the accounts are not implicitly to be relied

upon. In some he recognizes the fact that communications only take place

between the one party and the other by signs, which not only may be, but

very generally are, misinterpreted on both sides; in others he is able

to see, or, at least, he comes to the conclusion, that the untaught

barbarians have not a single idea which is not connected with eating

and drinking, war, revenge, and love;--that such, indeed, resemble brute

beasts, who have no more conception of hell or heaven, God and the soul,

than an elephant has of aerostation, or a crow of theology. In other

narratives the observer notices, that the individuals who interrogate

the savages are themselves enthusiasts of a high order, who ask leading

questions, and are content to receive, as a satisfactory answer,

anything which can be considered as a reply. By this means very

erroneous ideas have crept in amongst ourselves, and writers have built

arguments upon a foundation as flimsy as a shifting sand. For example,

I have repeatedly heard it alleged that every known tribe, in every part

of the world which has yet been visited, has a tradition respecting an

universal deluge, and the salvation of their progenitors by a

floating vessel; and on this has been founded the hypothesis that all

architecture, and even written characters, have an ark for their type.

This development has been very ingeniously supported by J. P. Lesley, in

_Man's Origin and Destiny_ (Trubner, London, 1868), a work replete with

learning, and bold, but somewhat unsound, deductions. This assumed fact

has also been used in support of the Biblical story of Noah, his ark,

and the universal deluge--a myth so palpably extravagant, that everyone

who professes to credit it is compelled to object to some detail, and

to lean upon some frail reed, with the hope that he may thus be pardoned

for his credulity. Since the above was written, it has been ascertained

that the tale of Noah and his deluge is adapted from an Assyrian or

Babylonian legend, written apparently with a view to make a story

fitting to the sign of the Zodiac called Aquarius, one to the full as

fabulous as that of the birth of Bacchus, and the amours of Zeus.

In some instances, moreover, and palpably in those cases where the

account of the religion of barbarous nations is given by fanatics, such

as the Roman Catholic invaders of America, or by such conquerors as

Caesar and others, who have themselves very hazy notions of their

own faith, the philosopher feels that the savage is intentionally

misrepresented; consequently, in these, as in all other instances, it

behoves the philosopher to examine the evidence at his command with

critical acumen, rather than accept the statements made by more or less

careless observers. Endeavouring, therefore, to avoid these difficulties

as far as possible, let us summarize the result of our reading, and

record the impressions left upon our mind respecting the faith, ritual,

and practice of certain modern and ancient barbarians.

Beginning with the vast American continent, we find that the Esquimaux

appear to have no conception whatever of a Creator, of a future state,

of a mundane theocracy, or of any unseen agency but good or bad

"luck." But they, nevertheless, put a certain amount of faith in

conjurers--cunning men or women who profess to be able to insure them a

good supply of seals or walrus, and protection from Arctic dangers. For

such a people as this the wants of the day form the chief, if not the

only, object of thought; and they resemble lions or eagles, who are now

all but famished in the hunt for food, and now gorged to repletion with

the result of their quest. To such a nation, Heaven, as described in the

Bible, with its sea of glass, its harpists and singers, would afford no

temptation, and, unless it was furnished with abundance of oily food, an

Esquimaux would not visit it; nor would the fires and heat of Hell have

any terrors for one whose torments on earth are connected with miserable

cold. In practice, the Esquimaux are very much what they are made by

their neighbours and visitors: they are very decently behaved to those

who treat them well, and cruel, barbarous, and revengeful to strangers

after they have themselves been worried by invaders. Alternately

gluttons and starving they obey the necessities of their existence--they

eat to keep themselves warm, and they must be anchorets as rigid as any

Theban hermit whilst they are seeking their prey. With a temperature

below zero, and winter huts constructed of ice, chastity is almost

a necessary virtue, and adultery cannot possibly be frequent. Where

everything of value is rare, covetousness is not common; but if the

holder of the coveted prize be always alert, it is quite natural that

murder shall be attempted, either by the thief or his victim. The

reverence of parents here, as elsewhere, is a necessary accompaniment of

savage life, and is quite independent of any knowledge of the decalogue.

To prevent reiteration of this observation, let us consider for a

moment, the chief if not the main cause, of the reverence given to the

father, and, more rarely, to the mother in the economy of human life. We

see that the Almighty has implanted an instinct in one or both parents,

throughout the larger part of the animal creation, to nourish, guide,

and teach their young. The duck leads her brood to a pond; the hen keeps

her chicks from water, but teaches them to pick up seeds, grubs, and

worms; whilst the cock keeps order amongst the family, The weasel

teaches its offspring how to attack its prey most advantageously, and

the eagle instructs her young ones to fly. In like manner, man is at the

head of his own household; he is the first power to which the young ones

bow; they know the weight of his arm, and dread his anger, knowing that

they will suffer from it when it is stirred up. We all know, as a rule,

that a habit contracted in childhood adheres to us throughout life,

consequently, the dread of the father which exists in the youth becomes,

very generally, filial reverence in the man. But we also know that

almost throughout the animal creation, the young and sturdy males

will, as they grow up to maturity, fight for supremacy, even with their

parents. So long as the latter retain the mastery they are respected;

but as soon as age and its accompanying weakness have made them succumb,

all filial respect vanishes. If, therefore, a parent, when old, is

unable to make himself feared by his prowess, revered for his good sense

or knowledge, or beloved for some faculty which makes him pleasing to

his family or the tribe, he is neglected, and often sacrificed, so

that the young shall have only themselves to provide food for. Even in

Christian England, where filial regard is cultivated as an essential

part of our religion, we too frequently find that parents are wholly

neglected by their adult offspring, as soon as they become, from

sickness, age, or other infirmity, useless members of the family.

Without having ever heard of a law, or set of laws, given in a desert

from Mount Sinai, the Esquimaux are as moral as modern Christians, and

more so than the ancient Jews: they certainly have not more gods than

one, and do not worship any graven image. Amongst them blasphemy is

unknown. Parents are honoured; chastity is general; murder is very

rare; theft only exists when strangers come amongst them with valuable

matters, such as cutting weapons. Amongst such a primitive people false

witness is unknown, and covetousness only exists in the presence of

travellers who have well-stocked ships or sledges. But the Esquimaux do

not keep a Sabbath of rest every seventh day; how, indeed, could they,

when many of their days have a duration of six weeks--according to the

Hebrew computation, which measures the day by sunsets. It is clear,

then, that what many persons designate Christian virtues do not

necessarily depend upon a knowledge of Jehovah, of Jesus, or of both.

The North American Indian appears to have been, when first discovered,

wholly without any distinct religious faith. It is true that some

authors have described him as reverencing his manitou, or great spirit,

and speaking of some happy hunting ground to which his soul will pass

after death; but I am unable to find any reliable testimony in support

of this poetic notion. To me it seems that the Red Indian is nothing

more than one of a ferocious tribe of men, who, having to subsist by the

chase alone, bestows all his thoughts upon getting meat, and driving off

his neighbours from interfering in his lands. To such an one a teeming

population is equivalent to a diminution in the supply of game, and

this, again, involves starvation. With him, therefore, the murder of his

neighbours becomes a matter of necessity, one which may be regarded by

him as an absolute virtue, a matter of public policy, and essentially

a moral duty; and as he is little superior to a tiger or a cat, he does

not scruple to add cruelty to homicide. He who has seen a carnivorous

beast seize its living prey, disable, without killing it, and then lie

by and watch its victim, rising now and again to give it a shake, or

a pat with its claw, can well understand how a Blackfoot Indian might

gloat over a dying Delaware, or a Mandan torture an Iroquois when he had

the chance, each regarding the other as men consider wasps and hornets.

Yet, though without religion, the Indian is not without fear. He is

terrified by strange noises, and by weird sights; there is a being whom

he dreads; and there is in every tribe a "medicine man," who is supposed

to have supernatural power, and to be able to attract good or to banish

evil fortune from the chief and his people. Practically, the Red Indian

is as superstitious about lucky and unlucky days as was the Hebrew David

and the Persian Haman, and, prior to the starting of an expedition, the

diviner is consulted, who may, possibly, answer in the words of the Lord

(?) of Judah, "let it be when thou hearest the sound of a going in the

tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then

shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines"

(2 Sam. v. 24).

