CHAPTER IX.
CHRONOLOGY, CALENDAR SYSTEMS AND RELIGIOUS ANALOGIES.
No Mound-builder Chronology known—Maya Calendar—Landa on the Calendar—Maya Days—Maya Months—The Katun—The Ahau Katun or Great Cycle—The Maya System Adjusted to our Chronology—The Adjustment by Perez—Intercalary Days—The Nahua Calendar—The Sources—Divisions of Mexican Calendar—The Aztec Year—The Nemontemi—Aztec Months—Aztec Days—Nahua Ritual Calendar—Mexican Calendar Stone—Sources of Interpretation—History of the Stone—Interpretation of the Stone—Date of the Origin of the Calendar Stone—Date of the Nahua Migration—Analogies with the Nahua Calendar—Religious Analogies—Jewish Analogies—Deluge Traditions—Supposed Parallels in Jewish and Mexican History—Analogies of Doctrine—Analogies of Ceremonial Law—Yucatanic Trinity Myth—Mexican and Asiatic Analogies—Buddhism in the New World—Scandinavian Analogies—Mexican and Greek Analogies—Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Comparisons.
Chronology and Calendar Systems.—No tablet or relic of Mound-builder origin has yet been discovered, which can be said to give any clue to the system of chronology employed by that people. Several supposed calendar stones have been found, such, for instance, as the Cincinnati Tablet referred to in Chapter I, and the Tablet from Mississippi in the possession of Wm. Marshall Anderson, Esq., of Circleville, Ohio. However, their character is only a matter of conjecture, since no progress whatever has been made toward evolving any system from them. Farther south, on the soil where a higher civilization flourished, we meet with two calendar systems, which, while they have several points of resemblance, are quite distinct from each other.
The first of these, the Maya, is probably the most ancient. Bishop Landa is our chief authority in this field, though Don Juan Pio Perez, a more recent writer, also familiar with the Maya language, has furnished us some material.[624] Bishop Landa informs us that the Mayas had a year of 365 days and 6 hours divided into months (a month being called a U) in two ways, first into months of thirty days each, and second, into eighteen months of twenty days each. As the Bishop makes no explanation of the former statement, we are unable to determine whether the months of thirty days each were employed in Yucatan prior to the conquest, or not, but we are rather inclined to the opinion that they were not.
The Maya Days.
The month of twenty days was called the Uinal-Hun-ekeh, and might commence on any of the days represented by the hieroglyphics in the left-hand column of the table of days. These months were eighteen in number, thus making a year of 360 days. The Mayas, however, corrected the error by adding five intercalary days and six hours to the 360 days; and once every four years, Landa informs us, they counted 366 days a year. The five supplementary days were considered unlucky, and were known as the “nameless days” because they were never called by any particular designation. The accompanying cut is a photographic reproduction of Landa’s plate, and shows accurately the Maya days in their proper order.[625] ([Page 436].)
The Maya Months.
Though the intercalary days were “nameless” and characterized as the “bed or chamber of the year,” “the mother of the year,” “bed of creation,” “travail of the year,” “lying days,” or “bad days,” etc., still five of the above twenty were reckoned for them in regular order.
The year began on a day corresponding to our 16th of July—“a date,” as Mr. Bancroft observes, “which varies only forty-four hours from the time when the sun passes the zenith—an approximation as accurate as could be expected from observation made without instruments.”[626]
The Maya months as figured in Landa’s work are shown in the accompanying photo-engraving. ([Page 437].)
The translation of the names of the days and months is somewhat uncertain. The following equivalents are the same as those given by Señor Perez, except in a few instances where Brasseur and Rosny have made corrections.
TRANSLATION OF THE DAYS.
- Kan, “string of twisted hemp” (yellow).
- Chicchan, signification unknown.
- Cimi, preterit of cimil, to kill = “dead.”
- Manik, “wind that passes” (??)
- Lamat, signification unknown.
- Muluc, “reunion” (??)
- Oc, “that which may be held in the palm of the hand.”
- Chuen, “board” (??)
- Eb, “ladder.”
- Ben, “to distribute with economy” (??)
- Ix, “fish-skin” (Rosny), “witch, witchcraft” (Brasseur), “roughness” (Perez).
- Men, “builder.”
- Cib, “gum copal.”
- Caban, “heaped up” (Brasseur).
- Ezanab, “flint” (Brasseur).
- Cauac, signification unknown.
- Ahau, “king, or period of twenty-four years.”
- Ymix, signification unknown. “Corn” (??)
- Ik, “wind,” “spirit,” according to Rosny, one of the symbols of Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl.
- Akbal, “approach of night” (Brasseur).
TRANSLATION OF THE MONTHS.
- Pop, “mat of cane.”
- Uo, “frog.”
- Zip, “a tree” (Perez), “fault, error” (Brasseur).
- Tzoz, “a bat.”
- Tzec, signification unknown.
- Xul, “end or conclusion.”
- Yaxkin, signification unknown. “Summer” (??)
- Mol, “to re-unite, to recover.”
- Chen, “a well.”
- Yax, “first,” or Yaax, “blue.”
- Zac, “white.”
- Ceh, “a deer.”
- Mac, “a lid or cover.”
- Kankin, “yellow sun,” “because in this month of April the atmosphere is charged with smoke,” owing to the work of clearing the soil.
- Muan, “cloudy weather” (Brasseur).
- Pax, “musical instrument.”
- Kayab, “singing.”
- Cumhu, “thunder-clap,” “detonation.”[627]
Though these translations may seem uninteresting by themselves, they are of great value when taken in connection with Landa’s alphabet and M. de Rosny’s interpretations. They must ever be important factors in attempts to translate the inscriptions and codices.
