History Of The Conquest Of Mexico, The Aztecs (part three)
Book: Book I: Introduction. Preliminary View Of The Aztec Civilization.
Author: Prescott, William H.
Chapter III: Mexican Mythology, Part I.
The Sacerdotal Order. - Th0e Temples. - Human Sacrifices.
The civil polity of the Aztecs is so closely blended with their religion
that without understanding the latter it is impossible to form correct ideas
of their government or their social institutions. I shall pass over, for the
present, some remarkable traditions, bearing a singular resemblance to those
found in the Scriptures, and endeavour to give a brief sketch of their
mythology and their careful provisions for maintaining a national worship.
Mythology may be regarded as the poetry of religion, or rather as the
poetic development of the religious principle in a primitive age. It is the
effort of untutored man to explain the mysteries of existence, and the secret
agencies by which the operations of nature are conducted. Although the
growth of similar conditions of society, its character must vary with that of
the rude tribes in which it originates; and the ferocious Goth, quaffing mead
from the skulls of his slaughtered enemies, must have a very different
mythology from that of the effeminate native of Hispaniola, loitering away
his hours in idle pastimes, under the shadow of his bananas.
At a later and more refined period, we sometimes find these primitive
legends combined into a regular system under the hands of the poet, and the
rude outline moulded into forms of ideal beauty, which are the objects of
adoration in a credulous age, and the delight of all succeeding ones. Such
were the beautiful inventions of Hesiod and Homer, "who," says the Father of
History, "created the theogony of the Greeks;" an assertion not to be taken
too literally, since it is hardly possible that any man should create a
religious system for his nation. ^1 They only filled up the shadowy outlines
of tradition with the bright touches of their own imaginations, until they
had clothed them in beauty which kindled the imaginations of others. The
power of the poet, indeed, may be felt in a similar way in a much riper
period of society. To say nothing of the "Divina Com media," who is there
that rises from the perusal of "Paradise Lost" without feeling his own
conceptions of the angelic hierarchy quickened by those of the inspired
artist, and a new and sensible form, as it were, given to images which had
before floated dim and undefined before him?
[Footnote 1: Herodotus, Euterpe, sec. 53. - Heeren hazards a remark equally
strong, respecting the epic poets of India, "who," says he, "have supplied the
numerous gods that fill her Pantheon." Historical Researches, Eng. trans
(Oxford, 1833), vol. iii. p. 139.]
The last-mentioned period is succeeded by that of philosophy; which,
disclaiming alike the legends of the primitive age and the poetical
embellishments of the succeeding one, seeks to shelter itself from the charge
of impiety by giving an allegorical interpretation to the popular mythology,
and thus to reconcile the latter with the genuine deductions of science.
The Mexican religion had emerged from the first of the periods we have
been considering, and, although little affected by poetical influences, had
received a peculiar complexion from the priests, who had digested as thorough
and burdensome a ceremonial as ever existed in any nation. They had,
moreover, thrown the veil of allegory over early tradition, and invested
their deities with attributes savouring much more of the grotesque
conceptions of the Eastern nations in the Old World, than of the lighter
fictions of Greek mythology, in which the features of humanity, however
exaggerated, were never wholly abandoned. ^1
[Footnote 1: The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone has fallen into a similar train
of thought, in a comparison of the Hindoo and Greek Mythology, in his
"History of India," published since the remarks in the text were written.
(See Book I. ch. 4.) The same chapter of this truly philosophic work
suggests some curious points of resemblance to the Aztec religious
institutions, that may furnish pertinent illustrations to the mind bent on
tracing the affinities of the Asiatic and American races.]
In contemplating the religious system of the Aztecs, one is struck with
its apparent incongruity, as if some portion of it had emanated from a
comparatively refined people, open to gentle influences, while the rest
breathes a spirit of unmitigated ferocity. It naturally suggests the idea of
two distinct sources, and authorizes the belief that the Aztecs had inherited
from their predecessors a milder faith, on which was afterwards engrafted
their own mythology. The latter soon became dominant, and gave its dark
colouring to the creeds of the conquered nations, - which the Mexicans, like
the ancient Romans, seem willingly to have incorporated into their own,
- until the same funereal superstition settled over the farthest borders of
Anahuac.
