Antonio de Solis, the author of the “History of the Conquest of Mexico,” a work of even classical merit, written at a period when he could have access to all the facts, gives some of the peculiar customs of the natives of Mexico that may be very properly noticed here; as they may throw some light upon the subject when the matter is brought to the reflection of those who are more competent than I am to draw conclusions. Some allowance should be made for the religious prejudices of the age in which this book was produced, and of its author. De Solis says that the Mexicans adjusted their calendar by the motion of the sun, making his altitude and declination the measure of times and seasons. They allowed to their years three hundred and sixty-five days, and divided them into eighteen months of twenty days each; leaving the five overplus days to come in at the end of the year, which were celebrated as holydays. Their weeks consisted of thirteen days, with different names marked in their calendar by images. The “age” or cycle, in their calendar, was four weeks of years, marked by a circle, which they divided into fifty-two degrees, allowing a year to each degree. In the centre of this circle they painted the sun, from whose rays proceeded four lines of different colors, which equally divided the circumference, leaving thirteen degrees to each semi-diameter; and these divisions served as signs of their zodiac, upon which their ages had their revolutions, and the sun his aspects, prosperous or adverse, according to the colors of the lines. In a large circle, enclosing the other, they marked, with their figures and characters, the accidents of the age, and all circumstances which had happened worthy of being remembered. These secular maps were public instruments, which served for a proof of their history. It may be remarked among the wisest institutions of their government, that they had official historiographers, whose duty it was to preserve for posterity the exploits of their nation.
They had a superstition that the world was in danger of destruction at the last day of the “age” of fifty-two years; and all the people prepared themselves for that dreadful and ultimate calamity. They took leave of the light with tears, and expected death without any previous sickness. They broke their household vessels as unnecessary lumber, extinguished their fires, and walked about like disturbed people, without daring to take any rest, till they knew whether they were to be for ever consigned to the regions of darkness. On the dawning of day they began to recover their spirits, with their eyes fixed towards the east; and, at the first appearance of the sun, they saluted him with all their musical instruments, and congratulated each other upon their security for the duration of another age. They immediately crowded to their temples to render thanks to their gods, and to receive from the priests new fire, which had been preserved by them throughout the night. Next, they made a new provision for their necessary subsistence, and this day was spent in public rejoicings; the diversions being dedicated to the renewal of time, much after the manner of the secular games among the Romans.
Their emperor, who was chosen by electoral princes upon the death of his predecessor, receives the crown upon very precise conditions. He is obliged to take the field with the forces of the empire, and obtain some victory over his enemies, or subdue some rebels or some neighboring province, before he can be crowned, or permitted to ascend the royal throne. So soon as the victorious prince was found to be qualified for the regal dignity by the success of his enterprise, he returned triumphantly to the city, and made his public entry with great state and solemnity. The nobility, ministers, and priests accompanied him to the temple of war, where, after he had offered the customary sacrifices, the electoral princes clothed him in the royal robes; arming his right hand with a sword of gold, edged with flint, the ensign of justice, and his left with a bow and arrows, signifying his power and command in war. Then the first elector, the king of Tezcuco, placed the crown upon his head. After this, one of the most eloquent magistrates made a long harangue, wishing him joy of the dignity in the name of the whole empire; and added some documents, representing the troubles and cares that attend a crown, with the obligations he lay under to guard the public good of his kingdom; recommending to him the imitation of his ancestors. This speech being ended, the chief of the priests approached him with great reverence, and between his hands the emperor took the oath with great solemnity. He swore to maintain the religion of his ancestors; to observe the laws and customs of the empire; to treat his vassals with lenity; that, during his rule, they should have seasonable rains; and that no inundations of rivers, sterility of soil, or malignant influence of the sun, should happen.
Amidst such a multitude of gods as they worship, they still acknowledge a superior deity, to whom they attribute the creation of the heavens and the earth.[[17]] This first cause of all things was, among the Mexicans, without a name; there being no word in their language whereby to express his attributes. They only signified that they knew him by looking towards heaven with veneration, and giving him, after their way, the attribute of ineffable, with the same religious uncertainty as the Athenians worshipped the Unknown God. They believed in the immortality of the soul, and in future rewards and punishments. They buried great quantities of gold and silver with their dead, in a belief that it was necessary to bear their expenses through a long and troublesome journey. They put to death some of their servants to accompany them; and it was a common thing for wives to consummate the exequies of their husbands by their own deaths. Princes were obliged to have monuments of vast extent, for the greatest part of their riches and family were interred with them; both the one and the other in proportion to their dignity and grandeur. The whole of the servants were obliged to accompany the prince into the other world, together with some flatterers among them; who, at that time, suffered for the deceit of their profession.
