The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 4

Figure 23.

Before abandoning the subject of native symbolism and star-emblems I should like to present, as a curiosity, with an appeal to specialists to enlighten me as to the astronomical knowledge of the Eskimos, an Eskimo drawing from Professor Wilson's instructive and useful monograph. It is said to represent a "flock of birds," but so closely resembles Ca.s.siopeia and Polaris that I am tempted to view it as an indication that the Eskimos may also have a.s.sociated the idea of a celestial bird, or birds, wheeling around a central point, with the constellation and the pole-star (fig.

23). Having once ventured so far afield, I cannot refrain from presenting here an interesting set of aboriginal star-symbols, reproduced from Professor Wilson's comprehensive work (fig. 24), each composed of a cross combined, with a single exception, with a circle. I draw attention to the striking resemblance of some of these signs to those painted on the finely decorated pottery found on the hacienda of Don Jose Luna, in Nicaragua, and described by J. F. Brandsford, M.D. (Archaeological Researches in Nicaragua, Smithsonian Inst., 1881, p. 30, B), and suggest that, in both localities, the symbol may be a rudimentary swastika, and represent Polaris and circ.u.mpolar rotation.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Plate III. 1. Sh.e.l.l gorget, Missouri. 2, 5-14. Pottery vessels, Arkansas.

3, 4, 15-17, 19-28. Pottery vessels, Missouri. 18. Pottery vessel, Kentucky. 6. National Museum. 3, 16, 17, 21, 24, 25. St. Louis Academy.

All others Peabody Museum. Willoughby, "Pottery from the Mississippi Valley." Journal of American Folk-lore, January-March, 1897.

In conclusion I refer the reader to Mr. C. C. Willoughby's valuable and most interesting "a.n.a.lysis of the decorations upon pottery from the Mississippi Valley" (Journal Amer. Folk-lore, vol. X, 1897), in which he figures the remarkable specimens preserved in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, the designs on which, as he states, "are mostly of symbolic origin and have been in use among various tribes within the historic period from the Great Lakes to Mexico." With the kind permission of the editor of the Journal, I reproduce some of Mr. Willoughby's ill.u.s.trations on Plate III.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Figure 24. Crosses And Circles Representing Star Symbols, Arizona.

Returning to consider the probable result of the gradual diffusion of star-cult owing to natural causes and of the consequent divergence from the idea of the Centre, which had so deeply influenced the minds of primitive men during many centuries, with earnest, and extended astronomical observation, keeping pace with the development of the idea of the Above and Below, it is obvious that the utmost attention would be next given to the conspicuous star groups and planets which are visible at certain times and then seem to have departed or descended into the under world. Any one who has read the interesting communications by Herr Richard Andree (Globus. bd. LXIV, nr. 22), On the relation of the Pleiades to the beginning of the year amongst primitive people, followed by a note by Herr Karl von den Steinen on the same subject, will realize that widely-separated tribes of men, by dint of simple observation, knew the exact length of the periodical appearance and disappearance of this star group and regulated their year accordingly. Herr Andree cites, for instance, that "in the Society islands, the year was divided into two portions, the first of which was named Matari-i-inia=the Pleiades above.

It began and lasted during the time when these constellations were visible close to the horizon after sunset. The second period, named Matarii-i-raro=the Pleiades below, began and lasted for the time during which the star-group was invisible after sunset" (W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. II, p. 419, London 1829). That the ancient Mexicans had likewise observed the Pleiades and been deeply impressed by them is proven by the well-known fact that the ceremony of the kindling of the sacred fire, which betokened the commencement of a new cycle, was performed "when the Pleiades attained the zenith at midnight precisely." In my complete monograph in the ancient Mexican calendar-system it will be my endeavor to present all the data I have collected concerning the degree of elementary astronomical knowledge attained by the native astronomers. I shall, therefore, content myself with pointing out here that besides the foregoing testimony about the Pleiades, the native name for which was the miec=the many, or the tianquiztli=the marketplace, there are records proving that the cult of the planet Venus was a firmly established feature of the native religion at the time of the Conquest. Sahagun records that the Nahuatl names for this planet were citlalpul or hueycitlallin both signifying "the great star." "In the great temple of Mexico an edifice named ilhuicat.i.tlan [literally, the land of the sky] consisted of a great, high column, on which the morning star was painted.... Captives were sacrificed in front of this column annually, at the period when the star re-appeared" (_op. cit._ appendix to book II).

