Notes
many deities, for evil was found too liberally mingled in the natures of most of the Aztec gods,— in the same manner as with the Greeks,—to admit of its personification by any one.
Page 38 (3).—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, lib. 3, cap. i, et seq. Acosta, lib. 5, ch. 9.— Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 6, cap. 21.—Boturini, Idea, pp. 17, 28. Huitzilopoichli is compounded of two words, signifying "humming-bird," and "left," from his image having the feathers of this bird on its left foot; (Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 17); an amiable etymology for so ruffian a deity. The fantastic forms of the Mexican idols were in the highest degree symbolical. See Gama's learned exposition of the devices on the statue of the goddess found in the great square of Mexico.—(Description de las Dos Piedras [Mexico, 1832], parte 1, pp. 34-44.) The tradition respecting the origin of this god, or at least, his appearance on earth, is curious. He was born of a woman. His mother, a devout person, one day, in her attendance on the temple, saw a ball of bright-coloured feathers floating in the air. She took it, and deposited it in her bosom. She soon after found herself pregnant, and the dread deity was born, coming into the world, like Minerva, all armed,—with a spear in the right hand, a shield in the left, and his head surmounted by a crest of green plumes.—(See Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 19, et seq.) A similar notion in respect to the incarnation of their principal deity existed among the people of India beyond the Ganges, of China, and of Thibet. "Budh," says Milman, in his learned and luminous work on the History of Christianity, "according to a tradition known in the West, was born of a virgin. So were the Fohi of China, and the Schaka of Thibet, no doubt the same, whether a mythic or a real personage. "The Jesuits in China, says Barrow," were appalled at finding in the mythology of that country the counterpart of the Virgo Deipara."—(Vol. i. p. 99, note.) The existence of similar religious ideas in remote regions, inhabited by different races, is an interesting subject of study; furnishing, as it does, one of the most important links in the great chain of communication which binds together the distant families of nations.
Page 39 (1).—Codex Vaticanus, PI. 15, and Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Part 2, PI. 2, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols, i., vi.—Sahagun, Hist, de Nueva España, lib. 3, cap. 3, 4, 13, 14.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 6, cap. 24.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 1.—Gomara, Crónica de la Nueva España, cap. 222, ap. Barcia, Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales (Madrid, 1749), tom. ii. Quetzalcoatl signifies "feathered serpent." The last syllable means likewise, a "twin"; which furnished an argument for Dr. Siguenza to identify this god with the apostle Thomas (Didymus signifying also a twin), who, he supposes, came over to America to preach the gospel. In this rather startling conjecture he is supported by several of his devout countrymen, who appear to have as little doubt of the fact as of the advent of St. James, for a similar purpose, in the mother country. See the various authorities and arguments set forth with becoming gravity in Dr. Mier's dissertation in Bustamente's edition of Sahagun (lib. 3, Suplem. [and Veytia], tom. i, pp. 160-200). Our Ingenious countryman, M'Culloch, carries the Aztec god up to a still more respectable antiquity, by identifying him with the patriarch Noah.— Researches, Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the Aboriginal History of America (Baltimore, 1829), p. 233.
Page 39 (2).—Cod. Vat., PI. 7-10, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols, i., vi.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. I. M. de Humboldt has been at some pains to trace the analogy between the Aztec cosmogony and that of Eastern Asia. He has tried, though in vain, to find a multiple which might serve as the key to the calculations of the former. (Vues des Cordillères, pp. 202-212.) In truth, there seems to be a material discordance in the Mexican statements, both in regard to the number of revolutions and their duration. A manuscript before me, of Ixtlilxochitl, reduced them to three, before the present state of the world, and allows only 4394 years for them (Sumaria Relacion, MS., No. 1); Gama, on the faith of an ancient Indian MS., in Boturini's Catalogue 13), reduces the duration still lower (Descripcion de las Dos Piedras, parte 1, p. 49, et seq.); while the cycles of the Vatican paintings take up near 18,000 years.—It is interesting to observe how the wild conjectures of an ignorant age have been confirmed by the more recent discoveries in geology, making it probable that the earth has experienced a number of convulsions, possibly427
