signs;[123] and modern research has shown, contrary to the opinion long held, that there was among these nations an extraordinary and extensive worship of the reciprocal principle of nature, associated with numerous phallic emblems.[124]
Huge phalli of stone have been discovered, one for instance, on the Cerro de las Navajas, not far from the city of Mexico, and another in the State of Hidalgo.[125] Probably they were used in some such ceremonies as Oviedo describes among the Nahuas of Nicaragua, where the same symbol was represented by conical mounds of earth, around which at certain seasons the women danced with libidinous actions. Although as a general rule the pottery of ancient Mexico avoids obscenity, Brasseur stated that he had seen many specimens of a contrary character from certain regions,[126] and Dr. Berendt has copied several striking examples, showing curious yoni symbols, which are now in my possession.
We
may explain these as in some way connected with the worship of Pantecatl,
the male divinity who presided over profligate love, and of Tlazolteotl,
the Venus Impudica
of the Aztec pantheon; and it is not without significance that the cave-temple
of Votan, whose contents were destroyed
by the Bishop of Chiapas, in 1691 (see above, p. 23), was located at
Tlazoaloyan, both names being derived
from a root signifying sexual action.[127] The other name of
the divinity, called "the Heart of the Hills,"
is in Quiche, Alom,
"he who begets," and the Zapotec Cozaana,
another analogue of the same deity, is translated by Seler, "the
Begetter." Such facts indicate how intimately the esoteric doctrines
of Nagualism were related to the worship of the reproductive powers
of nature.
35. It will readily be understood from what has been said that Nagualism was neither a pure descendant of the ancient cults, nor yet a derivative from Christian doctrines and European superstitions. It was a strange commingling of both often in grotesque an absurd forms. In fact, the pretended Christianity of the native population of Mexico to-day is little more than a figment, according to the testimony of the most competent observers.[128]
The
rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to this. It is very
visible in those I have quoted from Nuñez de la Vega,
and I can add an interesting example of it which has not heretofore
been published. I take it from the MSS. of Father Vicente Hernandez
Spina, cura of Ixtlavacan, in Guatemala,
a remote village of the Quiches. He wrote
it down in the native tongue about forty years ago, as recited by an
ah-kih, "reader of days,"
a native master of the genethliac art, who had composed it in favor
of a client who had asked his intercession.
"O Jesus Christ my God: thou God the Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, art my only God. To-day, on this day, at this hour, on this day Tibax, I call upon the holy souls which accompany the sun-rising and the sun-setting of the day with these holy souls I call upon thee, O chief of the genii, thou who dwellest
[123] Pedro de los Rios, in his notes to the Codex Vaticanus, published in Kingsborough's great work, assigns the sign, cohuatl, the serpent, to "il membro virile, il maggioaugurio di tutti gli altri." It is distinctly so shown on the 75th plate of the Codex. De la Serna states that in his day some of the Mexican conjurors used a wand, around which was fastened a living serpent. Manual de Ministros, p. 37.
[124] There is abundant evidence of this in certain plates of the Codex Troano, and there is also alleged to be much in the Codex Mexicanus of the Palais Bourbon. Writing about the latter, M. Aubin said as far back as 1841—"le culte du lingam on du phallus n'etait pas etranger aux Mexicains, ce qu' etablissent plusieurs documents peu connus et des sculptures découvertes depuis un petit hombre d'années." His letter is in Boban, Calalogue Raisonné de la Collection Goupil, Tom. ii, p. 207. On the frequent identification of the serpent symbol with the phallus in classical art, consult Dr. Anton Nagele's article, "Der Schlaugen-Cultus," in the Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Band xvii, p. 285. seq.
[125] Cf. G. Tarayre, Exploration Mineraloqique des Regions Mexicaines, p. 233 (Paris, 1869), and Bulletin de la Sociétè d' Anthropologie de Paris, Juin, 1898.
[126] sources de l'Histoire Primitive de Mexique , p. 81.
[127] From po, to join together. Compare my Essays of an Americanist, p. 417 (Philadelphia, 1890).
[128] "El indio Mexicano es todavia idolatra." F. Pimentel, La Situacion actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico, p. 197.
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