With regard to the connection of the Pleiades with the beginning of the Mexican cycle, it is interesting to note Herr Andree's statements that the most intimate connection of the star-group with the thoughts of primitive people, would naturally take place in such localities where its periodical movements coincided with the changes of season, wind and weather which affected agriculture. A survey of the data presented by Herr Andree shows that the cult of the Pleiades attained its greatest development amongst tribes inhabiting a southerly lat.i.tude. It was in South America, indeed, that the Peruvians, alongside of their highly developed sun-cult, rendered homage and offered sacrifices to the Pleiades. In Mexico, the cult of the Pleiades appears as intimately a.s.sociated with that of the sun and to have a.s.sumed importance only in historical and comparatively recent times, probably when the periodicity of the sun's movements had been taught or recognized and the sign _ollin_, which is an exact presentation of the annual course of the sun, had been invented and adopted as a symbol. I have already pointed out that this sign occurs on the calendar-stone, for instance, which has a human face in its centre, bearing two numerals on the forehead and obviously symbolizing the union of two in one. In other instances the centre displays the eye, or star symbol and conveys the suggestion that the "four movements" of the circ.u.mpolar constellations were thereby symbolized. It may be that, in ancient Mexico, the two symbols, respectively referring to the movements of the sun and of the circ.u.mpolar star-groups, were emblematic of the two different cults or religions which existed alongside of each other. The first, the cult of the Above, of the Blue Sky, was directed towards the sun and the planets and stars intimately a.s.sociated with sunrise and sunset, amongst them the Pleiades. The cult of the Below, of the Nocturnal Heaven, was directed towards the moon, Polaris and the circ.u.mpolar constellations-also to the stars and planets during the period of their disappearance and possibly in the same way to the enigmatical "Black Sun," figured in the B. N. MS.

which may have been the sun during its nightly stay in the House of the Underworld, whose door was in the west. In order to obtain an idea of the immense proportions ultimately a.s.sumed by these two diverging cults and the enormous influence they exerted upon the entire native civilization, it will be necessary to examine the form of the social organization in Montezuma's time.

In order to comprehend this, however, it is first necessary to study carefully the myths relating to its origin. Torquemada (lib. VI, chap. 41) cites the authority of Friar Andreas de Olmos for the following native account of the creation of man, which was differently recounted to him in each province. He states that the majority of the natives, however, agreed that "there was in heaven a G.o.d named 's.h.i.+ning Star' (Citlal-Tonac) and a G.o.ddess named 'She of the starry skirt' (Citlal-Cue), who gave birth to a flint knife (Tecpatl). Their other children, startled at this, cast the flint down from the sky. It fell to earth at the place named 'Seven caves'

and 'produced 1,600 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses,' " a figure of speech which evidently expressed the idea that, in coming in forcible contact with the soil the flint gave forth sparks innumerable which conveyed vitality to numberless beings. It is evidently the same idea of "life sparks" being called into existence by the union of heaven and earth which underlies the Texcocan version of the creation of man recorded as follows by Torquemada (_op. et loc. cit._). "The sun ... shot an arrow towards the land of Acolma near the boundary of Texcoco. This made a hole in the ground whence issued the first man...."

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Figure 25.

The ill.u.s.trated version of the above myths, given in the Vatican Codex I, designates the celestial progenitor of human life as Quetzalcoatl, also named Tonaca-Tecuhtli=the lord of our subsistence, Chicome-xochitl="Seven roses or flowers" and Citlalla-Tonalla="The Milky Way," literally, The s.h.i.+ning stars. The dual divinity is figured (fig. 25, no. 4) as two persons with the shaft of an arrow over each of their heads and with the symbol Tecpatl=flint, between them as the issue of their union. In the Borgian Codex (fig. 25, no. 1), a barbed arrowpoint, instead of the Tecpatl, figures between the celestial parents. Their union is symbolized by a covering, the shape of which, in further representations (fig. 25, nos. 3 and 5) in the same MS., offers resemblance to the tau-shaped windows which are such a common feature in Maya and also in Pueblo architecture (fig. 25, no. 2_b_). The preceding data, which could be amplified, seem to show that the natives a.s.sociated the tau-shape not merely with the idea of the Male and Female principles, but also with the Above and the Below, or Heaven (air and water) and Earth (earth and fire).

I shall have occasion, further on, to refer again to the symbolism of the native tau.

