215 
tabri> arrived thither before the nations the near- 
est Asia, before the Thracians, the Illyrians, and 
the Pelasgi ? 
But, whatever be the relative antiquity of the 
different races of men settled in the mountains 
of Mexico, the Caucasus of America, it appears 
certain, that none of these nations, from the Ol- * 
mecks to the Aztecks, had for a long time been 
acquainted with the barbarous custom of sacri- 
ficing human victims. The principal divinity of 
the Toltecks was called Tlalocteuctli ; he was at 
once the god of water, of mountains, and of tem-^ 
pests. In the eyes of these mountaineers, it is on 
the lofty summits perpetually enveloped in clouds, 
that the mysterious preparation of thunder takes 
place ; there the abode of the great spirit Teotl 
is fixed ; of that invisible being called fyalne- 
moani and Tlock-Nahuack, because he is self- 
existent, and contains all things within himself ; 
and from this almost inaccessible region rushes 
the tempest, which destroys the hut, and the 
beneficent rain, which enlivens the fields. The 
Toltecks had erected on the top of a high moun- 
tain the image of Tlalocteuctli ; this image, 
rudely carved, was made of a white stone, con- 
sidered as divine {teotetl), for this people, like 
the ancient Orientals attached superstitious 
ideas to the color of certain stones. Tlalocteuctli 
* Millii Dissertationes selectae,' p. 309. 
