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 am of opinion that, after carefully examining the foregoing words and
their meanings, we must admit that an intelligible and satisfactory
derivation and signification of the much-discussed Tula of the Mexicans,
which has been vainly sought in the Nahuatl language, are obtained if we
connect it with the Maya words for fortress, or stronghold, an enclosed
place, an integral whole, an overflowing source of abundance and plenty.
If we do this, then the problematic term Tolteca, given by Mexicans to the
superior people from whom they had derived their culture and knowledge,
means nothing more than such persons who had belonged (Maya verb tultic)
or were members of a highly cultured commonwealth or ancient centre of
civilization, such as had flourished during countless centuries, in
Yucatan and the present Chiapas, Honduras and Guatemala.
Reserving this subject for future, more detailed, discussion, I point out
that the name Ho, given to the capital, which is designated in the map as
the “head of the land,” is obviously derived from the Maya hol, hool, or
hoot, which means not only head but also chieftain. The circumstance that
a single word, Ho, conveyed the triple meaning of a capital, a chieftain
and a head, is particularly noteworthy, as it affords not only important
clues to native symbolism, which I shall trace later on, but also shows
that the presence of the syllable Ho or O, in certain native names of
localities, may possibly indicate that it was a capital, the residence of
a chieftain. Further light is shed upon the following native association
of ideas when the following words are studied. The ancient Maya name for a
pyramid or artificial mound was ho-m and the pyramidal elevations on which
temples or palaces were built were designated as ho-mul or o-mul (see
Vocabulary, Brasseur de Bourbourg). The title Holpop was moreover that of
the “chieftain of the mat,” whose prerogative it was to sit on a mat and
to beat the sacred drum during the public dances or ritual performances
(Cogolludo). The ancient word for vase, vessel or cup in general was
ho-och, whilst o-och meant food or maintenance (Arte de la lengua Maya,
Fray Beltram de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa, Merida, 1859). If the foregoing
data be summarized we find that the word ho, the ancient name of the head
of the land, which is figured in its centre, is not only homonymous with
capital and chieftain, but also with pyramid, vase or receptacle and
maintenance, and finally with the numeral 5, also “ho.” We shall see that
the identical ideas were similarly associated in ancient Mexico.
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