The idea promulgated by the ancient Egyptians that their _laws_ were received direct from the Most High God, _has been adopted with success by many other law-givers, who have thus insured respect for their institutions_.[60:4] The Supreme God of the ancient Mexicans was _Tezcatlipoca_. He occupied a position corresponding to the Jehovah of the Jews, the Brahma of India, the Zeus of the Greeks, and the Odin of the Scandinavians. His name is compounded of Tezcatepec, the name of a _mountain_ (_upon which he is said to have manifested himself to man_) _tlil_, dark, and _poca_, smoke. The explanation of this designation is given in the _Codex Vaticanus_, as follows: Tezcatlipoca was one of their most potent deities; they say he once appeared on the top of a mountain. They paid him great reverence and adoration, and addressed him, in their prayers, as "Lord, whose servant we are." No man ever saw his face, for he appeared only "as a shade." Indeed, the Mexican idea of the godhead was similar to that of the Jews. Like Jehovah, Tezcatlipoca dwelt in the "midst of thick darkness." _When he descended upon the mount of Tezcatepec, darkness overshadowed the earth, while fire and water, in mingled streams, flowed from beneath his feet, from its summit._[61:1] Thus, we see that other nations, beside the Hebrews, believed that their laws were actually received from God, that they had legends to that effect, and that a _mountain_ figures conspicuously in the stories. Professor Oort, speaking on this subject, says: "No one who has any knowledge of antiquity will be surprised at this, for similar beliefs were very common. All peoples who had issued from a life of barbarism and acquired regular political institutions, more or less elaborate laws, and established worship, and maxims of morality, attributed all this--their birth as a nation, so to speak--to one or more great men, all of whom, without exception, _were supposed to have received their knowledge from some deity_.