Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/161

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By a people's conceptions of a future state many have often presumed to judge of their advance towards, or into, civilization. The Mexicans vaguely worshiped a Supreme Being, invisible and unchangeable, whom they called Teotl, or God; him they feared, though they regarded him as a friend of mankind.

The great enemy of man they considered to be an evil spirit, whom they called Tlacatecolototl, or the "Rational Owl." Instead of regarding the owl as the symbol of wisdom, as did the Greeks, they made it the personification of evil and dark deeds. They believed the soul to be immortal. Soldiers who were killed in battle, or slain in captivity, and the spirits of women who died in child-birth, went at once to the house of the sun, whom they considered as the "Prince of Glory," where they led a life of endless delight; "where, every day, at the first appearance of the sun's rays, they hailed his birth with rejoicings, and with dancing, and the music of instruments and voices, attended him to his meridian; there they met the souls of the women, and with the same festivity accompanied him to his setting. After four years, these spirits went to animate the clouds, and birds of beautiful feathers and sweet song; but always at liberty to rise again to heaven, or to descend upon the earth to warble and suck the flowers."