The above ill.u.s.trations, however, definitely prove that the flint knife and the arrow (with a flint point, presumably), were indiscriminately designated as the medium by means of which the spark of life was created and imparted to earth-born beings.

It will be proved further that, at the period of the Conquest, the arrow was revered as an image of life-producing force in Yucatan and Mexico. The flint knife cased in wrappings was called "the son" of Cihuacoatl, the earth-mother, and was regarded as her special symbol. It is significant, therefore, to find that it was the emblem of office of one of the two high priests, who alone employed it, as a sacrificial knife, in performing his awful duty of immolating human victims.

The fact that the cane-shaft of an arrow figures above the head of the celestial couple in the Vatican Codex is particularly interesting because the name Ome-Acatl=Two-Cane, is given as the name of a divinity by Sahagun (book I, chap. 15) and that the ceremony of kindling the New Fire, at the commencement of a cycle of years was also a.s.sociated with the calendar sign Ome-Acatl (Sahagun, book VII, chap. 10).

At a certain festival images of Omacatl were manufactured and carried by the devout to their houses in order to receive from them "blessings and multiplication of possessions" (Sahagun, book II, chap. 19).

I draw attention to the fact that life is supposed to have proceeded from the union of stellar divinities, that the Tecpatl and flint are the well-known symbols for the North and Fire and that the Vatican commentator identifies the celestial parent as "Seven-Flowers." What is more, Duran (vol. I, pp. 8 and 9) relates that the native race was organized into seven separate tribes and that these "claimed to have come out of 'seven caves' (Chicom-oztoc) which were situated in Teo-Culhuacan or Aztlan 'a land of which all men know that it is in the North.' " Now Teo-Culhuacan is composed of the word Teotl, which designated the stars, the sun, the G.o.ds and, by extension, something divine or celestial. Culhua (_cf._ Coloa) means something bent over or recurved, or the action of describing a circle by moving around something, and _can_ means "the place of" in Nahuatl. This locality is represented in the picture-writings by a strange and impossible mountain with a recurved summit (fig. 26, no. 1). Aztlan literally means "the land of whiteness, brightness, light." In Duran's Atlas the seven caves are represented as containing men and women-the progenitors of the seven tribes. The order in which these are described, in the Mexican myth, as having issued from the caves, is instructive and sheds light upon the provenance and purpose of the tradition. It represents the Mexicans as the superior predestined race who remained in their cave the "longest, by divine command," their "G.o.d having promised them this land." The tradition relates that six tribes reached and settled down in the central plateau of Mexico, 302 years before the Aztecs arrived, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Huitzilopochtli an oracular divinity, whose commandments were transmitted to the people by four priests (Duran, chap. II).

In my opinion it is impossible to study the above and supplementary data without realizing that the native race a.s.signed its origin to a dual star-divinity, a.s.sociated with the Tecpatl, the symbol for the North and for Fire. The peculiarity that the divinity is designated as Seven-flowers, and that there were seven tribes, indicates that the native idea was that each tribe came from one of the seven stars in Ursa Major or Minor. The Aztecs seem to have claimed for themselves the descent from the superior star, the central one, and to have thus justified or supported their ultimate establishment of a central government which ruled over the other six tribes.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Figure 26.

The a.s.sumption that the native race claimed descent from the Ursa Major or Minor constellation is further supported by the fact that the shape of the mythical recurved mountain and the name Aztlan=land of light or brightness are simultaneously explained, as well as the number of caves and tribes.

It does not seem to be a mere coincidence that in two totally different Codices (the Selden MS. p. 7, Kingsborough, vol. 1, and the B. N. MS., p.

70) a sacred dance is represented as executed by seven individuals who move around a central seated personage. In the latter MS. the seated figure wears a head-dress surmounted by flint knives and his face is painted _red_ the color a.s.signed to the North. Moreover the dance is taking place before an image of Mictlan-Tecuhtli, the lord of the North, whose raiment is strewn with cross-symbols. Referring to other native dances we find that the most sacred of all dances was performed at the festival of the G.o.d of fire by priests only, who, smeared with black paint to typify darkness and night, carried two torches in each hand and first sat, then slowly moved, in a circle, around the "divine brazier," and finally cast their torches into it (Duran II, p. 174). This, probably the most ancient of sacred dances, must have been extremely impressive and significative to those who witnessed it, at night-time, from the base of the pyramid and heard the distant solemn chant of the dancers. To watchers from afar, the fire and the lighted torches revolving around must have seemed like a great central star with other stars wheeling about it.