But though without religion, in the usual acceptation of the word, the

Indians were not, when first the white man knew them, wholly without

ritual, or what has been designated a sacred ceremony. The celebration

to which we refer occurred every year, was conducted by a definite set

of actors, and was attended to with wonderful reverence. A full account

of such ceremony is given by G. Catlin, in a work entitled, O Kee Pa

(Truebner, London, 1867). In it figures a mystic messenger, who comes to

demand the initiation of the young men of the tribe who have attained

a fighting age; tents are then prepared, and men and women are duly

painted and otherwise disguised to represent buffaloes and bugbears,

the bad spirit, etc.; the main intention of the whole being to test the

courage, strength, and endurance of the young men by frightful tortures,

which are too disgusting for description here. At the end of the trial,

however, each votary sacrifices a joint of the little finger of one hand

to the bad spirit. At this feast-some doll-like effigies are used to

mark the "mystery" tent.

Amongst barbarians like these are, it will readily be imagined that

such virtues as chastity and charity have no existence,--that successful

theft ennobles the robber, and that the slaughter of an enemy, either by

treachery or in fair fight, is regarded as a proof of courage, much as

it was amongst the Spartan Greeks. Polygamy is simply a matter of wealth

and arrangement, and women are purchased and treated like slaves. It is

the man's business to hunt and fight, it is the woman's duty to make the

best or the most of the spoils of the chase.

Yet, with this general absence of all religion, there appears to

be, here and there, a reverence for certain strange phenomena of

nature--such as hot or bubbling fountains, sulphur springs, steaming

geysers, and curious rocks, like the celebrated pipe-stone rock in the

Sioux territory. From this all pipes ought to be made, there being as

much of orthodoxy in such bowls amongst the Indians as there is in an

"Agnus Dei" amongst Christian papists. There is, too, a reverence for

the dead occasionally to be met with, but it cannot be said to amount

to worship. In some instances, but I do not find that the custom is

general, a man is interred with his horse, weapons, and medicine bag,

as if it was expected that he would live beyond the tomb, and require in

his other state of existence that which he wanted in this.

What we have said of the North American aborigines applies with equal,

if not with greater, force to those of the South.

From what the savage redskins are, and have been, during the last two or

three centuries, a transition to what they have been in the past is very

natural; and, whilst making the step, the philosopher will be reminded

of the observation made by some profound observer, to the effect---"go

where you will, no matter how savage the nation, you will be sure to

find the remains of a previous empire, nation, or civilization." Vast

forests, scarcely yet fully explored, cover ancient cities in Ceylon

and Central America alike, and men, who toiled to build vast temples,

towers, palaces, and fortresses, are replaced by wild animals. In

the Bashan of Palestine, primeval houses of stone still stand, where

scarcely a resident is to be found, and the present inhabitants are far

inferior to the ancient race that built these enduring dwellings. Thus

the Abbe Domenech writes (_Seven Years Residence in the Great Deserts of

North America_, London, Longman, 1860), vol. I., p. 353--"From Florida

to Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, the American soil

is strewn with gigantic ruins of temples, tumuli, entrenched camps,

fortifications, towers, villages, towers of observation, gardens, wells,

artificial meadows, and high roads of the most remote antiquity."

Without entering closely into the nature of the antiquities discovered,

we may state that they comprise pyramids, cones, obelisks, hills

surrounded by a deep vallum, like that adjoining Salisbury, and earthen

constructions analogous to that at Avebury. There is evidence that

the artificial erections, which were so built as to be visible from an

enormous distance, were designed, possibly, as cairns, or memorials of

the dead, but also as spots for sacrificial offerings, resembling those

called high places in Ancient Palestine, the tumulus over Patroclus, and

the Scythian mounds in the Crimea. The altars which have been discovered

are made of baked clay or stone, and have the shape of large basins,

varying in length from nineteen inches to seventeen yards, but generally

about two yards and a-half. Under and around the altars calcined human

bones were found, and sometimes a whole skeleton was met with in the

tumulus, as if a sacrifice of men attended the funeral rites, as we

learn from Homer that it did, before Troy, when Achilles directed the

obsequies of his friend Patroclus. Cremation, as well as sepulture, was

adopted, and with the dead, ornaments, arms, and other objects, which

belonged in life to the departed, were buried; amongst these are to be

reckoned trinkets of silver and of brass, as well as of stone and bone.

As a proof of the advanced knowledge of the people referred to, I may

here quote, from memory, a note from Stevens' _Central America_, to the

effect that the bronze tools found in Yucatan, &c., amongst the quarries

whence the stone for the ancient temples was procured, are nearly as

hard as steel, and that a similar bronze is only known to have existed

in some of the ancient tombs and quarries of Egypt, an observation

which receives additional value from Domenech's remark, vol. I., p.

364--"These works of art (arms, idols, and medals, found in New Granada

tombs) are acknowledged, by the archaeologists of Panama, to possess the

characteristics of both Chinese and Egyptian art." Here, again, I would

call my readers' attention to the facts, that in very modern times

Chinese have migrated to California, Australia, Singapore, and other

distant localities, and that Fortune found Egyptian curiosities in

_virtu_, shops in China, whilst Egyptologists have discovered Chinese

manufactures in Egyptian tombs. The subject of the extent of travel in

ancient times does not enter into my present plan; but as I am desirous

to make the mind of my readers expansive enough to receive everything

which bears upon the history of man upon the earth, I may be allowed to

sow seed by the way-side, some of which may blossom as "a garden flower

grown wild." Domenech, in p. 408, vol. I., figures a remarkable stone,

by many persons supposed to be a hoax or forgery, which was found at the

base of one of the largest mounds in North America, situated in Western

Virginia. It lay in a sepulchral chamber, thirty-five feet from the

surface, was elliptic in shape, two inches and a-half long, two wide,

and about half an inch thick, and the material was of a dark colour, and

very hard. The following is a copy from Domenech's work, and, without

dwelling upon it, we may call attention to the similarity of some of

the letters with those known to, or used by the Phoenicians, Ancient

Greco-Italians, and Carthaginians. Like the Newton Stone, in Scotland,

and some Gnostic gems, it may be said to be learned "gibberish," which

"the spirits" can read but no one else.

[Illustration: 056]

There is, indeed, much more evidence than is generally supposed to

connect the ancient mound-builders in America with the inhabitants

of the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly in their modes of burial, the

nature of their earthworks, and the style of such ornaments and figures

as have been found. For example, there is one enclosure described, in

the centre of which is erected a mound and pillar, precisely resembling

the linga yoni of the East. In addition to these, carved stones have

been found, which unite together such Oriental emblems as the sun and

moon, the Tau, T and the egg, O which together make the well-known

Egyptian symbol A. Again, Domenech figures some male and female human

effigies, of whom American savans write that they represent idols of

sexual design, similar to those exposed in the _Mysteries of Eleusis_,

one of them being a badly finished image of Priapus. Domenech still

farther states, on the authority of Cortez, that a form of worship,

recalling the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris, was established in

America.

Respecting the nature of the religion of the mound builders the Abbe

writes--"The government of these nations appears to have been theocratic

or sacerdotal, like that of the Jews, and the religious administrative

and military power was, probably, vested in one and the same person.

This is clearly evinced by the taboo, or sacred monuments, being

combined with those of a purely military character," p. 366. Without

straining doubtful points too far, we may content ourselves with

affirming that the researches of Davis and Squire, of Stephens, and of

Domenech, show that the mound builders of America raised high places

for sacrificial fires; that they built huge piles of earth over dead

warriors; and, that during the funeral rites which were observed at the

obsequies, they immolated certain human victims.

Let us now pause for a moment and consider how much is involved in the

practice of making a sacrifice by fire, or otherwise, at the burial of

any deceased chieftain or honoured man. With what idea could the living

wife join her husband on the funeral pyre in India, or the ancient

Tartars have slain the horse, slaves, wives, and chief officers of a

defunct king, burying them all in a vast grave, unless they entertained

the belief that there was a life beyond the grave? The faith may have

been of the crudest form, yet the practice evidenced the belief that

those who died, and were buried together, would arise and live at the

same time and place, and in the same relative positions which they had

during life. If this be granted, it demonstrates that the early dwellers

in America had a higher conception of immortality than had the ancient

Jews, even although the latter assumed, and pertinaciously persisted in

the assertion, that they, and they only of all the nations of the

world, were taught of God--a boast to which a vast number of thoughtless

Christians give a profound reverence, and most implicit belief.

