The Fundamental Principles

                                    Of

                     Old and New World Civilizations

A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious,
                  Sociological, and Calendrical Systems.

                                    By

                              Zelia Nuttall

 Honorary Special Assistant of the Peabody Museum; Fellow of the American
 Association for the Advancement of Science; Member of the Philosophical
Society, Philadelphia; Honorary Member of the Archaeological Association,
    Univ. of Pennsylvania; Corresponding Member of the Antiquarian and
  Numismatic Society of Philadelphia; of the Anthropological Society of
  Washington; of the Societá Italiana d’Antropologia; of the Société de
Géographie de Genève; of the Sociedad Cientifico “Antonio Alzate,” Mexico;
              and of the Société des Américanistes de Paris.

                  Archaeological and Ethnological Papers

                                  Of The

                              Peabody Museum

                            Harvard University

                                 Vol. II.

                             Cambridge, Mass.

          Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology.

                               March, 1901.

CONTENTS

Editorial Note.
Author’s Preface.
The Fundamental Principles Of Old And New World Civilizations.
Appendix I. Comparative Table of some Quechua, Nahuatl and Maya Words.
Appendix II. A Prayer-meeting of the Star-worshippers.
Appendix III. Comparative Lists of Words.
Index.
Note.
Footnotes

EDITORIAL NOTE.

The author of this volume explains in her preface how she came to be led
beyond her special field of research into a comparative study of the early
civilizations of the Old World; and how she traced the origin of the
swastika, in Mexico, to an astronomical source and, in all countries
alike, found its use as a sacred symbol accompanied by evidences of a
certain phase of culture based on pole-star worship, and the recognition
of the fixed laws of nature, which found expression in the ideal of
celestial kingdoms or states organized on a set numerical plan and
regulated by the apparent revolutions of circumpolar constellations.

The results of the author’s researches seem to justify her summary of
conclusions; but she distinctly states that she does not wish to propound
any theory. She invites further study and discussion by Orientalists and
Americanists before drawing final conclusions from the facts she has
gathered. The publication of this paper will open anew the consideration
of pre-Columbian visits to the New World, shown, as many have believed, by
identities too many and too close to be considered as mere resemblances or
as the natural results of independent intellectual development.

The illustrations are nearly all from drawings by the author. The
analytical Index has been prepared by Miss Mead. It will be seen, by the
numbering at the bottom of each page, that it was at first intended to
include this paper in Volume I of the Archaeological and Ethnological
Papers of the Museum; but the addition of the text relating to the Old
World made too bulky a volume, and it is therefore issued as Volume II of
the series.

To Mrs. Nuttall for the gift of her work, the results of years of
research, and to the several generous friends who have provided the means
for publishing this volume, the editor expresses his gratitude in behalf
of the Museum.

F. W. PUTNAM,
Curator of the Peabody Museum.
Harvard University,
March 1, 1901.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

In February, 1898, while engaged upon the translation and commentary of
the anonymous Hispano Mexican MS. of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
Library, of Florence, my interest was suddenly and unexpectedly diverted
from my self-imposed task by the circumstances described in the opening
pages of the present publication.

Laying my work aside, as I then supposed, for a few days only, I seized
the new thread of investigation with a keen and enthusiastic interest,
little knowing that it, in turn, was not only to hold me fast for nearly
three years, but was to lead me out of my original field of research, into
distant, and to me, hitherto untrodden realms, in close pursuit of facts
relating to the oldest forms of religion, social organization, and
symbolism.

The first portion of the present publication was planned as a short
monograph of forty-one pages, treating of the origin of the native
swastika or cross symbols, and was written in July, 1898, its outcome
being the unforeseen conclusion that the cosmical conceptions of the
ancient Mexicans were identical with those of the Zuñis. I next traced the
same fundamental set of ideas in Yucatan, Central America and Peru and
formed the wish to add this investigation to the preceding. The result has
been the portion of the work extending from page 41, paragraph 2, to page
284, which was printed in 1899.

Having once launched into a course of comparative research, the deep
interest I have always taken in the question of Asiatic contact led me to
carry my investigation of the same subject into China. It then seemed
impossible not to extend researches from Eastern to Western Asia, and from
Asia Minor to Egypt, Greece, Rome and Western Europe. It is in this
unpremeditated way that the scope of the present investigation enlarged
itself of its own accord, for the simple reason that the most interesting
and precious facts fell into my way as I advanced and all I had to do was
to pick them up and add them to my collection of evidence.

One serious disadvantage, arising from the circumstance that the present
investigation has been in press for nearly three years, is my inability to
make any alteration, amendment, or addition, in the earlier portions,
which stand as written at different times. It is a matter of regret to me
that I was not acquainted with O’Neil’s “Night of the Gods” and Hewitt’s
“Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times,” at an earlier stage of my
investigation, as through them my publication would have been enriched by
many valuable additions which I could have incorporated in the body of my
work without unduly sacrificing its unity of form.

In the line of Maya investigation notable advances have been made since I
wrote (on page 221), about the “septenary set of signs” described by Mr.
A. P. Maudslay in 1886, and about the inscription on the tablet of the
Temple of the Cross at Palenque (pp. 237-39). Since that time an important
publication on the Tablet of the Cross, to which I should have liked to
refer, has been issued by the much esteemed Nestor of Maya investigations,
Herr Geheimrath Dr. Förstemann. My attention has also been drawn by the
best versed of American students of the Maya Codices, Mr. Charles P.
Bowditch, to the fact that Mr. Maudslay now recognizes the general
recurrence of an eighth sign in combination with the septenary group,
causing this to consist of an initial glyph, followed by seven instead of
six signs. Referring the reader to pp. 221 and 222, I point out that the
employment of an initial glyph, representing the synopsis of a whole,
followed by seven signs, appears even more strongly to corroborate my view
that the inhabitants of Copan were acquainted with the septenary, cosmical
division I have traced.

My fellow archaeologists will understand the disadvantage of issuing an
investigation partly written a few years previously, and will realize
that, had I, at the outset, been in possession of all the facts I have
since learned, the present work would have been very differently planned
and executed. On the other hand, as it partakes somewhat of the nature of
a log-book, the reader is able to follow closely my blundering course, and
will recognize and appreciate some of its perils and difficulties. It
being, unfortunately, impossible to re-write the book. I shall have to be
resigned to incur some criticism and blame for omissions, which could have
been averted. I shall, however, be content if my prolonged study of
ancient Mexican archaeology and the present research open out new lines of
investigation, and conclusively prove that primitive cross-symbols and the
swastika are universally accompanied by vestiges of a certain set of
cosmical conceptions and schemes of organization, which can be traced back
to an original pole-star worship. I can but think that the material I have
collected will also lead to a recognition that the rôle of the Phœnicians,
as intermediaries of ancient civilization, was greater than has been
supposed, and that it is imperative that future research be devoted to a
fresh study and examination of those indications which appear to show that
America must have been intermittently colonized by the intermediation of
Mediterranean seafarers.

To me the most interesting result of the present investigation is the fact
that, having once started on an unpremeditated course of study, I found an
unsuspected wealth of material and finally attained one main, totally
undreamed-of conclusion, concerning the law governing the evolution of
religion and civilization. This leads me to think that, as I groped in
darkness, searching for light, I unwittingly struck the true key-note of
that great universal theme which humanity, with a growing perception of
existing, universal harmony, has ever been striving to seize and
incorporate into their lives. The fact that many of the transcriptions of
the original harmony have been and are discordant, and that they
temporarily obscure, instead of rendering, its sublime grandeur, unity and
noble simplicity, appears as the inevitable result of the mental activity,
ingenuity and creative imagination to which mankind also owes its
intellectual and spiritual progress.

In conclusion I regret my inability to express adequately my grateful
appreciation of the unfailing loyalty of those true friends, in particular
Prof. F. W. Putnam, who, trusting in the earnestness of my purpose and
endeavor, have constantly encouraged and cheered me as they patiently
awaited the long-delayed completion of my work.

Z. N.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.,
DECEMBER 31, 1900.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OLD AND NEW WORLD CIVILIZATIONS.

One evening, in February, 1898, I left my desk and, stepping to the
window, looked out at Polaris and the circumpolar region of the sky, with
a newly awakened and eager interest.

For thirteen years I had been studying and collecting material with the
hope of obtaining some understanding of the calendar, religion and
cosmogony of the ancient Mexicans, but had hitherto purposely refrained
from formulating or expressing any conclusions on the latter subjects
having felt unable to extract a clear and satisfactory understanding of
the native beliefs from the chaotic mass of accumulated data under which
they lay like the ruin of an ancient temple. Though frequently
discouraged, I had, however, never ceased to pursue my research and to
note carefully the slightest indication or suggestion which might prove of
ultimate value. Becoming utterly absorbed in the collection of such notes,
I found no time to publish anything during the past four years, though
realizing, with regret, that those interested in my work might be
disappointed at my delay in issuing the papers announced, in 1894, as
speedily forthcoming. Slowly but steadily, however, I was gaining ground.
Various excursions along new lines of research increased my experience
and, in crossing and re-crossing the field of ancient Mexico, I frequently
had occasion to observe certain familiar landmarks, from a new point of
view, and illuminated by rays of fresh light proceeding from recently
acquired sources. It was remarkable how often facts, which had seemed so
hopelessly complicated, finally appeared to be quite simple and
comprehensible. This was noticeably the case with the Aztec deities which,
for years, had seemed to me as numberless. After closely studying their
respective symbols, attributes and names, during several consecutive
months, and subjecting them to a final minute analysis, I found that their
number dwindled in a remarkable way and also verified the truth of the
statement made by the anonymous author of the Biblioteca Nazionale
manuscript which I was editing, that the Mexicans painted one and the same
god under a different aspect “with different colours,” according to the
various names they gave him in each instance.

It was particularly interesting to find that, in assuming that certain
names designated different native deities, the early Spanish writers had
committed a mistake as great as though someone, reading the litany of the
Virgin in a Catholic prayer-book, for the first time, inferred that it was
a series of invocations addressed to distinct divinities, amongst whom
figured the “morning star,” a “mirror of justice,” and a “mystical rose,”
etc. An examination of the texts of several native prayers preserved,
established that the Mexicans addressed their prayers to a supreme Creator
and ruler, whom they termed “invisible, incomprehensible and impalpable,”
and revered as “the father and mother of all.” Some of their so-called
idols were, after all, either attempts to represent in objective form, the
attributes of the divine power, the forces of nature, the elements, etc.,
or rebus figures. As these “gods” or “idols” are enumerated farther on and
are exhaustively treated in my commentary of the Biblioteca Nazionale
manuscript, now in press, it suffices for my present purpose merely to
mention here that the most mysterious figure of Mexican cosmogony,
Tezcatlipoca, whose symbolical name literally means “shining mirror,”
proved to be identical with Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the underworld,
whose title may also be interpreted as “the ruler or regent of the North,”
since Mictlampa is the name of this cardinal point.

The Codex Fuenleal (Anales del Museo Nacional, Mexico, tomo II, p. 88)
preserves an important myth relating how Tezcatlipoca, after having been
the sun, was cast down from this supreme position by Huitzilopochtli,
“descended to the water,” but had arisen again in the shape of an ocelot,
and transformed himself into the constellation of Ursa Major.

According to Sahagun the native name of this star-group was Citlal-Colotl
or “star scorpion.” Reference to Nahuatl dictionaries revealed that this
insect had doubtlessly been named colotl on account of its habit of
recurving its tail when enraged.

The Nahuatl verb coloa means, to bend over or twist something, the
adjective coltic is applied to something bent over or recurved. The noun
colotli, which is almost identical with colotl, means “the cross-beams,
the mounting, branch or handle of a cross” (“armadura de manga de cruz.”
See Molina’s dictionary).

The above facts show that the idea underlying the name for Ursa Major is
primarily that of “something bent over or recurved.” It is obvious that
the form of the constellation answers to this description. It is,
moreover, extremely significant to find, in the Maya language also, a
certain resemblance between the words for scorpion and for a cross. This,
in Maya, is zin-che and that for a scorpion is zin-au. The above data
justify the induction that the native conception of a cross was connected
with the idea of its arms being bent over or recurved, as in the Mexican
calendar-swastika.

It is important to find the scorpion figured as one of several symbols of
Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the North, in his sculptured effigy preserved
at the National Museum of Mexico (fig. 19).

It is more significant that the verb coloa, besides meaning “to bend over
or twist something,” also expressed the action “of describing or
performing a circle by walking around something.” Now this is precisely
what Tezcatlipoca (the Ursa Major) is represented as doing on page 77 of
the B.N. manuscript, since he figures there, surrounded by a circle of
footsteps. I could but note that this fact showed that the name of Colotl,
applied to the constellation, was not incompatible with its identification
with Tezcatlipoca. Once my attention had been drawn to the action of
walking, performed by this god, I naturally considered, with fresh
interest, the peculiar fact that he is usually represented with one foot
only. The circumstances under which he had been deprived of this member
are set forth in several of the Codices wherein we see that, after he
“descended to the water,” he had an encounter with an alligator, who had
viciously bitten off his foot and carried it away. (See Féjérvary Codex,
pp. 3 and 74. Vatican, II, p. 74.) Pictures representing Tezcatlipoca,
after this event, display the broken end of the tibia exposed and the
transverse section of the bone forming a ring, usually painted either
white or red. Special pains seem to have been taken to accentuate the
hollowness of the bone ring, since its centre is usually painted blue, the
symbolical color of air, and conventionalized puffs of breath or air are
shown as issuing from it (fig. 1). In some cases, as on the sculptured
monolith called “the Stone of Tizoc,” these symbols of breath, issuing
from the broken tibia, are figured in such a way that modern writers,
ignoring what they were meant to represent, were led to identify them as
some animal’s tail attached to the foot of the deity. The hollow circle
and puffs of air, constantly associated with the god, frequently figure as
his ear ornament when his broken tibia is concealed (fig. 2, no. 3).
Besides certain fanciful interpretations which have been given to this
symbol, it has been explained as being a hieroglyph conveying the name
Tezcatlipoca, and consisting of an obsidian mirror=tezcatl, and
smoke=poctli. A possible objection to this assertion might be that in
Mexican pictography, the mirror is invariably represented as jet-black, in
a white or red frame. In the Codex Telleriano Remensis, a combination of
symbols (of water, fire and a serpent) are figured as issuing from the
base of the bone (fig. 1, nos. 5, 6). Having taken particular pains to
collect all representations of the footless god, I was specially
interested in one (Féjérvary, p. 1) in which he is figured as standing on
the cross-shaped symbol ollin, the accepted meaning of which is Four
Movements. The most remarkable and puzzling picture I found, however, is
that (fig. 1, no. 2) in which the jaws of a tecpatl, the symbol of the
North, are represented as holding one of Tezcatlipoca’s ankles in a tight
grip and practically fastening him thus to the centre of a diagonal cross.
In this and other pictures (Codex Féjérvary, 41, 43 and 96) it is obvious
that the artists had endeavored to convey the idea of a person permanently
attached to one spot by one foot. The only form of locomotion possible to
him would be to describe a circle by hobbling on one foot around the
other, which would serve as an axis or pivot. The association of this
peculiarity with the symbols of the North impressed me deeply and
involuntarily caused me to think of a title bestowed in the Codex Fuenleal
upon the supreme divinity, namely, “The Wheel of the Winds;” as well as of
an expression employed by Tezozomoc (Cronica, p. 574). Referring to the
constellations revered by the natives, he mentions “the North and its
wheel.”

                             [Illustration.]

                                 Figure 1

Realizing that some definite and important meaning must underlie the
remarkable representations of Tezcatlipoca, I resorted to all possible
means to gain an understanding of them. Referring to Nahuatl dictionaries,
I found a variety of synonymous names for a person who limped or was lame
or maimed. Amongst them was Popoztequi from poztequi, the verb, “to break
a leg.” Other names were xopuztequi, xotemol and Icxipuztequi
(icxitl=foot). The latter name happened to be familiar to me, for the
commentator of the Vatican Codex, Padre Rios, gives it as the name of a
god and translates it as “the lame devil.” He records it immediately after
Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the North, and designates it as the name of
one of the four principal and primitive gods of the Mexicans.

The commentator of the Telleriano-Remensis Codex, moreover, records that
these four gods were “said to have been stars and had fallen from the
heavens. At the present time there are stars in the firmament named after
them” (Kingsborough, vol. v, pp. 132 and 162).

Other synonymous terms for lame persons were icxinecuiltic and
xonecuiltic. Tzimpuztequi, on the other hand, besides meaning lame, also
signified something crooked, bent or incurvated. The second name furnished
me with an important clue, for Sahagun distinctly records that the native
name for the constellation Ursa Minor was Xonecuilli and that it was
figured as an S (Historia, 1. VII, cap. 3). Besides, the Academia MS. of
his monumental work contains the native drawing of this star-group
reproduced as fig. 16, no. 1. He also states that S-shaped loaves of bread
named xonecuilli were made at a certain festival in honor of this
constellation, while the B.N. MS. records that a peculiar recurved weapon,
figured in the hands of deities, was named xonequitl (fig. 16, nos. 2 and
3).

The above data furnished me with indisputable evidence of the existence,
in ancient Mexico, of a species of star cult connected with the
circumpolar constellations and with Tezcatlipoca, the lord of the North,
the central figure of the native cosmogony. It was puzzling to find this
god connected not only with the Ursa Major but also with Ursa Minor, but
an indication suggesting a possible explanation or reconciliation of these
apparent inconsistencies is furnished by the descriptions of the strange
ritual performance, which was annually repeated at the festival
Tlacaxipehualiztli and was evidently the dramatization of a sacred myth.

As an illustration and a description of this rite are contained in the
B.N. MS. and the subject is fully treated in my commentary, I shall but
allude here to its salient features. It represented a mortal combat
between a prisoner, attached by a short piece of cord to the centre of a
large circular stone, and five warriors, who fought him singly. The fifth,
who was masked as an ocelot and always obtained victory in the unequal
contest, fought with his left hand, being “left-handed,” a peculiarity
ascribed to Huitzilopochtli. It was he who subsequently wore the skin of
the flayed victim, an action which obviously symbolized a metamorphosis.
One point is obvious: this drama exhibits the victor as a warrior who was
able to circumscribe the stone freely and was masked as an
ocelot—Tezcatlipoca—the Ursa Major, but was endowed, at the same time,
with the left-handedness identified with Huitzilopochtli. This mythical
personage vanquishes and actually wears the skin of the man attached to
the stone; becomes his embodiment, in point of fact, and obtains the
supremacy for which he had fought so desperately. In the light shed by the
Codex Fuenleal, before cited, it was easy to see that the entire
performance dramatized the mythical combat between Tezcatlipoca and
Huitzilopochtli for the position of the ruling power, in the heavens—the
sun. At the same time it was decidedly puzzling to find celestial
supremacy personified by a man, firmly fastened to one spot, the centre of
a stone circle. It was impossible not to perceive the identity of thought
underlying the representation of this prisoner and the pictures of
Tezcatlipoca, the one-footed or lame god—Xonecuilli the Ursa Minor. It was
moreover of extreme interest to note the existence of traditional records,
preserved in the native myths, of changes in the relative positions of
celestial bodies and of the Ursa Major in particular.

Whilst dwelling upon the striking analogy existing between the
representations of Tezcatlipoca held fast by the symbol of the North and
the prisoner attached to what is described either as “a temalacatl, stone
whorl” or “an image of the sun,” my gaze fell on a small model of the
calendar-stone of Mexico, hanging above my desk, and rested on the symbol
Ollin in its centre. The learned director of the National Museum of
Mexico, Señor Troncoso (Anales del Museo Nacional, vol. II), had expressed
his view that this symbol was an actual figurative representation of the
annual apparent movements of the sun, and recorded its positions at the
solstitial and equinoctial periods. I had, moreover, submitted a drawing
of this same figure to the eminent English astronomer, Prof. Norman
Lockyer, and he had corroborated this view and established its
correctness. On the other hand, I had long noted that the _Ollin_ was
usually figured with an eye, the symbol for star, in its centre (fig. 2,
nos. 1, 3), and had also paid particular attention to the fact that the
Mexicans had conceived the ideas of two suns, a young day sun and an
ancient night or black sun. In the B. N. MS., on the mantas worn at their
respective festivals, the day sun is depicted in a somewhat fanciful
manner, in blue and red on a white field. The black sun is, however,
represented in classical style, so to speak, as on the sculptured
calendar-stone, with four larger and four smaller V-shaped rays issuing
from it. In this connection it is well to recall here that the Mexicans
had no specific name for the sun, beyond _Tonatiuh_, which merely means
“that which sheds light” and could equally apply to the stars. In the
picture-writings the image of the sun was employed to convey the word
_Teotl_. But we find that this word, assumed to be equivalent to their
“Dios” by the Spaniards, was also a reverential title bestowed upon
chieftains and superiors and was constantly employed in the composition of
words to signify something divine, supremely beautiful, etc. Whilst I was
pondering on the possibility that the symbol _Ollin_ might have
represented the movements of the luminaries of night as well as the orb of
day, my attention became fixed upon the four numerals in each of the ends
of the symbol and I was struck by a certain resemblance between their
positions and those of the four stars which form the body of the bear in
the constellation of Ursa Major. It was then that it occurred to me, as
mentioned in the opening sentence of this introduction, to look at the
familiar constellations, with a view to verifying the resemblance noted
above. As my gaze sought “the pointers” in Ursa Major, and then
mechanically turned to Polaris, I thought of some passages I had recently
re-read, in Professor Lockyer’s Dawn of Astronomy, realizing that his
observations, dealing with the latitude 26° (taking Thebes as representing
Egypt), could equally apply to Mexico as this country stretches from
latitude 15° to 31°.

                             [Illustration.]

                                 Figure 2

“The moment primitive man began to observe anything, he must have taken
note of the stars, and as soon as he began to talk about them he must have
started by defining, in some way or other, the particular star he
meant.... Observers would first consider the brightest stars and separate
them from the dimmer ones; they would then discuss the stars which never
set (the circumpolar constellations) and separate them from those which
did rise and set. Then they would naturally, in a northern clime, choose
out the constellation of the Great Bear or Orion, and for small groups,
the Pleiades (_op. cit._ p. 132).... A few years’ observation would have
appeared to demonstrate the absolute changelessness of the places of the
rising and setting of the same stars. It is true that this result would
have been found to be erroneous when a long period of time had elapsed and
when observation became more accurate, but for hundreds of years the stars
would certainly appear to represent fixity, while the movements of the
sun, moon and planets would seem to be bound by no law ... would appear
erratic, so long as the order of their movements was not known.”

The reflection that Ursa Major was probably the first constellation which
made any deep impression upon the mind of prehistoric man in America, as
elsewhere, lent an additional interest to the star-group, as I
concentrated my mind upon its form and endeavored to imagine it in four
equidistant positions, corresponding to the numerals in the symbol _Ollin_
of the calendar-stone of Mexico (fig. 2, no. 2).

I succeeded in obtaining, in succession, mental images of the
constellation in four opposite positions. This effort led to an unforeseen
result which surprised me. In a flash of mental vision I perceived a
quadrupled image of the entire constellation, standing out in
scintillating brilliancy from the intense darkness of the wintry sky (fig.
3, no. 3). At the same moment I saw that it bore the semblance of a
symmetrical swastika of giant proportions. This fact, so unexpectedly
realized, gave rise to such an absorbing train of new ideas and
interpretations of the data I had accumulated, that I left my window, on
that memorable night, with a growing perception of the deep and powerful
influence the prolonged observation of Polaris and the circumpolar
constellations would naturally have exerted upon the mind of primitive
man. Deeply impressed with the striking resemblance between the composite
image of Polaris, Ursa Major, and certain forms of the swastika, I started
on a fresh line of investigation, and devoted myself to the study of
primitive astronomy and its influence upon the intellectual development of
mankind in general and the American races in particular. After having
worked, during thirteen years, without any preconceived ideas about the
ancient Mexican civilization and without formulating any general
conclusion concerning it, I saw all the knowledge I had slowly acquired
fall into rank and file and organize itself into a simple and harmonious
whole.

                             [Illustration.]

                                 Figure 3

Realizing this I perceived how, with the origin of the swastika, I had
found the origin of the set of primeval ideas which had governed the human
race from its infancy and which, in Mexican and Central American
civilizations, ultimately developed into their ingenious system of
government and social organization.

                             [Illustration.]

  Plate I. Chart of the Polar Constellations. I: Just After Sunset. II:
                   Midnight.  III: Just Before Sunrise.

                             [Illustration.]

                 Plate II. Various Forms of the Swastika.

                             [Illustration.]

                                 Figure 4

The sequel to the above episode was that, with the aid of my movable
star-chart, I made the following notes of the apparent positions of the
circumpolar constellations at the times of sunrise, midnight and sunset,
choosing the periods of the solstices and equinoxes in order to obtain an
exact division of the year (pl. I). Whilst studying these I realized that
the midnight position was the only stable one, since the actual visibility
of the constellations before dawn and after dusk would be subject to
considerable variation, according to seasons, latitudes and atmospherical
conditions. Having noted these positions, I next combined them separately,
obtaining the remarkable results given in fig. 4. The combined midnight
positions of the Ursa Major or Minor, at the four divisions of the year,
yielded symmetrical swastikas, the forms of which were identical with the
different types of swastika or cross-symbols (the normal, ogee and volute,
etc.), which have come down to us from remote antiquity and are reproduced
here for comparison (pl. II, _a-f_). Reflection showed me that such
composite pictures of the Ursa constellations constituted an exact record
of their annual rotation, and afforded a perfect sign for the period of a
year. I moreover perceived how the association of rotatory motion with the
advance of time, and its division into fixed periods or cycles, would be
the natural outcome of the recognition of the annual rotation of the
star-groups.

The Calendar-Swastika, or cross of ancient Mexico (pl. II, _g_)
constitutes an absolute proof of the native association of the
cross-symbol with the ideas of rotatory motion and the progress of time,
and furnishes an indication that, in an analogous manner, the swastika may
have been primarily and generally employed by primitive races, as a sign
for a year or cycle. A close scrutiny of the respective forms of the
crosses yielded by Ursæ Major and Minor shows that the normal swastika and
suavastika may be explained as the separate representations of the two
constellations—the angular break in the outline of Ursa Major suggesting
the direction of the bend to the right of the arms of the normal swastika,
whilst the form of Ursa Minor obviously suggests the bend to the left
which is characteristic of the suavastika.

                             [Illustration.]

                                 Figure 5

My growing conviction that the Bear constellations had furnished the
archetype of the different forms of swastika and cross-symbols, found
subsequent support when I referred to the map showing the geographical
distribution of the ancient symbol published by Prof. Thomas Wilson in his
valuable and comprehensive monograph on the subject,(1) to which I am
indebted for much information and several illustrations (pl. II, _a-f_,
etc.). The map, reproduced here (fig. 5), proves that, with two
exceptions, which can be attributed to a migration southward, the
employment of the swastika has been confined to the northern hemisphere,
_i. e._, precisely to that portion of our globe from which the circumpolar
constellations are visible.

                             [Illustration.]

    Figure 6. Star-Map, Representing The Precessional Movement Of The
Celestial Pole From The Year 4000 B.C. To The Year 2000 A.D. (_From Piazzi
                                 Smyth_.)

The interesting possibility of being able to determine, approximately, the
date in the world’s history when the swastika began to be employed as a
symbol, next occurred to me. Piazzi Smyth’s star-map, discussed and
reproduced in Professor Lockyer’s work already cited (fig. 6), illustrates
the changes of direction of the earth’s axis in space, which gives rise to
what is called the precession of the equinoxes and has a cycle of
something like 25,000 or 26,000 years. Reference to this star-map (fig. 6)
proved that the observations, leading to the adoption of the swastika as a
symbol, could not possibly have been made until after Ursa Major had
become circumpolar, about 4,000 B.C. At that period, when Draconis was the
pole-star, the circle described about it by Ursa Major was considerably
closer than it is at present. The accompanying illustrations (fig. 7),
subject to correction, demonstrate the relative distance of the
constellation about 2,770 B.C., 1,800 B.C., and 2,000 A.D., and show how
much more strikingly impressive the polar region of the heavens was in
remote antiquity.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 7.

Let us now briefly review some of the ideas which would naturally suggest
themselves to the mind of the primitive observer, after he had recognized
the apparent immovability of the polar-star, concentrated his attention
upon this feature, and contrasted it with the varying motions of all other
celestial bodies in general and with the rotation of the circumpolar
star-groups in particular.

This recognition would lead to his gradually learning to utilize Polaris
as a means of ascertaining direction. His appreciation of valuable
guidance rendered in perilous wanderings would develop feelings of trust,
dependence and gratitude towards the one changeless star which permanently
rendered valuable services and under whose guidance difficult and
essential nocturnal expeditions could be safely undertaken. Superiority
and, eventually, extensive supernatural power would more and more be
attributed to it, as knowledge was gained of the laws of motion from which
it alone seemed to be exempt. This exemption would cause it to be viewed
as superior to all other heavenly bodies and even to the sun, and it is
easy to see how this idea, becoming predominant, might cause the cult of
the pole-star to disestablish an organized sun-cult amongst some tribes.
Historical evidence, to which I shall revert more fully proves, indeed,
that a native American ruler and reformer actually employed the following
reasoning in order to convert his council and people from the worship of
the sun to that of a superior divinity which could have been no other but
Polaris: “It is not possible that the sun should be the God who created
all things, for if so he would sometimes rest and light up the whole world
from one spot. Thus it cannot be otherwise but that there is someone who
directs him and this truly is the true Creator.”

These words shed a whole flood of light upon primitive religious ideas at
an early stage of development. They prove that the association of repose
and immovability with the supreme power signified a radical change of
thought, based upon prolonged astronomical observation, and indicated
intellectual advancement. Attempts to render the new idea objective, to
express it and impress it upon the multitude, would naturally end in the
production of images of the supernatural power, representing or typifying
immovability, changelessness, strength combined with absolute repose.

It is thus rendered evident what a deep significance may be embodied in
the rudest images of supernatural beings in attitudes of repose, since a
prolonged course of astronomical observation and reasoning may have
preceded their production.

Simultaneously with the recognition of Polaris as an immutable centre of
axial energy, the rotatory movement of Ursa Major must have excited
interest and observation. It was inevitable that star-gazers should
gradually recognize a constant agreement between certain positions of Ursa
Major and Cassiopeia after dusk for instance, and the annual recurrence of
rain, verdure and bountiful food-supplies.

The members of a tribe who, more observant than others, had learned to
associate certain positions of these constellations with the seasons and,
as a consequence, were able to decide when expeditions to distant
localities, in quest of game or fruit, might be successfully undertaken,
would naturally assume leadership and command obedience and respect.

The sense of responsibility, superiority and, possibly, rivalry would act
upon such individuals as a powerful incentive to further observation and
thought and it is evident that, as their mental faculties expanded and one
generation transmitted its store of accumulated knowledge to the next, a
regular caste of astronomer-leaders would develop, with a tendency to
conceal the secrets of their power from the ignorant majority. A broken
line, carved on a rock by one of these primitive observers, would have
constituted a valuable secret note of the position of Ursa Major on a
memorable occasion and would be looked upon as a mystic or magical sign by
the uninitiated. A series of such inscriptions might represent the store
of astronomical knowledge accumulated by several generations of observers,
and it is interesting to recognize that such astronomical records as these
were probably the first which men were impelled to perpetuate in a lasting
form; since it was absolutely necessary that they should be permanently
available for reference at prolonged intervals of time. What is more, the
mere fact of being obliged to refer to these inscriptions would cause the
astronomers to reside permanently in one locality. The habit of consulting
the prophet or oracle before undertaking important steps, involving the
welfare of the tribe, would gradually cause the rocks or cavern in which
he resided to be invested with a certain sacredness.

It is thus evident that the first men, who rudely scratched the outline of
Ursa Major or Minor on a rock, took what was probably one of the most
momentous steps in the history of the human race, and it is easy to see
how a variety of combinations of circumstances would have led many men, in
widely-separated localities and at different periods of the world’s
history, to perform precisely the same action. In some cases, under
favorable surroundings, the rudimentary attempt would mark the starting
point for a long line of patient observation and study, which would
inevitably lead to the creation of centres of intellectual growth, to the
association of the different positions of the constellation with the
seasons and culminate in the habitual employment of a swastika as the sign
for a year, or cycle of time.(2)

The idea of rotation, associated with calendar signs and periods, finds
its most striking and convincing exemplification in the following
description of the ancient Mexican game “of those who fly,” translated
from Clavigero (op. et ed. cit. p. 236). This performance, which furnished
a diversion to the Spaniards after the Conquest, had evidently been,
originally, connected with religious ideas. “The Indians selected a tall,
stout and straight tree, and, lopping off its branches, planted it firmly
in the centre of the great square” (which was always situated in the
centre of the city and had four roads leading to it from the four
quarters). “On the summit they placed a large cylinder of wood, the shape
of which was compared by the Spaniards to that of a mortar. Four strong
ropes hung from this and supported a square frame composed of four wooden
beams. Four other ropes were fastened by one end to the pole itself and
wound around it thirteen times. Their loose ends were passed through holes
in the middle of each beam and hung from these. Four Indians, masked as
eagles or other birds, ascended the pole singly, by means of certain loops
of cord, and mounting on the cylinder they performed in this perilous
position a few dance-like movements. Each man then attached himself to the
loose end of one of the hanging ropes, and then, with a violent jerk and
at the same moment, the four men cast themselves into space from their
positions on the beams. This simultaneous movement caused the frame and
cylinder to revolve and uncoil the ropes to which the men were fastened
and these descended to the ground after performing a series of widening
circles in the air. Meanwhile a fifth individual, who had mounted the
wooden cylinder after the others, stood on this as it revolved, beating a
small drum with one hand, whilst he held a banner aloft with the other.”
Whilst it is obvious that this peculiar and dangerous performance clearly
symbolized axial rotation, typified by the revolving pivot and the four
men in aërial motion, its full meaning and intention are only made clear
by the following explanation recorded by Clavigero. “The essential point
in this game was to calculate so exactly the height of the pole and the
length of the ropes, that the men should describe precisely thirteen
circles each before reaching the ground, so as to represent the cycle (of
4×13=)52 years.”

This passage constitutes absolute proof that the Mexican Calendar system
was intimately associated with axial rotation and ideas such as could only
have been derived from observation of Polaris and of the circumpolar
constellations. The game itself was a beautiful and well-conceived
illustration of the flight of time, typified by the aërial circles
performed by the men masked as birds, and of its methodical division into
fixed periods.

Leaving the subject of the calendar for the present we must revert to my
tables recording the apparent annual and nocturnal axial rotation of the
circumpolar constellations.

Whilst studying these the reflection naturally arose, that the people who
observed Ursa Major must have paid equal attention to Cassiopeia and
noticed that these constellations ever occupied opposite positions to each
other as they circled around the pole. Dwelling on the fact that in
ancient Mexico Ursa Major was associated with an ocelot, I remembered the
many representations in which an ocelot is represented as confronting an
eagle, usually in mortal combat. Mexican war-chiefs were classed into two
equally honorable grades, designated as the “ocelots and the quauhtlis,
_i. e._, eagles.” The constellation of Cassiopeia presents to me, a marked
resemblance to the image of a bird with outspread wings, whose head is
turned toward Polaris. The fact that when this star-group seems to be
above, Ursa Major seems to be below, and _vice versa_, would obviously
suggest the idea of an eternal combat between two adversaries who
alternately succumbed and resuscitated. It was interesting on reasoning
further, to note that once the above idea had taken root it must have been
impossible not to associate in course of time, the quadruped and the bird
with the elements to which they seemed to pertain, and gradually to
conceive the idea of an everlasting antagonism between the powers of the
sky and of the earth, or light and darkness, and other opposites which
suggested themselves naturally, or were artificially created, by the
fertile mind of man. In this connection it should be observed that the
mythical adversary of Tezcatlipoca, the ocelot, designated as Ursa Major,
is Huitzilopochtli, whose idol, in the Great Temple of Mexico, represented
him masked as a hummingbird (see Atlas Duran). The special reason why this
bird became associated with the god is explained by the following passage
in Gomara (Histoire générale des Indes. Paris, 1584, chap. 96, p. 190):
“This bird died, or rather fell asleep in the month of October and
remained attached by its feet to a twig. It awakened again in April when
the flowers blossomed. For this reason, in the language of the country it
is named Huitzitzilin, the resuscitated.” We therefore see that whilst it
is stated in the myth that the ocelot arose again after having been cast
down from the sky by Huitzilopochtli, the very name of the latter
betokened that the bird-god had also only just “resuscitated” from a
presumably similar defeat.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 8.

As one and the same object may suggest several resemblances at the same
time or consecutively, and thus give rise to a group of associations
around a single figure, I venture to point out that the zigzag form of
Cassiopeia may well have been compared to forked lightning and caused the
idea of lightning and thunder to become indissolubly connected with the
conception of a great celestial bird. Again there is the possibility that
the same star-group may have more strikingly suggested, to other people,
the idea of the winding body of a serpent describing a perpetual circle
around a central star. In Mexico, as elsewhere, we find the serpent
closely associated with the idea of time. It is represented as encircling
the calendar wheel published by Clavigero (fig. 8). Four loops, formed of
its body, mark the four divisions of the year. Twin serpents, whose heads
and tails almost meet, are sculptured around the famous calendar-stone of
Mexico. Four serpents whose bent bodies form a large swastika and whose
heads are directed towards a central figure, are represented in the Codex
Borgia in association with calendar-signs (fig. 9, _cf._ Féjérvary, p.
24). I shall have occasion to refer in detail to Mexican serpent-symbolism
further on.

Meanwhile I would submit the interesting results obtained on combining the
positions apparently assumed by the circumpolar constellations during a
single night. The tables exhibit four composite groups representing the
positions at the solstitial and equinoctial periods (fig. 10).

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 9.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 10.

The night of the winter solstice, the longest of the year, yielded alone a
symmetrical figure. It resembled the well-known triskelion, the
companion-symbol of  the swastika (figs. 10 and 11). Just as this had
proved to be the most natural of year symbols, so the triskelion revealed
itself as a natural sign of the winter solstice, the period recognized and
celebrated by most inhabitants of the northern hemisphere as the
turning-point of the year. In a climate like that of Mexico and Central
America, however, where the year divided itself naturally into a dry and a
rainy season, it is evident that the winter solstice would be less
observed and that the ardently-desired recurrence of the rainy season,
after a long and trying period of drought, should be regarded as the
annual event of utmost importance. Indeed, if carefully looked into, the
entire religious cult of these people seems to express but one great
struggling cry to the God of Nature for life-giving rain, and a hymn of
thanksgiving for the annual, precious, but uncertain gift of water.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 11.

To these supplicants the winter solstice betokened little or nothing and
it is not surprising to find no proofs of the employment of the triskelion
as a sacred symbol in ancient Mexico. On the other hand, it has been
traced by Mr. Willoughby on pottery from Arkansas, and in Scandinavia,
where the circumpolar constellations have doubtlessly been observed from
remote times, and the winter solstice has ever been hailed as the herald
of coming spring, the triskelion is often found associated with the
swastika.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 12.

I am indebted to Prof. Thomas Wilson’s work already cited for the two
following illustrations of objects exhibiting this association. The first
is a spearhead found in Brandenburg, Germany (fig. 12). The second is a
bronze brooch from Scandinavia, to which I shall presently revert (fig.
13). It exhibits, besides the triskelion, swastika and circle, the
S-shaped figure which was, as I shall show further on, the sign actually
employed by the ancient Mexicans and Mayas as the image of the
constellation Ursa Minor, whose outline it indeed effectually reproduces.

Before referring to the Mexican and Maya representations of the
star-group, I would next demonstrate that the sacred numbers of Mexico,
and of other countries situated in the northern hemisphere, coincide
exactly with the number of stars in the circumpolar constellations
themselves and in simple combinations of the same.

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor each contains seven stars, and the number seven
is the most widely-spread sacred number. Ancient traditions record that
the race inhabiting Mexico consisted of seven tribes who traced their
separate origins to seven caves, situated in the north. In memory of
these, at the time of the Conquest, there were seven places of sacrifice
in the city of Mexico. I shall recur to the number seven further on, in
discussing the native social organization, and now direct attention to the
five stars of Cassiopeia and to the fact that the combination of the stars
in this constellation with Polaris and Ursa Major yields the number
thirteen. This result is specially interesting since the entire
Calendar-system of Mexico and Yucatan is based on the combination of the
numerals 13+7=20, the latter again being 4×5.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 13.

On the other hand the same number, 13, is also obtained by the combination
of the Ursæ star-groups with Polaris. The number 5 is constantly yielded
by Cassiopeia and the four-fold repetitions of the groups supply the
suggestion of the number 4. The combination of Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia
yields 12. The accompanying figure exhibits swastikas composed of Ursa
Minor accompanied by Ursa Major and Cassiopeia separated and combined
(fig. 14). I next direct attention to the peculiar difference in the
numerical values of the Ursæ swastikas.

In the first, the central star, surrounded by four repetitions of the
seven-star constellation, yielded a total of twenty-nine stars—4x5+9.
Further combinations will be seen by a glance at the Ursa Major swastika
(fig. 4). The analysis of the Ursa Minor swastika is not so simple and
occasions a certain perplexity.

When I had first combined the four positions of this constellation, I had,
naturally, and without further thought, figured Polaris but once, as the
fixed centre, whereas I had repeated the other stars of the compact group
four times. It was not until I began to count the stars in the swastika
that I realized how I had, unconsciously, made one central star stand for
four, and thus deprived the composite group of the numerical value of
three stars. On the other hand, if I repeated the entire constellation
four times, I obtained a swastika with four repetitions of Polaris in the
middle. In this way, however, Polaris became displaced, and the idea of a
fixed centre was entirely lost. A third possible method of composing the
swastika was to allow one central star for each cross-arm. But this gave
two central stars, each of which would represent two stars. Unless
enclosed in a circle and considered as a central group by themselves, the
four and the two repetitions of Polaris could not convey the idea of a
pivot or fixed centre. The three respective numerical values obtained from
these experimental combinations were 4×6+1=25, 4×7=28, and finally 2×13 or
4×6+2=26. In each swastika the central star forcibly stood for and
represented two or four (fig. 15).

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 14.

In the triskelions the same perplexity arose: if Polaris was repeated, the
idea of a fixed centre was lost (fig. 15); if figured singly, it
nevertheless necessarily and inevitably stood as an embodiment of three
stars. Reasoning from my own experience, I could but perceive, in the
foregoing facts, a fruitful and constant source of mental suggestions, the
natural outcome of which would be the association of the central star with
an enhanced numerical value, and a familiarity with the idea of one star
being an embodiment of two, three or four.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 15.

As the evolution of religious thought and symbolism progressed, this idea
would obviously lead to the conception of a single being uniting several
natures in his person. In this connection it is certainly extremely
interesting to find the serpent associated with the Calendar in Mexico and
Yucatan, its Nahuatl name being homonymous for twin, _i. e._ two, and the
Maya for serpent, _can_ or _cam_, being homonymous for the number four.
The serpent was, therefore, in both countries the most suggestive and
appropriate symbol which could possibly have been employed in pictography,
to convey the idea of dual or quadruple natures embodied in a single
figure.(3) Added to this the circumstance that, to the native mind, the
serpent, upon merely shedding its skin, lived again, we can understand why
the ancient Mexicans not only employed it as a symbol of an eternal
renewal or continuation of time and of life, but also combined it with the
idea of fecundity and reproductiveness. In Yucatan where the Maya for
serpent, _can_, is almost homonymous with _caan_=sky or heaven and the
adjective _caanlil_=celestial, divine, the idea of a divine or celestial
serpent would naturally suggest itself. It is therefore not surprising to
find, in both countries, the name of _serpent_ bestowed as a title upon a
supreme, celestial embodiment of the forces of nature and its image
employed to express this association in objective form. In Yucatan one of
the surnames of Itzamná, the supreme divinity, was Canil, a name clearly
related to _caanlil_=divine and _can_=serpent.

In Mexico the duality and generative force implied by the word “coatl” are
clearly recognizable in the native invocations addressed to “Our lord
Quetzalcoatl the Creator and Maker or Former, who dwells in heaven and is
the lord of the earth [Tlaltecuhtli]; who is our celestial father and
mother, great lord and great lady, whose title is Ome-Tecuhtli [literally,
two-lord=twin lord] and Ome-Cihuatl [literally, two-lady=twin lady”]
(Sahagun, book VI, chaps. 25, 32 and 34).

The following data will suffice to render it quite clear that the Mexicans
and Mayas employed the serpent as an expressive symbol merely, signifying
the generative force of the Creator to whom alone they rendered homage. It
is no less an authority than Friar Bartholomew de las Casas who maintained
that “in many parts of the [American] Continent, the natives had a
particular knowledge of the true God; they believed that He created the
Universe and was its Lord and governed it. And it was to Him they
addressed their sacrifices, their cult and homage, in their
necessities...” (Historia Apologetica, chap. 121).

Friar Bartholomew specially adds that this was the case in Mexico
according to the authority of Spanish missionaries and no one can doubt
that this was the case when they read that in the native invocations,
preserved by Sahagun, the supreme divinity is described as “invisible and
intangible, like the air, like the darkness of night,” or as the “lord who
is always present in all places, who is [as impenetrable as] an abyss, who
is named the wind [air or breath] and the night.” “All things obey him,
the order of the universe depends upon his will—he is the creator,
sustainer, the omnipotent and omniscient.” He is termed “the father and
mother of all,” “the great god and the great goddess,” “our lord and
protector who is most powerful and most humane,”—“our lord in whose power
it is to bestow all contentment, sweetness, happiness, wealth and
prosperity, because thou alone art the lord of all things.” One prayer
concludes thus: “Live and reign forever in all peace and repose thou who
art our lord, our shelter, our comfort, who art most kind, most bountiful,
invisible and impalpable!” (Sahagun, book VI, on the rhetoric, moral
philosophy and theology of the Mexicans, chaps. 1-40). It is related that,
in gratitude for the birth of a son, the ruler of Texcoco, Nezahual-coyotl
erected a temple to the Unknown God.... It consisted of nine stories, to
symbolize the nine heavens. The exterior of the tenth, which formed the
top of the nine other stories, was painted black with stars. Its interior
was encrusted with gold, precious stones and feathers and held “the said
god, who was unknown, unseen, shapeless and formless” (Ixtlilxochitl,
Historia Chichimeca ed. Chavero, p. 227; see also p. 244). A passage in
Sahagun (book VI, chap. VII) states that “the invisible and imageless god
of the Chichimecs was named Yoalli-ehecatl [literally, night-air or wind],
which means the invisible and impalpable god ... by whose virtue all live,
who directs by merely exerting his wisdom and will.” In the Codex Fuenleal
(chap. 1) the remarkable title of “wheel of the winds=Yahualliehecatl,” is
recorded as “another name for Quetzalcoatl.” This undeniably proves that
the Mexicans not only figured the Deity by the image of a serpent but also
thought of him as a wheel which obviously symbolized centrical force,
rotation, lordship over the four quarters, _i. e._, universal rulership.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 16.