The Aztecs recognized the existence of a supreme Creator and Lord of the
universe. They addressed him, in their prayers, as "the God by whom we
live," "omnipresent, that knoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts,"
"without whom man is as nothing," "invisible, incorporeal, one God, of
perfect perfection and purity," "under whose wings we find repose and a sure
defence." These sublime attributes infer no inadequate conception of the
true God. But the idea of unity - of a being with whom volition is action,
who has no need of inferior ministers to execute his purposes - was too
simple, or too vast, for their understandings; and they sought relief, as
usual, in a plurality of deities, who presided over the elements, the changes
of the seasons, and the various occupations of man. ^2 Of these, there were
thirteen principal deities, and more than two hundred inferior; to each of
whom some special day or appropriate festival was consecrated. ^1
[Footnote 2: Ritter has well shown, by the example of the Hindoo system, how
the idea of unity suggests, of itself, that of plurality. History of Ancient
Philosophy, Eng. trans. (Oxford, 1838), book 2, ch. 1.]
[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 6, passim. - Acosta, lib.
5, ch. 9. - Boturini, Idea, p. 8, et seq. - Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS.,
cap. 1. - Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS. - The Mexicans, according to
Clavigero, believed in an evil Spirit, the enemy of the human race, whose
barbarous name signified "Rational Owl." (Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 2.)
The curate Bernaldez speaks of the Devil being embroidered on the dresses of
Columbus's Indians, in the likeness of an owl. (Historia de los Reyes
Catolicos, MS., cap. 1. 131.) This must not be confounded, however, with the
evil Spirit in the mythology of the North American Indians (see Heckewelder's
Account, ap. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia, vol. i. p. 205), still less with the evil Principle of the
Oriental nations of the Old World. It was only one among many deities, for
evil was found too liberally mingled in the natures of most of the Aztec
gods - in the same manner as with the Greeks - to admit of its
personification by any one.]
At the head of all stood the terrible Huitzilopochtli, the Mexican Mars;
although it is doing injustice to the heroic war-god of antiquity to identify
him with this sanguinary monster. This was the patron deity of the nation.
His fantastic image was loaded with costly ornaments. His temples were the
most stately and august of the public edifices; and his altars reeked with
the blood of human hecatombs in every city of the empire. Disastrous indeed
must have been the influence of such a superstition on the character of the
people. ^2
[Footnote 2: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 3, cap. 1, et seq. - Acosta,
lib. 5, ch. 9. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 6, cap. 21. - Boturini, Idea,
pp. 27, 28. - Huitzilopochtli is compounded of two words, signifying
"humming-bird," and "left," from his image having the feathers of this bird on
its left foot (Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 17); an amiable
etymology for so ruffian a deity. - The fantastic forms of the Mexican idols
were in the highest degree symbolical. See Gama's learned exposition of the
devices on the statue of the goddess found in the great square of Mexico.
(Descripcion de las Dos Piedras (Mexico, 1832), Parte 1, pp. 34-44.) The
tradition respecting the origin of this god, or, at least, his appearance on
earth, is curious. He was born of a woman. His mother, a devout person, one
day, in her attendance on the temple, saw a ball of bright-coloured feathers
floating in the air. She took it, and deposited it in her bosom. She soon
after found herself pregnant, and the dread deity was born, coming into the
world, like Minerva, all armed, - with a spear in the right hand, a shield in
the left, and his head surmounted by a crest of green plumes. (See Clavigero,
Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 1O, et seq.) A similar notion in respect to the
incarnation of their principal deity existed among the people of India beyond
the Ganges, of China, and of Thibet. "Budh," says Milman, in his learned and
luminous work on the History of Christianity, "according to a tradition known
in the West, was born of a virgin. So were the Fohi of China, and the
Schakaof of Thibet, no doubt the same, whether a mythic or a real personage.
The Jesuits in China, says Borrow, were appalled at finding in the mythology
of that country the counterpart of the Virgo Deipara." (Vol. i. p. 99, note.)
The existence of similar religious ideas in remote regions, inhabited by
different races, is an interesting subject of study; furnishing, as it does,
one of the most important links in the great chain of communication which
binds together the distant families of nations.