Further on, it will be shown that the earliest form under which the Deity was revered was that of fire and the foregoing description fully explains why it was first chosen as the most fitting image of the central immovable star. It has already been shown that, in the popular game of "the flyers,"

a high pole surmounted by one man served as the pivot for the circ.u.mvolation of the four performers, who "acted" the "flight of time."

The idea of an extended rule, proceeding from a central dual force, was, however, carried out on a grand scale in the most solemn of all public dances named the Mitotiliztli. Duran (II, p. 85) states that as many as "8,600 persons danced in a wheel in the courtyard of the Great Temple, which had four doorways, facing the cardinal points and opening out on to the four princ.i.p.al high roads leading to the capital. The doorways were respectively named after the four princ.i.p.al G.o.ds and were spoken of as 'the doorway of such and such a G.o.d.' "

Clavigero, to whose work (Historia, ed. Mora, Mexico, 1844, p. 234) I refer the reader for further details, describes the dances at the time of the Conquest as having been most beautiful, and relates that the natives were exercised in these, from their childhood, by the priests. This authority also relates that the Mitotiliztli was performed by hundreds of dancers at certain solemn festivals, in the great central square of the city or in the courtyard of the temple, and gives the following description:

The centre of the s.p.a.ce was occupied by two individuals (designated elsewhere as high priests) who beat measure on sacred drums of two kinds.

One, the large huehuetl, emitted an extremely loud, deep tone, which could be heard for miles and was usually employed in the temples as a means of summoning to wors.h.i.+p, etc. The second, the teponaztle, was a small portable wooden drum which was usually worn suspended from the neck by the leader in warfare and emitted the shrill piercing note he employed as a signal. The chieftains (each of which personified a G.o.d) surrounded the two musicians, forming several concentric circles, close to each other. At a certain distance from the outer one of these, the persons of an inferior cla.s.s were placed in circles and these were separated by another interval of s.p.a.ce, from the outermost circles, composed of young men and boys. The ill.u.s.tration given by Clavigero records the order and disposition of this sacred dance, which represented a kind of wheel, the centre of which was occupied by the instruments and their players. The spokes of the wheel were as many as there were chieftains in the innermost circle. All moved in a circle while dancing and strictly adhered to their respective positions. Those who were nearest the centre, the chieftains and elders, moved slowly, with gravity, having a smaller circle to perform. The dancers forming the outer circles were, however, forced to move with extreme rapidity, so as to preserve the straight line radiating from the centre and headed by the chieftains. The measure of the dance and of the chorus chanted by the partic.i.p.ants was beaten by the drums and the musicians a.s.serted their absolute control of the great moving wheel of human beings, by alternately quickening or slackening the measure. The perfect harmony of the dance, which successive sets of dancers kept going for eight or more hours, was only disturbed occasionally by certain individuals who pushed their way through the lines of dancers and amused these by indulging in all sorts of buffoonery. No one, on reading the above description of the most ancient and sacred of native dances can fail to recognize that it was an actual representation of axial rotation and that no more effective method of rendering the apparent differences in the degrees of velocity in the movements of the circ.u.mpolar and equatorial stars, could possibly have been devised. The fact that this dance was a most solemn and sacred rite, whose performance was obligatory to the entire population, indicates that it const.i.tuted an act of general obedience and homage and a public acknowledgment of the absolute dominion of a central dual, ruling power.

It is particularly interesting that, in this dance, the latter is represented by two individuals who respectively employ the sacred drum of the priesthood, and that used by war chieftains only (the one instrument emitting a low and the other a high tone); for the culture hero of the Tzendals, Votan, who, with the aid of his followers, taught this tribe the civil laws of government and the religious ceremonials, was ent.i.tled "the Master of the sacred Drum." (See Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 214.)

