The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 18

"northern star, Of whose true-fixed, and resting quality, There is no fellow in the firmament.

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, They are all fire, and every one doth s.h.i.+ne; But there's but one in all doth hold his place."(70)

This inscribed tablet, which const.i.tutes one of the most important doc.u.ments in the history of the human race, is as clearly an image of the nocturnal heaven as it is of a vast terrestrial state which once existed in the valley of Mexico, and had been established as a reproduction upon earth of the harmonious order and fixed laws which apparently governed the heavens.

The monument exposes these laws, the dominion of which probably extended throughout the American Continent, and still faintly survive in some existing aboriginal communities. It not only sets forth the organization of state government and the subdivision of the people into cla.s.ses bearing a fixed relation to each other, but also serves as a chart of the territory of the State, its capital and its four provinces, and minor topographical divisions. Finally, it reveals that the progress of time, the succession of days, years and epochs, _i. e._ the Calendar, was conceived as a reproduction of the wheel of sinistral revolution described by the circ.u.mpolar constellations around Polaris. The Septentriones served as an indicator, composed of stars, the motive power of which emanated from the central luminary. This marked not only the march of time each night, but also the progress of the season by the four contrapositions apparent in the course of a year, if observed at a fixed hour of the night.

The twenty familiar day and year signs of the native calendar are carved on a band which encircles the central figure on the stone. I am now in a position to prove satisfactorily that these signs were not merely calendaric and that they equally designated four princ.i.p.al and 44=16 minor groups of stars; four chiefs and 44=16 minor tribal groups or divisions of men.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Figure 56.

Merely a few indications will suffice to prove how completely and unmistakably the symmetrical design on the monolith (fig. 56) expounds the great plan which had impressed itself so deeply and indelibly upon the minds of the native philosophers and influenced all their thoughts and speculations.

The head and face in the middle of the monument conveys the idea of duality, being masked, _i. e._ doubled-faced and bearing the number 2 carved on its forehead. It conveyed the conception of a divine power who ruled heaven and earth from a changeless and fixed centre in the heaven; expressed the dual government of the earth by twin-rulers who dwelt in a central capital. It typified light and the heaven itself with its two eyes; the sun and moon and darkness and the earth by the mouth; whilst the symbols for breath issuing from both nostrils and the tongue protruding from the mouth denoted the power of speech, which was so indissolubly connected with the idea of chieftains.h.i.+p by the Mexicans that a t.i.tle for the chief was "the Speaker." The central head likewise denoted a "complete count"=one man, and was expressive of a great era of time, embodying twenty epochs.

As a synopsis of the whole, the following t.i.tles recorded in the chronicles would be applicable to the central ruler, celestial or terrestrial: the two lord, the divine twin; the two-lord and two lady; the quadruple lord, "He who looks in four directions;" the lord of the thirteen powers; the one lord, _i. e._ embodying a complete count=20; the lord of five (_i. e._ of the Middle and Four Quarters); of seven, _i. e._ of the Middle, Above, Below, and Four Quarters; of thirteen, _i. e._ of the duplication or male and female or celestial and terrestrial divisions of the Above, Below and Four Quarters plus the Middle.

Surrounding the central head are four square divisions arranged in two separate parts, each of which includes what appears to be in one case the right, and in the other the left, conventionalized claw (forepaw?) of an animal armed with hooked nails, such as Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the North, is represented with.

The square compartments contain symbols of the four elements so disposed that air and water are appropriately a.s.sociated with the hand to the right (=male region) and fire and earth with the hand to the left side (=the female region) of the central head. But this is not all, for another carefully devised relation between the elements likewise appears upon careful examination. In the middle, carved above the central face and between the symbols for air and fire, is the conventionalized "ray of the Sun," or pyramid which typifies "that which ascends or is above" the upper elements and the Above. As its opposite we find below, situated between the symbols of earth and water, a ring with a concentric circle representing the drop of water="that which descends." As the Moon was inseparably a.s.sociated with water and the Below, it is doubtlessly included in the symbolism.

