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
According to Sir Clements B. Markham,(31) the original inhabitants of the
Peruvian coast fished in boats made of inflated sealskins. It is well
known that the coast-tribes of Mexico and Central America employed boats
of various kinds and some of great size. The Mexican tradition relates
that the culture hero Quetzalcoatl departed in a craft he had constructed
and which is designated as a coatlapechtli=coa=coatl=serpent or twin,
tlapechtli=raft. It is open to conjecture whether this construction, “in
which he sat himself as in a boat,” may be regarded as a sort of double or
twin raft, or a boat made of serpent or seal (?) skin. In order to form
any opinion, the name for seal in the Nahuatl and other languages spoken
by the coast tribes should first be ascertained and compared with the
native names for serpent.
The Maya colonists who founded the colony on the Mexican coast, and are
known as the Huaxtecans, are described as having transported themselves
thither by boats from Yucatan. In the native Codices and in the sculptured
bas-relief at Chichen-Itza, there are, moreover, illustrations of
navigation by boats. As dependent upon Polaris as their East Indian
colleagues of to-day, it is but natural that the ancient Mexican traders
by land or sea expressed their gratitude by offerings to Polaris and Ursa
Minor.
Let us now return to Peru and examine whether there is any proof that the
“Teacher or Guide of the World,” the Supreme Being of the Incas, was
identical with the “Lord who guides” revered by the Mexican navigators.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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