mexican mythology—the sacerdotal order—the temples—human sacrifices

the civil polity of the aztecs is so closely blended with their religion that without understanding the latter it is impossible to form correct ideas of their government or their social institutions. i shall pass over, for the present, some remarkable traditions, bearing a singular resemblance to those found in the scriptures, and endeavor to give a brief sketch of their mythology and their careful provisions for maintaining a national worship.

mythology may be regarded as the poetry of religion, or rather as the poetic development of the religious principle in a primitive age. it is the effort of untutored man to explain the mysteries of existence, and the secret agencies by which the operations of nature are conducted. although the growth of similar conditions of society, its character must vary with that of the rude tribes in which it originates; and the ferocious goth, quaffing mead from the skulls of his slaughtered enemies, must have a very different mythology from that of the effeminate native of hispaniola, loiter{67}ing away his hours in idle pastimes, under the shadow of his bananas.

at a later and more refined period, we sometimes find these primitive legends combined into a regular system under the hands of the poet, and the rude outline moulded into forms of ideal beauty, which are the objects of adoration in a credulous age, and the delight of all succeeding ones. such were the beautiful inventions of hesiod and homer, “who,” says the father of history, “created the theogony of the greeks;” an assertion not to be taken too literally, since it is hardly possible that any man should create a religious system for his nation.[97] they only filled up the shadowy outlines of tradition with the bright touches of their own imaginations, until they had clothed them in beauty which kindled the imaginations of others. the power of the poet, indeed, may be felt in a similar way in a much riper period of society. to say nothing of the “divina commedia,” who is there that rises from the perusal of “paradise lost” without feeling his own conceptions of the angelic hierarchy quickened by those of the inspired artist, and a new and sensible form, as it were, given to images which had before floated dim and undefined before him?

the last-mentioned period is succeeded by that of philosophy; which, disclaiming alike the legends of the primitive age and the poetical embel{68}lishments of the succeeding one, seeks to shelter itself from the charge of impiety by giving an allegorical interpretation to the popular mythology, and thus to reconcile the latter with the genuine deductions of science.

the mexican religion had emerged from the first of the schools we have been considering, and, although little affected by poetical influences, had received a peculiar complexion from the priests, who had digested as thorough and burdensome a ceremonial as ever existed in any nation. they had, moreover, thrown the veil of allegory over early tradition, and invested their deities with attributes savoring much more of the grotesque conceptions of the eastern nations in the old world, than of the lighter fictions of greek mythology, in which the features of humanity, however exaggerated, were never wholly abandoned.[98]

in contemplating the religious system of the aztecs, one is struck with its apparent incongruity, as if some portion of it had emanated from a comparatively refined people, open to gentle influences, while the rest breathes a spirit of unmitigated ferocity. it naturally suggests the idea of two distinct sources, and authorizes the belief that the aztecs had inherited from their predecessors a milder faith, on which was afterwards engrafted{69} their own mythology. the latter soon became dominant, and gave its dark coloring to the creeds of the conquered nations,—which the mexicans, like the ancient romans, seem willingly to have incorporated into their own,—until the same funereal superstition settled over the farthest borders of anahuac.

the aztecs recognized the existence of a supreme creator and lord of the universe. they addressed him, in their prayers, as “the god by whom we live,” “omnipresent, that knoweth all thoughts, and giveth all gifts,” “without whom man is as nothing,” “invisible, incorporeal, one god, of perfect perfection and purity,” “under whose wings we find repose and a sure defence.” these sublime attributes infer no inadequate conception of the true god. but the idea of unity—of a being with whom volition is action, who has no need of inferior ministers to execute his purposes—was too simple, or too vast, for their understandings; and they sought relief, as usual, in a plurality of deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the seasons, and the various occupations of man.[99] of these, there were thirteen principal deities, and more than two hundred inferior; to each of whom some special day or appropriate festival was consecrated.{70}[100]