Returning from these ideas of later development to the primitive source of
their suggestion, let us now examine the native picture of Xonecuilli,
Ursa Minor, preserved in the unpublished Academia MS. of Sahagun’s
Historia, in Madrid (fig. 16, no. 1). It is an exact representation of the
star-group. The fact that the seven stars are figured of the same size in
accurate relation to each other, either proves that the eyesight of the
native astronomers was extremely keen and their atmosphere remarkably
clear, or that possibly, the minor stars of the group were more brilliant
in ancient times, than they are now. Astronomers tell us, for instance,
that as late as the seventeenth century the star in the body of Ursa Major
nearest to the tail, was as bright as the others, while it is now of the
fourth magnitude only.

It must be admitted that the shape of the constellation resembles an S. An
SS sign is mentioned by Sahagun (Historia, book VIII, chap. 8) as
occurring frequently, as a symbolical design on native textile fabrics. It
figures as such, in the black garments of the female consort of
Mictlantecuhtli in the Vienna Codex, pp. 23 and 33. He denounces it as
suspect and hints that it was intimately connected with the ancient
religion.

S-shaped sacred cakes, called Xonecuilli, were made during the feast of
Macuilxochitl=five flowers, and are figured (fig. 16, no. 2) in the B. N.
MS. (p. 69) with a four-cornered cross-shaped cake of a peculiar form
(fig. 20, III), which is found associated with five dots or circles in the
Codices and also with the Tecpatl-symbol of the North (fig. 20, I and II).

A recurved staff, which is held in the hand of a deity in the B. N. MS. is
designated in the text as a _xonoquitl_ (fig. 16, no. 3). Amongst the
insignia of the “gods,” sent as presents by Montezuma to Cortés upon his
landing at Vera Cruz, were three such recurved “sceptres,” the
descriptions of which I have collated and translated in my paper on the
Atlatl or Spear-thrower of the Ancient Mexicans (Peabody Museum Papers,
vol. 1, no. 3, Cambridge, 1891, p. 22). In this work I presented my
reasons for concluding that these recurved sceptres were ceremonial forms
of the atlatl. I now perceive that they were endowed with deeper
significance and meaning. The Nahuatl text of Sahagun’s Laurentian MS. of
the Historia de la Conquista (lib. XII, chap. IV) records the name of one
of these staffs as “hecaxonecuilli,” literally “the curved or bent over,
air or wind,” and describes it as made of “bent or curved wood, inlaid
with stars formed of white jade=chalchihuite.” This passage authorizes the
conclusion that four representations in the B. N. MS. of black recurved
sceptres, exhibiting a series of white dots, are also heca-xonoquitl,
inlaid with stars, and that all of these are none other but conventional
representations of the constellation Xonecuilli, the Ursa Minor. In each
case the deity, carrying the star-image, also displays the ecacozcatl the
“jewel of the wind,” the well-known symbol of the wind-god. In one of
these pictures (p. 50) he not only bears in his hand the star-image, but
also exhibits a star-group on his head-dress, consisting of a
central-star, on a dark ground, surrounded by a blue ring. Attached to
this against a dark ground, six other stars are depicted, making seven in
all. In connection with this star-group it is interesting to note that the
hieroglyph, designated by Fra Diego de Landa as “the character with which
the Mayas began their count of days or calendar and named Hun-Imix,”
furnishes a case of an identical though inverted group (Relacion de las
Cosas de Yucatan, ed. B. de Bourbourg, p. 237). Enclosed in a black ring,
the glyph displays, above, a large black dot with six smaller ones grouped
in a semicircle about it, and below, four perpendicular bars.

Subject to correction, I am inclined to interpret this glyph as a hieratic
sign for the constellation Ursa Minor and its four movements, and to
consider it as furnishing a valuable proof of the origin of the Maya
Calendar.

The seemingly inappropriate procedure of figuring shining stars by black
dots actually furnishes the strongest proof that a star group is thus
represented; for, in the Maya language, “ek” is a homonym for star and
black, and a black spot was, in consequence, the most expressive sign for
a star. This fact affords a valuable explanation of the reason why the
ocelot, whose skin is spotted with black, was employed as the figure of
the nocturnal sky, and clearly proves that the Mexicans adopted this
symbol and its meaning from the Mayas.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 17.

We will now revert to the S-shaped sign. Its association with images of
star is further exemplified in Mexican Codices. It occurs on the wall of a
temple, in combination with symbols for stars and the North-Mictlan, which
consist in this case, of skulls and cross-bones (fig. 17, II).

In the Dresden Codex, of Maya origin, there is an extremely important page
on which the S-sign occurs in connection with twin deities, besides rain
and cross symbols (fig. 17, I). A careful examination of the group shows
that one of the seated figures is accompanied by a downpour of water
(painted blue in the original), besides the S-symbol which is also
repeated above the head of his companion. Higher up, on the same page, the
S occurs again in a group of glyphs alongside of twin-seated figures.
These, as well as the single-seated form beneath them, have an eye or a
large black spot surmounted by dots instead of a head (Vocabulaire de
l’écriture hiératique de Yucatan, p. 38). Monsieur Léon de Rosny has
identified this figure, which also occurs in the Codex Troano, as the
image of the supreme divinity of the Mayas, of whom more anon, one of
whose titles was Kin-ich-ahau, literally Sun-eye lord.

A similar sign consisting of the lower half of a human body seated, with a
large eye on its knees is repeated several times in the Borgian Codex.
This form is also figured as seated in a temple, without the eye-star, but
three stars are on the roof and the S-sign is on the lower wall of the
building (Borgian Codex, p. 16).

The above facts demonstrate that, in both MSS. derived from different
sources, the same association of ideas is expressed.(4) The S sign appears
in connection with twin- or single-seated forms, surmounted by a symbol
for star. It is unnecessary for me to lay further stress upon the obvious
facts: that the only celestial body which could possibly have been
associated with a seated form, suggesting repose, was Polaris. It is,
moreover, only by assuming that the sign of the seated star represents the
stationary pole-star that its combination in the Codices with the
S-sign—Xonecuilli—Ursa Minor, can be understood. I likewise draw attention
to the possibility that the S, or single representation of the
constellation, may well have been employed as a sign for the summer
solstice, since, in some localities, during the shortest night of the
year, Ursa Minor may have been visible in one position only. Assuming that
the triskelion was the sign for the winter solstice we should thus have
natural signs for the two nights marking the turning-points of light and
darkness in the year.

Reverting to fig. 17, I, from the Codex Dresdenis, I draw attention that
it furnishes definite proof that the Mayas associated the idea of the
immovable seated star with twin deities and that they connected the
S-symbol with cross and rain symbols. A striking combination of the latter
symbols is represented under the principal seated figures. It consists of
a diagonal cross traversed perpendicularly by a band of blue water.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 18.

Further Maya cross-symbols should be cursorily examined here, viz: fig.
18, I, II, III, VI, VII and VIII. They will be found to consist of
variations of two fundamental types, often figured alongside of each other
and enclosed in a square, or circle. One type consists of two diagonally
crossed bars, plain or representing cross bones (I). A rectilinear cross
with interlaced circle (II) is also found. The other type exhibits a small
cross, square, circle or dot in the centre of the square with a circle in
each corner. In some cases these are united by a series of dots to the
central circle and thus form a diagonal cross (VI and VIII) which is
sometimes figured as contained in a flower with four petals, such as is
also found in Mexican symbolism. The diagonal, dotted cross is frequently
combined with four pairs of black bars, placed in the middle of each side
of the square, pointing towards the centre. Similar pairs of black bars
are figured in the B. N. MS. (p. 3) on the manta of Mictlantecuhtli, with
stars, around one of his symbols, a spider. They likewise recur on two of
several sacrificial papers on p. 69, amongst which one exhibits a diagonal
cross, another the S-sign, while others display realistic drawings of
stars with six or eight points.

The pairs of bars figure in the hieroglyph designated by Maya scholars as
the sign for _Kin_, the sun, which may be seen in the centre of large
diagonal cross-symbols in fig. 18, VII, VIII, from the Dresden Codex: The
cross, of fig. 18, VII, is composed of two bones and two arrowpoints, a
particularly interesting combination considering that in the Maya a bone
is _bak_, an arrow is _kab-cheil_ and the name given to the gods of the
four quarters “the sustainers of the world,” is _Bakab_. It cannot be
denied that the phonetic elements of this name occur in the words for
bones and arrows which form the cross, symbolic of the four quarters. In
fig. 18, VIII, the cross may be composed of four bones, but of this I am
not certain. In both cases, however, the crosses rest on a curious double
and parti-colored symbol and are associated with serpent signs, in which
the open jaws and teeth are prominent features. It is noteworthy that
while “can” or “cam” is the Maya for serpent, the word “camach” means jaw.
The figure consisting of the upper jaw only of a serpent, in the left hand
corner of the band above, fig. 18, VIII, proves, therefore, to be a
cursive phonetic sign for serpent.

The parti-colored symbol combined with the cross obviously signifies a
duality, such as light and darkness, the Above and the Below and a series
of dualities—possibly the two divisions of the year, the dry and rainy
seasons. In Mexico we are authorized by documentary evidence, to give a
wider and deeper interpretation to the symbol of duality, for it can be
absolutely proven that the Mexican philosophers divided the heavens into
two imaginary portions, and respectively identified these with the male
and female principles.

In Nahuatl the West was designated as Cihuatlampa, “the place or part of
the women.” The souls of the women who had earned immortality were
supposed to dwell there, whilst the souls of the men resided in the East.
In the appendix to book III of Sahagun’s Historia, it is described how,
according to the native belief, the souls of the male warriors hailed the
daily appearance of the sun above the eastern horizon, and escorted it to
Nepantla, the zenith. Here the souls of the women awaited it and assumed
the duty of escorting the sun to the western horizon, the symbol for which
was calli=the house. The above passage indicates that the native
philosophers imagined across the middle of the sky a line of demarcation,
separating the portions of the heaven respectively allotted to the male
and female souls. For four years after death these souls retained their
human form, and then, after passing through nine successive heavens,
entered into the celestial paradise where they assumed the forms of
different kinds of butterflies and humming-birds. The names of these are
enumerated in the Nahuatl text of Sahagun’s Laurentian MS. (book III).(5)
The symbolism of the humming-bird has already been explained by a passage
cited from Gomara’s Historia. In this connection it is extremely
interesting to find the humming-bird represented in the B. N. MS., as
sucking honey from a flower, which is attached by a cord, covered with
bird’s down, to a bone, the symbol of death.

This peculiar but expressive group of symbols figures only on the
head-dresses of deities wearing certain other symbols, amongst which we
find the Eca-cozcatl and Eca-xonequilli the image of Ursa Minor, already
described.

The merest indication of the association of a circumpolar constellation
with the idea of death (disappearance) and resurrection (re-appearance) is
of special interest, since the ancient Mexicans located the Underworld,
the “place of the dead,” in the North. Reflection showed, however, that
such an association could only have suggested itself to the minds of
star-observers living in southern latitudes, approximate to the equator,
or in localities where the northern horizon was more or less shut off from
view by intervening mountains. In such places Polaris would appear
comparatively close to the boundary-line of the northern sky so that the
Ursa constellations and Cassiopeia would be invisible to the local
astronomers at midnight during that period of the year when one or the
other of the star-groups seemingly stretched between Polaris and the
northern horizon. A glance at plate I shows that, at the present time, it
is about the period of the autumnal equinox that Ursa Minor would be
invisible at midnight, in such localities, while Ursa Major would
gradually disappear from view towards midnight, during a certain number of
nights, according to latitude and locality, between the autumnal equinox
and the winter solstice whilst Cassiopeia would seem to hover above the
horizon. The total or partial alternate periodical disappearance of the
two most familiar star-groups in the extreme North and their re-appearance
after sometimes regular intervals of time could but have made a profound
impression upon primitive astronomers and thinkers. Whilst the mere
periodical reversal of the positions of Cassiopeia and Ursa Major
suggested alternate victory and defeat, the actual though brief and
partial disappearance of either star-group must have appeared to be a
descent into an under-ground space, associated with darkness and death,
followed by a resurrection. In his Cronica, Tezozomoc records, besides
Mictlan (the land of the dead), another name for the underworld,
Opochcal-ocan, literally, the place of the house to the left. This
appellation can only be understood when it is realized that, in a
sufficiently southern latitude, an observer, watching the setting of a
circumpolar constellation below the horizon, would always see it disappear
to his left and subsequently rise to his right. It is evident that in time
this fact would give rise to the association of the left with the
underworld, the lower region, and the right with the region above. The
native idea of a dwelling in the underworld is further demonstrated by the
bestowal of the symbol _calli_=house, upon the western horizon below which
all heavenly bodies were seen to disappear. A definite connection between
the West and one half of the North being thus established, it would
naturally result that a corresponding union of the South and East would be
thought of in time, and that these quarters would become associated with
the rising of celestial bodies, _i. e._, with light, the Above, while the
opposite quarters became identified with their setting, _i. e._, with
darkness, the Below.

Pausing to review the foregoing conclusions, which I have shown to be the
natural and inevitable result of simple but prolonged astronomical
studies, observation and plain reasoning, we see that they led to a
conception of the Cosmos as divided into seven parts, _i. e._, the fixed
Centre, the pivot, primarily suggested by Polaris who was regarded as the
creative, generative and ruling power of the universe; the Four Quarters,
seemingly ruled by the central force and associated with the elements; the
Above and the Below, suggested by the rising and setting of celestial
bodies and associated with light and darkness, sky and earth, etc., etc.

Many of my readers will doubtless recognize at once that the above
organization of the Cosmos into the Centre or Middle, the Above and the
Below, and the Four Quarters, is precisely that which the Zuñi priests
taught Mr. Frank Cushing, when they initiated him into their secret
beliefs. Other explorers have recorded the same conception amongst
different native American tribes and with these proofs that this set of
ideas is still held on our Continent at the present time, I point out the
fact that the Maya figures (fig. 18, VII and VIII, from the Dresden Codex)
become perfectly intelligible only when interpreted as representing the
Centre, the Four Quarters, the Above and the Below, the latter figured by
the dark and light halves of the dual sign. Furthermore, I can demonstrate
that this fundamental set of elementary, abstract ideas, furnishing the
first principles of organization, is plainly visible under the surface of
the ancient Mexican civilization and can be traced not only in Yucatan and
Central America, but also in Peru. In these countries, as I shall show, it
assumed an absolute dominion over the minds of the native sages, directly
suggesting the forms of government and social organization existing at the
time of the Conquest and faintly surviving to the present day. It entirely
controlled the development of aboriginal religious cult and philosophical
speculations and pervaded not only the native architecture and decorative
art, but also all superstitious rites and ceremonies, and entered into the
very games and pastimes of the people.

The following table presents the bare outline of the scheme of
organization exposed in the preceding text. In making it I have, after due
consideration, definitely adopted the assignment of the Mexican symbols
and colors to the cardinal points given by Friar Duran in the
Calendar-swastika contained in his atlas and reproduced (pl. II, _g_).

    Each of these is North; West; South; then East.
    Symbols: Tecpatl, Flint; Calli, House; Acatl, Cane; Tochtli,
    Rabbit.
    Colors: Red; Yellow; Blue; Green.
    Elements: Fire; Earth; Air; Water.
    Warmth; Darkness; Breath; Rain.

    Together, North and West are The Below, the “female” region.
    TEZCATLIPOCA=MICTLANTECUHTLI.

    South and East are The Above, the “male” region, HUITZILOPOCHTLI.

    Combined, they are The Centre.
    The dual, generative, ruling and directive Force.
    QUETZALCOATL.
    The Divine Twin.

Before proceeding to examine more closely the great edifice of human
thought which was reared, in the course of centuries, on the ground plan
designated above, we must retrace our steps and consider what a deep
impression the gradual realization of the changes in the relative
positions of Polaris and certain familiar star-groups must have produced
upon those who were the first to realize them. Transporting ourselves back
to the gray dawn of civilization, let us endeavor to understand the
position of the native priest astronomers who, having received and
transmitted a set of religious and cosmical ideas, based on the assumption
of the absolute and eternal immutability of the centre of the heaven,
Polaris, gradually became aware that it also was subject to change,
evidently obeyed an unseen higher power and that the ancient order of
things, recorded by their predecessors, had actually passed away.

It is obvious that, in all centres of astronomical observation and
intellectual culture, a complete revolution of fundamental doctrine or
thought must have taken place. A period of painful misgivings and doubt
must have been passed through, during which an earnest and anxious
observation of all celestial bodies must have seemed imperative and
obligatory. Under such circumstances astronomy must have made great
strides and astronomical observation become the foremost and highest duty
of the intellectual leaders of the native races. Pyramids and temples
would be built for the purpose of verifying and recording the positions of
sun, moon, planets and stars, and the orientation of these buildings would
be carefully planned accordingly. Before obtaining glimpses of the great
evolution of religious thought which progressed on our Continent in olden
times, it is well to realize, by means of Piazzi Smyth’s map (fig. 6) that
the world ceased to possess a brilliantly conspicuous, absolutely
immovable pole-star for a prolonged period of time, stretching somewhere
between 500 B.C. and 1200 A.D.

The ancient native chronicles record that under “divine” leadership great
migrations of tribes took place within this period, the purpose of which
was to find a locality which fulfilled certain ardently-desired conditions
connected with religious cult.

From various centres of civilization in Mexico and Central America we also
hear different accounts of how, at different times, small bands of earnest
men, under a leader of superior intelligence, bent on a peaceable but
unexplained errand, arrived from distant regions and departed for an
unknown goal, after delaying just long enough to teach social organization
and impart a higher civilization to the tribes encountered on their
passage.

These preserved the memory of the _title_ of the leader, in their
different languages and he became the culture-hero of their tribe. The
fact that, in each case, these sages taught the ignorant tribes the
division of time and instituted the calendar, proves that they were
skilled in astronomy.

From a sentence uttered by Montezuma to the native astronomers whom he
termed “the Sons of the Night,” we learn that it was their custom “to
climb mountains” so as “to study the stars.” When one considers the full
import of the problems which had to be faced by these ancient sages, who
earnestly endeavored to account for the great changes which had taken
place in the heavens, within the memory of man, it seems natural to
suppose that many an expedition was undertaken for the purpose of
acquiring further astronomical knowledge, of finding, perhaps, the
immovable star which had been revered in past ages by the ancestors of the
native race.

The cult of Polaris may well have made such expeditions assume the aspect
of an imperative religious duty and sacred pilgrimage. As all expeditions
across Mexico and Central America would necessarily be limited by the
oceans and be fruitless as far as Polaris was concerned, it is obvious
that the line of exploration which would be ultimately adopted, would run
from south to north and _vice versa_. A small band of enthusiasts, setting
forth under the leadership of some of the most advanced thinkers of the
time, would undoubtedly have been prepared to devote their entire lives to
the object in view. As long as a single member of such an expedition
existed, he would be a powerful and active agent in spreading the
fundamental set of ideas derived from the observation of Polaris. In lapse
of time, by transmission, its influence might travel to a region too
remote perhaps for direct contact to have taken place.

If I have indulged in the foregoing line of conjecture and surmise, it is
because it is my purpose also to demonstrate, by absolute proof, that the
dominion of the above set of ideas extended over Yucatan, Honduras,
Guatemala and even reached Peru, where its influence is distinctly
visible.

It also extended far to the north in prehistoric times, for certain carved
shell-gorgets which have been found in prehistoric graves in Illinois,
Missouri and Tennessee exhibit emblems which have definite meanings in the
Maya language, spoken in Yucatan.

In order to maintain this assertion I must make a slight digression from
the main subject and revert to the myth already cited, recording the
casting down from heaven of Tezcatlipoca who arose and ascended again in
the form of an ocelot. There are interesting native pictures of this
combat and the fall of the ocelot in the Vatican Codex II, p. 34, the
Féjérvary Codex, p. 56, and others equally important, representing the
fall or descent of an eagle from the sky, to which I shall revert.

It is moreover recorded by Mendieta (p. 82) that Tezcatlipoca likewise
descended or let himself down from the sky by a spider’s thread, and in
the Bodleian MS. (p. 12) there are two curious pictures one of an ocelot
and a cobweb, the other of an ocelot, descending head foremost from stars.
The same incident is also pictured in the Vienna Codex (p. 9) where the
ocelot, attached by the tail, is connected by a cord with star-emblems.

There are two facts of special interest in regard to the above descent of
Tezcatlipoca by a spider’s thread. The first is that the title
Tzontemoc=“he who descends head foremost” is recorded in the Codex
Fuenleal immediately after the name Mictlantecuhtli. The second is that
the spider is figured on the manta of Mictlantecuhtli in the B. N. MS. and
is sculptured in the centre, above his forehead, in his sculptured image,
identified as such by Señor Sanchez (Anales del Museo Nacional III, p.
299) and reproduced here (fig. 19). It represents “the lord of the North
or Underworld” descending, head foremost, with a tecpatl or flint knife
issuing from his mouth and with outspread limbs, the outlines of which are
almost lost under the multitude of symbols which are grouped around him.
These symbols are carefully analyzed in my commentary on the B. N. MS. in
which I also describe other known carved representations of the same
conception and point out analogous pictures in the Maya Codices. The
position of the limbs of the descending figure is best understood by a
glance at fig. 20, II, from the Dresden Codex. It represents a bar with
cross symbols from which a human body is descending. The feet rest on dual
symbols, about which more could be written than the scope of the present
paper allows. A tecpatl or flint knife, attached to the body by a double
bow with ends, may be seen between the dual symbols, and its presence is
of utmost importance since it proves that the Mayas also associated the
flint with the same figure. Instead of a head the body exhibits a sort of
equidistant cross with four circles. Strange to say, the only analogous
cross-figures I have been able to find in all the Codices are those
reproduced in fig. 20, I, III, and IV. The latter exhibits a curious,
conventionalized flower growing on the top of a pyramid. Its stem and
leaves are painted brown and are spotted, resembling the skin of an
ocelot. As there is a Mexican flower, the Tigridia, of which the native
name was ocelo-xochitl, it may be that it is this which is thus
represented. Fig. 20, III, from the B. N. MS., figures as a sacred cake,
alongside of the S-shaped xonecuilli breads which were made in honor of
Ursa Minor at a certain feast. Finally, fig. 20, I, represents a certain
kind of ceremonial staff which is inserted between the two peaks of a
mountain—a favorite method employed by the native scribes, to convey the
idea that the object figured was in the exact centre. This kind of staff
occurs frequently in certain Codices, sometimes being carried by a high
priest. It invariably exhibits a flower-like figure with five circles and
is surmounted by a tecpatl or flint knife. Without pausing to discuss the
subject fully I merely point out here that, collectively, these symbols
explain each other and convey the idea of the Centre and the Four Quarters
evidently associated with the tecpatl, the symbol of the north, and the
ocelot and xonecuilli=Ursa Minor. It is particularly interesting to note
that the outspread human body is made to serve as a sort of cross-symbol.
A careful study of the conventional representation of the face of “the
lord of the North,” in fig. 19, gives the impression that it was also used
to convey the idea of duality, or the union of two in one. The upper half
of the face exhibits a numeral on either cheek under the eyes, seeming to
convey the idea of dualities. The two circular ear ornaments, united by a
band above the head, and the two nostrils united in one nose, seem to
convey the idea of the union of the dualities, whilst the lower half of
the face, which is rendered strikingly different to the upper, by being in
higher relief and marked with perpendicular lines, exhibits a mouth from
which a flint knife, with symbolical eye and fangs carved on it, is
hanging like a tongue. I have already shown that the flint knife was
regarded as the sacred producer of the “vital spark.” I may add here that
I have also found, in the Codices, tecpatl-symbols on which the curved
symbol of air or breath was figured. To my idea the sculptured face is
meant to symbolize the dual creator, the dispenser of the spark and breath
of life, whilst the human skull on his back betokens that he is also the
giver of death. Though unable to enter fully into the subject here, I
would nevertheless state that I can produce further data to prove that the
human face was frequently employed for a symbolical purpose by the native
American races who were evidently entirely under the dominion of the idea
of duality, of the Above and Below and the life-producing union of both.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 19.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 20.

The question why the spider, named “tocatl” in Nahuatl, should have been
adopted as the chief symbol of Mictlantecuhtli, occupied me much until I
found the clue to its significance in the Maya language. In this the word
for North is _Aman_ and the name for “the spider whose bite is mortal,” is
_Am_. This striking fact may be interpreted as a positive proof that the
spider-symbol, employed by the Mexicans, must have originated in Yucatan,
from the mere homonymy of two Maya words.

On the other hand shell-gorgets exhibiting the effigy of a spider, and
obviously intended to be worn with its head turned downwards, have not
only been found in Illinois but also in Tennessee and Missouri. On the
gorgets from the latter States a cross is carved on the body of the spider
(fig. 22, _a_). As certain spiders exhibit cross-markings, it is, of
course, possible that it was chosen as a cross-symbol for this reason
only, in some localities, just as the butterfly was evidently adopted in
Mexico, as an apt image of the Centre and the Four Quarters on account of
its shape and its possession of four wings. The conventionalized figure of
a butterfly, with a star on its body and four balls, painted with the
colors of the quarters, was a sacred symbol which is minutely described by
Sahagun and is figured on a manta in the B. N. MS. A glance at its
reproduction (fig. 21, no. 13) shows how the form of the insect has been
conventionalized so as to resemble the ollin (no. 12) and other Mexican
cross-symbols (nos. 2, 4, 11, 14 etc.). The eye or star in its centre,
like that in the ollin, and circle (no. 4), signify Polaris; the
conventionalized head and antennæ are obviously made to convey the idea of
“two in one,” of the Above and Below united in the Centre.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 21.

I venture to suggest that the dragon-fly was employed as a cross-symbol in
an analogous manner, on the Algonquin garment preserved at the Riksmuseum,
Stockholm, and described by Dr. Hjalmar Stolpe in his admirable study on
American art (Amerikansk Ornamentik, Stockholm, 1896, p. 30). As I shall
revert to it later on, I now draw special attention to the circumstance
that instead of the cross, on a spider-gorget from Tennessee, there is a
round hole which, when the shell-disc is held aloft, lets a ray of light
shine through and furnishes an apt presentation of a star. This and the
cross furnish analogies to the Mexican and Maya symbols of Polaris which
are too obvious to need to be emphasized. Nor do these gorgets alone
furnish an undeniable indication that an identical symbolism extended from
Yucatan to Illinois. Other gorgets, also figured in Mr. Wm. H. Holmes’
monograph “Art in Shell,” several of which are in the Peabody Museum, from
the stone graves in Tennessee, exhibit variously carved representations of
a serpent. In all specimens the identical idea is carried out: the eye of
the serpent forms the centre of the design on the disc and four circles on
the body of the reptile, or four solid bars, interrupting a hollow line
encircling the central motif, emphasized a division of the disc into four
equal parts. The idea of the Serpent in repose, the Centre and the Four
Quarters is thoroughly carried out and the true meaning of the design is
only appreciated by the light of the Maya and Mexican symbolism which has
already been so fully discussed.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 22.

The third Tennessee gorget reproduced here (fig. 22, _c_), from Mr.
Holmes’ work, exhibits a combination of numerals which is particularly
interesting if confronted with the sacred numbers of the Mexicans and
Mayas. From a central circle three curved lines issue in a fashion
resembling those on fig. 21, no. 2, but the fact that the circular band
exhibits seven double circles and the outer edge is divided into thirteen
parts, is of special moment. Still another design, on a shell-gorget from
Tennessee, not only exhibits the peculiarity, pointed out by Mr. Holmes,
of a square with loops, resembling certain figures in Mexican Codices, but
also other significant details which I shall point out (fig. 22, _b_). The
cross in the centre occupies the centre of a star with eight rays and the
four birds’ heads at the sides of the square illustrate rotation from
right to left. I am inclined to view in this gorget an emblem of Polaris
with Cassiopeia in rotation around it, figured as a bird, but whether this
is the case or not it must be conceded that it is indeed remarkable to
find a set of symbols, consisting of the spider, the cross, the serpent
and the bird, carved on prehistoric gorgets found in the United States
whilst the deep meaning of these identical symbols is furnished by Maya
and Mexican records. I venture to remark here that no more expressive and
appropriate ornament than these shell-gorgets could have been designed, or
worn by the ancient Maya or Mexican priests, prophets and leaders who, in
a remote past, had guided themselves by the light of Polaris and
instituted its cult as the basis of their native religion.

On realizing the above-mentioned identity of symbolism, it is impossible
not to conclude that the prehistoric race which inhabited certain parts of
the United States was under the dominion of the same ideas as were the
Mexicans and Mayas. The indications point, in fact, to the probability
that the origin of the employment of the spider-symbol originated in
Yucatan, and if this be admitted then there is no reason to deny the
possibility that the serpent-symbol came from there also, since the Maya
language suggests an affinity between the serpent, _can_, and the
sky=_caan_, and the numeral 4=_can_. I refrain, for the present, from
expressing any final conclusion on this subject, which will doubtless
afford ample food for reflection and argument to all interested in the
important problem as to where the cradle of ancient American civilization
was situated. But these symbolic gorgets go far towards substantiating
Professor Putnam’s oft-expressed conclusions that the ancient peoples of
the central and southern portions of the United States were, to a certain
extent, offshoots of the ancient Mexicans.

                             [Illustration.]

                                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 Cassiopeia
and Polaris that I am tempted to view it as an indication that the Eskimos
may also have associated 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 José 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 circumpolar rotation.

                             [Illustration.]

Plate III. 1. Shell 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 “Analysis 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 illustrations
on Plate III.

                             [Illustration.]

    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 ilhuicatitlan [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 latitude. 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 associated with that of the sun and to have
assumed 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 circumpolar 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
circumpolar 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 associated 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 circumpolar 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 assumed 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 god named ‘Shining Star’ (Citlal-Tonac) and a
goddess 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 gods and goddesses,’ ” 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....”

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 25.

The illustrated 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
shining 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 associated 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 illustrations, 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 associated 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
gods 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 “god 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 leadership 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 assigned its origin to a dual
star-divinity, associated 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.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 26.

The assumption 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 assigned 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 god 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
circumvolation 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 principal high roads leading to the capital. The doorways were
respectively named after the four principal gods and were spoken of as
‘the doorway of such and such a god.’ ”

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 space 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 worship, 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 god) 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
class were placed in circles and these were separated by another interval
of space, from the outermost circles, composed of young men and boys. The
illustration 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 participants was beaten by the drums and the
musicians asserted 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 circumpolar 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 constituted 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 entitled “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 principal division, under the leadership 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 assuming
the shape of an eagle, had made herself greatly feared and caused herself
to be adored as a goddess.” 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 titles 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 titles will oblige
you to acknowledge this. For besides the ordinary name of Quilaztli, by
which you know me, I also possess four titles, 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 titles 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.” Señor Alfredo
Chavero (appendix, p. 125, to Duran’s Historia, Mexico, 1880), commenting
upon this passage, 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 titles
were actually the names of the highest female divinity. Sahagun (book VI,
chap. 37) states that Quilaztli, a goddess, 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 title 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
illustrated 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. XXXII, p.
255 and Tezozomoc, chap. XL, p. 66). The latter author, however, gives the
full “sacred title” 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 associated 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 circumstantial 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 sex. 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 title 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 god. 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 assumption of her office]. Under this form she
was revered as a goddess, was named our grandmother and ‘the mother of the
god,’ 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 Tenochtitlan 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 god, be his representative. Rule the creatures of the
god by whom we live; the god 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 Tenochtitlan 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 assumed, in public, her title and
prerogatives.

Unless it is assumed 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 title of
“Woman-serpent”=Cihuacoatl. From this date the title 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
bloody 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 assistants, 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
associated with the female sex, 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
association 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
association 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 associate 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 association 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 assumed and actual inferiority of woman may
therefore be regarded as the logical, inevitable but artificial result of
primordial classification and association. Suggested by the same natural
phenomena which were visible to all inhabitants of the same latitudes,
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 passage, establishing 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 illustration
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.”

Two priests are likewise pictured in the act of offering bowls containing
human blood to the idol and a third, mounted on a ladder, is pouring the
contents of another bowl over its head. It is obvious how the constant
associations of the earth-mother with sanguinary sacrifices and
bloodthirstiness would, in time, give rise to the idea of a hostile,
maleficent power, linked with darkness and devouring fire, who, under the
aspect of the serpent-woman, waged an eternal warfare on the human race
and clamored for victims and bloody sacrifices. The natural sequence to
the above associations is that in ancient Mexico the powers exerting fatal
influence upon the human race are all represented as female, viz.: the
Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent, the Ciuapipiltin and the Tzit-zime, etc.
These and various other personifications of the female principle are
described in detail in my notes and commentary to the B. N. MS.

After considering the foregoing data it seems impossible not to conclude
that it must have taken centuries of time for the idea of duality, or of
the Above and Below to have taken such a deep hold upon the native mind
and to have produced such a growth of symbolism and association in so many
ramifications of thought. Let us endeavor to obtain a further insight into
the native mode of thought by carefully studying some significant details
concerning the social organization of the Mexicans from the time of
Acamapichtli to that of Montezuma and the influences it had been subjected
to gradually. This, the first ruler, unquestionably ruled as the
Cihuacoatl, a name which means either Woman-serpent or Female-twin. This
fact in itself testifies to an epoch-making change in the organization of
the Mexican government, in the making of which a concession was made to a
previously existing order of things, by the retention of the female title
by a male ruler.

Having carefully studied the question for many years, I have long
considered it proven that when the Mexicans settled in the valley of
Mexico they came under a series of influences emanating from an ancient
and highly cultured centre of civilization situated in the south, which
had followed, during untold centuries, the same lines of primitive thought
which have been stated. This question of contact and influence from an
older civilization is so important and the material I have collected on
the subject is so extensive and complex, that it cannot be adequately
treated here. Further on I shall discuss at length certain historical data
throwing light on ancient contact and influences. Meanwhile I may as well
state here that, having carefully weighed all testimony, I accept as amply
proven and well supported, the testimony of Las Casas, Torquemada,
Mendieta and others, who record that the Mexican culture-hero Quetzalcoatl
was an actual person who had come to Mexico from Yucatan twice and had
finally returned thither, leaving a small colony of his vassals behind him
whose influence upon the religious and social organization and symbolism
of the tribes, inhabiting the central plateau, can be plainly discerned.
Montezuma himself, in his famous speech to Cortés, which the latter
carefully reported to the Emperor Charles V, states that: “we [the Mexican
rulers] were brought here by a lord, whose vassals all of our predecessors
were, and who returned from here to his native land. He afterwards came
here again, after a long time, during which many of his followers who had
remained, had married native women of this land, raised large families and
founded towns in which they dwelt. He wished to take them away from here
with him, but they did not want to go, nor would they receive or adopt him
as their ruler, and so he departed. Hut we have always thought that his
descendants would surely come to subjugate this country and claim us as
their vassals....” (Historia de Nueva España. Hernan Cortés, ed.
Lorenzana, p. 81; see also p. 96). I do not see how it is possible to
construe such plain, unadorned statements of simple, common-place facts
into the assumption that Montezuma was recounting a mythical account of
the disappearance of the Light-god from the sky, as upheld by some modern
writers, who interpret the whole episode as a sun-myth or legend.

I have already shown that the meaning of the ocelot-skin and the spider,
employed as symbols by the Mexicans, is apparent only when studied by
means of the Maya language of Yucatan, the land whence the culture-hero is
said to have come by the foregoing authorities. I will add here that in
the Maya chronicles, it is stated that the culture-hero had ruled in
Chichen-Itza, the first part of which name, _Chichen_, means _red_. In
Mexican records it is described that he departed by water from the Mexican
coast and travelled directly east, bound for Tlapallan—a name which means
_red_-land. I draw attention to the fact that any one sailing from the
mouth of the Panuco river, for instance, in a straight line towards the
east, would inevitably land on the coast of Yucatan, not far from the
modern Merida and the ancient ruins of Chichen-Itza.

I shall also produce evidence, further on, to show that the meaning of the
much-discussed name of the culture-hero’s home, Tullan, is also furnished
by the Maya language. From more than one source, we learn, moreover, that
there were several Tullans on the American continent. The conception of
_Twin-brothers_ as the personification of the Above and Below had been
adopted in Yucatan and it is to the influence emanating from that source
that I attribute the movement made in Mexico, to substitute male
twin-rulers in the place of the man and woman, who had previously and
jointly ruled the ancient Mexicans.

Let us now analyze the Maya title Kukulcan, of which Quetzalcoatl is the
Mexican equivalent. As already stated, the word _can_ means serpent and
the numeral 4 and is almost homonymous with the word for sky or
heaven=_caan_. The image of a serpent, therefore, directly suggested and
expressed the idea of something quadruple incorporated in one celestial
being and appropriately symbolized the divine ruler of the four quarters.
In the word Kukulcan the noun _can_ is qualified by the prefix _kukul_. In
the compiled Maya dictionary published by Brasseur de Bourbourg (appendix
to de Landa’s Relacion) the adjective _ku_ or _kul_ is given as “divine or
holy.” Kukulcan may therefore be analyzed as “the divine serpent” or the
“Divine Four.” When Maya sculptors or scribes began to represent this
symbol of the divinity they must have searched for some object, easy to
depict, the sound of whose name resembled that of ku or kul. The Maya
adjective “feathered” being _kukum_, the artists evidently devised the
plan of representing, as an effigy of the divinity, a serpent decorated
with feathers and to this simple attempt at representing the “divine
serpent” in sculpture or pictography is due, in my opinion, the origin of
the “feathered serpent” effigies found in Yucatan and Mexico, which have
so puzzled archaeologists.

Of Kukulcan, the culture-hero of the Mayas, it is recounted that he had
been one of four brothers who originally ruled at Chichen-Itza, over four
tribes. “These brothers chose no wives but lived chastely and ruled
righteously, until, at a certain time, one died or departed and two began
to act unjustly and were put to death. The one remaining was Kukulcan. He
appeased the strife which his brothers’ acts had aroused, directed the
minds of the people to the arts of peace and caused to be built various
edifices. After he had completed his work at Chichen-Itza he founded the
great city of Mayapan, destined to be the capital of the confederacy of
the Mayas.” (See Brinton, Hero-myths, p. 162.) Friar Diego de Landa
relates that the current opinion amongst the Indians of Yucatan was that
this ruler had gone to Mexico where, after his return (departure?) he was
named Cezalcouatl and revered as one of their gods (Relacion, ed. Brasseur
de Bourbourg, p. 36). Before analyzing the Nahuatl rendering of Kukulcan’s
name I would point out the noteworthy coincidence that, during his reign
at Chichen-Itza and Mayapan, he practically united in his person and
assumed the offices formerly fulfilled by four rulers, of which he had
been only one.

I would, moreover, draw attention to the remarkable, sculptured columns
which support the main portal of the main pyramid-temple called El
Castillo at Chichen-Itza. These represent gigantic feathered serpents and
are figured on pl. XIV of Mr. Wm. Holmes’ most instructive and useful
“Archaeological Studies,” Part I, “Monuments of Yucatan.” The feathers
carved on the massive columns are evidently the precious tail feathers of
the quetzal, which have the peculiarity of exhibiting, according to the
way the light falls upon them, blue, red, yellow and green
colors—precisely those assigned to the four quarters by the Mexicans and
for all we know to the contrary, by the Mayas. Whether this feather was
chosen for this peculiarity or for its beauty only, as that with which to
deck the effigy of the divinity, can, of course, only be conjectured. In
Mexico numberless effigies of feathered serpents exist. The resemblance of
the sound of the Nahuatl words: feather=ihuitl, and heaven or
sky=ilhui-çatl, should be recorded here as a possible reason for the
association of feathers with the serpent and as a means of conveying the
idea of its divinity. It should also be noted that quetzal, the name of
the most precious feathers the natives possessed, resembles in sound, the
second part of the Nahuatl words for flame=tle-cueçal-lotl, or for “tongue
of fire”=tle-cueçal-nenepilli. That the feathered serpent was an image of
the divinity is finally proven, I think, by the following passage from
Sahagun which establishes that the earliest form, under which the divinity
was revered by the Mexicans, was that of fire: “Of all the gods the [most]
ancient one is the God of Fire, who dwells in the midst of flowers, in an
abode surrounded by four walls and _is covered with shining feathers like
wings_” (_op. cit._ book VI, chap. IV). It is thus shown that whilst the
word ihuitl=feather suggested something divine, the word quetzal, besides
being the name of a particular kind of feather, conveyed the idea of
something resplendent or shining [like fire]. The name for serpent, coatl,
signified twin; thus there is a profound analogy between the Maya and
Mexican symbol, pointing, however, to the Yucatan form as the most
ancient.

Let us see how the name Quetzal-coatl occurs in Mexico. It is given as the
name of the “supreme god whose substance was as invisible and intangible
as air,” but who was also revered as the god of fire. The constant
reference to air in connection with the supreme divinity caused him to be
also adored as the god of air and of the four winds. On the other hand,
the divine title of Quetzal-coatl was carried by the culture-hero whose
personality has been discussed and who was a Yucatec ruler and high
priest. Sahagun (_op. cit._ book III, chap. IX) informs us that
“Quequet-zalcoa,” the plural form of the word Quetzalcoatl, was employed
to designate “_the high priests_ (elsewhere designated as the ‘supreme
pontiffs’) _who were the successors of Quetzalcoatl_.” He also states that
“the high priest of the temple was [the representative of] the god
Quetzalcoatl” (book I, chap. 5). “The priest who was most perfect in his
conduct and in wisdom was elected to be high priest and assumed the name
of Quetzalcoatl.... There were two such high priests equal in rank and
honours.... One of these, the Quetzalcoatl Totec Tlamacazqui, was in the
service of Huitzilopochtli.” Without pausing here to analyze this title
since it will be discussed in detail in another publication I will only
repeat that, after years of careful research, I have obtained the
certainty that the foregoing title and office were those held by Montezuma
at the time of the Conquest. What is more, I can produce ample evidence to
prove that he was the living personification of Huitzilopochtli one of the
“divine twins” and of the Above. He was not the first Mexican ruler who
had filled this exalted rôle, for it is recorded that Axayacatl, one of
Acamapichtli’s successors, had represented, in life, “our god
Huitzilopochtli.” After his death his effigy “was first covered with a
fine robe representing Huitzilopochtli; over this was hung the dress of
Tlaloc ... the next garment was that of Youalahua [=the lord of the wheel]
and the fourth was that of Quetzalcoatl” (Duran, vol. I, chap. 39, pp. 304
and 306).

Let us now see how Montezuma’s personification of Huitzilopochtli was
carried out by his life and his surroundings. According to Bernal Diaz, an
eye-witness, when the great Montezuma came forth in state to meet Cortés,
he was conveyed on a sumptuous litter, being thus raised above the
earth.(6) When he descended from this and walked, the golden soles of his
sandals prevented his feet from coming into direct contact with the
ground; he was supported, _i. e._ partially held up, by his four principal
lords, and a baldachin adorned with light greenish-blue feathers, gold,
pearls and jade representing the xoxouhqui-ilhuicatl=“the verdant or blue
sky” (which was, by the way, a title of Huitzilopochtli), was carried over
his head. Other lords preceded him, “sweeping the ground and spreading
blankets upon it so that he should not tread upon the earth. All of these
lords did not dare to think of raising their eyes to look at his face—only
the four lords, his cousins, who supported him, possessed this privilege”
(Bernal Diaz, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista. Madrid, 1632, p. 65). A
feature, the origin of which can be directly traced back to the
association of the star-god, Polaris, with repose and immovability, was
that Montezuma, like his predecessors, was the only person privileged to
sit on state occasions, on a throne or raised seat with a high back and
rest whilst all other individuals stood or moved about him.

From several sources we know that Montezuma habitually wore blue or white
attire, which sometimes was of open network. He employed gold, precious
blue and green feathers, turquoise, pearls and emeralds for his personal
ornaments. His diadem with a high point in front, was incrusted with
turquoise or was made of burnished gold. He sometimes wore a crown made of
featherwork, with a bird’s head of gold above his forehead. His emblem was
the sun, the orb of day, and he presided over its cult which had developed
itself simultaneously with the cult of the Above, a feature of which was
the offering of “birds, butterflies and flowers.” Sometimes he wore,
“attached to his sandals, small wings, named tzi-coyolli, resembling the
wing of a bird. These produced a sound like that of tiny gold bells when
he walked” (Tezozomoc, Cronica, p. 594).

It must be admitted, on reading the foregoing descriptions gleaned from
Sahagun’s Historia, that it would be impossible to carry out, more
perfectly and completely, the idea that Montezuma was the earthly
representative of the Upper regions, the blue heaven. By pushing symbolism
so far that he actually wore wings on his feet and avoided contact with
the ground, it is not surprising that Montezuma’s adversaries, amongst
neighboring tribes, should accuse him of exacting divine honors for his
own person. At the same time there is no doubt that his own subjects
revered him merely as a temporary representative and mouth-piece of the
impersonal dual divinity. This idea is clearly conveyed by some native
harangues, to which I refer the reader, and from which I extract the
following passages:

After his election, the ruler is solemnly addressed by one of the chief
lords who says to him: “Oh! our humane, pious and beloved lord, who
deserves to be more highly esteemed than all precious stones and feathers,
you are here present because our sovereign god has placed thee [above us]
as our lord.... You possess the seat and throne which was given [to your
predecessors] by our lord god” ... “you are the image of our lord god and
represent his person. He reposes in you and he employs you like a flute
through which he speaks and he hears with your ears.... Oh, lord king! God
sees what the persons do who rule over his domains and when they err in
their office he laughs at them, but in silence, for he is god, and is
omnipotent and can mock at whom he will. For he holds all of us in the
palm of his hand and rocks us about, and we are like balls or round globes
in his hands and we go rolling from one side to the other and make him
laugh, and he serves himself of us as we go moving about on the palm of
his hand!”

“Although thou art our neighbour and friend and son and brother, we are no
more thy equals, nor do we consider you as a man, for now you have the
person, the image, the conversation and the communion of our lord god. He
speaks inside of you and instructs you and lets himself be heard through
your mouth—his tongue is your tongue, and your face is his face ... he has
adorned you with his authority and has given you fangs and claws so that
you should be feared and reverenced ...” (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 10).

The foregoing figure of speech in which fangs and claws are alluded to as
symbols of fear-inspiring power affords as valuable an insight into the
native modes of thought and expression as do the similes employed in the
following address to the newly-elected ruler by the spokesman of his
vassals.

“Oh lord! may you live many years to fill your office prosperously; submit
your shoulders to the very heavy and troublesome load; extend your wings
and breast as a shelter to your subjects whom you have to carry as a load.
Oh, lord! let your town and vassals enter under your shadow, for you are
[unto them] like the tree named puchotl or aueuetl, which casts a great
circle or wheel of shade, under which many are gathered in shelter” (_op.
cit._ book VI, chap. II).

The admonition also addressed to the ruler, “Never to laugh and joke again
as he had done previously to his election, and to assume the heart of an
old, grave and severe man,” explains the true significance of the name of
Montezuma or Mo-tecuh-zoma; which was an honorific title literally
meaning, “our angry or wrathy [looking] lord.”

