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ee ONAN MEO CYST
PANAMA CAT iN a hy Wi L RLV BSD ANF LY

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Hum Vel
1814
O. 8.

Humboldt

Researches concerning
the institutions & monuments of
the ancient inhabitants of
America,,,

&

- MUSEUM
REPUBLIC OF PANAMA

PANAMA

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SOME OF THE MOST

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Written tn French by \~

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. “ALEXANDER 1D Hh HUM BOLIDT,

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Fageub,Vol.2,

VIEW OF COTOPAXI.

CORNDDAR:

Published by L ongman, Hurst Lees, Orme & Brown, J. Murray & F7. Colburn.

1814.

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F 27 JUL 1986
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ADVERTISEMENT

EDITOR.

THE Views of the. Cordilleras and
Movements of the Natives of America, which
form the Picturesque Atlas of the Quarto Edi-
tion of M. M. de Humboldt and Bonpland’s
Travels in the Equinoxial Regions of the New

Continent, consist of one large Volume in Folio,

ornamented with Sixty-nine Plates engraved by

the first Artists of Berlin, Rome, and Paris. —
This Work, which is highly interesting, from
the numerous Researches it contains in the An-
tiquities of Mexico and Peru, from the Descrip-
tion of the most remarkable Scenes of the Cor-
dilleras, and the Manners of its Inhabitants,
should accompany the Octavo Edition of this
Voyage; but the ‘Picturesque Atlas in Folio
being, from its Nature, of too high a Price for
a 2

iv

Readers in general, it has been judged necessary
to Reprint the Text in two Octavo Volumes.
The greater Part of the Subjects contained in

the Atlas may be read without consulting the

Plates, but some Parts of the Text to be well
understood, require the Aid of the Plates. For
_ this Reason, Nineteen Engravings have been
selected by M. de Humboldt, from Sixty-nine
contained in the Folio Edition, which Plates are
reduced in order to be placed at the End of the
Two Octavo Volumes.

The Geographical and Physical ‘hal will

accompany the Personal Narrative. —

Coad or

‘PICTURESQUE ATLAS
TRAVELS

EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS

OF

THE NEW CONTINENT.

INTRODUCTION.

T wave collected, in the following work,
whatever relates to the origin and first pro-
gress of the arts among the natives of Ame-
rica. ‘Two thirds of the plates which it
contains present specimens of the remains
of their architecture, sculpture, historical
paintings, and hieroglyphics relative , to
their division of time, and the system of

their calendar. ‘To this representation or
VOL. XIII. B

2

their monuments, which are interesting to
the philosophical study of man, I have
added a few of the most remarkable pictu-
resque views of the new continent. The
motives for this selection will be found in
the general observations at the beginning of
this Essay. . JO

The description of each plate, as far as
the nature of the subject admits, forms a’
separate treatise. I have dwelt more at
length on such as could throw light on the
analogies existing between the inhabitants
of the two hemispheres ; and we shall be
surprised to find, towards the end of the
fifteenth century, in a world which we call
new, those ancient institutions, those reli-
gious notions, and that style of building,
which seem in Asia to indicate the very
dawn of civilization. The. characteristic
features of nations, like the internal con-
struction of plants, spread over the surface
of the globe, were the impression of a pri-
nitive type, notwithstanding the variety
produced by the difference of climates, the

‘DS

7
Rah at
yin, ,
RL 3
COIR Teale ai
“ Beis) Ls eat ae

3

nature of the soil, and the concurrence of
many accidental causes. |
In the beginning of the conquest of Ame-

rica, the attention of Europe was chiefly

directed toward the gigantic constructions
of Couzco, the high roads carried along the

centre of the Cordilleras, the pyramids

with steps, and the worship and symbolical
writings of the Mexicans. ‘The country

around Port Jackson, in New Holland,

and the island of Otaheite, have not been
more frequently described in our times,
than were the regions of Mexico and Peru
at that period. ‘To form a proper estimate
of the simplicity, the true and local colour-

ing which characterizes the descriptions of

the first Spanish writers, we must have vi-
sited the spot. While we peruse their
writings, we regret that they are not accom.
panied with drawings, to have given usa
precise idea of the numerous momuments
which became the prey of fanaticism, or
which have been suffered to fall into ruin

from negligence not less culpable.
B 2

A

The ardour, with which America had
been the object of investigation, diminished
from the beginning of the seventeeth cen-
tury. The Spanish colonies, which were
the only regions formerly inhabited by ci-
vilized nations, were shut against foreigners ;
and recently, when the Abbé Clavigero
published in Italy his ancient history of
Mexico, the facts, attested by a crowd of
ocular witnesses, often hostile: to each
other, were regarded as extremely doubt-
ful. Some distinguished writers, “more
struck with the contrasts than the harmony
-of nature, have described the whole of
America as a marshy country, unfavour-
able to the increase of animals, and newly
inhabited by hordes as savage as the
people of the South Sea. In the histori-
cal researches respecting the Americans,
candid examination had given place to ab-
solute scepticism. ‘The declamatory des-
criptions of Solis, and of some other wri-
ters, who had never quitted Kurope, were
confounded with the simple but true nar-

5
ratives of the first travellers ; and it seemed
to be the duty,of a philosopher, to refuse
assent to every observation made by the
missionaries.

Since the end of the last century, a happy
revolution has taken place in the manner
of examining the civilization of nations,
and the causes which impede or favour its
progress. We have become acquainted
with countries, the customs,: institutions,
and arts of which differ almost as widely
from those of the Greeks and Romans, as
the primitive forms of extinct races of
animals differ from those of the spccies,
which are the objects of descriptive natural
history. The society at Calcutta has thrown
a luminous ray over the history of the
people of Asia. The monuments of Egypt, *
which are at present delineated with. sin-
gular precision, ‘have been compared with
the monuments of countries the most re-
mote ; and my own recent investigations on
the natives of America appear at an epocha,
in which we no longer deem unworthy of

6

attention whatever is not conformable to
that style, of which the Greeks have left
such inimitable models.

It might have been preferable to have
arranged the materials, contained in this
work, in geographical order; but the diffi-
culty of collecting, and terminating at the
same time, a great number of plates en-
graved in Italy, Germany, and France, has
prevented me from following this method.
The want of order, compensated, to a
certain degree, by the advantage of variety,
is also less reprehensible in the descriptions
of a Picturesque Atlas, than in a regular
Treatise ; and I shall endeavour to remedy
this inconvenience by a table, in which
the plates are classed agreeably to the na-

‘ture of the objects they represent.

I. MonuMENTSs.

A. Mexican.

Statue of a priestess.
Pyramid of Cholula.
Fort of Xochicalco. —

7

Bas-relief, representing the triumph of a
waltrior. ,

Calendar and hieroglyphics of the days.

Vases.

Bas-relief sculptured around a cylindrical
stone. |

Axe with engraved characters.

Sepulchral house of Mitla.

Hieroglyphical paintings.

Manuscripts of the Vatican.
| of Veletri.
WE | of Vienna.
of Dresden.
of Berlin.
of Paris.
of Mendoza.

of Gemelli.

B. Peruvian.

House of the Inca at Cannar.
Inga-Chungana.
Ruins of Callo.

Inti-Guaicu.

C. Muyscas. —

Calendar.
Sculptured. heads.

Il. Views.

A. Elevated plain of Mexico.

Great square of Mexico.

Basaltes of Regla. .
Coffer of Perote. | ; .
Volcano of Jorullo. | no |
Porphyry columns of Jacal.

_ Organos of Actopan. —

C. Mountains of South America. —

Silla de Caraccas.

Air Volcanoes of Turbaco.

Cataract of Tequendama. mane

Lake of Guatavita. |

Natural bridge of Icononzo. | :
Passage of Quindiu.

Cataract of Vinegar river.
Chimborazo. ,
Volcano of Cotopaxi. a
Pyramidal summits of Ilinissa,
Nevado of Corazon.

Nevado of Cayambe. |

Voleano of Pichincha. —

Rope bridge of Penipe.
Letter-carrier of Jaen Bracamaros.

Raft of Guayaquil.

9

I have endeavoured to copy, with the
greatest exactness, the objects exhibited in
these engravings. Those who are employ-

- .ed in the practical profession of the arts

| are aware, how difficult it is to attend mi-

nutely to the great number of plates, which

compose a Picturesque Atlas. If some be

Jess perfect than connoisseurs might wish,

this imperfection ought not to be attributed

to the artists employed, under my inspec-

-. tion, in the execution of my work, but to

the sketches which I drew on the spot,

and often in very difficult circumstances.

Several landscapes have been coloured, be-

cause in this sort of engraving, the snow

detaches itself more strikingly from the

azure of the sky, and the imitation of the

_ Mexican paintings rendered the mixture of

coloured: plates with engravings indispen-

sable. I have felt how difficult it is to give

the former that vigorous tone of colouring,
which we admire in the Oriental Scenery —

of Mr. Daniel. ©

In the description of the monuments of

rs i z

i ct i elec et
e wee Ranne
‘

10
America, I have attempted to keep an
equal tenor between the two methods, fol-
lowed by those learned men, who have
investigated the monuments, the languages,
and the traditions of nations. Some,
allured by splendid hypotheses, built on
very unstable foundations, have drawn ge-
neral consequences from a small number of
solitary facts: they have discovered Chinese
and Egyptian colonies in America; recog-
nized Celtic dialects and the Phenician
alphabet ; and, while we are ignorant whe-
- ther the Osci, the Goths, or the Celts, are
nations emigrated from Asia, have given a
decisive opinion on the origin of all the
hordes of the New Continent. Others
have accumulated materials without gene-
ralizing any idea; which is a method, as
sterile in tracing the history. of a nation, as
‘in delineating the different branches of
natural philosophy. May I have. been
happy enough to avoid the errors, which I
have now pointed out! A small number
of nations, far distant from each other, the

11

Etruscans, the Kegyptians, the people ote

Thibet, and the Aztecks, exhibit striking
analogies in their buildings, their religious
institutions, their division of time, their
cycles of regeneration, and their mystic
notions. It is the duty of the historian to
point out these analogies, which are as diffi-
cult to explain as the relations that exist
between the Sanscrit, the Persian, the
Greek, and the languages of German urigin ;
but in attempting to generalize ideas, we
should learn to stop at the point where
precise data are wanting. In conformity
to these principles, I shall mention the
consequences to which the opinions I have
adopted seem to lead respecting the natives
of the New World.

Neither antattentive examination of the
geological constitution of America, nor re-
flections on the equilibrium of the fluids, that
are diffused over the surface of the Globe,
lead us to admit, that the New Continent
emerged from the waters at a later period
than the Old: we discern in the former the
same succession of stony strata, that we find

12

in our own hemisphere ; and it is probable,
that, in the mountains of Peru, the granites,
the micaceous schists, or the different form-
ations of gypsum, and gritstone, existed
originally at the same periods as the rocks
of the same denominations in the Alps of
Switzerland. The whole globe appears to
have undergone the same catastrophes. At
a height superior to that of Mount Blanc,
on the summit of the Andes, we find petri-
fied sea-shells ; fossile bones of elephants are
spread over the equinoctial regions ; and
_ what is very remarkable, they are not dis-
covered ‘at the feet of the palm trees in the
burning plains of the Orinoco, but on the
coldest and most elevated regions of the
Cordilleras. In the New World, as well as
in the Old, generations of speties long ex-
tinct have preceded those, which now people
the earth, the waters, and the air.

There is no proof, that the existence of
man is much more recent in America than:
in the other continent. Within the tropics,
the strength of vegetation, the breadth of

18

rivers, and partial:inundations have pre-
sented powerful obstacles to the migration
of nations, ‘The extensive countries of the
north of Asia are as thinl y peopled, as the
_ savannalis of New Mexico and Paraguay ;
nor is it necessary to suppose, that the coun-
tries first peopled are those, which offer the
greatest mass of inhabitants. ‘lhe problem
of the first population of America is no
more the province of History, than the
questions on the origin of plants and ani-
mals, and on the distribution of organic
germs, are that of natural science. History,
in carrying us back to the earliest epochas,
instructs us that almost every part of the
Globe is occupied by men who think them-
selves aborigines, because they are ignorant
of their origin. Among a multitude of —
nations, who have succeeded, or have been
incorporated with each other, it is impos-
sible to discover with precision the first
basis of population, that primitive stratum
beyond which the region of cosmogonical
tradition begins.

14

The nations of America, except those
which border on the polar circle, form a
single race, characterized by the forma-
tion of the scull, the colour of the skin,
the extreme thinness of the beard, and
straight and glossy hair. The American
race bears a very striking resemblance to
that of the Mongul nations, which include
the descendants of the Hiong-Nu, known
heretofore by the name of Huns, the
Kalkas, the Kalmucks, and the Burats.
It has been ascertained by late observa-
tions, that not only the inhabitants of Una-
lashka, but several tribes of South America,
indicate, by the osteological characters of
the head, a passage from the American to
the Mongul race. When we shall have
more completely studied the brown men
of Africa, and that swarm of nations, who
inhabit the interior and north-east of Asia,
and who are vaguely described by siste-
matic travellers under the name of ‘T'artars
_and Tschoudes, the Caucasian, Mongul,
American, Malay, and Negro races, will

ne

15

appear less insulated, and we shall ac-
knowledge, in this great family of the hu-
man race, one single organic type, modified
by circumstances which perhaps will ever
remain unknown.

Though the nations of the New Con-
tinent are connected by intimate ties,’ they
exhibit, in the mobility of their features, in
their complexions, tanned in a greater or
less degree, and in their stature, a differ-

-enee as remarkable as the Arabians, the

Persians, and Sclavonians, who are all of
the Caucasian race. ‘The hordes who
wander along the burning plains of the
equinoctial regions have, however, no

darker skins than the mountaineers of the

temperate zone ; whether it be that in the
human race, and in the greater part of
animals, there is a certain period of organic
life, beyond which the influence of climate

| and food have no effect, or that the devia-

tion from the primitive type becomes ap-
parent only after a long series of ages.
Besides, every thing concurs to prove, that

16

the Americans, as well as the people of the
Mongul race, have less flexibility of orga-

nization than the other nations of Asia and
Europe. |

The American race, though the least nu-
merous of any, occupies the largest space
on the Globe. It extends across both
hemispheres, from sixty-eight degrees of
northern, and fifty-five degrees of southern
latitude. It is the only race, which has

fixed its dwelling on the burning plains |
bounded by the ocean, :as well as on the.

ridges of the mountains, where it roams
over heights twelve hundred feet above
that of the Peak of Teneriffe.

The number of languages, which distin-
guish the different native. tribes, appears

still more considerable in the New Con--

tinent than in Africa, where, according. to
the late researches of Messrs. Seetzen and
Vater, there are above one hundred and
forty. In this respect the whole of Ame-

rica resembles Caucasus, Italy before the

conquest of the Romans, Asia Minor when

¢ ie
eet

3

Vi

that country contained, on a small extent

of territory, the Cicilians of Semitic race,
the Phrygians of Thracian origin, the
Lydians, and the Ceits. The configuration
of the soil, the strength of vegetation, the
apprehensions of the mountaineers under

the tropics of exposing themselves to the

burning heat of the plains, are obstacles to
communication, and contribute to the
amazing variety of American dialects. This
variety, it is observed, is more restrained
in the savannahs and forests of the north,
which are easily traversed by the hunter,
on the banks of great rivers along the coast
of the ocean, and in every country where
the Incas had established their theocracy
by the force of arms.

- When it is asserted, that several hundred
languages are found in a continent, the
whole population of which is not equal to

‘ that of France, we regard as different those
languages, which bear the same affinity to

each other, | will not say as the German and

the Dutch, or the Italian and the Spanish,
VOL. XIII. Cc

18

butasthe Danish and the German, the Chal-
déan and the Arabic, the Greek and the
Latin. In proportion as we penetrate into
the labyrinth of American idioms, we dis-
cover, that several are susceptible of being
classed by families, while a. still ereater
nuinber remain insulated, like the Biscayan

among European, and the Japanese among
Asiatic languages. ‘This separation may, ~

however, be only apparent; for we may
presume that the languages, which seem to
admit of no ethnographical classification,
have some affinity, either with other lan.
guages which have been for a long time
extinct, or with the idioms of nations which
have never yet been visited by travellers.
The greater part of the American lan-
guages, even such as have the same differ-
ence with each other as the languages of
Germannic origin, the Celtic and the Scla-

vonian, bear a certain analogy in the whole °

of their organization: for instance, in the

complication of grammatical forms, in the’

modification of the verb according to the

; ' ' yuh sh - Qj
rok bs (tae. - ” Part Hy t we j
PA ee EPPING oT Ree ee, pS ip? a OE a AT gi Ad Oo eae pedi ee ay oh ah vrei AES oe pancetta: |b: ——

19

nature of its syntax, and in the number of
additive particles (affixa et suffixa). This —
uniform tendency of the idioms betrays, if °
not a community of origin, at least a great
analogy in the intellectual dispositions of
the American tribes, from Greenland to the
Magellanic regions.

Investigations made with the most scru-_
pulous exactness, in following a method

which had not hitherto been used in the

study of etymologies, have proved, that
there are a few words that are common in
the vocabularies of the two continents. In.
eighty-three American languages, examined
by Messrs. Barton and Vater, one hundred
and seventy words have been found, the
roots of which appear to be the same; and
it is easy to perceive, that this analogy is
not accidental, since it does not rest merely
on imitative harmony, or on that conform-
ity in the organs, which+ produces almost a
perfect identity in the first sounds articu-
lated by children. Of these one hundred
and seventy words, which have this con-
c 2

20

nexion with each other, three fifths resem-
ble the Mantchou, the ‘Tongouse, the Mon-
' gul, and the Samoyede; and two fifths the

Celtic and T'schoud, the Biscayan, the Cop-

tic, and the Congo languages. ‘I'hese words
havé been found by comparing the wholé
of the American languages with the whole
of those of the Old World; for hitherto we
are acquainted with no American idiom,
which seems to have an exclusive corres-
pondencee with any of the Asiatic, African,
or European tongues. What some learned
writers have asserted from abstract theo-
ries, respecting the pretended poverty of
all the American languages, and the ex-
treme imperfection of their numerical sys-
tem, is as doubtful as the assertions which
have been: made respecting the weakness
and stupidity of the human race through-
out the New Continent, the stunted growth
of animated nature, and the degeneration
of those animals, which have been trans-
ported from one hemisphere to the other.

Several idioms, which now form the lan-

LAN at <r Non” — MN eam B RL foe ae ee an ekg ST ne a

21

guage of barbarous nations only, seem to
be the wrecks of languages, once rich,
flexible, and belonging toa more cultivat-
ed state. We shall not enter into the dis-
cussion, whether the primitive condition of
the human race was rude and _ brutalized,
or whether the savage hordes are descended
from nations, whose intellectual faculties,
and the languages which reflect those fa-
culties, were equally developed; we shall.
only observe, that the little which we know
of the history of the Americans tends to
prove, that the tribes, whose migrations
have been directed from the north to the
south, while yet dwelling near the polar
regions, used various idioms which we find
at present under the torrid zone. From
this we may by analogy conclude, that
the ramification, or rather, to use a term
independent of every system, the multipli-
city of languages isa very ancient pheno-
menon. Perhaps those, which we call Ame-
rican, belong no more to America than the

22
Magyar or Hungarian, the T'schoud or
Finlandish belongs to Europe.

We must admit, that the comparison be-
tween the idioms of the two continents has
hithérto led to no important conclusion ;
but we may cherish the hope, that this
study will become more productive, when a
great number of materials shall be found,
to exercise the sagacity of the learned.
How many languages exist in America,
and in central and eastern Asia, the me-—
chanism of whiclvis to us as much unknown
as that of the Tyrhenian, the Oscan, and
the Sabine! Among the nations who have
disappeared in the Old World, there are
perhaps several, of which a few scanty
tribes are preserved in the vast solitudes of.
America. |

If languages supply but feeble evidence
of ancient communication between the
two worlds, this communication is fully
proved by the cosmogonies, the monu-~
ments, the hieroglyphics, and institutions

23

of the people of America and Asia. I
flatter myself, that the following sheets will
justify this assertion, by the addition of
new evidence to that which has been long
since admitted. I have carefully endea-
youred to make a proper distinction be-
tween whatever indicates a community of
origin, with what is the result of the analo-
gous situation of nations, when they begin
to improve their social state.

It has hitherto been impossible toascertain
the period, when the communication between
the inhabitants of the two worlds took place ;
and how rash would be the attempt to
point out the group of nations of the Old
Continent, with which the Toltecks, the
Aztecks, the Muyscas, and the Peruvians
present the nearest analogies; since these
analogies are apparent in the traditions,
the monuments, and customs, which per-
haps preceded the present division of Asia-
tics into Chinese, Moguls, Hindoos, and
- ‘Tungooses. 3
At the period of the discovery of the

24.

New World, or rather when the first inva-
sion of the Spaniards took place, the Ame-_
ricans, who had made the greatest pro-
gress in civilization, were the inhabitants
of the mountains. Men, born in the plains
under temperate climates, had followed

_ the ridges of the Cordilleras, which rise

in proportion as they approach the Equa-
tor. In these elevated regions they found
the temperature and the plants, which
were congenial with those of their native
soul. !
The faculties unfold themselves with
more facility, wherever man, chained to a
barren soil, compelled to struggle with the
parsimony of nature, rises victorious from
the lengthened contest. The arid moun-
tains of Caucasus and central Asia are the
refuges of free and barbarous nations. In
the equinoxial parts of America, where
savannahs, clothed in perpetual verdure,
are suspended above the region of the
clouds, no civilized nations exist but those
embosomed in the Cordilleras. Their first ©

Qo.

progress in the arts was as ancient as the
singular form of their governments, which
were unfavourable to individual liberty.
The New Continent, like that of Africa
and Asia, presents several points of a pri-
mitive civilization, of which the mutual re-
lations are as unknown as those of Meroe,
Thibet, and China. The civilization of

Mexico emanated from a country situate

towards the north ; in South America, the
great edifices of Tiahuanaco have served as
models for the monuments which the Incas
erected at Couzco. Amidst the extensive
plains of upper Canada, in Florida, and in
the deserts bordered by the Orinoco, the
Cassiquiare, and the Guainia, dykes of a
considerable length, weapons of brass, and

-sculptured stones, are indications that those

very countries were formerly inhabited by

industrious: nations, which are now tra-

versed only by tribes of savage hunters.

The unequal distribution of animals over

the surface of the globe has had a consider-

able influence on the fate of nations, and

20

on their greater or less rapid progress to-
ward civilization. In the Old Continent,
the pastoral life formed the passage from
hunting to agricultural nations. ‘The ru-
minating animals, so easily reared under
every climate, have followed the African
negro, the Mogul, the Malay, and the
hordes that dwell on Caucasus. Though
several quadrupeds, and a greater number
of the vegetable tribe, are common to the
most northern regions of both worlds, Ame-
rica possesses, in the species of oxen, only
the bison and the musk ox; two ani-
mals difficult to tame, and the females of
which yield but little milk, notwithstanding
the richness of the pasture. ‘l‘he American
hunter was not led to agriculture by the
care of flocks, ahd the habits of a pastoral
life. The imhabitant of the Andes was
_ never tempted to milk the lama, the alpaca,
or the guanaco. Milk was formerly a
nourishment unknown to the Americans,
as well as to several nations of eastern
Asia.

27

Never has the savage, freely roving
through the forests of the temperate zone,
been known to throw willingly aside the
habits of the hunter, and embrace the still-
ness of agricultural life. This transition,
which is the most difficult, and the most
important in the history of human socie-
ties, can only be attained by the force of
circumstances. When, in their distant mi-
grations, hordes of hunters, expelled by
other warlike hordes, reached the plains of
the equinoctial zone, they were compelled
by impenetrable forests and a hixuriant
vegetation, to change their character and
habits. ‘There are countries between the
Orinoco, the Ucajale, and the river of
Amazons, where man finds no other space
free than the rivers and the lakes. Rivetted
to the soil on the banks of rivers, the most
savage tribes encircle their huts with ba-
nanas, jatropha, and other alimentary
plants. hen

No historical fact, no tradition connects
the nations of South America with those

28

that inhabit the north of the Isthmus of

Panama. ‘The annals of the Mexican em-
pire appear to go as far back as the sixth
century of our era, since at that period we
find the epochas of the migrations, the
causes which produced them, the names of
the chiefs descended from the illustrious
house of Citin, who led, from the unknown
regions of Aztlan and ‘Teocolhuacan, the
northern nations into the plains of Ana-

huac. The foundation of Tenochtillan,

like that of Rome, goes back to the heroic
ages ; and it is only from the twelfth century
that the annals of the Aztecks, like those of
the Chinese, and the people of Thibet, give
an uninterrupted account of secular fes-
tivals, the genealogy of their kings, the
tributes imposed on the conquered, the
foundation of cities, celestial phenomena,
the minutest events even which have in-
fluenced the state of societies in ‘their
infancy. :

Though no traditions point out any
direct connexion between the nations of

29

North and South America, their history is
not less fraught with analogies in the ‘poli-
tical and religious revolutions, from which
dates the civilization of the Aztecks, the |
Muyscas, and the Peruvians. Men with —
beards, and with clearer complexions than
the natives of Anahuac, Cundinamarca,
and the elevated plain of Couzco, make
their appearance without any indication of
the place of their birth; and, bearing the
title of high priests, of legislators, of the
friends of peace, and the arts, which flourish —
under its auspices, operate a sudden change
in the policy of the nations, who hail their
arrival with veneration. Quetzalcoatl,
Bochica, and Manco Capac, are the sacred
names of these mysterious beings. Quet-
zalcoatl, clothed in a black, sacerdotal
robe, comes from Panuco, from the shores
of the Gulf of Mexico; Bochica, the
Boudha of the Muyscas, presents himself
on the high plains of Bogota, where he ar-
rives from the savannahs, which stretch
along the east of the Cordilleras. The

30

history of these legislators, which I have
endeavoured to unfold in this work, is in-
termixed with miracles, religious fictions,
and with those characters which imply an
allegorical meaning. Some learned men |
have pretended to discover, that these
strangers were shipwrecked Europeans, or
the descendants of those Scandinavians,
who, in the eleventh century, visited Green-
land, Newfoundland, and perhaps Nova
Scotia ; but a slight reflection on the pe-
riod of the Tolteck migrations, on the
monastic institutions, the symbols of wor- —
ship, the calendar, and the form of the
monuments of Cholula, of Sogamozo, and
of Couzco, leads us to conclude, that it was
not in the north of Europe that Quetzal-—
coatl, Bochica, and Manco Capac framed
their code of laws. Jivery consideration
leads us rather towards Eastern Asia, to
those nations who have been in contact
with the inhabitants of Thibet, to the Sha-
manist ‘Tartars, and the bearded Ainos of
the isles of Jesso and Sachalin.

314°

When I have employed in the course
of these investigations the words, monu-
ments of the New World, progress in the
arts of drawing, intellectual culture, I
have had no intention of supposing a state
of things, which indicates what is called,
somewhat vaguely, a highly advanced ci-
vilization. Nothing is more difficult than
a comparison between nations, who have
followed different roads in their progress
towards social perfection. The Mexicans
and Peruvians must not be judged accord-
ing to the principles laid down in the history
of those nations, which are the unceasing
objects of our studies. They are as remote
from the Greeks and the Romans, as they
bear a near affinity to the Etruscans and
the people of Thibet. Among the Peru-
vians, a theocratic government, while it
favoured the growth of industry, the con-
struction of public works, and whatever
might be called general civilization, pre-
sented obstacles to the display of the facul-
ties of the individual. Among the Greeks,

32

on the contrary, before the time of Pericles,
this hberal and rapid progress of individual
talents outstripped the tardy steps of gene-
ral ‘civilization. ‘The empire of the Incas

may be compared to some great monastic |

establishment, in which each member of the
congregation was prescribed the duties he
had to perform for the general good. When
on the spot we study those Peruvians, who,
through the lapse of ages, have preserved
their national physiognomy, we learn to
estimate, at its true value, the code of laws
framed by Manco Capac, and the effects
produced on morals and public happiness.
We discern a general state of prosperity,
contrasted with a small portion of private
welfare ; more submissive resignation to the
‘decrees of the sovereign, than patriotic love
for the country ;. passive obedience, with-
out courage for bold enterprises ; a spirit of
order, which regulated with ininute preci-
sion the most indifferent actions, while no

general views enlarged the mind, and no’

elevation of thought ennobled the charac-

33

ter. The most complicated political insti-
tutions recorded in the history of mankind
had crushed the germe of personal liberty,
and the founder of the empire of Couzco,
in flattering himself with the. power of
forcing men to be happy, reduced them to
the state of mere machines. The Peruvian
theocracy was, no doubt, less oppressive
than the government of the Mexican kings;
yet ‘both contributed to give the monu-
ments, the rites, and the mythology of the
two nations, that dark and melancholy
aspect, which forms a striking contrast with
the elegant arts and soothing fictions of the
people of Greece.

Parts, April the 12th, 1813.

VOL. XIII. D

Ye

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Wa

me
Kae is

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Monuments of America,

PICTURESQUE VIEWS

OF THE

CORDILLERAS.

‘Tue monuments of nations, from which we are
separated by a long’ interval of ages, are calcu-
lated to fix our attention in two distinct points
of view. The works of art, belonging to a
people highly advanced in civilization, excite
our admiration by the harmony and beauty-of
their forms, and by the genius with which they
are conceived. The bust of Alexander, found in
the garden of the Pisoes, would be esteemed a
valuable relic of antiquity, although no inscrip-
tion indicated the features of the conqueror of
Arbela. An engraved stone, or a medal of the
bz |

36

polished ages of Greece, interests the lovers of
the arts by the severity of. the style, or by its
finished execution, although no legend or mono-
gram connects these objects with any particular
point of history. Such is the privilege of the
inarvels of genius, which were produced in the
climes of Asia Minor, and in part of the south of
Ivurope.

The monuments of those nations, on the con-
trary, which have attained no high degree of in-
tellectual cultivation, which either from religi-
ous or political causes, or the nature of their or-
ganization, have never been affected by the
beauty of forms, can be considered only as me-
morials of history. To this class belong the
remains of sculpture, scattered over the vast
countries which extend from the banks of the
Euphrates to the eastern shores of Asia. The.
idols of Thibet and Hindostan, those which have
been discovered on the central plains of Mon-
golia, are calculated to throw light on the
ancient communication of nations with each
other, and on the common Horn in of their on:
logical traditions. |

The rudest works, the most grotesque forms,
those masses of sculptured rocks, venerable only
from their enormous magnitude, and their re-
mote antiquity ; those lofty pyramids, which in-
_ dicate the multitudes employed in their construc-

37

tion ; are all connected with the philosophical!
study of history. By the same connection, the
feeble remains of the skill, or rather industry, of
the nations of the New Continent become worthy
. of ourattention. Influenced by this persuasion,
Thave, in the course of my travels, brought to-
gether whatever objects I have been able, by un-
wearied research, to discover in the countries,
where intolerance in those ages of barbarism left
scarcely any vestige of the manners and religious
rites of their ancient inhabitants; when edifices
and temples were demolished for the stones with
which they were erected, or the hidden treasures
they were supposed to contain.

The comparative view which I shall take of
the works of art belonging to Peru and Mexico,
and those of the ancient world, will give some
interest to my researches, as well as to the Pic-
turesque Atlas, which will contain the result of
my investigations. Biassed by no system, I _
shall point out those analogies that naturally pre-
sent themselves, distinguishing such as seem to
prove an indentity of race, from such as perhaps
depend only on internal causes, on the resem-
blance of all nations in the display of their intel-
lectual faculties. Ishall here confine myself toa
succinct description of the objects represented in
the engravings. ‘The consequences which seem
to result from the comparative view of these mo-

38

numents can be discussed only in the narrative of
my journey ; since, as the nations to whom these
edifices and sculptures are attributed still exist,
their character, and the knowledge of their man-
ners, will throw light on the history of their
migrations. .
Investigations of monuments erected by half-
civilized nations have another kind of interest,
which we may call psychological ; presenting to
us a picture of the uniform progress of the human
mind. The works of the first inhabitants of
_Mexico hold an intermediary place between
those of the Scythian tribes, and the ancient mo-
numents of Hindostan. What a striking spec-
tacle does human genius present, when we sur-
vey the immense disparity, that separates the
tombs of Tinian and the statues of Easter Island
from the monuments of the Mexican temple of
Mitla; and compare the shapeless idols of this
temple with the masterpieces of the chisel of
Praxiteles or Lysippus ! |
But we shall cease to wonder at the rude
style or incorrect expression of the monuments
of the nations of America, when we reflect, that,
cut off from the rest of mankind, wanderers in a
country where man must have long struggled
against Nature in her most savage and disordered
aspect, these tribes, with no resources but in.
their own energy, could only emerge with tardy

39

progress from their native barbarism. The east
of Asia, the west and the north of Europe, pre-
sent the same phenomena. In pointing them
out, I shall not pretend to investigate from what
hidden causes the germe of the fine arts grew
and spread only over a very small part of the
Globe. How many nations of the ancient
world lived in a climate equal with that of
Greece, and surrounded with every object that
elevates the imagination, without awakening to
that sensibility of the perfection of forms, the
peculiar privilege of the Greeks, to whose crea-
tive genius belong all that the arts possess of
beautiful and sublime!

These considerations are sufficient to explain
my intentions in the publication of these frag-
ments of American monuments. Their study
may become useful, like that of the most imper-
fect languages ; which are interesting, not only
by their analogy with those that are known, but
still more by the. strict connection, which exists
between their structure and the degree of intelli-
gence in man, when more or less remote from
civilization.

Presenting in the same work the rude monu-
ments of the indigenous tribes of America, and
the picturesque views of the mountainous coun-
tries which they inhabited, my intention is to

40

connect objects, the relation of which to each
other has not escaped the sagacity of those, who
apply themselves to the philosophical study of the
human mind. Although the manners of a peo-
ple, the display of their intellectual faculties,
the peculiar character stamped on their works,
depend ona great number of causes which are
not merely local, it is nevertheless true, that the
climate, the nature of the soil, the physiognomy
of the plants, the view of beautiful or of savage
nature, have great influence on the progress of
the arts, and on the style which distinguishes
their productions. This influence becomes the
more perceptible, the farther man is removed
from civilization. What a contrast between the
architecture of a tribe that has dwelt in vast and
gloomy caverns, and that of hordes whose bold
monuments recall in the shafts of their columns
the towering trunks of the palm trees of the
desert! An accurate knowledge of the origin
of the arts can be acquired only from studying
the nature of the site where they arose. The
only American tribes, among whom we find re-
markable monuments, are the inhabitants of
mountains, Insolated in the region of the clouds,
on the most elevated plains of the Globe, sur-
rounded by volcanoes, the craters of which are
encircled by eternal snows, they appear to have

Al
admired, in the solitude of their deserts, thoes
objects only which strike the imagination by the
greatness of their masses; and their productions
bear the stamp of the savage nature of the Cor-
dilleras. «

A part of this Atlas is appropriated to sketches
of the great scenes of this savage nature. I have —
been less studious to delineate those, which pro-
duce only a picturesque effect, than to give an
exact representation of the shapes of the moun-
tains, the vallies by which their sides are fur-
rowed, and the tremendous cascades formed by
the fall of their torrents. The Andes bear the
same proportion to the chain of the Alps, as
these to the chain of the Pyrenees. Whatever I
have beheld of picturesque or awful on the
borders of the Saverne, in the north of Ger-
many, on the Euganean mountains, the central
chain of Europe, or the rapid declivity of the
peak of Teneriffe, I have found all assembled
in the Cordilleras of the New World. It would
require ages to observe these beauties, and dis-
cover the wonders which nature has lavished
over an extent of two thousand five hundred
leagues, from the granitic mountains of the
Strait of Magellan to the coasts bordering on
the east of Asia. I shall think I have accom-

plished my purpose, if the feeble sketches con-

42

tained in this work should lead other travellers,
friends of the arts, to visit the regions which I
traversed, and to retrace accurately those stu-
pendous scenes, to which the Old Continent offers
no resemblance. ..

Vol_AML p 43.

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43

STATUE

AN AZTECK PRIESTESS.
PLATES f. & II.

I wave placed at the head of my Picturesque
Atlas a valuable relic of Mexican sculpture ;
a statue in basalt, preserved at Mexico in the ca-
binet of a distinguished lover of the arts, M.
Dupé, captain in the service of his catholic ma-
jesty. This well-informed officer, who in early
life improved his taste for the fine arts by a resi-
dence in Italy, has made several excursions
through New Spain, to investigate the Mexican
monuments. He has sketched with great accu-
racy the reliefs of the pyramid of Papantla, on
which he intended to publish a very curious
. work, ' |

The statue, of which both sides are here re-
presented in their natural size *, is chiefly re-

* See the French edition in folio, Plates I and Il

44

markable for a kind of headdress, somewhat re-
sembling the veil or calantica of the heads of
Isis, the Sphinxes, Antinouts, and a great num-
ber of other Egyptian statues. It must never-
theless be observed, that, in the Egyptian veil,
the two ends, which fall below the ears, are ge-
nerally very scanty and cross folded. © In several
statues of the God Apis, in the Museum of the
Capitol, the ends are convex in the front, and
_ plaited lengthways, while the back part, that
which touches the neck, is constantly flat, and
not rounded as in the Mexican headdress. That
the greatest analogy exists between this head-
dress and the plaited drapery, that encircles the
heads incrusted on the pillars of Tentyra, is
evident from the accurate drawings, which M.
Denon has given in his Travels in Egypt.
Perhaps the fluted pads, which in the Mexican
statue extend towards the shoulders, are masses
of hair, like the tresses in a statue of Isis, of
Greek workmanship, placed in the library of the
Villa Ludovisi at Rome. This singular arrange-
ment of the hair is particularly striking on the
reverse of the statue, engraved on the second
plate, which presents an enormous bag tied in the
middle by a knot. The celebrated Zoega, of |
whom the fine arts have lately been deprived
by death, assured me, that he had seen a bag of
exactly the same form on a small statue of Osiris
in bronze, in the Museum of Cardinal Borgia,

45

at Veletri. The forehead of the Mexican priest-
ess is ornamented with a string of pearls en the
edge of a narrow fillet. ‘These pearls, which
have never been observed on any Egyptian
statue, indicate the communications which ex-
isted between the city of Tenochtitlan, ancient
Mexico, and the coast of California, where
pearls are fished up in great numbers. The neck
Is covered witha three cornered handkerchief,
to which hang twenty-two little balls, or tassels,
placed with great symmetry. These tassels,
as well as the headdress, are found on a great
number of Mexican statues, or bas-reliefs, and
in hieroglyphical paintings, and remind us of.
the small apples and pomegranates on the robes
of the high priest of the Hebrews.
On the front of the statue, and half a deci-
metre * from its basis, the toes of the feet are
seen on each side, but there are no hands, which
indicates the infancy of the art. It seems, from
the back front, that the figure is seated, or ra-
_ ther squat; and it is singular, that the eyes in
this figure are without eye-balls, which are indi-
cated.in the bas-reliefs lately discovered at
Oaxaca. The basalt of this sculpture is very
hard, and of a fine black ; it is the true basalt,
with a few grains of peridot, and not Lydian

* For the correspondence of English with French mea-
sures, see the table at the end of the volume.

46

stone, or porphyry with basis of greenstone,
which antiquaries commonly call Egyptian ba-
salt, The folds ofthe headdress, and especially
the pearls, are highly finished ; though the
artist, destitute of a steel chisel, and with no
tools perhaps but those of copper mixed with
tin, such as I have brought from Peru, must
have encountered great difficulties in the exe-
cution.

This statue has been very accurately drawn,
under the inspection of M. Dupé, by a student
of the Academy of Painting at Mexico. It is
0:38 of a metre in height, and 0-19 in breadth.
I have adopted the denomination of the statue
of a priestess, the title which it bears in the
country. It may nevertheless represent some
Mexican divinity, and have been originally
classed among the household gods. The head-
dress and pearls found on an idol discovered in
the ruins of Tezcuco, and which I deposited in
the eabinet of the King of Prussia, at Berlin,
give authority to this conjecture. The. orna-
ment of the neck, and the natural form of the
head, render it more probable, that the statue
represents simply an Azteck woman. On this
last supposition, the fluted pads, which extend
toward the breast, cannot be tresses; since the
virgins, who devoted themselves to the service of
the temple, were shorn by the high priest, or
tepanteohuatzin.

GS BY ACS Si
ae iF "

47

_A slight resemblance between the calantica of
the heads of Isis, and the Mexican headdress ;
the pyramids with terrasses, like those of Fa-
youm, and of Sakharah; the frequent use of
hieroglyphical painting ; the five complementary
days added to the end of the Mexican year,

similar to the epagomena of the Memphian year ;

exhibit very remarkable points of comparison
between the people of the Old and the New
Continent. Weare nevertheless very far from
indulging in hypotheses, which would be as
vague and uncertain as those which make
the Chinese a colony from Egypt, and the Bis-
cayan language a dialect of the Hebrew.
These analogies for the most part disappear,
when the facts are examined separately. The
Mexican year, for instance, notwithstanding the
epagomena, differs entirely from that of the
Egyptians. An illustrious geometrician *, who
examined the fragments which I brought to Eu-
rope, found by the Mexican intercalation, that
the duration of the tropical year of the Aztecks
is almost identical with the duration found by
the astronomers of Almamon.

If we go back tothe early ages, history marks
several central points of civilization, of the mu-
tual relations of which we are ignorant; such

* La Place, Exposition du Systéme du Monde, 3° ed. p.
004. .

Bs 452: Kee 4

48

as Meroe, Egypt, the banks of the Euphrates,
Hindostan, and China. The elevated plains of
Central Asia have no doubt given birth to sys-
tems of knowledge still more remote, and per-
haps to the reflection of that light we may be
led to attribute the commencement of American
civilization. a

i ts are
»

49

VIEW

OF THE

GREAT SQUARE OF MEXICO.

PLATE IIT.

Tur city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of Ana-
huac, founded in the year 1325, ona small group
of islands, situate on the western part of the salt
lake of Tezcuco, was totally destroyed during

_ the siege carried on by the Spaniards in 1521,

which lasted seventy-five days. The new city,
which contains nearly 140,000 inhabitants, was
rebuilt by Cortez on the ruins of the old. The
streets were ranged in the same lines, but the
canals, which crossed the streets, were filled up
by degrees ; and Mexico, greatly embellished by
the Viceroy, count of Revillagigedo, may at
present vie with the finest towns of Europe.
The great square, represented in the third plate,
is the spot on which formerly stood the spacious
temple of Mexitli;. which, like all the fteocalii,
or houses of the Mexican divinities, was a pyra-

VOL. XIII. E

OU

midal edifice, resembling the Babylonian monu-
ment dedicated to Jupiter Belus. The palace
of the Viceroy of New Spain is on the right; a
building of simple architecture, belonging origi-
nally to the family of Cortez, which is that of the
Marquis del Valle de Oaxaca, Duke of Monte-
leone. In the middle of the engraving is the
cathedral, part of which (el sagrario) is in the
ancient Indian or Moorish style, vulgarly called
Gothic. Behind the cupola of the sagrario, at
the corner of the street Del Indio Triste and
that of Tacuba, stood formerly the palace of the
King of Axajacatl, where Montezuma lodged
the Spaniards on their arrival at ‘Tenochtitlan.
The palace of Montezuma was on the right of
the cathedral, opposite that of the present Vice-
roy. It appears to me useful to point out these
localities, since they may be interesting to those,

who study the history of the conquest of Mexico.

The Plaza Mayor, which must not be con-

founded with the great market of Tlatelolco, |

described by Cortez in his letters to the Emperor
Charles the Fifth, is ornamented, since 1803,
with the equestrian statue of Charles the Fourth,
executed at the expense of the Viceroy, the
Marquis of Branciforte. This statue of bronze
isin the purest style, and highly finished ; it was
drawn, modelled, cast, and erected by the same
artist, Don Manuel Tolsa, a native of Valentia in
Spain, and director ofthe class of sculpture in

31

the academy of the fine arts at Mexico. We
know not which most to admire, the talents of
this artist, or the courage and_ perseverance
which he displayed in a country where every
thing was to be created, and numberless ob-
stacles to be surmounted. This capital work
succeeded on the first cast. The statue weighs
nearly twenty-three thousand kilogrammes, and
it is two decimetres higher than the equestrian
statue of Lewis the fourteenth, which stood in
the place Vendome at Paris. The artist had
the good taste not to gild the horse, which is
simply coated with a brownish olive varnish.
As the buildings around the square are in ge-
neral not lofty, the sky forms the back ground to
the statue; a circumstance which, on the ridge
of the Cordilleras, where the atmosphere is of a
deep blue, produces a very picturesque effect. I
was at Mexico when this enormous mass was re-
_ moved from the foundery to the Plaza Mayor, a
distance of about sixteen hundred metres, which
it took five days to accomplish. The means em-
ployed by Mr. Tolsa to raise it on a pedestal of a
beautiful Mexican marble were very ingenious,
and would deserve a minute description.

The great square of Mexico is at present of
an irregular form, since that which contains the -
shops of the Parian has been built within it, con-
trary to the plan of Cortez. To correct the ap-
pearance of this irregularity, it has been thought

E 2

52

necessary, to place the equestrian statue, which
the Indians call the great horse, in a particular
enclosure, paved with large slabs of porphyry,
and raised more than fifteen decimetres above the
level of the adjacent streets. The oval, the great
axis of which isa hundred metres, is encircled by
four fountains, and closed, to the great discontent
of the natives, by four gates, the bars of which
are ornamented in bronze. The engraving is a
faithful copy of a drawing on a larger scale by
Mr. Ximeno, a distinguished artist, and director
of the class of painting in the academy of Mexico.
The figures in the drawing placed beyond the
enclosure, are in the dress of the Guachinangoes,
or lower class of the Mexican people *.

* See my Political Essay on the Kingdom of New-Spain,
French edition, pages 119, 168, 177, and 186.

v4

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Vol AMT p. 53.

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NATURAL BRIDGES

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ICONONZO.
PLATE Iv.

Amst the majestic and varied scenery of the
Cordilleras, the vallies most powerfully affect
the imagination of the European traveller. The
stupendous height of the mountains can be dis-
cerned only at a considerable distance, and from
the low lands which extend along the coasts to

the foot of the central chain. The elevated

plains, which encircle the summits of these moun-
tains covered with perpetual snow, are for the
most part from two thousand five hundred to
three thousand metres above the level of the
ocean. ‘This circumstance weakens in some
measure the effect produced by the colossal
masses of Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, and Antisana,
viewed from the lofty plains of Riobamba and
Quito : while, on the contrary, the vallies of the
Cordilleras, deeper and narrower than those of

54

the Alps and the Pyrenees, present scenes of the
wildest aspect, and fill the soul with astonish-
ment and terror. These vallies are crevices, the
sides and bottom of which are clothed with —
vigorous vegetation; and the depth in many
parts is so great, that were Vesuvius and the
Puy de Dome seated in these abysses, their
summits would not exceed the ridge of the
nearest mountains. M. Ramond’s interesting
travels have made us acquainted with the valley
of Ordesa, which descends from Mount Perdu,
and the mean depth of which is nearly nine
hundred metres (four hundred and fifty-nine
toises). In travelling on the ridge of the Andes,
from Pasto to the town of Ibarra, and descending
from Loxa to the banks of the river of Amazons,
M. Bonpland and myself traversed the well-
known crevices of Chota and Cutaco, which on
measuring I found to be, one fifteen hundred,
and the other thirteen hundred metres in perpen-
dicular depth. To give a more complete idea
of the grandeur of these geological phenomena,
it must be remarked, that the bottom of these
crevices is only a fourth part less elevated above
the level of the sea, than the passages of St.
Gothard and Mount Cenis. The valley of
Icononzo, or Pandi, part of which is represented
in the fourth plate, is less remarkable for its di-
mensions, than for the singular form of its rocks,
which seem to have been carved by the hand of

55

man. Their naked and barren summits present
the most picturesque contrast with the tufts of
trees and shrubs, which cover the brinks of the
crevice. The small torrent, which has made
itself a passage through the valley of Icononzo,
is called Rio de la Summa Paz, and falls from
the eastern chain of the Andes, which, in the
kingdom of New Grenada, divides the basin of
the river Magdalena from the vast plains of the
Meta, the Guaviare, and the Orinoco. This
torrent confined in a bed almost inaccessible,
could not have been crossed but with extreme
difficulty, if nature had not provided two bridges
of rocks, which are justly considered in the
country as among the objects most worthy the
attention of travellers. In the month of Sep-
tember, 1801, we passed these natural bridges of
Icononzo, on our journey from Santa Fé de
Bogota to Popayan and Quito.

The name of Icononzo is that of an ancient
_ village of the Muysco Indians, situate at the
southern extremity of the valley, of which
only a few scattered huts now remain. The
nearest inhabited place to this remarkable spot
is the small village of Pandi, or Mercadillo, at
the distance of a quarter of a league toward the
north-east. The road from Santa Fé to Fusa-
gasuga, (lat. 4° 20’ 21” north ; long. 5" 7’ 14”),
and thence to Pandi, is one of the most difficult
and least frequented to be found in the Cordil-

a ye

06

leras. The traveller must feel a passionate en-
thusiasm for the beauties of nature, who prefers
the dangerous descent of the desert of San For-
tunato, and the mountains of Fusagasuga, lead-
ing towards the natural bridges of Icononzo, to
the usual road from the elevated plain of Bogota,
by the Mesa de Juan Diaz to the banks of the
Magdalena.

The deep crevice through which rushes the
torrent of the Summa Paz, is in the centre of
the valley of Pandi. Near the bridge the waters
keep their direction from east to west, during a
length of four thousand metres. The river forms
two beautiful cascades at the point where it enters
the crevice on the west of Doa, and where it

‘escapes in its descent towards Melgar. This

crevice was probably formed by an earthquake,
and resembles an enormous vein, from which the
mineral substance has been extracted by the
labor of miners. The neighbouring mountains
are of gritstone, with a clay cement ; this forma-
tion, which reposes on the primitive schists
(thonschiefer) of Villeta, extends from the moun-
tain of rock salt of Zipaquira to the basin of the
river Magdalena. This mountain contains also
the strata of coal of Canoas, or Chipa, which
are worked near the great fall of Tequendama *.

In the valley of Icononzo, the gritstone (sand-

* See Plate VI, French folio edition.

57

stein) is composed of two distinct rocks ; one,
extremely compact and quartzose, with a small
portion of cement, and scarcely any fissures of
stratification, lies on a schistose gritstone (sand-
steinschiefer), with a fine grain, and divided
into an infinite number of small strata, ex-
tremely thin, and almost horizontal. It is pro-
bable, that the compact and quartzose stratum,
when the crevice was formed, resisted the shock

which rent these mountains; and that it is the

continuity of this stratum, which serves as a
bridge to cross from one side of this valley to the
other. This natural arch is fourteen metres and a
half in Jength, and twelve metres seven decime-
tres in breadth : its thickness in the centre is two
metres four decimetres. Experiments caréfully
made on the fall of bodies, and witha chro-
nometer by Berthoud, gave us ninety-seven
metres seven decimetres for the height of the
upper bridge above the level of the waters of the
torrent. A well informed person, who has an
agreeable country residence in the beautiful
valley of Fusagasaga, Don Jorge Lozano, had
already measured this height with a line, and
found it to be one hundred and twelve varas
(93°4") ; the mean depth of the torrent appears
to be about rix metres. The Indians of Pandi

have formed, for the safety of travellers, who,

however, seldom visit this desert country, a

o$

Small balustrade of reeds, which extends along
the road leading to the upper bridge.

Sixty feet below this natural bridge is another,
to which we are led by a narrow pathway, which
deseends upon the brink of the crevice. Three
enormous masses of rock are fallen so as to
support each other, That in the middle forms
the key of the arch; an accident which might
have given the natives the idea of arches in
masonry, unknown to the people of the new
world, as well as to the ancient inhabitants of
Egypt. I shall not decide the question whether
these masses of rock have been projected from a
great distance, or whether they are the frag-
ments of an arch broken on the spot, but origi-
nally like the upper natural bridge. The latter
conjecture seems probable, from a similar event
which happened to the Coliseum at Rome,
where, in a half ruined wall, several stones were
stopped in their descent, because in falling
they accidentally formed an arch.

In the middle of the second bridge of Ico-
nonzo is a hollow of more than eight metres
square, through which the bottom of the abyss is
perceived. We there made our experiments on
the fall of bodies. The torrent seems to flow
through a dark cavern, whence arises a lugubri-
ous noise, caused by the numberless flights of
nocturnal birds that haunt the crevice, and

59

which we were led at first to mistake for those
bats of gigantic size so well known in the equi-
noctial regions. Thousands of them are seen
flying over the surface of the water. The In-
dians assured us, that these birds are of the size
of afowl, with‘a curved beak and an owls eye.
They are called cacas; and the uniform colour
of their plumage, which is a brownish gray, leads
me to think, that they belong to the genus of the
caprimulgus, the species of which are so various
in the Cordilleras. It is impossible to catch
them, on account of the depth of the valley; and
they can be examined only by throwing down
rockets to illumine the sides of the crevice.

The height of the natural bridge of Icononzo
above the ocean is eight hundred and _ ninety-
three metres. A phenomenon, similar to the
upper bridge, of which we have just given the
description, exists in the mountains of Virginia,
in the county of Rockbridge. This Mr. Jeffer-
son has examined with an attention, that distin-
guishes all the observations of that excellent
naturalist *. The natural bridge of Cedar
Creek in Virginia 1s a calcareous arch of twenty-
seven metres at its opening; its height above
the waters of the river is seventy metres.

The earthen bridge (Rumichaca), which we
found on the declivity of the porphyritic moun-

* Notes on Virginia, p. 56.

60

tains of Chumban, in the province of Los Pastos;
the bridge of Madre de Dios, called Danto, near
Totonilco, in Mexico; the pierced rock near
Grandola, in the province of Alentejo, in Por-
tugal; are geological phenomena, which bear
some resemblance to the bridge of Icononzo:
but I doubt whether in any part of the Globe a
phenomenon has been discovered so extraordi-
nary as that of the three masses of rocks, which
support each other by forming a natural arch.

I sketched the natural bridges of Icononzo
from the northern part of the valley, with a side
view of the arch. The first proofs of this plate
indicate erroneously Mr. Gmelin of Rome as the
engraver, instead of M. Bouquet of Paris.

7 ont “a *?
NS tally SM crete t

61

PASSAGE OF QUINDIU,

IN THE

CORDILLERA OF THE ANDES.

PLATE V.

Ty the kingdom of New Grenada, from 2° 30
to 5° 15’ of northern latitude, the Cordillera of
the Andes is divided into three parallel chains,
of which the two lateral only are covered at very
considerable heights with gritstone, and other
secondary formations. The eastern chain di-
vides the valley of the river Magdalena from the
plains of Rio Meta. The natural bridges of
Icononzo, of which we have just given the de-
scription, are situate on its western declivity.
Its highest summits are the Paramo de laSumma
Paz, and that of Chingasa. Neither of these
attains the region of perpetual snows. The
central chain divides the waters between the
basin of the river Magdalena and that of Rio
Cauca. It often attains the limits of the per-
petual snows, and greatly surpasses it in the

62

colossal summits of Guanacas, Baragan, and
Quindiu. At the rising and setting of the Sun,
this central chain offers a magnificent spectacle
to the inhabitants of Santa Fé ; and reminds us,
though on a much more stupendous scale, of the
view of the Alps in Switzerland.

The western chain of the Andes separates the
valley of Cauca from the province of Choco, and
the coasts of the South Sea. Its elevation is
scarcely fifteen hundred metres; it sinks so low
between the sources of the Rio Atracto, and
those of Rio San-Juan, that we can scarcely
follow its course into the isthmus of Panama. °

These three chains of mountains are blended
together in the sixth and seventh degrees of
north latitude. They form a single group to the
south of Popayan, in the province of Pasto. We
must not, however, confound them with the
division of the Cordilleras observed by Bouguer
and La Condamine in the kingdom of Quito,
from the equator to the second degree of south
latitude.

The city of Santa Fé de Bogota is situate on
the west of the Paramo of Chingasa, in an ele-
_ vated plain, which is two thousand six hundred

-and fifty metres above the level of the sea, and
which extends to the ridge of the eastern Cordil-
leras. This particular structure of the Andes
obliges the traveller from Santa Fé to Popayan
and the banks of the Cauca, to descend the —

63

eastern chain, either by the Mesa and Tocayma,
or the natural bridges of Icononzo, traverse the
valley of the river Magdalena, and cross the
central chain. The most frequented passage is
that of the Paramo de Guanacas, described by
Bouguer, on his return from Quito to Cartha-
gena. Pursuing this road the traveller crosses
the ridge of the central Cordilleras in a single

day, and amidst an inhabited country. We
_ preferred the passage of the mountain of Quindiu,

or Quindio, between the cities of Ibague and
Jarthago, the entrance of which passage is re-
presented in the fifth plate*. These geogra-
phical explanations seemed necessary to give a
clear idea of the position of a place, which is
not to be found in the most accurate charts of
South America, even in that of La Cruz.