Without speculating upon the probable connexion between the

mound-builders and the inhabitants of ancient Mexico, we will endeavour,

with the aid of Prescott, and other writers, to ascertain something

of the faith professed by Montezuma and his subjects. Derived from two

sources, there were two distinct elements in the Mexican religion; one

of these was gentle and mild as the teaching of Christ, and the other,

ferocious and cruel, like the practice of such of his followers as

the sensual Crusaders, the persecuting Popes of Italy, and the brutal,

money-grubbing Spaniards. The former gradually dried up, like primitive

Christianity, and the harmlessness of the dove was replaced by the

ferocity of the wolf. It is in strict accordance with human nature,

that virtues are harder to maintain than vices, hence malignancy swelled

itself up and became dominant. The priests of the sanguinary class

contrived as burdensome a ceremonial as ever existed in Judea,

Greece, Spain, or Modern Rome, and they surrounded their deities with

conceptions as grotesque as those which are clustered round the Hindoo

gods of to-day, the divinities of the Greeks and Romans, and the

innumerable virgins, saints, and martys of mediaeval and modern papal

Christianity. The power and the inclination to make fetish is certainly

not confined to African negroes. The Mexicans recognized a supreme

Creator as the God by whom we live, one who was, for them, omnipresent

and omniscient--the giver of all good things, "without whom man is as

nothing." He was said to be "invisible, incorporeal, a being of absolute

perfection and perfect purity," "under whose wings men may find repose

and a sure defence." But this deity, though single, was subdivided

by the Mexican theologians, much in the same way as Jehovah became

separated into an innumerable host of angels, archangels, and devils,

and as Zeus was split up into an equally numerous army of gods,

goddesses, and demigods. The Mexicans had thirteen major, and about two

hundred minor, divinities, to one or other of whom each day was devoted,

much in the same way as certain modern Christians believe in one

Creator, four persons, three of whom are male and the other female,

seven archangels, and some hundreds of saints, virgins, or martyrs, to

each of whom one day of the year is consecrated. There are more gods and

goddesses in the Papal calendar than in that of Ancient Mexico, Greece,

or even Rome.

At the head of the celestial army was "the god of war," "the patron of

the kingdom," whose temples were more noble in their barbaric majesty

than any other, and to whom human beings were sacrificed in abundance.

They were the noblest creatures that could be found, and in truth, there

were very few other animals to offer in their place.

This great Mexican divinity was essentially the same as the _Jehovah

Tsebaoth_ of the Hebrew Scriptures; the Lord of Hosts of whom we read in

Exod. xv. 3, "The Lord (Jehovah) is a man of war, the Lord (Jehovah) is

His name;" and in Ps. xxiv. 8, "Who is this King of glory?--the Lord,

strong and mighty; the Lord, mighty in battle;" and again, the same idea

appears in verse 10 of the same Psalm; see also 1 Chron. xvii. 24, "The

Lord of Hosts is the God of Israel." Indeed, we should weary the reader

if we were to quote all the texts to be found in the Old Testament,

which prove that the Hebrew Jehovah was as much a god of war as was the

chief deity of the Mexicans. Modern civilization may frame the belief

that God is not "the author of confusion, but of peace" (1 Cor. xiv.

33); but the Hebrews in the East, and the Mexicans in the West, held a

different opinion. Besides the god of war there was a god of the air,

who once lived on earth, and taught metallurgy, agriculture, and the

art of government. He was essentially a human benefactor, who caused the

earth to teem with fruit and flowers, without the trouble of laborious

cultivation--his reign was analogous to the golden age of the Greeks and

Romans. But he was not wholly satisfactory, and was banished; yet he is

to have a second coming, like Elias, and a modern deity of the Eastern

world. His portrait is identical, apparently, with the commonly received

likeness of Jesus. In Christian mythology (see Eph. ii. 2), "the prince

of the power of the air" is regarded as "the adversary," or a devil.

No other deities are described in detail by Prescott, but he says that

every household had its "penates," or household gods. On turning

to Higgins, who quotes entirely from Lord Kingsborough's _Mexican

Antiquities_, we find that the Mexicans baptized their children with

what they called "water of regeneration." Their king also danced before

his god, as David did, to his chaste wife's disgust, and was consecrated

and anointed by the high priest with a holy unction as Saul and the

son of Jesse were. On one day of the year all the fires in the Mexican

kingdom were extinguished and lighted again from one sacred hearth in

the temple, which again reminds us of the Vestal Virgins, whose business

was to keep up a holy fire in Rome, and of the lamp which was to burn

perpetually in the Jewish temple (Exod. xxvii. 20). At the end of October

the Mexicans had a feast resembling our "All Souls," or "Saints," day,

which was called "the festival of advocates," because each human being

had an advocate in the heaven above to plead for him, which again

reminds us of Jesus' dictum, that children have guardian angels, who are

always in God's presence (Matt, xviii. 10)

The same people had a forty-days' fast, in honour of a god who was

tempted forty days upon a mountain, and thus resembled the Prophet of

Nazareth. He was called the morning star, and thus is to be identified

with Lucifer as well as Jesus (Isa. xiv. 12, Rev. xxii. 16), and carried

a reed for an emblem (see Eev. xxi. 15). The Mexicans honoured a cross,

and the god of air was represented sometimes as nailed to one, and even

occasionally between two other individuals.*

* As we cannot imagine that the Mexicans were aware of the

manner in which modern Christians depict Jesus on the cross,

we most, I think, seek for some idea which was common to

both the East and West. In Payne Knight's work, so often

referred to by us, there is a picture which represents a

cock with a lingam instead of a head and beak; on its

pediment there is in Greek the words, soteer kosmou, "the

saviour of the world." This is also an epithet of Siva, and

he is sometimes represented as a phallus. In this he is the

Asher or Bel of the Assyrian triad, erected higher than the

other two. In Christian history the outsiders are said to be

thieves, but it was not so in Mexico. The three crosses

are simply emblems of the "trinity."

A virgin and child were also adored, as they were in Babylonia, Assyria,

Egypt, and Hindostan, and as they are in a great part of Europe at the

present time. The people believed in vast cycles of years, at the end

of each of which there was to be a general destruction of life, and a

perfect regeneration, an idea which Higgins has shown to have existed

amongst Persians, Romans, and Jews alike. The Mexicans still further

believed in a threefold future state--a heaven for the brave, and those

who were sacrificed, there being, so far as I can discover, no abstract

idea of what we call "virtue"; a hell for the wicked; and a sort of

quiet limbo for those who were in no way distinguished. Heaven was

located in the sun, and the blessed were permitted to revel amongst

lovely clouds and singing birds, enjoying, unharmed, all the charms of

nature: a conception which is to the full as poetical, and, probably,

quite as near the truth, as that given in "Revelation." When a man died

he was burned, and, if rich, his slaves were sacrificed with him, the

Mexicans, in this respect, resembling the ancient Scythians, with whom

they had much in common. When the ceremony of giving a name to children

was gone through, their lips and bosom were sprinkled with water, and

the Lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that

was given to the child before the foundation of the world, so that the

infant might be born anew, or, in modern terms, regenerated (Prescott,

ch. 3). Amongst their prayers, or invocations, were the formulas, "Wilt

Thou blot us out, O Lord, for ever? Is this punishment intended, not for

our reformation, but for our destruction?" again, "Impart to us, out of

Thy great mercy, Thy gifts which we are not worthy to receive through

our own merits;" "Keep peace with all;" "Bear injuries with humility,

God who sees will avenge you;" "He who looks too curiously on a woman

commits adultery with eyes." These Mexican maxims so closely resemble

those to be found in the Bible, that it is difficult to believe that the

Spaniards really told the truth respecting them. The sacerdotal order

amongst the Mexicans was a numerous one, well arranged and powerful. The

priests used musical choirs in their worship, arranged the calendar, and

appointed the time for festivals. They superintended the education of

youth, and wrote up the traditions, like the "recorders" of the Jews,

Persians, other Orientals, and Christian monks, and looked to the

conservancy of the hieroglyphic paintings. There were two high priests,

who alone had to undertake the duty of offering human sacrifices,

and these were elected by the king and nobles, quite irrespective

of previous rank, and, when elected, they were inferior only to the

sovereign. When reading this, anyone who is familiar with biblical

history will bethink him of Luke iii. 3, "Annas and Caiaphas being the

high priests," the plural, not the singular, number being used, and of

the dictum of Caiaphas, John xi. 50, "It is expedient for us that one

man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not." We

may put what construction we please upon these facts, but, whatever

interpretation we may adopt, we must acknowledge that the Hebrews, at

the time when our era commences, had two high priests who were concerned

in human sacrifice.

