The Native Religions of Mexico and Peru

by Albert Réville

THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1884.

---

LECTURES

ON THE

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION

AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE

NATIVE RELIGIONS OF MEXICO AND PERU.

DELIVERED AT OXFORD AND LONDON,

In APRIL and MAY, 1884.

BY

ALBERT RÉVILLE, D.D.
PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF RELIGIONS AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE.

Translated by PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A.

WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,

14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON;
And 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.

---

1884

[All Rights reserved.]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON,
178, STRAND.

CONTENTS.
———
Lecture I.
INTRODUCTION.—CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO. THEIR COMMON BASES OF CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION.
	PAGE
Importance of the history of Religion	1
The religions of Mexico and Peru, and the special importance of studying them	7
Journey to another planet	8
Parallelism of religious history in the New World and in the Old	9
Central America and Mexico, and the authorities as to their history and religion	14
Area and general character of this civilization	18
The Mayas	20
Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs	24
The Aztec empire	29
Character of the religious conceptions common to Central America and Mexico	35
The serpent-god and the American cross	38
Estimate of the character and significance of the parallelisms observed	39
Lecture II.
THE DEITIES AND MYTHS OF MEXICO.
The Sun and Moon	45
The pyramidal Mexican temples	47
The great temple of the city of Mexico	48
The narrative of Bernal Diaz; and the two great Aztec deities, Uitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca	51
Mythical significance of Uitzilopochtli	54
Significance of Tezcatlipoca	60
The serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, god of the east wind	62
Netzalhuatcoyotl, the philosopher-king of Tezcuco	69
Number of Mexican deities	70
Tlaloc, god of rain	71
Centeotl, goddess of maize	72
Xiuhtecutli, god of fire	74
The Mexican Venus	75
Other deities	76
The Tepitoton	77
Mictlan, god of the dead	78
Summary and reflections	79
Lecture III.
THE SACRIFICES, SACERDOTAL AND MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS, ESCHATOLOGY AND COSMOGONY OF MEXICO.
Recapitulation	85
Original meaning of sacrifice	86
Human sacrifices and cannibalism	87
Importance attached to the suffering of the victims	90
Tragic and cruel character of the Mexican sacrifices	91
The victims of Tezcatlipoca and Centeotl	93
The children of Tlaloc	96
The roasted victims of the god of fire	97
Mexican asceticism	99
Mexican "communion"	101
Religious ethics	102
The priesthood	106
Convents, monks and nuns of ancient Mexico	109
Mexican cosmogonies	112
The great jubilee	116
The future life	118
Conversion of the Mexicans	121
The Inquisition	122
Conclusion	123
Lecture IV.
PERU.—ITS CIVILIZATION AND CONSTITUTION.—THE LEGEND OF THE INCAS: THEIR POLICY AND HISTORY.
The Peru of the Incas	127
Cortes and Pizarro	131
The Inca hierocracy	132
The Quipos	134
Authorities for the history and religion of Peru	136
Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega	137
Peruvian civilization	139
Huayna Capac's taxation	142
Social, political and military organization of Peru	143
Education	152
Material well-being	153
The legend of the Incas: Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo	156
Were the Incas really the sole civilizers of Peru?	159
Succession of the Incas and character of their rule	160
Free-thinking Incas	161
Huayna Capac's departure from traditional maxims	166
Lecture V.
THE FALL OF THE INCAS.—PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY. PRIESTHOOD.
Recapitulation	171
Atahualpa and Pizarro	172
Father Valverde's discourse	174
Atahualpa's imprisonment and death	176
Inca pretenders	179
Worship of the Sun and Moon	182
Viracocha, god of fertilizing showers	184
His consort, Mama Cocha	186
Old Peruvian hymn	187
Pachacamac, god of internal fire	188
The myth of Pacari Tambo	191
Cuycha, the rainbow	194
Chasca, the planet Venus	194
Worship of fire	195
Worship of the thunder	196
Worship of esculent plants	197
Worship of animals	198
The Huacas	199
Peruvian priesthood	202
The Virgins of the Sun	204
Punishment of faithless nuns	206
Independent parallelisms, illustrated by the "couvade"	208
Lecture VI.
PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.—MORALS AND THE FUTURE LIFE.—CONCLUSIONS.
Peruvian temples	215
Sacrifices	218
Columns of the Sun	222
Hymns	223
Religious dances	224
The four great festivals	225
Chasing the evil spirit	227
Occasional and minor festivals	229
Eclipses	230
Sorcerers and priests	230
Moral significance of the Peruvian religion	232
Communion, baptism and sacerdotal confession	233
Various ideas as to the future life	235
Supay, the god of the departed	237
Conversion of the Peruvians	239
Are the origins of the American civilizations to be sought in the Old World?	241
Real significance and importance of analogies observed	243
Sacrifice	245
Three stages of religious faith: animistic nature-worship, anthropomorphic polytheism and spiritual monotheism	246
The genesis of the temple	249
Primitive independence and subsequent mutual interpenetration of religion and morals	250
Human nature invincibly religious	252
The guiding principle	254
Farewell	255

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.
———
P. 16,	note, under Acosta, add, "E[dward] G[rimstone]'s translation was edited, with notes, for the Hakluyt Society, by Clements R. Markham, in 1880."
P. 17,	note, lines 4 and 5, to "English translation" add "in epitome."
„	lines 8 and 9, for "Ixtilxochitl" read " Ixtlilxochitl."
„	line 7 from below, for "note" read "notes."
P. 32,	line 10 from below, for "bases" read "basis."
P. 34,	line 1, for "lama" read "llama."
P. 35,	last line, insert "and" after "America."
P. 77,	note, last line, for "caps." read "capp."
P. 92,	line 9 from below, omit "to" before "which."
P. 113,	note, last line, for "Chichemeca" read "Chichimeca. "
P. 129,	line 3, for "East to West" read "West to East."
P. 224,	note, for "Rivero y Tschudi, l.c." read "Rivero y Tschudi: Antigüedades Peruanas: Viena, 1851." N.B. An English translation of this work by F. L. Hawks appeared at New York in 1853.