Page:Native Religions of Mexico and Peru.djvu/62

 LECTURE II.

THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO.

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It will be my task to-day to give an account of the Mexican mythology and religion, resting as it does on the foundation common to the peoples of Central America, but inspired by the sombre, utilitarian, matter-of-fact, yet vigorous and earnest, genius of the Aztecs. You will remember that this name belongs to the warlike and commercial people that enjoyed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a military and political supremacy in the region that is now called Mexico, after the Aztec capital of that name.

I.

To begin with, we must note that the ancient Central-American cultus of the Sun and Moon,