The priests, in general, were devoted to the service of some particular

deity, and, during the time of their attendance, lived in the temple,

celibate; but, when not on duty, they resided with their wives and

families. Thrice during the day, and once at some period of the night,

they were called to prayer, much like all the varieties of Christian

monks and nuns. They were frequent in their ablutions, in which habit

they may be contrasted with those saintly hermits, who regarded dirt as

a divine ordinance, and never washed; and they mortified the flesh by

long vigils, fasting, and cruel penance, drawing blood from their bodies

by flagellation, or by piercing them with the thorns of the aloe. The

resemblance of the Mexican sacerdotalism with Jewish and Christian

customs is thus shown to be wonderful and striking, so much so, that

the Spaniards started the idea that they had been taught by some

stray apostle of Jesus. The great cities of Mexico were divided into

districts, each of which was placed under the charge of a sort of

parochial clergy, who regulated every act of religion within their

precincts, and who administered the rites of confession and absolution.

The secrets of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were

imposed, of much the same kind as those enjoined by the Roman Catholic

Church upon her votaries.

It was a tenet of Mexican faith, that a sin once atoned for, was, if

repeated, inexpiable a second time; consequently, confession was only

once resorted to, and that late in life; a good plan, upon the whole,

for it enabled a man whose days were numbered to get pardon "for good

and aye." It was also held that sacerdotal absolution was equivalent

to magisterial punishment. The formula of absolution contained this,

amongst other things, "O merciful Lord, Thou who knowest the secrets of

all hearts, let Thy forgiveness and favour descend, like the pure waters

of heaven, to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this

poor man has sinned, not from his own free will, but from the influence

of the sign under which he was born." This idea may well be compared

with the current doctrine of the phrenologists, many of whom assert that

a man acts according to the configuration of his brain and cranium, and

is, therefore, only partially culpable for the commission of certain

crimes. After a copious exhortation to the penitent, in which he was

enjoined to undergo a variety of mortifications, and to perform minute

ceremonies, by way of penance, he was particularly urged to procure,

with the smallest possible delay, a slave, who was to be utilized in

sacrifice to the Deity; the priest then concluded with inculcating

charity to the poor--"Clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, whatever

privations it may cost thee, for remember their flesh is like thine."

The necessity of sacrifice, as an atonement for sin, forms an essential,

though bloody, part of both the Hebrew and the Christian faiths, and

history has long taught us that the slaughter of a man, woman, or child,

formed, in the estimation of the Ancient Greeks, and other nations, one

of the most acceptable of the forms of homage paid by a human being to

the Creator. This idea is at the very basis of the Christian theology.

It has been held, from the time of the apostle Paul to the present day,

that Jehovah would not look favourably upon mankind until He had been

propitiated, not by the sacrifice of an ordinary individual, but by the

murder, in the crudest of modes, of a being whom He personally begat,

for the purpose of killing him when arrived at maturity. In Hebrews

x. 12, we find this doctrine very distinctly enunciated, in the words,

"this man, after he had offered one sacrifice of sins for ever, sat down

on the right hand of God," and subsequently, v. 14, "by one offering he

hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Again, in Heb. ix.

26, "once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by

the sacrifice of himself;" and in Heb. x. 10, "we are sanctified through

the offering of the body of Jesus Christ;" and in ix. 28, "Christ

was once offered to bear the sins of many." The philosopher may doubt

whether the God whom the Christians have made for their own adoration,

is in any way different to that of King Mesha, who offered up his own

son in sacrifice, or to the Mexican one, who was contented with the

blood of a slave.*

* It is doubtful whether any Christian has ever paid real

attention to the doctrines which are familiar to his ear, or

to the hymns which an most frequently on his tongue. In the

usual fashion which is prevalent amongst ministers and

hearers, everything which is told by missionaries of heathen

deities is taken as true. Thus it has become the general

belief that the Mexican theology, which required an annual

sacrifice of human beings, whose hearts were cut out, and

offered warm, palpitating and full of blood, to a God who

was supposed to be present in a sacred stone statue, was

beyond measure atrocious. But in what consists the horror,

unless in the fact that the sacrifice was seen by the

worshippers? In Christendom people are never called upon to

see a man killed by nailing him to a cross. If they were

condemned to this penance, very little would any of them

talk of blood. As it is, the minds of the majority are

lulled to sleep by the substitution of words for facts, and

texts of Scripture for ideas; and those who are unable to

look upon a cut finger without fainting, and would not for

worlds go to see a man decapitated, talk in the serenest

manner on most sanguinary topics. A reference to a few hymns

which are general favourites will illustrate what I mean. In

"Rock of Ages," for example, we have the lines--

"Let the water and the blood

From thy riven side that flowed,

Cleanse from sin and make me pure."

Another equally popular hymn begins

"From Calv'ry's cross a fountain flows

Of water and of blood,

More healing than Bethesda's pool,

Redeeming Lord, thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power..." and again--

"There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuels veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stains."

No congregation of Christian, or any other men, would

tolerate for a moment the introduction into divine worship

of a bath of blood, into which all those should plunge who

desired salvation. Not one would endeavour to wash his sins

away in a sanguine stream, drawn from any source whatever.

The horror which would be produced by the doctrine that such

things are necessary to appease our God, would make every

thinking being detest it. Yet, when we only play with the

idea, we can talk of such matters with holy complacency. If

any Christian wants to test his faith, let me advise him to

get a basinful of blood and place it in his bed-room, and

say twice a day, when looking on it, that's the stuff which

propitiates my God! It would not be long ere he saw the

absurdity of his theological tenets, and the coarseness of

the hierarchy which invented so frightful an idea of the

Omnipotent.

For the education of the youth of Mexico a part of the temples was

allotted, where the boys and girls of the middle and higher classes were

placed at an early period--the girls to be taught by the priestesses,

the boys by priests; and from a note in Prescott's corrected edition,

1866, p. 22, we learn that the former were even more generally pure

in life than, we have reason to believe, the Egyptian priestesses and

Christian nuns proved themselves to be, Father Acosto saying, "In truth,

it is very strange to see that this false opinion of religion hath so

great force amongst these young men and maidens of Mexico, that they

will serve the Devil with so great vigour and austerity, which many

of us do not in the service of the most high God, the which is a great

shame and confusion." It is curious to notice how the Christian priest

considers that chastity may be a snare of the Devil, as well as an

ordinance of Jehovah. The boys, in these scholastic parts of the sacred

temples, were taught the routine of monastic discipline--to decorate the

shrines of the gods with flowers, to feed the sacred fires, and to chant

in worship and at festivals. The Abbe Hue, in an account of his travels

in Thibet and Tartary, has told us repeatedly of the similarity between

the rites, practices, and ceremonies of the Romish Church and those in

use amongst the followers of the Great Lama. It is equally marvellous to

discover that the Mexican ritual resembles both. The Papalist endeavours

to explain this, by the monstrous assumption that both Tartary and

Mexico were evangelized by two different Christian Apostles. But it

seems to us more probable that the Romanists, who are known to have

adopted almost every ancient ceremony, symbol, doctrine, and the like,

have unknowingly copied from travelled Orientals, than that the cult of

the people of Thibet has travelled into America, as well as into Europe.

Into the identity of the Tartars with the Red Indians it is not my

intention to enter. The higher Mexicans were taught traditionary lore,

the mysteries of hieroglyphics, the principles of government, and

such astronomical and scientific knowledge as the priests would, or,

probably, could, impart. The girls learned to weave and embroider

coverings for the altars of the gods. Great attention was paid to

morality, and offences were punished with extreme rigour, even with

death itself. Youths were taught to eschew, vice and cleave to virtue,

to abstain from wrath, to offer violence or do wrong to no man, and to

do good where possible.

When of an age to marry, the pupils were dismissed from the convent, and

the recommendation of the principal thereof often introduced those

whom he regarded as the most competent of the students, to responsible

situations in public life. Such was the policy of the Mexican priests,

who were thus enabled to mould the mind of the young, and to train it

early to the necessity of giving reverence to religion, and especially

to its ministers--a reverence which maintained its hold on the warrior

long after every other vestige of education had been effaced. In this

matter America showed an astuteness equal to that exhibited by Papal

hierarchs in Rome.

To each of the principal temples, lands were annexed, for the

maintenance of the priests, and these glebes were augmented by

successive princes, until, under Montezuma, they were of enormous

extent, and covered every district of the* empire. The priests took the

management of their property into their own hands, and treated their

tenants with liberality and indulgence. In addition to this source of

income, they had "first fruits," and other offerings, dictated by piety

or superstition. The surplus was distributed in alms amongst the poor,

a duty strenuously prescribed by their moral code. Thus we find, adds

Prescott, whom we are closely, and almost verbatim, following, the

same religion inculcating lessons of pure philanthropy and of merciless

extermination--an inconsistency not incredible to those familiar with

the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the early ages of the

Inquisition.