One more point which will receive due attention in my monograph remains to be briefly noticed. As the symbol for air=east is situated to the right of the symbol for north, and the earth=west is to its left, it is clear that the central face is conceived as looking down from above upon the spectator. It is only when the stone is considered as placed face downward that the symbols a.s.sume their proper positions as regards the cardinal points. This reversal, which is the natural result of the a.s.sociation of the east and south with the right hand of the middle personage, suggests that the monolith may have been originally designed to be let into the flat or slanting ceiling of a building. As a parallel instance I will state that, some years ago, Senor Troncoso pointed out to me a fact he had noticed, namely, that the relative positions of the cardinal points on the Fejervary chart were reversed and that it must have been intended to be looked at from underneath.

Each of the element symbols is accompanied by four numerals placed in the angles of the squares, with one exception, where one numeral was obviously dislodged from its proper position by an encroaching emblematic ornament.

The positions of these numerals and of their square enclosures are what recalled to my mind the opposite positions a.s.sumed by Ursa Major in its annual rotation around the axis of the heaven. Just as the central face primarily represented Polaris, so these squares figured the four contrapositions of the great constellation. The peculiar, almost cross-shaped figure resulting from the union and a.s.sociation of the symbols of the Centre, and of the Above, Below, Right, Left=Four Quarters, is a well-known conventional sign, generally known as a "nahui-ollin." The accepted translation of this name is "four movements," from olinia, verb=to move, and no name could be more appropriate for a symbol which, to my idea, like the swastika, actually represents the movement of the most conspicuous of septentrional constellations to four opposite places.

At the same time, as the nahui-ollin on the stone encloses symbols of the four elements, the union of which was believed by the native philosophers to be essential for the production and maintenance of life, I was led to observe also the fact that the words for life and heart, and the verbs to be alive, to live, to resuscitate, etc., are all derivatives from the root yuli, or yoli, which undoubtedly has a common origin with the verb olinia=to move. It therefore not only appears that, to the native mind, motion and life were indissolubly linked together, but that the name nahui-ollin must have signified four-fold life as well as movement. It likewise typified the four sides of the great pyramid which formed the nucleus of the capital and was crowned by two temples, respectively occupied by symbolical images of the "Divine Twins." It is impossible not to realize that, in ancient Mexico, the pyramid const.i.tuted an image of the entire system.

Each of its sides obviously pertained to one of the four regions and was probably painted with its symbolical color.(71) It seems safe to a.s.sume that the pyramid was originally erected by the cooperation of people from the four quarters of the capital and state and was possibly added to at fixed intervals so that it represented not only the const.i.tution of the commonwealth, but testified to its age and growth. The widely-prevalent primitive custom that each individual should add one or more stones to a heap of stones, as an individual contribution, may have been carried out in the building of pyramids, the origin of which will be discussed further on.

Although it is almost superfluous to do so, as by this time the set of a.s.sociated ideas must be familiar to the reader, I shall briefly summarize some of the chief four-fold division or organization of which the nahui-ollin was the graphic symbol. It represented:

1. The four elements or substances and kinds of life.

2. The four regions of the heaven, each composed, in turn, of four sub-regions.

3. The four provinces of the state, each containing four districts.

4. The four quarters of the capital, each of which had four wards.

Like the nahui-ollin the pyramid was an image or embodiment of the fundamental all-pervading principle. Both therefore equally expressed further meanings which I shall proceed to enumerate.

5. Four stars and also four star-groups or planets which seem to have been a.s.sociated with the cardinal points and are indicated by four discs exhibiting two concentric circles and four glyphs placed around them.

Although at a disadvantage, not being able to substantiate my statement here, I shall mention that, amongst the above, the Pleiades and the planets Venus and Jupiter doubtlessly figure, the latter as two evening and two morning stars.

6. The human lords of the four regions who respectively governed the four divisions of the population, who were cla.s.sified as the Fire, Air, Water and Earth people, the identical cla.s.sification being applied in turn to each cla.s.s and so on _ad infinitum_.