The mountain of Quindiu, (lat. 4° 36’, long.
512’) is considered as the most difficult pas-
sage in the Cordilleras of the Andes. It isa

thick uninhabited forest, which in the finest
season cannot be traversed in less than ten or

twelve days. Not even a hut is to be seen, nor
can any means of subsistence be found. Tra-

vellers at all times of the year furnish themselves

with a month's provision, since it often happens,
that by the melting of the snows, and the sudden

* See Plate V, folio edition.

64

swell of the torrents, they find themselves so cir-
cumstanced, that they can descend neither on
the side of Carthago, nor that of Ibague. The
highest point of the road, the Garito del Paramo,
is three thousand five hundred and five metres
above the level of the sea. As the foot of the
mountain, towards the banks of the Cauca, is
only nine hundred and sixty metres, the climate
there is in general mild and temperate. The
pathway, which forms the passage of the Cor-
dilleras, is only three or four decimetres in
breadth, and has the appearance in several places
of a gallery dug, and left open to the sky. In
this part of the Andes, as almost in every other,
the rock is covered with a thick stratum of clay.
The streamlets, which flow down the mountains,
have hollowed out gullies six or seven metres
deep. Along these crevices, which are full of
mud, the traveller is forced to grope his passage;
the darkness of which is increased by the thick
vegetation, that covers the opening above. The
~ oxen, which are the beasts of burden commonly
made use of in this country, can scarcely force
their way through these galleries, some of which
are two thousand metres in length; and if per-
chance the traveller meets them in one of these
passages he finds no means of avoiding them,
but by turning back, and climbing the earthen
wall, which borders the crevice, and keeping

65

himself suspended, by laying hold of the roots,
which penetrate to this depth from the surface of
the ground. |

We traversed the mountain of Quindiu in the
month of October, 1801, on foot, followed by
twelve oxen, which carried our collections and
instruments, amidst'a deluge of rain, to which
we were exposed during the last three or four
days, in our descent on the western side of the
Cordilleras. The road passes through a coun-
try full of bogs, and covered with bamboos.
Our shoes were so torn by the prickles, which
shoot out from the roots of these gigantic gra-
mina, that we were forced like all other travel-
lers, who dislike being carried on men’s backs
to go barefooted. This circumstance, the con-
tinual humidity, the length of the passage, the
muscular force required to tread in a thick and
muddy clay, the necessity of fording deep tor-
rents of icy water, render this journey extremely
fatiguing : but, however painful, it is accom-
panied by none of those dangers, with which the
credulity of the people alarm travellers. The
road is narrow, but the places where it skirts
~ precipices are very rare. As the oxen are ac-
customed to put their feet in the same tracks,
they form small furrows across the road, sepa-
rated from each other by narrow ridges of earth.
_ In very rainy seasons, these. ridges are covered _
by water, which renders the traveller’s step

VOL. XII. F

*

Bhi Ae SA | ree ra ea
{ PU Pak’ Mla aE
ae |
Hee |
tf

66

doubly uncertain, since he knows not whethor

he places his foot on the ridge, or in the furrow.
As few persons in easy circumstances travel on
foot, in these climates, through roads so difficult,
during fifteen or twenty days together, they are
carried by men in a chair, tied on their back ; for
in the present state of the passage of Quindiu, it
would be impossible to go on mules. They talk
in this country of going on a man’s back (andar
en carguero), as we mention going on horse-
back, no humiliating idea is annexed to the
trade of cargueroes ; and the men who follow
this occupation are not Indians, but mulattoes,
and sometimes even whites. It is often curious
to hear these men, with scarcely any covering,
and following a profession which we should con-
sider so disgraceful, quarrelling in the midst ofa
forest, because one has refused the other, who
pretends to have a whiter skin, the pompous title

of don, or of su merced. The usual load of ©

a carguero is six or seven arropas (from seventy-
five to eighty-eight kilogrammes *) : those who
are very strong, carry as much us nine arrobas.
When we reflect on the enormous fatigue, to
which these miserable men are exposed, jour-
neying eight or nine hours a day over a moun-
tainous country ; when we know, that their

/

_* For the correspondent English and French weights, see

he table at the end of the volume.

/

07

backs are sometimes as raw_as those of beasts of

burden, and that travellers have often the cruelty
to leave them in the forests, when they fall sick ;
that they earn by a journey from Ibague to
Carthago only twelve or fourteen piastres (sixty
or seventy francs) in a space of fifteen, and
sometimes even twenty-five or thirty days; we
are at a loss to conceive, how this employment
of a carguero, dne of the most painful which can
be undertaken by man, is eagerly embraced by
all the robust young men, who live at the foot of
the mountains. The taste for a wandering and
vagabond life, the idea of a certain independ-
ence amidst forests, leads them to prefer this em-

ployment to the sedentary and monotonous la- -

bour of cities.
The passage of the mountain of Quindiu is

not the only part of South America, which is

traversed on the backs of men. The whole of
the province of Antioquia is surrounded by
mountains so difficult to pass, that they who
dislike entrusting themselves to the skill of a
carrier, and who are not strong enough to travel
on foot from Santa Fé de Antioquia to Bocca de
Nares, or Rio Samana, must relinquish all
thoughts of leaving the country. I was ac-
quainted with an inhabitant of this province, so
immensely bulky, that he had not met with

-more than two mulattoes capable of carrying

him ; and it would have been impossible for him
F2 |

68

to return home, if these two carriers had died,
while he was on the banks of the Magdalena, at
Mompox or Honda. The number of young
men, who undertake the employment of beasts
of burden at Choco, Ibague, and Medellin, is
so considerable, that we sometimes met a file of
fifty or sixty. A few years ago, when a project
was formed to make the passage from Nares to
Antioquia passable for mules, the cargueroes pre-
sented formal remonstrances against mending
the road, and the government was weak enough
to yield to their clamours. We may here ob-
serve, that a class of men near the mines of
Mexico have no other employment, than that of —
carrying other men on their backs. In these -
climates the indolence of the whites is so great,
that every director of a mine has one or two
Indians at his service, who are called his horses
(cavallitoes), because they are saddled every
morning, and, supported by a small cane, and
bending forwards, they carry their master from
one part of the mine to another. Among the
cavallitoes, or cargueroes, those who have a sure
foot and easy step are known and recommended
to travellers. It is distressing to hear the quali-
ties of man spoken of interms, by which we are
accustomedto denote the gait of mules and
horses. ‘The persons who are carried in a chair
by a carguero must remain several hours mo-
tionless, and leaning backwards ; the least. mo-

69

tion is sufficient to throw down the carrier, and
his fall would be so much the more dangerous,
as the carguero, too confident in his skill,
chooses the most rapid declivities, or crossés.a
torrent on a narrow and slippery trunk of a tree.
These accidents are however rare, and those
which happen must be attributed to.the impru-
dence of travellers, who, frightened at a false

‘step of the carguero, leap down from their
chairs.

The fifth: plate represents a very picturesque
view, seen at the entrance of the mountain of
Quindiu, near Ibague, at a post called the foot
of the Cuesta. The truncated cone of Tolima,
covered with perpetual snow, and reminding us
by its form of Cotopaxi and Cayambe, appears
above the mass of granitic rocks. The small
river of Combeima, which mingles its waters
with those of Rio Cuello, winds in a narrow
valley, and forces its way across a thicket of

palm trees. A part-of the town of Ibague, the

great valley of the river Magdalena, and the
eastern chain of the Andes, are seen in the
back ground. In the fore ground is a band of
cargueroes coming up the mountain, representing
the mode of fastening on the shoulders the chair
made of bamboo wood, which is steadied by a
headstall similar to that worn by horses and
oxen. The roll in the hand of the third car
guero is the roof, or rather movable house,

te Se ,
Met i PaaS 4
"Rts ae Hi ty: Na Caer

70

which is to shelter the travellers who erdss the
forests of Quindiu. When they search Ibague,
and prepare for the journey, they pluck in the
neighbouring mountains several hundred leaves
of the vijao, a plant of the family of the bananas,
which forms a genus approaching the thalia,
and which must not be confounded with the
heliconia bihai. These leaves, which are

membranous and silky, like those of the musa,

are of an oval form, fifty-four centimetres

_ (twenty inches) long, and thirty-seven centi-
metres (fourteen inches) in breadth. Their lower

surface is a silvery white, and covered with a
farinaceous substance, which falls off in scales.
This peculiar varnish enables them to resist the
rain during a long time. In gathering these
leaves, an incision is made in the middle rib,
which is the continuation of the foot-stalk ; and
this serves as a hook to suspend them, when the
movable reof is formed. On taking it down,

they are spread out and carefully rolled up in a

cylindrical bundle. It requires about a hundred
weight of leaves (50 kilogrammes) to cover a
hut large enough to hold six or eight persons.
When the travellers reach a spot in the midst of
the forests, where the ground is dry, and where
they propose to pass the night, the cargueroes lop
a few branches from the trees, with which they
make a tent. In a few minutes this slight tim-
ber work is divided into squares by the stalks of

71

some climbing plant, or threads of the agave,
placed in parallel lines three or four decimetres

from each other. The vijao leaves meanwhile

have been unrolled, and are now spread over the
above work, so as to cover each other like the
tiles of a house. These huts thus hastily built,
are cool and commodious. If during the night
the traveller feels the rain, he points out the

spot where it enters, and a single leaf is sufficient

to obviate the inconvenience. We passed
several days in the valley of Boquia under one
of these leafy tents, which was per fectly dry
amidst violent and incessant rains.

The mountain of Quindiu is one of the richest

spots in useful and interesting plants. Here we

grandiflora, with flowers of a scarlet colour six-

found the palm-tree (ceroxylon andicola), the
trunk of which is covered with vegetable wax ;
the passiflora in trees ; and the majestic mutisia

teen centimetres (six inches long).

f

Ae

FALL OF THE TEQUENDAMA.

——

PLATE VI.

Tue elevated plain, on which stands the city of
Santa Fé de Bogota, resembles in a variety of
circumstances that which is surrounded by the
Mexican lakes. Each of these plains is higher
than the summit of St. Bernard, the first being
two thousand six hundred and sixty, and the
second two thousand two hundred and seventy-
seven metres above the level of the ocean. The

valley of Mexico is bounded by a circular wall®

of mountains of porphyry, and its centre is co-
vered with water: for the numerous torrents,
which rush into the valley, found no outlet,
until the Europeans had dug the canal of Hue-
_huetoca. The plain of Bogota is also encircled
by lofty mountains ; and the perfect level of the
soil, its geologial structure, the form of the
rocks of Suba and Facatativa, which rise like
small islands in the midst of the savannahs, seem
all to indicate the existence of an ancient lake.
The river of Funzha, usually called Rio de

73 r

Bogota, into which flow the waters of the valley,

forced its way through the mountains to the
south-west of Santa Fé. Near the farm of
Tequendama, this river rushes from the plain by
a narrow outlet into a crevice, which descends
towards the basin of the river Magdalena.
Were an attempt made to close this passage,
which is the sole opening out of the valley of

Bogota, these fertile plains would gradually be

converted into a sheet of water like the Mexican
lake.

It is easy to perceive the influence of these
geological facts on the traditions of the ancient
inhabitants of these countries. We shall not
decide, whether merely from the aspect of the
country a people not far removed from civiliza-
tion were led to form hypotheses on the first re-
volutions of the Globe; or whether the great
inundations of the valley of Bogota were suffi-
ciently recent, to have left traces on the memory:
of men. Historical traditions are every where
blended with religious opinions ; and it may not
be uninteresting in this place to mention those,
which the conqueror of this country, Gonzalo

_ Ximenes de Quesada, found disseminated among

ay

the Muyscas, Panchas, and Natagaymas, when

he first penetrated into the mountains of Cundi-
namarca *.

* See Lueas Fernandez Picdrahita, Obispo de Panama,
»

* NYA
In the remotest times, before the Moon accom-
panied the Earth, according to the mythology of |
the Muysca or Mozca Indians, the inhabitants of
the plain of Bogota lived like barbarians, naked,
without agriculture, without any form of laws or
worship. Suddenly appeared among them an
old man, who came from the plains situate on
the east of the Cordillera of Chingasa ; and who
appeared to be of a race unlike that of the natives,
having along and bushy beard. He was known
by three distinct appellations, Bochica, Nem-
quetheba, and Zuhe. This old man, like
Manco-Capac, instructed men how to clothe

themselves, build huts, till the ground, and form

themselves into communities. He brought with
him a woman, to whom also tradition gives three
names, Chia, Yubecayguaya, and Huythaca.
This woman, extremely beautiful, and no less
malignant, thwarted every enterprise of her
husband for the happiness of mankind. By her
skill in magic, she swelled the river of Funzha,
and inundated the valley of Bogota. The
greater part of the inhabitants perished in this
deluge; a few only found refuge on the summits
of the neighbouring mountains. ‘The old man,
in anger, drove the beautiful Huythaca far from
the Earth, and she became the Moon, which

Historia general del nuevo Reyno de Grenada, page 17; a |

work composed from the Mss. of Quesada.
*

75

began from that epocha to enlighten our planet
during the night. Bochica, moved with com-
passion for those who were dispersed over the
mountains, broke with his powerful arm the
rocks that enclosed the valley, on the side of
Canoas and Tequendama. By this outlet he
drained the waters of the lake of Bogota; he built
towns, introduced the worship of the Sun, named
two chiefs, between whom he divided the civil
and ecclesiastical authority, and then withdrew
himself, under the name of Idacanzas, into the
holy valley of Iraca, near Tunja, where he lived
in the exercise of the most austere penitence for
the space of two thousand years.

This Indian fable, which attributes the cata-

_ract of Tequendama to the founder of the empire

of Zaque, contains a number of peculiarities,

which we find scattered in the religious tradi- |

tions of several nations of the old continent.
The good and evil principle here seeny to be
personified in the old man Bochica and his wife
Huythaca. The remote period when the Moon
did not exist, reminds us of the boast of the
Arcadians on the antiquity of their origin. The
planet of the night is represented as a malignant
being, augmenting the humidity of the Earth ;
while Bochica, child of the Sun, dries the soil,
promotes agriculture, and becomes the benefac-
tor of the Muyscas, as the first Inca was that of
the Peruvians.

oe Vas haan

76

_ The traveller, who views the tremendous sce-
nery of the cataract of Tequendama, will not be
surprised, that rude tribes should have attributed
a miraculous origin to rocks, which seem to have

been cut by the hand of man;.to that narrow.

gulf, into which falls headlong the mass of
waters that issue from the valley of Bogota; to

those rainbows reflecting the most vivid colours, .

and of which the forms vary every instant; to
that column of vapour, rising like a thick cloud,
and seen at five leagues distance from the walks
around Santa Fé. The sixth plate can give
but a very feeble idea of this majestic spectacle.
If it be difficult to describe the beauties of cata-
racts, it is still more difficult to make them felt

by the aid of the pencil. The impression they

leave on the mind of the observer depends on the
concurrence of a variety of circumstances. ‘The
volume of water must be proportioned to the
height of the fall, and the scenery around must
wear a wild and romantic aspect. The Pisse-

vache and the Staubbach, in Switzerland, are

lofty, but their masses of water are not very
considerable. The Niagara and the fall of the
Rhine, on the contrary, furnish an enormous
volume of water, but their height is not above
fifty metres. A cataract surrounded by hills

only produces far less effect, than the falls of ©

water which rush into the profound and narrow
vallies of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and, above all,

+e

" tae it Ie |, eae NY MEE eee

™

“7

the Cordilleras of the Andes. Indeperident of
the height and mass of the column of water, the
figure of the landscape, and the aspect of the
rocks ; it is the luxuriant form of the trees and
herbaceous plants, their distribution into groups,
or into scattered thickets, the contrast of those
craggy precipices and the freshness of vegeta-
tion, which stamp a peculiar character on these
great scenes of nature. The fall of Niagara,
placed beneath a northern sky, in the region of
pines and oaks, would be still more beautiful,
wére its drapery composed of heliconias, palms,
andarborescent ferns. ‘The cataract of Tequen-
dama forms an assemblage of every thing that is
sublimely picturesque in beautiful scenery.
This fali is not however, as it is commonly be-
lieved to be in the country, and repeated by
naturalists in Europe, the loftiest cataract on the
Globe: the river does not rush, as Bouguer
relates, into a gulf of five or six hundred metres
of perpendicular depth ; but there scarcely exists
a cataract, which from so lofty a height preci-
pitates so voluminous a mass of waters. The
Rio de Bogota, after replenishing the marshes
between the village of Facatativa and Fontibon,
is still forty-four metres broad at Canoas, a little
above the fall; which is half the breadth of the
Seine at Paris, between the Louvre and the
Palace of the Arts. The river narrows consi-
derably near its fall, where the crevice, which

appears to have been formed by an earthquake,
is only ten or twelve metres wide. In very dry

seasons, the volume of water, which, at a double

bound, falls to a depth ofa hundred and seventy-
five metres, still presents a side view of ninety
square metres. The two figures. of men, repre-
sented in the drawing, serve asa scale of, the
total height of the fall. The point where these
men are placed, on the upper bank, is two thou-
sand four hundred and sixty-seven metres above
the level of the ocean. From this point to the
river Magdalena, the small river of Bogota,
called at the foot of the cataract Rio de la
Mesa, Rio de Tocayma, or Rio del Collggio,
has still a fall of two thousand one hundred
metres, which is more than one hundred and
forty metres in every common French league.
The road, which leads from the town of Santa
Fé to the fall of Tequendama, passes by the
village of Suacha, and the great farm of Canoas,
well known for its fine crops of wheat. The
enormous mass of vapours, which continually
rises from the cataract, and which. is precipi-
tated by its contact with the cold air, contributes
much, it is believed, to the great fertility of this
part of the plain of Bogota. At asmall distance
from Canoas, on the height of Chipa, a magni-
ficent prospect astonishes the traveller by the
variety of its contrasts. Leaving the cultivated

’ plain rich in corn, he finds himself surrounded,

79

not only with the aralia, the alstonia thezeformis,
the begonia, and the yellow bark-tree (cinchona
cordifolia), but with oaks, with elms, and other
plants, the growth of which recalls to his mind
the vegetation of Europe; when suddenly he
discovers as from a terrace, and at. his feet, a
country producing the palm, the banana, and
the sugar cane. The crevice into which the Rio
de Bogota throws itself communicating-with the
plains of the warm region (tierra caliente), a
few palm trees have sprung up at the foot of the
cataract. This particular circumstance leads
the inhabitants of Santa Fé to observe, that the
cataract of the Tequendama is so high, that the
water falls in one bound, from a cold (tierra fria)
into a warm country. We are sensible, that
a difference of one hundred and_ seventy-five
metres of height is too inconsiderable, to have
much influence on the temperature of the air ;
and it is not on account of the height of the soil,
that the vegetation of the plain of Canoas con-
trasts with that of the ravine. If the rock of
Tequendama, which is a gritstone with a clayey
basis, were not quite perpendicular ; and if the
elevated plain of Canoas were sheltered like the
crevice, the palm trees, which flourish at the
foot of the cataract, would have pushed their
migrations to the upper level of the river. The
appearance of this vegetation is so much the
more interesting to the inhabitants of the valley

80

of Bogota, as they live in a climate where the
thermometer descends very often to the freezing
point. - ; |

I succeeded, but not without danger, in carry~
Ing instruments Into the crevice itself, at the
foot of the cataract. It takes three hours to
reach the bottom by a narrow path (camino de
la Calebra), which leads to the ravine of La
Povasa. * Although the river loses in falling a
great part of its water, which is reduced into
vapours, the rapidity of the lower current forces
the observer to keep at the distance of nearly
one hundred and forty metres from the basin
dug out by the fall. <A few feeble rays of
noon fall on the bottom of the crevice. The
solitude of the place, the richness of the vege-
tation, and the dreadful roar that strikes upon
the ear, contribute to render the foot of the
cataract of Tequendama one of the wildest
scenes, that can be found in the Cordilleras.

" OA Cet eg 7 : fi ) piri“ ee a pf? aa Y = :

‘Te LINX IA

8i

PYRAMID OF CHOLULA.
PLATE VII.

Amone those swarms of nations, which, from
the seventh to the twelfth century of the Chris-
tian era, successively inhabited the country of: -
Mexico, five are enumerated, the Toltecks, the
Cicimecks, the Acolhuans, the Tlascaltecks, and
the Aztecks, who, notwithstanding their political
divisions, spoke the same language, followed the
same worship, and built pyramidical edifices,
which they regarded as feocallis, that is to say,
the houses of their gods. These edifices were
all of the same form, though of very different
dimensions; they were pyramids, with several
terraces, and the sides of which stood exactly in
the direction of the meridian, and the parallel of
the place. The teocalli was raised in the midst
ofa square, and walled enclosure, which, some-
what like the zepipor0s of the Greeks, contained
gardens, fountains, the dwellings of the priests,

and sometimes arsenals ; since each house of a_
Mexican divinity, like the ancient temple of

VOL, XIII. | G

3°) x

Aad

Baal Berith, burnt by Abiinelech, was a strong
place. A great staircase led to the top of the

truncated pyramid, and on the summit of the

platform were one or two chapels, built like
towers, which contained the colossal idols of the
divinity, to whom the teocalli was dedicated.
This part of the edifice must be considered as
the most consecrated place: like the yzoc, or
rather the ceyog, of the Grecian temples. It was
there also, that the priests kept up the sacred
fire. From the peculiar construction of the
edifice we have just described, the priest who
_offered the sacrifice was seen by a great mass of
the people at the same time : the procession of
the teopixqui, ascending or descending the stair-
case of the pyramid, was beheld at a consider-
able distance. The inside of the edifice was
the burial place of the kings and principal per-
-sonages of Mexico. It is impossible to read the
descriptions, which Herodotus and Diodorus
Siculus have left us of the temple of Jupiter
Belus, without being struck with the resem-
blance of that Babylonian monument to the
teocallis of Anahuac. 7 |

At the period when the Mexicans, or Aztecks,
one of the seven tribes of the Anahuatlacks,

(inhabitants of the banks of rivers), took posses-.

sion, in the year 1190, of, the equinoctial region
of New Spain, they already found the pyra-

midal monuments of Teotihuacan, of Cholula, or

83

Cholollan, and of Papantla. They attributed
these great edifices to the Toltecks, a powerful
and civilized nation, who inhabited Mexico five
hundred years earlier, who made use of hiero-
glyphical characters, who computed the year
more precisely, and had a more exact chrono-
logy than the greater part of the people of the
old continent. The Aztecks knew not with
certainty what tribe had inhabited the country of -
Anahuac before the Toltecks; and conse-
quently the belief, that the houses of the deity
of Teotihuacan and of Cholollan was the work
of the Toltecks, assigned them the highest anti- »
quity they could conceive. It is however pos-
sible, that they might have been constructed
before the invasion of the Toltecks; that is,
before the year 648 of the vulgar era. We
ought not to be astonished, that no history of
any American nation should precede the seventh
century ; and that the annals of the Toltecks
should be as uncertain as those of the Pelasgi
and the Ausonians. The learned Mr. Schloezer
has clearly proved, that the history of the North
of Europe reaches no higher than the tenth
century, an epocha when Mexico was in a more
advanced state of civilization than Denmark,
Sweden, and Russia. ad
The teocalli of Mexico was dedicated to Tez-
catlipoca, the first of the Azteck divinities after
Teotl, who is the supreme and invisible Being ;
a 2

84

and to Huitzilopochthi, the god of war. It was
built by the Aztecks, on the model of the pyra-
mids of Teotihuacan, six years only before the
discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
This truncated pyramid, called by Cortez the
principal temple, was ninety-seven metres in
breadth at its basis, and nearly fifty-four metres
in height. It is not astonishing, that a building
of these dimensions should have been destroyed
a few years after the siege of Mexico. In
Egypt there scarcely remains any vestiges of
the enormous pyramids, which towered amidst
the waters of the lake Mceris, and which Hero-
dotus says were ornamented with colossal statues.
The pyramids of Porsenna, of which the de-

scription seems somewhat fabulous, and four of —

which, according to Varro, were more than
eighty metres in height, have equally disappeared
in Etruria *. 3

But if the European conquerors overthrew
the teocallis of the Aztecks, they did not alike
succeed in destroying more ancient monuments,
that are attributed to the Tolteck nation. We
shall give a succinct description of these monu-
ments, remarkable for their form and magni-
tude.

The group of the pyramids of Teotihuacan is’

in the valley of Mexico; eight leagues north-

-* Plin, xxxvi, 19.

Z
=
ee

85

‘east from the capital, in a plain that bears the
name of Micoatl, or the Path of the Dead,
‘There are two large pyramids dedicated to the |
Sun (Tonatiuh), and to the Moon (Mezili) ;

and these are surrounded by several hundreds of
small pyramids, which form streets in exact
lines from north to south, and from east to west.
Of these two great teocailis, one is fifty-five, the

, other forty-four metres in perpendicular height.
‘The basis of the first is two hundred and eight

metres in length; whence it results, that the
Tonatiuh Yztaqual, according to Mr. Oteyza’s
measurement, made in 1803, is higher than the
Mycerinus, or third of the three great pyramids
of Geeza in Egypt, and the length of its base
nearly equal to that of the Cephren. The small
pyramids, which surround the great houses of
the Sun and the Moon, are scarcely nine or ten
metres high; and served, according to the tra-
dition of the natives, as burial places for the

chiefs of the tribes. Around the Cheops and

the Mycerinus in Egypt, there are eight small
pyramids, placed with symmetry, and parallel
to the fronts of the greater. The two teocallis of
Teotihuacan had four principal stories, each of
which was subdivided into steps, the edges of
which are still to be distinguished. The
nucleus is composed of clay mixed with small

_ Stones, and it is encased by a thick wali of te-

86

zontli, or porous amygdaloid *. This construc-
tion recalls to mind that of one of the Egyptian
pyramids of Sakharah, which has six stories ;

and which, according to Pocock, is a mass of .
pebbles and yellow mortar, covered on the out-

‘side with rough stones. On the top of the great
Mexican teocallis were two colossal statues of
the Sun, and the Moon: they were of stone,

and covered with plates of gold, of which they |

were stripped by the soldiers of Cortez. When
bishop Zumaraga, a Franciscan monk, under-
took the destruction of whatever related to the
worship, the history, and the antiquities of the
natives of America, he ordered also the demoli-
tion of the idols of the plain of Micoatl. We
still discover the remains of a staircase built with
large hewn stone, which formerly led to the plat-
- form of the teocalli.

On the east of the group of the. pyramids of
Teotihuacan, on descending the Cordillera to-
wards the gulf of Mexico, in a thick forest,
called Tajin, rises the pyramid of Papantla.
This monument was by chance discovered
scarcely thirty years ago, by some Spanish
hunters ; for the Indians carefully conceal from
the whites whatever was an object of ancient
veneration. The form of this teocalli, which

* Mandelsteia of the German mineralogists,

87

had six, perhaps seven stories, is more tapering
than that of any other monument of this kind:
it is nearly eighteen metres in height, while the
breadth of its basis is only twenty-five, and con-
sequently about half as high as the pyramid of
Caius Cestius at Rome, which is thirty-three
metres. This small edifice is built entirely with
hewn stones, of an extraordinary size, and very
beautifully and regularly shaped. Three stair-
cases lead to the top. The covering of its steps
is decorated with hieroglyphical sculpture, and
small niches, which are arranged with great
symmetry. The number of these niches seems
to allude to the three hundred and eighteen
simple and compound signs of the days of the
Cempohualilhuitl, or civil calendar of the Tol-
tecks.. |

The greatest, most ancient, and most. cele-
brated of the whole of the pyramidal monuments
of Anahuac is the teocalli of Cholula. It is
called in the present day the Mountain made by
the hand of Man (monte hecho a manos). Ata
distance it has the aspect of a natural hill
covered with vegetation. This pyramid is re-
presented in the seventh plate in its present
ruined state.

A vast plain, the Puebla, is separated from the
valley of Mexico by the chain of volcanic moun-
tains, which extend from Popocatepetl, towards

Rea

Aa py

88

Rio Frio, and the peak of Telapon*. This
plain, fertile though destitute of trees, is rich in

memorials interesting to Mexican history. In
— it flourished the capitals of the three republics
of Tlascalla, Huexocingo, and Cholula, which,
notwithstanding their continual dissensions, re-
sisted with no less firmness the despotism and
usurping spirit of the Azteck kings.

The small city of Cholula, which Cortez, in
his Letters to Charles V, compares with the
most populous cities of Spain, contains at pre-
sent scarcely sixteen thousand inhabitants. The
pyramid is to the east of the city, on the road
which leads from Cholula to Puebla. It is well
preserved on the western side, which is that
represented in the engraving. The plain of
Cholula presents that aspect of barrenness, which
is peculiar to plains elevated two thousand two
hundred metres above the level of the ocean.
A few plants of the agave and draczena.rise on
the foreground, and at a distance the summit of
the volcano of Orizaba is beheld covered with
snow; a colossal mountain, five thousand two
hundred and ninety-five metres of absolute
~ height, and of which I have published a sketch
in my Mexican Atlas, plate 17.

The teocalli of Cholula has four stories, all of

* See my Mexican Atlas, pl. [LLand IX.

89

equal height. It appears to have been con-
structed exactly in the direction of the four
cardinal points ; but as the edges of the stories
are not very distinct, it is difficult to ascertain

_their primitive direction. This pyramidal mo-

nument has a broader basis than that of any
other edifice of the same kind in the old con-
tinent. I measured it carefully, and ascertained,
that its perpendicular height is only fifty metres,
but that each side of its basis is four hundred
and thirty-nine metres in length. Torquemada
computes its height at seventy-seven metres ;
Betancourt, at sixty-five; and Clavigero, at
sixty-one. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a common
soldier in the army of Cortez, amused himself
by counting the steps of the staircases, which

led to the platform of the teocallis: he, found -

one hundred and fourteen in the great temple of
Tenochtitlan, one hundred and seventeen in that

of Texcuco, and one hundred and twenty in that

of Cholula. The basis of the pyramid of Cholu-
la is twice as broad as that of Cheops; but its
height is very little more than that of the pyra-
mid of Mycerinus. On comparing the dimensions
of the house of the Sun, at Teotihuacan, with
those of the pyramid of Cholula, we see, that the
people, who constructed these remarkable monu-
ments, intended to give them the same height,
but with bases, the length of which should be
in the proportion of one to two. We find also

90

a considerable difference in the proportions be-
tween the base and the height in these various
monuments; in the three great pyramids of
Geeza, the heights are to the bases as 1 to 1°7 ;
in the pyramid of Papantla covered with hiero-
glyphics, this ratio is as1 to 1:4; in the great
pyramid of Teotihuacan, as 1 to 3:7; and in
that of Cholulaas 1 to 7:8. This last monument
is built with unbaked bricks (xamilli), alternat-
ing with layers of clay. I have been assured
by some Indians of Cholula, that the inside is
hollow ; and that, during the abode of Cortez in
this city, their ancestors had concealed, in the
body of the pyramid, a considerable number of
warriors, who were to fall suddenly on the
Spaniards: but the materials with which the
teocalli is built, and the silence of the historians
of those times*, give but little probability to this
assertion. | |
It is certain, however, that in the interior of
this pyramid, as in other teocallis, there are con-
siderable cavities, which were used as sepul-
chres for the natives. A particular circumstance
led to this discovery. Seven or eight years ago
the road from Puebla to Mexico, which before
passed to the north of the pyramid, was changed.
In tracing the road, the first story was cut
through, so that an eighth part remained isolated

* Cartas de Hernan Cortez ; Mexico, 1770, p. 69.

91

like a heap of bricks, In making this opening a
square house was discovered in the interior of
the pyramid, built of stone, and supported by
beams made of the wood of the deciduous cypress
(cupressus disticha). The house contained two
skeletons, idols in basalt, and a great number of
vases, curiously varnished and painted. No
pains were taken to preserve these objects, but

it is said to have been carefully ascertained, that

this house, covered with bricks and strata of
clay, had no outlet. Supposing that the pyra-
mid was built, not by the Toltecks, the first in-
habitants of Cholula, but by prisoners made by
the Cholulans from the neighbouring nations, it
is possible, that they were the carcases of some
unfortunate slaves who had been shut up to
perish in the interior of the teocalli. We ex-
amined the remains of this subterraneous house,
and observed a particular arrangement of the
bricks, tending to diminish the pressure made on
the roof. The natives being ignorant of the
manner of making arches, placed very large
bricks horizontally, so that the upper course
should pass beyond the lower. The continuation
of this kind of stepwork served in some measure
as a substitute for the Gothic vault, and similar
vestiges have been found in several Egyptian
edifices. An adit dug through the teocalli of
Cholula, to examine its internal structure, would
be an interesting operation ; and it is singular,

92

that the desire of discovering hidden treasure
has not prompted the undertaking. During my
travels in Peru, in visiting the vast ruins of the
city of Chimu, near Mansiche, I went into the
interior of the famous Huaca de Toledo, the
tomb of a Peruvian prince, in which Garci
Gutierez de Toledo discovered, on digging a
gallery, in 1576, massive gold amounting in
value to more than five millions of francs, as is
proved by the book of accounts, preserved in the
mayor's office at Truxillo. |

The great teocalli of Cholula, called also the |

Mountain of unbaked bricks (tlalchihualtepec),
had an altar on its top, dedicated to Quetzal-
coatl, the god of the air. This Quetzalcoatl,
whose name signifies serpent clothed with green
feathers, from coatl, serpent, andquetzalli, green
feathers, is the most mysterious being of the
whole Mexican mythology. He was a white
and bearded man, like the Bochicha of the
Muyscas, of whom we spoke in our descriptions
of the Cataract of Tequendama. He was high
priest of Tula (Tollan), legislator, chief of a
religious sect, which, like the Sonyasis and the
Bouddhists of Indostan, inflicted on themselves
the most’cruel penances. He introduced the
custom of piercing the lips and the ears, and
lacerating the rest of the body with the prickles
of the agave leaves, or the thorns of the cactus ;
and of putting reeds into the wounds, in order

—"

93

that the blood might be seen to trickle more
copiously. In a Mexican drawing in the Vati-
can library*, I have seen a figure representing
Quetzalcoatl appeasing by his penance the wrath
of the gods, when, thirteen thousand and sixty
years after the creation of the World, (I follow
the very vague chronology computed by Rios)
-a great famine prevailed in the province of
Culan. The saint had chosen his place of retire-
ment near Tlaxapuchicalco, on the volcano Cat-
citepetl (Speaking Mountain), where he walked
barefooted on agave leaves armed with prickles.
We seem to behold one of those rishi, hermits
‘of the Ganges, whose pious austerity, is cele-
brated in the Pouranas.

The reign of Quetzalcoati was the golden age
of the people of Anahuac. At that period, all
animals, and even men, lived in peace; the
earth brought forth, without culture, the most
fruitful harvests; and the air was filled with a
multitude of birds, which were admired for their
song, and the beauty of their plumage.. But
this reign, like that of Saturn, and the happiness
of the world, were not of long duration ; the
great spirit Tezcatlipoca, the Brahma of the
nations of Anahuac, offered Quetzalcoatl a beve-
rage, which, in rendering him immortal, inspired

* Codex anonymus, No. 3738, fol. 8.
+ Schlegel iiber Sprache and Weisheit der Indier, p. 132,

94

him with a taste for travelling; and particularly
with an irresistible desire of visiting a distant
country, called by tradition Tlapallan*, The
resemblance of this name to that of Huehuet-
lapallan, the country of the Toltecks, appears
not to be accidental. But how can we conceive,
that this white man, priest of Tula, should have
taken his direction, as we shall presently find,
to the south-east, towards the plains of Cholula,
and thence to the eastern coasts of Mexico, in
order to visit this northern country, whence his
ancestors had issued in the five hundred and
ninety-sixth year of our era? |

Quetzalcoatl, in crossing the territory of*

Cholula, yielded to the intreaties of the inhabit-
ants, who offered him the reins of government.
He dwelt twenty years among them, taught
them to cast metals, ordered fasts of eight days,
and regulated the intercalations of the Tolteck
year. He preached peace to men, and would
permit no other offerings to the Divinity, than
the first fruits of the harvest. From Cholula
- Quetzalcoatl passed on to the mouth of the river
Goasacoalco, where he disappeared, after having
declared to the Cholulans (Chololtecatles), that
he would return in a short time to govern them
again, and renew their happiness.

It was the posterity of this saint, whom the

* Clavigero Storia di Messico, tom, 2, p. 12.

je

95

unhappy Montezuma thought he recognized in
the soldiers of Cortez. “ We know by our
books,” said he, in his first interview with the
Spanish General, ‘ that myself, and those who
“inhabit this country, are not natives, but
“ strangers, who came from a great distance.
“ We know also, that the chief, who led our
‘* ancestors hither, returned for a certain time to
‘“‘ his primitive country, and thence came back
“* to seek those, who were here established. He
“ found them married to the women of this land,
“ having a numerous posterity, and living in
“ cities, which they had built. Our ancestors
*‘ hearkened not to their ancient master, and. he
“ returned alone. We have always believed, that
“ his descendants would one day come to take
“ possession of this country. Since you arrive
“ from that region, where the Sun rises, and, as
“ you assure me, you have long known us, I
“ cannot doubt, but that the king, who sends
** you, is our natural master*.”

Another very remarkable tradition still exists
among the Indians of Cholula, according to
which the great pyramid was not originally
destined to serve for the worship of Quetzalcoatl.
After my return to Europe, on. examining at
Rome the Mexican manuscript in the Vatican
library, I found, that this same tradition was’

* First Letter of Cortez, § 21 and 29.

Bee Ny CERN NE ROE a
Aida Sy erat a

96

already recorded in a manuscript of Pedro de
Los Rios, a Dominican monk, who, in 1566,
copied on the very spot all the hieroglyphical
paintings he could procure. ‘ Before the great
inundation, which took place four thousand
eight hundred years after the creation of the
World, the country of Anahuac was inhabited
by giants (tzocuillixeque). All those who did
not perish were transformed into fishes, save
seven, who fled into caverns. When the waters
subsided, one of these giants, Xelhua, surnamed
the architect, went to Cholollan; where, as a
memorial of the mountain Tlaloc, which had
‘served for an asylum to himself and his six
brethren, he built an artificial hill in form of a
pyramid. He ordered bricks to be made in the
province of Tlamanalco, at the foot of the Sierra of
Cocotl, and to convey them to Cholula he placed
a file of men, who passed them from hand to
hand. The yods beheld with wrath this edifice,
the top of which was to reach the clouds. Ivtri-
tated at the daring attempt of Xelhua, they
hurled fire on the pyramid. Numbers of the»
workmen perished ; the work was discontinued,
and the monument was afterwards dedicated to.
Quetzalcoatl, the god of the air.” | |
This history reminds us of those ancient tra-
ditions of the East, which the Hebrews have. re-
corded in their sacred books. The Cholulans
preserved a stone, which, enveloped in a ball

97

of fire, had fallen from the clouds on the top of —
the pyramid. This aeorolite had the figure of a
toad. Rios, to prove the high antiquity of this
fable of Xelhua, observes, that it was contained
ina hymn, which the Cholulans sung at their
festivals, dancing round the teocalli; and that
this hymn began with the words Tulanian hulu-
laez, which are words belonging to no dialect at
present known in Mexico. In every part of the
Globe, on the ridge of the Cordilleras, as well as
in the isle of Samothrace in the Egean sea, frag-
ments of primitive languages are preserved in
religious rites.

The size of the platform of the pyramid of
Cholula, on which I made a: great number of
astronomical observations, is four thousand two
hundred square metres. From it the eye ranges
over a magnificent prospect; Popocatepetl,
Iztaccihuatl, the peak of Orizaba, and the
Sierra de Tlascalla, famous for the tempests
which gather around its summit. We view at
the same time three mountains higher than
Mount Blanc, two of which are still burning vol-
canoes. A small chapel, surrounded with cy-
press, and dedicated to the Virgin de los Re-
medios, has succeeded to the temple of the god
of the air, or the Mexican Indra. An ecclesias-_
tic of the Indian race celebrates mass every day

on the top of this antique monument.

VOL. XIII. H

98

_ In the time of Cortez, Cholula was considered
as a holy city. No where existed a greater num-
ber of teocallis, of priests, and religious orders
(tlamacazque) ; no spot displayed greater mag-
nificence in the celebration of public worship, or
more austerity in its penances and fasts. Since
the introduction of christianity among the In-
dians, the symbols of a new worship have not
entirely effaced the remembrance of the old.
The people assemble in crowds from distant
quarters at the summit of the pyramid, to cele-

brate the festival of the Virgin. A mysterious
dread, a religious awe, fills the soul of the Indi-
an at the sight of this immense pile of bricks,
covered with shrubs and perpetual verdure. —

We have above remarked the great similarity
of construction between the Mexican teocallis
and the temple of Bel or Belus, at Babylon.

This analogy had already struck Mr. Zoega,
though he had been able to procure but very in-
complete descriptions of the group of the pyra-
mids of Teotihuacan*. According to Hero-
dotus, who visited Babylon, and saw the temple
of Belus, this pyramidal monument had eight
stories. It was a stadium high, and the breadth

of its basis was equal to its height. The outer

wall which surrounded it, the zegiBorc;, was two

* Zoega, de Origine Qbeliscerum, p. 380,

ae
&

ee
Se
_ =~
eS

99

. Stadia square. A common olympic stadium was

one hundred and eighty-three metres: the
Egyptian stadium was only ninety-eight*. The
pyramid was built of brick and asphaltum. A
temple (vaos) was erected on its top, and another
atits basis. The first, according to Herodotus,
was without statues ; it contained only a table of
gold, and a bed on which reposed a female
chosen by the god Belus +. Diodorus Siculus,
on the other hand, asserts, that the upper temple
contained an altar, and three statues, to which,
according to notions taken from the worship of
the Greeks, he gave the names of Jupiter, Juno,
and Rhea‘. But neither these statues nor any
part of the monument existed in the time of Dio-
dorus and Strabo. In the Mexican teocallis,
as in the temple of Belus, the lower naos was
distinguished from the temple on the platform

of the pyramid. The same distinction is clearly

pointed out in the letters of Cortez, and in the
history of the conquest written by Bernal Diaz, |
who dwelt several months in the palace of the
king Axajacatl, and consequently une the
teocalli of ea EOC

* Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus, p. 56 (French transla-
tion). ea
t+ Herodotus, lib. 1, c. 181, 183.
¢ Diodorus Siculus, Ed. Wesselingiana, vol. 1, lib. 2, my
193,

H 2

-¥ 47276

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100

No one of the’ ancient writers, neither Hero-~

dotus nor Strabo*, Diodorus nor Pausaniasf,

Arriant nor Quintus Curtius}, asserts, that the
ternple of Belus was erected according to the
four cardinal points, like the Egyptian and
Mexican pyramids. Pliny observes only, that
Belus was considered as the inventor of astro-
nomy: Inventor hic

‘Diodorus relates, that the Babylonian temple

served as an observatory to the Chaldeans. “ It
must be admitted,” says he, ‘ that this building
was of an extraordinary height, and that here
the Chaldeans made their observations on the
stars, the rising and setting of which might be
exactly perceived, on account of the elevation
of the edifice. The Mexican priests, (teopia-
qui) made observations also on the stars from the -
summit of the teocallis; and announced to the
people, by the sound of the horn, the hours of
the night]. These teocallis were built in the
interval between the epocha of Mahomet and the
reign of Ferdinand and Ieabellas and we cannot

* Strabo, lib. 16, 211. ’
+ Pausanias, lib. 8, ed. Xylandri, p. 509, n, 31.
+ Arrianus, lib. 7, 17.

~ § Quint. Curt. lib. 5, 1 et 37 ‘%

a lI Plin. Hist, nat. lib. vi, 30.
Gama, Descripcion cronologica de hy Piedra calen-
deria ; Mexico, 1792, p. 15.

so
-
fos

101

observe without astonishment, that American
edifices, the form of which is almost the same as
that of one of the most ancient monuments on
the banks of the Euphrates, belong to times so
near our own. bul
When we consider in the same point of view
the pyramidical monuments of Egypt, of Asia,
and of the New Continent, we see, that, though
--their form is alike, their destination was alto-
gether different. The group of pyramids at
Geeza and at Sakhara in Egypt; the triangular
pyramid of the Queen of the Scythians, Zarina,
which was a stadium high, and three in circum- .
ference, and which was decorated with a colossal
figure* ; the fourteen Etruscan pyramids, which |
are said to have been enclosed in the labyrinth
of the king Porsenna, at Clusium ; were reared
to serve as the sepulchres of the illustrious dead.
Nothing is more natural to men, than to com-
memorate the spot where rest the ashes of those,
whose memory they cherish; whether it be, as
in the infancy of the race, by simple mounds of
earth, or in later periods by the towering height
of the tumulus. Those of the Chinese and of
Thibet have only a few metres of elevation+.
Farther to’the west the dimensions increase :

* Diodorus Siculus, lib. 2, c. 34.
+ Duhalde, Description of China, tom. 2, p. 126. Asiatic
_ Researches, vol. ii, p, 314.

h
be 8 yt We Sea Nia i gif SMR CIR ITS Pee trey 6 ho iciagey. phew.

102

the tumulus of the king Alyattes, father of Croe-
sus, in Lydia, was six stadia, and that of Ninus
was more than ten stadia in diameter*. In the
north of Europe the sepulchres of the Scandi-
navian king Gormus, and the queen Daneboda,
covered with mounds of earth, are three hun-
dred metres broad, and more than thirty high.
We meet with these tumuli in both hemispheres ;
in Virginia, and in Canada, as well as in Peru,
where numerous galleries, built with stone, and
communicating with each other by shafts, fill
up the interior of the huacas, or artificial hills.
In Asia these rustic monuments have been
decorated with the refinement of eastern luxury,
while their primitive forms have been preserved.
The tombs of Pergamus are cones of earth,
raised on a circular wall, which seems to have
been encased with marble+-.

The teocallis, or Mexican pyramids, were at
once temples and tombs. We have already
observed, that the plain, on which were built the
houses of the Sun and of the Moon at Teoti-
huaca, is called the Path of the Dead ; but the
essential and principal part of a teocalli was the
chapel, the xaos, at the top of the edifice. In

iat Herodotus, lib. 1, c. 93. Ctesias, apud Diod. Sicul.

« deb. 2, .c. 7. 2

+ Choiseul Gonffier, Voyage Pittoresque de la Gréce,
tom, 2, p. 27 to dl.

Lee at Ah eas Cota uy 87 . MaRS ET is Se NGA i aE vce a AM
ag y Pips it ee ot soe ; - | reine

103

the infancy of civilization, high places were
chosen by the people to offer sacrifices to the
gods. ‘The first altars, the first temples, were
erected on mountains ; and when these moun-
tains were isolated, the worshippers delighted in
the toil of shaping them into regular forms,
cutting them by stories, and making stairs to _
reach the summit more easily. Both conti-
nents afford numerous examples of these hills
divided into terraces, and supported by walls of
brick or stone. The teocallis appear to me to
be merely artificial hills, raised in the midst ofa
plain, and intended to serve as a basis to the
altars. What more sublime and awful than a
' sacrifice, that is offered in the sight of an assem-
bled nation! The pagods of Indostan have
nothing in common with the Mexican temples.
That of Tanjore, of which Mr. Daniell has given
beautiful drawings*, is a tower with several
stories, but the altar is not at the top of the mo-
nument. |
The pyramid of Bel was at once the temple
and tomb of this god. Strabo does not speak of
this monument as a temple, he simply calls it
the tomb of Belus. In Arcadia, the tumulus
(x@~e), which contained the ashes of Calisto,
bore on its top a temple of Diana. Pausanias-~

* Oriental Scenery, Pl. 17.
+ Pausanias, lib. 8, c. 35.

describes it as a cone, made by the hands of
' man, and long covered with vegetation. This
is a very remarkable monument, in which the
temple is only an incidental decoration; it serves, __
if we may use the expression, as an intermediary |
step between the pyramids of Sakhara and the
Mexican teocallis *.
o

: | * See my y Political ere on the ood dant of New Spain,
pages 169, 187, 289.

€ i " em

105

DETACHED MASS”

OF THE

PYRAMID OF CHOLULA.

PLATE VIIT.

Tue pyramid of Cholula is so covered with
vegetation, that it is extremely difficult to ex-
amine the structure of the great terraces. The
Spanish historians of the sixteenth century,
several of whom visited Mexico in the time of
Montezuma, or a few years after his death,
assert, that the whole edifice is built with bricks.
In looking through the manuscripts of Pedro de
Los Rios in the Vatican at Rome*, I found, as
I have already stated, that the inhabitants of
Cholula believed, according to an ancient tradi-
tion, that the bricks with which the teocalli was
built were made in the province. of Tlalmanalco,
at the foot of mount Cocotl; and that prisoners,

* Cod. Vat. anonym. n. 3738, fol. 10.

5 Se) Cee Nt ©, MORE Seca! (¢! EGeh Ly) ') OGe A ire MN ee Pe a) 4. bee Coes a Se Aa
i bs . Ta

1C6

placed in files, conveyed the bricks from hand to

hand the space of several leagues, from Cocotl to

Cholula. This tradition, which has the air of an

Arabian tale, is found among the Peruvians.

Those of Cuzco, who consider themselves as the

inhabitants of a holy city, assert, that, when the

Inca Tupac Yupanqui took possession of the

kingdom of Quito (Quitu), he ordered immense

masses of freestone to be taken from the quarries

near Cuzco, in order to erect temples to the Sun’
in the newly conquered countries.

I was enabled to ascertain the internal struc-
ture of the pyramid of Cholula in two different
places; near the summit, -on the front opposite
the volcano of Popocatepetl ; and on the northern
side, where the first terrace is cut through by
the new road, which leads from Puebla to
Mexico. In digging this road the end of the
temple was detached from the rest of the mass.
The eighth plate represents this detached part,
in which the alternate layers of brick and clay
are distinctly seen. The bricks were generally
eight centimetres high,-and forty in length ; and
seemed to me not to have been burnt, but only
dried in the Sun; they may, however, have
undergone a slight baking, and the humidity of
the air may have rendered them friable. Per-
haps the strata of clay, which separate those of
brick, are wanting on the inside of the pyramid,
and in the parts which support. the enormous

107

weight of the whole mass. Mr. Zoega* erro-
neously imagined, that the teocalli of Choluia
was a real choma, a mound of earth, cased exter-
nally with a-layer of bricks. Gemelli, whom
Robertson and other historians of the first rank
accuse of inaccuracy more than he deserves,
describes this pyramid under the name of a
pyramid of earth +.

The construction of the teocalli, as we have
already observed, reminds us of the most ancient

monuments, that are recorded in the history of |

the civilization of mankind. The temple of
Jupiter Belus, which seems to be recognized in
the ancient mythology of the Hindoos under the
name of Balit, the pyramids of Meidoum and
Dahchour, and several of the group of Sakhara,
in Egypt, are also composed of immense heaps of
bricks, the remains of which, after a lapse of
thirty ages, are still in good preservation.

* De Obeliscis, page 380.
+ Giro del Modo, tom. vi, p. 380.

{ Fra Paolino Di S. Bartholomeo, Vidgein alle Indie
Orientali. p. 241.

#&

a

108

MONUMENT OF XOCHICALCO.

PLATE IX.

Tue singular monument, a fragment of which
covered with sculpture is represented in this
engraving, is considered in the country as a mi-
litary monument. To the south east of the city
of Cuernuvaca (the ancient Quauhnahuac), on
the western declivity of the Cordillera of Ana-
huac, in that happy region, designated by the
inhabitants under the name of tierra templada
(temperate region) because it is the reign of
perpetual spring, rises an insolated hill, which,
according to the barometrical measurement of
Mr. Alzate, is one hundred and seven metres
high. This hill is on the west of the road lead-
ing from Cuernavaca to the village of Miacatlan.
The Indians call it, in the Mexican or Azteck
dialect, Xochicalco, or the House of Flowers.
We shall see farther on, that the etymology of
this name is as uncertain, as the epocha of the
construction of the monument, which is attri-
buted to the Toltecks. This nation is to the

109

Mexican antiquaries, what the Pelasgian coio-
nists were to the Archzeologists of Italy. ‘What-
ever is lost in the night of time is considered as
the work of a people, among whom we think we
discover the first germes of civilization.

The hill of Xochicalco is a mass of rocks, to
- which the hand of man has given a regular conic
form, and which is divided into five stories, or
terraces, each of which is covered with masonry.
These terraces are nearly twenty metres in per-
pendicular height; but narrow towards the top,
as in the teocallis, or Azteck pyramids, the sum-
mit of which was decorated with an altar. The
whole of the terraces slope a little toward the
- south west, probably for the easier running off
of the rains, which are very frequent in this
region. The hill is surrounded by a deep and
very broad ditch, so that the whole entrenchment
is nearly four thousand metres in circumference.
The magnitude of these dimensions ought not to
surprise us: on the ridge of the Cordilleras of
Peru, and on heights almost equal to that of the
peak of Teneriffe, M. Bonpland and myself
have seen monuments still more considerable.
Lines of defence, and entrenchments of extra-
ordinary length, are found,in the plains of
Canada. The whole of these American works
resemble those, which are daily discovered in
the eastern part of Asia; nations of the Mongul —
race, those especially that are most advanced in

119

civilization, have built walls, which ee aia
whole provinces.

The summit of the hill of Xochicaleco is an
oblong platform, seventy-two metres from north
to south, and ninety-six from east to west. This
platform is encircled by a wail of hewn stone,
more than two metres high, which served as a
defence for the combatants. In the centre of
this spacious military square, we find the re-
mains of a pyramidical monument, which had
five stories, the form of which resembled the teo-
callis we Hive already described. The first story
only has been preserved, and it is that which is
represented in the ninth plate. The owners of a
sugar house near the spot demolished like barba-

rians the pyramid, and employed the stones to.

build their ovens. The Indians of Tetlama
assert, that the five stories still existed in 1750 ;
and from the dimensions of the first story we may
conjecture, that the edifice was twenty metres
high. Its faces are exactly fronting the four
cardinal points. The base of the edifice is 20°7
metres in length, and 17-4 in breadth. It is”
very remarkable, that no vestige of a staircase
can be discovered leading to the top of the pyra-
mid, where formerly it is asserted there was a
stone seat (ximotlalli), ornamented with hiero-.
glyphics.

Travellers, who examine eiativcly this work
of the native tribes of America, cannot fail to be

%

PONT. Caner:
LENE: ‘k ‘

HI

: greatly struck with the polish and the cut of the

stones, all of which are parallelopipeds ; the care
with which they have been arranged, without
cement between the joints ; and the execution of
the reliefs, with which the stones are decorated.
Each figure occupies several stones ; and, from
the outlines not being interrupted by the joints
of the stones, we may conjecture, that these
reliefs were sculptured after the construction
of the edifice was finished. Among the hiero-
glyphical ornaments of the pyramid of Xochi-.
calco, we distinguish heads of crocodiles spout-
ing water, and figures of men sitting crosslegged
according to the custom of several nations of
Asia.‘ As the edifice is placed on a plain, ele-
vated more than thirteen hundred metres above —
the level of the ocean,.and since crocodiles haunt
only the rivers which are near the coast; it
seems strange, that the architect, instead of imi--
tating plants and animals belonging to moun«
tainous countries, should have employed, in these
reliefs, with extreme industry, the gigantic pro-
ductions of the torrid zone.