In the course of a not very long life, I have heard, upon many

occasions, the argument that the persistency of the Roman Catholic

Church, in spite of its abominable corruptions, its utter contempt for

truth, its outrageous cruelty, its glaring superstition, its intolerable

arrogance, and its rapacious covetousness, proves that it is, and must

ever be regarded as a divine institution. But this argument loses all

its weight when we find that the religion of the Mexicans, which the

Spaniards declared to have sprung from the Devil, had the virtues, as

well as many vices, of the Roman faith. If one came from Heaven, the

other could not have come from Hell. The simple truth seems to be, that

crafty and designing men are always able to find dupes, and that red men

and black, the haughty Italian and the lively Frenchman, the stolid boor

and the polished orator, may all suffer alike from an education which

has taught them, in youth, to believe in the reality of a revelation

given to a class of human beings who, by its means, assume to be divine.

The Mexican temples--_teocallis_, or "houses of God "--were very

numerous, indeed there were several hundreds in each of the principal

cities of the kingdom; but we need not describe them more minutely than

to say that they were truncated pyramids terminating in a level surface,

upon which blazed the sacred fire. All religious services were public,

as in Roman Catholic countries. There were long processions of priests,

and numerous festivals of unusual sacredness, as well as monthly and

daily appropriate celebrations of worship, so that it is difficult to

conceive how the ordinary business of life was carried on. The sun was

an universal object of reverence. At a period not long prior (about 200

years) to the Spanish conquest, human sacrifices were adopted for the

first time, and they speedily became common, both as regards repetition

and the numbers of victims slaughtered. In some instances the oblations

terminated with cannibalism. The burnt offering was roasted, not

incinerated, and, like the Paschal lamb, was devoutly devoured. Sexual

rites, symbols, or worship, appear to have been very rare, for I can

only find one or two doubtful references to them. In this matter the

Mexicans were far superior to all the old Shemitic and Egyptian, as well

as the Hindoo, races. So far Prescott.

Whilst writing the foregoing, it has required some determination not to

comment very extensively upon the facts recorded, for they do, indeed,

set the thoughtful mind on fire. Amongst the questions which they

provoke, the first is, "how far the accounts given to us are to be

depended upon?" In answering this query, we readily recognize that our

authorities can only have been Spaniards, who were, to a great extent,

implacable enemies of the Mexicans, to a great extent ignorant of their

language, and bitterly hostile to them in matters of religion. But this

recognition leads us to trust the accounts which they give, for, if the

invaders had been able to treat the natives as unmitigated savages,

they would have had the more excuse for pillaging their sacred stores,

temples, and palaces, and exterminating the pagan worshippers. Again, if

the picture thus painted were a fancy one, having no real existence save

in the mind of the writer, we should be able readily to recognize its

counterpart in the Spanish history of the Peruvians, just as we are able

to ascertain the identity of the authorship of certain anonymous works

by Lord Lytton, by the existence therein of his marked peculiarity of

style. The best testimony, however, to the substantial truth of the

accounts given of the nature of the Mexican faith, is to be found in

various minute episodes of their general history, in the behaviour of

the Aztecs with each other, and towards their invaders, and the general

customs which are recorded. That the Spanish writers had a real belief

in the account of which Prescott has given us so admirable a resume, we

may feel assured, for one of them introduced the naive remark, "that the

Devil had positively taught to the Mexicans the same things which God

had taught to Christendom."

When once we have satisfied ourselves of the truth of the Spanish

accounts of the ancient Mexican institutions, we find ourselves in the

presence of some very striking religious and political facts. We see

before us a nation who had attained to as distinct a conception of the

Almighty as we have ourselves; who had discovered a heaven, a hell,

and an intermediate place, without the assistance of Jew or Greek,

Babylonian or Persian; who had instituted a sacerdotal class, and made

provision for their subsistence, without any assistance from Melchizedek

or Moses; who had adopted a principle of national education long before

such a thing was thought of in England, or in Europe. In fine, the Aztec

faith and policy were, at least, as praiseworthy, if not far nearer to

perfection, than the faith and policy which obtained in Christian Italy,

France, and Spain, during the dark and the middle ages. There is not,

indeed, any one point in which the contrast is not favourable to the

Aztecs, except in the single point of human sacrifice. Christianity can,

apparently, make a heavy accusation against the Aztec religion on this

point, and may fairly seem to reproach it for that frequency of human

sacrifice, and even cannibalism, which formed, at the time of the

Spanish conquest, an essential part of the Mexican faith.

Yet, when we dive below the surface, and examine this matter with

philosophic care, we readily see that the charge is deprived of much of

its weight. Who, for example, can compare the practice of the people

of Montezuma with that of Spaniards under the sway of Ferdinand and

Isabella, without seeing that in Spain there were human sacrifices,

which were conducted with far more cruelty than those in Mexico. We

find, in the first place, that the custom of sacrificing human

beings was no more an essential part of the Aztec, than it was of the

Christian, faith; it was only in existence two hundred years before the

Spanish invasion, and many centuries, bloodless of human offerings, had

passed away ere the period of what we may term brutality arrived. Just

so it was with the religion of Jesus; for centuries it was unstained by

blood, and comparatively meek and humble, yet, when its priesthood rose

to power, they indulged in human holocausts on a most extended scale.

The Spaniards give accounts of thousands of victims offered up at once

to the Mexican god of war; but what are these in comparison to the

victims of Paris, sacrificed by Papists on the eve and day of St.

Bartholomew, and those at Beziers.

It may be doubted by the philosopher whether the Christian religion

was not, from its very commencement, as intolerant of opposition and as

persecuting as it became hereafter.

The story of Jesus cursing a fig tree, which did not bear fruit out

of its season (Mark xi. 13, 14, 21), shows that even he, whom the

Christians take for an example, was quite capable of that pettiness,

which visits upon the innocent the vexation felt by one's self. But when

we read the story in Acts, v., about Ananias and Sapphira, we see, in

all its naked horror, a fearful Christian persecution. The victims were

done to death for deceiving an apostle. But why should we be surprised

at the followers of "the Son" doing that which "the Father" ordained? Is

there any human king who ever promulgated a more bloody order than did

Jehovah Sabaoth, the God which, amongst the Hebrews, corresponded to the

Mexican god of war, when he commissioned Samuel to say to Saul (1 Sam.

xv. 3), "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they

have; slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel

and ass!" After such a destruction of the Midianites as is narrated

in Numb, xxxi., the fearful slaughter, effected by Crusaders, of Jews,

Turks, and heretics is scarcely worth mentioning.

There was a teacher who remarked, "he who is without sin among you,

let him first cast a stone" at the culprit; and surely, when our Bible,

which is treasured by so many as the only rule of faith amongst us,

details such horrible religious slaughters as are to be found in its

pages, and abounds with persecuting precepts, we had better not talk too

much about Mexican sacrifice. Was there any Aztec minister so brutal in

his religious fury as Samuel was (1 Sam. xv. 33), who hewed Agag into

pieces? The Mexican was merciful to his victim; the Hebrew was like

a modern Chinese executioner, who kills the criminal by degrees. His

cruelty has been emulated in Christian France, and under the reign of

two of her kings, we have seen a Ravaillac and Damiens tortured slowly

to death, by means too horrible to dwell upon.

The writers upon Mexico tell us of a lovely youth, who was educated for

a whole year to become a victim, and how, at the end of that time, he

was feted, adorned, and even worshipped; how four of the most charming

maidens of Mexico were selected as his wives, and how he remained in the

enjoyment of the highest honour until the time of his sacrifice arrived,

and we feel due horror at the recital. Yet, what is it compared with the

accounts we read of miserable men and women racked, in hideous dungeons,

by the most horrible tortures which an enlightened Christian ingenuity

could devise, and who then, with limbs whose loosened fibres could

scarcely sustain their bruised and mangled bodies, were led, or driven

at the sword's point, to a stake fixed in the ground, there to be tied

and burned, whilst devout Christian multitudes stood around, rejoicing,

like demons, over the hellish scene.

No one can gloat over the imaginary torments of Hell without being a

persecuting devil at heart.

Surely the Christians have too much sin amongst themselves to cast a

stone at the inhabitants of Mexico.