7. Rotation or a movement encircling the four quarters imagined as "quadruple motion." This was not confined to the Septentriones, for the ancient Mexican astronomers had recognized what they termed the "four movements of the Sun"-namely, its apparent rising in the east and progress to the north; and setting in the west and progress to the south. According to Leon y Gama, the first to describe the stone in 1832, the central "nahui ollin" portrayed the "four movements of the sun" and recorded the solstices and equinoxes. His opinion has since been shared by other writers, amongst whom I cite Senor Troncoso. According to Sir Norman Lockyer, moreover, the symbol does correctly and appropriately figure the annual course of the sun. It must be admitted that the invention of a figurative symbol which not only records the annual rotation of the circ.u.mpolar star-groups but also the annual apparent course of the sun is an achievement which has never been surpa.s.sed in primitive astronomy and merits admiration and recognition. The record of the periodical movements of the heavenly bodies, const.i.tutes, at the same time naturally a register of the four seasons.

8. Simultaneously with the division of the year into four equal parts, the ollin (and pyramid) typified the division of the 20-day period into four quarters as well as the four 13 year periods which const.i.tuted the epoch of fifty-two years. As the Calendar periods will be discussed in my monograph on the subject, I shall only mention here a fact showing how completely the quadruplicate idea had influenced native speculation. The Mexicans believed that four great eras had pa.s.sed since the creation of the world and designated these as the earth, air, fire and water eras.

They believed that, although humanity had always escaped utter annihilation, the world had been almost completely destroyed by three of the elements in succession at the end of three of these eras. At the time of the Conquest, the Mexicans supposed themselves to be living in a fourth age which was doomed to perish by fire.

9. According to the distinguished Mexican scholar Senor Alfredo Chavero, the symbols in the nahui-ollin commemorated the four epochs of the world's history and I readily accept this as one of the many significations of the quadruplicate figure.

Leaving the nahui-ollin for the present, let us next consider the band, with compartments, which encloses it and exhibits the twenty symbols. .h.i.therto only known as calendaric signs,-four of which were year- as well as day-signs, whilst sixteen were day-signs only. Their relative positions show that they were intended to be read from right to left.

A profusion of evidence, however, exists showing that individuals bore the day-names as personal appellations, not only in Mexico but also in Central America. Amongst the Quiches for instance, members of the "Royal house of Cavek" are designated in the Popol Vuh, as three deer, nine dog, etc.

It thus follows that the twenty signs were not merely names of years and days, but also designated the tribes and clans. The element-symbols which marked every fifth day and the years and const.i.tute the major signs, likewise were the names of the four great divisions of the people, and of their respective chieftains. On the other hand the 44=16 minor signs, applied not only to days but to the 44=16 clans. At the same time the element names conveyed in a general way the occupation of each of the four divisions of people as well as their places of abode in reference to the capital. Accordingly, the earth people would specially attend to agriculture, mining, the manufacture of pottery, etc.; water people to irrigation, the furnis.h.i.+ng of drinks, fis.h.i.+ng, etc.; the fire people to all occupations which had to do with fire: the procuring of combustibles for fire and lighting, cooking, the working in metals, etc.

As on the stone, the sign calli=house is in juxtaposition to the symbol for air, it may be inferred that the air people were the builders, the masons, the artificers, the Nahuatl name for which was "toltecatl." As the air symbol occupies the place of highest honor in reference to the central face, namely, above the right hand, it is evident that the builders, or "toltecas," were the caste which enjoyed the highest consideration. Their totem was the bird, the inhabitant of the air. The second rank in honor was held by the fire people placed to the left, above. Their totem was the ocelot.

Without going further into details for the present, I merely point out that the identical division of the members of each community and a.s.sociation with the elements, etc., was carried out throughout the state.

This method clearly established the relation and also determined the geographical position of each cla.s.s of people in reference to the whole.

The carved band on the Calendar-stone, with its twenty signs, determined once and for all time the exact position to be taken up in all public a.s.semblages, in councils, sacred dances, and likewise controlled the exposition of the products of the land in the great market-place. What is more: each division of the people, by reason of its indissoluble union to one element and one region, also had its own season during which it led in ceremonial observances. So skilfully was the lunar ceremonial or religious year devised that each sign, without any distinction, ruled a period of thirteen days. At the same time the period fell into four divisions headed by the four princ.i.p.al or element signs.