Note: The name may possibly have referred to the whispered oracles and
intimations in dreams - such as "a little bird of the air" is still fabled to
convey - by which, according to the legend, the deity had guided his people in
their migrations and conquests. That it had a symbolical meaning will hardly
be doubted, and M. Brasseur de Bourbourg, who had originally explained it as
"Huitzil the Left-handed," - the proper name of a deified hero with the
addition of a descriptive epithet, - has since found one of too deep an import
to be briefly expounded or easily understood. (Quatre Lettres sur le Mexique
(Paris, 1868), p. 201, et al.) Mexitl, another name of the same deity, is
translated "the hare of the aloes." In some accounts the two are distinct
personages. Mythological science rejects the legend, and regards the Aztec
war-god as a "nature-deity," a personification of the lightning, this being a
natural type of warlike might, of which the common symbol, the serpent, was
represented among the decorations of the idol. (Myths of the New World, p.
118.) More commonly he has been identified with the sun, and Mr. Tylor, while
declining "to attempt a general solution of this inextricable compound
parthenogenetic deity," notices the association of his principal festival with
the winter's solstice, and the fact that his paste idol was then shot through
with an arrow, as tending to show that the life and death of the deity were
emblematic of the ear's, "while is functions of war-god may have been of later
addition." Primitive Culture, tom. ii. p. 279. - Ed.]
A far more interesting personage in their mythology was Quetzalcoatl,
god of the air, a divinity who, during his residence on earth, instructed the
natives in the use of metals, in agriculture, and in the arts of government.
He was one of those benefactors of their species, doubtless, who have been
deified by the gratitude of posterity. Under him, the earth teemed with
fruits and flowers, without the pains of culture. An ear of Indian corn was
as much as a single man could carry. The cotton, as it grew, took, of its
own accord, the rich dyes of human art. The air was filled with intoxicating
perfumes and the sweet melody of birds. In short, these were the halcyon
days, which find a place in the mythic systems of so many nations in the Old
World. It was the golden age of Anahuac.
From some cause, not explained, Quetzalcoatl incurred the wrath of one
of the principal gods, and was compelled to abandon the country. On his way
he stopped at the city of Cholula, where a temple was dedicated to his
worship, the massy ruins of which still form one of the most interesting
relics of antiquity in Mexico. When he reached the shores of the Mexican
Gulf, he took leave of his followers, promising that he and his descendants
would revisit them hereafter, and then, entering his wizard skiff, made of
serpents' skins, embarked on the great ocean for the fabled land of
Tlapallan. He was said to have been tall in stature, with a white skin,
long, dark hair, and a flowing beard. The Mexicans looked confidently to the
return of the benevolent deity; and this remarkable tradition, deeply
cherished in their hearts, prepared the way, as we shall see hereafter, for
the future success of the Spaniards. ^1
[Footnote 1: Codex Vaticanus, Pl. 15, and Codex Telleriano - Remensis, Part.
2, Pl. 2, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i., vi. - Sahagun, Hist. de
Nueva-Espana, lib. 3, cap. 3, 4, 13, 14. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 6,
cap. 24. - Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 1. - Gomara, Cronica de la
Nueva-Espana, cap. 222, ap. Barcia, Historiadores primitivos de las Indias
Occidentales (Madrid, 1749), tom. ii. - Quetzalcoatl signifies "feathered
serpent." The last syllable means, likewise, a "twin;" which lurnished an
argument for Dr. Siguenza, to identify this god with the apostle Thomas
(Didymus signifying also a twin), who, he supposes, came over to America to
preach the gospel. In this rather startling conjecture he is supported by
several of his devout countrymen, who appear to have as little doubt of the
fact as of the advent of St. James, for a similar purpose, in the
mother-country. See the various authorities and arguments set forth with
becoming gravity in Dr. Mier's dissertation in Bustamante's edition of Sahagun
(lib. 3, Suplem.), and Veytia (tom. i. pp. 60-200). Our ingenious countryman
McCulloh carries the Aztec god up to a still more respectable antiquity, by
identifying him with the patriarch Noah. Researches, Philosophical and
Antiquarian, concerning the Aboriginal History of America (Baltimore, 1829),
p. 233.
