[XII-76] See [note 12]. Four was the most sacred number among the Mexicans as well as the other nations of America, and is derived from the adoration of the cardinal points. Brinton's Myths, p. 67. The Central Americans believed that the soul arrived at its destination in four days after death.
[XII-77] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.
[XII-78] 'Pour qu'il ne fût pas entraîné en traversant le Styx indien.' Biart, Terre Tempérée, p. 280; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 309. 'Los perros de pelo blanco y negro, no podian nadar y pasar el rio, porque dizque decia el perro de pelo negro: "yo me labé" y el perro de pelo blanco decia: "yo me he manchado de color prieto, y por eso no puedo pasaros" solamente el perro de pelo vermejo podia pasar.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 263.
[XII-79] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-4; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 528-30; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 5-6; vol. ii., pp. 603-19, of this work.
[XII-80] Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcix., pp. 192-3.
[XII-81] 'Tenian por cierto, que en el infierno habian de padecer diversas penas conforme á la calidad de los delitos.' Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 83. 'Entónces todos serán castigados conforme á sus obras.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 36-7; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 80. 'Ils étaient plongés dans une obscurité profonde, livrés à leurs remords.' Chevalier, Mex. Ancien et Mod., p. 91.
[XII-82] 'Padecen por los pecados de sus padres.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 36. Their prayers and penances, says Acosta, were merely on account of corporal inflictions, for they certainly feared no punishment in the world to come, but expected that all would rest there. Hist. de las Ynd., p. 383. 'In the destiny they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of refinement; since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking contrast to the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of the most enlightened nations. In all this, so contrary to the natural suggestions of the ferocious Aztec, we see the evidences of a higher civilization, inherited from their predecessors in the land.' Prescott's Mex., vol. i., pp. 62-3.
[XII-83] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 267, et seq.
[XII-84] The reader who thinks upon the subject at all, cannot help being struck by the remarkable resemblance in some points between these future abodes of the Mexicans and those of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The trembling soul has to pass over the same dreadful river, ferried by a brute Charon. In Hades as in Mictlan, the condition of the dead was a shadowy sort of apparent life, in which, mere ghosts of their former selves, they continued dreamily to perform the labors and carry on the occupations to which they had been accustomed on earth. In Greece as in Mexico, the shades of the dead were occasionally permitted to visit their friends on earth, summoned by a sacrifice and religious rites. Neither Elysium nor the glorious Sun House was the reward of the purely good so much as of the favorites of the gods. Such points of resemblance as these are, however, unnoticed by those who theorize concerning the origin of the Americans; they go farther for analogies, and perhaps fare worse.
[XII-85] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 5; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 97.