Another division of time among the Mayas of a complicated character was the Katun or Cycle of 52 years. The Katun was composed of four periods (indictions or weeks) of 13 years each, enumerated by a system of reckoning kept simultaneously with the current reckoning of days, months and years. The mode of computing the Katunes was, according to Landa and Perez, briefly as follows:[628] The year was divided into twenty-eight periods of thirteen days each. These periods for convenience have been called weeks, and the number of days of which each is composed may have been suggested by the number of days embraced in the moon’s increase, and decrease, twenty-six days constituting about the actual time in which the moon is seen above the horizon during each lunation.[629] The weeks were divided off by counting thirteen days from the beginning of the list of days shown on [page 436], Kan constituting the first day of the first week and according to usage applying its name to the weeks. The week was consequently called by the name of the day on which it began. Caban being the fourteenth day of the current month, became the first day of another week; but as not enough days remain to complete it, the enumeration is begun again and continued down to Muluc, the sixth day of the next month. Oc, the seventh day, then becomes the starting point for another week, which assumes its name, and thus the computation is carried on ad infinitum. A numeral preceded each day designating its position in the week. The people of Yucatan painted a small circle in which they placed the four hieroglyphics of the initial days which constitute the left-hand column of signs given on [page 436]. Kan was placed in the east, Muluc in the north, Ix in the west and Cauac in the south. These signs were termed the “carriers of the years” because no month or year could begin on any of the twenty days, but on one of these. Since twenty days constitute a current month, it is apparent that every month in a given year must begin with the same day. However, the introduction of the five intercalary days at the end of the year, changed the initial day on which the months of the different years began. In reckoning the Katun it is further observed that the numeral which indicates the day of the week (of thirteen days) which falls upon the first of a given month, varies. Supposing the month to begin on Kan and the numeral of the first day to be 1, the numerals indicative of the days of the week (composed of thirteen days) falling on Kan throughout the eighteen months, would be, 8, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3.
The Katun year consisted, as we have seen, of twenty-eight weeks of thirteen days each, and one additional day, making in all 365 days. If the year commenced with number one of the week, the additional day (the 365th) caused it to end on the same number. The ensuing year would then begin with number two, and so on through the thirteen numbers of the week, as follows: 1. Kan, 2. Muluc, 3. Ix, 4. Cauac, 5. Kan, 6. Muluc, 7. Ix, 8. Cauac, 9. Kan, 10. Muluc, 11. Ix, 12. Cauac, 13. Kan, thus completing an indiction or week of years. The same combination of names and numerals can only occur after the lapse of the Katun or cycle comprising four of these indictions or fifty-two years. Not only the years of the week, but also the indictions themselves were named by the four initial symbols. The first indiction of each Katun being named Kan, the second Muluc, the third Ix, and the fourth Cauac. The completion of a Katun or fifty-two years was celebrated with feasts and rejoicings as an event of great moment. A monument was reared as a memorial of the event. It is not impossible that the great number of pillars, observed by Stephens at Chichen-Itza were of this character, serving as landmarks to Maya chronology.[630]
A third division of time employed by the Mayas was the great cycle of 312 years, composed, according to Señor Perez,[631] of thirteen periods of time, each embracing twenty-four years. Each of these thirteen periods was called an Ahau Katun, and was divided into two parts. The first part, embracing twenty years, was enclosed in a square and called Amaytum lamayte, or lamaytum; and the other part of four years, which formed as it were a pedestal for the first, was called Chek oc Katun, or lath oc Katun, meaning “stool” or “pedestal.” He affirms that the latter were intercalated, therefore believed to be unfortunate as were the five supplementary days of the year. This may account for their not being reckoned with the Ahau Katun by any other writer. Just here lies the discrepancy which has created most of the confusion in the investigation of this subject. However, if we accept the statement of Señor Perez, that the Ahau Katun embraced twenty-four years instead of the testimony of every other writer that it included but twenty years, we shall have moderately fair sailing until we split upon the rock of his inaccuracies as to dates. He tells us that these periods took their name from Ahau, the second of those years that began in Cauac, and from the order of the numerals accompanying those days would succeed each other according to the numbers 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. The Indians established the number 13 Ahau as the first, because some great event happened in that year. If the 13 Ahau Katun began on a second day of the year, it must have been the year which began on 12 Cauac, and the 12th of the indiction. The next or the 11 Ahau would commence in the year 10 Cauac, which combination in its rotation would happen after a lapse of twenty-four years. The third or 9 Ahau would begin in 8 Cauac twenty-four years later, in illustration of which we follow out the rotation of the four names of the years, Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac, through the indictions of thirteen years each, until we have noted the numerals accompanying them during twenty-four years. Our starting point will be the commencement of the second Ahau Katun on the second day of 10 Cauac.
| Year of 13 Year Indiction. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name of Year. | |||||
| Year of Period of 24 Years. | |||||
| Year of 13 Year Indiction. | |||||
| Name of Year. | |||||
| Year of Period of 24 Years. | |||||
10 | Cauac | 1 | 9 | Cauac | 13 |
11 | Kan | 2 | 10 | Kan | 14 |
12 | Muluc | 3 | 11 | Muluc | 15 |
13 | Ix | 4 | 12 | Ix | 16 |
1 | Cauac | 5 | 13 | Cauac | 17 |
2 | Kan | 6 | 1 | Kan | 18 |
3 | Muluc | 7 | 2 | Muluc | 19 |
4 | Ix | 8 | 3 | Ix | 20 |
5 | Cauac | 9 | 4 | Cauac | 21 |
6 | Kan | 10 | 5 | Kan | 22 |
7 | Muluc | 11 | 6 | Muluc | 23 |
8 | Ix | 12 | 7 | Ix | 24 |
8 | Cauac | 1st of a new period. | |||
