THE MEXICANS. J 47 



the south, a distance of twelve hundred miles ; while over this vast tract was at 

 the same time diffused a language, institutions and monuments, which all bespoke 

 a common origin. Humboldt has somewhere remarked that it is not unlikely that 

 the figures with enormous aquiline noses, observed in the Mexican hieroglyphic 

 paintings, may point to a race of men already extinct. For this surmise, however, 

 there appears to be no foundation ; for this peculiarity of Toltecan sculpture is to 

 be regarded as a conventional rule of art, like others in the bas-reliefs and statues 

 of the Nile. 



The practice of artificially moulding the head, varied, it is true, according to 

 fancy, has been traced from Peru into Venezuela,* and thence into Nicaragua as 

 matter of fact; and as we also find the Natchez and other tribes originally from 

 Mexico addicted to the same usage, we may reasonably infer that the Toltecas 

 and Aztecs, who give evidence of the same custom in their bas-reliefs, and 

 hieroglyphics, did really practise it as a national usage ; and skulls will no doubt 

 be hereafter found that will place this question beyond controversy.f 



We now turn from the physical to the moral and intellectual character of 

 the Mexican nations. "The religion, government and economy of a state," 

 observes Clavigero, " are three things which chiefly form the character of a nation, 

 and without being acquainted with these it is impossible to have a perfect idea of 

 the genius, disposition and knowledge of any people whatever-''^ The historian 

 then adds that the religion of the Mexicans was a heap of errors, superstitions and 

 cruel rites. Their gods were nearly as numerous as those of the Romans, and 

 their offices and attributes were mystified by the worst inventions of priestcraft. 

 They worshipped the sun and moon among their principal divinities, and they 

 personified the seasons and various phenomena of nature, giving to each its place 

 in their mythological series : they had a god of war, a god of peace, a god of 

 mirth, and in fact a god for almost every imaginable contingency, together with 

 household divinities (answering to the penates of the ancients) almost without 



"Los hombres son de buena statura^ mas blancos que loros; las cabecas a tolondrones con un hoyo en 

 medio por hermosura, i por asiento, i por car ga.''— Hist, de las Indias, Dec. Ill, Lib. IV. 



* See Plate 64. 



t Since this paragraph was written I have received a letter from Dr. John Macartney, of the city 

 of Mexico, who speaks of the "singular forms'^ of the skulls in the ancient cemetery of Santiago de 

 TIatelolco. I wait with great interest for the facts these reUcs may develope. The cemetery asserted 

 to have been lately discovered at Durango, in the Mexican states, may also throw much additional 

 light on this subject. 



+ Hist, of Mexico, B. VI. (Cullen.) 