Whilst the above data establish beyond a doubt that the Mexican
Quetzalcoatl was regarded as the visible representative of the celestial
ruler of the universe and that divine honors were voluntarily accorded to
him, it is interesting to read Montezuma’s explanation to Cortés
concerning this question. The latter writes: “seated on a raised seat
Montezuma discoursed as follows: ... ‘I know that you have been told by my
enemies that I am, or have made myself a god.’... Raising his robes he
showed me his body saying: ‘Here you see that I am made of flesh and bone,
like yourself or like any one, and that I am mortal and tangible.’
Grasping his arms and his body with his hands he continued: ‘see how they
have like to you.’ ”... (Historia, Hernan Cortés, ed. Lorenzana, p. 82).
Better than all dissertations, the above words convey an idea of the naïf
simplicity of the man who uttered them.

Referring the reader to Mr. Ad. Bandelier’s study, “On the social
organization and mode of government of the ancient Mexicans,” for further
details concerning the duties respectively filled by Montezuma and his
coadjutor, I shall only explain here the conclusion I have reached that
the former was the high priest of the cult of the sun and heaven, the
visible ruler, the war lord, and the administrator of justice. As stated
in a native harangue: “the supreme lord is like unto the heart of the
population ... he is aided by two senators in all concerning the
administration of the government: one of these was a ‘pilli’ and was named
tlaca-tecuhtli; the other was a warrior and was entitled tlacoch-tecuhtli.
Two other chieftains aided the supreme lord in the militia: one, entitled
tlaca-teccatl, was a ‘pilli’ and warrior; the other, named
tlacoch-calcatl, was not a ‘pilli.’ Such is the government or
administration of the republic ... and these four officers did not occupy
these positions by inheritance but by election” (Sahagun, book VI, chap.
20).

The following account of the republic of Tlaxcalla throws further light
upon the form of government which prevailed throughout Mexico and Central
America at the period of the Conquest. “The Captains of Tlaxcalla, each of
whom had his just portion or number of soldiers ... divided their soldiers
into four Battails, the one to Tepeticpac, another to Oco-telulco, the
third to Tizatlan and the fourth to Quiahuiztlan, that is to say, the men
of the Mountains, the men of the Limepits, the men of the Pinetrees, and
the Watermen; all these four sorts of men did make the body of the
Commonwealth of Tlaxcallan, and commanded both in Peace and War ... The
General of all the whole army was called Xico-tencatl, who was of the
Limepits ... the Lieutenant General was Maxix-catzin....” (A new survey of
the West-Indies ... Thomas Gage, London, 1655, p. 31). In Mexico we find
that the four executive officers were the chiefs or representatives of the
four quarters of the City of Mexico. In each of these quarters there was a
place where periodical offerings were made in reverence of one of the
signs: acatl, tecpatl, callii and tochtli, which were the symbols of the
cardinal-points, the elements, and served as day and year signs in the
calendar (Sahagun, book II, chap. 26).

An interesting indication that the entire dominion of Mexico was also
divided into four equal quarters, the rule administration of which was
attended to by four lords, inhabiting towns situated within a
comparatively short distance from the capital, is furnished by Bernal Diaz
(_op. cit._ p. 65). He relates that the four lords who supported Montezuma
when he walked in state to meet Cortés were the lords of Texcoco,
Iztapalapa, Tacuba and Coyoacan. These towns, which were minor centres of
government, were respectively situated at unequal distances to the
northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest of the capital.

These facts and the knowledge that “all lords, in life, represented a god”
justify the inference that, just as Montezuma represented the central
power of the Above or Heaven, the four lords who accompanied him were the
personified rulers of the four quarters, associated with the elements. In
ancient Mexico and Maya records the gods of the four quarters, also named
“the four principal and most ancient Gods” are designated as “the
sustainers of the Heaven” and it cannot be denied that, on the solemn
occasion described, the four lords actually fulfilled the symbolical
office of supporting Montezuma, the personification of the Heaven. This
striking illustration is but one of a number I could cite in proof of the
deeply ingrained mental habit of the native sages to introduce, into every
detail of their life, the symbolism of the Centre, the Above and Below and
the Four Quarters. I shall but mention here that it can be proven how, in
their respective cities the lords of the cardinal points were central
rulers who, in turn, directed the administration of the government by
means of four dignitaries. Each of these was also the embodiment of a
divine attribute or principle, “All noblemen did represent idols and
carried the name of one” (Acosta, Naturall and Morall Historie, lib. 5, p.
349).

Each wore a special kind of symbolical costume and was the ruler or
“advocate,” as he is termed, of a distinct class of people. “For to each
kind or class of persons they gave a Teotl [=God or Lord] as an advocate.
When a person died and was about to be buried, they clothed him with the
diverse Insignia of the god to whom he belonged” (Mendieta lib. II, chap.
40). It being established that each of the four year-symbols, acatl,
tecpatl, calli and tochtli, ruled four minor symbols, it seems evident
that, just as the four lords of the cardinal-points would correspond to
the above symbols, each of the minor lords and the category of people they
represented would also be associated with the minor symbols. The obvious
result of this classification would be the division of the entire
population of the commonwealth into 4×5=20 categories of people, grouped
under twenty local and four central governments, whose representatives in
turn were under the rule of the supreme central dual powers. Having thus
sketched, in a brief and preliminary way, the expansion of the idea of
dividing all things into four parts, the bud of which was the swastika,
let us examine the Mexican application of the idea of duality, pausing
first to review the data relating to the Cihuacoatl, the personification
of the Earth, the Below and the coadjutor of Montezuma.

Nothing has been definitely recorded about his personality, for he seems
to have lived in absolute seclusion during the first occupation of Mexico
by the Spaniards. He is frequently alluded to, however, and Cortés,
Herrera, Torquemada and others, inform us that he had acted as Montezuma’s
substitute and led the native troops against the Spaniards. It is
interesting to find that after the Conquest Cortés appointed him as
governor of the City of Mexico. “I gave him the charge of re-peopling the
capital and in order to invest him with greater authority, I reinstated
him in the same position, that of Cihuacoatl, which he had held in the
time of Montezuma” (Carta Cuarta, Veytia I, p. 110).

Quite indirectly, it is possible to learn what sort of military equipment
had been adopted by the Cihuacoatl when he acted as war-chief. Amongst
certain presents, which were sent by Cortés to Charles V and are minutely
described in vol. XII of the “Documentas ineditas del Archivio de Indias,”
p. 347, there are several suits of armor, which could only have been
appropriately worn by the “woman serpent.” One suit consisted of a
“corselet with plates of gold and with woman’s breasts” and a skirt with
blue bands. Another suit, instead of the breasts, exhibited a great wound
in the chest, like that of a person who had been sacrificed. In another
list (by Diego de Soto, p. 349) a shield is described “which displayed a
sacrificed man, in gold, with a gaping wound in his breast, from which
blood was streaming....” It is obvious that the first of these suits of
armor conveyed figuratively the name and the second the office of the
Cihuacoatl of whom Duran speaks as follows:

“He whose office it was to perform the rite of killing [the victim] was
revered as the supreme pontiff and his name or title and pontifical robes
varied according to the different periods [of the year] and the ceremonies
which he had to perform. On the present occasion his title was Topiltzin,
one of the names of the great lord ... (Quetzalcoatl) and he appeared
carrying a large flint knife in his hand ...” (_op. cit._, chap. LXXXI).
The following passage shows definitely that Montezuma’s coadjutor, his
Quetzalcoatl or divine twin, had an equal share of divine honors accorded
to him. “The head priest of the temple, named Quetzalcoatl, never came out
of the temple or entered into any house whatever, because he was very
venerable and very grave and was esteemed as a god. He only went into the
royal palace” (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 39). The same authority designates
the second “divine twin” as the Tlalocan-tlamacazqui or,
Tlalocan-tlenamacac and states that he served the Tlalocan-tecuhtli.

Before proceeding further, let us pause and inquire into the reason why
the name Tlaloc, which is formed of tlalli=earth and is defined by Duran,
for instance, as meaning “an underground passage or a great cave” (_op.
cit._, chap. 84), should be the well-known title of the “god of rain.” The
explanation is to be found in the text of the Vatican Codex, A.
Kingsborough, V, p. 190. This teaches us that the last syllable of the
name Tlaloc does not represent oc=inside of, but stands for octli, the
name of the native wine now known as pulque, which is obtained from the
agave plant. Tlaloc thus meant “earth-wine” and “by this metaphor they
wanted to express that just as the fumes of wine make mankind gay and
happy, so the earth when saturated with water, is gay and fresh and
produces its fruits and cereals.” By the light of this explanation we see
that the titles conferred upon Montezuma’s coadjutor were literally “the
priest or lord, or dealer-of-fire in the place of the earth-wine.” “The
clouds, rain, thunder and lightning were attributed to the lord Tlaloc who
had many tlalocs and priests under him, who cultivated all foods necessary
for the body, such as maize, beans, etc., and sent the rains so that the
earth should give birth to all of its products. During their festival in
springtime the priests went through the streets dancing and singing and
carrying a shoot of green maize in one hand and a pot with a handle in the
other. In this way they went asking for the [ceremonial] boiled maize and
all fanners gave them some” ... (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 5).

The above and many scattered allusions throw light upon the group of ideas
associated with the Cihuacoatl and clearly indicate what were his duties.
To him devolved the care of the earth and his one thought was to secure
abundance of rain and of crops. In order to ensure the proper cultivation
of the ground, he had, under him, innumerable agents, who strictly
superintended the cultivation of all food-plants, the irrigation of barren
lauds, etc. These agents, who also resorted to ceremonial usages in order
to bring rain or avert hail-storms and other disasters, were collectively
named “the 400 pulque or octli-gods”—an appellation which developed into
tochtli-gods, when the rabbit (=tochtli) had become the pictograph
habitually employed to convey the sound of the word octli, and had been
adopted as the symbol of the earth and of prolific reproduction in
connection with this. The latter idea is born out of the female title,
that of the earth-mother, who “always brought forth twins.” The Cihuacoatl
thus stands out as the representative of the bountiful mother-earth and as
the lord of agriculture, one of whose duties was the careful collection,
storage and distribution of all food products. He presided over the cult
of the fertility of the earth, of the nocturnal heaven, of the stars and
moon, which were associated with the female principle and with growth in
general. The following record proves that amongst his other duties he
offered sacrifices to the invisible hidden powers of darkness and earth.
“During the night, in the feast Tititl, the high priest named Tlillan
tlenamacac [=the dealer with fire in the land of darkness=tlilli=black,
evidently a title analogous to that of Tlill-potonqui-cihuacoatl, given by
Tezozomoc, in Cronica, chap. 33], sacrificed a victim in honour of the god
of the Underworld” (Sahagun, book II, appendix). In this, as on similar
occasions, he was assisted by four priests who succeeded him in rank.

Mr. Bandelier has already recognized that judicial sentences were
ultimately referred to the “woman-serpent,” who pronounced the “final
sentence, which admitted of no appeal.” There are more reasons than can
conveniently be presented here, proving that in Mexico, as in Guatemala,
the priest of the Below, the personification of Tezcatli-poca=Shining
Mirror, employed an actual mirror made of polished obsidian, as an aid in
pronouncing final judgment on criminals.

The Cakchiquel procedure is described by Fuentes of Guzman, who is quoted
by Dr. Otto Stoll in his most instructive and valuable work on the
Ethnology of the Indian Tribes of Guatemala (Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie, band I, supplement I, 1888): “A road leads [from the ancient
city of Guatemala] to a hill [figured with a large tree growing from it];
on its top there is a flat circular cement floor, enclosed by a low wall.
In the centre is a pedestal, polished and shining like glass. No one knows
of what substance it is made. This was the tribunal or court of the
Cakchiquel Indians, where public trials were held and where the sentences
were executed. The judges sat in a circle on the low wall. After the
sentence had been pronounced, it had to be confirmed or vetoed by another
authority. Three messengers, acting as deputies of the council, went to a
deep ravine situated to the north of the palace, where, in a sort of
hermitage or prayer-house, there was the oracle of the devil, which was a
black, transparent stone, like glass, but more costly than [ordinary]
obsidian. In this stone the devil revealed to the messengers, the sentence
to be executed. If it agreed with the judgment pronounced, this was
immediately executed upon the central pedestal [of the hill of justice] on
which the criminal was also tortured, at times.” If nothing was seen in
the mirror, and it gave no sign, the prisoner was pronounced free.

This oracle was also consulted before wars were undertaken ... “During the
first years of the Spanish occupation, when the bishop Marroquin heard
about this stone, he had it cut out and consecrated it as an altar, which
is still in use in the convent of San Francisco in the capital. It is a
precious stone of great beauty and is half a vara long.”

A picture in the Vatican Codex B (p. 48) represents a temple, on the
summit of which a large obsidian mirror is standing on its edge. Inside
the doorway there are many small black spots, which obviously represent
small mirrors and convey the idea that the interior walls were incrusted
with such. These illustrations would prove that sacred edifices were
associated with obsidian mirrors even if Sahagun did not mention, as he
does (book II, appendix), no less than three sacred edifices in the great
temple of Mexico, which were associated with obsidian mirrors. It is,
moreover, stated by Duran that “in Mexico the image of the god
Tezcatlipoca was a stone, which was very shining and black, like jet. It
was of the same stone of which the natives make razors and knives,” _i.
e._, obsidian (Duran II, p. 98).

What is more, Bernal Diaz relates that the image of Tezcatlipoca, which he
saw beside the idol of Huitzilopochtli in the hall of the great temple of
Mexico, had shining eyes which were made of the native mirrors=tezcatl.
“In connection with the shining eyes” of the god it is interesting to note
that when, as Duran states, he was represented under another form, his
idol “carried in its hand a sort of fan made of precious feathers. These
surmounted a circular gold disc which was very brilliant and polished like
a mirror. This meant that, in this mirror, he saw all that went on in the
world. In the native language they named it ‘itlachiayan,’ which means,
that in which he looks or sees” (Duran, _op. cit._, vol. II, p. 99).

Sahagun mentions an analogous sceptre which consisted of “a gold disc
pierced in the centre, and surmounted by two balls, the upper and smaller
of which supported a pointed object. This sceptre was called tlachieloni,
which means ‘that through which one looks or observes;’ because with it
one covered or hid one’s face and looked through the hole in the middle of
the gold plate.” This kind of sceptre is not exclusively associated with
Tezcatlipoca in the native picture writings, for it figures in the hand of
Chalchiuhtlycue “the sister” of Tlaloc and of Omacatl whose attributes,
the reeds and chalchiuite or jade beads, prove him to be also associated
with the water. On the other hand the same sceptre is also assigned by
Sahagun to the god of fire.

A clue to the truth and significance of this emblematic sceptre is
furnished by the fact that, in order to express the divine title
Tlachiuale, meaning “the Maker or Lord of all creatures or of young life,”
the native scribes were naturally obliged to employ the verb tlachia=to
look or see, in order to convey its sound. It is obvious that they
cleverly agreed to express this verb by picturing some object which could
be or was looked through. They therefore adopted a sceptre with a hollow
disc, as an emblem, which was carried by the living representative of
certain divinities, whose entire costume was in reality a sort of rebus,
and in the case of Tlaloc, the lord of earthwine and fertility and the
Tlachiuale or “Creator of young life,” par excellence, they once and for
all designated his title by surrounding his eyes with two blue rings,
accentuating thereby the action of seeing or looking. But this probably
conveyed even more than the above title, for there is a Nahuatl noun
tlachiuhtli, which means, “something made or formed or engendered,” or
“earth which is ploughed and sown.” Then there is the verb tlachipaua
which means, “the smile of dawn, the break of day, the clearing up of the
weather,” also the purification and cleansing, all of which were supposed
to be under the dominion of the rain-god and of his living representatives
on earth, the rain-priests. The seemingly conflicting fact that the
tlachieloni sceptre was also assigned to the god of fire is explained by
the existence of the verb tiachinoa=to burn up the fields or forests, and
of the noun tlachi-noliztli=the act of burning up or scorching the fields
or forests, and finally, metaphorically, tlachinoli-teuotl=war or
battle=destruction. It is only when we thus realize all the natives could
express by the image of an eye, looking through a circle, that we begin to
grasp its full meaning when employed as a symbol in their picture
writings.

As to the obsidian mirror, which undoubtedly was the symbol of
Tezcatlipoca and, consequently, must have pertained to his representative,
the priest of the Night, we find that it played a most prominent rôle in
the cult he presided over. In the first case it appears as though it was
resorted to in Mexico as in the conquered province of Guatemala, as the
oracle which rendered final judgment. A series of illustrations, etc., to
be published in my final work on the Calendar System, will prove
satisfactorily that the Mexican astronomers extensively employed black
obsidian mirrors as an aid to astronomical observations, by means of
reflection. Besides mirrors on the summits of temples and mountains,
certain square columns, placed on an elevation and faced with a broad band
of polished obsidian, are pictured in some Codices. It is obvious that the
latter in particular, if carefully oriented, would have served as an
admirable means of registering the periodical return of planets, stars or
constellations to certain positions; they would then be reflected on the
polished surface, as in a frame. In certain Codices the double, tau-shaped
courtyard or enclosure surrounded by a high wall with battlements, which
was employed in the daytime for the national game of ball, figures in
combination with obsidian mirrors. I draw attention to the fact that the
name of these courtyards was tlach-tli, which literally means the looking
place=the observatory and that, amongst the edifices of the great temple,
a tezca-tlachtli=obsidian-mirror-observatory, is described. I shall
demonstrate more fully, on another occasion, that the chief purpose of
these enclosures was to serve as astronomical observatories. Dr. Brinton,
Señor Troncoso and other authorities have already observed that the game
of ball itself was intended to represent the idea of the perpetual motion
of the heavenly bodies. (See American Hero-myths, p. 119.)

Returning to reëxamine the divine title Tezcatlipoca we see that, when
interpreted as “the lord of the shining obsidian mirror,” it was the most
appropriate title of the lord of the Nocturnal Heaven, which myriads of
mirrors reflected each night, throughout the land. It is easy to see how
the habit of referring to the Temple Minor, in order to ascertain the
positions of the stars, would naturally lead to its being consulted more
extensively as an oracle later on. We thus clearly perceive how the lord
of the Night, whose priests called themselves “the sons of the Night,”
became intimately associated with divination and how the idea of a
definite connection between the movements of the stars or human destinies
would, in the lapse of centuries, make a deep and indelible impression
upon the minds of men.

If the obsidian mirror was the symbol, par excellence, of Mexican star
cult, there are evidences that the small mirror of polished pyrites was
that of the sun-cult. The latter seems to have been employed, in some way
or other, for the concentration of the rays of the sun required for the
lighting of the sacred fire, at noon, on the days of the vernal equinox
and summer solstice. As in Peru, this duty devolved upon the high priest
of the Above or the Son of the Sun, a title which undoubtedly pertained
also to the Mexican ruler, though not employed so ostentatiously as in
Peru. A keen emulation, which may almost be termed an intense rivalry,
seems to have existed between the two cults, which Sahagun even goes so
far as to designate as two religions. From a chapter of his Historia we
even learn that the entire population of Mexico was divided into two
halves who respectively belonged to one or the other religion, a fact
which naturally affected the position of the two classes of people and had
created the native ideas, of an upper and a lower class or caste which
will be further discussed.

Sahagun’s informants explained to him that, when a child was born, its
parents, according to their class, registered it at one of the two
educational establishments for the young and took vows to have it educated
there as soon as it attained a suitable age. The lower class took their
offspring to the Telpuchcalli, where they were dedicated to the service of
the community and to warfare, _i. e._, the ruling class. “The ‘Lords,
chieftains or elders,’ offered their sons to the Calmecac to be educated
for the priesthood.”

It being impossible to present here in full the data showing how certain
primitive conceptions had developed further and how some human occupations
had become associated with the Above and others with the Below, I will but
point out the important fact that the city of Mexico, divided into four
quarters, each of which had five subdivisions (calpullis), actually
consisted of two distinct parts. One of these was Mexico proper, where the
Great Temple stood and where Montezuma and the lords resided; the other
was Tlatelolco, where the lower classes dwelt and the merchant class
prevailed. After a certain revolt the inhabitants of this portion of the
city were, we are told, “degraded to the rank of women” (see Bandelier,
_op. et loc. cit._). From this it would seem evident that their affairs or
lawsuits were settled in the official house named the Cihua-tecpaneca,
whilst the affairs of the nobility, residing in Mexico proper, were
disposed of in the Tlaca-tecpaneca (see Duran, chap. 3). Knowledge of the
prevalence of the division of the population into two parts is gained
through a passage of Ixtl-ilxo-chitl’s Historia (chap. XXXV, p. 241): “To
Quetzalmemalitzin was given the lordship of Teotihuacan ... with the title
of Captain-general of the dominion of the noblemen. All affairs or
lawsuits of the lords and the nobility belonging to the towns of the
provinces situated in the plain, were to be attended to and settled in his
town. The same title was bestowed upon Quechaltecpantzin of Otompan, with
the difference that he was the captain-general of the commoners and
attended to the affairs and claims of the commoners and populace of the
provinces in the plains.”

A further detail concerning the position of the ancient capital of Mexico
should not be omitted, for it is described as follows by the English friar
Thomas Gage, who visited it in 1625: “The situation of this city is much
like that of Venice, but only differs in this, that Venice is built upon
the sea-water, and Mexico upon a lake, which seeming one is indeed two;
one part whereof is standing water, the other ebbeth and floweth according
to the wind that bloweth. That part which standeth is wholesome, good and
sweet, and yieldeth store of small fish. That part which ebbeth and
floweth is a saltish bitter and pestiferous water, yielding no kind of
fish, small or great” (p. 43). Added to other data, this detail seems to
indicate that the geographical position of the capital had been chosen
with utmost care and profound thought, so that, built on a dual island on
a dual lake, it should be in itself an image or illustration of the ideas
of organization which I have shown to have dominated the entire native
civilization. If it be admitted, as I think is evident, that the site of
the capital was chosen and mapped out in accordance with these ideas, then
we undoubtedly have, in ancient Mexico, not only one of the most
remarkable “Holy Cities” ever built by mankind, but also the most
convincing proof of the great antiquity and high development of the
civilization under whose influence one of the greatest capitals of ancient
America was founded.

It is impossible to read the following descriptions without recognizing
that the identical fundamental ideas had undoubtedly determined the native
topography of capitals situated in other parts of the continent. Beginning
with Guatemala, which formed a part of ancient Mexico, I refer to the plan
of the ancient capital and its description by Fuentes of Guzman, published
by Dr. Otto Stoll in his work already cited: “A deep ditch, running from
north to south, divided the town into two portions. One of these, situated
to the east, was inhabited by the nobility; whilst the commoners
(Macehuales) lived in the western division.” I pause here to call
attention to the intentional coincidence that the association of the east
with the Above, and the west with the Below, is exemplified here,
topographically. The plan shows that the eastern half contained, in its
centre, a great, oblong enclosure, surrounded by a high wall. A wall,
running from east to west, divided this enclosure into two distinct
courtyards with wide separate entrances from the west. The northern
courtyard, designated as the “Place of the Palace,” contains several
buildings. The southern one, named the “Place of the Temple,” contains an
edifice on a terraced mound and several others. It is noticeable that, in
the exact middle of the central wall, there is a seemingly double,
unfortunately indistinguishable object, or building, which marks the exact
middle of the entire dual enclosure. It is particularly interesting that
the East City is divided into two portions by a wall running from the
southeast angle of the wall of the Temple courtyard to the outer wall of
the city. The southern half, in which the “Tribunal or hill of justice is
to be seen, is designated as containing the houses of the Ahauas or heads
of the Calpuls.” The northern half, containing many houses, lacks
designation. The West city is likewise divided into two distinct portions
by a broad street, enclosed by a hill wall and conducting from the western
and only entrance to the city directly to the Place of the Temple. A deep
trench or ditch encloses the entire city, whilst nine watch-towers, on
small hills, are placed at equal distances around it.

If this precious document clearly reveals the ground plan on which the
native capitals were built, in accordance with the dominant idea, the
following native map shows that the ancient dominion of Yucatan, for
instance, was figured as an integral whole with form of a flat disc
divided into four quarters, Ho, the modern Merida, in its centre. This
map, copied from the native Codex Chumazel, has been published by Señor
Crescencio Carillo of Ancona in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico,
vol. II, p. 43, as showing the territorial division of Yucatan before the
Conquest (fig. 27). According to Herrera and Diego de Landa, the unity of
the dominion was destroyed about two centuries before the Conquest by the
destruction of the capital, Mayapan. The land then remained divided
amongst many independent chiefs or Bacabs. Señor Carillo renders the Maya
descriptive text written under the map, as follows: “Here is Mani. The
beginning of the land, or its entrance, is Campeche. The extremity of the
wing of the land is Calkini; the (chun) place where the wing grows or
begins, is Izamal. The half of the wing is Zaci; the tip of the wing is
Cumkal. The head of the land is the city, the capital Ho.”

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 27.

The foregoing text shows that, notwithstanding the circular shape in which
it is figured, the dominion was evidently thought of as in the form of a
bird, the head of which was the capital.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 28.

This figure of speech seems to have been prevalent in Mexico also and to
be conveyed by the representation, in the Vienna Codex, of a double
tau-shape to which the head, wings and claw, and tail of a quetzal are
attached (fig. 28, no. 8). As I shall have occasion to demonstrate further
on, the double tau signifies the Above and the Below and their union
forming an integral whole. The following Nahuatl terms explain by
themselves the symbolism of the bird-figure: cuitlapilli=the tail of an
animal or bird, atlapalli=the wings of a bird, or the leaves of a tree,
cuitlapalli atlapalli=vassals, the populace or lower classes, the
laborers.

These words furnish irrefutable evidence that the lower class was
familiarly known in Mexico as “the wings and the tail” of the commonwealth
or state, or the leaves “on the trees” of the tribe. Sahagun states, on
the other hand, that the Mexicans employed the metaphor of “a bird with
wings and a tail” to designate a lord, governor or ruler. He also records
that the terms hair, nails, a thorn, a spine, beard and eyelashes, were
used to signify “someone who was noble, generous or of the lineage of the
lords.” Such metaphors as these may well cause us to despair at arriving
at a complete understanding of the native imagery and symbolism. The
symbolism of the bird’s claw yet remains to be looked into. The Nahuatl
for the same is xo-maxaltic, xo-tzayanqui or cho-cholli.

In one of the ancient Mexican harangues, previously quoted, it is said of
the supreme ruler that he had been given “fangs and nails” in order to
inspire fear and reverence. Scattered evidence and the fact that in the
Codex Mendoza the decorated claws of an eagle, for instance, appear as a
military device on the shields of certain war chiefs, seem to indicate
that the warriors were spoken of, metaphorically, as “the claws or nails”
of the state. The following passage finally proves that the tlachtli or
courtyard the shape of which was a double tau, as in fig. 28, no. 8, was
regarded by the Mexicans as an image of the state itself. In another
native harangue it was said of the newly-elected ruler: “He is now placed
or put into the Tlachtli, he has been invested with the leathern gloves,
so that he can govern and throw back the ball to the one who throws it to
him in the game. For the business of governing very much resembles this
game and the game of dice” (Sahagun, book VI, chap. xiii). The latter game
alluded to, the patolli, was played on a mat in the shape of a cross,
marked off with divisions, with stone markers, the moves of which were
decided by the numbers obtained on casting the dice, which consisted of
beans with marks on them. It is interesting to find that the word pat-olli
seems to be connected with the verb pat-cayotia=to be substituted in the
place of another, or to succeed another in office or dignity. The above
comparison of the game to the business of governing indicates that a
feature of the government was a methodical succession or rotation in
office or dignity, a point to which I draw special attention, as I shall
refer to it later.

The evidence that the Mexicans regarded the form of the courtyard, named
tlachtli, as that of the state itself is noteworthy. On the other hand,
the native map contained in the Codex Mendoza, p. 1, shows us that they
figured their territory as a square, surrounded by water and divided into
four equal parts by diagonal cross-streams or canals. As in the Maya map
the centre of this is occupied by the well-known hieroglyph or rebus of
Te-noch-ti-tlan, the ancient capital, which consisted of Mexico and
Tlatelolco. In three of the four triangular divisions, two chieftains are
figured, whilst in one there are four, the complete number of chieftains
thus being ten. The incontrovertible evidence that the dominion of the
Mexicans, as well as that of the Mayas, was figured and regarded as an
integral whole has seemed to me to be of extreme importance, because it
points to a fresh interpretation of the much-discussed meaning of the name
Tullan, “the glorious centre of culture where the high priest
Quetzalcoatl, had dwelt and whence he had been driven by the wiles of his
enemies. It is a place that we hear of in the oldest myths and legends of
many and different races. Not only the Aztecs, but the Mayas of Yucatan
and the Kiches and Cakchiquels of Guatemala, bewailed in woful songs, the
loss of that beautiful land and counted its destruction as the common
starting-point in their annals.... According to the ancient Cakchiquel
legends, however, ... ‘there were four Tullans, as the ancient men have
told us.’ The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them
a migration from Tullan in Zuyva.”... “When it happened to me,” says Friar
Duran, “to ask a [Mexican] Indian who cut this pass through the mountains
or who opened that spring of water or who built that old ruin? the answer
was: The Tultecs, the disciples of Papa,” _i. e._, Quetzalcoatl. (See
Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 88.) Considering that the identity of
Tullan has not yet been satisfactorily established, that several Tullans
are said to have existed and that a small town, about a dozen leagues to
the northeast of Mexico, is named Tullan-tzinco=little Tullan, I should
like to direct the attention of Americanists to the following Maya words:
Tul-um=fortification, edifice, wall and enclosure. Tula-cal, Tuliz,
adjectives=whole, entire, undivided, integral. Tul-ul, adjective=general,
universal. Tul-tic, verb=to belong, to correspond to something. Tul=all
around or full. Tul=in composition, to have abundance. Tulnah=to be too
full, to overflow, to proceed, to issue, abound, high-tide. Tulaan=past
participle of tul.

I am of opinion that, after carefully examining the foregoing words and
their meanings, we must admit that an intelligible and satisfactory
derivation and signification of the much-discussed Tula of the Mexicans,
which has been vainly sought in the Nahuatl language, are obtained if we
connect it with the Maya words for fortress, or stronghold, an enclosed
place, an integral whole, an overflowing source of abundance and plenty.
If we do this, then the problematic term Tolteca, given by Mexicans to the
superior people from whom they had derived their culture and knowledge,
means nothing more than such persons who had belonged (Maya verb tultic)
or were members of a highly cultured commonwealth or ancient centre of
civilization, such as had flourished during countless centuries, in
Yucatan and the present Chiapas, Honduras and Guatemala.

Reserving this subject for future, more detailed, discussion, I point out
that the name Ho, given to the capital, which is designated in the map as
the “head of the land,” is obviously derived from the Maya hol, hool, or
hoot, which means not only head but also chieftain. The circumstance that
a single word, Ho, conveyed the triple meaning of a capital, a chieftain
and a head, is particularly noteworthy, as it affords not only important
clues to native symbolism, which I shall trace later on, but also shows
that the presence of the syllable Ho or O, in certain native names of
localities, may possibly indicate that it was a capital, the residence of
a chieftain. Further light is shed upon the following native association
of ideas when the following words are studied. The ancient Maya name for a
pyramid or artificial mound was ho-m and the pyramidal elevations on which
temples or palaces were built were designated as ho-mul or o-mul (see
Vocabulary, Brasseur de Bourbourg). The title Holpop was moreover that of
the “chieftain of the mat,” whose prerogative it was to sit on a mat and
to beat the sacred drum during the public dances or ritual performances
(Cogolludo). The ancient word for vase, vessel or cup in general was
ho-och, whilst o-och meant food or maintenance (Arte de la lengua Maya,
Fray Beltram de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa, Merida, 1859). If the foregoing
data be summarized we find that the word ho, the ancient name of the head
of the land, which is figured in its centre, is not only homonymous with
capital and chieftain, but also with pyramid, vase or receptacle and
maintenance, and finally with the numeral 5, also “ho.” We shall see that
the identical ideas were similarly associated in ancient Mexico.

Referring once more to the ancient map of Yucatan and to the peculiarity
that the head of the figurative bird, the capital, Ho, is supposed to
occupy the centre of the state, I point out nos. 1 and 5 (fig. 28) from
the Bodleian and Selden MSS. as somewhat analogous representations of a
central capital or chief, and nos. 3 and 6 as possibly being images of a
territorial subdivision of the state, resembling a spider’s web. In an
unpublished Mexican MS., which has been recently brought to light, the
middle of the concentric circles is painted blue and suggests the idea of
a system of distribution or irrigation, proceeding from a central supply
of water and radiating in all directions. An accentuation of centrality is
brought into relief in fig. 28, no. 6, where the spider’s web is placed in
the middle, between the two peaks of a mountain. In no. 2 a small
quadruple sign, which frequently occurs in the Vienna Codex, always
painted in the colors of the four quarters and united by a cross-band
across the centre (no. 4). also figures between two peaks, above two feet,
the significance of which I do not venture to determine. A remarkable
circular disc resembling the Maya map, and also divided into four parts by
cross lines, but exhibiting footsteps denoting rotation, is represented in
the entrance of a temple, in the Vienna Codex (fig. 28, no. 7). These
figures will be referred to again further on.

Let us now bestow attention upon the names of the Mexican capital and
first note that the edifice of the Great Temple, in which the Cihuacoatl
performed an annual ceremony already mentioned, was called tlal-xic-co,
literally “in the navel of the earth or land” (from tlalli=earth, land or
country, xictli=navel and co=in) (Sahagun, book II, appendix). Besides
this edifice there was, in the middle of the lagoon of Chalco, an island,
which, to this day, bears the name of Xico=in the navel or centre. This
indicates the curious circumstance that the edifice and island had
apparently been regarded as forming “ideal centres,” and shows that the
name of Mexico itself may have been associated with the same conception
being, as it was, the central seat of government. Gomara states that “the
city was divided into two halves or parts, one named Tlal-telolco=small
island (literally, ‘in the earth-mound’) and the other named Mexico, which
means ‘something which flows,’ ” (Histoire Généralle des Indes, Paris,
1634, chap. 38). The Nahuatl word alluded to can be no other than the verb
memeya which, according to Molina, signifies “water, or something liquid
which issues or flows in many directions.” I have already pointed out that
the Maya words to express water which rises and overflows, high tide and,
by extension, abundance and plenty, are tul, tulnah and, finally, tulaan,
past participle of tul. If the particle “me” conveyed the above idea, its
combination with xico would cause the name Mexico to be replete with
significance and to mean “the figurative centre whence all maintenance
proceeded and flowed in all directions, throughout the land.”

The Borgian Codex furnishes representations of identical meaning. On page
4 a human body, the centre of which forms a large red disc, is stretched
across the double tau-shaped tlachtli which obviously represents the four
quarters, being painted with their four symbolic colors. It is
particularly noteworthy that the limbs of the central figure are
represented as wearing the green skin of a lizard, while its face is
enclosed in the open jaws of the reptile. It should also be noted here
that whilst the Nahuatl names are cuetz-palin and topitzin, the Maya term
for lizard is mech or ix-mech. On the same page a similar, but smaller,
figure is depicted on a background representing the nocturnal heaven. On
the following page the figure of a dead woman is stretched on a red disc
whilst a priest is drilling the fire-stick into a circular symbol, with
four balls, which is the well-known symbol for chalchiuitl=jade. As the
name of the female water goddess is Chalchiutlycue, this detail is
significant and will be referred to later on. It is noteworthy that on
both pages 5 and 6 the performance of the above rite is accompanied by the
image of the goddess of the earth and underworld, represented with a
death’s head, and with her hair strewn with stars. Her body is that of a
green lizard, and she carries ears and blossoms of maize and holds a blue
garment on which the chalchihuitl symbol figures.

In connection with representatives of the human form outstretched in
sacrifice, on whose body the rite of kindling the sacred fire or of
extracting the heart is being performed, it seems evident that, under the
dominion of the fundamental ideas I have been discussing, the native sages
regarded and utilized the human form as an image of the Middle and Four
Quarters. It is well known that the number 20 was termed “one count” and
connected with the number of fingers and toes, distributed equally on his
four extremities. The human victim thus formed a living swastika or cross
and became not only the consecrated image of the supreme, creative,
central divinity who controlled the Four Quarters, but also an image of
the central government with its supreme ruler; whilst the four chiefs of
the Quarters were symbolized by the four limbs. Each of these terminated
in a symbolized group consisting of a hand, maitl, with a thumb (=touey
mapilli or vei mapilli, literally, the great finger, or our great finger)
and four fingers (mapilli); or of a great toe, touei xopil or topec-xopil
(literally, our great toe, or our lord toe) and of four toes=xopilli.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 29.

The above association of ideas was doubtlessly accentuated by the fact
that the word pilli means a nobleman, a chieftain; thence he terms
pilconetl=the son of a nobleman and pilhua=he who has sons (pil in this
case meaning son and hua=possessor of). This latter fact could have been
very aptly conveyed in the picture-writings by employing fingers to
express the sound “pilli.” The number of sons a chieftain had could thus
be easily expressed by his exhibiting a corresponding number of fingers. I
shall revert to this possibility presently, and now referring to fig. 29,
no. 2, direct attention to the obvious intention to express the idea that
the fire produced was distributed to the four quarters by means of the
figures, painted in symbolical colors, three of which are visible. Another
picture in the same Codex represents four similar figures springing
towards the cardinal points from a source or fountain of water, whilst a
priest above a triangular cloak(7) holds a pair of weapons (?) in his
hands (fig. 29, no. 1). If carefully studied, these groups seem to
corroborate the derivation of the name Mexico, given above. What is more,
the first group affords an explanation of the meaning and purpose of three
strange recumbent stone figures bearing circular vessels, which have been
respectively found in Mexico, Tlaxcala and Chichen-Itza and are now
preserved at the National Museum in Mexico. They furnish the most
convincing proof that an identical cult and symbolism had existed in these
widely-separated localities. The conclusion I have previously expressed,
that an actual connection had been established between Chichen-Itza and
Mexico by the Maya high priest Kukulcan, or Quetzalcoatl, is thus
corroborated by undeniable evidence, which will be supplemented later on.

The three monoliths have been described and illustrated in the Anales del
Museo Nacional, Mexico, vol. 1, p. 270, by the late Señor Jesus Sanchez,
and are here reproduced. The statue exhumed at Chichen-Itza by Dr. Le
Plongeon (pl. IV, fig. 1) closely resembles that found at Tlaxcalla in
Mexico (pl. III, fig. 2). Dr. Brinton, who erroneously describes the
Chichen-Itza statue as representing “a sleeping god,” points out the
extremely important fact that there was a divinity worshipped in Yucatan
called Cum-ahau, “the lord of the vase,” who is designated in a MS.
dictionary as “Lucifer (the lord of the underworld) the principal native
divinity.” He adds there is good ground to suppose that this lord of the
vase ... was the god of fertility common to the Maya and Mexican cult
(Hero-Myths, p. 165). Considering that the great market-place in the
capital was actually the centre to which the entire product of the land
was periodically carried from its remotest confines, was there classified,
exchanged or distributed far and wide, the comparison to a central flowing
source of maintenance was most appropriate.

That some particular spot in or near the city should have gradually
assumed importance and sanctity as marking the exact centre of the
metropolis, _i. e._, of the integral whole of the Mexican “empire” is but
natural and it is not surprising to find that solemn rites were performed
on this spot. In one of the chronicles to which I shall revert, it is
stated that the New Fire was at times kindled on the prostrate body of a
slave, and this curious statement is corroborated by a picture in the
Borgian Codex, showing a priest producing fire from a circular vessel
placed on the body of a victim beneath whom a face enclosed in the open
jaws of a reptile, is visible (fig. 29).

                             [Illustration.]

                                Plate IV.

Dr. Le Plongeon, to whom much credit is due for its discovery, identified
the Chichen-Itza statue, for reasons not fully explained, as a portrait of
Chac-Mool, or Lord Tiger, and relates that it was found at a depth of
eight metres, not far from the base of the Great Pyramid Temple. A statue
of a standing tiger, with a human head and a shallow depression in its
back, was also found near the same spot. I have seen other sculptured
figures of human beings holding a vase, as at the hacienda near
Xochicalco, Mexico, and of tigers, with circular depressions on their
backs, and hope to be able to reproduce their photographs on another
occasion.

The most elaborately sculptured recumbent statue is undoubtedly that which
was found in or near the city of Mexico (pl. IV, fig. 3). The under
surface of its base (pl. IV, fig. 5) is entirely covered with zigzag water
lines and representations of roots of plants, figured as in the Codices;
shells, one kind of which is the well-known symbol of parturition, and
frogs which are intimately associated with water symbolism. On the hair of
the statue a flower-like ornament is carved (pl. IV, fig. 4) in connection
with which it should be noted that the Nahuatl for flower is xochitl,
pronounced hoochitl, resembling the Maya hooch=vase. The small groups of
five dots forming a border around the circular vessel are noteworthy, as
they are likewise sculptured on the calendar-stone. The characteristic
scrolls about the eyes of the figure show that it personates tlaloc, or
earth-wine. The fertility of the earth, caused by rain, is symbolized by
the wreath of ears of corn and reeds (Nahuatl, _tollin_) which is
sculptured around the base of this, one of the most remarkable of ancient
American monuments.

Señor Sanchez cites Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, vol. II, p. 52) as the
only authority who mentions a recumbent image or idol and relates that,
“in the city of Tula, there was preserved in the great temple, an image of
Quetzalcoatl ... he was figured as lying down, as though going to
sleep.... Out of reverence the image was covered with mantles or
cloths.... They said that when sterile women made offerings or sacrifices
to the god Quetzalcoatl, he immediately caused them to become
pregnant....” He was the god of the Winds which he sent to sweep or clear
the way for the tlaloques=“the earth-wine” gods.

Señor Sanchez also quotes Gama, who, basing himself upon Torquemada’s
authority, maintains that Tezcatzon-catl, the principal rain or octli-god,
was figured as lying in an intoxicated condition, holding a vase of pulque
in his hands. To the above data I add the description by Bernal Diaz, of a
“figure in sculpture” he saw on the summit of the great temple of Mexico:
“It was half man and half lizard (lagarto), was encrusted with precious
stones and one-half of it was covered with cloths. They said that half of
it was full of all the kinds of seeds that were produced in the entire
land, and told [me] that it was the god of sown land, of seeds and fruits.
I do not remember his name....” (Historia Verdadera, p. 71). It may be as
well to note, that the Nahuatl names for lizard, cuetz-palin and topitzin,
approximately convey the sound of the first syllables of the name of the
culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, and of the title “topiltzin” bestowed upon him.
It must, of course, remain a matter of conjecture whether the lizard was
possibly employed in the above case as a pictograph, to express the sound
of its name. One thing seems certain, that the Tula image of Quetzalcoatl,
to which divinity barren women directed their invocations, and the statue
described by Bernal Diaz as that “of the god of seeds, fruits and
cultivated land,” were undoubtedly analogous to the sculptured recumbent
figure found in Mexico, and exhibiting the symbols of Tlaloc, or
earth-wine, of maize, and of parturition. Bernal Diaz further relates that
the said image was kept on the uppermost terrace of the Great Temple, in
one of five “concavities surrounded by barbacans or low walls the
wood-work of which was very richly carved” (_op. et loc. cit._).

The inference to be drawn from the foregoing data is that the Mexicans and
the Mayas habitually kept, on the summit of their principal temple, in
their centres of government, a statue holding a circular vessel and
figuratively representing the “navel or centre of the land.” The group of
ideas already traced in the Maya ho=capital, hom=pyramid, ho-och=vessel,
o-och=maintenance, ho=5, thus proves to be completely carried out, for, on
this consecrated spot, which emblematized the source whence all life
proceeded, sacred emblematic rites were performed, the purpose of which
was to typify the union, in the centre, of the four elements requisite for
the productiveness of the earth.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 30.

The ground plan of the Caracol or Round Temple of Chichen-Itza, which was
built, according to tradition, by the high priest Quetzalcoatl, carries
out the idea of the middle and of the four quarters in so obvious a manner
that it may safely be assumed that it represented the supposed centre of a
dominion (fig. 30). Referring the reader to the interesting description of
this remarkable edifice in Mr. William Holmes’ valuable work already
cited, I note that round temples, dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, are recorded
to have also existed in Mexico. It seems probable that, at certain
festivals, the living representatives of the Above and Below performed
certain sacred rites on the summit of one of these circular edifices. It
is obvious that such rites could only have been fitly performed by the
coöperation of both twin rulers or Quequetzalcoas, each of whom
personified two elements. The appropriate season for such rites would be
that when the necessity of insuring a successful harvest would seem most
urgent. It is a recorded fact that the most solemn festivals of the year
were held between the vernal equinox, on which date the ritual year began,
and the fall of the first rain which usually occurs about the middle of
May. It is extremely significant that at this precise period the festival
toxcatl took place (_cf._ Maya thoaxol or thoxol=distribution, giving each
one a little, and o-och=food or maintenance) during which Tezcatlipoca and
Huitzilopochtli were jointly honored. During this festival the “sacred
dough,” named tzoalli, was a prominent feature of the ritual and it was
undoubtedly associated with the idea of the life-giving union of the four
elements, the Above and Below, or the male and female principles.

It can, moreover, be directly connected with the recumbent statues
representing the centre; for, whilst Bernal Diaz recorded that the statue
on the summit of the Great Temple held a collection of all the seeds of
the land, Cortés, in his descriptive letter, gives us an important detail
which evidently applied to the identical statue. He relates that “the
bodies of the idols are made of a dough consisting of all the kinds of
seeds and vegetables that these people ate. These are ground, mixed with
each other and then moistened with the blood of the hearts of human
victims ...” (_op. cit._ p. 105). Sahagun relates that an image of the
earth goddess, under the title of Seven-serpents or twins, was made of
this sacred dough and that offerings of all kinds of maize, beans, etc.,
were made before it “because she is the author and giver of all these
things which sustain the life of the people” (book II, 4). It is well
known that the dough images were broken into small pieces and these were
distributed to the priests and people, who partook of the substance after
having prepared themselves by fasting, for the sacred rite. I draw
attention to the fact that the above sacred substance is but the natural
outcome of the primitive notion already mentioned, which led the hunters
to spill blood upon the earth, to obtain its increased fruitfulness. An
insight having been thus obtained of the origin of blood sacrifices in
ancient America, it is possible to understand the meaning of certain
representations showing the performance of ritual blood-offerings.