We find a strong offset to the horror of Aztec cruelty in the very

Bible, which we regard as the mainstay of our religious world. What,

for example, is the essential difference between a Mexican monarch

sacrificing one or ten thousand men taken in battle, and Moses

commanding the extermination of the inhabitants of Canaan, and only

saving, out of Midian, thirty-two thousand virgins, that they might

minister to the lust of his Hebrew followers? What, again, are we to say

of David's God, who would not turn away his anger from Judah until

seven sons of the preceding king had been offered up as victims? And

lastly--thought still more awful! what must we say of the fundamental

doctrines of Christianity, that Jehovah Himself sacrificed His own Son

by a cruel death; and not only so, but that He had intercourse with

an earthly woman, and had thus a son by her, for the sole purpose of

bringing about his murder? Can we object to religious cannibalism in the

Aztec, when Jesus of Nazareth is said to have urged his followers to eat

his body and to drink his blood; and when hundreds of priests have shed

the blood of millions of men, who, disbelieving the power of any man

to convert bread and wine into flesh and blood, have refused to profane

their lips by a cannibal feast?

Having now examined the nature of the Aztec faith, let us, for a while,

linger upon the fruits which it produced. Who can read the mournful

story of the fall of Mexico without contrasting, in his own mind, the

respective characters of the conquerors and the conquered? In every

so-called Christian virtue Montezuma proved himself to be superior

to the lying, unscrupulous, rapacious and covetous Cortez. Even the

greatest fire-eater who ever lived cannot fail to see that the Spaniard

would not have been victorious over the Mexican, if the latter had been

equally well equipped with arms, armour, and horses, as the former was.

We can only tell vaguely what was the condition of Anahuac prior to

the invasion of Cortez; but, from the testimony given by Prescott, we

believe that there were annual wars between adjoining tribes, who met

solely to obtain from their enemies victims for sacrifice, the battles

always ending with the day, and never being resumed for conquest, or for

the plunder of maidens to be an indulgence of a victor's lust. What the

condition of the same country under Christian rule has been, and still

is, every reader of modern and contemporary history knows; and he sees,

with regret, that Jehovah Sabaoth, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Holy

Spirit, with an army of saints, angels, virgins, and martyrs, as well as

ancient gods of the Eastern Hemisphere are, if they are to be judged by

the acts of their worshippers, as cruel, revengeful, and malignant, as

were the deities of the Mexican kingdom.

The followers of the cross will appear to be quite as despicable when

we contrast them with the Peruvians, as they were when compared with the

inhabitants of Anahuac.

There is something very fascinating in the history of Peru, as recorded

by the Spanish authors, and rendered into the English language by

Prescott. There is no account of ancient or modern people extant which

has interested me so much as those of the realm of Manco Capac. To hear

of a nation, separated by an ocean, we may, indeed, say two, and a vast

continent, from the civilized portions of Asia, Europe, and Africa,

located in a mountainous tract, where soil and water were scanty, and

locomotion was rendered difficult from the configuration of the land;

whose country was surrounded by strong natural enemies of all kinds;

whose people were unable to use such agents as steel and gunpowder, and

who were yet enabled to construct vast cities and temples, to quarry,

remove, and use in buildings, fragments of rock thirty-eight feet long,

eighteen feet broad, and six feet thick, and to transport these to

distances varying from 12 to 45 miles, to form good roads along the

mountain tops, for an extent of nearly two thousand miles, necessitating

the filling up chasms of enormous depth, and the making of suspension

bridges over rivers whose stream was too furious to bridge in the

ordinary European fashion, is perfectly astonishing.

The far-sighted Incas, to make these roads still more useful,

accompanied them by the erection of large residences, like modern

European bungalows in India, fit for the reception of a monarch with

his army, and by vast magazines of provisions, sufficient to supply

the wants of a warlike expedition, or of a population starving from an

accidental failure of crops. The Peruvians, moreover, surrounded their

chief towns with strong walls, in comparison with which the Cyclopean

constructions of the old world seem small, stunted, and almost

contemptible. It appears, in addition, that they knew how to form

long tunnels, either for the passage of troops, for the benefit of

travellers, or for the conveyance of water. All these, I say, are enough

to fire the imagination of the dullest reader of history, and to shake

the belief that civilization cannot be developed in the midst of what we

have been accustomed to call savage life, and can only be brought to

a moderate perfection by the influence of the Hebrew and Christian

writings.

Our wonder is not, however, bounded by the physical results produced by

the industrious population of Peru, it is still farther exercised by

the descriptions which are given of their wonderful domestic and foreign

policy. It would be difficult to conceive, and still more difficult

to carry into execution for many generations, a plan of government so

eminently fitted to give the greatest happiness to the greatest number,

as that which the Incas elaborated. The rulers were specially educated

to fulfil their duties in every respect, and were not permitted, as

modern princes are, to enter into the ranks of chivalry until they had

undergone a public examination, which was conducted by the oldest and

the most illustrious chiefs. The trial included tests of every warlike

and manly quality. It lasted thirty days, during which time every

competitor fared alike, living on the bare ground, and wearing a mean

attire. Those who passed the ordeal honourably were admitted formally

into the knightly order, the ceremony including an investiture of the

youth with sandals put on by the most venerable noble, equivalent to

the donning of the _toga virilis_ in Ancient Rome, and having the ear

pierced with a golden bodkin by the reigning monarch. To take off the

shoe was a ceremony exacted from all those who came into the Inca's

presence, to have it put on by a grandee was great honour.

That the rulers might understand the condition of the kingdom, they

systematically travelled, much in the same way as James V. of Scotland,

and the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, are said to have done. The Incas, in

addition to their other plans for good government, inaugurated a

postal system: divided their peoples into tens, fifties, hundreds, five

hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands, much in the same way as the

Saxon King Alfred is said to have done, whose plan is, in many respects,

conserved to the present day; and the head man of each division was in

all respects its ruler, to repress crime, to announce to his superior

officer all unusual occurrences, and to report, generally, the actual

state of his division to the chief above him. All legal trials,

or appeals, were decided in less than five days, and a code was

established, which all might readily know, a thing only attained by the

French under the first Napoleon, and long desired by England, but in

vain. Punishments were never attended with torture, or unnecessary

cruelty. In this respect the Peruvians differed from every other

civilized nation of which I have yet read. The Chinaman methodically

inflicts painful punishments which have only been surpassed by the

followers of the "gentle Jesus." The Persians and Turks have, certainly,

shown their capacity for giving pain to those who are brought before

their ministers of justice, and the Red Indians, during their day,

reduced the art of tormenting themselves, but, still more, their

prisoners, almost to perfection. The Babylonians had discovered that a

death of agony could be accomplished by means of myriads of ants. It was

reserved to Christians, eager to uphold the faith promulgated by a God

of mercy, to find out the most exquisite of torments. Even Frenchmen,

who have for centuries assumed the position of leaders of civilization,

were, until the great Revolution beat down their kings and prelates,

more ruthlessly cruel than the most fierce redskin. The Inquisition,

which arrogated to itself the power to keep the Christian religion pure,

was distinguished by the atrocity with which it gave anguish to its

victims, and it held its head high until it was put down, we may hope

for ever, by fiery republican enthusiasts, whom priestly demons, baulked

of their prey, declared to be devils incarnate. More modern hierarchs

are obliged to content themselves with making a hell for their

enemies--with foretelling a variety of punishments to be inflicted

hereafter, which cannot be enforced here.

The Incas exacted an annual report of the lands possessed by

individuals, with their condition as regards culture; and also of every

family. A register of births, marriages, and deaths was regularly kept,

so that the government might always know the real condition of the

nation, soil, and people.

As far as possible, families remained constant to their business, thus

forming a sort of trade caste, but not a rigid one. The registers were

always submitted to the perusal of the Inca, and, subsequently, kept in

the capital.

By the arrangement of "posts," and roads, an insurrection or invasion

was readily discovered, and it was speedily announced at the capital

city. The march of troops to suppress it, under these circumstances, was

easy and immediate, for every requisite for war was always at hand. In

all circumstances, plundering by the soldiery, whether at home or in an

enemy's country, was severely punished, and war was undertaken solely

with a view to peace. If a neighbour was turbulent, he was conquered,

and absorbed into the old state, and if a province was rebellious, its

worst inhabitants were carried away to some other locality, where their

power for mischief would be curtailed; a plan which, we are told, was

pursued by the Assyrian Shalmaneser (2 Kings xvii. 6), indicated by

Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 32), and carried out by Nebuzaradan (2 Kings

xxv. 11.). In fine, we may repeat, that it would be difficult for a

modern philosopher to conceive a better model of a really paternal

government than that which, it is asserted, was found by the Spaniards

when they invaded the kingdom of the Incas. Of the respective value of

Christian Spanish government, and of the so-called Pagan Inca rule, none

can doubt, who reads the present by the light of the past. The Peruvians

kept up their roads, protected their subjects, respected life, and

fostered everything which tended to increase the general happiness

and prosperity of the kingdom--all these objects, have been for a long

period neglected, and Peru, which was under the Spanish rule, one of

the blots on the face of civilization and Christianity, is only

just emerging from a long night, under the influence of Republican

institutions.