at the head of all stood the terrible huitzilopochtli, the mexican mars; although it is doing injustice to the heroic war-god of antiquity to identify him with this sanguinary monster. this was the patron deity of the nation. his fantastic image was loaded with costly ornaments. his temples were the most stately and august of the public edifices; and his altars reeked with the blood of human hecatombs in every city of the empire. disastrous indeed must have been the influence of such a superstition on the character of the people. {71} [101]

a far more interesting personage in their mythology was quetzalcoatl, god of the air, a divinity who, during his residence on earth, instructed the{72} natives in the use of metals, in agriculture, and in the arts of government. he was one of those benefactors of their species, doubtless, who have been deified by the gratitude of posterity. under him, the earth teemed with fruits and flowers, without the pains of culture. an ear of indian corn was as much as a single man could carry. the cotton, as it grew, took, of its own accord, the rich dyes of human art. the air was filled with intoxicating perfumes and the sweet melody of birds. in short, these were the halcyon days, which find a place in the mythic systems of so many nations in the old world. it was the golden age of anahuac.[102]

from some cause, not explained, quetzalcoatl incurred the wrath of one of the principal gods, and was compelled to abandon the country. on his way he stopped at the city of cholula, where a{73} temple was dedicated to his worship, the massy ruins of which still form one of the interesting relics of antiquity in mexico. when he reached the shores of the mexican gulf, he took leave of his followers, promising that he and his descendants would revisit them hereafter, and then, entering his wizard skiff, made of serpents’ skins, embarked on the great ocean for the fabled land of tlapallan. he was said to have been tall in stature, with a white skin, long, dark hair, and a flowing beard. the mexicans looked confidently to the return of the benevolent deity; and this remarkable tradition, deeply cherished in their hearts, prepared the way, as we shall see hereafter, for the future success of the spaniards.[103]

we have not space for further details respecting the mexican divinities, the attributes of many of whom were carefully defined, as they descended,{75} in regular gradation, to the penates or household gods, whose little images were to be found in the humblest dwelling.

the aztecs felt the curiosity, common to man in almost every stage of civilization, to lift the veil which covers the mysterious past and the more awful future. they sought relief, like the nations of the old continent, from the oppressive idea of eternity, by breaking it up into distinct cycles, or periods of time, each of several thousand years’ duration. there were four of these cycles, and at the end of each, by the agency of one of the elements, the human family was swept from the earth, and the sun blotted out from the heavens, to be again rekindled.{76}[104]

they imagined three separate states of existence in the future life. the wicked, comprehending the greater part of mankind, were to expiate their sins in a place of everlasting darkness. another class, with no other merit than that of having died of certain diseases, capriciously selected, were to enjoy a negative existence of indolent contentment. the highest place was reserved, as in most warlike nations, for the heroes who fell in battle, or in sacrifice. they passed at once into the presence of the sun, whom they accompanied with songs and choral dances in his bright progress through the heavens; and, after some years, their spirits went to animate the clouds and singing-birds of beautiful plumage, and to revel amidst the rich blossoms and odors of the gardens of paradise.[105] such was the heaven of the aztecs; more refined in its character than that of the more polished pagan, whose elysium reflected only the martial sports or sensual gratifications of this{77} life.[106] in the destiny they assigned to the wicked, we discern similar traces of refinement; since the absence of all physical torture forms a striking contrast to the schemes of suffering so ingeniously devised by the fancies of the most enlightened nations.[107] in all this, so contrary to the natural suggestions of the ferocious aztec, we see the evidences of a higher civilization,[108] inherited from their predecessors in the land.

our limits will allow only a brief allusion to one or two of their most interesting ceremonies. on the death of a person, his corpse was dressed in the peculiar habiliments of his tutelar deity. it was strewed with pieces of paper, which operated as{78} charms against the dangers of the dark road he was to travel. a throng of slaves, if he were rich, was sacrificed at his obsequies. his body was burned, and the ashes, collected in a vase, were preserved in one of the apartments of his house. here we have successively the usages of the roman catholic, the mussulman, the tartar, and the ancient greek and roman; curious coincidences, which may show how cautious we should be in adopting conclusions founded on analogy.[109]

