The greater part of the American nations were abandoned to Polytheism, and
allowed a crowd of divinities: and nearly all adored the Sun, as the best
representation of the Eternal.
In Peru, at the time of its discovery by Pizarro, Viracocha was supposed to
be the creator of the gods, and below him, they believed in two triads; the
first was Chuquilla, Catuilla, and Intyllapa; and the second Apomti,
Churunti, and Inti-quaoqui.
The creator of the world, according to the Mexicans, was Mexitli, who was
seated on an azure coloured stool, placed on a litter; his hand grasped an
azure staff, in the shape of a serpent, and to crown all, he was of an
azure complexion. Tlaloc was their second, and Tezcallipuca their third
deity. This last was considered the god of repentance: and it was by the
direction of the first, that they built the magnificent city of Mexico in
the midst of a lake.
[Illustration]
They had, besides these, Tangatanga, an idol which was, according to them,
three-in-one and one-in-three. They possessed also a Venus, who, with her
three sisters, presided over love. It is not unusual to represent her
reclining on a couch, while the favoured lover is shewn sitting by her
side, hand in hand, as an emblem of mutual affection. {286}
The Mexicans also had a goddess of old age, to whom they rendered honours
of the highest character. They immolated on her altar once every year a
female, whom they forced to dance in presence of the idol to whom she was
to be sacrificed: while in the evening, the priests ran wildly in the
streets, striking children and females with small bundles of hay.
When any solemn feast was in preparation, they made choice of a young and
beautiful slave, whom, after bathing in the lake dedicated to their Gods,
they clothed in the richest costume, offering to him the highest honour for
a space of forty days; all that could tend to allure the mind to earth, or
render life desirable, was showered upon the victim, his wishes were
anticipated, and his desires fulfilled. Nine days, however, before the
sacrifice took place, the priest, prostrating himself, uttered this brief
sentence,
"You have yet nine days to live!"
Intoxicating liquors were then given him, to sustain his courage until the
day of the solemnity arrived, when he paid the penalty, by death; his heart
was torn from his body, which was afterwards precipitated from the platform
of the temple, mid the wild cries of the priests, and the yet more savage
greetings of the multitude.
The religious orgies of the Mexicans were of a gloomy and frightful
character; to enable them to go through which, their priests anointed
themselves with a particular ointment, and used various fantastic
ceremonies to deprive themselves of timidity. They then would rush forth to
celebrate their rites, during which their vestal-virgins, and the priests
were wont frantically to cut themselves with knives.
Quetsalocatl was the deity to whom the highest honours were paid in the
valley of Cholula.
The air, commerce, war, and divination were under his control; and it was
through him that the remarkable prophecy was supposed to originate, which
prepared the Mexicans for the coming of the Spaniards into their territory.
The ceremonials attached to his faith were of an inhuman nature, they
sacrificed to him an enormous number of human victims. Cholula, was,
indeed, the Mecca of this false divinity, and in order to receive the crowd
of pilgrims, who day by day assembled, it was found necessary to maintain
as many temples as there are days in the year. {287}
The principal one of these was an immense pyramid of thirteen hundred and
fifty-five feet round its base, and about one hundred and seventy in
height.
Of all the offerings which could be given to their god, human sacrifices
were considered most acceptable: a belief, which, with a superstitious and
warlike people, necessarily produced an enormous number of victims; as
every prisoner taken in war soon came to be considered a fitting subject
for the cruelties of the temple, and the worship of their gods.
It has been suggested, that some navigators of Phoenicia might have been
thrown upon the then unknown shore of America, from which place they did
not return, but gave to their descendants their religion, which in the
lapse of ages became lost; because in some things it bears a resemblance
that cannot fail to bring that of Egypt to the mind, an idea, which the
vestiges of monuments of gigantic proportions, with forms and
hieroglyphics, strongly tend to aid.
"Pyramids," says an able writer of the present day, "not inferior to the
Egyptian, exist in many parts of the Mexican Territories and of new Spain.
Some of these pyramids are of larger base than the Egyptian, and composed
of equally durable materials; vestiges of noble architecture are visible at
Cholula, Otumba, Oaxica, Mitlan, and Tlascola.
"The ancient town of Palenque, exhibits not only excellent workmanship in
the temples, palaces, private houses, and baths, but a boldness of design
in the architect, as well as skill in the execution, which will not shrink
from a comparison with the works, at least, of the earlier ages of Egyptian
power. In the sanctuaries of Palenque, are found sculptured representations
of Idols, which resemble the most ancient gods of Egypt and Syria;
Planispheres and Zodiacs exist, which exhibit a superior astronomical and
chronological system to that which was possessed by the Egyptians.
"Statues, sculptured in a purely classical style, have been found; and
vases, agreeing both in shape and ornament with the earliest specimens of
Egyptian and Etruscan pottery, have been found in their sepulchral
excavations.
"Evidences also exist in Mexico, of two great branches of hieroglyphical
language, both having striking affinities with the Egyptians, and yet
distinguished from it by characteristics perfectly American." {288}
The same authority says, "The gods of the Tultecans, appear sculptured in
bas relief, in the dark inner rooms of extant temples.
We will take one, as an instance of the analogy to which we allude.
Pourtrayed on the inner wall of the Adytum of one of the sanctuaries
belonging to the great temple of Palenque, appears the chief god of the
Tultecan people. Our opinion is, that he is strongly identifiable with the
Osiris of Egypt, and the Adonis of Syria; or rather, that he is the ancient
god, called Adoni-Siris, a well known classical combination, therefore an
identification, of both divinities.
In the first place he is enthroned on a couch, perfectly Egyptian in its
model; it is constructed somewhat in the form of a modern couch, a
cushioned plinth, resting on the claws, and four limbs of the American
lion: we may at once emphatically say that there is no real difference
between the above couch, and that peculiarly designated as Egyptian, and
which is observable in all the tombs and palaces of Egypt; on his head he
wears a conical cap, not differing much from that which the Osiris of Egypt
wears. Two additional symbols, the one Egyptian, the other not, but equally
intelligible, namely the lotus and the column affixed to the cap, clearly
indicate the same tri-une divinity?"
The following description of one of their gods, we think, also affords
additional ground for this opinion. "In the midst of an enclosure, which
does not yield in size or grandeur to the proudest monuments of Egypt, and
on the top of an immense pyramid stands the image.
[Illustration]
It is placed on a throne upheld by an azure globe; and on its {289} head
are plumes of divers colours. His face, severe and frightful, is marked
with two blue lines. He has two vast wings formed like a bat, and the feet
of a goat; while in his middle is drawn the head of a lion.
As a proof of the bloody nature of the religion of the Mexicans, we may
mention, that on solemnizing the building of their principal temple, sixty
thousand prisoners were sacrificed. Cortez found in an enormous edifice the
skulls of those who had been slain, the number of which amounted to upwards
of one hundred and fifty thousand.
[Illustration]
* * * * *