[48] El dios de los vicios y suciedades que le decian Tlazulteotl.—(Mendieta, in Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1870, vol. i. p. 81.)
[49] According to Neumann and Baretti’s Velasquez, while, according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy, the meaning is “the dirt and refuse collected in sweeping,—the sweepings and dung of stables.” The same idea has since been found in an extract from an ancient writer, given in “Mélusine,” May 5, 1888.—(Paris, Gaidoz.)
“Les Esprits forts de l’Antiquité Classique. Eusèbe, dans sa ‘Préparation Évangélique’ (XIII. 13), cite quelques vers de Xénophane de Colophone sur l’unité et l’immortalité de Dieu qui ne peut ressembler aux hommes ni en forme ni en esprit. Ces vers se terminent ainsi:
“‘Mais si les bœufs et les lions avaient des mains,—s’ils savaient dessiner avec ces mains, et produire les mêmes œuvres que les hommes,—ils (les dieux) seraient semblables aux bœufs pour les bœufs et semblables aux chevaux pour les chevaux. Et ceux-ci dessineraient les figures des dieux et ils leur feraient des corps semblables à ceux qu’ils ont eux-mêmes.’—Patrologie Grecque de Migne, t. xxi. col. 1121, H. G.—Voir aussi J. Bizouard, “Rapports de l’homme avec le démon,” Paris, 1864, conçus dans le même esprit.”
Andrew Lang regards Tlazolteotl as the “Aphrodite of Mexico.”—(“Myth, Rit., and Relig.” vol. ii. p. 42.)
[50] L’adorateur présentait devant l’autel son postérieur nu, soulageait ses entrailles et faisait à l’idole une offrande de sa puante déjection.—(Dulaure, “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Paris, 1825, p. 76.)
Philo says the devotee of Baal-Peor presented to the idol all the outward orifices of the body. Another authority says that the worshipper not only presented all these to the idol, but that the emanations or excretions were also presented,—tears from the eyes, wax from the ears, pus from the nose, saliva from the mouth, and urine and dejecta from the lower openings. This was the god to which the Jews joined themselves; and these, in all probability, were the ceremonies they practised in his worship.—(Robert Allen Campbell, Phallic Worship, St. Louis, 1888, p. 171.)
Still another authority says the worshipper, presenting his bare posterior to the altar, relieved his bowels, and offered the result to the idol: “Eo quod distendebant coram illo foramen podicis et stercus offerebant.”—(Hargrave Jennings, Phallicism, London, 1884, quoting Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, in his Commentary on Numbers xxv.)
These two citations go to show that the worshipper intended making not a merely ceremonial offering of flatulence, but an actual oblation of excrement, such as has been stated, was placed upon the altars of their near neighbors, the Assyrians, in the devotions tendered their Venus.
[51] Ye have seen dung gods, wood and stone.—(Deut. xxix. 17. See Cruden’s Concordance, Articles “Dung” and “Dungy,” but no light is thrown upon the expression.)