On the well-known bas-relief preserved in the National Museum of Mexico,
and illustrated in the Anales (vol. I, p. 63), the two historical rulers
of ancient Mexico, who figure as Quequetzalcoas, or divine twins, in
exactly the same costume, are sculptured with blood flowing from their
shins and in the act of piercing their ears with a sharp bone instrument.
Two streams of blood descend from these and meet before falling into the
open jaws figured beneath an altar, on which two conventionalized flowers
appear. The two rows of teeth=tlantli, convey the sound of the affix
tlan=land of, or tlalli=earth. But the most remarkable and striking
instance of the group of ideas we have been studying is found on p. 62 of
the Borgian Codex. On a background formed by a pool of water, there is a
group which represents the “earth-mother” lying on a band of lizard-skin,
with two maize plants issuing from her body and growing into a large
two-branched tree, in the centre of which is a flint-knife or tecpatl. A
bird stands on its summit and its branches terminate in maize plants. Its
growth is being furthered by the two streams of blood which proceed from
two human figures, standing at each side of the tree. One is painted black
and evidently represents the Lord of the Below; the other is painted
blue-green and represents the Lord of the Above. The blood-sacrifice they
are jointly offering is that mentioned in the “Lyfe of the Indians,” as
performed in order to obtain generation. Unquestionably this symbolical
group would have been equally intelligible to Mayas or Mexicans, since the
ideas it expressed were held in common by both people.

Before proceeding further it is necessary to state that after the native
philosophers had, for an indefinite period of time, been satisfied with
the artificial division of all things into four quarters, corresponding to
the cardinal points and elements, the idea of the Above and Below
gradually grew in importance, whilst prolonged thought and observation
disclosed that the above classification demanded revision. On carefully
investigating the attributes of the principal ancient Mexican deities or
personifications of the elements we see that the native thinkers had found
themselves obliged to make a distinction between the different forms of
each element, having realized, for instance, that water not only fell to
earth from the heaven, but also issued from the depths of the earth in the
form of springs or fountains, and formed rivers and lakes. The final
conclusions they reached in this instance are best explained by the fact
that the name of the god Tlaloc means earth-wine or rain only, and that
his sister “Chalchiuhtlycue” appears as the personification of wells,
springs, rivers and lakes. It is evident that the classification of the
ocean or sea must have given rise to much serious thought. We know how the
problem was solved by the fact that the Nahuatl name for the ocean is
“ilhuica-atl”=heaven-water. Accordingly, the rain and the ocean pertained
to the heaven, the Above and male principle, whilst the wells, springs,
rivers, etc., belonged to the earth, the Below, the female principle.

As in this case, so it was with the other elements, each of which was
finally personified by a male deity and his female counterpart, which, in
some cases, tended to represent its distinctive and beneficent properties.
As these deities are separately treated in my commentary of the “Lyfe of
the Indians” and lack of space forbids my discussing them here, I shall
but mention that the ultimate native systematization of the elements, each
of which was thought of as an attribute only of supreme and central
divinity, corresponds exactly to that held by the Zuñis of to-day and set
forth in the following account given by Mr. Frank H. Cushing and quoted in
Dr. Brinton’s “Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico” (p. 8). In
quoting it I draw special attention to the numerical divisions given, as
this is absolutely essential for the understanding of the statements I
shall make, further on, concerning the origin of the native
Calendar-systems.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 31.

“In the ceremonies of the Zuñis the complete terrestrial sphere is
symbolized by pointing or blowing the smoke to the four cardinal points,
to the zenith and nadir, the individual himself making the seventh number.
When the celestial is also symbolized, only the six directions are added
to this seven, because the individual remains the same, so that the number
typifying the universe, terrestrial and celestial, becomes 13. When, on
the other hand, in their ceremonies, the rite requires the officiant to
typify the supra- and intra-terrestrial spheres, that is, the upper and
lower worlds [the Above and the Below], the same number 13 results, as it
is held that in each the sun stands for the individual, being in turn the
day sun and night sun, the light and dark sun, but ever the same and
therefore counts but once.”

After having gained this knowledge of native speculative philosophy, let
us penetrate still further into their modes of thinking by studying, first
of all, a series of symbols of the earth-mother taken from one of the most
valuable of Mexican MSS., the Vienna Codex (fig. 31). In these the idea of
the vase, bowl or receptacle and of the serpent predominates. It is
instructive of native thought to find the vase represented as containing a
child (no. 1), an agave plant (no. 7), a fire, denoting warmth (no. 3), a
flower (no. 12), and a bunch of hair, the numerical symbol for
multiplicity=the number 400 (no. 5). In no. 2, the hollow between two
recurved peaks conveys the idea of a central vase; a band with eyes rests
upon the peaks and denotes the heaven. No. 4 shows a double vase, enclosed
in a similar representation of the nocturnal heaven—the idea to be
conveyed being evidently that of a receptacle hidden in darkness. No. 9
displays an open jaw, two claws, a human heart and a stream of blood
issuing from it. Nos. 10 and 11 present different shapes of the serpent’s
jaw, the symbol of the earth.

The double-headed serpent forming a vase containing a flower (no. 12) is
particularly interesting because the flower=xoch-itl in Nahuatl, seems to
suggest an intentional likeness to the Maya word for “vase, vessel or cup
in general,” ho-och (Arte de la lengua Maya, Fray Pedro Beltran de Santa
Rosa, ed. Espinosa, Mérida, 1859) as well as hoch or o-och=“food and
maintenance.” The symbolical vase-like opening in the core of the agave
plant, (no. 8) is such as is made to this day, in order to collect the
juice, which, when fermented, constitutes the sacred wine of the ancient
Mexicans, octli, now better known as pulque.(8) As will be shown the
Mexicans considered this as “the drink of life.” Its use was rigidly
regulated and supervised by the “octli-lords” or “rain-priests” who
distributed it at certain dances, in order to induce a state of mild
intoxication amongst the participants.

As in the case of the Zuñis and Tarahumari Indians of the present day,
referred to by W J McGee, in his valuable and instructive article on “The
beginning of Marriage” (the American Anthropologist, vol. IX, no. 11, p.
371), “certain ceremonials typifying the fecundity of the earth and of the
leading people thereof” were performed by the ancient Mexicans. These
public ceremonials had also been “apparently developed to the end that the
tribes and peoples might be encouraged to increase and multiply and
possess the fecund earth.” They took place at the period of the year when
the heaven and earth were also supposed to unite, _i. e._, at the
beginning of the rainy season. During this the ordinary out-door
occupations of the agriculturist and hunter were forcibly interrupted and
the regular and periodical transportations of produce and tribute to the
capital became impossible, owing to torrential rain, swollen rivers and
impassable roads. This period of enforced shelter and confinement indoors
seems to have become the definite mating season of the aborigines. At the
same time the union of the sexes had obviously assumed a sort of
consecration since it was intimately associated with the cosmical,
philosophical and religious ideas and coincided with what was regarded as
the annual union of the elements or of the Above and Below, the heaven and
earth.

At that period of its history, when the Aztec race was jointly governed by
a priest, personifying the heaven and a priestess, “his wife and sister,”
who personified the earth, some form of sacred marriage rite must have
been annually performed. The consecrated character of their union must
have naturally caused their offspring to be regarded as of a holy and
almost divine origin. It is easy to realize, therefore, how, in ancient
Mexico, the artificial idea of “superior birth” came into existence, how a
family or caste of rulers gradually developed, the members of which were
entitled “teotl”=divine, whilst the men were regarded as “the sons of
Heaven” and the women “the daughters of Earth.” It is obvious from this
that the periodical union of the sexes, accompanied as it was, by sacred
dances and the distribution of sacred wine, must have gradually assumed a
semi-religious character, whilst the ritual nuptials of the “divine”
rulers, typifying, as it obviously did, the grand and impressive
phenomenon of the rainy season, must have caused this marriage to assume
the character of a hallowed rite and surrounded it with the most elevated
and intense religious sentiments of which the native mind was capable.

After this recognition of the diverging influences which guided the
development of primitive marriage institutions, we will return to the
rain-priests or “octli-lords,” of whom it is repeatedly stated that there
were four hundred, a number corresponding to an assignment of 100 or 5×20
to each of the four provinces or divisions of the commonwealth. Their
emblem was the sacred vase or receptacle and in the “Lyfe of the Indians”
this will be seen figured on their mantas and shields (no. 6_a_). A small
gold plate, of the same shape, is represented as worn by these “lords,”
attached to the nose (no. 6_b_); and, in the same MS., the symbolical
ornament is also carried by the “sister of Tlaloc.” It was evidently worn,
like similar ornaments in other countries, hanging from the septum of the
nose, and seems to have indicated a consecration of the breath as the
substance of life. As an inference, merely based on an insight gained into
the native modes of thought, I suggest that the explanation for the
adoption of this ornament may have been the religious idea that the breath
of life, dividing itself as it issues through the nostrils and uniting
when inhaled, appeared to the native thinkers as a marvellous illustration
of unity and duality, both ideas having constantly been present in their
minds.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 32.

In the Vienna Codex there is a remarkable picture of the earth-vase
resting on a slab with five divisions. A profusion of puffs or breaths of
air or vapor issue from it and, branching off in two directions, form what
is like the conventional tree of life, also met with in Maya bas-reliefs
and documents. At the extremities of the branches which turn downwards, a
serpent’s eye is visible and a forked-tongue issues above the middle (fig.
32, no. 1). The intention to express an exuberant vitality and growth
issuing from the symbolical vase in the centre of the earth, seems
obvious. This idea is still more clearly conveyed, however, in two
symbolic pictures on pp. 21 and 29 of the Codex Borgia, which are
reproduced as nos. 1 and 4 in fig. 1 of this publication. The first
represents the vase overflowing with water and containing a flint-knife,
the generator of the vital spark. The central group is surrounded by water
and by sun-rays and obviously symbolizes the union of air, light and
water, constituting the Above, with the flint the emblem of the
earth-mother and of Tezcatlipoca, the lord of the Under-world. Fig. 1, no.
4, represents the vase overflowing with a liquid, which is designated as
being the sacred octli or earth-wine by the presence of the rabbit, which
expresses the sound of its name=tochtli. This rebus is surrounded by the
nocturnal heaven strewn with stars and the reference to the union of rain
or earth-wine with earth and darkness is evident. It has been generally
assumed that these images of the vase, containing the rabbit or
flint-knife, represented the moon. As the latter was intimately associated
with the cult of night, of the earth-mother and ideas of growth, it is not
impossible that by an extension of symbolism, this was the case, but only
in the same way as the sun was the emblem of the cult of the Above. On the
other hand the native drawings of the moon in Sahagun’s Academia MS.
represent it as a crescent with a human profile on the inner side, and in
a specimen preserved at the Trocadéro Museum, Paris, it is similarly
carved in rock crystal.

Before proceeding to investigate the symbol further, I would point out the
general resemblance of the vase, especially as a conventionalized
serpent’s jaw, to the “horse-shoe” shape of the problematical stone
“yokes” which have been so thoroughly studied by Dr. Hermann Strebel of
Hamburg (Studien ueber Steinjoche aus Mexico and Mittel-Amerika.
Internationales Archiv, bd. III, 1890). Mr. Francis Parry has advanced a
view concerning the meaning of these curious “sacred stones.”(9) This is
somewhat corroborated, as will be shown, by my recent studies, which seem
to indicate pretty clearly that these symbolical objects pertained to the
cult of the earth-mother. A fact of unquestionable importance, cited by
Mr. Parry, is the certified existence and use, amongst southern
Californian Indians of the present day, of a rudely worked stone of the
same shape, in a native religious rite. The owner of one of these stones,
Mr. Horatio Rust, a pioneer resident of Pasadena, southern California,
exhibited it in the Anthropological Section of the World’s Columbian
Exposition, at Chicago, 1893, and informed me how he had observed that,
occasionally, a native assembly took place at a certain spot on a mountain
side, during which invocations and offerings were made. He ascertained
that the ceremony on one occasion was the equivalent of the puberty-dances
of similar California tribes. Having visited and examined the spot after
one of these celebrations, in which six young girls, decorated with
garlands of flowers, were the chief participants, he found the “sacred
stone,” concealed and surrounded by offerings of corn, meal and pieces of
money. The version published by Mr. Parry is slightly different to this
account, which was given me by Mr. Rust himself.

In order fully to appreciate the close analogy between the Californian
ceremonial offering of maize and meal to the emblematic stone and the
ancient Mexican ritual offerings of seeds to an idol, holding a bowl or
vase, it is necessary to read the following data. At the same time I would
like to mention here that amongst the Hupa Indians of California, who have
been termed “the Romans of Northern California by reason of their valour
and far reaching dominions,” we find that “flakes or knives of obsidian or
jasper, sometimes measuring 15 inches or more in length, are employed for
sacred purposes and are carried aloft in the hand in certain ceremonial
dances, wrapped with skin or cloth. Such knives are esteemed so sacred
that the Indians would on no account part with them, and Mr. Stephen
Powers found that they could not be purchased at any price.”(10)

It is scarcely necessary to recall here that the flint-knife was a
well-known ancient Mexican emblem, nor to point out the importance of the
conclusion that two well-defined symbols which played an important rôle in
the Mexican and Mayan cult of the Below and of the Earth-mother, are
actually found in use amongst Californian Indians at the present day.

A whole flood of light is thrown upon native symbolism, however, by the
information obtained from the Zuñi Indians by Mr. F. H. Cushing. The
following passage, from their Creation myth, affords the most positive
confirmation of the foregoing conclusion, that the bowl or vase was the
native emblem of the earth-mother. The Zuñi speaker said: “Is not the bowl
the emblem of the Earth, our Mother? For from her we draw both food and
drink, just as the babe draws nourishment from the breast of its mother.
And round, as is the rim of the bowl, so is the horizon....”(11)
Interesting as this explanation of the native symbolism undoubtedly is, it
becomes most important when its full significance is realized and we
recognize that originally earthenware bowls themselves were looked upon as
sacred emblems formed indeed out of the material of the earth itself. This
fact places the invention and manufacture of earthen vessels in an
entirely new light and enables us to conjecture and understand why, quite
apart from their utility, so much care and decoration were lavished upon
them and why, indeed, they were constantly buried with the dead. They
obviously served as sacred emblems of the earth-mother, to whose care the
dead body was confided, and originally the intention probably was to
propitiate her by the beauty of the sacred vessels, which, to be
symbolical of her bounty, necessarily contained food and drink.

Without pausing to discuss how easily this custom would have gradually
given birth to the belief that the food and drink thus offered were
intended for the use of the dead body itself, or its soul, I would point
out that, in the absence of clay vessels, a stone, rough or worked, would
have also served as an appropriate emblem of the earth-mother, being as it
were, of her own substance. It is well known that in ancient Mexico this
custom prevailed. There we also find that the bowl- or vase-shaped grave
was employed, with a deeply religious and symbolical meaning. This is
clearly revealed by a native drawing in the “Lyfe of the Indians,”
representing a native burial. The deceased, represented by his skull only,
has been placed in a deep hole, figured as a large inverted horse-shoe,
painted brown and covered with small “horse-shoe” marks. The same
religious symbolism which led to the adoption of a definite form of
sepulchre, typifying the element earth, would evidently account for the
adoption for burial purposes, of large clay vessels into which the remains
of the dead were placed. In some localities these clay burial urns were,
as we know, made large enough to contain the dead body itself. The
difficulty of manufacturing these would naturally have led to the general
adoption of cremation, simply as a means of reducing the remains so that
they could repose in the sacred image of the earth. Cremation would,
moreover, be a rite full of meaning since, to the native mind, earth was
inseparable from its twin element fire, and both together constituted the
“Below.”

It is significant to find, however, that the ashes of Montezuma’s
predecessors had not been finally consigned to the earth. In strict
accordance with their association with the Heaven and Above, their remains
were never allowed to come in contact with the earth, but were usually
preserved inside of a hollow wooden effigy of the deceased, which was
dressed in his insignia and placed in a high tower, built for the express
purpose. Cortés states that there were “forty very high towers” in the
enclosure of the Great Temple of Mexico and that “all of these were
sepulchres of the lords” (Historia de Nueva-España, ed. Lorenzana, pp. 105
and 106). Whilst it is evident that the remains of all lords and priests
of heaven should thus be assigned a place of rest high above the earth, it
is equally intelligible that the bodies of the lords and priests of the
Below and all women should be consigned to the interior of the earth and
by preference in caves. The Codex Féjérvary contains an interesting
picture of the tied-up body of a woman, recognizable as such from the
head-dress and her instrument of labor, the metlatl, on which the maize is
ground. The mummy rests inside of a flat effigy of a serpent’s head, which
seems to be carved in wood or stone and closely resembles fig. 31, no. 11.
It is worth considering whether the carved stone-yokes may not have served
in connection with the funeral rites of the consorts of rulers or high
priestesses or priests of the Below.

If investigations of the vase or earth symbols are extended to countries
lying south of Mexico, traces of the existence of an analogous cult are
observable. There undoubtedly exists a striking resemblance between the
form of the characteristic and peculiar stone “seats” which have been
found in such numbers in Ecuador, to the vase, fig. 31, no. 3, for
instance. The employment of these symbolical stones as a consecrated
central altar or, possibly, as the throne of the living representative of
the earth-mother, would have harmonized with the native ideas which have
been traced on the preceding pages.

It was also extremely interesting to me to find the identical symbol in
the Maya day-sign Caban, which has been identified by Dr. Schellhas and
Geheimrath Förstemann as a symbol of the earth and is figured on p. 99 of
Dr. Brinton’s Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics. In the sign Caban, the
horse-shoe mark is accompanied by a series of dots which seem to indicate
liquid trickling from the receptacle and permeating the soil, an idea
which is strictly analogous to the much more elaborate Mexican images of
the vase full of rain or “earth-wine,” fig. 1, nos. 1 and 4, which, in
cursive form, was employed as the emblem of the pulque, or octli lords,
the priests of the earth. It is strikingly significant to find that in the
Maya Codices the drops issuing from the horse-shoe are sometimes figured
as trickling into the mouths of “divinities” whose faces also exhibit
images of the sacred vase, analogous to that of the Mexican “octli-lords.”

These Maya divinities have been designated by Dr. Schellhas as god L,
whose face is painted black and under whose eye a vase is painted, a
peculiarity termed by Maya authorities “an ornamented eye” and which may
be seen in fig. 33, iv; (2) as god M, “a second black god,” whose eye is
likewise enclosed in a vase and whose hieroglyph is a vase on a black
ground; and (3) as god C, of whom I shall subsequently speak in detail.
(See Brinton’s Primer, pp. 122 and 124.) In the case of god L, the two
horse-shoe marks from which drops are falling into the mouth of the god,
are surmounted by the glyph imix, to which I shall revert.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 33.

The horse-shoe mark with drops likewise occurs in the design resembling
the akbal glyph, which has been interpreted as connected with akab=night.
It also occurs, in Maya Codices, on bands exhibiting cross-symbols,
sometimes in an inverted position and hanging from above and sometimes
standing on two of the three mounds which are a feature of these
interesting glyphs. Postponing a detailed discussion of these, I will but
emphasize here that, in the Maya Codices the vase, cursively drawn as a
“horse-shoe” mark, is proved to be intimately connected with the ideas of
liquid falling from above, and constituting the drink of divinities and
symbols associated with the sacred vase, night and darkness, all
attributes of the Below. We shall next demonstrate that it was alternately
placed, on the Maya Caban glyph, with a curious sign consisting of a
pea-shaped black dot, to which a curved and wavy line is attached. This is
always figured as issuing from above the dot, then extending downwards and
half around it and terminating in a descending, undulating line.

I submit the following to the consideration of Maya specialists: It seems
to me that this sign presents an extremely realistic drawing of the seed
of a monocotyledonous plant, such as the maize or Indian corn, in its
first stage of germination, when the radicle, having issued from the apex,
turns downwards in characteristic fashion and penetrates into the earth.
Besides the realism of the native drawing there can be no doubt that the
image of a sprouting maize-seed is the most expressive and appropriate
accompaniment to the symbol of fertilizing rain, on an earth-symbol, and I
am unable to understand how Drs. Cyrus Thomas, Seler, Schellhas and
Brinton could have overlooked the realism in this image of a sprouting
seed, and concluded that it was a portrayal of “fermented liquor trickling
downward,” a “nose-ornament,” or a “twisted lock of hair,” “a cork-screw
curl.” The latter interpretation was made by Dr. Schellhas because he
found the sign in connection with female figures in the Codices, which
undoubtedly is a fact of extreme interest, as it furnishes a valuable
proof that the Mayas associated the earth with the female principle.

Dr. Schellhas, however, records his observation that the sign caban occurs
as a symbol of fruit-bearing earth, in the Codex Troano, as it is figured
with leaves of maize (p. 33) or with climbing plants issuing from it and
winding themselves around a pole (p. 32). Geheimrath Förstemann connects
the day-name caban with “cab” to which Perez, in his dictionary, attaches
the meaning of “earth, world and soil” (Die Tages götter der Mayas.
Globus, vol. LXXIII, no. 9) and adds that the hieroglyph decidedly
designates the earth. At the same time he interprets what I regard as the
maize-grain and its radicle, as possibly representing a bird in its flight
upwards, and he merely describes the accompanying inverted horse-shoe with
dots, without attaching any positive meaning to it. It must be added that
Dr. Förstemann himself states that he is not satisfied with his own
interpretation of these two symbols, the first of which, the seed and
radicle, likewise occurs in the day-sign cib, to which I shall recur.

If any doubt remains as to the signification of the day-sign cab, I think
it will be dispelled when it is shown that the name cab, or caban is
obviously related to the adjective, adverb and preposition cabal or
cablil, which signifies low, below, on the earth, in, beneath and under.
The frequent association of the cab glyph with the image of a bee, as in
the Codex Troano, is partially explained by the fact that the Maya word
for honey is cab, for honey-bee is yikil-cab. It affords at all events, an
instance, in Maya hieroglyphic writing, of a method of duplicating the
sound of a word analogous to that which I detected in Mexican pictography,
and named complementary signs in my communication on the subject,
published as an appendix to my essay on Ancient Mexican Shields
(Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, Leyden, 1892). On the other hand
the day name and sign cib, on which the sprouting grain is also figured,
seems to be related to the verb cibah=to will, to occur, to happen, to
take place. The allusion contained in both glyphs is obviously the same
and signifies, in the first place, the hidden process of germination which
takes place under the surface of the soil, and is associated with the idea
of the female principle in Nature.

The seed and radicle, horse-shoe and rain-drops, are also distinguishable
on a vessel on page 35 of the Dresden Codex and on a small three-legged
vase, which is figured by Doctor Brinton (Primer, 118) as the day sign
ch’en. This vase is surmounted by two in-curving projections and offers a
close analogy to a sacred vase with superstructure (fig. 33, II) from
which projects a peculiar open and double receptacle, into which a priest
is sowing small seeds. The interior of this bowl is represented as hollow,
and containing what I shall show further on to be a native symbol for
Earth: three little mounds. On another bowl, in front of this one, a bird
is sitting and presumably hatching. In another portion of the same MS. a
similar bowl is figured containing three seed fruits and capsules,
resembling pomegranates or poppy-heads (fig. 33, III).

The tree next to which the first two symbolical bowls are placed deserves
to be carefully studied, for the trunk is crowned by four stems bearing
single leaves and is encircled by a serpent, _can_, the homonym for the
numeral four=kan. A fringed mantle and a scroll hang from the coils of the
serpent’s body, two footsteps are painted on the scroll and, pointing
downwards, express “descent,” as do also the falling drops of liquid on
the stems of the tree which grows from a peculiar glyph with subdivisions,
which has points of resemblance with the glyph under the footless divinity
(fig. 33, I). An obsidian mirror, with cross bars, is painted in front of
the latter, which displays the same descending footsteps on its mantle.
The head and eyes of a snail, the symbol of parturition, are above its
face and a wreath of flowers crowns its head. Tedious as such a minute
analysis may seem, it is nevertheless necessary, in order to gain a
perception of the extent to which symbolism was practised in the picture
writings found in the Maya MSS., accompanied by the cursive calculiform
glyphs. It seems that, in no. II, we have a presentation of the Maya “tree
of life,” and that scrolls, on which descending footsteps are depicted,
are intended to convey the meaning that life is descending from Above into
the egg and seeds by virtue or decree of the celestial power. It should be
noted here that the phenomenon of a living bird issuing from the hard and
inanimate egg-shell had made as deep an impression upon the ancient
philosophers in Mexico as elsewhere, and that the power “to form the
chicken in the shell” was deemed one of the most marvellous attributes of
“the divine Moulder or Former,” as is further set forth in the “Lyfe of
the Indians.”

The foregoing illustrations establish, at all events, that the Mayas, like
the Mexicans, associated the sacred vase with seeds and germination. The
vase, illustrated by Doctor Brinton, exhibits the seed and radicle; and
this is also found on the symbol for earth, which, in the Cortesian Codex,
is associated with the image of a serpent, possibly the equivalent of the
Mexican Cihuacoatl, or female serpent.

If, after mustering this close array of analogies, we next examine the
glyph cib, we find that it exhibits the seed and radicle in the centre of
a square, three sides of which are decorated with what Doctor Brinton has
termed the “pottery decoration(?).” This consists of short lines, such as
are employed in Mexican pictography, in the well-known sign for tlalli, or
land, which is usually surrounded on three sides by a fringe, presumably
symbolizing plants and grass, a “fringe” of vegetation and verdure. In the
glyph cib, already referred to, I am inclined to see but a cursive
rendering of the same idea, with the seed and radicle in the centre and
the fringed border barely indicated by a few short lines. The same border
is found repeated on three sides of the head of a frequently recurring
personage whom Doctor Schellhas designates as “God C, of the Ornamented
face.” In his extremely valuable work, Die Göttergestalten der
Mayahandschriften, this careful investigator records the various
combinations in which this God C occurs in the Codices and impartially
weighs the possibilities of its meaning. Geheimrath Förstemann has made
the important observation that the figure of God C occurs in combination
with the day-sign, chuen, of the Maya calendar, which coincides with the
Mexican day-sign azomatli=monkey.

I am unable to agree with my venerable friend in identifying God C, with
Polaris. As Doctor Schellhas rightly observes, the fact that God C is
found in combination with the signs of all the four quarters disproves an
identification with Polaris. What is more, God C is frequently represented
as receiving in his mouth drops of liquid falling from a cursive vase
placed above his head—a detail which clearly connects him with earth and
the “earth-wine.” In the Mexican MSS. we find the monkey intimately
connected with the octli or earth-wine gods as, for instance, in the “Lyfe
of the Indians.” I therefore reserve a more detailed discussion of this
subject for my notes on this MS. and return to the glyphs caban and kan or
can.

Just as it has been shown that the first may signify cabal=the Below, so
it is evident that the second is connected with the preposition and adverb
canal, signifying “above, on top of, on high.” Dr. Brinton sees in the kan
symbol a presentation of a polished stone, or shell pendant, or bead, and
cites the Maya dictionary of Motul which gives kan as the name for “beads
or stones which served the Indians as money and neck ornaments.” In
connection with this important statement I revert to the carved
shell-gorgets which have been found in the mounds and ancient graves in
the Mississippi valley and exhibit Maya influence. The greater number of
these exhibit a carved serpent (which in Maya is _kan_) in their centres
and this fact affords a clue to the possible origin of the Maya name for a
neck ornament given in the Motul dictionary. It is undeniable that all
evidence unites in proving that the ancient peoples of the Mississippi
valley were in traffic, if not more intimately connected, with a
Maya-speaking people and came under the influence of the ideas and
symbolism current in Yucatan.

Returning to the employment of the glyph kan in Maya Codices, for more
reasons than I am able to enumerate here, I conclude it served as an
indicative of the Above or Heaven. It is a curious fact that the Maya word
for cord is kaan, whilst the name for sky is caan. I cannot but think,
therefore, that a carved pendant with a serpent effigy=a kan, worn on a
cord=kaan, must have been associated by the Mayas with the Heaven or
sky=caan, and that this linguistic coincidence must have been a strong
factor in the development of the symbolism attached to the glyph can or
kan.

An interesting fact, which I shall demonstrate by a large series of
illustration from native Codices in a chapter of my forthcoming work on
the ancient Calendar System, will show that in their hieratic writings,
the ancient Mexican scribes represented the nocturnal heaven or sky as a
circle composed of a cord, to which stars were attached, whilst the centre
of the circle exhibited one or four stars. In my opinion the origin and
explanation of the association of the cord with stars are clearly
traceable to the above mentioned fact that in the Maya tongue the word for
cord, kaan, closely resembles the sound of the word caan=sky. The presence
of the cord in the Mexican symbols is, therefore, another indication of
their Maya origin. A proof that the Mayas also employed the cord as a
symbol of the sky, or heaven, is furnished by the much-discussed
lentil-shaped stone altar found at Copan, a small outline of which is
represented in fig. 21, no. 1. In order fully to understand the meaning
expressed by this stone, it is necessary to bear in mind how indissolubly
the idea of something circular was associated by the Mayas and Mexicans
with their conception of the vault of heaven resting on the horizon, and
of the Above, consisting of the two fluid elements, air and water.

It is scarcely necessary to refer again here to more than one authority
for the statement that the temples of the air (of the Above) were
circular, and the reason given by the natives for this was that “just as
the air circulates around the vault of the heaven, so its temple had to be
of a round shape.”(12) As a contrast to this conception, the influence of
which is also obvious in the form of the round temples and towers of the
ruined cities of Central America, I would cite the allusions to the solid
earth contained in the sacred books of the Mayas, the Popol Vuh, as being
“the quadrated earth, four-cornered, four-sided, four-bordered.” These
data establish the important fact, to which I shall recur, that the native
philosophers associated the Above, composed of air and water, with the
rounded, and the Below, composed of fire and water, with the angular form.

The Copan stone altar exhibits the circular form and is surrounded by a
sculptured cord which conveys the sound of its name kaan or caan=heaven.
On it a cup-shaped depression=ho-och, marks the sacred centre of the
heaven, the counterpart to the terrestrial bowl whence all life-giving
force proceeded. Two curved lines diverge from this and divide the vaulted
circle into two parts. The curve in the lines may be interpreted as
conveying motion or rotation whilst the division of the sky may have been
intended to signify the eastern or male and the western or female portion
of the heaven, the whole being an abstract image of central rulership and
of a dual principle incorporating the four elements. It is obvious that
the meaning intended to be conveyed might also include the duality of the
Heaven or Above, composed of the union of the elements air and water. By
painting the stone in two or four colors either of these meanings could
have been expressed. In either case it will be recognized, however, that
much as Dr. Ernest Hamy’s deductions concerning this altar have been
criticised, the learned director of the Trocadéro Museum, Paris, was
undoubtedly right in recognizing that the stone is a cosmical symbol,
intended to convey the idea of a two-fold division and analogous to the
Chinese tae-keih which it resembles, with the difference that the Copan
sign is more complex exhibiting, as it does, a central bowl-shaped
depression. A glimpse at the other symbols in fig. 21 will show that the
identical idea is expressed in the Mexican signs exhibiting a central
circle, usually accompanied by a four-fold division.

An analogous attempt to express the same native idea is recognizable in
the peculiar mushroom-shaped stone figures, represented by a number of
examples at the Central American exposition recently held at
Guatemala,(13) and recently described by the distinguished geologist and
ethnologist, Dr. Carl Sapper. The specimens had been collected in San
Salvador and Guatemala and “resemble great stone mushrooms” inasmuch as
each consists of three well-defined parts, a square pedestal from the
midst of which rises an almost cylindrical “stem” supporting a large
circular solid top, flat underneath and rounded above. The cylindrical
support is carved in the rough semblance of a human form, which, in some
instances, has rays issuing from its head.

An acquaintance with the fundamental ideas of native cosmogony enables us
to recognize that the square stone base typifies the solid part of the
universe, the Below, whilst the vaulted circle above typifies the heaven,
the Above. The figure standing between both is evidently an image of a
central lord and ruler, and the entire image is in accord with the native
mode of thought as set forth in Mr. Frank H. Cushing’s report already
cited and in the symbols which have been figured.

After reading Mr. Cushing’s account of the native American philosophy,
preserved to the present day by the Zuñis, it is impossible not to realize
how clearly the mushroom-images materialize the identical ideas which
constitute, indeed, the keynote of native thought and can be traced in
each centre of ancient American civilization. I am inclined to think that
these stone images were, originally, painted with the colors assigned to
the four quarters, which would render the symbolism more apparent. The
existence of these images in a restricted area of territory, seems,
moreover, to indicate that they had been invented there, possibly under
the influence of a religious and political creed with particular reference
to the union, in a single individual, of the power and attributes of the
Above and Below—an idea which strongly contrasts with Mexico and Yucatan,
where the idea of duality prevailed to such an extent that, by creating
two distinct religions and governments, it ultimately led to the
disintegration of the greatest of native empires and its fall, from which
it was only rallying at the time of the Conquest. It is also possible that
the Guatemala images are the expression of the reversion to a more ancient
form of philosophy or government when it had been realized that dual
government led to dissensions and disintegration. At all events the rude
mushroom figures testify that the conception of a single celestial or
terrestrial ruler of the Above and the Below filled the minds of their
makers at a time, the exact date of which it would be of utmost importance
to determine, if this were only possible. It is also interesting to note
the curious analogy presented by these figures to the well-known statement
by Confucius that, “the sage is united to Heaven and Earth so as to form a
triad, consisting of Heaven, Earth and Man.”

The association of the round form and of the peak with the Above and of
the square and bowl with the Below can be also detected in the form of
native American architecture, as exemplified, for instance, by the
contrasting shapes of two temples figured on page 75, of the Borgian Codex
(fig. 34) which were obviously dedicated to the two prevailing cults. One
of these is surmounted by a tau-shaped thatched roof with a flat top and
turned-down ends. The dedication of this temple to Night or star-cult is
conveyed in this case, by the sign for star on a black ground inserted in
the roof.(14)

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 34.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 35.

The opposite temple exhibits a roof which rests on a black architrave and
offers a general resemblance to an inverted tau. It rises in a tapering
form and ends in a cone-shaped ornament. The existence and significance of
these two forms of temple-roofs might escape notice did the same not recur
in two high caps or mitres figured in the Vienna Codex and obviously
intended for the respective use of the Lords of the Above and of the Below
at a religious ceremonial (fig. 35). The first of these ends in a high
peak, the extremity of which is represented as capped with snow, in the
same conventional manner employed in figuring snow-mountains. An extremely
significant feature of this cap is its exhibition of a curved and rounded
pattern only on its border. The second mitre ends in a horizontal line; it
exhibits an angular pattern and two flaps hang down from it, which, as
they naturally concealed the ears of the wearer, seem to have been
symbolical of something hidden, and, perhaps, of silence and secrecy. A
third mitre is figured on the same page, which seems to unite the
characteristics of both forms and is surmounted by a young maize-shoot,
proceeding from a vase.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 36.

The association of the Above with a peak or point is further illustrated
by a well-known peaked diadem always painted blue which was the symbol of
the visible ruler (fig. 36, no. 5). A peak also occurs on military shields
accompanied by four bars (fig. 36, no. 3) and presents an analogy to no. 4
from the “Lyfe of the Indians.” The latter is given as the symbol of a
sacred festival which I have demonstrated in a previous publication to
have coincided with the vernal equinox.(15) For further reasons which I
shall present in my calendar monograph, I infer that we have in this
drawing a most valuable image of the gnomon and dial employed by the Sun
priests for the observation of the equinoxes and solstices. The human
victim who was attached to the centre of the circular stone during the
same festival is usually represented with the same cone or point and eight
appendages on his head (fig. 36, no. 2). Owing to the circumstance that
this peaked head-dress, or cone, was sometimes employed by the scribes for
its phonetic value, as in fig. 36, no. 1, from the Codex Mendoza, in which
instance it is figured on a mountain and is usually painted blue, we know
positively that its name was Yope or Yopi—a valuable point since a temple
and a sort of monastery in the courtyard of the Great Temple of Mexico
were both named Yopico (Sahagun). At the same time it should be noted that
the Maya name for “a mitre,” the symbol of a divine ruler, is Yop-at. In
the Mexican ollin-signs a cone or ascending point is usually placed above
and opposite to a symbol consisting of a ring or loop. These evidently
signify the Above and Below, and in this connection it is worth noticing
that archaeologists have long puzzled over the curious forms of the two
kinds of prehistoric stone objects which have most frequently been found
in the island of Porto Rico. The first of these consists of an elongated
stone, the centre of which rises in the shape of a cone, whilst the ends
are respectively carved in the rough semblance of a head and of feet. The
second form, which has frequently been found in caves, consists of a large
stone ring, and is popularly termed “a stone collar.” I am inclined to
regard the latter as being analogous to the “stone yokes” of ancient
Mexico and to infer that the aborigines of Porto Rico practised a form of
the same cult. It should be borne in mind that the high conical stone, on
which the human victims were sacrificed, was a salient feature in an
ancient Mexican temple and that its form must have had some symbolical
meaning. The foregoing data indicate that it probably was emblematic of
the Above and Centre and was therefore regarded as the fitting place of
sacrifice to the Sun and Heaven, whilst offerings to the Earth were most
appropriately made in circular openings recalling the rim of the bowl and
the round line of the horizon. It will be seen further on that the cone
recurs in native architecture and that its use as a symbol, in the course
of time, culminated in the pyramid.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 37.

Let us return to it in its rudimentary stage, as a perpendicular line
arising from a medium level, forming an inverted tau. The widespread
employment amongst American peoples of the inverted and upright tau-shape
as emblems of the Above and Below is abundantly proven and doubtlessly
arose as naturally as “the Chinese characters Shang=Above, employed as a
symbol for Heaven, and Lea=Below or Beneath, employed as a symbol for
Earth. These are formed, in the one case, by placing a man (represented by
a vertical line) above the medium level (represented by a horizontal line)
and in the other below it” (Encyclopedia Britannica, art. China) fig. 37.
Another equally graphic presentation of the analogous thought is furnished
by the familiar Egyptian sign which exhibits a loop or something rounded
and hollow above and a perpendicular line beneath the medium level. It is
well known that the tau occurs in Scandinavia and is popularly named
Thor’s hammer (fig. 38). Merely as a curious analogy I point out that in
fig. 25, no. 2, from the Vienna Codex, we have an American instance of a
tau-shaped object held in the hand in a ceremonial rite.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 38.

The late and lamented Baron Gustav Nordenskjöld observed that the
entrances to the ruined estufas of the ancient cliff-dwellers of Colorado
were in the shape of an upright tau and it is well known that this is also
the case amongst the Pueblo Indians of the present day. By means of a
photograph taken by Dr. A. Warburg of Berlin, whilst witnessing the
Humis-katshina dance of the Moqui Indians at Oraibi, in May, 1896, I am
able to affirm that the native dancers wear masks and high head-ornaments,
partly of wood, on which reversed and upright tau-symbols are painted, the
first in a light and the second in a dark color. As the name of the
ceremonial dance was explained to Dr. Warburg as signifying “helping the
sprouting or growing maize,” and celebrated the advent of the rainy
season, it is obvious that the two forms of tau which were displayed in
alternate order on the heads of the dancers in the procession symbolized
the juxtaposition of the Above and Below, of Heaven and Earth.

In the ruined temples of Central America, windows in the shape of upright
and reversed taus also occur. The following series of architectural
openings (fig. 39) are copied from Mr. Alfred P. Maudslay’s invaluable and
splendid work, which has not, as yet, met with the recognition it so
richly deserves.(16) They display besides the tau-shape (_g_ and _h_)
other forms, the symbolism of which has been discussed. There are
cross-shaped (_e_), square, round and oval windows (_d_, _j_, _b_ and
_i_), the square obviously symbolical of the Earth and the round of the
Heaven. Besides these there are openings in the form of a truncated cone
(_a_ and _c_) and others ending in a narrow point (_k_). A striking form
which recalls the Moorish arch and is shown in _f_, may, perhaps, be
looked upon as an attempt to express the idea of a union of the Above and
Below.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 39.

In connection with these architectural features it is interesting to study
their names in the native languages. The Nahuatl names for windows are
singularly expressive of their uses: tlachialoyan=the watching place or
look-out; puchquiauatl=the smoke opening; tlanexillotl=a word which
literally means light and splendor, and to which the following words are
related: tlanextia, verb=to shine, shed light and radiance;
tlanextilla=something revealed, made manifest, found or discovered, newly
invented or formed (brought to light); tlanexcayotiliztli=figure,
signification or example; tlanexcayotilli=something figured or
significative.

The meaning of the Maya name for window, ciznebna, is not clear, whilst
that for door, chi, is the same as for mouth, opening or entrance. At the
same time it is evident that, as in Mexico and elsewhere, the window
openings in the Maya temples must have been associated with the idea of
light, and the symbolical forms given to these besides their positions
lead to the inference that they were actually regarded as mystic framed
images, so to speak, of the supreme, invisible deity, through which, the
light of day and the darkness of night alternately revealed themselves to
those inside the sacred buildings. A careful study of the positions and
orientations of these openings may yet prove that they also served for
astronomical observation. The walls being usually pierced above reach,
nothing but the sky could have been watched through them. But besides
these, the interiors of Maya ruins contain interesting examples of mural
openings and recesses which seem to have been carefully planned so that
they should appear dark even in daytime and, in more than one case, these
display the form of the upright tau, the symbol of darkness and the
Below.(17)

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 40.

It does not seem to have been generally recognized that the alternate
contraposition of upright and reversed taus produces the best known and
most widely spread primitive border-design, usually known as the Greek
fret (fig. 40, no. 6). A plain demonstration of this is, oddly enough,
visible on the two side-projections of the Scandinavian brooch (fig. 13)
all symbols on which, I venture to assert, would have been perfectly
intelligible and full of meaning to an ancient Mexican. The evolution of
the fret, on the American continent, can be studied on the beautiful
wooden clubs from Brazil and British Guiana, figured in Dr. Hjalmar
Stolpes’ valuable work already referred to. As striking instances his fig.
8, pl. 1, figs. 3_a_ and 3_c_, pl. XIII, and figs. 1_a_ and 1_b_, pl. V,
should be examined. The latter instance is extremely instructive as it not
only exhibits single taus of two forms, but the same in different
positions, as well as two double-headed figures joined in one, which
illustrate the native association already discussed, of duality and of the
curved lines as the opposite of the rectangular and both respectively
figuring the Above and Below.

It is impossible to study the decorations on these South American clubs
without becoming convinced that their makers shared the same ideas as the
ancient Mexicans. They offer, indeed, a whole set of variations on the
native theme and idea of Heaven and Earth. Two instances (fig. 5_a_, pl.
IX, and 6_a_, pl. XI) in which the union of two figures produces a third,
or a single one produces two, elucidate the meaning sometimes expressed by
the designs. In the round or spiral forms, which are most frequently
accompanied by a zigzag border, I am inclined to see a presentation of air
and water, corresponding to the Mexican symbols of the Above.

As lack of space forbids my making here a more extended comparison of the
native symbols, I shall but point out how the tau, in juxtaposition and
contraposition painted in two colors, produces fig. 40, no. 3. The picture
from the Codex Mendoza of a native tlachtli, the form of which is
represented by two taus in contraposition, is partly painted black. The
same division of a single tau into two parts, colored differently,
transforms no. 3 into no. 4 and shows that a single tau could have been
employed cursively to symbolize union. 2 and 7 are but variants of 3 and
4. If, instead of angles, curved lines be given to the taus, the first
half of fig. 5 is the result. When spaces between the incurving hooks and
the border are filled out with color, the familiar design on the second
half of 5 results. With exception of the latter, the South American clubs
exhibit each of the above forms, as well as no. 8. It will be shown later
that these also occur in ancient Peru.

The foregoing examples of the employment of taus in upright and reversed
positions is, however, by no means exhaustive. Fig. 41 teaches that the
familiar checker-board or tartan design, symbolically employed in ancient
Mexico, was the simple result of taus in contraposition, the square spaces
thus found being alternately filled with black and brown or gray. The
symbolism of this design only becomes evident when all the combinations in
which it occurs have been carefully studied. It is represented in the
Codices in the doorways and arches of certain sacred edifices which are
shown to be estufas or temaz-calli by further illustrations which I could
not reproduce here, but which exhibit even the steam escaping from the
building and other unmistakable features.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 41.

Sahagun has recorded how these semi-sacred edifices were specially
consecrated to the “Mother of the gods and of us all, whose curative and
life-giving power was exerted in the temazcalli, also named xochicalli,
the place where she sees secret things, rectifies what has been deranged
in human bodies, fructifies young and tender things, ... and where she
aids and cures....” It was customary for pregnant women to resort to these
baths under the care of the medicine-woman who exhorted her patient on
entering, with the words: “Enter into it, my daughter, enter into the
bosom of our Mother whose name is Yoalticitl ... warm thyself in the bath,
which is the house of flowers of our god ...” (Historia, book VI, chap.
XXVII).

The Vienna Codex contains, besides pictures of temples (fig. 41, _a_ and
_b_), two instances which elucidate the meaning of the design; _c_ of the
same figure displays the conventional symbol for land, fringed on three
sides. Enclosed in this and seen, in profile, is a stratum of
checker-board design, above which is a sheet of water; d displays a
conventionally drawn mountain, inside of which is the symbolical vase
filled with the design. From this steam or smoke ascends through the soil
of the mountain, and forces its way through the surface, above which we
see two recurved puffs of smoke and a young blossoming maize shoot,
conventionally drawn, such as may be seen worn by priestesses, as a
symbolical head decoration, on page 11 of the Vienna Codex. The seated
figure of a priest is represented as sheltering its growth with his
outspread mantle. On his back he displays a symbol, composed of two rolls
united by a crossband, which is met with in Maya and Mexican Codices. In
the latter the four projecting ends are usually painted with the colors of
the four quarters. As these are figured as united into a single sign, it
seems evident that this symbolized a union of the four elements deemed
necessary for the production of life by the ancient native philosophers.

The foregoing illustrations, to which more could be added, clearly
establish that the checkered design was associated with the symbols of
earth, heat and water. It obviously expressed the idea embodied in the
Nahuatl word xotlac=the heated earth; literally, glowing embers, also
budding and opening flowers. It was emblematic of the fall of the rain or
earth-wine upon the heated soil. In the temazcalli the same life-producing
union of the elements took place and aided human growth and health. It
would seem as though the appellation xoch-i-calli, bestowed upon the
sweat-house by the native medicine-woman, expressed the same train of
thought. Moreover, it is noteworthy, that the sound of the first part of
this name and of xo-tlac recurs in the Maya word for vase in general,
ho-och. The checker-board design would naturally have been employed in
connection with the festivals, associated with esoteric rites, which were
held in celebration of the union of the Heaven and Earth at the
commencement of the rainy season. It would, naturally, therefore, have
been used as a decoration on the drinking vessels employed in the
distribution of fermented drinks for vivifying and curative purposes. It
is met with on Peruvian drinking bowls, as proven by several examples in
the Royal Ethnographical Museum in Berlin, for instance.

It is curious to note as an interesting analogy that the same checkered
design frequently adorns the ancient Egyptian drinking bowls represented
in the hieroglyphic writings. I have also observed it in some ancient
Greek drinking vessels, preserved at the Imperial Hermitage Museum at St.
Petersburg, where it decorated the bowl itself or the garments of
Bacchantes figured thereupon. It is also met with in ancient Peruvian
textile fabrics, in black and white, as on one figure vase in the Berlin
Museum, and, needless to remark, it is a Scotch clan tartan. Its adoption
as the basis for chess-boards of ancient Egypt seems to indicate that
there it also signified the Above and Below and that the game was thought
of as an exemplification of the eternal contest between the powers of
Heaven and Earth, light and darkness, etc. We look to specialists for
information as to the origin, meaning and employment in Egypt and Greece
of this primitive and almost universal design.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 42.