As above stated the new Ahau Katun begins in the year 8 Cauac, and as it invariably began on the second day of the year, that day would be 9 Ahau, as Ahau is the next letter in the alphabet after Cauac. An extension of the table will show that the next period will begin in 6 Cauac on 7 Ahau, and so on in the order of the numerals given above. Thirteen Ahau Katunes, as previously stated, constituted a great cycle of three hundred and twelve years. Sr. Perez states that according to all sources of information, confirmed by the testimony of Don Cosme de Burgos, one of the conquerors and a writer (but whose observations have been lost), the year 1392 A.D. corresponded to the Maya year 7 Cauac, and as the second day of that year was the beginning of an era of twenty-four years, it must have been 8 Ahau Katun. By dividing off the time between that date and the beginning of the present century into periods of twenty-four years each, and extending a table of the rotation of the four names of the years, the reader will observe that 13 Ahau will fall in the year 1800; 11 Ahau in 1824; 9 Ahau in 1848; 7 Ahau in 1872, and 5 Ahau in 1896, three hundred and twelve years intervening before this, and any similar combination of Ahau Katunes either have occurred or can be repeated. This would be highly satisfactory if Sr. Perez could be relied upon in this particular, which is doubtful. We are sorry to say that he is certainly chargeable with inaccuracies, which impair the value of his whole system. Most conspicuous of these is one pointed out by Mr. Bancroft, to which we refer the reader below. Señor Perez sets about the verification of his system by citing the death of a notable personage named Ahpula. He states that Ahpula died in the sixth year of 13 Ahau, when the first day of the year was 4 Kan, on the day 9 Imix, the eighteenth of the month Zip. It is seen that 13 Ahau is the second day of the year 12 Cauac which falls in the year 1488, also that the year 1493 is the sixth from the beginning of 13 Ahau, and that its first day is 4 Kan, which is the title of the year. The day is the eighteenth of the month Zip, corresponding to the eleventh of September. The statement is also made that this date fell on 9 Imix. This is tested as follows: The first month of that year commenced on 4 Kan, which combination names the year. The number (of the week of thirteen days) is found by adding seven to the number of the first day of each month successively. The number of the first day of the first month, Pop, in this case being 4, the number of the first day of the second month (Uo) would be 4 + 7 = 11, and that of the first day of the third month (Zip) would be 11 + 7 = 18, but as the week consists of but thirteen days, that number must be substracted, leaving 5 Kan as the first day of Zip. If Zip begins on the twenty-fifth of August, the day 9 Imix will be found to correspond both with the eighteenth of Zip and the eleventh of September, if the Katun week of thirteen days is counted off regularly, beginning with 5 Kan. Sr. Perez is correct enough in his calculations, but unfortunately his system of twenty-four years to the Ahau Katun or his informant as to the correspondence of the Ahau Katunes with our chronology (no doubt the latter) is incorrect, since the Maya manuscript furnished and translated by Perez and published in the works of Stephens and Landa, states explicitly that Ahpula died in A.D. 1536, instead of 1493 (incorrectly printed 1403 in Bancroft’s work), a date which is irreconcilable with the system of twenty-four years to the Ahau, reckoned from 1392 as a starting point. Neither will the statement of Landa that the year 1541 corresponded with the beginning of 11 Ahau relieve the difficulty, but rather increases it, since it will neither harmonize with the date of Ahpula’s death given in the MS. nor with the system by Perez. Furthermore, while Landa gives the same succession of numerals for the recurrence of the Ahaus, he states that they embraced but twenty years each, thus making it impossible for the combinations of names and numerals to correspond to the order which he lays down for their succession. Landa is no doubt incorrect in his statement. Sr. Perez is at least consistent in his adaptation of the length of the Ahau Katun to the order of numerals given by Landa and others. Recently, M. Delaporte, a member of the Société Américaine de France, has, by a series of extended calculations, vindicated the correctness of the statement of Sr. Perez, that the Ahau Katun embraced twenty-four years. M. de Rosny agrees with M. Delaporte in his conclusions. The fault of Perez, probably, lies in his adaptation of the Ahaus to our chronology, and in carelessness. Amidst these discrepancies it is impossible to fix accurately the dates of the Maya history, though they can be approximated.[632] Señor Perez cites Boturini as stating that the day introduced every four years to compensate for the annual loss of six hours, was observed by counting the symbol for the three hundred and sixty-fifth day twice, as the Romans did with their bissextile days, thus leaving the order undisturbed.[633]
The Nahua Calendar system closely resembles that of the Mayas, a fact which adds to the abundant proof that both civilizations had grown up under nearly the same influences, and that they had largely affected each other. If the trifling differences of a few writers concerning some of the details of the Aztec calendar be overlooked, and the best authorities (together with a little exercise of judgment) be followed, the system becomes comparatively simple. Sahagun, Leon y Gama, Humboldt, Veytia, Galatin, McCulloch, Müller, Bancroft, Chavero, and Prof. Valentini, are the authorities to whom we refer the reader.[634]
The Mexican Calendar contains divisions as follows: The age, called huehuetiliztli, embraced two cycles of fifty-two years each, thus equalizing one hundred and four years. The cycle of fifty-two years was named xiuhmolpilli, xiuhmolpia, and xiuhtlalpilli, signifying the “binding up of the years” and consisted of four periods of thirteen years each. These periods or indictions were called “knots,” while the single years were called xihuitl or “new grass,” because anciently, before the invention of the calendar, the Nahuas were only able to distinguish the revolution of the years by the annual appearance of fresh vegetation and new grass. The age was but little used, the cycle being the common measure for long periods. The years in a given cycle were designated as among the Mayas, by means of the consecutive rotation of four signs, each accompanied with a numeral. The signs were tochtli, “rabbit”; acatl, “cane”; tecpatl, “flint,” and calli, “house.” The following table illustrates the rotation occurring in one cycle:
| 1st Tlalpilli. | 2d Tlalpilli. | 3d Tlalpilli. | 4th Tlalpilli. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Names of Years. | Names of Years Translated. | Names of Years. | Names of Years Translated. | Names of Years. | Names of Years Translated. | Names of Years. | Names of Years Translated. |
| Ce Tochtli | 1. Rabbit. | Ce Acatl | 1. Cane. | Ce Tecpatl | 1. Flint. | Ce Calli | 1. House. |
| Ome Acatl | 2. Cane. | Ome Tecpatl | 2. Flint. | Ome Calli | 2. House. | Ome Tochtli | 2. Rabbit |
| Yey Tecpatl | 3. Flint. | Yey Calli | 3. House. | Yey Tochtli | 3. Rabbit. | Yey Acatl | 3. Cane. |
| Nahui Calli | 4. House. | Nahui Tochtli | 4. Rabbit. | Nahui Acatl | 4. Cane. | Nahui Tecpatl | 4. Flint. |
| Macuilli Tochtli | 5. Rabbit. | Macuilli Acatl | 5. Cane. | Macuilli Tecpatl | 5. Flint. | Macuilli Calli | 5. House. |
| Chicoace Acatl | 6. Cane. | Chicoace Tecpatl | 6. Flint. | Chicoace Calli | 6. House | Chicoace Tochtli | 6. Rabbit. |
| Chicome Tecpatl | 7. Flint. | Chicome Calli | 7. House. | Chicome Tochtli | 7. Rabbit. | Chicome Acatl | 7. Cane. |
| Chico y Calli | 8. House. | Chico y Tochtli | 8. Rabbit. | Chico y Acatl | 8. Cane. | Chico y Tecpatl | 8. Flint. |
| Chico Nahui Tochtli | 9. Rabbit. | Chico Nahui Acatl | 9. Cane. | Chico Nahui Tecpatl | 9. Flint. | Chico Nahui Calli | 9. House. |
| Matlactli Acatl | 10. Cane. | Matlactli Tecpatl | 10. Flint. | Matlactli Calli | 10. House. | Matlactli Tochtli | 10. Rabbit. |