In the solar or civil year, each sign had its day, but as the computation of years pa.s.sed by, each sign in due rotation ruled during one year. It was only when each sign had had an equal rule that the cycle completed itself, and, in turn, became a part of a greater cycle of time. To realize the marvellous ingenuity with which the rotation of days and consequently the working of the entire machinery of state was carried on, it is necessary to have before one's eyes, a series of reconstructive tables, such as I have prepared for my paper on the subject. For the present, however, I trust that some idea of the harmonious organization of the state may have been conveyed to the reader.

One important feature remains for consideration. As already mentioned, one of the four annual midnight positions of the Bear star-groups, and presumably a "royal star," pertained to each cardinal-point and consequently to each of the four divisions of people. To this statement, which can be supported by substantial evidence, I must add that each of the sixteen minor signs likewise designated constellations, of which there were thus four in each region of the heaven. The twenty familiar day-signs thus actually const.i.tuted also the native zodiac. As the region to which each constellation pertains is clearly designated by the cardinal-point signs, their identification is merely a matter of time. Since ten of the signs represent animals, and these were the clan totems, it is easy to realize how animal forms, composed of stars, came to be traced in the heavens.

Deferring further discussion of the native zodiac I will but point out what an intimate relation was thus established and maintained between star-groups and human beings; and how the periodical rotation and stations of the celestial bodies actually guided or, at all events, coincided with the periods of human activity in various branches.

I am not, as yet, prepared to formulate a final opinion on the meaning of the narrow band that surrounds the zodiacal belt, which is at the same time the list of years and days and of tribes and clans, but shall merely note that it exhibits four large and four lesser rays which designate the quarters and half-quarters of the whole. A few words concerning the symbolism of these rays should find place here. In Nahuatl the ray was named "tona-mitl," literally "the s.h.i.+ning arrow," "shaft of light."

Ixtlilxochitl tells us that it was an ancient custom of his people on taking possession of new territory "to shoot with utmost force four arrows, in the directions of the four regions of the world."(72) This interesting pa.s.sage shows us that the rays, _i. e._ arrows of light, carved on the stone, conveyed the idea of possession of the four regions and four sub-regions by the central power.

Returning to an examination of the concentric band to which the rays are attached: It exhibits also 410 groups of five dots, two of which groups are almost concealed by star-symbols on the recurved open jaws of the serpents' heads which meet at the bottom of the stone. Above this band and placed exactly between the larger and lesser rays are single compartments with five-dot groups. It has been interesting to detect the reason why two five-dot groups were carved, as I have already pointed out, immediately under the central head. They evidently supply the missing groups whose places are filled up by the recurved upper jaws of the serpents, heads at the bottom of the monolith. From the care taken to preserve a visible record of these two groups, it is obvious that a special importance was attached to the recording of eight five-dot groups besides the forty in the band, making a total of 412=48 groups, or 10+2=12 to each quarter.

As the Mexican name for market was macuil-tianquiztli, literally the "Five (day) market" and the Maya word for capital was h.o.m.onymous with five=ho, it is evident that these five dot groups would have conveyed the idea of "market," market-day and possibly market-town, to a Mexican. To a Maya-speaking people they would have appeared to express practically the same thought, since all capitals, large or small, were market-places and absorbed and redistributed the product of quadruple provinces within the radius of its jurisdiction. The inference that the five-dot groups may have served as a topographical register of the larger and minor capitals existing in each quarter of the state, is substantiated by more evidence than can be produced here. I have moreover found indications that this belt may have served as a sort of moon-calendar which was also an attempt at an adjustment of lunar to solar periods.(73) Before, however, an estimate can be made of the full meaning of this belt formed by the two great serpents which encircle the entire monument, more time and labor will have to be expended.

One point about the twin serpents is clear; they are represented as springing from a square enclosing the symbol Acatl accompanied by 13 which has been generally interpreted as a calendar date. It seems to me to be more deeply significant than a mere date, especially as it appears to designate the point of departure for the progressive movement of the two serpents whose open jaws enclose human heads in profile which together form one face. The upper jaws end in two recurved appendages, each exhibiting seven star symbols. As these obviously typify night or darkness and the open jaws seem to threaten to absorb or engulf the ray of the sun pointing downwards, it appears as though these typified a disappearance of light into the underworld of darkness and destruction.

