HISTORY OF MEXICO. 403 



Greeks, and to Lupa Faula and Faula among the Ro- 

 mans, but that of having been famous courtezans ? From 

 thence fprung various deities, charged with the moft in- 

 famous and fliameful employments. 



But what fhall we fay of the Egyptians, who were 

 the firft authors of fuperflition (0) ? They not only paid 

 worfhip to the ox, dog, cat, crocodile, hawk, and other 

 fuch animals, but likewife to leeks, onions, and garlick, 

 which was the occafion of that fatyrical faying of Juve- 

 nal, 0 fanclas gentes quibus hie nafcuntur in hortis Numi- 

 na ! and, not contented with that, they deified likewife 

 the mod indecent things. That cuftom of marrying with 

 their fillers was imagined to be authorized by the exam- 

 ple of their gods. 



The Mexicans entertained very different ideas of their 

 deities. We do not find, in all their mythology, any 

 traces of that excefs of depravity which chara&erifed 

 the gods of other nations. The Mexicans honoured the 

 virtues not the vices of their divinities ; the bravery of 

 Huitzilopochtli, the beneficence of Centeotl, Tzapotlat- 

 man, and Opochtli, and others, and the chaftity, juftice, 

 and prudence of Quetzalcoatl. Although they feigned 

 deities of both fexes, they did not marry them, nor be- 

 lieve them capable of thofe obfeene pleafures which were 

 fo common among the Greeks and Romans. The Mex- 

 icans imagined they had a ftrong averfion to every fpe- 

 cies of vice, therefore their worftiip was calculated to 

 appeafe the anger of their deities, provoked by the guilt 

 of men, and to procure their protection by repentance 

 and religious refpect. 



The 



(0) Nos in Templa tuam Romana accepimus Tfin. 



Semicanefque Deos et Siftra moventia ludum. Lucanus. 