a more extraordinary coincidence may be traced with christian rites, in the ceremony of naming their children. the lips and bosom of the infant were sprinkled with water, and “the lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that was given to it before the foundation of the world; so that the child might be born anew.”[110] we are reminded of christian morals, in more than one of their prayers, in which they used regular forms. “wilt thou blot us out, o lord, forever? is this punishment intended, not{79} for our reformation, but for our destruction?” again, “impart to us, out of thy great mercy, thy gifts, which we are not worthy to receive through our own merits.” “keep peace with all,” says another petition; “bear injuries with humility; god, who sees, will avenge you.” but the most striking parallel with scripture is in the remarkable declaration that “he who looks too curiously on a woman commits adultery with his eyes.”[111] these pure and elevated maxims, it is true, are mixed up with others of a puerile, and even brutal, character, arguing that confusion of the moral perceptions which is natural in the twilight of civilization. one would not expect, however, to meet, in such a state of society, with doctrines as sublime as any inculcated by the enlightened codes of ancient philosophy.{80}[112]

but although the aztec mythology gathered nothing from the beautiful inventions of the poet or from the refinements of philosophy, it was much indebted, as i have noticed, to the priests, who endeavored to dazzle the imagination of the people by the most formal and pompous ceremonial. the influence of the priesthood must be greatest in an imperfect state of civilization, where it engrosses all the scanty science of the time in its own body. this is particularly the case when the science is of that spurious kind which is less occupied with the real phenomena of nature than with the fanciful chimeras of human superstition. such are the sciences of astrology and divination, in which the aztec priests were well initiated; and, while they seemed to hold the keys of the future in their own hands, they impressed the ignorant people with sentiments of superstitious awe, beyond that which has probably existed in any other country,—even in ancient egypt.

the sacerdotal order was very numerous; as may be inferred from the statement that five thousand priests were, in some way or other, attached to the{81} principal temple in the capital. the various ranks and functions of this multitudinous body were discriminated with great exactness. those best instructed in music took the management of the choirs. others arranged the festivals conformably to the calendar. some superintended the education of youth, and others had charge of the hieroglyphical paintings and oral traditions; while the dismal rites of sacrifice were reserved for the chief dignitaries of the order. at the head of the whole establishment were two high-priests, elected from the order, as it would seem, by the king and principal nobles, without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications, as shown by their previous conduct in a subordinate station. they were equal in dignity, and inferior only to the sovereign, who rarely acted without their advice in weighty matters of public concern.[113]

the priests were each devoted to the service of some particular deity, and had quarters provided within the spacious precincts of their temple; at least, while engaged in immediate attendance there,—for they were allowed to marry, and have families of their own. in this monastic residence{82} they lived in all the stern severity of conventual discipline. thrice during the day, and once at night, they were called to prayers. they were frequent in their ablutions and vigils, and mortified the flesh by fasting and cruel penance,—drawing blood from their bodies by flagellation, or by piercing them with the thorns of the aloe; in short, by practising all those austerities to which fanaticism (to borrow the strong language of the poet) has resorted, in every age of the world,

“in hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell.”[114]

the great cities were divided into districts, placed under the charge of a sort of parochial clergy, who regulated every act of religion within their precincts. it is remarkable that they administered the rites of confession and absolution. the secrets of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were imposed of much the same kind as those enjoined in the roman catholic church. there were two remarkable peculiarities in the aztec ceremony. the first was, that, as the repetition of an offence once atoned for was deemed inexpiable, confession was made but once in a man’s life, and was usually deferred to a late period of it, when the penitent unburdened his conscience and settled at once the long arrears of iniquity.[115] another peculiarity was, that priestly absolution{83} was received in place of the legal punishment of offences, and authorized an acquittal in case of arrest. long after the conquest, the simple natives, when they came under the arm of the law, sought to escape by producing the certificate of their confession.[116]