The symbolical surroundings of the downward ray are in striking contrast to its opposite, the upward ray, which reaches to the 13 Acatl sign and points to what appears to be the place of origin or birth of the twin serpents. It certainly seems that this all-embracing and enfolding twin pair are designed to typify the dual forces of nature under a form which would also express quadruplication. By what must be termed a stroke of genius the designer of the monolith chose to represent the forms of two serpents, relying upon the fact that Nahuatl-speaking people would see in each serpent (=coatl) a twin (=coatl). Did he not also realize that to a Maya each serpent (=can) would mean 4 (=can) and that the pair would appear to embody or express the numerals 4 and also 8?

It is noteworthy that each serpent is represented with one claw and that these two added to those contained in the central nahui-ollin complete the four-limbed figure which was essentially the image of a complete count=the state, the nation, the era, etc. In this monument, as elsewhere, it is possible to follow the development of the symbolism expressed by two heads which form but one, twin-bodies which mean four and of four limbs which represent the digital count=20.

Under different aspects the same theme repeats itself again and again upon the stone, which proves that the master minds who planned and wrought it destined it to be the image of a plan based on the idea of a central and yet all-embracing, dual, yet quadruple force or power.

The preceding rapid sketch I have given of the wide-reaching significance of this remarkable monument will, I hope, be found to amply support and corroborate the view I advanced in 1886, when I pointed out that the "Calendar-stone" answered to the description given by Duran, of the "circular elaborately carved tablets which were kept in each market-place and were held in great veneration." I trust that it is now clear why it should have been frequently consulted and why the market-days were regulated according to the carved indications upon the surface. Engraved upon it were the Great Plan and its laws of organization and rotation. It clearly determined, once and for all, the sequence of the days; the relation of all cla.s.ses of the population to each other and to the whole, and set forth not only the place each group should occupy in the market-place, but also the product or industry with which it was a.s.sociated and the periods when its contributions to the commonwealth should be forthcoming in regular rotation. The stone was therefore not only the tablet but the wheel of the law of the State and it can be conjectured that its full interpretation was more or less beyond the capacity of all but an initiated minority, consisting of the elders, chiefs and priests.

Postponing for the present further discussion of this, the most precious and remarkable monument which has ever been unearthed on the American Continent, let us briefly bestow attention upon the two other monoliths which may be said to be its companions and obviously belong to the same period and civilization. In 1886, in the preliminary note cited above, I advanced the view that the first of these, generally known as the "Sacrificial stone," was a "law-stone of a similar nature [to the Calendar-stone] which recorded, however, the periodical collection of certain tributes paid by subjugated tribes and others whose obligation it was to contribute to the commonwealth of Mexico." I pointed out that the "frieze around the stone consists of groups, placed at intervals, of the flint-knives (tecpatl) with conventionally carved teeth (tlantli) giving in combination the word 'tecpatlantli.' This occurs in Sahagun's Historia, as the name given to the 'lands of the tecpan or palace,' and in one of the native works I find designated the four channels into which the produce of these lands was diverted." I likewise noted that "the periods indicated on it differ from those on the Calendar-stone," which might more appropriately be designated as the ancient Mexican wheel of the law or of the Great Universal Plan.

Thirteen years of painstaking research have only served to strengthen me in my interpretation of the "Sacrificial-stone." The frieze around it exhibits sixteen groups, each consisting of the repeated representation of a warrior characterized by having one foot only. In each case he is figured as seizing by the hair a different individual, who bows his head and offers the weapon he holds in his right hand to his victor. Amongst the sixteen subjugated personages are two women and above each are hieroglyphs expressing the names of well-known localities, some of which are mentioned in native chronicles as having been conquered in historical times by Mexican rulers.

In my account of the Plan of the Ancient City of Mexico, I shall ill.u.s.trate these hieroglyphs, locate the places to which they refer and further discuss this monument. Meanwhile I shall but state that it undoubtedly belongs to the same category of monuments as the tablets in the "Temple of the Sun" at Palenque; the bas-relief at Ixkun and that in the house of the "Tennis-court" at Chichen-Itza where warriors in a procession render homage to a seated personage, by presenting their spear-throwers to him in precisely the same manner as shown on the Mexican Tribute-Stone.