Note: Under the modern system of mythical interpretation, which has been
applied by Dr. Brinton with singular force and ingenuity to the traditions of
the New World, Quetzalcoatl, "the central figure of Toltec mythology," with
the corresponding figures found in the legends of the Mayas, Quiches,
Peruvians, and other races, loses all personal existence, and becomes a
creation of that primitive religious sentiment which clothed the
uncomprehended powers of nature with the attributes of divinity. His name,
"Bird-Serpent," unites the emblems of the wind and the lightning. "He is both
lord of the eastern light and the winds. As the former, he was born of a
virgin in the land of Tula or Tlapallan, in the distant Orient, and was
high-priest of that happy realm. The morning star was his symbol. . . . Like
all the dawn heroes, he too was represented as of white complexion, clothed in
long white robes, and, as most of the Aztec gods, with a full and flowing
beard. When his earthly work was done, he too returned to the east, assigning
as a reason that the sun, the ruler of Tlapallan, demanded his presence. But
the real motive was that he had been overcome by Tezcatlipoca, otherwise
called Yoalliehecatl, the wind or spirit of the night, who had descended from
heaven by a spider's web and presented his rival with a draught pretended to
confer immortality, but, in fact, producing uncontrollable longing for home.
For the wind and the light both depart when the gloaming draws near, or when
the clouds spread their dark and shadowy webs along the mountains and pour the
vivifying rain upon the fields. . . . Wherever he went, all manner of
singing-birds bore him company, emblems of the whistling breezes. When he
finally disappeared in the far east, he sent back four trusty youths, who had
ever shared his fortunes, incomparably swift and light of foot, with
directions to divide the earth between them and rule it till he should return
and resume his power." (The Myths of the New World, p. 180, et seq.) So far as
mere physical attributes are concerned, this analysis may be accepted as a
satisfactory elucidation of the class of figures to which it relates. But the
grand and distinguishing characteristic of these figures is the moral and
intellectual eminence ascribed to them. They are invested with the highest
qualities of humanity, - attributes neither drawn from the external phenomena
of nature nor born of any rude sentiment of wonder and fear. Their lives and
doctrines are in strong contrast with those of the ordinary divinities of the
same or other lands, and they are objects not of a propitiatory worship, but
of a pious veneration. Can we, then, assent to the conclusion that under this
aspect also they were "wholly mythical," "creations of the religious fancy,"
"ideals summing up in themselves the best traits, the most approved virtues,
of whole nations"? (Ibid., pp. 293, 294.) This would seem to imply that
nations may attain to lofty conceptions of moral truth and excellence by a
process of selection, without any standard or point of view furnished by
living embodiments of the ideal. But this would be as impossible as to arrive
at conceptions of the highest forms and ideas of art independently of the
special genius and actual productions of the artist. In the one case, as in
the other, the ideal is derived originally from examples shaped by finer and
deeper intuitions than those of the masses. "Im Anfang war die That." The
mere fact, therefore, that the Mexican people recognized an exalted ideal of
purity and wisdom is a sufficient proof that men had existed among them who
displayed these qualities in an eminent degree. The status of their
civilization, imperfect as it was, can be accounted for only in the same way.
Comparative mythology may resolve into its original elements a personification
of the forces of nature woven by the religious fancy of primitive races, but
it cannot sever that chain of discoverers and civilizers by which mankind has
been drawn from the abysses of savage ignorance, and by which its progress.
when uninterrupted has been always maintained. - Ed.]
We have not space for further details respecting the Mexican divinities
the attributes of many of whom were carefully defined, as they descended, in
regular gradation, to the penates or household gods, whose little images were
to be found in the humblest dwelling.
The Aztecs felt the curiosity, common to man in almost every stage of
civilization, to lift the veil which covers the mysterious past and the more
awful future. They sought relief, like the nations of the Old Continent,
from the oppressive idea of eternity, by breaking it up into distinct cycles,
or periods of time, each of several thousand years' duration. There were
four of these cycles, and at the end of each, by the agency of one of the
elements, the human family was swept from the earth, and the sun blotted out
from the heavens, to be again rekindled. ^1
[Footnote 1: Cod. Vat., Pl. 7-10, Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i., vi. -
Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 1. - M. de Humboldt has been at some
pains to trace the analogy between the Aztec cosmogony and that of Eastern
Asia. He has tried, though in vain, to find a multiple which might serve as
the key to the calculations of the former. (Vues des Cordilleres, pp.
