BOOK a mild and humane religion,-for the ceremonies of a sanLXXXIV. guinary worship. From the earliest periods, semibarba rous nations have received new laws, and new divinities from the hands of their conquerors. The indigenous and vanquished gods give place to foreign deities. Indeed, in a mythology so complicated as that of the Mexicans, it was easy to discover an affinity between the divinities of Atzlan and those of the east. The Holy Spirit, for instance, was identified with the sacred eagle of the Aztecs. The missionaries not only tolerated, they even favoured this mixture of ideas, by which the Christian worship became more speedily established. The English collector, Mr. Bullock, readily obtained leave from the clergy and authorities, in 1823, to disinter and take casts from the image of the sanguinary goddess Teoyamiqui. During the time it was exposed, he adds, "the court of the University was crowded with people, most of whom expressed the most decided anger and contempt. Not so, however, all the Indians. I attentively marked their countenances; not a smile escaped them, or even a word—all was silence and attention. In reply to a joke of one of the students, an old Indian remarked, It is true we have three very good Spanish gods, but we might still have been allowed to keep a few of those of our ancestors.' I was informed that chaplets of flowers had been placed on the figure by natives, who had stolen thither unseen, in the evening, for that purpose; a proof that notwithstanding the extreme diligence of the Spanish clergy for 300 years, there still remains some taint of heathen superstition among the descendants of the original inhabitants." Yet it was probably a nobler impulse than superstition that wove the chaplet for the statue of Teoyamiqui; rather that mystery of nature, by which she links the present to the past with veneration, and to the 6 Vide Humboldt's Researches, (English edition) vol. II. p. 176. Essai Politique, I. p. 95. + See next page. Bullock's Six Months in Mexico, p. 341. 309 future with anxiety,-that awful reverence with which the BOOK rudest nations look back to their origin and ancestors, and LXXXIV. which even now, amongst the most enlightened, still consecrates the relics of Montmorillon and Stonehenge. ture. The Mexicans have preserved a particular taste for paint- Their taing, and for the art of carving on stone and wood. It is lent for truly astonishing to see what they are capable of executing, and sculp painting with a bad knife, upon the hardest wood and stone. They exercise themselves in painting the images, and carving the statues of saints; but from a religious principle, they have continued to servilely imitate for 300 years the models which the Europeans brought with them at the period of the original conquest. In Mexico, as well as Hindostan, the faithful are not allowed to make the smallest change in their idols: every thing connected with the rites of the Aztecs was subjected to immutable laws. It is on this very account that the Christian images have preserved, in some degree, that stiffness and hardness of feature which characterised the hieroglyphical pictures of the age of Montezuma. They display a great deal of aptitude for the exercise of the arts of imitation, and still greater for those of a purely mechanical nature. tion. When an Indian has attained a certain degree of culti- Want of vation, he shows great facility in acquiring information, imaginaa spirit of accuracy and precision, and a particular tendency to subtilize, or to seize on the minutest differences in objects that are to be compared with each other. He reasons coldly and with method; but he does not evince that activity of imagination, that lively freshness of sentiment, that art of creating and of producing, which characterises the people of Europe, and many tribes of African negroes. The music and dancing of the indigenous natives partake of that want of cheerfulness which is so peculiar to them. Their singing is of a melancholy description. More vivacity, however, is observed in their women than in their men; but they share the evils of that state of subjection to which the sex is condemned among most of those na BOOK tions where civilization is still imperfect. In the dance LXXXIV. women take no part; they are merely present for the sake of offering to the dancers the fermented drinks which they themselves had prepared.* Their taste for flowers. Wild The Mexican Indians have likewise preserved the same taste for flowers that Cortez noticed in his time. We are astonished to discover this taste, which, doubtless, indicates a taste for the beautiful, among a people in whom a sanguinary worship, and the frequency of human sacrifices, appeared to have extinguished every feeling connected with sensibility of mind and the softer affections. In the great market of Mexico, the native does not sell even fish, or ananas, or vegetables, or fermented liquor, without his shop being decked out with flowers, which are renewed every succeeding day. The Indian shop-keeper appears seated behind a perfect entrenchment of verdure, and every thing around him wears an air of the most refined elegance. The Indian hunters, such as the Mecos, the Apaches, and the Lipans, whom the Spaniards comprehend under