The ditch, with which the hill is surrounded,
the covering of the terraces, the great number of —
subterraneous apartments dug in the rock on the
northern side; the wall that defends the ap-
proach to the platform, concur all together to
give the monument of Xochicalco a military
aspect. The natives even to this day designate

112

the ruins of the pyramid by a name equivalent to
that of a castle, or citadel. The great analogy
between the form of this kind of citadel, and the
teocallis, leads me to think, that the hill of
Xochicalco was merely a fortified temple. The
pyramid of Mexitli, or the great temple of
Tenochtitlan, contained also an arsenal, and’
served during the siege as a fort, sometimes to
the Mexicans, and at others to the Spaniards.
We learn from Scripture, that, in the earliest
times, the temples of Asia, such as that of Baal
Berith at Shechem, in Canaan, were not only
buildings consecrated to worship, but also en-
trenchments, in which the inhabitants of a city
defended themselves against the attacks of an.
enemy. Nothing indeed is more natural to men,
than to fortify the places, which contain the tu-
telary gods. of the country. What more animat-
ing when the state is in danger, than to fly to
the foot of their altars, and fight under their im-
mediate protection? Among the nations whose
temples were built like the pyramid of Belus,
one of the most ancient in its figure, the struc-
ture of the edifice might serve the double pur-
pose of worship and defence. In the Grecian
temples, the wall which formed the peribolos
alone afforded an asylum to the besieged.
The natives of the neighbouring village of
Tetlama are in possession of a map, drawn
before the arrival of the Spaniards, but to which

113

~

some names have been added since the con-
quest. in this map, at the place where the
monument of Xochicalco is situate, is the figure
of two warriors fighting with clubs, one of
whom is called Xochicatli, and the other Xica-
tetli. -We shall not here follow the Mexican
antiquaries in their etymological discussions, to
learn whether one of these warriors gave his
name to the hill of Xochicaico; or whether the
image of two combatanis merely denotes a battle
between two neighbouring nations: or finally,
whether the denomination of the House of
Flowers was given to this pyramidical monu-
ment, because the Toltecks, hke the Peruvians,
offered to the divinity only fruits, flowers, and |
incense. It was also near Xochicalco, that thir-
ty years since an isolated stone was found, on
which was represented in relief an eagle tearing
a captive ; an allusion, no doubt, to a victory
obtained by the Aztecks over some neighbour-
‘ing nation. :
The drawing of the relief of the first story

_ was copied from an engraving published by
Mr. Alzate, at Mexico, in 1791. { had no op-

- portunity myself of visiting this remarkable mo-
‘nument. When, arriving in New Spain by way
of the South Sea, I went in the month of April,
1803, from Acapulco to Cuernavacca, I had
never heard of the hill of Xochicalco; and I
regret not having verified myself the descrip-

VOL. XIII. I

114

tion* given of this monument by Mr. Alzate,
corresponding member of the Academy of Sci-
ences at Paris. There being no scale to the
ninth plate, it is necessary to observe, that the
height of the figures sitting cross-legged is
10:3m, |

* Descripcion de las Antiquidades de Xochicalco, par Don
Joseph Antonia Alzate y Ramirez; Mexico, 1791. Due An-
tichi Monumenti di Architettura Messicana illustrati da Pie-
tro Marquez; Rome, 1804.

115

VOLCANO OF COTOPAXI.

POATE, X.

In the description of the valley of Icononzo,
I observed, that the enormous height of the
elevated plains, which surround the lofty sum-
mits of the Cordilleras, somewhat weakens the
impression, which these great masses leave on
the mind of a traveller accustomed to the ma-
jestic scenes of the Alps and the Pyrenees. It
_ is not so much the absolute height of mountains, |
as their aspect, figure, and groupings, that give
a peculiar character to the landscape.

I have endeavoured to represent what may be
called the physiognomy of mountains, in a series
of drawings, some of which have already ap-
peared in the geographical and physical Atlas
belonging to my Essay on the Kingdom of New
Spain. The comparison of the respective forms
of mountains in the most distant parts of the
Globe, like that of the forms of the vegetable
tribes under different climates, appeared to me
highly interesting to geology. Very few ma-
| 12

Li

terials yet exist@for so important a work.
Without the aid of geodesical instruments,
by which we measure very small angles, it
is almost impossible to determine the outlines
with sufficient exactness. While I was em-
ployed in these measurements in the southern
hemisphere, on the ridge of the Cordilleras
of the Andes, Mr. Osterwald, with the assis-
tance of a celebrated astronomer, Mr. Tralles,
was sketching, by a similar method, the chain
of the Alps of Switzerland, as it appears when
viewed from the banks of the lake of Neuf-
chatel. This view, lately published, is so very
exact, that, the distance of each summit being
known, their relative height is found by em-
ploying in the calculation only the simple mea-
sure of the outlines of the drawing. Mr. Tralles
made use of a repeating circle. The angles by
which I determined the size of the different
parts of the mountain were taken with a sextant
by Ramsden, the limb of which marked with
certainty six or eight seconds. By the repetition
of this operation at.the interval of distant pe-
riods, the accidental changes, which take place
on the surface of the Globe, may some day be
verified. In a country exposed to earthqukes,
and overwhelmed by volcanoes, it is very diffi-
cult to determine whether the mountains dimi-
nish, or whether by the ejection of ashes and
‘scorie they insensibly augment. The simple

117

angles of elevation, taken at dtterminate stations,
would solve this question more clearly than a
complete trigonometrical survey, the result of
which is affected by the errors, which may take
place both in the measurement of the basis, and
in that of the oblique angles.

When we consider the physiognomy of the
mountains on each continent, we discover an
analogy of form, which we could not have ex-
pected, if we reflect on the concurrence of the
forces, which in the primitive world have acted
tumultuously on the softened surface of our
planet. The fire of volcanoes rais@s cones of
ashes and pumice stones, where it penetrates
through acrater; immense swellings, like domes
of extraordinary magnitude, seem owing to the
expansive force only of the elastic vapours ;
earthquakes have raised up strata full of sea-
shells ; and the basins. which now form circular
vallies, or elevated plains surrounded by moun-
tains, have been furrowed by the currents of the
sea. Each country of the Globe has its peculiar
physiognomy; but amidst these characteristic —
features, which bestow such a richness and va-
riety on the face of nature, we are struck witha
resemblance of form, founded on an identity of
jocal causes and circumstances. When we sail
amid the Canary islands, and observe the basal-
tic cones of Lanzerota, of Alegranza, and of
Graciosa, we seem to view the group of the

118

Euganean mountaM™s, or the trappean hills of.
Bohemia. ‘The granites, the micaceous schists,
the old sand-stones, the calcareous formations,
which the mineralogists designate under the
names of formations of the Jura, of the High
Alps, or transition limestone, give a particular
character to the outline of the great masses, and
to the breaches found on the ridges of the Andes,
the Pyrenees, and the Uralian mountains. The
nature ofthe rocks has every where modified the
external form of the mountains.

Cotopaxi, the summit of which is represented
in the tently plate, is the loftiest of those volca-
noes of the Andes, which at recent epochs have
undergone eruptions. Its obsolute height is five
thousand ‘seven hundred and fifty-four metres
(two thousand nine hundred and fifty-two toises);
it is double that of Canigou ; and consequently
eight hundred imetres higher than Vesuvius
would be, were it placed on the top of the Peak
of Teneriffe. Cotopaxi is also the most dread-
_ ful volcano of the kingdom of Quito, and its ex-
plosions the most frequent and disastrous. The
mass of scoriz, and the huge pieces of rock
thrown out of this volcano, which are spread
over the neighbouring valleys, covering a surface
of several square leagues, would form, were they
heaped together, a colossal mountain. In 1738,
the flames of Cotopaxi rose nine hundred metres
- above the brink of the crater, In 1744, the

119

toarings of the volcano were heard as far as
Honda, a town on the borders of the Magdalena,
and at the distance of two hundred common
leagues. On the 4th of April, 1768, the quantity
of ashes ejected by the mouth of Cotopaxi was
so great, that in the towns of Hambato and
Tacunga day broke only at three in the after-
noon, and the inhabitants were obliged to use
lanterns in walking the streets. The explosion
which took place in the month of January, 1803,
was preceded by a dreadful phenomenon, the
sudden melting of the snows that covered the
mountain. For twenty years before, no smoke
or vapour, that could be. perceived, had issued
from the crater ; and in a single night the sub-
terraneous fire became so active, that at sun-
rise the external walls of the cone, heated, na
doubt, to a very considerable temperature, ap-
peared naked, and of the dark colour, which is
peculiar to vitrified scorize. At the port of Guay-
aquil, fifty-two leagues distant in a straight line
from the crater, we heard, day and night, the
noises of the volcano, like continued discharges
of a battery; we distinguished these tremendous
sounds even on the Pacific Ocean, to the south-
west of the island of Puna.

Cotopaxi is situate to the south-east of the
city.of Quito, at the distance of twelve leagues,
between the mountain of Ruminnavi; the sum-
mit of which, rugged with smal! separate rocks,

120

extends itself like a wall of enormous height ;
and Quelendanna, which enters the boundary
of the eternal snows. It is in this part of the
Andes, that a longittdinal valley separates the
Cordiileras into two parallel chains. The bot-
tom of this valley is three thousand metres above
- the level of the ocean, so that Chimborazo and

Cotopaxi, seen from the elevated plains of Lican
-and Mulalo, appear no higher than the Col de
Geant and du Cramont, measured by Saus-

sure. As there is reason to suppose, that the ~

proximity of the ocean contributes to feed the
volcanic fire, the geologist is astonished to find,
that the most active volcanoes in the kingdom of
Quito, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, and Sangay, be-
long.to the eastern chain of the Andes, and con-
sequently that which is farthest from the coasts.

The whole of the peaks, except Rucu-Pichincha, .

which crown the Western Cordilleras, seem to
be volcanoes extinguished for a long series of
ages; but the mountain of which we give a
drawing, and which is 2° 2° distant from: the
nearest coasts, those of Ksmeraida and the bay
of San-Mateo, spouts out at different periods ca-
taracts of fire,-and spreads destruction over the
surrounding plains. 7 |

The form of Cotopaxi is the most beautiful

and regular of the colossal summits of the high
Andes. It is a perfect cone, which, covered
with an enormous layer of snow, shines with

121

dazzling splendor at the setting of the sun, and
detaches itself in the most. picturesque manner
from the azure vault of Heaven. This covering
of snow conceals from the eye of the observer
even the smailest inequalities of the soil; no
point. of rock, no stony mass, penetrates this
coating of ice, or. breaks the regularity of the
figure of the cone. The summit of Cotopaxi
resembles the Sugar-loaf (Pan de azucar) which
terminates the Peak of Teyde; but the height of
its cone is six times the height of that of the
great volcano of the Island of Teneriffe.

It is only near the brink of the crater we see
ledges of rock, that are never covered with snow,
and that look at a distance like stripes of the
darkest hue; the great steepness of this part of
- the cone, and the crevices from which issue
currents of heated. air, are probably the causes
of this phenomenon. The crater, lke that
of the Peak of Teneriffe, is surrounded by a
small circular wall, which, examined with a
good telescope, looks like a parapet. This is
more distinctly seen on the southern declivity,
when the beholder is placed either on the Lion
mountain (Puma-Urcu), or on the banks of the
small lake of Yuracoche. I have added beneath
the plate, in order to show this peculiar structure
of the volcano, a view of the southern brink of
the crater, such as I have sketched it near the
limit of the perpetual. aioe (at. the absolute

122
height of four thousand four hundred and eleven
metres), at Suniguaicu, on the ridge of porphy-
ritic mountains, which joims Cotopaxi to the

Nevado de Quelendanna. |
The conic point of the Peak of Teneriffe is of
easy access, rising from the midst of a plain
covered with pumice stones, and on which a
few tufts of Spartium supranubium vegetate.
In scaling the volcano of Cotopaxi, it is ex-
tremely difficult to attain the inferior boundary

of the perpetual snows, as we experienced in an

excursion we made in the month of May, in the
year 1802. The cone is surrounded by deep

crevices, which at the moment of the eruptions -

bear down scoriz, pumice stone, water, and
blocks of ice, to Rio Napo, and Rio de los Ala-
ques. -After a near examination of the summit
of Cotopaxi, we may venture to assert, that it
would be impossible to reach the brink of the
crater.

The greater the regularity in the form of the
cone of this voleano, the more we are struck in
finding, on the side to the south-east, a small
mass of rock, half concealed under the snow,
studded with points, and which the natives call
the head of the Inca. The origin of this singular
denomination is very uncertain. A popular tra-
dition prevails in the country, that this isolated
rock was heretofore a part of the top of Coto-
paxi. The Indians inte, that the volcano, at

123

its first eruption, ejected far off a stony mass ;
which, like the cap of a dome, covered the enor-
mous cavity, that contains the subterraneous fire.
Some pretend, that this extraordinary catas-
trophe took place a short time after the invasion
of the kingdom of Quito by the Inca Tupac
Yupanqui ; and that the rock, which is sketched
in the tenth plate to the left of the volcano, is
called the head of the Inca, because its fall was
the ominous presage of the death of the con-
queror. Others, still more credulous, affirm,
that this mass of porphyry with basis of pitch-
stone * was displaced in an explosion, that
happened at the very moment when the Inca
Atahualpa was strangled by the Spaniards at
Caxamarca. It seems indeed certain, that an
eruption of Cotopaxi took place when the army
of Pedro Alvarado marched from Puerto Viejo to
the elevated plains of Quito; although Piedro
de Cieca + and Garcilasso de la Vegat do not
name the mountain, that threw out ashes, the
sudden fail of which affrighted the Spaniards.
But to adopt the opinion, that at this epocha,
for the first time, the rock called the Cabeza del
Inca took its present place, we must suppose,
that Cotopaxi had no former eruptions ; a sup-

* Pechstein-porphyr, Werner,
+ Chronica del Peru, 1554, ch. 41, fol. 109.
t Comentarios Reales, lib. 2, ch. 2, vol. 2, p. 59.

ha ph BR it 2 IVS ee ran

124

position the more unfounded, as the walls of the
palace of the Inca at Callo, built by Huayna
Capac, contain stones of volcanic origin, thrown
out by the mouth of Cotopaxi. We shall dis-
cuss in another place the important question,
whether it be probable, that this voleano had
already attained its present height, when. the
subterraneous fire issued from its summit; or
whether a number of geological facts do not
rather concur to prove, that the cone, like the
Somma on. Vesuvius, is composed of a great
number of strata of lava heaped upon each
other. 7

I sketched Cotopaxi and the Head of the
Inca, to the west of the volcano, at the farm of
Sienega, on the terrace of a beautiful country
house belonging to our friend, the young Mar-
quis of Maenza, who has lately inherited the title
of Grandee, and that of Count of Punnelrostro.
In order to distinguish, in these views of the teps
of the Andes, the mountains that are volcanoes
still burning from those that have no erup-
tions, I have traced a slight smoke above the
crater of Cotopaxi, though I saw none at the
time I made the sketch. ‘The house of Sienega,
built by a person who was intimately connected
with M. de la Condamine, is placed on the vast
plain, which extends between the two branches
of the Cordilleras, from the hills of Chisinche
and Tiopullo as far as Hambato. The colossal

125

volcano of Cotopaxi, the pyramidal peaks of
Tlinissa, and the Nevado de Quelendanna, open
here at once on the spectator, and in dreadful
proximity. This is one of the most majestic
and most awful views I ever beheld in either
hemisphere.

MEXICAN MONUMENT

IN RELIEF,

FOUND AT OAXACA.

PLATE XI.

Turs relief, one of the most curious remains of
Mexican sculpture, was found a few years ago,
near the town of Oaxaca. The sketch was
communicated to me by an eminent naturalist,
Mr. Cervantes, professor of botany at Mexico,
to whom we owe the knowledge of the new
genera cheirostemon, guardiola, and many other

lants, which will be published in the Flora of
New Spain by Messrs. Sessé and Mocinno.
The persons who sent this drawing to Mr. Cer-
vantes assured him, that it was copied with the
greatest care ; and that the relief, sculptured on
a blackish and very hard rock, was more than a
metre in height.

They who have made a particular study of
the Tolteck and Azteck monuments must be

Sd

an

127

struck both with the analogy and the contrasts
between the relief of Oaxaca, and the figures
which we find repeated in the hieroglyphical
manuscripts, on the idols, and on the covering
of several teocallis. Instead of those dwarfish
men, who are scarcely five heads high, and who
remind us of the most ancient Etruscan’ style,
we distinguish in the relief represented in the
eleventh plate a group of three figures, of slender
form, and drawn too correctly for the infancy of
the art. There is reason to think,.that the
Spanish painter, who copied this comet ab
Oaxaca, corrected the outlines in certain parts,
perhaps unintentionally, particularly in sketch-
ing the hands.and toes. But can we suppose,
that he has changed the proportions of the
whole figures ? and is not this supposition devoid
of probability, if we examine with what careful
minuteness the forms of the heads, the eyes, and
particularly the ornaments of the helmet, are
traced? These ornaments, among which we
distinguish feathers, ribands, and flowers’; these
noses, of extraordinary size, resemble those that
are found in the Mexican paintings preserved at
Rome, Veletri, and Berlin. It is only by com-
paring what was produced at the same epocha,
and by people of the same origin, ‘that we can
form an exact idea of the style, which charac-
terizes the different monuments ; if we may be
allowed to apply: the word style to the analo-

128

gies we discover among a multitude of fantastic
and singular forms. —

We might also ask, whether the relief of
Oaxaca does not date from a period, when, after
the first arrival of the Spaniards, the Indian
sculptors were already acquainted with some
European works of art., In discussing this ques-
tion we should recollect, that, three or four
years'before Cortez made himself master of the
country of Anahuac, and before religious mis-
sionariesbindered the natives from graving any —
other figures than those of saints, Hernandez de
Cordova, Antonio Alaminos, and Grixalva, had
visitéd the Mexican coasts, from the island of
Cozumel, and False Cape, in the peninsula of
Yucatan, as far as the mouth of the river of Pa- |
nuco. These conquerors had general commu-
nications with the inhabitants, whom they found
well clothed, dwelling in populous towns, and
more civilized than any other people on the
New Continent. It is probable, that, in these
military expeditions, crosses, rosaries, and
images, objects of veneration among the ca-
tholics, were left with the natives; and it is
possible also, that. some of these images may
have passed successively from the coast as far
inland as the mountains of Oaxaca: but can we
suppose, that the sight of a few figures correctly
drawn could have determined the natives to
abandon forms consecrated by the fashion of so

129

many ages? A Mexican sculptor might have
faithfully copied the image of an Apostle no
doubt ; but in a country where, as in Hindostan
and China, the natives adhered with the greatest
perseverance to the manners, habits, and arts, of —
their ancestors, would he have dared to repre-
sent a hero, or a Mexican divinity, under a new
and foreign form? Besides, the historical pic-
tures of the Mexican painters after the arrival
of the Spaniards, several of which are found in
the remains of the collection of Boturini at
Mexico, evidently prove, that this influence of
the European arts on the taste of the American
nations, and on the correctness of their drawings,
was extremely slow. |

I thought it indispensabie to state the doubts,
that might be suggested respecting the origin of
the relief of Oaxaca, which I have had engraved
at Rome after the sketch that was communi-
cated to me; but I am far from giving any
decided opinion .on so extraordinary a monu-
ment, which I had no opportunity of examining
myself. The architecture of the palace of,
Mitla, the elegance of the Grecques and laby-
rinths, which decorate the walls, are proofs,
that the civilization of the Zapoteck nations was
superior to that of the inhabitants of the valley
of Mexico. We may therefore be less sur-
prised, that the relief in question should have
been found at Oaxaca, the ancient Huaxyacac,

VOL. XIII. K

5

#30

which was the capital of the country of the
Zapotecks. If I might presume to offer my
own private opinion, I should observe, that it
appears to me more natural to attribute this
monument to Americans, who had yet had no
communication with the Whites; than to sup-

pose, that some Spanish sculptor, who had fol-—

lowed the army of Cortez, should have amused
himself with a work in the Mexican style in
honour of a vanquished people. The natives of
the north-west coast of America have never been
deemed very civilized; yet they have executed
drawings, the just proportions of which have
been admired by English navigators *.
Whatever be the true state of the question, it
seems certain, that the relief of Oaxaca repre-
sents a warrior returning from combat, and
decked with the spoils of his enemies. Two
slaves are placed at the feet of the conqueror.
What is most striking in this composition are
the noses of an enormous size, in the whole of
six heads seen sideways. These noses are the
essential characteristics of the monuments of
Mexican sculpture. In the hieroglyphical pic-
tures preserved at Vienna, Rome, and Veletri,
or in the palace of the Viceroy at. Mexico, the
divinities, heroes, and even: priests are all drawn
with large aquiline noses, often pierced towards

* Dixon’s Voyage, p. 272.

2

131

the point, and ornamented with the amphibzena,

or mysterious double-headed serpent. It is
possible, that this extraordinary physiognomy
might indicate a race of men very different from
that which now inhabits these countries, whose

noses are broad, flat, and of a moderate size ;

but it is also possible, that the Mexican people
might have thought, with the prince of philo-
sophers *, that there was something majestic
and royal (gacaimov) In a large nose, and might
have considered it in their reliefs and in their
paintings, as the symbol of power and moral
worth.

The pointed form of the heads is not less
striking in the Mexican drawings, than the size
of the noses. If we examine osteologically the
skulls of the natives of America, we see, as I
have elsewhere remarked, that there is no race
on the Globe in which the frontal bone is more
flattened, or which have less forehead -~. This
extraordinary flattening exists among people of
the copper-coloured race, who have never been
acquainted with the custom of producing arti-
ficial deformities, as is proved by the skulls of
Mexican, Peruvian, and Azteck Indians, which
M. Bonpland and myself brought to Europe,

* Plato, de Republica, lib.’5.

+ Blumenbach, Decas quinta Craniorum, 1808, p. 14,
tab. 46.

K 2

ese
wn

a aia tilde is Ac Gis Back

132

and several of which are deposited: in the Mu-
seum of Natural History at Paris. The negroes
prefer the thickest and most prominent lips ; the
Calmucks perceive the line of beauty in turned
up noses. M. Cuvier * observes, that the Gre-—
cian artists, in the. statues of heroes, raised the |
facial line from §5 to 100 degrees, or beyond the
natural form. I am led to think, that the bar-
barous custom, among certain savage tribes in
America, of squeezing the heads of children
between two planks, arises from the idea, that
beauty consists in this extraordmary compres-
sion of the frontal bone, by which nature has.
‘characterized the American race. It is no_
doubt from following this standard of beauty,
that even the Azteck people, who never dis-
figured the heads of their children, have repre-
sented their*heroes and principal divinities with
heads much flatter than any of the Caribs I saw
on the lower Orinoco.

The figure of the warrior in the relief oF
Oaxaca presents a very extraordinary mixture
of costumes. The ornaments of his headdress,
which has the shape of a helmet; those of the
standard (signum), which he holds in the left
hand, and on which we see a bird, as on the
standard of Ocotelolco; are found in all the
Azteck paintings. The vest with the long and

* Leconsd’ Anatomie comparée, t. 2, p. 6.

ast l j & : : t
aa iy 4 vee ; ; Fit
ee Se 4 of ee ek i tT or. Re P Orin gre Mia. “Satis sche . ae 2

ess

te
a: ets, *

133

narrow sleeves resembles the garment, which
the Mexicans name ichcahuepilli; but the net,
which covers the shoulders, is an ornament
no longer to be met with among the Indians.
Below the girdle is the spotted skin of a jaguar,
with its tail. It is related by the Spanish his-
torians, that the Mexican warriors, in order to |
appear more terrible in combat, wore enormous
wooden helmets in the form of a tyger’s head,
the jaws of which were armed with the teeth of
this animal. Two skulls, no doubt those of van-
quished enemies, are tied to the girdle of the
conqueror. His feet are covered with a kind of
buskin, which reminds us of the cxerez, or calige,
of the Greeks and Romans.

‘The slaves, represented sitting cross-legged
at the feet of the conqueror, are very remarkable
both for their attitudes and their nudity. That
on the left is like the figure of those saints,
which ‘we frequently see in Hindoo paintings,
and which the navigator Roblet found on the
north-west coast of America, among the hiero-
glyphical paintings of the natives of Cox’s chan-
nel*. Jt would be easy to trace, in this relief,
the Phrygian cap and the apron (cegGwpa) of
the Egyptian statues, were we to follow the steps
of a learned writer}, who, led away by the

* Marchand’s Voyage, vol. 1, p. 312.
+ Court de Gibeliu.

134

warmth of his imagination, thought he had dis-
covered on the New Continent Carthaginian in-
scriptions and Phoenician monuments *.

* See Archzologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to
Antiquity ; published by the Antiquarjes of London, vol. 8,
p- 290.

135

GENEALOGY
OF THE

PRINCES OF AZCAPOZALCO.

PLATE XII.

Two fragments of hieroglyphical paintings,
both posterior to the arrival of the Spaniards on .
the coasts of Anahuac, are engraved on this
plate. The originals, from which these draw-
ings are copied, belong to the Azteck manu-
scripts, which I brought from New Spain, and
- which are deposited in the royal library at
Berlin. The plate, from the manner in which
it is engraved, is a perfect imitation, not only of
the drawing, but of the colour of the Mexican
paper; and reminds us of the curious envelope
of amummy, that was preserved for some time
at Strasbourg, in a private collection, and now’
forms a part of the great and. valuable collections
of the Institute of Egypt at Paris.

The paper, which was used for the hierogly-
phical paintings of the Azteck people, has a

136

great resemblance to the Egyptian paper, made
with the fibres of the reed (cyperus papyrus).
The plant, which was employed in Mexico for
the fabrication of paper, is known in our gardens
under the name of aloes. It is the pite (agave
Americana), called meél, or maguey, by the
people of the Azteck race.. The mode of
making this paper was very similar to that em-

ployed in the South Sea islands with the bark of

the paper mulberry tree (broussonetia papy-
rifera). 1 have seen pieces three metres long
and two broad. The agave is cultivated at
present not for paper-making, but for preparing
with its juice, at the unfolding of the stalk and
flowers, the intoxicating liquor ‘called octl; or
pulque ; for the pite or metl may be used as a
substitute at the same time for the hemp of

Asia, the paper reed of Egypt, and the vine of

Kurope.
The painting, a copy of which is at the bottom
of the twelfth plate, is five decimetres long and
three broad. It is well preserved, the colours
are vivid, and the agave paper yellowed by
time is of a very fine and equal texture. It ap-

| pears that this fragment of hieroglyphic writing,
which I purchased at Mexico, at the sale of
Mr. Gama’s collection, was formerly a part of
the museum of the chevalier Boturini Benaducci.
This Milanese traveller had crossed the seas with
no other view, than to study on the spot the

py: 2) PR Ce hs ee iS, i oP
a 3 xsi Pri . aR
ae a ae ‘

137

history of the native tribes of America; but in
traversing the country to examine its monuments,
and make researches into its antiquities, he had
the misfortune to excite the ‘suspicion of the
Spanish government. After having been de-
prived of all the fruits of his labours, he was sent
in 1736, as a state-prisoner, to Madrid. The
King of Spain declared him innocent, but this
_ declaration did not restore to him his property ;
and his collections, the catalogue of which Bo-
turini published at the end of his Essay on the
Ancient History of New-Spain, printed at Ma-
drid, lay buried in the archives of the Vice-
royalty at Mexico. These valuable relics of the
culture of the Aztecks were preserved with so |
little care, that there scarcely exists at present
an eighth part of the hieroglyphical manuscripts
taken from the Italian traveller.

They who, before Boturini, were in possession
of the genealogical painting, which we now
publish, have added to it explanatory notes,
sometimes in Mexican, and sometimes in’ the
Spanish language. We see by these notes, that
the family, whose genealogy is represented in the
drawing, is that of the lords (¢latoanis) of Azca-
pozalco. The small territory of these princes,
to which the Tepanecks gave the pompous name
of kingdom, was situate in the valley of Mexico,
near the western bank of the lake of Tezcuco, to
the north of the river Escapuzalco. 'Torquemada

138

asserts, that these princes, jealous of the anti-

quity of their nobility, carried back their origin ©

as far as the first age of our era. They were
neither of the Mexican nor Azteck race; they
considered themselves as descendants of the
Acolhuan kings, who had governed the country
of Anahuac before the arrival of the Aztecks,
by whom the princes of Azcapozalco were made

tributaries in the eleventh calli of the Mexican |

era, which corresponds to the year 1425 of the
Christian. |

The genealogical painting, which we publish,
appears to contain twenty-four generations, in-
dicated by as many heads placed one above an-
other. We must not be surprised at never
seeing more than one son; since among the
poorest Indians, that are tributary, every inhe-
ritance descends to the eldest son*.- The ge-
nealogy begins with a prince named Tixlpit-
zin, whom we must not confound with Tecpalt-
zin, the chief of the Aztecks, in their first
migration from Aztlan; or with Topiltzin, the
last king of the Toltecks : but we shall perhaps
wonder at not finding, instead of the name of
Tixlpitzin, that of Acolhuatzin, first king of
Azcapozalco, of the family of the Citins, who,
according to the tradition of the natives, reigned

* Gomara, Hist. de la Conquista de Mexico ; 1553, f.
121.

139

in a very distant country, north of Mexico.
Near the fourteenth head is written the name of
Vitznahuatl. If this prince were the same per-
son with a king of Huexotla, whom the Mexican
historians name also Vitznahuatl, and who lived
about the year 1430, the genealogy of the family
of Azcapozalco would go back to the year 1010
of our era, in reckoning only thirty years for
each generation. But how then can we explain
the ten following generations, as the drawing
appears to have been made towards the end of
the sixteenth century ? Neither shall I decide
why the year 1565 is marked between the names
of the two princes, Anahuacatzin and Quauh-
temotzin. We know, that the last of these
names is that of the unfortunate Azteck king,
whom Gomara falsely names Quahutimoc ; and
who, by order of Cortez, was hung up by the feet
in 1621, as is proved by a very valuable hiero-
glyphical history, preserved in the Convent of
San Felipe Neri, at Mexico*. But how could
this king, nephew of Montezuma, figure in
the family of the lords or tlatoanis of Azcapo-
zalco ?

It is certain, that, when the last of these
princes ordered the genealogical painting of his
ancestors to be composed, his father and grand-
father were still living. This circumstance is

* See my Political Essay on New-Spain, p. 185.

140

clearly indicated by the small tongues placed at
some distance from the mouth. A dead man,
say the natives, is reduced to eternal silence:
according to them, to live, is to speak ; and, as
we shall see presently, to speak much is a mark
of power and nobility. ‘These figures of tongues
are also met with in the Mexican picture of the
Deluge, which Gemelli published from a manu-
script at Siguenza ; in which we see men born
dumb, who disperse themselves to repeople the
Earth; and a bird, that distributes among them
_ thirty-three different tongues. In the same man-
ner a volcano, on account of the subterraneous
noise heard sometimes in its neighbourhood, is
fizured by the Mexicans as a cone with several
tongues hovering over its top: a volcano is
called the mountain that speaks. |
It is remarkable enough, that the Mexican
painter should have given only to the three per-
sons, who were living in his time, the diadem
(copilli) which is a sign of sovereignty. We
meet with the same headdress, but without the
knot which reaches towards the back, in the
figures of the kings of the Azteck dynasty, pub-
lished by the Abbé Clavigero. The last branch
ofthe lords of Azcapozalco is represented sitting
on an Indian chair, with his feet at liberty:
dead kings, on the contrary, are figured not only
without tongues, but with their feet wrapped up
in the royal cloak («iuhtilmatli) which ‘gives

Sepety
AHN

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Lub * by Dongman, Hurst Rees, Orme & Brown, Aug.1d4

141

these images a great resemblance to Egyptian
mummies. It is almost superfluous in this place
to notice the general observation, that, in all the
Mexican paintings, the objects tied to a head by
means of a thread, indicate to those acquainted
with the language of the natives, the names of
the persons drawn by the artist. The natives
pronounce these names, when they see the hiero-
glyphic. Chimalpopoca signifies a buckler that
smokes; Acamapitzin, a hand that holds reeds.
Thus, to indicate the names of these two kings,
predecessors of Montezuma, the Mexicans paint-
ed a buckler and a fist tied by a thread to two
heads ornamented with a royal fillet. I have
remarked, that in the pictures made after the
conquest, the valiant Pedro Alvarado was drawn
with two keys placed behind the neck, in allu-
sion, no doubt, to the keys of St. Peter, whose
images were every where seen by the people in
the Christian churches. I do not understand the
meaning of the marks of feet, in the genealogical
picture, behind the heads. In other Azteck
paintings, this hieroglyphic indicates roads, mi-
-grations, and sometimes the direction of a move-
‘ment. |

A Law-suit in Mieroglyphical Writing.

Amidst the enormous quantity of paintings
found among the Mexican nations by .the first

‘ ae 9 E ; PORE ne ce haan ARO Sa
ee er er etn hA cine sop se- Oy nally pee, eae nara een nee Mas reeks at

142

conquerors, a very considerable number was des-
tined to serve as evidence in litigious causes.
The fragment added to the genealogy of the
lords of Azcapozaico is an example of this kind.
Itis a paper of a law-suit respecting the possession
of an Indian farm. Under the dynasty of the
Azteck kings, the profession of a lawyer was
unknown in Mexico. The contending parties
appeared in person to plead their cause, either
before the judge of the district, called teucth ; or
before the high courts of justice, called tlacatecatl
or cihuacohuatl. As the sentence was not imme-
diately pronounced after hearing the parties, each
of the disputants was interested in leaving with
the judges a hieroglyphical painting, to remind
them of the principal object of the dispute.
When the king presided in the assembly of the
judges, which took place every twenty, and in
certain cases every fourscore days, these law
papers were placed before the monarch. In
criminal causes, the picture represented the per-
son accused, not only at the moment when the
crime was committed, but also in the different
circumstances of his life preceding this action.
The king, in pronouncing the sentence of death,
made with the point of a dart a scratch across the
head of the culprit represented in the picture.

The use of these paintings in law-suits was ©

continued in the Spanish tribunals long after the
conquest: The natives, unable to address the

L
:
y
éf
;
r

143

judges except through an interpreter, considered
the employment of hieroglyphics as doubly ne-.
cessary. They were presented before the several
courts of justice in New-Spain (the Real dudi-
encia, the Sala del Crimen, and the Juzgado de :
Indios) as late as the beginning of the seven-
teenth century. When the Emperor Charles V
with a view to encourage the culture of the ari
and sciences in these distant regions, founded,
in 1553, the University of Mexico, three profes-
sorships were established ; one for teaching the
Azteck language, another for the Otomite, and
a third for the explanation of hieroglyphical
paintings. It was for a long time deemed indis-
pensable to have attorneys, pleaders, and judges,
who were able to read the titles, the genealogical
paintings, the ancient code of the laws, and the
list of taxes (tribufos) which each feudatory was
obliged to pay his lord. Two professors of the -
Indian language still exist at Mexico; but the
chair destined for the study of the Azteck anti-
quities has been suppressed. The use of paint-
ings is entirely lost; not because the knowledge
of the Spanish language has increased among
the natives, but because, from the present orga-
nization of the tribunals, it is found more useful
to apply to lawyers to plead the cause of the peo-
ple before the judges. |
_ The painting represented on the twelfth plate
seems to indicate a law-suit between some natives

144

and Spaniards. The affair in litigation is a farm,
the plan of which is traced in orthographical
projection. We see the high-road pointed out
by the marks of the feet ; the houses sketched
in profile; an Indian, whose name indicates a
bow ; and Spanish judges sitting in chairs with
he laws before them. |

The Spaniard, placed immediately above the
Indian, was probably called Aquaverde; the
hieroglyphic of water, painted green, being
figured behind his-head. The tongues are very
unequally divided in this picture. Every thing
portrays the state of a vanquished country: the
native scarcely dares defend his cause, while the
strangers with long beards talk much and loud,
as the descendants of a conquering people.

re Tw

AN AZTECK _.
~HIEROGLYPHICAL MANUSCRIPT,
LIBRARY OF THE VATICAN.

a

PLATE XIIT.

‘Tue Mexican paintings, a very small number

of which has reached our times, excite a double |

interest, both from the light they throw on the

. mythology and history of the first inhabitants of

America, and the apparent connexion with the

hieroglyphical writing of certain nations of the

Old Continent. We shall bring together in this

work whatever can aiford information with

respect to the communication which at the most

distant periods seems to have taken place be-

tween groups of nations separated by deserts,

by mountains, or by seas; and shall here mark

the result of our investigations on the hierogly-
phical paintings of the Americans.

Characters are found in Ethiopia, which have

. an astonishing resemblance with those of the

VOL. XIII. ee:

eT Ne ee ee Oe ee Sed eee ore raed

*
146

ancient Sanscrit, and particularly with the in-
scriptions in the caves of Canara, the construc-
tion of which preceded all the known periods of
Indian histery*. The arts appear to have
flourished at Meroe, and at Axoum, one of the
most ancient cities of Ethiopia, before Egypt
rose from a state of barbarism. A celebrated
writer, deeply versed in the history of India,
Sir William Jonesy, believed, that he had
traced the same people in the Ethiopians of
Meroe, the first Egyptians, and the Hindoos.
Yet it is almost certain, that the Abyssinians,
whom we must not confound with the autoch-
thones of Ethiopia, were an Arabian tribe; _ ;
and, according to the observation of M. Lan-
sles, the same hamyaritic characters, which we.
discover in the east of Africa, still decorated,
in the fourteenth century of the vulgar era,
the gates of the city of Samarcand. Some
connexion therefore undoubtedly existed be-
tween Habesch, or ancient Ethiopia, and the of
elevated plain of central Asia. iy

A long struggle between two religious sects, |
the Brahmans and the Bouddhists, terminated | 1
by the emigration of the Chamans to Thibet, }
Mongolia, China, and Japan. If tribes of the :

* Notes, by M. Langles, to Norden’s Travels, vol. 3,
p. 299, 349. i @
+ Asiatic Researches, vol. 3, ip. 6. ‘

eT aR
ee

ath

Tartar race have passed over to the north-
west coast of America; and thence to the
south and the east, towards the banks of Gila, _
and those of the Missouri, as etymological *
researches seem to indicate ; we should be less
surprised at finding, among the semi-barbarous
nations of the new continent, idols and mo-

numents of architecture, a hieroglyphical writ-

ing, and exact knowledge of the duration
of the year, and traditions respecting the first
state of the worid, recalling to our minds the
sciences, the arts, and the religious opinions of
the Asiatic nations. 3

In the study of the history of mankind, as
in that of the immensity of languages spread
over the face of the Glebe, it would be losing
ourselves in a labyrinth of conjectures, were
we to assign a common origin to se many races,
and so many different tongues. ‘The roots of
the Sanscrit found in the Persian tongue, the
great number of roots of the Persian, and even
of the Pahlavi, which we discover in the tongues
of Germannic origin, give us no right to con-
sider the Sanscrit, the Pahlavi, or the ancient
language of the Medes, the Persian, and the
German, as derived from one and the same

* Vater ueber Amerika’s Bevollkerung, p. 155, 169.
+ Adelung’s Mithridates, Th. 1, p. 297, Schlegel, ueber
Sprache.and Weisheit der Inder, p. 7.
L 2

tS

Saga > Se oe A a ie) eS UMM A he a GMA bd to
ute 4 aS hic if See 4 hed heat genet
i - : ese

148

source. It would no doubt be absurd to sup-
pose the migration of Egyptian colonies where-
ever pyramidical monuments and symbolical
paintings are found ; but how can we avoid be-
ing struck with the traces of resemblance offered
by the vast pictures of manners, of arts, of lan-
guage, and traditions, which exist at present
among nations at the most remote distance from
each other? Why should we hesitate to point
out, wherever they occur, the analogies of con-
struction in languages, of style in monuments,
and of fictions in cosmogonies, although we may
be unable to decide what were the secret causes
of these resemblances, while no historical fact

carries us back to the epocha of the communica- —

tions, which existed between the inhabitants of
different climates : thie,
In fixing our attention on the graphical means
which the natives employed to express their
ideas, we find -real hieroglyphics, sometimes

curiologic, sometimes tropical, such as those,

the use of which appears to have passed from
Ethiopia into Egypt; symbolic characters com-
posed of numerous keys, destined to speak

‘rather to the eyes than the ear, and expressing —
whole words, like the Chinese; or syllabical -

characters, like those of the Mantchou Tartars,

in which the vowels are combined in one figure

with the consonants, but which may also

be restored into simple letters; finally, real
he

Sete
A

149

alphabets, which offer the highest degree of per-
fection in the analysis of sounds, and of which
some, for instance the Corean, according to the
‘Ingenious observation of M. Langles*, seem still
to indicate the transition from hieroglyphics to
alphabetical writing.

In the immense extent of the new continent,
we see nations which have reached a certain de-
gree of civilization; we observe forms of go-
-vernment, and institutions, which could only
have been the effect of a long struggle between
the prince and the people, the priesthood and
the magistracy ; and we find languages, some
of which, such as the Greenland, the Cora, the
Tamanac, the Totonac, and the Quichua +, dis-
play a richness of grammatical forms, which we
trace nowhere in the old continent, except at
Congo, and among the Biscayans, who were the
‘remains of the ancient Cantabrians: but amid
these marks of civilization, and this progressive
perfection of language, it is remarkable, that no
native people of America had attained that ana-
lysis of sounds, which leads to the most admira-
ble, we might say the most miraculous of all in-
ventions, an alphabet.

We perceive that the use of hier oglyphical

* Norden’s Travels, Langles’ edition, vol. 3, p. 296.
_ + Archiv fuer Shea eae B. 1, s. 345. Vater. s
206.

I iO oa NN MU a

150

paintings was common to the Toltecks, the °

Tlascaltecks, the Aztecks, and several other
tribes, which, since the seventh century of our
era; appear successively on the elevated plain
of Anahuac; but we nowhere find alphabetic
characters ; and we are led to think, that the
progressive perfection of symbolic signs, and
the facility with which objects are painted,
had prevented the introduction of letters. We
may cite, in support of this opinion, the ex-
ample of the Chinese, who during thousands
of years have contented themselves with four-
score thousand characters, composed of two

hundred and fourteen keys, or radical hiero-—

glyphics: but-do we not discover among the
Egyptians the simultaneous use of an alpha-
bet, and hieroglyphic writing, of which we have
undoubted proof in the valuable rolls of papyrus
found in the swathings of several mummies,
and represented in M. Denon’s Picturesque
Atlas *?

Kalm-+ relates, in his Travels in America, —

that Mr. Verandrier had discovered, in 1746,
in the savainahs of Canada, nine hundred lea-

gues west of Montreal, a stone tablet fixed in a

sculptured pillar, and on which were strokes that
were taken for a Tartarian inscription. Several
Jesuits at Quebec assured fhe: Swedish traveller

_* Denon’s Voyage en Egypt, Pl. 136 et 187.

+ Kalm’s Reise, B, IIT, p. 416.

BJ

ann
i”

i Ase ye Pee Oe BO Ro BOs wt Reg
yh PT am Pe rte Ry %
a

151

that they had examined this tablet, which the
Chevalier Beauharnois, then governor of Ca-
nada, had sent to M. de Maurepas in France.
We cannot but deeply regret. having no farther
knowledge of a monument, so interesting to
the history of man. But were there any per-
sons residing at Quebec capable of judging of
the character of an alphabet? and if this pre-
tended inscription had been really recognized
in France as a Tartarian inscription, is it pro-
bable, that an enlightened minister, a protec- |
tor of the arts, would not haye ordered it to be
published :

_ The Anglo-American antiquaries have made
known an inscription, which is supposed to be
Pheenician, and which is engraved on the rocks
of Dighton, in Narraganset bay, near the banks
of ‘Taunton river, twelve leagues south of Bos-
ton. Drawings of this inscription have been
repeatedly published, from the end of the 17th
_century down to the present time by Danforth,
Mather, Greenwood, and Sewell; but so dis-
similar, that it is difficult to recognize them
as copies of the same original. The natives who
inhabited these countries, at the time of the
first European settlements, preserved an anci-
ent tradition, according to which, strangers in
wooden houses had sailed up Taunton river,
formerly called Assoonet. These strangers,
after having conquered the red men, had en-

e

152

graved marks in the rock, which is now covered
by the waters of the river. Count Gebelin does
not hesitate, with the learned Dr. Stiles, to re-
gard these marks as a Carthaginian inscrip-
tion. He says, with that enthusiasm which is
natural to him, but which is highly injurious
in discussions of this kind, that this inscription
comes happily at the moment from the new
world, to confirm his ideas on the origin of
nations ; and that it is clearly demonstrated to
be a Pheenician monument, a picture which, in
the foreground, represents an alliance between
the American people and the foreign nation,
coming by the winds of the north from a rich
and industrious country.

I have carefully examined the four draw-
ings of the celebrated stone of Taunton river,
which Mr. Lort* published in London in the
Memoirs of the Antiquarian Society. Far
from recognizing a symmetrical arrangement
of simple letters and syllabic characters, I
discover a drawing scarcely traced, like those
that have been found on the rocks of Norway+t,
and in almost all the countries inhabited by the
Scandinavian nations. In this sketch we dis-
tinguish, from the form of the heads, five hu-

* Account of an ancient Inscription, by Mr. Lort, Archz-
ologia, vol. 3, p. 290.

+ Suhm, Samlinger til ten Danske Historie, B. 2, p. 215.)
i

*

(Betis ft a ah) tk ES eS aa renee Sie Ti ‘Be, Svc kt vy Py, VPN ae ape Lac

193

man figures, surrounding an animal with horns,
much higher in the fore than the hinder part of
the body. |

In the voyage made by M. Bonpland and
myself to ascertain the communication between
the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, we were told
of an inscription, which it was asserted was
found in the chain of granitic mountains, that,
in the seventh degree of latitude, extends from
the Indian village of Uruana, or Urbana, as far
as the western banks of the Caura. A mission-
ary, Ramon Bueno, a Franciscan monk, hav-
ing accidentally entered a cavern formed by
the separation of some ledges of rocks, beheld
in the middle of the cave a large block of gra-
nite, on which he saw what he believed to be
characters formed into various groups, and
ranged on the same line. Unfortunately, the
difficult circumstances, in which we were placed
on our return from Rio Negro to St. Thomas
de la Guayana, did not permit us to verify per-
sonally this observation. The missionary gave
me a copy of part of these characters, of which
the following is an engraving.

LY PEP

» Some res@iiiblance to the Phoenician alphabet

a

154

may be discovered in these characters; but
I much doubt whether the good monk, who
seemed to be but little interested about this pre-

tended inscription, had copied it very carefully.

It is somewhat remarkable, that out of seven cha-
racters there were none several times repeated ;.
I have inserted them merely as worthy of engag-
ing the attention of the learned, who may here-
after visit the forests of Guyana.

It is also remarkable, that in this savage

and desert country, where P. Bueno found let-
ters engraven in granite, are a great number of
rocks, which at considerable heights are covered
with figures of animals, representations of the
sun, the moon, and the stars, and other hiero-
glyphical signs. The natives relate, that their
ancestors, in the time of the great waters, came
in canoes to the top of these mountains: and
that the stones were then in so plastic a state,
that men could trace marks on them with their
fingers. This tradition indicates a tribe in a dif-
ferent state of civilization from that of the peo-
ple by which it was preceded, discovering an
absolute ignorance of the use of the chisel, and
every other metallic tool.

From the whole of these facts it results, that.

there exists no certain proof of the knowledge
of an alphabet among the Americans. In re-

‘searches of this kind we cannot be too careful
ht effect. of

not to confound what may be T
#

> Ai SSR eae
i. Cea is Meee J V6
APL SD wy
ae i

155

chance, or idle amusement, with letters or sylla-
bic characters. Mr. Truter* relates, that in the
southern extremity of Africa, among the Bet-
juanas, he saw children busy in tracing on a
rock, with some sharp instrument, characters
which bore the most perfect resemblance with
the P and the M of the Roman alphabet; not-
withstanding which, these rude tribes were per-
fectly ignorant of writing. |
This want of letters observed in the new con-
tinent, at the time of its second discovery by
Christopher Columbus, leads to the idea, that
the tribes of the Tartar or Mongul race, which
we may suppose to have passed from the east of
Asia to America, were not in possession of al-
phabetical writing; or what is less probable,
that, haying relapsed into barbarism under the
influence of a climate less favorable to the display
of the understanding, they had lost this won-
derful art, known only to a very small number
of individuals. We shall not here examine the
question, whether the Devanagari alphabet is of
remote antiquity on the banks of the Indus and
the Ganges; or whether, as Strabo} asserts
from Megasthenes, the Hindoos were ignorant
of writing before the conquests of Alexander.
Farther to the east and the north in the region

* Bertuch, Geogr, Ephem. B. 12, s. 67.
_ F Strabo, lib. 15, p. 1035—1044.

156

of monosyllabic languages, as in that of the

Tartarian, Samoiede, Ostiack, and Kamt-
schadale tongues, the use of letters wherever it is
at present found, was introduced very late. It
seems indeed probable, that it was the Christian
sect of Nestorians, who communicated the
Stranghelo alphabet to the Oighours and the
Mantchou Tartars ; an alphabet, which in the
northern regions of Asia is still more recent, than
the Runic characters in the north of Europe.
We need not, therefore, suppose the communi-
cations between eastern Asia and America to
have been of very remote antiquity, in order to
comprehend why this latter part of the world
had not been instructed in an art, which for a
long series of ages was unknown except in
Egypt, in the Phoenician and Grecian colonies,
and in the small space lying between the
Mediterranean, the Oxus, and the Persian
gulf. | a”
When we examine the history of those nations
among which the use of letters is unknown, we
find almost every where, in both hemispheres,
that men have attempted to paint the objects
which strike their imagination, to represent
things by indicating a part for the whole, to
- compose pictures by grouping figures in symbo-
lical sketches, and thus to perpetuate the
memory of certain remarkable facts. The
Delaware Indian, in scouring the woods, carves

a ee NS RDG, oa | SM UR La ves sa
Cito ReMiiy Ree ek ye zi
Baty eae

157

strokes on the bark of the trees, to mark the
number of men and women he has killed of the
enemy: the conventional sign, which indicates
the skin stripped from the head of a woman, dif-
fers by a simple stroke only from that which
characterizes the scalp of a man. Were we to
call hieroglyphic every painting of ideas by
things, there is not, as Mr. Zoega* has weli re-
marked, a corner of the Globe, in which we
should not find hieroglyphical writing ; but this
same learned person, who-has deeply studied the
Mexican paintings, observes also, that we must
not confound hieroglyphical writing with the re-
presentation of an event, with pictures in which |
the objects are in the state of action with one
another.

The first missionaries who visited America,
Valades and Acosta, have already called the
Azteck paintings a writing similar to that of the

Egyptians. If Kircher, Warburton, and other
learned men, have since contested the propriety
of this expression, it is because they have not

distinguished the paintings of a mixed kind, in
which real hieroglyphics, sometimes curiological,
sometimes tropical, are added to the natural re-
presentation of an action, from simple. hierogly-

* Zoega, p. 025—534.

+ Rheterica Christiana, auctore Didaco Valades; Rome,
1579, P. 2, c. 27, p. 93. Acosta, Lib. 6,c. 7. :

158

phical writing, such as is found, not on the
pyramidion, but on the great faces of the obe-
lisks. The famous inscription of Thebes, cited
by Plutarch, and by Clement of Alexandria *,
the only one, the explanation of which has
reached us, expressed by the hieroglyphies of a
child, an old man, a vulture, a fish, and a hippo-
potamus, the following sentence: “ You who
are born, and who are to die, know, that the
Eternal hates impudence.” A Mexican, to express

the same idea, would have represented the great _

spirit, Teotl, chastising a criminal ; certain cha-
racters placed above two heads, would have
been sufficient to indicate the age of the child,
and that of the old man: he would have indivi-
dualized the action, but the style of his hierogly-
phical paintings would not have furnished him
with the means of giving a general expression to
the sentiment of hatred and vengeance.
According to the ideas which the ancients
_ have transmitted to us of the hieroglyphical in-
scriptions of the Egyptians, it is very probable,
that they might have been read, as we read
Chinese books. The collections, which we im-
properly call Mexican manuscripts, contain a
great number of paintings, which may be inter-

* Plut. de Iside; ed. Par. 1624, Vol. 2, p. 363, F, Clem
Alexand. Stromat. Vol. 5, c.'7, ed. Potter, Oxon, 1715, Vol.
2, p. 670, lin. 30. a

a
“
p=
a
{send
ak Be ae
= aes pe a
Te ce Se. tee

159

preted or explained like the sculptures on the
Trajan column; but we find onty a very small
number of characters susceptible of being read.
The Azteck people had real simple hierogly-
phics for water, earth, air, wind, day, night, the
middle of the night, speech, motion: they had
also for numbers, for the days and the months of
the solar year. These signs, added to the paint-
ing of an event, marked in a very ingenious man-
~ ner, whether the action passed during the day or
the night ; the age of the persons they wished to
represent ; whether they had been conversing,
and who among them had spoken most. We
even find among the Mexicans vestiges of that
kind of hieroglyphics, which is called phonetic,
and which indicates relations, not with things,
but with the language spoken. Among semi-bar-
barous nations, the names of individuals, of cities,
and mountains, have generally some allusion to
objects that strike the senses, such as the form of
plants and animals, fire, air, or earth. This cir- .
cumstance has given the Azteck people the
means of being able to write the names of cities,
and those of their sovereigns. The verbal
translation of Axajacatl, is face of water; that of
Ilhuicamina, arrow which pierces the sky ; thus
to represent the kings Moteuczoma Ilhuicamina
and Axajacatl, the painter united the hierogly-
phics of water and the sky to the figure of a
- head and of an arrow. The names of the cities

160

of Macuilxochitl, Quauhtinchan, and Tehuilo-
joccan, signify, five flowers, house of the eagle,
and place of mirrors: to indicate these three
cities, they painted a flower placed on five points,
a house from which issued the head of an eagle,
and a mirror of obsidian. In this manner the
union of several simple hieroglyphics indicated
compound names, and by signs which spoke at
the same time to the eye and the ear: the cha-
-racters which designated towns and provinces
were often drawn also from the productions of
the soil, or the occupations of the inhabitants.

From the whole of these researches it follows,
that the Mexican paintings which have been
preserved to our times, offer a great resemblance
not with the hieroglyphical writings of the
Egyptians, but with the rolls of papyrus found
in the swathings of the mummies; which we
may also consider as paintings of a mixed kind, :
because they unite symbolical and isolated cha-
racters with the representation of an action.
We recognize, in these rolls of papyrus, initia-—
tions, sacrifices, allusions to the state of the soul
after death, tributes paid to conquerors, the be-
neficent. effects of the inundations of the Nile,
and the labours of agriculture. Among a great _
number of figures represented in action, or in
connexion with each other, we observe real
hieroglyphics, those isolated characters which
belonged to writing; and it is not only on the:

" , jm : 4
es ; gy ¢ te Sate gl comely] ape
PN 2 pi RI Gala BREN oc 6 | aE aS ys aa

161

papyri, and the swathings of mummies, but also
on the obelisks, that we find traces of this mixed
kind, which joins painting with hieroglyphical
writing. The lower part and the point of
Egyptian obelisks present in general a group of
two figures, which are in a state of action with
respect to each other, and which ought not to be
confounded with the isolated characters of sym-
bolical writing. |

When we compare the Mexican paintings
with the hieroglyphics, that decorated the tem-
ples, the obelisks, and perhaps even the pyramids
of Egypt; and reflect on the progressive steps,
which the human mind appears to have follow- .
ed in the invention of graphic means fitted to ex-
press ideas; we see, that the nations of America
were very distant from that perfection which the
Kgyptians had obtained. The Aztecks were
indeed but little acquainted with simple hiero-
glyphics ; they could represent the elements, and
the relations of time and of place ; but it is only
by a great number of these characters, suscepti-
ble of being employed separately, that the paint-
ing of ideas becomes easy, and approximates to
writing. We find among the Aztecks the germes
of phonetic characters : they know how to write
names, by uniting certain signs which are asso-
ciated with sounds: this contrivance might have
led them to the beautiful discovery of giving an
alphabetic form to their ash hieroglyphics ;

VOL. XIII. M

162

but ages would have elapsed, before these na-
tions of mountaineers, who adhered to their
manners and customs with the same invincible
obstinacy as the Chinese, the Japanese, and the
Hindoos, could have raised themselves to the
decomposition of words, the analysis of sounds,
the invention of an alphabet !

Notwithstanding the extreme imperfection of
the hieroglyphical writing of the Mexicans, their
paintings were good substitutes for books, manu-
scripts, and alphabetic characters. In the time
of Montezuma, thousands of persons were em-
ployed in painting; either forming new com-
positions, or copying pictures which already
- existed. The facility with which they made
paper of the. leaves. of maguey, or pite (the
agave), no doubt greatly contributed to render
the use of painting so frequent. ‘The paper reed
(cyperus papyrus) of the Old Continent grows
only in moist and temperate places ; the pite, on
the contrary, flourishes equally in the valleys,
and on the loftiest mountains ; it vegetates in the
- warmest regions of the Globe, and on elevated —
plains, where the thermometer descends to the
freezing point. The Mexican manuscripts
(codices Mexicani), that have been preserved, are
_ some of them painted on deer skins, others on
cotton, or paper of maguey. It is very probable,
that among the Americans, as formerly among
the Greeks, and other people of the Old World,

TR USS SEE ST Seana Se ean
‘ r ¥, ty VAs baa a the re :
wy - Way > PC be taal,
thy py “pu. os! : Ds
% rSiery J ,

163

the use of skins, tanned and prepared, preceded
that of paper: the Toltecks, at least, seem al-
ready to have employed hieroglyphical painting
at that remote era, when they inhabited the
northern provinces, the climate of which is un-—
fit for the cultivation of the agave.

Among the Mexican people, the figures and
symbolic characters were not traced on separate
leaves. Whatever was the substance employed
for manuscripts, they were seldom destined to
form rolls; but were almost always folded in

- -gigzag, in a particular manner, like the mounts

of our fans. Two tablets of light wood were
pasted at the ends, one at top, the other at bot-
tom, so that, before the painting was unfolded,
the manuscript had the most perfect resem-
blance with our.bound books. By this arrange-
ment, on opening a Mexican manuscript as we
open our books, we can see only half of the cha-

- racters at one time, those which are painted on

the same side of the skin, or paper of maguey:
to examine the whole of the pages, if the different
folds of a band, which is often twelve or fifteen
metres in length, can be called pages, we must

extend the whole manuscript first from the left to

the right, and then from the right to the left. In
this respect the Mexican paintings are perfectly
similar to the Siamese manuscripts, preserved in

the public library at Paris, which are also folded

in zigzag.
M 2%

‘ 164

The volumes, which the first missionaries of
New Spain improperly called Mexican books,
contained notions on a great number of very
different subjects ; they consisted of historical

annals of the Mexican empire, rituals indicating °
the month and the day on which sacrifices were |

to be made to particular divinities, cosmogonical
and astrological representations, papers relating
to lawsuits, documents respecting the divisions
of property in a district, lists of tributes payable
at certain periods of the year, genealogical tables
according to which inheritances or the rule of
succession in families was regulated, calendars
showing the intercalations of the civil year and
religious year, and paintings indicating the pains
and penalties, which the judges were to inflict
for crimes. My travels in different parts of

America and Europe procured me the advantage |

of examining a greater number of Mexican ma-
nuscripts, than Zoega, Clavigero, Gama, the
Abbé Hervas, the ingenious author of the Let-
tere Americane, Count Hinaldo Carli, and other
learned persons, who, since Boturini, have writ-
ten on these monuments of the ancient civiliza-
tion of America. In the valuable collection pre-
served in the palace of the Viceroy at Mexico, I
saw fragments of paintings relative to each of the
subjects I have just enumerated.

We cannot avoid being struck with the great

resemblance, which we observe between the —

165

Mexican manuscrips preserved at Veletri, at
Rome, at Bologna, at Vienna, and at Mexico;
they seem at first sight to be copies of each
other ; they are all extremely incorrect in the
outlines, but we find a scrupulous attention to
the details, and great strength in the colouring,
which is placed so as to produce the most strik-
ing contrasts. The figures are in general
dwarfish with respect to the body, like those of
the Etruscan reliefs : but in correctness of draw-
ing they are far beneath the most imperfect
paintings of the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Ja-
panese, or the people of Thibet. We see in |
the Mexican paintings heads of an enormous
size, a body extremely short, and feet which,
from the length of the toes, look like the claws
of a bird. The heads are always drawn in pro-_
file, though the eye is placed as if the figure pre-
sented a full view. All this denotes the infancy
' of the art; but we must not forget, that people
who express their ideas by paintings, and who
are compelled by their state of society to make
frequent use of mixed hieroglyphical writing,
attach as little importance to correct painting,
as the literati of Europe to a fine hand-writing
in their manuscripts.

It cannot be denied, that the Mexican people
belong to a race of men, who, like several
Tartar and Mongul hordes, are extremely fond of
imitating the form of objects. Every where in

166

New Spaiu, as well as in Quito and Peru, we find
Indians, who know how to paint and carve ; they
succeed in servilely copying whatever they be-
hold, and they have learnt, since the arrival of the
Kuropeans, to give correctness to their outlines ;
but nothing indicates their being penetrated with
that feeling of the beautiful, without which paint-
ing and sculpture cannot rise above the rank of
mechanical arts. In this, and in many other re-
-spects, the inhabitants of the New World resem-
ble the whole of the tribes of the East of Asia.
We may conceive’ also how the frequent use
of mixed hieroglyphical paintings must contri-
bute to spoil the taste of a nation, thus famili-
arized to the aspect of the most hideous figures,
and of forms the most remote from correctness
of proportion. To indicate a king, who, in
such a year, conquered a neighbouring nation,
the Egyptian, in the perfection of his writing,
ranged in the same line a small number of
isolated . hieroglyphics, which expressed the
whole series of the ideas he wished to represent ;
and these characters consisted for the most part
of the figures of inanimate objects: the Mexican,
- on the contrary, to express the same thing, was

obliged to paint a group of two persons, a king, .

armed, overthrowing a warrior wearing the arms
of the conquered city. But in order to abridge
the labour of these historical paintings, they

began soon to paint only what was absolutely

167

indispensable to recognize the objects. Why
give arms to a figure represented in an attitude
in which no use is made of them? Moreover,
the principal forms, those by which a divinity, a
temple, a sacrifice, were represented, must have
been early fixed. It would have become ex-
tremely difficult to comprehend these paintings,
if every artist could have capriciously varied the
representation of objects, which it was so often
necessary to portray. Hence it follows, that the —
civilization of the Mexicans“ might have been
considerably advanced, without their being

tempted to abandon the incorrect forms, towhich_

they had been habituated for ages. A warlik
nation, living on mountains, robust, but
tremely ill-favoured according to the Eur
principles of beauty, degraded by des
» accustomed to the ceremonies of a
worship, is but little disposed to 1
the cultivation. of the fine arts “the
painting instead of writing, the dail
many hideous and_ disproportioned
obligation of preserving the same for
change, these various circumstances must have
contributed to perpetuate a bad taste among the
Mexicans. |

We seek in vain on the elevated plain of
central Asia, or farther to the north and the east,
for nations who have made use of this hierogly-
phical painting, which has been practised in the

“~~;

4

ia

168

country of Anahuac ever since the end of the
seventh century. The Kamtschatdales, the Ton-
gooses, and other tribes of Siberia, described by
Strahlenberg, paint figures which represent his-
torical facts. Under every zone, as we have |
already observed, we find nations more or less
addicted to this kind of painting ; but there is a
wide distance between a plate covered with
certain characters, and those Mexican manu-
scripts, which are all composed according to a
uniform system, and which may be considered
as the annals of the empire. We are ignorant
whether this system of hieroglyphic painting
was invented in the New Continent, or whether
it was owing to the emigration of some Tartar
tribe acquainted with the exact duration of the
year, and whose civilization was as ancient as

that of the Oighours of the elevated plain of
Turfan. If we do not find in the Old Continent
any nation, that has made so extensive a use of
painting as the Mexicans, it is because we dis-
cover neither in Europe nor in Asia a Civilization
so much advanced, without the knowledge of an
alphabet, or certain characters that serve as a
substitute, such as the characters of the Chinese
and the Coreans. Before the introduction of
hieroglyphical painting, the nations of Anahuac
made use of those knots, and threads of various
colours, which the Peruvians call quippus, and
which are found not only among the Canadians,

BYE Kt ai He moh en 14
igs Ds CK yy

169

oO ’
but in very remote times among the Chinese.

Boturini was fortunate enough to procure speci-
mens of real Mexican quippus, or nepohualt-
zitzin, found in the country of the Tlascaltecks.
In the great migrations of the nations, those of
America transported themselves from north to
south, as the Iberians, the Celts, and the Pelas-
zi flowed from east to west. Perhaps the ancient

inhabitants of Peru had already passed over the

elevated plain of Mexico : in fact, Ulloa, who was
well acquainted with the style of Peruvian archi-
tecture, was struck with the great resemblance
certain old edifices of Western Louisiana bore,
in the distribution of the doors and niches, to the
tamboes built by the Incas ; and it is not less sin-
gular, according to the traditions collected at Li-
can the ancient capital of the kingdom of Quito,
that the quippus were known to the Puruays
long before they were subdued by the descend-
ants of Manco-Capac. |

The use of writing and of hieroglyphics super-
seded in Mexico, as well as in China, that of
knots, or the nepohualtzitzin. This change

_ was effected about the year 648 of our era. A

northern, but very polished race, the Toltecks,
appears in the mountains of Anahuac, on the east
of the gulf of California ; declares itself expelled
from a country lying to the north-west of the
Rio Gila, and called Huehuetlapallan ; it brings
with it paintings, indicating year by year the

170

events of its migration ; and it professes to have
quitted this country, the situation of which is
altogether unknown to us, in the year 544, at
the same period when the total ruin of the dy-
nasty of the Tsin had occasioned great com-
motions among the nations in the east of Asia.
This circumstance is very remarkable: moreover,
the names, which the Toltecks bestowed on the
cities they built, were those of the cities of the

northern country, which they had been compell-

ed to abandon; from this circumstance the ori-
gin* of the Toltecks, the Cirimecks, the Acol-
huans, and the Aztecks, of those four nations
who spoke the same language, and who entered
successively, and by the same road into Mexico,
will be known, if we ever discover in the north
of America or Asia a people acquainted with the
names of ° ‘Huehuetlapallan, Aztlan, Teocolhua-
can, Amaquemecan, Tehuajo, and Copalla. _
As far as the parallel of fifty-three leagues, the
temperature of the north-west coast of America
is milder than that of the eastern coasts; we
might be led to think, therefore, that civilization
had anciently made some progress in this climate,
and even in higher latitudes. Even in our own
times we perceive, that in the fifty-seventh de-
gree, in Cox’s Channel, and Norfolk Sound,

* Clavigero, Storia di Messico, tom. 1, p. 126 5 Pe A,

p. 29 and 46.

171

called by Marchand the gulf of Tchinkitane,
the natives have a decided taste for hierogly-
phical paintings on wood. I have examined in
another part of my works*, whether it is pro-
bable, that these industrious nations, of a gene-
rally mild and affable disposition, are Mexican
emigrants, who sought refuge toward the north,
after the arrival of the Spaniards; or whether
they are not rather the descendants of the Tol-
teck and Azteck tribes, who, at the time of the
irruption of the nations of Aztlan, remained in
‘these northern regions. From the happy coin-
cidence of various circumstances, man raises him-
self to a certain degree of cultivation, even in

_ climates the least favourable to the development

of organized beings: near the polar circle, in
Iceland, in the twelfth century, we know the
Scandinavians cultivated literature and the arts
with more success, than the inhabitants of Den-
mark and Prussia.

A few Tolteck tribes appear to have mixed
with the nations, who formerly inhabited the
country lying between the eastern bank of the
Mississippi and the Atlantic ocean. The Iroquois
and the Hurons made hieroglyphical paintings
on wood, which bear a striking resemblance

* See my Essai Politique, vol, 1, p. 372; vol. 2, p. 507:
Marchand, tom, 1, p, 259, 261, 299, 375.

172

with those of the Mexicans* ; they indicated the —

names of the persons they meant to represent,

by employing the same means, which we have

already mentioned in the description of a genea-
logical painting. The natives of Virginia had
paintings called sagkokok, which represented in
symbolical characters the events, that had taken
place during the space of sixty years : these were
great wheels divided by sixty spokes, or into as
many equal parts. Lederer + relates having
seen, in the Indian village of Pommacomek,

one of these hieroglyphical oycles, in which the —

epocha of the arrival of the Whites on the coasts
of Virginia was marked by the figure of a swan
vomiting fire; to indicate at the same time the
colour of the Europeans, their passage by water,
and the destruction which their fire-arms had
poured on the Red men.

At Mexico the use of painting and of paper of.

maguey was extended far beyond the limits of

the empire of Montezuma, to the borders of the

lake of Nicaragua, whither the Toltecks in their
migrations had carried their language and their
arts. Inthe kingdom of Guatimala, the inhabi-
tants of Teochiapan had preserved traditions,

* Lafitau, vol. 2, p. 43, 225, 416. La Honian, Voyage
dans l Amerique septentrionale, vol. 2, p. 193.
+ Journal des Savans, 1681, p. 75.

173

that went back to the epocha of a great deluge ;
after which their ancestors, led by a chief called
Votan, had come from a country lying toward
the north. In the village of Teopixca, there
still existed in the sixteenth century descendants
of the family of Votan, or Vodan ; for these two
names are the same, the Toltecks and the Az-
tecks not having the four consonants d, b, r, s
in their language. ‘They who have studied the
history of the Scandinavian nations in the heroic
times, must be struck at finding in Mexico a
name, which recalls that of Wodan or Odin,
who reigned among the Scythians, and whose
race, according to the very remarkable assertion
of Bede*, “ gave kings to a great number of
nations.”

If it be true, as many learned men have sup-
posed, that these same Toltecks, whom pesti-
lence, followed by a great drought, had driven
from the elevated plain of Anahuac about the
middle of the eleventh century of our era, reap-
- peared in South America as founders of the
empire of the Incas, why should not the Peruvi-
ans have abandoned their guippus, and adopted
the hieroglyphical writing of the Toltecks?
Almost at the same epocha, in the beginning of
the twelfth century, a Greenland as had

* Beda, Hist. Eccles. lib. 1, c.15. Francisco Nunnez de °
la Vega, Constitutiones Synodales, p. 74.

carried, not to the Continent: of America, but to

Newfoundland (V’inland ), Latin books, the same
perhaps as the brothers Zeni found there in
1380 *.

Weare ignorant whether tribes of the Tolteck
race penetrated into the southern hemisphere,
not by the Cordilleras of Quito and Peru, but
by following the plains which stretch to the east
of the Andes, towards the banks of the Mara-
non. An extremely curious fact, with which I
became acquainted during my abode at Lima,
leads to this supposition.

Narcissus Gilbar, a franciscan, RS
for his courage, and his love of inquiry, found,
among some independent Indians, the Panoes,
on the banks of the Ucayale, a little to the north
of the mouth of the Sarayacu, bundles of paint- _
ings, which in their external appearance per- |
fectly resembled our volumes in quarto. Each
leaf was three decimetres long, and two broad ;
the covering of these collections was formed of
several leaves of the palm tree, with a very thick
parenchyma, glued together: pieces of tolerably
fine cotton formed the leaves, which were fast-
ened by threads of the agave. When Gilbar
reached the dwellings of the Panoes, he found
an old man seated at the foot of a palm-tree,

# Viaggio de Fratelli Zent Sais, 1808), p. 67.
+ Ibid.

YTB

and surrounded by several young persons, to
whom he was explaining the contents: of these
books. The savages would not at first permit a
white man to approach the teacher; and in-
formed the missionary by means of Indians of
Manoa, who alone understood the language of |
the Panoes, “‘ that these paintings contained hid-
den things, which no stranger ought to know.”
_ With great difficulty N. Gilbar procured one of
these collections, which he sent to Lima for the
inspection of P. Cisneros, the learned compiler of
a periodical journal*, which has been translated |
in Europe. Several persons of my acquaintance
have seen this book of the Panoes, every page of
which was covered with paintings. These were
figures of men and of animals, and a great num-
ber of isolated characters, which were deemed
hieroglyphical, arranged in lines, with admirable
order and symmetry. ‘The liveliness of the co-.
lors was particularly striking ; but as no one at
Lima had seen a fragment of Azteck manu-
scripts, it was impossible to judge of the identity
of the style of paintings found at the distance of
eight hundred leagues from each other.

P. Cisneros wished to deposit this book in the
convent of the missions of Ocopa; but whether
the person, to whom it was entrusted, lost it in
the passage over the Cordilleras, or whether it

* El Mercurio Peruano,

176

_ was taken and sent clandestinely into Europe, it
is certain, that it never reached the place of its
first destination : every search made to regain so
curious an object was fruitless, and the regret of
not’ having copied these characters came too
late. The missionary, Narcissus Gilbar, with
whom I was intimately acquainted at Lima, pro-
mised me to make use of every endeavour to
procure me another collection of these paintings
of the Panoes: he knows that several exist
among them; and that they say themselves,
that these books were transmitted to them by
their fathers. The explanation they give of
these paintings seems founded on an ancient tra-
dition, which is perpetuated in some families. ©
-The Indians of Manoa, whom P. Gilbar commis-
sioned to make researches on the meaning of
these characters, imagined, that they related to
travels, and ancient wars with the neighbouring
tribes. Ge
The Panoes differ at present but very little
from the other savages, who inhabit these damp
and sultry forests: naked, living on the fruits of
the plaintain, and the produce of their fishery, —
they are far removed from all knowledge of
paintings, and from feeling the want of commu-
nicating their ideas by graphic signs. Like the
greater part of the tribes planted on the banks of
the spacious rivers of South America, they appear
to have been but recent occupants of the soil

ae Lo % es « rh —

they now inhabit. Are they the scanty remnant
of some civilized nation fallen into the savage
state? or are they descendants of those same
Toltecks, who carried the use of hieroglyphic
paintings into New-Spain, and who, expelled, by
other nations, have disappeared from the borders
of the lake Nicaragua? hese are interesting
questions for elucidating the history of man;
and are connected with others, the import-
ance of which has not hitherto been aeney
felt. |

Some granitic rocks, which rise on the s savan-
nals of Guiana, between the Cassiquiare and the
Conorichite, are covered with figures of tigers,
crocodiles, and other characters, which may be
regarded as symbolical. Similar figures are,
found four hundred leagues to the north and the
west, on the banks of the Orinoco, near Encara-
mada and Caicara; on the borders of the river |
Cauca, near Timba, between Cali and Jelima ;
and even on the elevated plain of the Cordille-
ras, in the Paramo of Guanacas. The natives of
these regions. are unacquainted. with the use of
metallic tools ; and all concur in asserting, that
these characters already existed when their ances-
tors arrived in those countries. Is it to a single na-
tion, trained to industry, and skilled in sculpture,
such as the Toltecks, the Aztecks, and the tribes
that emigrated from Aztlan, that these marks of
remote civilization are owing ?. In what region

VOL. XIII. N

178

Aace the.seat of this culture? Is it to _

wn of the river Gila, on the elevated plain
sxico? or in the southern hemisphere, in

se lofty plains of Tiahuanacu, which the Incas _

emselves found covered with ruins of majestic
greatness, and which may be considered as the
Himala and the Thibet of South America? These
problems are not to be solved in the present state
of our knowledge.

_ We have now examined the relations, that
exist between the Mexican paintings and the

hieroglyphics of the ancient world. We have.

endeavoured to throw some light on the origin
and migrations of the nations that introduced into
New-Spain the use of symbolic writing, and the
‘fabrication of paper; what remains is to notice
‘the manuscripts (Codices Mexicani), that, since
the sixteenth century, have been sent to Europe,
and preserved in public and private libraries.
We shall be astonished to find how rare are be-
come these precious monuments of a nation,
which in its progress toward civilization appears
to have struggled with the same obstacles, that
opposed the advancement of the arts among all
the nations of the North, and even of the _ of
Asia.

From the resear ues I have made it appears,
that there exist at present in Europe only six
collections of Mexican paintings, those of the
Escurial, Bologna, Veletri, Rome, Vienna, and

179

Berlin. The learned jesuit Fabréga, who is
often cited in the works of Mi. Zoega, aid
whose manuscripts relating to the Azteck anti-
-quities were communicated to me by the Cheva-
lier Borgia, nephew to the Cardinal of that name,
supposes, that the archives of Simancas in Spain
contain also some of these hieroglyphical paint-
ings, which Robertson has so ape denominated
_ picture writings*.

The cétlbctib preserved at the Bactivicl has
been examined by Mr. Waddilove, chaplain to
the English embassy at Madrid when Lord
‘Grantham was ambassador. It has the form of
‘a book in folio; which miay lead ws to siispect,
that it is only a copy of a Mexican maiitisctipt,
for thé originals I have examined até all of the

sizé of volumes in quarto. The-objects répre-
sented seem to prove, that the collection’ of the
Escurial, like those of Italy aid Vientia, ‘até
either astrological books, or real rituals, whieh?
poiit out the religious cerermoriies preséribed for
particular days of the month. At-the bottom 6f
each page is an explanation i in Spaitish, whieh
‘has been’ added sitte thé condtiest. ' |

The éolledtion of Bologna. is deposited in the.
libraty of the Institute of Sciefces of that city.
We are unlacquaitited with its origin; but we
read on the first page, that this painting, which

* Robertson’s History of America, 1802, vol, 3, p. 403,
N 2

180

is. 326 centimetres (eleven Roman palms) in
length, was ceded, the 26th of December, 1665,
by Count Valerio Zani to the Marquis of Cas pi.
The characters, which are traced on a thick and
ill prepared skin, seem in a great measure to al-
lude to the form of the constellations, and to as-_
trological notions. There exists an engraved
copy of this Coder Mexicanus of Bologna, in the
Museum of Cardinal Borgia, at Veletri.

- The collection of Vienna, which is sixty-five
pages, is become celebrated, since it fixed the
attention of Dr. Robertson ; who, in his classic
work on the History of the New Continent, has.
published a few pages in outlines only, and with-
out coloring. We read on the first page of this
Mexican manuscript, that it was sent by
King Emanuel of Portugal to Pope Clement
the Seventh, and that it has since been in the
hands of the Cardinals Hippolito de Medicis and
Capuanus. |
_ Lambeccius*, who has made very incorrect —
engravings of some figures of the Codex Vindo-
bonensis, observes, that as King Emanuel was
dead two years before the election of Pope Cle-
ment theSeventh, this manuscript could. not have.
been given to this last Pontiff, but rather to Leo —
the Tenth, to whom the King of Portugal sent an

* Lambeccii Commentar, de Bibliotheca Cesar. Vindor
bonensi, ed. 1776, p. 966. :

181

embassy in 1513; but I ask how it was pos-
sible to have Mexican paintings in Europe
in 1513, since Hernandez de Cordova did not
‘discover the coasts of Yucatan till 1517, and
Cortez landed at Vera Cruz only in 1519? Is
it probable, that the Spaniards should have found
Mexican paintings in the island of Cuba, when
the inhabitants of that island, notwithstanding
the short distance from False Cape to Cape St.
Antonio, do not appear to have had any com-
munication with the Mexicans? It is true,
that, in the note added to the collection of
Vienna, this collection is not called Codex Meai-
canus, but Codex Indic meridionalis: never-
theless the perfect analogy between this manu-
script and those at Veletri and Rome leaves no
doubt with respect to their common origin. King -
Emanuel died in 1521; Clement the Seventh
in 1534: it seems to me incredible, that before
the first entry of the Spaniards into Tenoch-
titlan on the 8th of November, 1519, there
should have been a Mexican manuscript at
Rome. At whatever period it reached Italy,
it is certain, that, after having passed from
hand to hand, it was offered in 1677 to the
Emperor Leopold by the Duke of Saxe-Eise-
nach. | : |
We are altogether ignorant of the fate of
the collection of Mexican paintings, which ex-
isted toward the end of the 17th century at

182

London, and which were published by Purchas:.
This manuscript was sent to the Emperor
Charles the Fifth by the first Viceroy of Mexico,

Antonio de Mendoza, Marquis of Mondejar :*

the vessel which transported this valuable object.

was taken by a French ship, and the collection —

fell into the hands of Andrew Thevet, geogra-
pher to the King of France, who had himself
visited the new continent. After the death of
this traveller, Hakluyt, who was chaplaim to
the English embassy at Paris, purchased the
manuscript for twenty crowns; and from Paris
it went to London, where Sir Walter Raleigh
was desirous of publishing it. The expense of
engraving the figures retarded the publication.
till 1625 ; when, in compliance with the wishes:
of the learned antiquary Spelman, Purchas in-
serted the whole of the collection of Mendoxa
in his collection ef travels*. These same:
- figures have been copied by Thevenot +}, in his.
Relation of divers Travels: but this copy, as
Abbé Clavigero t has very justly observed, is
full of faults; the events, for instance, which
took place under the reign. of the King Ahui-
zotl, are there indicated under the reign of
Montezuma.. | .

* Purchas’s Pilgrims, vol. 3, p. 1065.
+ Thevenot (1696), vol. 2, Pl. 4, p. 1-88.
t Clayigero, vol. 1, p. 23.

183

Some authors* have asserted, that the ori-
ginal of the celebrated collection of Mendoza
was preserved in the royal library at Paris ; but
jit seems certain, that for a century past this
library has contained no Mexican manuscript.
How should the collection purchased by
Hakluyt, and carried to England, have been

brought back to France? We know at present of

no other Mexican paintings at Paris than some
copies contained in a Spanish manuscript, which
came from the library of Tellier, and of which
we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. This
book, highly interesting in other respects, is
preserved in the superb collection of manuscripts
in the public library at Paris. It resembles
the Codex anonymus of the Vatican, N. 3738,
which is the work of the monk Pedro de los
Rios}. Kircher has copied a part of the en-
graving of Purchas *.

The collection of Mendoza throws light over
the history, political state, and domestic life of
the Mexicans. It is divided into three sections ;
which, like the skandhas of the Hindoo Puranas,
treat of subjects altogether different. The first
section gives the history of the Azteck dynasty

* Warburton, Essay on Hieroglyphicks, vol. 1, p. 18.
Papillon, Histoire de la Gravure en Bois, tom. 1, p, 364.

+ See above the description of Pl. 7.

} Kircheri Gidipus, vol. 3, p. 32.

184

from the ‘foundation of Tenochtitlan, in the
year 1825 of our era, to the death of Montezuma
the Second, properly called Monteuczoma Xo-

cojotzin, in 1520; the second section is a list —

of the tributes, which each province and little
town paid the Azteck sovereigns ; the third and
last section contains sketches of the domestic
life and manners of the Azteck people. ‘The
viceroy Mendoza has added to each page of
the collection an explanation in Mexican and

Spanish, so that the whole forms a work very

interesting to the historian. The figures, not-
withstanding the incorrectness of the outlines,
present several very singular sketches of man-

ners. We see in them the education of chil-

dren from their infancy, till they become mem-
bers of society, either as husbandmen, manu-

facturers, warriors, or priests. The quantity of

food suitable to every age, the punishment that
ought to be inflicted on children of both sexes ;

every thing among the Mexicans was prescribed

in the most minute detail, not by law, but by
ancient customs, from which no deviation was
permitted. Fettered by the yoke of arbitrary
power, and the barbarism of civil institutions,
without freedom of will in the most indifferent
actions of domestic life, the whole nation was
reared in a languid uniformity of customs and
of superstitions. The same causes have pro-

duced similar effeets in ancient Egypt, in India,

a

185

in China, in Mexico, and in Peru; wherever
_ men were merely masses animated by a same-
ness of will; wherever laws, religion, and
custom, have placed barriers to the progress of
intellectual improvement and individual happi-
ness.

In the paintings of the Mendoza collection

we trace the ceremonies practised on the birth

of a child. The midwife, invoking the god
Ometeuctli, and the goddess Omecihualt, who
reside in the abodes of the blest, sprinkled
water on the forehead ‘and the breast of the
newborn infant; and after pronouncing dif-
ferent prayers*, in which water was considered
as the symbol of the purification of the soul,
the midwife bad the children draw near, who
had been invited to give the child a name. In
some provinces a fire was lighted at the same

time, and the infant was seemingly made to

_ pass through the flame, and undergo the double

purification of fire and water. This ceremony
reminds us of usages, the origin of which, in
Asia, appears to be lost in the darkness of the
remotest ages.

Other plates of the contacto of Mendoza
represent the punishments, often barbarous, in-
flicted by parents on their children, according
to the greatness of the fault, and the age and

- ® Clavigero, vol. 2, p. 86.

186

sex of the offender. A mother exposes her

daughter to the smoke of .pimento (capsicum
baccatum): a father pricks his son eight years —

old with agave leaves, which are terminated by
thorns. The painting indicates in what cases
the hand only of the child should be pricked,

and in what other cases parents are permitted
to extend this painful operation over the whole —

of the body. A priest, teopixgui, chastises a
novice, by throwing burning coals on his head,
because he has passed the night beyond the
boundary of the temple. Another priest ig re-
presented as sitting in the attitude of observing
the stars, to indicate the hour of midnight.

We here perceive, in the Mexican painting, |

the hieroglyphics of midnight placed above the

head of the priest, and a dotted line from the ©

eye of the obseryer pointing towards a star*.
We see also figures, which represent women
spinning with a distaff, and weaving at a loom
the warp of which is perpendicular: a gold-
smith blowing a charcoal fire through a pipe ; ;
an old man of seventy, to whom the law allows
the privilege of intoxication, as it did to a wo-
man when she became a grandmother : amatch-
maker, called ezhuatlangue, who carries the
young yirgin on her back to the house of the
bridegr< oom; and 1 Hea the nuptial benedic-

* Thevenot, vol, 2, Pl. 4, fig. 49, 51, 59, 61.

7

187

tion, the ceremony of which consisted in the —

priest, or teopixqui, tying the skirt of the young
man’s cloak ( tilmatli), to the young woman’s

robe (huepillz). ‘The Mendoza collection con- |
tains also several figures of Mexican temples, -

in which we clearly distinguish the pyramidal
monument divided into steps, and the little cha-
pel, the ves, at the top. But the most com-
plicated painting, as well as the most ingenious
of this Codex Mexicanus, is that which represents
a tlatoani, or governor of a province, strangled
for revolting against his sovereign ; for the same
picture records the crime of the governor, the
punishment of his whole family, and the ven-
geance exercised by his vassals against the state
messengers, bearers of the order of the king of
Tenochtitlan.

Notwithstanding the enormous quantity 3

paintings, which, considered as monuments of

Mexican idolatry, were burnt at the beginning
of the conquest, by order of the bishops and
the first missionaries, Boturini*, whose mis-
fortunes we have already deplered in the pre-

eeding pages, succeeded toward the midst of

the last century in collecting near 500 of their
hieroglyphicaly aintings, This collection, the fin-
est and the most complete of those hitherto made,
was dispersed like that of Siguenza; of which

* Boturmi, Tableau General, p. 1—96.

188

some slight remnants were preserved, till the
expulsion of the J esuits, in the library of St.
Peter and St. Paul at Mexico. A part of the
paintings collected by Boturini was sent tu Eu-
rope in a ‘Spanish vessel, which was taken by
an English privateer. It was never known
whether these paintings reached England, or
whether they were thrown into the sea as of no
value. A well informed traveller has assured
me, that a Codex Mexicanus is shown in a li-
brary at Oxford, which in the liveliness of its
colours resembles that of Vienna; but Robert-
son, in the last edition of his history of America,
says expressly, that no other monument. of
Mexican industry and civilization exists in Eng-
land, beside a golden cup of Montezuma’, be-
longing to Lord Archer. How could this Ox-
ford collection have remained unknown to the
illustrious Scottish historian? —

The greater part of the manuscripts of Bo-
turini, those which were confiscated in New
Spain, were torn, pillaged, and. dispersed by

‘persons, who were ignorant of the value of these

objects. What exists at present, in the palace
of the viceroy, composes only three packets,
each seven decimetres square bi
They remained in one of the damp apartments
of the ground floor with the archives of the
government, which the viceroy, Count Revilla-
gigedo removed, because the humidity mould-

ered the paper with alarming rapidity. We feel
a sentiment of indignation on seeing the ex-
tremé negligence, with which these valuable
remains were abandoned, which had cost so
much care and labor, and which the unfortu-

nate Boturini, fired with that enthusiasm, which _
is peculiar to enterprising men, calls in his His-

torical Essay, “the only property which he
possessed in the Indies, and which he would
not change against all the gold and silver of
the New World.” I shall not here undertake
to give a detail of the paintings preserved in the
palace of the viceroyalty ; but shall only observe,
that there are some, which are six metres
long and two. broad, and which represent the
migrations of the Aztecks from the Rio Gila
to the valley of Tenochtitlan, the foundation of

several cities, and wars with the neighbouring),

nations.
The. library of the University of Mexico

is no longer in possession of any original -

hieroglyphic paintings. I found only a few
copies in outline without colours, and executed
with little care. The richest and finest col-
lection of this capital is that of P. Jose Antonio
Pichardo, member of the congregation of San
Felipe Neri. The house of this enlightened
and studious person was to me what the house

of Siguenza was to the traveller Gemelli. Pi-

chardo has sacrificed his little fortune in collect-

190

ing Azteck paintings, and in copying those he
was unable to purchase : his friend Gama, au-
thor of several astronomical memoirs, bequeath-
_ ed him all the most valuable hieroglyphical ma-.
nuscripts he- possessed. In the new continent,
‘as well as in every other country, private indivi- _
‘duals, and those not the most opulent, become
the collectors and preservers of objects, which
are worthy the protection of gevernments.
In the kingdom of Guatimala, or in the in-

terior of Mexico, I know ef no persons ani-
mated with the same zeal as Alzate, Velasquez,
and Gama; The hieroglyphic paintings are
mow so scarce in New Spain, that the greater
part of the well informed men who reside there
have never seen any ; and among’ the remains
of the collection of Boturini there is not a single —
manuscript so fine as the Codices Mexicani
of Veletri and Rome. I have however no doubt,
that several objects of importance to the study
of history may be still found in the hands of the
Indians, who inhabit'the province of Mechuacan;
the Intendancies of Mexico, Puebla; and Oaxaca,
‘the peninsula of Yucatan, and the kuigdom of
Guatimala: In these couritries the nations, whe
were emigrants from Aztlan, had reached a
certain degree of civilization ; and a traveller,
‘who, understanding the Azteck, Tarasck and
Maya languages, could obtain the confidence
of the natives, might still collect, three cen-

191

turies after the conquest, and a hundred years
after the journey of Boturini, a considerable
number of historical Mexican paintings.
The Codex Mexicanus of the Borgian muse-
um at Veletri is the finest of the Azteck manu-
scripts, that I have examined. We shall have oc-
casion to speak of it hereafter, in the explanation —
of the 15th plate.

_ The collection preserved in the royal library
at Berlin contains different Azteck paintings,
which I purehased during my abode in New

Spain. The twelfth plate gives two fragments
‘of this collection: it contains the lists of tri-
butes, genealogies, the history of the migrations
of the Mexicans, and a calendar made at the
beginning of the conquest, in which the simple
hieroglyphics of the days are joined to figures of
saints painted in the Azteck style.

The library of the Vatican at Rome possesses
in the valuable- collection of its manuscripts
two Codices. Mexicani; numbered 3738, and
3776, in the catalogue. These collections, as
well as the manuscript of Veletri, were un-
known to Dr. Robertson, when he enumerated —
the Mexican paintings preserved in the different
libraries of Europe. Mercatus* in his de-
scription of the obelisks of Rome, relates, that,
toward the end of the 16th century, two col-

Mercatus, degli Obelischi di Roma, C. 2, p. 96.

192

lections of original paintings existed in the Va-
tican. It would seem, that one of these collec-
tions is entirely lost, unless it is that which is
seen in the library of the Institute of Bologna ;
the other was found in 1785 by the jesuit Fa-
brega, after fifteen years search. _

The Codex Vaticanus, No. 3776, of which
Acosta and Kircher have made mention*, is
7-87", or thirty-one palms and a half, long, and
0:19", or seven inches, square: its forty-eight
foldings form ninety-six pages, or as many divi-
sions marked on both sides of several doe skins
glued together. Every page is subdivided into
two compartments ; but the whole manuscript
contains only 176 of these compartments, be-
cause the first eight pages consist of the simple
hieroglyphics of the days, arranged in parallel
rows close to each other. The thirteenth plate
of the Picturesque Atlas is an exact copy of one
of these folds, or a page of the Codex Vaticanus.
As all the pages are alike with respect to the
general arrangement, this copy is sufficient to
give an idea of the whole book. :

The border of each fold is divided into twen-
ty-six small compartments, which contain the
simple hieroglyphics of the days. These hiero-
glyphics are twenty in number, which form
periodical series. As the small cycles are of.

* Zoega, De Orig. Obeliscor. p, 631.

193

thirteen days each, it follows, that the series of

the hieroglyphics passes from one cycle to an-

other.. The whole of the Codex Vaticanus con-

tains a hundred and seventy-six of these small
cycles, or two thousand two hundred and ninety
days. We shall not enter here into any detail
on these subdivisions of time, proposing to give
an explanation of the Mexican calendar, one of
the most complicated, but also one of the most
ingenious to be fonnd in the history of astrono-_
my. Every page exhibits, in the two subdivisions
of which we have already spoken, two groups of
mythological figures. We should lose ourselves

in vain conjectures, were we to attempt inter-

preting these allegories; the manuscripis of
Rome, Veletri, Bologna, and Vienna having
none of those explanatory notes, which the vice-
roy Mendoza added to the manuscript published
by Purchas. It were to be wished, that some
government would publish at its own expense
these remains of the ancient American civiliza-
tion; for it is only by the comparison of several
monuments, that we can succeed in discovering
the meaning of these allegories, which are partly
astronomical, and partly mystic. If of all the
Greek and Roman antiquities there only re-
mained a few cameos, or solitary coins, the most
simple allusions would have escaped the sagacity
of antiquaries. How much light has the inspec-
WoL. KUT. o

194

tion of bass-reliefs thrown over the study of
‘medals ! |

Zoega, Fabrega, and others, who have studied
the Mexican manuscripts in Italy, consider the
Codex Vaticanus, like that of Veletri, as consist-
ing of tonalamatls, or ritual almanacks ; that is
to say, as books which showed the people, for a
‘space of several years, the divinities that presided
over the small cycles of thirteen days, and who
governed, during this space, the destinies of
men; the religious duties, which ought to be
practised ; and especially the offerings, which
were to be made to the idols.

The thirteenth plate of my Atlas, which is a

copy of the ninety-sixth page of the Codex |

Vaticanus, represents on the left an adoration:
the deity has on a helmet, the ornaments of
which are very remarkable: he is seated on a
small bench, called zcpalli, before a temple, of
which only the top, or smail chapel placed on
the upper part of the pyramid, is represented.

The adoration consisted at Mexico, as well as—

in the East, in the ceremony of touching the
ground with the right hand, and carrying the
left to the mouth. In the drawing, No. 1, the
homage is rendered by a genuflexion; the atti-
tude of the figure, which prostrates itself ‘before
the temple, is found in several paintings of the
Hindoos. “aaa

Pe B Yo hy SRD

195

The group, No. 2, represents the celebrated
serpent woman Cihuacohuatl, called also Qui-
laztli, or Tonacacihua, woman of our flesh: she

is the companion of Tonacateuctli. The Mexi-
cans considered her.as the mether of the human

race; and, after the god of the celestial Para-
dise, Ometeuctli, she held the first rank among
the divinities of Anahuac ; we see her always re-
presented with a great serpent. Other paintings

exhibit to us a feather-headed snake, cut in
pieces by the great spirit, Tezcatlipoca, or by the

Sun personified, the god Tonatiuh. These alle-

gories remind us of the ancient traditions of

Asia. In the woman and serpent of the Aztecks
we think we perceive the Eve of the Semetic

nations: in the snake cut in pieces, the famous

serpent Kaliya, or Kalinaga, conquered by Vish-
nu, when he took the form of Krishna. The
Tonatiuh of the Mexicans appears also to be
identical with the Krishna of the Hindoos, re-
corded.in the Bhagavata Purana, and with the
Mithras of the Persians. The most ancient tra-
ditions of nations go back to a state of things,
when the earth, covered with bogs, was inhabited
by snakes and other animals of gigantic bulk :
the beneficent luminary, by dr ying up the soil,
delivered the earth from these aquatic monsters.
Behind the serpent, who appears to be speak-
ing to the goddess Cihuacohnatl, are two naked
figures; they are of a different colour, ant seem
oO 2.

196

to be in the attitude of contending with each
‘other. We might be led to suppose, that the
‘two vases, which we see at the bottom of the
picture, one of which is overturned, is the cause
of this contention. The serpent woman was
considered at Mexico as the mother of two twin
‘children ; these naked figures are perhaps the
children of Cihuacohualt ; they remind us of the
‘Cain and Abel of Hebrew tradition. I doubt
‘whether the difference of colour, which we ob-
‘serve in the two figures, indicates a difference of
race, as in the Egyptian paintings found in the
tombs of the kings at Thebes, and in the orna-
ments moulded in earth and stuck on the chests
which contain the mummies at Sakhara. In
carefully studying the historical hieroglyphics of
the Mexicans, we seem to recognize, that the
heads and hands of the figures are painted as by
‘chance, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, and
‘at. other times red. .
The cosmogony of the Mexicans ; their tradi-
‘tions of the mother of mankind, fallen from her
first state of happiness and mnocence; the idea

of a great inundation, in which a single family

-escaped on a raft; the history of a pyramidical
edifice raised by the pride of men, and destroyed
by the anger of the gods; the ceremonies of ab-
lution practised at the birth of children ; those
idols made with the flower of kneaded maize,
and distributed in morsels to the people assem-

AP
i eh Ee hain WE Ah

197

bled in the temples ;. the confession of sins made
by the penitent; those religious associations,,
similar to our convents of men and women; the —
universal belief, that white men, with long
beards and sanctity of manners, had changed:
the religion and political system of nations; all
these circumstances had led the priests, who ac-.
companied the Spanish army at the time of the

- conquest, to the belief, that at some very distant

epocha christianity had been preached in the
New Continent. Some learned Mexicans* have
imagined, that the Apostle St. Thomas was the
mysterious personage, high priest of Tula, whom.
the Cholulans acknowledged under the name of
Quetzalcoatl. It is no way doubtful, that Nes-
torianism, mingled with the dogmata of the
Bouddhistes and the Shamans-+-, spread through

‘Mantchou Tartary into the north-east of Asia:

we may therefore suppose, with some appearance
of reason, that christian ideas have been com-.
municated by the same means to the Mexican.
nations, especially to the inhabitants of that
northern region, from which the Toltecks emi-
grated, and which we must consider as the offi-
cina virorum of the New World.

This supposition would be even more admissi-

* Siguenza, Opera ined. Eguiara, Bib]. Mexicana, p. 78.
+ LANGLES, Rituel des Tartares Manchoux, p. 9 et 14.
GEORGI Alphab, tibetanum, p. 298.

198

ble than the hypothesis, according to which the
ancient traditions of the Hebrews and Chris-
tians passed into America with Scandinavian
colonies, formed: since the eleventh century on
the coasts of Greenland, at Labrador, and per-
haps even in the island of Newfoundland. These
European colonists undoubtedly visited a part of
the continent, which they called Drogeo; they
were acquainted with the countries situate to
the south-west, and inhabited by cannibals col-
lected in populous cities; but, without examin-
ing in this place whether these cities were those
of the provinces of Ichiaca and of Confachiqui,
visited by Hernando de Soto, the conqueror of
gious ceremonies, the dogmas, and traditions,
which struek the imagination of the first Spanish.
missionaries, were incontestably found at Mexi-.
co ever since: the arrival of the Toltecks, and
consequently three or four centuries before the
navigation of the Scandinavians to the eastern:
coasts of the New Continent. ah
The ecclesiastics, who, following the armies:
of Cortez and Pizarro, penetrated into Mexico
and Peru, were naturally inclined to exaggerate
the analogies, which they fancied they had re-
cognized between the cosmogony of the Aztecks,
and the dogmas of the christian religion. Im-
bued with the Hebrew traditions, comprelend-
ing imperfectly the languages of the country,

ee nae

A a9 a oY

199

and the meaning of the hieroglyphical paintings,
they referred every thing to the system they had
previously formed ; like the Romans, who saw
nothing among the Germans and Gauls but
their own worship, and their own divinities.
When we examine this question by the rules of
the most rigid analysis, we find nothing among
the Americans, which leads to the supposition,
that the Asiatic nations migrated to the New
- Continent after the establishment of Christianity.
I am very far from denying the possibility of
these posterior communications ; I am not igno-
rant*, that the Tchoutskis annually crossed
Behring’s Straits to make war on the inhabit-
ants of the north-west coast of Ameriea; but I
think I may affirm, from the knowledge we have
acquired since the end of the last century of the

sacred books of the Hindoos, that, in order to:
explain these resemblances of traditions, of

which all the first missionaries speak, we have
no need to recur to Western Asia, peopled by
nations of the Semetic. race; these same tra-
ditions, of high and venerable antiquity, are
found both among the followers of Brahma, and

among the Shamans of the eastern steppes of

Tartary.
We will resume this important subject, either

* See my Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle- Espagne, vol, 2,
p, 502, Svo edition.

200 | : |

in treating of the Pastous*, an American nation,,
who eat nothing but vegetables, and who hold
in abhorrence those who feed on flesh; or in
speaking of the dogma of the metempsychosis
received among the Tlascaltecks. We shall
examine the Mexican tradition of the four suns,
or four destructions of the world; as well as the
traces of the ¢rimurti, or trinity of the Hindoos,
found in the religion of the Peruvians. Not-
withstanding these striking analogies existing
between the nations of the New Continent, and
the Tartar tribes who have adopted the religion
of Bouddah, I think I discover in the mythology
of the Americans, in the style of their paintings,
in their languages, and especially in their exter-.
nal conformation, the descendants of a race of
men, which, early separated from the rest of,
mankind, has followed for a lengthened series of
ages a peculiar road in the unfolding of its intel-

lectual faculties, and in its tendency towards
civilization. |

* Garcilasso, Comentarios reales, tom. 1, p. 274.

f ioe Hashes igs tasers alia dia ; 4 cae Ry
PE OG ENS eI BE) An LN een epee ee TM TCE

201

COSTUMES
DELINEATED BY THE

MEXICAN PAINTERS IN THE TIME OF
MONTEZUMA.

PLATE XIV,

Tuese nine figures are taken from the Codex
Anonymus, No. 3738, preserved among the
manuscripts of the Vatican, which we have had
occasion to cite several times. They are copies
of pictures made by Mexican painters at the
time of the first abode of Cortez at Tenoch-
titlan. P. Rios, in tracing the drawings, ap- —
pears to have been more attentive to the parti-
culars of the dresses, than to a faithful imitation
of the outlines. On comparing the paintings of
Plate fourteenth with those contained in the
original manuscripts that have reached us, we
see, that the figures copied by the Spanish
monk are somewhat too much _ lengthened.
These alterations of form are every where found,
when the artists have not been sufficiently im-

Bi

202

bued with the idea of what importance it is to
preserve the style, which characterizes the pro-
ductions of the art among nations, who are more

or less removed from civihzation. What a

difference in the truth of the outlines between
the hieroglyphics published by-Norden, and
those we find in the work of Zoega ‘on the obe-

lisks, or in the description of the monuments of

Egypt, with which the Institute of Cairo has
lately enriched the sciences !_

Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Five Mexican warriors =:
the first three wear the dress called ichcahuepilli,
a kind of cuirass of cotton, three centimetres
thick, and covering the body from the neck to

the waist. The soldiers of Cortez adopted this

armour, which they named escavpdl ; a term in
which we searcely trace a word of the Azteck
language. . The icheahuepilli was a perfeet
security against darts: but we must. not con-
found it with the coats of mail of gold or copper,
worn by the generals, called lords of the eagles
and the tigers, queen and oocelo, on account
ef their armour in the shape of masks. The
bueklers, chimalli, Nos. 1 and 2, are of a very
different form from those figured by Purechas
and. Lorenzana*. The shield No. 2, has an

* Purchas, Pilgrims, tom. 3, p. 1080, fig. LM; p. 1099,
fir. C; pl. 4, fig. F. Lorenzana, Historia de Nueva Espana,
p: 177, lam.2; 8, et 2. Adornos militares. Waar tte sy

a

203

appendage of cloth and feathers, which served
to deaden the stroke of the dart ; its form reminds
us of the bucklers, which we find represented on
several vases of Grecia Magna. The club,

carried by the warrior, No. 3, was hollow, and

contained stones, which were flung with prodi-
gious force, as if they were thrown from a sling.
The figure, No. 4, represents one of those intre-

_ pid soldiers, who went almost naked to war,

with the body wrapped in a net of large meshes,
which they threw over the head of the enemy,
as the Roman refzarii in a contest with the mir-
millones. No. 5 is a private soldier, who wears
a cloth cloak, and a very narrow belt of skin,
maxtlatl, around his waist.

The figure, No. 6, represents, as the Codex
Vaticanus expressly indicates, the unfortunate
Montezuma II, in a court dress, such as he wore
in his palace. His robe, tlachquauhjo, is. bor-
dered with pearls; his hair turned back to the
top of his head, and tied with a red riband, the
military distinction of princes, and the most
valiant commanders: his neck is ornamented
with a collar of precious stones (cozcapetilalt),
but he wears neither the bracelets (matemecatl),
nor the boots (cozehuatl), nor the ear rings: (na-
cochtl), nor the ring set with emeralds suspended
at the lower lip, which belonged to the grand \.
dress of the emperor. The author of the Codex
Anonymus says, “ that the sovereign is’ figured

204

holding flowers in one hand, and a reed with @
cylinder of odoriferous resin at the end, in: the
other.” The vase which the emperor holds in
his. left hand has some resemblance to that
which is seen in the hand of the intoxicated
Indian, represented. in the collection of Men-
doza*. The Mexican painters generally repre-
sented kings and great nobles with naked feet,
to indicate, that they were not born to make use
of their legs, and that they constantly ought to
be carried in palanquins, on the Buen of
their domestics -f.

No. 7. An inhabitant of Tzapoteca; a. pro-

vinoe which comprised the south-east part of the

intendancy of Oaxaca.

Nos. 8 and 9. 'Fwo women of Huasteca; the

dress of the latter figure is uo doubt Indian ; but
that of No. § very much resembles a European

dress. Is ita woman of the country, to whom

the soldiers of Cortez had given a neckerchief
and arosary? This is a question I shall not de-
cide; but I observe, that the three cornered: hand-
kerchief is seen in several Mexican paintings
before the arrival of the Spaniards ; and that the
pretended rosary, which is not terminated by a
cross, may very well be one of those strings of
beads, which existed from the most remote an-

* Purchas, p. 1117, fig. Fo
+ Codex Anon. n. 3738, fol. 60.

°

205

Aiquity in all Eastern Asia, in Canada, Mexico,
and Peru. oe

Though P. Rios, as we have already observed,
appears to have somewhat lengthened the figures,
the extremities, the form of the eyes, and that of
the lips, the uppermost of which is constantly

protruded beyond the lower, are proofs that he
has copied faithfully.

206

AZTECK HIEROGLYPHICS,

MANUSCRIPT OF VELETRI.

PLATE XV.

Or all the Mexican manuscripts preserved in
Italy, the Codex Borgianus of Veletri is the
largest, and the most remarkable for the splendor
and extreme variety of the colours. It is forty-
four or forty-five palms (near eleven metres)
long; and has thirty-eight folds, or seventy-six
pages. It is a ritual and astrological almanack,
which, from the distribution of the simple hiero-
glyphics of the days, and that of the groups of
mythological figures, resembles altogether the
Codex Vaticanus, a page of which is given in the |
thirteenth plate.

The manuscript of Veletri appears to have
belonged to the family of Giustiniani. We
know not by what unlucky chance it fell into
the hands of the domestics of that house, who,
ignorant of the value of such a collection of -

P ET
ee he FL Sep

207

monstrous figures, gave it as a plaything, to their
children. From their hands it was rescued by
an enlightened lover of antiquities, Cardinal
Borgia; but not before attempts had been made
to burn some pages or folds of the deer skin,

_on which the paintings are delineated. Nothing

indicates the antiquity of this manuscript, which
perhaps is but an Azteck copy ofan older book.
The great freshness of the colours might lead us

_ 40 suspect, that .the Codex Borgianus, as well as

that of the Vatican, does not go beyond the four-
teenth century. |
We cannot fix our eyes on these paintings,

without feeling a crowd of interesting questions

pressing on our minds. Did there exist at.
Mexico, in the lifetime of Cortez, hieroglyphic
paintings made in the time of the Tolteck
dynasty, and consequently in the seventh cen-
tury of our era? Were there other copies at
that period than those of the famous divine book,
called teoamoxtli, compiled at Tula, in the

year 660, by the astrologer Huematzin,. and in

which we find the history of Heaven iand of
Earth, a cosmogony, a description of the ‘con-
stellations, the division of time, the migrations —
of nations, mythology,‘and moral philosophy?
Was this Mexican Purana, the teoamoxtl, the
remembrance of which has been preserved so
many ages in the Azieck éraditions, one of those,
which monkish fanaticism committed to the

POP gy ES NOY 0) a a Re es

208

flames in Yucatan, and the loss of which book :

was so deeply lamented by Acosta, who was

amore learned and enlightened than his contem-

poraries? Is it certain, that the Toltecks, that
industrious and enterprising people, who have
several traits of resemblance with the Tchouds*,
or ancient inhabitants of Siberia, were the first

to introduce painting? or had the Cuitlaltecks

and the Olmecks, who dwelt on the elevated
plain of Anahuac before the .irruption of the

nations of Aztlan, and to whom the learned’

Siguenza attributes the construction of the pyra-
mids of Teotihuacan, already recorded their
annals and their mythology in collections of
hieroglyphical paintings? We have not data
enough to answer these important questions;
the obscurity, that envelops the origin of the
Mongul and Tartar nations, seems to extend
ever the whole history of the New Continent.
The Codex Borgianus has been commented
upon by the Jesuit Fabrega, of Mexican origin.
During my last abode in Italy, in 1805, the
Chevalier Borgia, nephew of the Cardinal, had
the kindness to send for the Mexican manuscript
with its commentary from Veletri to Rome. I
examined them carefully: the explanations of
P. Fabrega appeared to me often arbitrary and

* Voyage de Pallas (traduction de Paris), tom. 4, p.
282.

209

- fanciful. I have engraved a part of the figures,
which most excited my curiosity ; [ have added
to each group, represented in the Léth plate, the
citation of the Codex Borgianus, and that of the
Italian manuscript, which was to serve as a
commentary. : ;

No. 1. An unknown animal, decorated with
a collar, and a kind of harness, but pierced with
darts. Fabrega calls it the crowned rabbit, the
sacred rabbit. This figure is found in several
rituals of the ancient Mexicans. According to
the traditions, which have been preserved to our
times, it is a symbol of suffering innocence.
Under this point of view, the allegorical repre-
sentation reminds us of the lamb of the Hebrews,
or the mystic idea of an expiatory sacrifice des-
tined to calm the anger of the divinity. The in-
cisive teeth, and the form of the head and tail,
seem to indicate, that the painter wished to re-
present an animal of the order glires (rongeurs) :
although the feet with two hoofs, and a toe
which does not touch the ground, indicate a
species of the ruminating tribe ; I doubt whether
it be a cavia, or Mexican hare; perhaps it may
_be some unknown quadruped, living in the inte-
rior, on the north of the Rio Gila, towards the
north-west part of America.

This same animal, with a much longer tail.
seems to me to figure a second time in the Codex
Borgianus at the fifty-third page: of this No. bt,

VOL. XIII ysl

210

of the 15th plate, is a:copy. P. Fabrega takes
this figure, which is covered with twenty hiero-
glyphics of the days, for a stag (mazatl) ; P.
Rios asserts, that it is an astrological conceit of
‘the physicians ; a painting which teaches, that
he who is born on such or such a day, shall have
pains in his eyes, his stomach, or his ears: we
‘see indeed, that the twenty simple hieroglyphics
‘of the days are distributed over different parts of
the body.

The sign of the day which began the small
period of thirteen days, or the half lunation, was
‘considered as ruling for the whole of this period 5
so that a man born on the day when the hiero- |
glyphic was an eagle, had every thing to fear, or
to hope, each time that an eagle swayed the
week of thirteen days. Mr Zoega* seems to
‘adopt the explanation of Rios ; and finds a strik-
ing connexion between this fiction and the
jatromathematic ideas of the Egyptians. If we
cast our eyes over our'own almanacks, we shall
‘see, that these absurd ideas tarnish even our own
times ; since it is often less profitable to enlighten
the people, than to encourage their credulity.
‘I found this same allegorical figure, which be-
longs to astrological medicine, in the Codex Bor-
gianus, fol. 17 (MSS. No. 66) and in the Codex
Anonymus of the Vatican, fol. 54.

-* Zoega, p. 523 and 531.

211

No. 3, 5,6,7. A child newly born is repre-
sented four times. The hair, which rises like
two horns on the top of the head, indicates that.
itis a girl. The child is sucking; the umbili-
cal cord is cutting; she is presented to the
divinity ; and her eyes are touched as a sign of
benediction. Fabrega asserts, that the seated
figures, No.5 and 7, represent two priests. He
thinks he recognizes, by the helmet of No. 7,
the high priest of the god Tonacateuctii.

No. 4. The representation of a human sacri-
fice. A priest, whose figure is almost lost under

amonstrous disguise, is tearing out the heart of
the victim; his left hand is armed with a club:
the naked body of the victim is painted ; spots
are marked on it, by which the skin of the
jaguar, or American tiger, were meant to be
imitated ; on the left is another priest (topiltzin),

who pours the blood of the heart plucked out

upon the image of the sun placed in a niche ina

temple. Ishould not have engraved this hideous —
scene, if the disguise. of the sacrificer did not
present certain remarkable analogies with the
Ganesa of the Hindoos, which do not seem acci-
dental. The Mexicans made use of helmets,
which imitated the form of the head of a serpent,
a crocodile, or ajaguar, In the mask of the sa-
crificer, we discover the resemblance of the trunk
of an elephant, or some pachyderinatous animal
resembling it in the configuration of the head,
| p22

I Cine a OES ie ane

212

but the upper jaw bone is furnished with incisive
teeth. The muzzle of the tapir is no doubt
somewhat longer than the snout of our swine,
but there is a great distance from the muzzle of
the tapir to the trunk figured in the Codex Bor-
gianus. Had the people of Aztlan, sprung from
Asiatic origin, preserved some vague notions of
elephants? or, which appears to me much less
probable, did their traditions go back to the
period, when America was yet peopled with those
gigantic animals, the petrified skeletons of which
are found buried in the marly lands even on the
ridge of the Mexican Cordilleras? May there
not also exist, in the north-west part of the New
Continent, in countries which have been visited
neither by Hearne, Mackenzie, nor Lewis, some
unknown animal of this kind, which, from the
configuration of its trunk, Holds the middle place
between the elephant and the tapir? The
hieroglyphics of the days, which surround the
group figured in the forty-ninth page of the col-

lection of Veletri, clearly indicate, that this sacri-
- fice was made at the end of the year, after the
nemontemi, or complementary days. ‘The tem-
ple of the Sun reminds us of the worship of a
mild and humane people, the Peruvians. That
worship, in which no other offerings were made
to the divinity than flowers, incense, and the first
fruits of their harvests, existed without doubt at
Mexico to the beginning of the fourteenth cen-

213

tury. A learned writer*, who has made some
curious comparisons between the mythological
ideas of different nations, has hazarded the hypo-
thesis, that the two religious sects of India, the
worshippers of Vishnoo, and those of Siva, had
spread themselves into America; and that the
Peruvian worship was that of Vishnoo, when he ~
appeared under the figure of Crishna, or the
Sun; while the sanguinary worship of the Mexi-
cans is analogous to that of Siva, when he takes
the character of the Stygian Jupiter. The wife
of Siva, the black goddess Cali, or Bhavanif, the
symbol of death and destruction, wears, in the
Indian statues and paintings; a necklace of hu-
man skulls: and to her the Vedas enjoin the
offering of human sacrifices. The ancient wor-
ship of Cali, the horrible cruelty of which was
mitigated by the reform of Bouddha, forms no
doubt a great resemblance with the worship of
Mictlancihuatl, the goddess of Hell, and with
that of several other Mexican divinities: but in
studying the history of the people of Anabuac,
we are tempted to consider these resemblances
as merely accidental. We have no right to pre-
sume communications, wherever we eta among

* Frederic Landolt Count Stolberg, Geschichte der Fe-
ligion Jesu Christi, B, 1, p. 426.
+ Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, p. 203 et 293.

214

half civilized people, the worship of the Sun, or

the custom of sacrificing human victims ; and
- this custom, far from having been brought from
eastern Asia, may very probably have taken
birth in the valley of Mexico itself. In fact,

history instructs us, that, when the Spaniards"

arrived at Tenochtitlan, this sanguinary worship,
_ which reminds us of those of Cali, of Moloch,
and of the Esus of the Gauls, had existed only
two hundred years. |

The nations, which from the seventh to the
twelfth century have successively inundated.
Mexico, the Toltecks, the Chichimecks, the

Nahuatlacks, the Acolhuans, the Tlascaltecks, .

and the Aztecks, formed a single group, com
nected by analogy of language and manners;
somewhat like the Germans, the Norwegians,
the Goths, and the Danes, who are all confound-
ed in a single race, that.of the Germannic nations.
It is probable, as we have already stated, that
other nations, the Otomites, the Olmecks, the

Cuitlatecks, the Zacatecks, and the Tarascks, ©

appeared before the Toltecks in the equinoctial

region of New Spain. Wherever nations have

advanced in the same direction, the position of
the countries in which they are found marks in
some sort the chronological order of their mi-
grations. Can we doubt, that in Europe, the
most western nations, the Iberians, and the Can-

215

tabri, arrived thither before the nations the near-
est Asia, before the Thracians, the Illyrians, and
the Pelasgi ?

But, whatever be the relative antiquity of the
different races of men settled in the mountains
of Mexico, the Caucasus of America, it appears
certain, that none of these nations, from the Ol-
mecks to the Aztecks, had for a long time been
acquainted with the barbarous custom of sacri-
ficing human victims. The principal divinity of
the Toltecks was called Tlalocteuctl ; he was at
once the god of water, of mountains, and of tem-
pests. In the eyes of these mountaineers, it is on
the lofty summits perpetually enveloped in clouds,
that the mysterious preparation of thunder takes
place ; there the abode of the great spirit Teotl
is fixed; of that invisible being called [palne-
moant and Tlock-Nahuack, because he is self-
existent, and contains all things within himself ;—
and from this almost inaccessible region rushes
‘the tempest, which destroys the hut, and the
beneficent rain, which enlivens the fields. The
Toltecks had erected on the top of a high moun-
tain the image of Tlalocteuctli; this image,
rudely caryed, was made of a white stone, con-
sidered as divine (teotetl), for this people, like
the ancient Orientals *, attached superstitious
ideas to the color of certain stones. Tlalocteuctli

¢

* Milli Dissertationes selecte, p. 309.

216

was represented with thunder in his hand, seat-
ed on a stone in the form of a cube, and hav-
ing before him a vase in which caoutchouc and
seeds were offered him. The Aztecks followed
this same worship till the year 1317, when the
war with the inhabitants of the town of Xochi-
milco furnished them with the first idea of a
human sacrifice. The Mexican:-historians, who
immediately after the taking of Tenochtitlan,
wrote in their own language, but making use of
the Spanish alphabet, have transmitted to us
this horrible event.

From the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
tury the Aztecks lived under the sway of the
King of Colhuacan, and had principally con-
tributed to the yictory, which this king had
gained over the Xochimilcks. When the war
was finished, they were desirous of offering’a
sacrifice to their principal god, Huitzilopochtli,

or Mexitli, whose image in wood, placed ina |

chair of reeds, called the seat of god, teoicpalli,
and carried on the shoulders of four priests,
had preceded them in their migration. They
asked their master, the King of Colhuacan, to
bestow on them some objects of value, to give
greater solemnity to this sacrifice. The king,
if we may give this title to the chief of a scanty
tribe, sent them a dead bird, wrapped in a
coarse cloth; and to add mockery to insult,
he proposed to them to attend at the festival

/

Py Se gat,
Pe ay ve Oa Fea Dae ma ae

217

himself. The Aztecks professed to be flattered
with this offer; but they ‘resolved at the same
time to make a sacrifice, which should strike
terror into their masters. After a long dance
around their idol, they brought forth four
Xochimilcks, prisoners, whom they had kept
hidden a long time: these miserable captives °
were immolated with the ceremonies still ob-
served at the time of the conquest by the Spa-
_miards, on the platform of the great pyramid
of Tenochtitlan, which was dedicated to the
same god of war, Huitzilopochtli. The Col-
huans signified their just abhorrence of this
human sacrifice, the first which had been made
in their country: but fearing the ferocity of
their slaves, and seeing them puffed up with
pride at the success obtained in the war against
the Xochimilecks, they gave the Aztecks their
liberty, enjoining them to quit the territory of —
Colhuacan. i

The first sacrifice had happy effects for a
nation that was oppressed; vengeance soon
gave birth to a second. After the foundation
_ of Tenochtitlan, an Azteck scours the border of
the lake, to kill some animal for an offering
to the god Mexitli; he meets an inhabitant of
Colhuacan, called Xomimitl. Irritated against
his former masters, the Azteck attacks the Col-
huan: the conquered Xomimitl is led to the

218

new city, and expires on the fatal. stone placed
at the foot of the idol.

The circumstances of the third sacrifice were
still more tragic. Peace is reestablished ap-
parently between the Aztecks, and the inha-
bitants of Colhwacan: nevertheless the priests
‘of Mexitli cannot conquer their hatred against
a neighbouring nation, that had enslaved them :
they meditate atrocious vengeance; they per-
suade the King of Colhuacan to entrust them
with his only daughter, to be brought up in the
temple of Mexitli, where, after her death, she
should be worshiped as the mother of this pro-
tecting divinity of the Aztecks; adding, that
it was the idol himself, who declared his will
by their mouths. The credulous king accom-
panies his daughter ; he leads her into the dark
recess of the temple: there the priests separate
the father from the child; a tumult is heard in
the sanctuary ; the unfortunate king’ does not
distinguish the groans of his expiring daugh-
ter; a censer is placed in his hand;. and a few

moments after, he is ordered to light the copal. -

By the pale glare of the rising flame he be-

holds his child bound to a pillar, her bosom —

mangled, motionless, and robbed of life. De-
spair deprived him of the use of reason for
the remainder of his days; he was unable to
avenge himself, and the Colhuans dared not

=

« } 219

resent the injury done them by a people, who
struck them with terror by such an excess of
ferocity. The immolated victim is placed
among the Azteck divinities, under the name
of Teteionan*, mother of the gods, or Tocitzin,
our grandmother ; a divinity which we must not
confound with Eve, or the serpent-woman, call-
ed Tonantzin.

In the Old Continent, wherever we find traces
of human sacrifices, their origin is lost in the
night of time. The history of the Mexicans,
on the contrary, has handed down to us the
narrative of events, which have given a fero-
elous and sanguinary character to the worship
of a people, among whom animals and first
fruits were the only primitive offerings. I have
thought fit to relate these traditions, undoubted-
ly founded on historical truth: intimately con-
nected with the study of the manners, and the
moral improvement of our species, they appear
to me more interesting, than the puerile tales
of the Hindoos respecting the numerous in-
carnations of their divinities. I shall not how-
ever decide the question, whether the sacrifice
of the four Xochimilcks was really the first
offered to the god Mexith: or whether the
Aztecks had not preserved some old tradition,
according to which they imagined, that the god

* Clavigero, vol. 1, p. 166, 168, 172 ; vol. 2, p. 22.

220 ’

of war savored the blood of human victims.
Mexitli came into the world with a dart in his
right hand, a buckler in his left, and his head
covered with a helmet crowned with green fea-
thers ; his first feat at his birth was to kill his
brothers and sisters. Perhaps, under other
climates, sanguinary rites had been offered to
this terrible god, called also Tetzahuitl, or the
terrific ; perhaps this worship had a respite only
because prisoners were wanting, and consequent-
ly victims ; while the nation, marching under
the auspices of Mexitli, made a peaceable pro-
gress across the mountains of Tarahumara to
the elevated central plain of Mexico. _

The continual wars of the Aztecks, after
they had fixed their residence on the islets of
the salt lake of Tezcuco, furnished them with
so considerable a number of victims, that hu-
man sacrifices were offered to all their divini-
tics without exception, even to Quetzalcoatl *,
who, like the Bouddha of the Hindoos, had
preached against this execrable custom; and
to the goddess of the harvests, the Mexican
Ceres, called Centeotl, or Tonacajohua, she who
feeds mankind. The Totonacks, who had adopt-
ed the whole of the Tolteck aad Azteck my-
thology, distinguished, as of a different race,

* Gomara, Chronica gencral de las Indias, (edition of
1553), vol. 2, fol, 134. }

~»

221

the divinities that required a sanguinary worship,
and the goddess of the fields, who asked only for
offerings of flowers and fruits, the sheaf of
maize, or the birds that devoured the seeds of
this plant, so useful tv man. An ancient pro-
phecy gave this nation some hope of a beneficent
reform in its religious ceremonies; this pro-
phecy stated, that Centeotl, who is the same
‘with the beautiful Chri, or Lakchmi, of the
Hindoos ; and whom the Aztecks, like the Arca-
dians, designated under the name of the great
Goddess, or primitive Goddess (Tzinteotl) ;
should triumph at last over the ferocity of the
other gods; and that human sacrifices should
give place to innocent offerings, and the first
fruits of the harvests. In this tradition of the
Totonacks we behold a struggle between two
religions; a conflict between the ancient Tolteck
divinity, mild and humane, like the people who
had introducéd its worship, and the ferocious
gods of that warlike tribe, the Aztecks, who
had stained the fields, the temples, and the altars,
with blood.

When we read the letters of Cortez to the
Emperor Charles V. the memoirs of Bernal Diaz,
of Motolinia, and other Spanish authors, who
had made observations on the Mexicans before
the changes wrought on them by their commu-
nications with Europe, we are astonished, that

222

such extreme ferocity in religious ceremonies
should be found among a people, whose social
and political state reminds us, in other points of
~ view, of the civilization of the Chinese, and the
inhabitants of Japan. The Aztecks were not
satisfied with dyeing their idols with blood, as is
practised still by the Chaman Tartars, who how-
ever sacrifice to their Nogats oxen and sheep
only ; they even devoured a part of the carease,
which the priests threw down to the bottom of
the staircase of the teocalli, after having torn
out the heart. We cannot mention these objects
without inquiring, whether these barbarous rites,
which we find also in the islands of the South
Sea, among nations whose mild manners have
been too much vaunted, would have ceased of
themselves, if the Mexicans, without having any
communication with the Spaniards, had con-
tinued to advance towards civilization. It is
probable, that this beneficent reform in their
worship, this triumph of the goddess of the har-
vests over the gods of carnage, would have been
very long delayed.
- In South America, the most powerful nation,
the Peruvians, followed the worship of the Sun.

The most bloody wars were waged by the Incas,

to introduce a peaceable and gentle religion;
human sacrifices vanished, wherever the descend-
ants of Manco-Capac carried their laws, their

233

divisions into casts, their language, and their mo-

nastic despotism. In the country of Anahuac the

sanguinary rites of Huitzilopochtli were estab-

lished in proportion as the Mexican empire swal-

lowed up all the neighbouring states. The great-
néss of this empire was founded on an intimate

alliance of the class of the priesthood with the

nobility destined to the trade of arms. The high

priest, teoteuctli (divine Lord) was generally a

‘prince of the royal blood ; and no war could be
undertaken without his permission. The priests

éven went to combat, and were raised to the

first dignities in the army *; their influence be-

came thereby as extensive as that of the Roman

patricians, who had the exclusive right of augury,

and in which a celebrated writer ~~ has seemed

‘to recognize traces of a political institution of
the Hindoos.

Tn Mexico, where the number and the power
of the'priests (teopizquis) and the monks (tlama-
cazques) were almost as great as they are at
‘present in Thibet and Japan, every thing which |
was the effect of religious fanaticism would have
been changed but very slowly. History proves,
that the barbarous custom of human sacrifices

* Peintures hieroglyphiques du Recueil de Mendoza.
Thevenot, vol. 4, fol. 57.

+ Schlegel, Weisheit der Indier, s, 190.

Bey sins js tata Be re oy) ei ea ta

224

was preserved for a length of time among the
nations most advanced in civilization. The
paintings found in the tombs of the kings at
Thebes leave no doubt, that these sacrifices*were |
habitual among the Egyptians*. We have
already observed, that formerly in India the
goddess Cali required human victims, as Saturn
exacted them at Carthage. At Rome, after the
battle of Cannze, two Gauls, a male and female,
were buried alive; and the Emperor Claudius
was obliged, to forbid by an express decree the
sacrifice of men in the Roman empire-+. But
still more, in times less remote, what savage
effects of religious intolerance do we not our-
selves see amid the civilization of the human
race, at the period of a general melioration of
characters and manners? Whatever be the
difference among nations in the progress of their
intellectual culture, fanaticism and interest still
hold their fatal sway. Posterity will scarcely
conceive, that in polished Europe, under the in-
fluence of a religion, which, from the nature of
its principles, favours liberty, and ii the

* Voyage de Denon, p. 298, pl. 124, No. 2. -Décade
Egyptienne, tom. 3, p. 110.

t Sueton., c. 25, (ed. Wolf, vol. 1, p. 48). Plin. Hist.
Nat. lib. 31, c. 1; lib. 8, c. 22. Tertullian. Apologet.
adversus Gentes, c. 9 (ed. Palmer, 1684, p. 41). Lactant.
Div. Instit. lib. 1, c. 21.

225

sacred rights of mankind, there exist laws, which
sanction the slavery of the blacks, which permit
the planter to tear the child from its mother’s
arms, to sell it in a distant land. These con-
siderations prove to us, and the fact is not very
consolatory, that whole nations may advance
rapidly towards civilization, while their particu-
lar institutions, and their religious rites, retain
the marks of their original barbarism.

Number 8 indicates the ceremony of kindling
the new fire, at the period of the procession
which was made every fifty-two years to the
summit of a mountain near Iztapalapan.

At the end of each cycle the intercalation was
made, sometimes of twelve, and at others of thir-
teen days. The people, expecting atthe same time
the fourth destruction of the Sun and the Earth,
extinguished all the fires ; till, at the beginning
of the new cycle, the priests lighted them anew.

The painting represents a victim stretched on
the stone of sacrifice, having a wooden disk on
the breast, which the teopixqui inflames by rub-
bing. The hieroglyphic of the starry sky, which
we see in the preceding page of the Borgian
collection, seems to have a reference to the cul-
mination of the Pleiades. We shall treat farther
on, in the explanation of the twenty-third plate,
of the connexion, which, it is said, existed be-
tween this culmination and the beginning of
the cycle.

VOL, XIII. Q

226

The art of producing fire, by rubbing el |
two kinds of wood of different hardness, i is Of
remote antiquity. We find it among the nations
of both continents: in the Homeric times, ac-
cording to M. Visconti, the invention was at-
tributed to Mercury*. The disk, which lies on
the body of the victim, and on which the priest
turns the cylindric wood, is the ¢7ogevs of the
Greeks +. Pliny asserts, that of all the woody
_ substances, the ivy is that which ignites best
when it is rubbed with laurel wood *. We have
found these zu among the Indians of the
Orinoco. It requires a great rapidity of motion,
to raise the temperature to the degree of nies
descence.

No. 9. Figure of a dead king, sunoundad by
four flags, the eyes shut, no hands, the feet
wrapped up. ‘The chair is the royal seat called
tlatocaicpalli, on which is represented, in the
Codex Borgianus (fol. 9), Adam, or Tonaca-
-teuctli, the Lord of our flesh, and Eve, or To-
nacacihua. This hieroglyphical character is
found figured in the ritual almanack, at the
page which indicates the cycle ef thirteen

* Homer. Hymn. in Mercur. v. 180.
T Apollon. Rhod, Argonaut, lib. 1, v. 1184, “et Schol.
ad eum.
+ Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. 16, c.77. Seneca Nat. se
ul, 22. Theophr. c. 10.

VA) Gihse hl aati et COs emg de REN Wi Abra ee
neue?” eb a ef) A) th +
jp ;

THR yo Pa

’
days, during which the Sun passes the zenith at
Mexico. : te

No. 10. An allegory, which reminds us of
the purifications of India. A divinity, whose
enormous nose is decorated with the figure of
the two headed snake, or mysterious amphisbeena,
carries in his hand a xigquipilli, or a purse of
incense: we see on his back a broken vase,
from which issues a serpent; another serpent,

bleeding, and cut in pieces, is before him; a

third serpent, equally mangled, is contained in
a chest full of water, from which rises a plant.
We discover on the right a man placed in a
vase ; on the left a woman adorned with flowers,
probably the voluptuous Tlamezquimilli, who
is represented also with a bandage on her eyes.
In the same page we find an agave, which,
when cut, yields blood. Does this allegory
allude to the serpent that poisons the water,

the source of all organic life *, to the victory

of Crishna over the dragon Kaliya, to the seduc-
tion and purification by fire? It is evident, tiat.
the figure of the serpent in the Mexican paint-
ings represents two different ideas. In the re-
liefs which indicate the divisions of the year
and of the cycles, this figure expresses only
time, avum. The serpent represented in com-
pany with the mother of men (Cihuacohuatl),

* Paullinus de §. Bartholomeo, Codices Avenses, p. 235.

Q 2

i . ¥ i OCR UR Be a 1 ae ah Deon OU Ny

* re a hide Dey name CA ad ys os Di) Sin
‘ ‘ Ee a 2k a Se SOR.

bs ae aa Ln set Aca y Soper ees fon

‘ i; Mie. : " \ PA
‘
+ 7
t a
: ’

228
or crushed by the great spirit, Teotl, when he
takes the form of one of the subaltern divinities,
is the genius of evil, a real xanodmpov. Among
the Egyptians this last idea was expressed, not
by the hieroglyphic of the serpent*, but that
of the hippopotamus. Les figures sans véte-
mens, comme celle du groupe No. 10, et la
déesse de la volupté, appelée Ixcuina ou Tlazol-
teucihua t, sont extrmémement rares dans les
peintures Mexicaines. En général, les peuples
barbares donnent des vétemens a leurs statues :
c’est un raffinement de l'art de présenter le corps
nu dans la beauté naturelle de ses formes. II
est trés-remarquable aussi que parmi les hiéro-
glyphes Mexicains on ne découvre absolument
rien qui annonce le symbole de la force genera-
trice, ou le culte du lingam, qui est répandu
dans lInde et parmi toutes les nations qui
ont eu des rapports avec les Hindoux. M.

Zoega a observé que l’embléme du phallus ne se

trouve pas non plus dans les ouvrages Egyptiens
d'une haute antiquité; il a cru pouvoir en con-

clure que ce culte est moins ancien qu’on ne le ©

suppose. Cette assertion est cependant con-
traire aux notions que Hamilton, Sir William
Jones, and M. Schlegel, ont ‘puisées dans le

* Zoega,; p. 443, n. 35.
+ Codex Borg. MSS. fol. '73. ;

Se ee

229

_ Siva Pourana*, dans le Kasi Khanda, et dans
plusieurs autres ouvrages écrits en langue San-
skrit. On ne sauroit douter que l’adoration des
douze lingams, venus du sommet de IlImaus
(Himavata), ne remonte jusqu’a lépoque des
premicres traditions des Hindoux. Au milieu
de tant d’autres rapports qui annoncent d’ancien-
nes communications entre l’Asie orientale et le
nouveau continent, on doit ¢tre surpris de ne
pas trouver dans ce dernier quelques traces du
culte du phallus. M. Langles+ observe ex-
pressément que, dans |’Inde, les Vaichnava, ou
sectateurs de Vichnou, ont horreur de cet em-
bléme de la force productrice, que l'on adore
dans les temples de Siva et de son épouse, la
deesse de l’'abondance, Bhavani. Ne pourroit-on
pas supposer qu’il existe ¢galement parmi les
Bouddhistes exiles dans le nord-est de l’Asie une
secte qui rejette le culte du lingam, et que
cest de ce Bouddhisme épuré qu’on retrouve
quelques foibles traces parmi les peuples Amé-
ricains ?

* Catalogue des Manuscrits Sanskrits de la bibliothéque
imperiale, p. 36, et 50. Sane

t Recherches Asiatiques, tom. 1, p. 215.

230

VIEW

OF

CHIMBORAZO anv CARGUAIRAZO.
: :

PLATE XVI.
Le

A parr of the Cordillera of the Andes is di-
vided into several branches, separated from each
other by longitudinal valleys: another part
forms only a single mass beset with volcanic
summits. «In the description of the passage of
the mountain of Quindiu (plate 5th) we have
attempted to give a geological sketch of the
ramifications of the Cordilleras in the kingdom
of New Grenada, between 2° 30’ and 5° 15’ of
northern latitude. We observed at the same
time, that the great valleys, placed between the
two lateral branches and the central chain, were
the basins of two considerable rivers, the bed
of which is yet less elevated above the level of
the ocean than that of the Rhone, the waters
of which have. hollowed out the valley of Sion

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231

in the higher Alps. On advancing from Po-
payan toward the south, we see on the arid ele-
vated plain of the province of Los Pastos the
three small chains of the Andes lost in one
group, which stretches far beyond the equa-
tor. 3

This group, in the kingdom of Quito, pre-
sents an extraordinary appearance from the
river of Chota, which meanders amid moun-
tains of basaltic rock to the Paramo of Assuay,
on which are seen some remarkable remains of
Peruvian architecture. The most elevated sum-
mits are arranged in two lines, which form as
it were a double ridge to the Cordilleras. These
colossal summits, covered with perpetual ice,
served for signals in the operations of the French
academicians at the time of the measurement
of the equinoxial degree. Their symmetrical
disposition, in two lines directed from north to
south, has led Bouguer to consider them as
two chains of mountains, separated by a longi-
tudinal valley: but what this celebrated astro-
nomer calls the bottom of a valley is the summit
of the Andes itself; it is an elevated plain, the
absolute height of which is from two thousand
seven hundred to two thousand nine hundred
metres. We must not confound a double
ridge with a real ramification of the Cordil-
leras.
The plain covered with pumice stone, that

232

forms the fore ground of the drawing of which

we here give the description, is a part of this

elevated plain, which separates the western

from the eastern ridge of the Andes of Quito..

In these plains the population of this marvel-
lous country is concentrated ; towns are there
built, which contain from thirty to fifty thousand
inhabitants. When we have lived for some
months on this elevated spot, where the baro-
meter keeps at twenty inches high, we feel

the irresistible influence of an extraordinary

illusion : we forget by degrees, that every thing

which ‘surrounds the observer ; those villages.

which proclaim the industry of a mountainous
people; those pastures, covered at the same
time with herds of lamas, and flocks of Euro-

pean sheep; those orchards bounded by hedges.

of duranta and barnadesia ; those fields cultivat-
ed with care, and: promising the richest harvests ;
hang as it were suspended in the lofty regions
of the atmosphere: we scarcely recollect, that
the soil we inhabit is more elevated above the

neighbouring coasts of the Pacific Ocean, than.

the summit of Canigou above. the basin of the
Mediterranean. :

Considering the ridge of the Cordilleras as.
a vast plain curtained by distant mountains,

we accustom ourselves to look on the inequali-
ties of the summit of the Andes as so many iso-
lated tops. Pichincha, Cayambé, Cotopaxi,

233

all those volcanic peaks, which we call by par-
ticular names, though at more than half their
total height they form but one mass; appear
to the eyes of the inhabitant of Quito as so
‘many distinct mountains, which tower amid a
plain unclothed by forests. This iHusion is so
much the more complete, as the breaches in the
double ridge of the Cordilleras reach down to
the level of the high inhabited plains. Hence
the Andes have the appeatance of one chain
only when they are seen at a distance, from the
coasts of the great ocean, or from the savannahs,
which extend to the foot of their eastern de-
elivity. Placed even on the ridge of the Cor-
dilleras, either in the kingdom of Quito, or in
the province of Los Pastos, or still farther to the
north, in the interior of New Spain, we see only
a heap of scattered summits, groups of isolated
mountains, which detach themselves from the
central elevated plain; the greater the mass of
the Cordilleras, the more difficult it is to com
template as a whole their structure - and _ their
form. :

The study of this form, however, or, if I may
be allowed the expression, of this physiognomy
of the mountains, is singularly facilitated by the
direction of the lofty plains, which constitute
the ridge of the Andes. When we travel from
the city of Quito to the Paramo of Assuay, we
see, in a journey of thirty-seven leagues to the

234

west, the summits of Casitagua, Pichincha,
Atacazo, Corazon, Iliniza, Carguairazo, Chim-
borazo, and Cunambay, rise in succession; and
to the east the tops of Guamani, Antisana,
Passuchoa, Ruminnavi, Cotopaxi, Quelendanna,
Tungurahua, and Capa-Urcu, which, with the
exception of three or. four, are all higher than
Mount Blane. These mountains are so arranged,
that, viewed from the central plain, far from
hiding each other* they exhibit themselves in
their real shape, as if projected on the azure
vault of the sky; we imagine we behold on
the same vertical plane their summit and their
peak ; they remind us of the stupendous view
of the coasts of New Norfolk and Cook’s River:
and appear like a bold rocky coast, which, rising

from the bosom of the waters, seem so much the ©

less distant, as no object is placed between the
shore and the eye of the observer. °

But if the structure of the Cordilleras, and
the form of the central elevated plain, are
favorable for geological observations ;: if they
enable the traveller to examine with facility the
outlines of the double, ridge of the Andes: the
enormous elevation of this plain gives a less ap-
pearance of loftiness to summits, which, if placed
on islets, scattered along the immensity of the
ocean, like Mowna-Roa and the Peak of Te-
neriffe, would astonish more by their stupendous

height. The plain of Tapia, seen on the: fore-—

235

ground of the sixteenth plate, and in which I
have sketched, near Riobamba-Nuevo, the group
of Chimborazo and Carguaiazo, has an abso-
lute elevation of 2891 metres (1493 toises) ; it
is only a sixth less elevated than the top of Etna.
The summit of Chimborazo does not therefore
surpass the height of this plain more than 3640
metres, which is 84 metres less than the height
of the top of Mount Blanc above the priory of
Chamonix; for the difference between Chim-
borazo and Mount Blanc is nearly equal to that
which is observed between the elevation of the
plain of Tapia, and the bottom of the valley of
Chamonix. The top of the Peak of Teneriffe,
compared with the level of the town of
Oratava, is still more elevated than Chimbo-
_ razo and Mount Blanc above Riobamba and
Chamonix. :

Mountains which would astonish as by their
height, if they were placed near the sea-shore,
seem to be but hills when they rise from the
ridge of the Cordilleras: Quito, for instance, is
backed by a small cone called Javirac, which
does not seem higher to the inhabitants of that
eity, than Mountmartre, or the heights of
Meudon, appear to the inhabitants of Paris.
This cone of Javirac, according to my measure-
ment, is, however, 312] metres (1600 toises) of
absolute height; and is almost as lofty as the

236

summit of Marbore,; one of the highest sum-
mits of the chain of the Pyrenees.

Notwithstanding the effects of this illusion
produced by the height of the plains of Quito, of
Mulalo, and Riobamba, we should seek in vain
near the coasts, or on the eastern slope of Chim-
‘borazo, a place that would afford so magnificent
a view of the Cordilleras, as that I enjoyed for
several weeks in the plain of Tapia. When we
are placed on the back of the Andes, between
the double ridge formed by the colossal tops of
Chimborazo, Tungurahua, and Cotopaxi, we
are still near enough their summits to see them
under angles of considerable altitude ; but in
descending toward the forests, which environ the
foot of the Cordilleras, these angles become very
small; for, on account of the enormous mass of
the mountains, we rapidly leave the summits at
a distance, in proportion as we approach the level
of the ocean.

I have sketched the outlines of Chimborazo |

and Carguairazo, by the use of the same graphie
means as I have already mentioned, when I
spoke of the drawing of Cotopaxi. The line
marking the inferior limits of the perpetual

snows is at a height, which somewhat exceeds.

that of Mount Blanc, for this last mountain,
if placed under the equator, would be covered
but occasionally with snow. ‘The constant tem-

MRR Ae, |
yee |

237
perature, which reigns under this zone, is the
cause why the limit of perpetual i ice is not sub-
ject to those irregularities, which we observe in
the Alps and the Pyrenees. On the northern
declivity of Chimborazo, between that mountain
and Carguairazo, the road leads from Quito to
Guayaquil, and toward the coasts of the Pacific
Qcean. The paps covered with snow, which
rise on this side, remind us, by their form, of that
of the dome of Gouté, seen from the valley of
Chamonix. On a narrow ridge, which rises
amidst the snows on the southern declivity, M.
M. Bonpland, Montufar, and myself, attempted
to reach, not without danger, the summit of
Chimborazo. We carried instruments to a con-
siderable height, though we were surrounded by
a thick fog, and very much incommoded by the
great tenuity of the air. The point where we
stopped to observe the inclination of the mag-
netic needle was more elevated than any yet
attained by man on the ridge of mountains ; it
was more than eleven hundred metres higher
than the top of Mount Blanc, which the most
enlightened and most intrepid of travellers, Mr.
de Saussure, had the satisfaction of reaching,
after struggling against difficulties still greater
than those we had to conquer near the summit of
Chimborazo. These laborious excursions, the
narratives of which generally excite the atten-
tion of the publie, offer but a very small number

238

of results useful to the progress of science; the
traveller finds himself on ground: covered with
- snow, in a stratum of air, the chemical mixture
of which is the same as that of the lower re-
gions, and in a situation in which delicate expe-
riments cannot be made with all the exactness
requisite. }

If we compare the fifth, tenth, and sixteenth
plates of this work with those of the geographi-
cal and physical Atlas, which acccompanies my
Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, we dis-
tinguish three kinds of principal forms belonging
to the high tops of the Andes. The volcanoes
which are yet burning, those which have but a
single crater of extraordinary size, are conic
mountains, with summits truncated in a greater
or less degree : such is the figure of Cotopaxi, of
Popocatepec, and the Peak of Orizaba. Volea-
noes, the summits of which have sunk after a long
series of eruptions, exhibit ridges bristled with
points, needles leaning in different directions,
and broken rocks falling into ruins. Such is the
form of the Altar, or Capac-Urcu, a mountain
once more lofty than Chimborazo, and the de-
struction of which is considered as a memorable
period in the natural history of the New Conti-
nent; such’ is the form also of Carguairazo, a
great part of which fell in on the night of the
19th of July, 1698. Torrents of water and mud
then issued from the opened sides of the moun-

239
tain, and laid waste the neighbouring country.
This dreadful. catastrophe was accompanied by
an earthquake, which, in the adjacent towns of
Hambato, and Llactacunga, swallowed up thou-
sands of inhabitants.

A third form of the high tops of the Andes,
and the most majestic of the whole, is that of
Chimborazo, the summit of which is circular ; it
reminds us of those paps without craters, which
the elastic force of the vapours swells up in
regions where the hollow crust of the Globe is
mined by subterraneous fires. The aspect of
mountains of granite has little analogy with that
of Chimborazo. The granitic summits are flat-
tened hemispheres; the trappean’ porphyry
forms slender cupolas. Thus on the shore of the
South Sea, after the long rains of winter, when
the transparency of the air has suddenly in-
creased, we see Chimborazo appear like a cloud
at the horizon; it detaches itself from the
neighbouring summits, and towers over the
whole chain of the Andes, like that majestic
dome, produced by the genius of Michael An-
gelo, over the antique monuments, which sur-
round the Capitol.

ie eK A aA nN a Jia i
fe HEAT, WN EO er ei a

940

PERUVIAN MONUMENT

CANNAR. |
PLATE XVII.

Tus lofty plains, that stretch along the back
of the Cordilleras from the equator to the third
degree of south latitude, end where a mass of
mountains rises from four thousand five hundred
to four thousand eight hundred metres of height,
which like an enormous dyke unites the eastern
to the western ridge of the Andes of Quito.
This group of mountains, in which porphyry
covers mica-slate and other rocks of primitive
formation, is known by the name of the Paramo
del Assuay. We were obliged to cross it, in
order to go from Riobamba to Cuenca, and to
visit those beautiful forests of Loxa, which are so
celebrated for their fruitfulness in bark *. ‘The

[ *
_ * Cinchona.

Pigg dha SSI Sh Ee ASL A a
PED ets ths ee OS PY

241

journey over Assuay is formidable, especially in
the months of June, July, and August, when
there are immense falls of snow, and the icy
winds of the south sweep over these regions.
As the high road, according to the measures I
took in 1802, is almost the height of Mount
Blanc, the travellers are exposed to a cold so
excessive, that several perish every year from its
effects. In the middle of this journey, at the ab-
solute height of four thousand metres, we cross
a pldin, the extent of which is six square
leagues. This plain (and this remarkable fact
throws some light on the formation of elevated
plains) is almost on the level of the savannahs,
by which the part of the volcano of Antisana
covered with eternal snows is surrounded. The
elevated plains of Assuay and of Antisana, the
geological construction of which has such strik-
ing resemblances, are nevertheless more than

fifty leagues distartt from each other: they con-

tain lakes of fresh water of considerable depth,

and bordered by a thick turf of Alpine grasses,

but no fish, and scarcely any aquatic ei a en-
livens their solitude.

The soil of the Llano del Pullal, the name
given to the high plains of Assuay, is excessively
marshy. We were surprised to find in this
place, and at heights which greatly surpass the
top of the Peak of Teneriffe, the magnificent re-

VOL XIfI. ‘Ee

249

mains of a road constructed by the Incas of Peru.
This causeway, lined with free-stone, may be
compared to the finest Roman roads J have seen
in Italy, France, or Spain: it is perfectly straight,
and keeps the same direction for six or eight
thousand metres. We observed the continuation
of this road near Caxamarca, 120 leagues to ‘the
south of Assuay ; and it is believed in the coun-
try, that it led as far as the city of Cuzco.
Near this road over the Assuay, at the absolute

height of 4042 metres (2074 toises) are the re-
mains of the palace of the Inca Tupaynpangi,

the ruins of which, commonly called Jos Pare-
dones, are but of small elevation.

In descending from the Paramo of Assuay,
toward the south, we discover, between the
farms of ‘Turche and Burgay, another monu-
ment of ancient Peruvian architecture, known
under the name of Ingapilca, or the fortress of
Cannar.’ This fortres@ if we can so call a hill

_ terminated by a platf rm, is much less remark-

able for its height, than its perfect preservation. *
A wall built of large blocks of free-stone rises to‘a

‘ height of five or six metres. It forms a very te-

gulat oval, the great axis of which is‘nearly thirty-
eight metres in length. ‘The interior of this oval
is a flat piece Of ground covered with rich vege-
tation, which increases the picturesque effect ‘of
the landscape. In the centre of the enclosure Is

243

a house, containing only two rooms, which are
near seven metres in height. This house and
the enclosure, represented in the sixteenth plate,
form part of a system of walls and fortifications,
of which we shall hereafter speak, and which are
more than one hundred and fifty metres in length.
The cut of the stones, the disposition of the
doors and. niches, the perfect analogy between
this edifice and those of Cuzco, leave no doubt
respecting the origin of this military monument,
_ which .served as a Jodging to the: Incas, when
those princes journeyed occasionally from Peru to
the kingdom of Quito. ‘The foundations of a
great number of edifices, which surround the
enclosure, indicate, that there was room enough
at Cannar to lodge the small army, which gene-
rally attended the Incas in their journeys. I
found among these foundations a stone cut with
great nicety, as represented. in the fore-ground’
of the drawing on the left: but I cannot guess
the purpose, for which it was shit in this par-
ticular manner. :

What is most curious in this small edifice,
surrounded by a few trunks of schinus molle, is
the form. of its roof, which gives it a perfect re-
semblance to European houses. One of the first
historians of America, Pedro de Cieca de Leon,.
who began to describe his travels in 1541, gives
the detail of several hguses of the Inca in the
province of Los Canares. He _ expressly

RQ

244

says *, that the edifices of Thomebamba have a
covering of rushes, so well made, that, if it be
not consumed by fire, it will last without alter-
ation for several ages. From this observation
we may be led to believe, that the gable of the
house of Cannar was added after the conquest ;
and what seems especially to favor this hypothe-
sis is the existence of open windows in this part
of the building ; for it is certain, that in the edi-
fices of ancient Peruvian construction, as in the
remains of the houses of Pompeia and Hercula-
neum, no windows are to be found.

M. de la Condamine, in a very interesting
Memoir on some ancient Monuments of Peru T,
is inclined also to think, that the gable which we
observe in the small edifice at Cannar is not of
the time of the Incas. He says, “ that it is per-
haps of modern fabrication; and that it is not of
free-stone like the rest of the walls, but of a kind
of brick dried in the air, and kneaded with
straw.” He adds in another place, that the use
of those bricks, to which the Indians: gave the
name of ¢ica, was known to the Peruvians long
before the arrival of the Spaniards ; and that, for
this reason, the gable may be of ancient construc-
nee quae formed of bricks.

* Pedro de Cieca de Leon, Chronica del Peru (Aver,
1654), tom. 1, c. 44, p. 120.

+ Memoires de l’Académie de Berlin, 1746, p. 444.

245

I regret very much not having read the Me-
moirs of M. de la Condamine before my voyage
to America; I am very far from throwing any
doubt on the observations of this celebrated
traveller, whose labours obliged him to remain
along time in the environs of Cannar, and who
had much more leisure than myself to inspect
this monument. I am_ nevertheless surprised,
that while examining on the spot itself the ques-
tion, whether the roof of this building was added
in the time of the Spaniards, neither M. Bon-
pland nor myself was struck with the difference of
construction, which is said to exist between the
wall and the gable above it. I found no bricks
(ticas or adobes); they seemed to me to be
merely freestones, covered with a kind of yellow
stucco, easy to detach, and mixed with ichu, or
chopped straw. ‘The owner of a neighbouring
farm,. who ececrapanied us iN our excursion to
the ruins of Cannar, boasted, that his ancestors
had greatly contributed to the destruction of this
edifice; he related to us, that the sloping roof
had been covered, not in the European manner,
that is, with tiles, but with stones slit very thin
and highly polished. It was this circumstance
particularly, which made me lean then to the
opinion, probably erroneous, that, excepting the
four windows, the rest of the edifice was such as
it had been built in the time of the Incas. How-
ever this may be, we must allow, that the use of

246

roofs with acute angles would have been highly
useful in a country of mountains subject to ©
violent raiiis. These sloping roofs are known to
the natives of the north-west coast of America ;
and were known in the south of Europe in the
most remote times, as several Greek and Roman
monuments prove ; particularly the reliefs on the ©
column of Trajan, and the paintings of land-
- scapes found at Pompeia, and formerly preserved
in the fine collection of Portici. The angle at
the top of the roof was obtuse among the Greeks;
and a right angle among the Romans, who
lived in a less favoured climate than that of
Greece. The farther we advance toward the
north, the more sloping are the roofs.

The drawing of the seventeenth plate was
made at Rome, after a sketch of my own, by
Mr. Gmelin, an artist justly celebrated for his
talents, and the great extent of his knowledge:
during my last abode in Italy, he honoured me
with his particular friendship, and it is to his
care, that I am in a great measure indebted for
what, in this book, may not appear altogether
‘unworthy of exciting the interest of the public.

247

ROCK OF INTI-GUAICU.
PLATE XVIII.

In descending the hill, the summit of which is
erowned by the fortress of Cannar, to a valley
hollowed by the river Gulan, we find small foot-
paths cut in the rock: these paths lead to a
fissure, which in the Qquichua language is called
Inti-Guaicu, or the ravine of the Sun. In this
solitary spot, shaded by a beautiful and luxu-
riant vegetation, rises an insulated mass of sand-
stone, which is only four or five metres high.
One of the surfaces of this small rock is remark-
able for its whiteness : it is cut perpendicularly
_as if it had been worked by the hand of man.
On this smooth and white ground are concen-
tric circles, which represent the image of the
Sun, such as at the commencement of civiliza-
tion we see it figured among every nation of the
Earth. These ciréles are of a blackish brown ;
and in the space they enclose we perceive fea-
tures half effaced, which indicate two eyes and a
mouth. The foot of the rock is cut into

248

Steps, which lead to a seat hollowed out in
the same stone, and so placed, that from the
bottom of a hallow the image of the sun may
be seen.

The natives relate, that, when the Inca Tupa-.
yupangi advanced with his army to make the:
conquest of the kingdom of Quito, then governed
by the Conchocando of Lican, the priests dis-
covered on the stone the image of the divinity,
whose worship ought to be introduced, among
the conquered nations. The inhabitants of
Cuzco thought they every. where beheld the
figure of the Sun, as the Christians, under every
zone, have found either crosses, or the print of
the feet of the Apostle St. Thomas, traced on
rocks. The Peruvian prince aud his soldiers
considered the discovery of the stone of Inti-

Guaicu as of happy augury: it contributed, with-_
out doubt, to induce the Incas to build a habita-

tion at Cannar: for itis known, that the descend-
ants of Manco-Capae considered themselves as
the children of the star of day, an opinion
which offers a singular coincidence between the
first legislator of Peru, and that of India *,
who. was also called Vaivasaouta, or son of the
Sun.. |
.
* Menou 2, or Satyavrata. Recherclies Asiatiques, tom.

1, p. 170; tom. 2, p. 172. Paolin. Systema Brachmaa,
p. 141.

249

- On aclose examination of the rock of Inti-

-Guaicu we discovered, that the concentric circles:

were small veins of brown iron ore, very com-:

mon in every formation of sandstone. The fea-

tures, whieh indicate the eyes and the mouth,
are evidently traced by means of some metallic
tool; we may suppose, that they were added by
the Peruvian priests, in order to impose more
readily on the people. On the arrival of the
Spaniards, the missionaries were highly inte-
rested in withdrawing from the eyes of the na-
tives whatever was the object of ancient venera-
tion; and we still find traces of the chisel em-.
ployed in effacing the image of the Sun.
According to the interesting researches of
Mr. Vater, the word Jnti, Sun, offers no ana-
logy with any known idiom of the Old Continent.
In general, out of eighty-three American lan-
ruages examined by this respectable writer, and’
by Dr. Barton of Philadelphia, we have hitherto
recognized but one hundred and thirty-seven.
roots, which were found in the languages of Asia:
and Europe; namely, in those of the Mantchow
Tartars, the Monguls, the Celts, the Biscayans,,.
and the Esthonians. This curious result seems.
to prove what we have already advanced im
speaking of the mythology of the Mexicans. I¢
cannot be doubted, that the greater part of the
nations of America belong to a race of men,.

250

who, isolated ever since the infancy of the world
from the rest of mankind, exhibit in the nature
and diversity of language, in their features and.
the conformation of their skull, incontestable
proofs of an early and complete separation.

}
a 3
ee eae

251

YNGA=-CHUNGANA,

NEAR CANNAR.
PLATE XIX.

To the north of the ruins of Cannar rises a
chain of hills, the slope of which toward the
house of the Inca is very gentle, while it is
almost perpendicular on the side of the valley of
Gulan. According to the traditions among the
natives, this hill formed part of the gardens, that
surrounded the ancient Peruvian fortress. We
here found, as near the ravine of the Sun, a great
number of small pathways cut on the slope of a
rock, which is scarcely covered with vegetable
mould.

Near Mexico, in the gardens of Chapoltepec,
the European traveller views with melancholy
feeling cypress trees *, the trunks of which are
more than sixteen metres in circumference; and

* Cupressus disticha, L.

252

which are thought, with some probability, to
have been planted by kings of the Azteck dy-
nasty. Inthe gardens of the Inca, near Cannar,
we sought in vain for some tree, which might
seem to have outlived half a century; nothing
indicates the abode of the Incas in these coun-
tries, except perhaps a small monument of stone,
placed on the brink of a precipice, and on the
purpose of which the inhabitants are not agreed.
This small monument, which is called the
Sport of the Inca, consists in a single mass of
stones. The Peruvians employed in its construc- -
tion the same artifice as the Egyptians did in
the sculpture of the sphynx of Geeza, of which
Pliny expressly says, “ e saxo naturali elabo-
rata.” The rock of quartzose sandstone, which
serves as its basis, was diminished, so that, after
having taken away the strata which formed the
summit, there remained only a seat with an en-
closure around, which is represented on this
plate. We may be surprised, that a people who
heaped together so prodigious a number of free-
stones, on the superb causeway of Assuay, should
have recourse to such singular means to ‘raise a
wall three feet high. All the Peruvian works
bear the mark of a laborious people, who de-
Aighted in hollowing rocks, and in seeking diffi-
' culties to show their address in conquering them;
- and who imprinted on the most insignificant
edifices a character of solidity, from which we

253

might be led to think, that at some other epocha
they could have raised monuments fary more
considerable. 10

The Inga-Chungana, at a ahesatiog naccigblih
a sofa, the back of which is decorated with a
sort of arabesque in form of a chain. On enter-
ing the oval enclosure, we perceive, that there is
no seat but for one person; but that this person
is placed in a commodious manner, so as to enjoy
the most delightful prospect over the valley of
Gulan. A small river winds along this valley,
and forms several cascades, the foam of which is
seen through tufts of gunnera and melastomas.
This rustic seat would be an ornament to the
gardens of Richmond 6r Ermenonville ; and the
prince, who had chosen this site, was not insen-
sible to the beauties of nature; he belonged to
a people, whom we have no right to style buy
barous.

I beheld in this fabric only a seat placed in
a delightful spot, at the brink of a precipice, on
the steep declivity of a hill that commands the
valley: some old Indians, who are the historians
of the country, find this explanation too simple ,
they assert, that the hollow sculptured chain on
the edge of the enclosure was formed to receive.
little balls, which were rolled along it for the
amusement of the prince. We must admit, that
the edge, on which is the Arabesque, has some
slope; and that the ball, at the place where the

254

wall is perceptibly lower, might have mounted,
as much as it had descended, if thrown with
sufficient force: but were this supposition true,
should we not find at the end of the chain some
hole, to receive the balls when their course was
finished? The place where the wall of the en-
closure is the lowest, the point opposite the seat,
corresponds to an opening in the rock on the
brink of the precipice. A narrow pathway, cut
in the sandstone, leads to this grotto, in which,
according to ‘the tradition among the natives,
there are treasures hidden by Atahualpa. They
say too, that a streamlet formerly ran along’ this
pathway. Is it there that we should look for the
Sport of the Inca ? and* was this enclosure so
situate, that the prince could conveniently: see
what passed on the steep declivity of the rock ?
We shall speak more of this-grotto inthe nar-

rative of our journey to Peru. | ,

255

INTERIOR
or THE ‘

- HOUSE OF THE INCA AT CANNAR.

PLATE XX.

‘ OY.
"Tus plate represents the plan and inside of the
‘small building,’ whith occupies the centre of the
‘esplanade. in the citadel of ‘Cannar, and which
‘M. La Condamine thought destined for a guard-
‘house. I sketched this drawing with the greater
~exactriéss, ‘because ‘the remains of Peruvian
architecture ‘scattered ‘along the ridge of the

‘Cordilleras, from Cuzco 'to ‘Cayambé, or from -

the’ thirteenth ‘degree ‘of north ‘latitude to the
“equator, all’ bear the same character in the cut of
the’ ara the shape'of ‘the doors, the symme-
“trical disposal of the niches, and ‘the total absence
’of exterior‘ornaments. ‘This uniformity of ‘con-
‘struction isso great, that all the stations (tambos )
“along ‘the -high roads, ‘called, ‘m the country,
houses or palaces of the Inca, appear to have
*péen copied’ from: each ‘other. ‘Peruvian archi-

2

ha aos ‘ Sey A : * * ; :

\e

256

%

tecture was limited to the wants of a nation of
mountaineers ; it had neither columns, nor pilas-
ters, nor circular arches: these natives of a
rocky country, of elevated plains almost desti-
tute of trees, were not led, like the Greeks and
Romans, to imitate in their architecture the as-
semblage of a construction in wood ; simplicity,
symmetry, and solidity, were the three charac-
ters, by which all Peruvian edifices were distin-
guished.

The citadel of Cannar, and the square build-
ings surrounding it, are not constructed with the —
same quartzose sandstone, which covers the pri-
mitive slate and the porphyries of Assuay, and
which appears at the surface in the garden of the
Inca, as we descend toward the valley of Gulan.
Neither are the stones used for the edifices of
Cannar granite, as M..de la Condamine thought,
but a trappean porphyry of great hardness, en-
closing vitreous feldspar and hornblende. This
porphyry was perhaps dug in the great quarries,
which are found at four. thousand metres of
height near the lake of Culebrilla, more than
three leagues distant from Cannar. It is certain
at least, that these- quarries furnished the fine
stone employed in the house of the Inca, situate
in the plain of Pullal, at an elevation almost
equal to that of the Puy de Dome if placed on
the summit, of Canigou. ,

We do not find in the ruins of Cannar those

stones of enormous size, which we see in the
Peruvian edifices of Cuzco and the neighbouring
countries. Acosta measured some at Traqua-
naco, which were twelve metres (thirty-eight
feet) long, five metres, eight tenths (eighteen
feet) broad, and one metre nine tenths (six feet)
thick. Pedro Ciega of Leon saw some of the
same dimensions in the ruins of ‘Tiahuanaco*.
In the citadel of Cannar I saw no stones that
exceeded twenty-six decimetres (eight feet) in
length. They are in general much less remark-
able for their bulk, than the extreme beauty of
their shape ; the greater part are joined without
any appearance of cement. We nevertheless
recognise cement in some of the buildings sur-
rounding the citadel, and in the three houses of
the Inca at Pullal, each of which is more than
fifty-eight metres long. ‘This cement is formed
of a mixture of small stones and argillaceous
marl, which effervesces with acids; it is a true
mortar, of which I detached considerable por-
tions with a knife, by digging into the interstices
which were left between the parallel courses of
the stones. This fact deserves some attention ;
because the travellers who preceded us have all
asserted, that the Peruvians were unacquainted
with the use of mortar; but the supposition,
that the Peruvians were as ignorant in this point

* Ciega, Chronica del Peru (Anvers, 1554), p. 254.

VOL. XIII. Ss

258 ,
as the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, is erroneous.
The Peruvians not only employed a marly mortar
in the great edifices of Pacaritambo*, but made
use of a cement of asphaltum (betun); a mode
of construction, which on the banks of the Eu-
phrates and the Tigris may be traced back to
the remotest antiquity.

The porphyry made use of for the buildings of
Cannar is cut into parallelopipedons with such
perfection, that the joints of the stone would be
imperceptible, as M. de la Condamine remarks,
if their exterior surface were a plane; but the
outer surface of each stone is slightly convex,
and cut slantingly towards the edge; so that the
joints form small flutings, which serve as orna-
ments, like the separations of the stones in rustic
work. This cut of the stone, which the Italian
architects call bugnato, is found in the ruins of
Callo, near Mulado, where I have sketched it in
detail }: it gives the walls of the Peruvian build-
ings a great resemblance to certain Roman
structures, for instance, to the muro di Nerva at
Rome.

What chiefly characterizes the monuments of
Peruvian architecture is the form of the doors,
which are generally nineteen or twenty deci-
metres (six or eight feet) high, so that the Inca,

* Ciecga, Chronica del Peru (Anvers, 1554), 234.
+ See pl, 24, (9 of the edition in 8vo).

259

or great nobles might pass, though carried in a
palanquin on the shoulders of their subjects.
The door-posts were not parallel, but inclined,
_ probably in order to use stone lintels of less dir
mensions. The niches (hoco) hollowed in the
walls, and serving for cupboards, imitate the
- form of these porte rastremate: the inclined
position of these parts in the Peruvian edifices
gives them some resemblance to those of Egypt,
in which the lintels are always shorter than the
thresholds. Between the hocoes are cylindric
stones, with polished surfaces, which project out
of the wall to the length of five decimetres; the
natives assured us, that they were used to hang
weapons or ornaments on. We observed also
in the corners of the walls cross pieces of por-
phyry of a singular shape. M. de la Conda-
mine thinks, that they were intended to join the
two walls. I am rather inclined to believe, that
the cords of their hammocks were fastened round
these cross pieces ; at least we find similar pieces
of wood, serving for this purpose, in all the huts
of the Indians of the Orinoco.

The Peruvians showed surprising dexterity in
cutting the hardest stones. At Cannar we find
curved grooves hollowed in the porphyry, to
supply the want of hinges to the doors. La
Condamine and Bouguer saw in old edifices,
built in the time of the Incas, ornaments of por-
phyry, representing the muzzles of animals, in

5 2

aod

260

the perforated nostrils of which were moveable
rings of the same stone *. When I crossed the
Cordilleras by the Paramo of Assuay, and saw
the enormous masses of stone extracted from the
porphyry quarries of Pullal, employed in con-
structing the high roads of the Inca, I already
began to doubt, whether the Peruvians were not °
acquainted with other tools beside hatchets of
flint; I suspected, that grinding was not the
only method they had employed to smooth the
stones, or give them a regular and uniform con-
vexity ; and I then adopted an opinion contrary
to the ideas generally received ; I conjectured,
that the Peruvians had tools of copper, which
mixed with a certain proportion of tin acquires
considerable hardness. ‘This conjecture has
been justified by the discovery of an ancient
Peruvian chisel, found at Vilcabamba, near
Cuzco, in a silver mine worked in the time of
the Incas. This valuable instrument, for which
I am indebted to the friendship of P. Narcissus
Gilbar, and which I have brought to Europe, is
twelve centimetres long and two broad. The
metal of which it is composed has been analyzed
by Mr. Vanquelin, who found in it 0°94 of cop-
per, and 0:06 of tin. This keen copper of the
Peruvians is almost identical with that of the

* Memoires de PAcadémie de Berlin, 1746, p. 402, lib. 7;
fia,

r Ps B tntes YM ay UA Aig) AED 5 Bil, ae oR Me oe

261

Gallic axes, which cut wood as if they had been
of steel *. Every where in the Old Continent,
at the beginning of the civilization of nations,
the use of copper mixed with tin (xaAxs) pre-
vailed over that of iron, even in places where
the latter had been for a long time known. —

* See my Political Essay on New Spain, vol. 3, p. 306,
edition in 8yo,

262

AZTECK BAS-RELIEF,

7 FOUND IN THE

GREAT SQUARE OF MEXICO.

——

PLATE XXII.

Tue cathedral of Mexico, represented in the
third plate, is built on the ruins of the ¢teocalli, or
house of the God Mexitli. This pyramidal mo-
nument, constructed by king Ahuizotl, in 1486,
was thirty-seven metres high from its basis to
the upper platform, whence there is an extensive
view over the lakes, the surrounding country
strown with villages, and the mountains that
skirt the valley. The platform, which served as
an asylum in battle, was crowned by two chapels

‘in the form of towers, each of which was seven-

teen or eighteen metres, so that the whole teo-
calli was fifty-four metres high. The heap of
stones, that formed the pyramid of Mexitli, was
used after the siege of Tenochtitlan, to raise the
Plaza Mayor. In digging eight or ten metres
deep, a great number of colossal idols, and other

263

remains of Azteck sculpture, were discovered :
in fact, three curious monuments, of which we
shall give a description in this work, the stone
of sacrifices, the colossal statue of the goddess
Teoyaomiqui, and the stone of the Mexican ca-
lendar, were found, when the Viceroy, Court
Revillagigedo, levelled the great square of
Mexico, by lowering the ground. A very credi-
ble person, who had been commissioned to direct
these works, assured me, that the foundations of
the cathedral are surrounded by an immense
quantity of idols and reliefs,and that the three
masses of porphyry, which we have just men-
tioned, are the smallest of those discovered in
digging to the depth of twelve metres. Near
the capilla del sagrario a sculptured rock was
discovered, which was seven metres long, six
broad, and three in height; the workmen, find-
ing that they could not get it out, were about to
break it in pieces; but happily they were di-
verted from their intention by a canon of the
cathedral, Mr. Gamboa, an enlightened friend
of the arts. |
The stone, which is commonly known by the
name of the stone of sacrifices (piedra de los sa-
crificios), is of cylindrical form: it is 3 metres
broad, and 11 decimetres in height; it is sur-
rounded with a relief, in which we find twenty
groups of two figures, all represented in the same
attitudes. One of these figures is constantly the

QW yen TA.

264

same: it is a warrior, perhaps a king, who has
his right hand resting on the helmet of a man,
who is offering him flowers as a mark of obedi-
ence. Mr. Dupé, whom I had occasion to men-
tion at the beginning of this work, has copied
the whole relief; I convinced myself on the spot
of the exactness of his drawing, a part of which
is engraven on the plate; and I have chosen the
remarkable group, which represents a bearded
man. It is observable, that in general the
Mexican Indians have somewhat more beard
than the rest of the natives of America; it 1s
not rare even to see some with mustaches. Was
there ever formerly a province, the inhabitants
of which wore a long beard? Or is that which
we see in the relief artificial? and is it a part
of those fantastic ornaments, by which warriors
sought to inspire their enemies with terror?

Mr. Dupé’s opinion seems to me well-founded,
that this sculpture represents the conquests of
an Azteck king. The conqueror is always the
same, the vanquished warrior wears the dress
of the nation to which he belongs, and of which.
he may be said to be the representative. Behind
the prisoner is placed the hieroglyphic, that de-
notes the conquered province. In the collection
of Mendoza, the conquests of a king are in the
same manner indicated by a buckler, or bundle
of arrows, placed between the king and the
symbolical characters or arms of the sybjected

fe
ig > Kd 5
A , i eat
Sa MRAM aR Ca 4 AS es eae saa :
Re TT ae PA kee dO ae (ett Met hh tad Gee *

265

countries. As the Mexican prisoners were of-
fered up in the temples, it would appear natural
enough, that the triumphs of a warrior king
should be figured around the fatal stone, on
which the topiltzin (the sacrificing priest) tore
out the heart of the unhappy victim. What has
caused this hypothesis to be adopted is, that the
upper surface of the stone has a groove of some
depth, which appears to have been cut to let the
blood run off.

Notwithstanding these apparent proofs, | am
inclined to think, that the stone of the sacrifices
was never placed at the top of a ¢eocalli; but
was one of those stones, called temalacatl, on
which the combat of the gladiators took place
between the prisoner destined to be sacrificed
and a Mexican warrior. The real stone of sa-
crifices, that which crowned the platform of the
teocalli, was green, either jasper, or perhaps
jade *; its form was that of a parallelopipedon,
fifteen or sixteen decimetres in length, and a
metre in breadth; its surface was convex, so that
the victim stretched upon the stone had the
breast raised higher than the rest of his body.
No historian states, that this block of green
stone was sculptured ; the great hardness of the
rocks of jasper and jade no doubt formed an ob-
stacle to the execution of a bass-relief. On com-

* Beilstein of Werner.

266

paring the cylindric block of porphyry found in —

the great square of Mexico, with those oblong
stones, on which the victim was thrown when
the topiltzin approached, armed with a knife of
obsidian, we easily conceive, that these two ob-
jects offer no resemblance ejther in matter or in
form.

It is easy, on the contrary, to recognise, in
the description which ocular witnesses have given
of the temalacatl, the stone on which the pri-
soner destined for sacrifice fought, that of which
Mr. Dupé has sketched the relief. The un-
known author of the work published by Ramu-
sio, under the title of Relazione dun Gentiluomo
di Fernando Cortez, expressly says, that the te-
malacatl had the form of a mill-stone, was three
feet thick, had figures sculptured round it, and
was large enough to serve for a combat between
two persons. This cylindrical stone was placed
on a platform raised three metres in height.
The prisoners most distinguished for their cou-
rage or their rank were reserved for the sacrifice
of the gladiators. Placed on the temalacatl,
surrounded by an immense crowd of spectators,
they were to fight six Mexican warriors in suc-
cession ; if they were fortunate enough to con-
quer them, their liberty was granted them, and
they were permitted to return to their own coun-
try; if, on the contrary, the prisoner sunk under
the strokes of one of his adversaries, a priest,

267

called chalchiuhtepehua, dragged him dead or
living to the altar, and tore out his heart.

It is possible, that the stone, which was found
in digging round the cathedral, was the same
temalacatl, which the gentiluomo of Cortez
asserts having seen near the enclosure of the
great teocalli of Mexitli. The figures of the
relief are nearly sixty decimetres high. Their
shoes are very remarkable: the conqueror has
his left foot terminated by a kind of beak,
which appears to be a defensive weapon. We
may be surprised at finding this weapon, to
which I know of nothing analogous among other
nations, only on the left foot. This same figure,
the stunted body of which reminds us of the
earliest Etruscan style, holds the prisoner by
the helmet, grasping it with his left hand. In
a great number of Mexican paintings, which
represent battles, we see warriors holding their
weapons in the left hand: they are represented
acting rather with this hand than with the right.
We might be led to think at first sight, that this
singularity is the result of peculiar habits; but,
on examining a great number of historical hiero-
glyphics of the Mexicans, we observe, that their
painters placed weapons sometimes in the right,
and at other times in the left hand *,*as it hap-
pened to produce a symmetrical disposition in

* Cod. Vat. anon. fol. 86.

268

the groups ; I found several striking examples in
looking through the Codex Anonymus of the
Vatican, in which we found Spaniards holding
the sword in the left hand. This singularity of
confounding the right with the left is also cha-
_ acteristic of the beginning of the art; we ob-
serve the same in some Egyptian reliefs ; we even
find in the latter right hands fastened to left
arms, whence it results, that the thumb seems
placed on the outside of the hand. Learned an-
tiquaries have been induced to think, that there
was something mysterious in this extraordinary
arrangement, which Mr. Zoega attributes only
to mere caprice, or the negligence of the artist.
I much doubt, whether this bass-relief, which
encircles the temalacatl, and so many other sculp-

tures in basaltic porphyry, were executed by em- |
ploying only tools of jade, or other very hard |

stones. It is true, that I have sought in vain to
procure some metallic chisel of the ancient Mex-
icans, like that I brought from Peru: but Anto-
nio de Herera, in the tenth book of his History
of the West Indies, says expressly, that the inha-
bitants of the maritime province of Zacatollan,
situate between Acapulco and Calima, prepared
two sorts of copper, of which one was hard or
cutting, and the other malleable ; the hard cop-
per was used to fabricate hatchets, weapons, and
instruments of agriculture ; the malleable copper
was employed for vases, caldrons, and other

e

Bekah uti

269

necessary utensils in domestic use. Now, the
country of Zacatollan having been subjected by
the kings of Anahuac, it does not appear proba-
ble, that in the environs of the capital of the
kingdom they continued to engrave stones by
grinding, if metallic chisels could be procured.
This hard Mexican copper was no doubt alloyed
with tin, in the same manner as the tool found at
Vilcabamba, and that Peruvian hatchet, which
Godin sent to M. de Maurepas, and which Count
Caylus thought was tempered copper.

bag Ve te pila tae shames
ee rf

BASALTIC ROCKS

AND

CASCADE OF REGLA.
PLATE XXII.

In changing our latitude and climate, we see a

_change in the aspect’ of organic nature, in the

form of animals and of plants, which impresses
a peculiar character on every zone. With the

exception of some aquatic and cryptogamous

vegetables, the soil in every region is covered
with different plants. It is not so with inanimate
nature, with that aggregation of earthy sub-
stances, which covers the surface of our planet ;
the same decomposed granite, on which, amid
the frosts of Lapland, the vacciniums, the an-
dromedas, and the moss that nourishes the rein-
deer, vegetate, is found again in those bowers
of fern-trees, of palms, and of heliconia, the
shining foliage of which unfolds itself under the

influence of the equatorial heats. When at the ©

end of a long voyage, after passing from one

7

Vol XML p.210.

; ie CCL

Pub? by Longman Furst Rees Orme & Brown

Y La (ICE)

Gp

2

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tne’ of

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271

hemisphere to another, the inhabitant of the
north lands on some distant shore, he is sur-
prised to find, amid a crowd of unknown pro-
ductions, those strata of slate, micaceous schist,
and trappean porphyry, that form the arid coasts
of the Old. Continent bathed by the icy ocean.
Under every climate the rocky crust of the
Globe presents the same appearance to the tra-
veller ; he every where finds, and not without
emotion, in the midst of a New World, the rocks
of his native country.

This analogy in unorganized nature extends
even to those little phenomena, which we should
be tempted to attribute to causes merely local.
In the Cordilleras, as well as in the mountains
of Europe, granite sometimes offers aggregations
in the form of spheroids flattened and divided
into concentric layers: under the tropics as
well as in the,temperate zone, we find in the
granite some of those masses abounding in mica
and hornblende, which resemble blackish balls
enclosed in a mixture of feldspar and milky
quartz ; schillerspar is found in the serpentines of
the isle of Cuba, as well as in those of Germany ;
the mandelstein and perlstein of the elevated
plain of Mexico appear identic with those seen
at.the foot of the Carpathian mountains. The
superposition of the secondary rocks follows the
same laws in regions the most remote from each

979

other. In every place the same appearances

attest the same order in the revolutions, which -

have progressively changed the surface of the
Globe. 7

If we go back to physical causes, we ought
to be less surprised at finding, that travellers
have discovered no new rocks in distant re-
gions. The climate has an influence on the
form of animals and of plants, because the play
of affinities, which presides over the unfolding
of the organs, is modified both by the tempe-
rature of the atmosphere, and by that which re-
sults from the different combinations formed by
chemical action; but the unequal distribution
of heat, which is the effect of the obliquity of the
ecliptic, could have had no sensible influence on
the formation of the rocks ; this formation, on the
contrary, must itself have had a powerful influ-
ence on the temperature of the Globe, and the
surrounding air. When great masses of matter
pass from a liquid to a solid state, this pheno-
-menon cannot take place-without being accom-
panied by an enormous evolution of caloric.
These considerations seem to throw some light
on the first migrations of animals and_ of
plants. I might be tempted to explain by
this progressive elevation of temperature seve-
ral important problems, particularly that which
‘the existence of the productions of the In-

a

2/3

dies buried in the countries of the north exhi-
bits, were I not afraid of increasing the number
of geological dreams. : |

The basalts of Regla, sketched on this plate,
offer an undeniable proof of that identity of »
form, which is observed among the rocks of
different climates. ‘The mineralogical traveller,
who casts a look over this drawing, finds in it
the form of the basalts of the Vivarias, of the
Kuganean mountains, or of the promontory of
Antrim in Ireland. The slightest circumstances
observable in the columnar rocks of Kurope are
perceived in this group of the basalts of Mexico.
So great an analogy of structure leads us to
suppose, that the same causes have acted under
every climate, and at very different epochas ;
for the basalts covered with thonschiefer and
compact limestone must be of a very different
age from those, that repose on strata of coal and
pebbles.

The cascade of Regla is to the north-east of
Mexico, at a distance of twenty-five leagues,
between the celebrated mines of Real del
Monte, and the thermal waters of Totonilco.
A small river, which moves the wheel of the
mill for amalgamation at Regla, the construc-
tion of which cost more than ten millions of
livres, forces its way across the groups of ba-
saltic columns; the sheet of water that rushes
down is considerable, but the fall is not above

VOL. XUI, T

fe IO ee

274

seven or eight metres. The surrounding rocks,
which remind us of the cave of Fingal, at
Staffa, im the Hebrides; the contrasts of vege-
tation, the wild appearance, and the solitude of
the place, render this small cascade extremely
picturesque. On both sides of the ravine the
basaltic columns rise to more than thirty metres
in height, and on them grow tufts of cactus and
yucca filamentosa. The prisms have generally
five or six sides, and are sometimes as much as
twelve decimetres in breadth; several present
very regular articulations. Each column has
a cylindrical nucieus, of a denser mass than the
surrounding parts; these nuclei are as it were
enchased in the prisms, which in their horizontal
fracture offer very remarkable convexities. This
structure, which is also found in the basalts of
Fairhead, I have shown in the foreground of the
drawing toward the left.

The greater part of the columns of Regla
are perpendicular; though some very near the
cascade, have forty-five degrees of inclination
toward the east; and farther on there are others
horizontal. Each group, at the time of its for-
mation, appears to have followed particular
attractions. The mass of these basalts is very,
homogeneous. Mr. Bonpland remarked in them
nuclei of olivine or granuliform peridot, sur-
rounded with mesotype-zeolite. The prisms,
and this fact deserves the attention of geologists,

Pate | NR RP a a, tw

Satna ae

275

repose on a bed of clay, under which is again
found basalt. In general that of Regla is super-
posed on the porphyry of Real del Monte, while
a floetz limestone serves as a basis to the basalt
of Totonilco. The whole of this basaltic region
is two thousand metres above the level of the
ocean.

RELIEF IN BASALT,

REPRESENTING THE

MEXICAN CALENDAR.
PLATE. XXIII.

Awone the number of monuments which seem
to prove, that the people of Mexico, at the time
of their conquest by the Spaniards, had attained
a'certain degree of civilization, we may assign
the first rank to the calendars, or different divi-
sions of time, adopted by the Toltecks and the
Aztecks ; either for the use of society in general,
or to regulate the order of sacrifices, or to facili-
tate the calculations of astrology. This kind of
monument is so much the more worthy of fixing
our attention, as it is a proof of knowledge,
which we have some difficulty in considering as .
the result of observations made by a nation of
mountaineers, in the uncultivated regions of the
New Continent. We might be tempted to com-
pare the circumstance of the Azteck calendar,

277

with that of those languages rich in words, and
in grammatical forms, which we find among
nations, whose actual mass of ideas is not cor-
respondent to the multiplicity of signs adapted
to explain them. Those languages so rich and
flexible, those modes of intercalation which sup-
pose an accurate knowledge of the duration of
the astronomical year, are perhaps only the re-
mains of an inheritance, transmitted to them by
nations heretofore civilized, but since relapsed
into barbarism.

The monks and other Spanish writers, thé
visited Mexico a short time after the conquest, ,
gave but vague and often contradictory notion
of the different calendars in use among the n-
tions of the Tolteck and Azteck race. We

ledge of local circumstances. He lived/fty year:
- among the Mexicans : he arrived at fe city ¢
Tenochtitlan at a period, when the tives wee
yet in possession of a great number historcal
paintings ; and when, before theouse o the
Marquis del Valle*, in the Pla/ Mayor were |

edition,

* See page 7, plate 3d, fo

eqn

278

geen the remains of the great teocalli* dedi-
eated to the god Huitzilopochtli. Tce:quemada —
made use of the manuscripts of three Franciscan

monks, Bernardino de Sahagun, Andrea de

Olmos, and Toribio de Benavente, who were very
intimately acquainted with the American lan-
guages, and who went to New-Spain in the time
of Cortez, before the year 1528. Notwithstand-
ing these advantages, the historian of Mexico
has not furnished us with all the information

respecting the chronology and calendars of the

Mexicans, that we might have expected from his
zeal and his instruction. He expresses himself
with so little precision, that we read in his work,
that the \year of the Aztecks finished at the
month of December, and began at the month
of February f.

Materials more instructive than the narratives
of the first Spanish historians, had long existed
at Mexico, in the convents and public libraries.
Some lidian authors, Christoval del Castillo, a
ative oi Tezcuco, who died in 1606, at the age
eighty years, Fernando de Alvarado Tezozo-
c, and Domingo Chimalpain, have left manu-
Scipts conposed in the Azteck language on the

279

history and chronology of thei ancestors. These
manuscripts, which contain a great number of
dates, reckoning at the same time according to
the Christian era, and according to the civil and
ritual calendar of the natives, have been studied
with advantage by the learned Carlos de Siguen-
za, professcr of mathematics at the university
of Mexico; by the Milanese traveller, Boturini
Benaducei; by the Abbé Clavigero; and latterly
by Mr. Gama, whose astronomical labours I
have had occasion to mention in another work *.
Finally, in 1790, a stone of enormous bulk,
covered with characters evidently relative to the
Mexican calendar, the religious festivals, and
the days in which the Sun passes the zenith of
the city of Mexico, was discovered in the founda- |
tions of the ancient teocalli. This served at fhe
same time to clear up some doubtful points, and
call the attention of some enlightened nativés to
the Mexican calendar. _ 4
I endeavoured, not only during myAtay i

America, but after my return to EKurope/to stur
carefully every thing that has been publis}d
on the division of time, and the mo¢ of ir&!-
calation among the Aztecks. I g¢amine on
the spot the celebrated stone foun? thePlaza
Mayor, and represented in th/tweny-thirc

* Essai polit. sur le Mexique, volf P. 24 de Pedity

in-Syo,

280

plate: I have drawn some not uninteresting

‘notions from the hieroglyphic paintings pre-

served in the convent of San Felipe Neri at

Mexico: and I perused at Rome the manuscript
| commentary, which P. Fabrega composed on
the Codex Mexicanus of Veletri: but I greatly
regret, that Tam not sufficiently versed in the
Mexican language, to read the works written
by the natives in their own tongue, and in the
Roman alphabet, immediately after the taking
of Tenochtitlan. Consequently I have not been
able to verify the whole of the assertions of
Siguenza, Boturini, Clavigero, and Gama, on
the Mexican intercalation, by comparing them
with the manuscripts of Chimalpain and of Tezo-
zomoc, whence those authors assure us they
derived the notions which they have published.
Whatever be the doubts which remain on several
oints in the minds of the learned, habituated
\o scrutinize every fact, and adopt only what is
gorously proved, I am happy to have excited
ention to a curious monument of Mexican

4
|

especting a calendar, which neither Robert-
r th: illustrious author of the History of
_ Astro\omy pears to have treated with all the
consid&ation jt deserves. This calendar will

_. be rendéed stll more interesting by the ideas
we shall fyrnis) relative to the Mexican tradi-
‘on of the four ces, or four Suns, which exhibit

4

i)

5 Ng at eS

281

remarkable analogies with the yougs and the
calpas of the Hindoos: and on the ingenious me-
thod employed by the Muysca Indians, a nation
of mountaineers of New Grenada, to correct
_ their lunar years by the intercalation of a thirty- _
seventh moon, called deaf or cuhupqua. It is
by collecting and comparing the different sys-
tems of American chronology, that we can judge
of the communications, which appear to have
existed, in very remote times, between the na-
tions of India and Tartary, and those of the
New Continent.

The civil year of the Aztecks was a solar year
of three hundred and sixty-five days, and was ©
divided into eighteen months, each of twenty
days. After these eighteen months, or three
hundred and sixty days, five complementary
days were added, and the year began anew.
The names of Tonalpohualli or Cempohualilhuitl,
which distinguished this civil calendar from the
ritual calendar, sufficiently indicated its principal
characters. The first of these names signifies
reckoning of the Sun, in opposition to the ritual
calendar, called reckoning of the Moon, or Metz- -
lapohualli: the second denomination is derived
from cempohualli, twenty, and ilhuitl, festival ;
and it alludes, either to the twenty days con-
tained in each month, or the twenty solemn fes-
tivals celebrated during the course of a civil
year, in the teocallis, or houses of the gods.

252

The beginning of the civil day among the —
Aztecks was reckoned like that of the Persians,
the Egyptians*, the Babylonians, and the
greater part of the nations of Asia, except the
Chinese, from sunrising. It was divided into
eight intervals, a division found among the
Hindoos + and the Romans; four of which were
determined by the rising of the Sun, its setting,
and its two passages across the meridian. The
rising was called yquiza tonatiuh; noon, nepantla
tonatiuh; the setting, onaguz tonatiuh; and mid-
night, yohualnepantla. The hieroglyphic of the
day was a circle divided into four parts, Al
though, under the parallel of the city of Mexico,
the length of the day does not vary more than
two hours twenty-one minutes, it is very certain,
that the Mexican hours were originally unequal,
like the planetary hours of the Jews, and all
those which the Greek astronomers noted under
the name of xagus in opposition to the soypegwas
equinoxtal hours.

The epochas of the day and the night which
correspond nearly to our hours 3, 9, 15, and 21,
astronomical time, had no particular names.
The Mexicans, to denote them, pointed, as our
labourers do, to the place of the sky where the

* Ideler, Hist. Unters. ueber die astr. Beob. der Alten,
p. 26. :

+ Bailly, Hist. T-Astr, anc. p. 296.

283

Sun would be in following its course from east
to west ; this gesture was accompanied by these
remarkable words: ¢z Teotl, there God will be;
an expression which recalls that. happy period,
when the people emigrated from Aztlan knew
yet no other divinity than the Sun, and were ad-
dicted to no sanguinary rite *.

Each Mexican month of twenty days was
subdivided into four small periods of five days.
At the beginning of these periods every com-
mune kept its fair, tianguiztli. The Muyscas,
a nation of South America, had weeks of three
days. It appears, that no nation of the New
Continent was acquainted with the week, or
cycle of seven days, which we find among the
Hindoos, the Chinese, the Assyrians, and the
Egytians, and which, as Le Gentil + has very
justly observed, is followed by the greater part
of the nations of the Old World.

A passage in the history of the Incas by Gar-
cilasso, induced M. M. Bailly + and Lalande to
think, that the Peruvians reckoned by cycles
of seven days. “ The Peruvians,” says Garci-
lasso, “‘ reckon the months by the Moon; they
reckon the half months by the _ increas-

* See above, p. 216. :
+ Le Gentil, Hist. de PAcad. 1772, Tom. ii, p. 207, 209,
La Place, Expos. du Systéme du Monde, p, 272.

¢ Bailly, Hist. de Astron, Liv. 5, $17, p. 408, Lalande,
Astron, § 1584,

284

ing and waning of the Moon; they reckon the
weeks by the quarters, without having particular
names for-the days of the week.” But Acosta,
better informed than Garcilasso; and who, to-
ward the end of the sixteenth century, com-
posed at Peru the first books of his Physical Geo-
graphy of the New Continent; says clearly, that
neither the Mexicans, nor the Peruvians, were
acquainted with the small period of seven days; —
‘* for this period,” adds he, ‘‘ does not depend
more on the course of the Moon, than on that
of the Sun. It owes its origin to the number of
the planets *.” |

If we reflect an instant on the system of the
Peruvian calendar, we shall be aware, that,
though the phases of the Moon change nearly
every seven days, this cycle of seven days does
not correspond with any accuracy to the phases
of the Moon in several consecutive lunar months.
The Peruvians, according to Polo,.and all the
writers of those times, had years (huata) of 365
days, regulated, as we shall see farther on, by
solar observations made month after month at
the city of Cuzco. The Peruvian year was divid-
ed, as were almost all the years of the nations of
Fastern Asia, into twelve Moons, guilla, the syno-
dical revolutions of which finished in 354 days,

* Acosta, Historia natural y moral de las Indias, Lub. 6,
C. 8, ed. of Barcelona, 1591, p. 260.

289

eight hours, forty-eight minutes. To correct
the lunar year, and make it coincide with the
solar year, eleven days, according to ancient
custom, were added ; which, by the edict of the
Inca, were divided among the twelve moons.
According to this arrangement, it was scarcely
possible, that four equal periods, into which the
lunar months should be divided, could be seven
days each, and correspond to the phases of the
Moon. The same historian, whose testimony
is cited by M. Bailly in favor of the opinion, that
the week of the Hindoos was known to the Ame-
ricans, affirms, that, according to an ancient
Jaw of the Inca Pachacutec, there ought to be in
each lunar month three days for festivals and for
markets (cafu); and that the people were to
work, not seven, but eight consecutive days, and
rest the ninth*. This is undoubtedly a divi-
sion of a lunar month, or a sideral revolution
of the Moon, into three small periods of nine
days.

We shall observe, on this occasion, that the
Japanese }, a nation of the Tartar race, are
equally unacquainted with the small period of
seven days ; while it is in use among the Chinese,
who seem also aborigines of the elevated plain of

* Garcilasso, Lib. 6, C. 36, tom. 1, p. 216.
+ Voyage de Thunberg au Japon, p. 311.

286

Tartary, but who have long had intimate com-
munications with Hindostan * and Thibet.

We have seen above, that the Mexican year
presented, like that of the Egyptians and the
new French calendur, the advantage of a division
into months of equal duration. The five com-
plementary days, the epagomenes «teyopevas
of the Egyptians, were denoted among the
Mexicans by the name of nemontemi or voids.
We shall see presently the origin of this denomi-
nation ; it is sufficient here to observe, that the
children born during the five complementary
days were regarded as unfortunate, and ‘were
called nemogquichili or nencthuatl, unhappy men
or women; in order that, as is stated by the
Mexican writers, these very names should call
to their remembrance, in every event of life, how
little they ought to trust to their stars.

Thirteen Mexican years formed a cycle,
called tlalpilli, analogous to the indiction of the
Romans. Four tlalpilli formed a period of 52
years, or ciuhmolpilli, ligature of the years; finally,
two of these periods of 52 years formed an old
age, cehuehuetiliztli. To express myself more
clearly, I shall call, with several Spanish writers,
the ligature half a century, and old age a century.

* Sir William Jones, in the Asiatic Researches, vol. 1,
p. 420.

287

The hieroglyphic of the half century is conform-
able to the figurative signification of the word ;
it is a bundle of reeds tied by a riband. A half
century (xiuhmolpilli) was considered by the
Mexicans as a great year ; and this denomination,
no doubt, induced Gomara*, to call the indic-
tions, or the four cycles of thirteen years, great
weeks, las semanas del anno. |

The idea of denoting a period by a word,
which calls to mind a bundle of years or Moons,
is found among the Peruvians. In thé Qquichua
language, lingua del Inga, a year of 365 days is
called Auata; a word evidently derived from
huatani, to tie, or huatanan, a rope of rushes.
The Aztecks had no hieroglyphics for the old age,
or century of 104 years, the name of which in-
dicates, as we may say, the term of life of aged
persons.

In resuming what we have just stated on the
division of time, we find, that the Mexicans had
small periods of five days (half decads), months
of twenty days, civil years of 18 months, indio-
tions of 13 years, half centuries of 52 years, and
centuries, or old ages, of 104 years.

According to the curious researches of Mr.
Gama, it appears certain, that, at the close of a
cycle of 52 years, the civil year of the Toltecks
and the Aztecks, like that of the Chinese and the

* Gomara, Conquista de Mexico, 1553, fol. 118.

283

Hindoos, finished at the winter solstice; when,”
as the first missionary monks sent to Mexico
with simplicity say, “ the Sun, in his annual
course, begins again his labours, quando desanda
lo andado.” This same beginning of the year
is found among the Peruvians, whose calendar,
in other respects, sufficiently indicates, that they
are not descended from the Toltecks, as several
writers have gratuitously supposed *. ‘The in-
habitants of Cuzco preserved a tradition t, ac-
cording tO which the first day of the year cor-
responded formerly to our first of January, till
the Inca Titu-Manco-Capac, who took the sur-
name of Pachacutec (reformer of time), ordered,
that, when the Sun trod back his steps, that
is at the winter solstice, the year. should
begin. ;

A great confusion exists among the Spanish
writers on the denomination and the series of the
18 Mexican months. Several of these months
had three or four names ; and some authors, for-
getting that the Mexicans, when they had to re-
present a periodical series of signs, or hierogly-
phics, wrote from write to left, and began at the
bottom of the page, have taken the last month

* See page 173, and my Essay on the primitive Population |
of America. Berlin. Monatschrift, 1806. Merz. p. 177;
208,

ft Acosta, p. 260,

289

for the first. The Aztecks united in what they
called wheels of the half century, xiuhmolpilli,
the series of hieroglyphics, that denote the cycle
of 52 years. A serpent, with its tail in its
mouth, forming a circle, surrounds the wheel,
and denotes, by four knots, the four indictions,
or ¢tlalpilli. ‘This emblem reminds us of the
serpent or dragon, which, amohg the Egyp-
tians and the Persians *, represents the century,
a revolution, @vum. In this wheel of fifty-two
years, the head of the serpent denotes the be-
ginning of the cycle. It is not so with the
wheel of the year; the serpent there does
not encircle the 18 hieroglyphics of the months,
and nothing in it characterizes the first month of
the year. :

The memoir which Mr. Gama published at
Mexico on the Azteck almanack being very

scarce in Europe, I shall insert here the series of
_ the months, according to the laborious investi-

gations of this distinguished writer. I shall add
the etymology of the denominations, all of which
relate to the festivals, public works, and the
climate of Mexico. We cannot doubt, but that
Mtitl was the first month, the Indian Christoval
del Castillo expressly stating in his manuscript
history, that the nemontemi, or complementary

* Bailly, p. 515.
VOL. XIII. as

”

290

days, were added at the end of the month Aie-
moztl. The following are the ate of the 18
months. |

1. Tititl, perhaps from en, to oleae after
the harvest; Ztzcalli, month destined to renew
and whiten the insides of houses and temples.
From the 9th to the 28th of January, in the
first year of athe first indiction of the cycle
Aiuhmolpill.

2. Xochilhuitl, from the 29th of 4 cabin a to.
the 17th of February.

3. Xtlomanalizili ; Atlcahualco, which wants
water or rain; Quahuitlehua, month in which
the trees begin to bud; Cihuailhwitl, women’s
festival. From the 18th of February to the 9th
of March. emnT oy

4, Tlacaxipehualiztli; the name of this
month calls to mind the horrible ceremony, in
which human victims were flayed for their skins;
which, when tanned, formed the priests gar-
ments, aS we see in the hieroglyphic painting
represented in plate 27; Cohuailhuiél, festival
of the snake. From the 9th to # oC of
March. Bg

5. Tozoztontli, month of vigils, poe htlise the
ministers of the temple were obliged to watch
during the great festivals celebrated in this
month. From the 30th of March to the 18th of
April. |

6. Huey Tozoztli, the grand vigil, the grand

291

penitence. Fyrom the 19th of April to the 8th of

‘oni

7.. Toxcatl, month in which cords and garlands
of maize were tied around the necks of the idols;
Tepopochuiliztli, a censer, from the 9th to the
28th of May. It was in this month, Toxcatl,
that the fellow soldier of Cortez, Pedro de Alva-
rado, that ferocious warrior whom the Mexicans
called the Sun, Yonatuih, on account of his
flaxen hair, made a horrible slaughter of the
Mexican nobility assembled within the enclosure
of the teocalli. This attack was the signal of the
civil dissensions, that ca aused the death of the
unfortunate Montezuma. ,

8. Hitzaiqualiztli, a name which appears to be
derived from etzalli, a particular kind of food
prepared with the flour of maize. From the
29th of May to the 17th of June.

9. Leeutlhuitzinili, month or festival of the
young warriors. Froin the 18th of June to the
ith of July.

10. Hueytecuithuitl, festival of the nobility

and warriors advanced in years. From the 8th
to the 27 th of July. |

il. Miccaithiutzintli, the little festival of the
dead ; Flaxochimaco, distribution of flowers.
From the 28th of July to the 16th of August.

12. Hueymiccailhuitl, the grand festival cele-
brated in remembrance of the dead; Xocotlhuersi,
fall of fruit, month in which fruit ri pens, corres-

v2

992

rd

ponding to the end of summer. Sado the 17th |

of August to the Sth of September.
13. Ochpaniztli, a besom, the month appoint-
ed for cleaning the canals, and repairing the

dykes and roads ; Tenahuitilizth. From wie 6th

to the 25th of September.

14. Pachthi, name of a parasite plant, which
begins to bud at this per riod on the trunks of old
oaks ; Exzoztli ; Leotleco ; come from the gods.
From the 26th of September to the 15th of
October. |

15. Hueypachtli, month in which the plant
pachtli has arrived at a certain size; Tepeil-
huitl, festival of the mountains, or rather of the
rural divinities who preside over the moun-
tains. From the 16th of October to the 4th of
November. : ”

16. Quecholli, month in which the flamingo
(pheenicopterus) a bird called by the Mexicans,
on account of the beautiful colour of its plumage,
teoquechol, the divine heron, arrives on the bor-
ders of the lake. From the 5th to the wi Ag
November. g :

17. Panquetzaliztli, from the name of the
standard of the god Huitzilopochtli, carried in
- the processions, during the celebrated festival of
Teocualo, or of the god eaten by the faithful,
under the form of flour of maize kneaded with
blood. From the,25th of November to the 14th
of December.

‘ 293

18. Aéemoztli, the descent of water and of
snow; snow begins towards the end of Decem-
ber to cover the mountains, which surround the
valley of Mexico. From the 15th of December
to the 3d of January. |

In the first year of the cycle, the five comple-
mentary days correspond to the 4th, Sth, 6th,
7th, and 8th of January. A nation, which
makes no intercalation but every 52 years, finds
the commencement of its year retrograde nearly
a day every four years, and consequently, twelve
or thirteen days at the end of the cycle, xiuh-
molpilli. Hence it results, as we shall see far-
ther on, that the last complementary day, or
nemontemt, of the last year of the Mexican cycle,
corresponds to the 26th of December. Now the
five nemontemi being reckoned vagueand unlucky
days, the day of the winter solstice, or the 21st
of December, was considered as the end of the
Xiuhmoipilli. The nemontemi, or epagomenes,
as well as the twelve or thirteen intercalary days,
belong to neither of the two years between
which they fall; and it is for this reason, that we

, €

have named the winter solstice the end, not the
beginning, of a cycle of 52 years.

In the 3d, 4th and 5th months, which answer
to our months of February, March, and April,
solemn festivals were instituted in honor of Tla-
locteutli, the god of water ; this period being the
time of the great droughts, which last in the

294

mountainous country tillthe month of June and

July. If the priests had neglected the interca-

lation, the festivals in which the gods were in-

voked to grant’a year abundant in rains would

have gradually approached the time of the har- ~
vest: the people would have perceived, that the

order of the sacrifices was inverted; and not
having lunar months, they could not even, like
-the gods of Aristophanes *, accuse the Moon of
throwing their calendar and religious worship
into confusion. As to the denominations and
hieroglyphics of the Mexican months, nothing
idicates, that they have taken birth in a more
northerly climate. The word guahuitlehua, it is
irue, calls to mind, that the trees are clothed
with young leaves toward the end of February ;
but this phenomenon, which is not observed in
the low regions of the torrid zone, is suitable to
the mountainous region, situate between the 19th
and 24th degrees of latitude, where the oaks,
without shedding entirely their old leaves, begin
to bud forth anew. | !

We have hitherto spoken of the civil calendar
called the Szn’s reckoning, Tonalpohualli ei we
shall now examine the ritual calendar, denoted
by the names of the reckoning of the Moon,
Metzlopohualli, and the reckoning of the festivals,

Cemilhuitlapohualizth, from tlapohuahzth, reck-

* Aristoph. Nubes, v. 615.

i 4
Re

293

oning, and zhuitl, festival. ‘This last calendar,
the only one employed by the priests, and of
which we find traces in almost all the hier ogly-
phical paintings preserved to our own times, pre-
sents a uniform series of small periods of 23 days.
These small periods may be considered as half
lunations ; they probably took their origin from
the two states of watching, irfozoliztli, and
sleep, cochilizth, which the Mexicans attributed
to the Moon; according as this luminary lights
the greater part of the night, or, appear ing only
by day on the horizon, seems, according to the
popular opinion, to repose in the night. This
relation, observed between the periods of thir-
teen days, and the half of the time that the
Moon is visible, before and after her opposition,
has undoubtedly given to the ritual calendar the
name of the reckoning of the Moon; but this de-
nomination ought not to induce us to look for a
lunar year in the series of the small cycles, which
follow uniformly, and which have nothing com-
mon either with the phases or the revolutions of
the Moon. | |
The number 13. by its multiples affords pro-

portions, which the Mexicans made use of to
preserve an agreement between the ritual and
civil almanacks. A civil year of 365 days
contains a day more than twenty-eight small
periods of 13 days; now the cycle of 62 years
being divided into four ¢lalpilli of 13 years, this

296

supernumerary day forms at the end of each indie-
tion a small entire period, and a tlalpilli contains
three hundred and sixty-five of these periods:
that is, as many weeks of thirteen days, as the
year has civil days. A year of the ritual alma-

nack has twenty ha/f lunations, or two hundred

and sixty days, and this same number of days
contains fifty-two half decades, or small periods
of five days; the Mexicans then found, in the
concordance of these two reckonings of the
Moon and the Sun, their favourite numbers of
five, thirteen, twenty, and fifty-two. A cycle of
fifty-two years contained one thousand four hun-
dred and sixty sinall periods of thirteen days ;
and, if to these we add thirteen intercalary days,
we shall have one thousand four hundred and

sixty-one small periods; a number which acci-—

dentally coincides with that of the years consti-
» tuting the Sothiac period.
The cycle of nineteen solar years, which cor-

responds to two hundred and thirty-five luna-.

tions, and which the Chinese knew more than
sixteen centuries before Meton *, finds its multi-
ple neither in the cycle of sixty years, which is
in use among the greater part of the nations of
eastern Asia, and among the Muyscas of the

elevated plain of Bogota; nor in the cycle of

fifty-two years, adopted by all the nations of the

_* La Place, Expos: tom. 2, p. 267, s

Jeubapt yah 3, oi

ry a a

297

~Yolteck, Acolhuan, Azteck, and Tilascalteck

race. It is true, that five old ages of one hun-
dred and four years each, form, within a year
nearly, the Julian period ; and that the double
of the period of Meton is almost equal to three
indictions (¢lalpilli) of the Mexican year; but
no multiple of thirteen is exactly equal to the
number of days contained in a period of two

- hundred and thirty-five lunations. The period

of Meton contains five hundred and thirty-three
small cycles and a half of thirteen days, while
that of Calippus contains two thousand one hun-
dred and thirty-four and one thirteenth. The
knowledge of these periods was useful to the
nations of Asia, who, as well as the Peruvians,
the Muyscas, and the other tribes of South Ame-
rica, had lunar years: but it must have been ab-
solutely indifferent to the Mexicans, the pretended
reckoning of the Moon (meétzlapohualli) being
only an arbitrary division of a great period of
thirteen astronomical years into three hundred
and sixty-five small periods of thirteen days, each
of which has perceptibly the same = as
the sleep or vigil of the Moon.

The Mexicans were in possession of annals,
that went back to eight centuries and a half be-
yond the epocha of the arrival of Cortez in the
country of Anahuac. We have already explain-
ed how these annals presented, in their sub-

298

divisions, sometimes a cycle of fifty-two years, at
others a tlalpilli of thirteen years, and at others a
single year of two hundred and sixty days, con-
tained in twenty small periods of thirteen days,
according as the history was more or less mi-
nute. Along with the periodical series of. the
hieroglyphics of the years and the days, the
migrations of the nations, their battles, and_ the
events which had rendered the reign of each
king illustrious, were represented in paintings
brilliant in colouring, hideous from the form and
the extreme imperfection of the drawing, but
often natural m the composition. It could not
be denied, but that Valades, Acosta, Torquema-
da, and in these latter times Siguenza, Boturini,
and Gama, have gained information from paint-
ings which went back as far as the seventh cen-
tury. I have had in my own hands paintings, in
which the migrations of the Toltecks were re-
cognised ; but I doubt whether the first Spanish
conquerors found, as Gomara asserts, annals

that traced events, year by year, through eight

centuries. The Toltecks had disappeared four
hundred and sixty-five years before the arrival of
Cortez; the nation which the Spaniards found
settled in the valley of Mexico was of the Az-
teck race: what he knew of the Toltecks he
could have learnt only from paintings, which
they had left in the country of Anahuac ; or from

si FR

dpawin)

Hs ? gas
He is 1 aN
aaa cot Aaa

299

some dispersed. families, who, restrained by the
love of their native soil, had not thought proper
to share the chances of the emigration.
_ The annals of the Aztecks begin, according to
Gama, at an epocha corresponding to the year
1091 of our era; a period at which, by order of
their chief Chalchiuhtlatonac, they celebrated the
festival of the renewal of the fire at Tlalixco,
called also Acahualtzinco, situate probably under
the parallel of thirty-three or thirty-five north
latitude. It is only since the year 1091, in
which as the Indian historian Chimalpain ex-
pressly says, they ¢zed for the first time the years
after their going forth from Aztlan, that Mexican
history presents the greatest order, and an asto-
nishing minuteness in the recital of events.
Conformably to what we have hitherto stated
of the reckoning of the Sun, and the uniform di-
vision of the year into eighteen months of equal
duration, it would have been easy for the Mexi-
cans, to denote the periods of historical events
by recording the day of the month, and reckon-
ing the number of years which had passed since
the famous sacrifice of Tlalixco. This simple
and natural method would without doubt have
been followed, if the annals of the empire had
not been kept by the priests, teopixqui. We
sometimes find, it is true, the hieroglyphic of a
month, to which are added round points, placed
in two unequal rows, proving by their disposi-

ve

300

tion, that the Azteck priests, as we have already -
observed, followed the different terms of a series
from right to left, and not from eft to right, as
the Hindoos, and almost all the nations that now
inhabit Europe. We still see at Mexico the
copy of a painting, formerly in the museum of
the Chevalier Boturini, in which the sign of the
month quecholli, followed by thirteen points, is
placed near a Spanish spearman, whose horse
has under his feet the hieroglyphic of the city
of Tenochtitlan. This painting no doubt repre-
sents the first entry of the Spaniards into Mex-
ico, on the thirteenth of the month quecholli,
which, according to Gama, corresponds to the
17th of November, 1519; but we must confess,
that simple dates, expressed by the month and
the number of the days passed, was very rarely
found in the Mexican annals. |

With respect to the years, those of the same
cycle of fifty-two years were never distinguished .
by numbers. In order not to confound them,
however, they made use of a particular contriv-
ance, which we shall describe farther on; and
which is so much the more curious, as it offers
points of resemblance between the chronological
system of the Mexicans, and that of the people of
Asia. The rounds or signs of numbers are found
_ added only to the ligatures, which indicate cycles
of fifty-two years. Thus the hieroglyphic of the
Niuhmolpilli, followed by four rounds, placed

301

near islets, on which the temple of Mexitli was
built, reminded the Mexicans, that his ancestors
had fied the years four times; or that, since the
sacrifice of Tlalixco, four times fifty-two years
had passed away, when the city of Tenochtitlan
was founded on the lake of Tezcuco. These
rounds consequently indicated, that this remark-
able event had taken place after the year 1299,
and before the year 1351. Let us now examine
the ingenious but very complicated methods, of
which these people made use to denote the year
and the day of a cycle of fifty-two years. |

This method, as we shall presently explain, is
identic with that made use of by the Hindoos,
the Thibetans, the Chinese, the Japanese, and
the Asiatic people of the Tartar race; who also
distinguished the months and the years by the
correspondence of several periodical series *, the
number of the terms of which is not the same.
The Mexicans employ, for the cycle of years,
the four following signs, which have the
names of ~

Tochth - - a rabbit or hare,
Acatl- - - acane,

Tecpatl - - a flint, or silex,
Cote —-” a house.

We find these four hieroglyphics in several of
the preceding plates. For the figure of the rab-

* Series Periodiques,

302

bit (tochtli) see, in plate 13, the animal with
large ears figured in the eighth compartment,
reckoning from the bottom on the right; plate
23, the third compartment at the bottom on the
left ; and more especially plate 27, No. 1, the
eighth compartment. For cane (acatl), flint
(tecpatl), and house (calli), see, on the circular
stone represented plate 23, the fifth, tenth, and
fifteenth compartments, which follow that of the
rabbit, from left to right. We. shall easily re-
cognise the same forms in plate 27, No. 1, in
the compartments thirteen, eighteen, and three,
reckoning in the same row from right to left,
and beginning with the lower row.. The sign of
flint is also seen in plate 13, behind the figure in
the attitude of adoration. On this same plate
the calli is represented by the entire figure of a
house, in which are seen the door, and a very
elevated. roof.

Let us at present imagine the cycle, or the
half old age, divided into four tlalpilli, each of
thirteen years; and the four signs rabbit, cane,
ilint, and house, added in a periodical series to
the fifty-two years contained in a cycle, we shall
find, that two indictions cannot begin by the
same sign; that the sign placed at the head of
an indiction must necessarily terminate it, and
that the same sign cannot belong to the same
number. The following is the table of the
Mexican cycle, called Lgature or xiuhmolpilh.

3038

: -gsnoyy ‘eT aes Aono qorpey | “wip eT] ‘pedo, Aowo -pepy || ‘ourD “¢]/peoy Aowo roepeA “‘qqe “ET “WIOL fauto *HeyN

|

quIL ‘ZI{pedoay, sutowi0 pel || “eULD *ZT| “Dey IUIOWO “PLAT ||IqIY °Z1] YOY suowio “ey |/ *osnoyy “ZT } [VQ eulowo youpyey]

J+ ouep “11 Buoy 2020 oupEHL/4AgeH“TT] “INyPo, 9920 ‘PUAT|/PSNOH “T1] “MRD e020 Tepe |} “TULA TT} Tedooy, 0020 youpeyy

Paqqeyot] «WOT, Moepey ||esnoyy “OT HO MoeVEWT || “UA OT] “Bedooy, tpoepepl || “ouey “OT Peoy Wepre

I -asnogg -¢ | cre memory || “gua *G fpedoog, myeuynoryg|| ‘oueg 6 | “Deoy myeUyNoNTD |uqaeN 6 | UIT, wyeuqoyD

‘UIP “Ss ‘pedoayz, tonotyg | ‘ouRy °8 “‘eoy tonoryyg |/Itqqey “8 “IYO, TOndTYY) || “OSnoFT *g "TyYeO ronoiyy
UBL : “PRY sULOMNT | IIe LZ "TPYSO,L, SULooMy,) -asnoyy 74 -- SHE SM0oTy) | Oe % “pedooy, ap th)
4 -3Iqqey “9 "I[}YIO.T, PVN ||'asnoxy “9 “TT[RQ soenoryy |} “UTA “9 ‘pedoay, SoENaTyD || “SURD “9 ‘eoy owns)
pose ATED ATOR FUN "pedoay, Wpmoeyq |} “OUR “Gf — “PeoV TMV] | Psa qea “G ‘THYPOL WMoeA
‘UN PV ‘pedoay mye Ny “OUR “PY ‘peoy myen | Uae a OP “THYIOL, MYCN | Osho 'y Tt TEN
Sahl Ee "BOY PE uqqeyEe | | THYIOL wor ||OSNOyy ee TRO Pe || “WMA “e pedoay, wt
| ‘yqqey'z | IPYIOL, OMG |osnoxy °Z "TVD omg || “IAS ‘edooay, ouIg || ‘aueg °z ‘Roy auIC

| -asnopy “1 "TD 99 || “UL “T edoay, a9 |} ue) *T _ BeOY 89 | NAAT “HPO, 20

‘ITTATWIL GNOOAS IMA TWTL LSat

“TIMdIVTL HLYNOA TTMdTWIL CuInL

304

The words ce, ome, jei, placed before the
names of the four hieroglyphics of the years,
indicate the numbers, the series of which does
not pass thirteen, and which are consequently
repeated four times in a ligature. The follow-
ing table exhibits the numbers from one to thir-
teen, in the Mexican or Azteck, Nootka, Muysca
or Mosca, Peruvian or Qquichua, Mantchou,
Oigour, and Mongul languages. |

305

‘Uno 9943NO
Sf ae oa |
‘uno Ig
‘uno
*snoyNo |,
“STYBS

‘BI

“RIV

Ute
“n0INO J,
"aqOINO
TH

“ald.

Cunfeny, fo mor pamaapgq )} (

“dNODIO

‘eqinos uBqIY
‘INOUY uRqry
‘anZeu uegiy

‘ueqiy
"nozno x
“CUI N
‘ojod
-eoanolq
“HoqeL
"eqing
Snes)
“INOYY
*anSoN

hanpany, UwLaIS2 A )

"TOONOW

‘SHOVOONVT NVIUVLUVL

‘gnoyay uenoydy, | “eye, oA | *esog vyomyy

‘UBT URNOYIY, “ezye0 oAW | voIUL BYING |aoAezumMb vounyy | ‘Aauto oRpePl “ET

JoABIST VOUNYY |‘OUIOUIO TWIVPeIAL “ZT 4
‘Qo|UsNY vounyy) | *90Z0 TPOVeW “TL i

‘noulg uRNoYyd ], ‘senyes ofy | eye vyos)

"uBnoyoe ‘oAY eotyaq hy ‘vounyy ‘TIPIVGCIA “OT

‘unodng *TenoeNnyez | "BOW ‘U09SK IMYLUYNIIYD °6
‘UNONeYI *[eNdILV ‘eZNUNS sovssng "1andIyD *g
‘uBpeN, nd w -enbdnyng ‘SUPIULD “aODIND *Z
"UNOSUIN, “ndun VL 21007 ‘gaunoiyg ‘9
*eYSJUNOS | “BY WS *eOSIET ‘Boyt *TTTTMIVIA “¢

‘urdnoL, ON wonypangy BART, “YEN *F

uel] "WZjEOQ "BOTTA *VZUIING) ‘Tae *E

ARIST *OUlO *S

*gnoyp,y,

“nowy

“CnV. *esog

“OBNYLS *B1V Sony . ree eel

(nia) (oorxayy )
‘WOHOINDOO "SOULZV

Chivjiny, usaysny )
‘NOHOLINVIA

(98009 18944 YRLON) | (‘ppnuasy) many)
“VYLOON ‘VOSANW

°

VOL. XIII

306

_ We may be struck with the extreme differ-
ence in the seven languages, in which we have
just given the cardinal numbers. The American
languages are as distinct from each other, as
. they are from the Tartar tongues. This want of
analogy ought not, however, to be alleged as a
proof against the opinion, that the American
nations have had ancient communications with
eastern Asia. The different groups of Tarta-
rian nations vary as much in this respect. ‘The
Oigours, who, two ages before our era, emi-
grated from the banks of the Selinga toward —
the elevated plain of Turfan, in the latitude of
43° 30’, speak a language differing more from
that of the Mantchous, than the German from
the Latin. When tribes of the same origin are —
separated during a long series of ages, by seas
and vast deserts, their: idioms preserve but a>
very small number of roots and forms, that are
common to each other. .

In the same manner as the Mexicans, speak-
ing of the year of a cycle, placed the cardinal
' numbers ce, ome, jet, before the names of the
four hieroglyphics rabbit, cane, flint, and house,
they joined in their paintings the signs of these
numbers to the signs of the years. The mode
was the same as that employed to distinguish
the cycles or ligatures. As the periodical series
- of the numbers had only thirteen terms, it was

307

sufficient to add to the hieroglyphic the rounds
denoting the units. :

‘The symbolical writing of the Mexican na-
tions exhibited simple signs equally for twenty,
and for the second and third powers of the same
number, which recalls to mind that of the fingers
and toes of the hands and the feet. A small
standard, or flag, represented twenty units ; the
square of twenty, or four hundred, was figured
_ by a feather, because grains of gold, enclosed in
a quill, were used in some places as money, or
a sign for the purpeses of exchange. The figure
of a sack indicated the cube of twenty, or eight
thousand, and bore the name of xiquipilli, given
also to a kind of purse that contained eight
thousand grains of cacao. A‘standard divided
by two cross lines, and half coloured, indicated
half twenty, or ten. If the standard was three
quarters coloured, it denoted fifteen units or
three fourths of twenty. In reckoning, the
Mexican did not name the multiples of ten,
which the Arabians called knots, but the multi-
ples of twenty. He said one twenty, cem-pohualli,
two twenties, om-pohualli, three twenties, yei-

pohuall, and four twenties, nahui-pohualh. The .

_ last expression is the same with that employed
in French *. It is almost superfluous to ob-
serve, that the Mexicans were unacquainted

* Quatre-vingt.

x 2

ae A See maa rare UR SE

jel

308

with the method of giving to the signs of the
numbers the values of position * ; that admirable

method invented either by the Hindoos, or by ~

the Thibetans{, but unknown alike to the
Greeks *, the Romans, and the civilized nations
of Western Asia. The Mexicans joined their
| hieroglyphies of the numbers nearly in the same
manner as the Romans repeated the letters of
their alphabet, which served them as ciphers.
We should not be surprised to see, that the
Mexican arithmetic does not present a simple
hieroglyphic for hundreds above four hundred,
when we recollect ||, that the Arabians, till the
fifth age of the hegira, knew as little of signs for
the enumeration of the hundreds above four
hundred; and that, to write nine hundred, this

people, justly celebrated in the ‘annals of the

sciences, were obliged to place twice the sign of
four hundred by the side of his sion of one
hundred.

From what we have observed respecting the
manner of distinguishing the ligatures from each
other, and the years contained in a ligature, it
follows, that a period was determined, by nam-

ing at once the number of the ligatures, or cycles,

P
* La Place, Expos., tom. 2, p. 276.
+ Georgii Alph. Tibet., c. 23, p. 637.
t Delambre, sur les fonds et les analogues des Grecs.
(Oeuvres d’Archimede, par Peyrard, p. 575.)
|| Sylvestre de Sacy, Gramm. Arab., 1810, P.1, p.'74. -

309

and two corresponding terms in the two perio-
dical series of thirteen numbers and four signs.
The following table presents several remarkable
epochas of the Mexican history, indicated ac-
cording to the era of the Aztecks. We should
recolleet, that these nations reckoned the num-
ber of their cycles, or xuthmolpillis, only from
the year 1091; because, in their annals, they
had established a new chronological order after
their departure from Aztlan, or from the begin-
ning of their migrations towards the south.

Ms oR) Ae
, a i om oe
*

310

"BUMZOWLOJT JO YT “OTST

“‘URPYoouT, OJUL Ze}10p Jo soueyuy “61ST
“SOIPUT 389.4 9} UL snqumjoy 50 jeauay ‘66v1
- OSLO jo Ajto oy} JO UOYepUNUT 4wotk) “OFPT
“HMYLIZIMP] SUL Jo uotssaoy “E8El

‘URPNYou,T, Jo uoyepunog “GZEl

‘uePYyoouay, JoUoTONAseg pue SMALL, “TST |.

“+ + + (@snop g “PAD 28) 0 et “tidjourynry reno)
- 5+ + Guay g ‘dQ we) Pedoay, ewo “pdrounqnry ronony
Mt: (awed | “eP4D wg) Peey 2 “Wdjourynry renomyD
Grqqeu ¢1 ‘apo wd) pop Sou yyoepeur Wdjourgnry suUootyD
- Giqqey 9 ‘P49 29) NINO, senor “yEdjouynry aenoryo
sss + Qgsnozy T PAD wag) HID 99 “WLdjournry WMoepY

“+ s+ (osnoy %.‘9AQ wh) MeO ew “Tpdjourmry men

“ATEAVL

31]

The same contrivance of the concordance of
two periodical series was employed to distinguish
the days of the same year. It appears, that
originally among the Mexican nations, as well
as among the Persians, each day of the month
had a name, and a particular sign ; these twenty
signs recall to mind the yogas, which, in the
astrological almanack of the Hindoos, we find
added to the twenty-eight days of the lunar
month. In the Metztlapohualli, or reckoning
of the Moon of the Aztecks, they were distri-
buted among the small cycles of the half-luna-
tions; so that a periodical series of thirteen
terms, which were all ciphers, corresponded to —
a periodical series of twenty terms, which con-
tained only hieroglyphical signs. It is in this
series of days, that we find the four grand signs,
rabbit, cane, flint, and house, by which, as we
have just seen, the years of a cycle were denoted ; .
sixteen other signs of an inferior order were so
distributed, that in an equal number of four they
separated the grand.signs one from the other.

Recollecting, that each Mexican month was
divided into four small periods of five days, we
may conceive, that originally the hieroglyphics
rabbit, cane, flint, and house, indicated the be -
ginning of these small periods in the years, the
first day of which bore one of the four signs
above named, In fact, when the first of the

et es
Pa. Ss ‘ »)

312

month ¢tit/ has the sign calli, the sixth of aly
the following months will be tochéli, the eleventh
acatl, and the sixteenth tecpatl :. each month will
begin as it were by a Sunday, and these Sundays
will fail during the whole year on the same days:
of the months. ‘The Mexicans paid particular
regard to the events, that happened on one of
the four days which had the hieroglyphics of the
cycle of the years. We find traces of this su-

_perstition among the Persians ; who, in order to

give a sign (karkunan) to each day of the month,
added to the twelve celestial spirits, who pre-
sided over the months, eighteen ministers of an
inferior order. The Mexicans considered those
days as lucky, which bore the sign of the year.
The Persians * distinguished the days governed
by the same angel, that presided over the whole
month.

‘As most of the hieroglyphic paintings re-
presented in the plates accompanying this
work relate to the sacrifices, which were to be
made in each period of thirteen days, we find
the figures of the twenty signs of the days
several times repeated. I shail here mention

only the plates 13, 23, and 27.. The alk
are the names of these signs:

* Tangles, sur le Calendrier Fe.:aa, dans Chardin, Voy-

_ age & Ispahan, vol. 2, p. 265.

Rane ee §
a Res ets) ;

" Cau
Cuetzpalin
Cohuatl

Miquistti
Mazatl
-'TocutTut
dhe?
Tézcuintli .
Ozomath .
Malinalli . .
ACATL
Ocelotl .
Quauhtli

Coxcaquauhtli :

Ollttgers 03.
TECPATL
Quiahuitl .
Xochitl .
Cipactli .

Hhecatl .

315

a house.
a lizard. |
a snake. This word is found
in Cthuacohuatl *, serpent
woman, the Eve of the Mexi-
cans.
death, a death’s head.
a buck, or stag.
a vabbit..
water.
a dog.
an ape.
erass.
a cane.
a tiger, or jaguar.
an eagle.
king of the vultures.
annual course of the Sun.
flint.
rain,
a flower.
Teocipactli,
fish-divinity, is one of the
names, which the Mexicans
gave Coxcox, who is the
Noah of the people of the
Semetic race.
wind.

a sea animal.

* See above, p. 195. ~

314

The numbers thirteen and twenty haying no
common factors in the almanack of half-luna-
tions, the two periodical series cannot twice
correspond to the same terms, till after thirteen
multiplied by twenty, or two hundred and sixty
days. Ina year, the first day of which has the ~
sign cipactli, there is no half-lunation, that be.
gins with the sign cipacth, in the first thirteen
months; but after the month pachtli, the same
signs return with the same ciphers. To avoid
this cause of error, the Mexicans, faithful to their
principles of not naming the number of small
periods of thirteen days, had again recourse to
the contrivance of periodical series. They
formed a third series of nine signs, called the
lords or masters of the night, namely,

Xiuhteucli tletl . fire, or master of the year.

Decpee vag. «tink.
Mochiilgs vio. a flower
Cinteotl . . . the goddess of maize.

Miquizth . . death.

UR i Eg get A:

Tlazolteotl . . the goddess of love. »

Tepeyolloth . . a spirit that inhabits the in-
| terior of mountains.

Quiahuitl . . rain.

We may be astonished at finding a series of
nine terms in a calendar, that makes use only of

315

the numbers 5, 13, 18, 20, and 52; we may
even be tempted to look for some analogy be-
tween the nine lords of the night of the Mexicans,
and the nine astrological signs of several nations
of Asia, who join to the seven visible planets
two invisible dragons, to which they attribute
eclipses : but without doubt it is only the facility,
with which the nine lords of the night divide
themselves forty times into three hundred and
sixty days, that has given the preference to the
number nine. | |

The five complementary days, called by the
Persians furtive, or pendjehidouzdideh, bear,
among the Mexicans, the name of nemontemi, or
void, because they do not add to them those
terms of the third series, which the Indian au-
thors consider as the companions of the signs of
the days. We should observe, and this circum-
stance may become embarrassing in the Azteck
chronology, that five of these companions bear ~
the same name as the hieroglyphics of the day :
but, according to the reveries of the American
astrologers, the spirits that belong to the series of
the nine signs govern the night, while the other
twenty signs govern the day. The Hindoos
were acquainted also with genii (caranas) pre-
siding over half a lunar day (¢7 thi).

As there are twenty signs of the day, and nine
companions or lords of the night, the same com-
panion must correspond, every nine multiplied by

316

twenty, or one hundred and eighty days, to the
same hieroglyphics; but it is impossible, that,
in the same year of three hundred and sixty-five
days, the same term of three series, namely, the
number, the sign of the day, and the companion,
or nocturnal spirit, can coincide more than once.
In a year which begins by Cipactli,

The 11th of January...... will be. ..3d Calli, Xochitl.

The 10th of July..... ..... will be...1st Calli, Xochitl.

The 2d of February.....will be...12th Cohautl, Tlazolteotl.
The 1st of August....... will be...10th Cohuatl, Tlazolteotl.
The 18th of May........... will be.. 3d Xochitl, Xochitl. :
The 5th of November....will be ..1st Xochitl, Xochitl.

The employment of the third periodical series,
by means of which two days, that have the same
number and the same hieroglyphic, are distin-
guished; for instance, 1 Cipactli, correspond-
ing to the 9th of January and the 26th of Sep-
tember, was unknown to the greater part of the
Spanish historians. It was discovered by Mr.
Gama, from the Mexican manuscripts of the
Indian Christoval del Castillo. In order to
denote a day, according to the complicated
method of the Mexicans, we should say, a fourth
of a month, which is at the same time a Wed-
‘nesday of the Gregorian, and a quintidi.of the
French, republican calendar. This expression
would indicate the coincidence of certain terms

317

of three periodical series; namely, of the thirty
or thirty-one days of the month, of the seven
days of the week, and of the ten days of the
decade. To dissipate entirely every doubt, that
may remain respecting the chronological system
of the Mexicans, we shall here add a table, which

_ unites the divisions of the ritual and civil calen-
_ dars, and their correspondence with the Grego-

rian calendar.

318

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319

It would be useless to extend this table be-
yond the first thirty-one days of the Mexican
year; but we will here observe, that the Indians
of Chiapa, who employed the same divisions of
time, and the same contrivance of the periodical
series, gave the hieroglyphics of the days con-
tained in a month the name of twenty illustrious
warriors, who in the remotest times had con-
ducted the first colonists to the mountains of
Teochiapan. Among these signs of the days,
(kaérkunan of the Persians,) the Chiapanese dis-
tinguished, like the Aztecks, four great, and
sixteen little signs. The first began the periods
of five days; but for the names of house, rabbit,
cane, and flint, (calli, tochtli, acatl, and tecpatl,)
the Chiapanese had substituted those of Votan,
Lambat, Been, and Chinax; four chiefs cele-
_ brated in their historical annals, |

We have already fixed the attention of our
readers on this Votan, or Wodan, an American,
who seems to be a member of the same family
with the Wods, or Odins, of the Goths, and
nations of Celtic origin. As Odin and Boudha,
according to the learned researches of Sir Wil-
liam Jones, are probably one and the same
person *, it is curious to see the names of Boud-
var, Wodans-dag, (Wednes-day), and Votan,
- denote in India, in Scandinavia, and Mexico, a

* Asiat, Res. vol. 1, p. 511; vol. 2,-p. 343.

320

day of a small period. According to the
ancient. traditions, collected by the Bishop
Francis Nunnez de la Vega, “ the Wodan of
the Chiapanese was grandson of that illustrious
old man, who, at the time of the great deluge,

in which the greater part of the human race
_ perished, was saved on a raft, together with his

family.” Wodan co-operated in the construc-
tion of the great edifice, which had been under-
taken by men to reach the skies; the execution

of this rash project was interrupted; each family

received from that time a different language,

and the great spirit, Zeotl, ordered Wodan, to

go and people the country of Anahuac. This
American tradition reminds us of the Menou of
‘the Hindoos, the Noah of the Hebrews, and the
dispersion of the Couschites of Singar [the
Cushites of Shinar]. Comparing this tradition
either with those of the Hebrews and Indians
preserved in Genesis and the two sacred Poura-
nas *, or with the fable of Xelhua the Cholulainf,
and other facts cited in the course of this work,
it is impossible to avoid being struck with the
analogy, which exists between the old memo-
rials of the people of Asia, and those of the New
Continent. :

We shall here prove, as we have just asserted,

* Lic. vol. 3, p. 486,
+ See above, p. 96.

< " ‘ yi P ” ’ ’ ay
sins : eae ieasthitis 4 ; f / Cer Bi 08 seu ;
nla ale sseapapainicagag mmarated ti i POC TY Mees RS OST og Ce eee Oe Pe eee Be ONO a a RATS eRe IZ ee i Ok Eee SSeS, SEO A oder ee

321

that this analogy is particularly manifest. in the
_ division of time, in the use of periodical series,
and in the ingenious, though complex and em-
barrassing method, of denoting a day or a year,

not by ciphers, but by astrological signs. The

Toltecks, the Aztecks, the Chiapanese, and
other nations of American race, reckoned by
eycles of fifty-two years, divided into. four
periods of thirteen years ; the Chinese, the Japa-
nese, the Calmucks, the Moghols, the Mant-
chous, and other Tartar hordes, have cycles of
sixty years, divided into five smail periods of
twelve years. The nations of Asia, like those
of America, have particular names for the years
_ contained in a cycle; it is still said at Lassa,
and at Nangasacki, as formerly in Mexico, that
such or such an event took place in the year of
the rabbit, the tiger, or the dog. None of these

nations has as many names as there are years in -

‘the cycle; all consequently must have recourse
to the contrivance of the correspondence of pe-
riodical series. Among the Mexicans, these
series are of thirteen numbers and four hiero-
glyphical signs; among the nations of Asia,
whom we have just named, the series do not
contain numbers, they are formed only of signs
corresponding to the. twelve constellations of the
zodiac, and the names of the elements, which

afford ten terms, because each element is con-_

VOL. XIII. ¥

322
sidered as male and female. The character of
these methods is the same in the chronology of
the Americans as in that of the Asiatics: if we
cast our eyes over the table of the years, which
we have sketched some pages back *, we shall
see, that the mode adopted by the Mexicans is
even less complicated. The Japanese, to denote
the period of the accession of a Dairi, do not
say, that it was in the year owma (horse). of the
second period of twelve years: they call the
nineteenth year of the cycle, the year male water
(horse), placed between the years female water
(sheep) and female metal (serpent). ‘To have a
clear idéa of these periodical series of the Japa- _
nese calendar, we should recollect, that this
nation, like the people of Thibet, reckon five
elements; namely, wood (keno), fire (fino),
earth (tsutsno), metal, or lead (kanno), and
- water (midsno). Each element is male or fe-
male, according as the syllable je or to is added,
a distinction which was also in use among the
Egyptians t. In order to distinguish the sixty
- years of the cycle, the Japanese combine the
ten elements, or terrestrial principles, with
the twelve signs of the zodiac, called the celes-
tial principles. ,We shall give here only the

* See p. 310.
+ Seneca, Quest. Nat, lib, 3, c, 14.

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uel eo tid ‘
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; SSeS ie sf ieee nes URS Sn, dal Se oe Tea, pee ae Se pena. CK MEL
- eatin e enntnt nce iteiiecommninl a
porcy weet

323

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324 J

twelve years is governed. by one of the five male ©
elements. As, among the Mexicans, the fourth
term of the series of numbers, nahui, can corres-
pond, in fifty-two years, only once to the second
term of the series of signs, acatl; so among the
Japanese, in a cycle of sixty years, one of the
five male elements is placed but once with one
of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The follow-
ing table, which contains fourteen Mexican and
Japanese years, will clearly explain the analogy, —
that exists between the calendars of the nations
of Mexico and of Eastern Asia. :

ELIT OE aT,

= %

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we CYCLE CYCLE
= OF THE OF THE
. JAPANESE. MEXICANS. |
am
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Periodical series are in use also in China,
where ten can combined with twelve ¢chi denote
the days or years of the periods of sixty days or
sixty years*. Among the Japanese, the Chi-
nese, and the nations of Mexico, the periodical
series can serve only to characterize fifty-two or
sixty years. The Thibetans, on the contrary, have
rendered the contrivance of series so complex,
that they have names for one hundred and ninety-
‘two, and even for two hundred and fifty-two
years. In denoting, for instance, the memorable
year, in which the great lhama Kan-ka-gnimbo,
united, with the consent of the Emperor of ©
China, the ecclesiastic and temporal powers * }
the inhabitant of Lhassa cites the year male fire,
bird (me po cia) of the fourteenth cycle past
since the deluge. He reckons fifteen elements ; ;
namely, five of the masculine gender, five of the
feminine, and five neuter. By combining these
fifteen elements with the twelve signs of the
zodiac, and naming the first twelve years of the
cycle only after the celestial signs, without add-
ing any element, he obtains denominations for
12 x15 +12=192 years. Adding finally sixty
years denoted by the combination ‘of ten male
and female elements with the twelve signs of the
zodiac, he finds his great eyele of two hundred

* Observ. Astr. du P. Souciet, publ by P. Gaubit
tom. 1, p. 26; tom. 2, p. 175.

*

32/

and fifty-two years, Let a, b,c,....., be the
signs of the zodiac; «, 6, 7,..., the neutral ele-
ments; 2’, 8, 7’,..., the male elements; and
a, 8’, 7, ....., the female elements; we shall
_ have, Ist, for the first twelve years, a, 0, c, d,
....; 2dly, for the years 13--72, 2a, ab, ec,....;
Babb, Bc, io.) ya, yb, yo). ou. ; ddly, for
the years 73—132, 2a, «’b, ac,...., Ba, Bb, Be;
Athly, for the years 133—192, «a, 2b, a’’c,
jaye bia. bP, 8 c,.... <3 Sthly, ‘for, the years
ToS Ge) yd a, at Uo # Cy. ou B Ray BBD,
ROek :

The Tzihi-chen, or public calculators of
Lhassa*, allege in favour of the chronology of
_ Thibet, that, as the years of the same name re-
turn only every two centuries, the date of an his-
torical event is fixed, even when the cycle is not
indicated. The uncertainty is greater among the
Japanese, and among the Mexicans, where the
same names occur every sixty or fifty-two years,
‘We may be surprised, that the Thibetans, who
from the highest antiquity made use of the same
ciphers and the same system of numeration as
the Hindoos, have not abandoned the compli-
cated method of periodical series. This method,
which takes its origin from astrological reveries,
ought to have been employed only by people,
who, like the Aztecks and the Toltecks, found

* Georgi, Alph, Tibet. p. 516.

difficulty in expressing very considerable ntum-
bers, and whose annals were written in hierogly-
phical characters.

We have just seen, that the Mexicans, the
Japanese, the people of Thibet, and several
other nations of central Asia, have followed the

same system in the division of the great cycles,

and in the denomination of the years that com-—

pose them. We have now to examine a fact,
which more immediately concerns the history of
the migrations of the natives, and which seems

hitherto to have escaped the researches of the —

learned. I think it may be proved that a great
part of the names, by which the Mexicans de-
noted the twenty days of their month, are these
of the signs of a zodiac in use from the remotest

antiquity among the nations of Eastern Asia.

In order to demonstrate, that this assertion is

less unfounded than it appears at first sight, I

shall unite in the same table, Ist, The names cf

the Mexican hieroglyphics, such as they have

been transmitted to us by every writer of the

sixteenth century; 2dly, The Tartarian, Japa-—

nese, and Thibetan names of the twelve signs
of the zodiac; and 3dly, The names of the
naschatras, or lunar houses, of the calendar of
the Hindoos. I flatter myself, that such of my
readers as shall attentively examine this compa-
rative table will feel interested in the discussion
of the first divisions of the zodiac, on which we
are going to enter. |

a

329

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330

From the remotest periods, the nations of
Asia were acquainted with the two divisions of
the ecliptic, one into 27 or 28 houses, or lunar
prefectures, the other into 12 parts. ‘The asser-
tion, that this last division was found only among
the Egyptians, is erroneous. ‘The most ancient
monuments of Indian literature, the works of
Calidas and Amarsinh* mention both the 12
signs of the zodiac, and the 27 campaigns of the
moon. From what we know of the communica-
tions which had taken place several thousands
of years before our zra, between the nations of
Ethiopia, Upper Egypt, and Hindostan, we
ought not to consider all that they transmitted
to the people of Greece as belonging exclusively
to the Egyptians. |

The division of the ecliptic into 27 or 28 lunar
houses, is probably-/ more. ancient than the
division into twelve parts, which relate to the
annual motion of the Sun. Phenomena repeated
every lunation in the same order, fix the attention
of men much more strongly than changes of po-
sition, the cycle of which is finished only in the
space of a year. As the Moon is placed, in each
lunation, near the same stars, it appears natural,
that particular names should be given to the 27
or 28 constellations, through which she passes in

* Asiatic Researches, vol. ii, p. 346, |

+ Le Gentil, vol. i, p. 261.

331

a synodical revolution. The names of these con-
stellations have by degrees been given to the
lunar days themselves, and this apparent con-
nexion between the sign and the day is become
the principal basis of the peter calculation
of astrology.

On an attentive examination of the names,
which the nacshatras, or lunar houses, bear in
~Hindostan, we recognise in them not only all
the names of the Tartar and Thibetan zodiac,
but also those of several constellations, which are
identic with the signs of the Greek zodiac.
Each nacshatra has 13° 20’, and 2 nacshatras
correspond to one of our signs. The following
table shows the great probability, that the solar
zodiac took its origin from the lunar zodiac ;
and that the twelve signs of the former were
chosen in a great measure among the 27 nac-
shatras. |

332

LUNAR HOUSES. | SIGNS of the ZODIAC.

Rat. Rat, Aquarius.
Antelope. _ Ox, Capricorn.
Arrow, bow. a Tiger, Sagittarius.
Tail of the lon. Lion.
Beam of a pair of seales. | Dragon, Balance.
Serpent. Serpent, Virgin.
Horse. . Horse.
Goat. Sheep, Crab.

| Ape. Ape, Twins.
Eagle. Bird, Bull.
Dog’s tail. Dog, Ram.
Fish. : Hog, Fish.

In the Arabian sky, the belt of Orion is deno-
ted under the name of ican, the beam of a pair
of scales ; and it seems so much more remark-
able, that a lunar station of the Hindoos bears
the same denomination, as, since the discovery
of the zodiac of Téntyra, doubts have been
raised with respect to the antiquity of the con-
stellation of the Balance. It cannot be denied,
that the signs, which compose the Egyptian,
Chaldean, and Greek zodiac, were known in
India from the remotest times ; and it is pro-
bable, that Julius Caesar, when he added the
Balance to the Roman zodiac, followed the

333

advice of the astronomer Sosigenes *, who, born
in Egypt, could not be ignorant of the division
of the ecliptic used in the east. There is how-
ever no need + of raising doubts respecting the
high antiquity of the sign of the Balance, to
weaken the unfounded hypothesis, according to
which a temple of Upper Egypt was built. more
than four thousand years before our zra.

Struck with the analogy that exists between

the denominations of the nacshatras, and those
of several signs of the zodiac of Thibet and of

Greece, I have examined whether the constella-

tions, which bear the same name, correspond to
the same points of the heavens: and I find they
do not, whether we suppose, that the first
nacshatra, known under the denomination of
the Horse, is the Horse of the Thibetan zodiac,
‘and consequently the Lion of the Greek zodiac ;
or whether we admit with Sir W. Jones and Mr.
Colebrooke ¢, that the commencement of the
nacshatras is placed in the sign of the Ram,
which is the Dog of the Thibetan zodiac. This
last hypothesis would seem probable only if the
lunar houses were reckoned contrary to the order

_ * Buttman, in Ideler, Hist. Unt. p. 372—378.

+ Sce a learned treatise by Visconti, inserted in the trans—_

lation of Herodotus by Larcher (2d ed.), Tom, 2, p. 576 ;

and Visconti, Miscell. di Museo Pio—Clementino, Tom. 6,

p. 25, note, c. ae

\
t Asiatic Researches, Vol. 9, p. 118.

cs mh on Jb

Dagny lt ee -

334

of the signs: then the six nacshatras denoted by
the names of two faces, three prints of the feet of
Vishnou, the tail of the lion, the wreath of leaves,
the arrow, and the head of the antelope, would
have represented our signs, the Twins, the Crab,
the Lion, the Virgin, the Sagittary, and Capris
corn. But on any of these suppositions, the
Balance, the Lion, and the Ram, are not placed
at the reciprocal distances which are fitted for
them. According to the learned researches of

: the members of the society at Calcutta, the nac-

shatras aswini, horse; pushya, arrow ; and mula,
tail of the lion ; answer to 2 of the Ram, 3 of the
Crab, and y¥ of the Scorpion, of the Greek
zodiac, or to the dog, the sheep, and hare of the
zodiac of Tartary and Thibet.

It may seem extraordinary, at first sight, that
these nations, in forming from the twenty-seven
or twenty-eight signs of the lunar calendar the
twelve signs of the solar zodiac, should have pre-
served the names of a great number of constella-

tions, without any regard to their absolute posi-

tion, and to the order in which they follow each
other; but we must not conclude thence, that the
striking analogy between twelve nacshatras and —
an equal number of signs of the Thibetan and
Greek zodiac is merely accidental. As the de-
nominations of the lunar mansions have gradually
descended even to the days, we may conceive,

that they were become familiar to the people,

MA SR EN rT AER FS MEY Sate RET Oe Ne PUD Oy Pen Eee an nnn midhmmcueshaierns muemecnanerens

335

who were no doubt ignorant of the position of the
stars of which the divisions of the ecliptic were
composed. It is possible, that nations relapsed
into barbarism had preserved but a confused re-
membrance of the names of the nacshatras ; and
that in reforming their calender, they might
have chosen among the names those of the signs
of the solar zodiac, without following the order
anciently adopted. It is possible also, and I am
inclined to give the preference to this latter
opinion, that the zodiac composed of twelve signs
may. have had its origin from an ancient lunar
_ zodiac, in which the nacshatras were arranged in
an order more analogous to that which we ob-
serve at present in the dodecatemoria of the
people of Thibet and Tartary. In fact, the divi-
sions of the ecliptic, which Sir William Jones,
Colebrooke, and Sonnerat, have published, differ
essentially from each other. ‘The arrow, which
according to one Indian writer is the eighth
nacshatra, is only the twenty-third according to

another. We shall see presently, in speaking of |

a Roman bas relief described by Bianchini, that

in the East solar zodiacs formerly existed, which.

had the same signs, though placed in a different
order. Moreover, the return of the Sun from the
tropics toward the equator, and the phenomenon
of the equal duration of the days and the nights,
must have led to great changes in the figures

‘4, >. >. mre
ee ha in RESTO, a aStipen F-

a pace taneee ptr grt

261.

336

of the nacshatras, when a part only was employed
to form the solar zodiac.
This intimate connexion between the lunar

-mansions and the signs of the zodiac is moreover.

evident in the names given by the Hii:doos to the
months and the years. These names, according
to the curious investigations of Mr. Davis *, are
not those of the dodecatemoria of the solar zo-
diac ; they are taken from the nacshatras them-
selves, each month bearing the name of the
lunar mansion, in which the full moon occurs.
We have seen farther back, that at Thibet, in
China, and among the Tartar nations, each year
of the five indictions of the great cycle bears the
name of one of the 12 animals of the solar zo-
diac. Among the Hindoos, the years take the
name of the nacshatras in which Jupiter is at his
heliacal rising. It is thus that Aswini (horse)

or Magha (house) is the name of a year, of a

month, and of a tithy, or lunar day ; as at Mexico
the sign fochtli (rabbit) or calli (house) presides
at the same time over the year, the half lunation,
and the day. :

From the whole of these considerations it
follows, that the division of the ecliptic into
twelve signs probably had its origin from the
division into 27 or 28 lunar mansions ; and that

-* On the cycle of sixty years, Asiat. Res. vol. 3, p. 217—

337

the solar zodiac was primitively a lunar zodiac,
-each full moon being nearly two nacshatras and —
‘a quarter, or 13° 20’ distant from that preced-
ing. Itis thus that the most ancient astronomy
of nations is connected with the motions of the
moon only. If it happen, that the twelve signs’
of the zodiac bear names that differ totally
from. those of the nacshatras, we must not hence
conclude, that the stars themselves were distri-
- buted after a double division. In eastern Asia,
the zodiac of twelve signs was, for a long time,
only an abstract division*, while the zodiac of
twenty-seven or twenty-eight nacshatras was
alone a real stellar zodiac. I have been led to
insist on the intimate connexion that exists be-
tween the two divisions of the ecliptic, to show,
that both may have given birth to the signs of
the Mexican zodiac. |

Let us examine first the analogy between the
denominations of the Mexican days, and the
signs of the Thibetan, Chinese, Tartarian, and
Mongul zodiac. This analogy is striking in
the eight hieroglyphics called atl, cipactle,
ocelotl, tochtli, cohuatl, quauhtli, ozomatl, and
itzcuintli. :

Ail, water, is often indicated by a hierogly-
phic, the parallel and undulating lines of which
remind us of the sign we employ to denote

* Bailly, Ast. Ind. p. 5; Ast. mod, tom. 3, p. 301,

VOL, XII. Z

338

Aquarius. The first tse, or asterism, of the.
Chinese zodiac, the rat (Show), is also frequent -
ly represented under the figure of water*. In
the reign of the emperor Tchouen-hiu there was
a great deluge; and the celestial sign Hiuen-
hiao, which by its position answers to our Aqua-
rius, is the symbol of. this reign. Thus P-
Souciet, in his Researches on the Cycles and the
Zodiac, observes, that China and Europe agree
in representing under different denominations
the sign, which we name Amphora, or Aquarius.
Among the western nations, the water that flows
from the vase of Aquarius (quzis udwros) early
formed a particular constellation (udue), to which
belonged the beautiful stars Fomalhaut and
Deneb kaitos, as is evident + from several pas-
sages of Aratus, Geminus, and the scholiast of
Germanicus. a
Cipactli is a sea animal{. ‘This hieroglyphic
bears a strong analogy to Capricorn, which the
Hindoos and other nations of Asia call sea mon-
ster. The Mexican sign indicates a fabulous
animal, a whale with a horn in its forehead.

*® Obs. mathem. du P. Souciet, published by P. Ganbil,
tom. 3, p. 33.

+ Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 197.

+ Gama, Descrip. histor. y cronol. de dos Piedras a
co, 1792), f. 27 and 100,

ny
Ota

339

Gomara and Torquemada * call it espadarte, a
name by which the Spaniards denote the nar-
wal, the great tooth of which is known by the
mame of the unicorn’s horn. Boturini took this —
horn for a harpoon, and erroneously translated
cipactli by serpent armed with harpoons. As
this sign does not represent a real animal, it is
natural enough, that its form should vary more
than that of any other sign. Sometimes the
horn appears a lengthening of the muzzle, as in
the famous fish oxyrinchus, represented in the
place of the southern fish under the belly of
Capricorn, in some Indian planispheres +: at
other times the horn is entirely wanting. On
casting our eyes on the figures in plate 23d and
27th, taken from very ancient drawings and re-
liefs, we see how much Valades, Boturini, and
Clavigero were mistaken, in representing the
first hieroglyphic of the Mexican days as a
shark, or a lizard. In the manuscript in the
Borgian museum, the head of cipactli resembles
that of acrocodile; and this same name of cro-
codile is given by Sonnerat to the tenth sign of
the Indian zodiac, which is our Capricorn.
Besides, the idea of the sea animal, cipactli, is
connected in the Mexican mythology with the
history of a man, who, at the epocha of the de-

* Conquista, fol.119. Mon. ind., tom. 3, p. 223.
t Philos. Transact., 1772, p. 353.
z 2

EN dey Lee

340

struction of the fourth sun, after having for @
long time swam in the waters, saved himself
alone, by reaching the top of the mountain
Colhuacan. We have observed, that the Noah
of the Aztecks, commonly called Coxcox, bears
also the name of Teo-Cipactli, in which the
word divinity, or divine, is added to that of
cipacth. On looking into the zodiac of the na-
tions of Asia, we find, that the Capricorn of the
Hindoos is the fabulous fish maharan, or souro *,
celebrated for his exploits, and represented, from
the most remote antiquity, as a sea-monster with
the head of an antelope. As the inhabitants
of India, like the Mexicans, often indicate the
nacshatras (lunar mansions) and the lagwenons
(dodecatemoria) by the heads only of the ani-
mals, which compose the lunar and solar zodiacs,
we ought not to be surprised, that the western
nations should have transformed the mahara
into Capricorn (wyoxeos); and that Aratus,
Ptolemy, and the Persian Kaswini, should have
given-it the tail of a fish. An animal, which,
after having for a length of time inhabited
the waters, takes the form of an antelope, and
scales the mountains, reminds nations, whose
disturbed imagination associates objects the

* Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes, tom. 1, p. 310. Bailly,
Astr. ind., p. 210. :

+ Asiat. Researches, vol, 2, p. 335, No. 7.

341

most remote from each other, of the ancient tra-
ditions of Menou, Noah, and the Deucalions fa-
mous among the Scythians and people of Thes-
aly. It is true, according to Germanicus, that
Deucalion, whom we may consider as the Cox-
cox, or the Teo-Cipactli of the Mexican mytho-
logy, was placed not in the sign of Capricorn, but
in the sign that immediately follows it, in that of
Aquarius (idpoydos). In this circumstance there
is nothing to surprise us; it rather confirms the
- ingenious opinion of Mr. Bailli on the ancient
connexion of the three signs of the Fishes,
Aquarius, and Capricorn, or the antelope fish *.
Ocelotl, tiger, the jaguar (felis onca) of the
warm regions of ‘Mexico; fochtli, hare: ozo-
matli, female ape ; itzcuintli, dog; cohuatl, ser-
pent ; quauhtli, bird, are asterisms that bear the
same names in the Tartar and Thibetan zodi-
acs. In the Chinese astronomy, the hare de- -
notes not only the fourth ése, or sign of the Z0~
diac ; the Moon, from the remote period of the
reign of Yao, was figured as a disk, on which
a hare +, seated on his hinder feet, turns a stick
in a vase, as if employed in making butter; a
peculiar idea, which might have had its origin
in the steppes of Tartary, where hares are abun-
dant, and which are inhabited by shepherd na-

* Astr. moderne, tom. 3, p. 297.
+ Grosier, Hist. gen. de la Chine, p. 297.

342

tiotis! The Mexican ape, ozomatl, answers to
the heow of the Chinese *, to the petchi of the
Mantchous, and to the abies of the people of
Thibet ; three names that denote the same ani-
mal. Procyon appears to be the ape hanuan-},
so well known in the mythology of the Hindoos;
and the position of this star, placed on the same
line with the Twins and the pole of the ecliptic,
corresponds very well with the place which the
ape holds in the Tartar zodiac, between the Crab
and the Bull. Apes are found also in the sky of
the Arabians ; they are stars in the constellation
of the great dog, called £l-kurid { in the cata-
logue of Kazwini. I enter into these details re-
specting the sign ozomatli, because an animal of
the torrid zone, placed among the constellations
of the Mongul, Mantchou, Azteck, and. Tolteck
nations, is a very important point, not only in
the history of astronomy, but also in that of the
migrations of nations. |
The sign zézcuinth, dog, answers to the last
sign but one of the Tartar zodiac, to the ky of the
Thibetans, to the nokai of the Mantchous, and
to. the in of the Japanese. P. Gaubil informs
us, that the dog of the Tartar zodiac is our do-
decatemorion of the Ram; and it is yery re-

* Deguignes, Hist. des Huns, Tom. 1, p. 47.
+ Dupuis, Origine des Cultes, Tom. 3, p. 363.
+ Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 238, 248, 413. _

oa
vs

343

markable, that, according to Le Gentil, among
the Hindoos, though this peoplé was unacquaint-
ed with the series of signs which begins with the
rat, the place of the Ram is sometimes oecupied
by a marron dog. In the same manner, among
the Mexicans, ifzcuintli denotes the wild dog ;
for that which is tame is called techichi. Mexico
formerly swarmed with carnivorous quadrupeds*
of a species between the wolf and the dog, which
Hernandes has but imperfectly described. The
race of these animals, known by the names of
xoloitzcuintli, itzeuintepotzotli, and tepeitzcuintli,
is perhaps not yet entirely destroyed ; but pro-
bably withdrawn into the most desert and soli-
tary forests. In the part ofthe country through
which I passed, I have never heard any mention
of a marron dog. Le Gentil + and Bailly were
mistaken, when they asserted, that the word
mecha, which denotes our ram, signifies a marron
dog. This word.of the Sanscrit language is the
ordinary name of the ram, it is employed { in a
very poetical manner by an Indian author, who
describes the combat of two warriors, saying,
“that by their heads they were two mecha
“* (rams) ; by their arms, two elephants ; by their
“ feet, two noble coursers.”

* See my Tableaux de la Nature, Tom. 1, p. 11%.
+ Le Gentil, Voyage, Tom. 1, p. 247.
t Observation de Mr. de Ghezy.

sy en

a iets a oa

344
The following table unites the signs of the
Tartar zodiac with those of; the days of the
Mexican calendar:

ZODIAC OF THE
MEXICANS.

Ocelotl, tiger.
Tochtli, hare, rabbit.
Cohuatl, serpent.
Ozomatli, ape.
Itzcuintli, dog.
Quauhtli, bird, eagle.

ZODIAC OF THE

wn)
jae)
=
E
&
ox)
3)
ry
OO
‘sa
Z,
<<
=

Tahia, vard, hen:

Taoulai, hare.
Moga, serpent.
Petchi, ape.
Nokai, dog.

Pars, tiger.

Without returning to the hieroglyphics water
(atl) and the sea monster (cipactli), which ex-
hibit a striking analogy with the asterisms of
Aquarius and Capricorn, the six signs of the
Tartar zodiac, found in the Mexican calendar:

345 ©

are sufficient to render it extremely probable,
that the people of the two continents drew their
astrological ideas from a common source. Those
features of resemblance, on which we insist, are
not taken from uncouth or allegorical paintings,
susceptible of being interpreted agreeably to the
nature of the hypothesis which we seek to esta-.
blish. If we consult the works composed, at the
beginning of the conquest, by Spanish or Indian
authors, who were ignorant even of the existence
- ofa Tartar zodiac, we shall see, that at Mexico,
from the seventh century of our era, the days.
were called tiger, dog, ape, hare, or rabbit; as
throughout the whole of eastern Asia the years
still bear the same names in the Thibetan,
Mantchou-tartar, Mongul, Calmuck, Chinese,
Japanese, Corean, and all the languages of Ton-
quin and Cochin China*. :

It may be conceived, that nations, which have
never had any intercourse with each other, may
make equal divisions of the ecliptic into 27 or 28
parts, and give each lunar day the name of the
stars near which the Moon is placed in its pro-
gressive motion from west to east. It appears
very natural also, that nations either of shepherds
or hunters should denote these constellations,
and these lunar days, by the names of the animals
which are the constant objects of their affections

oy Souciet, Tom. 2, p. 138.

346

or their fears. The sky of the nomade tribes
will be peopled with dogs, stags, bulls, and
wolves, without its being at all necessary for us
to conclude, that these tribes have formerly
made part of the same people. We must not
confound objects that resemble each other from
mere accident, or from a similarity of situation,
with those that attest a common origin, or
- ancient communications.

But the Tartar and Mexican zodiacs contain -
not only the animals peculiar to the climates
which these people inhabit at present; we find
also apes and tigers, two animals that are
unknown on the elevated plains of central and
eastern Asia, to which a great elevation gives
a colder temperature than that which reigns
toward the west under the same latitude. The
people of Thibet, the Monguls, the Mantchous,
and the Calmucks, have therefore receivedfrom
a more southern country the zodiac, which*is too
exclusively called the Tartar cycle. The Tol-
tecks, the Aztecks, the Tlascaltecks flowed from
the north toward the south: we are acquainted
with Azteck monuments as far as the banks of
the Gila, between 33° and 34° of northern lati-
tude. History shows us the Toltecks coming
from regions still more northerly. These colo-
nists, issuing from Aztlan, did not arrive as bar-
barous hordes; every thing that appertained to
them betokened the remains of aneient*civiliza-

347

tion. The names given to the cities which they
built were the names of places which their an-—
cestors inhabited ; their laws, their annals, their
chronology, the order of their sacrifices, were
modelled on the knowledge they had acquired
in their primitive country. But the apes and
the tigers, which figure among the hieroglyphics
of the days, and in the Mexican tradition of the
four ages or destructions of the Sun, do not in-
habit the northern part of New-Spain, and the
north-west coast of America. Consequently the
signs ozomatli and ocelotl render it’ singularly
probable, that the zodiacs of the Toltecks, the
Aztecks, the Monguls, the Thibetans, and so
many other nations now separated by a vast ex-
tent of country, originated on one and the same
point of the ancient continent.

The lunar mansions of the Hindoos, in sink
we also find an ape, a serpent, a tail of a dog,
and the head of an antelope, or of a sea-monster,
exhibit still other signs, the names of which re-
mind us of the calli, acatl, tecpatl, and ollin, of
the Mexican calendar. |

348

| (-yaaq Jo syutad aaayy &q poquos
-gidaa ‘ung ay} Jo uoKou “u277¢) | Cyeag Jo sqyutid vo1y) ‘pupansg )

- *9U09S Jo OFIUY “uy “oda 7 “IOZRA “191990

. Can:
—*9ueo “77097 "aueo ‘noua 74

‘asnoy “709 ‘asnoy ‘ny Soy

‘SNOIS NVOLIXGM ‘SVULVHSOVN NVICNI

, that the Aatack word

gnificat

We shall first observe
calli has the same si

on as the kuala, or

i

349

kolla *, of the Woguls, who dwell on the banks
of the Kama and Irtisch; as atel (water in
Azteck, and itels (river) in Vilel, recall to mind
the words atl, atelsh, etel, or idel, (river) in the.
language of the Mongul Tartars, Tscheremisses,
and T'schouwasses-+. The denomination of
calli, house, very well denotes a station or lunar
mansion (in Arabic, menazil el kamaa) a place
of repose. It is thus that among the Indian
nacshatras, beside the houses (magha and
punarvasu) we also find bedsteads and ma-
trasses.

The Mexican sign acatl, cane, is generally
figured as two reeds tied together t. But the
stone found at Mexico in 1790, and which offers
the hieroglyphics of the days, represents the
sign acatl in a very different manner. We
recognise in it a bundle of reeds, or a sheaf
of maize contained in a vase. We shall ob-
serve on this occasion, that, in the first period
of thirteen days of the year tochtli, the sign acatl
is constantly accompanied by Cinteotl, who 1s
the goddess of maize, Ceres, the divinity who
presides over agriculture. Among the western,
nations, Ceres is placed in the 5th dodecatemo-
rion: we even find very ancient zodiacs, in —

* Vater. Amer. Bevolker, p. 160. —

+ Engel, Ungar. Gesch. T. 1, p. 346, 361, Georgi, Rei-
sen. B,2, p. 904 Thwrocz, Chron. Hungaror., p. 49.

t Plate 27.

350

which a bundle of ears of corn * fills up the
whole of the place, which Ceres, Iris, Astrea, or
Erigone, ought to occupy in the sign of the har-

vests and vintages. It is thus we find, from the |

remotest antiquity, among the most distant na-
tions, the same ideas, the same symbols, the same

tendency to refer natural phenomena to the mys-

terious influence of the stars.

The Mexican hieroglyphic tecpatl indicates a
keen edged stone of oval form, lengthened at
both ends, like those which were made use of as
knives, or which were fastened to the end of a
pike. This sign recalls to mind the crittita or
sharp knife of the lunar zodiac of the Hindoos.
On the great stone represented in the 23d Plate,
the hieroglyphic tecpatl is figured in a manner
somewhat different from the form commonly
given to this instrument. The silex is pierced
through the centre, and the opening seems des-
tined to receive the hand of the warrior, who
makes use of this weapon with two points. We
know, that the Americans had a peculiar art of
boring the hardest stones and working them by
friction. I have brought from South America,
and deposited at the Museum at Berlin, a ring

of obsidian, which was a girl’s bracelet, and

forms a hollow cylinder near seven centimetres

* Ideler, Sternnamen, S. 172. Dupuis, Origine des Cultes,
Tem. 2, p. 228—234. Atlas, p. 6. i

251

in diameter, four centimetres high, and three’
millimetres thick. We can scarcely conceive
how a vitreous and fragile substance could be re-
duced to the state of so thin a plate. Besides,
tecpatl differs from obsidian, a substance which
the Mexicans called tztli; jade, hornstone, and
flint being confounded under the denomination —

of fecpatl. |
The sign ollin or’ ollin-tonatiuh, presides, in
the beginning of the cycle of 52 years, over the
seventeenth day of the first month. The expla-
nation of this sign has greatly embarrassed the
Spanish monks, who, without the slightest ele-
mentary notions of astrongmy, attempted to ex-
plain the Mexican calendar. The Indian authors
translate ollin by motions of the Sun. When
they find the number nahwi added, they render
nahui ollin by the words Sun (tonatiuh) in his
jour motions ; sometimes (Plate 37) like two
ribands intertwined, or rather like two portions
of curves, which cross each other, and which
have three perceptible inflections at their sum-
mits; sometimes (Plate 23) like the solar disk
surrounded with four squares, which contain the
hieroglyphics of the numbers one (ce) and four
(nahui) ; at other times like three prints of feet.
The four squares allude, as we shall soon explain,
to the famous tradition of the four ages, or four .
destructions: of the world, which took place on
the days 4 tyger, nahui ocelotl ; 4 wind, nahut

RO Li als a

302

ehecatl ; 4 rain, nahui quiahuitl; and 4 water,
nahui atl ; in the years ce acatl, 1 cane; ce tec-
patl, | flint; and ce call, 1 house. With these
same days the solstices, the equinoxes, and the
passages of the Sun across the zenith of the
city of Tenochtitlan, very nearly corresponded. |
The representation of the sign ollin by three
xocpalli, or prints of the feet, as we often find
them in the manuscripts at the Vatican, and in
the Codex Borgianus, fo!. 47, n. 210, is remark-
able from the analogy which it seemingly offers
with sravana, or the three prints of the feet of
Vishnou, one of the mansions of the lunar zodiac
of the Hindoos. In the Mexican calendar, the
three prints indicate either the traces of the Sun
in its passage across the equator, and its motion
towards the two tropics, or the three positions of
the Sun in the zenith, in the equator, and in one
of the solstices. It is possible, that the lunar
zodiac of the Hindoos contained some sign,
which, like that of the Balance, might refer to
the course of the Sun. We have seen, that the
zodiac of twenty-eight signs may have been
transformed by degrees into a zodiac of twelve
mansions of the full Moon; and that some nac-
shatras may have,changed their denomination,
since, from the knowledge of the annual motion
of the Sun, the zodiac of the full Moons is become
a real solar zodiac. Crishna, the Apollo of the

Hindoos, is in fact no other than Vishnou, under

D)

353

the form of the Sun*, which is more particu-
larly worshipped under the name of the god
Sourya. Notwithstanding this analogy of ideas
and of signs, we think, that the three footsteps,
which form the twenty-third nacshatra, sravana,
have only an accidental resemblance with the
three prints of feet, that represent the sign ollin.
M. de Chezy, who was very profoundly versed
jn the Persian and Sanscrit languages, observes,
that the sravana of the Indian zodiac alludes to
a legend highly distinguished among the Hin-
doos, and recorded in the greater part of their
sacred books, particularly in the Bhagavat-Pou-
ranam. Vishnou, desirous of punishing the pride
of a giant, who thought himself as powerful as
the gods, presents himself under the form of a
dwarf, and entreats him to grant in his vast em-
pire the space he can measure with three of his
steps ; the giant assents with a smile, and at the
instant the dwarf rises to so prodigious a stature,
that in two steps he measures the space between
Heaven and Earth. As he asks, at the third
step, where he can place his foot, the giant re-
cognizes the god Vishnou, and prostrates himself
before him. This fable so well explains the
figure of the nacshatra sravana, that it would be
difficult to admit the connexion of this sign with
that of ollin ; as cipactli, and the Mexican Noah,

* Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, p. 200.

VOL. XIII. A A.

O04

go Cipadili are anpoes with the constella-
tion of Capricorn, and that of Deucalion, an-
ciently placed in Aquarius.

We have now explained the corr espondencies
that exist between the signs of which the different
zodiacs of India, Thibet, ‘Tartary, and the hiero-
glyphics of the days and years of the Mexican
calendar are composed. | We have found that in
these correspondencies, the most numerous and
striking are those of the cycle of the twelve ani-
mals, which we have designated under the name
of the zodiac of Tartary and Thibet. To finish
a discussion, the results of which are so impor-
tant to the history of the ancient communications
of nations, we shall examine more closely this
last zodiac ; and prove, that, in the Asiatic sys-
tem of. astrolog ry, with which the Mexican astro-
logy appears to have a common origin, the
twelve signs of the Zodiac preside not only over
the months, but also over the years, the days,
the hours, and even over the smallest parts of
the hours. : i

When we consider, that the 1 nations of eastern
Asia employ at the same time divisions of the
ecliptic into twenty-seven or twenty-eight, into
twelve, and into twenty-four parts; and that the
same signs of the solar zodiac bear denomina-
tions, and often figures, entirely different; we are
tempted to believe, that this multiplicity of signs
must produce an extreme confusion in the limits

300
assigned to the zodiacal constellations. Among
the Hindoos, for instance, we find, beside the
nacshatras, or lunar mansions, twelve laquenons
the names of which are the same as those of the
signs of the Greek and Egyptian zodiac. The
Chinese divide the ecliptic in three manners,
namely, into twenty-eight nacshatras, which they
call che or eal-che-po-sieou* ; into twelve tse,
which answer to our signs, but which bear
names, partly mystical, and partly borrowed
from the productions of the country, as great
splendor, profound void, head and tail of the
quail} ; and into twenty-four ¢siekt. The de-
nominations of these fsieki, or half-tse, relate to
the climate, and the variations of temperaturef.
The Chinese have besides two other cycles of
twelve signs ; that of the ¢chi ; and that of the
animals, the names of which are identic with
those of the cycles of Thibet and Tartary ; seven
che answer to three fs¢, aS six ¢steki answer to
three écht, and three celestial animals. The
cycle of these twelve Chinese animals, among
which we have found the ape, the tiger, the rat
(symbol of water), the dog, the bird, the serpent,
and the hare, of the Mexican calendar, gives the
~ * Souciet and Gaubil, vol. 3, p. 80.
+ L.c, vol. 3, p. 98.
ode Pa) vol. 3, p. 94, Bailly, Astr. ind. p. 96.
AA

356

names to the cycle of twelve years, as well as to
the small period of twelve days. The twelve
animals are used, says P. Gaubil*, to denote the
twelve moons of the year, the twelve hours of the
day and night, and the twelve celestial signs.
But all these divisions into twelve parts, marked
by different names, are, in the east of Asia, only
abstract or imaginary divisions: they serve to
recall to mind the motion of the Sun in the eclip-
tic ; but, the real starry zodiac, as Mr. Bailly
very well observes}, and as is confirmed by the
more recent researches of Sir William Jones and
Mr. Colebrooke, consists of the twenty-eight
lunar mansions. It is true, they say in China,
that the Sun enters into the Ape, or the Hare, as
we say that it enters into the Twins or the Scor-
pion; but the Chinese, the Hindoos, and the
Tartars class the stars only according to the sys-
tem of the nacshatras. The division of the zo-
diac into twenty-seven or twenty-eight parts,
known from Yemen to the plains of Turfan and
Cochinchina, belongs, as well as the small period
of seven days, to the most ancient monuments of
astronomy. ) }
Wherever we observe at the same time several
divisions of the ecliptic, differing not in the num-
bers of the asterisms, but in their denominations,

* Souciet, vol. 2, p. 156, 174.
+ Astr, ind. p.5.

357 |

as the tse, the tchi, and the celestial animals of
the Chinese, of the people of Thibet, and of the
Tartars, this multiplicity of signs is probably

owing to a mixture of several nations, who have —

been subdued one by the other. The effects of
this mixture, those of the influence exercised by
the conquerors on the vanquished people, are
particularly manifest in the north-east part of
Asia; the languages of which, notwithstanding
the great number of Mongul and Tartar roots
they contain, differ so essentially * from each
other, that they seem to defy any methodi-
cal classification. In proportion as we remove
from Thibet and Indostan, we see the uniform
type of civil institutions, of knowledge, and of
religious rites, weaken and disappear. Now, if
the hordes of eastern Siberia, among whom the
dogmas of Bouddhism have evidently penetrat-
ed, appear nevertheléss to be connected only by
feeble ties to the civilized nations of southern
Asia, ought we to be surprised, that, in the New
Continent, along with some features of analogy
in traditions, in chronology, and in the style of
their remains, we should discover so great a
number of striking differences ? When nations of
Tartar or Mongul origin, transplanted to foreign
shores, mingled with the indigenous hordes of
America, have found a road toward civilization

Adelung, Mithridates, vol. 2, p. 583 and 560.

308

with great difficulty, their languagés, their my-
thology, their divisions of time, every thing as-
sumes a character of individuality, that almost
effaces the primitive type of their national phy-
‘slognomy. |

In fact, instead of the cycles of sixty years, of
years divided into twelve months, and small
periods of seven days, used among the nations of
Asia, we find among the Mexicans cycles of
fifty-two years, years of eighteen months of
twenty days each, half decades, and half luna-
tions of thirteen days. Thesystem of periodical
series, the correspondent terms of which serve
to denote the dates of the days and the years, is
the same in both continents; a great many of
the signs that compose the series in the Mexican
calendar are borrowed from the zodiac of the
nations of Thibet and Tartary; but neither
their number, nor the order in which they follow
each other, are those observed in Asia.

The Tartarian zodiac does not begin, like that
_ of the Hindoos, with the Dog, which answers to
our sign of the Ram, but with the Rat, which re-.
presents Aquarius*. This same zodiae has besides
the striking particularity, that the celestialanimals
are reckoned contrary to the order of the signs :
instead of placing them in that which is marked

* Souciet, vol. 2, p.136. Bailly, Ast, ind., p. 212. Lan-
gles, notes du Voyage de Thunberg, p. 319.

309

by the motion of the Sun in the ecliptic from
west to east, the Thibetans, the Chinese, the
Japanese, and the Tartars, reckon the signs in
the following order; Rat, or Aquarius ; Ox, or |
Capricorn ; Tiger, or Sagittary ; Hare, or Scor- —
pion, &c. This singular habit has perhaps its
cause in the circumstance, that the twelve zodi-
acal constellations in their passage over the me-
ridian, preside over the different hours of the
day and the night, As they share in the general
motion of the celestial sphere from east to west,
they are arranged in the order, according to
which they rise or set one after the other.

In the Mexican calendar, the signs of the
days which are identical with the signs of the
Tartar cycle, those of the dog, the ape, the tiger,
and the horse, are so placed, that no analogy of
relative position can be’ recognised between
them. Cipactli, which we have proved to be the
antelope-fish, is the first asterism, as Capricorn
seems to have been among the Egyptians*.
Among the Mexican signs nearly the following
order prevails, cipactli, cohuatl, tochtli, itzcu-
intli, ozomatli, and ocelotl ; or, substituting the
names of our signs, Capricorn, Virgo, the Scor-
pion, the Ram, the Twins, and Sagittarius. Is this
difference in the arrangement of the signs mere-

* Fragmentum ex Gazophylacio Card. Barberini (Kir-
cheri CEdipus, 1653, vol. 3, p. 160).

360

ly apparent? and does it arise from a cause ~
analogous to that, which, according to the testi-
mony of Herodotus and Dion Cassius*, led the
people of the east to name the days of the week
after the planets placed in a very different order
from that assigned them by the astronomy of the
Hindoos, the Egyptians and the Greeks? Con-
sidering the number of terms, that compose the
series of the hours, and that of the Mexican hie-
roglyphics, we feel, that this hypothesis is not
admissible. |

In speaking of the analogy -observable be-
tween the names of several lunar mansions, and
those of the signs of the solar zodiac, we have
explained how the primitive order of the aste-
risms may. be changed, when nations, replunged
into barbarism, endeavour from an obscure re-
membrance, to reestablish. the system of their
chronology. Although the supposition of these
changes is obvious, we are nevertheless not forc-
ed to admit it, in order to explain the dissimili-
tude in the position of the same signs in the Tar-
tar and Mexican zodiacs. The Hindoos pre-
serve several divisions of the ecliptic into twenty-
‘seven or twenty-eight nacshatras, the names of
which are in great part the same, without being
placed in the same order. An ancient monu-

* Dion Cassius, lib. 37, c. 19. (Ed. Fabric., 1750, tom. I,
p.124). Herod., lib. 2, c. 89. | |

361

ment, made known by Bianchini in the begin-
ning of the last century, proves, that there ex-
isted in the East solar zodiacs, in which are

found the Tartarian asterisms of the Horse, the

Dog, the Hare, the Dragon, and the Bird, ar-
' ranged so that the Dog answers to the Bull, and
not to the Ram of the Greek zodiac, while the
Dog and the Hare are separated not by four, but
only by two signs. Now if in Asia the same
nacshatras, and the same dodecatemorions, have
not always followed the same order in the dif-
ferent lunar and solar zodiacs, we must not be
surprised at the transposition of the signs ob-
served in the cycle of the hieroglyphics of the
day among the Mexicans. It is even possible,
that this transposition may be merely apparent, |
and may appear real to us, because we can com- -
pare the Tolteck and Mexican calendars only to
the cycles which we find at present among the
Tartars and the Thibetans. Perhaps other na-
tions of eastern Asia have communicated their
zodiac to those warlike hordes, which have in-
undated Mexico since the seventeenth century.
Perhaps in traversing the elevated plain of cen-
tral Asia, and examining more attentively the
remains of civilization preserved in little Buck-
haria, at Turfan, or near the ruins of Kara-
corum, the ancient capital of the empire of the
Monguls, travellers may some day discover the

362

same series of signs, as is contained in the zodiac
of the Mexicans.

The astronomical monument, of which Bian-
chini sent a drawing to the academy, is a mar-
ble fragment preserved in the Vatican, and
found at Rome in 1705.. We propose here to
examine it with particular attention, because it
seems well adapted to throw light on the divi-
sions of the ecliptic used in Mexico and eastern
Asia. It exhibits, in five consecutive zones, the
figures of the planets, the decani, the asterisms of

the Greek zodiac repeated twice, and the signs

of another zodiac, which has the greatest ana-
logy with that of the Tartar nations. We may
besurprised, that Fontenelle, Bailly, Dupuis, and
other distinguished men of letters, who have
written on the origin of the zodiacs, should have
taken this bass-relief for an Egyptian work*.
According to the observation of Mr. Visconti,

the style of the figures representing the planets

evidently proves, that it was sculptured in the
time of the Ceesars. In this mutilated monu-
ment we recognise, among the signs of.the in-
terior zone, a horse, a crab, a serpent, a dog that

# Hist. de Acad. des Sciences, 1708, vol. 1, p. 110.
Bailly, Hist. de l’Astr. anc., p. 493 and 504, Dupuis,
Origine des Cultes, vol. 1, p. 180. Meee Ilustraz. d'une
Zodiaco orientale, 1811, p. 15. is

363

bears some likeness to the wolf, a hare, two birds,
one of which seems placed opposite to a serpent,
and two quadrupeds, one with a long tail, and
the other with goat’s horns. As the asterisms of
the Greek zodiac were arranged one by one
with those of the unknown zodiac, we see, that |
the Horse and the Hare answer, as in the Tartar
dodecatemorions, to our signs of the Lion and
the Scorpion. The following table exhibits the
order, in which the asterisms are placed in the
planisphere of Bianchini. I have added the
signs of the Tartar cycle, of which we found
vestiges among the nations of the New Con-
tinent. )

at

364

TARTAR CYCLE

INTERIOR ZONE.
Animal with a long tail.

Goat.

Horse.

Crab

Serpent.

Dog or Wolf.
Bird.

Bird. .
Hare.

<

—
ee
es
O
2
<
Lapel
ra
ee
S
S
<j
—
a)
3S
N

EXTERIOR ZONE.

Sagittarius.
Scorpion.
Virgin.
Crab
Twins.
Bull

Ram.
Fishes.
Aquarius.
Capricorn.

Lion.

Balance.

The names of the animals, which are too
much mutilated to be known with certainty, are
printed in italics; the asterisms of the Greek
sphere, which are entirely erased, are distin-
guished in the same manner. I have arranged
these last contrary to the order of the signs, ac-
cording to the practice of the Tartarian nations.