one of the most important duties of the priesthood was that of education, to which certain buildings were appropriated within the enclosure of the principal temple. here the youth of both sexes, of the higher and middling orders, were placed at a very tender age. the girls were intrusted to the care of priestesses; for women were allowed to exercise sacerdotal functions, except those of sacrifice.[117] in these institutions the boys were drilled{84} in the routine of monastic discipline; they decorated the shrines of the gods with flowers, fed the sacred fires, and took part in the religious chants and festivals. those in the higher school—the calmecac, as it was called—were initiated in their traditionary lore, the mysteries of hieroglyphics, the principles of government, and such branches of astronomical and natural science as were within the compass of the priesthood. the girls learned various feminine employments, especially to weave and embroider rich coverings for the altars of the gods. great attention was paid to the moral discipline of both sexes. the most perfect decorum prevailed; and offences were punished with extreme rigor, in some instances with death itself. terror, not love, was the spring of education with the aztecs.[118]

at a suitable age for marrying, or for entering into the world, the pupils were dismissed, with much ceremony, from the convent, and the recommendation of the principal often introduced those most competent to responsible situations in public life. such was the crafty policy{85} of the mexican priests, who, by reserving to themselves the business of instruction, were enabled to mould the young and plastic mind according to their own wills, and to train it early to implicit reverence for religion and its ministers; a reverence which still maintained its hold on the iron nature of the warrior, long after every other vestige of education had been effaced by the rough trade to which he was devoted.

to each of the principal temples, lands were annexed for the maintenance of the priests. these estates were augmented by the policy or devotion of successive princes, until, under the last montezuma, they had swollen to an enormous extent, and covered every district of the empire. the priests took the management of their property into their own hands; and they seem to have treated their tenants with the liberality and indulgence characteristic of monastic corporations. besides the large supplies drawn from this source, the religious order was enriched with the first-fruits, and such other offerings as piety or superstition dictated. the surplus beyond what was required for the support of the national worship was distributed in alms among the poor; a duty strenuously prescribed by their moral code. thus we find the same religion inculcating lessons of pure philanthropy, on the one hand, and of merciless extermination, as we shall soon see, on the other. the inconsistency will not appear incredible to those who are familiar with the history of the roman{86} catholic church, in the early ages of the inquisition.[119]

the mexican temples—teocallis, “houses of god,” as they were called[120]—were very numerous. there were several hundreds in each of the principal cities, many of them, doubtless, very humble edifices. they were solid masses of earth, cased with brick or stone, and in their form somewhat resembled the pyramidal structures of ancient egypt. the bases of many of them were more than a hundred feet square, and they towered to a still greater height. they were distributed into four or five stories, each of smaller dimensions than that below. the ascent was by a flight of steps, at an angle of the pyramid, on the outside. this led to a sort of terrace, or gallery, at the base of the second story, which passed quite round the building to another flight of stairs, commencing also at the same angle as the preceding and directly over it, and leading to a similar terrace; so{87} that one had to make the circuit of the temple several times, before reaching the summit. in some instances the stairway led directly up the centre of the western face of the building. the top was a broad area, on which were erected one or two towers, forty or fifty feet high, the sanctuaries in which stood the sacred images of the presiding deities. before these towers stood the dreadful stone of sacrifice, and two lofty altars, on which fires were kept, as inextinguishable as those in the temple of vesta. there were said to be six hundred of these altars, on smaller buildings within the enclosure of the great temple of mexico, which, with those on the sacred edifices in other parts of the city, shed a brilliant illumination over its streets, through the darkest night.[121][122]

from the construction of their temples, all religious services were public. the long processions of priests, winding round their massive sides, as they rose higher and higher towards the summit, and the dismal rites of sacrifice performed there, were all visible from the remotest corners of the capital, impressing on the spectator’s mind a su{88}perstitious veneration for the mysteries of his religion, and for the dread ministers by whom they were interpreted.