Our next step will be to ascertain the religion of the people whose

political condition contrasts so favourably with that of every other

nation of whom travel and history have informed us. But we may, in the

first place, remark, that there is no absolute or necessary connection

between the happiness, or otherwise, of a nation and its dominant

religion, as Buckle has already shown in his _History of Civilization_.

The writer of to-day can find abundant evidence in recent history to

illustrate the proposition here advanced. He can point to France,

and its condition under a sacerdotal rule, prior to the time of the

Revolution, and contrast it with its state since its rulers have

tried to make the people prosperous and happy, independently of their

religious faith. He can point to Austria and Spain, when they were laid

at the feet of the Pope of Rome, and everything was made subservient to

the demands of a powerful hierarchy, and to the same states now, when

religion is subordinate to the material welfare of the majority. Who,

that has read the story of modern Italy, or heard of the atrocities

committed under the priest-led Ferdinand of Naples--better known in

England by the sobriquet of Bomba; who, that knew anything of his

brigand-rearing towns and cities, and has visited them since they have

been ruled constitutionally, and with the priestly power curbed by a

strong hand, can doubt which set of directors are the best? Christian

Rome was never so happy under her Popes as she is now, when the

so-called head of the church is subordinate to the chief of the state.

But of all priest-ridden countries, one which would never have borne the

popish sway as she has done, if her chieftains had been sensible and

her people thoughtful, Ireland deserves our commiseration the most.

Hibernian hierarchs of the Roman faith designate their country as a

land of saints. So, perhaps, it is, if by the word is meant admirers of

laziness and filth, who consider that attention to religion justifies

murder, and every brutal crime against purse, person, and property.

As a rule, admitting of no exceptions, civil government has preceded

sacerdotal rule, and a nation is generally in a weakly and fallen

condition as soon as its affairs are directed by the priestly class.

When first the Aryans invaded Hindostan, the hierarchy was second to the

warrior caste; but as the first aggrandized their power, the second lost

their supremacy, and under Brahminic rule the foundation was laid for

pusillanimous and indolent luxury in the warrior. The power to plan,

and the nerve to enforce laws, for the benefit of all classes of the

community, is very different to that which is requisite to exalt and

enrich the priestly order; and the well-being of a state depends far

more upon the exercise of the first than of the second. Whenever,

therefore, the executive government is entirely independent of the

influence of the hierarchy, or is itself the head of that caste, it can

produce good results for the nation, no matter what may be the dogmas of

the priesthood, or the nature of the gods which are reverenced.

Still following Prescott as our guide, we find that the sun was the

great god of the Peruvians, and that the Incas assumed the title of his

true children. To that luminary a vast temple was built in Cuzco, more

radiant with gold than that of Solomon at Jerusalem. To Cuzco, as to the

capital of Judea, the name of Holy City was given, and to it pilgrims

resorted from every part of the empire. Blasphemy against the sun was

considered as bad as treason against the Inca, and both were punished

with death. A province, or city, rebellious against the sun was laid

waste, and its people exterminated. When conquest over a new tribe

subjugated it to Peru, the people were compelled to worship the sun,

temples to whose honour were erected in their territory. To these was

attached a body of priests, to instruct the people in the proper form

of adoration, which consisted in a rich and stately ceremonial. The

divinities of the conquered people were removed to Cuzco and established

in one of the temples, where they took order amongst the inferior

deities of the Peruvians.

But, though the sun was unquestionably worshipped, Prescott observes,

ch. iii, "it is a remarkable fact that many, if not most, of the rude

tribes inhabiting the vast American continent had attained to the

sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the universe,

who, immaterial in his own nature, ought not to be dishonoured by an

attempt at a visible representation, and who, pervading all space, was

not to be circumscribed within the walls of any building, however grand

or rich."

As civilization progressed, we are told that a separate order of men,

with a liberal provision for their subsistence, was set apart for

religious service, and a minute and magnificent ceremonial contrived,

which challenged comparison with that of the most polished nations of

Christendom. This was the case with the natives of Quita, Bogota, and

others inhabiting the highlands of South America, but especially with

the Peruvians, who claimed a divine origin for the founders of their

empire, whose laws rested on a divine sanction, and whose domestic

institutions and foreign wars were directed to preserve and to propagate

their faiths. Religion was the basis of their polity, the condition of

their social existence. The government of the Incas was essentially a

lay theocracy.

The Peruvians believed in the future existence of the soul and the

resurrection of the body. They had faith in a Hell, located in the

earth's centre, and a Heaven, in which the good would revel in a life

of luxury, tranquillity, and ease. The wicked, however, were not to be

hopelessly damned and tormented for everlasting, but were to expiate

their crimes by ages of wearisome labour. They believed, also, in an

evil principle or spirit, called Cupay, to whom, however, they paid no

more attention than an ordinary Christian does to the Devil.

The great men were entombed after death, and were commonly buried with

the chief things which they required on earth. Sometimes a chieftain was

buried, not only with his treasures, but with his wives and domestics.

Frequently, over the dead, vast mounds were raised, which were

honeycombed, subsequently, with cells for the burial of others. Cairns

were as common in that part of the New World as they have been in the

Old, and the majority of buildings found at the present day in Peru have

been connected with funereal pomp.

The supreme Being in Peru was named Pachacamac, "he who gives life to

the universe," and Viracocha, of which the only translation given is

"foam of the sea." To him one temple only was raised, which is said to

have been built prior to the accession of the Incas, and largely visited

by vast numbers of distant Indians. The sun, as we have noticed, was

chiefly venerated, and to him a temple was erected in every city and

large village, and to him burnt offerings were made in abundance. The

moon was also venerated, being connected with the sun as his wife--and

Venus, called by the name of Chasca, "the youth with the long and

curling locks"--was also regarded reverentially as the page of the sun.

Temples were dedicated to thunder and to lightning as God's ministers,

and the rainbow was regarded as an emanation from the great luminary.

In addition to these, the elements, the winds, the earth, the air, the

great mountains and rivers, were considered as inferior deities, to

which were added the gods of the conquered races. The chief temple of

the sun was extraordinarily gorgeous. It was constructed of stone, and

was so finely executed, that a Spaniard declared that only two edifices

in Spain could, in the stone work, be at all compared with it like

Italian and other churches, it contained many small chapels and

subordinate buildings, and the interior was dazzling with gold. On its

western wall the deity was emblazoned as a human face surrounded with

rays of light, just as the sun is personified amongst ourselves.

The figure was engraved on a massy gold plate, thickly powdered with

emeralds and precious stones. This was so situated in front of the

great eastern portal, that the rays of the morning sun, falling upon it,

lighted up the whole temple with a wondrous sheen; but every part of

the inner walls blazed with gold. The roof was, however, "thatch" alone.

Adjoining the temple of the sun were fanes of smaller dimensions, for

the worship of the moon, stars, thunder, lightning, and the rainbow.

"All the plate, ornaments, and utensils of every description

appropriated to the uses of religion, were of gold or silver. Twelve

immense vases of silver (said to be as high as a good lance, and so

large that two men could barely encircle them with outstretched arms)

stood on the floor of the great saloon, filled with Indian corn. The

censers for the perfumes, the ewers which held the water for sacrifice,

the pipes which conducted it through subterraneous channels into

the buildings, the reservoir that received it, even the agricultural

implements used in the gardens of the temple, were all of the same

rich material. The gardens, like those belonging to the royal palaces,

sparkled with gold and silver, and various imitations of the vegetable

kingdom. Animals, also, were to be found there, amongst which the llama,

with its golden fleece, was most conspicuous, executed in the same

style, and with a degree of skill which, in this instance, probably did

not surpass the excellence of the material" The reader of Prescott will

find that he has not adopted this account without carefully estimating

the value of his authorities, and I believe that he may be fairly

trusted. The various reports, given by Spanish writers, of priests of

the grand temple, seem also to have been carefully estimated by the

historian, and the number which they amounted to is put down at four

thousand at the least.

The high priest was second in dignity only to the Inca, and he was

generally closely related to this ruler. The monarch appointed this

Peruvian pope, who held office for life. He had the appointment of

inferior priests, but all must be from the sacred race of Incas. The

high priests of the provinces were always of the blood royal. The

hierarchy wore no peculiar badge or dress, nor was it the sole

depositary of learning, and it had not to superintend education, or to

do parochial work. These duties were performed by others of the Inca

class, all of whom were holy, though not, so to speak, in "holy orders."