| Matlactli occe Tecpatl | 11. Flint. | Matlactli occe Calli | 11. House. | Matlactli occe Tochtli | 11. Rabbit. | Matlactli occe Acatl | 11. Cane. |
| Matlactli omome Calli | 12. House. | Matlactli omome Tochtli | 12. Rabbit. | Matlactli omome Acatl | 12. Cane. | Matlactli omome Tecpatl | 12. Flint. |
| Matlactli omey Tochtli | 13. Rabbit. | Matlactli omey Acatl | 13. Cane. | Matlactli omey Tecpatl | 13. Flint. | Matlactli omey Calli | 13. House. |
As in the Maya rotation of years no confusion could occur, so with the Mexican, as the same combination could be made only once in fifty-two years. The cycles themselves were distinguished by numbers. Confusion is liable to arise in studying the early writers, since the Toltecs and Aztecs began their reckoning on different signs, the former on Tecpatl, and the latter on Tochtli. The year consisted of eighteen months of twenty days each, to which were added five days called nemontemi or “unlucky days.” Every superstition seemed to centre in the nemontemi, for no business of importance nor enterprise of the most insignificant character would be undertaken upon these days. Both the names of the months and the particular month which served to begin the year, as well as the date of the first day of the year, have been fruitful subjects of controversy between authors. Mr. Bancroft has tabulated the names given by twenty-one writers, and shown the disagreements existing between them.[635] The dates for the first day of the year range between the ninth of January and the tenth of April. Gama, Humboldt and Gallatin, by careful calculations, have shown that the first year of a Nahua cycle commenced on the thirty-first day of December, old style, or on the ninth day of January, new style, with the month Titill and the day Cipactli.[636]
The names and order of the months, together with their etymologies, as adopted by Mr. Bancroft, are as follows: 1. Titill, meaning “our mother,” according to Boturini, or “fire,” according to Cabrera; 2. Itzcalli, translated “regeneration” by Boturini, “skill” by the Codex Vaticanus, and the “sprouting of the grass” by Veytia; 3. Atlcahualco, meaning the “abating of the waters.” Another name (Quahuillehua) applied to this month signified “burning of the mountains,” referring to the forests; 4. Tlacaxipehualiztli, is translated “the flaying of the people.” Another name applied to this month, Cohuailhuitl, means the “feast of the snake”; 5. Tozoztontli is rendered “small fast” or “penance”; 6. Hueytozoztli, means “great fast” or “penance”; 7. Toxcatl, a “necklace”; 8. Etzalqualiztli, “bean stew” or “maize gruel”; 9. Tecuilhuitzintli, “small feast of the Lord”; 10. Hueytecuilhuitl, “great feast of the Lord”; 11. Miccailhuitzintli, translated “small feast of the dead”; 12. Hueymiccailhuitl, “great feast of the dead”; 13. Ochpaniztli, “cleaning of the streets”; 14. Teotleco, “arrival of the gods.” The names Pachtli, “moss hanging from trees,” and Pachtontli, “humiliation,” were often applied to this month; 15. Hueypachtli, “great feast of humiliation,” sometimes called Tepeilhuitl, “feast of the mountains”; 16. Quecholli, “peacock”; 17. Panquetzuliztli, “the raising of flags and banners”; 18. Atemoztli, means the “drying up of the waters.”
The month, consisting of twenty days, was divided into four weeks of five days each. Mr. Bancroft states that each of the weeks began with one of the four signs—Tochtli, Calli, Tecpatl or Acatl, used to designate the years; but his own engraving of the Aztec month, and the order of the days on the Calendar-Stone, contradict this statement.[637] The following are the days in their proper order, with their translations affixed: 1. Cipactli, “sea-animal,” “sword-fish,” or “serpent with harpoons.” 2. Ehacatl, “wind.” 3. Calli, “house.” 4. Cuetzpalin, “lizard.” 5. Coatl, “snake.” 6. Miquiztli, “death.” 7. Mazatl, “deer.” 8. Tochtli, “rabbit.” 9. Atl, “water.” 10. Itzcuintli, “dog.” 11. Ozomatli, “monkey.” 12. Mollinalli, “brushwood” or “tangled grass.” 13. Acatl, “cane.” 14. Ocelotl, “tiger.” 15. Quanhtli, “eagle.” 16. Cozcaquauhtli, “vulture.” 17. Ollin, “movement.” 18. Tecpatl, “flint.” 19. Quahuitl, “rain.” 20. Xochitl, “flower.”
The day was divided into sixteen hours.[638] Sahagun and several authors state that the loss of six hours in each Aztec year was counterbalanced by the addition of a day every four years. Gama demonstrates this to be a mistake, and states that they added twelve and a half days at the close of every cycle of fifty-two years. Mr. Bancroft cites this fact, and states the time added to have been thirteen days.[639]
The Nahuas had also a ritual calendar, for the purpose of reckoning their religious feasts, which was altogether different from the civil system, except that it employed the twenty days, the year of 365 days, and at the end of a cycle added the thirteen days to compensate for the time lost during that period.[640] The year consisted of two parts, the first composed of twenty weeks of thirteen days each (for there were no months in the ritual year) making 260 altogether. This portion of the year was called Meztli pohualli or the “lunar computation,” from the fact that half of the time during which the moon is visible is thirteen days. The smaller part, composed of 105 days reckoned by a continuation of the periods of thirteen days, was called Toualpohualli or “solar computation.”[641] The days were numbered from one up to thirteen, the fourteenth day of the first solar month being counted the first of another lunar week, and thus the reckoning continued. However, it will be observed that the same number would fall twice on one name in the course of a year; accordingly accompanying signs were provided for the regular names of days. The duplication could not occur if the second division embraced 104 days instead of 105.
The distinguishing signs were nine in number, called quecholli, “lords of the night.” They were as follows: Tletl, “fire”; Tecpatl, “flint”; Xochitl, “flower”; Centeotl, “goddess of maize”; Miquiztli, “death”; Atl, “water”; Tlazolteotl, “goddess of love”; Tepeyollotli, “a mountain deity”; Quiahuitl, “rain,” the god Tlaloc. The lords of the night, though reckoned from the first of the year, were not mentioned except in connection with the 105 days of the second division.
The reader will more clearly understand the relation of the two systems to each other by constructing a table of four parallel columns. In the left-hand column place the months of one year, numbering the days of each month in order, but beginning on the ninth day of January. In the second column place the names of the Mexican months, numbering the days of each month from one to twenty in regular order. In the third column place the names of the Mexican days, twenty in number, repeating them in their regular rotation throughout the year, but in addition prefix to the names such numerals as will fall opposite to each in the process of dividing them off into thirteens. These divisions into thirteens represent the ritual weeks. Acatl being the 13th day of the month will end the first week of the year, and Ocelotl being the 14th day of the month will constitute the 1st day of the second week. In the fourth column place the nine signs of the “lords of the night” in regular order. Divide the year into periods of nines, and it will be found that the same combination of days of the month (twenty days), of days of the week (thirteen days), and the “lords of the night,” will not recur for a considerable period.
