The more prominent of the analogies adduced by Lord Kingsborough may be briefly enumerated as follows:
[Sidenote: HEBREW AND AMERICAN ANALOGIES.]
The religion of the Mexicans strongly resembled that of the Jews, in many minor details, as will be presently seen, and the two were practically alike, to a certain extent, in their very foundation; for, as the Jews acknowledged a multitude of angels, archangels, principalities, thrones, dominions, and powers, as the subordinate personages of their hierarchy, so did the Mexicans acknowledge the unity of the Deity in the person of Tezcatlipoca, and at the same time worship a great number of other imaginary beings. Both believed in a plurality of devils subordinate to one head, who was called by the Mexicans Mictlantecutli, and by the Jews Satan. Indeed, it seems that the Jews actually worshiped and made offerings to Satan as the Mexicans did to their 'god of hell.' It is probable that the Toltecs were acquainted with the sin of the first man, committed at the suggestion of the woman, herself deceived by the serpent, who tempted her with the fruit of the forbidden tree, who was the origin of all our calamities, and by whom death came into the world.[I-169] We have seen in this chapter that Kingsborough supposes the Messiah and his story to have been familiar to the Mexicans. There is reason to believe that the Mexicans, like the Jews, offered meat and drink offerings to stones.[I-170] There are striking similarities between the Babel, flood, and creation myths of the Hebrews and the Americans.[I-171] Both Jews and Mexicans were fond of appealing in their adjurations to the heaven and the earth.[I-172] Both were extremely superstitious, and firm believers in prodigies.[I-173] The character and history of Christ and Huitzilopochtli present certain analogies.[I-174] It is very probable that the Sabbath of the seventh day was known in some parts of America.[I-175] The Mexicans applied the blood of sacrifices to the same uses as the Jews; they poured it upon the earth, they sprinkled it, they marked persons with it, and they smeared it upon walls and other inanimate things.[I-176] No one but the Jewish high-priest might enter the Holy of Holies. A similar custom obtained in Peru.[I-177] Both Mexicans and Jews regarded certain animals as unclean and unfit for food.[I-178] Some of the Americans believed with some of the Talmudists in a plurality of souls.[I-179] That man was created in the image of God was a part of the Mexican belief.[I-180] It was customary among the Mexicans to eat the flesh of sacrifices of atonement.[I-181] There are many points of resemblance between Tezcatlipoca and Jehovah.[I-182] Ablutions formed an essential part of the ceremonial law of the Jews and Mexicans.[I-183] The opinions of the Mexicans with regard to the resurrection of the body, accorded with those of the Jews.[I-184] The Mexican temple, like the Jewish, faced the east.[I-185] "As amongst the Jews the ark was a sort of portable temple in which the Deity was supposed to be continually present, and which was accordingly borne on the shoulders of the priests as a sure refuge and defence from their enemies, so amongst the Mexicans and the Indians of Michoacan and Honduras an ark was held in the highest veneration, and was considered an object too sacred to be touched by any but the priests. The same religious reverence for the ark is stated by Adair to have existed among the Cherokee and other Indian tribes inhabiting the banks of the Mississippi, and his testimony is corroborated by the accounts of Spanish authors of the greatest veracity. The nature and use of the ark having been explained, it is needless to observe that its form might have been various, although Scripture declares that the Hebrew ark was of the simplest construction." And again: "it would appear from many passages of the Old Testament, that the Jews believed in the real presence of God in the ark, as the Roman Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, from whom it is probable the Mexicans borrowed the notion that He, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, and whose glory fills all space, could be confined within the precincts of a narrow ark and be borne by a set of weak and frail priests. If the belief of the Mexicans had not been analogous to that of the ancient Jews, the early Spanish missionaries would certainly have expressed their indignation of the absurd credulity of those who believed that their _omnipresent_ god Huitzilopochtli was carried in an ark on priests' shoulders; but of the ark of the Mexicans they say but little, fearing, as it would appear, to tread too boldly on the burning ashes of Mount Sinai."[I-186]