In ancient Mexico and possibly Peru, it obviously pertained to a set of
ideas which, in some communities, might easily have degenerated and led to
the institution of rites and ideas such as were prevalent in the Maya
colony which had established itself at the mouth of the Panuco river, on
the coast of Mexico, north of Vera Cruz, and from which the Huaxtecans of
the present day descend. It is interesting to note that the name of the
capital founded by the colonists, who seem to have emigrated owing to
well-founded religious persecution, was Tuch-pan, a word which signifies
in the Maya tongue “the umbilicus,” qualified by pan, meaning “that which
is above or excels,” etc., but which was expressed in Nahuatl
picture-writings by a rabbit=tochtli and a banner=pantli.

The opposite of the checkered or xotlac design, was the native water and
air pattern which has been pointed out as encircling the mitre of the Lord
of the Above or Heaven. It likewise figures in native pictures on the
mantles of some of Montezuma’s predecessors. The history of its origin and
development is best learned from the following native illustrations. Fig.
42, nos. 1 and 2, represents sea-waves, the Maya name for which, by the
way, is kukul-yaam, which admits of the interpretation “divine-water” or,
if we connect kukul with the Mexican coliuhqui, “twisted or bent water.” A
representation of water, as figured on a mantle in the “Lyfe of the
Indians,” conveys the idea of water moved by the action of the wind, the
blank curve reminding one also of the curves so often associated by native
artists with serpents’ heads, and with the wind and rain-gods. The
well-known symbol of the air-god is accompanied, as already shown (fig.
26), by an ornament which forms a solid frame for a hollow curve
constituting an air-image. In the following image an analogous ear
ornament is figured and it is surrounded by puffs of air or wind,
conventionally drawn (fig. 43).

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 43.

Whilst the foregoing illustrations amply prove that the natives associated
the curved and rounded form with water as moved by air, it must be noticed
that in Mexico and Yucatan, as well as in Brazil and Guiana, plain water
was figured by a series of parallel zigzag or undulated lines. For these
reasons I infer that the symbolical design, representing actual waves,
always expressed the union of air and water, and was therefore emblematic
of the cult of the upper elements, or the Above. It is unfortunate that,
in Mexico, no vestiges remain of the circular temples which were
particularly dedicated to Quetzalcoatl=the divine twin or lord of the twin
upper elements=air and water. Doubtlessly they were appropriately
decorated with horizontal bands exhibiting the sacred design. The ruined
condition of Central American round temples scarcely justifies the hope
that such a verification can be made. At the same time the round temple on
a square base, with its peculiar ground plan, was, of itself, an image of
the Above and of central rule extending to the four quarters (fig. 30, p.
97). That the air and water design was actually employed in America as a
frieze on sacred edifices is proven, however, by more than one
illustration in the Vienna Codex and other native MSS. (fig. 35, _c_). We
also see the design decorating the painted drinking bowls named xicalli
which were employed in the distribution of the sacred pulque or octli at
certain religious festivals. As the Mexican name given to the design
itself is xical-coliuhqui, it seems as though it was most popularly known
as the “twisted or winding pattern” of the sacred drinking vessels.

Having originated, as I have shown, from the simplest observation of the
action of air upon a surface of water, it is but natural that the same
design should have independently originated in several localities. It is,
nevertheless, worth mentioning here that the dome of one of the most
beautiful of ancient Greek remains, the choragic monument of Lysicrates,
or lantern of Demosthenes at Athens, is surrounded by a band or fascia,
cut into the water design. It is evident that, seen against the sky, this
graphically represented the curling waves of water “on summer seas,” and
this was evidently the most primitive method of employing this form of
symbolical decoration which is more familiar when executed in solid
masonry stucco, as a frieze.

The identical process of development may be observed in Mexican
architecture. In the Vienna and other native Codices, countless temples
are depicted as surmounted with fasciæ cut into rectangular designs in
such a manner that the blank space left between each solid projection
figures its inverted image in the air (fig. 35, _a_-_d_). In these open
fasciæ an intention to symbolize the solid or Earth, and the fluid or
Heaven, is discernible, whilst the step-like projections seem to express
or convey the idea of ascent and descent, perhaps the ascent of human
supplication and the descent of the much-prayed-for rain. From the other
examples of temple decorations (fig. 35, _f_ and _h_) it is evident that,
in solid friezes, a light and a dark color were employed in the same
designs, to convey the same idea.

Evidence proving that the emblems on the roofs of the temples were replete
with meaning is furnished by several representations of roofs, on which
rows of upstretched hands or of human hearts are depicted. My horror at
these seemingly ghastly emblems vanished as soon as I ascertained their
actual meaning from a passage in Sahagun’s Historia. Describing a certain
sacred dance he records that “on the white garments of the girls who took
part in it, hands and hearts were painted, signifying that they lifted
their hearts and hands to heaven, praying for rain.” Not only does this
explain the symbolism of the hands on the temples but also the native
custom observed, by modern pilgrims in Mexico and Yucatan, of painting
uplifted hands on the outer walls of sanctuaries as an act of piety and
devotion.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 44.

The hideous necklaces of alternate hands and hearts which encircle the
neck of a great monolithic idol in the city of Mexico and of an image in
the “Lyfe of the Indians” are thus also proven to be the touching though
uncouth and child-like expression of a devout prayer. Having gained this
insight into the deep significance of native emblems it is interesting to
study the peculiar breast-ornament which is the emblem of Xiuhtecuhtli,
literally “the azure lord,” or the lord of the year or of fire and of the
Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent. It consists of an oblong plaque, the narrow
ends of which are cut out so as to simulate two air pyramids with steps.
The name of this symbolical ornament is recorded by Sahagun as
xiuh-tetelli, literally the turquoise or grass-green pyramid. It is
invariably painted blue and displays a round plate of burnished gold in
its centre. For more reasons than I can pause to relate here, it can be
shown that the plaque probably symbolized the Above, the blue sky, water
and air, whilst the gold plate was an image of the central divinity. The
sides of the square stool on which the god is seated are also cut out so
as to convey the idea that he is resting above terraced air-pyramids (fig.
44). His shield is surrounded by a cord and contains a cross-symbol with
lines conveying the idea of rotation and four circles. The banner above
the shield named pantli conveys the sound of the word pan=above, whilst
his conical ear-ornament symbolizes the Centre and Above. These details
are noteworthy because I am about to point out the striking analogy
between a Zuñi idol or fetish and the ancient Mexican pictures of the lord
of fire and the lord of the north or the underworld=Tezcatlipoca.

This Zuñi idol was sent to the Royal Ethnographical Museum at Berlin as
part of a representative collection by Mr. Frank H. Cushing and has been
figured and described in the publications of the Museum, with notes by Dr.
E. Seler.(18) It represents the Zuñi god Ätchialätopa whose attributes are
stone knives, who is the patron of the secret society, “Small fire” and
who is identified with a great star. His fetish represents him as standing
on the centre of a cross, formed of four beams placed vertically and
perforated with step-like perforations. The ends are cut out like those of
Xiuhtecuhtli’s blue emblem. Two parallel bars, the upper one of which is
painted blue, the color of heaven, and the lower painted green, the color
of the earth, convey the ever-present native idea of the Above and Below.
The arms of the cross are painted red with yellow ends which, according to
Mr. Cushing, represent the light emanating, in four directions, from the
star. The arms are distinctly associated with the cardinal points and each
supports the effigies of a mountain lion and a bird—typifying, evidently,
as in Mexico, the Above and Below. This cross, with the figure standing on
its centre, is suspended from above and, during a certain ceremony, it is
set into rapid gyratory motion, from left to right by the officiating high
priest.

It is impossible not to see, in this fetish, a swastika in substantial
form and in actual rotation; whilst the figure of the god, decorated with
stone knives, moves as on a pivot in the centre, presenting exactly the
same idea as in the Mexican image of the god held in the centre of a
cross-symbol by the jaws of a tecpatl or flint knife. It is unnecessary to
mention again here that the only star in the heaven, which could possibly
have been regarded as a centre of rotation, is Polaris; but I should like
to draw attention to the fact that bunches of feathers are attached to the
extremities of the cross-beams and to the summit of the terraced
head-dress of the fetish and recall the circumstance that, amongst the
Mexicans and Mayas, the names for feather were almost identical with those
for heaven or something celestial and divine.

As the Zuñi god is said to be standing on his red star (an mo-yätchun
thlana) and figures as a centre of rotation, I look upon this fetish as
affording most striking confirmation of my conclusions concerning the
origin of the swastika and cross symbols. If it is certain that, at the
present day, the Zuñis associate this star-god with Sirius and their cross
symbol with the morning star, then it is quite obvious that they have lost
the original meaning of the rotating-star fetish, which could never have
been suggested by either of these or, indeed, by any other heavenly body
but Polaris. I regret that space does not permit me to consider here, more
fully, other close analogies between ancient Mexican and modern Zuñi
religious ceremonies, etc., besides those which have been so well
described by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes.

I cannot omit to note here for further reference that the national war
gods of the Zuñis are the twin-brothers Ahaiiuta, the elder, whose altars
were situated _to the right_ or south and west of Zuñi, and Matsailéma,
the younger, whose altars stood _to the left_ or north and east of the
village. The secret society of the warriors and priests of the bow
dedicated their cult to these brothers, whose counterparts we have already
studied in Mexico and Yucatan.

Returning to the primitive designs which expressed the union of the Above
and Below, I point out an interesting example from the “Lyfe of the
Indians,” which likewise symbolizes the four quarters, and their
subdivision and their relation to the whole (fig. 32, no. 3). A somewhat
analogous design, from Peru, presents an outline resembling a swastika
(fig. 40, no. 9) which, when filled in with alternate colors, yields fig.
40, no. 1, in which the idea of the Above and Below preponderates. Another
example of an analogous employment of a light and dark color is furnished
by a shield in the Codex Mendoza, shown in fig. 1, no. 1, alongside of an
interesting image which gives us an insight into the depths of meaning
contained in the dualistic native designs. It consists of a disk, one-half
of which represents the starry heaven and the other the sun, resting on a
parti-colored support (no. 8). It is evident that day and night are thus
symbolized, and it is reasonable to infer that in some centres of thought
especially the ideas of light and darkness should have become associated
with the two different forms of cult the followers of which would be
respectively designated as the children of light and the children of
darkness. By means of a light and a dark color numberless variations of
the one theme were indeed obtained. In the native Codices, in textile
fabrics and on pottery, there are also numerous examples of an extremely
simple design consisting of a single zigzag line running between two
parallel lines and dividing the intervening space into two fields, the
lower of which is filled out with black and the other with some light
color. The dark upright and light inverted peaks were evidently employed
as familiar and favorite emblems of earth and heaven.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 45.

I am inclined to see in the serrated summit of the remarkable edifice,
known as the House of Doves at Uxmal, a rendering of the same symbolism on
a gigantic scale (fig. 45). It cannot but be recognized, moreover, that a
high edifice presenting a regular series of cones, and extending from east
to west, would have afforded an excellent means of registering the varying
positions of heavenly bodies. To observers looking towards it from the
north or south, at judiciously chosen distances, the entire span of the
sky would have seemed divided into eight equal parts, seen as inverted air
pyramids between nine sections which rise in steps and terminate in
points, each gable being perforated with thirty window-like openings,
arranged in seven horizontal rows. The purpose of these gable-like piles
has been a riddle to the archaeologists, who have visited Uxmal. Dr. Wm.
H. Holmes, from whose valuable works I cite the above descriptions,
expresses his wonder at “the great building, bearing upon its roof a
colossal masonry comb, built at an enormous expenditure of time and labor
... which seemed to have been built exclusively for the purpose of
embellishing the building and holding aloft its sculptured ornaments”
(Ancient cities of Mexico, pl. I, p. 95).

I venture to maintain that this remarkable edifice not only afforded
facilities for astronomical observation but constituted in itself a great
prayer for rain wrought in stone and addressed to the Lord of Heaven by a
devout people. In corroboration of this inference, besides the foregoing
data, I point out that to this day the Pueblo Indians associate the step
pyramid form with beneficent rain and even give this shape to the edges of
the sacred bowls which are carried in the ceremonial dances by the
“rain-makers.” According to Mr. Cushing the Zuñis compare the rim of such
bowls to the line of the “horizon, terraced with mountains, whence rise
the clouds.” He was likewise informed that the terrace form represents
“the ancient sacred place of the spaces,” an expression which, though
somewhat vague, seems to corroborate my view of the Uxmal building. The
Zuñi statement that the terrace form figured mountains leads to the
subject of so-called “mountain worship.” In ancient Mexico, at the
approach of the rainy season, religious ceremonies are performed in honor
of the mountains which were looked upon as active agents in the production
of rain, because they attracted and gathered the clouds around their
summits. The tops of mountains were thus regarded as the sacred place
where the sky and heaven met and produced the showers which vivified the
earth. Pilgrimages and offerings to mountain summits formed a part of the
duties of the Mexican priesthood, but in the cities the pyramid temple
served as a convenient substitute for the mountain.

The close association of the terrace form with rain and water symbolism is
certainly exemplified in the Mexican design on a temple roof (fig. 35,
_e_). The most remarkable application of the dualistic designs is,
however, met with in Peru where, according to Wiener, the irrigation
canals which carried water to the maize fields were laid out so as to form
pattern bands like fig. 40, nos. 4 and 7, for instance. It is evident that
this system of irrigation must have been an extremely effective and
practical one, but that it had been probably adopted from superstitious
motives as an illustration of the vivifying union of the celestial shower
with the seed-laden soil. The assumption that the ancient Peruvians shared
the same ideas as the Mexicans and Mayas will be found justified by the
following data.

It is now my intention to give a brief and bare outline sketch of the
Peruvian civilization, by means of a series of quotations from the best
authorities.(19) Incomplete though this must necessarily be, it will,
nevertheless, establish, beyond a doubt, that the founders of the great
Inca empire were under the dominion of the same set of ideas which I have
been tracing throughout the American continent. The lucid records of the
Peruvian chronicles and the purity with which the system had been
maintained by the Incas, enable us to recognize and appreciate its
manifold perfections as a mode of primitive government.

The best authorities agree that the inhabitants of the country, now known
as Peru, lived in barbarism until civilization was introduced amongst them
by the Incas. One tradition designates an island in the Titicaca lake,
another Tiahuanaco, as the place where, “after the deluge,” a man or deity
appeared, divided the land into four parts and distributed these to four
brothers, amongst whom was Manco Capac, to whom was assigned the province
to the north. Each brother had a sister who was also his wife. Manco Capac
and his sister and wife Mama-Ocllo or, according to other authorities, the
third Inca Lloque Yupanqui and his consort, founded Cuzco, also given as
Kosko or Kuska, a name which, according to Garcilaso de la Vega signifies
“navel of the earth” and was bestowed “because the newly-founded capital
was to be the centre and point of all.” The city was divided into two
parts: Hanan Cuzco=the Above, which was ruled over by the Inca, and Hurin
Cuzco=the Below, which was governed by his wife and sister, who bore the
honorific title of Coya=queen and Mamanchic=our mother. The inhabitants
consequently became separated into two categories: the upper lineage and
the lower lineage, Hanan-ayllu and Hurin-ayllo. At the same time this
division was not made so “that those of one-half should have an advantage
over the other ... the command was that only one difference and
acknowledgment of superiority was to be conceded to the inhabitants of the
upper town. They were to be respected and looked upon as the first born
and elder brothers, whilst the dwellers in the lower town were to be
regarded as younger or second brothers. They were to rank as the right arm
and the left arm in all offices or places where precedence was necessary.
The same division was subsequently carried out in all the towns, great or
small, throughout the country, their inhabitants being constantly classed
into upper and lower lineages or classes.” The empire itself was named
Tauantin-suyu, signifying the four in one, or the empire, which was
divided into four provinces: Anti-suyu=East; Cunti-suyu=West, on the road
to which were two famous brooks of water named the silver serpents,
Collquemachachuay; Chincha-suyu=North; Colla-suyu=South. It is recorded
that the Coya or queen went to the Colla-suyu or South and taught the
women the art of weaving, of planting maize and of preparing it for food.
In connection with the name of female rule=Coya, and the South=Colla-suyu
it is interesting to note that the name for granary was Coll-cana. Padre
Arriaga (quoted by Rivero and Tschudi, p. 163) describes a remarkable
monument which shows that the West was also associated with the female
ruler. “The monolithic statue [magnificently sculptured and placed on a
sepulchral eminence near Hilavi] represented two monstrous figures
standing back to back. One, representing a man, faced to the East; the
other, with a woman’s face, looked towards the West.(20) Serpents were
represented as crawling up the figures and these stood on other reptiles
resembling frogs. In front of each of these idols there was a square slab
of stone which seemed to have served as an altar.”

With the dual division of the population the seeds of dissension were sown
in Peru as elsewhere. At a certain festival the youths of the upper
lineage encountered those of the lower lineage in trials of strength and
prowess, which sometimes resulted in violence. A certain feeling of
rivalry and opposition must have been thus fostered. Two forms of cult
prevailed: the Inca lords and warriors were associated with the cult of
the Above of which the emblems were golden images of the Creator and of
the Sun, “the lord of day,” to whose power rain and thunder were
attributed. The silver huaca or image of the moon, called Quilla in
Quechua and Pacsa in the Colla dialect, was in the figure of a woman and
was kept under the charge of women, the reason for this being “that the
moon was a woman.” During the festival Situa, one day was dedicated to the
Creator, the Sun and Thunder and another to “the Moon and Earth, when the
accustomed sacrifices and prayers were offered up.” We thus clearly
distinguish a cult of the Heaven and Day presided over by the Inca and a
cult of Earth and Night, whose high priestess was the Coya. She, moreover,
had charge of the embalmed bodies of her predecessors, which were regarded
as sacred and were solemnly carried forth in certain festivals, whilst the
bodies of the defunct Incas were guarded by their successor. The emblems
of both cults were, however, preserved in a single Great Temple, whose
principal doorway looked to the north, a fact of special importance in
connection with what follows.

All authorities, indeed, designate the north as the quarter whence the
foreign culture-heroes came to Peru. “The Incas had a knowledge of the
Creator from the first,” but it was not until the time of the Inca
Yupanqui that the ignorant sun-worship of the primitive inhabitants of the
country was superseded by a firmly established new and superior religion.

“Inca Yupanqui appears to have been the first to order and settle
ceremonies and religions. He it was who established the twelve months of
the year, giving a name to each and ordaining the ceremonies that were to
be observed in each. For although his ancestors used months and years
counted by the quippus, yet they were never previously regulated until the
time of this Lord. He was of such clear understanding that he reflected
upon the respect and reverence shown by his ancestors to the Sun who
worshipped it as a God. He observed that it never had any rest and that it
daily journeyed round the earth; and he said to those of his council that
_it was not possible that the Sun could be the God who created all things,
for if he was he would not permit a small cloud to obscure his splendour;
and that if he was creator of all things he would sometimes rest and light
up the whole world from one spot. Thus it cannot be otherwise but that
there is someone who directs him and this is the Pacha-Yachachi, the
Creator_, literally, the Teacher of the World.” His predecessors had
ordered an oval plate of fine gold which was to serve as an image of the
Creator of heaven and earth, and, in order to convey this meaning it was
placed between images of the sun and moon; a proof that the latter were
employed as symbols of heaven and earth.

Inca Yupanqui, however, also caused a statue of the Creator to be made of
fine gold and of the size of a boy of ten years of age in order to convey
the idea of his eternal youth. “It was in the shape of a man standing up,
the right arm raised and the hand almost closed, the fingers and thumb
raised as one who was giving an order.” The second gold statue he had
made, a personification of the sun “which was dressed like the Inca and
wore all his insignia,” shows he claimed to be and constituted himself as
the visible representative and Lord of the Above. The silver female statue
of the Moon doubtlessly exhibited, in the same manner, the insignia of the
Coya. Inca Yupanqui also ordered the houses and temple of Quisuar-cancha
to be built and, at this spot, Sir Clements Markham observed an ancient
wall, with serpents carved upon it. The name signifies, literally, “the
place of the Quisuar tree,” and will be again referred to further on.
Without pausing to discuss the subject at length let us examine further
the scheme of government, etc., introduced by the Incas, the most striking
feature of which was the systematical classification of the people, their
assignment to specified dwelling places and the distribution of labor
according to prescription.

The key to the entire gigantic system was the conception of a central
immutable supreme power which directed all visible and invisible
manifestations and which sent forth and re-absorbed all energy. In Cuzco
and in the Inca Empire we have a minutely described instance of the
application, to terrestrial government, of the laws of fixed order,
harmony, periodicity and rotation learned by earnest and patient observers
of the northern heaven, during countless centuries of time. The centre of
Cuzco consisted of a great square whence four roads radiated to the
cardinal points. In the centre of this stood a gold vase from which a
fountain flowed. The Spaniards also found in Cuzco a large,
beautifully-polished stone-cross which evidently symbolized, as in Mexico,
the four quarters and must have been appropriately placed in the square.
Garcilaso de la Vega states that the capital formed an actual image of the
whole empire, “for it was divided into four quarters and an extremely
ancient law rendered it obligatory that representatives of each province
and of each class of population should reside there in homes, the location
of which precisely corresponded to the geographical position of their
respective provinces. Each lineage was thus represented and occupied
separate dwellings, assigned to them by the governors of the quarters. All
persons were obliged to adhere to the customs of their forefathers and
also wear the costumes of their ayllus or tribes (Cieza de Leon, Cronica
chap. XCIII). For the Incas had decreed that the dresses worn by the
members of each tribe should be different, so that the people might be
distinguished from each other as, down to that time, there had been no
means of knowing to what locality or tribe an Indian belonged.”... In
order to avoid confusion the modes of wearing the hair were rigidly
prescribed and the bands worn on the head by the vassals had to be black
or of a single color only. The higher in rank a person was the more his
costume resembled that of the Inca, without, however, approaching it in
length and richness. “Thus, even in an assemblage of 100,000 persons it
was easy to recognize individuals of each tribe and of each rank by the
signs they wore on their heads.”...

“It was obligatory that each should permanently live in the province he
belonged to. Each province, each tribe and, in many parts each village,
had its own language which was different from that of its neighbors. Those
who understood each other by speaking the same language considered
themselves as related to each other and were friends and confederates....
The Incas employed a private language of their own which none but members
of the royal lineage presumed or dared to learn.” Garcilaso de la Vega,
who claimed royal descent, stated that unfortunately no records remained
to enable one to form an idea of what the Inca language was like.

The autocratic, though peaceable way in which the novel scheme of
government was imposed upon the inhabitants of Peru by the foreign
chieftains is best proven by the following passages from the Rites and
Laws of the Incas (p. 77) and Garcilaso de la Vega (pp. 9 and 10). “With a
view that each tribe should be clearly distinguishable and after assigning
a different costume to each they were ordered to choose their respective
pacariscas, a word meaning, literally, their birth and origin. They were
told to choose for themselves whence they were descended and whence they
came, and as the Indians were generally very dull and stupid, some chose
to assign their origin to a lake, others to a spring, others a rock,
others a hill or ravine. But every lineage chose some object for its
pacarisca. Some tribes [subsequently] adored eagles because they boasted
to have descended from them ... others adored fountains, rivers, the
earth, which they call Mother, or air, fire, ... snow-mountains, maize,
the sea, named mother-sea.”

According to Garcilaso de la Vega “the Peruvian tribes subsequently
invented an infinity of fables concerning the origin of their different
ancestors.... An Indian does not consider himself honorable unless he can
trace his descent from a river, fountain, lake or the sea, or from some
wild beast like the bear, puma, ocelot, eagle, etc.” An example of a
certain amount of vain-glory was indeed set by the diplomatic Inca himself
who claimed, for himself and lineage, descent from the Sun and reserved
burnished gold ornaments for his particular use. His successors
subsequently built a temple of the Sun at Cuzco and set up its image made
of gold and precious stones. Around this, the royal “pacarisca,” they
placed the mummies of all the dead Incas. In another room there was an
image of “the moon, with a woman’s face,” and about it were the mummies of
the royal women. From this we learn that the latter assigned their origin
to the moon and that it was their pacarisca or huaca. As an illustration
of the way in which creation-myths are sometimes evolved from actual
occurrences, it is interesting to study another account of the mode in
which tribal regulations were introduced into Peru. Owing, most probably,
to the fact that one of the titles given to the Creator was “the Teacher,”
we find Molina attributing to the Creator himself the establishment of the
tribal system and the assignment of totems and different costumes to each
group or family. If we read his account and, with Garcilaso de la Vega and
others, attribute to the Incas the introduction of civilization into Peru,
we recognize the practical good sense with which they accomplished the
rather difficult task of obliging each tribe to wear a different costume.
“In Tiahuanaco ... he made one of each nation of clay and painted [these]
with the dresses that each one was to wear. Those who were to wear their
hair, with hair; and those who were to be shorn, with hair cut ... when he
had finished making the nations and painting the said figures of clay, he
gave life and soul to each one, as well man as woman ... each nation then
went to the place to which he ordered it to go.”

I confess that, until I studied the above record in full, I had very vague
ideas about the huacas or “idols” of the Peruvians. But when I found it
stated, further on, that “each tribe wore the dress with which their huaca
is invested,” I began to realize what huacas might originally have been.
It would seem that on assigning a different costume and distinctive name
to each tribe, the founder of the new colony gave each chief as a model, a
different clay doll, painted with the distinctive marks he and his people
were to adopt. This figure would naturally have been kept for reference
and treated as something sacred. On certain official occasions it would be
produced as a means of identification or proof that the prescribed
costumes had been strictly adhered to. To this practical and sensible plan
the origin of the so-called tribal and household idols of the Peruvians
and of the Mexicans can doubtlessly be assigned. Invented as an aid in the
establishment of tribal-names and dress-regulations and intimately
connected with the entire system of government, these huacas gradually
became the representative of the ancestor of the clan, its “canting” arms
and its sacred palladium. We are told that after the tribes had chosen
their various ancestors or origins, such as caves, hills, fountains, etc.,
they settled in the land and multiplied. Then, on account of having
“issued or descended from stated localities, the people made huacas and
places of worship of these, in memory of the origin of their lineage....
The huacas they use are in different shapes.... Some say the first of
their lineages were turned into falcons, condors and other animals or
birds” (Molina ed. Hakluyt, p. 5). A certain form of ancestor-cult was
thus evolved in a natural manner. “Idolatrous rites increased and people
devoted themselves to the worship of huacas ... each village had its
huaca. The cult assumed such proportions under Ccapac Yupanqui that he
exclaimed: ‘How many false gods are there in the land, to my sorrow and
the misfortune of my vassals! When shall we see these evils remedied?’ ”

At the same time we find that clay or wooden figures continued to be
employed evidently as a method of keeping an accurate register of the
population. In the capital, one building held duplicates of all the huacas
throughout the land. When a new province was conquered the Inca carried
its principal huaca to Cuzco. One or more living representatives of the
conquered tribe, wearing its characteristic dress, were obliged to reside
in the capital. In ancient Mexico these “living images of the gods” are
one of the most striking features of the native civilization and have been
persistently misunderstood, especially by modern authorities. As these
“living gods” are specially treated in the “Lyfe of the Indians,” I shall
merely point out here that small clay portraits or effigies of persons
were made in Mexico at certain stages of an individual’s life and also
after his death. These seem to have been employed for statistical
purposes.

In Mexico and Peru large numbers of small images were preserved in each
household and were under the charge of its chief or “older brother,” who
was obliged to guard and render account of them. Of course the Spanish
conquerors took it for granted that all of these were idols and, in their
ignorance, destroyed them unmercifully. Once the native system of tribal
organization is understood, it becomes evident that an accurate register
of all members of a tribe was of utmost importance. By means of a group of
more or less skillfully-modelled figures or heads the size of a family
could be ascertained at a glance by the government recorder. In the light
of this recognition it seems more than probable that the immense numbers
of small clay heads of various kinds, found in the “street of the dead” at
the base of the great pyramids of Teotihuacan, and elsewhere, indicate
that, in these localities, a periodical and official registration of
deaths was carefully carried on. This assumption is fully corroborated by
the conclusions I reached, in 1886, after making a minute study of a large
number of terra-cotta heads(21) and ascertaining that numbers of them were
portraits of dead persons. The above inference is, moreover, confirmed by
the name of Teotihuacan, which means, literally, “the place of the lords
or masters of the teotle.” The term teotl was given to the head of a
tribe, who constituted the living image of the tribal ancestor. When he
died he himself became one of the tribal ancestors and all dead lords were
termed teotle.

The foregoing data enlighten us as to the practical value of a sternly
enforced system of division and differentiation for the control of the
population, and of clay images of persons for statistical purposes. We
have seen that, during many centuries, the energy of the rulers was
directed towards making groups of people as distinct and different from
each other as possible. They were rigidly kept apart and, in all
assemblages, they occupied separate positions, in a fixed order of
relation to each other. “All the people of Cuzco came out according to
their tribes and lineages ... and assembling in the great square ... sat
down on their benches, each man according to the rank he held, the
Hanan-Cuzco on one side and the Hurin-Cuzco on the other” (Molina ed.
Hakluyt, p. 26). Beside this dual division of the entire population, under
the separate rulerships of the Inca and Coya, who were linked together,
however, in a sacred and indissoluble union and respectively represented
Heaven and Earth, let us study the executive administration of the
religious and civil governments.

Two sets, each consisting of four rulers, next in rank to the Inca and
Coya, are described: Each quarter or Suyu was ruled over by a “viceroy,”
or “Inca governor,” entitled tucuyricoc=“he who sees all,” or Capac. In
the days of the Inca Huayna Capac the names of the four “viceroys” are
recorded as having been Capac=Achachic, Capac=Larico, Capac=Yochi,
Capac=Hualcaya. These were obviously members of the Inca family and next
in rank to the Inca, who presided as supreme pontiff over the religious
government. The civil and tribal administration was executed by four
Curacas, each of which had charge of 10,000 persons belonging to the
ayllus=tribes or lineages. The titles of these four Curacas are recorded
as: Hunu-Camayu or Camayoc, Huaronca-Camayu or Camayoc, Pachaca-Camayu or
Camayoc, Chunca-Camayu or Camayoc. As their titles show, they were the
chief accountants or recorders of statistics, which were recorded by means
of the quippus. Under them, in regular order there were officers, who
respectively had charge of 500, 100, 50 or 10 individuals. In the latter
instance it is expressly stated that it was always one man out of the ten
who governed and rendered account of the remaining nine. The four chief
recorders dwelt in Cuzco but “left it every year and returned in February
to make their report ... bringing with them the tribute of the whole
empire. They also reported upon the administration every year recording
the births and deaths that had occurred among men and flocks, the yield of
crops and all other details, with great minuteness” (Polo de Ondegardo).

From the recorded details of organization we learn that the governmental
scheme introduced by the Incas was based on the assumption that the
standard population of the empire should number 40,000 individuals under
the civil rulership of 4 recorders, 40 first-grade officers, 400
second-grade officers, 4,000 third-grade officers—each of the last being
responsible for nine individuals besides himself. It is noteworthy that
the three grades of officers correspond to the threefold division of the
entire produce of the land, between the Inca, the Huaca and the Ayllu,
equivalent to the religious government, the civil government and the
people—to the Above, Below and Middle. The minimal division of people into
groups of ten of which one was the governmental representative
corresponds, moreover, to the classification into the following ten
categories, according to their ages:

1. Mosoc-aparic: baby, “newly begun,” “just born.”
2. Saya-huarma: child, “standing boy,” age 2-6.
3  Macta-puric: “child that can walk,” age 6-8.
4. Itanta-requisic: “bread-receiver,” boy about 8.
5. Pucllac-huarma: “playing boy,” age 8-16.
6. Cuca-pallac: “Coca pickers,” age 16-20.
7. Yma-huayna: “as a youth,” light service,  age 20-25.
8. Puric: “able-bodied,” tribute and service, age 25-50.
9. Chaupi-rucca: elderly, light service, age 50-60.
10. Puñuc-rucca: dotage, no work, 60 upwards.(22)

Although for statistical purposes, exact registers of each of these groups
were annually made by the recorders, it is evident that the purics or
“able-bodied” men constituted the most important portion of the
population. They naturally fell into two groups consisting of the nobility
and commoners, but scattered evidence amply provides that they were
strictly classified according to the special service or tribute they
rendered to the government. The best produce of each province was brought
to Cuzco.

The inhabitants of each region were specially trained to render certain
services or to excel in particular industries—by this means each tribe
gradually became identified with its special industry or aptitude. The
necessity that the supply of their produce should be constant and regular,
must have necessitated the permanent maintenance of a fixed number of
workers at each branch of industry, a fact which would give rise to rigid
laws controlling the liberty of the individual, forcing children to adopt
their parents’ avocations and forbidding intermarriages between persons of
different provinces. As scattered mention is made of the following general
classification of the male population, I venture to note them as follows,
provisionally:

Nobility: Commoners.

1. lords: shepherds (of lamas),
2. priests: hunters,
3. warriors: farmers,
4. civil governors: artificers.

The female population was doubtlessly subdivided in an analogous manner,
for it is expressly recorded that all marriageable girls were kept in four
different houses. Those of the first class, qualified as “the white
virgins,” were dedicated to the service of the Creator, the Sun and the
Inca; the second were given in marriage to the nobility; the third class
married the Curacas or civil governors, and the last were qualified as
“black,” and pertained to the lower classes.

Caste division was never lost sight of—indeed one Inca went so far as to
order that all the people of the Below “should flatten the heads of their
children, so that they should be long and sloping from the front.” Thus
they should ever be distinguishable from the nobility and “yield them
obedience.” Although it is not expressly stated, it may be inferred from
actual specimens of skulls which have been found that, in some localities,
in order to differentiate the two classes still more, members of the
nobility strove to mould the heads of their children in a high peak, so
that they too should perpetually bear the mark of their rank. Whether such
a procedure would exert a correspondingly elevating or abasing influence
upon the intellectual development of the two classes is a problem for
anthropologists.

A very simple explanation of the reason why artificial deformation of the
skull was ever adopted, is obtainable when the all-powerful dominion of a
certain set of ideas is recognized. Many other customs, still in practice
amongst American tribes, are likewise explained by the arbitrary division
of population into classes and categories. The Peruvian custom of
bestowing one name upon a child when it was one year old and another when
it attained maturity is the direct outcome of the classification of
individuals by age. The ceremonial observances which accompanied the
bestowal of these names were accompanied by a change of costume which
constituted the official enrolment or advancement into another class. The
existence of further systematic class-distinctions is proven by the
description of the picturesque ceremony performed in the month of August
at Cuzco and called “the driving out of sickness.” In the centre of the
great square around the urn of gold which typified the “central fountain”
(precisely the idea expressed by the name of Mexico), four hundred
warriors assembled. One hundred, representing one of the four ayllus,
faced towards each cardinal point and subsequently ran at full speed in
its direction, crying “Go forth all evils!”

We have now traced the idea of the Above and Below, Centre and Four
Quarters in Ancient Peru. It remains to be noted that the capital itself,
which was to be the image of the whole empire, was primarily divided into
two halves and four quarters, and subdivided into 4×3=12 wards the names
of which doubtlessly corresponded with that of their inhabitants. When the
sacred centre of the capital is added to these it is clear that the City
of Cuzco was subdivided into as many parts as there were directions in
space, _i. e._ 13. It exemplified, therefore, an association of 2×10=20
categories of people classified according to ages, with thirteen
directions in space, and a general subdivision of all classes into four
parts. The Inca with the four Capacs and the Coya with the four Camayocs
formed two groups of five each, which could well have been represented by
a large central figure surrounded by four smaller ones of equal size. By
coloring these with red, yellow, black and white, their assignment to the
cardinal point could have been expressed. The central figure could be
painted in four colors, for only the Inca and his lineage could wear
many-colored garments, these being indicative that they represented the
centre or union of the four quarters.

Two important features of the system remain to be discussed: We have
studied the minute and methodical classification of the entire population
into distinct groups without touching upon the practical reasons why this
was done. We have analyzed the great machinery of the Inca dominion as it
lies broken and motionless. But endow the giant wheel with motion,
introduce systematical rotation into its every part, regulate the
occupations of the people by a fixed series of work-days and holidays.
Send them forth to their work and collect the products of their labor at
set intervals, _institute a calendar_, and you will have set the machinery
of state in motion and realized how the classification of individuals
according to rank, ages, and occupations was absolutely necessary in order
to obtain a successful and harmonious result. It has already been shown
that the institution of the calendar and establishment of twelve festival
periods of thirty days each, in a year, succeeded the division of the
people into groups and their assignment to fixed places of abode.

“They commenced to count the year in the middle of May, a few days more or
less, on the first day of the Moon ... in this month they held the
festivals of the Sun” (Molina ed. Hakluyt, p. 16). I direct particular
attention to the fact that it was the new May moon which controlled the
beginning of the religious calendar, although the Incas observed the
equinoxes and solstices and the cult of the Sun was under their special
care. The twelve divisions of the year accord with the twelve wards of
Cuzco surrounding the central enclosure which was always the place where
the festivals were held and the people congregated.

I have as yet found no account of the lesser divisions of time in Peru,
but note that the period of thirty days consisted of six periods of five
days each, a subdivision which would obviously accord with native habits
of thought if associated with the six terrestrial directions in space and
if a reunion of people and collection of produce from four quarters took
place on every fifth day in the capital. In my special work on the
Calendar systems of ancient America I shall be able to discuss more fully
their intimate indissoluble relation to the regulation of labor and
control of the food supply absolutely requisite for the great capital.

The idea of rotation was carried out in a ceremony described by Molina.
When the December moon was full, after having ploughed their fields during
twelve days, “all persons returned to Cuzco ... the people went to a house
called moro-uco, near the houses of the Sun and took out a very long cable
which was kept there, woven in four colors, black, white, red and yellow,
at the end of which was a stout ball of red wool. Everyone took hold of
it, the men on one side, the women on the other, performing the sacred
dance called yaquayra. When they came to the square ... they went round
and round until they were in the shape of a spiral shell. Then they
dropped the cable on the ground and left it coiled up like a snake. The
people returned to their places and those who had charge of the cable took
it back to its house.” An extremely important instance of the application
of the spiral is preserved in an illustration in the Account of the
Antiquities of Peru by the native chronicler Salcamayhua (ed. Hakluyt, p.
109). He relates that the Inca Huayna-Capac, when he reached the town of
Tumipampa, “ordered water to be brought from a river by boring through a
mountain, and making the channel enter the city by curves in this way:”

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 46.

The illustration, reproduced here (fig. 46), exhibits an extremely
ingenious mode of irrigation which divided the country surrounding the
town into nine zones of land lying between currents of water. These are
cut through by an exit canal which, at the same time, presumably supplied
a direct water-way for traffic to and from the town. The association of
the spiral form with irrigation would not, perhaps, seem as important and
significant did we not know that the ancient Peruvians, as proven by
Wiener, habitually laid out the irrigation canals in their maize-fields so
as to form regular designs, some of which resembled those illustrated on
fig. 40, nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, which have been shown to signify the union of
the Above and Below, or Heaven and Earth. In the Peruvian irrigation
canals the water supplied the light lines and the earth the dark, and when
the small canals were full and were observed in certain lights, they must
have resembled light blue or white patterns running through the dark
earth. That their inventors and makers actually associated them with
profound meaning and laid them from superstitious as well as practical
motives is obvious; for, in Peru, as in Mexico, we find the periodical
union of the Heaven and Earth, of rain and earth celebrated with
ceremonial drinking of chicha, specially brewed for this period which
seems to have been the regularly appointed time for juvenile match-making,
by order of the Inca.

“When the Inca gave women as wives they were received because it was the
command of the Inca ... because of this it was considered that she was
taken until death and she was received on this understanding and never
deserted” (Molina). “When the Inca Rocca married his sister, six thousand
people were married on the next day” (Montesinos). In the festival called
Ccapac Raymi, maidens who had attained womanhood offered bowls of
fermented chicha to the youths who had just been admitted to the ranks of
the warriors.

“During this festival the Priests of the Sun and of the Creator brought a
quantity of fuel, tied together in handfuls, and dressed as a man and a
woman ... they were offered to the Creator, the Sun and the Inca and were
burnt in their clothes together with a sheep” (Molina).

Towards the end of the same month (November), feasts were celebrated for
the flocks of the huacas, that they might multiply; for which sacrifices
were made throughout the kingdom. Ultimately “public solemn sacrifices
were made to the Creator, the Sun, the Thunder and the Moon for all
nations, that they might prosper and multiply” (Molina). A few weeks
later, an exemption from ceremonial bondage, for three months, commenced.
Throughout January, February and March no religious festival took place at
Cuzco—the farmers attended to their land and the people were left at
liberty to pursue their various avocations uninterruptedly (Molina ed.
Hakluyt, pp. 51 and 52). I have already shown that the same exemption from
ceremonial bondage during ninety to one hundred days of the year was
customary in Mexico; and, in my note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar
System, communicated to the Congress of Americanists at Stockholm in 1894
(p. 16), I explained the reasons which had led me to infer that “the
religious festivals were concentrated in the ritual years of 260 days,”
which indeed forms a unit, consisting of a complete set of combinations of
the numbers 13 and 20.

In Dr. Franz Boas’ admirable monograph on the Social Organization and
secret societies of the Kwakiutl Indians (Washington, 1897, p. 418), it is
shown that at the present day the clan system is only in force during one
division of the year. “At the beginning of the winter ceremonial the
social system is completely changed. The period when the class system is
in force is called bā-xus. The period of the winter ceremonial is
designated as ‘the secrets,’ ‘making the heart good,’ also ‘brought down
from Above.’ The Indians express this alternating of seasons by saying
that in summer the bā-xus is on top, the secrets below, and _vice versa_
in winter. During this time the place of the clans is taken by a number of
secret societies: the spirits who had appeared to mythical ancestors give
new names to the men to whom they appear, but these names are only in use
during the time when the spirits dwell amongst the Indians, _i. e._, in
the winter.” Therefore from the moment when the spirits are supposed to be
present, all the summer names are dropped and the members of the nobility
take their winter names. The winter ceremonial societies are arranged in
two principal groups; these are subdivided into 2×10=20 groups according
to age and sex.

Dr. Boas distinguishes “three classes of tribal names and of clan names,
viz., such as are collective forms of the names of the ancestors, names
taken from the region inhabited by the tribe or clan and names of
honour.... Each clan derives its origin from a mythical ancestor ... the
present system of tribes and clans is of recent growth ... their numbers
have undergone considerable changes in historical times.” A careful study
of the material presented by Dr. Boas shows, however, that the
ground-plans of the entire social fabric reared by the Kwakiutl Indians
closely resembles that on which the stately Maya, Mexican and Peruvian
civilizations were reared.

Returning to Peru, it is particularly noteworthy that the above mentioned
solemn sacrifices to the Creator, the Sun and Thunder, and Moon and Earth,
held in November, were thus offered to them jointly in one consecrated
place, whereas, at other seasons, the cult was performed separately and on
different days, before the emblems of the Above and Below.

Notwithstanding the moderation and tolerance which seem to have been
characteristic of the Inca government, and the apparent equality and
accord of the two cults, the heads of which were the Inca and Coya, we
find evidences of discord in the historical records. The Inca empire had
scarcely been established for more than a few centuries(23) when we
discern signs of a serious rebellion under the leadership of the
Chuchi-capac, the chief of the Southern province or Colla-suyu, pertaining
to the Below. From the taunts he uttered in the presence of the Inca on a
festive occasion and which have been recorded verbally by Salcamayhua, it
is clear that the chief of the Collas asserted that he (and the people of
his province) actually practised sun-cult although “his throne was of
silver;” that is to say, notwithstanding the fact that moon-cult pertained
to the quarter to which he was assigned, namely, to the Below. He
justifies his departure from moon-cult by taunting the Inca that he, in
turn, did not adhere strictly to sun-cult but worshipped the impersonal
Creator. This struggle between the ancient native sun-cult and star-cult
and this religious dissension, the reason for which is apparent, initiated
the long period of internal strife and warfare which ultimately made the
Spanish Conquest such an easy matter.

During the course of these wars the Peruvian Inca, on one occasion,
avenged himself for a supposed insult by having drums made of the skins of
some of the enemies’ messengers and by sending back others of these
“dressed as women,” that is to say degraded from their positions as
warriors or noblemen to the ranks of the commoners. A similar degradation,
inflicted upon the Tlatelolcan rebels by the Mexicans has already been
mentioned and can only be fully understood when the class-system is
recognized.

From this and analogous instances it is evident that, admirable as the
scheme of government seems to have been as a means of laying the
foundations of civilization, and of teaching primitive people agriculture,
stability, law and order, yet the very features which rendered it so
efficient at first became, eventually, the cause of its gradual
disintegration, as soon as a certain degree of culture prosperity was
attained by the community. One mode of avoiding the evils of
over-population and of ridding the capital of its restless, and
enterprising or troublesome members, was the system of Mitimaes or
colonists. This merits particular attention, because it formed an integral
part of the marvellous and widespread scheme of organization we have been
studying, and therefore helps to an understanding of the customary means
by which civilization was spread in past ages throughout the American
continent.

As the population of Cuzco increased and greater food supplies were found
necessary, the Incas extended their dominions by a series of conquests.
“As soon as they had made themselves lords of a province they left
Mitimaes or settlers there, who caused the natives to live in communities”
and established a small centre of local government on the pattern of
Cuzco. Mitimaes or colonists were also sent, from different provinces, to
live on the frontiers, bordering on hostile countries, so as to aid in
defending them against the enemies. The establishment of colonies in
distant districts was therefore a tried and familiar custom of those who
possessed the wonderful governmental plan we have been studying.

I have shown that the greater the prosperity of a civilized community
organized on this plan, the more imperative the necessity of founding new
colonies would sometimes become. The urgent need of greater food supplies
would lead to the sending out of expeditions for the purpose of surveying
the surrounding country and ascertaining the quality of its produce. In
his MS. Noticia, Padre Oliva speaks of an exploring party which was sent
out by the ancestor of the Incas with the injunction to return in a year.
After a few years had passed and none of the party returned, a second
expedition was sent out in search of the first and this led to the final
establishment of the Inca dominion in a promising region. Sahagun recounts
how a Maya colony was established at Panuco; Montezuma himself related to
Cortés that he and his lineage were descendants of colonists from distant
parts; traditions of culture-heroes who established civilization amongst
them abound amongst Central American tribes; finally, Peru is shown to
have been civilized by rulers who carried out, systematically, a
ready-made plan in a comparatively short time. Whence did all these
culture-heroes emanate, carrying the identical method and system into
widely separated districts and establishing centres of civilization in the
richest and most fertile parts of the American Continent?

Documentary evidence certainly justifies the inference that the
civilization of Peru itself was due to just such a deliberately executed
plan of colonization, which gradually extended southwards and ultimately
took root and flourished in the most favorably situated locality.

