Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) _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. PAGE 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