. The myths of Mexico and Peru. was that of the Lamacazton (Little Priests), youthswho were graduating in the priestly office. An Exacting Ritual The priesthood enjoyed no easy existence, but led anaustere life of fasting, penance, and prayer, with constantobservance of an arduous and exacting ritual, which em-braced sacrifice, the upkeep of perpetual fires, the chantingof holy songs to the gods, dances, and the superintend-ence of the ever-recurring festivals. They were re-quired to rise during the night to render praise, and tomaintain themselves in a condition of absolute cleanli-ness by me
. The myths of Mexico and Peru. was that of the Lamacazton (Little Priests), youthswho were graduating in the priestly office. An Exacting Ritual The priesthood enjoyed no easy existence, but led anaustere life of fasting, penance, and prayer, with constantobservance of an arduous and exacting ritual, which em-braced sacrifice, the upkeep of perpetual fires, the chantingof holy songs to the gods, dances, and the superintend-ence of the ever-recurring festivals. They were re-quired to rise during the night to render praise, and tomaintain themselves in a condition of absolute cleanli-ness by means of constant ablutions. We have seenthat blood-offisring—the substitution of the part forthe whole—was a common method of sacrifice, and inthis the priests engaged personally on frequent occa-ii6 AN EXACTING RITUAL sions. If the caste did not spare the people itcertainly did not spare itself, and its outlook wasperhaps only a shade more gloomy and fanatical thanthat of the Spanish hierarchy which succeeded it in Tepoxtecatl 117 CHAPTER III: MYTHS AND LEGENDSOF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS The Mexican Idea of the Creation ** T N the year and in the day of the clouds, writesI Garcia in his Origin de los Indias^ professingA to furnish the reader with a translation of anoriginal Mixtec picture-manuscript, before ever wereyears or days, the world lay in darkness. All thingswere orderless, and a water covered the slime and oozethat the earth then was. This picture is common toalmost all American ^ The red man ingeneral believed the habitable globe to have beencreated from the slime which arose above the primevalwaters, and there can be no doubt that the Nahuashared this belief. We encounter in Nahua myth twobeings of a bisexual nature, known to the Aztecs asOmetecutli-Omeciuatl (Lords of Duality), who wererepresented as the deities dominating the genesis ofthings, the beginning of the world. We have alreadybecome acquainted with them in Chapter II (see
Size: 1347px × 1855px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectindianso, booksubjectindiansofmexico
