Chapter XI: Gods, Supernatural Beings, and Worship (3)

[XI-80] 'Ich bringe es in Verbindung mit dem Stammworte _ciahua_ oder _ciyahua_ befeuchten, bewässern.' _Ib._ It is to be noticed that the Aztec _h_ frequently changes into _g_, in these countries.

[XI-81] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 435-8, 503; _Squier's Nicaragua_, (Ed. 1856), vol. ii., pp. 349-60; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 112; this author identifies Tamagostat and Cipaltona with the solar deities Oxomoc and Cipactonal of the Toltecs, but places them in rather an inferior position.

[XI-82] Oxomogo is also introduced, which tends to throw doubt on Brasseur's identification of Jamagostad with this personage.

[XI-83] 'Ehecatl oder verkürzt Ecatl ... ist die Berichtigung für Oviedo's Hecat.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 163; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 40-5, 52.

[XI-84] In _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série ii., tom. iii., p. 40, they are written Homey-Atelïte and Homey-Ateciguat, but the above spelling corresponds better with other similar Aztec names in Nicaragua. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 46.

[XI-85] 'Von quiahui oder quiyahui regnen: mit _teotl_ Gott verbunden.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 167.

[XI-86] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 46.

[XI-87] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 113. The latter seems to be the same as the Mexican Teotochtli, 'rabbit god.'

[XI-88] 'Y esso tenemos por el dios de los venados.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 55.

[XI-89] All probably derived from _tlamacazqui_, priest. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 112-4. This author, following _Oviedo_, _Hist. Nic._, spells the names somewhat differently. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 165-8; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 48, 52, 101.

[XI-90] These remarks appear inconsistent with the statement that the spirit only of men ascended to heaven. _Id._, pp. 41-2.

[XI-91] '_Téobat_ vient probablement de _Téohuatl_, être divin.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 113.

[XI-92] 'En toda la plaça, ni en el templo donde están, entran allí hombre ni muger en tanto que allí están, sino solamente los muchachos pequeños que les llevan é dan de comer.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 47.

[XI-93] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., p. 330.

[XI-94] Peter Martyr describes this edifice as follows: 'Within the viewe of their Temples there are diuers Bases or Pillers like the Pulpittes ... which Bases consist of eight steppes or stayres in some places twelue, and in another fifteene.' Dec. vi., lib. vi.

[XI-95] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 46-7, 53, 56, 93-4, 98, 101; _Peter Martyr_, dec. vi., lib. vii.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 265-6; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec., iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.; vol. ii., pp. 708-10, 715, of this work.

[XI-96] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 55-6; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., lib. v., cap. xii.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 256.

[XI-97] Brasseur de Bourbourg says: '_Tamagoz_, c'est encore une autre corruption du mot _tlamacazqui_.' _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 114.

[XI-98] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 46-7, 53; _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 414; vol. ii., p. 728, of this work. Gomara, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 265, states that the priests were all married, while Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., asserts the contrary. The latter view seems more correct when we consider that women were not permitted to enter the temples, and that the high priest and devotees were obliged to leave their wives when they passed into the sanctuary. It is even probable that there was no distinct priesthood, since the temples had no revenues, and the temple service was performed in part at least by volunteers; to this must be added the fact, that although the confessor might not be connected with the temple, yet he ordered penance for its benefit. It must be considered, however, that without regular ministers it would have been difficult to keep up the routine of feasts and ceremonies, write the books of records, teach the children, and maintain discipline.

[XI-99] _Arricivita_, _Crónica Seráfica_, p. 57; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 101, 107. 'Sous le nom de "Texoxé" on désignait les naguals, les génies mauvais de toute espèce, ainsi que les sorciers.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 113.

[XI-100] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 63.

[XI-101] At Cape Honduras they consisted of long, narrow houses, raised above the ground, containing idols with heads of animals. _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. v.

[XI-102] _Id._, and dec. iv., lib. i., cap. vi.; see vol. i., p. 740, of this work.

[XI-103] 'Es ist dafür das Wort God aus dem Englischen aufgenommen.' _Mosquitoland_, _Bericht_, p. 142.

[XI-104] _Bard's Waikna_, p. 243. 'Devils, the chief of whom they call the Woolsaw, or evil principle, witchcraft.' _Strangeways' Mosquito Shore_, p. 331. Young writes Oulasser. _Narrative_, p. 72.