The most remarkable embodiment of this complex system is found in the symbols and concentric zones graven upon the face of the Calendar Stone, described in the last chapter. The interpretation of its mysterious disk was partly accomplished by the learned antiquarian Leon y Gama; Gallatin, and after him Bancroft presented those investigations to the public. In 1875 (Nov.), Don Alfredo Chevero, of the Liceo Hidalgo of Mexico, published his Calendario Azteca, in which it was shown that many of Gama’s interpretations would have to be abandoned. It was proven that the “Calendar Stone” was a sun-disk or stone of sacrifice, and that Gama had pursued his investigations with a mistaken view of its character. Chevero’s account of the history of the stone is full and satisfactory, Duran being the authority cited. An interpretation of some of the concentric zones, two in particular, is attempted with a result somewhat different from that obtained by any other investigator. Recently, Prof. Ph. Valentini, by the light of his extensive researches into Nahua literature, has compelled the sun-disk to give up its secrets. The illustration on the preceding page is a reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing made by the Professor from the most recent and correct photograph which has been made of the Calendar Stone. It was kindly furnished for this work. The same conclusion concerning the character of the stone was reached independently by both Chevero and Valentini. The latter’s account of the stone and its history is drawn from Tezozomoc, and though agreeing in the main facts with Duran’s account as rendered by Chevero, bears the evidence upon its face of independent research.[642] The originality of Prof. Valentini is vindicated in his masterly interpretation of all the zones of the Calendar Stone. Whether the interpretation will ever give way to some other is a question of the future, though it is probable that it will not.
The Mexican Calendar Stone.
We are indebted to Professor Valentini for a communication on the History of the Calendar Stone, condensed from his unpublished MS. Description and Interpretation of the Mexican Calendar Stone. An extract from the communication is as follows: “King Axayacatl of Mexico, 1466–1480, the builder of the large pyramid, at the approach of the last year of the national cycle (1479), ordered the altar standing on the platform of the pyramid to be covered with a stone disk, the surface of which was to be sculptured with the image of the Sun-god, and, as the text says, ‘to be surrounded by all the national deities’ (see Alvaro de Tezozomoc, 1598, Chronica Mexicana, Ternaux-Compans, vol. i, chap. xlvii, pp. 249 et seq.). A large slab, carried for the purpose from the quarries of Cuyoacan, when rolled over the bridge of Xoloc, crushed this structure, fell to the bottom of the lake and remained there. Another slab was broken and a new bridge built, and 50,000 Indians succeeded in transporting the slab to the foot of the pyramid, where the sculptor accomplished his task to the satisfaction of the king. The cyclical festival of the sun (1479) was celebrated, and on the disk which now had been inserted into the surface of the sacrificial altar, thousands of captives were slaughtered. The king is said to have overworked himself, slaying one hundred of the victims, and feasting upon their flesh and blood—that very soon after he died in consequence of these exertions. In the year 1512, Montezuma II, for reasons unknown, expressed the wish to replace the altar cover, which his father had consecrated, by a new and still larger one. The people, horrified and out of patience with the bloody proceedings connected with these consecration festivals of sacrificial disks, contrived to let the slab, brought expressly for the purpose, fall into the lake again, pretending as an excuse, that the stone had spoken and said that it was to go back to the quarry. Montezuma, superstitious as he was, took the accident for a bad augury, desisted from his plan, and left the stone in its place. We may thus infer that it was our disk on which, in the year 1520, those Spaniards of Cortes’ troops which were made captives had been immolated, and the screams and cries of whom reached the ears of their comrades, and as Bernal Diaz narrates, ‘filled their hearts with the most awful forebodings.’ Cortez demolished the pyramid, and with its débris filled the canals of the city. The disk was preserved, for we know from Duran, who wrote a Historia de la N. España, 1588, that he and many of his fellow-citizens had often been standing before this disk admiring it, until the Archbishop Montufar, scandalized by the existence of such a barbarous relic, caused it to be buried in the immediate neighborhood of the Metropolitan cathedral in the year 1551. This procedure was forgotten; so much so, that when this disk was disinterred in the year 1790, even Gama the archæologist and its later interpreter, had not the remotest idea what purpose it could have served, for the manuscript chronicles of Duran and Tezozomoc still slumbered in the dust of the archives. The viceroy, Reviellagigedo, ordered the disk to be fitted into the outer wall of one of the towers of the cathedral. There it is to this day.”
We now ask your attention to the stone itself. The central circle contains the face of the Sun-god bedecked with ornaments, earrings, and jeweled lip. In the next zone we observe four large parallelograms containing hieroglyphic signs: Nahui Ocelotl, Nahui Ehecatl, Nahui Quahuitl and Nahui Atl. Between the upper and lower enclosures on both sides of the central disk are circular figures containing hieroglyphics resembling claws, said to represent two ancient astrologers, man and wife, who, according to the early writers, invented the calendar. These four signs are identical with the days on which, according to the traditions, the world was destroyed at four different times. These destructions mark four ages represented by the signs of the day on which they occurred. These ages were also called suns. The first destruction occurred in Ce Acatl, and is represented by the sign Nahui Ocelotl, or 4 Tigre, seen in the upper right-hand tablet. The small figure above and towards the left is the sign for 1. Tecpatl, a feast-day kept by the Aztecs in memory of the first destruction. The second tablet bears the symbol for Ehecatl or Wind, in memory of the destruction of the world by hurricane, which occurred in the year Ce Tecpatl or Nahui (4) Ehecatl. Between the tablet and the triangular figure to the right is a sculpture in which a broken wall with towers appears. The sign 1. Calli is associated with it, indicating a ritualistic feast-day kept on that sign. The third tablet bears the symbol of the rain-god Tlaloc, in memory of the destruction of the world from frequent rains. The last tablet represents the fourth destruction by a flood on Nahui Atl in the year Ce Calli.