The marriage was a kind of contract, with some religious ceremonies. The preliminary articles being all agreed upon, the couple appeared in the temple, and one of the priests examined their inclinations by certain formal questions, appointed by law for that purpose. He then took the tip of the woman’s veil with one hand, and one corner of the husband’s garment in the other, and tied them together at the ends, to signify the interior tie of their affections. Thus they returned to their habitation, accompanied by the same priest; where, imitating the Romans with regard to their dii Lares, or household gods, they paid a visit to the domestic fire, which they believed concerned in the union between the married pair. They went round it seven times, following the priest; after which they sat down to receive their equal share of the heat, and this accomplished their marriage. They registered in a public instrument the portion brought by the bride, every part whereof the husband was obliged to restore in case they parted, which very frequently happened; for mutual consent was judged to be a sufficient cause for a divorce; a case in which the laws never interfered. When once thus dissolved, it was inevitable death for them to come together again. Inconstancy was punished with the utmost rigor.
Their new-born infants were carried to the temples with solemnity, and the priests received them with certain admonitions concerning the troubles to which they were born. If they were the sons of nobles, they put a sword into the child’s right hand, and upon his left arm a shield, kept in the temple for that purpose. If of plebeian extraction, they put into their hands mechanical instruments; and the females, of both degrees, had only the distaff and spindle, signifying to each the kind of employment which destiny had prepared for them. This ceremony over, they were brought to the altar, and there, with a thorn of maguey, or a lancet of flint, they drew some drops of blood from the privy parts; after which they either sprinkled them with water, or dipped them into it; using, at the same time, certain invocations. This appears to be a striking imitation of baptism and circumcision, which De Solis very piously attributes to the devil; who, he also says, introduced among these barbarians the confession of sins, giving it to be understood that thereby they obtained the favor of their gods. He (the devil) likewise instituted a sort of communion, which the priest administered upon certain days of the year; dividing into small bits an idol made of flour and honey, mixed into a paste, which they called the god of Penitence. They had jubilees, processions, offerings of incense, and the other forms of divine worship. They even gave their chief priests the title of papas in their language; which, together with other imitations of the Catholic church, the author thinks must have cost Satan a deal of close study and perseverance!
The rest of the rites and ceremonies of “these miserable heathen were shocking and horrible both to reason and nature; bestialities, and incongruous, stupid absurdities; which seemed altogether incompatible with the regularity and admirable economy which were observed in the other parts of the government, and would scarcely be believed were not history full of examples of the like weaknesses and errors of men in other nations, and in parts of the world where they have the means of being more enlightened. Sacrifices of human blood began about the same time with idolatry. The horrible and detestable custom of eating human flesh has been practised many ages since among the barbarous people of our hemisphere, as Galatia confesses in her antiquities; and Scythia, in her Anthropophagi, must acknowledge the same. Greece and Rome wanted the knowledge of true religion, and were complete idolaters; although, in everything else, they gave laws to the whole world, and left edifying examples to posterity.” He therefore concludes that the Mexican worship was no other than a detestable compound of all the errors and abominations which have been received among the Gentiles in different parts of the world.
Don Solis would not enter into a detail of their particular festivals and sacrifices, their ceremonies, sorceries, and superstitions; not only because they are met at every step, with tedious repetitions, in the histories, but because it is his opinion that too much caution cannot be observed in restricting the pen upon a subject of this nature; at best to be looked upon as an unnecessary lesson, affording the reader little pleasure and much less profit.
With all due deference to the erudition and moral feelings of the author above, so largely quoted, I doubt whether information of consequence might not be obtained from the minutiæ of these ceremonies, trifling as they appear, that would be of importance to the future historian. If the exploits of these nations had been handed down even in the writings of those “capable historiographers,” it would have been some consolation for the absence of any better authority.[[18]] The suppression of these records we cannot pardon—the natives erred through ignorance; their conquerors, from a policy only worthy of the darkest ages. They not only destroyed what they confess to be a wise and excellent government, but they buried in oblivion the very name of the people they so mercilessly obliterated from a national (it may almost be said from an earthly) existence.
Waldeck, in referring back to the time that Cortez was in Tabasco, gives an account of a sick horse left with the Indians by that almost worshipped commander; which, under the rich and unnatural food they furnished him, very naturally famished. Some say he was fed with grains of gold; the natives judging, from the prevailing passion of his former masters, that this would be his most satisfactory diet. He died, poor horse, however, as might have been anticipated, under their unfortunate attentions; but the consequences did not end here. They erected an elegant temple to his memory, deified him, and placed him among the most prominent of their gods, where he received their faithful and regular devotions. In after years, the missionaries and Spanish priests had more difficulty to dissuade them from the worship of this horse, which they called Tizimin,[[19]] than they had from all their other gods. From this circumstance, it appears that this temple must have been built after the conquest; and, as it possesses architectural beauty in no respect inferior to the temples of a more ancient date, we may infer that the same race of people that produced it, may have been the architects of the most elaborate works among the ruins.[[20]]