ZAPOTEC PRIESTHOOD AND CEPtEMONIALS 



There is in all parts of the world a certain fundamental uniformity 

 in religious ideas, still more in religious practices, in spite of a wide 

 difference in the details. Professor Stoll has lately ingeniously set 

 forth the cause of this uniformity in his book entitled " Suggestion 

 und Hypnotismus in der Volkerpsychologie ".« This uniformity 

 is naturally more striking within the boundaries of one and the 

 same larger or smaller area. Therefore it is not strange that we 

 find the religious life among the Zapotecs, as far as our scanty means 

 permit of elucidating the matter, proceeding on very much the same 

 lines as that of the ]Mexicans or that of the Mayas, concerning whom 

 we are much better informed on this point, especially in regard to 

 the Mexicans. 



Among the Zajjotecs the organization of the priesthood seems to 

 have had a somewhat peculiar development and was certainly more 

 compact than among the other nations. They distinguished between 

 high and subordinate priests and pupils, or children wdio were edu- 

 cated for the priesthood. 



The high priests were called Uija-tao, "great seer"". Their chief 

 function was evidently to consult the gods in important nuitters 

 concerning the whole nation or individuals and to transmit the 

 answers to the believers. The way in which these priests obtained 

 their inspiration is plaiidy described in the })assage ([uoted above 

 from the work of Father liurgoa. It is here clearly a question of 

 autosuggestion. They had the power and the habit of putting them- 

 selves into an ecstatic state, and actually believed what they saw and 

 heard in their visions and hallucinations. In Mexico the high priests 

 were called Quetzalcoatl, in memory of the priest god of Tollan, 

 who was said to have been the first who taught religious practices, 

 especially the sacrifice of one's own blood, and they distinguished 

 between a Quetzalcoatl Totec tlamacazqui and a Quetzalcoatl Tlaloc 

 tlamacazpui, corresponding to the two chief deities whose Avorship 

 was performed in the chief temple of the capital.'' A similar idea 

 seems to have existed in regard to the high priests of the Zapotecs. 



« Leipzig, 1894. '' Sahagun, v. ^, appendix, cbap. 9. 



9.7r, 



