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. Abbé 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 Cæsar 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 (Trübner, 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 Abbé 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 _virtù_, 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.

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 Abbé 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