Leonce Angrand, who cites Acosta, Montesinos, Garcia, Boturini, Valera,
Garcilaso de la Vega, Gomara, Balboa, Paz Soldan, d’Orbigny, Zarate, Cieza
de Leon, Torquemada, Herrera, Velasco, Rivero and Tschudi, Gibbon,
Stevenson, Castelnau, Desjardins, Villavicencio, Roman and others, unites
their testimony in the following sentence: “It is therefore solely towards
the North, in the elevated mountainous region, that researches should be
directed [in order to ascertain the origin of the Peruvian civilization].
As soon as this is done innumerable proofs appear of the residence, in
extremely ancient times, of people who can scarcely belong to other races
than those who founded Cuzco and Tiahuanaco. It is therefore, from the
North that these hardy pioneers of humanity came, from distant
civilizations, and it is certainly by going northwards that one must look
for traces of one or the other current of civilization. The inexhaustible
force of expansion of the Inca Empire extended to the North as well as in
other directions.”

Angrand also mentions a line “of prehistoric ruins which extend northwards
from Peru and display the essentially characteristic outlines of the
Mexican Teocallis or temples.”(24)

Garcilaso de la Vega, citing Padre Blas Valera, goes so far as to state
that the race, which introduced human sacrifices and ritualistic
cannibalism into Peru, “had come from the region of Mexico, peopled the
regions of Panama and the Isthmus of Darien and all those great mountains
which extend between Peru and the new kingdom of Granada” (the present
Nicaragua).(25)

According to Padre Anello Oliva, whose manuscript notes on Peru are
preserved in the British Museum Library, the immediate ancestors of the
Incas were colonists who came from unknown parts either by land or by sea,
and settled at Caracas (Atlantic coast), whence they gradually spread
southwards. As his authority for this statement, he cites original
manuscripts which had been placed in his hands by a Spanish missionary of
high standing. Among these was a relation by a Quipucamayoc or “accountant
by means of quippus,” named Catari, who had been a chronicler of the
Incas. His forefathers had occupied the same post and had handed down the
above record as having been related to them by their predecessors.

This account does not disagree with that of Salcamayhua who states that
“all the nations of the empire had come from beyond Potosi, in four or
five armies, arrayed for war and settled in the districts as they
advanced.”

Whatever opinions may be held of the relative reliability of the Spanish
chroniclers one thing is certain: that not one ventures the statement that
the Inca civilization was gradually evolved by the native race of Peru and
that all agree in assigning its introduction to an alien race of rulers
who came from the North, and gradually united the scattered indigenous
tribes together under a central government. Americanists will doubtless
agree with me in stating that, until the past history, antiquities and
languages of all tribes inhabiting South and Central America have been
exhaustively studied, no absolutely satisfactory conclusion can be formed
as to when and how civilization was carried to Peru.

On the other hand, even in the present preliminary stage of investigation,
there are certain undeniable facts which, if brought to notice at this
early date, may prove of inestimable value in directing future research.
One of these facts will doubtless appear to many as strange and
inexplicable but as noteworthy as it appears to me.

In Cristoval de Molina’s account of the fables and rites of the Incas(26)
already cited, a fable is related concerning the Inca Yupanqui, the
Conqueror, who extended the domain of the Peruvian empire and instituted
the worship of a creator who, unlike the sun, could rest and light up the
world from one spot.

“They say that, before he succeeded [to rulership], he went one day to
visit his father Uiracocha Inca, who was at Sacsahuana, five leagues from
Cuzco. As he came up to a fountain called Susur-puquio, he saw a piece of
crystal fall into it, within which he beheld the figure of an Indian in
the following shape:

“Out of the back of his head there issued three very brilliant rays like
those of the Sun. Serpents were twined around his arms, and on his head
there was the llautu or royal fringe worn across the forehead of the Inca.
His ears were bored and he wore the same earpieces as the Inca, besides
being dressed like him. The head of a lion came out from between his legs
and on his shoulders was another lion whose legs appeared to join over the
shoulders of the man. A sort of serpent also twined over the shoulders.

“On seeing this figure the Inca Yupanqui fled, but the figure of the
apparition called him by his name from within the fountain saying, ‘Come
hither, my son, and fear not, for I am the Sun, thy father. Thou shalt
conquer many nations: therefore be careful to pay great reverence to me
and remember me in thy sacrifices.’ The apparition then vanished, while
the piece of crystal remained. The Inca took care of it and they say that
he afterwards saw everything he wanted in it. As soon as he was Lord he
ordered a statue of the Sun to be made as nearly as possible resembling
the figure he had seen in the crystal. He gave orders to the heads of the
provinces in all the lands he had conquered, that they should make grand
temples, richly endowed, and he commanded all his subjects to adore and
reverence the new Deity, as they had heretofore worshipped the Creator....
It is related that all his conquests were made in the name of the Sun, his
Father, and of the Creator. This Inca also commanded all the nations they
conquered to hold their huacas in great veneration....”

It is a startling but undeniable fact that one of the beautiful
bas-reliefs found at Santa Lucia Cozumalhuapa near the western coast of
Guatemala, about 1,200 miles to the north of the latitude of Cuzco,
answers in a most striking manner to the description given of Inca
Yupanqui’s vision.(27)

Amongst the thirteen sculptured slabs discovered at Santa Lucia, there are
six entire slabs and the fragment of another which are of almost uniform
size and may be ranked among the finest examples of aboriginal art which
have as yet been found on the American Continent. They represent seven
different renderings of the same theme. On each slab an individual wearing
elaborate insignia is represented as standing with one arm raised and his
head thrown back in the act of gazing upwards towards a celestial figure
which seems to be descending towards him. The arms and heads of these
nobly conceived figures are visible, but in each case the faces seem to
issue from a highly ornate symbol, which is different in each one, just as
the insignia of each individual also varies in detail. At the same time it
is obvious that the seven slabs commemorate as it were an identical
circumstance,—the apparition of the same divinity to seven different
individuals, six of which are represented with the sign of speech coming
forth from their mouths in precisely the same manner. The general
resemblance, notwithstanding the distinct individuality of each
bas-relief, suggests that they commemorate the visions seen under similar
circumstances by seven distinct personages of the same rank and position.
Involuntarily one thinks of the period of enforced fast and vigil which
marks the attainment of manhood and is still obligatory amongst North
American tribes, amongst whom it only ends when they have entered into
communion with their totemic ancestor. I am inclined to view these
commemorative tablets as commemorating an analogous rite and perpetuating
the visions of successive members of one ruling family, or clan. The
divinity, invariably associated with serpent symbols, seems to be
Quetzalcoatl, the divine twin or serpent, exhibiting in some cases the
emblem of the Sun, but evidently revealing itself to each personage under
a slightly different form.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 47.

The accompanying drawing (fig. 47) of one of the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs,
reproduced from Dr. Habel’s work, will suffice to establish its
resemblance to Padre Oliva’s description of the apparition seen by the
youthful Inca Yupanqui. After a careful comparison of the text to the
sculptured bas-relief, it must be admitted that a more graphic and
impressive illustration of the episode can scarcely be imagined. Its lower
portion displays a youthful figure, looking upwards and exhibiting a
necklace, the circular ear-pieces and royal fringe or llautu of the Incas.
From his shoulders hangs the skin of a puma or lion with its head
downwards. Molina relates that lion-skins with the heads were specially
prepared for the ceremonial when youths were admitted into the ranks of
knighthood, the last rite of which was the piercing of their ears and the
enlargement of the orifice made.(28)

The youth wears a singular head-dress, or diadem, consisting of what
appears to be an eye with conventionally drawn upper lid, surmounted by
three pointed rays, behind which some long wavy feathers are visible.(29)

The celestial apparition to which the youthful figure is looking up,
likewise exhibits the same necklace, pieces, and royal fringe of the
Incas. Indistinctly though some of the details are given, it seems as
though intertwined serpents encircled its head and possibly its neck. The
head of the vision is surmounted by an enlarged rendering of the
conventionally drawn eyelid and three pointed rays which form the diadem
of the youthful knight. The face of the vision occupies, however, the
place of the eye on the diadem. In this connection it is interesting to
note that in the Nahuatl language, which, as (_op. et loc. cit._) proven
by Buschmann, was spoken in Guatemala where the bas-relief was found, the
word ixtli designates face, whilst ixtololotli signifies eye. Situated
between the right elbow of the celestial figure and the diadem of the
youth, there is a diminutive reproduction of the eye, eyelid and three
rays, with the addition that what appear like two (or three?) drops of
water or two eyes descend from it towards a square symbol which resembles
the Mexican sign for tlalli=earth, whilst the eye symbol is closely
analogous to a well-known Mexican sign which has been interpreted as a
star, and has, but not as yet satisfactorily, been identified with the
planet Venus. Without pausing to study this sign as it appears in ancient
Mexico I point out that the position and mode of representation of the
upper figure in the bas-relief sufficiently show that it is an image of a
celestial being or vision in the act of receiving the supplication of a
youth who is wearing divine insignia. There being a possibility that some
of these accessories may be somewhat indistinct in the original bas-relief
now preserved at the Royal Ethnographical Museum at Berlin, I do not
venture to draw special attention to the possibility of further points of
resemblance between the Peruvian tradition and this Guatemalan sculpture.

At the same time I shall not omit allusion to the wavy figure winding
upwards from the waist of the supplicant, which recurs in four out of the
seven slabs. It may yet prove to answer to the description of “a sort of
serpent,” which is recorded as twining over the shoulders of the vision
who was “dressed like the Inca.” The lion’s head which appears in the
drawing to cover the left hand of the supplicant and the fact that his
left foot only, in some cases, wears a sandal, are important and
interesting features to which I shall revert further on.

Without attempting to offer any explanation of the truly remarkable fact
that a bas-relief exhumed in Guatemala should so strikingly agree with a
description preserved in a Peruvian tradition, I shall merely point out a
second similar though much less remarkable case of agreement.

Padre Oliva records two instances in which a “royal eagle” figures in
connection with members of the Inca dynasty. One of these relates to the
ancestors of Manco Capac, the reputed founder of Cuzco. His
great-grandmother, being abandoned by her husband, attempted to sacrifice
her young son to Pachacamac. A royal eagle descended, carried him away in
his talons and set him down in an island off the Pacific coast, named
Guayan, “because it was covered with willows.” Oliva explains this
tradition as a fanciful way of recording the fact that the youth’s life
was probably endangered, and that he had fled and taken refuge on an
island. At the age of twenty-one he made his way back to the continent on
a raft, but was seized by hostile people. His life was, however, saved by
the daughter of a chieftain who returned with him to the island. Her name
is given as Ciguar, a word strangely like the Nahuatl Cihuatl=woman. She
bore him a son who was named Atau (_cf._ Ahau and Ahua=Maya and Mexican
words for lord or chief), who was, in time, the father of Manco Capac, the
reputed founder of civilization in Peru. When the latter was a child “an
eagle approached him and never left him.” In view of these traditions it
is interesting to note that, on two of the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs figured
by Habel and reproduced by Mr. Hermann Strebel in pl. II, fig. 13, of his
extremely useful and comprehensive monograph on the bas-reliefs of Santa
Lucia, an eagle is represented in connection with a figure wearing divine
insignia.

On one of the seven analogous slabs representing a personage addressing a
supplication to a celestial apparition, a large eagle or vulture is
actually sculptured behind the supplicant, being, as it were, his
individual totem (Strebel, Pl. II, fig. 5).

A drawing of a part of another slab (Strebel, Pl. II, fig. 13) displays an
eagle or vulture holding in his beak the body of a bearded personage who
wears a neck ornament and circular ear pieces, and from whose head two
serpents hang. This last detail associates him with the celestial figure
which usually displays knotted serpents on or above its head, suggesting
its connection with Quetzalcoatl, the divine title of the Supreme Being
and also of the supreme rulers of the Mexicans. It is curious to find in
Peru a tradition recording that, when “the Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
undertook the conquest of the Antisuyus with 100,000 men, their Huaca sent
forth fire and stopped the passage with a fierce serpent which destroyed
many people. The Inca raised his eyes to heaven and prayed for help with
great sorrow, and a furious eagle descended, and seizing the head of the
serpent raised it on high, and then hurled it to the ground. In memory of
this miracle the Inca ordered a snake to be carved in stone on the wall of
a terrace in this province, which was called Aucapirca.” When divested of
all fanciful details, the foregoing Peruvian traditions seem to show that
the eagle was the totem of one or more of the Incas and that the serpent
was the totem of a tribe which was conquered by the Incas. It is likewise
recorded by Padre Oliva that the Inca named Mayta Capac Amaru ordered his
shield to be painted with weapons and a serpent=Amaru, “because he had
killed one in the Andes and therefore took it for his surname.”

It is impossible for any Mexicanist to read the foregoing texts without
recalling that, in the City of Mexico, there is an unexplained bas-relief
which was put up by the Spaniards after the Conquest but evidently figures
a native tradition. It represents an eagle bearing in his talons a
personage, wearing a diadem, beneath whom is a group of native
weapons.(30) The arms of Mexico representing an eagle holding a serpent in
its talons and resting on a cactus, is too well known to require comment
and recalls the Peruvian tradition of the eagle of the Incas conquering
the serpent-totem of a hostile people.

Striking as these undeniable resemblances undoubtedly are, they would not,
by themselves, justify the immediate conclusion that an actual direct
connection existed between the Peruvian traditions and the Guatemalan and
Mexican bas-reliefs which almost seem to illustrate the same or analogous
incidents. At the same time they prove that, besides their scheme of
government, the Incas had certain myths or traditions in common with the
civilized tribes inhabiting Central America.

It is well to bear in mind that the situations of Cuzco in Peru and Santa
Lucia in Guatemala are both adjacent to the Pacific coast with an
intervening distance of about 27-½ degrees of latitude. But 15 degrees,
however, lie between the northern boundary of modern Peru and the southern
boundary of Nicaragua where, as proven by Buschmann, innumerable names of
localities in the Nahuatl language testify to its ancient occupation by a
Nahuatl-speaking race.

It is noteworthy that this eminent philologist observed how the name
employed to designate the bamboo bed of the Cacique Agateite, in
Nicaragua, “barbacoa,” was the same as that of the wooden bed or litter
used by the Inca in Peru (_op. cit._ p. 756). Buschmann likewise
identified the word galpon=great hall or house. He also expressed the
opinion that “the Quechua word _pampa_ resembles the Mexican _amilpampa
ehecatl_=the south wind, but the Mexican is formed by the affixes pan and
pa and the Quechua substantive means an even, open plain. At the same time
this meaning and form could be derived from the Mexican affixes”
(Buschmann, Ueber Aztekische Ortsnamen III, 7, p. 627).

Following this precedent I have ventured to search for further
resemblances between Nahuatl and Quechua words, and one of the remarkable
results I obtained was the discovery that the well-known Quechua name for
colonists=Mitimaes, the meaning of which, in Quechua, is not forthcoming,
seems to be connected in sound and meaning with the Nahuatl Ce-mitime=sons
of one mother (Molina’s dictionary). It is superfluous to point out how
appropriate this designation would have been for the colonists who
invariably founded fresh centres of civilization on the plan of the
central metropolis. A brief comparative table, the result of an
investigation which lays no claim to be more than a rudimentary attempt,
is published as an appendix to this paper, with the hope that it may
stimulate philologists to supersede it by exhaustive studies of the
subject. A careful examination of the table tends to prove that certain
Nahuatl, Quechua and Maya words had a common origin and shows that a
closer connection existed between the Nahuatl and Quechua languages than
between Nahuatl and Maya or the Quechua and Maya.

I shall have occasion to refer to several of the words I have tabulated.
At present I would draw attention to an analogy which bears directly on
the subject of this paper and is of utmost interest and importance. If
carefully studied it will be seen that the title “Pacha Yachachic,”
applied in Peru to the Creator, proves to be allied in sound and meaning
to the Mexican title Yaca-tecuhtli, “the lord who guides or governs.”
According to Sahagun, this was “the god of the traders or
traveller-merchants.” He had five divine brothers and one sister, each of
which was separately worshipped by some travellers, whilst others, on
their safe return from distant and dangerous expeditions, offered
sacrifices to the whole group collectively. I leave it to each reader to
make his own inference as to whether this celestial “traveller’s guide”
with his six brethren can have been other than Polaris and Ursa Minor. The
difference in the magnitudes of this constellation would naturally give
rise to the idea of a group composed of individuals of different ages and
sizes; the “little sister” probably being the smaller of the four
intermediate stars of the constellation and suggesting tales of adventures
relating to the mythical sister of six brothers.

It is superfluous to emphasize how natural it would have been to offer a
thanksgiving to the “traveller’s star” on returning from a distant voyage,
but I will point out that for coast navigation between Guatemala and
Nicaragua and Peru, the adoption of Polaris as a guide was and is a matter
of course. It is well to bear in mind that we are dealing here with
navigation north and south, along a sheltered coast, for a distance not
exceeding that of the coast-line between Gibraltar and Hamburg. An
instructive example of primitive navigation, under analogous
circumstances, has been communicated to me, from personal observation, by
Commander Barber of the United States Navy.

Native traders, who navigate north and south in small crafts along the
coast between Ceylon and Karashee, still use, at the present day, an
extremely primitive method of estimating latitude, which is entirely based
upon observations of the pole-star. Their contrivance consists of a piece
of wood four inches square, through which a hole is bored and a piece of
cord, with knots at intervals, is passed. The square is held at arm’s
length and the end of the cord is held to the point of the navigator’s
nose in a horizontal line, the height being so adjusted that the pole-star
is observed in contact with the upper edge of the piece of wood. There are
as many knots in the cords as there are ports habitually visited, and
according to the length of the cord required for the observation of
Polaris in the said position, the mariner knows to which port he is
opposite.

According to Sir Clements B. Markham,(31) the original inhabitants of the
Peruvian coast fished in boats made of inflated sealskins. It is well
known that the coast-tribes of Mexico and Central America employed boats
of various kinds and some of great size. The Mexican tradition relates
that the culture hero Quetzalcoatl departed in a craft he had constructed
and which is designated as a coatlapechtli=coa=coatl=serpent or twin,
tlapechtli=raft. It is open to conjecture whether this construction, “in
which he sat himself as in a boat,” may be regarded as a sort of double or
twin raft, or a boat made of serpent or seal (?) skin. In order to form
any opinion, the name for seal in the Nahuatl and other languages spoken
by the coast tribes should first be ascertained and compared with the
native names for serpent.

The Maya colonists who founded the colony on the Mexican coast, and are
known as the Huaxtecans, are described as having transported themselves
thither by boats from Yucatan. In the native Codices and in the sculptured
bas-relief at Chichen-Itza, there are, moreover, illustrations of
navigation by boats. As dependent upon Polaris as their East Indian
colleagues of to-day, it is but natural that the ancient Mexican traders
by land or sea expressed their gratitude by offerings to Polaris and Ursa
Minor.

Let us now return to Peru and examine whether there is any proof that the
“Teacher or Guide of the World,” the Supreme Being of the Incas, was
identical with the “Lord who guides” revered by the Mexican navigators.

I have already demonstrated that in ancient America the native scheme of
religion and government was but the natural outcome of certain ideas
suggested by the observation of Polaris and the circumpolar
constellations. I have likewise quoted the remarkable qualification of a
supreme divinity made by Inca Yupanqui, who raised a temple in Cuzco to
the Creator who, superior to the sun, could rest and light the world from
one spot. It is an extremely important and significant fact that the
principal doorway of this temple opened to the north,(32) and that the
“true Creator” is alluded to as an invisible power, the knowledge of which
was transmitted by the Incas from father to son. Thus Salcamayhua records
that on one occasion the young Inca Ccapac Yupanqui exclaimed “I now feel
that there is another Creator of all things [than that worshipped in the
Andes], as my father Mayta Ccapas Inca has indeed told me.”(33)
Considering that in the latitude of Cuzco, situated as it is 14° below the
equator, Polaris is invisible, the conditions thus recorded as existing in
Peru are exactly those which might be expected to exist if a religion
founded on pole-star worship had been carried southward to a region in
which the star itself was invisible. The orientation of the temple would
designate the north as the sacred region and the star-god would become an
invisible power whose very existence would have become traditional and
necessarily be accepted on faith by native-born Peruvians and converted
sun- and moon-worshippers.

It is a remarkable fact that a descendant of the Incas has furnished us
with actual proof that the Supreme Creator revered at Cuzco was not only
associated with a star, but also with the figure of a cross, each branch
of which terminated in a star. We are indebted to the native chronicler
Salcamayhua for some extremely curious drawings, which are reproduced here
from his account of the Antiquities of Peru.(34) In treating of the
primitive astronomy in America in my special paper on the native calendar,
I shall refer to these in greater detail. For my present purpose it
suffices to designate the following figures.

Salcamayhua records that the founder of the Peruvian Empire, Manco Capac,
ordered the smiths to make a flat plate of fine gold, of oval shape, which
was set up as an image of the Creator (_op. cit._ p. 76). The Inca Mayta
Ccapac, “who despised all created things, including the sun and moon,” and
“ordered his people to pay no honour to them,” caused the plate to be
renewed which his “great grandfather had put up, fixing it afresh in the
place where it had been before. He rebuilt the ‘house of gold’ and they
say that he caused things to be placed round the plate, which I have
shown, that it may be seen what these heathens thought.” The central
figure on this plate consists of the oval image of the Creator, fig. 48,
_c_. Close to its right are images designated by the text as representing
the sun and morning star. To the left are the moon and the evening star.
Above the oval and touching it, is a group of five stars forming a cross,
with one star in the centre. Below it is a cross figure formed by lines
uniting four stars. In this case, instead of being in the middle, the
fifth star is attached to the lower edge of the oval, which is designated
as “the image of Uiracocha Pacha-Yachachic, the teacher of the World.”
Outside of the plate is what appears to be an attempt to explain more
clearly the relative positions of the group of five stars to the oval
plate (fig. 48, _a_). It represents the oval and one star in the centre of
a cross formed by four stars. The question naturally suggests itself
whether the group of five stars forming a cross may not represent the
Southern Cross, popularly called the pole-star of the south and which
consists of four principal stars, one of which is of the first and two of
the second magnitude. This possibility opens out a new field of inquiry,
and calls for the statement of the following facts, which I quote from
Amedée Guillemin’s Handbook of Popular Astronomy, edited by J. Norman
Lockyer and revised by Richard A. Proctor.(35)

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 48.

“In [our] enumeration of the circumpolar constellations of the South, we
have said nothing of the stars situated at the Pole itself. The reason is
simple; there are none deserving mention, and with the exception of one
star in Hydræ, none approach the third magnitude. There is not then, in
the southern sky, any star analogous to Polaris in the northern heavens.”
M. Guillemin proceeds to explain, however, that this poverty of the polar
regions is singularly compensated for by the stars of the equatorial zone.
It seems more than probable that primitive astronomers or their
descendants, who had been reared in a knowledge of the northern Polaris
and of the periodical motion of the circumpolar constellations, should
continue their observations in whatever latitude they found themselves. It
seems possible that they may have observed the Southern Cross and
recognized its closeness to the pivot or centre of rotation; but from
personal experience and observation I can vouch for the fact that this
constellation could never have produced upon primitive man the powerful
impression caused by Ursa Major and Cassiopeia revolving around Polaris.
It is, of course, impossible to conclude to what extent the ancient
Peruvians revered the Southern Cross. It suffices for the present to
establish the incontrovertible facts that the image of the motionless
Creator, set up by the Incas, was associated with stars and with the cross
and that the door of the Cuzco Temple, where this image was kept, faced
the north, the direction whence, according to native traditions, the
culture-heroes had come to Peru.

The following data furnish further important proof that certain peculiar
ideas, symbols and metaphors were held in common by the civilizations of
Peru, Central America and Mexico. Returning to the bas-relief (fig. 47), I
recur to an interesting feature, which I have already pointed out, namely,
that the left arm of the personage terminates in a tiger’s or puma’s head.
In connection with this peculiarity it is interesting to note that the
native historian Ixtlilxochitl cites his illustrious ancestor and
namesake, the Ome Tochtli Ixtlilxochitl of Texcoco, as addressing his
young son Nezalhualcoyotl as “my dearly beloved son, tiger’s arm.”(36) As
the young prince is referred to in the same chapter as “the boy Acolmiztli
[=tiger’s arm] Nezalhualcoyotl,” it is obvious that the metaphor
constituted a title preceding the actual name. It was Nezalhual-coyotl who
instituted the worship of Tloquenahuaque, the true Creator, and
discountenanced human sacrifices.

If the other analogous Santa Lucia slabs be also examined it will be seen
that although the positions of the bodies and arms vary, and the form of
the head is different in each instance, it is invariably the left arm that
terminates in the individual emblem. This sort of consecration of the left
hand seems particularly significant for the following reason: Padre Anello
Oliva records that the Inca Yupanqui, the founder of Cuzco and the same
whose vision agrees so strangely with the bas-relief, was surnamed
Lloque=the left-handed,(37) and was noted for having visited the whole
empire three times. His reign was long and prosperous, and he left a
record as a conqueror and builder. He likewise sent his son Mayta-Capac to
visit the whole empire, accompanied by sages and councillors. I recall
here it was Yupanqui who proclaimed to the sun-worshippers of Peru, the
existence and superiority of an immutable Creator.

I have already shown how, in Peru, it was a dictum that the upper division
of the empire was to bear the same ideal relation to the lower as that of
an elder brother to a younger or a right hand to the left. It is,
therefore, possible to infer that, on ceremonial occasions when it is
recorded that the Hanan Cuzco and Hurin Cuzco people were stationed at
either side of the Inca, the Hanan or chieftains constituting the nobility
were to his right and the Hurin people or lower class, to his left.

It is truly remarkable that it is a passage in the Annals of the
Cakchiquels, the people now inhabiting the region of Guatemala where the
Santa Lucia bas-reliefs were found, that contains the clearest statement
regarding the division of a tribe into two classes and the relative
positions assigned to each of these, according to ceremonial usage. The
passage relates: “We, the 13 divisions of warriors, and the seven tribes
... we came to the enclosure of Tulan, and coming, gave our tribute. The
seven tribes were drawn up in order on the left of Tulan. On the right
hand, were arranged the warriors. Firstly, the tribute was taken from the
seven tribes, next from the warriors.”(38)

Buschmann has recorded the interesting fact that, in Nahuatl, the right
hand is designated as “the good, clever or wise”=yec-maitl or mayectli,
also ma-imatca or ma-nematca (from yectli=good and imati=to be clever or
wise). Molina’s dictionary furnishes us with the following Nahuatl names
for the left hand, etc.

Opoch maitl, Opuch maitl, Opuch maye: left hand.
Opochiuia=v. to do something with the left hand.
Topuchcopa, the left, at the left hand, or side.

In Mexico the totemic lord of the chase was named Opochtli. The
much-discussed name Huitzil-opochtli is considered by some to signify “the
left-handed humming-bird.”

The foregoing proves that in Peru, Guatemala and Mexico a caste-division
was associated with left-handedness and that the expression “left-handed”
was employed as an honorific or distinctive title. It is obvious that
before reaching the point when the left hand would be invested by a
distinctive mark, as in the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs, the above ideas must
have been prevalent for a very long time.

I have already pointed out that a striking similarity of ideas survives
amongst the Zuñi Indians of to-day.

As to the native tiger’s head (puma or ocelot?) we find that it is the
chief symbol of the central human figure on the great monolithic doorway
of Tiahuanaco, Peru, a fact which testifies to a further community of
thought.

This central figure exhibits two tigers’ heads on each shoulder and six
around its head, disposed as rays and interspersed with what resemble
drops of water. The transverse ornament carved on the breast exhibits four
divisions, each of which terminates with a tiger’s head. Four similar
heads, looking upwards, are on the central decoration beneath the figure
and the broad band at the base terminates in two large tigers’ heads. What
is more, on the fragment of a finely carved hollow stone object, which is
preserved at the British Museum and was found at Tiahuanaco by Mr. Richard
Inwards, there are the finest representations of the swastika which have
as yet been found on the American Continent, and each of its branches
terminates in a tiger’s head, resembling those sculptured on the
monolithic doorway. The fragment consists of the half of what seems to me
to have been the top or handle of a staff or sceptre. I am indebted to the
kindness of Mr. C. H. Read of the British Museum, for a rubbing of the
carved fragment and for the permission to reproduce it here (fig. 49). The
central swastika is angular and its form recalls that of the Mexican
Calendar swastika (fig. 9). At each side of it are portions of what
originally were two rounded swastikas, which also terminate in tigers’
heads. These and the size of the fragment seem to justify the inference
that another square swastika was originally sculptured on the opposite
side, making two rounded and two square swastikas in all.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 49.

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this fragment, for
it proves to us that in Tiahuanaco, the swastika was a sacred symbol. Its
association with the puma or ocelot, links it to the central figure on the
monolithic doorway and, possibly, connects this with the Mexican
identification of the ocelot with the Ursa Major, with “the lord who walks
around,” or the lord of the underworld, Tezcatlipoca. The two forms of
swastika seem to testify that, in Tiahuanaco also, the idea of the Above
and Below prevailed and that the angular form symbolized the subdivision
of the earth and the rounded one that of the heavens. The rows of
personages sculptured on the doorway at each side of and facing the
central figure seem to indicate that this commemorates an establishment of
tribal organization.

The distribution of the sculptured figures is as follows:

8 figures=2×4 }                Central { 8 figures
8 figures=2×4 } 6×4                    { 8 figures
8 figures=2×4 }                figure. { 8 figures.

The figures on the upper row to the right and left, making sixteen in all,
are all alike—so are the sixteen figures on the second and the sixteen on
the third rows.

Without attempting to describe all the insignia which characterize the
figures on each of the three rows, I refer the reader to the magnificent
plates contained in Drs. Stübel and Uhle’s monumental work on the Ruins of
Tiahuanaco, and merely note that each figure in the uppermost row exhibits
a bird’s head in front of its head-dress. All figures in the second row
are completely masked as condors. In the third row a tiger’s head
decorates each head-dress. It is curious to find that whilst the birds’
and tigers’ heads designate their wearers as heads or chieftains, these
emblems strikingly coincide with the classification of the highest Mexican
warriors into two divisions, known as “the ocelots and the eagles.” If
attention is bestowed upon the number of emblems or figures and their
distribution it will be seen, in the first case, that the central figure
exhibits on his person twelve tigers’ heads in all, _i. e._, six on his
head, two on each arm and two on his breast-plate. Sixteen chieftains
exhibit the same emblem and the carved fragment with the swastika appears
to have originally exhibited sixteen tigers’ heads, distributed into
homogeneous groups of four.

It cannot be denied that the forty-eight figures on the doorway are first
divided into two groups of twenty-four by being placed to the right and
left of the central figure. Each division of twenty-four is grouped as
3×8, which is also 6×4, and yielding a total of 12×4 or 4×12 figures.

Curiously enough the number 12 coincides not only with the number of heads
exhibited by the central figure, but the entire bas-relief offers a
certain agreement with the numerical divisions of Cuzco which I have
summarized as having been divided into two halves and four quarters and
subdivided into 12 wards, the names of which doubtlessly corresponded with
those of their inhabitants. Personally I am inclined to consider that the
purpose of the Tiahuanaco bas-relief was to establish a certain tribal
organization and impose certain distinctive insignia upon each tribe. The
inference that each sculptured figure was differentiated from the other by
being painted in various colors is justified by Molina’s account, already
cited, that “in Tiahuanaco the ‘Creator’ had his chief abode, hence the
superb edifices in that place, on which edifices were painted many dresses
of Indians ... thus each nation uses the dress with which they invest
their huaca and they say that the first that was born [in Tiahuanaco] was
there turned into stones, others say that the first of their lineages were
turned into falcons, condors and other animals and birds.”

It is with deference, however, that I submit my conclusion and refer the
question to the supreme authority of Drs. Stübel and Uhle and Mr.
Bandelier, whose attainments and exhaustive researches in the region of
Tiahuanaco qualify them to utter a final judgment upon this interesting
subject. According to Dr. Max Uhle the civilization established at
Tiahuanaco antedates that of the Incas. It may yet be proven that whilst
Tiahuanaco was settled in remote times by colonists from the North, the
Inca civilization was due to a later migration. It certainly appears that,
in Tiahuanaco and Cuzco, the identical fundamental scheme of government
and organization prevailed.

I shall yet have occasion to point out that in Mexico and Yucatan and
Central America there are also monuments exhibiting multiples of 12 and 4
and also 16 chieftains. Meanwhile it is worth while to note here briefly,
some analogies to Mexican and Maya antiquities found in Peru.

I am much indebted to Sir Clements D. Markham, the President of the Royal
Geographical Society, for the kind permission to reproduce here a hasty
drawing he made, in 1853, of a gold plaque (size 5-8/10 inches) found in
Cuzco (fig. 50). It was then in Lima, being the property of the President
of Peru, General Echerrique. This curious relic exhibits the image of a
monstrous face surrounded by a band with subdivisions containing various
signs. The plaque was looked upon by its owner as a Calendar, but Sir
Clements Markham, after studying its subdivisions with a view of
ascertaining their agreement with the twelve divisions of the Peruvian
year, preferred to let his notes on the subject remain unpublished, not
having come to a satisfactory conclusion on the subject. I am permitted,
however, to state that Sir Clements Markham specially noted the
resemblance of a sign, which is represented on the cheeks of the central
figure and recurs four times on the encircling band, to the well-known
Maya glyph ahau=chief, lord.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 50.

It is, indeed, a cursive representation of a human head and moreover
resembles those figured on the garment of a gigantic red sandstone statue
found at Ak-Kapana and figured in Stübel and Uhle’s Tiahuanaco. On this
garment the heads alternate with squares and form a close design. This
resemblance between the conventional faces on this archaic statue and
those on the gold plaque has made me attach more importance to the latter
and at all events regard it as preserving ancient native symbolism. In
connection with these I wish to point out that the plaque itself offers a
certain resemblance to well-known Mexican calendars, the centre of which
usually exhibits a face which is surrounded by a band with day or month
signs. It is remarkable that above each eye there are four dots,
especially as the Quechua word for eye=naui is homonymous with the Nahuatl
numeral four=nahui, and this is so constantly associated with an eye in
the Mexican sign Nahui ollin=four movements (_cf._ fig. 2). As strange a
coincidence as this is furnished by the mark on the forehead of the image,
not because the latter resembles the sect mark of the Vishnu worshippers,
but because it offers a marked analogy to the Mexican Acatl sign which is
frequently carved or painted as a cane standing in a square receptacle
with recurved ends. I am strongly tempted to interpret this symbol
according to the native mode of thought, as signifying the centre, the
union of the Above and Below and to regard the upper part of the face
itself as a representation of the Above, the heaven, with its two eyes
(the Moon and Sun), whilst the lower part and teeth, as in Mexico,
signified the Below, the earth and underworld. By means of the head on
each cheek and the number four over each eye, the dual and quadruple
rulerships of the empire could well have been expressed. Postponing a more
thorough study of the gold plaque, I merely note here that it exhibits
curious analogies not only to Maya but also to Mexican symbolism.

Another instance of the same kind is furnished by a possibly modern but
curious small silver pendant of unquestionably native workmanship. It is
preserved at the Ethnographical Museum at Vienna and is figured in the
Report of the International Congress of Americanists which was held at
Berlin in 1888 (pl. 1, fig. 4, p. 96). Reputed to be from Cuzco, it
represents a figure of the sun surrounded by eight straight and
intermediate undulating rays. Two serpents are figured beneath the sun;
their bodies extend across the pendant and their heads with open jaws
almost meet in the centre. A figure, wearing a peculiar head-dress, is
kneeling in worship beneath the symbols, which undoubtedly recall the
Mexican mode of representing two serpents meeting, as on the Calendar
Stone of Mexico, for instance.

As I am tracing analogies at present, I should like to ask the reader to
compare the symbols figured and designated by Salcamayhua as that of the
earth (see his fig. _c_, pl. LXVI) with the sacred vase from the Maya MS.
(his fig. II, pl. LIX) and the form of the Peruvian symbol for the sea
(his fig. _e_, pl. LXVI) with the peculiar Mexican shell ornament (fig. 1,
no. 10). Insufficient though the above analogies may seem in themselves,
they are valuable in conjunction with the other data presented and
strengthen the conclusion that the same symbolism prevailed in Peru as in
Central America, Yucatan and Mexico.

Let us now rapidly journey northwards from Peru to these countries and
briefly record the traces of the existence of the same ideas and
quadruplicate form of government which we may encounter en route. In the
elevated plains of Bogota we find positive proof that the Muyscas held the
same ideas as their southern and northern neighbors. Their culture hero,
Bochica or Ida-can-zas, was the personification of the Above and of its
symbol, the Sun, whilst his wife was Chia, a name suspiciously like
Quilla, the Quechua for moon. He was high-priest and ruler but counselled
the Muyscas to elect one of themselves, a chief named Hunc-Ahua, to be
their Za-que or civil ruler. Ida-can-zas instituted the Calendar and
taught the Muyscas to appoint four chiefs of tribes whose names or titles
are recorded as Gameza, Busbanca, Pesca and Toca. The institution of a
dual government is indicated by the record that the high-priest dwelt at
the sacred town Aura-ca and the Za-que at Tunja.

It is extremely curious to notice that Ida-can-zas, in Bogota, did
precisely what Cortés found it expedient to do after the Conquest of
Mexico. The latter assumed the supreme rulership over the nobility, became
the “lord of Heaven” and instituted a native chieftain, bearing a female
title, as his coadjutor, the lord of the earth, and the ruler of the
people of the lower class.

It may be worth making the passing remark that the title of the Muysca
culture-hero contains the word “can” and thus recalls the Maya Kukulcan
and that the title Za-que offers a certain resemblance to the Maya title
Chac, whilst the name Hunc-ahua seems strangely similar to Hun-ahau which
in Maya would signify “one lord.” It is for Muysca scholars to enlighten
us as to the derivation and meaning of the above titles and name.

Regretting the lack of time and documents which have prevented me from
obtaining further data I now return to Guatemala and the vicinity of the
Santa Lucia bas-reliefs. Referring to the introduction to their Annals(39)
we learn that the Cakchiquel tribe was but one of four allied nations,
each of which had its capital, named Tecpan, as follows:

Nations: Capitals.
Cakchiquel: Tecpan Quauhtemallan,
Quiche: Utatlan,
Tzutuhil: Atitlan,
Akahal: Tezolotlan.

According to Mr. A. P. Maudslay’s authoritative statement, these nations
were engaged in warfare against each other at the time of the Conquest.
Tezolotlan was termed the “tierra de guerra” the land of war, and the
precise locality of its tecpan or former capital has not been traced,
although it seems to have been close to Rabinal or in the valley of that
name.

It is well known that, under the rulership of Tizoc, the Mexicans extended
their conquests into Guatemala. Buschmann has, moreover, proven that the
foregoing names of the capitals, of what were at one time four provinces,
are pure Nahuatl, which fact establishes the existence of Nahua supremacy
in these regions.

It is curious to find that one of the Santa Lucia slabs seems to
commemorate the existence of a central rulership and that of the four
quarters. It is reproduced in Mr. Strebel’s publication already cited and
represents a central personage holding a head and a tecpatl, whilst four
lesser personages, each carrying a head, are figured as walking away in
four opposed directions. As, according to native symbolism, the head is
the symbol for chieftain this slab seems to commemorate the establishment
and at all events testifies to the existence in Guatemala of the scheme of
government now so familiar.

In their Annals, the Cakchiquels record, as I have already shown, that
they carried their tribute to “the enclosure of Tulan,” a designation
which supports my inference, previously maintained, that Tulan was derived
from the Maya tulum,=a fortification, an enclosed place or that which is
entire, whole, etc., and applied always to the metropolis of a state.

An ancient Cakchiquel legend relates, moreover, that, according to the
“ancient men,” there had been four Tulans: one in the east, one in the
north, one in the west and one “where the god dwells.” This would
obviously have been situated towards the south in order to accord with the
general scheme. I cannot but think that this record testifies to the
existence of an extremely ancient state which starting from one metropolis
had gradually developed into four great Tullans, to one of which the four
tecpans of Guatemala pertained. The fact that the Spaniards found the four
nations living close together, with capitals or tecpans bearing Nahuatl
names and in constant warfare with each other, seems to indicate the
destruction of their own ancient metropolis or Tullan by their Mexican
conquerors and the consequent disintegration of their former
government.(40)

The Mendoza Codex teaches us that when the Mexicans conquered a land they
first burnt and utterly destroyed the teocallis situated in the heart of
its central capital. They razed this to the ground, and carried off to
their own metropolis the totemic images of the rulers of the tribe. The
barbarous institution of human sacrifice, which was only practised to a
great extent by the Mexicans when the necessity to obtain more plentiful
food supplies for their rapidly increasing population forced them to
become a nation of warriors and conquerors, seems indeed to have been
adopted as a fear-inspiring, symbolical rite commemorating the conquest
and destruction of an integral government.

The victim, usually a chieftain taken prisoner in warfare and clad with
his insignia and the raiment of his people, was stretched on the stone of
sacrifice and, figuratively speaking, represented his country and its four
quarters. The tearing out of his heart by the high-priest, armed with the
tecpatl, the emblem of supreme authority, signified the destruction of the
independent life of his tribe as much as did the burning of the teocalli,
and of its capital. It would seem as though the horrible custom of
annually sacrificing one or more representatives of each conquered tribe,
had been adopted as a means of upholding the assumed authority, inspiring
awe and terror and impressing the realization of conquest and utter
subjection. It is known that sometimes a member of a conquered tribe
voluntarily offered himself as a victim in order to release his people
from their obligation, and thus earned for himself immortality.

An insight into the native association of ideas is afforded by Sahagun’s
note that the lord or chieftain was “the heart of his Pueblo,” which means
town as well as population. The death of the sacrificed chief, therefore,
actually conveyed the idea of the destruction of the tribal government to
his vanquished subjects. It remains to be seen whether the subsequent
partition of portions of his dead body amongst the priesthood and their
ritual cannibalism did not signify the absorption of the conquered
population into the communal life of their victors. The preservation of
the victim’s skull on the Tzompantli, as a register of the conquest of a
chieftain, would also be the logical outcome of the native line of thought
and symbolism.

At the risk of making a somewhat lengthy digression I will again refer
here to a point I have already touched upon, namely, the Mexican
employment of the human figure as an allegorical image of their Empire or
State, the idea being that the four limbs represented its four
governmental and territorial divisions and that these were governed by the
head=the lord of the Above or heaven, and the heart=the lord of the Below
or earth. A careful study of the native Codices has shown me that such was
the native allegory which indeed can be further traced. The territory of a
state reproduced the organization of the human body with its four limbs,
each of these terminating in minor groups of five.

According to the same set of ideas the cursive image of a state could be
conveyed by a main group of five dots, situated in the centre of four
minor similar groups. Cross-lines expressing the partition into four
quarters would complete such a graphic and cursive presentation of the
scheme and not only signify its territorial but also its governmental
features. It is noteworthy that, in Nahuatl as in the Quechua, the title
for minor chief is homonymous with the word for fingers.

The Nahuatl pilli is a title for a chieftain or lord and also signifies
child and fingers or toes. A finger is ma-pilli, the prefix ma, from
maitl=hand, designating the fingers as the children of the hand. The thumb
is qualified by the prefix uei=great.

Having gained a recognition of the above facts it is not difficult to
understand the meaning of certain sceptres in the form of an open hand
which occur as symbols of authority borne by chieftains in the native
Codices.(41) I know of one important instance, indeed, where an arm with
an open hand is represented as standing upright in the centre of a circle
divided into sections and zones (similar to fig. 28, nos. 1, 3, 5, and 6).

The above mentioned examples, which I shall illustrate later, have led me
to infer that whilst the arm symbolized one of the four divisions of the
State, the hand symbolized its capital, the thumb its central ruler and
the fingers his four officers or pilli, the rulers of the four quarters of
the minor seat of government. In another publication I shall produce
illustrations showing that the foot was also employed as an emblem of rule
and that Mexico, Yucatan and Central America furnish us with actual proofs
that the hands and the feet respectively symbolized the upper and lower
divisions of the State.

It is thus curious to compare the name for thumb=uei-ma-pilli and the name
Uei-mac (literally, great hand) which Sahagun gives as that of the
“temporal” coadjutor of the Mexican culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, as well as
the term, our toe=totecxopilli with the well-known title Totec=our chief
or lord. In Yucatan the word for hand=kab is, as I shall demonstrate
further on, actually incorporated in the title of the lords of the four
quarters=Bakab. I am almost inclined to find a trace of a similar
association in the Quechua word for fingers=pallca and the title palla
bestowed upon noble women.

I have already mentioned in the preceding pages that the natural basis of
the all-pervading native numerical division into 4×5=20 was the finger and
toe count. The following table exhibits the general custom to designate 20
as one man or one count.(42)

Word for Man.                          Word for 20.
Nahuatl.      tlacatl.                cem-poualli=one count.
Quiché     }
and        }  uinay=one man.                uinay=  "    "
Cakchiquel }
Tzendal.      hun-uinic=one man.        hun-uinic=  "    "
Maya.         uinic.                      hun-kal=  "    "

In the latter case the affix kal seems to be derived from the same source
as the verb kal=to close up or fasten something, and to signify something
complete or finished. At the same time the Maya uinal is the Maya name for
the twenty calendar-signs, and the same association is demonstrated as
existing in Mexico by the well-known picture in the Vatican Codex I (p.
75), which represents a man surrounded by the twenty Mexican
calendar-signs.

As I shall treat of the same subject more fully in another publication, I
shall but briefly touch upon the intimate connection there existed between
these calendar-signs and the twenty classes into which the population was
strictly divided. It is known that an individual received the name of the
day on which he was born and it is possible to prove that this determined
his position in the commonwealth, his class and his future occupation.
Each child was formally registered by the priestly statisticians at birth,
and at about the age of six, when his name was sometimes changed, he
entered one of the two educational establishments where he was brought up
by the State, under the absolute control of the priesthood and rulers. It
can be gleaned that one of the chief cares of the latter was to maintain
the same average number of individuals in the distinct classes, to which
the various forms of labor were allotted and who became in time identified
with these. In order to keep the machinery of state in perfect adjustment,
individuals had sometimes to be transferred from the class into which they
were born, to another. In some cases this seems to have been arbitrarily
ordered by the authorities, but the latter appear to have guided
themselves by the position of the parents and to have established the
custom that an individual might alternatively be transferred into the
paternal or maternal class, but not into any other. As each class was,
moreover, divided into an upper and lower one, it was possible for each
person to elevate himself from the lower to the higher by individual merit
or to incur abasement, for unworthy conduct, and being, as we have already
seen, “reduced to the official rank of women.”

The direct outcome of such a form of organization was stringent laws
governing marriage, it being expedient that certain classes only should
intermarry, not only to avoid complications but also to ensure a certain
degree of coöperation conducive to the prosperity of the State. In the
tribal laws still existing amongst the native tribes of North America, I
see the logical survivals of an ancient scheme of organization.