202-212.) In truth, there seems to be a material discordance in the Mexican
statements, both in regard to the number of revolutions and their duration.
A manuscript before me, of Ixtlilxochitl, reduces them to three, before the
present state of the world, and allows only 4394 years for them (Sumaria
Relacion, MS., No. 1); Gama, on the faith of an ancient Indian MS. in
Boturini's Catalogue (viii. 13), reduces the duration still lower (Descripcion
de las Dos Piedras, Parte 1, p. 49, et seq.); while the cycles of the Vatican
paintings take up near 18,000 years. - It is interesting to observe how the
wild conjectures of an ignorant age have been confirmed by the more recent
discoveries in geology, making it probable that the earth has experienced a
number of convulsions, possibly thousands of years distant from each other,
which have swept away the races then existing, and given a new aspect to the
globe.]
They imagined three separate states of existence in the future life.
The wicked, comprehending the greater part of mankind, were to expiate their
sins in a place of everlasting darkness. Another class, with no other merit
than that of having died of certain diseases capriciously selected, were to
enjoy a negative existence of indolent contentment. The highest place was
reserved, as in most warlike nations, for the heroes who fell in battle, or
in sacrifice. They passed at once into the presence of the Sun, whom they
accompanied with songs and choral dances in his bright progress through the
heavens; and, after some years, their spirits went to animate the clouds and
singing-birds of beautiful plumage, and to revel amidst the rich blossoms and
odours of the gardens of paradise. ^2 Such was the heaven of the Aztecs; more
refined in its character than that of the more polished pagan, whose elysium
reflected only the martial sports or sensual gratifications of this life. ^3
In the destiny they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of
refinement; since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking
contrast to the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of
the most enlightened nations. ^1 In all this, so contrary to the natural
suggestions of the ferocious Aztec, we see the evidences of a higher
civilization, ^2 inherited from their predecessors in the land.
[Footnote 2: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 3, Apend. - Cod. Vat., ap.
Antiq. of Mexico, Pl. 1-5. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap. 48. -
The last writer assures us "that, as to what the Aztecs said of their going to
hell, they were right; for, as they died in ignorance of the true faith, they
have, without question, all gone there to suffer everlasting punishment"! Ubi
supra.]
[Footnote 3: It conveys but a poor idea of these pleasures, that the shade of
Achilles can say "he had rather be the slave of the meanest man on earth, than
sovereign among the dead." (Odyss., A. 488-490.) The Mahometans believe that
the souls of martyrs pass, after death, into the bodies of birds, that haunt
the sweet waters and bowers of Paradise. (Sale's Koran (London, 1825), vol.
i. p. 106.) - The Mexican heaven may remind one of Dante's, in its material
enjoyments; which, in both, are made up of light, music, and motion. The sun,
it must also be remembered, was a spiritual conception with the Aztec: -
"He sees with other eyes than theirs; where they
Behold a sun, he spies a deity."]
[Footnote 1: It is singular that the Tuscan bard, while exhausting his
invention in devising modes of bodily torture, in his "Inferno," should have
made so little use of the moral sources of misery. That he has not done so
might be reckoned a strong proof of the rudeness of the time, did we not meet
with examples of it in a later day; in which a serious and sublime writer,
like Dr. Watts, does not disdain to employ the same coarse machinery for
moving the conscience of the reader.]
[Footnote 2: It should perhaps be regarded rather as evidence of a low
civilization, since the absence of any strict ideas of retribution is a
characteristic of the notions in regard to a future life entertained by savage
races. See Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 76, et seq. - Ed.]
Our limits will allow only a brief allusion to one or two of their most
interesting ceremonies. On the death of a person, his corpse was dressed in
the peculiar habiliments of his tutelar deity. It was strewed with pieces of
paper, which operated as charms against the dangers of the dark road he was
to travel. A throng of slaves, if he were rich, was sacrificed at his
obsequies. His body was burned, and the ashes, collected in a vase, were
preserved in one of the apartments of his house. Here we have successively
the usages of the Roman Catholic, the Mussulman, the Tartar, and the ancient
Greek and Roman; curious coincidences, which may show how cautious we should
be in adopting conclusions founded on analogy. ^3
[Footnote 3: Carta del Lic. Zuazo (Nov. 1521), MS. - Acosta, lib. 5 cap.
8. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap. 45. - Sahagun, Hist. de
Nueva-Espana, lib. 3, Apend. - Sometimes the body was buried entire, with
valuable treasures, if the deceased was rich. The "Anonymous Conqueror," as
he is called, saw gold to the value of 3000 castellanos drawn from one of
these tombs. Relatione d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. p. 310.]
A more extraordinary coincidence may be traced with Christian rites, in
the ceremony of naming their children. The lips and bosom of the infant were
sprinkled with water, and "the Lord was implored to permit the holy drops to
wash away the sin that was given to it before the foundation of the world; so
that the child might be born anew." ^4 We are reminded of Christian morals,
in more than one of their prayers, in which they used regular forms. "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," says another petition; "bear injuries with
humility; God, who sees, will avenge you." But the most striking parallel
with Scripture is in the remarkable declaration that "he who looks too
curiously on a woman commits adultery with his eyes." ^5 These pure and
elevated maxims, it is true, are mixed up with others of a puerile, and even
brutal character, arguing that confusion of the moral perceptions which is
natural in the twilight of civilization. One would not expect, however, to
meet, in such a state of society, with doctrines as sublime as any inculcated
by the enlightened codes of ancient philosophy. ^1
[Footnote 4: This interesting rite, usually solemnized with great formality,
in the presence of the assembled friends and relatives, is detailed with
minuteness by Sahagun (Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 6, cap. 37), and by Zuazo
(Carta, MS.), both of them eyewitnesses. For a version of part of Sahagun's
account, see Appendix, Part 1, note 26.
Note: A similar rite of baptism, founded on the natural symbolism of the
purifying power of water, was practised by other races in America, and had
existed in the East, as the reader need hardly be told, long anterior to
Christianity. - Ed.]
[Footnote 5: "Es posible que este azote y este castigo no se nos da para
nuestra correccion y enmienda, sino para total destruccion y asolamiento?"
(Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 6, cap. 1.) "Y esto por sola vuestra
liberalidad y magnificencia lo habeis de hacer, que ninguno es digno ni
merecedor de recibir vuestra larguezas por su dignidad y merecimiento, sino
que por vuestra benignidad." (Ibid., lib. 6, cap. 2.) "Sed sufridos y
reportados, que Dios bien os ve y respondera por vosotros, y el os vengara
(a) sed humildes con todos, y con esto os hara Dios merced y tambien honra."
(Ibid., lib. 6, cap. 17.) "Tampoco mires con curiosidad el gesto y disposicion
de la gente principal, mayormente de las mugeres, y sobre todo de las
casadas, porque dice el refran que el que curiosamente mira a la muger
adultera con la vista." (Ibid., lib. 6, cap. 22.)]
[Footnote 1: [On reviewing the remarkable coincidences shown in the above
pages with the sentiments and even the phraseology of Scripture, we cannot but
admit there is plausible ground for Mr. Gallatin's conjecture that the
Mexicans, after the Conquest, attributed to their remote ancestors ideas which
more properly belonged to a generation coeval with the Conquest, and brought
into contact with the Euroeans. "The substance," he remarks, "may be true;
but several of the prayers convey elevated and correct notions of a Supreme
Being, which appear to me altogether inconsistent with that which we know to
have been their practical religion and worship." Transactions of the American
Ethnological Society, i. 210.]
Note: It is evident that an inconsistency such as belongs to all
religions, and to human nature in general, affords no sufficient ground for
doubting the authenticity of the prayers reported by Sahagun. Similar
specimens of prayers used by the Peruvians have been preserved, and, like
those of the Aztecs, exhibit, in their recognition of spiritual as distinct
from material blessings, a contrast to the forms of petition employed by the
wholly uncivilized races of the north. They are in harmony with the purer
conceptions of morality which those nations are admitted to have possessed,
and which formed the real basis of their civilization. - Ed.]
