The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History. Hubert Howe Bancroft

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СКАЧАТЬ with all their pros and cons, the theories of others. Kingsborough has a theory to prove, and to accomplish his object he drafts every shadow of an analogy into his service. But though his theory is as wild as the wildest, and his proofs are as vague as the vaguest, yet Lord Kingsborough cannot be classed with such writers as Jones, Ranking, Cabrera, Adair, and the host of other dogmatists who have fought tooth and nail, each for his particular hobby. Kingsborough was an enthusiast – a fanatic, if you choose – but his enthusiasm is never offensive. There is a scholarly dignity about his work which has never been attained by those who have jeered and railed at him; and though we may smile at his credulity, and regret that such strong zeal was so strangely misplaced, yet we should speak and think with respect of one who spent his lifetime and his fortune, if not his reason, in an honest endeavor to cast light upon one of the most obscure spots in the history of man.

KINGSBOROUGH'S ARGUMENTS

      The more prominent of the analogies adduced by Lord Kingsborough may be briefly enumerated as follows:

HEBREW AND AMERICAN ANALOGIES

      The religion of the Mexicans strongly resembled that of the Jews, in many minor details, as will be presently seen, and the two were practically alike, to a certain extent, in their very foundation; for, as the Jews acknowledged a multitude of angels, archangels, principalities, thrones, dominions, and powers, as the subordinate personages of their hierarchy, so did the Mexicans acknowledge the unity of the Deity in the person of Tezcatlipoca, and at the same time worship a great number of other imaginary beings. Both believed in a plurality of devils subordinate to one head, who was called by the Mexicans Mictlantecutli, and by the Jews Satan. Indeed, it seems that the Jews actually worshiped and made offerings to Satan as the Mexicans did to their 'god of hell.' It is probable that the Toltecs were acquainted with the sin of the first man, committed at the suggestion of the woman, herself deceived by the serpent, who tempted her with the fruit of the forbidden tree, who was the origin of all our calamities, and by whom death came into the world.169 We have seen in this chapter that Kingsborough supposes the Messiah and his story to have been familiar to the Mexicans. There is reason to believe that the Mexicans, like the Jews, offered meat and drink offerings to stones.170 There are striking similarities between the Babel, flood, and creation myths of the Hebrews and the Americans.171 Both Jews and Mexicans were fond of appealing in their adjurations to the heaven and the earth.172 Both were extremely superstitious, and firm believers in prodigies.173 The character and history of Christ and Huitzilopochtli present certain analogies.174 It is very probable that the Sabbath of the seventh day was known in some parts of America.175 The Mexicans applied the blood of sacrifices to the same uses as the Jews; they poured it upon the earth, they sprinkled it, they marked persons with it, and they smeared it upon walls and other inanimate things.176 No one but the Jewish high-priest might enter the Holy of Holies. A similar custom obtained in Peru.177 Both Mexicans and Jews regarded certain animals as unclean and unfit for food.178 Some of the Americans believed with some of the Talmudists in a plurality of souls.179 That man was created in the image of God was a part of the Mexican belief.180 It was customary among the Mexicans to eat the flesh of sacrifices of atonement.181 There are many points of resemblance between Tezcatlipoca and Jehovah.182 Ablutions formed an essential part of the ceremonial law of the Jews and Mexicans.183 The opinions of the Mexicans with regard to the resurrection of the body, accorded with those of the Jews.184 The Mexican temple, like the Jewish, faced the east.185 "As amongst the Jews the ark was a sort of portable temple in which the Deity was supposed to be continually present, and which was accordingly borne on the shoulders of the priests as a sure refuge and defence from their enemies, so amongst the Mexicans and the Indians of Michoacan and Honduras an ark was held in the highest veneration, and was considered an object too sacred to be touched by any but the priests. The same religious reverence for the ark is stated by Adair to have existed among the Cherokee and other Indian tribes inhabiting the banks of the Mississippi, and his testimony is corroborated by the accounts of Spanish authors of the greatest veracity. The nature and use of the ark having been explained, it is needless to observe that its form might have been various, although Scripture declares that the Hebrew ark was of the simplest construction." And again: "it would appear from many passages of the Old Testament, that the Jews believed in the real presence of God in the ark, as the Roman Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, from whom it is probable the Mexicans borrowed the notion that He, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, and whose glory fills all space, could be confined within the precincts of a narrow ark and be borne by a set of weak and frail priests. If the belief of the Mexicans had not been analogous to that of the ancient Jews, the early Spanish missionaries would certainly have expressed their indignation of the absurd credulity of those who believed that their omnipresent god Huitzilopochtli was carried in an ark on priests' shoulders; but of the ark of the Mexicans they say but little, fearing, as it would appear, to tread too boldly on the burning ashes of Mount Sinai."186

      The Yucatec conception of a Trinity resembles the Hebrew.187 It is probable that Quetzalcoatl, whose proper name signifies 'feathered serpent,' was so called after the brazen serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness, the feathers perhaps alluding to the rabbinical tradition that the fiery serpents which god sent against the Israelites were of a winged species.188

      The Mexicans, like the Jews, saluted the four cardinal points, in their worship.189 There was much in connection with sacrifices that was common to Mexicans and Jews.190 It is possible that the myth relating to Quetzalcoatl's disappearance in the sea, indicates a knowledge of the book of the prophet Jonah.191

      The Mexicans say that they wrestled at times with Quetzalcoatl, even as Jacob wrestled with God.192 In various religious rites and observances, such as circumcision,193 confession,194 and communion,195 there was much similarity. Salt was an article highly esteemed by the Mexicans, and the Jews always offered it in their oblations.196 Among the Jews, the firstling of an ass had to be redeemed with a lamb, or if unredeemed, its neck was broken. This command of Moses should be considered in reference to the custom of sacrificing children which existed in Mexico and Peru.197 The spectacle of a king performing a dance as an act of religion was witnessed by the Jews as well as by Mexicans.198 As the Israelites were conducted from Egypt by Moses and Aaron who were accompanied by their sister Miriam, so the Aztecs departed from Aztlan under the guidance of Huitziton and Tecpatzin, the former of whom is named by Acosta and Herrera, Mexi, attended likewise by their sister Quilaztli, or, as she is otherwise named Chimalman or Malinalli, both of which latter names have some resemblance to Miriam, as Mexi has to Moses.199 In the Mexican language amoxtli signifies flags or bulrushes, the derivation of which name, from atl, water, and moxtli, might allude to the flags in which Moses had been preserved.СКАЧАТЬ