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