After gaining the above recognition of some of the actual duties of the
priest-rulers of ancient Mexico, it is possible to understand the meaning
of the native sentence, noted by Sahagun, that the native games of patolli
and tlachtli constituted a practice in “the art of government.” From this
it is clear that the former, played by two individuals with dice and
markers upon a mat in the shape of a cross, and symbolical of the Four
Quarters, was originally invented by the priest-rulers for an eminently
practical purpose. The mat being an image of the quadruple state and its
subdivisions, it was possible to make it serve as a register-board
exhibiting the distribution of the population, the number of individuals
in each class and its death and birth rates. We are informed that when
parents, according to the inflexible law, carried their newborn child to
the priest, he consulted his books full of day-signs and foretold what its
future was to be.

A proof that it was the positions of the stars which determined the season
and furnished the means of fixing a date, is furnished by the fact that
the stars were also “consulted” and believed to exert an influence upon
the destiny of the child.

The implicit faith in the predictions of the priests and in the absolute
influence of the position of the heavenly bodies and the date of its birth
upon the individual indicates that the parents were kept in ignorance as
to the workings of the machinery of state and that the priesthood were
reverenced for their power of prophecy. The belief that they could
personally exercise a favorable influence over the destiny of the child
seems also to have been encouraged in the parents, since an offering of
gifts at the period of registration was customary. After the Conquest,
when the native government had been completely broken up, and the enforced
registration of birth and the prediction of the priest had utterly lost
their original significance, native parents still consulted the surviving
members of the priest-rulers; and these ancient statisticians, in order to
gain a livelihood, continued to consult their books and uttered
predictions as of yore, although their power to control their fulfilment
had vanished forever. Ancient Mexico thus furnishes us with an interesting
and instructive explanation of the origin of divinatory practices,
prognostication at birth, etc. It shows us that, under the ancient form of
established government, the sign of the date of a child’s birth actually
did control his future destiny, while it was unquestionably in the power
of the priesthood, not only to predict his future, but also to exert a
favorable or unfavorable influence upon it.

The above facts help us to understand the origin not only of divination,
propitiation and the belief in the influence of day-signs, but also of the
native games which became popular after the Conquest, when their original
use and meaning had become obsolete.

Deferring further discussion of this interesting matter I will but draw
attention to Mr. Stewart Culin’s important study of “American Indian
Games,”(43) which clearly establishes their “interrelation” and at the
same time proves that they were based, as first distinctly insisted upon
by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, on the central idea and that of the four
quarters of the world. Mr. Culin has gone so far as to fix the place of
origin of the “platter or dice class of games which he has found recorded
as existing among some 61 American tribes, in the arid region of the
southwestern United States and Northern or Central Mexico,” and to
conceive that “in ancient Mexico we find traces of its highest
development.”

I place the utmost value upon Mr. Culin’s painstaking and conscientious
researches and regard them as strongly corroborating my views exposed in
the preceding pages. His identification of the pictured diagram in the
Féjérvary Codex, as the counting circuit of the Four Quarters, with a
presiding god in the middle, as in Zuñi, does credit to his perspicacity.
I agree with him in considering that this chart could have been employed
after the Conquest for a game or for divination, but trust that, upon
perusal of this paper, he will admit that primarily the Féjérvary diagram
expressed the native scheme of government and the calendar, which was no
other than a means of ruling the classes by binding each of these to a
special day and totemic sign. Each of the twenty classes or clans had its
day, known by a particular sign which was also its totemic mark. As the
day-signs recurred periodically, the chief or head of each clan became its
living representative, assumed a totemistic costume and became the “living
image of the ancestral teotl,” or god of his people, of whose activity he
rendered account to the central government. It is significant that the
common native title for lords or chieftains was “tlatoque,” literally,
“the speakers,” and that they were closely designated as the spokesmen of
his people, who habitually kept silence in his presence.

The fact that the names and signs of the days are identical with the
totemic tribal distinctions imposed for governmental reasons, is one which
I shall proceed to demonstrate more fully. Meanwhile attention is now
drawn to the chapter on the 7-day period in Dr. Daniel G. Brinton’s
“Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico,” in which he surmises that
the tribal divisions of the Cakchiquels “were drawn from the numbers of
the Calendar.”

According to the native records the institution of the Calendar was
simultaneous with that of tribal organization and a minute study of both
features reveals that it could not have been otherwise.

From the dawn of their history the Cakchiquels, as I have already shown,
were divided into thirteen divisions of warriors (Khob, constituting the
upper class) and seven tribes (Amag, constituting the lower class). A
totem and a day being assigned to each division and tribe, they were, once
and for all time, placed in a definite position towards each other and
towards the state, and the order in which their chieftains were to sit in
general council, and to assume or perform certain duties, was thus
instituted. The 20-day period thus constituted a “complete count” and
synopsis of the “thirteen divisions of warriors and seven tribes,” but it
also fulfilled other not less important purposes.

The day-signs were so ordered that the first, eleventh and sixteenth were
major signs employed to designate the years, and identified with the four
quarters, elements and their respective colors. The 20-day period,
consisting as it also did of 4 major signs and of 4×4=16 minor signs, was
as closely linked to the idea of the Four Quarters as it was to the Above
and Below, represented by the 13+7 division. It is therefore evident that
a simultaneous reckoning of periods consisting of 5, 7, 13, and 20 days
was ingeniously combined. I shall show in my special treatise how “the
lords of the Night” employed in their astronomical calendar, 9-night and
9-moon periods for purposes of their own and how these also served to
carry out certain ideas of organization, controlling persons. Although it
embodied the results of long-standing primitive astronomical observation
and accorded with the seasons and movements of the celestial bodies, the
native Calendar was primarily a governmental institution, designed to
control the actions of human beings and bring their communal life in
accord with the periodical movements of the heavenly bodies.

In my Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System, communicated to the
International Congress of Americanists at Stockholm, in 1894, I stated
certain historical and astronomical facts which showed that the New Cycle,
which began in 1507 with the year Acatl, had commenced on March 14th three
days after the vernal equinox and that this delay had obviously been
intentional, in order to wait for the new moon, which fell on March 13th
at 11.40 A. M., and the planet Venus, “which was possibly visible both as
morning and evening star between March 14th and 18th.” The above facts,
which have remained unchallenged since their publication, afford an
insight into the astronomical attainments of the sun-priests and moon and
star-priests and show an evident desire to begin a new era at a favorable
time, when there was a conjunction of the heavenly bodies. Thus the terms
of office of the lords of the Above and Below were entered upon and the
machinery of state set into motion, in unison with striking celestial
phenomena. It is impossible not to realize how great must be the antiquity
of a system which, evolving from the rudimentary, ceremonial division of a
tribe into seven parts, as a consequence of its primitive observation of
the Septentriones, developed into a great and complex government dominated
and pervaded by the abstract conceptions of the seven-fold divisions of
the Above, Below, Middle and Four Quarters.

Deferring further comment I will proceed to demonstrate the practical
value, for governmental purposes, of the classification of a community
into twenty divisions with as many representative heads, their
localizations at given points of the compass, and association with a
calendar-sign and day, and will only refer to what I have already
published in my Note on the Calendar, namely, how, by means of the
combination of 13 numerals with the 20 signs, a unit of 260 days was
obtained, and how each sign was combined but once with the same number,
and a perfect system of rotation of periods, regulating office, labor,
etc., was instituted. It is not possible for me to enlarge here upon the
features and merits of the system which I do not hesitate to term one of
the most admirable and perfect achievements of the human intellect. My
present purpose is to lay stress upon the fact that, in Mexico, the major
calendar-signs were borne as titles by the rulers of the four quarters who
presided in rotation over a year—the name of this and of their title being
always in correspondence.

Nezahualcoyotl, the lord of Tezcoco, is recorded as possessing the title
Ome Tochtli=2 Rabbit, and would obviously have presided over the calendar
periods of that name. This inference is undoubtedly corroborated by Nuñez
de la Vega’s following statement, quoted by Boturini:(44)

“Instead of the Mexican signs Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli and Tochtli, the
Tzendals, inhabiting Chiapas, employed in their Calendar the names of four
of their chieftains: Votan, Lambat, Been and Chinax.... They also figured
a man named Coslahuntax, as seated in a chair....” Boturini remarks that
this person should more correctly be named Imos or Max and was “the head
of the 20 lords who were the symbols of the 20 days of the Calendar. Being
the principal and initial sign, Coslahuntax represented in himself the
period of thirteen days.” As Dr. Brinton rightly notes(45) the name of the
personage should be Oxlaghun tax, literally signifying “the thirteen
divisions or parts.”

We thus see that, whilst the names of the chiefs of the four quarters
constituted the four major calendar-signs, one supreme lord embodied the
attributes or “powers” of the 13 divisions of warriors and principal
division. Thus the 13 divisions seem to have been regarded as 12 plus an
all-embracing 1.

Nuñez de la Vega continues: “In the representations of their calendar they
painted seven black persons, corresponding to the seven days of their
reckoning.” Boturini adds: these seven black men were no other than the
principal priest-rulers of this nation.... “They held in great veneration
the ‘lord of the black men,’ who was entitled Yal-ahua.” Boturini comments
on this utterance and explains that the latter was no other than the
high-priest.

I point out the evident identity of Yal-ahua to the Mexican
Yoal-tecuhtli=the lord of the Night, one of the titles given to Polaris
and to his earthly representative, the high priest of the Earth and
nocturnal cult. As already explained this personage bore in Mexico the
female title, Cihuacoatl=Woman-serpent; but we also find this name for the
earth-mother alternating with Chicome-coatl=literally, seven serpents. In
Beltran de la Rosa’s “Arte Maya” we find the word “Ahaucchapat,”
translated as “Serpent with seven heads” and are thus led to infer that
the Mexicans and Mayas had conceived the image of a “serpent with seven
heads” as an allegory of the seven tribal divisions united in one body and
bestowed this title to the representative of the Earth-cult, the high
priest of the Below. It follows that, just as the number 13 resolves
itself into 12+1, so the mystic number 7 proves to have been considered as
6+1, precisely what might be expected as the natural sequence of the
derivation of the number from a circumpolar constellation, consisting of
seven stars, one of which was Polaris. Nuñez de la Vega and Boturini’s
testimony teaches us that the Tzendals were organized into twenty
divisions and that thirteen of these were embodied in one chief, while the
seven others, associated with black, were personified by the high priest.
The information that one individual was thus believed to unite in his
person the attributes of several classes and that the lords of the four
quarters and each of the twenty divisions bore names which were also
calendar-signs, gain in value when it is realized that, in the opinion of
Drs. Schellhas and Brinton, the invention of the native Calendar system
may probably be assigned to the ancient inhabitants of Chiapas, where the
Tzendals now dwell.(46) In treating of the ruins of Palenque situated in
this region, I shall again refer to the Tzendals.

Meanwhile, let us examine the Cakchiquel tradition about Cucumatz, the
sorcerer chief of the Quichés, since it also treats of the 7-day period.
We are told that he “ascended to heaven for seven days and descended into
the under world for seven days and then assumed, in rotation, four
different animal forms during as many periods of seven days.”

It is impossible not to recognize from this that, like the Zuñis of
to-day, the Quichés “symbolized the terrestrial sphere by referring to the
four cardinal points, to the zenith and nadir, the individual himself
making the seventh number,” and that Cucumatz, who was evidently the high
priest and head of the seven tribes, assumed the totemistic attributes of
each of these, in rotation, for periods of seven days each. In this case
we have an interesting and suggestive variant of the scheme and it
suggests the possibility that, possibly actuated by ambition, Cucumatz had
grasped and united in his person the prerogatives of the chiefs or heads
of each tribe. On the other hand, it may be that it was the original
custom for the high priest to be a sort of animated calendar sign in
unison with the separate chiefs of each tribe, who represented, in
rotation, the totemistic ancestors of their people.

Having shown how the lords of the Four Quarters were indissolubly linked
to the four major calendar-signs which also symbolized the elements, let
us examine the data establishing that the capital of each of the four
provinces was named a tecpan. From Duran I have already quoted that in the
Mexican metropolis there were two tecpans or official houses in which the
affairs of the government were attended to and councils held. It is
significant that one of these was named “the tecpan of men” and the other
“the tecpan of women.” Whilst the metropolis, the seat of the dual
government, thus had its two tecpans which were presided over by the two
supreme rulers, we have learned from other sources of the four tecpans in
Guatemala and that Texcoco, near the city of Mexico, was also termed a
tecpan and that its ruler bore as a title one of the four major
calendar-signs. These facts explain his position and the reason why the
“lord of Texcoco” was one of four lords who supported Montezuma when he
met Cortés in full state. A careful investigation of the derivation and
true significance of the word tecpan yields interesting results.
Cen-tecpan-tli means, a count of twenty persons; the verb tecpana
signifies, “to establish something in concerted order; to establish order
amongst people.” The verb tecpancapoa means, to count something in regular
order.

The Maya verb tepal=to govern or reign, or to be “one who mediates,”
appears to be allied to the above Nahuatl words and it is not unlikely
that the employment of the flint-knife or tecpatl as an emblem of office
had been suggested by the fact that its Nahuatl name resembles, in sound,
the above words formed with tecpan, and also the Maya verb tepal. It thus
constituted a bilingual rebus, expressing the sense=to govern, to rule, to
regulate, etc., and, employed as the symbol of the North and Polaris, it
conveyed the idea that the latter was not only the producer of life but
the regulator of the Universe.

From the fact that a tecpan constituted a minor integral whole and
comprised the rule over twenty classes of people, we see that whilst the
four provincial tecpans were in themselves miniature reproductions of the
metropolis, they but filled the same position in relation to this as the
four limbs to the body of a man or quadruped. A final proof of how
completely this analogy was recognized by the native rulers is furnished
by the Maya titles which embody the word kab=arm and hand.

It has already been mentioned in the preceding pages that the rulers of
the four quarters were entitled Ba-cab and that in the Dresden Codex an
image of the four quarters was figured by four bones. The word for bone
being bac and for arm being kab, it is obvious that the arm-bone or
humerus would furnish a rebus, expressing the title of the four Bacabs—a
conclusion which throws light upon the signification of the cross-bones of
native pictography and also of the incised and decorated human arm and leg
bones which have been found in Mexico and Yucatan.

At the same time the word kab also recurs in the title Ah-Cuch-Cab which
signifies “the ruler or chief of a town or place,” Cuchil being the name
of the latter. Both of these words so closely resemble cuxabal and cuxtal,
the word for “life,” that it is not impossible that the native mind often
associated the town as a centre of life, and thought of their chief as one
whose symbol was a “life-dispensing hand.” In order to grasp the full
significance of the symbol of the hand in Maya sculptured and written
records it is necessary to bear these facts in mind.

In 1895 Mr. Teobert Maler unearthed in the centre of the public square at
“El Seibal,” Guatemala, a sculptured stela exhibiting the figures of a
chieftain over whose head an open hand was carved. It is impossible not to
interpret this as a mark that the chieftain had once been the ruler of a
town and that this, in turn, was one of four minor capitals belonging to a
central metropolis. A hand, enclosed in quadrangular lines and represented
on the garment of a chieftain, was found by Dr. Le Plongeon at Uxmal, and
I believe that this should be interpreted in the same manner.

In my essay on Ancient Mexican Shields (Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie, band V, 1892) I reproduced two interesting instances of the
employment, as the name-sign of a ruler in native pictography, of a hand
on the palm of which an eye is depicted. The effigy of a hand, the sacred
Kab-ul, which was kept in a place in Yucatan to which people from all
quarters resorted regularly in great numbers, resolves itself into the
symbol of an ancient capital to which great high-roads led from the
cardinal points. But important as this capital may have been, its
connection with the hand-symbol proves that it was originally one of four
minor centres and formed but a part of a greater whole. It would
correspond to the image, in one of the native Codices, of a subdivided
circle with an arm and hand standing in its middle, and its Bacab would
undoubtedly have carried a sceptre in the shape of an open hand, such as
depicted in the Codices as a staff of office.

While we thus find the human figure distinctly associated with the lords
of the four quarters of the Above we find the four lords of the Below,
entitled Chac, symbolized by the quadruped figure of the native
jaguar=chacoh, associated with the color red=chac and with rain, storms,
thunder and lightning, all of which phenomena were, singly and
collectively, termed Chác.

If ever there has been an instance where language or the resemblance in
sound of certain words has caused certain symbols to amalgamate with a
name or title, it is surely this, and light is thereby thrown upon the
development of symbolism and associations of thought amongst primitive
people.

The Chacs of Yucatan were identical with the Tlalocs, the octli or rain
lords of Mexico, whose function, as votaries of earth-cult, was the
regulation of agriculture, irrigation and the collection and distribution
of all products of the soil. It is interesting to trace that, in other
regions of Yucatan, presumably where no chacohs or jaguars existed, the
minor rulers of provinces seem to have been termed ocelots=Balam, a title
found associated with Maya rulership.

With the foregoing data in mind it is easy to grasp the meaning of the
talon of a beast of prey, employed as an emblem of rank or office in the
native Codices or bas-reliefs and to perceive that this was the symbol of
a Chac or Balam, one of the four lords of the earth or Below, just as the
hand was that of the lords of the Above. The complete image of the dual
State is thus shown to have consisted at one time of an ideal group
consisting of a man with a beast of prey, a jaguar or ocelot. In Mexico we
have the man-bird and the man-ocelot respectively representing the rulers
of the two great divisions of the State.

At Chichen-Itza and elsewhere in Yucatan sculptured figures of ocelots
supporting circular vessels have been found and there are interesting
instances of the combination of the human figure with ocelot=Balam
attributes. One monolithic figure, discovered at Chichen-Itza by Mr. A. P.
Maudslay, and belonging to the category of the recumbent statues bearing
circular vase-like receptacles, already described, exhibits a human head
and form, whilst the body is covered with a spotted skin. In the
sculptured image of Mictlan-tecuhtli (fig. 19) a human head is accompanied
by limbs of equal length-terminating in wild beasts’ talons. The positions
of the limbs are better understood when compared with the following
illustration, to which I shall revert (fig. 51). Meanwhile, I shall merely
remark that in both of these curious bas-reliefs we seem to have images of
the quadruple terrestrial and celestial governments. Fig. 51, which is a
corrected drawing of one of those contained in Leon y Gama’s “Descripcion
de las dos Piedras,” furnishes an interesting example, in accord with the
image of Mictlantecuhtli, of the employment of the group of five as a
symbol of the centre and four quarters, and exhibits four limbs associated
with four heads (the quarters and their chiefs), while the hands hold two
other heads, symbolical of the dual rulers of the State.

Two facts which throw an interesting light upon the growth of native
symbolism are worth mentioning here. As a symbol on the head of
Mictlan-tecuhtli, the lord of the North, two representations of a
centipede are distinguishable. In Nahuatl the name of this is
“centzonmaye,” literally, four hundred hands. It can thus be seen that the
idea of one body with a multitude of hands had occurred to the native
philosophers as a suitable allegory for their conception of a central
celestial and terrestrial rule which guided the activity of innumerable
appointed hands and dispensed, through these, not only life and favors but
also death or chastisement.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 51.

Before proceeding farther we must consider tree-symbolism in ancient
America. According to Molina the Inca Yupanqui (surnamed the left-handed)
ordered the temple of Quisuar-cancha to be made: quisuar=a tree, the
_Buddleia Incana_, cancha=place of. Salcamayhua (_op. cit._, p. 77), who
attributes the building of this temple to Manco Capac, states that these
two trees, which were in the temple, “typified his father and mother ...
and he ordered that they should be adorned with roots of gold and silver
and with golden fruit. Hence they were called Ccurichachac Collquechachac
Tampu Yracan, which means that the two trees typified his parents, that
the Incas proceeded from them like fruit from the trees, and that the two
trees were as the roots and stems of the Incas. All these things were
executed to record their greatness.” This passage is of utmost value, for
it conveys to us not only that the Incas kept a record of their male and
female ancestry and respectively associated the male and female elements
with gold and silver, but also establishes the important point that the
tree was employed as an emblem of the life and growth of a lineage or
race.

This fact is particularly interesting if collated with the Mexican
tree-symbols. In the Féjérvary diagram (fig. 52), we find a different kind
of tree and two totemic figures assigned to each quarter, which indicates
that the inhabitants of each of the four provinces were regarded as of a
distinct race. The top of each tree spreads itself into two branches and,
with one exception, each of these bears three blossoms or leaves denoting,
it would seem, the division of a tribe into 2×3=6 parts.

                             [Illustration.]

                Figure 52. Copy of p. 44, Féjérvary Codex.

The majority of tree-symbols, however, exhibit a quadruplicate division as
in fig. 53, nos. 1, 4 and 7. At the same time it is impossible not to
recognize that each example renders in a graphic manner the organization
of a tribe. In nos. 2 and 8, for instance, we find that each of the four
branches was again subdivided, yielding eight subdivisions instead of
four. In no. 3, we have quadruple branches, a pair of recurved spikes with
buds and a central bud, the idea of duality repeating itself in the trunk
of the tree, one-half of which above ground is white, whilst the other
below ground is dark. The obvious allusion is to the Above and Below and
this idea is further symbolized by the head of the coatl=serpent or twin.
In this figure there is a hint of the existence of an idea I have found
expressed in other cases, namely, that a mystic line of demarcation
existed at the base of a tree, which separated its upward from its
downward growth. This was the seat of the life of the tree, which sent its
trunk and crown heavenwards and its roots and rootlets earthwards. The
fact that the juice of the agave or maguey was collected from the core of
the plant seems to be at the bottom of its adoption as the sacred and
ceremonial “drink of life,” which was, subsequently, carefully prepared
and fermented. The idea that a tree enclosed male and female elements
seems to have been also a strong one and would, in course of time,
doubtlessly have led to the conception of superhuman beings in human form,
dwelling in trees. What is more, the adoption by each tribe of a
particular sort of tree, a custom amply proven, would naturally lead to a
species of tree-cult or veneration which, amongst the uninitiated, might
lead to a form of worship of the tree itself.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 53.

The ceremonial presentation of single leaves of the same kinds as those
represented on the trees, as in fig. 53, no. 6, proves that underlying
these picture-writings there is far more meaning than has heretofore been
suspected or recognized. It is not possible for me to present here all the
material I have collected on this subject which will be set forth in a
future monograph. I will, however, direct attention to the peculiar
treatment in fig. 53, no. 1, of the tree trunk which is enlarged and forms
a quadriform figure. In no. 4, the trunk enlarges to the shape of a head;
in no. 2 the tree grows from a human head and two young shoots issue from
each side of the trunk, seemingly indicating a fresh growth in tribal
life. In no. 5, we have an example of a human figure lying at the base of
a tree and a fifth leaf growing in the centre of the treetop. Directing
attention to the evident care taken in representing an equal number of
branches pointing upwards and downwards I would cite here an extremely
interesting representation of a tree in the Borgian Codex. In this case
the trunk issues from a conventionally drawn heart, figured in the centre
of the symbol for sky or heaven. As the Nahuatl for heart is yul-lotl,
from the verb yuli=to live, to resuscitate, the idea is distinctly
conveyed that the tree was that of life=yuli and proceeded from the
celestial centre of life, Polaris or the Heart of Heaven, a native title
for the Supreme Being.(47)

In the Telleriano-Remensis MS., a “tree of Paradise,” so termed in the
text, is figured, and there are, in other Codices, various examples of
trees encircled with serpents, where it is obvious that this combination
was made in order to express, phonetically, that a celestial tree was
intended, the word kan=serpent, being made to express kaan=heaven. A
celestial tree, situated at the pole and bearing in some cases seven and
in others five blossoms, was frequently depicted and its symbolism is
obvious. In my commentary on the Hispano-Mexican MS. “The Lyfe of the
Indians,” the “Gods,” “Five Flowers,” and “Seven Flowers,” will be treated
in detail.

From Sahagun and Olmos we learn that the Mexicans employed the image of a
tree, metaphorically, to signify a lord, governor, progenitor, first
ancestor. Relations are designated as “issuing from one trunk.” A branch
is literally termed “the arm of the tree,” kab-ché. Two kinds of trees,
the Puchutl and Aueuetl, signified, metaphorically, “a father, mother,
lord, captain or governor who were, or are, like shade-giving, sheltering
trees” (Olmos).

The above metaphors explain the frequent association of a head, the symbol
of a chief or lord, with the tree symbols. It is noteworthy that in
Nahuatl, the name for head=quaitl, is singularly like quauitl=tree, and
also recalls the word for serpent=coatl, facts which may have somewhat
guided the choice and association of these symbols. The native metaphors
recorded by Olmos, moquauhtia=an honored person or lord who has vassals or
dependents, and atlapalli=literally, leaf=a person of the lower class, a
worker, initiate us still further into the meaning of the native symbolism
and prove the antiquity of this, since the designation of a chief as a
tree and a vassal as a leaf was in current use. The presentation of the
tree issuing from a heart=yul-lotl is moreover, in perfect keeping with
native thought, since the chieftain or lord was entitled “the heart, or
life of the town or population.”

The meaning of the bird, which is represented as perched on each of the
four trees in the Féjérvary diagram, is likewise explained by the
metaphors recorded by Olmos who states that, “a son or child or a much
beloved lord or chieftain was compared to a beautiful and precious bird,
such as the Quetzal, the Roseate Spoonbill, the Blue-bird, etc., etc.”
Surmounting the tribal trees in the diagram, the birds therefore typify
the lords of the four provinces and this is corroborated by the fact that
each different bird is figured again in the corner-loops in combination
with the symbols of the cardinal points. The association of the symbols
for lord or chief=the head, and the precious bird with the tribal tree
also explains the frequent representation, in the native Codices, of one
or two serpents entwined around the tree, since the serpent was the symbol
in Mexico of the dual rulers or high-priests of the Above and Below. There
is ample proof, which shall be presented in full in my monograph on this
subject, that the above metaphorical images were as intelligible to the
Mayas and other tribes, as to the Mexicans themselves, for the identical
metaphors and imagery were in widespread general use. The following data
will corroborate this statement.

A Maya native drawing, copied by Cogolludo in 1640 from the MS. of the
Chilan Balam or Sacred Book of Man, which relates the history of the
Mayas, has been recently reproduced in Dr. Daniel G. Brinton’s Primer of
Maya Hieroglyphics, p. 47. It displays a rectangular stone slab like a
table, on the centre of which rests a circular bowl, the symbol, as I have
shown, of the earth and centre. Growing from this is a spreading tree.

It is a curious and undeniable fact that the Maya name for table is mayac,
and that the dictionaries contain the words mayac-tun, stone-table, and
mayac-ché, wooden, literally, tree-table. Familiarity with the native
modes of rebus-writing leads to the inference that this picture of a tree
and table, expressing the sounds mayac-ché, actually signified the tree of
the Mayas and therefore figured in the book relating their history. Bishop
Landa records that the Mayas believed in a beautiful celestial tree,
resembling the ceiba and named yax-ché, literally, green tree, under whose
shade they would repose in after-life. Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg surmises
that this tree was the same as the beautiful shade tree which grows in
Yucatan and Mexico and is named, in the latter country,
tonacaz-quahuital=tree of our subsistence, _i. e._, life.

A Maya name for the “tree of life,” ua-hom-ché, next claims our
attention.(48) A valuable old manuscript dictionary of the Maya language,
quoted by Dr. Brinton, records that the word uah means “a certain kind of
life.” The word _hom_ is an ancient term for an artificial elevation,
mound or pyramid, hence _homul_, the pyramid on which a temple was built.
Combined with ché, tree, the word seems to signify “the elevated or high
tree of life,” the idea of the celestial tree “on high,” being possibly
intended. In connection with this it is interesting to reëxamine fig. 20,
IV, which represents a flat pyramid from which grows a four-petalled
flower on a stalk with two leaves, the symbolism of which is apparent.

I am inclined to connect another native name translated in the
dictionaries by “cross”=zin-ché with zihil=to be born, to commence,
zihnal=original, primitive, and zian=origin, generation, ancestry, and to
interpret it “the tree of ancestral or tribal life.” On the other hand,
there is the adjective zinil=mighty, great, and the meaning of zin-ché may
merely mean “the mighty tree.” In treating of the “cross tablet” of
Palenque in the following pages, reference will be made to Dr. Brinton’s
identification of the “cross” as a tree and tree symbolism referred to
again. Although unable to produce here all the data I have collected on
the subject, I think that the foregoing prove that the Peruvians, Mexicans
and Mayas, employed the four-branched tree as an image of the organization
and growth of their communal life, and utilized it in pictography as a
means of recording changes of organization and statistics of increase or
decrease of population. The Maya word for “one generation of men,” uinay,
literally meaning “one growth,” seems to reveal that each generation was
popularly thought of as one growth of leaves on the tree of state—a simile
which is worthy of note.

One more point remains to be considered in reference to the organization
of the population into four parts, each of which consisted of four minor
parts and so on; namely, the employment of color as a means of
differentiation.

In Peru each person wore on the head a twisted cord, of the color of its
quarter, whilst the Inca alone wore these colors combined, in the band
which encircled his brow, as a sign that, in his person he united the
rulership over the four provinces. Molina records the colors of these as
red, yellow, white and black. In the titles of the Maya Bacabs, or lords
of the provinces, as given by Landa, the words for yellow, red, white and
black, are found to be incorporated and prove to be identical with the
arrangement in Peru. In Mexico, on the other hand, we find red, yellow,
green and blue as the colors of the Four Quarters, white and black being
assigned to the Above and Below. All colors combined are to be found
united in symbols of the Centre and it is known that the use of
centzon-tilmatli and quachtli=mantles of four hundred colors=multicolored
were supplied as tributes to the capital, for the use of a privileged
caste. A somewhat similar arrangement to the Mexican is that of the Zuñis
at the present time. According to Mr. Cushing, they assign yellow, blue,
red and white to the cardinal points, speckled and black to the
Above=zenith and Below=nadir, and “all colours to the Middle or Centre.”

In Peru, Mexico and Yucatan I have found scattered notices proving that
individuals habitually painted their bodies with their respective colors.
The Mexican “lords of the night” smeared themselves with black. A passage
in Sahagun (book I, chap. V) speaks of the whitening of the “face, arms,
hands and legs with ‘tiçatl’ ”=chalk, as though this were a habit of the
“noblewomen.” In the Codices some women are, in fact, represented with
white faces, whilst those of the majority are painted yellow and it is
known that yellow ochre was employed in reality. I have, in preparation, a
brief, illustrated monograph showing the various modes of painting the
face represented in the native pictorial records. In these, men painted
red are of frequent occurrence, and it is known that the “red man” owed
his appellation to the custom of using red pigment on his body.

Let us now briefly consider some of the results which inevitably followed
the establishment of two diverging cults which were the outcome of the
primitive recognition of duality and the artificial association of sex
with Heaven and Earth, Day and Night, etc. On pp. 60-62 I have cited
evidence showing that at one time in the past history of the Aztecs,
serious differences arose between the male and female rulers, and led to a
separation of the tribe and the establishment of two distinct centres of
government.

The native languages furnish strong indications that, in ordinary tribal
life, the separation of the sexes must have been generally enforced from
remote antiquity and that male and female communities existed in various
portions of the continent. It is well known that, to this day, the Nahuatl
tongue spoken by the men is different from that spoken by the women, and
that the same duality of language prevails among other American tribes.
When the male and female portions of the native states separated and
founded separate capitals it is obvious that each would have still further
cultivated a separate language and that the institution of two distinct
cults would have accentuated their differences and given a fresh impetus
to their development. As will be shown, the Maya chronicles reveal that,
in Yucatan, the nocturnal cult of the female principle degenerated into
such abominations that the incensed population actually rose in revolt,
murdered the high-priests and scattered their votaries.

It was obviously owing to a recognition of the degradation attendant upon
the abuse of intoxicating drinks, which had played such a rôle in the cult
of the earth-mother, that such stern laws were enforced in Mexico, at the
time of the Conquest, restricting and regulating the use of pulque. This
was distributed by the priests at certain festivals only. These and other
rigid measures evidently dictated by a spirit of reform, as well as the
close union of both cults, seem to have efficiently maintained a certain
equilibrium. At the same time two different moral standards were thus
inevitably evolved by the votaries of both cults and naturally profoundly
affected the position of woman. The dangers and evils attendant upon the
earth-cult became irretrievably associated with the female sex and the
votaries of Heaven naturally came to regard woman as a source of
temptation and degradation. In ancient Mexico and Peru the celibacy of the
sun-priests and of a certain number of noblewomen, “the Virgins of the
Sun,” was enforced; thus, whilst the position of woman was being lowered
in one caste by an artificial set of ideas, it was raised in the other by
an equally fictitious association with the Above, which led, however, to
her real elevation of mind and character and finally enforced a
recognition of her individuality. The consecration of her person, which
caused her to assume a position commanding universal homage, relieved her
from heavy labor but caused her to be guarded and protected. She was thus
condemned to a still greater seclusion, the primary object of which was to
remove her from possible contact with members of the lower earthly caste.
For, whilst ceremonial usage even required that the male members of the
upper caste should associate in certain symbolical rites with the chief
women of the lower order, it was a crime and a desecration for a man of
the latter caste to approach a woman of the nobility. These could only
marry in their own caste or remain celibate and were kept aloof from all
debasing influences, inside of protecting walls.

Reflection shows that such conditions would inevitably lead to the
formation of a nobility whose ideal was celibacy and whose “Virgins of the
Sun,” by virtue of their consecration, ranked highest amongst the women of
the “celestial caste.” Those who married did so in their own caste, led a
life of seclusion and always maintained a position of superiority over all
women of the “earthly caste.” The latter, on the other hand, had the
prerogative of being the representatives of their caste, since the cult of
the earth-mother necessitated a female representative, high-priestesses
and also female chiefs in their own rights. We know that, in ancient
Mexico, an independent gynocracy had been founded at one time. From
certain native manuscripts and monuments we have positive evidence that a
number of independent female chieftains ruled over minor communities and
represented them officially, their rank and insignia being equal to that
of the chiefs of male communities. At the same time, from the standpoint
of the “upper caste,” the position and moral code of these “votaries of
the earth,” were always viewed as inferior.

Another factor also exerted a marked and growing influence upon the
relative positions of the two classes of women. The enforced seclusion of
the noblewomen rendering out-door occupations or work impossible, it
became necessary to relegate such to members of the lower caste who
gradually constituted a class of domestic slaves, dedicated to the service
of the nobility. In ancient Mexico, as a punishment for various crimes,
such as murder, theft, etc., an individual, even of the upper class, was
reduced to slavery as a punishment for his crime. The ranks of slaves were
also recruited from prisoners of war. On the other hand, the laws
regulating slavery were just and mild, the children of slaves were born
free and various modes of regaining freedom were afforded to those held in
bondage as an expiation for crime. The introduction of slaves
necessitating, as it did, their classification with the lower class, now
associated servitude with the female division of the community, and the
idea arose that women and the lower class existed for the benefit of the
male element of the state and a favored minority of consecrated women.

If slavery and bondage came to be regarded on the one hand as a just
punishment for crime, the idea of liberty shone as an incentive to good
conduct. An eloquent proof of the high estimate in which personal freedom
was regarded by the ancient Mexicans, is furnished by the Nahuatl word,
recorded by Olmos, for “free man”=xoxouhqui-yollotl, literally, “fresh or
green heart.” This expression is of particular interest because it
explains a strange mortuary custom which consisted in placing a piece of
jade, chal-chihuitl, or precious green stone, in the mouth of a noble
person, after death, saying that it was “his heart.” In the case of the
lower class a stone of little value, named texaxoctli, was employed. In
ancient Mexico, therefore, the presence of jade or any green stone, in a
grave, proved that the body was that of a free member of the upper caste.
It is evident that the employment of this significant emblem was suggested
by the Nahuatl word for “freeman,” and constituted a sort of rebus
expressing this title or rank.

In the Peabody Museum there are several specimens of jade celts, collected
by Dr. Earl Flint in Nicaragua, which had been cut into two or more
pieces. Professor Putnam had the satisfaction of discovering that these
pieces from different graves fitted together. His inference that the stone
must have been rare and highly prized, probably from some motive connected
with native ritual, is fully supported by the explanation afforded by the
existence of the Nahuatl word. It is evident that, in order to provide a
dead kinsman with the mark of his rank, a living chief would gladly have
divided his own celt of jade, if, for some reason or other, no other green
stone was forthcoming at the time of burial.

Let us now rapidly enumerate a few facts which prove that not only burial
customs but also social organization and numerical divisions were carried
northward from the southern cradle of ancient American civilization. I
shall make two statements only, hoping that competent authorities on North
American tribal organization, and amongst them, my esteemed friend and
colleague, Miss Alice C. Fletcher, will supply a number of authoritative
reports on these matters.

Referring to the writings of Horatio Hale, whose comparatively recent loss
will long be deeply felt by all students of aboriginal history and
languages, I quote the following sentences from his interesting pamphlet
on “Four Huron Wampum records,” published, with notes and addenda by Prof.
E. B. Tylor of Oxford, in 1897.

“The surviving members of the Huron nation, even in its present broken,
dispersed and half extinct condition, still retain the memory of their
ancient claim to the headship of all the aboriginal tribes of America
north of Mexico.... The Hurons or Wendat, as they should be properly
styled, belonged to the important group or linguistic stock, commonly
known, from its principal branch, as the Iroquoian family and which
includes, besides the Huron and Iroquois nations, the Attiwendaronks, the
Eries, Andastes, Tuscaroras and Cherokees, all once independent and
powerful nations.” (I draw attention to the detail that these nations were
seven in number.) Gallatin, in his “Synopsis of the Indian tribes,”
notices the remarkable fact that while the “Five Nations” or Iroquois
proper were found by Champlain, on his arrival in Canada, to be engaged in
deadly warfare with all the Algonquian tribes within their reach, the
Hurons, another Iroquoian nation, were the head and principal support of
the Algonquian confederacy. In the “Fall of Hochelaga,” Horatio Hale sets
forth the reasons which led to the division of the Hurons and Iroquois,
who had formerly dwelt together in friendly unison. The latter, retreating
to the south and augmented by other refugees, became the “Five Confederate
Nations.”

The “kingdom of Hochelaga,” as Cartier styles it, comprised, besides the
fortified city of that name, the important town of Stadaconé (commonly
known to its people as Canada or “the town”) and eight or nine other towns
along the great river. According to their tradition the name of their
leader, Sut-staw-ra-tse, had been kept up by descent for seven or eight
hundred years.

“Towards the conclusion of a long and deadly warfare between the Iroquois
confederates and Canada as well as the Hurons a remarkable change had
taken place in their character; a change which recalls that which is
believed to have been developed in the character of the Spartans under the
institutions of Lycurgus, and the similar change which is known to have
appeared in the character of the Arabians under the influence of
Mohammedan precepts. A great reformer had arisen in the person of the
Onondaga chief, Hiawatha, who, imbued with an overmastering idea, had
inspired his people with a spirit of self-sacrifice, which stopped at no
obstacle in the determination of carrying into effect their teacher’s
sublime purpose. This purpose was the establishment of universal peace....
The Tionontaté or Tobacco Nation seem to have made an alliance with the
Huron nation....

“Eight clans or gentes composed the Huron people and were found in
different proportions in all the tribes. These clans, called by the
Algonquians ‘totems,’ all bore the names of certain animals, with which
the Indians held themselves to be mythologically connected—the bear, wolf,
deer, porcupine, snake, hawk, large tortoise and small tortoise. Each clan
was more numerous in some towns than in others, as it was natural that
near kindreds should cluster together.

“The five Iroquois nations also had eight clans.... The Iroquois league is
spoken of in their Book of Rites as kanasta-tsi-koma, ‘the great
framework’ and the large, bent frame-poles of their council-house, the
exact original shape of which is not known, were named kan-asta.”

An examination of the signs woven in the famous wampum belts of the Hurons
and Iroquois reveals some curious facts.

One of these treaty belts, described by Horatio Hale, commemorates an
alliance formed between four nations. It exhibits four squares (fig. 54,
_a_) “which indicate, in the Indian hieroglyphic system, either towns or
tribes with their territory.”(49) This mode of representing a nation is of
utmost interest, not only because it coincides with the Maya conception of
“the quadrated” earth but because it also reveals that, in North America,
the Indians associated a tribal organization with a quadriform. What is
more, an older belt, which is unfortunately incomplete, exhibits a central
oval (fig. 54, _b_) between a bird and a quadruped and three crosses with
a circle uniting their branches. The cross and circle, being a native
symbol for “an integral state,” as definitely proven by the Maya map,
justifies the suggestion that this symbol on the wampum belt may have had
the significance of “nation” and central government. It is remarkable that
the Iroquois central capital, Ho-che-laga, can be analyzed in the Maya
tongue, as meaning five=_ho_, tree=_ché_ or _hoch_=vase (symbol of centre)
whilst the terminal _laga_ might possibly be a form of _lacan_=banner, an
object so frequently associated with names of towns in Mexico, where it
yields the sound pan and means on or above something.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 54.

It will be interesting and important to learn what “Hochelaga” means in
the Iroquois language. The resemblance between the Maya and Iroquois
symbols for nation and tribal territory and of the names for capital might
even be overlooked and treated as a coincidence merely, if the Iroquois
name for the confederacy, kan-asta-tsik-o-ma did not also begin with the
word kan, the Maya for four and for serpent. The same particle recurs in
the Iroquois name for the town=can-ada, a word which, in Maya, would
describe a metropolis divided into four quarters.

The question naturally suggests itself whether the affix can, frequently
met with in Mexico combined with names of localities, was not of Maya
origin and expressed also a centre of quadruple government. It occurs in
the Nahuatl name for metropolis to-tec-ua can and in Teoti-hua can, for
instance. The Nahuatl scholars have rendered its meaning as “place of.”

Mr. Hale tells us that, amongst the “Five Nations,” the tradition exists
that the confederacy was originally divided into “seven tribes,” each of
which was composed of 2×4=8 gentes or clans. Another wampum belt he
figures exhibits a heart between 2×2=4 squares, a symbol which would be
interpreted by a Mexican or Maya as well as by a Huron or Iroquois, as
meaning “four nations, one heart,” the latter being as common a symbol for
union of rule or government or for chieftain, as a “head.”

Combined with other testimony it seems impossible to evade the question
whether in remote times the Iroquois and Hurons had not shared in some way
or other the civilization of the Mayas. If so the ancient
earthwork-builders of the Ohio valley, who are authoritatively regarded as
of southern origin by Professor Putnam, and whose art exhibits a strong
resemblance to that of the Mayas, seem to constitute the missing link
between the northeastern and the southeastern tribes. It is curious to
find that the terminal ché, which occurs in the name Quiché and which
signifies in Maya, tree, and, by extension, tribe, is preserved in the
names of the Nat-ché-z tribe still inhabiting the Mississippi valley. It
is also present in Coman-ché, Apa-che, etc.

It is to be hoped that, before long, authorities who have made special
studies of the above tribes will make searching comparisons of their
languages, social organization and symbolism with that of the Mayas, in
particular, it seeming evident that the coast communication along the gulf
of Mexico, from Yucatan to the mouth of the Mississippi river, was not
only easy but was favored by sea-currents.

It is interesting to note that if we now proceed to the southwest of the
United States and study the Pueblo people, we seem to find not only more
distinctly marked affinities between their customs, etc., and those of the
Mexicans, but also traces of similarity with certain Maya symbols.

In several important publications Dr. J. Walter Fewkes has made the
valuable observation that there are marked “resemblances between a
ceremony practised [at the time of the Conquest] in the heart of Mexico
and one still kept up in Arizona,” and states that these “lead one to look
for likenesses in symbolism, especially that pertaining to the
mythological Snake among the two peoples.” He continues as follows: “From
the speculative side it seems probable that there is an intimate
resemblance between some of the ceremonials, the symbolism and
mythological systems of the Indians of Tusayan and those of the more
cultured stocks of Central America.... The facts here recorded look as if
the Hopi practise a ceremonial form of worship with strong affinities to
the Nahuatl and Maya.... I have not yet seen enough evidence to convince
me that the Hopi derived their cult and ceremonials from the Zuñians or
from any other single people. It is probably composite. I am not sure that
portions of it were not brought up from the far south, perhaps from the
Salado and Gila by the Bat-kin-ya-mûh=‘Water people,’ whose legendary
history is quite strong that they came from the south.”(50)

Dr. Fewkes frankly states that he “knows next to nothing of the symbolic
characters of the Mexican deities ...” and quotes Mr. Bandelier’s opinion
that “there are traces or tracks of the same mythological system and
symbolism amongst the Indians of the southwestern United States and the
aborigines of Central America.”

Under the leadership of Mr. Frank H. Cushing let us now enter into the
life and thoughts of the modern Zuñis. After having traced certain ideas
in Mexico and Peru, it is possible to recognize them again when we find
them in Mr. Cushing’s valuable work, from which I shall quote somewhat at
length, referring the reader, however, to the original, for a fuller
realization of existing resemblances.(51)

The Zuñi creation-myth relates how the light of the Sun-father and a
foam-cap on the sea, caused the Earth-mother to give birth to
twin-brothers, Uanam Achi Piah-_koa_, “the Beloved Twain who descended.”
The first was Uanam Ehkona=the beloved Preceder, the second Uanam Yaluna,
the beloved Follower; they were twin-brothers of light, yet elder and
younger, the right and left, like to question and answer in deciding and
doing.... The Sun-father gave them the thunderbolts of the four quarters,
two apiece.... On their cloud-shield, even as a spider in her web
descendeth, they descended into the underworld ... (p. 381).

Pausing here for a moment, we note the curious fact that in the Zuñi name
for the twins we find _koa_, resembling the Nahuatl coatl=twin or serpent;
that the name of one brother Ehk-ona recalls the Mexican ec-atl=air, wind
or breath, and the Maya ik=air, wind, breath, courage, spirit. The
allotment of two quarters to each and the image of a spider employed to
express their descent from heaven have counterparts in Nahuatl lore.

The “Twain” ... guided men upwards to become the fathers of six kinds of
men (yellow or tawny, grey, red, white, mingled and black).... The nation
divided itself into the winter or Macaw and the summer or Raven people....
“The Twain beloved gathered in council for the naming and selection of man
groups and creature kinds, spaces and things. They determined that the
creatures and things of summer and the southern space pertained to the
southern people or children of the producing Earth-mother; and those of
the winter and northern space to the winter people or children of the
Forcing or Quickening Sky-father.”

It is impossible to do more than refer the reader to Mr. Cushing’s account
of the origin of totem clans and creature-kinds which bears such an
affinity to the Peruvian, and obviously arose for the same practical
reason, to serve as distinction marks for identification and
classification. “At first ... there were four bands of priest-keepers of
the mysteries: the Shiwana-kwe=priesthood of the priest-people;
Sa’niah’-ya-kwe=priesthood of the Hunt; Ach-iahya-kwe=great Knife people;
Newe-kwe=keepers of the magic medicines.” Out of these four divisions “all
societies were formed, both that of the Middle and the twain for each of
all six regions, constituting the tabooed and sacred 13.” In another
passage account is given of the marriage of a brother and sister, which
produced twelve children, the first of which, Hlamon, was man and woman
combined—the 12 thus constituting in reality 13.