But, although the Aztec mythology gathered nothing from the beautiful
inventions of the poet, or from the refinements of philosophy, it was much
indebted, as I have noticed, to the priests, who endeavoured to dazzle the
imagination of the people by the most formal and pompous ceremonial. The
influence of the priesthood must be greatest in an imperfect state of
civilization, where it engross all the scanty science of the time in its own
body. This is particularly the case when the science is of that spurious
kind which is less occupied with the real phenomena of nature than with the
fanciful chimeras of human superstition. Such are the sciences of astrology
and divination, in which the Aztec priests were well initiated; and, while
they seemed to hold the keys of the future in their own hands, they impressed
the ignorant people with sentiments of superstitious awe, beyond that which
has probably existed in any other country, - even in ancient Egypt.
The sacerdotal order was very numerous; as may be inferred from the
statement that five thousand priests were, in some way or other, attached to
the principal temple in the capital. The various ranks and functions of this
multitudinous body were discriminated with great exactness. Those best
instructed in music took the management of the choirs. Others arranged the
festivals conformably to the calendar. Some superintended the education of
youth, and others had charge of the hieroglyphical paintings and oral
traditions; while the dismal rites of sacrifice were reserved for the chief
dignitaries of the order. At the head of the whole establishment were two
high-priests, elected from the order, as it would seem, by the king and
principal nobles, without reference to birth, but solely for their
qualifications, as shown by their previous conduct in a subordinate station.
They were equal in dignity, and inferior only to the sovereign, who rarely
acted without their advice in weighty matters of public concern. ^2
[Footnote 2: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 2, Apend.; lib. 3, cap.
9. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 8, cap. 20; lib. 9, cap. 3, 56. -
Gomara, Cron. cap. 215, ap. Barcia, tom. ii. - Toribio, Hist. de los Indios,
MS., Parte 1, cap. 4. - Clavigero says that the high-priest was necessarily a
person of rank. (Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 37.) I find no authority
for this, not even in his oracle, Torquemada, who expressly says, "There is
no warrant for the assertion, however probable the fact may be." (Mon. Ind.,
lib. 9, cap. 5.) It is contradicted by Sahagun, whom I have followed as the
highest authority in these matters. Clavigero had no other knowledge of
Sahagun's work than what was filtered through the writings of Torquemada and
later authors.]
The priests were each devoted to the service of some particular deity;
and had quarters provided within the spacious precincts of their temple, at
least, while engaged in immediate attendance there, - for they were allowed
to marry, and have families of their own. In this monastic residence they
lived in all the stern severity of conventual discipline. Thrice during the
day, and once at night, they were called to prayers. They were frequent in
their ablutions and vigils, and mortified the flesh by fasting and cruel
penance, - drawing blood from their bodies by flagellation, or by piercing
them with the thorns of the aloe; in short, by practising all those
austerities to which fanaticism (to borrow the strong language of the poet)
has resorted, in every age of the world,
"In hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell." ^1
[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, ubi supra. - Torquemada,
Monarch. Ind., lib. 9, cap. 25. - Gomara, Cron., ap. Barcia, ubi supra. -
Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 14, 17.]
The great cities were divided into districts placed under the charge of
a sort of parochial clergy, who regulated every act of religion within their
precincts. It is remarkable that they 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 in the Roman
Catholic Church. There were two remarkable peculiarities in the Aztec
ceremony. The first was, that, as the repetition of an offence once atoned
for was deemed inexpiable, confession was made but once in a man's life, and
was usually deferred to a late period of it, when the penitent unburdened his
conscience and settled at once the long arrears of iniquity. Another
peculiarity was, that priestly absolution was received in place of the legal
punishment of offences, and authorized an acquittal in case of arrest. Long
after the Conquest, the simple natives, when they came under the arm of the
law, sought to escape by producing the certificate of their confession. ^2
[Footnote 2: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 1, cap. 12; lib. 6, cap. 7.
- The address of the confessor, on these occasions, contains some things too
remarkable to be omitted. "O merciful Lord," he says, in his prayer, "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." After a copious
exhortation to the penitent, enjoining a variety of mortifications and minute
ceremonies by way of penance, and particularly urging the necessity of
instantly procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity, the priest concludes
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, and they are men like thee." Such is the strange medley of truly
Christian benevolence and heathenish abominations which pervades the Aztec
litany, - intimating sources widely different.]
