185 
in China, in Mexico, and in Peru ; wherever 
men were merely masses animated by a same- 
ness of will ; wherever laws, religion, and 
custom, have placed barriers to the progress of 
intellectual improvement and individual happi- 
ness. 
In the paintings of the Mendoza collection 
we trace the ceremonies practised on the birth 
of a child. The midwife, invoking the god 
Orneteuctli, and the goddess Omecihualt, who 
reside in the abodes of the blest, sprinkled 
water on the forehead and the breast of the 
newborn infant ; and after pronouncing dif- 
ferent prayers*, in which water was considered 
as the symbol of the purification of the soul, 
the midwife bad the children draw near, who 
had been invited to give the child a name. In 
some provinces a fire was lighted at the same 
time, and the infant was seemingly made to 
pass through the flame, and undergo the double 
purification of fire and water. This ceremony 
reminds us of usages, the origin of which, in 
Asia, appears to be lost in the darkness of the 
remotest ages. 
Other plates of the collection of Mendoza 
represent the punishments, often barbarous, in- 
flicted by parents on their children, according 
to the greatness of the fault, and the age and 
* Clavigero, vol. 2. p. 86. 
