as in the Old; to meet with its traces in Mexico as well as in Egypt or Chaldea.
But certain it is that the religion of Mexico had many features which were
common to the Egyptian and Chaldean creeds; the same Solar Worship, the
same pyramidal monuments, and the same Ophiolatrous symbols.
For instance, we learn that the temple of Huitziliputli, in Mexico, was built of
great stones, in the fashion of snakes tied one to another, and that the circuit was
called “the circuit of snakes,” because the walls of the enclosure were covered
with the figures of snakes. This truculent-looking deity held in his right hand a
staff cut in the fashion of a serpent; and the four corners of the ark or tabernacle,
in which he was seated, terminated each with a carved effigy of a serpent’s head.
The Mexican astronomers represented a century by a circle, with a sun in the
centre, surrounded by the symbols of the years. The circumference was a serpent
twisted into four knots at the cardinal points.