[36] This recalls the Kahili, or feather standard, the symbol of authority in the Hawaiian Islands.
[37] The signification of these names, as given by a distinguished scholar, is as follows: Hunahpu, the one master of supernatural power; Vuch, opossum; Gucumatz, decorated with feathers; Xmucane, female vigor; Xpiyacoc, membrum virile (xiphil, and ococ, to enter); Huracan, one very great (hun, one, and racan, great); Cabracan, second great one; Chirakan, ostium vaginæ; Tepeu, high.
[38] It is probable that at this time they circumcised their sons, although we have no direct statement to that effect. The Mayas practised this sanatory measure, which seems to have had no religious significance. Stone knives were used, and only once.
[39] I have often had the pleasure of conversing with cannibals, and they always assured me that the hands were the choicest morsel. It will be noted that, the Central American Indios always boiled their cannibal food, while the Pacific Islanders as generally roasted it. In one of the manuscripts preserved in the Vatican Library is a clear picture of this process, and the kettle seems large enough to receive the body whole.
[40] It is the way of Christian communities to speak with holy horror of the human sacrifices these heathen were accustomed to offer at each new year to their gods; the bloodthirsty Christian Spaniards spoke much in the same way of these sacrifices three centuries ago. While the Indios did what they honestly believed was right, and did it in a most merciful manner, without torture, the cruel invaders, in the name of the gentle Jesus of Nazareth and of the Mother of God, burned these poor Indios alive by hundreds (Las Casas says by thousands), or gave them to be torn in pieces by the dogs. Let the Christian nations hold their peace over the human sacrifices of Central America, when they remember the Holy Inquisition, St. Bartholomew, and the tortures of Jews, Turks, witches, Quakers, and other heretics, sanctioned by the Christian Church,—murders so cruel, so unprovoked, that they make the sacrifices of the Indios seem no worse than justifiable homicide. Were the sacrifices to Tohil so much more sinful than the sacrifices so common in this enlightened nation of children born, or unborn, to the Molochs of Comfort or Reputation?
[41] The Spaniards found, according to Herrera (Decade III. lib. iv.), paintings done at Utatlan eight hundred years before the Conquest, in which were represented the three kinds of royal insignia,—indicating an antiquity greater than that of the Aztecs.
[42] Monarquia Indiana, lib. ii. ch. xii.
[43] Among the curious illustrations in the Kingsborough Collection are coats of armor belonging to the nobles, consisting of a shirt of simple body-form, embroidered or painted with various devices. With these are helmets, sometimes of conical shape, but frequently in form of animal heads.
[44] Carrera was a servant in the family of the Marquis de Aycinena; afterwards a drummer-boy in the regiment under his master’s command. A pamphlet was published to prove that this young half-breed was a natural son of Aycinena. From the countenance as represented on the coins there is indication of Negro and Indian, rather than Spanish, blood in his parentage.
[45] “Art. 24. El ejercicio de todas las religiones, sin preeminencia alguna, queda garantizado en el interior de los templos; pero ese libre ejercicio no podrá extenderse hasta ejecutar actos subversivos ó practicas incompatibles con la paz y el órden público, ni da derecho para oponerse al cumplimiento de las obligaciones civiles y políticas.”