One of the most interesting portions of the Zuñi narrative is one which
elucidates the motive which led to the migration of peoples in ancient
America. We are told how generations of the forefathers of the Zuñis
wandered about in search of the stable middle of the earth, on which they
wished to found their sacred city. The tribe divided; the winter-clan
journeyed to the northeast and the summer-clan to the southwest, a reunion
of the people took place, and a council was held for the determination of
the true Middle.... According to a myth the Sun-father requested the
water-skate to determine the Middle. This mythical monster lifted himself
up, stretched out and then settled downward, calling out: “Where my heart
and navel rest beneath them mark ye the spot and then build ye a town of
the midmost, for there shall be the midmost of the Earth-mother, even the
navel.... And when he descended squatting, his belly rested over the plain
and valley of Zuñi and when he drew in his finger-legs, lo! there were the
trail roads leading out and in like the stays of a spider’s net, into and
forth from the place he had covered.”

Pausing to point out that fig. 28, reproduced from Mexican Codices, shows
curious topographical drawings resembling a spider’s net, I will not
recount the many disappointments of the wanderers, who were evidently
driven away from several places of settlement by earthquakes, but will
refer to the Zuñi custom of “annually testing the stability of the Middle
in middle time ... when the sun reached the middle between winter and
summer ... a shell was laid by the sacred fire of the north.... When
during solemn chanting no trembling of the earth ensued, the priests cast
new fire and ... dwelt happily feeling sure that their sacred things were
resting in the stable middle of the world.”

At the beginning of this paper I referred to the powerful hold that the
realization of the fixity of the pole star would naturally have exerted
upon the mind of primitive man, and I can produce no more striking
illustration of this and of my view that the idea of central government
and organization had been suggested by Polaris, than this account of the
earnest and prolonged search of these ancient people for the stable centre
of the earth, on which to found a permanent centre of terrestrial rule or
the plan of the celestial government. At the same time it seems to me that
the longing for a stable and fixed residence would naturally have been
most intense amongst people who had experienced terrible earthquakes and
been driven out of their original abodes by their repeated destruction. It
is unnecessary to mention the well-known fact that whilst earthquakes
prevail throughout North and Central America, the most impressive trace of
catastrophes of the kind are connected with the gigantic volcanoes of
Central Mexico and Guatemala.

With a sympathetic insight into the disasters which seem to have driven
the wandering tribes from one region to another and filled them with a
passionate yearning for a centre of rest, let us now learn from Mr.
Cushing how they planned their metropolis and organized themselves, when
they had found the long-looked-for goal, in the Zuñi valley and “settling
there, built seven great cities therein.

“All their subtribes and lesser tribes were distinctively related to and
ruled from a central tribe and town through priest chiefs representatives
of each of these, sitting under supreme council or septuarchy of the
‘Master priests of the house’ in the central town itself, much as were the
divisions and cities of the great Inca dominion in South America
represented at and ruled from Cuzco, the central city and power of them
all.

“Zuñi is divided, not always clearly to the eye, but very clearly in the
estimation of the people themselves, into seven parts, corresponding not
perhaps in arrangement topographically, but in scheme to their
subdivisions of the worlds or world-quarters of this world. Thus one
division of the town is supposed to be related to the north and to be
centred in its kiva or estufa which may or may not be at its centre;
another division represents the west, another the south, another the east;
yet another the upper world and another the lower world; while a final
division represents the middle or mother and synthetic combination of the
all in the world.

“By reference to the early Spanish history of the pueblos, it may be seen
that when discovered the Ashiwis or Zuñis were living in seven quite
widely separated towns the celebrated seven cities of Cibola and that this
theoretic subdivision of the only one of these towns now remaining is in
some manner a survival of the original subdivision of the tribes into
seven into as many towns. It is evident that in both cases, however, the
arrangement was and is, if we may call it such, a mythic organization;
hence my use of the term of mytho-sociologic organization of the tribe. At
all events this is the key to their sociology as well as to their mythic
conception of space and universe.

“... There were nineteen clans, grouped in threes, to correspond to the
mythic subdivision. Three to north, west, south, east, Upper, Lower. The
_single_ clan of Macaw is midmost or of middle and also as the all
containing and mother clan of the entire tribe, for in it is ‘the seed of
the priesthood of houses’ supposed to be preserved.(52)

“Finally, as produced from all the clans and as representative alike of
all the clans and through a tribal septuarchy of all the regions and
divisions of the midmost and, finally, as representative of all the cult
societies above mentioned, is the Kaka or A’kâkâ-kwe or Mythic Dance drama
people or organization.

“It may be seen of these mytho-sociologic organizations that they are a
system within a system and that it contains systems within systems all
founded on the classification according to the six-fold division of things
and in turn the six-fold division of each of these divisions of things ...
The tribal division made up of the clans of the north take precedence
ceremonially, occupying the position of elder brother or the oldest
ancestor. The west is the younger brother to this and the south of the
west, the east of south, etc.... while the middle is supposed to be a
representative being, the heart and name of all of the brothers of the
regions, the first and last, as well as elder and younger.

“To such an extent indeed, is this tendency to classify according to the
number of the six regions with its seventh synthesis of them all (the
latter sometimes apparent, sometimes non-appearing) that not only are the
subdivisions of the societies also again subdivided according to this
arrangement, but each clan is subdivided, both according to the six-fold
arrangement and according to the subsidiary relations of the six parts of
its totem....

“In each clan is to be found a set of names, called the names of
childhood. These names are more of titles than of cognomens. They are
determined upon by sociological divinistic modes and are bestowed in
childhood as the ‘verity names’ or titles of the children to whom given.
But the body of names relating to any one totem, for instance, to one of
the beast totems, will not be the name of the totem-beast itself but will
be the names of both of the totems and its various conditions and of the
various parts of the totem or of its functions, or of its attributes,
actual or mythical.

“Now these parts or functions, or attributes of the parts or functions,
are subdivided also in a six-fold manner, so that the name relating to one
member of the totem, for example, like the right leg or arm of the animal
thereof, would correspond to the north and would be the first in honor in
a clan (not itself of the northern group); then the name relating to
another member, say the left leg and its powers, etc., would pertain to
the west and would be second in honor, ... the right foot, pertaining to
the south, would be third in honor, ... the tail to the lower regions and
be sixth in honor; while the heart and navel and centre of the being would
be first as well as last in honor.... In addressing each other the word
symbol for elder or younger is always used.

“With such a system of arrangement as all this maybe seen to be, with such
a facile device for symbolizing the arrangement (not only according to the
number of regions, and their subdivisions in their relative succession and
the succession of their elements and seasons, but also in the colors
attributed to them) and, finally, with such an arrangement of names,
correspondingly classified and of terms of relation significant of rank
rather than of consanguineal connection, mistake in the order of a
ceremonial, a procession or a council is simply impossible and the people
employing these devices may be said to have written and to be writing
their statutes and laws in all their daily relationship and utterances.”

If this precious exposition of the Zuñi social organization teaches us
more about native method and system than all of the writings of the
Spanish chroniclers put together, there is one important point which,
strangely enough, is not touched upon, namely, the regulation of time. All
information concerning native astronomy, and the subdivision of the years,
the festival periods and the names of days, seems to have been withheld
from Mr. Cushing by the Zuñi priesthood, if we are to assume that they
possess a calendar.

In Mexico, as I have already set forth, the calendar system is bound up in
the scheme of social organization and it is impossible to separate them. I
cannot but think that it must be the same with the Zuñis but that, as in
ancient Mexico, only the priesthood were acquainted with the existence of
a systematic calendar, and kept it a profound secret from the multitude,
although the entire communal life and activities of the people were guided
accordingly by their rulers, who had arranged a suitable time for all
things, at proper seasons.

Having obtained through Mr. Cushing invaluable material for the making of
a composite image of the ancient American civilization let us now proceed
to Yucatan, bearing in mind the native mode of thought and master-passion
for systematization.

A careful perusal of Cogolludo and Landa’s work affords such interesting
glimpses into the past history of the inhabitants of the Yucatan
peninsula, that they merit presentation in a separate publication. Suffice
it for the present to refer more fully to a few leading facts which will
be found to illustrate the development of the ancient civilization in the
preceding pages.

The native opinion already cited was that a great chief or lord, named
Kukulcan, reigned at Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, whilst this was occupied by
the Itza tribe, which was driven from it in about 270 A.D. by the
Tutul-xius who were entitled “holy men.” Their name justifies Brasseur de
Bourbourg’s inference that the conquerors may have been a Nahuatl tribe
whose name was that of the much-prized blue-bird, Xiuh-tototl.

At the same time the fact that the Maya word for supreme lord and Master
(also applied to the divinity) is _Ciu-mil_ seems to indicate that there
may be a deeper origin and that the Xiuh-tototl may have only been a rebus
employed by the Mexicans to convey the sound of a Maya title, possibly
“Kukul-Ciu,” if the above title “holy men” is to be regarded as a
translation of Tutul-xiu.

“Kukulcan had no wife or children and was venerated in Yucatan as a god
because he was a great republican, as was shown by the order he instituted
in Yucatan after the death of the native rulers. He went to Mexico whence
he returned. He was there named Quetzalcoatl and was venerated by the
Mexicans as one of their gods.” When he had entered into treaty with the
native chiefs inhabiting the country, they agreed to join him in founding
and peopling a city which was named Mayapan, but was also known by the
natives as Ichpa, meaning “inside of the circles.”(53) “They proceeded,
indeed, to build a circular walled enclosure with two entrances only. In
its centre, the principal temple was erected and it was circular, with
four doors opening to the cardinal points, like one which had been built
by Kukulcan at Chichen-Itza. The walled circle also contained other sacred
edifices and houses intended to be inhabited by the lords only, who
divided up the entire land amongst themselves. Towns were assigned to each
according to the antiquity of his lineage and personal distinction.
Kukulcan lived in this town for some years with these lords and leaving
them in amity and peace returned to Mexico by the same way as on his
visit, lingering on the way in order to build a quadriform temple on an
island off the coast.”

I know of no more instructive account of aboriginal history than this
simple native record preserved by Landa, which so clearly reveals amongst
other details that the Mexican culture-hero was an actual personage, a
Maya high-priest who had been a ruler at Chichen-Itza. In this connection
it is interesting to collate another chapter of Landa’s work in which he
reports what the oldest Indians narrated to him about Chichen-Itza, of
which I give the following somewhat abbreviated translation: Three
brothers came there in olden times from the west and having assembled
together a large number of people, ruled them for some years with much
justice and peace.(54) They paid great honor to their god and built many
beautiful edifices.... They lived without wives in purity and virtue and
as long as they did this they were esteemed and obeyed by all. In course
of time one of them possibly died, but is said by the Indians to have gone
out of the country. Whatever may have been the cause of his absence the
remaining rulers immediately began to show partiality and to institute
such licentious and abominable customs that they were finally execrated by
the people who rebelled and killed them, and then disbanded and abandoned
the capital, “although this was most beautiful and was surrounded by
fertile provinces.”(55)

The principal edifice at Chichen-Itza was a pyramid temple which had four
stairways facing the cardinal points. It contained a circular temple which
was named after the builder Kukulcan and had four doorways opening to the
four quarters of heaven.

If I have dwelt again upon Kukulcan=Quetzalcoatl, it is because, between
the writers who interpret the records concerning him as a sun or star-myth
and those who identify him as the abstract deity whose name he bore as a
title only, or as St. Thomas or a mythical Norseman, ancient America is
being deprived of its most remarkable historical personage.

Collated with the Maya traditional records, the Mexican accounts agree and
supply missing evidence. Whilst the Mayas state that their ruler and
legislator went to Mexico and even record his Mexican name, Montezuma
informs Cortés that “his ancestors had been conducted to Mexico by a
ruler, Quetzalcoatl, whose vassals they were and who having established
them in a colony returned to his native land. Later on he returned and
wished them to leave with him but they chose to remain, having married
women of the country, raised families and built towns. Nor would they
institute him again as their lord, so he went away again toward the east,
whence he had come.” It seems nearly proven that Kukulcan was one of the
three rulers who came to Yucatan from the east. The Mexican tradition that
he was driven into exile by his enemies, the followers of Tezcatlipoca,
the lord of the Below, appears to be corroborated by the Maya record that,
after his restraining presence had been removed, they committed such
excesses that the indignant population arose and murdered their two rulers
at Chichen-Itza. Quetzalcoatl’s continued efforts to assemble scattered
tribes, to organize them peacefully under central governments, to found
capitals and erect in the centre of these quadriform pyramids and circular
temples, prove how completely he was possessed by the idea of spreading
the well-known scheme of civilization. His very name in Maya signified
“the divine Four” and this more profound signification was hidden under
the image of the “feathered serpent” employed as a rebus to express the
title of the supreme Being and the high-priest, his earthly
representative.

The Mexican records state that the culture-hero’s white robes were covered
with red crosses, and that he set up cross-emblems. Evidence showing how
completely this builder and founder of cities carried out the idea of the
Four Quarters, in the temples he erected in Mexico, is preserved by the
record that for prayer, penitence and fasting, he prepared four rooms
which he occupied in rotation. These were respectively decorated in blue,
green, red and yellow, by means of precious stones, feather-work and gold.
As these were the colors assigned to the Four Quarters their symbolism and
meaning are obvious, and it may be inferred that the same method of
decorating the sides of buildings or doorways, with these four colors, may
have been carried out in square sacred edifices oriented to the cardinal
points.

It is curious to detect the quadruplicate idea in the title Holcan given
to certain war-chiefs. This name signifies, literally, “the head of four,”
but could be expressed by the rebus of a “serpent’s head,” which would
obviously have been employed in pictography to express the title and rank.
The existence of the title “Four-head,” or “the head of four,” obviously
relates to the rulership of the Four Quarters, united in one person; and
in this connection the Tiahuanaco swastika (fig. 48), terminating in four
pumas’ heads, seems to gain in significance as the expressive symbol of a
central ruler. The recorded custom to cover the body of the Mexican ruler
with the raiment of the “four principal gods,” proves the prevalence of
analogous symbolism.

From the following data we gain an interesting view of the events which
transpired in former times in the Yucatan peninsula. Resuming Landa’s
account we see that, after Kuculcan had departed for Mexico, the lords of
Mayapan decided to confer supreme rulership upon the Cocomes, this being
the most ancient and the wealthiest lineage and its chief being
distinguished for bravery. They then decided that the inner circle should
hold only the temples and houses for the lords and high-priest. In
connection with this it is well to insert here how Landa states, in
another passage, that there were “twelve priests or lords at Mayapan,”
which with the high-priest constituted the sacred 13. “Outside the wall
they built houses where each lord kept some servitors and where his people
or vassals could resort when they came on business to the town. Each of
these houses had its steward, entitled Caluac, who bore a staff of office
and he kept an account with the towns and with their local rulers. The
Caluac always went to his lord’s house, saw what he required and obtained
from the vassals all he needed in the way of provisions, clothing, etc.”
(_op. cit._, pp. 34-44).

The chronicle goes on to relate how the lords of the inner circle devoted
their time to the affairs of government, the regulation of the calendar
and the study of writing, medicine, and the sciences.(56)

It seems significant that, throughout Central America, two ruined cities
of about equal size are usually found in comparatively close proximity to
each other, and seemingly pertaining to the same culture. Thus we have
Quirigua, in the valley of the Motagua river, and Copan its sister-city,
situated at a distance of about twenty-five miles, but nearly 1,800 feet
above it, in the wooded hills. Between Palenque and Menché (Lorillard
City) there are about fifty miles, whilst Tikal and Ixkun are forty miles
apart. In Yucatan, as we have learned from Bishop Landa’s “Relacion,”
there were Mayapan and Zilan, and as the latter name also signified
“embroidery” it looks as though it had been a noted centre of female
industry.

Then, after a lapse of years, “a large number of tribes, with their lords,
came to Yucatan from the south.” Bishop Landa conjectures that, although
his informants did not know this for certain, “these tribes must have come
from Chiapas, many words and the conjugation of some verbs being the same
in Yucatan as in Chiapas where there existed great signs showing that
ancient capitals had been devastated and abandoned,” possibly by
earthquakes, famine, disease or warfare. It has been surmised that the
venerable Bishop alluded, in this sentence, to the ruins of Palenque in
Chiapas.

Although not mentioned by Cogolludo or Lizana it is accepted that the
new-comers were the Tutul-xius. According to an ancient Maya chronicle,
“at a date corresponding to 401 A.D., the four Tutul-xius had fled from
the house of Nonoual, to the west of Zuiva and came from the land of
Tulapan. Four eras passed before they reached the peninsula of Yucatan
named Chac-noui-tan under their chieftain, Holon-Chan-Tepeuh,” a name
which is equally intelligible in Maya, Tzendal and Nahuatl and means
Head-Serpent and “lord of the mountain,” according to Brasseur de
Bourbourg, who states that the latter was a sovereign title amongst the
Quichés.

Landa relates that, after wandering about Yucatan for forty years
(possibly in search of the stable centre) these tribes settled near
Mayapan, subjected themselves to its laws and lived in peaceful friendship
with the Cocomes. The new-comers brought with them the atlatl or
spear-thrower which is minutely described but is evidently regarded as a
weapon of the chase.(57) The chronicle goes on to narrate that the Cocom
governor, having become ambitious for riches, entered into a treaty with
Mexican warriors who were garrisoned at Tabasco and Xicalango by the
Mexican ruler and induced them to come to Mayapan and to aid him in
oppressing the native lords. The latter and the Tutul-xius rebelled
against this action and, having observed the Mexicans and become experts
in the art of using their bow and arrow, lance, hatchet, shield and other
defensive armor, they “ceased to admire and fear the Mexicans and began to
make little of them, and in this condition they remained for some years.”

A lapse of years passed and another Cocom chief formed a fresh league with
the Tabasco people. More Mexican warriors came to Mayapan and supported
him in tyrannizing and making slaves of the lower class. Then the Tutulxiu
lords assembled and decided to murder the Cocom ruler. Having done so they
also killed all his sons with the exception of one who was absent; burnt
their houses and seized their plantations of cocoa and other fruits,
saying that these compensated for what had been stolen from them. The
differences which subsequently arose between the Cocome and the Xius
people resulted in the final destruction and abandonment of Mayapan after
an occupation of more than five hundred years, both tribes returning to
their countries.

“The lords who destroyed Mayapan (about 120 years before the Conquest)
carried away with them their books of science.... The son of the Cocom
lord, who being absent had escaped death, returned and gathered his
relations and vassals together and founded a capital.... Many towns were
built by them in the hills and many families descended from these Cocomes.
These lords of Mayapan did not revenge themselves upon the Mexican
warriors but generously exonerated them from blame because they were
strangers and had been persuaded to come into the land by its former
ruler. They allowed them to remain unmolested in the country and to found
a city on condition that they kept to themselves and married in their own
tribe only. These Mexicans decided to settle in Yucatan and peopled the
province of Can-ul which was assigned to them and they continued to live
there until the second invasion of the Spaniards.”

At Chichen-Itza, situated at about twenty-three leagues from the ancient
site of Mayapan, there exists substantial evidence of the existence of
these Aztec warriors, with indications that they pertained to the Mexican
warrior-caste of the ocelots or tigers. It is a recognized fact that the
remarkable bas-reliefs, which still cover the walls of the “temple of the
tigers” at Chichen-Itza, are strikingly Aztec in every detail. The exact
counterparts of the Atlatls, they hold, are visible on the so-called
“Stone of Tizoc” in the city of Mexico. Sculptured on the wall opposite
the entrance of the temple there are about thirty-six war-chiefs grouped
in three parallel rows of twelve each, the majority of whom are apparently
rendering some form of homage to a seated personage surrounded by rays,
while others are having an encounter with a monstrous serpent. On the side
walls and slanting roofs more warriors are figured, many accompanied by a
rebus or hieroglyph which evidently records, in Mexican style, individual
names. The total number of sculptured warriors seems to have been about
one hundred. If each of these represented, as may be supposed, a “count of
men,” it is evident that a large force of Aztec soldiers must have lived
in Yucatan at one time.

Other interesting monuments at Chichen-Itza deserve a passing mention. Mr.
Teobert Maler (Yukatekische Forschungen, Globus, 1895, p. 284) relates
that there are two pyramid-temples in the terraces of which the remains of
great stone tables have been found. He states that one of these tables was
originally supported by two rows of seven sculptured caryatids and by a
central row of plain columns with flat, square tops. Traces of paint
showed that the figures had been painted, that a yellow-brown color had
predominated, but that all ornaments or accessories were either blue or
green. The caryatids exhibited a variety of costume and of size and each
showed a marked individuality. The second table standing in a larger
temple, was originally painted red and supported by twenty-four caryatid
figures which resemble each other closely, show no individuality and which
seem to have been disposed in two rows of twelve each. Mr. Maler infers
from this that, being more highly conventionalized, they were of a later
date than the previous examples. If it were not for the circumstance that
both tables had the same number of supports their numeral 24 might pass
unobserved. As it is, I shall recur to it on mentioning other monuments
with figures yielding the same number and disposed, in one case, as 6×4.
In connection with these stone tables I recall the fact that, in the Maya
language, they were called Mayac-tun.

Mr. W. H. Holmes (_op. cit._, p. 134) tells us that in one case the
continuous table had been formed by a series of limestone tablets
averaging three feet square and five or six inches thick, each slab having
been supported by two of the dwarfish figures which stand with both hands
aloft, giving a broad surface of support. He ascertained that “these slabs
were wonderfully resonant and when struck lightly with a hammer or stone,
give out tones closely resembling those of a deeply resonant bell, and the
echoes awakened in the silent forest are exceedingly impressive.” Mr.
Holmes’ account of these resonant stone tables is of particular value to
me because it throws an interesting light upon the following Maya words: I
have already stated that the native name for table is Mayac, and that a
stone table is Mayac-tun. The word _tun_, however, not only signifies
stone, but also sound and noise. From this it would seem that stone tables
such as Mr. Holmes describes were made expressly for the purpose of
emitting sound and employed like the huehuetl or wooden drums of the
ancient Mexicans to summon the people to the temple and to guide the
sacred dances.

The existence of the word tun-kul, which is either “stone-bowl” or
“sound-bowl,” seems likewise to indicate that hollow stone vessels were
used at one time as gongs. At the present day the Mayas name the small
wooden drum of the Mexicans a “tunkul,” whereas its Nahuatl name is
“te-ponaxtli,” the prefix of which, curiously enough, seems also to be
connected with tetl=stone. A curious light is shed upon the possible use
of some of the many stone vessels found in Mexico and Yucatan by the above
linguistic evidence.

In conclusion I quote Mr. Maler’s authority for two points concerning
Chichen-Itza which are not generally known. First, that its name should be
pronounced “Tsitsen-itsa,” and, second, that he saw there no less than
five recumbent statues, holding circular vessels. Each of these figures
exhibits the same form of breast-plate as the Le Plongeon example now at
the National Museum of Mexico (pl. IV, fig. 1). Mr. Maler states that it
seems to have been the tribal mark of the Cocomes, the whilom rulers at
Chichen-Itza; but it is interesting to note the general resemblance of
this ornament to the blue plaque worn by the Mexican “Blue Lord,” the Lord
of the Year and of Fire, “Xiuhtecuhtli,” who is also usually represented
with a Xiuh-tototl or “blue-bird” on the front of his head-dress.

These facts seem to indicate that the characteristic breast-plate, instead
of being a mark of the Cocomes, may have been that of the Tutul-Xius, and
that this title has some connection with that of Xiuh-tecuhtli, the
Mexican “Lord of Fire.” It has been already set forth in the preceding
pages that the sacred fire was kindled in the stone vase held by the
recumbent figures, a fact indicating that the identical form of cult was
practised in Mexico and at Chichen-Itza. This identity is satisfactorily
accounted for and explained if we accept the simple native records of the
invitation extended to Mexican warriors by a Maya chieftain and their
subsequent permanent residence in Yucatan.

The limitations of my subject do not allow me to do more than mention two
other important ruined cities of Yucatan, Izamal and Uxmal. I will however
note that, judging from the illustrations I have seen, Uxmal seems to be
the “Serpent-city” of America, par excellence, its buildings exhibiting
the most elaborate and profuse employment of the serpent for symbolical
decoration. One inference from this might be that the serpent was the
totemic animal of the ancient builders of this city. The foregoing rapid
review of the native chronicles of Yucatan shows that even the foundation
of Mayapan was comparatively recent; that the peninsula had, in turn,
harbored powerful tribes who had drifted thence from the southwest and
Mexican warriors whose aid had been sought by consecutive rulers of
Chichen-Itza. We see that Yucatan was the meeting ground for Maya- and
Nahuatl-speaking people and that the tendency was to leave the peninsula
in search of a more favorable soil and climate as soon as opportunity was
afforded.

Since the cradle of the Maya civilization is evidently not to be looked
for in Yucatan, let us follow the clue afforded by the native traditions,
transport ourselves to some of the most important ruined cities of Central
America and endeavor to wrest from their monuments some knowledge of the
social organization of their ancient inhabitants. In order to institute
this search under the most favorable circumstances, I ventured to apply
for guidance to Mr. A. P. Maudslay who has made a more thorough, prolonged
and extensive study and exploration of these ruined cities than any other
person. Upon my request to formulate his opinion as to the respective
antiquity and chief characteristics of the most noted sites, this
distinguished explorer has most kindly authorized me to publish the
following note.

“But for a brief note in Nature (28th April, 1892), I have never
classified the ruins or attempted to give proofs of differences in age of
the monuments, but roughly you may safely class them as follows: I am
inclined to look on the Motagua river group as the oldest. The Yucatan
group is certainly the youngest. Of course there are many other smaller
differences between the groups and much overlapping. Whichever group may
be the oldest the art is there already advanced and the decoration has
taken forms which must have occupied many kinds of workers to
conventionalize from natural objects.”

1. On Motagua River, Quirigua, Copan. Large monolithic stelæ and altars
with figures and inscriptions carved on all four sides in rather high
relief, some groups pictographic. No weapons of war portrayed in the
sculpture.

2. On Usumacinto River, Menché, Tinamit, Palenque, Ixkun. Stelæ are
usually flat slabs carved with figures and inscriptions in low relief on
one side only. External ornament of the buildings usually moulded in
stucco. War-like weapons but very scarce.

3. Tikal. Intermediate between Nos. 2 and 4, but somewhat different and
distinct from either.

4. Yucatan. Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, etc. Stelæ very few in number and poorly
carved. Inscriptions carved in stone are very scarce. Inscriptions were
probably _painted_ on the walls of the temples. External ornament of
buildings formed by a mosaic of cut stones somewhat resembling Zapotec or
Aztec style. Every man portrayed as a warrior [on the bas-reliefs].

By means of the magnificent set of casts which Mr. A. P. Maudslay has
generously presented to the South Kensington Museum, London, and with the
aid of his monumental and splendidly illustrated work on the Archaeology
of Central America, which has been appearing as a part of the Biologia
Centrali-Americana, edited by Messrs. Godman and Salvin, I have been able
to verify the following facts which will be found to throw light on the
purpose and meaning of some of the ancient monuments.

Before examining the great, elaborately carved stelæ which are
characteristic of Quirigua and Copan, let us search the native chronicles
for some clue explanatory of the purpose for which they were erected.

Bishop Landa has transmitted to us some details about the destroyed
metropolis of Mayapan given to him by Yucatec informants who stated that
“in the central square of that city there still were 7 or 8 stones, about
ten feet high, rounded on one side and well sculptured, which exhibit
several rows of the native characters, but were so worn that they had
become illegible. It is supposed, however, that they are the record of the
foundation and destruction of that capital. Similar, but higher monuments,
are at Zilan, a town on the coast. Interrogated as to the meaning of these
monoliths the natives answered: It had been or was customary to erect
similar stones at intervals of 20 years which was the number by which they
counted their eras.” Bishop Landa subsequently remarks that “this
statement is not consistent,” for, according to this “there should be many
more such stones in existence, and none exist in any other pueblo but
Mayapan and Zilan.”(58)

Disagreeing with the venerable Bishop, I find in the above statements the
most valuable indications of the former existence of two centres of
culture in Yucatan. There is a curious affinity between the name Zilan
(pronounced Dzilan) and Chilan given as “the title of a priestly office
which consisted of a juridistic astrology and divination,” by Landa. There
may even be a connection between zilan and zian=origin, commencement;
zihnal=original and primitive, which may be worthy of consideration in
association with the well-known statement, quoted by Dr. Brinton, that
“the most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them a
migration from Tollan in Zu-iva—thence we all came forth together, there
was the common parent of our race; thence came we from amongst the Yagui
men, whose god is Yolcuatl Quetzalcoatl.” Dr. Brinton adds that “this
Tollan is certainly none other than the abode of Quetzalcoatl named in an
Aztec manuscript as ‘Zivena Uitzcatl.’ ” Vague as any conjecture must
necessarily be, I cannot but deem it of utmost importance that systematic
excavations be made, some day, at Zilan, for the purpose of bringing to
light the stelæ referred to by the native informants of Bishop Landa.

According to Brasseur de Bourbourg “Zilan, situated at about 20-½ leagues
from Merida belonged to the Cheles people.(59) It is the seaport of Izamal
and contains the ruins of one of the greatest pyramids or artificial
mounds (omul) in Yucatan,” a fact which corroborates the view that it was
an ancient important capital. The northern coast of Yucatan is extremely
remarkable for it is divided from the Gulf of Mexico by a continuous strip
of land between which and the mainland there is a narrow channel of water.
There are two openings only in this zone of land which afford a passage
into the navigable channel. One of these openings is situated almost
opposite to Zilan and is known as the Boca de Zilan. At a short distance
to the east there is a second such “boca” opposite to the mouth of the Rio
Lagartos, which is a large estuary and the only river on the northern
coast of Yucatan.(60)

Let us now transport ourselves, mentally, south of the peninsula to
Honduras and, leaving the coast, ascend the Motagua valley to the ruins of
Quirigua and Copan,(61) which have impressed Mr. Maudslay as being of
great antiquity. Before examining such of these monuments as seem to yield
the testimony we are seeking, let us again recall Landa’s record that the
Mayas erected stelæ as memorials of each 20-year period. To this statement
should be added, at full length, Cogolludo’s record that “the Mayas
employed eras of 20 years and lesser periods of 4 years.(62) The first of
these four years was assigned to the east and was named Cuch-haab; the
second, Hiix, to the west; the third, Cavac, to the south and the fourth
Muluc, to the north, and this served as a ‘Dominical letter.’ When five of
these four-year periods had passed, which form twenty years, they called
it a Katun and placed one sculptured stone over another sculptured stone
and fixed them with lime and sand [mortar] to the walls of their temples
and houses of the priests.”(63)

The term katun is closely linked to the said employment of memorial
stones, for tun is the Maya for stone and ka seems to stand for kal or
kaal=20. The word hun-kaal=20, means literally, “one complete count,” or
“a count which is closed,” since the verb kaal means to close, shut, or
fasten something. According to the above a katun literally means “the 20
(year) stone;” but we know that, by extension, it designated the era
itself as well as war and battle. Thus we find the verb katun-tal=to
fight.

Cogolludo continues: “In a town named Tixuala-tun, which signifies ‘the
place where they place one stone above another,’ they say that they kept
their archive, containing records of all events.... In current speech
katun signified era and when a person wished to say he was sixty years of
age, he used the expression to have three eras of years or three stones.
For seventy they said three and a half stones or four less one-half stone.
From this it may be seen that they were not too barbarous, for it is said
that [by this system] they were able to keep such exact records that they
not only certified an event but also the month and day on which it took
place.”

By referring to Maya and Spanish dictionaries we gain supplementary
valuable information about native memorial stones. We find the name
amaytun given as that of “a square stone on which the ancient Indians used
to carve the 20 years of the period ahau-katun, because the four remaining
years which completed the epoch, were placed underneath, so as to form a
sort of pedestal which was called, for this reason, lath oc katun or chek
oc katun. By extension, painted representations [of the epoch] were also
named amaytun.” The dictionary further informs us that amayté was the name
for the first twenty years of the ahau katun, which were carved on the
square stone and we see that amayté also means “something square or with
corners” and is formed of amay=corner.

Equipped with the foregoing knowledge of the sort of memorial it was
customary for the Mayas to erect, let us now see whether the ruins of
Copan furnish any monuments which would answer to the description and
purpose of “amay-tés” and “ka-tuns.” Referring the reader to parts I-III
of Mr. A. P. Maudslay’s work already cited, I draw special attention to
the following stelæ and altars which are so admirably figured therein.

Stela F, which stands at the east side of the Great Plaza at Copan and
faces west, is in a particularly bad state of preservation. It exhibits a
standing figure on one side whose head is surmounted by an indescribable
combination of a mask, a seated figure and much elaborate feather-work. A
noteworthy feature, which recurs on other stelæ in Copan and Quirigua, is
an appendage which appears like an artificial beard attached to the chin
of the personage. At the sides of the stela serpents’ heads alternate with
diminutive grotesque figures. On the back, or east side of the stela, two
cords are represented which appear to have been brought over from the
front and which are tied together so as to form five open loops, in each
of which, as in a frame, there is a group consisting of four calculiform
glyphs. The cord, which is knotted together at the base of the stela,
appears to pass around it. It is impossible not to recognize that this
representation of twenty glyphs, as divided into five groups of four,
exactly agrees with Cogolludo’s records that the Mayas employed 20-year
and 4-year eras and that when five of the 4-year periods had passed they
called it a ka-tun, and made a carved memorial of it. As Landa tells us
that they erected stelæ to commemorate the 20-year period, the inference
to which the Copan Stela F leads us is that it is a katun and that the
twenty glyphs carved on it are year-signs. Examination, however, shows
that, whereas the Maya Calendar had but four year-signs which would
naturally be bound to repeat themselves in each group of four years, no
two glyphs on the Stela F are alike. It is obvious, therefore, that the
glyphs are not the four calendar year-signs and reflection shows, indeed,
that it would have been quite superfluous to carve these repeatedly on a
stela. As each year-sign was identified with a cardinal point and an
element and was permanently associated with a particular color, the mere
employment of the latter would suffice to convey this association of
ideas. What is more, the relative positions of the four glyphs composing
each group would also indicate the four year-signs and thus the sculptor
of the stela would have been at liberty to record by the shape of his
glyphs any fact he chose to connect with each year of the era. A curious
linguistic fact must also be taken into consideration: The Maya name for
the four year-signs was Ah-cuch-haab and the title for a chief or ruler of
a town was Ah-cuch-cab. The mere presence on the stela, of the figure of
the ruler, would suffice to convey the certainty that the count of the
four year-signs was understood to be present. On Stelæ F and M, each of
which displays twenty glyphs and one sculptured personage, the latter is
particularly characterized by being associated with head-dresses and
emblems consisting of elaborate conventionalized plumed serpents’ heads.
The inference naturally is that the serpent symbolism, which recurs in
some form or other on every stela effigy, expresses or conveys that the
rank and title of the personage were that of a Kukul-can, the high-priest
ruler who impersonated the “Divine Four,” or of some lord=Ahau, who was
also “ruler of the four regions.”

It must be recognized that a stone stela, on which is sculptured the image
of a lord and a count of 20, answers exactly to the memorial stone named
Ahau-ka-tun, literally, lord, 20 stone, and it is easy to see how the
period or era of twenty-four years should come to be called by the name of
the stone which commemorated it, and each era to be differentiated by
being designated by the personal name of the ruler who held office during
its course. The result would be practically the same as the allusion to a
particular reign in a nation’s history, with the seeming difference that
all ancient American rulers and their subordinates held fixed terms of
office, coinciding with the various periods of the calendar.

The inscriptions on the foregoing stelæ are made of glyphs of a uniform
character. Other stelæ at Copan display the interesting set of 6+1=7 signs
which recur on so many Central American monuments and strikingly coincide
in number with the all-pervading division into six parts plus the middle
and synopsis of all. Of this “septenary set of signs,” six are uniform in
size and character whilst the first is more elaborate and important in
every respect and, as I shall set forth by a series of illustrations in
another publication, actually does symbolize the union of the Above and
Below. It is to Mr. Maudslay that we owe the recognition of the existence
of this septenary set of glyphs, which he announced as follows to the
Royal Geographical Society in 1886:

“A number of Central American inscriptions are headed by what I shall call
an initial scroll (the style of which is permanent throughout many
variations) and begin with the same formula, usually extending through six
squares of hieroglyphic writing, the sixth square, or sometimes the latter
half of the sixth square, being a human face, usually in profile, enclosed
in a frame or cartouche” (Proceedings, p. 583).

The septenary group occurs on Stelæ A, B, C, E, I, P. It is curious to
find that the initial sign is sometimes, as on two sides of Stela P,
followed not by 6 glyphs only, but by 4×6=24 glyphs. On the east side of
Stela P, it is succeeded by 22 glyphs and a carved design which seems to
indicate the beginning or end of the count. On Stela I the initial is also
followed by 4×6=24 glyphs, and on Stela A by 12 double (=24) glyphs on
side 1, whilst side 2 displays 13 and side 3, 2×13=26. On Stela B two
sides exhibit 13 glyphs each and the back 2+ the initial. On two sides of
Stela C the initial is followed by 2×7=14 glyphs. It cannot be denied that
the foregoing stelæ collectively yield counts of 4×5, 7, 13, 20 and 24,
which undoubtedly coincide with the well-known numerical organization and
prove that this dominated the people who erected them.

The certainty that the ancient inhabitants of Copan associated the idea of
a central ruler with quadruple power is afforded by a remarkable
bas-relief which Mr. Maudslay has kindly allowed me to reproduce here
(fig. 55), from a drawing made by Miss Annie Hunter.(64)

This carved slab, the size of which is 5’ by 4’ 6", was found in four
pieces in the western court of the main structure of Copan and according
to Mr. Maudslay’s opinion, “formed part of the exterior ornament of temple
11 or the slope on which it stood.” It undoubtedly claims a minute
examination, as it strikingly illustrates how the native ideas, I have
been setting forth in the preceding pages, were originally suggested by
the observation of Polaris. Seated cross-legged, and resting on the centre
of the foliated swastika, is the figure of a personage whose titles are
clearly discernible.

                             [Illustration.]

                                Figure 55.

He is designated as a ruler, not only by his attitude of repose, but by
the fact that he wears a breast ornament in the form of a face or head (of
the sun) and holds in his hand (_i. e._ governs) a vase or bowl (see p.
72). Those show him to be the chief or head of all and the Cum-ahau, or
lord of the sacred vase or bowl (see p. 93). As the latter contains what
appears to be a variant of the glyph ik and the word ik signifies breath,
air and wind, by extension life, we realize that he is designated as the
lord of breath and life. The glyph which covers his face bears a native
cross-symbol and this, as well as the cruciform figure, the centre of
which he occupies, conveys the idea of quadruplicate power. The double and
bent arms of the cross-symbol strikingly resemble the conventionalized
puffs of breath or air which are so frequently depicted in Mexican
Codices, as issuing from the mouths of speakers. Almost identical
representations of curved puffs are figured as issuing from open serpents’
jaws in a bas-relief at Palenque, of which more anon.

Mr. Maudslay has pointed out that on stelæ from Copan and Quirigua a
profusion of analogous curved signs occurs also in connection with
serpents’ heads. A special feature of the curved puffs of breath on the
Copan “swastika,” as it has been named, are small seed-like balls which
are distributed in detached groups of threes along their inner and outer
edges, and are usually accompanied by what resembles the small calyx of a
flower, making four small objects in all. These balls, which also recur in
the Palenque symbol, forcibly recall a passage of the Zuñi creation myth
recounted by Mr. Cushing.

It relates that, at a certain stage of the creation, “the most perfect of
all priests and fathers named Yanáuluha ... brought up from the
underworld, the water of the inner ocean and the seeds of life production”
... Subsequently, on a feathered staff he carried, “appeared 4 round
things, seeds of moving beings, mere eggs they were; two blue like the sky
and two red like the flesh of the earth-mother.”...

I cannot but think that these words from a purely native source explain
the Copan sculpture more correctly than any inference that could be made,
and authorize the explanation that the central figure represents the “four
times lord,” or “lord of the four winds,” titles which were applied in
Mexico to Quetzalcoatl and Xiuhtecuhtli. At the same time the bas-relief
teaches us that “the four winds” had a deeper meaning than has been
realized, for it represents life-giving breath carrying with it the seeds
of the four vital elements, emanating from the central lord of life,
spreading to the four quarters and dividing itself so as to disseminate
vitality throughout the universe. The title Kukulcan=the Divine Four, also
serpent, proves to be even more expressive of this conception of a central
divinity than the Mexican Divine Twin, or serpent. I am therefore inclined
to consider that it originated with a Maya-speaking people, to whom, more
graphically than to any one else, this bas-relief would have served, as a
joint image of the star-god, the heart of heaven, named Hura-kan; of the
terrestrial lord Ah-cuch-cab, the heart or life of the State; of the
State, with its hun-kaal or one count of twenty subdivisions of people and
its quadruple head and body and, finally, of the native cosmology.

The Copan swastika enables us to come to another interesting conclusion.
It is a refined representation of the set of thoughts suggested by
Polaris, the idea of a stable centre being graphically rendered. Movement
in four directions is also symbolized. As, in the latitude of Copan, Ursa
Minor is the only circumpolar constellation which could have been observed
in four opposite positions, it is obvious that Ursa Minor with Polaris
must have constituted the Maya Celestial Heart or Life=cuxabal. The
following points remain to be discussed in connection with the Copan
swastika.

1. To be complete and in keeping with native modes of representation it
must have originally been painted with the symbolical colors of the Four
Quarters.

2. It is on a wooden club from Brazil or Guiana that, strange to say, I
find a cross symbol with bifurcated branches, which most closely resembles
the Copan type. Directing the readers to the illustration of this club as
fig. 8, pl. XV, in Dr. Stolpe’s work already cited, I would ask them to
examine also his fig. 7, with a design expressing dual and quadruple
divisions; fig. 9_b_, with circles containing cross lines; 9_a_, with what
resembles somewhat a Maltese cross but also conveys duality; fig. 11_b_
with a cross in a scalloped circle and a curious disc between four signs,
with a band of alternate black and white squares and its reverse 11_a_,
with triangles, to which I shall revert; and figs. 10_c_ and _d_, each
with a mound from which a tree is growing. Though tempted to refer to many
other symbols I shall limit myself to pointing out that his fig. 1, pl.
XIV, exhibits a group of five circles in a circle which strikingly recall
the Mexican examples and the Maya ho=5. As each of the foregoing symbols
is intelligible and belongs to a group of ideas which I have shown to have
been general throughout America, but to have necessarily originated in the
northern hemisphere, it seems pretty clear that they must have gradually
found their way to Brazil and Guiana from the north by means of coast
navigation and traffic.

3. Concerning the bowl in the hand of the figure occupying the middle of
the swastika a few remarks should be added to those already given on pp.
72 and 93.

Formed of clay the bowl was an expressive symbol of the earth. Placed in
elevated positions on the terraces of the temples, and filled by the first
annual showers which fell upon the parched earth, the bowl of celestial
water naturally became invested with peculiar sanctity, and was gradually
regarded as containing particular life-giving qualities. One use to which
bowls full of water were put, in ancient Mexico, seems to explain further
the ideas associated with them. It is well known that bowls of water were
used at night for divination purposes, just as were black obsidian
mirrors. This seems to prove that the latter were a subsequent invention
which was adopted because it permanently afforded a surface for purposes
of reflection.

In the native Maya chronicles the reflection of a star upon the trembling
and moving surface of the water, is given as the image of the Creator and
Former, the Heart of Heaven, and it was believed that the divine essence
of life was thus conveyed to earth by light shining on and into the
waters. It is well known that it was customary for the priests of the
Great Temple of Mexico to bathe at midnight after fasting, in a sacred
pool so deep that the water appeared to be black. This
artificially-produced peculiarity would have rendered its surface
particularly useful for the observation and registration of the movements
of stars by their reflections.

Thomas Gage quaintly tells us, moreover, that at the consecration of a
certain idol “made of all kinds of seeds that grow in the country ... a
certain vessell of water was blessed with many words and ceremonies, and
that water was preserved very religiously at the foot of the Altar for to
consecrate the King when he was crowned and also to blesse any Captain
Generall, when he should be elected for the Warres, with only giving him a
draught of that water” (_op. cit._, p. 53). It is well known that infants
also underwent a form of baptism.

The preceding and other evidence, which is scarcely required, enables us
to realize the full significance which the symbol of a bowl surmounted by
the glyph ik=life, breath, soul, was intended to express and convey.

The collection of rain-water in vessels, exposed so as to receive the
reflection of the one immovable star-god, was doubtlessly employed as a
test of the stability of the Middle of the Earth by many generations of
priest-astronomers. The sanctity attached to this water, as having
absorbed the divine essence of light and the attribution of life-giving
properties to it, was but the natural sequence of such star-observation.
As the title “the lord of the vase or bowl”=Cum-ahau, indicates, the
supreme priest of Heaven alone seems to have attended to all rites
concerning the sacred bowl and the distribution of its celestial
life-giving contents. The symbolical decoration of many native bowls will
be found to corroborate this view of their employment and of the virtue
attributed to their contents.

By this time I trust that my readers will realize with me that, at Copan,
the native set of ideas had long taken deep root and flourished. We have
seen that the identical numerical divisions of time and tribes and the
same symbolism prevailed as have been traced in Peru, Guatemala, Mexico,
Yucatan, Zuñi, etc. The following monuments will still further establish
this kinship of thought. Copan contains two stone slabs which answer to
the description of an amay-tun, inasmuch as they are square and appear to
be memorial stones. Let us see whether some clue to their purpose can be
obtained from the carvings upon them.

On each of the four sides of altar K four personages are carved, all
seeming to be of equal rank. Of these 4×4=16 chieftains, eight wear a
breast ornament in the form of a double serpent, whilst the remaining
eight wear a somewhat plainer kind. On the west side the two central
figures face each other and two diminutive glyphs are carved in the space
between them. The most striking feature about the representation of these
personages is, that each of them is seated, cross-legged, on a different
composite glyph; some of these exhibit animal forms. This is a fact of
utmost importance, for it definitely connects distinct personalities,
obviously chieftains with composite glyphs, some composite parts of which
are obviously totemic. On the upper surface of this monolith there are
6×6=36 single glyphs, which yield 9 groups of 4. If these 9×4 be added to
the 4×4 glyphs on which the chieftains are respectively seated, we obtain
13 groups of 4, equivalent to 52. It is superfluous to repeat that there
are fifty-two years in the Mexican cycle and that just as this square
altar has 16 figures carved around it, the great monolithic Stone of Tizoc
in the City of Mexico has 16 groups. In the latter case each group is
accompanied by the name of a tribe and its capital. It looks very much as
though the glyphs on which the chieftains on Altar K are seated also
express tribal names.

A careful study of the other square monolith at Copan, known as the
Alligator altar, will enable us to form a better estimate of the probable
meaning of glyphs, employed as seats by chieftains. The Alligator altar
takes its name from the sculptured animal which is stretched over its
upper surface. Human figures are represented as connected with the
different parts of the animal’s body, in a way which forcibly recalls Mr.
Cushing’s explanation of how the various members of a tribe were
associated with a part only of their totemic animal and bore the name of
this part as their title of honor, according to a strict order

The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations
A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems