It cleanses,
it purifies; it produces, it preserves. "Bodies, unless dissolved,
cannot act," is a maxim of the earliest chemistry. Very plausibly,
therefore, was it assumed as the source of all things.

The adoration of streams, springs, and lakes, or rather of the spirits
their rulers, prevailed everywhere; sometimes avowedly because they
provided food, as was the case with the Moxos, who called themselves
children of the lake or river on which their village was, and were
afraid to migrate lest their parent should be vexed;[124-1] sometimes
because they were the means of irrigation, as in Peru, or on more
general mythical grounds. A grove by a fountain is in all nature worship
the ready-made shrine of the sylphs who live in its limpid waves and
chatter mysteriously in its shallows. On such a spot in our Gulf States
one rarely fails to find the sacrificial mound of the ancient
inhabitants, and on such the natives of Central America were wont to
erect their altars (Ximenes). Lakes are the natural centres of
civilization. Like the lacustrine villages which the Swiss erected in
ante-historic times, like ancient Venice, the city of Mexico was first
built on piles in a lake, and for the same reason--protection from
attack. Security once obtained, growth and power followed. Thus we can
trace the earliest rays of Aztec civilization rising from lake Tezcuco,
of the Peruvian from Lake Titicaca, of the Muyscas from Lake Guatavita.
These are the centres of legendary cycles. Their waters were hallowed by
venerable reminiscences. From the depths of Titicaca rose Viracocha,
mythical civilizer of Peru. Guatavita was the bourne of many a foot-sore
pilgrim in the ancient empire of the Zac. Once a year the high priest
poured the collective offerings of the multitude into its waves, and
anointed with oils and glittering with gold dust, dived deep in its
midst, professing to hold communion with the goddess who there had her
home.[125-1]

Not only does the life of man but his well-being depends on water. As an
ablution it invigorates him bodily and mentally. No institution was in
higher honor among the North American Indians than the sweat-bath
followed by the cold douche. It was popular not only as a remedy in
every and any disease, but as a preliminary to a council or an important
transaction. Its real value in cold climates is proven by the sustained
fondness for the Russian bath in the north of Europe. The Indians,
however, with their