says Ovid. (Fastorum, lib. 1, v. 337.) Count Carli has pointed out a similar use of consecrated bread, and wine or water, in the Greek and Egyptian mysteries. (Lettres Améric., tom. i. let. 27.) See, also, McCulloh, Researches, p. 240, et seq. [381] Water for purification and other religious rites is frequently noticed by the classical writers. Thus, Euripides: “Ἀγνοἴς καθαρμοἴς πρῶτά νιν νίψαι θέλω. θάλασσα κλύϛει πάντα τἀνθρώπων κακά.” IPHIG. IN TAUR., vv. 1192, 1194. The notes on this place, in the admirable Variorum edition of Glasgow, 1821, contain references to several passages of similar import in different authors. [382] The difficulty of obtaining anything like a faithful report from the natives is the subject of complaint from more than one writer, and explains the great care taken by Sahagun to compare their narratives with each other. See Hist. de Nueva-España, Prólogo,--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., Pról.,--Boturini, Idea, p. 116. [383] The parallel was so closely pressed by Torquemada that he was compelled to suppress the chapter containing it, on the publication of his book. See the Proemio to the edition of 1723, sec. 2. [384] “The devil,” says Herrera, “chose to imitate, in everything, the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and their subsequent wanderings.” (Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 3, cap. 10.) But all that has been done by monkish annalist and missionary to establish the parallel with the children of Israel falls far short of Lord Kingsborough’s learned labors, spread over nearly two hundred folio pages. (See Antiq. of Mexico, tom. vi. pp. 282-410.) _Quantum inane!_ [385] The word משיח from which is derived _Christ_, “the anointed,” is still more nearly--not “precisely,” as Lord Kingsborough states (Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi. p. 186)--identical with that of Mexi, or Mesi, the chief who was said to have led the Aztecs on the plains of Anahuac. [386] Interp. of Cod. Tel.-Rem. et Vat., Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 3, Suplem.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 1, cap. 16. [387] This opinion finds favor with the best Spanish and Mexican writers, from the Conquest downwards. Solís sees nothing improbable in the fact that “the malignant influence, so frequently noticed in sacred history, should be found equally in profane.” Hist. de la Conquista, lib. 2, cap. 4. [388] D. G. Brinton, International Congress of Anthropology, 1893 (Harper’s Magazine, March, 1903, p. 534). “Up to the present time there has not been shown a single dialect, not an art or an institution, not a myth or religious rite, not a domesticated plant or animal, not a tool, weapon, game, or symbol, in use in America at the time of the discovery, which had been previously imported from Asia, or from any other continent of the Old World.”--M.