this impression was kept in full force by their numerous festivals. every month was consecrated to some protecting deity; and every week, nay, almost every day, was set down in their calendar for some appropriate celebration; so that it is difficult to understand how the ordinary business of life could have been compatible with the exactions of religion. many of their ceremonies were of a light and cheerful complexion, consisting of the national songs and dances, in which both sexes joined. processions were made of women and children crowned with garlands and bearing offerings of fruits, the ripened maize, or the sweet incense of copal and other odoriferous gums, while the altars of the deity were stained with no blood save that of animals.[123] these were the peaceful rites derived from their toltec predecessors, on which the fierce aztecs engrafted a superstition too loathsome to be exhibited in all its nakedness, and one over which i would gladly draw a veil altogether, but that it would leave the reader in ignorance of their most striking institution, and one that had the greatest influence in forming the national character.

human sacrifices were adopted by the aztecs early in the fourteenth century, about two hundred{89} years before the conquest.[124] rare at first, they became more frequent with the wider extent of their empire; till, at length, almost every festival was closed with this cruel abomination. these religious ceremonials were generally arranged in such a manner as to afford a type of the most prominent circumstances in the character or history of the deity who was the object of them. a single example will suffice.

one of their most important festivals was that in honor of the god tezcatlipoca,[125] whose rank was inferior only to that of the supreme being. he was called “the soul of the world,” and supposed to have been its creator. he was depicted as a handsome man, endowed with perpetual youth. a year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for his personal beauty, and without a blemish on his body, was selected to represent this deity. certain tutors took charge of him, and in{90}structed him how to perform his new part with becoming grace and dignity. he was arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense and with a profusion of sweet-scented flowers, of which the ancient mexicans were as fond as their descendants at the present day. when he went abroad, he was attended by a train of the royal pages, and, as he halted in the streets to play some favorite melody, the crowd prostrated themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of their good deity. in this way he led an easy, luxurious life, till within a month of his sacrifice. four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the principal goddesses, were then selected to share the honors of his bed; and with them he continued to live in idle dalliance, feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who paid him all the honors of a divinity.

at length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived. the term of his short-lived glories was at an end. he was stripped of his gaudy apparel, and bade adieu to the fair partners of his revelries. one of the royal barges transported him across the lake to a temple which rose on its margin, about a league from the city. hither the inhabitants of the capital flocked, to witness the consummation of the ceremony. as the sad procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim threw away his gay chaplets of flowers, and broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. on the summit he was received by six priests, whose long and matted locks flowed disorderly over their sable robes, covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import.{91} they led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with its upper surface somewhat convex. on this the prisoner was stretched. five priests secured his head and his limbs; while the sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of itztli,—a volcanic substance, hard as flint,—and, inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the palpitating heart. the minister of death, first holding this up towards the sun, an object of worship throughout anahuac, cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble adoration. the tragic story of this prisoner was expounded by the priests as the type of human destiny, which, brilliant in its commencement, too often closes in sorrow and disaster.[126]

such was the form of human sacrifice usually practised by the aztecs. it was the same that often met the indignant eyes of the europeans in their progress through the country, and from the dreadful doom of which they themselves were not exempted. there were, indeed, some occasions when preliminary tortures, of the most exquisite kind,—with which it is unnecessary to shock the{92} reader,—were inflicted, but they always terminated with the bloody ceremony above described. it should be remarked, however, that such tortures were not the spontaneous suggestions of cruelty, as with the north american indians, but were all rigorously prescribed in the aztec ritual, and doubtless were often inflicted with the same compunctious visitings which a devout familiar of the holy office might at times experience in executing its stern decrees.[127] women, as well as the other sex, were sometimes reserved for sacrifice. on some occasions, particularly in seasons of drought, at the festival of the insatiable tlaloc, the god of rain, children, for the most part infants, were offered up. as they were borne along in open litters, dressed in their festal robes, and decked with the fresh blossoms of spring, they moved the hardest heart to pity, though their cries were drowned in the wild chant of the priests, who read in their tears a favorable augury for their petition. these innocent victims were generally bought by the{93} priests of parents who were poor, but who stifled the voice of nature, probably less at the suggestions of poverty than of a wretched superstition.[128]