Reverting to the organization of the native race into seven tribes and the wandering of the seventh and princ.i.p.al division, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Huitzilopochtli: according to Tezozomoc (Cronica, p. 23), Huitzilopochtli was accompanied by "a woman who was called his sister and was carried by four men. She was a powerful sorceress, possessed the power of a.s.suming the shape of an eagle, had made herself greatly feared and caused herself to be adored as a G.o.ddess." Indignant at her arrogance the priests counselled a course which was adopted by the Mexicans. The woman and her family were left behind at Malinalco where they settled and populated a town, whilst the other portion of the tribe, under strictly masculine rule, advanced towards Tula where they established themselves. "This was the second division which had taken place, amongst the Mexicans or Aztecs ... and when they reached Tula they found their number greatly diminished." This same incident is related with greater detail by Torquemada (vol. I, chap. II) from which we learn what a great animosity was felt against the woman. On one occasion, which I shall not pause to describe, two war chiefs menaced her. The "talk" she gave them in return is so remarkable that it deserves to be quoted in full; for it affords a deep insight into the native mode of expression, teaches us the t.i.tles of the woman and shows that her position was undoubtedly one of powerful authority.

"I am Quilaztli, your sister and of your tribe ... you know this and yet you think that the dispute or difference you have with me is like an ordinary one, such as you might wage with any ordinary base woman, who possessed little spirit or courage. If you indulge in this thought you are deceiving yourselves, for I am valiant and manly and my t.i.tles will oblige you to acknowledge this. For besides the ordinary name of Quilaztli, by which you know me, I also possess four t.i.tles, by which I know myself: the first of these is Cihuacoatl=the Woman-serpent (or twin); the second is Quauh-Cihuatl=the Eagle-woman; the third is Yao-Cihuatl=the Woman-warrior and the fourth is Tzitzimi-Cihuatl, the Woman of the Underworld. From the properties or qualities conveyed by these t.i.tles you can appreciate who I am; what power I yield and what harm I can do you and if you want to test the truth of this, here is my challenge!"

"The two brave captains, undaunted by the arrogant words by which she attempted to terrify them, responded: 'If you are as valiant as you describe yourself to be, we are not less so; but you are a woman and it is not meet that it should be said of us that we took up arms against women;'

and without speaking further they left her, much affronted that a woman should challenge and defy them. And they kept silence about this occurrence so that their people should not know of it." Senor Alfredo Chavero (appendix, p. 125, to Duran's Historia, Mexico, 1880), commenting upon this pa.s.sage, says: "It is impossible to doubt that this tradition refers to an important event in the history of the Aztec tribe.... I think it contains the record of a religious struggle."

The full significance of the narrative will become clear, I think, when the following points are dwelt upon. One thing is certain: here is a historical personage, a woman, who was termed _the sister_ of Huitzilopochtli, who evidently exerted a high authority and whose t.i.tles were actually the names of the highest female divinity. Sahagun (book VI, chap. 37) states that Quilaztli, a G.o.ddess, the same as Cihuacoatl, was the mother of all and was also named Tonant-zin="our mother." What is more significant still is that, in all historical records antedating the Conquest, a man bearing the feminine t.i.tle of Cihuacoatl=serpent woman, is distinctly and repeatedly mentioned as the coadjutor of the Mexican ruler.

Mr. Ad. Bandelier, in his careful study "On the social organization and mode of government of the Ancient Mexicans" (Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of Am. Arch, and Ethn., Cambridge, 1879) to which I refer the reader, discusses the relative positions of Montezuma and the Cihuacoatl and states: "there is no doubt about their _equality_ of rank though their duties were somewhat different" (p. 665). This equality is ill.u.s.trated by the records that both rulers shared the same privileges regarding dress. Thus they alone wore sandals and the Cihuacoatl is termed "the second or double of the king, his coadjutor" (Duran, chap. x.x.xII, p.

255 and Tezozomoc, chap. XL, p. 66). The latter author, however, gives the full "sacred t.i.tle" as Tlil-Potonqui Cihuacoatl, literally, "the black-powdered woman-serpent" and we thus learn that, whilst Montezuma's garments were habitually blue like Huitzilopochtli, his coadjutor, like Tezcatlipoca, was a.s.sociated with black. It is well known that some of the Mexican priests always smeared their bodies with black, which was therefore their special mark.

To my idea the foregoing data, with circ.u.mstantial evidence too diffuse to be conveniently produced, clearly indicate that at one time, in the early history of the Aztec race, it had been governed jointly by a male and a female ruler on a footing of perfect equality, the one being the living representative of the Above or masculine elements and the other personifying the Below or feminine elements. The fact that Cihuacoatl is named "the sister" of Huitzilopochtli shows that the female ruler was not necessarily his wife, although she was his coadjutor in her own right.

Both rulers were respectively served by four persons presumably of their respective s.e.x. Besides these Duran (chap. 3) records that "there were also other seven teotls=lords, who were much reverenced on account of the seven caves out of which the seven tribes had come."