[XI-105] _Bell_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., p. 254.

[XI-106] A shape which assigns the story a comparatively recent date, unless a deer was originally meant.

[XI-107] _Bell_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxxii., pp. 253-4; _Young's Narrative_, p. 79.

[XI-108] _Froebel's Cent. Amer._, p. 137; see also vol. i., pp. 740-1, of this work.

[XI-109] _Hist. Ind._, fol. 255.

[XI-110] _Id._, fol. 89; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., pp. 20, 125.

[XI-111] _Peter Martyr_, dec. vii., lib. x.; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. iii., pp. 173-4; _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 421.

[XI-112] _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 401; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. i., cap. xi., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. v.

[XI-113] _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiv., ccxlii.; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 63.

[XI-114] Dec. iii., lib. iv., dec. ii., lib. iii.

[XI-115] A name applied in Cueba to all who excelled in an art. _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., pp. 126-7.

[XI-116] 'Las manos no se las vian.' _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p. 400.

[XI-117] For further account of sorcerers, see vol. i., pp. 779-80. Gomara writes: 'Tauira, que es el Diablo.' _Hist. Ind._, fol. 255; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. ii., cap. x., lib. iii., cap. v., dec. iv., lib. i., cap. x.

[XI-118] _Peter Martyr_, dec. vii., lib. x.

[XI-119] _Ancient Fragments_, introduction, p. 34. M. Pictet says of the primitive Celtic religion: "From a _primitive duality_, constituting the fundamental forces of the universe, there arises a double progression of cosmical powers, which, after having crossed each other by a mutual transition, at last proceed to blend in One Supreme Unity, as in their essential principles." Says Sir William Jones: "We must not be surprised at finding, on a close examination, that the characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two, for it seems a well-founded opinion that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses in ancient Rome and modern Váránes, mean only the Powers of Nature, and principally those of the SUN, expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names." _On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India_, p. 273.

[XI-120] 'This suggestion was first publicly made in a communication read,' says Squier, _Serpent Symbol_, p. 49, 'before the American Ethnological Society, by a distinguished member of that body; from which the following passages are extracted. After noticing several facts tending to show the former existence of Phallic worship in America, the author of the paper proceeds as follows:--"We come now to Central America. Upon a perusal of the first journey of our fellow-members, Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood, into Guatemala and the central territories of the Continent, I was forcibly struck with the monolithic idols of Copan. We knew nothing before, save of Mexican, Palenque, and Uxmal remains; and those of Copan appeared to me to be unlike them all, and probably of an older date. My reading furnishes me with but one parallel to those singular monolithic sculptures, and that was seen in Ceylon, in 1796, by Captain Colin McKenzie, and described in the 6th volume of the Asiatic Researches. As the description is short, I transcribe it: 'The figure is cut out of stone in relievo; but the whole is sunk in a hollow, scooped out, so that it is defended from injury on the sides. It may be about fourteen feet high, the countenance wild, a full round visage, the eyes large, the nose round and long; it has no beard; nor the usual distinguishing marks of the Gentoo casts. He holds up both his hands, with the forefingers and thumbs bent; the head-dress is high, and seems ornamented with jewels; on the little finger of the left hand is a ring; on the arms bracelets; a belt high about the waist; the lower dress or drapery fixed with a girdle much lower than the Gentoo dress, from which something like tassels depend; a collar and ornaments on the neck and shoulders; and rings seem to hang low from the ears. No appearance of any arms or weapons.' This was the nearest approximation I could make to the Copan idols; for idols I took them to be, from the fact that an altar was invariably placed before them. From a close inspection of Mr. Catherwood's drawings, I found that though no single figure presented all the foregoing characteristics, yet in the various figures I could find every particular enumerated in the Ceylon sculpture. It then occurred to me that one of the most usual symbols of the Phallus was an erect stone, often in its rough state, sometimes sculptured, and that no other object of heathen worship was so often shadowed forth by a single stone placed on end, as the Phallus. That the worship of the Priapus, [Lingam] existed in Ceylon, has long since been satisfactorily established; and hence I was led to suspect that these monuments at Copan, might be vestiges of a similar idolatry. A further inspection confirmed my suspicions; for, as I supposed, I found sculptured on the American ruins the organs of generation, and on the back of one of the emblems relative to uterine existence, parturition, etc. I should, however, have wanted entire confidence in the correctness of my suspicions, had the matter rested here. On the return of Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood from their second expedition, every doubt of the existence of Phallic worship, especially in Yucatan, was removed."

