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. 