We thus perceive that at one time the chief authority was vested in a man and a woman, his sister, who enjoyed a perfect equality. Four persons administered the government of each ruler and each of the seven tribes had "its honoured representative." For how long this organization had existed it is impossible to tell. Dissension arose and division supervened, but to the time of the Conquest the identical form of government was in force with the remarkable difference that the t.i.tle and office of the Cihuacoatl, originally held by a woman, were held by a man, whom I do not hesitate to identify as one of the two "supreme pontiffs," whose emblem of office was the flint knife, the offspring of Cihuacoatl, the earth-mother.

Historical evidence shows that this alteration had not been made without bloodshed and renewed difficulties. Thus it is related that, long after the Mexicans had separated from the sister of Huitzilopochtli and her adherents, they were induced to "ask the daughter of the ruler of Culhuacan to become the Queen of the Mexicans and mother of their G.o.d. She conformed with their request but was subsequently killed by her subjects, who flayed her body and dressed a youth in her skin [a figure of native speech which symbolized his a.s.sumption of her office]. Under this form she was revered as a G.o.ddess, was named our grandmother and 'the mother of the G.o.d,' etc." These and the following details, taken from well-known authentic native sources, are attractively rendered in the "Newe Welt und Amerikanische Historien" (Johann Ludwig Gottfriedt. Frankfurt-a.-M., 1613, pp. 54 and 55).

Again, after the Mexicans had been settled at Tenocht.i.tlan for some time, they desired to make an alliance with the King of Culhuacan and therefore "chose to nominate, as their ruler, Acamapichtli, who was the son of a Mexican chieftain by a daughter of the Culhuacan ruler" and evidently lived with the latter. For it is related that, on giving his consent, the king of Culhuacan stated that if only a _woman_ (of his family) had been nominated he would have refused (to trust her to the Mexicans). The farewell words he addressed to Acamapichtli are worthy of quotation: "Go my son, serve thy G.o.d, be his representative. Rule the creatures of the G.o.d by whom we live; the G.o.d of day, of the night and of the winds. Go and be the lord of the water and land owned by the Mexicans."

As it is subsequently stated that Acamapichtli _and his queen_ were received at Tenocht.i.tlan with great honors, it would seem as though the Mexicans who, from some deeply-rooted religious idea, considered it essential to have a female ruler of the line of the king of Culhuacan, obtained their desire only by accepting a male member of her family as a protection and safeguard for her sacred person. It may be that for the reasons of safety and preservation the female ruler, who was the living representative of the Cihuacoatl, gradually retired into absolute seclusion whilst a man of her kin a.s.sumed, in public, her t.i.tle and prerogatives.

Unless it is a.s.sumed that this was the case, it seems impossible to explain why Acamapichtli is designated in the Codex Mendoza (Kingsborough, vol. I, pl. II) as having begun to rule in the year I Tecpatl or flint (approximately corresponding to A.D. 1364) with the t.i.tle of "Woman-serpent"=Cihuacoatl. From this date the t.i.tle seems always to have been borne by a man. When human sacrifices had become a prominent feature of the native cult and it became a duty of the Cihuacoatl to perform the b.l.o.o.d.y rite, it is obvious that it became impossible for a woman to fill the position.

We obtain, however, glimpses of the shadowy form of an invisible and venerable female ruler who is at the head of the "House of Women," watches over the welfare of the women of the tribe and officiates as a priestess, with her a.s.sistants, at births, baptisms and marriages. In order to account for the obscurity which surrounds her, it should be noticed that the mere fact that the ideas of darkness and seclusion became indelibly a.s.sociated with the female s.e.x, would naturally and inevitably cause women to be housed up, veiled and condemned to comparative inaction and immobility. A primitive stage in the growth of the above idea is shown in the case of the Huaxtecas, the women of which tribe wore abundant covering whilst the men, on religious principle, wore none. A careful study of the conditions surrounding the Cihuacoatl or high priest shows that he also conformed to the exigencies of his position when he acted as the representative of the hidden forces of Nature, of the female principle. He and the entire priesthood smeared their bodies with black, cultivated long hair, and wore, during the performance of certain religious ceremonies, a wide and long garment reaching to the ground. It is noticeable that the designs on the garments of the priests, in the B. N. MS., are invariably executed in red and yellow, the symbolical colors of the north and west, combined with black the symbol of the union of both, the Below. In this connection it is noteworthy that in Mexican pictography the faces of women are usually painted yellow-the color of the West=the female region. The a.s.sociation of darkness, concealment and secrecy, with the female principle, is exemplified by the fact that a building in the enclosure of the Great Temple of Mexico, named the "house of darkness," was dedicated to the earth-mother=Cihuacoatl (Sahagun, appendix to book II). Other temples of hers are described as being cave-like, underground, dark, with a single low entrance, the door of which was sometimes sculptured in the form of the great open jaws of a serpent. Only priests were allowed to penetrate into these mysterious chambers where sacred and secret rites were performed and a sacred fire was also kept burning in an adjoining chamber. Evidence, which I shall produce further on, establishes that the high-priest Cihuacoatl dwelt, at times, in a house named "place of darkness" and annually sacrificed a human victim in honor of the lord of the underworld, in an edifice called "the navel of the earth."

