| Show THE MEXICAN MESSIAH THERE is in the may number of the popular science monthly a specially interesting te article taken from the gentle mans magazine it to Is entitled the mexican messiah and to is from the pen of dr dominiok dominick daly it gives an explanation of the mexican tradition regarding the visit to this continent of quetzal wat w at or the air god some writers state that the title applied to this personage is the fair god the article contains references not only to his bis visit but to his personal appear ance and the character of his teachings which were those of pure christianity resulting in the introduction of a golden era of peace and prosperity thus accounting for the existence of relies relics which plainly indice that that religion had been established upon this continent many centuries P previous to the advent of cortez the spanish invader the tradition includes the anticipated return of the fair god 11 II according to a promise made by him when he took his departure after establishing the new order of things which abolished war and caused brotherly love to take the place of strife and bloodshed because of the expected return of this traditional personage the con quest of mexico by cortez was an undertaking der dr taking of comparatively small difficulty when the host of inhabitants is numerically compared with the handful of invaders the natives were impressed with the belief that cortez was returning according to his promise as he answered the traditional description of the mexican messiah being white and bearded in reference to his personality the article says the mexicans mexican have preserved a minute and apparently an accurate description of the personal appearance and habits of he was a white man advanced in years and tall in stature his forehead was vas broad he be had a large beard and black hair he is described as dressing in a long garment dr daly reasons thus as to the improbability of this person being a mere invention he being convinced that the tradition refers to a genuine individualism it is in therefore difficult to suppose that this curiously accurate portraiture of was a mere invention in all its parts nor to ia it easier to understand why the early mexicans should have been at pains to invent a messiah so 0 o different from themselves and with such much peculiar attributes yet in a spite te of destructive wars revo revolutions lations imd in evasions vaa va ions in spite of the breaking u up an and die dispersal erml ai of tribes and nations on once se settled alain in the vast region now passing under unde r the name of mexico the tradition of and the account of his personal peculiarities survived among the people to the days of the spanish invasion the article states that the religion of the mexicans when found by the spaniards was a strange mixture of incongruities an amazing and most unnatural combination of what appeared to be the christian beliefs and christian virtues and morality with the bloody rites and idolatrous practices of pagan n barbarians the mystery was soon explained to the spaniards by the mexicans themselves the milder portion of the mexican religion was that which had taught to the a people who had bad ruled in mexico some centuries before the arrival of the spaniards the azteca were in possession of power dower when the mexicans came and it was war they who ho introduced that part of the mexican religion not established by 1 the rhe toltec rule ceased in th the e eleventh century they were a people remarkably advanced in the arts and sciences being in some respects in advance of tile the inhabitants inh abitanto of europe about the year 1050 they disappeared i south by bi a voluntary migration the cause of which remains a mystery the better that is the toltec side eide of this mixed belief included among its chief features a recognition of the existence of a supreme god vested with all the attributes of the the jews he creator and the ruler of the universe seand and the fountain of all good subordinate to him were a number E of minor deities and opposed to him a father of all evil there was a just death and a place of darkness and torment for the wicked there was an aft intermediate ter mediate place there had been a com anon mother of all men menal always ways pictorially represented as in company with a serpent her name was or the serpent woman and it was held that by her hei sin came into the world I 1 P she had twin children and in the aztec picture p preserved crudie dain in the vatican at rome those children are re represented as quarreling the mexicans believed in a universal deluge e from which only one family that escaped nevertheless they poke ke of a raw race or of wicked giants who had survived the flood and built a pyramid in order to reach the clouds the the gods frustrated their design by raning aaning down fire upon it tradition associated the great pyramid at cholula with this thia event the traditions of coccoz the giants and the pyramid at cholula are extremely like a confused acquaintance with biblical narratives the point of resemblance with real christianity were too numerous and too pecullar peculiar to permit the supposition that the tee similarity was accidental and unreal the only difficulty was to account for the possession of christian knowledge by a people so BO remote and outlandish or rather to trace the identity of quetzal coati the undoubted teacher of the mexicans the chief aim of or dr daly in ID penning the article to is to identify this traditional dit ional god of the mexicans he expresses ses conviction that the person to whom the tradition refers is not a myth on this point he introduces the opinion of lord Kingsboro kingsborough uh with which however he disagrees lord kingsborough makes the suggestion that was wag no other than christ himself and in support of this maintains that the phonetic rendering in the mexican language of the two words jesus christ would be as nearly as possible quetzal clatl he does not mean to say that christ was ever in mexico but his suggestion is that the mexicans having obtained an early knowledge of 4 christianity and become beco me acquainted with the name and character of its divine founder imagined in subsequent ages that christ had actually been in mexico and so built up the tradition of but this theory does not get rid of it makes essential the presence of a missionary in mexico through I 1 h w whom hom the people P were ere instructed in afe the truths truth of and from whom they obtained a knowledge of christ the following are held by dr daly to be beyond doubt established in relation to 1 D I he was a white man from across the atlantic 2 he taught ta tight religion to the th 0 mexicans 8 the religion he taught retained to after ages many strong and striking resemblances to christianity the concluding portion of or dr dalys paper to is devoted to an attempt to identify but this article has already assumed too great length to admit of more than a pawing passing allu allusion sicto to his hie theory on that point he endeavors to show that st brendan an irish catholic bishop and the mexican messiah were one and the same pe person this inference seems to us in view of the evidence presented singularly absurd |