the most loathsome part of the story—the manner in which the body of the sacrificed captive was disposed of—remains yet to be told. it was delivered to the warrior who had taken him in battle, and by him, after being dressed, was served up in an entertainment to his friends. this was not the coarse repast of famished cannibals, but a banquet teeming with delicious beverages and delicate viands, prepared with art, and attended by both sexes, who, as we shall see hereafter, conducted themselves with all the decorum of civilized life. surely, never were refinement and the extreme of barbarism brought so closely in contact with each other.[129]

human sacrifices have been practised by many nations, not excepting the most polished nations of antiquity;[130] but never by any, on a scale to be com{94}pared with those in anahuac. the amount of victims immolated on its accursed altars would stagger the faith of the least scrupulous believer. scarcely any author pretends to estimate the yearly sacrifices throughout the empire at less than twenty thousand, and some carry the number as high as fifty thousand![131]

on great occasions, as the coronation of a king or the consecration of a temple, the number becomes still more appalling. at the dedication of the great temple of huitzilopochtli, in 1486, the prisoners, who for some years had been reserved for the purpose, were drawn from all quarters to the capital. they were ranged in files, forming a procession nearly two miles long. the ceremony consumed several days, and seventy thousand captives are said to have perished at the shrine of this terrible deity! but who can believe that so numerous a body would have suffered themselves to be led unresistingly like sheep to the slaughter? or how could their remains, too great for consumption in

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fra bartolomé de las casas

goupil & co. paris

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the ordinary way, be disposed of, without breeding a pestilence in the capital? yet the event was of recent date, and is unequivocally attested by the best-informed historians.[132] one fact may be considered certain. it was customary to preserve the skulls of the sacrificed, in buildings appropriated to the purpose. the companions of cortés counted one hundred and thirty-six thousand in one of these edifices![133] without attempting a precise calculation, therefore, it is safe to conclude that thousands were yearly offered up, in the different cities of anahuac, on the bloody altars of the mexican divinities.[134]

indeed, the great object of war, with the aztecs, was quite as much to gather victims for their sac{96}rifices as to extend their empire. hence it was that an enemy was never slain in battle, if there were a chance of taking him alive. to this circumstance the spaniards repeatedly owed their preservation. when montezuma was asked “why he had suffered the republic of tlascala to maintain her independence on his borders,” he replied, “that she might furnish him with victims for his gods”! as the supply began to fail, the priests, the dominicans of the new world, bellowed aloud for more, and urged on their superstitious sovereign by the denunciations of celestial wrath. like the militant churchmen of christendom in the middle ages, they mingled themselves in the ranks, and were conspicuous in the thickest of the fight, by their hideous aspect and frantic gestures. strange, that, in every country, the most fiendish passions of the human heart have been those kindled in the name of religion![135]

the influence of these practices on the aztec character was as disastrous as might have been ex{97}pected. familiarity with the bloody rites of sacrifice steeled the heart against human sympathy, and begat a thirst for carnage, like that excited in the romans by the exhibitions of the circus. the perpetual recurrence of ceremonies, in which the people took part, associated religion with their most intimate concerns, and spread the gloom of superstition over the domestic hearth, until the character of the nation wore a grave and even melancholy aspect, which belongs to their descendants at the present day. the influence of the priesthood, of course, became unbounded. the sovereign thought himself honored by being permitted to assist in the services of the temple. far from limiting the authority of the priests to spiritual matters, he often surrendered his opinion to theirs, where they were least competent to give it. it was their opposition that prevented the final capitulation which would have saved the capital. the whole nation, from the peasant to the prince, bowed their necks to the worst kind of tyranny, that of a blind fanaticism.

in reflecting on the revolting usages recorded in the preceding pages, one finds it difficult to reconcile their existence with anything like a regular form of government, or an advance in civilization.[136] yet the mexicans had many claims to the{98} character of a civilized community. one may, perhaps, better understand the anomaly, by reflecting on the condition of some of the most polished countries in europe in the sixteenth century, after the establishment of the modern inquisition,—an institution which yearly destroyed its thousands, by a death more painful than the aztec sacrifices; which armed the hand of brother against brother, and, setting its burning seal upon the lip, did more to stay the march of improvement than any other scheme ever devised by human cunning.

