213 



tury. A learned writer*, who has made some 

 curious comparisons between the mythological 

 ideas of different nations, has hazarded the hypo- 

 thesis, that the two religious sects of India, the 

 worshippers of Vishnoo, and those of Siva, had 

 spread themselves into America ; and that the 

 Peruvian worship was that of Vishnoo, when he 

 appeared under the figure of Crishna, or the 

 Sun ; while the sanguinary worship of the Mexi- 

 cans is analogous to that of Siva, when he takes 

 the character of the Stygian Jupiter. The wife 

 of Siva, the black goddess Cali, or Bhavanif, the 

 symbol of death and destruction, wears, in the 

 Indian statues and paintings, a necklace of hu- 

 man skulls : and to her the Vedas enjoin the 

 offering of human sacrifices. The ancient wor- 

 ship of Cali, the horrible cruelty of which was 

 mitigated by the reform of Bouddha, forms no 

 doubt a great resemblance with the worship of 

 Mictlancihuatl, the goddess of Hell, and with 

 that of several other Mexican divinities : but in 

 studying the history of the people of Anahuac, 

 we are tempted to consider these resemblances 

 as merely accidental. We have no right to pre- 

 sume communications, wherever we find, among 



* Frederic Leopold, Count Stolberg, Geschichte der Fe- 

 ligion Jesu Christi, B, 1, p. 426. 



f Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, p. 203 et 293. 



