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
“Kukulcan had no wife or children and was venerated in Yucatan as a god
because he was a great republican, as was shown by the order he instituted
in Yucatan after the death of the native rulers. He went to Mexico whence
he returned. He was there named Quetzalcoatl and was venerated by the
Mexicans as one of their gods.” When he had entered into treaty with the
native chiefs inhabiting the country, they agreed to join him in founding
and peopling a city which was named Mayapan, but was also known by the
natives as Ichpa, meaning “inside of the circles.”(53) “They proceeded,
indeed, to build a circular walled enclosure with two entrances only. In
its centre, the principal temple was erected and it was circular, with
four doors opening to the cardinal points, like one which had been built
by Kukulcan at Chichen-Itza. The walled circle also contained other sacred
edifices and houses intended to be inhabited by the lords only, who
divided up the entire land amongst themselves. Towns were assigned to each
according to the antiquity of his lineage and personal distinction.
Kukulcan lived in this town for some years with these lords and leaving
them in amity and peace returned to Mexico by the same way as on his
visit, lingering on the way in order to build a quadriform temple on an
island off the coast.”
I know of no more instructive account of aboriginal history than this
simple native record preserved by Landa, which so clearly reveals amongst
other details that the Mexican culture-hero was an actual personage, a
Maya high-priest who had been a ruler at Chichen-Itza. In this connection
it is interesting to collate another chapter of Landa’s work in which he
reports what the oldest Indians narrated to him about Chichen-Itza, of
which I give the following somewhat abbreviated translation: Three
brothers came there in olden times from the west and having assembled
together a large number of people, ruled them for some years with much
justice and peace.(54) They paid great honor to their god and built many
beautiful edifices.... They lived without wives in purity and virtue and
as long as they did this they were esteemed and obeyed by all. In course
of time one of them possibly died, but is said by the Indians to have gone
out of the country. Whatever may have been the cause of his absence the
remaining rulers immediately began to show partiality and to institute
such licentious and abominable customs that they were finally execrated by
the people who rebelled and killed them, and then disbanded and abandoned
the capital, “although this was most beautiful and was surrounded by
fertile provinces.”(55)
The principal edifice at Chichen-Itza was a pyramid temple which had four
stairways facing the cardinal points. It contained a circular temple which
was named after the builder Kukulcan and had four doorways opening to the
four quarters of heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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