The faces of Cox-Cox, the Mexican Noah, and his wife are delineated in the picture. The symbol for water is seen immediately below the faces. Between the two lower tablets, two small quadrilateral enclosures will be observed, each containing five round points, supposed to mean 10 Ollin (the sun being called ollin tonatiuh). Below the lower tablets and almost in contact with the next concentric circle are the hieroglyphics 1. Quiahuitl and 2. Ozomatli. The first, namely 10 Ollin, corresponds with our twenty-second of September in the first year of a cycle, and its hieroglyphic on this astronomical disk represents the autumnal equinox. At the extreme top of the Calendar Stone is a central figure, well known to be the hieroglyphic for 13 Acatl. This fact known, the interpretation of the two remaining symbols is easy. In the year 13 Acatl, the day 1. Quiahuitl would correspond to our twenty-second of March, and represent the vernal equinox. In the same year 2. Ozomatli would correspond with our twenty-second of June, or summer solstice. Thus it is that the stone speaks and testifies to the astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs, the accuracy of which casts into the shade the imperfect Julian Calendar in use by Europeans at the time of the conquest. In the next zone, encircling that which contains the tablets of the cosmological ages, are twenty enclosures, containing the symbols of the twenty days. The triangular pointer which extends upwards from the crest of the sun-face indicates the dividing line between the first and last days of the month. Cipactli, whose hieroglyphic stands at the left of the pointer is unquestionably distinguished as the first day of the month. The second symbol to the left is that of the second day Ehecatl, wind, the third Calli, house, the fourth Cuetzpalin, lizard, the fifth snake, and so on to the end of the list. In the next zone we find a succession of small squares, each enclosing five round points. The circle is divided into four parts by four large triangular pointers or gnomons. In each division of the zone are ten squares containing five points each, or in the four, we have 200 points. Gama states that the space for sixty additional points is occupied by the feet or curves of the large indices. By experiment it is found that the mean of the space occupied by the feet of the pointers is equal to the width of one and a half of the square enclosures. Eight times this space gives us twelve squares with sixty points. Thus we have the ritualistic division or lunar reckoning (Metzli pohualli) of 260 days. In the next zone the symbols of the remaining 105 days or solar reckoning of the ritualistic year is found. Eight pointers divide the circle; the six upper divisions of which contain each ten figures resembling a grain of maize, while the two lower divisions have but five figures in each. This gives us seventy figures. Under each limb of the pointers is space for one and a half of the figures, giving twenty-four more or ninety-four in all. The space of ten additional figures is occupied by the helm-plumes of the heads which are figured at the lower margin of the stone. This gives us 104 figures, or one less than the required number. It will be remembered that the five intercalary days called the nemontemi, or unlucky days, though reckoned in regular order at the close of each year, were considered separate and apart from it. The artist who executed the Calendar Stone has carried out this custom in placing the figures of the nemontemi between the tablets of the two last destructions of nature, where they will be found by themselves. It will be observed that four of the signs correspond to those wanting under the lower pointer and the adjacent plumes, with this further departure from the general plan of the design, that the central figure or maize grain corresponds to the space between the limbs of the great pointer below. Here, then, we have the missing symbol, and are able to find the 105 hieroglyphics of days for the lesser division of the year. The two zones consequently represent the complete year of 365 days.
The most conspicuous of the remaining zones is the outer, and last of all. The attention is asked to one of the twenty-four quadrangular figures composing it. The Mexican Codices in the Kingsborough collection furnish similar symbols for the cycle of 52 years.[643] The ancient Mexicans had a superstition that in the last night of the 52d year of their cycle the sun would destroy the world. Consequently, at every recurrence of the eventful night, all fires were extinguished, the people clothed themselves in mourning, and forming a long procession, repaired to a neighboring mountain, where at midnight a priest sacrificed a man in their presence. A second priest placed a round block of dry wood over the ghastly wound from which the heart had been torn; while a third, kneeling over the corpse, rested a hard shaft or stick upon the block, revolving it between his two hands with pressure until the friction produced fire. This was considered a promise from the god that the destruction of the world would be postponed until another cycle had elapsed.[644] A moment’s observation will disclose the fire symbol in the hieroglyphics for the cycle as delineated on the stone; the perpendicular shaft with handles, surrounded by flames and smoke, rising from a hole below. In the same zone, above, we have two groups of pleats or bow-like figures, which are clearly proven to be the symbol for the binding of two 52-year cycles into an age.[645]
The zone immediately within the one we have been considering, contains the symbols of the rain-god Tlaloc. No writer has as yet given a satisfactory explanation of the plumed head at the bottom of the stone. It will be readily seen that the two serpent heads, plumed, and with extended jaws, armed above and below with great fangs, enclose two human faces. These are but the heads of the serpents whose bodies constitute the outer zone of the disk and terminate in the triangular points above.
If the reader will but turn to our cut of the serpent temple at Uxmal (p. 394), the same symbol of Cukulcan or Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, will be seen. Dr. Le Plongeon, in his recent researches, is convinced that Uxmal was built, or more properly rebuilt, by Nahua invaders, who afterwards became amalgamated with the Mayas.[646] Most of the Mexican historians represent Quetzalcoatl as the founder of the Nahua civilization. Torquemada states that he was their leader when they first arrived in Mexico.[647] If the “Feathered Serpent” was the founder of their institutions, it was not inappropriate for the Aztec artist to place the hero’s face at the bottom of the stone, and represent the symbols of the cycles as huge scales upon his body, since the influence of the civilization which he established had been felt throughout their entire history. To return to Prof. Valentini’s investigations, it will be observed that there are twenty-four of the cycle symbols, two of which are nearly hidden under the helm-plumes. The product of 24 and 52 gives us a period of 1248 years. But what have we to do with this result? The triangular-shaped figures which point to the central tablet cut at the top of the stone, indicate that we must make a calculation, and it remains for us to interpret that symbol. It is recognizable as the sign Acatl accompanied by the number thirteen; a year which, according to the authentic tables of reduction, corresponds to the year 1479 A.D.; a date which is confirmed as being the year in which the Calendar Stone was finished and set up in the great pyramid of Mexico by the statement of the native writer Tezozomoc, that its author, King Axayacatl, became ill from his exertions at the tragic celebrations of the completion of the temple and lived scarcely a year, at the same time fixing the date of his death in 1480. If we subtract 1248 years from the known date 1479 A.D., we have the year 231 A.D.; a date which no doubt marks the beginning of the national era of the Nahuas, and probably designates the year of their arrival in Mexico by the ports of Tampico, Xicalanco and Bacalar. Thus it is that the uncertainty of the traditions relating to the obscure events of early Nahua history is removed, and we are enabled to settle upon the third century of our era as the period when the great migration took place. We will say more than Professor Valentini or his predecessor; we believe this to be the date of the migration from Hue hue Tlapalan, the country of the Mound-builders of the Mississippi valley, and we further think we are sustained in this view both by the early writers and by the condition of the mounds and shell-heaps of the United States. At first thought, it would seem that the year 231 might be the date in which the astrologers assembled in Hue hue Tlapalan for the correction of the calendar (a fact to which we have previously referred), but it is distinctly stated that the assembly convened in the year 1 Tecpatl; a date which, according to the received reduction tables, corresponds to the year 29 B. C.