The priest's business was to minister in the temple; his science was

confined to a knowledge of the fasts and festivals to be observed in

connection with religion, for these were very numerous, and demanded

separate rituals. The four principal festivals were solar, i.e., at the

equinoxes and solstices, that of Midsummer being the grandest, on which

occasion every one who could find time and money enough to do so visited

the capital city. The feast was preceded by a three days' fast, and no

fires were to be lighted during that period.

When the day arrived a vast array of people, dressed in their handsomest

apparel, crowded the streets and squares, waiting for the rising of the

sun. When it appeared shouts of joy, heightened by instrumental music,

were raised in swelling tones, until the whole orb had ascended above

the horizon, after which a libation was poured of fermented liquor,

and all the nobles and the king repaired to the great temple, each

individual, except members of the royal family, removing their sandals

as they entered. After prayer came sacrifice, animals, grain, flowers,

and sweet-scented gums being the prescribed offerings; sometimes a

child or lovely maiden was also immolated, generally to commemorate a

coronation, the birth of a royal heir, or a great victory. Cannibalism

never followed the sacrifice; and it may be added, parenthetically,

that when the Incas conquered and annexed man-sacrificing and man-eating

tribes, they always abrogated the custom, and with far more decision

and firmness than Britain has shown in abolishing self-immolation of

Juggernaut pilgrims in her Indian Empire, and the burning of widows

with their dead spouses. Some may doubt whether a conqueror ought to

interfere with the religious customs of the vanquished, but few would

plead for the continuance of such customs as human sacrifice and

cannibalism.

The animal usually sacrificed by the Peruvians was the llama, and

the priest who officiated drew auguries from the appearance of the

intestines. To effect the oblation a sacred fire was now kindled by a

concave mirror which acted as "a burning glass," precisely as was done

by Numa in the days of Ancient Rome. If the sky was clouded, and no rays

could be collected, fire was produced by friction. When lighted, the

fire was committed to the care of the virgins of the sun, who were

bound to keep it up for the ensuing year. After the single sacrifice

was completed, great numbers of other animals were slaughtered, and a

regular carousal began, attended with music, dancing, and drinking,

that lasted for many days, during which period all the lower orders kept

holiday. In the distribution of bread and wine at this high festival,

the invading Spaniards saw a striking resemblance to the Christian

communion, and they recognised a similar likeness in the Peruvian

practices of confession and penance. The virgins of the sun were called

"the elect," and were young maidens taken from their homes at an early

age, and introduced into convents, where they were placed under the care

of elderly matrons, who taught them their religious duties, and how to

spin and weave, embroider and adorn hangings for the temples, and to

frame garments for the Incas. Their work was such, that it was found to

be superior to any which the Spaniards had ever seen, or were themselves

able to produce. The virgins were separated wholly, not simply, from the

world in general, but also from their own relations and friends--none

but the king and queen could enter into their convent. The closest

attention was paid to the morals of these maidens, and visitors were

sent every year to inspect the institutions, and to report on the

state of their discipline; a plan similar to which has been repeatedly

proposed in Christian England, yet never sanctioned by the parliament!

If a virgin was discovered in an intrigue she was buried alive, her

lover was strangled, and the town or village to which he belonged was

razed to the ground, and sowed with stones, to efface even the memory

of its site. These solar attendants were all of royal blood, and were

estimated to number fifteen hundred; but to provincial convents the

inferior nobility were allowed to send their daughters, and sometimes

a peculiarly lovely peasant girl was admitted. The convents were all

sumptuously furnished. But, though virgins of the sun, they were brides

of the Incas, and we cannot fail, when we read of the vast harem of the

Peruvian monarch, to think of the female establishments of the Jewish

Solomon, of the Persian Ahasuerus, and that of Louis XV. of Christian

France. If at any time the Inca reduced his harem, the superfluous

concubines were restored to their homes, swelling with the importance

which they had gained by their familiarity with the monarch.

Polygamy was permitted. Matrimony was effected by the Inca, or other

chief man, joining the hands of the parties. The king usually espoused

his own sister, but no other person was allowed to do so. No marriage

was valid without the consent of parents. As a general rule, all unions

were effected on the same day of the year, and thus the wedding of

couples was followed by general rejoicing.

The genius of the Peruvian government penetrated into the most private

recesses of domestic life, allowing no man to act for himself, even in

those personal matters in which none but himself, or his family, could

be interested. No Peruvian was too low for the fostering vigilance

of the government; none was so high that he was not made to feel his

dependence upon it in every act of his life. The government of the Incas

was the mildest, but the most searching and beneficent, of despotisms.

We now, but with great reluctance, leave our friendly guide, the

accomplished Prescott, and ask ourselves, once more, the lessons which

we have learned from the departed races of the vast American continent.

Can anyone doubt that one of the most conspicuous results obtained

is, that Christian rule, and the Christian doctrine, have not proved

themselves, in any respect, superior to the Incas' government and their

solar religion? Who can read of the civilization, the theology, and the

practice of the Peruvians, without believing one of two things--the one,

that Jewish ritualism, and the majority of Christian teaching, is of

human invention; the other, that the Almighty has revealed His will in

the Western as well as in the Eastern Hemisphere? Can any thoughtful

man believe that the brutal, covetous, lying Spaniards, who broke,

with impunity, every commandment promulgated in those Gospels, to whose

authority they professed allegiance, and upon which their faith is

founded, were better men, or more favoured by the Lord, "who loveth

righteousness and hateth iniquity," than were the gentle Peruvians, who

fell before them as lambs and sheep before wolves and tigers? Surely the

story of the Incas should make Christians, in all ages, blush for their

inferiority to those, amongst whom neither Moses, Samuel, and other

so-called prophets, Jesus, nor any of his apostles, preached; and more

strongly should it convince us that the wish to do good on a large scale

can come otherwise than by the Gospel. If grace, and peace, and love

came by the Nazarene alone, how is it--and let us ponder over the

question deeply--that all Christian countries have been, and that some

are still, conspicuous for the brutality of their political and priestly

governments, for the frequency with which they make war, for their

ferocity in the destruction of religious enemies, and for the intense

hatred evinced against rival sects, by those who call themselves the

representatives of the Prince of Peace; whilst, on the other hand,

a nation who never heard of the son of Joseph or of Mary, should be

conspicuous for the virtues which ought to adorn the soldiers of the

cross, but do not? Surely, if the saying be true, "by their fruit ye

shall know them," the denizens of the old world must be children of the

Devil, who do the work, of their father, whilst certain of the nations

of the new world, as it is called, were really children of the light,

abounding in love, charity, and goodwill towards all men.

To me it is astonishing how thoughtful men, who have read accounts of

the Mexicans and the Peruvians, can continue to believe that the Bible

is the book of God, written by holy men, whose thoughts and diction were

essentially those of the third person in the Trinity. Who can assert

that Abraham and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, were taught of God, and that to

the Hebrews alone has the Creator revealed His will? Who can see, in

the sensual king David, a man after God's heart, and applaud the brutal

murder of Agag, the destruction of the priests of Baal, by the orders

of Elijah, and the extermination of the Baalites in Israel by Jehu?

Compared with such wretches as these the Incas were angels. They had not

left to them the bloody legacy which has come to the Christian world by

means of the Old Testament: they had not been taught to believe that the

Almighty revelled in the blood of human beings: they never had, amongst

their sacred songs, verses like the following--"that thy foot may be

dipped in the blood of enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same"

(Ps. lxviii. 23).

Ah, it is time for civilized men to cease their admiration for a book

which has produced such frightful fruits, and which has converted

millions of human beings into incarnate fiends.

The Vedas and the Shasters--the writings of the Buddhists, and those of

the Parsees and the Chinese, contain, nowhere, such a justification

of wholesale murder, as do the Scriptures of the Jews and of the

Christians.* From these have been drawn the power to persecute, and, if

possible, to exterminate those who worship God in a different fashion

to those in power. Calvin was as bad as Torquemada; and, even at the

present time, it is only public opinion that prevents fanatics, like the

early New Englanders, from reducing their Christian hate to practical

torture. Everywhere the professed followers of Jesus assume the power

to torment their opponents, whenever they can do so without breaking the

civil law, and there are few pulpits from which the voice of revilement,

contumely, and denunciation is not repeatedly heard. The Romans abuse

the Anglicans; the Establishment sneers at Dissent; Nonconformists

censure all churches; and all libel those whom they call Free Thinkers

and Atheists. To find "toleration" in matters of religion, one must seek

amongst the Deists, or amongst those who refuse to see in the Bible the

revealed will of God to man.

* See Matthew x. 34, 85; Luke xii. 49, 51, 52, 53.