Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/473



necessity of instantly procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity, the priest concludes with inculcating charity to the poor. "Clothe the naked and feed the hungry, whatever privations it may cost thee: for remember their flesh is like thine, and they are man like thee.” Such is the strange medley of truly Christian benevolence and heathenish abominations which pervades the Aztec litany,—intimating sources widely different.

Page 43 (1).—The Egyptian gods were also served by priestesses. (See Herodotus, Euterpe, sec. 54.) Tales of scandal similar to those which the Greeks circulated respecting them, have been told of the Aztec virgins. (See Le Noir's dissertation, ap. Antiquités Mexicaines [Paris, 1834], tom. ii. page 7, note.) The early missionaries, credulous enough certainly, give no countenance to such reports; and father Acosta, on the contrary, exclaims, "In truth, it is very strange to see that this false opinion of religion hath so great force among these young men and maidens of Mexico, that they will serve the Divell with so great rigour and austerity, which many of us doe not in the service of the most high God; the which is a great shame and confusion." —Eng. Trans., lib. 5, cap. 18.

Page 43 (2).—Toribio, Hist, de los Indios, MS., Parte i, cap. 9.—Sahagun, Hist, de Nueva España, lib. 2, Apend.; lib. 3, cap. 4-8.—Zurita, Rapport, pp. 113-126.—Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 15, 16.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 9, cap. 11-14, 30, 31. "They were taught," says the good father last cited, "to eschew vice, and cleave to virtue,— according to their notions of them; namely, to abstain from wrath, to offer violence and do wrong to no man,—in short, to perform the duties plainly pointed out by natural religion."

Page 44 (1).—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 8, cap. 20, 21.—Camargo, Hist, de Tlascala, MS. It is impossible not to be struck with the great resemblance, not merely in a few empty forms, but in the whole way of life, of the Mexican and Egyptian priesthood. Compare Herodotus (Euterpe, passim) and Diodorus (lib. i, sec. 73, 81). The English reader may consult, for the same purpose, Heeren (Hist. Res., vol. v. chap. 2), Wilkinson (Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians [London, 1837], vol. i. pp. 257-279), the last writer especially,—who has contributed, more than all others, towards opening to us the interior of the social life of this interesting people.

Page 45 (1).—Rel. d'un gent., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 307.—Camargo, Hist, de Tlascala, MS—Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 13.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 80, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.—Toribio, Hist, de los Indios, MS., Parte i, cap. 4.—Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS. This last writer, who visited Mexico immediately after the Conquest in 1521, assures us that some of the smaller temples, or pyramids, were filled with earth impregnated with odoriferous gums and gold-dust; the latter, sometimes in such quantities as probably to be worth a million of castellanos; (Ubi supra.) These were the temples of Mammon, indeed! But I find no confirmation of such golden reports.

Page 46 (1).—Cod. Tel.-Rem., Pl. 1, and Cod. Vat., passim, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i. vi.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 10, cap. 10, et seq.—Sahagun, Hist, de Nueva España, lib. 2, passim. Among the offerings, quails may be particularly noticed, for the incredible quantities of them sacrificed and consumed at many of the festivals.

Page 46 (2).—The traditions of their origin have somewhat of a fabulous tinge. But, whether true or false, they are equally indicative of unparalleled ferocity in the people who could be the subject of them.—Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 167, et seq.; also Humboldt (who does not appear to doubt them), Vues des Cordillères, p. 95.

Page 48 (1).—Sahagun, Hist, de Nueva España, lib. 2, cap. 2, 5, 24, et alibi.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 2, cap. 16.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 7, cap. 19; lib. 10, cap. 14.—Rel. d'un gent., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 307.—Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 9-21.—Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.—Relacion por el Regimiento dc Vera Cruz (Julio, 1519), MS. Few readers, probably, will sympathise with the sentence of Torquemada, who concludes his tale of woe by coolly dismissing" the soul of the victim, to sleep with those of his false gods, in hell!"—Lib. 10, cap. 23.