the denomination of Indios bravos, and whose hordes, in their incursions, which are often made during night, infest the frontiers of New Biscay, Sonora, and New Mexico, evince more activity of mind, and more strength of character, than the agricultural Indians. Some tribes have even languages, the mechanism of which appears to prove the existence of ancient civilization. They have great difficulty in learning our European idioms, while, at the same time, they express themselves in their own with an extreme degree of facility. These same Indian chiefs, whose gloomy taciturnity astonishes the observer, will hold a discourse of several hours whenever any strong interest rouses them to break their habitual silence. We shall afterwards enter into some further details with regard to these tribes. A. de Humboldt, Mexico, t. I. p. 413. among the Indians. The indigenous natives are either descendants of an- BOOK cient Plebeians, or the remains of some great family, who, LXXXIV. disdaining to ally themselves with their conquerors, the HerediSpaniards, have preferred cultivating, with their own hands, tary castes those very fields in which their vassals were formerly employed. They are divided accordingly into tributary Indians and Indian Caciques, who, agreeably to the Spanish laws, ought to participate in the privileges of the nobility of Castile. But it is difficult to distinguish from their exterior, their dress, or their manners, the nobleman from the mechanic. They generally go barefooted, and are dressed in the Mexican tunic, which is of a coarse quality, and of a blackish brown colour. In short, there is no difference between their dress and that of the common people, who, notwithstanding, show them a great deal of respect. Nevertheless, far from protecting their countrymen, those individuals who enjoy the hereditary privileges of the Caciquate are very oppressive to such as are tributary to them. Exercising the magistracy in the Indian Conduct villages, it is they who levy the capitation tax. Not only do they delight in becoming the instruments of the oppression of the whites, but they also make use of their power and authority for the purpose of extorting petty sums for their own profit. Indeed, independently of this, the Aztec nobility are remarkable for the same grossness of manners, the same want of civilization, and the same ignorance, as the lower classes of Indians. Isolated, and living in a state of degradation, it has rarely happened that any of its members have followed the profession of the robe or of the sword. A greater number of Indians have embraced the ecclesiastical condition, especially that of curate. The solitude of the convent appears to have attractions for none but young Indian girls. of the Caciques. the In Considered in a general point of view, the Mexican In- Misery of dians present a picture of extreme wretchedness. Indolent dians. from disposition, and still more so from the effects of their political situation, they live only from day to day, In place of general ease of circumstances, families are met BOOK with whose fortune appears the more extensive as it is LXXXIV. the less expected. Nevertheless, the existing laws, in Civil rights. general mild and humane, secure to them the fruit of their exertions, and full liberty for the sale of their productions. Imposts. They are exempt from all direct imposts, and are merely subject to a capitation tax, which is paid by the male Indians from ten to fifty years old, and the burthen of which has been much lightened in these later times. In 1601, the Indian annually paid 32 reals of tribute, and four of royal service; making a total of nineteen shillings and twopence sterling. Little by little, it has been reduced, in some of the intendencies, to twelve shillings and sixpence, and even to four shillings and two-pence. In the bishopric of Mechoacan, and in the greater part of Mexico, the capitation amounts at present to nine shillings and twopence. But if the legislation appears to favour the natives with regard to taxes, they have, on the other hand, deprived them of the most important rights which the other citizens enjoy. In an age, when it was formally debated whether the Indians were actually reasonable beings, it was considered as granting them a singular favour to treat them as minors, by placing them under the perpetual tutelage of the whites, and declaring null every act signed by a native of the copper-coloured race, and every obligation which he contracted of above the value of twelve shillings and sixpence. These laws, maintained in their full vigour, raise insurmountable barriers between the Indians and the other castes, the mixture of which is likewise prohibited, while their disunion, as well as that of their families and constituted authorities, has always been considered by Spanish policy as the surest means of preserving the colonies in a state of dependence on the mother country. The law not only interdicts the mixture of the castes, but prevents the whites from living in the Indian villages, and prohibits the natives from establishing themAdminis- selves among the Spaniards. The Indians govern themselves; but their magistrates, generally the only individuals in the village who speak Spanish, have an interest in tration. |