The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
I shall have occasion to refer to several of the words I have tabulated.
At present I would draw attention to an analogy which bears directly on
the subject of this paper and is of utmost interest and importance. If
carefully studied it will be seen that the title “Pacha Yachachic,”
applied in Peru to the Creator, proves to be allied in sound and meaning
to the Mexican title Yaca-tecuhtli, “the lord who guides or governs.”
According to Sahagun, this was “the god of the traders or
traveller-merchants.” He had five divine brothers and one sister, each of
which was separately worshipped by some travellers, whilst others, on
their safe return from distant and dangerous expeditions, offered
sacrifices to the whole group collectively. I leave it to each reader to
make his own inference as to whether this celestial “traveller’s guide”
with his six brethren can have been other than Polaris and Ursa Minor. The
difference in the magnitudes of this constellation would naturally give
rise to the idea of a group composed of individuals of different ages and
sizes; the “little sister” probably being the smaller of the four
intermediate stars of the constellation and suggesting tales of adventures
relating to the mythical sister of six brothers.
It is superfluous to emphasize how natural it would have been to offer a
thanksgiving to the “traveller’s star” on returning from a distant voyage,
but I will point out that for coast navigation between Guatemala and
Nicaragua and Peru, the adoption of Polaris as a guide was and is a matter
of course. It is well to bear in mind that we are dealing here with
navigation north and south, along a sheltered coast, for a distance not
exceeding that of the coast-line between Gibraltar and Hamburg. An
instructive example of primitive navigation, under analogous
circumstances, has been communicated to me, from personal observation, by
Commander Barber of the United States Navy.
Native traders, who navigate north and south in small crafts along the
coast between Ceylon and Karashee, still use, at the present day, an
extremely primitive method of estimating latitude, which is entirely based
upon observations of the pole-star. Their contrivance consists of a piece
of wood four inches square, through which a hole is bored and a piece of
cord, with knots at intervals, is passed. The square is held at arm’s
length and the end of the cord is held to the point of the navigator’s
nose in a horizontal line, the height being so adjusted that the pole-star
is observed in contact with the upper edge of the piece of wood. There are
as many knots in the cords as there are ports habitually visited, and
according to the length of the cord required for the observation of
Polaris in the said position, the mariner knows to which port he is
opposite.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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