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the divinities that required a sanguinary worship, 
and the goddess of the fields, who asked only for 
offerings of flowers and fruits, the sheaf of 
maize, or the birds that devoured the seeds of 
this plant, so useful to man. An ancient pro- 
phecy gave this nation some hope of a beneficent 
reform in its religious ceremonies ; this pro- 
phecy stated, that Centeotl, who is the same 
with the beautiful Chri, or Lakchmi, of the 
Hindoos ; and whom the Aztecks, like the Arca- 
dians, designated under the name of the great ^ 
Goddess^ or primitwe Goddess (Tzinteotl) ; 
should triumph at last over the ferocity of the 
other gods ; and that human sacrifices should 
give place to innocent offerings, and the first 
fruits of the harvests. In this tradition of the 
Totonacks we behold a struggle between two 
religions ; a conflict between the ancient Tolteck 
divinity, mild and humane, like the people who 
had introduced its worship, and the ferocious 
gods of that warlike tribe, the Aztecks, who 
had stained the fields, the temples, and the altars, 
with blood. 
When we read the letters of Cortez to the 
Emperor Charles V. the memoirs of Bernal Diaz, 
of Motolinia, and other Spanish authors, who 
had made observations on the Mexicans before 
the changes wrought on them by their commu- 
nications with Europe, we are astonished, that 