Humboldt by an elaborate discussion has satisfactorily shown the relative likeness of the Nahua Calendar to that of Asia. He cites the fact that the Chinese, Japanese, Calmouks, Mongols, Mantchoux and other hordes of Tartars have cycles of sixty years duration, divided into five brief periods of twelve years each. The method of citing a date by means of signs and numbers is quite similar with Asiatics and Mexicans.[648] He further shows satisfactorily that the majority of the names of the twenty days employed by the Aztecs are those of a zodiac used since the most remote antiquity among the peoples of Eastern Asia.[649] Cabrera thinks he finds analogies between the Mexican and Egyptian calendars. Adopting the view of several writers (Acosta, Clavigero and others) that the Mexican year began on the 26th of February, he finds the date to correspond to the beginning of the Egyptian year. He also observes that both peoples intercalated five days at the close of their year.[650] M. Jomard, quoted by Delafield, denies that the Egyptians intercalated, but believes sufficient analogies exist to prove a common origin for the Theban and Mexican calendars;[651] his argument, however, is worthless, as are many others of a similar character.
Religious Analogies.—In contrast with the obscure subject of the calendar requiring such close attention, we present to the reader a few of the analogies supposed to exist between Mexican and other religious systems. The majority of our references will be made more with a view to satisfying curiosity than for the establishment of a theory. Argument from analogy is at best unscientific—it proves nothing. It is a matter of surprise how much has been written to establish the theory that the Mexicans were descendants of the Jews both in race and religion. Mr. Bancroft has collected many of Lord Kingsborough’s arguments in proof of the theory to which he devoted his fortune and sacrificed his life. We have done a similar work with a somewhat different arrangement, and call the attention of the reader to some of the fanciful and we must add mirth-provoking analogies to which the great Americanist attached so much importance. “The Mexicans spoke of their god as the invisible and incorporeal Unity, and they furthermore believed man to be created in his image.”[652] He states further that the doctrine of the trinity was also held by them.[653] He considers that Eden and the temptation were portrayed by the American artists. “The Toltecs had paintings of a garden with a single tree standing in the midst, one especially drawn on coarse paper of the Aloe, round the root of which tree is entwined a serpent, whose head appearing above the foliage displays the features and countenance of a woman. * * * Torquemada admits the existence of this tradition amongst them, and agrees with the Indian historians who affirm this was the first woman in the world who had children, and from whom all mankind are descended.”[654]
Lord Kingsborough is no doubt warranted in holding that the Nahuas were of old world origin at a very remote period prior to their having developed any special tribal characteristics, because of their singular and we think certain knowledge of the Mosaic deluge; but he is not justified in claiming for them any particular relationship to the Jewish or any Shemitic people.[655]
In a preceding chapter we have given the deluge tradition from Ixtlilxochitl, who states that the waters rose fifteen cubits (caxtolmoletltli) above the highest mountains, and that a few escaped in a close chest (toptlipetlacali), and after men had multiplied, they erected a very high zacuali or tower, in order to take refuge in it should the world be again destroyed. He further states that then their speech was confused, so that they could not understand each other, and that they dispersed to different parts of the earth.[656] Whether the native historian of Tezcuco who gives us this account, so remarkable for its similarity to the Mosaic, was influenced by Spanish priests and warped from the truth, we are not prepared to affirm at this distant day, since such an assumption would strike the very keystone from the arch upon which all historical evidence rests. Much of the aversion to the view that the Mexican deluge legends are authentic and of old world origin, has been generated by the unscientific and presumptuous style of most of its advocates. Lord Kingsborough himself is ever ready to catch at a straw, and out of customs the most remote to evolve an analogy. Nevertheless, we are not at liberty to reject the Mexican deluge legend as a fable without assuming the burden of proof.[657] Remarkable parallels (?) in the history of both Jews and Mexicans are thought to be discovered by the sanguine Kingsborough. Of a number, two or three specimens will suffice. Hue hue Tlapalan is claimed to have been situated on the Californian coast since the Gulf of California until a late period was called the red river or gulf, a name they brought with them.[658] Again: “As the Israelites were conducted from Egypt by Moses and Aaron who were accompanied by their sister Miriam, so the Aztecs departed from Aztlan under the guidance of Huitziton and Tecpalzin, the former of whom is named by Acosta and Herrera, Mixi, attended likewise by their sister Quilaztli, or as she is otherwise named Chimalman or Malinatli, both of which names have some resemblance to Miriam as Mixi has to Moses.”[659] “The destruction of the rebellious Kohra (Gen. xvi) is repeated after the arrival of the Mexicans at Tulan, who, enchanted with the land, were unwilling to go further in search of their promised land. They murmured at Huitzilopochtli, and suffered a dreadful punishment at his hands that night by the death of every one who had rebelled against his will.”[660]
Lord Kingsborough discovers in a Mexican painting in the Bodleian library, a symbol resembling the jaw-bone of an ass, from the side of which water flows forth. This, of course, commemorated the story of Sampson.[661] Among the conspicuous doctrines held by both Jews and Mexicans, we note that the latter believed their children to be the gift of Tezcatlipoca as the former ascribed them to the favor of Jehovah.[662] The doctrine of sin and atonement was held by the Mexicans. Confession and sacrifice of atonement were common, for “half the offerings represented in the Mexican paintings were trespass-offerings, or sacrifices for the commission of sins.”[663] “The Mexicans, like the Jews, were accustomed to do penance by sitting on the ground, in which posture their priests are often represented in the Mexican paintings.”[664] “The Mexicans were as punctilious about washings and ablutions as the Jews.”[665] Baptism was considered the means of regeneration in Yucatan,[666] and was practised by the Mexicans as a religious ceremony.[667] Both peoples had devils and the leprosy,[668] both considered women who died in child-bed as worthy of honor as soldiers who fall in battle.[669] The doctrine of hell, according to the most orthodox theology, was held by the Mexicans.[670] Both Jews and Mexicans believed in the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.[671] The latter people sprinkled the face of a corpse with water as a baptism after death.[672] Numerous analogies are found to exist between the Mosaic and the religious code of the Mexicans, as in profanity, sabbath-keeping, disobedience to parents, the smiting of a servant to death, and in the punishment by stoning of persons guilty of fornication and adultery.[673] Kingsborough maintains that circumcision was performed on the eighth day, declaring it to have “prevailed thousands of leagues along the coast of the Atlantic, amongst nations very remote from each other, and who spoke very different languages.”[674] Both peoples had a mutual disgust for swine flesh, and refused to eat the blood of any animal.