[XI-121] _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 290, 301; _Squier's Serpent Symbol_, pp. 47-50.

[XI-122] _Leon y Gama_, _Dos Piedras_, part i., p. 40.

[XI-123] In Pánuco and other provinces 'adorano il membro che portano gli huomini fra le gambe, & lo tengono nella meschita, & posto similmente sopra la piazza insieme con le imagini de rilieuo di tutti modi di piacere che possono essere fra l'huomo & la donna, & gli hanno di ritratto con le gambe di alzate in diuersi modi.' _Relatione fatta per un Gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortése_, in _Ramusio_, _Navigationi_, tom. iii., fol. 307.

[XI-124] 'Hallaron entre vnos arboles vn idolillo de oro y muchos de barro, dos hombres de palo, caualgando vno sobre otro, a fuer Sodoma, y otro de tierra cozida con ambas manos a lo suyo, que lo tenia retajado, como son casi todos los Indios de Yucatan.' _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 58.

[XI-125] See vol. ii., pp. 336-7, concerning this festival.

[XI-126] 'Un idolo de piedra redondo,' which may mean a 'cylindrical stone,' as the translator of Palacio's _Carta_ has rendered it.

[XI-127] _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 84.

[XI-128] Concerning the cross in America, see this vol. p. 468.

[XI-129] I refer to the left hand figure in the cut on p. 348, vol. iv., of this work. For examples of the amulets mentioned, see illustrations in Payne Knight's _Worship of Priapus_.

[XI-130] See vol. i., of this work, p. 93; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 48; See vol. ii., of this work, pp. 719-20.

[XI-131] _Boturini_, _Idea_, p. 13; see also this volume, pp. 243-4.

[XI-132] See vol. i., of this work, pp. 200, 414, 566-6; vol. ii., p. 676, and account of Yucatec feasts in chap. xxii. In citing these brutish orgies I do not presume, or wish to assert, that they were in any way connected with phallus worship, or indeed, that there was anything of a religious nature in them. Still, as they certainly were indulged in during, or immediately after the great religious festivals, and as we know how the phallic cult degenerated from its original purity into just such bestiality in Greece and Rome, I have thought it well to mention them. There is much truth in the following remarks on this point, by Mr. Brinton, though with his statement that the proofs of a recognition of the fecundating principle in Nature by the Americans are 'altogether wanting,' I cannot agree. He says: 'There is no ground whatever to invest these debauches with any recondite meaning. They are simply indications of the thorough and utter immorality which prevailed throughout the race. And a still more disgusting proof of it is seen in the frequent appearance among diverse tribes of men dressed as women and yielding themselves to indescribable vices. There was at first nothing of a religious nature in such exhibitions. Lascivious priests chose at times to invest them with some such meaning.... The pretended phallic worship of the Natchez and of Culhuacan, cited by the Abbé Brasseur, rests on no good authority, and if true, is like that of the Huastecs of Panuco, nothing but an unrestrained and boundless profligacy which it were an absurdity to call a religion. That which Mr. Stephens attempts to show existed once in Yucatan, rests entirely by his own statement on a fancied resemblance of no value whatever, and the arguments of Lafitau to the same effect are quite insufficient. There is a decided indecency in the remains of ancient American art, especially in Peru, (Meyen) and great lubricity in many ceremonies, but the proof is altogether wanting to bind these with the recognition of fecundating principle throughout nature, or, indeed, to suppose for them any other origin than the promptings of an impure fancy. I even doubt whether they often referred to fire as the deity of sexual love. By a flight of fancy inspired by a study of oriental mythology, the worship of the reciprocal principle in America has been connected with that of the sun and moon, as the primitive pair from whose fecund union all creatures proceeded. It is sufficient to say if such a myth exists among the Indians--which is questionable--it justifies no such deduction; that the moon is often mentioned in their languages merely as the "night sun;" and that in such important stocks as the Iroquois, Athapascas, Cherokees, and Tupis, the sun is said to be a feminine noun; while the myths represent them more frequently as brother and sister than as man and wife; nor did at least the northern tribes regard the sun as the cause of fecundity in nature at all, but solely as giving light and warmth.' _Myths_, pp. 149-50; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., pp. 416-17.

[XI-133] For a full account of this feast see vol. ii., of this work, pp. 329-30.