human sacrifice, however cruel, has nothing in it degrading to its victim. it may be rather said to ennoble him by devoting him to the gods. although so terrible with the aztecs, it was sometimes voluntarily embraced by them, as the most glorious death and one that opened a sure passage into{99} paradise.[137] the inquisition, on the other hand, branded its victims with infamy in this world, and consigned them to everlasting perdition in the next.

one detestable feature of the aztec superstition, however, sunk it far below the christian. this was its cannibalism,[138] though, in truth, the mexicans were not cannibals in the coarsest acceptation of the term. they did not feed on human flesh merely to gratify a brutish appetite, but in obedience to their religion. their repasts were made of the victims whose blood had been poured out on the altar of sacrifice. this is a distinction worthy of notice.[139] still, cannibalism, under any form or whatever sanction, cannot but have a fatal influence on the nation addicted to it. it suggests ideas so loathsome, so degrading to man, to his spiritual{100} and immortal nature, that it is impossible the people who practise it should make any great progress in moral or intellectual culture. the mexicans furnish no exception to this remark. the civilization which they possessed descended from the toltecs, a race who never stained their altars, still less their banquets, with the blood of man.[140] all that deserved the name of science in mexico came from this source; and the crumbling ruins of edifices attributed to them, still extant in various parts of new spain, show a decided superiority in their architecture over that of the later races of anahuac. it is true, the mexicans made great proficiency in many of the social and mechanic arts, in that material culture,—if i may so call it,—the natural growth of increasing opulence, which ministers to the gratification of the senses. in purely intellectual progress they were behind the tezcucans, whose wise sovereigns came into the abominable rites of their neighbors with reluctance and practised them on a much more moderate scale.{101}[141]

in this state of things, it was beneficently ordered by providence that the land should be delivered over to another race, who would rescue it from the brutish superstitions that daily extended wider and wider with extent of empire.[142] the debasing institutions of the aztecs furnish the best apology for their conquest. it is true, the conquerors brought along with them the inquisition. but they also brought christianity, whose benign radiance would still survive when the fierce flames of fanaticism should be extinguished; dispelling those dark forms of horror which had so long brooded over the fair region of anahuac.

the most important authority in the preceding chapter, and, indeed, wherever the aztec religion is concerned, is bernardino de sahagun, a franciscan friar, contemporary with the conquest. his great work, historia universal de nueva-espa?a, has been recently printed for the first time. the circumstances attending its compilation and subsequent fate form one of the most remarkable passages in literary history.

sahagun was born in a place of the same name, in old spain. he was educated at salamanca, and, having taken the vows of st. francis, came over as a missionary to mexico in the year 1529. here he distinguished himself by his zeal, the purity of his life, and his unwearied exertions to spread the great truths of religion among the natives. he was the guardian of several conventual houses, successively, until he relinquished these cares, that he might devote himself{102} more unreservedly to the business of preaching, and of compiling various works designed to illustrate the antiquities of the aztecs. for these literary labors he found some facilities in the situation which he continued to occupy, of reader, or lecturer, in the college of santa cruz, in the capital.

the “universal history” was concocted in a singular manner. in order to secure to it the greatest possible authority, he passed some years in a tezcucan town, where he conferred daily with a number of respectable natives unacquainted with castilian. he propounded to them queries, which they, after deliberation, answered in their usual method of writing, by hieroglyphical paintings. these he submitted to other natives, who had been educated under his own eye in the college of santa cruz; and the latter, after a consultation among themselves, gave a written version, in the mexican tongue, of the hieroglyphics. this process he repeated in another place, in some part of mexico, and subjected the whole to a still further revision by a third body in another quarter. he finally arranged the combined results into a regular history, in the form it now bears; composing it in the mexican language, which he could both write and speak with great accuracy and elegance,—greater, indeed, than any spaniard of the time.

