nt temples, an elaborate calendar,
great wealth in the precious metals, the art of picture-writing in
considerable perfection, and a despotic central government. The higher
classes in a society like this could not but develop speculative
systems, and it is alleged that shortly before the reign of Montezuma
attempts had been made to introduce a pure monotheistic religion. But
the ritual of the Aztecs remained an example of the utmost barbarity.
Never was a more cruel faith, not even in Carthage. Nowhere did temples
reek with such pools of human blood; nowhere else, not in Dahomey and
Ashanti, were human sacrifice, cannibalism and torture so essential
to the cult that secured the favour of the gods. In these dark
fanes--reeking with gore, peopled by monstrous shapes of idols
bird-headed or beast-headed, and adorned with the hideous carvings in
which we still see the priest, under the mask of some less ravenous
forest beast, tormenting the victim--in these abominable temples the
Castilian conquerors might well believe that they saw the dwellings of
devils.

Yet Mexican religion had its moral and beautiful aspect, and the gods,
or certain of the gods, required from their worshippers not only bloody
hands, but clean hearts.

To the gods we return later. The myths of the origin of things may
be studied without a knowledge of the whole Aztec Pantheon. Our
authorities, though numerous, lack complete originality and are
occasionally confused. We have first the Aztec monuments and
hieroglyphic scrolls, for the most part undeciphered. These merely
attest the hideous and cruel character of the deities. Next we have the
reports of early missionaries, like Sahagun and Mendieta, of conquerors,
like Bernal Diaz, and of noble half-breeds, such as Ixtlilxochitl.(1)

(1) Bancroft's Native Races of Pacific Coast of North America, vol.
iii., contains an account of the sources, and, with Sahagun and Acosta,
is mainly followed here. See also J. G. Muller, Ur. Amerik. Rel., p.
507. See chapter on the "Divine Myths of Mexico".

There are two elements in Mexican, as in Quiche, and Indo-Aryan, and
Maori, and even Andaman cosmogonic myth. We find the purer religion
and the really philosophic speculation concurrent with such crude and
childish stories as usually satisfy the intellectual demands of Ahts,
Cahrocs and Bushmen; but of the purer and more speculative opinions we
know little. Many of the noble, learned and priestly classes of Azte