[675] The latter statement is altogether unwarranted in fact. The ceremonial of both peoples have many features in common. As the Jews killed the paschal lamb in the evening, so the Mexicans offered up their sacrifices at night.[676] The Jews in Mexico substituted llamas for sheep in their sacrifices.[677] Both Jews and Mexicans worshipped toward the east, or toward their chief temples, and both called the south by the designation of “right-hand of the world.”[678] Both burned incense toward the four corners of the earth.[679] As David leaped and danced before the ark of the Lord, so did the Mexican monarchs before their idols.[680] Both peoples had an ark, and Duran states that in the ark of the Aztecs which figured so prominently in their migration, was the image of their invisible god.[681] Numerous analogies relating to astrology, omens, witchcraft, dreams, etc., are recorded.[682] References to prophecy are not wanting: Quetzalcoatl predicted the destruction of the temple of Cholula, furnishing a parallel to Christ’s prophecy of the destruction of the temple.[683] In the Mexican mythology, by means of an active imagination, he finds an allusion to the “stone which was carved without hands.”[684] A tiger represented in the Bologna MS. he supposes to be the lion of the tribe of Juda—the Jews of the New World having metamorphosed it into a tiger.[685] Kingsborough supposes that the crosses found in Mexico may have been carried there by Irish monks, “especially,” he adds, “as M. de Humboldt informs us that the first Spanish monks and missionaries gravely discussed the question of whether Quetzalcoatl was an Irishman.”[686] The fanaticism of the eminent Americanist, however, reaches its culmination in his supposed discovery of analogies to Christ in Mexican mythology. The story of the virgin, the annunciation, and the identity of Christ and Quetzalcoatl, are clearly discernible to his practised eye.[687] Christ stilled the tempest, and, like Quetzalcoatl, was god of the air.[688] In Yucatan, in the priestly fable of Bacab, he finds a complete and true account of the trinity.[689] It is hardly necessary for us to remark that these ingenious comparisons, tinged with a coloring of fanaticism and yet so full of interest, are useless to the cause of science and prove nothing. With the single exception of the remarkable tradition of the deluge and its literal correspondence in detail to the Mosaic account, we must dismiss the multitude of supposed analogies between Mexican and Hebrew traditions, customs and religion, which Kingsborough and others have discovered, as either imaginary or accidental.[690]
The hypothesis that the Nahua religion may have received some of its characteristics from India is altogether plausible and not without support in resemblances. The cosmological conception of the egg and serpent is found, as previously stated, on Brush Creek, in Adams County, Ohio. It certainly comes to us from Asiatic India. Serpent worship, not only among the people of the mounds but especially of Mexico, is the most patent fact revealed to us in ancient American sculpture. “Humboldt thinks he sees in the snake cut in pieces, the famous serpent Kaliya or Kalinaga, conquered by Vishnu, when he took the form of Krishna, and in the Mexican Toua-tiuh, the Hindu Krushna, sung of in the Bhagavata-Purana.”[691] Count Stolberg and Tschudi have both made arguments in favor of this view.[692] Humboldt characterizes Quetzalcoatl as the Buddha of the Mexicans, the founder of the monastic establishments resembling those of Thibet and Western Asia.[693] He further considers the flood of which they speak, identical with that of which traditions are preserved by the Hindoos, the Chinese, and the Shemitic peoples.
Advocates of Scandinavian analogies in religion are not wanting. Although Viollet-le-Duc finds parallels existing between the Brahmanistic ideas of divinity and passages of the Popol Vuh, still he is of the opinion that the strongest resemblances have been found to exist between the religious customs of the Scandinavians and those recorded in the Popol Vuh.[694] Humboldt remarks, “we have fixed the special attention of our readers upon this Votan or Wodan, an American who appears of the same family with the Wods or Odins of the Goths and of the peoples of Celtic origin. Since, according to the learned researches of Sir William Jones, Odin and Buddha are probably the same person, it is curious to see the names of Bondvar, Wodansdag and Votan designating in India, Scandinavia, and in Mexico, the day of a brief period.”[695]
Lafitau, in his Mœurs des Sauvages, is as enthusiastic in his advocacy of the theory that the ancient Americans derived their religion from the Greeks, as Kingsborough is certain that it was of Jewish origin. He devotes his fourth chapter, and furnishes numerous illustrations, in support of his view.[696] Our limited space precludes the possibility of presenting in full the analogies discovered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg between the Mexican deities and those of Greece and Egypt. If we hesitate sometimes in accepting his conclusions, we cannot but wonder at his erudition and his zeal in research. He calls attention to the fact that the cult of Pan and Hermes were identical in Greece, and refers to Maia, a personification of the earth, and the mother of the Hermes having been the consort of Zeus or Pan himself. So in Mexico he finds Pan in the person of Cipactoual, who, under the name of Cuextecatl, has for his consort Maia or Maiaoel. This god was adored in all parts of Mexico and Central America, and at Panuco or Panco, literally Panopolis, the Spaniards found upon their entrance into Mexico, superb temples and images of Pan.[697] The names of both Pan and Maia enter extensively into the Maya vocabulary, Maia being the same as Maya, the principal name of the peninsula, and pan, making Mayapan, the ancient capital. In the Nahua language pan or pani signifies “equality to that which is above,” and Pantecatl was the progenitor of all beings. The Abbé has little difficulty in proving the identity of Zamna, Hunab-ku and other Maya deities, with the gods of Greece.[698] In the name of the Egyptian god Horus, he finds the significance of hurricane, or in the dialects of the Antilles, huracan or urogan, the god Hurakan of the Quichés. Also in the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol which Salvolini found equivalent to the phonetic K, namely, the singular reptile Uraeus, which resembles a serpent in an erect position with an enlarged body, and employed extensively as a decoration in hair of the Egyptian deities and the Pharaohs; he sees the emblem of Quetzalcoatl (Ketzalcohuatl) the feathered-serpent, called Gukumatz in Quiché, and Kukulcan in Maya. The same symbol is represented on the Egyptian monuments with a feather rising from the serpent’s crest.[699] It would be easy to pursue these ingenious comparisons through a number of pages, but we question their value in throwing any light on the subject in hand. The reader will find them scattered in profusion through the voluminous writings of the learned Abbé. It is sufficient to say that most of the seeming analogies between the new and old world religions cannot be other than accidental, since it is probable that the aborigines entered our continent at a very remote antiquity, long before the religions with which theirs have been so persistently compared, took on their distinctive features. If after they were separated from the rest of the world by seas and mountains, the Americans developed religious systems presenting analogies to those of other lands, it furnishes us but another proof of the common parentage and brotherhood of the race, of the universal outgoing of the human mind after the deity, and the sameness of mental operations and processes under the same given conditions.[700]