[42] Previous notes upon the Grand Lama of Thibet, and upon the abominable practices of the Agozis and Gurus seem to be pertinent in this connection. See pp. 40-42.
[43] Digo que adoraban (segun San Clemente escrive á Santiago el menor), las hediondas y sucias necesarias y latrinas; y lo que es peor y mas abominable y digno de llorar y no de sufrir, ni nombrarle por su nombre, que adoraban, el estruendo y crugimiento, que hace el vientre quando despide de si alguna frialdad ó ventosidad y otras semejantes, que segun el mismo santo es verguënza nombrarlas y decirlas.—(Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, lib. vi. chap. 13, Madrid, 1723.)
[44] Los Romanos ... constituieron Diosa á los hediondas necesarias ó latrinas y la adoraban y consagraban y ofrecian sacrificios.—(Idem, lib. vi. chap. 16, Madrid, 1723.)
[45] There is another opinion concerning Cloacina—that she was one of the names given to a statue of Venus found in the Cloaca Maxima. Smith, in his Dictionary of Antiquities, London, 1850, expresses this view, and seems to be followed by the American and Britannic Encyclopædias. Lemprière defines Cloacina: “A goddess of Rome, who presided over the Cloacæ—some suppose her to be Venus—whose statue was found in the Cloacæ, whence the name.”—(See, also, in Anthon’s Classical Dictionary.)
Higgins says that “the famous statue of Venus Cloacina was found in them (the Cloacæ Maximæ) by Romulus.”—(Anacalypsis, footnote to p. 624, London, 1836.)
Torquemada insists that the Romans borrowed this goddess from the Egyptians: “A esta diosa llamaron Cloacina, Diosa que presidia en sus albanares y los guardaba, que son los lugares donde van á parar todas las suciedades, inmundicias, y vascosidades de una Republica.”—(Torquemada, lib. vi. chap. 17.)
Torquemada, who makes manifest in his writings an intimate acquaintance with Greek and Roman mythology, fortifies his position by references from St. Clement, Itinerar., lib. 5; Lactantius, Divinas Ejus, lib. 1, chap. 20; Epistle of St. Clement to St. James the Less, Eusebius, de Preparatione Evangel., chap. 1; St. Augustine, Civ. Dei, lib. 2, chap. 22; Diod. Sic., lib. 1, chap. 2, and lib. 2, chap. 4; Lucian, Dialogues, Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, Pliny, lib. 10, chap. 27, and lib. 11, chap. 21; Theodoret, lib. 3, de Evangelii veritatis cognitione.
[46] “Is Maurice’s reference to Lucian correct? There is nothing of the kind in the Deâ Syrâ, nor can I find it elsewhere in his works, though the Index by Rentz is practically a Concordance. Still, I do not affirm that it is not there.”—(Personal letter from Professor W. Robertson Smith, Christ College, Cambridge, England.)
By a reference to page 36, it will be seen that Sakya-muni eats his own excrement, and one of the Bourkans or gods of the Kalmucks is represented as addicted to the same filthy habit.
[47] Tlaçolteotl, la déesse de l’ordure, ou Tlaçolquani, la mangeuse d’ordure, parcequ’elle présidait aux amours et aux plaisirs lubriques.—(Brasseur de Bourbourg, introduction to Landa, French edition, Paris, 1864, p. 87.)