365

It is remarkable enough, that, in this curious
monument, the planets and the decani, the last
of which only are figured in the Egyptian style
with heads or masks of animals, are found placed
in contrary directions. Though in the two zones,
which represent the Greek zodiac, four signs are
repeated under the same forms, we must not
thence conclude that the others were equally
identic. It were above all to be wished, that
the Twins, and Pan, or Capricorn, had been
preserved in the two zones; for the sculptor
seems to have had the intention of uniting the
zodiacs of different nations, and the heterogene-
ous forms* given to the same asterisms among
the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and the Greeks.
The Twins are represented by two figures,
which Mr. Bailly thought to be of different
sexes, one of which holds a club, and the other
a lyre. It is under this same form, that this sign
is described in the Astronomicon of Hyginus + ;
and thus that it is figured in the Sanscrit verses
of the poet Sripeti: “ the couple, mithouna,”
says this Hindoo writer, “ is composed of a girl,

* Eratosthenis Cataster., ed. Schaubach., 1795, page 21,
Hygin. Poeticon Astr., lib. 2, c. 28 ; lib. 3, c. 27. (Auctores
- Mythographi Latini, ed. van Stuveren, 1742, tom. 2, page
481—528). | en

+ Lib. 8, ¢. 21. (Auct. Mythograph. tom. 2, page 523).
Du Choul, Discours de la Religion des Anciens Romains,
1556, page 180. Ideler, Sternnamen, s, 151.

366
who plays on the vina, and of a young man,
who brandishes a club*.”

The interior zodiac contains, like that of the
Thibetans, the Chinese, and the Tartars, only
animals, real fwd. In the Greek sphere, half
the signs are formed of animals found in nature,
the other half is composed of human figures, and
fabulous or allegorical beings. The Balance,
Cuyoc, Or Aitex, 18 held sometimes by the claws,
gure, of the Scorpion}; at others by a male
figure, as in the planisphere of Bianchini, and in
the Indian zodiac ; and at others by the Virgin,
who in this case assumes the name of Astrea.
day. The signs of the lunar mansions, or the
hieroglyphics of the days of the Mexican calen-
dar, are represented both by animals and inani-
mate objects. If we adopt the ingenious idea
of Mr. Hager, according to which the sacred
stone, brought by Michaux from the banks of
the Tygris, is an ancient zodiac, we shall find,
that, among the Chaldeans, the series of the real

_ Cwdia was also interrupted by altars, towers, and

houses}. This last fact is favourable to the
hypothesis, that the dodecatemorions owe their
origin to the lunar mansions, or houses. The
same stone appears to offer another analogy. In

# Asiat, Res. vol. 2, page 335, | iy
t Manil., lib. 1. vol. 609.
{ Ilustrazione duno Zod. Orientale, cap. 8, p. 39, tray. 2,

367

the Tartarian cycle, the Tiger corresponds to
Saggitarius, often indicated merely by an arrow,
In the zodiac described by Mr. Hager, we find,
beside the wolf, a marron dog, and Capricorn,
or the Antelope-fish, an arrow, which represents
the river Tygris. This analogy is merely acci-
dental; for the name of the river has nothing in
common with that which the animal, the tiger,
bears in the East.

When we recollect, that the zodiac which
contains a dog, a hare, and an ape, belongs ex-
clusively to Eastern Asia, and that it has pro-
bably passed thence into America, we are sur-
prised to see, that it was known at Rome in the
first ages of our era, the period at which the
planisphere of Bianchini was sculptured. The
astrologers, or Chaldeans, established in Greece
and in Italy, had no doubt communications with
those of Asia ; and these communications must
have become more frequent and extensive, in
proportion as astrology was more in vogue
among the people, and at the court of the Cesars.
Of eight signs, which are recognisable in the
planisphere of Bianchini, there is only one, the

Crab, which does not belong to the Tartar

zodiac. The hare, which is found among the

Thibetans and Mexicans, has the legs somewhat

longer, but is sufficiently characterized by its

place in the Scorpion. I am ignorant why Mr.

Bailly took the dog, or wolf, for a hog, which
/

368

‘animal nevertheless is also in the Tartarian
zodiac: it corresponds to the signs of the Fishes
of the Greek sphere ; and, what is very remark-
able, in the planispheres of the temple of Ten-
tyra, a figure holding a hog in its hand is seen
twice near the same sign*. The monument
described by Bianchini is so much the more in-
teresting, as we recognize in no astronomical
work either Greek or Latin, not even in the
_ Saturnalia of Macrobius, written in the time of
Theodosius, the traces of this cycle of animals,
which the Monguls, and other Tartar hordes,
who ravaged Europe, undoubtedly used in their
chronology: and with which we have become
well acquainted only from our communications
with China and Japan. It seems strange, that
the eloquent historian of the academy, Fonte-
nelle, should not have remembered, that astro-
logical reveries are intimately connected with
the first notions of astronomy; and that they
were of service in throwing light on the ancient
communications of nations with each other.
“ The monument,” says he, “ in which Bian-
-chini sought explanations, belongs to the history
of the folly of mankind, and the academy has
something better to do, than waste its time in
researches of this kind.” | |
In resuming what we have stated respecting

* Denon, Voyage, Pl. 180 and 182.

369

the different divisions of the ecliptic, and the
signs that preside, in both continents, over the
years, the months, the days, and the hours, we
find the following results. Among the nations)...
that have turned their attention to the starry’
vault, the lunar zodiac, divided into twenty-seven
or twenty-eight mansions, is more ancient than
the zodiac in twelve parts, which, from being at
first only a zodiac of full-moons, is become a
solar zodiac. The names of the months are
sometimes chosen among the lunar mansions, as.
with the Hindoos ; at other times they are those
of the’ dodecatemorions, as in the Dionysian—
year. On the banks of the Ganges, they still
say, the months Arrow, House, or Head of the
Antelope; as in the time of Ptolemy-Philadelphus
they said at Alexandria, the months Didymon,
Parthenon, and Aegon, months of the Twins, the.
Virgin, and Capricorn *.- An intimate connex-
ion is observed between the names of the dodeca-
temorions and those of the nacshatras: among
several nations, the latter have passed to the
lunar days. Beside the real division of the
ecliptic, which is a zone of the starry heaven,
there still exists, and especially in Eastern Asia,
divisions of the time, which the Sun employs in
returning nearly to the same stars, or the same
point of the horizon. These cycles, generally

* Ideler, Fist: Untersuchs , 264.
VOL, XTII, BRB

370

composed of twelve or twenty-four parts, accord-
ing to the number of the lunations, or half-luna-
tions, that have elapsed, belong rather to chro-
nology, than to astronomy ; they present only an
ideal division of the ecliptic, of which each part
takes a name and a particular sign. Such are
the Tartarian animals, the tse and the tsieki of
the Chinese. ‘These signs, which measure only
the time, and subdivide the seasons, may be in-
‘vented by nations, who do not fix their attention
on the stars. We may find a real zodiae com-
posed of twelve signs, which preside over the
months’; and, by the contrivance of periodical
series, over years, days, and hours, even in the
lower regions of Peru, where a thick cloud of —
vapors withholds the view of the stars from the
inhabitants, without concealing from them the
disks.of the Sun and Moon. The signs of the
ideal zodiac, the complete revolution of which
(the circle, annulus) forms a year (annus, eviau-
706), are easily transferred to the constellations
themselves: and hence the division of time, be-
comes a division of the sphere. me

We shall not discuss whether the zodiac of
the Hindoos, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and
the Greeks, had not also been originally* a cycle,
the signs of which poimted out the variations of

- Rhode , Versuch ueber das Alter des Thierkreises, 1809,.
s, 1a and 101, |

a
a

371

the climate in a country subject to periodical
inundations. The unequal extent occupied by
the Virgin and the Crab, and the want of Con-
nexion * observed between the figures of the
-dodecatemorion and the extrazodiacal constella-
tions, appear to give some probability to this
supposition. We see in fact, that there are
nations, who employ at the same time several
' divisions of the ecliptic ;/ and that the signs,
which, in one nation, belong to constellations,
are with another nation only divisions of time.
Perhaps there existed formerly some region of
Asia, in which the Tartarian cycle of the celes-
tial animals, which Bailly considers as the oldest
of the zodiacs, while Dupuis + strives to niake it
pass for a table of paranatellons, was a real
division of the stars placed in the ecliptic. In
order to understand clearly the relations, which
from the remotest periods were formed between
the nations of both continents, we should not
Jose sight of the intimate connexion, that exists
between the imaginary and the real zodiac, be-
tween the cycles and the constellations of th¢
ecliptic, between the mansions and the division
of the solar orbit. r
The ‘same ‘considerations on the progressive

* Recherches sur Origine des Constellations de fa
Sphere Grecque, 1807, p. 65.
+ Origines des Cuites, tom. 3, p. 362.
1s pet

372
unfolding of astronomy prevent us from deciding,
whether the hieroglyphics of the days and the -
years of the Tolteck and Azteck calendar, like the
Chinese ¢se and ¢tchi, belong only to an imagi-
nary or fictitious zodiac, or whether they denote’
zodiacal constellations. We have already ob-
served, that the great wheels, which represent
the cycle of fifty-two years, were encircled by a
serpent biting his tail, and with four folds to
mark the four indictions. The hieroglyphics
being arranged in periodical series of four terms,
and the intervals that separate one fold from
another containing twelve years, each knot of
the serpent corresponded to another sign. I think
these four knots, denoted by the asterisms rabbit,
cane, silex, and house, alluded to the points of
the solstices and the equinoxes, or the intersec-
tion of the colures with the ecliptic. The most
ancient division of the zodiac, says Albategni *,
is that into four parts. In fact, in the first year
of the great cycle of the days matlactli tochtli
(10 rabbit) checuet acatl, (8 cane), chicome calli
(7 house), and matlactli tecpaél, (11 flint), an-
swered to the 22d of December, the 22d of
March, the 20th of June, and the 23d of Sep-’
tember. These days are but little distant from
the equinoxes and solstices ; and as the Mexican

* De Scientia Stellarum, cap. 2, (ed. Bonon., 1645,
page 3). | !

373

year Degan in the winter solstice, like the year of
the Chinese, it is natural enough, that, in the
periodical series of the signs of the years, the
first term should be tochtli, though in the series
of the twenty signs of the days toch¢li is preceded
by call.
We also know, from the notions which Si-
_guenza derived from the works of Ixtlilxochitl,
that the four folds of the serpent, and the four
asterisms which belong to them, indicate the
four seasons, the four elements, and the cardinal
points. Earth was dedicated to the rabbit, and
water to the cane; and we have seen, in speak-
ing of the signs of the night, that 'Tepeyollotli,
one of the divinities who dwelt in caverns, and
Cinteotl, the goddess of the harvests, accompany
the diurnal signs rabbit and cane. The sense of
these allegories is too clear to want explanation.
The four signs of the equinoxes and solstices,
chosen in a series of twenty signs, recall to mind
also the four royal stars, Aldebaran, Regulus,
Antares, and Fomalhaut, celebrated throughout
Asia, and presiding over the seasons*. In the
_New Continent, the indications of the cycle of
fifty-two years form, as it were, the four seasons
of the great year; and the Mexican astrologers
were pleased in seeing one of the four equi-

* Firmieus, Lik. 6, ¢. 1.

374

noxial signs presiding over every period of. thir-
teen years.

Though the same signs were used and ar-
ranged in the same order, in every part of the
Mexican empire, some difference was*neverthe-
less observed in the choice of the solstitial and
equinoxial sign placed at the head of the xiwh-
molpilli, or ligature of the years. The inhabit-
ants of Tezcuco began the great year by acatl ;
those of Teotihuacan, by calli; the Toltecks by
tecpatl. It has been doubted, whether, among
the same nations, notwithstanding the difference
we have just indicated, the first day of the year
was constantly the sign cipactli; but the frag-
ments of their historic annals, preserved in the
Boturini Museum, and in the collection of P.
Pichardo, at Mexico, seem to indicate, that the
variety of dates proceeds from the time at which
the intercalation of the thirteen days was made, :
and not from the different manner of marking
the beginning of the cycle.

We are ignorant whether the twenty signs of
the Mexican days are the remains of an ancient
division of the zodiac into twenty-eight lunar
mansions; or whether with the four signs of the
night, the names of which are not found among
those of the days, they anciently formed twenty-
four asterisms, like the ¢steki of the Chinese
zodiac. An equal number of signs had perhaps

375

peen placed between the four equinoxial and
solstitial signs; perhaps the number of twenty
was derived only from a division of the visible
hemisphere into ten parts. It is certain, that
this same division engaged the Mexicans to
divide the year of three hundred and sixty days
into eighteen months; and that it became the
basis of a system, of which we find no vestige in
the Old Continent. I am induced however to
think, that the division into eighteen months of
_ twenty days is posterior to another into twelve
moons of thirty days; for the method of making
a sign of the zodiac preside over each day, and
of determining the number of the months by the
return of the periodical series, must have been
adopted later than the more obvious idea of
dividing the year according to the number of
lunations it contains. Although the divisions of
the ecliptic into twenty-four éstekis *, and into
thirty-six decani, exist in Asia, these divisions
have never led to years of ten or fifteen months :
and, if antiquity speaks of those of four, six, or
twenty-four months, these divisions do not de-
pend on the use of periodical series, like the
eighteen months of the Mexican year, but on’
the importance assigned to the equinoxial and

* Amiot, in les Mémoires concernant les Chinois, vol, 2,
p. 161. Gaubil, Traité de ?Astronomie Chinoise, p, 32,

376
solstitial pomts, to the cycles of sixty days, and
the durations ‘of the half-lunations.

We have already observed, that the Mexican
year, like that of the Egyptians and Persians,
was composed of three hundred and sixty days;
to which were added five epagomena, termed
furtive (musteraka), or useless (nemontemi).
If the Mexicans had been unacquainted with
the excess of the duration of the revolution of
the Sun over three hundred and sixty-five days,
the beginning of their year, like that of the
vague year of the Egyptians, would have passed,
in about one thousand five hundred and eight
years, through every season and every point of
the ecliptic. Four centuries had elapsed after
the reform of the Mexican calendar in 1091, be-
fore the arrival of the Spaniards. The writers
of that time affirm, that at this epocha the ca-
lendar of the Europeans coincided within a few
days with the Azteck calendar: and the accu-
rate calculation of the eclipses of the Sun
marked in the Mexican annals even render it
probable, that the difference observed between
the two calendars proceeded wholly from our
own not having yet undergone the Gregorian
reform. Let us now examine what was the
mode of intercalation, by which the Mexicans
avoided the errors of their chronology. iG

The Mexican year being solar, and not lunar,

377

-itted a far more simple mode of intercala-
tion, than that of the Greeks and Romans before
the introduction of the Merkidinus. If we cast
our eyes upon. the intercalations used among
different nations, we see that some permit the
hours to accumulate till they form a whole day,.
while others neglect the intercalation till the
supplementary hours form a period equal to one .
of the great divisions of their year. The first
-mode of intercalation is that of the Julian year,
the second is that of the ancient Persians, who
added, every one hundred and twenty years, a
whole month of thirty days to a year of twelve
months, and so that the intercalary month ran
through the whole year in 12 x 120 or fourteen
hundred and forty years *. The Mexicans have
evidently followed the system of the Persians ;
they retained the vague year, till the supplemen-
tary hours formed a half lunation, and they in-
tercalated consequently thirteen days in every
ligature, or cycle of fifty-two years. Hence it
followed, as we have already observed, that
each ligature contained —~, or one thousand four
hundred and sixty-one small periods of thirteen
days. The Mexican year began at the commence -
ment of the xiuhmolpilli, on the day which corres-
pends to the 9th of January of the Gregorian
calendar. The fifth, ninth, and thirteenth years |

* Ideler, Hist. Unters., s, 379.

378
of the cycle, the first day of the year was the
8th, the 7th, and the 6th of January ; in every
year of the sign ¢ochtli the Mexicans lost a day ;
and by the effect of this retrogradation, the year
calli of the fourth indiction began the 27th of De-
cember, and finished at the winter solstice, the
21st of December, not reckoning the five useless
or complementary days. Hence it results, that
the last of the nemontemi, called cohuatl, and
considered as the most unlucky day, because it
belonged to no period of thirteen days, fell, at the
end of the cycle, on the 26th of December; and
the thirteen intercalary days brought back the
beginning of the year to the 9th of January. In
order to render what we have just explained more

clear, we shall here add the table of the last _

twenty-five days of the first year of the cycle,

379

_.... METAZLAPOHUALLI.

I he es a
Series of 13 Numbers, Series

and of of
20 Signs of the Day. |9 Signs of the Night.

GREGORIAN

CALENDAR.

=| 7 onalpohuaili.

( 3 Cipactli.
4 Ehcecatl.
5 Calli.

6 Cuetzpalin.
7 Cobuatl..
8 Migquiztli.
9 Mazatl.

10 Tochth.

ll Ath.

12 Itzcuintli.
is Ozomatli.

Tepeyolloth.
Quiahuitl.
Tletl.

’ Tecpatl.
Xochitl.

_Cinteotl.

| Miquizth.

Ati.

| Tlazolteotl

Tepeyollotli.

Quiahuitl.

it et coal axe aed
cowonr ea ow

|
4

bo
= Ss

bo
bo
27th Period of 13 Days.

oon n we WH L ~~

LS)
Qo

iw)
=
—
So

bo
an
—y
—_

DECEMBER, 1091.

i)
lop)
peat
bo

( 1 Malinalli, = | Zveel.
2 Acatl. Tecpatl.
3 Ocelotl. Xochitl.
4 Quauhtli- Cinteotl.
_ 5 Cozcaquauhtli) Miguiztli
6 Ollin, Atl.
7 Tecpatl. -Tiazolteotl.
8 Quiahuitl. Tepeyollotli
9 Xochitl, - Quiahuitl.
10 Cipactli.
11 Ehecatl.
12 Calli.
13 Cuetzpalin

bo
xy
jd
(Se)

Atemoztli of the Year 2 Acatl. —

eo
= ©

28th Period of 13 Days.
a§ :

on fo OW PP Ww NY eS

Nemoniemi.

|
:
14
29 | 15
|
|
|
¢
|
{
|
(

i [ 1 Cohuatl,

I Cipactli, Tied,

2 Ehecatl. Tecpatl,

3 Calli. Xochitl.

4 Cueztpalin. | Cinteotl.

5 Cohuatl. Miquiztli,
6 Miquiztl, | Ad.

7 Mazatl. Tlazolteotl.

JaNuARY, 1092.

Pre _sY

TITITL
of the Year 3 Tecpatl.

Ist Period of 13 Days.

380
_ The intercalation of thirteen days was cele-
brated by a great secular festival, called xiuh-
molpia, or toxiuhmolpilia (ligature of our years),
and described by all the historians of the. con-
quest*. The Mexicans believed, according to
a very ancient prediction, that the end of the
world would take place at the termination of a
f cycle of fifty-two years; that the sun would no
more appear on the horizon; and that mankind
would be devoured by evil genii of hideous ap-
pearance, known under the name of Tzifzi-
mimes. This belief was no doubt connected
with the Tolteck tradition of the four ages, ac-
cording to which the Earth had already under-
gone four great revolutions, three of which had
taken place at the end of a cycle. The people
passed in the deepest consternation the five com-
plementary days, which preceded the xiuhmol-
pia: on the fifth day, the sacred fire was extin-
guished in the temples by order of the teoteuctli,
or high priest; in the convents, the number of
which was as considerable at Tenochtitlan, as it
has been from the remotest periods in Thibet
and J apan, the monks, or tlamacazquis, devoted
themselves to prayer: at the approach of the
night, no person dared light the fire in his house ; —

* Torquemada, de una Fiesta grandissima, lib. 10, c. 33

—36; tom. 2, page 312 et 321. Acosta, lib. 6, c. 2,

p. 209.

Sel

the vessels of clay were broken, garments tort,
and whatever was most precious was destroyed,
because every thing appeared useless at the tre-
mendous moment of the last day. - Amidst this
frantic superstition, pregnant women became the
objects of peculiar horror to the men ; their faces
were hidden with masks, made with paper of the
agave; they were even imprisoned in the store- -
houses of maize; from a persuasion, that, if the
cataclysm took place, the women, transformed
into tigers, would make common cause with the
evil genii (tzitzimimes), to avenge themselves of
the injustice of the men. |

In the evening of the last day of the nemon-
temi, which is presided by the sign of the
serpent, began the festival of the new fire. The
priests took the dresses of their gods; and, fol-
lowed by an immense crowd of people, went in
solemn procession to the mountain of Huixach-
tecatl *, two leagues from Mexico, between
Iztapallapan and Culhuacan. This lugubrious
march was called the march of the gods, teone-
nemi; a denomination which reminded the
Mexicans, that the gods had quitted their city,
and that perhaps they would see them no more.
When the procession had reached the summit of
the porphyritic mountain of Huixachtecatl, it
waited the moment when the Pleiades ascended

/

* Vixachtla, from Gomara, Conquista, fol, 133 (a).

382

the middle of the sky, to begin the horrible
sacrifice of which we have spoken*, in the
description of plate 15th, No. 8. The corpse of
the victim remained stretched on the ground,
and the instrumeut made use of to kindle the
fire by rubbing (ae of the Greeks, ¢letlaxoni
of the Mexicans) was placed on the wound,
which the priest of Copulco, armed with a knife
of obsidian, had made in the breast of the pri-
soner destined to be sacrificed. When the bits
of wood (la harina del palillo), detached by the
rapid friction of the cylinder, had taken fire, an
enormous pile, previously prepared to receive
the body of the unfortunate victim, was kindled.
The flames of the pile were seen from a great
part of the valley of Mexico, on account of the ©
height of the mountain on which this sanguinary
rite was performed ; and the people filled the air
with joyful exclamations. All those who were
unable to follow the procession were stationed on
the terraces of houses, or the tops of the teocallis,
or the hills that arose in the middle of the lake ;
their eyes were fixed on the spot where the flame
was to appear, a certain presage of the benevo-
lence of the gods, and of the preservation of
mankind during the course of a new cycle.
Messengers posted at respective distances, hold-
ing branches of the wood of a very resinous pine,

* Page 225,

383

carried the new fire from village to village, to
the distance of fifteen or twenty-leagues ; it was
deposited in every temple, whence it was distri-
buted to every private dwelling. When the
_Sun began to appear on the horizon, the accla-
mations redoubled. The procession went back’
from the mountain of Iztapalapan, to the city ;
and the people thought that they beheld their
gods return to their sanctuaries. The women
_ were then released from prison ; every one put
on new dresses, and the thirteen intercalary days
were employed in cleansing the temples, in
whitening the walls, in renewing their house-
hold furniture, their plate, and whatever else was
necessary for domestic use. :

This secular festival, this apprehension of see-
ing the fifth sun extinguished at the epoch of the
winter solstice, seems to present a new instance
of analogy between the Mexicans and the in-
habitants of Egypt. Achilles Tatius*, in his
commentary on Aratus, has preserved the follow-
ing account, which Scaliger thinks is borrowed
from the Octaeterides of Eudoxus. “ When the
Egyptians saw the Sun descend from the Crab

* Achil, Tat., Isag. in Phznom., c. 23, (Petavius de
Doctr, Temp., 1703, tom. 3, p. 85). -Scalig., Adnot. ad
Manil. Astron., lib. 1, v. 69, p- 85. Sce also the French
translation of the Letters of Count Carli, tom. 1, page 398,
note 1,

384

towards Capricorn, and the days gradually di-
minish, they were accustomed to sorrow from
the apprehension, that the Sun was to abandon
them entirely. This epocha coincided with the
festival of Isis: but when the orb began to re-
appear, and the duration of the days grew longer,
they robed themselves in white garments, and
crowned themselves with flowers (Acuxepovyouvres
eateQuvyQsgysay).” On reading this passage of
Achilles Tatius, we think we peruse what
Gomara and Torquemada relate respecting the
festival of the Mexican jubilee. In the same
manner *, in the work of Sextus Empiricus +
against the astrologers, we find as it were the
description of the symbolical figure , which we’
have engraved in plate 15th, from the manu-
script preserved at Veletri. In every nation on
Earth superstitious ideas assume the same form
at the rise and fall of civilization; and it is on
account of this analogy, that it is difficult to dis-
tinguish what has. been. communicated from
country to country, and what man has drawn
from an interior source. | 4

’

* Dupuis, Mem. explicatif du Zodiaque, 1806, page 145.

+ Sext. Empir. contra Mathem., lib. 5, (ed. Stephan.,
tom. 3, p. 187), Firmicus, lib. 2, c. 27, (ed. Ald. Manut.
1503, fol. 105). Origen. contra Celsum, lib. 8, c. 55, (ed. .
Delarne, 1733 tom.) 1, page 783. ,

See above, page 206, Pl, 15.

385°

P. Torquemada, speaking of the secular festi-
val, marks the moment of the sacrifice apparent-
ly in a very exact manner, but which contains a
real contradiction. “ When the procession *,”
says he, “ reached the foot of the mountain of
‘“« Huixachtecatl, the priests waited till mid-
“ night, which they knew by the position of the
© Pleiades, which at this hour had attained the
“ mid-sky, (estavan encumbradas en medio del
© cielo): for the time of the jubilee or secular
“¢ festival was arrived, when these stars rose at
“the beginning of the night; which for the
““ horizon of Mexico is generally in the month
“of December.” ‘The expression, “ when the
“ Pleiades had attained the mid-sky,” means
without doubt the passage of the stars across the
meridian, or what is nearly the same thing for
the calendar of Mexico, their passage through —
the zenith. Now the last secular festival was
celebrated in the sixth year of the reign of
Montezuma; and at that epoch, the culmination
of the Pleiades took place at midnight, if we
take into account the procession of the equinoxes,
not in the month of December, but on the 8th of
November. On the 26th of December, this con-
stellation rose 3° 23’ before sunset, and its pas-
sage across the meridian was at 85 33° in the

* Torgeumada, Tom. 3, p, $13, b. et 321 a. |

VOL. XIII. €e€

386

evening. ‘These circumstances are naturally the ©
same for every part of the Earth, where we may
suppose the Mexican calendar to have been
formed ; and if we go back to the first sacrifices
celebrated at Tlalixco in 1091, or to the migra-
tions of the Toltecks in the sixth century of our
era, we find, that, toward the winter solstice,
from the effect of the precession of the equinoxes, .
the culmination of the Pleiades draws nearer sun-
‘set. Itis probable, that the expression, ‘‘ at the
moment of midnight,” and “ mid-sky,” ought
not to be taken in the literal sense. ‘Torquemada.
speaks generally in so confused a manner of the
system of the chronology of the Mexicans, that.
it may be supposed he had misconeeived all that.
the Indians told him respecting their astronomi-
cal phenomena. After having formally stated,
that the cycle, and consequently the year, finish-
ed in the month of December, he admits, that
the first day of the year is the 1st of February ;
and he adds, that at the winter solstice the Sun
attains at Mexico the most elevated point of its
course. Torquemada has collected with the
mostscrupulous exactness, names, traditions, and
isolated facts ; but, utterly devoid of judgment,
he contradicts himself whenever he endeavours
to combine facts, or judge of their mutual rela-
tions. As the Mexicans were not acquainted
with the use of clepsydras, which are of very

a

high antiquity* in Chaldea and China, they
could not exactly mark the moment of midnight.
Besides, the cosmical setting of the Pleiades was
also considered, throughout the whole of Asia, as
an indication of the beginning of winter. We
should look in vain for Tigorous exactness in po-
pular traditions, which perhaps took rise in
much more northerly regions, where the cold is
felt a month before the solstice.

What we have just said relative to the con-
stellation of the Pleiades is also sufficient, to
prove how far mistaken are some authors, who —
seem uncertain whether the year began toward
the vernal equinox, or toward the winter solstice.
The farther we remove from the 5th of Novem-
ber, the day of the achronical rising of the
Pleiades, the less possible would it be, that at_
midnight, when this secular sacrifice was cele-
brated, the Mexicans should have seen this con-
stellation near the zenith t. Nevertheless, Tor-_

quemada, Leon, and Betancourt, believed, that —

the year began the Ist or 2d of February; Acosta
and Clavigero, the 26th of the same month;
Valades and Alva Ixtlilxochitl, the Ist and 20th —
of March; Gemelli and Veytia, the 10th of

* Sext. Empir. pag. ‘Stephany 113. Lettre du pere Du
Croz, in Souciet, Observat., Tom. 1, p. 345,
+ Bailly, Astr. mod., p. 477.
~ Gama, § 35, p. 52, note.
cce2

388

April. In the sixteenth century, the culmina-
tion of the Pleiades took place on the day of the
vernal equinox 3° 8’ before the setting of the
Sun. Itis true, that, according to an ancient

__ tradition *, the disappearance of this constella-

tion at sunrise denoted formerly the day. of the

autumnal equinox, which supposes an observa-

tion made three thousand years before our era ;
but we cannot admit, that the Mexicans had re-
ceived their chronology from a people, who be-
gan their year at the entrance of autumn. The
concordance of dates, several astronomical phe-
nomena, the evidence of the Spanish authors
who accumulated materials without knowing the
true system of the calendar, all are in favour of
the system of Gama. I shall content myself with
citing a single proof. The Indian historiogra-
pher Christoval del Castillo, in a manuscript

work}, written in the Mexican language, and
preserved at. Mexico, asserts, that the five com-

plementary days were added to the end of the
month Atemoztli; which corresponds, according
to the unanimous testimony of the Indian and

Spanish authors, to our month of December. |

Torquemada says besides, that the third festival
of the god of water was celebrated at the winter

* Plin. Hist. Nat., Lib. 18, c, 25, (ed. Harduin, 1741.)
Tom. 2, p. 129.

+ MSS., cap. 71.

7

;

389

solstice, which took place towards the end of
Atemoztli; and that the cycle finished in the
month of December. All these circumstances
agree in placing the intercalary days a short time
after the winter solstice. The fear of seeing the
star of day extinguished or disappear, the ideas
of sorrow and of joy expressed at the secular fes-
tival, refer rather to the period of the shortening
of the sali than to that of the ie sani It is
inns the pontiff took the new fire from the altar
of Vesta; and that the Persians celebrated the
great festivals of the Neurouz ; but the motives*
of these festivals were different from those, that
guided the Mexicans and the Egyptians in the
solstitial festivals, and those in honor of Isis.

I have explained the system of the intercala-
tion, such as it is seen in the Mexican manu-

scripts, such as it has been adopted by Siguenza, _
Clavigero, Carli, and long before them by

Boulanger and Freret. According to this sys-
tem, the length of the year is supposed to be
365°25 days; whence it results, that, from the
reform of the calendar in 1091, to the arrival of
the Spaniards, the Mexicans must have found
themselves in an error of more than three days.
Now the researches which Gama made on the

* Dupuis, Origine des Cultes, tom. 1, p. 156; tom. 2,
P.2,p.96. 7 7 |

890.

eclipses of the Sun on the 23d of February, 1477,.
and the 7th of June, 1481, which are indicated
in the hieroglyphical annals; on several me-
morable periods of the conquest; and on the
days, when, according to the Mexican records,
the Sun passes the zenith of Tenochtitlan; seem
to prove, that this error of three days did not
take place; and that at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, as we have before observed,
the dates of the Azteck calendar were more ac-
cordant with the days of the solstices and equi-
noxes, than those of the Spanish calendar.
Without knowing the exact length of the year,
the Mexicans would have been enabled from
time to time to rectify their calendar, as they
learned from gnomonic observations, that, in
the first year of the cycle, the equinoxes of spring
and autumn were some days distant from 7 ma-
linalli, and from 9 cozcaquauhtli. The Peruvi-

» ans of Cuzco, whose year was lunar, regulated

their intercalation, not by the shadow of gno-
mons, which they however very assiduously mea-
sured, but by marks placed in the horizon, to

denote where the Sun rose and set on the days

ofthe solstices and equinoxes. A periodical and
exact intercalation, such as that which has been
known by the Persians since the eleventh cen-
tury, is no doubt preferable to those sudden

changes, which are denoted by the title of re-

forms of the calendar ; but a nation, which for

391

ages should employ a very imperfect mode of
intercalation, might nevertheless maintain har-
mony between its calendar, and that of the most
civilized people, if, led by direct observation of

the heavenly bodies, it changed at times the begin -
ning of its year. The Mexican history, in its
annals, offers no trace of such sudden changes,
or extraordinary intercalations. Since the ce-

lebrated epoch of the sacrifice of Tlalixco, the.

- ealendar had undergone no reform, the interca-
lation was uniformly made at the end of each
cycle; and to explain how four cent st
‘not been sufficient to produce a perceptible er
in the chronology, Mr. Gama admits, that the
Mexicans intercalated only twenty-five days
_every cycle of a hundred and four years, cehue-
huetiliztl, or twelve days and a half at the end
of each cycle of fifty-two years, which fixes the
duration of the year to 365:24 days. He thinks
himself enabled to gonclude from the statement
even of the historians of the sixteenth century,
that the secular festival was celebrated day and
night alternately ; and that, if the years of a
cycle began all at midnight, those of another be-
gan all at noon. Unable to examine the works
written in the Mexican language, I cannot de-
cide on the contr ary of Mr. Gama’s opinions.
The reasons which he alleges in his dissertation —
on the monuments discovered in 1790, appear to
me less conclusive, since I have been enabled to

392

examiné more thoroughly the Mexican calendar.
When his heirs shall have obtained the means of |
publishing his treatise on the Tolteck and Azteck
chronology, it will be more easy to judge of the
real number of the intercalary days. Gama’s
astronomical labours, the exactness of which we |
have had an opportunity of verifying, ought to
inspire great confidence ; and it is probable, that
a scientific person, who has had the patience to
calculate for the parallel of the ancient Teno-
chia, according to the tables of Mayer, a
atmumber of eclipses of the Sun, connected »
ith historical epochas, would not have lightly
hazarded a new hypothesis, had he not been led
to it by a careful comparison of dates, and by the
study of hieroglyphical paintings. | :
“‘ The intercalation of twenty-five days in a |
hundred and four years,” says Mr. La Place *;
- “ supposes a more exact duration of the tropical
years than that of Byars and, what is very
remarkable, almost equal to the year of the as-_
tronomers of Almamon. When we consider the
difficulty of attaining so exact a determination,
we are led to believe, that it is not the work of
the Mexicans, and that it has reached them from
the Old Continent; but from what people, and.
by what means, was it received ? Why, if it was.
transmitted to them from the north of Asia, is
* Expo. du Syst8me du Monde, 3d ed., tom. 2, p. 818.

2

393

their division of time’ so diflerent from those,
which have been used in that part of the world ?”
In our present state of knowledge, we must not
flatter ourselves, that we can solve these ques- |
tions ; but even not admitting the intercalation
of twelve days and a half in a cycle, and not
granting to the Mexicans the knowledge of the
ancient Persian year of 365°25 days, we shall
find in the hieroglyphics of the days, and in the

- employment of the periodical series, irrefragable

testimony of an ancient communication with
eastern Asia. :
Though the Mexican cycle began by the year
of the rabbit, fochéli, as the Tartar cycle begins
by the year of the rat, singueri, the intercalation
took place only in the year ome acatl. This very
circumstance induced the Mexicans, to denote in
their paintings a xiuhmolpilli, or cycle of fifty-
two years, by a bundle of canes. The Mexicans
had. migrated from Aztlan in the year 1064, or
1 ¢tecpatl ; their migr ations lasted twenty-three
years, till 1087, or 2 acat/, when they arrived at
Tlalixco. Now, though the reform of the ca-
lendar took place in 1090, or the year 1 tochdli,
the festival of the new fire was nevertheless ce-
Jebrated only in the following year 2 acatl ; be-
cause, says the Indian historian, Tezozomoc,

- “ the tutelary god of the nation, Huitzilopochtli,

had made his first 5 cede the day 1 tecpatl
of the year 2 acatl.”

394

Some -writers have suspected, that the Mexi
cans, before the reform of the calendar of Tla-
lixco, had intercalated a day every four years.
A festival of the god of fire (Xiuhteuctli), cele-
brated with more solemnity in the year which
bore the symbol fochtli, seems to have given rise.
to this opinion. Count Carli, whose American
Letters exhibit a singular mixture of just obser-
vations, of ingenious ideas, of mere sportive no-
tions, and of things incompatible with the princi-
ples of sound philosophy, and the true system of
the motions of the heavenly bodies, imagines, that ©
he has discovered, in the festivals of nine days,
celebrated every four years, the remains of a
lunar intercalation. He supposes, that the Mex-.
ican priests computed in a year twelve lunations
of twenty-nine days, eight hours; and that to
bring back, every four years, these years of three
hundred and fifty-two days to real lunar years, —
they added nine days. ‘This supposition is al-
most as vague as that of the same writer, when
he attributes to the celestial bodies the mistake
of the ancient calendars, in admitting that, some
thousands of years before our era, the Earth
finished its revolution round the Sun in three
hundred and sixty days*, and that a lunar
month was only twenty-seven days and a half.

* Lettres Americaines, tom, 2, p. 153, 161, 167, 333, and
371. A ts ne

~ As a periodical series of four terms was em-
ployed to distinguish the years contained in a
cycle, the Mexicans were very naturally led to
- quadrennial festivals. Such was the solemn fast
of one hundred and sixty days, celebrated at the
spring equinox, in the petty republics of Tlas-
calla, Cholula, and Huetxocingo ; and the hor-
rible sacrifice, which took place every four years
at Quauhbtlan, in the month of itzcalli, when the
penitents scarified their bodies, letting the blood
run along reeds thrust into their wounds*, and
hanging up these reeds in the temple, as public
marks of their devotion. These festivals, which
remind us of the acts of penitence at Thibet.and
in the Indies, were repeated each time that the
same sign presided over the year.

On opening, at Rome, the Codex Borgianus
of Veletri, I there found the curious passage,
from which the Jesuit Fabrega concluded, that
the Mexicans had knowledge of the real dura-
tion of the tropical year. Twenty cycles of fifty-
two years, or one thousand and forty years, are
there indicated in four pages: at the end of this —
great period, we see the sign rabbit, tochtli, im-
mediately, precede, among the hieroglyphics of
the days, the bird, cozquauhtli ; so that seven
* Gomara, p,131. Torquemada, tom. 2, he ae Ce

melli, tom. 6, p. 75.
+ Cod, Borg. fol, 48-63. Fabrega, MSS, fol. k, P- a

396

days are suppressed, those of water, the dog, the
ape, grass (malinalli), the cane, the tiger, and the
eagle. P. Fabrega supposes, in his manuscript
commentary, that this omission refers to a pe-
riodical reform of the Julian intercalation, be-
cause a subtraction of seven days, at the end of
a cycle of one thousand and forty years, reduces,
by an ingenious method, a year of 365°25 days
to a year of 365:243 days, which is only 1’ 26”,
or 0°001 of a day, greater than the real mean
year, aS it is laid down in the tables of Mr.
Delambre. After the examination of a great
number of hieroglyphic paintings of the Mexi-
cans, and having seen the extreme care with
which they are executed in the minutest details,
we cannot admit, that the omission of seven
terms in a periodical series is owing to mere
chance. Fabrega’s observation without doubt
deserves notice here; not that it is probable,
that a nation should in reality employ a reform
of the calendar only after long periods of a thou-
sand and forty years; but because the manu-
script of Veletri seems to prove, that its author
was acquainted with the real duration of the
years. If at Mexico, on the arrival of the
Spaniards, an intercalation of twenty-five days
in one hundred and four years existed, it is to be
supposed, that this more perfect intercalation
was preceded by an intercalation of thirteen days
in fifty-two years. Now the remembrance of

397

this ancient method would have been preserved ,

~ and it is possible, that the Mexican priest, who

composed the ritual in the Borgian Museum,

meant to indicate in his book a contrivance of
calculation adapted to rectify the ancient calen-

dar, by retrenching seven days from a great

period of twenty cycles. We shall be able to

judge of the propriety of this. opinion, only when

a greater number of Mexican paintings shall

have been consulted in Europe and in America ;

for I cannot too often repeat, that all that we
have hitherto learnt respecting the ancient state
of the natives of the New Continent is nothing,
in comparison with the light which will be one
day thrown on this subject, if we succeed in
bringing together the materials now scattered
over both worlds, that have survived the ages of
ignorance and barbarism.

The valuable monument represented i in plate :
23d, which had been already engraved at Mexi-
co twenty years ago, confirms a part of the ideas
we have just unfolded respecting the Mexican
calendar. This immense stone was found in the
month of December, 1790, in the foundations of
the great temple of Mexitli, in the great square
of Mexico, nearly seventy metres to the west of
the second gate of the Viceroy’s palace, and
thirty metres north of the flower market, called
Portal de las flores, at the small depth of five
decimetres. It was so placed, that the sculp-

398

tured part could be seen only by putting it in a
vertical position. When Cortez destroyed the
temples, he broke the idols, and every thing that
belonged to the ancient rites. Those masses of
stone, which were too large to be destroyed, were
buried, in order to conceal them from the eyes of -
a vanquished people. Though the circle, which
contains the hieroglyphics of the days, is only
three metres four decimetres in diameter, we
found, that the whole stone formed a rectangled
parallelopipedon of four metres length, as many
metres broad, and one metre thick.

The nature of this stone is not calcareous, as
Mr. Gama asserts; it is a blackish gray trap-
pean porphyry, with basis of basaltic wakke.
On carefully examining some detached frag-
ments, I perceived hornblende, several very
slender crystals of vitreous feldspar, and, what is
very remarkable, sprinklings of mica, This
rock, cracked and full of small cavities, is desti-
tute of quartz, like almost all rocks of trappean
formation. As its actual weight is more than
twenty-four tuns, and no mountain within eight
or ten leagues of the city could furnish a por-
phyry of this grain and color, we may easily ima-
gine the difficulties, which the Mexicans must
have found in transporting so enormous a mass
to the foot of the Teocalli. Thesculpture in re-
lievo is as well polished as any other to be found
in Mexican works ; the concentric circles, the

399

numerous divisions and subdivisions, are traced
with mathematical precision ; the more minutely
the detail of this sculpture is examined, the
greater taste we find in the repetition of the same
forms, that attention to order and feeling of sym-
metry, which among half civilized nations is a
substitute for the feeling of the beautiful.

In the centre of the stone is sculptured the
celebrated sign nahui ollin Tonatiuh (the Sun in
his four motions), of which we have already
spoken. ‘he Sun is surrounded by eight tri-
- angular radii; which are also found in the ritual
calendar tonalamatl, in historical paintings, and
wherever there is a representation of the Sun,
Tonatiuh*. The number eight alludes to the
division of the day and the night into eight parts}.
The god Tonatiuh is figured opening his large
mouth, armed with teeth; this yawning mouth,
and protruded tongue, remind us of the figure of
a divinity of Hindostan, the image of Kala, Time.
According to a passage of the Bhagvat-Gheeta,
Cala “swallows the worlds, opening a fiery
mouth, exhibiting a row of dreadful teeth, and
protruding an enormous tongue.” Tonatiuh,
placed among the signs of the days, measuring —

a |

* Pl], 15, n. 4, (Cod, Borg. Veleir., fol. 49).

+ See p. 282.

t Wilkins’s Translation. Sce also the Hindu Pantheon,
art. Kala. ;

y

~ 400

the year by the four movements of the solstices
and the equinoxes, is in fact the real symbol of —
time ; it is Krishna assuming the form of Kala,
it is Chronos devouring his children, whom we
imagine we find under the name of Moloch
among the Pheenicians.

The inner circle contains the twenty signs of
the days; recollecting that cipactli is the first,
and xochitl the last of these asterisms, we here,
as elsewhere, perceive, that the Mexicans ar- -
ranged the hieroglyphics from right to left. The
heads of the animals are placed in an opposite
direction, no doubt because the animal, which
turns his back to another, is supposed to pre-
cede it. Mr. Zoega observed this peculiarity
among the Egyptians*. The death’s head, mi-
quizth, placed near the serpent, and accompany- |
ing it as a sign of the night in the third periodi-
cal series, is an exception to the general rule ;
this alone is directed toward the last sign, while
the animals have their faces turned toward the
first. This arrangement is not the same in the
manuscripts at Veletri,, Rome, and Vienna.

It is probable, that the sculptured stone,

which Mr. Gama has endeavoured to explain,.
was anciently placed in the enclosure of the teo,
calli, in a sacellum dedicated to the sign ollin

* Zoega, de Obel., p. 464 ; where, by an error of the press,
the words dextrorsum and sinistrorsum are..confounded with

each other.

401

Tonatiuh. We know by a fragment of Her,
nandez, preserved by the Jesuit Nieremberg
in the eighth book of his Natural History,
that the great teocalli contained within its walls
‘six times thirteen or seventy-eight chapels, se-
veral of which were dedicated to the Sun, the
Moon, the planet Venus, called Icuzcatitlan or
Llazolteotl, and to the signs of the zodiac*.
The Moon, considered by all nations as the
planet that attracts humidity, had asmall temple
(teccizcalli) built in shell work. The great
festivals of the Sun (Tonatiuh) were celebrated
at the winter solstice, and in the sixteenth period
of thirteen days, over which presided both the
sign nahui ollin Tonatiuh, and the milky way,
known under the name of Citlalinycue, or Citlal-
cueye. During one of these festivals of the Sun,
the kings were wont to withdraw into an edifice,
built in the midst of the enclosure of the teocalli,
and called Hueyquauhxicalco. They passed
four days in fasting and penitence ; a bloody
sacrifice was afterward offered in honor of the
eclipses (Metonatiuhqualo, the unfortunate Sun
devoured). In this’ sacrifice one of two masked
victims represented the Sun, Tonatiuh, the

ale, ‘«
ho

'* Eusebu Nierembergii Hist. Nat., lib. 8, cap. 22, (Ant-
werpie, 1635, page 142—156). Templi partes, 3, 8, 9, 20,
25, ba

VOL, XIII. DD

402

other, the Moon, Meztli, as emblems to show,
that the Moon is the real cause of the Pola of
the Sun. sy

- Beside the cosieiiins of the Mexican seit |
and the figures of the sign nahui ollin, the stone
gives also the dates of ten great festivals, which
were celebrated from the spring to the autumnal
equinox. As several of these festivals were
correspondent with celestial phenomena, as the
Mexican year is vague during the space of a
cycle, and as the intercalation takes place only
every fifty-two years, the same dates do not de-
note four years successively the same days. The
winter solstice, which, the first year of the cycle,
took place on the day 10 tochéli, retrograded
two signs eight years later, and fell on the day
8 miquiztl. Hence it follows, that, in order
to indicate the dates by the signs of the days, ©
we must add the year of the cycle with which
these dates correspond. In fact the sign 13_
canes, or matlactly omey acatl, placed above the
figure of the Sun, toward the upper edge of the
stone, shows, that this monument contains the
fasti of the twenty-sixth year of the cycle,
from the’month of March to the month of cbt
tember.

In order to give a clearer view of the signs,
which indicate the festivals of the Mexican re-
ligion, ¥ must again observe, that the rounds

403

placed near the hieroglyphics of the days are
terms of the first of the three periodical series,
of which we have already explained the use.
Reckoning from right to left, and beginning at
the right of the triangle resting on the forchead
of the god, Ollin Tonatiuh, with the point to-
_ ward cipactli, we find the eight following hiero-
glyphics: 4 tiger ; 1 silex; tletl, fire, without
. marking the number; 4 wind; 4 rain ; 4 ram;
2 ape ; and 4 water. We now come to the ex-
planation of the Mexican festivals, according to
the calendar of Mr. Gama, and the order of the
festivals indicated in the works of the historians
of the sixteenth century.

In the year 13 acatl, which is the last year of
the second indiction of the cycle, the beginning
of the year retrograded six days and a half, be-
cause the intercalation had not taken place for
twenty-six years. The first day of the month
tititl, which bears the sign, | cipactli tletl, conse-
quently corresponds not to the 9th but the 3d of
January ; and the sign, which presides over the
seventh period of thirteen days, 1 guiahuitl, or
1 rain, coincides with the 22d of March, or
with the vernal equinox. It is at this period,
that the festivals of T/aloc, or the god of water,
were celebrated; which indeed had already be-
gun ten days before the equinox, on the day
4 atl, or 4 water ; without doubt, because on the _
12th of March, or the 3d of the month Tlacazi- +

404

pehualiztli, the hieroglyphic of water, aél, was
the sign* both of the day and of the night.
' Three days after the vernal equinox, the day
4 ehecatl, or 4 wind, began a solemn fast of forty
days, in honour of the Sun. This fast’ finished
on the 30th of April, which corresponds to 1
fecpatl, or 1 flint. As the sign of this day is
accompanied by the Lord of the Night ¢led, fire,
we find the hieroglyphic #fletl, placed near the
1 tecpatl, on the left of the triangle, the point of
which is directed toward the beginning of the
zodiac. At the right of the sign 1 tecpatl is
4 ocelotl, or 4 tiger, this day is remarkable from
the passage of the Sun through the zenith of the
city of Mexico. The whole of the small period
of thirteen days, in which this passage takes |
place, and which is the eleventh of the ritual
year, was dedicated to the Sun. | The sign
2 ozomatli, or 2 ape, corresponds to the epocha
of the summer solstice, it is placed immediately
near 1 quiahuitl, or 1 rain, the day of the equi-
nox. seems BR rb, i

‘We might be puzzled to explain 4 quiahwitl,.
or 4 rain. In. the first year of the cycle, this
day corresponded exactly to the second passage
of the Sun through the zenith of the city of
Mexico; but in the year 13 acaitl, the fasti of
which are found in this monument, the day 4

* Nabui atl, atl, atl; see above, p. 316.

405 |

rain preceded this passage six days. As the
whole period of thirteen days, in which the Sun
reaches the zenith, is dedicated to the sign ollin
Tonatiuh, and the milky way, citlalcueye ; and
as the day 4 rain constantly belongs to this same
period ; it. seems probable, that the Mexicans
indicated this last day in preference, in order that
the figure of the Sun should be surrounded by
four signs, which had all the same number four ;
and particularly to form an allusion to the four
destructions of the Sun, which tradition places
in the days 4 tiger, 4 wind, 4 water, and 4 rain.
The five small rounds, which are found on the
left of the day 2 ape, immediately above the
sign malinalli, seem to allude to the festival of
the god Macuil-Malinalli, who had. particular
altars; this festival was celebrated about the
12th of September, called Macuili Malinalli.
The point. of the triangle, which separates the
sign of the day, 1 silex, from the sign of the
night, ¢/et/, or fire, is directed towards the first of
the twenty asterisms of the signs of the zodiac,
because, in the year 13 canes, the day } cipactli
corresponds to the day of the autumnal equinox:
about this time was celebrated a festival of ten
days, the most solemn of which was the day 10
Ollin, ov 10 Sun, which corresponds to our 16th
of September. It is believed at Mexico, that
the two compartments placed under the tongue

‘

406

of the god Ollin Tonatiuh present twice the
number five; but this explanation appears to
me as doubtful, as that which has been at-
tempted to be given of the forty compartments
surrounding the zodiac, and of the numbers 6;
10, and 18, which are repeated toward the edge
of the stone. We shall not examine whether
the holes made in this enormous stone were
made, as Mr. Gama thought, to place wires to
serve as gnomons. What is more certain, and
highly important to Mexican chronology, §is,
that this monument proves, in opposition to the
opinion of Gemelli and Boturini, that the first
day, whatever be the sign of the year, is con-_
stantly presided by cipactli, a sign which corres-
ponds to the capricorn of the Greek sphere.
We may suppose, that near this stone another
was placed, which contained the fasti from the —
autumnal equinox to that of the spring. |

We have now collected under the same point
of view all that is hitherto known of the division
of time among the Mexican nations, carefully
distinguishing what is certain from what is
merely probable. We see from what has been
explained ‘respecting the form of the year, how
‘imaginary are those hypotheses, by which some-
times the lunar years, sometimes years of two
hundred and eighty-six days divided into twenty-
two months, have been attributed to the Tol-

407

tecks and the Aztecks*. The knowledge of
the system of the calendar followed by the most
northerly nations of America and Asia would
be highly interesting. Among the inhabitants
of Nootka, we still find the Mexican months of
twenty days; but their year has only fourteen
months, to which they add, by very complex
methods, a great number of intercalary days f.
When a nation does not regulate the subdivi-
‘sions of the year after the same lunations, the
number of months becomes very arbitrary, and
its choice seems to depend only on a particular
predilection for certain numbers. The Mexican
nations preferred the double decads, because
they had ‘simple signs only for the units, for
twenty, and for the powers of twenty. id
‘The use of periodical series, and the hierogily-
phies of the day, have exhibited striking analo-
gies between ‘the nations of Asia and ‘those of
America. ‘Some of these examples have not
_ escaped the penetration of Mr. Dupuis t, though
he has confounded the signs of the months with
those of the days, and had but:a very imperfect
knowledge of the Mexican chronology. — It
would be contrary te the end we have proposed

* Waddilove, m Robertson’s Hist. of America, vol. 3,
p. 404, note 35. |

+t Don Joze Mozinno, Viage a Noutka, M.S. (See my
Essai Politique, vol, i. p. 335), :

+ Memoire explicatif sur le Zodiaque, p. 99,

408

to ourselves in this work, to dwell on theories
respecting the ancient civilization of the inha-
bitants of the north, and of the centre of Asia.
Thibet and Mexico offer analogies sufficiently
remarkable in their ecclesiastical hierarchy, in
the number of religious assemblies, in the severe
austerity of their penitentiary rites, and in the
order of their processions. It is impossible not
to be struck with this resemblance, in reading
with attention the recital, which Cortez made
the Emperor Charles V, of his solemn entrance
into Cholula, which he calls the Bis pee of the
Mexicans.

A people who regulated its festivals accord-
ing to the motion of the stars, and who engraved
‘its fasti on a public monument, had no doubt
reached a degree of civilization superior to that .
which has been allowed by Pauw, Raynal, and
even Robertson, the most judicious of the histo-
rians of America. These writers consider every
state of society as barbarous, that did not bear
the type of civilization, which they, according to
their systematic ideas, had formed. We cannot
admit these abrupt distinctions into barbarous
and civilized nations. After having examined
in this work with scrupulous impartiality what-
ever we ourselves have been able to discover
respecting the ancient state of the nations of the
New Continent, we have endeavoured to com-
bine the features by which they are immediately

409

characterized, and those by which they seem to
be connected with different groups. of Asiatics.
‘The state of nations and of individuals is the
ame: as, in the latter, the whole faculties of
the mind unfold themselves but gradually, so, in
the former, the progress of civilization does not
manifest itself at once in the melioration of
public and private manners, ina taste for the
arts, and in the form of general institutions.

Before we class nations, we should study them
according to their specific characters, since ex-
ternal circumstances may give an infinite variety
to the shades of civilization, which distinguish
tribes of a different race; especially when, fixed
in regions far remote from each other, they have
‘long lived under the influence of governments °

and religious rites hostile to the progress of the

mind, and to the preservation of individual
liberty.

VOL. XIi, hE

410 e

CORRESPONDENCE
ENGLISH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES |

| WITH THOSE USED IN FRANCE.

NEW FRENCH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
J—MEASURES OF LENGTH...

The Metre being at 30° and the Foot at 62°. . | -

English Inches.

Millimetre. = - 103937
Centimetre = ‘39371

‘ Decimetre = : 3°93710 cl . |
Metre © = 39°37100 Mil. Fur. ‘Yds.’ Feet, Ia.
Decametre = 393°71000 — 0 0 (10 2 9-7
Hecatometre = 393710000 = 0 0.109 1° 1
Kilometre — 39371°00000 — 0 4 213 1 102
Myriometre = 393710°00000 = 6 1 156 0 6G

"pial
1]. —MEASURES OF CAPACITY.
Cubic Inches. _

_ Millilitre = °06103
Centilitre = 61028
Decilitre. = 6°10280 — Tons. Hogs. Wine G. Pints.
Litre os 6102800 = 0 0 0 2:1133_
Decalitre = 610-28000 = 0 0O 2 5'1352
Hecatolitre = 6102:80000 = 0 0 26419
Kilolitre — 61028°00000 = 1 0O 12:19
Myriolitre = 610280°00000 = 10 1 458°9

411

I11.—WEIGHTS. .
| English Grains.
Milligramme = 0164
Centigramme = «1044
Decigranime = 15444
Gramme = TRAD Socks: Viger | pr.
Decagramme = 154°4402 = 0 0 9°65

Hecatogramme = 1544'4023 = 0 3 85
Kilogramme =, 154440234 = 2 3 5
Myriogramme = 1544402344 — 22 a ee

PPP

IV.—ANCIENT PARIS MEASURES.

The French toise......... = 6°3943 English feet.
The Paris foot of 12in, = 12:7977°
The inch ......... ea = ©1:0664 in
Theline,or1-12thofanin. = 0888 ( EPslish inches.

The 12th of * fine Hh aia as ‘0074

END OF VOL, XUt.

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