the work presented a mass of curious information, that attracted much attention among his brethren. but they feared its influence in keeping alive in the natives a too vivid reminiscence of the very superstitions which it was the great object of the christian clergy to eradicate. sahagun had views more liberal than those of his order, whose blind zeal would willingly have annihilated every monument of art and human ingenuity which had not been produced under the influence of christianity. they refused to allow him the necessary aid to transcribe his papers, which he had been so many years in preparing, under the pretext that the expense was too great for their order to incur. this occasioned a further delay of several years. what was worse, his provincial got possession of his manuscripts, which were soon scattered among the different religious houses in the country.

in this forlorn state of his affairs, sahagun drew up a brief statement of the nature and contents of his work, and forwarded it to madrid. it fell into the hands of don juan de ovando, president of the council for the indies, who was so much interested in it that he ordered the manuscripts to be restored to their author, with the request that he would at once set about translating them into castilian. this was accordingly done. his papers were recovered, though not without the menace of ecclesiastical censures; and the octogenarian author began the work of translation from the mexican, in which they had been originally written by him thirty years before. he had the satisfaction to complete the task, arranging the spanish version in a parallel column with the original, and adding a vocabulary, explaining the difficult aztec terms and phrases; while the text was supported by the numerous paintings on which it was founded. in{103} this form, making two bulky volumes in folio, it was sent to madrid. there seemed now to be no further reason for postponing its publication, the importance of which could not be doubted. but from this moment it disappears; and we hear nothing further of it, for more than two centuries, except only as a valuable work, which had once existed and was probably buried in some one of the numerous cemeteries of learning in which spain abounds.

at length, towards the close of the last century, the indefatigable mu?oz succeeded in disinterring the long-lost manuscript from the place tradition had assigned to it,—the library of a convent at tolosa, in navarre, the northern extremity of spain. with his usual ardor, he transcribed the whole work with his own hands, and added it to the inestimable collection, of which, alas! he was destined not to reap the full benefit himself. from this transcript lord kingsborough was enabled to procure the copy which was published in 1830, in the sixth volume of his magnificent compilation. in it he expresses an honest satisfaction at being the first to give sahagun’s works to the world. but in this supposition he was mistaken. the very year preceding, an edition of it, with annotations, appeared in mexico, in three volumes octavo. it was prepared by bustamante,—a scholar to whose editorial activity his country is largely indebted,—from a copy of the mu?oz manuscript which came into his possession. thus this remarkable work, which was denied the honors of the press during the author’s lifetime, after passing into oblivion, reappeared, at the distance of nearly three centuries, not in his own country, but in foreign lands widely remote from each other, and that almost simultaneously. the story is extraordinary, though unhappily not so extraordinary in spain as it would be elsewhere.

sahagun divided his history into twelve books. the first eleven are occupied with the social institutions of mexico, and the last with the conquest. on the religion of the country he is particularly full. his great object evidently was, to give a clear view of its mythology, and of the burdensome ritual which belonged to it. religion entered so intimately into the most private concerns and usages of the aztecs, that sahagun’s work must be a text-book for every student of their antiquities. torquemada availed himself of a manuscript copy, which fell into his hands before it was sent to spain, to enrich his own pages,—a circumstance more fortunate for his readers than for sahagun’s reputation, whose work, now that it is published, loses much of the originality and interest which would otherwise attach to it. in one respect it is invaluable; as presenting a complete collection of the various forms of prayer, accommodated to every possible emergency, in use by the mexicans. they are often clothed in dignified and beautiful language, showing that sublime speculative tenets are quite compatible with the most degrading practices of superstition. it is much to be regretted that we have not the eighteen hymns inserted by the author in his book, which would have particular interest, as the only specimen of devotional poetry pre{104}served of the aztecs. the hieroglyphical paintings, which accompanied the text, are also missing. if they have escaped the hands of fanaticism, both may reappear at some future day.

sahagun produced several other works, of a religious or philological character. some of these were voluminous, but none have been printed. he lived to a very advanced age, closing a life of activity and usefulness, in 1590, in the capital of mexico. his remains were followed to the tomb by a numerous concourse of his own countrymen, and of the natives, who lamented in him the loss of unaffected piety, benevolence, and learning.