THE GODS OF MEXICO By LEWIS SPENCE FELLOW OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS 1923 TO MY WIFE, WITH DEEPEST GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION PREFACE This book deals exclusively with the religion of the peoples of ancient Mexico. With the history and archæology of that country I am not concerned in these pages, unless where they have a bearing upon the main subject. By “Mexico” I mean that region of North America lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Thus only passing reference to the religion of the Maya of Yucatan or the Quiche of Guatemala is made in the way of occasional comparison. I have thought it best at the outset to make these points clear beyond the possibility of misapprehension. It was formerly usual to regard the entire tract occupied by Central American civilization from the Tropic of Cancer to Nicaragua as one and indivisible in its manifestations. But it is now clear that the type of advancement peculiar to the more northerly portion inhabited by the Nahua (Aztec and Chichimec) peoples of Mexico proper presents numerous and striking divergencies from the more southerly though related Maya civilization of Yucatan and Guatemala. Regarding the priority of these two cultures no doubt exists. The Maya was greatly the more ancient. But during the century preceding the conquest of Mexico by Cortéz it had been subjected to Nahua immigration and influences, especially as regards its religious beliefs. It is therefore necessary to exercise caution in the identification of Nahua or Mexican with Maya myths and divine forms, and with this in view I have directed my researches more especially to an examination of the deities and ritual practices of the Mexican area, in the hope that once the fundamental beliefs of this better-known region have been ascertained, the results arrived at may be applied with some measure of confidence to the obscure field of Maya belief. It seemed to me also essential, if progress were to be made, to apply a more intensive method of investigation than has hitherto been deemed possible or desirable to the first origins of the Mexican gods, and it is especially with the results obtained by this means that I am concerned rather than with the conclusions of others.