The religious cult of one-half of the Mexican hierarchy was distinctly nocturnal. The chief duties of certain priests were astronomical observation and the supervision of the sacred fire, which was kept perpetually burning on the summit of each temple-crowned pyramid, in what was termed "the sacred or divine brazier" of sculptured stone. Two priests jointly watched by night and day and received and transmitted to the flames the incense offerings of the devout. The temple fires were extinguished only at the expiration of a cycle of fifty-two years and were then rekindled by the high priest at midnight precisely, with impressive solemnity.

In ancient Mexico, it should however be observed, although the logical a.s.sociation of women with the hidden forces of nature, the underworld and the Below, had exerted a certain influence over her practical existence, it had not yet given rise to the idea of her inferiority as compared to man, the a.s.sociate of the Heaven, the Above, the visible and active forces of nature. The native sages did not identify her so intimately with the earth as to deny her the possession of a soul-the celestial spark. On the other hand it is curious to note that the Nahuatl word for wife is Cihua-tlan-tli and for husband is Te-o-quichtli. Is it possible that the particle _tlan_ in the first and _Teo_ in the second may have contributed to strengthen the a.s.sociation of the woman with earth=tlalli (tlan=land of) and the man with Teotl, the sun, something divine and celestial? In course of time it doubtlessly would have transpired, in Mexico as elsewhere, that the set of primitive ideas which, during untold centuries, imposed upon women seclusion, obscurity and inactivity and thus hindered her development of strength of body and mind, would have directly induced an inferiority. This has been subsequently proclaimed, as we know, in many countries, as a direct proof of her lower nature and of her affinity with the element earth. The a.s.sumed and actual inferiority of woman may therefore be regarded as the logical, inevitable but artificial result of primordial cla.s.sification and a.s.sociation. Suggested by the same natural phenomena which were visible to all inhabitants of the same lat.i.tudes, these ideas occurred to all people at a certain stage of their development and exerted a dominating influence over the subsequent growth of their intelligence. It is but now, that, unconsciously, mankind is beginning to emerge from the leading strings of its infancy, which became an iron bondage to its prolonged childhood. In Mexico, at the period of the Conquest, the absolute equality of the male and female principles was theoretically maintained. At the same time it is possible to discern certain agencies at work which were tending to connect the Below, the female principle, with harm and evil. From time immemorial it had been the custom of the Chichimecs, who, according to Sahagun (book XII, chap. 12, par. 5), inhabited an extremely poor and barren region of Mexico, to sacrifice the first animal killed in a hunting expedition and to offer it to "the Sun whom they called father and to the earth their mother." They severed its head and raised this as though offering it to the sun. They _then tilled the earth where the blood had been spilt_ and left the animal which had been sacrificed, on the spot (Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca chap. VI and Relaciones p. 335). This pa.s.sage, establis.h.i.+ng the cultivation of the soil where the blood had been spilt, sheds a flood of light on the origin of the offerings of human blood and the sacrifices of human life, which were such a prominent and hideous feature of the Aztec religion.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, instead of the blood being spilt directly upon the earth, to insure and increase the fruitfulness of the soil, a human being was stretched across a conical stone which became thus the image of the earth-mother, his heart was extracted and offered to the sun, the Above, and his blood was then smeared on the mouth of certain idols representing the Below. In the B. N. MS. an interesting ill.u.s.tration and account are given of an idol of the earth-mother who is figured as standing on a pedestal adorned with skulls and cross-bones with outstretched tongue which signified, "that she always had great thirst for human blood" and "never refused sacrifices offered to her."